Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 Cooperation with China helps Africa realize blue economy aspirations Xinhua) 08:11, June 07, 2024 Workers load anchovy products onto a truck in Kwale, Kenya, June 23, 2023. (Xinhua/Wang Guansen) NAIROBI, June 6 (Xinhua) -- At midnight, fishers in Shimoni, a port village in southeastern Kenya's Kwale County, started their day by setting wooden canoes afloat from the shore. They turned on fish-attracting lights to lure in their catch, then relied on luck for the rest. Three or four hours later, as dawn broke, they hauled in their nets and returned to shore, either jubilant with a bountiful catch or disappointed with a sparse one. Buckets of small pelagic fish, mainly anchovies, kept in ice, were given to the fish processing factory workers waiting on the shore. "There were times when the market for anchovies was not good," said Abdi Dura, who has been fishing since the age of 15. "I managed to catch great quantities of anchovies but found no market. I used to take my catch to ladies who sold grilled anchovies on the street, and they always bid for a lower price." Things have changed since Dura, along with hundreds of other fishers in Kwale, started working with China's Jinzai Food Corporation two years ago. Fishermen catch fish in east Kenya, June 22, 2023. (Xinhua/Wang Guansen) WIN-WIN COOPERATION In 2022, Chinese Customs authorized the import of Kenyan aquatic products. Soon after that, Jinzai Food registered as an importer and established a processing factory in Kwale. Every morning, after being delivered from the shore, anchovies are cleaned, sorted and boiled in salt water for two minutes to stay fresh for storage. Depending on the sunlight, they are then dried for four to six hours. When their weight is reduced to one-third of the fresh fish, workers manually sort the qualified ones for shipment to China. The first batch of Kenyan anchovies for import to China was showcased at the third edition of the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo held in 2023. "Fishing is a rewarding vocation that has enabled me to educate my children, feed them, and pursue other businesses on the side," said Mohamed Chamira, a fisherman with 57 years of experience. Chamira said over the past two years, he had partnered with a Chinese company, which helped him acquire advanced fishing techniques. Workers clean anchovies at a processing plant in Kwale, Kenya, June 22, 2023. (Xinhua/Wang Guansen) As the Chinese company inked partnerships with local fishermen and provided them with modern fishery facilities, Dura and his fellow fishermen perceived more opportunities. "I aspire to own a large boat equipped with sophisticated fishing gear. It is my prayer that Kenyans understand and appreciate the vast resources in the ocean. The ocean is a blessing for us and could provide employment to the youth," Dura added. According to the African Union's Africa Blue Economy Strategy, the total gross value-added of fisheries in Africa is estimated to be 1.26 percent of the GDP of all African countries. The scale of Africa's blue economy is projected to increase to 405 billion U.S. dollars by 2030, and 576 billion dollars, creating 78 million jobs, by 2063. The African Union's 2063 Agenda identifies the blue economy as a strategic development priority for its members. However, challenges such as immature fishery technology, a lack of professional talents, insufficient investments and backward infrastructure remain to be addressed. China's marine economy has maintained rapid growth, leading the world in fisheries processing and production, shipbuilding, marine engineering equipment manufacturing, shipping, and port construction and operation. China has been carrying out fishery cooperation with nearly 20 African countries and their partnerships hold huge potential. Chinese expert Chen Taihua (L) talks to Godfrey Kityo, a fish breeding technician, at the Aquaculture Research and Development Centre in Kajjansi, Wakiso District, Uganda, Dec. 21, 2022. (Photo by Hajarah Nalwadda/Xinhua) TALENT TRAINING At the Aquaculture Research and Development Centre in Kajjansi, a town in central Uganda, Chinese expert Chen Taihua was crouching by a fishpond, checking on the brood as a local fish breeding technician fed the fish. The Chinese-built agriculture center is an achievement under the framework of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations-China South-South Program, now in its third phase in Uganda. In November 2022, Chen, along with eight other Chinese experts, arrived in Uganda to implement a three-year experience-sharing project. They applied advanced techniques tailored to local conditions, such as implementing a 1,215-square-meter rice-fish system. The rice provides the fish with shelter and shade, while nitrogenous waste from the fish benefits the rice and reduces insects. Currently, the rice and fish form a mutualistic relationship, and 695 kg of rice has been harvested. "Uganda is rich in aquatic resources. The problem is the locals' lack of professional knowledge. We compiled 400 copies of manuals on Ugandan aquatic species and their marketing skills to train local farmers," said Chen. By March 2024, Chen's team had carried out pond farming technology and market sales training in 10 regions in Uganda, benefiting hundreds of people. This photo taken on June 12, 2023 shows a rice-fish system at the Aquaculture Research and Development Centre in Kajjansi, Wakiso District, Uganda. (Photo by Hajarah Nalwadda/Xinhua) Situated off the southeast coast of Africa, Madagascar is blessed with abundant fishery resources and is renowned for its shrimp grounds. In 2009, China National Fisheries Corporation (CNFC) acquired the poorly managed Madagascar Fisheries Company. It now exports about 1,000 tons of wild shrimp and about 4,000 to 5,000 tons of fish to China and the EU every year. Sun Shengkang, a representative of the CNFC's Madagascar office, said the project has remained profitable over the past 10 years. It has paid a total of 9.2 million dollars in taxes and 1.9 million dollars in resource management fees to Madagascar's government, creating an average of 450 jobs each year, with more than 90 percent of its employees comprised of locals. "After I completed my studies in accounting, CNFC recruited me in 2015. Over the years, I have gained valuable work experience, and my salary is sufficient to support my family," said Razanadravaoarimanga Annissah, an accountant at CNFC's Madagascar Fisheries Company. "The company even funded my further studies, and I've obtained my master's degree in management. I would never have had that opportunity without my company's support," said Annissah, who also met her sailor husband at CNFC and now has a happy family. This photo taken on June 3, 2024 shows the China-aided Jamestown Fishing Port Complex in Accra, Ghana. (Xinhua) MODERN PORTS Shipping activities and modern port cooperation between China and Africa are also rapidly developing. Jamestown, a traditional fishing community on the shore of the Gulf of Guinea in Accra, the capital of Ghana, has relied on fishing for hundreds of years. In August 2020, a China-aided Jamestown Fishing Port Complex project commenced construction. With a fully functional dock, spacious fish market and a fish processing plant, the modern fishing port is expected to be handed over soon. It will become a complex where fishermen can dock their boats, unload, maintain facilities, store fish, and conduct trading and additional processing activities. "I cannot wait to see the port put into practice. It will not only improve the working environment and living standards of fishermen but also make Jamestown a neat community," said Paul Owusu, a resident of Jamestown. According to Jin Xiaodong, general manager of the fishing port project, the modern fishing port will undoubtedly bring new impetus to Ghana's development in fishery. "We are very happy to contribute to the local economic and social development. It is a fruitful result of the friendship between China and Ghana." This photo taken on June 15, 2023 shows the port of Bata in Equatorial Guinea. (Xinhua/Dong Jianghui) In 2016, China Road and Bridge Corporation completed the expansion and reconstruction project of the old Bata port, helping Equatorial Guinea maximize its regional competitiveness in the Gulf of Guinea. In 2023, Tanzania's first modern fishing harbor, Kilwa Harbor, constructed by China Harbor Engineering Company, was launched. As a flagship project of the Tanzanian government's third five-year plan, it is expected to become an engine for economic growth. An aerial drone photo taken on March 1, 2024 shows a view of the Lekki Port in Lagos, Nigeria. (Xinhua/Han Xu) Earlier this year, Nigeria's first deep seaport, Lekki Port, developed by a Chinese enterprise, welcomed its largest container ship in history, making Nigerians' longtime dream a reality. "China has not only supported us in port construction but also provided valuable help in agricultural and fishery technologies. Through the introduction of advanced technology and equipment, our agricultural and fishery output has increased substantially, and the earnings of farmers and fishermen have also seen a notable increase," Abdallah Ulega, minister of livestock and fisheries of Tanzania, told Xinhua. "I believe that under joint efforts, China and Africa will continue to work together to achieve common prosperity in the vast sea," he said. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) The National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service have confirmed plague as the cause of a prairie dog die off in Badlands National Park, Buffalo Gap National Grassland and the greater Conata-Badlands ecosystem based on a test result received May 31. The risk to humans remains low, officials said, adding the confirmation of plague is "concerning." The disease has not been detected in Conata Basin since 2009, when it was responsible for killing more than 80% of the remaining population black-footed ferrets, one of the most endangered mammals in the world. "We are concerned about the impacts to the black-footed ferret population and are taking necessary action to protect this important keystone species," said Eric Veach, superintendent, Badlands National Park. "Extensive conservation efforts in 2009 to manage the spread of plague were able to preserve a black-footed ferret population in the Conata-Badlands ecosystem, where the largest free-ranging black-footed ferret population in the world now resides." Plague is a non-native bacterial disease that occurs in rodents and their fleas throughout the western United States. It was introduced into the U.S. from rats aboard ships in the early 1900s and has since become endemic through the western U.S. Approximately seven human cases occur every year, primarily in the southwestern U.S. and California. Most cases are transmitted through the bite of an infected flea, but humans can also be infected through contact with infected rodents, including animal carcasses, or by breathing infectious particles from an infected animal, sick pet or sick human. South Dakota has never reported a human plague case, although cases in rodents such as prairie dogs were first reported in 2005, officials said. Symptoms usually begin between two and six days after exposure and include flu-like symptoms such as fever, chills and muscle aches, as well as painful swelling at the site of a flea bite and the nearest lymph node. Symptoms can progress to blood infection and severe respiratory illness if not treated promptly. Plague can be treated with antibiotics, but can be fatal if treatment is delayed. Although rare, infections acquired by breathing in infectious bacteria develop symptoms within one to three days and are most often fatal if not treated shortly after the onset of symptoms. Plague is a rare disease but is a risk throughout much of the western United States. It can be prevented by practicing the following recommendations: Avoid contact with rodents and their fleas and burrows. Wear insect repellent when working or recreating outdoors. Wear long pants tucked into socks and closed-toe shoes. Never touch or approach a sick or dead animal, and never feed wildlife. Do not pitch tents near rodent burrows. Keep pets leashed and current on a flea and tick preventative. Know the signs and symptoms of plague. If you develop fever, chills, swelling at the site of an insect bite or nearby lymph node, seek medical care immediately and inform your doctor you may have been exposed to plague. The National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service and conservation partners are working to apply emergency flea control agents to stop the further spread of plague and to monitor for plague activity in the Conata-Badlands ecosystem to protect the black-footed ferret population and reduce any risks to human health. Additionally, black-footed ferrets are captured and vaccinated against plague. Additional information about plague can be found at cdc.gov/plague. Nava Thakuria Russian President Vladimir Putin, while speaking at a recent function in Moscow, announced that his country was waiting for the launch of cancer vaccines. Putin, globally condemned for invasion on Ukraine resulting many casualties and enormous property damages, announced that significant progress has been made by the Russian scientific fraternity to develop the important vaccines. The hardliner Russian leader expressed optimism that they have almost reached a significant phase for developing cancer vaccines and immunomodulatory drugs. He also hoped that these advancements will transition the way to approach the health disaster, but Putin did not reveal any specific information about the type of cancer vaccines, he mentioned. According to the medical experts, cancer is a disease where some of the body cells grow unusually. The human cells grow and multiply under the process of cell division. When the cells grow old or damage for any reason, new cells replace those. Sometimes this order can be disturbed and thus an abnormal growth of cells takes place. Cancer can start anywhere in the body and spread to other parts. The vaccines help a human body to fight against cancerous cells improving the immunity. The vaccines can prevent a healthy person from getting certain cancers and also sometimes help treating the deadly disease by destroying harmful cancer cells Many advanced countries across the globe, including Bharat, have been working to find the effective cancer medicine and also vaccines for decades. World Health Organization (WHO) in its report confirmed the availability of at least six licensed vaccines targeting human papillomaviruses (HPV, that causes cervical cancer) and hepatitis B (that may lead to liver cancer). Incidentally cervical cancer is the fifth most common cancer in the world, where as it's ranked as the most frequent cancer among Indian women. To fight against this type of cancer, Indian scientists had developed Cervavac as a preventive measure to save millions of lives. The vaccine, launched by the Serum Institute of India indigenously, after rigorous research, clinical trials and necessary regulatory approvals, has been approved by the central government. New Delhi has also committed its support for the country's first cervical cancer vaccination process. Cancer is almost a curse for a family in our society. Assamese plays, cinemas, stories and media articles have depicted the painful disease as another name of death often dialoguing as cancer has no answer. So if any individual is diagnosed with cancer, irrespective of its stages, the family instantly presume a dark future as the treatment remains so expensive. However, the practicing doctors always encourage the patients (also the affected families) to face the disease bravely. They argue that with early detection and proper treatment, cancer can be cured fully if the patient adopts medication with a positive outlook enriched with regular physical activities. India continues to increase the number of cancer affected families. Now the projected number of cancer cases in India is estimated to be 15.7 lakh by next year. Northeast is also not legging behind, as our region increases cancer cases every year and by 2025 it may witness another 57,131 new cases. Indian Council of Medical Research reported that our region faces a high burden of cancer compared to other parts of the country. The highest cancer incidence rate among the males was recorded in Aizawl and among females in Papumpare. The tobacco-related cancer cases remain higher in the region. Any comprehensive vaccine for cancer will be a priceless gift for 60 million people living in the region, adjacent to Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Sometimes cancer is termed as a huge global scam too as many enthusiasts believe that the scientific community possesses the capability to develop a comprehensive cancer vaccine, but often faces distractions from powerful beneficiaries of the scam including pharmaceutical companies, private hospitals, adorable doctors etc. Needless to mention, if the vaccination process becomes feasible and effective, those beneficiaries would lose their business empire amounting a huge volume of money. Now when Putin, already identified as an arrogant & authoritarian leader, declares the last-phase invention of cancer vaccines by the Russian scientists, it has the potentiality to change the global healthcare scenario. Like many other politicians in power, Putin may not bother about the hurdles & complications facing after the invention and marketing of cancer vaccines, as he would prefer to improve his image from an invader to a humanitarian crusader. If the Russian cancer vaccine comes into reality, Putin will be the beneficiary number one out of the process. By Tajul Islam On March 17, 2024, we commemorate the 104th birth anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the revered leader of the Bengali people and the esteemed architect of independent and sovereign Bangladesh. He is celebrated as the greatest father figure in Bengali history. Additionally, this day is observed as National Children's Day in our nation. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was born on March 17, 1920, in Tungipara, within the Gopalganj subdivision of the Faridpur district. His father's name was Sheikh Lutfar Rahman, and his mother was Saira Khatun. Among four sisters and two brothers, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the third. Renowned as the great architect of the independent and sovereign nation-state of Bangladesh, he is hailed as one of the greatest Bengalis of all time. In his childhood, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was affectionately called 'Khoka'. From his early years, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was deeply immersed in the joys and sorrows, the laughter and tears of traditional village life in Tungipara. The soil and its people held a strong allure for him. Growing up amidst the social fabric of the time, he keenly felt the distress caused by the tyranny, exploitation, and suffering inflicted upon the populace by landlords, talukdars, and financiers. Even as a teenager, known affectionately as 'Khoka' in Tungipara, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib actively engaged in politics. His first encounter with imprisonment came during his eighth-grade studies at the mission school in Gopalganj when he joined the anti-British movement. From that point onward, Bangabandhu embarked on a lifelong struggle. Throughout his life, he fought tirelessly for the rights and welfare of the land and its people. Spending 14 years incarcerated in the bleak confines of Pakistani prisons, he faced the threat of execution twice on the gallows in his quest for the liberation of the Bengali nation. Yet, he steadfastly refused to compromise on the principles of self-respect and the rights of the Bengali people. Bangabandhu, alongside his colleagues, founded the Bangladesh Chhatra League in 1948, followed by the establishment of the Bangladesh Awami League in 1949, during 23 years of relentless movement and struggle. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman emerged as the unquestioned leader of the Bengali nation following significant milestones such as the language movement of 1952, the United Front elections of 1954, the education movement of 1962, the six-point movement of 1966, and the popular uprising of 1969. Bangabandhu's courageous, resolute, and unwavering leadership, along with his heroic struggle, galvanized the Bengali nation, which had endured oppression for a century. He unified the Bengali people in their ultimate quest for freedom, igniting an unyielding yearning for liberation. On March 7, 1971, in a historic speech at the Race Course Maidan, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared- "This struggle is our fight for liberation. This struggle is our battle for freedom." Following Bangabandhu's historic announcement on March 7, an all-encompassing non-cooperation movement swept across the nation. In the early hours of March 26, 1971, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman officially declared the independence of Bangladesh before being apprehended by the invading Pakistani forces. Independence was attained through the sacrifices of three million martyrs and the profound suffering endured by two hundred thousand mothers and sisters during the nine-month bloody armed conflict under the unwavering leadership of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the eminent leader of the liberation war. Under Bangabandhu's guidance, the sovereign state of Bangladesh emerged on the world stage, marking a significant milestone in history. Bengali, Bangabandhu, and Bangladesh are indivisible entities. Sheikh Mujib epitomizes Bangladesh. "Sheikh Mujib" reverberates as the rallying cry of freedom-loving individuals. His name, Sheikh Mujib, resonates as the purest essence coursing through the collective consciousness of the Bengali nation. Sheikh Mujib embodies an eternal, immutable spirit that transcends generations. He stands as the heroic protagonist in the saga of Bengali liberation, guiding the nation towards emancipation from oppression. Sheikh Mujib symbolizes the boundless courage of Bengalis, emerging as the paramount hero of the entire Bengali populace. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman occupies an eternal place in the illustrious history of Bengal and Bangladesh. Revered as the Pride of Bengalis worldwide, the late great leader, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib, stands as a stalwart advocate of Bengali nationalism and the architect of Bengali Manse nationalism. Through protracted struggles and countless sacrifices, he paved the way for the establishment of an independent state for the Bengali nation. On August 15, 1975, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family were brutally assassinated by renegade soldiers. Subsequently, the murderous dictator Ziaur Rahman, who seized power through unconstitutional and illegal means, initiated efforts to propagate the distorted history and values of Pakistani ideology within independent Bangladesh. Following 1975, the perpetrators of the murder engaged in numerous national and international conspiracies aimed at eradicating Bangabandhu's legacy from the annals of history. In the aftermath of Bangabandhu's assassination, the military dictatorship in independent Bangladesh endeavored to indoctrinate successive generations with false historical narratives for nearly two decades. Although the murderers succeeded in taking Bangabandhu's life, they failed to extinguish his spirit and enduring ideology. As long as Bengal and Bengalis endure, as long as this world persists, and as long as the annals of history endure, Bangabandhu will continue to shine brightly in every Bengali heart and in the hearts of all who cherish liberation, peace, and humanity. His life philosophy will forever serve as an inspiration and guiding light for the Bengali nation. The Bengali people will forever honor, appreciate, and love this great individual who shaped the history of Bangladesh. The revered figure of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman continues to resonate as an exemplary symbol of inspiration, consciousness, and enlightenment in the hearts and minds of the present generation of Bengalis. Today, under the leadership of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, the daughter of Bangabandhu, the Bengali nation stands united, placing unwavering trust in her to embody the hopes and aspirations of the people. With solemn commitment, we pledge to advance along the path charted by this visionary leader towards the realization of his grand vision. Every year, Bangladesh's ruling party, the Awami League, in collaboration with affiliated organizations and institutions, coordinates a range of programs to commemorate the birthday of the Bengali leader, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and National Children's Day. These events are characterized by profound respect and dignity, attracting participation from both public and private sectors. This tradition highlights the nation's deep admiration for Bangabandhu and emphasizes the importance of fostering and honoring Bangladesh's youth. YOLA, Nigeria (AP) Rescuers searched Thursday for dozens of workers who were trapped when a gold mine collapsed in northcentral Nigeria, authorities and residents said. The pit collapsed on Monday in Niger states remote Shiroro district after heavy rains softened the soil. State emergency services said one person was confirmed dead and at least 30 others were missing. Residents, however, said as many as 44 remained trapped. Much of northern Nigeria is rich in minerals, but corruption, illegal operations and poor working conditions are common in mining operations because the deposits are mostly in remote areas with a minimal government presence. First responders had to run for their lives as the mine kept falling inside, Abdullahi Arah, head of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, said in a preliminary report. Rescue operations soon resumed, but expanding the deep pit to locate the trapped workers has been challenging, emergency services spokesperson Ibrahim Hussaini said. When you have something almost as tall as a three-story building down into the ground, how will an excavator get to that place? he said. On Thursday, distraught families watched as rescuers worked to remove the remaining debris. The mine collapsed on Yakubu Galkogos first day of work, and his wife and two children are very worried, his brother, Auwal Suleiman, said. TALLINN, Estonia (AP) United Nations special representatives on human rights have called on Belarusian authorities to investigate the torture and deaths of political prisoners. A report produced by the UN special rapporteur for Belarus says five people who have died in custody in Belarus were convicted on politically motivated charges. The report noted that none of the deceased underwent an autopsy and said that the fact the prisoners died while in jail creates a presumption of arbitrary deprivation of life by State authorities." It called on Belarusian authorities to launch prompt, effective, impartial and transparent investigations into all deaths in custody. The UN human rights advocates said they were particularly concerned about several Belarusian opposition politicians, lawyers and activists who are currently in prison and whose whereabouts have not been known for more than a year. According to the Viasna human rights center, there are currently 1,401 political prisoners behind bars in the country, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski. The UN report criticized conditions in Belarusian jails and said prisoners are subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in places of detention. Political prisoners are particularly singled out, the report said, as they are reportedly made to wear a special yellow mark, are often placed in solitary confinement and are deprived of communication with the outside world. President Alexander Lukashenko led a harsh crackdown against his critics in 2020 when he declared himself the winner of an election widely dismissed by the Belarusian opposition and the West as fraudulent. The UN report said authorities in Belarus have carried out a targeted eradication of civil society in Belarus since Lukashenko's disputed election. Thirty Richmond-area restaurants are participating in the second annual Dine Out for Pride event running now through Sunday. The restaurants have created cocktails, mocktails and food specials for the occasion, including items from Hardywood Brewery, Starr Hill and Titos Vodka. For every item ordered, the establishments will donate $1 to OutRVA and the Virginia Pride program of Diversity Richmond. Restaurants taking part are: And Dim Sum, Bar Solita, Bell Cafe, Chef's Kitchen, Coco & Hazel, Dave & Buster's, Eazzy Burger, Garnetts Cafe, Gold Lion Community Cafe, Heritage, India K'Raja, Jew Fro, Laura Lees, L'Opossum, Main St. Dragon, Ms. Bee's Juice Bar, Pinky's, River City Roll, Sam Miller's Restaurant & Oyster Bar, SB's Lakeside Love Shack, Shagbark Restaurant, Soul Taco, Southbound, Sweet Spot Ice Cream Cafe, Tarrant's Downtown, Tarrant's West, The Hive Bar & Grill, The Hive Market, The Lobby Bar at Quirk Hotel and ZZQ. OutRVA is an online community from the Richmond Area Tourism Foundation that aims to expand and celebrate Richmonds LGBTQ culture through sharing LGBTQ events, restaurants, nightlife and more. Diversity Richmond is a charity that serves as a hub for the LGBTQ community in central Virginia. It hosts Pride events in the Richmond area year-round, as well as organizing places that further diversity in Richmond like the Iridian Gallery and Diversity Thrift. Richmond upcoming concerts:Iron Blossom Music Fest, RVA East End Festival Richmond Folk Festival Lake Street Drive My Morning Jacket Arrested Development Music in the Park Flowers After 5 Diana Ross Straight No Chaser Andre 3000 GWAR Slowdive Anthony Hamilton Samara Joy Nate Smith and Butcher Brown KEM Colleen Curran Living Editor Follow Colleen Curran Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today Virginia train riders can now crack open a cold one from Center of the Universe Brewing Co. on Amtrak trains in Virginia. Beginning on Saturday, COTUs Brewski will be available for purchase in the cafe cars on Northeast trains traveling along four corridors from Roanoke, Newport News, Norfolk and Richmond to Washington, D.C., and continuing to Philadelphia, New York City and Boston. A 12-ounce can of Brewski will cost $8. Brewski is a 5% German-style Dortmunder pale lager with the tagline: The lager that works as hard as you. Cafe cars on Amtrak also serve light menu options as well as beer, wine and cocktails. Getting Brewski added to Amtraks local beverage program was a two-year effort to offer locally sourced products on Virginia trains. Offering Brewski onboard our Amtrak Virginia trains isnt just about adding to our beverage menu, its about supporting Virginias vibrant craft beer industry, a cornerstone of several local economies, said DJ Stadtler, executive director of the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority. This partnership allows us to celebrate Virginias unique craft beer offerings while supporting the communities we serve and directly injecting revenue into Virginias economy. Rail fans and craft beer fans alike have been sipping Brewskis and watching trains at our Downtown Ashland brewery and taproom for six years now, said Chris Ray, owner of the Center of the Universe Brewing Co. Amtrak Virginia passengers can now raise a glass of Brewski as they journey across the state. Here are our Top 5 weekend events across the Richmond region Maymont Summer Kickoff Festival 'Beetlejuice' Juneteenth Southern Food Festival Bryson Tiller Music in the Park Spotsylvania County authorities said Thursday night that the suspect in a triple homicide on White Street Court was captured in Steuben County, New York, after a high-speed vehicle chase on Interstate 86. A spokesperson for the Spotsylvania Sheriffs Office said Alyssa Jane Venable, 23, of Spotsylvania, was detained on Thursday evening after New York State Police troopers on I-86 in Steuben County initiated a traffic stop on a gray 2009 Honda Civic that matched the description of Venables vehicle. Venable fled the scene, the spokesperson said, and police pursued her. The pursuit reached speeds up to 100 mph, according to the spokesperson. It ended when police deployed a tire deflation device, causing Venable to crash. Venable was arrested and taken to a hospital for evaluation, the spokesperson said. Authorities in New York and Virginia are coordinating her extradition to Spotsylvania. Venable was wanted on three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony in the deaths of Robert John McGuire, 77; Gregory Scott Powell, 60; and Carol Anne Reese, 65. The three victims were roommates of Venable, authorities previously said. They were found dead by Spotsylvania sheriffs deputies who were conducting a wellness check on Tuesday night in a residence in the 10500 block of White Street Court. Authorities said they had suffered upper body trauma. Authorities identified Venable as a suspect and said a manhunt for her was underway. The killings remain under investigation. Gang members suspected of island murders captured in Cozumel San Miguel de Cozumel, Q.R. A group of island gang members suspected of murders and attempted murders have been captured. Local authorities have arrested six males who, according to the State Attorney General, are responsible for creating violence on the island of Cozumel. With the arrest of six people, the State Attorney General (FGE) managed to dismantle a criminal cell that generates violence in this municipality, dedicated to the sale of narcotics, also related to the attempted murder of a motorcycle taxi driver that occurred on the 4th June of this year in the Maravilla neighborhood, among other high-impact crimes, they reported in a statement. Among those captured by the Investigative Police are Jovany Rosalino N, alias Santa Fe and/or R36, Elberth Adriano N, alias COX and/or R13, Jose Roberto N, alias Beto and/or R7, Eduardo Valentin N and two minors, they said. During the arrests, agents seized an R-15 assault rifle as well as useful cartridges and two short weapons in addition to various doses of possible narcotics. Investigations after their arrests alerted police to two of those detained as being involved in Cozumel murders. As part of the field and office investigation work, it was established that Jovany Rosalino N and Eberth Adriano N are the alleged material authors of the qualified homicide of a male person, a fact in which a minor was also injured on May 29 of this year, in the Las Fincas neighborhood. Four adults and two minors have been arrested. Photo: FGE June 6, 2024. Likewise, Jose Roberto N and a 15-year-old teenager are related to the attempted homicide of a motorcycle taxi driver, which occurred on June 4 of this year in the Maravilla neighborhood, they added. A tea company in early 2020 said it would construct a $30 million manufacturing and processing center in Franklin County, but halted those plans after the pandemic that began a few months later took hold. In recent days, Traditional Medicinals said through a spokeswoman that the company is still considering the project. The original, headline-making announcement from the Ralph Northam administration said the California maker of tea, lozenges and capsules would establish its east coast hub in Franklins Summit View Business Park. Local and state governments lined up incentives to defray costs and the business park appeared to have landed a major tenant. It did not move forward at that time. The tea company put things on hold to focus on essential operations during the public health crisis, but has worked for about a year to revise the project, spokeswoman Danielle Cantrell said by email. Construction and financing costs have increased substantially since the pandemic, and though this has not impacted the viability of the project, it has caused us to readjust and size our project appropriately in the new paradigm before proceeding, Cantrell said. Cantrell said she could not elaborate. Franklin Countys economic development office still highlights the project on its website. The Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission still has the $245,000 it pledged to the project and awaits further information, spokesman Jordan Butler said. FLOYD After five years of construction, Habitat for Humanity of the New River Valley unveiled seven townhomes of affordable housing during a dedication celebration on Wednesday. We are grateful to the organization, said Ashleigh Bowman, a 44-year-old mother of three who is moving into one of the units. Community is the name we give to things we choose to do together. Our community chose to protect, honor and uplift vulnerability and to create safe spaces where life thrives. Im just really grateful to be here right now. Jim Drader, the executive director of the NRV Habitat organization, said he hopes the seven families can move in within the next two weeks, once the driveways are fully paved. Each unit consists of three bedrooms and two bathrooms, while four are Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant, meaning the main bedroom is on the first floor. All townhouses have zero-step entry and will have solar panels on the roof to reduce energy. Were trying to get as close to zero energy as possible, Drader said. Each of the homes will have solar panels that are already installed, which will hopefully get their utility bills as close to zero as we can. The seven units, called the Homes on Newtown Project, are the culmination of years of efforts and over 3,600 hours of volunteer work. Habitat for Humanity closed on the property in 2019, but the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain delays halted the projects final approval until November 2021. The construction crew built the foundation in spring 2022 and further progressed when it gained more volunteers in early 2023. This multi-unit affordable housing project was Habitat for Humanitys first in Floyd. In order to be eligible for the housing, applicants must have a need for affordable housing, earn 30 to 80% of the median income in the county and commit 200 volunteer hours to the organization. Drader said the groups goal is to ensure nobody is paying more than 30% of their income on a mortgage. Studies have shown that when people stretch and pay 50 to 60% of their income into shelter for their families, there are sacrifices that are made, Drader said. In order to allow them to have additional funds to help with educational, medical, generational wealth building, finding properties that we can develop that are affordable meaning 30% of their income is important. We advocate, educate and try to make that happen. The incoming occupants include one single person, one couple and five families, ranging from one to three kids. I still cant believe it, Bowman said outside Floyd Presbyterian Church, about a quarter-mile from the townhouses and where the ceremony took place. It has been an incredible journey that has brought us to this point. It was very unexpected and beautiful. I didnt fully understand what community was until I became part of this organization and witnessed the community and volunteers in Habitat. Bowman said she received a call last November, offering a unit. Being a single mother with three children and completely rebuilding from scratch, homeownership was not something I first saw as a possibility, so it was really miraculous and beautiful, Bowman said. It was the first time as a mother that I foresaw an opportunity to lay down roots for my children, to give them a sense of permanence and space that cant be taken away, where they can come back and visit and create memories. Once the Homes on Newtown Project concludes, Habitat for Humanity is planning to build an 11-unit property in Blacksburg within the next year-and-a-half. As important and impactful as it is for these seven new homeowners and the future homeowners that we will have, its just a scratch on the surface of the need within our community, Drader said. Anything we can do to help and advocate for reduced costs on homes and grants that are available to get homeowners into their homes is what we do. Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Artist's impression of a young star surrounded by a disk of gas and dust. An international team of astronomers has used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to study the disk around a young and very low-mass star known as ISO-ChaI 147. The results reveal the richest hydrocarbon chemistry seen to date in a protoplanetary disk. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech An international team of astronomers has used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to study the disk of gas and dust around a young, very low-mass star. The results reveal the largest number of carbon-containing molecules seen to date in such a disk. These findings have implications for the potential composition of any planets that might form around this star. Rocky planets are more likely than gas giants to form around low-mass stars, making them the most common planets around the most common stars in our galaxy. Little is known about the chemistry of such worlds, which may be similar to or very different from Earth. By studying the disks from which such planets form, astronomers hope to better understand the planet formation process and the compositions of the resulting planets. Planet-forming disks around very low-mass stars are difficult to study because they are smaller and fainter than disks around high-mass stars. A program called the MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) Mid-INfrared Disk Survey (MINDS) aims to use Webb's unique capabilities to build a bridge between the chemical inventory of disks and the properties of exoplanets. "Webb has better sensitivity and spectral resolution than previous infrared space telescopes," explained lead author Aditya Arabhavi of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. "These observations are not possible from Earth, because the emissions from the disk are blocked by our atmosphere." In a new study, this team explored the region around a very low-mass star known as ISO-ChaI 147, a 1 to 2 million-year-old star that weighs just 0.11 times as much as the Sun. The spectrum revealed by Webb's MIRI shows the richest hydrocarbon chemistry seen to date in a protoplanetary diska total of 13 different carbon-bearing molecules. The team's findings include the first detection of ethane (C 2 H 6 ) outside of our solar system, as well as ethylene (C 2 H 4 ), propyne (C 3 H 4 ), and the methyl radical CH 3 . "These molecules have already been detected in our solar system, like in comets such as 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko and C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy)," added Arabhavi. "Webb allowed us to understand that these hydrocarbon molecules are not just diverse but also abundant. It is amazing that we can now see the dance of these molecules in the planetary cradles. It is a very different planet-forming environment than we usually think of." The team indicates that these results have large implications for the chemistry of the inner disk and the planets that might form there. Since Webb revealed the gas in the disk is so rich in carbon, there is likely little carbon left in the solid materials that planets would form from. As a result, the planets that might form there may ultimately be carbon-poor. (Earth itself is considered carbon-poor.) "This is profoundly different from the composition we see in disks around solar-type stars, where oxygen bearing molecules like water and carbon dioxide dominate," added team member Inga Kamp, also of the University of Groningen. "This object establishes that these are a unique class of objects." "It's incredible that we can detect and quantify the amount of molecules that we know well on Earth, such as benzene, in an object that is more than 600 light-years away," added team member Agnes Perrin of Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France. Next, the science team intends to expand their study to a larger sample of such disks around very low-mass stars to develop their understanding of how common or exotic such carbon-rich terrestrial planet-forming regions are. "The expansion of our study will also allow us to better understand how these molecules can form," explained team member and principal investigator of the MINDS program, Thomas Henning, of the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy in Germany. "Several features in the Webb data are also still unidentified, so more spectroscopy is required to fully interpret our observations." This work also highlights the crucial need for scientists to collaborate across disciplines. The team notes that these results and the accompanying data can contribute towards other fields including theoretical physics, chemistry, and astrochemistry, to interpret the spectra and to investigate new features in this wavelength range. More information: A. M. Arabhavi et al, Abundant hydrocarbons in the disk around a very-low-mass star, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.adi8147 Provided by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Two professors at the University of Texas at Austin are suing for the right to penalize students who miss class to obtain an abortion out of state. The professors, John Hatfield and Daniel Bonevac, are contesting the Biden administrations efforts to shield students from retaliation when they obtain reproductive health care, a long-standing guarantee under Title IX. They also demand the freedom to discriminate against students and teaching assistants who identify as LGBTQ. On Saturdays bonus Slate Plus episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss the lawsuit, which is part of a broader, coordinated attack on both Title IX and reproductive health care. A preview of their conversation, below, has been edited for length and clarity. To listen to the full episode of Amicus, join Slate Plus. Dahlia Lithwick: This is an incredible story that didnt get enough national exposure. Mark, can you tell us whats happening here? Mark Joseph Stern: These professors have joined a broader lawsuit thats attacking the Biden administrations new regulation clarifying the scope of Title IX, which bars sex discrimination in federally funded education. The Education Department has clarified that Title IX covers LGBTQ students, which follows from the Supreme Courts decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. It tightened protections for student survivors of sexual assault. And alsothis is the sticking point for Hatfield and Bonevacit reiterates guarantees against discrimination for pregnancy-related conditions, as well as the termination of a pregnancy. Advertisement To be clear, these are not new additions: The Education Department has interpreted Title IX to protect students who terminate their pregnancies since 1975. This principle is deeply rooted in the statute and federal regulations enforcing it. And yet red states, Republicans, and anti-abortion advocates claim that Bidens Education Department is unlawfully expanding Title IX, and theyve filed this lawsuit seeking to block it nationwide. Dahlia, would you like guess which judge these plaintiffs shopped their case to? I know this oneMatty K! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thats right! They found their way to Amarillo, Texas, where they were guaranteed to draw our friend Matthew Kacsmaryk, a far-right Trump appointee and anti-abortion zealot. And Kacsmaryk is, in turn, basically guaranteed to issue a nationwide bar on everything the Biden administration is trying to do here. Advertisement Can you explain how these professors became part of this, um, creative lawsuit? These two guys are clients of Jonathan Mitchell, who is the architect of Texas vigilante abortion ban, S.B. 8. Mitchell is working on this case with Stephen Miller, former Trump adviser and head of the America First Legal Foundation. Theyre teaming up with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whos spending Texans tax dollars on this fight. Im a little mystified about what specific relief these professors seek. Do they want to be able to look at a woman in class and say, You look like you left town for an abortion this week! Like, what do they want to happen here? I think its very much of a piece with Mitchells S.B. 8, which relied on random strangers to uncover abortions and sue anyone who aided or abetted them. That law encouraged people to surveil and turn in their own neighbors, friends, and families for facilitating reproductive health care. This lawsuit is a miniature version of that for the classroom. These professors seem to intend to rely on tips from other students; perhaps they can even open up a tip line to discover why a particular student missed class. Theyre turning the classroom into a surveillance state. And it leads to all kinds of perverse classroom dynamics; students might try to curry favor with the professor by passing along information that somebody got an abortion. The professor can then presumably launch his own investigation to uncover the truth, which could include demanding answers from the student who has been targeted. Advertisement Advertisement The UTAustin system does not clearly allow students to travel for abortions without punishment. The accommodations policies are extremely vague on this point. So these professors are exploiting that gap in the policy. At a minimum, they want to lower the grade of any student who misses class for an abortion, even a perfectly legal one obtained out of state. I sent them questions asking for details about their intent here, but they declined to respond. Related From Slate Texas New Plan for Responding to the Horror of Its Abortion Ban: Blame Doctors Read More I would love for you to talk about the invocation of Comstock here, the zombie law thats suddenly everywhere. This is yet another experiment by Jonathan Mitchell to revive the zombie law and wield it in a maximally harmful, misogynistic, controlling way. Comstock is a statute from 1873 that was designed to censor the mail, and primarily targeted birth control and feminist literature. But it also includes hazy language about abortion. Mitchell, whos one of Trumps top lawyers, argues that Comstock imposes a nationwide ban, because it talks about both drugs that induce miscarriage, like mifepristone, and things that can cause abortion, including medical equipment. He claims that the transportation of any medication or equipment meant to terminate a pregnancy is a felony offense. And he wants Donald Trump to implement this theory as policy if he wins a second term. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That argument is really front and center not just in this lawsuit, but in the professors own declarations. Right. Hatfield and Bonevac say they wont even hire a teaching assistant who might obtain abortion pills because doing so is a felony and they refuse to harbor criminals. And its no coincidence that this case has been shopped to Matthew Kacsmaryk, who attempted to ban mifepristone nationwide last yearciting, among other things, the Comstock Act for support. The Supreme Court will probably reverse Kacsmaryk soon, but this Title IX case gives him another opportunity to talk Comstock. He can remind everyone that, in his view, this nationwide ban on both medical and procedural abortions already exists. In some ways, this is a Comstock lawsuit smuggled into an attack on Title IX. Advertisement Advertisement And its trying to put the Comstock argument on the wall, right? All of Mitchells Comstock lawsuits are trying to breathe new life into the zombie law, making it look live and urgent. Of course, this is the same lawyer who is representing men who want to wield the legal system against estranged partners who terminate their pregnancies. It sure seems like he hates pregnant people. Advertisement Mitchell is committed to setting up an all-encompassing, almost totalitarian surveillance state where every single pregnant person is under constant watch, as are their friends and family. And any pregnancy loss subjects them and their loved ones to potential criminal penalties. The sum effect is to silence and terrify and isolate people who need to be able to ask for help in the midst of a crisis. This entire regime of laws is designed to chill them from seeking help. Its so unbelievably cruel, and I guess thats the point. Advertisement Theres more, too: These professors are also seeking the right to discriminate against LGBTQ students. So this does not stop at the termination of pregnancies at all. They are demanding a right to openly discriminate, particularly against transgender students, whom they deride as having delusional beliefs. Of course, the Supreme Court settled this issue in Bostock v. Clayton County, when it held that sex discrimination encompasses anti-LGBTQ discrimination. But Matthew Kacsmaryk is in open rebellion against Bostockhe refuses to recognize it as a legitimate decision, and instead cites Justice Samuel Alitos dissent as though its binding law. So this will be a winning argument in his court. Advertisement Advertisement I think its worth pausing and asking: Is this how educators are supposed to act? Are professors supposed to surveil their students, punish them for getting health care, and accuse them of having delusional beliefs on the basis of their identity? And then insist on your right to punish them for having the wrong beliefs or getting the wrong health care? I dont understand why these guys want to be professors at all. Why would they want to engage in debate and discussion with students whom they evidently despise? And seek to weaponize the power of the state against them? I find it both baffling and disgusting. The shop, located in a small village, operates in hybrid mode. The ceremonial opening of the grocery store in Salgocka, Trnava Region, which is now operating in hybrid mode. (Source: Courtesy of Salgocka ) Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Share Coop Jednota, a large Slovak retail chain, has introduced a new concept of shopping: fully automated shops that allow customers to visit and buy around the clock, and on any day of the week. A first such grocery shop, with a full assortment of goods, was opened in the village of Salgocka, Trnava Region, in May. Jednota plans to open more such stores in other locations in the summer. Salgocka has only 460 inhabitants, yet we and our partners seem to have found a way to make the grocerys operation sustainable in the long term, said Helena Mesarosova, the mayor of Salgocka. There used to be a grocery store in the town, but the retail chain closed it after more than 40 years of operation, citing both economic reasons and problems finding staff. In 2023, at the initiative of Salgocka's mayor, Jednota started to look for a new way of operating there. The new shop is staffed from 6:00 to 12:00 during workdays, and on Saturdays from 6:00 to 11:00. During the remaining hours it operates in self-service mode, with customers going in and out with the help of their loyalty card. Payment for their purchases can only be made with a bank card, via a payment terminal. In the future the company wants to use its own app, Coop Jednota Klub, for the whole process. Related article Related article Robots as waiters or online winetasting. Innovations slowly making their way to Slovak restaurants Read more Inspiration from abroad The inspiration for the new store concept is the Czech chain of Coop stores, which currently operates nearly 40 automated stores in the Czech Republic. The main difference there is the existence of a Bank Identity, established by the Czech Banking Association. This is a legislatively recognised way of verifying a citizens identity through a mobile banking application. Its advantage is that the customer - if a citizen of the Czech Republic - does not have to register anywhere. There is no such service in Slovakia, so our customer has to register first, Michal Svrcek, director of the IT and services section at Coop Jednota Slovakia, said. The retail chain plans to launch automated groceries in various regions of Slovakia and in various sizes. They will all operate in the hybrid way. These self-service groceries may be a solution for so-called food deserts, i.e. low-population areas in which nobody wants to run a grocery store, arguing that it would be a loss-making business. There are plenty of small villages across Slovakia without groceries whose citizens have to travel to neighbouring municipalities to buy even basic foodstuffs. The shop Od Nasich (From Ours) in Devin, a borough of Bratislava, has been operating for some time in a mode similar to that at Salgocka. Millionaire Patrik Takac, who lives in an extensive villa in the borough, opened it in 2021 after none of the main retail chains wanted to run a grocery in Devin due to economic reasons. NAIROBI, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Kenya on Friday signed a protocol of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an East African bloc, on the free movement of pastoralists living in border areas in search of pastures for their livestock. Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi signed the IGAD Protocol on Transhumance, which provides a critical framework for free, safe, and orderly cross-border mobility of transhumant livestock and herders in search of water and pasture within the eight IGAD member states. "This will help in promoting peaceful coexistence, reduce the risks associated with violence, lead to the protection of the rights and interests of pastoralist communities, including their access to land, water, and grazing resources, and further cooperation and coordination among neighboring countries in addressing common challenges across borders," Mudavadi said in a statement issued in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. The protocol regulates transhumance activities, including the movement of herders and their livestock across borders; sustainable management of natural resources, including land, water, and pasture to support transhumance activities; conflict prevention, mitigation, and resolution. The protocol was adopted during the 72nd Extra-Ordinary Session of the IGAD Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs on June 24, 2021, and Kenya became the fifth IGAD member state to sign it, after Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, and Djibouti. The three other IGAD members are Eritrea, Somalia, and Uganda. The protocol will be submitted to the Cabinet and thereafter to the National Assembly for approval of ratification by Kenya. A selection of short feel-good stories from Slovakia. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Share Every week The Slovak Spectator brings you a selection of three short stories from across Slovakia from which pessimism and negativity are absent. After witnessing a century of adversity, still he fights for justice President Zuzana Caputova congratulates Otto Simko on his 100th birthday. (Source: Facebook/Zuzana Caputova) Otto Simko, World War II veteran and former underground resistance fighter, recently celebrated his 100th birthday. Born in Topolcany, in western Slovakia, to a Jewish family, he first experienced as a boy the anti-Semitic regulations imposed by the emerging Nazi-allied Slovak State. He avoided deportation to a Nazi concentration camp, but was sent to a labour camp in the town of Vyhne, central Slovakia, in 1942. He then took part in the Slovak National Uprising (SNP). After being detained and undergoing brutal interrogations, he managed to escape from prison. Between 1954 and 1971, he worked as a journalist at the newspaper Smena; from 1971, under the supervision of the communist-era StB secret police, he served as a corporate lawyer, the Nations Memory Institute (UPN) wrote. Related article Related article Underground resistance fighter and political prisoner awarded Read more Today, he remains a defender and promoter of freedom. Recently, he was one of the faces of the Ammunition for Ukraine crowdfunding project. Among those to congratulate him was President Zuzana Caputova, who paid him a personal visit at the Ohel David facility, which was established as the first Jewish home for the elderly with a nationwide scope. It is also the only facility of its kind in Slovakia for Holocaust survivors. We debated about everything present-day Slovakia, the past, society, politics and his life, Caputova wrote on Facebook. Today, many appreciate his rational approach to historical facts and lifelong optimism, unfeigned modesty, sense of justice, resistance to false heroism and lies, rare capacity for critical self-reflection and sympathetic sense of irony and self-deprecation. Two of Slovakias zoos win recognition Sumatran orangutan Cahya was born at Bratislava Zoo last April. (Source: Facebook/ZOO Bratislava) Two of Slovakias zoos have recently been awarded for their upbringing of young animals. The zoo in Bratislava placed second in the Mammals category of the prestigious White Elephant competition for its care of Sumatran orangutans. The competition awards exceptional achievements by zoos in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. As Alexandra Ritterova, the zoos PR manager, told the TASR newswire, the young male, named Cahya, is the first successfully bred Sumatran orangutan in the whole of Slovakia. Were happy that we could be part of this competition in a category full of amazing zoos, the zoo wrote on Facebook, thanking everybody who helps them with their mission to protect rare species. Third place in the same category was taken by the zoo in Bojnice, western Slovakia, for its care of four European wildcat cubs. A juvenile European wildcat, brought up at Bojnice Zoo, was released into the wild. (Source: Facebook/ZOO Bojnice) The joy is even greater as we have already released one of last years cubs into the wild, the zoo wrote on Facebook. Preserving traditional sheep farming Shepherd Ladislav Porzodt in Stratena Pila. (Source: Facebook/Jakub Antypenko) Despite a decline in traditional mountain sheep farming in Slovakia, there are still people preserving the practice. Several of them are active on the territory of the Slovak Paradise National Park. For example, the farm in Hrabusice breeds about 800 sheep specifically, improved Wallachian sheep, native Wallachian sheep and Slovak milk sheep. They graze the slopes of Zelena Hora mountain and near the well-known tourist centre of Podlesok, the national park wrote on Facebook. In another locality, Stratena Pila, which is situated in the southern part of the park, there is a herd of more than 150 native Wallachian sheep. Related article Related article Slovakia has new national sheep breed Read more The national parks nature offers the sheep nutritious pasture on the mountain meadows, and the sheep, in turn, help preserve the species diversity of plants, the conservationists wrote. In order to lure a younger generation to sheep farming, the shepherds and sheep breeders have lately started receiving more money for their work. Five feel-good stories published by The Slovak Spectator to read: Political meme of the week (Source: SME/Mikulas Sliacky) Caption: They blocked my channel. With this meme, caricaturist Mikulas Sliacky reacts to the decision by video-sharing platform YouTube to cancel a channel that had belonged to the notorious Slovak extremist and conspiracy theorist Daniel Bombic, also known as Danny Kollar. By the standards of Slovak-language channels it had a large following on the platform 79,500 people and his videos had received more than 12 million views in the past seven months. Several coalition politicians have willingly appeared on his online show. Three European arrest warrants have been issued against the Slovak for extremism and the unauthorised handling of personal data. Bombic currently lives in London but in April a court there ordered his extradition to Slovakia. The decision is still subject to appeal. You can send me your tips on good news stories about Slovakia or funny memes at: radka.minarechova@spectator.sk. Thank you! Two Slovaks killed in a Czech train accident, family minister's effort to traumatise a child, and why you should visit the Tokaj region. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Share Hello. Here is the Thursday, June 7 edition of Today in Slovakia - the main news of the day in less than five minutes. In Normandy, President Caputova honours a generation that stood up to fascism President Zuzana Caputova and other world leaders mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day at Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, on June 6, 2024. (Source: Facebook/President Zuzana Caputova) World leaders, including Slovak President Zuzana Caputova, visited the beaches of Normandy on June 6 to participate in a commemoration marking the 80th anniversary of the 1944 D-Day landings, the largest amphibious military operation in history launched by the Allied armies to liberate Nazi-controlled Europe. D-Day was a turning point in defeating fascism in Europe, said the president, describing it as a true testament to courage and sacrifice. She reminded that Czechoslovak pilots and soldiers who were a part of the Allied forces in Normandy also contributed to the end of the Second World War and to Europe becoming a peaceful continent, along with thousands of other soldiers. They also fought for our freedom and a better future. Because Caputovas tenure ends on June 15, the president saw the event as an opportunity to say goodbye to other presidents, premiers and kings. Related: Andrew Babjak is an unknown Slovak who took part in the Normandy landings. MORE STORIES FROM THE SLOVAK SPECTATOR WEBSITE Opinion: Natasa Holinova, a Sme daily commentator, cannot get her head around the fact that two ministers decided to traumatise a six-year-old over a toy gun. Natasa Holinova, a Sme daily commentator, cannot get her head around the fact that two ministers decided to traumatise a six-year-old over a toy gun. Travel: A cave under the Nitra Castle once full of rubbish is open to the public. Do not worry, you will not get lost. A cave under the Nitra Castle once full of rubbish is open to the public. Do not worry, you will not get lost. History: The town of Spisske Bystre, eastern Slovakia, is an interesting place - due to its name. The town of Spisske Bystre, eastern Slovakia, is an interesting place - due to its name. Good news: Pictures from the Bratislava Zoo will melt your heart, as will the hard-working sheep. If you like what we are doing and want to support good journalism, buy our online subscription with no ads and a print copy of The Slovak Spectator sent to your home in Slovakia. Thank you. FEATURE STORY The call of Slovakias famous wine region A lookout tower in the Tokaj wine region in south-eastern Slovakia. (Source: SITA) The Tokaj winemaking region is known for its vineyards and wineries, as well as for its waterways. Will Plum Days, a gastronomic festival, be added to the list? FREE BRATISLAVA EVENTS Ensemble from Amsterdam (and more) The Amsterdam Orchestra will perform in Bratislava Old Market Hall on June 7. (Source: Facebook - Het Orkest Amsterdam) The Amsterdam Orchestra (Het Orkest Amsterdam) is a symphony orchestra full of passionate and advanced amateur musicians. The ensemble performs all kinds of programmes. Come to the old market venue to hear their music. IN OTHER NEWS Smer is creeping us away from the West and Europe. It is an extremely dangerous game. After all, the West and the EU are not some kind of others, strangers, we in Slovakia are them too, Progresivne Slovensko leader Michal Simecka said in reaction to PM Robert Ficos first video after the recent shooting attack on him. In the video, he criticised the West. (SITA) After all, the West and the EU are not some kind of others, strangers, we in Slovakia are them too, Progresivne Slovensko leader Michal Simecka said in reaction to PM Robert Ficos first video after the recent shooting attack on him. In the video, he criticised the West. (SITA) TV Markiza journalists are not going on strike , they announced in a video posted to a social network. The management has agreed to all the conditions of the strike committee, they noted. At RTVS, the public broadcaster, journalists announced a three-hour warning strike march . It will be held on Monday, a day before all MPs reconvene to start the last session before the summer. , they announced in a video posted to a social network. The management has agreed to all the conditions of the strike committee, they noted. . It will be held on Monday, a day before all MPs reconvene to start the last session before the summer. Two Slovak women are among the victims of a night train accident in the Czech Republic . Four other Slovaks suffered injuries. Two Ukrainian women are also among the victims. The accident took place near Pardubice-Centre station before midnight on Wednesday. A RegioJet train heading from Prague to Kosice, from where it was supposed to continue to Ukraine, collided head-on with a freight train. . Four other Slovaks suffered injuries. Two Ukrainian women are also among the victims. The accident took place near Pardubice-Centre station before midnight on Wednesday. A RegioJet train heading from Prague to Kosice, from where it was supposed to continue to Ukraine, collided head-on with a freight train. Slovakia is among the countries with the highest incarceration rates , the Council of Europe said. , the Council of Europe said. The Slovak economy started 2024 with its fastest pace in the last two years , with GDP growing by 2.7 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024, the Statistics Office reported on Thursday. , with GDP growing by 2.7 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024, the Statistics Office reported on Thursday. PM Ficos chief adviser Erik Kalinak (Smer) and Juraj Gedra (Smer), chief of staff at the Government Office, have appeared in an online broadcast together with the prosecuted extremist and disinformation spreader Daniel Bombic. YouTube has recently cancelled Bombics channel. Smer slammed YouTube for it. (Dennik N) The cruise ship Labe in the harbour near the town of Streda nad Bodrogom in the Trebisov District on June 5, 2024. After more than 30 years, the new cruise ship Labe will replace the old cruise ship Zemplin on the Zemplinska Sirava reservoir. (Source: TASR - Roman Hanc) WEATHER FOR FRIDAY: The last working day of the week is expected to be cloudy. Rain and showers are possible in some places, in particular in the north. Thunderstorms may occasionally occur. Daily temperatures will range between 21C and 28C. Storm warnings are in place in central and eastern Slovakia. (SHMU) JUNE 7 NAME DAY IN SLOVAKIA: Robert, Roberta. Thank you for subscribing and reading. It means a lot to us. P.S. If you have suggestions on how our news overview can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.sk. Follow The Slovak Spectator on Facebook and Instagram (@slovakspectator). Minden/Tokyo Melitta Japan, one of the largest subsidiaries of the Melitta Group outside Germany, can look back on its 50th anniversary in 2024. Jero Bentz, Head of Melitta Group, Gunther Klatt, Director Corporate Development, and Marco Gottschalk, Managing Director of Melitta Professional, did not miss the opportunity to personally congratulate the teams around Head of Organization Masayoshi Hattori in Tokyo (photo) and Osaka on the companys anniversary. Founded in 1974 in the capital, Melitta Japan is now represented by 130 employees at 5 locations. In addition to coffee machines, coffee filters and coffee accessories for end consumers, a pillar of success are Melitta Professionals solutions for coffee enjoyment in the out-of-home market. Be it in the gastronomy, hotel industry or even in the field of quick service and self-service, for example with system caterers and convenience shops who rely on fresh preparation, variety, and consistent top quality for coffee to stay or coffee to go. Here, Melitta Japan scores not only with professional fully automatic coffee machines, developed and produced in Minden, Germany, but also with its own technical customer service. Melitta Japan is a mainstay of our Melitta Professional company, comments Marco Gottschalk. Our thanks go to the motivated teams in Sapporo, Nagoya and Fukuoka as well! Coffee is of great importance and coffee enjoyment continues to have a lot of potential in the worlds fourth-largest coffee market. A clear difference to Germany is particularly noticeable in summer. Then coffee is mainly drunk chilled in Japan, preferably served on the rocks. About Melitta Professional Coffee Solutions GmbH & Co.KG Passion for coffee enjoyment since 1908. With holistic expertise for coffee, coffee machines, technical service, digital solutions, and financing, Melitta Professional supports its partner companies in the out-of-home market according to their individual needs. Worldwide with 12 national subsidiaries with their own sales and service teams and in more than 50 other countries in cooperation with partners for distribution and service. The companys customers are represented wherever coffee-to-stay or coffee-to-go in reliable top quality are in demand. The sectors are as diverse as the solutions: Hotel & Gastronomy, Community Gastronomy & Catering, Bakery & Convenience, Cafe & Coffee Shop, Trade & Specialist Trade, Work & Office. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240606/macron-promises-new-fighter-jets-in-latest-effort-to-prop-up-ukraine-1118822521.html 'Political Posture' Analyst Calls Out Macrons Promises to Ukraine Ahead of European Elections 'Political Posture' Analyst Calls Out Macrons Promises to Ukraine Ahead of European Elections Sputnik International Although Macron has been a fierce defender of the Kiev regime, his recent statements about sending Mirage 2000 warplanes to Ukraine may be nothing more than political posture before European elections, leading EU policy analyst and co-editor of Le Monde Moderne magazine Alexis Poulin told Sputnik. 2024-06-06T23:55+0000 2024-06-06T23:55+0000 2024-06-07T01:48+0000 analysis emmanuel macron alexis poulin volodymyr zelensky ukraine kiev russia nato dassault aviation ukrainian air force https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e5/06/07/1083092700_0:121:3209:1926_1920x0_80_0_0_b545da0a4842901e43922a905d9be4e9.jpg President Emmanuel Macron, long considered perhaps Europes foremost anti-Russia hawk, committed to sending his countrys Mirage 2000 warplanes to Ukraine during an appearance on French television Thursday.The aircraft, a single-engine, delta wing jet fighter manufactured by Dassault Aviation, had been requested by Ukrainian Air Force commander Mykola Oleshchuk earlier this year.Macron had refused to offer the plane to Ukraine as recently as February while signing a bilateral agreement with Kiev that nonetheless granted Volodymyr Zelensky an extra 3 billion in additional lethal aid this year.The French president, who has repeatedly placed support for Ukraine as among his top priorities even as Russia has increasingly liberated more territory near the northern city of Kharkov. Recent reports suggest the Ukrainian military is nearing collapse amid personnel shortages and a lack of discipline and morale.Although Macron has been perhaps the most aggressive of Europes leaders in supporting Ukraines war against Russia, his comments Thursday suggest he is not in an escalation mood, Poulin said.Theres been a very blurry explanation of what the conflict would be, maybe because he knows that escalation is very dangerous for all parties given the latest declaration of Vladimir Putin saying that he could also provide some weapons to allies of Russia to strike allies of Ukraine, Poulin added.President Macron said he would officially announce the new policy Friday when Zelensky visits France to take part in annual D-Day anniversary celebrations. This years commemoration has drawn controversy for not including officials from the Russian Federation. The Soviet Union experienced the greatest loss of life in liberating Europe from the Nazi regime with some 27 million Soviet troops dying in the effort.Meanwhile, Ukrainian nationalists like Stepan Bandera, who is celebrated by the Kiev regime, formed an important part of the Nazis military force in Eastern Europe.A lot of the speeches from Joe Biden to Emmanuel Macron [were] referring to the situation in Ukraine, saying that this was about democracy, this was about fighting for liberties, and we have a sort of a moral duty towards Ukraine.It's more, I think, a political posture than anything else, he concluded about Macrons comments. Macron was not telling a lot about the plans, about the coalition and about the aid that is coming to Ukraine in the coming weeks. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240428/western-media-admits-chaos-on-ukrainian-frontlines-as-russia-easily-liberates-another-village-1118153357.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20240429/ukraines-push-for-security-pact-with-us-foreshadows-looming-military-collapse---analyst-1118170362.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20240605/mirror-effects-is-us-reflecting-ukraines-disregard-for-democracy-1118769000.html ukraine kiev russia Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 John Miles https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/01/19/1116388787_0:0:1316:1316_100x100_80_0_0_77e70d36afd983012b1c5d38ddb84156.jpg John Miles https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/01/19/1116388787_0:0:1316:1316_100x100_80_0_0_77e70d36afd983012b1c5d38ddb84156.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 John Miles https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/01/19/1116388787_0:0:1316:1316_100x100_80_0_0_77e70d36afd983012b1c5d38ddb84156.jpg macron ukraine support, macron fighter jets for ukraine, macron mirage 2000 warplanes, france mirage 2000 ukraine, western aid, arms supply, arms supplies, weapons supply, arms for ukraine, fighter jets, french fighter jets, french aircraft, crazy macron, warmonger macron, macron warmonger https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/biden-announces-225mln-aid-package-for-ukraine-1118838646.html Biden Announces $225Mln Aid Package for Ukraine Biden Announces $225Mln Aid Package for Ukraine Sputnik International US President Joe Biden on Friday announced an additional $225 million to help Ukraine rebuild its electric grid. 2024-06-07T11:55+0000 2024-06-07T11:55+0000 2024-06-07T12:14+0000 world joe biden volodymyr zelensky ukraine us france ukraine crisis us military aid military aid foreign military aid https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/06/06/1118800663_0:0:3072:1728_1920x0_80_0_0_ba1eac969519d211acc8624996834f66.jpg "Today Im also signing an additional package for $225 million to help you reconstruct your electric grid," Biden said during a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky in France. He also reiterated that the US would "not walk away" from Ukraine and apologized for a monthslong holdup in US military assistance.The White House press pool later said that it was told the $225 million in new support was for air defenses that could, among other things, defend the electric grid.Western countries have provided hundreds of billions of dollars worth of aid to Ukraine since the start of Russia's special military operation in February 2022. Military aid shipments began in 2022 with artillery munitions and training and have escalated to include tanks, advanced air-defense systems, missiles and cluster munitions.The Kremlin has consistently warned against the West's continued arms deliveries to Ukraine, saying that they only prolong the conflict.Strikes are being carried out on energy, defense industry, military administration and communications facilities throughout the country. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian troops would not target residential buildings or social infrastructure. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240322/russian-strikes-paralyze-ukraines-power-grid-heres-what-was-hit-1117484767.html ukraine france Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International military aid for ukraine, is us giving more money to ukraine, why is us giving more money to kiev, whats happening to money given to kiev, will us give more money to kiev, how much money does ukraine get, how much money us gives to ukraine, how much money eu gives to ukraine, how much money europe gives to ukraine, what weapons does ukraine receive, does us give ukraine new weapons https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/bolivia-has-good-chance-of-joining-brics-in-2024-after-argentinas-refusal---president-1118830706.html Bolivia Has Good Chance of Joining BRICS in 2024 After Argentina's Refusal - President Bolivia Has Good Chance of Joining BRICS in 2024 After Argentina's Refusal - President Sputnik International Bolivia has a good chance of joining BRICS in 2024 after Argentinas refusal, but the decision is up to the group members, Bolivian President Luis Arce said in an interview with Sputnik. 2024-06-07T09:48+0000 2024-06-07T09:48+0000 2024-06-07T09:48+0000 world russia bolivia brics st. petersburg international economic forum (spief) spief 2024 https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/08/16/1112785512_0:0:3364:1893_1920x0_80_0_0_807f2b58d4996fc7bd46abd510c7fcf6.jpg "Last year Argentina joined ... However, we saw statements by the current president about refusing to join the group, for Bolivia this turns into an opportunity, because we were one of the first to ask for membership. And if we talk about who is next in line, then I think that Bolivia could join, but this, of course, depends on the founders and current members of BRICS," Arce said on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). Arce added that he had discussed Bolivia's possible membership during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the SPIEF sidelines.The leader also noted that he is ready to come to the BRICS forum in Russia if he receives an invitation.The president mentioned that Bolivia sees good prospects for cooperation with Russia in power industry, lithium production and financial cooperation.There are many strategic sectors in which Russia and Bolivia can move together, including trade, the nuclear sector, lithium production, financial cooperation, power industry, cultural, humanitarian interaction, cooperation through international bodies; in addition, Bolivias entry into BRICS. he wrote on Telegram. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240606/moscow-on-ankaras-interest-in-joining-brics-accession-open-certain-entry-criteria-exist-1118818571.html russia bolivia Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International brics enlargement, brics expansion, ethiopia joins brics, ethiopia in bricks, ethiopia becomes brics member, what countries are in brics, new brics members, what's brics, what does brics do https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/brics-considering-some-30-cooperation-requests-from-different-countries-1118830056.html BRICS Considering Some 30 Cooperation Requests From Different Countries BRICS Considering Some 30 Cooperation Requests From Different Countries Sputnik International BRICS is currently considering about 30 requests from different countries, which propose to establish different forms of cooperation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday. 2024-06-07T09:33+0000 2024-06-07T09:33+0000 2024-06-07T09:33+0000 russia sergey lavrov brics spief 2024 st. petersburg international economic forum (spief) https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/08/18/1112840682_0:26:3550:2023_1920x0_80_0_0_1049658acd10ca54dd6116e89827ef23.jpg "BRICS is currently considering about 30 applications from various countries, large, small, and medium-sized, which propose to establish various forms of cooperation," Lavrov told the Channel One broadcaster. Additionally, BRICS will introduce a category of "partner countries," the minister said.Lavrov will also take part in a meeting of foreign ministers of the BRICS countries in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod from June 10-11, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said ."One of the most important events planned for the coming week is a meeting of the heads of foreign affairs ministries of the BRICS countries in Nizhny Novgorod. It will take place from June 10-11 as part of the Russian chairmanship in this association. A separate meeting will be held with the participation of a number of countries of the global South and East," Zakharova said on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). https://sputnikglobe.com/20240509/brics-blocs-bullion-buy-up-buoys-trend-toward-dedollarization-1118365980.html Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International brics, sergey lavrov, maria zakharova, brics summit in nizhny novgorod, st.petersburg international economic forum (spief) https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/former-russia-africa-ties-reemerge-as-world-powers-vie-for-influence-1118824380.html Russia-Africa Ties Reemerge as World Powers Vie for Influence Russia-Africa Ties Reemerge as World Powers Vie for Influence Sputnik International An historical defender of anti-racist and anti-colonial causes, Russia is once again forging links across the African continent on the principles of voluntary partnership and respect for national sovereignty. 2024-06-07T05:05+0000 2024-06-07T05:05+0000 2024-06-07T05:32+0000 analysis gerald horne russia south africa african national congress (anc) sahel region mali niger boko haram insurgency boko haram https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/05/05/1118262528_0:56:2885:1679_1920x0_80_0_0_a1cbaba2bfedf3053a0412fd33ceb921.jpg As indigenous peoples successively threw off the yoke of colonialism during the mid-20th century, the continent of Africa emerged as an important front in the global battle between the United States and the USSR.Having renounced the colonial SykesPicot pact as one of the first acts of its post-revolutionary government, Russia stood as a strong anti-imperialist force as Europes territorial possessions became independent states. Soviet provision of financial aid and military support to anti-apartheid movements won the country goodwill throughout the continent, with many Africans seeing the USSR as a benevolent counterweight to Western domination.Today, with Russia and the United States increasingly representing two distinct geopolitical poles once more, former ties between Moscow and Africa are reemerging on the basis of voluntary partnership and respect for national sovereignty. Author and researcher Dr. Gerald Horne, a professor of history at the University of Houston in Texas, joined Sputniks The Critical Hour program Thursday to discuss the development.It sounds to me like they're getting the band back together, said host Garland Nixon, noting security agreements taking shape with Mali, Niger and the Central African Republic. Russia's history and the Soviet Union's history during the Cold War in Africa is very rich, shall we say. As the US empire pushes a new Cold War narrative, it seems to me that this is the natural outcome of it.And we also know that the North Atlantic countries, particularly France, have made a hash out of their former colonies, like the Central African Republic, he continued. They have looted the CAR of one of its most precious resources, speaking of diamonds. They have not been effective in terms of combating any insurgencies that on the surface involve Christian forces versus Muslim forces.Governments in the African Sahel have been particularly adamant about opposing Western influence in recent months, with countries expelling French and then US troops in succession. France is often viewed with resentment as a former colonial power in the region, which still maintains significant economic influence via the use of the Euro-pegged CFA franc currency.Polling shows that approval has risen for Russia across the region, with China also seen positively as the Asian power invests in infrastructure projects throughout the continent. Approval of the United States has declined as many countries reject the Biden administrations heavy handed attempts to force nations to cut ties with Russia in the wake of the countrys special military operation in Ukraine.We understand why many African nations are now looking to Russia for assistance, because they see Russia as being less conflicted, given the fact that Russia has its own religious zealots that it's seeking to combat, said Horne. The expert predicted that countries like Nigeria would eventually reach out to Russia for assistance in combating armed groups like Boko Haram.In South Africa, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party has lost its parliamentary majority for the first time in the countrys modern history, forcing it to seek a coalition with one or more smaller parties.The center-right Democratic Alliance (DA) party increased its vote share to 22%, but most of the opposition to the ANC positions itself on the left, represented by forces like the socialist uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party and the anti-capitalist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). Land reform is a key demand of many components of the political opposition, who claim more action is required to address inequalities caused by apartheid.South Africa faces a very difficult environment, not least because US imperialism is unhappy with South Africa, because it's bringing the case before the International Court of Justice against US ally Israel, because of South Africa's close alliance with Brazil, Russia, India, [and] China the BRICS, for example. https://sputnikglobe.com/20200519/map-that-changed-middle-east-sykes-picot-deal-and-century-of-resentment-1079356889.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20240427/north-african-countries-expel-western-military-presence-1118136389.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20240509/hard-times-for-us-soft-power-projection-in-africa-1118346857.html russia south africa sahel region mali niger chad Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 John Miles https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/01/19/1116388787_0:0:1316:1316_100x100_80_0_0_77e70d36afd983012b1c5d38ddb84156.jpg John Miles https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/01/19/1116388787_0:0:1316:1316_100x100_80_0_0_77e70d36afd983012b1c5d38ddb84156.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 John Miles https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/01/19/1116388787_0:0:1316:1316_100x100_80_0_0_77e70d36afd983012b1c5d38ddb84156.jpg russia africa ties, soviet africa relations, ussr anti-apartheid, russia anti-colonialism, russia anti-imperialism, russia sahel cooperation https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/lugansk-residential-areas-deliberately-struck-by-five-us-made-atacms-missiles---russian-mod-1118836439.html Lugansk Residential Areas Deliberately Struck by Five US-Made ATACMS Missiles - Russian MoD Lugansk Residential Areas Deliberately Struck by Five US-Made ATACMS Missiles - Russian MoD Sputnik International Ukrainian forces targeted residential areas of Lugansk with five US-supplied ATACMS missiles. Four of them were intercepted by air defenses while one hit two apartment buildings, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated on Friday. 2024-06-07T10:51+0000 2024-06-07T10:51+0000 2024-06-07T11:45+0000 russia's special operation in ukraine lugansk russia ukraine ukrainian armed forces lpr army tactical missile system (atacms) https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/06/07/1118836211_0:55:1086:666_1920x0_80_0_0_dfa02120ccd480b5ba2b900ec26ba032.jpg Ukraine has hit an apartment building Lugansk with US-supplied missiles killing three civilians and injuring at least 35 more.The MoD noted that four of the American missiles were downed by Russian air defense systems. One missile struck two apartment buildings, the statement added.An entire entranceway of the building collapsed, trapping people under the rubble, Head of the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) Leonid Pasechnik said, adding that rescue teams working on-site.Earlier, LPR Health Minister Natalia Pashchenko reported that the number of people injured in the missile attack on Lugansk by the Ukrainian Armed Forces had risen to 35, including three children, with five individuals in critical condition. "According to the latest data, the number of casualties from the Ukrainian Armed Forces' shelling of the republic's capital has risen to 35 people. Three of them are children (boys aged 16, 15, and 8 years)" stated the minister in a message published on the LPR government's Telegram channel. She reported that five individuals are in a critical condition, but the children's lives are not in danger their injuries are considered moderate. At least three people were killed.Ivan Kusov, the LPR Minister of Education and Science, reported that two schools, three kindergartens, a college and one of the buildings of Dalevsky University were damaged in the shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.He noted that the blast wave shattered windows at educational institutions. There were no casualties or injuries among the staff and students. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240513/three-people-killed-4-injured-as-result-of-ukrainian-shelling-of-city-in-lpr-1118407587.html lugansk russia ukraine Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International lugansk, lugansl shelling, lugansk shelled with atacms, ukrainian forces attack lugansk with us weapons https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/mexico-nicaragua-to-skip-swiss-hosted-ukraine-peace-conference---report-1118824657.html Mexico, Nicaragua to Skip Swiss-Hosted Ukraine Peace Conference - Report Mexico, Nicaragua to Skip Swiss-Hosted Ukraine Peace Conference - Report Sputnik International Mexico and Nicaragua will not participate in the Ukraine peace conference scheduled to take place in Switzerland on June 15-16, the Mexican Embassy in Russia and the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry told Russian newspaper Izvestia. 2024-06-07T04:31+0000 2024-06-07T04:31+0000 2024-06-07T04:31+0000 world mexico nicaragua switzerland russia ukraine https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/06/07/1118824759_0:0:3072:1728_1920x0_80_0_0_cb9c236e86804bf58c55737f5d560297.jpg "Mexico has received an invitation to participate in a summit on the peaceful settlement of the Ukraine conflict, which will take place next week in Switzerland. Mexico will not attend this event. Our country advocates peace, so we expect that negotiations involving both sides of the conflict will soon be possible," the newspaper quoted the Mexican Embassy as saying. Nicaragua slammed the Swiss-hosted conference as a "political farce" and declined to attend the event as well. "Nicaragua has never participated and will not participate in this political farce that has no goal of finding a path to peace, but only has a goal of issuing Russia with yet another ultimatum," the Nicaraguan ministry told the newspaper. Switzerland will host a high-level conference on Ukrainian peace at the Buergenstock resort outside of Lucerne on June 15-16. More than 160 delegations from around the world have been invited to attend the event. In April, the spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Bern, Vladimir Khokhlov, told Sputnik that Switzerland did not invite Russia to the summit, adding that Moscow had no plans to participate in the event even if invited. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240602/zelensky-pitches-ukraine-peace-conference-to-asia-pacific-defense-chiefs--1118743401.html mexico nicaragua switzerland russia ukraine Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International ukraine conference in switzerland, ukraine peace conference, who participates in ukraine peace conference BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday that the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project demonstrated the common aspiration for cooperation and development shared by the three countries. Spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks at a daily press briefing in response to a query about the above-mentioned project, regarding which the signing of a trilateral agreement was held in Beijing on Thursday. The project will be a strong boost to the economic and social development of the three countries, as well as the Central Asian region, said the spokesperson. "It is another testament to the importance of the Belt and Road Initiative and demonstrated the popularity of the vision for a community with a shared future for mankind in Central Asia," the spokesperson added. Mao said Uzbekistan was the first country to put forward the idea of the railway back in 1996. Over the past nearly three decades, the three countries have engaged in multiple rounds of consultations and negotiations for the full and in-depth communication of ideas. Last May, the feasibility study of the railway project was basically completed, which put the implementation of the project on a fast track, said Mao. In just one year, the three countries have worked closely together to press ahead with consultation on the details and managed to narrow the gaps on major issues and accumulate common understandings, and finally signed a trilateral agreement on the project on Thursday, said the spokesperson. This important milestone was achieved thanks to the tremendous efforts of different departments and experts, as well as the personal attention and support from the leaders of the three countries, said Mao. China looks forward to working closely with all parties to ensure the completion of this road of development, friendship and happiness that serves the common interests of the people in the region, and turbocharges the China-Central Asia cooperation, Mao added. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/milorad-dodik-bih-peaceful-separation-solution-in-accordance-with-dayton-peace-treaty-1118827517.html Milorad Dodik: BiH Peaceful Separation Solution in Accordance With Dayton Peace Treaty Milorad Dodik: BiH Peaceful Separation Solution in Accordance With Dayton Peace Treaty Sputnik International The UN Srebrenica resolution is a superficial document, Milorad Dodik, president of Republika Srpska, told Sputnik in an exclusive interview. He added that Republika Srpska is ready to defy notion' of sanctioning Russia. 2024-06-07T10:03+0000 2024-06-07T10:03+0000 2024-06-08T12:59+0000 milorad dodik srebrenica bosnia and herzegovina republika srpska republika srpska world un general assembly bosnia vladimir putin st. petersburg international economic forum (spief) https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/06/07/1118831159_0:0:1920:1080_1920x0_80_0_0_ebb85d2e9808034f6d461f85bf36c675.jpg A controversial resolution passed by the UN General Assembly that named July 11 as "International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica" is no more than a superficial document, Milorad Dodik, president of Republika Srpska, told Sputnik in an exclusive interview.Dodik underscored that relations in Bosnia and Herzegovina were already difficult, but now they are more so than ever.Thats why we dont take the resolution seriously. This is a purely technical action that was carried out intentionally," he noted.The vote count during the session of the UNs General Assembly on Srebrenica has since raised questions, as the 87 countries that did not vote for the resolution actually exceeded the 84 of those that backed the draft, formally proposed by Germany and Rwanda.The president deplored the fact that the resolution, in essence, pulled the plug for a long time on any possibility of normal coexistence of Republika Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina.BiH Peaceful Separation in Accordance with Dayton Peace Treaty The Bosnia and Herzegovina peaceful separation plan proposed by Republika Srpska is a solution that is absolutely possible in accordance with the Dayton Peace Treaty, Milorad Dodik said.Milorad Dodik announced in May that Republika Srpska would present a proposal to its partners in Bosnia and Herzegovina outlining a peaceful separation plan.First, our proposal will be to clarify the political competences of each of our entities [comprising Bosnia and Herzegovina]. We will propose keeping the current economic model in place, but later adapt it to the peaceful separation process. The Serbian people can no longer live in this kind of BiH. What the Bosniaks did with the resolution on Srebrenica is illegal, and it shows that [the architects of the resolution] did not respect the Serbs, he wrote on X.Putin Respects BiH Peaceful Separation Solution Russia's President Vladimir utin "understands and respects" Bosnia and Herzegovina's peaceful separation solution proposed by Republika Srpska, Dodik stated.The Republika Srpska president met with the Russian head of state on the sidelines of the 27th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).The 2024 edition of Russia's flagship international economic forum is taking place on June 5-8 in the city of St. Petersburg. Milorad Dodik told Sputnik earlier he opted to attend the forum to support Moscow amid the "harsh and unfair" international sanctions. Dodik also spoke of the ceaseless pressure from the West demanding that Republika Srpska support sanctions against Russia, adding that it will not allow Bosnia and Herzegovina to impose such countrywide restrictions.When asked at the SPIEF whether businesses from Republika Srpska were afraid of sanctions for interacting with Moscow, Dodik replied: https://sputnikglobe.com/20240606/putin-meets-world-leaders-at-spief-1118804673.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20240527/un-srebrenica-resolution-pandoras-box-likely-to-reignite-balkanization-1118635805.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20240603/west-daily-demands-from-republika-srpska-to-impose-sanctions-against-russia---dodik-1118750767.html srebrenica bosnia and herzegovina republika srpska bosnia Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Svetlana Ekimenko Svetlana Ekimenko News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Bosnia and Herzegovina's peaceful separation solution in accordance with Dayton Peace Treaty - Milorad Dodik Sputnik International Bosnia and Herzegovina's peaceful separation solution in accordance with Dayton Peace Treaty - Milorad Dodik 2024-06-07T10:03+0000 true PT0M45S 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Svetlana Ekimenko srebrenica genocide, bih peaceful separation solution, what happened in srebrenica, vladimir putin spief, putin meets dodik, yugoslav wars, https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/nato-official-says-alliance-must-review-french-plan-to-send-trainers-to-ukraine-1118849942.html NATO Official Says Alliance Must Review French Plan to Send Trainers to Ukraine NATO Official Says Alliance Must Review French Plan to Send Trainers to Ukraine Sputnik International NATO's top military officer Adm. Rob Bauer said on Friday regarding France's proposal to send military trainers to Ukraine that the NATO alliance must first have discussions on this matter before any planning moves forward. 2024-06-07T16:47+0000 2024-06-07T16:47+0000 2024-06-07T16:47+0000 world emmanuel macron ukraine france paris nato ukrainian crisis military aid foreign military aid russia https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/01/15/1116301682_0:13:3595:2035_1920x0_80_0_0_cbf5abe9702e3b3c488c253f485177bc.jpg "If it comes to it, it is most likely something that NATO is going to get involved in," Bauer said during a Washington Post interview. Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron told a French TV channel that Paris will transfer Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Kiev and train Ukrainian pilots. Macron also said that France plans to train 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers, but does not consider this decision to be an "escalation."Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky said that he had signed a permit for French instructors to visit training centers in Ukraine, welcoming "France's initiative to send instructors to Ukraine to train Ukrainian servicemen." https://sputnikglobe.com/20240228/how-nato-has-enhanced-its-presence-in-ukraine-1117040336.html ukraine france paris russia Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International military aid for ukraine, is us giving more money to ukraine, why is us giving more money to kiev, whats happening to money given to kiev, will us give more money to kiev, how much money does ukraine get, how much money us gives to ukraine, how much money eu gives to ukraine, how much money europe gives to ukraine, what weapons does ukraine receive, does us give ukraine new weapons https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/natos-bauer-says-there-should-be-no-limits-on-ukraines-ability-to-strike-inside-russia-1118852145.html NATO's Bauer Says There Should Be No Limits on Ukraine's Ability to Strike Inside Russia NATO's Bauer Says There Should Be No Limits on Ukraine's Ability to Strike Inside Russia Sputnik International NATO's top military officer Rob Bauer said on Friday there should be no limits on Ukraine's ability to strike military targets deeper inside Russian territory. 2024-06-07T18:38+0000 2024-06-07T18:38+0000 2024-06-07T18:38+0000 military russia ukraine nato army tactical missile system (atacms) vladimir putin joe biden https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/101664/22/1016642244_0:845:1500:1689_1920x0_80_0_0_853e37694c5435a9bcedb48f1265e25e.jpg "In the law of armed conflicts, there's no limits in terms of the range," Bauer said during a Washington Post interview. "So militarily, again, if the target is deeper into Russia, then militarily you want to strike that target." Bauer said deeper strikes into Russian territory would disrupt critical military logistics operations. However, he noted that Ukraine would be wise to follow restrictions placed on its use of Western weapons if it wants to continue to receive support from allies. President Joe Biden recently gave Ukraine permission to use US-supplied weapons to strike military targets just across Russia's border, but the use of ATACMS or strikes deeper into Russian territory are prohibited. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned NATO nations that they should realize "what they are playing with" when they allow Ukraine to use Western weapons to strike Russian territory. He also underscored that Russia will use all means at its disposal if the countrys sovereignty and territorial integrity are threatened. Russia also asked for a meeting of the UN Security Council to be held on June 14 to discuss the West's approval for Kiev to use its weapons on Russian territory. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240601/nato-100-involved-in-aiming-approval-of-ukrainian-attacks-deep-inside-russia-analysts-1118740855.html russia ukraine Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International nato, ukraine, ukrainian strikes inside russia https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/polish-troops-to-get-legal-right-to-use-weapons-on-border---prime-minister-1118842352.html Polish Troops to Get Legal Right to Use Weapons on Border - Prime Minister Polish Troops to Get Legal Right to Use Weapons on Border - Prime Minister Sputnik International Polish soldiers will be given the legal right to use weapons at the border after a recent scandal when they were arrested for firing shots, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Friday. 2024-06-07T12:52+0000 2024-06-07T12:52+0000 2024-06-07T17:30+0000 military europe donald tusk poland polish defense ministry european union (eu) polish border service https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/05/08/1118330684_0:161:3070:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_db1b6ee5507e9435282195d95b6985e8.jpg A recent scandal was caused in Poland when photos were published by local media of handcuffed servicemen who were arrested for shooting at people trying to cross the Polish-Belarusian border illegally. "The possibility of using force and weapons in a threatening situation should be something obvious to the Polish soldier when defending the border," Tusk told reporters, adding that Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz was tasked with preparing proposals for relevant changes to Polish legislation. The defense minister is expected to present these proposals at a government meeting on June 10, Tusk added. On Wednesday, Polish news website Onet reported that the notorious firing incident took place in late March, but was carefully concealed. The Polish Defense Ministry confirmed that the servicemen who shot at the migrants were charged with endangering the life and health of people and abuse of power. They could face up to three years in prison. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240603/poland-reinstates-buffer-zone-along-belarusian-border--1118751503.html poland Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International polish troops, polish military, polish pm, poland, donald tusk https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/preliminary-work-on-brics-common-currency-ongoing-1118849025.html Preliminary Work on BRICS Common Currency Ongoing Preliminary Work on BRICS Common Currency Ongoing Sputnik International The work on establishing a currency for use within BRICS is ongoing, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Pankin told Sputnik on Friday, adding that the mindset is also to increase the use of national currencies in settlements within the block. 2024-06-07T15:37+0000 2024-06-07T15:37+0000 2024-06-09T17:23+0000 russia brics johannesburg st. petersburg international economic forum (spief) spief 2024 world de-dollarization dollar hegemony dumping the dollar https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/08/15/1112765234_0:0:1316:740_1920x0_80_0_0_10670fd7cde71b0202f42f71bdd14a70.jpg "The work on moving towards a currency which Russia and BRICS could use for settlements or as a reference currency is ongoing. However, the matter of when this common currency will be developed is complicated as every single national legislation has its own specifics," Pankin told Sputnik on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). The development of the common currency is going to proceed gradually and with its own complexities, he continued. At the BRICS summit in the South African city of Johannesburg in August 2023, the block's leaders adopted a declaration that calls for the use of local currencies in mutual trade and the strengthening of correspondent banking networks between the BRICS countries and enabling settlement in local currencies.Earlier, at the concluding press conference of SPIEF-2024, Anton Kobyakov, Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation and responsible secretary of the organizing committee, cited President Vladimir Putin suggesting that the global economy will continue shift towards the multipolar system:The Russian city of St. Petersburg is hosting the 27th SPIEF from June 5-8. Last year, the forum drew 17,000 participants from 130 countries and saw the signing of more than 900 agreements. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240513/de-dollarization-bombshell-the-coming-of-brics-decentralized-monetary-ecosystem-1118409748.html russia johannesburg Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International brics enlargement, brics expansion, ethiopia joins brics, ethiopia in bricks, ethiopia becomes brics member, what countries are in brics, new brics members, what's brics, what does brics do, brics currency, brics payment system https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/putins-remark-on-russian-arms-supplies-to-other-regions-important-orban-says-1118827256.html Putin's Remark on Russian Arms Supplies to Other Regions 'Important', Orban Says Putin's Remark on Russian Arms Supplies to Other Regions 'Important', Orban Says Sputnik International The remark of Russian President Vladimir Putin on possible arms supplies from Russia to other regions is an important statement based on facts, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said. 2024-06-07T07:38+0000 2024-06-07T07:38+0000 2024-06-07T07:39+0000 world vladimir putin viktor orban russia west weapons https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/06/06/1118802889_0:99:2882:1720_1920x0_80_0_0_c27d85b6020f96f1a9ce2e15d463868e.jpg On Wednesday, Putin said Russia had the right to supply weapons to those countries that oppose the West and from which attacks are carried out on the facilities of those countries that supply weapons to Kiev. "Russia said that from now on it can supply weapons to US adversaries anywhere in the world this is a big statement, a message based on facts. This is not propaganda," Orban told the Kossuth radio broadcaster. The pro-war policy of the West may lead to a local conflict escalating to the level of a world war, the prime minister added. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240606/ex-us-state-dept-analyst-putin-is-right-to-send-signal-to-the-west-akin-to-cuban-missile-crisis-1118819168.html russia west Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International orban on putin's remarks about arms supplies, putin comments the us decision to send long-range arms to ukraine https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/radical-center-on-way-out-as-europeans-chafe-over-lack-of-ideological-flexibility-1118822973.html Radical Center on Way Out as Europeans Chafe Over Lack of Ideological Flexibility Radical Center on Way Out as Europeans Chafe Over Lack of Ideological Flexibility Sputnik International Europes political establishment seems intent on indefinitely supporting Ukraines proxy war against Russia, whether European citizens approve or not. 2024-06-07T04:37+0000 2024-06-07T04:37+0000 2024-06-07T04:37+0000 analysis europe emmanuel macron annalena baerbock george szamuely ukraine france germany european parliament global policy institute (gpi) https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/03/02/1117089119_0:113:2216:1360_1920x0_80_0_0_174bb3300113f3eef9df11c29b94a0f7.jpg A curious, and perhaps seemingly contradictory, term has arisen for a style of politics recently en vogue throughout Europe.Politicians such as French President Emmanuel Macron and German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock have come to the fore promoting a style of politics often dubbed radical centrism. Such figures, placing themselves in opposition to various flavors of populism, cast themselves as pragmatic leaders who are nevertheless willing to engage in broad reform. Their policy is often typified by neoliberal economics, green politics, and unwavering support for Ukraine.But although such figures may be favored by mainstream media and establishment interests, they are increasingly unpopular among the European public.Szamuely specifically identified such politicians apparent support for waging indefinite war in Ukraine, which he pointed out was clearly very unpopular in Europe.The political commentator joined Sputniks The Final Countdown program Thursday to comment on the matter as polling ahead of this weekends European Parliament elections suggests self-styled anti-establishment parties stand to benefit amid a rejection of Europes drive towards conflict with Russia.Obviously immigration is a major issue, Szamuely observed. Clearly the European governments haven't done anything about that. This has been a sore point for many years.Germany has made headlines in recent months as the historical industrial powerhouse reports dismal growth figures, with the countrys economy set to expand by a mere 0.1% in 2024. Berlin has faced deindustrialization as Western sanctions barring it from access to low-cost Russian gas have dramatically increased operating costs.Critics have also claimed pro-environmental policy is a drag on growth, with farmers alleging that restrictions on the use of fossil fuels are cutting into their narrow margins. Europe has been rocked by farmers protests in response, with tractors flooding the streets in Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Greece, Germany, Italy, France and Belgium.Many of the protests are also driven by a rejection of free-trade policies intended to boost Ukrainian agricultural imports. The war in Ukraine more broadly is a matter of controversy for many Europeans, Szamuely noted, blaming the kind of centrist liberalism which has been the dominant ideology over the past 10 years or so, as represented by seeing Macron in France and Olaf Scholz in Germany.Macron has been historically unpopular now for several years, he said of the French President, who has repeatedly heightened tensions with Russia over the conflict with Ukraine. And I think it's hard to see that he's making any kinds of adjustments. He still keeps talking about waging indefinite war in Ukraine. Now, this is clearly very unpopular in Europe, certainly unpopular in France and yet he continues doing this.A recent poll by the French newspaper Le Figaro found that 68% of French people disagreed with comments by Macron about the possibility of sending Western troops to fight in Ukraine.Whatever the outcome, I don't think very much is going to change in Europe, Szamuely concluded. There's gonna be all kinds of jockeying between various factions within the European Parliament, but I don't think policy will change very much. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240319/macron-trying-to-go-backwards-to-days-of-imperial-france-1117419288.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20240228/we-have-become-our-own-enemy-polish-farmers-remarkable-protest-against-europes-self-destruction-1117028033.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20240602/scholz-and-pistorius-bicker-over-how-to-make-germany-fit-for-war-as-ukraine-drains-coffers-1118744803.html ukraine france germany Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 John Miles https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/01/19/1116388787_0:0:1316:1316_100x100_80_0_0_77e70d36afd983012b1c5d38ddb84156.jpg John Miles https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/01/19/1116388787_0:0:1316:1316_100x100_80_0_0_77e70d36afd983012b1c5d38ddb84156.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 John Miles https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/01/19/1116388787_0:0:1316:1316_100x100_80_0_0_77e70d36afd983012b1c5d38ddb84156.jpg europe radical center, macron centrist, european liberals support for ukraine war, european centrists ideological inflexibility, europe ukraine proxy war, macron scholz ukraine war, germany green party ukraine war https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/relaunch-of-zaporozhye-npp-possible-only-after-ukraine-conflict-settlement---governor-1118831848.html Zaporozhye Plants Relaunch Possible Only After Ukraine Conflict Settled - Governor Zaporozhye Plants Relaunch Possible Only After Ukraine Conflict Settled - Governor Sputnik International The Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (NPP) can only be put into operation after the end of the special military operation in Ukraine, as there are no guarantees that the nuclear facility will not be targeted by the Ukrainian armed forces until then, Zaporozhye Region Governor Yevgeny Balitsky told Sputnik. 2024-06-07T10:07+0000 2024-06-07T10:07+0000 2024-06-07T10:21+0000 russia st. petersburg international economic forum (spief) spief 2024 ukraine zaporozhye zaporozhye region international atomic energy agency (iaea) https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/04/0b/1117872276_0:113:3239:1935_1920x0_80_0_0_e6a3415537425f2d3917c9578ffaff94.jpg "The work of such facilities, in my opinion, is possible only after the peace agreement is signed. Because if we launch the plant now, given their [Kievs] stance, they will continue to hit it both at a distance of 300 kilometers [186 miles] or 500 kilometers. It is not a problem for them," Balitsky said on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). The Ukrainian forces are currently shelling the area around the plant, targeting transformer substations and high-voltage power lines in the region, the official said. Earlier in June, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said the situation at the Zaporozhye nuclear facility remained unstable and that all seven pillars of nuclear safety had been fully or partially compromised. Located on the left bank of the Dnipro River, the Zaporozhye nuclear station is the largest nuclear facility in Europe. It came under Russia's control in early 2022 and has since been repeatedly shelled, raising safety concerns. IAEA experts have been monitoring the situation on site since the fall of 2022. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240528/current-technical-condition-of-zaporozhye-npp-assessed-as-absolutely-safe---rosatom-head-1118662869.html ukraine zaporozhye zaporozhye region Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International attacks on zaporozhye nuclear power plant, ukraine strikes zaporozhye nuclear power plant, drone attacks on zaporozhye nuclear power plant, ukraine targets zaporozhye nuclear power plant, zaporozhye nuclear power plant under attack, nuclear threat at zaporozhye nuclear power plant https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/russia-china-to-open-border-crossing-on-bolshoy-ussuriysky-island-in-3-years-1118830549.html Russia, China to Open Border Crossing on Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island in 3 Years Russia, China to Open Border Crossing on Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island in 3 Years Sputnik International A new border crossing between Russia and China on Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island in Russia's Khabarovsk Territory should be put into operation in the next three years, Russian Far East and Arctic Development Minister Alexei Chekunkov told Sputnik in an interview. 2024-06-07T09:37+0000 2024-06-07T09:37+0000 2024-06-07T09:38+0000 russia alexei chekunkov russia china bolshoy ussuriysky island st. petersburg international economic forum (spief) spief 2024 https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/06/07/1118830388_0:160:3072:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_402a59221f30e48fac58465ac1e3da11.jpg On May 16, Russia and China signed a unified concept for the development of Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island. The May agreement on the joint development of the island is a great achievement and the result of 20 years of work, Chekunkov added. "For 20 years we could not find a joint view on how to develop Bolshoy Ussuriysky, [but] finally we found it. This is an opportunity for Chinas residents to easily come to Khabarovsk, and for Khabarovsk residents to easily come to China, buy duty-free goods, enjoy business opportunities. Another border crossing between Russia and China is an important issue," the minister told the agency. A Chinese company is starting to build an educational center in a prospective satellite city of Russia's Vladivostok that will prepare Chinese applicants for admission to Russian universities, Chekunkov added. "It's a pretty big project with an investment of 5 million rubles [$56,070]. Two thousand people will study there permanently, it is valuable for us as it is an export of educational services," the minister said. The Russian city of St. Petersburg is hosting the 27th edition of SPIEF from June 5-8. Last year, the forum drew 17,000 participants from 130 countries and saw the signing of more than 900 agreements. https://sputnikglobe.com/20160623/russia-china-common-island-1041789813.html russia china bolshoy ussuriysky island Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International russia-china relations, russia-china cooperation, far east, khabarovsk territory, bolshoy ussuriysky island https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/russia-remains-key-player-in-global-trade-despite-all-obstacles-sanctions---putin-1118846635.html Russia Remains Key Player in Global Trade Despite All Obstacles, Sanctions - Putin Russia Remains Key Player in Global Trade Despite All Obstacles, Sanctions - Putin Sputnik International Russia remains one of the main participants in world trade despite all obstacles and sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday. 2024-06-07T14:20+0000 2024-06-07T14:20+0000 2024-06-07T14:20+0000 russia vladimir putin russia china eurasian economic union st. petersburg international economic forum (spief) spief 2024 asia-pacific region https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/06/07/1118839996_0:130:3183:1920_1920x0_80_0_0_8b37e53ea6fd0b469299b3d32a6e028d.jpg "Despite all the obstacles and illegitimate sanctions, Russia remains one of the key participants in world trade and is actively developing logistics and the geography of cooperation. Thus, our relations with Asian countries are strengthening," Putin said at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). Countries that are friendly to Russia account for three quarters of its trade, the president said, adding that Russia also ensures a balance of interests of all participants in trade with the Eurasian Economic Union. Russia is ready to offer full-scale technological partnerships to other countries, the leader said. Putin also called developing the Eastern Rail Range network one of the main tasks for Russia. The development of new markets requires new transport connections, the Russian president continued. "Special attention will also be paid to the Southern direction. The development plans for the North-South international transport corridor as well as the corridor in the Azov-Black Sea direction have been adopted," he said. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240605/russia-does-not-care-who-wins-us-presidential-election---putin-1118790775.html russia china Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International st. petersburg international economic forum, spief 2024, spief 2024 program, spief 2024 topics, spief 2024 themes, spief 2024 discussions, spief 2024 guests, putin at the spief 2024, putin's address at the spief 2024 MAHMUD-E-RAQI, Afghanistan, June 7 (Xinhua) -- At least one child was killed and three others were injured as a mortar round exploded in east Afghanistan's Kapisa province late Thursday, provincial police spokesman Abdul Fateh Fayez said on Friday. The incident took place on Thursday afternoon in Police District 9 of the provincial capital city of Mahmud-e-Raqi, when The victims found a mortar round left over from past wars. The explosion of the device later killed a child on the spot while injuring three others, the official said. Afghanistan reportedly is one of the most mine-contaminated countries, and the unexploded devices left over from more than four decades of wars claim the lives of over a dozen people, mostly children, each month in the country. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/russia-views-macrons-remarks-very-provocative-escalating-tensions-on-continent---kremlin-1118831004.html Russia Views Macrons Remarks Very Provocative, Escalating Tensions on Continent - Kremlin Russia Views Macrons Remarks Very Provocative, Escalating Tensions on Continent - Kremlin Sputnik International Russia considers the recent remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron on assistance to Kiev to be very provocative and escalating tensions on the continent, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. 2024-06-07T10:02+0000 2024-06-07T10:02+0000 2024-06-07T10:02+0000 world emmanuel macron dmitry peskov france kiev russia kremlin nato ukraine ukraine crisis https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/08/07/1112440679_0:0:3460:1947_1920x0_80_0_0_92636ecadb36cb1611a8a1ceaac5249a.jpg Macron told a French TV channel that Paris will transfer Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Kiev and train Ukrainian pilots. Macron also said that France plans to train 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers, but does not consider this decision to be an "escalation." Macron demonstrates absolute support for Kiev and declares Frances readiness for a direct participation in the military conflict, the official added. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240601/ukraine-warmongering-burns-hole-in-frances-budget-1118736230.html france kiev russia ukraine Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International military aid for ukraine, is us giving more money to ukraine, why is us giving more money to kiev, whats happening to money given to kiev, will us give more money to kiev, how much money does ukraine get, how much money us gives to ukraine, how much money eu gives to ukraine, how much money europe gives to ukraine, what weapons does ukraine receive, does us give ukraine new weapons https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/russian-aviation-destroys-2-unmanned-ukrainian-boats-heading-towards-crimea-1118841732.html Russian Aviation Destroys 2 Unmanned Ukrainian Boats Heading Towards Crimea Russian Aviation Destroys 2 Unmanned Ukrainian Boats Heading Towards Crimea Sputnik International Russian aviation has destroyed two unmanned boats of the Ukrainian navy in the Black Sea, which were heading towards Crimea, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday. 2024-06-07T13:04+0000 2024-06-07T13:04+0000 2024-06-23T18:33+0000 russia's special operation in ukraine russia ukraine black sea russian defense ministry the united nations (un) ukrainian drone attacks on russia ukraine crisis crimea https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/03/15/1117474635_0:160:3072:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_7b308e9158b43c2a52f9311a04b814b0.jpg "At about 3 p.m. [12:00 GMT], unmanned boats of the Ukrainian navy heading towards Crimea were detected in the southwestern part of the Black Sea. The two targets were destroyed by the defense systems of the naval and army aviation on duty," the ministry said in a statement.Ukraine has been sending drones and missiles into Russia almost daily since it launched its counteroffensive in early June 2023. The United Nations said in August last year, following a botched drone strike on Moscow, that it did not want to see any targeting of civilian infrastructure. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240506/watch-russian-ka-27-helicopter-blow-up-ukrainian-drone-boat-near-crimea-1118286848.html russia ukraine black sea crimea Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International russias special military op in ukraine, special military operation, special military operational zone, special op zone, russian troops in special op zone, ukraine casualties in conflict, total ukrainian losses, how many people did ukraine loose, how many people did kiev loose, new russian weapons in ukraine, advanced russian weapons, russian defense ministry statements, latest russian military statements, what did shoigu say about ukraine, donetsk peoples republic, nato in ukraine, is nato in ukraine, russian drones, drone warfare, new military drones, uavs in ukraine, ukraine crisis, ukraine conflict, battlegroup sever, battlegroup yug, battlegroup zapad, battlegroup vostok, battlegroup tsentr, battlegroup dnepr https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/russian-investigators-charge-frenchman-with-gathering-data-on-russias-military-activities-1118829721.html Russian Investigators Charge Frenchman With Gathering Data on Russia's Military Activities Russian Investigators Charge Frenchman With Gathering Data on Russia's Military Activities Sputnik International The French citizen detained earlier in Moscow has been charged with collecting information on Russia's military activities, Yulia Ivanova, a spokeswoman for the Moscow branch of the Russian Investigative Committee, said on Friday. 2024-06-07T09:33+0000 2024-06-07T09:33+0000 2024-06-07T09:33+0000 russia yulia ivanova russian investigative committee russia moscow france russian criminal code https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/104740/22/1047402264_0:316:3077:2047_1920x0_80_0_0_347b0763691b1ed5a4bd3a3c52b5e628.jpg On Thursday, the committee said a French citizen had been detained in Russia on suspicion of collecting data on Russian military activities. The detainee is known as Laurent Vinatier, an adviser to Swiss NGO Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, media reported on Thursday. "The citizen of the French Republic was charged with collecting information in the field of Russia's military activity in Moscow," the spokeswoman said, adding that he was charged with committing a crime, provided for in part three of Article 330.1 of the Russian Criminal Code. The investigation will ask the court to choose a preventive measure for the suspect, Ivanova added. russia moscow france Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International russian investigators, russian investigative committee, spied in russia, french spies in russia, french citizen detained in moscow https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/some-dads-dont-pardon-1118824105.html Some Dads Don't Pardon Some Dads Don't Pardon Sputnik International During the interview, Biden said that former President Donald Trump got a fair trial and said the jury spoke. 2024-06-07T06:10+0000 2024-06-07T06:10+0000 2024-06-07T06:10+0000 political cartoons hunter biden donald trump joe biden delaware white house americas sputnik cartoons comics comics https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/06/07/1118823941_0:91:2000:1216_1920x0_80_0_0_202d461985c2275d9206497fd12e7841.jpg US President Joe Biden said he would not pardon his son, Hunter Biden, if he is convicted in his criminal trial in Delaware. The president sat down for an interview with ABC News in Normandy, France during a trip in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the WWII D-Day landings. During the interview, the president was asked if he would accept the outcome of his sons trial in Wilmington, Delaware, to which he said, Yes.During the interview, Biden said that former President Donald Trump got a fair trial and said the jury spoke.The president also said he would not pardon his son if he is convicted, which he has reportedly been saying for months. Biden issued a personal statement on Monday offering support for his son and said he was a father as well as the president.Former Republican presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, said on social media that Hunter Bidens trial is a smoke screen, and is designed to make the prosecution of Trump appear nonpartisan, yet the outcome of the Hunter trial doesnt matter because the president can and will pardon him.The trial is on felony charges related to the first sons efforts to obtain a .38 revolver from a gun shop in 2018 while allegedly battling drug addiction. Prosecutors allege that in October 2018, the presidents son visited StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply in Wilmington to purchase the gun but say he lied about his drug addiction.The younger Biden is now facing charges of false statement in purchasing of a firearm, false statement related to information required to be kept by a federal firearms licensed dealer, and possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.This is the first time that the son of a sitting president has faced a criminal trial.On Thursday, the widow of Hunter Bidens late brother, Hallie Biden, testified. Following Beau Biden's death in 2015, Hunter began an affair with Hallie Biden who said she panicked when she found a Colt Cobra revolver in Hunters vehicle on October 23, 2018. She said she threw it away in a trash can as a result. Hallie claims that Hunter smoked crack on a daily basis or frequently during her testimony. However, she told the jury that she did not see Hunter Biden abusing drugs or alcohol for most of the month of October.Prosecutors said that they will rest their case on Friday and that they have two more witnesses - a DEA drug specialist and an FBI chemist. Meanwhile, the defense counsel said they would call two or three witnesses and would likely rest their case by the end of the day on Monday.The trial comes on the heels of Trumps own criminal trial, the conclusion of which found the former president guilty of 34 felonies, making him the first president in US history to be criminally convicted.Hours before leaving office, Trump himself pardoned 70 people and commuted the sentences of 73 others. Of the 143 people he excused, his former chief strategist Steve Bannon and his former top fundraiser Elliott Broidy, were on the list. Others he pardoned included those committed of fraud schemes, the illegal use of a disadvantage business enterprise to receive government-funded construction contracts, a Google engineer sentenced for stealing a trade secret, bank fraud over the 2009 collapse of a mortgage company, and the ex-husband of a Fox News host. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240605/hunter-bidens-court-case-kicks-off-jurors-asked-about-addiction-and-gun-laws---report-1118771166.html delaware americas Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Mary Manley https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg Mary Manley https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Mary Manley https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg us politics, hunter biden, biden family, firearm, drugs, purchase of a firearm, hunter loves drugs, possession of a firearm, firearm possession, possession case, drug use, drug-addicted, drug-addicted son, drug-addicted biden, drug-addicted hunter, taxes, failure to pay taxes, hunter's taxes, biden's taxes, trump, president donald trump, investigation, hush money trial, trump convicted, convicted president, us presidential elections, 2024 us elections, president trump, joe biden, donald trump https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/tara-reade-if-biden-is-reelected-were-looking-at-world-war-iii-1118832582.html Tara Reade: If Biden is Reelected, 'We're Looking at World War III' Tara Reade: If Biden is Reelected, 'We're Looking at World War III' Sputnik International Tara Reade, who was the target of both legal and media attacks after she came out with her sexual harassment accusations against the then-Democratic... 07.06.2024, Sputnik International 2024-06-07T11:28+0000 2024-06-07T11:28+0000 2024-06-08T13:00+0000 world tara reade us joe biden russia st. petersburg international economic forum (spief) spief 2024 https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/06/07/1118837137_0:0:1920:1080_1920x0_80_0_0_ccb633f8ed493d5579a0e1ffa3f08018.jpg If Biden is reelected for another four years, we're looking at World War III, Tara Reade, a writer, and former assistant in Joe Biden's Senate office, told Sputnik. Theres no question, that's where we're at right now, she said on the sidelines of the 27th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). Reade currently lives in Russia, where she has continued writing, and hosts a podcast. She claims she was forced to move to Russia because the FBI was harassing her, noting that they issued sealed subpoenas against her social media accounts.Weighing in on her impressions of life in Russia under sanctions, she extolled the thriving economy of the country, and how safe she felt living here.The former Senate staffer lauded everything from the culture to the food and the efficiency of the transportation. She added that her travels had taken her outside Moscow, and everywhere across the country she witnessed, a lot of development and building because Russians have a thriving middle class and working class."People in Russia enjoy "a better standard of living because the economy is really thriving, said Reade, pointing to the 5.7% growth rate of one of the worlds largest economies. https://sputnikglobe.com/20210410/exclusive-how-tara-reade-was-branded-a-russian-asset-for-sexual-assault-claims-against-joe-biden-1082592926.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20240519/russia-in-worlds-top-ten-economies-since-start-of-century--analysis-1118529890.html russia Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Svetlana Ekimenko Svetlana Ekimenko News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 We're looking at World War III if Biden is reelected - Tara Reade Sputnik International We're looking at World War III if Biden is reelected - Tara Reade 2024-06-07T11:28+0000 true PT0M36S 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Svetlana Ekimenko tara reade interview, tara reade says if biden is reelected, we are looking at wwiii, former senata staffer under biden tara reade, tara reade accusations against joe biden https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/ukraine-loses-up-to-2850-soldiers-in-fights-with-russias-battlegroup-zapad---mod-1118841605.html Ukraine Loses Up to 2,850 Soldiers in Fights With Russia's Battlegroup Zapad - MoD Ukraine Loses Up to 2,850 Soldiers in Fights With Russia's Battlegroup Zapad - MoD Sputnik International Russia's Zapad (West) group of forces have taken better positions in the past week, while the Ukrainian military has lost up to 2,850 soldiers in clashes, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday. 2024-06-07T12:48+0000 2024-06-07T12:48+0000 2024-06-07T12:48+0000 russia's special operation in ukraine ukraine russia kiev ukraine crisis russian army russian armed forces donetsk region donetsk people's republic donetsk https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/04/0f/1117941791_0:134:3167:1915_1920x0_80_0_0_fb9d35a0340dc6adaf6c6c68bb396729.jpg "Battlegroup Zapad improved the situation along the front line [...] while repelling 11 counterattacks ... The armed forces of Ukraine lost up to 2,850 military personnel, two tanks, 19 armored combat vehicles," the MoD said in a statement. Ukraine also lost up to 2,835 soldiers in battles with Battlegroup Yug, while Battlegroup Tsentr repelled 39 counterattacks and Kiev lost up to 2,690 soldiers, the ministry said, adding that Kiev lost 935 soldiers in battles with Battlegroup Vostok. Battlegroup Sever repelled 36 counterattacks and Kiev lost up to 1,400 soldiers, the ministry said, adding that the Russian forces also took control of the settlement of Paraskovyevka in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). Additionally, the the Russian armed forces carried out 27 massive strikes in the past week, hitting Ukraine's energy facilities, weapons storage arsenals and unmanned boats. All targets were hit. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240605/ukraine-loses-up-to-545-soldiers-in-fights-with-russias-battlegroup-zapad---mod-1118779869.html ukraine russia kiev donetsk region donetsk Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International russias special military op in ukraine, special military operation, special military operational zone, special op zone, russian troops in special op zone, ukraine casualties in conflict, total ukrainian losses, how many people did ukraine loose, how many people did kiev loose, new russian weapons in ukraine, advanced russian weapons, russian defense ministry statements, latest russian military statements, what did shoigu say about ukraine, donetsk peoples republic, nato in ukraine, is nato in ukraine, russian drones, drone warfare, new military drones, uavs in ukraine, ukraine crisis, ukraine conflict, battlegroup sever, battlegroup yug, battlegroup zapad, battlegroup vostok, battlegroup tsentr, battlegroup dnepr https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/ukraine-used-phosphorus-munitions-near-energodar-this-spring---russian-military-1118824994.html Ukraine Used Phosphorus Munitions Near Energodar This Spring - Russian Military Ukraine Used Phosphorus Munitions Near Energodar This Spring - Russian Military Sputnik International Ukrainian army used a drone carrying white phosphorus munitions against a town near Energodar in the Zaporozhye region this March during the presidential election in Russia, commander at one of the units of the Russian army said. 2024-06-07T04:38+0000 2024-06-07T04:38+0000 2024-06-07T04:38+0000 russia's special operation in ukraine ukraine russia zaporozhye phosphorus bombs white phosphorus https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/105197/45/1051974526_0:161:3071:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_4e643eef14d310d99f1af535446ad2e0.jpg The operations units of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant have more than once said that Ukraine's drones have been attacking both the city of Energodar and the territory of the plant. "A drone with a phosphorus munition was used in one of the settlements [near Energodar] during the election. About three pieces fell. There were no casualties," the commander said. White phosphorus is an incendiary weapon that ignites on contact with air and is very difficult to extinguish. The toxic chemical sticks to the flesh and can burn it to the bone, causing severe injuries and lifelong suffering. The United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons bans the use of air-delivered incendiary weapons in populated areas over health and environmental risks. https://sputnikglobe.com/20231110/ukrainian-troops-use-white-phosphorus-to-wipe-out-nature-reserve-1114874705.html ukraine russia zaporozhye Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International energodar, white phosphorus munitions, ukrainian army used phosphorus munitions, zaporozhye region https://sputnikglobe.com/20240607/us-made-munitions-used-in-deadly-strike-on-un-school-in-gaza-experts-say-1118820998.html US-Made Munitions Used in Deadly Strike on UN School in Gaza - Report US-Made Munitions Used in Deadly Strike on UN School in Gaza - Report Sputnik International At least 40 people were killed including 14 children and nine women in a strike on a UN school in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday, said the Gaza Health Ministry. 2024-06-07T01:56+0000 2024-06-07T01:56+0000 2024-06-07T03:06+0000 world palestinians middle east israel gaza strip rafah israel defense forces (idf) united nations relief and works agency for palestine refugees in the near east (unrwa) the united nations (un) us https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/06/07/1118823491_0:118:3072:1846_1920x0_80_0_0_df3fdddb6eed9ec04a7ca56a6eeb6706.jpg At least 40 people were killed including 14 children and nine women in a strike on a UN school in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday, said the Gaza Health Ministry. The munitions used by Israeli fighter jets appear to have been US-made, said three weapons experts who examined and verified footage, a report from The Washington Post claims.The school, which is organized and operated by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) is located in the Nuseirat refugee camp where some 6,000 civilians were sheltering after being displaced by the war, said UNRWA. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed their aircraft attacked three classrooms with precision weapons while targeting a group of militants they say participated in the October 7 attacks.Debris footage following the attack showed the nose cone of a GBU-39 small diameter bomb which was used to penetrate the building's concrete structure, experts said. They add that the GBU-39s were US-made, and images of their cage code linked them to Woodward HRT, a weapons components manufacturer registered in Valencia, California.Ball cautioned that in an area with a heavy presence of civilians, the calculations for using a small diameter bomb should change. And Wes J. Bryant, a former targeting professional in the US Air Force said that US military commanders most likely would not have greenlit a strike such as this.On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a large-scale rocket attack against Israel and breached the border, attacking both civilian neighborhoods and military bases. Nearly 1,200 people in Israel were killed and some 240 others abducted during the attack. Over 36,500 people have been killed so far by Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, according to local authorities. More than 100 hostages are still believed to be held by Hamas in Gaza. https://sputnikglobe.com/20231210/us-vetoes-gaza-ceasefire-profits-from-arms-sale-on-same-day-1115505751.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20240307/us-exploited-loophole-to-sell-weapons-to-israel---report-1117177133.html israel gaza strip rafah Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2024 Mary Manley https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg Mary Manley https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Mary Manley https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/01/0b/1092187887_0:0:2048:2049_100x100_80_0_0_0c2cc4c84f89aff034cc55bb01fb6697.jpg gaza massacre, arms deliveries, arms supply, complicit of genocide, us arms, us weapons, un school, death toll, genocide, ethnic cleansing, humanitarian disaster, humanitarian catastrophe, humanitarian ceasefire, israel-hamas conflict, gaza strip crisis, shelling of gaza, gaza devastation, israel-palestine conflict, palestine-israel conflict, israeli-palestinian conflict, palestinian-israeli, zionist regime, zionists, israeli strikes, israeli forces, hostages, israeli military, killings of civilians, civilian infrastructure, civilians dead, civilians die, israel kills civilians, civilian casualties, civilian deaths, indiscriminate shelling, indiscriminate killing, war crimes Alleged coup plotters stand trial before a military court in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), on June 7, 2024. (Str/Xinhua) KINSHASA, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Some 50 men, including three American citizens, who were accused of being involved in last month's coup attempt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), on Friday stood trial before a military court in Kinshasa, the capital of DRC. They face charges of terrorism, illegal possession of weapons and arms of war, attempted assassination, criminal association, murder, and financing of terrorism, according to a statement published by the Gombe garrison military court Thursday. According to Sylvain Ekenge, the DRC military spokesman, the attackers initially wanted to attack the residences of Judith Suminwa, who was nominated in early April by President Felix Tshisekedi as the new prime minister, and then-defense minister Jean-Pierre Bemba, but could not "identify the home" of the first and "did not find" the second at home. A "coup attempt" led by little-known opposition figure Christian Malanga was "nipped in the bud," on early May 19, according to the DRC military. Six people, including Malanga himself, were killed. The putschists attacked the residence of Vital Kamerhe, then vice-prime minister, before breaking into the Palace of the Nation, where the offices of President Tshisekedi are located. Marcel Malanga, the son of Christian Malanga, who was born in Utah, the United States, and two other Americans stood trial which was broadcast live on DRC national television (RTNC). The attackers, dressed in military uniforms and displaying the Zaire flag, claimed in video clips circulating on social media that they wanted to "change things in the management of the Republic." Zaire, officially the Republic of Zaire, was the name of the DRC from 1971 to 1997. Christian Malanga formed the United Congolese Party in 2010 and advocated for the return of Zaire. In 2017, He created a government in exile in Brussels, Belgium, giving birth to the so-called "New Zaire." An alleged coup plotter stands trial before a military court in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), on June 7, 2024. (Str/Xinhua) A lawyer of an alleged coup plotter speaks before a military court in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), on June 7, 2024. (Str/Xinhua) Alleged coup plotters stand trial before a military court in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), on June 7, 2024. (Str/Xinhua) An alleged coup plotter stands trial before a military court in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), on June 7, 2024. (Str/Xinhua) An alleged coup plotter stands trial before a military court in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), on June 7, 2024. (Str/Xinhua) Alleged coup plotters stand trial before a military court in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), on June 7, 2024. (Str/Xinhua) 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: Solar panels in the northern town of Boundiali in Ivory Coast stretch across 36 hectares (89 acres). The sun beats down from a cloudless sky on the town of Boundiali, where Ivory Coast's first solar power plant embodies the drive to embrace clean energy without abandoning fossil fuels. Unlike the wetter, cloudier south, the climate in northern Ivory Coast bordering Burkina Faso and Mali is hot and dry for around eight months of the year. "Irradiance is very high" in the region, plant engineer Franck Alain Yayo told AFP, referring to the intensity of the Sun's energy. The Boundiali plant, which opened in June 2023, aims to improve the electricity supply to more than 430,000 households, the energy ministry said. Although Ivory Coast has about 10 smaller solar power plants serving villages at a local level, Boundiali is the first on the national grid. The country, which already exports about 10 percent of its electricity to neighbors, aims to generate nearly half of its energy from renewable sources by 2030. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that half the population of sub-Saharan Africa has no access to electricity. And yet, it added in a recent report: "Africa is home to 60 percent of the best solar resources globally, yet only one percent of installed solar PV (photovoltaic) capacity." While the continent has doubled its capacity to produce clean energy in the last 10 years, African renewables still account for just two percent of global capacity. The Boundiali plant aims to improve the electricity supply to more than 430,000 households. Call for private funding The northern Ivorian town has some 68,000 solar panels bought from China laid out in rows across 36 hectares (89 acres). The panels convert sunlight, not heat, into electricity. By the end of next year, the aim is to have twice as many panels to reach a production capacity of 80 MWp (Megawatt peak, a measure of the maximum potential output). That would save some 60,000 tonnes of CO 2 equivalent per year, say the authorities. The 75.6-million-euro ($82.1-million) cost of building the solar power station was financed by Ivory Coast, a German loan and a European Union grant. "This is the result of the EU's long-standing commitment to the renewable energy sector, with almost 140 million euros since 2017," EU ambassador to Ivory Coast Francesca Di Mauro told AFP. However, international public funding to support sub-Saharan Africa's transition towards clean energy will not be enough. Last year, the IEA called for private investment to be stepped up to account for 60 percent of financing. The plant is expected to improve the electricity supply to more than 430,000 households. Solar power is currently a small part of the Ivorian energy mixthe Boundiali plant contributes just one percent of national production. Nearly 70 percent of the country's electricity comes from gas-fired thermal power plants, while hydroelectric power stations account for the rest, all located in the south. By 2030, Ivory Coast has pledged to increase its share of renewable energy to 45 percent, including nine percent solar, and to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent. Fossil fuels however still play a key role. New oil, gas discoveries The West African nation recently discovered two huge oil and natural gas deposits. One of them, the Calao field, "will eventually meet the country's electricity production needs", said Energy Minister Sangafowa Coulibaly. It may also help reduce electricity bills, which would be a welcome relief to householders after prices rose by 10 percent in January. "Every day the sun shines on our heads" the cost of production is "very low", plant engineer Yayo said. Ivory Coast aims to generate nearly half of its energy from renewable sources by 2030. Yayo, who learned his skills in Burkina Faso, regretted that his country had neither the technology nor the expertise to train people. Ivory Coast's state-run company CI-Energies, which handles Boundiali plant's infrastructure, temporarily subcontracts to French civil engineering firm Eiffage. It is Eiffage which is training many of the employees, most of them local people. In this region of around 92,000 people, some 350 have been hired since construction of the plant began. Most were taken on with short-term contracts to install solar panels or carry out maintenance. Among them was Oumar Konate, who previously worked in farming as well as doing odd jobs in town. Employment in the rural area was hard to come by, he said. "I prefer to work here. The pay is better. I can feed my family." 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: The process of hydrogen production from gas fields. Credit: Mukhina et al. / Fuel, 2024 Skoltech researchers have found a way to produce hydrogen from natural gas with 45% efficiency right in the gas field by injecting steam and a catalyst into a well and adding oxygen to ignite the gas. Catalyst-assisted combustion produces a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, from which the latter can be easily extracted. This technology will help accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to clean hydrogen power. The study was published in Fuel. Approximately 80% of energy comes from fossil fuels, such as oil and natural gas, which release carbon dioxide when burned, threatening the environment and contributing to climate change. Although gas is considered "cleaner" than oil with its many toxins, it still emits carbon dioxide when burned, making gas a threat to the environment. Hydrogen, which emits nothing but water vapor, could be a healthier alternative. However, the widespread use of this "green" energy source is hampered by production difficulties. For the first time, a team from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Moscow has proposed extracting hydrogen from the reservoirs of natural gas fields, which are rich in hydrocarbons that contain a large amount of hydrogen at the molecular level. This means that hydrocarbons, once converted, can yield an abundance of "green" fuel. The team is watching the experiment in the lab reactor. Credit: Elena Mukhina. The team has proposed an efficient, multi-step process for producing hydrogen from gas fields. First, steam is injected into the well along with a catalyst that will later help separate hydrogen from the natural gas components. Then, air or pure oxygen is pumped in to ignite the gas directly in the reservoir. Assisted by the steam and catalyst, the natural gas burns and is converted into a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The carbon dioxide formed from the carbon monoxide remains in the reservoir and does not contribute to the greenhouse effect. At the final stage, hydrogen is extracted from the well through a membrane that blocks other combustion products, leaving the carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide permanently trapped underground. The researchers tested their process in lab reactors that simulated a real gas reservoir environment. They placed crushed rock in the reactor and then pumped in methane, the main component of natural gas, along with steam and a catalyst, and then oxygen. The pressure inside the reactor was maintained at a level typical of gas reservoirs (eighty times higher than atmospheric pressure). As the experiment progressed, the team analyzed the composition of the gases in the reactor to assess the efficiency of the methane conversion into hydrogen. It turned out that most of the hydrogen 45% of the total gas volumewas formed at 800C with large amounts of steam injected into the reactor. To make the reaction as efficient as possible, there should be four times more steam than natural gas. The researchers chose the 800C temperature because it is easily achieved in natural gas combustion and does not need to be artificially maintained. The hydrogen yield also depended on the composition of the rock. For example, in experiments with porous alumina, the hydrogen yield reached 55%. The higher efficiency in this case is explained by the fact that alumina is inert, i.e. it does not react with the surrounding elements. Natural rock contains other, more active minerals that can react with the components of the gas mixture and affect the hydrogen yield. "All the stages of the process are based on well-established technologies that have not previously been adapted for hydrogen production from real gas reservoirs. We have demonstrated that our approach can help convert hydrocarbons into 'green' fuels in the field environment with an efficiency of up to 45%. In the future, we plan to test our method in real gas fields," says Elena Mukhina, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at Skoltech Petroleum and the leader of the project. More information: Elena Mukhina et al, A novel method for hydrogen synthesis in natural gas reservoirs, Fuel (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.fuel.2024.131758 JAKARTA, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Four members of a family, including a woman and two children, were killed after a landslide hit their house in the eastern Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara on Friday, a local official said. According to the preliminary report, the disaster took place in South Rewarangga village in Ende region at around 5:30 a.m. local time when the family were in bed. Head of Ende Police Sudarmin Syafrudin told local media that the family lived in a 12 square-meter one-floor house near a 10-meter cliff. "Heavy rain was pouring in the area when the landslide occurred. The disaster came at dawn, while they were still asleep," said Syafrudin. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: The sensor system can rapidly switch between edge detection imaging the outline of an object, such as a fruit and extracting detailed infrared information, without the need for creating large volumes of data and using bulky external processors. Credit: Lincoln Clark, ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS) A compact, lightweight sensor system with infrared imaging capabilities developed by an international team of engineers could be easily fitted to a drone for remote crop monitoring. This flat-optics technology has the potential to replace traditional optical lens applications for environmental sensing in a range of industries. This innovation could result in cheaper groceries as farmers would be able to pinpoint which crops require irrigation, fertilization and pest control, instead of taking a one-size-fits-all approach, thereby potentially boosting their harvests. The sensor system can rapidly switch between edge detectionimaging the outline of an object, such as a fruitand extracting detailed infrared information, without the need for creating large volumes of data and using bulky external processors. The capability to switch to a detailed infrared image is a new development in the field and could allow farmers to collect more information when the remote sensor identifies areas of potential pest infestations. This research by engineers at the City University of New York (CUNY), the University of Melbourne, RMIT University and the ARC Center of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS) is published in Nature Communications in a paper titled "Reconfigurable image processing metasurfaces with phase-change materials." How does the sensor system work? The prototype sensor system, which comprises a filter made with a thin layer of a material called vanadium dioxide that can switch between edge detection and detailed infrared imaging, was engineered by TMOS Chief Investigator Professor Madhu Bhaskaran and her team at RMIT in Melbourne. "Materials such as vanadium dioxide add a fantastic tuning capability to render devices 'smart'", she said. "When the temperature of the filter is changed, the vanadium dioxide transforms from an insulating state to a metallic one, which is how the processed image shifts from a filtered outline to an unfiltered infrared image." "These materials could go a long way in futuristic flat-optics devices that can replace technologies with traditional lenses for environmental sensing applicationsmaking them ideal for use in drones and satellites, which require low size, weight and power capacity. RMIT holds a granted US patent and has a pending Australian patent application for its method of producing vanadium dioxide films, which may be suitable for a broad range of applications. Lead author Dr. Michele Cotrufo said the system's ability to switch between processing operations, from edge detection to capturing detailed infrared images, was significant. "While a few recent demonstrations have achieved analog edge detection using metasurfaces, most of the devices demonstrated so far are static. Their functionality is fixed in time and cannot be dynamically altered or controlled," said Corufo, who conducted his research at CUNY. "Yet, the ability to dynamically reconfigure processing operations is key for metasurfaces to be able to compete with digital image processing systems. This is what we have developed." Next steps Co-author Shaban Sulejman from the University of Melbourne said the design and materials used make the filter amenable to mass-manufacturing. "It also operates at temperatures compatible with standard manufacturing techniques, making it well-placed to integrate with commercially available systems and therefore move from research to real-world usage rapidly." TMOS Chief Investigator Ann Roberts, also from the University of Melbourne, said flat optics technologies had the potential to transform countless industries. "Traditional optical elements have long been the bottleneck preventing the further miniaturization of devices. The ability to replace or complement traditional optical elements with thin-film optics breaks through that bottleneck." More information: Michele Cotrufo et al, Reconfigurable image processing metasurfaces with phase-change materials, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48783-3 Journal information: Nature Communications A bill to criminalize child marriages in Punjab Province, Pakistan made significant headway on Wednesday (June 5) when the Standing Committee of the Cabinet on Law approved the legislation. The Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2024 would also put the legal marriage age for both genders at 18 years; the current minimum is 16 for females and 18 for male. Member of Punjab Assembly Sarah Ahmad, chairperson of the Child Protection & Welfare Bureau, passionately advocated for the protection of girls, urging the committee to pass the bill without making any changes, said journalist Hassaan Ahmed, secretary of the Punjab Assembly Press Gallery Reporters Association. The bill will now be presented in the Punjab Assembly for voting after which it will be enacted as law, Ahmed told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. In comments to reporters afterward, Ahmad expressed her gratitude to Punjabs first woman chief minister, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, saying she was fully committed to safeguarding the future of young girls. Stay informed with The Christian Daily Newsletter Sign up The Punjab government is committed to following the orders of the Lahore High Court, which directed authorities to end the gender-based age discrimination in the provincial child marriage laws, she said. Lahore High Court Justice Shahid Karim on April 15 declared as discriminatory Punjab Provinces Child Marriage Act of 1929, which fixed 18 and 16 years as legal ages for marriage for boys and girls respectively. The verdict arose from petitioner Azka Wahid seeking amendments to the Child Marriage Act to avert harmful gender distinctions in accordance with the Constitution of Pakistans guarantee of equal rights for men and women. Under the bill, anyone who marries a girl or boy under 18 or arranges such a marriage including parents or guardians would face two to three years in prison and a fine of between 100,000 Pakistani rupees (US$358) and 200,000 rupees (US$717). Those who can file charges of child marriage under the bill include parents or guardians, neighbors, community members, teachers, members of local bodies, social workers, friends, imams, Nikah Khawan (marriage solemnizers) and Nikah (Islamic marriage certificate) registrars. At the time of marriage registration, the marriage solemnizer, secretary of the union council and marriage registrar would check the computerized national identity card (CNIC) of the girl or boy, passport, educational certificate or other documents proving both are at least 18 years old. Attested copies of these documents would be required to be attached with the application of marriage certificate, under the legislation. Violation of law or omission shall constitute an offense punishable under Section 6 of Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2024, the bill states. In case of any dispute regarding determination of age of any of the parties to marriage, the court shall determine the age on the basis of birth certificate, educational certificate or other necessary documents after hearing the case. In the absence of these documents, the age of both parties would be determined through medical examination, it states. As soon as a case of child marriage is reported, police and courts would take notice, and a court can try the case even before marriage takes place, under the bill. Violators would be subject to arrest by police employing an irrevocable warrant. Under the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898, the family court would have powers of Judicial Magistrate of First Class. Those convicted by family courts may appeal to sessions courts. A Big Gain Pakistans Islamic clergy play the biggest role in underage marriages involving minority girls, particularly Christians and Hindus, according to rights advocates. Islamic clerics have fiercely opposed legislation against forced conversions in Sindh Province, and they also censured a federal bill seeking to curb forced conversions in 2021. Religious freedom advocates have termed the proposed bill a big gain in efforts to protect minor girls from sexual exploitation as they are forcibly converted and married, but they called for the law to be equally applied to cases of girls belonging to minority religions in the 96-percent Muslim country. Raising the legal marriage age to 18 years for both boys and girls will help in preventing child marriages, but certain amendments are required to ensure that minority girls also get due coverage of the law, Peter Jacob, executive director of research and advocacy organization the Center for Social Justice, previously told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News when the bill was introduced in the assembly. He said the law should override all special laws and maxims related to determining of a girls age of maturity. This is particularly important for the protection of underage minority girls who are victimized through forced conversions and marriages under the cover of special laws, Jacob said, referring to sharia (Islamic law) allowing girls attaining puberty to be considered adults. 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. China's Chang'e-6 completes docking in lunar orbit with samples transferred to returner Xinhua) 08:17, June 07, 2024 BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) -- The ascender of China's Chang'e-6 probe successfully rendezvoused and docked with the probe's orbiter-returner combination in lunar orbit at 2:48 p.m. (Beijing Time) on Thursday, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced. The container carrying the world's first samples from the far side of the moon had been transferred from the ascender to the returner safely by 3:24 p.m., the CNSA said. After the ascender took off from the far side of the moon on Tuesday morning and entered lunar orbit, it made four orbital adjustments. When the ascender was about 50 km in front of and 10 km above the orbiter-returner combination, the combination gradually approached the ascender through short-range autonomous control and captured it with holding claws. This is the second time that Chinese spacecraft carried out rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit, with Chang'e-5 realizing the first one in 2020. The orbiter-returner combination will later separate from the ascender and prepare to return to Earth at an appropriate time. After the moon-Earth transfer and separation of the orbiter and returner, the returner is expected to land with lunar samples at Siziwang Banner in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region as planned. The Chang'e-6 probe, comprising an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a returner, was launched on May 3. Its lander-ascender combination touched down at the designated landing area in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the moon's far side on June 2, and completed sampling in two days. The ascender, with precious samples, lifted off from the lunar surface and entered the preset lunar orbit on Tuesday morning. This video animation image displayed at Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) on June 6, 2024 shows the ascender of China's Chang'e-6 probe rendezvousing and docking with the probe's orbiter-returner combination in lunar orbit. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang) This video animation image displayed at Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) on June 6, 2024 shows the ascender of China's Chang'e-6 probe rendezvousing and docking with the probe's orbiter-returner combination in lunar orbit. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang) This image taken at Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) on June 6, 2024 shows the ascender of China's Chang'e-6 probe rendezvousing and docking with the probe's orbiter-returner combination in lunar orbit. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang) This image displayed at Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) on June 6, 2024 shows the ascender of China's Chang'e-6 probe rendezvousing and docking with the probe's orbiter-returner combination in lunar orbit with samples transferred. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang) This image displayed at Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) on June 6, 2024 shows the ascender of China's Chang'e-6 probe rendezvousing and docking with the probe's orbiter-returner combination in lunar orbit with samples transferred. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang) Technical personnel work at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) in Beijing, capital of China, June 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang) Technical personnel work at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) in Beijing, capital of China, June 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang) (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) A 60-year-old Catholic woman who has been treated for mental illness was jailed on blasphemy charges this week in Lahore, Pakistan, her son said. Jameela Khatoon was arrested on Tuesday (June 4) from her house in Lahores Cantonment area on a complaint of Muslim shopkeeper Asif Ali, said her son, 41-year-old Sunny Gill. Ali registered a First Information Report (FIR) with the North Cantt Police Station under Section 295-C of the blasphemy law against blaspheming Muhammad, which carries a mandatory death penalty. Area shopkeepers are so familiar with Khatoons mental illness that they allow her to take items without paying, knowing her relatives will pay them later, and Ali also was aware of her condition when she came into his shop and allegedly began saying derogatory things about Muhammad after noticing a Muslim prayer mounted on a wall, Gill said. Ali also knows about her illness, and we are surprised as to why he filed a case against her, Gill told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. Stay informed with The Christian Daily Newsletter Sign up His mother had noticed the Arabic Durood Shareef Islamic prayer on the wall behind the counter when she allegedly began uttering derogatory remarks about Muhammad, said Christ was greater than the prophet of Islam and began screaming and shouting, he said. In the FIR, Ali has claimed that when he and some other Muslims tried to stop my mother from blaspheming against their prophet, she started walking towards her home but kept insulting Muhammad, Gill said. The oldest of Khatoons four children, Gill said he was not at home when police arrived at their shared living quarters two hours after the incident and arrested her. My wife and I had gone to buy groceries when police came to our house and told my younger brothers wife that they were taking my mother on theft charges, he said. Till then, no one in our family knew what had actually happened. Gill said his mothers mental health began deteriorating four years ago. We have taken her to the Punjab Institute of Mental Health several times for treatment, but she hasnt improved much, he said. Gill, who works as a cleaner at the Lahore Cantonment Board, said the family has tried to keep Khatoon from harming herself, but they hadnt anticipated she would be held for blasphemy. We have tried our best to keep her in the house, but she refuses to stay confined and becomes violent, he said. Gill said he hoped police and courts would take his mothers mental illness into account and dismiss the serious charge. My mother didnt know what she was saying or doing, he said. It would be very unfair to keep her in prison with such a medical condition. We hope that the court will drop the charges against her on compassionate grounds. Attorney Liaquat John, who is defending defend Khatoon, said he would file an application for a medical board to ascertain Khatoons mental health. If the board certifies the mental unsoundness of Khatoon, the court cannot proceed with the trial, John told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. Pakistani law does afford protections to people with mental illness or disabilities. Section 464 of the Criminal Procedures Code (CrPC) states that people of unsound mind who are incapable of assisting in their defense cannot be tried. Similarly, Section 84 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) states, an accused cannot be held criminally responsible for an act if, at the time of committing it, the individual, due to unsoundness of mind, was incapable of knowing the nature of the act, or that the act was wrong or illegal. John further said that the FIR did not state the derogatory words she was alleged to have spoken against Islams prophet, which is a strong basis for obtaining bail if charges are not dropped on health grounds. The complainant has not stated the exact words said by Khatoon that amount to blasphemy, whereas the Supreme Court has clearly said in its judgments that the FIR must contain the words spoken, John said. The attorney is awaiting the police investigation report and charge sheet before applying for bail, he said. About 40-45 Christian families lived in their Bael Ahata neighborhood, and most have fled their homes fearing a mob attack. Our priority right now is to ensure the security and safe return of the Christian dwellers of the locality who are fearful of mob violence, John said. Though the area police have assured us that there will be no protest by Muslims, we have requested them to deploy personnel in the neighborhood, particularly on Friday when Muslims congregate for their weekly mass prayers. Gill said the family has not received any threats from area residents. Though there have been no protests by Muslims against this incident, yet many Christians have moved to safer places, he said. 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 "National Alliance against Forced Repatriation of North Korean Defectors," in which organizations such as the "Movement for Investigating Truth about Forced Repatriation of North Korean Defectors" and "Esther Prayer Movement" participate, held a press conference opposing the forced repatriation of North Korean defectors by the Chinese government on the afternoon of June 3rd in front of the Seoul Central Post Office near the Chinese Embassy in Myeongdong, Seoul. In a statement released on the same day, they stated, "In celebration of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and North Korea, which was marked as the 'Year of Friendly Relations between North Korea and China,' Zhao Leji, the third-ranking official of the Chinese Communist Party, visited North Korea to discuss the development of friendly cooperation relations with Kim Jong-un on April 13." "Shortly after the talks between the two countries, the forced repatriation of North Korean defectors detained in China resumed in earnest. On April 26, news spread through various channels that more than 200 defectors were forcibly repatriated from Baiyin Detention Center in China, and 50 to 60 from Tumen and Hunchun, and a small number from Dandong," they continued. The alliance stated that "this incident occurred just six months after more than 600 people were forcibly repatriated following the Asian Games in Hangzhou last October," and expressed concerns that "experts fear that China may be offering North Korean defectors as a 'gift' to Kim Jong-un in light of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between North Korea and China, and that the remaining defectors may be repatriated sequentially." "Human Rights Watch (HRW) also strongly criticized the Chinese government, stating that this recent forced repatriation incident occurred shortly after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Chinese official Zhao Leji sought to strengthen relations between the two countries in North Korea," they added, and said, "HRW also urged the Chinese government to allow defectors to seek asylum or transit to South Korea or another safe third country." Stay informed with The Christian Daily Newsletter Sign up The alliance mentioned, "The European Union (EU) evaluated in its annual report on human rights and democracy released on April 29 that the human rights and democracy situation in North Korea remained very serious last year," and "the EU also expressed concerns about the recent large-scale forced repatriation of North Korean defectors by the Chinese government and raised the issue with the Chinese government." "Many human rights organizations, including the United Nations, have repeatedly reported that those forcibly repatriated to North Korea are subject to torture, sexual violence, forced labor, and even execution," they emphasized, and added, "Forcibly repatriating those who crossed into China to survive is a barbaric act. The entire world is watching whether China will remain a barbaric nation or move towards a civilized nation that respects life and human rights." The alliance urged the Chinese government to apologize to the world for the inhumane crime of forced repatriation; stop forced repatriation and allow North Korean defectors to go to the countries they want; respect the human rights of North Korean defectors in China and guarantee their UN refugee status; exercise influence as a member of the UN Human Rights Council to improve human rights issues in North Korea. They concluded by stating, "If the Chinese government does not accept these human rights improvements, it should resign from the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Security Council." Originally published at Christian Daily Korea. Translated and edited by Christian Daily International staff. In recognition of a new era in global missions with greater participation by the Global South, a recently formed group of mission, church and market-place leaders from Asia and Latin America issued a communique with recommendations for mission practice for the Majority World. Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, from May 1-3, 2024, the group called COALA which stands for Christ over Africa, Latin America and Asia emphasizes the importance of unity and partnership in missions and hopes the recommendations would start off conversations in the global Church. The Bangkok meeting that brought together 38 missionaries, mission leaders and pastors from 30 nations was a follow-up to an earlier gathering in June 2023 under the auspices of the Korea World Mission Association. Participants from Latin America included leaders from COMIBAM (Cooperacion Misionera Iberoamericana), a movement that brings together national mission groups or networks in twenty-five Latin American countries, as well as Spain, Portugal and Hispanics from the United States and Canada. Discussions focused on the changing shape of global mission from a Christendom model to a truly poly-centric mission, the group said, pointing to the recommendations towards some principles for healthy majority world mission engagement in a poly-centric era of missions as one of the key results of the meeting. With the heading Greetings to the Global Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, all mission movements & networks, the communique on COALA 2 begins by outlining the geographic shift in global Christianity towards the Global South, highlighting the role of Majority World missionaries, and then calls for unity and authentic partnership in missions within the global Church as a whole. Stay informed with The Christian Daily Newsletter Sign up The 20th century has witnessed a major shift in the shape of the global church. For the first time in the modern period, the center of gravity of the church has moved from the West into the non-Western or Majority World (MW: Africa, Asia, Latin America & MENA [Middle East and North America]). Today, two-thirds or more of global Christians reside in the latter, the preamble states. Side by side with this shift, we have also seen a relative numerical decline of cross-cultural missionaries being sent out from the West, with the gap increasingly being filled by those sent out from the MW. The overall result of the above is that some countries that were mission fields in the past are now increasingly being recognized as missionary sending nations. Further, some that used to be sending nations are now receiving missionaries back from formerly receiving nations. Given the above, many in the global church today recognize that we are now living in a new era of polycentric missions, wherein missions today is from everywhere to everywhere. The above have important missiological consequences for the global church, both the Western and the MW churches. As a group of missions workers from the MW, we have some real concerns over the involvement of MW churches in cross-cultural missions. We would like to propose some recommendations for further reflection and discussion by the wider church, the preamble concludes. Recommendations emphasize relationship with locals, address concerns about money in missions The recommendations begin by stating the centrality of the Holy Spirit, emphasizing, The primacy of the leading and power of the Holy Spirit in mission: In accordance with the Lord Jesus instruction (e.g. Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5, 8) and the example of the Apostles in the New Testament, especially in Acts, we affirm that missionaries sent out must go under the leading of the Holy Spirit and in His power. It is primarily the work of the Holy Spirit which makes mission possible and fruitful. Among the primary concerns, the recommendations then go on to highlight the relationship of the missionary and the local church, the role of finances, and the general spirit of unity and partnership. Missionaries and related cross-cultural workers should always go with a servant heart and attitude, and with humility and respect towards the leaders of the local church and their indigenous co-workers. Their reliance should always be on God and not on their superior educational background or the resources that they bring from outside, one of the recommendations says. The following then continues along the same lines, saying, The goal of missions is to build the local indigenous church which is marked by self-government, self-support, self-propagation and self-theologizing. Therefore, missionaries should never build churches centered around themselves or their sending bodies, which remain dependent on them and the resources they bring. Regarding the relationship with existing local churches, the recommendations state, As far as possible, a missionary should work with local churches with a Kingdom mindset which is concerned to build the whole church of God in a particular region or nation. Churches should never be planted and built in isolation. Where possible, missionaries and church planters should become part of existing denominations or church networks, the recommendations say. They add that missionaries should always hold themselves accountable to the local church or body where they are working. Thus, missionaries sent out should know how to network with local believers and, and as far as possible, be willing to serve under local leadership. Emphasizing that locals are more effective in sharing the gospel because of their understanding of the context, the recommendations say that Missionaries should see themselves as midwives, and not mothers. They must therefore respect the local churches and allow them to make all important decisions in a contextual and culturally-sensitive manner, albeit based on scriptural teaching. The most effective witnesses of the gospel are indigenous believers and the local church. To this end, missionaries should encourage all indigenous believers and available local church-related institutions to take responsibility and initiative for the growth of the church. The missionarys major tasks are to train and work alongside local believers and institutions, they continue. Speaking about the critical issue of financial support, the recommendations acknowledge that money is a matter of crucial concern in missions. It can bring great blessings; it can also cause much damage in the long term. We therefore urge missionaries and their sending bodies to exercise extreme care in this matter. We need to avoid models which lead to a standard of living for the local Christian worker which is higher than the local average or to initiate expensive projects which the local church will find difficult to sustain long-term, the recommendations emphasize. Finally, the recommendations call for unity and partnership, saying we are called to unity in Christ (John 17:11,21), which should be expressed as genuine partnership in the work of the Kingdom of God. In order to achieve such partnerships, they call for serious consideration of two recommendations. Firstly, God has given us a clear mission mandate in Matthew 16:18 and 28:19-20. Together with this, we believe also that God has given all the resources needed for the advancement of the work of the Christs mission, be it spiritual, human and financial. Such resources are to be shared as much as practically possible by all involved: between the local church and the missionary; between the mission sending and the receiving churches; and between churches and mission agencies working across the world. And secondly, the recommendations conclude saying, In this era of polycentric missions, we affirm that genuine partnerships must be developed between all churches everywhere, between those in the West and the MW, as well as among all churches in the MW. The challenge before us to fuse all our God-given resources together into a powerful synergistic whole for world mission. Stretching out the hand for partnership between Global South and Global North In a soon-to-be published in-depth interview with Christian Daily International, Rev. Jonas Kang, Chairman of the Korea World Mission Association, shared how COALA emerged from the World Evangelical Alliances Mission Commission consultation in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2023. Dr. Gina Zurlos presentation on the shift of global Christianity to the South sparked conversations among a group of mission leaders from Asia and Latin America. In a follow up meeting in Korea a few months later, the Global South leaders came together to talk about a new paradigm in missions, without participation of mission leaders from the Global North at first. However, Rev. Kang emphasized that the Global South leaders recognize and are grateful for the centuries of Western missions that brought the gospel to the whole world. Therefore, they desire for collaboration with those in the Global North and wish that the whole Church together engages in missions united in partnership. As one of the first initiatives in pursuit of this new collaboration, Rev. Kang led a delegation of Korean mission leaders that participated in the European Leadership Forum (ELF) in Wisla, Poland from May 25-30, where they hosted a session titled How Can the European Church and the Korean Church Work Together?, as Christian Daily reported earlier. Lindsay Brown, who served with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) for many years and formerly led the Lausanne Movement as International Director, facilitated the session at the ELF. In his own comments to Christian Daily, Brown reflected on the changes in global missions and said the leaders of one of the largest missionary forces from Korea are saying that they would like to partner with Western churches as equals. Not as subservient cross-cultural workers, but as a body of people who have an equal say and an equal commitment to the advance of the gospel globally. They would like to dialogue together about the key theological and missiological issues that need to be addressed, and to be involved in active partnership. They are taking initiative in putting their hands out, offering to serve together, Brown said, and urged Western leaders to take note of that and respond. They are stretching out the hand of fellowship and partnership. So, the Western mission leaders and church leaders should say, yes, we want to partner! And they should rejoice in the invitation. Pastor Josemon Pathrose spent nearly all of February in jail and finally got his confiscated vehicle back after four months. The harassment and criminal charges hes endured at the hands of Hindu extremists are not uncommon in India. Pastor Pathrose and another Christian were driving back to their base in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh state from Uttar Pradesh state on Feb. 3 when they stopped in Khudatpura village, Jalaun District, to visit a family who had attended his online meeting. As they were having tea, members of the Hindu extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad barged in, alleging the 55-year-old pastor was visiting to fraudulently convert people. Police soon arrived and arrested Pastor Pathrose and his companion, seized his vehicle, Bibles and literature and took them and three other Christians to the Madhogarh police station, he said. They slapped us as they questioned us, Pastor Pathrose told Morning Star News. They called me the leader of the conversion racket and beat me more than my friend. Officers asked them how much money they offered for each conversion to Christianity, how many people had they converted, where they got foreign funds for conversions, how many places had they evangelized, and Who else is in your gang, among other questions, the pastor said. Stay informed with The Christian Daily Newsletter Sign up Also arrested was the adult son of the host family and his friend, the pastor said. A Hindu named Abhishek Singh filed a complaint alleging that Pastor Pathrose and his team offered him with 200,000 rupees (US$2,400) and further benefits to convert to Christianity an accusation the pastor roundly denies but police filed charges unrelated to fraudulent conversion: Deliberately outraging religious feelings by insulting its religion or religious beliefs (Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code), promoting disharmony (153A), and statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will (505-2). They seized his vehicle and the Bibles under Motor Vehicle Act Section 207, which allows authorities to detain and take action against vehicles found being driven without the necessary permits and registration. They can, even, seize the vehicle if it is found to be used for any illegal purpose. Pastor Pathrose runs a Christian literature shop in Gwalior and was carrying the Bibles and literature to display at a 50-day trade fair where he had rented a stall. I have been renting a stall in this trade fair for many years I run the stall every year under the name Bible Shop, Pastor Pathrose informed the questioning officer. I have all the required permissions and documentation, and I pay a rent of 25,000 rupees per month. The pastor had 13 full Bibles, 50 New Testaments and a pack of Christian booklets to display at the stall, he said. When the police came to arrest me, I was not preaching, nor carrying a Bible, Pastor Pathrose told Morning Star News. My Bibles and literature were in my truck. Is it a crime to carry your own religious texts in your vehicle? His vehicle, mobile phone, cash and all Christian literature, including the Bibles, were seized, and his friends phone and cash were also confiscated. Pastor Pathrose refuted the complainants allegation of fraudulent conversion, saying he had never seen, known or met him before as it was his first visit to Khudatpura village. For the next two days, local media channels and newspapers branded Pastor Pathrose the leader of a conversion racket and portrayed all the arrested Christians as gang members, he said. Officers kept the two Christians at the police station for about 30 hours before presenting them before a judge who sent them to Orai jail, in Jalaun District, without questioning them, Pastor Pathrose said. It was evident they had orders from authorities not to spare any Christian, he said. They had no reason to arrest us, so reasons were being formulated during our interrogation. We were assaulted and interrogated, almost forcing us to say something that would give them a reason to file a case against us. Pastor Pathrose said police kept the three others arrested separate and also assaulted them. They were presented before a different judge and released the next day; the pastor was unsure if they were required to post bail. The arrested son of the host and his friend were kept separately. The son was taken from the police station to take his undergraduate annual exam before he and his friend were released without charges, the pastor said. Jail and Legal Battle Pastor Pathrose described conditions in the jail as pathetic, including bullying, extortion and mental torture. The Jalaun Junior court rejected their bail plea, so their lawyer applied for bail in the Orai District Court, which on Feb. 22 ordered their release on a bail bond of 50,000 rupees (US$600) each. As it was difficult to find sureties in an area unknown to them, they faced a long wait before release, as the documents had to pass four stringent tests for validation before they would be considered, the pastor said. Pastor Pathrose and his friend were finally released on March 1. The same day, he applied to get his confiscated belongings back. Authorities told him he had to get a bond surety of 50,000 rupees (US$600) for his mobile phone, Bibles, literature and 3,500 rupees cash, while his friend had to submit a 25,000 rupees (US$300) surety for his phone and 300 rupees cash. It was so hard for us to find two more guarantors, Pastor Pathrose said. After much persistence, we finally somehow managed. When he went to retrieve his vehicle, officials required another surety bond of about 275,000 rupees (US$3,300). I felt utterly distressed, he said. After hearing his pleas, officials accepted a bond of 125,000 rupees (US$1,500). Arranging this large amount was difficult, but he finally persuaded a Christian to submit papers making his tractor available as surety. When Pastor Pathrose went to collect his vehicle, officials told him he couldnt take it due to a ticket issued for missing papers, though he said his papers were up to date. They forced him to go to the Orai court to pay a 7,000 rupee fine (US$85), but no receipt was issued, he said. When he insisted, they wrote on a plain paper and gave it, he said. Everything seemed fishy. After making all payments, when Pastor Pathrose finally went to get his vehicle, police told him to return the next day. He continued to try getting his vehicle back for three months, riding 95 miles on a motorbike in scorching summer heat every time they had to arrange for bonds and documents. From March 1 till May 30, we were called for our stuff several times, the pastor said. He finally got his vehicle back on May 30, but in bad shape the central locking system was broken, the side mirrors vandalized, he said. I felt so sad and miserable that after running from pillar to post, with all my paperwork, I finally got my truck in that condition. Repairs will cost him more money. The police, lawyer and jail are a bigger torment to us Christians once arrested than the RSS outside the jail, Pastor Pathrose said. For us, we suffer both outside and inside. While police investigate, the two Christians can appeal in the High Court to dismiss their case. A policeman told the pastor that the host of the house where they were arrested, Har Narayan, is going to testify against them. I dont know how far it is true, Pastor Pathrose said. The host family has been severely threatened, and they have broken all contacts with us. Under pressure, they are giving statements against us. India ranked 11th on Christian support organization Open Doors 2024 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. The country was 31st in 2013, but its position worsened after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power. The hostile tone of the National Democratic Alliance government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), against non-Hindus, has emboldened Hindu extremists in several parts of the country to attack Christians since Modi took power in May 2014, religious rights advocates say. State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington D.C. West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands Armed Forces Americas Armed Forces Pacific Armed Forces Europe Northern Mariana Islands Marshall Islands American Samoa Federated States of Micronesia Guam Palau Alberta, Canada British Columbia, Canada Manitoba, Canada New Brunswick, Canada Newfoundland, Canada Nova Scotia, Canada Northwest Territories, Canada Nunavut, Canada Ontario, Canada Prince Edward Island, Canada Quebec, Canada Saskatchewan, Canada Yukon Territory, Canada Zip Code A 54-year-old Branchville man is accused of driving drunk in a crash that killed one person and led to another person being injured. Nelson Goldsmith is charged with one count each of felony driving under the influence resulting in death and felony DUI resulting in great bodily injury. He turned himself in to authorities on Thursday and has been cooperating with them, according to attorney Jack Furse. He spoke at Goldsmiths bond hearing. Goldsmith is accused of being under the influence of alcohol while he was driving a 2018 GMC Terrain around 3:45 a.m. May 4, according to Lance Cpl. Brittany Glover of the S.C. Highway Patrol. Goldsmith was driving south on U.S Highway 21 when his Terrain collided with a northbound 2007 Honda Accord driven by Herbert Dwayne Colter, 42, of Orangeburg. The crash occurred near Mays Chapel Road. Colter died at the scene. Goldsmith and his passenger were seriously injured. Goldsmith was seated in a wheelchair at the Orangeburg County Detention Center when he appeared virtually before Orangeburg County Magistrate Rob Clariday. Colters son addressed the court, saying his late father was caring, loving and compassionate. I just graduated from high school without my dad, and Im going to college without my dad, he said. It doesnt seem fair, he added. I wouldve loved to spend more time with him, he said. Colters father, wrought with emotion, told the court, It hurts. Ive been trying to deal with it since it happened. He loved me so. Hes done everything he could do for me, he added. Colters sister said, Its not fair. My brother was on the way to work. It just didnt hurt one family, it tore up a lot of families. S.C. Highway Patrol First Sgt. James Howell asked the court not to set bond on Goldsmith, leaving it up to a circuit judge to consider later. Furse asked the court to set Goldsmiths bond. Its impossible for the Orangeburg County Detention Center to take care of his needs, Furse said. Its not a hospital. Furse explained that Goldsmith had three major surgeries during his two-week hospitalization. He said Goldsmith cant drive because he broke both of his legs and is currently wheelchair-bound. Hes being cared for at his mothers Orangeburg home. Goldsmith can stand up only if someone helps lift him, Furse said. Goldsmith also requires extensive physical therapy. He had two screws taken out of his ankle yesterday, Furse said. Furse noted that the last time Goldsmith was convicted was in 2009 and hes stayed out of trouble for 15 years. The court took a 12-minute break so Clariday could consider an appropriate bond. This is a difficult decision, Clariday said. These are some very serious charges. My role here is not to convict somebody, he added. Clariday set Goldsmiths bond at $100,000. He ordered Goldsmith, once hes out on bond, to continue to live at his mothers house and not drink any alcohol or operate a vehicle. On Saturday, June 01, 2024, the Port Elizabeth Chapter of the Bequia Police Youth Club hosted an in-house Public Speaking Competition at the Bequia Anglican Primary School. The competition was divided into three segments. In the first round, the participants spoke on the given topic, "Can we normalize childhood, please? In the second round, they spoke on a topic of their choice, and in the final round, they had to deliver an impromptu speech. The competition was keenly contested, but in the end, Aiden Dennie was adjudged the overall winner, with Azarra Gordon and Kafiya Simmons placing second and third, respectively. Isis Hutchins won the impromptu category, Azarra Gordon captured the Best Chosen Speech, and Aiden Dennie won the Best Given Topic. The competition was fully supported by members of the Bequia Community, who donated several valuable prizes to the winners as follows: 1st place - One Samsung Galaxy Tablet, one trophy, and $50.00 EC; 2nd place - One Chromebook, one trophy, and $40.00 EC; 3rd place - One notepad, one trophy, and $30.00 EC; Best Impromptu Speech - An allowance at Jacks Bar and Restaurant; Best Chosen Speech - Dinner for two at Plantation Hotel; Best Given Speech - Lunch for two at Spring Hotel. In Dominica, the maximum penalty for drug trafficking and importation is $150,000.00 or three times the street value or a term of imprisonment not exceeding 15 years but not less than seven years. Two Vincentian nationals have been denied bail by the Magistrates Court in Roseau, Dominica after they were arrested and charged with drug trafficking offenses. According to the online publication Nature Isle News Service (NINS) of June 5, the men - Phillon Kevin Joseph and Jamel Cordice Delpeche both reportedly of Clare Valley, are charged with possession with intent to supply cocaine to another. The incident is reported as having taken place on May 20, 2024, in Delice, Dominica, and involved 573,000 grammes of cocaine. The NINS reports that the men, who are represented by Wayne Norde of the law firm of Norde & Lambert, opted for a high court trial hence they were not required to enter a plea. The matter was adjourned to September 25, 2024, at La Plaine for the commencement of the preliminary inquiry. The prosecuting team headed by police Sergeant Boycott Yankey told the court that since the men were arrested at a hotel, and did not have a fixed place of residence in Dominica, they were a "flight risk and granting them bail "was not in the interest of the state. He further contended that "the police were also in pursuit of another individual, allegedly another Vincentian, and granting the men bail would hinder the investigations. Sgt Yankey also reminded the court of the seriousness of the offense and its prevalence in the Dominica society. However, their lawyer - Wayne Norde rebutted, stating that not being nationals of Dominica was not enough not to grant them bail and that they were "CARICOM nationals. The disruption in service, VINLEC explained, was caused by a switchgear issue at one of our main plants but did not name the plant. St. Vincent Electricity Services Ltd. (VINLEC), the sole provider of electricity (commercial and domestic) in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, issued a statement on Monday, explaining the reason for the nationwide blackout on Sunday from approximately 6:30 to 10:45pm. However, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, speaking at a press conference in Kingstown on Monday, June 3, 2024, took VINLEC to task for not "commenting sooner after the problem that caused the blackout was rectified. To VINLECs defence, the company issued a statement on its Facebook page during the time of the blackout, assuring the nation that its work force was attending to the matter with urgency. Following the return to normal service, VINLEC made a release on Monday 3rd June that reached THE VINCENTIAN at noon, 14 or so hours after electricity service resumed. In that release, VINLEC said, inter alia, "On Sunday, June 2, 2024, at approximately 6:30 pm, a service interruption affected all VINLEC customers on mainland St. Vincent. Our dedicated teams immediately initiated restoration efforts, and power was successfully restored to the entire island by 10:45 pm. "The disruption was caused by a switchgear issue at one of our main plants. We assure our customers that we have deployed all necessary resources to address the issue and ensure the reliability of our service. "We understand the significant inconvenience caused by the island-wide outage and deeply appreciate the patience and understanding demonstrated by our customers during this time. VINLEC remains committed to maintaining a reliable power supply and providing exceptional service to all our valued customers. But Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, during the press conference as referenced, took umbrage with VINLEC for the period of time during which there was no communication (with the public) on the problem that had affected mainland St. Vincent. The Prime Minister told the news conference that people were calling him during the blackout, making assertions that the islandwide loss of electrical service was due to factors related to the testing of the recently installed lights at the Arnos vale Playing Field. Dr. Gonsalves cleared the air on this saying that the testing of the lights had nothing to do with the issue at hand and in fact, testing was being conducted that very Monday. He disclosed that he had been in contact with VINLECs CEO, Dr. Vaughn Lewis, making it known to him that information about a system failure as well as information after the failure had been dealt with, should be released immediately after the system failure is known and rectified. Notwithstanding VINLECs tardiness, as implied by the Prime Minister, he thanked the state-owned company for the statement but reiterated that "something should have been said fairly promptly last evening. He concluded by returning to the question of the testing of the lights at Arnos Vale having something to do with the blackout, saying, in part, to those who were allegedly sharing this misinformation on social media platforms, " stop this foolish thing. The lights were not tested yesterday or last night. On a related note, the workers at VINLEC continued to demonstrate their expertise and their understanding of the importance of the service which they are responsible for generating and maintaining, by effecting a return to power to essential national services like the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, within an hour after the blackout began. They, the workers, took to their tasks well into the night of Sunday and the early hours of Monday to fulfill their responsibilities as workers in an essential service. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, center, speaks to reporters after voting in an election seen as his countrys most important in 30 years. (Credit: Jerome Delay/AP) Up to the early hours of the Wednesday evening, South Africa was locked in uncertainty with respect to which party or coalition of parties was going to form that countrys government. The African National Congress (ANC), which had formed a majority support government since it won the first all-race general election in 1994, after the fall of the apartheid system, garnered a considerably reduced 40% of the vote in the May 29, 2024 general election. Though this ensured that the ANC remained the most popular single political party in South Africa, its 40% accorded it only minority status in parliament. It means, therefore, that if it chooses to govern as a minority party, it is not assured parliamentary support for its choice of president and legislative plans. According to South Africas constitution, its parliament must meet to elect the South African president within 14 days after the election result is declared. As it stands, the ANC President, Cyril Ramaphosa is the incumbent President of South Africa and it is expected that he will once again be nominated by his party for the post. In the situation, the ANC has but two choices: go it alone as a minority government or find a coalition partner to secure a majority in parliament which will support its choice of president and legislative plans. If it gives consideration to identifying a coalition partner, one option would be to strike a deal with the second biggest party, the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA), which won 22% of the vote. However, a BBC analyst said this would be politically risky, as many inside and outside the ANC accuse the DA of trying to protect the economic privileges the countrys white minority built up during the racist system of apartheid this the party denies. Further to this, ANC chairman Gwede Mantashe has gone on record as saying that the ANCs black empowerment policies are non-negotiable, suggesting that he has ruled out a coalition with the DA. Alternatively, the ANC could work with two radical parties that broke away from it - former President Jacob Zumas uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party which took just over 14% of the vote or Julius Malemas Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) which commanded 9% of the vote. The three parties, ANC, MK and EFF, together are said to enjoy close to 65% of the black support but according to some observers, this does not bring them any closer to forming a coalition. President Ramaphosa has made it clear that any coalition agreement would have to be within the framework of the current constitution. This position sets it at variance with the MK and EFF, both of which want to see certain constitutional amendments. The MK, for its part, wants the constitution to be torn up so that South Africa becomes an "unfettered parliamentary democracy - something the ANC has ruled out. And the EFF is demanding a constitutional amendment so that white-owned land can be expropriated without compensation. South Africas governing African National Congress (ANC) is faced with a tricky dilemma as it looks to play its part in determining the future of the country. Could the way out of this dilemma be a Government of National Unity (GNU)? According to IMF estimates for 2024, South Africa is Africas largest economy with a nominal GDP of US$373.233 billion. (Reference: BBC, AP, The Citizen, Reuters) Left: Eye screening conducted by Dr. Melissa Kleman. Right: Person waiting patiently to be seen during the pre-screening process. In 1925, Helen Keller addressed a Lions Club International Convention and challenged Lions to be "knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness. Decades later, Vision has become one of the five core areas of service for the organization, the other four being: Diabetes, Hunger, Environment and Childhood Cancer. In fulfilling its commitment to address Vision problems, the Lions Club of Kingstown-SVG welcomed a 25-member mission of Eye Care specialists from the USA, for their annual Eye Care 4U project, which ran from May 26th-31st, 2024. During that period the team, comprised of highly skilled ophthalmologists, optometrists, surgery technicians, nurses and other related professional/volunteers, performed vision screening clinics and surgeries. The team successfully performed 101 cataract-related procedures and corneal transplants at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH), all at no costs to the patients. This notably included a corneal transplant on both eyes (bi-lateral surgery) for 11-year-old Shandean Brackin. Moreover, over 750 persons received free eye care/vision screenings, as well as blood pressure and glucose monitoring at the designated medical facility locate at the Community College Villa campus. Several outreach programmes were also facilitated including one at the St. Benedicts Day Nursery and Childrens Home. A home visit was also conducted to a 103-year-old lady of Kingstown Park. Follow-up visits and referrals were recommended where necessary, and reading and distance eye glasses provided free of charge. Each person was also provided with a pair of sunglasses. The annual collaboration has facilitated numerous ophthalmological interventions for patients over the years. Additionally, the medical teams, over the years, have made several tangible donations including eye glasses to patients, and medical equipment and supplies to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital. The May 26th-31st, 2024 visit of the USA Mobile Medical Mission to St. Vincent, in partnership with the Lions Club of Kingstown-SVG and the Ministry of Health, was the 48th such visit. The members of the Lions Club of Kingstown-SVG and the hundreds who benefited from the mission extend heartfelt thanks to the members of the Mobile Medical Mission for their selfless and professional service. Special thanks are also extended to sponsors: BOSVG, GECCU, St. Vincent Brewery Ltd., East Caribbean Bottlers Inc. (ECBI), Wilsons Enterprises, St. Vincent Corrugated Containers and to the individuals who in their own way contributed to the success of this mission. Severe flooding in Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul have prompted the postponement of the Bienal do Mercosul-one of the largest contemporary art exhibits in Latin America. Torrential rains from late April to early May have caused extensive flooding in southern Brazil, affecting 467 of the region's 497 municipalities, some of them completely submerged; displacing more than 580, 000 people; and causing nearly 170 deaths, some due to leptospirosis. 44 people remain missing. Floods have also caused structural damage to more than 50 of the region's 378 state-registered museums, and nearly a hundred municipalities have reported damage to archaeological sites, libraries, galleries, theatres and art and historical collections. Cultural casualties include a 120-year-old piano, as well as documents, books and photographs, at the Museu Historico Visconde de Sao Leopoldo-a museum dedicated to German immigration to Rio Grande do Sul. Originally scheduled for September in the state capital of Porto Alegre, the Bienal has been postponed tentatively to April 2025. Raphael Fonseca, the chief curator of the Fundacao Bienal do Mercosul, expressed his dismay on social media: "Words fail to convey the tragedy that has struck not only the city of Porto Alegre, but the entire state of Rio Grande do Sul... Seeing her underwater and with so many homeless people is a nightmare that will take time for the people in the area to recover from." Foundation president, Carmen Ferrao, expressed her conviction that the Bienal remains relevant in the face of such tragedy: "We believe in the transformative power of art. More than ever, the Bienal will represent a beacon of hope in the midst of everything that has happened. It will be an opportunity to highlight the resilience of a state in its reconstruction, resuscitating the artistic sector and attracting visitors back to the [state] capital." On the Bienal's website, it says: "The Bienal will take place at the right time to revive the artistic sector and attract visitors back to the Capital." (TBTCO) - Gia xang dau trong nuoc hom nay (10/10) uoc du bao co the uoc ieu chinh tang manh. Theo o, gia xang trong nuoc co the tang tu 950 - 1.250 ong/lit; gia dau diesel co kha nang tang khoang 820 - 1.050 ong/lit. Tren thi truong the gioi, gia dau giam sau khi du lieu cua Hoa Ky cho thay luong dau tho du tru tang, nhung muc giam bi han che boi rui ro gian oan nguon cung cua Iran do xung ot Trung ong va con bao Milton o Hoa Ky. Valu, Menas leading universal financial technology company, has launched Ulter, a revolutionary payment programme enabling customers to make sizeable purchases in the realm of luxury product acquisitions. Ulter prides itself on having the highest credit limit in the country, surpassing its peers by multiple folds. It offers flexible repayment plans spanning up to 60 months with no down payment, subject to the financed amount, providing customers unparalleled financial convenience and peace of mind. A launch event, titled 'Echoes of Luxury: Past Wonders Inspiring Modern Opulence, was held in collaboration with CulturVator by Art DEgypte, a renowned curator of art and culture events and experiences in the Mena region. New standard This exclusive event, held at the world's first architectural wonder, the Djoser Pyramid, amidst the golden sands of Saqqara, set a new standard for luxury and innovation in the Egyptian market. It celebrated the launch of Ulter in a majestic setting, creating an atmosphere of excitement and anticipation. It was attended by a select group of celebrities, socialites, renown business men and women, high-net-worth individuals, luxury product connoisseurs, financial professionals, and global media. The spectacular event brings together a lineup of distinguished guest speakers, each a luminary in their respective fields. This includes Angela Missoni, President of Missoni; Wafaa Hendawi, Brand Ambassador of Baccarat; Marcus Jocher from Christofle; Katiuscia Di Martino and Mehdi Benbrahim from Tiffany & Co. and globally renowned curator Giovanna Cicutto. These esteemed speakers, who have travelled to Egypt to share their expertise in bridging modern design with ancient art, culture, and heritage, offer an evening of unparalleled insight and inspiration. Their presence at the event underscores the significance of the launch of Ulter and its impact on the luxury financing landscape as well as the support it offers local luxury brands. The exclusive guest list comprised individuals from various sectors, creating a unique atmosphere celebrating Egypt's cultural heritage while propelling Ulter onto the international stage. The strategic partnership between Valu and CulturVator by Art DEgypte, aimed at promoting art, luxury, and cultural exchange, showcased a shared commitment to these values. This strong partnership reflects a vision of a vibrant and culturally rich Egypt, demonstrating the power of collaboration in achieving common goals. Redefining luxury shopping Valu's Ulter promises to redefine the luxury shopping experience in Egypt, offering a seamless and accessible financing solution for discerning customers looking to invest in high-value products. The company's commitment to innovation and collaboration has positioned itself as a trailblazer in the financial technology sector, setting new standards and creating unparalleled customer experiences. Ulter is designed to cater to the growing demand for flexible and convenient payment solutions for high value transactions across luxury goods, furniture, home finishing, travel, automotive, and marine transport, along with more lifestyle-enabling products and services. In conjunction with Ulters launch, Valu has joined forces with top-tier merchants in the luxury space. Walid Hassouna, CEO of Valu, commented: We are incredibly excited to launch our latest game-changer, Ulter, empowering customers to acquire coveted products and services offered by luxury brands and paying for high-value purchases without compromising their financial goals, by offering the highest credit limit in Egypt, surpassing all market peers by multiple folds. Worry-free ownership experience By choosing the historic site of Saqqara as the backdrop for this event, we aim to showcase Egypt's profound heritage to an exclusive audience of elite guests, high-net-worth clients, and prominent business figures. With an emphasis on flexibility and personalised customer care, Ulter will facilitate a worry-free ownership experience. This programme, where financial accessibility meets unparalleled craftsmanship and exclusive services to redefine lifestyle-enabling experiences, is a testament to our dedication to consistently exceeding our customers expectations through its carefully selected luxury brand partners and across Valus vast network, effectively elevating their overall experience. Ulter is a key step towards driving innovative solutions and providing end-to-end, customer-centric solutions that speak directly to luxury enthusiasts. Nadine Abdel Ghaffar, the Founder of CulturVator by Art DEgypte, said: We are thrilled to be working with Valu and extend a warm welcome to our esteemed guests at this exceptional celebration of human creativity and the enduring legacy of Imhotep's vision. This event delves deep into the profound influence of his work, exploring the crossroads of art, design, and societal progress. Visitors exploring the sands of Saqqara are invited to witness the fusion of ancient grandeur with contemporary creativity. This collaboration demonstrates our dedication to honoring Egypt's vibrant cultural heritage while nurturing innovative expressions in the modern era. Ulter brings together the expertise of Valu, the regions leading universal financial technology company, and some of the most prominent luxury merchants in the market. Valu plans to rapidly grow its luxury brand network further in the near future. The programme promises to enhance the luxury shopping and financing experience, enabling customers to acquire high value products and services from the featured partners and across Valu's expansive merchant network, with competitive financing rates and tenures.--TradeArabia News Service Egis, a leading international group in architecture, consulting, construction engineering, and mobility, has been awarded a contract to provide project implementation unit (PIU) support, contract management, and Construction Supervision Consulting services for the metro line extending from Abo Qir to Misr Station in Alexandria, Egypt. The line, named Abou Qir Metro, will stretch approximately 22km from Abo Qir to Misr Station. Furthermore, in partnership with the National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) and Engineering Consultants Group (ECG), the project aims to transform Alexandrias existing diesel train service into a modern electric metro system to significantly improve energy efficiency and provide a more efficient and sustainable transportation option for Alexandria residents. Egis will serve as the lead consultant for the project, providing services in several critical areas including PIU support where Egis will assist NAT in effectively managing the project, ensuring all phases are executed as planned, said a company spokesman. As per the deal Egis will oversee the contractual aspects of the project, ensuring smooth collaboration between all stakeholders and adherence to contractual obligations; and also provide on-site supervision of the construction activities to guarantee that the project meets the highest quality standards and is delivered on schedule, he stated. National Authority of Tunnels pointed out that its partnership with Egis on the transformative metro project forms a cornerstone of its commitment to enhancing urban mobility across Alexandria. This new metro line is a strategic endeavor to modernize our transportation infrastructure and promote sustainable, efficient travel options for citizens, it stated. Omar Benzaria, Regional Transportation Director, Egis Middle East & South Asia, said: "As we look to the future of urban mobility, the shift towards integrated, sustainable transit solutions becomes increasingly imperative." "This metro line project represents a significant part of this trend, showcasing how innovative engineering and strategic planning can redefine and future-proof urban landscapes. For Egis, this project allows us to ensure that new benchmarks are set for operational efficiency in public transportation, pioneering new strategies that cities around the world will replicate in the coming years," he added. Mohamed Ben Messaoud, the country managing director for Egis in Egypt, said: "With our brilliant local and international experts working on multiple projects, we ensure we meet the countrys vision for sustainable travel and smart urban development to the highest standards." "We are committed to supporting our Egyptian customers on their path to Vision 2030," he added.-TradeArabia News Service Avalon Pharma, one of the fastest-growing pharmaceutical companies in Saudi Arabia, has announced a key agreement with Al-Dawaa Medical Services Company (Dmsco), under which a range of essential medications required by the local market will be manufactured. Under the manufacturing agreement, the two companies will ensure the sustainable availability of the medications, while also preventing shortages, thereby ensuring the security of local pharmaceutical supply. The companies have pledged to work together to provide high-quality medications at competitive prices, helping to alleviate the financial burden on citizens and making medications more accessible. Both companies will strive to improve customer services in terms of distribution, delivery, and providing necessary information about the medications, which will positively impact both customers and suppliers. This collaboration reaffirms the ongoing support of both companies for the significant and rapid advancement of the healthcare sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is expected to enhance efficiency and quality, marking a significant step towards a bright future. Mohammed Maher Al-Ghannam, Managing Director and CEO of Avalon Pharma, said: "This strategic partnership with Dmsco marks a pivotal moment in our journey to support the Kingdom's healthcare objectives. By localising the production of essential medications, we are not only ensuring a sustainable supply, but also contributing to the overall economic and social wellbeing of our nation. We are excited about the positive impact it will have on the healthcare sector in Saudi Arabia." The agreement reflects Avalon Pharma's continued commitment to investing in growth and contributing to enhancing national drug and health security, in line with Saudi Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Program. The collaboration between Avalon Pharma and Dmsco supports Saudi Arabias ambitious initiatives geared towards localising the manufacturing of vital medications, thereby boosting Saudi Arabia's ability to achieve national drug and health security. Avalon Pharma aims to enhance its growth through innovative marketing strategies, achieving continued milestones such as registering new production lines in its factory, achieving profitability, and launching Avalon Pharmas fourth manufacturing facility in the kingdom. TradeArabia News Service The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE) has announced the designation of nine globally significant key biodiversity areas (KBA) in the UAE. Approved by the Key Biodiversity Areas Secretariat these areas are of strategic biological importance globally and are home to numerous endangered plants and animals. The project identifying the nine KBAs in the UAE was reviewed by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al ahyan, President of the UAE, yesterday during a meeting on the occasion of World Environment Day. Pioneering inititatives Sheikh Mohamed met with a group of young people, entrepreneurs and leaders in the field of environment who presented pioneering initiatives and ideas aligned with the UAEs approach to supporting sustainability through innovation. The nine newly appointed KBAs include the Arabian Oryx Protected Area in Abu Dhabi; the Marawah Marine Area in Abu Dhabi; Al Yasat Marine Area in Abu Dhabi; Al Marmoom Desert Conservation Reserve in Dubai; the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve; Wadi Al-Helo in Sharjah; Khor Fakan and Shark Island in Sharjah; Wadi Al-Bih in Ras Al Khaimah; and Siniyah Island and and Khor Al Beidah in Umm Al Quwain. This achievement highlights the UAEs global position in identifying practical solutions to enhance biodiversity by implementing nature-based solutions, thus effectively addressing a range of environmental and climatic challenges. It is the result of a collaboration between the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This milestone also underscores the active participation of competent authorities from the UAEs government and private sectors, along with the dedicated efforts of a team comprising 75 male and female national and resident personnel. The teams attended training sessions conducted by international experts and were guided by the Ministry to execute the project effectively. Global standard The designation of the nine KBAs was completed last year, following the global standard for identifying such areas. These sites have been officially published on the World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas. Dr Amna bint Abdullah Al Dahak, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, said that the UAE, under the leadership of Sheikh Mohamed, is committed to advancing progress and prosperity by playing a significant role in safeguarding our planet and ensuring its sustainability. This approach aligns with the vision of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who placed significant emphasis on environmental conservation. Dr Al Dahak said: The designation of nine globally significant key biodiversity areas in the UAE is the result of the nation's initiatives during the Year of Sustainability and its commitment to biodiversity conservation and nature protection. The UAE has demonstrated exceptional endeavours in protecting living creatures from extinction, both locally and globally. She added: The identification of these key biodiversity areas, alongside other nationwide initiatives, strengthen the UAEs position as a global leader in sustainability. It also underscores the importance of collaborative efforts with local and international partners to enhance the establishment and expansion of reserves that serve as an effective nature-based solution to address climate change. Such endeavours contribute to the development of sustainable societies and will enable future generations to understand the importance of nature in our lives. Crucial role Dr Al Dahak concluded: "Such conservation projects in the UAE play a crucial role in raising public awareness about the importance of biodiversity and mitigating the adverse impacts of its depletion. These projects are instrumental in informing and shaping policies that align with the UAE's economic objectives. With growing awareness and dedication, the UAE remains at the forefront of biodiversity protection efforts and is actively working to improve and rehabilitate natural habitats for a wide range of species, benefiting both current and future generations." She expressed her gratitude to the local and international stakeholders involved in the successful project to designate nine globally significant key biodiversity areas in the UAE. She emphasised that this achievement serves as a catalyst for ongoing endeavours to enhance conservation programmes aimed at safeguarding nature and preventing the extinction of rare species. This initiative represents a pioneering Emirati global experience in biodiversity conservation. Global and Regional Excellence The nine KBAs have several features that have positioned them among some of the most significant biodiversity sites regionally and globally. Two of these biodiversity sites have been identified for the Arabian Gazelle, the Arabian Sand Gazelle, and the Arabian Oryx. These are the first KBAs for these mammals in the world. The UAE is home to the largest number of Arabian oryx in the world, after being on the brink of extinction in the 1970s. The Arabian Oryx is found in both Al Marmoom Desert Conservation Reserve in Dubai and the Arabian Oryx Protected Area in Abu Dhabi. Additionally, two globally significant KBAs have been identified for the Dugong (sea cows). These sites are the first globally significant KBAs for sea cows in the Middle East. The UAE hosts the second largest gathering of sea cows in the world, found in both Al Yasat Marine and Marawah Marine areas. Furthermore, three KBAs for three endemic species of Geckos (Asaccus caudivolvulus, Asaccus margaritae and Ptyodactylus Ruusaljibalicus) were identified and these are the first KBAs for Reptiles in the UAE. Five of these key sites are fully protected, accounting for an average of 98% of the KBA area coverage by Protected Areas in the UAE." Biodiversity indicator The designation of KBAs contributes to raising the mean area that is protected in terrestrial sites important to biodiversity indicator from 51.55% to 98.08%, mean area that is protected in marine sites important to biodiversity indicator from 48.61% to 98.17%, and Average proportion of key biodiversity areas covered by protected areas, from 37.59% to 98.13%. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the world's leading environmental organisation and the largest global institution in terms of natural information. The IUCN operates in more than 160 countries and includes over 1400 members, including governments, governmental and non-governmental organisations, scientific bodies, and indigenous peoples' organisations. Key biodiversity areas play a crucial role in contributing to the protection of biodiversity from extinction and maintaining its stability. These sites provide a safe environment for many plant and animal species and support ecological balance by sustaining ecosystems and providing essential natural resources. Additionally, they offer natural environmental conservation such as air and water purification, soil quality improvement, carbon storage, and serve as a genetic resource for plants and animals.--TradeArabia News Service The UAE Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MoIAT), du from Emirates Integrated Telecommunication Company (EITC) and Emirates Development Bank (EDB) have signed an MoU to initiate the Transform 4.0 Programme. The programme will empower companies to adopt 4IR solutions, aiming to revolutionise the UAE's industrial sector by selecting 100 high-potential manufacturers and supporting them to join the digital age. The aim is to establish Industry 4.0 lighthouses within three-to-five-years. This initiative underlines a shared commitment to bolstering the nation's competitive edge through significant digital advancements. MIITE Forum This agreement was formalised at the Make it in the Emirates (MIITE) Forum, supporting the initiatives objective to enhance the UAEs manufacturing landscape. Tariq Al Hashmi, Acting Assistant Undersecretary for the Advanced Technology Sector at MoIAT, said: "In line with the objectives of the National Strategy of Industry and Advanced Technology, in particular in the area of 4IR adoption, the Transform 4.0 Programme is a testament to the UAE's proactive and forward-thinking approach to embracing the potential of Industry 4.0. It underscores our dedication to enhancing the capabilities of our manufacturing sector, ensuring that it remains at the forefront of technological innovation and efficiency. He added: This initiative, launched in line with the Technology Transformation Programme, highlights our commitment to creating an ecosystem that supports and accelerates the digital transformation of our industries, contributing to the nation's economic diversification. Through this programme, we will leverage dus approach and its tailored digital transformation solutions that are capable of elevating national industrial competitiveness." At the core At the core of the programme is the intent to leverage dus unique in-house consult-to-operate approach, offering tailored digital transformation solutions that promise to elevate the national manufacturing sectors competitiveness and competency. Jasim Al Awadi, Chief ICT Officer at du, said: "Todays agreement marks the beginning of a transformational journey for the UAE's industrial sector. With the Transform 4.0 Programme, du is committed to leveraging our in-house expertise and pioneering digital solutions to empower manufacturers, fostering innovation and excellence. Together, with our esteemed partners, we are setting the stage for a new era of industry 4.0 in the UAE, leading the way towards a future where digital transformation drives sustainable growth and competitive advantage." The partnership will provide a robust support system for eligible manufacturers, encompassing advisory and implementation services, competitive financing rates in partnership with Emirates Development Bank, and comprehensive programme governance all at no cost to the participants. This integrated approach ensures that manufacturers are not only selected but also fully equipped and supported through their transformation journey. Importance of partnerships Shaker Zainal, Chief Business Officer of EDB, commented: "At EDB, we recognise the importance of strategic partnerships as a catalyst for economic growth and industrial innovation. We are proud to spearhead this transformative initiative, providing the essential financial foundation to propel our manufacturers into the future. Through Transform 4.0, we are not only equipping our manufacturers with cutting-edge innovations and robust financial support but also consolidating the UAE's position as a global leader in industrial excellence. Manufacturing is one of EDB's top five priority sectors, and this initiative underscores our commitment to technological advancements and sustainable growth within the industry. With a meticulously structured framework, the Transform 4.0 Programme promises to offer significant qualitative and quantitative value to participants, paving the way for a new era of manufacturing excellence in the UAE. Through this initiative, the programme's stakeholders aim to bolster the UAE's position as a global hub for innovation and industrial prowess.--TradeArabia News Service SCG International Corporation Co has signed an MoU with Tamimi Markets, to introduce Premium Thai and Asian flavours to the Saudi Arabian market under the Siam Signature brand. This partnership is set to influence the food and beverage sector in Saudi Arabia profoundly. This initiative marks a significant milestone in SCG International's ambitious strategy to expand into the SAMEA region (South Asia, Middle East, and Africa) building on its successful ventures in construction materials and now advancing into the food and beverage industry. As the newly appointed sole distributor in Saudi Arabia, SCG International will leverage Tamimi Markets' extensive distribution network to deliver the products to over 32 locations across Saudi Arabia initially. The partnership will also involve consolidating and supplying food and beverage products to Tamimi Markets, along with providing regulatory assistance to ensure compliance with local regulations, thereby enhancing the efficiency of the supply chain. The agreement between SCG International and Tamimi Group was formalised with Abhijit Datta, Managing Director of SCG International, and Abdullah AlMutrif, Vice President of Tamimi Group, and accentuated by the presence of Wiroat Rattanachaisit, President of SCG Smart Living Business, underscoring its strategic importance. Thai fusion food Datta said: "SCG International and Tamimi Markets work extremely hard, and this ceremony is a result of their efforts. The vision of SCG International is to be a trusted international supply chain so this partnership will strive to bring Siam Signature brand Premium Asian Selection products, with their high potential and variety of Thai fusion food, into the KSA. I hope this MoU opens the door for further collaboration with Tamimi Markets Company and also with Tamimi Global Company to build a strong network." "Saudi Arabia and Thailand share a rich history and a robust private sector that is essential to the growth of both nations. I believe this is the perfect time for Thai companies to enter the Saudi Arabian market. While the Saudi market presents a prime opportunity, we must aim beyond that. The Saudi market is eager for dynamic connections and innovation, and we are committed to meeting this demand. Our alliance with SCG International positions us to achieve great success together," said Abdullah AlMutrif, Vice President of Tamimi Group. This partnership underscores SCG International's commitment to expanding its global footprint and contributing to the economic growth and development of the Saudi Arabian market. Through this collaboration, both companies aim to deliver exceptional value and drive mutual success in the region.--TradeArabia News Service Bahri, the National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia and a global leader in logistics and shipping, has exhibited its world-class capabilities and solutions at Posidonia 2024, one of the worlds biggest shipping exhibitions. Held under the theme Powering Ahead from June 3 to 7, 2024, at the Athens Metropolitan Expo, this biennial event was a convergence point for maritime professionals, renowned shipping companies, innovators, and pioneering industry leaders from around the globe. Leveraging this pivotal platform, Bahri showcased its extensive capabilities and advanced solutions across six business units: Bahri Oil, Bahri Integrated Logistics, Bahri Chemicals, Bahri Dry Bulk, Bahri Ship Management, and Bahri Marine. The company's dedicated booth at the exhibition site facilitated networking with global counterparts, exploring partnership and business opportunities, and engaging with other stakeholders. Tech leadership Bahri's participation at Posidonia 2024 aimed to tap into Greece's shipping industry and highlight its technological leadership and exceptional offerings in the shipping and logistics spheres to a global audience. As a hub of the worlds largest shipping community, Greece is also a top ship-owning nation, operating 21% of the international and 59% of the European capacity, underscoring the significance of this global event. Organised under the auspices of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs & Insular Policy, the Hellenic Chamber of Shipping, and the Union of Greek Shipowners, with the support of the Municipality of Piraeus and the Greek Shipping Co-operation Committee, Posidonia 2024 attracted over 2,030 exhibitors from 82 countries, showcasing their unique offerings and capabilities.--TradeArabia News Service Cloudflare has expanded its Regional Services to Saudi Arabia and 18 other new regions. The new regions Cloudflare is launching include: Austria, Brazil, Cloudflare Green Energy, Exclusive of Hong Kong and Macau, Exclusive of Russia and Belarus, France, Hong Kong, Italy, NATO, Netherlands, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, US State of California, US State of Florida, US State of Texas. Bashar Bashaireh, Managing Director of Middle East & Turkiye at Cloudflare, explains: The pressure to localise data persists. Several countries have laws requiring data localisation in some form, public-sector contracting requirements in many countries require their vendors to restrict the location of data processing, and some customers are reacting to geopolitical developments by seeking to exclude data processing from certain jurisdictions. Thats why Cloudflare is excited today to announce the first step in a longer journey to help customers meet their specific requirements for being able to control where their traffic is handled by expanding the vendors existing ecosystem with nineteen new regions including Saudi Arabia. Legal obligations Cloudflare generally determines new Regional Services offerings based on what it is hearing from customers about their legal obligations. Some of them need to have data to stay in a particular jurisdiction, while others need data to avoid certain jurisdictions. In response to these needs, the company developed a number of Regional Services offerings that restrict inspection of data to only those data centres within jurisdictional boundaries, such as Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Switzerland. And it has also listened to customers who are eager to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability by offering its Cloudflare Green Energy region, which limits inspection of data to those data centres that are committed to powering their operations with renewable energy. Cloudflares framework for data localisation Over the course of the next year, customers are going to see a lot of new and exciting ways to use Cloudflare products to help keep their data local. While the company continues to believe that data localisation should not be a proxy for privacy and that restrictions on cross border data transfers are harmful to global commerce, it remains committed to supporting those enterprises who need data localisation solutions to address legal obligations and risk tolerance. Unfortunately, many different cloud providers have decided that the best way to meet the compliance needs of their customers is to create fixed infrastructure deployments called Sovereign Clouds. The trouble with these infrastructure deployments is that companies have to commit all of its traffic to be regionalised, regardless of whether all of that traffic actually needs to be confined to a specific data centre in a specific region. What if there was a better way forward that lets enterprises regionalise exactly what they need to, without having to localise everything, giving them the best of compliance and performance? What would customers build if they could localise the APIs that handled private customer information, while also serving their static assets globally? How could the compliance and privacy of customers' Zero Trust deployments be increased if they are allowed to choose where their security processing occurred? What if they could define custom regions, and apply those regions to specific hostnames and Cloudflare products while also being able to use BYOIP or Static IP? Software defined regionalisation Cloudflare calls this approach software defined regionalisation (SDR) and it believes that is the future of data localisation. Using the companys global network as the foundation, SDR allows customers to make exceptionally granular choices about what traffic to regionalise and where to regionalise it. This empowers customers to build applications that are fast, reliable, and compliant without having to deploy new physical infrastructure or have multiple cloud deployments for the same application. Taking it a step further, SDR allows customers to shape Cloudflare to meet their needs today, and tomorrow. It gives the flexibility to quickly respond to new challenges in a rapidly changing world. By making localisation choices in software, enterprises are not bound by the physical constraints of their existing network geography or the locations of their cloud deployments. How Regional Services ensures data is processed in the correct region Complying with data localisation requirements isn't possible without strong encryption; otherwise, anyone could snoop on customers' data, regardless of where it's stored. Strong encryption is the foundation of Regional Services. Data is often described as being "in transit" and "at rest". It's critically important that both are encrypted. In transit, Cloudflare can enforce that all traffic uses modern TLS and gets the highest level of encryption possible. It can also enforce that all traffic back to customers' origin servers is always encrypted. Communication between all of the vendors edge and core data centres is always encrypted. Cloudflare encrypts all of the data it handles at rest, with disk-level encryption. From cached files on the companys edge network, to configuration state in databases in its core data centres every byte is encrypted at rest. How then can Cloudflare also regionalise the traffic if its encrypted? All of the companys data centres advertise the same IP addresses through Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). Whichever data centre is closest to the customers from a network point of view is the one that an end user will hit. Volumetric DDoS This is great for two reasons. The first is that the closer the data centre is to an eyeball, the faster the reply. The second great benefit is that this comes in very handy when dealing with large DDoS attacks. Volumetric DDoS attacks throw a lot of bogus traffic at a particular application, which overwhelms network capacity. Cloudflare's anycast network is great at taking on these attacks because they get distributed across the entire network, and mitigated close to where they originate. Anycast doesn't respect regional borders it doesn't even know about them. Which is why, out of the box, Cloudflare can't guarantee that traffic from inside a country will also be serviced there. Typically, requests hit a data centre inside the originating country, but its possible that the users Internet Service Provider will send traffic to a network that might route it to a different country. Regional Services solves that: when turned on, each data centre becomes aware of which regional services-defined boundary it is operating in. If a user hits a Cloudflare data centre that doesn't match the region that the customer has selected, the company simply forwards the raw TCP stream in encrypted form. Once it reaches a data centre inside the right region, it decrypts and applies all of its Layer 7 products. This covers products such as CDN, WAF, Bot Management, and Workers. Cloudflares Regional Services for the new regions became available for early access on May 9th, 2024, and the company plans to have them generally available in June 2024.--TradeArabia News Service Microsoft is empowering developer communities across the region to create and deliver the next generation of differentiated Artificial Intelligence (AI) experiences with a host of new product launches and feature updates. New updates across Microsofts Azure AI Services include Azure AI Studio now being generally available as a key component of the Microsoft Copilot stack. In addition, GPT-4o, OpenAIs latest flagship model, is now available in Azure AI Studio and as an API. This groundbreaking multimodal model integrates text, images, and audio processing to set a new standard for generative and conversational AI experiences. Also, Phi-3-vision, a new multimodal model in the Phi-3 family of AI small language models (SLMs) developed by Microsoft, is now available in preview in Azure. Microsoft Fabric Microsoft is also empowering developers to get the most of their data and make more informed decision through updates in Microsoft Fabric. Real-Time Intelligence, currently in preview, within Microsoft Fabric is designed to empower everyday analysts with simple low-code/no-code experiences, as well as pro developers with code-rich user interfaces to act on high volume, time-sensitive and highly granular data in a proactive and timely fashion. Also in preview is the Microsoft Fabric Workload Development Kit, a set of tools designed to extend applications within Fabric, creating a unified user experience for developers and independent software vendors (ISVs). As part of Microsofts mission to support professionals to spend less time on mundane and repetitive tasks and instead focus on more strategic and fulfilling work, the company has also unveiled a series of updates and features to its Copilot stack, starting with Team Copilot. The solution expands Copilot for Microsoft 365 from a behind-the-scenes personal AI assistant to work on behalf of a team, greatly improving collaboration and project management. Microsoft Copilot Studio New capabilities in Microsoft Copilot Studio have also been introduced to support developers in building custom copilots that act as agents which can respond proactively to specific data and events. GitHub is also introducing the first set of GitHub Copilot extensions, developed by Microsoft and third-party partners, in private preview to allow developers to customise their GitHub Copilot experience with their preferred services like Azure, Docker, Sentry and more directly within GitHub Copilot Chat. Frank X Shaw, Chief Communications Officer at Microsoft, said: Since it was first released, Copilot has emerged as a game-changer for many people and organisations across industries, empowering them to improve their efficiency, enhance customer experiences, and tackle complex tasks. Over the past year, weve built Microsoft Copilot and released more than 150 updates to it, and weve developed the Copilot stack, which takes everything weve learned so far and lets developers build their own copilots. And now, as we enter a new phase of innovation where Copilot begins to take more action on behalf of individuals and teams, we are introducing a number of expansions and capabilities to further empower developers to create highly intelligent Copilots that are tailored to their unique and individual needs. To ensure that developers are able to run demanding AI and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads like Azure OpenAI Service, a new Cobalt 100 Arm-based virtual machine (VM), based on Microsofts custom silicon series announced in November 2023, is now in preview, and the new Azure ND MI300X v5 VM is now generally available. These announcements build on Microsofts earlier launch of Copilot+ PCs, a new category of intelligent Windows PCs designed exclusively for AI. With powerful new silicon capable of 40+ trillion operations per second (TOPS), allday battery life, and access to the large language models (LLMs) running in Microsoft Azure Cloud in concert with small language models (SLMs), Copilot+ PCs are able to achieve a level of performance never seen before. New set of experiences Copilot+ PCs also unlock a new set of experiences for users such as instantly finding what they have seen or done on their PC with Recall, generating and refining AI images in near real-time directly on the device using Cocreator, bridging language barriers with Live Captions, and translating audio from 40+ languages into English. These experiences come to life on a set of thin and light devices from Microsoft Surface and our OEM partners Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung. Pre-orders for the devices, which start from $999, are open, with general availability starting on June 18, 2024. Together with the latest features announced at Build 2024, the devices will be at the forefront of making Windows the most open platform for AI and the best place for developers.--TradeArabia News Service Tabreed, a leading district cooling company, said in a report that its operations reduced overall energy consumption by 2.52 billion kWh equivalent to powering more than 143,000 homes which, in turn, prevented 1.5 million metric tonnes of CO2 emissions, which equates to removing 330,000 vehicles from the road. Citing its fourth annual Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report for 2023, published on June 6, Emirates News Agency, WAM, said that Tabreed had an overwhelmingly positive environmental impact during 2023, with renewable energy becoming a permanent fixture in the companys operations. In partnership with Adnoc, Tabreed designed, built and commissioned G2COOL, the regions first district cooling plant to be powered using renewable geothermal energy from deep underground. The plant plays an important new role in decarbonising the way buildings are cooled in Abu Dhabis Masdar City, while diversifying the countrys energy mix in support of the UAE National Energy Strategy 2050. In a further renewable energy initiative, in 2023, Tabreed purchased 116,000 MWh of solar-sourced Clean Energy Certificates (CECs) from the Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC), demonstrating its commitment to a diverse energy mix. These CECs are equivalent to the amount of energy required to cool prominent locations such as Masdar City, Raha Beach, and key attractions on Yas Island. The report further highlighted that Tabreed joined a highly anticipated carbon credits trading pilot by Dubai Financial Market (DFM), which saw 24 of the UAEs most esteemed companies and developers taking part, including Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), DP World, Dubai Municipality, Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Emirates NBD and Majid Al Futtaim. The carbon credits traded on DFM were supplied by DEWA, First Abu Dhabi Bank and MyCarbon, coming from internationally certified carbon projects around the world. Tabreed spent 2023 being increasingly active in the community, through a range of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. For instance, assisting startups and young entrepreneurs working on climate solutions, the company sponsored and partnered with HUB71+ climateTECH and, during the Holy Month of Ramadan, Tabreed partnered with Emirates Red Crescent to provide many thousands of meals to underprivileged members of the community. Closer to home, in a move designed to improve the work/life balance for Tabreeds staff, remote workday allowances were increased by 50% and a personal hours policy was introduced. In short, said Khalid Al Marzooqi, Tabreeds CEO, this incredible, visionary company spent 2023 reaffirming its reputation as an undeniable force for good. Good for our customers, our investors, our staff, our communities and our environment. I am immensely proud to lead Tabreed and look forward to even greater achievements in the years to come. Wego, a leading travel app and the largest online travel marketplace in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), has announced its partnership with Spain Tourism Office for the summer campaign under the theme, Vibrant Summers of Spain. This initiative invites travellers to delve into the rich culture, landscapes, and vibrant nightlife of Spain, including its picturesque islands, sun-kissed beaches, historic landmarks, and culinary choices. Wego and Spain Tourism Office campaign is designed to offer travellers an immersive experience, and unique accommodations that epitomise Spanish hospitality. "This campaign not only showcases the diverse offerings of Spain during its most vibrant season but also strengthens the bond between Wego and Spain Tourism Office, reinforcing our commitment to providing exceptional travel experiences," said Mamoun Hmedan, Chief Business Officer of Wego. "Spain in the summer is a feast for the senses, and we're excited to help travellers create lasting memories." Vibrant Summers of Spain promises experiences that include a stroll through the historic streets of Barcelona, basking on the world-renowned beaches of Ibiza, or exploration of the cultural tapestry of Madrid. Daniel Rosado, Director of Spain Tourism GCC, said: Summer in Spain will delight the middle east travellers with its perfect blend of leisure activities, attractive lifestyle and its massive heritage. Travellers have the chance to explore the must-visit destinations such as Seville, Granada, and Valencia. Unique accommodations from boutique hotels to luxurious resorts and traditional Spanish villas provide a true taste of Spain's spirit of hospitality. Curated experiences, including flamenco dancing classes in Seville, tapas tours in Madrid, and private yacht trips around the Balearic Islands, offer a deeper connection to the local culture. Spain's summer is not just a season; it's a celebration of life, culture, and adventure. From the architectural marvels of Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona to the tranquil beaches of Costa del Sol, there is something for everyone. TradeArabia News Service Its sad. Its hurts me. Although she was not born in Arima, or from Arima, her heart was f A. David Lynd, CEO of Shavano Park real estate firm the Lynd Co., said it was an economic decision to settle a $90 million lawsuit for $375,000 rather than go to trial. Courtesy of the Lynd Co. Shavano Park real estate firm Lynd Co. and a related business have paid $375,000 to settle a federal lawsuit alleging that they committed fraud in the sale of a disinfectant purported to kill the coronavirus. New Yorks AHBP LLC had sued Lynd Co. and Bio Supplies LLC, described in the complaint as Lynd Co.s cleaning supply business, in 2022 in San Antonio, seeking more than $90 million in damages plus unspecified costs, attorneys fees and interest. The case had been set to go to a jury trial in December after five postponements. Advertisement Article continues below this ad A. David Lynd, CEO of Lynd Co., had predicted that the case would be dismissed. Look at it at its face value: Somebody sued somebody for $90 million $90 million! and ended up having it end at $300,000 something, Lynd said Thursday. You can draw your own conclusions as to what happened to that case. Yes, I thought it would be dismissed, but at the end of the day, Im a victim of the U.S. legal system, he said. Thats the way it works. You can sue anybody you want for anything you want. It just comes down to an economic decision for whether you want the issue to go away, or do you want to fight it and spend double or triple the amount of money to wind up with a dismissal? As the pandemic spread in summer 2020, AHBP said in its complaint, Bio Supplies granted it exclusive license to sell the disinfectant in Argentina. But AHBP alleged that the product could not destroy the coronavirus and would not meet the Argentine governments standards to be sold in the country. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Bio Supplies provided fraudulent, doctored laboratory reports that grossly and falsely exaggerated the efficacy of the product, AHBP alleged. Lynd Co. sought the cases dismissal, but U.S District Judge Xavier Rodriguez allowed AHBP to proceed on five of its six claims. The parties reached a confidential settlement April 4, but AHBP revealed the settlement amount in a May 13 court filing that alleged that the defendants had failed to pay the $375,000 within a month. Lynd Co.s lawyer responded that the settlement was paid May 28. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Jimmie Tramel Tulsa World Scene Writer Follow Jimmie Tramel Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today Tito Jackson, a new Claremore resident and member of the legendary Jackson 5 music group, will provide the keynote address at the Claremore Museum of Historys annual Juneteenth gathering. The free and open-to-the-public event will begin at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 15, at John Smith Gymnasium, 121 N. Weenonah Ave. in Claremore. At approximately 3 p.m., a reception will follow at the Claremore Museum of History. A news advisory said Jackson will explore the significance of Juneteenth as a powerful symbol of freedom and resilience for the African American community. He will share his experiences in the ongoing struggle for equality and justice, along with his personal connection to the Tulsa Race Massacre through his uncle, Dr. Samuel Jackson. Daneka Allen, a former Miss Oklahoma, and Kendrick Oakley, pastor of DestinyLife Church, will be part of the event. Artifacts celebrating Claremores Black history at the museum include memorabilia and a historical summary of Lincoln High School, Claremores all-Black school that operated for 50-plus years prior to integration. Visitors can also watch videos of William Snoddy Jr. (son of one of the first Black students to graduate from Claremore High School and Olympic qualifying track-and-field sprinter), interviews with local citizens on the importance of the exhibit, excerpts from an interview with Ronald Johnson (first Black Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper) and discussions with Claremores presidential-appointed judge, C. Darnell Jones II. The Tulsa World is where your story lives Mark Christofferson pulled up to the hospital, jumped out of the car and raced inside for help. "My wife doesn't feel good," he told the nurses. "I have no idea what's going on, but I think it might be a heart attack." A few hours before, Marcie Westwater had gone to fetch the mail at the Phoenix office she shared with her husband. Having gone on a strenuous hike the day before, going down four flights of stairs, then back up, should've been a breeze. But this left her feeling pressure and hot and cold sensations in her chest. Westwater had never had COVID-19; is this what it feels like, she wondered. She hoped a nap would help. Christofferson was driving her home when she realized something far more serious was happening and told him to take her to the hospital. He made the 2.5-mile drive as fast as possible. And now, hospital staff were following him back out to the car. Westwater was unresponsive in the back seat. Caregivers placed her on a stretcher and started chest compressions while she was still in the parking lot. Once she was in the hospital, doctors shocked her with a defibrillator three times to restore her normal heart rhythm. The cardiologist wanted as much information from Christofferson as possible to make a diagnosis: Had Westwater been drinking, smoking, using drugs? No, no and no. Westwater spent her free time hiking and doing yoga. She was a healthy, active 53-year-old woman. Westwater was diagnosed with spontaneous coronary artery dissection, or SCAD, a tear in the wall of an artery that slows or blocks blood flow to the heart. She had an 80% blockage in a coronary artery, prompting a procedure to insert a stent to restore proper blood flow. The problems, however, continued. Westwater's heart wasn't strong enough to pump enough blood and oxygen to her brain and other vital organs, a condition called cardiogenic shock. Doctors inserted a temporary artificial heart pump to maintain blood flow to prevent heart and organ failure and neurological damage. She woke up in the intensive care unit the following morning. Doctors explained what happened. The nurses who went in and out of the room checking her vitals and administering medications called her a "miracle." "I just smiled," Westwater said. "I couldn't begin to express my gratitude at the time, but I remember feeling a sense of hope." Although Westwater was grateful to be alive, she worried that the damage to her heart might limit her. She wanted to go snowboarding with her kids, hike the rim of the Grand Canyon and go on a yoga retreat in Costa Rica. On Dec. 10, 2022, four days after she was admitted to the hospital, Westwater was discharged with instructions to begin cardiac rehabilitation. Compared to her pre-SCAD workout routine, cardiac rehab was basic. That was a good thing. "I needed the confidence that my heart would hold up and to be in an environment where I got feedback on (a heart monitor) to see how far I could push myself," she said. Westwater connected with other SCAD survivors. Learning about their physical and emotional journeys to recovery helped. Three months after she was discharged from the hospital, Westwater resumed all of her favorite activities. Doctors said she bounced back quickly because of how fit she'd been before her cardiac event. Now, more than a year since getting that green light, she spends her free time snowboarding, practicing yoga and hiking. She even learned to wake surf with family friends last summer. She also has a new perspective on all the activities she enjoyed before her heart attack. "I didn't realize it at the time," Westwater said, "but I had been training for the greatest unexpected medical event of my life." Editor's note: While the circumstances of this story involved a car trip to the hospital, the American Heart Association recommends calling 911 for an ambulance in the event of a cardiac emergency. Stories From the Heart chronicles the inspiring journeys of heart disease and stroke survivors, caregivers and advocates. covers heart and brain health. Not all views expressed in this story reflect the official position of the American Heart Association. Copyright is owned or held by the American Heart Association, Inc., and all rights are reserved. President Franklin D. Roosevelt made a surprise -- and, at least officially, secret -- visit to Tulsa in 1943 to inspect production of war planes at the Douglas Aircraft Co. plant here. Because of wartime censorship, newspapers weren't allowed to publish anything until two days after Roosevelt's visit, but editors knew about the trip. And the public could have surmised that a high-ranking official was coming. Secret Service agents had been in Tulsa for several days before the April 19 visit to check out safety issues, including Douglas employees likely to come into contact with the president, and to plan every detail of the visit. Weekend leaves for soldiers stationed at Camp Gruber had been canceled, and squads of soldiers from Gruber had been stationed along the railroad route and at highway bridges from there to Tulsa and inside the huge Douglas plant. Gov. Robert S. Kerr and his wife had arrived on an unannounced visit to Tulsa on Sunday night. Roosevelt's visit was an "open" secret until Gov. Kerr announced it in time for the World's April 21 editions. The derailment of a Chicago-to-Tulsa Santa Fe passenger train, "The Tulsan," at the Lansing Avenue crossing on Sunday night caused a great deal of concern for the Secret Service. It was decided that the derailment had no connection with the president's impending visit and plans continued. However, when Roosevelt's seven-car special train left Douglas after his 75-minute tour of the bomber plant, a buffer engine proceeded along the track in front of his train to be sure it was safe. Roosevelt's train had arrived on a track spur at Douglas at 9:45 a.m. and departed precisely at 11, forcing some of the Secret Service agents to run to get back on. Accompanied by Kerr, Plant Manager H.O. Williams and Douglas Vice President F.W. Conant, Roosevelt, unable to walk because of polio, rode through the bomber plant in his convertible automobile with the top down beneath the wings of four-engine B-24 Liberator bombers and along the wing tips of hundreds of SBD Dauntless dive bombers, the two airplanes assembled at the plant. He talked with only one worker, Otis Smallwood, who gave Roosevelt a model of a Douglas-built plane and who had been chosen by other employees to represent them. Roosevelt told Smallwood that the nation was counting on employees of Douglas for war planes that were badly needed. Kerr's announcement said Roosevelt was happy with what he saw at the plant. Kerr refused to reveal the subject of a 10-minute private visit with Roosevelt and would not comment on whether it concerned the possibility of his seeking a fourth term in office. Roosevelt came to Tulsa as part of a tour of military bases and war production plants. Before arriving in Tulsa, he had visited Camp Robinson in Arkansas and had spent the night at Camp Gruber near Braggs. His train was scheduled to go from Tulsa to Oklahoma City, but plans changed and it headed south from Sapulpa to Monterrey, Mexico, where Roosevelt conferred with Mexican President Avila Camacho. It was Roosevelt's second visit to Oklahoma. The first was in 1938 when he came to campaign for the re-election of Sen. Elmer Thomas, but he deviated from his text and also praised Thomas's political foe, Gov. E.W. Marland. In addition, Roosevelt took a potshot at former Gov. William H. "Alfalfa Bill" Murray and snubbed 1st District U.S. Rep. Wesley Disney, who was on the platform with the president and several other Oklahoma politicians at the July 9 event. The president's appearance at Fairgrounds Park in Oklahoma City was his fifth in Oklahoma during that campaign trip. Roosevelt had made platform talks during brief stops at Wister, McAlester, Holdenville and Shaw nee before arriving in Oklahoma City. Gov. Marland, who was running against Thomas for the Senate seat, had called on Oklahomans on the eve of Roosevelt's visit not to "surrender" to the president at the polls. "It's a question whether Oklahoma wants to assert its constitutional right to select its own senator or whether it wants to surrender that right to the chief executive," Marland had said. Despite Marland's blast, the president included the governor and Sen. Josh Lee in his "few kind words" that had been scheduled for Thomas. He made his praise of Thomas a bit stronger, however, saying "Sen. Thomas has been of enormous help in keeping me informed of the needs of the people of Oklahoma." Deviating from his text, Roosevelt referred to Democrat Murray as a "nationally known Republican." Disney, a Tulsa Democrat, was astounded because Roosevelt failed to mention him and credited Thomas and Lee for the Grand River Dam. Disney said that "the only thing Thomas ever did was to oppose the dam." Disney said he had spent seven years working on funding for the dam and Lee "never knew anything about it." He also pointed out that Thomas had said a few months earlier that Disney deserved all the credit for the dam because he (Thomas) had nothing to do with it. It was one of the most unusual elections in Oklahoma history. The 1937 Legislature had abolished the runoff primary election, which meant party candidates were chosen by straight pluralities at the July primary. And two former governors were candidates for governor -- the colorful Murray, who served from 1931-35, and Jack Walton, who was impeached and convicted in 1923 after serving less than a year of his term. Walton was serving as corporation commissioner when he ran in 1938. Roosevelt's endorsement may have helped Thomas win re-election. He ran far ahead of his nearest competitor, Gomer Smith of Oklahoma City, who had been endorsed by the World in a front-page editorial on the same front page that reported FDR's visit. Marland ran a distant third. Thomas had a Republican opponent in November but defeated him by a large margin. Leon C. "Red" Phillips of Okemah won the Democratic nomination (and election) for governor. Murray came in third, and Walton ran a distant fourth. Like this column? Read all the columns in the Only in Oklahoma series from the Tulsa World Archive. Joyce and Greg Husens daughter, Dr. Stephanie Husen, was killed on June 1, 2022, in a mass shooting in the Saint Francis medical building where she worked. From day one, people knocked on the Husens door and asked, What can we do? The answer isnt short, but it can be summarized: Get educated about the dangers of gun violence. Although the pain of their loss continues, the Husen family gathered the strength to become advocates of gun violence prevention, not only to keep their daughters memory alive but to keep the same thing from happening to other families. We have tried to educate ourselves, and putting time into this is healing for us, Joyce Husen said. We have a problem, and we need to address it. The family is raising awareness of the impact of gun violence through an art exhibit June 7-29. Artivism: Art Revealing The Gunfire Epidemic will feature 700 origami boxes serving as a visual representation of the many individuals and families affected by gun violence. Beth Husen, Stephanie Husens sister-in-law, started the Oklahoma chapter of The Soul Box Project, a nationwide effort to use art in raising awareness of the U.S. gunfire epidemic by counting and honoring victims. The exhibition kickoff for the Soul Boxes coincides with Wear Orange Weekend, the first Friday in June, when people are encouraged to wear orange in honor of those killed by guns. Its an opportunity for people to show that they care, the Husens said. During Wear Orange Weekend last year, the Husens worked with officials across Tulsa to get orange lights on local buildings and landmarks. This weekend, the Gathering Place, Guthrie Green, Philbrook Museum, Bixby Harmony Bridge, the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, Scissortail Park in Oklahoma City and the Tulsa Historical Society will light up in orange. Members of the community may request to use the Soul Boxes in events promoting gun safety awareness. Beth Husen said her goal is for people to continue to use the Soul Box Project as a way to tell peoples stories and make the issue visible and personal. We just want people to realize that theyre not numbers and that this is an epidemic, Beth Husen said. We want to touch hearts to realize that maybe they do need to lock up their gun safer, that they should not reach for that gun in anger. Were hoping to get them to be more aware that these are all people and they all should still be here. After starting with the project in February, the Husens held a few box-making gatherings with family members, friends and even some strangers who have demonstrated interest in the advocacy effort. This is about art and people, Greg Husen said. This is approaching the epidemic from a much less polarized place and hoping it changes your heart and mind and that maybe someone will say, I should go home and lock up my guns. Maybe I should go talk to my kids about gun safety. More than 28,000 people have been killed or injured by a gun in 2024, according to GunViolenceArchive.org. Joyce and Greg Husen are determined not to let what happened to their daughter happen to other families. Greg Husen said people tend to hear about a mass shooting, feel sad about it, and then move on with their day, and he said that has to change. He said Stephanie Husen would be the first one to tell them to fight for what is not taken care of. The Husens said their daughter always woke up with a smile, no matter what problems she was going through. When it becomes personal, your life does not move on, Greg Husen said. Somehow weve got to make it personal before other people lose their daughter. Enough is enough. 'Artivism: Art Revealing The Gunfire Epidemic' Visitors can check out the Soul Boxes from 6-10 p.m. Friday at Guthrie Green, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Philbrook Museum or at Circle Cinema from June 10-29. The Tulsa World is where your story lives Vietnam resolutely opposes the illegal survey operations performed by Chinas Hai Yang 26 vessel in Vietnamese waters in the East Vietnam Sea and demands that China stop these activities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Thursday. Pham Thu Hang, spokeswoman for the ministry, made the announcement at a press briefing in Hanoi in response to reporters queries regarding the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Navy survey vessel Hai Yang 26 conducting illegal survey activities in Vietnamese waters in the East Vietnam Sea. Hang said that Vietnam has repeatedly communicated with China regarding such illegal operations. She emphasized that Vietnam is extremely concerned about, and resolutely objects to, the unlawful survey activities of Chinas Hai Yang 26 vessel in Vietnams exclusive economic zone and continental shelf as established under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 1982. Vietnam requests that China cease such illicit activities, refrain from repeating such actions in the future, fully respect Vietnam's sovereign rights and jurisdiction in line with international law, and adhere to UNCLOS 1982 and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Vietnam Sea (DOC), stated Hang. China should seriously implement high-level conceptions reached by Vietnamese and Chinese leaders on better control and settlement of maritime disputes to maintain the development momentum of bilateral relations and contribute to peace and stability in the East Vietnam Sea positively and responsibly, the spokeswoman said. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Truong My Lan, a Vietnamese property tycoon who was sentenced to death in a US$27 billion fraud case, has been accused of new charges related to appropriating assets, money laundering, and illegal cross-border money transport. Following the second phase of an investigation into Lans wrongdoings, investigators from the Ministry of Public Security on Thursday proposed filing new charges against Lan, founder and chairwoman of property developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, and 33 others. The investigation concluded that Lan and her accomplices issued 25 bond packages in order to appropriate more than VND30 trillion (US$1.2 billion) from over 35,000 investors. The bond packages were issued through four companies, including An Dong Investment Group Corporation, Quang Thuan Investment Corporation, Sunny World Investment and Development Corporation, and Ho Chi Minh City Commerce Service Corporation. Investigators also found that Lan was the mastermind behind the laundering of over VND445 trillion ($17.5 billion), including VND415 trillion ($16.3 billion) embezzled from lender Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) and VND30 trillion ($1.2 billion) from defrauding bond investors. Lan and her accomplices were charged with illegally transporting $4.5 billion across the border between October 2012 and October 2022. In particular, 21 subsidiaries of Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group conducted illegal transactions to transfer some $1.5 billion to other countries and received $3 billion from abroad. The transactions were all made through fictitious contracts on share trade, capital contribution, consulting services, and borrowing loans between these companies and foreign entities. In April, the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Court handed down the death penalty on Lan for leading a scam that caused damages of $27 billion a figure equivalent to six percent of Vietnam's 2023 GDP to SCB. It was then considered one of the biggest corruption cases in history. According to the court, Lan used other peoples names to acquire 91.5 percent of the shares in SCB and direct senior leaders of the bank and Van Thinh Phat to withdraw over VND1,066 trillion ($43.8 billion) from the lender between 2012 and 2022. She and her accomplices also gave $5.2 million to Do Thi Nhan, former chief of the Inspectorate and Supervision Department II under the State Bank of Vietnam, so that Nhan helped conceal the bank's violations and poor financial situation. This was the largest-ever bribe recorded in Vietnam. Police have so far identified around 42,000 victims of the scandal. Lan later appealed the sentence. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! As the warm embrace of summer descends upon Vinh Hy Bay, Amanoi transforms into a haven of outdoor adventures and serene escapes. Nestled amidst the lush landscapes of Nui Chua National Park in Ninh Thuan Province, south-central Vietnam and overlooking the pristine waters of the bay, Amanoi offers a unique blend of luxury and nature, making it the perfect summer retreat. Here is a glimpse into the myriad activities that await you this summer at Amanoi. Unique culinary experiences This summer, Amanoi welcomes renowned chefs Simone Baglini and William Miroslaw to its culinary team. Baglini, an Italian chef with 15 years of experience, joins from Aman Le Melezin in France, where he works as Chef de Cuisine. He has previously worked at several Michelin-starred restaurants, including Hotel Plaza de Russie Relais & Chateaux, Qui Plume La Lune, La Scene Theleme, and Relais & Chateau Il Pellicano in Italy. Baglini will offer guests exclusive theme dinners featuring Italian and Mediterranean cuisine at the Beach Club restaurant on Friday twice a month, starting on June 7. Miroslaw, a French pastry chef with nearly 20 years of experience, has worked at esteemed establishments such as Hotels Jumeirah in Dubai, Hotel Metropole in Monaco, and Hotel Cheval Blanc in the Maldives. He will create a pastry workshop/cooking class at the Rock Studio on Saturday twice a month, with the first workshop on June 8. Accommodation, 5-bedroom residence, pool and living pavilion Trekking and hiking: Explore the wild beauty of Nui Chua National Park Amanoi is nestled in the wild beauty of Nui Chua National Park, home to a diverse ecosystem. With trails designed for all levels of hikers, guests can explore the stunning landscapes of Nui Chua National Park and the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve with expert guides. From the resort, trails can take guests on family-friendly hikes, picnics on secluded beaches, or more challenging treks to unique rock formations like Bai Da or the spectacular bay views atop Goga. For longer hikes, a picnic lunch and porter service are included. Explore the cool blue sea world The clear, calm blue waters of Vinh Hy Bay provide perfect conditions for kayaking, Hobie Cat sailing or taking a speedboat to explore the coast. Guests can explore hidden coves and the diverse marine life with Amanoi's provided equipment and expert guidance. For a unique experience, cruise Vinh Hy Bay in one of Amanoi's glass-bottomed kayaks, which allow you to see the underwater marine life. Beneath the clear waters of the bay lies a hidden coral kingdom waiting to be discovered. Guests can see pristine coral reefs first-hand on guided snorkeling expeditions, discovering over 350 types of coral and colorful tropical fish. Spa & wellness Yoga pavilion, private session with specialist Picnic and private outdoor dining Amanoi's private beaches offer idyllic settings for picnics and private dining experiences. Imagine a delicious meal prepared by Amanoi's chefs, enjoyed with your bare feet in the sand and the sound of waves. Whether it is a romantic dinner for two or a family picnic, these experiences make summer adventures unforgettable. Dinners by the Cliff Pool or the Aman Spas lotus lake offer special experiences where you can watch the stars and enjoy distant bay views with your loved ones. Do not miss the sunset viewing at Twilight Cliff Lounge, where the sun sets behind Nui Chua National Park, casting a golden glow over the bay. The experience includes champagne and light refreshments. Spa & wellness Vietnamese massage Comprehensive healthcare and wellness Amanoi's wellness programs promote holistic health, combining physical and mental activities with relaxation and therapeutic treatments. Guests can participate in outdoor fitness sessions and enjoy exclusive spa treatments. From June 1 to July 31, Amanoi will host Paula Choi, a holistic therapist from Australia with over 20 years of experience. She will offer treatments including acupuncture, cupping, sound therapy, and occupational therapy sessions, helping guests achieve physical and mental well-being. With a diverse range of activities designed to suit all tastes, visitors can immerse themselves in the beauty of Vinh Hy Bay and Nui Chua National Park, ensuring a memorable summer at Amanoi. Contact: Amanoi Address: Vinh Hy Village, Vinh Hai commune, Ninh Hai District, Ninh Thuan Province, Vietnam Phone: +84 259 3770 777 Email: amanoi.res@aman.com Website: https://www.aman.com/resorts/amanoi SpaceXs livestream displayed the view from a camera aboard Starship as the vehicle reentered Earths atmosphere Thursday. This image is from about 46 minutes into the flight. SpaceX In this view from a camera aboard Starship, the damage to a forward steering flap is seen during the craft's reentry. This image from the SpaceX livestream is from about 58 minutes into the flight. SpaceX Chris Combs, a University of Texas at San Antonio professor, is seen in 2021 with the hypersonic wind tunnel hes built in his lab. William Luther, Staff / William Luther SpaceXs Starship takes off from Starbase at Boca Chica Beach for Thursdays test flight, its fourth. SpaceX via Associated Press Chris Combs Contributed SpaceXs livestream of Starships fourth flight including a stunning real-time view of its fiery hypersonic reentry to Earths atmosphere provided images unlike any ever seen. They were just what aerospace engineer Chris Combs tuned in hoping to see. It was a really incredible visual of how violent that reentry process is, said Combs, a University of Texas at San Antonio professor who studies hypersonics travel at speeds exceeding 4,000 mph. Some pretty stunning views that I dont know if weve ever seen anything like that before especially in real time. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Now hes hoping SpaceX will make the data it collected available to researchers, though the company has no obligation to do so. It would be really valuable for the community, Combs said. The data collected from Starship and its booster stage will certainly help SpaceX determine weak points in Starships heat tiles and find places that need reinforcement, he said. Some of those failures were easy to spot in the livestream, which showed a field of superhot plasma forming around Starships exterior marking with hues of orange, red, bluish purple and green the start of the crafts blazing hot plunge through Earths atmosphere. As Starships descent was slowed by atmospheric friction, bits of metal and hexagonal heat-shield tiles began flying off and parts of the rockets steering flaps were stripped to a skeleton, though they apparently remained functional. Combs said Starship did a pretty good job, although, as we saw, one of the flaps got shredded apart and its hard to know how much of the rest of it held together, especially because the cameras got kind of beat up during reentry. Advertisement Article continues below this ad It was remarkable that the flap held together for as long as it did, Combs said. I thought that because of the damage that happened to the flap (Starship) would immediately start to tumble once it got deeper into the atmosphere and it seems like it didnt. That was impressive. Starship reignited an engine to flip itself upright and splashed into the ocean as planned. He said he was also impressed with the boosters earlier soft landing in the Gulf of Mexico but not surprised. Theyve got a lot of experience with these boost-back returns, he said. With all theyve done with Falcon 9 (SpaceXs current workhorse rocket), its become routine I expected they would get that figured out pretty quick. After Thursdays success, Combs said hes willing to wager that next time theyre actually going to try to land that on something. Advertisement Article continues below this ad SpaceX CEO Eon Musk agrees. After Thursdays flight, he said on the X social media platform, I think we should try to catch the booster with the mechazilla arms next flight! Sundays 60 Minutes investigates why the Australian Border Force is failing at stopping people smuggling. Broken Borders No one disputes that patrolling Australias extensive sea borders is a difficult job. But it shouldnt be impossible. Off the north-west coasts of Western Australia and the Northern Territory, the task of stopping people trying to enter the country illegally is primarily the responsibility of the Australian Border Force. But in this joint 60 Minutes, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age investigation, Nick McKenzie reports how broken our borders have become because the ABF is failing. The organisations equipment is sub-standard, at times even dangerous; a fact that has severely impacted its operations. And as a consequence, the people smugglers have again been plying their evil trade. Reporter: Nick McKenzie Producer: Garry McNab Unfathomable If theres one small comfort to be taken from the OceanGate deep-sea submersible disaster, its that death was instant for the five occupants on board. But a year on from the tragedy, there are still so many unanswered questions. Most fundamentally, why did the strange-looking craft on a mission to the wreck of the Titanic fail so spectacularly? And why, for days on end, was the world wrongly led to believe there was hope for a successful rescue mission? The lack of credible information about what really happened is now becoming increasingly unfathomable, not only for the families of the victims, but also for other undersea explorers like legendary Hollywood director James Cameron. Speaking exclusively to Amelia Adams, Cameron reveals that this is a catastrophe that could and should have been avoided. Reporter: Amelia Adams Producer: Hannah Bowers 8:05pm Sunday on Nine. Fiona Harvey, the Scottish woman who came forward recently as the so-called real Martha portrayed in hit series Baby Reindeer, has filed a $170 million ($A255m) defamation suit against Netflix. The lawsuit begins with the tag from the series, This is a true story, and goes on to say that the onscreen statement is the biggest lie in television history. The complaint continues, It is a lie told by Netflix and the shows creator Richard Gadd, out of greed and lust for fame and that he and the streaming platform sought to viciously destroy her life. It further states that Harvey is an innocent woman who has been defamed at a magnitude and scale without precedent. Harvey previously told Piers Morgan that, unlike the character, she had never been convicted of a crime or served time. Netflix is accused of [doing] literally nothing to confirm the facts of Gadds story and thus committing a very serious misrepresentation of facts. Citing Donnys behaviour in the series, she also blasts Gadd as a self-admitted crack, meth and heroin user who lied to the police about his contact with her. Harvey says her life has been ruined due to Gadds malfeasance and utterly reckless conduct and that he and Netflix destroyed her reputation, her character and her life. The suit goes on to state that the real Martha is reasonably understood to have done all these monstrous things because Netflix and Gadd stated this was true. Gadd is not named as a defendant in Harveys lawsuit. Earlier this week Piers Morgan sat down with UK lawyer Laura Wray, who hired Fiona Harvey as a trainee at her firm. She claims Harvey lasted at the company for two weeks, but stalked and harassed her for around five years. Source: The Wrap Divers have begun searching the water around the Greek island of Symi as police have continue their search and rescue operation for TV doctor Michael Mosley. A yellow weather warning is in place for the region, with temperatures expected to reach highs of 36 degrees on Friday, with growing concerns for the medics welfare. Mosleys wife, Dr Clare Bailey, raised the alarm after he failed to return back to their accommodation after embarking on a coastal walk on the Dodecanese island of Symi on Wednesday afternoon. A police source said there is just no trace of the 67-year-old after he left a beach to hike along a coastal path at around 1:30pm. Any and every attempt to track him down has not produced any result, they said, adding that they had expanded the search. Mayor of Symi Eleftherios Papakalodoukas said firefighters had told him they believed it was impossible Mosley was still there. He told the BBC: It is a very small, controlled area, full of people. So, if something happened to him there, we would have found him by now.Meanwhile some press are reporting Greek Police are pursuing seven possible theories: fell from a height fell into the sea heatstroke heart failure snake bite became lost stranded somewhere injured. Update: New CCTV images appear to show missing TV presenter Michael Mosley less than half an hour after he left a beach to go on a walk. The footage suggests he completed a walk to the nearby village of Pedi after leaving Agios Nikolaos beach while on a holiday on the Greek island Symi. The presenter was reported to have left the beach on Wednesday at 13:30 local time. The CCTV footage appears to capture the broadcaster in the villages main street holding an umbrella roughly 20 minutes later. A search and rescue operation, involving divers, helicopters and drones, is continuing on Friday. Officials are now understood to be excluding the possibility Dr Mosley came to harm while walking between the beach and Pedi. Timeline of Mosleys disappearance Wednesday, 1.30pm: Dr Mosley was last seen leaving Saint Nikolas beach at 1.30pm on Wednesday, when he is believed to have been heading off on the coastal path back to nearby Pedi. Wednesday, 1.50pm: Dr Mosley seen on CCTV walking through Pedi Wednesday 2pm: Dr Mosley seen on CCTV walking up mountain path leading to 3-hour hike back to Symi Town Wednesday, 3.00pm: Mr Mosley had still not returned to the accommodation where he was staying with his wife even as temperatures on Symi reached more than 40C. Wednesday, 7.30pm: Dr Mosleys wife Dr Clair Bailey raises the alarm after he failed to return to their hotel. His phone was still in the place where the couple were staying. Overnight Wednesday: Local authorities began tracing Mosleys route but were unable to find him. Thursday, 11am: An appeal about his disappearance was posted on a local Facebook group Friends of Symi describing Mosley and asking locals to look for him. Thursday, around 12.00pm: By midday on Thursday Greek authorities were scouring the coast with police extending the search area from the immediate vicinity of his disappearance. Thursday, 7.00pm: A helicopter from Athens was deployed to assist in the search for 67-year-old Mosley. The search operation now included firefighters, volunteers, police officers, a drone, and a police dog. Friday morning: The search resumes with divers deployed. Temperatures on Symi are forecast to reach as high as 48C, making search conditions even more challenging. Friday afternoon: CCTV images of Mosley in Pedi emerge. Friday evening: Search shifts to new mountain path after CCTV shows him entering it. Search paused to resume in the morning. Source: Independent, Manchester Evening News By Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) -A former Allianz fund manager pleaded guilty on Friday over his role in a meltdown of private investment funds sparked by the pandemic that caused an estimated $7 billion of investor losses. Gregoire Tournant, 57, of Basalt, Colorado, admitted to two counts of investment adviser fraud at a hearing before Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the federal court in Manhattan. He faces up to 10 years in prison at his Oct. 16 sentencing. Tournant also agreed to give up $17.5 million in ill-gotten gains, including bonuses that were inflated by his fraud. The case stemmed from the March 2020 collapse of the German insurer's now-defunct Structured Alpha funds, which Tournant had created and oversaw as chief investment officer. In May 2022, Allianz agreed to pay more than $6 billion and its U.S. asset management unit pleaded guilty to securities fraud to resolve government probes into the collapse. Two other former Allianz fund managers pleaded guilty at the time. The Structured Alpha funds had bet heavily on stock options, in a manner designed to limit losses in a market selloff, which Tournant likened to a form of insurance. Prosecutors said Tournant misled investors about the funds' risks by altering performance data and diverging from his promised hedging strategy, and obstructed a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission probe by directing a colleague to lie. The funds once had more than $11 billion of assets under management, but lost about $7 billion in February and March 2020 as the start of the pandemic set off a worldwide market panic. Before pleading guilty, Tournant admitted to providing deceptive information to investors. "I knew this conduct was wrongful," Tournant told the judge. Prosecutors said the fraud ran from 2014 through March 2020, with Tournant being paid more than $60 million over that time. Tournant previously pleaded not guilty to five criminal counts including investment adviser fraud, securities fraud, conspiracy and obstruction. He had also accused the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, which had represented him and Allianz, of making him a scapegoat after Allianz decided to cooperate with federal prosecutors. Swain rejected Tournant's request to dismiss the criminal case last August. The case is U.S. v. Tournant, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 22-cr-00276. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Rod Nickel) Putin says Russia does not need to use nuclear weapons for victory in Ukraine By Samia Nakhoul, Guy Faulconbridge and Vladimir Soldatkin ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin said on Friday Russia had no need to use nuclear weapons to secure victory in Ukraine, the Kremlin's strongest signal to date that Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two will not escalate into a nuclear war. Since Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022, he has said on several occasions that Russia would use such weapons if necessary to defend itself - comments the West says are nuclear sabre-rattling. Asked at the plenary session of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum by moderator Sergei Karaganov, an influential Russian analyst, if Russia should hold a "nuclear pistol to the temple" of the West over Ukraine, Putin said he did not see the conditions for using such weapons. "The use is possible in an exceptional case - in the event of a threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. I don't think that such a case has come. There is no such need," Putin said. Moscow considers Crimea - which it seized from Ukraine in 2014 - and four other Ukrainian regions now as integral parts of its own territory, raising the possibility of a nuclear strike if Kyiv appeared poised to retake them. Ukraine has stepped up drone and missile attacks on Russian targets, including in Crimea, and has vowed to drive all Russian forces from its territory. Putin said he did not rule out changes to Russia's nuclear doctrine, which sets out the conditions under which such weapons could be used. He also said that if necessary Russia could test a nuclear weapon, though he saw no need to do so at the present time. The public debate about nuclear strikes on a stage at Russia's premier economic forum appeared to be a Kremlin attempt to reduce nuclear fears just as the Ukraine war escalates towards what both Russian and U.S. diplomats say is its most dangerous phase yet. Russia and the United States hold nearly 90% of the world's nuclear weapons. NUCLEAR WAR? Last year Karaganov proposed a limited nuclear strike on a NATO member in Europe to force the West to back off in the conflict over Ukraine and thus avert World War Three. On Friday Karaganov invoked the Biblical story of how God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness as he pressed Putin on whether Russia should escalate in Ukraine to teach the West "a lesson". Putin said he prayed that the world would never witness a nuclear confrontation, adding: "And we don't have that need. Because our armed forces are not just gaining experience, they are increasing their effectiveness." Russian troops are advancing along the front line in Ukraine, Putin said, adding they had taken 880 square km of territory since the start of the year, including 47 villages and towns. Putin said Russia had increased ammunition production by more than 20 times and was outproducing Ukraine and the West on a whole series of measures. Russia's published 2020 nuclear doctrine sets out the conditions under which a Russian president would consider using a nuclear weapon: broadly as a response to an attack using nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction, or to the use of conventional weapons against Russia "when the very existence of the state is put under threat". "But this doctrine is a living tool and we are carefully watching what is happening in the world around us and do not exclude making some changes to this doctrine. This is also related to the testing of nuclear weapons." "If necessary, we will conduct tests. So far, there is no need for this either...," he added. U.S. President Joe Biden has relaxed some restrictions on Ukraine's use of U.S. weaponry inside Russia, prompting warnings from Moscow of a potentially dangerous escalation in the conflict, now well into its third year. Putin said on Wednesday he could deploy conventional missiles within striking distance of the United States and its European allies if they allowed Ukraine to strike deeper into Russia with long-range Western weapons. Biden, speaking in France on Friday where he has been attending celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, reaffirmed the United States' commitment to support Ukraine and again drew a comparison between the fight against Nazi Germany and the threats posed by dictators today. (Additional reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Gareth Jones) NATO to set allies tougher targets for air defence and missiles, diplomat says BERLIN (Reuters) - The NATO alliance is expected to set its members more demanding targets to bolster their air defence, long-range missiles and logistics capability, a European diplomat told Reuters on Friday. NATO has drafted the first major defence plans since the end of the Cold War, spelling out how the alliance would respond to a Russian attack. (Reporting by Sabine Siebold; writing by Matthias Williams; editing by Miranda Murray) Welcome Guest! You are here: Home Hajj 2024: 2 pilgrims from Bihar, India die in elevator crash in Makkah The incident occurred Thursday in Building No 145 of Azizyah some 10 kms from Makkah. Azizyah has hundreds of buildings where Hajj pilgrims are accommodated Friday June 7, 2024 11:19 PM , ummid.com News Network Makkah: Two pilgrims, both from the Indian state of Bihar, died Thursday June 06, 2024 after an elevator in the residential building in Azizyah in the neighborhood of Makkah crashed because of some technical glitches. The incident occurred Thursday in Building No 145 of Azizyah some 10 kms from Makkah. Azizyah has hundreds of buildings where Hajj pilgrims are accommodated. The pilgrims, who lost their lives have been identified as Md. Siddiq (74) and Md. Abdul Lateef (64). Md Siddiq is a resident of Kathihar district whereas Md. Abdul Lateef haild from Kishanganj district of Bihar. One pilgrim fell down the elevator shaft in the cellar and succumbed to his injuries while the other was crushed to death after he was struck between the doors of the elevator, said sources. Normally the elevator door opens only when the elevator is standing. However, a technical fault in the lift caused the door to open and led to the tragic accident. The Indian Haj Pilgrims Office in a social media post said that the officials of the Indian Haj Mission are coordinating with the concerned Saudi authorities, who are investigating this matter. All necessary assistance is being provided to the Indian Haj Pilgrims, the office said. 120,891 Indian Pilgrims reach Saudi Arabia Meanwhile, a total of 120,891 Indian Haj pilgrims have reached Saudi Arabia by 407 flights till Thursday June 06, 2024. Of them, 119,827 pilgrims are in Makkah and 1,064 are in Madinah al Munawwerah. A total of 16 flights carried as many as 4,610 Hajj pilgrims Thursday alone. Indias Hajj quota is 175,025. Of them, 140,020 will travel to Makkah through Haj Committee of India and 35,005 pilgrims will set for their Hajj Journey through Private Tour Operators. The key ritual of Hajj this year is on Saturday June 15, 2024 when the pilgrims will stand on the Plains of Mount Arafat, the Saudi Royal Court confirmed . The Hajj pilgrimage however will begin on June 14, 2024 when the pilgrims will leave Makkah to stay in Mina. The rituals will continue till June 19, 2024. Select Language To Read in Urdu, Hindi, Marathi or Arabic. The Texas Supreme Court denied the Bexar County Appraisal Districts appeal of a 4th Court of Appeals ruling granting a full property tax exemption to an Air Force veteran who lives in Converse. Jerry Lara/San Antonio Express-News Texas Supreme Court Justice Rebeca Aizpuru Huddle wrote the majority opinion in ruling against the Bexar Appraisal District. Courtesy In a 7-2 ruling Friday, the states high court upheld a 4th Court of Appeals ruling in finding that Yvondia Johnson is entitled to claim the exemption on the house she occupies in Converse. The county agency had argued that Johnson should not be allowed to claim the exemption because her estranged husband, Gregory Johnson, also a fully disabled veteran, already qualified for an exemption on his San Antonio home where he lives separately. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The court of appeals refused to engraft a one-per-married-couple limitation onto the 2009 law that created a residence homestead tax exemption for veterans who are 100% disabled, Justice Rebeca Aizpuru Huddle said in authoring the majority opinion. It concluded that the Tax Code bestows the exemption on each individual 100% disabled veteran who meets (a section of the codes) express statutory requirements without regard to whether the veterans spouse also claims the exemption on a separate residence homestead, the ruling added. The district had argued that the tax code precludes duplicate exemptions for married couples for the same residence homestead and for more than one residence homestead in the same year. Yvondia Johnson had countered that she and her husband each qualify for the full exemption because they each receive 100% disability compensation due to a service-connected disability. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Justice Evan Young issued the dissenting opinion, joined by Justice Jimmy Blacklock. For the first time in Texas history, the Court departs from the deeply embedded legal principle that there cannot be one homestead for the wife and another for the husband, for the law protects but one to the entire family, Young wrote in citing a court ruling from more than 125 years ago. In a statement, the appraisal district said it plans to implement the courts majority opinion. We will create appropriate policies and procedures that are consistent with the opinion, it said. The District is committed to continuing to administer the law equally and to educate all citizens of the benefits that are available to them. John Brusniak, a lawyer for Yvondia Johnson, said in an email he was pleased the Supreme Court affirmed the appeals courts finding that the constitutional amendment granting 100% homestead exemptions to totally disabled veterans applied to all totally disabled veterans. Advertisement Article continues below this ad These veterans sacrificed the functioning of their bodies for our country, Brusniak said. This is a victory for all our troops. Separation The Johnsons had lived together in the San Antonio house they jointly owned. In 2012, Gregory Johnson applied for a complete exemption from property taxes based on being fully disabled. The two subsequently bought the Converse house and later separated. Yvondia Johnson applied for the tax exemption on the Converse house in 2020, but the appraisal district denied the request because her spouse already claimed the exemption on the San Antonio house. Yvondia Johnson filed an unsuccessful protest with the Appraisal Review Board, which consists of residents appointed by the local administrative judge for Bexar County. The board is independent of the district. Advertisement Article continues below this ad She then sued the appraisal district in 2021 in state District Court in San Antonio. Later that year, retired state District Judge granted the districts motion for summary judgment while denying Yvondia Johnsons motion. She appealed to the 4th Court of Appeals, which reversed Gabriels ruling in 2022. A three-judge panel found there was no evidence to show that she received an exemption on the San Antonio house that her estranged husband occupies. The district appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court, which heard arguments from both sides in January. Opening the floodgates In its brief to the Supreme Court, the district argued that the issue would have significant implications if the appeals court ruling was affirmed. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Unless this opinion is corrected, married taxpayers who own more than one property likely will cite the reasoning of the court of appeals here to seek two residence homestead exemptions, the district said. But during oral arguments, a lawyer for Yvondia Johnson disputed that it would become a problem. In order for these floodgates to open, you have to have two spouses that agree to live apart in two different homes that they own solely for the purpose to game the system to gain a tax exemption on two homes, attorney J. Benjamin Aguinaga said. He has since become Louisianas solicitor general. The majority of the justices agreed, calling the districts concerns unfounded. Reference: Consultancy for Development of ESG Practices Action Plan and Greenhouse Gas Inventory measurement to comply with ISO 14064:1-2018 to Secoin Building Material Corporation Dear Interested Parties, Vietnam Improving Private Sector Competitiveness Project (IPS-C) intends to award a subcontract for Development of ESG Practices Action Plan and Greenhouse Gas Inventory measurement to comply with ISO 14064:1-2018 to Secoin Building Material Corporation. Background Improving Private Sector Competitiveness (IPSC) is a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) technical assistance project and the Agency for Enterprise Development (AED) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) is the project owner. The project is implemented by Deloitte Consulting LLP ('Deloitte') and runs from 2020 to 2025. The purpose of the USAID IPSC Activity is to remove constraints and build the competitiveness of small and growing businesses (SGBs) in Vietnam, including those led by vulnerable populations. With this activity, USAID/Vietnam is supporting Vietnams competitiveness: vertically at the policy, market and firm level; and horizontally by working along the entire spectrum of enterprise growth models, from household businesses transforming into registered firms to small firms on the cusp of scaling up. Summary of Activities IPSC collaborates closely with the Government of Vietnam (GVN) counterparts, including AED. IPSC and AED develop strategies for sector selection, geographic focus, and SGB engagement, and engage a broad range of market actors across the economy that make up the SGB ecosystem, including SGBs, cooperatives, and household businesses (HBs); business chambers, associations, and business development service providers (BDSPs); GVN ministries and agencies, provincial and local administrations; and private sector consultants, training institutions, and financial institutions. Using incentives and cost-sharing with SGBs, pioneering enterprises (PEs), and other partners, IPSC builds both greater demand and supply of business development services (BDS), while improving providers capacity to understand and offer services desired in the marketplace. One of IPSCs main objectives is supporting Vietnamese enterprises to receive customised technical assistance under the overall support package 'Pioneering Enterprise (PE) Program' to create products with added value and Vietnamese intellectual property, nurturing them to become sustainable models for other SGBs to emulate and scale up proven examples. A PE is a growing Vietnamese enterprise with Vietnamese-branded products, sufficient competitiveness, the ability to lead and expand in the industry, sector and locality, strong management capacity and willingness to innovate and produce products with high added value, with the vision and objective to build a Vietnamese brand in international markets. Positioning the 'Made by Vietnam' product brand successfully in regional and international markets is a priority for PEs. Each support package will be customised for the individual PE, depending on their situation, needs, development capacity, commitment to participate and willingness to co-invest. The support packages will focus on facilitating BDSPs and technical experts to deliver consulting services and specialised training to help enterprises strengthen their governance, management capability and strategies (including strategy development, business model refinement, brand positioning, marketing, innovation, communications and human resource development). IPSC will develop Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each supporting package so PEs can quantify the results achieved and evaluate the effectiveness of the results. Established in 1989, Secoin Building Material Corporation is one of the first private companies in Vietnam, with more than 30 years of experience in researching and manufacturing all kinds of encaustic building materials, especially brick products and art tiles made from cement. Secoin is known as the 'Conservator of traditional cement bricks' - Vietnam's oldest cement tile product since 1910. In addition to having received more than 100 prestigious awards in Vietnam and abroad, Secoin is also recognised by the Government as the 'Vietnam Value' Brand throughout the period from 2016 to now. Offeror will support Secoin in implementing its action plan in the IPSCs technical assistance package Development of ESG Practices Action Plan and Greenhouse Gas Inventory measurement to comply with ISO 14064:1-2018. Eligibility Requirements Qualified firms must meet the following criteria to be eligible: A legally registered organisation in Vietnam with requisite professional experience and knowledge of greenhouse gas inventory and ESG consulting. Prior experience in developing and implementing successful projects and/or facilitating similar activities, in topics such as greenhouse gas emissions, greenhouse gas inventory, ESG, green transformation and other sustainability-related topics. Proven track record of success in delivering similar projects in the past three years. References and examples of past work are required. Qualified personnel in project management and implementation. Interested vendors should provide an Intent to Bid, expressing the intent of the vendor to submit a proposal for this requirement, by 9:00 pm Hanoi time on June 18, 2024, to Mir Waez at mwaez@deloitte.com and Tuan Tran Anh tuantran@ipsc.vn IPS-C intends to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) to interested vendors by June 21, 2024./. HCM CITY The countrys export recovery has helped propel a 50 per cent increase in the stock prices of leading logistics companies that focus on international trade and industrial park developers, according to Michael Kokalari, chief economist at investment fund VinaCapital. He said in a recent report that in early 2023 companies in the US and other developed countries had slashed orders to Asia to get rid of their bloated inventories, but by the end of the year Viet Nams export recovery had gained momentum as the destocking process wound down. By early 2024 Viet Nams trade had been growing at 15 per cent. Exports to the US, Viet Nams largest market, for instance, had rebounded from a 21 per cent drop in Q1 2023 to a 24 per cent jump in Q1 this year. This had boosted Viet Nams air and sea cargo volumes by an estimated 40 per cent and 30 per cent year-on-year respectively in the first quarter, and the stock prices of leading local logistics companies such as Gemadept, Saigon Port and Saigon Cargo Service Corp, which focused on international trade, had jumped 50 per cent, far outpacing the 20 per cent increase in the broader VN-Index. Capacity at the Cai Mep-Thi Vai deep water port complex, situated 60km from HCM City and with berths owned and operated by Gemadept, Saigon Port JSC and other logistics firms, was set to increase by more than 10 per cent next year. Gemadept planned to double the number of berths it operated in Cai Mep-Thi Vai. Capacity at the Lach Huyen deep water port complex near Hai Phong, owned and operated by several State-owned enterprises, was set to increase 1.5 fold by next year, including an 80 per cent capacity increase scheduled for end-2024. The Government was also considering building a dedicated transshipment port at Can Gio near Cai Mep-Thi Vai. This could compete with Singapore and China's Hong Kong for transshipment business since Viet Nams port handling fees were still roughly half those in Singapore even after the 10 per cent hikes that had taken effect earlier this year. Construction of the new Long Thanh Airport continued to progress, with a new cargo terminal set to break ground later this year. Export recovery supports industrial parks The export recovery has also helped boost IP stock prices. Thats partly because a surge in high-tech exports is driving the export recovery and prompting more FDI inflows from the manufacturers of high-tech products and those producers of high value-added products can pay higher lease IP lease rates. The share prices of industrial park operators were up around 50 per cent. Higher exports were encouraging more FDI inflows newly registered FDI was up more than 50 per cent in the first five months of 2024 to nearly US$8 billion and most multinational manufacturers set up factories in industrial parks. They were also pushing up IP lease rates as they tended to be less sensitive about rentals than producers of lower value-added products such as garments and furniture. Viet Nams export recovery was being driven by high-tech products, which were typically shipped by air, and so air freight growth was outpacing sea freight. Exports of laptops and other home electronics products had grown by more than 30 per cent in the first five months, double the countrys 15 per cent overall export growth. Finally, there was limited supply of readily available IP land. Occupancy rates at IPs in the north, which attracted the majority of new high-tech FDI investment, were over 80 per cent on average, while in the greater HCM City area, they topped 90 per cent. The combination of price insensitivity among high-tech manufacturers and high occupancy rates pushed up rentals in the north and south by 35 per cent and 15 per cent last year and a further 7-10 per cent increase was expected this year. VNS HCM CITY Viet Nam has transformed itself to emerge as a major global production hub capable of supplying a wide range of products at competitive prices and with improving quality, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Phan Thi Thang said at the Export Forum on Connecting International Supply Chains in HCM City on Thursday. Additionally, after the COVID-19 pandemic and amid current geopolitical - economic uncertainties, many corporations and retail/wholesale channels are stepping up diversification to ensure supply chain sustainability, and Viet Nam has been chosen as a strategic destination in their global supply chains, Thang said. Viet Nams total import-export value reached over US$681 billion last year, with exports accounting for $354.7 billion. Exports were worth over $10 billion in the first five months of the year, a year-on-year increase of 15 per cent, she said. The forum, together with specialised seminars, business matching activities and Viet Nam International Sourcing Expo co-organised by the ministrys European-American Market Department and the Investment and Promotion Centre of HCM City, aims to effectively support businesses to participate more deeply in global production and supply chains, adapt to intensive international economic integration trends, as well as promote linkages between foreign distribution channels and foreign importers and domestic manufacturing and exporting enterprises, she said. She added that the event this year received unprecedented participation from nearly 300 leading global distribution channels and importers, including Aeon, Uniqlo (Japan), Walmart, Amazon, Safeway (USA), Carrefour, Decathlon (France), Falabella (Chile), Coppel (Mexico), Central Group (Thailand), Lotte (Korea), Miniso (China), IKEA (Sweden), and LuLu (UAE). She expected that several agreements and commercial transactions will be signed at the event to help Vietnam International Sourcing 2024 become a prestigious business meeting place for enterprises, contributing to bringing Vietnamese goods to the global market. Echoing Thang, Nguyen Van Dung, vice chairman of the HCM City Peoples Committee, said the forum also offers an opportunity for HCM City businesses to promote their strong products directly to international buyers, and directly acquire information about consumption trends of export markets and changes in consumption habits to be able to research and develop suitable products for their targeted markets. Addressing the forum, Aly Ansari, senior director, Walmart Global Sourcing, said Viet Nam is one of Walmarts most important sourcing markets in Asia. Our sourcing teams facilitate the export of Vietnamese products around the globe, including to the United States, Canada, Mexico, Chile and China. He said top exports from Viet Nam include apparel, and electronics, among others. It also sources products in other categories, such as toys and food, from the country. We see potential in many product categories in Viet Nam. We look forward to speaking with many of you and exploring opportunities to source more products from Viet Nam whether thats for our own label or for our marketplaces around the world, Ansari said. Regarding cross-border e-commerce, Gijae Seong, head of Amazon Global Selling in Viet Nam, said: We have seen the number of products sold by Vietnamese businesses on Amazon jump over 300 per cent in the past five years. Thousands of Vietnamese SMEs are now exporting through our store, with the count of those achieving over $1 million in annual sales skyrocketing nearly 10-fold. He highlighted that: Vietnamese sellers are not just exporting products, but actively investing to build strong global brands. The number of Vietnamese sellers enrolled in Amazon's Brand Registry has surged an incredible 35-fold, demonstrating their ambition to unlock long-term international growth. "The product selection from Vietnam has also evolved tremendously, with key categories like health and personal care, home, kitchen, apparel, and beauty seeing the highest growth rates. The Vietnam International Sourcing Expo 2024 presents a valuable platform for us to deepen our engagement with Vietnamese manufacturers and suppliers. By connecting directly with this vibrant business community, we aim to discover new product potentials and empower even more enterprises to expand their reach through cross-border e-commerce, he said. Jennifer Yuriko Patton Inukai, Asia sourcing director, Coppel, a distinguished Mexican nationwide department store, said: Looking ahead, we are planning to expand our operations in Asia by exploring more of Vietnam and what this amazing country is offering. This strategic move underscores our dedication to the region and our enthusiasm for seeking new opportunities for collaboration and growth in this dynamic market. Vietnam International Sourcing Expo Vietnam International Sourcing Expo 2024 - a premier sourcing fair in Viet Nam that brings together the leading manufacturers and exporters in the country - also opened at HCM Citys Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre on June 6. Covering over 10,000 sq.m, the expo features 600 enterprises representing various sectors within the international supply chain, with a focus on five major industries: food and drinks; garments, textiles, and fashion accessories; shoes, bags, luggage, and accessories; sportswear and equipment; and household goods and home decor. Among the highlights at the expo is the HCM City pavilion cluster organised by the ITPC to support firms in the city to introduce their products and services, seek business partners, and expand their markets. Within the framework of the expo, Central Retail Vietnam in coordination with the Ministry of Industry and Trade also opened a booth to promote Vietnamese coffee to a large number of visitors, including major buyers around the world. The booth features roasted and ground coffee, instant coffee, capsules coffee, ready to go coffee and the coffee shop model of Central Retails business partners - K Coffee, Adore, Le Caiffa, Lady Trieu, and Little Green Cyclo. By promoting five major Vietnamese coffee categories, Central Retail hopes to contribute to introducing high-quality Vietnamese coffee to the international market; open up opportunities for businesses in the coffee sector to meet and connect with potential partners and customers, thereby expanding markets and developing brands, it said. The expo will remain open until June 8. VNS SINGAPORE A Vietnamese delegation led by Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien has attended the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) Ministerial Meeting, and its sidelines event - Clean Economy Investor Forum in Singapore. The forum, co-organised on Thursday by the Singaporean Ministry of Trade and Industry and 13 other IPEF member countries, brought together ministers, senior officials and world leading investors. Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong attended and delivered opening remarks at the event. It was an initiative to promote the targets set in the IPEF Clean Economy Agreement, facilitating business activities and high-quality capital connectivity, while connecting the public and private sectors through in-depth dialogues with experts. Notably, the forum identified a total of 69 sustainable infrastructure projects worth more than US$23 billion. On the sidelines of the ministerial meeting, Dien met with US and Singaporean representatives to exchange views on important matters in bilateral trade, as well as collaboration in renewable energy. The minister stressed that Viet Nam boasts huge potential for cross-border electricity trade, and it is interested in enhancing power connectivity in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Viet Nam appreciates the cooperation and support from the US and other relevant sides over the past time, he said. Viet Nam hopes that through the working group, countries will share experience in developing offshore wind power, and building underground power transmission cable systems and other related issues, Dien continued. Notably, at the meeting between Viet Nam, Singapore and the US on large-scale electricity export not through the national power grid, the leaders welcomed the establishment of the tripartite working group. Viet Nam expressed its interest in enhancing power grid connectivity within ASEAN, as well as between Viet Nam and Singapore. According to Luong Hoang Thai, Director of the MoITs Multilateral Trade Policy Department, the IPEF Ministerial Meeting marks countries putting the initiative in place. On this occasion, Viet Nam proposed working together with Singapore and the US to form a trilateral framework to discuss potential steps for the establishment of a power connection network with ASEAN countries, he said. VNS BANGKOK Thailand is striving to become a centre for MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) tourism in Southeast Asia, and considering Viet Nam as one of its potential partners for cooperation in this field, according to Puripan Bunnag, Senior Vice President of the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB). The official said that this segment is showing a strong recovery and starts to play a positive role in the Thai economy after several years of difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first half of Thailand's 2024 fiscal year (from October 2023 to March 2024), Thailand welcomed 636,694 foreign MICE tourists, equivalent to 78 per cent of MICE tourist arrivals in the entire 2023 fiscal year. In the period, the country earned 36.72 billion baht (over US$1 billion), equivalent to 72 per cent of the total generated by foreign MICE tourists in the entire previous fiscal year. In this period, Viet Nam ranked seventh in terms of the number of foreign MICE tourists to Thailand with 20,446 visitors. According to Puripan, Viet Nam's economy is growing strongly as a main destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) in Southeast Asia. Therefore, the demand in Viet Nam for products, services, technology, innovation, expertise and business networks to boost the economy and business efficiency will increase. The convenience of accessing Thailand and short-haul flights between the two countries are plus points for Vietnamese people traveling and participating in events in Thailand, he stated, adding that Thai Airways currently operates four flights per day from HCM City and Ha Noi Viet Nams two largest cities - to Bangkok. The TCEB is currently implementing the "Cambodia-Vietnam-Thailand Economic Corridor" (CVTEC) project to develop a sea route connecting Koh Chang in eastern Thailand with Cambodia's Sihanoukville and Phu Quoc island of Viet Nam. This can become a cross-border route for foreign MICE tourists to carry out the "one trip three countries" programme. The bureau is also promoting and facilitating cooperation between Thai MICE businesses and those in the same industry in Cambodia and Viet Nam to make travel on the sea route of the three countries feasible and attract MICE tourists from three countries to conduct cross-border tours. The TCEB is ready to play a supporting role in creating favourable conditions for Vietnamese MICE tourist groups to travel to Thailand, added Puripan. VNS HA NOI Vietcombank has opened four additional stores to sell gold, bringing the total number of stores operated under the commercial bank to ten, five in Ha Noi and five in HCM City to date. Vietcombank, one of the four large commercial banks with state capital in Viet Nam, has served more than 1,500 customers since their gold stores were opened, selling nearly 10,000 taels of gold, according to Le Hoang Tung, Vietcombank's deputy director-general. He said on top of adding additional gold stores, the bank will keep improving its protocols, product and service quality to speed up transactions, in an effort to support the State Bank of Vietnam's directive to close the gap between domestic and international gold prices. "In accordance with the central bank's guidance, efforts to narrow the gap between domestic and international gold prices can lead to gold prices going down further. Residents must remain extremely cautious while making purchases of the precious metal," he said. A list of Vietcombank's gold stores: HCM City: Vietcombank Ky ong at 13-13 Bis Ky ong, Ward 9, District 3. Vietcombank Tan Binh at 108 Tay Thanh, Tay Thanh Ward, Tan Phu District. Vietcombank HCM City at 5 Cong truong Me Linh, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1. Vietcombank Nam Sai Gon at 23 Nguyen Huu Tho, Tan Hung Ward, District 7. Vietcombank Thu uc at 50A ang Van Bi, Binh Tho Ward, Thu uc District. Ha Noi: Vietcombank Thanh Cong at 01 Thai Ha, Trung Liet Ward, ong a District. Vietcombank Chuong Duong at 564 Nguyen Van Cu, Gia Thuy Ward, Long Bien District. Vietcombank Exchange Office at 11 Lang Ha, Thanh Cong Ward, Ba inh District. Vietcombank Ha Noi at 11B Cat Linh, Quoc Tu Giam Ward, ong a District. Vietcombank Ba inh at 72 Tran Hung ao, Tran Hung ao Ward, Hoan Kiem District. The trading hours of gold are from 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM and from 1:30 PM to 4:00 PM daily. VNS HA NOI Slovenia and Viet Nam have numerous opportunities to expand their cooperation across various sectors, ranging from logistics and transportation to tourism and labour, according to experts from both countries. Vesna Nahtigal, General Manager of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia (CCIS), highlighted that economic cooperation between Slovenia and Viet Nam is becoming increasingly important, as evidenced by the strengthened trade and political relations. Over the past seven years, two-way trade has nearly tripled, with Slovenia exporting commodities worth 70.5 million euros to Viet Nam last year while importing products worth 51.7 million euros from the Southeast Asian nation. Nahtigal noted that the most promising areas for cooperation include transportation, logistics, engineering machinery and equipment, and environmental technology, which are key pillars in Slovenia's exports to the Asian market. She also emphasised the significance of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the potential benefits of the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) in fostering future investment partnerships. To further promote cooperation, two business forums on leading supply chain solutions for Vietnamese goods to Central and Eastern Europe will be held in HCM City and Ha Noi. These events, organised by the CCIS, the SPIRIT Slovenia Business Development Agency, the Ministry of the Economy, Tourism and Sport, and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovenia, aim to develop business relationships with Viet Nam-based international transport and logistics companies, industry players, and stakeholders. Former General Director of CCIS, Ales Cantarutti, also underscored the potential for enhanced cooperation. He recalled that about eight years ago, the Slovenian government identified Viet Nam as one of its most important markets outside the EU, leading to the development of a special action plan to strengthen bilateral business relations. A delegation of Slovenian businesses visited Viet Nam during this time, discussing potential areas for cooperation such as logistics, trade, tourism, and two-way import and export. Cantarutti remarked that the establishment of the Intergovernmental Committee for Economic Cooperation between the two nations was a significant achievement, helping resolve challenging differences and fostering collaboration between the two business communities. Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic cooperation between Slovenia and Viet Nam has gradually recovered. The CCIS has organised several seminars to enhance business cooperation and increase delegation exchanges with Viet Nam. Strengthening connections is expected to open up opportunities for businesses from both countries to ink contracts, with many Slovenian companies gradually expanding cooperation with Vietnamese partners. Slovenia views Viet Nam as a gateway to the Asian market, and hopes that Vietnamese businesses will leverage Slovenia's EU membership to seek opportunities within the EU's common market of 450 million consumers. The CCIS evaluates Viet Nam as an attractive partner due to its rapidly developing economy and young population, which can bring opportunities for both the EU and Slovenia. Furthermore, the traditional friendship between the two countries and the positive awareness of Viet Nam among the Slovenian public provide a favourable foundation for enhancing cooperation. Discussions have also taken place about the possibility of bringing Vietnamese labourers to work in Slovenia, addressing the current labour shortage in the European country. Cantarutti highlighted the prospects for cooperation in knowledge-intensive sectors and new technologies, as well as collaboration between universities, which can further strengthen the bilateral relationship. VNS HCM CITY An insightful seminar titled "Market Trends and Export Opportunities for Vietnamese Agricultural Products and Processed Foods in International Distribution Systems" was held in HCM City on Friday. The seminar, jointly organised by HCM Citys Investment & Trade Promotion Centre, the Ministry of Industry and Trades European-American Market Department, and relevant agencies, is part of the ongoing Vietnam International Sourcing Expo 2024 (VIS 2024) in HCM City. During the seminar, experts shared market insights, changing consumption trends in key export markets, and specific recommendations for Vietnamese export enterprises to enhance their involvement in the global value chain, as well as to adapt to new standards for sustainable development. In her opening speech, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Phan Thi Thang highlighted the resilience of Viet Nam's agricultural exports despite global economic challenges in 2023. She noted the impressive growth in exports of agricultural, forestry, and aquatic products, such as rice, fruits, vegetables, coffee, and cashew nuts, which contributed positively to the trade surplus. Leveraging geographical advantages, natural conditions, and benefits from free trade agreements like the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and EU-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), Vietnamese agricultural products and food exports have maintained double-digit growth, Thang emphasised. Acknowledging Viet Nam's positive achievements in agriculture, Thang pointed out the need to move beyond exporting raw commodities with low processing content, emphasising the importance of sustainability and competitiveness in the sector. She also highlighted the challenges faced by Vietnamese agricultural exports, particularly in meeting quality standards and addressing market demands. In addition to the seminar, experts provided insights on critical areas including needs, trends, opportunities, standards, regulations, and challenges in global markets for businesses participating in international supply chains. Recently, alongside the efforts of businesses, the Government has approved and implemented several essential policies and initiatives to boost the production, processing, and export of Vietnamese agricultural products. These initiatives have yielded tangible results, contributing to the development and diversification of export and import markets, ensuring sustainable long-term growth, encouraging Vietnamese enterprises to actively participate in the global production, supply, and distribution chain, directly exporting to foreign distribution networks based on maximising the strengths and leveraging the significant competitive advantages of Vietnamese exports. Thanks to these efforts, total export turnover of agricultural, forestry, and aquatic products exceeded US$53billion in 2023, with many agricultural commodities increasing both in value and quantity, such as rice, fruits and vegetables, coffee, and cashew nuts. IPSC supports Vietnamese companies at VIS 2024 At the VIS 2024, the Vietnam Improving Private Sector Competitiveness Project (IPSC) an USAID-funded programme managed by the Agency for Enterprise Development (AED) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) has supported 12 Vietnamese enterprises to enhance their competitiveness, access markets, and promote exports. The 12 enterprises sponsored by USAID IPSC to participate in the expo operate in the production and import-export of agricultural and forestry products, and are located in HCM City and Mekong Delta provinces. These enterprises have clear goals and enthusiasm, having actively participated in the IPSC project's support activities in previous years. They include HSC Investment Corporation, Green Powers (Vua Buoi), Hoang Phat Fruit, Kokofi Coconut Cosmetic, VICOSAP - Cau Ke Coconut Processing, SOKFARM - Tra Vinh Farm, Real Bean Coffee, Hygie & Panacee, Sumofood Vietnam, Thien Thanh Tea, Nhon Hai Purple Onion Agricultural Cooperative and Ong Tho Rice. Recognising the importance of international economic integration for the development of Vietnamese enterprises, USAID IPSC has chosen VIS 2024 as one of the events aligning with its goals of helping businesses enhance their competitiveness, access markets, and promote exports. USAID IPSC believes that VIS 2024 will be an excellent opportunity for Vietnamese enterprises to assert their position in the international market, attract investment, and promote exports. The programme is committed to continuing to support Vietnamese enterprises in enhancing their competitiveness, achieving sustainable development, and contributing to the country's economic growth. VNS HCM CITY France is willing to collaborate with Viet Nam to enhance co-operation activities in the field of green development and net emission reduction through the provision of advanced technical solutions, as well as supporting Viet Nam in achieving net-zero emissions in accordance with its commitments in this sector. Olivier Brochet, Ambassador of the French Republic to Viet Nam, told the seminar, titled "France - Vietnam Toward Vietnams net-zero goal", organised by Business France, an agency at the French Embassy in Viet Nam, on June 6 in HCM City. The event aims to facilitate the exchange of experiences and explore the potential for co-operation in the fields of green development and climate change mitigation for the two countries, Brochet said. It is also expected to lay the foundation for co-operation in the transition to a green and sustainable economy, fostering momentum for the development of bilateral co-operation in the future, he added. Furthermore, he emphasised the importance of carbon emission reduction in Viet Nam's economic development and its vulnerability to climate change. He also highlighted Viet Nam's strong commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 and the integration of environmental protection solutions into the country's economic development programs. At the event, French businesses introduced advanced technologies and products aimed at reducing carbon emissions in the industrial and energy sectors. There are also discussions on financial challenges and opportunities in achieving an equitable energy transition, as well as the legal framework for the carbon credit market in Viet Nam. Moreover, it also featured a discussion on the topic "Industrial Energy Efficiency, Low carbon Construction and Unlocking capital Net-Zero Emissions in Viet Nam" with representatives from the Ministry of Construction, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the Department of Construction of HCM City, and the French Development Agency (AFD). Vo Van Hoan, Vice Chairman of the HCM City Peoples Committee, said that HCM City serves as a hub for various sectors, including the economy, culture, education, science, and technology in the South and nationwide. The city is focusing on improving the quality of growth, enhancing the incorporation of science and technology, adding value, and gradually transitioning the economy towards digitalization and a "green" model. The city has approved the implementation plan for the National Green Growth Strategy for sustainable development from 2021 to 2030 and the plan for circular economic development from 2022 to 2025, with a vision to 2030. This will lay a major legal foundation for transforming production and service activities towards low-carbon, green and environmentally friendly practices. However, Hoan said that the green economy and circular economy models of the city are in the early stages of development. The city seeks valuable insights, solutions, and effective policies related to developing the green economy and reducing carbon emissions in HCM City. VNS CAN THO The United States Mission to Vietnam, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), have launched an initiative in Can Tho and An Giang provinces to build a local framework for them to detect, prevent and respond to climate change-related emerging infectious diseases. Joining the launch event on Friday were Nguyen Thuc Hien, the Vice Chairman of Can Tho City Peoples Committee, Aler Grubbs, USAID/Viet Nam Mission Director and Ramla Khalidi, UNDP Resident Representative in Viet Nam. USAID and Viet Nam are building on nearly 20 years of our One Health partnership with a new focus on climate change, said Aler Grubbs at the launch event. Today, we are pleased to announce USAIDs One Health project in Viet Nam focused on the connection between climate change and disease threats. We are launching in Can Tho city and An Giang province. Together, we will safeguard public health and support a strong, prosperous, independent, and resilient Viet Nam." Viet Nam is at a high risk for the emergence and re-emergence of zoonotic diseases, or infections spread between animals and people. Further exacerbating this risk is Viet Nams high vulnerability to climate change, including changes in rainfall patterns, saltwater intrusion and more frequent and intense weather patterns and natural disasters. These can result in increased contact between wildlife, livestock and humans and therefore increased disease spillover risk. Intensifying floods and storms also risk damaging the local health infrastructure and peoples access to health services, impacting health workers ability to prevent, detect and control diseases. The initiative will work with climate-vulnerable Can Tho city and An Giang province in the Mekong Delta. The initiative will pilot provincial-level models that strengthen the climate change-related 'One Health' response across the human, animal and environmental health disciplines in consultation with local stakeholders, including businesses and women's unions. Potential activities include upgrading the primary health infrastructure to support continuity of services during extreme weather events, expanding telehealth options and equipping local authorities and health systems to be better positioned to respond to climate-induced public health threats. Intensifying drought, saltwater intrusion and tropical storms in the Mekong Delta can drive outbreaks of dengue and other vector-borne diseases, as well as infectious disease spillovers from animals to humans, " said UNDP Resident Representative in Viet Nam, Ramla Khalidi at the event. " The project will support authorities, communities and other partners in Can Tho and An Giang to detect, prevent and respond to climate change-related public health threats, recognising that human health is closely connected to the health of animals and the environment. The United States is a committed partner of Viet Nam in addressing long-standing and emerging infectious disease threats, in line with the two countries shared priorities under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. VNS China's green milestones in combating desertification Xinhua) 08:24, June 07, 2024 An aerial drone photo shows Li Dongkui partroling the forest in Zhangwu County, northeast China's Liaoning Province, May 31, 2024. (Xinhua/Yang Qing) BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) -- After decades of relentless efforts, China has made concrete progress in advancing afforestation programs to address desertification and contribute to global ecological restoration. As a pressing ecological challenge impacting vast stretches of China, desertification has long been a focal point among the country's development concerns and received full commitment in its environmental policymaking. The Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program (TSFP), the world's largest afforestation project, serves as a good example. Launched in 1978 and scheduled to be completed in 2050, it has already helped safeguard the land inhabited by people in the northwest, north and northeast of China. Observed on Wednesday, this year's World Environment Day was themed "land restoration, desertification and drought resilience." This theme echoes China's long-standing dedication to combating desertification and ecological protection. The following are some highlights of China's decades-long implementation of the program and its achievements in restoring ecosystems. NATIONAL PUSH -- China announced on June 3 a special fund worth 12 billion yuan (about 1.69 billion U.S. dollars) from this year's central budget to provide financial support for the TSFP. -- In June 2023, China proposed that the TSFP should be transformed into a fully functional, unbreakable "green Great Wall" and ecological security barrier in northern China. -- Under the program, a total of 22 projects have been under construction by the end of 2023, expanding afforestation and grass planting on a total expanse of approximately 1.22 million hectares. -- Last year, China approved the sand control plans of 19 provincial regions and maintained five zones of desertified land sealed off for protection, bringing the total area of such zones to 1.8 million hectares. GREENING ACHIEVEMENTS -- Since 1978 when the TSFP was initiated, China has expanded its afforestation area under the program by 32 million hectares. By 2050, this is projected to encompass over 4 million square kilometers across 13 provincial-level regions, accounting for 42.4 percent of the country's total land area. -- The forest coverage rate in the areas under the program increased from 5.05 percent in 1978 to 13.84 percent in 2023. -- In 2023, about 4 million hectares of forest were planted in the country, higher than the 3.83 million hectares of afforestation seen in 2022, and 4.38 million hectares of degraded grassland were restored. -- Some 1.9 million hectares of sandy and stony land were treated last year. -- Since 2012, a total of 20.33 million hectares of desertified land have been rehabilitated, amounting to 53 percent of all the reversable desertified land in the country. -- During the 2012-2022 period, China's accumulative afforestation area reached 960 million mu (64 million hectares), while 165 million mu of grassland was improved, and more than 12 million mu of wetlands was added or restored. -- From 2009 to 2019, desertified land had a net decrease of 50,000 square km, while the sandy land had a net decrease of 43,300 square km. -- It is estimated that about 15 million people in the areas under the program have been lifted out of poverty by developing forestry and fruit growing industries. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) 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. HA NOI President To Lam on June 6 chaired a ceremony to announce and present appointment decisions to the new Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Security for the 2021-26 tenure. Authorised by the President, the Chairman of the Presidential Office Le Khanh Hai announced the Presidents decisions on the appointment of Le Thanh Long as the Deputy PM and Sen. Lt. Gen. Luong Tam Quang as Minister of Public Security. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Party and State leaders presented flowers to congratulate Long and Quang. Addressing the ceremony, President Lam extended his congratulations to the officials, saying the appointment demonstrated the confidence and interest of the Party, the State and people in the Government, the judicial sector and the public security force, as well as their acknowledgment of Longs and Quangs contributions over the past years. Pointing to both advantages and challenges to the cause of national construction and defense, the President asked the officials to carry forward the revolutionary tradition, stay absolutely loyal to the Party, the Fatherland and the people, keep studying and following President Ho Chi Minhs thought, morality and lifestyle, and try to excellently complete all assigned tasks. Speaking at the event, Long promised to make all-out efforts to overcome difficulties in order to complete assigned tasks, contributing to the countrys socio-economic development, national defence and security, and international integration. The Deputy PM also noted his hope for more attention and support from leaders of the Party, State, and Viet Nam (VFF), and ministries, agencies, Party Committees and administrations at all levels, and localities. VNS MOSCOW A delegation from the State Audit of Viet Nam (SAV) led by Deputy Auditor General oan Anh Tho has attended a special dialogue on audit as a tool to complete State management in St. Petersburg, Russia. The dialogue came within the framework of the 27th St.Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2024) that is taking place in the city from June 5-8, attracting 138 countries and territories to exchange practices and expertise in the interests of sustainable development. Hosted by Editor-in-Chief of the Russian broadcaster RT as well as the media group Rossiya Segodnya Margarita Simonyan, delegates discussed the role of State audit in the effective use of budget capital, and made recommendations to improve public administration fields as a necessary condition for sustainable development of society and improving the quality of life. At the dialogue, Tho said that under SAVs development strategy until 2030, it prioritises three main pillars - improving audit quality, developing human resources, and applying information technology in auditing. State audit activities will also closely follow the government's programmes on national sustainable development, with a vision for 2050. To achieve those goals, SAV has innovated developing audit plans, strengthening training for accountants, and learning experiences from other countries. On June 6, the SAV delegation had a working session with the Russian Accounts Chambers delegation led by its deputy head Galina Izotova. During the meeting, both sides affirmed the close and cooperative relationship between the two audit agencies. The Vietnamese side proposed that Russia increase its cooperation in personnel training and support Viet Nam's candidacy as a member of the Asian Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI) for the 2024-27 term, conduct joint audits on topics of mutual interest, and sign a new cooperation agreement between the two sides. Izotova agreed with Tho on those issues. VNS HA NOI The Mausoleum of President Ho Chi Minh and the nearby Monument for Heroic Martyrs in Ha Noi will be closed from June 10 to August 12 for the yearly maintenance, according to its management board. Since its inauguration in 1975, the resting place of the founder of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam, now the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, has been a must-go destination to both Vietnamese and foreigners. This year, more than 61,000 people, including 3,919 foreigners, paid tribute to the late President at his mausoleum during the five-day National Reunification (April 30) and May Day (May 1) holidays, starting from April 27. President Ho Chi Minh passed away on September 2, 1969. His body was embalmed and placed in a glass coffin inside the granite mausoleum. The mausoleum has become an important landmark of the capital city and is integral to the political and social history of Viet Nam. VNS HA NOI - Leaders of the US, the Netherlands, Germany, Bulgaria, and Serbia have sent letters and messages of congratulations to To Lam on his election as President of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam by the 15th National Assembly. In his congratulatory letter, US President Joe Biden reaffirmed the USs commitment to support a strong, independent, self-reliant, and prosperous Viet Nam. He joyfully assessed that after nearly 29 years of establishing the diplomatic relations, the countries have seen significant progress in their bilateral ties. The sides new partnership will be a driving force for prosperity and security in the region, he noted. Biden said he believes that the relationship will further develop in the coming years as partners and friends, and hopes to cooperate with the Vietnamese president to turn that future into reality and to build a world of peace, prosperity, and safety for all. In his congratulatory message, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands expressed confidence that the constructive and extensive relationship between the two countries will continue to grow for the benefit and prosperity of their peoples. President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev, and President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic also sent their letters of congratulations to President To Lam. VNS HA NOI Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son talked over the phone with his Thai counterpart Maris Sangiampongsa on June 7. Congratulating his counterpart on being appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, Son asked the two sides to continue cooperating to implement the outcomes of the fifth meeting of the Joint Committee for Viet Nam - Thailand Cooperation in Bangkok in April this year, including enhancing mutual trust and cohesion through increasing all-level delegation exchanges, promoting cooperation in the pillar areas of defence, security, trade, investment, culture, education, tourism, transport, and people-to-people exchange, and establishing a working group for carrying out the Three Connections strategy. Maris affirmed that Viet Nam is a partner of great importance to Thailand in the region. He agreed to maintain close ties between the two foreign ministries to help further strengthen the Viet Nam - Thailand strategic partnership. During the talks, both officials agreed to work closely to prepare for the coming all-level visits as well as bilateral cooperation mechanisms, particularly the fourth joint Cabinet meeting to be co-chaired by the two Prime Ministers. They also emphasised the importance of economic and trade links, adding that coordination will be boosted to enhance connectivity between the countries localities and businesses. On this occasion, Son invited Maris to visit Viet Nam. Appreciating the invitation, the Thai minister noted Thailand attaches importance to the relations with Viet Nam, and that he will arrange the visit as soon as possible. This was the first discussion between the two ministers since Maris was appointed the top diplomat of Thailand on April 30. VNS HA NOI President To Lam received the Ambassador of the European Union (EU) and the ambassadors and charges daffaires of EU member countries who came to pay a courtesy call on the new State leader of Viet Nam in Ha Noi on Friday. Thanking the diplomats for their congratulations, President Lam affirmed that the EU and its member countries are important partners of Viet Nam, whose relations with them have been developing dynamically as seen in increased mutual visits and high-level meetings as well as the fruitful implementation of agreements, cooperation and dialogue mechanisms. Besides, he noted, relations between Viet Nam and EU countries are growing well on the basis of their good friendship and the strengths and demand of each country. Viet Nam has established strategic partnerships with four EU members, comprehensive partnerships with three, and sectoral strategic partnerships with three of them. To develop Viet Nams ties with the EU and member countries more strongly and effectively, he asked the diplomats to continue promoting delegation exchanges at all levels, especially high levels, to enhance political trust and create momentum for cooperation in all aspects. The President called for tapping into available mechanisms to properly carry out the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation between Viet Nam and the EU, the bilateral Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), and Viet Nams documents on cooperation with EU countries to tackle bottlenecks, work out measures for strengthening ties, and boosting response to global challenges, with priority given to fruitfully implementing the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP). He suggested the ambassadors raise voice to promote the remaining EU countries ratification of the EU - Viet Nam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA); the European Commissions removal of the yellow card warning over illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, with consideration of the development gap between the two sides and Vietnamese fishermens livelihood; and support for Viet Nam to develop sea-based economy and sustainable aquaculture. Welcoming the EUs strategies and initiatives on cooperation with the Indo-Pacific region that feature a balanced approach and many cooperation priorities matching Viet Nams sustainable development goals, the host leader stated that Viet Nam is ready to serve as a bridge for connecting the EU with the region and fostering cooperation through the ASEAN - EU strategic partnership, as well as between ASEAN and EU members. He underlined Viet Nams consistent foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralisation and diversification of relations, and being a responsible member of the international community. Regarding the East Sea issue, the two sides affirmed the continued strong support for the peaceful settlement of disputes in line with international law and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), helping guarantee security, safety, and freedom of navigation and consolidate peace, stability, and prosperity in the region. President Lam expressed his hope that the ambassadors and charges daffaires will contribute more to Vietnams friendship and comprehensive cooperation with the EU and member countries, thus helping to lift Viet Nam - EU cooperation to a new height. On behalf of the diplomats, EU Ambassador Julien Guerrier said Viet Nam is one of the important partners of the bloc in the Asia-Pacific, including Southeast Asia. The EU hopes to foster trade and investment ties with Viet Nam and considers the cooperation with the latter as a model for its collaboration with other developing countries in the world, he went on, adding that the EU wishes to assist the Southeast Asian nation to achieve the national development targets for 2045 and net zero emissions by 2050. He held that there remains huge cooperation potential in such fields as green, digital and circular economy, agriculture, pharmaceutical, justice, labour, defence - security, and climate change response with priority for the JETP implementation. The EU is strongly implementing regional cooperation strategies and initiatives, especially the Global Gateway initiative, Guerrier noted, revealing that it plans to carry out some cooperation projects with ASEAN and in Viet Nam within this initiatives framework. The ambassador voiced his belief that under President Lams leadership, the friendship and cooperation between Viet Nam and EU countries will develop even more strongly and extensively to significantly contribute to regional and global peace, security, and stability. VNS HA NOI Deputy Foreign Minister o Hung Viet, who is also head of Viet Nams delegation to the ASEAN Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM), has attended a series of the bloc's meetings in Vientiane, Laos on June 6-7. The events, consisting of the SOM, the Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ EXCOM), and the 17th ASEAN Coordinating Council Working Group (ACCWG) on Timor-Leste's ASEAN Membership Application, aimed to comprehensively review the preparations for the 57th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting and related meetings, scheduled to take place in Vientiane from July 24-28. At the meetings, the Vietnamese deputy minister actively participated in and made significant contributions to the discussions, particularly on implementing the blocs priorities for 2024 and orientations for building a strategy to realise the ASEAN Political-Security Community Blueprint 2045. He lauded ASEAN's common approach to deepening relations with partners and promoting the signing of the Protocol to the SEANWFZ Treaty by nuclear weapon states (NWS). The official also highlighted the blocs role and approach in supporting Myanmar, including humanitarian assistance to its people. Viet affirmed that ASEAN must maintain its common stance on the East Sea issue as outlined in the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Statement on Maintaining and Promoting Stability in the Maritime Sphere in Southeast Asia dated December 30, 2023, particularly the principles of upholding international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982); exercising restraint and resolving disputes peacefully; fully and effectively implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties (DOC) in the East Sea, and developing an effective, substantive Code of Conduct (COC) in the waters in accordance with international law, especially UNCLOS. VNS VIENTIANE A delegation of the Nhan Dan (People) newspaper paid courtesy calls on Bounthong Chitmany, Permanent member of the Secretariat of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committee and Vice President of Laos, and Khamphan Pheuyavong, Chairman of the LPRP Central Committees Commission for Propaganda and Training, in Vientiane on June 7. At the meetings, Le Quoc Minh, Editor-in-chief of Nhan dan, Vice Chairman of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committees Commission for Information and Education and Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association, informed his hosts about the cooperation results between Nhan dan and the Pasaxon newspaper of the LPRP, noting that bilateral cooperation has been enhanced and become more fruitful as seen in a project on upgrading the electronic version of Pasaxon to help it better fulfil duties in the new period. He noted that the two sides will further boost the coverage of the great friendship, special solidarity, and comprehensive cooperation between the Vietnamese and Lao Parties, States, and peoples. With the two countries special relationship, the Nhan Dan newspaper is ready to assist Pasaxon in particular and Lao partners in general, Minh affirmed. Appreciating Nhan dans assistance for Pasaxon in the recent past, the Lao officials asked the newspaper of Viet Nam to continue helping the Lao side, particularly in the operation of and personnel training for the new online system. They said they will order Pasaxon to effectively use the new e-newspaper system to disseminate official information from the Lao Party and State and cover nationally important events in a timely manner as Laos is holding all-level Party congresses and serving as Chair of ASEAN in 2024. Earlier the same day, the Nhan Dan delegation had talks with a delegation of Pasaxon led by Vanxay Tavinyan, Vice Chairman of the LPRP Central Committees Commission for Propaganda and Training and Editor-in-chief of the newspaper. The two sides also signed a cooperation agreement for 2024 - 2029. VNS HA NOI The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has urged Viet Nam National University - Ha Noi to instruct its Ha Noi School of Business & Management (HSB) to review its admission criteria and ensure compliance with regulations. The instruction comes after HSB announced that female applicants must be at least 1.58m tall and male applicants at least 1.65m, in addition to good physical fitness and eyesight. These criteria have sparked controversy on social media because only specialised fields set physical requirements for admission, such as police and military academies. A school representative said the school aims to train outstanding leaders, managers and executives for the public and private sectors with such criteria. The MOET has requested that VNU instruct HSB to review its criteria to ensure no applicant is denied the opportunity to apply due to criteria not related to their qualifications or abilities or due to cumbersome and costly admission procedures. Article 13 of the Law on Education stipulates all people, regardless of ethnicity, religion, belief, gender, personal characteristics, family background, social status and economic conditions, are equal in their opportunities to study. VNS HA TINH Police in the central province of Ha Tinh, working with border guards and the police of Bokeo Province, Laos, have successfully dismantled a human trafficking ring, safely returning 36 victims to Viet Nam. Four suspects were apprehended at the end of May, local media reported. They are identified as Le Xuan Thanh, 35, Le Anh Tuan, 34, Duong Anh ien, 38, all residing in Ha Tinh Province and Le Thanh Tram, 46, from Nghe An Province. According to authorities, Thanh and Tuan travelled to Laos in late 2023 to work for a criminal organisation operating in Bokeo Province. Their group was tasked with managing various social media platforms to defraud Vietnamese citizens into investing in scam applications. From November 2023 to April 2024, Thanh and Tuan posted recruitment information on social media, offering jobs in Thailand with a salary of VN18-30 million (US$706-1,170). ien and Tram assisted in the operation. At least 22 people from Ha Tinh Province and 14 others from neighbouring provinces were contacted by Thanh's group and transported through the Tay Trang border gate in the northern province ien Bien to Bokeo Province, where they were handed over to Chinese nationals. Upon arrival, the victims were put under strict surveillance, forced into labour and coerced into fraudulent activities and online gambling operations, with work time reaching nearly twenty hours a day. The victims were not paid, subjected to beatings and restrained to make it impossible for them to leave. When they refused to comply with assigned tasks, they were forced to call their families in Viet Nam to demand ransom money. According to the police, in addition to trafficking individuals from Viet Nam to Laos, the group also engaged in asset appropriation fraud and organised online gambling activities. VNS Investigators fist bump while working the scene of an intercepted human smuggling operation near Loop 1604 and Oak Island Drive on Thursday, June 6, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News A Bexar County Sheriff Deputy, left, talks to a handcuffed woman during a law enforcement sting, Thursday, June 6, 2024, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Darren Abate) Darren Abate/Associated Press District 5 Firefighters take a break in the shade at the scene of an intercepted human smuggling operation near Loop 1604 and Oak Island Drive on Thursday, June 6, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas. Thursday afternoon, deputies discovered 26 human-smuggling victims and seven suspects taken into custody. Of the victims, 11 were taken to area hospitals for heat related concerns. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar reties police tape at the scene of an intercepted human smuggling operation near Loop 1604 and Oak Island Drive on Thursday, June 6, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News The large wooden structure the Bexar County Sheriff Office found 26 human-smuggling victims near Loop 1604 and Oak Island Drive on Thursday, June 6, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News First responder chat on the scene of an intercepted human smuggling operation near Loop 1604 and Oak Island Drive on Thursday, June 6, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News The scene of an intercepted human smuggling operation near Loop 1604 and Oak Island Drive on Thursday, June 6, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas. Thursday afternoon, deputies discovered 26 human-smuggling victims and seven suspects taken into custody. Of the victims, 11 were taken to area hospitals for heat related concerns. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News The large wooden structure the Bexar County Sheriff Office found 26 human-smuggling victims near Loop 1604 and Oak Island Drive on Thursday, June 6, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News A sheriffs officer secures police tape at the scene of an intercepted human smuggling operation near Loop 1604 and Oak Island Drive on Thursday, June 6, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas. Thursday afternoon, deputies discovered 26 human-smuggling victims and seven suspects taken into custody. Of the victims, 11 were taken to area hospitals for heat related concerns. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News Investigators work the scene of an intercepted human smuggling operation near Loop 1604 and Oak Island Drive on Thursday, June 6, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas. Thursday afternoon, deputies discovered 26 human-smuggling victims and seven suspects taken into custody. Of the victims, 11 were taken to area hospitals for heat related concerns. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News A sheriffs officer takes a drink of Gatorade while working on the scene of an intercepted human smuggling operation near Loop 1604 and Oak Island Drive on Thursday, June 6, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas. Thursday afternoon, deputies discovered 26 human-smuggling victims and seven suspects taken into custody. Of the victims, 11 were taken to area hospitals for heat related concerns. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News The sheriffs office arrested seven people after more than two dozen immigrants were seen being moved from the back of a trailer to a stash house in southern Bexar County. Sheriff Javier Salazar said his office was informed of the smuggling operation early Thursday, and the organized crime unit then began looking for the extended trailer. Bexar County Emergency Management, Bexar County EMS and U.S. Border Patrol agents assisted in the surveillance. Aircraft support showed the SUV following the trailer as it entered a property. It also showed immigrants being unloaded from the trailer into a home. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Salazar said deputies acted quickly because of medical concerns for the migrants inside the trailer. Several people ran from the residence, but he said seven alleged smugglers were arrested and 26 migrants were found, the youngest of which was 18 years old. Eleven of the migrants detained were hospitalized with heat-related injuries, Salazar added. A Guatemalan woman told authorities she paid $16,000 to be smuggled. Homeland Security, Border Patrol and federal law enforcement will be taking custody of the migrants. The human smuggling operation came days after President Joe Bidens border security executive order, which focused on decreasing the amount of illegal crossings at the southern border. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Salazar said in a news conference Wednesday the initiative would shorten the time it takes to get asylum. The new order also would use a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act to deny migrants the ability to seek asylum at the southern border once the number of illegal crossings reaches over 2,500 per day. According to the executive order, the border will reopen once the number declines to 1,500. HA NOI The Ministry of Transport has proposed to the Prime Minister that the State-owned Airports Corporation of Viet Nam (ACV) be in charge of drawing up the plans for the next phase of the Long Thanh International Airport Project. It comes after the Prime Minister instructed them to contact relevant agencies to draft the next stages of the work that needs to be done, following the completion of Phase 1 in 2026. According to project dossiers, ACV has developed a business strategy to gather funds for Phase 2 and a rough scheme for Phase 3. Phase 2 is expected to cost VN48 trillion (US$1.9 billion) and to be cover the period 2028 to 2032. Long Thanh International Airport is being built on an area of 5,000ha in the southern province of ong Nai Province, with a total final capacity of 100 million passengers and five million tonnes of cargo annually. Phase 1 is projected to be put into operation in 2026, with an annual capacity of 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tonnes of cargo. In Phase 2, the airport will be expanded with an additional open-configuration runway and terminal to service 50 million passengers per year. When Phase 3 is completed, the airport will be the largest airport in Viet Nam and one of the busiest transit airports in the region. The total estimated investment for the project is approximately $16 billion. VNS KHANH HOA Khanh Hoa Province recorded 123 cases of malaria in the first five months of this year, the provincial health district reported. In Khanh Vinh district alone, there have been 114 cases of malaria recorded, with dozens of severe cases, of which nearly 80 per cent of the cases are male and around 25 per cent are children aged between five and fifteen years old. According to epidemiologists, this is the highest number of cases to date in the province in this period. Therefore, it is crucial to implement and synchronise multiple decisive measures to prevent and control malaria in the area. The Khanh Hoa Centre for Disease Control (CDC) reported that the number of malaria patients in the province gradually decreased from 2018 to 2022. 2018, the entire province recorded 125 cases, which fell to 12 cases by 2022. However, from 2023, the number of cases increased significantly to 209, including one fatality of a Vietnamese overseas citizen due to malaria. In July last year, malaria cases surged to a rate of 50 cases per month, then gradually decreased, with 22 cases per month recorded by the end of the year. Most of these cases were among individuals who ventured into forests and slept in fields in the mountainous district of Khanh Vinh. This year, despite the vigorous implementation of malaria prevention and control measures, the number of cases has risen sharply in the province, even though it is not currently the usual peak malarial season. Huynh Hong Quang, deputy director of the Malaria-Parasitology-Insects Institute, said that an abnormal increase in malaria cases in Khanh Hoa Province since the beginning of the year, is deviating from the usual seasonal pattern. Quang said that if the locality does not take decisive measures during the peak periods of the epidemic, from now until the end of August and from November to February 2025, the risk of a surge in malaria cases will increase significantly. In Khanh Vinh District, 12 out of 14 communes and townships have malaria cases. Particularly in Khanh Phu and Khanh ong communes, nearly 100 per cent of the detected cases are attributed to the P. falciparum strain of malaria parasites. In contrast, cases in Khanh Thuong Commune are linked to the P. Malariae strain of malaria parasites. During the first few months of the year, Khanh Vinh District recorded 114 cases, including dozens of severe malaria cases. Males accounted for nearly 80 per cent of the cases and around 25 per cent were children aged between five and fifteen years old. Most of the cases are those who sleep in makeshift shelters in the wilderness, ten of the cases are forest rangers. A survey conducted by the Malaria-Parasitology-Insects Institute in 30 households in forested areas in Khanh Vinh District showed that most people do not use mosquito nets while sleeping, creating favourable conditions for mosquitoes to transmit the disease. In addition, many individuals in the community still carry malaria parasites without exhibiting any symptoms, potentially becoming a source of infection when bitten by mosquitoes. According to Ton That Toan, deputy director of the provincial CDC, aside from Khanh Vinh District, the situation regarding the other nine malaria cases in the province has been effectively controlled, with no new sources of transmission identified. The Health Centre of Khanh Vinh District has imposed measures to prevent and control malaria in the district, but some significant challenges persist. The pathogen still exists in the forest areas and with the livelihoods of many of the local residents linked to work there, it is difficult to cut off the source of transmission. The district has conducted various forms of communication including radio broadcasts and has sent out medics to offer tests and treatments. However, the community remains negligent in malaria prevention and control, especially in participating in testing and reporting to local healthcare authorities after returning from the forest. This hinders early detection, treatment, and prevention of malaria from spreading into the community. VNS AI and perhaps even a partnership with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI will likely be a driving theme at the Monday kickoff of Apple's annual WWDC developers' conference in Silicon Valley, according to analysts. Apple faces pressure to deliver on AI at developer conference, illustration photo/ Source: freepik.com The conference is an annual jamboree for developers who create apps and software for Apple's ecosystem, and CEO Tim Cook will work hard to persuade them that the company is a key AI player as rivals Microsoft and Google roll out innovations in rapid-fire succession. While Apple has been quietly including AI features in its iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers for years, it has yet to solidify its overall strategy or embrace ChatGPT-style generative AI that took the world by storm in late 2022. Apple's share price has been on a roller coaster ride since the spark of the AI revolution, but the company's Wall Street believers see next week's announcements as the beginning of a new chapter for the iPhone-maker. "WWDC represents the most important event for Apple in over a decade as the pressure to bring a generative AI stack of technology for developers and consumers is front and center," Wedbush Equities senior analyst Daniel Ives told AFP. At the heart of the announcements will almost certainly be an update to Apple's iPhone operating system that is expected to see AI given a central role, according to Ives. He also predicts a "flagship" OpenAI partnership involving an exclusive chatbot, which could be part of an upgrade to the much-derided virtual assistant Siri. Since Apple makes most of its money from selling iPhones and other hardware, AI integrations will likely focus on its devices and services working more seamlessly together, said Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi. "At the end of the day for Apple, it is about getting people to upgrade their iPhone," Milanesi said. "We will see if Apple gives them a compelling reason to do that." Apple's rival Microsoft has "thrown down the gauntlet" by injecting generative AI features into Windows-powered computers to challenge MacBook laptops, according to Techsponential analyst Avi Greengart. "The timing is critical for Apple," said Emarketer senior analyst Gadjo Sevilla. Announcements at WWDC will be a "litmus test" for Apple's ability to integrate ChatGPT-like generative AI into all its devices and services, he said. "Any misstep by Apple at this juncture could see it lose its place as a technology leader, especially as it is now sandwiched between two AI giants with actual products and release roadmaps that go well into the next two years." Early this year, Apple lost its spot as the world's biggest company by market capitalization to Microsoft, with AI-chip leader Nvidia quickly closing in. CEO Cook and his teams have already indicated their intention to answer the AI challenge by putting more powerful and AI-ready chips in recent iPad and MacBook releases. But the big challenge for Apple is how to infuse the technology into its products without weakening its heavily promoted user privacy and security, according to analysts. ChatGPT-style AI voraciously feeds off data and Apple will be at pains to fight the AI race while living up to its traditional position on safeguarding data privacy. "Being too controlling of an AI ecosystem could cause Apple to lose ground or fall behind while other companies are moving fast and breaking things," Sevilla said. As it moves forward, Apple has little other choice than to enter the race. Market-tracker Canalys forecasts that 16 percent of smartphones shipped globally this year will be AI-capable, with that share growing to 54 percent by 2028. Apples deepening roots and flourishing partnerships Apples recent visit to Vietnam by CEO Tim Cook signifies a significant commitment by the tech giant to the Southeast Asian nation. This commitment extends beyond mere words, as Apple has pledged to increase spending on local suppliers, highlighting Vietnams growing importance in the companys global supply chain. Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc proclaimed there was a lot of room for cooperation between the two countries, but the scale of Australia's investment in Vietnam remained small. Australia ranks 20th of 146 countries and territories investing in Vietnam. Ngoc also spoke about Vietnam's achievements in its socioeconomic development, and the difficulties that come with that, as the country strives to meet its commitment to investing in renewable energy development and transitioning to clean energy, highlighting the launch of Power Development Plan VIII and policies to contend with the global minimum tax. "Vietnam will continue to prioritise carbon-neutral projects to level up its status in global production chains, and I hope that Australian businesses will continue to invest in Vietnam during its digital, energy, and transportation transformations to bring benefit to both countries," Ngoc added. Australian Ambassador Andrew Goledzinowski, in attendance at the meeting, agreed with the deputy minister's comments. The two sides agreed to work closely together on matters including culture, education and training, the environment, climate change, green hydrogen production, and Vietnam's goal to be 'Net Zero by 2050'. Representatives from the MPI, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Ministry of Transport shared their views on the development of key transport infrastructure and energy transition investment policies on hydropower, wind power, solar, and biomass Australia strengthens climate and energy cooperation with Vietnam Australia's Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy Jenny McAllister will travel to Vietnam to drive cooperation on climate and the energy transition under the recently signed Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and Australias Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040. Australia commits AUD245 million to boost Vietnam's renewable energy and climate resilience The Australia-Vietnam Green Economy Summit took place in Ho Chi Minh City on April 16, attracting nearly 200 businesses, investors, and experts from both countries. Australia and Vietnam to develop competitive electricity market The Australian Embassy in Vietnam and the Electricity Regulatory Authority of Vietnam (ERAV) signed an MoU on April 17 to collaborate on the development of a competitive electricity market. After receiving special investment priority by the prime minister, Lach Huyen is planned to hold eight berths eventually. Two berths have been in operation since 2018, with a throughput capacity (TC) of about 1.5 million TEUs per year, with a further four berths currently under construction. Berths seven and eight are at the planning stage and will eventually bring the TC to 6 million TEUs per year. The port has become a convenient transit point for goods traded between northern Vietnam and the world. According to Tan Cang Haiphong International Container Terminal Co., Ltd., Lach Huyen port receives 15 regular service routes per week, including seven trans-Pacific service routes going directly to the US and three service routes to India. DEEP C Haiphong III IZ, invested by DEEP C Industrial Zones, is located near the port and has since become of special interest to investors due to the ease of transporting goods while the seaport has been constructed to specifically cater to the needs of manufacturing firms based there. Bruno Jaspaert, general director of DEEP C Industrial Zones, said, "Thanks to these advantages, the IZ is perfect for projects producing oversized equipment such as wind turbines and large electronic products, and is particularily suitable for projects manufacturing large-scale components." Le Trung Kien, head of Haiphong Economic Zone Authority, believes the synergistic development of the IZ and deepwater port has maximised the value of both, and helped promote Haiphong as a destination for industrial and logistics development. "Well-prepared investors can certainly take full advantage of the proximity of the IZ, and other nearby industrial areas, to the Lach Huyen seaport," said Kien. The government has established 19 coastal economic zones (EZs), of which 18 are in operation. These EZs have pulled in over 550 foreign-led projects valued at more than $54 billion, and more than 1,600 domestic projects worth over $57 million. Dinh Vu EZ in Haiphong city has taken in nearly $11 billion, accounting for two thirds of total overseas funding in the city, through renowned investors such as LG, Pegatron, Bridgestone, Nipro Pharma, and Fuji Xerox, to name but a few. IZs built near seaports or located within coastal EZs have succeeded by leveraging Vietnam's long coastline to help transport huge volumes of goods over large distances at lower cost. It is expected that by 2030, Haiphong's logistics sector will cover around 1,700-2,000ha and 2,200-2,500ha by 2040, including international and regional logistics centres in the Dinh Vu-Cat Hai area, specialised logistics centres in the city, and support centres associated within the main trade hubs. According to the Haiphong People's Committee, the local logistics sector is currently growing at around 20 to 23 per cent per year and contributing 13 to 15 per cent to the regional GDP, twice as high as growth overall. Vietnamese government committed to boosting logistics infrastructure At the Vietnam Logistics Summit 2023 co-hosted by SPL Vietnam and VIR, representatives from the Vietnamese government reaffirmed the country's steadfast dedication to enhancing the nation's logistics infrastructure. Phu Yen takes on logistics infrastructure investment With the development of Vung Ro and Bai Goc seaports, Phu Yen province is determined to locate a logistics centre in Dong Hoa town that can connect to Tuy Hoa airport. The information was shared by Richard W. Smith, president and CEO of FedEx Express, in a meeting with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chi in Hanoi on June 6. "After 30 years of presence in Vietnam, FedEx Express considers Vietnam as its major market in the Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Africa, with 36 weekly flights to and from Vietnam," Smith said. He was also upbeat about the outlook for Vietnam's economy and lauded its investment climate. "FedEx Express is planning to expand its operations in the country and maintain its logistics activities at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City," he added. PM Chinh recommended FedEx Express increase the number of flights and scale up its cargo transport. He called for the company's support in the development of Vietnam's airport and logistics networks. At the same time, the company is urged to expand partnerships and share expertise with Vietnamese partners in operating transport and logistics services and delivering fast delivery services in global supply chains. The government is focused on the implementation of Long Thanh International Airport in the southern province of Dong Nai to become a regional and global transit hub. The prime minister asked Fed Express to support Vietnam during the construction of Long Thanh and expand its activities and investment at the airport. The US is currently Vietnam's top export market, and bilateral trade has exceeded $100 billion for two years in a row. In September 2023, Vietnam and the US upgraded their relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership, which sparked new prospects and increased impetus for collaboration in various areas. More US companies, including FedEx Express, are keen on further expansion in Vietnam to capitalise on the opportunities. FedEx Express: Delivering logistics for growth in Vietnam Since 1994, FedEx has been supporting Vietnamese small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in expanding their cross-border trade through its extensive transportation and logistics network, while also actively contributing to the local community. FedEx Express enhances intercontinental delivery services from Vietnam FedEx Vietnam slashes transit times: Southern Vietnam exports reach major Asian markets in one day, Europe in just two working days. Nguyen Bich Ngoc, the missing Vietnamese student, has been confirmed dead by French authorities. (Photo courtesy of Ngoc's family) Hanoi - A Vietnamese female student named Nguyen Bich Ngoc in France who was reported to go missing since January 2024 has been confirmed dead by French authorities, spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry Pham Thu Hang said on June 6. At the ministry's regular press conference, the spokesperson said as soon as receiving information that Ngoc had not contacted her family since January, the Vietnamese Embassy in France notified the French police to search for her and coordinated with Vietnamese representative agencies in neighbouring countries to closely follow the incident. Recently, the French police discovered a body in an apartment on the outskirts of Paris, and after verifying the body's identification, French authorities confirmed that the dead was Ngoc. The Vietnamese Embassy has informed and supported Ngoc's family to go to France as well as collaborated with local authorities to carry out necessary legal procedures. Under the direction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the embassy is continuing to coordinate with French authorities to clarify the cause of the incident and assist her family to quickly bring the deceaseds ashes back to Vietnam. The spokesperson sent her deepest condolences to Ngocs family for the great loss. She emphasised that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs advises Vietnamese citizens residing in other countries to carrying out citizen registration procedures at Vietnamese representative agencies abroad so as to receive quick and timely support in case of emergencies. JobHopin has significantly scaled down our operations from over 200 employees to just 15, all of whom are now fully remote, shared founder and CEO Kevin Tung Nguyen. The company has also closed its office to cut expenses. Despite the cutbacks, JobHopin continues to serve clients such as Techcombank, SAP, Deloitte APAC, Krungthai Bank, and Avanto. The downsizing follows the companys inability to secure venture funding to extend its operational runway. Its indeed the hardest time for our company as we strive to survive, having failed to secure our Series B funding and ceased fundraising efforts since October 2023, Nguyen told Dealstreetasia. Founded in 2017, JobHopin uses AI and machine learning to automate recruitment. However, its competitive edge was diminished by the emergence of ChatGPT. To cope with economic downturns and a decline in the IT recruitment market, JobHopin shifted its focus to the banking, financial services, and insurance sector. Nguyen noted that long sales cycles and payment terms in this segment have led to cash flow challenges. According to its most recent financial statement filed with Singapores Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, JobHopin had cash and cash equivalents of $2.6 million at the end of the financial year on June 30, 2023. The company reported a negative operating cash flow of $2.3 million and a net loss of $1.7 million for the year. In 2022, JobHopin was reportedly nearing the close of a $15.6-million pre-Series B round to expand its AI-powered platform and enter new markets such as Thailand, Japan, and South Korea. Of this amount, the startup had already secured $5.6 million in the first tranche led by Daiwa-SSIAM Vietnam Growth Fund III. The fund had intended to invest an additional $1.35 million if JobHopin met specific revenue targets. Previously, JobHopin raised $2.45 million in a Series A funding round in 2020 and $710,000 in seed financing in 2018, with investors including SEMA Translink Investment, Edulab Capital Partners, NKC Asia, KK Fund, and Mynavi Corporation. At the launching ceremony for the project in Dong Nai. (Photo: VNA) Dong Nai Persons with disabilities in the southern province of Dong Nai are expected to gain better access to social services and find it easier to integrate into society under a project launched on June 6. The launching ceremony for the project on improving the quality of life of persons with disabilities in areas heavily sprayed with Agent Orange was jointly held by the National Action Centre for Toxic Chemicals and Environmental Treatment, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Catholic Relief Services, and the provincial Peoples Committee. The project will be carried out in 11 districts and cities in Dong Nai from June 2024 to November 2026, aiming to expand healthcare and rehabilitation services for the group, improve their living standards and minimise social barriers for them. Apart from benefiting 4,600 disabled people, the project will offer training to 3,360 officials, health workers and caregivers in the province. Vice Chairman of the provincial Peoples Committee Nguyen Son Hung asked departments, agencies and localities to coordinate with Catholic Relief Services and partners to implement the project in line with legal regulations. On June 5, a similar event was held in the southern province of Binh Phuoc to launch the project there. Dong Nai woos Japanese investors More than 100 Japanese investors, with 200 more Vietnamese and Japanese attending online, participated in a conference to promote investment in the southern province of Dong Nai held in Tokyo on April 24. Former General Director of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia (CCIS) Ales Cantarutti (Photo: VNA) Hanoi Vietnam and Slovenia have great potential to enhance cooperation across multiple domains such as labour, tourism, logistics, and import and export of agricultural products, former General Director of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia (CCIS) Ales Cantarutti has said. In a recent interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency, Cantarutti said that around eight years ago, when he was the State Secretary in charge of the economy, the Slovenian government decided to take Vietnam as one of the most important markets for Slovenia outside the European Union (EU). That is why the Slovenian government prepared a special action plan to strengthen the cooperative relationship between Slovenian and Vietnamese businesses, he noted. He said that a delegation of Slovenian businesses visited Vietnam at that time, during which the two sides discussed potential areas such as logistics and trade, tourism, and especially two-way import and export. The next important step was the establishment of the Intergovernmental Committee for Economic Cooperation between the two nations, Cantarutti remarked, saying that this is a significant achievement as they have managed to resolve challenging differences not only between the two ministries but also the business communities. According to the expert, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted economic cooperation between Slovenia and Vietnam, yet Vietnam remains central to the strategy of Slovenian businesses which are looking to expand cooperation into the Asian market. Slovenia currently sees Vietnam as a gateway to the Asian market and hopes that Vietnamese businesses will tap Slovenia's EU membership to seek opportunities in the EU market with nearly 450 million consumers. Economic cooperation between Slovenia and Vietnam has gradually recovered after the pandemic, and the CCIS organised several seminars to enhance business cooperation and increase delegation exchanges with Vietnam, he said. Strengthening connections will open up opportunities for businesses from the two countries to ink contracts, he stressed, noting that many Slovenian companies are gradually expanding cooperation with Vietnamese partners. The CCIS evaluates Vietnam as an attractive partner because it is a rapidly developing economy with a young population, which can bring opportunities for both the EU and Slovenia, he added. Compared to some other economies in the region, Vietnam receives special attention from Slovenia because it is more compatible with the European nation, he emphasised. Regarding the potential for cooperation, Cantarutti said that the traditional friendship between the two countries and the awareness among the Slovenian public of Vietnam provide a very favourable foundation for enhancing cooperation. The CCIS and the Slovenian business community have also discussed with the Vietnamese Ambassador to Austria and Slovenia about the possibility of bringing Vietnamese labourers to work in Slovenia, as Slovenia is currently experiencing a labour shortage. Cantarutti also mentioned the prospects for cooperation between the two countries in knowledge-intensive sectors and new technologies, and collaboration between universities. Logistics firms take alternative steps While logistics businesses in Vietnam are taking action to respond to Red Sea tensions, the situation may drag on for some time. Annasofia Scheve covers trending news for the Express-News. She can be reached at Annasofia.Scheve@express-news.net. Annasofia has bachelor's degrees in journalism and political science from the University of Missouri. She is an Ohio native, and wrote for Cincinnati Magazine and the Cincinnati Enquirer before joining the Express-News in 2023. The conference was co-organised on June 5 in Hanoi by the MIC and Fukuoka (Japan) to support businesses, and marked the first time the MIC has signed an MoU to support enterprises with a Japanese locality. Representatives of the Ministry of Information and Communications and Fukuoka signed an MoU on cooperation in information and communications Also at the event, Vietnams Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology and Fukuoka Institute of Technology signed an agreement for academic exchanges. This lays the groundwork to promote broader cooperation in IT and startups between Vietnam and Japan, contributing to promoting the digital economy and building a high-quality IT workforce for both countries as global digital transformation picks up pace. At the conference, Phan Tam, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, stated that in recent years, Vietnamese IT companies have continuously expanded their investments in Fukuoka. Fukuoka's startups are also paying increasing attention to Vietnam, actively exchanging with Vietnamese companies and startups related to IT. Addressing the event, Mayor Soichiro Takashima said that Fukuoka is a vibrant, liveable, and business-friendly city. The city has developed policies to attract companies in information and communication technology, automotive software development, robotics, digital content production, and semiconductor research and development, among other fields. Takashima Soichiro, Mayor of Fukuoka (Japan), delivered the opening speech Fukuoka is the only city in Japan to grant fast-track engineering visas, shortening the visa processing time for foreign engineers to just one month. "In other places, visas for engineers can take 3-6 months for review, but in Fukuoka it only takes one month," Mayor Takashima said. Since 2014, Fukuoka has attracted 988 startup companies, mobilising $27 million in investment. The area is also home to Vietnamese technology companies such as FPT, Rikkeisoft, and VNG. "The MIC has assessed that Fukuoka's strengths match the 'go global' orientation of Vietnamese digital companies," emphasised Tam. Tam added that Vietnamese digital technology companies are entering a new stage of development, offering made-in-Vietnam digital products and services to the world, while solving digital transformation issues, developing the digital economy in other countries, and becoming global digital corporations. Minister of Information and Communications Phan Tam spoke at the seminar This year, the MIC will continue to focus on supporting Vietnamese digital technology companies to expand their markets and explore global investment and business opportunities. The conference provided an opportunity for Vietnamese organisations and companies to directly exchange information, establish relationships, and build cooperation programmes and projects with partners from Japan. Vice President urges Japans Fukuoka prefecture to increase investment in Vietnam Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh has asked Governor of Japans Fukuoka prefecture, Hiroshi Ogawa, to boost its investment in Vietnam in auto manufacturing, digital technology, renewable energy, environmental protection, climate change adaptation, and clean agriculture. ACV and Fukuoka sign sister airport agreement Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), and Japans Fukuoka International Airport Co., Ltd (FIAC) on April 13 signed a sister airport agreement. On June 6, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, on behalf of the government, addressed queries from National Assembly deputies during its 7th session. Deputy Nguyen Thi Viet Nga from Hai Duong province inquired about Vietnam's opportunities in the semiconductor industry. In response, DPM Ha assured that the PM and relevant ministries are actively implementing multiple strategies. Vietnam has numerous advantages, said DPM Ha, citing the rapid development of the digital economy, strong mathematical skills, dexterity, and comprehensive university education in fields related to the semiconductor industry, such as IT, materials science, and physics. As a result, Vietnam has significant potential to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor industry. The government has launched a project to train IT professionals. Many leading global tech and digital economy companies are already present in Vietnam, and Vietnamese enterprises are also making substantial progress in the digital economy. In the long term, we must focus on immediately training and retraining engineers with foundational knowledge to engage in design, packaging, and testing in the semiconductor industry, Ha emphasised. Additionally, policies should be designed to attract Vietnamese experts and scientists working abroad in the semiconductor field. The government plans to support businesses, particularly by selecting universities to develop semiconductor technology centres. This includes investing in large, modern laboratories for design, production, and testing. This approach will enable Vietnam to integrate deeply into the semiconductor value chain, DPM Ha noted. Ha also pointed out that semiconductor manufacturing and design equipment are monopolised by a few countries, necessitating basic and deep scientific research for long-term mastery. We need to attract electronics companies that manufacture products using semiconductors, aiming to build a high-tech electronics industry. This requires comprehensive training and research in other fundamental sciences, he said. Furthermore, the DPM revealed that Vietnam will invest in several research centres to serve universities and innovation hubs, fostering basic research to master subsequent steps. New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters. (Photo: VNA) Hanoi - New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters emphasised the importance that New Zealand attaches to the Southeast Asian nation in an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) on the occasion of his official visit to Vietnam on June 5-6, during which he co-chaired the second Vietnam-New Zealand Foreign Ministers' Meeting. According to Peters, his visit aimed to rapidly improve, strengthen and upgrade the bilateral relationship, exchange views on matters important to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and adjacent areas, and renew the decades-old connection between our two countries. It also gave a clear signal that the two countries hope for more frequent meetings to discuss issues where they can make far more progress and far more quickly, he said. Stressing Vietnams importance to New Zealand, the official said the two countries have cooperated in a range of areas, from politics and national defence and security to trade, education and tourism. Peters highlighted collaboration in agriculture, elaborating on the study of certain agricultural products in Vietnam and their viability and sustainability, and biosecurity issues, which he believed would be a big help to countries in Asia. The Deputy PM and FM said although Vietnam and New Zealand have different political systems, both believe in the rule of law and respect international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). New Zealand appreciates Vietnams foreign policy of independence, he said, noting the two countries can agree on so many other things, benefiting both of us and our neighbourhood. Regarding the 50th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic ties in 2025, Peters informed that there will be a lot of celebration activities, notably the Vietnam visit by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, and his trip was also part of preparations for the celebration. We have so many engagements in connections, where Vietnam is critical to us and ASEAN, he said, adding that New Zealand gives high priority to the grouping in its new foreign policy. The two countries are working to enhance their economic ties and effectively implement commitments within the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) to which both are members, he said. New Zealand Trade and Enterprise partners with major retailers to bring premium products to Vietnam New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) is working with leading retailers AEON and Lotte to offer New Zealand-produced food and beverages to millions of Vietnamese consumers. . , . , . , . . A giant illuminated globe stands at the entrance of Sacred Places, the new exhibit opening a seven-month run Saturday at the Mayborn Museum. The globe marks the wide-flung locations highlighted in the exhibit, but also informs visitors of its scope. Sacred Places touches on more than two dozen sites deemed holy or special by various faiths, with an emphasis on how young followers use those sites in prayer, worship, offerings or contemplation. The exhibit focuses on six sites that represent some of the worlds most-followed religions, and the geography of those sites may surprise some. Christianity, for instance, is represented by the Church of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist in Madaba, Jordan, where the Roman Catholic Mass is celebrated in Arabic. The Great Mosque of Djenne in Mali, whose mud walls are refreshed annually in a ritual that combines maintenance and reverence, represents Islam. Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue in Willemstad, Curacao, the oldest synagogue in the Americas, stands in for Judaism. Also getting focused attention are Hinduism, through the Keshav Narayan Temple at Patan Durbar Square, Lalitpur, Nepal; Buddhism, with the Wat Arun Temple, Bangkok, Thailand; Yoruba, with the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove outside Osogbo, Nigeria; and the Pacific island of Rapa Nui, where worship of ancestral moai carved from stone or coral is practiced. Displays on each place feature video of young adult believers who explain their practices, whether prayer, offerings or reading of sacred texts. Other faiths such as Shintoism and torii gates, Sikhism and the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, and Zoroastrianism and a fire temple also find a place in the exhibit. The exhibit created by The Childrens Museum of Indianapolis is the second Mayborn presentation in recent years with world religions as a theme. In 2016, National Geographic Sacred Journeys looked at religious pilgrimages and holy places around the world. Sacred Places aims to expose visitors to the wide range of organized faiths and how those faiths can take on the flavor of geography and culture. In addition to the Catholic church in Jordan, for instance, are mentions of Christian worship in St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church in Ithaca, New York, and the stained glass of Trinity United Methodist Church in Ventnor City, New Jersey. The exhibit is aimed at school-age children and adults. It relies largely on objects and replicas to tell its stories, such as six-feet-long Tibetan Buddhist horns, a Jewish Torah scroll, Japanese Daruma dolls that mark answered prayers, an Islamic prayer rug and plastic representations of the tika powder, flowers and shankha shells used in Hindu puja offerings. The diversity of faiths represented is intentional, said Molly Noah, the Mayborns marketing coordinator. Sacredness can show up in so many ways in our lives, Noah said. Sacred Places also may prompt discussions among family members about their own religious beliefs, and the Mayborn is planning on ways in upcoming months to connect some of the faith traditions presented in Sacred Places to their active communities in Waco, Noah said. Sacred Places will run at the Mayborn Museum through Jan. 5. WATERLOO -- Police have arrested a Waterloo man in connection with stolen vehicle that was found crashed in February. Waterloo police arrested John McCarthy Fitzpatrick, 25, on June 1 for one count of first-degree theft. The 1997 Lexus 300 was reported stolen Jan. 22, and on Feb. 28, police saw Fitzpatrick driving the vehicle. About 10 minutes later, officers found the Lexus empty and running and crashed into a fire hydrant in the front yard of 405 Idaho St. Inside the car, authorities found paperwork belonging to Fitzpatrick, a photo of the mother of Fitzpatricks child and a cigarette butt. A test found Fitzpatricks DNA on the cigarette butt, according to court records. Best crime TV shows of the 90s Best crime TV shows of the 90s #25. Picket Fences #24. Silent Witness #23. A Touch of Frost #22. Touching Evil #21. Bad Girls #20. New York Undercover #19. Third Watch #18. Due South #17. Millennium #16. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit #15. Brimstone #14. Todd McFarlane's Spawn #13. Gargoyles #12. Batman Beyond #11. The Adventures of Tintin #10. Cracker #9. Detective Conan #8. The New Batman Adventures #7. Homicide: Life on the Street #6. The X-Files #5. Profit #4. The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes #3. Oz #2. Forensic Files #1. The Sopranos Lady Justice tops a fountain in front of the Bexar County Courthouse in 2017. The county paused its new online criminal case system this week to fix widespread glitches. Billy Calzada Bexar Countys $30 million criminal court case management system debuted this week to round-the-clock glitches, prompting officials to pull it down for fixes that kept online records unavailable until Friday. County officials said they were still working on problems filling in missing data and were prioritizing the ability of law enforcement to know if defendants cases have been resolved, so they dont mistakenly stay in jail or get re-arrested. Anything affecting a persons civil liberty goes to the top, said Mark Gager, the countys chief information technology officer. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Complaints were widespread, and many involved the systems functionality and ease of use, not just the accuracy or completeness of its information. Odyssey Case Manager, created and run by Tyler Technologies, already keeps track of civil cases in Bexar County and had been preparing for a rollout on the criminal side for the past two years. Bexar County Information Technology began migrating the countys 50-year-old system on May 30 and the new one was introduced Monday. Defense attorneys trying to use it this week found they no longer had the ability to electronically file information on their cases or clients, among other routine functions. Many complained that they could not get clients out of jail and to court for appearances. On Wednesday, clerks, judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys were notified electronically that the portal was under maintenance and that criminal records had been temporarily removed to allow for improvements to be completed. We expect to have the criminal portal back up for your use within 48 hours, the message said. Advertisement Article continues below this ad A man walks outside the Bexar County Courthouse in 2020. The county paused its new online criminal case system this week to fix widespread glitches. Josie Norris/Staff Photographer Its a nightmare, said longtime San Antonio defense attorney Bobby Barrera of The Barrera Firm, calling the implementation a total failure. He said the online system had shown some jailed defendants as being free on bond, and some who were out on bond as still being in jail. Cases that were dismissed last year are showing that they are being set for trial, Barrera said Thursday, adding that two of his cases that were supposed to be set for court appearances that day never made it to the docket. Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said his office had technical issues transferring data to the new system and said the information had disappeared when the site went live on Monday. It caused delays in booking and releasing prisoners by a staff that had to make sure nobody was erroneously let out who shouldnt be on the streets, Salazar said. The problems put the department at risk of falling out of compliance with the Texas Commission on Jail Standards along with inconveniencing those incarcerated and their families, he said. Advertisement Article continues below this ad On Wednesday, the Sheriffs Office had a backlog of more than 900 files. Salazar emphasized that it was a paperwork number and didnt equate to 900 jailed people who couldnt be released. The number was being reduced with help from the countys IT department and the sheriff said he was cautiously optimistic that the system would work by weeks end. In a news conference Thursday evening, Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai said public safety was not affected by what he called a huge and massive undertaking comparable to moving from a flip phone to a smart phone. He apologized for the problems, adding, I beg the public and the community and those affected to please be patient. Gager, who heads Bexar County Information Technology, said the system was back up by Thursday night but his team continued on Friday to work out the glitches. He said the goal is to start fully utilizing Odyssey with a complete picture by Tuesday. Advertisement Article continues below this ad We always knew the data entry would take seven to 10 days, Gager said, with county employees manually inputting information from the old system into the new. Its difficult to test for issues when the system is not entirely complete, and it could take the next couple of weeks for entries to begin showing up, he said, adding, Once (the case information) get back, we can start on more improvements. Barrera said he was concerned that key information, such as criminal histories and mental health records, wasn't appearing in databases and was unsure if that information could be restored. At this point, we cant do our jobs very well, he said. Defense attorney Charles Bunk was frustrated that the new system doesnt allow an online search using a defendants SID, or state identification number, which is assigned to every arrested person to make sure that criminal case histories match the correct person. Advertisement Article continues below this ad So if you have a client with a common name, its impossible to find him or her. Cant tell if the case is open or closed without clicking each case individually, he said. And for each action, he has to stop and click a box to prove he isnt a robot, Bunk added. We were not offered any training to prepare for this, just a few examples, he said. It hasnt worked properly since it started. Obviously the poor people at the jail are getting harmed the most. County Court at Law No. 13 Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez concurred. We knew this was going to be a problem from the beginning due to the lack of necessary and appropriate training, she said. The courts continued to function despite the glitches. Judge Kristina Escalona conducted a murder trial in the 186th District Court this week without issues, though the transition to the new system seems to have increased the workload for the district clerks, she said. State District Judge Ron Rangel, the administrative judge for the state district courts, sounded optimistic that things would return to normal. Its been a struggle, but its all coming along, he said Thursday, adding that Tyler Technologies has been providing round the clock trouble-shooting and resolving issues by the hour. Even as larger issues are resolved, smaller problems will continue to arise, Rangel said. 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(1) June 2006 (6) May 2006 (4) April 2006 (3) March 2006 (1) February 2006 (11) January 2006 (2) More than $200,000 has been donated to the Minnesota State College Southeast Foundation, the college announced Thursday. The approximately $217,000 gift, one of the largest that has ever been made to the foundation, will be designated for student scholarships at the college. We are thrilled to accept this amazing gift, said Jennifer Hawkins, executive director of the Southeast Foundation. We are grateful for donors like this, who value Minnesota State College Southeast and recognize the importance of supporting our students. The donor, who preferred to remain anonymous, specified that the gift be used to establish a scholarship fund for Southeast students who are pursuing a degree or diploma from a program based on the Winona campus. To qualify, students must reside in Winona County. Oftentimes people assume they can only make a gift of cash or money to a nonprofit. They may not realize they can donate stock or other assets such as real estate, said Casie Johnson, director of stewardship and foundation operations. There are all kinds of avenues to give. A gift like this will make an impact on students at Southeast for generations to come, said Hawkins. On behalf of our students, we want to express our gratitude for such profound generosity. We are truly thankful. Former South Texas police officer Jose Omar Garcia was arrested this week on a drug conspiracy charge after being on the run for 13 years. United States Drug Enforcement Adminstration A former South Texas police officer turned himself in this week after being on the run for 13 years. Jose Omar Garcia turned himself in to authorities on Monday. Garcia and his brother, Roel Roberto Garcia, were arrested in 2010 along with several others after they were accused of trafficking marijuana through Starr County, according to a news release from the Southern District of Texas U.S. Attorney's Office. Advertisement Article continues below this ad They were each charged with conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute more than 2,200 pounds of marijuana since August 2006. The charge has a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison and a maximum fine of $1,000,000. Both brothers worked for the Roma Police Department, the release states, and their arrests were the result of "Operation X-Men," which was "the largest Department of Justice Special Operations Division operation to date targeting Mexican Drug Cartel infrastructure and transportation cells throughout the United States with special emphasis on the Southwest Border," according to the release. According to court records, after the brothers were arrested, they posted bond and fled to Mexico, violating the conditions of their bond. Advertisement Article continues below this ad On Monday, Garcia and his lawyers appeared in court and indicated that his brother also planned on turning himself in. With the new installment in the Will Smith (55) and Martin Lawrence (59) franchise Bad Boys: Ride or Die, hitting theaters, it's a good time to dive deeper into the surprisingly resilient buddy-comedy genre. A few basic ingredients are essential: The two leads need to be opposites; they need to drive each other more than a little crazy; and they eventually need to put all of that aside to overcome whatever obstacle they face. And a little magic is required, that indescribable push-pull chemistry thats as rare as Halleys Comet. Here are 15 big-screen buddy comedies from the late-1950s classic Some Like It Hot to the underrated 2016 gem The Nice Guys that nailed it. Some Like It Hot (1959) Sure, there had been buddy comedies before (Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello). But Billy Wilders absolutely perfect caper took the genre to dizzying new heights. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis play Chicago musicians running from the Mob after witnessing the St. Valentines Day Massacre, hiding out as Josephine and Daphne, two new gals in an all-female band. As they fight off handsy male suitors and their own urges for breathy bandmate Marilyn Monroe, posing as women becomes hilariously challenging. But hey, nobodys perfect. Watch it: on Prime Video The Odd Couple (1968) Has the opposites-attract formula ever been deployed better than this? Jack Lemmon is pure gold as neat freak Felix Unger and Walter Matthau is hangdog perfection as the put-upon slob Oscar Madison. Booted out by his wife, Felix moves in with Oscar and tidies up his pigpen to the point of exasperation. One of the decades best bits of physical comedy is hypochondriacal Felix as he hilariously tries to clear his sinuses in a diner. But its not just laughs. The Odd Couple is a surprisingly poignant movie about two guys who love each other dearly despite hating one another. Watch it: on Prime Video 48 Hrs. (1982) By the early 1980s, Eddie Murphy was SNLs latest breakout sensation, making his movie debut in Walter Hills action comedy about a short-fused cop (Nick Nolte) and the convict he springs from jail to help him track down a killer. Murphys first 15 minutes show why superstardom was inevitable. His charisma, comic timing and command of the big screen are immediate. And dont sleep on Nolte: His one-of-a-kind rock-tumbler voice sounds like a dive bar at closing time. Watch it: on Paramount+, Prime Video Note: Paramount+ provides a discount to AARP members and pays AARP a royalty for the use of its intellectual property. Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) John Hughes hysterical cross-country odyssey stars Steve Martin, 78, as a Chicago advertising exec trying to get home to his family in time for Thanksgiving. Problem is, a blizzard has canceled every flight and he cant seem to shake John Candys oafish shower-curtain-ring salesman. Its one of lifes great tragedies that these two men didnt get the chance to make a hundred movies together. If youre looking for a comedy that will make you laugh until you cry (and maybe even cry until you laugh), this heartwarmer is your ticket. Watch it: on Paramount+, Prime Video Midnight Run (1988) In the single best buddy comedy of the 1980s, Robert De Niro plays a gruff bounty hunter tasked with delivering a bail-jumping accountant for the Mafia (Charles Grodin) from New York to Los Angeles. An FBI agent (Yaphet Kotto), a rival tracker (John Ashton, 76) and a mob boss (Dennis Farina) all want Grodin too. De Niro, in his greatest comic performance ever, is superb as a grump with a soft chewy center, and Grodin turns complaining into a form of art. Watch it: on Prime Video (MUSIC INTRO) [00:00:01] Bob: This week on The Perfect Scam. [00:00:03] Michael: James, you cannot hesitate anymore. We cannot hesitate. [00:00:04] James: Okay, but, okay, listen... [00:00:07] Michael: You're the one who's hesitating, James, and I understand you, you're skeptical. I, I understand, it's perfectly normal. This is the first time we have conducted a transaction like this and, and I can promise I, as soon as I get you your money back and I get you paid... (MUSIC SEGUE) [00:00:26] Bob: Welcome back to The Perfect Scam. I'm your host, Bob Sullivan. This is part two of a 2-part episode. If you haven't listened to part one yet, you might want to go back and listen to that first. When we left James, he feels tantalizingly close to completing a real estate transaction trying to sell his timeshare in Lake Tahoe that he'd owned since the 1990s. But the company he's been working with has told him the buyer is in Mexico and there is a mountain of refundable fees that James has to pay. After months of back and forths, the payment never quite makes it across the border. James, he sent nearly $900,000 the other way and received nothing in exchange. So he calls a lawyer to get help. The lawyer tells him he's in the middle of a common timeshare resale scam and stop talking to these criminals. And then James takes a call from a New York Times reporter working on a story who tells James that well he's in the middle of something much bigger and much more dangerous than the sale of a timeshare. The people he thinks are real estate agents are actually members of a notorious Mexican crime gang. But James, James can still look on the web and see his money sitting in what he thinks is an escrow account, and so well he's not yet sure what to do. But he does record some of his phone calls with these agents and he's shared them with us. Here he's speaking with someone who goes by the name, Michael, and now James is starting to challenge the entire arrangement. Clip: [00:02:01] James: Michael, I've already sent over $800,000 down there. I can't send anything else. There's got to be a way to get those funds cleared if they're in fact in a bank account, because I've got some serious doubts about everything that's been going on. [00:02:14] Michael: I don't want you to doubt. I don't want you to have, even the tiniest doub--, doubt of on this, okay, because (sighs) it's a stressful situation, James. More than stressful, it's more than stress, and, and believe me, I, I understand where you're coming from. I understand that, you know, at this point feel... [00:02:32] James: What, what would you do if you were in my position? What would you do at this point having essentially as from my perspective, I've lost over $800,000, and Mexico wants another $157,000 to supposedly release any funds to me. I, I don't get it. It, it makes absolutely no sense. [00:02:50] Michael: I know exactly how you feel. I know, I know that, you know, you, you probably, you're, you're feeling like you lost your money. You have not lost a single penny. [00:02:58] James: Yes, absolutely. [00:02:59] Michael: Not a single penny. Okay, I know you have sent it. I have a confirmation of all the payments that you have processed. You know, I'm conscious of all that, but we, we have too much (inaudible) on that. [00:03:09] James: Here, here's, yeah, here's... (MUSIC SEGUE) [00:03:12] Bob: During this call, Michael goes into overdrive trying to reassure James. Clip: [00:03:17] James: Now... [00:03:18] Michael: I'll, I'll book a flight if, if necessary. I'll book a flight and I'll go personally meet you face-to-face. We'll talk about it. I mean if, if necessary I'll go. [00:03:25] James: The, the uh, [00:03:28] Michael: (sighs) I'm not going to Mexico. That, that, I'm telling you right now, I don't even want to go to Mexico. [00:03:32] James: I, I dont blame you. [00:03:33] Michael: Just to see you, just to see you, just so... [00:03:35] James: Well I've got a... [00:03:36] Michael: Look, I want to clear your doubts because right now you're doubting and, and by you doubting, believe me that, and that hurts me, you know, from the bottom of my heart, it hurts me that you feel like you've lost your money and... [00:03:45] James: Michael, Michael, here's what hurts me. Here's what hurts me. $800,000+ dollars. [00:03:51] Michael: Of course, of course. [00:03:53] James: That is no longer mine. (MUSIC SEGUE) [00:03:55] Bob: And James decides he just has to throw in the towel. He's going to just ask for his money back and see what happens. But when James asks if he can cancel the whole transaction, well he's told there's a fee for that too. And the delays will be even longer. Clip: [00:04:11] James: So you're saying that if, if uh, you, you cancel, or if I cancel this, uh, it will be months, but finally will be returned to me? [00:04:23] Michael: Yes, but the thing is, you have a cancellation penalty. If you want to pay the cancellation pen--, it's a lot more money than, than, than what you're doing, and look, believe me, it's well, if, if you go through cancellation, whatever the cancellation is, I think it was like, uh, if I'm not mistaken was it $538,000 approximately? If you pay the $538,000 it's going to be a lot more cheaper, you're going to go ahead and, and, and claim back your money... [00:04:48] James: Good Lord. Do I have to pay a cancellation upfront? [00:04:52] Michael: Of course, the cancellation needs to start the process. The cancellation... [00:04:56] James: I, I don't have a half a million dollars, I don't have a half a million dollars to ... [00:05:00] Michael: I understand, that's why I'm telling you... [00:05:02] Bob: But James, well James has already put pretty much all the money he has in the world into this transaction. He has nothing left, nothing to pay any cancellation fee. But Michael won't give up. Clip: [00:05:14] James: None. I don't have any cash. I've got like $6,000 available to make a car payment and a house payment with. [00:05:21] Michael: Shoot. [00:05:22] James: And buy groceries. All of my money is in Mexico, Michael. That's what I've been telling you for a year. [00:05:28] Michael: What about your stocks? [00:05:29] James: I sold them. I sold all of my investments to send to Mexico. I've got no stocks. It's in freaking Mexico. (MUSIC SEGUE) [00:05:40] Bob: At this point, James has already talked with lawyer Mike Finn. He specializes in getting consumers out of unwanted timeshare contracts. And Mike has told James the deal is bogus, a fraud. Mike has heard from many other victims with pretty much the same story, and that inspires James to do some more research. That escrow company, supposedly in New York with the website that shows his balance at nearly $900,000 now, well it might not be what it appears. James pulls up the address on Google street view. [00:06:12] James: Well, based on the, the Google search at the street level that I did, I, I could see the building, and uh, the, the folks there at uh, that I spoke with at Commercial Escrow, they uh, claimed to have uh million dollar transactions going on all the time because of their commercial escrow situation, but something tells me that when you've got a, what looks to be a cleaners or something like that when you do a Google Map ground level search, it didn't come across as being a location that would be fit a company that claims to be this big, multimillion dollar business deals and the what have you, in the commercial realm. [00:06:55] Bob: But for you to take that step, you, you, at that point you had some kind of creeping sense something was wrong, right? [00:07:00] James: Oh yeah, yeah, just at this point this is just getting way out of hand. [00:07:05] Bob: Do you remember the first moment where you had that feeling like, this feels wrong to me? [00:07:09] James: I always in the back of my mind had a, a measure of doubt and that was planted ear--, very early on. However, it, when I thought about it, this thing with this Commercial Escrow Company, not even in the same state supposedly as the realty company or timeshare company that morphed into a real estate company, that gave me a measure of security as far as well, how could two different entities in different states be involved in the same thing? [00:07:43] Bob: But the lawyer telling him, it's fraud, the New York Times reporter telling him it's organized crime, the Google street view and some other research he's done on the company's domain names, well it all adds up to a growing realization that James, well James will probably never get his money back. [00:08:01] James: Adding everything up is between, it right around 850,000 and change. [00:08:09] Bob: Oh my God, that's incredible. And where did most of that money come from? [00:08:15] James: My uh, investments and savings. [00:08:19] Bob: Do you have anything left? [00:08:19] James: Not a whole lot, no. [00:08:22] Bob: I'm so sorry, that's horrible. [00:08:24] Bob: So James tells these criminals he's not sending any more money. But they dont break things off without a fight. You might remember from the end of last episode that in addition to Michael, James has also been talking with someone who says his name is Jesus, and someone else who says his name is Bruce. Well Bruce said he'd gone down to Mexico to try to fix the transaction and he is now trapped there because authorities won't let him go without paying a fee. In this recorded call, Michael practically begs for James to help Bruce. Clip: [00:08:56] Michael: You know what Bruce is thinking right now? That he did all this for you and that he did all this for nothing because at this point he told you that by the end of the month of February, he was going to get detained, and right now he's detained. He doesn't even have the privilege for a call. Right now I feel like I'm, like I'm letting my boss down, you know, and, and you, as my client, hey, we need to really put the pants down on and get things going you know because right now, James, you cannot hesitate anymore. We cannot hesitate. [00:09:20] James: Okay, but, okay, listen... [00:09:23] Michael: You're the one who's hesitating, James, and I understand you, you're skeptical. I, I understand, it's perfectly normal. This is the first time we have conducted a transaction like this and, and I can promise I, as soon as I get you your money back and I get you paid... (MUSIC SEGUE) [00:09:37] Bob: But James finally draws the line. (MUSIC SEGUE) [00:09:43] Bob: A few weeks go by and the crime gang continues to call James, but James have finally followed the lawyer's advice and ceased all contact. [00:09:52] James: A few calls, probably 4 or 5 calls after I quit talking to them and they're answering the phone calls from both Mexico, the Jesus in Mexico, and Michael in Atlanta. They quit calling. I got an email from uh, Mexico, saying that, accusing me of not talking to them on the phone, not answering my phone when they call. [00:10:15] Bob: Mike helps James report the crime to federal authorities, but they tell him there isn't much they can do. Unfortunately, for this veteran, this retired law enforcement official, a lot of damage has already been done. [00:10:29] Bob: To some people a, a thousand dollars is a lot of money, to some people $1000 means hardly anything. You had more than $800,000 stolen from you. What does that amount mean to you? [00:10:39] James: Well it means a lot. I mean it's, it's virtually uh, virtually all of the accumulated wealth that I had other than the property I'm currently sitting on. And that was accumulated over basically you know the past 50+ years. [00:10:54] Bob: So 50 years of your hard work, including working for the freedom of America, all that work has been stolen by these criminals. [00:11:02] James: Essentially. When you look at somebody's life and where they're at, and the things that they've had to do throughout that lifetime, you work to accumulate some things so that you can live comfortably after you retire. That was taken away, so... [00:11:14] Bob: Somebody's life, taken away, stolen. Remember, James spent decades in the Reserves, decades in law enforcement. He served in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam era. It's all just so hard to hear. How did James end up getting mixed up with a Mexican cartel? How did the cartel get mixed up in this complicated, by very lucrative, timeshare scam industry? Well, timeshare scams actually have a long history. Remember, we told you last episode that about 10 million Americans have an interest in a timeshare, and many wish they didn't. But escaping timeshare contracts is hard. And the desperation many timeshare owners feel makes them vulnerable to criminals offering a way out. This crime of opportunity has been growing so fast that the FBI says timeshare sales fraud complaints are up 79% over the last four years. Timeshare owners have told the FBI that $288 million has been stolen from them in recent years, though underreporting means the real number could be four or five times that. But there's an even more sinister reason that complaints are up so much; freelance journalist, Steve Fisher, is back to explain the whole backstory. [00:12:38] Steve Fisher: Well, it started in the early 1990s. People, fleeing fugitives of the law in the United States, and ex-pats in general from the United States, in the city of Puerto Vallarta and Jalisco, basically started these small scam businesses in which they had their own little call centers and they would call Americans, American senior citizens, and scam them out of money that these American citizens, well, they basically said, you have your timeshare and we have someone who would like to buy it. You paid $56,000 for it, and we can give you $75,000, and that's a bit of a dream, and they began to perfect that scam in which they said, we'll pay you this money but before we do that, we're going to have to, you know, there's some Mexican taxes and fees and things associated with this. All, of course, not true, but all sounding very official. [00:13:31] Bob: The scam was successful that over time dangerous drug gangs began to take notice, especially in Jalisco. So they moved in, took over call center operations, sometimes violently, and began to professionalize the operations paying low-level workers decent wages, giving higher level workers a cut of the profits, building websites capable of mimicking financial firms, and at the same time, deploying terrifying tactics to keep everyone in line. We mentioned last episode that the bodies of some call center workers were found scattered around one facility recently; a gruesome reminder of what happens to anyone who tries to interfere with scam operations. The New York Times reported that some 30 call centers employees have disappeared since 2017. And the cartel does all this with relative impunity. [00:14:23] Bob: No one's going to jail for this basically, right? [00:14:25] Steve Fisher: Very few people. Some people have gone to jail. There was a case in Louisiana where some, one example, perhaps the most prominent example, where people are actually going to prison for it, but very, very, very few people have gone to prison. Part of the reason is because there are very few reports to, you know, say the FBI of this scam compared to how people are actually getting scammed because people are rather embarrassed. So when you have that cover as the cartel, and you just create shell companies and turn and burn them, the US Government officials say like the cartel will use an LLC for maybe 6 months and then create another one, it's, they have so many levels of cover, including the shame that people feel and then not reporting it to US Government officials that it's extremely difficult to identify and bring to justice these scammers. [00:15:20] Bob: Compared to the dangerous business of drug running, timeshare fraud comes with a fraction of the risk. [00:15:29] Bob: But the other thing is, uh, these criminals are, no one has to cross the border to deliver a package in order to do this, right, so all the criminals are, are in Mexico or somewhere else even, and that makes it very hard on US authorities, right? [00:15:39] Steve Fisher: It makes it really difficult because certainly the US authorities, much as institutions like the Treasury Department, the FBI, seek to do what they can to identify these scammers, their jurisdiction is uh, doesn't particularly reach into Mexico. And here in Mexico it's, it doesn't seem to be particularly a top priority for the Mexican government taking down these individuals. [00:16:03] Bob: In some cases, well government agencies don't seem interested in stopping the crime. [00:16:10] Steve Fisher: Certainly the, you know, cartel government collusion is one thing and they can ensure that things continue perhaps peacefully in that way because the Mexican government, they may in some cases, I don't have evidence of this, but certainly government officials in Mexico being bought off is not a new thing. [00:16:26] Bob: Meanwhile, as part of professionalizing the crime, the cartel employs workers who have better language skills and perhaps more education than traditional boiler room criminals. [00:16:37] Bob: I've spent quite a while listening to some tapes that James provided me of the conversations that he had, and you know I've listened to a lot of these things, but I was absolutely astonished by several things; one was just how forceful and persuasive they were. I mean I felt like I was in a car dealership buying a car, honestly. And, and, and I would have been ready to give this person whatever I, I needed to to get them off the phone. But not only was their English very good, but their, their cultural references were spot on. So they're very, very talented, the callers. [00:17:07] Steve Fisher: They're incredibly tal--, it's extraordinary. You know these call centers, uh, the employees the Jalisco cartel looks to bring into their call centers are people with almost perfect English accents, and the sophistication not only of how they engage uh the victims of the scam, is one that's extraordinary. [00:17:28] Bob: It struck me that the callers, the call center workers I listened to must have, if not have lived in the US, at least spent extensive time in the US at some point in their lives. [00:17:38] Steve Fisher: I think that's the only way it could happen, because even, I mean you know you have some, some great schools where you can learn English in Mexico and are taught by American teachers. I have friends, uh who have gone to those schools, and not their, their accent isn't even as good as these call center people's accents. I mean I don't know this, but I do believe it must people spent the majority of their life in the United States. [00:18:02] Bob: The victim we've spoken with for this story talked often about how that alleged New York escrow company and his account balance there was the reason he kept believing there was light at the end of the tunnel. That he would eventually get his money back. That's a big part of the scam, Steve says, in a piece he wrote for USA Today recently, he wrote about a victim named Steven. [00:18:14] Steve Fisher: Then their documentation, I mean they have in the case of my story in the individual that I reported about, they brought his case all the way to what they said was the supreme court of Mexico, and the documents appeared incredibly, like not, not incredibly... the documents appeared absolutely legitimate. I had to do my own uh research to investigate the court case number, and then realized that this case absolutely was nowhere to be found in the Mexican court system. But the documents were impressive, and especially to someone say in the United States who may not be particularly familiar with the Mexican judicial system, it's easy to see how all of this would seem perfectly legitimate. I mean there's layers and layers of sophistication and cover in what the Jalisco cartel does, all the way down to like actually names of say lawyers that actually exist at particular firms that actually exist or addresses that, you know, actually are to a particular office. They've thought this out very clearly and perhaps their motivation is the result is hundreds of millions of dollars in money being sent to their bank accounts every year. [00:19:44] Bob: And they are incredibly persistent. So persistent that over years they stole nearly $1.8 million from the victim Steve interviewed. And the scale of the crime, it's just hard to get your head around. [00:19:59] Steve Fisher: Yeah. I think in the case of the individual, Steven, that I profiled, what I could tell, you know, he had spoken to more than 150 people over the period of a decade. [00:20:10] Bob: Oh my God. [00:20:11] Steve Fisher: Re--, he built relationships with them. And he kept, he's a financial manager for his job, and he kept detailed, detailed records of the calls of every bank transfer and everything, and of, of the names of all the individuals that he spoke to. Certainly, we don't know if they're their real names, but he had all of this on record, and you could tell that he built extraordinary relationships with them. One person in particular, he knew, well, Steven certainly thought he knew a lot about this individual's family, where he'd come from, a divorce he had, he was going through, struggles that he had in his life, and this individual working for the Jalisco cartel, knew absolutely everything about Stevens life, his financial situation, what, how many homes he had, where he lived, what struggles he was going through with his family. The struggles he was going through to find more money to send to this individual. And from my extensive conversations with Steven, I could tell that he was deeply fond of this individual. He cared for him very much, and he cared for his well-being, and he appreciated him very much as a person. And this individual had spoken to him now for years. [00:21:26] Bob: Did you catch that? Over the course of years. About 150 different criminals contacted that victim, Steven. Only an incredibly organized operation could pull that off. Other parts of the organization are equally efficient. The cartels pick their targets carefully. They know victims like James and Steven own timeshares; they probably know they aren't being used either because cartel agents sometimes bribe timeshare facilities to get names of potential targets. But the cartel has an even more sinister way of picking their targets. [00:22:02] Steve Fisher: The other part of this that is if it can be, you know, more devastating, I was told by US Government officials they, if they find a senior citizen with dementia, that they identify seniors that have dementia, those are gold mines, because they'll call them back every few months and just go through the very same scam again and again and again, and these individuals don't remember that they sent tens of thousands of dollars to Mexican bank accounts, and they do it again. And I was told that those are the prime targets for this cartel. [00:22:34] Bob: The criminals know just what to say to keep that light at the end of the tunnel glowing, to make that final payment seem tantalizingly close. So tantalizing that Steve's victim called it an addiction. [00:22:48] Bob: On such a deep level. Um, I just want to drill down for one more moment on the addiction part though, because there's sum cost problem here, right, with, with each request for a fee payment that comes up, the person who's the victim thinks, this is the one, oh this is the one, and you're deeper and deeper in it. And so I think that's where the word addiction comes from, right? [00:23:03] Steve Fisher: Right, so the, yes, because with, with every payment, there's a promise of you getting your money, and in some cases perhaps getting even more money if you just pay just a little bit. You know so it's the matter of there's this kind of tantalizing carrot out there of getting everything back that you spent, plus, you know, the $60,000 you originally were promised say to purchase your timeshare. And yeah, there's this like, just one more, if you give just this little bit, there's just, there's this fee for the Fed Exd check because it's a, it's stopped at the border. It's almost there, it's almost to your address. That $60,000 will be in your hands tomorrow. All you have to do is just pay this thing, it's a Mexican fee, government fee. We're so sorry, you just have to pay this like $500 fee, $2000 fee, and your check will be released. And that's, they're basically telling people what they want to hear. And when you hear what, when someone tells you something that you really want to hear and that you imagine to be the truth, it creates, I think, even a greater level of addiction to continuing to feed into this thing which is precisely what you've wanted to hear. You wanted to be told this. And I think there's a level of addiction to that feeling. [00:24:20] Bob: Yeah, sure. [00:24:21] Bob: Steve also had a bit of a warning for James because in his story the cartel circled back with his victim years later. Steve's victim, Steven, told him... [00:24:32] Steve Fisher: Over time, he started to catch on to this possibly being a scam. And so what they did is they dropped off for a while, a few months. And then someone called him and said, "Hey, we are with the Institute for Victim Representation in Mexico and we just raided a call center that was a total fraud, and we found your information and learned uh from all of the data in the hard drives that we seized, that you were a victim of an extraordinary scam. And we're here to help you. So here's how this is going to work. We have attorneys; we're going to bring your case to court and we are going to clear your name and return the money, all the money that you spent, but not only that, your name was used in other fraud cases. So all the money where, all the times where your name was used, Steven, you are owed the money that was, that was, people were scammed out of under your name." And it came to the amount of about, they said, $6 million. And this went all the way up to the Supreme Court of Mexico, they said, with attorneys and dozens of people working with him, helping in this case. The only thing is, they're not, remember this started out with about almost $75,000, right, and we're now at like $6 million being promised to him. You just have to pay a few fees, you know, but what is, what is $25,000 when you're going to have $6 million in your bank in a few days. And so they continued, and it was during the Supreme Court case uh again, fake Supreme Court case, that he spent, he sent hundreds of thousands of dollars. He'd spent, he sent more money in the final last three years leading up to December of last year, than he had in the entire previous 6 or 7 years. [00:26:20] Bob: So the, it's no longer even really a timeshare scam at that point, it's something else. [00:26:24] Steve Fisher: It evolves, and it, and that's what they do. [00:26:28] Bob: And because the callers are all part of a cartel, a large organization with deep pockets, plenty of affiliates, it seems like they have all the time in the world. [00:26:39] Steve Fisher: They wait for a while, and they're patient. The Jalisco cartel is very patient with these victims. They'll wait for a year sometimes for things to settle down and come back around, and it also speaks, I think, to the sophistication of their data records and keeping, that they have files on everyone. They know absolutely everything about them. And they'll come back around to them in a little while. And that often works. [00:27:01] Bob: But James, he doesn't have all the time in the world. His life is now upside-down. Instead of a comfortable retirement, he's trying to figure out how he might supplement his income, get a part-time job all because he was just on the wrong end of the cartel's highly organized, highly sophisticated crime. With the benefit of hindsight and a chance to listen to those recorded calls a few times, there are a few things that James has now noticed about his interactions with the criminals, like the fast talk, and how he could never get a word in edgewise. [00:27:35] James: I'd have to interrupt him to make a statement frequently, 'cause he was, he spent time justifying everything. [00:27:42] Bob: That's really interesting, uh pops in, yeah, that feels a little bit like sitting at a car dealership to me. [00:27:48] James: That would be a fairly accurate uh, description you might say. [00:27:52] Bob: Or maybe a timeshare sales meeting. [00:27:54] James: How about that? (laughs) [00:27:56] Bob: They do, you know, right, they talk, I am not a person who can talk like that, so I'm kind of amazed at, at that skill, but yeah, he could just talk and talk until, and it's almost as if they don't want you to, to interrupt, right? [00:28:06] James: Right, because I, in retrospect, I would say I just listened to some of the recordings I made and uh of these and, and I was taken that at the time you don't recognize it happening, but it's, you're, you're constantly sort of on, on the defensive trying to get at information when somebody is overloading you with more information. Clip: [00:28:32] James: I'm trying to come up with uh the funds, but I'm, I've got to, the only way that I can do that, that I could see is a second mortgage on my house. And I've got to convince my wife and I spoke with Michael, he can explain to you... [00:28:47] Bruce: Sorry to... sorry to interrupt you. The reason I've been trying to call Michael is because listen... [00:28:54] Michael: And the (inaudible) was definitely going to get better. [00:28:56] James: Uh, yeah, but uh... [00:28:59] Michael: And that's literally, that's the goal, that's the goal here, okay? That's the goal here. [00:29:03] James: Well I'll uh... [00:29:03] Michael: I mean I want, I, I want to feel secure, I want you to feel secure. I want to feel happy getting home from work, you know, and at least knowing that we're able to do something positive in, in... [00:29:14] James: I just talked to Michael. I just, I was on the phone with him when you called earlier, and I was trying to answer, but at any rate, he, he, he went to the hospital, he had some sort of thing, a stroke or a heart issue or something, but... [00:29:27] Bruce: Do you remember, do you remember the time I told you, if you had your wife or someone call, and ask for your private banking information or, or try to gain access to your information, do you remember that? [00:29:39] James: Uh, vaguely. [00:29:41] Bruce: Okay. Let me tell you something. The (inaudible) executive bank account that I have for you, I have the power by Supreme Court Justice... [00:29:53] Bob: That's interesting, that's really insightful actually. I mean we've all had that experience whether it's at a car dealership or at a timeshare sales or, or at a cellphone store for heaven's sake. I feel like this happens to me when I try to change a cellphone. [00:30:05] James: (chuckles) Yeah. That, yeah, okay. It was, you know, it's obviously something that's taught in sales schools, you know it's, I'm, I'm sure there's a sales technique, you know, the art of the close or something like that, who knows. [00:30:19] Bob: Right. Right, right. [00:30:21] Bob: Last episode we told you that in addition to all the complexities around this timeshare sales scam, James had something else even more serious happening in his life. His wife had been diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing treatment. We're happy to report she's healthy now, but obviously this has something to do with all that the family has gone through. [00:30:42] Bob: I don't know how you would separate out all the, you must have been worried sick about your wife while trying to deal with all this? [00:30:49] James: Yeah. [00:30:50] Bob: That had to have some impact on the choices you made, no? [00:30:53] James: Yeah, I, I was doing everything I possibly could to end the misery. You know, and uh... [00:31:02] Bob: End the misery? What do you mean? [00:31:05] James: This, this was a miserable situation, and I, I spent a number of times with Michael saying, this, this has got to end. What, what the heck? Why isn't this ending? Well, Michael would just keep saying, "Well you just have to pay this, you just have to pay this." And uh, reiterate it so that uh, once again, Jesus was in on it too, obviously. [00:31:31] Bob: Yeah. I can't imagine what it's like to try to process all this at the same time. [00:31:36] James: Yeah, it's uh, kind of like juggling, you always got two balls in the air. [00:31:41] Bob: Yeah, that's a lot in the air though. And I, something tells me that you're, you're not necessarily giving yourself enough sympathy for what you were trying to deal with all at, at once. This clearly had something to do with, with why this went so far. [00:31:53] James: Yeah. [00:31:55] Bob: You're beating yourself up pretty good, aren't you? [00:31:57] James: Oh yeah, yeah, a lot of personal doubts have crept into my psyche, you might say. [00:32:03] Bob: That, that's only natural. You probably know I talk to people, every week this is what I do, who have uh been through things just like this and they can't help but blame themselves, and they can't help but feel all those, all those doubts, um, but it happens to all kinds of people, and so what--, whatever degree I can give you some kind of relief. One expression I have heard uh that is pretty useful, we have this helpline called the Fraud Watch Network Helpline uh where if you're a victim of a crime you can call and there are experts who will talk to you. And it, it's actually, you know they, they offer practical advice, but they also offer some pretty good um, oh just, just a, just empathetic advice and one, one fellow always says that, that hammer that you're hitting yourself over the head with, you can go ahead and put that down now, you've done it enough. [00:32:45] James: Yeah. (chuckles) [00:32:47] Bob: I think that's pretty handy, so I, I'm giving you permission to put down the hammer. [00:32:50] James: Okay. I appreciate that. [00:32:53] Bob: And with more time to reflect on everything, James thinks the seeds of the scam he suffered actually were sown many years before he ever got the call from Michael. [00:33:03] Bob: I'm so grateful that you're willing to talk about it, because I know it's hard. What do you want people to take away from hearing your story? [00:33:08] James: Uh, if it were me, legitimate timeshares would probably be okay but dont expect to be able to make money on it. You know it's just ... if I were, if I had to do this all over again, not necessarily knocking the timeshare industry, but I would likely not have purchased my first one. [00:33:34] Bob: So you think the trouble began all the way back when you got your first timeshare. [00:33:39] James: Well from my perspective, that kind of set the path for my wife and myself when, when we'd uh take these trips and what have you. They'd offer a timeshare opportunity to wherever we were staying, so we, we obviously ended up buying some more as well, and there's been no, no problem with them, but except ongoing expenses and the like. I would, I would ask people to really take a close look at what they expect to get out of uh, the timeshare. [00:34:10] Bob: We met timeshare lawyer Mike Finn in the last episode. He was one of the first people James reached out to when he began to have doubts about his alleged sale. Mike was quite sure the cancer diagnosis played a big role in all that happened. [00:34:25] Bob: And he didn't want to even talk about that as a factor, but how could it not be a factor? [00:34:29] Mike Finn: Yes, yes. You know the man's just had so much on his mind, and what happens in these type of situations, and we do deal with, with other type of victimization, I think his wife's cancer put him in a category where he felt isolated and confused. Sometimes people are so desperate for somebody to talk to that they almost welcome these calls because these scammers are trained to stay on the line and talk about everything and anything. They find out who your family members are, they talk to you and in a way, I think you develop some, and I'm not a psychologist but every lawyer is an amateur psychologist, I think they develop a relationship with these people that makes it easier for them to extract money from them. [00:35:13] Bob: So Mike has seen many, many scams like this during his career. Well, really his second career. As a lawyer who helps people get out from under oppressive timeshare relationships, Mike actually took the bar exam in Florida at age 65, he'd been a lawyer for decades in Michigan, just so he could more easily represent clients in Florida. But even for Mike, who's been hearing from timeshare resale victims for a long time, the call from the New York Times reporter linking Mexican cartels to the scam, that was a big surprise in a way. [00:35:47] Bob: The, the numbers are astonishing, and I think it does begin to make sense from the reporting that Mexican drug cartel is involved. This is not a small-time operation. This is a big organization that's very sophisticated with a lot of resources. Well what do, was, was it surprising to you to find out that there was a connection to this big, uh Mexican drug gang? [00:36:05] Mike Finn: Well, I only recently became aware of it. But as you're pointing out, Bob, it makes sense because they, it's become more sophisticated. The earlier cases were less sophisticated. There was the identity theft, stealing the broker's identity. Uh there was never a escrow company involved, then it became the attorney had an escrow account. So the scammers, before there was a Mexican cartel involved, became more and more sophisticated probably as, as their plots were more and more successful, and they became more sophisticated and developed their product to fool more people. You know it's, it's an evolution. [00:36:45] Bob: And Mike has a built-in skepticism about timeshares in general. [00:36:52] Bob: So James said something really interesting to me at the very end of our phone call when I asked him, what was the real starting point of all this? How did things go so sour? And he said, the day that he bought the timeshare. [00:37:03] Mike Finn: That's right. [00:37:04] Bob: And, and that set him on this road which put him at the mercy of the Mexican drug cartel, which is really hard for me to get my head around. [00:37:12] Bob: So asked him, why does he think timeshares are such a bad deal? [00:37:17] Mike Finn: Because they're worthless. And there's no resale market. And the developer will, in most cases, not want to and not agree to take back your interest. [00:37:28] Bob: But I'm paying whatever, I'm paying $10,000 so that I can go on vacation for one week a year for the rest of my life. That seems like a, not such a terrible deal. [00:37:36] Mike Finn: It's not such a terrible deal until you look at maintenance fees. The average maintenance fee now is $1300 and that's average. Most, well I can't say most of them are a lot more, but many of them are a lot more. You can go on a comparable vacation for a week at a comparable resort for $1300. So each and every year you're going to pay this maintenance fee whether you go or not. And you're going to pay what the market value is for your vacation, plus you've given, and it's not $10,000, it probably has a starting price closer to $25,000, that $25,000 is money, it's gone, Bob. It's gone. And at the end of 25 years when you've been a, a devoted customer and paid your maintenance fees dutifully for 25 years, and some years not even used your timeshare, they tell you that they're not going to take your interest back? And you ask me why a timeshare isn't a good deal? [00:38:33] Bob: And so, people who are in a bad timeshare deal are vulnerable. But Mike isn't against the concept. And he says the timeshare market wasn't always like this. [00:38:44] Mike Finn: At one time, timeshares weren't bad deals. Back in the '70s, you bought a piece of real estate. Now you buy a right to try to make a reservation. We haven't talked about this yet, but they switched their product. Years ago, their, you no longer get a deed. But they start out their presentation saying that they're going to give you a deed and then that you get baited and switched into a far better program for you, Mr. Vacation Experience. We have 70 resorts out there. How would you like to pick from any one of them and go at any point in time? You're not locked in to the same two weeks at the same little resort. How would you like to go to any one of our 70 resorts? And all you have to do is make a reservation. Oh, well I have to make a reservation anywhere I go, so that's not a problem. I'm not afraid to make a reservation. Yeah? Well try making a reservation after we take your money for a vacation club, and take away your deed which, by the way, had some value and we took it away so that we could pledge the resorts without having any other claims upon the property. How do you like those apples? And, and now you don't own anything. You have the supposed right to use it, but when you go to make a reservation, you're told it's 13 months before... will that be credit card? May I take your credit card information right now? I can rent that same damn room for next week, the same room you can't touch for 13 months. Don't get me started. [00:40:13] Bob: There must be people who have timeshares at a place who then end up just buying a regular hotel room at the same place because they can't get a timeshare reservation. [00:40:22] Mike Finn: Thank you. And, and I've talked to many of those people. [00:40:25] Bob: Oh my God. [00:40:27] Bob: Naturally, an entire industry has sprung up, the timeshare exit industry which claims to help people get out from under timeshare contracts. Unlike the Mexican cartel scam, these people aren't claiming to have a buyer for the timeshare, they just say they can get you out of your ongoing obligations. But these companies aren't all created equal. Their strategy might sound a lot like the debt cancellation industry. They tell clients to stop paying the maintenance fees and so on, and they'll help with the collection notices. This strategy isn't for the faint of heart, however. [00:41:00] Mike Finn: They can't cut off the debt collection agencies for one thing. Only a licensed attorney can do that. They can't advise you that if you stop paying, which in my mind is the only way you can get their attention, and ultimately get a resolution from them, 'cause now they have a nonperforming asset, only an attorney can give that kind of advice. It's akin to being a bankruptcy attorney. [00:41:25] Bob: Uh-hmm, uh-hmm. [00:41:25] Mike Finn: Only an attorney can do that. [00:41:27] Bob: This does sound very, very similar to the, the debt cancellation industry to me. [00:41:31] Mike Finn: Yes. yes. So only an attorney can give that kind of advice. And believe me, we've been sued for giving that advice, and those cases have gone absolutely nowhere, because as attorneys, we are licensed to provide that advice. [00:41:45] Bob: Mike wants listeners to know timeshare owners, and victims, can come from all walks of life. [00:41:53] Mike Finn: I can tell you this; I, I've taken an in--, informal survey amongst my clientele because curiosity and, and it's not in any of the paperwork we have our clients fill out, the curiosity forces me to, to try to learn who my clients are, uh for that very reason, you know is it an educational gap, you know? Do we have people that aren't as educated that buy timeshares? Answer quite interestingly enough from my very informal uh nonstatistical survey, uh I have college professors, I have doctors. You may at least giggle at this next category; I have lawyers, I have, who have all bought timeshares and who have hired me. [00:42:37] Bob: So as we often say here at The Perfect Scam, it's important to realize that anyone can get themselves into a bad deal and anyone can be the victim of a scam. Underestimating your risk is probably the biggest risk. But it's also a big risk to underestimate the organized crime gangs that are behind a lot of the scams we talk about on The Perfect Scam. Here's freelance journalist, Steve Fisher, again. [00:43:03] Steve Fisher: Yeah, I think in general, as US and Mexican citizens, we might underestimate the Jalisco cartel or cartels like them. And by passing them off as perhaps just, you know, bumbling, unsophisticated individuals who just shoot AK-47s at random, we put ourselves in greater danger. The Jalisco cartel is able to adapt, the Jalisco cartel being practically a Fortune 500 business, and, and the amount of money that they bring in every year, is incredibly adept at adapting to, to whatever they need in their business, and shifting. I mean they do that, they learn that very well in drug traffic. If one trafficking route was shut down, they would go do, they would just shift to another; incredibly sophisticated. And in this way, with this scam, they do that so very well. Authorities, you know the Treasury Department had identified at least 40, I believe it was 40 LLCs, or businesses, associated with this scam in the Jalisco cartel. But the Jalisco cartel was well on to five steps down the road to the next LLC. They're so good at adapting. They're so adept. They're brilliant business people, and I think that is what we often miss and underestimate them for, and I think that is why they get away with what they do because we never really fully comprehend just how sophisticated they actually are. [00:44:45] Bob: For The Perfect Scam, I'm Bob Sullivan. (MUSIC SEGUE) [00:44:54] Bob: If you have been targeted by a scam or fraud, you are not alone. Call the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline at 877-908-3360. Their trained fraud specialists can provide you with free support and guidance on what to do next. Our email address at The Perfect Scam is: theperfectscampodcast@aarp.org, and we want to hear from you. If you've been the victim of a scam or you know someone who has, and you'd like us to tell their story, write to us. That address again is: theperfectscampodcast@aarp.org. Thank you to our team of scambusters; Associate Producer, Annalea Embree; Researcher, Becky Dodson; Executive Producer, Julie Getz; and our Audio Engineer and Sound Designer, Julio Gonzalez. Be sure to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. For AARP's The Perfect Scam, I'm Bob Sullivan. (MUSIC OUTRO) END OF TRANSCRIPT AARP is urging Congress to quickly pass measures to help veterans age in their own homes and communities and to support the family members who care for them. We wrote to federal lawmakers last week endorsing provisions of the Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act that would advance those goals. Leaders of the House and Senate Committees on Veterans Affairs introduced the bipartisan bill in May. Among other changes, it would: Expand in-home care for older and disabled veterans Allow some veterans to receive assisted living services under a test program Create an online resource hub for caregivers of veterans Bolster caregiver respite and mental health support Learn How AARP Is Fighting for You AARP is your fierce defender on the issues that matter to people 50-plus. Read more about how were fighting for you every day in Congress and across the country. After their service to our nation, Americas veterans deserve to live with independence, security and dignity, wrote Bill Sweeney, AARP senior vice president for government affairs. He noted that most people 50 and older wish to remain in their homes for as long as possible as they age. Congress should back efforts to allow veterans to live independently at home and ... support their 6.5 million family caregivers who provide an estimated $14 billion in uncompensated service each year, Sweeney added. Parts of the bill are based on legislation AARP has previously endorsed, including the Elizabeth Dole Home Care Act, the Expanding Veterans Options for Long Term Care Act and the Caregiver Outreach and Program Enhancement (COPE) Act. In recent years, AARP has spearheaded numerous efforts to support veterans and their caregivers. Our Veterans Resources Hub helps veterans, active duty and military families find information about VA benefits, caregiving, fraud and more. Weve also launched a free digital tool to help veterans and family members navigate health benefits, including help available through the PACT Act for veterans exposed to toxins, as well as a guide to benefits for veterans who want to modify their homes so they can remain independent.. Read our letter and learn more about AARP benefits and resources for veterans. Nora Lopez, executive editor of the San Antonio Express-News, is the 2024 recipient of the Henry Guerra Lifetime Achievement Award of the San Antonio Association of Hispanic Journalists. Courtesy of Delcia Lopez Nora Lopez, executive editor of the San Antonio Express-News, is being honored by the San Antonio Association of Hispanic Journalists with its Henry Guerra Lifetime Achievement Award. The associations community service award will go to AlamoPROMISE, a program of the Alamo Colleges District that pays tuition and fees for San Antonio-area students. Both awards were announced Thursday. They will be formally presented at the associations annual gala on Aug. 10 at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio River Walk. Proceeds from the event fund college scholarships for aspiring journalists. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Lopez started at the Express-News in 1987 as an intern. She went on to work as a police reporter for the rival San Antonio Light and the Dallas Morning News before returning to the Express-News in 2000 as a project reporter. Soon after, she was put in charge of the papers criminal justice team. In 2003, she became state editor, overseeing coverage of the Texas Legislature and managing bureaus in Washington, the Rio Grande Valley, Mexico City and Monterrey, Mexico. She was promoted to metro editor in 2012 and joined the papers masthead as executive editor in 2020. The daughter of migrant farmworkers, Lopez was born in Mexico and immigrated to the U.S. as a child. She grew up in Edinburg and earned a bachelors degree in communications from Pan American University (now the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley). She became an American citizen in 2008. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Lopez is a past president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and a former president of the San Antonio Association of Hispanic Journalists. She is the newly elected president of the Society of Professional Journalists San Antonio pro chapter. She long has been a champion of diversity in newsrooms. Last year, she was one of 15 leaders in education, business, the arts, law, health care and the military who were inducted into the San Antonio Womens Hall of Fame, a nonprofit that raises money for college scholarships. The Henry Guerra award, inaugurated in 2001, is named for a San Antonio broadcast pioneer, civic leader and historian. Members of the Hispanic journalists association nominate candidates and vote to select the winner. Eligible for the award are journalists from San Antonio or South Texas who have contributed to improving and enlightening the community at large, effected change for the betterment of the Hispanic community, promoted understanding between communities and maintained the highest standards of integrity and professionalism. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Past winners include ABC News correspondent John Quinones, Express-News columnist Elaine Ayala and Diana R. Fuentes, a former Express-News editor who is now executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. Groupe SEB India Pvt. Ltd the Indian subsidiary of the French multinational which owns globally renowned brands like Tefal, Moulinex, WMF amongst many others has appointed Bang in the Middle as its integrated communication partner across mainline and digital for Maharaja Whiteline and Tefal. While Maharaja Whiteline is a homegrown Indian brand acquired by Group SEB. Tefal is a global leader in premium cookware and small domestic appliances. Agency's comprehensive mandate encompasses mainline advertising, BTL activities, retail marketing, and social media. The agency will collaborate with Groupe SEB to expand Tefal's product range and categories, while also helping Maharaja Whiteline increase its market share within its current category. The decision to award this mandate to Bang in the Middle follows the agency's successful campaign last year, which rebranded Maharaja's Majestik as a modern, tech-forward brand through an impactful TVC. Jasjeet Kaur, Vice President of Marketing at Groupe SEB India, emphasized the significance of 2024 for the companys growth: "This year is pivotal for us as we introduce new products across categories. Innovation is at the core of our legacy, driven by new technologies, creativity, and a forward-thinking approach to meet emerging consumer trends. We aim to leverage creative marketing methods to strengthen our position in the Indian market as we continue our path of innovation and growth" Rajive Mathur, COO of Bang in the Middle, expressed his enthusiasm about the partnership: "We are thrilled to be selected as the creative partner for Groupe SEB. The brief weve received is very exciting, and we are dedicated to creating campaigns that are as distinctive as the brands offerings." In a ground-breaking move that redefined the landscape of Indian General Elections coverage, India Today Group successfully delivered a new experience for viewers by streaming live coverage of the Lok Sabha elections 2024 on Microsoft Start, a leading global content service. With the Lok Sabha elections marking a pivotal moment in India's democratic journey, the collaboration between India Today Group and Microsoft Start provided audiences worldwide with unparalleled access to real-time updates, in-depth analysis, and insightful commentary, all delivered with accuracy and speed. India Today, renowned for its journalistic excellence and steadfast commitment to delivering unbiased news, brought its wealth of experience and expertise to this collaboration. Through its extensive network of reporters and correspondents stationed across the country, India Today Group provided viewers with comprehensive coverage of every aspect of the election process. This ranged from political rallies and campaigns to voter sentiments and election results. On the digital forefront, Microsoft Start's expansive reach complemented India Today's broadcast capabilities. With its global footprint and user-friendly interface, audiences from every corner of the globe could access the latest election updates at their fingertips. From live streaming of key events to curated news articles and interactive infographics, the Microsoft Start Elections Hub (https://www.msn.com/IndiaElections) offered a multifaceted approach to election coverage, catering to the diverse preferences of today's digital-savvy audience. Cutting-edge technology like AI, extensive ground reporting, and meaningful integrations like we have with Microsoft Start have redefined election coverage. We remain committed to maximizing global reach through our efforts and stories, ensuring awareness, unbiased insights, and comprehensive coverage. The purpose of any media organization is to tell the best stories to as many people as possible. During elections, this mission becomes even more critical, and our collaboration with Microsoft Start exemplified our steps to achieve it, Kalli Purie, Vice Chairperson & Executive Editor-in-Chief of India Today Group, said on the successful collaboration. Mr. Nikhil Kolar, VP at Microsoft Start, expressed his enthusiasm about the collaboration, stating, Microsoft Start's vision is to empower everyone on the planet to be informed, entertained, and inspired. The Elections Hub on Microsoft Start, featuring live streaming coverage from India Today and rich content experiences powered by Microsoft Start, is an exciting new way to empower people with information and encourage participation in elections. As India navigated one of the largest democratic exercises in the world, India Today and Microsoft Start effectively delivered comprehensive coverage of the Lok Sabha elections 2024. Whether through television screens or digital devices, India Today and Microsoft Start has kept audiences informed every step of the way. In its ongoing mission to redefine beauty standards, L'Oreal Paris, the No.1 Beauty brand in the world, launches in its global bestseller Panorama Mascara to India. In line with its campaign See Life in Panorama, LOreal Paris introduced a digital commercial featuring global ambassador Kendall Jenner, highlighting the groundbreaking innovation in mascara technology. Panorama Mascara is all set to redefine lash beauty in India with its multi-level bristle brush, making the eyes appear upto 1.4 times bigger. It is designed to give lashes a fanned-out effect and make them. Its advanced formula catches every lash and ensures they are beautifully coated and defined. Infused with LOreal Paris exclusive 5% STRETCHFLEX COMPLEX technology, this mascara seamlessly stretches and extends, volumizing each lash for a fully fannedout panoramic effect. Speaking about the launch of this product, Val Garland, LOreal Paris Global Makeup Artist said, We are excited to launch the new Panorama Mascara by Volume Million Lashes' which is an industry gamechanger. In just one sweep, lashes are stretched to perfection with its multi-level bristle brush that powers up lashes in seconds. Apply it to the outer corners of the upper lashes first to really open up the eye. Then wiggle the wand through the centre to get lash by lash to get panoramic dimension! This surely is a revolutionary product that will never let your lashes down! The digital film perfectly captures the accessible luxury of Panorama Mascara that makes it Kendall Jenners favourite. It creates the most well defined, voluminous lash look with a triple-threat combo of length, definition and volume. Infact, according to a consumer survey, 85% consumers confirm the product achieves an open-eyed effect whereas 88% consumers say that it does not smudge all day. Crafted for wearability, comfort, and performance, Panorama Mascara is resistant to flaking and smudging, providing a reliable solution for women seeking maximum volume without compromising on quality. It is ophthalmologist-tested, as well as safe for sensitive eyes and contact lens wearers. With this mascara, every woman can achieve stunning, panoramic lashes and exude confidence at every glance. Experience the transformative power of panoramic volume with Panorama Mascara by L'Oreal Paris at INR 999. It is also available in Modern Trade counters like Lifestyle, Shoppers Stop, Nykaa on Trend, Enrich, Dabur New U, Health & Glow. The world is at the beginning of the most exciting and probably one of the most historic moments in technology. The era of mobile AI is here which for Samsung opened up by the introduction of Galaxy AI features on the Galaxy S24 series, our first AI phone. Revolutionizing Mobile Experiences With a Hybrid AI Approach To bring the real-life benefits of generative AI technology to the Galaxy S24 series, Samsung took a hybrid approach to our AI integration. AI offers so many possibilities, and Samsung believes mobile devices are the primary access point for unlocking its potential as users around the globe continue to rely on their phones for most of their day-to-day needs. The essential role that mobile devices play in everyday life means they are very personal items that people use during many critical and memorable moments. Samsung understands these behaviors and believes smartphones should work harder so that users can truly make the most of important moments in a simpler, more intuitive and more epic way. Samsung also recognizes the importance of privacy which is why the brand gives users full control over what they share and what they keep private. We believe our hybrid approach is the most practical and reliable solution to meet all these needs and puts Samsung ahead of the curve. We are providing users with a balance between the instant responsiveness and extra privacy assurance of on-device AI and the versatility of cloud-based AI through open collaborations with industry-leading partners in offering a variety of functions they need for daily life, said Won-Joon Choi, EVP & Head of Mobile R&D Office, Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics Expanding Possibilities with On-Device AI Samsung made the Live Translate feature on-device AI based because voice calls are the most basic feature of a smartphone, yet also an intimate and private means of communication. Samsung has committed to empowering users to communicate without language barriers, while at the same time ensuring every communication is safe and private. To make this feature a reality, our R&D team worked day and night as part of a collaborative process that truly brought out the best in our teams. From determining the right size of AI language models to training and testing in real-life scenarios, our R&D organizations within the MX business challenged themselves and pushed beyond the limits of what we thought was possible to get this feature running entirely on-device, Mr Choi said. Samsungs global R&D networks around the world, which are in charge of growing the best talents and developing core technologies in each region, have also played a pivotal role. Samsung Research Centers around the globe, including Poland, China, India and Vietnam, have dedicated themselves to developing and expanding the languages supported by Galaxy AI. Languages are very cultural, contemporary and localized, so to help people break down language barriers and communicate more naturally, the role of our local R&D offices is even more crucial in opening up new possibilities for users in more regions than ever before. All these efforts have enabled Samsung to offer something completely new which we are excited to share. Soon, Samsung is extending the power of Galaxy AI beyond Samsungs own native calling app by expanding Live Translate to other third-party message apps to support voice calls. So you can stay in contact with friends or colleagues, communicating on your favorite apps in multiple languages. And since this feature has been integrated into our on-device AI language translation model, users will be able to experience barrier-free communication without worrying about privacy issues like personal data being shared outside their phone when using Live Translate. Samsung expects that more and more mobile AI features will be incorporated inside mobile devices as the intelligent computing power of the latest chips particularly NPUs advances at a blazing fast speed, along with other technologies. This will enable more people to embrace AI and make every day more convenient while offering greater peace of mind. Growing Galaxy AI for Tomorrows Needs, Today This exciting news is all part of the extension of our commitment to Galaxy AI and entering the next phase of the mobile AI era. The introduction of Galaxy AI on the Galaxy S24 series was only the start. To deliver a completely new and unique AI experience, we will further optimize the Galaxy AI experience for the upcoming foldable devices. Our foldables are the most versatile and flexible form factor in Samsung Galaxy and when combined with Galaxy AI, these two complementary technologies will together unlock all new possibilities, Mr. Choi said. Samsung is also committed to expanding Galaxy AI experiences across the broader Galaxy ecosystem in a way that only Samsung can. As the mobile AI era moves forward at a rapid pace, Samsung is accelerating mobile AI innovations to meet the needs of not only today, but tomorrow. Last year, Google had launched the Google News Initiative (GNI) Indian Languages Program for news publishers as a way to help them tap the opportunity spotlighted in the Google-Kantar research report, which revealed that Indian language news consumers are underserved. The report found these consumers often lack sufficient news options in their own languages, prefer concise news formats and have limited access to personalized content. The GNI Indian Languages Program 1.0 sought to programmise the steps needed for news publishers to harness this opportunity, starting from the very foundation modernizing the online presence of Indian language news publishers and enhancing user experiences across web, app, and video formats. Google claimed that the results have been immensely gratifying, with more than 300 news publishers, spanning 9 Indian languages, participating and benefiting from the program. In a video released, participating newsrooms like Assam Tribune, Gujarat Samachar, The Mooknayak and News7 Tamil shared their views about the program and its impact on their processes. Encouraged by this feedback, Google has now announce the second edition of the GNI Indian Languages Program. Impact overview of GNI ILP 1.0 56% Surge in Digital Ad Revenue: Empowering news publishers to sustain their important work. Empowering news publishers to sustain their important work. 53% Increase in Total Page Views: Demonstrating expanded reach and engagement. Demonstrating expanded reach and engagement. 30% Growth in Active Users: Indicating a loyal and growing audience. Indicating a loyal and growing audience. 91% Improvement in Page Speed Insights: Leading to a better user experience. Leading to a better user experience. 100% of News Publishers Now Using Analytics:Enabling data-driven decision-making. The program culminated at Bhashantara, FICCI and Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY)s joint initiative to promote the Indic languages internet. ILP 2.0: Focus on Next-Gen Tools This year, Google is partnering with Mediology, its technology partner, to deliver the ILP's second edition, with a focus on next-generation tools for newsrooms working with Indic languages: Tailored Roadmaps: Continuing to collaborate closely with news publishers on personalized roadmaps addressing site performance, content formats, native apps, GA4 migration, and ad optimization. Continuing to collaborate closely with news publishers on personalized roadmaps addressing site performance, content formats, native apps, GA4 migration, and ad optimization. Audience Building and Analysis: Introducing the News Consumer Insights (NCI) and Real Time Content Insights (RCI) dashboards for real-time audience analysis and data-driven content strategies. Introducing the News Consumer Insights (NCI) and Real Time Content Insights (RCI) dashboards for real-time audience analysis and data-driven content strategies. Pinpoint for Journalists: A powerful research tool harnessing Google's search and AI technology to help journalists explore vast document collections. A powerful research tool harnessing Google's search and AI technology to help journalists explore vast document collections. Preparing for Third-Party Cookie Deprecation: Minimizing the impact on website functionality and advertising by addressing the phasing out of third-party cookies. Minimizing the impact on website functionality and advertising by addressing the phasing out of third-party cookies. GenAI Tools for Growth:Leveraging Google Cloud to optimize news publisher content through automatic categorization and tagging, enhancing discoverability. (Exclusively for Google Cloud customers) Program Format & How to Apply The ILP 2.0 will be delivered in 9 languages (English, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Malayalam, Gujarati, and Marathi) and will follow a structured format that includes: Scaled Inspiration Series + Virtual Workshops: Eight sessions featuring guest speakers, success stories, and product-focused training. Eight sessions featuring guest speakers, success stories, and product-focused training. 1:1 Diagnosis & Workshop: Personalized assessment and guidance for all selected news publishers. Personalized assessment and guidance for all selected news publishers. Implementation:Dedicated consultations and technical support for a subset of news publishers. The application window is open from June 5th to June 16th, 2024. Narendra Modi Set for Historic Third Term as Prime Minister 2 Narendra Modi is poised to take the oath of office as Prime Minister for the third time, a landmark event set to occur on Sunday, as revealed by senior BJP leader Pralhad Joshi during the NDA parliamentary party meeting. The oath-taking ceremony is scheduled for 6 pm on June 9, according to Joshi, who addressed the NDA leaders gathered at the Central Hall of the old Parliament Building in Delhi, where Modi was unanimously chosen as their leader. The gathering saw the presence of NDA MPs, senior alliance leaders, and even chief ministers. BJP president J P Nadda is anticipated to propose a resolution in support of Modis leadership, likely receiving widespread endorsement from MPs and allies. A change in ownership could give new life to Americas oldest craft brewer. Anchor Brewing closed last year after more than 127 years in business. This week, however, Hamdi Ulukaya, billionaire founder and CEO of yogurt maker Chobani, announced he had purchased the San Francisco-based beer brand, CNN reported. I was...touched by Anchors devoted employees who have worked tirelessly to make it one of the most beloved beer brands in San Francisco and around the world. I will honor Anchors history, and I offer my commitment to its future, Ulukaya wrote on LinkedIn. Anchor closed in July 2023 after years of declining sales. Previous owners Sapporo USA originally planned to auction off Anchors real estate and intellectual property separately but Ulukaya purchased it all in order to keep the company intact. You can read more here. An Alabama pageant winner seems to be taking a positive message from the experience despite online backlash, which itself became the subject of a report from one Mobile news station. Sara Milliken of Atmore recently was crowned the Alabama winner of the National American Miss pageant, which entitles her to represent the state at the national level. WKRG-TV5 reported on the win, saying that it was Millikens third attempt after becoming interested in the competition about eight years ago. About a week later, however, WKRG followed up with an extensive report on backlash the station, reporter Summer Poole and Milliken received on social media accounts. The station defended its subsequent decision to limit commenting because of the personal attacks. That story reported that Milliken had also received widespread support for her win. Milliken said sponsors had come forward to support her campaign at the national pageant. Ive always wanted to spread positivity, and this kind of put me in a position to do exactly that, she said. A Facebook post from a pageant consulting firm, Amanda Moreno Consulting, indicated that Millikens win was no fluke, but rather the result of a focused effort: National American Miss Alabama is Sara Milliken! Words that weve been waiting and praying to type for quite literally 12 months! When we started working together in May of last year, it was immediately evident there was something special about Sara... When you meet her, you just get it. She IS a queen in every way! Determined, empathetic & servant hearted, her year is dedicated to empowering her state, seniors with The Buddy System, and every girl who needs a friend or role model. She is a trailblazer in inclusivity, and we could not be more ecstatic for this gorgeous legend! Sara, thank you for trusting us and allowing us into your life! You never met a challenge you werent willing to master, leaving us constantly blown away by your character and work ethic. Your beautiful heart has already made so many feel seen, and were genuinely honored to be along for the journey. You are loved beyond measure! NAM Nationals, here we come! On her official Facebook page, Milliken has posted several times about the backlash, saying she had been a little traumatized over reading comments and had limited social media interactions as a result. But she also described the moment she won the pageant: A dream 8 years in the making finally became mine. It was a reaction of pure shock. I had played out this moment in my head daily since I was 15. Somehow it was even sweeter than I imagined. In another post she addressed the backlash at more length: Recently I have been the target of an overwhelming amount of online hate, negativity, and bullying. Honestly, it doesnt affect me in the way most would think it does, she said. The things that has been said about me is truly disgusting and I cannot fathom how people think its ok to say these things. The easy thing would be to give up. I could hide my face. Stop posting on social media. Make no appearances. Stay low key until Nationals. I could even give in and give up my title. But instead I say WATCH ME. Watch me serve my community. Watch me give my all into preparing for nationals. Watch me find the shy girl in the room and learn her name. Watch me continue to pour positivity into social media. Watch me crush every goal I set. Watch me chase this dream. Watch me show every single hater why a plus size woman can and should be a titleholder. Stand back and watch me show everyone who doubts me wrong. You are more than your body and more importantly you are more than the evil things people say about your body. I gave this dream up for 6 years because of the hurtful things someone said about me. Never, ever again. More recently, she has asked fans for input on what color dresses she should wear at the national competition. Efforts to contact Milliken were pending as this story was published. Shortly before her win, she spoke at length for a podcast with Angelina Bettanini. She described the pageant community as a safe space. Being in an environment that has so many encouraging people, so many empowering people you know, girls [know they can] share their stories whether it be about past trauma or mental illness or even body positivity, like I like to share being in an environment with so many empowering women has made it such a safe space for me that I feel like I can be fully myself and everything that I want to be. We have made it to where pageantry is so accessible and so inclusive, Milliken told Bettanini. And I think that includes with bodies as well. You know, just knowing that your body does not define you, that whether youre a size zero or a size 20, that doesnt define how good of a titleholder you can be. The National American Miss national pageant takes place in November in Orlando. An inmate under hospice care died early Friday morning at William Donaldson Correctional Facility. The Jefferson County Coroners Office said Jerome Alfred Burton, 72, died at 12:17 a.m. in the prison infirmary. He was under hospice care for multiple significant natural diseases. There was no evidence of trauma or foul play, the coroners office said. Burton, of Irvington, was serving a life sentence for murder from a 2013 conviction out of Mobile County. Police and firefighters responded to a blaze at 7440 Murray Heights Drive South in Irvington on the evening of June 8, 2010. They found the badly burned body of Deborah Burton sitting on a recliner in the living room, with a gunshot wound near her left eye. A medical examiner testified that the 56-year-old woman likely was alive for some time during the fire. Paramedics pulled an unconscious Jerome Burton from the burning house and rushed him to the hospital, where he remained for more than two weeks. According to testimony at the trial, Deborah Burton was going to leave her husband because of his excessive drinking and his failure to get a job. Police found his Glock pistol on his bed and determined it was a match to a .40-caliber shell casing found near the body. The Alabama Department of Corrections Law Enforcement Services Division is investigating the circumstances surrounding the death. The town of Newbern doesnt have a lot to it. There are a handful of churches, of course, some empty storefronts along Alabama Route 61 and about 133 people living in older houses or mobile homes scattered throughout the area. But soon the tiny town in Hale County will have a 3-inch sewer line running north to south through the heart of town, a potential lifeline to bring a modern, working sanitation system to an area that desperately needs it. Civil engineering professors at the University of South Alabama, Auburn University, and the University of Alabama have been working on designing a new kind of hybrid sewer system that can meet the inherent challenges of Alabamas Black Belt, and now there is a working prototype in Newbern. If your septic tank doesnt work, what do you do? said Kevin White, civil engineering professor at the University of South Alabama. You really dont have much of an option. And thats what were trying to address, creating an option. Currently many residents are stuck with septic tanks that dont work and back up into their homes or have resorted to discharging their waste into the woods near the house, a method called straight-piping. Newbern was selected from among many struggling communities in Alabamas Black Belt to be the site of the pilot program. This is a very impactful project that not only could impact positively Newbern and Hale County, but lots of places all over the country, White said. Technically, White is retired from USA, but after working more than 10 years on the Black Belt sanitation issues, he said he couldnt walk away now that it was so close to becoming reality. About 140 people attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the pilot project Tuesday evening at Auburn Universitys Rural Studio in Newbern, and cheered when the yellow ribbon was cut. Organizers say that included 93 people who live in or around Newbern, which only has 133 residents, per the 2020 Census. Im very excited to see something run down through Newbern because we dont have this often, said Essie Sneed. This is the first time something like this has happened to us. Sneed said she has a septic tank, but it doesnt really work the way its supposed to. Our septic tank, it does have a smell to it. Mine comes up through my commode in my house and theres a smell sometimes coming into my house. Engineering professor Kevin White speaks at the ribbon-cutting for a new sewer system in Newbern, Ala. on Tuesday, June 4, 2024.Dennis Pillion In terms of unique challenges, Black Belt soil in many places is a heavy clay that doesnt allow water to flow through, which means most septic tank systems wont function well, if at all. Second, the population of the rural Black Belt tends to be very spread out. Running a full sewer line out to such a small number of dwellings would be impractical and tremendously expensive. Thats a problem in an area where the median household income is $33,625. So the engineering professors -- led by White, Mark Elliott from the University of Alabama and Mark Barnett from Auburn began to develop a new kind of system that can address the public health issues of untreated sewage discharges but keep costs low enough that people can afford it. Poor sewage treatment creates public health risks and poor living conditions for residents who are exposed to potential disease and definite bad smells. But it also harms economic development, and scares away potential businesses from the area. Newbern residents gather to see how the town's pilot wastewater treatment system works.Dennis Pillion The system uses on-site septic tanks at the homes to collect solid wastes. However, unlike traditional septic systems, the liquid waste will be pumped up to 5 or 6 miles in the 3-inch PVC lines to a centralized treatment facility. Those 3-inch lines are much cheaper to install and maintain than a full sewer line, and the treatment station will only have to deal with liquid waste. The clustered system will ideally treat liquid waste from about 150 homes within a five-mile radius, keeping the cost per household manageable. At Tuesdays demonstration, White and the engineers opened the hatches on the new treatment center and showed residents that there was no detectable odor, and the finished water came out roughly as clear as the creek where it will be discharged. Newbern resident James Williams took a whiff out of a glass jar of treated water during the demonstration to attest to the lack of odor. Newbern resident James Williams smells a jar full of treated water from the town's new wastewater treatment facility.Dennis Pillion Wastewater issues become a priority for Biden Sanitation issues in the Black Belt have been rampant for decades, largely due to the poverty, non-permeable soil and low population density. But over the last several years, these issues have been under a new spotlight and fixing them become a priority for the President Joe Bidens Administration since 2021. The president has directed us to fix that problem, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said in a visit to Alabamas Black Belt in 2022. The Biden Administration also chose to investigate a civil rights complaint against Alabama that had laid dormant under predecessor Donald Trump. In 2023, a settlement between the Justice Department and the Alabama Department of Public Health committed the state to fixing widespread sewage issues in Lowndes County, one of the most impacted locations. While Newbern isnt in Lowndes County, its hoped that Newbern will provide a roadmap for how to bring effective wastewater treatment to poor, rural communities with challenging soil conditions. The Newbern pilot project was funded by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and Columbia University. Also contributing to the project is a team from the University of North Carolina, led by Joe Brown, a Selma native who is now a professor of environmental sciences and engineering at UNC. Brown and the North Carolina team will study the public health aspects of the project, testing the water, wastewater and soil in Newbern, as well as conducting surveys among residents to evaluate potential benefits of the project. We think this is a really innovative system here that can hopefully be applied in many other places, not just in the black belt, but in the United States that need this kind of infrastructure, Brown said. So we want evidence to deliver to policymakers, and people who can actually invest in infrastructure, who can direct resources to meet needs. Whats next for Newbern? Currently the treatment system is up and running, but only connected to the buildings at Auburns Rural Studio in Newbern and is located on the Auburn property. Auburn wont be the ultimate owner of the finished project, so they are attempting to reach an agreement with a municipality or private entity to own and manage the wastewater system. Auburn University will never be the operator or the owner of this sanitary sewer for the town, said Emily McGlohn, an associate professor at Auburns Rural Studio. We cant do that. But weve got to find the right people to do it. Were going to get over that hurdle next. Newbern residents gather to see how the town's pilot wastewater treatment system works.Dennis Pillion White said the team hopes to begin Phase II of the project by the end of the year, which will involve installing the main sewer line and connecting as many as 60 houses to the system. At the same time, the team is recruiting residents to connect to the system. Enthusiasm is high among residents at Tuesdays event, but many had questions about costs of the monthly sewer bill. Several residents told AL.com that they were excited about the possibility of connecting to the system. Its something new to me, said Newbern resident Isaac Sanders. Im trying to find some insight on how it works and know how its going to keep the community nice and clean. Right at the moment, I dont have a septic tank, so it will be just right for me. Patricia Jackson agreed. We need a sewer system, Jackson said. Right now, people got stuff just running off into the ditch. White said details about how much the system will cost arent finalized yet. Ultimately, the more people sign up, the lower the cost per user. But, he said, there isnt expected to be any initial fee to connect and install the system along the pipe routes, and that the monthly fee to the utility company will cover all maintenance and upkeep of the system. Its not some magical thing thats going to operate on its own and never break down, White said. We have to manage it, so that means we have to pay for it. Were trying to keep that that payment absolutely as low as possible. Cayla Harris covers Texas politics and government for the San Antonio Express-News and Houston Chronicle. She can be reached at cayla.harris@hearst.com. She also served as training director of the Hearst Fellowship Program, a two-year initiative allowing early career journalists to rotate through local newsrooms. She previously covered New York state government for the Albany Times Union. She grew up in New Jersey and is a 2019 graduate of the George Washington University, where she studied journalism and Spanish. Atlanta-based Smalls Sliders is set to open two restaurants within the next year in Alabama, and has just signed another development deal for as many as five locations in and around Birmingham, Tuscaloosa and Auburn. The cheeseburger franchise already has an Auburn location set to open, with one in Birmingham in 2025. Smalls Sliders opened its first restaurant in 2019 with a no-nonsense menu of burger sliders, grilled cheese sandwiches, fries, shakes and the Biggie Smalls, a double-meat slider. The company has signed development agreements with local entrepreneur Mark Weeks and Patrick Sullivan, who has a background in financial and real estate. The deals will result in five total locations across the Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, and Auburn areas. Sullivan and Weeks will be targeting communities like Homewood, Hoover, Inverness, Pelham/Alabaster, Tuscaloosa and more in their site selection process. I was initially drawn to the simplicity of the concept, Sullivan said. From the modular buildout to the drive-thru and walk-up options, it was unlike anything Id seen but the menu is what truly sealed the deal. Its fantastic food at a great price point and a digestible menu that doesnt overwhelm the customer. The severe storms that rolled across north and central Alabama on Wednesday night ended up producing three tornadoes, according to the National Weather Service. All three were given preliminary ratings of EF-1. And there were no injuries reported. A complex of storms developed in Mississippi and pushed eastward into western Alabama starting on Wednesday evening. In addition to the tornadoes, the storms also caused a lot of wind damage on the western side of the state. Two tornadoes formed in the line in Marion and Fayette counties in central Alabama, and a third tornado was confirmed in north Alabamas Franklin County. Here is a look at the three tornadoes from June 5: * Bexar tornado (started in Mississippi and crossed into Marion County): EF-1, top winds 95 mph. Path length 3.38 miles; path length 300 yards. The tornado touched down at 6:43 p.m. June 5 and was on the ground for 5 minutes. * Winfield tornado (Marion and Fayette counties): EF-1, top winds 95 mph. Path length 7.23 miles; path width 325 yards. The tornado touched down at 6:52 p.m. on June 5 and was on the ground for 9 minutes. * Overton Farm tornado (Franklin County): EF-1, top winds 110 mph. Path length 12.86 miles; path width 225 yards. The tornado touched down at 7:06 p.m. June 5 and was on the ground for 19 minutes. See more on the Winfield tornado here. See more on the Bexar tornado here. See more on the Overton Farm tornado here. Miss Birmingham Imani Muse said she remembers the first time she was around gunshots. She was 7 and in Chicago. She remembers the feeling of a security guard lying on top of her to protect her from stray bullets. And I remember going to my mom and saying I dont know what happened and she was too stunned to even explain it. How does a mother explain to her 7-year-old daughter that you could have been shot and killed? Muse, now 21, wants to use her platform as Miss Birmingham to raise awareness about nonviolence and violence prevention. Gun violence is something Ive always been around and its really something I want to spread awareness for and get more people to realize this is a big issue that too many people are experiencing, Muse said. So far this year, 53 people have been killed in Birmingham, a majority by guns, according to the Birmingham Police Department. Gun violence became the leading cause of death among Alabama youth in 2021. Growing up in southside Chicago, Muse started competing in pageants when she was 5. Despite loving the pageant life, community service and academics, Muse said she also remembers feeling unsafe going outside as a child. Then, at the age of 15, Muse found out that a close family friend, Jaylon Mckenzie, was shot and killed before his eighth grade graduation. I experienced it all over again at just the age of 15. It was about five days before my 16th birthday, where I got a very devastating call about a family friend that had gotten shot a couple of days before his eighth grade graduation and he passed away, Muse said. And about two months ago, I was in Birmingham, having fun with my sorority sistersand someone opened fire. And I remember running and I even cut my leg on a thorn branch just trying to get to a safe space. In an effort to ensure that other young people dont experience the same tragic death as Jaylon Mckenzie, Muse started Small Acts Matter, a community service initiative, in 2017. Its all about encouraging people to know that it is within you to be the change you wish to see in this lifetimeI want less and less people to turn out like me with these experiences, or even like my close family friend who died before eighth grade graduation because of gun violence and peoples negligence towards it, Muse said. It affects this entire nation. Thats why it was so important for me to use my voice, my stories, my platform to be able to get it out to as many people as possible to know that this is impacting not just you, not just me, but everybody. Electronic versions of patient records at Providence Hospital were restored Thursday, nearly a month after the Mobile hospital was impacted by a ransomware attack on its former owner. Although Ascension Health sold Providence to the University of South Alabama last year, the hospital temporarily remains on some of Ascensions IT systems, according to USA Health. Providences new owners did not say when the hospital would no longer be on Ascensions systems. A 40-year-old man is in a Georgia hospital in critical condition after he was allegedly pistol-whipped by his uncle until he lost consciousness early Friday morning in Alabama, authorities said. Lee County sheriffs deputies responded to a 911 call of gunshots and an unresponsive man around 12:19 a.m. Friday in the 15000 block of U.S. Highway 280 East in Smiths Station, WRBL reported. Efforts by AL.com to reach the sheriffs office were unsuccessful. Deputies found a 40-year-old man unconscious at the scene. The victim was taken to Piedmont Hospital in Columbus, Georgia, where he was listed in critical condition as of Friday afternoon. Witnesses told authorities the victim was in an argument with his uncle when his uncle pulled out a gun and pistol-whipped the victim until the victim lost consciousness. Jamey Dillard, 46, of Smiths Station was arrested and charged with first-degree assault. He was taken to the Lee County jail, where he remains held on $50,000 bond. Anyone with information on the case was asked to contact the Lee County Sheriffs Office at 334-749-5651 or Central Alabama Crime Stoppers at 334-215-STOP. There is no more critical tenet of conservatism than the assumption of individual responsibility. As Dennis Prager wrote in a summative essay thirty years ago for The Heritage Foundation, just as I am rewarded for my good behavior, I am accountable for my bad behavior. This belief was a result of ... individualism ... and of the Judeo-Christian ethic that also animated the founders of this country. Essential to Judaism and Christianity is the notion that you are accountable for your behavior-to God, ultimately. This has been under attack. Nowhere is this perspective under attack more than in the use of addiction and mental illness namely, to 1. excuse and undermine assumed responsibility, 2. eliminate punishment for illegal and anti-social behaviors and actions, and 3. require therapeutic compensatory behaviors on the part of alleged and real miscreants in the United States and elsewhere. One of us wrote a book titled Addiction is a Choice (2000), arguing contrary to the accepted truth of the countrys addiction lobby that addiction happens randomly to unsuspecting victims, like a virus or bacterium. Moreover, these sufferers of addiction are harmed by this allegedly serendipitous scourge that afflicts people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. And these myths are not limited to liberals or progressives. Since the heyday of Dr. Thomas Szasz and the conservatism that cast doubt on the existence of literal mental illness and stressed individual responsibility, the United States criminal justice system has gone, in the immortal word of Margaret Thatcher, wobbly. As Phoenix Programmes, the widely respected and venerated addiction treatment center in Spain, puts it, and this is typical of establishment psychiatry and substance abuse psychology, addiction is not your fault; whether it is to a substance such as alcohol or drugs, or a behavior such as gambling, online gaming, or sex; addiction is a disease that can drive a person to cheat, steal and manipulate to achieve their fix and leaves their families and loved ones devastated by the destruction it causes. No one chooses to be an addict. The devastating consequences of criminal culpability are manifold. Sometimes, it just disappears. Another prototypical analysis from the National Institutes of Health News Letter leaves the decision-making of the addict completely unaddressed. A common misperception is that addiction is a choice or moral problem, and all you have to do is stop. But nothing could be further from the truth, says Dr. George Koob, director of NIHs National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The brain actually changes with addiction, and it takes a good deal of work to get it back to its normal state. The more drugs or alcohol youve taken, the more disruptive it is to the brain If the above is true, how does an addicted person ever stop using drugs? Years ago, addiction experts were quoted in The Washington Post saying sex addicts were addicted to the chemicals released in their brains during orgasm. Does this mean a rapist should be exculpated because his brain made him do it? Ideas have consequences, as conservative commentator Richard Weaver wrote. Nowhere is this more obvious than when putative addiction experts mistakenly refer to behavior as disease. At this point, as with most analyses of addiction, mystification replaces serious evidentiary examination, since no one can understand human behavior without including individual choice. Scientists dont yet understand why some people become addicted while others dont. Addiction tends to run in families, and certain types of genes have been linked to different forms of addiction. But not all members of an affected family are necessarily prone to addiction. As with heart disease or diabetes, theres no one gene that makes you vulnerable, Koob says. Just because a behavior runs in families does not mean the behavior is caused by genes. Extensive research on those persons considered addicted shows that environment is by far the more significant explanation or statistical predictor. Any true behavioral scientist knows this. Those asserting otherwise are politicians, not scientists. The National Institute on Drug Abuse modifies its view to some extent as to whether there is any individual responsibility in the process of becoming addicted to drugs. Addiction is a chronic disease characterized by drug seeking and use that is compulsive, or difficult to control, despite harmful consequences. The initial decision to take drugs is voluntary for most people, but repeated drug use can lead to brain changes that challenge an addicted persons self-control and interfere with their ability to resist intense urges to take drugs (emphasis added). There is absolutely no evidence to support the idea that a gene or an allele causes people to consume mind-altering drugs such as heroin, cocaine, alcohol, and tobacco in ways they cannot control. Lets consider the facts about the meaning of addiction. Addiction is a very old English word that has always meant devotion to something. Its association with disease is something negative and came about through the alcohol temperance movement and self-help groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) following repeal of prohibition. E.M. Jellinek, a researcher at Yale and author of The Disease Concept of Alcoholism (1960), coined the term loss of control to suggest that people could not control their consumption of alcohol. That theory, the cornerstone of the disease concept of addiction, has been consistently disproven by scientists ever since. AA and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) are free self-help organizations for people who want help controlling their behavior. However, alternative self-help programs are now widely available for people who reject the idea that they have a disease and that they must turn their lives over to a higher power. Both organizations are shown by scientists to be no more helpful than leaving people to their own devices. The views of these 12-step organizations such as AA and NA have more to do with religious activity than secular science. Twelve-step programs are also internally contradictory. Those who attend AA insist that adherents believe they cannot control their own behavior: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol that our lives had become unmanageable, followed by a list of behavioral obligations tied to belief in a higher power not a bad idea, but clearly not powerlessness. Although adherents to AA philosophy are fond of saying the higher power can be anything a person wants it to be, there is one thing it cannot be: oneself. When self is in charge of addiction, the disease model crumbles. Moreover, when the state coerces citizens into AA, as occurs in state-mandated attendance in AA for drunk driving, for example, the separation of church and state is violated. We assisted the ACLU in Maryland in establishing this fact through the circuit courts back in 1988 (Maryland v. Norfolk). That is only one of the consequences for viewing addiction and alcoholism as diseases instead of behaviors for which a person is clearly responsible. Addiction in relation to drug use concerns behavior, not disease. Although behaviors can clearly cause disease, the two are different. Behavior refers to deportment or a mode of conduct. As such, it is always the expression of a persons values. How do we know what a persons values are? By observing his behavior. This is not to say that people who use drugs destructively or constructively are bad or good people. That is a misapplication of the meaning of moralism and addiction. All behavior is volitional. There is no such thing as an involuntary behavior. Reflexes, such as convulsions, are not behaviors, and we do not hold people responsible for them. A drug addict is no more the same as a diabetic than a diabetic is the same as a drug addict. The popular analogy is neither true nor reciprocal. Nevertheless, those who assert that addiction is a disease like diabetes, cancer, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis distort these meanings for reasons that are important to them. They are also cruel and judgmental toward those with real disease. Those reasons have to do with imposing their morality on others, garnering money through addiction treatment, and enjoying power over stigmatized others. A disease has a specific meaning: it refers to a cellular and biological abnormality. However, those asserting that addiction is a disease are deliberately obscuring things. Rudolph Virchow (18211902) was one of the 19th century's foremost leaders in medicine and pathology. The meaning of disease as the expression of abnormal cells is the gold standard, attributed to his famous work. We do not see addiction listed in a standard textbook on pathology for good reason. Behavior does not meet the nosological criteria for disease classification. Our close personal friend Dr. Thomas Szaszs writings on the difference between behavior and disease since the 1950s are solely responsible for the declassification of homosexuality as a mental illness. True scientists have agreed with our perspective for a long time. One of us debated these matters on William F. Buckleys Firing Line along side Dr. Szasz. Think about the confusing messages that those who believe addiction is a disease give to the public, and, importantly, to children. On the one hand, they assert that addicts cannot control their behavior because it is a disease, not the expression of their values. On the other hand, they are told they have the power to stop using drugs when it is important enough for them to do so. The accepted view today is that everyone is equally vulnerable to the taking of drugs, and that no one can control his behavior. This is manifestly false. Fortunately, the erroneous views of addiction as a disease and the ubiquity of mental illness are not accepted by all social scientists, experts on disease, political progressives, liberals, and conservatives in public media. Asserting that drug use in the form of addiction is both a disease and the expression of disease is wrong and dangerous. It is used to weaken self-efficacy, stigmatize good citizens, and ultimately enslave people by teaching them that they are powerless instead of powerful. Courtroom debate and disputative base rhetoric are becoming undisputed but never indisputable. It is past time for people to demystify addiction and mental illness and see the truth about human behavioral choices and responsibility: addiction and other psychopathies are far from literal diseases. They are behaviors that people have always controlled, for reasons that are sufficiently important to them. Jeffrey A. Schaler, Ph.D., M.Ed. is the author of Addiction Is a Choice (2000) and retired professor at American Universitys School of Public Affairs and the psychology faculty at Johns Hopkins University. Richard E. Vatz, Ph.D. is the distinguished professor of political rhetoric at Towson University. He is a well known critic of institutional psychiatry and its consequences for freedom and responsibility. Both authors are widely published and the lead editors, with Zvi Lothane, M.D. of Thomas Szasz: The Man and His Ideas, published in 2017 by Transaction and Routledge. Image via Picryl. How is it that people allegedly dedicated to the well-being of others have a blind eye when it comes to the suffering of certain groups of people? Safa Doost, a certified orthotist (CO), is a health care professional who received certification through the American Board for Certification (ABC) to manage comprehensive orthotic care. She has been a practicing medical provider for over six years and is based out of the San Francisco area. She is regularly featured in the O & P Edge magazine which caters to those with limb loss due to injury and disease. Her latest article (April 2024) highlights Gazan and Palestinian health care. On the face of it, her concern for the Palestinians in Gaza seems genuine. And then, come the insidious lies that help perpetuate the hateful screeds about Israel. Doost writes: Every time I see another video about a child having an amputation, I cannot help but think how their rehabilitative care will look, let alone how it could have been avoided. Within any healthcare role, there is also a moral responsibility to stand in the face of injustice. The occupation of Palestine [emphasis mine] has always been a health issue and now we are seeing how it directly ties into health policies, disability justice, rehabilitation care, and O& P. And thus, the ugly face of prevarication shows itself. Since 2005, Gaza has NOT, I repeat, NOT been occupied by Israel. It is Hamas that has created the challenges in medical care. In fact, Israel executed a disengagement plan in 2005: With the implementation of the plan, IDF installations and forces were removed and over 9000 Israeli citizens living in 25 settlements were evicted. By 22 September 2005, Israels withdrawal from the entire Gaza Strip to the 1967 Green Line, and the eviction of the four settlements in Samaria, was completed. Consequently, this happened: In June 2007 Hamas took over the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority. Many thousands of rockets and mortar shells have been fired from the Gaza Strip onto southern Israeli towns and villages, terrorizing and destabilizing the lives of hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens. Where is Doosts concern for the children of Israel who face a daily barrage of rockets, and who have experienced more than their share of pain and anguish from the very group about which she purports to care? Doost, in good leftist and Islamic fashion continues: Recognizing this impact is pivotal for fostering a just and equitable response, upholding the inherent dignity of all individuals, and promoting inclusivity in post-conflict reconstruction. Leftist jargon such as just and equitable and inclusivity jump out at a reader. And, finally, Doost asserts that practitioners are encouraged to join initiatives like ProsthetistsforPalestine. Additionally [she recommends] connecting with local Healthcare Workers for Palestine groups and established organizations like the Palestine Childrens Relief Fund amputee project, Palestinian Youth Movement, and Jewish Voices for Peace [which] provide avenues for involvement. At Discover the Networks (DTN), a reader learns that the Palestine Childrens Relief Fund (PCRF) was established in 1991 to address the medical and humanitarian crisis facing Palestinian youths in the Middle East[.] PCRF consider[s] terrorist-fundraising groups like the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development and the Global Relief Foundation to be its assisting organizations. Also from DTN: The organization also claims that the U.S. government, media, and citizenry are manipulated and propagandized by a powerful Zionist lobby. Then there is the group Jewish Voice for Peace: Founded in 1996, Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) is a national nonprofit organization focused on supporting the Palestinians in the Mideast conflict through targeted sanctions against Israel [.] According to CanaryMission.org, JVP is the largest and most influential of the Jewish anti-Zionist groups in the United States. As a Jewish organization, JVP regards itself as the Jewish wing of the [Palestinian Solidarity] movement. Moreover, JVPs leaders have expressed a variety of hatred directed at Israel and Zionism. From Canary Mission: As is happening too frequently, organizations are uncritically accepting Hamas propaganda. Factually incorrect, anti-Semitic to its core, these groups are like spiders who gather the unsuspecting into the web. The O & P magazine is geared to practitioners who want to assist people who now face daunting challenges because of limb loss. But now, they are drawn into a web of deceit with high-sounding phraseology that hides the Hamas projection of genocidal anti-Semitism coupled with leftist woke agenda. How many people are even aware of the aid that Israel has given to Gaza over the years while Hamas was simultaneously building tunnels to infiltrate Israel? In 2017, Israel actively worked to support reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip: Israel has taken these measures to support reconstruction despite the major security risks they posed. In the past, Hamas has diverted massive amounts of aid and imported goods for use in its terrorist infrastructure. For instance, building materials worth tens of millions of dollars were diverted for the construction of Hamas cross-border tunnels, which were used to attack Israel during the summer 2014 conflict. Despite Israels best efforts, reconstruction was hindered by actions of Hamas and the conflict between the terrorist organization and the Palestinian Authority. Most recently, the IDF have destroyed tunnels where troops found caches of Kalashnikovs, mortar shells and other military equipment. Will Doost decry the fact that 75% of Palestinians support Hamass murder spree, including rape and beheadings, as opposed to only 13% who disapprove? Safa Doost makes a mockery of her concern with moral responsibility as she joins hands with groups that spout the never ending libels against Israel, Zionism, and Jews. Shame on the O & P editorial advisory board as they give voice to her hate and obfuscation of the facts. Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com. Image: Free to use, via Pexels. Theres no question about it: President Joe Biden is the Stifler-in-Chief when it comes to crypto. But even if he cant exactly destroy it (since crypto is much bigger than just what a U.S. President does or doesnt do), he can continue to try to wound it within the United States and do everything he can to inhibit its growth. Clearly, that is Joe Bidens agenda. His chief hatchet woman in the Senate is fake Indian Massachusetts Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is cryptos most dedicated foe and who is personally trying to raise a self-proclaimed anti-crypto army as part of her 2024 re-election campaign. Bidens latest attack on crypto, Web3, and the blockchain involved his recent veto of the bi-partisan H.J. Res 109 congressional resolution, which passed by overwhelming margins in both the House and Senate as a repeal of what is called SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121 (SAB 121) and dealt with an accounting rule. Why is this significant? Well, for one thing, potentially tens of trillions of dollars are on the line (but whats a few trillion among friends?!). The simplest answer is that it is all about power and control. The Mad Hatter of Anti-Crypto, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, is Bidens enforcer. Even though major financial institutions like Blackrock, one of the worlds largest asset holders (with over $10 trillion dollars in assets under management), have recently embraced crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Biden wants to continue to force financial institutions to list any crypto assets as corresponding liabilities on their balance sheets. If that sounds somewhat crazy to you, then you get it. The banking industry had reached out to Gensler to try to find some reasonable middle ground, but the SECs response was basically, Go pound sand. So, the crypto industry and its growing numbers of supporters eventually turned to Congress to try to get some relief. To be sure, the crypto currency market is volatile and guardrails are needed, and the executive branch does have an interest in protecting the SECs authority to issue its own guidance independently of Congress. But to list assets as liabilities is truly an Alice in Wonderland approach to the question -- where up is down and forwards is backwards. Which is why even Democrats are waking up to the SECs insanity and many voted for the repeal of this ridiculous rule. Repealing SAB 121 was a common-sense change that would have helped bring the U.S. out of the Dark Ages of crypto pseudo-regulation. The resolution passed 228-182 in the House and by an even larger margin in the Senate, 60-38. But the Stifler-in-Chief stopped it dead in its tracks. This veto occurred right after I attended a recent major crypto and blockchain conference in Austin, Texas, called Consensus 2024, which hosted more than 15,000 attendees from more than 100 countries, representing more than 6,800 companies. RFK Jr. was a featured speaker, while politicians as diverse as leftist Senator Ron Wyden and Republican Majority Whip Tom Emmer spoke as well. Prior to the veto, the conference atmosphere was abuzz with fresh hope that, now with many more Democrats coming onboard, crypto had finally arrived and would not be made into a political issue. If most leaders on both sides of the aisle could agree that these exciting new fields of innovation and financial freedom should be vigorously pursued and encouraged in the U.S., it would be good news for the country as a whole. Bidens veto, issued on the last day of the conference, could not have been a bigger slap in the face. Instead of embracing the future and undergirding the industry, the Biden Administration essentially told the tens of thousands of innovators and potential capital investors in crypto, Web3 and the blockchain that their work is a liability and should be treated as financially radioactive and without present value. Responding to Bidens veto, the Blockchain Association released a statement on X saying that, By vetoing this repeal [of SAB 121] the Biden administration is swimming against the tide of public opinion and growing consensus in Congress that digital asset innovation should be supported -- not punished. The next big test will be the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21), which passed in the House 279-136, with 71 Democrats supporting it. But thus far not the Biden Administration, which means that any vote for Biden is a vote against crypto. If the Biden Administration cannot come to terms with or negotiate something as basic and straightforward as an accounting rule, there is no hope that it will achieve anything substantive over the next few months or during a second term. It is more likely to try to stifle crypto, the blockchain and Web3, probably because of presumed behind-the-scenes payoffs from Big Tech and other corporate monoliths that are happy with the status quo and dont want competition to their corporate networks, where they rake in untold billions and harvest our data for their own ends. Former President Trump has now embraced crypto and its potential. This move inspired the hacks at Politico to opine that Crypto is Trumps new weapon against Biden. Well, duh, thats sort of what happens when you oppose the future. Trump recently stated, I will ensure [that] the future of crypto and the future of Bitcoin will be made in the USA, not driven overseas. In a first, the Trump campaign has begun accepting cryptocurrency donations. Potential donors can contribute to the campaign through multiple cryptocurrencies, not just Bitcoin. Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz, who describes himself as broadly a center-left Democrat, speaking to CNBCs Crypto World at Consensus 2024 prior to the Biden veto, said: For me, its game over. People have finally got it. This should not be political. The Democrats dont want to lose an election over something as stupid as a new technology thats good for the country. Sorry Mike, but oh yes they do! By now there may be as many as 85 million or so crypto users in the U.S. Novogratz wondered aloud, what if just 20 per cent of them are single-issue voters? Thats 17 million voters. The Republican Party should specifically target pro-crypto voters in swing states and in close races throughout the nation. Bidens veto of SAB 121 and Warrens anti-crypto army are all they need to know. Campaign themes should focus on the fact that the Biden Administration, which leads the Democratic Party, seeks to stifle technological innovation, destroy financial independence and is in the pocket of Big Tech. Meanwhile, crypto-supporting PACs are gaining steam. The pro-crypto Fairshake Super PAC and its affiliates have already raised some $160 million during this election cycle to support pro-crypto candidates and initiatives. However, if you love authoritarianism, if you embrace the status quo and hate financial freedom, then Joe Biden is your man and Senator Warren is your fake Indian woman. A.J. Melnick is a former Pentagon analyst, was one of the early developers of the field of cyber threat intelligence, and is a retail investor in crypto. Image: QuoteInspector.com Sure as the sun comes up, Joe Biden is making a mess somewhere. This time he was doing it with the world watching at the 80th D-Day commemoration, held today in Normandy, France. In a piece headlined "Awkward Moment," the New York Post writes, President Biden was spotted awkwardly fumbling for his seat as other dignitaries remained standing during a poignant D-Day commemoration ceremony in France on Thursday. The 81-year-old could be seen grasping for his chair in the middle of the stage in Normandy, France despite his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, and French President Emmanuel Macron remaining upright beside him. The first lady quickly covered her mouth at the exact moment Biden appeared to hover over his chair. The commander in chief then froze awkwardly until the others took their seats, footage of the bizarre moment shows. The video is here: What exactly am I looking at here? pic.twitter.com/ZTzBC5QzdN Phil Holloway (@PhilHollowayEsq) June 6, 2024 This is what the Post was referring to when it noted that social media characters were "wildly speculating" about what was happening: President Biden just pooped himself. This is the exact same motion my toddler makes Too bad it was onstage at the D-Day Ceremony in Normandy pic.twitter.com/1TD8OtduIk AJAC (@AJA_Cortes) June 6, 2024 After that, Jill seemingly whispered something to the out-of-it president trying to sit down, and then slowly escorted him off stage, leaving the president of France to greet the American troops, which he did with grace and elan, looking quite presidential. Jill, Ed.D., escorts Joe Biden out as French President Macron stays behind to greet veterans pic.twitter.com/n4rpRgdbv5 RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 6, 2024 It appeared to be an off script moment, whatever it was that made him want to try to sit down on what looked like a non-existent chair, and then slowly be taken off the stage. The Post noted that Biden made a speech too, focusing on financing Ukraine's war instead of speaking to the bravery and courage of the men who came across the Atlantic to be there, which seemed like a political stump speech. This stands in stark contrast to President Trump's stellar and inspiring D-Day message from Normandy five years earlier, which many have said was the finest speech of his presidency, praising the courage of the men who stormed the beach. In a very public way, it came to show that Joe Biden is fading in his faculties and embarrassing America on the world stage, acting inappropriately at every step. He's been in politics long enough to know that you don't sit down for an occasion like that, nor do you leave your host to do the reception job when you are supposed to be part of it. What's that guy doing there? As everyone could see, he needed to be off that stage fast. So it goes with his claim to the presidency, as well. Everything he does makes a mess and in the end, the American people are stuck with cleaning up after him. Image: Twitter video screen shot Halo: Combat Evolved Remaster May Arrive on PlayStation, Fable and Gears 6 Stay Xbox-Exclusive Microsoft is reportedly developing a remaster of Bungie's iconic first-person shooter, Halo: Combat Evolved. This remaster may be released on PlayStation, marking a potential milestone for Xbox's well-known exclusive. This information comes from Tom Warren of The Verge, who shared details in the site's Notepad newsletter. The new Halo remaster is said to be in the early stages of development. Read Also: Bloodborne's Former Editor Reveals It Was In The Works For PC, PS5 Project Latitude: A New Multi-Console Strategy Halo: Combat Evolved is part of Microsoft's Project Latitude, an initiative to bring more Xbox games to multiple consoles. Earlier this year, Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Pentiment, and Hi-Fi Rush launched on multiple platforms. Other games being considered for multi-console releases include Doom: The Dark Ages, Hellblade 2, Starfield, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition, and Age of Mythology. Some Games Remain Xbox-Exclusive Despite this shift, not all Xbox games will be available on other consoles. Gears 6, the Fable reboot, and Compulsion Games' South of Midnight will remain Xbox exclusives. These titles are expected to be featured in this weekend's Xbox Games Showcase, with Fable and South of Midnight likely releasing in 2025. Microsoft's move to consider more multi-console releases comes after reports in February that Starfield might be released on PlayStation. This aligns with Microsoft's strategy to increase its reach by offering more games on PlayStation and Nintendo platforms, especially after its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Fans should not expect any new Project Latitude announcements during Sunday's Xbox Games Showcase, scheduled for 6pm UK time (10am PT, 1pm ET) on June 9. An hour-long Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 presentation will follow the showcase. Related Article: 343 Announces Match Composer for Halo Infinite, Launching on this Date Now that the trial results have blown up in the faces of the American Left, we have to ask, what will they try next? The Manhattan (or the Atlanta, or the Florida, or the D.C.) show trial was supposed to be the ultimate anti-Trump weapon, the death-blow that would halve his electoral support and leave his MAGA followers reeling. But this, needless to say, failed to happen. Trump has raised a record-breaking $200+ million since his conviction. Immediate polls revealed a wash: 26% were more inclined to vote for him, while 27% were less inclined. This has remained the case since. Polling in swing states remains in the upper 40s. The ruling transformed his most avid supporters into howling banshees and his mild or lukewarm bystanders into open supporters. Even the mouth-breather element of the voting population has concluded that sometin jus aint right roun here. Having transformed a multi-billionaire into an underdog, the lefties are looking more and more to be the Vlad Putins of American politics. So now theyre desperate. They need to come up with something, and what will it be? Well get to that. But one thing we can leave out is that perennial favorite, calling off the election. We hear this every election year, from one side or the other. It has been said about Reagan, about Clinton, about George W., about Obama, about Trump, and now about Biden. But it never happens. It never happens because (apart from it being political suicide) there is no provision in U.S. law for calling off a presidential election. Article II, Section I of the Constitution covers election procedures. Clause 2 Electors Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector. Clause 3 Electoral College Count The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate... Clearly, there is no provision here for suspending an election or anything similar. Beyond that, its more than evident that control of national elections is in the hands of the states. So SloJoe would need to turn to the state governors to save him. While Hochul, Newsom, and Shapiro might be eager to obey, can anybody picture DeSantis, Noem, or Youngkin doing the same? Whats that you say? Martial law? The federal response to an emergency of nationwide scope is embodied in the National Emergencies Act of 1976. Theres nothing about elections in there either. While a president would have vastly expanded powers in a national emergency, there would also be strict limits. Congress and the Supreme Court would both remain active with nearly full powers. If any attempt at shutting down a national election were made, we could depend on both to act (though Justice Roberts might have to be dragged into it kicking and screaming), if only to defend their status under separation of powers. So there it is. We can set any such possibility aside, and in fact we ought to. Repeating such claims and I have seen them repeated ad nauseum in recent weeks -- simply frightens the naive, alarms the ignorant, and encourages sufferers of the conservative disease of rampant defeatism to whine even louder. It accomplishes nothing, informs nothing, and can do a lot of harm in a critical and fraught election season. All that said, Id like to see Biden try. Wed end up with the president selected by red states and only red states, which would be fine by me. Image: PxHere Nearly everyone is afraid of dying, and atheists may be more vulnerable than traditional people. When we get older, the end of life can become something of an obsession, and despairing people can attribute their own fears to some popular scapegoat. Trump Derangement Syndrome is a perfect example of scapegoating, and that over-the-top screeching from the left is so unusual in American life that it needs some explanation. The Dems are now so bizarre that I can think of only a couple of explanations. One is uncontrolled death anxiety, and another one is the possibility of guilty secrets that might get out if Trump survives all the onslaughts and is elected as a normal American president in a normal election. We all know that this will be hard to pull off, because the left keeps confusing Trump with Satan. Scapegoating is a regressive defense mechanism that belongs in childhood, before we become mature adults. Denial of reality is another regressive defense, where humans actually cancel out reality and scream in rage at being reminded of unwanted truths. Mob activity is so ancient that it was described by Plato and Shakespeare, centuries ago. Socrates was ordered to kill himself at the orders of a maddened Athenian assembly. If we believe the Christian Bible, Jesus was also executed to satisfy a mob. Plato wrote that mobocracy was the worst kind of government, and he saw mobs in the streets of Athens many times in his life. The U.S. Constitution was written to restrain that mob tendency in humans, and the Democrats used to understand that. Harry Truman was not a mob leader, but recent Democrats sound more mob-like than any U.S. political movement since the McCarthy era. It is obvious that Joe Biden and his cohort are deliberately whipping up anger and resentment between identity groups, which is how you split up a healthy society and make it weak and self-destructive. Because China saw raging mobs during the Mao era, it is possible that this is being manipulated by Chinese front groups. But Iran and Russia have also seen out-of-control mobs burning, killing, and looting in the last century. Vladimir Lenin openly encouraged mob lynching of Ukrainian peasants, a trauma that shapes the war in Ukraine today. Radical jihadists routinely engage in mob politics, which is why so many Muslim societies have been frozen in the past. The U.S. Constitution emerged in the time of the French Revolution, which saw mobs running wild in the streets of Paris. The Brits, living close to Paris across the Channel, were shocked by the breakdown of French society. Traditional Americans knew all this if they read the news from abroad, which was often full of violent revolutions, coups, and assassinations. The checks and balances of the Constitution were designed precisely to ward off mob frenzies. That political taboo has now been broken by the radical left in collusion with Islamist jihad. Democrat politicians and media routinely encourage chaos in a sly and deniable way. If there are any adults left in U.S. politics, they should finally stand up and unite to control the maniacs on campus and in the streets. What we are seeing is no accident. The hard left has a long, long history of whipping up mobs, and healthy countries have often acted to keep mob agitators down. Death fears, regressive behavior, and mob scapegoating are all of a piece. They are the ancient mark of societal breakdown. Our enemies know that, and they keep stirring up turmoil. It is time for adults to unite, stand up, and stop it. Image: Hernan Fednan via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0. When Bill Clinton got caught perjuring himself, his defense as to why he committed perjury and said that he did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky, was because it depended on what the meaning of the word is is. And, since he wasnt getting a BJ in the Oval Office at exactly the same time as he answered the question, he wasnt really lying. For Hunter Biden, since he wasnt smoking crack while he filled out the ATF 4473 form and checked that no box saying he wasnt an addict he was actually telling the truth: This is the crux of his defense that he did not knowingly lie on the federal background check form; he acted honestly, even if he was mistaken or misunderstood the question of whether or not he is addicted to or doing drugs, because he did achieve periods of sobriety, albeit fleeting and almost always ending in relapse. Hunters lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has never been concerned about facts any more than the Bidens or the Clintonsor any Democrat for that matter. When Anthony Fauci said that everything he said was based on science, including the six-foot social distancing mandate, he wasnt lying; it just depends on what the definition of science is. When 51 former intelligence officers said that the Laptop from Hell was Russian disinformation, they werent lying, they were just making things up so that America could be protected from President Trump. When the media just repeated the lies, it wasnt because they were campaigning for Biden; they just wanted to make sure Americans werent convinced to vote for the guy who the pseudo-elites didnt want. When FBI officials committed perjury when they lied to the FISA court, it was just an innocent oversight. When Loretta Lynch met with Bill Clinton on the tarmac while Hillary was being investigated, it was to talk about the grandchildren and vacations. When Joe Biden met with Hunters business partners, it wasnt to help him get kickbacks, it was to talk about the weather. When the media spread lies about teenage boys who wore MAGA hats and labeled them as racists, it wasnt to gin up racial division and hate and to destroy their lives, it was just an innocent mistake. When the media showed pictures of kids in cages during the Obama-Biden administration, it wasnt to spread disinformation that Trump was a racist who hated migrant children, it was just an innocent mistake. When Hillary set up a private computer server at her house, it wasnt to violate the law or hide anything criminal, it was just to make things more productive. When she used BleachBit on her computer and then took a sledgehammer to it, there was nothing nefarious on there, it was purely for sanitary purposes. The excuses could be endless. Basically, the media and other Democrats are allowed to spread as much misinformation as they like. The only thing that matters to them is electing Democrats. Image from X. The Biden administration's foreign policy has long been a bus without brakes, a rudderless shambles of wokery and special interest groups, but who knew how bad it would get that actor George Clooney would step in and tell the administration how the U.S. should run its foreign policy, based on what his wife wants. According to Fox News: Actor George Clooney reportedly called one of Presidents Bidens top aides last month to complain about the presidents critique of the International Criminal Court (ICC) seeking an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a case his wife, lawyer Amal Clooney, worked on. As first reported by The Washington Post, the Academy Award-winning actor called Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president, to push back on Bidens dismissal of arrest warrants sought by the ICC targeting Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Clooney was particularly irked the Biden administration was initially open to slapping the ICC with sanctions, given his wife could be potentially subjected to penalties, according to the report. The first thing we learn from the chutzpah of this call is that Clooney is a male karen, calling the management to complain about things he doesn't like. The second thing is the policy itself he's complaining about, which bad as it is, still treats Israel as a longstanding ally. Obviously, Clooney doesn't like that the Biden administration has criticized the overreach of the International Criminal Court, laying out a prosecutorial request to a rubber-stamp judge to indict Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on war crimes charges for pursuing Hamas where it nests in Gaza, following its monstrous terror attack in Israel last Oct. 7. In so doing, they sought to pin the 'war criminal' label on him, as Hamas wants, and as if he were a real war criminal, like the Rwandan Hutu killers of Tutsis, or Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia, who waited 20 years for his trial to get adjudicated at ICC. This order makes Israel and Hamas equals in combat, in a sophomoric a 'boys, boys' approach to a legitimate democratic state, and a filthy bloodsoaked terrorist organization that Israel is trying to get rid of. One of the characters involved in writing this Ruritanian order was Amal Clooney, who is George Clooney's high-livin' wife. Biden himself, or whoever writes his material for him, rightly called the request for warrants against Israel's prime minister "outrageous" and added that "there is no equivalence none between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security." We may not like Biden, but that was the right kind of response to the effrontery of this ICC globalist overreach. They're feeling mighty full of themselves over there at ICC, obviously spotting Biden's weakness as a cue to stepin, so it was easy for them to go after one of America's allies as a war criminal, which would also make us war criminals for supporting him. It was as if they were out to please the campus protestors, so they launched their charges at both Hamas's terrorists and Netanyahu, imagining that they had juridiction over what happened in Israel, which they don't, because Israel is not a signatory to their court domain. But that didn't stop them from dreaming of putting Netanyahu in the dock like Slobo. Wouldn't that make these ICC eurotrashers important? Clooney's protests are obviously targeted at the U.S. reaction to this bad ICC move. Worse still, he used political pull to get his word in edgewise with Biden. He's hosting a fundraiser for Biden next week in Los Angeles, the papers noted. Hosting fundraisers apparently gives him the right to change U.S. foreign policy from what is good for America to what is good for him and his wife. The Washington Post noted that he was particularly upset about Biden's use of the word "outrageous." Clooney called Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president, to express concern about Bidens denunciation of arrest warrants sought by ICC prosecutors for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, especially his use of the word outrageous. Article didn't say if he wanted an apology, or what. Whatever it was he was complaining about, he was trying to force the U.S. to correct course to something more to his liking, which is frankly none of his business at all. Second, Clooney seems to want the U.S. to change its foreign policy, as if he had a right to do so, perhaps on principle, but more importan, to keep things comfortable for his wife, so that she can continue to dine out in the finest New York restaurants and shop on Rodeo Drive for her photo-shoots. U.S. sanctions would put a damper on that. The Washington Post had the original story later picked up by Fox, and they noted: The next few months, culminating in the presidential election on November 5, is a time for We the People in the USA to reset the Great Reset of the globalist elites, which is their plan to rule the world and subjugate us. How do we stop tyranny in the United States? Through peaceful political involvement with determination to remain in control of our own lives. If you watched the D-Day anniversary observance on CSPAN or elsewhere, you might have seen globalists in the audience, and on stage, including Emmanuel Macron, Joe Biden, and John Kerry. It struck me that these men had a lot of nerve showing up at Colleville-sur-Mer, France, and the American Cemetery and Memorial for this remembrance. I mean, Biden is right now destroying the USA on purpose with his open border policy, and the others are with him. Globalists like Biden care little for the little people of their countries. They dont seem to care about their citizens being sacrificed or marginalized; they seem to see it as the price of enacting their agenda, to be the elites who rule the serfs. These people have emerged throughout history, according to Victor Davis Hanson, who has authored a book entitled The Dying Citizen. Hanson also teaches a Hillsdale College course, American Citizenship in Decline. A video on YouTube, The Failure of Globalism: Ep. 37, gives highlights of the course. The title on the video reads, No One Can Rule the World. It seems certain types of people are always trying to do just that: rule the world. Hanson says the theme progressed from Socrates, who said he was not just a Greek, but a citizen of the world, through Alexander the Great, who said he would usher in a brotherhood of man in order to rule all, and then to the Romans, who made globalization concrete but came to realize that broad spread of their control of the world was difficult to maintain. These days, we have the elites at the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and the World Economic Forum all promoting the Great Reset. What are We the People to do to reset it? We the People can become politically active right now! We can use the power we still have to solidify control of our own lives. At the grassroots level, we can take back our school boards by running conservative candidates. We can speak up against the agendas of the left to indoctrinate and control our students with inappropriate sexual and political content, such as DIE, CRT, and pornography in books and other materials. We the People can support candidates with conservative values who are running for our state legislatures, city councils, and other offices. If there are open spots on slates, we can step up and run for office. My husband Peter is doing just that. He is running for Colorado state representative for House District 28 in Jefferson County. He had not planned on doing so, but when a spot was going to go unfilled on the Republican side, he stepped up. (If you would like to learn more or support him, go to BoddieforColorado.com.) Also, we can join with others to protect the integrity of our elections to keep globalists from getting or keeping power by cheating. We can be poll-watchers or election judges and watch ballot boxes. Our votes have to count! True the Vote is one organization that will empower you to help. They specialize in working on election integrity and have gone to the mat for it repeatedly over the years. (Dont think globalists are too fond of them.) The Heritage Foundation is another good organization. You can also join the Republican Party in your county and state. Probably most important this year is that you support the presidential candidate who will stand up to the globalists and for Americans first. Do you think thats President Biden and the Democratic Party? Me neither. President Donald J. Trump proved in his first term that he will put the USA first and he will stand up to European globalists. He gave a speech to the United Nations in which he specifically rejected globalism. America is governed by Americans. ... We reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism. Around the world, responsible nations must defend against threats to sovereignty not just from global governance, but also from other, new forms of coercion and domination. Certainly, We the People can get active and protect ourselves and our descendants. We can reset the Great Reset with our speech, our actions, our votes, before its too late. CS Boddie writes for Meadowlark Press, LLC. Image via Pxfuel. The fascist far-left ruling class is fresh out of ideas, and Biden is in big trouble politically, polling right up there with fungal infections, in the words of Senator John Kennedy. Spending is out of control, causing rampant Bidenflation that everyone feels and no amount of BS from the national socialist media can hide. The illegal invasion is going to force even more entitlement, law enforcement, and drug treatment spending, causing even more spending and more Bidenflation in a never-ending Democratic doom cycle. Even their best idea is going bust before their very eyes. Waging lawfare against President Trump was supposed to be the secret to stopping the man. Instead, it was like squirting JP5 into the last stage of a jet engine and dealing with the acceleration G-forces as you push past the sound barrier. The story now is that the far left is panicking over this prospect, and Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) is calling for New York governor Kathy Hochul (D) to pardon President Trump. In ostensibly a refreshing change from the past few years, the D-Minn. representative wants this for the good of the country. Everyone can see that this was a naked attempt to blunt the momentum generated by the Democrats Soviet-style show trial. After all, just when did they start caring about the good of the country? Was that before or after they let in several million illegal invaders, criminals, terrorists, and tons of poisonous fentanyl? If we on the pro-freedom right hadnt been angered about the injustice of the verdict in the kangaroo-court trial (no offense to kangaroos), we probably would have been rolling on the floor laughing at the fact that it boosted Trumps polls and raised him a record amount of campaign cash. Make no mistake: the verdict in the sham that was the Trump trial was one of those watershed moments that brought everything into focus. Up til now, you could fool yourself into thinking things were still semi-normal, so to speak. But now were talking about the serious consequences of the weaponization of the government by one political party against its opponents. If that can be done against the man at the top, whats to stop them from doing that to everyone else? All of this should be a signal its time to stop playing nice with the left. Leftists expect us to use their words and follow their silly rules, while they use any means to attack the country and Western culture and cancel conservatives. We have an advantage they no longer possess: the ability to laugh. There was a time when they barely could, but now intersectionality has them tied up in humorless knots. The word is that the left cant meme. They cant work in comedy these days, either. They cant tell or take a joke, and its the one unvoiced complaint they have against President Trump: his sense of humor. Someone even has a T-shirt to this effect: Mean Tweets 2024. They were never going to pardon President Trump. That was just a phony ploy designed to deflect attention from their predicament, born of their lust for pure political power. But it shows that they are out of rational ideas, and theyre panicking. Do a quick thought experiment and consider what would happen. How would they treat the pro-freedom right if we were in this predicament? Yes, like good little leftist authoritarians who love to fully weaponize governmental power, they would send in the FBI to investigate anyone talking about this, and if they could, they would make a few arrests. Thats all a part of the totalitarian playbook. But beyond that, they would be mocking us everywhere for getting into this predicament. Every late-night comedian would make fun of us in their routines for days on end. Saturday Night Live would devote half their skits to the cause they wouldnt be funny, because that ship sailed long ago, but they would put in the effort. You should not doubt that the cable news channels would get in on the act as well, because they would want to mercilessly punish us across the board. With that in mind, its time to consider what we should do to make fun of what they have done to themselves. Granted, despite all the psychobabble, were not the authoritarians here. So were not going to be doing what they would have done, going all Stasi. No, weve got something much more potent and a lot more fun. The plain fact is that tyrannical types cannot deal with mockery because it undermines their official bearing and their authority. This is why the left cant meme. It's why comedy has been dying the past few years. You couldnt make fun of Obama or Biden and the rest. Tim and Braden over on Second Legacy are already having a lot of fun with this, and now that the far left is desperately trying to change the subject. Its time to deride the leftists for their abject lack of ideas and authoritarian mindset. We know they would mock us mercilessly if we had made this colossal blunder and then tried to dig our way out. Consider that the model for what we should do next. D Parker is an engineer, inventor, wordsmith, and student of history, former director of communications for a civil rights organization, and a long-time contributor to conservative websites. Find him on Substack. Image: zenjazzygeek via Flickr, CC BY 2.0. Merrick Garland recently testified before the House Judiciary Committee, and among other things, was battered over his decision to keep the recorded interview tapes between Joe Biden and special counsel Robert Hur hidden from the public. Garland has the audacity to say that no one is above the law, and his Justice department never considers politics in its decisions, but those statements are demonstrably not true. Here are a couple simple questions for Garland that show that statement is a lie: Did Biden commit felonies when he illegally took and mishandled classified documents for fifty years? Yes. Did the Justice department let him off, citing his status as an elderly man with a poor memory? Also yes. Why would the Justice department withhold the transcripts from its interview with Biden? It is clearly a lie when Garland says it is to protect future investigationsit is obviously a political decision. Since when is diminished cognitive function a get-out-jail-free card? Biden did not turn over the documents as soon as he knew he had them; instead, he shared them with a ghost writer, which is also a felony. Cooperation is also not a defense to a felony; if a murderer cooperates with law enforcement, he/she is still guilty of murder. A 75-year-old grandmother was sentenced to two years in prison for a peaceful protest at a Planned Parenthood clinic, but the president was let off because they said he was too old to prosecute. Isnt that clearly a political decision? As for saying no one is above the law, that is pure garbage. Alejandro Mayorkas has continually lied to Congressand has never been charged. Anthony Fauci has continually lied to Congressand has never been charged. Does anyone believe that politics arent part of the decision-making process, as Garland has yet to charge Jim and Hunter Biden for lying to Congress? The Justice Department has never cared about the Biden family business of taking kickbacks. Why would they change now? Former FBI director James Comey listed all the crimes Hillary committed, but let her off so as not to get in the way of her presidential run. Comey and others continually lied to the FISA court to illegally spy on people surrounding President Trump, and were never charged. The FBI never charged drug-running terrorists, instead opting to let them off the hook, because Obama ordered them to stand down for the sake of his Iranian nuclear deal. That is purely a political decision. The FBI knowingly lied to social media companies, a scheme to censor the information about the Laptop from Hell from the public just a month before the November 2020 election, but none of those involved in this coverup were ever charged. Isnt this election interference? What about Garland himself? He clearly is above the law. He lied to Congress about his involvement with the White House and the National School Boards Association on a coordinated effort to target parents. From the New York Post: He [Garland] testified to Congress last month that he didnt order the targeting of parents who criticize schools policies, let alone treat them as domestic terrorists. Now an internal Justice Department memo shows just that is under way. Garland needs to explain his apparent perjury, pronto. And quash the efforts that the memo exposes. Again: He told lawmakers that Justice and the FBI are not using counterterror tools to target parents, as the National School Boards Association had requested in a letter crafted with the White House. Yet House Republicans this week released a whistleblowers bombshell e-mail sent on behalf of the FBIs Counterterrorism and Criminal Investigations divisions the day before the AG testified asking agents to apply a threat tag and track threats against school officials. While Garland targeted peaceful protesters at Planned Parenthood abortuaries, he let off those who violently destroyed crisis pregnancy centers. He then lied about the reason to Congress, in the most asinine way, claiming that the violent protesters escape consequences because he cant identify them because they attack at night. It is obviously a political decision to let them go, and nothing else. Since when is the federal governments lawfare rendered incapable because someone committed a crime at night and not the day? But Trump was convicted of 34 felonies over 34 bookkeeping misdemeanors (paying a lawyer bill where the payments were labeled as a legal expense) with an expired statute of limitationsthese alleged violations were determined by a jury to be felonies because they supposedly were done in a bid to interfere in an election. How would checks written after an election interfere in an election? After all, thats when he reimbursed Cohen, which was the matter at heart. On a side note: Christoper Wray, the head of the FBI, just asked for a lot more money because terrorists are coming across the border. The question is, why havent Garland and Wray called on Biden to reverse his executive orders that caused the problem? The CDC and NIH have also not called out Biden to correct the problem of diseases coming across the border. It appears that the deep state bureaucrats care more about power, money, and their jobs than protecting the American people. The solution is to elect Trump so that we have a chance to clean up the government. Image: DonkeyHotey, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr, unaltered. There is a growing call, largely led by conservative broadcaster Mark Levin, to appeal the so-called Trump hush money trial directly and immediately to the Supreme Court. Normally, attorneys would follow the prolonged appeals process to the next highest court and on up the ladder. Such appeals usually aim to reverse a verdict. But in this case, the verdict is not the problem. The problem is the trial itself specifically, the un-constitutionality of the trial. For this reason, the Supreme Court is the most appropriate court to hear this complaint. Its sole purpose is to judge the constitutionality of actions taken by government. If put before them, the justices of the Supreme Court should be able to negate this hush money trial altogether, since the trial proceedings did not follow the rules prescribed and required by the Constitution. We saw gross violations of the Sixth Amendment in these proceedings, not to mention the First Amendment violation with a targeted gag order against the defendant. The standing for filing this case with the High Court could not be more substantial. If these adulterated court proceedings are allowed to stand as a precedent, any American could be tried in this unconstitutional manner. It seems that it would be incumbent on the High Court to hear this case for that reason alone. And the call for the Court to hear it is urgent. If the likes of Judge Juan Merchan and Alvin Bragg get away with this lawless distortion of justice, this time, they will certainly do it again. And maybe very soon. Just recently, we have seen a rash of flagrant abuses of the Bill of Rights in courts. In February, New York City judge Arthur Engoron burdened Donald Trump with the ridiculous fine of $450 million for a non-crime that had no victims. Meanwhile, January 6 protesters have been imprisoned for years, some in solitary confinement in horrid conditions, for charges like trespassing, parading, vandalism. Cruel and unusual punishment and excessive fines are becoming normalized in our justice system. These politically motivated trials, perpetrated by one party, with their flagrant abuses of Americans enumerated rights, must be stopped before they become the standard of American justice. And now is the perfect opportunity for the Supreme Court to address the problem. Perhaps we are due for a Miranda rightsequivalent for court procedure. Put the Trump hush money trial on trial. Should a trial that ignores the rules denying a defendant of his constitutional rights remain valid? Or should it automatically be deemed null and void by virtue of its repugnance to the Constitution? That is the question before the Court assuming somebody submits it, that is. At the very least, if Supreme Court justices nullified the Trump hush money trial on grounds that it did not follow the rules, it would send a strong, clear, and necessary message to judges in the lower courts: obey the Constitution. Image via Pixabay. I suppose many of us have heard the expression, Snitches get stitches, referring to the one and only serious infraction known within criminal circles. You can be a murderer or a rapist or a terrorist (hey, thats your chosen field prerogative as a bad guy), but if you ever snitch on a fellow neer-do-wellwell, you could wind up hospitalized. It seems that many people observing the past four years still dont see the obvious when it comes to what the increasingly fascist Democrat party will do to maintain absolute control over Americaand the one thing the left will never do. 1 / By now, every one of us should be able to recite by heart many of the progressive Democrats officious, fascist acts, including: Convicting the Democrats #1 political opponent on aptly named trumped-up charges Incarcerating those exercising their First Amendment free-speech rights to Stop the Steal Sanctioning mob violence across the country that advances causes the Democrat party holds dear Labeling as domestic terrorists pro-lifers, as well as parents concerned about the grooming of their children Categorizing legitimate news stories as conspiracy theories Opening the southern border to overwhelm the countrys system of legal entry and path to citizenship to spread division and hatred and, through the census, reconfigure Democrat House representation and control And on and on and on. Shush image (edited) by jcomp. After all this outrageous nonsense from the Democrat Left, there will still be people within our circle of family and friends who insist that the 2020 election was on the up and up. Thats the one thing the omerta code demands: Do not acknowledge irregularities in that election. They cantor wontquite wrap their heads around the fact that people bent on achieving and maintaining wealth and power would not do everything and anything they can to stop the person who has vowed to expose their dirty deeds. It is as if the stolen-election deniers amongst us believe what they have been told by a why would they lie? mainstream media, i.e., that the 2020 election was the most secure election in American history. Havent we all observed that if you wish to challenge that most secure claim, the Left will go to great lengths to silence you, including but not limited to locking you up? And why would they do that if their assurance wasnt rock solid? I mean, wasnt it Republican leader Mitch McConnell himself who stated in Congress on January 6, 2021, that there was no evidence of election malfeasance? And this after having no desire whatsoever to review any actual evidence of hanky-panky in the 2020 election. Hey, dont we all know that only our best and brightest and most honest citizenry are elected to high office, so they certainly would not lie about something so precious as our rule by self-government, contingent upon a secure voting process, something so fundamental to democracy? Right? Or has it become painfully obvious that yesterdays conspiracy theory has become todays I told you so? Perhaps The Babylon Bee, the conservative Christian source for fake news you can trust, nailed it even more tongue-in-cheekly about a year ago with their headline: White House Announces All Conspiracy Theories Are True Except For The One About Biden Stealing The Presidency In all seriousness, though, the alarm has gone off four years later, and this time wed better be fully awake. The country will end up with more than just a few stitches if the fascist Democrats have their way yet again. Albin Sadar is the author of Obvious: Seeing the Evil Thats in Plain Sight and Doing Something About It, as well as the childrens book collection, Hamster Holmes: Box of Mysteries. Albin was formerly the producer of The Eric Metaxas Show. ___________________ New York City has effectively turned into Gotham City where criminality reigns supreme, so lets go through what you can and cannot do in the Big Apple. You can illegally trespass into this country, take money that you didnt earn for hotel rooms, food, and spending money, take advantage of taxpayer-funded services like public school and county health services, then march for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the streets, causing traffic chaos and preventing the New Yorkers paying your way from going where they need to go: But, you cannot unfurl a flag in support of President Trump and a fair justice system, because political protests in the roadway are a big deal when you do it like this: #BREAKING: Multiple Trump Supporters have been outside Trump Tower after unfurling a massive thing blue line trump flag#Manhattan | #NewYork The New York police are on the scene after arresting at least three Trump supporters outside Trump Tower in Manhattan, New pic.twitter.com/NzmZBGksJ7 R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) June 6, 2024 You can illegally trespass into this nation, squat in a property that doesnt belong to you with illegally-possessed firearms and tons of drugs, and expect to be immediately released without bail; but you cannot be an immigrant black man who discovers the fun of gunsmithing and begins to legally build firearms during the government-forced Covid-19 lockdowns (See my blog on the case of Dexter Taylor here.) You can shoplift from businesses, and peddle the stolen goods on the sidewalk right outside the store from which you just stole, but you cannot sell cigarettes on which you havent paid enough taxes. Remember Eric Garner? You can take hush money payments and sign an NDA, then renege on the legal agreement with no consequences, but you cannot settle a bill with your lawyer if its been incorrectly labeled, even though the statute of limitations has passed. You can attack cops unprovoked and again, expect immediate release, just as long as youre a Venezuelan thug who is in New York illegally; but you cannot fight back against cops who come to arrest you for protesting buses delivering countless new migrants to your neighborhood, to take over the school facilities for which you pay. You can violate the First Amendment and unconstitutionally place a gag order on a defendant, but you cannot claim to have the right to self-defense, protected by the Second Amendment, because as a judge will tell you, the Second Amendment doesnt exist in certain courtrooms. (Again, see my Dexter Taylor blog.) You can tell wildly unbelievable stories about sexual escapades in high-end department stores with absolutely zero proof to support your tale, but you cannot accuse the person spinning those erotic literature yarns of being a liar, or youll be on the hook for tens of millions of dollars. You can engage in business activities that are genuinely fraudulent, but you cannot be a stellar bank customer and pay back a loan in full with interest, without having cheated anyone. You can commit perjury and still be considered a star witness, but you cannot attempt to defend yourself before the public. What else did I miss? Image: Free image, Pixabay license. The head of the United Nations' Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, says Israel bombed one of its schools in Gaza, killing 30 without any prior warning. Israeli Defense Forces are claiming to have killed several terrorists in a "precise strike" on a Hamas compound allegedly located inside a UNRWA school within the Nuseirat area. The military reported that 20-30 members of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad were gathered in three classrooms, all of which were separate from an area where civilians were sheltering, according to The Times of Israel. "Another UNRWA school turned shelter attacked," Lazzarini wrote on X. "Attacking, targeting, or using UN buildings for military purposes is a blatant disregard of International Humanitarian law." Lazzarini added that "the coordinates of all its facilities, including the school Israeli forces bombed, with the Israeli army and other parties in the conflict." "Many steps were taken before the strike to minimize the risk of harm to uninvolved people," the IDF responded. They also claimed to have analyzed aerial footage using precise intelligence. In an evening press conference, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the military had identified at least nine Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives killed in the strike. "Some of these terrorists participated in the massacre on October 7," Hagari added. It seems that Google is working on further improving the Find My Device network by integrating support for AR directions. They would also make it compatible with UWB for even more precision. The company seeks to make its tracking system as complete and functional as possible. AR directions and UWB support for Androids Find My Device are under development The potential new features were found by Android Authority after an in-depth analysis of the latest Find My Device app update (3.1.078-1). According to the report, its source code now includes strings that reference UWB support and AR directions. Starting with AR directions, it would be a more advanced and graphic way to find your device or tracker. The feature is not yet functional, but its name suggests how it would work. It would offer navigation instructions through a multi-layered UI that would require you to use the devices camera. Arrows, text, and voice prompts will likely appear on the screen, depending on whether youre on the right path. Google Maps has a similar feature called Live View, so Google already has experience in the field. Regarding UWB support, it would help make tracking much more accurate. The strings related to this function mention a precision finding option. Additionally, among the libraries found, a startRanging call function stands out. Trackers and devices must be compatible with UWB to take advantage of the additional precision. Both methods can work separately The report indicates that both tracking methods would work separately. There is no string suggesting that AR directions are only available for UWB-supported devices. So, you will be able to use this method of navigation with any Find My Device network-compatible product. Companies like Samsung have their own AR direction system for tracking devices. Its Galaxy SmartTag 2 is compatible with this option, but it only works with the Galaxy ecosystem. Meanwhile, Google wants to offer AR tracking directions for Android devices of all brands. Google has been working lately on making the Find My Device option more complete and functional. A recent leak revealed that the company would implement biometric identification support for logging in. Google would also add an option to remotely lock your device requiring only your phone number and solve a quick security challenge. UPDATE: Amazon reached out to clarify things. The company said the following: We are denying the claim that we breached our ban on the police use of our facial recognition technology. The statement about the moratorium not amounting to a legal obligation is taken from legal documents pertaining to a matter of law for an employment tribunal and makes a legal point only. ORIGINAL ARTICLE: A former Amazon employee is accusing the company of selling facial recognition data to Russia. This would represent a violation of the sanctions imposed by the UK after the invasion of Ukraine. According to Charles Forrest, Amazon reached an agreement with VisionLabs. VisionLabs is a Russian company that offers facial and object recognition services. The former Amazon employee claims the deal allowed VisionLabs to access Rekognition, Amazons own facial recognition tech. Forrest claims that the negotiation took place under the table. Everything would have happened through what appears to be a shell company based in the Netherlands, he claims in his indictment. Amazon might have sold facial recognition data to Russia according to ex-employee Charles Forrest claims that the company unfairly fired him in 2023. He says that Amazon did it after his allegations of potential irregularities. The sale of facial recognition services to a Russian company would be one of these irregularities. Forrest presented the case against Amazon this week to a London employment tribunal. Another of the alleged irregularities committed by Amazon is the violation of a self-imposed moratorium regarding police access to the companys facial recognition services. The self-imposed moratorium would have been set after what happened to George Floyd. Amazon, for its part, denied the accusation of selling facial recognition data to Russia. A company spokesperson said that Based on available evidence and billing records, AWS did not sell Amazon Rekognition services to VisionLabs. The spokesperson also said that Forrests claims about his firing are false. The company claims that it was due to serious misconduct for actions such as not attending meetings, not meeting contractual hours, and not responding to emails. US federal agencies are tightening regulatory scrutiny on tech biggies, particularly their roles in shaping the AI industry. The FTC recently launched an antitrust investigation into Microsoft over its deal with Inflection AI. The investigation is part of an agreement with the DOJ, which will examine the conduct of Nvidia, the biggest maker of AI chips. The FTC will also investigate OpenAI, the firm behind the ChatGPT AI chatbot. Microsoft is OpenAIs largest investor. FTC and DOJ divide responsibility to scrutinize Nvidia, Microsoft, and OpenAI Nvidia, Microsoft, and OpenAI are currently seen as the three biggest stakeholders in the AI industry. The former makes the most advanced GPUs for AI devices and systems. The unprecedented rise in generative AI applications over the past two years has helped it almost triple its sales in no time. The companys stock price also soared more than 200 percent, with its market capitalization exceeding $3 trillion for the first time, surpassing Apple. Nvidias dominance in the AI chips market has got industry players worried. The company allegedly locks customers into using its chips through software tools, thus stifling competition. Its distribution strategy is also an area of concern for some. The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) will look into all of this. If the agency finds Nvidia abusing its dominance to gain an unfair advantage over its competitors, it may file an antitrust lawsuit against the company. Microsoft is another tech biggie with the power to potentially shape the AI industry to its benefit. Like Nvidia, it also entered the AI fray early, investing a whopping $13 billion in OpenAI, a portion of which came before ChatGPTs launch. The Windows maker has also struck deals with other AI companies. In March, it hired almost all of Inflection AIs employees, including the two co-founders, and paid the company $650 million to license its AI technologies. The FTC is studying this deal to determine whether Microsoft deliberately structured it this way to avoid potential antitrust inquiry. Instead of acquiring the firm, the company only hired its employees and signed a tech licensing deal. Inflection AI says it is still a completely independent company. However, the FTC isnt buying anything and is seeking relevant documents to ascertain if Microsoft has gained control over the AI startup while dodging regulatory review. The FTC will also investigate OpenAI Microsoft owns 49 percent of OpenAI, whose ChatGPT powers several AI tools. American regulators are worried that Microsoft may be able to influence OpenAIs technologies and developments. The FTC will investigate this partnership over potential antitrust violations. These investigations dont necessarily mean the two regulatory agencies will file cases against the three companies. However, the FTC and DOJ did something similar in 2019 and proceeded to sue Google, Apple, Amazon, and Meta, so you never know. These are turbulent days in the smartphone repair segment. In a recent development, Google has updated its Pixel repair policy regarding devices with unauthorized parts. The previous version of the policy said that the company could keep your smartphone if they detected unofficial parts. Negative news has recently emerged regarding device repairability. These have mainly affected Samsung, with the termination of its partnership with iFixit. Also with the shutdown of its ASP program on Best Buy service centers. Now, it is Google who is the protagonist, since it has been forced to clarify a thorny clause in its repair policies. Pixel repair policy no longer suggests that Google could steal your phone Recently, some noticed that Pixel devices repair policies indicated that the company would not return your phone if they found unauthorized parts. More specifically, it said this: Unauthorized Parts: You will not send in a Device containing non-Google-authorized parts if You do, Your Device will not be returned to you. Interpreting the clause literally, you can conclude that the company reserves the right to steal your smartphone if it finds non-OEM parts. Of course, this created quite a stir among users of Pixel products. That said, a Google spokesperson contacted Android Authority to give a statement to calm the waters. The company spokesperson clarified that Google will not keep your smartphone in any way. He also stated that they would soon update the repair policy to make things clearer. That update finally took place. Now, the repair policy section says that If You send a Device containing non-Google-authorized parts for repair, in certain situations (e.g., safety), Service Provider may not be able to repair Your Device. Service Provider will return Your Device except when health or safety requirements prevent us from doing so. If Service Provider cant return Your Device, Google will work with You on next steps. Google may (or may not) repair your phone if it detects non-OEM parts So, instead of keeping your phone, Google reserves the right not to repair it. Even so, it leaves the possibility open to fix it and send it to you. Google adds that the only way it could retain your device is for health or safety requirements. However, in those specific cases, the company will contact you to try to find a solution. The way in which the Pixel repair policy regarding unauthorized parts was written in the previous version is still striking. It would be interesting to know if there is any case where the company has ever made it effective to the letter. Hopefully, there is no one out there who has been left without their phone after sending it for repair to an official service center. Back in January, during MWC 2024, OPPO confirmed that the next OPPO Find flagship(s) will go global. That indicated that the OPPO Find X8 Ultra will go global, and the company just reconfirmed that information during the conference in London. The OPPO Find X8 Ultra is coming to global markets with an improve periscope camera The company said that the next Find X flagship will go global. That clearly points to the most powerful OPPO Find X smartphone, and that will most likely be the OPPO Find X8 Ultra. The OPPO Find X7 Ultra is an outstanding phone, and its a shame it didnt get a chance to shine in markets outside OPPOs homeland. OPPO is looking to set things straight with the OPPO Find X8 Ultra, though. That being said, a tipster has just informed us that the phone will come with an improved periscope telephoto camera. The OPPO Find X7 Ultra already arguably has the most complete camera setup on the back. OPPO went all out. The exact camera details were not shared, but the tipster did hype up its performance Well, its successor is looking to improve things even further. He did not share the exact sensor that OPPO will use, nor the details around it. He did say that the performance will humble even the Vivo X100 Ultras periscope telephoto performance. The OPPO Find X7 Ultra utilizes the Sony IMX858 sensor, which is a 50-megapixel camera. That camera is able to provide users with 6x optical zoom, which is also backed by a second IMX858 sensor for the regular telephoto camera (3x optical zoom). It remains to be seen what will OPPO do next. The Find X7 Ultra has a quad-camera setup on the back, four 50MP cameras The OPPO Find X7 Ultra has a quad-camera setup on the back, led by the Sony LYT-900 sensor for the main camera. That is arguably the best mobile camera sensor out there at the moment. The OPPO Find X7 Ultras camera prowess is also backed by Hasselblad. The company had input in a number of ways, and it definitely did a great job of tuning the colors of the end product (photos). That phone launched in January this year, but its successor could come even sooner, in December. Well have to wait and see. Weve seen all sorts of leaks thus far. This one takes the cake, though, in a way. Here we have a pixelated look at all of Samsungs soon-to-be-announced devices. Yes, these devices are expected at the second Unpacked event this year. A very odd leak is here to show us Samsungs foldables, watch & ring This leak comes from Evan Blass, so its safe to say its spot on. He could be even teasing what hell leak by doing this, we could be seeing proper marketing images soon. Also, even though the images are pixelated, its obvious that the design of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 go hand-in-hand with the images Samsung shared recently. If you take a look at the five images shared in the gallery below, youll know whats what. The Galaxy Z Fold 6, Galaxy Z Flip 6, Galaxy Ring, and what seems to be the Galaxy Watch 7 Ultra. Yes, these images are pixelated, but at least they confirm what we can expect from Samsungs upcoming event. The second Unpacked event from the company is coming next month, allegedly. All of these devices are expected to launch next month Samsung still hasnt confirmed it, but its rumored to happen on July 10. The company will allegedly host the event in Paris, France. Samsung is moving these Unpacked events constantly, theyre happening sooner and sooner. August was the month for the second Unpacked event, but then Samsung decided to change things up. Last years event happened in July, but later on in July, not as early as this years is rumored to occur. Samsung could be doing it sooner this year because of the Olympic games which are starting later in July, though. Based on the leaks, it will be a packed event once again. Not only will we get two high-end foldables, and a new flagship smartwatch, but the companys first smart ring too. Its also worth noting that the regular Galaxy Watch 7 is expected to launch too. The first quarter of 2024 wasnt good for the US smartphone market. Contrary to the global trend, smartphone sales in the US declined. Europe, meanwhile, returned to growth this past quarter. The region saw a first YoY (year-on-year) growth in quarterly sales after 12 consecutive quarters of decline. The last YoY growth was recorded in Q1 2021. As expected, Samsung was the largest smartphone vendor in Europe in the first three months of the year. Europe saw its first smartphone sales growth in three years in Q1 2024 According to market research firm Canalys, 33.1 million smartphones were shipped across Europe in Q1 2024 (excluding Russia). The figure marks a 2% YoY shipment growth from 32.4 million units in the same period last year. The growth rate is slower than the global average of 10%the global industry was driven by emerging markets. However, its still a good sign for vendors playing in Europe. Its the first quarterly sales growth in three years. Canalys observed that the European region recorded its highest share of premium models (priced at $800 and above) for a Q1 ever. Driven by Samsungs Galaxy S24 series, premium models accounted for 32% of all shipments. Sales of the Korean firms flagship lineup (including previous-gen Galaxy S devices) grew by 58% YoY to 4.3 million units in Q1 2024. The Galaxy AI-loaded phones have been selling well globally since their launch in mid-January. The Galaxy S24 Ultra, the pick of the lot, was the third most shipped phone in Europe during the first three months of 2024. Samsung sold 1.6 million units of the phone in the region. The iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 15 Pro were the best-selling models, shipping 2.6 million and 1.6 million units, respectively. Samsungs budget phone Galaxy A15 (4G) and the iPhone 15 made up the top five smartphones sold in Europe in Q1 2024. The next five best-selling devices are Xiaomis Redmi 13C, Samsungs Galaxy A15 5G and Galaxy S24, Xiaomis Redmi Note 13 4G, and Samsungs Galaxy A25 5G. The top 10 models accounted for over 43% of all sales. Canalys says, Improved low-end demand will be vital for the market to return to growth in 2024, so Android OEMs would be looking to bolster their budget and mid-range offerings with new models in the coming months. Samsung was the largest vendor by a huge margin Samsung has historically been the largest smartphone vendor in Europe. It was no different this time. The Korean firm sold 12.1 million Galaxy phones in the region in Q1 2024, capturing 37% of the market. While its market share remained flat over Q1 2023, the company increased shipments by 2%. Apple followed distantly with a 22% share. It shipped 7.3 million iPhones, 5.6 million of which were the three iPhone 15 models mentioned above. Xiaomi, Motorola, and HONOR made up Europes top five smartphone vendors in Q1 2024. Canalys forecasts sales to remain almost flat for the rest of the year. The EUs eco-design directive will force companies to restructure their business strategies in the coming years. Finding a balance between sustainability, compliance, AI, brand strengthening, and hardware innovations will be vital for vendors to succeed in Europe in the years leading up to 2030, Canalys said. Samsung just announced that Live Translate, part of its Galaxy AI suite, will be compatible with third-party apps. So, you will be able to enjoy this useful AI-powered feature directly from some of your favorite messaging apps. It will even support the voice translation function. Released with the Galaxy S24 series, Galaxy AI includes multiple AI features, but not all of them are compatible with third-party apps. For example, the Summary function is compatible with Samsungs voice recorder app. The Live Translate function for voice calls is compatible with Samsungs Dialer app. However, the company has expanded Live Translate compatibility, including real-time voice translation. Live Translate Galaxy AI feature will be compatible with third-party apps Being able to use Live Translate in third-party messaging apps will make the communication experience much more practical. It is a big deal not only for normal users, but for the professional segment as well. It will make it easier for you to stay in touch with either foreign friends or business partners, removing language barriers. All thanks to the power of AI. For now, Samsung has not shared more specific details about supported apps. It would be good news if messaging apps as popular as WhatsApp or Telegram were on the list. According to the company, user privacy is a key aspect for them. Live Translate is proof of this, since all processing will be on-device, without resorting to the cloud. Samsung wants people to always be in control of the data they share. Samsung also generated hype around Galaxy AI in its upcoming foldable flagships. According to the company, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 will get a specially adapted version of the suite. So, it is possible that the company includes some new features not available on current compatible Galaxy devices. Lastly, Samsung wants its Galaxy AI suite to get bigger and more functional. The company promises to continue investing to bring advanced features powered by artificial intelligence to more and more Galaxy products. Chinese FM holds talks with Cuban president's special envoy Xinhua) 08:29, June 07, 2024 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, holds talks with Special Envoy of Cuban President and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, in Beijing, capital of China, June 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan) BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Special Envoy of Cuban President and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, on Thursday in Beijing. Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that China and Cuba are good friends who trust each other, good comrades who share the same vision, and good brothers who share weal and woe, adding that the two sides reached an important consensus on jointly building a China-Cuba community with a shared future. China speaks highly of Cuba's adherence to truth and defiance of power, and appreciates that Cuba always stands up for China's legitimate stance on international multilateral occasions. China firmly supports Cuba in defending its national sovereignty and opposing foreign interference, and will continue to resolutely oppose the U.S.'s unreasonable blockade against Cuba, Wang noted. Wang said that China is willing to work with Cuba to implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state, develop the special friendly relations between the two parties and two countries, and contribute to promoting the cause of world socialism and safeguarding world peace. Rodriguez said that the special friendly relations between Cuba and China enjoy a profound public support for good friendship between the two peoples. Cuba sincerely thanks China for its strong support in resisting the unreasonable blockade and interference of the United States and overcoming temporary difficulties in economic operation, and will continue to firmly abide by the one-China principle. Cuba is willing to work with China to build a Cuba-China community with a shared future, give top priority to the joint construction of the Belt and Road, and safeguard the sovereignty and independence of developing countries as well as the cause of socialism, he said. The two sides also exchanged views on strengthening China-Latin America cooperation and other issues of common concern. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, holds talks with Special Envoy of Cuban President and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, in Beijing, capital of China, June 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan) (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Right wing trolls used an edited video to claim that President Joe Biden was trying to sit in an imaginary chair during a moving D-Day commemoration ceremony in France on Thursday. RNC Research posted a seemingly "awkward" 13-second clip of the trending incident on social media platform X: The footage captures the 81-year-old grasping for a chair in the middle of the stage in Normandy, France. The video cut before he actually sat in a chair that was clearly visible in longer versions of the video. The full video shows Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron shake hands while standing between their wives. The president then briefly looks over his left shoulder, bends over and hovers in that position as U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is announced as the event's next speaker, the Associated Press confirmed. He then sits down as Macron and their wives. Biden later spoke at the event. Alexander Zverev made it fourth time lucky as he beat Casper Ruud in four sets to reach the French Open final. Zverev, a losing semi-finalist in the previous three years at Roland Garros, triumphed 2-6 6-2 6-4 6-2. Ruud, the seventh seed from Norway, took the first set very handily, but his level dropped off alarmingly in the second. At the start of the third it became apparent why as he called for the doctor, who gave him some medication. In the end it was a comfortable victory for the German fourth seed, who finished the job with an ace after two hours and 35 minutes to set up a final showdown with Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday. Ive got so much history on this court, said Zverev, who left Philippe Chatrier on crutches two years ago after sustaining a horror ankle injury against Rafael Nadal. Ive got some of the best and worst memories on this court. Im in the final after my fourth semi-final and Im going to give it my all on Sunday. Casper Ruud called for the doctor at the start of the third set (Jean-Francois Badias/AP). Aryna Sabalenka struggled with a stomach bug in her quarter-final defeat by teenager Mirra Andreeva on Wednesday and it appeared that two-time runner-up Ruud had suffered the same fate. If I waited, you saw how quickly the first set went away, added Zverev. Casper is too good a player to wait. I knew I had to be aggressive to take it to him. The balls went in and Im happy to be in the final. Look, I thought the first two sets were very high level, then end of the third I saw he started to move slower. His shots were still the same. If I was more passive then he wouldve won the match. Credit to him for finishing the match. A great champion and a great person. Ruud admitted afterwards a dodgy stomach was causing him discomfort. Maybe it was something I picked up in my dinner last night, maybe it was from the breakfast this morning, or something just before that I got in my stomach, he said. I dont have the answers now, but Im just disappointed that it had to be today. Why couldnt it be yesterday or the day before when I had three days off? So it was a bit unlucky. I was really looking forward to the match. In a way I started well but I wasnt able to keep it up, unfortunately. Zverevs victory came on the day the court case against him for allegedly assaulting his ex-girlfriend was terminated after a settlement was reached. The 27-year-old was contesting a penalty order and fine of 450,000 euros issued last October. Zverev had always maintained his innocence and the settlement did not include an admission of guilt. It has been four years since the allegations first surfaced, and Zverev said: I told you so from the start. I told everybody. Im happy that its over. Nothing else more to say. Thats it. Four years. Im happy about that. Done. We move on. I never ever want to hear another question about the subject again. That goes out to everybody. Alliance leader Naomi Long is facing questions after pulling out of an Irish unity event. Ms Long had been due to address the Irelands Future event at the SSE Arena in Belfast next Saturday. Irelands Future terms itself as a civic nationalist non-profit which campaigns for new constitutional arrangements on the island of Ireland. Its previous events have been addressed by a range of speakers, including former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Leo Varadkar speaking at an Irelands Future event in 2022 (Niall Carson/PA) Ms Long is currently campaigning ahead of her General Election battle with DUP leader Gavin Robinson in East Belfast which is expected to be one of the tightest contests in Northern Ireland. An Alliance Party spokesperson said Ms Longs decision not to take part is down to the unexpected General Election. North Belfast election candidate Nuala McAllister will instead represent the party. Unfortunately due to the snap election and short nature of the campaign, Naomi Longs diary has had to see a number of last-minute changes and, therefore, she is unable to participate in this event due to other pressing commitments, they said. Irelands Future secretary Niall Murphy said: It is unfortunate that Naomi Long has indicated she is no longer available to participate in the Pathway to Change event at the SSE arena. Irelands Future regrets that this is the case. DUP director of elections Gordon Lyons contended that Ms Long has further questions to answer about her Irelands Future attendance. Naomi Long should explain why she ever agreed to attend the Irelands Future anti-unionist event, he said. The DUPs Gordon Lyons (Liam McBurney/PA) Alliance clearly thought it was OK to attend the event when there was no election but now wont attend and dont want people to see them attending and partaking in pro-Republican platforms and propaganda. Unionists throughout Northern Ireland know exactly why the Alliance Party has pulled out of this event. They shouldnt be played for fools. Stormont Opposition leader Matthew OToole also queried Ms Longs decision. The Alliance Party is entitled to have no position on whether we rejoin the EU via a new Ireland, but voters deserve better than the wink/nudge opportunism its leader is indulging, the SDLP representative said. Many voters of all perspectives will reflect on the decision to pull out of this event an hours commitment inside Naomi Longs constituency and ask why it was an impossible ask but overseeing the entire criminal justice system is perfectly manageable alongside the campaign. This claim is simply not credible and taking voters of all perspectives for fools. Naomis claim of an election campaign clash is rendered even more absurd by the fact that her replacement, Nuala McAllister, is a candidate in the same election. The UK needs to triple the rate at which it is installing offshore wind farms and must boost manufacturing to meet demand, a report has warned. A report by think tank IPPR says that on current rates of installation, the UK will miss its 2030 targets for offshore wind capacity by 18 years, as well as missing out on revenue and jobs from a thriving renewables sector. The Government has set an ambitious target for the UK to have up to 50 gigawatts (GW) of installed offshore wind capacity by 2030, while Labours proposals are even more ambitious, with 55GW, as part of a push to decarbonise the energy grid. But the IPPR report says the UK is falling behind in the race for wind manufacturing, and the country faces a tough future with low levels of manufacturing and increasing global supply shortages. Despite its leading role in the amount of offshore wind it has installed second only to China the UK fails to be in the top three European nations for manufacturing any major component of the wind supply chain such as blades, towers or cables, the report warns. If it had exploited its huge market for wind installation in manufacturing to the same extent as other leading nations such as Denmark, it would have generated up to an additional 30 billion between 2008 and 2022, it says. In less than five years the UK can and should build at least one additional turbine blade factory, two nacelle the part which contains the generator and tower factories, and two extra foundation factories. IPPR calls for an investment of 3.2 billion in UK manufacturing facilities which it says could generate tens of thousands of direct and indirect jobs. But a failure to capitalise on the opportunity to boost offshore wind manufacturing would undermine the UKs energy independence, put efforts to cut emissions to net zero by 2050 at risk and miss economic opportunities. The report calls for support for businesses to expand the manufacturing supply chain, ensure developers have long term contracts to secure demand and upgrade infrastructure by renovating ports and naval vessels to deliver offshore wind farms. Simone Gasperin, associate fellow at IPPR, said: The UK has missed out from becoming a world leader not just in wind power, but also in wind manufacturing. This has cost thousands of jobs, billions for the economy, and is putting future net zero targets for wind deployment at risk. However, the UK is uniquely placed to become a world leader in manufacturing equipment for offshore wind farms. The government should grasp this opportunity with both hands and do all it can to maximise the manufacturing opportunity of its offshore wind power targets. Ajai Ahluwalia, head of supply chain at industry body Renewable UK, said: The IPPRs report highlights the extraordinary opportunity that the UK has to land hundreds of millions of pounds of new investment in offshore wind manufacturing. It is timely as it coincides with a newly-released offshore wind industrial growth plan, created by RenewableUK, the Offshore Wind Industry Council, The Crown Estate and Crown Estate Scotland. This shows how to triple our offshore wind manufacturing capacity over the next ten years, supporting an additional 10,000 jobs a year and boosting the UKs economy by a further 25 billion between now and 2035. The plan identifies the high-value areas which the UK should focus on, including the design and manufacture of offshore wind blades and turbine towers, foundations, electrical systems and cables, enabling us to supply projects here as well as exporting worldwide to address global supply chain shortages in the years ahead, Councils in England face a funding gap of 6.2 billion over the next few years, according to a report. A study by the Local Government Association (LGA) showed that the problem is being driven by rising costs and demands to provide adult social care, childrens services, homelessness support and transport for children with special needs and disabilities. The LGA said a new relationship between central and local government, providing long-term financial certainty, is the only way for the next government to solve such issues. Councils are increasingly left with less funding to provide universal local services that people rely on every day such as keeping streets clean, filling potholes and tackling anti-social behaviour, said the association. A recent LGA survey found two-thirds of councils had already had to make cutbacks to neighbourhood services this year including waste collections, road repairs and library and leisure services as they struggle to plug funding gaps. The LGA is calling on all political parties to commit to a significant and sustained increase in funding for councils in the next Spending Review, alongside multi-year funding settlements for councils and plans to reform the local government finance system. Without this, the LGA said, cost and demand pressures will continue to stretch council budgets to the limit in the coming years, leaving more councils unable to deliver their legal duties for their residents and putting vital services at further risk of cutbacks. Kevin Bentley, senior vice chairman of the LGA, said: We all rely on local government to keep our streets clean, collect our bins, fix our potholes, build more homes, create jobs, keep children safe and support people of all ages to live fulfilling lives. However, a funding gap facing local services of more than 6 billion over the next two years fuelled by rising cost and demand pressures means a chasm will continue to grow between what people and their communities need and want from their councils and what councils can deliver. On July 5, the next government will be faced with many challenges, whether it is building more affordable housing, improving care for adults and children, reducing homelessness, boosting inclusive growth or tackling climate change. Local governments offer to the next government is huge. Respect us, trust us and fund us. By working together as equal partners, we can meet the fundamental long-term challenges facing our communities. Unite national officer Clare Keogh said: Local government has been decimated over the last 14 years, with thousands of frontline jobs already cut, while demand for services keeps rising. Services are already stretched far too thin. The situation is at breaking point and further job losses cannot be the answer. The incoming government must commit to properly and fairly funding the sector to meet need, and to reverse the years of decline we have seen. Unisons head of local government Mike Short said: Councils are facing an existential crisis because of years of severe government underfunding. Wave after wave of budget cuts to essential services has harmed communities immensely, with the worst off always the hardest hit. Authorities have been forced to sell off buildings, open spaces and other prized assets, and cut thousands of jobs. But still their books wont balance and now scores of town halls face effective bankruptcy. Without a sustained programme of proper investment many more will go under. This cannot be allowed to happen. Local services, and the councils that provide them, are too important to lose. Sharon Wilde, GMB national officer, said: This report is welcome it highlights what GMB has been saying for more than a decade. Our vital public services are being starved of the funding they need to operate. GMB members in local government help our children learn, keep our roads safe and streets clean, they make sure our libraires open and our parks tended. Yet for years they have suffered real terms pay cuts and been forced to prop up our creaking councils with huge amounts of unpaid overtime. Hopefully the nightmarish austerity experiment will soon be over after 14 long years -but whoever is in charge next year, GMB will demand all local government pay offers are fully funded by central government. Jackie OSullivan, acting chief executive at learning disability charity Mencap, said: This worrying report further highlights the desperate financial situation local authorities are facing. It must serve as a wake-up call to the next government, who will need to get to grips with the perilous state of social care across our country. We are hearing devastating stories from people impacted by this chronic underfunding with many families being left to plug the gap of vital support their loved ones need. We also know many people are having their funding drastically cut despite their needs staying the same. A husband who watched in horror as his wife and son were fatally injured in a head-on crash caused by a motorist carrying out a dangerous overtake as they returned from a family holiday says his life is ruined as the killer driver was jailed for 13 years. Angela Boyack, 59, and her son Stephen, 22, were travelling home to South Shields on December 9 after a weekend away in Derbyshire to celebrate her upcoming 60th birthday when the Hyundai they were travelling in was hit by Joshua Hill in his BMW X5. Mrs Boyacks husband William and oldest son Alex were driving two cars behind when Hill, 27, tried to overtake an Audi in front of him as he drove southbound on the A632 near Span Carr but did not have enough time to complete to manoeuvre and skidded, crashing into Stephens car which he was driving northbound. In a statement read out at Derby Crown Court as Hill was sentenced on Friday, Mr Boyack, who was married for 35 years, said the lives of him and his son were ruined. Prosecutor Laura Pitman told the court how Hill had been driving at speeds of up to 72mph on a 50mph stretch of road in wet weather and that the anti-lock braking systems on his BMW was faulty, which may have lessened the speed at the point of impact had it been working correctly. He had been seen carrying out aggressive overtakes ahead of the crash, with one driver reporting Hills passenger had rolled down the window, laughed and put his middle finger up as they sped past him. Ms Pitman said the route the Boyacks would have taken on their journey home, up the A1M, was blocked due to a crash, so they took an alternative route home on the A632 through Chesterfield instead. She told the court how William and Alex saw Stephens Hyundai jump in the air and roll onto a grass verge after the crash, with dashcam footage from their vehicle showing them both running towards the car to try and get them out of it. Mr Boyack ran back to his car to try and find a fire extinguisher and something he could smash the window with, returning with a claw hammer, and knew his wife was dead as soon as he saw her. Joshua Hill has been jailed for 13 years for causing the deaths of Angela and Stephen Boyack (Derbyshire Police/PA) Ms Pitman said: While this was going on, William saw Mr Hill and his passenger watching but offered no help. In temper he approached them and asked them if they were in BMW, but he didnt get response. He then saw the defendant walking away as Hyundai started to burn. Members of the public who had stopped to help reported hearing one of them shouting run, run as the pair fled the scene, no doubt realising the severity of what had happened, Ms Pitman told the court. While Mrs Boyack died instantly in the crash, Stephen was taken to Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham and his loved ones were initially told he would survive his injuries, but he went into cardiac arrest and died shortly after. Ms Pitman said: [Hill] chose not to call for assistance or to attempt to speak to the police or emergency services. He chose to hide from the police and didnt contact them to explain he was the driver, instead he left the area and went to Sheffield. He was effectively on the run and police went to many addresses of people who were linked to the defendant in the hope he would hand himself in. Hill was eventually arrested at his mothers address in Sheffield after police threatened to force entry and during interview, admitted he had been the driver. He told officers he thought he had plenty of time to carry out the overtake of the vehicle in front of him but Stephen Boyacks car was clearly closer than he realised. Hill initially pleaded not guilty to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving but changed his plea to guilty on May 10, three weeks before a trial was due to start. Mitigating, Hills barrister Simon Eckersley said the defendant was genuinely remorseful. In his statement, Mr Boyack said he has nothing by disgust and contempt for Hill and his passenger who stood there and did nothing as total strangers helped his wife, who worked in a library, and his youngest son. He said: I cannot even begin to comprehend what happened that day, I get unbearable pains in my chest when I think about it. Losing my wife and son has ruined my life in every sense. She was a caring, loving wife and a loving mother. She was everything to me. But not only have I lost my wife, I lost my gentle giant son Stephen. It has been made worse by the fact he was alive and we were told he was going to survive. We talked about his recovery and what we would do to make that happen. I had to watch losing him to his injuries. Ordering Hill to serve two-thirds of his 13-year sentence before being released on licence and banning him from driving for 10 years, Judge Jonathan Straw said Hill had been playing automotive Russian roulette when he overtook the Audi. He said: Angelas 60th birthday would have been on December 12, the same day you appeared at the magistrates court for the first time charged with her and her sons deaths. Dutch broadcaster Avrotros has put its participation in the Eurovision Song Contest under consideration after its contestant Joost Klein was disqualified during the 2024 competition in Sweden. Eurovision organisers are investigating the singing competition and have appointed an independent expert to look at the events in Malmo, which were mired in controversy, ahead of the contest heading to Switzerland in 2025 after singer Nemo won with The Code. Dutch singer Klein was stopped from participating in the final with the song Europapa by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) over an incident where he was alleged to have made verbal threats to a female production worker. Joost Klein performing Europapa for The Netherlands at the Second Semi-Final of the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden (Alma Bengtsson/PA) In a statement, Avrotros said: The Eurovision Song Contest was created to connect countries and peoples through music and to encourage mutual brotherhood. This should be the starting point for the organisers and all participating countries. Until Avrotros is confident that structural adjustments will be made to the artists and their musical message back in the centre, we will keep participation in the song contest under consideration. The broadcaster says it still (believes) that the disqualification of Klein was unnecessary and disproportionate after Swedish Police Authority investigated the incident. Local police previously said it would be heading to the local prosecutor to bring the case to court. Avrotros said it will cooperate with the EBUs review but thinks a broader, more in-depth, and truly independent investigation is needed to address structural problems. The broadcaster said it was not only referring to the events in Malmo and the EBU but also the wider role of the management, rules procedures and the appeals process in the event of complaints. It added that there is an increased pressure on the artists and delegations in the run-up to and during the song contest which should be the subject of investigation by a recognised and independent research agency. The national broadcaster for Israel, Kan, claimed its delegation faced an unprecedented display of hatred from other countries and their entrants during the competition, when Eden Golan participated in the wake of the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza. Kan was also criticised by contestants including Irelands Bambie Thug, who has been outspoken about their pro-Palestine views, and alleged that the Israeli broadcaster broke a rule and incited violence against them. Bambie also criticised the EBUs handling of its complaints. A previous statement from the EBU said: The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) seeks to continuously improve its services and events. To further strengthen the Eurovision Song Contest, we have asked an independent expert to look at ESC 2024 in Malmo to share insights and learnings with the EBUs governing bodies to support the continuous improvement of this global event. Two emotional days of commemoration have marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Royals, world leaders and veterans gathered in Normandy for a series of ceremonies and events, paying tribute to those who served during the 1944 beach invasion. The King and the Prince of Wales praised the bravery and sacrifice of D-Day veterans who served at that critical time as they both made speeches in France on Thursday. Charles, alongside the Queen, appeared emotional at events in Portsmouth on Wednesday and in Ver-sur-Mer the following day as they heard tributes to, and words from, servicemen. The commemorations also presented the royals with a chance to meet some of the veterans, with 98-year-old Roy Hayward saying the King had asked him how I got on and how I had my legs blown off. Some received updates on the health of both Charles and the Princess of Wales, with the King saying he is doing well and William telling one veteran Kate was getting better. The final international commemorative event saw the Prince of Wales join a number of world leaders at a ceremony on Omaha Beach in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer. The King and Queen were emotional during the UK national commemorative event (Gareth Fuller/PA) Prime Minister Rishi Sunak did not attend the ceremony in Normandy on Thursday but Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer mingled with heads of state such as US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron. A Tory source played down the diplomatic impact of the Prime Ministers absence, pointing out he will see Mr Macron, Mr Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other key leaders at the G7 summit in Italy next week. William spoke to Mr Biden, Mr Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ahead of the event. Before the ceremony on Omaha Beach, Charles addressed the crowd of veterans at the national commemorative event in Ver-sur-Mer in Normandy, as he spoke of his profound sense of gratitude to those who served in 1944. He appeared emotional during the service, alongside the Queen who wiped her eye as the memories of one D-Day veteran were read to the crowd in Ver-sur-Mer. At a Canadian commemorative ceremony on Juno Beach, William thanked those who served for our freedom, adding: All of you demonstrated heroism, and determination, that ensured fascism was conquered. Veterans holding roses which they received from schoolchildren during the event in Normandy (Jane Barlow/PA) Thursdays commemorations began in the early morning with a military piper at Gold Beach in Arromanches, who played a lament at sea at the exact moment of the invasion. During his speech, the King paid tribute to the remarkable wartime generation, telling the audience: It is with the most profound sense of gratitude that we remember them and all who served at that critical time. He added: Our ability to learn from their stories at first hand diminishes, but our obligation to remember them, what they stood for and what they achieved for us all can never diminish. The King wore his Field Marshal No 4 Tropical Service dress uniform with medals and decorations for the event. The audience heard the experiences of Joe Mines, 99, from Hornchurch in east London, and Camilla dabbed her eye before smiling with the King as Mr Mines waved his arms in the air. Schoolchildren presented veterans attending the UKs national commemoration event with white roses while cadets waved flags. Elsewhere, Mr Biden spoke at a US national commemoration in Normandy alongside Mr Macron. He said: It is the highest honour, as Commander in Chief, to be able to salute you here in Normandy. Meanwhile, the Prince of Wales praised the bravery and sacrifice of the Canadian troops, who gave so much 80 years ago as he delivered a speech at the ceremony on Juno Beach. He was joined by Mr Trudeau, French prime minister Gabriel Attal, Canadian D-Day veterans and armed forces personnel in Courseulles-sur-Mer in France. William, addressing veterans, added: Thank you for our freedom, and thank you for your service. The Prince of Wales meets Richard Rohmer, 100, one of the most decorated Canadian veterans (Jordan Pettitt/PA) Sir Keir said the national commemorative event in Normandy had been moving and powerful, adding: My message to the veterans is thank you. Thursdays commemorations followed a ceremony in Portsmouth on Wednesday where the King appeared to wipe away a tear during an event where he paid tribute to the courage, resilience and solidarity of veterans. In the UK, an 80-strong flotilla of boats is scheduled to leave from Falmouth, Cornwall, where thousands of troops departed to take part in the invasion, while a beacon-lighting ceremony will take place in Aylesford, Kent. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh joined veterans at a Royal British Legion remembrance service at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester met veterans at a show at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The event, D-Day 80: Remembering The Normandy Landings, was hosted by Davina McCall and featured music from the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, as well as Lulu, Katherine Jenkins, Emeli Sande and D-Day Darlings lead vocalist Katie Ashby. President Joe Biden met Friday in Paris with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy and for the first time publicly apologized for the monthslong delivery delay in American weapons that has been exploited by Russia to make advances in its war on his nation. Biden also reiterated the U.S. commitment to Ukraine, and announced announced another $225 million in aid to Kyiv. "I assure you the United States is going to stand with you," Biden told Zelenskyy. "We are still in, completely," he added. The one-on-one meeting between the leaders took place at Intercontinental Hotel in Paris a day after Biden made comparisons at ceremonies commemorating D-Day in Normany between the fight against the Nazis in World War II and Ukraine's battle for its homeland against Russia. Zelenskyy in turn appealed Friday for bipartisan support for Ukraine "like it was during World War II." Even as the men spoke Kyiv's army was under an intense onslaught in the north and the east. France also stepped up its commitment and aid to Ukraine. French President Eammnual Macron said Thursday France will provide Mirage combat aircraft to Ukraine, and and train a brigade of Ukrainian soldiers, NBC News reported. Zelenskyy has been desperately pushing for more help as his troops remain outnumbered and outgunned. Tensions, meanwhile, between Russia and Ukraine's NATO allies has soared with following the decision to allow Ukraine a limited use of Western weapons to strike military targets inside Russia. A furious Russian President Vladimir Putin has indicated that he could provide NATO enemies with long-range weapons to attack the West, and has again raised the specter of nuclear war. Fernando Alonso was fastest in second practice after Lando Norris topped the opening session on a day when rain dominated at the Canadian Grand Prix. As forecast, the weather limited the running during both sessions on Friday and meant conclusions over who has the edge this weekend were difficult to draw. Eager to get some running in after a wet first session, the drivers were out immediately for FP2 on slick tyres as light rain fell. "Everyone, Fernando is faster than you" Having the best time on slicks before the rain puts Alonso in P1, ahead of Russell and home hero Lance Stroll #F1 #CanadianGP pic.twitter.com/hQHmSMka64 Formula 1 (@F1) June 7, 2024 Charles Leclerc, winner in Monaco, came out on intermediate tyres, but race control quickly noted the Monegasque for tyre usage because the track had not been declared wet by the race director it was four minutes later and was called to see the stewards after the session. Ferrari were fined 5,000 euros (4,250) by the stewards. Canadian former world champion Jacques Villeneuve said on Sky Sports F1: At that level of racing, thats not the kind of mistake you can make. Its F1, its the pinnacle. Everyone has to be on top form. A groundhog regular visitors to the Canadian Grand Prix was narrowly avoided by Leclerc as Lewis Hamilton slammed on the brakes behind. Admin is pleased to report no groundhogs were hurt in this close on-track call pic.twitter.com/yLtsfuFyTZ Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) June 7, 2024 Hamilton was less forgiving when he had to leave the track to avoid Leclerc again at the final chicane, saying: These guys keep backing up in the final corner. Championship leader Max Verstappen returned to the pits with smoke coming from the back of his Red Bull and was forced to end his session early as his mechanics got to work. The timing sheets had chopped and changed amid the mixed conditions which had forced several drivers to leave the track but it was Aston Martins Alonso who stood atop the standings as the rain intensified and meant no quicker times would be posted. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in practice at the Canadian Grand Prix (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press via AP) George Russell was second for Mercedes ahead of Alonsos team-mate Lance Stroll. But, with Verstappen 18th and Lando Norris last, it is unlikely to be a true picture of performance heading into the weekend. Fridays second running was slightly calmer than the chaotic opening session. A thunderstorm hit the circuit just over an hour before first practice, with reports of fans being told to leave the grandstands on Montreals Ile Notre-Dame. Some took to social media to suggest that those fans queuing at the Metro station which feeds the island had been wrongly informed that the practice sessions had been cancelled. In fact the session began on time at 1330 in Montreal, albeit with the pit lane exit initially closed due to the huge amounts of standing water on a track which was relaid following last years grand prix. When cars eventually took to the circuit, Saubers Zhou Guanyu slid into the barriers on the exit of turn five, briefly bringing out a red flag, with Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas among the drivers to venture off track in the treacherous conditions. Max Verstappen was among the drivers to slide off track during the first practice session (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP) As the sun came out, Norris topped the charts ahead of Ferrari duo Carlos Sainz and Leclerc. Rain is forecast to play a part for both qualifying and the race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Third practice is at 1230 local time on Saturday followed by qualifying at 1600 (2100 BST). Voting under way in Ireland in three landmark elections Voters are continuing to head to the polls in Ireland as ballots are cast in three highly anticipated elections. Irish people are electing a swathe of new councillors as well as picking candidates to send to the European Parliament and, for the first time, some voters will be directly electing a mayor to represent them locally. The separate elections come at a febrile time in Irish politics dominated by discussion on a housing crisis, the cost of living and migration. The coalition partnership of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Green Party has been battling criticism domestically and on the continent over other issues including climate action, agriculture policy and defence co-operation in the EU. The eagerly awaited polls will provide political parties with concrete evidence of voter sentiment, having had to wait more than four years since the last nationwide elections. In the intervening years since the last general election, politicians have had to rely on newspaper opinion polls to gauge the mood of the nation. The main takeaway of the 2020 campaign was a massive upswing in support for Sinn Fein, which took away almost a quarter of the popular vote. To leader Mary Lou McDonalds regret, this was unrealised potential as the party was still left in opposition after failing to run a sufficient number of candidates in the parliamentary constituencies. Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald acknowledged she should have run more candidates in the last general election (Brian Lawless/PA) Since then, estimated support for Sinn Fein hovered above 30% for a long time even temporarily reaching highs of around 35%. However, opinion polls over the last eight months suggest that support for the party is on a dramatic slide as independents eat up more of the expected vote share. Many of the ballot papers across the elections contain a large number of independents with a variety of political leanings, several of whom have been described as anti-immigrant. For a protracted period of time, Ireland has continued to fail to provide accommodation for all asylum seekers. There have been several anti-migrant protests across the State and buildings earmarked to accommodate refugees have been damaged in suspected arson attacks. Also of note, Fine Gael appears to have had somewhat of a Harris hop in the polls following the shock resignation of Leo Varadkar as leader of the party earlier this year, leading to Simon Harris taking over that position as well as the role of Irish premier. Taoiseach Simon Harris votes at the polling station at Delgany National School in Co Wicklow (Grainne Ni Aodha/PA) The results of the three campaigns being decided on Friday may be instructive for the overall state of the parties and could potentially direct Mr Harris decision on when to call the next general election, which must be held by March next year. President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina cast their votes on Friday morning. The couple were greeted by staff at the polling station in Phoenix Park in Dublin. As he placed his ballot papers inside the box, Mr Higgins said: Sin e. (Thats it.) President of Republic of Ireland Michael D Higgins casts his vote in the local and European elections in Phoenix Park, Dublin(Niall Carson/PA) Meanwhile, the Taoiseach cast his votes early at Delgany National School in Co Wicklow ahead of a day of campaigning across the country. It is so important that people get out and vote, that they have their say, that they cast their ballots because of course if you dont turn up youre allowing someone else to speak on your behalf, Mr Harris told reporters at the voting centre in his home constituency. So polls are open to 10pm tonight, Id urge everybody to get out and have their say in what is a great exercise in democracy. We live in a healthy democracy and today is working proof of it. Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin at the partys launch of the European election campaign (Brian Lawless/PA) Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said today is the big day and said it was very important for people to use their vote. Speaking after casting her ballot at the polling station on Navan Road in Cabra, Dublin, Ms McDonald denied running too many candidates. No, we ran a great slate of candidates and they have all thoroughly enjoyed the campaign and (being) out and about meeting people. So today is the peoples day, please come out and vote. In south Dublin, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said there is no anti-government sentiment among the Irish public. As he cast his votes in Fridays elections at Muslim School Clonskeagh, Mr Ryan said there was a queue outside the door by 7am. Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said it was very important for people to use their vote (Niall Carson/PA) This is a Government thats working and my sense in the last few months canvassing is there isnt you know people they recognise the Government is working, Mr Ryan said. Theyre not happy with, rightly, a whole range of different things we need to do better. But you couldnt say out there that theres a strong anti-government sentiment. Well see if thats reflected in the count in the end. Across the island, millions of residents are eligible to vote in local elections. There are 31 local government bodies in Ireland. Each county and city council is divided into local electoral areas with a specified number of council seats to be filled in the election. In total, there are 166 electoral areas in Ireland and each of them elects a number of councillors. The number of councillors to be elected nationally is 949. Green Party leader Eamon Ryan reading his local-election manifesto (Brian Lawless/PA) These representatives are tasked with making policy decisions at local level including on planning and community development. At the same time, EU citizens registered in Ireland are eligible to vote for 14 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) across three varied constituencies: Dublin, South, and Midlands-North-West. The MEPs are responsible for debating EU-wide legislation and working on the budget for the bloc. The local and European elections are held every five years. In the south west of the country, voters in Limerick city and county have the opportunity to directly elect a mayor. From now on, this vote will also take place every five years. The successful candidate will be considered the regions first citizen and will have unique executive powers around long-term strategic planning, including measures on housing delivery, road infrastructure and environmental measures. They can serve a maximum of two terms, each lasting five years. Ballot boxes being prepared for the election (Brian Lawless/PA) There are 15 candidates vying for the new job which carries a salary of approximately 150,000 euro. Voting will come to an end at 10pm on Friday, but the results will take days to be finalised. The role is seen as a test case for further rollout at other local authorities in the future. Ballots in the local elections can begin to be sorted straight away on Saturday but results in the European election cannot be declared until after all EU states have finished polling which will not happen until late on Sunday night. Counting in the mayoral election is expected to begin on Monday. Even then, Ireland uses a system of proportional representation which allows voters to rank every candidate in each race by order of preference. Candidates must reach a certain quota of votes in order to be deemed elected. In the likely event that not enough candidates are above this threshold following the first count, hopefuls with the least amount of votes are eliminated and their votes are redistributed based on the further preferences on the ballot papers. The same occurs when a candidate is elected with a surplus of votes. It means the paper ballots in each election, which are filled out with pencil or pens, are sorted and counted multiple times by hand. The entire process can take days to complete. The importance of using your vote was the big theme from early on Friday as political leaders and punters headed to the ballot boxes in Ireland. Politicians emphasised the value of democracy and of the possible risk to it across Europe and one Irish minister said polling day was like crowning voters as king or queen for the day. Irish premier Simon Harris turned up to vote just minutes after polls opened in his locale in Co Wicklow to a gaggle of media and beaming polling station workers. Arriving just after 7am, the Taoiseach cast his vote in the local and European elections, Irelands first nationwide poll in four years. An early start, he said to a worker at the polling station in Delgany National School. Referencing former British premier Boris Johnson being turned away from a polling station in May because he did not have photo ID, Mr Harris added: And I brought my ID just so we dont have a Boris moment. Taoiseach Simon Harris headed out for 14 hours of canvassing shortly after voting (Grainne Ni Aodha/PA) He then shook hands with all of the polling station workers and spoke to the media about the importance of voting before heading off on what is being touted as a 14-hour canvass across the country. Right, Cork! he said as he marched towards the school car park. The elections are being viewed as a test of Mr Harris popularity, who became leader of Fine Gael and of the coalition government in Ireland just eight weeks ago. Green party leader Eamon Ryan voted as polls opened for Irelands local and European elections (Cillian Sherlock/PA) Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, who has been in government with Fine Gael and Fianna Fail since 2020, wouldnt divulge whether he gave his coalition partners a preference on the ballot paper. The privacy of the ballot box will be retained, he cautioned a reporter who asked. Mr Ryan said he was hopeful of a high turnout and had been told there was a queue outside his local polling stations door at 7am. We dont have a king or queen, we decide who governs and the expression of that sovereignty is in the vote. That is not a small act, he said. When you vote, youre king, youre queen for the day. So I hope theres a big turnout, thats the most important thing. In Phoenix Park, Irish President Michael D Higgins arrived at his local polling station with his wife Sabina to cast their votes. Sabina Higgins asked an official at the polling station whether they have been busy, to which she responded not really. Meanwhile, as Mr Higgins posed for pictures, he said: How well you are all looking, I must say. Looking forward to summer. After placing his ballot papers in the box, Mr Higgins said: Sin e. (Thats it.) Irish unity is the best way of restoring Northern Irelands position within the European Union, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has said. Mr Eastwood said that while he did not consider the unity debate to be an election issue, he did believe it was important as an aspiration while dealing with immediate challenges. The SDLP leader addressed a New Ireland Commission event in Belfast on Friday as elections were taking place to the European Parliament. The commission was set up by the SDLP to facilitate discussions on the possibilities of a united Ireland. A majority of people in Northern Ireland voted remain in the Brexit referendum in 2016, which saw the UK vote to leave the European Union. Mr Eastwood addressed the New Ireland Commission event in Belfast (Jonathan McCambridge/PA) Mr Eastwood said: It is the same day the European elections are happening right across the European continent and on another part of this island. We are making the point that we have been dragged out of the European Union against our will and we would like to get back there as soon as possible. We have a prescription for that which, in the long term, is to build a new Ireland where we are part of the European Union. It has been a real tragedy and travesty that we have been dragged out of it. We hope that a new Labour government will bring us closer to Europe but we are very aware that the best way to get properly back into the European Union, to get all those benefits, is by developing and creating a new Ireland over time. Mr Eastwood said that a united Ireland also had to be a reconciled Ireland. He said: The process of building that is a process of reconciliation. It is about setting out a plan to have better economic outcomes, for lifting people out of poverty, for having a health service that actually works. This place is in a very bad state and we think there is a better way. With the General Election looming, Mr Eastwood said the united Ireland discussion was one for the long term and the medium term. He said: We cant let today pass where we know that electors all across Europe are electing to the European Parliament and our voice is not going to be heard. A new Labour government will bring us closer hopefully to Europe but there is no British government that will bring us as close to Europe as actually being part of Europe, part of the European Union. That inevitably means building towards a new Ireland, that is a long-term conversation but it is one that we should have. Is it an election issue? Probably not. But it doesnt mean just because we have immediate priorities that we cant also have a vision for the future. Mr Eastwood told the event that his party was having discussions with unionists over the future of Northern Ireland. He said: Those people who tell me that unionists arent involved in this conversation about the future, I can tell you, they are wrong because they are talking to us and we are listening to them. The opportunity that this place has is massive and I dont believe that people from a unionist background arent interested in the future. I dont believe they are not interested in trying to make our health outcomes better or our economy better. Look at the economic stats in the north compared to the economic stats in the south. Is it a panacea? Absolutely not, but for us the opportunity that exists and the conversation and the build-up to creating a new Ireland is actually about ending division on this island. Claire Hanna addressing the event in Belfast on Friday (Jonathan McCambridge/PA) The event was also addressed by Claire Hanna, the partys candidate in Belfast South and Mid Down at the election. She said: We know that it isnt a quick route back into Europe, but it is there for the taking and we are the party and the movement to get that in place. Labour is set to promise to pull up the shutters for small businesses as it unveils a series of entrepreneur-friendly policies on Saturday. Appearing alongside shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves and other shadow cabinet ministers, Sir Keir Starmer is expected to accuse the Conservatives of holding back small businesses as he unveils his partys plans for the sector. Those plans include an overhaul of the business rates system to help high street shops compete with online giants and guaranteeing access to high street banking services by accelerating the establishment of banking hubs. Labour will also pledge to stamp out late payment of invoices by forcing large businesses to report on their payment practices, and revitalise high streets by cracking down on antisocial behaviour. Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves (Lucy North/PA) Ahead of Saturdays event, Sir Keir said: Travelling across the country, I meet so many small business owners who work day in, day out to grow and innovate. Their entrepreneurial courage to take a risk and serve their area is what stitches the fabric of local communities together. From the women entrepreneurs I met in Swindon to the distillers of Scotland, small businesses are the beating heart of driving growth and creating jobs for local people. But Conservative chaos over the past 14 years has inflicted a deep and lasting cost on small business owners through economic instability and sky-rocketing energy bills. Through no fault of their own, hard-working small businesses have been held back by a tired Tory party that has failed to provide the stability and certainty business needs to thrive. Labour first put forward its plan to breathe new life into Britains high streets in April, drawing approval from trade bodies for its proposed overhaul of the business rates system. But it is not yet clear what Labour would replace business rates with, leading some to call for more clarity on the policy. Tina McKenzie, policy chair at the Federation of Small Businesses, said it was good to see late payment addressed by Labour and eyes would now turn towards its manifesto launch to see if the party takes a pro-small business approach. She said: Our snap election poll shows that the majority of the UKs 5.5 million small business votes are up for grabs. Ms McKenzie added: As the election gets into its final stage, its crucial political parties reassure small businesses on tax, on protecting small business apprenticeships, and on having the right legislative environment to support growth. Business minister Kevin Hollinrake said: Labour remain committed to imposing Angela Rayners French-style union laws that would hammer our vital small businesses. Labours policies would reduce flexible working and pile new regulations onto small companies, destroying jobs alongside their 2,094 tax raid on hardworking families. Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives have a record of taking bold action to support small businesses, including freezing business rates, helping small business owners gain the skills they need, and lifting more small businesses out of paying VAT. A man who shot up a cinema complex and a shop with an AK-47 machine gun has been jailed for 14 years. Leslie Garrett began his rampage around 7.30pm on January 3, by entering an off licence and firing the gun at the counter before heading to the Western Approaches pub in the Norris Green area of Liverpool. While there he had a drink, chatted to customers and showed two men the assault rifle in the back of his Ford Focus, Liverpool Crown Court heard. The father-of-one then left for the Showcase Cinema nearby, where he had worked as a security guard for several years before being sacked for drinking on the job. The 49-year-old, from Ternhall Road, Fazakerley, went inside and pointed the gun at a member of staff before being followed outside by the current security guard where he fired off a round of shots. The cinema went into lockdown as armed police were scrambled to the scene but Garrett fled in his car at speed. Police later recovered 12 bullet casings from the scene. Next, Garrett, who the court heard had earlier that day drunk one and a half bottles of rum, went to his girlfriends address and fired another round of shots, leaving the gun under a mattress at the property. Garrett was arrested hours later when armed police descended on his mothers house. The defendant, agitated and aggressive was Tasered and taken into custody. Nobody was injured during any of the incidents. Police recovered the rifle and found it had been firing live rounds and was a Czech-made AK-47-style military weapon, which had been fired 17 times that night. Garrett, the court heard, was one of seven siblings, who had witnessed his brother being run over and killed and at aged nine or 10 had witnessed a murder, leading to trauma in his later life. He claimed he had been paid 300 to look after a bag of items, which he agreed to do, and later found out the bag contained the gun and ammunition. Garrett, at an earlier hearing, pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, attempt robbery and possession of ammunition without a certificate. Judge David Aubrey KC jailed the defendant for 14 years. Assistant Chief Constable Andy Ryan of Merseyside Police, said: Although nobody was injured during that evening, the reckless actions of Leslie Garrett obviously caused a great deal of fear in the local community. A huge policing plan was put in place and Garrett was located and detained by our officers. The firearm he used, along with a quantity of ammunition, was also recovered, which means it cannot be used to cause further fear or concern in our communities. Although Garretts intentions are not clear, he admitted the offences and will now spend a considerable amount of time behind bars because of his actions on that night. Firearms have no place on the streets of Merseyside. We are committed to removing them from our streets and I would encourage anyone who has information about who is using weapons or where they are being stored to contact us so we can take immediate action. More than 11,000 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year after crossing the Channel. Home Office figures show 316 people made the journey in five boats on Thursday, the same day around 80 were rescued when they got into difficulty during the crossing. The latest crossings mean 647 people have already arrived in four days this week, taking the provisional total for 2024 to 11,095. (PA Graphics) This is up 46% on the number recorded this time last year (7,610) and 11% higher than the same point in 2022 (9,984), according to PA news agency analysis of the figures. More than 1,000 arrivals have now been recorded since the General Election was called on May 22 (1,213), with immigration a key campaign battleground. In the last six and a half years as the recent migrant crisis unfolded, 125,440 people have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel, data recorded since the start of 2018 shows. Some 80,459 people have made the journey since the Government struck the stalled deal to send migrants to Rwanda in April 2022. The tally of crossings since Rishi Sunak, who pledged to stop the boats, became Prime Minister in October that year now stands at 48,158. Three children, including a baby, were reportedly among those brought ashore to safety after the incident off the Kent coast on Thursday morning which saw the coastguard and lifeboat crews called to help Border Force. Some of those rescued are thought to have been pulled from the water after their boat is said to have capsized. No deaths or serious injuries were reported and no-one was taken to hospital, PA understands. The coastguard later confirmed the search had ended with all people accounted for and back on land. The figures suggest there was an average of 63 people crossing the Channel to the UK per boat on Thursday. Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock accused Mr Sunak of making false claims on cutting the number of migrant arrivals, branding it a desperate attempt to pull the wool over voters eyes. Under Rishi Sunak and the Tories, the number of small boat crossings in the Channel just keeps on going up, he added as he claimed Labour had a comprehensive plan to curb crossings. A Home Office spokesman said: We continue to work closely with our French partners to prevent crossings and save lives. A woman claiming to have inspired Richard Gadds hit TV series Baby Reindeer is seeking at least 170 million dollars (133 million) in a lawsuit filed against Netflix. Fiona Harvey has accused the streaming platform of defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, gross negligence, and violations of her right of publicity in the lawsuit filed at the Californian federal court. It comes after she claimed to be the inspiration behind the character of Martha Scott, who stalks Gadds character Donny Dunn after he serves her a free cup of tea in the pub where he works. Fiona Harvey appearing in an interview on the Piers Morgan Uncensoreds YouTube channel (Piers Morgan Uncensored/TalkTV) The show is said to be based on the real-life experiences of comedian and writer Gadd. After the show aired, he asked viewers not to speculate over the real people who inspired the series. In the new lawsuit, Harvey has accused Netflix of spreading brutal lies, including that she is a twice convicted stalker who was sentenced to five years in prison. Defendants told these lies, and never stopped, because it was a better story than the truth, and better stories made money, it states. As a result of defendants lies, malfeasance and utterly reckless misconduct, Harveys life had been ruined. The court documents allege Netflix did literally nothing to confirm that the story represented was true, stating that Harvey has never been convicted of any crime and has never been to prison. A statement from Netflix said: We intend to defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadds right to tell his story. The lawsuit seeks actual damages and compensatory damages at 50 million dollars (39 million) each; punitive damages at 20 million dollars (16 million); as well as all profits from Baby Reindeer at 50 million dollars (39 million). A representative for Gadd has been contacted for comment. Luke Sinnott has been testing on British Airways and TUI simulators - Corin Messer/BNPS An Afghanistan veteran is on course to become the first pilot without legs since Sir Douglas Bader. Learning how to fly became a hobby for Luke Sinnott after he lost his legs above the knee in an explosion in Afghanistan in 2010. But the British para-athlete has since obtained his private pilots licence and is now training for a commercial certificate, which would allow him to fly passenger jets. He would become the first commercial pilot without legs since Bader, who became a double amputee when he crashed his plane just 18 months after being commissioned as an officer in the Royal Air Force (RAF). Bader earned legendary status by leading the RAFs 242 squadron in the Second World War and plotting to escape as a prisoner of war, leading to his famous maxim: A disabled person who fights back is not disabled but inspired. He overcame predictions from doctors that he would never walk again by walking on metal alloy prosthetic legs within six months of the crash, and now Mr Sinnott is benefiting from far more advanced technology. SIr Douglas Bader led the RAF's 242 squadron in the Second World War - David Cole / Alamy Stock Photo Mr Sinnott, 43, has revolutionary prosthetic knee sockets that allow him to control the foot pedals for the rudder and brakes of a 100-tonne jet aircraft while handling the steering column. The legs also have small-sized feet to give him more room on the pedals and allow for more range of movement. Just like Bader, the father of three has had to prove to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) that having no legs is not a hindrance to him in the cockpit. He has been put through a series of tough tests in flight simulators for British Airways and TUI, the holiday package flight operator. Having passed his class 1 medical with the CAA, he is now starting 12 months of training to fly commercially, as well as also training for the Paralympics in Paris where he hopes to represent Britain in the long jump. After I joined the Army I wanted to fly Apache helicopters. I was due to start training up after the tour where I got injured, Mr Sinnott, who lives in the New Forest, Hants, said. I thought that avenue was closed off to me and I never imagined I would fly again. After recovering from his injuries he was given a taste of flying through the charity Aerobility, which offers disabled veterans experiences in light-aircrafts that are adapted for them. Mr Sinnott said: I started doing more flying and realised maybe there was a way that I could adapt to the aircraft with my legs rather than the other way around because it is really hard to fly an aircraft normally without legs. He then started working with another flying charity, Wings For Warriors, which trains wounded servicemen as professional pilots to give them a future career after the military. Luke Sinnott will compete in the long jump for GB in Paris this summer - Action Images via Reuters/Henry Browne A private prosthetic company named Dorset Orthopaedics initially helped him with his running blades, before Steve Cox, a prosthetist there, began studying him in a flight simulator to understand how he could fly again. He trialled hi-tech Ottobock Genium X3 microprocessor knees which have been programmed and set up to help him fly a plane. Luke had some very uncomfortable fixed legs but we thought there could be some improvements to the whole set up to help his ability to control an aircraft safely and effectively, Mr Cox said. He added: The microprocessor knees have some movement and can bend and set the angles and help Luke press pedals evenly. The feat closely echoes that of Bader who is still hailed as one of Britains best aviators after he shot down 23 enemy aircraft as a fighter ace in the Battle of Britain. After the war he became a commercial pilot for the oil company Shell. Bade died aged 72 in 1982. Paul Brickhill, who authored the flying aces biography, wrote in 2018 that he was the living embodiment of the RAF motto, Per ardua ad astra (Through adversity to the stars). Laura Jones portrait of Tim Winton, which has won the 2024 Archibald prize. Photograph: Jenni Carter/Art Gallery of NSW Laura Jones has won the 2024 Archibald prize for her portrait of the Australian author Tim Winton. Announced at the Art Gallery of New South Wales on Friday, the winning work was chosen unanimously by the judges from 1,005 entries and 57 finalists. Jones is just the 12th woman to win the prize since the Archibald started in 1921. Related: Archibald prize 2024 finalists: Julian Assange, Tony Armstrong, Chloe Hayden and more in pictures Accepting Australias oldest and most celebrated portraiture prize, the artist said she grew up studying Wintons novel Cloudstreet, which had enchanted generations of Australians. I hope that my painting reminds everyone what an incredible and inspiring human being [Winton] is, said Jones, who first met the writer in 2017 at an environmental advocacy event, where they spoke about our shared love of the environment. Jones added: He has worked so hard to save Ningaloo Reef and he said about Ningaloo that its a place that could teach us how to get things right. Winton was not present at the ceremony, but had called to congratulate Jones on Friday morning. He made a joke that he thought he looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and he does. We all do and I hope that we can all unite for the environment, Jones said. The AGNSW director, Michael Brand, praised Joness portrait for its sensitivity and ability to convey a strong connection between the artist and the sitter. Lauras bold but tender depiction of Tims face captures his vulnerability, while his figure melds into the background of wonderful watery brushstrokes, Brand said in a statement. He is very present in the painting, making it a most deserving winner. As only the 12th woman to win the Archibald prize, Jones said: As a little girl in Kurrajong, I dreamed about being an artist. Ive been lucky enough to make that dream come true. More than any other event today shows that I wasnt completely crazy. The $100,000 prize is awarded to the best portrait of a person distinguished in art, letters, science or politics painted by an Australian resident and has been running since 1921. The Archibald prize is announced each year alongside the $50,000 Wynne prize for landscape painting and figurative sculpture, and the $40,000 Sulman prize for genre, subject and mural painting. A record 2,371 entries were received across the three prizes this year, with the highest number of First Nations entrants in both the Archibald and Wynne categories ever recorded. More than half of the artists hung across all three categories were first-time finalists. Also announced on Friday, Pitjantjatjara artist Naomi Kantjuriny won the $40,000 Sulman prize for genre, subject and mural painting, for her work Minyma mamu tjuta. The painting depicts mamu, which are a form of spirit. Kantjuriny could not travel to the AGNSW to receive her prize, but in a statement she said she was so happy and paid tribute to Tjala Arts, the art centre in Amata where she works. The story of the mamu is a story we sing and dance to. Mamu are good and bad spirits, sometimes they hold scary stories that teach lessons to the grandkids, sometimes they are funny and joyful stories that make us all laugh. Mamu also protect us from illness and danger. Our culture is in everything we do, and I hope culture will be celebrated at Tjala Arts forever, but today is a happy day, she added. Artist Djakau Yunupiu won the $50,000 Wynne prize for landscape painting and figurative sculpture for her painting Nyalala gurmilili, painted with natural pigments on bark. The painting depicts miwatj, or sunrise side in Yolu Matha, which is the first light that reaches north-eastern Arnhem Land as the sun rises. Yunupiu, a Yolu elder based in Yirrkala in the Northern Territory, was also not present at the AGNSW but said in a recorded message: I am one of seven sisters. There are only three of us left now. The songs of this painting were given to me by our father, Mugurrawuy. It shows the songs of the seven sisters in the stars crying. Now I am crying. But this time with happiness. Related: How to win the Archibald prize: what 100 years of data tells us Last week the Victorian artist Matt Adnate collected the $3,000 packing room prize selected by gallery staff who hang the paintings for his portrait of Indigenous rapper Baker Boy. All three exhibitions will go on public display at the AGNSW from 8 June, with visitors invited to vote for the $5,000 Peoples Choice award, to be announced on 8 August. The 138 finalists across all three prizes will be exhibited at the AGNSW from 8 June to 8 September, before going on tour to selected regional areas in NSW and the NT. More than 10 tons of trash, four bodies and one skeleton have been removed from Mount Everest and other Himalayan mountains during the annual cleanup by the Nepalese army, according to a report. The collection of rubbish and corpses from Everest, Nuptse and Lhotse mountains took 55 days, the BBC reported on Thursday. An annual sprucing up of the peaks began in 2019 because of safety and overcrowding concerns among climbers lining up to reach the summit of the world's tallest mountain - 29,302 feet. In all, the five cleanups have cleared the mountains of 119 tons of trash, 14 corpses and some skeletons, the report said. Estimates put the number of bodies on Everest at more than 200. The Nepalese government will begin having mountain rangers monitor the amount of garbage and allocate more money to its collection, Nepal's Department of Tourism director of mountaineering Rakesh Gurung told the BBC. More than 600 people climbed the mountain this spring season, the government said. Eight hikers died or went missing this year. Leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage smiles as he arrives at the BBC studio in London Nigel Farages Reform party currently polls as the third largest, well ahead of the Lib Dems and Greens, and just a smidgen behind the governing Tories. So why has the BBC placed him on the far left edge of tonights debate line up, like he doesnt matter? Did the leaders draw lots for positioning? If not, and given that Penny Mordaunt for the Government is also marginalised out on the far right, the BBCs positioning looks bizarre. And that brings us to the audience, which at times appeared not to include a single Reform supporter, willing to applaud Farage. Given that some polls say that nearly one in five voters are planning to back Reform, this relative absence of support seemed odd too. Meanwhile, despite the debate taking place in England, the leaders of the nationalist SNP and Plaid Cymru, from Scotland and Wales, were getting plenty of audience encouragement. Where on earth did tonights audience come from? We can forgive such sentiment with Have I got News For You, but this is slightly more serious. Farage, of course, was not disturbed by these oddities, which isnt surprising as hes faced similar treatment throughout his career. He knows full well that its the watching TV audience that really counts, not the handful of people willing to give up their Friday evening to sit in a TV studio. But given that the BBC has had to apologise in the last few days after one of its newsreaders inexcusably broke its code of impartiality and described Farage as using customary inflammatory language, we should keep our eyes and ears open for how our national broadcaster chooses to present politicians. A D-Day veteran stands to watch a fly-past by the Royal Air Force aerobatics team, "The Red Arrows" as they pass over a D-Day 80th anniversary concert in Portsmouth. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images Twenty-two British D-day veterans, the youngest nearly 100, crossed the Channel on Tuesday to mark this weeks 80th anniversary of the landings in Normandy, representing a thinning thread to the heroics of two or three generations ago when about 150,000 allied soldiers began a seaborne invasion of western Europe that helped end the second world war. Ron Hayward, a tank trooper who lost his legs fighting in France three weeks after D-day, told crowds assembled in Portsmouth on Wednesday why he and other soldiers were there: I represent the men and women who put their lives on hold to go and fight for democracy and this country. I am here to honour their memory and their legacy, and to ensure that their story is never forgotten. There will not be many more opportunities to commemorate with survivors, while this time the presence of Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in France on 6 June will be a reminder that a part of Europe is in the grip of the largest war since 1945. A deadly war also rages in Gaza, while the living memory of the second world war fades into historical record. That D-day was a risky task is an understatement: 4,441 British, American, Canadian and other allied soldiers are estimated to have been killed on 6 June 1944, and at least a similar number of Germans. One BBC documentary, D-day: the Unheard Tapes, relying on recordings of veterans experiences, demonstrates how terrifying the experience was and how nobody ought to go through it again. Related: It is gradually dying away: D-day veteran keeps story alive 80 years on I just cried my eyes out. I just stood there and cried, I did, James Kelly, a Royal Marines commando from Liverpool, recalled of finding himself isolated, alone in the French countryside, a few hours after he had managed to fight his way off Sword beach. A buddy had been killed in front of him as they had got to the sand, blood pumping out of his neck, but Kelly had been ordered to press on. While leaders present at Thursdays commemorations in Normandy King Charles, Rishi Sunak, Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz will strike appropriate notes, many of those representing forces of division will not be present, not least Vladimir Putin, the architect of the invasion on Ukraine. On Friday, Biden is due to speak at Pointe du Hoc, where 80 years ago 225 US Rangers scaled 35-metre sheer cliffs using rope ladders shot over the top to capture a strategically situated artillery bunker. It was perhaps the most dangerous single mission on D-day, and casualties were severe. Only 90 were still able to fight when a count was taken a couple of days later. There is almost certainly another reason for the location of Bidens address, given the US president has an election to fight. Forty years ago a Republican president, Ronald Reagan, spoke on the cliffs at the same battle site, and in front of an audience of military veterans he justified the struggle of the day in terms not obviously recognisable in Donald Trumps Republican worldview. We in America have learned bitter lessons from two world wars: it is better to be here ready to protect the peace than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost, Reagan declared very different to Trumps comments that he would refuse to defend Nato members who do not spend enough on defence, never mind previous threats to quit the alliance altogether. Related: Courage and solidarity: King Charles pays tribute to veterans of D-day Two years of headline news about Ukraine but also the conflict in Gaza, so deadly for civilians, and elsewhere in the Middle East is a reminder that there are those who appear to prefer conflict to stability. Quietly, many people are a little anxious: one recent poll, from YouGov, reports that 55% of Britons believe it is somewhat or very likely that the UK will be involved in a war in the next five years. Since the end of the cold war at least, and perhaps since 1945, it has been easier to take stability and security in Europe for granted, helped partly by the military pact of Nato and the economic alliance of the EU, but also by the grim memory of all-out conflict. But a rise of nationalist, country-first rhetoric suggests there is also a growing carelessness. If it metastasises, as the stories of D-day survivors demonstrate, ordinary people end up bearing the brunt. Matthew Croucher, a former Lance Corporal who received the George Cross for bravery in Afghanistan, was arrested in November - Steve Parsons/PA A former Royal Marine who was arrested in Dubai and accused of spying has been cleared and will be allowed to leave the country, according to local authorities. Matthew Croucher, a former Lance Corporal, was arrested last November in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after accessing a public facility using illegal means of technology, Dubai authorities said on Friday. No further details were provided regarding the accusations against Mr Croucher, who has been working as a security consultant based in the UK. The case was referred to the Dubai Public Prosecution, and after thorough investigation, the evidence was found to be inadequate, said the Dubai media office, a government agency in the UAE. The case was dismissed and Croucher is now free to leave the UAE. The decision highlights the Dubai Public Prosecutions commitment to upholding the rule of law, the statement added. Lance Corporal Matt Croucher in 2010 with the George Cross he received for his work in Afghanistan - Ian West/PA After being arrested last year, the authorities held Mr Croucher for four days in jail, then confiscated his passport and banned him from leaving the country. While in jail, he was interrogated by Dubai police for six hours, and reportedly asked about his role within the UKs Ministry of Defence and intelligence services. He was also required to report to Al Barsha police station each week. Mr Crouchers family denied the allegations, saying that they were shocked at the circumstances which have played out. We believe the case to be made up and ridiculous. The Foreign Office has been useless, often making things worse and telling him his case has been formally concluded. This has caused our family immense stress and we just hope this can be concluded at the earliest opportunity. Received the George Cross Mr Croucher, 40, received the George Cross Britains second-highest decoration after he threw himself on a grenade in Afghanistan to protect his fellow soldiers. The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office did not immediately reply to a request for a comment about Mr Croucher being allowed to leave the UAE. Earlier, a UK Foreign Office spokesman said: We are supporting a British man in the UAE and are in contact with the local authorities. Geert Wilders declared his hard-Right party the biggest winner of the election - LEWIS MACDONALD/REUTERS The hard-Right appeared to falter in the first vote of the EU elections as exit polls showed a Left-wing coalition winning the top spot in the Netherlands. Results will formally be announced on Sunday evening but the expected victory by the Dutch Green and Labour parties has come as an early boost in the fight against the predicted hard-Right surge across the bloc. The so-called GroenLinks-PvdA coalition is led by Labours Frans Timmermans, who has been dubbed the EUs climate pope, and the Greens Bas Eickhout. The coalition will win eight of the Netherlands 31 seats in the European parliament, according to the exit poll, compared to seven due to be picked up by Geert Wilders far-Right Freedom Party. The rest of the seats are expected to be scattered across the political spectrum, with the Dutch farmers party forecast to have elected two MEPs for the first time. The narrative of the rise of the far-Right has been beaten in the Netherlands. Of course, its still tight, but we have won, a progressive coalition has won in the Netherlands. So really this is a good example and this is the message to the rest of Europe: go out to vote, Mr Eickhout told the Euractiv news website. The forecast did not discourage Mr Wilders, whose party won the recent Dutch national elections, given he only had a sole representative in the EU parliament after the 2019 ballot. Biggest winner He declared his Freedom party the biggest winner, adding: And super exciting because we can still become the biggest when the final results are announced on Sunday. The exit polls were said to have a margin of error by up to one seat per party. The high score appears to fit the trend that nationalist and populist parties are set to make gains when the rest of the bloc votes on Saturday and Sunday. Marine Le Pens French Rassemblement National, is expected to be the largest national delegation in the parliament. Ahead of his countrys vote on Sunday, French president Emmanuel Macron has warned the EU could be blocked by a large contingent of far-Right parties. If France sends a very big far-Right delegation, if other countries do this, Europe could be blocked, he told French television. Because what is a Europe where the extreme Right is strong? We must on June 9 fight to defend those who fight for Europe, because Europe protects us. Mr Macrons centrist party is expected to win only half the number of votes of Mrs Le Pens party, according to polling. Come on, go vote on 9 June, it is very important. I say this because I always think back to our British friends who did not go to vote on Brexit day. Not going to vote is leaving the future of our continent and our country to others, the French president added. boundary changes for UK elections Constituency boundaries will see their largest shake up in a generation at the general election as millions of households will be effected by dramatic changes to the political map. Some 2.9 million people would have been represented by an MP of a different party had the new boundaries been in play in 2019, analysis by The Telegraph shows. As the country gears up for the election on July 4, find out whether boundary changes have pushed you into a new political area and this might impact your vote. Why is my constituency changing? Respective boundary commissions in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are required to carry out reviews every five years. These are done to ensure that populations across the countrys 650 constituencies remain consistent, ensuring areas are not over or under-represented in Parliament as demographics change over time. Around 76 constituencies will be increased in size when the country heads to the polls on July 4, while 73 will be reduced. Just 105 of the 150 areas will see little or no change compared to the last election. Meanwhile, around one in three constituencies will be split into three or more new areas. These include Stone, a Staffordshire constituency held by the Conservative Sir Bill Cash since 1997, which will be split into five constituencies and Ogmore, a Labour-held constituency in South Wales, which will also be broken up into three new areas. Analysis from the Press Association shows that, had the 2019 election been held within the new boundaries, the Conservatives would have secured a 94-seat majority. This was 14-seats higher than the 80-seat majority gained with the old boundaries. What will boundary changes mean for the 2024 election? The changes mean Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, will have to achieve a swing of 12.7 points from the Conservatives larger than the 10.2-point swing Tony Blair achieved in his 1997 landslide. Despite this, around 1.9 million people have been moved into new constituencies where Labours vote share was estimated to be at least 10 points higher than in their previous constituencies. This includes over 24,000 in the constituency of Meriden, where the Labour vote share was 29 per cent in 2019. Because of the boundary changes, this group will now be in Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North, where Labour is estimated to have 60 per cent of the vote. On the other hand, around 1.7 million people are moved into far more Conservative areas, with a vote share 10 points higher than their old constituency. Around 71,600 voters in Labour-held Batley and Spen, for example, are moving into the new Spen Valley constituency. These voters will therefore move from an area that voted Labour in 2019 but would have voted Conservative under the new borders. British veterans attend the ceremony of field marshal, Bernard Law Montgomery, in Colleville. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images At the dying of the day, as dark descended across the beaches of Normandy, where the blood of so many thousands was spilled 80 years ago, each of the headstones of the 4,600 men lying in the Bayeux war cemetery was lit up aglow. King Charles, in his first significant pronouncement since his cancer diagnosis in February, had spoken earlier in Portsmouth of the eternal debt owed to the 10,000 casualties who had embarked from Englands south coast with the awesome task of replacing tyranny with freedom. The king, with undisguised emotion, had told of the liberty won at such terrible cost, but, to the discomfort of some of those now well into their late 90s or older, it is not the dead who are at the centre of the D-day commemorations in England and Normandy this year. A total of 156,115 men landed in Normandy in the early hours of 6 June 1944, but French officials estimate that a mere 200 veterans, mostly Americans but also British and Canadians, have returned to the scene of battle this time. The Royal British Legion brought 20 veterans back to the beaches, compared with the 255 in 2019 for the 75th commemorations. Each of the events in England and northern France has been curated in the knowledge that this is likely to be the final opportunity to hear the testimony of those who were there, and to thank them in person. Im not a hero. It is the ones who did not come back who were the heroes, said Ken Cooke, 98, who as an 18-year-old stepped on to Gold beach at 7.45am. His protestations were politely put to one side. The breezy but sun-kissed day the vast allied armada of vessels and the daring airborne troops had been launched in much harsher conditions at the Nazi defences in northern France in 1944 had started with a direct tribute to the veterans on Southsea common. The king said: At this remove, eight decades later, it is a near impossible task to imagine the emotion of that day: the pride of being part of so great an enterprise, the anxiety of in some way not coming up to scratch, and the fear of that day being their last. I recently myself spoke to veterans who, to this day, remember with such heartbreaking clarity the sight of those many soldiers lying on the beach, who drowned before they could even engage in combat. The stories of courage, resilience and solidarity which we have heard today, and throughout our lives, cannot fail to move us, to inspire us, and to remind us of what we owe to that great wartime generation now, tragically, dwindling to so few. The allied invasion of Normandy was and remains the largest amphibious assault ever carried out. More than 75,000 British, Canadian, and other Commonwealth troops landed on the beaches alongside the United States and the Free French. Another 7,900 British troops landed by air with the support of more than 7,000 ships and smaller vessels. The king went on: Those who gathered here in Portsmouth would never forget the sight. It was by far the largest military fleet the world has ever known. Yet all knew that both victory and failure were possible, and none could know their fate. After musical performances, including of songs made famous by Vera Lynn, and flypasts by two historic Dakota military transport aircraft and the Red Arrows, the king, the queen and the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, met 21 veterans, among them Roy Hayward, 98, who served as a reserve tank crewman and landed on Gold beach. They asked me how I got on and how I had my legs blown off, he said. I lost both of my legs, but thats nothing in comparison with what happened to other people and thats always the attitude Ive had. Of the commemorations, he added: It made me feel reminiscent and it has made me think of all the people who didnt come back. In Normandy, the main events will be held on Thursday at the British Normandy memorial outside the village of Ver sur Mer overlooking Gold beach and then at Omaha beach, the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting, where an international commemoration will be attended by the US president, Joe Biden, and Ukraines Volodymyr Zelenskiy, among others. The significance of the invitation to the Ukrainian president was made all the clearer by Emmanuel Macron during a visit to the village of Plumelec, in Brittany, on Wednesday, where he saluted the bravery of the Free French paratroopers who landed there. Related: D-Day events and rescued bears: photos of the day Wednesday The French president said he was sure todays youth were ready for the same spirit of sacrifice as its elders. As the dangers mount, you remind us that we are ready to consent to the same sacrifices to defend what is most dear to us, he said. No Russian representative has been invited to the commemorative events this year due to Vladimir Putins full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It is not clear whether Macron had been made aware that a criminal investigation had been ordered just hours earlier after the local mayor discovered that all the tricolore flags had been stolen from the village overnight by a Breton separatist group. It had also been necessary to quickly tidy up a bus shelter on which someone had scrawled, Brittany is not for sale, Macron, stay out of Brittany and Here it is not France. There was no such trouble in Bayeux, however, where 1,000 people, including veterans and the princess royal, paid tribute at the war cemetery and the towns cathedral. A reading was heard of an account by JH Patterson, a medical officer from No 4 Commando, who had landed on Sword beach in the initial assault. Troops, man your boats, came over the loudhailer, Patterson wrote. My hands grew numb and my teeth were chattering with cold and fright. It was H-hour and the first infantry were going in. Private Hindmarch was beside me and Sapper Mullen. He died of his wounds later that day. And Lt Kennedy, looking grim but enjoying his rum. Just as well, as he was never seen again after leaving the boat. Rishi Sunak, the Queen, the King and Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron during the wreath-laying ceremony at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer - Gareth Fuller/Getty Images Europe Labour has accused Rishi Sunak of a dereliction of duty after he gave a TV interview about the election while missing a major international ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day. The Prime Minister sat down with ITV on Thursday to defend claims he had made about Sir Keir Starmers tax plans, having left commemoration events in Normandy before a gathering of the world leaders on Omaha Beach. He had spoken earlier in the programme to pay tribute to veterans but returned to Britain before the ceremony was over, while his rival Sir Keir remained alongside Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron and the Prince of Wales. It later emerged that Mr Sunak had given a broadcast interview in the afternoon or evening, a clip of which was shared by broadcaster Paul Brand. Mr Brand told ITV News at Ten: Today was the slot we were offered ... we dont know why. Shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth said: The Prime Minister skipping off early from D-Day commemorations to record a television interview where he once again lied through his teeth is both an embarrassment and a total dereliction of duty. Our country deserves so much better than out-of-touch, desperate Rishi Sunak and his chaotic Tory Party. Earlier, Nigel Farage has criticised Mr Sunak for leaving D-Day commemorations early to return to his general election campaign. Nigel Farage meets D-Day re-enactors on Arromanches beach - Paul Grover for The Telegraph The Prime Minister missed the gathering of world leaders for the 80th anniversary of the landings on Omaha Beach on Thursday afternoon, sending Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, and Lord Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, in his place. On Thursday morning, he addressed an audience at the UKs national commemoration event in Normandy, telling veterans: We owe you everything. Mr Farage, the Reform UK leader, said: The Prime Minister has ducked out of the international D-Day event to fly back to the UK to campaign. I am here in Normandy in a personal capacity because I think it matters. Does he? Speaking to The Telegraph in Normandy, he said he was making TikTok videos throughout the day to educate young people about D-Day and had travelled to the beaches many times to pay his respects. Im outputting a lot of coverage on TikTok, because the fact that a Royal British Legion poll showed that 52 per cent of 18 to 34-year-olds have never heard of D-Day I think is appalling and a complete failure of the educational system, he said. So Im putting out a lot of educational promotional stuff on TikTok to tell young people: Hey, look, this really matters. This, sadly, is the last time we will have a gathering of veterans for a big occasion like this. Nothing would have stopped me being here. Mr Sunak had used his interview with Mr Brand to reject Labour accusations that he lied by saying the party would hike taxes by 2,000 - claims which were later criticised by the UK statistics watchdog. PM: Starmer is obviously very rattled The Prime Minister said the Labour leader was obviously very rattled after he repeatedly deployed the attack line during a TV election debate earlier this week. Mr Sunak had claimed that independent Treasury officials have costed Labours policies and they amount to a 2,000 tax rise for everyone. But the Treasurys permanent secretary James Bowler said ministers had been told not to suggest civil servants produced the figure. Asked whether the numbers were instead based on assumptions drawn up by Tory advisers, Mr Sunak said: No. The analysis and the working is done by Treasury officials. A Conservative Party spokesman told the Politico website that Mr Sunak was honoured to have been involved in the commemorations, which were also attended by Sir Keir. The Prime Minister said in his speech: Each of you who contributed that day sailor, soldier, aviator, civilian whether you fought on the beaches, or parachuted from the skies, or flew fighters or gliders, whether you were an engineer or a radio operator or an intelligence officer, your actions freed a continent and built a better world. You risked everything, and we owe you everything. We cannot possibly hope to repay that debt, but we can and we must pledge never to forget. Mr Sunak said veterans had taught generations of young people about the horrors of war, adding: Yet, with each passing year, it falls now to those of us who listened in awe to your stories to pass them on to our own children and grandchildren. Because only by remembering can we make certain that the cause you fought for, that so many of your friends and colleagues died for, that great cause of freedom, peace and democracy, will never be taken for granted. A medic treats a boy wounded by the Israeli strike on a Unrwa school. Photograph: Doaa Rouqa/Reuters Good morning. Mass casualty incidents caused by the Israeli military offensive in southern Gaza are becoming normalised in the west and leading to a sense of fatalism inside Gaza itself, according to Sam Rose, the director of planning for the United Nations Palestinian relief agency, Unrwa. He was speaking after an Unrwa school in Nuseirat was bombed by Israeli forces, killing at least 33 people, including 12 women and children. In previous conflicts, single incidents like this would cause shock and outrage and would be remembered forever, he said. Whereas it seems in this conflict it will be this one will be replaced by another in a few days time unless it all comes to an end. So, it almost becomes commonplace and mundane that these things are happening. We have normalised horror. Meanwhile, Israels prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will address Congress on 24 July during a visit to Washington. What did the US say about the bombing? The US has called on Israel to be transparent, after Palestinian medics and officials said women and children were among the dead. Israel claimed it was targeting Hamas and was unaware of civilian casualties. What is the humanitarian cost of the war? After the Hamas attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and resulted in another 250 being taken hostage on 7 October, Israels invasion of Gaza has killed more than 35,000 people, mostly women and children, destroyed 80% of Gazas buildings and led the strip to the brink of famine. Who invited Netanyahu? The House speaker, Mike Johnson, Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, and House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries. Democratic lawmakers most critical of Netanyahus strategy are expected to be no-shows. Senator Bernie Sanders said: Netanyahu is a war criminal. I certainly will not attend. Trump attacks judge and courts in first post-conviction rally In his first campaign rally after being convicted of 34 felonies, the former president Donald Trump described having gone through a rigged trial with a highly conflicted judge despite there being no crime. The court cases Trump faces have become a mainstay of his campaigning over the last year. He frequently tells his followers that the charges are a form of election interference designed to tamp down the Maga movement. Trump spoke at a Turning Point Action event at the megachurch Dream City in sweltering Phoenix. He repeated his claims of a stolen election, saying the Democrats used Covid to cheat in 2020. Did Trumps conviction turn the dial on polling? Not dramatically. On 27 May, Trump was averaging 41.4% to Joe Bidens 39.9%. Today its Trump on 41.1%, Biden 39.9%. Outrage after New York governor halts congestion pricing An 11th-hour decision to halt a plan to charge a fee for cars entering the heart of New York City has provoked outrage from environmental advocates and Democratic lawmakers. The city was planning to charge people driving below 60th Street Manhattan $15 a day in an effort to tackle air pollution, curb carbon emissions and boost funding for public transit. But the governor, Kathy Hochul, said the scheme would be indefinitely paused because of too many unintended consequences. How would the scheme have affected New Yorkers? About half of New York City households do not have a car, with 85% of commuters to Manhattan using the citys network of subways, trains and buses. Its estimated that 1.5% of commuters under the plan would pay the $15 fee. How did supporters react? With anger. New York is Americas biggest city, with the lowest levels of car ownership and highest share of transit ridership youd expect to see congestion pricing there first, said David Zipper, a senior fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiative. Its deflating and its a slap in the face. In other news Netflix is facing a $170m lawsuit after the woman who identified herself as the inspiration behind the drama Baby Reindeer sued the streaming company. The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said it was a mistake not to stay in France longer and apologized , after leaving 80th anniversary D-day events early to do a TV interview. A Russian nuclear-powered submarine which will not be carrying nuclear weapons will visit Havana next week amid rising tensions with the US over the war in Ukraine. France will transfer Mirage-2000 fighter jets to Ukraine and train Ukrainian pilots, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has announced. Stat of the day: Secretive court system has awarded $114bn of public money to corporations, analysis finds About $114bn of public money has been awarded to private investors in investor-state dispute settlement courts, according to a comprehensive analysis. The controversial arbitration system, which allows corporations to sue governments for compensation over decisions they argue affect their profits, is largely carried out behind closed doors. Dont miss this: Griffin Dunne on the darkness that overtook his gilded Hollywood upbringing Griffin Dunnes memoir, The Friday Afternoon Club, is full of tales about Martin Scorsese, Carrie Fisher and Madonna. But the killing in 1982 of his 22-year-old sister and the subsequent trial overshadows everything. He talks to Xan Brooks about revisiting the worst time of his life. Climate check: Brutal heatwave signals sizzling summer ahead A record-setting heatwave is cooking the south-western US, causing dangerous conditions earlier than normal. More than 34 million people were under heat alerts on Thursday afternoon in parts of Texas, Arizona, Nevada and California. Experts have warned this could be just the start of another record-smashing season with the potential to usurp 2023 as the worlds hottest year. Last Thing: What can I do about my housemates leaving dirty dishes for days? They will cook dinner and leave the dishes for days, and it drives me mad, a reader writes. The Guardian advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith responds with her tips saying that sometimes anger only goes away once we let it boil. Sign up First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If youre not already signed up, subscribe now. Get in touch If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com Green Party The Green Party is investigating claims that nearly 20 of its election candidates have shared anti-Semitic material online, it has emerged. Officials are examining a dossier of evidence including social media posts which appear to voice conspiracy theories about the October 7 terror attack by Hamas. It comes just hours before Fridays deadline for MP hopefuls who want to stand on July 4 to submit their papers with the Electoral Commission. Jewish groups said the revelations showed the Greens, who are on course for their best-ever result, needed to crack down on anti-Semitism. The Times first reported the details of the dossier, giving examples of some of the posts put on social media from accounts of Green Party candidates. They included one candidate whose account on X, formerly Twitter, on October 7 included a post that there is no peace without freedom. Resist. In a separate post on the same account it added: You dont have to be neutral when it comes to apartheid, colonisation and genocide. That day Hamas had launched the deadliest ever terrorist attack on Israel, killing more than 1,100 people and taking 250 hostages back to Gaza. When two Royal Navy vessels were later sent to the region in a show of support for Israel the candidate responded by posting: I hope they sink. Another candidate, also on X, described Hamas rocket attacks on Israel as Palestine defending itself as it is legally allowed to. They separately shared a post appearing to support a pro-Gaza protest outside Auschwitz, writing: Its because never again means never again. Two accounts belonging to candidates independently shared the conspiracy theory that Israel had been behind the October 7 attacks as a false flag so it could invade Gaza. A spokesman for the Campaign Against Antisemitism said: The more that we learn about Green Party candidates and newly-elected councillors, the more concerned we become. There appears to be an obsession with Israel and Gaza, comparing the Jewish state to Nazis, justifying the barbaric October 7 attacks carried out by Hamas, an anti-Semitic terror organisation, labelling Zionism as cancer and antisemitism-denial. How is this fostering good communal relations? Either the Green Party is not vetting its candidates properly, or its vetting is such that candidates with views like these are actually what the party is looking for. Neither is reassuring at all, and neither is acceptable in the post-EHRC report era. It comes with the Greens currently polling at around 7pc, which would put the party on course for its best-ever election result. The party already holds one seat in Brighton and is hoping to add another by taking the scalp of Labour frontbencher Thangham Debbonaire in Bristol. In recent times, the Greens have attracted a number of disaffected former Labour activists who had joined that party under Jeremy Corbyns leadership. They performed well in last months local elections and are now the largest party on 10 councils including Bristol, Hastings and East Hertfordshire. A spokesman for the party said: The allegations raised are serious and are being treated as such. At this stage it would be inappropriate for us to comment further on the examples raised. A full list of all Green Party parliamentary candidates will be published on Friday and the final list is still being decided. President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in 2023. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/AP Joe Biden has indicated that he will not pardon his son Hunter if he is convicted at his federal gun trial, where the prosecution rested its case on Friday in Delaware and Naomi Biden took the stand in defense of her father. When the US president was asked in an interview with ABC News on Thursday if he is prepared to accept whatever outcome arises from Hunter Bidens trial, he replied: Yes. Related: Joe Biden apologises to Zelenskiy for delay in US military support The president is still in France to make a speech on democracy in Normandy on Friday, as part of the events to mark the 80th anniversary of D-day, the allies turning point in the war against Nazi Germany in 1944. The first lady, Jill Biden, returned to the US on Thursday after having accompanied her husband in France and arrived in court to support her stepson, as federal prosecutors began wrapping up their gun case against him. Two more witnesses testified on Friday as prosecutors continued their effort to prove to jurors that Hunter Biden lied on a mandatory gun purchase form when he said he wasnt an unlawful user of, or addicted to drugs. Prosecutors called an FBI forensic chemist, Jason Brewer, who tested a residue found on the leather pouch that contained Hunter Bidens gun. It came back positive for cocaine, though the amount was minimal, he told jurors. A Drug Enforcement Administration agent testified about text messages Hunter Biden sent to alleged dealers. It came towards the end of a week that has been largely dedicated to highlighting the seriousness of his drug problem, which escalated out of control after his elder brother, Beau Biden, died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46. But on Friday afternoon, Hunter Bidens daughter Naomi testified in her fathers defense that he seemed to respond well to drug treatment in the weeks before he bought a gun. Prosecutors say he obtained it illegally by failing to disclose his addiction on forms applying for a Colt Cobra revolver in 2018 and illegally possessing the weapon for 11 days. Naomi Biden, 30, told the jury she saw her father in California around that time and he seemed really great. On cross-examination, she was shown that she had been messaging and calling Hunter Biden and unable to reach him. I cant take this, she texted her father several days after he purchased the gun. I miss you so much and I just want to hang out. Hunter Biden has been charged with three felonies: lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the application by saying he was not a drug user and illegally having the gun for 11 days. It would be more usual for such an offense to be settled with a plea deal if the defendant admits it occurred, but an earlier deal for Hunter was unexpectedly thrown out last summer. He was subsequently indicted on the three felony gun charges, which he denies. He also faces a trial scheduled for September on felony charges alleging he failed to pay at least $1.4m in taxes over four years. The court finished its work on Friday afternoon and will resume on Monday when the defense will announce whether Hunter Biden, 54, will testify. The Associated Press contributed reporting Israel "improperly" used at least one American bomb in its highly controversial attack on a United Nations school in central Gaza Thursday that reportedly killed more than 30 men, women and children, according to an analysis by U.S. Defense Department officials following the attack. The nose of a US-made Boeing GBU-39 small-diameter bomb Boeing bomb could be seen amid the rubble after Israel's attack, the Washington Post reported. It's the same kind of bomb Israel used in another hightly controversial airstrike last month that triggered global condemnation after killing 45 displaced civilians sheltering at a tent camp in Rafah in southern Gaza, according to an analysis of debris by the New York Times. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called last month's tent camp strike a "tragic mistake." But he said the school compound was attacked as part of an Israeli army hunt for Hamas militants. Palestinian families displaced in the Israel-Hamas war were sheltering in the school when it was struck. At the hospital morgue, NPR documented one body bag labeled as containing the body parts of five children. A total of at least nine children were killed, according to authorities. A Pentagon official told NPR that Israel had used the bomb in the school attack improperly because use of the bomb is limited to situations where it would cause low collateral damage but instead it killed several people in the targeted school. "Israel is using the most advanced, precise and effective bombs the U.S. produces like a cudgel," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss Israel's conduct. An Israeli Army spokesman told NPR that he was unaware of any civilian casualties in the school strike, and that Hamas fighters were the targets. Wes Bryant, a retired official of the elite special warfare branch of the U.S. Air Force, told NPR that he has been struck by Israel's recent use of the American bombs in which "large numbers of civilians have again been killed. They are using munitions intended to be both precision and low collateral damage but they are not employing them in a manner in which those qualities are applied," he added. After the school attack, State Department spokesman Matt Miller said at a briefing Thursday: "We are pressing the government of Israel and the IDF to be completely transparent about what happened here." Just Stop Oil protesters target Duke and Duchess of Westminster wedding A pair of Just Stop Oil protesters have been arrested after they tried to disrupt the society wedding of the year. The activists, an NHS nurse and a care worker, let off a fire extinguisher, spraying orange powder as the newlywed Duke and Duchess of Westminster left Chester Cathedral. The Prince of Wales witnessed the small commotion as he along with the rest of the bride and grooms parties saw the couple off. The activists, named as Polly, 73 and Sheila, 69, were booed by crowds as they were quickly dragged away by police. It is understood that the pair had waited in the position since the early morning, hiding their fire extinguishers in a shopping trolley. The two demonstrators had been calmly waiting for the right moment to strike, according to a group of bystanders. Shes been here since half five this morning, said Janet Evans, adding: It was quite scary too because she gave it full force. The JSO protesters had been hiding the fire extinguishers in shopping trolleys Jo Finnigan, an art teacher who was standing behind one of the protesters, added: She knew what she was coming for and she was very determined. Explaining how the protester concealed the bright orange fire extinguishers, she said: She had a trolley, like a pensioners trolley on wheelsthere was no sign of anything at all. Victoria Walker, a Lloyds bank employee in Chester, said the bang had frightened bystanders. We thought it might have been confetti poppers initially, she added. Ms Evans described the decision to protest at the wedding as horrendous, adding its just sad. The pair were arrested on suspicion of public order offences, Cheshire Police said. Sheila, left, and Polly, right, said in a statement that they 'demanded the UK government phase out fossil fuels by 2030' Releasing a statement after the event, Polly, a care worker from Norfolk, said: Weddings are a time of coming together in celebration to make a commitment to the future. However, for countless millions around the world there is no future unless we come together to stop oil and gas. Thats why we are demanding that the next UK government work with other countries to phase out fossil fuels by 2030. Sheila, 69, from Bristol, who worked as an NHS nurse for 50 years said: What do we value most? The wealth of billionaires like the Duke of Westminster or the lives of the billions who are being destroyed by the fossil fuel industry? Extreme wealth and the climate crisis are both symptoms of a broken system that is not serving most ordinary people. I am asking my fellow citizens to peacefully, but determinedly, demand an emergency plan to stop the drilling and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030. My grandchildren, all our children and all future generations lives are dependent on what we all do right now. The incident happened as the Duke and Duchess shared a brief kiss outside Chester Cathedral The disruption came after the newlyweds shared a brief kiss upon leaving the cathedral, having been greeted by hundreds of well-wishers giving them three cheers. A Cheshire Police spokesman said: Shortly after 1pm on Friday 7 June, a coloured flare was released by two women, believed to be protesting on behalf of Just Stop Oil, on St Werburgh Street, Chester. Officers were immediately on the scene and two women were quickly arrested on suspicion of public order offences. The 69-year-old woman from Manchester, and 73-year-old woman from Suffolk, are both in police custody at this time. Keith Vaz quit the Commons in 2019 after being given a six-month ban for offering to buy cocaine for male prostitutes - Dominic Lipinski/PA Keith Vaz, the disgraced former Labour minister, will run in his old seat against Sir Keir Starmers party at the general election. The former MP, who quit the Commons in 2019 after being given a six-month ban for offering to buy cocaine for male prostitutes, was stripped of his Labour Party membership on Friday - a day after announcing his candidacy. Mr Vaz, who represented Leicester East from 1987 to 2019, will run for the One Leicester Party against both Labour and his successor, Claudia Webbe. Ms Webbe, who was expelled from Labour in November 2021 following a harassment conviction, will stand as an independent. Experience, dedication and a strong voice In a social media campaign video, Mr Vaz said he would always have Labour values but would put the constituency first. Leicester East needs someone of experience, dedication and a strong voice who will fight for you, he said. My job has always been to listen, to act and to get things done. Many people have urged me to stand again. I have decided to do so and accept the nomination of Leicesters newest party, One Leicester, to be their candidate for one more term. Mr Vaz has also promised to donate his parliamentary salary to charity and run a seven-day constituency office, according to campaign leaflets. But it has now emerged that the ex-MP, 67, was not stripped of his Labour Party membership despite the parliamentary standards committee finding in October 2019 that he had caused significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons. In 2021, Mr Vaz was then reprimanded by the committee for sustained and unpleasant bullying of a member of staff. One Leicester Party Labour is understood to have only terminated Mr Vazs party membership on Friday on the grounds that he was running for election against the partys own candidate. The One Leicester Party was formed in 2023 by Rita Patel, a former Labour councillor and assistant mayor of Leicester. She had been suspended by Labour after voting to scrap the mayoralty in March last year. Sir Peter Soulsby, the citys Labour mayor, warned in October last year that Mr Vaz and Ms Webbe running against Rajesh Agrawal, Labours party candidate, could split the Left-wing vote and let the Tories in. Leicester East has one of the largest Indian populations in Britain and saw a 15.3 per cent swing to the Conservatives in 2019 when Labour won the seat with a majority of 6,019. Mr Vaz and One Leicester were approached for comment. Sir Keirs obsession with appearing nice to soft Tories will not change Britain into the decent, fair society we so urgently need. Photograph: Reuters Nesrine Malik rightly warns the Labour party against alienating its leftwing activists and supporters (Starmer? Sunak? Millions know they are different but still feel alienated. Ignore that at your peril, 3 June). But in a liberal democracy, radical economic and social reform cannot be achieved without winning hearts and changing minds, and this takes time: it cannot be done in the space of a six-week election campaign. As Antonio Gramsci, the Italian communist leader, observed: The counting of votes is the final ceremony of a long process. The trouble with Labour one of the troubles is that with its focus on fighting or preparing to fight elections, it ignores what Gramsci called the war of position in civil society: the struggle to challenge and change entrenched and widespread habits, practices, attitudes and beliefs that obstruct or inhibit progress towards a fairer, greener, happier, less divided and more democratic social order. Unless and until the party develops the capacity to provide such moral and intellectual leadership throughout society and at all times, not just during elections, its room for manoeuvre, in or out of government, is bound to remain tightly constricted. David Purdy Stirling Nesrine Malik states that the world isnt set to look much different once the Tories are gone. I remember exactly the same being said by some leftwing commentators in the run-up to the 1997 election particularly after Gordon Brown committed to following the Tory spending plans. Our familys life with three young children was changed beyond recognition by that Labour government. My kids were educated in smaller classes, without buckets to catch the leaks; we werent scraping around at the end of every month for money to buy food; the health service, for the first and only time in my life, was properly funded. The only time the world doesnt look any different is when Tory governments are voted back in time and again. Proportional representation wont change that. Andrew Pellow Huddersfield Nesrine Malik was entirely correct in her analysis of the state of the Labour party. I was a constituency chairman and Labour district councillor in the 1970s and left the party over the Iraq war decision. I rejoined the party two years ago to help get rid of this Tory government, which has ruined the country. To my chagrin, I found that Labour has been transformed into a Leninist-style party where democratic centralism prevails. Ordinary members have no say or power in the party and are just electoral fodder charged with getting the party into power. We cannot select candidates, suggest policy or decide on party strategy in our constituencies. This leads to apathy, cynicism and alienation. Countless democratic socialists have warned of the dangers of overcentralisation. Power is a means to an end not an end in itself. Sir Keirs obsession with appearing nice to soft Tories will not change Britain into the decent, fair society we so urgently need and require. Clive Tempest Westbury-on-Severn, Gloucestershire Nesrine Malik perfectly described my dilemma when I go into the ballot box next month. At 76, I have voted Labour at every election, not out of family loyalty, but a profound belief in the underlying principles of democratic socialism, which has only been strengthened by my life experience working in schools, where so many children were failed from birth in so many ways. However, this time, I really do feel that Labour doesnt speak to my cares and concerns any more. Where are the politicians who will put principle before power and ambition, and have the courage to promise even just a spoonful of jam not eternally tomorrow, but today? Where is a forensic critique of where the coalition got it so wrong with austerity? Not only do Labour politicians increasingly sound like Tories, they dont even attack them where they could. I am considering whether to spoil my ballot paper with a succinct reason why I am not voting Labour. It would very much echo the reasoning in Nesrines article. Thank you for giving me a voice the current electoral system never has. Julia Williams Stockport Nesrine Malik excuses the self-indulgence of those who are proposing to abandon Labour because, to get into government, they are accommodating to those of their fellow voters who arent as radical as them (or me). In quoting Ralph Nader, she illustrates the folly of such solipsism. By taking votes from Al Gore in the 2000 US presidential election, he and those who voted for him gave us George W Bush, the Iraq war and prevented Gore from tackling climate change. Those who feel alienated do, indeed, have to vote for the least bad option, and avoid a peril of their own making; and then to consider what they can do not just what the Labour leadership can do to change the views of an electorate that, in the last election, voted in these Conservatives led by Boris Johnson. Ed McDonnell Manchester Nesrine Maliks excellent article points to what I think will be, in retrospect, one of the most depressing aspects of this election low voter turnout. Unenthused and worse by the big parties, the actual voting electorate may well set a new low for the past 100 years. And it is into such spaces that populists like Donald Trump step. Graham Walsh Wymondham, Norfolk Have an opinion on anything youve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section. Texas national guard personnel at the border look at asylum seekers in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, on Tuesday. Photograph: Luis Torres/EPA At least four people have died crossing the US-Mexico border near El Paso, Texas, amid the searing heatwave gripping the south-west. Temperatures in El Paso peaked at 106F (41C) on Thursday, and some 34 million people from the southern tip of Texas across Arizona and up into California and Nevada were under heat alerts. The US border patrol in El Paso said it had identified four people who died last weekend from heatstroke and dehydration. At least two others who are presumed to be migrants died this week, US Customs and Border Protection told the Guardian though the individuals identities and causes of death have yet to be confirmed by the local coroners office. Related: Bidens migrant order is recipe for chaos at US border: It will only cause suffering The extreme heat across the south-west has come earlier than usual this year and experts have warned this could be a record-setting season. Last year, amid unprecedented heatwaves across the region, the CBP El Paso sector recorded 686 deaths and disappearances which was the highest-ever toll the agency had recorded. As temperatures soar and summer approaches, the treacherous conditions of the desert are proving increasingly dangerous, the agency wrote in a statement. Advocates for migrants have warned the new restrictions on asylum access ordered by Joe Biden this week will further push migrants to take riskier journeys across the border in brutal conditions. At a time that were seeing record-high heat in the region, enacting an executive order that basically shuts down the border with little notice is another way that our policies put people at risk, said Javier Hidalgo, legal director at Raices, an immigrant support and advocacy group in Texas. Increasingly, many of those attempting to cross into the US are fleeing extreme weather and climate disasters in their home countries. US policies at the border, Hidalgo added, are not centering human life. The actual number of migrant deaths in the region may be up to four times higher than official counts, according to a report released in March by the aid group No More Deaths, which provides water and first-aid care to migrants. The group collected data on deaths through public records requests to various medical investigators offices, news reports and public data provided by CBP and other agencies. The report ascribes the undercount to a lack of follow-ups with hospitals, local law enforcement and medical examiners offices after border patrol agents find people who are injured or dead. Although the extreme heat in the Chihuahuan and Sonoran desert has always been treacherous, researchers at the University of Arizona have challenged the idea that the heat alone has led to growing numbers of migrant deaths. Migrants who cross the border without authorization have found safer, shaded routes through mountain regions, researchers found in a 2022 paper. But due to US policy decisions including ones that have limited access to asylum and other legal paths into the US migrants have been compelled to undertake an increasingly lengthy, difficult and physiologically taxing journey that has often proved deadly, the researchers conclude. On Tuesday, the president signed an immigration order that temporarily suspends access to the asylum system for those crossing the border between official ports of entry when the daily number of crossings exceeds 2,500. Just because theres a new rule doesnt mean that people are not going to try to attempt to cross, said Alvaro Huerta, director of litigation and advocacy at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center. But they may be more likely to take more remote trails. So especially over the heat of the summer, when people are crossing over dangerous terrain, theyre much more likely to die of dehydration or an injury, he said. Liquid disposal bins are back - eye35 stock / Alamy Stock Photo Airports have been ordered to once again limit passengers to 100ml of liquid in hand luggage, amid concerns that checks are not secure enough. Rules limiting passengers to containers no bigger than 100ml were introduced after the government announced in 2006 that it had foiled a terror plot to blow up transatlantic airliners. New technology has been rolled out at UK airports over the last two years, with new hi-tech scanners meaning passengers could carry up to two litres of liquids. Last night, the Department for Transport announced that it is temporarily reintroducing the limits on liquids to enable further improvements to be made to the new checkpoint systems. A spokesman said: From 0001 on Sunday 9th June 2024, 100ml restrictions on liquids will temporarily be reintroduced for passengers travelling from six regional airports where Next Generation Security Checkpoints (NGSC) are in full operation. This temporary move is to enable further improvements to be made to the new checkpoint systems and will only affect a small number of passengers. For most passengers, security measures will remain unchanged. Passengers should continue to check security requirements with their departure airport before travelling. More relaxed rules on liquids had been in place at six airports. All international airports in Britain were in the process of rolling out the new scanners. Yet some major airports were set to miss a previous June 1 deadline set by ministers for them to install and commission the new hi-tech scanners. It is understood that no specific threat has been made that has triggered the fresh crackdown on liquids in hand luggage. The DfTs re-imposition of the ban comes immediately ahead of the holiday season, with airlines hoping for a return to pre-pandemic numbers of holidaymakers. Lifting the 100ml liquids restriction was seen as one of the key post-pandemic improvements tempting families back to air travel. In early 2023, London City Airport and Teesside International Airport became the first British airports to roll out the cutting-edge scanners, enabling passengers to board flights without removing liquid miniatures from their bags. Following the old rules being reintroduced from Sunday, passengers at those airports along with Newcastle, Leeds Bradford, Aberdeen and Southend will have to restrict themselves to only bringing 100ml containers of liquids with them. Airports in other countries have successfully adopted new scanner tech that means passengers can travel with larger amounts of liquids. Amsterdam Schiphol, Helsinki, Frankfurt, Rome Fiumicino, Milan (both Linate and Malpensa), Cork and Shannon are among the European airports to have rolled out the new technology. Denmark's prime minister Mette Frederiksen. Photograph: Jeremias Gonzalez/AP A man has been arrested after attacking Denmarks prime minister Mette Frederiksen in central Copenhagen on Friday. It was unclear whether Frederiksen was injured by the attacker. The prime ministers office said in a statement that Frederiksen was shocked by the incident, but did not provide further details. Prime minister Mette Frederiksen was hit by a man Friday evening on Kultorvet in Copenhagen. The man was subsequently arrested, the statement said. Police in the Danish capital said the incident had taken place at Kultorvet, a pedestrianised square in the centre of the city. We have made an arrest in the case, which we are now investigating. We currently have no further comments or observations on the matter, the police said on X. The attack on Frederiksen comes as 450 million citizens in the EUs 27 member states are going to the polls to elect more than 700 members of the European parliament. It also comes just weeks after Slovakias prime minister, Robert Fico, was shot in an assassination attempt, and against a surge of growing low-level political violence and threats against candidates, mayors and elected officials in France, Germany and other countries. Danish leaders from across the political spectrum voiced outrage over the attack. Pelle Dragsted, a spokesperson for the opposition Red-Green Alliance, described the attack as appalling and completely unacceptable. Business minister Morten Bdskov described the incident as completely insane, while Morten Messerschmidt, chairman of the anti-immigrant Danish Peoples party, said: Violence is never OK. European leaders also condemned the attack. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president and lead candidate for the centre-right European Peoples party in the EU elections, expressed her shock. I condemn this despicable act which goes against everything we believe and fight for in Europe, she said, wishing the Danish prime minister strength and courage I know you have plenty of both. European Council president Charles Michel said he was outraged by the horrendous attack, adding: I strongly condemn this cowardly act of aggression. Swedens prime minister Ulf Kristersson said: Mette is a very good colleague and wise partner. I sincerely hope that she is unharmed. An attack on a democratically elected leader is also an attack on our democracy. Tonight, my thoughts and those of the family are with her. The European parliament president, Roberta Metsola, wrote: Tonights assault on the Danish prime minister is appalling. Violence has no place in politics. Keep strong, Mette! she added. Finlands prime minister, Petteri Orpo, said he is deeply shocked by the assault on my colleague. I strongly condemn any form of violence against democratically elected leaders in our free societies. My thoughts are with you, and I wish you strength during this difficult time, he said. Latvias prime minister Evika Silina also said she is deeply shocked. The Socialists and Democrats group in the European parliament said it stands with Frederiksen a social democrat and the Danish people. Acts of violence are always an attack against democracy. We will not be intimidated, the group said. Stefan Lofven, president of the Party of European Socialists (PES), said: The whole PES community is with Mette and her family. We condemn this senseless attack. Political violence must have no place in our societies. Southampton Crown Court - OLLIE THOMPSON/SOLENT NEWS & PHOTO AGENCY A man who styled himself as The Joker was cleared of trying to murder his girlfriend, who he called Harley Quinn, the Batman comic villains henchwoman. Anthony Yewman, 45, was cleared of intentionally strangling Jenny Dalton by jurors on Friday. The 45-year-old had been accused of trying to squeeze the life out of Ms Dalton at her home in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, in August 2023. Over the course of the trial at Southampton Crown Court, prosecutors had argued he had been enraged after Dalton threatened to leave him. Mr Yewman claimed he had acted in self-defence and that Ms Dalton had attacked him first. Jurors cleared him of two charges of intentionally strangling Ms Dalton and prosecutors withdrew a charge of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm. |Jenny Dalton, aka Harley Quinn - OLLIE THOMPSON/SOLENT NEWS & PHOTO AGENCY The court had earlier heard that Mr Yewman referred to himself as the Joker in letters to Ms Dalton, with whom he had been in an on-off relationship for two years. Prosecutor Matthew Farmer said: After he was arrested he wrote letters proclaiming his love. He refers to himself as The Joker from Batman. He identified with The Joker and calls her Harley Quinn. It was a constant theme between them, he was The Joker and she was Harley Quinn. The jury was also shown a photograph of a pillow bearing an image of The Joker as well as Ms Daltons face. After his arrest, Mr Yewman told police that Ms Dalton was the most beautiful person in the world. A memorial for Annette Pershal in San Diego, in an undated photo. Photograph: Courtesy of Brandy Nazworth A 19-year-old who fatally shot an unhoused woman with a pellet gun in southern California was sentenced to five years and eight months in state prison on Thursday. William Innes pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the killing last May of Annette Pershal, 68, who was living on the streets of San Diego and nicknamed Granny Annie. The case sparked national outrage after prosecutors reported that Innes had texted a group chat saying he was going hobo hunting. Inness co-defendant, 19-year-old Ryan Hopkins, pleaded guilty last year to aiding and abetting assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to one year in jail. Police and prosecutors say that Hopkins drove Innes to the spot where Pershal had been camping, and that Innes fired multiple rounds at the woman with a pellet gun, hitting her in the head, leg and torso. Pershal, who was well-known in the neighborhood, was found unconscious and transported to a hospital, where doctors discovered she had been shot. She died several days later. Brandy Nazworth, Pershals daughter, who attended the sentencing hearing, said in an interview on Friday that she felt the five-year sentence was appropriate: Trying to understand this situation is impossible. Im never really going to get closure, and none of it is going to make sense. It was a bad decision [Innes] made, but it shouldnt affect his whole life. My mom always told me two wrongs dont make a right, she continued. And me hoping for the worst for him isnt going to bring me any more closure. Nazworth traveled to San Diego from Louisiana, where she lives, so she could share her mothers story at the hearing: I want to make sure she is remembered. In her victim impact statement, Nazworth said her mothers friends had called her the queen of Serra Mesa, a reference to her San Diego neighborhood: She had a great sense of humor, an infectious smile, and was a human library of San Diego history and stories. She also recounted the ways her mother had helped others on the street, giving her umbrella away to a young unhoused woman during a rainstorm, saying: When a man ran out of gas in front of the sidewalk she slept on, she gave him some of her food money so he could get home. And she was grateful for every little thing that people did for her. After her death, two dozen people showed up for her memorial and left flowers at the spot of her killing, Nazworth said: She was a person, not just a thing to be used for target practice. Her life mattered to me and my kids and her friends. Nazworth addressed some of her remarks to the defendant, saying: I have no words for how angry and sad I am. But as a mother, I am not looking for revenge and take no joy in the harm you have done to yourself and your family. My only prayer and hope is that my mother did not suffer and die for nothing. The only good that can come from this senseless tragedy is if you use it to become a better man. She may have looked like just a dirty homeless person to you, but she was still my mom and the grandmother to my kids. She also recalled her mothers many struggles, including losing her home and possessions, suffering the deaths of close friends, the sudden passing of her boyfriend and worsening arthritis all of which contributed to her alcoholism. Nazworth said: Alcohol use disorder is a serious disease like cancer. Would you shoot a cancer patient with a pellet gun for fun? Nazworth added that she had tried many times to get her mother to live with her in Louisiana, but she just couldnt imagine leaving the neighborhood she grew up in and we couldnt force her to go. She had a lot of friends, and her neighborhood was all she had left of the happier life she remembered. She also noted that local agencies had not been able to help her mother find appropriate housing. Lawyers for both teenagers have sought to shift blame on to their co-defendants in court, but Inness lawyer said on Thursday that his client was being punished appropriately. In court, Innes addressed the victims family, NBC 7 San Diego reported, saying: I cant change what happened, but I wish I could. Thats the only thing I can say that hopefully will make you feel better about what happened, which it probably never will. Arthur Oborne, 100, told the audience that after being shot in the D-day landings he had been saved by his friend Gummy Gummerson, who was killed the next day. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA It was not the profound silence of the moment of reflection, broken only by gentle birdsong, or even the spectacular sweeping flypast from the Red Arrows that left deep red, blue and white trails hanging in the almost cloudless sky, that most stirred the thousand people honouring the events of 80 years ago among the brilliant white French Massangis stone of the British Normandy memorial. It was instead the words of Arthur Oborne, 100, which brought people to their feet in a spontaneous show of gratitude and sorrow over the burdens borne and lives prematurely ended by what King Charles had described as the vast allied effort launched on 6 June 1944. Standing at the centre of the memorial site, opened in 2021 near the village of Ver-sur-Mer and overlooking Gold beach, Oborne, working hard to keep his voice strong and clear, recalled being shot in the lung by a sniper. He had only been saved by his friend Gummy Gummerson, who strapped him up and got him back to a field hospital. Gummy was killed the next day along with 26 others in the 49th division of the Duke of Wellingtons Regiment, 6th Battalion. I wish I could tell him that I have never taken his sacrifice for granted and will always remember him and our friends, Oborne, from Portishead, Somerset, told the crowd. So Gummy, thank you my old friend. The king and Queen Camilla were among those who rose to their feet as others dabbed the tears from their eyes. Oborne was one of fewer than three dozen British veterans of D-day able to travel to Normandy, which is at the centre of the commemorations. The day had started with Pipe Major Trevor Macey-Lillie playing the lament Highland Laddie as he came ashore at Gold beach in Arromanches at 7.25am, the exact moment of the beach invasion in 1944. British paratroopers recreated an airdrop behind German defences, although they were rather incongruously required to show their passports to French customs as a consequence of Brexit. Related: D-day 80th anniversary in pictures The main event was in Ver-sur-Mer, where the Normandy memorial has recorded the names of the 22,442 servicemen and women under British command who lost their lives on D-day and during the Battle of Normandy in the summer of 1944. The ceremony, blessed with sunny weather quite unlike that of eight decades ago, when the rough seas added further peril, started with applause, as more than 30 veterans, some in wheelchairs, were shown to their seats in front of the dignitaries. Rishi Sunak was the first to speak. Eighty years ago, the weather broke and the greatest invasion force in history left the shores of Britain to liberate Europe, the British prime minister said. We are here today to remember the sacrifice of the tens of thousands who did not make it home. And we are here to honour the service of those who did. The first in the audience to be name-checked was Ken Cooke, 98, who had never seen a ship before he embarked on the one that took him to Normandy. Then there was Stan Ford, just 19 at the time, who was manning a gun turret on HMS Fratton when a torpedo struck, blowing him into the water. The ship sank in four minutes. Thirty-one of his shipmates were lost from a crew of 80. The Royal Marine Dennis Donovan had landed on Juno beach alongside Canadian forces, Sunak recalled. They fought their way off the beach and into bitter house-to-house fighting, he said. By the end of the first day, a quarter of his unit was dead or wounded. Ken, Stan and Dennis are here today, alongside dozens of their fellow veterans, Sunak told the audience. We are humbled to be with you and, for what you did that day, we will always be grateful. The king, switching between French and English, followed with a warning. We recall the lesson that comes to us, again and again, across the decades: free nations must stand together to oppose tyranny, he said. More than 150,000 soldiers landed in Normandy on D-day but a total of just 200 veterans travelled for this weeks commemorations. Our ability to learn from their stories at first-hand diminishes, the king said. But our obligation to remember them, what they stood for and what they achieved for us all, can never diminish. The recollections of some of those in the audience were read out by actors. I tried to forget D-day but I cant, the Royal Navy veteran Ron Hendrey, 98, said in words read by the actor Douglas Booth. Ive lived 80 years since that day, my friends have remained under the earth. Related: I said many prayers: D-day veteran on horror and heroism in Normandy Joe Mines, 99, in words read by the actor Martin Freeman, said: I want to pay my respects to those who didnt make it. May they rest in peace. I was 19 when I landed, but I was still a boy and I didnt have any idea of war and killing. During a moment of reflection, some of the veterans held the hands of their sons and daughters, many of whom are in their 70s. The king concluded: Our gratitude is unfailing and our admiration eternal. At the end of the event, Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, who had been engaged in warm conversation with the king throughout the commemoration, awarded the Legion dhonneur, Frances highest award, to Christian Lamb, 103, who had helped map the D-day beaches. France will never forget the British troops who landed on D-day and all their brothers in arms, Macron said. A Russian nuclear-powered submarine and three other ships will stop in Havana, Cuba, next week - just a little more than 100 miles from the U.S. coast in Florida. The nuclear submarine Kazan and the other vessels - the missile frigate Admiral Gorshkov, an oil tanker and a salvage tug - will dock in the capital on June 12 and remain to June 17, Cuba's Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces announced. "None of the vessels are carrying nuclear weapons, so their stop-over in our country does not represent a threat to the region," the statement said. The Cuban military said the arrival of the Russian ships is part of the "friendly" relationship between Cuba and Russia. A U.S. official told the Miami Herald that the exercises are expected to include "heightened naval and air activity near the United States" that will involve Russian planes and naval ships. It will be the first such exercise by Moscow in the Western Hemisphere in five years. "We are not surprised by it given Russia's long history of Cuban port calls," the official told the paper. "These are routine naval visits that are part of Russian military exercises, which have ratcheted up because of U.S. support to Ukraine and exercise activity in support of our NATO allies," the official said. Administration officials believe the visit is "at least in part" because a U.S. nuclear submarine docked at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base last year that angered Cuban officials. The Miami Herald reported, citing the U.S. Navy Institute, that Russian submarines have been visiting Cuba since 1969. And Russian spy ships have been sighted arriving unannounced in Havana in 2014, 2015 and in 2018. Last July, the Perekop, a Russian navy training class ship, anchored in Havana. Two women look out from the balcony of a damaged Unrwa school building after Israeli airstrike. Photograph: Mohammed Saber/EPA Mass casualty incidents caused by the Israeli military offensive in southern Gaza are becoming normalised in the west and leading to a sense of fatalism inside Gaza itself, according to Sam Rose, the director of planning for the Palestinian relief agency Unrwa. He was speaking after an Unrwa school at Nuseirat was bombed by Israeli forces leaving at least 33 dead, including 12 women and children. When everyone is living in cramped, overcrowded conditions, we always said it would be inevitable that there would be incidents such as the one that happened overnight in the school in Nuseirat. Related: Dozens killed in Israeli strike on UN school, witnesses say Rose, who had just returned to London after five weeks in Gaza, said: There were about 6,000 people sheltering in that school. There are rules of war that we call on all sides of the conflict to adhere to: to protect the inviolability of our installations. There are also principles of distinction, and of proportionality. People will have been sheltering in the courtyard of the school in the most desperate of conditions and there will have been no warning that this strike has taken place. It happened in the middle of the night about 2am. Weve seen this time and time again, to the extent that its almost become normalised. In previous conflicts, single incidents like this would cause shock and outrage and would be remembered forever. Whereas it seems in this conflict it will be this one will be replaced by another in a few days time unless it all comes to an end. So, it almost becomes commonplace and mundane that these things are happening. We have normalised horror. Washington has said it expects Israel to be fully transparent in making information about the strike public. As a general matter, and as weve said before, Israel has a right to go after Hamas. But weve also been clear that Israel must take every precaution possible and do more to protect civilians, a White House spokesperson said. The movement of 1 million people in three weeks, as civilians attempt to escape fighting, has had pretty dramatic humanitarian consequences, according to Rose. He described the situation in some parts of Gaza as largely out of control, adding we are trying to deliver aid in a war zone. Rose said on his last visit he was struck by the sheer number of people with crutches and wheelchairs with missing limbs, with wounds. He said many Palestinians in Gaza have tried to compartmentalise their lives to shield themselves from the horror. There will be a psychological reckoning at some point he predicted, pointing out some families had moved as many as 10 times since the conflict started after the invasion by Hamas into Israel on 7 October. Peoples requirement to adjust repeatedly to the realities of life in Gaza is something that no one should have to put up with, he said. Unrwa has about 300 schools in Gaza, but none of them have delivered education since 7 October, and have largely turned into refugee centres for those fleeing the fighting. The schools attract refugees since they have solar panels, and desalination plants, making it possible to extract extra water. Many of the schools in Khan Younis evacuated during the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operation in April are now receiving refugees from Rafah. It is estimated that only 100,000 people remain in Rafah out of a prewar population of 270,000. At one point 1.4m refugees were in the area. Describing the overnight departure of tens of thousands of refugees as the Israeli offensive on Rafah built up, he said: Those that came to Rafah as refugees were the first to leave, followed by families that had lived in the town all their lives. We would basically see women and children sat on the side of the road with their belongings packed up neatly beside them, mattresses, bags of flour, jerry cans, book, clothes. The guys had gone on to pitch and find a plot of land or connections or whatever. And then theyd come back later. Theyd hire a truck, and theyd bring the rest of the family but we saw lots of families, and mainly women and children, sit by the side of the road waiting for help. The amount of aid reaching Gaza through the one crossing open, Kerem Shalom, remained wholly inadequate, Rose said. He added that delivery of the aid is made more difficult by the fighting and large parts of the population are still on the move. Israel, he said, seemed to have given priority to commercial trucks to use the crossing, and that meant much humanitarian aid in the form of medicines was being held up. He said that diplomatic pressure put on Israel to allow aid into Gaza appeared to have dissipated. What has happened in Gaza is that things have got incredibly bad incredibly quickly, so people have moved from relatively stable to phase five famine conditions in a short period of time. David Carrick was jailed for life after admitting 49 violent and sexual offences Two police officers who failed to investigate a complaint against serial rapist David Carrick have been allowed to keep their jobs. Wiltshire officers Emma Fisher and David Tippets were accused of gross misconduct after it emerged they had dismissed an allegation of abuse made against Carrick, an armed officer, in 2016. Not only did they close the case without checking Carricks details on their own database, which would have shown another allegation against him, they also failed to notify the Metropolitan Police that one of its officers had been the subject of a criminal complaint. In October 2021 Carrick was arrested by Hertfordshire Constabulary when a woman came forward to say he had raped her following a date. In January 2023 he was jailed for life after admitting 49 violent and sexual offences, including 24 counts of rape against 12 different women. The blunder by the two Wiltshire officers is one of a string of missed opportunities by numerous police forces that failed to prevent Carricks offending. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) launched an investigation into Pc Fisher and Sgt Tippetts in July last year following a referral from Wiltshire Police. The force had reviewed its systems after Carricks conviction and found a report from 2016 that had appeared not to have been investigated appropriately. The report revealed how a woman called the force in January 2016 to report that Carrick had abused another female. She explained she wanted Carrick, who was a serving Met Police armed officer, investigated. Pc Fisher was assigned to investigate the matter and after speaking to the woman requested the case be closed, with Sgt Tippetts, her supervisor, agreeing. Neither officer checked police systems nor took any further steps to investigate the matter. The female who was identified as being the victim of the abuse was never contacted about the allegation. The IOPC said if the officers had searched for David Carricks name on Wiltshire Polices crime recording system they would have found he was under investigation in an unrelated case for offences against another woman, which had been reported three days earlier. Despite being told that Carrick was a serving Met Police officer, Pc Fisher and Sgt Tippetts also failed to notify the Mets Directorate of Professional Standards. Missed opportunity Following a disciplinary hearing both officers were given a final written warning but were allowed to keep their jobs. Mel Palmer, IOPC regional director, said: No one is to blame for David Carricks horrific spate of offending but him. However, our investigation found there was a missed opportunity by Wiltshire Police officers to investigate him following a report of a serious abuse allegation made years before he was eventually arrested. Pc Fisher took minimal investigative action. She didnt try to contact the victim of the reported crime, flag to the Met a serious allegation against one of its officers, or search David Carricks name on Wiltshire Polices systems. She added: Pc Fisher requested the investigation be closed following minimal work or effort, and her supervisor, Sgt Tippetts, agreed and - contrary to the forces policy - failed to flag any concerns to colleagues in CID who specialise in investigating serious allegations. Officers failing in most basic sense Craig Dibdin, Wiltshire Police deputy chief constable, said: This is a clear case of officers failing, in the most basic sense, to properly investigate allegations made to them. This failure in service was compounded by a lack of proper oversight and scrutiny by a supervisor. Whilst it would be inappropriate to comment on the ongoing IOPC investigation, clearly the public will have questions as to the impact this inaction might have had on Carricks vile offending after 2016. Our communities must have the trust and confidence in us to listen to them, investigate any allegation made to us without fear or favour and keep them fully updated as to the actions we are undertaking. I would like to apologise unreservedly to the person whose report we did not initially investigate as we should. We will ensure that, organisationally, we will share all the learning emanating from this case to improve the service we provide. Concern has grown in Poland over security on the Belarusian border - Attila Husejnow/SOPA Images/Shutterstock A Polish soldier who was stabbed last week by a migrant while on patrol on Polands border with Belarus has died. His death comes as concern mounts in Poland over security on the Belarusian border, with troops and border guards now subject to frequent attacks by people trying to cross the frontier. The soldier, whose full name has not been revealed, had been in a critical condition since he was attacked on May 28, and earlier this week his commander had appealed for blood donations. It is with great sadness that we announce that on June 6, a soldier of the 1st Armoured Brigade who was stabbed passed away, the General Command of the Polish Army wrote on the X platform. Despite the first aid provided at the scene of the criminal attack on the border with Belarus and the efforts of doctors, his life could not be saved. Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, wrote: A young soldier, Mateusz, gave his life in the defence of the border of the Republic of Poland. His homeland and compatriots will not forget his sacrifice. The serviceman was attacked as he tried to block a hole in a newly installed fence that runs the length of the border with a shield to prevent a group of migrants from getting into Poland. According to the local prosecutors office, a man reached through the fence and stabbed the soldier in the chest. The perpetrator of the attack has not been found or identified and is believed to be at large in Belarus. Violent incidents on the border on the rise On Friday, Belarus said it would investigate the death if Poland provided specific information on the circumstances of the attack. Polish government officials on Thursday demanded explanations after it emerged that three soldiers were handcuffed and detained by Polish military police in March for having fired warning shots when faced with an advancing group of migrants on the border with Belarus. The soldiers had allegedly fired warning shots first into the air and then into the ground as they tried to stop an advancing migrant group on Polish territory. No one was injured. Polish media report growing discontent among the military over the way their colleagues were treated. Government officials say the detention was an excessive measure given the circumstances. This is a shocking case, considering the fact that our soldiers were recently repeatedly attacked by aggressors from the Belarus side, said President Andrzej Duda, who is the supreme commander of Polands armed forces. With violent incidents on the border on the rise Poland has warned that Belarus and Russia could be trying to orchestrate a repeat of the 2021 crisis that saw thousands of migrants trying to get into Poland. According to Warsaw, Minsk and Moscow are using the migrants, who are granted visa-free access to their countries, as tools in an asymmetric warfare campaign to destabilise both Poland and the EU. This, along with mounting geo-political tensions in the area owing to Russias invasion of Ukraine, has resulted in Poland moving up to 10,000 soldiers to the border area. Earlier this week, Radoslaw Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister, announced the launch of an information campaign targeting migrants who might be considering trying to get into Poland, warning them that they are being misled by the Russian and Belarusian authorities. Parliamentarians are preparing for a shake-up amid an expected surge in support for hard-right parties. Photograph: Katerina Sulova/AP Most political parties in the European parliament make alliances with each other, forming larger groups with those who share their broad ideology. This years elections are expected to shake up the parliaments political landscape as a surge in support for hard-right parties is predicted to strengthen nationalist and far-right groups. At the same time, parties new to the European parliament will be looking for groups to join, and some of those getting re-elected are looking for fresh alliances as well. One such party is Hungarys ruling far-right Fidesz party, which quit the centre-right European Peoples party (EPP) in 2021 when it faced possible suspension or expulsion. Now, it has its eyes on the hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group. On the liberal side, Renew Europe is expected to decide after the election whether to expel the Dutch VVD party over its decision to enter government with the far right. Related: What are the EU elections and why do they matter? Heres a quick guide to the groups in the European parliament. The European Peoples party (EPP) This is the biggest political family, representing the centre right. It includes heavyweights such as Germanys Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Polands Civic Platform. It has the most seats in parliament and is set to retain its position as the biggest group in the next one. The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) This group, commonly referred to as the Socialists and Democrats, is the second largest. It includes parties such as Spains Socialist party and Germanys Social Democratic party. Renew Europe This grouping brings together centrist and liberal parties, including Emmanuel Macrons Renaissance. It is expected to lose seats in the elections. European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) This is the grouping that pundits, journalists and politicians have been chatting about the most over the past weeks. There is a debate about whether the centre right will open up to more cooperation with at least some of the ECRs members. It includes parties such as Giorgia Melonis Brothers of Italy and Polands conservative Law and Justice but also groupings such as Spains far-right Vox and the French far-right party Reconquest, founded by Eric Zemmour. Identity and Democracy (ID) The ID group consists of a range of far-right parties, including Frances National Rally, Austrias Freedom party and Belgiums Vlaams Belang. In May, Alternative for Germany (AfD) was expelled from the group after a spate of scandals. Greens The Greens group, with members such as the German Greens, is expected to lose seats in these elections. The Left This group includes members such as La France Insoumise and Irelands Sinn Fein. Rishi Sunak, pictured with his wife, Akshata Murty, was accused of political malpractice of the highest order. Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AP Rishi Sunak has been criticised for leaving the D-day commemorations in Normandy early on Thursday, with reports that he returned to the UK to do a prerecorded TV interview. The prime minister attended an event at Ver-sur-Mer in northern France, which was also attended by King Charles and Queen Camilla, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron. But he did not attend the late afternoon ceremony at Omaha beach, in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, and instead returned to the UK. Paul Brand, ITVs UK editor, said the prime minister returned from Normandy to do an interview. He said the broadcaster was interviewing all the party leaders and had been working to secure a date with the Conservative leader for some time. Speaking on News at Ten, Brand said: Today was the slot they offered us. We dont know why. Related: Courage and solidarity: King Charles pays tribute to veterans of D-day Tim Montgomerie, the founder of the grassroots Conservative Home website, told BBC Newsnight: I want to put my head in my hands. If he came back for a political interview from the D-day commemorations that is indefensible. This is going to be the last big commemoration where survivors will be present, he added. I think its political malpractice of the highest order if Mr Sunak absented himself for an election interview on ITV. Keir Starmer joined world leaders including Macron and the US president, Joe Biden, at the event at Omaha beach alongside the defence secretary, Grant Shapps, and the foreign secretary, David Cameron. The Labour leader was photographed in conversation with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Later on Thursday, ITV published an interview with Sunak in which he denied accusations from Starmer that he lied by arguing that Labour would hike taxes by 2,000, in claims that were criticised by the UK statistics watchdog. ITV would not confirm when the released interview was recorded. Chris Bryant, the Labour candidate for Rhondda and Ogmore, wrote on X: So Sunak left the Normandy D-day landings commemoration to fly home to lie about lying. The rest is silence. The shadow paymaster general, Jonathan Ashworth, said: The prime minister skipping off early from D-day commemorations to record a television interview where he once again lied through his teeth is both an embarrassment and a total dereliction of duty. Our country deserves so much better than out-of-touch, desperate Rishi Sunak and his chaotic Tory party. A Conservative source played down the diplomatic impact of the prime ministers absence and said Sunak will see Macron, Biden, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and other key leaders at the G7 summit in Puglia, Italy, which starts next Thursday. Col Richard Kemp, a former British army commander in Afghanistan, told the Mirror: I know there is a general election campaign to fight but this is a very significant anniversary of a major military achievement which led to freedom in Europe. Its being attended by some of the veterans who may never attend another due to their age. I think it was very important that he showed his commitment to it. He should have stayed. As the PM of our country he should have been there to represent the country and to show our gratitude to those who fell. A Telegraph poll reveals 82 per cent believe Rishi Sunak to be wrong for leaving the D-Day commemorations early - LUDOVIC MARIN/evia REUTERS Rishi Sunak apologised on Friday for leaving D-Day commemorations in Normandy early to head back to the UK to carry out a general election TV interview. Coming under intense criticism, the Prime Minister tweeted it was a mistake not to stay in France for the international event after he had attended the earlier British ceremony in Normandy. Joining the likes of Tom Harris who has argued that the cock up is final proof that Rishi Sunak is an embarrassment to Britain Telegraph readers were quick to weigh in and share their view on the saga. A poll conducted by The Telegraph reveals 82 per cent of over 21,000 readers believe Rishi Sunak to be wrong for leaving the D-Day commemorations early. Unforced mistake of monumental proportions Reader Kevin Seymour deemed Rishi Sunaks choice despicable and shameful, arguing that the Prime Minister is hypocritical in saying the UK is the best country in the world for veterans and then doing this. So typical of the waste of space political leaders we have in this country, he continued. Sharing a similar sentiment, reader Robert R. believes this was an unforced mistake of monumental proportions and one that Rishi Sunak and the country will come to regret. V Jones thinks the Prime Ministers early departure is unforgivable. My father was fighting in North Africa at 18 years of age, with thousands of other British teenagers. This man put a TV interview before their remembrance day. An anonymous reader also shared their indignation: I was hoping the Prime Minister of my country would represent me at the D-Day event to show how much respect I have for those men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice. To thank those who are still with us, possibly our last chance to do so. I am so upset by what Rishi Sunak did. Many contrast the Prime Ministers decision to that of other politicians and world leaders who stayed for the commemorations. President Biden found the time and all the other leaders found the time, adds V Jones. Reader Alan R questions what message Rishi Sunaks D-Day decision sends about the UK. It was embarrassing to see unelected David Cameron standing in for a missing Rishi Sunak. These pictures were beamed all around the world to be seen by tens of millions. Susan Niven noted Volodymyr Zelenskys presence. She says: If he can find the time to honour those who, in his words saved Europe, surely our Prime Minister could spare a bit of time from campaigning? It shows how little Sunak values these fine men. However, anonymous readers criticised the actions of the other British politicians that were in attendance: It is noticed that Sir Keir Starmer didnt go to Omaha Beach and Nigel Farage didnt even go across to Gold Beach in France. So much for their patriotism The 80th anniversary of D-Day has been a profound moment to honour the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to protect our values, our freedom and our democracy. This anniversary should be about those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. The last thing Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) June 7, 2024 How could anyone vote Tory after this? The decision has even prompted some readers to rethink their voting intentions and what consequences might unfold as a result. Reader Geoffrey Dummet claims Reforms popularity will surge even more after this huge mistake by Mr Sunak. He continued: The historian David Starkey was criticised for saying Sunak wasnt grounded in our culture but this proves he was correct. How could anyone vote Tory after this? The Tories lost the election right there, talk about an own goal, remarked Colleen Oasgood. Others believe it is too late for an apology, with reader Elizabeth Brown arguing the Prime Ministers decision has shown he does not have the judgment to lead this country. Reader Grahame Pinches writes turning up at the wrong venue is a mistake. Arriving an hour early is a mistake. Leaving an international celebration of our heroes last visit to the beaches of their finest hour to attend a pre-booked interview is not a mistake. This was a public disgrace. Royal family represented admirably However, 18 per cent of readers disagree that the Prime Minister was in the wrong, with some acknowledging his busy schedule, while others drew attention to the presence of the Royal family to represent the country. Reader Cherry Robson argued that unlike Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron, Rishi Sunak is not our head of state and highlighted how, instead, we have been represented admirably by the Royal family. Sunak made a dignified and respectful speech earlier in the day. I am fed up with these pathetic pile ons, she continued. Similarly, reader UF says: I have criticised Mr Sunak for everything but I do not believe it is fair to do so for this. That is very unjust. He took time out of a very busy schedule and paid his heartfelt respects. This is a stain on his character that is not warranted. Finally, reader Christina Andersen reasons that although it is a gaffe, a bit too much outrage being placed on Rishis early departure. Im sure he said and did all the right things at other moments. Rishi Sunak has apologised for missing a key part of the D-day commemorations in northern France to film a TV interview, as he faces a wave of condemnation over what may be his biggest misstep yet in a faltering election campaign. The prime minister was heavily criticised for leaving the 80th anniversary events for an ITV interview that is not scheduled for broadcast until next week, with opposition parties calling it crass and a dereliction of duty. He was also forced to deny he had planned to skip the D-day commemorations altogether, as he called for the events not to be politicised. In a slightly convoluted-sounding explanation, Sunak said he did not prioritise the election over what is likely to be the last major anniversary to include D-day veterans saying his itinerary had been set before the election was called. But it remained unclear why he returned to the UK early for the interview, leaving David Cameron, the foreign secretary, to take his place for the late afternoon ceremony at Omaha beach on Thursday, alongside Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz, the leaders of the US, France and Germany. With many Conservatives privately dismayed at the decision, and criticism mounting overnight, Sunak tweeted an early-morning apology on Friday. After the conclusion of the British event in Normandy, I returned back to the UK. On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer and I apologise, he wrote. He sidestepped accusations that his actions showed a disdain for the military, instead claiming his record shows he has long supported the armed forces with increasing levels of investment. It was subsequently reported that the French government had claimed its officials were told last week that Sunak would not attend the commemorations at all because of the general election campaign. In a broadcast interview later on Friday, the prime minister denied the election had been a factor: I stuck to the itinerary that had been set for me as prime minister weeks ago, before the election, fully participated. As I said, on reflection it was a mistake not to stay longer and Ive apologised for that, but I also dont think its right to be political in the midst of D-day commemorations. The focus should rightly be on the veterans and their service and sacrifice for our country. The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, said Sunaks decision to leave Normandy early jarred with his pledge to introduce mandatory national service intended to imbue 18-year-olds with a sense of civic duty. A No 10 spokesperson said: The prime minister was always scheduled to attend D-day commemorations, including the UK national commemoration event in Normandy, and it is incorrect to suggest otherwise. Conservative activists reacted with fury to Camerons presence at the afternoon event, with one saying it had left them questioning whether to bother to continue campaigning. The veterans minister, Johnny Mercer, told the Sun: I get the outrage. Its a mistake. Its a significant mistake for which hes apologised. Sunaks apology also came after the ITV presenter Paul Brand confirmed on News at Ten that the prime minister had returned from Normandy to speak to him. Brand said ITV was interviewing all of the party leaders and had been working to secure a date with Sunak for some time. Today was the slot they offered us, he said. We dont know why. Opposition politicians criticised Sunak on Friday morning, saying he had brought shame on the office. When asked if there was a mismatch between Sunaks national service policy and his behaviour on the 80th anniversary of D-day, Starmer told the Guardian: I think there is, and hes going to have to answer for the choices that he made. Hes the prime minister of the United Kingdom. This was a day of reflection, of being humbled really by the efforts that other people have made on our behalf. He added: For me there was nowhere else I was going to be There was only one choice, which was to be there, to pay my respects, to say thank you and to have to speak to those veterans. The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, said: One of the greatest privileges of the office of prime minister is to be there to honour those who served, yet Rishi Sunak abandoned them on the beaches of Normandy. He has brought shame to that office and let down our country. I am thinking right now of all those veterans and their families he left behind and the hurt they must be feeling. It is a total dereliction of duty and shows why this Conservative government just has to go. The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, tweeted that Sunak could not even be bothered to attend the Omaha Beach event. One Tory activist said: Lots of us are asking each other whats the point, across associations. He allowed a former PM to get some pics next to Biden in his place. Why should we bother to continue campaigning, knocking on hundreds of doors when Sunak seems to be doing all he can to completely ruin our chance of losing in a way thats just about tolerable. The shadow defence secretary, John Healey, has sent a letter to his cabinet colleague Grant Shapps asking when the decision for Sunak to skip the commemorations was made. He also queried whether the French government was correct in saying they were told a week ago that the prime minister would not attend at all. Sunak was present at an event on Thursday morning at Ver-sur-Mer, in Normandy, which was also attended by Macron, King Charles and Queen Camilla. Taxidermy students at work at Pixleys Oddities. Photograph: Alan Nakkash/The Guardian Four dead rats. Two white guinea pig carcasses. One lifeless brown rabbit. A group of women hovered tentatively over the bodies, holding scalpels. Are we slicing all the way through? asked KC Carmela, one of the attendees, a scalpel in one hand and a rodent in the other. Like butter? Or a banana? The women stood around a folding table wrapped in heavy-duty plastic, at the very back of an otherwise ordinary storefront in San Diego. The theme of the Saturday workshop: you-pick-which-animal taxidermy. Just, very lightly, go through the membrane a little bit, the teacher, Simone Pixley Weinstein, told them, lifting up one of the rats. Her nails were painted sparkly shades of pink and red, and festooned with miniature jeweled hearts and flowers. With the blade of a knife, she indicated where they would delicately cut around the rats torso, right under the arms. And then the skin starts to lift. The group got to work. For a brief moment, the room was quiet. Tiny tufts of rabbit fur came loose and floated through the air. As the once fuzzy bodies became slick hunks of flesh, a deeply raw, earthy smell fell over the small space. The abstract idea of taxidermy was suddenly very, very real. The first cut is the deepest, someone sang. The joyful, grisly scene was just another day at Pixleys Oddities, the tattoo and taxidermy shop Weinstein owns in southern California. She has hosted taxidermy workshops like this one for years, helping first-timers and taxidermy aficionados create hauntingly beautiful, macabre pieces of art. While taxidermy might once have conjured up the image of a grizzled hunter mounting a deers head to a cabin wall, Weinstein is one of the many women and increasingly diverse people who are redefining the practice. Less than a decade ago, when Weinstein first decided she wanted to get into the trade, one local business told her simply: We dont teach women. Today, women flock to the classes she teaches, and scores of female and LGBTQ+-run taxidermy businesses have taken root in California. Many taxidermists, Weinstein included, also practice whats known as ethical taxidermy, which broadly means that animals were not killed for that purpose. Instead, the animals are sourced from farms, pet stores and, in states where its legal, sometimes from the side of the road. Vegetarians and vegans have even become taxidermists. We feel like were giving a second chance at life to this animal, Weinstein said. Even after years of doing this (Weinstein also cleans and maintains the San Diego Natural History Museums taxidermy collection), the 34-year-old is disarmingly soft-spoken. She picks up each frozen animal gingerly, almost as if she doesnt want to hurt it. She still seems surprised and elated that people show up for her classes at all. I guess lets get started! she said before the cutting started, her hands fluttering up to her face. Im so excited, yall. I feel like this is gonna be really fun. Dead inside A hulking, nondescript freezer in Weinsteins shop holds mysteries and stories. She carefully rifled through its contents during a lull in the workshop, pointing to dead and frozen animals of every variety. One large black trash bag held a coyote, stored for a friend. A spotted rabbit was encased in a zip-lock bag. Underneath, guinea pigs, squirrels and other small creatures had been given a home. The animals that wind up in Weinsteins freezer often come to her at random. She frequently gets direct messages from friends and strangers alike, mentioning that they found a dead squirrel or possum, or maybe their pet rat died. Weinstein also takes in dead feeder animals, such as mice and bunnies, that are bred to be food for big reptiles and would otherwise be thrown away after reaching certain expiration dates. Someone texted me: I have a squirrel, Weinstein said of a recent acquisition, pulling a beige tote bag from the depths of the freezer and opening it briefly to reveal a furry body at the bottom. I said: I have a tote. Instead of being tossed, Weinsteins menagerie of animal carcasses rises from the dead at least visually. At the front of her store, animals that have been skinned and stuffed hang from the walls and cover the floor, sit atop pedestals and stare out from glass cases. Theres a jackrabbit sporting gold-painted horns (a jackalope) and a porcupine, posed mid-lunge, draped in a string of pearls. Dead inside, a pink neon sign flashes above a taxidermied wild boar, teeth bared and wearing a gauzy bow. Some of the women at the workshop were new to this environment, while others had already dipped a toe into taxidermy or animal preservation. Meagan McWhorter was part of the latter group. Growing up, McWhorter never supported taxidermy, she said. I thought it was just hunters, hunting things and killing things for fun, and putting a trophy on the wall. But scrolling through social media one day, she found a handful of educational videos about the process. All of the taxidermists she saw were women. I love animals so much, she said. I realized this is something I actually really support and would like to continue to support. Weinsteins workshop, McWhorter told the others as she worked on her rabbit, was a Valentines Day gift from her boyfriend. Amy Jennings, who was doing taxidermy for the first time, also wasnt squeamish about the process. Skinning a rat was similar to working with chicken thighs, she said, only with a scalpel rather than a knife. But she also didnt want to mess up the final product by cutting into it haphazardly. OK, I dont know, I dont feel confident, she said as she approached the tricky elbow area, handing the animal off to Weinstein. I want it to be perfect. After the women removed each animals skin creating something similar to a once living sock puppet the pelts were dunked into a cup of isopropyl alcohol. The washed skins were later stretched over foam molds to mimic the animals original bodies. The small heads were then mounted on wooden displays and decorated; the guinea pigs were surrounded by a garland of fake flowers, and the rabbit would later be christened with its own pair of horns. Jennings wasnt sure where her taxidermied rat might end up in her house. Maybe in my kitchen? she wondered aloud. Im not good at home decor. Flesh and bones Beyond the pure novelty of taxidermying an animal for the first time, many practitioners take on the art form for a much more profound reason: to examine the thin margin between life and death. As a teenager, Weinstein was diagnosed with leukemia. While she grappled with the concept of her own mortality, the typical teenage world spun on around her. Weinsteins friends were more interested in talking about like, wanting to have sex or something, she said. And I was just like, Sex? I want to talk about the fact that we could die. We could die tomorrow, Weinstein said. Taxidermy allowed me to process death. And theres a whole community of taxidermists that feel the same way. Out in the California desert, roughly 150 miles north of Weinsteins shop, another taxidermist knows what its like to hold death in their hands. Reno Lott, or Roadkill Reno, took their first taxidermy class from Weinstein. In the five years since, theyve set up a studio near Joshua Tree, created a full-time taxidermy and pet preservation business, and worked to memorialize a vast array of animals including their own two pet dogs. At one point, Lott was holding one of the dogs hearts in their hands, thinking that this had to be one of the deepest things I will ever experience. It was so beautiful and life-changing and changed my perspective on how I see my own death, my parents death, the death of loved ones, they said. You have to realize that everyone is just going to become flesh and bones. And ultimately, that is the deepest part of what you learn through taxidermy. For other peoples deceased pets, Lott offers different services: preservation of the entire hide, tail, ear or paw; bone jewelry; full skeletal articulation (meaning the animals cleaned skeleton is arranged into a lifelike pose); and more. Lott also uses the desert to their advantage to salvage and preserve bones. They often take butchered-down remains and place them at the bottom of an old goldmining shaft (a ragged hole in the ground that Lott lovingly calls the death pit), where insects will naturally start to eat the flesh over time. Lott eventually descends a ladder into the pit, picks up the bones and lets her own army of flesh-eating beetles finish cleaning the bones inside. The whole process, Lott says, is very symbiotic. Because somewhere past the shock of flesh and bone and fur is something deeper, some kind of ancient truth that keeps Lott interested in taxidermy. In talking and thinking about death, Americans can be so quiet and fearful compared with those from other cultures, they said. Thats my number one reason for getting into this all: lets contemplate this without fear and without the pressure that its wrong, they said. And lets see where that gets us, and what peace that gives us when our loved ones pass, or when we are getting ready to pass. I dont know, Lott added, a beat later. After many years of dealing with death, the mystery of it all still looms large. It just feels important to ponder. But I havent gotten the full answers yet. Rishi Sunak, host Julie Etchingham and Sir Keir Starmer at the first head to head debate of the general election Penny Mordaunt challenged Angela Rayner over Labours credibility on defence in a general election TV debate on Friday night. The two women also clashed over tax and Labours flagship green policy: the creation of national utilities firm GB Energy. Nigel Farage who appeared for Reform after becoming leader earlier this week challenged the other politicians on immigration and net zero policies. The seven-way BBC debate also featured representatives from the Liberal Democrats, the Green party, the SNP and Plaid Cymru. These were the key moments: Labours defence credibility is shot Ms Mordaunt lambasted Ms Rayner on defence saying Labours credibility is shot because Vladimir Putin would never believe Sir Keir Starmer would push the button. The Leader of the House said: The cornerstone of our defence is our nuclear deterrent. You need credibility and its too late for Labour on credibility. She pointed out that Ms Rayner and others on Labours frontbench had in the past voted against the renewal of Trident. She might be prime minister in four years time imagine what Putin is thinking. Without credibility we become a target. Do not vote these people in. Ms Rayner struggled to answer, saying: Keir has been absolutely clear that we will keep our nuclear deterrent. She repeated the partys pledge to bring in a triple lock on the nuclear deterrent, adding: My brother served in Iraq. I wont be lectured on whether or not Im absolutely committed to the security of our country. PMs D-Day actions wrong Ms Mordaunt also apologised over the Prime Ministers decision to leave the D-Day commemorations early. What happened was completely wrong and the Prime Minister has rightly apologised for that, apologised to veterans but also to all of us, because he was representing all of us, she said. Im from Portsmouth, I have also been defence secretary and my wish is, at the end of this week, is that all of our veterans feel completely treasured. Mr Farage, the Reform UK leader, said the fact that the country had been deserted by the Prime Minister showed we have a very unpatriotic prime minister. If his instinct was the same as the British people he would never have contemplated for a moment not being there for the big international ceremony. It shows how disconnected he is from the people of this country. Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, raised the issue of cuts to troop numbers, saying her party would increase spending year on year, and would ensure the Armed Forces have decent homes. NHS model questioned Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, said that Britain needed to change the funding model for the NHS and adopt a French-style system. He said that France, which invests around the same amount of money in its health service as the UK, gets significantly better outcomes for key treatments. The more money we spend, the less delivery we get, which means the model is wrong, he said. The NHS model isnt working. He praised the model in France, based on statutory health insurance, where workers and businesses pay into the system through a number of schemes. Ms Mordaunt warned that the NHS cant afford a Labour government as she said its planned tax raid on doctors would push up waiting lists. The Leader of the Commons clashed with Ms Rayner as she accused Labour of overseeing disastrous health service cuts in Wales. But Ms Rayner earned applause from the audience as she hit back that the Tories had put the NHS at threat by crashing the economy under Liz Truss. Answering a question from an audience member about to start studying medicine, Ms Mordaunt said that public spending is going to go up and for the NHS very substantially under the Tories. She said: The only people on this platform who have ever cut the NHS budget are Labour in Wales. You cant afford a Labour government, the NHS cant afford it either. Labours plan to tax your future pension, senior nurses and doctors, is going to get healthcare professionals to leave the service. That is going to lead to more waiting lists. Ms Rayner insisted that Labour will invest more in the NHS by fully closing the non-dom tax loophole and increasing efficiency within the service by using new technology. We have record number of waiting lists in the country and all roads lead to the Tories and what theyve done to our public services, she added. Population crisis from immigration Mr Farage warned that Britain was living through a population crisis that is making us poorer. The Reform UK leader pointed out that from the end of the 1940s, migration was around 30,000 to 40,000 a year. But 2.7 million came in under Tony Blairs Labour government, and 4.3 million under the Tories despite the under tens of thousands a year 2010 manifesto pledge. Mr Farage claimed most of those that come in are actually dependants, adding: This ought to be the immigration election, because whether we talk about housing, whether we talk about the fact that rents are up between 20 and 30 per cent in most of the country in the last four years, whether we talk about the roads, whether we talk about infrastructure, we are living through a population crisis. Mr Farage challenged Ms Mordaunt when she started to talk about cost of living rather than immigration, which was the subject of the question. Was that the question? he shouted as she started talking about tax reduction. Pulled up by Mishal Husain, the debate host, Ms Mordaunt said: Immigration is too high but what we need to do is have a balance. The best way to do this is to get Parliament to have an annual cap. That will take into account the economic needs of the workforce and the pressures immigration puts on communities. She said that with an annual cap, immigration would begin to come down. Ms Rayner said: I love the spin on that, 14 years and youve trebled net migration figures. She said poor services were down to the decimation that Tories have done to public service, adding: People are coming here and are propping up many of our services . Mr Rayner reiterated Labours pledge for a new border command and to scrap the Rwanda scheme. Ms Mordaunt retorted: Keir Starmer has spent most of his life campaigning for free movement. These guys are not going to control immigration. Stephen Flynn, the SNPs Westminster leader, reflected a more positive view, saying we need to end the demonisation of migration. He added of Scotland: We need migrants. This race to the bottom on migration driven by Nigel Farage, followed by the Conservative Party and hotly chased by the Labour Party does not serve Scotlands interests and it does not serve your interests either. So rise up against it. He also called for positivity over immigration, pointing out that Sir Keir Starmer had said in 2020 that Labour needed to make the case for freedom of movement. Labour challenged over taxes Ms Mordaunt challenged Ms Rayner to explain how Labour would fund its big spending policies without tax rises in a fiery exchange. The Commons Leader said the Tories will keep cutting taxes if they win the election and repeated Mr Sunaks claim that Labour wanted to raise them by 2,000 per person. She said: We have got to cut peoples taxes and alleviate burdens on business. Angela Rayner and the Labour Party are going to put up your taxes by 2,000. Ms Mordaunt also said that more tax cuts were coming in the Tory manifesto, adding: This election must be about us cutting your taxes. Ms Rayner branded the claims a lie and hit back: Why dont you stand by your record of record levels of tax rises on working people. To which Ms Mordaunt demanded: Which policies are you going to take out of your manifesto, which ones are you going to ditch? Mr Farage, meanwhile, said that record levels of immigration had made house prices and rents too expensive, hitting ordinary Britons in the pocket. Nigel Farage put in a high-energy performance - PA He also said that green levies on energy bills, which are used to fund renewable energy projects like wind farms, should be scrapped to bring costs down. The Reform UK leader pointed out that under New Labour just 1.5 million people paid the 40p income tax rate, but repeated threshold freezes meant that was now set to hit eight million. Were dragging more and more people doing middle income jobs into higher and higher taxation, thats why life is so hard, he said. Mr Farage said that to hear Ms Mordaunt claiming the Tories were a tax cutting party was dishonesty on a breathtaking scale. A new voting system Mr Farage called for proportional representation as he called for a change in the UK voting system. There is a sense we need a revolt against this system, he said. We need an electoral system where we get some proportional representation in Parliament. We need to break up the current model. If we get a new kind of politics in Britain we might just get some real change. Proportional representation is official Reform UK policy, as it will be very hard for the party to win seats under the current first past the post system. In a colourful attack on other party leaders, describing them as very dull, Mr Farage said that the real leader of the Labour party was Ms Rayner, adding: At least she has personality,. He went on to attack Sir Keir as Blair without the flair and nicknamed the Prime Minister as Slippery Sunak. On the two main parties, he said: They dont disagree on anything. Thats why Reform has risen so quickly in the polls. What we are being offered is two parties promising the earth and nothing much will change, he said. The participants were asked why politicians do not deliver their policies, and the audience laughed when Ms Mordaunt began to answer. She said: We have had some very difficult times, we have had to spend a lot of money on furlough to keep jobs going. The pandemic has been expensive. Weve had terrible global shocks and have stepped in to pay peoples energy bills. What you need now is you need taxes to be cut. If you get us we will reduce your taxes, that is in our DNA. They [Labour] are going to put up your taxes by 2,000. Ms Rayner said the Tories had eroded peoples trust and have disrespected them. We have been clear we will not promise anything we could not fund [like the two child benefit cap], she said. We will not put taxes up for the working people of this country. Hostile environment Ms Mordaunt mocked Ms Rayner over claims that Labours new company Great British Energy will not produce any electricity. The Commons Leader said Labour was planning to force people into having to buy costly electric cars and heat pumps which they cant afford. She challenged Labours deputy leader over her partys plans to set up a state energy firm, repeatedly asking: How much energy is Great British Energy going to produce? Ms Rayner insisted that the company will produce energy - despite Sir Keir saying it would just be an investment vehicle - and accused Ms Mordaunt of lying. She hit back: They constantly spout these lies that were going to stop peoples cars, were going to stop this and that. The reason they do that is their 14 years of abstract failure. You have failed the British people and people can see that. Ms Rayner was mocked online by people who pointed out she meant to say abject failure. Their fiery spat came as Mr Farage warned that Britain was living in a fools paradise as he branded net zero a bad policy that is bad for people. The Reform UK leader said that the UK was simply exporting carbon emissions by taxing companies and driving production overseas. Responding to a question about whether the UK should prioritise climate change or the economy, he said: At the moment were pursuing completely unrealistic climate policies. What were doing in this country is were sacrificing economic growth, weve been sacrificing manufacturing. All weve done is export carbon emissions. Were living in a complete fools paradise on this. Lets just be sensible about what we do. Net zero is a bad policy and its bad for people. Tackling knife crime Mr Farage called for more use of stop and search, saying the police should not be scared of its own shadow. Asked how to cut knife crime, the Reform UK leader said: Stop and search! We know the areas where knives are most present. He said governments should not be worried about being called racist by boosting the policy. Weve got to stop doing this - we must stop thinking about the colour of peoples skins, he said. We are seeing a societal decline in law and order and the government and police forces are too scared to do what is needed to be done. The Lib Dems Daisy Cooper said that suspicionless stop and search cannot be used. Mr Farage added: We are scared of our own shadow here. Ms Mordaunt said: We have more than halved crime if computer crime and fraud is not included. We have hot spots and London is top of the list We need more police who are embedded in communities. Ms Rayner said: Our young people do not feel safe, never mind parents. Weve got to educate our young people and have neighbourhood police. Our young people feel they will be protected if they carry a knife - that is a real scandal. Aphra Brandreth, the daughter of former Tory MP Gyles Brandreth, is standing in the new constituency of Chester South and Eddisbury - David Rose Rishi Sunaks top aides, Cabinet ministers special advisers and MPs bag carriers are among the political nepo babies to be handed plum seats by the Tories in the election. Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) has been accused of treating members with contempt by parachuting favoured candidates into safe constituencies. Analysis of selections by The Telegraph shows more than a dozen political advisers and staffers have been handed seats in the election that have been vacated by Tory MPs. They include three serving advisers to the Prime Minister, seven current or former special advisers to Tory ministers and the daughter of a former Conservative MP. One departing Tory MP warned the party was populating our more winnable seats with ever more political careerist candidates who have little experience outside the Westminster bubble. Party sources also accused CCHQ of intentionally sidelining many Right-wing candidates by effectively blocking them from standing in safer seats. There are 76 Tory-held seats which have come up for grabs at this election because the sitting MP announced that they were standing down. They include some of the safest constituencies in the country which the party is expected to hold even in the event of a Labour landslide. Will Tanner, who is Mr Sunaks deputy chief of staff, has been handed Bury St Edmunds, West Suffolk, where the Conservatives have a 25,000 majority. Elsewhere, Nikki Da Costa, who was an adviser to Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Kemi Badenoch, has been handed North East Hertfordshire and an 18,000 majority. Aphra Brandreth, the daughter of former Tory MP Gyles Brandreth, has been given the new constituency of Chester South and Eddisbury. The Tories won its predecessor seat, Eddisbury, by 18,500 votes at the 2019 election. Other senior Conservative aides have also been handed plum seats. David Goss, who is Mr Sunaks deputy political secretary, will contest Wellingborough, North Northamptonshire, which was an ultra-safe Tory constituency up until this year. Peter Bone, the ex-MP who held the seat for 19 years, won an 18,500 majority at 2019 which Labour managed to overturn in a by-election this February. Helen Harrison, Mr Bones partner. stood in that by-election and has now been handed South Thanet, Kent, where retiring MP Craig Mackinlay had a 10,600 majority. A number of special advisers have also been handed plum seats. They include Meg Powell-Chandler, an adviser to Lucy Frazer, the Culture Secretary, who will contest Wells, Somerset. James Clark, an adviser to Grant Shapps, has been handed Great Yarmouth while Caroline Newton, who was in Boris Johnsons No 10 team, will fight his old seat of Henley, Oxon. Simon Finkelstein, an adviser to Jeremy Hunt and the nephew of Tory peer Lord Finkelstein, was parachuted into Makerfield, in the North West, on Friday, though he is unlikely to win the seat from Labour. Ameet Jogia, another adviser to Mr Sunak, has been handed Hendon, north-west London, which the Tories have held since 2010, but where they now only have a 4,200 majority. Tory anger has also been directed at five northern MPs who have made the chicken run from marginal Red Wall seats to the safety of southern constituencies. They include Richard Holden, the party chairman, whose candidacy in Basildon and Billericay, Essex, was fiercely opposed by local members. He made the move after his North West Durham seat was abolished by boundary changes. Two other senior Sunak allies have headed south. Chris Clarkson fled Heywood and Middleton for ultra-safe Stratford upon Avon, the former seat of Nadhim Zahawi. Stuart Andrew, meanwhile, has left his marginal seat in Pudsey, W Yorks, and will contest Daventry, West Northants, vacated by Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland Secretary, with a 26,000 majority. There were also some last-minute changes to other parties candidates across the country. Keith Vaz, the disgraced former Labour minister, will run in his old seat Leicester East, while Holly Valance, the former pop star and Neighbours actress, said she would not stand for Reform UK despite speculation. And Tory candidate Adam Gregg pulled out of standing in Spen Valley, W Yorks, after being exposed for running club nights for children as young as 13. The Telegraph understands that senior Sunak advisers including James Forsyth, his political secretary, and Liam Booth-Smith, his chief of staff, have been involved in the Conservative selections. Simon Hart, the Chief Whip who is a close ally of the Prime Minister, is also said to have played a leading role alongside Stephen Massey, the Tory chief executive. One Tory source said that the selection process had been handled badly and that many members were disaffected and unhappy with the leadership and policy direction. Yet the decision has been taken to double down and essentially impose a set of candidates with precisely the views that got us into this terrible mess, they told The Telegraph. Maybe Rishi knows the only remaining thing he can do for his friends is to get them safe seats, but it makes it still harder for the party to recover and reunite after the election around a set of policies that our voters actually want to support. Another insider said the involvement of Sunak aides was why youve got so many advisers and hangers-on and mates of the PM getting parachuted in. Theyre trying to leave continuity Sunaks in place these hangers-on who have made a right b---s-up of government but will be in parliament and have a big influence on the party, they said. They do this every time but the difference now is that this is the first time its been really in the public view and obvious to people, and the members have just had enough of it. Jo Gideon, the outgoing MP for Stoke on Trent Central, left office with an excoriating attack on CCHQ over how it has handled the selection of would-be parliamentarians. She said party bosses had mistreated and disregarded members and used intimidation to ensure that its favoured candidates got on the ballot paper. Politics should be about serving the public, not a ruthless game of who can climb the greasy pole the fastest, she said. By populating our more winnable seats with ever more political careerist candidates who have little experience outside the Westminster bubble, with fewer women, less diversity in age, social background and professional experience, we are creating a democratic deficit which will dictate the quality of our politics for years to come. A Conservative Party spokesman said: The Conservative Party is fighting for every vote at this election, and we are standing candidates with a fantastic breadth of experience across the country. We have a clear plan, and are taking bold action, to deliver a secure future for our country. We do not comment on selections. At least 150 villagers, 35 of whom are children, are feared dead after a massacre in central Sudan, with the blame pointing to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group fighting the army. For over 13 months, the rivals have been battling for control of the country. While they haven't claimed responsibility for the attack, on Thursday, the RSF announced they had ambushed two army positions, according to the BBC. An alleged video that is circulating on social media shows dozens of bodies wrapped in white veils in preparation for burial in Gezira state. Sudan's military government has called on the international community to condemn a mass killing. The RSF has not commented on the accusations, but on Thursday boasted of attacking two army positions.https://t.co/lnKBAlJjCj BBC News Africa (@BBCAfrica) June 6, 2024 The Madani Resistance Committee is currently waiting for a confirmed toll of dead and injured. UNICEF reports that 35 children have so far been killed, with more than 20 others suffering from injuries. Catherine Russell, UNICEF's executive director, called scenes from the ground "devastating." "This is yet another grim reminder of how the children of Sudan are paying the price for the brutal violence," she wrote in a post on X. Horrified by reports of at least 35 children killed & more than 20 injured in an attack on Wad al Noura, in Sudans al-Jazira state. It's another grim reminder of how the children of #Sudan are paying the price for the brutal violence. My statement https://t.co/wxgODNt4oI Catherine Russell (@unicefchief) June 6, 2024 Thousands of children have been killed and injured, more than five million have been forced from their homes, and others have been recruited, abducted, and raped over the past year, according to Russell. Hafiz Mohamad, from leading human rights group Justice Africa Sudan, has told the BBC that many more people are still missing but that it was "difficult to count all the dead" because "RSF elements are still around the area looting." Meanwhile, in El Fasher, a city located in Darfur in western Sudan, fierce battles persist between the RSF and the military. It's estimated that more than 15,000 people have been killed across the country since the conflict began in April 2023. UN agencies report that the fighting has triggered the world's largest displacement crisis, with millions now facing a hunger catastrophe. UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron condemned the "assault on innocent people" and blamed the RSF in a post on X. "The RSF must stop these attacks," he said. "The world is watching. Those responsible will be held to account." Horrific reports of a RSF assault on innocent people in the Sudanese village of Wad al-Noura, with a large number of civilians killed. The RSF must stop these attacks. The world is watching. Those responsible will be held to account. https://t.co/4Y5yShmcRo David Cameron (@David_Cameron) June 6, 2024 In December, the RSF seized control of Gezira state, located to the south of the capital, Khartoum, and has been accused of committing numerous abuses against civilians. The paramilitary group continues to deny the accusations. The British Museum bought the Parthenon marbles from Lord Elgin in 1816. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Greece has won an unlikely ally in its campaign to retrieve the Parthenon marbles from the British Museum after Turkey publicly rejected the claim that Lord Elgin had received permission from Ottoman authorities to remove antiquities from the Acropolis. In a move hailed by officials in Athens as a hugely important admission, Zeynep Boz, the Turkish culture ministrys top anti-smuggling official, this week said there was no evidence to prove the peer had been given a permit to strip the fifth-century BC monument of the sculptures. Turkey is the country that would have the archived document pertaining to things that were sold legally at that time. Historians have for years searched the Ottoman archives and have not been able to find a firman proving that the sale was legal, as it is being claimed, Boz told the Associated Press. Boz, who also spoke to Greeces state broadcaster, ERT, said the only evidence that had been found was an edict written in Italian but that it neither contained the sultans signature nor seal, which would have confirmed it had come from the Imperial court. Officials in Athens told the Guardian that Bozs revelation was key to demolishing any argument that the ancient carvings were acquired with the acquiescence of the Ottoman authorities. Elena Korka, the honorary director of antiquities and cultural heritage at the Greek culture ministry, said: This is a very senior Turkish official who has all the archives, all the services at her disposal and what she is saying, that nothing has been found, that there is no document, is hugely important. They looked and couldnt find it and thats because it never existed. Related: Parthenon marbles should return to Athens, says Lord Frost Crews working at the behest of Elgin began removing statuary from the monumental frieze that once adorned the Parthenon with marble saws and other machinery in 1801 an endeavour that would take more than a decade. Even then, it was so controversial, his contemporary, Lord Byron, felt compelled to decry it in verse. But the British Museum, which would go on to buy the marbles from the then bankrupt Scottish diplomat in 1816, has always maintained they were obtained legally. Boz conceded she had felt obliged to intervene when the UKs representative in a recent meeting of Unescos Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property in Paris reiterated that the sculptures were bought legally during the Ottoman era. Korka, who wrote her PhD treatise on the firman and spent nearly a decade sifting through archives in England and Istanbul, said the only documents she had found linked to the marbles were related to the shipments of the antiquities that Elgin had made from the port of Piraeus to England. There were two documents, written in Osmanli, the language of the day, describing what was in the shipments as ceramics and bits of stone, some with images on them but insignificant to the Ottomans, she said. Both stated he had bought the objects in Athens. There was no reference, whatsoever, to the Parthenon marbles and thats because Elgin never got permission to remove anything from the site. Related: Return the Parthenon marbles. The British Museum has too much stuff anyway | Simon Jenkins Greece has won growing support since launching its campaign 40 years ago to reunite the treasures seen as the highpoint of classical art with other relics in Athens. Successive polls have shown the majority of Britons in favour of restoring the antiquities to the country where they were carved. The British Museum has always maintained that the treasures were purchased legally; its been its central argument, said Irene Stamatoudi, a professor of cultural heritage law who advises the Greek government on the issue. Its now key that the country in possession of the original archives, that might have the document to prove so, says it just doesnt exist. For us its a very positive development. Describing the artworks restoration to the place where they were designed 2,500 years ago as a national goal, the Greek culture minister, Lina Mendoni, said Turkeys intervention had essentially bolstered Athens case. There was never any Ottoman firman that allowed Elgin to treat the Parthenon sculptures with the barbarity with which he treated them, she said. Turkey has come out and confirmed what the Greek side has argued for years that there was no firman. In a statement the British Museum said it recognised the depth of feeling that, more than two centuries on, the cultural row was prone to evoke. The British Museum acknowledges Greeces strong desire for the return of the Parthenon sculptures to Athens, a museum spokesperson told Skai TV. We understand and respect the deep emotions involved. This article was amended on 7 June 2023 to remove text that erroneously stated that the Parthenon marbles were carved 5,000 years ago. The sculptures date from the 5th century BC (approximately 2,500 years ago). Sir Keir Starmer speaks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a D-Day memorial event in Normandy - LABOUR PARTY General election campaigning will resume with a bang on Friday after Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer largely paused political activities to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday. Mr Sunak left the ceremony on Omaha Beach, Normandy, before it had finished to defend claims he had made about Sir Keir Starmers tax plans in an ITV interview. On Friday, the Prime Minister will be campaigning in the South West, followed by a speech in Wiltshire in the late afternoon. The Labour Party leader and his deputy, Angela Rayner, will visit a housing development in London on Friday morning ahead of the partys Clause V meeting to finalise their manifesto, which is expected to begin around noon. Up in Scotland, First Minister John Swinney is to give a campaign speech in Glasgow while Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, is out on the campaign trail in Aberdeen. There will then be another TV election debate on the BBC involving senior representatives of the seven main political parties which will kick off at 7.30pm. In the debate, Nigel Farage will represent Reform UK as he is given the opportunity to clash with Penny Mordaunt, who will be flying the Tory flag, and Labours Angela Rayner. There will also be representatives from the Liberal Democrats, SNP, Green Party and Plaid Cymru. Friday at 5pm is also the final deadline for general election candidates to be nominated. Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty at the D-Day commemoration event in France before they left so he could do an TV interview - LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images Rishi Sunak has apologised for leaving D-Day commemorations in Normandy early to head back to the UK to carry out a general election TV interview. The Prime Minister tweeted it was a mistake not to stay in France for the international event after he had attended the earlier British ceremony in Normandy. Mr Sunak has come under intense criticism after it emerged he missed the event with fellow world leaders to head back to the UK for an ITV interview. The Prime Minister said: I care deeply about veterans and have been honoured to represent the UK at a number of events in Portsmouth and France over the past two days and to meet those who fought so bravely. After the conclusion of the British event in Normandy, I returned back to the UK. On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer - and I apologise. The 80th anniversary of D-Day has been a profound moment to honour the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to protect our values, our freedom and our democracy. This anniversary should be about those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. The last thing Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) June 7, 2024 The Prime Minister attended the UK national event at Portsmouth on Wednesday and then the British ceremony in Normandy on Thursday, the anniversary of the Allied landings on D-Day. But he left France before world leaders including US president Joe Biden gathered for the main international ceremony on Thursday afternoon. Instead, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron was the senior UK minister at the event. It was also an opportunity for Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to mingle with world leaders on the global stage. Mr Sunak had faced criticism over the decision from within his own Tory ranks and Labour who described it as a dereliction of duty. Tim Montgomerie, founder of Conservative Home, said he was flabbergasted by the Prime Ministers decision. I think its political malpractice of the highest order if Rishi Sunak absented himself for an election interview. Its not dignified. Its not the right thing to do at a fundamental level, he told the BBC. Shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth said: The Prime Minister skipping off early from D-Day commemorations to record a television interview where he once again lied through his teeth is both an embarrassment and a total dereliction of duty. The Prime Ministers apology came while childrens minister David Johnston was touring broadcast studios, struggling to defend Mr Sunaks decision. On Times Radio he was confronted with a message from one Conservative activist who said they wonder whether I should bother going out to knock doors for the party when the Prime Minister seems to be doing all he can to lose the election. Sir Craig Oliver, who was Lord Camerons No 10 communications chief, said Mr Sunak stood accused of not getting what it is to be Prime Minister. I think if youre planning these things, youve got to say look, thats going to block the Prime Minister out. Its a very important moment for the country. But its also a very important moment to show that youre being prime ministerial, Sir Craig told BBC Radio 4s Today programme. And the problem for Rishi Sunak this morning is hes accused of not getting what it is to be a Prime Minister and what his duties are as a Prime Minister. Sir Craig also criticised the Tory campaign for sending childrens Mr Johnston out without knowing what to say about the Prime Ministers actions. It was pretty clear that the Conservative campaign was going to be massively on the backfoot today, he said. Hundreds of North Sea oil and gas workers have vowed to never again set foot on a model of helicopter involved in a series of fatal crashes amid speculation about their potential reintroduction. A survey of 1,200 staff carried out by the union Unite found three-quarters of workers are unwilling to board Super Pumas. Super Pumas were removed from the oil and gas sector in 2016 in the wake of the accidents. The Unite poll was carried out after a number of safety concerns were recently raised about helicopters flying workers to and from offshore installations and platforms. One person was killed and five others were injured when a Sikorsky S-92, operated by Bristow for the Norwegian firm Equinor, ditched into the sea near Bergen in February. The S-92 is the primary helicopter used across the UK and Norway, but a recent shortage of spare parts has seen some of the aircraft grounded. Polled on the possible reintroduction of flights on Super Pumas, 75% of staff said they would never fly in one again, with 18% saying they would need to be convinced all outstanding safety concerns had been fully addressed. Questioned about the Sikorsky S-92 helicopters, 43% expressed concerns over supply chains impacting safety, 36% said they had confidence in the aircraft, and 17% said they had been really shaken by the February crash. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: Unite will never, ever allow offshore health and safety to be compromised by operators and contractors. Unite boss Sharon Graham said operators and contractors must listen to concerns about helicopter safety (PA) Absolutely central to this objective is ensuring the full confidence of offshore workers in the helicopters which they are transported in. Overwhelmingly, offshore workers are telling Unite that more action and assurances are needed from the industry in order to improve the safety of helicopter flights. Operators and contractors must listen to these concerns and act. John Boland, Unites lead officer in the offshore sector, added: Unite will ensure that concerns over helicopter safety are fully addressed by the oil and gas industry. Offshore workers have clearly spoken about their horror over the Super Puma model ever being reintroduced and have also expressed their concerns about supply chain issues impacting on the safety of the Sikorsky S-92 helicopter. The industry must take note of what offshore workers are saying and work with Unite to resolve these safety concerns. Fourteen oil workers and two crew died when a Bond Super Puma plunged into water off the Aberdeenshire coast on April 1, 2009. An Air Accidents Investigation Branch probe into the crash found the aircraft suffered a catastrophic failure of its main rotor gearbox. A fatal accident inquiry (FAI) in 2014 also found the tragedy could have been avoided. Four years later, four people died when a Super Puma L2 carrying oil rig workers ditched in the North Sea near Sumburgh, Shetland, in August 2013. An FAI found no precautions could have prevented the crash after a perfect storm of circumstances combined. Offshore Energies UK has been contacted for comment. Police have arrested two men after a man was stabbed to death in south east London. Metropolitan Police said officers were called to Carteret Way, Deptford at about 10.35pm on Thursday night following reports of a stabbing. Despite the efforts of officers and paramedics, police said a man believed to be aged in his 20s died at the scene. His next of kin have been informed. Police said two men were arrested on suspicion of murder and are currently in custody. Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 and quote CAD8733/6June. You can also provide information anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. The Prince of Wales is to attend the wedding of his close friend the Duke of Westminster today. Billionaire aristocrat Hugh Grosvenor, 33, will marry Olivia Henson, 31, at Chester Cathedral. William will act as an usher for the ceremony, which will start at midday on Friday with some 400 guests believed to be in attendance. The prince arrived at the cathedral at about 10.30am, leaving a Mercedes van along with fellow ushers and entering through a side entrance unseen by many of the crowds gathered on the street outside. His brother the Duke of Sussex is not expected to be there after it was mutually agreed he would not attend. The wedding comes amid a long-running rift between the princes. Harry will not attend the wedding (Jordan Pettitt/PA) The Princess of Wales, who has been out of the spotlight as she undergoes treatment for cancer, is not expected to attend. The King, the grooms godfather, and Queen are not due to be at the ceremony either, having been at D-Day commemorations in France on Thursday. The Duke of Westminster is godfather to Williams son, Prince George, and also, reportedly, to Harrys son Prince Archie. Ten-year-old George is not expected to attend the wedding as it falls on a school day. Ms Henson will travel to the cathedral with her father in a vintage Bentley, originally made for the car manufacturers founder in 1930. The wedding will be officiated by the Dean of Chester, the Very Revd Dr Tim Stratford. The service will be sung by the Chester Cathedral Choir, accompanied by a group of musicians from North West England. The Bishop of Chester, the Right Revd Mark Tanner, will preach and prayers will be led by the Revd Canon Rosie Woodall. The Duke of Westminster topped The Sunday Times 40 Under 40 Rich List earlier this year, boasting a fortune of 10.1 billion. Hugh Grosvenor is the 7th Duke of Westminster (Oli Scarff/PA) His bride, who grew up in London and Oxfordshire, has worked in the sustainable food and drinks industry, most recently at London-based artisanal food company Belazu. The couple are said to have chosen the wedding venue for its beauty and because of the personal connection to the duke, whose family home Eaton Hall is nearby. William and Harry were both ushers at the wedding of his sister Lady Tamara Grosvenor at the cathedral in 2004. Following the service, there will be a private reception at Eaton Hall. A spokesperson for the duke and Ms Henson said: This is an incredibly special day for the Duke and Miss Henson and they are very much looking forward to the service. It means a lot to them to marry in Chester Cathedral, especially given the Grosvenor familys long and close personal connection to both the Cathedral and the city of Chester. The couple have also been moved by the messages of support they have received from around the region and are hugely grateful that people want to share in their happiness. Police outside Chester Cathedral before the wedding of Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster, to Olivia Henson (Peter Byrne/PA) The spokesperson added: The Duke and Miss Henson have taken a great deal of care in planning the wedding, putting their own personal stamp on all the arrangements and have made a conscious effort to involve local and regional suppliers in several aspects of the day. Seasonal flowers for the ceremony were sourced from local growers and will be made into bouquets after the wedding, to be delivered to local charities, churches and organisations. The couple announced their engagement in April last year after being together for two years. The Duke of Westminster became an instant billionaire when he inherited his title and control of the historic Grosvenor Estate aged 25, following the death of his father from a heart attack in 2016. His property company, Grosvenor Group, owns about 300 acres of land in Mayfair and Belgravia, as well as major city centre developments such as Liverpools One shopping centre. Members of the public have said the Prime Minister had his priorities wrong by making the disgusting decision to leave the D-Day commemorations in France early. Rishi Sunak has apologised and said that on reflection he should have stayed in Normandy for a major international ceremony attended by world leaders. Instead, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron represented the UK Government, while Mr Sunaks rival for the keys to No 10, Sir Keir Starmer, was also there rubbing shoulders with world leaders. Speaking outside The D-Day Story museum next to Southsea Common, Portsmouth, Hampshire, where the national commemorations for the D-Day 80th anniversary were held on Wednesday, Richard Cleverly, 73, said he believed that the Prime Ministers actions were disgusting. Retired mechanical engineer Richard Cleverly, 73, from Ascot, Berkshire (Ben Mitchell/PA) The retired mechanical engineer, from Ascot, Berkshire, who used to work on Royal Navy warships including the Type 45 destroyers, said: I thought it was quite disgusting really when everybody else was represented and we had to suffer with David Cameron who is not an elected MP. He shouldnt, as far as I am concerned, be anywhere near the Government after his actions with the Brexit and referendum and what went on previously. I am not a Tory fan, I will admit to that, and I certainly shant be voting for them and what happened yesterday re-enhanced my opinion that their time is up, they have made enough mess of the country over the last number of years and looking forward to a better future maybe. On how the international community would view Mr Sunaks actions, he added: I think they would be frowned upon. We are coming out of Brexit and they are talking about coming out of the Court of Human Rights so we seem to be alienating ourselves from our friends. I thought the French president yesterday was fantastic with his speeches, Sunaks speech was OK but leaving the ceremony was out of order and I didnt agree with it. His wife, Angie, 68, who worked for an IT company before she retired, said: I was thoroughly disgusted and I thought it was a very poor show when we had so many loyal countries here from that day and he did that, it just made me realise he is not fit now to rule the country. Angie Cleverly, 68, from Ascot, said Mr Sunaks actions were a poor show (Ben Mitchell/PA) He shouldnt be doing what he is doing and I do hope he gets his comeuppance in the election and doesnt get elected because I think all those veterans that made it, the ages they were and how hard that must have been for them and he just leaves, it was beyond belief really. David Rolfe, 59, a people development manager from Tadley, Hampshire, said: I feel it was a bit inappropriate. Feelings were quite high for the country and the day and I know there is a General Election going on but one day commemorating the 80th anniversary, so I feel he has made a mistake and I think he recognises that. David Rolfe, 59, from Tadley, Berkshire (Ben Mitchell/PA) David Cameron, prominent as he is, he (Mr Sunak) is the Prime Minister so I think it was the wrong decision, personally. George Lock, a 29-year-old teacher from Southsea, Hampshire, said: Its a busy period of time with the General Election coming up but I dont know, I think his public image is pretty soured as it is so it would have been nice for him to take that time out and show the respect it probably deserves. Teacher George Lock, from Southsea, Hampshire (Ben Mitchell/PA) Joe Hough, 63, a truck driver from Northampton, said: I have just seen it on my phone five minutes ago and a bit disappointed, I would say. Hes meant to be our leader, currently, Im not sure now how much longer. Joe Hough, 63, from Northampton, said veterans would feel offended (Ben Mitchell/PA) He said it would not look very good on the international stage and added that the veterans would feel offended by Mr Sunaks actions. Gordon Hair, a 53-year-old car body repairman from Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, said: It demonstrates that his priorities are a little wayward and he needs to reassess his priorities a little better. Gordon Hair, 53, from Uttoxeter, Staffordshire (Ben Mitchell/PA) His priorities are all wrong. Graham Murfet, 77, a retired trade union official from Northfleet, Kent, said: My opinion of Rishi Sunak leaving the proceedings early is disgraceful. Graham Murfet, from Northfleet, Kent, called Mr Sunaks early departure disgraceful (Ben Mitchell/PA) He is the Prime Minister of Great Britain, those people fought on behalf of Great Britain, they defended Great Britain and he could not have the courtesy of seeing the whole thing through as our main political representative disgraceful. Scotlands 2024 Euro 2024 send-off turned into a damp squib after they let slip a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 with Finland at Hampden Park. After a dull first 45 minutes of a warm-up game which lacked intensity, captain Andy Robertsons cut-back was turned into his own net by Finnish defender Arttu Hoskonen in the 54th minute before striker Lawrence Shankland headed in a second four minutes later for his third goal in dark blue. Finland substitute Benjamin Kallman a former Dundee player reduced the deficit with a header in the 72nd minute before fellow substitute Oliver Antman levelled from the spot after veteran keeper Craig Gordon on as substitute to make his 75th appearance conceded the spot-kick with a challenge on Tomas Galvez. Craig Gordon, left, collides with Finlands Tomas Galvez to concede a late penalty (Steve Welsh/PA) Bristol City striker Tommy Conway was able to make his debut as a second-half substitute and almost grabbed a late winner but after qualifying for a second successive Euros last October, the time for tinkering is over. Scotland travel to Germany on Sunday for the opening match against the host nation next Friday night before they take on Switzerland and Hungary in their next two games, with the aim of getting the country into the knockout stages of a major tournament for the first time. Clarke had lost attackers Lyndon Dykes and Ben Doak from his squad and replaced them with Conway and Lewis Morgan, who won his last cap six years ago. Both were on the bench but defender Anthony Ralston and Shankland were notable starters while defender John Souttar reported to be one of the two players along with Gordon who would be cut from the squad was nowhere to be seen. Former Celtic striker Teemu Pukki and Aberdeen defender Richard Jensen were in the Finnish side who almost took the lead in the 10th minute, Scotland defender Kieran Tierney blocking a goal-bound shot from Casper Terho before keeper Angus Gunn saved Pukkis close-range header seconds later. Finlands Teemu Pukki, right, attempts to chip Scotland goalkeeper Angus Gunn (Steve Welsh/PA) The Finland striker had another opportunity in the 16th minute but cleared the bar with a lob from 14 yards, while at the other end Shankland hooked a shot over the bar from the edge of the box. The home side were almost caught by a counter-attack in the 35th minute but this time Terhos shot was saved by Gunn. Billy Gilmours drive from the edge of the box early in the second half was well saved by Finland substitute keeper Viljami Sinisalo before Ralston took a tumble over the byline and appeared to take a knock but soon got to his feet. Ralston then had to shrug off a crunching tackle by Niilo Maenpaa before the Scots got the breakthrough. Tierney sent Robertson racing down the left flank and his pass into the centre was intercepted by Hoskonen, with the ball speeding past Sinisalo. John McGinn, Lawrence Shankland and Andy Robertson, left to right, celebrate Scotlands first goal (Owen Humphreys/PA) Then Robertsons cross to the back post was brilliantly headed in by the off-balance Shankland to get the supporters energised further. Shankland soon gave way to debutant Conway, with Greg Taylor on for Robertson before Robin Lod had the ball in the Scotland net only to be ruled offside. In the 69th minute Gordon replaced Gunn and the 41-year-old was given a rousing reception before silence accompanied Kellmans header from Antmans cross. Then Gordon took out Galvez in his attempt to cut out a cross and Antman slotted in the penalty to put a dampener on the night, although it took a great save from Sinisalo to stop Conways header in added time. It was a goodbye to remember. Members of the Seattle Humane team were buzzing as they said farewell to resident "short king," Frog, one last time. The pup was shown so much love as he left the building for his forever home, as a heartwarming video online shows. We have to imagine the team really relishes good days like this one. Even though it must not have been easy to say goodbye. As the footage shows, one of Frog's handlers was pleasantly surprised to see that the Australian Cattle Dog was leaving that day. So of course he had to get some last-minute head scratches in before Frog left. Related: Heartwarming Video of Rescue Dog Finally Getting His Forever Home Comes With a Precious Surprise Frog even put his paw on his handler's arm as he pet him. We'd like to think that was Frog's way of saying "thank you for everything." Eventually, the dog finally made it to his new owner, who was so patient as he (very slowly) climbed the stairs. "A fond farewell to our short king, Frog, now known as Fig!" the video's caption reads. It was a bitter-sweet goodbye for sure. But people in the comments section could tell he was going to be really happy. "He's gonna miss you but I don't think he wants to come back for more than a visit," joked one person. "Congratulations, Fig! Thank you to the adopter!!" someone else cheered. "The 'lil stems. I hope he has the best life," another commenter added. "I'm sooo happy you get the good days where you see them adopted," agreed another commenter. Adopting From Seattle Humane While this story had a happy ending, there are still so many animals at Seattle Humane who need a good home. That's where you can step in. The process is somewhat simple; all you need to do is pay the shelter a visit to find an animal you click with or check out their adoption listings online. You may need to fill out a pre-adoption questionnaire if your animal is in foster care. Then you'll reach out to Seattle Humane so they can place a hold the little guy. The holding process lets the shelter know to keep an eye out for any paperwork you need to fill out, tells them you've paid the holding fee, and is a tentative promise that you'll finalize the adoption within 24 hours. It goes fast! Once everything is in order, you're as good as gold. A team member will let you know if your adoption is approved and if all goes well, you too will slowly walk your new pal up the steps of the Seattle Humane for one last time. Goodbye is actually a great thing at a shelter. As Frog's handler understood completely. "Never come back!" he joked. 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. Rishi Sunak has apologised after skipping a major international ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day in order to carry out a General Election TV interview. The Prime Minister said it was a mistake not to stay in France for the international event after he had attended the earlier British ceremony in Normandy. Mr Sunak has come under intense criticism after it emerged he missed the event with fellow world leaders to head back to the UK for an ITV interview. The Prime Minister said: I care deeply about veterans and have been honoured to represent the UK at a number of events in Portsmouth and France over the past two days and to meet those who fought so bravely. After the conclusion of the British event in Normandy, I returned back to the UK. On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer and I apologise. The Prime Minister attended the UK national event at Portsmouth on Wednesday and then the British ceremony in Normandy on Thursday, the anniversary of the allied landings on D-Day. The 80th anniversary of D-Day has been a profound moment to honour the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to protect our values, our freedom and our democracy. This anniversary should be about those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. The last thing Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) June 7, 2024 But he left France before world leaders including US President Joe Biden gathered for the main international ceremony on Thursday afternoon. Instead, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron was the senior UK minister at the event. It was also an opportunity for Mr Sunaks rival for the keys to No 10, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to mingle with world leaders on the global stage. In his apology on Friday, Mr Sunak said: The 80th anniversary of D-Day has been a profound moment to honour the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to protect our values, our freedom and our democracy. This anniversary should be about those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. The last thing I want is for the commemorations to be overshadowed by politics. Mr Sunak was condemned by political rivals and the decision has also caused unease in Tory ranks. In Rishi Sunaks absence, Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron lined up with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden at Omaha Beach (Abaca Press/Alamy Stock Photo) The Prime Ministers apology came while childrens minister David Johnston was touring broadcast studios, struggling to defend Mr Sunaks decision. On Times Radio he was confronted with a message from one Conservative activist who said they wonder whether I should bother going out to knock doors for the party when the Prime Minister seems to be doing all he can to lose the election. Sir Craig Oliver, who was Lord Camerons No 10 communications chief, said Mr Sunak stood accused of not getting what it is to be Prime Minister. The D-Day events were known about long before Mr Sunak called the General Election. I think if youre planning these things, youve got to say look, thats going to block the Prime Minister out. Its a very important moment for the country. But its also a very important moment to show that youre being prime ministerial, Sir Craig told BBC Radio 4s Today programme. And the problem for Rishi Sunak this morning is hes accused of not getting what it is to be a Prime Minister and what his duties are as a Prime Minister. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer during the UK national commemorative event for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, held at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, Normandy (Jane Barlow/PA) Sir Craig also criticised the Tory campaign for sending childrens Mr Johnston out without knowing what to say about the Prime Ministers actions. It was pretty clear that the Conservative campaign was going to be massively on the backfoot today, he said. The Prime Ministers actions were seized on by political opponents, not least Reform UK which hopes to eat into Tory support. Reforms leader Nigel Farage said: I was honoured to help raise 100,000 for the Taxi Charity to send veterans back to Normandy. It was a pleasure to meet them at the various events. Rishi Sunak could not even be bothered to attend the international event above Omaha Beach. Who really believes in our people, him or me? Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said Mr Sunaks actions had brought shame to the office of Prime Minister. One of the greatest privileges of the office of Prime Minister is to be there to honour those who served, yet Rishi Sunak abandoned them on the beaches of Normandy, Sir Ed said. He has brought shame to that office and let down our country. I am thinking right now of all those veterans and their families he left behind and the hurt they must be feeling. It is a total dereliction of duty and shows why this Conservative Government just has to go. The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, appeared during the UK national commemorative event for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, in Ver-sur-Mer, Normandy, France (Chris Jackson/PA) For Labour, shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth said: Yesterdays D-Day commemorations were about remembering the bravery of all those who serve our country. In choosing to prioritise his own vanity TV appearances over our veterans, Rishi Sunak has shown what is most important to him. It is yet more desperation, yet more chaos, and yet more dreadful judgement from this out of touch Prime Minister. The Prime Minister sat down with ITV on Thursday to defend claims he had made about Labours tax plans, having left commemoration events in France before the gathering of the world leaders on Omaha Beach. The broadcaster said the timing of the interview, which will not be aired in full until next week, had been offered by the Conservatives. He had appeared in Normandy earlier in the day to pay tribute to veterans but returned to Britain before the ceremony was over, while his rival Sir Keir remained alongside Mr Biden, Emmanuel Macron and the Prince of Wales. It later emerged that Mr Sunak had given a broadcast interview on the same day, a clip of which was shared by broadcaster Paul Brand. Mr Brand told ITV News At Ten: Today was the slot we were offered we dont know why. A retired FBI agent believes the methodical way suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann planned his alledged murders on Long Island makes him a "better" killer than Bryan Kohberger, who is accused of brutally stabbing four college students to death in Idaho in 2022. Heuermann, 60, was arraigned Thursday in the deaths of two more women - Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla - adding to the charges he already faces for allegedly killing four other women and leaving their remains along the Long Island shoreline over the past three decades. Prosecutors said they uncovered a "planning document" on Heuermann's hard drive on how he carried out "his kills with excruciating detail." Jennifer Coffindaffer, the retired FBI agent, wrote on X that Heuermann, an architect, "planned his murders so well." "He outlined when, where and how. His detail is like a law enforcement Mini-operations plan, but for murder. I believe #BryanKohberger, if found guilty, was similar to RH, but RH was better, and there was less technology when he started so he got away with it for years and years," she said in the posting. "But for the new task force, would he ever have been caught? I believe there are so many more. P.S. He studied those who studied serial killers. #LISK #GILGO," she added, linking to court documents that outlined Heuermann's blueprint for killing. #RexHeuermann planned his murders so well. He outlined when, where and how. His detail is like a law enforcement Mini-operations plan, but for murder. I believe #BryanKohberger, if found guilty, was similar to RH, but RH was better, and there was less technology when he pic.twitter.com/nHS9VblKd5 Jennifer Coffindaffer (@CoffindafferFBI) June 6, 2024 Prosecutors in Suffolk County said Heuermann deliberately hunted his victims. "We allege that this document evinces the defendant's intent in committing the charged crimes, that his intent was, specifically, to locate these victims, to hunt them down and to bring them under his control and to kill them," District Attorney Ray Tierney said Thursday at a news conference. Kohberger is accused of fatally stabbing University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, in an off-campus apartment they shared in the early morning of Nov. 13, 2022. Autopsies of the victims showed that they had all been stabbed numerous times. Heuermann is also charged in the killings of four other women - Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello and Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Scotlands First Minister has branded the Prime Ministers decision to leave the D-Day commemorations in Normandy early a breathtakingly terrible decision. Rishi Sunak attended the early part of the event in France on Thursday, but returned to the UK ahead of a gathering of world leaders including US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron on Omaha Beach. Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron remained in France, along with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer. The Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer and John Swinney all attended the commemorations on Thursday (Dylan Martinez/PA) Mr Sunak apologised on Friday morning, but the attacks from his political opposition continued. Speaking at a campaign event in Glasgow on Friday, Mr Swinney said the Prime Minister made a foolish decision to turn his back on the D-Day commemorations. I think its a truly, breathtakingly terrible decision on a number of counts, he said. One, it was disrespectful to the veterans for the Prime Minister to leave as he did. Secondly, there was a major gathering of international leaders at which the president of the United States, the chancellor of Germany, the president of France, the president of Ukraine, a variety of international leaders were present where I would have thought the Prime Minister would have wanted to be seen. Mr Sunak, he said, still remains the Prime Minister despite the ongoing General Election campaign and he should have remained to represent the international interests of the United Kingdom. In a speech, Mr Swinney said he had not engaged with the election campaign in the preceding 48 hours to focus on his duties as First Minister in commemorating the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. The decision, he continued, tells us all we need to know about the judgment of the Prime Minister. The 80th anniversary of D-Day has been a profound moment to honour the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to protect our values, our freedom and our democracy. This anniversary should be about those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. The last thing Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) June 7, 2024 In his apology on Friday, Mr Sunak said: The 80th anniversary of D-Day has been a profound moment to honour the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to protect our values, our freedom and our democracy. This anniversary should be about those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. The last thing I want is for the commemorations to be overshadowed by politics. I care deeply about veterans and have been honoured to represent the UK at a number of events in Portsmouth and France over the past two days and to meet those who fought so bravely. After the conclusion of the British event in Normandy, I returned back to the UK. On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer and I apologise. Speaking to broadcasters later on Friday, the Prime Minister reiterated his apology, but pushed for the issue not to be politicised. I think its important though, given the enormity of the sacrifice made, that we dont politicise this. The focus should rightly be on the veterans who gave so much, he said. I had the honour and privilege of speaking to many of them and their families, hearing their stories, expressing my gratitude personally to them. But Im someone who will always admit when Ive made a mistake and thats what youll always get from me. Scotlands First Minister John Swinney has told of his bond with the Swifties, before going on to name his favourite song by the US singer. During a General Election campaign event in Glasgow on Friday, Mr Swinney was asked by a journalist to name his top three Taylor Swift songs, prompting peals of laughter from the audience. The First Minister replied that he had felt a bond with the Swifties as Taylor Swift fans are known since Loch Tay in his Perthshire North Holyrood constituency was temporarily renamed Loch Tay Tay in honour of the stars arrival in Scotland this week. To further laughter from the gathered audience of SNP activists and journalists, Mr Swinney said his favourite Swift song is her 2019 single You Need To Calm Down which he erroneously referred to as Youve Got To Calm Down. Taylor Swift is starting the UK leg of her Eras tour in Edinburgh on Friday (PA) Mr Swinney said: First of all, I really welcome Taylor Swifts journey to Scotland, and the fact her tour is starting off in Scotland. I think thats a massive, exciting opportunity. The fact that the most beautiful place on the planet, Loch Tay, has been renamed Loch Tay Tay creates a new bond between me and the Swifties as I represent Loch Tay or Loch Tay Tay so thats absolutely fantastic, and I do feel that bond with the Swifties really strongly. My very favourite Taylor Swift song is, and youll appreciate this, is Youve Got To Calm Down. Swift is kicking off the UK leg of her Eras tour with three performances at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Waitrose has snapped up restaurant meal kit brand Dishpatch, expanding the retailers direct-to-consumer business. The finish-at-home meal kit business was founded in 2020 and offers customers meals designed by celebrity chefs including Angela Hartnett, Michel Roux Jr and Rick Stein. Waitrose the grocery arm of the John Lewis Partnership said it sees significant opportunities for Dishpatch following the deal. Dishpatch customers can order food from more than 40 menus, with food and wine delivered on Fridays and dishes pre-prepared to be finished and served at home. The companies confirmed Peter Butler will continue as Dishpatch chief executive. James Bailey, executive director for Waitrose, said: Waitrose sees significant opportunities for Dishpatch, which works with some of Britains most respected chefs and restaurants. We have shared values in serving our customers the best quality food and were looking forward to working together. While our immediate focus will be helping Dishpatch grow its core meal kit business, we are also looking forward to working with the team to bring further new and exciting food experiences to Waitrose customers. Mr Butler, founder and chief executive of Dishpatch, said: Since launching in 2020, our mission at Dishpatch has always been to bring the most exciting, high-quality restaurant food into more peoples lives. Were thrilled to be partnering with Waitrose, whose reputation has been built on the quality of their food. With such aligned values, were excited to bring our meal kits to a wider audience and exploring new opportunities beyond that. Zuber Issa has sold his stake in Asda to the supermarket chains private equity backer TDR Capital. The sale brings TDR Capitals share in the supermarket group to 67.5%, while 22.5% is still owned by Zubers brother, Mohsin. The deal is set to complete in the third quarter of this year, the company said on Friday. Zuber and Mohsin Issa bought Asda from Walmart in 2020, in a 6.8 billion deal with the backing of TDR Capital. Walmart still holds a 10% stake. With the divestment of my Asda shares, I will now turn my attention towards leading and managing the remaining EG UK forecourt sites that I have personally acquired, and spend more time on my charitable endeavours The private equity firm is also heavily invested in the Issa brothers petrol station forecourts business, EG Group. Zuber Issa will also step down as co-chief executive of EG Group after reaching an agreement to buy its remaining UK forecourt business and some food service sites for 228 million. EG Group said it will use the cash to repay debt and shore up its balance sheet. Zuber will keep his shareholding in EG Group and continue as a non-executive director, while his brother Mohsin will become sole CEO. Zuber Issa said: With the divestment of my Asda shares, I will now turn my attention towards leading and managing the remaining EG UK forecourt sites that I have personally acquired, and spend more time on my charitable endeavours. I am pleased to see TDR increasing its investment in Asda. With Mohsin and TDRs ongoing focus and shareholding, I am confident that Asda will achieve its growth ambitions. Gary Lindsay and Tom Mitchell, managing partners of TDR Capital, said: We first invested into Asda over three years ago, seeing a huge opportunity to cement its position as one of the UKs leading retail brands. As majority owners, we will continue to work closely with the Asda management team and colleagues across the business to support the ambitious strategy, which we believe is the right one to continue to move Asda forward. The deal comes as Asda continues its hunt for a chief executive after Mohsin Issa handed over the running of the supermarket as part of a revamp of the chain. Mohsin said earlier this year that he was carrying out a reset of the company before hiring a new chief. In April, Asda revealed its underlying earnings swelled by a quarter last year with growth in food and clothing sales. Meanwhile, the GMB union said the deal would spell bad news for shoppers and staff, accusing TDR Capital of asset-stripping at the supermarket. The union has previously claimed the owners slashed an estimated eight million staff hours from the shop floor in the business to boost profits. Asda denied the claims at the time, pointing to investment in stores and the launch of the supermarkets loyalty app, Asda Rewards, as evidence that the company is growing. On Friday, Nadine Houghton, GMB national officer, said: TDR Capital have serious questions to answer about their asset-stripping of Asda. Their private equity ownership has already been bad for consumers with Asda now the most expensive retailer for fuel and bad for staff, with millions of working hours cut from the shop floor. Further involvement from TDR can only spell more bad news. Bosses must change course to protect Asda workers and stop this British retailer further losing more market share. Asda was named the UKs most expensive supermarket fuel retailer earlier this week, according to RAC analysis. An Asda spokesperson said the supermarket disputes the findings of the fuel survey. MINNEAPOLIS (AP) A jury convicted five Minnesota residents and acquitted two others on Friday for their roles in a scheme to steal more than $40 million from a program that was supposed to feed children during the coronavirus pandemic. The case received widespread attention after someone tried to bribe a juror with a bag of $120,000 in cash. That juror was dismissed before deliberations began, and a second juror who was told about it also was dismissed. An FBI investigation of the attempted bribe continues, with no arrests announced. After the verdicts were read, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson called the attempted bribe an attack on our criminal justice system and told reporters that authorities would investigate with all of their resources. He made no other comment on that issue, and expressed satisfaction at the convictions in the fraud case. "They lied and they fraudulently claimed to be feeding millions of meals to children in Minnesota during COVID. The defendants took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to defraud the state of Minnesota and to steal tens of millions of dollars, Thompson said. This conduct was not just criminal, it was depraved and brazen. Defense attorneys argued at trial that their clients provided real meals to real people. The seven people were the first of 70 to stand trial in what federal prosecutors have called one of the nations largest COVID-19-related frauds, exploiting rules that were kept lax so that the economy wouldnt crash during the pandemic. More than $250 million in federal funds was taken in the Minnesota scheme overall, with only about $50 million of it recovered, authorities said. The food aid came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and was administered by the state, which funneled the meal money through nonprofit organizations and other partners. As rules were eased to speed support to the needy, the defendants allegedly produced invoices for meals never served, ran shell companies, laundered money, indulged in passport fraud and accepted kickbacks. Federal prosecutors said just a fraction of the money the defendants received through the Feeding our Future nonprofit went to feed low-income kids, while the rest was spent on luxury cars, jewelry, travel and property. The defendants in this trial faced a mix of multiple counts including conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and federal programs bribery. Each defendant was charged based on their alleged role, and each had their own attorney. In the end, the jurors delivered a split verdict. Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Mohamed Jama Ismail, Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff and Hayat Mohamed Nur were found guilty on most of the counts against them. Prosecutors have described Abdiaziz Farah as a ringleader of the seven and faced the most counts; he was convicted on 23 of 24 counts against him. Said Shafii Farah and Abdiwahab Maalim Aftin were acquitted on all counts they faced. Aftin was charged with three counts, the least of all seven defendants. Andrew Garvis, an attorney for Aftin, said afterward that the case was complex. The government had a lot of evidence, and the jury took their time in consideration," Garvis said. "Thats what we want in the system, so we appreciate it. Steven Schleicher, Said Farah's attorney, said his client is grateful to have been acquitted. Attorneys for Abdimajid Nur, Hayat Nur, Abdiaziz Farah and Ismail did not immediately respond to phone messages seeking comment. Frederick Goetz, an attorney for Shariff, declined to comment. The common thread in the defense arguments was that investigators failed to dig deep enough to see they served real meals to real kids. Sentencing hearings will be scheduled at a later date. An Associated Press analysis published last June documented how thieves across the country plundered billions in federal COVID-19 relief dollars. Fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion, while another $123 billion was wasted or misspent. Combined, the loss represented 10% of the $4.3 trillion the government disbursed by last fall. Nearly 3,200 people have been charged and about $1.4 billion in stolen pandemic aid has been seized, according to the U.S. Justice Department. After the juror reported the bribe attempt in the Minnesota case, the judge ordered all seven defendants to surrender their cellphones so that investigators could look for evidence. She also ordered all seven taken into custody, and sequestered the jury. According to an FBI agents affidavit, a woman rang the doorbell at the home of Juror #52 in the Minneapolis suburb of Spring Lake Park the night before the case went to the jury. A relative answered the door and was handed a gift bag with a curly ribbon and images of flowers and butterflies. The woman said it was a present for the juror. The woman told the relative to tell Juror #52 to say not guilty tomorrow and there would be more of that present tomorrow, the agent wrote. After the woman left, the relative looked in the gift bag and saw it contained a substantial amount of cash. The juror called police right after she got home and gave them the bag, which held stacks of $100, $50 and $20 bills totaling around $120,000. The woman who left the bag knew the jurors first name, the agent said. Names of the jurors have not been made public, but the list of people with access to it included prosecutors, defense lawyers and the seven defendants. It is highly likely that someone with access to the jurors personal information was conspiring with, at a minimum, the woman who delivered the $120,000 bribe, the FBI agent wrote, noting that the alleged fraud conspiracy at the heart of the trial involved electronic communications, including text messages and emails. Days later, while the remaining jurors were deliberating, FBI agents searched the home of Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, according to a neighbor who witnessed the search and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of safety concerns. The FBI confirmed agents were in the city where Farah lives, but did not elaborate. It was not clear if the search was connected to the bribery investigation. Federal charges of bribery of a juror and influencing a juror carry a maximum potential penalty of 15 years in prison. Eighteen other people pleaded guilty in the larger $250 million fraud scheme. Among those awaiting trial is Aimee Bock, the founder of Feeding our Future. She has maintained her innocence, saying she never stole and saw no evidence of fraud among her subcontractors. Father of the year should go to one gorilla at Zoo Atlanta in Georgia. The gorilla dad was caught monkeying around with his infant son Willie B. III by zoo officials, who then shared the footage of the little one having an extreme case of the gorilla giggles thanks to his dad. Willie B., Jr. and his son were having the time of their lives in the footage the zoo shared. What a good dad! The elder Willie B. was rolling around with his boy on the floor of their enclosure. Which caused the baby gorilla to release a series of giggles. So cute! Related: Gorilla At the Omaha Zoo Is So Gentle With His Pet Mouse We guess you could say it was the gorilla version of a tickle fight. And both dad and son were having a blast. "You can also see Willie B. III making a gorilla play face with his mouth wide open," the video's text overlay reads. "Willie B. III is obsessed with his dad and it is too sweet to handle," the zoo added in the caption. People in the comments section were smitten with the duo. "Omg it doesn't get much cuter than him," one person commented. "I wanna giggle with a gorilla," someone else added. "Gorilla daddies are the best!" another commenter exclaimed. "It's so good to see them again!! Willie is getting so big," argued one person. More About Willie B. III It's been a wonderful year for Willie B. III and his dad. The zoo first announced the birth of the gorilla back in May 2023. Willie B. III was born on April 24, 2023 to mom Shalia and Willie B., Jr. The baby is the first offspring between the two gorilla parents. Shalia had another offspring with a gorilla at another zoological organization. A few days later, Zoo Atlanta shared footage of Willie B. Jr meeting his son for the first time ever. And the meeting was pretty much everything. As the footage shows, Shalia was a little apprehensive before letting Willing B. Jr. come near their baby. The mom had the newborn cradled in her arms when dad came near. Hilariously, she gave him a very meaningful look, which was a probably huge warning that he'd better mind his manners around the little bub. It was the "ultimate protective mama look," the zoo joked in the text overlay. Thankfully, it seems like mom has loosened up a little bit and allowed dad and baby to play on their own. Resulting in one of the cutest moments between two animals that we've ever seen. 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. President Bidens reelection campaign co-Chair Mitch Landrieu called the critical Wall Street Journal report about the presidents performance that sparked pushback from White House officials and Biden allies a hit job. You have been to the White House. You have talked to the president. You all saw the president today. I can personally attest to this; I have worked there two years with him. I have been in many, many meetings with him. I thought that was a hit job, Landrieu told Fox News host Bret Baier on Thursdays Special Report. Landrieu, who worked as the infrastructure czar before leaving for the Biden campaign, added that the article, which was headlined Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping, didnt reflect the Biden that he knows. I think hes fit as a fiddle. Hes ready to go. He demonstrates that all the time. You will remember people kind of had him with one foot in the grave, and then he came out and he did the State of the Union address. You saw the president address the world today, Landrieu said, referring to Bidens speech from Normandy, France. Landrieu also said Biden is fine and hes ready to go, noting that former President Trump, 77, is less than four years younger than the 81-year-old Biden. Democrats have rallied to Bidens defense and taken issue with key parts of the Journal report, which included interviews with 45 people over several months. Theyve blasted the newspaper for largely citing the accounts of Republican officials who had spent time with the president, including former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Calif.). Bidens campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, told reporters earlier this week that the president is one of the strongest leaders when questioned on the story. The hosts of MSNBCs Morning Joe also criticized the story as a hit piece, with Joe Scarborough arguing its reporting is not close. Updated at 9:31 a.m. EDT Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. President Joe Biden on Friday summoned Americans to a defense of democracy, calling on the ideals of the Army Rangers who scaled the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc 80 years ago to warn against a drift toward authoritarianism and drawing an implicit contrast with rival Donald Trump. Speaking from a concrete bunker where the US troops sought to dismantle German artillery, Biden said those men none of whom are still alive today would want their modern day fellow citizens to do their part to protect against autocrats. Theyre not asking us to scale these cliffs, Biden said in his 15-minute speech. But theyre asking us to stay true to what America stands for. Theyre not asking us to give or risk our lives. But they are asking us to care for others in our country more than ourselves. Theyre asking us to do our job, to protect freedom in our time, to defend democracy, to stand up to aggression abroad and at home to be part of something bigger than ourselves, he went on. The clear skies and azure Atlantic water Biden spoke in front of was a distant cry from the harrowing day he was describing in his speech. But with war once more on Western Europes doorstep and a rival in the United States who has vowed to act as a dictator on his first day in office should he win in November, Biden sought to use D-Day as a call to modern vigilance. As we gather here today, its not just to honor those who showed such remarkable bravery that day, June 6, 1944. Its to listen to the echo of their voices. To hear them. Because they are summoning us, he said. In a week filled with poignant images featuring Americas Greatest Generation, the speech stood out as a call to modern-day action against an isolationist streak seeping into American politics and a rise of authoritarianism around the world. Not lost on White House aides planning the speech was the one delivered on the same spot 40 years ago by Ronald Reagan, a Republican who issued warnings against isolationism in the face of tyranny. Eighty years after the allied landings, the president drew a throughline from World War II to today. He didnt mention Trump by name, but the contrast was clear. President Joe Biden walks with Scott Desjardins, superintendent of Normandy American Cemetery and Pointe du Hoc, before delivering remarks on the legacy of Pointe du Hoc, and democracy around the world on Friday, June 7, in Normandy, France. - Evan Vucci/AP Biden has repeatedly cast Trumps embrace of authoritarian leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Koreas Kim Jong Un as a threat to democracy. The president, Sullivan continued, will really be drawing a throughline from World War II through the Cold War and the stand up of the greatest military alliance the world has ever known, the NATO alliance, to today, where we face once again war in Europe, where NATO has rallied to defend freedom and sovereignty in Europe. Biden, a senior administration official told CNN, will focus on the veterans of World War II and what we owe them and how we have to live up to their example and the power of democracy. It comes as Biden is facing duel international crises: In Ukraine, where the US is hoping to turn the tide of Russias offensive, and in the Middle East, where the Biden administration is calling on Hamas to accept an agreement on a ceasefire and hostage proposal. A monthslong delay in providing additional American assistance to Ukraine, prompted in part by resistance from Republicans aligned with Trump, led to setbacks on the battlefield and momentum for Russia. The strain of isolationism has led to concerns in Europe and elsewhere about what a return by Trump to the White House might portend. Biden announced a new aid package for Ukraine in a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday, touting the new funding for the war-torn region while apologizing for the delay. President Joe Biden holds a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris on Friday. - Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters You know, you havent bowed down, you havent yielded at all, you continue to fight in a way that is just remarkable, is just remarkable and were not going to walk away from you, Biden told the Ukrainian president. I apologize for the weeks of not knowing whats going to pass, in terms of funding, because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass that had the money from some of our very conservative members who were holding it up, but we got it done. Still, he took the opportunity to tout Fridays funding announcement, as well as the additional funding sent to Ukraine since he signed the bill in April. Since then, including today, Ive announced six packages of significant funding today Including today today Im also signing an additional package for $225 million to reconstruct the electric grid, he said. By speaking at Pointe du Hoc, Biden is harkening back to one of the most famous presidential speeches ever delivered, the 40th anniversary D-Day address by Reagan. Reagan delivered a forceful rebuke of authoritarianism framed through the lens of the bravery of the boys of Pointe du Hoc. The senior administration official said: Theres no way theres not going to be comparisons. That speech, like Bidens, occurred at a moment of contention with Russia. Flanked by the men who fought there, Reagan, another aging president running for reelection, made a forceful call for the power of democracy. You all knew that some things are worth dying for. Ones country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because its the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you, Reagan said. Like Biden, he also warned about American withdrawal from the world. Weve learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments, Reagan said then. unknown content item - Biden has taken centerpiece speeches on democracy on a traveling road show. It was a key theme of his 2022 State of the Union address as he defined the battle between democracy and autocracy as the key question of this moment in history. He said that the defense, protection, and preservation of American democracy was the central cause of my presidency as he honored the late GOP Sen. John McCain in Tempe, Arizona, in September 2023. He highlighted unified support for democracy ahead of the one-year anniversary of Russias invasion of Ukraine in Warsaw, Poland, in February 2023. And on the eve of the third anniversary of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, earlier this year, Biden cast the value Americans place on democracy as the most urgent question of our time. CNNs Kayla Tausche contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com President Biden on Thursday questioned whether former President Trump was talking about himself after his rival called an immigration executive order by the White House that was announced this week pathetic. Trump this week said Bidens executive order wont stop the invasion, its weak, and its pathetic, adding that he believed the order was just for show ahead of the debate coming up later this month. When asked by ABCs David Muir to respond to Trumps characterization of the order being weak and pathetic, Biden responded: Is he describing himself? Weak and pathetic? Come on, look, everybody knows whats happened, the president said. We had a deal, it was much broader than this, much better, much more accepted across the board, and he got on the phone and told the Republicans, dont support it. It will hurt me, it will help Biden. Biden was referring to the bipartisan border bill negotiated in the Senate, which Republicans blocked twice. As the deal was getting near, Trump urged the GOP to block it, assuring it would remain a major issue leading up to Election Day. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) as a result killed the border deal in February, calling it dead on arrival, and Trump in January told supporters that hes fine being blamed for tanking the bill. That deal included $20 billion for border security and would have given the federal government temporary authority to expel migrants when the average number of daily crossings exceeded a set threshold. It would have also ended catch and release protocols and raised standards for asylum screenings. Bidens order, meanwhile, would turn away migrants seeking asylum who cross the southern border illegally at times when there is a high volume of daily encounters. Earlier this week, Biden blamed Trump for leaving him no choice but to act on curbing the influx of migrants at the border after the bill failed. Muir interviewed Biden in France on Thursday morning, ahead of events to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Biden gave remarks on Thursday stressing the importance of alliances, subtly pushing back on Trumps America First agenda. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. The woman who claims to be the inspiration behind the stalker Martha Scott in the hit Netflix series "Baby Reindeer" has filed a lawsuit against the streaming service. Fiona Harvey is seeking $170 million in damages, alleging defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, gross negligence and violations of her right of publicity. The suit follows the phenomenal success of this year's series, starring 35-year-old Scottish writer and actor Richard Gadd, and is based on his personal experiences with a fan he has presented as a stalker who inundated him with some 41,000 emails, letters and hundreds of voice messages. She's played by his co-star Jessica Gunning. Harvey has claimed publicly that the character is based on her, but she denies being a stalker and denies sending him messages and calling him. "I don't think I sent him anything. There may have been a couple of emails with jokey banter, but that is it, Harvey told host Piers Morgan recently in an interview. Gadd has admitted in an interview with the Guardian that he "tweaked" his experiences "slightly to create dramatic climaxes." It's "very emotionally true, obviously," he said. "I was severely stalked and severely abused. But we wanted it to exist in the sphere of art, as well as protect the people it's based on," he said. Netflix has vowed to fight the suit. "We intend to defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadd's right to tell his story," a spokesperson for the streaming giant told the Guardian. Harvey's lawsuit accuses the company of doing nothing to confirm the "true story" that Gadd told or understand the relationship between Gadd and Harvey, if any. Furthermore, the "defendants told these lies and never stopped, because it was a better story than the truth, and better stories made money," the lawsuit argued. "Baby Reindeer" was a major winner at the Gotham TV Awards in New York this week and is expected to be a frontrunner when Emmy nominations are announced in July. Harvey maintains that "Netflix and Gadd destroyed her reputation, her character, and her life." The threat of bird flu to humans appears to be growing. As outbreaks of H5N1a dangerous strain of avian influenzacontinue to affect cows in the U.S., Canada, South America, Europe, and Asia, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on June 5 the first-ever case of a human infection with H5N2, a different strain of avian influenza. The infection was fatal. The case was first reported to the WHO on May 23 by health officials in Mexico City, where a 59-year-old man with several other health conditions was hospitalized. Before reporting shortness of breath, diarrhea, and nausea, the man had been bedridden for three weeks. Testing by the national lab showed that the man had H5N2, and further genetic sequencing confirmed the strain. Unlike the recent U.S. cases of H5N1 in people, the patient did not have any known exposure to infected animals. (However, outbreaks of H5N2 have recently been reported in poultry in Mexico.) The good news is that none of the patients close contacts or those caring for him in the hospital tested positive for the virus. What this means for people Avian influenza generally does not cause serious disease in people, and in previous cases of rare human infections, the virus did not spread easily from person to person. The first report of human infection with H5N2 doesnt really change anything in my mind, says Dr. Shira Doron, chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine Health System. Weve been seeing sporadic avian flu infection in humans for a long time, and it very rarely transmits to other humans. But like any avian flu, it bears watching to make sure it does not herald a new phenomenon. Questions that urgently need answering Genetic sequencing of the virus from the Mexican patient will be important, as it could reveal from which animal it likely arose, or whether there are any concerning changes signaling that the virus is evolving to spread more easily among people. Sequencing will also be critical to potentially answering some questions about how the bird flu virus is jumping into more mammalian species. There is likely a role here for different kinds of receptors in different species and in different tissues in those species, says Doron, since the virus seems to preferentially infect respiratory tissues in birds, mammary tissues in cows, and the conjunctiva, or eyes, in people. Read More: What Animal Studies Are Revealing About Their Mindsand Ours What is not clear is that in any new mammal infected, how the virus is introduced and how it is passing between them, she says. We still dont definitely have an understanding of how the virus is transmitting from cow to cow, because there are especially high concentrations in the mammary glands but not in the respiratory tract. That throws a wrench into our entire spectrum of understanding. The virus is inching closer to humans The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that H5N1 has been found in 11 house mice in New Mexico. Farms in the state have reported H5N1 outbreaks in cows, so its possible that the mice consumed unpasteurized milk from infected cows and became infected themselves. But that means the virus is inching closer to contact with people, since most people are more likely to encounter house mice than dairy cattle. Any house, any home, any lodging or campground could bring humans in close contact with mice, says Doron. In the U.S., health officials are monitoring for H5N1 in wastewater, which can provide an early signal for rises cases. Scientists with WastewaterSCANa collaboration between academic researchers and the health data company Verily that contributes data to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventionretested old samples from municipal sewage treatment plants and found H5N1 in the samples about a week before there were reports of a unknown illness in cows in Texas, where some of the first outbreaks occurred. Had we had testing in real time then, it definitely would have provided a leading edge [on the outbreak], says Marlene Wolfe, co-program director for WastewaterSCAN and an assistant professor of environmental health at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. Read More: Experts Cant Agree If Were Still in a Pandemic The group continues to monitor for H5N1 and will still do so into the fall and winter, when other influenza strains start to spread among people. That way, we'll be better able to determine if bird flu is having any impact on humans. Determining how big a threat avian influenza could be for people is a growing priority for health officials, and learning more about how the virus is moving from species to species is critical for making that assessment. For example, its not clear which tissue samples from the mice were positive, so its unknown whether the mice are transmitting the virus through urine or feces (which could pose a risk to people who might come into contact with them) or via other means. Cows, on the other hand, dont seem to excrete much virus in their urine or feces, so even though the virus is circulating in mammals, its not necessarily highly transmissible, says Doron. We could get lucky here. Nonetheless, some farmers have been culling sick cows to avoid widespread cases and the potential of infected, unsellable milk. And scientists should worry, since there is always potentially a first time that a genetic shift could mean more transmissibility in humans, says Doron. A wake-up call The H5N1 outbreaks and the first case of human H5N2 highlight the need for health officials to rethink how they monitor for flu. We didnt realize avian flu was circulating in cows for probably three months, says Doron. By the same token, there may be more H5N2 in Mexico in more species than birdsand we need to be doing more surveillance. We need to broaden our minds going forward to look for flu even in places where we dont think well find it. Contact us at letters@time.com. In his documentary "Brats," Andrew McCarthy makes a strong case that being labeled the Brat Pack had a detrimental impact on the careers of all the young stars involved from Ally Sheedy and Molly Ringwald to Rob Lowe and Emilio Estevez. But McCarthy, 61, rediscovered some serious perks in talking with Lowe, 60, for the new movie (now streaming on Hulu). Like the booze-filled night in the 1980s when young McCarthy and Lowe celebrated with Liza Minnelli at the famed Los Angeles eatery Spago and moved the party to Sammy Davis Jr.'s Beverly Hills mansion. Join our Watch Party! Sign up to receive USA TODAY's movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy in 1985 as featured in McCarthy's documentary "Brats," which examines the "Brat Pack" label for the young actors of that generation. Yes, it was the night that the Brat Pack met the legendary Rat Pack. Davis, along with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop, was part of the latter clique of entertainers in the '50s and '60s. McCarthy and Lowe still laugh about their memories of the wild bash in "Brats." "It's a classic Hollywood story," McCarthy tells USA TODAY. "I was just a kid from New Jersey. How do I end up partying at Sammy Davis Jr.'s house? As Rob points out in the documentary, that's the kind of stuff that happened in the Brat Pack." The surreal evening started when Lowe invited McCarthy to Spago, which the New York-based actor had not even heard of. When McCarthy arrived at Wolfgang Puck's famed eatery, he found a large group that included Lowe, his then-girlfriend Melissa Gilbert and Minnelli. The cocktails started flowing. At the end of the dinner, Minnelli left the table to make a call. She returned saying that everyone was welcome to go over to "Sammy's." McCarthy assumed it was a nightclub, but they rolled up to a Beverly Hills mansion. To McCarthy and Lowe's shock, legendary crooner Davis threw open the door. He even threw his arms open and shouted "Cats!" (his term of endearment). The night continued with a sober Davis pouring drinks from behind the sunken bar in his living room and regaling the group with stories. Davis was a fan of the generation of young actors taking over Hollywood who would have the reductive Brat Pack label thrust upon them. "I remember this like it was yesterday," says McCarthy. "Sammy was like, 'I got my eye on you, cats. I love what you do.' And he was smoking. It was like, 'Oh, my God, Sammy Davis Jr. is doing his point at me.' " The festivities carried on until the wee hours and ended with an exclamation point. "Liza Minnelli ended up driving me home in her Rolls-Royce," says McCarthy. "As we say in the documentary, it's the only time the Brat Pack met the Rat Pack. It was a very memorable night for sure." Looking for reliable local streaming options? Check out USA TODAY Home Internet for broadband service plans in your area. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brats documentary: Andrew McCarthy, Rob Lowe reveal Rat Pack party Bar pros consider how Cherry Heering differs from Maraschino, kirsch, and other cherry spirits, and how best to use it. Food & Wine / Janet Maples Compared to other spirits categories like whiskey, vodka, or gin, the world of cherry-flavored spirits is relatively small. Within that small category, however, there are products ranging from cherry brandies to cherry-infused spirits, cherry liqueurs, and fortified wines made with cherries. The scope of products within the cherry liqueur sub-category is surprisingly nuanced. There are bracingly sweet, stoplight-hued bottles, subtly sweet clear-colored variations, and well-known bartender favorites such as maraschino liqueur or Cherry Heering. Related: 3 Cocktails We Love with Cherry Heering Some cherry liqueurs are delicate and herbaceous, while others are rich and more similar in character to brandy or port. Many bottles highlight the fruit and botanicals foraged in places like the Dalmatian coast, Scandinavia, and even the United States. If youve ever wondered what the difference is between Cherry Heering, maraschino, kirsch, and other cherry liqueurs, and how to consume them, you're not alone. Weve consulted with top bartenders to help break down the differences and similarities. What is Cherry Heering? Cherry Heering is a Scandinavian cherry brandy that has been made for over 200 years, says Liana Oster, a London-based bartender who heads the beverage programs at Side Hustle and the NoMad Restaurant. In 1818, Peter Heering was running a grocery shop in Copenhagen known for its homemade cherry liqueur, made following a recipe given to him by the wife of a former mentor. It quickly gained popular recognition and became the European nobilitys drink of choice. Cherry Heering Fast Facts Bright red in color First made in 1818 Produced in Denmark and made exclusively from Danish cherries Rich and complex flavor profile - spiced cherry jam Today, the product is still made in Copenhagen and follows many of the same specs as the original recipe. It uses the Stevns cherry, a strain specific to Denmark which is extraordinarily aromatic. These cherries are crushed and soaked in spices, then aged for up to five years in casks, during which sugar is added. Bottled at 24% ABV, the final spirit is rich and complexly cherry flavored think black forest cake rather than a cherry gummy candy. The bright red liqueur is known for its rich and intense flavor, combining sweet cherries with hints of almond and spices, creating a versatile and indulgent spirit ideal for cocktails and desserts, says Sarah Elizabeth, the lead bartender at Hotel Swexan in Dallas. What is Cherry Liqueur? Cherry Heering is one of many micro styles of cherry liqueur. While all carry a commonality of certain flavors, production methods can vary. Some liqueurs are viscous, sweet, neon red, and meant to be added with a soft hand to drinks or served over desserts. Others are rich and aged, resulting in an almost port-like profile. Sometimes the cherry is the base of the spirit, other times cherry flavors are added to a neutral grain spirit (like a vodka). Many cherry brandies can be bottled at around 2530% ABV, while others can creep up to 40%. Two cherry liqueurs could vary vastly from each other, says Nick Hassiotis, owner of Foundation Social Eatery in Alpharetta, Georgia. Cherry Liqueur Fast Facts Can be made in a range of styles Produced around the world Can often utilize artificial flavors and colors Category includes Cherry Heering as well as maraschino In France, Grand Marnier offers a cherry-flavored liqueur, and producer Gabriel Boudier offers a brandy-based cherry liqueur. Giffard produces a cherry brandy and a creme de cerise, a liqueur made in the Loire Valley by macerating cherries in a beet-based liquor. In the United States, Leopold Bros makes a tart cherry liqueur out of Montmorency cherries grown in Northern Michigan. Its intense, slightly acidic, and less sweet than most cherry liqueurs. The Colorado-based distillery also makes a maraschino cherry liqueur by fermenting and distilling bright red Adriatic cherries. A separate distillate of coriander and Montmorency cherries is then added before the mixture is sweetened with clover honey. Then there are spirits like kirsch (German for cherry water): an unaged and unsweetened eau de vie made by distilling fermented cherry pits in an effort to subdue the sweetness. Arguably the most famous cherry liqueur is maraschino liqueur, a clear, complex liqueur made from sour marasca cherries. Producers such as Luxardo distill cherries, fruit, pits, stems, and all, to create a spirit with subtle almond, herbal, and slightly bitter-sweet cherry notes. Its an essential ingredient in many classic cocktails like the Aviation, Last Word, Red Hook, Hemingway Daiquiri, and more. Whats the difference between Cherry Heering and other cherry liqueurs? Compared to something like maraschino, Cherry Heering is more intense and sweet, as well as ruby red in hue compared to maraschino's clear appearance. Cherry Heering differs from others in color it's darker than most cherry liqueurs, [and in] the spice profile, and the sweetness level, says Charles Friedrichs, beverage director at The Jones Assembly in Oklahoma City. Additionally, while other cherry liqueurs are permitted to utilize artificial flavors and colors, Cherry Heering can only be made from Danish cherries, a neutral grain spirit, and spice, says Max Goldberg, the beverage director at The Peninsula Beverly Hills. The process of crushing the whole Danish cherries with the pits imparts an almond-like aroma to the liqueur which is most notably found in the Blood & Sand cocktail as well as the Singapore Sling. "Cherry Heering differs from others in color it's darker than most cherry liqueurs, [and in] the spice profile, and the sweetness level." Charles Friedrichs, beverage director at The Jones Assembly in Oklahoma City" In cocktails, the liqueur is more versatile than one would assume. Cherry Heering is really useful in many classic cocktail variations. It brings fruitiness and body, says Stanislav Harcinik of Mirror Bar in Bratislava. Hes partial to the Singapore Sling and the Blood & Sand, which combines equal parts scotch, sweet vermouth, Cherry Heering, and fresh orange juice. Veteran bartender Lynnette Marrero, of Speed Rack and Masterclass, notes that the main differences between Cherry Heering and other cherry liqueurs lies in their flavor profiles and production methods. "Cherry Heering typically has a more pronounced herbal note and is produced by macerating cherries in spirits, which contributes to its rich flavor and complexity. This is not maraschino or kirsch, she says. For more Food & Wine news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on Food & Wine. Icons Diana Ross and Eminem bookended a legendary Detroit concert Thursday night against the backdrop of Michigan Central Station, highlighting a night of phenomenal music that ranged from Motown to rap to gospel to techno to rap. Energy oozed through the crowd of all ages. Eminem was not listed as a performer in advance, though he was an executive producer for the show, which was enough to draw out fans hoping he would take the stage. The crowd erupted when Bill Ford, Ford Motor Co. executive chair and the driving force behind the depot's restoration, introduced the famed rapper, who was initially backed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. After Eminem performed his new song "Houdini," Jelly Roll joined him on the stage. Then legendary Detroit rapper Trick Trick joined Eminem for "Welcome 2 Detroit." The show concluded with "Not Afraid." At the end, Eminem shouted, "Detroit, we love you." Diana Ross performs during the "Live From Detroit: The Concert at Michigan Central" at Roosevelt Park in front of the Michigan Central Station in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood on Thursday, June 6, 2024. Ross, who spent her teen years in the Brewster-Douglass public housing community in Detroit and went on to become a global superstar, took the stage at Michigan Central Station on Thursday night to open a much-anticipated historic celebration watched from around the world. Large screens at the stage and in the crowd displayed a countdown: 5-4-3-2-1, the crowd yelled. Ross wore a spectacular orange gown, with fans erupting with applause and dancing to the legend singing her classic, Im Coming Out. She shared with the audience, many appearing to be in awe of her, "I'm so grateful for all the blessings in my life." The concert, produced by Eminem and televised on Peacock with an NBC special ahead, included a long list of talent, including Illa J, Fantasia, Sky Jetta, Theo Parrish and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Stories of Detroit through the depot and musicians The event celebrated the reopening of Michigan Central, a 1913 Beaux Arts-style building that closed in 1988 and rapidly became a symbol of Detroit's demise and hopelessness. Ford Motor Co. bought the property in 2018 and brought in craftspeople from around the world to restore the building to its glory. Highlights included The Clark Sisters praising Jesus as thousands of arms waved rhythmically. Common and Slum Village honored the memory of revered record producer J Dilla, who died at age 32 of a blood disorder and lupus. His mother thanked the crowd for their love and kindness. People in the crowd made peace signs with their hands as she spoke. Big Sean spoke of overcoming bankruptcy and hopelessness to reach the other side. He talked to Detroiters about going through what they're going through, "making the best with what you've got." In a tribute to Bob Seger, Melissa Etheridge played a mean the guitar while singing "Mainstreet." Jelly Roll inspired the crowd to join in singing "Turn the Page" as Etheridge accompanied the new Grammy winner on guitar. By 9:45 p.m., southwest Detroit native Jack White took the stage to launch a high-energy series of songs including "Seven Nation Army" as fans jumped up and down and sang back at him. White ended his set with an impressive display of pyrotechnics the stage had the appearance of being truly on fire to the delight of the crowd. With Michigan Central in the backdrop, it seemed almost a not so subtle nod to the citys history and motto in a city of rebirth, reborn from flames. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said Detroiters who live in the city and even those who live in other parts of the state and the country feel something that's hard to put into words as they witness the resurrection of the once-abandoned 18-story building in Corktown that was once covered in graffiti and crumbling. "You have to be a longtime Detroiter to understand this, the pain of what was taken away from us the auto plants moving out, the movie theaters moving out, the restaurants moving out, our neighbors moving out. All of that is turning around. To see this come back, for a lot of people, its a night of deep pride," Duggan said. He credited Bill Ford, 67, executive chair of Ford Motor Co., and the great-grandson of founder Henry Ford as the visionary behind the resurrection of the train station at 2001 15th St. in Corktown that carried soldiers off to war and brought the lucky ones home again. His mother, Martha Firestone Ford, who turns 99 in September, wanted to attend and Bill Ford made sure she did. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Eminem, Diana Ross perform at historic Detroit train station reopen NEW YORK (AP) A former New Jersey attorney general testified Thursday at Sen. Bob Menendez's bribery trial that the Democrat twice tried to discuss a pending criminal case with him, requests he considered pretty unprecedented. Gurbir Grewal was called as a witness by prosecutors to support their claim that Menendez tried to interfere in a criminal case at the request of one of three New Jersey businessmen who were allegedly paying him bribes including gold bars, hundreds of thousands of dollars and a luxury car. Menendez, 70, is on trial in Manhattan federal court with two of the businessmen. The three have pleaded not guilty. The third businessman has pleaded guilty and is expected to testify. Grewal, now head of enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission, recalled Menendez first reaching out to him in early 2019, shortly after he'd taken the job as New Jersey's top law enforcement officer. He testified that a cousin who was close friends with Menendez asked if she could pass along Grewal's personal cellphone number to Menendez and he agreed. Menendez called late one afternoon, interrupting a meeting, but Grewal said he stepped outside the office to take the call. After some small talk, Menendez expressed a concern that some state investigators were treating Hispanics in the trucking industry different than workers who were not Hispanic, Grewal said. Grewal said he asked Menendez if the concern arose from a criminal matter and when he was told that it did, he followed his policy and directed Menendez to have a defense lawyer contact the prosecutors or the judge about any relevant matter. He said the 5- to 6-minute phone call ended shortly thereafter without the senator saying any more about it. Grewal said he did not mention it to any prosecutors in his office because he didn't want anyone working the case to feel pressure or intimidated. He said he wanted them to make any decisions about their cases free from anything from the outside. The following September, Grewal testified, Menendez requested a meeting in his Newark, New Jersey, office and Grewal went, bringing along another top official, his deputy attorney general. Grewal said he thought the senator wanted to talk about the policies of his office, but Menendez instead again brought up his complaint about the treatment of Hispanics after seeming surprised that he brought someone with him, which Grewal said he commonly did when meeting with lawmakers. Grewal said he asked if his complaint again pertained to the criminal case he'd referenced in the phone call earlier in the year and Menendez said that it did. Grewal said he repeated his earlier instruction to have the defense lawyers deal with any issues with the judge or prosecutors handling the case. The impression I got was that he did not like how the matter was being handled, but he didnt say how it should be handled, Grewal testified. Grewal said the conversation ended soon after he told Menendez: I cannot talk to you about this. After leaving the meeting, he and the deputy attorney general who accompanied him were standing by the car that would carry them away when his colleague said: Whoa, that was gross, Grewal recalled. On cross-examination, Menendez defense attorney Avi Weitzman elicited from Grewal that the senator was extremely polite and respectful in all of our interactions. When Weitzman asked him if Menendez asked him to look into the matter or threatened to haul you before Congress, Grewal chuckled and said no such conversation occurred. I wasn't afraid of retribution, Grewal said, adding that Menendez just moved on with small talk when the attorney general shut down the inquiry. He did not pressure me. Still, Grewal said a lawmaker reaching out about a particular ongoing criminal case was pretty unprecedented in my experience. Weitzman elicited from Grewal that a state legislator and the governor's chief of staff had sought to speak about a case while he was attorney general. As Menendez left the courthouse Thursday, he told a reporter in Spanish: Advocating for Hispanic rights is not a crime. ___ This story was first published June 6, 2024. It was updated June 7, 2024, to correct a translation of what Menendez said in Spanish as he left the courthouse. Menendez said, Advocating for Hispanic rights is not a crime, not Advocating for human rights is not a crime. ___ AP staff writer Cedar Attanasio contributed to this report. WILMINGTON, Del. U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika sent the jury home early on Friday afternoon at Hunter Biden's federal gun trial. The defense case, which featured testimony from Biden's eldest daughter, Naomi Biden, will resume Monday morning. Noreika dismissed jurors during a lunch break. Her decision came after the prosecution rested following three-and-a-half days of testimony from 10 witnesses. Defense witnesses included Hunter Biden's eldest child, lawyer Naomi Biden, who testified her father appeared in good health around the time he bought the handgun at the center of the politically fraught prosecution. He seemed great and he seemed hopeful, Naomi Biden said of a meeting with her father in October 2018, around the time he purchased a .38-cal. revolver and allegedly lied on the background form. Questioned by prosecutors, she said, I knew he was struggling with addiction after the death of his brother, Beau Biden. After my uncle died, things got bad. Biden faces three felony charges that he lied on a federal gun form that asked if he was addicted to drugs. His defense is expected to call two or three witnesses including James Biden, the presidents brother, who is expected to describe paying for his nephews stints in drug rehabilitation. Hunter Biden will decide whether to testify after the other defense witnesses are finished, defense lawyer Abbe Lowell said. President Joe Biden has said he won't pardon his son if there is a guilty plea. More: Hunter Biden trial: Why his gun case hinges on one fateful day when he wasn't using drugs These were the highlights of Friday's testimony from the USA TODAY Network. Judge ends trial early at lunch break. Defense resumes Monday U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika ended proceedings in Hunter Biden's trial early Friday. She sent jurors home during the lunch break and said testimony would resume Monday. Defense lawyer Abbe Lowell Lowell was still finalizing his list of witnesses, and was expected to file paperwork asking Noreika to dismiss the case. On Monday, Lowell he could call a police officer who became involved in the investigation after Biden's sister-in-law, Hallie Biden, tossed .38-cal. revolver into a grocery store trash can 11 days after he purchased it. Lowell could also call James Biden, President Joe Biden's brother, to testify about paying for his nephew's drug rehabilitation program. --Xerxes Wilson Hunter Biden's trial breaks for lunch U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika's courtroom is emptying out for a one-hour lunch break. Prosecution implies Hunter Biden was furtive during NY visit to his daughter Before she was dismissed from the witness stand on Friday, prosecutors walked Naomi Biden through text messages that seemed to indicate that Hunter Biden was avoiding his daughter. Did he tell you he was meeting with someone named Frankie? That he had Frankie come to his hotel room? That he gave him the access key to his Wells Fargo account? prosecutor Leo Wise asked about an October 2018 visit to New York. In another message from around the same time, she told her father: I cant take this. I miss you so much. I just want to hang out with you. Hunter Biden replied: I am sorry Ive been so unreachable. It is not fair to you. Under questioning from the defense, Naomi Biden told the jury there was no confusion about whether she had time to spend with her father in New York. --Xerxes Wilson More: Hunter Biden's addiction memoir climbs the charts as prosecutors use it as a weapon in court Prosecutors ask Naomi Biden about New York trip Prosecutor Leo Wise asked Naomi Biden about texts she exchanged with her father Hunter Biden while they were in New York in October 2018, the month he bought a revolver at the center of his trial on gun charges. Naomi Biden had said he was doing great during the trip for her move. But Wise asked if she knew what her father was doing when he asked to reclaim his truck from her in the middle of the night. Do you know what your father was doing at 2 a.m. and why he was asking for the car then? Wise asked her. She said she did not. --Xerxes Wilson More: Secret Service agent protecting Joe Biden's granddaughter fires after group tried to break into SUV Who is Naomi Biden? Naomi Biden, 30, is Hunter Bidens eldest daughter with his first wife Kathleen Buhl. Like several other members of the countrys first family, she is a lawyer. She attended the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia Law School. The granddaughter of President Joe Biden, she lived in the White House with her then-fiance Peter Neal for a few months before the pair got married on the South Lawn in November 2022. She remains based in Washington, D.C. In November 2023, a Secret Service agent assigned to protect the presidents granddaughter opened fire after three people allegedly tried to break into a government vehicle parked in Georgetown near her home. Rachel Barber I knew he was struggling: Naomi Biden on her father's addiction Prosecutors asked Naomi Biden about her father Hunter Bidens drug addiction but she said she never saw him using drugs. I knew he was struggling with addiction, she said. Asked when the struggle began, Naomi Biden cited the death of Hunter Bidens brother, Beau, from brain cancer in 2015. After my uncle died, things got bad, she said. --Xerxes Wilson He seemed hopeful: Naomi Biden on her father Hunter Biden Naomi Biden testified that when she saw her father, Hunter Biden, in mid-October 2018, days after he purchased the gun central to the trial, his manner seemed similar to when he'd been in a rehabilitation program months earlier. She had driven her fathers truck to New York to move into a new apartment. And Hunter Biden had driven Joe Bidens Cadillac to New York because he needed his truck back, she testified. He seemed great and he seemed hopeful, she said. --Xerxes Wilson Naomi Biden testifies about her father's drug rehab Naomi Biden, who is the eldest of Hunter Bidens three children, told the jury about visiting her father in California during the summer of 2018 when he was rehabilitation from using crack cocaine. He seemed like the clearest he had been since my uncle died, Naomi Biden, a lawyer in Washington, D.C. said, referring to the late Beau Biden. He seemed really great. --Xerxes Wilson Naomi Biden takes the stand Naomi Biden, the eldest of Hunter Biden's five children, has taken the witness stand to testify in her father's defense. --Xerxes Wilson Defense focuses on Hunter Biden's federal gun screening form U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika refused to allow Hunter Bidens defense to introduce a second version of the federal form he filled out to buy a gun in 2018, but defense lawyer Abbe Lowell continued to scrutinize details of the form in questioning a gun shop worker. The initial form listed Bidens passport to verify his identity. The second version sent to investigators later included his vehicle registration. Lowell claimed the form was doctored and in pretrial hearings sought to explore that at trial. Gun shop worker Jason Turner testified that he wrote the vehicle registration into the form the day of the sale. That form is wrong, Turner said of the initial form. --Xerxes Wilson Defense grills worker who sold gun to Hunter Biden Defense lawyer Abbe Lowell asked gun store worker Jason Turner about how he approved the background check required to sell Hunter Biden a gun that is central to the charges in his federal trial. Lowell asked Turner about the color of ink used and about how Biden verified his address. Lowell has previously alleged the gun shop did not receive proper identification and annotated the form years later to indicate Hunter Biden presented vehicle registration documents as a supplemental identification. On the stand, Turner said he wrote that on the form the day of the sale. --Xerxes Wilson More: Joe Biden said he won't pardon Hunter Biden if he is convicted in felony gun trial Hunter Biden's first witness is a gun shop employee Jason Turner was an employee at the StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply in Talleyville, Del., and was working the day Hunter Biden bought the .38 Special revolver at the center of the criminal trial in October 2018. He said he ran background checks and made sales as part of his employment there. --Xerxes Wilson More: Hunter Biden's lawyer in gun trial also represented Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner Defense outlines expected witnesses from gun shop, grocery store Before the court went into a short recess, defense lawyer Abbe Lowell told U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika he intended to call the owner and the manager of the store that sold Hunter Biden the gun at the heart of the federal gun charges against him. Lowell also said he would call the manager of the grocery store where the gun was found after Bidens sister-in-law, Hallie Biden, threw it in a trash can 11 days after he bought it. A police officer called to the store will also be a witness, Lowell said. Lowell didnt mention calling any of Hunter Bidens relatives, despite earlier saying he expected to call James Biden, the presidents brother. --Xerxes Wilson More: Who is David Weiss? What to know about Trump-appointed special counsel on Hunter Biden case Hunter Bidens defense asks judge to dismiss charges Defense lawyer Abbe Lowell asked U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika to dismiss the gun charges against Hunter Biden after the prosecution rested its case, arguing Justice Department special counsel David Weisss team had failed to provide sufficient evidence. Lowell also argued the charges were unconstitutional because of legislative changes in gun restrictions. But Noreika has already rejected that argument in pretrial motions. A request to dismiss charges is common after the prosecution in a case rests. We will take a look, Noreika said. Lowell noted what he described as her skeptical smile. It didnt mean I was skeptical, it was kind of an interesting concept, Noreika said, describing one of his arguments. --Xerxes Wilson Prosecution rests gun case against Hunter Biden Prosecutors rested their case Friday against Hunter Biden on federal charges he lied about his drug use when buying a gun in 2018 after three and a half days of testimony from 10 witnesses. Bidens defense team expected to call two or three witnesses, including James Biden, the presidents brother. After those witnesses testify, Hunter Biden will decide whether to testify, according to defense lawyer Abbe Lowell. --Xerxes Wilson More: As GOP lawmakers rail against Donald Trump's conviction, they're not talking about Hunter Biden's trial Defense questions DEA agent about drug mentions in Biden electronics Defense lawyer Abbe Lowell questioned Joshua Romig, a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent who reviewed texts from Hunter Bidens electronic devices, about references to drugs in messages and pictures. Lowell noted the timing of texts mentioning drugs dating to months before Biden bought a gun in October 2018 or afterward. Lowell also asked how Romig knew a water pipe in one picture was used for cocaine, suggesting it could have also been used to smoke methamphetamine, heroin or even pipe tobacco. But Romig said he felt it was used for crack cocaine because of burn marks on the pipe. --Xerxes Wilson DEA agent testifies about drug videos, slang A text message Hunter Biden sent in February 2019, which said I think it may be fentan, was another way of saying fentanyl, a drug that dealers sometimes mixed with other products, according to Joshua Romig, a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent. Another message sent to Hunter Biden stated I have a ball on me, to which he replied that he felt he was being scammed. Romig said ball is slang for eight ball, or 3.5 ounces of crack cocaine. Prosecutors played a video from Bidens electronic devices showing white rocks on a scale, which Romig said appeared to be cocaine. Several pictures showed what Romig said appeared to be a crack pipe. --Xerxes Wilson Pictures from Hunter Biden devices show cocaine: DEA agent Joshua Romig, a special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration, testified that pictures from April 2018 pulled from Hunter Bidens electronic devices showed cocaine. Prosecutors also read out corresponding text messages which Romig said show that he was upset that the amount is a lot smaller than what he paid for. --Xerxes Wilson DEA expert expected to testify about coded messages about drugs Joshua Romig, a special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration, was expected to testify in Hunter Bidens trial on federal gun charges about coded messages referring to drugs pulled from Bidens electronic devices. Prosecutors have referred to several messages explicitly mentioning drugs, while others refer to baby powder and chore boy. Romig, the assistant special agent in charge of DEAs Philadelphia field office, outlined his 25-year career in law enforcement investigating narcotics. --Xerxes Wilson Chemist found cocaine residue on Hunter Bidens leather gun pouch Forensic chemist Jason Brewer testified that he found cocaine in the residue on the leather pouch that held Hunter Bidens gun. Two spots on the pouch had a minimal amount of off-white powder, which Brewer pointed out in a picture prosecutors projected onto a screen in Bidens trial on gun charges. Brewer explained the technical details of testing for drugs. Cocaine was identified within the residual white particles I sampled, he told the jury. --Xerxes Wilson Chemist expected to testify about residue on Hunter Bidens leather gun pouch Jason Brewer, a forensic chemist for the FBI, is the first witness Friday in Hunter Bidens trial on federal gun charges, where he is expected to testify about the residue found on a leather pouch recovered with a revolver at the heart of the case. Prosecutors contend the pouch provides evidence of Hunter Bidens use of crack cocaine use around the time he purchased and owned the .38-caliber Colt revolver in October 2018. But defense lawyer Abbe Lowell argued in opening statements that detectives dont know whether it was his client or Hallie Biden who is responsible for the residue on the pouch. --Xerxes Wilson Hallie Biden received texts drugs from Hunter Biden Hallie Biden, the widow of Beau Biden, testified about how her brother-in-law introduced her to drugs. She also walked the jury through a series of text messages in the days after Hunter Biden bought the gun on Oct. 12, 2018. A text the next day said he was behind a baseball stadium in Wilmington waiting on a dealer named Mookie. The next day, Hallie Biden texted him stating that she tried calling him 500 times in the past 24 hours. He eventually responded: I was sleeping on a car smoking crack on 4th Street and Rodney. Xerxes Wilson Hunter Biden called Hallie Biden stupid for trashing gun Hallie Biden told the jury she found the gun in his car 11 days after he bought it. Rather than risk their kids finding it, she put the gun in a leather case and drove to a grocery store, where she threw it into a trash can. I realized it was a stupid idea now, but I was just panicking, Hallie Biden said. Hunter Biden confronted her when he discovered what she had done. Its hard for me to believe anyone is that stupid, Hunter Biden said in a text. Do you want me dead? he asked in a later text. Xerxes Wilson 'I definitely remember finding that': retiree described Hunter Biden's gun The 80-year-old retiree who found the gun at the heart of Hunter Bidens federal trial on charges he lied to buy and possess the weapon had been rummaging through trash bins for two decades. Edward Banner was scavenging for aluminum cans he could return for a nickel apiece when he found the revolver that Hallie Biden, Hunter Bidens former girlfriend and the widow of his brother, tossed in the trash outside Janssens Market in Greenville. After Biden reported the gun missing, then-Delaware State Police Lt. Millard Greer tracked down Banner rummaging through trash cans in the upscale area. Greer asked Banner if someone had tossed something they shouldnt have. "Yes, they did," Greer quoted Banner saying. "A .38 special." On the witness stand, Banner said: "I definitely remember finding that." Xerxes Wilson and Isabel Hughes What is Hunter Biden being charged with? The president's son faces three firearms felonies. In October 2018, Hunter Biden walked into a gun shop north of Wilmington, Delaware, and purchased a revolver. People who purchase firearms are required to fill out a standardized form that asks whether they are an unlawful user or are addicted to controlled substances, narcotics and other listed substances. Biden is accused of answering "no" to that question on the form. But Biden has been open about his longtime struggles with crack cocaine addiction. He's written about it in his 2021 memoir, "Beautiful Things," and discussed it during a court hearing last year, stating he's been sober since 2019. Biden faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison if convicted, although first-time and non-violent offenders are often given shorter terms. Xerxes Wilson WILMINGTON, DELAWARE - JUNE 03: Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, departs from the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 3 2024, in Wilmington, Delaware. Biden is standing trial for felony gun charges. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) Hunter Biden memoir regains popularity during trial Hunter Bidens searing 2021 memoir, Beautiful Things, was a New York Times bestseller years before an audio version of him reading the tale of drug abuse was played as evidence in federal trial on gun charges. But the trial has rekindled interest in what mega-author Stephen King called a harrowing and compulsively readable memoir. The book reached No. 4 on the New York Times list after its April 2021 list. The book jumped from 338,000 in Amazon rankings on Sunday to 12,900 on Monday, the trials first day, and 4,200 on Wednesday. More than 28,000 copies of the book have been sold in the U.S. by May 25, according to industry tracker BookScan. More than 11,00 e-books were sold through February. Dan Morrison This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hunter Biden trial recap: Naomi Biden testifies for her father Dozens of people were killed by an overnight Israeli airstrike on a United Nations-run school in central Gaza, authorities said, in an attack that CNN analysis found was conducted with a US-made weapon. The school, run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), was housing displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp at the time of the incident, the Gaza government media office said. At least 40 people were killed in the strike, according to medical workers at the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Authorities at the hospital said casualties could rise as victims were still being brought to the hospital on Thursday morning. The Israeli military confirmed it carried out the airstrike, which it said targeted a Hamas compound operating inside the school. Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner later told journalists the military was not aware of any civilian casualties. Lerner said 20 to 30 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants were targeted in the strike, and that those targeted were using the facilities to plan and execute attacks against Israeli forces. Militants who were involved in the October 7 attacks on Israel were among those killed, Lerner said. Later on Thursday, the Israeli military said it had so far identified nine alleged Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters targeted in the strike. CNN cannot independently verify any of those claims or the identities of the nine people the IDF said it identified. A CNN analysis of video from the scene and a review by an explosive weapons expert found that US-made munitions were used in the strike on the school. CNN identified fragments of at least two US-made GBU-39 small diameter bombs (SDB) in video filmed at the scene by a journalist working for CNN. You can determine that GBU-39s were used in Nuseirat because just as seen at the Rafah strike, you have the tail actuator section with the distinct bolt and fin slot, Trevor Ball, a former US Army explosive ordnance disposal technician told CNN Thursday. It marks the second time in two weeks that CNN has been able to verify the use of US-manufactured munitions in deadly Israeli attacks on displaced Palestinians, the first being a deadly IDF strike on a displacement camp in Rafah on May 26. Asked whether American weapons were used in the strike, US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said Thursday that was a question for the Israeli government. Miller said the US has been in contact with Israel over the strike and that Israel has only told the US essentially what they have said publicly. He added that the Israeli government would release more information, which the US expects to be fully transparent. Thursdays attack came after the IDF ramped up ground and air assaults in the center of the strip on Tuesday amid a deepening humanitarian crisis there. Palestinians in central Gaza have reported that the intensity and frequency of Israeli strikes in the last week have felt like the beginning of the war. The strike came amid a renewed Israeli ground and air campaign on parts of central Gaza. - Bashar Taleb/AFP/getty Images According to a journalist in the area working with CNN, the school was hit by at least three missiles that penetrated the three-story building. The facility was believed to be housing thousands of displaced people who had taken shelter in the school, its yard, and the surrounding area, according to the journalist. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said the school was sheltering about 6,000 displaced people. We were asleep here, (and) we suddenly saw rockets falling. I went down holding my child, we were both injured, my relative was martyred in that room, journalist J aber Abu Daher told CNN on Thursday. He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is killing the civilians, he is not killing militants, its innocent people asleep in a UNRWA facility what did children and elderly do? What did they do to him? He is looking for Hamas people? Go look for them, why are you killing us in schools? The Israeli military defended the bombing of the school, saying it had so far identified nine alleged militants it had targeted in the pre-dawn strike, its spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Thursday. He said the IDF believes there were about 30 militants hiding inside the UN school but did not provide further evidence or information as to how the IDF has come to this conclusion. Hagari added that Israeli forces, using aerial surveillance over several days, had delayed the strike on the school twice because they had identified civilians in the area. We conducted the strike once our intelligence and surveillance indicated there were no women or children inside the Hamas compound inside those classrooms, Hagari said. He also accused Hamas of violating international law by allegedly using the UN school as an operational base. The US State Department said Israels strike did not cross US President Joe Bidens so-called red line because that line referred to a large-scale operation in Rafah, which the US has not yet seen. That said, we have seen strikes that put civilians in danger well before the president said that, and we have made clear to the government of Israel that we expect them to do everything that they can to minimize civilian harm, Miller said. The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the strike, saying UN premises are inviolable, including during armed conflict and must be protected by all parties at all times, according to his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric. US-made weapon used Gaza authorities said the dead and injured continue to be brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which is operating at three times its clinical capacity, signaling a real disaster that will lead to a greater increase in the number of martyrs, the Gaza media office said. UNRWA said its school was possibly hit several times overnight by the strikes. An UNRWA spokesperson told CNN it was not able to confirm Israeli reports that Hamas operatives had been using the school as a compound. We remind all parties to the conflict that schools and other UN premises must never be used for military or fighting purposes, the spokesperson said. UN facilities must be protected at all times. Lazzarini said in a post on X that while claims that armed groups may have been inside the shelter are shocking they have been unable to verify it. Attacking, targeting or using UN buildings for military purposes are a blatant disregard of International Humanitarian law, he added. Munitions made in the US were also used in the deadly Israeli strike on a displacement camp in Rafah late last month, a CNN analysis of video from the scene and a review by explosive weapons experts found. After that attack, US President Joe Biden refused calls to alter his policy towards Israel, suggesting the deadly Rafah strike had not yet crossed a red line that would force changes in American support. He had previously said in a CNN interview that he wouldnt allow certain US weapons to be used in a major offensive in Rafah. In April, CNN reported that the Biden administration authorized the transfer to Israel of over 1,000 small-diameter bombs, according to three people familiar with the matter. Palestinians gather outside a UN-run school after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike on June 6, 2024. - Bashar Taleb/AFP/Getty Images The situation is apocalyptic An Israeli strike hit the same camp last month and killed dozens of people, Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said at the time. One woman, Um Mohammad Taha, told CNN then that five houses had collapsed, including her sisters, and that many were buried under the rubble, including children. And another Israeli attack on the Nuseirat camp in April injured several journalists, including one working with CNN. Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which has supported Al-Aqsa hospital, said Wednesday it had taken in more than 70 people who had been killed, and more than 300 injured, in just 48 hours, amid an escalation in bombing and ground fighting. Karin Huster, an MSF nurse, said in the groups statement: We have seen hospitals being bombed. We have seen refugee camps being bombed. We have seen humanitarian warehouses being bombed. The situation is apocalyptic. The odor of blood when I entered the emergency room was just overwhelming. People are lying on the floor. People are lying outside, Huster added. Its just an emotionally overwhelming situation. Israels renewed focus on bombarding central Gaza highlights again the elusive nature of its stated ambition to destroy Hamas. The brunt of the Israeli military campaign had, in recent months, moved south towards Rafah, but rocket fire and ground warfare have now again engulfed encampments further north such as Nuseirat and areas like Bureij, both just south of Gaza City. Every place we went to after they said its safe was struck I want the war to stop, Mohammad Farajallah, a child who said his two brothers were killed in Thursdays strike, told CNN as he rifled through the rubble of the school. The latest attack also came as American, Egyptian and Qatari officials met in Doha to revive negotiations on a new ceasefire and hostage release deal. The meetings follow a three-phase proposal characterized as an Israeli plan laid out by US President Joe Biden that would pair a release of hostages with a full and complete ceasefire in Gaza. On Wednesday, Israels Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said the countrys military offensive in Gaza would not be halted for any resumption of ceasefire and hostage release talks with Hamas. We are in a process of continuous engagement to wear down the enemy. Any negotiations with the terrorist organization Hamas will only be conducted under fire, Gallant said in a recorded video statement. This story has been updated to revise the number of fatalities in the UNRWA school strike. This breaking news story will be updated. CNNs Jonny Hallam, Richard Roth, Michael Conte, and Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Support for providing military aid to Israel for its war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip has fallen to its lowest level among Americans since the beginning of the conflict in October, a survey published Friday found. Only 41% of U.S. voters back continuing to give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu military weapons, down from 53% when Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, according to a Morning Consult tracking poll. The support saw the sharpest drop among Democrats - from 52% to 34%. It fell 11 points among independents - 46% to 35% - and 6 points among Republicans - 59% to 53% .At the same time, sentiment for providing humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza has risen slightly, climbing to 59% from 57%, the survey found. That feeling has fallen from 72% to 71% among Democrats, risen among independents to 58% from 49% and remained unchanged at 46% for Republicans. The survey also found that Americans have lost sympathy for Israel as the war progressed. In October, 41% of Americans said they were sympathetic to the Israelis. That has plunged to 28% in the recent survey, while compassion for the Palestinians has risen to 14% from 9%. Sympathy for Israel toppled most sharply among independents, dwindling from 40% in October to 22% now. Among Democrats, it fell from 28% to 13%, and among GOP voters it fell from 55% to 47%. Sympathy for the Palestinians has risen across all party lines in that time frame. Morning Consult noted that it conducted its latest survey last month while Israel was carrying out its military offensive in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge. President Joe Biden, who faces pressure at home to get Israel to minimize civilian casualties, has been seeking a cease-fire. About 3 in 5 voters support a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, including 39% who say they "strongly" support a truce. Seventy-one percent of Democrats back a ceasefire as do 61% of independents and 45% of Republicans. Developing a strong investing portfolio is the key to building wealth, and a big part of that process is buying stocks. These types of securities represent a slice of ownership in a company, and allow individuals across the world to take advantage of the growth of a wide variety of businesses, from popular brands like Coca-Cola and Apple to little-known companies on the brink of a boom. When seeing the S&P 500 an index that includes the stocks of many of the largest companies in the U.S., experiencing historical average annual returns of around 10%, you can see how investing for the long term can help you retire comfortably, buy a house, pay for school and more. Financial experts talk a great deal about investing strategies like diversification and rebalancing. But before you integrate those into your investing strategy, you may be wondering: How many stocks should I own? Read on for how to get exposure to many stocks at once, how many stocks should make up a portfolio of individual stocks and more. First, consider funds Choosing individual stocks can be exciting, but the less risky move that tends to offer higher returns over the long term is investing in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and mutual funds. These baskets of securities can include hundreds, or even thousands, of stocks. While some called total market funds give exposure to the entire stock market, others invest specifically in funds of certain sizes and sectors, like technology. Theyre very resilient strategies that over the long term tend to do well with minimal effort, says Nick Fazio, associate wealth advisor at Regent Peak Wealth Advisors. Some of the best index funds include the Vanguard Russell 2000 ETF, which consists of about 2,000 small publicly traded companies in the U.S., and the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, which essentially covers the entire universe of publicly traded stocks in the country. A perk of funds is that no matter how many you invest in, you already have built-in diversification. The same cant be said about stocks. How many individual stocks you should hold For those who do want to buy individual funds, its important to not place all your eggs in one basket. If you buy two or three stocks, theres a good chance they could tank at the same time. There have been several studies that attempt to nail down the amount of stocks to own in order to get the benefits of diversification. In 1968, academics John Evans and Stephen Archer determined said holding just 15 stocks gave you no more risk than investing in the whole market. Just a few years later, two more academics said you needed closer to 30 to get the benefits of diversification and limit risks. Other experts have said the number is between 12 and 18. Given the math of diversification, is there a compelling reason to increase the size of an active stock portfolio beyond two dozen or so holdings? Morningstar analysts wrote in 2017. In our opinion, there probably isnt, as owning 20-30 stocks will, on average, diversify the bulk of the unsystematic risk that investors face. Fazio says which stocks you invest in matter as well. If you had 30 stocks and they all happen to be in one specific sector, youd still be way less diversified than if you had only 10 stocks but they were across a bunch of sectors, he says. You want to make sure that in the effort to diversify, you are picking stocks that shouldnt generally be trading alongside each other. Best of both worlds You dont have to choose between stocks and funds. If you want to buy a handful of stocks, Fazio recommends investing most of your money in funds and then adding those few stocks to your portfolio. This not only helps diversify your portfolio, but its also a lot less work than trying to figure out what other stocks to buy to get your portfolio up to around 30 stocks, for example. In this case, you may want to think of the investments in individual stocks as play money. As in, money can afford to lose. If your financial plan can still work and you can meet all the goals and objectives you want in life if we pretend that that individual stocks piece goes all the way to zero, then I think youre in the green, Fazio says. Bottom line While diversification and rebalancing are key strategies in wealth building, deciding on the optimal number of stocks for your portfolio could be essential. Consider ETFs and mutual funds as they provide diversified exposure to numerous stocks, and balancing your portfolio with a mix of funds and a select few individual stocks can offer the best of both worlds. Editorial Disclaimer: All investors are advised to conduct their own independent research into investment strategies before making an investment decision. In addition, investors are advised that past investment product performance is no guarantee of future price appreciation. Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Trump aide Michael Roman pleaded not guilty Friday to nine felony charges related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Arizona. The two defendants appeared virtually at separate hearings in which their lawyers entered their not guilty pleas. The trial date is set for Oct. 31. Meadows and Roman are just two of the 18 individuals charged in a wide-ranging indictment surrounding steps that the defendants are alleged to have taken to delegitimize President Bidens victory in the state in 2020 and falsely declare former President Trump the winner. Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and several others charged in the case pleaded not guilty to all charges last month. Others who have been charged include the 11 individuals who signed documents including former Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward claiming to be the legitimate electors in Arizona and falsely asserting that Trump had won the states 11 electoral votes, Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn and attorneys Jenna Ellis, John Eastman and Christina Bobb. Prosecutors accused Meadows of working with Trump campaign members to submit the fake electors from Arizona and other states to Congress to claim that Trump had won. The indictment alleged Roman worked with other defendants like Giuliani and Epshteyn to organize the fake electors. Roman served as the director of Election Day operations for Trumps 2020 campaign. Both Meadows and Roman have also been charged in connection with efforts to overturn the election results in Georgia and have pleaded not guilty. Arizona is one of five states where charges have been brought for individuals who attempted to overturn the election results. Roman was also charged this week in Wisconsin on one count of forgery. Romans attorney, Kurt Altman, told reporters that his client would fight the charges, saying that Roman has no connection with Arizona and why this indictment came in the first place is beyond us. Epshteyn and one other fake elector are scheduled to be arraigned on June 18. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) -Netflix was sued on Thursday for at least $170 million by a Scottish woman who said she was defamed over her portrayal as a stalker in the hit mini-series "Baby Reindeer." The plaintiff Fiona Harvey has publicly claimed to be the inspiration behind the character Martha, played by actress Jessica Gunning, who shares a physical resemblance and like her is a lawyer in London. But in a complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court, Harvey said Netflix and "Baby Reindeer" creator Richard Gadd went too far by suggesting through the show, which calls itself a "true story," that she was a twice-convicted stalker who had been sentenced to five years in prison. Harvey denied having stalked Gadd, who on the show plays a fictional version of himself named Donny Dunn, or having been convicted or imprisoned. But she said many people couldn't tell the difference, and thousands of Reddit and TikTok users talk about her as the "real" Martha. "Defendants told these lies, and never stopped, because it was a better story than the truth, and better stories made money," the complaint said. Netflix, in response to the lawsuit, said it intended to "defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadd's right to tell his story." The lawsuit seeks at least $50 million each for actual damages, compensatory damages including mental anguish and profits, plus at least $20 million of punitive damages. Harvey sued two days after Netflix settled a defamation lawsuit by former prosecutor Linda Fairstein over her portrayal in "When They See Us," a 2019 series about the Central Park Five rape case three decades earlier. Netflix agreed to move a disclaimer that some characters may have been altered for dramatic purposes to the start of episodes from the closing credits. It also agreed to donate $1 million to a nonprofit that helps free wrongfully convicted people. The case is Harvey v Netflix Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 24-04744. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editing by Aurora Ellis) Police in Burlington, Vermont have apologized to a group of high school students who were shaken up by a role-playing presentation that involved a mock shooting. The presentation took place Wednesday when about 20 students from Burlington High School's Year End Studies forensics class visited the Burlington Police Department's headquarters for a field trip, according to a statement from Russ Elek, spokesperson for the Burlington School District, to the VTDigger. The news outlet, citing an email school officials sent parents and families of the students involved, reports that police reenacted a crime and students unexpectedly heard screaming and fake gunshots behind where they were seated. The purpose of the presentation "was to make a point about how witness statements can be unreliable, and detectives wanted the event to be as realistic as possible," the VTDigger reports, citing an email written by interim principal Sabrina Westdijk and two teachers in attendance. Burlington Police Department building at 1 North Ave on Nov. 13, 2023. "First and foremost, the Burlington Police Department apologizes to any students in attendance who were upset by the specific scenario and crime scene portion of the presentation," the department said in a news release Thursday. 'About as real-life as you can get' The department stated that the role-playing scenario involved "three department personnel simulating a robbery scenario" and was not directed toward any students or faculty. Police also said the district contacted them in April about conducting the presentation after a "previous successful presentation" between the programs in the fall of 2023. According to Elek, school officials "didn't realize the presentation would happen without warning," a claim the Burlington Police Department disputes, according to the VTDigger. The Burlington Police Department said it communicated details of the scenarios to the school program's staff in May, including saying that the training incident would involve "using fake firearms in a mock shooting." The department said it told program staff the presentation "is about as real life as you can get, and is certainly exactly the sort of thing we deal with most frequently." 'A reflective growth opportunity' Police said the program staff responded, "I think these students will be fine with the simulation. We will give a heads up to parents and students." The police department said in the statement it will meet with students and staff Friday to discuss the presentation and its impact. "We hope that this can be a reflective growth opportunity for all parties," the department said in the statement. 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: Burlington police apologizes to students for mock shooting Getty Images Richard Simmons is sending all the good vibes to Princess Kate Middleton. I know I ask you to pray for peopleI am asking you to please pray for Princess Kate, Simmons, 75, shared in a social media statement on Thursday, June 6. She is so beautiful and a wonderful wife and mother. I do hope she is feeling better today." Simmons and Kate, 42, are somewhat kindred spirits as he also announced a skin cancer diagnosis earlier this year, sharing the details in a March 19 Facebook post. Previously, Simmons was under intense public scrutiny after it appeared in 2014 that he had gone missing similar to rumors about Kate earlier this year which was discussed in the 2017 podcast Missing Richard Simmons and the 2022 documentary What Really Happened to Richard Simmons. Simmons request comes after Prince William attended several events to celebrate the 80th anniversary of D-Day in both England and France without Kate, 42, as she continues to undergo treatment for an undisclosed type of cancer. William, 41, did tell veterans at the event she was getting better and would have loved to be by his side at the memorial. I know I ask you to pray for peopleI am asking you to please pray for Princess Kate. She is so beautiful and a wonderful wife and mother. I do hope she is feeling better today. Love, Richard Richard Simmons (@TheWeightSaint) June 6, 2024 In January, Kate underwent a planned abdominal surgery and stayed out of the public eye as she recovered. However, the internet raised questions about the Princess of Wales absence from the public eyes. On March 22, she addressed the conspiracies in video announcing that she had received a cancer diagnosis. 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, she said. Kate went on to say that her work has always brought me a deep sense of joy but would be taking a major step back from her public duties. For now, I must focus on making a full recovery, she continued. Royal Family Members Who Were Diagnosed With Cancer: From the Early Monarchs to King Charles III As Kate undergoes treatment, questions about her return have started to swirl. Karwai Tang/WireImage/Getty Images Kates feeling strong enough to be very involved with the kids, a source told Us Weekly the magazines most recent cover story. Shes been an active parent. The insider added: Kates recovery is going well. Shes not able to see many people because she is susceptible to getting sick and they dont want her compromised, but shes up and about. Late last month, Kensington Palace briefly weighed in on Kates return while discussingthe latest Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood report but didnt offer a concrete timeline for her return. We have been really clear that [Kate] needs the space and the privacy to recover right now, a Palace aid shared at the time. She will return to work when she has had the green light from doctors. Tristano always loves telling the tale of how he met his wife Alessandra its an amazing, continent-spanning love story. For Tristano, this story will also forever be interlinked with another amazing, continent-spanning story one of friendship. So whenever Tristano recounts his love story, he begins several years before he first crossed paths with his wife in 2012, to be precise. That was the year Italian-born Tristano studied abroad in Sydney, Australia and spent a few days on vacation in Fiji. Tristano loved the Pacific island nation the spectacular beaches, the blue waters, the palm trees. Plus, he made a friend: a guy called Gustavo, from Brazil, who was also staying in Tristanos hostel. The two crossed paths on Tristanos first night, and immediately clicked. We got along very well, Tristano tells CNN Travel today. Gustavo, it seemed, had been literally everywhere. And his thirst for adventure was infectious. Tristano sat with Gustavo in the hostel bar for hours, talking about their respective travels. Tristano was impressed and inspired and felt hed found a kindred spirit. He was a person that really motivated me to travel more and more, says Tristano. Post-Fiji, the two friends stayed in touch tracking one anothers adventures on social media, and regularly catching up over messaging app WhatsApp. Over the following years, I traveled to many places where Gustavo had lived or been, so he always gave me tips what to do, what not to do, where to stay, which hostels to go to recalls Tristano. Cut to 2016. Tristano had three weeks of vacation to use before the year was up. He was considering going somewhere in South America. In one of his regular text exchanges with Gustavo, Tristano mentioned his potential plans. In response, Gustavo said he was actually back in his home country of Brazil and planned to be based in Sao Paulo for the next few months. And then it just hit me, says Tristano. I thought, Ill go to Brazil. Its a no-brainer, because if I find good flights, I have one person there I know and I can meet up with him again. So I literally booked flights within half an hour of talking to him. And that was the reason I went and how I ended up meeting Alessandra A bus stop meeting Tristano started his Brazil adventure in Rio de Janeiro. On his second day there, he decided to walk from his hostel in Ipanema Beach to Rios Copacabana neighborhood. Tristano didnt get far before he realized this walk was more of a trek than hed anticipated. He checked Google Maps on his phone, and realized he could hop on a bus thatd take half the time. Following his phone directions, Tristano headed to the bus stop. And once he was at what he thought was the right stop, he glanced around at the other people waiting. There were a couple of other tourists, also peering at their phones. And then there was a young woman dressed in what Tristano thought was business casual. She looked like she was en route to work. When Tristano met her eyes, the woman smiled. She seemed friendly and confident. So Tristano approached her and politely asked in subpar, apologetic Portuguese if he was waiting at the right place for the bus to Copacabana. In English, the woman replied. Yes, youre in the right place, she said. Then she smiled again. When she smiled, her whole face lit up, and Tristano couldnt help but smile back. She seemed like a very bright person, always smiling, he recalls today. The woman at the bus stop introduced herself as Alessandra. As Tristano had guessed, she was en route to work that morning. I actually never usually went to that bus stop, Alessandra tells CNN Travel today. (Alessandra and Tristano have requested their last names not be included in this article for privacy reasons.) The day she met Tristano, Alessandra had taken a slightly different route that morning as shed had to pick something up at the store before work. Before Tristano approached her, Alessandra hadnt noticed him shed been in commuter mode, focused on the journey at hand. But when Tristano started speaking to to her in his awkward Portuguese, Alessandra found him charming. And then they talked a little as they waited for the bus Tristano told Alessandra he was on vacation for three weeks, she asked him how he was finding Rio so far, explaining shed lived there since she was a kid. The conversation flowed easily so much so that when the bus pulled up, Tristano and Alessandra got on together and, in silent agreement, decided to sit next to each other and continue talking. We sat together for probably 15, 20 minutes on the bus ride, just chatting casually, recalls Tristano. It was a brief journey, but just before the bus pulled up at Tristanos stop, Tristano turned to Alessandra and asked for her number. He suggested to Alessandra itd be nice to get to know a Rio local, somebody who can give me good tips. I was going to travel to the other areas of Brazil for the next two weeks, but I knew I was coming back to Rio, he explains. Alessandra was wary of handing out her phone number to a guy she didnt really know. But she thought Tristano seemed sweet and in all honesty, she assumed shed never hear from him again. I didnt expect anything, especially because he was traveling around Brazil, she says. But Tristano texted Alessandra right away. And over the next couple of weeks, as Tristano visited Gustavo in Sao Paulo and explored the rest of the country, he and Alessandra contnued to message back and forth. A first date in Rio Once Tristano was back in Rio, he contacted Alessandra to ask if she would like to meet for dinner. Alessandra agreed, but then at the last minute canceled explaining she had a headache. Tristano wondered if this was an excuse, whether Alessandra wasnt actually that interested. Still, he suggested they rearrange for the following night. Then we actually went out to dinner, he says. And then the rest is history. Alessandra actually did have a headache the night before a throbbing migraine. She was happy the date got rearranged, and looking forward to seeing Tristano again. But she went into the evening with no expectations. I didnt expect to feel something romantic, just an opportunity to get to know him, she recalls. But then, well, once we sat at the table, I saw his green eyes shining. And I felt something sparking after that. Alessandra found Tristano to be a supportive, encouraging listener. They seamlessly segued between fun, lighthearted conversations and more in-depth discussions. The talk was very interesting, Alessandra recalls. He was very interested in my life in Rio, and how hard, lets say, my life was compared to his. As for Tristano, he loved getting a glimpse into Alessandras world and her mind and learning more about her and her childhood growing up in Rio. We agreed to meet the very next day, he recalls. It was a weekend. And we spent the whole day walking around the lagoon in Rio, eating ice cream, chatting and laughing and just having a very nice time. In the evening, Alessandra and Tristano went out for drinks, and then to a club together. Thats when we kissed for the first time, Tristano recalls. This is Alessandra and Tristano's first photo together, taken while walking around the lagoon in Rio. Alessandra jokingly covered her face, as she wasn't sure about being photographed by a guy she thought she might never see again. - Courtesy Tristano Tristano and Alessandra were growing closer. But the next day was Tristanos last in Rio. The two spent all day together, right up until Tristano had to leave. What left a mark on me was the moment we said goodbye, says Tristano. At the metro station, she started crying. As Tristano consoled Alessandra, hugged her and wiping away her tears, he also felt emotional. Having to leave felt like a big sadness, as he puts it. The feeling weighed on him. And it was also a big surprise, youre like, How can I feel this after meeting somebody for literally 48 hours? So it felt very strong and also very uncertain. Tristano and Alessandra wanted to see each other again, but both said goodbye thinking it might never happen. As he left, Tristano thanked Alessandra for their time together something she took to mean things between them had ended before theyd even began. But although Tristano returned to the UK where he was living at the time he and Alessandra remained in constant contact. They texted good morning and good night. They sent each other photos of what they were up to each day. Before long, they both admitted they were desperate to see one another again. And so only three months later, we decided to travel to Colombia together, says Tristano. This trip sealed the deal, and it was the real start of the relationship, says Tristano. So we kept meeting, he says. Visiting different places every three, four months. It was sad, anytime we had to say goodbye, recalls Alessandra. But they mostly tried to focus on just enjoying the time together, she says. After all, it was still unclear what the future held and whether Alessandra and Tristano could build a future across continents. I always thought, you know, this obviously cannot go on forever. At some point, were going to have to decide what we do, recalls Tristano. And I wasnt sure either way, because I knew that not being together wasnt I wasnt going to be happy, she wasnt going to be happy But the alternative one of them moving across the globe to be with the other seemed like a big step and a tough decision. A big step Alessandra and Tristano started meeting up in destinations across the globe. - Courtesy Tristano After a year of meeting in destinations across the globe, Alessandra came to Italy for the first time, and met Tristanos family. A few months later, Tristano met Alessandras loved ones in Brazil. Things between them seemed to have naturally moved towards something more serious, more concrete. Around this time, in early 2018, Tristanos job took him from the UK to Germany. As he prepared to move, Tristano asked Alessandra if shed like to move to Germany with him. Alessandra spent an emotional week debating her response. She felt like her life had turned upside down and she jumped back and forth between certainty about her love for Tristano, fear of the unknown and sadness at the idea of leaving Brazil. It was such a big move, leaving my family, friends, job, sunny days and the beach, she says. I wanted to go, but I didnt want to give up on my life in Brazil and my family. But after this week, I said, Look, I have nothing to lose, I better try and if it doesnt work then I cant regret something I didnt do. And my mom supported me. Here's Tristano and Alessandra during a trip to the White Cliffs of Dover in the UK. - Courtesy Tristano Alessandras mother liked Tristano and she trusted her daughters decision. Some of Alessandras friends were more wary, and suggested Tristano was just playing with her. But I always followed my heart, says Alessandra. She believed in Tristano and their future. It felt right to jump, she says. And so in 2018, Alessandra and Tristano moved to Germany together. I was excited for this new chapter, but also concerned with the German language, which I had zero knowledge of and the winter weather, recalls Alessandra. Nevertheless, I was lucky enough to find a job in a multicultural agency, which uses English as the main language. And got used to enjoying the cold months with warm clothes and food. It also helped that Germany wasnt Tristanos home country either. He was also learning the language. And living in a third country allowed the couple to experience a new culture together. A proposal 2018 was also the year Tristano asked Alessandra to marry him. He prepared her a multiple course meal in their apartment, presenting each course under a metal food cover dome like servers do in fancy restaurants. When he got to what Alessandra assumed was the final course there was a surprise it wasnt a dessert, but a ring. I was really surprised, says Alessandra. And then he asked me to marry him in Portuguese, which made it really special to me. Tristano and Alessandra enjoyed a small wedding ceremony. Then they started carving out a life together settling into new jobs and looking towards the future. We helped each other to follow our goals, says Tristano. Last year, in 2023, Alessandra and Tristano welcomed a son together, Gabriele. Theyre raising Gabriele to speak four languages Italian, Portuguese, German and English. Alessandra took this photo of Tristano with their son Gabriele on a recent trip to Brazil. - Courtesy Tristano Until Alessandra moved to Germany, we spoke English to each other, recalls Tristano. But then we obviously decided, Okay, we cannot spend our life speaking English. Its not our native language for either of us. The couple vowed to become fluent in one anothers languages a vow they kept. So now we basically switch between Portuguese and Italian every few months, explains Tristano. In May, Tristano and Alessandras son Gabriele turned one. Earlier this year, Alessandra and Tristano took him to Brazil for the first time, for an extended two month trip to visit family and loved ones. We spent many weeks of those two months in Rio. And for the last one and a half weeks we stayed, actually, in the Copacabana area, says Tristano. Staying there naturally took the couple back to their first meeting, eight years ago, at the Rio bus stop. Thinking back on how far theyd come was emotional for them both. It was crazy, says Tristano. We were doing the same bus route with our son. I dont even know how to describe it. A life-changing series of events Tristano credits his friend Gustavo with helping pave the path that led him to Alessandra. Here's Tristano and Gustavo in Sao Paulo on Tristano's 2016 Brazil trip. - Courtesy Tristano A few days after he met Alessandra at the Rio bus stop back in 2016, Tristano met up with his good friend Gustavo in Sao Paulo. Tristano remembers they both talked about their love lives. Tristano barely knew Alessandra then and had no reason to assume hed ever see her again but he still found himself effusing to Gustavo about the woman from the bus stop. We shared stories, and I said, You know, I actually met a girl, Alessandra. And I told him about her just how interesting she was and so on, recalls Tristano. Tristano updated Gustavo on his romance with Alessandra as the relationship developed over the next couple of years. He always hoped the two of them would be able to meet, and he often told Gustavo he credited him with putting him on the path to meet Alessandra. In the summer of 2019, Tristano realized he hadnt heard from Gustavo for a while. He reached out on WhatsApp, but the message went unread and unanswered. I didnt think much of it, says Tristano. But then I went on his Facebook page, and I realized that he had drowned during a swimming excursion in Hawaii. Tristano was in shock. His friend had passed away a few months prior. As they didnt have any mutual friends, the news had passed him by. Tristano sat at his laptop, reading the words over and over again. With a sinking feeling, he realized hed never see his friend again, that Alessandra and Gustavo would never meet. I always imagined that if we were going to have a wedding, with a big reception and so on, Gustavo would be the main person I would thank for meeting Alessandra because it was thanks to him that I actually ended up going to Brazil, says Tristano. Obviously, that could not happen. Tristano was heartbroken. Amid his grief, he searched Facebook for Gustavos mothers details. He sent her a friend request. I got in touch with his mom. And I told her about the whole story, and she was very happy to hear that thanks to Gustavos passion for traveling and his friends, he made a massive contribution to our life, says Tristano. Tristano is still in touch with Gustavos mother. And he still credits his friend with changing his life. He sees his life story as defined by two serendipitous travel encounters: first with Gustavo, and then with Alessandra. Both stories, to Tristano, illustrate the power of travel and connections. If I hadnt traveled to Fiji and met him, I would have certainly not traveled to Brazil in 2016 either, says Tristano. And my son Gabriele would not be here today. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com President Joe Biden speaks about an executive order in the East Room at the White House on Tuesday. Biden unveiled plans to enact immediate significant restrictions on migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border as the White House tries to neutralize immigration as a political liability ahead of the November elections. Alex Brandon/Associated Press Hundreds gathered on the streets of Brownsville to greet President Joe Biden on his visit to the area on Feb. 29. Meridith Kohut/NYT Robert Cruz, right, shows off a Texas for Trump flag while parked along Commercial Street in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Feb. 29. Cruz set up a block from Shelby Park, where former President Donald Trump scheduled a speech to address the immigration crisis. Sam Owens/San Antonio Express-News President Joe Biden finally acknowledged that Americans are frustrated with our broken immigration system, and his weak effort proves that only a comprehensive, bipartisan law can address the crisis. Migrant rights activists decried Bidens executive order on Tuesday that stopped recognizing asylum claims unless they are made at an official port of entry. The order harkens back to former President Donald Trumps remain in Mexico policy. Progressives promised litigation since a federal judge declared Trumps similar orders unconstitutional. Bidens new policy was too little, too late for Republicans committed to winning the 2024 presidential election on outrage over immigration. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Irresistible force meets immovable object. There are no winners, only losers, chief among them the communities absorbing asylum seekers, the U.S. economy and the migrants themselves. Democratic mayors have changed their tune since Gov. Greg Abbott began dumping migrants on their doorsteps. Shelters, schools, hospitals and other social services have struggled to keep up. Weve risked cutting local services at the expense of a federal problem, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said on a media call from Washington, where he appeared alongside Biden. If we had to make the choice of safety and compassion for people over new parks and potholes in the streets, wed choose humanity time and time again. But it shouldnt have to be this way. Republicans have long stoked fear of foreigners to rally support. Trumps depiction of migrants as rapists, murderers and drug smugglers was a pillar of his 2016 campaign. One of the few White House deputies still standing by the former president is Stephen Miller, whose views of migrants are repugnant. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Polls show most Americans want an immigration overhaul and blame Biden for the spike in migrants seeking asylum. Border crossings are down, thanks to the Mexican government throttling migrant flows, but Republicans are keeping immigration in the news. Average Americans recognize that the current system unfairly allows people without valid asylum claims to remain in the United States pending a final hearing. Americans also recognize granting entry to those who crossed the border illegally hurts asylum seekers with valid claims and have been waiting patiently around the world rather than heading for the southern border. Voter frustration over immigration spans the political spectrum. An Associated Press/NORC opinion poll shows voter approval of immigration is slipping, and fear of immigrant crime is rising. Bidens executive order attempts to address the crisis, but a federal judge will likely block the effort without Congress rewriting the laws governing the asylum process. Without more congressional funding, there are not enough immigration officials to work through the backlog. Therefore, Republicans in Congress contribute to the crisis. Democrats hope that even a failed executive order will allow Biden to shift blame onto the GOP. But thats political gamesmanship, not problem-solving for the American people. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Trumps latest promises are also political theater, but oddly enough, could help Biden. Last month, Trump promised to use local law enforcement to deport 15 million to 20 million people, even though most experts put the number of undocumented migrants at 11 million. "On Day 1 of my new administration, I will seal the border, stop the invasion of people pouring through our border and send Joe Biden's illegal aliens back home where they belong," Trump told a rally in Wildwood, N.J. "They have got to be sent home." Trump has cited former President Dwight D. Eisenhowers Operation Wetback from the 1950s as a model. The controversial campaign, widely considered inhumane and unsuccessful, deported about 1 million migrants over two years, most of them seasonal workers previously invited to the United States from Mexico under the Bracero Program. While some may favor local police grabbing people off the streets and putting them in camps, most Americans would recoil at such a massive operation. Hispanic Americans would also protest since Trumps deportations, like Eisenhowers, will mistakenly deport U.S. citizens. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Lastly, the U.S. economy could not survive the shock. Hundreds of thousands of businesses rely on undocumented workers. Construction, hospitality and home care would collapse if millions of workers found themselves on buses to Mexico. Neither Republicans nor Democrats are willing to compromise because of immigration fundamentalists in their parties. However, the solutions are obvious: a path to citizenship for those already here, limited asylum for those facing persecution, more work visas to meet the countrys labor needs, and severe punishments for employers who break the law. Instead, were getting nothing but political hot air. Too many voters are allowing the outrage machines to rile them up. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. YEREVAN, JUNE 7, ARMENPRESS. The financing agreement "EU support for education in Armenia" was signed between Armenia and the European Commission, by which the European Union will provide budgetary support to Armenia on a grant basis. The agreement, which entered into force on September 12, 2023, is aimed at increasing the competitiveness of the educational system of Armenia, implementing the educational reforms defined by the 2021-2026 Government program, in particular, the state plan for the development of Armenian education until 2030 and the resulting action plan. The European Commission transferred 5 million euros to the Government in December 2023, and 1.5 million euros in May 2024. The "EU support for education in Armenia" agreement envisages the creation of renovated and equipped STEM laboratories in all 330 schools of Ararat, Kotayk and Gegharkunik regions of Armenia, as well as the training of teachers using modern methodology. It is also planned to build 13 educational complexes in Syunik region, 7 of them in Kapan, and 6 in Goris. The design budget documents of 13 school-educational complexes of Syunik region have been approved, the construction works of some schools have already started. In addition to the component of building, renovating, and creating laboratories, the program includes support for improving the national system for evaluating student learning outcomes. Additional technical assistance will be provided to the ESCS to ensure the effective implementation of the state development plan of Armenian education until 2030 at all levels. YEREVAN, 7 JUNE, ARMENPRESS.The Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, Alen Simonyan, during a briefing with journalists, referred to the fact that the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, had called for the handover of the list of those killed in Bucha, allegedly provided to them by the Ukrainian authorities. He stated that no delegation from Armenia went to Ukraine, noting that he is not commenting on Maria Zakharova. "It is also mentioned that a delegation went to Ukraine. No delegation has gone from Armenia, but I can ask Ms Zakharova or the Foreign Ministry to convey, for example, the names of more than 200 Armenians who died during the recent military operations in Nagorno-Karabakh. I can also provide the names of more than 100,000 refugees, if they are interested, in the area where they were carrying out peacekeeping activities," said Simonyan. He noted that he does not comment on absurdities and lies that have become a common practice. "She is simply lying," said Alen Simonyan, referring to Maria Zakharova's statements. Regarding the report that the head of the Nor Nork district of Yerevan visited Ukraine, Alen Simonyan mentioned that he will inform the Nor Nork administration so that they can provide an official response to the Russian Foreign Ministry. "I promise that the district administration will respond or write. Perhaps the husband of our neighbor also went to Ukraine. No deputy, I am not talking of a group of deputies, can go somewhere without anyone knowing about it. This is a lie, a lot of lies," concluded the Speaker of the National Assembly. The winds of change are blowing through ERP software giant Infor as the company refocuses to become a strong channel player, especially alongside the large consultancies and systems integrators. That is a key message delivered by the companys senior vice-president and general manager of Asia-Pacific and Japan, Terry Smagh, at a series of roadshows across the region. Smagh, is pursuing what he calls the leverage model of growth, through channel partners. There are two levers of growth in any software company: organic growth, which is go out there and maybe put 50 or 60 people and try to see what hits the wall and how fast you can grow; or the leverage model, which is a channel network, Smagh said. In his 25 years in the business with the likes of IBM and Qlik, Smagh has always worked on the latter whereas Infor was usually identified with the former. The mandate is that we are one hundred per cent serious about how we want to drive value in the ecosystem and how important partners are for us, Smagh told ARN at the companys Velocity World Tour event in Sydney last month. Present and presenting were major customers including Australian dairy giant Bega and New Zealand fishing firm Sealord. As Smagh sees it, there are three layers to the ecosystem, the large systems integrators, technology partners such as AWS and Microsoft and finally resellers who could be anything from a ten-person shop upwards. When we look at it, were no different from any other software vendor out there, whereby we are looking to accelerate our reach to the ecosystem, he said. While that delivered scalability for Infor and its partners, it also served the needs of customers with a support infrastructure where Infor couldnt do so directly. That delivery and service aspect is vital, especially in areas of significant project risk such as ERP deployments. From a delivery perspective, our partners and Infor jointly drive reduction in risk and consistency in delivery, Smagh said. Our partners network provide access to a wide ecosystem of accredited skilled Infor consultants. Additionally, Infor delivers with its partners in a variety of models to drive capacity, capability and consistency. Some partners, for instance, bring specific industry knowledge and focus on one sector and on a single Infor CloudSuite. This provides an environment of expertise, leveraging knowledge and driving consistency for clients, Smagh said. Others work in co-delivery models with Infors professional services bringing additional skills such as wider integration, programme management or organisational change management and with Infor bringing product knowledge. Coupling these skills on the larger and more complex projects reduces risk and helps assure outcomes, Smagh said. So, given Infor has not been the most partner centric of companies in the past, what does the shift to the channel look like on the ground? Ive been in the business for two years, Smagh said. And a lot of the senior management, have been in the business for just less than three years. Its a big mindset shift in terms of how we want to do the business. So weve been proactively working behind the scenes the last, I would say, two years engaging on this. Having realised the channel was the fastest growth lever, that has cascaded throughout Smaghs APJ region and is being dovetailed into the firms global ecosystem programme to make sure theres a systematic mode of communication, operation and support. We are 100 per cent committed to take this forward, he said. Weve assembled teams and new people around it with go-to-market strategies aligned with the channel in regards to what we want to go after. Infor is also building relationship with the large global integrators and consultancies. Ill be honest we are playing catch up here, Smagh said. Weve been out of mind out of sight for a long, long time, but the good news is that the variety of new leaders that Ive brought across APJ are not new to those guys. VP and managing director Pacific Richard Everett, for example, was hired eight months ago. Hes a known industry veteran in this space, Smagh said. Hes known to the systems integrators. He is known in terms of what hes done with the projects theyve done. Those big firms liked to work with with the people they know and have been successful with in the past, he said. The vendors they have been successful with always have a driver behind that, Smagh said. Im very confident that my new leaders in APJ, are those drivers in those fast cars that have those connections and networks and reach. Getting the message out into the market and among partners and potential partners was not just the job the alliance person or the channel manager, he said. It was the job of every representative in the market. That said, were not going to be signing 100 partners up, Smagh said. Thats not the model. We want to be strategic in the intent of where we are going, but also very tactical in how we execute. Rob ONeill travelled to Infors Velocity event in Sydney as a guest of Infor. IT services provider Novigi has bulked up its leadership team with three hires focused on consulting. The first two appointments see Deloitte Consulting partner Charlotte Marra and Predico Software chief data scientist Martin Roberts brought on as principal consultants specialising in cloud and machine learning technology, with the latter also including data science and AI within his remit. The third appointment sees KPMG Australia transformation delivery director Anita Owen hired as executive general manager of consulting, professional services, from 3 June. Marra comes with over 19 years of technology experience, having previously worked at Google and IBM, among other companies. Meanwhile, Roberts brings over 20 years of technical expertise, having previously worked at the likes of Morfink Technology and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and Owen taps into 18 years of managerial experience, with her technical background including SMS Management & Technology and carsales.com.au. Novigi CEO Ash Priest said the three hires were important to the company for improving its client offerings. Envoys hail China's efforts on green development in Gobi Desert Xinhua) 08:41, June 07, 2024 LANZHOU, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Envoys from various countries lauded China's efforts on developing clean energy technologies and pursuing green development during their visit to northwest China's Gansu Province. A delegation of ambassadors and senior diplomats from more than 20 countries, including Madagascar, Jordan, Nepal and Slovakia, started their visit on Wednesday in Lanzhou, the provincial capital, and traveled on Thursday to Dunhuang, a major stop on the ancient Silk Road. In Dunhuang, they visited China's largest molten salt solar thermal power station, located in the Gobi Desert, which is rich in solar energy resources. Some 12,000 mirrors, each covering 115 square meters, are arranged in concentric circles, concentrating tens of thousands of beams of sunlight onto the central heat-absorption tower. At the top of the 260-meter-high tower, the heat absorber accumulates energy to heat up the molten salt flowing inside. The molten salt then generates high-temperature and high-pressure steam, which drives a steam turbine generator to generate electricity. While taking pictures of the sprawling project with their mobile phones, the envoys showed great interest in learning about the principle behind the project, its application, as well as the development of China's new energy technology. Peter Lizak, Slovakian Ambassador to China, said he was impressed by the idea and the facilities of the solar thermal power station. "China has proposed and implemented the idea of developing green energy in this region with plenty of sunshine. This project is really impressive," Lizak said. The ambassador also noted that Slovakia is a country with rich renewable energy resources, and looked forward to deepening cooperation with Chinese cities in developing renewable energy. Gerardo Bugallo Ottone, counsellor of the Embassy of Spain in China, said Spain has similar solar thermal power plants, but they are not as large as the one in Dunhuang. Noting that Spain is one of the largest new-energy producing countries in Europe, the counsellor said he looked forward to future cooperation between Spain and China in the field of new energy. In the view of the envoys, the concept of green development has taken root in China, which has successfully achieved great economic and social benefits with minimal costs in terms of resources and the environment. Jordan's ambassador to China Hussam Al Husseini said he believes that the green energy practice in the Gobi Desert has not only achieved a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, but also produced huge economic benefits, which can serve as a guide for many countries in the world. Shi Lin, Party chief of Dunhuang, said the city boasts rich solar and thermal resources and has great potential in the development of the photovoltaic industry. Shi added that Dunhuang is looking forward to sharing its experience in green development with more countries around the world. During the envoys' visit to Gansu, there will also be a dialogue session focusing on cultural exchange along the ancient Silk Road. The visit has been jointly organized by Xinhua News Agency and the Beijing Service Bureau for Diplomatic Missions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Cost and size The price of a whole-home generator depends on how much power they can produce, and that is determined by the homeowners electricity needs. The all-in price will be affected by the complexity of installation (Does it need a gas line laid to the unit's location or concreate pad poured?) and other specifications (Will it be cooled by liquid or by air, which is cheaper?). A typical home of 2,000 to 3,000 square feet can usually requires an air-cooled, 20-kilowatt unit with prices starting at about $13,000, including installation, said Greg Gilbert of Mackey Mechanical. Prices rise with the size of the power needs. Power source Whole-home generators can run on propane, but because of the size of the tank needed, most homeowners choose to install a gas line, experts said. Installation Professional installers of whole-home generators will determine where they can safely and legally be placed, pull city permits and work with a homeowners association to gain their approval. It usually takes three to four weeks from purchase to installation, though larger, liquid-cooled units can take much longer. Holmes generator was on back order, adding to a total time of about three months, he said. New Delhi: The contentious Agnipath scheme is expected to be the first casualty of the new Modi government. The BJPs allies, Janata Dal (United) and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), have expressed strong reservations against this scheme and sought a detailed review, contending that it caused "heavy damage" to the NDA during the Lok Sabha elections. The allies also indicated they would push for a nationwide caste census through the new government at the Centre. These two NDA partners also called for wider consultations on other controversial issues like the Uniform Civil Code and One Nation, One Poll. The support of the JD(U) and TD is crucial for forming the new NDA government. The government launched the Agnipath scheme on June 15, 2022, to recruit both male and female aspirants into 'below the officer's rank' cadre of the three services for four years as Agniveers. Candidates aged between 17.5 and 21 years are eligible to apply for the scheme. Echoing similar sentiments, LJP (RV) chief Chirag Paswan said he is also in favour of a review of the Agnipath scheme. We must revisit how much we could deliver through this scheme. Talking to the media here, JD(U) leader K.C. Tyagi said his party has demanded a review of the Agnipath scheme and will "pursue" the caste census issue, which he asserted was the need of the hour. "There is anger among voters over the (short-term army recruitment) Agniveer scheme. Our party wants those shortcomings to be removed, on which people have objections," Tyagi told reporters. He also said he is not opposed to the Uniform Civil Code but believes all stakeholders should be consulted. "On the UCC, the Chief Minister (Nitish Kumar) had written to the Law Commission. We are not against the UCC. But there should be consultation with all the stakeholders, chief ministers, political parties, and different sects, and a consensus should be reached," he said. On the issue of the caste census, the JD(U) leader further said, "No party in the country has denied a caste census. Bihar has shown the way, and the prime minister also did not oppose it. It is the demand of the time, and we will pursue it." We are now eyeing up to three cabinet berths, a senior JD(U) leader said. Another top party leader expressed hope for a "respectable" representation in the Union Council of Ministers. The matter of cabinet berths will be decided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and our party chief Nitish Kumar ji. But it should be respectable, said Shrawan Kumar, JD(U) leader and Bihar Rural Development Minister. He also said the matter of representation in the Union Cabinet should be decided with the 2025 Bihar Assembly polls in mind. In 2019, a "token representation" of just one berth was turned down by Nitish Kumar. Sources in JD(U) indicated the party is keen on portfolios such as railways, rural development, agriculture, water resources, and heavy industries but have left it to Modi. Among the frontrunners for ministerial berths in the party are its Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Jha, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, Ram Nath Thakur (son of Dalit icon Karpoori Thakur), Kaushalendra Kumar, Ramprit Mandal, Vijaylaxmi Devi, and Lovely Anand. One berth may possibly go to a woman and one from an extremely backward caste. Regarding its support to the BJP as a member of the NDA, a senior JD(U) leader said, "There is no pre-condition; there is unconditional support. But it is in our mind and heart that Bihar should be given special status. After bifurcation, the situation Bihar has faced cannot be corrected without granting it special status." Support from allies like the JD(U) is crucial for the BJP, as it could not reach the majority mark on its own in the recently concluded Lok Sabha election. With 12 MPs, the JD(U) is the second biggest BJP ally after the Telugu Desam's 16. Leaders of the saffron party are holding negotiations with other members of the NDA grouping over ministerial berths and other issues. The BJP bagged 240 seats, 32 short of an absolute majority, while the NDA has a tally of 293 seats in the 18th Lok Sabha. by Joseph Masilamany Some 500 Bajau Laut living along the coast of Sabah have been evicted, their floating homes, demolished or set on fire. A crackdown on undocumented immigrants has affected the stateless ethnic group, sparking concerns among human rights groups. For Jerald Joseph of Pusat Komas, the Sea Gypsies have faced systematic discrimination for decades. Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) On 4 and 5 June, the authorities demolished and set fire to the homes of more than 500 people from sea-faring communities known as Bajau Laut, or Sea Gypsies, who live along the coast of the State of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Human rights activists say the eviction is part of a government crackdown on undocumented immigrants. The Bajau Laut are a stateless people who have lived in Sabah's Semporna district for generations, in wooden houseboats built on stilts in close contact with the water. Known around the world for their diving skills and their fascinating relationship with the sea, they lack identity documents from birth, so most do not have access to basic services like education, banking, or healthcare. They often live in fear of being detained by immigration officers or evicted for no reason. In the last three days, this fear has become a reality. The demolished Bajau Laut homes were located on seven islands around Semporna, this according to Mukmin Nantang, founder of the Borneo Komrad NGO. The islands especially affected are Pulau Bohey Dulang, Pulau Maiga, Pulau Bodgaya, Pulau Sebangkat, and Pulau Sibuan. The demolition of their stilt houses on the seven islands highlights critical issues of racism, developmental injustice, and statelessness in the Borneo State of Sabah, said another NGO, Kuala Lumpur-based Pusat Komas. Speaking to AsiaNews, Pusat Komas director Jerald Joseph said he was deeply concerned about the recent eviction. He explained that The Bajau Laut, who practice a nomadic lifestyle at sea and live in small boats or wooden houses on stilts on the coast or in shallow waters, have been facing systematic discrimination for decades. Their forced removal in the last few days raises serious questions about the equitable treatment of ethnic minorities in Malaysia. For him, it is imperative to ensure that all communities are respected and protected under national and international human rights laws. This includes Article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), as well as the Federal Constitution [which] provides under Article 8 that all citizens be afforded equal protection under the law and that discrimination is prohibited based on religion, race, descent, place of birth or gender. One question remains unanswered: Who gave the authorities the green light to carry out such a violent destruction, that is, who should be held responsible for the eviction of the Bajau Laut. Sustainable development should involve comprehensive planning that considers the needs and rights of indigenous peoples, Joseph said. The eviction of the Bajau Laut without adequate consultation or solutions for alternative housing exemplifies a failure to balance development with social justice, he added. For this reason, Pusat Komas respectfully calls on local authorities to halt further evictions and instead engage in meaningful dialogue with the Bajau Laut community to find humane and just solutions. The issue of statelessness goes back several generations, particularly in the State of Sabah. Last year, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia reportedly received 5,440 complaints from 2015 to 2020 with many of the investigated cases centred on citizenship issues in Sabah alone. According to Joseph, Pusat Komas understands that this is a difficult and multifaceted issue; however, avoiding it is not the resolution our country needs. State and federal governments must take the initiative and face this issue head on to prevent more generations of stateless children in Malaysia. Moving people out of their homes only serves to move the problem elsewhere, as opposed to solving it, Joseph added. by Melani Manel Perera The protest from the leaders of the Episcopal Conference: "Wickremesinghe is using the Easter massacres to leave in his place an official who in 36 months has not implemented the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry. To claim that the extension is agreed with the Catholic Church is false , misleading and malicious." Colombo (Asia News) - The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Sri Lanka (CBCSL) denies that the Catholic Church had any role in President Wickremesinghe's decision to extend the mandate of the State Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam. It was Wickremesinghe himself who declared that the reasons for the extension of the mandate of the official, now close to retirement, "had to be asked to the bishops". Over the past 36 months, Rajaratnam has been unable to implement the recommendations contained in the final report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Easter Sunday attacks reads a note signed by the bishop of Kurunegala Harold Anthony Perera and the auxiliary bishop of Colombo J.D. Anthony, president and general secretary of the Episcopal Conference -. We categorically state that CBCSL has absolutely nothing to do with this extension. The President's reported intention to seek an extension by exploiting the Easter Sunday attacks is strongly condemned." Some press reports had spread false rumors that the CBCSL president had met with Wickremesinghe and agreed to the appointment of a three-member commission, composed of Secretary to the President Saman Ekanayake, Sagala Rathnayake and Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam, to discuss the report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Easter Sunday attacks. The articles stated that Rajaratnam would be playing a key role in this commission to coordinate with the CBCSL on future steps regarding the investigation into the attacks. Reconstruction that the Episcopal Conference denies. There has never been any dialogue between the president of the CBCSL and the Attorney General. We are amazed by the idea that the president is using the Easter Sunday attacks to justify this extension. The suggestion that the CBCSL is responsible for the extension of the Attorney General's mandate is false, misleading and malicious. by Santosh Digal The election during the 2024 general assembly which took place in Lima, Peru. He succeeds Irish priest Fr. Tim Mulroy and will remain in office for the next six years. A priest since 2009, he has carried out his ministry in Taiwan and also in China and the Philippines. Founded in 1918, today they are present in 15 countries. Manila (AsiaNews) - The Filipino priest Fr. Andrei Paz is the new superior general of the missionaries of Saint Columban, an Irish institute that has a long history of apostolate in Asia, including in mainland China, with ties that continue today as we recalled in recent days in Ecclesia in Asia. The election took place during the 2024 general assembly of the institute scheduled every six years and which took place in recent days in Lima, the capital of Peru. It is with great joy - we read in a statement sent to AsiaNews - that we announce that the 2024 general assembly, after a period of prolonged discernment, prayer and many conversations and dialogues in the Spirit, has elected is. Andrei Paz in the leadership role. He will remain in office, continues the note from the Missionary Society of Saint Columban, "for a period of six years". Fr. Paz is originally from La Union, a province in the Ilocos region, on the island of Luzon, in the northwestern Philippines, and is assigned to the China mission unit. The religious joined the missionaries of Saint Columban in 1998 and was ordained in 2009. In 2010 he was sent for a period of mission to Taiwan, then transferred to China three years later, starting from 2013 where he was alongside the disabled. His studies also include a doctorate in occupational therapy at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska (in the United States), which he attended from 2015 to 2018. After completing his training, the priest worked at the Malate church in Manila, in the Philippines. He succeeds his Irish brother Fr. Tim Mulroy as head of the institute at its current headquarters is in Hong Kong. Founded in 1918 by Irish priests Edward Galvin (missionary in China where he collaborated with John Fraser, later founder of the Scarboro missionaries) and John Blowick, today it is made up of priests - who collaborate with lay people and nuns - and is present in 15 countries. Its missionaries work in particular to support the poorest and protect creation. The society is named after Saint Columban, a 6th century Irish monk who preached the Gospel during his life first in his country of origin, and then moved to the territories that are now part of France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Today they are particularly active on the Asian continent and, at a national level, in addition to the aforementioned China (and Hong Kong) we find them in South Korea, the Philippines, Japan, Pakistan and Taiwan. At least thirty houses or hundreds of members, the great majority of whom are priests. According to Prof Sebasti L. Raj, the BJP lost some key constituencies because it focused on religious issues rather than solve peoples real problems. The opposition is not a single bloc; to succeed, it must remain united. New undercurrents within the BJP will be clearer when the new cabinet is formed. New Delhi (AsiaNews) Pluralism has won in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed to win a majority to rule alone as it did after the 2014 and 2019 elections. Although Modi has won a third term, he will have to deal with two influential allies for the next five years: the Janata Dal (United), Bihar's regional party, and Andhra Pradesh's Telugu Desam Party, less interested in the Hindu ultranationalism the BJP promoted in the past 10 years. He will not be able to ignore the opposition as he has done so far," said Fr Sebasti L. Raj, a Jesuit priest, who is the executive director of the New Delhi-based Indian Social Institute (ISI). We can expect less arrogance from the BJP, which previously did not pay any attention to the opposition, while now it will have to accommodate different opinions in order to remain in power. The National Democratic Alliance won 293 seats, 240 with the BJP. This is a major difference from 2019, when the BJP alone took more than 300 seats out of 543 in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India's parliament. The opposition, led by Indian National Congress (INC), won 232 seats, mostly in constituencies held by the BJP. Modi has led the party for several years, and all voices of dissent have been silenced, Fr Raj explained. Now, in addition to his age (73), he will have to deal with strong leaders, which will likely push others to step up and speak out. At present though, it is hard to imagine a succession to his leadership. A lot of things will be clearer once the cabinet is announced," Prof Raj said. Modi will be sworn in to start his new mandate on Sunday. From the names chosen for cabinet posts, it will be clear what compromises the BJP has made to keep the majority together. The large, more populous states have determined the new direction the country could take. Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu are where the BJP performed the worst, and now it will be interesting to see how the elections for local assemblies will go." "In the southern states, the BJP has no hold because local governments have more autonomy. This has also allowed for greater development. The central government should do less in areas like education and decentralise powers as much as possible, Fr Raj said. The BJP instead sought to impose one language and one religion on a country, India, which has always been a plural state. There is economic wealth, but in my opinion the real wealth of our country lies in its cultural diversity," the Jesuit clergyman added. Perhaps this is precisely why regional parties, both in the majority and the opposition, have emerged as the real new main players in these elections. "The BJP lost in a number of key constituencies because it talked too much about religion and too little about practical, concrete issues that matter to citizens, like unemployment, prospects for young people, food security. What is more, After the pandemic, the rich have become richer, while the poor have become even poorer. Building temples and prayers are not enough, people have real problems to solve. In Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, where Modi inaugurated a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Ram, opposition prevailed, but "it is not a single bloc", Prof Raj explained. "The fact that the alliance (called INDIA) has held up is actually a great achievement, because in January it was about to fall apart. I hope they stick together for their own sake and that of the nation, because that's the only way to counter the BJP. Now, Many fear that Modi will try to divide the parties that have allied themselves with the Congress, in which case everything risks collapsing. The party that has led India after independence should try to build its future from this new base. "Certainly, the Congress was successful because it addressed the people citing concrete problems; they didn't just talk about the risk that a majority dominated by the BJP could change the constitution on its own, Raj said. The INC has to go back to build new support starting from the bottom; people are asking for a radical change that involves courageous choices on the part of politicians. If Indians did not vote for the BJP, it is because what was promised was not delivered. The opposition movement was spontaneous, we can say, people wanted to change because they need someone to act for the people," Fr Raj said. "Minorities, not only religious groups like Christians or Muslims, but India's ethnic and linguistic minorities can breathe a sigh of relief. Now we hope that the differences that characterise India will be respected, the ISI director noted. In this situation, I am reminded of remarks made by Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indian prime minister after independence, who said that it was important to listen to the opposition, even if it was made up of one man. This way, our country can progress slowly, but it will certainly progress on the path of democracy. INDIAN MANDALA IS THE ASIANEWS NEWSLETTER DEDICATED TO INDIA. TO RECEIVE A WEEKLY UPDATE EVERY FRIDAY, CLICK HERE. Chefs Tony Nguyen and Christine Ha at Xin Chao in Houston. Annie Mulligan/Contributor Modern Vietnamese restaurant Xin Chao closed on Saturday, about six months after one of its original partners, "MasterChef" winner Christine Ha, divested from the business. Chef Tony J. Nguyen, who opened Xin Chao with Ha and her husband, John Suh, but took over sole ownership in December 2023, confirmed the announcement, which went live on social media Thursday afternoon. A slow crawfish season and the recent storms contributed to the restaurants closing, despite a strong following among Houstonians who rooted for Ha on the reality cooking competition show and the chefs nominations as James Beard Awards finalists. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Its just been hurdle after hurdle, Nguyen said. Ive been through this before, but its still tough. HOUSTON EATS: The Chronicles top 100 restaurants The modern Vietnamese cooking at Xin Chao combined Texas and Vietnamese flavors. (Photos: Mai Pham / Contributor) Earlier this year, Nguyen closed his restaurant Saigon House in North Houston because of the initial crawfish shortage and price hikes. He also wanted to focus on keeping Xin Chao, which debuted in the fall of 2020, open. A successful crawfish season can help sustain a restaurant throughout the year, but Nguyen said the profit margins were not as great with a later start and seemingly fewer people dining out. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Then the recent storms hit. Xin Chao closed for nearly a week after tornados hit parts of the Houston area in mid-May. The air conditioning system and hood vents had to be fixed. All the restaurants inventory had to be tossed out. Another storm caused a power outage a week later. The restaurant lost at least $25,000 in sales, Nguyen said. Ive been on the fence about this decision for quite awhile, he said. I already knew summertime was going to be rough for us. We just couldnt operate anymore. MORE FROM BAO ONG: Top sushi restaurant Neo is opening a Japanese listening bar with hand rolls, drinks and vinyl Nguyens staffing was already reduced since the storm, but he said he felt the restaurant needed to announce its closing to the public. Advertisement Article continues below this ad It had its good run, said Ha, who found out about the closing from friends via text messages. Ha split from Xin Chao to focus on her two restaurants in Spring Branch, the Blind Goat and Stuffed Belly, but the Sixth Ward restaurant was her first stand-alone effort (the Blind Goat originally opened in a downtown food hall). After the last dinner service at Xin Chao, Nguyen said he plans to take some time off. Im not saying Im done with restaurants, but Im going to focus on myself, Nguyen said. Advertisement Article continues below this ad 7 June 2024 08:30 (UTC+04:00) Nazrin Abdul Read more In recent years, Azerbaijan has witnessed substantial investment in the development and restoration of its energy infrastructure, marking a notable shift towards renewable energy sources. With a growing interest in alternative energy fields, foreign companies, notably the esteemed UAE-based company Masdar, have played a pivotal role in driving this transformation. Masdar's unwavering commitment to advancing the concept of clean energy in Azerbaijan has been instrumental in accelerating progress in this sector. A significant milestone in this collaboration was the successful operation of the Garadagh Solar Power Station (GES) last year, marking the commencement of a new era in Azerbaijan's energy landscape. Notably, GES stands as the first power station in the country to be built with substantial foreign investment, signifying a landmark achievement in Azerbaijan's renewable energy journey. Further underscoring this partnership, the recent groundbreaking ceremony held during the Baku Energy Week on June 4th saw the initiation of three ambitious projects: the Neftchala and Bilasuvar Solar Power Plants, along with the Absheron-Garadagh Wind Power Plant, in collaboration with Masdar. These projects, with a combined installed capacity of 1000 MW, herald a significant leap forward in Azerbaijan's renewable energy capacity. Moreover, as part of the Baku Energy Week, pivotal Shareholder Agreements were inked between the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and Masdar for three renewable energy ventures, encompassing both wind and solar power plant projects across Azerbaijan. In an exclusive interview with Azernews, Maryam Al Mazrouei, Head of Development and Investment at Masdar, delves into the company's vision and strategic initiatives in Azerbaijan, shedding light on their collaborative efforts to drive sustainable energy development in the region. Q: What were the key agreements signed between MASDAR and Azerbaijan following the inauguration of the Garadagh Solar Park? A: Azerbaijan holds a pivotal position as a strategic partner. Last October, we celebrated the inauguration of the region's largest operational solar plant, the Garadagh Solar Park, boasting a capacity of 230 megawatt units. Concurrently, we sealed an investment agreement for three additional projects, including two Solar PV projects and one Onshore Wind Project. Notably, these agreements and the inauguration ceremony were graced by the presence of esteemed dignitaries, including President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, Chairman of Masdar, and COP28 President. Regarding the recent announcement of a one-gigawatt project, it underscores our successful partnership with Azerbaijan and our key stakeholders, the Ministry of Energy and "Azerenergy" OJSC. We are enthusiastic about expanding our presence in this strategic market, as demonstrated by our commitment to the Garadagh solar PV project. In 2022, we further solidified our collaboration through the signing of two implementation agreements, a significant milestone achieved during the Baku Energy Week in the historic city of Shusha. These agreements encompass a comprehensive 10-gigawatt program, with the initial phase targeting four gigawatts. The groundbreaking event held yesterday, attended by President Ilham Aliyev and Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber, Minister of Industry and High Technologies of the UAE and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Masdar, marked the commencement of this ambitious program. Notably, the first phase covers a range of technologies, including solar PV, onshore wind, offshore wind, and green hydrogen potential, reflecting our commitment to advancing diverse renewable energy solutions. Q: How does MASDAR envision its future collaborations and projects in Azerbaijan, particularly in the context of renewable energy development? A: As you are aware, the government has set a target to achieve 30 percent renewable energy by 2030, and MASDAR is fully aligned with this vision. The United Arab Emirates and the Republic of Azerbaijan share a strong relationship, extending even to our leadership. Our discussions with the Ministry of Energy have been conducted bilaterally, reflecting a collaborative approach where we function as a unified team. In fact, I have been privileged to be considered as part of the Azerbaijani team on occasions. We believe that successful implementation of renewable energy initiatives hinges on collaboration between MASDAR, the Ministry of Energy, and Azernenergy. Transparency is a cornerstone of our approach, as we strive to maintain credibility with all stakeholders. It is worth noting that the recent one-gigawatt project, particularly the Karadagh initiative, is 100 percent developed by MASDAR. However, we are also collaborating closely with our strategic partner SOCAR, who holds shares in these projects. This partnership exemplifies our commitment to working hand in hand with local stakeholders to drive renewable energy development in Azerbaijan. Q: How does MASDAR's global experience and expertise in clean energy contribute to its partnership with Azerbaijan? A: When discussing MASDAR, it's important to highlight our extensive experience as one of the largest clean energy developers worldwide. With projects spanning more than 40 countries across six continents, we have established ourselves as leaders in the field. Currently, our portfolio encompasses 20 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity, including operational, under-construction, and under-development projects. From MASDAR's perspective, we have a clear mandate to increase our renewable energy portfolio capacity to 100 gigawatts by 2030. Azerbaijan holds a key position as a strategic market for us. Last year, we were engaged in projects totaling 230 megawatts. This year, that figure has increased significantly to 1.2 gigawatts, showcasing our commitment to the country's renewable energy goals. We remain dedicated to working closely with the Ministry of Energy and other key stakeholders to expand our presence and contribute to Azerbaijan's energy transition. Notably, Azerbaijan has set ambitious targets, aiming not only to achieve 30 percent renewable energy by 2030 but also to export green electricity to neighboring countries and potentially to Europe. MASDAR is eager to participate in these initiatives and collaborate with the Ministry of Energy to support the export of green energy to neighboring nations, once technical feasibility studies are completed and finalized. Q: What are the broader implications of MASDAR's investments and projects in Azerbaijan for regional energy dynamics and sustainability efforts? When considering MASDAR, our mandate is to develop renewable energy projects across the globe. We are highly active across all six continents, with a particular focus on the region but also extending to other areas. Our primary technological focuses include solar PV, onshore wind, and offshore wind. However, we also explore other avenues such as waste-to-energy, geothermal, and energy storage technologies like batteries. I would emphasize that we do not limit ourselves when it comes to technologies or countries. Wherever we operate, we strive to expand our presence and actively seek opportunities in new markets. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz People take photos on Pier 21 with the Battleship Texas in the background on Saturday, May 24th, 2024 in Galveston, TX. Jill Karnicki/Staff photographer Battleship Texas could soon regain its status as a tourist attraction, but managers at a Galveston seafood restaurant say it could come at the expense of their waterfront view. The ship is one of the last remaining vessels that survived both World War I and II, and it has been through multimillion-dollar renovations and restorations over several years, plus a move from its previous home at the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site to the Port of Galveston. Leaders of Galveston Wharves, a public entity, have been negotiating since 2023 with Landry's Inc. and the Battleship Texas Foundation over a proposed deal that would dock the battleship at Pier 19, where the three entities would maintain the ships operations as a museum and tourist fixture, said Rodger E. Rees, director and CEO of Galveston Wharves. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Landry's has two restaurants and a hotel at Pier 21, near the proposed location. Derrick Gutierrez, manager of operations for Katies Seafood Restaurant at Pier 19, says the deal would kill business by blocking the view of the water from Katie's. In a Facebook post, Gutierrez said it's unfair to benefit Landry's at the expense of Katie's Seafood. He also thinks it's dangerous to put the battleship in a permanent spot in the channel without a hurricane evacuation plan in place. Gutierrez was not available for an interview. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Rees said the Wharves board doesn't deny Gutierrez's concerns and understands the debate over whether the potential economic boon would outweigh any possible detriment to individual businesses. Youre looking at a four or five-story building between (Katies Seafood) and the water, so it would be right in their face, Rees said. PHOTOS AND VIDEO: How Battleship Texas was restored to its former glory One issue yet to be settled is how to put an insurance policy or contingency fund in place if something catastrophic were to occur once the ship is docked. Rees said he has spoken directly with Gutierrez and others who suggest the ship should be docked in front of Landrys properties, which are owned by Tilman J. Fertitta, the billionaire businessman who also owns the Houston Rockets, along with the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casinos. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Theyre all saying Why dont you go put it in front of his restaurant? According to Rees, Galveston-born Fertitta has a memorandum of understanding with the Battleship Foundation that if the ship moves near Pier 21, Landrys Inc. will manage it from a tourism standpoint. Dash Kohlhausen, Landry's deputy general counsel, sent the following statement to the Houston Chronicle: While the proposed location for the historic Battleship Texas may block some of the views of Landrys harbor front properties Willie Gs, Harbor House, etc., and a few others, it will also attract more than a million visitors a year to the area, he said. This will be a boon for all of us and the island's entire tourism industry." Advertisement Article continues below this ad More than 1,685 signatures so far have been collected on a petition started by Gutierrez, which included a plea for the board to move the battleship to Seawolf Park Naval Museum on Pelican Island outside of downtown Galveston, where it would be docked on dry land alongside historic aircraft. Our goal is to be an integrated partner with all parties involved and continue to elevate the islands historic tourism industry, Matt Pham, vice president of development for the Battleship Texas Foundation, said in a statement. The Battleship Texas has already received incredible interest from the state, region and throughout the country with broad support for our effort across the island. Rees said that as a public entity, the Wharves Board is listening to the concerns of Gutierrez and others, and the foundation is focused on moving the ship where it will have the best visibility. Its an unknown, so I understand their (Katie's Seafood) position," Rees said. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The ship, which would be scheduled to be relocated by late 2025, would sit approximately 75 yards from Katies Seafood, a restaurant that has received several awards for its waterfront views since it opened five years ago. 7 June 2024 10:39 (UTC+04:00) Nazrin Abdul Read more The Mangystau region of Kazakhstan has proposed boosting the supply of consumer food products from Azerbaijan, Azernews reports. Nurdaulet Kilybay, head of the Mangystau region, presented this proposal during a meeting with Elchin Mammadov, the Consul General of Azerbaijan in Aktau. "I'd like to propose some collaboration options. Instead of waiting for high-level official meetings, let's initiate joint projects and foster bilateral relations through mutual agreements. As you know, the Mangystau region lacks a variety of fruits and vegetables and mostly relies on imports. Therefore, I suggest that companies in Azerbaijan explore opportunities to enhance the supply of food and consumer goods, particularly fruits and construction materials, to our region. Additionally, we should strengthen tourism ties between Azerbaijan and the Mangystau region," he said. Mammadov emphasized the strong relationship between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, expressing the Consulate General's keen interest in fostering joint projects to reinforce the fraternal ties between the two peoples. "The Mangystau region is of significant importance to our nation. Collaboratively, the state maritime companies of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have augmented the fleet of vessels for cargo transportation. We believe that construction materials, textiles, and agricultural products from both countries, as well as the exchange of food items, mutual investments, and joint productions, can substantially boost trade volume. There are promising prospects for enhancing tourism cooperation between our nations. It's worth noting that in 2025, the city of Aktau will be designated as the capital of the Turkic world. Numerous events and official visits from delegations of Turkic-speaking countries are anticipated. This presents an opportunity for us to further strengthen our close cooperation," he elaborated. In 2023, the trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan surged to $529.4 million, marking a 14.2 percent increase compared to the previous year's figure of $463.3 million. Exports to Azerbaijan during this period totaled $456.3 million, representing a notable 21.6 percent increase compared to the same period in 2022. Imports from Azerbaijan from January through December 2023 experienced a decline of 17.3 percent, amounting to $73 million, compared to $88.3 million in 2022. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 7 June 2024 15:36 (UTC+04:00) Nazrin Abdul Read more During the plenary session of parliament on June 7th, Finance Minister Samir Sharifov disclosed that by the close of 2022 or early 2023, prepayments had amassed to a sum of 3.054 billion manats, Azernews reports. The minister highlighted that in the preceding year, budgetary organizations disbursed advance payments totaling 3.190 billion manats, with concurrent closures amounting to 1.806 billion manats. Notably, 1.226 billion manats, or 62 percent of these closed advances, pertained to outstanding amounts from previous years. As of January 1st, a balance of 580 million manats remained, representing new advances. Sharifov underscored, "A significant observation here is the surge in advance amounts by the end of 2023, reaching 4.437 billion manats. What led to this increase? Well, 78.8 percent of these advances are attributed to power structures. This trend is explicable, given these entities' necessity to secure long-term contracts for procuring and manufacturing specific new equipment and ammunition." --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 7 June 2024 17:20 (UTC+04:00) Nazrin Abdul Read more Six charging points powered by green energy in Azerbaijan's Garabagh and Eastern Zangezur regions, Azernews reports citing Azerishig OJSC. These points are strategically located in digital control centers across Zangilan and Jabrayil, as well as at key substations including Khojaly, Shusha-1, Fuzuli, and the Hadrut hub. Aligned with President Ilham Aliyev's directive to promote electric vehicle usage, Azerishig OJSC continues its efforts in this direction. In preparation for the upcoming COP29 conference, the country is bolstering its charging infrastructure in both urban and rural areas with reliable electricity supply. The use of green energy at these charging points underscores Azerbaijan's commitment to environmental conservation. Azerishig OJSC's installations are equipped to deliver high-power, fast, and stable current, ensuring efficient charging for electric vehicles. Furthermore, recent installation efforts spanned various locations including Baku's Training and Innovation Center, Icherisheher substation, Sea Breeze-1 substation in Nardaran village, and trading enterprise along the Gala-Mardakan highway. Additional points were established at the Hajialili substation in Gabala and along the Alat-Astara road in Salyan. Plans are underway to expand charging infrastructure both in urban centers and rural regions, aligning with Azerbaijan's commitment to a greener future, especially evident as it declared 2024 the "Year of Solidarity for a Green World." The development of green energy zones, such as those in Garabagh and Eastern Zangezur, is a crucial step toward achieving this goal. Embracing alternative energy sources and the growing interest in electric vehicles will undoubtedly benefit Azerbaijan's ecosystem, particularly in these regions. It's noteworthy that Azerbaijan will host COP29 in November, with the country expected to welcome approximately 70-80,000 foreign guests. The Conference of the Parties (COP) is a vital platform for global climate action, stemming from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which aims to prevent hazardous human interference with the climate system. Established in 1992, COP meetings convene annually, with the upcoming COP29 marking a significant milestone for Azerbaijan as it takes center stage in global climate discussions. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 7 June 2024 17:44 (UTC+04:00) The Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan, President-designate of COP29 Mukhtar Babayev met with the UN Task Force, including representatives from the UN Azerbaijan Office, UNFCCC, UNDP, and UNEP, the COP29 official X account said, Azernews reports. The meeting focused on coordinated efforts for advancing global climate action. COP29 Presidency met with the UN Task Force, including representatives from the UN Azerbaijan Office, @UNFCCC, @UNDP, and @UNEP, to discuss coordinated efforts for advancing global climate action. #ClimateAction #COP29 pic.twitter.com/8fBi4v91pC COP29 AZ (@COP29_AZ) June 7, 2024 --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 7 June 2024 11:17 (UTC+04:00) The premium cinema chain CineMastercard made its debut at the Cannes Film Market (Marche du Film), which takes place within the framework of the Cannes International Film Festival. Held annually since 1959, the Cannes Film Market is the largest in the world and a key event for film industry professionals. Representing the founders at the Cannes Film Market was the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the CineMastercard cinema chain, Zaur Darabzadeh. At the event, he met with representatives from Hollywood and European studios to discuss potential future collaborations. During the market, Zaur Darabzadeh also presented new technological solutions and innovative approaches that CineMastercard plans to implement in the near future. These include enhanced projection and sound systems, as well as expanding film viewing formats such as 4DX and ScreenX. Additionally, Zaur Darabzadeh discussed the prospects of CineMastercard's participation in international projects and the possibility of hosting special screenings and premieres at its cinemas in Azerbaijan. These initiatives aim to develop the local film market and strengthen cultural ties with global cinema. CineMastercard continues to innovate to offer its viewers the best, showing films in Azerbaijan on the same day as their worldwide releases. Cinema strive to create a unique experience for every visitor, offering comfort and high-quality service in our theaters. Auditoriums are equipped with state-of-the-art technology, ensuring unforgettable viewing experiences. Moreover, CineMastercard plans to introduce a loyalty program for regular customers, which will include exclusive offers, special screenings, and unique events. In this way visit to the cinema will be not just a film screening, but a true event for the whole family. At the Cannes Film Market, CineMastercard also demonstrated its commitment to environmental initiatives by presenting plans to implement sustainable practices in its cinemas. This includes the use of energy-efficient technologies, reducing plastic waste, and supporting local environmental projects. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Shusha City Days have commenced in Rabat, Morocco, Azernews reports. The event was organized by the Shusha State Reserve in line with the plan of events to designate Shusha city as the Culture Capital of Islamic World 2024. As part of the event, Special Representative of the President of Azerbaijan in the Shusha district, Aydin Karimov, as well as the Azerbaijani Ambassador to Morocco, Nazim Samadov, met with Minister of Youth, Culture and Communications of Morocco, Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid. The meeting covered the current relations between the two countries, as well as developing of cooperation in the field of culture. The sides discussed the projects implemented in the historical city of Shusha, programs of cultural events, and issues of further development of relations. At the end, Muhammad Ben Said was presented with a souvenir from Shusha. With its diverse cultural heritage, Shusha is a true testament to the Islamic world's legacy. The city is dotted with historical mosques, mausoleums that demonstrate the Islamic world's architectural brilliance. Yukhari Govhar Agha Mosque, Ashaghi Govhar Agha Mosque which stand as a symbol of Shusha's religious heritage are considered masterpieces of Eastern architecture. ---- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @lmntypewriterrr Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 7 June 2024 10:18 (UTC+04:00) Nazrin Abdul Read more The 13th Meeting of the Council of the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic States (TURKPA) was held in Baku, Azernews reports. In his opening remarks, the acting chairman of TURKPA and Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkiye, Numan Kurtulmus, emphasized the importance of TURKPA as a key institution for Turkic cooperation. Numan Kurtulmus handed over the chairmanship of TURKPA to the Speaker of Azerbaijans Milli Majlis, Sahiba Gafarova, and wished her success in leading the organization. Speaker Sahiba Gafarova assured that Azerbaijans Milli Majlis will diligently work towards achieving the organization's goals and enhancing cooperation. She noted that Baku has hosted major TURKPA events four times during its 15 years of activity and expressed Azerbaijans high regard for TURKPA's role in fostering friendly and cooperative relations among member countries. Quoting President Ilham Aliyev, who said, "Our family is the Turkic world," Speaker Gafarova highlighted that strengthening Turkic unity is a priority in Azerbaijan's foreign policy. During her address, she also mentioned the significance of the 44-day Patriotic War and Azerbaijans upcoming presidency of COP29 in November. Gafarova stated that the discussions and decisions on "Green horizons for the Turkic world: the role of parliaments in the implementation of the green agenda" at the TURKPA plenary meeting will demonstrate parliamentary support for combating climate change and promoting green energy cooperation among the countries. Numan Kurtulmus, along with Nurlanbek Shakiev, Chairman of the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic, and Yerlan Koshanov, Chairman of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of Kazakhstan, expressed their gratitude for the organization and hospitality of the event. They extended their best wishes to Azerbaijan during its presidency. The speakers expressed hope that the exchange of views and decisions made at the 13th Council and plenary sessions of TURKPA would significantly contribute to strengthening the organization's future activities. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 7 June 2024 14:36 (UTC+04:00) Ulviyya Shahin Read more A cooperation document was signed between the State Social Protection Fund (SSPF) and the Social Services Agency of Georgia, Azernews reports citing SSPF. The delegation led by the Chairman of the SSPF under the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population, Himalaya Mamishov, visited Georgia. In a meeting with Irene Tsagadze, the Deputy Minister of Work, Labor, Health and Social Protection, people who were forcibly displaced from the occupied territories of Georgia were informed about the social reforms carried out in our country. Opinions were exchanged on the current situation and priority issues in the direction of social security of the population. Issues of expansion of bilateral relations and prospective cooperation were discussed. Within the framework of the visit, Himalaya Mamishov and Giorgi Chanturia, the head of the Social Services Agency of the Ministry of Labor, Labor, Health and Social Protection of Georgia with IDPs from the Occupied Territories, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between the two institutions. The document includes changes in the legislation on pension provision, mechanisms for strengthening the social protection of persons with disabilities, etc. implementation of information exchanges in the fields was reflected. At the event, H.Mamishov informed about the reforms and achievements in the pension-insurance system of Azerbaijan. G. Chanturia said that they are interested in applying the advanced experience of Azerbaijan in the field of social insurance and social security in Georgia. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 7 June 2024 17:08 (UTC+04:00) Fatima Latifova Read more On June 7, the delegation led by the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Colonel General Ruslan Zhaksylykov paid an official visit to Azerbaijan, Azernews reports. The Kazakh delegation first visited the graves of the National Leader of the Azerbaijani people Heydar Aliyev and prominent ophthalmologist, academician Zarifa Aliyeva in the Alley of Honor and laid flowers. In the Alley of Shehids (Martyrs) the visitors laid flowers at the graves of Shehids, who sacrificed their lives for the independence and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. They laid a wreath at the Eternal Flame monument. Then, the Azerbaijan Defense Ministry hosted a solemn welcoming ceremony, both Defense Ministers passed along the guard of honor. The national anthems of both countries accompanied by the military orchestra were performed. In accordance with the protocol, Colonel General R.Zhaksylykov signed the Book of Honor. Colonel General Z.Hasanov greeted his Kazakh colleague and expressed satisfaction with seeing him in Azerbaijan. Noting that bilateral military cooperation between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan is based on friendly and fraternal relations, the Minister emphasized the importance of developing cooperation in military-technical, military education and other fields. Colonel General R.Zhaksylykov expressed gratitude to his Azerbaijani colleague for warm reception. Noting that such visits are of particular importance and serve to further strengthen the defense cooperation between both armies, the Kazakh Minister invited Colonel General Z.Hasanov to the Distinguished Visitors Day of (Unity) - 2024 operational-tactical command-staff exercise to be held in Aktau in July, 2024. The meeting mentioned the importance of conducting joint exercises in order to further raise the professional levels of the servicemen from both countries. At the meeting, which was attended by the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan Mr. Alim Bayel, a wide range of views were exchanged on a number of issues of common interest. The meeting ended with signing a document on cooperation in the military field between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 7 June 2024 16:15 (UTC+04:00) Ulviyya Shahin Read more On 6 May, a public presentation ceremony of the book "Arteries of Eurasia" written by economist-expert Eldeniz Amirov about the transport, communication and energy corridors of Azerbaijan, dedicated to the successful corridor strategy of President Ilham Aliyev and covering more than 30 corridors of the continent, was held at the Azerbaijan State University of Economics, Azernews reports. The presentation was attended by the management of the University of Economics, members of parliament, heads of various state institutions, well-known political scientists, economic experts, media representatives and other guests. Those who spoke at the event talked about the great importance of this book in terms of presenting the country's corridor strategy with all its components to the public. At the same time, it was reported that in the book, the author of the book carefully presented the details of how about 10 transport-communication and energy corridors, created on the initiative of National leader Heydar Aliyev and Mr. President Ilham Aliyev, became the main component of global geopolitics. Also, the speakers spoke about the serious importance of the book and the role it will play in educational work, and emphasized that it can be used as a teaching aid in higher schools due to the precise description of the technical-economic and other indicators of the corridors. Speakers participating in the event said that it is a rare case that information, analysis and forecasts on more than 30 corridors are reflected in one book. It should be noted that in the book "Arteries of Eurasia" by the author, the struggle of the USA, Russia, China and other world giants for the success of the corridors of Eurasia and the conflicts caused by this struggle, the corridors destroyed by their pressure and planned to be destroyed, as well as analyzes and predictions about their future given. Also, the history, routes, technical and economic parameters of each of the more than 30 transport-communication and energy corridors of the Eurasian continent and extensive analyzes of their future have been reflected. The book is expected to be of interest to regional countries and European readers. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Houston man Andrew Quentin Taake was recently arrested for allegedly pepper spraying and whipping police officers during the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection after someone he matched with on a dating site reported him to authorities, according to the FBI. FBI Houston man Andrew Quentin Taake was recently arrested for allegedly pepper spraying and whipping police officers during the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection after someone he matched with on a dating site reported him to authorities, according to the FBI. FBI A Houston man who pleaded guilty to attacking police during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection in Washington, D.C,, using bear spray and a metal whip against officers, was was sentenced to spend more than six years in federal prison. Andrew Taake, 35, received one of the harshest sentences so far among the 20 Houston-area people who have been charged for their participation in the riot. Taake in December pleaded guilty to to one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon, a felony. Advertisement Article continues below this ad MORE ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE: Harris County prosecutors will seek death penalty in 2022 Cpl. Charles Galloway killing Taake brought bear spray and a metal whip to the "Stop the Steal" rally, and was among the the first people to force their way on to the Capitol grounds, according to prosecutors. He was accused of spraying Metropolitan Police officers with the bear spray "engulfing the officers in the cloud of orange chemicals." He was accused of spraying police at least four times, throwing a water bottle at officers and hitting an officer in the arm with his metal whip. He then entered the Capitol building and spent about 20 minutes inside, according to the Justice Department. An evidence exhibit filed by prosecutors shows a whip-like weapon Andrew Taake was accused of using during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Courtesy According to prosecutors, Taake was turned into authorities by a woman he was chatting with on Bumble, a dating app, according to reports. Taake messaged a woman on Jan. 6, saying he had been pepper sprayed, tear gassed, had flash bangs thrown at me, and hit with batons for peacefully standing there, and then sent a photo of himself to the woman. She reported to authorities on Jan. 9. Advertisement Article continues below this ad In interviews with HuffPost reporter Ryan Reilly, the woman who turned in Taake said she sought out people on the dating app she believed took part in the riot and ended up reporting three people. In a victim impact statement written to the court, one of the officers who Taake assaulted said he was hit in the face by the bear spray. "I was immediately blinded," Metropolitan Police Office Nathan Tate wrote. "It was the most pain I've ever experienced. It was like living death. It took my breath away. It left me entirely vulnerable." Tate called the defense of the Capitol "one of the hardest things I have faced in my life," and wrote he still has trouble sleeping because of the memories of the attack. He wrote that he forgave Taake, but wanted him held accountable. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 78 months, according to court records. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols sentenced Taake to 74 months in prison, to be followed by 36 months of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The FBI included photos of Andrew Taake in a July 2021 criminal complaint accusing him of assualting officers during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Courtesy Taake's defense attorney couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Taake was arrested in July 2021, and was ordered held without bond, according to federal court records. At the day of his official sentencing, he'd already spent about 34 months in prison. In announcing Taake's sentence, prosecutors said he had traveled to Washington while on pretrial release for a charge of online solicitation of minor in Texas. Taake was charged with the misdemeanor in 2016, according to Harris County Court records. The charge was still active as of Thursday, according to court records. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Since Jan. 6, more than 1,400 people have been charged with crimes related to the riot. That number includes at least twenty people from Harris County or surrounding counties. 7 June 2024 18:00 (UTC+04:00) Laman Ismayilova Read more Baku Crystal Hall has hosted fashion shows on the third and final day of Baku Fashion Week 2024, Azernews reports. The third day was opened by the Azerbaijani brand Lali, which demonstrated a collection that in the fashion industry is usually called a cruise collection. Pantsuits and flowy dresses seemed truly designed for traveling by sea on an ocean liner or to exotic places with a warm climate. The audience especially warmly welcomed the famous blogger and influencer Elnara de Birbuet, who appeared on the podium dressed as a bride with a veil and a wheat bouquet. Popular designer Aygun Talibova used all her favorite techniques in the new collection that was shown on the catwalk next. Voluminous floor-length skirts, fringes, fabrics with shine and color tints were complemented with minimalist leather accessories. The Escalana brand combined the incompatible as part of the show of its new collection. Dollcore dresses (an aesthetic inspired by Japanese ball-jointed dolls) gave way to Victorian-style outfits made of velvet, silk, brocade and lace, with an integral element of fashionable walking costume of the period - parasols, designed for protection from the sun. After a short break, two Georgian brands presented their new collections to the audience. And if the Tamone brand demonstrated the entire arsenal for which everyone has become so fond of Georgian designers, presenting a monochrome collection of complex cut, in which black predominated, then the Dadeshqeliani brand clearly showed that Georgians can work with other colors. Their new collection, intended for both women and men, had a brightness and even some theatricality. Without a doubt, one of the most anticipated shows of this season of Baku Fashion Week was the fashion show of the Parcha brand.It is not surprising that the organizers left it for dessert, entrusting the brand to close the second season. Despite the fact that designer Aysel Sadikhova created her brand in 2017, it gained the greatest popularity last year, when scandalous outfits were created for the Azerbaijani participants of Eurovision 2023 - the duo of twin brothers TuralTuranX. It was quite expected to see them among the models she chose to present her new collection. In addition to them, the author and performer of songs, the representative of Azerbaijan at Eurovision 2017 Diana Hajiyeva, stylist Fuad Hajiyev and many other famous people were also seen on the podium. Baku Fashion Week was organized by ModePoint and Stock. ModePoint is a project created to support the development of the fashion industry in Azerbaijan and to organize fashion events both within Azerbaijan and abroad. In turn, Stock is a concept store that plays the role of the first broad fashion platform, uniting more than 100 Azerbaijani brands. Stock's main goal is to promote the development of the local fashion industry, support young designers and bring local brands to the global level. The second season of Baku Fashion Week was organized with the support of the Azerbaijan Culture Ministry and the State Tourism Agency. Media partners of the event are Azernews.Az, Trend.Az, Day.Az, Milli.Az and Turkic.World. ---- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @lmntypewriterrr Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 7 June 2024 08:00 (UTC+04:00) Around 80 migrants, including at least three children, have been rescued after a boat got into trouble while crossing the Channel, Azernews reports citing BBC News. Dover and Walmer lifeboats were launched to assist Border Force following reports that dozens of people were in the water about 10 miles off the Kent coast on Thursday morning. Two Border Force vessels, two lifeboats, two French vessels and two Coastguard helicopters have been involved, with British authorities leading the rescue. Life boats carried out a search of the area and there have been no reports of fatalities. It is thought the boat reached UK waters after being shadowed by a French warship, then got into difficulty. Some of those in the sea may have drifted back into French waters and anyone picked up by UK lifeboats will likely be brought back to Dover. A spokeswoman for HM Coastguard said the organisation was co-ordinating the response to a small boat incident in the Channel on Thursday morning. Last month, Home Office figures revealed that more than 7,500 migrants arrived in the UK by small boats in the first four months of the year the highest level since records began. A total of 29,437 arrived on the Kent coast from France in small boats across the whole of 2023 about a third less than the figure for the previous year. The English Channel is one of the most dangerous and busiest shipping lanes in the world. Tackling the number of small boat crossings is one of the election issues ahead of polling day on 4 July. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 7 June 2024 09:00 (UTC+04:00) Italy's contested migrant reception centre being built in Albania will be operational from August, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Wednesday, presenting the "tool of deterrence" during a visit to the Balkan country, Azernews reports citing the Reuters. Looking to curb migration to Italy, Meloni signed a deal with Albania last year to send thousands of asylum-seekers there to have their requests processed in two purpose-built centres to be run by Italian authorities. The plan was supposed to come into force this month, but building work has been delayed and the centres are expected to be operational by Aug. 1 2024. "A goal like this is well worth a two-month delay," Meloni told reporters, adding that "the agreement could be replicated in many countries and become part of the EU's structural solution" to the migration crisis. Fifteen European Union countries wrote to the EU Commission last month asking it to find new ways to transfer migrants to non-EU countries more easily, mentioning the agreement between Italy and Albania as an example. "The most useful element of this project is that it can represent an extraordinary tool of deterrence for illegal migrants destined to reach Europe," Meloni said. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, speaking alongside Meloni, rejected media suggestions that the centres could be vulnerable to infiltration by organised crime and reiterated his wholehearted support for the project. "Italy helped Albania many times and if we have the chance to be useful to Italy once then we will take this opportunity and do it from the heart," he said. The two leaders met in the northern Albanian port of Shengjin, where the first reception centre has already been completed. It will be used to identify migrants rescued by Italian ships in international waters and will offer them the first opportunity to formalise their request for international protection. "No vulnerable people, namely minors, women, older and frail individuals, will be brought to Albania," Meloni said. The second facility, still under construction, is in inland Gjader. The two facilities, which initially will host around one thousand immigrants, are due to reach 3,000 places at full capacity, according to the bilateral agreement. Meloni estimated that the funds needed to implement the accord will amount to 670 million euros ($727.22 million) over five years, roughly the same amount as Italy would have spent to process the migrants asylum claims at home. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 7 June 2024 20:47 (UTC+04:00) Turkmenistan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) reviewed the implementation of new joint projects, Azernews reports. According to the Turkmen Foreign Ministry, the implementation of these projects was discussed during a meeting between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, Rashid Meredov and the Director General of the Central and West Asia Department of the ADB Eugenue Zhukov. During the meeting, the sides exchanged views on the state of cooperation between Turkmenistan and the ADB, discussed the possibilities of implementing new joint projects in the fields of transport, healthcare, and entrepreneurship, as well as issues related to renewable energy sources. The effectiveness of Turkmenistan's long-term cooperation with the ADB was emphasized, in particular, in the areas of transport and energy, as well as in the field of private sector support and investment partnerships. Furthermore, the parties discussed joint preparatory work to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Turkmenistan becoming an ADB member in 2025. Meanwhile, ADB has been cooperating with Turkmenistan since 2000 and has been helping to diversify the country's export markets and strengthen its regional interconnections. For example, the bank offered expert assistance in establishing long-term exports of Turkmen electricity to Afghanistan, and the loan portfolio approved by the bank for the country amounted to $125 million. Turkmenistan has also been involved in technical assistance projects through the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program since 2010. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 7 June 2024 21:50 (UTC+04:00) By Alimat Aliyeva If Washington hopes to develop space cooperation with China, it should remove the relevant legal obstacles, Azernews reports. "Currently, the promotion of space cooperation between China and the United States is facing some difficulties. The main problem is that the domestic legislation of the United States prevents normal exchanges and dialogue between the space agencies of the two countries. If the United States sincerely hopes to develop exchanges and cooperation with China in the aerospace field, they should take pragmatic measures to eliminate these obstacles," Mao Ning said. Earlier, Bill Nelson, director of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), congratulated Beijing on the successful launch of the Chang'e-6 probe to the Moon and supported cooperation with China in the space sector. China launched the Chang'e-6 automatic space station in early May to collect soil samples from the far side of the Moon for the first time in history. The Apollo crater, located in the South Pole-Aitken basin, was chosen as the landing site on the far side of the Moon. In early June, Chang'e-6 launched from the far side of the Moon with soil samples. The collected materials were placed in a container inside the lifting module of the probe. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 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. Beneath an Oregon Coast Lighthouse: Heceta Head's Curiosities, Tales Near Florence Published 6/03/24 at 4:55 p.m. By Andre' Hagestedt, Oregon Coast Beach Connection (Florence, Oregon) It's often referred to as the most photographed lighthouse in the world. While it's definitely hyperbole to some degree, Heceta Head Lighthouse near Florence may well have that statistic on its side. Near the very center of the Oregon coast, it's the focal point of varied finds and adventures, with a huge array of beachy wonders that includes a funky cave. (Photos Oregon Coast Beach Connection) While no one really knows what is the most frequently photographed lighthouse on this planet, theres little doubt this one is especially photogenic. Its often viewed from the overlooks a few miles south, around MP 179 and 178, where you can also peek down at a rugged wilderness of secret beaches inaccessible to humans, where hordes of sea lions have formed a colony in this area. The park that allows access to the lighthouse is called Heceta Head State Scenic Viewpoint, formerly Devil's Elbow State Park until about the late 90s. Cutting through the state park is Cape Creek, and the southern side of that is still called Devils Elbow. Interestingly, this was the site of a bad horror film made in this area in the 80s, which among other nearby locations featured this beach. Starring Patrick Duffy, Cry for the Strangers actually called this beach Devils Beach, with the premise being it was the site of an ancient native curse. The beach itself is rather smallish and a lot like a cove, where Cape Creek murmurs its way through the sands with calming beauty. From some angles, if you block the headland from view, the two sea stacks jutting out from the headland cause the place to look a bit like Oceanside, over 100 miles to the north. An interesting note about the headland and those sea stacks is the first rock structure and the headland were almost connected. People had been drowning there periodically over the decades this place allowed tourists, falling into the ocean while trying to jump from the first rock to the second one. The connecting point here was never a safe one simply another smaller chunk of rock that was sort of in between the two. That was really kind of the problem: it wasn't a real connection. In the '70s, seven people died here. So by 1981, Oregon coast officials took it upon themselves to blast the rock away, leaving no piece between to tempt people. Lost Parts of Oregon Coast: When They Blasted Rocks at Heceta Head Bounce around the tideline, close to the edge of the headland, and given the right tidal conditions a fascinating cave becomes apparent. Its not very big, but it's intriguing. There is a bit of a Goonies vibe here. Also see Heceta Head Caves, Different Sides There's actually more than one cave, though some are closer to mere indendations. However, if the tide is anywhere near it, you dont want to venture in as ocean waves frequently wash into the sea cave. Usually, this only becomes even vaguely accessible during summer's high sand levels, which push the tides out and keep them farther away. This does, however, shorten the height of the cave. See Geology of Cliffs Heceta Head This famed Oregon coast lighthouse is no longer available for tours to the top: the stairway simply couldn't take the regular traffic anymore. However, the BnB next door has a gift shop and sometimes the bottom of the lighthouse is open to take a peek inside. Oregon Coast Hotels in this area - - Where to eat - - Florence Oregon Virtual Tour, Map MORE PHOTOS BELOW More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging..... More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining..... Coastal Spotlight 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. LATEST Related Oregon Coast Articles Back to Oregon Coast Contact Advertise on Oregon Coast Beach Connection All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright Oregon Coast Beach Connection. Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted Cannon Beach's Sandcastle Contest June 15 Brings Celebrity David Frei to Oregon Coast Published 6/04/24 at 6:25 a.m. By Andre' Hagestedt, Oregon Coast Beach Connection (Cannon Beach, Oregon) Perhaps the most revered and anticipated evens of the entire Oregon coast, it's roaring back on June 15. The 2024 Cannon Beach Sandcastle Contest returns to the sands of the famed burgh-by-the-sea, this time in its 60th year. It's an historic event that is recognized as an iconic Oregon heritage tradition, so designated by state officials years ago. (Oregon Coast Beach Connection photo) Again it boasts a landscape filled with whimsical to downright head-spinning creations, with sand sculptors of various levels putting together grand works of art into the beach in front of Haystack Rock. This time, say organizers at the Cannon Beach Chamber, it promises a blend of creativity, community engagement, and a nod to the resilient spirit of Cannon Beach. This year's Cannon Beach Sandcastle Contest goes well beyond sand sculpting - it's a celebration of creativity and community involvement. Spectators can now engage in new ways, including the Peoples Choice voting and partnerships with local nonprofits. The event's emcees, regional icons David Frei (Co-Host of NBCs National Dog Show Presented by Purina) and Hannah Buschert, will guide participants through the festivities. Also onboard: Todd Davidson of Travel Oregon, another famous Oregon name, will join as a judge for the Masters Division. Sandcastle Day in the '60s / Cannon Beach History Museum The 2024 Sandcastle Contest proudly showcases the captivating poster artwork by local Cannon Beach artist Donald Scott Masterson. Renowned for his vibrant depictions of Cannon Beachs natural landscapes, Mastersons creation captures the essence and historical thrills of the sandcastle competition. Limited edition posters and merchandise featuring this unique artwork will serve as cherished mementos for attendees. A fair amount of new additions are coming with this 60th year of the Oregon coast fave. Sandcastle Day 1986 The festivities kick off on June 14th with a captivating sandcastle-building demonstration by master artist Bill Rose. Then, on June 15th, the contest officially begins, showcasing participants' talents across various categories. This year, spectators can actively participate through Peoples Choice voting: purchase wooden tokens and cast your vote for your favorite masterful sandcastle. A portion of the token sales proceeds will directly support the participating teams, and the team with the most votes will claim the coveted Peoples Choice Award. Yet this isn't all the weekend holds in store. More delights and diversions await: a beachside bonfire, live music, and complimentary smores courtesy of Cannon Beach Bakery. Then there's the grand finale: the Singing Sands 5K Fun Run & Walk on Sunday, June 16th. Sandcastle Day 1986 This year's fest of sand also features local non-profits with their own presence, including the Cannon Beach History Center and Museum and the Clatsop Animal Shelter. The history museum will be displaying their exhibit 60 Years of Sandcastles that outlines the history of the Sandcastle Contest over the decades. The Clatsop Animal Shelter will have dogs on the beach for petting, playing, and adoption. Cannon Beach's Sandcastle Contest actually had its start just after a large-scale Oregon coast tragedy. The Cannon Beach Sandcastle Contest, rooted in community resilience following the 1964 tsunami, has grown into a much-anticipated annual event that celebrates creativity, teamwork, and the beauty of Cannon Beach, said chamber organizers. It stands as a testament to the communitys spirit, capacity for renewal, and commitment to supporting local talent and causes. In March of '64, an earthquake in Alaska caused a major tsunami along much of the West Coast, including some parts of Oregon. Seaside and Cannon Beach were really hit the most (while four children in Newport died because of it). Among wrecking many other things, the tsunami took out the bridge in Cannon Beach for awhile. Once it was rebuilt, the town found not many tourists were returning. Partially to lift their own spirits, local held the first sandcastle contest in June of '64. They knew they had something. When they held the second one in '65, it kicked into life and started up a tradition that has achieved national coverage in recent decades. See N. Oregon Coast History: Tsunami Tragedy Started Cannon Beach's Sandcastle Festival For full information about the event, registration, accommodations, and merchandise, visit CannonBeach.Org. About David Frei: As the co-host of NBCs National Dog Show Presented by Purina since its inception in 2002, David is seen every Thanksgiving Day by the largest TV audience for any dog show more than 25 million viewers. It is the same role that he perfected in 27 years as the longtime (1990-2016) co-host of USA Networks Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Hotels in Cannon Beach - Where to eat - Cannon Beach Maps and Virtual Tours Beachcomber Vacation Homes . Numerous vacation rentals in the Cannon Beach area, including Falcon Cove and Arch Cape. Depending on the home, you may find amenities and luxuries such as a barbecue, claw foot tub, a ship's ladder. 115 Sunset Blvd. Cannon Beach, Oregon. 855-219-4758. 503-436-4500. Website MORE PHOTOS BELOW More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging..... More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining..... Coastal Spotlight 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. LATEST Related Oregon Coast Articles Back to Oregon Coast Contact Advertise on Oregon Coast Beach Connection All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright Oregon Coast Beach Connection. Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted When Rockaway Beach Falls Off the Edge of the Oregon Coast's Seasons Published 6/05/24 at 12:05 a.m. By Oregon Coast Beach Connection (Rockaway Beach, Oregon) Everywhere up and down the shorelines of Oregon, as summer ends it really kind of just begins for the beaches. Summers along the Oregon coast can be so-so, but ironically it's in September and early October when really warm weather often starts. They call it second summer out here, but some locals refer to it as the first time summer makes its appearance. (All photos Oregon Coast Beach Connection) Yet when that starts to move over again to fall or wintry weather, it can be like a light switch. In some places, the drift from second summer to fall can signal itself with some interesting changes. Like Rockaway Beach, for example: one day in mid October it's lovely and warm, and then sometimes by dusk it starts to turn a corner. This is when Rockaway Beach can be at its most engaging. You could say there are weather adventures to be had here. Like in the shot above, where Rockaway Beach is warm and cozy one day and the following day a winter-like storm kicks in. Waves get busy, and yet in spite of these crazy conditions less than a half mile from the curve of the sands, the winds are not manic. Nothing like being in the midst of a winter storm without it feeling like winter. Then there are the other changes the town goes through. Get ready for a few insider tips. About 20 minutes south of Manzanita, 35 minutes south of Cannon Beach and about ten minutes north of Tillamook, Rockaway Beach sits spread out over seven miles of exquisite and pristine sands. On one particular night, as darkness began to fall, other visual treats of Rockaway Beach come to light. One of the streams cutting through the dunes reflects an ethereal bluish sky. These streams and little rivers can become quite mighty during stormier conditions, and you see the way they ravage the ground around them by the gigantic logs tossed up here. That takes a lot of waves. The ocean quite literally keeps those railroad tracks on its toes (they sometimes get quite smacked in winter). Another example of Rockaway Beach during one of those early fall storms taken from the main access in the middle of town. And yes, you could smell the beach bonfires all around. Further proof this little north Oregon coast town is visually delicious no matter the weather. The really trippy thing is with those higher sand levels of summer, sometimes you can get just a little closer to Twin Rocks like a couple hundred feet or so. Head down to Minnehaha St. at the southern end and that's where Twin Rocks sits. From that vantage point, Twin Rocks seems much closer than you've ever seen it. It also hosts a weird geographic / geographic surprise. Rockaway Beach Geologic Surprise Over to the jetties, at the very northern end of Rockaway Beach the area known as Nedonna Beach. This borders the southern jetty of the Nehalem Bay. It's here where you can watch the town light up just after dark as it casts quite the purple glow across the sea and landscape. Insider tip: blue hour on the coast can get incredibly ethereal, even when it's foggy. Indeed, fog helps. If conditions are right, it takes the last rays of sunlight and creates wild shades like this one. Or maybe you'll find an wowing pink in the fog of dusk. This area is where those effects of sand levels became especially apparent. In summer, sand levels rise and they stay there until storms start eating them away. Normally, the jetty looks like this as above. The tides come quite a ways in, sometimes dangerously so. However, even in early October as seen here sand levels stayed so high they kept the tide away this deep into the fall season. This scene shows a kind of low tide situation: what appears to be an extreme low tide. But it's not. It's simply the sand keeping the water much farther out. Many of the best sights don't always happen during the day but after dark. Lake Lytle is pictured here, with newish dock built about ten years ago. A fog hovering in the area caught and reflected various light sources and created this otherworldly moment. A similar alien scene happened while photographing the famed Twin Rocks at night in the middle of September, a few weeks before most of these shots were taken. The landscape truly looks like another world after dark. Rockaway Beach, like the rest of the Oregon coast, will officially enter the fall season at some point, so you'll start to notice erosion soon. Snap your summer photos, then back in winter after a few storms and you'll see a difference. Your favorite beach will have changed width or configuration. Another insider's tip: there's a secret shipwreck here, only visible every few years in winter. When a Mysterious Shipwreck Popped Up Out of Nowhere: Oregon Coast History Hotels in Rockaway Beach - Where to eat - Rockaway Beach Maps and Virtual Tours MORE PHOTOS BELOW More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging..... More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining..... Coastal Spotlight 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. LATEST Related Oregon Coast Articles Back to Oregon Coast Contact Advertise on Oregon Coast Beach Connection All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright Oregon Coast Beach Connection. Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted Michigan's Democrat Secretary of State has refused to take any action to remove 27,000 dead voters from its voting rolls, some of whom have been dead for decades. The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) has sued the Secretary of State over her refusal to remove the dead voters and the case is now before the Sixth Circuit US Court of Appeals. The list of deceased voters was compiled by another state agency, the Michigan Auditor General's Office when they did a match between death certificates and the Qualified Voter Rolls of the Secretary of State. Amazingly, 334 of the deceased voter's records showed that they registered to vote AFTER they died. The federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requires state election officials to actively maintain their voter rolls to remove deceased voters, but Michigan's Democrat Secretary of State brazenly refuses to do that. PILF is now seeking the court's assistance to compel her to comply with the law. Michigan is one of those swing states where questions of election fraud swirled in the 2020 election. It's Democrat Attorney General is actively trying to prosecute Republicans who raised questions about election problems but totally ignores the lawless Secretary of State of her own party. Maybe they view the deceased as one of those Democrat voting blocks that they claim Republicans are trying to "suppress". https://www.zerohedge.com/political/334-michiganders-registered-vote-after-their-deaths-group-tells-court Ray Stevens produced a song about election fraud focused on deceased voters: Sven R. Larson, writing at the European Conservative, reports: On Thursday, May 30th, a jury of 12 New Yorkers erased the last distinctive line between Bidens America and Putins Russia. With their verdict against Donald Trump, finding him guilty on 34 counts of forging business records, they verified that the Democrat partythe party of the sitting presidentcan organize a trial with its party operatives as judge and prosecutor, and get their political opponent found guilty. The judge in the case, Juan Merchan, is an entrenched Democrat who has been selected to prosecute more Republicans than just Donald Trump. In the America that we all knew before Biden came into office, judges were selected randomly; from now on, random means a Democrat when the defendant is a Republican. The prosecutor, Alvin Bragg, was elected to the position as District Attorney of Manhattan after having campaigned on a promise to prosecutemore appropriately persecuteDonald Trump. In the America that we all knew before Biden came into office, a DA had to first investigate a case before he could judge whether or not to file charges against anyone. The crimes that Bragg charged Trump with all fall under federal law. Back in the America we all knew before Biden came into office, a state district attorney like Alvin Bragg had no jurisdiction to prosecute under federal law. When Judge Merchan sent the jury off to deliberate, he told them that they did not have to all agree on what crime Trump was guilty of. The 34 counts were all one and the same crime, but Merchan told them that they could pick and choose: some jurors might think that Trump had violated federal election law; some could find him guilty of tax violations; others could select the falsification of business records option. The judge alsoamazinglytold the jury they did not have to be unanimous in their decision. Back in pre-Biden America, the jury would have to find the defendant guilty of one and the same crimenot different crimes for different guilty verdicts from different jurors. They would also have to be in full agreement, all 12 of them. The whole case was tried in Manhattan, in a Congressional district where Trump won about 5% of the votes in 2022. How hard would it be for Democrat operatives Alvin Bragg and Juan Merchan to secure a jury that was unanimously anti-Trump? Back in pre-Putinized America, if a defendant felt he could not get a fair trial where his case was going to be tried, he could fileand often geta change of venue. The reason, shocking as it may seem, was to make sure the defendant got a fair trial. In Joe Bidens Putinized America, the concept of a fair trial has taken on a very different meaning. Fairness means that Democrat operatives charge, preside over, and judge a case against one of the partys opponents. A trial no longer means a proceeding in a court of law where two sides, the prosecutor and the defendant, are equally matched and the judge is impartial. From here on, a trial is a place where political dissidentsbe they a presidential candidate or participants in a political rallyare given punishments for disagreeing with the Biden regime and its operatives. (our emphasis) The New York trial against Trump is a watershed momentin more ways than one. To begin with, this is a moment of fulfillment for Democrats who want to politicize Americas legal system. They have been working hard for decades to politicize every corner of American society, from public schools and higher education to the media and laws regulating elections. They have managed to get their operatives into key positions in the election system where they can control vote counts and modify rules and regulations to the point where the principle of one voter, one vote is no longer guaranteed. They even pushed the envelope in the cases against participants in the January 6 rally, to the point where an outside viewer got the impression that those charged with being at Capitol Hill on that day were treated more harshly than actual terrorists. But never before has America had a court case where operatives of the sitting presidents party have orchestrated a case against the sitting presidents opponent in an upcoming electionand done so solely for the purpose of reaching some kind of guilty verdict. This is the kind of politicized jurisprudence, or lawfare, that we have associated with countries like China and Russia. How many American Democrats and Biden supporters have at some point referred to Vladimir Putin as an authoritarian who used the court cases to get rid of Alexei Navalny, his most prominent election opponent? Today, May 30th, 2024, the Democrat party formally Putinized Americas legal system. They officially demonstrated that they can get any one of their political opponents charged, tried, and convicted of any crime they want. This raises a host of questions, of course, one of them being what moral authority any Democrat has to criticize Vladimir Putin for the way he governs Russia. It is now incumbent upon every elected Democrat, everywhere, to explain why Trumps conviction was fair and Navalnys was not. It is incumbent upon President Biden to let us all know why he holds any moral authority to lead the free world in any campaign against Russias war in Ukraine. When Bidens party machine can go after his foremost political opponent and make him a convicted felon, in a case loaded with Democrat operatives and sympathizers, what makes Joe Biden a more democratic president than Vladimir Putin? Trump still has options. He can appeal the verdict, and he most certainly will. The problem with his appeal is that it will go into the appeals court system in the very stateNew Yorkthat Democrats chose to get Trump convicted in the first place. Why? Because after having ruled New York unchallenged for decades, they have littered the states legal system with their own operatives. They have card-carrying, campaign-donating Democrats everywhere they need, in order to make sure that Trumps appeal is not evaluated on its legal and constitutional merits. Their job will be to make sure his appeal is delayedand eventually denied. At that point, Trump can appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. Once there, the case will be thrown out, but it can take a year before it gets there. Maybe more, if the appeals system in New York does what the Democrat party machine wants it to do: make life as hard as possible for Donald Trump. Which brings us to the second reason why the verdict in the case against Trump is a watershed moment for America. The campaign by Democrats to politicize the legal system is not pushing for a goal in itself. The reason why they want courts to be run entirely according to their preferences is instrumental. Just like in the former Soviet Unionand to a large extent in Putins Russiathe Democrats want the courts to be weapons against opponents of the Democrat party. However, politicizing the courts is not enough. If you really want to secure your partys hegemonic rule, you have to rewrite the constitutional structure according to which the country is governed. So far, the Democrats have not been able to do that. For this reason, they also have not been able to politicize the entire legal system in America. In states that they do not control, a court case is still a court case in the traditional sense. In the federal system, the traditional fairness of a court case now depends entirely on which U.S. Court district a person is tried under, but overall the federal system still holds a reasonable reputation for impartiality. If the Democrats get the chance, they will do everything they can to change that. They would like to subjugate all federal courts to their political will, with the selection of judges for court appointments increasingly based on their political opinions and affiliations, and less on their jurisprudence. This most certainly applies to the Supreme Court as well. The Democrat party wants four more judges, or justices as they are called, on the highest court of the country. In doing this, they have taken a page out of Hugo Chavez playbook in Venezuela, where the authoritarian leader packed the countrys highest court with judges loyal to him. By also putting term limits on Supreme Court justices, the Democrats would have a firm political grip on the judicial branch of government. In reality, there is only one way that the Democrats can get their ideological supremacy imposed on the entire legal and political system: by abolishing the one institution that holds the key to appointing federal judges, including Supreme Court justices. That institution, of course, is the United States Senate. This is why many Democrats want to abolish the U.S. Senate. This would turn America into a parliamentary democracy. If they also count the votes, there will be nobody to stop them fromas Barack Obama famously proclaimedfundamentally transforming the United States of America. The verdict in the Manhattan courtroom today, May 30th, 2024, was a big step forward for the Democrats in their efforts to fulfill Obamas promise. Lawfare is now an established, official method of jurisprudence. Judges and prosecutors no longer have to conceal their party affiliation and the politicized nature of the cases they try. Going forward, Democrats can openly and unabashedly declare their intentions to politicize the legal system. Trump did not get a fair trial. Will he have a fair election in November? Probably not. In fact, most certainly not. But regardless of that: now that the Democrats political cat is out of the bag, it is more important than ever that all of us who still believe that America should be Americanot some bleak copy of Putins Russiavote in November. Voting for Trump is not a moral option. It is a matter of civic duty. It is an act of democratic defiance against a political system that has become dangerously, structurally, morally corrupt. **************** Sven R Larson, Ph.D., is an economics writer for the European Conservative, where he publishes regular analyses of the European and American economies. He has worked as a staff economist for think tanks and as an advisor to political campaigns. He is the author of several academic papers and books. His writings concentrate on the welfare state, how it causes economic stagnation, and the reforms needed to reduce the negative impact of big government. On Twitter, he is @S_R_Larson Hat tip to Steven Rader for sending us this link. Joe Biden is trying to spread the myth that he had nothing to do with the mutliple political prosecutions of his political rival Donald Trump. The evidence shows otherwise, with Biden and his associates up to their gills in what former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson calls "a mob-style hit job on Trump". One only has to look at White House visitor logs, as conservative media writers have, to see that top level operatives in all of the cases against Trump have visited the Biden White House. Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis even came to Washington to meet with Kamala Harris, while her boyfriend and top assistant on the Trump case was the one to go to the White House. With the Manhattan prosecution, the chief prosecutor in the trial for Bragg was the former number three official had Biden's DOJ who took a pay cut and a much less professionally prestigious position to lead Bragg's courtroom attack on Trump. Now, he is expected to return to either DOJ or somewhere else in the Biden regime. With the Fani Willis Fulton County case, her office has hired political consultants who have worked for both the Georgia Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee to work with her office since undertaking the prosecution of Trump. Those are mighty strange hires for a local district attorney's office. Biden himself was quoted in the liberal Washington, DC newspaper Politico as being angry with Merrick Garland for too many delays in the political prosecution of Trump. He was upset that they were not moving faster. Stanford University History Professor Victor Davis Hanson has done an article on "The Myth That Biden Had Nothing to Do with the Prosecution of Trump" https://dailycaller.com/2024/06/06/victor-davis-hanson-trump-prosecutions-biden-neutral/ Election violence in the week preceding the EU parliamentary elections has erupted in Germany with three separate leftist knife attacks against conservative targets during election campaigning. Two were committed by illegal aliens and the third by ANTIFA. The first attack was the most serious, where a campaign event by a small right wing party was attacked by a 25-year old illegal alien from Afghanistan whose asylum claim had been rejected but he was still in Germany. The attack occured when the illegal alien instituted a mass knifing of a political parade in Mannheim, stabbing five parade participants and a policeman. The policeman later died of his wounds. The next attack also occured in Mannheim, where a candidate for the populist right Alternativ fur Deutschland observed three people tearing down campaign posters for his party. When he confronted them, two ran, but the third one pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the abdomen before fleeing. When arrested, the perps were identified as ANTIFA activitists. The third attack was committed by a 22 year old illegal alien from Afghanistan in Stralsund in northeast Germany. A bus driver called police that a man was trying to cut political poster advertisements off of his bus, which were for conservative campaigns. When the police arrived and told the illegal alien to stop, he lunged at policemen with his knife. https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/germany-police-murder-suspect-is-failed-afghan-asylum-seeker/ https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/afd-candidate-stabbed-in-abdomen-after-confronting-election-poster-vandals/ https://rmx.news/germany/germany-afghan-man-attacks-police-officers-with-long-blade-just-days-after-mannheim-terror-attack/ Douglas Koch was named CEO of Kearney (Neb.) Regional Medical Center, effective Aug. 5, according to a hospital news release shared with Becker's. Mr. Koch brings a wealth of experience to his new role, according to the release. Most recently, he has helmed Governor Juan F. Luis Hospital and Medical Center in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. "Over the past two and a half years, CEO Koch has led our organization and achieved numerous significant milestones," a June 6 news release from JFLH said. "One of the most notable is the successful transition of patient care services from the hurricane-damaged JFL Main to the new JFL North facility, a feat that we can all be proud of. "Under CEO Koch's leadership and through his partnerships with various organizations and individuals, Governor Juan F. Luis Hospital & Medical Center is well on its way to a full replacement hospital for the St. Croix community. However, due to personal reasons, CEO Koch has made the difficult decision to relocate back to the Midwest of the United States to be closer to family." Before joining JFLH, Mr. Koch spent three years as vice president of operations for Rapid City, S.D.-based Monument Health. Kearney Regional Medical Center is part of Lincoln, Neb.-based Bryan Health. Houston police investigate a crash that killed a pedestrian at the end of a pursuit on Rebecca at Tierwester, June 6, 2024. Onscene.TV Houston police investigate a crash that killed a pedestrian at the end of a pursuit on Rebecca at Tierwester, June 6, 2024. Onscene.TV A pedestrian was struck and killed Thursday night as a vehicle tried to elude police during a pursuit through Houstons South Side, authorities said. Just after 8 p.m., members of the Southeast Patrol Division Crime Suppression Team were searching for a man wanted for aggravated assault when they saw him get inside a black Nissan SUV, according to the police department. The officers tried to stop him in the 7900 block of Bowen, near Scott Street and Holmes Road, said HPD Assistant Chief Keith Seafous. Advertisement Article continues below this ad HEIGHTS AREA: Two sought after man killed in shooting at Houston Farmers Market The man refused to stop and led officers on a pursuit through the neighborhood, at times driving on the wrong side of the street and crossing a median, he said. The officers lost sight of the man but soon saw the vehicle again turning from Tierwester to Rebecca Street. At that point, the vehicle struck a dumpster and rolled, Seafous said. While the car rolled, it hit the woman, who was on a walking path near an apartment complex, police said. The man then fled on foot. One officer followed him while another provided medical aid to the injured woman, he said. More emergency crews arrived to assist, but the woman died. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Suspect identified Authorities on Friday afternoon identified the driver as Jacolby Pendleton, 30, and said he was wanted on a murder charge. During the chase, Pendleton entered a nearby apartment complex and then jumped from the second story to get away from police, Seafous said. Pendleton has felony warrants for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, engaging in organized crime and possession of a controlled substance, police said. The woman was 68. Her name hadnt been released by Friday afternoon. Advertisement Article continues below this ad According to court records, Pendleton is also wanted in connection with a May 3 assault against four people. He was among a group of people charged with crimes related to a series of shooting across southeast Houston, police said. In its Friday news release, the police department said Pendleton had been arrested on May 29 and recently released from jail. Harris County court records indicated Pendleton was arrested on May 29 in a felony drug possession case. Pendleton was accused of possessing less than a gram of cocaine, according to court records. Pendleton was given a personal recognizance bond, according to court records. He was released from the Harris County Jail around 1:30 p.m. May 30, according to a Harris County Sheriffs Office spokesman. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Court records also indicate that aggravated assault and engaging in organized criminal charges were filed on May 30. Time stamps on the charging documents indicate those two felonies were filed around 11:50 p.m., according to court records. Other documents indicate the drugs Pendleton is accused of possessing were found while he was being arrested on a warrant for other charges. He didnt have bond amounts listed for the non-drug-related felonies. It was unclear Friday whether the timing of the filings explained why Pendleton was being sought again so soon after his recent arrest. Crash deaths The womans death was the third time in less than a month that a chase involving the Houston Police Department ended in a death. Advertisement Article continues below this ad On May 9, a child died inside a car that fled a traffic stop after a reported hit-and-run in the Westchase area, according to police. The child was among five people, all under the age of 13, who were inside the stolen car when it crashed, police said. On May 28, two men died when the car they were in hit a concrete barrier on Broadway in southeast Houston and rolled as they were running from police. Police began chasing the car after its driver refused to pull over for an traffic stop after running a red light, police said. A 2023 Houston Chronicle investigation found that Houston police engaged in more high-speed police chases than other similarly sized police agencies, and that the department had loose policies on when officers should begin a pursuit. Between 2019 and 2023, more than 740 people were injured and 27 people died in chases involving Houston police officers. Three for-profit hospitals owned by Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems and King of Prussia, Pa.-based Universal Health Services could soon be changing hands. UHS announced June 5 that it signed an agreement with San Angelo, Texas-based Shannon Medical Center to acquire River Crest Hospital. The deal involving the 80-bed behavioral health facility is expected to be finalized in September. Phuong Cardoza, UHS' group director for behavioral health, said the for-profit system has been impressed by the conversations it had with Shannon about the current and future needs of behavioral health in the San Angelo community. Shannon said it is committed to enhancing care coordination and maintaining and enhancing local services. It is also committed to expanding behavioral health services in the Concho Valley through facility upgrades, services, technology and equipment as well as additional behavioral health employees and providers. Phase one will add 20 beds to River Crest campus; phase two will add 20 more beds to the facility. CHS' $320 million deal to sell two North Carolina hospitals to Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health cleared a hurdle after a federal judge on June 5 rejected the Federal Trade Commission's request for a preliminary injunction to halt the deal. In a June 5 news release shared with Becker's, Novant Health president and CEO Carl Armato called the court's ruling a "victory for the area." "We have always believed these communities deserve access to a rich healthcare ecosystem with robust and comprehensive care services from family physicians to pediatrics and specialty care," Mr. Armato said. Novant said in the release that it is committed to making significant investments to improve the safety and quality of services provided. It also said it will bring "leading-edge technology and innovation" to enhance patient care, partner with physicians and other healthcare workers to preserve access to care and promote upward mobility and equitable access to care. The deal between Novant and CHS was announced in March 2023 and still faces an administrative challenge before the FTC. Montgomery, Ala.-based Jackson Hospital's board has voted to approve and recommend to its corporate members an affiliation agreement with HumanityCorp, a private equity company that has partnerships with multiple hospitals and health systems across the U.S., the hospital said in a June 6 news release shared with Becker's. "The board of trustees has recommended the corporate members join the board by voting for final approval of this mission-aligned affiliation with HumanityCorp and its industry partners," according to the hospital statement. "The hospital and board are excited about this partnership opportunity, and the parties agree that continuing Jacksonl's commitment to quality healthcare through this affiliation is the best path forward for our community and those we serve." A spokesperson for the 344-bed hospital would not provide further details on the proposed affiliation and whether or not the hospital would be acquired by HumanityCorp. HumanityCorp's affiliations and partnerships include Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic, revenue cycle company Capta Health Partners and Albuquerque, N.M.-based Presbyterian Healthcare Services, according to its website. The company describes itself as a "public benefit" entity focused on improving healthcare outcomes while offering attractive returns to investors and "empowering not-for-profit hospital systems to convert their back-office cost centers into valuable financial assets." HumanityCorp's business model is broken down into three areas: 1. To enable nonprofit health systems to generate new revenue streams by converting operating expenses into assets. 2. Generate returns for "impact investors." 3. Create new capital to accelerate the adoption of technologies to improve healthcare outcomes. Jackson Hospital's corporate members must provide final approval before the affiliation is official, but no date has been provided for when that may happen. The board overseeing Hollister, Calif.-based Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital voted to move negotiations forward with a potential private buyer of the hospital, NBC affiliate KSBW reported June 6. The San Benito Health Care District is negotiating with Flint, Mich.-based Insight Health System, according to the report. Hazel Hawkins CEO Mary Casillas said the next step for the hospital is "to work with Insight to get to definitive terms, to come up with a plan to make sure that we do what is in the best entrance for the district in the healthcare in San Benito County, and what that looks like for the longevity and stability of healthcare in San Benito County." If a deal is made, voters will vote on the sale in the November election, according to the report. Insight is a physician-led organization with six acute care hospitals, six surgery centers and 28 clinics, according to a news release from the organization posted June 6 on Benito Link's website. In the release, Insight said it is proposed to continue all service lines, create a $50 million capital expenditure budget, develop a community advisory board and upgrade pharmacy services. "Our experienced team intends to work closely with all internal and community stakeholders to steer Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital toward financial stability to ensure the hospital is sustainable and able to meet the communitys needs both now and in the future," Insight Chief Strategy Officer Atif Bawahab said in the release. The board's decision was met with opposition from the California Nurses Association. In a June 5 news release, Sonia Duran, RN, said the board "seems unable or unwilling to recognize that Hazel Hawkins is a valuable public asset that belongs to the people of the San Benito Health Care District." Diane Beck, RN, is also quoted in the release saying, "A private hospital would be driven by profit and accountable to shareholders, who historically prioritize money over patients." San Benito Health Care District voted in May 2023 to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy after declaring a fiscal emergency in November 2022. The California Nurses Association objected to the filing, arguing the hospital was solvent and able to pay bills through the fiscal year's end. A California judge acknowledged the financial challenges Hazel Hawkins had faced but ruled that the hospital failed to satisfy all the statutory requirements to remain in Chapter 9 bankruptcy. The first quarter of 2024 marked the strongest merger and acquisition activity among hospitals and health systems since 2020. For-profit systems, in particular, are making a lot of moves in the hospital market and Dallas-based Steward Health Care recently received the green light to auction off its 31 hospitals in June and July. Here are 18 hospital deals that have closed or are expected to close this year involving Tenet Healthcare, Community Health Systems, HCA Healthcare or Universal Health Services: HCA Healthcare (Nashville, Tenn.) 1. Medical City Healthcare in Dallas, a subsidiary of HCA, acquired Trinity Regional Hospital Sachse (Texas) from Sunland Medical Foundation Feb. 1. The hospital opened in 2021 and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, when it also began its search for a buyer. 2. Los Angeles-based UCLA Health purchased West Hills Hospital and Medical Center, a 260-bed hospital, from HCA in March. 3. Manchester, N.H.-based Catholic Medical Center signed a letter of intent in September to explore a merger with HCA. The two organizations are in exclusive discussions to consider a potential agreement. 4. Terre Haute, Ind.-based Union Health plans to acquire HCA's Terre Haute Regional Hospital, a 278-bed facility. Tenet Healthcare (Dallas) 5-7. Tenet sold three South Carolina hospitals to Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health for $2.4 billion, effective Feb. 1. The hospitals include East Cooper Medical Center in Mount Pleasant, Hilton Head Hospital and Coastal Carolina Hospital in Hardeeville. 8-11. In March, Tenet completed the $975 million sale of four Southern California hospitals to Orange, Calif.-based UCI Health. Fountain Valley Regional Hospital, Lakewood Regional Medical Center, Los Alamitos Medical Center and Placentia-Linda Hospital are now part of UCI Health, which has added 858 inpatient beds as a result of the transaction. 12-13. In March, Tenet also sold two hospitals Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center in San Luis Obispo and Twin Cities Community Hospital in Templeton to Roseville, Calif.-based Adventist Health for $550 million. Community Health Systems (Franklin, Tenn.) 14-15. CHS's planned $320 million sale of two hospitals to Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health is moving forward after a federal judge in June rejected the Federal Trade Commission's request for a preliminary injunction to stop the transaction. The proposed transaction includes Mooresville, N.C.-based Lake Norman Regional Medical Center and Statesville, N.C.-based Davis Regional Medical Center. 16 In April, CHS entered into a definitive agreement to sell 351-bed Tennova Healthcare Cleveland (Tenn.) to Hamilton Health Care System in Dalton, Ga., for $160 million in cash. 17. El Dorado-based South Arkansas Regional Hospital plans to acquire El Dorado-based Medical Center of South Arkansas, a 166-bed facility, from CHS. Universal Health Services (King of Prussia, Pa.) 18. UHS plans to sell River Crest Hospital, an 80-bed behavioral health hospital, to Shannon Medical Center in San Angelo, Texas. Worcester-based UMass Memorial Medical Center is using "Kate," an AI tool from software company Mednition, to help triage emergency department patients, the Boston Business Journal reported June 5. The software, implemented in February 2023, is designed to assist UMass nurses in more accurately assigning an acuity level on the Emergency Severity Index, which consequently determines the priority of patients needing medical attention. During the conventional triage procedure, nurses collect patient data and input it into their medical records. Kate utilizes an algorithm to analyze the newly inputted data, taking into account the patient's health background and accommodating factors that may not have surfaced during the initial health assessment. Kate notifies UMass nurses if a different acuity level is recommended based on this information. "This AI can do things and notice things that the patient doesn't even notice or tell them," Ken Shanahan MSN, RN, senior director of emergency medicine and behavioral health at UMass, told the publication. Additionally, Mr. Shanahan said despite ongoing concerns about bias in healthcare AI, Kate is effectively mitigating the influence of implicit bias in the triage process. Particularly for recurrent emergency room visitors or individuals with substance use disorders, Kate offers a more impartial perspective, according to Mr. Shanahan. Despite this, Mr. Shanahan emphasized that nurses retain ultimate decision-making authority. From a judge denying the FTC's attempt to block a two-hospital deal in North Carolina to two former high-ranking employees filing a False Claims Act complaint against Erlanger Health System, here are 12 lawsuits, settlements and legal developments Becker's has reported since May 28. 1. Los Angeles-based Prospect Medical Holdings is countersuing Yale New Haven Health, demanding that the Connecticut health system honor its contractual obligations to acquire Eastern Connecticut Health Network and Waterbury Hospital. 2. SCAN Health Plan won its lawsuit against CMS that claimed the agency improperly calculated the payer's 2024 Medicare Advantage star rating. 3. A majority panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a 2022 jury verdict in favor of Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health in a class action alleging the health system used its market power to charge supracompetitive rates to major insurers, which resulted in higher premiums for members. 4. A federal judge rejected the Federal Trade Commission's request for a preliminary injunction to bar Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health from its $320 million acquisition of two North Carolina hospitals from Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems. 5. A federal appeals court ruled that a lower court did not abuse its broad discretion by granting Cigna a request for a preliminary injunction barring a former executive from taking a job at CVS Health while a lawsuit over her noncompete clause moves forward. 6. Portland, Ore.-based Legacy Health will pay an undisclosed amount to settle a lawsuit with parents of a burn victim from an apartment fire. 7. The manufacturer of Ozempic and Wegovy filed nine additional lawsuits against businesses in six states that allegedly sold unapproved compounded versions of the popular drugs. 8. St. Louis-based Mercy agreed to pay $1.8 million to settle a lawsuit over a 2020 data breach. 9. A national trade group representing laboratories filed a lawsuit against the FDA arguing the agency's recent final rule to treat laboratory-developed tests as medical devices exceeds its statutory authority. 10. DuBois, Pa.-based Penn Highlands Healthcare agreed to pay the federal government $735,000 to resolve a whistleblower suit alleging Physician Self-Referral Law violations from claims submitted to Medicare and Medicaid. 11. Two former high-ranking employees filed a False Claims Act complaint against Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Erlanger Health System. 12. The American Health Care Association, Texas Health Care Association and multiple long-term nursing home facilities in Texas filed a lawsuit against CMS over its recently finalized staffing rules. Los Angeles-based Prospect Medical Holdings is suing Yale New Haven Health, demanding that the Connecticut health system honor its contractual obligations to acquire Eastern Connecticut Health Network and Waterbury Hospital. Prospect Medical Holdings filed the lawsuit June 6 in Connecticut Superior Court alleging that Yale New Haven has breached its acquisition agreement with Prospect by failing to deliver the agreed-upon purchase price and by not making reasonable best efforts to complete the transaction of Waterbury (Conn.) Hospital and Manchester-based Eastern Connecticut Health Network. According to the lawsuit, which was obtained by Becker's, instead of moving forward with the acquisition, Prospect alleges that Yale New Haven has actively worked to prevent the closing of the transaction in hopes of renegotiating the purchase price. Prospect alleges that this behavior violates the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act and breaches confidentiality agreements. The lawsuit also accuses Yale New Haven of failing to act in good faith throughout the dealings. Prospect is seeking damages of at least $435 million. "Our primary purpose in filing this lawsuit is to hold YNHHS to its binding promise to acquire these critically important safety net hospitals and maintain YNHHS's stated commitment to ensuring the hospitals' continuing ability to serve their communities,'' Von Crockett, co-CEO of Prospect Medical Holdings, said in a news release shared with Becker's. "This transaction is in the best interest of these communities and is supported by our physicians, nurses, caregivers and elected officials." Yale New Haven signed a deal in November 2022 to acquire the hospitals but has been trying to get out of the deal. In March, Yale New Haven sued Prospect Medical to terminate the agreement with the organization over the acquisition of the hospitals. In that lawsuit, Yale New Haven alleged that Prospect Medical breached its contract by failing to pay rent and taxes on time, allowing the hospitals to deteriorate. Additionally, Yale New Haven accused Prospect of engaging in irresponsible financial practices and driving away physicians and vendors. "Yale New Haven Health stands by our complaint, which outlines Prospect's numerous violations of our Asset Purchase Agreement through serious mismanagement," a spokesperson for Yale New Haven told Becker's. "The lawsuit filed by Prospect is a clear attempt to shift attention away from the for-profit, California-based company's mismanagement of their Connecticut facilities and neglect of the communities who entrusted them with their care. We are prepared to defend ourselves against this suit while pursuing our own litigation to the end." Hospitals have been on a quest to give nurses more flexibility at work in order to retain employees and improve satisfaction and well-being. The pandemic highlighted the need for more flexible options as many experienced nurses burned out and left, and the next generation came in with greater demands for work-life balance. Systems have met the demand in a number of ways, including implementing virtual nursing options to offering internal traveler and gig programs. "I think the possibilities are endless, especially with AI coming on board and the idea of virtual nursing," Robin Baldauf, MSN, RN, chief nursing officer of the Bon Secours Hampton Roads (Va.) market, told Becker's. But how much flexibility is too much? Becker's found a common theme in how systems determine where to draw the boundaries with flexibility: The moment it negatively impacts patient safety or staff, it's a no-go. "You have to put guardrails in and you need to ensure that you're keeping an eye on the very core principles of the work we are trying to deliver," Terry McDonnell, DNP, RN, senior vice president and chief nursing executive at Durham, N.C.-based Duke University Health System, told Becker's. "If it's going to erode the satisfaction and the ability of the team to come together and work effectively, you also have to deprioritize those." Many forms of flexibility Although all hospital leaders agree that patient safety is a priority regarding staffing, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Virtual nursing has been rising as a popular form of flexibility. Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare is increasingly hiring nurses to work from home in its virtual nursing program. Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London, Conn., requires its virtual nurses to work onsite and take on bedside shifts two times a month. At Renton, Wash.-based Providence, a virtual nurse program called Co-Caring, conceived by nurses, is being implemented across seven Western states. "Our facilities believe theyre achieving the right balance of work flexibility, as defined by our nurses who have implemented Co-Caring," Syl Trepanier, DPN, RN, chief nursing officer at Providence, told Becker's. Systems are also testing new flexible schedule options for bedside nurses. Duke Health offers internal gig work, internal traveler options and float schedules. Similarly, Bon Secours Hampton Roads has an internal traveler program that allows nurses to float within a hospital, within the market or between hospitals across the system. Bon Secours Hampton Roads and the south region of CommonSpirit Health, based in Chicago, also offer self-scheduling for nurses. "Flexibility is dependent on your delivery model, and I think people forget about that," Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, PhD, RN, president of the American Nurses Association, told Becker's. "If you have a residency program or a fellowship program for nurses, then I think you can be much more flexible because you really prepared nurses differently. Maybe if you had a dedicated nurse practitioner on the floor, you can be really flexible because the structure and the support structure is different. But if everybody including your educator and your charge nurses taking patients [is] coming and going, then you might have to look at how flexible you can be because you do need that consistency somewhere." Deciding what flexibility to offer Finding balance in providing top care and staffing while also giving staff the best experience is no easy task. Leaders lean on several factors when deciding which flexible options to offer. "It's important to discuss how collaboration between bedside teams, clinical leadership and administration can solve for work-life balance and burnout," Dr. Trepanier said. Veronica Martin, DNP, RN, chief nursing officer of the South Region of CommonSpirit Health, said giving bedside caregivers the opportunity to have input on how their unit resources are used is important. "I think what healthcare systems and hospitals departments have to look at is the ebb and flow of volume within their departments," she said. "It's marrying how patients are admitted and discharged within that department against peak volume time so that you have the right numbers of people, with the right care for patients, at the right time of the day." Dr. McDonnell said she focuses on what is going to meet the needs of the patient and those of staff. "When those two things align, that's the work you focus on," she said. Cleveland Clinic's new chief pharmacy officer has a simple goal: No surprises. Before joining Cleveland Clinic on Feb. 26, Lindsey Amerine, PharmD, was the interim chief pharmacy officer at UNC Health, a 16-hospital system based in Chapel Hill, N.C. She now leads more than 1,500 pharmacy employees and receives reports from leaders in Ohio, Florida, Las Vegas, London and Abu Dhabi. As a new employee and executive at Cleveland Clinic, she's focused on not disrupting what's already working well. "I think there's always that question when you have a new leader come in: What is going to change?" she told Becker's. To quell this worry and gain trust, Dr. Amerine first set boundaries and expectations with her team. "I only implemented a couple rules when I started, and one of them was 'no surprises,'" she said. "If you think something may be a surprise, feel free to send it, I'm happy to triage it. There might be something that's just a good FYI, and then there's things that I might need to escalate. I don't want [my team] to have to sift through what those are and spend a lot of time figuring out what to send me. Using the rule of no surprises like, just let me know if something comes up that's been helpful. It has opened up a lot of lines of communication right away." In return, she tries to ensure her co-workers aren't surprised by her directions and decisions. To achieve this, Dr. Amerine asks her direct reports these four questions: 1. What do you like about the Cleveland Clinic that you want to preserve and why? 2. What do you hope I do? 3. What do you hope I don't do? 4. What are you scared I might do? In addition to building connectivity and visibility, the answers inform her three- to five-year roadmap for the system's pharmacy department, she said. As she makes rounds and visits the health system's facilities, Dr. Amerine said she has experienced multiple positive "aha" moments: She's constantly asking employees, "Do you know that no one else is doing that right now?" "There's a lot of things that we already do that I would consider to be the best practice that's out there. I don't know [if] the team members who have built it or that are working in it know that that's the best model," Dr. Amerine said, adding that most employees were unaware of the system's unique practices. Some of the practice models are under anonymous review for potential awards, so she couldn't share specifics with Becker's but said they exist in clinical practice, drug compounding and operations. As Dr. Amerine forms and strengthens a relationship with Cleveland Clinic, she said her No. 1 priority is understanding the history of the century-old organization. "I didn't come in with, 'This is exactly what we're going to do and we're going to be this and we ought to follow that,'" she said. "I really just want us to understand first, where are we, what do we do well, and then maybe what opportunities do we have?" U.S. News & World Report has firmed up the timeline and methodology for its annual medical school rankings after postponing them for the second year in a row. The timeline for the medical school ranking was pushed back for the second year in a row this spring. On April 8, U.S. News announced a delay in the release of medical schools rankings, one day before publishing its graduate schools rankings. As of June 7, emails are being sent to medical schools that submitted statistical surveys to U.S. News between fall 2023 and early 2024 so they can review the data. Institutions have until June 21 to address any necessary revisions or updates. Medical schools will then receive an embargoed preview of their rankings ahead of the official publication, tentatively scheduled for late July. U.S. News is also reversing some changes to its methodology that it announced in 2023. U.S. News said that the medical school rankings will not include bibliometric data that measures schools' research and publications, award transparency credits, or rankings of specialty areas in medical research. "While U.S. News continues to believe that bibliometrics are a strong indicator of how impactful a medical school's faculty has been in the field of medical research, U.S. News was unable to verify all entities and affiliates where faculty from the medical schools may practice or conduct medical research due to the complexity of reporting and legal structures," the outlet said June 6. "Therefore, this data was not able to be used in the 2024 Best Medical Schools calculations." HISD Superintendent Mike Miles comments on the addition of schools to the NES program Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, during a press conference in Houston. Kirk Sides/Staff photographer Each Houston ISD school has been sorted into a category that determines how much autonomy the campus will have an important distinction that explains where the district's state-appointed leaders will target his reforms, according to a recently released plan. Under that framework, the district sorted schools into four levels, each with varying permissions for schools to make their own decisions on curriculum, budget, staffing and more. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Here are some key takeaways from the document and its list of schools. What is "defined autonomy"? The district's term refers to schools having different levels of freedom to make decisions on curriculum, schedule and more. Nearly half of the district's schools are expected to implement state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles' reforms next year under the New Education System. Those schools have the least amount of independent decision-making power under this framework. Why is the district issuing this document? This is the first time the district specifically named where campuses fall in Miles' view of "defined autonomy." Advertisement Article continues below this ad At a May 15 Houston Chronicle event, Miles said he should have better explained what autonomy schools have. "And I should have been more clear about what things in the district that we're doing would apply to everyone," Miles said. "I own that, so we're already trying to make that better." How are schools categorized? Schools are largely categorized by their ratings assigned by the Texas Education Agency, which are based on factors like student achievement and graduation rates. These ratings were used to determine which schools would become NES at the beginning of the state takeover in 2023. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Schools are categorized into four tiers: Level 1: This group is made up of NES schools that have to follow an instructional model, procedures and practices assigned by the district. NES schools with a magnet program is supposed to continue to offer that program, but the district said "there may be some change to the magnet program to ensure the NES model is followed with fidelity." This group is made up of NES schools that have to follow an instructional model, procedures and practices assigned by the district. NES schools with a magnet program is supposed to continue to offer that program, but the district said "there may be some change to the magnet program to ensure the NES model is followed with fidelity." Level 2: These schools received a C or D rating from TEA and are not NES. "Level 2" schools are required to choose from district-approved options for reading and language arts, math and science. The district also decides the minimum amount of time schools spend on those core subjects. These schools must also get purchased services and programs approved by district headquarters. These schools received a C or D rating from TEA and are not NES. "Level 2" schools are required to choose from district-approved options for reading and language arts, math and science. The district also decides the minimum amount of time schools spend on those core subjects. These schools must also get purchased services and programs approved by district headquarters. Level 3: Schools that the TEA gave an A or B rating can mostly make decisions on their own, except they cannot opt out of pay-for-performance principal compensation as Level 4 schools can. Schools that the TEA gave an A or B rating can mostly make decisions on their own, except they cannot opt out of pay-for-performance principal compensation as Level 4 schools can. Level 4: These schools, regardless of whether they are rated A, B or C by the TEA, are all "separate and unique magnet schools." All students must apply into these schools, and there are no zoned students. These schools can make decisions on programs, curriculum, instructional delivery model, amount of time devoted to core subjects, budget, staffing, principal compensation and more. They can also apply for exceptions to HISD parameters, such as school start times and testing calendars. Starting in the 2024-2025 academic year, only 21 out of the district's 274 schools fall into Level 4, and the vast majority of schools (130) are in Level 1. There is also 57 "Level 3" schools and 41 "Level 2" schools. A "special category" encompasses alternative placement schools, early childhood centers and special education. Additionally, there are seven charter partnership campuses in Houston ISD exempt from defined autonomy. Advertisement Article continues below this ad If a school is NES but also has a B- or C- rating, does it have the restricted decision-making powers of an NES school (Level 1), or would it be in another Level? That NES school would be in Level 1 and have "limited autonomy," according to the district. Could this system change? It can change at any time. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The district handout reads, "The District reserves the right to amend this operational system as it deems appropriate and in support of the District's mission and vision." The document also reads, the district is committed to enforcing the parameters as they were outlined, but "it reserves the right to change the autonomies and parameters when necessary and appropriate to support the goals and mission of the District. The District will seek input from principals and the School Board before making significant changes." The school board is state-appointed. Could schools be re-categorized in the defined autonomy framework based on upcoming TEA ratings? The district said a NES school must earn an A or B rating from the TEA for three consecutive years before it can choose to leave "Level 1" for "Level 3." On the other hand, if a campus receives a D or F rating, the district can determine which decision-making powers to remove, according to the district document. Are there any exceptions? Schools can appeal for a few exceptions. A committee, made up of senior administrators from the chief academic office and chief of staff office, will consider those requests and then make recommendations to the Superintendent, the district said. For example, Level 4 schools can request exceptions for adjustments to testing calendars or adjustments to school start or end times. Numerous phrases have entered the workplace lexicon in recent years as employees have reassessed their approaches to jobs. Members of Generation Z in entry-level jobs often are the generators of these phrases, which include "quiet quitting" and "coffee badging." In May, Fortune published an article highlighting another term, "yapping," or the phenomenon of young people chitchatting nonstop in the workplace. "Yapping" is "to speak for long periods on end, sometimes until the listening party tunes out," the article stated. The term has surfaced on social media, with some Gen Z workers expressing their experience with "yapping" at work. In one TikTok video, a worker describes "yapping" to co-workers at lunch and telling them "about all the intrusive thoughts I've been having lately." Vicky Tilton, DNP, RN, vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer at Madera, Calif.-based Valley Children's Healthcare, told Becker's the term is new to her, but it does resonate. "We have been seeing it come to fruition within our new generational workforce," she said. "The concept that stood out to me about the term is that it's that oversharing but wanting that personal relationship from how they can express themselves." In the Fortune article, experts pointed to years of COVID-19 isolation and loneliness as potential factors contributing to the desire for young workers to build relationships, engage in small talk and gab with co-workers. Dr. Tilton pointed to other factors noted in literature as well, such as young workers' upbringing around social media and them leveraging technology differently than other generations. Experts in the Fortune article acknowledge the positives of "yapping," such as bringing about new ideas, fostering inclusiveness and creating a culture of mutual exchange, as well as potential downsides, such as posing a distraction to peers working nearby or making others with different communication styles uncomfortable. Additionally, a workplace study published in the Academy of Management Journal suggests "that the polite, ritualistic and formulaic nature of small talk is uplifting yet also distracting." Overall, at Valley Children's, where Gen Z makes up an estimated 40% to 50% of the nursing workforce, Dr. Tilton does not view "yapping" as a negative. "I think there is some negative connotation around it, but I think it's how you foster it and how you understand where they're coming from and how you help them incorporate that mentality of, they joined the workforce," she said. "Because in healthcare, there is a set expectation of professionalism, especially in pediatrics. We're dealing with a very critical situation with someone's child. So it's really trying to help them develop a fine line of being sincere and empathetic and supportive but also understanding that there are some clear boundaries, especially with patients and families, and their own colleagues. I think that's what resonated when I heard the term and was thinking about it in our workforce. But we certainly do see it happening." She specifically sees it happening during the interview process as young workers finish college and enter the professional environment. This could involve the interviewee sharing some personal experiences when they are asked certain questions. "I think that's how they relate, and wanting us to get to know them as an individual versus more of that standard skill-set approach or task-oriented mentality," Dr. Tilton said. "I think we're seeing it demonstrated there." She added that younger interviewees express wanting to join the organization during the interview. But "it's sharing those personal stories about a friendship or going out or doing something fun. All fine to hear, but might not be an appropriate time to share that. From an executive team perspective, it's really ensuring that our workforce as a collective continues to focus on sensitivity to our patients and their families along with the colleagues. But balancing awareness around that our younger workers have grown up in an age of social media and sharing aspects of their personal lives is a norm for them. And from that, they form authentic and genuine connections, and that's what they're looking for. As an organization, we want to retain the new talent. They're bringing different views and opportunities for us to navigate and look at how we do healthcare differently. So they're a great influence, too." With all this in mind, she is a proponent of encouraging open communication and personal expression, and being inclusive and understanding, while finding a balance of staying mission driven, staying focused on caring for patients and professional expectations. "Their tendency to overshare, we just need to monitor that if you will, address it with empathy, setting clear guidelines, setting expectations, and then teaching [managers] how to harness some of the aspects that are positive from this trend," Dr. Tilton said. As to an example of this at Valley Children's, she referenced an attendance issue with an employee. Dr. Tilton heard this secondhand from another leader. "The leader pulls them into the office to say, 'I noticed a trend or pattern where you're five minutes late or not prompt,'" Dr. Tilton said. "And the employee shared, 'I have X, Y and Z going on in my life, and I just can't make it happen, and I'm struggling.' Sharing a lot of personal things." Dr. Tilton said the leader heard this, understood it and looked into whether there was an accommodation the hospital could make. "Maybe [the worker] had some personal things going on with their partner, getting kids to school, and they couldn't get here at 7 a.m. But [the worker] needs a day shift because of family, school life. You can't make exceptions for everyone, but we can understand that," she said. The leader ultimately narrowed the attendance pattern to Wednesdays and was able to adjust the employee's schedule. "They were highly competent with their skill set, otherwise delivered great care, was a great colleague, all of the positives you want in a worker," Dr. Tilton said. "It was this one incident that overshadowed what they brought to the team. And we pushed their start time to 7:30 a.m., and then the employee circled back and said it's made a tremendous impact. And then the team understands that they're not waiting for this person who's always getting away with being late. It was shared with the team that we made some accommodations [for the worker], and if other team members have opportunities or needs, they have to talk with their leadership team so we can help manage through that." From the leader's perspective, the manager expressed support but also provided "a nice reminder to say, 'You also have to be able to separate personal life sometimes when you're here at work because we have an intense environment. And if you're not able to do that on a certain day or time you're struggling, please come talk to me. We want to show up and demonstrate our best to our patients and families, because that is our expectation for our team.' It's kind of level-setting those pieces with the employee," Dr. Tilton said. Her main takeaways for hospital and health system leaders: Encourage open communication and personal expression. "That should be allowed. But I think it does need to be tempered with guidelines that help maintain that professionalism and an overall respect for everyone's comfort level. Being able to read the room. Understanding those triggers in other folks and coming to even listen more. As leaders, too, I think we need to listen more." Foster an environment or culture of acceptance, supporting and understanding. "And then not only for our workforce, but that trickles down to our patients and families' experience with us. I do think there's a time and place for sharing, and if we can align that with the guidance around why we're here, too. Why we work at our hospital and our mission about taking care of kids and that being our focus. I just think the balance of all that [is important]." Understand where employees are at and their experiences. The desire to share and engage in small talk is "not all negative because that brings a different opportunity for them to question us and keep us aware of what's shifting out there and how we can be more mindful and keep going forward innovatively and proactively together. We always want two-way communication with our team. We always want to be locked in step as leaders. Be open and have them comfortable to come talk with us. That's what I strive to demonstrate." Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health is rolling out a new initiative with a goal to train 5,000 students by 2030 to get them on the healthcare career pathway. The initiative, NextGen Scholars, will work with high school students from diverse and Title 1 school backgrounds. The health system is also investing $1.7 million into Folsom (Calif.) Lake College as a pilot for the program and plans to expand the program to schools across the Los Rios Community College District in Folsom and in other Central Coast and Northern California areas, according to a June 6 news release shared with Becker's. "We see this collaboration as a way to eliminate some of the barriers that can get in the way of meaningful employment in the health care sector, address workforce needs and ultimately enhance health outcomes across our communities," Keri Thomas, vice president of external affairs at Sutter Health, said in the release. The pilot at Folsom Lake College will allow students from Cordova High School in Rancho Cordova, Calif., to choose a healthcare career, go to classes and secure Sutter care facility work experience. From there, the goal is for the students to work toward a community college certificate in their field of interest. Some of the areas being explored for certificates include emergency medical technicians, nursing assistants and radiology technicians. Some certification offerings down the line will include surgical technicians and medical assistants. Once the students earn their certification, they then have an opportunity to apply for jobs at Sutter health and other healthcare organizations in the area. Students participating in the NextGen program also receive $1,000 a term for up to three terms annually. The funding is to aid students in focusing on their studies and career development through cutting back on the need to work outside of the program. Students in the program will also have access to academic support services, with practical training opportunities, mentorship and networking opportunities also offered to the program students through Sutter Health and other partnering healthcare institutions, the release said. Upgrades to Folsom Lake College's education hub in Rancho Cordova will also be supported by investments from Sutter Health to create an improved learning environment for students, including new equipment like hospital beds, simulators and X-ray machines for hand-on learning opportunities. To kick off the program, Sutter Health and the Los Rios Community College District will begin developing curriculum for students. Recruitment, hiring and training program faculty, support staff and career case managers is also a focus. The first round of students in the program are expected to start this fall. Technology and data are two potential keys that could enhance patient care and access to joint replacements in orthopedics, says the president of one orthopedic organization. James Huddleston III, MD, was appointed president of the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons in February. He recently connected with Becker's to discuss his goals, the effect that data can have on orthopedics, as well as what he is excited and nervous about for the industry. Note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length. Question: What is your plan to improve patient care and access to hip and knee replacements as president of AAHKS? Dr. James Huddleston: As president of AAHKS, my primary job is to assure that AAHKS' resources are deployed properly to promote excellence in hip and knee care. In addition to our usual efforts aimed at achieving our long-term strategic goals focused on education, research and advocacy, I will focus on educating our membership about unionization, exploring the establishment of centers of excellence for periprosthetic joint infection and securing adequate long-term funding to scale the American Joint Replacement Registry. We will also continue our efforts in conjunction with the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons to achieve long-term Medicare payment reform. Q: Where do you see the biggest areas of growth for AAHKS in the next 12 months? JH: We are always working to increase our membership and attendance at our annual meeting, targeting the Middle East, our allied health professionals and other healthcare stakeholders in these efforts. Q: Tell me about your time as the chair of the California Joint Replacement Registry and efforts with the American Joint Replacement Registry. How do you see data transforming orthopedics? JH: Longitudinal follow-up of our patients is mandatory to deliver the highest value care. Having been involved with local, regional and national registry efforts for nearly 20 years, I am pleased to report that we have reached an inflection point at the American Joint Replacement Registry. While AJRR has approximately 40% of all the hip and knee replacements performed in the United States annually, we need to continue our efforts to get towards 100% coverage and improve data completeness. Like other successful national registries, we will need federal assistance to scale this effort. I am focused on synergizing our efforts with AAHKS and AAOS to make this dream become a reality. Q: What are you excited about and what makes you nervous? JH: I am excited to say that I have the best job in the world. I am tremendously honored to serve as the 34th AAHKS president, where I have the pleasure of working with incredibly talented and passionate colleagues. I am very, very nervous about the future of healthcare in our country. My father, a retired orthopedic surgeon, discouraged me from becoming a doctor due to his perceived decay of the industry. Despite him being spot-on, I obviously didn't listen. Now my children want to be doctors. Our younger colleagues are struggling to keep their lights on at the office. Despite the many obstacles we face, I am compelled to improve our healthcare system here in the United States. Declining physician reimbursement that doesn't even come close to keeping pace with inflation, loss of physician autonomy and market consolidation are just a few of the threats that are undermining physicians' ability to provide high-value care for our patients. Outpatient spine surgery has grown significantly in recent years thanks to new technologies and the adoption of minimally invasive techniques. However, some factors in the healthcare industry are slowing its trajectory. Six spine surgeons spoke with Becker's to discuss what's holding back outpatient spine migration. Note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity. Question: What is one factor holding back outpatient spine migration? Harel Deutsch, MD. Co-Director of the Rush Spine Center (Chicago): I would say that pain management after surgery is one of the key factors limiting spine migration. Spine surgeries are painful and different patients have different responses to surgeries, with some patients having exaggerated pain responses requiring more immediate nursing care. While generally, most patients could have outpatient surgeries, it can be difficult to predict which patient will need a longer stay. Joseph Ferguson, MD. MedStar Health (Washington, D.C.): It's really the partnership with anesthesia. You look at the places that are doing high volumes of outpatient surgery, and it's the continuum of care from the time the patient hits the surgery center until the time that they leave and how effective we are at preoperative and postoperative pain control. There's pain medicine that we administer preoperatively. We've learned a lot from our total joint colleagues about how to do anesthesia during surgery and then the recovery time after anesthesia and then pain control after the patients are discharged from same-day surgery. All of that is really almost outside of the surgeon's control, or most of it. We can do local pain medication at the time of surgery to help with that. But that's in conjunction with a lot of the things that the anesthesia providers do before, during and after the surgery. Brian Fiani, DO. Mendelson Kornblum Orthopedic & Spine Specialists (West Bloomfield, Mich.): One factor holding back outpatient spine migration is the reluctance of some healthcare providers to adopt new technologies and techniques. Many traditional surgeons may be hesitant to change their practices and adopt minimally invasive procedures, which can limit the availability of outpatient spine surgery options for patients. Additionally, insurance coverage and reimbursement policies may not always align with the shift towards outpatient procedures, creating barriers for both healthcare providers and patients. Arya Shamie, MD. UCLA Health (Los Angeles): One significant factor holding back outpatient spine migration is the concern over patient safety and postoperative care. Complex spine surgeries often require extended monitoring and management of potential complications, such as bleeding, infection, or neurological issues, which are more easily managed in an inpatient setting where immediate medical intervention is available if needed. Alok Sharan, MD. Spine and Performance Institute (Edison, N.J.): There have been a lot of incentives that are pushing many spine surgeries to be performed outpatient. One factor holding it back is the lack of standardization in how we optimize patients prior to surgery. We have started an IV nutrition program that has been helpful for post-op recovery. Beyond the use of nutrition to help with wound healing, we are seeing tremendous results when we use a combination of amino acids along with nutrition to reduce inflammation. Many patients who undergo surgery with our awake spinal fusion protocol are going home within four hours of surgery, and are taking minimal opioids post surgery. As we are learning to optimize patients better prior to surgery, I am predicting that we will soon be able to offer opioid-free spinal fusion surgery. William Taylor, MD. University of California San Diego Health: We need to develop navigation and robotics that work well in the outpatient setting. Grace Cartin, who is part of Deloittes Audit and Assurance team, joined Deloitte as a graduate trainee. She now has more than 12 years experience working with a range of large private and multinational companies, providing audit and advisory services across a wide range of business sectors, with a focus on banking, energy, technology, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals. As a partner I am looking forward to continuing to work with a wide network of local and global companies, and as we look to realise our ambition of growing the audit team here in Belfast, I am passionate about helping to build and retain the amazing talent we have in Deloitte, Grace Cartin, partner at Deloitte, said. Since joining as an audit associate almost 13 years ago I have received huge support from both experienced managers and peers and have been given fantastic opportunities to develop my own expertise, including 18 months working in the US within Deloittes global audit innovation team. I am very grateful to have had those opportunities and the chance to work with market leading companies from day one at the firm. Deloitte Northern Ireland has made 190 promotions in total across the business. Mark Cree and Leanne Morris have been promoted to the position of senior director and David Sloan, Emma Blair, Chris Sutton and Ryan Woodburn have all been promoted to director. Jackie Henry, office senior partner in Northern Ireland, said: I would like to congratulate Grace and everyone else who has been promoted in Belfast, and wish them all the best in their careers. And Aislean Nicholson, partner at Deloitte in Belfast, said: We are delighted that Grace has been made a partner at Deloitte in Belfast, which reflects her expertise, experience and the ongoing growth of our audit and advisory business, while reinforcing the opportunities and career pathways that are available to our people. Blue Lights stars pose in front of a billboard for the show in New York The stars of the BBC show have been taking a beat from their Belfast-based thriller to launch its second series Stateside in the Big Apple. Local screenwriters Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson were joined by on-screen rookie cops Sian Brooke, who plays Grace Ellis, Katherine Devlin (Annie Conlon) and Nathan Braniff (Tommy Foster). Speaking exclusively to the Belfast Telegraph from New York, Declan shared how seeing a big-screen advertisement for the show beaming down on one of the worlds most famous city centres has been a surreal experience. Blue Lights stars pose in front of a billboard for the show in New York Were going down to Times Square in an hour to get our photo taken under the big billboards of Blue Lights and surreal is exactly the word, he said. To think that we wrote this show in Belfast, for a Northern Irish and UK audience. And now that those characters are peering down over Times Square is really surreal and brilliant. Were proud of it too, because obviously its not just us, its all these great actors and all of the crew who are world class. So were all just really proud to be involved in it. Obviously weve got series three and four to do now, so were going to be doing it for a couple more years at least, so its just a dream come true really. Declan said that they have been delighted with the reaction they have received in the US, with fans eager to get to grips with our local history, as well as the accents, because the plot and characters travel so well. He explained: Series one has already been on [streaming service] BritBox, so were here for the launch of series two. [BritBox] has been telling us that season one has performed really well... Weve been kind of surprised and gratified by the amount of interest in the show. We had a screening on Tuesday night and the audience was very into it, a lot of them had already seen season one and were real fans of it. But you get a sense, when youre watching it with people, of what they really think of it, and they were laughing in all the right places and they were gasping in all the right places too. And then the feeling afterwards was just really positive, so Adam and I are probably a bit surprised at how well the show is travelling. People in America seem to get it and really enjoy it. The thing that theyre all talking about is the characters Grace, Annie, Tommy and Stevie [Neil, played by Martin McCann]. They just seem to be really into the characters, so its great. Some people have said to us that when they watch it at home in America, they watch it with subtitles and I dont blame them. I would even maybe encourage people to do that, because we dont really compromise on the vernacular, we dont compromise on the language. Theres a funny thing, too, where people might not get the context of it, they might not get Northern Ireland. We just did a big radio interview where we were having to explain the basics of Northern Ireland, its history, the Troubles and the Good Friday Agreement and stuff, but they dont mind. I think theres something universal about it, where the stories of the characters is enough to transcend the fact that people dont know the context. Writers Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson with stars Nathan Braniff, Sian Brooke and Katherine Devlin Declan and Adam met as BBC journalists and have quickly built themselves a stellar reputation for creating dramas that are rooted in real life, so hes happy that a by-product of the PSNI-themed series is that they could be educating people along the way. Declan added: I think there is definitely an element of that. In a lot of the interviews we are explaining stuff but, of course, why would they know about it? So there is a sense of educating people about Belfast and Northern Ireland. Obviously Blue Lights deals with some very dark themes, but one of the really interesting things that people keep telling us here is: This show really makes me want to go to Belfast. Which is great. I would say five to 10 people have said to us: Ive watched the show and I really want to go to Belfast it looks cool. So were not putting people off were doing the job of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board. Authenticity is one of the most important things for us that and character. Primarily, we want people at home to watch it and say: This feels like our place and it feels real. Thats really important. And also police officers ideally. A lot of them get in touch with us and say: Obviously you take dramatic licence but it feels like the job. Thats really important to us. And it seems to be the thing then that people in other countries, like America, Spain and Australia, they respond to that authenticity. Karen Cochrane is a student nurse based at the Urgent Care Centre in Lagan Valley Hospital A 24-year-old woman has been reunited with the student nurse who saved her life after she collapsed at the doors of Belfast International Airport recently when she suffered a life-threatening heart attack. Karen Cochrane, a student nurse based at the Urgent Care Centre in Lagan Valley Hospital, was on her way to catch an early morning flight to Southampton with her daughter, Hannah, when she saw that Caitlin Woods had collapsed at the zebra crossing as she approached the terminal. I went over to her expecting her to have fainted, as sometimes people who get up early for a flight dont eat breakfast, she said. I quickly realised the patient was unresponsive, so I knew that the situation was much more serious. Along with myself and airport staff, we co-ordinated and I did mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, maintaining the patients airway and one of the airport staff did compressions whilst the other counted compressions, she added. The teamwork was excellent. The defibrillator was brought and used to restart Caitlins heart. Mum Terri and Caitlin She pointed out that she had only ever used a defibrillator in her training and had never used it in practice. I was so relieved when the paramedics arrived and at that same time, much to my relief, the Air Ambulance was flying overhead, she said. The medical team and paramedics then took over and Caitlin was immediately taken by Air Ambulance to Antrim ICU for further treatment. Caitlins mum Terri who was with her at the time praised Karens quick actions and for helping to save her daughters life. I cant thank Karen enough, the standard of CPR she gave Caitlin was amazing, she wouldnt be here today, she said. The hospital staff commented that the standard of CPR given to Caitlin actually saved her life. We have been in touch with Karen since to thank her personally. It is so important if you are given the opportunity to undertake CPR training to take it. You dont know when you may need to use it, but it can save a life. Caitlin called Karen her guardian angel after providing life-saving CPR to her at the airport and recently met with her to present her with flowers and a gift. It was really emotional seeing Karen again, she said. If it wasnt for her, I wouldnt be here today. She is my guardian angel. I cant thank her enough. Karen Cochrane is a student nurse based at the Urgent Care Centre in Lagan Valley Hospital Karen, who is also a former midwife, said that her nursing background helped with her quick thinking at the time of the incident. More recently I was on placement in the Trusts Cardiac Catheter Lab which was an excellent learning experience with regard to cardiac events and defibrillation, she pointed out. I recently underwent my resus training within the South Eastern Trust, which was excellent, I knew automatically what I should be doing. I am so glad that Caitlin is now recovering well, she added. Terri got in touch with me afterwards, which was lovely as it was reassuring to know that things were going well, and that Caitlin was improving. It was such a privilege to be able to help. The family are arranging a fundraising event in Belfast for the Air Ambulance as a thank you. Nicola Coughlan at a screening of Bridgerton part two in the Lighthouse Cinema in Dublin this evening. Photo: Andres Poveda Derry Girls star Nicola Coughlan has joined the cast of the upcoming adaptation of Enid Blytons The Magic Faraway Tree. Neal Street Productions, Elysian Film Group and Ashland Hill Media Finance announced the news following the casting of Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy. The Bridgerton actor attended the Dublin premiere of the eagerly awaited second half of the period drama's third season on Thursday night. The Galway native ruled out a Derry Girls reunion any time soon, saying it was amazing but wrapped up in a perfect package with three series, and she doesnt want to taint it. Coughlan will portray the woodland fairy Silky. Her role was announced along with Nonso Anozie from Ted Lasso who will play Moonface, while Jessica Gunning of Baby Reindeer fame has been cast as Dame Washalot. The film, based on Blytons beloved The Faraway Tree series, follows the Thompson family as they move to the English countryside and discover a magical tree. The fantastical trees residents transport visitors to distant lands, setting the stage for a series of whimsical adventures. Adding to the star-studded cast, British icons Lenny Henry, Michael Palin and Simon Russell Beale will portray mystical wise men from the Land of Know-Alls. The film is produced by Oscar nominee Pippa Harris and Nicolas Brown of Neal Street Productions, along with Danny Perkins of Elysian Film Group and Jane Hooks. Blytons books remain actively in print and have been translated into over 35 languages, selling over 500 million copies worldwide, making her the most translated childrens author in the world. In the UK alone, over 3.5 million copies of her books are sold annually. The Faraway Tree series remains one of her most popular, having sold over 30 million copies to date and continuing to sell over half a million copies each year. CEO of Elysian Film Group Danny Perkins said: Attracting such talented high-profile individuals to this project is testament to the power of Blytons enduring legacy and the continued commerciality of her storytelling. Her work continues to inspire and enchant audiences of all ages, across the world. The Magic Faraway Tree is one of her most timeless, cherished by generations, and we are honored to be bringing her magical world to life with such a fantastic cast. Joe Simpson, Ashland Hill Media Finance managing partner, added, This dynamic and talented cast are perfect to breathe life into the characters from Enid Blytons unfading and enduring classic childrens tale. I have no doubt they will fill the screen with wonder and magic in this elevated, high-concept family adventure. Crash on A2 UPDATE: The below incident has now been cleared, although knock-on delays remain back to Big Barn leaving Bangor. A crash is causing delays in north Down heading towards Belfast. The collision occurred on the A2 Belfast Road around Ballymenoch Park in Holywood, causing knock on delays back to Seahill. The road is down to one lane as police attend the incident. Searches relating to the activities of the New IRA have been concluded in an Antrim village and police can confirm nothing was found. Detectives from the Police Service of Northern Irelands Terrorism Investigation Unit carried out a search in the Ballynease Road area of Portglenone on Friday morning. The search has now ended and in a statement PSNI said nothing was found. It follows searches in Rasharkin which took place on Wednesday and Thursday earlier this week in the areas of Glenbuck Road, Duneany Road, Slievenaghy Road and the Garvagh Road. In an update on Thursday afternoon, police said: The searches conducted in Rasharkin today, Thursday 6 June, by detectives from the Police Service of Northern Irelands Terrorism Investigation Unit investigating the activities of the New IRA are now over. While nothing was found during these searches, our investigation continues. Houston City Council members in April. HISD Superintendent Mike Miles agreed to council's request to meet after a turbulent end to the district's first year under state control. Kirk Sides/Staff photographer Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles agreed to Houston City Councils request to meet after a turbulent end to the districts first year under state control. Superintendent Miles is eager to meet with City of Houston leaders to update them on HISDs progress in the 23-24 school year, a HISD spokesperson wrote Thursday. He appreciates the Mayors and City Councils interest in our schools and is looking forward to a robust discussion about the Districts commitment to improving student achievement. The Superintendents team is working to identify a date for this meeting with city leaders. The city asked in a letter earlier this month for Miles to meet to ease the communities growing concerns about HISD. Advertisement Article continues below this ad THE REPORT CARD: Subscribe to the Houston Chronicles weekly newsletter recapping HISD news Council members have been urging Mayor John Whitmire to be more proactive in influencing Miles decisions. Six members are pushing for a resolution to condemn the districts widespread job cuts, related to its budget deficit and its view on principals and teachers performances. The resolution would also show support for school district students and employees. HISD parents and employees protested by City Hall in late May and demanded Miles resignation. Protest organizer Corey Flores, a Briargrove Elementary School parent, said ahead of the event that organizers sought the attention of city leaders. District K Council Member Martha Castex-Tatum said that Houstonians have been reaching out to the city in their search for information on principals being asked to resign, layoffs, and the districts proposed $4.4 billion bond. MILES, 1 YEAR LATER: How HISD Superintendent Mike Miles went from Army Ranger to the most polarizing figure in Houston Advertisement Article continues below this ad City Council ultimately does not have power over the school district and cannot require anything from HISD. However, Castex-Tatum hoped Miles will engage in dialogue. The child was taken to hospital A young boy is stable in hospital after he was hit by a bus in Ballymena. He was rushed to hospital by ambulance following the early-morning crash. The Antrim Road was closed for a period on Friday morning but has now reopened, police have said. The boy is a student at a local school and its thought other schoolchildren called emergency services and the boys parents when the crash occurred close to the bus stop on the Antrim Road. Local DUP councillor Lawrie Philpott said: Im sure it was a traumatic situation and hopefully all those in attendance will get some sort of help by way of counselling. Police said: A young boy was taken to hospital for treatment for injuries where he remains in a stable condition at this time. The ambulance service said they were called to the incident shortly after 8am. They took the boy to the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children after treating him at the scene. A spokesperson said: NIAS despatched one emergency crew to the incident. The Charity Air Ambulance was also tasked to attend. Police advised at the time for motorists to avoid the area and alternative main routes for their journey. Translink confirmed that a bus collided with a pedestrian in Ballymena this morning at just after 8am. Emergency services were immediately called and the pedestrian, a school pupil, has been taken to hospital, a Translink spokesperson added. An investigation is underway and we are assisting the PSNI with their enquiries. Courts Man allegedly stabbed and killed by partner was on bail for domestic incident at time of death Sue Gray to miss meeting with Stormont leaders as she demands more money causing bedlam in Number 10 Sectarian abuse shouted at Belfast councillor after election posters stolen: All taigs will be crucified Watch: Sectarian abuse shouted at councillor after election posters stolen by youths in south Belfast Amy Cochrane Fri 7 Jun 2024 at 12:19 An SDLP councillor said he feels pity for youths who shouted outrageous sectarian abuse at him as he tried to retrieve his wifes election posters after they were torn down. The little girl was rushed to University Hospital Waterford (UHW). Photo: Getty It is suspected that a one-year-old child who tragically died in Waterford on Wednesday choked on the cord of a window blind that she had become entangled in at her home. The incident happened shortly before 5pm on Wednesday at a property in the Dungarvan area of Co Waterford. It is understood that the baby girls mother, a 28-year-old local woman, found the child in a distressed state and emergency services were notified. Desperate efforts were made at the scene to stabilise the condition of the little girl and she was rushed to University Hospital Waterford (UHW). Despite the efforts of doctors and nurses, the girl was pronounced dead a short time after admission. No foul play is suspected in the case which has been established to be a tragic accident. The child has a twin sister who is understood to have been in the house at the time. Neighbours have spoken about their sense of shock. They are such lovely people. Everyone here is heartbroken, said one member of the community. How can they ever get over this? All the indications are that it happened so fast and was a terrible accident. Gardai quickly established that the tragedy was not a criminal matter but an official cause of death has not yet been determined. Gardai in Waterford responded to a call on Wednesday evening in relation to a child found unresponsive in her home in Co Waterford, a garda spokesman said in a statement. The child was conveyed by ambulance to University Hospital Waterford where she was later pronounced deceased. A file will be prepared for the Coroners Court. A family liaison officer has been appointed to provide support and assistance to the family of the deceased at this time. Gardai will prepare a file for the Waterford coroner, with an inquest into the tragedy expected to be held next year. A pit-bull terrier was shot and killed by gardai after it attacked a man and woman at a house in Cork (Niall Carson/PA) A pit bull terrier was shot and killed by gardai after it attacked a man and woman at a house in Cork. Gardai and the Armed Response Unit were called to a house in Ballyphehane in the city at around 5.20pm following reports of a pit-bull terrier attacking residents. A man and woman injured by the dog were transported to Cork University Hospital for medical assessment and treatment. Gardai said they engaged with the owner of the dog, and after failed attempts to sedate the animal, it was shot by the Armed Response Unit and euthanised by the vet. It is the second incident this week in which a dog was shot after attacking someone. Nicole Morey died on Tuesday after she was attacked by her dog at her home in Limerick, hours after celebrating her 23rd birthday. Emergency services and the regional Armed Support Unit attended a house in Ballyneety, Co Limerick, at around 11.40pm. The woman was treated by paramedics at the scene but succumbed to her injuries. Her body was taken to University Hospital Limerick for a post-mortem examination. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during a visit to Great Oldbury Primary Academy in Stonehouse while on the General Election campaign trail (Jacob King/PA) Day 16 of the General Election campaign was dominated by the fallout from Rishi Sunaks decision to skip a major international ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings in order to take part in a TV interview as part of his push for votes. Sunak says sorry for snub The Prime Minister was forced to apologise for leaving D-Day memorial events early amid a fierce backlash from political rivals and some fellow Conservatives already nervous about their partys electoral prospects. The outrage had swelled after it emerged that Mr Sunak had snubbed a gathering of world leaders, including US President Joe Biden, so he could record an interview with ITV which will air next week. On Friday morning, he took the unusual step of issuing an apology for his mistake, which he repeated in an awkward exchange with broadcasters on the campaign trail later in the day. Mr Sunak insisted he stuck to the itinerary that had been set for me as Prime Minister weeks ago, suggesting he had never intended to go to the centrepiece of the D-Day commemorations, even before he called the election. On reflection, that was a mistake and I apologise, Mr Sunak said, as he urged people not to politicise this. A stinging rebuke came from Normandy veteran Ken Hay, 98, who said he lets the country down, while political opponents seized on Mr Sunaks actions. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the snub had brought shame to the office of Prime Minister, as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said of Mr Sunak he basically is not a patriotic leader of the Conservative Party. Labours Sir Keir Starmer, who stayed on in France to mingle with Mr Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukraines leader Volodymyr Zelensky, said Mr Sunak will have to answer for his own actions, but for me there was nowhere else I was going to be. Rishi Sunak raises his hand during a maths lesson at Great Oldbury Primary Academy in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire (Jacob King/PA) Squirming Penny The debacle leaves Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt, a Navy reservist, in a tricky spot as she faces off against deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner, Mr Farage and others in a seven-way BBC debate on Friday evening. It certainly gives the leader of Reform UK, which hopes to eat into Tory support, plenty of ammunition in the showdown. We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review your details and accept them to load the content Also taking part are Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper, SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, Greens co-leader Carla Denyer and Rhun ap Iorwerth, the head of Plaid Cymru. The BBC also announced it will be airing Panorama interviews with Mr Sunak and Mr Farage on June 10 and June 11 respectively, with programmes with other party leaders agreed, although Sir Keir has not yet accepted his invitation. Manifesto rubber-stamping Labours election manifesto was waived through in a highly secretive Clause V meeting in central London, paving the way for its official launch next week. The finer points of Labours policy document have been kept tightly under wraps after 2017s draft manifesto was leaked, with attendees of the gathering only told its location on Friday morning. Sir Keir Starmer promoting Labours freedom to buy scheme during a visit to a north London housing development (James Manning/PA) But Sir Keir confirmed during a campaign visit that a pledge to recognise Palestinian statehood as part of any Middle East peace process will be included. The manifesto will be based on the partys five missions for government announced last year on the economy, the NHS, energy, education and planning reform. The final countdown The Tories dropped one of their parliamentary candidates just hours before nominations for the General Election closed at 4pm after receiving a complaint about his conduct. Jaymey McIvor is no longer the Conservative candidate for the previously Tory-held Hemel Hempstead seat after the party flagged an anonymous complaint against his prior conduct which requires investigation. He was replaced by councillor Andrew Williams. We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review your details and accept them to load the content Parties have been scrambling to sort candidates into seats since Mr Sunak called the surprise election last month, with selection rows plaguing both the Tories and Labour. Lists of names could be published at 5pm, although the deadline for publication is at 4pm on Monday in case there are any objections. Child benefits bungle The childrens minister admitted not knowing how much child benefit is worth in a faltering radio interview to promote the Tories election offer to parents to raise the high-income child benefit tax charge threshold to 120,000. David Johnston said he should have found out before I came on here, when he was asked for the figure on LBC. It led to a Labour attack on the reckless and out-of-touch Tory Government, who arent even across the details of their own policies. Picture of the day The Tory battle bus parked on Veterans Way in Stonehouse after Rishi Sunaks perceived snub of veterans by leaving the 80th D-Day anniversary ceremonies in Normandy early on Thursday (Jacob King/PA) Number of the day Quote of the day Social media moment Opposition parties took jabs at Mr Sunak over his D-Day decision, with Labour contrasting it with the Prime Ministers pledge to require 18-year-olds to do national service. On TikTok, Labour posted the text: Rishi Sunak wants you to do a full year of national service, followed by a clipping from the Daily Mirror newspaper with the headline: PM ditches D-Day. Labour wrote over the top: He couldnt even manage an afternoon. The Lib Dems shared an edited photo to X, formerly Twitter, of Mr Biden, Mr Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Omaha Beach next to an empty silhouette where Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron had been stood instead of the Prime Minister. We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review your details and accept them to load the content Whats happening tomorrow Mr Sunak is campaigning in Yorkshire, while Sir Keir and Sir Ed are also hitting the campaign trail. Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar is campaigning in Lewis, SNP leader John Swinney is in Livingston and the Scottish Conservatives are in Glasgow. Pregnant women admitted to intensive care face significant risks to their own lives as well as a 12-times higher rate of having a stillbirth, research showed. Researchers from the University of Edinburgh used healthcare databases for more than 760,000 deliveries in Scottish hospitals between 2005 and 2018, examining all pregnancies resulting in a live birth, stillbirth or late miscarriage. Almost one in 500, some 1,449 women, were admitted to intensive care, which researchers found increased their risk of having a stillbirth, along with a 40-times higher risk of death than those not admitted. The most common reason for admission to ICU was postpartum haemorrhage, heavier bleeding than normal after birth, while the most frequent cause of death was cardiovascular disease. The excess risk to those treated in ICU persists for up to a year after discharge from hospital, researchers also found. Experts say the findings demonstrate the need for better tailored care for critically ill patients during and after pregnancy, as maternal age increases. Maternal death in the UK is known to occur in 12 in every 100,000 women, while a further 70 to 90 women develop severe illness. Death is more common in women from ethnic minorities and those living in socially deprived areas. Risk factors for severe maternal illness are increasingly prevalent, including more women with long-term health conditions becoming pregnant and increasing maternal age. The study found that one in 16 women admitted to intensive care had a stillbirth, compared with one in 167 who are not admitted. Mothers requiring intensive care treatment during pregnancy faced a much higher chance of needing to be readmitted to hospital in the first year after birth (Andrew Matthews/PA) The study also showed that babies born to women admitted to intensive care were 13 times more likely to require a higher level of care after delivery. Of the women discharged from ICU, almost a quarter were readmitted to hospital within a year compared with less than one in 10 of healthy mothers. Researchers said that some elements of postpartum care may be better delivered by intensive care specialists in conjunction with maternity experts, and recommended a more joined up and proactive approach is developed. The study is published in the journal Intensive Care Medicine and was funded by the Obstetric Anaesthesia Association. Professor Nazir Lone, professor of critical care and epidemiology at the University of Edinburghs Usher Institute and director of research for the Intensive Care Society, said: Being admitted to intensive care can be a traumatic experience for many patients and their families. When this happens during or shortly after pregnancy, the impact on a woman, her baby and family can be devastating. Our study shows that women admitted to intensive care experience more health problems during the year after pregnancy. Maternity and critical care services need to develop a more joined up and proactive approach to better identify and support women who have ongoing care needs after becoming critically ill. Amanda Knox has told Italian TV she intends to fight for the truth (AP) Amanda Knox has told Italian TV that she was surprised by a Florence appeals courts decision to find her guilty of slander in light of a European court ruling that police who took her confession had violated her human rights. I will fight for the truth, Ms Knox told Sky TG24 in her first public comments since the guilty verdict on Wednesday. Its been 17 years that I have been unjustly accused. Ms Knox was a 20-year-old exchange student in the university town of Perugia in November 2007 when she and her then-Italian boyfriend were accused of murdering her housemate, 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher, who was found dead in the apartment they shared. Meredith Kercher was murdered in 2007 (Family handout/PA) After years of flip-flop trials, they were both exonerated in 2015, but the slander conviction endured against Ms Knox for wrongly accusing an innocent man, the Congolese bar owner who employed her part-time. She served four years in prison before being freed on an earlier acquittal in 2011, covering the three-year slander sentence. Another man, Rudy Hermann Guede of Ivory Coast, was convicted of killing Ms Kercher and served 13 years of a 16-year sentence. Ms Knox, now 36, appeared in the Florence court on Wednesday when she was reconvicted of slandering bar owner Patrick Lumumba, who was held for two weeks on suspicion of murder before police released him with an iron-clad alibi. Amanda Knox was 20 years old when she was initially accused of killing Ms Kercher she was completely exonerated years later (AP) Italys highest court ordered the retrial after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that her human rights had been violated during a long night of questioning without a lawyer or competent translator, when she accused Mr Lumumba in two statements typed by police that she signed. The high court stipulated that the Florence appeals panel could not consider the two signed documents, but only four handwritten pages penned by Ms Knox the next afternoon in a bid to walk back the statements. There is one document in question, that we can all read, and the message of this document is: I dont know who killed Meredith. I thought I was extremely clear, Ms Knox said, in fluent Italian. Ms Knox insists that she only named Mr Lumumba under extreme police pressure. I was abused, mistreated, psychologically tortured by police that night, Ms Knox said in the TV interview. It was the worst experience of my life. It was worse than being convicted, to tell the truth, because they made me think I was crazy, that I couldnt trust myself. United Airlines aircraft are parked at the Terminal C gates at George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023 in Houston. Brett Coomer/Staff photographer Spirit Airlines planes are seen ahead of the Memorial Day weekend at Bush intercontinental Airport, Wednesday, May 22, 2024, in Houston. Jason Fochtman/Staff photographer If you want to escape Houston as the heat dome descends, there are several affordable one-way flights to cities around the country with cooler weather in July and August. Be aware of additional fees when selecting a plane ticket, however. The initial price shown is rarely the final total price. The prices listed below do not include potential seat and fare charges. Additionally, some flights include long layovers or strange landing hours in exchange for lower airfare. Here are several flight options to book ahead of Houstons hottest weather with prices shown as of June 7. Advertisement Article continues below this ad $50 flights and under: Chicago, Cincinnati and Baltimore Perfect for an affordable summer trip, these cities have plenty to offer with average temperatures no higher than 89 degrees. Temperatures range from 70 to 82 degrees in Chicago, where Spirit Airlines is offering a non-stop flight for $27 on July 10. Known for its 19th-century architecture, Cincinnati has average temperatures as low as 64 degrees in August. Frontier Airlines is offering a $29 non-stop flight to Cincinnati on Aug. 14, the same day the Cincinnati Reds are set to play the St. Louis Cardinals at home. Advertisement Article continues below this ad For $50, Spirit Airlines is offering a non-stop flight to Baltimore on July 10. The city typically has temperatures ranging between 71 to 89 degrees in the summer months. Under $75: Minneapolis, San Francisco, Portland and Boston Visit one of the twin cities in late August for just $55 on Frontier Airlines. Also, enjoy the cool mountain air of Denver during the four-hour layover before arriving in Minneapolis. Portland, Oregon can have temperatures as low as 57 degrees in July and flights as low as $70 make it an affordable escape from the heat. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Visit infamous places from American history or Harvard Yard with flights to Boston for as low as $69 on Jetblue Airlines in July. Temperatures typically range between the 60s to 80s in the summer months. For those interested in heading to the Sunshine State, Frontier Airlines is offering a $74 flight to San Francisco on Monday, Aug. 12. The home of the Golden Gate Bridge typically experiences temperatures in the low 50s and high 60s throughout the summer. BEWARE OF DELAYS: How Houston airports compare for flight delays and cancellations, according to data Non-stop flights under $150: Pittsburgh, Seattle and Salt Lake City If long layovers are not ideal, these non-stop flights offer quicker travel times to cooler climates. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Settled in the mid-18th century, Pittsburgh is home to a wealth of historic sights. United Airlines offers a $89 non-stop flight to Pittsburgh in late July, where temperatures range between 65 to 83 degrees. Visit the Space Needle or Pike Place Market, with a $129 non-stop flight to Seattle on Alaska Airlines in late August. A day trip to Mt. Rainier National Park, located less than 100 miles outside of Seattle, can lead to snow even in the summer months. US President Joe Biden is due to meet his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris as Kyivs army endures its hardest days of fighting since the early weeks of the war with Russia and prepares for what officials say could be a tough summer. The United States is by far Kyivs biggest supplier of wartime support, and Ukraine is trying to fend off an intense Russian offensive in eastern areas of the country. The push is focused on the Ukrainian border regions of Kharkiv and Donetsk, but Ukrainian officials say it could spread wider as Russias bigger army seeks to make its advantage tell. The offensive is seeking to exploit Kyivs shortages of ammunition and troops along the roughly 620-mile front line. We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review your details and accept them to load the content That shortfall in weaponry came after US military aid was held up in congress for six months before Mr Biden in April signed into law a 61 billion dollar (47 billion) military aid package for Ukraine. Amid Russias most recent onslaught and with Ukraines army reeling, some Nato allies including the US said last week they would allow Ukraine to use weapons they deliver to Kyiv to carry out limited attacks inside Russia. That step brought a furious response from the Kremlin, which warned that Europes biggest conflict since the Second World War could spin out of control. Mr Biden and Nr Zelensky attended the 80th anniversary events of D-Day in Normandy, northern France, on Thursday, along with European leaders who have supported Kyivs efforts in the war. Mr Zelensky met Second World War veterans at the international ceremony at Omaha Beach (AP) The US leader pledged we will not walk away from Ukraine, drawing a direct line from the fight to liberate Europe from Nazi domination to todays war against Russian aggression. Ukraine depicts its fight against the Kremlins forces as a clash between Western democratic freedom and Russian tyranny. Russia says it is defending itself against a menacing eastward expansion of the Nato military alliance. The US will send about 225 million dollars (176 million) in military aid to Ukraine, US officials said on Thursday. The new package includes munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, as well as mortar systems and an array of artillery rounds, officials said. French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will provide Ukraine with its Mirage combat aircraft. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met French defence minister Sebastien Lecornu (Pool via AP) Mr Macron has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine. He said in February that putting Western troops on the ground in Ukraine is not ruled out. Mr Zelensky began a day of meetings in Paris on Friday with an official welcome ceremony at the golden-domed Invalides monument, site of Napoleons tomb. During the day, Mr Zelensky is due to visit the Nexter arms manufacturer in Versailles, which makes the Caesar self-propelled howitzers that France, among other weapons, is providing for Kyivs forces. He was also to make a speech to the National Assembly, which is the lower house of Frances parliament, and meet with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace. Mr Zelenskys foreign trips aim to keep Ukraines plight in the public eye, secure more military help for its fight against Russias invasion and lock in long-term Western support through bilateral alliances. France and Ukraine in February signed a 10-year bilateral security agreement. Mr Zelensky has since signed similar bilateral agreements with many European countries. By Lolita C Baldor and Matthew Lee, Associated Press By Lolita C Baldor and Matthew Lee, Associated Press The US will send about 225 million dollars (175 million) in military aid to Ukraine, officials said on Thursday. The new package will includes ammunition Kyivs forces could use to strike threats inside Russia to defend the city of Kharkiv from a heavy Russian assault. The officials said the aid includes munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, as well as mortar systems and an array of artillery rounds. President Joe Biden delivers a speech during a commemorative ceremony to mark D-Day 80th anniversary. Officials have said that the US will send millions in military aid to Ukraine (Daniel Cole/AP) Under a new US directive, Ukraine can use such weapons to strike across the border into Russia if forces there are attacking or preparing to attack. That change, however, does not alter US policy that directs Ukraine not to use American-provided ATACMS or long-range missiles and other munitions to strike offensively inside Russia, according to US officials. The new aid package comes as President Joe Biden used his speech at the American cemetery in Normandy on the 80th anniversary of D-Day to vow that the US will not walk away from the defence of Ukraine and allow Russia to threaten more of Europe. To do so, he said, would mean the US has forgotten what happened here on these hallowed beaches. Mr Biden is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris on Friday. On Wednesday, a Western official and a US senator said Ukraine has used US weapons to strike inside Russia. A June 3 report from the Institute for the Study of War suggests that Ukrainian forces used a HIMARS system to strike a Russian S-300/400 air defence battery in the Belgorod region in recent days. The new aid package is being provided through presidential drawdown authority, which pulls systems and munitions from existing US stockpiles so they can go quickly to the war front. Ukrainian officials have pressed the U.S. to allow Kyivs forces to defend themselves against attacks originating from Russian territory (Oleg Petrasiuk/Ukrainian 24 Mechanised brigade/AP) Officials said the aid package also includes missiles for the Hawk air defence system, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, Javelin and AT-4 anti-armour systems, 155mm Howitzers, armoured vehicles, trailers, patrol boats, demolition materials and a wide range of other spare parts and equipment. Ukrainian officials have pressed the US to allow Kyivs forces to defend themselves against attacks originating from Russian territory. Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, sits just 20km (12 miles) from the Russian border and has come under intensified Russian attack. In response to Nato allies allowing Ukraine to use their arms to attack Russian territory, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Wednesday that Russia could provide long-range weapons to others to strike Western targets. The additional HIMARS munitions are part of a US effort to beef up Ukraines use of the key weapons. The State Department last month approved a proposed emergency sale of HIMARS systems to Ukraine for an estimated 30 million dollars. It said Ukraine has asked to buy three of the rocket systems, which would be funded by the government of Germany. Im all for a smoky bacon border that protects our health Furore over ban on crisp additives that may cause cancer typical of this hapless statelet Jim Allister said this week that the latest plan out of Brussels will hit our legendary Tayto factory at Tandragee. Fionola Meredith Fri 7 Jun 2024 at 07:48 Of all the outrages Brexit has indirectly imposed on our hapless statelet, the worst the very worst must be the smoky bacon border. Beijing claims it would allow extractions from the South China Sea outpost if given advance notice. This handout photo from a video released by the Philippine Coast Guard on June 7, 2024, shows China Coast Guard personnel allegedly blocking a Philippine ship evacuating a sick marine in the South China Sea on May 19. The Philippines on Friday accused China of blocking and ramming a boat carrying a sick marine being evacuated from its outpost in the South China Sea, calling the action barbaric and inhumane. The alleged incident occurred on May 19, when the Philippine Coast Guard deployed a high-speed response boat to assist in evacuating a marine from Second Thomas (Ayungin) Shoal, said Commodore Jay Tarriela, coast guard spokesman for the West Philippine Sea. Manila calls South China Sea regions within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) the West Philippine Sea. Tarriela said the alleged incident occurred over 15 nautical miles from the northeastern entrance of the shoal, where the Philippines maintains the BRP Sierra Madre, a World War II-era naval ship grounded in 1999 to serve as the countrys outpost. The barbaric and inhumane behavior displaced by the [China Coast Guard] has no place in our society, Tarriela said in a statement. What should have been a simple medical evacuation operation was subjected to harassment. The incident occurred on the same day that Chinese boats intercepted supplies being air-dropped to Filipino troops in the region, according to Philippine military chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. He claims the Chinese boats allegedly seized one of the four bags containing food and medicine and dumped the contents at sea. Philippine officials did not say why they waited nearly three weeks to report on the incident nor did they provide an update on the marines condition. Tarriela said the Philippine boat arrived at the rendezvous point on May 19, but China launched two small boats to harass it. The Philippine boat was rammed as we transferred the personnel from the Philippine Navy vessel, he said, referring to the BRP Sierra Madre. Despite informing the CCG via radio and public address system about the humanitarian nature of our mission for medical evacuation, they still engaged in dangerous maneuvers and even intentionally rammed the [Philippine boat] while transporting the sick personnel, he said using an acronym for the China Coast Guard. Philippine marines fold a national flag on the BRP Sierra Madre, a marooned transport ship in the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, March 29, 2014. [Erik de Castro/Reuters] The Philippine boat eventually managed to evade the Chinese vessels and the mission was completed, Tarriela said, adding the marine received critical medical care. The actions of the Chinese clearly demonstrated their intention to prevent the sick personnel from receiving proper medical attention he urgently needed, he said. China wants advance notification Responding to the accusation, Chinas foreign ministry said it could allow Manila to deliver necessary supplies and evacuate personnel from its grounded ship in the shoal if Beijing were notified in advance. However, the Philippines should not use this as an excuse for delivering construction materials in an attempt to permanently occupy Renai Jiao, spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing, using the Chinese name for the shoal. The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to BenarNews requests for comment. The incidents are the latest near the shoal where China has increased its patrols and accused the Philippines of bringing construction materials in violation of an earlier agreement. Manila denied the accusations and insisted that the shoal is within the countrys EEZ. China claims almost all of the mineral-rich waterway while dismissing competing claims from the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam as well as Taiwan. In 2016, an international arbitration court ruled in favor of the Philippines, throwing out Chinas sweeping historical claims. Beijing has never accepted the decision. Meanwhile, the Philippine military on Friday said it monitored two Chinese PLA Navy ships passing through the southern island of Basilan near Zamboanga peninsula in the south. The Philippine Navy said it dispatched ships to confront the Chinese warships. One of the vessels, Qi Jiquang (BN 83) responded that it was conducting normal navigation from its last port of call in Dili, Timor Leste, en route to Dalian, China, the militarys Western Mindanao Command said in a statement. It said the incident occurred on Thursday. The Philippine military remains vigilant in monitoring all activities within our maritime zones and is committed to ensuring the safety and security of our waters, it said. Located between the islands of Basilan and Mindanao in the Philippines, the Basilan Strait is recognized as an international sea lane, which allows for the innocent passage of ships from different countries under international maritime law. We continue to uphold international maritime laws while safeguarding our territorial integrity, the Philippine military said. Roel Pareno in Zamboanga City, southern Philippines, contributed to this report. From elephant pants to kettles and shoes, mass-made products from China are squeezing local competition. Customers shop at Platinum Fashion Mall, a shopping center in Bangkok that sells both locally produced and imported clothes, June 6, 2024. Phorntep Daechowzethsiri is a manufacturer and seller of a Thai menswear brand that prides itself on affordable and comfortable garments made from locally sourced premium cotton. But Phorntep says hes run into fierce competition in recent years from Chinese manufacturers who mass produce mens leisure wear such as shirts, underwear and other items of lesser quality but sell them to Thai customers online for up to 10 times cheaper. The pricing is very aggressive. I could sell a T-shirt for 200 baht (U.S. $5.50) while there are plenty from Chinese manufacturers that are sold for 20 baht (55 cents) online, Phorntep, owner of the TEPP clothing brand who sells his products via online platforms and a store in central Bangkok, told BenarNews. When customers see that, they prefer to buy it regardless of how long the product will last or the general quality. From apparel to electronic devices and vegetables, a glut of cheap Chinese goods in Thailand has seen the countrys trade deficit with China rise in recent years to a record $36.6 billion in 2023, up from $29.2 billion in 2021, according to the Thai Ministry of Commerce. A shirt is displayed at the TEPP store inside the Platinum Fashion Mall in Bangkok, June 6, 2024. [Tananchai Keawsowattana Thai News Pix/BenarNews] Because he cant come close to matching his Chinese competitors on the price, Phorntep says his plan is to focus more on branding his line by emphasizing the quality and design of his products, which carry the Made in Thailand label. Phorntep partners with a local factory, which employs 12 people who work specifically for his brand. Still, there is a limit to the plants capacity as it can produce around 500-1000 items per design, Phorntep said. He himself travels to China often to select pieces of clothing to increase the variety of his collections. An employee holds up a phone and watches as Phorntep Daechowzethsiri, the owner of the TEPP clothing brand, promotes the companys products in a livestream video, at the TEPP store in Bangkok, June 6, 2024. [Tananchai Keawsowattana Thai News Pix/BenarNews] Among foreign imports, electronics represent the top category of Chinese goods that have penetrated the Thai market, followed by fresh and processed vegetables and fruits, clothing and shoes, home decor items and kitchen appliances, according to Kasikorn Research, a local economics think-tank. The Federation of Thai Industries said that small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) companies were most affected by the flood of Chinese goods. Other industries have seen a devastating effect. Thailand is looking to impose a new round of anti-circumvention measures against imports of Chinese steel and steel products. The first 10 months of 2023 saw about 75 local steel companies and mills shutter as a result of dumping by China, the Commerce Ministry said. Price war In February, the administration of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin began mulling the possibility of charging a value-added tax for all imported goods regardless of their value. A levy in place since 2018 has applied only to imports valued at more than 1,500 baht (U.S. $41). The new measure to impose VAT on all imported goods has not yet been implemented. The government began considering it after Chinese-made elephant pants faced an import ban. The baggy garments were being marketed in Thailand at a much lower price than locally made elephant pants. The influx of these mass-produced pants drew an outcry from customers and manufacturers who saw this as treading on one of Thailands most iconic clothing items. Some Thai manufacturers criticized the Chinese variety as being of inferior quality compared with those made locally from superior textiles, according to media reports. The influx of goods from China has also led to Chinese entrepreneurs setting up shop in Thailand, further undermining local business, said Natawaj Pusiriwaj, a Thai clothes retailer. Natawaj said he imports clothes from China because of their cheap cost, and he sells them at his store at Pratunam Market, a wholesale center in Bangkok. However, Chinese clothes sellers who also operate in the same area, have a competitive edge. I import clothes from China through a Chinese agent, or sometimes I travel to China to select goods, Natawaj said. But for Chinese who are based in Thailand, they can contact the factory in China directly and even tell them what style of clothing is popular in Thailand right now to manufacture. Other local manufacturers realize that their costs and the technology of mass-scale production lag behind Chinas. A customer shops at the TEPP store inside the Platinum Fashion Mall in Bangkok, June 6, 2024. [Tananchai Keawsowattana Thai News Pix/BenarNews] Sompop Suenoppakool, a clothes manufacturer, said pricing was not the only factor that makes Chinese goods competitive in the Thai market. I think there are plenty of Chinese goods that are highly priced and have good quality. But the point is China has a production and logistical means that allows producers to control the costs. Visit Limlurcha, vice chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said the deluge of cheap Chinese goods would continue around the world because of Chinas currently sluggish economy. Due to the slow consumption in China, there are supplies of goods that need to be distributed globally and that starts to affect many countries, he said. Thailand can take advantage through other means like persuading Chinese producers to set up their manufacturing bases here so there can be revenue that generates from other types of economic activities in Thailand, like employment, Visit said. Workers labor at a garment factory in Neiqiu county of Xingtai city, in northern Chinas Hebei province, in this photo taken on March 4, 2020, and released by the state-run Xinhua News Agency. [Zhu Xudong/Xinhua via AP] China, one of Thailands top trading partners, was also its biggest source of foreign investment applications in 2023, topping Singapore, the United States and Japan. Applications for investment promotion in 2023 reached a five-year high of 848.3 billion baht ($23.1 billion), marking an increase of 43% from the previous year, according to Thailands Board of Investment. That growth was boosted by Chinese firms, especially in the electronics and electric vehicles industry, the Board said. Meanwhile, in a report published in March, KKP Research, another think-tank, said Thai exports were weaker because the nations production sector was unable to keep up with the changing technology and markets, and was also being undermined by the influx of cheap Chinese goods. The technology shift is not an easy task in Thailand. There must be enough competitive advantages, or a clear support from the government, or a shift in laborers skills. We have none of that at the moment, Jitipol Puksamatanan, the head of global investment strategy at Finansia Syrus Securities, told BenarNews. Most of the Houston metro area will see heat index values, or feels like temperatures that factor in humidity's effect on the body, between 100 and 105 degrees this weekend, according to the National Blend of Models. WeatherBELL Houston finds itself under the influence of high atmospheric pressure this weekend. This means temperatures will be quite warm, topping out in the mid-90s but with humidity making the air feel more like 105 degrees. Because a ridge of high pressure will be steering the overall weather pattern, both days this weekend will be sunny and dry. If you have plans to hit the grills or take a dip in the pool, just be diligent in applying and reapplying sunscreen at least every two hours. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Air quality forecast: Ozone Action Day Friday, however, will be an Ozone Action Day for Houston, according to the states air quality monitors at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. On these days, the amount of ground-level ozone can pose health risks to those with asthma or other respiratory ailments. A mix of industrial and mechanical emissions with sunlight can produce ground-level ozone, which is why on Ozone Action Days, the public is encouraged to carpool and avoid using gasoline engines or fill up at the gas station during the day. Light winds, warm temperatures, sufficient afternoon sunshine, and/or elevated incoming background levels could be enough for ozone to reach the middle to upper end of the 'Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups' range on the north and west sides of the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston areas, according to the TCEQ air quality forecast for Friday. Smoke from agricultural fires in Mexico and Central America also will contribute to urban haze in the southern tier of Texas, the forecast said. Advertisement Article continues below this ad WHATS WITH THE HAZE?: Why is it smoky in Houston? How fires south of the border are making Texas skies so hazy Looking north from the Interstate 45 Gulf Freeway, only the silhouettes of buildings are visible as a blanket of haze settles over downtown Houston on May 27. Kirk Sides/Staff photographer Summer weather in Texas can significantly influence air quality and ozone levels because of rising heat, increased sunlight and often stagnant winds. Photochemical reactions that result in higher ozone concentrations are more intense in the summer, thanks to days in Houston that get 13 to 14 hours of sunlight. Ozone also becomes more likely in summer with increased emissions from power plants working to keep up with demand for electricity as air conditioning usage soars. Houstons sprawling urban landscape, coupled with traffic-choked interstates clogged with idling vehicles, contribute to higher levels of ozone and other pollutants. HOW HOT IS IT?: You can see how hot the forecast is for your home or work address by using our interactive maps. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Other worsening factors Wind is one of the biggest factors when talking about ozone concentrations. The stagnation of warm air traps pollutants close to the ground, making air quality problems worse. Because summer is Houstons least windy season, pollutants arent able to mix with cleaner air from surrounding areas. TRACK AIR QUALITY: You can see the current state of Texas air quality by clicking here. Temperature inversions are another aspect of summertime weather that can worsen air quality. Typically, the atmosphere gets cooler the higher you go, but a temperature inversion occurs when temperatures get warmer instead. These inversions not only can stop clouds from growing deep and tall and become storms, they also can worsen Houstons air quality because it acts like a lid that traps pollutants. Shown are forecast wind speeds across Southeast Texas on Friday, according to the National Blend of Models. Under the influence of high atmospheric pressure, winds Friday will remain light, which could lead to worsening air quality. WeatherBELL Storms early next week The high pressure responsible for the warm and dry weekend to come undergoes some subtle changes early next week. Advertisement Article continues below this ad These changes will allow for a cold front to make an approach from the north Monday into Tuesday, bringing with it not just slightly cooler weather, but also storms. Current forecast guidance keeps severe weather and flooding away from Southeast Texas, but the pattern does look unsettled through at least the middle of next week. If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom. BOSTON The state Legislature should pass a home-rule bill for Hancock that would exempt it from paying for a high school tuition gap that it is now responsible for, says state Rep. William Smitty Pignatelli, D-Lenox. Pignatelli was among the state representatives to attend a state Joint Committee on Education hearing Thursday on the matter. State Rep. Denise Garlick, D-Needham, chair of the committee, was present, as was state Rep. Vanna Howard, D-Lowell. The subsection of law, part of the 1993 enabling legislation for school choice, obligates towns to pay any tuition gap for upper grade and high school education for out-of-district school choice students accepted as part of elementary schools in districts that dont have high schools. The law had not been enforced for years, however. But last September, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education reminded districts of their obligation to follow the law a devastating blow to small districts. Hancock and Warwick are among 10 districts, most small and rural, that are seeking a home-rule exemption from the law. Hancock's superintendent, Rebecca Phillips, testified at Thursday's hearing, as did Carole Learned-Miller, superintendent of Warwick Community School and District. Both sounded a similar note about the impact of this heretofore ignored law. It had not been followed for 30 years, Phillips said. So, once we were notified of our obligation and our responsibility, that's when I started taking some pretty significant steps to address it. Subsection K of the school choice statute was a devastating requirement for Hancock, she said. Our obligation to fund the gap between the $17,300 tuition at Greylock, and the $5,000 we received from the students home district is a financially burdensome requirement for the residents of Hancock. In essence, the taxpayers would pay in excess of $100,000 for nonresident students' middle and high school education and receive only $30,000 in choice funds from the student's home district. Cahill LeBarron, a parent and teacher in Hancock, spoke passionately about the impact the small class size had on one of her sons, who had trouble reading in first grade and is now in ninth grade at Mount Greylock Regional High School. "Our student population right now is actually less than 75 percent town residents," LeBarron said. "A quarter of our students almost are school choice. Without that large percentage, I do fear that we may not have enough students to keep our doors open, which would truly be an incredible disservice." Timothy Lee, superintendent of Farmington River Regional School District, and Beth Choquette, superintendent and principal of Richmond Consolidated School, both provided written testimony. Our school currently enrolls 158 students in grades PreK-8, of which 70 are school choice students. Richmond receives $5,000 per school choice student, which helps support our educational programs and maintain a balanced budget, Choquette wrote, adding that paying the tuition gap for high school education imposes a severe financial strain on our district, necessitating a budget increase of 4.58 percent. Without this statute, our budget increase would be less than 1 percent. She called the rule unsustainable for a small rural school like ours. Lee, whose district covers Otis and Sandisfield, wrote that the understanding has always been that out-of-district school choice students would either return to their home district for seventh- through 12th grade education or would attend one of our 7-12 partner schools as Choice students. He said Farmington River has not paid tuition for these nonresident students, and to my knowledge, this has been the case since the regional school district was organized in 1998. While the financial impact we would feel may not be as critical as in smaller, rural schools with more choice students, it would represent one more financial challenge during a time of rapidly increasing costs in all areas, Lee wrote. The arrangement as-is works for all parties so I am a bit baffled as to why we would seek to enforce a mandate that seems to disproportionately impact rural schools and towns in a negative way. State Rep. John Barrett III, D-North Adams, filed the legislation on the part of Hancock. Both he and state Sen. Paul Mark, D-Becket, both testified in favor of the bill. Mark, who lived in Hancock, explained how it would not make sense for Hancock to regionalize because of the town's unique geography. Rural superintendents have interpreted the September 2023 reminder regarding the law as pressure to regionalize by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Bill Bell, chief financial officer for the agency, has denied that was a factor. After the hearing, Pignatelli said he recommended to Garlick that the Legislature pass Hancocks home-rule bill in this legislative session. But it may open up a Pandora's box of school choice, school funding, which could be a real can of worms, he told The Eagle, adding that it may make sense to address all 10 districts at the same time. Otherwise, I think eight or nine more towns are going to file similar type bills. Garlick praised the work of rural schools and said she sees that schools provide employment in rural areas. In a tour of Berkshire County schools, she said she was impressed with the dedication to students. "It was very clear to me is the many problems that we are now seeing, particularly in Western Mass. related to rural education," she said. "What is less clear is what the solutions can be." In the time Jen Weber has been at the helm, Lanesborough Ambulance has transitioned from relying on County Ambulance for its calls to a service that now handles all calls in town, as well as providing mutual aid. The Outlook reviews the week past and previews the week ahead for Berkshire County. Clarence Fanto can be reached at cfanto@yahoo.com. China's strides in advancing 5G development Xinhua) 08:45, June 07, 2024 People look at a 5G+ Hydrogen-powered unmanned tractor during the 13th Central China Investment and Trade Exposition (Expo Central China 2024) in Changsha, central China's Hunan Province, May 31, 2024. (Xinhua/Chen Sihan) BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Thursday marks the fifth anniversary of the issuance of the first batch of 5G licenses for commercial use in China. Today, with over 3.7 million 5G base stations installed nationwide, the large-scale application of 5G in China has greatly benefited both individuals and businesses, bringing significant convenience and opportunities. Here are some notable facts and figures about the country's 5G development. -- In April 2020, China Mobile established a 5G base station at an altitude of 6,500 meters on Mount Qomolangma, which is the highest-altitude 5G base station in the world. -- In June 2020, China completed the construction of its first underground 5G network in Shanxi Province, setting a record as the deepest underground 5G network in the world. -- To date, 5G applications have been integrated into 71 out of 97 key economic categories in the country, and more than 94,000 5G commercialization projects have been launched. -- China has over 800 million 5G mobile phone users currently, accounting for over 52 percent of the global total. -- China aims to build 10,000 5G factories during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025). -- In March 2024, China Mobile launched the world's first commercial 5G-A network in Hangzhou, capital city of east China's Zhejiang Province, with plans to expand to over 300 cities across China before the year-end. 5G-A marks a significant stride in the transition from 5G to 6G, viewed by many analysts as a precursor to future 6G technologies. According to experts, while challenges persist in the evolution from 5G to 6G, each technological breakthrough and application innovation will unlock new possibilities for future industries and enhance the prospects of smart living. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) President Joe Biden walks off after speaking about an executive order in the East Room at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, June 4, 2024. Biden unveiled plans to enact immediate significant restrictions on migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border as the White House tries to neutralize immigration as a political liability ahead of the November elections. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP In 2004, a congressman by the name of Tom Tancredo was arguably the nations loudest voice fomenting fear that undocumented immigrants were coming here to kill you and to kill me and our families. Briefly a 2008 presidential candidate, the tea party firebrand boycotted a debate because it was being broadcast in Spanish. He once told Texas border cities that if they didnt support a border wall, they ought to be in Mexico. In his 2022 book, Wildland: The Making of Americas Fury, Evan Osnos recalls that at a tea party convention, the populist congressman told his listeners that People who cannot even spell the word vote, or say it in English, put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House. His name is Barack Hussein Obama. We mention Tancredo as a reminder that when he left Congress in 2009, he was still considered an extremist and practically forced out of the Republican Party. These days hed be paddling in the mainstream. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Tancredos departure came just in time for Donald Trump, who wrapped his arms around his knees and eagerly cannonballed into the fetid swamp of xenophobia. Trump, of course, already had an affinity for immigrant scapegoating, but his brazen insults and unhinged diatribes quickly made him the embodiment of fear, hate and seething contempt. His now legendary campaign announcement Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. was, as Osnos points out, mocked and condemned and utterly successful. As president, Trump set the terms of the immigration debate. He continues to do so to this day. President Joe Bidens latest executive order vastly curtailing migrants access to the U.S. asylum system is merely the latest indication of Trumps influence. (No wonder Tancredo has faded into the mist of recent history.) It seems our president, in the name of law and order, has forgotten what is written in our own U.S. laws. If Bidens order survives court challenges, and thats a big if given that Trumps 2018 asylum ban was quickly struck down, it will allow border agents to stop processing asylum claims whenever the number of people crossing the border between established border checkpoints reaches 2,500 per day for seven days, which it has since January 2021. The executive order allows for expedited deportations in a matter of hours or days. Even Bidens nominally humanitarian exception for unaccompanied minors and human-trafficking victims could have unintended consequences. It could encourage desperate families to send children to the border on their own. Although the numbers arriving at the border are significantly lower at the moment than they were late last year, in part because Mexico has blocked many migrants' access to freight trains and buses, the 2,500 threshold has been reached often in recent years. The asylum claim process would resume once the number of daily encounters falls below 1,500. Advertisement Article continues below this ad We understand Bidens motive: The man is trying to win reelection in a race hes in danger of losing, and the issue of illegal immigration is a vulnerability. As an issue, its arguably more dangerous than concerns about his age. Even if the executive order checkmates Bidens immigration weakness, it will do little to solve either the problem of a severely underresourced immigration system or the worldwide challenge of people on the move people fleeing war and violence, endemic poverty, climate-change dislocation, forced migration and other motivating factors. Nor will Bidens action mollify cynical GOP lawmakers, who, once Trump jerked his puppeteers strings in February, rejected bipartisan legislation that included not only the asylum cap but also billions of dollars in additional funding for border security and asylum processing. Trump reasoned that efforts to address the problem might take a campaign issue off the table; he called the bill a gift to radical left Democrats. Lost in the immigration-debate clamor is an acknowledgement of asylum as a noble ideal. As we mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, we should also recall the failure of the Roosevelt administration in the late 1930s to live up to that ideal. Citing national security concerns, the administration refused to grant asylum to German Jews caught in the bloody maw of the Nazis. Millions perished. World War II displaced at least 7 million people in Europe, and many estimates put the figure in the tens of millions. In response, Congress created the Displaced Persons Act of 1948 and expanded it in 1950, resettling some 400,000 European refugees. The newly formed United Nations also recognized the right of refugees to seek asylum if they were unable to stay in their own country owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, members of a particular social group or political opinion. The United States agreed to the U.N.s refugee protocol in 1968. Trump, with anti-immigration consigliere Stephen Miller relentlessly whispering in his ear, is more than willing to ignore this ideal. Congress makes it easy for him by refusing to repair a broken asylum system. Advertisement Article continues below this ad According to the Migration Policy Institute, the number of people crossing the border has more than doubled from 1 million in 2018 to 2.5 million in 2023. In light of those numbers, the system has, in effect, seized up. Weve left too many people who are seeking economic opportunity no option other than attempting to game the asylum system. The vast majority of them are denied asylum, but some 2 million applicants already in this country await a hearing before an immigration court on their claim. Theyll likely be waiting for years. Without a more efficient procedure for adjudicating asylum cases, without more judges and immigration courts and without additional legal pathways for legal entry into this nation of immigrants, the immigration imbroglio will only worsen. Its a sure bet that Trump and his nativist allies are hoping for the worst. Bidens executive order, albeit inadequate, is an effort to head off that possibility. To wonder about something can mean to think about it or speculate with curiosity. But it can also mean to be filled with admiration, amazement, or awe. Christians are often filled with such thoughts and emotions when they stand in wonder about who God is, what He has given, and the blessings of serving Him. I recently committed to spending seven weeks experiencing wonder with Father God. You can do the same starting at any time and continuing through the next seven weeks this summer. Choose one of the following reasons for wonder each week and focus on that topic for one day or every day. The challenge is for seven weeks, but no matter how much time you spend meditating on these things, you will likely find yourself full of wonder, gratitude, and praise by summers end. Week 1: The Wonder of Our Powerful Creator With the arrival of summer, opportunities increase to enjoy nature. In the great outdoors, were reminded of the beauty and magnificence of creation. It all points back to Almighty God. On those days we get too full of ourselves, its wise to remember that God reminded Job he wasnt around when earths foundation was laid (Job 38:4-7). All things were created through Gods power and for Him, and that includes the nations, mankind, the universe, the heavens and their starry host, and many other amazing things. Consider the Creators marvelous deeds. The psalmist suggested we proclaim the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done (Psalm 78:4). Why? Because in our busyness, His wonders might be easy to forget. Asaph said the Israelites forgot the miracles God performed for them (Psalm 78:11-16). If you are struggling with anything, let the words of Jeremiah encourage you: Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you (Jeremiah 32:17). Do you need a wonder boost? First, set aside social media and endless scrolling on your phone. Then take time in solitude to notice Gods diverse and beautiful creation. The many shades of green in trees. The starry skies. A chirping bird. Isnt God a wondrous Creator? Week 2: The Wonder of the Indestructible Word Its simply remarkable how God has preserved His Word throughout the centuries. He raised up godly men and women for this task. Even during dark periods of history when the Bible was suppressed by different forces, the gospel message continued. The faithful remnant in every age was used by God to contend for the faith and preserve and protect His God-breathed Word. Although the original manuscripts have been lost, they were copied endlessly and meticulously by scribes. Jesus said His words will by no means pass away (Mark 13:31). Gods Word is indestructible, and Jesus taught that the gospel of the kingdom would be preached until the end of time. What a wonder to see Gods Word in the hands of so many people across the earth, reportedly translated into 3,658 languages! The Bible is also wondrous because it is a library of resources. It contains books of history, poetry, prophecy, church instruction, and more. From this tremendous spiritual library, God ministers to His children through the teaching of the Holy Spirit. If you have a favorite copy of the Bible, pick it up and thank God for it! Open it with fresh eyes, asking God to teach you His truth and ways (Psalm 25:4-5). Meditate on it. Memorize it. Share it with others. Week 3: The Wonder of Our Perfect Salvation Luke, the writer of Acts, declared, Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). That no one else includes ourselves our good works will not give us the hope of eternal life (Ephesians 2:8; Titus 3:5). The wonder of our perfect salvation is that it is all of Gods wondrous grace. Because Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, bore our sins on the cross, the Father can heal our sin-wounds and remove our shame. Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we too shall live. What wondrous salvation! If you have received the gift of salvation, savor it. Cherish it. Think about how God saved you and is faithfully changing your heart and mind. Never get over what God has done and is doing. If you have never received the wonderful gift of salvation, take a look at this article. Week 4: The Wonder of Encouraging Families Christians have three kinds of families that touch their lives, and all three are a great source of wonder. First there is the physical family. God ordained the family, laying out the roles in each family unit (Ephesians 5:22-33). Families are meant to be a wonderful source of growth and encouragement. When the family unit breaks down, there is still hope in God. He can restore what Satan and human selfishness tried to destroy. Then there is the family we choose: our friendships. In different opportunities for connection, we choose the friends we believe will encourage and help us, challenge us to be better individuals, and give us opportunities to bless them. The Bible tells us to choose our friendships carefully (Proverbs 12:26) they can either motivate us to love and worship God or pull us away from Him. Our spiritual family is the third source, and definitely not the least. As we rub shoulders with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and allow Him to knit our hearts together, all the one anothers of Scripture can come into play. For example, we learn to love, encourage, honor, serve, forgive, and pray for each other. Best of all, well spend eternity with our sanctified forever family. Consider the wonderful families in your own life. Do you need to call a parent and express love, support, or even ask for forgiveness? Is it time to cultivate a new family of friends, or to catch up with established friends? How has your spiritual family ministered to you? Is there someone in your church family who needs some one another-ing? Week 5: The Wonder of Our Joyful Ministry No matter our age, gender, status, or occupation, we all have a place in the wonderful Kingdom of God. We can all enjoy prayer, worship, and Bible study; and we can all participate in some form of personal evangelism. God delights in our joyful, creative ministry together with other Christians. Sometimes we lose the joy of ministry. We get tired or frustrated. Our enemy, Satan, makes us think about quitting. But the Word of God encourages believers to stay in the race, to pray and not give up, and to look to Jesus so we dont lose heart. God can help us recover the joy. The blessings of ministry outweigh the struggles. The Holy Spirit gives every Christian spiritual gifts and He empowers believers to use them effectively in service to others as we serve God. Spiritual gifts are useful in edifying (teaching and building up) the Body of Christ until God calls us home to heaven. These gifts are not designed to bring glory to self. The ultimate goal is that God will be praised. Whether you are in full or part-time Christian ministry and whether youre struggling while serving or not God wants your work for Him to be effective and satisfying. Jesus considered the joy of going to the cross for us (Hebrews 12:2), and we can embrace the wonder of joy in ministry as a love-gift to Him. Take time to meditate on the wonder of your spiritual gifts and thank God for His provision of strength and encouragement as you serve Him with joy! Week 6: The Wonder of Gods Abundant Blessings In Psalm 103:2-6, the psalmist wrote about the benefits believers have in God. In The Message, the psalmist urges, dont forget a single blessing! Consider some of the benefits believers can enjoy because they belong to God. Theres forgiveness of sin, physical healing, rescue from the clutches of hell, rewards emanating from Gods love and tender mercies, satisfaction with truly good things, and renewal in His presence. If things feel far from blessed right now, remember the psalmists words: God makes everything come out right. An old hymn that urged surrender to God and reliance on His grace begins with a description of God as the fount of every blessing. God truly is that for His children. Wondrous, refreshing blessings pour over us. Matthew 5:5-12 enumerates many of the ways believers are blessed in Him, even in the midst of great difficulties. God is our blessed Provider. He is able to bless us abundantly so that we have everything we need to serve Him (2 Corinthians 9:8-10). Great spiritual blessings are prepared for believers both now and in heaven. Del Fehsenfeld, Sr., an evangelist for more than seventy years, preached a sermon titled, Under the Spout Where the Blessings Come Out. He urged believers to stay there under the spout so God could fully bless and use them. Consider all the ways you can stay connected to God; consider how He blesses His people; and consider how He has blessed you personally. Spend some time each day in grateful praise. Week 7: The Wonder of Purpose-Filled Struggles In reality, the Christian life is not only about blessings. Sometimes believers face trials that can feel impossible to bear. Yet there is a good measure of wonder even in those struggles. How can that be? The Word of God encourages us that Father purposefully uses every situation to conform us to the image of Christ. He is always graciously for us, designing every circumstance for our eternal good. He transforms us through our struggles, cultivating character qualities like perseverance, endurance, good character, and hope (James 1:2-4; Romans 5:3-4). In our struggles even times of tremendous grief we can find a greater sense of Gods presence and peace. The Holy Spirit who indwells believers comes alongside as a trusted friend, interceding for us and teaching us. The writer of Hebrews encourages Gods children to come boldly to His throne in prayer to find grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16). The wonder of our struggles is that God personal and caring does not leave us to face them alone. Recall some of the struggles you faced in the past and the wonder of how God faithfully, sometimes miraculously, brought you through each one. Then consider some present trial or difficulty. The circumstance may be different, but God has not changed and His purposes for you have not changed. He is still your faithful Father. Trust Him. Pursuing wonder is such a worthwhile exercise for believers. Summer is only three months long, but the impact of intentionally considering all these wonders can inspire your walk with God throughout the year. Sources What is the plan of salvation? The 59 One Anothers of the Bible Photo credit: Getty Images/Mary Spickelmier Dawn Wilson and her husband Bob live in Southern California. She travels with him in ministry with Pacesetter Global Outreach. They have two married sons and three granddaughters. Dawn works part-time with a womens revival ministry, Revive Our Hearts. She is the founder and director of Heart Choices Today, publishes Truth Talk with Dawn, and writes for Crosswalk.com. Her co-authored book, Truth Talk for Hurting Hearts: Discover Peace and Comfort through Gods Perspective, will be published this fall. Borsa Italiana non ha responsabilita per il contenuto del sito a cui sta per accedere e non ha responsabilita per le informazioni contenute. Accedendo a questo link, Borsa Italiana non intende sollecitare acquisti o offerte in alcun paese da parte di nessuno. Sarai automaticamente diretto al link in cinque secondi. Apple is finally fixing a Safari content restriction bug that allows children to access certain websites that should not be available to them. According to reports, kids were able to bypass the restriction set by parents by pasting a string of characters in the Safari address bar. Read Also : 5 Kid-Friendly Platforms to Spark Learning of your Children Apple Addresses Safari Bug for Content Restriction The Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern revealed that she reached out to Apple after trying to bypass a restricted website on her son's iPad. The Screen Time feature was supposed to block access to websites that feature violence, pornography, and more. In a response to Stern, Apple acknowledged its awareness of the issue. The company claimed that it is an "issue with an underlying web technology protocol for developers, which allows a user to bypass web content restrictions." The tech giant also assured that they are currently fixing the bug. The solution for it is expected to be released in the next software update. Apple Safari Bug was Ignored for Years According to reports, Apple was first contacted about the bug in 2021. The string of characters worked on restricted content across iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Despite the initial report, Apple directed the researchers to submit a report through the Feedback tool. However, there was no news or action from the company even after resubmitting the form. Apple is now fixing the bug after Stern's report was published. Some speculate that parents might also not be aware of the workaround as the security researchers never shared the discovery with the public. The tech giant has promised that it will improve the processing of its customer complaints. The receiving and escalation for bug reports will be included to fix. Imagine having a normal enough day and suddenly spotting Cybertruck sporting a police look. That might become a reality soon as companies are trying to make a design for it, so you better be prepared to see sci-fi-looking cop cars rolling in the streets. Cybertruck Cop Cars Cybertrucks have been linked to mostly bad news since it was released. Some were minor enough like delays while others reported that their wrist had been sliced open because the vehicle's edges were just that sharp. This time, the prismatic EV has been connected to relatively good news as a design for a Cybertruck police car was released by Unplugged Performance. It appears to be in a matte-like black color with the signature red and blue police lights on the roof and below the doors. Unplugged Performance is a vehicle modification company, and has partnered with UP-FIT to design the "tactical" Cybertruck, as mentioned in Gizmodo, which is described as the "most ballistics capable Patrol vehicle." This isn't the first time UP-FIT would be working on police cars either as it has already sold modifications to the Anaheim Police Department for the Tesla Model Y. Unplugged Performance President Ben Schaffer said that they were already working with police departments for the design. Tesla CEO Elon Musk himself approves of the idea. A user on X asked if the Cybertruck would make a good police vehicle, and the tech billionaire replied with the "100" emoji. All this points to the real possibility of a cop car straight out of a cyberpunk-themed movie. It would make sense especially since the vehicle is advertised as bulletproof, although that depends on the caliber of the firearm. Business Insider reported that the Cybertruck was able to survive shots from a 9mm handgun, although bigger bullets might do more damage. Let's not forget the demonstration Elon Musk showed as he boasted that Cybertruck's windows could withstand great blunt force, and then ended up actually smashing the glass in front of an audience when he threw the steel ball. The Cybertruck Still Has a Few Kinks to Resolve Even though many Cybertruck owners and enthusiasts are impressed by the vehicle, there are still reports about the car having a few issues that were major enough to render it unusable. For instance, one owner had his Cybertruck shut down for hours after putting it through a car wash. Another suffered through a coolant leak not even a day after getting the vehicle from a dealership and driving 35 miles. The coolant started leaking while the vehicle was already parked, which means that it was not due to potentially reckless driving. With that said, the vehicle has seen a great level of success still. It is officially the second-best-selling electric pickup truck in the US market. It was beaten by Ford's F-150 Lightning, as reported by Autoblog. In March 2024, Cybetruck saw 1,158 registrations while the F-150 LIghtning had 2,893. However, unlike the Ford pickup EV, the Cybertruck does come with ballistic protection, which is why it makes more sense for it to be a cop car. State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington D.C. West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands Armed Forces Americas Armed Forces Pacific Armed Forces Europe Northern Mariana Islands Marshall Islands American Samoa Federated States of Micronesia Guam Palau Alberta, Canada British Columbia, Canada Manitoba, Canada New Brunswick, Canada Newfoundland, Canada Nova Scotia, Canada Northwest Territories, Canada Nunavut, Canada Ontario, Canada Prince Edward Island, Canada Quebec, Canada Saskatchewan, Canada Yukon Territory, Canada Postal Code Britain's Prince of Wales is to attend the wedding of his close friend the Duke of Westminster today. Billionaire aristocrat Hugh Grosvenor (33) will marry Trinity College Dublin graduate Olivia Henson (31) at Chester Cathedral. Advertisement William will act as an usher for the ceremony, which will start at midday. His brother, Prince Harry, is not expected to be there after it was mutually agreed he would not attend. The wedding comes amid a long-running rift between the princes. Advertisement Harry will not attend the wedding (Jordan Pettitt/PA) The Princess of Wales, who has been out of the spotlight as she undergoes treatment for cancer, is not expected to attend. King Charles, the grooms godfather, and his wife Camilla are not due to be at the ceremony either, having been at D-Day commemorations in France on Thursday. The Duke of Westminster is godfather to Williams son, Prince George, and also, reportedly, to Harrys son Prince Archie. Advertisement Ten-year-old George is not expected to attend the wedding as it falls on a school day. The Duke of Westminster topped The Sunday Times 40 Under 40 Rich List earlier this year, boasting a fortune of 10.1 billion (11 billion). Hugh Grosvenor is the 7th Duke of Westminster (Oli Scarff/PA) Advertisement His bride, who grew up in London and Oxfordshire, has worked in the sustainable food and drinks industry, most recently at London-based artisanal food company Belazu. She studied at Trinity College Dublin, where she got a 2:1 in Hispanic Studies and Italian. The couple are said to have chosen the wedding venue for its beauty and because of the personal connection to the duke, whose family home Eaton Hall is nearby. William and Harry were both ushers at the wedding of his sister Tamara Grosvenor at the cathedral in 2004. Following the service, there will be a private reception at Eaton Hall. Advertisement The Duke of Westminster became an instant billionaire when he inherited his title and control of the historic Grosvenor Estate aged 25, following the death of his father from a heart attack in 2016. His property company, Grosvenor Group, owns about 300 acres of land in Mayfair and Belgravia, as well as major city centre developments such as Liverpools ONE shopping centre. Permission has been granted by the High Court to a development firm to serve at short notice proceedings on companies in the Johnny Ronan group in a dispute over the development of a 35 million office building in Cherrywood, south Dublin. DLR Properties Ltd has brought proceedings against RGRE Devco 4 Ltd (RGRE 4) and Ronan Group Real Estate Ltd seeking declarations that a development agreement between the parties was validly terminated as a result of breaches by the defendants. Advertisement DLR also seeks damages and an injunction directing the removal of statements from the Ronan Group website which state or imply the defendants have any legal or equitable title or interest in the planned office site. It also seeks corrections and prohibitions on further such publications along with damages for defamation. On Friday, Mr Justice Garrett Simons granted short service of the proceedings on the defendants following a one-side only-represented application from Marcus Dowling SC, with Elizabeth Corcoran BL, instructed by Sharon Scally of Amorys Solicitors, for DLR. The judge made them returnable next week. Advertisement He also gave liberty to DLR to issue proceedings seeking that the matter go to arbitration. The planned office site is 1.3 acres of an overall 13.3 acre site in Cherrywood, Loughlinstown, 12 acres of which is zoned for town centre development. DLR says it entered into an agreement in May 2019 in which DLR would transfer the 12 acres to RGRE 4 in return for which that defendant was required to construct on the remaining 1.3acres a 145,000sq ft office building at a cost (in 2019) of more than 35 million. In an affidavit, DLR chief executive Conor Dalton said RGRE 4 failed to take the necessary steps towards constructing the building, thus breaching its obligations under the development agreement. Advertisement Despite warning notices, the defendant provided no confirmation of its intention to begin construction, he said. He said RGRE 4 "has not so much as hinted" what its defence to the claim for damages might be, and he believes this shows it has no defence. His firm's biggest concern is that RGRE 4 may not be a mark for damages. Mr Dalton said RGRE 4 claims to have incurred costs of around 4 million in connection with the agreement but without "so much as hinting" why this might be so. It has also made what he says were "vague threats that it will take steps to protect its position" and has asserted that the agreement between the parties is not terminated. Advertisement Of urgent concern to DLR are incidents of trespass and defamation and slander of title that have been committed by or on behalf of the defendants since the termination of the agreement, he said. These include an incident in which RGRE 4 directed or caused third parties to enter to the site with geological survey equipment without permission. The Ronan Group website statements in relation to a legal or equitable interest in the site constitute a slander of DLR's title, he said. "The statements are untrue and are made maliciously and in the knowledge that they are untrue or recklessly as to their truth or falsity," he said. They are calculated to cause and likely to cause financial loss to DLR in respect of its property, he said. Advertisement The defendants are aware DLR is trying to sell the site and these false statements will cause serious concern among prospective bidders and frustrate or delay any sale, he said. In its application on Friday, DLR also sought an injunction restraining RGRE 4 from filing a lis pendens - a warning to any prospective purchaser of possible litigation over it - on DLRs interest in the property. However, Mr Justice Simons said he had a concern about this application particularly in circumstances where the case comes back next week, where the Ronan Group has made statements on its own website and where there was likely to be publicity about this case. There would be no prejudice in declining that relief at this stage, he said. Voters across Ireland are continuing to make their way to polling stations in the final hours of voting in three highly anticipated elections. People are electing a swathe of new councillors as well as picking candidates to send to the European Parliament and, for the first time, some voters will be directly electing a mayor to represent them locally. Advertisement There are reports of a steady turnout of voters across the 26 counties as the clocks tick down to the closing of the polls at 10pm. Political leaders, including President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Simon Harris led the way casting their votes on Friday morning. Mr Harris urged everybody to get out and have their say. The separate elections come at a febrile time in Irish politics dominated by discussion on a housing crisis, the cost of living and migration. Advertisement The coalition partnership of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Green Party has been battling criticism domestically and on the continent over other issues including climate action, agriculture policy and defence co-operation in the EU. Advertisement The eagerly awaited polls will provide political parties with concrete evidence of voter sentiment, having had to wait more than four years since the last nationwide elections. In the intervening years since the last general election, politicians have had to rely on newspaper opinion polls to gauge the mood of the nation. The main takeaway of the 2020 campaign was a massive upswing in support for Sinn Fein, which took away almost a quarter of the popular vote. To leader Mary Lou McDonalds regret, this was unrealised potential as the party was still left in opposition after failing to run a sufficient number of candidates in the parliamentary constituencies. Advertisement Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald acknowledged she should have run more candidates in the last general election Photo: Brian Lawless/PA. Since then, estimated support for Sinn Fein hovered above 30 per cent for a long time even temporarily reaching highs of around 35 per cent. However, opinion polls over the last eight months suggest that support for the party is on a dramatic slide as independents eat up more of the expected vote share. Advertisement Many of the ballot papers across the elections contain a large number of independents with a variety of political leanings, several of whom have been described as anti-immigrant. For a protracted period of time, Ireland has continued to fail to provide accommodation for all asylum seekers. There have been several anti-migrant protests across the State and buildings earmarked to accommodate refugees have been damaged in suspected arson attacks. Also of note, Fine Gael appears to have had somewhat of a Harris hop in the polls following the shock resignation of Leo Varadkar as leader of the party earlier this year, leading to Simon Harris taking over that position as well as the role of Taoiseach. Taoiseach Simon Harris votes at the polling station at Delgany National School in Co Wicklow. Photo: Grainne Ni Aodha/PA. The results of the three campaigns being decided on Friday may be instructive for the overall state of the parties and could potentially direct Mr Harris decision on when to call the next general election, which must be held by March next year. President Higgins and his wife Sabina cast their votes on Friday morning. The couple were greeted by staff at the polling station in Phoenix Park in Dublin. As he placed his ballot papers inside the box, Mr Higgins said: Sin e. (Thats it.) President Michael D Higgins casts his vote in the local and European elections in Phoenix Park, Dublin Photo: Niall Carson/PA. Meanwhile, the Taoiseach cast his votes early at Delgany National School in County Wicklow ahead of a day of campaigning across the country. It is so important that people get out and vote, that they have their say, that they cast their ballots because of course if you dont turn up youre allowing someone else to speak on your behalf, Mr Harris told reporters at the voting centre in his home constituency. So polls are open to 10pm tonight, Id urge everybody to get out and have their say in what is a great exercise in democracy. We live in a healthy democracy and today is working proof of it. Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin at the partys launch of the European election campaign. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA. Ms McDonald said today is the big day and said it was very important for people to use their vote. Speaking after casting her ballot at the polling station on Navan Road in Cabra, Dublin, Ms McDonald denied running too many candidates. No, we ran a great slate of candidates and they have all thoroughly enjoyed the campaign and (being) out and about meeting people. So today is the peoples day, please come out and vote. In south Dublin, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said there is no anti-government sentiment among the Irish public. As he cast his votes in Fridays elections at Muslim School Clonskeagh, Mr Ryan said there was a queue outside the door by 7am. Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said it was very important for people to use their vote. Photo: Niall Carson/PA. This is a Government thats working and my sense in the last few months canvassing is there isnt you know people they recognise the Government is working, Mr Ryan said. Theyre not happy with, rightly, a whole range of different things we need to do better. But you couldnt say out there that theres a strong anti-government sentiment. Well see if thats reflected in the count in the end. Across the island, millions of residents are eligible to vote in local elections. There are 31 local government bodies in Ireland. Each county and city council is divided into local electoral areas with a specified number of council seats to be filled in the election. In total, there are 166 electoral areas in Ireland and each of them elects a number of councillors. The number of councillors to be elected nationally is 949. Green Party leader Eamon Ryan reading his local-election manifesto (Brian Lawless/PA) These representatives are tasked with making policy decisions at local level including on planning and community development. At the same time, EU citizens registered in Ireland are eligible to vote for 14 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) across three varied constituencies: Dublin, South, and Midlands-North-West. The MEPs are responsible for debating EU-wide legislation and working on the budget for the bloc. The local and European elections are held every five years. In the south-west of the country, voters in Limerick city and county have the opportunity to directly elect a mayor. From now on, this vote will also take place every five years. The successful candidate will be considered the regions first citizen and will have unique executive powers around long-term strategic planning, including measures on housing delivery, road infrastructure and environmental measures. They can serve a maximum of two terms, each lasting five years. Ballot boxes being prepared for the election (Brian Lawless/PA) There are 15 candidates vying for the new job which carries a salary of approximately 150,000 euro. Voting will come to an end at 10pm on Friday, but the results will take days to be finalised. The role is seen as a test case for further rollout at other local authorities in the future. Ballots in the local elections can begin to be sorted straight away on Saturday but results in the European election cannot be declared until after all EU states have finished polling which will not happen until late on Sunday night. Counting in the mayoral election is expected to begin on Monday. Even then, Ireland uses a system of proportional representation which allows voters to rank every candidate in each race by order of preference. Candidates must reach a certain quota of votes in order to be deemed elected. In the likely event that not enough candidates are above this threshold following the first count, hopefuls with the least amount of votes are eliminated and their votes are redistributed based on the further preferences on the ballot papers. The same occurs when a candidate is elected with a surplus of votes. It means the paper ballots in each election, which are filled out with pencil or pens, are sorted and counted multiple times by hand. The entire process can take days to complete. It was not unreasonable or irrational for a tribunal to reject a Ghanaian mans claim he was openly gay and had, therefore, been subjected to persecution, the High Court has held. Mr Justice Barry ODonnell on Friday refused the divorced father-of-threes request for him to overturn the International Protection Appeal Tribunals affirmation of a decision to refuse him refugee status and subsidiary protection. Advertisement The judge said findings were made during the international protection process that impugned the credibility of the applicants accounts of persecution and his claim that he was gay. Assessing the credibility of assertions about sexual orientation are undoubtedly sensitive and difficult, but they are assessments that have to be made, Mr Justice ODonnell said. Here, the IPAT conspicuously endeavoured to assess this claim with reference to the appropriate standards, he said. The judge said the tribunal accepted that gay men may face extreme discrimination and homophobia in Ghana where violent homophobic attacks are common. Ghanas parliament passed a bill last February seeking a prison sentence of up to three years for anyone convicted of identifying as LGBT+. Engaging in gay sexual acts was already an imprisonable offence. Advertisement The applicant arrived in Ireland in February 2020 and immediately sought international protection at Dublin Airport. He was called for an interview with the International Protection Office 26 months later and was in June 2022 refused refugee status, subsidiary protection and leave to remain. The appeal tribunal upheld this decision in November 2022 and the man issued High Court judicial review proceedings over this rejection the following month. He alleged the tribunal legally erred in determining that his account was not credible and made findings based on an assumption about the experience of a gay man. Further, he claimed, the tribunal breached fair procedure principles by making findings about his credibility without putting these to him for a response. Advertisement The tribunal fully stood over its determination, which it argued was lawful, fair and reasonable. Mr Justice ODonnell said the applicant told the tribunal he had been married and had three children. He lost touch for women after his divorce in 2017 and met a man in 2018 who told him about gay and how it was going on, the applicant said. He said he decided to give it a try, and he moved in with the man that year and felt like he was in the right position and is no longer interested in women. He said his family was disgusted when they heard he was living with a man, and he felt like an outcast to them. He claimed he was attacked three times in Ghana between 2017 and 2020. Due to an accumulation of unexplained issues with his narrative, the tribunal had significant doubts about his credibility and could not accept he had been persecuted. The tribunal said that although he may simply have been naive or reckless, his account of engaging in a carefree way in an openly gay relationship in the face of widespread intolerance and oppression seemed unexpected and unusual. Advertisement The tribunal had further issues with his account of his relationship with the other man and of coming to realise he was gay, which was entirely bereft of any of the thoughts, feelings and emotions that are commonly experienced. Mr Justice ODonnell said he was not at all satisfied the tribunal erred by making findings based on conjecture or stereotype. The findings proceeded from a careful consideration of the facts and by giving the applicant extensive opportunities to explain his position, he said. He held that the tribunals decision was lawful. A man brandishing a knife confronted a Ukrainian couple and their young child while "screaming at them to move out" of their new home in Dublin, a court has heard. Richard Bohan, 34, of Pimlico Cottages, Pimlico, D8, pleaded guilty to producing a knife with a three-inch blade capable of inflicting serious injury in a manner likely to intimidate another person on February 19th last in south Dublin. Advertisement Cloverhill District Court heard that Bohan observed the family, threw a bucket at them and was "screaming at them to move out". Judge Alan Mitchell was told that during the incident, Bohan "produced a knife and started to wield that in front of the family". However, a member of the public distracted him with a sweeping brush, which allowed the couple and their daughter, aged 8, to "retreat into the house". Gardai arrived and arrested Bohan under the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act. Advertisement Victim impact statements were furnished to Judge Mitchell, who noted the child suffered panic attacks since the incident, but her parents cannot afford psychotherapy. The judge noted the evidence that Bohan "screamed at them to move out". He remarked that they probably fled to Ireland because of the war in their country, and the victim was a young person who was now suffering. In his Garda interview, Bohan made "certain admissions". However, he spoke up during the hearing to deny telling them to move out. The court heard the claim was contained in the statement from the child's father, which had been furnished to the defence. Advertisement Said Judge Mitchell: "What is presented potentially moves it into a serious enough situation. People from another country, in this case, Ukrainian, move into a premises and the defendant had an issue with it, produces a knife and asks them to leave. "He is disputing that. If we consider the entire context, that is aggravating." Following a recess and a further legal consultation, defence solicitor Matthew de Courcy told Judge Mitchell his client accepted the full facts as outlined. The court heard Bohan had no previous convictions or warrant record and has been in custody on remand since the incident. Advertisement Family members of the accused were present for the hearing. Pleading for leniency, Mr de Courcy said his client suffered from psychiatric difficulties, and there was a report outlining that he had a borderline personality disorder and autism. He said Bohan had "a myriad of problems; his memory of the incident is hazy, to say the least". The defence acknowledged that the presence of a young child at the scene made the incident "particularly unsavoury". However, the solicitor submitted that there were no racial undertones. Judge Mitchell adjourned sentencing for a probation report on Bohan to be furnished to the court. He said he would consider all options and that a suspended sentence would have to include a condition that the offender stay away from individuals or locations. The court heard the accused may have to move from his council home but will only be provided an alternative once he forfeits his current address. The case resumes later this month. There have been a lot of changes in repair policies in the last month. Samsung wants repair shops to report when phones have third-party components, Apple no longer covers hairline cracks on iPhones in its warranty, and Google Pixel joins in with a policy change. Google Pixel's Revised Repair Policy Previously, Google was very strict regarding repairs of Pixels when it had aftermarket components, so much so that phones with non-Google-authorized parts that are surrendered for repairs will not be returned to the customer. That has recently changed. The policy now states that the phones will be returned, but the repair shop may not be able to repair it if it has non-Google-authorized parts. That means there is a possibility that your phone could be repaired even with aftermarket components. There is an exception to this new policy. As mentioned in 9To5Google, the device will be withheld if there are health or safety requirements preventing them from doing so. "If Service Provider can't return Your Device, Google will work with You on next steps," Google continues. It's unclear what the "next steps" will be, but it might involve the removal of the components that the company deems unsafe, which might then need a replacement that would use genuine Google-authorized components. That, of course, might cost you more. While this does not open the possibility of having your phone returned or repaired completely, it is a better alternative than not having your phone repaired at all, or worse, being kept from you for good for having aftermarket parts. Read Also : iPhone, Apple Watch Hairline Cracks No Longer Fall Under Free Warranty Repairs It's Worse with Samsung If you think that is still not a good deal, then you won't like what Samsung's rumored policy requires of service shops. In a leaked contract, it appears that the tech giant is planning to become more strict not just with users, but third-party repair shops as well. If implemented, the repair shops will have to sign a contract stating that they will have to report back to Samsung when someone comes in with a phone with aftermarket parts, in exchange for being able to sell genuine Samsung components. Engadget reports that the owner information will be given to the company such as their name, contact information, device identifier, and the issue they have with their device. To make matters worse, the repair shop will have to disassemble the phone as well. "Samsung may terminate this Agreement if these terms are violated," the contract states. This will force third-party repair shops to abide by the rules if they want to acquire authentic Samsung parts for customers who request them. This can also be problematic. There are already official Samsung repair shops, but some users still opt for third-party repairs since the services cost less. They use non-Samsung components that make for an even cheaper repair, and a lot of work just as well as genuine parts. If Samsung's leaked contract becomes a reality, there will be fewer repair shops willing to use aftermarket parts and users will be forced to pay a higher cost to repair their devices. Of course, there might still be repair shops that prefer to fix devices with cheaper parts and disregard authentic components. Dangerous sexual predator Denis ODonovan was jailed for seven years with the final six months suspended after being convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman. ODonovan, (38), a father of one, from Ballyryan, Donohill, Co Tipperary, had pleaded not guilty to five criminal offences at his trial last April. Advertisement However, a jury found him guilty of four offences, including one count of false imprisonment, two counts of sexual assault, and one count of assault causing harm. The jury failed to reach a verdict on one alleged sexual assault. Limerick Circuit Criminal Court heard ODonovan drove to the womans house, situated in an isolated rural area of Co Limerick, on the night of January 17th 2020, and knocked on the front door of her property. When the woman opened the door, there was nobody there, but when she went to investigate the presence of a car with its engine running and its headlights on in the front yard, ODonovan pulled her into the car. ODonovan drove himself and the woman at speed to an isolated lay-by where he sexually assaulted her while choking her in his car. Advertisement ODonovan put his arm around her (the womans) throat and flung her between two seats, she was terrified, Judge Dermot Sheahan said. She was crying and shouting and praying to god that he (ODonovan) would stop, she said she thought she was going to die. Significant violence Judge Sheehan said ODonovan used significant violence during the sexual attack on the woman. He clearly impeded the victim during the sexual assaults, which occurred while he was choking the victim. The victim was terrified, and that trauma has stayed with her. Advertisement The judge said ODonovan restrained and choked the victim while sexually assaulting her. The attacks were degrading and humiliating for the victim, as ODonovan used force to restrain her as he choked her and manhandled her. Terrified, the woman eventually made her escape when ODonovan was repositioning himself in the car during the attack. The victim suffered bruising to her throat and private parts in the attacks as well as cuts and scars when she jumped into a ditch and hid from ODonovan. Advertisement After the coast was clear, the woman made her way home and alerted the emergency services, who quickly responded. Prosecuting barrister Lily Buckley BL, said ODonovan kept the victim in his car against her will, pulled down her underwear and repeatedly sexually assaulted her. After his arrest, during Garda questioning, ODonovan immediately placed himself at the womans house, but wrongly claimed he was there to drop off cannabis. He was eventually charged after forensic tests resulted in his DNA being found in salvia discharge found on clothing worn by the woman on the night. Advertisement DNA results provided in court from tests conducted by Forensic Science Ireland strongly supported the prosecutions case. ODonovan, who has an addiction to alcohol, had consumed five pints of stout and four cans of cider prior to calling the womans home. Victim impact statement Reading a victim impact statement to the court, the woman said it had been an absolutely terrifying, traumatising, degrading and disgusting ordeal. I was dragged into his car, driven at speed down the road, and had to try to escape by jumping out of a moving car, only for him to grab me with both hands, choking me violently, pinning me down with one hand on my throat while he sexually assaulted me in a disgusting, degrading way. No words can ever fully describe the absolute terror of being choked, and believing I was going to die. After the attack I couldn't eat or sleep, I used to stay awake at night listening for fear of him returning. A year after the attack, I couldn't cope with the trauma anymore. I was suicidal and was going to kill myself. I had it all planned, I had a breakdown and ended up in hospital, spending weeks in a secure mental health unit. I have suffered panic attacks, flashbacks and nightmares since the attack on an almost daily basis, and I became confined to home because the fear and panic was overwhelming. I changed from being a happy, confident person who loved the outdoors, hiking and walking to not being able to leave my house for years. has taken everything I enjoyed about life away from me. After all of this, for him to put me through a trial which was so daunting, as I had never been to court in my life before all of this, to have to sit and listen to his outrageous and disgusting lies, felt like another attack. He has taken years of my life that I will never get back. He may be going to jail, but I feel like I've been in jail the last four years. The physical injuries from that night have healed, but the trauma will stay with me for the rest of my life. It has been an incredibly difficult and dark time in my life, but today I am a stronger person for surviving everything he (ODonovan) has done to me and I refuse to let him destroy the rest of my life. The judge lifted reporting restrictions in respect of ODonovan on May 17th last, after the woman said she wanted people to know his name and what he had done. He is a dangerous sexual predator and everyone should know his name, the woman told the judge. ODonovan, who had 39 previous convictions, was on bail at the time for aggravated burglary and criminal damage in which he smashed his way into another womans house using an axe, and chased her upstairs, but left the house without harming the woman as she was not the intended target, and for which he later received a three-year suspended sentence. Judge Sheehan said ODonovan had been hugely impacted by the death of his mother when he was four years old, and his family were still prepared to support him when he gets out of prison. ODonovan who had 39 previous convictions, mostly committed after consuming alcohol. After passing sentence today on ODonovan, Judge Sheahan said he must attend an alcohol rehab course to deal with an addiction to alcohol. The judge said he was not imposing a post-release supervision order. He placed ODonovan on a sex offenders register for an indefinite period. If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help. Anti-mass tourism protestors are planning a huge Canary Islands-style demo across the Balearic Islands next month at the height of the holiday season. July 21st has been put forward as the probable date for the show of strength in the archipelago off eastern Spain - on Majorca, Ibiza, Menorca and Formentera. Advertisement Organisers are predicting it will be the largest protest of its kind in Spain since thousands took to the streets across the Canary Islands on April 20th. Government officials admitted at the time 30,000 people had taken part in the Tenerife march alone but demo leaders put the figure at 80,000. Around 15,000 people took part in a May 25th protest in the Majorcan capital Palma during which foreigners eating their dinner in a central square were jeered, a day after 1,000 locals took part in a demo in Ibiza to vent their anger over the effects of mass tourism. The organisers of the last Majorca protest, a platform called Menys Turisme, Mes Vida which in English translates as Less Tourism, More Life, organised a meeting yesterday afternoon where the July 21st demo date was agreed upon as a working proposal. Advertisement Margalida Ramis, head of affiliated group GOB Mallorca which is set to take a lead role in its organisation, said: We are already working on this and are in contact with groups on the other islands. Were hoping those who supported the recent protests in Majorca and Ibiza will take part along with others like tourist industry workers. Tourist overcrowding affects people from different sectors. The reality of the current situation for many people in the Balearic Islands is job and life insecurity, lack of housing, and the impossibility of forging life projects in the islands. Tourist saturation also brings with it environmental and ecological issues. Jaume Pujol, of Fridays for Future Mallorca, said: We want to mobilise the older people of the island who have seen how its been destroyed, migrants who have come here looking for work, teachers and doctors who cant pay rents. Advertisement Around 150 people attended yesterdays meeting in the east coast town of Manacor where the July 21 demo date was pencilled in following a majority vote. It followed a first meeting last month when the idea of a mass protest designed to cause chaos at Palma Airport and other actions on island beaches were discussed. It was not immediately clear last night if those options have now been ruled out. Earlier in the day, a different set of protestors vowed to reclaim a beach turned into a holiday hotspot by influencer instagrammers in a new round of their tourist overcrowding fight after accusing British tabloids of provocation. Advertisement The picture postcard cove of Calo des Moro on the islands south-east coast is set to become the latest battleground in the struggle against saturation locals say is making their lives a misery. Platform Mallorca Platja Tour - Majorcan Beach Tour in Catalan - started their campaign last Saturday at south coast Sa Rapita Beach. It was billed as the first show of strength for a big event on June 16th with the slogan: We fill the beach with Majorcans. Critics dubbed the turnout poor despite promises from supporters to squeeze out foreign tourists. Advertisement But organisers of the new protest are using the claims it was a damp squib to urge locals to hit back with a mass take-over. They have posted articles in UK tabloids mocking the June 1 turnout and claimed: British media are provoking us. Majorcans, will we allow it? On Sunday June 16th at Cala des Moro well see whos laughing. Taking the fight to social media influencers blamed for the dramatic transformation of the secluded cove, which last week was already packed with tourists and in summer is now regarded as a no-go area by many locals, they said: Calo des Moro is a symbol of the massification of our beaches and its why weve chosen it to go there and have a dip on June 16th. A supporter pledging his support for the beach protest, due to start at 8am and finish at 1pm, said: What Majorcan would think of going to Cala des Moro on a summer Sunday? Impossible. Its full of Instagrammers who go just to take their picture. Mallorca Platja Tour, which claims it has no leaders and uses the hashtag Occupy our beaches to promote its actions, has insisted online it is not anti-tourist. It has linked its protests to the comments late last month of Manuela Canadas, spokeswoman for far-right wing party Vox in the Balearic Islands regional parliament. She responded to the anti mass tourism protest in Palma on May 25th by saying: I understand the discontent but us Majorcans, who live directly or indirectly from tourism, cannot expect to go to the beach in July and August like we did years ago. One of the organisers of the event last month had to apologise afterwards for the abuse directed at holidaymakers. Foreign visitors were booed and jeered by some locals as they ate evening meals on terraces in Palmas Weyler Square. Marchers were also heard chanting Tourists go home as they passed through the central square on the 20-minute route from the park where the protest began to iconic street Paseo del Borne. The banners campaigners carried included one with the offensive message: Salvem Mallorca, guiris arruix, which in Catalan Spanish means Lets save Majorca, foreigners out. It played on the colloquial Spanish expression Guiri which is used to portray northern European tourists like the British holidaymakers partying in Magaluf, usually in a mildly offensive way. Campaigners at the Ibiza protest a day earlier held up banners saying We dont want an island of cement and Tourism, yes but not like this as they massed outside Ibiza Councils HQ. The organisers of the Ibiza demo, a group called Prou Eivissa, met with island council president Vicent Mari before taking to the streets. Their demands include a limit on the number of vehicles that can enter the island in summer and a ban on using taxpayers cash to promote Ibiza as a tourist destination. A letter was read out at the end of the protest from an Ibiza-born woman who linked her decision to leave the island with her family and move to the Spanish mainland to a destructive tourist model that had led to more cars, more tourists and more incivility. US President Joe Biden is due to meet his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris as Kyivs army endures its hardest days of fighting since the early weeks of the war with Russia and prepares for what officials say could be a tough summer. The United States is by far Kyivs biggest supplier of wartime support, and Ukraine is trying to fend off an intense Russian offensive in eastern areas of the country. Advertisement The push is focused on the Ukrainian border regions of Kharkiv and Donetsk, but Ukrainian officials say it could spread wider as Russias bigger army seeks to make its advantage tell. The offensive is seeking to exploit Kyivs shortages of ammunition and troops along the roughly 620-mile front line. The unity that defines history. Today in France, alongside our allies, we honored the bravery of the Allied forces who landed in Normandy 80 years ago. We remember. We thank them. We uphold the values of the defenders of life. pic.twitter.com/SPpro6L4xQ Advertisement Volodymyr Zelenskyy / (@ZelenskyyUa) June 6, 2024 That shortfall in weaponry came after US military aid was held up in congress for six months before Mr Biden in April signed into law a 61 billion dollar (47 billion) military aid package for Ukraine. Advertisement Amid Russias most recent onslaught and with Ukraines army reeling, some Nato allies including the US said last week they would allow Ukraine to use weapons they deliver to Kyiv to carry out limited attacks inside Russia. That step brought a furious response from the Kremlin, which warned that Europes biggest conflict since the Second World War could spin out of control. Mr Biden and Nr Zelensky attended the 80th anniversary events of D-Day in Normandy, northern France, on Thursday, along with European leaders who have supported Kyivs efforts in the war. Mr Zelensky met Second World War veterans at the international ceremony at Omaha Beach (AP) Advertisement The US leader pledged we will not walk away from Ukraine, drawing a direct line from the fight to liberate Europe from Nazi domination to todays war against Russian aggression. Ukraine depicts its fight against the Kremlins forces as a clash between Western democratic freedom and Russian tyranny. Russia says it is defending itself against a menacing eastward expansion of the Nato military alliance. Advertisement The US will send about 225 million dollars (176 million) in military aid to Ukraine, US officials said on Thursday. The new package includes munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, as well as mortar systems and an array of artillery rounds, officials said. French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will provide Ukraine with its Mirage combat aircraft. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met French defence minister Sebastien Lecornu (Pool via AP) Mr Macron has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine. He said in February that putting Western troops on the ground in Ukraine is not ruled out. Mr Zelensky began a day of meetings in Paris on Friday with an official welcome ceremony at the golden-domed Invalides monument, site of Napoleons tomb. During the day, Mr Zelensky is due to visit the Nexter arms manufacturer in Versailles, which makes the Caesar self-propelled howitzers that France, among other weapons, is providing for Kyivs forces. He was also to make a speech to the National Assembly, which is the lower house of Frances parliament, and meet with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace. Mr Zelenskys foreign trips aim to keep Ukraines plight in the public eye, secure more military help for its fight against Russias invasion and lock in long-term Western support through bilateral alliances. France and Ukraine in February signed a 10-year bilateral security agreement. Mr Zelensky has since signed similar bilateral agreements with many European countries. British prime minister Rishi Sunak has apologised after skipping a major international ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day in order to carry out an election TV interview. Mr Sunak said it was a mistake not to stay in France for the international event after he had attended the earlier British ceremony in Normandy. Advertisement He has come under intense criticism after it emerged he missed the event with fellow world leaders to head back to the UK for an ITV interview. Advertisement Mr Sunak said: I care deeply about veterans and have been honoured to represent the UK at a number of events in Portsmouth and France over the past two days and to meet those who fought so bravely. After the conclusion of the British event in Normandy, I returned back to the UK. On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer and I apologise. The prime minister attended the UK national event at Portsmouth on Wednesday and then the British ceremony in Normandy on Thursday, the anniversary of the allied landings on D-Day. Advertisement The 80th anniversary of D-Day has been a profound moment to honour the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to protect our values, our freedom and our democracy. This anniversary should be about those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. The last thing Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) June 7, 2024 Advertisement But he left France before world leaders including US president Joe Biden gathered for the main international ceremony on Thursday afternoon. Instead, British foreign secretary David Cameron was the senior UK minister at the event. It was also an opportunity for Mr Sunaks rival for the keys to No 10, Labour leader Keir Starmer to mingle with world leaders on the global stage. In his apology on Friday, Mr Sunak said: The 80th anniversary of D-Day has been a profound moment to honour the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to protect our values, our freedom and our democracy. Advertisement This anniversary should be about those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. The last thing I want is for the commemorations to be overshadowed by politics. Mr Sunak was condemned by political rivals and the decision has also caused unease in Tory ranks. In Rishi Sunaks absence, British foreign secretary David Cameron lined up with French president Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Olaf Scholz and US president Joe Biden at Omaha Beach. Photo: Abaca Press/Alamy Stock Photo Mr Sunaks apology came while a junior minister, David Johnston, was touring broadcast studios in London, struggling to defend Mr Sunaks decision. On Times Radio he was confronted with a message from one Conservative activist who said they wonder whether I should bother going out to knock doors for the party when the prime minister seems to be doing all he can to lose the election. Craig Oliver, who was David Camerons communications chief, said Mr Sunak stood accused of not getting what it is to be prime minister. The D-Day events were known about long before Mr Sunak called the British general election. I think if youre planning these things, youve got to say look, thats going to block the prime minister out. Its a very important moment for the country. But its also a very important moment to show that youre being prime ministerial, Mr Oliver told BBC Radio 4s Today programme. And the problem for Rishi Sunak this morning is hes accused of not getting what it is to be a prime minister and what his duties are as a prime minister. Labour leader Keir Starmer during the UK national commemorative event for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, held at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, Normandy (Jane Barlow/PA) Mr Oliver also criticised the Tory campaign for sending colleagues out without knowing what to say about Mr Sunaks actions. It was pretty clear that the Conservative campaign was going to be massively on the backfoot today, he said. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said Mr Sunaks actions had brought shame to the office of prime minister. One of the greatest privileges of the office of prime minister is to be there to honour those who served, yet Rishi Sunak abandoned them on the beaches of Normandy, Mr Davey said. He has brought shame to that office and let down our country. I am thinking right now of all those veterans and their families he left behind and the hurt they must be feeling. It is a total dereliction of duty and shows why this Conservative Government just has to go. Emmanuel Macron appeared during the UK national commemorative event for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, in Ver-sur-Mer, Normandy, France. Photo: Chris Jackson/PA Mr Sunak sat down with ITV on Thursday to defend claims he had made about Labours tax plans, having left commemoration events in France before the gathering of the world leaders on Omaha Beach. The broadcaster said the timing of the interview, which will not be aired in full until next week, had been offered by the Conservatives. He had appeared in Normandy earlier in the day to pay tribute to veterans but returned to Britain before the ceremony was over, while his rival Mr Starmer remained alongside Mr Biden, Emmanuel Macron and Britain's Prince . It later emerged that Mr Sunak had given a broadcast interview on the same day, a clip of which was shared by broadcaster Paul Brand. Mr Brand told ITV News At Ten: Today was the slot we were offered we dont know why. Lucas paid $12.11 million on No.19-29 and a further $5.79 million for a building at its rear on Windsor Place. Around the corner, Sydney hospo tsar Justin Hemmes spent $17.5 million on the San Telmo steakhouse at 12-18 Meyers Place. In 2015, Macs Hotel Investments paid $9.8 million for No.59-63 home of the Spaghetti Tree and Madame Brussels and the OBrien Group paid $11.4 million for the Imperial Hotel on the corner of Spring Street. While the OBrien Group doesnt own the former Jobs Warehouse building at No.58, records show Michael OBrien paid $7.5 million for 11-19 Liverpool Street, which is at its rear. Maria George Jackalopes Louis Li quickly offloaded the Maria George building at 179-181 Flinders Lane, just weeks after listing the five-level Edwardian building. The buyer is understood to be Lucas, who is still ironing out some of the conditions regarding the purchase. The Lucas Group declined to comment. Last year Lucas bought the neighbour at No.175 from Li, paying $23.5 million for the building which houses his Kisume restaurant. Artists impression of Juliets Terrace, the former Jobs Warehouse at 58 Bourke Street. Li had planned a Jackalope hotel for the CBD combining this building and its neighbour at 175 Flinders Lane. Long-sitting tenants, notably luxury boutique Christines, were ejected from the building but nothing came of the plan. Li was after $15 million for the Maria George building and a discounted $30 million for trophy asset, the Prince of Wales hotel in St Kilda. He had paid $45 million for the Prince of Wales in 2015 and $11.4 million for Maria George in 2017. Cushman & Wakefield agents Oliver Hay, Daniel Wolman and Leon Ma handled the deal but declined to make any comment. Other sources were chattier. Hungry dreams Developer Landream is offloading one of its earliest CBD purchases, a department store building once owned by the unions, opposite Melbourne Central. Landream paid $36 million for 260-274 La Trobe Street in 2014 and flagged plans for an 83-level skyscraper on the 1518-square-metre site Elizabeth Street corner. Its not the first time the six-level building has hosted broken dreams. In 1970, a year after former prime minister Bob Hawke became president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, a new building with offices and a department store was constructed on the site in a bid to provide union members with cheap goods. Loading The ACTU owned 51 per cent of the venture, which never flourished. It closed in 1981 and the ACTU sold the building and moved its offices to Swanston Street. But with the forest of apartment towers in the west end and Melbourne Central across the street, the busy education precinct is pumping with foot traffic. Hungry Jacks signed a 15-year lease on a 500-square-metre space in 2018 after its Swanston Street digs up the road were closed for the Metro Melbourne project. Scapes new building on that site is just getting under way. Cushman & Wakefields Hay, Wolman and Ma are handling inquiries and expecting between $60 and $65 million for the property. Hay said the buildings lease terms provided flexible pathways to vacant possession. This allows investors to strategise their next move, whether its releasing to high-profile tenants or embarking on a major redevelopment project. West Melbourne Developer PDG has snapped up a West Melbourne development site at 137-157 Adderley Street, paying $9.25 million. Its a good deal for PDG. The 1597-square-metre site comes with a permit for a six-storey, 96-unit project in an area that is now zoned for only four levels. Records show the vendor, the private Chinese Aust Landing Group paid $9.4 million for the site in 2016 when the market for development sites was nearing its peak and West Melbourne was hot property. Loading It will be a relatively small development for PDG, coming after major projects such as Boyd Village in South Melbourne, CSLs new office space in Parkville and a build-to-rent joint venture with Mirvac at the Queen Victoria Market. Cushman & Wakefields Ma, Hay, Marcus Neill and Jeff Ha did the deal. Equitable shops Four shops at the foot of the Ibis Budget Hotel on Elizabeth Street are on the market as part of a deceased estate. Two of the shops, Bettys Burgers and Zambrero, are on Elizabeth Street, while the remaining two Decennium Australia and Madamimadam face Equitable Place at the rear. The busy lane runs from Collins Street through to Little Bourke Street. The shops rake in a substantial income of $797,043.29 and should fetch about $15 million in total. Back in 2001, the Hansen familys Kymarnam bought the Hotel London and shops for $5.5 million. The hotel was sold in 2004 to TPIG Melbourne Pty Ltd for $3 million and the hotel redeveloped. When the Beatles arrived in Adelaide in 1964, half the citys population about 350,000 people turned out just to watch them wave from their motorcade. The streets from Adelaide Airport to the Town Hall were lined with fans. Many sat on tree branches for a better view. Police formed human chains to control the crowds, and many fans fainted and had to be carried away. It was the biggest fan gathering ever witnessed by the Beatles before or since. Think about it. Melbourne saw similar scenes, with decoy cars and police escorts on horseback trying to manage the throng of humanity crammed into Exhibition Street outside their hotel. Fifty were hospitalised. A policeman on the scene described it as the second battle of Flanders. (I dont recall hearing of a single traffic cone being toppled in honour of Taylor Swifts visit.) Amazingly, the genuine mania that the Beatles brought to Australia occurred before they became the culture-defining phenomenon they went on to be. For the remainder of the 60s, the Beatles redefined popular music, not to mention songwriting in general, with hits so numerous, so all-pervasive and so imprinted on the collective human consciousness, it seems gratuitous to list any of them here, so Ill let it be. Equal to that was their impact on the very business of how music was made and marketed from pioneering stadium rock to their revolutionary use of multi-track studio recording, plus their groundbreaking work in film that what would eventually become music videos. Their influence extended beyond music into fashion, social commentary and politics. They rode the wave of the cultural zeitgeist and became the most written-about and documented cultural figures in history. Advertisement Eating outDrink trends The classic cocktail Melburnians cant get enough of right now and where to find the best ones You can order them frozen, filthy or with a deli cabinets worth of garnishes. But dont mess with the fundamentals, say bartenders. Emma Breheny June 7, 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 Martinis containing tomato, dill, olive oil and other ingredients you might find in a salad are just some of the new-wave interpretations powering the classic cocktails Melbourne renaissance. The martini, traditionally an ice-cold blend of gin, vermouth and perhaps a dash of bitters, is nearly 150 years old. It has long been associated with the seriousness of British wartime prime minister Winston Churchill and the old-school glamour of James Bond. But you wouldnt know it from the throngs of young people at Melbourne bars, clutching V-shaped glasses containing the bartenders latest signature interpretation. Martinis are a specialty at stalwart Melbourne bar Gin Palace. Supplied Top-rated bar Caretakers Cottage sells between 100 and 200 martinis a day in Melbourne CBD. Advertisement Meanwhile, martini orders have jumped 20 per cent in the past year at Nomad Groups venues, which include swanky Collins Street restaurant Reine & La Rue and subterranean Nomad in Melbourne. The drink is shrinking sales of other classic cocktails, such as the margarita and the negroni. Leading bottled cocktail maker Everleigh Bottling Co saw a 35 per cent increase in martini-related search queries on its website and 30 cent more martini sales in 2023, prompting the launch of three new martini products. Premium vodka distillery Grey Goose has even opened a dedicated martini bar at Melbournes Crown casino (serving vodkatinis, naturally) and invited legendary bartenders including American Dale DeGroff to create martinis especially for the list. Bartender Dale DeGroff says martinis come with their own culture. Simon Schluter Could the thirst for this notoriously potent drink have something to do with the stresses of the past four years? Or is it a sign of the evolving tastebuds of Australians, who have recently embraced the bitter negroni and the wide world of craft gin? Advertisement I think its thanks to the internet, says bartender Kayla Saito, of The Mulberry Group. Because of bartending videos, she says even those who have never sipped a martini are now familiar with the drink. For DeGroff, its a throwback. The manhattan and the martini are described in so many different ways in literature and lore. Those two drinks especially the martini are almost a culture of their own. Whatever the reason, the martini has become a must-order and a must-have menu item, preferably with a unique twist that can become a bars calling card. The Greek salad martini at Capers in Thornbury. Darrian Traynor City bar Pearl Diver created its own gin flavoured with oyster shells for its house martini, to remind drinkers to pair oysters with the cocktail. Capers, a Greek bar-restaurant in Thornbury, serves a Greek salad martini with cucumber, tomato, olive and a concentrate made from vinegar. It riffs on the widely popular dirty martini, which includes a splash of olive brine. And at Saint George in St Kilda, the house martini comes with pickled onion, an olive and a hunk of parmesan. Advertisement Savoury martinis that build on the dirty flavour profile are a big trend, says Kayla Saito. Shes also seeing a preference for less boozy martinis (more vermouth, less gin), as well as bars pre-making and freezing martinis so they can serve a perfectly measured, icy drink every time. Its less theatrical, but much more convenient. You dont have to wait 20 minutes for a martini, says Saito. A mini martini at Bar Margaux in the CBD is a good first-time order. Chris Hopkins Mini-tinis or mar-tinys half serves of the boozy drink are also increasingly common, providing a gateway for younger drinkers unsure whether theyll like the cocktail. All that experimentation, plus an explosion in craft gins and vermouths, make ordering a martini a daunting prospect for first-timers. Wet? Dry? With a twist? Perfect (equal parts dry and sweet vermouth)? Advertisement The job of a good bartender, says Gin Palaces Ben Luzz, is to walk you through the process so you can build your ideal martini. Pearl Diver gives customers a head start with an illustrated menu featuring headings such as Choose your modifiers: vermouth, liqueur, dots & dashes and a sliding scale of flavour profiles, from bone dry to half-half to filthy. Pearl Diver has created an illustrated martini menu to guide customers on ordering. Jake Roden Since introducing the menu eight months ago, co-owner Pez Collier says martini sales have increased to 90 weekly. That menu opens it up to people who might be less confident ordering a martini, he says. How to order a martini Style? Wet: more vermouth than usual Dry: more gin than usual A standard ratio today, says Gin Palaces Ben Luzz, is 8 parts gin to 1 part vermouth. Wet would be more like 2 parts gin to 1 part vermouth. First-timers should go with a wetter martini. Vodka or gin? If you normally like gin and its herbal, spicy, botanical notes, go for gin. If you prefer a more neutral base spirit, choose vodka. Shaken or stirred? While James Bond ordered his martini shaken, many bartenders prefer to stir, because they can control how diluted the drink becomes. But its really up to you. Olive or twist? Theres now a wide world of garnishes beyond an olive or a twist of lemon zest. Some bartenders use orange, grapefruit, lime or other citrus. Pickled ingredients such as cornichons are common. Bartenders might match the garnish to the style of gin and vermouth used. Its the drinkers choice. Tips for first-timers Start with a wet martini: itll be less boozy, more aromatic Tell the bartender you havent drunk many martinis and find them a bit overpowering. Ask if they do half-martinis, in case you dont like it Ask for your olives on the side, in case theyre warm Advertisement Collier has seen drinkers gravitate to dirty martinis, which they offer with three levels of olive brine: dusty, dirty and filthy. Even those ordering a dry martini (more gin, less vermouth) will ask for olives on the side, he says. Variations are a key part of the martinis appeal. Its evolved from a pale amber drink made with orange curacao and sweet vermouth to a family tree of drinks including the Gibson (served with a pickled onion) and the Vesper (half vodka, half gin), made famous by James Bond. Martini variations were in the top three of all cocktails ordered through the me&u QR code platform in both 2022 and 2023. The house martini at Melbournes Caretakers Cottage comes straight from the freezer. Supplied Back in the old days, youd have one bottle of Noilly Pratt [vermouth] that would sit on the shelf, says Luzz. Now theres a plethora and theyre so specific to certain martinis Our staff are able to curate a martini for someone that suits their palate. Advertisement But veteran bartenders have a note of caution to the next generation. Your choice of ingredients needs to be curated carefully, says Dale DeGroff, who worked in leading New York bars in the 1970s and 80s. The degree of deliciousness cant be f---ed with. Duly noted. Five signature martinis to try around Melbourne Big Esso, CBD: Try a Green Ant-tini, showcasing vibrant citrus notes of green ants, a First Nations food that flavours this drinks gin base ($27). Caretakers Cottage, CBD: By making its own gin blend and vermouth, this bar has a truly individual drink and its poured straight from the freezer ($25). Pearl Diver pairs Sydney rock oysters with a two-sip martini made with Never Nevers Oyster Shell Gin. Arianna Leggiero Advertisement We can't find the page you asked for Either the URL was mistyped or the page may no longer be available 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 The Instagram posts often begin much the same. To our most valued customers, after taking some time to reflect on how far we have come in our brand journey, as well as the current conditions affecting the fashion industry, we have made the heartbreaking decision to close our business. Yet for each Australian fashion brand that has shuttered in 2024 first a trickle, now a wave the path to closure has its own set of circumstances. We have too many brands, too many restaurants, too many choices, and were all cannibalising each other, says Kerry Pietrobon, founder of size-inclusive brand Harlow. There had to be a shift at some point, but it came bigger, harder and stronger than anyone knew. Tough trading conditions have forced Marissa Ganino, of Tunik, and Kerry Pietrobon, of Harlow, to rethink their businesses. Credit: Jason South In April, Pietrobon told customers of her 11-year-old label, which makes sizes 12 to 26, of her decision to close this July. Since the pandemic, her customers are buying fewer items per person, and she can no longer compete against constant promotions by larger brands. We are saying its a break, but I cant see us coming back, she says. Pietrobons former colleague, Marissa Ganino the pair worked together at denim retailer Westco 20 years ago isnt closing her brand, Tunik, but has paused production indefinitely on her Melbourne-made printed dresses to focus on jewellery, which is still selling reasonably well. I didnt create this brand for nothing, but I cant bear to create more clothes until something ticks over, she says. Advertisement A flickering flame in a storm Many smaller fashion proprietors, including Pietrobon, say trading conditions are the worst they have been in more than 25 years. Three times [since the pandemic], I thought things were getting better, then the rug would literally pull itself from under you, she says. Loading If the corporate world had its great resignation immediately after COVID-19, now the fashion industry is facing its own great reckoning as the tally of brands shuttering (or pausing) climbs each week. Already this year, sustainable brands Arnsdorf and Nique have closed. Last month, Dion Lee went into voluntary administration, to the shock of the industry. International closures include Mara Hoffman and The Vampires Wife, whose owner Susie Cave, the wife of musician Nick Cave, says the brand fell victim to the collapse of e-tailers such as London-based Matchesfashion. Another cause is that spending on clothing and footwear is falling new ABS figures showed consumers spent $76 million less this April than in April 2023. Then there is perpetual discounting by the major players, like department stores, including an earlier than usual start to the annual winter sales. Smaller brands in particular are left feeling like theres nowhere to go. Surviving as a small independent brand in a sea of heavy discounting from big brands during a cost-of-living crisis is like trying to be a flickering flame in a storm, Pietrobon wrote last week on Instagram. Advertisement Its not just challenging creatively, but economically suffocating Witnessing the devaluation of fashion and the lure of rock-bottom prices is a battle against the tide, where the undercurrent favours giants over small fish like us. Nessie Croft announced the closure of her label, Corepret, last week. She says with Australians now the largest consumers per person of fast fashion globally, its harder than ever for smaller, ethical brands to succeed. Were competing with fast fashion, a social media landscape that promotes over-consumption and distorts our value of fashion, she says. Croft, whose pieces mostly sell between $500 and $800, says making Corepret more profitable required too many ethical compromises. It didnt sit well with me that the only way I could grow the brand was to pump out product. Buy or beware Fashion consultant and agent Phoebes Garland says confusing messages in the marketplace are fuelling a retail recession. Advertisement The messaging out there [to consumers] is stop buying so much; that is true for fast fashion, but unless we start selling some [locally produced] product, there wont be any fashion labels left, she says. Garland, who has 35 years experience, says the fashion industry is broken on two fronts: climate change has delayed the start of the traditional seasons, so stock in store does not match the weather; and an addiction to discounting, especially during events such as Black Friday, has narrowed the window for brands to sell stock at full price. Ganino summarised the impact of perpetual discounting in a social media post: These larger companies have devalued our creations, clothing and everyone that works so hard to produce them. We need to come back to reality. There is nowhere left even for the large retailers to go now that they have created this constant sale frenzy which is actually falling on deaf ears as no one is spending. But thats not entirely true. People are still shopping, particularly at the extremities of the market. While the luxury sector has slowed following huge gains during the pandemic Kering, owner of Gucci and Saint Laurent, reported an 11 per cent dip in earnings for the first quarter of 2024, while at LVMH (Dior, Louis Vuitton), earnings rose a tiny 2 per cent in the fashion division the ultra-fast fashion category, dominated by Chinese company Shein, is booming. Not only are Australian brands unable to compete on price on Shein, dresses sell for as little as $6 they are also penalised when it comes to issues such as import duties and tax, says boss of the Australian Fashion Council, Jaana Quaintance-James. Its harder than during COVID at least then you had a framework, everyone was in the same situation and there was some government support, she says. Now, its just very hard to predict whats going to happen. Advertisement Over-production and over-supply is also contributing to Australians producing 300,000 tonnes of textile waste every year. Whereas the message for consumers to buy less, buy better carries some weight, most people agree brands need to adopt a make less strategy. I look at brands, theres one thousand things on the clearance area of their website and this is not a fast fashion brand, says Tuniks Ganino. And I think, shit, what has gone on there? It kind of collapsed Seasoned public relations executive Libby Hutton started Monte, a brand selling luxury slippers, in 2018 (when it was known as Bertie). While not technically a COVID-19 brand, Monte took off during the pandemic, when sales of loungewear exploded. But the success didnt last. On Tuesday this week, Monte via an Instagram post penned by Hutton announced its closure. We grew too quickly, then it kind of collapsed, then people werent buying luxury items like slippers, and they [had already] bought them over COVID-19 so it was the last thing on their list, she says. Advertisement The greed is good excess of the eighties should appeal to designer Nicky Zimmermann. Last years billion dollar takeover deal for Zimmermann, the Australian label she propelled to international success alongside sister Simone, would make shoulder pads worthy of Linda Evans in Dynasty and Wall Street pinstripes a perfect fit. Instead, memories of empty pocket student days in the eighties and the eras Brat Pack movie classics, such as Pretty in Pink, St Elmos Fire and 16 Candles proved much stronger inspirations for Zimmermanns resort 2025 collection Crush, launched today. Eighties Brat Pack movies were the inspiration for Zimmermanns 2025 resort collection called Crush. It takes me back to my time at design school when we were inspired by these iconic actresses in those movies, Nicky says. I cant tell you if they were good actresses, but I loved their individual style. Women like Winona Ryder, Lisa Bonet and Molly Ringwald were my favourites and each had their own individual approach to eighties dressing. At school, we would rummage through vintage stores, cut things up and try to make things to wear for the next week, to be like our icons. (Photo : Unsplash/Blogging Guide ) Michigan's minimum wage proposal, an increase from $10.33 to $15 per hour, has been debated in the state for over ten years. The Blockage of Wage Hike From November Ballot A survey conducted by the nonprofit organization, One Fair Wage in Michigan, backs this up, revealing that residents of Michigan have consistently favored raising the minimum wage for all workers over the past several election cycles. However, efforts to raise Michigan's minimum wage faced a major setback when the state's Supreme Court barred the $15 minimum wage initiative from the November ballot. This ruling came after the Board of State Canvassers failed to reach a consensus, leading to uncertainty over the proposal due to alterations in the petition's language after its initial approval. The initiative, led by Raise the Wage Michigan, amassed over 300,000 signatures, as reported by CBS News Detroit. However, discrepancies in the petition's language from its initial approval resulted in disqualification. Despite efforts to reverse this decision through the state's highest court, campaigners and advocates for a significant minimum wage increase were disheartened. Implication of The Wage Hike to Businesses Joey Gamrat, owner of The Grazing Table in downtown Kalamazoo, takes a neutral stance, noting that many of his employees already earn more than $15 per hour. In businesses where employees heavily depend on tips, such as local eateries like The Grazing Table, there's a strong push for the $15 wage hike. Gamrat acknowledges the benefits of more money in employees' pockets, but for businesses that have structured their plans around specific payroll costs, a sudden increase to $15 could pose difficulties. Waitresses in downtown Kalamazoo also express their desire for extra income but raise concerns about potential changes in tipping behavior among customers, thinking they do not need the money anymore. Kalamazoo resident David Wolf and his wife, Melody, express mixed feelings about the potential wage increase. While they acknowledge its benefits for employees, they worry about potential job losses and increased customer costs. One Fair Wage's Advocacy One Fair Wage advocates for Michigan's $15 minimum wage, citing the state's strong support for the initiative. Despite a recent setback when the Michigan Supreme Court denied their motion, they are striving to include the matter on the November election ballot this year. READ ALSO: California's Fast Food Chains Resort to Price Increase After Employee Minimum Wage Hike Takes Effect Saru Jayaraman, President of One Fair Wage, attributes the Republicans' resistance to fear, suggesting their reluctance stems from the anticipated defeat and the potential to mobilize hundreds of thousands of Democratic-leaning voters to the polls. A spokesperson for the Michigan House of Representatives informed News Channel 3 that the motion to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour was denied due to inaccuracies in the petition's language. The State Board of Canvassers, responsible for certifying elections for all legislative districts across county lines and all judicial offices, reached a 2 to 2 deadlock on votes. RELATED ARTICLE: Union Unanimously Rejects American Airlines Wage Proposal, Pushes for a Complete Contract and 33% Raise Instead 2017 Jobs & Hire All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A council in Melbournes west is fighting for state protection of two 80-year-old school buildings it says are integral to Victorias industrial history, as locals say there is a heritage bias towards the eastern suburbs. The former Sunshine Technical School on Derby Road, Sunshine, was opened in 1913. It was the states first technical school that established a specialised girls school, the Sunshine Girls Technical School, in 1921. Local community advocate Neil Head outside the former Sunshine Technical School on Derby Road, Sunshine, which was not recommended for state heritage listing earlier this year. Credit: Chris Hopkins It was built by contributions from local industrialist Hugh Victor McKay, who founded the Sunshine Harvester Works, one of Australias largest agriculture machinery manufacturers. In the schools heyday, working-class boys and girls in the western suburbs took up subjects such as woodwork and joinery, plumbing, metalwork, needlework, dressmaking, millinery and cookery. The school closed in 1991 before becoming the senior campus of Sunshine Secondary College. How much is a speechwriter worth? There were splutters of outrage last week when it was revealed that NDIS and Government Services Minister Bill Shorten has a speechwriter who is earning $310,000 a year (including super and entitlements). It wasnt reported that way, though. The full value of Julianne Stewarts two-year contract was cited the far sexier figure of $620,000. Government Services Minister Bill Shorten and speechwriter Julianne Stewart. The matter was raised in Senate estimates by Senator Linda Reynolds, hot off the heels of her private legal pursuit of her former staffer Brittany Higgins, and Higgins partner, for defamation. Reynolds asked a question about the contract between Stewart and Services Australia (the huge government agency that oversees payments for Centrelink, Medicare and the aged pension). She mentioned Stewart by name and read out the Sydney suburb where she lives. Then NSW Liberal Senator Maria Kovacic picked up the thread. Senators who work in this building get paid about $230,000 a year, she said. Shadow ministers get paid less than that. MPs in the government and senators in the government, on the crossbench and in the opposition, get paid less than the speechwriter that minister Shorten, it appears, has personally requested to write speeches for him. An Indonesian people smuggler who helped transport 39 men on a boat to mainland Australia in February has revealed how he was caught by Australian authorities only to be released and sent home without charge. The fisherman turned people smuggling foot soldier, who this masthead and 60 Minutes tracked to a remote village in Indonesias South East Sulawesi province, has described his relief in escaping criminal charges in Darwin. He struck a deal with authorities in Jakarta to trace the organised criminals running the networks, who are stepping up their efforts to test Australia border security. People smuggler Ali Sarwano (not his real name) was arrested and detained in Australia before being sent home without charge. Credit: Amilia Rosa Acting director-general of Marine Resources and Fisheries Supervision Pung Nugroho Saksono also revealed that Australian authorities have urged their Indonesian counterparts to crack down on surging illegal fishing operations deep in Australian waters, amid concerns the ability of some fishers to operate with impunity risks fuelling people smuggling. Ayman Rashed, a man displaced from Gaza City who was sheltering at the school, said the missiles hit classrooms on the second and third floor where families were sheltering. He said he helped carry out five dead, including an old man and two children, one with his head shattered open. It was dark, with no electricity, and we struggled to get out the victims, Rashed said. Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the spokesman for the Israeli military, said it carried out a precise strike based on concrete intelligence that militants were planning and conducting attacks from inside three classrooms. He said only those rooms were attacked. Palestinians look at the aftermath of the Israeli strike. Credit: AP We conducted the strike once our intelligence and surveillance indicated that there were no women or children inside the Hamas compound, inside those classrooms, he said. Hagari said there were about 30 suspected militants in the three rooms. He said the military had confirmed killing nine of them, and displayed a slide showing their names and photos. He provided no other evidence to substantiate the militarys claims. Casualties from the strike arrived at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, which had already been overwhelmed by a stream of constant ambulances since the central Gaza incursion began 24 hours earlier, said Omar al-Derawi, a photographer working for the hospital. Loading Videos circulating online appeared to show several wounded people being treated on the floor of the hospital, a common scene in Gazas overwhelmed medical wards. Electricity in much of the hospital was out because staff are rationing fuel supplies for the generator. You cant walk in the hospital, theres so many people. Women from the victims families are massed in the hallways, crying, he said. The school was in Nuseirat, one of several built-up refugee camps in Gaza dating to the 1948 war surrounding Israels creation, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes in what became the new state. Footage showed bodies wrapped in blankets or plastic bags being laid out in lines in the courtyard of the hospital. Mohammed al-Kareem, a displaced Palestinian sheltering near the hospital, said he saw people searching for their loved ones among bodies, and that one woman kept asking medical workers to open the wraps on the bodies to see if her son was inside. The situation is tragic, he said. Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, said in a post on X that 6000 people were sheltering in the school when it was hit without prior warning. He said UNRWA was unable to verify claims that armed groups were inside. UNRWA schools across Gaza have functioned as shelters since the start of the war, which has driven most of the territorys population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes. Last week, Israeli strikes hit near a UNRWA facility in the southern city of Rafah, saying they were targeting Hamas militants. An inferno ripped through tents nearby housing displaced families , killing at least 45 people. The deaths triggered international outrage, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the fire was the result of a tragic mishap. The military said the fire may have been caused by secondary explosions. The cause of the explosions has not been determined. A Palestinian brings a child wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip into a hospital in Deir al Ballah. Credit: AP Israel sent troops into Rafah in early May in what it said was a limited incursion, but those forces are now operating in central parts of the city. More than 1 million people have fled Rafah since the start of the operation, scattering across southern and central Gaza into new tent camps or crowding into schools and homes. Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after Hamas October 7 attack into Israel, in which militants killed some 1200 people and took another 250 hostage. The offensive has killed at least 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gazas Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its figures. Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it positions fighters, tunnels and rocket launchers in residential areas. The United States has thrown its weight behind a phased ceasefire and hostage release outlined by President Joe Biden last week. But Israel says it wont end the war without destroying Hamas, while the militant group is demanding a lasting ceasefire and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces. Far-right members of Netanyahus government have threatened to bring down the coalition if he signs onto a ceasefire deal. Netanyahu is set to address a joint meeting of Congress in Washington on July 24, according to a person familiar with the matter. Last week, it was Donald Trump, the first former president convicted on felony charges of falsifying his business records. This week, it is Hunter Biden, the first son of a president to go to trial on felony charges for falsifying his application to possess a gun. Trump was guilty and could be sentenced to jail. Biden is seen as highly likely to be found guilty and headed to jail. These head-spinning developments invade and assault our screens; our news cycle attention spans cut into fractions of days. The new atrocity is immediately given rough equivalence to the old. Fates are blended. The former president is disgraced at least in the eyes of the law, if not with his base of supporters. The current presidents fight for re-election is tainted and clouded by his sons sordid affairs. Joe Biden and son Hunter (left), who could face up to 17 years in prison. Credit: AP With Bidens son on trial, there is less focus on Trump whose fall has not resulted yet in Bidens rise. Each man is defining, in searing fashion, what happened in that Manhattan courtroom. The day after his conviction, Trump went on a rant. The Trump playbook when under attack never varies: never apologise, recant or retreat. Deny, denounce, discredit, defame. This is a case where if they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone. These are bad people. These are, in many cases, I believe, sick people This is all done by Biden and his people And this is done by Washington and nobodys ever seen anything like it. TSMC said it is reviewing a plan to set up a fabrication plant in Arizona (Photo: Ann Wang/Reuters/file photo) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, reported a significant 30% rise in its May sales, reaching NT$229.6 billion ($7.1 billion). This robust performance is primarily driven by the soaring demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips and a recovery in some consumer electronics sectors. The Hsinchu-based company has positioned itself at the forefront of the global race to develop AI services, producing advanced semiconductors for major tech firms such as Nvidia Corp., which in turn supplies these chips to Microsoft Corp. and OpenAI. Additionally, a resurgence in worldwide smartphone sales during the first quarter of the year has fueled expectations for strong orders of mobile chips, further boosting TSMC's sales. TSMC's exclusive manufacturing of Nvidia's most advanced AI accelerators has been a key factor in maintaining high margins. The company also fabricates semiconductors for other tech giants like Apple Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), Nvidia's closest competitor. This diversified client base has helped TSMC navigate the volatile tech market effectively. C.C. Wei, TSMC's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, reiterated this week that the development of AI is expected to drive a sector-wide recovery this year. This optimistic outlook is supported by recent sales data, which show that TSMC's second-quarter sales are tracking ahead of expectations. Bernstein analyst Mark Li noted in a client report that if June follows the average seasonality of the past eight years, TSMC's Q2 revenue could come in 12% above both the guidance midpoint and consensus. Li, who rates TSMC stock as outperform, highlighted the company's robust performance in AI chip production and a cyclical recovery in demand for personal computers as key growth drivers. In premarket trading, TSMC's stock rose 0.4% to $162.70. The stock has been on an upward trajectory, breaking out of a double-bottom base at a buy point of $148.43 on May 10, according to IBD MarketSurge charts. TSMC is listed on two IBD lists: Leaderboard and Tech Leaders. TSMC's resilience in the face of global economic challenges is noteworthy. The company's May sales dipped 2.7% from April, but its January through May period sales are up 27% year-over-year. This strong performance is a testament to TSMC's ability to adapt to shifting market dynamics and leverage its technological prowess. The company's production of AI chips for Nvidia has been a standout success, with Nvidia's AI accelerators in high demand as industries across the globe ramp up their AI capabilities. TSMC's role in this supply chain is critical, as these chips are integral to the development of advanced AI systems and applications. Meanwhile, TSMC has also benefited from a recovery in the consumer electronics market, particularly in the smartphone segment. Production for chips used in Apple's iPhone has remained resilient, and sales of high-end Android smartphones have exceeded expectations. This recovery has provided an additional boost to TSMC's sales, complementing the strong demand for AI chips. Despite the impressive sales figures, TSMC faces ongoing challenges, including geopolitical tensions and supply chain disruptions. However, the company's strategic positioning and robust technological capabilities have enabled it to maintain a competitive edge in the global semiconductor market. As TSMC continues to navigate these challenges, its focus on innovation and strategic partnerships will be crucial in sustaining its growth momentum. The company's ability to meet the growing demand for AI chips and capitalize on the recovery in consumer electronics will be key determinants of its future performance. U.S. Coast Guard Seizes $63 Million Worth of Cocaine After Shootout at Sea (Photo: Tony Webster/Wikimedia Commons/CC-BY 2.0 ) The U.S. Coast Guard offloaded over 4,800 pounds of cocaine worth more than $63 million in Florida on Thursday. The drugs were seized during interdictions in the Caribbean Sea, including one operation involving gunfire that resulted in a vessel catching fire and sinking. The interdictions took place approximately 24 miles north of Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, and were part of the Coast Guard's ongoing efforts to combat drug smuggling in international waters. "The U.S. Coast Guard and our international partners continue to interdict drug smuggling ventures in international waters to reduce the flow of illicit drugs, disrupt transnational criminal organizations, and increase interoperability with our partner nations and interagency partners," the Coast Guard stated in a social media post. The first interdiction was particularly intense. A Royal Netherlands Navy ship, equipped with a U.S. Coast Guard detachment and a helicopter interdiction tactical squadron, identified a vessel suspected of smuggling drugs. When ordered to stop, the vessel increased its speed and changed direction towards a Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard boat. In response to the life-threatening situation, U.S. and Dutch Coast Guard crew members discharged their weapons, causing the vessel to catch fire and sink. Three suspected smugglers went overboard and disappeared, leading to a suspended search on Tuesday evening. "The decision to suspend the search was not taken lightly and the incident remains under investigation," said Lt. Cmdr. John W. Beal of Coast Guard District Seven. Details of the second interdiction were not immediately available, but both operations highlight the ongoing risks and challenges faced by the Coast Guard in its mission to intercept drug traffickers. @USCG Cutter Resolute's crew offloaded more than 4,800 pounds of cocaine, worth over $63 million, at @PortEverglades , Thurs. This offload was the result of 2 interdictions by HNMLS Groningen with embarked USCG LEDET 110 and HITRON, 24 miles north of Puerto Cabello, Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/efJcbD8f4i USCGSoutheast (@USCGSoutheast) June 6, 2024 This recent haul follows a series of significant drug seizures by the Coast Guard. Last year, the Coast Guard offloaded over nine tons of cocaine from six separate events in San Diego, valued at more than $239 million. The largest of these seizures involved a narco-submarine carrying over 5,500 pounds of cocaine. The Coast Guard has also uncovered innovative smuggling methods, such as hiding drugs in vats of jalapeno paste and using remote-controlled submarines. International cooperation remains a key component of these operations. In the recent interdictions, the collaboration between the U.S. Coast Guard and the Royal Netherlands Navy was crucial. The Dutch ship, equipped with U.S. personnel, played a significant role in identifying and intercepting the suspect vessels. This cooperation is part of a broader strategy to leverage international partnerships in the fight against drug trafficking. The seizure and shootout come shortly after another major operation in which a separate Coast Guard crew offloaded $468 million worth of cocaine in San Diego. This haul was the result of eight separate operations off the coasts of Mexico and Central and South America. International drug traffickers frequently use various types of vessels to transport narcotics. Recent months have seen the interception of numerous drug-smuggling vessels, including speedboats and semi-submersibles. For instance, Italian police recently seized a remote-controlled submarine intended for drug trafficking, and the French navy captured 2.4 tons of cocaine from a Venezuelan fishing boat. In March, authorities announced the seizure of nearly four tons of cocaine from a speedboat in the Caribbean Sea off Colombia. Earlier that month, a British warship and an American patrol aircraft intercepted another speedboat near the U.S. Virgin Islands, recovering about 6,000 pounds of cocaine. The Coast Guard's efforts are part of a broader strategy to combat drug trafficking and protect national security. "The Coast Guard is America's primary maritime law enforcement agency, and our crews work hard to safely bring suspected smugglers to face federal prosecution in the United States for alleged crimes," said Lt. Cmdr. Beal. (Photo : Unsplash/Ye Jinghan) A New York architect who was previously accused of four murders faced additional charges for two more deaths after prosecutors presented DNA evidence and a computer "blueprint" of the suspected serial killer's alleged crimes. Rex Heuermann, aged 60, appeared in court accused of the murders of Jessica Taylor in 2003 and Sandra Costilla in 1993. Since 2010, authorities have been probing a series of at least 10 deaths on Gilgo Beach, Long Island. A "Blueprint" of Serial Killing Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney revealed at a news conference that officials had discovered a document they believe the suspect used to blueprint his excruciating crimes meticulously. Columns titled "problems" and "supplies" have outlined various aspects. Items listed under "problems" included "DNA," "tire marks," and "blood stains." Terms like "booties" and "police scanner" were found under the "supplies" column, as per court documents. Police suspect that two additional columns labeled "DS" and "TRG" indicated"dump site" and "targets," respectively. Tierney disclosed that investigators had found the Microsoft Word document, dated 2000, on a laptop, which was divided into sections titled "pre-prep," "prep," and "post-event," which prosecutors interpret as a guide to planning the murders. The "post-event" section contained tasks like "change tires," "burn gloves," and "have a story set." A segment named "RECON" outlined steps for packaging a body for transport and listed items to dispose of after a murder. Another list labeled "body prep" instructed to "remove head and hands." In his planning document, reminders included instructions to get sleep before hunting and guidance on attacking victims swiftly and quietly. Another note advised Heuermann to use push pins to hang drop clothes from the ceiling instead of tape. The document outlined lessons learned from previous murders and the most effective killing techniques researched by Heuermann. A Total of Six Victims One victim, Taylor, was discovered by the police in 2003 decapitated, her hands and arms below the elbow severed, and her body with a tattoo obliterated by a very sharp object. Two hunters discovered Ms. Costilla's body in a wooded area of Southampton, New York, on November 20, 1993, with 25 sustained "sharp-force" injuries, including to her face, torso, breast, and genitals, which, according to court documents, were inflicted after her death. READ ALSO: 'How To Get Away With Murder' Season 3 Spoilers, News & Update: Wes Gibbins' Killer Revealed; Producers Killed Wes To Keep Up The Audiences? Heuermann has been detained without bail since his arrest outside his Manhattan architecture office last July for the murders of three women: Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Costello, 27. In January, investigators added new charges for the murder of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25. The remains of these four women, believed to be sex workers, were found near Gilgo Beach in 2010. Investigators confiscated numerous electronic devices from Heuermann's residence, which they suspect he utilized to communicate with the women, including computers, laptops, cameras, hard drives, mobile phones, and GPS devices. Analysis of these devices revealed a significant collection of violent, bondage, and torture pornography, which closely resembled the condition in which the two latest victims were found, according to Tierney. Nearly 300 firearms were also discovered in his home. Recent DNA testing on male hairs found under Taylor's body and Costilla's shirt indicated a match with Heuermann. Investigators also noted that Heuermann's wife and children were absent from the state during five of the murders, providing him with ample time to plan his alleged crimes from their residence in the Massapequa Park neighborhood of Long Island. RELATED ARTICLE: Airline Passenger Got Her Luggage Stolen, Busted Thief Through Apple Watch Tracker 2017 Jobs & Hire All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Dubai has topped the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Index for cultural and creative industries in 2023, according to the 'fDi Markets' report by the Financial Times. This ranking reaffirms Dubais leadership and enhances its competitiveness as a global capital of the creative economy. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240606835811/en/ Dubai topped the Foreign Direct Investment Index for cultural and creative industries in 2023 per the Financial Times fDi Markets report (Graphic: AETOSWire) The emirate ranked first globally as the top destination for job creation and capital inflows in the cultural and creative industries (CCI) sector, out of 115 other destinations in the report. This achievement places Dubai ahead of major global cities such as London, New York, and Singapore. According to data from the Dubai FDI Monitor, released by the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism (DET), Dubai has attracted 898 projects in the cultural and creative industries sector in 2023, almost double the figure from the previous year. This led to AED 11.8 billion in FDI capital inflow, which was a 60% increase. An estimated 21,563 new job opportunities were created in 2023, 74% up on 2022. Within the ranking of the top five source countries for FDI capital inflows into CCI in Dubai during 2023, data from the Dubai FDI Monitor and the Dubai Framework for Cultural Statistics showed an increase in capital inflows. The US led with 33.2%, followed by the UK at 12.4%, India with 9.1%, Hungary on 4%, and Denmarks 3%. The US also topped the list for creating new job opportunities through FDI into Dubais CCI with 19.2%, India boasting 16.3%, the UK 15.7%, Singapore with 5%, and Frances 4.2%. In terms of the number of FDI projects announced in 2023 in the CCI sector, the UK led with 17.8%, followed by India with 16.9%, the US at 16%, France with 4%, and Italys 3.8%, highlighting Dubais efforts and strategies to focus on these markets as key partners. Data from the Dubai FDI Monitor and the Dubai Framework for Cultural Statistics indicated that wholly-owned Greenfield FDI projects accounted for 78.7% of Dubais total CCI in 2023. New Forms of Investments (NFIs) were 16.1%, reinvestment projects made up 3%, and mergers and acquisitions tallied up to 2.1% of the projects in the registered sectors. Source: AETOSWire View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240606835811/en/ The Body Shop, the iconic British-born international ethical beauty brand, is commemorating its 18th anniversary in India with the introduction of Braille features at its Activist Workshop store in Palladium Mall, Mumbai. This innovative move, the first-of-its-kind by The Body Shop, will be a part of a phased approach across its stores countrywide, representing a significant milestone in the brands ongoing efforts toward inclusivity and accessibility in India. Inspired by suggestions from Disability Rights Activist and Youth Collective Council (YCC) member Virali Modi, the Braille features include category call-outs across the store, unlocking a holistically inclusive shopping experience. The YCC was launched in August 2023 to incorporate the voices of Indias emerging changemakers into The Body Shops business strategy, fostering a more youth-centric, sustainable, and inclusive approach. This new initiative expands the ambit of The Body Shops inclusivity beyond its gender-neutral product range and diverse staff. Given The Body Shops value system and the YCCs directive strategy discussed early this year at the organisation, the brand is also prioritising gender inclusivity based on suggestions by Ankita Mehra, an activist for the LGBTQA+ community. This is reflected in the brands gender-sensitive approach to hiring, training, and management, ensuring the head office and store staff embody this ethos as well. The brand, which is a changemaker and a pioneer in the beauty industry, has 10 staff members who are a part of the LGBTQA+ spectrum and embrace gender sensitivity at all levels. Additionally, The Body Shop recently hosted an immersive Diversity and Inclusion workshop for all its employees. Through this, the brand enabled its staff to explore and understand what it means to be inclusive, encouraging them to create a space that is safe, welcoming, and inclusive for all, creating an equitable workplace. Ms. Harmeet Singh, Chief Brand Officer, The Body Shop- Asia South, shared her thoughts, Were very excited to announce Braille integration at our Mumbai Activist Workshop store, and this coincides with our 18 years celebration in India. From inclusive hiring to Braille incorporation, we're making ethical beauty accessible. Our goal is to gradually ensure inclusive in-store experiences for all, aligning with The Body Shop's vision. (Photo : Unsplash/Larry Farr ) A federal judge on Thursday has ordered Donald Trump's former top advisor, Steve Bannon, to serve his four-month sentence for a criminal contempt of Congress conviction by July 1. Ex-Trump Strategist: Steve Bannon Bannon was convicted of contempt in July 2022 for defying a subpoena to testify before the congressional panel investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters. Regarded as one of the masterminds behind Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, Bannon was convicted in October 2022 and sentenced to four months in prison but has remained free pending his appeal since then. The 70-year-old, speaking outside the Washington courthouse, asserted his resilience, declaring that nothing can shut him down, be it a prison or jail built. He also expressed optimism about winning the upcoming presidential elections on November 5, following the judge's ruling. READ ALSO: Trump's Trial Witnesses Believed to Engage in "Shady Influence" After Receiving Pay Raises, Financial Benefits A Four-Month Prison Sentence The order would imprison Bannon, 70. At the same time, his former boss awaits his sentencing on July 11 in the Manhattan hush-money case, which could potentially result in prison time for Trump just four days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Trump, 77, and his supporters have claimed that Democrats are manipulating the US legal system to bolster President Biden's reelection bid, which they perceive as facing challenges. DC US District Judge Carl Nichols, who Trump appointed, directed Bannon to fulfill his punishment on two counts of Congress contempt for disregarding the Democrat-led select committee's request for testimony and documents. Nichols pointed out that Bannon could still petition for a stay of the order stipulating his prison reporting date, potentially postponing his punishment. During the trial, Bannon's legal team unsuccessfully contended that he was open to negotiating with the select committee before facing charges. Who is Steve Bannon? Bannon held the position of Chief Strategist at the White House during the initial seven months of Trump's administration and departed reportedly due to conflicts with other high-ranking staff members. In 2020, he faced charges of wire fraud and money laundering for allegedly misappropriating millions of dollars meant for the construction of a border wall with Mexico, diverting the funds for personal gain. All others implicated in the scheme were convicted, but before leaving office in January 2021, Trump granted Bannon a blanket pardon, resulting in the dismissal of the charges against him. Another former Trump aide, ex-West Wing trade adviser Peter Navarro, also faced a contempt of Congress conviction and commenced his four-month prison term in March. Navarro defied a subpoena issued by a committee in the US House, which was investigating purported attempts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election. In September, Navarro was found guilty of two instances of contempt of Congress for his refusal to adhere to a subpoena, which demanded the documents and testimony provision to a Democrat-led House of Representatives panel. RELATED ARTICLE: Ending An Archrivalry: A 25-Year Sentence and Four-Month Verdict on Crypto Billionaires 2017 Jobs & Hire All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Puravankara Limited, one of Indias most trusted and admired real estate developers, has been ranked among the Top 4 real estate companies across India for adopting best practices in the business. Ranked among the Top 5 National Real Estate Brand, Puravankaras commitment to best practices has been acknowledged with ten well-defined parameters, like Fiscal Management, Execution Standards, Market Depth Consumer Connect: Transparent Deals, Functional Professionalism; Care for Society & Environment Employer; Communication Openness; and Desirable Practices that far exceed the prevailing standard practices. The company has maintained its 5th Rank with an improved brand score in terms of the overall Brand Ranking at the pan-India level. Puravankara also stands as 3rd Best Brand in South India with a better performance than the last fiscal year. Puravankara also retained its first position nationally in the Image Management Ranking based on not just Media Coverage but also Media Tonality and Media Perception, Digital Presence, Online News, Social Media, Online Reputation Management, Communication Consistency, and Consumer Interface. Commenting on the achievement, Abhishek Kapoor, Group CEO of Puravankara Limited, said, We are thrilled to be acknowledged by the BrandXReport 2023-24 as one of the top four real estate developers nationwide for adopting best practices in real estate. At Puravankara, good governance is central to our operations. Our disclosure standards are among the highest in the industry, and we are committed to exceeding regulatory requirements. Our fifth position in brand leadership nationally and third position in South India with improved Brand Score is a testament to our unwavering focus on product quality, customer centricity, on-time delivery, and corporate governance. This recognition is a stepping stone towards our vision of becoming India's most trusted and admired real estate developer. Puravankaras overall Best Practices score with the latest report is 76, compared to 72.3 in 2019. On each metric of a 0-10 scale, the company scored 8 for Communication, 7.8 for Transparent Deals, 7.6 each for Fiscal Management, Market Depth, Functional Professionalism, and desirable practices; 7.5 for each Execution, Employer, and 7.4 each for Consumer Connect and Care. Puravankara ranked fifth nationally in public perception among Indian homebuyers and NRIs. For the first time, the companys Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts reached the Brand Disruption segment with the sixth rank nationally. The company is also listed among the top four employers in real estate. These achievements highlight the companys continuous commitment to excellence and growing prominence in the Indian real estate industry. Track2Realty BrandXReport 2023-24 is one of the industry's more credible annual reports that rates and ranks the respective real estate companies in the given fiscal year on well-defined parameters. Track2Realty is a consortium of independent journalists. The rankings in the study have been derived through a rigorous hybrid survey with a substantial sample size of 10,000 participants. These questions delved into the consumer psychograph through their brand awareness, preferences, acceptance, rejection, and future choices within the property market. The input from the consumer survey was evaluated thoroughly by an esteemed jury board of independent and neutral experts. Caribbean Cement uses counterfeit cigarettes as RDF Suzanne Starbuck By 07 June 2024 Caribbean Cement Co Ltd has destroyed an estimated JMD400m (US$2.57m) worth of counterfeit cigarettes in its cement kiln, in collaboration with the Jamaica Constabulary Force. Over 600 cases of counterfeit cigarettes were seized by the Intellectual Property Branch of the countrys Counter Terrorism and Organised Crime Branch. According to Jamaica Gleaner, the cigarettes, which are a source of refuse-derived fuel, offer a safe alternative to fossil fuels for cement plants. Jorge Martinez, managing director of Caribbean Cement, said the company was not only advancing its sustainability efforts, it was also playing its part of a responsible corporate citizen. Through our Future in Action programme to reduce CO 2 emissions, we are actively looking for alternative sources of fuel. Refuse-derived fuel such as these cigarettes offer that potential, he said. Published under Hoffman Green announces the construction of first Saudi unit ICR Newsroom By 07 June 2024 Hoffman Green Cement Technologies, a global cement company committed to the decarbonisation of the construction sector, has announced the construction of its first unit in Saudi Arabia. Ground was broken on the new H-KSA 1 unit in Rabigh, following the companys signing of a licensing agreement with Saudi conglomerate the Shurfah Group. The 22-year agreement allows for the construction of four Hoffman Green facilities in Saudi Arabia to support the use of low-carbon and clinker-free cement in the country. As part of Saudi Arabias Vision 2030 plan, the Shurfah Group aims to finance, build and operate multiple Hoffman Green production facilities and sell their decarbonised cements (on an exclusive basis) throughout the country. This unit, and all subsequent units, will be built solely with Hoffman Green cement. Construction of the facility is expected to be completed by the end of 2025. Co-founders of Hoffman Green, Julien Blanchard and David Hoffman, said about the project, The laying of the foundation stone is a symbolic moment in any construction project. We are very proud to have reached this first milestone with our partner Shurfah, on schedule. Less than a year after signing the licensing agreement, the start of construction of H-KSA 1 marks our international deployment in support of the kingdom's ambitious Vision 2030 project. We are delighted to participate in the decarbonisation of the Saudi construction sector by building several of our units on their territory and marketing our zero per cent cement clinker. Abdullah Al Majed, founder and chairman of Shurfah Holding Co, adds, Decarbonising our 'smart cities' is a major challenge for Shurfah Holding and, more broadly, for Saudi Arabia. This partnership with Hoffmann Green is a natural fit with the Vision 2030 Plan, which strives to contribute to the sustainable development of the Saudi economy. Published under Substantial growth in Bangladesh's cement exports during 11MFY24 ICR Newsroom By 07 June 2024 Bangladesh's cement industry has experienced significant export growth during the 1MFY24. The sector recorded a 34.3 per cent YoY increase in cement export revenue, reaching US$16.81m during the 11MFY23-24. This marks a substantial rise from US$12.52m in the corresponding period of the previous year and includes certain salt, stone, and related products. Cement exports also grew by 23.4 per cent YoY, surpassing the target of US$13.62m for the 11MFY23-24. Bangladesh mainly exports cement to India, with other popular destinations such as Nepal, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. Bangladeshs total export revenue for all commodities during 11MFY23-24 amounted to US$51.54bn, reflecting a two per cent YoY increase. The full-year target is set at US$62bn. Published under Holcim Philippines to recycle 10Mt of demolition waste in 2025 Suzanne Starbuck By 07 June 2024 Holcim Philippines has announced that it aims to recycle 10Mt of demolition waste in 2025. According to the company, the move will make Holcim Philippines one of the leading recyclers in the country, boosting the cement producers volumes from the almost 8.4Mt reported in 2023. Holcim has also called on stakeholders to focus on circularity, encouraging them to partner with other companies in a push for innovative and sustainable building solutions, reports the Philippines News Agency. Advances in technology and design allow us to repurpose construction demolition materials instead of using virgin resources in new structures. This practice is relevant to the Philippines and we are excited to work with partners to accelerate its adoption locally, explained Holcim Philippines Chief Sustainability Officer, Sam Manlosa Jr. Published under Cementos Pacasmayo reports 14% advance in 1Q net profit Muriel Bal By 07 June 2024 Peru-based Cementos Pacasmayo SA reported a 7.2 per cent decline in cement, concrete and prefabricated product sales in the first quarter of 2024 to 685,700t from 738,600t in the 1Q23. Net sales slipped by 0.7 per cent to PEN476.5m in the 1Q24 from PEN480m in the year-ago period. However, the company was able to report a 9.6 per cent YoY uptick in operating profit to PEN95m from PEN86.7m in the 1Q23. Net profit was up 13.8 per cent YoY to PEN49.5m from PEN43.5m over the same period, resulting in a net profit margin of 10.4 per cent, up 1.3 percentage points from 9.1 per cent. "We were able to achieve an increase of 10 per cent in consolidated EBITDA and 13.8 per cent in YoY net income, mainly due to the operational efficiencies derived from our new kiln in Pacasmayo and from our multi-plant production plan. We are confident that we can maintain these efficiencies, and we will work harder to continue offering profitability, and also be prepared to take advantage of a more favourable demand environment when it occurs," said the company. In terms of cement production, total output from the company's three plants was down by 8.3 per cent YoY to 663,500t. While the Pacasmayo plant in Trujillo increased its production by 12 per cent to 394,300t, at Rioja production slipped 1.6 per cent YoY to 75,800t and Piura supplied 193,400t of cement, down 34.3 per cent YoY, in the 1Q24. Published under European Parliament elections kick off as Dutch polling stations open Xinhua) 08:58, June 07, 2024 People queue to cast their ballots at a polling station in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, June 6, 2024. The European Parliament elections kicked off on Thursday with the opening of polling stations in the Netherlands, the first of the European Union's (EU) 27 member states to vote. (Photo by Jesse Wieten/Xinhua) THE HAGUE, June 6 (Xinhua) -- The European Parliament elections kicked off on Thursday with the opening of polling stations in the Netherlands, the first of the European Union's (EU) 27 member states to vote. A total of 720 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will be elected, with 31 seats allocated to the Netherlands. The election process will continue until next Monday. In most other member states, residents will cast their votes on Sunday. The polling stations are open from 7:30 a.m. local time (0530 GMT) until 9:00 p.m. (1900 GMT), with only a few special polling stations allowed to open earlier. This will be the 10th time for EU member countries to vote for their MEPs, with the first such elections held in 1979. Important themes of concern to the voters are migration, defense and international security, the fight against crime and terror, and climate change, among others. In the last such elections in 2019, the PvdA (Labor Party) won six of the 26 Dutch seats in the European Parliament, ahead of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and the Christian Democratic Appeal, with both winning four seats. Ahead in polls this year is the far-right Party for Freedom, which won the general elections in the Netherlands in November last year by a landslide, becoming the biggest party in the country for the first time in history and ready to form a new government with coalition parties. First exit polls of the elections are expected right after the polling stations close at night. The European Commission prescribes that the election results must not be made public until all EU member states have held their elections by Monday, so as not to unduly influence the elections in other states. The official final results are determined by the Electoral Council in an open session approximately one week after the elections. The turnout for the elections is traditionally low in the Netherlands, at about 40 percent of all eligible voters, about half of the regular turnout percentage in House of Representatives elections. People cast their ballots at a polling station in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, June 6, 2024. The European Parliament elections kicked off on Thursday with the opening of polling stations in the Netherlands, the first of the European Union's (EU) 27 member states to vote. (Photo by Jesse Wieten/Xinhua) A woman takes photos outside the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, June 6, 2024. The European Parliament elections kicked off on Thursday. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe) Journalists attend a media briefing on the European Parliament elections at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, June 6, 2024. The European Parliament elections kicked off on Thursday. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe) This photo taken on June 6, 2024 shows posters of the European Parliament elections outside the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. The European Parliament elections kicked off on Thursday. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe) A media briefing on the European Parliament elections is held at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, June 6, 2024. The European Parliament elections kicked off on Thursday. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe) This photo taken on June 6, 2024 shows an exterior view of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. The European Parliament elections kicked off on Thursday. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe) (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Restored Huey chopper prepares for journey to Soddy Daisy Vietnam vets thank Komatsu employees for a job well done Special thanks to father and son, Billy and Heath Sneed Preparation for display almost complete Chapter 203 President Charlie Hobbs and his family Retired Judges Clarence Shattuck and Russell Bean thanked Vietnam vets Huey chopper Previous Next The Huey Helicopter that has been on display at the Soddy Daisy Veterans Memorial Park since 2001 has been painted and restored, thanks to Komatsu on Signal Mountain Road. The historic chopper was returned to its display perch on Thursday. Click here for video by Ben Cagle. Vietnam Veterans of America 203 president Charlie Hobbs said in early 2,000 the chapter completed application with the U.S. Army and was given the historic medevac helicopter. Mr. Hobbs said, The chapter had to agree to maintain the bird, made in 1952. Mr. Hobbs and several chapter members went to Fort Rucker, Ala., and brought helicopter number 13786 back to Chattanooga. Mr. Hobbs said, We stopped at the Welcome Center on Interstate 24 in Lookout Valley and the media came and made pictures." Mr. Hobbs said pilot Tom Borloglou was watching the news and recognized the chopper as the one he flew while serving in Vietnam in 1967. Mr. Borloglou, a New Jersey native, now lives in East Tennessee and is a member of chapter 203. Mr. Hobbs said, Soddy Daisy officials allowed us to display the medical evacuations chopper at the Veterans Memorial Park on Dayton Boulevard and over the years it became much worn. Komatsu officials agreed to restore and re-letter the bird which was returned to Soddy Daisy Thursday for display. Mr. Hobbs said the 5,000-pound chopper was removed from its perch in late January and taken to Komatsu for restoration. Vice President Walter Nichols oversaw the project, which included re-painting and installation of new windows. Mr. Hobbs said Billy Goat Sneed helped mount the Huey originally on June 30, 2001. His son Heath was in the bucket truck on Thursday re-fastening the chopper to the display mount. Mr. Hobbs thanked both father and son, who were present for the re-mounting. He said, Komatsu has been very kind to our chapter and we are so grateful the company is helping preserve a piece of history. We were glad to put the bird back up on its perch on this very important day in history, the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 203 meets the third Monday of the month at the MAC building, McCallie and Holtzclaw Avenues. Any Vietnam veteran or Vietnam era veteran is welcome. Evidence is conflicting to establish if Chattanooga City Council member Demetrus Coonrod lives in District 9 which she represents. Hamilton County Circuit Judge Michael Dumitru said he will issue a written opinion on the case in the coming days. An investigation began to determine if she could continue to serve in that position, when City Auditor Stan Sewell, City Attorney Phil Noblett and each City Council members except for Councilwoman Coonrod received an anonymous email claiming she lives outside of the city of Chattanooga. Ms. Coonrod purchased a house at 8907 Heritage Dr. in Harrison in 2022, with the intention of using it as a short-term rental, she said. The utilities were turned on in her name, but she said she never lived there. Instead, she said her daughter, Alexis Nolan, and her grandson moved into the house and have lived there since 2022. Her daughter answered Mr. Sewells questions by email, and said she has no formal agreement with her mother and that she pays rent from time to time when requested by her mother. The most she ever paid was $700 she told Mr. Sewell, which is different from the $800 a month cash payments that Ms. Coonrod told him the daughter pays. There is no documentation. Ms. Nolan testified that her mother does not live there but comes twice a week to help with her son and to attend events, and that she keeps a minimum of personal items there such as a few clothes. A City Council representative must live in the district they represent, and Ms. Coonrod testified that since she has been in that position, she has lived with her foster mother, Vivian White, who has a house at 907 Moss St., which is in District 9. She maintains a bedroom where her personal belongings are stored. Ms. White told City Attorney Phil Noblett that she, too, has no formal agreement with Ms. Conrod, and that the councilwoman does not pay rent, but helps with bills sometimes. Ms. White estimates that Ms. Coonrod spends about half of nights each month at her house, and that she always returns, except for the time she was helping take care of her terminally ill father, when she was away often. Mr. Sewells investigation showed that the address on Ms. Coonrods drivers license, bank statements, voters registration and income tax statements and Amazon deliveries used the address on Moss Street. He also has talked to Ms. Coonrod and multiple other people who confirm her Moss Street residence. But there is conflicting information with the loan applications and mortgage and insurance documents and a notarized occupancy affidavit, which all use the address of the house on Heritage Drive, not in District 9, or even in the city of Chattanooga. There were owner-occupancy requirements for the loan application, the mortgage company and to get insurance for the house. The requirements specify that the residential premise has to be the primary dwelling where the borrower must reside for at least one year, beginning 60 days after closing. The documents state that the property cannot be used for a vacation rental or a second home. Ms. Coonrod was the owner on all of the documents, and she signed them all for the house at 8907 Heritage Dr; in Harrison. And she also signed a mortgage fraud document on Jan. 28 during the purchase process, stating that she certified that the information provide was true and correct, and that false statements to obtain a mortgage are punishable by the FBI. Ms. Conrod told Attorney Noblett that she was unaware of the conditions about the loan, buying and living in the house she purchased and that she had not lived there for a year following the closing. She also did not notify the lender to change the address for correspondence regarding the loan until after the anonymous emails and the publicity about her residency, two years after the sale closed. At that time, she also asked to be able to vacate the property so she no longer would be required to live there. She said that she wishes now that she had read the documents before she signed them, and had followed the lenders instructions. Another discrepancy, Mr. Sewell said, was that the insurance policy on the house includes $169,000 in personal property coverage, but Mr. Sewell questioned why she would need that coverage since she has no personal property there. Thats just the policy they sent me, said Ms. Coonrod. Mr. Sewell said that based on the investigation he did, he could not conclude if Demetrus Coonrod had transferred her residence to the house at 8907 Heritage Dr. He said the evidence that supports her living there consists of the closing documents, the EPB account and insurance policy in Ms. Coonrods name using that address. He also found direct evidence that she was living at 907 Moss St., Chattanooga in District 9 since she had been on the council. The state of Tennessee does not allow two primary residences. Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Dr. Justin Robertson presented a second-option budget for fiscal year 2025 to the school board Thursday at the finance committee meeting. The $663-million budget puts just $18 million toward raising teacher salaries while cutting out a compensation study and plans to add staff in school buildings. Option 1, revealed May 9, had put $32 million toward these things. Both budget proposals include raising the base teacher salary to $50,000, a cost of $3 million, which will be a state requirement in the fall of 2026. Option 1 pitched teacher raises at 5 percent or $2,800, a cost of $20 million. Option 2 pitched teacher raises at 3 percent or $1,750, a cost of $12 million, and removes a $5-million compensation study and $1 million in added staffing. This is a tight budget year for the county in general, Dr. Robertson said. If the school board approves a budget in a June 20 vote, it will vote again that day to adopt a 3 percent raise or a flat $1,750 raise. But board members Larry Grohn, Karitsa Jones and Gary Kuehn want to write an Option 3. Mr. Grohn suggested a smaller increase for higher-paid employees, saving bigger increases for teachers who work directly in classrooms. That gap just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger, he said. Mr. Grohn said he does not believe in across-the-board raises. He said they are a disservice to employees who are doing most of the work, those right on the front lines, and I think that thats where this board should put its focus, he said. I will never present a budget that doesnt provide every employee with a pay raise, said Dr. Robertson. That will have to come from yall. None of them are paid enough, Dr. Robertson said. There could be a third option, said Ms. Jones. I struggle with across-the-board, she said. She suggested that administrators pass this time on raises, giving them to teachers in classrooms dealing with children and their families eight to ten hours a day, she said. This is why I support a flat raise, said board member Jill Black, who advocated that the raise should also apply to contract hourly employees such as cafeteria workers, bus drivers and substitute teachers. Technically, they also work for Hamilton County Schools, she said. At the end of May, Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp announced a $5-million, one-time line item to increase teacher salaries. This is front-end money, Dr. Robertson said, which will open doors to even more money next year, he said. The next $12 million will come from increases in Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) formula money, mostly for students with dyslexia and those learning English as a new language, said Chief Financial Officer Mary Ellen Heuton. The last $1 million comes from increased interest, she said. Dr. Robertson said property reappraisals are the school systems best shot at supplying that $5 million again in the coming years. A small amount would come from annual TISA growth, it was stated. Finance committee Chairperson Marco Perez observed that new teachers will be offered $50,000 while three-year teachers remain at $50,000, for example. It will create some compression on the early stages of the salary schedule, Dr. Robertson said. Hamilton County Schools employs about 5,500 people, it was stated. Dr. Robertson bragged that HCS added 500 new positions in schools last year, creating a 1:10 school-based adult-to-student ratio. But board member Rhonda Thurman said these added positions are making across-the-board raises harder than ever. Were creating this monster all year long, she said. We add to our bottom line every time. *Capital Maintenance* As HCS relies on a one-time injection to correct base salaries, it relies on the same to catch up with capital maintenance. This is a legitimate concern, Dr. Robertson said. The County Commission removed $6 million for capital maintenance from last years budget and a bond will be issued in August, due to generate a $65 million injection for deferred maintenance. Dr. Robertson said the money will be spent over the next five years, mostly on new roofs and heating and air conditioning systems at eight to ten schools, he said, including a new roof at Sequoyah High School. Mr. Kuehn said that the annual maintenance fund was depleted to zero in March. He worries about having nothing for daily care such as toilet repairs, he said. We havent neglected anything, Dr. Robertson said. He said the $65 million will help schools limp toward the complete overhaul facilities plan, which consolidates several aging schools to lower total square footage and number of schools. He said that will lower the burden of deferred maintenance. Thats going to be savings every year, he said. John Clayton Burton, 89, of Hixson, Tennessee, passed away peacefully on April 15, 2024. Clayton was born in Sand Mountain, Al., on Sept. 23, 1934, to Grover and Grovie (McClure) Burton. After his family relocated to Chattanooga, he attended Hixson schools and graduated from Hixson High School Class of 1953. While in the fifth grade at Hixson Elementary School, he noticed a special little girl named Patsy on the playground and told his teacher he was going to marry "that girl". They started dating in high school and after graduation, they married and spent 68 wonderful years together. After marrying Patsy, he attended Fairview United Methodist Church where he directed the choir and led the worship services with his beautiful rich bass voice. In 1980, he moved his membership to Hixson United Methodist Church where he joined the choir and became involved in other church activities. He was a member of the Sammy Gooden Sunday School Class for 44 years. For many years, Clayton worked at Addressograph-Multigraph Corporation. After AM closed their doors in 1982, he went to work for Beeler Impression Products until his retirement in 2010. Along with being an avid Tennessee Volunteer fan, Clayton loved music, boating, square dancing and enjoyed following the NASCAR circuit. Clayton was predeceased by his best friend and wife, Patsy Deakins Burton; his parents, Grover and Grovie Burton; brothers Paul Burton and Dale Nelson Burton; sisters Dorothy Burton Smith and Charlsie "Jane" Burton. Surviving him are several nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews, and family members, all of whom he loved dearly. The family would like to thank the staff of Red Bank Life Care for their support and care during the final days of Clayton's life. Memorial contributions may be made to Hixson United Methodist Church. A Celebration of Life service will be held with family and friends on Saturday, June 29, at Hixson United Methodist Church at 11 a.m. with visitation starting at 10 a.m. The Reverends Charles Starks and Mark Gooden will be officiating the service. CHI Memorial and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee (BlueCross) must resolve their contract issues and ensure that high quality care in our community is preserved. As a former hospital chief financial officer in this community, I understand the complexity and challenges surrounding contract negotiations between healthcare providers and payers. While the issues related to the contract between these two organizations are significant, our community deserves and should expect both parties to negotiate with sincere intent to find a fair solution. Good faith requires that neither party use this contract re-negotiation to crush the other. Failure to resolve this dispute will have a negative impact on access and quality of healthcare in our community and is an unacceptable outcome from two of the most respected organizations and largest employers in our region. There has been a great deal of public communication from both parties. BlueCross has attributed CHI Memorials request for higher reimbursement to their parent company, CommonSpirit Health. While disparaging both CHI Memorial and CommonSpirit Health, BlueCross fails to address the staggering profits earned by insurance companies throughout the pandemic and the elevated levels of reserves that are not supporting patient care. While the precarious financial position of many of our hospitals is an inconvenient truth for an insurance company, the partnership between payers and hospitals requires a shared accountability for high quality care for all patients in this community. There is significant variation in the care provided by hospitals and CHI Memorial has achieved wide recognition across the state and nation for exceptional quality and patient experience. The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth built a deep culture of excellence and a rich legacy of caring at Memorial that has impacted many families in this community and it is unjust to characterize this organization as being solely motivated by profit. For patients with Blue Cross insurance to lose access to the level of care provided by CHI Memorial and its physicians is simply unacceptable. It is also important to understand and acknowledge the substantial investments that CHI Memorial and CommonSpirit Health have committed locally including a much-needed new hospital in North Georgia. BlueCross stated that CHI Memorial has demanded rates which would result in it becoming the highest paid hospital in Tennessee. As there is no transparency surrounding hospital payments from commercial insurance payers, it is important to understand how such a statement could be misleading. Any comparison of hospitals across the state is highly impacted by the services offered and the acuity level of the patients treated. For example, CHI Memorial does not offer obstetrical or pediatric services which are less resource intensive than services with a higher related cost such as open-heart surgery and would therefore have a lower average payment. In this example, a hospital that provided a greater number of open-heart surgeries without the lower reimbursed obstetric and pediatric services would reflect a higher overall average payment rate while rates for those specific services might be the same or even lower than other hospitals. CHI Memorial and BlueCross are two of the most respected and important organizations in our community. It is vital to both the quality of healthcare and the economic stability of our region that they each can remain financially viable. I call upon the leadership of both organizations to resolve their issues and continue their legacy of partnership for the good of our community. Carol Newton * * * * Thank you Ms. Newman on the opinion statement as a hospital executive. My disabled wife (muscular dystrophy) and I are both members of BCBST Medicare advantage plans and have been a part of the CHI doctors and hospital for 4+ decades. Just today my wife was seeing her primary care internal medicine doctor and she and I were both informed that as of July 1, 2024, we will no longer be in network and that we may not be seen anymore. We are extremely frustrated and disappointed that in order to continue with CHI that we will have to change insurance providers outside of the annual enrollment period. Actually we need to switch before July 1st. Thankfully we have been told that a switch can be done due to the network circumstances. We were informed that Humana and Signa would be our only options for medicare insurance providers to continue with CHI. So for me and my wife we will be come Monday looking for another insurance provider and will be dropping BCBST. Im not swapping doctors for appeasement of an insurance company. One would think that the corporate folks could get this fixed without stressing so many seniors and others who just want to choose their doctors and hospitals. Arch Tinker * * * I must agree with the people who have written asking BC/Memorial to get this insurance matter resolved... I have been with BC for many years, and well pleased. I have been with Memorial Hospital 55 years....( daughter born there) We feel as if we have bought a floor of the hospital.. We are now in our 80's and don't need the stress this is causing us. I want to stay with BC and Memorial. All our doctors are there. We both have pacemakers and I have a heart valve. We have many other issues, but lour doctors in with Memorial. There are many other issues, but we love our doctors in with Memorial. Please, come together for the sake of the senior citrizens. If we lose our doctors and our hospital, it would devastate us. Please, have mercy. I was told Memorial said COVID was what hurt them to ask for more, well COVID hurt everyone. Other hospitals, and medical suffered also. I was told 160,000 from Memorial could lose their service to us senior citizens. I don't wish to go to Parkridge. I wish to stay with Memorial. Please work this out and make life easier for the older people. We are receiving calls from other insurance agents who wish to help us. I really don't want to make a move. Our prayers are with everyone. Cathodic corrosion protection is a widely used technique for protecting steel-based infrastructure from corrosion. ETH researchers have now clarified the detailed mechanisms involved, thereby resolving a controversial issue that had preoccupied the engineering community for decades. Corrosion is a chemical reaction to which even the strongest structures fall victim. Metals such as steel react with oxygen and water, going on to rust and decay. Cathodic protection plays a key role in combatting corrosion. It protects steel structures by slowing down or preventing the processes that lead to corrosion. Cathodic protection was first described in a scientific context in England two centuries ago and has since played a valuable role in maintaining modern infrastructure such as buried gas pipelines and reinforced concrete structures. However, despite its widespread use, the underlying working principle behind cathodic protection has remained unclear and controversial, says Ueli Angst, Professor of Durability of Materials at ETH Zurich. A team of researchers led by Angst has now made significant progress in clarifying the principle behind it, particularly in the case of steel in porous media such as soil or concrete. Their study, published in the journal Communications Materials in the Nature portfolio, sheds light on the complex processes involved in cathodic corrosion protection at the interface between the metal and the porous medium. To illustrate the interplay, it is worth taking a look at the history behind the method. Two centuries of technological development Cathodic corrosion protection goes back to British chemist and inventor Sir Humphry Davy, who described the principle just over two hundred years ago. Back then, the Royal Navy was facing a problem: it had clad the wooden hulls of its ships with copper sheeting to prevent fouling and rotting but the copper hulls were quickly attacked and subject to corrosion in the salty seawater. Sir Humphry Davy, then President of the Royal Society, took up the search for a solution in the name of science. In northern Italy, Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta had recently discovered the phenomenon that an electric current flows when different precious metals are joined together. Inspired by this, Davy was able to show in the laboratory that small samples of base metals such as zinc or iron can protect relatively large copper sheets from corrosion, namely by acting as a sacrificial anode and corroding themselves. In 1824, the Royal Navy transposed Davy's technique virtually directly from the laboratory to its entire fleet too hastily, as it turned out. Although the copper hulls were now protected against corrosion, they lost their effectiveness against marine fouling: the ships became increasingly heavy and barely manoeuvrable. The Royal Navy had to remove the cathodic corrosion protection again, and Davy's episode went down in history as a significant lesson in failure due to the premature transfer of knowledge into practice. Today we know that the cathodic protection current has the side effect of promoting the deposition of minerals on the metal, which allows the growth of mussels and other marine organisms, says Angst. Despite the failure two centuries ago, Davys work laid the foundation for later applications. Two hypotheses on how it works However, it was another hundred years or so before Robert James Kuhn revived the technology in the USA, this time to make buried pipes durable. Kuhns notes show that he already had a much better understanding of corrosion processes in the 1920s than had been the case in Davy's time. Kuhn also carried out extensive test series in the field, i.e. under real-life conditions. The technology has since developed into a standard method for corrosion protection and today ensures that water and gas pipes, tanks and ships, as well as bridges and car parks, have a longer and corrosion-free life. However, despite its widespread use in engineering practice, the underlying mechanisms of action of cathodic corrosion protection are still the subject of controversial debate. For decades, there have been two opposing theories: one being the view that the protective current directly influences the rate of corrosion through a purely kinetic mechanism, and the other being that it leads to an increase in the pH value in the medium at the interface, which protects the steel from corrosion an idea first postulated by Kuhn as early as 1928. According to Angst, the lack of a consistent scientific understanding is hindering the development of sound engineering practices. One example is the protection criterion postulated by Kuhn in the 1920s, which is still used in standards today and requires a potential of -850 millivolts in relation to the saturated copper sulphate electrode: This is an empirical criterion, says Angst. The inconsistent state of knowledge also means that standards are contradictory and it is not always possible in practice to fulfil all the relevant standard specifications at the same time. This is a serious problem in engineering and is all the more worrying given that cathodic protection can be considered a key technology for tackling the challenge of infrastructure ageing and is used in safety-relevant systems such as high-pressure gas pipelines, continues Angst. A unifying working mechanism For their study, the ETH researchers focused on the interface between steel and the electrolyte and characterised the spatial and temporal changes in detail. For the first time, they were able to demonstrate the formation of a thin metal oxide film on the steel surface and show that this layer is a direct result of the increase in pH due to the electrochemical processes taking place. Federico Martinelli-Orlando, first author of the study, adds: We were also able to show that these chemical changes on the steel surface and in the electrolyte lead to changes in the speed and progression of the anodic and cathodic reactions. The researchers propose a mechanism of action that resolves the apparent contradictions between previous hypotheses and brings the two theories together in a complementary way. We conclude that we should consider the two debated theories as complementary rather than contradictory in order to fully explain the working mechanism of cathodic protection, says Martinelli-Orlando. Based on the measurements carried out, the researchers have developed a mechanistic model that takes all electrochemical processes into account. Consistent standards The consistent understanding gained can help to improve corrosion protection technologies and operate critical steel-based infrastructures in a safe, economical and environmentally friendly manner. The results can subsequently validate existing empirical concepts and form the basis for consistent approaches, for example, to develop well-founded standard criteria for the effectiveness of cathodic corrosion protection. With the bacterium Basfia succiniciproducens, BASF would like to transform sugar and carbon dioxide into fumaric acid, an important intermediate for chemical production. To this end, the company is collaborating with Saarland University, University of Marburg and the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau in a joint research project entitled FUMBIO (FUMarsaure BIObasiert). The bacterium, which was isolated in 2008 from the rumen of a Holstein cow, will be genetically modified by researchers so that it produces large quantities of bio-based fumaric acid, also known as fumarate, during fermentation. With this intermediate, BASF can make a wide range of products with a low carbon footprint, including additives for food and animal feed, starting materials for medication, or building blocks for polymers and detergents and formulators. The Basfia succiniciproducens bacterium produces fumarate. At the same time it fixes the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. BASF SE Together with our cooperation partners, we are taking a closer look at the fermentation process. We want to optimize it in such a way that the bacteria use renewable raw materials, such as sugar, and carbon dioxide to produce as much fumarate as possible, says Dr. Barbara Nave, head of the FUMBIO project and responsible for the evaluation and coordination of new white biotechnology projects at BASF. The research project also focuses on the subsequent refinement of fumarate by enzymes also known as bio-catalysis into biodegradable industrial products. Fumaric acid is very common in nature and is an intermediate product in many metabolic processes in humans, animals and plants. In the chemical industry, it has traditionally been produced primarily from fossil-based raw materials, such as crude oil. The FUMBIO research project will measure the CO 2 footprint of fumarate made with biotechnology methods and compare this to petrochemical-based production. The cooperation partners expect the carbon footprint will be significantly lower or even negative, thanks to the use of CO 2 as a raw material. White biotechnology increasingly important The CO 2 that the bacteria will use as a source of carbon, in addition to sugar, in the fermentation process will come from exhaust gas streams at chemical production plants. Carbon dioxide is an important raw material for us in the chemical industry, Nave explains. If we recycle CO 2 from industrial off-gas, this will help us to reduce emissions of this greenhouse gas and achieve our climate targets by 2050. Biotechnology processes, such as fermentation, in which microorganisms such as bacteria or fungi use CO 2 as a building block for metabolic products, will also become increasingly important for the chemical industry in the future. White biotechnology is an important tool that will enable us to offer our customers a wider range of bio-based products with a low carbon footprint. For the fifth time in six months, a volcano in southwestern Iceland has erupted, spewing fountains of lava 150 feet into the air. The massive lava flows resulted in an evacuation of the Blue Lagoon, a famous geothermal spa located near the fishing town of Grindavik. Officials say it is the most powerful activity observed from the volcano to date. The eruption was triggered after hundreds of earthquakes were recorded at the Sundhnuks crater. Initially, lava flows cut off access to two out of three roads leading to Grindavik, moving along a defensive barrier that was erected to protect the town from this very event, according to Icelands Meteorological Office. The molten rock was traveling at speeds between 52,000 and 70,600 cubic feet per second. The towns electricity was cut, but hot and cold water is still running, and there is no damage to the piping system. Icelands Meteorological Office had issued a warning that a volcanic eruption was likely due to the intense seismic activity and the accumulation of magma underground. At the start of the eruption, the Met Office stated that lava activity was more powerful than in the past, putting Grindavik at risk of becoming completely isolated. But luckily, it decreased significantly overnight. Grindavik is a town of about 3,000 people. In December, most of the town was evacuated ahead of a previous eruption. Electricity to Grindavik was cut as a safety measure due to the lava inching toward power lines and pipes in the ground. Currently, most of the high-voltage lines are gone. Recently, about 800 guests at Blue Lagoon were evacuated, making it the spas third evacuation in two months. The popular tourist attraction is nearly an hours drive from Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland and the largest city in the country. Sign up for Chip Chicks newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox. At an aquarium in a mega mall in Seoul, South Korea, a lonely beluga whale has been trapped in her tank for over a decade. Protesters are campaigning for her release before its too late. In 2013, Bella the beluga was captured in the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Russia. She was just two years old. She was sold to Lotte World Aquarium, which is located at the base of a towering shopping complex in Seoul. The skyscraper is filled with luxury shops and is owned by Lotte Corporation, one of South Koreas largest conglomerates. Bella shared a tank with two male belugas, Bello and Belli. But in 2016, Bello passed away at the age of five, followed by Belli in 2019 at the age of 12. Their deaths were premature, as belugas are known to live up to 50 years. After Belli died, Lotte pledged to release Bella in 2019. However, it has been five years since the promise was made, and Bella is still swimming around in her tank at the mall. A marine environmentalist group called Hot Pink Dolphins has been leading the efforts to free Bella. The activists have staged protests outside the mall and have now launched a petition demanding Bellas release. The petition noted that Bella exhibits behavior of stress and boredom due to her solitary confinement. She is often seen spinning in small circles in her tank or floating listlessly on the surface of the water. Belugas are white whales native to Arctic and sub-Arctic waters. They have squishy heads shaped like melons and lack dorsal fins, which allows them to swim under ice better. Belugas are highly intelligent and social creatures. They have complex communication systems that make them incompatible with living in captivity. Sign up for Chip Chicks newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox. When I moved into my first apartment after graduating college, what I refer to as my first adult apartment, I unconsciously settled on a sage green motif for my bedroom. I selected a sage green throw blanket and some sage curtains. The same goes for my living room, as my roommates and I admired some sage green decor items. Then, I learned through social media that I was not alone. Sage green has taken over the world of home decor and design and is now one of the safest colors to select when building your home solo or with a partner. Its understandable why sage green has become such a popular color for interior decorating. Its gender-neutral, it goes with a lot of other colors, it reminds us of nature, and its calming yet optimistic at the same time. Theres also the sage green theory, dubbed by TikTok creator Avery (@averybrynn1), who predicts that as women move in with their boyfriends and start designing their homes, sage green will come into the mix somehow. There will be a day; you will not see it coming, says Avery in her viral video. [Youll be] trying so badly to make his Dallas Cowboys memorabilia go with your Serena and Lily decor [and] inevitably, you are going to turn to sage green. You are not alone; please dont feel ashamed. Whether or not youre moving in with your partner, if youre decorating your space and find yourself picking out some sage green pieces, as Avery said, youre not alone. Its a great color, and even if it is popular right now, that doesnt take away from its greatness. Sign up for Chip Chicks newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox. As summertime kicks into full gear, a lot of young people will be planning trips abroad. Many of those people are students going to a new country to study abroad for the summer. A lot of people choose to stay with host families from different countries during their study abroad experiences. Host families are typically very helpful in helping their guest students adapt to their country and give them a home away from home. Unfortunately, that isnt always the case. One woman currently studying abroad in France shocked her TikTok audience after posting videos about how she had to escape from her nightmarish host family. Jenna Jean (@jennajean8) is a 27-year-old American student studying abroad in France. In a series of TikTok videos, Jenna documented her escaping from a host family her school paid to house and feed her during her time abroad and explained why she needed to leave. Jenna was paired with a host family by the school she enrolled in to learn French. She traveled alone from the United States and knew no one in France. Red flags began popping up from Jennas host family as soon as she arrived in France around 8:00 am. The host couple told her she wouldnt be allowed in their home until 8:00 pm. There was no one to pick her up from the airport, and she had to find a way to occupy herself for 12 hours. Jenna recalls feeling lonely and overwhelmed to the point where she was ready for a hug and warm energy when she arrived at her host familys home. However, she never got one and was given a very cold greeting by the husband and wife. Sign up for Chip Chicks newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox. One of the most devastating floods in United States history is the Great Flood of 1993, and a man from Missouri named James Scott was accused of being responsible for it. He has spent 30 years in prison paying for the consequences, but throughout his entire sentence, he has claimed to be innocent. In 1992, a combination of heavy rainfall and snowmelt caused the water levels of the Missouri and Upper Mississippi River basins to be abnormally high. Eventually, the current became so strong that it overwhelmed the levees, which were designed to hold back the river. This led to extensive flooding from Iowa to Missouri, destroying thousands of homes and causing major damage to farmland. Although more than 1,000 levees were blown out during the Great Flood, Scott was accused of tampering with one of them. He was 24 years old in 1993 and had joined a sandbag crew to help control the rising waters. One day, he was loading bags up when he discovered a breach. He threw more bags around the area, but it didnt really help, and there was nothing more he could do about it. Later that day, the levee failed, and the Mississippi River burst through. As a result, a boat crashed into a gas station, triggering an explosion. People were left stranded, and the surrounding region was submerged in water. Authorities were suspicious of Scott because he had inspected the levee two hours before the catastrophe occurred. He told the police that he had removed sandbags to identify the problem, but a witness claimed that Scott had told a different story to his friends. Apparently, Scotts wife worked at a restaurant on the other side of the river. If she became stranded, he could party and go fishing. So, he was accused of deliberately tampering with the infrastructure of the levee, allowing water to rush in, killing 47 people, and causing estimated losses of up to $20 billion. Scott was tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. Scott is now in his fifties and has spent the past three decades in the Jefferson City Correctional Center. Throughout the years, he has maintained his innocence. There is ongoing debate about whether Scott is really guilty. Sign up for Chip Chicks newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox. Illustration by Elizabeth Kaye / Source Images: Getty This piece was adapted from Russell Moores newsletter. Subscribe here. For the first time in history, a former (and possibly future) president of the United States is now a convicted felon. A jury found that Donald Trump falsified business records to cover up a hush money payment to a porn star, with whom he had an affair, in order to keep the story from hurting his 2016 presidential campaign. If only President Trump could have seen the reaction from many white evangelicals to his sexual crimes and misdemeanors, he could have saved some money. Pundits are probably right that this convictionlike all the revelations of the past almost-decadewill have little effect on the actual election. At this point, people know who they are supporting or opposingand its hard to imagine many who didnt know all along. The implications, though, are moral, not just legal or political, and on that ground, we should ask whether the most politicized evangelicals should actually love Donald Trump more. One might reasonably ask how white evangelicals could possibly love Trump more. The most visible evangelical supporters of the former president have been willing, since at least 2016, to wave away criticisms of his character, from the Access Hollywood tapes onward. Many of these voices defended the former president as fit for public leadership, even after a jury found him liable for doing just what he bragged about in those tapes of yesteryear: groping a womans genitals against her will. And now this. But all of that is precisely what I mean by asking about love. The question has been on my mind since I read the galleys of a brilliant book on former president Richard Nixon, coming out this August, by Christianity Today journalist Daniel Silliman, which you can read more about in the soon-to-be-published July/August issue. Most people who follow religion and politics know about Billy Grahams oft-articulated regrets about how close he became to Richard Nixon. Many also know about Nixons aideand later Watergate felon, and still later repentant born-again Christian and revered evangelical leaderCharles Chuck Colson, and how evangelical ministers typically were so awed by the Oval Office that they would lose the ability to say much more than Yes sir, Mr. President when they were there. Silliman, though, demonstrates that this was not the whole story. There was at least one evangelical pastor who spoke hard truths to Nixon. John Huffman, a Presbyterian pastor in Florida, who had revered Nixon since his days as a young Republican at Wheaton College, preached to the president as he sat in the pews of his church in the midst of Watergate, calling both publicly and privately for Nixon to confess the truth. Whats most surprising to me is not that there was at least one courageous voice of integrityIm sure there were others toobut the reason that Huffman gave to Silliman for why he didnt sidestep the question of guilt with Nixon: I really loved the man. This, Silliman argues, is what made the difference. This pastor didnt see Nixon as a transactional figure for whom one should trade unquestioning loyalty for a set of policy positionsmuch less the proverbial seat at the table. He saw him as a human beinga person loved by God, and a person who would ultimately stand, as all of us will, before the judgment seat. Put aside, for a moment, the question of whether a former president should be prosecuted. Thats another question. Put aside the politics of red state versus blue state. What about the question of morality? What would our relationship to Trump look like if it were informed by our belief that hell exists? The former presidents defenders are too smart to believe what some of them implythat Trump never really knew Stormy Daniels and that he was paying her six figures of hush money to keep her from talking about something that never happened. So what message does it send whenlike every other political constituencywe find ways to minimize that by suggesting that the cultural and political stakes are too high to worry about such minor matters as keeping ones vows or telling the truth? Thats especially when a figure is held up to the rest of the country as a champion of restoring the country to Christian valuesto when girls were girls and men were men, as the old sitcom characters Archie and Edith Bunker would sing it. And thats especially true when Christian leaders hail Trump as a baby Christian and he licenses his name to Bibles. For many Americans, the word evangelical now is shorthand for Trump supporter. How can we blame them when, in so many arenas of American Christian life, people who deny the Trinity are embraced as Christians, but those who dont support Trump are ostracized as apostates? Many will talk about how God uses flawed and imperfect people; thats true, of course. This is not, though, a Chuck Colson repenting of his sin, taking responsibility for it and pleading for Gods mercy. This is someone who instead now says that he will take revenge on his critics and enemies the moment he is back in office. What does that say to those who are watching, learning from Trumps never admit, never apologize strategy? It says policy is more important than character. Achievement is more important than integrity. The implication from religious leaders reputedly bearing witness to the God for whom they speak is this: A man is justified by winning alone. You know that some of us, such as this writer, have very strong views about this figures being fit for public leadership, what he is doing to the witness of the church, the degradation of women and the glorification of political violence, and so on. Some of us believe strongly in the separation of church and Trump. But maybe the problem is not primarily that so many evangelicals love Trump but that they love him so little that they are willing to say to those who follow his direction, This is fine, so long as you give us what we want. Is it really love to use someone to achieve ones goalsnever even asking what the transaction is doing to that person? And then to just pretend that all of it never happened, and, if it did, everybody does it so its okay? One might even say thats how an immoral man wrongly would treat a porn star, not the way a Christian people rightly would treat a leader who claims to represent them. God loves Donald Trump. God loves those who will wreck their lives following his moral example. Thats not in doubt. The question isdo we? Russell Moore is the editor in chief at Christianity Today and leads its Public Theology Project. An excerpt on grief, forgiveness, and the gospel from Beechdale Road: Where Mercy Is More Powerful Than Murder . Illustration by Elizabeth Kaye / Source Images: Unsplash On Sunday, June 21, 2020, 18-year-old Linda Stoltzfoos of Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, was kidnapped and later murdered by Justo Smokermy brother-in-law. As you might expect, my family journeyed through tremendous grief, anger, and pain. But as you might not expect, we also journeyed through the challenge of receiving unexplainable grace, kindness, and mercy at the hands of the Amish community, of which Linda Stoltzfoos was a part. The story to be told is not just another story of grief and healing but a story about the gospel. Its a gospel story embedded in the very tangible way the Amish community poured out grace and mercy on my familyand our struggle to receive it. As a pastor for over 20 years, I have preached the gospel countless times, but through my encounters with the Amish community, it was preached to me in a way that was deeper and more personal than anything Ive ever encountered before. Sign up for CT Books Each issue contains up-to-date, insightful information about today's culture, plus analysis of books important to the evangelical thinker. Email* Sign Up This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Thanks for signing up. Please click here to see all our newsletters. Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again. Many years ago, I memorized Pauls words in Ephesians 2:89: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faithand this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of Godnot by works, so that no one can boast. But in the last four years, for the first time in my life, Ive had to wrestle with what it really means to receive unmerited grace when there is absolutely nothing you can do to make things better on your own. My family experienced what its like when undeserved mercy confronts undeniable evil, when kindness upends condemnation, when heaven engages hell. This experience began with a knock on the door that I had no interest in answering. I was in no mood to talk to anyone just a few hours after it became public that Justo was charged with Lindas kidnapping. My shoulders dropped and I thought to myself, Oh, come on. I dont have energy to interact with anyone right now. Sitting there at the kitchen table, I just wanted them to go away. What got me up from the kitchen table was fear. I was afraid it might be the FBI or police looking for more information or needing something else. Also, I realized I probably should take responsibility to face whoever was there, because the alternative was to wait long enough that my daughter would feel compelled to get the door. As good as avoidance sounded, I didnt want to put her in that position. I found the energy to get up and drag myself to the door. I peeked through the side windows next to the door and took a breath. It looked like a young Amish family standing outside. I was immediately relievedits so much more welcoming to see an Amish family than uniformed officers at your door. Then, immediately, before I reached for the door handle, other feelings came over me that Id never felt when interacting with the Amish until this moment: guilt and shame. I felt more vulnerable than Ive ever felt opening my front door. With the door opened, my eyes at once met our neighbor, Mary (name changed for privacy). Wed never really interacted before. She had her four children with her, all very young and all basically unaware of the situation their mom had chosen to enter. Their eyes were full of youthful exuberance, wonder, and interest at coming to our home. Her eyes were full of compassion. I saw no pity there, and certainly no angernothing close to that. There was an immediate sensation that she knew what was going on here in a way that few did. Her presence was a gift, and it immediately displaced my guilt and shame. Im Mary, your neighbor, she said. And you may not know this, but I was the teacher at Nickel Mines. The tears barely stayed in her eyes. As I stood there, I knew she didnt have to say more. She knew. She knew everythingeverything that was about to come our way over the coming season, and everything we would uncover in ourselves, in our community, and in our personal faith in God. My oldest daughter, Megan, was in kindergarten when Nickel Mines happened. On October 2, 2006, Charles Roberts entered a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, just 15 minutes from our home. He forced the teacher, the aides, and all the boys outside. Inside, he shot ten girlskilling fivethen killed himself. Mary was that teacher. She was only in her late teens when this happened. And here she stood, 14 years later, at our front door. In a way, it seemed like shed just come from running out the back door of that schoolhouse. The pain was fresh, the wound was deep. But her presence wasnt only about recognizing that. Mary was doing what so many in her Amish community did right on the heels of Nickel Mines: They forgave. Immediately. And as completely as they could. This posture of forgiveness took on various forms, and, in this moment, what it meant for Mary was that in her right hand she held a handpicked bouquet of flowers and in her left hand a small bag of homegrown cucumbers. I hate cucumbers. But in that moment, I felt like I loved them. I almost cried over cucumbers. The cucumbers represented to me the manifestation of her deep desire to provide comfort and love to our family. What could really be said or done or offered at this point, given the gravity of the moment? Love could be expressed verbally, but the cucumbers represented to me a grace of someone trying something tangible rather than just being satisfied with words. And when youre overwhelmed, even the smallest grace can touch the deepest part of you. I brought you some flowers and some cucumbers, she said. I hope you like cucumbers. Thank you so much, I lied. I really do. I took the gifts while she remained standing on our front porch. I learned the kids names and thanked her for coming. Then she took a breath, and with glassy eyes said to me, There is hope. God will take care of you. I nodded. To this day, Im not sure what I said in response. What she said and what she did in that moment were far more important. Mary gave us a gift of grace with her nonjudgmental presence, just hours after learning it was her neighbors family that had inflicted this Nickel Mineslike pain on the Amish community once again. That early visit was a preview of what was to come, though I didnt know that then. All I knew was that in our two-minute interaction, she had changed the narrative without realizing it. In the first narrative that we were living, we felt great shame and guilt over the pain inflicted on our community by our family member, whom we love. It would make sense if people around us were angry, particularly the Amish community, and most certainly Lindas family. We expected to play the role of the ones asking for forgiveness, being silent in the background, having to figure out how to grieve while also absorbing the brunt of pent-up anger in our community for the long weeks between Lindas disappearance and Justos arrest. That was a narrative that made sense, and that we anticipatedthough we couldnt fully verbalize it. Mary and her cucumbers opened up our hearts to another possible narrative, one that acknowledged the need we all had for healing. We all were wounded. We all deeply needed love, grace, and the gift of personal presence to chase away shame and guilt. This narrative included the possibility of hopehope for a future that might not be as dark as the current moment felt. Her narrative acknowledged the pain that would come, but it didnt leave us there. In eating these cucumbers, it was as if we could taste and see that love is good. It was the kind of love that might just be able to heal. Marys visit made me think that Pauls words in Romans 8:3839 might be even grittier than I had experienced in my life to date: For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Neither death nor life can separate us from the love of Christ? Even if your brother-in-law takes someones life? Christs love is present in that space? When I closed the door, I was holding back tears as I held the bag of cucumbers and the vase of flowers in my hands. I was holding love, and I didnt want to put it down. These gifts werent enough to chase away all the pain and hurtthere was still much more of that to come. But in the moment, they gave life and breath and hope and kindness. Thats what personal visits and cucumbers do. They raise our vision, encourage our soul, give us honest hope that this current sadness might not be forever sadness. Love lifts, lightens, and stabilizeswhich was good, because the journey we were starting had plenty more to show us. We would need as much love and grace as we could find. Tim Rogers has served as lead pastor at Grace Point Church of Paradise, Pennsylvania, for more than 20 years and is active in various community roles. Coauthor Megan Shertzer works as an adult advocate at The Factory Ministries in Paradise, Pennsylvania. Megan is Justos niece. Adapted from Beechdale Road by Megan Shertzer andTim Rogers. 2024 by Megan Shertzer and Tim Rogers. Used by permission. www.beechdaleroad.com for more information. Baptist confessions have long drawn attention beyond the church. The proposal on male pastors will too. Baptist Press / Edits by CT Messengers from around the country will soon gather in Indianapolis to conduct the business of the Southern Baptist Convention. As in recent years, they will consider the exact relationship between the association and its member churchesa question of unique significance to Baptists who have historically valued local church independence. This week, they will be asked to take final action on an amendment that would alter the SBC constitutions understanding of a cooperating church from one that closely identifies with the complementarian stance of the Baptist Faith and Message (BFM) to one that affirms, appoints, or employs only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture. The proposal came in the wake of last years disfellowship of Saddleback Church after it installed three women as staff pastors (which an overwhelming majority of messengers understood to be in conflict with the BFM). Sign up for CT Pastors Each weekly CT Pastors issue equips you with the best wisdom and practical tools for church ministry. Email* Sign Up This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Thanks for signing up. Please click here to see all our newsletters. Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again. Despite this swift and certain response, proponents believe the Law Amendment, named after its author, Mike Law, is necessary to further unify practice. Others worry that such reforms move the convention toward a form of subscriptionism, which would use bureaucracy to enforce norms on individual churches, putting the SBC at odds with historic polity. But the concern for Baptist identity highlights another, often overlooked, aspect of the debate: Historically, Baptist confessions were a form of public witness. The earliest Baptist confessions emerged in 17th-century Reformation England, a time of tremendous social, political, and religious instability. Unlike their Presbyterian and Anglican counterparts, which established and enforced denominational teaching, Baptist public statements had an apologetic, even irenic, quality to them, telling outsiders who Baptists claimed to be. This was essential in the early days because Baptist practices of believers baptism and church autonomy meant that they were often confused with more radical sects, including continental Anabaptists who refused to pay taxes, enter the military, or accept the legitimacy of civil rulers. In fact, when representatives from seven London congregations gathered to craft what would become the London Baptist Confession, they met to disclaime as notoriously untrue charges of disorder and the clearing of the truth we professe, that it may be at libertie. And it worked. Historian William Lumpkin, once professor of church history at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote that Outside the Baptist fellowship the Confession was received with unequaled surprise. People generally were amazed at the moderation and sanity of its articles. In this way, early Baptist confessions were used to present Baptist belief as reasonable and nonthreatening. The first editions of the London Confession were dedicated to Parliament as a way to petition for greater religious tolerance, and, according to Lumpkin, subsequent revisions had Parliaments reception as a primary focus, reworking the language in response to contemporary critics. This backdrop also explains why early Baptists explicitly committed to submitting to civil authorities and living justly with their neighbors, even to the point of accepting the consequences of civil disobedience; or in the words of the London Confession, not accounting our good, lands and our own lives dear. As Christians had for centuries before them, early Baptists understood persecution and martyrdom as a form of witness. Recognizing witnessnot simply organizational cooperation or resource distributionas a major reason for Baptist affiliation also clarified grounds for disaffiliation. Confessions were not creedal documents but cooperative ones that allowed congregations to lean into the safety of shared communion for the sake of public witness. Should an individual or church walk in a way that would distort the gospel they professed, other members had a right, and perhaps even a duty, to withdraw from them. Current debates in the SBC recognize this tension, but, for the most part, they tend to focus internally, framing questions as a matter of associational conformity with little to no attention given to the message being sent to outsiders. But when considered through the lens of public witness, questions that appear to be similar quickly show themselves to be very different. For example, when a member church covers up sexual abuse or retains a sexual predator in leadership, they become a clear and obvious threat to the SBCs shared testimony, not to mention a threat to the safety of surrounding society. As such, associated congregations must decisively and actively disfellowship from that church to preserve their own public witness and commitment to the common good. But how to handle more internal disagreements, such as open table Communion (which many SBC churches practice despite the BFM) or womens exact roles in local congregations, is less clear. While the SBC is unapologetically complementarian, as the disaffiliation from Saddleback Church testifies, the application of these principles varies from member congregation to congregation. Because of the belief in local church autonomy, each defines the nature and extent of pastoral ministry slightly differently. Unlike other traditions, the SBC does not have a shared process for ordination or a definition of pastor, even as it attempts to regulate that very office. Unfortunately, the Law Amendment does nothing to clarify whether pastor refers to the function, office, or title, relying instead on the sweeping statement a pastor or elder of any kind. When asked, proponents counter that Southern Baptists know what a pastor is and who should be a pastor, which unfortunately amounts to we know it when we see it. One strange result of this lack of clarity has been the creation of a list of churches with women who hold staff positions under the title of pastor, regardless of the work they actually do within the congregation. A congregation with a woman named as a worship or childrens pastor is not distinguished from one with a woman who holds elder authority as a senior pastor (which would run counter to the BFMs complementarian stance). To be clear, Baptist confessional history unquestionably affirms doctrinal alignment as necessary for close association and cooperation. Early Baptists grouped themselves along soteriological convictions, and current Baptists must wrestle with similar boundaries. At the same time, however, messengers must consider whether the high level of scrutiny on women in this moment signals a disproportionate level of concern. Unlike their Baptist forebears, the SBC currently maintains a big tent approach to some doctrines and practices, such as soteriology (Calvinist versus Arminian), leadership structure (plurality of elders versus senior pastor with a deacon board), and worship (contemporary versus traditional). What does it say to outsiders that SBC member churches are free to disagree about these issues, but a woman being named a childrens pastor is a bridge too far? More concerningly, the Law Amendment would be located in Article III.1, which specifically names uncooperative churches as those who affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior, mishandle sexual abuse, and discriminate on the basis of ethnicity. Since June 2019 when the SBC Credentials Committee was reshaped to better respond to such churches, it has recommended the disaffiliation from 18 churches, including 6 for mishandling sex abuse and 6 for ordaining women as senior pastors. To outsiders, the numbers could suggest a strange parity between how the SBC views women in leadership and how they view predatory pastors. As the nations largest Protestant association, the SBC may not feel the same need as its marginalized ancestors to preserve their public witness. Even so, its size and influence means that it must concern itself with how the Law Amendment will be perceived by outsiders. Protecting public witness does not mean shifting doctrine or changing convictions about what Scripture teaches. However, it does mean weighing the wisdom and prudence of emphasizing minor differences, even as the SBC continues to be under public scrutiny for its treatment of women. Like its early Baptist forebears, the SBC has taken an unpopular stand based on conviction and conscience. But the SBC would do well to also consider what their ancestors understood about public witness. Baptist confessions do not exist simply to monitor those inside the community but to communicate something to those outside it. If the Law Amendment passes, it risks sending a messagenot about what the SBC believes about the gospel or biblical fidelitybut that monitoring local churches to keep women in check is foundational to their identity. Hannah Anderson is the author of Humble Roots and Heaven and Nature Sing. She is pursuing an MDiv at Duke Divinity School with a focus in theology and art. This week on The Bulletin, Russell Moore and Clarissa Moll welcome Michael Wear back to the show to discuss the GOPs response to the guilty verdict for former president Donald Trump. Then, historian Kurt Piehler joins to acknowledge the 80th anniversary of D-Day and how World War II affected the Greatest Generationwho are quickly dwindling. Finally, we turn our eyes to the hunger crisis in Sudan amid a violent internal conflict, and ask Eugene Cho how Christians might respond to the need. Todays Guests: Michael Wear is the founder, president, and CEO of the Center for Christianity and Public Life, a nonpartisan, nonprofit institution based in the nations capital with the mission to contend for the credibility of Christian resources in public life, for the public good. Michael is the author of The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life. Sign up for The Daily Briefing Get the most recent headlines and stories from Christianity Today delivered to your inbox daily. Email* Sign Up This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Thanks for signing up. Please click here to see all our newsletters. Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again. Kurt Piehler is a specialist in US history with an emphasis on the 20th century. Piehler is author of A Religious History of the American GI in World War II. As founding director (19941998) of the Rutgers Oral History Archives of World War II, Piehler has conducted over 200 interviews with veterans of this conflict. His televised lecture, The War that Transformed a Generation, which drew on the Rutgers Oral History Archives, appeared on the History Channel in 1997. Eugene Cho is president/CEO of Bread for the World, a Christian advocacy organization urging US decision-makers to do all they can to pursue a world without hunger. Eugene is cochair of the US Nutrition CEO Council, the body of leaders from international NGOs encouraging the US government, civil society, corporations, and other stakeholders to make global nutrition expertise into law and policy. Prior to becoming president/CEO of Bread for the World, Eugene pastored a local church for nearly 30 years. He is also founder and visionary of One Days Wages. The Bulletin is a production of Christianity Today Producer: Clarissa Moll Associate Producer: Leslie Thompson Editing and Mix: TJ Hester Music: Dan Phelps Executive Producers: Erik Petrik and Mike Cosper Senior Producer: Matt Stevens Vlad Shalaginov / Unsplash Lifeway no longer plans to shut down its online music ministry resource lifewayworship.com . In July 2023, the company announced its plan to retire the platforma digital hymnal that provides users with chord charts, vocal arrangements, and orchestrationsthen paused those plans a week later after a strong response from customers. After a year of reevaluation and interviews with worship leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) who use the site, Lifeway has changed course and decided to continue maintaining and updating the resource. Lifeway is a curriculum company, Lifeway Worship director Brian Brown said. These worship leaders reminded us that music is their curriculum. It ministers to the whole body. Lifeway arranged panel discussions with more than 200 worship leaders between July 2023 and May 2024. The ministry was surprised to learn how many of these leaderswho served in churches of many different sizes and with a wide range of musical stylesrelied on lifewayworship.com . We undervalued some of the unique things we provided, and we didnt see how much support we were giving these churches. Much more than we realized, said Brown. Will Bishop, associate professor of church music and worship at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said that when Lifeway announced the end of lifewayworship.com a year ago, he didnt think it would be controversial. I sort of thought, Whos going to ever miss this? he said. But six months ago, Bishop began leading worship at a small SBC church in Louisville, Kentucky, and says the experience has completely changed his mind; the resource is invaluable to his ministry. I have spent many years in bigger ministries with bigger budgets, but now Im leading a church with a choir of about 18 people, a piano, organ, flute, violin, and trombone. I would absolutely miss it. Bishop says that lifewayworship.com is unique because he can find quality arrangements a la carte. Instead of purchasing a full orchestration of a hymn for $70, he can buy individual parts for his team of musicians for about $8 total. And for small and medium-sized churches on limited budgets, that makes a big difference. The majority of Southern Baptist churches are small ministries with maybe 15 people in the choir and 34 instrumentalists, said Bishop. Services like MultiTracks, PraiseCharts, and SongSelect offer tools that allow big churches to replicate the recorded versions of new worship songs. Bishop says that for larger churches with the teams and budget, those resources are ideal. But its not what most smaller churches need. Lifeway doesnt have to be everything. No one tool can be everybodys tool. Its a wonderful thing to be focused on small and medium-sized churches. Brown says that in addition to hearing from users that lifewayworship.com provides a unique set of musical tools, his team found that many of the worship leaders look to Lifeway not only for resources but also for theological guidancesomething they cant get from other non-SBC resources. One of their key concerns was the theological vetting of the lyrics of songs, Brown said. They wanted to make sure that the songs have been theologically vetted from a Southern Baptist perspective. Lifewayworship.com was originally envisioned as a digital SBC hymnal. Launched in 2008 under the direction of Mike Harland, the site started out with the 674 songs in the Baptist Hymnal and gradually expanded its offerings over time. But it wasnt designed to be a groundbreaking tech resource; it was designed to make it easier for congregations to have access to new, approved music. We were a music company first, we werent a computer company, Harland told CT last year. There were certainly other companies that had more user-friendly platforms, but we aspired for our content to be the very best. SBC congregations dont have to utilize music approved by Lifeway, but some church musicians said they are overwhelmed by the amount of new worship music they have to choose from, according to Brown. For them, trusted curation is welcome. Ultimately, worship leaders and senior pastors are going to make decisions about music in their local context. But these leaders rely on us to add some guardrails, Brown said. Lifewayworship.com also offers orchestrations with simplified, readable rhythms and emphasizes congregation-friendly arrangements and key selection. Those services are crucial for time-strapped worship leaders or those with limited formal musical training. Some worship leaders told the ministry they do not feel well-equipped to rearrange songs or select singable keys. Moving forward, lifewayworship.com will continue to provide arrangements of new music but will also seek to provide guidance and create community among worship leaders across the denomination. We want this to be the beginning of more regular communication with our churches, and were looking to continue talking more intentionally and more regularly with our worship leaders, said Brown. This is just a starting point for us. Home News Doctors, nurses urge medical organizations to stop performing trans procedures on kids 100 medical professionals gathered in Washington to unveil the 'Doctors Protecting Children Declaration' A group of medical professionals have called on the medical establishment to abandon their support for sex-change procedures for minors suffering from gender dysphoria. At a press conference held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, the American College of Pediatricians unveiled the "Doctors Protecting Children Declaration." The statement was signed by nearly 100 medical professionals, including physicians, nurses, psychotherapists and behavioral health clinicians, as well as other health professionals, scientists, researchers, and public health and policy professionals. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe The declaration was also endorsed by 18 medical organizations, nine advocacy groups and 13 supporting leaders who are not necessarily from a medical background. It asked the medical professional organizations of the United States to stop the promotion of social affirmation, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries for children and adolescents who experience distress over their biological sex. Instead, these organizations should recommend comprehensive evaluations and therapies aimed at identifying and addressing underlying psychological co-morbidities and neurodiversity that often presuppose to and accompany gender dysphoria, the signatories added. We also encourage the physicians who are members of these professional organizations to contact their leadership and urge them to adhere to the evidence-based research now available. The declaration called into question the effectiveness of body deforming and irreversible procedures pushed on children who are confused about their bodies, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and mutilating surgeries, such as castration. Warning that there are serious long-term risks associated with the use of social transition, puberty blockers, masculizing or feminizing hormones, and surgeries, the declaration listed side effects of puberty blockers as emotional lability, worsening psychological illness, low bone density, impaired memory, and the rare side-effect of pseudotumor cerebri (brain swelling). ACP Executive Director Dr. Jill Simons elaborated on her concerns about the U.S. medical establishment's current protocols on how to care for trans-identified minors. This declaration was authored by the American College of Pediatricians, but really it was developed from the expertise of hundreds of doctors, researchers and other healthcare workers and leaders who for years have been sounding the alarm on the harmful protocols that continue to be promoted by the medical organizations in the United States, she said. Simons specifically named the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Endocrine Society, the Pediatric Endocrine Society, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry as organizations that promote such harmful protocols. She pushed back on claims perpetuated by such organizations that those of us who are concerned are a minority and that their protocols are consensus," adding that "they are not consensus and we are speaking in a loud unified voice: Enough. At the press conference, Dr. Andre Van Mol of The Christian Medical and Dental Associations cited statistics finding that the natural course of gender dysphoria is desisted by adulthood, conservatively, in 85% of the cases unless it is affirmed. He added, Gender dysphoria carries with it the overwhelming probability of underlying mental health issues, adverse family dynamics, adverse childhood experiences and autism spectrum disorder, that usually predate the gender dysphoria itself. Van Mol advised watchful waiting coupled with mental health evaluation and counseling for both patient and family in light of the probability of both desistence and underlying mental health and other issues as the standard of care for minors with gender dysphoria. Concerns about the long-term impact of sex-change procedures for minors have prompted several states to ban such procedures on youth. States that have enacted prohibitions on some or all such procedures include: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. In February 2022, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Physicians, the American Osteopathic Association and the American Psychiatric Association released a joint statement denouncing state-level efforts to, as they say, criminalize gender-affirming care for young people. The trans-affirming groups added: "Our organizations have strongly opposed any legislation or regulation that interferes in the confidential relationship between a patient and their physician and the provision of evidence-based patient care for any patient. Patients, including youth, must be able to discuss gender-affirming care with their trusted physician to determine together what care is best for them. ... Our organizations will not stand for any efforts that discriminate against transgender and gender-diverse individuals and cause harm to their health and well-being." Home News Kentucky parish offering scheduled same-sex blessings despite Vatican directive A Roman Catholic parish in Kentucky is offering scheduled blessings for same-sex couples despite the Vatican's recent directive that such blessings should be spontaneous. Historic St. Paul Catholic Church in downtown Lexington is offering such a service to any couple who reaches out to Father Richard Watson, according to the parish website, which was first reported by the Catholic News Agency. The arrangement appears to go against the Vatican's controversial December 2023 "Fiducia Supplicans" guidance, which caused an uproar within the Catholic Church globally for permitting "spontaneous blessings" for same-sex couples. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe The guidance stops short of permitting the blessing of gay marriage, but allows a blessing for "people who come spontaneously to ask for a blessing show by this request their sincere openness to transcendence, the confidence of their hearts that they do not trust in their own strength alone, their need for God, and their desire to break out of the narrow confines of this world, enclosed in its limitations." The guidance further stipulates that such blessings are to be "non-ritualized" and not something that could be confused for a formal marriage covenant or approval of homosexual behavior. Neither Watson nor Stan "JR" Zerkowski, who serves as director of the church's LGBTQ+ Ministry, responded to The Christian Post's request for comment by the time of publication. The website of Historic St. Paul Catholic Church, which was built in 1865, is replete with LGBTQ-related content, including an image that depicts the Virgin Mary cradling a child while wrapped in an LGBT pride flag. "Mother, the rainbow is the lasting sign of God's covenant; as God's love wrapped you in grace, may it also wrap your LGBTQ+ children and assure them of God's love," the website wrote beneath the image, which also provided a prayer to "Our Mother of Pride." Zerkowski, who received a handwritten note of support from Pope Francis in 2023 praising him for his ministry outreach to the LGBTQ community, penned an article for the parish website last week that appears to liken the mystery of the Trinity to the "mystery" of the trans experience. "I'll never understand the transgender experience it is a mystery to me. But I accept it as the beautiful reality of some of my siblings and as a manifestation of God's mysterious life," Zerkowski wrote. "As a gay man, I may never understand the heterosexual experience, but I appreciate and love those who live and love a bit differently than I do." "I understand that encountering others is a glorious encounter with the Trinity every time someone else's life is a mystery to me or when we celebrate and live our appreciation for the incredible diversity that we live among. It all points to and reveals the Divine Creator, Redeemer and Spirit!" he added. The Diocese of Lexington also made headlines last month when Brother Christian Matson, a Catholic diocesan hermit, came out as trans-identifying with the permission of Lexington Bishop John Stowe, who has openly supported the LGBT community and once described them as an example of "unselfish love." "You've got to deal with us because God has called us into this church," Matson was quoted as saying. "It's not your church to kick us out of this is God's church, and God has called us and engrafted us into it." Francis raised eyebrows during an interview last month on "60 Minutes," during which he clarified that "Fuducia supplicans" does not permit the blessing of a homosexual union itself, but simply the two individual homosexuals engaging in the union. "What I allowed was not to bless the union; that cannot be done, because that is not the sacrament," he said. "I cannot. The Lord made it that way. But to bless each person? Yes. The blessing is for everyone." Home News Pakistani Christian woman jailed on blasphemy charges of hurting Muslims sentiments Family facing pressure not to pursue defense against false charges LAHORE, Pakistan A Christian woman in Pakistan remains in jail on baseless charges of blasphemy after a judge rejected her bail application on Monday, sources said. Stella Khawar, 28, was arrested on May 12 in Kharota Syedan, in the Kotli Loharan area of Sialkot District, Punjab Province, and was charged with hurting religious sentiments of Muslims, said her husband, Khawar Shahzad. The lawyer says he will now file for bail in the sessions court, Khawar Shahzad said. I dont know what will be the outcome due to the pressure being exerted by religious groups, but my priority right now is to keep my child safe from any harm. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe With rights advocates suspecting an organized campaign against Christians following tensions in Jaranwala on Aug. 16, the charges against Stella Khawar go back to alleged incidents in August and January. After the Aug. 16, 2023, attacks on churches and homes of Christians in Jaranwala, there have been three or four incidents in our village in which blasphemous content was found written on currency notes and other material, including shopping bags, Khawar Shahzad told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. This caused a lot of tension in our locality, but no one knew who was behind these actions. There are about 300 to 350 Christian families settled in Kotli Loharan. A member of a Pentecostal church, Khawar Shahzad said that the latest incident occurred in the village on May 10, when someone found blasphemous content written on a paper. Instead of registering a new First Information Report (FIR), police named Stella Khawar in the August and January FIRs that were previously registered against unknown persons, he said. We were at my in-laws house on May 12 when police came and took Stella into custody, Khawar Shahzad said. They claimed that they had concrete evidence that she was responsible for the incidents of alleged blasphemy. We were dumbfounded by the allegation, but there was nothing we could do to stop the police from taking Stella with them. The couple has a 4-year-old son. Khawar Shahzad said he hasn't been able to meet with his wife since she was arrested. My wife is a devout Christian, and like other members of the community, she, too, was very upset after the attacks in Jaranwala, he said. However, she never said or did anything in front of me or other family members which showed that she could be involved in any such activity. The complainant in the cases against his wife and other Muslims are applying strong pressure on him to refrain from pursuing a defense for his wife, he said. The situation is such that to date, I havent even been able to meet Stella and ask her about the veracity of the allegation, he said. A Christian aid organization engaged a lawyer to file a bail petition last week, but the magistrate rejected it on Monday. Kotli Loharan police arrested Stella Khawar under blasphemy charges in one case on Aug. 27 and another on Jan. 7. Both FIRs were registered by a local Muslim prayer leader, Syed Jawad Ali, alleging unidentified individuals had thrown blasphemous content at different places in the village with an intent to stoke religious tension between the Muslim and Christian communities, Khawar Shahzad said. The charges were registered under Section 295-A of the blasphemy statutes, which calls for 10 years of prison for those convicted of intentionally outraging religious sentiments, and Section 505, which relates to intentionally causing fear in the public and harming public tranquility. It is punishable by imprisonment of up to seven years. Christians targeted Rights activists said recent incidents in Kotli Loharan were a cause of serious concern and indicate a larger campaign against area Christians. At least 300-350 Christian families are settled in Kotli Loharan, and there have been repeated attempts to stir religious tension in that area since the Aug. 16 Jaranwala incident, rights activist Shahzad Imran told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. It seems an organized campaign has been launched against the Christians, a majority of whom are poor working-class people. Imran recalled that earlier this year, a Muslim gang in Kotli Loharan tortured two Christian brothers into reciting the Islamic conversion creed. Azam Masih, 28, and his brother, Nadeem Masih, were abducted, beaten with iron rods and pressured to convert to Islam on Jan. 22. The suspects Naseem Shah and Sunny Shah also recorded a video statement of the two brothers in which they were forced to say that they were converting to Islam of their own free will. The brothers and their impoverished Christian family chose to keep silent about the ordeal, as the suspects had warned them against contacting police. With the support of Christian activists, however, the brothers registered an FIR against the Muslims, resulting in their arrest. Imran said the situation in the area was tense after the arrest of Stella Khawar, and he and others were in contact with Muslim leaders to defuse the situation. I feel theres a more sinister plot behind these cases against Christians, he said. I appeal to the government to conduct a high-level inquiry into the allegations against Stella. Its quite possible that she has been targeted by the same people who want to disrupt peace and instill fear in the Christians there. Rights activist Napolean Qayyum said recent incident in Sargodha, in which a Muslim mob lynched an elderly Christian on false blasphemy charges and burned his shoe factory, showed how the controversial laws were being misused to settle personal rivalries. False allegations of blasphemy have become a norm in Pakistan, Qayyum said. No one is safe now, not even Muslims. The recent acts of violence show that Christians are particularly vulnerable in Punjab Province. The government needs to take every incident involving blasphemy accusations very seriously and should ensure the protection of the minorities from mob attacks. 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. Originally published at Christian Daily International and Morning Star News Home News Pastor beaten, accused of being leader of conversion racket NEW DELHI, India Pastor Josemon Pathrose spent nearly all of February in jail and finally got his confiscated vehicle back after four months. The harassment and criminal charges hes endured at the hands of Hindu extremists are not uncommon in India. Pastor Pathrose and another Christian were driving back to their base in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh state from Uttar Pradesh state on Feb. 3 when they stopped in Khudatpura village, Jalaun District, to visit a family who had attended his online meeting. As they were having tea, members of the Hindu extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad barged in, alleging the 55-year-old pastor was visiting to fraudulently convert people. Police soon arrived and arrested Pastor Pathrose and his companion, seized his vehicle, Bibles and literature and took them and three other Christians to the Madhogarh police station, he said. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe They slapped us as they questioned us, Pastor Pathrose told Morning Star News. They called me the leader of the conversion racket and beat me more than my friend. Officers asked them how much money they offered for each conversion to Christianity, how many people had they converted, where they got foreign funds for conversions, how many places had they evangelized, and Who else is in your gang, among other questions, the pastor said. Also arrested was the adult son of the host family and his friend, the pastor said. A Hindu named Abhishek Singh filed a complaint alleging that Pastor Pathrose and his team offered him 200,000 rupees (US$2,400) and further benefits to convert to Christianity, an accusation the pastor roundly denies, but police filed charges unrelated to fraudulent conversion: Deliberately outraging religious feelings by insulting its religion or religious beliefs (Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code), promoting disharmony (153A), and statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will (505-2). They seized his vehicle and the Bibles under Motor Vehicle Act Section 207, which allows authorities to detain and take action against vehicles found being driven without the necessary permits and registration. They can, even, seize the vehicle if it is found to be used for any illegal purpose. Pathrose runs a Christian literature shop in Gwalior and was carrying the Bibles and literature to display at a 50-day trade fair where he had rented a stall. I have been renting a stall in this trade fair for many years. I run the stall every year under the name Bible Shop, Pathrose informed the questioning officer. I have all the required permissions and documentation, and I pay a rent of 25,000 rupees per month. The pastor had 13 Bibles, 50 New Testaments and a pack of Christian booklets to display at the stall, he said. When the police came to arrest me, I was not preaching, nor carrying a Bible, Pathrose told Morning Star News. My Bibles and literature were in my truck. Is it a crime to carry your own religious texts in your vehicle? His vehicle, mobile phone, cash and all Christian literature, including the Bibles, were seized, and his friends phone and cash were also confiscated. Pathrose also refuted the complainants allegation of fraudulent conversion, saying he had never seen, known or met him before as it was his first visit to Khudatpura village. For the next two days, local media channels and newspapers branded Pathrose the leader of a conversion racket and portrayed all the arrested Christians as gang members, he said. Officers kept the two Christians at the police station for about 30 hours before presenting them before a judge who sent them to Orai jail in Jalaun District without questioning them, Pathrose said. It was evident they had orders from authorities not to spare any Christian, he said. They had no reason to arrest us, so reasons were being formulated during our interrogation. We were assaulted and interrogated, almost forcing us to say something that would give them a reason to file a case against us. Pathrose said police kept the three others arrested separate and also assaulted them. They were presented before a different judge and released the next day; the pastor was unsure if they were required to post bail. The arrested son of the host and his friend were kept separately. The son was taken from the police station to take his undergraduate annual exam before he and his friend were released without charges, the pastor said. Jail and legal battle Pathrose described conditions in the jail as pathetic, including bullying, extortion and mental torture. The Jalaun Junior court rejected their bail plea, so their lawyer applied for bail in the Orai District Court, which on Feb. 22 ordered their release on a bail bond of 50,000 rupees (US$600) each. As it was difficult to find sureties in an area unknown to them, they faced a long wait before their release, as the documents had to pass four stringent tests for validation before they would be considered, the pastor said. Pathrose and his friend were finally released on March 1. The same day, he applied to get his confiscated belongings back. Authorities told him he had to get a bond surety of 50,000 rupees (US$600) for his mobile phone, Bibles, literature and 3,500 rupees cash, while his friend had to submit a 25,000 rupees (US$300) surety for his phone and 300 rupees cash. It was so hard for us to find two more guarantors, Pathrose said. After much persistence, we finally somehow managed. When he went to retrieve his vehicle, officials required another surety bond of about 275,000 rupees (US$3,300). I felt utterly distressed, he said. After hearing his pleas, officials accepted a bond of 125,000 rupees (US$1,500). Arranging this large amount was difficult, but he finally persuaded a Christian to submit papers making his tractor available as surety. Pathrose went to collect his vehicle, officials told him he couldnt take it due to a ticket issued for missing papers, though he said his papers were up to date. They forced him to go to the Orai court to pay a 7,000 rupee fine (US$85), but no receipt was issued, he said. When he insisted, they wrote on a plain paper and gave it, he said. Everything seemed fishy. After making all payments, when Pathrose finally went to get his vehicle, police told him to return the next day. He continued to try get his vehicle back for three months, riding 95 miles on a motorbike in scorching summer heat every time they had to arrange for bonds and documents. From March 1 till May 30, we were called for our stuff several times, the pastor said. He finally got his vehicle back on May 30, but in bad shape. The central locking system was broken, the side mirrors vandalized, he said. I felt so sad and miserable that after running from pillar to post, with all my paperwork, I finally got my truck in that condition. Repairs will cost him more money. The police, lawyer and jail are a bigger torment to us Christians once arrested than the RSS outside the jail, Pastor Pathrose said. For us, we suffer both outside and inside. While police investigate, the two Christians can appeal in the High Court to dismiss their case. A policeman told the pastor that the host of the house where they were arrested, Har Narayan, is going to testify against them. Pathrose added, The host family has been severely threatened, and they have broken all contacts with us. Under pressure, they are giving statements against us. India ranked 11th on Christian support organization Open Doors 2024 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. The country was 31st in 2013, but its position worsened after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power. The hostile tone of the National Democratic Alliance government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), against non-Hindus, has emboldened Hindu extremists in several parts of the country to attack Christians since Modi took power in May 2014, religious rights advocates say. Home News Whistleblower who exposed Texas hospitals trans surgeries on kids indicted by DOJ The United States Department of Justice has indicted a surgeon who blew the whistle on a Texas hospital secretly performing trans surgeries and gender medicalization of minors. Dr. Eithan Haim, a surgeon at Texas Childrens Hospital in Houston, who leaked evidence of the body-mutilating procedures to journalist Christopher Rufo, was indicted earlier this week on four felony counts of allegedly violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Haim is scheduled to appear in court on June 17, the National Review reported Thursday, with his legal team reportedly being unaware of the full nature of the charges. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe My client is anxious to get to trial to get his side of the story told, Marcella Burke, an attorney for Haim, told National Review. I am confident this will result in the correct decision being made. The Christian Post reached out to both the law firm representing Haim and the Department of Justice for more information. This article will be updated when their responses are received. In February 2022, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a formal opinion that described sex-change procedures being performed on minors as "child abuse," with Gov. Greg Abbott later issuing an order instructing state agencies to investigate them as such. Although Texas Childrens Hospital announced in March 2022 that it was ending the practice of performing such procedures on children and youth in response to the state government, Haim leaked evidence that the hospital was doing so in secret. Based on the leaked evidence provided by Haim, Rufo wrote an article in City Journal that was published on May 16, 2023, which claimed that the hospital "secretly continued to perform transgender medical interventions, including the use of implantable puberty blockers, on minor children." In response to the story, a state investigation was launched into Texas Childrens Hospital, with the facility finally shutting down its practice of gender medicalization of minors suffering from gender dysphoria. In June of last year, Abbott signed Senate Bill 14 into law, which banned cosmetic and irreversible sex-change surgeries and hormonal interventions for trans-identified youth. Even before outing himself as the whistleblower in January, Haim was the subject of a federal investigation, with him reportedly being labeled a target of an investigation soon after the Rufo story ran. "These people are corrupt," Haim told CP in an interview published in January. "And the only way to expose it is to not play into this Kabuki theater, like these people are practitioners of justice. Because if we were to collude with them, we would be sanctioning our own destruction." "Because these people are just petty tyrants and neurotic bureaucrats. And what that boils down to is that these people are simply bullies. When you're fearful, when you're afraid, that's when they're most effective. So to be fearful and scared is to seal your own death warrant." Home News Texas surgeon likens 'gender-affirming care' to lobotomies: 'In no way is this medicine' NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland. A whistleblower who exposed a children's hospital for lying about prescribing puberty blockers to children likened sex-change surgeries and hormone treatments to lobotomies, a procedure he noted society eventually came to view as "barbaric." General surgeon Dr. Eithan Haim spoke at the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference during a panel titled "Genesis 1:27," named after the Bible verse that states God created men and women in "his own image." Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, also appeared on the panel, while Daily Caller reporter Meg Brock served as the moderator. During the panel, Haim discussed how he blew the whistle on the Houston-based Texas Children's Hospital, where he completed his surgical residency. The doctor provided journalist Christopher Rufo with internal documents showing that the hospital was continuing to conduct so-called "gender-affirming services" on minors despite telling the public it had paused such procedures. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe Haim said that after he exposed the hospital, federal agents showed up at his door to tell him that he was now under criminal investigation for his actions. Brock asked the surgeon why he decided to blow the whistle on the hospital, and Haim replied that he took an oath as a doctor to "do no harm." He said he felt a responsibility to do something. In response to a question about how trans activists argue sex-change surgeries and puberty blockers are medically necessary for people suffering from gender dysphoria, Haim declared, "In no way is this medicine." The surgeon stated that it is not possible to treat a psychological issue with a "solution of the body," likening so-called "gender-affirming care" to lobotomies. Introduced in the 1930s, lobotomies became a popular brain procedure that some believed could be a cure for mental illness. According to a 2013 paper by Mercer University School of Medicine Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery (ret.) Miguel A. Faria, Jr., an estimated 60,000 lobotomies were performed in the United States and Europe between 1936 and 1956. As Haim noted, society finally recognized the procedure as "barbaric." The whistleblower called on good people to speak up, claiming that trans ideology is evil and doctors are attempting to play God. "The actual goal of medicine is to preserve and strengthen what has already been created," he said. Haim believes doctors are hesitant to speak up because they fear for their livelihoods. He warned that the silence from doctors fearful of losing their jobs is a "miscalculation" on their part. Haim contends that if more doctors don't speak up, then the world they will deliver to their children will be "much more dangerous." The surgeon stated that the "longer this goes on, the worse it gets." At one point during the panel, Schilling made a similar statement when he called on Republicans to stand against trans ideology, adding that they must care about values and not just winning elections. The conservative activist also highlighted a 2022 report the group released titled "The Transgender Leviathan." The report cited an analysis by Global Market Insights, which estimated that the "global market valuation" for sex-change surgeries will exceed $1.5 billion by 2026. "This is about control, and ultimately, this is about the destruction of biological sex," Schilling said in response to a question from Brock about how trans activists have branded themselves as a civil rights movement. Home News Joe Scarborough calls Trumps description of relationship with God beyond parody Former president and presumptive Republican 2024 presidential nominee Donald Trump says he believes his relationship with God is good as he professed his love for Evangelicals who have been faithfully praying for him and assuring him that hes going to be OK. Trump, who was convicted on May 30 of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal that threatened his 2016 presidential campaign, was asked during a Fox & Friends interview last weekend to describe his relationship with God and talk about how he prays. While he did not say how he prays or if he currently prays, Trump revealed that many devout Evangelicals have assured him they are praying for him. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe I think its good, Trump said about his relationship with God. I do very well with the Evangelicals. I love the Evangelicals. And I have more people saying they pray for me I cant even believe it. And they are so committed, and theyre so believing. They say, Sir, youre going to be OK. I pray for you every night. I mean, everybody, almost I cant say everybody, but almost everybody that sees me, they say it. Reacting to a clip of Trumps comments on his show Morning Joe on Tuesday, MSNBC opinion host Joe Scarborough dismissed Trumps comments as beyond parody and sad. I mean, seriously, just go to church once, right? Just get the crib notes, all right? he said after laughing incredulously at Trumps comments. "When somebody asks you what your relationship with God is, don't go, 'Well, evangelicals vote for me and say, 'Sir, we pray for you.' Not sure where in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said that." @JoeNBC reacts to Trump turning faith into one of his infamous "sir" stories pic.twitter.com/U0OW54ohQS Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) June 4, 2024 When somebody asks you what your relationship is with God ... dont go, Well, Evangelicals vote for me. They say, Sir, we vote for you. Its just beyond parody, Scarborough said of Trumps comments. In a 2016 interview with CNN host Jake Tapper, Trump discussed how he had a great relationship with God but doesnt like asking Him for forgiveness. I like to be good. I dont like to have to ask for forgiveness, and I am good. I dont do a lot of things that are bad. I try and do nothing thats bad. I live a very different life than probably a lot of people would think, Trump said. Many Christians, some describing themselves as prophets, have publicly declared that the former presidents trial in New York was rigged but insisted that God would deliver him. Read 10 Evangelical reactions to Trump's verdict Woe to the enemies of Almighty God. You are laughing, thinking you got what you desired, Julie Green of Julie Green Ministries in Iowa said in a message she claimed was coming from God shortly after Trump was convicted. I will tell you; I will have the last laugh. Your verdict is a joke, an illusion I will show you whose verdict really counts. My son is not guilty, Green claimed God said of Trump. And the world will see your kangaroo courts, and how they are a joke, and how they are nothing against Me. Green compared Trump to the biblical King David and suggested that he would have the last laugh over his secular enemies. I say, you do not have my David where you want him. But I have you where I want you, Green said. Your show is about to end, and my children are about to laugh. Home Books Voddie Baucham identifies 3 'red flags' churches are capitulating to modern, Neo-Marxist ideology (pt. 1) Read part 2 of Voddie Baucham's interview with The Christian Post here Prominent pastor and author Voddie Baucham has identified three signs a church is abandoning Scriptural truths for modern, Neo-Marxist ideology in a culture where truth is under attack and Christianity is increasingly marginalized. In an interview with The Christian Post, the 54-year-old dean of theology at African Christian University in Zambia highlighted several concerning trends in modern churches that he fears are eroding the foundations of Christianity, beginning with a de-emphasis of the Bible, where there is a lack of commitment to systematically teach and exposit the Scriptures. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe There's not a commitment to a systematic exposition of the Bible, and what we hear from the pulpit is rooted and grounded in more psychology and philosophy than text and theology, Baucham said. The second red flag involves the church's alignment with post-Christian culture. Baucham noted that some leaders preach messages that resonate with the values and agendas of the secular world, including issues related to LGBTQ+ concerns. You begin to hear things in the church, from the pulpit, from the leadership that resonate with this post-Christian culture, for example, the LGBTQ-plus, whatever agendas, he said. Finally, he said apologizing for essential Christian doctrines is another red flag indicating a departure from true, biblical Christianity. Were apologizing for the creation myth. We're apologizing for the Gospel. We're apologizing for the Reformation. We're apologizing for Christian morality, these sorts of things. These are some signs that things have gone very wrong, he said. A May 2021 survey from Evangelical pollster George Barna found that just 6% of Americans have a "biblical worldview. Similarly, survey data compiled in January 2020 showed that only 2% of millennials hold a biblical worldview, even though 61% identify as Christian. Baucham, who is gearing up for a revised release of his 2004 book The Ever-Loving Truth: Can Faith Survive in a Post-Christian Culture?explained that for many decades, the Western Church has assumed and then forgotten the essence of the Gospel, leading to a foundation built on shifting sand rather than the solid rock of Christ. The ramifications of that, he lamented, are becoming increasingly visible in todays post-Christian America. For a long time, because of the assumptions of the culture, one of the things that we did was we assumed the Gospel, Baucham said. The message of the Gospel is an offensive message in a lost and dying world. But we assumed the Gospel. Then, after we assumed the Gospel, we forgot the Gospel and we left the Gospel behind. And we begin to build churches and really, I use that term loosely because, in many instances, they aren't churches and gather people based on commonalities that were not Gospel-centered. We gathered people because we liked the same kind of music or we were in the same social class. We had those things as our foundation instead of having the Gospel as our foundation. Baucham, who previously served as pastor of Grace Family Baptist Church in Texas, stressed that the Gospel message is considered offensive to the world. And, in an attempt to avoid offense, many churches have neglected its transformative power. He warned that such churches, lacking a Gospel-centered foundation, are ill-prepared for the challenges of the post-Christian era. In this post-Christian era, where we're all being sort of painted with the same brush, people who have not relied on the Gospel to build solid foundations are seeing their sheep scattered. They're really not legitimate sheep in the first place, and they also don't really know how to respond, because the response in many instances has been, No, no, no, no, we're not like them. And them, of course, are conservative, Bible-believing Evangelicals, those people who have always been vilified by the culture at large. But thats not working anymore, he said, because its not enough to just not hold firmly to the truths of the Gospel and to not hold firmly to those things that the culture finds offensive. Any identification now with Christianity, which is seen as the sort of ultimate hegemonic boogeyman in modern, Neo Marxist culture, is offensive. So, a lot of people are caught off guard because of compromises that they made a long time ago that looked like they were paying off. Baucham issued an urgent call for a bold return to the core of Christianity: the unadulterated Gospel. He emphasized the need for churches to stand firm on biblical truths without compromise, even in the face of cultural pressure and vilification. We need to prepare ourselves for the opposition, not only the opposition coming, but for the opposition that's already here, he said. We need to know what we believe and why we believe it. We need to be prepared to give an answer to those who ask us for the reason for the hope that is in us. We need to be prepared to speak to this post-Christian culture. Finally, we need to be prepared to accept the consequences of doing so, which are unpleasant. The Ever-Loving Truth: Can Faith Survive in a Post-Christian Culture? will be released on Sept. 16. Home News Voddie Baucham warns culture under divine judgment, urges Christians to 'be ready' for persecution 'Plead with Him that all would not be lost' ARLINGTON, Texas Pastor Voddie T. Baucham warned that the pervasive sexual sins of the prevailing culture are signs of divine judgment, but that the Gospel still offers hope and that American Christians should plead with God for revival while preparing for persecution. Baucham, who is on leave in the U.S. from his position as Dean of Theology at African Christian University in Lusaka, Zambia, preached from Romans 1 during an event last Saturday at Lamar Baptist Church outside Dallas. Reiterating some of the points in his new book, It's Not Like Being Black: How Sexual Activists Hijacked the Civil Rights Movement, which was released Tuesday, Baucham noted the irony that he was making his remarks on the first day of pride month, which he referred to as "pride goes before destruction month." Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe Noting that the Apostle Paul ultimately spends much of the first chapter of Romans explaining how the wrath of God manifests in the world by giving mankind over to sexual depravity and "a debased mind," Baucham also observed that Paul lays the foundation of his difficult arguments on the hope and reality of the Gospel. Starting at Romans 1:16, Baucham read: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" "That's the foundation for all of this," Baucham said. "That's our foundation for thinking about all of these issues. We start there. We start with the reality of the Gospel and our need for the Gospel. We start with the reality that the righteous shall live by faith." "We are living in a time, in an era when there are people who are desperately wicked, and in desperate need of repentance and faith, in desperate need of the Gospel. And we're being told that the wickedness is, in fact, the Gospel," Baucham said. Baucham went on to note that such a worldview is destructive because it not only calls good evil and evil good, but also "alienates people from the only hope that they have." "And that's what this is about," he continued. "At the end of the day, this is not just about laws that we don't like, or that we disagree with, or that we want changed. [...] Laws are important, but ultimately our golden rule is not just that people would be forbidden from certain things, but they will be free from them." Baucham went on to expound upon what he described as the "four-stage devolution" of an evil culture as described in Romans 1. He said that the destruction starts with a denial of God and His authority, as well as a desire to suppress the truth, which he noted has long been readily apparent in modern culture. The consequence of such a worldview, Baucham said, first leads to general sexual immorality, which he explained first manifested in the Sexual Revolution and in the separation of sex from marital commitment and family. "Here's what's interesting: we haven't gotten to 'the alphabet' yet," he said of such a step. "This is not about the alphabet. This is about the Sexual Revolution as a whole. Long before we got to the alphabet, we had a Sexual Revolution." He also said contraceptives, abortion and the crisis of fatherlessness are correlative to such an attitude. "This thing is broken without the alphabet mafia," he added. Baucham then explained that "dishonorable passions" are the next stage of divine judgment against a wicked culture, and suggested that the scale at which modern society is subject to them is historically unprecedented. "So, we've gone beyond natural passions gone astray, to disordered and dishonorable passions," he said. "It's like the law of diminishing returns, right? We always want more. We're never satisfied. Whenever we're pursuing one of God's good gifts outside of the boundaries wherein God gives that gift, it never brings us the satisfaction that we crave. And on top of that, it always brings us guilt and shame." Despite the culture's clarion call for people to embrace the supposed freedom of sexual liberation, he said the evidence suggests that such behavior is enslaving even children at this point. "We go deeper and deeper and deeper into our sinfulness, and it just doesn't satisfy," he said. "Here's what's amazing: we have a generation today that has more sex and sexualized content available to them than anyone in history has ever had. Imagine!" "When I was a kid, you had to have an uncle or somebody who had some stuff hidden in their room, you know? You'd find stuff that was hidden somewhere in an uncle's room, or somebody would tell you, 'Guess what I saw.'" Lifting up his phone, Baucham added, "We're giving them to 9- and 10-year-olds. Number one use of the internet is still pornography, and we're giving unlimited, unfettered access to it to 9- and 10-year-olds in the palm of their hands." "So we've got a generation of people who've been raised with sexual material, who have been raised with libertine views towards sex, who are engaging in sex younger and younger, and we've got young people entering into marriage who can't even enjoy sex anymore, because their ability to enjoy it has nearly been destroyed." Baucham further explained that a deeper layer of the destruction includes "willing Christians" who attempt to accommodate the idea of sexual sin as an identity by claiming the Bible failed to understand the complexity of sexual orientation, and that dishonorable passions are not actually dishonorable. Baucham said rampant transgenderism is another consequence of such depravity and went on to warn that the push for pedophilia "is just a matter of time." He also urged Christians to steel themselves for the last stage of a culture under judgment, which involves the wicked attempting to suppress the truth of God by approving of those who are evil while condemning and trying to silence those who resist. "'The righteous shall live by faith.' There is good news," he said. "That good news is being suppressed, but it is still good news, and it is still our only hope. And what that means is that we have to gird up our loins, deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. We have to be ready and willing to endure the suffering that will inevitably come, and it will." Baucham concluded his remarks by urging his listeners to pray for revival, but conceded that he cannot personally see any way out of the spiritual darkness into which the culture has plunged itself. "We're going to have to pray that God would send revival, because He's already sent judgment," Baucham concluded. "What we've just read is the wrath of God, and we're seeing it everywhere. The wrath of God is here; the judgment of God is here. Plead with Him for His mercy. Plead with Him that all would not be lost." "If you're anything like me, it's hard to see a way out of this, it really is," he added. "It's hard to imagine how that would happen. What would that look like? I have no idea but God. So we pray and we hope and we stand firm and we cling to the only thing that we know can stem the tide." Home Opinion A prayerful response to pride month Its June, and that means that everywhere you turn, youll be confronted with LGBTQ+ flags, banners, memes, and displays. But rather than get frustrated by this constant, in-your-face display, lets turn it into a call for prayer. Thats why I posted on June 3, Every time you see a Pride flag or display this month, let it be a reminder to pray for the mercy of God to touch all those who identify as LGBTQ+ and for them to experience the same repentance and forgiveness and transformation that you have received as a follower of Jesus. Prayer is our greatest spiritual weapon and the most powerful expression of our love. Prayer prevails. As S. D. Gordon said, Prayer is striking the winning blow. Service is gathering up the results. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe It was praying Christians who helped bring me into Gods family when I was a 16-year-old, rebellious, proud, heroin-shooting, LSD-using, Jewish, hippie rock drummer. It was their prayers that brought the conviction of the Spirit into my life, revealing the depths of my sin (I actually thought I was a good person!). And it was their prayers that helped open my eyes to the truth of the Gospel. God truly answers prayer! Think back to the early Church. Saul of Tarsus, a religious Jewish man, was violently persecuting Jewish believers in Yeshua (Jesus). Then he had a radical, life-changing encounter with the risen Savior. Christians worldwide know him as the Apostle Paul, writer of almost half of the New Testament books. What brought about his radical transformation? The Lords words in the Sermon on the Mount provide a key: You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:43-45). This is how we respond. This is how we fight back. We overcome evil with good. We overcome hatred with love. We overcome lies with truth. We overcome the power of the flesh with the power of the Spirit. And rather than engage in a mudslinging battle with our enemies, or, God forbid, a violent response to violence, we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. (Im not saying that we dont get involved politically or that, if an invading army attacks us, we dont fight back. Im focusing here on spiritual principles in dealing with our ideological adversaries.) Surely thats what these early believers did with their arch nemesis Saul, of whom Acts records that he approved of the killing of the Messianic Jew Stephen (Acts 8:1). Acts also states, Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison (Acts 8:3). Surely Saul became a chief target of their prayers, and surely, as God heard their cries, He answered dramatically. As Saul/Paul later wrote, Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus ... But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life (1 Timothy 1:13-14, 16). I encourage you to take the time to watch an amazing documentary produced by American Family Studios titled In His Image. (Trust me on this. You will be really blessed when you watch.) I had the privilege of hosting this powerful film, which not only features great, practical, theological discussion on the meaning of male and female and of Gods plan for humanity. It also features powerful testimonies from ex-gays and ex-trans individuals, two of whom had trans-related surgeries in the past. Thats how committed they were to transitioning, and thats how radically God intervened in their lives. I would especially draw your attention to the story of Laura Beth Perry (now happily married, and officially Laura Perry Smalts), since prayer played a major role in her own salvation and transformation, as youll see when you watch In His Image. Let this also be an encouragement to every family member, friend, and loved one of someone who identifies as somewhere on the LGBTQ+ spectrum. As you continue to show them Christlike love and kindness, never forget the power of prayer. We really do serve a prayer answering God, and while He will not infringe on our freedom of choice, He really does know how to change hearts and minds. So, every time you see that Pride flag or a Pride meme, use it as a reminder to pray for an outpouring of Gods transforming, saving mercy on all those who fly under that hijacked rainbow. It is time for a wonderful harvest of souls! May the churches be ready to receive them with love and truth. Home Opinion Trump's guilty verdict proves either these 2 things Many of you will remember from somewhere in your educational past hearing, in either a history or civics class, Benjamin Franklins definition of the new form of government the Constitutional Convention had just approved. Upon announcement of the Constitutional Conventions approval of a Constitution, Elizabeth Willing Powell asked, Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy? Franklins reply, A republic, if you can keep it. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe Franklins reply is important because that is precisely what the Constitution proposed, a republic, not a democracy. Far too often we discuss our government and we use democracy and republic as virtual synonyms and they are not. A democracy is a form of government where at specific intervals the population votes to elect its leaders and the majority rules with little provision made for the rights of minorities. In a democracy you always have the inherent danger of the tyranny of the majority. In a constitutional republic, which the United States is, you have government under the rule of law, the law having been implemented by a majority vote, but with legal protections for those in the minority. Even if someone finds themselves in the minority in public opinion, they still have the right to freedom of speech, of assembly, of religion, and peaceful redress of grievances. In other words, in a republic the law places limitations on the ability of majorities to suppress the rights of those holding a minority viewpoint. When one reads the U.S. Constitutions Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, ratified together in 1791), one understands that every individual has certain unalienable rights, whether they are in the minority or not. The goal in a constitutional republic is a basic core of human rights embodied or codified in a corpus of laws. In other words, the citizens of a republic have equality under the law. Of course, the ideal has not always been fully realized. In the United States ethnic minorities and for much of American history, women as well, have not fully enjoyed equality under the law. In recent generations America has made enormous strides in correcting these injustices toward both ethnic minorities and women. Unfortunately, the U.S. has still some way to go in ensuring equality under the law for the financially insecure. However, national commitment to, and achievement of, equality under the law is cherished by a large percentage of Americans across all ethnic and class boundaries. In many ways, it is the glue that holds our increasingly diverse society together. Many people have been surprised at the American publics response to Donald Trumps trial and conviction in New York. Millions of Americans were scandalized by the numerous ways in which former President Trumps constitutional rights were ignored and violated. First, you had a candidate for Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, campaigning on the platform of getting former President Trump, then, having won election, delivering on his promise. In order to do so, D.A. Alvin Bragg took a state misdemeanor of falsifying business records, turned it into a felony by usurping the federal government prerogatives and prosecuting what he called a federal campaign finance violation. The cases convoluted construction has led many voters to see the prosecution as politically motivated. The outrageous behavior of the trial judge, including his instructions to the jury that they did not need a unanimous verdict, amplified the opinion that this was a political kangaroo court. A significant number of Americans have come to the conclusion that the Biden Administration has weaponized the judicial system in an attempt to disqualify Mr. Trump from running for President. The backlash by the American people has been pleasingly significant. If the judge imposes any restrictions on former President Trumps ability to campaign in his sentencing of Mr. Trump, the backlash will only increase. Any such restrictions on former President Trump should also force the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene since you have a state court interfering with a federal election process, which is clearly unconstitutional and should not be tolerated. Mr. Trumps opponents behavior has proven one of two things: either Trump Derangement Syndrome is real and they have taken leave of their senses, or they really believe they can subvert the rule of law and the American people wont notice or care. The huge rush in small contributions to former President Trumps campaign in the aftermath of the New York verdict indicates that the American people have noticed and they are in no mood to tolerate it any longer. Home Opinion Why bad faith is a bad movie Did the founders create America as one nation under God or did they want Christian expression banned from the public square? A recent film seems to promote the latter idea. Dr. Ted Baehrs MOVIEGUIDE writes: Bad Faith is a propaganda documentary from the Religious Left, written and directed by a small-time movie producer who happens to be a film and television professor at a Catholic college in Los Angeles. The movie accuses Evangelical Christian conservatives and Republican Christians, from the 1980s to the present day, of waging a racist war against American Democracy. The movie uses leftist, progressive pundits, professors, authors, journalists, and activists to make its claims. I interviewed Baehr about the film for radio. He told me, A growing tendency on the left is to spread slanderous labeling of Christians as Christian nationalists. What it does is it gets into the bloodstream of the nation, and it gets to the kids ... Its unfortunate because it makes people doubt what the history of the country was. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe A key target of the film, Bad Faith, is the late Paul Weyrich, the founder of the Free Congress Foundation. He was a conservative activist, who, according to the film, even helped recruit Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson into political action. The film seems to make the case that Weyrich who died in 2008 helped set the stage for events like Charlottesville-2017 and January 6, 2021. Essentially, Weyrich, a very nice man whom I interviewed, worked tirelessly to mobilize the conservative Christian population into political action. And the problem is? Furthermore, the film implies that those Christian conservatives today are like a modern-day extension of the Ku Klux Klan. Of course, comparing all opponents to the KKK or Adolph Hitler seems to be a common ploy for the Left. But its still worth pointing out that the KKK was a Democrat organization, and its Democrats who had a KKK organizer (Robert Byrd, a former Klan Exalted Cyclops) in the Senate until 2010. Bad Faith is well done in terms of its production values. For example, its graphics are outstanding. But I agree with Ted Baehr that it is a movie to be avoided. That doesnt mean nothing in it is true. It had a few noteworthy comments on religious freedom from Russell Moore, a Southern Baptist. The full title of the film is Bad Faith: Christian Nationalisms Unholy War on Democracy. The narrator (the talented Peter Coyote) says at the very beginning cue the spooky music: Christian Nationalism. A pollical movement that believes America was founded as a Christian Nation, privileging Christianity over all faiths. Masquerading as religion, their ideology exploits Scripture and sacred symbols to achieve extremist objectives. I would counter-argue: America began as a Christian nation, and because of that, people of all faiths or no faith are welcome here. One group that had the temerity to assert that America is a Christian nation was the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1892 Trinity decision. To believe that our rights come from God, not the state, supposedly makes you a Christian nationalist, say some. But the founders said in the Declaration of Independence, that the Creator is the source of our rights. George Washington said that if he had had any notion that the Constitution would be used to bar religious freedom, he would have never signed the document. He also opined that true religion affords to government its surest support. And he noted that religion and morality are indispensable supports to our political prosperity. Later, the film asserts: The leaders [like Weyrich] had a long-range plan to seize power and impose their political vision by any means necessary. They knew that the only way to create a theocratic Christian nation was to overthrow our democracy. And thats what they set out to do. But, in his Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, Thomas Jefferson writes: Almighty God hath created the mind free all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion [i.e., Jesus], who being lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, but to extend it by its influence on reason alone. In other words, Jefferson says, it is because God has created the mind free that religious freedom exists. If you remove God from the equation, the ground for freedom crumbles as we saw in all the terrible (and bloody) atheistic states of the 20th Century. Bad Faith implies that Christian involvement in the public arena is a disaster for society. Unless youre pro-abortion, anti-traditional family, etc. But its precisely because our nation was built on biblical principles that people will risk their lives to try and come to America to this very day. Jurgen Moltmann remembered as among most significant Protestant theologians of 20th century (CP) Renowned German theologian and professor, Jurgen Moltmann, celebrated for his profound impact on Protestant theology, died on Monday. He was 98. Moltmann was born on April 8, 1926, in Hamburg, Germany, into a non-religious family, Church Times reported. His works transformed modern Christian thought, particularly through his approaches to the doctrine of the Trinity and political theology. Moltmann's theological journey began under dire circumstances that shaped his influential career. Captured during World War II, Moltmann found his faith while confined in a British prisoner-of-war camp, as noted by The Telegraph. This transformative period led him to pursue a theological education at the University of Gottingen, eventually guiding him toward an academic and pastoral vocation that challenged and invigorated Protestant thought globally. His academic tenure at the University of Tubingen, where he served as professor of systematic theology from 1963 to 1994, was marked by the publication of seminal works that resonated beyond the confines of theological academia. His writings, including Theology of Hope and The Crucified God, are celebrated for their insightful integration of Christian doctrine with pressing social issues, thus bridging the gap between sacred theology and secular concerns. A member of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Moltmann's theology was heavily influenced by his early experiences in the war and his subsequent capture, which brought him face-to-face with human suffering and the need for a hopeful vision of the future. His work consistently emphasized hope as a dynamic, living force within Christian eschatology, arguing that God's promise of salvation is an active and present reality in the world. This perspective gained substantial traction among theologians globally, reshaping Protestant theology's engagement with contemporary social issues. Throughout his career, Moltmann maintained a focus on the practical implications of theology. His commitment to social justice was evident in his involvement with peace movements and his advocacy for human rights, particularly during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s. His theological insights were instrumental in the development of Liberation Theology in Latin America and significantly influenced discussions on civil rights and social equity across continents. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Moltmann continued to publish influential works such as God in Creation and The Way of Jesus Christ, which addressed issues of ecology, feminism and antisemitism, reflecting his broad thematic engagement and interdisciplinary approach. His retirement in 1994 did not end his active participation in theological debates; he continued to write and lecture, contributing to theological education globally until his final book, The Living God and the Fullness of Life, in 2014. Moltmann's contributions were not limited to his writings and public speeches; his personal experiences and the relationships he forged reflected his theological principles. His marriage to Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel, a noted feminist theologian, also highlighted his progressive stance on gender equality in theological discourse. Moltmann's role in the global theological community involved extensive lecturing and participation in interfaith dialogues, where he emphasized the need for a theology that was responsive to the sufferings of humanity while being hopeful about the future. His dialogues often touched on controversial issues, challenging both theological and secular assumptions, wrote an author at Gospel Coalition's blog, Themelios. The Christian Post New Majority World mission coalition seeks partnership with global Church in poly-centric mission In recognition of a new era in global missions with greater participation by the Global South, a recently formed group of mission, church and market-place leaders from Asia and Latin America issued a communique with recommendations for mission practice for the Majority World. Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, from May 1-3, 2024, the group called COALA which stands for "Christ over Africa, Latin America and Asia" emphasizes the importance of unity and partnership in missions and hopes the recommendations would start off conversations in the global Church. The Bangkok meeting that brought together 38 missionaries, mission leaders and pastors from 30 nations was a follow-up to an earlier gathering in June 2023 under the auspices of the Korea World Mission Association. Participants from Latin America included leaders from COMIBAM (Cooperacion Misionera Iberoamericana), a movement that brings together national mission groups or networks in twenty-five Latin American countries, as well as Spain, Portugal and Hispanics from the United States and Canada. "Discussions focused on the changing shape of global mission from a Christendom model to a truly poly-centric mission," the group said, pointing to the "recommendations towards some principles for healthy majority world mission engagement in a poly-centric era of missions" as one of the key results of the meeting. With the heading "Greetings to the Global Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, all mission movements & networks," the communique on COALA 2 begins by outlining the geographic shift in global Christianity towards the Global South, highlighting the role of Majority World missionaries, and then calls for unity and authentic partnership in missions within the global Church as a whole. "The 20th century has witnessed a major shift in the shape of the global church. For the first time in the modern period, the center of gravity of the church has moved from the West into the non-Western or Majority World (MW: Africa, Asia, Latin America & MENA [Middle East and North America]). Today, two-thirds or more of global Christians reside in the latter," the preamble states. "Side by side with this shift, we have also seen a relative numerical decline of cross-cultural missionaries being sent out from the West, with the gap increasingly being filled by those sent out from the MW. The overall result of the above is that some countries that were mission fields in the past are now increasingly being recognized as missionary sending nations. Further, some that used to be sending nations are now receiving missionaries back from formerly receiving nations." "Given the above, many in the global church today recognize that we are now living in a new era of polycentric missions, wherein missions today is from everywhere to everywhere. The above have important missiological consequences for the global church, both the Western and the MW churches." "As a group of missions workers from the MW, we have some real concerns over the involvement of MW churches in cross-cultural missions. We would like to propose some recommendations for further reflection and discussion by the wider church," the preamble concludes. Recommendations emphasize relationship with locals, address concerns about money in missions The recommendations begin by stating the centrality of the Holy Spirit, emphasizing, "The primacy of the leading and power of the Holy Spirit in mission: In accordance with the Lord Jesus' instruction (e.g. Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5, 8) and the example of the Apostles in the New Testament, especially in Acts, we affirm that missionaries sent out must go under the leading of the Holy Spirit and in His power. It is primarily the work of the Holy Spirit which makes mission possible and fruitful." Among the primary concerns, the recommendations then go on to highlight the relationship of the missionary and the local church, the role of finances, and the general spirit of unity and partnership. "Missionaries and related cross-cultural workers should always go with a servant heart and attitude, and with humility and respect towards the leaders of the local church and their indigenous co-workers. Their reliance should always be on God and not on their superior educational background or the resources that they bring from outside," one of the recommendations says. The following then continues along the same lines, saying, "The goal of missions is to build the local indigenous church which is marked by self-government, self-support, self-propagation and self-theologizing. Therefore, missionaries should never build churches centered around themselves or their sending bodies, which remain dependent on them and the resources they bring." Regarding the relationship with existing local churches, the recommendations state, "As far as possible, a missionary should work with local churches with a Kingdom mindset which is concerned to build the whole church of God in a particular region or nation. Churches should never be planted and built in isolation." Where possible, missionaries and church planters should become part of existing denominations or church networks, the recommendations say. They add that "missionaries should always hold themselves accountable to the local church or body where they are working. Thus, missionaries sent out should know how to network with local believers and, and as far as possible, be willing to serve under local leadership." Emphasizing that locals are more effective in sharing the gospel because of their understanding of the context, the recommendations say that "Missionaries should see themselves as midwives, and not mothers. They must therefore respect the local churches and allow them to make all important decisions in a contextual and culturally-sensitive manner, albeit based on scriptural teaching." "The most effective witnesses of the gospel are indigenous believers and the local church. To this end, missionaries should encourage all indigenous believers and available local church-related institutions to take responsibility and initiative for the growth of the church. The missionary's major tasks are to train and work alongside local believers and institutions," they continue. Speaking about the critical issue of financial support, the recommendations acknowledge that "money is a matter of crucial concern in missions. It can bring great blessings; it can also cause much damage in the long term." "We therefore urge missionaries and their sending bodies to exercise extreme care in this matter. We need to avoid models which lead to a standard of living for the local Christian worker which is higher than the local average or to initiate expensive projects which the local church will find difficult to sustain long-term," the recommendations emphasize. Finally, the recommendations call for unity and partnership, saying "we are called to unity in Christ (John 17:11,21), which should be expressed as genuine partnership in the work of the Kingdom of God." In order to achieve such partnerships, they call for serious consideration of two recommendations. Firstly, "God has given us a clear mission mandate in Matthew 16:18 and 28:19-20. Together with this, we believe also that God has given all the resources needed for the advancement of the work of the Christ's mission, be it spiritual, human and financial. Such resources are to be shared as much as practically possible by all involved: between the local church and the missionary; between the mission sending and the receiving churches; and between churches and mission agencies working across the world." And secondly, the recommendations conclude saying, "In this era of polycentric missions, we affirm that genuine partnerships must be developed between all churches everywhere, between those in the West and the MW, as well as among all churches in the MW. The challenge before us to fuse all our God-given resources together into a powerful synergistic whole for world mission." Stretching out the hand for partnership between Global South and Global North In a soon-to-be published in-depth interview with Christian Daily International, Rev. Jonas Kang, Chairman of the Korea World Mission Association, shared how COALA emerged from the World Evangelical Alliance's Mission Commission consultation in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2023. Dr. Gina Zurlo's presentation on the shift of global Christianity to the South sparked conversations among a group of mission leaders from Asia and Latin America. In a follow up meeting in Korea a few months later, the Global South leaders came together to talk about a new paradigm in missions, without participation of mission leaders from the Global North at first. However, Rev. Kang emphasized that the Global South leaders recognize and are grateful for the centuries of Western missions that brought the gospel to the whole world. Therefore, they desire for collaboration with those in the Global North and wish that the whole Church together engages in missions united in partnership. As one of the first initiatives in pursuit of this new collaboration, Rev. Kang led a delegation of Korean mission leaders that participated in the European Leadership Forum (ELF) in Wisla, Poland from May 25-30, where they hosted a session titled How Can the European Church and the Korean Church Work Together?, as Christian Daily reported earlier. Lindsay Brown, who served with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) for many years and formerly led the Lausanne Movement as International Director, facilitated the session at the ELF. In his own comments to Christian Daily, Brown reflected on the changes in global missions and said "the leaders of one of the largest missionary forces from Korea are saying that they would like to partner with Western churches as equals. Not as subservient cross-cultural workers, but as a body of people who have an equal say and an equal commitment to the advance of the gospel globally." "They would like to dialogue together about the key theological and missiological issues that need to be addressed, and to be involved in active partnership. They are taking initiative in putting their hands out, offering to serve together," Brown said, and urged Western leaders to take note of that and respond. "They are stretching out the hand of fellowship and partnership. So, the Western mission leaders and church leaders should say, 'yes, we want to partner!' And they should rejoice in the invitation." Christian Daily International A jury in San Francisco on Thursday unanimously cleared Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch of 15 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud stemming from his companys purchase by Hewlett-Packard in 2011 for $11.1 billion dollars. HP executives had maintained that Lynch fooled them when he sold Autonomy HP subsequently had to write down the value of the acquisition by over $5 billion whereas Lynch maintained that he had been truthful. Jurors on Thursday sided with him. The charges against Lynch were brought by the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of California. He was extradited from the UK to face the charges and released to home confinement in San Francisco after posting a $100 million bond. This is not Lynchs only face-off with the law over the sale of Autonomy: theres also a long-running case in London where the judge is still considering the award of damages. See our timeline of the HP-Autonomy M&A disaster. 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. By sebra, Adobe A former employee of Sense Scotland has pleaded guilty to stealing 40,060 from some of the disability charitys service users. Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court confirmed that Violet Connor admitted taking the money from some of the charitys vulnerable residents between April 2019 and September 2022. Sense Scotland said it became aware of some financial irregularities in October 2022 in the finances of a small number of individuals we support in two of our services. We immediately undertook a financial audit of the services and reported our findings to families, the police, and other relevant authorities and regulatory bodies, working closely with these bodies to assist with their inquiries, its statement reads. The staff member found responsible for these irregularities was dismissed by Sense Scotland in November 2022. Shortly after this, Sense Scotland spoke with the families and guardians of the individuals affected and agreed to repay all funds. The people we support will not be financially disadvantaged as a result of these irregularities. Connor is set to be sentenced on 27 June. Charity reviews policies The charity said it has reviewed its policies, procedures and systems to ensure robust management of the finances of the people we support and is confident that this is an isolated incident. Finances in all other Sense Scotland services are in order, its statement reads. At the moment, the charity said it is unable to comment further on this matter as legal proceedings are still ongoing. According to annual returns submitted to OSCR, Sense Scotland most recently had an income of 24.9m. 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, Sign up for The Media Today, CJRs daily newsletter. Over the past few months, nine hundred million Indians have voted over seven phases to elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha, Indias lower house of Parliament. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has ruled India with increasingly authoritarian tendencies since 2014, is set to return to power, but with a chastening cut in the number of seats for his ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Part of why the election result was so surprising: Modi has spent much of his time in charge building a tightly controlled propaganda machine, with the message that the opposition was too fragmented and weak to pose much of a challenge. During the election, mainstream outlets aligned aggressively with the governments narrative, while independent media struggled to report amid government attacks. So it is no shock the election has been seen as a partial victory for democracy and independent media. But even if Modis mandate is diminished by his need to enter into complex alliances, his stranglehold over Indian media wont be undone by a single election. India ranked 161st out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index in 2023, down twenty-one positions since Modi came to power. Newsrooms, including the BBC, have been raided. Stories the government doesnt like have been suppressed. And that is just the tip of the icebergthe real scandal lies under the surface. Modi, according to Indian journalists and media-watchers interviewed for this story, has systematically exploited a long-standing structural weakness in Indias media ecosystem in order to undermine critical reporting. The ownership of major Indian television channels and newspapers, said Hartosh Singh Bal, an executive editor at Caravan, an independent magazine critical of the regime, is held by businessmen and corporations reliant on government support for their media and other business interests. Modi came and realized that this is a system already institutionally very weak, and any centralized authority putting pressure on them can make this entire mainstream media bend to their will, Bal said. And they did this. Its true of print and televisionvery quickly, all of them fell in line. Sign up for CJRs daily email The turning point came on December 29, 2022, when the country first learned of a hostile takeover bid for New Delhi Television (NDTV), Indias last major independent TV broadcaster, known for its critical coverage. The Adani Group, led by billionaire Gautam Adani, known for close ties with Modi, announced it would control nearly 65 percent of the company. NDTV itself said that the buyout was executed without any input from, conversation with, or consent of the NDTV founders. Reporters Without Borders expressed concern over the acquisition of Indias last major independent TV network by a billionaire businessman who openly supports Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It noted: Media acquisitions by oligarchs are clearly endangering pluralistic public debate in India. The outlets star anchors Ravish Kumar, Sreenivasan Jain, and Nidhi Razdan left, along with several other journalists. It completely changed the management of the organization and the editorial line of the organization, Razdan told CJR. It was really the only television news channel in India, which was still doing what it was supposed to do, which was to hold power to account, to ask difficult questions of the government. When the Adani takeover happened, it was quite clear early on that despite assurances that they would not alter the editorial policy dramaticallythat was not going to be the case. And so, she said, the last bastion of independent television journalism fell. The field was clear for an American cable news model to take over, all shrill debate and high-volume polarization. One news anchor, Suresh Chavhanke, editor in chief of Sudarshan TV, urged Muslim women to marry Hindu men and convert to Hinduismin accordance with the governments nationalist Hindutva ideology, which advocates for establishing Hindu hegemony in India. Many of these media owners toed the government line happily. It was not simply a question of pushthere was a pull of Modis ideology for these business leaders also, said Bal. More critical journalists have moved online. Kumar now runs a YouTube channel with over 10.3 million subscribers. But new laws, which are unlikely to be repealed anytime soon, are targeting them there too. In April, as they covered the general election, independent YouTube channels such as Bolta Hindustan and National Dastak, two popular Hindi-language news shows, were notified that they were being blocked under directions from Indias Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. YouTube also restricted videos by digital journalists Meghnad and Sohit Mishra questioning whether electronic voting machines were tamper-proof. Domestically, its easier than ever for the government to censor under new rules that give the information and broadcasting ministry emergency powers to summarily remove content from digital platforms, including news websites, without giving notice or holding a hearing with the publisher. The law has been challenged in court by media houses including The Wire, one of Indias most prominent critical news outlets. In February, the Indian government ordered Caravan to take down an article on the alleged torture and murder of civilians by the Indian Army in Jammu and Kashmir. They did not point out any errors in the story, they just issued a blanket order to pull it down, Bal said. This is the same law they will invoke against a Twitter account or a Facebook post or a YouTube video, Bal added. Basically, now they have arbitrary powers of censorship.I think the next step will be the digital media, the small media that is independent, will be forced into positions where if the government is uncomfortable with the story, they can just get it removed. But Abhinandan Sekhri, the chief executive of Newslaundry, an independent news website known for critiquing the media, says that even with the governments pushback, independent media is still getting more visibility. I see the audience getting fatigued with the kind of hate that they see on TV media, Sekhri said. The attacks will also increase, but I do see a pushback.I do believe that indeed the public will pay more digital media outfits and back independent media. The election result tentatively supports his optimism. Other notable stories: After the New York Times reported on Wednesday that Will Lewis, the publisher of the Washington Post, tried to dissuade Sally Buzbee, the papers (now former) editor, from running a story about allegations that he covered up damaging information while working for Rupert Murdochs media company in the UK in the 2010s, David Folkenflikthe media reporter at NPR, who covered the allegations against Lewis following his unveiling at the Post last yearwrites that Lewis repeatedlyand heatedly offered him an exclusive interview in exchange for dropping the story. A spokesperson for Lewis said that he was not yet employed by the Post at the time and that his talks with Folkenflik were off the record (Folkenflik denies violating any agreement); later, in extraordinary comments to reporters at the Post, Lewis called Folkenflik an activist, not a journalist. Semafors Max Tani reports on tensions within the NewsGuild, with some members, at publications including the Times and Reuters, pushing back on union staffers tweets about the war in Gaza, including missives criticizing media coverage of the war. (The tensions also revolve around how much members should pay in dues.) Elsewhere, The Hill fired Briahna Joy Gray, a left-wing video host, following a series of controversial comments about the war. (She most recently appeared to roll her eyes at the sister of an Israeli hostage of Hamas.) And the student-edited Columbia Law Review is back online after its board took down its website over its publication of an essay by a Palestinian scholar. (The board said it still has concerns about the editing process for the essay.) Facing legal pressure, the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones finally agreed to liquidate his personal assetsa seismic move that paves the way for a future in which Jones no longer owns Infowars, the influential conspiracy empire he founded in the late 1990s, CNNs Oliver Darcy reports. Jones declared personal bankruptcy after he was ordered to pay more than a billion dollars in damages to relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting, which Jones repeatedly declared was a hoax, but he has to this point failed to pay up and resisted liquidation; on a broadcast last weekend, Jones even threatenedwith an assist from Steve Bannon, no lessto barricade himself in his studio. Jones will now have to sell his ownership of Infowars (though Darcy notes that he hasnt controlled the business since it, too, entered bankruptcy.) The LA Times published Our Queerest Century, a package of essays, art, and polling marking a hundred years since the first US gay-rights organization was founded. In one of the essays, LZ Granderson, a Times columnist, paid tribute to Bobbi Campbell, the first person in America to disclose that he was HIV-positiveand shared publicly, for the first time, that he, too, is HIV-positive. I didnt want to be viewed as a gay stereotype, including at ESPN, where I worked for years, Granderson writes. The disease is no longer on the news, but tens of thousands are still being infected every year. And The New Yorkers Kyle Chayka reflected on the significance of the Doge memea delightful photo of a Shiba Inu that came to be associated with nonsense captions like so amaze and much wowafter the real-life dog in the photo died, aged eighteen. The meme, Chayka writes, projected a sense of hopeful naivete about the Internet which has lately disappeared from digital culture, as we have been increasingly confronted with the darker consequences of social media on a global scale. ICYMI: A new documentary tells the story of Indias news crisis Anisha Dutta is a freelance journalist with recent work in Al Jazeera and The Guardian. A recipient of the 2023 Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in the United States (AFPC) foreign correspondents award, she previously worked for the Indian Express and the Hindustan Times as a political correspondent in New Delhi. PARIS (AP) U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday for the first time publicly apologized to Ukraine for a monthslong holdup in American military assistance that let Russia make gains on the battlefield, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed for bipartisan U.S. support like it was during World War II. Speaking in Paris a day after they attended 80th anniversary events of D-Day in Normandy, Biden apologized to the Ukrainian people for the weeks of not knowing if more assistance would come while conservative Republicans in Congress held up a $61 billion military aid package for Ukraine for six months. Still, the Democratic president insisted that the American people were standing by Ukraine for the long haul. Were still in. Completely. Thoroughly, he said. Zelenskyy pressed for all Americans to support his countrys defense against Russias invasion, and he thanked lawmakers for eventually coming together to approve the weapons package, which has allowed Ukraine to stem Russian advances in recent weeks. Its very important that in this unity, United States of America, all American people stay with Ukraine like it was during World War II, Zelenskyy said. How the United States helped to save human lives, to save Europe. And we count on your continuing support in standing with us shoulder to shoulder. The United States is by far Kyivs biggest supplier of wartime support, and Ukraine is trying to fend off an intense Russian offensive in eastern areas of the country. The push is focused on the Ukrainian border regions of Kharkiv and Donetsk, but Ukrainian officials say it could spread as Russias bigger army seeks to make its advantage tell. The offensive is seeking to exploit Kyivs shortages of ammunition and troops along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line. That shortfall in weaponry came after U.S. military aid was held up in Congress for six months before Biden in April signed the $61 billion package into law. The slow pace of delivery of pledged Western weaponry has long frustrated Zelenskyy, as has Bidens hesitation over supplying more hardware for fear of provoking Russian President Vladimir Putin. That has caused tension in their relationship. The U.S. will send about $225 million in military aid to Ukraine, U.S. officials said Thursday. The latest package includes munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, as well as mortar systems and an array of artillery rounds, officials said. Easing their stance amid Russias most recent onslaught and with Ukraines army reeling, some NATO allies including the U.S. said last week they would allow Ukraine to use weapons they deliver to Kyiv to carry out limited attacks inside Russia. That step brought a furious response from the Kremlin, which warned that Europes biggest conflict since World War II could spin out of control. Biden and Zelenskyy attended the anniversary events of D-Day in Normandy, northern France, on Thursday, along with European leaders who have supported Kyivs efforts in the war. Biden pledged we will not walk away from Ukraine, drawing a direct line from the fight to liberate Europe from Nazi domination to todays war against Russian aggression. Ukraine depicts its fight against the Kremlins forces as a clash between Western democratic freedom and Russian tyranny. Russia says it is defending itself against a menacing eastward expansion of the NATO military alliance. In a 20-minute speech Friday at the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament, Zelenskyy drew a parallel with the sacrifices made during World War II and his countrys current fight. This battle is a crossroads, Zelenskyy said. A moment where we can now write history the way we need it. Or we can become victims of history as it suits our enemy. Zelenskyy, who spoke in Ukrainian, was frequently interrupted by lawmakers applause and cheers. He prompted a standing ovation when he said in French: Dear France, I thank you for standing by our side as we defend life. French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, announced late Thursday that France will provide Ukraine with its Mirage combat aircraft. Macron has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine. He said in February that putting Western troops on the ground in Ukraine is not ruled out. Zelenskyy began a day of meetings in Paris with an official welcome ceremony at the golden-domed Invalides monument, site of Napoleons tomb. During the day, Zelenskyy was due to visit the Nexter arms manufacturer in Versailles, which makes the Caesar self-propelled howitzers that are among the weapons provided by France to Kyivs forces. He was also to meet with Macron at the Elysee Palace. Zelenskyys foreign trips aim to keep Ukraines plight in the public eye, secure more military help for its fight against Russias invasion and lock in long-term Western support through bilateral alliances. France and Ukraine in February signed a 10-year bilateral security agreement. Zelenskyy has since signed similar bilateral agreements with many European countries. ___ This story has been corrected to show Biden and Zelenskyy attended D-Day events in Normandy, not Paris. ___ Barbara Surk in Nice and Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine contributed. FRAZEYSBURG, Ohio Eight people were injured and several homes were damaged early Thursday morning when a strong tornado set down in a small town in Muskingum County. The National Weather Service confirms the EF-2 set down in a cornfield west of Frazeysburg at about 12:37 a.m. It covered about 1.25 miles, had maximum winds around 130 mph and was 120 yards wide. It was one of four tornadoes to touch down in Ohio late Wednesday night and early Thursday as a cold front produced severe weather across the state. The other tornadoes were much weaker, according to the Weather Service. The Muskingum County tornado removed the second story of a home and collapsed a wall inside the house. Two other homes in the middle of the town lost their roofs, while a pizza shop lost about 50% of its roof, according to the NWS. There was minor damage to an elementary school and several trees were damaged or uprooted. There were no reports of major injuries from the tornado. Tornadoes also were confirmed in Delaware, Licking and Knox counties. All of the tornadoes were ranked as EF-0, causing downed trees and some damage to residences, reports say. Alibaba.com is a platform run by the Chinese e-commerce company of the same name that focuses on overseas business customers. BEIJING Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is ramping up its global expansion with new services aimed at attracting small businesses in the U.S. and Europe. Alibaba.com the company's business-to-business platform which sells to companies outside China announced Thursday it's launching "Alibaba Guaranteed" to provide greater certainty on delivery, payments and dispute settlement. The platform is part of Alibaba's fast-growing international business, which also sells directly to consumers overseas through sites such as AliExpress. While consumers in China have long enjoyed delivery tracking and favorable return policies, small businesses buying from cross-border e-commerce platforms have not, due to the added complexity of international trade. Alibaba.com's new service aims to provide buyers with more definite delivery dates and free local returns, the company said in a press release. "We think this is in line with current global trends," Kuo Zhang, president of Alibaba.com, said in an interview Thursday, according to CNBC's translation of his Mandarin-language remarks. He noted an increasing trend of fragmentation in supply chains, and said a growing number of local businesses, whether in cosmetics or the autos industry, need to buy globally in order to protect profit margins. A balloon believed to have been sent by North Korea, carrying various objects including what appeared to be trash and excrement, is seen over a rice field at Cheorwon, South Korea, May 29, 2024. The battle of the balloons continues. North Korean defectors, part of an activist group in Seoul, are fighting back not with balloons filled with trash and excrement, but with K-pop and dollar bills instead. Activist group Free North Korea Movement said Thursday it had sent 10 giant balloons carrying 5,000 USB sticks containing K-pop videos and dramas, 200,000 leaflets condemning North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and 2,000 $1 bills, into North Korea. Just last week, North Korea sent balloons filled with trash, fertilizer and other waste across the border in what it said was a tit-for-tat against South Korean activists employing similar means to spread anti-North Korean messaging. "We sent facts and truth, love and medicine, and dollar bills, but [the North] sent filth," head of Fighters for Free North Korea, Park Sang-hak, said in a statement. Foreign media, information and culture which include Korean pop music and dramas produced in the South are banned in the reclusive North as they represent a challenge to Kim's totalitarian regime, the Center for Strategic and International Studies has said. Pyongyang claims to have sent more than 3,500 balloons carrying 15 tons of trash to its neighbor, according to state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Sunday. North Korea's vice-minister of national defense, Kim Kang Il, said his country will temporarily halt the dropping of trash across the border, but warned it will scatter waste that's "hundred times the amount" sent by the South if activists continue to scatter leaflets. In response to the North's waste balloons, South Korea suspended the inter-Korean military pact signed in 2018, which was aimed at easing animosities. The move allows Seoul to resume military training near the border, as well as play propaganda broadcasts and K-pop songs via loudspeakers. The suspension is effective until "mutual trust between the South and the North is restored," said South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. North and South Korea are technically still at war, as the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in a ceasefire instead of a peace treaty. For years, groups like the Free North Korea Movement have been deploying balloons carrying items like medicine, propaganda leaflets and South Korean news and media into the North. There are no legal grounds prohibiting ordinary citizens from sending balloons into North Korea after South Korea's Constitutional Court struck down a law banning the transmission of leaflets and other information in 2023. There's no shortage of affection for Club holding Nvidia on Wall Street. But Broadcom , our other artificial intelligence chipmaker, has received its fair share of love in recent days, with analysts wisely making the case that there's more upside to be had for the stock. Broadcom's fast-growing AI exposure featured prominently in optimistic research sent to clients this week by analysts at Melius, Bernstein and JPMorgan. Broadcom sells both networking products that stitch together parts of the data centers where AI computing occurs and helps tech giants, like Club name Alphabet , design custom AI processors. JPMorgan upped its growth forecast for the custom AI chip market and said Broadcom's dominance in the space is poised to continue. Also this week, Bernstein chip analysts sent a presentation to clients that outlined why Broadcom is one of their best ideas, citing its AI opportunity and attractive valuation, among other reasons. The party kicked off Monday, when Melius initiated coverage of Broadcom with a price target that implied around 40% upside, labeling it "one of the must-own AI stocks." The Club agrees, which is why we added Broadcom to the portfolio in late August some nine months ago. The attractiveness of its networking and custom chip operations has only strengthened since then, as the pace of investment in AI has remained fervent. Even though the stock has climbed around 60% since our initiation, its best days are ahead. Our current price target is $1,550 per share, with a 2 rating , meaning we'd be buyers on a pullback. About 78% of the Wall Street analysts covering Broadcom have a buy-equivalent rating on the stock, with an average price target of roughly $1,563, according to FactSet, representing more than 11% upside to Thursday's close. AVGO YTD mountain Broadcom's year-to-date stock performance. The latest upbeat batch of Wall Street commentary comes ahead of Broadcom's fiscal 2024 second-quarter results after Wednesday's market close. Investors will be intently focused on the growth of the company's AI semiconductor revenue. Back in March, the company reported that line item quadrupled to $2.3 billion in its first quarter. At the time, management also hiked its full-year outlook for the business, saying it was poised to be roughly 35% of semiconductor revenue, or more than $10 billion. Previously, Broadcom forecasted it to be around 25% of chip sales. Broadcom is a sprawling enterprise, with an increasingly sizable software business thanks in large part to last year's VMWare acquisition that complements its traditional hardware business. Significant parts of that hardware business, namely the parts serving legacy markets like broadband and wireless, have been under pressure in recent quarters. The growth of its AI revenues has allowed investors to look past the legacy struggles, with hopes that those lagging areas will eventually return to growth. AI operations at Broadcom fall into two main buckets. The first is networking, which covers a portfolio of products including Ethernet switches and adapters used in data centers to connect tons of high-performance servers together ensuring smooth and efficient data communication. Essentially, these networking chips help make up the plumbing of data centers. Large cloud-computing providers and companies that operate their own data centers are key customers of these networking products. The second line of Broadcom's AI business is custom processors, where the company is best-known for co-designing Alphabet's tensor processing units, or TPUs. Google-parent Alphabet and Broadcom have collaborated on the creation of the AI chips for years, with the sixth-generation TPU being announced last month . Broadcom recently won the contract to co-design the seventh iteration of the chip, which is targeted for production in 2026, JPMorgan told clients in this week's note. More and more tech giants are looking to design in-house chips, and portfolio holding Meta Platforms is believed to be another customer of Broadcom's custom silicon business, according to JPMorgan. Amazon and Microsoft also have custom chips, though both of those Club names are thought to utilize Marvell Technology 's co-design services, according to the JPMorgan analysts. JPMorgan recently raised its outlook for the custom chip market to between $20 billion and $30 billion, with the high end of the range increased by $5 billion. The analysts see it growing at a 20% compound annual growth rate, or CAGR. Currently, Broadcom has an estimated 55% to 60% market share, with Marvell at roughly 13% to 15%, according to JPMorgan. While Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Club name Microsoft remain big buyers of so-called merchant silicon these are processors from the likes of Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices custom AI chips are becoming an increasingly important part of their computing strategies, too. Such chips can be cheaper and designed to do certain tasks well. The AI chips made by market leader Nvidia and rival AMD are more general purpose. Put the networking and custom silicon pieces together, and there's a lot to like about Broadcom's standing in the field of AI tech stocks. We recognize Broadcom's networking operations compete against Nvidia's own business and the chips it helps tech giants develop also represent competition for the Jensen Huang-led firm. But given the size of the AI market, there is room for both as analysts at Melius argued this week. "Nvidia should be AVGO's biggest rival in accelerators and networking but we believe both can win," the Melius analysts wrote. We share that view and intend to stay invested accordingly. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long NVDA, AVGO, MSFT, AMZN, GOOGL 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. Broadcom CEO Hock Tan. Lucas Jackson | Reuters Club holdings Microsoft and Best Buy were the subject of upbeat Wall Street research, while TJX Companies hit an intraday high Friday on the same day it announced plans to enter a new international market. Here's a closer look at the news and the implications for our investments. MSFT YTD mountain Microsoft (MSFT) year-to-date performance The news: Oppenheimer boosted Microsoft's price target to $500 a share from $450, implying a nearly 18% rise from Thursday's close. Analysts argued that Microsoft's partnership with ChatGPT creator OpenAI "cannot be underestimated" and adoption of its artificial intelligence-related offerings will boost the stock's price and company revenues. Oppenheimer predicted Microsoft will grab more share of the cloud-computing market and forecasted $50 billion in generative AI revenues in 2028, with around $36.2 billion tied to cloud-computing service Azure; AI-powered assistant tools Copilot and Github Copilot account for the remaining chunk of sales. In Microsoft's fiscal third quarter ended in March, generative AI contributed $1 billion to Azure, according to Oppenheimer, which annualizes to $4 billion. The firm estimates Copilot revenue of $330 million this year. "Microsoft will regain a dominant platform role like its PC-era influence in a larger AI-driven market, and expand its multiple," analysts wrote in a note dated Thursday. Also on Thursday, news hit that the Federal Trade Commission will start an antitrust investigation into Microsoft and OpenAI's influence on the AI space, a source confirmed to CNBC. Microsoft shares are up slightly Friday, and have advanced 13.2% since the start of 2024. The Club take: We've long celebrated the Microsoft-OpenAI partnership because it's given the Club holding a leading position in the heated AI arms race. Microsoft has introduced a number of promising offerings like Copilot, which the Club sees as a nice recurring revenue stream due to its monthly subscription cost. Meanwhile, the company's recently announced AI-integrated Copilot+ PCs should be a boon for hardware sales as customers upgrade to the latest devices. Finally, we're not concerned about the FTC's regulatory inquiry. "What are they going to do, say ChatGPT shouldn't have gone to them?" Jim said. "I'm not sure what their point is." BBY YTD mountain Best Buy year-to-date performance The news: Loop Capital increased its Best Buy price target to $100 from $93 while maintaining its buy rating on the stock. A key reason for the hike is the retail analyst's most-recent quarterly pricing survey found Best Buy's price gap versus Amazon is narrowing. In fact, Loop said Best Buy was at "virtual price parity" with the e-commerce giant in three of five product categories in the survey: televisions, home theater and accessories. "Best Buy's prices are 0.9% more expensive than Amazon's on average, as compared to 1.5% more expensive in March," according to Loop. The retail analyst also was encouraged by Loop's tech hardware team raising its PC shipment forecast for 2024, which should bode well for Best Buy's sales. On the stock, Loop sees Best Buy trading at a "significant discount" to the valuations of other retailers with relatively slow growth. Shares of Best Buy were slightly lower Friday, though they hit a new 52-week high Friday of $89 each earlier in the session. The stock is up more than 20% since the session before its upbeat earnings report May 30. On Monday, Citigroup's longtime skeptical retail analyst double upgraded Best Buy's stock in light of the release. The Club take: The results of Loop's pricing survey are quite positive for Best Buy, as it fights to retain market share versus fellow Club holding Amazon. It's no secret that some people go into stores to look at products then see how much the same item costs on Amazon or other online marketplaces. And if it's cheaper online, especially on Amazon if they're an Amazon Prime member, they just order it there. Even for purchases intended to be online from the get-go, plenty of people assume Amazon will have the best price to begin with. That reputation is key to the great business Amazon has built. We recognize this is just one data point, but it is nevertheless encouraging to see Best Buy closing the gap on Amazon. The crux of our thesis in Best Buy is the AI-fueled electronics upgrade cycle, but if the company continues to make up ground on pricing versus Amazon, that should help it stem market-share losses, which would have a host of favorable financial implications. TJX YTD mountain TJX Companies (TJX) year-to-date performance The news: TJX Companies is expanding into Mexico. On Friday, the off-price retailer announced plans for a joint venture in Mexico with Grupo Axo, which is no stranger to such arrangements. The company manages well-known brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein through joint ventures and exclusive partnerships in Mexico and some South American markets. Grupo Axo also operates off-price retail stores in Mexico, Chile and Peru. Under the agreement, TJX Companies will own 49% of the joint venture while Axo would own 51%, according to a press release. Axo's more than 200 off-price stores in Mexico under the Promoda, Reduced, and Urban Store names will form the basis of the venture, the release said. The move offers "excellent potential to grow in another region and deliver our value proposition to a growing population of fashion," TJX CEO Ernie Herrman said in the release. The proposed transaction is expected to close later this year and is not expected to have a material impact on the parent company of T.J. Maxx and Marshalls' guidance for the current fiscal year. TJX stock added 0.48% to close at $107.44 per share Friday, having touched a record high of $108.58 on an intraday basis earlier in the session. TJX has advanced 15% year to date, ahead of the S & P 500's 12.1% gain. Club take: TJX's partnership with Axo is a chance for the company to expand its growth outside of the U.S., where it has seen favorable traffic trends during a period where consumers' wallets are pressured. Since Axo is a leader in multi-channel retail in the similar categories that TJX operates in, it's likely that TJX has found a strong partner that can help position it to thrive in new markets. This joint venture also reflects positive on TJX management's ability to locate growth opportunities, which have been harder for other brick-and-mortar retail competitors to locate. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long AMZN, TJX, MSFT and BBY. 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. An employee at Best Buy electronics store helps to move out a television after a shopper made a purchase during Black Friday deals in Westbury, New York, U.S., November 24, 2023. Shannon Stapleton | Reuters Jackson valued the four tickets at $3,711.84, according to her annual disclosure form, which covered all of 2023. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson disclosed receiving concert tickets from pop superstar Beyonce, one of several notable items revealed Friday in the high court's latest financial disclosure reports. It is unclear precisely which show Jackson or her family attended, but Beyonce played a sold-out show in a thunderstorm in the Washington, D.C., area in August 2023. The Renaissance Tour concert was attended by Vice President Kamala Harris, who later disclosed a gift of tickets from Beyonce on her own annual disclosure forms, citing their value at $3,312. The Beyonce tickets may have been the flashiest gifts given last year to a member of the nation's most powerful court, but they were not the only ones. Jackson also disclosed two gifts of art to hang in her judicial chambers, worth a combined $12,500. The most recent justice to join the high court also disclosed more income from a book than any of her colleagues last year, the filings showed. Jackson reported that she received a book advance of $893,750 from Penguin Random House, which is publishing her memoir "Lovely One" in September. Jackson is the only justice on the court who was nominated by President Joe Biden. Justice Clarence Thomas reported that he received a gift of two photo albums valued at $2,000 from Terrence Giroux, who leads the nonprofit Horatio Alger Association, and his wife Barbara. Thomas also amended his 2019 disclosure report to disclose for the first time two trips that he took as a guest of Harlan Crow, the Republican megadonor whose luxury trips with Thomas sparked an ethics scandal last year. Thomas' amendments said the trips had been "inadvertently omitted at the time of filing" his 2019 report. They showed that Crow had furnished him with food and lodging at a hotel in Bali, Indonesia, on one trip, and on a different trip to a private club in Monte Rio, California, in July 2019. Some stocks have forward earnings momentum that investors don't want to overlook, according to Liberum. Joachim Klement, an analyst at the investment bank, screened for S & P 500 stocks that have gotten earnings upgrades over the past one, three and six months. He noted that companies with this momentum outperformed counterparts by 0.2% over the past month. Earnings momentum can be a good sign for a company as it tends to align with growth in revenue, improving margins or cost reductions, or some combination of these factors. Klement noted that earnings per share momentum has a "very chequered past" in the U.S. market. It falls somewhat between Europe, where it has worked great as a predictor of performance, and the U.K., where he said it has been "absolutely dreadful." In the U.S., he noted that high-momentum names performed well in times of market crisis such as in 2008-09 and 2020, but have lost those outsized gains the years immediately following. This also comes as the broader market has traded near all-time highs , forcing traders to look harder for individual stocks that have more room to run. With those caveats in mind, here are 10 names that passed the screen: Artificial intelligence darling Nvidia made the list, with 25% growth in forward earnings over the past three and six months. The buzzy stock has grabbed even more attention this week as it surpassed $3 trillion in market cap. Nvidia has already run up more than 140% in 2024, building on last year's monster gain of more than 230%. But despite having a buy rating, the average analyst on Wall Street polled by LSEG expects the share price to pull back by more than 4% over the next year. NVDA YTD mountain Nvidia, year to date It was one of several megacap tech stocks to make the list, with Amazon , Meta and Netflix also passing the screen. This comes as investors have questioned what's next for the names in this group after being credited with largely helping drive the market higher. Outside of tech, General Motors also made the cut. The automotive stock has seen its forward earnings expectations increase more than 35% in the past six months. General Motors shares have also had a good year, largely outperforming the S & P 500 with a 27% rally. Wall Street sees more upside ahead. The average analyst surveyed by LSEG has a buy rating and price target suggesting about 18.5% in upside. Deutsche Bank research head Tim Rokossa called General Motors "safer than Ford " last month in a note to clients. As reasons, he cited "lower dealer inventories, having baked in a price cut in its 2024 guidance, and strong signals about larger capital returns to shareholders later this year." BEIJING China's exports in May grew faster than expected, while imports missed forecasts, customs data showed Friday. Exports rose by 7.6% in May from a year a go in U.S. dollar terms, beating expectations for 6% growth, according to a Reuters poll. Imports, however, rose by 1.8% during that time, missing the Reuters' forecast for 4.2% growth. In April, China's exports rose by 1.5% year-on-year, while imports climbed by 8.4%. For the first five months of the year, U.S. dollar-denominated exports rose by 2.7% from a year ago, while imports were up by 2.9%. China's imports and exports to the U.S. and EU fell during that time, according to CNBC calculations of official data. But trade with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations rose, with China's exports to the region up by 4.1% year-on-year in the January to May period, the data showed. China's exports to Russia fell during that time, while imports from Russia rose by 7.5%. Chinese electric car company Nio launched its lower-cost brand Onvo on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, in Shanghai, China. CNBC | Evelyn Cheng BEIJING Chinese electric car company Nio plans to expand to the Middle East this year, CEO William Li said on an earnings call Thursday, at a time when rivals have been increasing their global footprint. The nearly 10-year-old company will also start shipping its lowest-cost brand, Firefly, in the first half of next year, Li said. Nio, which recently received funding from Middle East-based investors, saw record-high deliveries of 20,544 vehicles in May. The U.S.-listed Chinese company, which has been operating at a loss, plans to start offering its products and services in the United Arab Emirates by the end of this year, Li said, according to a FactSet transcript. Nio primarily sells in China and in parts of Europe, with a focus on the higher-end market. Li said the brand can break even if monthly sales reach around 30,000 vehicles. Rival BYD has also made the United Arab Emirates its entry point to the Middle East. The battery and electric car giant said in November it opened a showroom in Dubai Festival City as part of a collaboration with Al-Futtaim Electric Mobility Company. watch now As competition in the Chinese electric car market intensifies, Nio launched a lower-priced brand called Onvo in May. The Onvo L60 SUV, which is set to begin deliveries in September, starts at 219,900 yuan ($30,349) versus Tesla Model Y's 249,900 yuan. Li said Thursday the L60's price was only for pre-sales, not the final price. "We continue to believe that the Onvo L60 will be the key factor influencing NIO's potential outlook in 2H24," Nomura analysts said in a note Friday. They rate the stock neutral. Nio's third car brand An even lower-priced brand, Firefly, is also in the works, Nio's Li said. He told investors Thursday that Firefly will deliver its first car in the first half of next year, priced between 100,000 yuan and 200,000 yuan. Firefly will share the same point of sales as Nio-branded cars, Li said, noting it would be similar to the sales model used by MINI and BMW. Part of BYD's strategy has been to release vehicles and sub-brands for different market segments. EV startup Xpeng also plans to release a lower-priced brand, Mona, this month and begin mass deliveries in the third quarter. Nio said its research and development expenses in the first quarter were 2.86 billion yuan, down 6.9% from the year-ago period. Loss from operations during the first quarter was 5.5% higher from a year earlier at 5.39 billion yuan. Onvo store expansion A group of Credit Suisse bondholders filed a lawsuit against the Swiss government, seeking full compensation over the contentious decision to write down the failed bank's Additional Tier 1 (AT1) debt. As part of Credit Suisse's emergency sale to UBS last year, which was orchestrated by the Swiss government, Swiss regulator Finma wiped out roughly $17 billion of the bank's AT1s, writing them down to to zero. The bank's common shareholders received payouts when the sale was completed. The move angered bondholders and was seen to have upended the usual European hierarchy of restitution in the event of a bank failure under the post-financial crisis Basel III framework, which typically places AT1 bondholders above stock investors. Law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, which represents the plaintiffs, said Thursday that it had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. It described Switzerland's decision to write down the plaintiffs' AT1 value to zero as "an unlawful encroachment on the property rights of the AT1 Bondholders." A spokesperson for the Swiss Finance Ministry declined to comment. Finma previously defended its decision to instruct Credit Suisse to write down its AT1 bonds in March last year as a "viability event." "Through its actions, Switzerland needlessly wiped out $17 billion in AT1 instruments, unjustly violating the property rights of the holders of those instruments," Dennis Hranitzky, partner and head of Quinn Emanuel's Sovereign Litigation practice, said in a statement. The face value of the AT1 bonds held by the plaintiffs in the suit was over $82 million, Reuters reported, citing the filing. The Netherlands far-right PVV Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders speaks to the media representatives following the European Parliament elections provisional results in The Hague on June 6, 2024. Sweeping gains for Dutch nationalist Geert Wilders' anti-immigration party on Thursday are expected to foretell a wider shift to the right in this week's European elections. The Netherlands was the first country to vote for the next European Parliament, with EU-wide results due late Sunday. The latest Dutch exit polls give the left-wing Labour and Green parties a slight lead, with a combined total of eight out of 31 available seats in the European Parliament. Wilders' Party for Freedom (PVV) was close behind with seven seats a stark turnaround from zero seats in 2019's result. The result is subject to final confirmation, and the exit poll has an error margin of roughly one seat. The PVV's surge points to shifting political sentiment in the Netherlands, and across the European Union more broadly, with issues such as immigration, agricultural rights and financial contributions to the bloc of increasing concern. Han ten Broeke, director of political affairs at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, said there was no doubt who had won Thursday's vote, "It must be Geert Wilders, by far." "At the end of the day, it is also a continuation of what we saw back in 2023 in the national election, where Geert Wilders came out on top," he told CNBC's Silvia Amaro on Friday. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows speaks to reporters following a television interview, outside the White House in Washington, U.S. October 21, 2020. Former Donald Trump presidential chief of staff Mark Meadows and Trump 2020 Election Day operations director Michael Roman pleaded not guilty Friday in Phoenix to nine felony charges for their roles in an effort to overturn Trump's Arizona election loss to Joe Biden. Meadows and Roman appeared by videoconference for separate brief hearings before Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Shellie Smith, who set an Oct. 31 trial date. Meadows and Roman spoke during the hearings only to respond to Smith's questions with their names and birthdates. Their attorneys spoke for them to enter their pleas of not guilty. The indictment alleges Meadows worked with other Trump campaign members to submit names of fake electors from Arizona and other states to Congress in a bid to keep Trump in office despite his November 2020 defeat at the ballot box. The document alleges 11 Arizona Republicans submitted paperwork falsely declaring that Trump won in Arizona. It also says Meadows confided to a White House staff member in early November 2020 that Trump had lost the election. Roman is accused in the indictment of working closely with Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Boris Epshteyn and others to organize the fake electors' votes in Arizona and six other states. In this article COST GM Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Customers exit a Costco store in Teterboro, New Jersey, on June 28, 2023. Kena Betancur | Corbis News | Getty Images DETROIT General Motors has a not-so-secret weapon when it comes to getting U.S. consumers into its new all-electric vehicles: Costco Wholesale . The Detroit automaker said it's increasingly using the retail giant's Costco Auto Program for EVs as it expands its portfolio from niche vehicles to mass-market segments with vehicles such as the Chevrolet Equinox and Chevrolet Blazer EVs. "We have a great partnership with Costco, and I'm really bullish on Costco because I like their brand," GM North America President Marissa West told CNBC during a recent interview. "I am encouraging the team to see how we can build this partnership." West sees EVs as a "huge opportunity" to expand GM's reach with Costco's more than 50 million members in the U.S. The automaker is also the exclusive automotive partner for Costco Auto in Canada. Automakers such as GM, Ford Motor and Volkswagen have been shifting their electric vehicle strategies in recent months in an effort to boost sales and achieve long-elusive profits on the vehicles. Brands have eased off all-electric messaging, leaned into hybrid vehicles as a bridge toward adoption and struck charging partnerships to boost consumer confidence in the market. Michael Wayland / CNBC An intermediary such as Costco, which has a robust customer demographic for new vehicle buyers, could help move the needle for EV sales. Costco Auto, a third-party service of the wholesale retailer, doesn't sell the vehicles. Instead, it acts as a facilitator, or partner, for franchised dealers and automakers such as GM, offering Costco members special pricing on the vehicles via discounts and other incentives, the retailer said. Costco Auto has facilitated more than 500,000 vehicle sales annually over the past five years on average, according to Jay Maxwell, Costco Auto Program general manager responsible for strategic partnerships. That volume, like that of many of Costco's products, is a lot. It amounts to at least 3% of all vehicles sold in the U.S. each year and more than the annual sales of large publicly traded dealer groups such as Lithia Motors and AutoNation . GM declined to disclose how many Costco customers have purchased GM vehicles through the program. EV interest A growing number of vehicle sales made through Costco Auto are of electric vehicles, Costco said. About 7% of member requests for vehicles to Costco Auto were related to electric vehicles in 2023, according to Maxwell. "Our membership has always liked new things, and EVs are absolutely new to the marketplace," Maxwell said. "This is a great way for the [automakers] to market and get their EVs out in front of people that are interested. Costco has a very strong demographic that fits well with EV buyers." In addition to GM, Costco Auto has partnered with Volvo, including its Polestar EV startup brand, Audi and others over the years. GM's 2024 Chevrolet Equinox EV during a media launch event for the vehicle in Detroit, May 16, 2024. Michael Wayland / CNBC Costco Auto partners with automakers such as GM to offer nationwide discounts in addition to separate partnerships with more than 3,000 franchised dealers from across the U.S., which it calls its "Everyday Auto" program, Costco said. The sweeping discounts from automakers can be used at any franchised dealer, or Costco will suggest a partner dealer where shoppers can work with a Costco Auto-trained employee, the retailer said. Such dealers have specially trained employees who are knowledgeable of all available incentives and offer haggle-free pricing that's competitive with their market, Maxwell said. "It has a pre-negotiated price already established that we work with the dealer every month to make sure that it's updated and it's market competitive," Maxwell said. "You know the price is going to be a great price because you're getting it through Costco, and you can really focus on and enjoy the buying experience." GM is currently offering Costco members nationwide a $1,000 incentive "certificate" on the Equinox, Blazer and Cadillac Lyriq EVs through July. The Costco-only discount is in addition to any other company or dealer incentives, Maxwell said. "There's some pretty strong incentives going on in the market for EVs right now, so they get that additional value on top of it," Maxwell said. "It really makes it a compelling offer to somebody who is considering an EV." Michael Wayland / CNBC The often-steep price point on all-electric vehicles has proven to be a hurdle to mass adoption. Industry executives such as GM CEO Mary Barra have cited pricing alongside charging infrastructure and consumer education as contributing to a slower-than-expected sales pace for EVs. Cox Automotive reports the average transaction price for electric cars in the U.S. was $55,242 as of April. That's a more than $10,000 premium when compared with gas-powered vehicles, according to Cox. The Costco member incentives typically last between 60 and 90 days, and members also can receive other deals on pre-owned vehicles, maintenance and service, according to Costco. Participating retailers are currently offering 15% off auto repair, up to $500 off. Costco customers Dealers and automakers that partner with Costco Auto also get to leverage Costco's reputation and consumer experience. GM has been a Costco Auto partner in the U.S. since 2011 and in Canada since 2019. "What do you know about Costco? You know that they stand behind their product. You know that you're going to get a good value," West, herself a Costco member, told CNBC. "I believe that the Chevrolet brand especially has great synergy with Costco." Costco members are largely made up of suburban and urban households, and 58% are between the ages of roughly 42 and 59, according to Numerator. The market research firm reports Costco members are also typically affluent, with 35% of members making above $125,000 25% higher than shoppers at the average retailer and 46% making between $40,000 and $125,000. Chevrolet Blazer EV on display at the New York Auto Show, April 6, 2023. Scott Mlyn | CNBC Buyer age and income are both key demographic considerations for car companies such as GM that are working to get more EVs in the garages of American drivers. Costco shoppers also are very loyal and prefer the retailer over many other stores, according to global marketing data and analytics firm Kantar. "Costco's members are extremely loyal to Costco," Julie Craig, vice president of shopping insights at Kantar, said in a statement. "These members feel that the savings they receive through their memberships offsets the membership fees, and that Costco offers them value beyond what they can get at other stores." Automakers as well as associated dealers pay Costco Auto a subscription fee, largely to cover marketing and advertising for the vehicles, Maxwell said. He declined to disclose subscription costs for the companies. The Costco Auto Program was initially part of wholesale competitor Price Club, which merged with Costco in 1993. CNBC's Melissa Repko contributed to this article. Attendees walk through the lobby at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago. Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com . Here are some data highlights and executive commentary from the larger companies I follow: More than 5,000 research abstracts were presented or published at ASCO. They included data on existing drugs, experimental treatments, AI tools and ideas for improving patient care. Good morning! I'm back in New York City after spending the last weekend in Chicago for the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting. Think a friend or colleague should be getting this newsletter? Share this link with them to sign up. Digital physical therapy tools provide clinical benefits, report finds Patients with musculoskeletal conditions who like to stay in their pajamas received some welcome news on Wednesday: They can receive meaningful care from the comfort of their homes, according to a new report from the Peterson Health Technology Institute. PHTI is a nonprofit that conducts independent evaluations of digital health solutions. For its latest report, PHTI reviewed virtual musculoskeletal tools from Hinge Health, Sword Health, Omada Health, DarioHealth, Kaia Health, RecoveryOne, Limber Health and Vori Health. Musculoskeletal conditions limit a patient's mobility and can affect the joints, bones and muscles. These disorders are often associated with pain, and they can be treated with medication, surgery or a form of rehabilitation like physical therapy. PHTI said around one in three people in the U.S. have musculoskeletal conditions, and they account for almost 10% of medical spending in the country, according to a release Wednesday. The organization set out to evaluate whether existing virtual tools decrease health-care costs or provide meaningful benefits to patients. PHTI found that several of the solutions "offer clinical benefits to patients that are comparable to in-person physical therapy," the release said. To assess the tools' clinical and economic performance, PHTI said it reviewed more than 2,000 scientific articles and received input from experts and patients. The organization split the solutions into three categories: physical therapist-guided solutions (Sword, Hinge, Omada, Vori and RecoveryOne), app-based exercise therapy with limited participation from physical therapists (Dario, Kaia) and remote therapeutic monitoring solutions, which are designed to supplement in-person care (Limber). PHTI said it found that the physical therapist-guided solutions improve patients' functionality and pain in a manner that is comparable to in-person physical therapy. This means that patients who use these solutions from home can expect to see similar results to patients who receive their care in person. App-based exercise therapy helped improve patients' pain and function, but those tools are not effective enough to replace in-person care, according to the report. Additionally, PHTI said that while evidence for remote therapeutic monitoring tools was limited, they deliver better clinical results in combination with in-person physical therapy compared to in-person therapy alone. Physical therapist-guided solutions also reduce net spending, according to the report. PHTI said remote therapeutic monitoring tools increase net spending, and there was no pricing data available for app-based exercise therapy. PHTI said that based on its review, virtual musculoskeletal tools successfully provide "meaningful improvements in pain and function compared with usual care." The virtual tools can also help increase access to care, particularly for patients who are older, live in rural areas or can't easily travel to an in-person clinic, PHTI said. You can read the full report from PHTI here. Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Ashley at ashley.capoot@nbcuni.com. Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, and his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, arrive at the federal court for his trial on criminal gun charges in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 7, 2024. Jurors in the federal gun trial of Hunter Biden were dismissed Friday afternoon, after prosecutors rested their case and lawyers for the son of President Joe Biden began laying out their defense. Hunter Biden's attorneys called three witnesses to the stand, including his eldest daughter Naomi Biden, who testified that she visited her father while he was in rehab in Los Angeles in the summer of 2018. Naomi Biden said that he seemed "hopeful" in October 2018, the month when prosecutors say he lied about his crack cocaine addiction to purchase a revolver, NBC News reported. On cross-examination, Naomi Biden told prosecutor Leo Wise that she did not see any drug paraphernalia in her father's truck when she borrowed it in October 2018. As Naomi Biden testified, her father wiped tears from his eyes. The 54-year-old Hunter Biden, the president's sole surviving son, is charged with three counts related to his purchase and possession of a Colt Cobra revolver while using illicit drugs. Prosecutors said the evidence is "overwhelming" that Hunter Biden was addicted to crack at the time he bought the gun, and that he lied about it on a form used to conduct a federal background check related to the purchase. Defense attorneys have sought to raise doubts about whether Hunter Biden was on drugs at that time. The trial in U.S. District Court in Delaware is expected to wrap up next week. It is unclear if Hunter Biden's team plans to call their client to testify in his own defense. One of his lawyers said they would make a decision over the weekend on their "last witness." Japanese officials are encouraging their single citizens to get out and mingle through the promotion of dating apps in a bid to foster marriage amid record low birth rates. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has been at the forefront of such efforts and is expected to launch its own government-backed dating app as early as this year. Already, it has been running a dating app test program called "Tokyo Futari Story," which aims to match individuals using artificial intelligence. "Futari" refers to a pair or couple in Japan, a country where remaining single and unmarried has become increasingly normalized. Tokyo Futari Story asks participants to submit various identification documents, including tax forms verifying annual income and an official certificate of single status. Users also take a diagnostic test so the app can learn about their values and what they're looking for in a partner. According to local paper The Asahi Shimbun, the official fee-based version of the app will also require users to sign a pledge promising they are serious about finding a marriage partner rather than seeking a casual relationship. Apple is behind on artificial intelligence. Now, the company is getting ready to unleash its first wave of user-facing AI products. And behind that push is John Giannandrea, a Silicon Valley veteran who is Apple's top executive in charge of AI strategy. On Monday, Apple will hold its annual developers conference, called WWDC, where it's expected to show customers and investors its take on generative AI across products such as the iPhone, iPad and Mac, the fruit of Giannandrea's work. There's enormous pressure on Apple to deliver an impressive slate of AI products and services. In interviews with CNBC, several people who know and have worked with Giannandrea over the years depict him as a humble and ahead-of-the-curve technologist, a quality that could be essential to Apple catching up in AI. Apple's digital assistant Siri is a mess and struggles with even the most basic questions. Apple doesn't sell a product like the AI chatbots being pushed out by Microsoft or startups OpenAI and Anthropic. It doesn't sell powerful chips to cloud companies running AI services like Nvidia . Apple stock has lagged while shares of its peers have ballooned this year on the promise of AI. The stock is up just 1% this year, while Nvidia, which overtook Apple in market value Wednesday, is up 144%. Apple also lost its spot as the most valuable public company in the world to another AI leader, Microsoft, in January. Apple declined to comment. Wall Street sees this as a moment for Apple to prove it's not behind on AI, serving as a catalyst for the stock through the second half of the year and spurring a hot upgrade cycle for the next iPhone model. "We believe that AI features, combined with other Apple ecosystem investments and hardware upgrades for iPhone 16, has the potential to drive upside to product estimates by increasing upgrade rates," Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note to investors this week. Now it's up to Giannandrea and his team to match those expectations. As the tech world became increasingly obsessed with AI over the last 18 months or so, Apple began to talk more openly about how AI powers product features and development. "We view AI and [machine learning] as fundamental, core technologies, and they are virtually embedded in every product that we build," Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC in August 2023. Until now, Giannandrea's team has worked on AI features that run behind the scenes on Apple devices and software. That includes things such as an accessibility feature that can digitally mimic someone's voice if they lose the ability to speak themselves, and automatic edits that make your iPhone photos look better. If you ask the folks at Apple, the company has been using AI for many years to power what you do on your Apple devices without you even knowing about it. That's expected to evolve into more user-facing features this year, such as improvements to Siri, a partnership with OpenAI that'll add the ChatGPT-maker's tech to the iPhone's software, and sophisticated voice controls for its apps, according to a Bloomberg report last week. People who have worked with Giannandrea over the years who spoke to CNBC characterize him as a humble, mild-mannered technologist who doesn't seek attention like more flashy Silicon Valley executives typically do. His most notable start was at a company called General Magic, which spun out of Apple and began business in the early 1990s making software for PDAs, the predecessors to today's modern smartphones. Late in that decade he cofounded TellMe, a startup that made a voice-activated, online information service. A TellMe cofounder, Anthony Accardi, said Giannandrea always seemed ahead of his time, working on technology such as running software in the cloud many years before it became the standard. "He has the foresight to recognize this is an inevitability and direction we're going in the future," Accardi said. Giannandrea, known by most as "JG," joined Google after the search giant acquired another startup he cofounded called Metaweb. Geoffrey Hinton, known as one of the "godfathers" of AI, worked with Giannandrea at Google . Hinton said Giannandrea had a rare skill set among tech executives as both a great researcher and manager. Hinton pointed to a generative AI breakthrough Google made last decade: the ability to automatically caption images using AI. "He really understood the importance of it," Hinton said. By 2018, Giannandrea oversaw AI at Google, and it was seen as a huge coup when Apple poached him that year. Within eight months, he was promoted to Apple's leadership team, reporting directly to Cook along with other top executives such as Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams and services boss Eddy Cue. It was the biggest sign yet that Apple was taking AI seriously, especially for future projects like its now-defunct self-driving car project. So why leave Google, the perceived leader in AI at the time, for Apple? He didn't like how leadership at Google had trouble making decisions and executing them, instead treating parts of the business like a skunkworks research lab, according to one person who spoke with Giannandrea recently. He found the opposite at Apple: leadership makes a decision, and then the rest of the company gets behind it to make it happen. But in the six years since joining Apple, Giannandrea hasn't been in the public view like his peers on Apple's leadership team often are, showing off the company's latest products and updates in flashy promotional videos littered with slick edits and dad jokes. Yet his many years of experience and expertise have earned him wide respect among other Silicon Valley leaders. "I still go to him for wisdom," said Emil Michael, a former top executive at Uber who also cofounded TellMe with Giannandrea. Outside of Apple, Giannandrea sits on the board of SETI, the nonprofit organization founded in 1984 to detect radio signals from potential intelligent life across the cosmos. He also ran a data center business with his wife in recent years, which he eventually sold, adding to his list of successful exits at tech companies he cofounded. At SETI, Giannandrea is an active and engaged board member, and even gave some of his own money to help fund a new project called COSMIC that uses powerful computers to analyze radio signals from outer space, SETI CEO Bill Diamond told CNBC. Giannandrea also sat on a SETI review committee to give feedback on research plans for planetary defenses against asteroids, according to Diamond. "He's got a very scientific mind, an engineering mind," Diamond said. "The question about life beyond Earth fascinates him." Some who know Giannandrea told CNBC they'd be surprised if he made an appearance during Apple's WWDC keynote Monday, instead of delegating the spotlight to members of his team or Craig Federighi, Apple's head of software. "JG is not a showman," one person who knows him well told CNBC. "That's not his vibe." Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks at an event on Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Washington, on May 20, 2024. Microsoft said an artificial intelligence feature on new PCs that captures screenshots and enables searching of user activity will be off by default after security researchers determined that attackers could access the underlying data. The Recall feature was one of the main capabilities Microsoft showed during a press briefing last month for forthcoming Copilot+ PCs with AI computing power onboard. "If you don't proactively choose to turn it on, it will be off by default," Pavan Davuluri, Microsoft's head of Windows and Surface devices, wrote in a blog post Friday. Microsoft has been trying to balance competing interests of late as it moves to incorporate new generative AI tools into its products and to keep up with the competition. While the market is evolving rapidly, user privacy and security are under a microscope. A U.S. government review board recently criticized Microsoft's handling of China's breach of U.S. government officials' email accounts. Microsoft has already added the Copilot conversational chatbot into Windows in a way that resembles OpenAI's popular ChatGPT. Both ChatGPT and Copilot rely on servers in the cloud to perform necessary computations and then send back responses to PCs. Recall is different in that it keeps data on users' computers and doesn't need to access supplemental computing power over the internet. Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, directed employees to put security first and announced changes to its security practices following the U.S. government report. After Microsoft announced Recall, which can search through a log of previous actions on PCs, industry experts began questioning the potential for hackers to retrieve users' information. Security practitioners released software called Total Recall that displays data Recall collects. "Windows Recall stores everything locally in an unencrypted SQLite database, and the screenshots are simply saved in a folder on your PC," they wrote in a description of Total Recall on GitHub. They expressed concern about attackers developing tools that can look for usernames and passwords contained in Recall screenshots. Microsoft is adding security protections to Recall in addition to requiring people to manually turn it on once Copilot+ PCs become available on June 18. The search index database will be encrypted, Microsoft said. "Windows Hello enrollment is required to enable Recall," Davuluri wrote. "In addition, proof of presence is also required to view your timeline and search in Recall." With Windows Hello, users prove their identity by entering a PIN number, showing their face to the PC camera or providing a fingerprint. "I think overall having a choice around opting in on home systems will save a lot of people security problems further down the line," Kevin Beaumont, a former Microsoft cybersecurity analyst who criticized the original implementation of Recall, said in a Friday post on X. "It never should have been enabled by default." Vermont is the latest state to pass a pay transparency law, joining a growing list of states, counties and cities where employers are required by law to publicize their salary ranges to job candidates. The Vermont law, which goes into effect next year, is also among a handful of recently passed legislation where workers will soon be entitled to pay ranges in the near future: Washington, D.C.: Effective June 30, 2024 Maryland: Effective Oct. 1, 2024 Illinois: Effective Jan. 1, 2025 Minnesota: Effective Jan. 1, 2025 Vermont: Effective July 1, 2025 With these updates, an estimated 1 in 3 workers will be impacted by pay transparency laws by 2025, says Lulu Seikaly, senior employment counsel at Payscale. Some pay transparency laws require that an employer list their intended pay range for a role on any publicized job description. Those laws apply to workers in California; Colorado; Hawaii; Illinois; Minnesota; New York (with specific laws in New York City, Ithaca and Westchester County), Jersey City, New Jersey; Vermont; Washington and Washington, D.C. Other laws state a job-seeker is entitled to the pay range at certain points of the hiring process, like during a first interview or when they get an offer. In some cases, candidates can request this information, while in others, the hiring manager must proactively provide it. These types of laws are enforced in Connecticut; Maryland; Nevada; Cincinnati and Toledo, Ohio; and Rhode Island. Additional states, including Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, have their own pay transparency proposals on the table, which could move forward before the end of the year. "The year 2022 was known as the year of pay transparency, but 2024 is giving it a run for its money, as we are seeing more action on the legislation front," Seikaly tells CNBC Make It. Lawmakers have even introduced a federal pay transparency bill, though it's currently pending with the House of Representatives. "It's important to note that the House is currently controlled by Republicans, so personally, I'm not very optimistic about the bill being passed before the end of this year," Seikaly says. "However, this feeling will change if the Democrats control the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate and the White House, as it presents strong chances of a national pay transparency law enactment." In this article NXT Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Photoelectric modules at a solar farm in Hanstholm, Denmark. The solar panels are part of the renewable energy sources that power Apple's European data center in Viborg. Christoph Dernbach | Picture Alliance | Getty Images The surging power needs of artificial intelligence and data centers will be met primarily with renewable energy not fossil fuels, according to the CEO of a leading solar company. The natural gas industry believes it is best positioned to fulfill the surging power demand from data centers, arguing that renewables aren't reliable enough to power these energy-hungry projects alone. But Dan Shugar, the CEO of Nextracker , said the low cost and rapid deployment of solar as well as the ambitious climate goals of Big Tech will make renewable energy the preferred power choice for data centers. Nextracker builds systems that allow solar panels to track the position of the sun, increasing the efficiency of renewable power plants. The company has beat Wall Street expectations for four straight quarters. Nextracker has a backlog of more than $4 billion and has shipped 100 gigawatts to date, twice the peak power load of California. Nextracker shares are up 19% year to date and 37% over the past two months. About 80% of Wall Street analysts who cover the company rate its stock as buy or overweight, according to FactSet. Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon Nextracker shares year to date Shugar pointed to the more than 1,500 gigawatts of power generating projects requesting connection to the electric grid. Solar represents 70% of those projects, or 1,028 gigawatts, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a Department of Energy sponsored lab. When including wind power, there are about 1,400 gigawatts of renewables seeking connection, which is more than the entire installed capacity of the U.S. electric grid. Gas projects, on the other hand, make up 79 gigawatts, or 5%, of the power in line for connection. "There'll be some gas, but we believe based especially on the data published by the DOE, the predominant energy source for these data centers is going to be renewable energy," Shugar told CNBC in an interview Thursday. "Our industry is just way ahead, no matter how you slice it," the CEO said. Big Tech wants clean energy Goldman Sachs estimates that electricity demand from data centers will more than double to 8% of total U.S. power consumption by 2030. Whereas older data centers may have been 100 to 200 megawatts in size, some of the "monster data centers" today may be as big as 1,000 megawatts, Shugar said. That is equivalent to the power produced by the average nuclear plant. Goldman sees natural gas supplying 60% of the power demand growth from data centers and renewables supplying 40%, according to an April report from the investment bank. Goldman estimated that carbon emissions from data centers could more than double by 2030 to about 220 million tons, or 0.6% of global energy emissions, assuming gas provides most of the power. Shugar pointed to the tech companies' climate goals as catalyst for renewables demand. "The clients that are developing these data centers, they have very serious sustainability goals and they don't want their power coming from fossil," Shugar said. "Basically renewable is lower cost than gas." Microsoft, for example, recently signed a massive renewable energy deal with Brookfield Asset Management. The companies described the agreement as the largest renewable energy deal signed between two corporate partners to date. The backlog problem Saudi Arabia is set to raise more than $11.2 billion from its secondary public share offering in state-controlled oil giant Aramco, after the stock was priced at the lower end of its expected range. The company on Friday said it will price the 1.545 billion of shares on offer at 27.25 Saudi riyal ($7.27) apiece, with the sale expected to take place when markets next open on Sunday. A range of between 26.70 and 29 Saudi riyals per share was floated in the firm's initial marketing. The 27.25 Saudi riyal price is nearly 4% below the public stock's last settlement on the Tadawul Saudi stock exchange. The company's shares have lost over 2% since the May 30 announcement of its secondary offering. Investors typically expect a discounted price when new shares enter the public market, because of the increase in the overall supply of stock available to trade. The pricing decision was announced as global oil prices come under pressure, hit by an uncertain demand outlook despite the typical seasonal increase in gasoline consumption over the summer. The influential Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies also announced on June 2 that they were extending formal and voluntary supply cuts. The strain on oil prices and broader global energy transition away from hydrocarbons do not appear to have stifled interest in Aramco's latest offering, however. Citing anonymous sources, Reuters reported that the offering was covered four to five times and generated stronger international demand than during Aramco's ground-breaking IPO in 2019, when the company raised $29.4 billion. CNBC could not independently confirm the report. The backbone of Riyadh's economy, Aramco has traditionally appealed to investors because of its significant dividend payouts. It was offering a hard-to-beat dividend yield of 6.81% as of June 7, according to Factset data, compared with 3.33% from U.S. energy titan Exxon Mobil and 4.18% from Chevron . Aramco's biggest shareholders are the Saudi government, with a more-than 82% stake, and the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, which holds 16%. The proceeds of the latest stock sale will provide some much-needed relief to the Saudi government, which is currently financing a slew of high-cost infrastructure "gigaprojects" under its Vision 2030 economic diversification program. The kingdom has already raised $12 billion in a three-tranche bond sale. The Vision 2030 plan, which seeks to divert Saudi Arabia from reliance on oil revenues, is a flagship policy of Crown Prince and de facto leader Mohammed bin Salman. Yet the program comes with a steep price tag, as just one of the gigaprojects under its auspices, the futuristic city of Neom, is estimated to cost roughly $500 billion. Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen while visiting the Lakhta Center on June 5, 2024, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Vladimir Putin visited a newly built Lakhta Center, a skyscraper of Gazprom, prior to his meetings at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum SPIEF 2024. Contributor | Getty Images News | Getty Images Russia's annual economic forum in St. Petersburg used to be known as the country's "Davos" in a nod to the World Economic Forum that's held in Switzerland every year. War in Ukraine has changed the dial in global geopolitical and trade relations, however. The days when scores of Western business leaders and heads of state attended the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, an event that enables Russia to showcase its economy and investment opportunities, are long gone. Now, Russia is looking to use SPIEF to court new relationships with countries apparently less squeamish about doing business with a country that has invaded its neighbor namely a number of nations in Asia, Latin America and Africa and those willing to turn a blind eye to the war for their own economic interests, such as Russia's oil and gas customers in Eastern Europe, Slovakia and Hungary. SPIEF is the latest effort in the Kremlin's campaign to try to show that everything is still normal, Max Hess, fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and author of "Economic War: Ukraine and the Global Conflict Between Russia and the West," told CNBC on Thursday. "They trumpet and highlight international attendees and domestic propaganda, extremely, but except for a few of the usual characters like the Hungarian Foreign Minister [Peter Szijjarto], nobody new and notable is showing up and also no new major investments or deals will be agreed at this forum, at least not with major foreign countries," he said. A view of the stand of the Russian private bank Alfa-Bank during the 27th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia on June 05, 2024. Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images SPIEF has been blacklisted by most Western businesses and politicians since Feb. 24, 2022, when Russian forces invaded Ukraine. But Russia is keen to show it's open to business from elsewhere and indeed, its need and desire for economic partnerships with non-Western nations have accompanied heightened anti-Western sentiment and rhetoric in the last few years. Moscow claims that it wants to combat Western hegemony and to establish a "multipolar" world order, and has promoted trading partnerships excluding the West as a way to do this. On that note, the theme for the 2024 SPIEF is "The Foundations of a Multipolar World The Formation of New Areas of Growth." This year's program includes sessions on expanding Russian development of the Arctic, the expansion of the BRICS group of economies and Russia's car industry. There's also sessions on "Family Values," another keystone of Russian President Vladimir Putin's fifth term in office, and Russia's relationship with the West. One session, entitled ''The Empire of Evil': Has the West successfully demonized Russia?," asks delegates to consider whether a purported "smear campaign" by the West against Russia has succeeded. Representatives from 136 countries are reportedly attending the forum that runs from June 5-8, Russian presidential foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters ahead of the forum. Putin will address delegates on Friday, where he's expected to promote Russia's economic resilience, investment opportunities and growth despite international sanctions. It's uncertain how much the war in Ukraine, or "special military operation," will feature in his address, however, with Moscow likely to want to skirt over the conflict as it looks to attract investment. Guests from foreign countries seen during the first day of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2024. Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images What's galling for Western nations is that Russia has indeed managed to adapt its economy to a new reality of sanctions and trade restrictions on some of its biggest industries, such as the oil and gas sector. Russia's economy is expected to grow faster than all advanced economies this year, the International Monetary Fund predicted in April. In its last World Economic Outlook, the IMF said it expected Russia to grow 3.2% in 2024, exceeding the forecast growth rates for the U.S. (2.7%), the U.K. (0.5%), Germany (0.2%) and France (0.7%). Russia says that Western sanctions on its critical industries have made it more self-sufficient and that private consumption and domestic investment remain resilient. Meanwhile, continuing oil and commodity exports to the likes of India and China, as well as alleged sanctions evasion and high crude prices, have allowed it to maintain robust oil export revenues. Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to the Brics Business Summit via a prerecorded video on August 22, 2023 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Per-anders Pettersson | Getty Images News | Getty Images Presidential candidate Donald Trump was booed and heckled by many in a raucous audience at the Libertarian National Convention on Saturday night, a marked change from the adulation he receives at rallies from his fervently loyal supporters. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Thursday he may impose tariffs on countries, including China, that do not curb the flow of undocumented immigrants from their territory to the United States, if he wins the U.S. election in November. Trump made the remarks at an event in the border election battleground state of Arizona while responding to an audience question and did not specify the size of tariff he would impose in such a scenario. Asked about ways he would curb the flow of migrants crossing into the U.S. illegally, Trump said: "We have tremendous economic power." Trump said if a country, such as China, does not help to curb the flow of immigrants into the U.S., "we have these things called tariffs." Trump warned if other countries do not help to reduce it, then he could "tariff the hell out of that country" if re-elected. Border security and immigration have emerged as top issues for Americans in the run-up to the Nov. 5 election where Trump will face U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, in a rematch of their 2020 White House contest. The majority of people crossing into the U.S. illegally are from Latin America. According to U.S. government data the U.S. Border Patrol arrested more than 27,000 Chinese migrants caught illegally crossing the border with Mexico from Oct. 1, 2023-April 30, 2024, part of a sharp increase in Chinese arrivals. It was Trump's first campaign event since a Manhattan jury on May 30 found him guilty on all 34 counts he faced of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment his former lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election for her silence about a sexual encounter she says they had. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and vowed to appeal the verdict. On Thursday he called the trial "rigged." Trump lambasted Biden's latest effort to crack down on people crossing America's southern border illegally, an asylum ban similar to restrictions Trump tried to implement when he was president. Biden took executive action on Tuesday that instituted a broad asylum ban on migrants caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump claimed Biden's new plan was "outrageous" and a concession of "death and defeat" at the border, even though the Biden measure mirrored Trump-era policies to deter would-be migrants. Biden has toughened his approach to border security as immigration has emerged as a major political problem for him. President Joe Biden's administration on Friday finalized tighter fuel economy rules for trucks and sport utility vehicles through 2031 that are not as stringent as it first proposed, a federal agency said. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said the proposed new rules will result in much lower compliance penalties than originally proposed, a significant win for Detroit automakers. Automakers praised the changes and environmental groups criticized them. In July 2023, NHTSA had proposed boosting Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements by 2% per year for passenger cars and 4% per year for light trucks from 2027 through 2032. Under the final rule, NHTSA will not require any increase for light trucks for 2027 and 2028 and will only require 2% increases from 2029 through 2031. Last year, NHTSA said its proposal to hike fuel economy standards through 2032 would cost the industry $14 billion in projected fines. This includes $10.5 billion for the Detroit Three: $6.5 billion for General Motors , $3 billion for Chrysler-parent Stellantis , and $1 billion for Ford Motor . Under the final rule, the auto industry is collectively expected to face a total of up to $1.83 billion in fines through 2031 -- and it could be as little as nothing -- based on various models, government NHTSA told Reuters. Automakers buy credits or pay fines if they cannot meet CAFE requirements. In June 2023, Reuters first reported Stellantis and GM paid a total of $363 million in CAFE fines for failing to meet U.S. fuel economy requirements for prior model years. NHTSA said the rule will hike fuel economy to about 50.4 miles per gallon by 2031 from 29.1 mpg currently. Last year, the agency projected the rule would hike requirements to 58 mpg by 2032. The is the third regulatory action the Biden administration has taken in recent months that did not tighten vehicle regulatory proposals as much as promised. Earlier actions included new compliance calculations for EVs that were less strict than originally proposed, and tailpipe rules that would ultimately require automakers to make fewer EVs than they had originally forecast. John Bozzella, who heads the Alliance for Automotive Innovation trade group representing major automakers, praised the revisions that will dramatically reduce projected penalties that his members had feared. "Those fines wouldn't have produced any environmental benefits or additional fuel economy and would've foolishly diverted automaker capital away from the massive investments required by the electric vehicle transition," Bozzella said. Dan Becker, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's Safe Climate Transport Campaign, said NHTSA had "caved to automaker pressure" and said the agency's "weak final rule wastes too much gas, spews too much pollution and cedes the clean vehicle market to foreign automakers." Exam takers offered tasty good wishes 09:30, June 07, 2024 By Liang Shuang ( China Daily With students about to sit in test rooms for the all-important national college entrance examination, or gaokao, on Friday, parents and teachers have been racking their brains to give them emotional support. Zongzi, a festive food for Monday's Dragon Boat Festival, has emerged as a star on the list of good-wish items. This year's gaokao starts on Friday and will take two to four days depending on the location. The scores will largely determine candidates' destinies in higher education whether they can go to college, and what level of college they will be eligible for. As the flipping of pages of study materials comes to an end, teachers and parents have shifted their attention to easing candidates' nerves and wishing them good luck. Many have chosen to do so by using something that can be interpreted as having auspicious meanings. Primarily made with glutinous rice and often wrapped in bamboo leaves, triangular zongzi is a festive food for the Dragon Boat Festival. Because the start of the exam and the festival are close together this year, the festive food has been turned into an edible talisman for good grades. In Wuhan, Hubei province, students at Wuhan No 23 Senior High School who are about to take the test went into the canteen on Tuesday by entering through a door decorated with strings of zongzi, as school leaders waited to give them a pep talk. Many students also leaped to hit the food with their heads, Wuhan-based Jimu News reported. The little ritual represents the Chinese word gaozhong, or "achieving high grades", as students jump "high", while zongzi serves as a pun for zhong, or "right on target". "Through such creative activities, we hope to enhance their confidence so that they can have a more positive mindset for the exams," an unnamed school official told Jimu News. Zongzi merchants have also taken advantage of the pun to boost their sales. They have rolled out special packaging that wishes test-takers good luck, along with handwritten gift cards, with hundreds of products sold on the Tmall e-commerce platform. In addition to online promotions, at one supermarket in Fuzhou, Fujian province, a zongzi gift package even included a picture depicting someone ranking first in a top-level exam. (Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun) Novo Nordisk's Wegovy weight loss drug has seen a meteoric rise in popularity. Nurphoto | Getty Images LONDON The rapid rise of weight loss drugs like Wegovy is generating a host of new product lines as companies hope to land on the right side of the health care disruptor. Industries spanning food and beverage to retail and fitness have come under the spotlight amid surging demand for Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly's so-called miracle drugs over concerns that they could dramatically shift consumer habits. However, some companies say they are embracing the newfound market opportunity. Dutch Bioscience firm DSM Firmenich told CNBC Wednesday that it is exploring nutritional supplements to complement and compensate for some of the impacts of the weight loss drugs, with CEO Dimitri de Vreeze describing it as the natural progression for the industry. "If you go to weight loss and you're successful, you move to the health, nutrition, lifestyle counter, because you basically want to continue what you have. There we come into play," de Vreeze told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe." watch now The weight loss injections, which rely on a group of drugs called GLP-1 receptor agonists (glucagon-like peptide 1), which work by imitating a naturally occurring gut hormone that helps regulate appetite in the brain. Studies remain ongoing over some of the further health applications and potential side effects of the appetite-suppressing drugs. But de Vreeze said his company was also looking at products to boost muscle retention and protein intake. "There are some side effects of weight loss drugs and that means it's more difficult to build up muscle, it's more difficult to keep your protein level up. And here we come into play. We are using ingredients, developing ingredients where that's being sort of compensated for," he said. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment on the comments. Consumer goods to airlines DSM is not the only company seeking to capitalize on the growing market for weight loss drugs. Swiss food giant Nestle announced last month that it's launching a new frozen food range aimed at GLP-1 drug users. The Vital Pursuits range, which will initially feature 12 items including whole grain bowls and pizzas, is designed as a nutritional "companion" to the drugs, the company said. CEO Mark Schneider told CNBC last week that while weight loss drugs were shifting consumer behaviors, "nutritional needs don't go away." GLP-1 drugs will "certainly be an interesting addition to all the other needs that we're trying to meet in the food industry," Schneider said. Danone CEO Antoine de Saint-Affrique also told CNBC in April that he sees GLP-1s as "complementary" to the French food company, adding that they would only increase demand for its nutritional products. watch now Whether weight loss meds will leave consumers more or less likely to reach for healthy products is not yet certain, however, according to Barclays analysts. "Greater adoption of GLP-1 drugs could be thought of as a substitute for categories of food products that are more attuned to health and wellness," analyst Andrew Lazar said in a research note last year. "That said, consumers could also eat more weight management foods as they strive to eat healthier and substitute such products over more indulgent snacking alternatives," he added. Such shifts could have similar implications for restaurants, food retailers and delivery companies that "proactively pivot" to embrace the drugs, the bank's analysts added. It cited fast food companies including KFC's Yum Brands and Shake Shack as potential beneficiaries if consumers view the drugs as "offsetting" such indulgences. Airlines could also benefit massively from trimmer passengers as they grow increasingly preoccupied by reducing jet-fuel costs. In a September note cited by Bloomberg, Jefferies analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu said United Airlines would save $80 million a year if the average passenger weight fell by 10 pounds. Even pharmaceutical packaging companies could stand to gain, Barclays said, with companies like Germany's Gerresheimer seeing a possible 2-4% revenue boost from the estimated $100 billion weight loss drug industry. Growing weight loss drug competition It is not yet clear whether such ancillary products can replicate the meteoric rise of weight loss drug companies like Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. "We think it is too early for investors to take definitive positioning outside of healthcare stocks on the impact of GLP-1 drugs, and the range of potential scenarios is very wide," Barclays analysts wrote. watch now NSE More people in Singapore are seeking treatment for aerophobia the fear of flying following the severe turbulence incident that struck a Singapore Airlines flight over the Irrawaddy Basin in Myanmar last month.Aerophobia can range from slight uneasiness to very severe panic attacks triggered by a thought or impending occasion of flying, according to a Channel News Asia report on Friday.While aviation experts say that flying remains among the safest forms of travel, some service providers have seen a spike in people seeking to address this fear, according to the report.On May 21, SQ321, en route from London to Singapore, encountered extreme turbulence. The Boeing 777-300ER aircraft was carrying 211 passengers and a crew of 18 when it made an emergency landing at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport.One passenger a 73-year-old British man died and dozens were injured, some of them seriously.Some SQ321 passengers painted a harrowing scene in an interview with the channel.Those who were unbelted flew out of their seats and onto the ceiling of the plane, before slamming back down. Others described the experience as akin to riding a roller coaster.A few days later, turbulence on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Dublin in Ireland also led to several injuries.Specialist psychology clinic Psych Connect used to receive a query about aerophobia once every few months, but now gets at least two enquiries daily.The clinics founder, Dr Sanveen Kang, said the Qatar Airways incident was a double whammy for people who thought SQ321 was a rare event.I think the timing of these two events is also quite notable because they're right before the holidays with the local schools, and with the international schools, they are (going) for summer break. So, people have been travelling for two to three months, she said.Because of Singapores limited geographical landscape, many leave the country for holidays as well, she noted.We don't have the opportunity, apart from some of the surrounding regions, to get on a boat and go on holiday. If we want to leave Singapore and experience other cultures, we are very limited by flying, the Channel report quoted Dr Kang as saying.Even if people were not on the affected flights, they could be developing aerophobia after listening to passengers accounts and reading about the challenges they faced, Dr Kang pointed out.It is a reinforcer for those who are predisposed to such anxieties, she said.When people talk to their friends and family members about such incidents and their fears, this normalises such anxiety as well, added Dr Kang.Aerophobia affects about five per cent of the general population. It results in several symptoms, including headaches, sickness, heart palpitations or even sweating.As for whether some find it difficult to seek help due to societal taboos, Dr Kang said aerophobia is an isolating disorder that can elicit a sense of shame due to how normalised flying has become.There is a sense of regret. People lose out on experiences, she added.Since the two turbulence incidents, aviation experts have maintained that turbulence resulting in serious injuries and deaths is extremely rare.Meanwhile, according to the latest data from the International Air Transport Association, 2023 ranked among the safest years in aviation. Just one flight resulted in fatalities out of about 37 million flights.Still, this is not enough for some to regain their confidence in flying.Dr Kang suggested relaxation strategies, as well as breathing exercises and distraction techniques.But if these fears are a lot more prevalent, and one is experiencing maladaptive thoughts - they buy into the catastrophe, they buy into the overestimation of danger - they're likely to need more than quick fixes, she said. US regulators are on the point of opening antitrust investigations into three giants of the artificial intelligence industry, Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI, according to a report by The New York Times. The three companies increasingly dominate the artificial intelligence market with their software and semiconductors, and regulators in the US and elsewhere have been taking a hard look at whether their activities qualify as anticompetitive. Late last year, both the European Union (EU) and the UK were probing the relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI, although in April 2024, the EUs merger watchdogs decided not to investigate Microsofts US$13 billion investment in OpenAI as a potential takeover. A recent study found a link between the consumption of energy drinks and an elevated risk of life-threatening cardiac events among individuals with pre-existing genetic heart conditions. Conducted by researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, the study published in the journal Heart Rhythm, examined 144 survivors of sudden cardiac arrest with known genetic heart conditions. Out of this group, approximately 5% had consumed energy drinks prior to their cardiac event, prompting speculation about a potential link between energy drink consumption and cardiac arrest. Lead study author Dr. Michael J. Ackerman, a genetic cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic, emphasized that while this association is noteworthy, further research is necessary to establish causation. Despite the relatively low relative risk, Dr. Ackerman urged everyone with genetic heart conditions to carefully consider the risks and benefits of consuming energy drinks. "Although the relative risk is small and the absolute risk of sudden death after consuming an energy drink is even smaller, patients with a known sudden death predisposing genetic heart disease should weigh the risks and benefits of consuming such drinks in the balance," Ackerman cautioned, as per Medical News Today. Dr. Mustali Dohadwala, a cardiologist not involved in the study, noted the potential public health implications of these findings, particularly in light of the widespread consumption of energy drinks. He suggested that this study appears to shed light on the need for increased scrutiny of energy-boosting products and their potential impact on cardiac health. "Although this is a very small retrospective study of a very rare, select population, these clinical findings appear to be well beyond chance and are likely to have significant clinical relevance and even impact on a much larger population," Dohadwala, a medical director of Heartsafe, a cardiology-focused private practice in Boston, explained. "These findings may be illuminating unwanted light over an en vogue, unregulated market of energy-deriving foods and beverages and their widespread consumption which may in-end lead to a much broader public health concern." The study's findings add to existing concerns about the safety of energy drinks, especially when consumed in large quantities or by individuals predisposed to cardiac issues. High levels of caffeine, a common ingredient in energy drinks, have been associated with adverse health effects, as demonstrated by recent incidents such as the withdrawal of a highly caffeinated product by Panera Bread following two deaths. In an editorial accompanying the research, energy drinks were likened to "arrhythmogenic foods," suggesting that they may contribute to heart arrhythmias. Compounds like taurine and guarana found in many energy drinks have been linked to proarrhythmic changes in heart function, raising further concerns about their safety. Despite the study's associative nature, experts stressed the need for additional research, especially given the booming energy drink industry. Dr. Majid Basit, an interventional cardiologist, said there are potential risks associated with frequent and excessive energy drink consumption, particularly for individuals with underlying cardiac conditions. "The study does not conclude that energy drinks cause these near-fatal events," Basit, who was not involved in the study, said. "However, frequent and excessive use of substances like energy drinks and alcohol have been shown to cause other cardiac disorders including heart failure, stroke and irregular heart rhythms like atrial fibrillation." Researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have developed a new framework explaining how antidepressants treat major depression by restoring brain connectivity rather than correcting a serotonin imbalance. Understanding Major Depression Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been studied for many years, with researchers seeking to understand the root cause of this condition. Traditionally, it was believed that MDD was caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, particularly a serotonin deficiency. This led to the widespread use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), which work by increasing serotonin levels. New Framework for Antidepressant Efficacy Recent research, however, has shown that there is no significant decrease in serotonin levels in people with depression. Despite this, antidepressants like SSRIs and SNRIs remain effective for many patients. In a study published in Molecular Psychiatry, researchers from the University of Colorado present a new framework to explain the efficacy of these medications. Promoting Brain Connectivity According to this new framework, the primary issue in MDD is that certain brain regions are not communicating properly. Scott Thompson, PhD, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, states that brain regions responsible for mood, reward, happiness, and self-esteem are not functioning together as they should. Antidepressants help restore the strength of connections between these regions, promoting neuroplasticity and helping brain circuits recover from a pathological state. The Role of Neuroplasticity Neuroplasticity refers to the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections. This concept is central to the new framework for understanding antidepressant efficacy. By enhancing neuroplasticity, antidepressants help release brain circuits that are "stuck" and restore healthy brain function. This understanding is supported by evidence showing that medications like SSRIs, as well as novel treatments like esketamine and psychedelics, facilitate this process. Clinical and Public Implications This new framework has significant implications for both clinical practice and public perception of antidepressants. C. Neill Epperson, MD, chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, emphasizes the importance of effective communication between healthcare providers and patients. By explaining how antidepressants promote neuroplasticity, clinicians can help patients better understand their treatment and its benefits. When people think of nonperishable, bomb-shelter friendly foods, theres usually the standard heavy hitters dried beans, canned foods, specialized military rations. But one thoroughly modern food, in all its non-nutritional glory, has entered the pantheon in its own right: the Twinkie. What isnt much more than a preservative-riddled sponge cake has become a culinary cockroach, capable of persevering through outlandish odds at reasonable edibility. Even its beloved cowboy mascot feels perfect for a post-apocalyptic Fallout-style scenario. In fact, it was given a place of honor in Zombieland as an emotional and caloric goal for one of the main characters. This is all for good reason. Thinking about nonperishable foods that will keep you physically stable in a pinch is good, but dont forget the emotional quotient. Just the stress of a mostly functional world requires regular junk-food binges; I cant imagine the stress levels would go down along with civilization. Don't Miss So, what are some other bits of delicious but unhealthy treats could you tuck away in your nuclear shelter? Well, Im glad you asked 5 The Inimitable Twinkie Pixabay We have clear evidence of a Twinkies persistence, even when stored in less-than-ideal conditions. In a school in Blue Hill, Maine, a single Twinkie resides, having long abandoned its protective sleeve. A teacher named Roger Bennatti unwrapped the spongy tube in 1976, and it remains remarkably edible-looking to this day, outlasting his own teaching career. Now, does it look perfect? No. In a box with younger Twinkies, it would definitely be the last pick. But if someone missed lunch, I do think it would be eventually consumed. 4 Jolly Ranchers Advertisement East718 Jolly Ranchers and many other similar hard candies like lollipops have an incredible shelf-life thanks to their simplicity. Given proper storage, they can last close to indefinitely. Youd think that a feast of pure sugar would be a bacteria hotspot, but thats only if moisture enters the equation. According to food scientist Kantha Shelke, The wrapper of a Jolly Rancher will go bad before the candy does. Which, wow and gross. 3 Maple Syrup Pixabay In the same sugary family, theres good news for those who are packing their bomb shelters with Bisquick. Should you want a stack of hotcakes after a nuclear event, youll be able to top them with good old maple syrup, worry-free especially commercial maple syrup with a touch of preservatives in an unopened bottle. According to Mental Floss, an uncracked bottle of everyones preferred waffle lubricant will last forever. Further, if youre about to dig in to those first wasteland flapjacks and notice some mold, all is not lost: You can boil it and skim the mold off. Advertisement Advertisement 2 Popcorn In a barren future wasteland, all manner of things will be in short supply. One thing that definitely wont? Free time. In which case, you might have packed away some of your favorite Blu-rays, correctly predicting that a global nuclear catastrophe would make Netflixs servers unreliable, to say the least. If you did, you can enjoy a classic bowl of popcorn along with a momentary distraction from the hell that rages above your head. Advertisement Advertisement Dont believe me? You can find some visual proof right above in the form of YouTuber New England Wildlife & More chowing down on popcorn from the 1910s, which survived a century in a paper tube and remained, in his words, not bad. Galaxy Quest aka Three Amigos, But Star Trek is one of the most beloved comedies of the past 25 years. And for many of us, its pretty much the only watchable Tim Allen movie, since the Santa Clause franchise is one big fever dream, and the less said about Disneys Jungle 2 Jungle, the better. Even Pixar seemingly bent over backwards to try and make a Buzz Lightyear movie that in no way involved Tim Allen. But Allen was perfectly-suited to Galaxy Quest, playing a washed up sci-fi actor named Jason Nesmith, who was basically just William Shatner but without the baffling music career. Weirdly, Allens participation was what led to the films original director, comedy legend Harold Ramis, bowing out of the project altogether. Don't Miss As reported by MTV, the first director attached to the script, by David Howard and Robert Gordon, was Ramis, who was fresh off of making Analyze This. But problems arose when it came to casting Galaxy Quest. For the Jason part, filmmakers pursued serious A-list actors, including Kevin Kline and Steve Martin, but they all turned it down. Ramis wanted to cast Alec Baldwin, who obviously could have nailed the role of a clueless, egomaniacal actor, but the studio, DreamWorks, had another suggestion: Tim Allen. Ramis was reportedly less enthused with the idea of making the movie with the Home Improvement guy and decided to walk away. Although reports at the time claimed that the Groundhog Day director was simply going to take a break. Per producer Mark Johnson, Harold didnt do the movie because we couldnt cast it. The people we went to all turned it down, and by the time we got to Tim Allen, Harold couldnt see it. (Baldwin confirmed that he was offered and then un-offered the part. ) Advertisement But before Ramis finally left the movie, he did have one awkward meeting with Allen and DreamWorks co-founder/future Quibi genius Jeffery Katzenberg. As Allen later told The Hollywood Reporter, Katzenberg pitched me the idea of the commander character and then they started talking and it became clear that Ramis didnt see me for the part. It was pretty uncomfortable. Allen also noted that Ramis take on the material felt more in the vein of Spaceballs, and that for some reason he was hung up on having an action star who could be funny, versus a comedian who could do action, possibly in reference to Baldwin. Advertisement Ramis also had guidelines that would have prevented Sigourney Weaver from playing the character of Gwen DeMarco. According to Weaver, her old Ghostbusters co-star didnt want anyone who had done sci-fi in the film, which obviously would have ruled Ellen Ripley out. Frankly, its those of us who have done science-fiction movies that know what is funny about the genre, Weaver countered. Advertisement Johnson said Ramis later expressed admiration for Allens work in the finished product. Harold was very gracious about how wrong he was, saying that it was a great film and that Tim Allen was a fantastic commander, he claimed. Still, judging from the various stories about working with Allen that have surfaced over the years, Ramis probably dodged a bullet. You (yes, you) should follow JM on Twitter (if it still exists by the time youre reading this). Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. The King's taste buds, blunted by his cancer treatment, prohibit the temptations of the cheese board on his visit to France. Fromage is one of his passions. On a 2015 trip to Paris he railed against threats to cheese production declaring: 'Will this obsession with accreditation, categorisation, homogenisation and pasteurisation bring with it the emasculation of robust old roquefort, camembert, reblochon and even the runny vacherin? That might seem absurd but a large part of the magnificent edifice of European civilisation rests on the heritage of genius and know-how and the survival of real food, without which all of our lives would become absolutely unbearable.' For now His Majesty can only dream. The then Prince Charles visits a restored farmstead which houses local businesses at The Courtyard in Settle, Yorkshire, in 2017 King Charles III during a tour by Simon Jones (R) at the Poacher Cheese Farm during his visit to Lincolnshire on July 24, 2023 King Charles, optimistic about a medical green light for his first tour of Australia as monarch later this year, has had a discreet 'meet and greet' at Buckingham Palace with Australia's incoming Governor General Sam Mostyn. A former Republican, she has been warned by the Monarchist League to 'renege on any previous anti-royal sentiments'. Meanwhile, Australians caution Charles not to replicate his 2018 trip when he arrived with a 13-strong entourage including a valet to look after his medals. One local politician quipped: 'I thought a Travelling Yeoman was a rock 'n' roll tribute band.' Fergie, having mangled the language with her claim that she kept her huge personality 'under the cushion' is at it again. Asked on Good Morning Britain about the alleged ding-dong between the King and Andrew over Royal Lodge, she replied: 'It's not a Debbie Downer.' Who's Debbie? Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, appearing on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday It seems that the gap left by Huw Edwards is somewhat bigger than the BBC is letting on. His anchor position for election night is being filled by two people Laura Kuenssberg and Clive Myrie. And his role as the voice of state occasions is already similarly hard to fill. D-Day coverage this week is being fronted by Anita Rani and Paddy OConnell, with Trooping the Colour next week in the hands of Clare Balding. At least evergreen David Dimbleby is already clearing his throat for Remembrance Sunday. Time seems to be finally catching up with Rolling Stone Keith Richards on the band's Hackney Diamond tour of the US. Keith, 80, has been sitting down while playing their 1969 hit Gimme Shelter. Does Mick pass him the jump leads when he commences Start Me Up? Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones perform live on stage at St Mary's Stadium on May 29, 2018 Celebrity choreographer Arlene Phillips, who once secretly taught Katharine, Duchess of Kent to dance, has ambitions to teach the Queen the cha-cha. 'I met Camilla when I was working on a show called Midnight Tango and she mentioned how much she loved that show, and how much she missed me on Strictly,' says Arlene. 'I'd love to teach Camilla to dance.' None of those Hot Gossip shenanigans with the monarch's missus, Arlene. Come on then, Starmer. Spill the beans. Spit it out, man because we all deserve to know exactly how you are going to change Britains relations with the European Union. On this crucial issue there would appear to be a gigantic Labour conspiracy of silence, and it cant go on. With less than four weeks to go, Starmer is determined to bore his way to victory, slinking into Downing Street as silently and inscrutably as Larry the cat. You could see it in the TV debate, where he offered his fabled imitation of a blinking human bollard. Sir Keir Schnorrer hopes to benefit from popular frustration with government and acquire the biggest and least-deserved majority in recent parliamentary history. If he does, he will do all sorts of appalling things. He will whack up your taxes and wallow in wokery. And I tell you this, my friends: if Schnorrer gets in, he will immediately begin the process of robbing this country of its new-found independence, and make the UK the punk of the EU. Bit by bit he will give up our freedoms until this country is effectively locked in the legislative dungeon of Brussels like some orange ball-chewing gimp. Keir Starmer meets Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Union Commission, during the Munich Security Conference earlier this year What you need to know and what he isnt telling you is that if Starmer gets in, he will abandon Brexit. He wont formally rejoin he hasnt the guts to try that, yet. He will go for the worst of all worlds, where we remain out of the EU, but become a vassal state; the very fate we in the Tory government that I led spent years trying to avoid, because it was emphatically not what people voted for, and it is not right for this country. It is now almost exactly eight years since the people of Britain voted to take back control of their democracy. Given the voices raised against that proposal every major political party, much of the media, virtually the entire UK establishment it was a decision of huge courage. The people voted Leave because they believed in this country and its potential. They did it because they thought that by taking back control of our laws, our borders and some pretty sizeable sums of money, they might have a new and exciting future. They were right. You wont hear it much these days, but already Brexit has been proving its worth. It was thanks to Brexit, never let it be forgotten, that we were able to approve Covid vaccines significantly faster than the EU, with the result that we had the fastest vaccine rollout and the fastest exit from lockdown of any major European country. In helping to save many thousands of lives of elderly or vulnerable people by giving them vaccines earlier Brexit has already been amply vindicated. But there has been so much more. Thanks to Brexit, the UK has had a genuinely independent foreign policy, where we have been able to do things that would have been impossible within the EU framework. Take Ukraine, where Brexit Britain paradoxically has led Europe in stiffening our continents resistance to Putin. Ten years ago, Britain was excluded from the so-called Normandy Format, in which France and Germany were made responsible on behalf of the whole EU for policy on Ukraine. The result was a farce, in which the EU treated Putins 2014 invasion as if it were a marital tiff between Russia and Ukraine. Has Brexit given us more freedom on the world stage? You bet it has, and the same point could be made about the AUKUS defence pact with Australia and the US. We would never have dared, within the EU, to have caused such a diplomatic rumpus. Thanks to Brexit, we have been able to do free-trade deals: not just rollovers of existing EU agreements, but genuinely new expansions of free trade like the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) which is shortly to come into force. Thanks to Brexit we have cut tariffs already on everything from plastic seals for engines to shoe leather to tropical fruit juice. We have cut VAT on sanitary products, and have the freedom to do much more. We have already taken back control of much of our fisheries, and by 2026 our control will be complete. We are able to do things in the interests of UK businesses whether that is getting rid of the EUs three-crop system of agriculture or its rules on lorry trailers. Thanks to Brexit, we are already regulating more flexibly on the cutting-edge technologies of gene editing, data and AI. It took years to achieve these freedoms, and the result is that we have only recently begun the process of divergence. The full economic benefits will take time but UK has been growing faster than Germany since the pandemic, and the latest data shows that we are the fourth-biggest exporter of goods and services in the world. Yes, we have productivity problems in this country, but they are nothing to do with Brexit. If anything, we need more deregulation, not less. Remember all those threats about mass unemployment if the people dared to vote Leave? They all turned out to be lies. Larry the Downing Street cat - almost as silent and inscrutable as Sir Keir Starmer You will hear none of these points from Labour, because Keir Starmers party is passionately in favour of rejoining the EU. Look at the front bench every one a Remainer. Look at Starmer himself a former Shadow Brexit Secretary who voted dozens of times against bills that would have allowed the UK to leave the EU. If he is elected, I guarantee he will end his tactical silence on the question, and claim that all Britains problems are down to Brexit, and he will have a chorus of support from the media, and all those distinguished people who supported Remain and who have never got over it. He will begin by aligning with EU laws on such things as food standards; then he will rejoin the customs union, and paying into the EU budget, and then he will declare that Britain will accept the full package of EU single-market law. Finally he will break his pledge, to secure that single-market access, and go back to free movement of EU nationals into Britain. He wont need a referendum. He will simply be able to use his parliamentary majority to force it all through. At every stage he will be subjecting Britain to EU control, while gaining no say for Britain in the EU. So he needs to be challenged, now. Will he rule out ever paying into the EU budget? Will he rule out alignment with EU law? Will he rule out rejoining the customs union and the single market? I dont believe he can honestly rule out any of those things because that is what he intends to do. When people voted to leave the EU, they voted against an ideology that meant that the UK was part of a United States of Europe. They voted against the idea that any one of the 500 million EU nationals could come to the UK as easily as someone could move from Surrey to Hampshire. They voted against the idea that Parliament could be subordinate to a foreign jurisdiction. They dont want to go back to that. Labour does and so does Starmer. They just wont admit it this side of the election. Its time to smoke him out. If youre invited to a boring party after a long day at work, sneaking off early is a bit cheeky, but understandable. How many of us have pretended to head for the toilet but sidled towards the back door, hoping we wont be spotted? But if youre the bloke representing the UK at a historic event and the worlds press are in attendance, things are very different. You cant just disappear two-thirds of the way through because your poll ratings are tanking and your macho pride cant cope with the prospect of defeat on July 4th. Rishi Sunaks decision to leave the D-Day celebrations early was a mega-disaster. It reveals the enormity of his ego, it shows he has appalling manners, and it proves his closest advisors are woefully out of touch with what the public care about. Answering questions from broadcasters on a general election campaign visit to Wiltshire today, Mr Sunak said 'it was a mistake' for him not to stay in Normandy for the D-Day commemoration events Mr Sunak's early departure saw Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron pictured alongside US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Sir Keir stayed for the international ceremony, during which he met with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky The young campaign planners in Number 10 probably thought that skipping a ceremony honouring those who saved us from a Nazi invasion 80 years ago was acceptable as the PM had done his duty by attending two events in Portsmouth on Wednesday, and in France on Thursday morning. It was a huge mistake. This wasnt avoiding Dave from Dispatch's leaving do or Bev from Receptions Big Birthday. This was honouring a group of veterans who will probably never meet again, a priceless moment in history. Do young people care about the Second World War as much as my generation? Do twenty and thirty-something political advisors understand how the events on the Normandy beaches helped to save our democracy? D-Day is engraved on our national DNA - we cant measure out enough gratitude and respect to the brave soldiers who changed the course of modern history. Its a moment we must never forget. By bunking off the final international D-Day ceremony for a pre-recorded interview with ITVs UK Editor Paul Brand (which wont even be broadcast till next Wednesday), the Prime Minister revealed appalling manners and a total lack of judgement. It will cost him dearly. Leaving President Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Schulz, President Biden and President Zelensky behind on a Normandy beach - for a chat with Paul Brand? Paul is a fine journalist, who regularly shines a light on the most deprived in our society, but he must have been astonished to find he was more important to the Prime Minister than a few moments with those who actually took part in D-Day. Manners really matter, no matter whether youre a refuse collector or a Prime Minister. In a social media post this morning, Mr Sunak admitted 'it was a mistake not to stay in France longer - and I apologise' It later emerged that Mr Sunak had given a broadcast interview following his return from Normandy, a clip of which was shared by ITV journalist Paul Brand The Prime Minister, pictured yesterday with his wife Akshata Murty, is facing a furious backlash over his decision to leave D-Day commemoration events early Sadly, most politicians (particularly male ones) seem to think the sun shines out of their proverbial backsides and that the universe revolves around them at all times which is why Sunak chose a telly chat over a historic commemorative ceremony. And his poor manners are one of the reason why last Tuesdays Election debate was so ill-tempered and pointless. What did we learn from this programme, about what life in Britain might be like if they were in charge? Not much. Sunak and Starmer have the debating skills of a pair of bison, continually talking over each other, ignoring the chair - Julie Etchingham - motoring on with their pre-rehearsed positions like a couple of Daleks, raising their voices at every opportunity to try to gain control. The verbal trashing was a turn-off for viewers, reflected in the poor ratings (just 4.80 million) against 6.7 million when Boris (then PM) and Corbyn debated in 2017. In real life, both Sunak and Starmer seem to be decent family men - one might be fabulously rich - but both have moral standards. So why, when it comes to discussing their political views, do they morph into bellowing oafs screaming garbage and liar at each other. When I go into a shop or travel on a train, I dont often see members of the public ranting like this. Maybe outside the pub at chucking out time. But not during the day. The public seem generally better behaved than politicians: Prime Ministers Questions might be televised but it makes no difference to the infantile behaviour - MPs equate debate with fake sneering, sniggering and toddler-like booing. Rishi Sunak was prasied for his performance during Tuesday's TV debate against Keir Starmer Keir Starmer debates with Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, as ITV hosts the first head-to-head debate of the general election Instead of these tightly formatted television debates informing us about party positions, they simply add to our disenchantment with politics. And theres plenty more to come, with six in total. All are being chaired by women - perhaps broadcasters feel this might improve standards, but theres no evidence this is true. In fact, research shows that men talk over women three times as much as the other way round. Because debating is no longer taught at school, we have lost the art of conducting a proper conversation. We are very good at stating our position on any topic, and then ignoring what the other person has to say. I am guilty as the next person - its my way or the wrong way. But Im not an MP or political leader and theres no chance of that happening soon. They cant debate but they can chuck their toys of out the pram: Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have been throwing gifts at potential voters on a daily basis since the election campaigns got underway. Pensioners have been offered surprise tax cuts (after I confronted the PM) by the Tories and Labour plan to beautify our cities by building gorgeous Edwardian-style dream homes on newly restored tree lined streets. Each day brings more promises. Tonight, politicians from seven main parties including Reform, the Greens, Plaid Cymru and the SNP, will fight for airtime in the second debate of the election. Chaos and confusion will be a foregone conclusion. Good manners will be nowhere to be seen. Seasoned television performers like Penny (Splash!) Mordaunt and Nigel (Im a Celeb) Farage are reality show veterans who understand how to get screen time. Rishis Dunkirk Dash will be used to bash the Tories. And although the Prime Minister issued a grovelling apology on X (and another a few hours later), saying he did not want politics dragged into the row, the faux pas will not vanish overnight, especially as he proudly announced national service for teenagers only the other week. Thousands of people made the trip to honour the veterans in France this week, but only one managed to use it for self-promotion. Nigel cleverly managed to get himself photographed on a military vehicle in a golden light, looking very statesmanlike. Rishi wasnt unpatriotic to head home early. Just bad mannered. And a bit dumb. A man from the UK who moved to America has criticised online the tipping culture across the pond. Akafi Ali, who is from London but now lives in Columbus, Ohio, said he does not understand why tipping is so huge in the country. He said: 'What the hell is tipping? I don't get it. Tipping here, tipping this, tip tip tip. I've spent two months here and [it's] tip, tip tip. Can I get a tip? Why do I have to pay you?' Akafi said he doesn't understand why companies seemingly don't pay their workers enough to survive on and why their wages should fall on the customer and how much they tip. The content creator said tipping culture shock has impacted him so much that he actually had a dream about tipping. Akafi Ali, who is from London but now lives in Columbus, Ohio, said he does not understand why tipping is a thing in the country Tipping is now appearing more and more in the UK, with companies such as the Scotsman Group, who own various bars and pubs in Scotland, introducing a two per cent 'American-style' automatic charge on beverages. Drinkers wanting to buy a pint of Camden Hells Lager at The Grosvenor Cafe would assume it costs 5.95, however, customers are charged 6.07. At The Social, a Pornstar Martini costs 10.71, despite it being advertised at 10.50. Punters can ask for the service charge to be removed, but consumer experts warned that customers may be 'oblivious' to the extra cost. Various eateries in London have also been upping the 'discretionary' 12.5 per cent service charge up to a whopping 15 per cent, which has almost reached America's average tip rate of 20 per cent. Some have said that the tipping culture in the UK is 'getting out of hand,' with others stating that being asked to pay extra for the bare minimum 'infuriates them'. Another thing Akafi said confuses him about America is how big everything in the country is, in terms of infrastructure and cars. He said: 'You guys have big roads, big cars, big people, you guys are just big. I am so confused. You guys have all this space for what? I don't understand, I don't get it.' In a second video, Akafi said he does not understand why Americans have not travelled outside of the country and instead go on holiday to other states instead. He asked why companies are not paying their staff and why they have to rely on the customer to make up their wage Both clips racked up hundreds of comments with people commenting their thoughts on what Akafi was saying about the US He said: 'When I ask an American [if] they have been on holiday, if they've been to Europe and they say "no I've just been to other states like Miami and I've been to New York." 'What other country have you been to? No. I need Americans to maybe travel outside of America to see Europe, Africa, Australia. We need to travel outside.' The TikToker questioned why some Americans refuse to travel to other countries and immerse themselves in other places. Both clips racked up hundreds of comments with people commenting their thoughts on what Akafi was saying about the US. One wrote: 'This tipping situation is only an excuse for bosses not paying living wages.' Another penned: 'Learn about a country before you go visit, you'd say the same to us when visiting your country.' Akafi then responded and said: 'Well no! I will learn about it when I get there! Go for it.' A third commented: 'Tipping is something we don't understand either. Don't worry.' A fourth said: 'As a former bartender, at one point, I would have been offended by people who have a problem with tipping but the more I have thought about it and the more I have seen people speak about it, it is total bs. 'Companies should their employees and make up for it and the worst is how there are jars everywhere now. I think it's rude to have a tip jar.' When Rachel McArthur was seven years old, her mother introduced her to Paddington Bear. It seemed innocent enough, but in fact it was her mothers gentle attempt to address a very difficult subject. I had a Paddington bin, a Paddington bedspread, all the paraphernalia, recalls Rachel, now 55. Then one day she turned round and said, Youre just like Paddington. You were left at a station just like he was. And she told me I was adopted. Rachel, an NHS service manager from Nottingham, made headlines in June 1969 when she was found in a battered carrycot in a car park at Euston station in London. She was at least six weeks old and in poor health, with ulcerated nappy rash and a chest infection. She was given the name Rachel, adopted by Phyllis and Donald McArthur, and enjoyed an idyllic childhood in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, with her two older brothers who were the McArthurs biological children, and a younger foster brother. I couldnt have wished for better, says Rachel, whose story features in this weeks episode of Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace. Rachel McArthur (pictured with Paddington), 55, who was found in a car park at London's Euston station in June 1969, appears on this week's episode of Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace But in her teens Rachel developed a resentment toward the unknown mother whod abandoned her in a car park. I held this grudge against her for many years, she admits. It was anger for rejecting me. I expect most foundlings would feel that way, because you dont know why and theres no information, only that she clearly couldnt look after me. I still bear the scars from that today. Rachel, whos divorced with a 14-year-old son, found her birth mothers actions impossible to comprehend. Id rather die than give my child up, she says. I just dont know how I could part with my baby. She contacted Long Lost Family after deciding the time was right to piece together her story. The older I got the more I thought, I want to know where Im from, she says. The team turned up some surprises, good and bad. First was that Rachels birth mother, Christine, had died in 2013, aged 61. I was sad and disappointed when I learned that, says Rachel. Christine had been brought up in a childrens home herself and was only 16 when she had Rachel. But she already had a child the year before shed given birth to a daughter, Eileen and the year after Rachels birth Christine had a boy, Shane, who was given up for adoption in Ireland. Only Eileen remained with their mother and, probably around the time Rachel was born, she and Christine were homeless for a while. Christine later had three more daughters and also married; she tried to make a fresh start in Canada but fought mental health battles all her life. I dont know how you come to terms with having had three babies and two of them you just gave away, says Rachel. But I also understand because she had a horrible life really. Long Lost Family tracked Eileen down in Canada, and she travelled to the UK to meet Rachel on camera. And thats how Rachel learnt something that gave her a connection to her mother. Towards the end of her life Christine asked Eileen for forgiveness, but she never said what for: although she had told Eileen about Shanes birth, shed never told anyone about Rachels. Could she have been talking about Rachel? While Rachel's birth mother Christine (pictured) died in 2013 at 61, she connected with her sister Eileen who lives in Canada And then Christine told Eileen a story. She said shed envisaged a little girl standing under a tree on a hill, and that the girls name was Rachel. Yet Christine never knew that the daughter shed left in the car park had eventually been named Rachel. That story gives Rachel the chills. Its funny, Ive always been perceptive, and Im quite spiritual, says Rachel. When Eileen told me that story I wondered if Christine was too, because thats a bizarre thing for somebody to come out with. Theres no way she wouldve known my name. Such a spooky thing to hear. It puts goosebumps on your arms. Another surprise Long Lost Family discovered is that Rachel and her siblings all share the same father, which is extremely unusual for foundlings. I never expected to have full siblings, she says. It was so exciting, it meant the world to me. It was incredible meeting Eileen. Every time I look at her I just see me; we look so alike. We could be twins. I feel that connection with her, and Ive spent 55 years not knowing her. Id always wanted a sister. Shes also spoken on the phone to Shane, who lives in Australia, and she hopes they can all get together next year in the UK. Im so pleased I did it, says Rachel. Before, people would ask, Why are you doing it? and Id say, I want to know if Ive got siblings. I wanted a bigger family. And I got my wish. Queen Camilla came into her own - and revealed her natural warmth and ability to connect with others as a leading lady - at the commemorative events for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. The royal, 76, did not shy away from showing emotion as she joined King Charles, the Prince of Wales, UK politicians and veterans at major events in Portsmouth and Ver-sur-Mer this week. The occasion was inevitably sombre, as shown by Her Majesty shedding a tear when listening to a veteran recount the horror of losing his best friend on the beaches in Normandy 80 years ago. But amid the heavy and deeply moving testimonials, Camilla also shared heartfelt moments with multiple former soldiers smiling and enjoying light conversation with the Queen. Her nickname, the 'nation's grandma', was upheld by the young girl so at ease with Camilla that she enthusiastically wrapped her arms around her during a photo opportunity, despite the Royal Family previously shying away from being snapped with the public. Queen Camilla revealed her natural warmth during this week's D-Day commemorative events, including when veteran Ken Hay, 98, kissed her hand at Vel-sur-Mer During the D-Day memorial event in Portsmouth on Wednesday, tears welled up in Camilla's eyes as she listened to former Royal Navy serviceman Eric Bateman recall his experience on Utah beach. Mr Bateman, who served on the warship HMS Erebus, described how you could 'walk across the Channel' because of how many boats were involved in the invasion. And paying tribute to his fallen comrades, he said: 'So many men and women, including my dear friend Fred, joined up with me but unfortunately never made it.' Camilla was unafraid to show raw emotion, which may have also related to her family connections to the tragic events that took part during World War II as her father, Bruce Shand, was taken as a prisoner of war in Germany. Despite being visibly moved, the 76-year-old was composed when she accompanied her husband, King Charles, on stage as he made his first public speech since his cancer diagnosis. Her strength and support continued as she went on to greet veterans after listening to a string of hard-hitting speeches. Later in the day, Camilla put on a warm display as she went on to greet Eric Bateman after he moved her to tears with his tragic tale of how he lost his best friend on the beaches of Normandy. Her Majesty was not afraid to show emotion while listening to a veteran's speech in Portsmouth When a young girl jumped at the opportunity to get a picture with Camilla, Her Majesty gladly put her arm around the child and smiled for the camera Camilla appeared in high spirits as she met D-Day veteran Eric Bateman following the UK's national commemorative event for the 80th anniversary of D-Day He told the crowd: 'The stories of courage, resilience and solidarity we have heard today and throughout our lives cannot fail to move us, to inspire us and to remind us of what we owe to that great wartime generation.' Speaking to him after the event, Camilla was quick to show humour and complimented him on how 'smart and young' he was looking, which he jokingly attributed to his wife helping him 'keep fit'. The moment a veteran went to peck Camilla's hand as she greeted him was met with giggles from the Queen, who tapped him on the shoulder and said: 'I'm very flattered'. 'Look after him,' the 76-year-old added while chatting with his friends and family, to which they replied: 'We will'. 'Very nice to see you,' Camilla continued as she shook hands with a different veteran lined to meet her. 'You do look lovely in pink,' one said. To which she replied, 'Oh, that's very kind'. Her straight-talking sister-in-law Princess Anne previously said Camilla is 'not a natural' at the role - but she 'does it really well' and 'provides that change of speed and tone, that's equally important'. And Camilla's earnest conversations at the events was a testament to Anne's observation, as she enthusiastically attempted to form bonds with those she spoke to. The royal appeared delighted to meet Royal Navy D-Day veteran Albert Keir, 98, from Derbyshire When Her Majesty accompanied King Charles on stage for his speech in Portsmouth, she was poised The 76-year-old looked animated as she chatted with veterans at a lunch after the commemorative event The following day, on Friday, Charles and Camilla travelled to the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, to tribute the 22,442 service personnel under British command who died on D-day and during the Battle of Normandy in the summer of 1944. Charles and Camilla led those present, including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron, in a poignant silent prayer to remember those no longer with us, while memories of those who were on the beaches 80 years ago were also read out. There were moments of levity, with Queen Camilla being given a white rose by veteran Gilbert Clarke in a touching mark of respect. Her Majesty clutched on to the tender gift as she spoke with the former soldiers. And speaking to FEMAIL, a lip reader has caught the touching interactions between Queen Camilla and one veteran during the commemorative event. According to Jeremy Freeman, Camilla engaged in a moving exchange that saw a veteran tell Her Majesty: 'I'm alive, that's all that matters'. In a poignant response, Camilla said: 'Oh, it does matter, as long as... it's humanly possible.' Camilla and Charles were both moved as they listened to veteran's recount their memories of the war during the event According to lip reader Jeremy, when Gilbert handed the rose to the royal, he said: 'For you truly.' A woman accompanying Gilbert asked Camilla: 'Do you like it? It's a positive flower'. Camilla replied: 'Yes' and added: 'Lovely to be here today'. They were also presented with white roses by French schoolchildren while cadets waved flags. When Her Majesty met with veterans at the lunch, she appeared completely at ease, and held one veteran's hand. The display was somewhat different from when Camilla appeared rather reluctant when Brigitte Macron tried to hold her hand. The mishap occurred when the Queen and Mrs Macron, both dressed in white, laid wreaths at the British Normandy Memorial at Ver-sur-Mer. In an unusual move, the royal happily accepted a kiss on her hand from a veteran during the lunch in Normandy Camilla looked delighted to receive a white rose from veteran Gilbert Clarke, during the UK Ministry of Defence and the Royal British Legion's commemorative event After placing their flowers, they stepped back to take a moment of reflection and the First Lady reached out to the Queen, but Camilla seemed somewhat reluctant to proffer her gloved hand. After appearing to give the royal's hand a slight squeeze, Mrs Macron dropped it and the two stood side by side in front of the memorial. While her gesture was no doubt well meant, getting tactile with members of the royal family is always a thorny issue. According to the Royal Family's website there are 'no obligatory codes of behaviour' when meeting The Queen or a member of the Royal Family, but there's an unwritten rule that you shouldn't go beyond a handshake. Later that day, Camilla was nonetheless seen holding the hand of a veteran while the pair, who appeared to get on very well with one another, and shared a laugh. This week was a show of Camilla proving she is a leading lady in her own right, which she has continually demonstrated since the King's cancer diagnosis. Speaking to GB News earlier in the year, Princess Diana's former butler Paul Burrell remarked that the monarch's wife is the 'guiding force' for the family, as well as being the one behind Charles's openness regarding his health. 'I think she is the stabiliser,' he told the outlet. 'I think she has that touch. I think she's able to reach people in a way the King can't and I think she's taught him a lot in the last few years about monarchy and how to be King. 'Isn't that odd really, that she should come up through the ranks and be so supportive and such a stabilising influence in our modern-day Royal Family.' Her Majesty's presence has been a rock for the Firm, which has been riddled with health concerns as Charles and Kate are both undergoing cancer treatment. Aussies can now travel direct to Hanoi from Melbourne Airport Australian travellers can now fly direct to Vietnam's capital city Hanoi with airfares costing $199 for a limited time. VietJet's inaugural flight to Melbourne Airport touched down on Tuesday and a flight between Sydney and Hanoi will launch on June 8. The airline offers two round trips to the Southeast Asia destination every Tuesday and Saturday. Until June 10 travellers can get their hands on affordable economy tickets starting from $199, including 20kg of checked-in luggage and an in-flight meal. Aussies looking for a cheap getaway can travel directly to Hanoi in Vietnam from Melbourne VietJet's inaugural flight to Melbourne Airport touched down on Tuesday and a flight between Sydney and Hanoi will launch on June 8 Vietjet Vice President Nguyen Thi Thuy Binh said: 'Since Vietjet's first flight to Australia in April 2023, we have continuously expanded our network connecting the five largest cities in Australia including Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide with Ho Chi Minh City. 'The launching of Melbourne to Hanoi route... further proves our commitment to development by continuing to expand our network and providing quality services between Australia and Vietnam, meeting the demand of locals and tourists.' The news comes at the perfect time as Australians are looking for budget holiday options. Alive with energy, unique smells and sounds, the fascinating destination is an eight-hour flight away from Melbourne. From the cheap yet tasty street food, budget accommodation and rich history, there's an abundant number of reasons why Aussies are heading to Vietnam. Alive with energy, unique smells and sounds, the fascinating destination is an eight-hour flight away from Melbourne The airline offers two round trips to the Southeast Asia destination every Tuesday and Saturday Melbourne Airport Chief of Aviation Jim Parashos said the Vietnamese market growth had been one of the silver linings coming out of the pandemic. 'The increased capacity in the market delivers benefits to passengers in the form of cheaper fares, but also provides exporters with access to high value markets,' he said. 'VietJet's Hanoi service will complement its current five times a week service to Ho Chi Minh City and will give Victorians new connections into other Asian destinations with the airline's flight network. Vietnam is in our top ten outbound destinations.' An expert with more than 25 years experience is has shared his definitive 'ick' list for offices in 2024 - and almost all Aussies are guilty of at least one. Craig Sneesby, the Managing Director of U&U Recruitment Partners, has noticed a massive shift in attitude in offices - especially with more returning to the workplace after long periods at home. Here he spills his top 'alarm bell' behaviours with FEMAIL - from passive aggressive email tone to micro management and inflexible work hours. Craig Sneesby (pictured) is an expert on how bosses can avoid giving their employees the ick 1. Constant availability expectations A flexible workplace doesn't mean you always need to be available to your employer. So it's no surprise that being expected to respond immediately or be available all the time outside of work hours comes in as the biggest employee turn-off. 'Candidates want to hit the "pause" button on work when the day ends. Expecting them to be on call 24/7? That's a major no-no,' he said. 'Respect those boundaries so everyone can recharge and be their best selves when they're "on".' 2. Creating a toxic workplace culture Employers would also do well to steer clear of office drama, gossip and office politics and to keep the focus on creating a workplace culture that is fun, uplifting and positive. Workers are gravitating towards workplaces and employers who deliver inspiring leadership, flexibility and show empathy. The old style of dictatorship is on the way out. 'They want to work somewhere that feels more like a team hangout than a high school cafeteria,' Craig said. 3. Email faux pas It seems no one wants to read an overly formal or long email from their boss, either. Craig advises you to avoid this by being direct and having a comfortable level of informality that sounds more like how you would speak in person. 'Cut to the chase,' Craig said. 'Long, stuffy emails are so last decade.' Trust employees and give them the freedom to manage their time reduces stress Employees also should avoid CCing the boss in emails unnecessarily. Mr Sneesby likens this to inviting the principal to a group chat about weekend plans. No one wants to be guilty of that. Craig's final email faux pas is sending repeated follow-up emails. 'Don't,' Craig warned. 'When you find yourself wanting to follow-up yet again, it might appropriate to try and "chill" instead, or failing that, try another approach.' Positive workplaces avoiding drama and gossip will make sure employees don't get the ick 4. Inflexible work hours Flexibility and trust are key to keeping staff happy, Craig says. He advises that if a worker wants to start early or work late, 'let them do that 10am yoga class without giving them side-eye'. Trusting them with the freedom to manager their own time is what he calls the 'secret sauce for happy workplace'. 5. Judging emoji use Recruitment expert Craig is - perhaps controversially - encouraging bosses to embrace the emoji. He also cautions that managers should keep communication light and respectful and never be passive aggressive. If you're an employer who is guilty of not always being friendly and who might have the odd anger issue, then a smiley face emoji might come in handy after all. Just be sure to steer clear of these top 10 emojis that will definitely make you look too 'old'. 6. Toxic traits There are three things that don't fly in 2024: authoritarianism, inflexibility and a lack of empathy. 'Ditch the dictator act, keep an open mind and show some heart! Empathy isn't just a buzzword; it's essential,' Craig said. 'Leaders who understand and care about their team's feelings and actually treat employees as humans score big in the modern workforce.' The royal, 34, shared a throwback photograph of herself at the seaside An eco-conscious Princess Eugenie has revealed how she was once terrified of the ocean, despite now championing efforts to reverse environmental damage to it. The Princess, 34, took to Instagram to share an adorable childhood photograph of herself at the seaside ahead of World Ocean Day on Saturday. The young royal grinned towards the camera in the image donning a blue swimsuit and matching bucket hat with a generous layer of sun cream on her face. Since becoming a mother to her children August, three, and Ernest, one, the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York has taken up environmentalism in the hope of helping future generations. Taking to Instagram, she explained: 'I love the ocean now but I was actually scared of it as a child. Princess Eugenie took to Instagram to share a throwback photograph of herself at the seaside and revealed she used to be 'scared' of the ocean She has a track record of being environmentally aware and has been an ambassador for the Blue Marine Foundation since June 2021. The royal is an avid campaigner of environmental issues and even had a plastic-free wedding to her husband Jack Brooksbank in 2018. In a second image showing stunning scenery of a whale in its natural habitat, Eugenie also encouraged her Instagram followers to discover the Blue Marine Foundation - a charity organization working to protect the ocean. Eugenie has continued to show her dedication to the environment on multiple occasions, including her 2023 trip with the Solent Seascape Project, which is the first such attempt to actively restore the ocean in the UK. At the time, Eugenie described how being a mother made her want 'to do more' for her children and future grandchildren, adding she hopes her son August, three, will one day take up environmentalism too. During the trip she wasn't afraid to get stuck in and helped scientists clean hundreds of oysters before they returned them to the sea. Princess Eugenie also avoids using any single-use plastics at home and has already started educating August about climate change. She previously said: 'My son's going to be an activist from two years old, which is in a couple of days. Everything is for them, right? Every decision we now make has to be about how August is going to be able to live his life.' After becoming a mother, Eugenie now 'loves' the ocean and champions all environmentalist efforts to help clean the sea to help future generations (pictured with her children August (right) and Ernest (left) It comes after Eugenie paid tribute to her husband Jack Brooksbank in sweet birthday post last month. The mother-of-two, 34, shared a series of snaps on Instagram to celebrate her 'love' on his 38th birthday with the previously unseen family photos showing the couple on the beach with their three-year-old son, August. She captioned the photos: 'Happy Happy Birthday my love. Always making joy wherever you are', accompanied by three heart emojis. One photo shows Eugenie with Jack enjoying a beach sunset as the pair throw their arms up in the air for a snap. Another snap showed the couple beaming into each others eyes at a Force for Freedom gala, which is a charity, founded by Eugenie and her friend Julia de Boinville, which is working to end modern slavery and trafficking. In another photo Jack can be seen fooling around with seaweed on his head while playing with their son August on the beach. Royal fans rushed to the comments to wish Jack Happy Birthday but also to praise the couple's adorable bond. In a bit to help the environment, Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank (pictured) had a plastic-free wedding in 2018 One person said: 'Happy birthday Jack! You two are one of the cutest couples! Hope you all have a great celebration with your sweet family!' Another said: 'Happy Birthday Jack. I hope you all have a Great day, best wishes from Germany.' Meanwhile another said: 'Happy birthday to Jack you both look lovely.' The sweet photos come after Eugenie marked her 34th birthday with a tribute post dedicated to 'the best gift of all' - her children. The daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York took to Instagram last month to praise her two sons, August, three, and Ernest who is about to mark his first birthday. In the candid photograph, Eugenie playfully held her younger son, Ernest, aloft in her arms. The 34-year-old's decision to cherish family on her special day comes amid a troubling time for the royal family following the news that King Charles III, 75, Kate, 42, and Sarah Ferguson, 64, are all facing cancer battles. Princess Eugenie (pictured with her son August in 2022) previously told how becoming a mother made her want to do more for the environment In light of this, Eugenie captioned the post: 'The best gift of all are my boys... so on this birthday I'm cherishing family and loved ones.' Princess Eugenie marked her birthday two days after the announcement that her cousin's wife, the Princess of Wales, is battling cancer, the third member of the royal family to be diagnosed in recent months. Princess Beatrice and Eugenie's mother, Sarah Ferguson, was diagnosed with skin cancer just months after having a mastectomy for breast cancer. Their uncle, King Charles, is also undergoing cancer treatments. Nonetheless, in an optimistic fashion, Eugenie shared a thoughtful message celebrating family on her special day. Looking typically chic, Eugenie donned a short-sleeved caramel jumper with a chunky signature headband in the image. The mother-of-two accessorized her look with a pair of emerald earrings and a simple yet elegant gold chain. Meanwhile, Ernest looked smart in a pair of blue corduroy trousers and a matching knitted jumper. Naomi Campbell has revealed she won't let her daughter go into the world of work at 15 like she did, after starting her own career in her teenage years when she did her first cover shoot. The 53-year-old London-born supermodel, who was whisked abroad to model in her first photoshoot for Elle in New Orleans aged 15, said she would be uncomfortable with her now two-year-old to start working so young. Speaking to The Times, the mother-of-two said: 'I'm not sure I would let her start working at 15. It's a ruthless world.' However her baby daughter, who's name has not been revealed, has already been on the cover of Vogue when she posed with her mother at just eight months old in 2022. Naomi revealed her daughters face for the first time in the cover shoot which saw her holding her nude newborn. Naomi Campbell revealed she won't let her daughter work at 15- despite the model posing for her first cover shoot at that age Elsewhere the model revealed the struggle to be included as a black model at the beginning of her career, but said she is 'not a victim'. She said: 'I'm not a victim. I do not identify with that word. I won't say I struggled. Everyone's life has strife in some way, but 'victim' is not in my vocab. I don't want people to feel sorry for me. I want to stay in charge. 'I was lucky I got together with other black models. Being able to speak about how I felt as a black woman and model was very important for me and helped me to share my feelings. I wasn't alone that was a huge factor and I hope I help the next generation.' She admitted that she has been in many rooms as the only person of colour but she never let it deter her. The model went onto say when she worked in New York at the beginning of her career she wasn't even able to hail a cab, saying American supermodel Christy Turlington used to have to help her. The beauty has previously claimed she continues to face prejudice in the fashion industry to this day. In 2019, the Streatham-born beauty said she was 'shocked' when a recent campaign she starred in was rejected in an Asian country - because of the colour of her skin. Reflecting on how she turned the negative experience as a positive, she revealed to The Mirror: 'It keeps things in perspective that the work is never done. Thats why I dont give up.' The 53-year-old supermodel, who was whisked abroad to model in her first photoshoot for Elle in New Orleans aged 15, said she would be uncomfortable with her now two-year-old (pictured) to start working so young Speaking to The Times the mother -of-two said: 'I'm not sure I would let her start working at 15. It's a ruthless world' Naomi often shares adorable snaps with her daughter from different parts of the world on her Instagram The statuesque star also said she has turned down offers to walk in Paris Fashion Week shows as a matter of principle due to particular fashion houses lacking ethnically diverse models. The stunner shared: 'I didnt feel the message was right. Diversity has to be balanced across the board for all races. Its not about the money.' 'People forget that models are self-employed. It was insulting to take that for my race.' Naomi was previously asked if she had seen progress in diversity. The model commented: 'I see progress yes, as always more focus to be had.' She was full of praise for Ghanaian-born Edward Enninful, the first male editor of British Vogue, saying: 'Edward, what he has done in this year has been exceptional, and I'm not being biased.' At the height of her career the model became addicted to cocaine and alcohol, and entered rehab in 1999. However the model told The Times that 'it was fun at the time' and she actually enjoyed going to rehab because she 'loves discipline and structure'. Naomi took to her Instagram to share an adorable snap with her daughter for mothers day Naomi, who has a close relationship with her mother Valerie Morris, shared a snap of them together when she was a child Campbell became a mother for the first time in 2021 when she welcomed her daughter, which came as a shock to fans, she has since welcomed a baby boy in June 2023 at the age of 53. Her daughters arrival sparked widespread speculation that she used a surrogate, a popular approach among older celebrity mothers, because she was not spotted with an obvious baby bump in the months leading up to the birth. Campbell has previously hinted at surrogacy, claiming science has given her an opportunity to start a family 'whenever she wants'. Last year, she gave a rare insight into her life as a mother, admitting that her two-year-old daughter has already picked up her diva attitude. She told Today presenter Sheinelle Jones, 45, that while she is having 'a lot of fun' raising her tots, saying she has had to discipline her eldest for demanding 'privacy' at parties. 'I love it,' Campbell said of motherhood. 'It's a lot of fun. Every day is a surprise. You don't know what's going to happen, what my daughter is going to say.' Naomi during an opening night party at La Palace de Beaute in New York in 1990 Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista at the Falls Restaurant in New York in 1990 Originally from south London, Naomi established herself among the top three most recognizable and in-demand models of the late 1980s Lifting the lid on her daughter's sass, Campbell continued: 'She goes to a party and she says, like, "Mom, privacy!" and I'm like, "huh?" And I said, "not to your mama. You can do that to everybody else, but to me!" The supermodel, who is infamous for her own diva-esque behaviors, then joked: 'I don't know where she got it from!' The London-born model announced in June that she had become a mother again, after she confirmed the arrival of a baby boy on Instagram, posting a photograph of her newborn son in her arms with her daughter holding his hands. At the time, she told her followers: 'My little darling, know that you are cherished beyond measure and surrounded by love from the moment you graced us with your presence. 'A true gift from God. Blessed! Welcome baby boy. It's never too late to become a mother.' While Campbell has not made public his name or details about his birth, her friends have claimed that she used a surrogate to have him. Speaking to The Times Naomi admitted having children has made her 'more anxious' and fearing for the future. Admitting she had the babies via surrogate, she revealed she is happy being a single mother Originally from south London, Naomi established herself among the top three most recognizable and in-demand models of the late 1980s. Just before she turned 16, she was on the cover of British Elle and in 1987, she became British Vogue's first black cover girl since 1966. The beauty was among one of six models of her generation declared a supermodel by the fashion industry. Pity Julie Etchingham. Trying to keep order in the Sunak vs Starmer TV debate earlier this week was as futile as bringing decorum to a brawl in the Dog and Duck carpark. Keir snarled, Rishi snapped, both endlessly talked over each other and over poor Julie. At one point Etchingham normally so cool we might assume her veins run with cucumber water was forced to cry: Please, gentleman! We will lower our voices Alas, the ref had lost control of the match. If the debate had been hosted by a male TV presenter, would Sunak and Starmer have been quite so quick to steamroller him mid-sentence? Doubtful. Look, Im not one of those women who takes sexist offence at every possible opportunity. I dont think the patriarchy is grinding us down. But I do think that some men have an irritating tendency to talk over women and, in my experience, some of the worst offenders are politicians. When politicians are surrounded by yes-men and women who fawn over their every utterance, they begin to believe that they know best about almost everything, writes Clare Foges Presenter Julie Etchingham tries to keep order during the Sunak vs Starmer debate on ITV this week From 2010 to 2015, I worked in No 10, writing the prime ministers speeches. Many a time, I sat in meetings mustering up the courage to say something in front of Very Important People, only to have my comments crushed by a verbal avalanche from a male colleague. I recall a particularly important meeting. The subject: an upcoming speech on infrastructure. The attendees: three ministers and their various aides. I walked in well-versed on everything from airport capacity to nuclear power plant upgrades. I was, as Americans say, pumped but over the next hour was slowly deflated as one of the ministers interrupted me again and again. I looked at his ears, searching in vain for a hearing aid: could he not hear me talking? It soon became apparent he just didnt give a damn. The blush of humiliation spread up from the collar of my Zara suit: why not just stick a label on me saying Im of lesser importance than you? Had this happened now I am a lady of more advanced years and experience, I would have paused and gently asked the rent-a-gob minister, Is it OK if I finish my point? But the 20-something me was a meeker creature who obediently shut her trap, and so such behaviour goes unchallenged. At another meeting, I was the sole woman around a table with ten or so male MPs and civil servants. Only a few words into my considered thoughts on how we should present education reform, an MP I hadnt met before stopped me in my tracks: Would you be an angel and take the minutes? Thanks Though I think I noticed a flicker of embarrassment on some of the mens faces especially those more junior than me none of them spoke out against the blatant sexism. While these experiences may not be surprising for a 20-something speechwriter, it is more shocking when high-powered female politicians get the same treatment. I once attended a meeting with several Cabinet ministers including then-home secretary Theresa May. While her male colleagues filled all corners of the room with their 70-decibel opinions, May was quiet. When she did speak, I winced inwardly as more than once she was talked over, forcing her to trail off. Sometimes the chronic interruption is caught on camera. In the US vice-presidential TV debates in 2020, Americas second-most important person Kamala Harris was interrupted no less than ten times by her opponent Mike Pence. Exasperated, she had to protest: Excuse me, Im speaking. The technical term for it is chronic interruption. The laymans term: Being a jerk. Why do they do it? Power play. Talking over others suggests youre high status. Your opinions are more deserving of being heard. Male politicians in particular often love the sound of their own voice; it has always been thus. Over a century ago, Princess Marie Louise (a granddaughter of Queen Victoria) dined with two giants of the British political scene. Kamala Harris and Mike Pence clash during a US vice-presidential debate in Utah in 2020 - in which he kept interrupting her She recalled: When I left the dining room after sitting next to Mr Gladstone I thought he was the cleverest man in England, but after sitting next to Mr Disraeli I thought I was the cleverest woman in England. Let us say it is not uncommon in todays Parliament to meet airtime-hoggers like Gladstone. Plus when politicians are surrounded by yes-men and women who fawn over their every utterance (as so many are) they begin to believe that they know best about almost everything. So, while gorillas demonstrate their dominance by chest-drumming; politicians demonstrate it by butting in and men seem to find it easier to deploy this tactic on women. One US study from 2014 found that men were 33 per cent more likely to interrupt when talking to a woman rather than a man. Perhaps this readiness is because of long-held biases about women being less powerful. Maybe the chronic interrupters think that the little ladies theyre talking over will just sit there and take it. Whatever the reason, women of the working world need to rise up and put a stop to this patronising irritation. Slap on a polite smile, take a breath, and in the words of Kamala Harris repeat the following: Excuse me, Im speaking. Queen Camilla has been involved in every aspect of her literacy festival at Hampton Court tomorrow. The Queen's annual Reading Room festival will take place on Saturday June, 8 and was founded by Her Majesty as an independent charity to promote reading and literacy in the UK and globally. A year on from it's inaugural edition - which played host to King Charles, Sir Derek Jacobi, Richard E Grant and Dame Joanna Lumley - and the Queen is said to have worked 'all year round' to ensure it is of excellent standard. Vicki Perrin, CEO of Her Majestys The Queens Reading Room literacy charity has shed light on what the festival means to the Queen, while fondly referring to it as her 'baby'. Speaking to the Mail this week, she said: Her Majesty has been really involved, she is such an extraordinary supporter of the arts and she understands the value of literary festivals and how precious they are in the UK. Queen Camilla has been involved in every aspect of her literacy festival, which takes place at Hampton Court tomorrow Her Majesty is said to have worked 'all year round' to ensure it is of excellent standard (pictured at Clarence House, London in February 2023) She and I have been working on this for a year to shape it into the best event it can possibly be. We have bounced ideas around, who should appear, who should talk to whom, which actors can get involved, what authors we should cover. 'Its very much her baby. Shes always asking me "how many tickets are we at now?" - and looks like we will fill 10,000 seats on Saturday, which is amazing. She cares so much about getting it right and making it accessible and open to as many people as possible'. Last minute tickets are still available to the festival tomorrow which sees literary luminaries such as Sir Ian Rankin, Lee Child, Ann Cleeves, Rev Richard Coles, Kate Mosse, Mary Beard, Helena Bonham Carter and Harlan Corben take to the stage in thrilling breakout sessions. The evening session will see naughty national treasure Miriam Margolyes on Dickens with a host of special guests. Indeed, it may surprise people to know that the Queen appreciated her sometimes rather close to the bone humour. She is a national treasure. She is naughty, shes outrageous but completely authentic and whats so wonderful is that she is a genuine lover of Charles Dickens and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of his work, said Vicki. I am hoping it will be naughty and a little bit fun and all those things you expect from her. I know the Queen is particularly looking forward to Miriam. The Queen pictured with various guests at the inaugural edition of the Reading Room festival last year King Charles attended the royal reception at Hampton Court Palace The whole thing is beyond exciting and the reaction to the panels has been just phenomenal'. The festival will also feature three of the worlds biggest crime writers, Vera, Jack Reacher and Rebus, all together sitting on one panel. Collectively their authors have sold 300 million copies around the world. It will also welcome Mick Herron of Slow Horses and Harlan Coben, king of Netflix thrillers, who is said to be 'so excited' to be taking part in the festival. 'I think he has fallen a little in love with the Queen' quipped Vicki. She added: Hampton Court Palace is such an atmospheric, beautiful setting. Its a setting that has got so many intrigues, plots, murders and coronations. Shakespeare once performed there. Its such a perfect centre for the festival. The event was attended by Dame Judi Dench, as well as other celebrities A large crowd attended the Queen's Reading Room Literary Festival at Hampton Court Palace in 2023 People have been travelling from Australia, New Zealand, South African Western Europe, America and Canada to the UK for this. Its a very loyal following thats growing. The CEO also shared a more personal side of the Royal, and explained that despite having libraries of historic tomes at her fingertips, she loves reading a good page turner in bed like the rest of us. Vicki said: I think people are starting to see in the Queen that she is every woman who loves the same books as them. Shes just as excited when the next Rebus comes out as anyone else. 'She devours them. I am really keen for people to see that side of her, to see that she has got libraries at her fingertips but loves a page turnerand sneaks them under the bedcovers to read. Her message has always been put your phones away, sit back and read and enjoy. The Queens Reading Room festival sold out within ten hours and was forced to move to a bigger capacity. For last minute tickets see: https://royalreadingroom.seetickets.com/content/ticket-options The aristocrat, 25, rested against the dustbins outside Chiltern Firehouse Lady Lola Bute appeared to have a tiring night out at Chiltern Firehouse in Marylebone yesterday and concluded the evening slouched against a dustbin. Earlier that night, Lola, 25, who is the daughter of the late John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute and fashion designer Serena Bute, took to Bond Street to attend the opening of Maison Diptyque London. Hours later, she was carried out of the exclusive members club in Marylebone slumped over the shoulder of American model Fai Khadra, 32, who is a close friend of Kendall Jenner. The 25-year-old's Dutch model boyfriend, Parker van Noord, 26, was also present, though he was not the one to carry her out of the venue yesterday evening. Lola, who has been described by Tatler as one of the nation's 'ultimate it-girls', sported a daring sheer black mini dress for the event. Lady Lola Bute, 25, put on a glamorous display as she arrived at the Maison Diptyque London Grand Opening yesterday evening In her typical style, Lola donned a flirtatious outfit, complete with black leather boots and a matching jacket. As the evening came to an end, the aristocrat sat slumped against a dustbin and appeared to fall asleep while sat with a friend. She later took to Instagram to share a series of snaps from her night out, including one of Fai Khadra and boyfriend Parker van Noord in the taxi. The model and socialite has faced her fair share of controversy. In December 2020 at the height of the coronavirus restrictions Lola posted a video which appeared to show her heading from London to her ancestral home on the Isle of Bute in defiance of the UK-wide travel ban. In an online clip captioned 'Tier 4 journey' in reference to the 'stay at home' order imposed by the government she was seen riding in a speedboat while giving a thumbs up. As a result the 25-year-old as well as a group of her friends and family was reported to the Scottish prosecution service and charged. Although the intervening three years have seen a number of fines for lockdown breaches issued to public figures including Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak prosecutors decided not to take action against Lady Lola. It was claimed that Lady Lola made the 360-mile journey from London to Mount Stuart, her family's stately home, just after the English capital was plunged into Tier 4 lockdown in response to high numbers of infections from a new strain of the virus. After attending the launch, Lady Lola took to London's Chiltern Firehouse and ended the evening slumped against the dustbins outside the exclusive private members club The 25-year-old appeared to have a heavy evening out and was carried out the venue by a friend American model Fai Khadra, who is a close pal of Kendall Jenner, carried Lady Lola out of the venue Lola shared an image of her boyfriend Parker van Noord (pictured left) and Fai Khadra (pictured right) from inside the taxi on Instagram Last year, Lola revealed her relationship with Dutch model Parker van Noord, 26, who is an ambassador for Jean Paul Gaultier. Sharing a snap kissing him at a party, Lola captioned the post: 'Happy new year from me and mine,' in January 2023. Parker, who looked dapper in a tailored black suit, is the son of the late celebrated male model Andre van Noord. Lola looked typically chic in a fitted satin gown which featured diamond straps and she paired it with a black pendant necklace. Her blonde locks fell loose in a centre parting and her glam makeup enhanced her natural beauty. The aristocrat, who recently celebrated her 25th birthday, put on a glamorous display in a sheer black mini dress Lola appeared to sleep while cuddling a friend as she waited for her taxi to arrive outside the private members club Lola later left the venue with boyfriend Parker van Noord (pictured centre), who is an ambassador for Jean Paul Gaultier It appeared to be a heavy evening out for Lady Lola who rested against the dustbins while waiting for her taxi to arrive Lola cuddled her friend and appeared to sleep while sitting against some dustbins outside the club Parker was also by Lola's side as she celebrated her 25th birthday - two months early. Lola split her time between three homes growing up. The London house, overlooking Regent's Park was once the Monty Python studios, her family seat Mount Stuart is a four-storey Victorian Gothic built in the 1870s in the Isle of Bute where she celebrated the rowdy bash. Hundreds of guests were flown out to a remote Scottish island, where they dined on dinner of lobster, oysters and local beef for the socialite's recent birthday. A marching band and a fireworks display to rival most Guy Fawkes nights.... it might sound like a celebrity wedding, but it was in fact the 25th birthday party of Lady Lola Bute. Once there, well-heeled 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. Described by Tatler as one of the nation's 'ultimate it-girls' Lola, 24, who is the daughter of the late John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute and fashion designer Serena Bute, spends her summers in Ibiza, and is often snapped at celebrity parties. She recently wowed in an Alessandro Fran gown on the Vanity Fair Oscar's red carpet (pictured) The society beauty posed up a storm with her boyfriend, who is an ambassador for the Jean Paul Gaultier label Lady Lola looked incredible in a satin black dress on New Years eve as she posed for sizzling snaps with her new beau The aristocrat, who is the daughter of the late John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute and fashion designer Serena Bute, took guests - including Sienna Miller (pictured) , Charlotte Tilbury and Poppy Delevingne - to her family seat Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute in the Scottish Highlands Lola opted for heels and a feather fur coat for the evening An evening of celebrations simply wasn't enough. 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. Lola herself, who is known for her party girl antics, showed off her svelte figure in an extreme mini dress, reminiscent for Paris Hilton's famous 21st birthday dress. The 90s-inspired micro was custom-made by Annie Doble of Annie's Ibiza, with a 1920s Egyptian fabric. Dozens of guests shared clips of Lola dancing seductively before being lifted into the air by her boyfriend Dutch actor and model Parker Van Noord. The DJ was Lola's childhood friend Lady Mary Charteris, 37, who plays in the Big Pink alongside her husband Robbie Furze. They brought their daughter Wilde Jessie Furze, two, along. Lola was sure to command attention in the eye catching top The festival-vibe of the day party was equally as extravagant as the night. Lola opted for a pink fur jacket, jeans and a T-shirt with 'WET' written across the chest. Burgers were served with pink wrapping - the exact same hue as Lola's jacket - with 'Lola's 25th' written across them. The street food was provided by her brother Joshua de Lisser, who runs popular London restaurant Boom Burger. Meanwhile the party was organised by Jazzy de Lisser, Lola's sister, and her mother Serena Bute. Serena is a clothing designer whose looks are a favourite of Kate Moss and Rita Ora. Ageless TV star Catriona Rowntree has revealed the beauty buys she always picks up from the pharmacy when she's in France - and most of them are available in Australia. The Getaway presenter shared her best 'French pharmacy tips' and the skincare and beauty items she is obsessed with including a nappy rash cream Margot Robbie swears by for dry skin. Bepanthen Nappy Rash Ointment is an essential for many parents with babies and toddlers but beauty gurus have discovered its hydrated properties. Catriona found out about the cream from Margot Robbie who once revealed she uses it as a lip balm. 'This is Margot Robbie's fave, that many of us used to soothe our babies' little red bums and now use for dry skin,' she said. Catriona Rowntree, 52, has share the French beautyy buys she swears by for her age-defying looks - and the nappy rash cream she and Margot Robbie are obsessed with Bepanthen Nappy Rash Ointment is an essential for many parents with babies but Catriona found out about the cream from Margot Robbie who once revealed she uses it as a lip balm Catriona rated Caudalie's $41.99 Vinoclean Instant Foaming Cleanser (left) and $40 Grape Water (right) which can be used as a toner or to refresh and sooth the face on the go Catriona rated two products from the French brand Caudalie which is available in Australia, Sephora,ASOS and The French Beauty Co. The 52-year-old's favourite buys were the $42 Vinoclean Instant Foaming Cleanser and $40 Grape Water which can be used as a toner or to refresh and soothe the face on the go. She picked up a bottle of NUXE Huile Prodigieuse Or from $62.99, which is a luxurious shimmering oil for the face, body or hair that leaves a subtle gold sparkle and treats dry, dull and uneven skin. She picked up a bottle of NUXE Huile Prodigieuse Or (left), a luxurious shimmering oil for the face, body or hair, and the $34 Reve De Miel Honey Lip Care (right) Catriona rates some French toothpaste brands including Marvis' $13.95 aquatic mint and the Fluocaril Bi-Fluore for $23.34 Also from NUXE is the $34 Reve De Miel Honey Lip Care that nourishes dry lips while providing a glossy finish. Catriona rates some French toothpaste brands including Marvis' $13.95 Aquatic Mint and the Fluocaril Bi-Fluore for $23.34. She raved about La Rosee's SOS Repairing Balm which she said she uses in a number of different ways including as a lip balm, from dry skin and even to sooth stings and burns. 'I was tipped off to their SOS cream a year ago and use it for everything from stings, burns, lips and dry skin. Their roll-on eye cream is also a winner!' she said. Catriona recommended La Rosee's SOS Repairing Balm which she uses for her lips, dry skin and stings and burns as well as nail polish from Mavala with colours starting at $9.95 each Also on Catriona's list was Bioderma's $32.99 Sensibio H2O Soothing Micellar Water Cleanser and Avene Hydrance BB-RICH Tinted Hydrating Cream for $28.95 The SOS cream is hard to come by in Australia but can be found on some international retailer sites that ship Down Under. Also on Catriona's list was Bioderma's $32.99 Sensibio H2O Soothing Micellar Water Cleanser which removes makeup. There was also the Avene Hydrance BB-RICH Tinted Hydrating Cream for $28.95 which is perfect for dry and very dry sensitive skin. She recommended nail polish from Swiss brand Mavala with colours starting at $9.95 each. A groom has been slammed for wearing casual attire at his own wedding after hundreds assumed he was an 'inmate' getting married in a 'prison yard'. The man was photographed holding hands with the bride in a matching khaki set with a new pair of Nike Air Jordans. His short-sleeve shirt was loose-fitted and slightly crumpled; it was paired with a pair of crushed cargo pants. The bride eventually revealed that the groom was wearing a 'Snoop Dogg outfit' from Walmart. She said they went to the store to buy his wedding suit but the groom didn't like anything except the Snoop Dogg set. A groom has been slammed for wearing casual attire at his own wedding after hundreds assumed he was an 'inmate' getting married in a 'prison yard' People who lacked context were left scratching their heads. 'This [isn't] meant to be disrespectful at all, but is he an inmate?' a friend of the bride asked. 'Just wondering how those types of weddings work, I'm only asking because of the location and his outfit.' Another added, 'The outfit does look like typical correctional facility garb from a distance.' 'It was the Jordans that did it for me. How did he get brand new Js at the county?' a woman said. But others couldn't get over the Snoop Dogg aspect of the groom's outfit. 'If my fiance shows up to our wedding dressed like this I'm leaving,' one said. 'I don't know what's worse your finance showing up to your wedding as a felon or a Snoop Dogg cosplayer,' another wrote. The man was photographed holding hands with the bride in a matching khaki set with a new pair of Nike Air Jordans 'If he wanted to take inspiration from a rapper while sticking to a budget, he should have gone with Macklemore and hit up a thrift store instead. At least there he could have come up with a button-down shirt and tie,' a woman said. There were several other aspects of the wedding people criticised. '[The Snoop Dogg outfit] distracts you from the white socks and black slides that the officiant has going on,' a woman pointed out. 'Why is there a garbage bin by the groomsmen?' another asked. 'The groom might actually be the best dressed of this bunch. Wedding dress looks like Ms Havisham's 30 years later, it's so dingy, and the olive jeans with purple shirt by one groomsman is a no,' a third wrote. 'Everyone in these pictures is guilty of first or second-degree fashion murder,' another added. A comedy writer was diagnosed with cancer on her birthday after initially mistaking her symptoms for bad allergies. Kelsey Riddle, from Austin, Texas, was just about to finish graduate school in 2017 when her legs started itching so badly that she would scratch them until they bled. As summer approached and she wrote her thesis, she put the itching down to allergies and stress. 'I was super exhausted, super stressed out, not feeling too great,' Ms Riddle, now 32, told The Patient Story. 'If you've been to Austin, you probably had some flare-ups, so it's not uncommon.' But in August, she noticed a lymph node in the back of her neck had grown to the size of a quarter. Kelsey Riddle, 32, mistook her initial stage two lymphoma symptoms, which included itchy legs, for allergies 'It was horrible. I woke up on my birthday [to a] 9 am phone call,' Ms Riddle said. 'I just sat there and bawled in my bed for a couple hours' As she continued writing her thesis, she noticed a quarter-sized lymph node growing on her neck that moved around. Generally, a lymph node moves if it's responding to an infection. Doctors prescribed multiple rounds of antibiotics, all of which failed, and her primary physician declared, 'If this wasn't moving, I would be worried this was cancer.' GOT A HEALTH-RELATED STORY? EMAIL: health@dailymail.com Advertisement Just one month later, another node on her collarbone ballooned overnight to the size of an egg. On the morning of September 22, Ms Riddle's 26th birthday, doctors called to diagnose her with lymphoma. 'It was horrible. I woke up on my birthday [to a] 9 am phone call,' she said. 'I just sat there and bawled in my bed for a couple hours.' Ms Riddle was diagnosed with stage 2A Hodgkin lymphoma, a blood cancer that attacks the lymph nodes and disease-fighting white blood cells. The condition affects about 8,500 Americans - most commonly those under 30 or 50 to 70 -every year and is responsible for just under 1,000 deaths, according to the American Cancer Society. The overall five-year survival rate is roughly 75 percent. 'I remember thinking, This is actually a relief, because lymphomas are typically pretty treatable,' Ms Riddle said. Ms Riddle underwent chemotherapy and radiation for her lymphoma. She has been cancer free since 2019 'Dont feel like youre stuck with this situation of someone not listening to you advocate for yourself,' Ms Riddle said She received a litany of biopsies and scans to confirm the staging before starting treatment. 'Something about having a machine analyzing me for an hour or so and telling me my chances of living. It was just really difficult for me to handle,' she said. 'I remember leaving the PET scan upset and just collapsing in my dads truck and having an upsetting conversation with him. He was always the one that had the answers for me and he didnt have them this time.' 'It was just one of those things where I think we were just so emotionally exhausted that we just kind of collapsed.' That November, Ms Riddle started ABVD chemotherapy, a regimen specifically designed for Hodgkin lymphoma, which she said improved her symptoms 'almost immediately.' 'I was really lucky that I didnt have an allergic reaction or anything to the chemo itself. 'My initial reaction was pretty mild. I lost a little hair. I ended up shaving it anyway after that,' she said. 'I was mildly sick but my itchy legs resolved immediately. I think that that was also possibly because my immune system was being repressed.' 'It was very crazy. I immediately felt better after my first round.' She also reported almost no nausea or side effects from the treatment. 'It was actually pretty incredible.' Chemotherapy lasted for about four months, followed by one month of radiation. By July 2019, scans found no evidence of cancer remaining, and Ms Riddle has stayed in remission since. Ms Riddle is now encouraging other young cancer patients to 'take a more active role' in their care and speak up if doctors make them feel dismissed. 'Dont feel like youre stuck with this situation of someone not listening to you advocate for yourself,' she said. 'If you really feel strongly about something, at least bring it up to your doctor. Dont be scared to ask them questions.' 'If you have a doctor who is making you feel stupid or ridiculous for asking these questions and you have the ability to find a new doctor, find a new doctor because you do not have to deal with that.' Nearly 30 beverages have been recalled by the FDA in 2024 so far, with the majority pulled from shelves for containing harmful ingredients. All but four (86 percent) of the 28 were recalled because they contained something the company had not declared - including drugs, bacteria and harmful chemicals. A tea sold for pain relief was recalled for containing anti-inflammatory medication that was not included on the label, while apple juice was recalled for containing high levels of arsenic, a toxic metal linked to an increased risk of bladder and skin cancers. These incidents come after multiple soda products and flavorings were also recalled for containing undeclared dangerous food dyes, including one that can cause cancer. Some 28 drinks have been recalled by the FDA in 2024 so far, with the majority pulled from shelves for containing harmful ingredients Charles Boggini Company's Cola Flavoring Base was pulled because it contained undeclared sulfites The biggest beverage recall of the year so far was Fiji Water. Some 1.9million bottles of the water, made by Natural Waters of Viti Limited, were recalled due to manganese and three types of bacteria detected in the water. According to the CDC, manganese is a mineral the body needs to stay healthy, but at high levels it can cause damage to the brain. The incident was categorized as a Class III health hazard, which means the bottled waters were 'not likely to cause adverse health consequences.' Dr Darin Detwiler, former FDA and USDA advisor and food safety expert at Northeastern University in Boston, told DailyMail.com new drinks can end up going out onto the market very quickly without proper checks being done. The number of recalls may be high compared to previous years, because not only are there more undeclared ingredients making their way into drinks, but there is also increasing regulatory pressure for the FDA to clamp down on food and beverage companies, Dr Detwiler said. The figures from 2024 are a slight increase from last year: At this point in 2023 there had been 23 beverage recalls made by the FDA. The 2024 number is also slightly lower than in 2018, when there were 30 beverage recalls across the same time period. Tapee Tea was recalled for containing anti-inflammatory drugs that were not declared on the label 'There are a lot of drinks that have been scrutinized of late and a lot of it has to do with labeling and undeclared ingredients,' Dr Detwiler said. One such set of drinks recalled this year were sodas from Charles Boggini Company: Pink Lemonade, Yellow Lemonade and Yellow Lemonade X, as well as a flavoring product called Cola Flavoring Base. The pink and yellow lemonades were recalled because the company did not disclose they contained food dyes Red 40 and Yellow 5 respectively. Both of the chemicals contain benzidine, a human and animal carcinogen permitted in low, presumably safe levels. However, companies must declare if products contain it. According to the FDA, ingestion of free benzidine raises the cancer risk to just under the 'concern' threshold, or one cancer case per one million people. Drinks are harder to regulate than food or drugs, Dr Detwiler said, because ingredients can get added at different times before it reaches the consumer. 'If everything was in cans or bottles that might be different,' Dr Detwiler said. But with drinks in dispensers and pitchers at fast food chains and restaurants, 'people don't necessarily see the ingredients that are in some of those drinks, and so that becomes problematic.' DailyMail.com used the US Food and Drug Administration Recall Information Search and filtered for beverages recalled in 2024. Tapee Tea was first recalled in August 2023 but classified in January as a Class I health hazard risk, meaning when consumed, the product has a reasonable chance of causing 'serious adverse health consequences or death,' according to the FDA. Samples of the tea, made by Kentucky-based The Wiedemann Company, and marketed for pain relief, were analyzed by the FDA and found to contain the medications dexamethasone and piroxicam, which were not listed on the label. Dexamethasone is a corticosteroid commonly used to treat inflammatory conditions, but it can reduce an individual's ability to fight infections and can cause high blood sugar levels, muscle injuries and psychiatric problems. The drug can also cause serious side effects when combined with other medications, especially because the consumer is unaware they are consuming it. Piroxicam is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug that can increase the risk of heart problems, such as heart attack or stroke, as well as bleeding, ulcers and deadly perforation of the stomach and intestines. In April, New York- based PepsiCo recalled some sugar-free and caffeine-free Schweppes Zero Sugar Ginger Ale after an internal investigation found it did in fact contain full sugar. Customers who bought the product were advised to throw it away, particularly if they needed to monitor their blood sugar, such as in the case of diabetics. PepsiCo recalled some sugar-free and caffeine-free Schweppes Zero Sugar Ginger Ales on March 9 because they contain 'full sugar,' according to the FDA The FDA announced New-York based PepsiCo has voluntarily recalled more than 2,000 cases of its Mug Root Beer because the cans actually contained Mug Zero Sugar root beer This was deemed as a Class II issue, meaning the product is 'not likely to cause adverse health consequences.' Just a week later, PepsiCo had to recall another drink due to a similar sugar mix-up. The company voluntarily recalled more than 2,000 cases of its Mug Root Beer because the cans actually contained Mug Zero Sugar root beer. GOT A HEALTH-RELATED STORY? EMAIL: Health@dailymail.com Advertisement Meanwhile, close to 25,000 cases of Martinelli's apple juice were also recalled in April over elevated levels of inorganic arsenic. According to the FDA, S. Martinelli & Company voluntarily recalled 24,500 cases - containing 147,100 bottles - of its Gold Medal Apple Juice sold in one liter glass bottles. Arsenic, a metal naturally found in the Earth's crust, is used in pesticides and processes like cement manufacturing. Inorganic arsenic compounds, such as the kind found in water, are highly toxic, while organic compounds, such as the type found in seafood, are less harmful. Repeated exposure to inorganic arsenic can damage DNA, weaken the immune system and lead to the formation of cancer cells, as well as high blood pressure and heart disease. Arsenic can enter food when used by farmers as a pesticide and fertilizer, and is a known carcinogen. Chronic exposure has been linked to an increased risk of bladder and skin cancers, as well as cancers of the lung, digestive tract, liver, kidney, and lymphatic system. More than a million cans of Enfamil Nutramigen Hypoallergenic Infant Formula Powder were pulled from shleves because they were suspected to be contaminated with the bacteria Cronobacter sakazakii Drink companies selling nationwide want to give customers a consistent taste and color experience, but regulations on certain ingredients vary state-to-state. What ends up happening is 'the consistency of the drink, taste and experience is prioritized over food safety,' Dr Detwiler told this website. Sometimes beverage companies themselves do not properly understand the requirements. 'Sometimes it's like, well, we met the requirements when we were selling in this state, but then when we started to sell it to other states... we didn't realize the regulatory implications of selling it across state lines,' he added. Multiple infant formulas have also been recalled by the FDA. An infant formula powder made by Mead Johnson & Company was recalled over concerns it was contaminated with a bacteria that could cause life-threatening health complications in infants. More than 1million cans of Enfamil Nutramigen Hypoallergenic Infant Formula Powder - a baby formula made for infants with an allergy to cow's milk - were pulled from shelves due to the potential presence of the bacteria Cronobacter sakazakii. Cronobacter sakazakii is a bacteria that lives in dry places, such as powered milk, herbal teas and powdered infant formula and infections with the bacteria can cause brain swelling and seizures in infants. Two goat milk formula products for toddlers from Californian company Sammy's Milk were recalled in April for misleading claims on the company's website and social media. The company claimed the product was safe for use as a sole source of nutrition for very young children. But the Goat Milk Toddler Formula is not recommended for infants under 12 months of age, due to the excess protein content and potential stress placed on infant's kidneys. It also lacks enough essential nutrients that infants need for tissues and brain development and growth. Your favorite snack may well contain more calories than you think. This month a lawsuit filed in California against Kroger alleged false advertising after prosecutors found its 'Carbmaster' bread claimed to contain 30 calories per slice on the front of the packaging but 50 calories per slice on the back. It is just the latest in more than a hundred lawsuits over mislabeling filed every year, with past cases including a 300-calorie Chipotle burrito that turned out to be nearly 800 calories and a 50-calorie hamburger bun that was actually 100 calories. Dr Susan Roberts, who researches food labels at Dartmouth University in New Hampshire, said she wasn't surprised by the cases of mislabeling. 'It's almost impossible to actually police all of these [labels],' she said. 'To a large extent, we're dependent on the honesty of the food companies.' The above picture shows the front of Kroger's Carbmaster bread and then the back, with both giving different calorie counts per slice Others to face lawsuits over calorie counts include Chipotle, which previously advertised its Chorizo burrito as being 300 calories. The company said this was in error, with the 300 refering only to the Chorizo in the burrito - with it actually being nearer 800 calories in total The expert told the Los Angeles Times that the issue is largely caused by the FDA allowing food companies tochoose from several different methods to calculate calories, with some being more reliable than others. A calorie is a unit of energy, with these required every day for the body to carry out vital functions like breathing, circulating blood and physical activity. The average man is recommended to consume about 2,600 calories per day, while the average woman is told to consume about 2,000 calories. Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko, who brought the case against Kroger, said: 'Consumers rely on nutritional information to make important decisions about their personal health and wellbeing. For some consumers, these decisions are based upon medical necessity. 'False advertising of calories can mislead, or even endanger, consumers, and it provides an unfair advantage over competitors who are advertising in compliance with FDA guidelines.' Others to face proposed actions over lawsuits included Crumbl Cookies based in Utah. One of their cookies was equivalent to four servings, or 760 calories The lawsuit alleges that Kroger falsely advertised the calorie content of its 'Carbmaster' bread from November 2018 to June 2022. During that time, the front of the packaging prominently displayed a calorie number per slice that was 20 calories less than the one advertised on the back. In another instance, hamburger buns from Kroger were labeled with 50 calories per serving on the front, even though the back said each contained 100 calories. To calculate calorie content, the FDA recommends that manufacturers use the Atwater system. This asigns specific values to macronutrients carbs, proteins, fats and alcohol to calculate calorie content. These are four calories per gram of carbohydrate, four calories per gram of protein, nine calories per gram of fat and seven calories per gram of alcohol. Other class action lawsuits over labeling have been proposed against manufactureres including Crumbl cookie, a gourmet cookie maker in Utah. The proposal said that Crumbl was misleading customers by advertising that one serving of its cookies was equal to 190 calories, with each cookie sold by the company actually four servings or equivalent to 760 calories. In 2020, more than 100 lawsuits were filed alleging false labeling a category that includes accusations of underreporting or overreporting calorie counts as well as misstating serving sizes or claims foods were prepared in a certain way, such as being smoked. In a previous class-action lawsuit brought in 2016 against Chipotle, customers complained about the 300-calorie Chorizo burrito after saying it left them feeling full afterward. They then calculated that the burrito likely actually contained 1,050 calories in total, more than three times the advertized figure. Chipotle later apologized for the error, and said the 300 calorie unit was meant to refer to the Chorizo alone. A man was eating breakfast with his wife when a cough and sneeze at the same time left him with a freak injury. The Florida native's colon exploded, causing his intestines to fall out of his body. The 63-year-old noticed a 'wet' sensation followed by sharp pain. When he lifted his shirt he saw several inches of bowel were sticking out of his surgical wound. He had recently had abdominal surgery but doctors insisted earlier that day his incision was 'well-healed.' His wife called an ambulance and upon arrival, paramedics said they observed a three-inch opening with 'large amounts of bowel' protruding through it. A Florida man's colon exploded after coughing and sneezing at the same time (stock image) He was immediately rushed to the hospital where surgeons were able to successfully return his bowel into his abdomen. After recovering in the hospital for six days, the man was sent home and experienced no further complications. His case is detailed in American Journal of Medical Case Reports. This rare but serious complication of surgery is also called disembowelment and occurs when a patient's internal organs protrude through an incision because of wound dehiscence, the reopening of a surgical site. A study found wound dehiscence is estimated to occur in up to three-in-100 people who have had abdominal and pelvic surgeries, but can occur in up to 10 percent of elderly patients. It can be deadly for four-in-10 patients due to excessive blood loss, prolonged severe pain or injury to the organs that have been exposed. Experts, including those in the case report, cite coughing as a prominent risk factor for the complication, and authors of the report concluded: 'Coughing was likely the cause in our case.' The left illustration is from the patient's case report depicting how the man's bowels were protruding through the wound in his abdomen. The right illustration depicts the man's incision after doctors repaired his evisceration When it does occur, it must be treated with surgery to replace organs into the abdomen and close the open wound. A sterile saline covering should also be put on eviscerations to keep the exposed organs moist until surgery can be performed. Two weeks before the incident, the Florida man underwent surgery for complications resulting from a previous battle with prostate cancer, including a cystectomy, a surgery in which the bladder is removed. The surgery was successful and doctors sent the patient home 'in good condition.' On the morning of the medical emergency, the man had his wound site examined and had sutures removed. He and his wife then went to breakfast to celebrate his clean bill of health. After he noticed his internal organs coming out of his abdomen, the man quickly covered the injury with his shirt and was going to drive to the hospital. However, he decided against that for fear it would exacerbate the injury. So his wife called 911. The case report said an ambulance arrived four minutes later and while the man's shirt was soaked with bodily fluid, paramedics observed minimal bleeding. Never having faced such an injury, the case report said the paramedic was 'unsure of the best treatment' as routine protocols did not have guidelines for treating evisceration. However, she did know the intestines needed to be kept moist so she covered them in saline and wrapped gauze around the man's abdomen before taking him to the hospital. Upon arrival, the patient was rushed to the operating room where three doctors examined the bowel, saw no evidence of injury to it and were able to place it back inside his body. Doctors discovered the wound had opened in the middle of the incision and closed it with multiple methods, including figure-of-8 sutures, one of the most advanced and strongest types of closures, internal and external stitches and stitches that penetrated multiple deep layers of the abdominal wall. The patient's skin was then closed with surgical staples. Over the next several days, the man recovered without further complications and was observed to have a 'reassuring abdominal examination.' Doctors deemed him well enough to go home after one week. The physicians said this case report was 'important' because abdominal evisceration after cystectomy is poorly documented, with just seven reports of the complication in 2024. Officials are hunting for a mystery food item behind an outbreak of E.coli which has struck down 113 people and left at least 37 in hospital with fears the bug could spread further during barbecue season. Experts say the rare Shiga toxigenic (STEC) variant of the diarrhoea-causing illness is 'particularly nasty' and issued a warning for Brits to ensure they handle and cook food properly. People with signs of the infection, which include diarrhoea, vomiting and fever, have been urged to stay off work and school for at least 48 hours after symptoms have stopped. The source of the current wave of cases hasn't yet been discovered but there are fears that Britain's looming barbecue season, when many may under-cook items like burgers, could fuel an even bigger outbreak. There is currently no evidence the new E.coli outbreak is related to the one recorded at the end of last year that was linked to cheese. The 113 confirmed cases of E.coli are spread across the UK, leading officials to believe it was caused by a nationally distributed food item The Shiga toxin-producing E.coli (STEC) is a rare strain of the diarrhoea-causing bug that can leave people seriously ill One of those hospitalised with serious symptoms was former golf course manager Christopher Holmes, 76. He was admitted to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother hospital in Margate, Kent, with diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach cramps. Doctors were initially puzzled as to what had caused the symptoms, but tests later showed he had contracted the STEC E.coli and he was moved to an isolation room. Daughter Lea, 54, of Deal, Kent, said: Its been horrible. We dont know what caused it. He doesn't eat red meat or fish and isnt a big eater in general. He's very hygienic and always cooks things properly. The only thing that he thought it could have been was salad. He was eating lots of salads before he got ill. Hes been on jellies, ice creams and soups for the last few days. Its all been quite overwhelming for him. She added doctors are hoping to discharge her father in the coming days, once the infection has passed. Professor of food safety Nicola Holden said people should maintain good kitchen hygiene and be particularly careful when breaking out the barbecue during the warm weather. Its a particularly nasty variant of E.coli and we have a high hospitalisation rate,' she told Radio 4s Today programme. Symptoms of Shiga toxin-producing E.coli include severe diarrhoea and vomiting, according to the UK Health Security Agency 'What people can do is make sure theyre very vigilant about hand-washing and follow advice from food standard agencies about keeping their food safe and keeping good hygiene in the kitchen. Were coming up to barbecue season. People must make sure those beef burgers are cooked thoroughly and not raw in the middle, for example. She said finding the specific food that carried the bug could be challenging if it was perishable and has already either been eaten or disposed of. It depends on what the source is as to whether they can identify it, she said. If its a foodstuff, its very hard to identify foods that are perishable that we may have been consumed or thrown away already. If its a food thats got a longer shelf life or is frozen, for example, theres more likelihood that it can be identified. We have infections across all four nations which suggests it is something that is nationally distributed. Professor Holden said symptoms of the disease can range from gastroenteritis to bloody diarrhoea and a life-threatening disease called haemolytic uremic syndrome which tends to be more serious in very young children. She added: You can get quite nasty diarrhoea, but it can progress to much more serious disease requiring intensive care support. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said it believes cases are linked to a 'nationally distributed food item' or 'multiple food items' and say they are investigating the cause. Two-thirds of those known to have been infected by the bacteria in England have become so severely ill they needed hospital care. Victims include children as young as two, though the majority are young adults. UKHSA said a total of 113 cases have been logged between May 25 and June 4 but more are expected. Of these, 81 were in England, with 18 in Wales and 13 in Scotland. Just one case has been recorded in Northern Ireland though officials say this individual likely caught the bug in England. STEC is primarily spread by eating contaminated foods, such as raw vegetables that have not been washed or stored correctly or from undercooked meat. It can also be spread by touching infected animals or their faeces, either directly or through contaminated water. People can also pass the bug on through direct content, such as caring for a child who is sick and then touching their face and mouth without properly washing their hands. UKHSA said current evidence points to a food-based origin of the current outbreak. 'The source of this outbreak is not yet confirmed but there is currently no evidence linking the outbreak to open farms, drinking water or swimming in contaminated sea, lakes or rivers,' it said. Professor Nicola Holden, a bacteriologist and a member of Applied Microbiology Internationals Food Security Advisory Group, said: 'STEC has been with us since the 1980s. 'It is a continually evolving bacteria that, as a group, has a high degree of genetic diversity. 'Sometimes that makes it difficult to detect pathogens from surveillance efforts that may have the potential to cause disease, because their genetics dont always follow a predictable pattern that definitively identify them as such.' STEC is considered to be extremely infectious, only a few bacteria need to be ingested for a person to become ill. Symptoms of infection include vomiting, fever, stomach cramps and diarrhoea which can last up to two weeks. Trish Mannes, incident director at UKHSA, urged Brits to take steps to avoid catching or potentially passing the infection on to others. 'Washing your hands with soap and warm water and using disinfectants to clean surfaces will help stop infections from spreading,' she said. 'If you are unwell with diarrhoea and vomiting, you should not prepare food for others while unwell and avoid visiting people in hospitals or care homes to avoid passing on the infection in these settings. 'Do not return to work, school or nursery until 48 hours after your symptoms have stopped.' Britain's food safety watchdog the Food Standards Agency is also assisting UKHSA to 'identify the source of the illness'. People have been advised to contact NHS 111 or their GP if they or their children show any symptoms of E.coli infection. For children under five these can include disinterest in breast or bottle feeding and signs of dehydration such as fewer wet nappies. Both adults and children are advised to call NHS 111 or their GP if they keep vomiting for two days or have diarrhoea for a week. Anyone suffering bloody diarrhoea or bleeding from the bottom should call NHS 111 or their GP immediately. More than 100 Brits have been struck down by a mystery E.coli outbreak, with health officials still hunting for the source of the infection. Cases have been reported across the UK, with the diarrhoea-causing bacteria making a significant portion of those infected so ill they needed hospital care. UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said it believes cases are linked to an, as yet unknown, 'nationally distributed food item' or 'multiple food items' A total of 113 cases have been logged between May 25 and June 4 but this figure is expected to rise as more cases come to light. Here, MailOnline reveals the early warning signs of the violent infection, how long they last for, what foods you can get it from, and what you need to do if infected. Symptoms of Shiga toxin-producing E.coli include severe diarrhoea and vomiting, according to the UK Health Security Agency UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said it believes cases are linked to a 'nationally distributed food item' or 'multiple food items' What are the symptoms of an E.coli infection? The current outbreak is caused by Shiga toxin-producing E coli 0145 (STEC). Symptoms of infection vary from mild to bloody diarrhoea, UKHSA says, with around half of people infected experiencing the latter. Vomiting, fever and stomach cramps are other tell-tale signs of an infection. However, these symptoms can be caused by a variety of bugs, including norovirus. In severe cases, the bug can cause haemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a life-threatening condition that can lead to kidney failure, which mainly affects children. A small proportion of adults may develop a similar condition called thrombotic thrombocytopaenic purpura (TTP), which is a rare, life-threatening blood disorder. Health officials have urged parents to call NHS 111 if they or their kids have bloody diarrhoea. Children, elderly people and people with compromised immune systems are most at risk of developing a severe illness. Officials have not yet traced the source of the outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing E.coli (STEC), a rare strain of the diarrhoea-causing bug. But they believe it is linked to a 'nationally distributed food item' or 'multiple food items' How long does the infection last and what should I do? Most of those sickened with the bug will get better without NHS care within a week, though sysmptoms can last up to a fortnight. Infected persons are advised to drink plenty of fluids as symptoms like vomiting and diarrhoea can lead to dehydration. Health officials say taking antibiotics and antidiarrheal drugs are not generally recommended for STEC. This is because of the potential of increasing the risk of suffering complications such as HUS, as the drugs impact on the bacteria can cause a build up of toxins. Anyone experiencing STEC symptoms is recommended to stay home from work or school until 48 hours after you've stopped vomiting of having diarrhoea in order to reduce the risk of spreading the infection to others. People who serve unwrapped food, are a healthcare worker or attend pre-school or nursery are especially at risk of spreading the infection to others. These people should be screened for STEC prior to returning to work or school according to Government guidance. Health officials said a total of 113 cases have been logged between May 25 and June 4. Of these, 81 were in England, with 18 in Wales and 13 in Scotland What foods can you get it from? STEC is primarily spread by eating contaminated foods, such as improperly washed or prepared raw vegetables, cheese and undercooked minced meats. Such foods run the risk of STEC contamination as the bacteria can easily leap from tainted worksurfaces or from infected people preparing food who haven't washed their hands properly. For that reason, it's important to cook minced meat such as burgers properly and thoroughly wash all salad and vegetables to remove any potential traces of animal faces before consumption. People are also advised to ensure their fridge is below 4C degrees as this can slow bacteria growth. In a recent previous outbreak of E.coli patients reported eating grated hard cheese before getting ill. This can happen if the milk gets contaminated with faecal matter and survives or grows during the cheese making processes. Unpasteurised cheeses, where the milk used to make the dairy product isn't heated to a bacteria-killing temperature, have a higher at risk of contamination. STEC can also be spread by touching infected animals or their faeces directly as well as coming into contact with direct with people who are sick, when looking after them for example. It can also be spread through contaminated water, either via drinking tainted supplies it or accidently ingesting it while swimming, This risk can be reduced by boiling any drinking water suspected of being unsafe, not swimming in water that could be contaminated by cattle and sheep in nearby fields. Scientists studying a rise in rare and unusual cancers in young people are turning their attention to an unlikely culprit: Covid. Preliminary research on cells has indicated the virus may fuel the growth of tumors and shut down the body's defense against them - but the theory is widely disputed. There is, however a consensus among doctors: they're seeing more young and relatively healthy people with obscure forms of the disease after the pandemic. One doctor told DailyMail.com the theory that Covid is driving these cases doesn't hold up because the trend predates the outbreak. Early-onset cancers of all forms have been on the rise, increasing by 79 percent globally from 1990 to 2019, the year before the pandemic. Other experts found the Covid theory more convincing. They pointed to the fact that already one in four cancer have been linked to other viruses, such as HPV. The above graph shows the change in cancer case rates around the world Kasra Jahankhani, an Iranian immunologist and lead researcher on a 2023 report on the topic told DailyMail.com: 'It's really controversial and there is a lot of debate around the topic, but we think there are many ways SARs Covid infection could affect cancers.' His research suggested that the coronavirus can change genes that usually stop tumors from forming and cause widespread inflammation throughout the body. This inflammation in combination with reduced defenses might lead to the development of cancer cells in various organs, they wrote. Viral associations with cancers are 'unfortunately common,' said Dr Landau, oncologist and contributor for The Mesothelioma Center at Asbestos.com. With the human papilloma virus (HPV), for example, it is believed that the virus itself can inject its DNA into the body's cells, which can cause a mutation that leads to growth of cancerous cells. 'Essentially, the virus is trying to take over our body's cells to promote its own growth and survival. 'But mutating cells to continuously grow is, at a simple level, how cancers develop,' Dr Landau told DailyMail.com. However, not all experts are in agreement. Dr Suneel Kamath, an oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic, ruled out a link between Covid and cancer. 'The trends in rising incidence of cancer in younger people, such as bile duct, colorectal, breast, lung and gastric, have been happening for years, even decades before Covid-19 existed, and they are still happening,' he told DailyMail.com. Viral associations with cancers are 'unfortunately common,' said Dr Landau, oncologist and contributor for The Mesothelioma Center at Asbestos.com Research has suggested that the coronavirus can change genes that usually stop tumors from forming and cause widespread inflammation throughout the body Colon cancer diagnoses in particular among under-50s have reached epidemic levels. Nearly 18,000 cases are diagnosed among this age group every year in the US compared to 12,000 a year pre-2000. Colon cancer deaths among young people are also expected to double by 2030, experts have warned. Uterine cancer has also risen two percent each year in people under 50 since the mid-1990s. Early-onset breast cancer has also increased by 3.8 percent annually between 2016-2019, and cancer rates do not appear to have sped up dramatically since Covid. GOT A HEALTH-RELATED STORY? EMAIL: Health@dailymail.com Advertisement But experts have said that it might be too early to see that impact, as 'the long term implications of the pandemic will evolve over time,' Dr Landau said. CDC data shows that more people are being told they have cancer now than they were prior to the pandemic. In 2021, 9.8 percent of adults reported having ever been told by a doctor that they had cancer. In 2019, that proportion of adults was 9.5 percent. One of the possible links between Covid and cancer is a gene called P53, which suppresses cancerous tumors in the body by stopping cells with mutated or damaged DNA from dividing, Jahankhani explained. His research team found that the tumor suppressor gene P53 may be 'degraded' by SARS-CoV-2 and effectively blocked. This means it can no longer stop tumors growing. Other research has found that lower levels of P53 can make people more susceptible to cancer. Another factor involves the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), which is a key system that regulates blood pressure in the body. When the SARS-CoV-2 virus binds to ACE2 receptor, it stops the RAAS from functioning properly. This in turn causes inflammation and oxidative stress, which are factors in cancer progression and development. Another way Covid and cancer might be linked is by proteins called cytokines. When the body gets an infection such as Covid, the immune system will begin to fight it off, including using cytokines as a defense system against the virus. The photo shows the coronavirus indicated in yellow, emerging from the surface of cells, indicated in blue/pink, cultured in a laboratory. Research suggests that the virus can reawaken dormant cancer cells, and cause whole body inflammation that can lead to the proliferation of cancer cells The proteins tell immune cells what to do and also tell the body to produce more of them to ensure a knockout blow is delivered to the infection. But sometimes too many cytokines can be released, which puts the immune system into overdrive and creates a heightened inflammatory response. The release of cytokines is often what makes us feel sick when we have an infection, Dr Landau said. 'But these same cytokines can cause harm to the body, and that harm can increase cancer risk, especially if they remain elevated in the long term,' he said. This heightened inflammatory response occurs with long Covid, he added. Too much inflammation can damage tissues and DNA and has been linked to the development of autoimmune conditions, as well as cancer. Inflammation also causes changes to chromosomes in cells, and repeated changes can cause cells to become cancerous. This abundance of cytokines can also lead to the emergence of cancer stem cells in organs like the lungs and pancreas, as well as bile ducts. Because Covid infection occurs directly and indirectly in several organs, including the lungs, brain and kidneys, the researchers believe cancer stem cells can develop in multiple organs. Stem cells are cells that have the ability the develop into many different cell types in the body. Cancer stem cells, meanwhile, occur in tumors and have the ability to divide and renew, which grows and spreads the tumor. They can originate from adult tissue stem cells and initiate a tumor, particularly if there is lots of inflammation from Covid. And while researchers cannot definitively rule out the Covid vaccines as playing a role, Jahankhani said there is no evidence that this is the case. His team 'didn't find anything' to support the idea that the Covid shot drove up cancer rates. The evidence supporting the virus theory appears to be much stronger, he added. Dr Landau acknowledged that although there have been blood clot issues after the Covid vaccine, 'a clear link with development of cancer is not yet known.' 'We suspect the cancer risk would come from the virus itself, rather than the vaccine, but it will take years of follow up studies to truly understand this,' he said. Using any street drug is now a game of Russian Roulette, according to a police chief in a city grappling with a new cutting agent dubbed rhino tranq. Since DailyMail.com first wrote about the drug, formally known as medetomidine, more cities are reporting waves of overdoses that medicine cannot reverse. The sedative is 100 to 200 times more potent than xylazine, an animal tranquilizer being used to boost the potency of everything from cocaine to heroin and fentanyl. It doesn't show on test strips and cannot be treated with Narcan, making it a silent killer that neither police or users can keep up with. Rick Lorah, deputy chief of criminal investigations in Erie, Pennsylvania, not far from Philadelphia where over 160 overdoses involving rhino tranq occurred in just four days last month. He said So if its happening in Philadelphia, its happening in New York, its happening in Pittsburgh, it will happen here. Drugs are openly used and passed around in the Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia, with many bent over in a trance like state He said that the new drug adulterants are 'all cheaper than the drug being sold. Each one seems to be more deadly.' Michigan has lost three residents to the drugs laced with the tranquilizer, which is approved as a drug for cats and dogs, since March. And officials in Chicago saw mass overdose outbreaks over just a few days in mid-May. It was the first time the drug was ever found in the illicit drug supply. But it's such a new addition to the drug supply that most states have been caught off guard and are still struggling to keep track of how widespread it is. Overdoses have escalated throughout May and early June, and the drug has also been detected in San Francisco, Indianapolis, Toronto, Canada, Maryland, and more. The drug acts on the brain differently than an opioid like fentanyl, which binds to specific receptors in the brain. When a person is experiencing an overdose of fentanyl or heroin, paramedics can administer the reversal drug Narcan, buying the person life-saving time to seek additional medical care. But medetomidine, as well as xylazine, are alpha-2 agonists, which are not affected by Narcan at all. They are often referred to as zombie drugs. People taking them often nod off, even while standing up, or slump over on the street in a daze. As law enforcement has been trying to crack down on xylazine- and fentanyl-laced drugs, cartels and drug suppliers have seen a new opportunity in medetomidine. The drug is impossible to detect with standard test strips used to screen heroin and cocaine for deadly fentanyl. It causes a drastic drop in heart rate, lowers blood pressure, and decreases activity in the brain, raising the odds that the user will go into cardiac arrest. These risks are greatly compounded when the drug is paired with another sedative like xylazine in addition to fentanyl. Dr Daniel Ciccarone, who has studied the effects of drug use for decades at the University of California, San Francisco, said: The concern is that because its sedating, that could go in the wrong direction when youre already on a sedating opioid like fentanyl. Now you have two sedating drugs, which are sort of a double downer combination, we could call it, and that would raise the risk for overdose. Officials in Philadelphia, where the Kensington neighborhood has devolved into an open-air drug market, issued a health alert about medetomidine last month that said: To date, all samples that contained medetomidine also contained xylazine and fentanyl. Neither medetomidine nor xylazine is approved for human use; neither are their two antidotes, which could have potentially disastrous consequences to the human body. Those antidotes would cause extremely high blood pressure and an accelerated heart rate and thus, should not be used to reverse adverse effects of medetomidine, according to Philly officials. Daniel Teixeira da Silva, who heads the Philly Health Departments Division of Substance Use Prevention and Harm Reduction, said that because the drug is so new in the illicit supply: We dont really know the effect on humans. Xylazine, which got on health officials radars in 2018, is known to restrict blood vessels, cutting off oxygen-rich blood flow to skin tissues. When tissue is deprived of oxygen, it can die, leading to ever-worsening skin ulcers that can require amputation. Its not clear whether medetomidine would have that same flesh-rotting effect, but it is known to cause blood vessel constriction, which raises that risk. GOT A HEALTH-RELATED STORY? EMAIL: Health@dailymail.com Advertisement In addition to the 160 overdoses in Philadelphia over just four days, three people in Michigan have died with the drug in their systems. Meanwhile, Chicago officials saw mass overdose outbreaks over just a few days around the same time in May that Philadelphia was experiencing a surge. Meanwhile, Torontos drug-checking service first identified it in the citys drug supply in late December. Hayley Thompson, manager of the drug checking program, said: Since then, weve seen [medetomidine and its analog] present in 11 percent of the expected fentanyl samples that we check, and thats worth noting. And right now, we dont think many people know that this drug is circulating in the unregulated drug supply, which is why weve trying to get this communication out so quickly. Drug cartels in Mexico, specifically the Jalisco and Sinaloa cartels, have flooded the US with fentanyl and other illegal, highly addictive drugs. But at some point in the supply chain, possibly at the start in clandestine Mexican labs, or possibly once the drugs have entered the US, they are cut and adulterated with cheap, poorly regulated additives that enhance an opioid high. Indiana's Drug Enforcement Administration chief said: 'I try to tell people when drugs get here to Indianapolis... it could exchange hands six, seven, eight times before a drug dealer sells it to somebody here. 'So every time that exchanges hands, anybody can put whatever they want in it.' Im lying on a treatment bed, mouth wide open, while a woman wearing latex gloves rummages around my gums. At first, my brain goes into dental work mode, and I grip the side of the bed, but within seconds I realise that the experience is rather pleasant. I relax as the woman nimbly kneads my cheeks and jawline on both the inside and the outside of my mouth. Im having an intra-oral (or buccal) massage with Abigail James, the facialist who has treated countless actors, pop stars and models for more than 20 years. The concept has been around for a while but its having a moment: the hashtag #buccalmassage is all over TikTok, while the Duchess of Sussex and Kate Moss are among its famous fans. Buccal massage can help improve blood flow to, and the elasticity of, the lower part of the face, and facilitate better lymphatic drainage to help reduce puffiness. Its current popularity is, in part, because many midlife women are seeking natural alternatives to Botox, fillers and other tweakments. Im trying Jamess new Rejuvology facial treatment, which she launched nationwide last year, training around 70 practitioners across the UK, with more to follow this year. The 60-minute session (which costs from around 100 up to 250 with James herself in her Surrey home clinic) is a noninvasive, nonsurgical alternative to facelifts and other facial rejuvenation treatments. Alongside the buccal massage, my treatment includes craniosacral work, gua sha (a traditional Chinese practice where a stone tool such as smooth jade is pulled across the skin), cupping (a small glass cup is swept across the face, sucking up and twisting skin as it goes which sounds painful but isnt) and numerous facial massage techniques, some gentle, some firm. It is surprisingly effective. I leave with skin that is less puffy but more plumped (thus making lines less visible), a slightly firmer jawline and cheekbones that seem to have travelled an inch north. Facial massage is not going to give you the same results as Botox, cautions James. But from my vantage point, its certainly a credible alternative. I have had an increasing number of 40s-plus clients who are beginning to see their faces age but dont want to go down the injectables route, says James. Then there are the ones who have tried injectables but didnt like them. While theres an increase in younger women having tweakments, theres a slowing down when it comes to older women. The Duchess of Sussex, pictured with Prince Harry last month, is among its famous fans One of the reasons, James believes, is that the more open conversation around menopause and ageing today means many women are more accepting of bodily changes and no longer see wrinkles as the enemy. Sophie Perry, author of The Natural Facelift (12.99, HarperCollins), teaches facial massage to therapists and began her career assisting aesthetic doctors. At 21 she was persuaded to have lip filler by a colleague. She was told it would dissolve in 12 months instead it migrated, looked terrible and she finally had it removed six years later. The experience swore her off invasive beauty treatments both personally and professionally. Perrys book is subtitled Sculpt your Face at Home in Just Five Minutes a Day. Really? Will a DIY face massage and facial exercises make a difference? Youll see a result immediately as it will improve blood flow and reduce water retention, she says. Then theres the longer-term impact: Your muscles have memory, so doing exercises to contract them, and adding in some massage, will make your face appear more lifted and defined. Theres more: stress is often etched on our faces, so if we build a five-minute facial massage into our daily routine it becomes a self-care ritual. See some of Perrys techniques below. The key is consistency. Theres a cumulative effect with facial massage, says James. Its like going to the gym once is nice but you will benefit from repeat visits. Try it for yourself, five minutes a day for two weeks, says Perry. See the difference it makes. So I do and it does. 3 facial massages by Sophie Perry For the mouth and jaw Use a face oil or cream, and work with the same hand and side of your face (right hand with right side), using the opposite hand for light support on the chin. Massage in circular motions along the jaw, starting at the chin and ending at your ear, focusing the pressure on lifting upwards not pulling down. Use medium pressure with your finger pads. As you release tension above the jawline, let the thumb follow lightly underneath it. Repeat up to 8 times before switching sides. For marionette folds (the creases that run down vertically from the corners of your mouth to your chin) Place your finger pads on your masseter muscles (theyre either side of your jaw the big ones you use for chewing). Lightly lift the skin, pulling towards the ears and keeping it taut. Blow air out of your mouth ten times, as if youre blowing out a candle, making an O with your mouth each time. Repeat 20 times. For between the eyebrows Using the lengths of your middle and index fingers, place them along both eyebrows, leaving a space in the middle. Apply very slight pressure to both eyebrows and begin to attempt a frown, resisting with your fingers to prevent wrinkle formation. Hold for 3 seconds. Repeat 20 times. To book a Rejuvology treatment, go to abigailjames.online/clinic-finder At a time of fiscal constraints and fractured public services, it is no great surprise that taxation has emerged as the overriding issue of the General Election campaign. Whether or not Rishi Sunak was correct to hammer away at Labour's alleged 2,000 tax bombshell, he thrust the issue to the top of the election debate. It is clear that Labour's vow not to increase personal taxation on working Britons by adding to income tax, national insurance or VAT, is meaningless. Head-to-head: Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer are failing to introduce any inspiration or optimism about the country's future into the General Election campaign There are no shortage of other levies, such as capping pension funds, raising capital gains and closing loopholes including those around VAT which would help close a black hole. That is, if there is one. There is a case to be made that the public finances are not the basket case that has become conventional wisdom, and there could be room to stretch them further. The most frustrating aspect of all this is the pettifogging nature of the debate, much loved by BBC Verify but no one else. Missing in action, so far, is any inspiration or optimism about the country's future. There is a notable absence of the memorable phrase in the tradition of Harold Wilson's 'white heat of technology,' Ronald Reagan's 'shining city on the hill' and Tony Blair's 'a new dawn has broken.' Or, as Boris Johnson observed: 'The doubters, the doomsters, the gloomsters they are going to get it wrong again.' So far the only significant person to raise their eyes above the parapet, without tumbling down a fiscal rabbit hole, is Aviva chief executive Amanda Blanc. In an opinion article in the FT, the insurance boss demonstrates vision. Letter: Aviva boss Amanda Blanc has written an opinion article in the FT She reaches well beyond the vacuous letter signed by a second division of business chiefs in support of Rachel Reeves. Blanc argues for certainty on 'infrastructure.' It has long been my view that Rishi Sunak's worst moment (and there have been several bad ones, including his early exit from D-day commemorations) was his decision during the 2023 party conference to axe HS2. With the right management, and willpower, the north-bound high speed rail link was the real answer to levelling up. One only need look at the 10billion or so of new investment heading into, or around, Birmingham to know how transforming HS2 can be. The Aviva chief also recognises something of which Reeves, Starmer and Angela Rayner seem to be blissfully unaware. Even if they were successful in smashing through existing planning rules and overcoming 'nimbyism', they would hit obstacles. Local authorities are generally fine at picking up the rubbish (the ousted Green council in Brighton was the exception) but have none of the brilliant planning and design skills to get the job done. Her third suggestion is the creation of matchmaking skills which marshal investment funds into great projects. It is possible that Labour's Great British Energy could fill this gap around net zero projects. One fears a costly boondoggle by politicians who are ignorant of what business needs. The focus on what is wrong from potholes to NHS queues has left no space for what is right, such as science, technology, creative industries and business services. Missing in action is what the late George H W Bush famously called 'the vision thing'. Lynch squad I admit to being among the commentators who failed to defend Autonomy boss Mike Lynch when he was extradited to the US, in spite of questions about the treaty which led to his Californian trial. My thinking was that the Americans take financial justice more seriously than we do in the UK. If, as alleged, Lynch had fiddled the figures before the 11bn sale of his company to Hewlett Packard, there was more chance of him paying the price across the Atlantic than here. Unvarnished capitalism demands tougher enforcement. No one can give Lynch back the dozen years or so he was bogged down in a legal quagmire. But it is terrific that American justice, in the shape of a jury trial, came through to save the Autonomy founder. As a genuine tech pioneer, he can now hold his head high again. Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch will meet Czech Sphinx Daniel Kretinsky as he presses on with his 3.6bn swoop for Royal Mail. Badenoch is to hold talks with the tycoon who is on the verge of becoming the first foreign owner of the 500-year-old firm. The meeting is set for the middle of next week, Sky News reported. Business secretary Kemi Badenoch Royal Mails parent company International Distribution Services (IDS) accepted an offer from the billionaires investment firm EP Group last month after he made a series of commitments, which include promises on jobs and the UK-wide six-day service. He has also agreed not to split up Royal Mails parent company IDS, which includes European parcels business GLS, for at least three years and to maintain the universal service obligation (USO) and the Royal Mail headquarters in the UK for five years. Last week Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said that regulators should look very carefully at the five-year undertakings made by the billionaire. Kretinsky, who is already IDSs biggest shareholder and owns significant stakes in Sainsburys and West Ham United, this week met the Communication Workers Union (CWU). Dave Ward, general secretary of the CWU, which represents about 100,000 Royal Mail workers, said: We made it very clear that the current commitments from EP Group are neither strong enough nor long enough. Since agreeing to buy the company, Kretinsky has hinted that he would be looking to reform the USO. IDS shareholders will vote on the deal at the annual general meeting on September 25. Greek banks have been given the go-ahead to hand out dividends for the first time since the sector was hammered in the financial crisis. The European Central Bank (ECB) backed payouts to shareholders after 16 years. Greece was one of the European countries worst affected by the financial crisis in 2008, which resulted in the state stepping in to bail out the banks. Tragedy: Economic collapse led to widespread protests The emergency measure resulted in the country's economy shrinking by a quarter. Soaring unemployment and street protests added to the chaos and almost resulted in Greece leaving the eurozone. The National Bank of Greece said yesterday that it plans to distribute 282.7m to shareholders. Alpha Bank will hand out 103.8m from 2023 profits - half as a cash dividend and the rest as a share buyback. Piraeus Bank shareholders will get 67m and Eurobank will pay out 291m. Alpha Bank chief executive Vassilios Psaltis said that it was 'the final stamp of approval for the bank's full return to normality since the outburst of the financial crisis'. It comes as banks have cut their non-performing exposure ratios - a measure of the lenders' credit risk - to below 6pc from 45pc in 2016. They have also reduced state ownership and turned profitable. Earlier this year Greece's finance minister said the government will this year complete the sale of its outstanding stakes in five banks bailed out during the debt crisis. The state recently sold its stake in three major banks, raising more almost 2bn. The sale of a 27pc stake in Piraeus Bank was oversubscribed eight times. Final distribution of the payouts needs to be approved by lenders' shareholder meetings which are expected to take place in the summer. Zuba Issa who acquired Asda in 2021 with his brother Moshin and TDR Capital - is selling his shares in the supermarket to the private equity firm. The London buyout company yesterday announced it will become Asda's majority owner, while Mohsin Issa still holds 22.5 per cent. The Blackburn-based brothers have a combined net worth of more than 5billion. Parting of the ways: Tycoons Zuber (left) and Mohsin Issa swooped on Asda in 2021 It comes after Mohsin left his wife of 30 years and began a relationship with a high-flying accountant. The brothers developed their business empire from humble beginnings in Lancashire. The Issas have faced scrutiny after buying Asda from US retail giant Walmart which retained a 10 per cent stake for 6.8billion. Since the brothers took over in 2021, the supermarket chain has been loaded with billions of pounds of debt. The Issas have previously been grilled by MPs on the Business and Trade Committee over the complex ownership structure at the company. And Asda last month reported a slowdown in sales as it underperformed its bigger rivals and lost market share. The Issas buyout of Asda was backed by TDR, which is also a major investor in the brothers' petrol station chain EG Group after buying a 50 per cent stake in 2015. Formed in 2002, TDR is one of the most ruthless private equity firms in the UK. It was also announced yesterday that Zuber, 51, will step down as co-chief executive of EG Group. He has bought its UK forecourt business around 30 petrol stations and some food service sites for 228m using some of the proceeds of the Asda deal. EG Group said it will use the cash to repay debt and shore up its balance sheet. Zuber will keep his shareholding in EG Group and continue as a non-executive director, while Mohsin, 52, will become sole chief executive. The brothers have denied a family feud, with Mohsin yesterday seeking to dispel rumours of sibling infighting. He previously dismissed rumours of disagreements, telling the BBC the pair 'get on exceptionally well'. Yesterday Mohsin said: 'I want to add my personal support and best wishes for Zuber's plans as we continue our successful family partnership, working as partners on our personal co-investments, family office philanthropy and Issa Foundation projects.' Zuber said: 'With the divestment of my Asda shares, I will now turn my attention towards leading and managing the remaining EG UK forecourt sites that I have personally acquired and spend more time on my charitable endeavours.' Meanwhile Asda chairman Stuart Rose, former boss of Marks & Spencer, said TDR's decision to buy Zuber's stake was a 'clear sign' of its commitment to the supermarket. TDR managing partners Gary Lindsay and Tom Mitchell said in a statement: 'As majority owners, we will continue to work closely with the Asda management team and colleagues across the business to support the ambitious strategy which we believe is the right one to continue to move Asda forward.' The deal comes as Asda continues its hunt for a chief executive after Mohsin handed over the running of the supermarket as part of a revamp of the chain. Mohsin said earlier this year that he was carrying out a 'reset' of the company before hiring a new boss. Free personal care: Plan could help the elderly stay in their own homes longer, according to supporters Free personal care could help the elderly stay in their own homes longer and free up hospital beds under a Liberal Democrat plan. The party is pushing proposals that would assist older and disabled people with everyday tasks like washing, dressing and receiving medication, and boost the pay of care workers to address staff shortages. The plan for England would be similar to the system in Scotland, where free personal and nursing care is available to all adults assessed by their local authorities as eligible. The Lib Dems were first to announce a detailed care policy for England in the election campaign. Proposals from Labour and the Conservatives are now awaited, on a issue many health and finance experts feel is neglected by politicians as it is too difficult and expensive to address. The Tory Government decided in autumn 2022 to put the launch of a lifetime care spending cap on hold until autumn 2025, the other side of the election. That plan would introduce an 86,000 ceiling on how much an individual has to spend on care - but based on some, not all, of their private contributions rather than on total costs - and raise the asset threshold to start receiving support from 23,250 to 100,000. > How is care funded at present? See the box below Labour has previously said it would create a national care service that would join up more closely with the NHS, plus open Neighbourhood Health Centres, but it has reportedly suggested it would not legislate on this in a first term in office. Meanwhile, the Greens have promised 20billion a year more for social care by 2030 as part of a massive spending package for health services, including improving hospitals and equipment. How is care paid for at present? Under the current system in England someone's assets - including the family home - is depleted down to 23,250 if they need to go into a care home. If you need care in your own home, your assets must be depleted to a level set by your local council, which cannot be lower than 23,250, but your home is excluded from this means test. Scotland offers free personal care, Wales runs a different means-tested system where people may have to pay up to 100 a week for non-residential care, and Northern Ireland has different rules again. Healthcare think tank the Nuffield Trust looked at how social care works in the four countries of the UK here. Research among over-45s about social care shows 47 per cent are delaying financial planning for possible residential needs until the Government confirms new rules on how this might be funded in future. Just Group, which carries out annual surveys on knowledge of and attitudes to social care, added that this rises to 62 per cent among those aged over 75, who are likely to need care the soonest. 'Repeated can-kicking on policy by successive governments is negatively influencing people's engagement with the later life social care system, and deterring them from making much-needed plans should they need this support,' says the financial services firm. As it is first off the blocks in the election campaign, we take a look at the details of the Lib Dem proposal, which might prove influential - especially as a version of it already operates in Scotland - and round up responses from experts. What is the Lib Dem plan for free personal care? The Lib Dems say they would ensure no one has to sell their home to pay for care by introducing free personal help for those who need it based on the Scottish model. It would cover people at home and in care homes too, but in the latter case residents would still have to pay towards their accommodation. The party would also hire more social care staff and introduce a 'carer's minimum wage' paying 2 more than the usual minimum wage. Unpaid carers would get a hike in Carer's Allowance and a statutory guarantee of regular respite breaks. The Lib Dems plan to cover the 2.7bn cost by ditching a tax break for big banks. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey joined residents at a DrumFit class at Abbotswood Court Care Village in Romsey, Hampshire, while campaigning in the election on 5 June What do social care and finance experts say? Free personal help with washing or dressing is only a small part of care needs The Liberal Democrats are right to put the desperate need to improve social care as a key part of their election proposals, says Camille Oung, a fellow at health think tank the Nuffield Trust. Free personal care in England could help more people to access some state-funded care, but the costing attached to both this and increasing the pay of care workers looks to be inadequate. All parties should see comprehensive reform of care as a priority but this needs to be built on credible and sustainable funding rather than further tinkering at the edges. Free personal care such as washing or dressing is only a small subset of what social care can offer, and it risks reducing the flexibility to tailor care around the needs of individuals, including working age disabled adults. Without adequate funding stretched local authorities would struggle to deal with an increase in demand for personal care, as was seen in the early years of implementation in Scotland. We want to see a social care system that enables people to make choices to live their lives, and it's unlikely this will be achieved by defining a narrow package of care that appears only focused on older people. It is welcome that the Liberal Democrats would seek to address care worker pay, which for too long has been uncompetitive with other sectors, but this should form part of a wider long term workforce reform including career progression and recognition that makes sure social care is a valued and attractive sector to work in. Free personal care would be a huge improvement - if adequately funded and delivered We welcome the Liberal Democrats' plans to tackle some of the urgent problems facing the social care sector, which has been undermined by decades of political neglect and underfunding, says Lucinda Allen, senior policy officer at the Health Foundation charity. We await to see if other political parties follow suit and offer detail on their plans to address this longstanding policy failure. Under the current system, many older and disabled people go without care they need, staff pay and conditions are poor and reliance on unpaid carers is high. What will improving social care cost? The Health Foundation has published cost estimates for options for funding reform, including free personal care. A Scottish-style model of 'free personal care' in England: Around 6bn extra in 2026/27, rising to 7bn by 2035/36 The current government's proposed spending 'cap' of 86,000: An extra 0.5bn in 2026/27, rising to around 3.5bn by 2035/36 An NHS-style model of universal and comprehensive care: Around 17bn in additional funding by 2035/36 Meeting growing demand for social care and improving services: An extra 18bn by 2032 While free personal care would not protect people with the highest care needs against catastrophic care costs, it offers basic support for everyone with the cost of some care services. Free personal care, if adequately funded and delivered, would be a huge improvement on the current threadbare safety net for people with care needs and their families. It is also positive that the Lib Dem proposals include plans to increase wages and improve the professional status of care workers, but the scale of the challenge shouldn't be under-estimated, with one in 10 posts in the sector currently vacant. The next government must put in place meaningful reform to address the deep unfairness of the social care system. Reform and investment are needed to improve access to care, protect people against extreme care costs, boost staff pay and conditions, and better support unpaid carers. Inaction is not an option. A wave of demand for social care is coming our way For decades, we have been beating the drum to encourage long-term, crossparty policy development to support the creaking social care system, says Stephen Lowe, a director at financial services firm Just Group. But successive governments have been content to consign the problem of social care to the 'too difficult' box. With 3.5 million people over 65 now living alone, an increase of around 420,000 in the last decade, government should see the wave of demand for social care that's coming our way. Aside from population pressures, the beleaguered NHS is also suffering from the lack of adequate social care which makes it difficult to discharge patients adding to existing pressures on the service. The Liberal Democrats have made clear their policy for fixing social care which is inextricably linked to the supporting the NHS. We wait to hear what, if anything, Labour or the Conservatives have to offer. Unhappily, nobody will be surprised if despite all the noise around the general election, there is a deafening silence on meaningful social care plans. Over the past week, the Mails brilliant new podcast The Trial Of Lord Lucan had unravelled one of the greatest crime mysteries ever with extraordinary new evidence. In episodes released daily from Monday June 3 to Friday June 7, two real-life eminent barristers have argued whether Lord Lucan was innocent or guilty using a bombshell new document and unheard evidence in an unmissable twist on courtroom drama. The Lord Lucan case is one of the worlds most enduring crime mysteries. It will be 50 years this November 7 since the 39-year-old British aristocrat vanished without trace within hours of the murder of his nanny Sandra Rivett, 29, and the near fatal assault on his wife Veronica, who told police her Eton-educated husband was responsible for both attacks. Police have long believed that Lucan killed mother-of-two Mrs Rivett in the basement kitchen of his familys five-storey Belgravia home in Central London, after mistaking her for his estranged wife. His three children were upstairs. IS LORD LUCAN GUILTY? THE PUBLIC VOTE IS NOW CLOSED. The Trial of Lord Lucan: Follow The Mail's brand new podcast wherever you get your podcasts It has been almost 50 years since British aristocrat Lord Lucan, 39, vanished without a trace Defence barrister Edward Henry KC (left) and prosecutor Max Hardy (right) The Earl disappeared after his children's nanny Sandra Rivett was murdered in the family home Lord Lucan's wife Veronica Mary Duncan suffered a near-fatal assault on the same night Today, in his closing speech, defence barrister Edward Henry KC urges jurors to judge the case on the evidence, and the evidence alone, saying Lord Lucan had been the victim of a tsunami of prejudice. This is perhaps the most notorious murder allegation of modern times, he adds, as he concedes that the odds are stacked against his client. But questioning whether Lucan could ever get a fair trial, he states the prosecution is drenched in prejudice. Lord Lucan, has been convicted countless times before he even entered this courtroom. He has been vilified ... his whole life defamed in the Press, the Media, and on the Internet for decade upon decade before this trial. How do you put this out of your mind, members of the jury? Mr Henry challenges the Crowns case that Lucan had mistaken Sandra Rivett for his waif-like, elfin wife saying the pair were very different in physical appearance. It points to a stranger, it points to an intruder, he declares. This could easily have been a burglary gone wrong Lady Lucan with Frances and George, two of the three children she had with her husband The blood-soaked basement with Sandra Rivett's body inside a mail sack beside a cast-off shoe Nanny Sandra Rivett was bludgeoned to death The Plumbers Arms, where Lady Lucan ran to after finding Sandra Rivett dead in her house Susan Maxwell-Scott with her husband William. She was the last person to see Lord Lucan alive He reminds the jury that the burden lies on the prosecution to prove guilt, and he alleges the Crowns case does not make sense. It was clear Lucan adored his children, Mr Henry says, so it is difficult to understand why he would murder their mother only to abandon them in the house to attend the Clermont Club, a Mayfair gambling venue, to create an alibi. The reason he fled the house, after his wife raised the alert at The Plumbers Arms, can be put down to the agonising predicament he found himself, the KC says. After interrupting the attack on his wife, he became the butt of a false allegation and tongue tied and in fear, he fled the scene. It is a false allegation which has shaped his life, he insists, as he warns the jury of the dangers of believing Lady Lucan. He says Lady Lucan had an implacable, unswerving hostility towards the defendant she screamed at him that he had paid a man to murder her and was a gravely hostile and dangerous witness. Does she not have an axe to grind? he asks, addressing the enmity between the Lucans. Mr Henry also describes the forensic evidence at the murder scene as a fiasco because of contamination. Listen to The Trial of Lord Lucan here, as well as everywhere you usually get your podcasts. A passenger jet carrying 163 passengers and nine crew cleared the end of a runway by just ten feet after a software glitch allowed it to take off using too little power. The TUI Boeing 737-800 was taking off from Bristol Airport's 1.2-mile runway 9 to Gran Canaria on March 4 when it struggled to take off. The 15-year-old jet took off with just 260 metres (853ft) of runway remaining, clearing the end of the tarmac at a height of just 10 feet. It then passed over the nearby A38 road at less than 100 feet. When the wheels of the aircraft finally left the ground, it was travelling at around 150kts - meaning it would have run out of runway less than three seconds later. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch of the Department of Transport is investigating the incident which it describes as 'serious'. They have released a special warning to airlines using the Boeing 737-800 next generation series about the software problem which jeopardised the safety of the flight. The report said Boeing were aware of the software glitch before the incident which saw the aircraft struggling to get into the air. According to the AAIB report: 'A Boeing 737-800 completed a takeoff from Runway 09 at Bristol Airport with insufficient thrust to meet regulated performance.' Aviation experts acknowledge that aircraft taking off with insufficient thrust risk stalling and crashing to the ground. Your browser does not support iframes. The Tui Boeing 737-800, pictured, only cleared the end of the runway at a height of 10ft and passed over the A38 at less than 100ft as it lumbered into the air due to the software glitch which selected an 'insufficient thrust' setting The aircraft's flight management computer logged 11 faults with the jet's autothrottle system The Air Accident Investigation Branch's preliminary investigation found the aircraft's acceleration performance was significantly worse than other aircraft. The two red lines on the chart show the average performance of 99.7 per cent of other B737s at Bristol Airport The report states that the aircraft's autothrottle system disengaged when the crew selected takeoff mode. Instead of the required 92.8pc of thrust needed to safely take off, the aircraft lumbered down runway using just 84.5pc. Neither pilot noticed the potentially fatal lack of power needed to safely take off. A review of problems on the affected flight showed 11 errors - many of those were related to the aircraft's autothrottle system. The data showed the system, which is designed to reduce the workload of the flight crew, disengaged twice on the flight. Performance data collated by the AAIB comparing the flight to other take offs from Bristol Airport showed its acceleration was significantly slower than 99.7 per cent of other aircraft of the same model departing the same airport. According to the AAIB the autothrottle system on a Boeing 737-800 can control the thrust from takeoff to landing. Investigators asked Boeing about their autothrottle system who admitted they were aware of a 'long history of nuisance disconnects during takeoff mode engagements'. The AAIB were able to download the aircraft Flight Data Recorder black box which showed how poorly the jet performed while taking offD The flight took off from Bristol Airport, pictured, on March 4, 2024 at 11:04am However, when this disconnects are investigated, 'usually, subsequent functionality checks on the system find no faults'. Boeing said earlier versions of the system can disconnect when a button is pressed by the flight crew during their normal take off procedure. According to the AAIB report: 'The manufacturer recommends that any operators of the 737NG who are affected by these disconnects should retrofit their aircraft with the newer model of ASM (autothrottle servo motor) and associated Flight Control Computer software. The AAIB report said the cockpit voice recorder on the jet only saved the last two hours of the flight so what was said between the two pilots was erased and overwritten by the time they had arrived at Las Palmas airport. However, investigators were able to retrieve the Flight Data Recorder - the Black Box - which provided them with vital performance data from the aircraft. This incident is the latest in a string of worrying safety issues which have afflicted Boeing aircraft in the past decade. Federal prosecutors are considering prosecuting the manufacturer over claims it violated a settlement that allowed the company to avoid criminal prosecution after two deadly crashes involving its 737 Max aircraft more than five years ago. Last month, the US Justice Department told a federal judge about the possible breach. It is now up to the Justice Department (DOJ) to decide whether to file charges against Boeing. Prosecutors will tell the court no later than today how they plan to proceed, the department said. New 737 Max jets crashed in 2018 in Indonesia and 2019 in Ethiopia, killing 346 people. Boeing reached a 1.97 billion settlement with the Justice Department in January 2021 to avoid prosecution on a single charge of fraud misleading federal regulators who approved the plane. Boeing blamed the deception on two relatively low-level employees. In a letter filed on last month in federal court in Texas, Glenn Leon, head of the Justice Department criminal division's fraud section, said Boeing violated terms of the settlement by failing to make promised changes to detect and prevent violations of federal anti-fraud laws. The determination means that Boeing could be prosecuted 'for any federal criminal violation of which the United States has knowledge', including the charge of fraud that the company hoped to avoid with the settlement, the Justice Department said. However, it is not clear whether the government will prosecute Boeing. 'The Government is determining how it will proceed in this matter,' the Justice Department said in the court filing. Boeing will have until June 13 to respond the government's allegation, and the department said it will consider the company's explanation 'in determining whether to pursue prosecution'. Boeing Co, which is based in Arlington, Virginia, disputed the Justice Department's finding. 'We believe that we have honored the terms of that agreement, and look forward to the opportunity to respond to the Department on this issue,' a Boeing spokesperson said in a statement. 'As we do so, we will engage with the Department with the utmost transparency, as we have throughout the entire term of the agreement, including in response to their questions following the Alaska Airlines 1282 accident.' A spokesperson for Boeing has said: 'Boeing is supporting the Air Accidents Investigation Branch with its investigation. We refer you to the AAIB for information related to the incident.' The Boeing 737-800 has a highly advanced cockpit with a plethora of electronic systems to reduce the workload of the captain and first officer Traditionally, one of the flight crew was responsible for physically moving the throttles, but on the 737-800 this process can be fully automated with the throttle settings inputted into the jet's flight management computer Boeing has come under renewed scrutiny since that Alaska Airlines flight in January, when a door plug blew out of a 737 Max, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the jetliner. The company is under multiple investigations into the blowout and its manufacturing quality. The FBI has told passengers from the flight that they might be victims of a crime. Prosecutors said they will meet on May 31 with families of passengers who died in the two Max crashes. Family members were angry and disappointed after a similar meeting last month. Paul Cassell, a lawyer who represents families of passengers in the second crash, said the Justice Department's determination that Boeing breached the settlement terms is 'a positive first step, and for the families, a long time coming'. Investigations into the crashes pointed to a flight-control system that Boeing added to the Max without telling pilots or airlines. Boeing downplayed the significance of the system, then did not overhaul it until after the second crash. After secret negotiations, the government agreed not to prosecute Boeing on a charge of defrauding the United States by deceiving regulators about the flight system. The settlement included a 192.4 million) fine, a 395 million fund for victim compensation, and nearly 1.4 billion to airlines whose Max jets were grounded for nearly two years. Boeing has faced civil lawsuits, congressional investigations and massive damage to its business since the crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. The manufacturer's outgoing CEO Dave Calhoun will testify before a US Senate panel later this month to answer questions about safety and production issues at the aircraft manufacturer. The June 18 appearance in front of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations follows an April hearing, in which four whistleblowers alleged there was safety problems in the production of three of the four commercial planes currently produced by Boeing -- the 737 MAX, the 787 Dreamliner and the 777. 'I look forward to Mr. Calhoun's testimony, which is a necessary step in meaningfully addressing Boeing's failures, regaining public trust, and restoring the company's central role in the American economy and national defense,' said Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, who chairs the subcommittee. A spokesperson for TUI told MailOnline: 'We have worked closely with the authorities to provide all available information. The AAIB recommendations and learnings resulting from this take-off will support the whole aviation sector and other airlines. 'The safety of our passengers and crew is always our highest priority.' MailOnline has approached the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) and Boeing for a comment about this most recent incident. A dark, stormy night in the town of Pitlochry, in the Scottish Highlands. The August heatwave had finally broken with a spectacle of thunder, lightning and torrents of rain, and outside the back door of a town centre hotel, a group of young chefs gathered to cool off after a hot night in the kitchen. Usually, there'd be banter, of the bawdy kind, cigarettes and a bottle passed around, but tonight was different. Two of the group were discussing, animatedly, an incident they'd witnessed a few nights earlier. At about 9pm, while walking high in the glens, in Calvine, on the edge of the Cairngorms, they'd seen something that had scared them out of their wits: a huge, solid, diamond-shaped object, about 100ft long, hovering silently in the sky over their heads. It could have been a scene from The X-Files or Men In Black, but this was rural Scotland. Luckily, they'd had a camera with them and managed to capture some images as they cowered in the bushes. They'd taken these to the Daily Record, Scotland's largest circulation newspaper. On a dark, stormy night in Scotland, a group of young chefs saw a huge, solid, diamond-shaped object, about 100ft long, hovering silently in the sky over their heads The young men were excited and terrified in equal measure: this was dynamite. Had they seen a UFO? Were they going to be rich and famous? Was Earth about to be invaded? As they chatted, a dark car pulled up outside the hotel and two mysterious figures, dressed in black suits, emerged from the back seat. They called to the two chefs by name. 'Cigarette break's over lads,' one of them barked to the rest of the group. 'In you go and mind your own business.' The pair were then led off somewhere 'for a chat'. Two very different young men were on breakfast duty the next morning, as one of the original members of the group, retired chef Richard Grieve, tells me today. Breaking his silence after 34 years, Richard, now 55, spoke exclusively to the Mail to describe what happened that mysterious night in 1990. The pair were 'visibly shaken' by whatever was said to them, he remembers, though they refused to divulge specifics, saying only that the men 'were from the Royal Navy'. 'Not long after that it all went a bit hush-hush and they started talking about being followed around Pitlochry. 'Their demeanour changed. They stopped showing up for work, went off the rails and one began drinking heavily. He was sacked soon afterwards. 'The other, who was usually outgoing and larger than life, became introverted and sullen. Within a few months of the visit from the men in the car, they both left the hotel. I haven't seen them since. 'Whatever it was they knew, they were not meant to see it. They never really talked about it but one of them said: 'It was the Americans.' Breaking his silence after 34 years, Richard Grieve, now 55, spoke exclusively to the Mail to describe what happened that mysterious night in 1990 As an investigative journalist, university lecturer and committed ufologist, the 'Calvine Incident', plus the provenance and whereabouts of the photographs the chefs took that night, have fascinated me for more than 15 years. My pursuit of the truth has seen me follow a trail of evidence from the Highlands of Scotland to the highest, and most secretive, echelons of the US Pentagon. I first stumbled upon the story when the MoD disbanded its UFO desk in 2009 and released thousands of files. There, among some laughable accounts of encounters with weather balloons and seagulls, I found the heavily weeded Calvine file containing a poorly photocopied image of the chefs' picture. After years of dogged sleuthing, along with fellow experts and enthusiasts, I finally tracked down the original image to the home of a retired RAF press officer, Craig Lindsay, who'd kept it hidden on a bookshelf for 32 years. When we spoke in 2022, Craig, then in his 80s and still living in Scotland, confessed: 'I have been waiting for someone to contact me about this for more than 30 years.' Since it was published exclusively in the Daily Mail that year, the Calvine picture has become one of the most talked about, and so far unexplained, UFO photographs in the world. Millions viewed it online and #CalvineUFO trended on Twitter. Even today almost two years later my inbox remains busy with requests for information and new theories about the origin of the diamond-shaped object. Some believe it is an alien craft intercepted by RAF jets as it cruised above the Scottish Highlands. But this idea is rejected by military personnel, who asked for their names to be kept secret. They point to prototype stealth technology developed by the United States since the late 1970s. Hopeless Diamond, Have Blue and Aurora have all been mentioned as code names for such projects. The latter, a mythical hypersonic spy plane, was rumoured to have operated from a base in Scotland around the time the pictures were taken. Others are equally convinced the photo must be a clever hoax along the lines of Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. But what is missing from my postbag is anything from the two men I really want to speak to: the photographer and his friend. Richard Grieve aged 21 'It is like they have vanished off the face of the Earth,' said Richard Grieve, who recalls working alongside the two chefs in the kitchens at Fisher's Hotel, Pitlochry, in the summer of 1990. Although he can't remember the exact names of his colleagues, the name 'Kevin Russell' is written on the back of the black and white print that Craig Lindsay managed to keep hold of. Craig said he remembered it being sent by courier from the Daily Record to his office at RAF Pitreavie Castle, near Dunfermline. The newspaper told him they were seeking a comment for use in their exclusive story. Craig immediately faxed a copy of the print to the MoD's UFO desk in London. The Record also provided Craig with a contact number, at the Pitlochry hotel, for the men. Sadly, Craig couldn't recall any more details about the witnesses themselves, but he remembers their incredible story clearly. They told him that as they cowered in bushes, they first heard and then saw a military Harrier jet fly down the valley beneath the UFO. Then, as they fired off shots on their camera, they saw this, or another, jet return and circle around the object, as if the pilot was escorting it, before departing. Then the diamond craft shot vertically into the sky and vanished without making a sound. Craig typed up a summary of their account and faxed it to the MoD. He also arranged for the Record to send the lad's negatives to London. Then he waited for the newspaper to publish its exclusive... but no story appeared. Craig says he was instructed to 'leave it to London' and for 32 years he did as he was told but not before stashing one picture in a copy of 'Great Aircraft of the World' on his bookshelf. For 18 months I have been working with a documentary film crew to find the elusive Kevin Russell, but despite worldwide publicity no one has come forward to claim ownership of the photograph. Undeterred, some colleagues and I compiled a database of 140 Kevin Russells a frustratingly common name who are of the correct age. Some were born in Scotland and others live abroad. The closest we got was a Kevin Russell who, according to the electoral roll, was working as a hotel kitchen porter half a mile away at the time, but, when approached, denied all knowledge of the picture. It could well be, of course, that the photographer deliberately chose to obscure his identity by putting a different name on the print. Or it could be Kevin is still frightened and doesn't want to come forward. One thing his former colleague Richard Grieve is sure about, however, is that both the young men were very scared after their close encounter both with the UFO and the men in the black car. And he's sure they couldn't have made up the image as a hoax. During the tourist season in Pitlochry, temps could work 16-hour shifts, cooking for up to 150 hotel guests. There was no time for high jinks. Soon after the photos were developed, Richard said, one took a bus to Glasgow to deliver them to the Daily Record. Then the dark car arrived. The chef's cryptic remark to Richard that 'it was the Americans' might explain why, despite many attempts, the MoD stubbornly refuses to reveal what they know about these baffling photographs. Officials say the negatives were returned to the newspaper and the only records that survive have been transferred to The National Archives. Everything else has been destroyed, including Craig's summary, the analysis of the images by RAF and MoD specialists and the missing images. I find it difficult to believe this type of evidence would be destroyed, as it was used to answer a Parliamentary question and to brief ministers at the time: the late Labour MP from Doncaster, Martin Redmond, used to table dozens of questions on UFO sightings back in the 1990s, including at Calvine. Also, a government response was prepared in readiness for the Record newspaper exclusive which never appeared. A comparison of the original Calvine image (left) with the photocopy faxed from RAF Pitreavie to London in August 1990, and the photocopy of the Calvine sighting released by The National Archive in 2009 (right) As for its authenticity, my Sheffield Hallam University colleague, photography specialist Andrew Robinson, carried out a detailed analysis of the image donated to the university by Craig Lindsay. He saw no evidence it had been manipulated in any way. So where are the other images and negatives? What happened to Kevin Russell and his friend? And what do the photographs actually show? Ever since the Calvine photo went viral on social media, the internet has been buzzing with theories, some even more far-fetched than the idea that aliens had visited Calvine. Some claimed the triangular UFO is actually the top of a mountain peeking out of the Scottish mist in the glen below or even a Christmas tree ornament suspended from a tree by fishing wire. But if the photographs were a prank they fooled the RAF, the MoD and the Pentagon. The MoD file says scrutiny of one of the missing images revealed a second jet in the distance, making a hoax even more improbable. Indeed, the paper trail suggests the images were the subject of at least three separate analyses by UK and US government agencies. The first was summarised in a briefing prepared for Defence Minister Ken Carlisle in 1990. It said experts were confident the jet in the photograph was a Harrier, even though none were known to be flying in Scotland on that evening. And the minister was told experts had 'reached no definite conclusion regarding the diamond-shaped object'. The briefing warned that the MoD 'has been asked for comments almost certainly for inclusion in a forthcoming story'. But former Daily Record news editor Malcolm Speed cannot explain why his paper did not publish their exclusive. Speed remembers being shown the photographs by the picture editor Andy Allan. 'It looked amazing then and I was surprised it was not published,' he said. 'When I quizzed him about the photographs Andy told me the RAF said they were fakes.' Andy Allan died in 2007, so it's impossible to ask for his version of events. As Malcolm Speed says: 'Was Andy misled by the RAF? Even if they were fakes, why weren't they published? It does not make any sense.' When I first started following up leads on the photographs I was struck by the date of the sighting: August 4, 1990. This was two days after Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait, triggering the first Gulf War. For the rest of that year, thousands of military personnel and hundreds of ships and warplanes including the futuristic American F117A stealth fighter were mobilised in the build-up to the aerial attack on Iraqi forces that began in January 1991. The aircraft had been in development for at least 15 years and some of the prototype designs, including one called the Hopeless Diamond, resemble the craft photographed in Scotland. Earlier this year the US government admitted it had flown prototype aircraft that resemble alien craft some of which have been seen and reported as UFOs. The Pentagon said, 'some of these systems had a 'saucer' or triangle-shaped appearance and were capable of hovering aloft'. So was the Calvine UFO one of them? The American Department of Defence's All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), which has a mission from Congress to resolve unexplained UFOs, released the first volume of its historical investigation in February. It says all the evidence about UFO sightings points to 'misidentified authentic highly sensitive national security programs'. The declassified version also refers to a sighting in the 1990s when an unnamed military witness saw a UFO 'exhibiting a peculiar flight pattern' near a US military facility, possibly Area 51 the top-secret military base in the Nevada desert, where experimental aircraft and weapons systems are thought to be researched. 'The seemingly strange characteristics reported by the interviewee match closely with the platform's characteristics, which was being tested at a military facility in the timeframe the interviewee was there,' the report says. AARO's investigators said knowledge of its existence was restricted on a 'need-to-know' basis to a very small number of people. Could this be what the chefs saw over Calvine? So, is the truth still out there hidden at Area 51? And Kevin Russell, if you are reading the Daily Mail, please get in touch. Whatever it was that you saw is no longer a secret! Nigel Farage is set to attack the Prime Minister for skipping a major D-Day event during a BBC general election debate tonight. The Reform UK leader will face off against rivals from six other parties as he makes his first debate appearance since announcing his comeback to frontline politics. Penny Mordaunt, the Leader of the House of Commons, will represent the Tories during the 90-minute event, while Labour are sending deputy leader Angela Rayner. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey will not be attending, with his deputy Daisy Cooper stepping in instead. The line-up is being completed by Stephen Flynn, the SNP's Westminster leader, Carla Denyer, co-leader of the Green Party, and Rhun ap Iorwerth of Plaid Cymru. Sources close to Mr Farage confirmed he would use the debate to bring up Rishi Sunak's decision to return from Normandy early yesterday. The PM this morning apologised for missing a major international D-Day ceremony and said it was a 'mistake' for him to leave before commemoration events were over. Mr Farage, who was in northern France yesterday in a personal capacity, has questioned why Mr Sunak felt he could skip the event with other world leaders. Nigel Farage, who was in Normandy yesterday in a personal capacity, has questioned why Rishi Sunak felt he could skip a major D-Day event with other world leaders Penny Mordaunt (left), the Leader of the House of Commons, will represent the Tories during the 90-minute debate, while Labour are sending deputy leader Angela Rayner Earlier this week, viewing figures showed millions of Britons snubbed Tuesday night's first showdown between the PM and Sir Keir Starmer on primetime ITV Tonight's seven-way BBC debate will be presented by Mishal Husain, with questions from the live audience and others sent in by the public. The event will take place in London from 7.30pm to 9pm. Mr Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will go head-to-head on the BBC on June 26, in what is expected to be the final TV debate before polling day. Earlier this week, viewing figures showed millions of Britons snubbed Tuesday night's first showdown between the PM and Sir Keir on primetime ITV. The programme was watched by an average of just 4.8million viewers, with a peak of 5.2million viewers. This was down from the average audience of 6.7million for the ITV debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn during the 2019 general election. A YouGov snap poll revealed nearly two-thirds who did watch the clash between Mr Sunak and Sir Keir branded it 'frustrating'. The debate saw both party leaders repeatedly speak over each other during tetchy exchanges, as ITV host Julie Etchingham struggled to rein them in. Mr Farage channelled Eminem as he gloated that the TV head-to-head between Mr Sunak and Sir Keir 'felt so empty without me'. In a social media post after the debate had ended, the newly-installed Reform UK leader shared a video of himself on the general election campaign trail. The footage was set to the Eminem song 'Without Me', which includes the lyrics: 'Now this looks like a job for me, so everybody just follow me, because we need a little controversy, because it feels so empty without me.' Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz's former staffers have made explosive claims she was 'manic' and 'abusive' and would throw furniture at aides. The hot-tempered Ukrainian-born Indiana lawmaker has been named the 'worst boss' on Capitol Hill and her conduct is now at the center of an ethics complaint. Her office has been a revolving door of staffers who think they are 'tough' enough to handle it, only to head for the exits shortly after. One source said that Spartz had 'thrown shoes' at her district staff, and 'blew up' at them in front of constituents on multiple occasions. Ethics staffers have been in contact with former Spartz aides about the complaint, DailyMail.com has confirmed, but it's not clear at what stage their probe is. Politico first reported the committee had made 'preliminary inquiries' into complaints about her behavior. The committee would typically notify a member if they are under a formal investigation, and Spartz says she has not been notified. One former staffer described her behavior to DailyMail.com as 'manic' and 'verbally abrasive, if not borderline abusive.' Spartz's office has the highest turnover of any House member, according to a Legistorm 'worst bosses' tally that tracks turnover from 2001 to 2023. Former staffers of Rep. Victoria Spartz are in contact with the House Ethics Committee over a complaint that she allegedly 'abused' her staff Two former aides said Spartz was known to 'throw furniture' at her staff and she was known to blow up at them at both public or private events. 'She was unfazed by whether people were watching.' Two former staffers said they would frequently get calls at 'one, two, three in the morning' from Spartz where she would blame them for decisions that she had given approval to only hours earlier. In the fall of 2021, Spartz and her then-chief of staff allegedly got into a screaming match that got so bad the rest of the staff had to flee the premises, according to two sources with direct knowledge. At one point Spartz shouted at the chief that 'she could do all of the staff's jobs better than them,' according to two witnesses, and the chief came out and instructed the rest of the staff to leave the office to 'shield' them from the outburst. But Spartz allegedly treated her lower-level staffers worse. 'Her interactions with senior staff were much more civil than they were at lower level staff,' a source said. Often interns, volunteers and caseworkers were the victims of her profanity-laden tirades, according to the source. 'They don't make a lot of money, to treat them like that was wholly uncalled for and inappropriate.' The hot-tempered, Ukrainian-born Indiana Republican has been named 'worst boss' on Capitol Hill, and her office has been a revolving door of staffers who think they are 'tough' enough to handle her berating, only to head for the exits shortly after Spartz's office has the highest turnover of any House member, according to a Legistorm 'worst bosses' tally that tracks turnover from 2001 to 2023 Two former staffers confirmed to DailyMail.com they were aware of a 'preliminary probe' by the Ethics Committee over staff treatment. Politico reported that it also involved misuse of House resources for campaign purposes. Spartz lost her chief of staff, Patrick Slowinski, and communications director, Michael Stevens, this week. Slowinski had only been on the job a matter of months. The former aide said that Spartz would frequently leave her children with staff in the district office, using them for 'childcare.' One source with direct knowledge questioned why the committee had received the complaint against Spartz before her contentious primary but chosen to wait until after the primary to get in contact with former staff about the complaint. 'If it's a nonpartisan probe and justice is blind then you don't care who wins the primary, you just do your job.' Spartz campaign advisor Dan Hazelwood said Spartz has not been made aware of any sort of investigation by Ethics staff and claimed 'there is no probe.' 'The congresswoman has long been critical that too many in Washington want power, pay, and privilege then turn around and do nothing,' he said. 'When the system is held to account, we get anonymous rumors and exaggerated stories.' The Ethics Committee declined to comment. Spartz announced her retirement last year before promptly reversing course and running for reelection. She won her contentious primary last month despite being outspent by opponent Chuck Goodrich. As the only Ukrainian-born member of Congress, Spartz saw a meteoric rise to her profile when war broke out between Russia and Ukraine. She at first urged Congress to approve aid for her war-torn homeland, before rescinding support for future Ukraine aid and even sponsoring an amendment that would have stripped economic aid from the $61 billion for Ukraine that passed the House in April. Her amendment failed and she voted against the final aid package. The free-wheeling congresswoman called former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy 'weak' and said he displayed a 'lack of leadership in the spending debate that led to extending 2023 levels of funding, but ultimately did not vote for his ouster in October. In her mind, she is a hard worker and she needs a staff that can keep up with her speed. Spartz was a key voice in pushing for a fiscal debt commission that now remains in limbo - and believes she is a 'nuanced' thinker who cares deeply about tackling the healthcare competition and price transparency behemoth as well as foreign affairs, cutting regulations and China competition. Hamas will launch a brutal Guerrilla warfare campaign against the IDF, a senior Israeli official has warned as it is claimed the terror group has lost half of its forces. The heavy losses sustained by the terror group have rendered it too weak to fight sustained battles against the vastly superior Israeli armed forces, reducing its ability to mount a conventional defence of its coastal stronghold. But Hamas is heavily embedded among civilians in Rafah and is expected to cling on in bitter fighting before switching to an insurgency once its conventional forces fall - a sign of the group's ability to quickly evolve its resistance. Speaking from Israel's Intelligence HQ in Herzliya, the senior official told MailOnline how it was their duty to dismantle Hamas brigades 'despite huge international pressure' to halt the assault. 'We assume many hostages are in Rafah,' they said. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being pushed to agree to a ceasefire deal with Hamas that will see the release of the 124 hostages. But yesterday Hamas rejected the US-backed proposal, stating it would only accept a deal that saw the IDF pull out of Gaza and allow the group to keep its weapons. The senior official said Israel has no interest in occupying Gaza after the Rafah operation, but warned of a gruelling operation to deal with guerillas that refuse to surrender - suggesting the conflict could continue to drag on. Israeli soldiers during operations in the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas Palestinians stand on a road as black smoke and flames rise over a building following the Israeli attacks in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on June 6 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a Cabinet meeting at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem on June 5 Explaining what is required, the official said: 'It will be raids that will mainly be commando raids, special forces operations. 'Our model of operation will continue in a surgical mode of operation similar to the counter terrorism operation in Judea and Samaria. 'We don't want to manage the lives of people in Gaza. But regarding the security, we will definitely keep acting in Gaza 24/7 around the clock with activities there but the operational view or the operational concept will be over raids, not occupied.' Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, evicting many Israeli families. However Hamas eventually took over after winning the 2007 elections which saw a huge number of rockets sent over from the enclave into Israel with the aim to kill civilians. The IDF has engaged in previous operations in the Palestinian territories, including Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank in 2002. 'As you remember, in March 2002 with Operation Defensive Shield, it took us a year and a half to keep dismantling all the guerilla activities,' the source said. 'It won't take less in Gaza because it's a bigger army made and supported by Iran.' Israel's operation in the West Bank in 2002 was launched two days after Palestinian terrorists killed 30 civilians in a suicide bombing at a hotel in Netanya while families were celebrating Passover. The source said he can't go into operational details on the specific difficulties being faced in Gaza today. 'It's very complicated,' he said. 'At the end of the day Israel is an independent state and we will have to dismantle Hamas's military power so that they cannot commit another October 7.' Protesters holding placards, including one of hostage Noa Argamani (centre), take part in a 'United we Bring Them Home' march, in central London The mother of hostage Oz Daniel (centre) is among a protest campaigning to return Israeli hostages in central London US President Joe Biden last week claimed that Hamas now no longer has the capabilities to commit another October 7-style attack on Israel as he pushed for a ceasefire. But the official said while 4,000 terrorists may not be able to pour over the border and slaughter 1,200, 'even if four infiltrated Be'eri again, it would be unacceptable.' He said: 'Hamas cannot use their military power again or there won't be an end to the war.' US and Israeli officials, cited by Reuters, have estimated that Hamas has seen around half its forces wiped out since Israel launched its offensive on Gaza. According to three senior US officials familiar with battlefield developments, Hamas has been reduced to 9,000 to 12,000 fighters - down from American estimates of 20,000-25,000 before the conflict. Israel says it has lost almost 300 troops in the Gaza campaign. Hamas does not disclose fatalities among its fighters and some officials have described Israel's figures for the number of Hamas fighters killed as exaggerated. Crucially, it is thought that between 7,000 to 8,000 fighters remain entrenched in Rafah where the Israeli military is currently focusing its efforts - making the southern city Hamas's final significant bastion of resistance. But despite the group's weakened state, it still retains control over large sections of Gaza and its leadership remain largely unscathed. Hamas's 500km network of tunnels under Gaza, sprawling throughout the Palestinian territory like an underground city, has been crucial in its defence. Although some of these tunnels have been targeted by the IDF with explosives - and even flooded with sea water, it is believed the 'Gaza Metro' is still sheltering Hamas's leadership, command centres and arsenal of weaponry. The tunnels will also aid Hamas with its guerrilla tactics. Instead of engaging IDF soldiers in open warfare, they are opting for ambushes and using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to strike Israeli targets behind enemy lines. The underground network enables Hamas to move more freely, with its fighters able to unpredictably pop up and carry out attacks against the IDF. The source also tells MailOnline that efforts to find who will control Gaza started on October 8, with Netanyahu starting to think and plan 'before we started manoeuvring into Gaza'. 'He wanted to see who would manage Gaza after the war,' he said. The source claimed that behind closed doors even some moderate Arab countries want to see them deal with Hamas. But it is still not clear who will rule over Gaza after the war. An Israeli soldier stands in a tank, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, near the Israel-Gaza border in Israel Palestinians stand on a road as black smoke rises over a building following the Israeli attacks in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on June 6 Calls for the Palestinian Authority, which administers the West Bank, to take control are not seen as an acceptable option by Israel. The source said: 'I can say generally that Israel does not see the current Palestinian Authority (PA) as someone that can take control of Gaza.' They cited PA schemes that see terrorists' families receive financial support after committing atrocities and children radicalised through textbooks as proof that the body is 'supportive of terrorism' and 'promote terrorism through the education system'. For now the IDF's role is to 'ensure the southern border of the Gaza strip is secured otherwise Hamas's military power will take over again,' they said. The Green Party has launched an investigation after being handed a dossier suggesting MP candidates shared antisemitic slurs and conspiracy theories online. Last night, the party had staff looking into files of nearly 20 general election candidates who have shared horrific material online, according to The Times. Adam Pugh, the candidate for Deptford and Lewisham North in London, posted 'I hope [Royal Navy Ships] sink' with a prayer emoji when it was announced they were being sent to support Israel. Extraordinarily, when three other candidates were accused of antisemitism, he posted: 'Either they haven't discovered my tweets yet, or I'm not being vocal enough.' Mothin Ali (pictured), a Green Party councillor, sparked outrage by shouting 'Allahu Akbar' after being elected to a city council, has repeated the declaration of faith Adam Pugh, the candidate for Deptford and Lewisham North in London, made a series of posts The candidate for Woking, Nataly Anderson, commented on a conspiracy theory post which said it was 'odd' there was a nationwide testing of phones 48 hours before October 7 Joe Belcher, who is standing in the Aldridge-Brownhills seat A spokesman for the party told The Times the allegations were 'serious and are being treated as such'. They went on to say the final candidate list is still being decided before the deadline at 5pm today. The tide of antisemitism accusations stemmed from controversy which erupted at the May local elections. Green Party councillor Mothin Ali, who won in a ward in Leeds, said Palestinians has the right to 'fight back' - referring to the October 7 massacre. He shouted 'Allahu Akbar' after being elected to a city council, boasting it had made him 'infamous'. Ali claimed he was being made a 'scapegoat' to distract from 'war crimes' being committed in Gaza. His unapologetic appearance at a small rally in his native Leeds shared on his social media channels came after British Jewish leaders accused the Green Party of 'hypocrisy' for not suspending him over his 'extremist nonsense'. Kefentse Dennis is the Green equalities and diversity co-ordinator and candidate in Birmingham's Perry Barr constituency Kefentse Dennis is the Green equalities and diversity co-ordinator and candidate in Birmingham's Perry Barr constituency,. He shared a video on X of a Palestinian protest at a remembrance march at Auschwitz More of the Green Party candidate for Deptford and Lewisham North's posts on X Adam Pugh, the candidate for Deptford and Lewisham North in London , posted 'I hope [Royal Navy Ships] sink' when it was announced they were being sent to support Israel Amid fears of a rise in sectarian politics fuelled by the crisis in the Middle East, former Labour Cabinet minister Lord Mandelson accused the Greens of becoming a 'dustbin' for 'disgruntled hard-leftists'. Ali later apologised and clarified that he doesn't support violence. However, this was only the beginning. On October 7, another candidate, Pugh, wrote: 'You don't have to be neutral when it comes to apartheid, colonisation and genocide, I don't care what anyone says. I promise you, you don't.' MailOnline also found a quote tweet by Pugh where he shared a post by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on the six month anniversary of October 7. Pugh commented: 'There is no 'war' in Gaza. Israel are committing genocide and you are enabling them, you despicable terrorist sympathiser.' In January, he posted: 'I want David Cameron (among others) to be chased to the ends of the earth for their complicity in this GENOCIDE of the Palestinian people. 'May these people never know peace or rest.' Nida Alfulaij, the Green candidate for Brent East, west London, liked posts implying that and the United States - not Hamas - were terrorists. Kefentse Dennis is the Green equalities and diversity co-ordinator and candidate in Birmingham's Perry Barr constituency,. He shared a video on X of a Palestinian protest at a remembrance march at Auschwitz. He said: 'It's because #NeverAgain means NEVER AGAIN.' And the candidate for Woking, Nataly Anderson, commented on a conspiracy theory post said it was 'odd' there was a nationwide testing of phones 48 hours before October 7. She said: 'The whole thing is very orchestrated, isn't it?' Another candidate, Naseem Talukdar, was also prevented from standing by the party after an internal investigation into social media posts. Ali later apologised and clarified that he doesn't support violence Mothin Ali, who was elected to Leeds city council, said Palestinians has the right to 'fight back' Another disturbing post read: 'We are seeing links between the institutional kidnapping of children and the state of Israel. It is very unfortunate that the victims of the Holocaust turn into the predators.' Meanwhile, Joe Belcher, who is standing in the Aldridge-Brownhills seat in the West Midlands, posted links to pages about 'Rothschild bankers'. He shared a link to a video by controversialist David Icke, suggesting Jeremy Corbyn might be a 'saviour [who is] going to turn the country around to a more fair and just society' before he became leader of the Labour Party. He also suggested Israel or the West 'conspired' to pay Hamas for the tragic events of October 7. It emerged this week that he has been suspended by the party and prevented from standing for parliament, according to the Jewish Chronicle. Another candidate, Naseem Talukdar, was also prevented from standing by the party after an internal investigation into social media posts. The Bristol East candidate had posted photographs comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Adolf Hitler, writing 'it's becoming really hard to spot the difference'. Eilzabeth Waight, who was the Green Party candidate for Bethnal Green and Stepney, decided to withdraw after it emerged she had posted an Instagram video in which a woman said: 'What's left for the Zionists [is] to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Palestinians.' Belcher shared a link to an article by 'the real Syrian Free Press' - a pro-Assad website - suggesting ISIS was run by 'Simon Elliott, a Mossad agent' She apologised and said she had been 'made aware of the connotations of anti-antisemitism'. Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kunessberg, co-leader Adrian Ramsay confirmed that at least three candidates won't stand at the general election due to 'inappropriate comments' and 'a small number more who are still being looked at'. A spokesman for the Campaign Against Antisemitism told The Times: 'The more that we learn about Green Party candidates and newly-elected councillors, the more concerned we become. 'There appears to be an obsession with Israel and Gaza, comparing the Jewish state to Nazis, justifying the barbaric October 7 attacks carried out by Hamas, an antisemitic terror organisation, labelling Zionism as 'cancer' and antisemitism-denial. How is this fostering good communal relations?' Yesterday, MailOnline reported The Green Party's deputy leader is a former Harley Street hypnotist who once claimed he could help women increase the size of their breasts, it emerged today. Zack Polanski, who has been helping lead the party's 2024 general election campaign, told one client to picture herself with bigger breasts as part of a treatment. Zack Polanski, who has been helping lead the party's 2024 general election campaign, told one client to picture herself with bigger breasts as part of a treatment When he was running as the Green candidate at the 2019 election in Cities of London and Westminster seat he said: 'I think it's important to say that I've apologised' The former Extinction rebellion activist also said that the system could become 'popular very quickly, because it's so safe and a lot cheaper than a boob job.' The comments were made in a 2013 Sun newspaper feature unearthed by the Daily Telegraph. The Londoner later apologised for his comments to a local news website, saying that he had not been paid for the service but did it for free. When he was running as the Green candidate at the 2019 election in Cities of London and Westminster seat he told the South West Londoner: 'I think it's important to say that I've apologised. If it was 2019, I would not have done that article and if I had, I would have been stronger to condemn it,' he told the website. 'The apology is to recognise that issues of misogyny and women's body confidence exist in society and articles like that in The Sun are not helpful.' In the Sun article he said he was 'looking to utilise the unconscious process to make changes to the body. 'We do know that whatever is changing is ecological, so if it's changing one thing such as the size of a person's breasts it's making sure that the whole system is changing in order to support it,' he added. The reporter said he asked her to 'picture myself with bigger boobs', and added: 'Imagine you're in a movie. I want you to make the image bigger and brighter so it fills the screen. Now step it up and feel what it's like having your new breasts. Are you walking differently? Do you look happy?' George Clooney rang the White House and shredded a Biden aide after the President attacked an attempt by Clooney's lawyer wife to jail the Prime Minister of Israel, it emerged on Thursday. Amal Clooney signed off a bid by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court last month to seek the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu alongside Hamas leaders for war crimes a move the President denounced as 'outrageous'. A furious Biden insisted there was 'no moral equivalence' between Israel and Hamas and hinted at sanctions against the court which could have seen Clooney's wife deported from the US. The Oscar winning actor vented his fury after being put through to Biden's senior counsellor Steve Ricchetti, the Washington Post reported, and his high-profile wife remains unrepentant about her role. 'I do not accept that any conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, nor that any perpetrator should be above the law,' she said in a statement. George Clooney visited the White House where he was honored by the President in 2022 Clooney's human rights lawyer wife Amal Clooney was also among the guests The A-list couple have long been among the President's biggest supporters and the actor donated more than $500,000 to Biden's 2020 election campaign. He also co-hosted an online fundraiser that contributed $7 million to his 2020 war chest. But the row has cast doubt over whether he will take part in one of Biden's biggest fundraising efforts of 2024 next Saturday when he was due to be the star attraction at an LA gala alongside former president Barack Obama, TV host Jimmy Kimmel and actress Julia Roberts. The backlash to the court's unprecedented move continued this week when the House passed a bill the would impose sanctions on the court. But the White House has rowed back on its initial fury claiming that sanctions are 'not the right answer' to the court's 'overreach'. It said it would 'strongly oppose' a House bill it claims 'could require sanctions against court staff, judges, witnesses, and US allies and partners who provide even limited, targeted support to the court in a range of aspects of its work'. Congress last week gave Netanyahu an open invitation to address both houses and House Speaker Mike Johnson denounced Biden's backsliding. 'It's alarming that the Biden administration continues to undermine Israel and now, 155 House Democrats have voted to give the ICC a free pass to target our allies and undermine US national security interests,' he said. Amal Clooney signed off a bid by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court last month to seek the arrest of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and the country's defense minister Yoav Gallant, right, for war crimes in Gaza Chief prosecutor Karim Khan, seen on a 2022 visit to Ukraine, accused the pair of using 'starvation as a method of warfare, together with other attacks and collective punishment against the civilian population of Gaza More than 36,000 people have been killed by Israel's attack on Gaza according to a count by the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave Dozens more people were killed in an Israeli strike on a UN-run school in Gaza's Nusseirat refugee camp on Thursday The row was sparked by the May 20 announcement that court prosecutor Karim Khan was seeking to charge Netanyahu alongside Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and two other Hamas leaders with war crimes and crimes against humanity. He accused the Israeli government of using 'starvation as a method of warfare, together with other attacks and collective punishment against the civilian population of Gaza. 'They include malnutrition, dehydration, profound suffering and an increasing number of deaths among the Palestinian population, including babies, other children, and women,' he added. It soon emerged that Amal Clooney, a renowned human rights lawyer, was one of the six legal experts who helped the British prosecutor Karim Khan come to his decision. 'I support the historic step that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has taken to bring justice to victims of atrocities in Israel and Palestine,' she said in a statement issued by the couple's Clooney Foundation. 'As a human rights lawyer, I will never accept that one child's life has less value than another's. I do not accept that any conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, nor that any perpetrator should be above the law.' The actor and the President have known each other for years and the couple visited the White House in December 2022 when he was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors. The actor and the politician, pictured together in 2009, have been friends for years but the row has cast doubt on Clooney's involvement in a star-studded fundraiser for Biden's re-election that was due to take place in LA on Saturday Months later Biden appointed him to the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Neither Israel or the US recognize the court but, if the warrant is issued, Netanyahu, Gallant and the Hamas leaders face arrest should they visit any of the 122 countries that do. More than 36,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since it invaded the Palestinian enclave in response to the October 7 Hamas terror attack that claimed the lives of 1,200 people. Israel has slammed the court's move as a 'baseless blood libel' against the country, while its President Isaac Herzog called the move 'outrageous,' insisting it 'cannot be accepted by anyone'. 'The blood libel will not deter Israel from defending itself and accomplishing all its just war objectives in Gaza,' an Israeli official added. Hamas too rejected the court's move saying it 'strongly denounces the attempts of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to equate the victim with the executioner'. A 12-year-old boy is finally behind bars after being bailed 70 times over a string of alleged offences. The boy from western Sydney has been charged 73 times with more than 200 offences including armed robbery, assault, break and enter, dishonestly obtain financial advantage, trespass, property damage and carrying a knife in a public place. It's alleged the boy went on a major crime spree in more than a dozen suburbs around Sydney over a 15-month period. He allegedly committed crimes in Mount Druitt, in the city's west, West Pymble on the north shore, Parramatta and Bondi Junction in the east, Seven News reported. The boy from western Sydney has been charged 73 times with more than 200 offences It's understood the boy's alleged victims were often young and vulnerable, with police fearing he may be one of the state's most violent alleged young offenders. While the 12-year-old was bailed by the children's court on 70 occasions, he allegedly breached his bail conditions 136 times. His latest court appearance was at the Surry Hills Children's Court on Wednesday where the boy applied for bail on charges of armed robbery and car theft. Magistrate Richard Funston refused to let the boy spend another day out of custody, telling his lawyer 'you've got your work cut out if you seriously think he's going to get bail today'. The boy's mother died when he was just 8, with the child only meeting his biological father in December. His father had also been in jail. The boy had been living with a carer who declined to comment outside of court. A tourist has been hit with an astonishing $6,000 in medical bills after being bitten by a monkey while on holiday in Bali. Jami Groves was travelling with a friend on the Indonesian island when she was bitten by a monkey while posing for photos at an animal sanctuary. In a social media post, Ms Groves wrote, 'I never liked monkeys anyway', posting several images of herself with the animals. In a video shot by a friend, Ms Groves was seen lying on a hospital bed talking to medical staff. The friend asked one of the the staff, 'So, if she gets rabies, she'll never be cured?' One of the medical staff replied in a very serious tone, No, by the time you know she has rabies it'll be too late.' The two women then burst into laughter. The Aussie tourist was hit with a $6,000 bill after being bitten by a monkey in Bali Ms Groves managed to see the amusing side of potentially being infected by rabies Ms Groves confirmed to Daily Mail Australia she had taken out travel insurance Their reaction seems to confuse the local medical staff. Still trying to control her laughter, Ms Groves replied, 'It's not funny, it's not funny.' She then bursts out laughing once again before repeating, 'Sorry, its not funny,' before the video ends. Ms Groves told Daily Mail Australia she had to pay about $4,200 for doses of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) including international transaction and other bank fees. She said she had to buy two additional doses back in Australia for $300 each. She confirmed she did have travel insurance. PEP is an effective method for preventing rabies reaching the central nervous system, which generally results in death. The Smart Traveller website advises that rabies is a risk in Indonesia. It states tourists should avoid contact with monkeys even in places where interaction is encouraged, including sanctuaries, tourist destinations, forests and popular markets. The website warns: 'Rabies treatment in Indonesia may be limited, including the rabies vaccine and immunoglobulin availability.' 'If you're bitten, you may need to return to Australia or travel to another country for immediate treatment,' it reads. Ms Groves' followers on social media saw the amusing side to the incident. Girl u dont know how hard Ive been laughing at the rabies video,' one said. Interactions with monkeys are very popular with tourists in Bali. The Sacred Monkey Forest - also known as the Ubud Monkey Forest - is one of Bali's most popular tourist attractions. Located in the village of Padangtegal in Ubud, it is home to more than 1,200 long-tailed macaque monkeys. After languishing on Death Row for almost 25 years, convicted murderer Richard Moore (inset) now faces an agonising decision - choosing how he will be executed. The 59-year-old American has less than a week to pick his fate for fatally shooting a shop assistant in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, during a botched robbery in September 1999. Jail officials have told him he has three options : death by firing squad, electric chair, or lethal injection. If he can't make up his mind come Friday, he will be electrocuted by default on November 1. And as Moore mulls over how he will ultimately end his life, his Death Row dilemma has once again thrust the debate over state-sanctioned executions back into the spotlight. Although deemed 'humane' methods of death, each of his options come with their own nightmarish risks, which could see Moore facing a tortuous and excruciatingly painful end. After British paratroopers were forced to go through passport patrol in Normandy, health and safety at UK's beacon lighting ceremonies looked similarly absurd this evening. Fire engines and emergency vehicles were watching over the lightings in Queenborough, Kent - poised to run in if the lantern got out of hand. Crowds queued up the hill, leaning their drinks on the sea defences, as the crowd of safety officers kept them away from the burning fire. At Castle Hill, Tenby in Wales a small triangle of safety tape was set up around the bottle of Calor gas powering the flame while crowds gathered down the hill. The tiny beacon - set up on a small tripod - could be seen being alertly watched over by a Tenby Town Council officer in a high-vis bib. And 11 torchbearers in Christchurch, Dorset were relegated to holding long torches, each of which emitted tiny flames. In Weymouth, Dorset, a further event at a large auditorium saw several attendees in high-viz jackets watching on nervously as a crowd enjoyed the celebration. It comes after the French penchant for bureaucracy was been roundly mocked after British paratroopers were met by clipboard-carrying officials as they landed in Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. A crowd gathers to watch the D-Day 80th anniversary beacon lighting in Queenborough, Kent this evening At Castle Hill, Tenby in Wales a small triangle of safety tape was set up around the tiny fire and the bottle of Calor gas powering it while crowds gathered down the hill 11 torchbearers in Christchurch, Dorset were relegated to holding long torches, each of which emitted tiny flames In Weymouth, Dorset, a further event at a large auditorium saw several attendees in high-viz jackets watching on nervously as a crowd enjoyed the celebration Fire engines and emergency vehicles were watching over the lightings in Queenborough, Kent - poised to run in if the lantern got out of hand Crowds queued up the hill, leaning their drinks on the sea defences, as the crowd of safety officers kept them away from the burning fire British paratroopers were met by French customs officials as they landed in Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day Five years ago 225 D-Day veterans travelled to Normandy for commemorations, this year there were just 23 Bugler Anfrew Carlisle at the Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council lighting of the D Day 80 Beacon Piper David Maitland plays during the lighting of the beacon as part of the commemorations for the 80th Anniversary of D-Day The beacon being lit for Lamp Lights of Peace for D-day 80, lit on Castle Hill, Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wale Hundreds of people attend the lighting of the D-Day 80 beacon at Stokes Bay in Gosport, Hampshire A bugler from the American 1st Infantry Division (United States), known as The Big Red One, plays 'Taps' during the Beacon lighting ceremony at Salisbury Field The beacon burns as the sun goes down following the Beacon lighting ceremony at Salisbury Field The Mayor of Dorchester Cllr Robin Potter during the Beacon lighting ceremony at Salisbury Field Personnel from the American 1st Infantry Division (United States) during the Beacon lighting ceremony at Salisbury Field, commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day Footage showed troops being forced to join a queue in a farmers field to show passports and documents to waiting customs officers as soon as they touched down. Politicians and the public pointed out the absurdity of British soldiers being made to show their papers on the 80th anniversary of the day they launched the liberation of France from the Nazis. Former cabinet minister David Jones told MailOnline that France only had control of its own borders because of the arrival of similar British troops 80 years ago. 'They risked their lives to make France safe for bureaucracy,' he quipped. The beacon campaign - Lamp Lights of Peace for D-Day 80 - has seen hundreds of flames proudly sparked by communities across the country. Accompanied by buglers and bagpipe players, bright lights shone out around the UK in tribute to the fallen soldiers who stormed Normandy's beaches in 1944. The network has been organised by ex-Royal Pageant Master Bruno Peek, with the beacons are intended to remember those who died on the five beaches or came home wounded. Talking about the campaign, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urged communities to support the cause. A beacon for D-Day 80 burns at Selkirk War Memorial, after it was kindly made available by James Maybury of the General Store The Duke of Northumberland lights the beacon from the battlements of Alnwick Castle in Northumberland The beacon is lit high above a gathered crowd during the Beacon lighting ceremony at Salisbury Field : People gather for the lighting of a beacon to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day at the Cenotaph on Clifftown Parade on June 6, 2024 in Southend-on-Sea A beacon for D-Day 80 burns at Selkirk War Memorial The Town Crier Anthony Harrison starts the Beacon lighting ceremony at Salisbury Field School choirs sing during the Beacon lighting ceremony at Salisbury Field Dorsets At War Living history Group stand alongside members of the public to watch the Beacon lighting ceremony at Salisbury Field He said: 'The heroism of those who landed on the shores of the Normandy beaches, represented a beacon of light for the world during a particularly dark period of war. 'It is therefore fitting that local communities throughout the United Kingdom, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, UK Overseas Territories and those along the shorelines of Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword beaches in Normandy, France, should light Beacons on 6 June 2024, in tribute to the light of peace that they brought out from the misery of darkness during that dreadful campaign, of which many unfortunately did not return. '1 am therefore delighted to support this initiative and I urge communities across the country to support this event.' The charitable event asked communities to come together to light the beacon, alongside an event to commemorate the D-Day landings. They asked that it be used to help raise money for vital charities linked to the historic event, including The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund and The Merchant Navy Association. The first beacon was lit in Normandy at 8.15pm overlooking Gold Beach, with three further fires following above Utah, Omaha, Juno and Sword beaches at 8.30pm. These were followed an hour later across the UK, with communities of all sizes joining to commemorate the seismic historic day. Mr Sunak continued: 'I would like to pay particular tribute to Pageantmaster, Bruno Peek for his tremendous efforts in leading these historic celebrations. Colonel Montgomery from American 1st Infantry Division (United States) speaks to the crowd during the Beacon lighting ceremony at Salisbury Field Personnel from the 1st Infantry Division (United States) hold a World War Two Sten machine gun belonging to Dorsets At War Living history Group before the Beacon lighting ceremony at Salisbury Field A Home Guard re-enactor is seen during the Beacon lighting ceremony at Salisbury Field Gifts are given to personnel from the 1st Infantry Division (United States) during the Beacon lighting ceremony at Salisbury Field 'It also gives me great pleasure in congratulating The Royal Naval Association, The Merchant Navy Association, The Royal Airforce Benevolent Fund and ABF The Soldiers Charity for their remarkable efforts in supporting our service personnel, along with their families. 'As we look forward to the future, I believe we should take strength from the shared hardship of our experience during World War II. 'That future is why so many of our service men gave their lives - and protecting the peace they fought for is the greatest waywe can honour those who fell.' Lamp Lights of Peace for D-day 80 has also encouraged Brits to buy Tilley lamps, which have been painted red to represent the blood spilt on D-Day. They have been manufactured in Germany - a symbol intended to show the peace that now exists between our nations. With the support of the National Federation of Fish Friers, thousands of fish and chips shops also joined the celebrations. Company Sergeant Major Stanley Hollis, who won the only Victoria Cross of D-Day after he single-handedly took two enemy pillboxes and captured 30 Germans, ended up started off life in a fish and chip shop. It was also used as code between British paratroopers to identify if a nearby soldier was friendly - with one calling out 'fish' and the other hopefully replying 'chips'. Mr Peak has organised beacon celebrations across Britain for more than 40 years - including one across 12 European countries when Britain entered the Single European Market in 1992. He has also hosted spectacular events for the Queen's Golden and Diamond Jubilees. Women hit by changes to the state pension age have accused the Labour Party of turning its back on them, after Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves dismissed their claim for compensation. The Shadow Chancellor has sparked outrage after saying she would not make, in the election manifesto, any provisions to compensate women affected, in what is being seen as a major U-turn. In March, a long-awaited ruling found that millions of women born in the 1950s had been failed by the Government and could be owed up to 10.5billion in payouts. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman said the affected women had 'lost opportunities to make informed decisions about their finances' as a result of maladministration by the Department for Work and Pensions. Key members of the Shadow Cabinet, including Sir Keir Starmer, have previously supported the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign. Pictured: People at a Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) protest outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on April 18 this year Pictured: Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, who dismissed the women's claim for compensation Ms Reeves has even been pictured holding a placard that reads: 'I will work with WASPI to identify and deliver a solution for all women affected.' The ruling was initially hailed as a major victory for the long-fought WASPI campaign but activists now fear they may not receive any payouts. The Tories have refused to commit to any payouts and Labour, whose responsibility it may be after the general election, has now seemingly followed suit. Ms Reeves told Daily Business: 'Our manifesto will be published shortly, but I've said we won't put forward anything that is not fully-costed and fully-funded and I have not set out any money for this.' Angela Madden, of the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign, blasted Labour's 'disregard' for the Ombudsman's ruling. Pictured: Women from the WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaign assemble outside Parliament during Prime Minister's Questions on International Women's Day on March 8 last year Chairwoman of Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI), Angela Madden (pictured) Pictured: People at a Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) protest outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on April 18 this year She said: 'This has gone on long enough. While politicians dither and delay, the women affected are dying at a rate of one every thirteen minutes. 'There is no point in having an Ombudsman if governments blue and red alike are just going to ignore its recommendations. And Rachel Reeves surely can't be saying a Labour government would just show wilful disregard for his conclusions. We deserve better from both the big parties.' In a letter to Ms Reeves, campaigners said: 'Now, with Labour a stone's throw from powerhundreds of thousands of WASPI women already feel badly let down, as it appears Labour is preparing to turn its backs on us at the eleventh hour.' Reform UK were yesterday accused of having 'no plan for reforming anything' after a poll suggested Nigel Farage's party was just two points behind the Tories. Conservative ministers lashed out, saying it was easy for Mr Farage and his party to shout from the sidelines but 'these guys don't even have a policy'. And in a boost for Rishi Sunak, rumours of further Tory defections to Reform melted away. None were expected ahead of today's deadline for nominations to stand in the General Election. But Reform chairman Richard Tice said last night the Tories were 'terrified' of the insurgent party. It comes after a YouGov poll this week put Reform on 17 percentage points two points up since Mr Farage announced his return to frontline politics as Reform leader. The Tories were on 19 and Labour on 40. Nigel Farage has predicted Reform could be level with the Tories in the polls 'within a week'. Pictured: The party leader at Arromanches, Normandy for the D-Day celebrations Reform chairman Richard Tice (pictured) said last night the Tories were 'terrified' of Reform Mr Sunak (pictured with his wife) and Mr Farage have ruled out striking a pact to stand down in certain seats and give each other's candidates a clear run A slew of other polls last night suggested Reform was increasingly squeezing Tory support. A Focaldata poll found Mr Sunak was just one percentage point above Mr Farage on the metric of who would make the best prime minister, at 20 versus 19. Labour leader Keir Starmer was on 41. Focaldata had Reform up two to 14 points, the Tories down one to 25 per cent and Labour up one to 44 per cent. Meanwhile Redfield and Wilton found the Prime Minister to have a worse favourability score than Mr Farage, at -19 per cent compared with -7. Fears are mounting among Tory candidates that Mr Farage's insurgent party will split the Right-wing vote and make a Labour victory much easier. Launching his campaign on Monday, Mr Farage predicted Reform could be level with the Tories in the polls 'within a week'. And the firebrand politician yesterday slammed Mr Sunak for leaving D-Day events in Normandy, France, early to resume campaigning. Mr Farage attended 'in a personal capacity', where he was seen trying out a military truck on Gold Beach in Arromanches. Sir Keir attended the full day, along with world leaders and veterans. Work and pensions secretary Mel Stride was yesterday asked if the YouGov poll sent 'a shudder down your spine?' He told Sky News: 'The only poll that matters is the General Election.' Bim Afolami, economic secretary to the Treasury, said: '[Reform] don't have a plan for reforming anything. It's easy to shout from the sidelines, if you're Nigel Farage or anybody else, say "all of the established parties are rubbish". But these guys don't even have a policy.' Mr Sunak and Mr Farage have ruled out striking a pact to stand down in certain seats and give each other's candidates a clear run. Last night Mr Tice said the Tories were 'absolutely terrified', adding: 'They've been begging us not to stand in all sorts of places and we're catching them up. Look at the YouGov poll. We're really delighted.' A furious row has erupted after a woman paid $230 for a specialist stylist to trim her curly hair only for the final result to leave her sobbing. Briana slammed her 'horror cut' as the worst she's ever had in a blistering TikTok clip seen by millions after she left the trendy inner city hairdresser in tears. The video sparked a furious reaction online as others rushed to blast the Sydney hair studio and its staff online with an onslaught of racial attacks and death threats. In her video, Briana revealed she splashed out on a cut and treatment at Rumbie & Co, a salon in Chippendale, before heading on a European adventure trip in May. The hairdresser boasts it has stylists who specialise in curls and waves, but Briana said she was so devastated by by the cut she couldn't even look in the mirror. 'Guys, I know it's just hair, but I went to a curly hair specialist today - this studio only does curly hair - and this is the length,' she sobbed in the viral TikTok clip. On Thursday, the founder of Rumbie & Co uploaded her own video to TikTok to apologise to Briana for 'that haircut', and to explain that she was given a $115 refund. In the original video, Briana wept on camera over the devastating haircut which had left her feeling 'ugly'. She claimed that she was told her hair looked like a 'frizzball' after the haircut because '...your hair is dry and it's frizzy, it's dead - that's what it looks like'. Briana said she ended up asking for a refund, but they only wanted to give her $20 back. 'I was like, "$20, are you insane? Look at my hair - you're literally a curly hair specialist",' she told salon staff. In the video, Briana said the sides of her hair were different lengths and the stylist hadn't parted her hair properly during the cut, and said her hair wouldn't even curl properly now. 'I know it sounds like I'm being dramatic but it's just because I've been looking forward to this Europe trip,' she said, through tears. 'I'm so busy and I've been booking small things like this to get done and now I feel like I look really ugly.' The video attracted more than four million views, but sparked a barrage of comments by people who had similar experiences. Briana (pictured) was deeply upset after her 'horror' haircut at an upmarket Sydney salon Pictured: The barrage of vile abuse the salon received after Briana's review Pictured: Screenshots showing the salon gave Briana a $115 refund and tried to resolve the issue In a video reply to Briana, the owner of the salon apologised. 'Briana, I saw that haircut and ... even I don't know how we got here,' she said. 'I wanted to let you know that I am sorry and, even though I wasn't there, I'm going to take responsibility and I am sorry this has been your experience.' She included screenshots of emails between the salon and Briana as proof that she did receive a refund and the business did try to rectify the situation. But the owner also revealed the masses of threatening comments and emails that her team received. 'To all my keyboard warriors ... I probably wouldn't be making a statement if it weren't for the fact that my team is being impacted with threats, death threats, family threats, race threats,' she said. 'It is absolutely unnecessary.' The owner acknowledged the importance of reviews, but she urged users to think about what they were writing before posting hateful messages. Daily Mail Australia contacted Rumbie & Co for comment. Parents of privately educated children are being urged to apply for places in state schools in a bid to 'disrupt' Labour's plan to put VAT on fees. Campaigners want families to put their youngsters' names down for taxpayer-funded schools even if they never intend to take up the place as a 'demonstration' against the policy, which Labour claims would raise 1.7billion for the state sector. The campaigners, based in Scotland, have set up a Facebook group called The Edinburgh Question which has 2,000 members. They have vowed to 'drive protest against the introduction of VAT on private school fees', according to the Daily Record. The group said: 'We thought it would be helpful to start a page where parents... could coordinate a response, the most obvious being to register your child for a state school place by way of demonstration. Parents of privately educated children are being urged to apply for places in state schools in a bid to 'disrupt' Labour's plan to put VAT on fees (Stock image) Keir Starmer's (pictured) party has announced plans to put VAT on private school fees 'Even if this is not something you would plan to take up... we would encourage you to act in order to support the many families who will be adversely affected if this policy is implemented.' However, the move was branded 'disgraceful and selfish' by Labour peer Lord Foulkes, who said it could 'harm genuine pupils who want to attend a state school'. He added: 'Not only do they want to protect their privilege, but they are trying to protect the subsidy on their privilege.' It comes after a number of English councils warned pupils migrating from the private sector may struggle to find places in state schools, which have already allocated places for September. Most private schools are expected to raise their fees if VAT is imposed, driving many parents out. The Edinburgh Question group was contacted for comment. Donald Trump speaks about 'dark forces' he claims are arrayed against him in a new interview with Dr. Phil McGraw, then goes on to say his darkest moments involve what wife Melania reads in the press. The TV host with a degree in psychology sat for an hour with the former president, and tried to probe Trump about darkness he faces, in his first interview since a Manhattan jury convicted the former president on 34 counts in the Stormy Daniels trial. 'When the crowds arent cheering, whats the darkest moment you think of?' Dr. Phil asked him. 'The hardest part for me is probably my family,' Trump responded. 'Because it's very unfair to my family. I have a very good wife. She reads this crap. I have great kids,' he said. Multiple Trump family members attended the five-week trial. They included sons Don Jr. and Eric, daughter in law Lara and daughter Tiffany, although Melania did not attend his trial, which resulted in conviction on charges of falsifying business records related to paying off the porn star. 'I have a wonderful wife. I mean, it's not easy for her to read this kind of stuff that's fake that's fake stuff,' he said. Trump went on an extended discourse about Don Jr., who he called a 'good kid' who became the subject of accusations during the Russia probe. That got Trump railing against California Rep. Adam Schiff, who he called 'watermelon head.' Trump also suggested the public attention is difficult for his son Barron, 18. 'He doesn't say because he doesn't want to hurt me,' Trump said. He called Barron a 'great kid' and a 'good student,' while revealing clues about his college plans. He 'got accepted to different colleges some of those colleges, all of a sudden they're rioting all over the place.' Dr. Phil made several attempts at getting Trump to play the 'hero' and put an end to partisan retribution, following a series of reports and statements suggesting he may go after prosecutors and rivals who have gone after him. 'Theres an addiction to revenge just like to opioids or whatever,' Dr. Phil told Trump, who does not drink. 'The word revenge is a very strong word but maybe well have revenge through success,' Trump said, telling his interviewer what he wanted to hear. Then, he added: 'Revenge does take time. And sometimes revenge can be justified.' In between Trump digs at Biden and the judges overseeing his criminal trials, Dr. Phil kept trying to press Trump with questions about the emotional impact on himself and people he cares about. 'What is the hardest, darkest moment that you can think of in this journey?' McGraw asked him in the interview on streaming channel Merit+. 'There are people that control him,' Donald Trump said of President Joe Biden in an interview with TV host Dr. Phil McGraw That prompted Trump to talk about 'evil forces' he said were controlling President Joe Biden. 'You have to be very strong. You're fighting very evil forces and they're very smart forces. There are people that control Biden. Totally true. I think I know who they are largely. But there are people that control him. They're very smart, very energetic. Possibly they're real believers, what their sick ideology is. But you have to be smart and you have to have confidence,' Trump told him. At one point Trump called attention to the questions that touched on emotion. 'Its a psychological interview that youre doing. Youre sort of being my psychiatrist,' Trump told his interviewer. Dr. Phil called it a 'no holds barred' interview from Trump's Mar-a-Lago home. Dr. Phil's first comment to Trump as the interview began was that 'you look well,' which prompted an answer that had Trump mentioning 'corrupt judges' and 'corrupt politicians' within seconds. Trump also used the interview to settle scores with figures dating back years, including former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. The interviewer put Trump at ease with an early blast at government prosecutions of him. 'They need to stop this. They need to stop pursuing you,' he told Trump. McGraw started his career working in 'trial sciences' advising lawyers how to pitch to juries, and said he had a particular interest in the dynamics of the trial setting. Trump spent part of the interview inveighing against the gag order Judge Juan Merchan imposed in the case. Both he and McGraw ended up speaking about witnesses and potential witnesses in the case. Trump said former first lady Melania Trump 'reads this c***,' in a rare acknowledgement of the impact of campaign coverage on her 'I do think he knows whats going on. I think hes sort of an evil guy,' Trump said of President Biden at one point Trump spoke about the impact on son Barron, who graduated from high school this spring 'I even lost Oprah. Oprah used to like me so much,' Trump told Dr. Phil McGraw said the judge 'muzzled' the case, and took a shot at former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, a star witness as well as ex-National Enquirer CEO David Pecker, another witness, reaching a non-prosecution agreement. Trump complained about the pressure on former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, who both sides had considered calling from Rikers Island prison to testify. Trump also blasted the E. Jean Carroll defamation suit, after a jury finding him liable for sexual abuse. He said he had 'no idea who she is. I had to pay $91 million and that judge was just as bad, just as corrupt,' Trump said. In the hush money case, where Trump never took the stand, 'I would have loved to have testified. I wanted to. I'm telling you: they had to hold me back,' he said. He also complimented Judge Aileen Cannon, the judge he appointed who is overseeing his classified documents case. He called her 'a very brilliant judge in Florida.' On foreign policy, Trump complained about the Biden administration's recent move to allow Ukraine to use U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia closer to the Ukrainian border. 'Ill get the war in Ukraine settled and one by the time I take office as president-elect,' Trump said, vowing to act on the world stage even in the last months of Biden's term. Trump spoke about Dr. Phil's former colleague and partner Oprah Winfrey. Oprah used to really like me. She was here many times. She loved my key lime pie. We have key lime pie and she loved a lot of things about Mara Lago,' Trump said. 'Weve sort of lost contact as the expression goes,' Trump said. Trump came back to Winfrey later in the interview. Winfrey famously threw her support to Barack Obama in 2008 and interviewed Trump decades ago about his White House ambitions. 'I even lost Oprah. Oprah used to like me so much,' he told Dr. Phil. 'And you know I havent spoken to her since. But shes a good person. Please give her my regards.' Trump tore into opponents during the interview, settling scores with people dating to the Russia probe. 'I do think he knows whats going on. I think hes sort of an evil guy,' Trump said of President Biden at one point. He called Rep. Adam Schiff 'watermelon head.' 'Very unattractive guy both inside and outside,' Trump said of the California Senate primary winner. Dr. Phil told a studio audience that he knew Trump was going to spend much of the interview getting his message out. 'It's kinda like talking to a waiter and they've got the specials. They're going to give you those specials. And it doesn't matter what you want, they're going to give you those specials. ... and if you interrupt them on number 12 out of 15, they're going to start back up at the top,' he said. Thousands have signed an online petition to make the apps optional Thousands of tenants have demanded rental laws be changed after their real estate agents tried signing them up to fee-charging rent payment apps. More than 7,000 renters have signed an online petition to stop real estate agencies from forcing them to pay rent through third-party apps which often carry a surcharge. Apps like Ailo and OurTenant have been slowly forced onto tenants as the preferred way for them to pay rent but both carry surcharges for direct debit. Ailo was founded by Ray White's grandson, Ben White, who has denied that his app forces renters to pay out hundreds of dollars in extra fees per year. Mr White told 9News 40 per cent of renters using his app do so without paying additional fees but Sarah, a renter who uses the platform, said avoiding fees is burdensome and unnecessarily tedious. More than 7,000 renters have signed a petition to stop real estate agencies insisting they use apps like Ailo (pictured) to pay rent Sarah, who rents through Ray White in NSW, pays $900 per month for rent and direct debit on the app charges her fees of an additional $9 per month or $54 from a credit card Sarah, who rents through Ray White, was told by her real estate agent that she needed to start paying her rent through the Ailo app in July 2023. She said it was 'ridiculous' that no other options were given to her at the time and that trying to avoid paying extra fees is 'unnecessarily difficult and time consuming'. 'As a renter you always feel powerless, even without a housing crisis to make matters infinitely worse,' she said. NSW rental laws require tenants be provided with at least one fee-free option of paying rent, which Ailo does by way of one-off bank transfers which take days to process. '[It] takes two days to process the payment, and I am required to leave the rent money in my bank account for the two days waiting for the app to process the payment,' Sarah continued. 'This is yet another way to try and wring more money out of you in the form of fees to actually pay your rent.' By contrast,, direct debit via the app incurs a 0.25 per cent surcharge from a bank account or 1.5 per cent from a Visa or Mastercard. Sarah's rent is $900 per month which would mean that she would be paying an extra $9 a month if debited from her bank account or an extra $54 if she used her credit card. A spokesperson for Ray White denied forcing renters to adopt the Ailo app and said that Ailo was independent of the real estate agency. They added that there are multiple ways to pay on the app and that its help section explains each one clearly. 'There are sections in the Help section of the platform that sets out all the different payment options and how renters can pay with fee free methods, or other methods if they choose to use them,' the spokesperson said. 'As far as we are aware, Ailo has the widest number of payment choices for renters, and offers the most number of ways for renters to pay rent without attracting a fee.' Warren, from Queensland, was told by his real estate agent that he had to start using OurTenant to pay his rent but he refused and complained to the Office of Fair Trading NSW Tenants' Union CEO Leo Patterson Ross said the rental crisis made tenants less likely to stand up for themselves against their agents Warren, from Queensland, rents through LJ Hooker and recalled that in 2021 his real estate agency sent him an email which said that the only way he could pay rent going forward would be by using the OurTenant app. OurTenant offers a fee-free direct debit option but payments via credit card incur a 1.95 per cent fee. Queensland rental laws require both the tenant and real estate agent to agree before any changes are made regarding payment options, which Warren told his agent. His agent insisted the change be made but Warren instead visited the Queensland Office of Fair Trading which confirmed he did not have to use the app. A spokesperson for LJ Hooker said all of their offices are independently owned and operated and that it was up to the owner to decide which payment option was best. 'Our offices use various technologies to effectively manage rental properties,' they said. 'We understand that these solutions offer tenants multiple payment methods, including a fee-free method to pay rent, in accordance with the differing laws in each state and territory.' NSW Tenants' Union CEO Leo Patterson Ross said that protections for renters were not strong enough and too ambiguous for most people to properly understand. Situations like Sarah's and Warren's were made worse by the rental crisis which has made renters less likely to stand up for themselves, he added. Mr Ross said the way to fix the problem is by changing the law to make it clearer for renters to know when they are being pushed around. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Ray White, LJ Hooker, Ailo and OurTenant for comment. A gun-toting Missouri couple who pointed their firearms at Black Lives Matters protesters have threatened to sue the city of St. Louis, after a judge expunged their convictions over the incident. Attorneys Mark and Patricia McCloskey filed requests to have their convictions wiped away in January, after they pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges in 2021. On Wednesday, Judge Joseph P. Whyte expunged the charges from the records following the incident outside their mansion. The couple said they had felt threatened by the protestors who had been passing their home in June 2020, with Mark emerging clutching an assault rifle, while his wife waved a semi-automatic pistol. Immediately after the ruling, Mark McCloskey demanded that the city return their guns that were sized as part of their guilty pleas, threatening to file a lawsuit if not. The gun-toting Missouri couple, Mark (left) and Patricia McCloskey, who pointed their firearms at Black Lives Matters protesters are threatening to sue St. Luis, demanding their guns be returned 'It's time for the city to cough up my guns,' McCloskey told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch . And if the city refuses, he said he'll file another lawsuit. Speaking to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, McCloskey said: 'It's time for the city to cough up my guns.' Facing opposition from city prosecutors and police, the expungements were the latest twist in a contentious four-year saga dating back to summer 2020. The McCloskeys were indicted by a grand jury in October of that year on felony charges of unlawful use of a weapon and evidence tampering. Prosecutors later amended the charges to give jurors the alternative of convictions of misdemeanor harassment instead of the weapons charge. An investigation by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardners office led to the initial indictments and harsh backlash from several Republican leaders. Then-President Donald Trump spoke out in defense of the couple, who appeared via video at the Republican National Convention. The couple reached a plea deal, with Mark pleading guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge and his wife pleading guilty to misdemeanor harassment. The McCloskeys shot to notoriety when they were caught on camera emerging from their home in an upscale neighborhood brandishing firearms at protesters marching past No shots were fired, and no one was hurt as the stone-faced couple guarded their home The Colt AR-15 rifle surrendered by the couple retails for about $1,000 (right), while the Bryco .380-caliber pistol (left) used in the incident sells alone for about $100 They surrendered Mark's Colt AR-15 rifle, which retails for about $1,000, and a Bryco .380-caliber pistol, which costs about $100 used. The weapons were supposed to be destroyed after the couple turned them over, but were revealed to still exist during a legal hearing. McCloskey sued in 2021 to get the guns back but judges denied his request and an appeal. At a hearing in March, they argued for a clean slate, highlighting their upstanding conduct since the guilty pleas. In August of 2021, Missouri Governor Mike Parson pardoned the couple over the incident. Speaking to DailyMail.com earlier this year, Mark McCloskey said: 'It's a matter of the Second Amendment; it's a matter of the government not having a right to take private property without just cause and without compensation. 'That's a constitutional right on a variety of levels. 'But mostly, it's just that I was being punished by a woke, Soros-funded prosecutor for doing no more than defending myself and exercising my second amendment rights, for which I should suffer no penalty whatsoever.' Opposing the expungement, attorneys for the city's public safety department sought testimonies from protesters about the incident's impact. They also questioned use of footage used in ad campaigns for Mark McCloskey's unsuccessful run as a Republican nomination for the Senate. Both the city and the Circuit Attorney office argued the couple remained a threat due to these factors. However, Judge Whyte ultimately disagreed. He noted the protesters' testimonies highlighted a potential threat on the specific day of the incident, June 28th, 2020, but not evidence of ongoing danger. He emphasized the purpose of expungement as offering a second chance to those who have rehabilitated themselves. Additionally, he viewed McCloskey's political ad as protected free speech under the First Amendment, not proof of a continuing threat. 'It seems the parties have attempted to make political arguments in this proceeding,' Whyte wrote. 'This court, however, is required to look only at the relevant language in the statute.' Fruit trade with China brings sweet opportunity to world Xinhua) 09:33, June 07, 2024 BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) -- From durian to cherry, kiwi to avocado, China, one of the world's largest fruit markets, has been importing more fresh and high-quality fruits to meet growing domestic demand, bringing sweet opportunities to fruit farmers and traders around the world. In 2023, China's fruit imports amounted to 16.85 billion U.S. dollars, up 15 percent year-on-year, with a total import volume of 7.524 million tons, up 3 percent. Among them, fresh durian imports reached 6.72 billion dollars, a substantial increase of 66 percent, making durian the country's leading imported fruit item. Thanks to the relaxation of market entry conditions, enhanced efficiency in customs clearance and the development of cross-border cold chain logistics systems, an increasing number of Chinese consumers are now able to enjoy the creamy taste and high nutritional value of the "king of fruits" at more affordable prices. For years, Thailand dominated durian exports to China until Vietnam entered the market in 2022. Official data showed that in 2023, China imported 1.426 million tons of fresh durians, with 929,000 tons from Thailand and 493,000 tons from Vietnam. In the face of growing pressure, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin vowed to foster competition by developing varieties, maintaining durian conditions and quality, and ensuring efficient transportation for quick delivery. Healthy competition has resulted in a win-win situation for all parties involved. Chinese consumers have enjoyed more affordable durians, Vietnamese durians have gained access to the Chinese market, and Thailand has achieved record-high durian exports to China thanks to the growing market. Statistics show that in the first four months of 2024, Thailand exported over 225,000 tons of fresh durian to China, and the momentum remained strong in May. China has granted market access to and reduced tariffs on an increasing number of imported fruits. Meanwhile, major projects such as the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and the China-Laos Railway have greatly facilitated fruit imports. The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, jointly built by provincial-level regions in western China and ASEAN members, expanded its reach to 490 ports across 120 countries and regions, according to data released in January by southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, the corridor's operational hub. The China-Laos Railway, connecting Kunming, the capital of southwestern China's Yunnan Province, with the Laotian capital of Vientiane, had handled over 8 million tons of import and export goods as of mid-April, with durian imports via the railway surged by more than seven times, said Kunming Customs in April. In January, a container vessel loaded with over 2,000 tons of Chilean cherries arrived at Tianjin, marking the first direct shipping service for Latin American cherries, from nearly 20,000 kms away, to reach the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in northern China. Over the past seven years, Chilean cherry exports to China have grown at an estimated annual average growth rate of around 29 percent. The Chilean Fruit Exporters Association estimated earlier that more than 85 percent of Chilean cherries would be exported to China in the first season of 2024. The growing demand of the Chinese market has spurred the expansion of Chile's cherry planting area and benefited local farmers. From 2000 to 2022, the total cherry planting area in Chile grew from 3,241 hectares to 61,559 hectares, according to data from Chile's Office of Agricultural Studies and Policies. Apart from ASEAN and Latin America, Africa has also benefited from Chinese customers' growing appetite for fruits. So far, China has approved "green channel" access for an increasing variety of African fruits such as oranges, avocados, and horned melons. In August 2022, the first batch of fresh avocados grown in Kenya arrived in China, making Kenya the first African country to export fresh avocados to China. "The export of fresh avocados to China is a monumental feat that will boost our economy and benefit key players across the avocado value chain including farmers," said David Osiany, then chief administrative secretary for Kenya's Ministry of Industrialization, Trade and Enterprise Development. "The entry of fruit into China is another signal of China's determination to ... diversify its sources of agricultural goods," Lauren Johnston, a China-Africa researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg, told South China Morning Post. It also signals that China is determined to cultivate new export markets linking China and Africa, especially in agriculture, because "this may not only enhance agricultural productivity to meet the demands of a growing population in Africa but also boost rural incomes and promote the alleviation of poverty," said Johnston. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) A Labour candidate was a senior employee at a scandal-hit housing association that has been repeatedly condemned by his own party. Andrew Lewin has worked at Clarion Housing Group hit with more than 100 reprimands by a watchdog in just a year as director of communications since 2021 and before that was head of external communication from 2017. He is standing against senior Tory Grant Shapps in Welwyn Hatfield, Hertfordshire, and latest polling suggests he may take the seat the Defence Secretary has held since 2005. But it can be revealed today that Labour politicians have been among the harshest critics of his employer Britain's biggest social landlord including those in his neighbouring constituency. Last year Hertsmere Constituency Labour Party launched a campaign against Clarion, stating: 'Labour councillors around the borough have been inundated with complaints from unhappy tenants. Concerns raised include rent hikes and fire safety issues.' Andrew Lewin (pictured) has worked at Clarion Housing Group hit with more than 100 reprimands by a watchdog in just a year as director of communications since 2021 Labour councillors in east London last year launched a petition about Clarion's 'persistent poor performance' including flats in Bow where 50 tenants were left without running water for a week. Last night a Conservative Campaign Headquarters source said: 'With even Labour councillors attacking the landlord, how can Welwyn Hatfield voters trust Mr Lewin to represent them in Parliament?' The Mail approached Mr Lewin for comment. A Clarion spokesman said: 'We have worked hard to learn from any areas where we could have provided a more positive customer experience. 'Mr Lewin took an immediate leave of absence from the organisation when the election was called on May 22.' The theatre of the absurd continued today as besieged immigration minister Andrew Giles called a media conference to declare that Direction 99 is dead, buried and cremated. It is being replaced by 'Direction 110' which will put community safety first, according to the minister. Details remain very scant. Which begs the obvious question why Direction 99 didn't do that to begin with. Because if it did it wouldn't need to be replaced. And the fact that it didn't should be enough to have gotten this minister sacked long ago. Yet there he was this morning, Andrew Giles announcing a new system to replace the botched and failed old one that he was responsible for; both its design and its implementation. It was badly designed and poorly managed after its implementation. The theatre of the absurd continued today as besieged immigration minister Andrew Giles (pictured) called a media conference to declare that Direction 99 is dead buried and cremated Direction 99 was introduced by the new Labor government more than a year ago, purpose-built to appease concerns by New Zealand that too many of its citizens who committed crimes in this country were being sent home. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was a proud advocate for it when he got to stand next to then-Kiwi PM Jacinta Ardern while making the announcement. The only problem was that it didn't prioritise community safety, as Direction 110 now will. It also applied to all overseas arrivals, not just New Zealanders. It resulted in a host of examples surfacing of criminals who didn't have their visas cancelled because Direction 99 did not prioritise community safety. Rapists, child sexual predators and domestic abusers one and all were permitted to stay rather than be deported. The same minister who presided over this mess - adding to it with inaccurate statements like perpetrators 'being surveilled with drones' - is now responsible for fixing it They were able to rely on their ties to family and the community to force the hand of Administrative Appeals Tribunal commissioners hearing their cases, forced to accept the construction of Direction 99 and allow them to stay. A Sudanese resident used ties to the local Aboriginal community to justify staying. Convicted domestic violence abusers used ties to family to stay. You couldn't make this up. The deputy head of the AAT, Stephen Boyle, was quite explicit in spelling out this reality when handing down his written reasons for some of his decisions. His hand forced by the stupidity of Direction 99. At least it is gone and replaced by Direction 110 - if you can now have confidence in the same minister overseeing the new rules. It is utterly ridiculous that the same minister who presided over this mess - adding to it with inaccurate statements like perpetrators 'being surveilled with drones' - is now responsible for fixing it. Giles has been anything but contrite about his failures, using Question Time to try and throw insults back at the opposition rather than take responsibility. His inability has been all too clearly put on very public display these past few weeks. But because he's great mates with Albo and in the same faction, he has survived. Also because the PM was intimately involved in the introduction of this disaster of a policy. The PM didn't want to reward the opposition for complaining about Giles, putting stubborn political positioning ahead of doing the right thing. There should be no escaping responsibility for this mess, certainly not for Giles. The entire reason it has occurred is because of a change of policy Labor introduced There should be no escaping responsibility for this mess, certainly not for Giles. The entire reason it has occurred is because of a change of policy Labor introduced. One they have now scurried away from and replaced. Yet Giles won't take accountability, his boss won't act against him and they all are now playing the blame game instead. Giles says his department let him down. Albo says the Coalition had already made a meal of immigration when it was in government. That was more than two years ago now. The last election was in May 2022. At what point in time will this Labor government finally start taking accountability for what happens on its watch? Rishi Sunak is said to be putting forward former Google CEO and chairman Eric Schmidt for an honour. The Prime Minister is said to have started the process of bestowing a gong on the US citizen in May this year, according to the Financial Times. The move has stoked speculation that Mr Sunak - who studied in the US and kept his green card after becoming a minister - might be looking towards his own future if he leaves Downing Street. The proposal is believed to be being handled by the Foreign Office which handles honours for non-UK citizens, including honorary knighthoods. It involves less scrutiny than the route for UK citizens that is handled by the Cabinet Office and its vetting committees, according to the paper. All honours must be rubber-stamped by the King. Rishi Sunak is said to be putting former Google CEO Eric Schmidt (pictured) up for an honour Mr Sunak was also reported to have put forward JPMorgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon although sources close to him denied that this was happening. Mr Schmidt was in charge of Google for a decade as it grew from a start-up to Silicon Valley giant. One British diplomat told the FT it 'wouldn't be that surprising' if honours awarded by the Conservative administration had a 'particular financial sector flavour'. They noted Mr Sunak had lived in the US and worked in finance before becoming an MP in 2015. He worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and then at hedge fund TCI. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (pictured) is said to have started the process of bestowing a gong on the US citizen in May this year, according to the Financial Times Mr Sunak has also shown an interest in the tech sector, pushing to make the UK a leader in AI and hosting the first big global summit on AI safety at Bletchley Park last year. The Prime Minister has been criticised by his rivals for holding a US green card residence permit until 2021, well after he first entered government as a minister in 2018. He and his wife, Akshata Murty, own an apartment in Santa Monica, California. A Qantas aircraft bound for Auckland has been forced to turn back to Sydney after colliding with a bird mid-flight. Flight QF141, which took off about 7am, changed course and starting returning to Sydney about 30 minutes into the trip to New Zealand on Friday morning. Data from a flight tracker shows that the Boeing 737 travelled over the Tasman Sea before making a U-turn and returning to Sydney airport. It safely landed at about 9am. No passengers or crew were injured, and it is not known if there was any damage to the aircraft. 'One of our flights bound for Auckland returned to Sydney this morning following a bird strike shortly after take-off,' a Qantas spokesperson said. 'We will re-accommodate customers as soon as possible. 'We appreciate our customers' understanding and apologise for the inconvenience.' A toddler died two days after doctors refused his parents' repeated and desperate pleas for blood tests, with a postmortem confirming he died of Leukemia. Sandipan Dhar, who was 21 months old, died on March 24 after suffering a long-running fever. His parents, who live in Joondalup around 25km north of Perth's CBD, had reportedly presented three times at the Key Largo Medical Centre GP practice in the weeks before his death. They also begged doctors at Joondalup Health Campus to perform blood tests but were refused. 'The doctors said we didn't need to do any further tests and should just take Sandipan home and monitor for at least five days to see if his fever dropped,' the toddler's father, Sanjoy Dhar told The West Australian. Sandipan Dhar (pictured), who was 21 months old, died on March 24 after suffering a long-running fever He added: 'The duty doctors and nurses were trying to put all the blame on us, saying that we came too late. 'But when we said we had been to the hospital on Friday, they just kept their mouths shut. From then onwards they didn't use a single word about the complications of our baby.' Little Sandipan, who his parents said was 'strong' and 'full of energy' before his rapid decline, started suffering a fever two days after receiving his standard 18-month vaccinations at the Key Largo GP practice on February 19. His father rang the practice but was advised that a fever was normal after jabs and to treat it with Panadol and Nurofen. But, after showing no improvement, his parents brought him back to the medical center on March 14. Their request for a blood test was rejected and doctors reportedly advised the same course of treatment. His parents had begged doctors at Joondalup Health Campus (pictured) to perform blood tests but were refused They returned twice more on March 20 and 22, with doctors prescribing antibiotics on the first appointment after diagnosing Sandipan with tonsillitis. At the final appointment, his parents demanded a referral to hospital which was eventually consented to. His parents pleaded with doctors and nurses at the Joondalup Health Campus for a blood test but it was refused. Two days later they returned to the same hospital because Sandipan was struggling to breathe. Doctors ordered an X-ray of his chest which appeared to show he was suffering from pneumonia and he was placed on oxygen. 'I asked the doctors how quickly pneumonia can develop because we had brought Sandipan on Friday and they said he was perfectly fine,' Mr Dhar said. 'They didn't give me an answer and said they needed to do further investigations.' Mr Dhar claimed that a doctor questioned why Sandipan had not been brought in earlier. Sandipan's mother was forced to hold his arms by his side to stop him removing his oxygen mask. At that point she noticed blood was trickling from his mouth and he was whisked away. Two hours later they were told that their son was dead. A postmortem later revealed he died of Leukemia. Sandipan's older brother has been left so upset and confused by his death his parents have had to remove all pictures of the dead toddler from their home. 'Seeing photographs sets off Sandipan's four-year-old brother Mrinal who still refuses to believe he is not coming back,' Mr Dhar said. Sandipan's older brother has been left so upset and confused by his death his parents have had to remove all pictures of the dead toddler from their home. Pictured: Sanidpan Dhar 'We tried for days to explain it to Mrinal but it would make him so upset we eventually started lying and saying his brother has just gone away for a while.' Key Largo Medical Centre decline to comment when contacted by Daily Mail Australia. Ramsay Health Care, which operates Joondalup Health Campus, told the paper that they had launched an investigation into the tragedy which so far found it was 'unlikely Sandipan's hospital care was a factor in his death'. A Ramsay spokesperson said that samples collected from little Sandipan 'showed features of an undiagnosed longer term acute illness which may have contributed to his death'. Western Australia Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson (pictured) Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said it would be best to wait for the results of the hospital investigation before commenting. 'What has occurred here is incredibly devastating, but very very rare,' she said. Daily Mail Australia approached Ramsay for further comment. Military figures have been left in disbelief after Rishi Sunak returned from Normandy before all of the D-Day events had all finished to do a General Election interview recording with ITV News. The Prime Minister attended earlier commemorations at Ver-sur-Mer in Normandy alongside King Charles and Queen Camilla, but left before the key ceremony at Omaha beach. Instead, Keir Starmer was pictured talking with Ukraine hero Volodymyr Zelenskyy while David Cameron and Grant Shapps represented the Conservative Party. The remembrance event above one of the beaches stormed by Allied troops 80 years ago was also attended by the Prince of Wales, US President Joe Biden and the French President Emmanuel Macron. On ITV News at Ten it was revealed that Sunak's team had been the ones to choose the time and date of the interview - despite the programme not airing until Wednesday next week. The broadcaster's UK editor Paul Brand said: 'We've been asking the Prime Minister for an interview for a while now - we are profiling all the leaders on the ITV Tonight programme. Rishi Sunak lays a wreath during a commemorative ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the World War II D-Day Allied landings in Normandy Keir Starmer was pictured talking with global leaders including Volodymyr Zelenskyy David Cameron and Grant Shapps instead represented the Conservative Party alongside global leaders. Pictured: Cameron alonside French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and U.S. President Joe Biden 'Today was the slot that we were offered, we don't know why. Obviously it is not our choice. 'But he certainly returned from Normandy ready to dive back into the campaign.' Political cut and thrust had largely been suspended over as the 80th anniversary of D-Day took centre stage, and Mr Sunak appeared in his prime ministerial capacity at various commemoration events. Tory sources had played down the diplomatic impact of the PM's absence in Normandy later on Thursday, pointing out he will be meeting other G7 leaders next week at a summit in Italy. Mr Sunak had used his interview with Mr Brand to reject Labour accusations that he 'lied' by saying the party would hike taxes by 2,000 - claims which were later criticised by the UK statistics watchdog. But former British Army officer Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon slammed the Prime Minister, telling the Mirror: 'It's a great disappointment. What could be more important than respecting the people who gave their lives for this country?' And Col Richard Kemp, a former British Army commander in Afghanistan, added: 'I know there is a General Election campaign to fight but this is a very significant anniversary of a major military achievement which led to freedom in Europe. 'It's being attended by some of the veterans who may never attend another due to their age. I think it was very important that he showed his commitment to it. It's not dignified, it's not the right thing to do at a fundamental level.' Rishi Sunak (L) meets with a British D-Day veteran during the UK Ministry of Defence and the Royal British Legion's commemorative ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day Rishi Sunak wheels D-Day veteran Bernard Morgan, 100, from Crewe, as they head to lunch today Akshata Murty, wife of Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, talks with D-Day veteran Christian Lamb, who was earlier presented with the Legion d'Honneur Tim Montgomerie, the founder of Conservative Home and the Conservative Christian Fellowship, added fuel to the fire when he said he was 'genuinely and completely flabbergasted by the decision. He told BBC Newsnight: 'If he came back for an interview - a political interview - from the D-Day commemorations, that is indefensible. Absolutely indefensible. He continued: 'It's extraordinary that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, at a time when the King, who has advanced his medical treatments so he was there - this is going to be the last big commemoration where survivors will be present. 'I think it is political malpractice of the highest order if Rishi Sunak absented himself for an election interview on ITV.' Earlier in the day, Mr Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron joined King Charles in a poignant silent prayer to remember those no longer with us, while memories of those who were on the beaches 80 years ago were also read out. Charles, along the Prime Minister and military leaders laid wreathes of poppies at the memorial as Elgar's Nimrod was performed by a brass band in the background, with the national anthems of France and the United Kingdom also being played as the Red Arrows roared overhead. Mr Sunak paid tribute to veterans, saying their 'actions freed a continent and built a better world.' 'You risked everything and we owe you everything,' he said. 'We cannot possibly hope to repay that debt but we can and we must pledge never to forget.' Labour has now accused Mr Sunak of a 'dereliction of duty' for missing the ceremony. Shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth said: 'The Prime Minister skipping off early from D-Day commemorations to record a television interview where he once again lied through his teeth is both an embarrassment and a total dereliction of duty. 'Our country deserves so much better than out-of-touch, desperate Rishi Sunak and his chaotic Tory Party.' Rishi Sunak has been contacted for comment. A popular restaurant has announced it is closing after five years, as hospitality venues around the country feel the crunch of cost-of-living pressures hitting Australians. The modern European restaurant and wine bar NOTA, at Paddington in Brisbanes inner west, will close on August 3. Chefs and co-owners Sebastiaan de Kort and Kevin Docherty said the decision to close was a fairly easy one, made primarily because the lease is ending. The restaurant opened in March 2019 with Mr de Kort and Mr Docherty taking over the heritage shopfront that had been home to the French restaurant Montrachet. NOTA quickly became very popular with locals, with a menu of European inspired dishes and an extensive wine list. Closing NOTA will give Mr de Kort and Mr Docherty the opportunity to bring their team into their second restaurant, Allonda at Newstead in Brisbane's inner north, with they co-own with sommelier Yanika Sittisuntorn. NOTA chefs and co-owners Kevin Docherty (pictured left) and Sebastiaan de Kort (pictured right) announced the popular restaurant will close on August 3 NOTA was famed for its menu of European-inspired dishes and an extensive wine list The closure was announced on NOTA's website , with patrons invited to say goodbye During the pandemic, Mr de Kort and Mr Docherty focused on baked goods and takeaway, like many other restaurants. This resulted in the artisan sweets business Arty's, which still operates. In mid-2022, they expanded NOTA by taking over a neighbouring tenancy before opening Allonda later in the year. Mr de Kort told The Courier-Mail that NOTA would not have been successful without the loyal support of the Paddington community. 'We are excited for what the future holds, both for us and for the space were leaving behind,' Mr de Kort said. The closure was announced on NOTA's website, with patrons invited to say goodbye. 'Come join us over the next eight weeks as we bring back some of our beloved classic dishes and say farewell to the crew,' the farewell message read. 'From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you. We hope to welcome you again.' Mr de Kort acknowledged the impact Australia's slow economy is having on the hospitality industry, saying it makes sense to consolidate. 'The industry has changed. The spending has changed. People are working very hard for their money at the moment, so you need to make sure you tick every box,' he told the Brisbane Times. 'But I think there's still a lot of positivity. Its been a tough 12 months but the next 12 will get better. Its cyclic.' The closure of NOTA in Brisbane comes after a hospitality company that ran a string of popular cafes and bakeries around the city collapsed last month. BCN Events Group fell into voluntary liquidation with 90 staff reportedly being let go. The company is owned by award-winning chef Shannon Kellam and had seven venues that have closed. Mr Kellam also owns the French fine dining restaurant Montrachet that used to occupy the site of NOTA. Montrachet is unaffected by the liquidation. A rideshare driver has been charged with rape and false imprisonment after a teen was allegedly attacked after getting into his vehicle. The 19-year-old woman was sexually assaulted in Melbourne's CBD after getting into what she believed was a rideshare, shortly before 2am on Monday, police alleged. A 43-year-old rideshare driver has been charged with rape and false imprisonment after allegedly assaulting a woman, 19, in Melbourne (stock image) Officers arrested a 43-year-old man at his Pakenham home on Thursday. He has been charged with rape and false imprisonment, and his rideshare driver's licence has been suspended. The man will face Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday over the charges. He claims has decoded to move forward with construction without his approval An Indiana homeowner has been left outraged after city officials claimed a section of his property for a new roundabout intersection. Hans Fekkes has lost 15 feet on his piece of land in Indianapolis after construction workers broke ground last week. Fekkes was originally offered $9,500 for the parcel of land but turned it down, saying he didn't agree with the construction. He has also hit out at the city for refusing to add a privacy fence or a barrier to help car lights from shining into his home, which he has described as his 'dream home'. Speaking with WISHTV, Fekkes said: 'They are starting to do construction without written approval from me, until we negotiate some things, a fence or berm with landscaping to help from lights.' Homeowner Hans Fekkes (pictured) in Indiana is outraged as his property will be taken by the city government for a new roundabout intersection Fekkes demonstrated the portion of his driveway that the works will take to the outlet. He added: 'This is the portion of the cut, where they're going to take my driveway from here to the street. 'They've got a certain amount of footage that's eminent domain but they needed more than that, and that's when they had to purchase it from me. 'They said this intersection is cheaper to do than a stoplight, and I sure would like someone to explain that to me.' Pictured: An overview of the roundabout planned for East 79th Street and Dean Road, which Fekkes said will directly interfere with his property The lawyer representing Fekkes in his battle against the city claims 'the land taking is not as much of an issue as the way they are building the roundabout.' Fekkes said that trucks working on the intersection have crushed his sewer and so far cost him $20,000 in repairs, he described it as an 'ongoing nightmare'. The Indianapolis Department of Public Works declined to comment but reiterated their commitment to offering fair compensation based on professional appraisals. Their message stated the city uses 'contracted appraisers and court-appointed appraisers, if necessary,' to ensure fair and reasonable offers. Fekkes said that trucks working on the intersection have crushed his sewer and so far cost him $20,000 in repairs, he described it as an 'ongoing nightmare' A $2 million project is underway to improve the area with a new pedestrian walkway and underground stormwater drainage system. The project is expected to be finished by next summer. A court order was issued to let the city move forward with the construction. Mayor Joe Hogsett expressed his belief that the new roundabout will significantly improve traffic flow in a neighborhood plagued by congestion during peak hours. A jaw-dropping letter shows how a wealthy socialite pleaded for forgiveness with the parents of two boys she killed with her car after a boozy lunch in LA. Rebecca Grossman, 60, laments not driving her Mercedes into a tree instead of the boys' fragile bodies, which she hit at a speed of no less than 73 mph in 2020. The Los Angeles socialite, who prosecutors branded as a narcissist, also writes about her 'harsh' childhood, and how she herself has suffered two miscarriages. A well-heeled woman who allegedly had a boozy lunch with her former Dodgers star lover before fatally hitting the two boys, Grossman was found guilty of murder earlier this year. The correspondence was used by prosecutors to paint her as unrepentant, three-and-half years after she struck eight-year-old Jacob Iskander and brother Mark, 11. A letter shows how wealthy socialite Rebecca Grossman, 60, pleaded for forgiveness with the parents of two boys she killed with her car after a boozy lunch in LA. She is seen in court in February, days before being found guilty The Iskanders in their final photo together: parents Nancy and Karim with their sons, Zachary, Jacob and Mark; and baby daughter, Violet The boys' mother, Nancy Iskander, was also nearly hit, but able to grab her youngest, five-year-old Zachary, and dive for their lives. Nancy and husband Karim received the note from Grossman in March, a month after she was found guilty of murder. During the trial, Grossman's lead attorney repeatedly blamed Scott Erickson, a retired MLB pitcher, for the deaths, suggesting his car hit the boys first as the pair - reunited after Grossman briefly separated from her husband - sped down the street. The jury didn't buy it - and a judge four days ago threw out the killer's bid to have her murder convictions overturned. The letter, aired in Grossman's sentencing memorandum Wednesday, was never before seen, and helped put her away. 'I've not had the opportunity to write you since I was incarcerated, and I had a chance to read my letter so it could be typed and sent to you,' the typed three page letter, sent on March 11, begins. 'First, I want to express the profound sadness that I feel daily and that there's not a day that passes that I don't think about you and pray that you and your children are surrounded by guardian angels. 'And that of course includes your forever angels, Mark, and Jacob.' She goes on to state she hopes the boys are watching over her to 'protect [her] from any more pain', while shielding her 'family from harm for each of [their] remaining days on earth. Disclaiming how this note was not the first, Grossman added: 'I truly hope that one day you'll be open to reading all the letters that I started writing to you and continued writing to you over the last three and a half years.' Grossman goes on to state how she 'desperately' wanted to reach out to the couple, but was stopped 'time and time again' by people presiding over the case. In it, 60-year-old Rebecca Grossman laments not driving her Mercedes into a tree instead of the boys' fragile bodies, which she hit at a speed of no less 73 mph in 2020 She also writes about her 'harsh' childhood, and how she herself has suffered two miscarriages 'I have been and will always be so very sorry,' she asserts at a point. 'I have expressed my feeling of profound sadness. '[Even those were taken and redacted, blocking out my words or remorse, or the actions I wish I could have taken to prevent the accident,' she adds, after prosecutors claimed Grossman was impaired with alcohol at the time of the crash - from the drinks shed had with old flame Erickson earlier in the day. She goes on to claim she would have driven her car into a tree if she had the chance, before embarking on a sob story about her childhood and life. A few weeks later, a judge would cite her boozing and speeding in his decision to uphold her conviction. 'As God is my witness, if I had seen anyone in the road ahead of my car, my knee-jerk reaction would have been to immediately steer away hard, to avoid hitting anyone or anything,' Grossman, who is married with kids of her own, writes. 'I wish that I had seen something, even a glimpse - any sign of anything. I have re-lived that split second in time over and over in my head a billion times. 'I give you my word that if I had been given the opportunity, I would have driven my car into a tree,' she goes on to sate. 'I wish God had given me the opportunity to give my life instead of that of Mark and Jacob's. I'm not afraid of death, I know that our souls live eternally.' She then hones in on her self-professed 'strong relationship with our heavenly Father', which she says started 'at a very young age.' The Iskander boys, Mark and Jacob, 11 and 8, died at the scene of the accident after Grossman's Mercedes hit them at high speed The boys' mother, Nancy Iskander, was also nearly hit, but able to grab her youngest, five-year-old Zachary, and dive for their lives. She and husband Karim received the note in March, a month after Grossman was found guilty of murder 'I feel his presence always, even after this tragic and unthinkable accident,' she writes. 'At first, It was difficult to function at all. I could not remember what people had said to me minutes earlier.' She then remarks how her elderly mother 'died within a year of the tragedy', after five years of suffering from Alzheimer's - after which she 'could not get up off my hand and knees from sobbing uncontrollably for months on end.' 'I couldn't believe how many tears could come out of my body,' she gripes. 'I so desperately wanted to reach out to you. Conceding her pain 'was only a fraction of what both [parents] were feeling, she goes on to claim she was suicidal. 'I've been on my own since I was 12,' she adds at this point, pivoting to a point in her life neither of the boys were able to reach. 'My father left before I was born, and my mother struggled having to work full time as a sole provider for three children,' the letter continues. 'I learned to be responsible at a very early age.' Because of this, she says, 'I've always had a weakness for children, to protect them and help them heal whenever I could.' Thus, 'I was completely mortified when I knew positively that there were in fact children involved.' She goes on to claim that she was not even aware she was the one behind the wheel at the time of the crash in September 2020. Grossman adds that a news broadcast she saw from the hospital was 'when [she] first learned that the children had died. 'I started hyperventilating. I could not breathe. I could not stand. I no longer wanted to live on.' Grossman ploughed into the boys at more than 70mph in a 45mph zone, in a luxury Mercedes Grossman was separated from her husband at the time of the crash and had been dating Scott Erickson (seen here with the convicted child killer in 2020 just before the crash), who she attempted to blame for the boys' death. A jury, however, did not buy it Erickson played with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2005 for a year, then ended his career with the New York Yankees in 2006 Grossman is seen gripping her LA plastic surgeon husband Dr Peter Grossman's arm as they left court today for the start of her murder trial in January, before she was found guilty It wasn't until about a year after the accident the 'fog' she said had been shrouding her memory of the incident started to lift. At this point, she writes, she was 'being bullied constantly', while worrying 'about the two of you.' She then singles out Nancy - the one present for the fatal crash - specifically, telling her, 'Please believe me when I tell you, I originally thought you were a teenage girl with long brown hair on roller blades, falling. 'When I caught sight of you, I gasped,' she adds, before complaining about a bleeding disorder she said made her pull over first to make sure she was all right. 'All I could think about is getting my car to the side and out of traffic. 'The vehicle's emergency system called me with 60 seconds of the air bags deploying. The woman told me she was passing me through to 911. This is why I did not call 911.' Toward the end of the call, the woman on the other line told her she believed children were involved - something Grossman claims to have been aware of even at this point. 'My heart stopped,' she recalls of this. 'I was saying to myself over and over, "no, no, they don't know yet - this isn't happening. There cannot be children involved. This is not possible." Your brain can slip into the place of denial when you're in shock,' she writes. The September 2020 crash left Mark , 11, and brother Jacob, 8, dead. The pair are seen here in photos from their school Before sending the letter, Grossman allegedly 'conspired with a friend to contact the Nancy and Karim Iskanders by scheming to give them a necklace, which had their sons' birthstones After the crash, she says, 'my brain kept telling me this must be a mistake. They would never answer my questions or my please for information regarding the children. 'I honestly did not think that the girl I saw falling before my airbags deployed was even related. 'They did not say to me there was a family, there were parents, how old the children were. They never answered my questions.' She adds shortly after: 'I wished I had a dash cam on my car that night. I told my husband and children that at the same time my airbags deployed, I thought something came down on top of my car. 'I even reached out to people at satellite companies like NASA and Space X in hope that maybe there was a video that captured what happened.' She goes on to mention her two children, both of whom were present for much of the proceedings. 'To even think about this is so painful and saddens my heart. I will forever cry for you both and continue to pray that God comforts you in knowing that you will be reunited with your children. 'I suffered two miscarriages,' she goes on to reveal. 'And I know that this is no comparison, but even those losses were heartbreaking. 'I saw this with all sincerity, I have so much empathy and love and compassion for your both. 'I wish I had never left my home that day. I would have done anything to change what happened. With all my heart and soul, Rebecca Grossman.' Grossman has already been accused of using dirty tactics to try to get her convictions overturned. Her sentencing has been slated for June 10 On Monday, a Los Angeles judge threw out her bid to have her murder convictions overturned for a new trial. The wealthy socialites attorneys argued that she was entitled to a trial do-over because prosecutors at her trial four months ago produced insufficient evidence to find her guilty and misled the jury. But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joseph Brandolino rejected Grossmans pleas Monday, telling the court in Van Nuys, California, that he found prosecutors had proved beyond a reasonable doubt that she had acted with implied malice. Under the law, to prove second degree murder, prosecutors had to prove implied malice that Grossman knew what she was doing when she ran down the Iskander brothers. Grossman has already been accused of using dirty tactics to try to get her convictions overturned, like conspiring with a friend to contact the Iskanders and give them a necklace with their late sons' birthstones Prosecutors say that from jail she told her husband, and daughter to hunt down jurors and seek out witnesses to try to get them to change their testimony and sway Judge Brandolino into giving her a new trial. She also allegedly told Alexis to publicly release a sheriffs deputys body-camera video that had been sealed by the judge. Her sentencing has been slated for June 10. She compared equated voting against Trump to soldiers fighting on D-Day Clinton stirred controversy over her D-Day commemoration on X A social media post made by Hillary Clinton to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day has been branded as 'sick and disgusting'. The Democrat, who ran against Donald Trump for the presidency in 2016, compared the fight against Nazi Germany to voting against Trump in November. The former Secretary of State said in her post: Eighty years ago today, thousands of brave Americans fought to protect democracy on the shores of Normandy. This November, all we have to do is vote, she said in the post to her X account, which has been widely criticized. The Democrat, who ran against Donald Trump for the presidency in 2016, compared the fight against Nazi Germany to voting against Trump in November The Democrat , who ran against Donald Trump for the presidency in 2016, compared the fight against Nazi Germany to voting against Trump in November . One user posted: Just pure evil. Comparing the sacrifices of those who died to defeat Hitler and retake Europe to Democrats voting against Donald Trump. Sick and disgusting. While conservative political pundit Ben Shapiro said: 'What an enormously stupid and vile comment. Trump is not Hitler. 'And voting is not storming a beach under a hail of machine-gun fire to free millions from the tyranny of the Nazis.' Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) said: 'These Dems couldn't be more dramatic and deranged. 'They're comparing storming the beaches of Normandy on #dday to voting against Trump,' 'How disrespectful to our WWII heroes who faced unimaginable fear with immense courage 80 years ago today,' Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said in a post on X. Combat veteran and author Sean Parnell did not hold back in his X post: 'Holy s*** I despise these people. It's impossible to capture just how loathsome a comment this is. The former Secretary of State has been widely criticized for her remarks on D-Day In this photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, a U.S. Coast Guard landing barge, tightly packed with helmeted soldiers, approaches the shore at Normandy, France, during initial Allied landing operations, June 6, 1944 Pictured: The scene along a section of Omaha Beach in June 1944, during Operation Overlord 'To cheapen what WWII heroes did to BS garbage politics makes me sick. Again, WWII veterans deserve so much better than this.' D-Day commemorates the day Allied forces launched a massive invasion of Nazi-occupied Normandy, France, as part of Operation Overlord which took place on June 6, 1944. Thousands of US and Allied paratroopers landed around Normandy Beach ahead of the largest armada of thousands of ships ever assembled carrying enormous numbers of Allied troops across the English Channel to fight Nazi control. It would become the largest air, land and sea assault in history, the beginning of the end of Hitler's seize of Europe. Thousands of Americans and Allied troops died on D-Day and in the fighting that followed. The successful invasion marked a major turning point in the war as it was the beginning of the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi control. PR mogul Roxy Jacenko says she is still committed to personally refunding all 7,489 people who signed up to her highly publicised brand boot camp after a bitter dispute with her former business partners. Jacenko partnered with businessmen Youssef Tleis and Kassim Alaouie to launch a promotion which offered new customers her Brand Bootcamp online business course the chance to win three epic prizes. However, the partnership came to a sudden halt last month with Jacenko taking to social media to claim she was leaving after discovering a 'shortfall' in the prize money pool and insisted she would offer customers refunds out of her own pocket. 'I stand by my offer to refund customers and as a result of this, $684,000 of my own personal funds remain in my solicitor's trust account,' she told Daily Mail Australia on Friday. The promotion, which touted prizes including a $10million waterfront home, a Birkin bag and a Rolex timepiece, was due to be drawn on Friday, with the announcement now slated for Saturday. Roxy Jacenko partnered with Sydney businessmen Youssef Tleis (right) and Kassim Alaouie (left) to launch a promotion which saw people entered into a draw that would give one of them a chance to win a luxury home at Cronulla Roxy Jacenko says she is personally been left out of pocket would pay back refunds to customers 'The company account did not have enough to pay the First Prize winner, so I personally loaned the company money so that it could pay off substantial creditors and so that sufficient funds were held in the company's accounts to pay out the $250,000 prize,' she said. 'I loaned the company in excess of $100,000 in order to ensure that sufficient funds were available to the company.' Jacenko resigned as a director last month and Mr Tleis is the sole director of Roxy's Bootcamp Pty Ltd. 'I could not issue refunds from Shopify as Mr Tleis is the only one with access to the NAB account which holds funds he revoked my access to the company bank account,' she said. The admission comes after Jacenko commenced legal proceedings in the Supreme Court of New South Wales in relation to the competition and to allow an orderly means of refunding customers.' The court heard Jacenko sought the appointment of provisional liquidators due to, among other reasons, allegations that Mr Tleis and Mr Alaouie had engaged in 'misleading conduct' over their handling of the promotion due to a sub-clause which stated the prizes would only be delivered if the competition achieved more than $11.5million in revenue. The luxury waterfront home is one of the prizes that was up for grabs for people who sign up to Jacenko's online business course, Brand Bootcamp Punters who pay for the course, which starts at $29, will be entered in a giveaway to win the house and other luxe prize However, the conditions were never made public by Jacenko during a whirlwind of publicity and the clause was also missing from the competition's formal terms and conditions on the Roxy's Bootcamp website. 'The court was taken to documents which indicated that as soon as I understood the situation, I wanted the promotion to stop and then ultimately put money into my solicitor's trust account,' she explained. 'I brought the proceeding also because Mr Alaouie and Mr Tleis planned to continue on with the promotion - this was unrealistic given the terms stated that the house would ONLY be made available if the revenue reached at least $11.5million plus costs, this was never going to happen.' Justice McGrath agreed to appoint a provisional liquidator Cathro & Partners to the company, lamenting the sorry state of affairs that brought the matter before the court. 'The competing interlocutory applications arise in the extraordinary circumstances of the rapid creation and almost equally rapid deterioration in the relationships between Ms Jacenko, Mr Tleis and Mr Alaouie over a business venture involving the promoting of training courses offered by Ms Jacenko to the public using a highly questionable promotion scheme,' he said. 'On any view, the promotion has attracted significant adverse publicity this has led to online commentary which has been extremely derogatory about the promotion itself and those involved in it.' The matter will return to court later this month. Two little girls have tragically been orphaned after their parents died just a few days apart following separate heartbreaking battles with cancer. Nigel Joyce passed away on May 31, while his wife Marjan died on June 6, according to a fundraiser set up for the family from Christchurch in New Zealand. Within just the last two years, Mr Joyce was diagnosed with a glioblastoma brain tumour, while his wife was told she had triple-negative breast cancer. In a cruel twist, Ms Joyce had finished radiation on her breast cancer and was told the disease had gone, only to suffer vision loss and seizures three weeks ago. She was then given the devastating news her cancer had spread to her brain and she died shortly after. The couple leave behind their two daughters Oriana and Emily, aged eight and four. Nigel Joyce passed away on May 31, while his wife Marjan died on June 6. They leave behind their two daughters Oriana and Emily Mr Joyce suffered a 'health crisis' on Anzac Day and was placed into palliative care where he was given just two weeks to live. A Give A Little fundraiser has now been set up to help support the two girls, with a joint funeral to be held for their parents in Christchurch's St Andrew's College on Sunday. A close friend of the family, Angela Hawkins, described Ms Joyce, who was Dutch, as having a 'beautiful nature' and a 'kindness that always brought out the best in everyone'. 'Marjan was a truly remarkable person who left a lasting impact on those around her,' she said. 'Her legacy will live on through her children and family and the many lives she touched with her kindness and beautiful nature. 'May Marjan and Nigel rest in peace, and may their memory continue to bring comfort and inspiration to all who knew them.' A close friend of the family, Angela Hawkins, described Mrs Joyce (pictured) as having a 'beautiful nature' and a 'kindness that always brought out the best in everyone' Mr Joyce was remembered for his 'kind and gentle soul', with both he and his wife having dedicated their lives to raising their two young girls. 'Their love and dedication to their family were evident in everything they did,' Ms Hawkins told Chris Lynch Media. 'They both loved life and cherished their family deeply. Despite facing a rough time in the last five weeks, both Marjan and Nigel never complained. 'They took everything in stride and felt so loved by their family, friends, StAC, and the wider community. 'They remained strong, united, and resilient, showing everyone the true meaning of love and dedication. 'The world was a better place for having both Nigel and Marjan in it.' The fundraiser has so far attracted donations of more than $120,000. Motorists have been urged to avoid the M1 Motorway Four people rushed to hospital in serious condition Two children have been rushed to hospital along with a man and woman in their 50s after a horrific crash on a major freeway. Emergency crews rushed to the M1 Pacific Motorway at Helensvale at the northern end of Queensland's Gold Coast, after a Mitsubishi Triton ute collided with the rear end of a police car at 1.20pm on Friday. The crash happened near Exit 62 and members of the police, ambulance and fire departments were quickly on scene to help the four injured people to escape. A 55-year-old male police officer, the 54-year-old female driver of the ute and her two-year-old passenger sustained serious injuries. Four people, including a child under 10, have been rushed to hospital in serious condition after a major crash on the M1 Pacific Motorway at Helensvale, Queensland A spokesperson for Queensland Police said that the police car had stopped on the side of the motorway before the collision A Queensland Ambulance Service spokesperson said four people were in serious but stable condition after they were transported to Gold Coast University Hospital. Among the injured was a two-year-old girl who sustained facial injuries, another girl aged under 10 with a leg laceration, and the two drivers in their 50s. The police officer had chest and abdominal injuries and the woman had leg injuries. A Queensland Police Service spokesman said the police car had stopped on the side of the motorway and was performing traffic duties before being struck. The vehicle was not in pursuit of anyone at the time, the spokesman confirmed. Photos of the car show that its entire rear end has been crushed into the cabin of the vehicle. A third car which had stopped to offer assistance was also involved in the crash but nobody from that vehicle was injured. The Forensic Crash Unit is now investigating the three-vehicle crash. Traffic congestion has mounted in the area and stretches as far back as Dreamworld at Coomera Two southbound lanes of traffic remain closed near the crash site and congested traffic is now reaching the Dreamworld location at Coomera as the wreckage is cleared. Police have urged all motorists to avoid the area for the time being. 'Motorists heading south are urged to avoid the area or expect long delays,' the spokesperson said. Witnesses to the crash said that they saw the ute slam into the back of the police car. Kate Rootsey told the Courier Mail that she saw one of the officers trapped in the police vehicle as she drove past. 'It looks like someone ran into a police car and it looked badly smashed,' she said. 'I could see the police officer in the vehicle.' Mr Rootsey added that a number of drivers were slowing down to look at the wreckage as they drove past, causing more traffic congestion. Meanwhile, roughly an hour later on the other side of Brisbane, Fire and Emergency Services responded to a single vehicle crash on Caboolture River Road at Upper Caboolture at 2:30pm. A car had crashed into a tree and multiple ambulance crews and police were seen on the scene. It is believed there are serious injuries. More to come. A parliamentary hearing was interrupted by a pro-Palestinian protest by controversial Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe. Senator Thorpe was attending the Senate Estimates hearing by video conference from her Melbourne office on Friday when a Palestinian protest flag was seen on the shelves behind her. The flag was embossed with the words 'Free Palestine'. Parliamentary rules state that attendants may not bring 'protest signs' or wear 'clothing with political or protest slogans'. As Palestine is not a recognised country, the flag was considered a 'protest sign' and 'Free Palestine' a political statement. As a result Senator Thorpe was ordered to remove the sign or switch her camera off. Although Senator Thorpe was in her own office, she was still considered to be in attendance at the senate hearing. Senator Thorpe (pictured) was told to either remove the flag or disable her camera when she addressed the hearing 'Did you want me to rearrange my office? Because I'm in my office and we need to free Palestine,' Senator Thorpe said Chair of Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee Senator Louise Pratt warned Senator Thorpe. 'I need to advise Senator Thorpe that a point of order has been raised with me privately about signs and protest signs and activist materials not being allowed on your screen,' Senator Pratt said. 'Senator Thorpe, it's helpful if we can see you.' Senator Thorpe was told to either remove the flag or disable her camera when she addressed the hearing. Senator Thorpe replied: 'Did you want me to rearrange my office? Because I'm in my office and we need to free Palestine. There's a genocide going on.' Senator Pratt replied, 'Thank you Senator Thorpe,' before calling on the next speaker. When Senator Thorpe next appeared, the flag was not visible. Senator Thorpe is a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause. Last month she addressed pro-Palestine protesters who interrupted the Victorian state Labor conference at the Moonee Valley Racecourse in Melbourne. In October last year Senator Thorpe arrived in the Senate chamber for the first day of sitting wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf. The current Israeli-Palestinian conflict began when militants burst into southern Israel on October 7 last year, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking around 250 hostages. More than 100 were released during a November cease-fire in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Israel's offensive in response to the attack has killed at least 36,096 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians. Israel says it has killed 15,000 militants. A ceasefire is still being negotiated. The Wisconsin father who went viral when he stormed the stage at his daughters graduation to stop her superintendent from shaking her hand has revealed the reason why he intervened. Matt Eddy, 49, interrupted the Baraboo High School ceremony in front of his mortified daughter in what police believe was a 'pre-planned' episode as she was about to receive her diploma on Friday. As she worked her way through a line of school officials, shaking their hand, Eddy grabbed superintendent Rainey Briggs by the arm shouting: 'That's my daughter. I don't want her touching him.' In a police report from that night obtained by WMTV, Eddy told police he 'had past issues with Rainey and dislikes him', as he was charged with disorderly conduct. It's unclear what kind of issues he had with Rainey in the past or why he dislikes him, but he told police he wanted to prevent him from 'having the satisfaction of shaking his child's hand.' 'So he went onto the stage to prevent that from happening,' the police report added. As his daughter worked her way through a line of school officials, shaking their hand, Matt Eddy grabbed superintendent Rainey Briggs by the arm and pushed him aside (far left) Eddy told police he 'had past issues with Rainey and dislikes him' and 'wanted to prevent Rainey from having the satisfaction of shaking' his child's hand' Superintendent Briggs told police he did not know who the man was at the time. He said he knew of one instance where Eddy's daughter had been disciplined by the school, but that he had nothing to do with it, insisting he 'has no idea why Eddy reached the way he did.' It comes after superintendent Briggs took out a restraining order against Eddy over the incident. In his restraining order, Briggs stated Eddy said he is 'not going to touch my (expletive) daughter' Wisconsin News reports. He added that he 'created space' and told Eddy to get away from him. Dane County Circuit Court Commissioner J. Alberto Quiroga has since temporarily ordered Eddy to have no contact with Briggs until a hearing on June 14. School District of Baraboo spokesperson Hailey Wagner also confirmed to Time magazine that Rainey has since filed a restraining order against him. 'The School District of Baraboo is taking this incident very seriously and are working closely with local law enforcement to ensure a thorough investigation,' Wagner said. 'Our primary focus remains on celebrating the achievements of our graduates. 'We want to ensure that the significance of this milestone and the hard work of our students are not overshadowed by this unfortunate event.' It follows a dispute between a group of residents and Briggs and the school board. A group of residents are currently trying to recall school board president Kevin Vodak, who was at the graduation. Vodak has been accused of favoritism and providing inadequate pay and support for teachers. Briggs has come under fire for his salary and those of other administrators, while contracts awarded to his consulting firms have also come under scrutiny. Critics also pointed to a high turnover of staff during his tenure and student behavior problems. The school district said in a statement: 'Our primary focus remains on celebrating the achievements of our graduates. 'We want to ensure that the significance of this milestone and the hard work of our students are not overshadowed by this unfortunate event.' The district added that they are working with law enforcement. 'We would like to emphasize that the safety and well-being of our students, staff, and community members is a top priority... The School District of Baraboo is taking this incident very seriously.' Police escorted Eddy out of the building following the confrontation and arrested him for disorderly conduct The school board also issued a statement commenting Eddy. 'No employee of the School District of Baraboo should fear for their physical safety when fulfilling their job duties or at any other time,' the school board said. 'That this adult felt emboldened to behave in this way in front of hundreds of students and other adults should deeply trouble us all; this type of behavior will not be tolerated.' A disorderly conduct charge has been referred to the Sauk County District Attorneys Office. Baraboo high school was in headlines in 2018 after an image emerged appearing to show students giving a Nazi salute. In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com at the time, Peter Gust insisted that the virtually all-white group of boys were merely waving goodbye to their parents, not making any political statement. I am very frustrated and find it reprehensible that people all over the world can snap to a judgment without knowing any facts and go ape and it is coming from all over the world, he said. Four dogs found at the house of an Irish woman who was mauled to death have been killed by authorities, it emerged last night, as mourners held a touching vigil and released balloons in memory of the victim. Nicole Morey, a native of Limerick city, had returned to a home she was renting at Fedamore, Co. Limerick, around 11.30pm last Tuesday night after celebrating her 23rd birthday. The moment she stepped into her house she was pounced upon by two of her four dogs, one of which is an XL Bully and all four of which are all understood to be restricted breeds. Armed police who descended on the scene were forced to shoot one of the dogs dead, while the others were subdued with pepper spray - but by the time they arrived Ms Morey is said to have lost an arm and been savaged to death. A Garda source last night confirmed that 'all four' dogs had since been 'destroyed' by the authorities, as more than 200 people attended a vigil held in memory of Ms Morey, at her mother Lisa Morey's house at Bawnmore View, Crossagalla, Limerick. Ms Morey's sister, Jolene Morey, led a countdown at the vigil before hundreds of coloured balloons were released into the sky and a selection of Ms Morey's favourite songs were played on a loud speaker. Nicole Morey, 23, died after she was attacked by her pet in the Fedamore area of Limerick on Tuesday She often posted videos of her pets on social media Heartbreaking video has emerged of her with her pet in happier times, dancing together Ms Morey's sister, Jolene Morey, led a countdown at the vigil before hundreds of coloured balloons were released into the sky and a selection of Ms Morey's favourite songs were played on a loud speaker Mourners held a touching vigil and released balloons in memory of the victim The man who alerted the emergency services to the fatal dog attack 'did all he possibly could' to help her, sources close to the investigation into her death said yesterday. The man had access to a security camera video feed of the scene of the attack, but was not at the scene and was not physically able to assist Ms Morey, who was dead by the time police arrived. After calling 999, which in turn alerted gardai and paramedics, the man then shared the CCTV footage with the victim's family - in order to alert them to the incident. 'The individual that had access to the [footage], and that saw the incident occur, was not in the vicinity of the house, and was largely helpless, so they contacted the emergency services first,' the source said. The footage was widely shared online after that by unknown parties, sparking a Garda appeal on Wednesday asking people 'not to share these videos, out of respect for the deceased'. A senior Garda source confirmed yesterday that 'all four' dogs were included on a 'restricted dog breeding list' and are all banned in the UK. However, no such ban exists in Ireland. The senior source confirmed that Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster conducted a postmortem on the body of Ms Morey yesterday. The source said the autopsy results were 'not being released for operational reasons', although gardai did not suspect any foul play in Ms Morey's death. XL Bully owner Nicole Morey was killed by her dog when she had just come in from a night out Ms Morey is pictured with two pets. It is not known if either of the dogs pictured were involved Nicole Morey was savaged by the dog at a house in Co. Limerick at around 11.40pm on Tuesday The 23-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene following the attack on Tuesday night Despite efforts by the emergency services to save her, Ms Morey was pronounced dead at the scene. The senior Garda source said gardai were aware of speculation about the circumstances of the fatal dog attack. There was no evidence to suggest any foul play was involved, they said. The investigation into Ms Morey's death was continuing, led by Roxboro Road Garda Station. Members of Ms Morey's family wept and comforted one another under a canopy of multi-coloured balloons last night. Ms Morey's death has sparked a debate about whether dogs such as the XL Bully, which was suspected of being involved in her death, should be banned. Rural affairs Minister Heather Humphreys has responsibility for the decision, and she set up the Stakeholder Group on Dog Control in March. She has said she will introduce bans on certain breeds if it is recommended by the group. However, she said she does not expect the group's recommendations until the autumn. Since it was established in March, the group has met only once, with another meeting due this month. Sources in the group have said they are actively considering whether a ban should be placed on certain breeds of dogs, as has been done in Britain and the North. However, others in the group have indicated it is a 'hot topic', and 'it is not a simple black and white issue, with knock-on effects for any decision'. Due to cross-breeding of dogs, strains of banned dogs can be present in dogs not explicitly on the banned list. Rishi Sunak this morning apologised for leaving D-Day events early to take part in a TV interview and admitted it was a 'mistake' for him not to stay longer. The PM has faced a Tory backlash after it emerged he travelled back from Normandy in order to continue his general election campaign in front of ITV cameras. He had appeared in northern France earlier on Thursday to pay tribute to veterans. But Mr Sunak returned to Britain before commemoration events to mark the 80th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Western Europe were over. It meant the PM missed a major international ceremony and gathering of world leaders on Omaha Beach. His early departure saw Foreign Secretary David Cameron instead pictured alongside US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer remained in Normandy for the international ceremony and was pictured in talks with Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky. It later emerged that Mr Sunak had given a broadcast interview following his return from Normandy, a clip of which was shared by ITV journalist Paul Brand. Mr Brand told ITV News at Ten: 'Today was the slot we were offered we don't know why.' In a social media post this morning, Mr Sunak admitted 'it was a mistake not to stay in France longer - and I apologise'. Rishi Sunak, pictured yesterday with his wife Akshata Murty, this morning apologised for leaving D-Day events early to take part in a TV interview The PM has faced fury after it emerged he travelled back from Normandy in order to continue his general election campaign in front of ITV cameras Mr Sunak's early departure saw Foreign Secretary David Cameron pictured alongside US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer stayed for the international ceremony, during which he met with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky In a social media post this morning, Mr Sunak admitted 'it was a mistake not to stay in France longer - and I apologise' Labour accused Mr Sunak of a 'dereliction of duty' for skipping the full programme of D-Day events, while the Liberal Democrats said the PM had 'let down our country'. Mr Sunak was also facing anger from within his own Tory ranks, with fears he had dealt a shattering blow to the Conservatives' general election hopes. A former minister told MailOnline: 'It simply underlines what dreadful advice he gets from the No10 operation. 'And begs the question why he went to the country when D-Day was obviously a huge event. 'He could have been seen as an international statesman, rather than someone who doesn't show respect to the fallen. 'And bear in mind, too, that polls already show [Nigel] Farage ahead among the over-55s.' One Tory defending a northern seat said it could be as bad as Theresa May's 2017 social care announcement, which prompted her notorious 'nothing has changed' U-turn. 'We'll know over the next week,' they said. Another told MailOnline the humilating episode would do particular damage with the older generation of voters the party has been targeting. They expressed worries about a Conservative wipeout on 4 July, saying: 'Honestly fear a rump of 70 led by Priti [Patel] that strikes a deal with Farage in 18 months is becoming possible, even likely.' Conservative commentator Tim Montgomerie told BBC Newsnight of the PM's decision to leave Normandy early: 'If he came back for a political interview from the D-Day commemoration, that is absolutely indefensible. 'This is going to be the last big commemoration when survivors will be present. 'I think it's political malpractice of the highest order if Rishi Sunak absented himself for an election interview on ITV.' One Conservative MP, in reference to ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn refusing to sing the national anthem early on in his leadership, told the Spectator: 'This is Corbyn levels of disrespect.' Colonel Richard Kemp, a former British Army commander in Afghanistan, told the Mirror: 'I know there is a general election campaign to fight but this is a very significant anniversary of a major military achievement which led to freedom in Europe. 'It's being attended by some of the veterans who may never attend another due to their age. I think it was very important that he showed his commitment to it. 'He should have stayed. As the PM of our country he should have been there to represent the country and to show our gratitude to those who fell.' Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: 'The Prime Minister has ducked out of the international D-Day event to fly back to the UK to campaign. 'I am here in Normandy in a personal capacity because I think it matters. Does he?' In his apology posted on X/Twitter, the PM wrote: 'The 80th anniversary of D-Day has been a profound moment to honour the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to protect our values, our freedom and our democracy. 'This anniversary should be about those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. 'The last thing I want is for the commemorations to be overshadowed by politics. 'I care deeply about veterans and have been honoured to represent the UK at a number of events in Portsmouth and France over the past two days and to meet those who fought so bravely. 'After the conclusion of the British event in Normandy, I returned back to the UK. On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer and I apologise.' Following Mr Sunak's apology, Labour shadow minister Jonathan Ashworth said: 'Yesterday's D-Day commemorations were about remembering the bravery of all those who serve our country. 'In choosing to prioritise his own vanity TV appearances over our veterans, Rishi Sunak has shown what is most important to him. 'It is yet more desperation, yet more chaos, and yet more dreadful judgement from this out of touch PM.' Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: 'One of the greatest privileges of the office of PM is to be there to honour those who served, yet Rishi Sunak abandoned them on the beaches of Normandy. 'He has brought shame to that office and let down our country. 'I am thinking right now of all those veterans and their families he left behind and the hurt they must be feeling. 'It is a total dereliction of duty and shows why this Conservative government just has to go.' Jacksonville residents have expressed their outrage at the flying of a Nazi flag outside a tire store, intended to protest the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. Radi Ahmad, the owner of 904x4, flew the flag next to the US flag and another reading 'Free Palestine' for three hours before taking it down, reportedly fearing for the safety of his staff and customers. The shop owner said he decided to fly the flag not as an act of hatred but to protest the symbolise what he said was a 'modern-day Holocaust' in Gaza, with the death toll having now surpassed 36,000, according to figures by the Palestinian Health Ministry. 'I wasn't promoting hate, a hate crime, or antisemitism,' he said. 'Around 30 minutes ago, a guy passed by and he yelled "F Palestine" so who really is the aggressor?' Outraged locals said the display only served to demonstrate 'polarization and hatred', however. 'That act does nothing but denote antisemitism and Jew hatred...' Mariam Feist, CEO of the Jewish Federation and Foundation of Northeast Florida told First Coast News. 'It is condemned by our city and that's what I'm focusing on.' A Nazi, US and Free Palestine flag fly outside the 904x4 store in Florida Ahmad said he wanted to bring attention to the 'modern day Holocaust' in Gaza Ahmad insisted the flying of the flag was intended as an act of protest and that 'it's not condoning any kind of hate'. 'I love everybody no matter what color, creed or where they come from.' 'What happened in World War II is happening today,' he told First Coast News. 'It's a modern day Holocaust and nobody's saying anything about it. 'Voicing the opinion for my people, my cousins, my family... people that are getting bombarded and killed and displaced.' 'I put that out there to bring awareness, to bring remembrance to let people understand, we're living or Palestinians are living in a modern-day Holocaust,' he said. Ahmad said he would take down the flag each night when he closes his business and put it back up each morning when he opens. He added that he had not felt any negative impact on his business so far, but that it might be too early to tell. Local officials expressed their condemnation towards the symbolism, however. Senator Rick Scott said: 'Disgusting. This flag is a symbol of evil and hatred, and it has no place in the Sunshine State.' And senator Marco Rubio posted on Twitter/X: 'Antisemitism has no place in Florida and must be condemned by all who understand the horrific evils of the Holocaust.' Mayor Donna Deegan added: 'I strongly condemn the flying of a Nazi flag in Jacksonville. 'This symbol of antisemitism and all symbols of hate that seek to divide us are never welcome in our diverse and inclusive city. 'Jacksonvilles greatest strength is that we are a beautiful mosaic of people from all walks of life, which includes our Jewish and Palestinian citizens who are experiencing immense pain right now.' More than 36,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the conflict erupted, local officials say A member of the United Nations checks a UN-school housing displaced people that was hit during Israeli bombardment in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on June 6 Israel faces sharp criticism from its allies and adversaries over its conduct in Gaza. This week, local health officials claimed the Israel Defense Forces had struck a UN school in central Gaza, killing at least 39 people. Israel's military said it had taken steps to reduce the risk of harm to civilians, claiming the school was being used by Hamas officials. Israel's allies have urged its administration to take steps towards the ending of hostilities, with no significant progress since a week-long truce in November. The conflict erupted after Hamas gunmen, accompanied by other factions, stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing some 1,170 people and taking more than 250 hostage. In the months since, Israel has pounded the dense Gaza Strip with aerial attacks, displacing the vast majority of the population. Israel has stated its war objectives to be returning the hostages and definitively vanquishing Hamas, the de facto governing authority in Gaza. Hamas, rejecting Israel's right to exist and committed to its destruction, has justified the October 7 attack as a response to what it called Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people. Restaurants can only scoop the number one spot on the list once Six eateries from the European nation made the cut with three in the top five The 50 best restaurants in the world have been revealed - with Spain's Disfrutar crowned the ultimate place to dine. The awards, considered the Oscars of international fine dining - were dished out at a ceremony at the Wynn in Las Vegas on Thursday. Six eateries from the European nation made the cut, and three of them even scored a place in the top five. But Barcelona restaurant Disfrutar was named the best in the world by the influential 50 Best list in a year dominated by Spanish and Latin American restaurants. Disfrutar (translating to 'enjoy' in Spanish) opened in December 2014 next to the Ninot market in the heart of the Catalan city. Barcelona's Disfrutar was crowned the best restaurant in the world by British magazine Restaurant in its 50 best list Workers at the 'Disfrutar' restaurant prepare dishes from the tasting menu, on June 6, 2024 Diners at Disfrutar can expect dishes executed with technical mastery Ranked number two last year, Disfrutar is owned and run by chefs Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casanas. The world's 50 best restaurants 2024 1. Disfrutar (Barcelona, Spain) 2. Asador Etxebarri (Atxondo, Spain) 3. Table by Bruno Verjus (Paris, France) 4. Diverxo (Madrid, Spain) 5. Maido (Lima, Peru) 6. Atomix (New York City) Best restaurant in North America 7. Quintonil (Mexico City, Mexico) 8. Alchemist (Copenhagen, Denmark) 9. Gaggan Anand (Bangkok, Thailand) 10. Don Julio (Buenos Aires, Argentina) 11. Septime (Paris, France) 12. Lido 84 (Gardone Riviera, Italy) 13. Tresind Studio (Dubai, UAE) 14. Quique Dacosta (Denia, Spain) 15. Sezanne (Tokyo, Japan) 16. Kjolle (Lima, Peru) 17. Kol (London, England) 18. Plenitude (Paris, France) 19. Reale (Castel di Sangro, Italy) 20. Wing (Hong Kong) Highest New Entry Award 21. Florilege (Tokyo, Japan) 22. Steirereck (Vienna, Austria) 23. Suhring (Bangkok, Thailand) 24. Odette (Singapore) 25. El Chato (Bogota, Colombia) 26. The Chairman (Hong Kong) - Highest Climber Award 27. A Casa do Porco (Sao Paulo, Brazil) 28. Elkano (Getaria, Spain) 29. Borago (Santiago, Chile) 30. Restaurant Tim Raue (Berlin, Germany) 31. Belcanto (Lisbon, Portugal) 32. Den (Tokyo, Japan) 33. Pujol (Mexico City, Mexico) 34. Rosetta (Mexico City, Mexico) 35. Frantzen (Stockholm, Sweden) 36. The Jane (Antwerp, Belgium) 37. Oteque (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) 38. Sorn (Bangkok, Thailand) 39. Piazza Duomo (Alba, Italy) 40. Le Du (Bangkok, Thailand) 41. Mayta (Lima, Peru) 42. Ikoyi (London, England) 43. Nobelhart & Schmutzig (Berlin, Germany) 44. Mingles (Seoul, South Korea) 45. Arpege (Paris, France) 46. SingleThread (Healdsburg, California) 47. Schloss Schauenstein (Furstenau, Switzerland) 48. Hisa Franko (Kobarid, Slovenia) 49. La Colombe (Cape Town, South Africa) 50. Uliassi (Senigallia, Italy) Advertisement Diners at the restaurant can expect dishes executed with technical mastery, such as the caviar-filled Panchino doughnut, the frozen gazpacho sandwich and squab with kombu spaghetti, almond and grape. 50 Best, run by British magazine Restaurant, describes it as having 'far-reaching technique, original thinking and ground-breaking flavours'. It is run by three chefs who trained at the renowned El Bulli in Roses, Spain, which has topped the 50 Best list five times, including the first-ever in 2002. A Spanish eatery also took second place: Asador Etxebarri, in the Basque town of Atxondo. Asador Etxebarri has been consistently ranking high in The World's 50 Best Restaurants list and has only been off the list once since 2009. Coming in at number three was Table de Bruno Verjus in Paris, among the most expensive in the French capital. The restaurant achieve the rare feat of entering the top 10 on its first appearance in The Worlds 50 Best Restaurants list in 2023, rising even higher in 2024. The 50 Best list was launched in 2002 and quickly established itself as an international alternative to France's renowned Michelin Guide. It has more than 1,000 voters across 27 regions around the world - a mix of chefs, food writers and 'well-travelled gourmets'. Disfrutar and Table de Bruno Verjus both also have the highest three-star ranking from Michelin, while Asador Etxebarri has one. Spanish and Latino establishments dominated the top 10 this year, with Madrid restaurant Diverxo in fourth place, Lima's Maido in fifth, Mexico City's Quintonil in seventh, and the Don Julio steakhouse in Buenos Aires in 10th. Sixth place went to Atomix in New York City, an upscale Korean restaurant offering a chef's tasting menu with beverage pairings. 'Each dish is served in beautiful bespoke ceramics accompanied by an explanatory card providing accessible information on the ingredients, origin and inspiration, helping to make Atomix The Best Restaurant in North America 2024,' wrote 50 Best on its website. Alchemist in Copenhagen, Denmark, was crowned the eighth best and offers diners an immersive dining experience under a dome-shaped roof with various graphic sceneries that change throughout the dinner. And ninth place went to Gaggan Anand in Bangkok, Thailand, where diners can sit at the chef's table and overlook the open kitchen area. Gaggan was voted Number three in Asias 50 Best Restaurants 2024 and earned the title of The Best Restaurant in Asia 2024 at The Worlds 50 Best Restaurants. Elsewhere in the list, three restaurants from Tokyo were awarded, with eatery Sezanne ranking the highest in the Japanese capital in 15th place. Hong Kong saw two of its restaurants make the list, as Wing was the city's highest new entry on the entire list, at 20, while The Chairman was the highest climber, moving from last year's 50th spot into an impressive number 26. Restaurants can only scoop the top prize once, after which they're entered into a separate 'Best of the Best' programme. Members of that elite group include Geranium and Noma in Copenhagen, as well as New Yorks Eleven Madison Park, The Fat Duck near London, Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, and Mirazur in Menton, France. Last years winner, Central of Lima, Peru, now also joins them on that list. Second place went to Asador Etxebarri in Atxondo, Spain Table de Bruno Verjus in Paris earned the third place title In fourth place was Madrid's DiverXO restaurant Lima's Maido, which served a variety of Japanese food, has jumped from 44 to 13 in the 2016 list of the top 50 restaurants in the world before claiming fifth place in 2024 Atomix, an upscale Korean restaurant in NYC came sixth Mexico City's Quintonil scooped seventh place In eighth place was Copenhagen's Alchemist which offers diners an immersive experience Gaggan Anand in Thailand came ninth in the 50 Best list A Flemish Michelin star restaurateur allegedly stood over his British sous chef for ten minutes before calling an ambulance after running him over twice with his Land Rover while drunk in Belgium - it has been reported. Nick Bril, 40, the owner of The Jane in Antwerp, allegedly stood over Joe Claridge, 37, who lost his legs and some internal organs after the accident, for ten minutes and eight seconds - before sending a text saying 'I don't think we'll keep the intern'. The accident is said to have happened in a private staff car park outside the two-Michelin-starred restaurant The Jane at around 6am on Monday, January 8. The emergency services were only called after Bril was urged to do so by a second person and when they arrived, he did not reveal he had run the British man over, saying only that he was drunk, according to local reports which say they are based on judicial sources. This is despite the fact that he had been holding his phone because he previously took a photo of the victim on the ground, according to the reports. Michelin star restaurateur Nick Bril (pictured in 2016, file photo) stood over his British sous chef for ten minutes before calling an ambulance after running him over twice with his Land Rover while drunk - it has been reported Sous-chef Joe Claridge (pictured), 37, was seriously injured in the car park of The Jane - a two-Michelin-star restaurant in Antwerp, Belgium, at around 6am on Monday, January 8 Het Laatste Nieuws said it was told by judicial sources that the investigation also showed Bril even sent some shocking messages after the accident, according to local media, with one saying: 'I don't think we will keep Joe as an intern.' Bril reportedly sent a group WhatsApp made up of staff at The Jane gourmet restaurant the following message: 'Guys, I just finished up with our new intern. Complete KO. An ambulance and the police, everything involved. 'I don't think we'll keep Joe as an intern.' Bril also reportedly told the authorities: 'One glass of wine, then two negronis and two beers. Then I finished with a few shots of tequila with the team. I can't say how many. I think I was still able to drive.' Claridge was also reportedly drunk that evening as it was a Sunday, when the staff traditionally finishes off the opened bottles of wine and champagne. The afterparty then continued until the early hours and at 6am, with eight still people present. His colleagues called Claridge a taxi and saw him stagger to the taxi stand in front of the restaurant as they departed, but at some point he fell to the ground. CCTV seen by investigators reportedly revealed what happened next, although it does not show exactly how Claridge fell. A short while later Bril appears, closing the restaurant door and heading to his Land Rover. At 6.20am, Bril reverses and turns his car around right where Claridge is lying. He then stops, with Claridge lying between the front and rear wheels of the Land Rover, it has been reported. Bril then drives forward and runs over the victim a second time with the same wheel, before driving on a bit before stopping the car. The chef then reportedly got out and walked over to Claridge, with the footage showing the latter still moving on the ground. Bril said that he tried to wake him up 'but that didn't work and I panicked.' Bril reportedly sent a group WhatsApp made up of staff at The Jane gourmet restaurant (pictured in 2015, file photo) the following message: 'Guys, I just finished up with our new intern. Complete KO. An ambulance and the police, everything involved The Land Rover reportedly belonging to Bril is seen being towed away by authorities for examination after the accident in January At 6.29am, a jogger appeared and spoke to Bril, wondering why an ambulance had not been called. The jogger told local media that Bril said: 'I have a new phone and I can't use it properly yet.' The jogger then walked to the front desk of a nearby hotel and asked them to call the emergency services. Bril does not mention the accident and instead portrays Claridge as simply a drunk man lying unconscious in the street. Bril takes another photograph of Claridge before calling the emergency services as the jogger walks back from the hotel, precisely 10 minutes and 8 seconds after he noticed Claridge lying on the ground behind his vehicle, according to local media. He reportedly tells them there's a drunk man in the street, but again he doesn't talk about running him over. The ambulance arrived 10 minutes later, with Bril still not telling them about running Claridge over with his Land Rover. The medics put Claridge on a stretcher and began caring for him in the ambulance. They then noticed that Claridge is seriously injured and call the police. Bril meanwhile is sitting in his car with the engine ready to drive off, with only the ambulance blocking his way. The police however breathalysed him with 1.67 per millimetre of alcohol in his blood. The legal limit in Belgium is 0.5 per millimetre. After the accident, Claridge's mother immediately travelled to Belgium to watch over her son in hospital until he woke up from a coma 50 days later. Claridge reportedly lost several organs and both of his legs had to be amputated. Reports say he is still in hospital and a long rehabilitation lies ahead of him. Bril is not only suspected of intoxication behind the wheel and the accident itself, the investigating judge is also looking into whether he committed negligence by not immediately providing assistance. One of the medics who attended to Claridge told the authorities that they were angry with Bril, adding: 'I felt very bad that he wasn't honest with us. This may have had serious consequences for the victim.' They added: 'If Bril had said that the man had been hit by a car, we would have acted differently. Then we wouldn't have put him in the ambulance immediately.' Dutch cook Nick Bril poses for the photographer during the presentation of the 2023 edition of the French gastronomic guide 'Gault et Millau' for the Benelux region Police cars are seen at the scene in January in the aftermath of the incident, which prosecutors are understood to be treating an accident Omar Souidi, Nick Bril's lawyer, told local media: 'I cannot reach my client, Mr Nick Bril, at the moment. When I look at his social media, I suspect that he is currently still abroad (in a different time zone).' He added: 'I note that journalists today appear to have quicker access to a secret investigation than the parties directly involved. 'If this is the case, it is shocking and a manifest violation of, among other things, Nick Bril's rights of defence and the right to a fair trial. 'Nick Bril also has his rights. I will advise him to claim them in full.' When asked to comment, the Antwerp public prosecutor's office told local media that the investigation is still ongoing and that communication about it is not yet an option. Fuming business owners in Magaluf have admitted they prefer the rowdy British crowds to losing money as they blast the island's tourist crackdown following another night of booze-fuelled carnage. Images from the Spanish island have captured drinkers and partygoers from the UK bearing their bottoms on the beach while others show rowdy groups of holidaymakers lining the streets - with some sitting on the pavements with their heads in their hands. It comes amid the introduction of draconian fines spilling into the thousands if tourists are caught drinking on the streets or buying alcohol past 8.30pm, in a move the government says is only protecting the island. But tattooists, nightclub workers and taxi drivers were left raging when the Mallorcan authorities decided to embark on the stupid journey to rid Magaluf of its binge drinking culture. Angry locals say their businesses are being put in the ground, their hard-earned money ripped from their pockets and their livelihoods put at risk. Drinkers head to the beach as clubs close and the sun rises, heading into the sea to cool off in Magaluf, Mallorca Tourists flashed their bottoms on the beach A trio of partygoers were spotted taking a dip fully-clothed, seemingly after a long night out on the Strip Paramedics treat a girl who's passed out on a bench on the party island Partygoers can be seen sitting on the pavements with their heads in their hands after a long night of hitting the town Brit holidaymakers are seen cosying up on the floor outside a nightclub on the Spanish island A women takes a selfie outside Tokio Joe's nightclub with what appears to be a burrito in hand Father-of-two Oscar, 41, has worked on the Magaluf strip at Sailor Tattoo House for ten years. He said: The government is ruining businesses. They say, tourists go home. Thats stupid and it's costing us all money. Tourists come and spend their money in the area, which is good for jobs and the economy. Its just a political thing for the votes, like, I care for the island, the island is just for the Mallorcans. Thats racism. Im ashamed when people say go home tourists because Im Mallorcan. I hate the government. At the start of the summer season last week, around 10,000 locals marched through the streets of Palma to protest what they said was over-tourism. Since the drastic measures were announced, more and more Brits are in two minds over whether they should come to Magaluf. A poll by the Majorca Daily Bulletin found 43 per cent of Brits were thinking twice about coming to the island. It spelled trouble for locals in the ravers paradise where drunk Brits splash their cash to locals reliant on boozy tourists spending money. Last week, protesters from all walks of life gathered in neighbouring Palma to call for limits on the number of tourists flying in. They accused foreigners of inflating property prices and driving up the cost of living. Banging drums and holding banners telling tourists to go home, demonstrators forced the citys main road to close as police officers armed with batons and wearing stab-proof vests surveilled the march from riot vans. In Magaluf, where the booze rarely stops flowing from dawn till dusk, the government reacted to the protests by banning drinking in the street and buying alcohol after 8.30pm from corner shops. Anyone breaking the rules introduced on May 11 could be fined up to 1,500 (1,350). If someones offence is decided to be more serious, the fines could increase to 3,000 (2,550). A man argues with a bouncer on the Magaluf strip during a night out Another partygoer was spotted passed out on the steps outside a bar on the infamous Magaluf Strip Holidaymakers from the UK crowd around in large groups outside a set of clubs A trio of women embark on a night out on the party island Every tourist fined will be reported to their respective embassies. The crackdown will last for at least five years, by which time officials hope to have cleaned up the town. When MailOnline visited the usually bustling Magaluf strip this week, dozens of restaurants were empty at peak times. On the beaches, sun loungers sat unused despite the fantastic weather. At night, anyone daring to try skinny dipping in the sea was ushered away by patrolling police officers. There were fewer tourists on the Magaluf Strip than usual and the clubs werent filled. As a result, they are trying even harder to coax people inside, employing multiple promoters at once to offer free drinks to encourage people to enter. One of these promoters, Ashton, from the Shankill Road in Belfast, came to Magaluf at the start of May, when he was just 17. He has since turned 18 and worked at Galaxy bar on the Magaluf Strip for around a month. From 8pm until 4am he stood in the street, drinking on the job and trying to encourage tourists into the bar. Since the protests last week, he said the flow of tourists had weakened and the party atmosphere had started to weaken. The youngster said: If you stay for a month you kind of know everybody because youre up and down the street. Its calmed down, I dont see people in the streets driving as much. Meanwhile, Magaluf taxi drivers told MailOnline government crackdowns on drinking and the anti-tourist movement across the Balearic Islands threatened their livelihoods. Two partygoers stumble through the streets during a night out on the Strip Paramedics treat a girl who's passed out on a bench following a boozy night A man is seen passed out on a sun lounger as the sun rises over Magaluf Two worlds collide as locals out for morning exercise come into contact with drinkers still out partying into the next day Father-of-one Jose has been a taxi driver for in Magaluf 22 years. At 6am, the streets would usually still be jam-packed with people returning from the Strip. Yet on Wednesday morning, he and three of his colleagues had no customers even though the clubs had just closed, which would usually signal a rush of people flocking towards the taxi ranks. Standing beside his empty taxi, Jose told MailOnline the governments restrictions would lose him money as boozy Brits who needed taxis at all hours of the day were replaced with older and richer tourists who only needed taxis for a few hours each day. He said: Its going to ruin our business. With these people we work 24 hours, with other people its quieter at night. Toilet assistant John, 45, has cleaned the loos and sells aftershave at Tokio Joe's nightclub on the Magaluf Strip for ten years. He passionately agreed that the government's restrictions would destroy the club. John said: 'The government don't want the tourists. It used to be busy but now it's going down, down, down. Protesters hold a banner reading 'Mallorca is not for sale' during a demonstration to protest against mass tourism and housing prices The words 'Go Home Tourist' were scrawled in English over a wall underneath a real estate promotion billboard in Nou Llevant, Mallorca, a neighbourhood that has seen a massive influx of foreign buyers over the past few years Protesters shout at shocked holidaymakers enjoying dinner and drinks in Palma 'It's going to clean out the club. It's not what it used to be any more. 'They're going to clean out the business.' Brits on holiday in Magaluf said they were worried about the fines and what it would mean for visiting Mallorca in the future. Many had first come to the island as children with their parents, who themselves had come as kids. Yet despite the governments crackdown on heavy drinking, many Mallorcans are fighting back. Last week, tattooist Oscar revealed a counter protest saw locals plaster the town with posters that criticised the government. He said: Four days ago we had a protest - thousands of workers said go away government, you go home. Workers put papers out [saying], Government go home, suck it. When police officers tore down the posters, they simply came back the next day and stuck more up, he said. A pensioner has captured the mood of the nation with his deeply unimpressed reaction to the coming election, evoking the spirit of Brenda from Bristol. Nigel was one of several voters in Hertford asked by a reporter about the coming contest on July 4, when Britain goes to the polls. He said: 'I couldn't give a damn. When you get to my age you've heard it all before - they're all full of s***. 'I don't care if people are offended by my language. I'm offended by politicians.' He continued: 'They can spew out what they want, and promise what they want, but I'm 74 years of age and I've heard it all before.' Nigel gave his reaction to the Pen News YouTube channel for its 'Listening to Britain' series. His pearls of wisdom have now been watched by more than 50,000 people across different platforms. Nigel from Hertford, pictured, is not impressed by the two main contenders to enter Downing Street next month One viewer who witnessed Nigel's rant suggested 'this is the man for PM' 'This is the man for PM,' wrote one viewer. Another commented: 'I feel like the first guy and I'm 27.' A third person reacted: 'He's at an age when absolutely no f***s are given. I can't wait to get to that age so I say anything and get away with it.' Another wrote: 'He's right, our politicians are about as reliable as thin ice!' Nigel isn't the first voter to capture the public imagination with his reaction to an impending election. Brenda from Bristol went viral with her response to Theresa May's snap general election announcement in 2017. She said: 'You're joking. Not another one? Oh for God's sake... I can't stand this.' Later in his interview, Nigel was asked if there was much difference between Conservative and Labour for him. 'Not for a working man,' he said. 'I don't trust any of them - it's just talk.' Nigel was dismissive of the two main party leaders Sir Keir Starmer, left, and Rishi Sunak, right. He said: 'People can vote for what they want, I'm totally democratic. I just don't like any of them' He also gave his view on the Green Party, who made gains in the Hertford district in last year's local elections. Nigel said: 'People can vote for what they want, I'm totally democratic. I just don't like any of them. 'The two main parties I'm totally fed up with. Same old crap you hear all the time. Promise? Yeah right. 'In two years time, all they'll say is 'we haven't done it yet, because we're still making up for the mess the other lot left behind'. 'Same old every time.' He went on to say that he wouldn't be voting Conservative or Labour. 'Green? I might do. I might just not bother,' he said. And as a parting thought he added: 'I'm glad Man United won the FA Cup.' New episodes of Listening to Britain are released on the Pen News YouTube channel every Tuesday. Hundreds of people queued up outside a West Midlands chippy to get their hands on Britain's 'cheapest' fish and chips, sold for just 1p. Merchants Fish and Chips in Halesowen, near Birmingham, offered the 'crazy' bargain to mark 80 years since D-Day on Thursday, which was also National Fish and Chip Day. Hungry customers queued around the block from 11am for the cut-price meal. The takeaway, which usually charges 7 for a portion of fish and chips, reduced the cost to just 1p - a staggering reduction of 99.9%. Pat Williams, 78, travelled from Kidderminster, Worcestershire, to be first in the queue an hour before the chip shop opened at midday. Customers queued round the block (pictured above) to get their hands on the 'cheapest' fish and chips in Britain Merchants Fish and Chips were selling their cod and chips (pictured above) for just 1p on Thursday, a dish they normally charge 7 for Pat Williams (pictured above) from Kidderminster, Worcestershire, traveled to Halesowen, West Midlands, to queue at 11am - an hour before the fish and chop opened Jackson Kinyoe (pictured above) from Wolverhampton said he is a regular at Merchants, adding that while the queues were big, "you don't mind at these prices". She said: 'I wanted to make good use of my free bus pass and take advantage of this amazing offer. 'I've come along with a friend who I worked with for 50 years and we thought it would give us a bit of a different day out. 'I use the Merchants in Bewdley, and it usually costs 10.50 for a pensioner's special, but that comes with bread and butter and a cup of tea or coffee. 'It's great value, but this is even better and all for a good cause as they are giving some proceeds toward the poppy appeal. 'I would not have been here if my father did not return from Dunkirk. He loved a bargain too, so it's in his honour as well.' Jackson Kinyoe, 36, from Wolverhampton, said: 'I work this way so I'm a regular customer and come here for my lunch quite a lot and the haddock is lovely. 'What usually sets my back 7 a time is today going to cost me a penny - it's brilliant. 'The queues are pretty big. It's going to take a lot longer than usual to get served but you don't mind waiting at these prices.' The patriotic chippy offered the bargain meal to mark 80 years since D-Day and National Fish and Chip Day Customers enjoyed a 99.9% discount from the usual price at Merchants Fish and Chips on Thursday Manager Aggie Orthodoxou (left) and Leoni Lambrouat (right) showing their patriotic side with Union Jack flags Merchants Fish and Chips previously offered a 50% discount on the King's Coronation day last year Another customer Paul Hurst, 49, of Halesowen, added: 'I've never seen an offer this cheap. It must be the cheapest portion of fish and chips anywhere in the country. 'I remember one doing 99p previously but this is just absolutely crazy. Nothing costs 1p anymore. Even penny sweets. 'I'm just hoping I can get served and back to work again on my lunch break. But I'm not missing out on this.' Manager Aggie Orthodoxou - who has worked at Merchants since it opened two and a half years ago - said he was expecting 'mayhem.' Speaking ahead of the one-day-only offer, the 52-year-old said: 'We are doing regular cod and chips for a penny. I think this will be absolute mayhem. 'We are going to do a bit for charity too and put money towards the poppy appeal. 'We did fish and chips half price for the King's Coronation last year and that was a big success as well.' A pregnant mother and her unborn child have been killed in a car crash in Queensland. Meggen Jade, also known as Meg Priest, and her unborn child Carter Jacob George Shadforth (Priest) died in the one-vehicle accident on a rural road in Greenvale on May 28. Their funeral will take place at Sugar Reef Baptist Church in Ingham later this month, the Townsville Bulletin reported. Meggen Jade, also known as Meg Priest, and her unborn child Carter Jacob George Shadforth (Priest) died in the one-vehicle accident on a rural road in Greenvale on May 28 Tributes poured in from loved ones as they sent their condolences to Meggen's partner Brendan Shadforth Meggen's funeral will take place at Sugar Reef Baptist Church in Ingham later this month Tributes poured in from loved ones as they sent their condolences to Meggen's partner Brendan Shadforth. 'A beautiful girl and little baby who were taken far too soon,' one friend wrote. 'RIP Meg and Carter.' An investigation into a tragic incident that left a young woman with horrific injuries at the Melbourne Royal Show is getting closer to a resolution. Shylah Rodden was placed in an induced coma for weeks after she was hit by the Rebel Coaster ride and suffered a brain injury on September 24, 2022. The then-26-year-old was trying to get her phone back after dropping it on the tracks in an incident inadvertently captured on video by an onlooker. The brief of evidence in the case has now been finalised by WorkSafe Victoria and handed over to barristers, 7News reported on Friday. The lawyers will use that evidence to decide if any action should be taken against the operators and organisers of the show. Shylah Rodden (pictured) was critically injured in the tragic accident in September 2022 The major update has come three months out from the two-year deadline for action to be taken. The Rebel Coaster returned to the Melbourne Royal Show in September last year, despite the ongoing investigation. Ms Rodden's family issued a statement around the same time to say internet trolls were impacting on Shylah's recovery with their constant abuse. Kylie Rodden said their focus was on supporting her daughter and helping her move on with her life. 'We are so grateful to see her progress from the horrific injuries she suffered,' she said in September 2023. 'She has defied the odds.' The family previously said they had been reluctant to speak out because of the 'relentless abuse and criticism' directed at Shylah. 'What happened was a tragic accident, which as a family we've had to deal with. To be hearing and reading the negative comments made in the media and on social media has been hurtful to Shylah and our family,' the statement read. 'This sort of negativity has a real impact on the progress that has been made. We've done our best to shield Shylah from these comments, as so much of it has been misguided and, in many instances, cruel. 'Unfortunately, Shylah has seen these comments and they really affect her.' Horrifying footage shows Shylah Rodden (pictured in black in the centre of the photo) moments before being hit by the Rebel Coaster at the Melbourne Royal show Ms Rodden said she hoped her statement would help people understand how hurtful some of the comments were. 'Our wish is to keep moving forward and to enable Shylah to continue with her recovery and focus on the incredible progress that she's making,' she said. The Rodden family also said they were keen to get an outcome to the WorkSafe investigation. President Joe Biden on Friday apologized to Volodymyr Zelensky for the way hardline Republicans delayed a $61 billion package of funding for months earlier this year and promised that the U.S. would continue to stand with Ukraine in its time of need. 'We're still in ... completely, thoroughly,' Biden told his Ukrainian counterpart during their meeting at a Paris hotel. Both leaders are in the French capital after Thursday's 80th anniversary of D-Day, which proved a chance to underline international alliances against totalitarianism. Washington is Kyiv's biggest supplier of weapons and cash by far at a time when Ukraine faces an intensified Russian offensive in the east. But isolationist Republicans, urged on by former President Donald Trump, have at times hamstrung efforts to get funding bills through Congress. 'You continue to fight in a way that is just remarkable. It's remarkable. And we're not going to walk away from you,' said Biden. President Joe Biden met with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in a Paris hotel on Friday and promised that the U.S. would continue to stand with his country 'I apologize for the weeks of not knowing what's going to happen in terms of funding because we had trouble getting the bill passed ... had the money... some of our very conservative members were holding it. 'But we got it done finally.' As a result of the delays, Russia has sought to capitalize on Ukrainian weapons shortages with its new push along more than 600 miles of front line. On Thursday Washington announced it will send another $225 million of aid, including munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, mortar systems and artillery rounds. And in their meeting, Biden said he would sign a $225 million package to help rebuild the country's electricity grid which has been shattered by months of bombardment. For his part, Zelensky thanked Biden for U.S. support and said he would use their meeting to update his counterpart on the state of fighting. 'it's very important that in this unity, the United States America, all American people stay with Ukraine, like it was during World War Two, how United States helped to save human lives, to save Europe,' said. 'And we count on your continuing support and standing with us shoulder to shoulder.' Firefighters in Kherson, Ukraine, battle fires triggered by Russian shelling on June 6 President Joe Biden used the D-Day commemorations to underline the importance of alliances He also seemed to refer to Biden's recent decision to allow Ukraine to use American weapons to strike inside Russia, and hinted that he wanted more freedom to use them in the defense of Kharkiv. 'Your decisions have had a very positive influence,' he said. 'I dont want to share everything, all the details with press, sorry, but there are some details on the battlefield that you need to hear from us.' This week, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will provide Ukraine with its Mirage combat aircraft. The American president and his Ukrainian counterpart were both in Normandy a day earlier for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, their planes parked next to each other at Caen airport. Biden used the occasion to warn against the perils of isolationism and to underline his commitment to Ukraine. President Zelensky had an emotional meeting with D-Day veteran Melvin Hurwitz, 99, a former US Air Force pilot. 'You saved Europe,' he told Hurwitz Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron link hands as they arrive at the ceremony. France said this week it will send Mirage fighter jets to Kyiv 'Isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago and is not the answer today,' Biden said in his speech at the U.S. cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach, triggering his biggest round of applause. 'We will not walk away,' Biden said. 'Because if we do, Ukraine will be subjugated and it will not end there.' Zelensky shared a touching moment with a D-Day veteran during his visit. When 99-year-old Melvin Hurwitz told him, 'You're the savior of the people,' Zelensky quickly bent to embrace him, saying: 'No, no, no. You saved Europe.' The Ukrainian president was feted by world leaders at the international ceremony commemorating the D-Day landings. Macron said: 'We are all children of the landings. 'When we look at those who want to change borders by force to rewrite history, let us stand with dignity and look at those who landed here. Let us have their courage. 'Here, President of Ukraine, your presence here today shows us this in a very forceful way.' A Russian judge has been found dead after falling from a high window in Moscow. Natalia Larina, 50, had a reputation for handing down punishments to foes of the Moscow authorities and in support of Russia's FSB secret services, but was more known for prominent criminal cases. An investigation has been launched into the cause of her death close to her apartment block on 1st Mashinostroeniya Street in the Russian capital. Larina had a young daughter, according to reports. Investigators are understood to be checking one theory in local reports which suggested she had lost a large sum of money to 'telephone scammers'. Natalia Larina (pictured), 50, had a reputation for handing down punishments to foes of the Moscow authorities and in support of the FSB secret services, but was more known for prominent criminal cases Shortly before her death, she allegedly reported to police that fraudsters convinced her that her bank account was under threat from people seeking to send her funds to help the armed forces of Ukraine. She transferred her cash - said to be one million rubles (around 8,800) to another account, and in doing so became victim of a scam. Many Russians have fallen for this type of fraud in recent months. Sources say she became upset that she was 'deceived', and left a note. However, there is no official confirmation so far of this version of events. Larina was a criminal judge for more than 15 years, and her death came months after she suddenly quit the Tagansky Court. She had acted as a judge in various high profile fraud cases. In 2015, she remanded in custody artist Pyotr Pavlensky who set fire to a door of the FSB building in Lubyanka Square in a political protest. Earlier she gave a judgement against the hardline National Bolsheviks. And in 2011, Larina sentenced Ministry of Transport official Vladimir Makarov, accused of sexually abusing his daughter. Larina is not the only high-ranking Russian official whose death from falling out of a window has aroused suspicion since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In December 2023, Vladimir Egorov, 46 - the Tobolsk City Duma deputy - dropped to his death from a third-floor window in the city. Larina is not the only high-ranking Russian official whose death from falling out of a window has aroused suspicion since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In December 2023, Vladimir Egorov, 46 (pictured) dropped to his death from a third-floor window In June 2023, the glamorous vice-president of a Russian bank, Kristina Baikova, 28, reportedly plunged to her death after falling from the window of her Moscow apartment In February 2023, top Russian defence official Marina Yankina, 58, was found dead after falling 160ft from a tower block window He was a member of Vladimir Putin's ruling United Russia party, and his corpse was found in the yard of his house. In June that same year, the glamorous vice-president of a Russian bank reportedly plunged to her death after falling from the window of her Moscow apartment. Kristina Baikova, 28, allegedly fell from her 11th floor apartment on the Khodynsky Boulevard in the early hours. She died instantly at the scene. In February, a top Russian defence official was found dead after plunging 160ft from a tower block window. Marina Yankina , 58, was discovered by a passerby at the entrance of a house on Zamshina Street in St Petersburg. She is believed to have fallen from the 16th floor to her death. Furthermore, in December 2022, multi-millionaire Pavel Antov , who had criticised Putin's war in Ukraine, was found dead after a mysterious fall from a hotel in India. Antov, also from the main pro-Putin party United Russia, had been on a trip to celebrate his upcoming 66th birthday when he died mysteriously. And before that, in September 2022, the chairman of a Russian oil company that criticised Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine was found dead in suspicious circumstances after he plunged from a sixth floor window at a Moscow hospital. Ravil Maganov, 67, chairman of Lukoil, died on the spot after falling from a window on the sixth floor of the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow. In December 2022, Pavel Antov, Russia's 'highest-earning elected politician' who had criticised Putin's war in Ukraine, was found dead after a mysterious fall from a hotel in India Ravil Maganov, 67, (pictured with Putin after receiving a medal) chairman of Russian oil giant Lukoil, died on the spot after falling from a window on the sixth floor of the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow in September 2022 Russian state media quickly said his death was a suicide, but law enforcement sources said there was no suicide note and there were no CCTV cameras on the section of the building where Maganov fell. Lukoil was one of the few major Russian companies to call for the end of fighting in Ukraine after Moscow invaded. In a statement in the days after the invasion, the Lukoil board called for an 'immediate' end to the fighting, expressing its sympathy to those affected by the 'tragedy' of Russia's so-called special military operation in Ukraine. Seven months later, Maganov was found dead after falling from the hospital window. Almost 400 million voters will descend on polling stations across the continent for EU elections this week as politicians battle it out for 720 seats in European Parliament. The EU elections are the world's second-biggest exercise in democracy behind the election in India, and after a period of what seems like perma-crisis with the Covid-19 pandemic, surging costs and the war in Ukraine, the stakes seem higher than ever. The results will have an impact on issues ranging from global climate policies and defence to migration and geopolitical relations with China and the United States - not to mention the extent to which Europe will continue to support troops in Kyiv as they battle Vladimir Putin's forces. Since the last EU election in 2019, populist, far-right and extremist parties now lead governments in three EU nations, are part of governing coalitions in several others, and appear to have surging public support across the continent. But a lack of unity among the right-wing elements of Europe means the leading candidates are spread across several political groups. Here, MailOnline breaks down everything you need to know about the European Parliament elections, the key trends and factors influencing voters, and what the results are likely to be. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers a closing speech during Portugal's Democratic Alliance (AD) party's campaign rally for the European elections in Porto on June 6, 2024 ROME, ITALY - JUNE 06, 2024: The President of the Italian Council of Ministers Giorgia Meloni during the Rai television program 'Porta a Porta' The political sentiments in France and Germany, the EU's two largest and most powerful members, are likely to tend towards more right-wing, conservative candidates, with the parties of Emmanuel Macron (L) and Olaf Scholz (R) set to lose out (From L) Lead candidates for the presidency of the European Commission, German Ursula von der Leyen of the European People's Party (EPP), Luxembourgish Nicolas Schmit of Party of European Socialists, German Terry Reintke of GreensEuropean Free Alliance, Italian Sandro Gozi of the group Renew and Austrian Walter Baier of Party of the European Left take part in a debate at the European Parliament in Brussels, on May 23, 2024 Anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders of the PVV, or Party for Freedom, casts his ballot for the European election in The Hague, Netherlands, Thursday, June 6, 2024 Flags of the European Union on June 6, 2024 in The Hague, Netherlands. Voters in 27 European Union countries go to the polls this weekend to elect members of European Parliament How do the elections work and why are they important? This week's elections will see 720 members of the European Parliament (MEPs), coming from beyond the Arctic Circle to the edges of Africa and Asia, elected to five-year terms. These candidates belong to national parties, many of which are affiliated with larger European political groups that form alliances according to their policies and values. The number of members elected in each country depends on the size of the population, ranging from six for Malta, Luxembourg and Cyprus to 96 for Germany. In 2019, Europeans elected 751 lawmakers. Following the United Kingdom's departure from the EU in 2020, the number of MEPs fell to 705, though some of the 73 seats previously held by British MEPs were redistributed to other member states. Unlike national parliaments, the European Parliament does not have the right to propose laws - it can only negotiate those proposed by the executive European Commission. But the lawmakers can vote on a wide range of legislation covering banking rules, climate, agriculture, fisheries, security and justice. They also vote on the EU budget, which is crucial to the implementation of European policies, including, for instance, the aid delivered to Ukraine. The first votes were cast in the Netherlands yesterday, with Ireland and the Czech Republic heading to the ballot box today and the rest of Europe set to follow over the weekend. Europe-wide results will be announced Sunday night or early Monday morning after all member states have completed voting. After the election, MEPs will elect their president at the first plenary session, from July 16-19. Then, most likely in September, they will nominate the president of the European Commission, following a proposal made by the member states. In 2019, Ursula von der Leyen narrowly won a vote to become the first woman to head the institution. She is seeking a second term. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party is expected to consolidate its power Right-wing populism on the rise Britain's fervent attempt to leave the Union dominated the headlines at the last EU elections in 2019, but five years later, a slew of issues are at hand. Besides the war in Ukraine, voters across Europe have contended with the spiralling cost of living and energy prices, illegal migration, the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the forced march towards 'net zero' - issues that far-right and populist parties have used to cultivate significant support. The political sentiments in France and Germany, the EU's two largest and most powerful members, attest to this. The centrist Renaissance party of Emmanuel Macron - whose political rhetoric has revolved around building a stronger Europe, supporting Ukraine and standing up to Vladimir Putin - is set to come a distant second in this week's elections to the far-right National Rally (RN), which is forecast to scoop almost a third of the vote. In Germany meanwhile, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has gained considerable popularity in recent years and is locked in a tight race for second place with Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats. The AfD is also set to capitalise after one of its members was stabbed in Mannheim earlier this week as he tried to prevent someone from tearing down an election poster - an incident which came just days after an Afghan knifeman killed a police officer and stabbed four other people in the same city. Elsewhere, Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party looks set to consolidate its power, while exit polls in the Netherlands suggest that far-right outfit Party for Freedom has made big gains and is in a tight race with an alliance of social democrats and greens to emerge as the biggest Dutch party. In Ireland, with around 20 per cent of the population born outside the country and record levels of asylum seekers, anti-migrant sentiment has escalated, prompting a sharp decline in support for the leftist-nationalist Sinn Fein whose progressive and pro-migration stances appear at odds with many of its core working-class voters. And the likes of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party and Austria's Freedom party - both far-right outfits - are on track to emerge victorious in their respective nations. Migration is a major topic of contention in this year's elections Honorary chairman of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Alexander Gauland takes his seat at the beginning of a session at the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, where the German Chancellor held a keynote speech on security in Germany on June 6, 2024 in Berlin A France's far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party volunteer pastes a campaign poster of party President and lead European Parliament election candidate Jordan Bardella in Lyon on May 6, 2024, ahead of the June 9 European Parliament election Mainstream parties should still maintain majority amid right-wing divisions The rise of the far-right is not expected to overwhelm the EU, in part because of the inherent divisions between the major players. Several of the main right and far-right parties in Europe are split among different political groups and in many cases have sought to distance themselves from one another. For example, Germany's AfD was until recently part of Europe's Identity and Democracy (ID) group, the largest conglomerate of far-right elements including France's RN, Italy's Lega, Austria's Freedom party and the Netherlands' Party for Freedom. But it was recently expelled at the request of the RN after leading candidate Maximilian Krah became embroiled in a series of scandals - including one incident in which he suggested not all members of the Nazi SS should have been viewed as war criminals. Meanwhile, Meloni's Brother of Italy party has refused to ally with the RN, and has instead partnered with right-wing movements from Poland, Sweden and Belgium as part of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group. Amid such infighting, POLITICO polls predict that far-right candidates will enjoy a significant boost in this week's election but will not overcome the majority of pro-EU mainstream parties - the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) and the centre-left Socialists and Democrats. The far-right will however wield considerable power in the European Parliament to influence policy decisions, pushing for tougher border controls and migration regulations, rolling back restrictive and costly environmental policies, and focusing on strengthening the economy of Europe. Anna Delvey, 33, debuted a new look on Thursday as she walked the runway to court on Thursday, wearing a custom-made Shao New York outfit, which included a bedazzled ankle monitor. Delvey, a Russian native whose real name is Anna Sorokin, is famously known for falsely posing as a German heiress to gain social status. She is currently under house arrest for overstaying her visa. The convicted con-artist stepped out in New York City ahead of an appearance at immigration court yesterday - sporting a sparkly letter A to adorn her ankle monitor. Ankle monitors are devices worn by some criminal defendants who are released from jail pretrial. Along with the accessory, Delvey wore a cream-colored mini-dress and matching neck scarf, which she co-designed with the label Shao New York. She completed the look with beige heels. Anna Delvey arriving at Manhattan Court in New York City on Thursday. She wore a cream-colored mini-dress by fashion label Shao New York. She paired it with beige heels. She can also be seen sporting her ankle monitor with a bedazzled sparkly 'A' The convicted con-artist stepped was photographed sporting a sparkly letter A to adorn her ankle monitor on her way to court The fashion brand re-posted a video taken by fashion publicist Kelly Cutrone of Delvey in her court-room outfit on their Instagram story. This is not the first time Delvey has sported a look by the fashion brand on her way to court. Last month, she was photographed wearing a white button-down shirt with a black bow, black pencil skirt and black pump. She also wore a black blazer with a red 'A' stitched on her chest, referencing Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel, 'The Scarlet Letter'. This comes after Delvey and Cutrone announced last year that they were joining forces to form the Outlaw Agency to help fashion designer Shao Yang to launch her label. Delvey later hosted the brand's first fashion show on the rooftop of her apartment building in New York, due to her house arrest. Last month, Delvey turned her courtroom appearance into a fashion show in Tribecca, New York. She has been photographed several times wearing the brand Shao New York. As part of her look, Delvey sported a red 'A' letter stitched on her blazer; a nod to the 1850 American novel 'The Scarlett Letter' Delvey's courtroom fashion has always made headlines. Back in 2017 when she was being prosecuted for conning members of New York's upper class, there was an Instagram account dedicated to documenting her outfits The fraudster, who inspired Netflix's 2022 hit series 'Inventing Anna', posed as a wealthy heiress to access the upper-class New York social scene from 2012 to 2017, when she was arrested in a NYPD sting operation. During her prosecution, it was estimated that she stole around $275,000. Throughout her trial, Delvey's courthouse fashion made headlines, and there was even an Instagram account that documented her outfits. She was convicted of larceny in the second degree, attempted grand larceny, and services theft and served almost four years in prison after her 2019 conviction. She was taken back into custody by ICE six weeks after her release in 2021 for overstaying her visa. She was then released in October 2022, but has been holed up in her $4,250-a-month apartment in New York's East Village ever since. Delvey hosted a fashion event at her cramped, rented home, while sporting an electronic ankle tag last summer According to Ira Judelson, who has handled bail arrangements for high-profile criminal defendants, such as Lindsay Lohan and Lil Wayne, there is a team of people tracking your ankle bracelet and knows where you are at all times. 'When criminal defendants get their GPS ankle bracelet, everyone feels a little violated. They feel constricted. They feel not in control. They feel like people are watching them and know where they go and what time they go there. And that's all true. It really is a GPS-tracker, and I have a team of monitors who are watching where every bracelet is at all times,' he told Business Insider. In regards to how an ankle monitor might feel, he said: 'At first when you have it on, and you're walking around, and you feel something heavy on your ankle, it's not a great feeling. It's like you're carrying a radio around on your ankle. It might be an embarrassment. And it's also a reminder that you're in trouble.' Earlier this year, Delvey launched a legal bid to quash her 24/7 confinement by claiming her 'draconian' house arrest serves 'absolutely no purpose' and 'breaches her constitutional rights'. Her lawyers filed a habeus corpus petition a civil suit used to assess whether an imprisonment is lawful claiming that Delvey suffered from 'severe emotional distress and stress' because of her bond conditions. Reform UK have overtaken the Tories among voters aged over-55, a new poll has shown. In the latest blow to Rishi Sunak ahead of the general election on 4 July, a Redfield & Wilton survey found Reform were backed by 19 per cent of 55 to 64-year-olds. By comparison, the Conservatives were on just 14 per cent support among this age group. Among voters aged over 65, who will mostly be pensioners, the Reform lead over the Tories was slightly smaller. Nigel Farage's party were backed by 19 per cent of retirees, compared to the Conservatives' 17 per cent support. The level of support for Reform among all over-55s was up five points from last week's Redfield & Wilton poll. Meanwhile, Tory support among those aged 55 to 64 slumped seven points, while Conservative backing among those aged over 65 fell by six points from last week. The latest survey was carried out after Mr Farage performed a stunning U-turn and announced he would now stand in the election and had taken over as Reform leader. Mr Farage is planning to use his appearance in a BBC election debate tonight to attack the Prime Minister for skipping a major D-Day event. It came as Tories expressed fears the huge row would further damage their standing among older voters. Reform UK have overtaken the Tories among voters aged over-55, a new Redfield & Wilton Strategies poll has shown Reform leader Nigel Farage is planning to use his appearance in a BBC election debate tonight to attack the Prime Minister for skipping a major D-Day event Tories have expressed fears the huge row over Mr Sunak's decision to leave Normandy earlu would further damage their standing among older voters The PM this morning apologised for missing a major international D-Day ceremony and said it was a 'mistake' for him to leave before commemoration events were over. He had appeared in northern France earlier on Thursday to pay tribute to veterans. But Mr Sunak returned to Britain before commemoration events to mark the 80th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Western Europe were over. This meant the PM missed a major international ceremony and gathering of world leaders on Omaha Beach. It later emerged Mr Sunak had conducted an interview with ITV on his return to Britain, which he used to continue his election attack on Labour over tax. Mr Farage, who was in northern France yesterday in a personal capacity, questioned why Mr Sunak felt he could skip the event with other world leaders. The Reform UK leader will this evening face off against rivals from six other parties as he makes his first debate appearance since announcing his comeback to frontline politics. Sources close to Mr Farage confirmed he would use the event to bring up Mr Sunak's decision to return from Normandy early yesterday. The latest Redfield & Wilton poll showed the Tories' vote share of 19 per cent among all voters was their lowest ever since Mr Sunak became PM The latest Redfield & Wilton poll showed the Tories' vote share of 19 per cent among all voters was their lowest ever since Mr Sunak became PM, while Reform were on their highest level of support on 17 per cent. Labour were found to be on 42 per cent support, giving them a 23-point lead over the Conservatives. Sir Keir Starmer's party was shown to hold a lead over the Tories among every age group. Labours margin over the Conservatives ranged from 42 points among those aged 18-24 (50 per cent vs 8 per cent) to 11 points with those aged 45-54 (33 per cent vs 22 per cent). Reform UK attracted almost a fifth of the vote (19 per cent) among each of the three oldest age groups - 45-54, 55-64, and 65+ but enjoyed the support of only 7 per cent of those aged 18-24. Mr Sunak was today facing anger from within Tory ranks over his decision to skip the international D-Day event, with fears he had dealt a shattering blow to the Conservatives' general election hopes. A former minister told MailOnline: 'It simply underlines what dreadful advice he gets from the No10 operation. 'And begs the question why he went to the country when D-Day was obviously a huge event. 'He could have been seen as an international statesman, rather than someone who doesn't show respect to the fallen. 'And bear in mind, too, that polls already show [Nigel] Farage ahead among the over-55s.' One Tory defending a northern seat said it could be as bad as Theresa May's 2017 social care announcement, which prompted her notorious 'nothing has changed' U-turn. 'We'll know over the next week,' they said. Another told MailOnline the humilating episode would do particular damage with the older generation of voters the party has been targeting. They expressed worries about a Conservative wipeout on 4 July, saying: 'Honestly fear a rump of 70 led by Priti [Patel] that strikes a deal with Farage in 18 months is becoming possible, even likely.' Redfield & Wilton polled 2,000 British voters online between 5 and 6 June. A Russian armoured vehicle covered in protective plating was blown up by a drone after the commander forgot to close the hatch. The embarrassing fail was caught on camera and shared by Ukraine's Ministry of Defence, as footage showed the metal 'turtle tank' rolling along a muddy battlefield in Ukraine before it was destroyed. The Russian combat vehicle, clad in protective sheet metal in an attempt to stop Ukrainian drones from causing damage to the tank, could be seen shakily trucking along the path unaware of the destruction that would hit just moments later. As the rusty-looking vehicle zoomed through the area, the clip cuts to the drone's perspective and shows the device penetrating the tank after getting past the outer sheet metal shell and slipping into the open hatch. The 'iron shed' then bursts into flames, sending an orange blaze into the sky in a humiliating blunder from the Russian commander. The Russian 'iron shed' tank could be seen trucking through a Ukrainian battlefield before it was fatally hit by a drone The Ukrainian drone targeted the metal-plated tank and managed to penetrate an open hatch before the vehicle exploded The 'turtle tank' was hit by the drone and quickly burst into flames The tank explodes in a fireball after the drone slips inside Glowing sparks were sent flying as the fire continued to tear through the metal vehicle and the tank was left a charred heap of ruins after the drone's impact. The makeshift plated tank cover only covers the sides and top of the vehicle, seemingly allowing operators to fire shells from the tank. These Russian makeshift tank covers have recently been seen popping up across Ukraine as Vladimir Putin's dwindling forces desperately grasp at methods that will protect them from powerful Ukraine drone attacks. In April, one video leaked to Telegram channels showed three Russian tanks with the metal covers plodding along through a battlefield at the Ukrainian-held town of Krasnohorivka as they came under fire. Although the covers do not appear to affect the tank's movement, their efficiency is not known given they seem to reduce much of the tanks' visibility. Russian tanks have been hugely affected by Ukrainian drones after a NATO official told Foreign Police last month that more than two-thirds of targeted Russian tanks were destroyed by drones. Many are cheaply made, using off-the-shelf components that often carry improvised munitions including grenades or homemade bombs. Experts believe the'iron shed' tanks are likely modified to offer them protection against Ukrainian drone attacks, which are becoming increasingly prominent because of Ukraine's lack of conventional artillery shells. One video leaked to Telegram channels show Russian tanks underneath blocky, turtle-like metal shells that appear to have been retroactively fitted to the exterior Another video shows three Russian tanks with the covers plodding along through a battlefield at the Ukrainian-held town of Krasnohorivka as they come under fire AFV Recognition, an authoritative social media account tracking Russian armour, wrote last month: 'It has coverage at the rear leaving only the front open to drone attack, which in my opinion would be quite difficult to grade an FPV drone into if it's moving. 'These are easy to point and laugh at but if it can cross open ground whilst being impervious to drones and then open a gap in a line which can be exploited, it has served its purpose.' The shelled armour could also serve to 'mitigate AI recognition of drones,' the account added in an Instagram post. Due to scarce resources, Ukraine has seemingly created an AI powered drone that can lock on to Russian targets from further away and be more resilient to electronic countermeasures in efforts to ramp up its military capabilities as war rages on. Deputy Defence Minister Kateryna Chernohorenko said Kyiv is developing a new system that could autonomously discern, hunt and strike its targets from afar. This would make the drones harder to shoot down or jam, she said, and would reduce the threat of retaliatory strikes to drone pilots. 'Our drones should be more effective and should be guided towards the target without any operators. 'It should be based on visual navigation. We also call it ''last-mile targeting'', homing in according to the image,' she told The Telegraph. At first, military experts described the makeshift tank covers as an example of Russia's unpreparedness for war, but now it is widely acknowledged that improvised defences are required because of the constant development of drone warfare. A woman has died and a young child is fighting for life after a car careered off a road and smashed into a tree near Brisbane. Emergency services were called to Caboolture River Road in Upper Caboolture, north of Brisbane, at about 2.30pm on Friday. There they found an overturned white family car that had collided with a tree, crushing part of the front of the vehicle. A woman has died and a young child is fighting for life after a car careered off a road and smashed into a tree near Brisbane . Emergency services were called to Caboolture River Road in Upper Caboolture, north of Brisbane, at about 2.30pm on Friday The car's female driver suffered grave injuries in the crash and could not be saved. A young child was rescued from the vehicle and was taken to the Queensland Children's Hospital in a critical condition. Police are investigating. An 18th Century church has launched a legal challenge against a national park after planning chiefs refused permission to install solar panels on its roof - even though local residents are backing plans to help make the church more sustainable. Wardens at the 280-year-old, grade II listed St Anne's Church, in Ings, near Kendal, want to make the building more energy efficient by installing 28 solar panels on its slate roof. But planning chiefs at the Lake District National Park refused permission as they would hide the slate roof of the Georgian church in the village of Ings, near Kendal. In its ruling, the authority said the plans 'would represent a visual intrusion, disruption and contrast in the consistency of materials displayed in the building.' The authority said it would have an 'adverse impact on the outstanding universal values of the English Lakes World Heritage Site and the character of the local area'. The grade II listed St Anne's Church, in Ings, near Kendal, has launched a legal challenge against Lake District National Park after it was refused permission to install solar panels Locals in the village have voiced their support for the plans, which they say are much-needed for a more sustainable energy resource The church was refused permission as the solar panels would hide the slate roof of the Georgian church in the village of Ings, near Kendal The grade II listed church is located within the picturesque Lake District National Park However, a church judge from the Diocese of Carlisle has blessed the plans, giving official Church of England backing to an appeal by the church's wardens. Church warden John Hiley, 75, said: 'We are all absolutely on the same page - so much happens in the church. 'The view of the south-facing roof is extremely restricted and you can hardly see it unless you are in front of the church. 'But in the majority of the village, you can't see it anyway. 'There's three residents who can see the roof and they are all shocked at the national park's decision.' The authority said the church, which dates back to 1743 with a roof made of 'weathered local slate', is of 'high historic significance'. Its decision was supported by conservation groups the Georgian Group and Historic England. Locals in the village have also voiced their support for the plans, which they say are much-needed for a more sustainable energy resource. Parish councillor Paul Riley, 67, has lived next to the church for 15 years and says nobody has any objections. Parish councillor Paul Riley, 67, with his wife Linda, 62, says he has lived next to the church for 15 years and says nobody has any objections He said: 'The daft thing is, is that we want sustainability and we want to keep it as a church and need to help it pay its way, so nobody has any objections. 'I'm sure they will look as nice as possible. There's only a few people who could see them, that's including me, and none of us are complaining about it whatsoever. 'It's because it's a historical building and a listed building but to us, there's no logical reason why you couldn't do it.' Church warden John Hiley said resident were 'all shocked at the national park's decision' Local resident Everly Buckley, 75, said he was 'total in favour' of the solar panels and pointed out that many cathedrals, which are much taller buildings, now have them Everley Buckley, 75, has lived in the village all of his life and is 'totally in favour' of the panels because they 'wouldn't be seen from anywhere'. He said: 'I'm totally in favour of them - they are not visible apart from three little houses so they aren't even visible from the main road. 'They wouldn't been seen from anywhere really. 'A lot of cathedrals in the country have solar panels on them now - and they will be much more visible than what these will be. 'It's a very well looked after church and the community is very thriving community and nearly everyone is in support of doing this.' Barrister James Fryer-Spedding from the Church's Consistory Court, has given his blessing to the scheme. In his judgment, he considered the panels would cause 'moderate but not significant harm' to the church as a building of special architectural or historic interest. Judge Fryer-Spedding also took into the account the church's aims to lower its carbon footprint. He said: 'My assessment is that the moderate harm that will result to the significance of the Church from the implementation of the proposals is outweighed by the benefits of installing a solar panel system.' He gave the Consistory Court's go-ahead for the scheme, provided that planning consent is ultimately granted. Sir Keir Starmer stuck in the knife today as the Prime Minister faced a furious backlash over his decision to leave D-Day commemoration events early. The Labour leader told Rishi Sunak he was 'going to have to answer for the choices that he made' in skipping a major international ceremony in Normandy. 'For me there was only one choice, which was to be there,' Sir Keir said. Even the PM's own veterans minister admitted Mr Sunak had made a 'significant mistake' by leaving early to carry out a TV interview. Johnny Mercer said he understood the 'outrage' at the PM's actions. Earlier this morning, Mr Sunak issued a grovelling apology on social media for not staying longer in northern France as world leaders gathered on the 80th anniversary of D-Day. The PM said 'it was a mistake' for him not to stay in Normandy for the international event after he had attended the earlier British ceremony. Answering questions from broadcasters later, Mr Sunak demanded that D-Day events were not politicised. Downing Street denied reports that Mr Sunak had initially considered missing them altogether. A No 10 spokesman said: 'The PM was always scheduled to attend D-Day commemorations, including the UK National Commemoration event in Normandy, and it is incorrect to suggest otherwise.' The Prime Minister, pictured yesterday with his wife Akshata Murty, is facing a furious backlash over his decision to leave D-Day commemoration events early Labour's Sir Keir Starmer told Mr Sunak he was 'going to have to answer for the choices that he made' in skipping a major international ceremony in Normandy Even the PM's own veterans minister Johnny Mercer admitted Mr Sunak had made a 'significant mistake' by leaving D-Day memorial events early to carry out a TV interview In a social media post this morning, Mr Sunak admitted 'it was a mistake not to stay in France longer - and I apologise' Answering questions from broadcasters on a general election campaign visit to Wiltshire today, Mr Sunak demanded that D-Day events not be politicised Mr Sunak attended the UK national event at Portsmouth on Wednesday and then the British ceremony in Normandy yesterday, the anniversary of the Allied landings. But he left France before world leaders including US President Joe Biden gathered for the main international ceremony on Omaha Beach in the afternoon. Instead, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron was the senior UK minister at the event and was pictured with Mr Biden, France's Emmanuel Macron, and Germany's Olaf Scholz. Sir Keir stayed for the international ceremony and was photographed mingling with global leaders, including Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky. It later emerged that Mr Sunak had given a broadcast interview following his return from Normandy, a clip of which was shared by ITV journalist Paul Brand. Mr Brand told ITV News at Ten: 'Today was the slot we were offered we don't know why.' In a social media post this morning, Mr Sunak admitted 'it was a mistake not to stay in France longer - and I apologise'. Speaking during a visit in London this morning, Sir Keir said: 'Rishi Sunak will have to answer for his choice. 'For me there was only one choice, which was to be there, to pay my respects, to say thank you and to have to speak to those veterans.' Asked whether the PM's apology had drawn a line under the row, Sir Keir said: 'He has to answer for his own actions, for me there was nowhere else I was going to be.' Sir Keir agreed there was a 'mismatch' between Mr Sunak's proposal to require 18-year-olds to do national service and his decision to leave the D-Day commemorations early. He added: 'I think there is and he's going to have to answer for the choices that he made.' Speaking on a campaign visit to Wiltshire, the PM said: 'Over the past two days I've participated in a number of events in Portsmouth and France to honour those who risked their lives to defend our freedom and our values 80 years ago. 'The itinerary for these events was set weeks ago before the start of the general election campaign, and having participated in all the British events with British veterans, I returned home before the international leaders event later in the day. 'On reflection, that was a mistake and I apologise. 'I think it's important though, given the enormity of the sacrifice made, that we don't politicise this. The focus should rightly be on the veterans who gave so much. 'I had the honour and privilege of speaking to many of them and their families, hearing their stories, expressing my gratitude, personally to them. 'But I'm someone who will always admit when I've made a mistake and that's what you'll always get from me.' In a letter to Defence Secretary Grant Shapps today, Labour's John Healey listed a series of questions for the Cabinet minister to answer about the PM's D-Day attendance. The shadow defence secretary wrote: 'There are many people across the country, especially within Armed Forces communities, who feel betrayed and feel that Britain has been let down by the PM. 'The public deserve clear explanations from the PM and those around him about why this dreadful decision was made. 'I trust that these are the questions you are asking, and you will respond as soon as possible.' The Liberal Democrats called on Mr Sunak to give the 5million of donations received by the Tories from controversial businessman Frank Hester in January to a veterans' charity. Their defence spokesman Richard Foord said: 'The PM has badly let down veterans and our country. He disrespected his office and the United Kingdom.' Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said 'patriotic people who love their country' should not vote for Mr Sunak after his snub of the international D-Day anniversary event. Mr Mercer said Mr Sunak's decision to leave the commemorations in Normandy early was a 'significant mistake'. He told The Sun he understood the outrage but defended the PM's record on veterans. The veterans' minister said: 'I get the outrage. It's a mistake. It's a significant mistake for which he's apologised. 'But I'm also not going to join the howls of the fake veterans supporters who say he doesn't treat veterans correctly, because it's not correct.' Appearing on the newspaper's Never Mind The Ballots show, he added: 'Obviously it's a mistake. The PM on these visits receives a lot of advice on what he should and shouldn't be doing. 'I've spoken to the PM this morning and obviously it's disappointing. 'But I do find the faux outrage from people who've done nothing but make my life difficult trying to improve veterans' affairs over the years is pretty nauseating, to be frank.' It later emerged that Mr Sunak had given a broadcast interview following his return from Normandy, a clip of which was shared by ITV journalist Paul Brand Mr Sunak's early departure saw Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron pictured alongside US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Sir Keir stayed for the international ceremony, during which he met with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky Mr Sunak was facing widespread anger from within his own Tory ranks, with fears he had dealt a shattering blow to the Conservatives' general election hopes. A former minister told MailOnline: 'It simply underlines what dreadful advice he gets from the No 10 operation. 'And begs the question why he went to the country when D-Day was obviously a huge event. 'He could have been seen as an international statesman, rather than someone who doesn't show respect to the fallen. 'And bear in mind, too, that polls already show [Nigel] Farage ahead among the over-55s.' One Tory defending a northern seat said it could be as bad as Theresa May's 2017 social care announcement, which prompted her notorious 'nothing has changed' U-turn. 'We'll know over the next week,' they said. Another told MailOnline the humilating episode would do particular damage with the older generation of voters the party has been targeting. They expressed worries about a Conservative wipeout on 4 July, saying: 'Honestly fear a rump of 70 led by Priti [Patel] that strikes a deal with Farage in 18 months is becoming possible, even likely.' Conservative commentator Tim Montgomerie told BBC Newsnight of the PM's decision to leave Normandy early: 'If he came back for a political interview from the D-Day commemoration, that is absolutely indefensible. 'This is going to be the last big commemoration when survivors will be present. 'I think it's political malpractice of the highest order if Rishi Sunak absented himself for an election interview on ITV.' One Conservative MP, in reference to ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn refusing to sing the national anthem early on in his leadership, told the Spectator: 'This is Corbyn levels of disrespect.' Colonel Richard Kemp, a former British Army commander in Afghanistan, told the Mirror: 'I know there is a general election campaign to fight but this is a very significant anniversary of a major military achievement which led to freedom in Europe. 'It's being attended by some of the veterans who may never attend another due to their age. I think it was very important that he showed his commitment to it. 'He should have stayed. As the PM of our country he should have been there to represent the country and to show our gratitude to those who fell.' In his apology posted on X/Twitter this morning, the PM wrote: 'The 80th anniversary of D-Day has been a profound moment to honour the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to protect our values, our freedom and our democracy. 'This anniversary should be about those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. 'The last thing I want is for the commemorations to be overshadowed by politics. 'I care deeply about veterans and have been honoured to represent the UK at a number of events in Portsmouth and France over the past two days and to meet those who fought so bravely. 'After the conclusion of the British event in Normandy, I returned back to the UK. On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer and I apologise.' Following Mr Sunak's apology, Labour shadow minister Jonathan Ashworth said: 'Yesterday's D-Day commemorations were about remembering the bravery of all those who serve our country. 'In choosing to prioritise his own vanity TV appearances over our veterans, Rishi Sunak has shown what is most important to him. 'It is yet more desperation, yet more chaos, and yet more dreadful judgment from this out of touch PM.' Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: 'One of the greatest privileges of the office of PM is to be there to honour those who served, yet Rishi Sunak abandoned them on the beaches of Normandy. 'He has brought shame to that office and let down our country. 'I am thinking right now of all those veterans and their families he left behind and the hurt they must be feeling. 'It is a total dereliction of duty and shows why this Conservative government just has to go.' The heart-stopping moment a mother pushing her baby in a pram was struck by a car in an alleged hit and run has been captured on CCTV. As the woman crossed Claremont Street in Merrylands, in Sydney's west, a blue Mitsubishi turned into the street and struck her at about 1.40pm on Friday. The Mitsubishi was then seen driving away from the injured mother. Incredibly, the car missed the pram by centimetres and the baby was unharmed, but the woman, aged in her 40s, fell to the ground with a broken leg. Witnesses came to her aid and called emergency services. The woman's son arrived a short time later and took care of his baby sister. A shocking alleged hit and run (pictured) caught on CCTV on Friday afternoon shows a mother pushing her baby in a pram being struck by a car in Sydney's south-west Witnesses told attending officers the driver of the car didn't stop. Local man Mohammed Narrouzi was one of the first on the scene. He found the woman on the side of the road, with her baby by her side. 'She was lying down there bleeding and I asked her what happened. She was barely speaking,' Mr Narrouzi told 9News. As well as trying to comfort the injured mum, who is from Afghanistan, Mr Narrouzi also acted as her interpreter as she described the driver to police. The police are still searching for the driver and have urged them or anyone who recognises the blue Mitsubishi to come forward. A woman has been charged after a man was found dead at an apartment complex. Emergency services rushed to the unit block on Old Princes Highway in Engadine, 33km south of Sydney, at about 3am on Friday. A 36-year-old man was found unresponsive. He died at the scene despite the efforts of NSW Ambulance paramedics. Emergency services rushed to the unit block on Old Princes Highway in Engadine, 33km south of Sydney , at about 3am on Friday (pictured, police at the scene) A 36-year-old man died at the scene (pictured) despite the efforts of paramedics A 33-year-old woman was arrested by police and taken to Sutherland Hospital where she underwent mandatory testing. She was later charged with dangerous driving occasioning death, driving under the influence, negligent driving occasioning death, learner not accompanied by a driver and owner not disclose identity of driver/passenger. The woman was refused bail and is scheduled to appear before Parramatta Local Court on Saturday, June 8. Anybody with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. George Clooney has been slammed for calling the White House to complain about Biden's treatment of his wife Amal after the president attacked the human rights lawyer for attempting to prosecute Israel's Prime Minister. Amal Clooney recently signed off a bid by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to seek the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu alongside Hamas leaders for war crimes a move the President denounced as 'outrageous'. The comments sparked fury from her Oscar-winner husband, who spoke to Biden's senior counselor Steve Ricchetti to complain, the Washington Post reports. However, the actor's behavior was met with backlash from people who feel he has overstepped and undermined his high-flying lawyer wife. 'Who elected George Clooney?' one outraged user posted on X, formerly Twitter. George Clooney has been slammed for calling the White House to complain about Biden's treatment of his wife Amal after the president attacked her for attempting to prosecute Israel's Prime Minister Amal Clooney recently signed off a bid by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to seek the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu alongside Hamas leaders for war crimes 'Not another entitled Hollywood elite throwing a tantrum because things aren't what they want,' another added. 'Sure feeds the "girl can't fight her own fights" stereotype. He did her no favors,' a third person observed. RNC Research, which is run by Donald Trump's team, also waded in on the controversy. '1> ICC issues arrest warrant for Netanyahu led by Amal Clooney. 2. George Clooney husband of Amal calls top Biden aides. 3. Biden suddenly reverses position, opposes House effort to sanction ICC. Clooney is hosting a Biden fundraiser later this month. QUID PRO QUO?' The organization posted on X. The dispute began after a furious Biden insisted there was 'no moral equivalence' between Israel and Hamas and hinted at sanctions against the court which could have seen Clooney's wife deported from the US. But Amal has remained consistent in her position. 'I do not accept that any conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, nor that any perpetrator should be above the law,' she said in a statement. The A-list couple have long been among the President's biggest supporters and the actor donated more than $500,000 to Biden's 2020 election campaign. He also co-hosted an online fundraiser that contributed $7 million to his 2020 war chest. But the quarrel has cast doubt over whether he will take part in one of Biden's biggest fundraising efforts of 2024 next Saturday when he was due to be the star attraction at an LA gala alongside former president Barack Obama, TV host Jimmy Kimmel and actress Julia Roberts. But Clooney's behavior prompted a furious backlash online as people suggested he was meddling in politics and his wife's affairs Amal Clooney signed off a bid by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court last month to seek the arrest of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and the country's defense minister Yoav Gallant, right, for war crimes in Gaza The backlash to the court's unprecedented move continued this week when the House passed a bill the would impose sanctions on the court. But the White House has softened its initial fury claiming that sanctions are 'not the right answer' to the court's 'overreach'. It said it would 'strongly oppose' a House bill it claims 'could require sanctions against court staff, judges, witnesses, and US allies and partners who provide even limited, targeted support to the court in a range of aspects of its work'. Congress last week gave Netanyahu an open invitation to address both houses and House Speaker Mike Johnson denounced Biden's backsliding. 'It's alarming that the Biden administration continues to undermine Israel and now, 155 House Democrats have voted to give the ICC a free pass to target our allies and undermine US national security interests,' he said. The row was sparked by the May 20 announcement that court prosecutor Karim Khan was seeking to charge Netanyahu alongside Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and two other Hamas leaders with war crimes and crimes against humanity. He accused the Israeli government of using 'starvation as a method of warfare, together with other attacks and collective punishment against the civilian population of Gaza. Chief prosecutor Karim Khan, seen on a 2022 visit to Ukraine, accused the pair of using 'starvation as a method of warfare, together with other attacks and collective punishment against the civilian population of Gaza The actor and the politician, pictured together in 2009, have been friends for years but the row has cast doubt on Clooney's involvement in a star-studded fundraiser for Biden's re-election that was due to take place in LA on Saturday More than 36,000 people have been killed by Israel's attack on Gaza according to a count by the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave 'They include malnutrition, dehydration, profound suffering and an increasing number of deaths among the Palestinian population, including babies, other children, and women,' he added. It soon emerged that Amal Clooney, a renowned human rights lawyer, was one of the six legal experts who helped the British prosecutor Karim Khan come to his decision. 'I support the historic step that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has taken to bring justice to victims of atrocities in Israel and Palestine,' she said in a statement issued by the couple's Clooney Foundation. 'As a human rights lawyer, I will never accept that one child's life has less value than another's. I do not accept that any conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, nor that any perpetrator should be above the law.' The actor and the president have known each other for years and the couple visited the White House in December 2022 when he was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors. Months later Biden appointed him to the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Neither Israel or the US recognize the court but, if the warrant is issued, Netanyahu, Gallant and the Hamas leaders face arrest should they visit any of the 122 countries that do. More than 36,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since it invaded the Palestinian enclave in response to the October 7 Hamas terror attack that claimed the lives of 1,200 people. Londons phone theft epidemic has claimed another victim after a mugger on a bike snatched a womans mobile from her hand as she was walking down the street. The unsuspecting victim was minding her own business when the man clad in black came up behind her and snatched the mobile before speeding off. Her attempt to give chase was futile as the thief raced off on an e-bike capable of speeds up to 30 miles per hour. The brazen theft happened on 6 June on a busy road near Tavistock Square in Marylebone, central London, just a short distance from Euston Station and the British Museum. Gangs of muggers on e-bikes are terrorising the streets of London as they target children, mothers and commuters by snatching their mobiles A man filming the video from a passing car chillingly predicts what was about to happen, with the onlooker clearly heard in the nine second video saying: 'He's going to grab her phone.' As the bike crook snatches the phone he is heard saying 'see ya' before adding: 'Oh my days.' It is the second such attack caught on camera in as many days as a spate of attacks has shocked many Londoners as the horrific crime wave has swept through the capital. In a separate incident in a different part of London two crooks on a moped were caught on camera trying to swipe a mans phone while riding along the pavement. The victim, who was standing on a street corner, glanced down at his mobile but luckily turned around as the scooter approached. The thief on the back attempted to grab it but the man was able to pull his arm away. The incident happened at 8am today in Tottenham, north London. Following the failed attempt to steal the phone, the scooter then sped away on the path as the victim looked on bemused. The attempted theft is typical of e-bike crooks who operated across the capital, often acting in pairs and using mopeds or electric bikes to make a quick getaway. Local Alex Fletcher warned others of the prevalence of phone thefts, adding: Ive had my phone pinched in central London twice now. Both times they chucked back on the floor straight away because it wasnt an iPhone. Gangs of muggers on e-bikes are terrorising the streets of London as they target children, mothers and commuters by snatching their mobiles. Figures have shown that a mobile phone is reported as stolen in London every six minutes. There were almost 91,000 phones snatched from Londoners in 2022, at an average of 248 a day, with only two per cent of the stolen devices recovered. Last month a video went viral that showed a cyclist dressed all in black ride up to a group of people standing near the Curzon cinema on Shaftesbury Avenue in London's West End. This is the shocking moment a thief on a bike snatches a victim's phone from her hands in broad daylight at a bus stop in central London In the video, a cyclist dressed all in black rides up to group of people standing near the Curzon cinema on Shaftesbury Avenue in London's West End The thief slows down as he approaches them before he snatches the phone out of a young woman's hands and speeds off The thief slows down as he approaches them before he snatches the phone out of a young woman's hands and speeds off. At the start of the clip - which has been shared widely on TikTok and X - the thief can be seen riding alongside another cyclist who is also dressed all in black. The incident was just another example of the terrifying trend of 'gadget snatching' that is sweeping the capital. In April, horrifying footage was shared on social media of a thief on a bike grabbing a woman's mobile phone from her hands in Albany Place, Marylebone. The clip was uploaded with the caption: 'Keep your head on swivel when in London.' The victim is seen in the video attempting to chase after the offender while calling out: 'Hey, come back here.' Another cyclist in a balaclava had passed by her in the seconds beforehand. Similarly in March, two masked thieves were seen snatching a phone and fleeing on their bikes in Hampstead, north London - before crashing into an incoming car. The thief was seen approaching his unsuspecting victim on a bike from behind as she walked along Albany Street in central London He swiftly swooped to seize the mobile phone from her hands Then in February a motorcyclist was shown on CCTV trailing a man down the pavement in Tower Bridge Road before snatching his phone and speeding off. The victim, a 28-year-old banker named Peter, later told MailOnline: 'I just felt something on my shoulder, then a hand went straight for my phone and it was just a snatch and grab.' Footage shows Peter lunging towards the motorcyclist trying to grab his phone, before chasing him down the street. Last August a brazen thief on an electric bike snatched a woman's phone in broad daylight just metres from the Ritz hotel near Green Park. Dash cam footage showed him rushing through stationary traffic at a red light, mounting the pavement and stealing the gadget from the lone pedestrian. The Metropolitan Police has urged Londoners to be aware of their surroundings and to use security features on their phones. Locals warned visitors to central London to 'watch their backs' due to the spate of robberies. Jason Green fumed: 'Phone thieves are the scum of the earth.' Another, Rich, said that phone robberies are 'getting out of control' and asked: 'Met Police, are you guys going to tackle this problem?' While a third, Bert, joked: 'London, where wing mirrors on a mobile phone is an asset.' The Metropolitan and City of London police forces have said they are tackling the crime spree head-on. The City of London Police said it is running a targeted operation that is disrupting phone snatching in the Square Mile. The operation was started due to the worrying rise the force saw in phone snatching in 2022, which carried on into last and this year. The force is even spraying criminals and their mopeds with a DNA spray in a bid to link them to crimes if they race away. Shop owners suspected of buying stolen handsets have also been raided and the force has reintroduced a cycle team to help tackle phone snatchers. The force has been seizing five illegal e-bikes and e-scooters every week that are known to be used by phone snatchers. Meanwhile, a Metropolitan Police spokesman previously told MailOnline: 'Tackling robbery and violent crime remains a priority for the Met. 'Operational tactics to improve mobile phone robberies and theft include maximising dedicated proactive police operations, and increasing officers in local hotspot areas to reduce mobile phone robbery and theft offences. 'The Met is also working with local partners such as mobile phone networks, and local businesses in hotspot areas to break the cycle of stolen mobiles entering criminal markets. 'We know that opportunistic criminals target areas of high footfall and tourism, such as Westminster and Soho within London. 'To combat mobile phone robberies, we have specialist teams of both uniformed officers and detectives who attend robbery calls quickly, search the area with victims and witnesses for suspects, and help to secure CCTV and forensic evidence to support mobile phone robberies and investigations.' The force advised people to remain vigilant in crowded areas and on the transport network and asked anyone who falls victim of a mobile phone robbery to contact the police straight away. The Metropolitan Police has been approached for comment. Controversial progressive pundit Briahna Joy Gray has been fired from The Hill after she appeared to roll her eyes as she interviewed the sister of an Israeli woman taken hostage by Hamas. 'It finally happened. The Hill has fired me,' Gray said on X on Thursday alongside an image of her notice of termination from the outlet. She added: 'There should be no doubt that @RisingHill has a clear pattern of suppressing speech particularly when its critical of the state of Israel.' Gray's firing comes from The Hill's YouTube show after she was slammed on social media over her treatment of October 7 Israeli hostage Romi Gonen's sister Yarden. The former press secretary for democratic socialist senator Bernie Sanders appeared to roll her eyes and interrupted Yarden as she said that she hoped Gray believed women who say they were sexually assaulted by Hamas. Controversial progressive pundit Briahna Joy Gray has been fired from The Hill after she appeared to roll her eyes as she interviewed the sister of a Hamas hostage 'I really hope that you, specifically, will believe women when they say that they got hurt,' Gonen said. The political commentator cut in, saying: 'All right thanks for joining. Stick around.' Throughout the interview, Gray tried to focus on Israel's actions in Gaza, while Yarden repeatedly stated she did not want to speak politics and only wanted to raise awareness about her sister and other hostages. Yarden said: 'I am here to talk about my sister; please, help me spread her story. Help me make people understand what she is going through as a woman in 2024.' Gray had also previously said: 'I really do hope that Netanyahu agrees and Israel agrees to a cease fire or deal that could bring all the hostages home, including your sister. And I'm sure many people watching are praying for her safety.' X users have been slamming Gray online, accusing her of anti-Semitism and a lack of compassion. Carly Pildis, with the Anti-Defamation League, said: 'The way Brianna Joy Gray sneers and rolls her eyes at Israeli pain paints a picture of dehumanization. 'She cannot bear to witness Israelis as human and deserving of sympathy. My global Jewish community suffers the blowback of antisemitism Briahna has propagated.' Democratic Bronx congressman Ritchie Torres also weighed in, reacting to Gray's firing. 'I have as much sympathy for Briahna Joy Gray as she has for the hostages,' Rep Torres said on X. 'None.' Ritchie had previously said: 'The family member of an Israeli hostage pleads with Briahna Joy Gray to believe Jewish women who have been abducted, tortured, and raped by Hamas. Romi Gonen, 23, who was kidnapped from the Nova festival in the deadly October 7 attack by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas 'Instead of projecting empathy, as a normal person would, Gray rolls her eyes, her mouth dripping with contempt. Gray has a hatred for the Jewish State so visceral and fanatical that it renders her cruelly indifferent to the value of Jewish life. Meanwhile, Iranian activist Matthew Nouriel said: 'Briahna joy gray encapsulates everything wrong with the American left - a lack of knowledge coupled with over confidence. 'Add to that her utter arrogance and unmitigated hatred of Jews and this is what you get - a narcissistic as***** who thinks this is acceptable. Shes a disgrace.' Gray has said she will discuss her termination further in her podcast, but has been blaming her firing on her support for Palestine on X. The pundit said her firing was part 'clearly part of a coordinated effort.' She reposted a comment by fellow progressive podcast host Krystal Ball that read: 'Yet another person fired for daring to support Palestinian humanity. I have no doubt Briahna will continue to find great success outside of corporate media but these attempts to silence pro Palestine voices are meant to intimidate those who dont have Bries fortitude and ability to withstand the attacks.' Gray has not been shy about her view regarding Israel, and has openly said she believes it should not exist as a state in its current form Gray, left, is seen with her former boss, democratic socialist Bernie Sanders, right Gray has not been shy about her view regarding Israel, and has openly said she believes it should not exist as a state in its current form. Last month, during a panel at the Dissident Dialogues festival, she said: 'When Hamas is talking about eliminating Israel, its not talking about killing all the Jews. 'Its about eliminating the idea of a Jewish state ending a Jewish state, ending an ethno-nationalist state and having a state more like what we have in the United States of America.' After the panel, as reported by the New Republic, Gray told the moderator: 'This is the most Islamophobic, racist audience Ive ever seen. She added: 'Its disgusting. I hope someone drops a bomb on this entire building.' DailyMail.com has reached out to Nexstar Media, owner of The Hill, for more information on Gray's firing. A hero Royal Marine has been cleared after being detained for seven months in Dubai after authorities admitted to having 'inadequate evidence' against him. Matthew Croucher, 40, who was awarded one of Britain's highest bravery honours - the George Cross - for his service in Afghanistan, was arrested in November after being accused of spying. He was then banned from leaving the UAE pending an investigation. Authorities on Friday revealed that Croucher had been 'arrested after accessing a public facility using illegal means of technology' in a case his family dubbed 'made up and ridiculous'. 'The case was referred to the Dubai Public Prosecution, and after thorough investigation, the evidence was found to be inadequate. The case was dismissed and Croucher is now free to leave the UAE,' said the Dubai media office. Matthew Croucher, 40, was arrested in November after being accused of spying but was today cleared after being detained for seven months in Dubai Croucher was awarded the George Cross for his service in Afghanistan after he jumped on a Taliban grenade to save his colleagues 'The decision highlights the Dubai Public Prosecution's commitment to upholding the rule of law,' the statement continued. The former Lance Corporal, who once jumped on a Taliban grenade to save his colleagues, was arrested on November 4 after Dubai officials accused him of 'intentionally and illegally accessing a telecommunications network'. They did not reveal who they claim he was spying on, nor who he was supposedly working for, the Times reported. Officials reportedly obtained an electronic device, which Croucher claimed was used in his day-to-day job for security penetration testing, after obtaining a warrant to search where he was living. He was forced to sleep on the floor while in prison as it was so overcrowded, according to a close friend who added he was also made to eat a 'primitive meal of rice and chicken twice a day with very unsanitary amenities'. The friend claimed he was interrogated by Dubai's police Criminal Investigation Department for six hours, during which he was questioned about his role within the UK's Ministry of Defence and intelligence services. Before he was cleared on Friday, his family, from Solihull in the West Midlands, said: 'We're shocked at the circumstances which have played out. He was only due to be away for a couple of weeks. We don't understand why it is taking so long to process the case. 'We believe the case to be made up and ridiculous. The Foreign Office has been useless, often making things worse and telling him his case has been formally concluded. 'This has caused our family immense stress and we just hope this can be concluded at the earliest opportunity.' Croucher won the George Cross, Britain's highest honour for valour on the battlefield not 'in the face of the enemy', for his heroics in February 2008. During a night raid on a Taliban compound, he stepped on a tripwire triggering a grenade. Instead of fleeing he deliberately smothered the explosion, twisting on to his back to let his rucksack take the full force and thereby prevent all four members of his patrol being killed by the blast. The George Cross ranks alongside the Victoria Cross as the highest medal for valour. The VC is awarded for outstanding bravery 'in the face of the enemy' and is often regarded as more prestigious, although the GC recognises the same level of gallantry in cases where no enemy is present. A UK Foreign Office spokesperson said before Croucher's clearance: 'We are supporting a British man in the UAE and are in contact with the local authorities.' This is a breaking news story. More to follow. Scuba divers in Florida found a lot more than they bargained for when they stumbled across some suspicious-looking packages in the Atlantic Ocean. On Wednesday, the Monroe County Sheriff's Office shared the shocking discovery and revealed that the bundles are suspected to contain cocaine. The divers in Key Largo were in the process of removing litter from the water and had initially thought they found a bag of rubbish when the identical packages caught their eye. Authorities confirmed there were 25 individually wrapped parcels, which were found in approximately 100 feet of water in the Atlantic Ocean. The Sheriffs responded to the Rainbow Reef Dive Center at approximately 12:25pm and turned over the suspected narcotics to the U.S. Border Patrol. On Wednesday, the Monroe County Sheriff's Office shared the shocking discovery, and revealed that the bundles are suspected to contain cocaine An image shared by the MCSO on Facebook showed a ripped black rubbish bag and the 25 parcels that were reportedly inside. Each parcel was wrapped in tight plastic and had blue text that read 'Nike SB' on the front, alongside a fake version of the brand's swoosh logo. Bundles of narcotics have often washed up on Florida beaches. This most recent discovery comes just one month after nearly $1 million worth of cocaine washed up along the Florida Keyes and was found by a beachgoer, CBS reported. The package contained 65 pounds of cocaine. Meanwhile, back in January, the crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Margaret Norvell seized $32.2 million dollars worth of cocaine, which weighed over a ton, according to ABC News. Coast Guard crews interdicted the illegal drugs in international waters of the Caribbean Sea during two separate cases. Along with the illicit narcotics, six suspected smugglers were apprehended and will face prosecution in federal courts by the Department of Justice. In July 2023, marine biologists warned that drug-addled sharks may be feasting on cocaine bales dumped by drug smugglers off the coast of Florida. In a documentary for Discovery's Shark Week, marine expert Tom Hird looked into whether sharks in the area could have been affected by narcotics which are often hurled into the water by drug smugglers to avoid detection. Hird and his team of researchers noticed strange behavior and movement among the sharks and even found that when they dropped a look-alike cocaine package into the water, predators rushed toward and took bites out of it. A loved-up lifeguard who battered her boyfriend after he admitted kissing another woman on a night out has been spared jail. Matilda Sutherland-Young, or Tilly to her friends, reacted in a fit of rage after Roderick Webster admitted to the infidelity at her home in East Crescent, Enfield Town, on June 7 last year. The 24-year-old 'aggressively jumped' onto her lover and began to punch and strangle him, before throwing his mobile phone out of the second-floor window. She then stormed outside the property to get into her car and drove over the phone to finish it off, leaving Mr Webster with injuries that required treatment in hospital. Sunderland-Young beamed to her family as she left the Old Bailey on May 6 sporting ruby red heels and a crimson crewneck, having just been spared prison in favour of an 18 month community order. She previously admitted GBH, strangulation with intent, and criminal damage at Highbury Magistrates' in April. Matilda Sunderland-Young beamed to her family as she left the Old Bailey on May 6 sporting ruby red heels and a crimson crewneck, having just been spared prison in favour of an 18 month community order The 24-year-old 'aggressively jumped' onto her lover and began to punch and strangle him, before throwing his mobile phone out of the second-floor window The court heard Sutherland-Young had been with Mr Webster since November 2021 - her first serious relationship - and there had never been issues of violence or aggression. The couple were not living together, but Mr Webster had moved into the spare room of a property owned by Sutherland-Young's godmother and was working from home on the day of the attack. The night before Mr Webster was out with work colleagues and had kissed another woman. Feeling 'ashamed and remorseful', he decided to come clean to his girlfriend but was met with fists, prosecutor Emma Antonelli told the court. 'They were both in the bedroom. She sat on the bed. He sat next to her and told her what happened. When he told her, she got up from the bed onto her feet and she aggressively jumped onto him. She said she never loved him and she hated him,' Ms Antonelli said, referring to Mr Webster's account. 'She began to punch him with both hands all over his upper body. He placed his head down and raised both arms over his head. He said the punching was getting to him. He got a lot of bruises and was in pain. 'He said Ms Sutherland-Young pulled his hair and choked him with both her hands. He placed his hand around her wrist and tried to stop her. She then leaned forward and locked teeth onto his wrist and bit him. This bite did not break the skin but left reddening and teeth marks on his wrist. He released his grip because it was painful. 'She then punched him on the left eye, which caused a lot of pain. It caused him to become dizzy and confused. His eye felt hot and bruised. When she saw this she stopped attacking him.' At this point Sutherland-Young sat down, offered to take Mr Webster to hospital, and asked him not to press charges. But the peaceful interlude ended when she flew back into a rage and threatened to lob his phone out the second-floor window. After Mr Webster begged her not to, she did it anyway. Sutherland-Young then threatened to crack his laptop over her knee, but Mr Webster managed to stop her. Still not done, she then threatened to drive over his phone with her car. While Mr Webster did not witness the phone-crushing, Sutherland-Young left the room and appeared a short while later with his phone damaged beyond repair. 'In his opinion, he thought she had driven over it and stabbed it with something,' added Ms Antonelli. Sutherland-Young reacted in a fit of rage after Roderick Webster admitted to the infidelity at her home in East Crescent, Enfield Town, on June 7 last year Sutherland-Young then left the property, leaving Mr Webster to take himself to hospital for treatment to his various injuries. There doctors noted his sensitivity to light, swelling to his left eye-socket, a scratch mark to his neck, a bite mark to his wrist, and numbness to his left hand. After an initial discharge, Mr Webster returned to hospital for plastic surgery on August 4 where he had a metal plate inserted with two screws to mend his fractured cheek bone. In a victim impact statement made on April 2, Mr Webster said the injuries had healed but there was still scarring to his eye. 'While it's not noticeable to others,' he said, 'I'm constantly reminded of the assault when I look in the mirror.' Remembering the 'incredible pain', Mr Webster added: 'While I'm glad she has been convicted, I do not think I will ever fully heal from this.' Some 20 days after the attack, following a report by Mr Webster, Sutherland-Young was stopped by police in the Thames Valley area and arrested. She was later charged with three offences. Defence counsel Beth Crocker said her client was 'petrified' to appear at the Central Criminal Court and her life had been 'blighted' by the loss of her previous 'exemplary' record as she called for the judge to spare her a prison sentence. 'Ms Sutherland-Young is a young woman who is full of promise and has acted in a way which is completely out of character for her,' said Ms Crocker. Character references described Sutherland-Young as 'kind', never displaying violence, and someone who normally 'commands an enormous amount of respect' in her role as a swimming teacher. Explaining her client's reaction to the bad news, she said: 'She felt utterly humiliated and that's why she behaved in the way she did. She accepts it was impulsive.' Ms Crocker went on to highlight Sutherland-Young's 'superb' work ethic, the stress of criminal proceedings, and her frank admission to the offences. 'She was extremely up front... There was no messing around,' added the barrister, 'She accepts these are serious offences and Mr Webster suffered, but, in my submission, she has also suffered a huge amount. We are dealing with somebody who flies into a rage and it was probably over very quickly.' Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC recalled the assault and the injuries to Mr Webster as she considered her sentence. '[Mr Webster] found the whole process extremely draining and he does not feel he will ever have closure. The Old Bailey (pictured) heard Sutherland-Young had been with Mr Webster since November 2021 - her first serious relationship - and there had never been issues of violence or aggression 'Any attack in the course of a relationship has a lasting effect on people and that's why domestic violence is always treated very seriously by the courts.' But Judge Whitehouse added she did 'not view it as being a classic case of domestic abuse' as she pointed Sutherland-Young's 'great deal of mitigation'. 'You did this, I am satisfied, out of an overwhelming rush of emotion and sense of being betrayed by Mr Webster, and humiliation,' said the judge, adding: 'You are plainly remorseful.' She also considered Sutherland-Young's apology letter, which said she was 'truly sorry' and had been 'searching the depths of her soul for how she could do these things'. 'I'm going to pass a community order of 18 months,' the judge told Sutherland-Young, ordering her to do 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 150 hours of unpaid work for the GBH. Sutherland-Young was given no separate penalty for strangulation or criminal damage, but must pay 517 in compensation for the broken phone, and 150 towards prosecution costs with a 114 victim surcharge. A social worker who sobbed 'Oh my God, I've killed my friend,' after she ran over her elderly neighbour has been been spared jail. Elizabeth Avorga, 42, hit Janet Emmett, 71, when she was driving her black Chevrolet SUV on an access road near their homes in south Croydon, London, on 14 June 2022. Mrs Emmett was crossing the road on crutches when she fell over and her head was crushed by Avorga's vehicle on Kingsdown Avenue. She said she turned to drive around the pensioner, but Mrs Emmett changed direction at the last moment and lost her footing. Avorga denied causing death by careless driving, but was convicted of the charge after a four day trial at the Old Bailey. Elizabeth Avorga (pictured) sobbed 'Oh my God, I've killed my friend', after running over her neighbour The social worker sobbed in the dock as Judge Alexia Durran imposed a suspended sentence. 'I accept you were genuinely remorseful,' the judge said. 'You present a low risk of harm to the public. 'You and your family will have to live with the consequences of this.' Avorga had been out to drop her children at school and nursery and she was on her way home just before 9.30am. Prosecutor Charlotte Hole said: 'Mrs Emmett was walking away from her building and crossing the service road. 'What happened next was not captured on any CCTV and wasn't seen by any eyewitnesses.' Some neighbours heard screams and one came out to see what had happened, the court heard. The prosecutor continued: 'She could see Ms Avorga's car had stopped on a grass verge and was not parked normally. Janet Emmett (pictured) died aged 71 after being hit by Avorga's black Chevolet SUV 'Underneath the car she could see a crutch and two legs.' Avorga was screaming hysterically and saying: 'I tried to stop but she slid down and fell', the court heard. A neighbour took her back to their flat as she was distressed and shaking. Avorga wept: 'Oh my God, I've killed my friend'. A post-mortem found the cause of death was injuries to the head and torso. Avorga was taken from the scene in an ambulance and told a police officer: 'She was a good lady we all cared for her. Why God, why?' She added: 'She was just walking up, she's got crutches, she's got a hip replacement. 'She was just walking up there because we don't have a sidewalk and she slipped on her crutches and I panicked because I saw her fall and the car just rolled, the car just rolled, oh my God.' The prosecutor said Mrs Emmett had priority as a pedestrian who had started to cross and the driver should have given way. Avorga (pictured) was convicted of death by careless driving and given a four month sentence suspended for a year Ms Hole told the court: 'Ms Avorga suggests she didn't see Mrs Emmett until she turned into the service road. 'On her own account she clearly appreciated Mrs Emmett was a vulnerable road user and she steered around her but she did not stop. 'On her own account she knew Mrs Emmett had mobility problems, but she passed so close when Mrs Emmett was crossing that when Mrs Emmett fell there was only one outcome and it was a fatal one. 'Had she stopped or at least passed so widely there was no possibility to come into contact the collision would, we say, have been avoided.' Avorga told the court she was driving into the service road off Kingsdown Avenue when Mrs Emmett tried to cross in front of her on the driver's side. She told the jury: 'I had just turned in. I immediately realised she was in the road. I steered away to my left towards the grass verge to give her room to safely cross. 'I suddenly saw her turn slightly to her left. 'I was not sure why she turned. But the next thing I saw was she appeared to have lost her footing and was falling over backwards in the direction of the car. Avorga (pictured) is a social worker and mother-of-four, who the judge told: 'I accept you were genuinely remorseful.' 'I stepped on my brakes and stopped the car.' Avorga denied causing death by careless driving. The court heard one of her four children has autism and the other three are being assessed for special needs help. When the jury returned their verdict, they said in a note that the access road was inherently unsafe, because it did not have a pavement. The jury said: 'The 12 jurors agree that upon building these flats the person responsible should have correctly built infrastructure to safely enter and exit the properties.' The note added that pedestrians using the road were 'risking their lives' and a proper walkway should be added. Avorga was given a four month sentence suspended for a year. She was also ordered to attend a ten day rehabilitation course and pay 3,000 in costs. The social worker was also banned from the road for three years. A group of female deputies in Texas who accused their male colleagues of staging bachelor party prostitution 'stings' as an excuse to get drunk and sexually assault them has been handed a $1.5 million settlement. Harris County agreed to pay deputies Liz Gomez, Marissa Sanchez, Felecia McKinney, Jasmine Huff and whistleblower Jacquelyn Alutto the sum on Tuesday. The deputies claimed they were abused and harassed when the undercover operation set up by Assistant Chief Deputy Chris Gore turned into a drunken 'playground for sexual exploitation'. The women were forced to give lap dances by Gore, who also instructed them to buy 'slutty' clothing and purchase sex toys with him funded by taxpayer cash, according to the bombshell filings. Among the most disturbing allegations was that 'sacrificial lamb' McKinney was instructed to allow herself to be raped in order to secure a bust at a massage parlor. Female deputies in Texas who accused their male colleagues of staging bachelor party prostitution 'stings' to get drunk and sexually assault them has been given a $1.5 million settlement . Pictured two of the deputies with whistleblower Jacquelyn Alutto (center) The deputies claimed they were abused and harassed when the undercover operation set up by Assistant Chief Deputy Chris Gore turned into a drunken 'playground for sexual exploitation' 'It's been a long road. My clients are happy to have this in the rearview mirror. Its been an honor to represent such amazing people,' said Cordt Akers, an attorney for the women told Click 2 Houston. The undercover 'bachelor party' sting operations, approved by Constable Alan Rosen, were intended to ultimately arrest those behind sex trafficking businesses. However the lawsuit said those operations turned more into parties where officers drank heavily and the female deputies, who were given little to no training in undercover work, were fondled and kissed by their supervisory officer. The women confided in anti-trafficking advocate Alutto, who worked with the police in its trafficking unit and she complained about the behavior, the lawsuit states. Afterward, she claimed she was then pushed out of her role for speaking out. All of the women also said they faced some form of retaliation. According to the court filing obtained by DailyMail.com, in August 2019, McKinney was sent during an undercover vice squad-style operation to a massage parlor where she was raped by a known sexual offender. The suspect had previously sexually assaulted Constable Rosen's own chief of staff, but she was instructed to wait until she was attacked before she could give a signal to her colleagues to move in and arrest the suspect, the documents state. 'McKinney was forced to allow this to happen as she was ordered to do by her superiors,' the lawsuit alleges, 'even though there was already 'sufficient evidence to make an arrest prior to exposing McKinney to this trauma'. One of the deputies, Jasmine Huff (left) claimed her dress was lifted up and she was groped by a superior on one of the stings According to the court documents, Gomez, the lead plaintiff in the federal lawsuit, was hand-picked by Gore for undercover operations, despite her lack of training. The deputy claims that she was 'continuously subjected to sexual harassment, unwarranted touching, unwanted kissing, molestation, and sexual ridicule.' The complaint alleges that Gore instructed Gomez to purchase skimpy outfits to be worn during the 'bachelor party' stings, and send photos of the clothing to him while shopping. 'Gore would relay the message thats not slutty enough while Gomez was trying on the clothing at the store, and was ordered to purchase something more provocative,' the lawsuit alleges. Gore also allegedly took Gomez to an adult store with him to purchase sex toys as props with county funds. The complaint claims that during the stings, female deputies like Gomez were ordered to allow Gore to lie on top of them and fondle their breasts and bodies to 'maintain cover.' 'They were never warned, however, that during this conduct Chief Gore would be wearing only boxer shorts, fully aroused, drunk, kissing and licking their bodies, and giddy after every sting,' according to the lawsuit. Gomez claimed that after she requested to be taken off the case she was 'belittled' for 'not having what it takes' before being replaced by Sanchez. The undercover 'bachelor party' sting operations, approved by Constable Alan Rosen, were supposed to ultimately arrest those behind sex trafficking businesses In addition to Gore, Deputy Lt Shane Rigdon was also accused of sexual misconduct by Huff who claimed he exposed and fondled her during one of the stings. Rosen was initially included in the complaint before a judge ruled he could not be held accountable for his subordinate's actions. Constables are elected positions in Texas, and constables and their deputies have the same powers of a city police officer or sheriffs deputy. They can investigate, arrest and use force if they suspect criminal activity. In a statement when the lawsuit was filed in 2021, Rosen said an internal affairs investigation by his office found no violations of law or policy and that the women had never submitted a formal complaint. DailyMail.com has contacted Harris County Sheriff's Office as well as Gore and Rigdon for comment. A gym employee used his martial art skills to take down a suspected car thief, and has thanked his training for allowing him to fend off his attacker. On Monday, Gavin Archer, 18, a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu blue belt, was working 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu in Indianapolis, Indiana, US when he noticed a man allegedly looking into cars outside. As Gavin went to confront him the man launched himself at him. The 18-year-old was able to quickly subdue his attacker using his Jiu Jitsu skills. CCTV footage shows Gavin gaining the upper hand by using a judo throw to take the man to the ground. Gavin Archer, 18-year-old Jiu Jitsu instructor at 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Gym in Indianapolis, Illinois, US took down a suspected car thief on Monday. Pictured: Archer going outside to investigate as he notices a man rummaging through his car outside When Archer opens the door to speak to a man, who was reportedly looking into car windows outside the gym, he is suddenly attacked The man who archer managed to take down has been named as Andrew Wilkerson, who said the incident was a misunderstanding. Wilkerson, who worked at the car shop next to the gym, said he was trying to use keys to get into the car in front of the shop because it fit the description of the car next on the list to be worked on. Archer then proceeded to confront him, thinking he was stealing Jiu Jitsu blue belt, Gavin, soon gains the upper hand by using a judo throw to take the man to the ground After landing several strikes to the man's face, he manages to get the man in a headlock- neutralizing him. The video was first shared in a Facebook post by one of the instructors at the gym, which praised the young instructor's skills. The post reads: 'Due to G's years of martial arts and Jiu Jitsu training, he was able to minimize the strikes that were being throw at him by judo tossing the man to the ground, securing the man's back, and choking him unconscious to eliminate the immediate threat of danger so he could call the police.' 'THIS is why Jiu Jitsu saves lives. Imagine if G had no training at all when this man attacked him. He could be seriously hurt or dead'. The teenager told WishTV.com's I-Team 8 he was alone in the martial art gym when he saw Wilkerson rummaging around in his car outside. 'I was kind of getting a little nervous, and he just straight up attacked me. It all happened so fast you don't really have time to think,' Archer said. However, the man who got beaten up by Archer, Andrew Wilkerson, refuted his claims, saying it was all a misunderstanding. He told I-Team 8 he was just doing his job as a mechanic in the car shop next to the gym. Wilkerson went on to tell I-Team 8 that he was trying to use keys to get into the car in front of the shop because it fit the description of the car next on the list to be worked on. Archer is an 18-year old Jiu Jitsu instructor at 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu in Indianapolis. CCTV footage shows how the teen used his martial art skills to take down a suspected thief 'I tried that for a couple minutes, and you can see in the video I began to walk away back towards my shop.' That is when the teen came to the door to confront Wilkerson. 'He is saying things like don't go anywhere I'm calling the cops', Wilkerson went on to say. 'I've worked there for a few months, I know what the gym does, I know this guy is a trained fighter, so when he says don't go anywhere... the last thing I want to do now is turn around and not be able to see him behind me'. Wilkerson explained that he took a stand and raised his voice. 'I took a step and said like, hey listen to me...he took a step back and pushed the gym door open the rest of the way which in the situation looked like he was coming towards me next.' After that, Wilkerson said he 'just reacted and went after him'. He also told the news outlet that Archer was the one who escalated the situation, but the martial arts instructor said that goes against his martial arts training. According to Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, no arrests were made. As of Tuesday, Wilkerson no longer works at the car shop. Transgender killer Audrey Hale wrote about her 'imaginary penis' and how she would 'kill' to get puberty blockers in the weeks before her horrific attack on the Covenant School in Nashville last year. The Tennessee Star obtained some four dozen pages of Hale's writings that shed light on her female-to-male transition and why she shot and killed six people at the elementary school in March 2023. Hale wrote about anger toward her parents, how she hated her conservative Christian upbringing, and how she had suffered because hormone blockers were not available when she was as a child. The explosive writings, sometimes referred to as Hale's 'manifesto,' have been a source of controversy, with many accusing officials of keeping them secret because they would hurt the trans community. Now released, they help explain why the 28-year-old artist, who identified as a male named Aiden, shot her way into the Tennessee school, killing three adults and three nine-year-olds, before responding officers killed her. Audrey Hale (pictured), 28, was a transgender artist, who identified as a male named Aiden, shot her way into the Tennessee elementary school last March, killing three adults and three nine-year-olds before responding officers killed her Hale's journal entries begin with the title 'My Imaginary Penis' and include a crude drawing, according to The Star. 'My penis exists in my head. I swear to god I'm a male,' Hale wrote in the papers, which were recovered by police. Poll Should police release ALL of Audrey Hale's writings? Yes No Not sure Should police release ALL of Audrey Hale's writings? Yes 3542 votes No 171 votes Not sure 142 votes Now share your opinion She then wrote about her desire to have a penis so she could have sex with a woman, in her assumed identity as Aiden. She wrote about how using that name on a job application for a delivery position led to issues with the company's background check. Hale also said that being raised as a girl was 'torture.' She worried that high school classmates would call her 'dyke or a f*****', she wrote. That all changed when she learned about transgenderism in her early 20s. 'I finally found the answer that changing one's gender is possible,' wrote Hale. But her mom was not on board, Hale wrote. 'What she believes, how she grew up, conservatively, and that LGBTQ especially transgender was an enigma, nearly non-existent,' Hale wrote. She added: 'I hate parental views; how my mom sees me as a daughter and she'd not bear to want to lose that daughter because a son would be the death of Audrey.' Hale used violent language when talking about the emergence of puberty blockers in the 2010s. They were hailed at the time for helping transgender pre-teens safely delay the onset of puberty. Cops gunned down Hale during her 'carefully planned' attack in which she killed three children and three adults Hale, pictured ahead of her transition into 'Aiden,' wrote extensively about her mindset and detailed plans to cause terror in a manifesto that has yet to be officially released 'I'd kill to have those resources,' wrote Hale. '2007 was the birth of puberty blockers and a newfound discovery for treatment of non-conforming transgender children.' They came too late for Hale, who 'was in the 6th grade, puberty already hit me,' she wrote. She also discussed fantasizing about having sex as a man by creating scenes with her stuffed animals. 'I can pretend to be them [and] do the things boys do [and] experience my boy self as Tony,' she wrote. Tony was her 'stuffed boy doll' which she wrote 'is like the boy I am in another form.' She simulated intercourse between Tony and another soft toy over the course of hours, she wrote. She even took photos of the scene and lost track of time. 'God, I am such a pervert.' Hale wrote, 'I waste too much time in my fantasies.' The entry was written just 16 days before Hale dressed in combat gear and launched her deadly raid on the Covenant School, armed with two assault-type guns and a handgun. Hale also wrote politically charged comments about the rights of gun owners and trans people. 'So now in America, it makes one a criminal to have a gun or, be transgender, or non-binary,' she wrote Hale. 'God, I hate those s***head politicians,' she added. The papers were recovered from Hale's car, which she left outside the school, and were provided to the Star by a source close to the investigation. After the shooting, Nashville's Metropolitan Police Chief John Drake said his force had recovered the shooter's manifesto, as well as hand-drawn maps in her car, and said they would eventually be made public. But both city police and the FBI later said the material shouldn't be released because it could hurt the investigations. Katherine Koonce, head of school (left), and Mike Hill, a custodian (right) were among those shot dead by Audrey Hale Substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, known as Cindy, (right, with her daughter Ellie) was one of six people shot and killed In her twisted manifesto, Hale wrote about targeting children at 'fancy private schools', despite previously attending the Covenant school herself Hale's disturbing writings worryingly cited 'several times' that she 'could have been caught' prior to her rampage that killed six The Star and others have been part of a lawsuit seeking to compel the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and the FBI to release Hale's writings. The FBI reportedly advised the MNPD not to release them and other 'legacy tokens' in the wake of mass shootings. The families of Hale's victims subsequently stepped in and become part of a public records lawsuit against the city. They claimed the killer's estate includes the manifesto and that they therefore own the copyright and can determine whether or not to release it. Hale's manifesto has long been expected to reveal more detail about the killer's motive. Last November, three page of notes written by Hale ahead of the shooting were leaked. The notes revealed Hale's plan to target 'white privileged cr***ers' and 'f****ts,' before turning the gun on herself. In an entry on the day of the attack, Hale wrote: 'Today is the day. The day has finally come. I can't believe it's here. Don't know how I was able to get this far but here I am. 'I'm a little nervous but excited too, been excited for the past two weeks.' She then declared: 'I'm ready ... I hope my victims aren't.' 'God let my wrath take over my anxiety. It might be 10 minutes tops. It might be 3-7. It's gonna go quick. I hope I have a high death count. Ready to die,' she wrote, before heading on her way toward Covenant. She was ultimately shot dead at 10.25am, 14 minutes after she began shooting. An autopsy revealed Hale's clothing was covered in 'handwritten words, drawings and numbers'. It's unclear what was written on her clothes. The shooter also wrote a plastic orange anklet inscribed with the mysterious number '508407.' Following that leak, seven Nashville police officers were suspended after a probe into how the notes became public. A squirming Rishi Sunak today issued a grovelling apology in front of TV cameras for leaving D-Day commemoration events early. The embattled Prime Minister, who is facing a huge Tory backlash, admitted that he 'made a mistake' in skipping a major international ceremony in Normandy. Speaking to broadcasters on a general election campaign visit to Swindon, Wiltshire, Mr Sunak was grilled about veterans saying he had 'let the country down'. 'I care deeply,' the PM insisted, as he called for D-Day events not to be 'politicised'. Mr Sunak, who issued an initial apology on social media early this morning, spoke after Sir Keir Starmer twisted the knife amid the growing row. The Labour leader told the PM he was 'going to have to answer for the choices that he made'. 'For me there was only one choice, which was to be there,' Sir Keir said, as he commented on the controversy that has engulfed his Tory rival. Mr Sunak's bad day got worse later this evening when he was hackled at a campaign event by a GP over the state of the NHS. He told Conservative members the economy was growing and wages had been rising for almost a year, adding: 'That shows that we are on the right track.' Dr Jane Lees-Millais shouted from the audience: 'But the NHS is disintegrating. I am one of 2,500 GPs in this country who are currently unemployed due to your policies. 'What are you going to do about that? 37,000 GPs will not vote Conservative because of the constructive dismissal of general practice that is currently occurring.' A squirming Rishi Sunak today issued a grovelling apology in front of TV cameras for leaving D-Day commemoration events early The Prime Minister, pictured yesterday with his wife Akshata Murty, is facing a furious backlash over his decision toskip a major international ceremony in Normandy Labour's Sir Keir Starmer told Mr Sunak he was 'going to have to answer for the choices that he made' as he twisted the knife amid the growing row Mr Sunak's bad day got worse later this evening when he was hackled at a campaign event by a GP over the state of the NHS. Dr Jane Lees-Millais shouted from the audience: 'I am one of 2,500 GPs in this country who are currently unemployed due to your policies. What are you going to do about that?' She added: 'The country is not stupid. They know when lesser-qualified people are being used to conduct consultations which are massively complex.' The Prime Minister stopped a counter-heckler during the event in Wiltshire before answering Dr Jane Lees-Millais' question about GP contracts. Rishi Sunak said: 'My dad was a GP but my mum was also a pharmacist, so that is the household I grew up in. My parents dedicated themselves to primary care. I know a thing or two about it. I worked very hard at my mum's pharmacy.' Mr Sunak said he was supporting GPs with new investment in 'digital telephony'. He added: 'We are also making it easier for people to see other primary care practitioners to get the treatments they need. 'That is where I will respectfully disagree with you because I do think it is right that people can now see their pharmacist to get medicines for... common ailments.' Mr Sunak also said he would 'always support primary care'. Even the PM's own veterans minister admitted Mr Sunak had made a 'significant mistake' by leaving D-Day memorial events early to carry out a TV interview. Johnny Mercer said he understood the 'outrage' at the PM's actions. Senior Tories focused their anger on Mr Sunak's 'inexperienced' team in No10, after his aides seemingly failed to see the PM's early departure would cause such anger. A Tory former minister told MailOnline: 'The PM, to his credit, apologised for his mistake. He can't do more. 'But No 10 is run by unimpressive, inexperienced young people who are simply not up to the job. A more senior aide would never have let this happen. 'The PM should take early action to plug this glaring gap in his team.' Both Downing Street and Mr Sunak himself denied reports he was initially considering missing the D-Day commemorations altogether. A No 10 spokesperson said: 'The PM was always scheduled to attend D-Day commemorations, including the UK National Commemoration event in Normandy, and it is incorrect to suggest otherwise.' Even the PM's own veterans minister Johnny Mercer admitted Mr Sunak had made a 'significant mistake' by leaving D-Day memorial events early to carry out a TV interview. In a social media post this morning, Mr Sunak admitted 'it was a mistake not to stay in France longer - and I apologise' The PM visited a school on a road called Veterans Way in his second election campaign visit of the day Mr Sunak attended the UK national event at Portsmouth on Wednesday and then the British ceremony in Normandy yesterday, the anniversary of the Allied landings. But he left France before world leaders including US President Joe Biden gathered for the main international ceremony on Omaha Beach on Thursday afternoon. Instead, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron was the senior UK minister at the event and was pictured with Mr Biden, France's Emmanuel Macron, and Germany's Olaf Scholz. Sir Keir stayed for the international ceremony and was photographed mingling with global leaders, including Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky. It later emerged that Mr Sunak had given a broadcast interview following his return from Normandy, a clip of which was shared by ITV journalist Paul Brand. Mr Brand told ITV News at Ten: 'Today was the slot we were offered we don't know why.' In a social media post this morning, Mr Sunak admitted 'it was a mistake not to stay in France longer - and I apologise'. Speaking later on his campaign visit to Wiltshire, the PM said: 'Over the past two days I've participated in a number of events in Portsmouth and France to honour those who risked their lives to defend our freedom and our values 80 years ago. 'The itinerary for these events was set weeks ago before the start of the general election campaign, and having participated in all the British events with British veterans, I returned home before the international leaders event later in the day. 'On reflection, that was a mistake and I apologise. 'I think it's important though, given the enormity of the sacrifice made, that we don't politicise this. The focus should rightly be on the veterans who gave so much. 'I had the honour and privilege of speaking to many of them and their families, hearing their stories, expressing my gratitude, personally to them. 'But I'm someone who will always admit when I've made a mistake and that's what you'll always get from me.' Mr Sunak was challenged about the views of Ken Hay, a 98-year-old D-Day veteran, who told Sky News the PM had 'let the country down'. Mr Hay had told the news channel of Mr Sunak: 'He's electioneering. I think it lets down the country. 'It's not the representation of how we should weld together, trying to keep the peace.' Mr Sunak later visited a school on a road called Veterans Way in Gloucestershire in his second election campaign visit of the day. Speaking during a campaign visit of his own in Greater London this morning, Sir Keir said: 'Rishi Sunak will have to answer for his choice. 'For me there was only one choice, which was to be there, to pay my respects, to say thank you and to have to speak to those veterans.' Asked whether the PM's apology had drawn a line under the row, Sir Keir said: 'He has to answer for his own actions, for me there was nowhere else I was going to be.' Sir Keir Starmer agreed there was a 'mismatch' between Mr Sunak's proposal to require 18-year-olds to do national service and his decision to leave the D-Day commemorations early. He added: 'I think there is and he's going to have to answer for the choices that he made.' In a letter to Defence Secretary Grant Shapps today, Labour's John Healey listed a series of questions for the Cabinet minister to answer about the PM's D-Day attendance. The shadow defence secretary wrote: 'There are many people across the country, especially within Armed Forces communities, who feel betrayed and feel that Britain has been let down by the PM. 'The public deserve clear explanations from the PM and those around him about why this dreadful decision was made. 'I trust that these are the questions you are asking, and you will respond as soon as possible.' The Liberal Democrats called on Mr Sunak to give the 5million of donations received by the Tories from controversial businessman Frank Hester in January to a veterans' charity. Their defence spokesman Richard Foord said: 'The PM has badly let down veterans and our country. He disrespected his office and the United Kingdom.' Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said 'patriotic people who love their country' should not vote for Rishi Sunak after his snub of the international D-Day anniversary event. He told Sky News: 'This was the last time ever there'll be a gathering of veterans on parade in Normandy, and if he's not prepared to go to the international commemoration with the heads of so many different countries, overlooking a beach on which our American allies lost thousands of men, that says a lot about him. 'He is completely disconnected from the centre of this country and he's proved to me that he basically is not a patriotic leader of the Conservative Party.' Mr Mercer said Mr Sunak's decision to leave the commemorations in Normandy early was a 'significant mistake'. He told The Sun he understood the outrage but defended the PM's record on veterans. The veterans' minister said: 'I get the outrage. It's a mistake. It's a significant mistake for which he's apologised. 'But I'm also not going to join the howls of the fake veterans supporters who say he doesn't treat veterans correctly, because it's not correct.' Appearing on the newspaper's Never Mind The Ballots show, he added: 'Obviously it's a mistake. The PM on these visits receives a lot of advice on what he should and shouldn't be doing. 'I've spoken to the PM this morning and obviously it's disappointing. 'But I do find the faux outrage from people who've done nothing but make my life difficult trying to improve veterans' affairs over the years is pretty nauseating, to be frank.' It later emerged that Mr Sunak had given a broadcast interview following his return from Normandy, a clip of which was shared by ITV journalist Paul Brand Mr Sunak's early departure saw Foreign Secretary David Cameron pictured alongside US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Sir Keir stayed for the international ceremony, during which he met with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky Mr Sunak was facing widespread anger from within his own Tory ranks, with fears he had dealt a shattering blow to the Conservatives' general election hopes. A former minister told MailOnline: 'It simply underlines what dreadful advice he gets from the No10 operation. 'And begs the question why he went to the country when D-Day was obviously a huge event. 'He could have been seen as an international statesman, rather than someone who doesn't show respect to the fallen. 'And bear in mind, too, that polls already show [Nigel] Farage ahead among the over-55s.' One Tory defending a northern seat said it could be as bad as Theresa May's 2017 social care announcement, which prompted her notorious 'nothing has changed' U-turn. 'We'll know over the next week,' they said. Another told MailOnline the humilating episode would do particular damage with the older generation of voters the party has been targeting. They expressed worries about a Conservative wipeout on 4 July, saying: 'Honestly fear a rump of 70 led by Priti [Patel] that strikes a deal with Farage in 18 months is becoming possible, even likely.' Conservative commentator Tim Montgomerie told BBC Newsnight of the PM's decision to leave Normandy early: 'If he came back for a political interview from the D-Day commemoration, that is absolutely indefensible. 'This is going to be the last big commemoration when survivors will be present. 'I think it's political malpractice of the highest order if Rishi Sunak absented himself for an election interview on ITV.' One Conservative MP, in reference to ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn refusing to sing the national anthem early on in his leadership, told the Spectator: 'This is Corbyn levels of disrespect.' Colonel Richard Kemp, a former British Army commander in Afghanistan, told the Mirror: 'I know there is a general election campaign to fight but this is a very significant anniversary of a major military achievement which led to freedom in Europe. 'It's being attended by some of the veterans who may never attend another due to their age. I think it was very important that he showed his commitment to it. 'He should have stayed. As the PM of our country he should have been there to represent the country and to show our gratitude to those who fell.' In his apology posted on X/Twitter this morning, the PM wrote: 'The 80th anniversary of D-Day has been a profound moment to honour the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to protect our values, our freedom and our democracy. 'This anniversary should be about those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. 'The last thing I want is for the commemorations to be overshadowed by politics. 'I care deeply about veterans and have been honoured to represent the UK at a number of events in Portsmouth and France over the past two days and to meet those who fought so bravely. 'After the conclusion of the British event in Normandy, I returned back to the UK. On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer and I apologise.' Following Mr Sunak's apology, Labour shadow minister Jonathan Ashworth said: 'Yesterday's D-Day commemorations were about remembering the bravery of all those who serve our country. 'In choosing to prioritise his own vanity TV appearances over our veterans, Rishi Sunak has shown what is most important to him. 'It is yet more desperation, yet more chaos, and yet more dreadful judgment from this out of touch PM.' Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: 'One of the greatest privileges of the office of PM is to be there to honour those who served, yet Rishi Sunak abandoned them on the beaches of Normandy. 'He has brought shame to that office and let down our country. 'I am thinking right now of all those veterans and their families he left behind and the hurt they must be feeling. 'It is a total dereliction of duty and shows why this Conservative government just has to go.' Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford could face a hefty fine or a driving ban after admitting speeding on the motorway in his Rolls-Royce, court officials have confirmed. The 26-year-old, who owns a fleet of luxury cars, was caught exceeding the 70mph speed limit on the M60 in Manchester on December 12. An official of HM Courts and Tribunals Service confirmed the details to the PA news agency. The speed Rashford was travelling at in his 560,000 Rolls-Royce Cullinan Blue Shadow was not available in the court record, but it did show that he has admitted the offence. This will be dealt with on September 27, under the Single Justice Procedure, where a single magistrate deals with the paperwork and issues the penalty without a court hearing and the defendant, public or press being present. Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford could face a hefty fine or a driving ban after admitting speeding on the motorway in his Rolls-Royce, court officials have confirmed Rashford admitted speeding while travelling in his 560,000 Rolls Royce and will be dealt with by a single magistrate on September 27 He could face a hefty fine or a driving ban. Rashford failed to be included in Gareth Southgate's Euros squad after enduring a difficult season, scoring just eight times for United in all competitions. Awarded an MBE in 2021 for his charity work, Rashford said at the end of last month that he is planning to take some time to reset mentally after acknowledging he has endured a 'challenging season'. He thanked fans for their support, telling his seven million followers on X, formerly Twitter, that he would be coming off social media to 'rest and reset'. The speeding incident came three months after a car crash last September, in which he was uninjured. Manchester United players had returned to their Carrington training base on the team bus following their Premier League victory over Burnley at Turf Moor. After collecting their own cars and setting off for home, Rashford, in one of his 700,000 Rolls-Royce cars, was involved in a collision with another car. Emergency services attended the scene, but Rashford did not require medical attention and no arrests were made. Rashford owns several Rolls-Royce cars, including a 390,000 Black Badge Cullinan and a Cullinan Blue Shadow. He also reportedly owns a 280,000 McLaren 765 Long Tail and a 350,000 Lamborghini Urus Performante. Mr Rashford's representatives have been contacted for comment. President Joe Biden told the story of Army Rangers scaling a 100ft cliff under Nazi gunfire 80 years ago and urged Americans to follow their example in fighting hateful ideologies at home and abroad in a major set-piece speech Friday. Standing above the beaches where Allied forces poured into occupied France on D-Day, he invoked their spirit to set out his own vision for America's place in the world. 'Does anyone doubt they would want America to stand up against Putin's aggression here in Europe today,' he said. 'They stormed the beaches alongside our allies. Does anyone believe Rangers want America to go it alone today.' Biden is in France to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day and will be feted in Paris on Saturday during an official visit. President Joe Biden used the backdrop of Pointe du Hoc, between the Normandy landing beaches of Normandy, to deliver a speech on democracy and American ideals But Friday's speech was freighted with politics, coming as it does in election year and as Biden seeks to win over Reaganite Republicans worried about Donald Trump's attitude to national security. 'When we talk about democracyAmerican democracywe often talk big ideas like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,' he said. 'What we don't talk about enough is how hard it is.' To underline the point, the presidential lectern was set up on a concrete German bunker. The backdrop could not have been more dramatic, with the blue of the English Channel behind him, the rocky landing beaches on either side, and the ground all around dotted by 50ft craters left by Allied bombing 80 years ago. Nor could it have been more symbolic. In 1984, Ronald Reagan used the same spot to deliver one of the most powerful speeches of his presidency, using the story of how a brave band of Army Rangers scaled the perilous cliffs of Pointe du Hoc as part of the fight against tyranny. 'These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc,' he said in a speech at the height of the Cold War. 'These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.' He was an aging president using bygone American glory to help his reelection campaign. Biden risks unflattering comparisons by so closely aping one of his Republican predecessor's most inspiring moments. President Ronald Reagan gives his famous 'Boys of Pointe du Hoc' speech in Normandy on June 6th, 1984 - the 40th anniversary of D-Day A group of U.S. Army Rangers demonstrate how they climbed a rope ladder up the cliff face at Pointe du Hoc to surprise a Nazi gun position The Pointe du Hoc was one of the strongholds in the German fortifications and was taken by force in a daring vertical assault. Biden is shown around by American Cemetery of Colleville-sur-Mer superintendent, Scott Desjardins Biden shakes hands with WWII veteran John Wardell, while U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stands next to them But it underlines how he believes he can position Democrats as the party of international freedom at a time when Donald Trump has said he would encourage Russia to do 'whatever it wants' against NATO allies that do not spend enough on their armed forces. A B-52 bomber - escorted by two F35s - made a fly by ahead of Bidens arrival. Much of Biden's speech echoed his themes of the day before, when he warned the world against isolationism. But he also hinted at his race at home against Trump and what's at stake in the November election. 'They're asking us to stay true to what America stands for,' said Biden, as he invoked the spirit of the Rangers who scaled the cliffs. 'They're not asking us to give or risk our lives. They are asking us care for others in our country, within ourselves. 'They're not asking us to do their job They are asking us to do our job: To protect freedom in our time, defend democracy, to stand up to aggression abroad and at home, to be part of something bigger than ourselves.' Biden's presidential lectern was set up on top of a World War Two Nazi bunker US President Joe Biden salutes a US serviceman on "Pointe du Hoc" clifftop in Cricqueville-en-Bessin, northwestern France Six U.S. A-20 bombers have bombed German positions at the Pointe Du Hoc coastal battery. 22nd May 1944. Normandy, France His audience included veterans such as Pfc John Wardell, from New Jersey, who came ashore on June 16, 1944. 'We love you man,' said Biden. 'Thank you for all you've done.' After his speech he sought out the 99-year-old to shake hands with him. Brett Bruen, who worked in the White House under President Barack Obama, said Biden's speech lived up to the Reagan comparisons. 'Reagan spoke at a moment when our ideals & institutions faced grave external threat,' he said. 'Biden had an equally, ominous backdrop today and he effectively evoked the domestic threats American, allies' democracies currently confront. 'It also placed Trump's pettiness and personal grievances in pretty stark contrast with the principles for which so many of the greatest generation fought and died.' Sergeant Ben Beale, with veterans Jack Mortimer, John Life, Corporal Aaron Stone, veteran Donald Jones, Corporal Paul Squires, and veteran Peter Newton, as the veterans return to Sword Beach in Normandy, France, after landing there on D-Day Biden met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier Friday and announced another $225 million in funding as well as apologizing for delays in help Democratic strategist Brad Bannon said Biden's delivery could never be described as Reaganesque but that didn't matter. 'Democracy is under threat,' he said. 'That's why Reagan went there to make that speech, to talk about the threats to democracy, and I think it was appropriate for President Biden to go to the same place to make the same point.' Biden was in Normandy a day earlier, taking part in events to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. He used it to underline the importance of international alliances, like the one that delivered than 150,000 troops into occupied France within 24 hours. 'To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators, is simply unthinkable,' he said at the American Normandy Cemetery, with 30 D-Day veterans sitting behind him. 'If we were to do that, it means we'd be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches.' Earlier in the day, Biden put his money where his mouth is. He met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and announced another $225 million in funding for his fight against Russia, and apologies for delays in delivering aid. 'We're still in ... completely, thoroughly,' Biden told his Ukrainian counterpart during their meeting at a Paris hotel. Two people including a British holidaymaker have died in Spain after trying to rescue a pair of children who were in difficulties in the sea at a Costa Blanca beach. The 52-year-old rushed into the water to aid the youngsters, aged six and seven, along with others. But he ended up losing his life alongside a Polish Good Samaritan aged 46. Two other people were taken to hospital with breathing difficulties following the drama earlier today. Their nationalities are not known, but they are believed to be a woman aged around 20 and a man aged 22. It was not immediately clear this afternoon if the British man, believed to be a tourist, was in any way related to the children. Two people including a British holidaymaker have died after trying to rescue two children who were in difficulties in the sea at a Costa Blanca beach. Pictured: A view shows La Roqueta beach in Guardamar de Segura, south of Alicante, where the incident unfolded The two people with breathing problems were taken to Torrevieja University Hospital The double tragedy occurred around midday at La Roqueta beach in Guardamar de Segura south of Alicante during gusting winds of up to nearly 40mph. The lifeguard service at the town centre beach where the three drownings in the last two days have occurred is not yet up and running. Guardamar del Segura mayor Jose Luis Saez said after today's double tragedy: 'Three deaths from drowning in the last 24 hours at Guardamar's beaches. 'The prevailing sea conditions are very dangerous, with strong dragging currents making bathing unadvisable.' He added: 'Maximum precaution is needed as the weekend weather is going to be unstable.' The tragedies in the last 24 hours means an incredible eight people have now drowned in the province of Alicante, which Guardamar del Segura is part of, in the first seven days of June. They include a 76-year-old Irishman at a cove called Cala Capitan near the scene of the latest three drownings. The other drowning victims have included a Belgian pensioner and a Moldovan man. On Monday three bathers lost their lives, in Calpe, Elche and Orihuela which are all in Alicante province on the Costa Blanca. The tragedies in the last 24 hours means an incredible eight people have now drowned in the province of Alicante, which Guardamar del Segura is part of, in the first seven days of June Most councils along the coast do not put lifeguards in place on beaches until June 15 which is considered to be the start of the high season. A Civil Guard source confirmed one of the dead men was a 52-year-old Brit. He said: 'Two people lost their lives. One was British and the other Polish. They were both trying to help two young children who were in difficulties in the sea. 'The sea conditions were pretty bad.' Labour's hard Left is trying to push Sir Keir Starmer into backing 'immediate' recognition of a Palestinian state if he wins the election. Senior party figures and associates including union leaders are at a top secret meeting in Westminster this afternoon to sign off its manifesto for the July 4 vote. Sir Keir and his top team are expected to face fights over a range of social and geopolitical issues including the fighting in Gaza. The leader made his strongest commitment yet to a Palestinian state, telling reporters today that he would want it to be part of any peace deal with Israel. The move is widely seen as a bid to shore up his core support on the Left. However, Jess Barnard, the NEC members and head of Young Labour, said she would push him to move further. Ahead of the meeting she tweeted a clenched fist, adding: 'Heading into clause V, ready to stand up for free school meals, scrapping the two child benefit cap and immediate recognition of a Palestinian state.' Sir Keir and his top team are expected to face fights over a range of social and geopolitical issues including the fighting in Gaza. Senior party figures (shadow health secretary Wes Streeting pictured) and associates including union leaders are at a top secret meeting in Westminster this afternoon to sign off its manifesto for the July 4 vote. David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, was accosted by protesters from the Green New Deal Rising group as he walked to the building, who pressed the candidate for Tottenham on the party's commitments to fighting climate change and its position on the war in Gaza. The leader is expected to include his strongest commitment yet to a Palestinian state, with reports suggesting he will a pledge to recognise Palestine before the end of any peace process in a bid to shore up his core support on the Left. However, Jess Barnard, the NEC members and head of Young Labour, said she would push him to move further. The Labour leader went in through a back entrance at the central London location where the so-called Clause V meeting is taking place. Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves are also believed to be in the building. David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, was accosted by protesters from the Green New Deal Rising group as he walked to the building, who pressed the candidate for Tottenham on the party's commitments to fighting climate change and its position on the war in Gaza. Sir Keir has previously said that it would only be recognised as part of a move to implement a two-state solution to the ongoing conflict. Speaking to the BBC during a visit in Greater London, the Labour leader said: 'That needs to be part of the process, it's very important we have a viable Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure Israel.' He added: 'It is an inalienable right of the Palestinians, it's not in the gift of Israel, so it has to be part of the peace process.' Asked whether this will be in the manifesto, he said: 'It will be.' The final version of the manifesto said to total fewer than 30 pages will be presented to senior figures at a crucial meeting with unions today before it is launched officially next Thursday. Sir Keir has come under fire for his caution in calling for a ceasefire following the attacks on October 7 by Hamas and Israel's response. Ten Shadow Cabinet ministers resigned in a bid to increase pressure on the party to go further than calling for a humanitarian pause. Labour sources reportedly said the manifesto would be a cautious package of measures. It would be distinct from Jeremy Corbyn's 2017 and 2019 policy-heavy manifestos. One source said to have seen the draft manifesto said: 'Everybody is incredibly concerned about making any financial commitments because the Conservatives can weaponise that. But if you don't have any funding, you're not going to have any policies.' It was reported that Labour will also include a promise to lower the retirement age for ambulance drivers to boost recruitment and retention. Labour officials have indicated that they could do the same for other NHS workers in a move that could further exacerbate the crisis in the health service. The manifesto is also set to include a promise to look into the way public sector pay review bodies recommend pay settlements, but not to increase public funding for them, The Guardian said. Further pledges include guarantees on workers' rights, recruiting more teachers and 'driving down' net migration though without a specific target, it was reported. Labour will also allow military ID to be used at polling stations but will not promise to abolish voter ID altogether. The Labour leader is reportedly planning to include a pledge to recognise Palestine before the end of any peace process in a bid to shore up his core support on the Left However, the manifesto will not have a commitment to ditch the two-child benefit cap despite pressure from many within the party. Labour's policy will infuriate Israel, whose PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, reacted angrily when Ireland, Spain and Norway all officially recognised Palestine in May. Mr Netanyahu called the move a 'reward for terrorism'. Sir Keir initially called for a humanitarian pause rather than a ceasefire which many of his backbenchers were calling for. He caused fury on the Labour Left when he told an interviewer that he thought Israel had the right to cut off water and power supplies to citizens in Gaza. Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy was criticised for supporting a decision by the International Criminal Court to request an arrest warrant for the Israeli leader. The move is calculated to win back Muslim support for the party. A Labour spokesman said: 'We don't comment on leaks. The manifesto will be published soon.' Former President Donald Trump continues to have an edge over President Joe Biden in two key swing states - Nevada and Arizona - but a national poll conducted after the Republican's conviction shows the presidential race tightening. Fox News put out new poll numbers Thursday that showed Trump up 5 points in Arizona among registered voters - 51 percent to Biden's 46 percent. In nearby Nevada, Trump was also leading Biden by 5 points - 50 percent to the Democrat's 45 percent. Polling has shown Trump ahead of Biden in Arizona for more than a year, while Trump has been out in front of Biden in Nevada since November, according to Real Clear Politics' polling averages - and the verdict didn't seem to move the numbers. In the two swing states, voters' views on the hush money verdict were nearly identical. Former President Donald Trump (left) continues to have an edge over President Joe Biden (right) in two key swing states - Nevada and Arizona - but a national poll conducted after the Republican's conviction shows the presidential race tightening Pollsters asked just two questions on the trial - whether voters thought it was fair and how much it mattered to them - the latter to signal whether it would change people's votes. In Arizona, 63 percent said the hush money trial did not matter, while only about a third, 36 percent, said it did. Additionally, only 25 percent expressed that it mattered to them 'a lot.' While this could be enough to swing things back to Biden, the overall numbers don't reflect that yet. In Nevada, 65 percent said the hush money trial did not matter, while 35 percent said it did. In both states, 51 percent said they believed Trump received a fair trial, while 46 percent said the Manhattan-based trial was unfair. The New York Times on Wednesday had a clearer picture of whether any damage was done to Trump by the guilty verdict, when 2,000 voters were recontacted after being surveyed in April and May. When The New York Times and Siena College recontacted 2000 voters from their spring survey, pollsters found that former President Donald Trump's 3-point national lead shrunk to just 1 percent post-guilty verdict The verdict did change some of these people's minds. Originally, the New York Times/Siena College surveys found that 48 percent of these voters supported Trump while 45 percent backed Biden. But after Trump was found guilty on all 34 courts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, pollsters found that 47 percent supported Trump, while 46 percent backed Biden. Trump's 3-point lead nationally shrunk to just 1 percent. The Times/Siena College polling found that Trump retained 93 percent of those who said they'd back him in the previous survey. But shedding 7 percent of your voters could make a difference in a tight race. Of those 7 percent, 3 percent said they would now be backing Biden, while the other 4 percent say they're undecided on who they'll vote for in the fall. Those shifting away from Trump were young, nonwhite, disengaged and Democratic-leaning - in essence non-traditional Republican voters who are now having second thoughts. About a quarter of Biden's 2020 voters who told the Times' pollsters they were going to back Trump this time around and have now come back into the fold, the new survey showed. Additionally, so-called 'double haters' - voters who dislike both the Republican and the Democratic candidate - were more likely to bail. Since last week's verdict, Trump lost about one-fifth of the 'double haters' who previously said they would hold their nose and support him in the fall. Former President Donald Trump spoke emphatically in a new interview with Dr. Phil McGraw about the toll the Stormy Daniels hush money trial took on his wife Melania and said it was impacting son Barron as well. Trump speculated that each of them likely wanted to speak to him about the difficulties, but chose not to. 'I have a wonderful wife. I mean, it's not easy for her to read this kind of stuff, that's fake,' he told the TV host. That's totally that's fake stuff.' 'But that's the way it is. It certainly is not a good thing. And it affects me more than it would if it were just about me. I wish it could be just about me,' he told McGraw in their hour-long sit down interview from Mar-a-Lago. Trump also hinted at the impact the trial and the constant political and legal combat had on her revealing that it 'wasn't easy.' It was his first extended interview since a Manhattan jury found him guilty on 34 counts of falsifying financial records related to the hush payments. When Dr. Phil asked how the former first lady was holding up, Trump responded: 'I think good,' stretching out the word during his answer in a way that made the answer less than certain. Former President Donald Trump told Dr. Phil McGraw that 'sometimes revenge can be justified' after the host pleaded with him to be a 'hero' and and declare that 'it stops with me' 'But I don't think it's an easy thing for her,' he then allowed. 'And I think if it wasn't good, she wouldn't want to tell me about it, to be honest with you. Because, you know, she sees that I'm fighting like hell.' The former first lady notably did not attend Trump's five week trial in Manhattan, instead keeping a low profile in Florida, even as a parade of supporters including family members, House members, and senators joined Trump in the courtroom. Trump also suggested the public attention is difficult for his son Barron, 18. As is his practice, he declined to reveal too much about his youngest child, and his only child with Melania, although he did give a hint about his college plans. 'He's a good boy. He's a tall boy very tall. He's very tall. And he's a great kid. He's good looking kid. And he's going to be going to college.' 'He doesn't say because he doesn't want to hurt me,' Trump said. 'And he thinks it's a possibly a hurtful conversation. But it has to affect my family,' he lamented. He called Barron a 'great kid' and a 'good student,' while revealing clues about his college plans. He 'got accepted to different colleges some of those colleges, all of a sudden they're rioting all over the place.' Trump said former first lady Melania Trump 'reads this c***,' in a rare acknowledgement of the impact of campaign coverage on her 'He doesn't say because he doesn't want to hurt me,' Trump said when asked about the impact on son Barron, who recently turned 18. 'And he thinks it's a possibly a hurtful conversation' McGraw tried repeatedly in his 'psychological' interview with Donald Trump to be a 'hero' and call off his vows of retribution only to have the former president tell him revenge can be 'justified.' The two longtime acquaintances had an hourlong sit-down where the the TV host repeatedly tried to probe Trump's fear and anger, even while McGraw himself attacked Trump's prosecution in the Stormy Daniels trial. 'I find it to be a very different and very interesting ... Its a psychological interview that youre doing,' Trump told him. 'Youre sort of being my psychiatrist, and maybe I could use a psychiatrist every once ... it's pretty cool.' During one long portion, McGraw tried three times to persuade Trump to call off what he has said will be retribution against his enemies if he wins a second term. 'There are headlines out there that say when you win your second term, you are going to make the people that have come after you pay. Every situation needs a hero. What a great opportunity to step up and say you know what? It stops here. It stops with me,' Dr. Phil told him. 'I think you'll be impressed. We have to unite the country,' Trump said failing to explicitly agree. Later, McGraw pointed to psychological research on crime and revenge. 'Neurologically in the brain ... there's an addiction to revenge just like to opioid or whatever,' he told Trump, a teetotaler, who responded with a 'hmm.' Dr. Phil described a cycle between criminals and police. 'They see themselves as the victim and they want revenge against the person that arrested them. And then the person that arrested them gets hammered,' he said. 'It's got to stop and you're we're better than this. We must be better than this. And you're big enough to do it,' he told Trump. 'I think you'll be proud of the job we do,' was Trump's response. 'And you know the word revenge is a very strong word, but maybe we have revenge or success.' Then Dr. Phil quoted Pope Frances who Trump attacked during the 2016 campaign as writing that 'there must be no resentment among us. 'Well, revenge does take time, I will say that,' Trump said. And sometimes revenge can be justified, though. I have to be honest. Sometimes it can.' The exposition came in an interview where Trump spoke about 'dark forces' he claims are arrayed against him and said his darkest moments involve what wife Melania reads in the press. The TV host tried to probe Trump about darkness he faces, in his first interview since a Manhattan jury convicted the former president on 34 counts in the Stormy Daniels trial. 'When the crowds arent cheering, whats the darkest moment you think of?' Dr. Phil asked him. Dr. Phil pleaded with Trump to be a 'hero' and put a stop what he called a cycle of revenge 'There are people that control him,' Donald Trump said of President Joe Biden in an interview with TV host Dr. Phil McGraw 'The hardest part for me is probably my family,' Trump responded. 'Because it's very unfair to my family. I have a very good wife. She reads this crap. I have great kids,' he said. Multiple Trump family members attended the five-week trial. They included sons Don Jr. and Eric, daughter in law Lara and daughter Tiffany, although Melania did not attend his trial, which resulted in conviction on charges of falsifying business records related to paying off the porn star. 'I have a wonderful wife. I mean, it's not easy for her to read this kind of stuff that's fake that's fake stuff,' he said. Trump went on an extended discourse about Don Jr., who he called a 'good kid' who became the subject of accusations during the Russia probe. That got Trump railing against California Rep. Adam Schiff, who he called 'watermelon head.' In between Trump's digs at Biden and the judges overseeing his criminal trials, Dr. Phil kept trying to press him with questions about the emotional impact on himself and people he cares about. 'What is the hardest, darkest moment that you can think of in this journey?' McGraw asked him in the interview on streaming channel Merit+. That prompted Trump to talk about 'evil forces' he said were controlling President Joe Biden. 'You have to be very strong. You're fighting very evil forces and they're very smart forces. There are people that control Biden. Totally true. I think I know who they are largely. But there are people that control him. They're very smart, very energetic. Possibly they're real believers, what their sick ideology is. But you have to be smart and you have to have confidence,' Trump told him. At one point Trump called attention to the questions that touched on emotion. 'Its a psychological interview that youre doing. Youre sort of being my psychiatrist,' Trump told his interviewer. Dr. Phil called it a 'no holds barred' interview from Trump's Mar-a-Lago home. Dr. Phil's first comment to Trump as the interview began was that 'you look well,' which prompted an answer that had Trump mentioning 'corrupt judges' and 'corrupt politicians' within seconds. Trump also used the interview to settle scores with figures dating back years, including former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. The interviewer put Trump at ease with an early blast at government prosecutions of him. 'They need to stop this. They need to stop pursuing you,' he told Trump. McGraw started his career working in 'trial sciences' advising lawyers how to pitch to juries, and said he had a particular interest in the dynamics of the trial setting. Trump spent part of the interview inveighing against the gag order Judge Juan Merchan imposed in the case. Both he and McGraw ended up speaking about witnesses and potential witnesses in the case. 'I do think he knows whats going on. I think hes sort of an evil guy,' Trump said of President Biden at one point Trump spoke about the impact on son Barron, who graduated from high school this spring 'I even lost Oprah. Oprah used to like me so much,' Trump told Dr. Phil McGraw said the judge 'muzzled' the case, and took a shot at former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, a star witness as well as ex-National Enquirer CEO David Pecker, another witness, reaching a non-prosecution agreement. Trump complained about the pressure on former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, who both sides had considered calling from Rikers Island prison to testify. Trump also blasted the E. Jean Carroll defamation suit, after a jury finding him liable for sexual abuse. He said he had 'no idea who she is. I had to pay $91 million and that judge was just as bad, just as corrupt,' Trump said. In the hush money case, where Trump never took the stand, 'I would have loved to have testified. I wanted to. I'm telling you: they had to hold me back,' he said. He also complimented Judge Aileen Cannon, the judge he appointed who is overseeing his classified documents case. He called her 'a very brilliant judge in Florida.' On foreign policy, Trump complained about the Biden administration's recent move to allow Ukraine to use U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia closer to the Ukrainian border. 'Ill get the war in Ukraine settled and one by the time I take office as president-elect,' Trump said, vowing to act on the world stage even in the last months of Biden's term. Trump spoke about Dr. Phil's former colleague and partner Oprah Winfrey. Oprah used to really like me. She was here many times. She loved my key lime pie. We have key lime pie and she loved a lot of things about Mara Lago,' Trump said. 'Weve sort of lost contact as the expression goes,' Trump said. Trump came back to Winfrey later in the interview. Winfrey famously threw her support to Barack Obama in 2008 and interviewed Trump decades ago about his White House ambitions. 'I even lost Oprah. Oprah used to like me so much,' he told Dr. Phil. 'And you know I havent spoken to her since. But shes a good person. Please give her my regards.' Trump tore into opponents during the interview, settling scores with people dating to the Russia probe. 'I do think he knows whats going on. I think hes sort of an evil guy,' Trump said of President Biden at one point. He called Rep. Adam Schiff 'watermelon head.' 'Very unattractive guy both inside and outside,' Trump said of the California Senate primary winner. Dr. Phil told a studio audience that he knew Trump was going to spend much of the interview getting his message out. 'It's kinda like talking to a waiter and they've got the specials. They're going to give you those specials. And it doesn't matter what you want, they're going to give you those specials. ... and if you interrupt them on number 12 out of 15, they're going to start back up at the top,' he said. Secret Service agents intervened in the 2018 case involving Hunter Bidens handgun even though the Bidens were not entitled to their protection at the time, FBI documents have confirmed. The highly unusual and potentially improper involvement of the agency that protects presidents, has emerged from new court documents filed in the Delaware federal gun crimes case against the First Son. Anonymous sources have previously claimed in media interviews that US Secret Service (USSS) agents showed up at a Delaware gun store where the First Son bought a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver in October 2018 after his sister-in-law and then-girlfriend Hallie Biden threw it in a grocery store trash can. At the time, the Bidens were not eligible for Secret Service protection, and the agency has repeatedly denied any involvement. But now the owner of the Wilmington StarQuest Shooters gun store, Ron Palimere, has given the FBI an interview, under penalty of criminal prosecution, testifying that USSS agents showed up in October 2018 and demanded he hand over the form Hunter filled out to purchase the gun. But now the owner of the Wilmington StarQuest Shooters gun store, Ron Palimere (pictured right) has given the FBI an interview , under penalty of criminal prosecution, testifying that USSS agents showed up around October 24, 2018, and demanded he hand over the form Hunter filled out to purchase the gun Secret Service agents intervened in a 2018 case involving Hunter Biden s stolen handgun even though the Bidens had no Secret Service protection at the time, FBI documents show He refused. Had Palimere handed the Form 4473' over, it is unclear whether Hunter would be facing his gun charges today. The Secret Service provides protection to presidents and their families for life, but Vice presidents only get the perk during their time in office. Joe Biden left the vice presidency in January 2017, nearly two years before Hunter bought the gun. The document is now the basis of the prosecution against him. It shows that in order to buy the gun, he ticked a box claiming he was not addicted to illegal substances. He admitted in his memoir that he was a full blown addict to crack cocaine at the time. Lying on the federal form is a crime. The federal form has been discussed repeatedly in Hunters trial this week in Wilmington. But there has been no mention of the alleged improper involvement from the Secret Service whose agents are in the courtroom, protecting Hunter and the First Family members who have come to support him. Palimere believes it was October 24, 2018, when separately, the Delaware State Police (DSP) and the United States Secret Service (USSS) came to StarQuest, said an FBI write-up of Palimeres interview conducted last week. Palimere refused to hand over the form Hunter filled out to purchase the gun. Had he handed the Form 4473' over, it is unclear whether Hunter would be facing his gun charges today The document is now the basis of the prosecution against Hunter. It shows that in order to buy the gun, he ticked a box claiming he was not addicted to illegal substances, when in fact he wrote in his memoir that he was a full blown addict to crack cocaine at the time Hunter Biden (left) holds hands with his wife Melissa Cohen (right) as he leaves court Monday at end of the opening day of his trial on criminal gun charges in Wilmington, Delaware First lady Jill Biden, center, departs from federal court, Friday, June 7, 2024, in Wilmington, Delaware First lady Jill Biden, center, departs from federal court, Friday US First Lady Dr. Jill Biden (R) arrives to attend her son Hunter Biden's trial at US Federal District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, on Friday They said the firearm was involved in a case of some kind and they wanted to expedite the trace process and get access to the Form 4473. Both agencies asked the same questions and it appeared they were not aware of each other's investigations. Something about the USSS request did not seem right so Palimere contacted [a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent he knew]. [The agent] advised Palimere not to turn the original Form 4473 over to anyone and to turn over a copy only if Palimere felt Palimere had to. A Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver similar to Hunter's that Hallie Biden threw into a grocery store trash can The FBI interview write-up was filed last month as part of the exhibits in Hunters trial in Delaware for lying on his gun form. The Special Agent who conducted the interview, Erika Jensen, gave extensive testimony in Hunters trial, which began on June 3. Another StarQuest employee interviewed by the FBI this month, Gordon Cleveland, also said he heard from the other StarQuest employees who worked day shifts that law enforcement visited the store and they threw their weight around and were not very nice to Palimere. The accounts, now on the record in FBI interviews, fly in the face of claims by the USSS since 2021 that they had no involvement in the investigation of Hunters allegedly illegal gun purchase. Sources first revealed the suspicious Secret Service visit to the gun store to news site Politico in March 2021. The federal form has been discussed repeatedly in Hunters trial this week in Wilmington. Pictured: President Joe Biden, right, hugs his son Hunter Biden At the time, the Secret Service told the site they had no record of agents investigating the incident, and told DailyMail.com that U.S. Secret Service records confirm that the agency did not provide protection to any member of the Biden family in 2018, and that the Secret Service had no involvement in this alleged incident. But emails obtained by nonprofit Judicial Watch show that internally USSS officials werent so sure. It's kind of odd that we were involved in the missing gun investigation when neither Hunter or Joe were even receiving USSS protection at the time? Hmmm, said one unidentified agent in the emails. Maybe we were asked for a favor? another said. Oh dear... one responded. Amanda Knox has hit out at the decision of a Florence court to convict her of slander for wrongly accusing an innocent man of the murder of Meredith Kercher in a dramatic new interview with Italian TV. Slamming critics for painting a 'fantasy' picture of who she really is, Knox, 36, claimed she was a victim and railed against the 'impulse to find satisfaction or fun in judging other people'. US citizen Knox was a 20-year-old exchange student in the university town of Perugia when she and her then-boyfriend were accused of murdering 21-year-old Brit Kercher, who was found dead in the apartment they shared on November 2, 2007. After years of flip-flop trials and jail time they were exonerated in 2015, but a slander conviction endured against Knox for wrongly accusing an innocent man, the Congolese bar owner who employed her part time. The European Court of Human Rights in 2019 ruled that police officers violated her human rights during an intensive interrogation in which she named the bar owner as the killer, but the judge in Florence nevertheless saw it fit to reconvict her this week. 'I'm not Foxy Knoxy, I'm Amanda Knox and I have not slandered, I have not killed,' she declared through tears in an exclusive interview with Sky TG24 in Italy. Amanda Knox has hit out at the decision of a Florence court to convict her of slander for wrongly accusing an innocent man of the murder of Meredith Kercher in a dramatic new interview with Italian TV Slamming critics for painting a 'fantasy' picture of who she really is, Knox, 36, claimed she was a victim and railed against the 'impulse to find satisfaction or fun in judging other people' Meredith Kercher (pictured) was tragically murdered in 2007 Amanda Knox arrives flanked by her husband Christopher Robinson, right, at the Florence courtroom in Florence, Italy, Wednesday, June 5, 2024 Knox initially accused the Congolese owner of a bar, Patrick Lumumba, (pictured) of killing Kercher FILE - Amanda Knox, center, is escorted by Italian penitentiary police officers to Perugia's court, in Italy, Sept 26, 2008 Knox served four years in prison before being freed on an earlier acquittal in 2011, covering the three-year slander sentence. The Amanda Knox Case: A Timeline November 2, 2007 - The body of Meredith Kercher was discovered. November 3-5, 2007: Knox and Sollecito are suspected. November 6, 2007 - Knox, Sollecito, and Lumumba are arrested. Lumumba is held in custody for two weeks before being released. November 20, 2007 - Rudy Guede is arrested. October 28, 2008 - Guede is convicted of murdering Kercher. December 4, 2009 - Knox and Sollecito are convicted. October 3, 2011 - Knox and Sollecito win their appeal. January 30, 2014 - Knox and Sollecito are again convicted. March 27, 2015 - The definitive acquittal. January 25, 2019 - Knox is awarded $21,000 in compensation. November 23, 2021 - Rudy Guede is released from prison. June 5, 2024 - Knox returned to Italian court to defend herself against slander charge. June 5, 2024 - Court finds her guilty of slander again. Advertisement Rudy Hermann Guede of Ivory Coast was later convicted of killing Kercher and served 13 years of a 16-year sentence. But Knox, from Seattle, was on hand in the Florence court on Wednesday when she was reconvicted of slandering Patrick Lumumba, who was held for two weeks on suspicion of murder before police released him with an iron-clad alibi. Italy's highest court ordered the retrial after a European Court of Human Rights ruling that her human rights had been violated during a long night of questioning without a lawyer or competent translator, when she accused Lumumba in two statements typed by police that she signed. The high court stipulated that the Florence appeals panel could not consider the two signed documents, but only four handwritten pages penned by Knox the next afternoon in a bid to walk back the statements. 'There is one document in question, that we can all read, and the message of this document is, ''I don't know who killed Meredith''. I thought I was extremely clear,' Knox said in fluent Italian. 'I didn't slander Patrick; I didn't kill my friend [Meredith]. I will come back here as many times as I have to fight against this injustice'. She went on to insist that she named Lumumba under extreme police pressure. 'I was abused, mistreated, psychologically tortured by police that night,' Knox said in the TV interview. 'It was the worst experience of my life. It was worse than being convicted, to tell the truth, because they made me think I was crazy, that I couldn't trust myself. 'I will fight for the truth,' Knox told Sky TG24 in her first public comments since the guilty verdict on Wednesday. 'It's been 17 years that I have been unjustly accused.' Amanda Knox (pictured) returned to an Italian courtroom Wednesday for the first time in more than twelve-and-a-half years to clear her name Kercher was travelling in Italy at the time of her death FILE - Diya 'Patrick' Lumumba, a Congolese citizen who was originally jailed for the murder of Meredith Kercher, leaves the court building on the occasion of the final hearing before the third court verdict for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, in Florence, Italy, Jan. 30, 2014 Amanda Knox and her former lover Raffaele Sollecito (pictured, right) were pictured in June 2022 reuniting in Italy 15 years after they were arrested and wrongly convicted of the murder of Briton Meredith Kercher Knox pictured leaving with penitentiary police after a court hearing in Perugia on September 16, 2008 Ivory Coast man Rudy Guede, 36, (pictured in 2016) was released from prison in 2021 after serving 13 years for brutally killing Meredith - although he always denied any involvement Lumumba, speaking to MailOnline this week, said he was felt the Florence court's decision was 'just and deserved'. 'I hail the court in Florence with much respect and honor for their professionalism. It is true we were friends with Amanda Knox, but you don't stab friends in the back and Amanda stabbed me. She stabbed me and did not apologize,' he continued. The slaying of Kercher in 2007 fuelled global headlines as suspicion fell on Knox, then a 20-year-old exchange student, and her new Italian boyfriend of just a week, Raffaele Sollecito. The young Brit's body was found splayed out in her bedroom, partially undressed, and had suffered 47 stab wounds. In the statements given to police during an intensive questioning in the early hours of the morning in 2007, Knox said she remembered hearing Kercher scream, and pointed to Lumumba for the killing. Hours later at 1pm, she asked for pen and paper and wrote her own statement in English, questioning the Italian version typed up by police that she had signed in the night. 'In regards to this ''confession'' that I made last night, I want to make clear that Im very doubtful of the verity of my statements because they were made under the pressure of stress, shock and extreme exhaustion,' she wrote. But despite Knox's attempts at walking back the accusation, Lumumba was picked up for questioning and held in jail for almost two weeks. Lumumba was only released after a Swiss university professor came forward with a till receipt proving the father-of-two was at work and not involved in the crime. Amanda Knox arrives with her husband Christopher Robinson (L) at the courthouse in Florence, on June 5, 2024 before a hearing in a slander case, related to her jailing and later acquittal for the murder of her British roommate in 2007 Knox and Sollecito had only been dating for a short amount of time before Meredith's death Knox has returned to live in the Pacific northwest but admitted in 2016 that she will never truly be able to recapture her past life Since her release from an Italian prison in 2011, Knox has embraced life, becoming a mum of two and a successful broadcaster Knox, who is now a mother of two and a criminal justice reform advocate, will not serve any jail time for the conviction as she had already spent some three years behind bars. She told Sky TG24: 'When I raise my children, I hope they see my strength. I am lucky to have a family and friends who support me in a fight that will perhaps continue throughout my life. 'My message to those who are unjustly incarcerated is: you are not alone. There are very difficult days, but there are those who want to help you. 'I love Italy and I hope that one day we can truly understand each other. I'm trying.' Meanwhile, Kercher's killer Guede, now 36, was released from prison in 2021 after serving 13 years of a 16-year term handed down in a fast-track trial that foresees lighter sentences under Italian law. Guede's DNA was discovered on Kercher's body despite his claims that he was in the bathroom listening to music when she was killed. He was recently ordered to wear a monitoring bracelet and not leave his home at night after an ex-girlfriend accused him of physical and sexual abuse. An investigation into that case is still ongoing. A council worker is facing a lengthy prison sentence for embezzling more than 1 million to fund a luxury lifestyle. Michael Paterson exploited his position as a Council Tax and Recovery team leader at Aberdeen City Council to pocket a total of 1,087,444.47. The High Court in Edinburgh heard the 59-year-olds criminal activity stemmed back to November 2006 and he continued scamming the local authority until September 2023. He initially stole the cash to pay off debts but then continued to take the money for a no-expense-spared lifestyle spending the cash on Apple goods, foreign holidays and shopping. However, he was still in debt at the time of his arrest. Michael Paterson, 59, plead guilty to embezzling more than 1m from Aberdeen City Council over 17 years, spending the cash on electronics, holidays and eating out Paterson used the money to fund extravagant holidays to locations including Dubai, New York, Portugal, Spain, Costa Rica and Paris, where he boasted about climbing to the top of the Eiffel Tower. He and his partner would routinely enjoy two overseas holidays a year. His Facebook feed is filled with images of him enjoying lavish meals and expensive drinks at each location. They pair are also photographed at dozens of luxury hotels, restaurants and attractions across the country over the past decade, including the Balmoral Hotel and Michelin-star restaurant The Kichin in Edinburgh and Harry Potter World in London. In one post he writes: Having food and drinks. Shocker ehh. Delish. In another he states: Having a great time so far in glorious Ibiza. The apartment complex is stunning......We are in our element. He also attended various concerts to see stars including Beyonce and Michael Buble as well as several theatre productions in London and Edinburgh. Prosecutor Brian Gill KC told the court how Paterson had unsupervised authority to issue council tax refunds of up to 3,000. He could also alter payee account details without authorisation or verification and abused the privilege. The accused transferred unclaimed council tax overpayments into a Nationwide bank account in his name until he was caught last September. A colleague spotted the scam after noticing that a refund of more than 2,000 had been made on a computer system using Patersons username. The court heard how she confronted him about the payment and was told it was a mistake. But she reported her concerns to bosses who launched a probe into the team leaders activities. The investigation revealed Paterson had been paying council tax money to himself to the tune of more than 1million. Paterson used the money to fund extravagant holidays to locations including Dubai Judge David Young KC heard the council employee was sacked and police were called in. Detectives eventually arrested Paterson in November last year. Mr Gill told the court Paterson spoke freely during an interview with officers and added: The accused explained the state of his financial affairs. When he had started the embezzlement in 2006, he had been in debt to the sum of 20,000 through credit cards and other loans. Although he had paid off his mortgage approximately 13 years previously he had always spent more than his salary and had been in a state of perpetual debts. He had originally started the embezzlement because he was worried about the debts. But over time he had just continued his overspending. He had spent the stolen money on technology, particularly Apple goods, foreign holidays, eating out approximately once a week, shopping and the maintenance of his flat. He had not in fact cleared his debts and was still in significant debt. The accused expressed his remorse saying, I know Ive done wrong. I regret what Ive done. He explained that he had no intention of ever repaying any of the sums that he had taken. He had just been hoping that he would not be found out. The story emerged after Paterson, from Aberdeen, pleaded guilty to a charge of embezzlement before Judge Young. He was carrying out the scam as the city council sought redundancies from staff members and paused housing projects in a bid to balance books with cuts of tens of millions of pounds expected in the upcoming budget for the next financial year. Mr Gill told the court yesterday that Paterson, who joined the council in 1988 rising through the ranks to his last role, made 35,000 per year from his position and has no dependents or previous convictions. He was in charge of a team of 12 and had unrestricted and unsupervised access to two computer systems with user name Mike P stealing from his employers over a 17-year period before he was caught. The prosecutor said the subsequent council probe revealed there had been 490 council tax refunds totalling more than 700,000 to a Nationwide bank account in the accuseds name. The local authority also discovered that a further 376,042.85 had been made to another Bank of Scotland account belonging to Paterson before the money was transferred to the Nationwide account. Paterson is now facing a Proceeds of Crime Action later this year in a bid to recover the stolen cash, the court heard. Defence solicitor advocate Iain Paterson said that since his client was a first offender, hed reserve his mitigation until a future hearing to allow for background reports. The 59-year-old attended various concerts to see stars including Beyonce Mr Paterson added: The accused accepts imprisonment is inevitable in relation to this case and theres no application for bail. He has attended today expecting to be remanded. Judge Young deferred sentence on Paterson and remanded him in custody. He added: Im going to adjourn to obtain a Criminal Justice Social Work Report on you. You will understand that it is a strong possibility that a considerable custodial sentence will be imposed on you in this case. Following the hearing Detective Constable Tom Cameron said: Paterson portrayed himself as an honest and professional individual and instead used his position to obtain a significant amount of money. I hope this investigation highlights our commitment to fully investigate all reports of financial crime. Aberdeen City Council apologised to those affected and said it will be in touch with anyone due council tax refunds adding its financial controls and processes have since been strengthened. Paterson will be sentenced on July 5, 2024 at the High Court in Edinburgh. Parents were enraged that their children at a high school in Burlington Vermont were part of a 'mock shooting drill' with a masked gunman this week. The surprise demonstration took place on Wednesday as part of a year-end forensics collaborative between that Burlington High School and the Burlington Police Department that involved a group of roughly twenty students. Three officers were involved in the role-playing scenario that simulated a robbery with one of the officers dressed as a masked gunman pretending to open fire, causing panic with many students diving for cover and fearing for their lives. The simulated drill was meant to be a useful exercise, but the lack of warning and surprise ambush terrified students, and caused outrage among parents and the community. Outraged parents and students told Seven Days that the mock drill played on the fears of students who have grown up amid a nationwide increase in violence at schools. A photo of the administrative building of Burlington Police Department The students in attendance said they were initially told they would watch a presentation on how detective solve crimes and get a tour of the police station. One of the students told the publication how frightened she was, and explained how when she was running for cover, she scraped her knee, all while trying to find her phone to call her mother. The student recalled her trauma, and shared that she was 'shaking and crying,' and remembered thinking, 'Oh my god. I'm going to get shot.' She added: 'It felt so real.' It wasn't until the students saw that the officers were doing nothing to stop the shooter that they realized it was 'not real.' A parent said, she was 'baffled' by the incident. 'It is a very real threat to kids these days to have a school shooting. It's something they worry about.' On Thursday, both the Burlington School District and the Burlington Police Department issued an apology to parents and students. In the statements, the school offered counseling services, and the police department apologized to those students 'upset by the specific scenario and crime scene portion of the presentation.' They further stated, 'the role-playing scenaior only involved three department personnel simulating a robbery scenario and was not directed at any students or faculty.' In the letter, the BPD stated that on April 29, the Burlington School District staff associated with the YES program contacted the BPD about conducting another presentation after a previous successful presentation between the police department and the BHS Science in Society in the fall of 2023. On May 23, police department staff and the YES program staff communicated about the details of the scenario, which included 'using fake firearms in a mock shooting.' BPD asked, 'Do you think that sort of incident would be ok for your group of students? They also stated that 'it is about as real life as you can get, and it certainly exactly the sort of thing we deal with most frequently.' According to the letter, staff from the YES program responded that 'these students will be fine with the simulation,' and said they will 'give a heads up to parents and students.' But, according to Seven Days, the presentation that was previously done and successful was used with college students, and adults not high school students, which was sent to parents in an email on Wednesday. The teachers wrote that 'the detectives did apologize after they realized that the reenactment did not translate well to high school students.' A district spokesperson would not disclose whether the school district did notify parents ahead of time about the simulation, but some of the students, and parents who spoke to the news outlet, said they were not. DailyMail.com reached out to the school district to get some clarification but they were unavailable for comments. On May 23, police department staff and the YES program staff communicated about the details of the scenario, which included 'using fake firearms in a mock shooting' A street view of Burlington High School The BPD supervisor was not named, but in the media release issued the supervisor involved reached out to staff members in the program, to discuss the matter further. On Friday, police department personnel planned to meet with the students, and staff to talk about the incident, and mock drill. They ended the letter stating, 'we hope that this will be a reflective growth and opporutinity for all parties.' Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad was away at a conference and was not available for an interview, as per the news outlet. DailyMail.com reached out to the Burlington Police Department for further comment, but they were unavailable at time of publication. The non-profit organization Dad Guild, posted news of the incident to their more than one million followers sharing how 'deeply disturbed' they were, and shared data about the epidemic our nation is facing with mass shootings in our schools. 'Over half of high school-aged students fear school shootings, with 1 in 4 being 'very worried,' they wrote, in part. 'The psychological impact of school crisis drills themselves is profound, with many students having been traumatized by these drills.' 'This reality underscores the urgent need to reform these drills to be less, not more, extreme and the same goes for demonstrations like the one that took place yesterday. 'We have a unique obligation to handle such exercises with greater sensitivity and forethought,' the organization said, in part They also asked about 'what accountability might look like for the Burlington Police Department.' 'This situation, brought on by poor judgment for a planned out demonstration, brings up thoughts around how BPD may be exercising poor judgment in actual crisis situations. We hope for a response with care and action steps to mitigate the harm caused. 'We believe and hope that the Burlington community can work towards a safer and more supportive environment for its students, ensuring that educational experiences are both informative and compassionate,' they said. The letter that was sent out to parents and students from the Burlington Police Department The second page of the BPD statement One person responded to the Dad Guild site stating. ' I 100% agree that BPD needs to look into their practices, but we also need to be aware that Burlington School Officials were aware that an extremely lifelike gun scenario was going to be demonstrated during this presentation,' they said. 'Sounds to me like the adults from both the school and BPD failed their kids. As a teacher, you don't show a video without watching it all the way through and this should have been vetted with much more scrutiny.' The non-profit organization, Sandy Hook Promise, founded and led by several family members whose children were killed in a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012. Their Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund has led state efforts to ensure students are not required to participate in active shooter simulations, as part of their school safety exercises. The organization has been the issue a priority because of an ongoing trend. They believe that some policy makers are treating active shooter drills and active shooter simulations as one and the same, and putting children at risk. Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak's office was notified and she 'expressed disappointment,' as per the news outlet. She stated her concerns on why the police department would conduct a mock shooting in front of high school students in the first place, and without prior warning, and asked the department to 'reflect on why [the demonstration] was problematic.' It was supposed to playfully celebrate the seaside villages links to witchcraft. But the owner of a gaudy witch mural that sparked controversy after it was painted on the side of his pub has lost a fight to keep it. Alan Adey, 61, commissioned street artist Rogue One to create the work in Pittenweem, Fife, and mark the areas links to witchcraft. Adey was refused retrospective permission last year for the huge image at the Larachmhor Tavern. Fife Council said it was based on historically inaccurate false narratives perpetuated by popular media and ordered it to be removed. The mural on the side of Pittenweem's Larachmhor Tavern must now be removed after Scottish Government planning officials rejected its owner's appeal to keep it Adey issued a plea for it to remain and lodged an appeal with the Scottish Government. But he has now been told the mural must be removed due its adverse effect on the area. A letter on Adeys behalf said: Although no planning permission was granted, the mural was paid for by the pub owner and constructed by a famous street artist. The permission was a genuine oversight and, on the strength of what the mural brings to Pittenweem, overlays the oversight. The mural is a stand-out reminder to Pittenweems history of the witch trials that troubled this area. It is a stand alone tourist attraction. Objectors had labelled the painting offensive and demanded it be removed. One said: It is large and garish and a hideous piece of work. It is not in keeping with a conservation area. It is on a listed building. It is an offensive caricature of a Halloween witch. Many innocent women were tortured and killed under witchcraft laws in Pittenweem. The Witches of Scotland campaign has just succeeded in obtaining a pardon and an apology for women killed under witchcraft laws. A campaign is ongoing for an appropriate memorial or monument to be erected for these women. The picture is out of keeping with the current social mood. It is a shameful part of Pittenweems history and should not be referred to by such a painting. Pittenweems historical links to witches saw one woman killed and several others imprisoned after being accused of witchcraft in 1705. Popular witch tours ran in the village for several years. Artist Bobby McNamara, aka Rogue One, had said he enjoyed painting the mural because it was so different from his normal projects. He said: The owner of the property wanted the witch mural as Pittenweem has a witch history, but a few locals did moan a bit about it being mean and ugly and theyd rather not expose their villages witch history so much. I get that. Its understandable. But the owners wanted it, and I enjoyed doing something edgy and scary. Reporter Lorna McCallum said: Taking account of the location, scale, colours and design of the mural I consider that it does not preserve the building and its features of special architectural or historic interest. For the same reasons I also consider that the mural has a localised but, nevertheless, adverse impact on and fails to preserve or enhance the character and appearance of the conservation area. Therefore, I conclude that listed building consent should not be granted in retrospect for this breach of planning control. Fake tan, bare flesh, cowboy hats, Gucci belts and Louis Vuitton handbags - the Appleby catwalk was in full swing today as a travellers showed off their favourite fashion on day two of the horse fair. Scores of women wore skimpy outfits and showed off designer labels while attracting almost as many admiring glances as the horses being ridden around the market town of Appleby-in-Westmorland in Cumbria. The style-conscious members of the travelling community ignored overcast skies and the risk of fake tan running during occasional rain showers as they stepped out on what has become known locally as the Appleby catwalk. One woman donned a belt by fashion house Gucci paired with a Louis Vuitton handbag while others wore tight fitting dresses, crocs and Ugg boots. Men wore Under Armour tracksuits and trendy Addidas trainers. Many of the young and not so young women sported false eye-lashes, heavy make-up and glamourous hair-dos as they strolled around the market stalls set up in a field selling clothing, household items, toys, fast food and horse-riding accessories. Two girls appear to be less than impressed with their horse's attempt at walking down some stairs An array of Gucci designer items and fur coats were on display today at day two of the fair Scores of women wore skimpy outfits and showed off designer labels while attracting admiring glances Two style-conscious members of the travelling community parade along the streets on what has become known locally as the Appleby catwalk Thousands of people will flock to Cumbria for the annual Appleby Horse Fair Punters ignored overcast skies and the risk of fake tan running during occasional rain showers to attend the second day of the horse fair People appeared to be in a good mood as they soaked up some nice weather These four pose for the camera with a smile with pints at the horse fair Others in short skirts or tight trousers took to horseback or hitched rides horse-drawn 'sulky' buggies for the short journey into the town centre, where horses were ridden into the River Eden beside the main bridge. Many of the well-dressed women included young mothers with children in buggies or walking beside them. Designer accessories on display included Chanel, Gucci and Dior handbags as well as Luis Vuitton Pochette Felicie bags costing more than 1,000 each and a Chanel flap bags which retail at more than 5,000. Meanwhile other women sported Christian Loubotin and Gucci belts, sometimes paired with frayed skimpy shorts and crop tops. Some opted for practical Crocs all-weather footwear while tending to their horses beside the River Eden, but others wore Balenciaga trainers and Hermes sandals or tottered around muddy fields in high heels. Burberry style outfits including tight leggings were also in evidence while others showcased a range of gaudy colours, or chose flowing dresses, sometimes with bare midriffs on show. Groups of lads, many with slick backed hairstyles and dressed in Boss t-shirts and jumpers with matching track suits were also seen walking about and speeding around in their horse-drawn buggies. But it was a different story earlier in the day when some women stocking up on essentials at shops in the town appeared to be wearing pyjamas and dressing gowns before getting dressed up for the days festivities. The horse fair which is Europe's biggest gathering of gypsies and travellers and lasts into next week is expected to attract around 40,000 visitors, most of them visiting the town today and over this weekend. Around 30,000 of the visitors who have arrived in cars, caravans by train and even in horse drawn carriages are expected travellers, while another 10,000 are horse lovers from the settled community Two travellers were in a good mood while sitting on top of their carriage Travellers have gathered in Cumbria as day two of the fair gets underway A woman takes a sip of her pint as she braves the downpours for the second day of the Appleby horse fair The area will become adorned with modern caravans and the traditional Romany horse drawn green canvas bow caravans One man didn't let the rain stop fim form enjoying his dinner Some more designer gear is on display as the person on the left shows off a Louis Vuitton bag Other members of the travelling community embraced the wet weather and took their horses for a swim in the River Eden Irish traveller Laura Cassidy, 23, said: 'Appleby is always a big event in the calendar for travellers, and of course everyone wants to dress up and look their best. 'You might be trudging around in a field or riding a horse, but that doesn't mean you can't look the part. Travellers have always been concerned about how they look. Who doesn't want to look good.' Another traveller who asked not to be named said: 'This is an annual event and it is chance to get together with old friends. There is lots to see and do. It is not just looking at horses. 'Of course girls want to dress up. If they are single, it is a chance to impress the boys. Appleby is a great place for families, but it is also a great place to find a new boyfriend if you want one.' Local residents in the town which normally has 3,000 people have mixed feelings about the event which effectively takes over their town with streets being blocked off and one way systems set up. While some profit from turning their fields into 10-a-day car parks, others have become fed up with the disruption, and many leave the town for the duration of the fair. Rows of shops and three of the town's four pubs have closed along with the local library. But the Co-op, a greengrocers, the town's two butchers, two cafes and even a traditional sweet shop have remained open to cater for the influx of visitors. Shops that have closed include a carpet store, a gift shop, travel agents and a clothing shop which also does dry cleaning. Chris Wilson who runs the Sugar and Spice sweet shop said: 'We love the fair and I have no problems staying open. 'Of course there are some little idiots, but you get one per cent who are troublemakers everywhere. There are lads in this town who I wouldn't let in. I don't take much more than normal, although tomorrow I will probably do double my usual business.' Michael Dowding who runs N & J Dowding Family Butchers, said: 'We are working our normal hours. We don't see many locals for the week because so many people leave town, but plenty of travellers come in. Two women who came prepared for the wet weather carry umbrellas to shield themselves from the rain One girl has an awkward struggle as two of her friends help her to mount a horse The activities come as Cumbria Police issued an appeal for calm during this week's Appleby Horse Fair One woman is determined to continue rocking her flawless outfit as she takes her horse for a dip in the river The small town of Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria is usually home to around 3000 residents but this week will see this figure balloon to more than 30,000 as visitors These three look to be enjoying their day as they enjoy a drink on day two One woman was clearly not afraid of getting wet as she took a ride with her horse in the river People attending the Appleby Horse Fair embrace the rain as they enjoy a pint on the side of the road 'They like stuff that they can cook on barbecues like steaks, lamb, burgers and sausages. They appreciate getting quality for their money. We don't have any problems with them.' Davina Osman, 78, who runs the Collectable bric-a-brac shop in the town, said: 'I personally have a good time with the fair here. There are older members of the travelling community who enjoy old things and like to come in.' A large number of police officers are visible on the streets of the town as well as RSPCA staff and officials from other equine charities, Cumbria Police have appealed for calm, and said they had made two arrests yesterday for people who had allegedly obstructed RSPCA officers wanting to check on the welfare of horses Meanwhile, the Public Hall has opened its doors for travellers to set up stalls selling Romany and gypsy memorabilia Food stalls flogging burgers, chips, hot dogs, curries, doughnuts, giros and other fast food have lined the streets. Meanwhile the market stall area features stalls selling baby glamour wear, alongside household items like water pales, as well as designer sunglasses and faux designer goods. Rosina Phillips, 71, of south Wales who was visiting the fair with her border collie Bronwen said: 'It is a magical atmosphere. It is so beautiful seeing the horses, ad listening to all the sounds of people laughing and being happy.' A billionaire has sparked fury among locals in a Wyoming town who say he is trying to change its name to be more 'marketable' to wealthy city elites. Residents in Bondurant claim Chicago Cubs owner Joe Ricketts is attempting to erase its identity as he moves to build a swanky new 230,000-square-foot resort nearby. The Ameritrade founder reportedly wants to change Bondurant's name to Little Jackson Hole, in a bid to lure in tourists. Ricketts believes city slickers in the likes of New York might associate the new name with Jackson Hole, the renowned ski town. But the suggestion has upset locals, including longtime resident Pat Burroughs who is among 200 people who have protested at local meetings. 'We are Bondurant,' Burroughs told Cowboy State Daily. 'This is the Upper Hoback.' Billionaire Joe Ricketts has sparked fury among locals in a Wyoming town who say he is trying to change its name to be more 'marketable' to wealthy city elites The Ameritrade founder reportedly wants to change Bondurant's name to Little Jackson Hole The idea was reportedly floated to locals by Ricketts at a glitzy, seven course dinner featuring goodie bags, most of which went unclaimed in protest. 'About 75% of the people all got up and left the dinner right then,' Burroughs said. 'They left the gift bags on the table and just walked out.' Bumper stickers with 'Don't Jackson Hole Our Town' have also been spotted throughout the area. But it is not just the name change with has locals concerned, many fear the impact on the local wildlife, house prices and the town's unique character. It may be too late to stop however, as Ricketts has already snapped up more than 1,800 acres of land in the area. Most recently, he quietly acquired the historic Haliburton Hotel, which locals suspect may be to bolster another recent purchase of the White Pine Ski Resort. Burroughs explained that locals were already experiencing 'infuriating' issues with mail, as packages have turned up addressed to Little Jackson Hole. 'One gentleman even had trouble getting his medication,' she said. 'He kept telling them he lives in Bondurant, but they were looking for someone in Little Jackson Hole.' Ricketts has already snapped up more than 1,800 acres of land in the area including the White Pine Ski Resort (pictured) His idea was reportedly floated to locals by Ricketts at a glitzy, seven course dinner featuring goodie bags, most of which went unclaimed in protest Her concerns are echoed by another longtime resident, Richard Pearson. 'He's bought several places around here,' Pearson said. 'It's just like a cancer. He's just sucking everything up. Anything that becomes available, he's buying it.' Ricketts already owns the 1,300 acre Jackson Fork Ranch and 160 acre former Dead Shot Ranch. There is speculation he has been eying land swaps to try and connect the two into one sprawling estate. Some residents have expressed concern that the resort could send house prices soaring, making it unaffordable for those from the area. They point to the impact of Jackson Hole on its surrounding communities as evidence for their worries 'I've got a buddy who drives a truck with County 23 license plate No. 2. That's how long his family has been here, and he can't afford to live here anymore,' said Justin Brummett. Ricketts claims the name change would have a historic basis and highlighted research he commissioned which showed a link to famous explorer Davey Jackson. Ricketts plans to build a swanky new 230,000-square-foot resort near to Bondurant Some residents have expressed concern that the resort could send house prices soaring, making it unaffordable for those from the area He states the Hoback resort will be a 'premium resort experience with a mission-driven focus on protecting, preserving, and enjoying the natural beauty of the Hoback region'. Many believe that the resort can help revive Bondurant, which has seen ever dwindling class sizes at the local school and a litany of hotel, store and restaurant closures. If Ricketts' plans are successful, he will become possibly the second largest employer in the area offering work not tied to jobs in volatile sectors such as oil and gas. 'Our federal lands aren't going to be as lucrative as they have been. In my mind, recreation is probably the next easiest thing for Sublette County to delve into,' Sublette County Commissioner Mack Bradley told Cowboy State Daily. More than half a million voters in the Democratic presidential primaries have voted 'uncommitted' rather than cast ballots for President Biden in a move that sets of alarms for the president ahead of what is expected to be an extremely close general election. The movement to get Democrats to vote 'uncommitted' will send at least 36 'uncommitted' delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August from nine states so far, according to tracking by the Associated Press. On Tuesday, New Jersey voters chose to send one uncommitted delegate to the convention from their primary. More than 42,000 voters in the Democratic contest opted to vote 'uncommitted' over Biden. In New Mexico, another nearly 13,000 voted uncommitted this week. Tuesday's primaries were the latest where a number of Democratic contests where voters have signaled dissatisfaction with the incumbent president. President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden arriving in Paris on June 6. On Tuesday, voters in New Jersey chose to send one 'uncommitted' delegate to the convention as the president continues to face a protest vote from some Democrats The largest group of 'uncommitted' delegates headed to the convention is from Minnesota with eleven. More than 45,000 voters there voted uncommitted. Kentucky is also sending eight uncommitted voters to the convention. More than 32,000 voters in the state cast ballots for 'uncommitted.' Thousands of Democratic voters are angry over President Biden's support for Israel as it continues to wage war in Gaza in response to the terror attack by Hamas on October 7. The conflict has put Biden in a tough political position. The president has supported additional aid for Israel, a close U.S. ally, but has also been critical of conservative Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In a TIME interview released earlier this week, Biden said there is 'every reason' to think Netanyahu is prolonging the war for political gains. Last week, the president called on Hamas to take a deal from Israel. He said 'it's time for the war to end.' People gather at the 'uncommitted' watch party in Minnesota. The state is sending 11 'uncommitted' delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August, the most of any state so far 36 uncommitted Democratic delegates are headed to the convention in Chicago in August But Biden's efforts have not been enough to sway some of the party base, especially young people who have turned out to protest the war in Gaza on college campuses across the country. The 'uncommitted' movement really began to pick up steam back in late February when more than 101,000 voters in the battleground state of Michigan cast ballots for 'uncommitted' instead of Biden. The president won the state in the 2020 general election by just over 154,000 votes against Donald Trump. While the uncommitted vote is a cause for concern for Biden if he is unable to bring some Democrats back into the fold by November, his opponent Trump has his own flashing warning signs. Some Republicans have rejected him in the GOP primaries despite there being no other candidate in the race and Trump having clinched the necessary delegates months ago. Donald Trump in Phoenix, Arizona on June 6. The ex-president has faced some opposition from GOP Nikki Haley voters who cast ballots for her in primaries even after she left the race Former GOP candidate Nikki Haley continues to receive thousands of votes in the Republican primaries despite having dropped out of the race in early March. She said late last month she would vote for Trump after withholding an endorsement since her exit from the race. Despite that, she received more than 8,000 votes in the New Mexico primary on Tuesday, or. 8.6 percent. In Montana, more than 16,000 voted 'no preference' rather than for Trump. Last month, more than 120,000 voters in the GOP Indiana primary voted for her. Trump has faced challenges in battleground states as well. More than 155,000 voters in Pennsylvania, 77,000 voters in Georgia, 110,000 voters in Arizona and 155,000 voters in Florida and 161,000 voters in Ohio, and 76,000 voters in Wisconsin all cast ballots for Haley in the the Republican primaries despite her already having exited the race. It is not yet clear whether Trump's felony convictions will have a further impact on his standing within the party, though he has seen a surge in donations since the verdict and party officials have rallied behind him. Director Steven Spielberg, a master of dramatic scenes on the beaches of Normandy, helped prepare President Joe Biden for his speech at Pointe du Hoc. Spielberg was in the room at the Hotel Intercontinental in Paris on Friday morning when Biden was doing his final run through and prep for what the White House billed as a major speech on democracy, according to a source with knowledge of the preparations. The White House did not respond to inquiries from DailyMail.com on why Spielberg was in the room and whether or not he was compensated for his advice. A representative for Spielberg referred DailyMail.com to the White House for comment. Spielberg is also working with the Democratic National Committee on strategy for August's national convention, where Biden will formally accept the party's presidential nomination. He's already been in meetings with party officials where he's offered advice on the best way to tell Biden's story and outline his vision for his second term. Steven Spielberg was in Normandy on Thursday for the 80th anniversary of D-Day and he helped Joe Biden on Friday prepare for his speech at Pointe du Hoc Spielberg is a longtime supporter of the president's and appeared at a fundraiser with him in Los Angeles in December. Spielbergs friend and former DreamWorks partner Jeffrey Katzenberg is a co-chair of Biden's re-election campaign. The director was in France for Thursday's 80th anniversary event for D-Day at the American Cemetery in Normandy. Actor Tom Hanks was also present. The two men also met with several D-Day veterans who were there for the celebration and then they went out to dinner with their wives in Paris on Thursday evening. Neither man attended Biden's speech on democracy on Friday, which the president gave on the same spot Ronald Reagan gave his famous 'Boys of Pointe Du Hoc' speech on June 6th, 1984. Spielberg is a talented story-teller with a great eye and he's made several pieces about World War II and the D-Day invasion, including 'Saving Private Ryan' and 'Band of Brothers.' He has won two Academy Awards for Best Director for 'Saving Private Ryan' and 'Schindler's List.' Biden's speech, which lasted about 11 minutes, was picturesque. The president spoke from the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc, atop the same German bunker from where Reagan spoke. Behind him was the English Channel and the Rangers Memorial, with three wreaths at his base. Before he spoke, Biden paid his respects at the memorial, standing before it and bowing his head. On either side of Biden were the rocky beaches of Normandy that proceed the 100-foot high cliffs that Army Rangers scaled 80 years ago while under heavy fire from German guns. The grounds around the memorial are dotted with 50 feet craters, the remains of the bombs British and American forces dropped ahead of the Allied invasion. Biden arrived like a movie star to speak to the crowd of 150 invited guests. The president flew over the site on Marine One ahead of his arrival, coming in over the water and circling the cliffs below. President Biden gave his speech in the picturesque spot on the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc In his remarks, Biden paid tribute to US rangers who climbed the cliffs, noting the sad fact that all of them have passed away. But he noted: 'Because of them the war turned. They stood against Hitler's aggression. Does anyone doubt that they would want America to stand up against Putin's aggression here in Europe today?' 'American democracy asks the hardest of things, to believe that we're part of something bigger than ourselves...That's what the rangers at Pointe du Hoc did, that's what they decided, that's what every soldier and every Marine who stormed this beaches decided,' he added. A Catholic worker at the Saudi Arabian embassy has won a case of religious harassment after claiming she was the victim of 'insulting and derogatory comments' about her beliefs. Antoinette Constantine is in line for compensation after successfully suing over the way she was treated while employed in the Cultural Bureau of the diplomatic mission. She claimed at an employment tribunal that in addition to being insulted throughout the eight years she was there she was 'denied work and dismissed' because of her faith. In a bid have her claims struck out, the embassy had tried to claim her job was an 'exercise of sovereign authority' and so it wasn't subject to British employment law. However, Ms Constantine was given the green light to sue when a judge ruled her role at the Mayfair-based embassy was made up of 'ancillary and supportive' administrative functions and 'not governmental'. She is now set to receive damages after a judge found her complaints of religious harassment were 'well-founded'. A woman who worked at the Saudi Arabian embassy in London, pictured, for eight years has won a case of religious harassment at an employment tribunal in central London Antoinette Constantine was employed by the Embassy to do administrative work such as inputting invoices and reports from British Universities on Saudi students in the UK into a computerised system (Student picture posed by model) The tribunal in central London heard she worked as part of the embassy's Cultural Bureau as a post room clerk in the Administrative Affairs department from January 2010. In June 2016 she moved to the Cultural Affairs department to work as a secretary. However, in September 2017 Ms Constantine returned to the administrative department as a post room clerk and worked there until her departure in January 2018. '[Ms Constantine], a Catholic Christian, contends that, throughout her employment, she was subjected to insulting and derogatory comments about her Christian beliefs and that she was denied work and dismissed because of her Christian beliefs,' the hearing was told. The Royal Embassy claimed although Ms Constantine was a member of its administrative staff, her functions were 'sufficiently close to the governmental functions of the mission' that her employment meant it had state immunity. Employment Judge Jillian Brown disagreed, ruling that due to the nature of her job, the admin worker did have the right to sue. 'On my findings of fact, all [her] duties were truly ancillary and supportive,' he said. '[Her] role as a post room clerk involved inputting invoices and reports from British universities on Saudi students in the UK into a computerised system.' She concluded it was a 'a data entry job', adding: 'I found that [Ms Constantine] did not open the mail which arrived in the post room. 'This was done by a colleague, who read and categorised the correspondence. '[Ms Constantine] was only passed relevant university invoices, or reports, to enter into the system. 'This was a purely administrative function and did not involve any government decision making.' Assessing her secretarial role, she added: 'This involved low level non-governmental functions such as booking rooms, inviting people to meetings and instructing caterers. '[She] did not attend meetings with officials, nor take notes of these. 'She was not aware of the details of the people who attended meetings, nor of the content of the meetings. 'It is logical that she may have dealt with the children of government officials, or members of the Royal family, in this role. 'However, her role was a purely administrative one, making arrangements for study and payment to universities. '[Ms Constantine]'s role throughout her employment was ancillary and supportive. 'It was not governmental. 'She did not support the governmental functions of the mission, but its administrative functions. 'Her employment was not an exercise of sovereign authority.' While her claim of harassment was upheld by the tribunal, a separate claim of religious discrimination was dismissed. The tribunal heard 'directions in respect of remedy' for Ms Constantine would be sent to the parties separately. This is the terrifying moment an Air Canada Boeing plane bursts into flames seconds after take-off. Video footage shows the aircraft gaining altitude before a light flashes from the right engine and the tail of the plane becomes engulfed in flames - the result of a small explosion. The frightening ordeal took place thirty minutes after departure as the plane was leaving Toronto Pearson Airport Wednesday night en route to Paris, France. Witnesses on the ground were horrified with one of them heard saying, 'Holy crap! It's got an engine fire!,' The Sun reported. No crew members or the 389 passengers on the flight were injured. The air crew landed the plane safely. The Boeing 777 is seen mid-air before the tail of the aircraft becomes engulfed in flames According to a company representative, the fire was due to an issue with the engine's compressor. They further stated that 'the aircraft will be taken out of service for further evaluation by our maintenance and engineering professionals.' The airline told news outlet CP24 that after 'the aircraft landed, it was inspected by airport response vehicles as per normal operating processes, and it taxied to the gate on its own.' The aircraft will be inspected and repaired before it is used again. Flight tracker FlightAware said the plane left the gate at 8:46pm but circled back and landed at the same airport at 9:50pm. Passengers were placed on another flight later that evening, as per airline officials. The aircraft is pictured taking off at approximately 8:46pm on Wednesday before it made an emergency landing at 9:50pm There were roughly 400 passengers aboard the plane that was heading to Paris, France An Air Canada aircraft is pictured sitting on the runway According to Global News, this was the second incident that took place at Toronto Pearson Airport shortly after take-off, in the last two weeks. On May 27, a flight leaving Toronto heading to Delhi, India encountered an engine issue that forced the plane to reroute. The Boeing 777-300ER aircraft has been with the airline since March 2008, according to Media Drum World. Air Canada has 19 of those aircraft, all of which are in active service. Two Just Stop Oil protesters who disrupted the Duke of Westminster's society wedding of the year arrived at the event as early as 7am before enacting their extravagant undercover plot. The two silver haired women were arrested by police after they let off a fire extinguisher containing orange powder paint during the wedding, which included the Prince of Wales among one some of the guests, earlier today. The protesters, who have been named by JSO as Polly, 73, a care worker from Norfolk, and Sheila, 69, a former NHS nurse from Bristol, were quickly removed from the crowd by police outside Chester Cathedral as onlookers booed. Two royal fans, who were standing next to the protestors in the crowd, revealed the pair were already there when they arrived at 7am, having concealed the fire extinguishers in two shopping trolleys. One image, obtained exclusively by the MailOnline, shows the JSO protesters trying to blend in with the crowd, with care worker Polly seen sporting a large hat while sitting in front of the trolleys supposedly holding the fire extinguishers. One image, obtained exclusively by the MailOnline shows the JSO protesters trying to blend in with the crowd before disrupting the Duke of Westminster's society wedding of the year A Just Stop Oil protester is led away by police after trying to disrupt the Duke of Westminster's Wedding A second silver-haired protester was also arrested following the killjoy stunt The moment clouds of powder paint were released from two fire extinguishers Barbara Williams, 81, from Cheshire, told MailOnline: 'I feel a bit shaken after it. We were standing next to them all day.' Her friend Andrea Machin, 56, added: 'They were already here when we arrived at 7am, they had shopping trolleys with them. 'Everyone was watching the bride and groom and then we just saw orange and they had what looked like a fire extinguisher with them. 'The police realised quite quickly what was happening and pulled them out. One of them said it was for her grandchildren. It happened just as William was coming out of the door.' Rhona Dalziel, 57, said: 'One of them had been reading a Richard Osman book. It's bizarre.' Another woman, who was in close proximity to the two protesters, claimed they arrived outside the cathedral at 5:30am. Janet Evans told The Telegraph: 'Shes been here since half five this morning. It was quite scary too because she gave it full force.' Another member of the crowd, Jo Finnigan, who is an art teacher local to Chester was stood behind the protesters when they let the fire extinguisher off. She told The Telegraph: 'She knew what she was coming for and she was very determined. 'She had a trolley, like a pensioners trolley on wheelsthere was no sign of anything at all.' Two women let off a fire extinguisher containing the orange powder paint in the direction of the wedding party, which included the Prince of Wales The protesters were removed from the crowd by police as onlookers booed There was a large police presence at the event due to so many high profile guests being in attendance Hugh Grosvenor, 33, universally known as 'Hughie' to aristocratic friends, is estimated to be worth 10.42billion, making him the richest man under 40 in Britain. The landowner, who married Olivia Henson, is the godfather to William's son Prince George and Prince Harry's son Archie. But while William played a major role at the service among 400 or so expected guests, Harry remained in California. Olivia, 31, looked stunning in her wedding dress and blue shoes as she left the 11th Century Cathedral alongside her new husband as they made their way to a waiting Bentley. But at around 12.30pm, two Just Stop Oil fanatics used fire extinguishers to spray powder paint in their direction. A spokesman for Cheshire Police told MailOnline: 'Shortly after 1pm on Friday a coloured flare was released by two women, believed to be protesting on behalf of Just Stop Oil, on St Werburgh Street, Chester. 'Officers were immediately on the scene and two women were quickly arrested on suspicion of public order offences. 'The 69-year-old woman from Manchester and 73-year-old woman from Suffolk are both in police custody at this time.' The Duke of Westminster and Olivia Henson kiss after getting married at Chester Cathedral The Duke of Westminster and his bridge Olivia leaving Chester Cathedral after their wedding today Prince William, who was an usher at the ceremony, and William van Cutsem after the wedding of Olivia and his old friend Hugh It is not the first time activists supporting Just Stop Oil have targeted a wedding, with another elderly woman targeting George Osborne's nuptials last year. In July, the woman ambushed the ex-chancellor, 53, and his long-term partner Ms Rogers, 40, outside the 14th century St Mary's Church in the Somerset village of Bruton. The campaign group boasted about an activist throwing orange confetti over Mr Osborne and his new wife Thea Rogers as they left a Somerset church. Labour's shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said she had 'no time for Just Stop Oil' and labelled their actions 'pathetic' and 'counter-productive'. Just Stop Oil retweeted a video of the incident, posting: 'You look good in orange George Osborne congratulations to the newlyweds.' It is not the first time JSO killjoys have targeted a wedding, with the group branded 'pathetic and tedious' when they interrupted George Osborne's nuptials last year The Tories plan to launch a clampdown on 'anti-driver' measures including urban 20mph zones and low-traffic neighbourhoods, and roll back the Ulez car tax in London if they win the election. Rishi Sunak today pledges to introduce a Backing Drivers Bill in the first session of the next Parliament that would give local residents the power to call local referenda on contentious car control schemes. It would also reverse last year's expansion of the capital's Ultra Low Emission Zone to cover all London boroughs, returning it to its original inner-city boundaries. Writing for MailOnline, Transport Secretary Mark Harper today accuses Labour of seeking to 'force [drivers] off the roads' if Sir Keir Starmer becomes prime minister. He also brands the 12.50 daily Ulez charge affecting drivers of non-compliant vehicles an 'aggressive and regressive tax on drivers, enforced by an Orwellian array of surveillance cameras, punishes the poorest drivers unable to afford a new car.' 'We have frozen fuel duty 14 years in a row, saving the average family thousands of pounds. We have invested hundreds of millions to make our most dangerous roads safer. And we've committed to pour billions of savings from HS2 into filling the potholes and resurfacing the roads,' he said. Ever the backseat driver, Keir Starmer has opposed these at every turn. So in an age of aggressively anti-driver local politics from the Left, we will continue to actively champion the driver at every turn.' Rishi Sunak today pledges to introduce a Backing Drivers Bill in the first session of the next Parliament that would give residents the power to call local referenda on contentious car control schemes. It would also roll back the capital's Ultra Low Emission Zone, which was extended to cover all London boroughs in August last year, to its original inner-city boundaries. Writing for MailOnline, Transport Secretary Mark Harper today accuses Labour politicians like Sadiq Khan (pictured) of seeking to 'force [drivers] off the roads'. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak took aim at Labour leaders in Westminster and Cardiff Bay, who he accused of launching a 'war on drivers'. Wales has led the way in bringing in 20mph zones. But the Tories argue at while they can help improve road safety in residential areas or outside schools, 'misuse undermines public trust and risks congestion and pollution'. The new law would introduce the right to put new schemes to a local referendum and to challenge existing ones. Drivers of the most polluting vehicles must pay a 12.50 daily charge if they use almost any road within Greater London, on top of any tolls or the inner London Congestion Charge. Drivers of Ulez-compliant vehicles do not have to pay the fee. According to Mayor of London figures from October last year, 95 per cent of vehicles on the capital's roads are 'compliant with clean air standards' - up from 39 per cent in 2017. Imperial College London, commissioned by City Hall, found that 'toxic air' contributed to around 4,000 premature deaths in the capital. But the policy proved controversial when Mr Khan fronted its expansion to cover outer London boroughs last year - into areas such as Bromley, Croydon, Heathrow Airport and Wembley. It previously covered the area between the A406 North Circular and A205 South Circular roads. Vandals are known to have damaged Ulez cameras and signage, while anti-Ulez protesters have gathered on several occasions in Parliament Square, Trafalgar Square and Strand. However Mr Khan still won an historic third time at the mayoral election in May. A spokesman for the mayor said: 'This is desperate stuff from the Tories - a party completely devoid of ideas.' The Welsh Government reduced the restricted roads 'default' speed from 30mph to 20mph in December last year, in built-up areas including villages, towns and cities. But after a backlash in April Labour's Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Ken Skates, announced a 'programme of listening' until July this year, and will produce new policy guidance for the autumn. It came after more than half a million signatures were added to a Senedd petition opposing the divisive policy aimed at reducing carbon emissions. 'There is generally universal support for 20mph being targeted in areas where there are schools, built up areas like housing estates, and outside hospitals and so-forth,' Mr Skates told North Wales Live. 'But in many areas, routes that shouldn't have been included, were.' Wherever Labour is in power, we can see their thirst to frustrate, delay and tax drivers cannot be quenched, says Mark Harper, Transport Secretary Conservatives are on the side of drivers. The Labour Party will find any way possible to force them off the roads. I know that for many who live in towns and villages across the UK, the car is an essential mode of transport. Something city-obsessed Labour don't seem to understand, or simply don't care about. All you have to do is look at our respective records. Wherever Labour is in power, we can see their thirst to frustrate, delay and tax drivers cannot be quenched. In Labour-run Wales, they are waging all-out war on the driver. Between blanket 20mph zones costing the economy billions and a ban on all new road infrastructure projects being built, the driver is being demonised. I know that for many who live in towns and villages across the UK, the car is an essential mode of transport. Something city-obsessed Labour don't seem to understand, or simply don't care about. In Labour-run London, Sadiq Khan expanded the ULEZ even to areas where a car is an essential not a luxury. This aggressive and regressive tax on drivers, enforced by an Orwellian array of surveillance cameras, punishes the poorest drivers unable to afford a new car. Traffic piles up in areas of London due to poorly designed low traffic neighbourhoods that don't have local consent. Whereas, we have offered a secure future for drivers with our Plan for Drivers. We have made clear that it is not right that drivers feel under attack and have offered long term bold action to make their lives better. We have frozen fuel duty 14 years in a row, saving the average family thousands of pounds. We have invested hundreds of millions to make our most dangerous roads safer. And we've committed to pour billions of savings from HS2 into filling the potholes and resurfacing the roads. Ever the backseat driver, Keir Starmer has opposed these at every turn. So in an age of aggressively anti-driver local politics from the left, we will continue to actively champion the driver at every turn. That is why if re-elected, we will introduce a new 'Backing Drivers Bill' to cement the rights of drivers in law as soon as we can. We will unilaterally reverse Sadiq Khan's unfair ULEZ expansion in London. We will ban any kind of pay-per- mile scheme from appearing. The last Labour government tried to implement it., We will stop it. Finally, we will empower local people to have a vote on any new LTNs or blanket 20mph schemes and a right to challenge existing ones because it is local people who should decide what's best for their area. These are not decisions that we take lightly, and I fully expect the anti-driver left to be up in arms about it. And that will tell you everything you need to know about whose side they're actually on. So there is a clear choice. Getting around quicker, cheaper and more freely with the Conservative's plan for drivers and record of bold action or getting stuck in the slow lane with Labour. Israel is furious after the UN has added the country to the global list of offenders who commit violations against children. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has added Israel's military to the list. But Israel's UN envoy Gilad Erdan, described the decision as 'shameful' and said he was only officially notified of the decision on Friday. The global list is included in a report on children and armed conflict that is due to be submitted to the U.N. Security Council on June 14. Guterres stated that Israel will be included in the blacklist with the likes of Russia and terrorist organisations such as ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and Boko Haram. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described his country's army as 'the most moral army in the world' The war in Palestine has left many without homes and injured. Pictured: An injured boy stands inside the ruins of a classroom where people has been sheltering United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (pictured) has added Israel's military to the list of offenders who commit crimes against children in the wake of the war against Hamas The official list will be made public on June 18 and covers events in 2023. After hearing of the decision, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: 'Today the UN added itself to the black list of history when it joined those who support the Hamas murderers. The IDF is the most moral army in the world; no delusional UN decision will change that.' The decision comes as the United Nations top court has been reviewing a plea by South Africa to order a halt to Israel's military offensive in Gaza. The country accused Israel of 'genocide' and has urged the International Court of Justice to order an 'immediate' stop to Israel's campaign and facilitate access of humanitarian aid. While the court cannot enforce its orders, South Africa's call has put mounting international pressure on Israel. Israel wants the court to throw out the request, arguing an enforced ceasefire would make it impossible to recover hostages taken in their October 7 assault and the UN's decision today is another thorn in the side of the country currently at war with Hamas. In a highly-charged ruling in January, the court ordered Israel to do everything in its power to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza but stopped short of ordering a ceasefire. South Africa argues that the recent Israeli operation in Rafah changed the situation on the ground and should compel the court to issue fresh emergency orders. The ICJ's ruling comes hot on the heels of a landmark request by the International Criminal Court's lead prosecutor to seek arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas leaders earlier this week. The family of a three-year-old boy who was stabbed to death in a supermarket parking lot alongside his mother are 'overwhelmed with sadness'. Margot Wood, 38, was about to load groceries into the back of her car with her son Julian at Giant Eagle in North Olmstead, Cleveland, at about 3pm on Monday. Suddenly a Bionca Ellis, 32, who had followed them out of the store, charged at the pair and allegedly stabbed them as Julian sat in the shopping trolley. Both were rushed to St John Medical Center but Julian died from the flurry of stab wounds to his back and cheek. His mother's injuries were not life-threatening. Julian Wood, 3, died after being stabbed outside a supermarket in Ohio with his mother Julian was killed and his mother Margot Wood, 38, wounded. They are pictured on the right, with the boy's grandmother, father Jared Wood, and older brother Wood's family has so far raised more than $210,000 for Margot's husband Jared as he tries to pay for Julian's funeral, legal bills, and his wife's recovery. 'Our family is overwhelmed with sadness,' they wrote in a collective statement. 'We have no explanation as to how or why this happened, it was a random act of violence. There was no prior altercation, they did not know each other this was a malicious random act. 'She has devastated our family beyond words, she took something from us we can never get back.' Heartbreaking photos of the scene showed groceries scattered across the parking lot's asphalt where the mother and son where attacked. Julian's family said they were overwhelmed by the support they received from friends and strangers at the start of a 'long journey to recovery'. Police arrested Bionca Ellis, 32, (pictured) as she was walking away from the scene, still holding a bloodied kitchen knife allegedly used in the attack Julian (right) with his older brother at Christmas 2022 when he was two years old 'We will continue to share stories about our beautiful baby boy, his laugh, his cheesy smile, his rambunctious attitude, his love of dinosaurs, his love of school,' they wrote. 'His obsession with his new baby sister and wrestling his big brother every chance he gets... and all the other beautiful things about that sweet little boy.' Julian was born in November 2020 when his parents posted adorable photos of him as a newborn being cradled in his older brother's arms. The family said they hoped to received 'some sort of justice'. Police arrested Ellis as she was walking away from the scene, still holding a bloodied kitchen knife allegedly used in the attack. Detective Sergeant Matthew Beck said North Olmsted Police had no motive for the attack, calling it 'entirely a random act of violence'. Heartbreaking photos of the scene showed groceries scattered across the parking lot's asphalt where the mother and son where attacked Julian was stabbed as he sat in his mother's shopping cart, seen her lying on its side after the attack Ellis was arrested just days earlier on May 29 when police investigating an unrelated incident at a Walmart detained her on a parole violation, But she was released hours later and on Monday morning she Ellis went to the North Olmsted Police Department to discuss her arrest. Beck said she then bought the knife from a Volunteers of America Thrift Store and walked to the Giant Eagle where she spotted Wood and her son inside. They did not interact with each other at all, but Ellis allegedly followed them into the car park and charged at them brandishing the knife. Ellis has 'no known violent criminal history' and her rap sheet only consisted of stealing from a nearby Walmart that was reduced to unauthorized use of property. She was charged with aggravated murder and arraigned at Rocky River Municipal Court on Tuesday afternoon, where her bail was set at $1 million. Police said she could face more charges when the case is presented to a Cuyahoga County Grand Jury. Julian and Wood were rushed to St John Medical Center but Julian died from the flurry of stab wounds to his back and cheek. His mother's injuries were not life-threatening Julian was born in November 2020 when his parents posted adorable photos of him as a newborn being cradled in his older brother's arms Julian plays with his older brother at their home, with friends remarking how fast he was growing Giant Eagle said it was providing counseling to its workers. 'We were heartbroken to learn of the passing of the young victim in yesterday's senseless act of violence,' it said. 'Our thoughts are with the child, his mother and their loved ones during this unimaginably difficult time.' The same Giant Eagle was the scene of a murder-suicide on June 25 last year. Bernard Smith shot dead his ex-wife Susan Petterson, 63, as she worked at the store before turning the gun on himself, two decades after they divorced in 2004. Penny Mordaunt and Angela Rayner have arrived to do battle in a BBC election debate with Nigel Farage tonight after a chaotic day on the election campaign trail. The trio are among seven senior party figures who will slug it out on live television later, amid a furious row over Rishi Sunak's decision to skip a D-Day event. Sources close to Mr Farage confirmed he would use the debate to bring up The PM's decision to return from Normandy early yesterday to film a TV interview. The PM this morning apologised for missing a major international D-Day ceremony and said it was a 'mistake' for him to leave before commemoration events were over. Mr Farage, who was in northern France yesterday in a personal capacity, has questioned why Mr Sunak felt he could skip the event with other world leaders. The row has overshadowed Tory attempts to get on the front foot with a child benefit announcement amid opinion polls that show the party trailing Labour by a long way, with Mr Farage's Reform UK breathing down their neck. Penny Mordaunt will represent the Tories tonight Angela Rayner will represent Labour Nigel Farage, who was in Normandy yesterday in a personal capacity, has questioned why Rishi Sunak felt he could skip a major D-Day event with other world leaders Earlier this week, viewing figures showed millions of Britons snubbed Tuesday night's first showdown between the PM and Sir Keir Starmer on primetime ITV Ms Mordaunt, the Leader of the House of Commons, will represent the Tories during the 90-minute event, while Labour are sending deputy leader Ms Rayner. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey will not be attending, with his deputy Daisy Cooper stepping in instead. The line-up is being completed by Stephen Flynn, the SNP's Westminster leader, Carla Denyer, co-leader of the Green Party, and Rhun ap Iorwerth of Plaid Cymru. Tonight's seven-way BBC debate will be presented by Mishal Husain, with questions from the live audience and others sent in by the public. The event will take place in London from 7.30pm to 9pm. Mr Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will go head-to-head on the BBC on June 26, in what is expected to be the final TV debate before polling day. Earlier this week, viewing figures showed millions of Britons snubbed Tuesday night's first showdown between the PM and Sir Keir on primetime ITV. The programme was watched by an average of just 4.8million viewers, with a peak of 5.2million viewers. This was down from the average audience of 6.7million for the ITV debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn during the 2019 general election. A YouGov snap poll revealed nearly two-thirds who did watch the clash between Mr Sunak and Sir Keir branded it 'frustrating'. The debate saw both party leaders repeatedly speak over each other during tetchy exchanges, as ITV host Julie Etchingham struggled to rein them in. Mr Farage channelled Eminem as he gloated that the TV head-to-head between Mr Sunak and Sir Keir 'felt so empty without me'. In a social media post after the debate had ended, the newly-installed Reform UK leader shared a video of himself on the general election campaign trail. The footage was set to the Eminem song 'Without Me', which includes the lyrics: 'Now this looks like a job for me, so everybody just follow me, because we need a little controversy, because it feels so empty without me.' Hunter Bidens daughter Naomi was ambushed with devastating text messages that blew a hole in her father's defense in the federal gun trial. First Lady Jill Biden watched from the gallery as her granddaughter testified about interactions with her father at rehab and when he was in the depths of a crack cocaine addiction. It came on another dramatic day in the trial, where the prosecution wrapped its case after less than a week and Naomi was questioned about life with her father. At first, questioned by Hunters lawyer Abbe Lowell, she painted a rosy picture of Hunters sobriety in the lead-up to his October 2018 gun purchase over which he is charged. Naomi said she visited Hunter with her then-boyfriend Peter in Los Angeles in August 2018, where Hunter had been having a short rehab stint. He seemed like the clearest Id seen him since my uncle died, she said, referring to Beau Biden who died from brain cancer on May 30, 2015. He seemed really great, Naomi added. I told him that I was so proud of him and so proud to be able to introduce Peter to him. Naomi Biden departs from federal court in Wilmington, Delaware on Friday, June 7, 2024 after giving evidence in the trial of her father Hunter Biden Naomi Biden (C), daughter of Hunter Biden, leaves the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 07, 2024 in Wilmington, Delaware Hunter has been charged with lying on a federal form when he bought a gun in Wilmington, Delaware on October 12, 2018 and indicated he was not a drug user. Naomi was giving evidence in his defense on the fifth day of Hunter's trial as First Lady Jill Biden looked on from the public benches. Jill Biden had traveled 3,500 miles to be there after being in France on Thursday for D-Day commemorations, where she and President Joe Biden met French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron. In court, Naomi described how she borrowed her dads Ford truck, and that on the week of October 15 Hunter drove Joe Bidens Cadillac up to New York to swap with her. She said when she saw him then, just a few days after his gun purchase, he seemed great and he seemed hopeful. But then prosecutor Leo Wise started his cross-examination and handed Naomi, Lowell and the judge 20 pages of text messages between her and Hunter from the time. Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, at the federal court for his trial on criminal gun charges in Wilmington, Delaware Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden, arrive to the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 07, 2024 in Wilmington, Delaware The texts showed that Hunter failed to show up for their arranged car swap, and when she texted him in the afternoon of October 17 he failed to respond until almost midnight, when he wrote: are you up? Hunter then woke Naomi up by texting her at 2am, asking: where the keys to the truck and can Peter bring to 57th and 5th? Visibly concerned, Naomi faltered on the stand, mumbled into the microphone causing Wise to ask her to repeat herself, and said that I dont remember any of this. The texts showed Naomi tried unsuccessfully again to exchange the cars with her father the next day, and that he told her he wouldnt be seeing her in New York. So no see you?! Naomi wrote, followed by an unhappy face. Im really sorry dad I cant take this. I miss you so much. I just wanna hang out with you. Finally, Hunter replied at 10.30pm on October 18: Im sorry Ive been so unreachable. Its not fair to you. A picture of the gun submitted in evidence in the trial First lady Jill Biden and her senior advisor Anthony Bernal arrive at the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 07, 2024 in Wilmington, Delaware The apparent unreliability of her father during those crucial day struck to the heart of the defenses case, that Hunter was reliable when he was sober, and that he was allegedly reliable around mid-October 2018 when he bought the gun claiming he wasnt a drug abuser. The final blow came in a devastating series of questions by Wise. Did he tell you he was meeting with someone called Frankie? he asked reminding the jury of previous evidence about one of Hunters dealers by that name. No, Naomi said. Did he tell you he had given Frankie an access code to his Wells Fargo account? Wise said. I dont remember, said Naomi. Then she admitted that it wasnt until October 19 that she was finally able to recover the car. Hallie Biden, daughter in-law of U.S. President Joe Biden, departs from the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building after testifying in the trial of Hunter Biden on June 06, 2024 Media gather outside the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building United States Courthouse, Friday, June 7, 2024 Naomi was dressed all in black, with a black jacket over dark, baggy clothes. There has been speculation that she is pregnant with her now-husband Peters child. Naomi looked on the verge of tears, wiping one eye as she walked out after hugging her father. During Lowells initial questioning, he seemed to score a point by having Naomi describe the clean state of Hunters Ford Raptor truck when she drove it up to New York the week of October 15 2018. Hallie Biden had testified earlier in the week that the car had been strewn with clothes, drug detritus and paraphernalia, and that the lock box of the center console was broken and ajar two inches with Hunters revolver and bullets inside. The gun store where Hunter Biden bought a revolver A picture submitted as evidence in the trial But Naomi said that the console was closed and locked because she and Peter tried to get into it. However, Wise in his cross-examination was able to make clear to the jury that the alleged messing up of the car and drugs appearing in there must have happened when it was in Hunters possession, after he received it on October 19 and before Hallie searched it on October 23. It suggested that Hunter was using drugs in that period, while he still owned his Colt Cobra .38 Special he bought on October 12. An image submitted as evidence More evidence submitted by the prosecution When Wise handed Lowell the 20 pages of bombshell text messages, he exclaimed: This is the first time were seeing these. The judge waved away his concerns, telling him its a cross [examination], where prosecutors are allowed to surprise with such evidence. In fact, Lowell had admitted in court on Thursday that his team had access to the entirety of Hunters abandoned laptop from which the texts were extracted meaning he should have been able to anticipate such an ambush. After Naomi and the jury left for the lunch recess, the defense team huddled together and had a whispered conversation. A week is a long time in politics, but it took less than 48 hours for Rishi Sunaks fortunes to change perhaps irreversibly. Having secured an unexpected advantage over Keir Starmer in Tuesday nights debate on ITV, by teatime on Thursday his victory had evaporated. Not since Prince Andrew decided it was a good idea to sit down with Emily Maitlis and tell her all about his sweat problem has a public figure made such a catastrophic error of judgement. Why? Why would any politician in their right mind leave the 80th anniversary D-Day celebrations early, let alone to conduct a pre-recorded interview with ITV? I stuck to the itinerary that had been set for me as Prime Minister weeks ago - before the election, he insisted, which in many ways made it worse, only emphasising his tin ear. It was excruciating. No politician should put their career before their public service. Thoughtless, disrespectful and above all, incredibly rude. And so it was against this distinctly unfavourable background that Penny Mordaunt took to the podium for Team Tory last night in the first BBC debate, hosted by Mishal Husain. (L-R) Nigel Farage, Rhun ap Iorwerth, Daisy Cooper, Stephen Flynn, Carla Denyer, Angela Rayner and Penny Mordaunt stand by their pedestals for the BBC election debate hosted by news presenter Mishal Husain Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt points a finger at Deputy Labour leader Angela Rainer during a heated exchange Nigel Farage had already dubbed it Sunaks Gillian Duffy moment (a reference to Gordon Browns infamous hot-mic gaffe where he called Rochdale voter Ms Duffy a bigoted woman), while Labour was quick to issue posters that simply read, He left them on the beaches above a silhouette of the PM scuttling out of view. Mordaunt is of course MP for Portsmouth, a town with many military connections, and distinguished herself with her sword-carrying duties in her role at the Coronation. She is also one of the top contenders to replace Sunak as leader of the party if the polls prove correct on July 4. Its not easy going in to bat for someone youre plotting to replace, especially when hes just handed every opponent a loaded gun. Labours Angela Rayner, the SNPs Stephen Flynn, Daisy Cooper from the Lib Dems and the Greens Carla Denyer, plus Rhun ap Iorwerth from Plaid Cymru and last but by no means least, not long to this election party - Reforms Nigel Farage were licking their lips in anticipation. The first question did not disappoint. D-Day, armed forces, how would the parties ensure national security? Rayner, standing next to Mordaunt (strong hair energy in that corner) was surprisingly measured; no mention of Sunaks catastrophic unforced error. It was left to Farage to bring this up, which he did in his typically bumptious way, accusing the PM of being very unpatriotic. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (left) pulls a typically expressive face as he answers a question Mordaunt looked almost grief-stricken, her face pale beneath her giant Thatcher-style blow-dry. What Sunak did was completely wrong, she conceded. But any sense of contrition was short-lived. She turned her ire on Rayner, accusing her of abandoning the nuclear deterrent, jabbing at the air in a manner than can only be described as mildly unhinged. Rayner, dressed inexplicably in a bright-red puff-sleeved prom frock, regarded her political foe with amused bafflement. She was surprisingly restrained in her response, as though dealing with an over-emotional teenager. Husain steered the question back to the other four, who for the most part gave suitably dreary answers - apart from Rhun ap Iorwerth, who made a salient point about the irony of the PM proposing a new National Service while showing such disrespect for the forces himself. Unsurprisingly, that went down well. SNP Westminster Leader Stephen Flynn readies himself to represent the Scottish party at Broadcasting House Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper, with her best geography teacher vibe, smiles as she arrives as the party's nominated speaker at tonight's debate Carla Denyer, the co-leader of the Green Party - and dressed head-to-toe in the colour - enters the BBC studio Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth makes his way inside, he and Nigel Farage the only two outright party chiefs selected to appear This seemed to be a classic BBC Leftie audience. They appeared especially delighted with the Lib Dems Daisy Cooper, whose concerned geography-teacher vibe played well to the gallery. Rhun ap Iorwerts square-jawed Welsh socialism was popular too. But ultimately the whole thing was, well a bit dull and extremely predictable. It wasnt helped by the fact that Husain just wasnt very good at controlling the conversation. Time and again, Rayner and Mordaunt dominated the discussion, going at each other like a pair of fishwives - while Farage, at the other end of the line, giggled and made rude faces. Husain seemed unable or maybe unwilling to shut them up. When the others did get a chance at the microphone, it was short-lived, and often interrupted by Farage, who seemed to struggle to understand the difference between debating and heckling. That said, he was the one person who brought a bit of spark to this otherwise lacklustre debate. Hes as much a showman as he is a politician, and his closing statement was a masterclass in pub politics. As the credits rolled, Mordaunt looked mightily relieved. She survived. For now. A surgeon who spoke up about alleged secret gender-affirming procedures on minors in a Texas hospital has been charged with four felonies. The Department of Justice has accused Dr. Eithan Haim, 33, of HIPAA violations, indicting him on four criminal charges, as first reported by City Journal. HIPAA rules protect a person's protected health information. Haim responded to the charges, saying: 'They wanted to intimidate me into silence using every technique the federal leviathan had at their disposal. But they failed. 'The only way to lose is to submit to corruption. It's time to fight back harder than ever!' Haim in May 2023 released medical files showing that Texas Children's Hospital (TCH) staff had provided puberty blockers and other sex-change treatments to kids, even after hospital officials said they had stopped doing so in March 2022. He has repeatedly said the leaked documents did not include any patient's personal information. The Department of Justice has accused Dr. Eithan Haim of HIPAA violations, indicting him on four criminal charges Haim's lawyer Marcella Burke told Fox News: 'My client is anxious to get to trial to get his side of the story told. I am confident this will result in the correct decision being made.' The surgeon added: 'Had three heavily armed agents at my door 7AM Tuesday to inform me I was indicted with four felonies...for blowing the whistle about the largest children's hospital in the world lying to the public about their transgender program.' In January, Haim launched a fundraiser to cover his legal costs for what he called a 'blatant attempt at political intimidation.' 'Just over a month later two federal agents showed up to my apartment in a highly atypical, unexpected, and aggressive show of force,' Haim wrote in his appeal for help covering his spiraling legal costs. Eithan Haim has launched a fundraiser to cover his legal costs for what he calls a 'blatant attempt at political intimidation' 'I was given a target letter signed by a federal prosecutor that stated I was being criminally investigated for a case regarding medical records.' The prosecution, says Haim, is 'driven by a highly ideological division within the Department of Health and Human Services.' Officials seek to 'silence whistleblowers who expose institutionalized medical corruption and the dangers of these hormone-based interventions for confused, adolescent children,' he added. The FBI declined to comment on the case. DailyMail.com reached out to TCH, but did not immediately get a reply. Haim insists he did not break any rules. Though he released private medical files that detailed trans medical procedures on children as young as 12, he says the identities of patients had been redacted. He aims to raise $500,000 via the GiveSendGo.com website to cover his legal costs in a case that he says has already forced him to cash in his retirement funds, investments, and other savings. Haim's whistleblower documents (pictured) purportedly showed that Texas Children's Hospital continued to provide gender care for young patients, including the administration of implantable puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) 'Although we have given this case all we have, there simply isn't enough to keep up with the hundreds of thousands we currently owe in legal bills or the potential million(s) it would cost to fight this case through trial,' he wrote. Texas Children's Hospital said it would stop gender-affirming care procedures after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ruled in February 2022 that stated gender-affirming care for kids could be a form of child abuse under state law. However, in May, 2023, right-wing activist Christopher Rufo published documents from Haim, then an anonymous whistleblower, showing TCH doctors continued providing gender treatments to kids within days of the hospital's decision, and continued to do so throughout 2022 and into 2023. According to the records, one TCH doctor performed transgender medical procedures on minors whose ages ranged from 12 to 17, with 'visit types' listed as 'gender dysphoria' and 'gender identity.' The revelations showed that Texas Children's Hospital continued providing gender-reassignment care to children even after officials insisted they had stopped Another visit was listed for 'HRT [hormone replacement therapy].' Other records detailed the removal of 'non-biodegradable drug delivery implant[s]' for 'gender dysphoria in pediatric patient[s].' These are understood to be pellets placed under the skin of the upper arm that slowly release cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers to trans-identifying minors, without the need for regular jabs or pills. One procedure listed in the documents suggests one appointment was with an 11-year-old 'female-to-male transgender person' three days after the hospital announced it was halting such treatments. The documents also describe a 19-year-old who was interested in breast removal surgery. A 15-year-old is listed in the records as having 'questions about surgery.' Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said 'unhinged activists' are behind a medical system that's too eager to get confused kids onto puberty blockers The documents also include image grabs of a slide deck that was presented in January 2023 titled 'Medical and Psychological Care of Gender-Diverse Youth', in partnership with Baylor College of Medicine. After the revelations, Texas Attorney General General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into TCH, and the Houston-based facility said again that it was halting gender reassignment treatments for children. At the time, a TCH spokeswoman told DailyMail.com that doctors provided 'high-quality care for all patients within the bounds of the law.' Advocates of gender-affirming care say it is necessary treatment for suicide-prone minors. Critics say kids are too young to opt for irreversible sex change treatments, and often just need mental health counselling instead. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas finally disclosed some of the pricey gifts he accepted from billionaire Harlan Crow that was first unearthed in an explosive report last year. Thomas, who has come under criticism for failing to disclose gifts from the businessman, revised his 2019 form to acknowledge he accepted 'food and lodging' at a Bali hotel and the ultra exclusive Bohemian Grove club in California. But the powerful conservative didn't disclose other gifts he reportedly accepted: travel aboard a luxury yacht and a private jet that were reportedly part of the excursions. Thomas and other U.S. Supreme Court justices reported receiving gifts including Thomas' stay in a Bali hotel, tickets to a Beyonce concert, as well as nearly $1.6 million in book advances and royalties in annual financial disclosure forms for 2023 released on Friday. The uproar over Thomas led to a clash with Congress and a new voluntary code of conduct released by the high court that still allows justices to make their own determinations about what they may and may not accept. ProPublica unearthed details of the lavish trips in a bombshell report last year. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas updated his 2019 financial disclosure to reveal he accepted 'food and lodging' at a Bali hotel and the ultra exclusive Bohemian Grove club in California from billionaire Harlan Crow In the latest filings, liberal Justice Kentaji Brown Jackson said she received four concert tickets from music superstar Beyonce Knowles-Carter valued at $3,711.84. And conservative Justice Samuel Alito, under fire for reports that flags associated with Donald Trump's attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, got a 90-day extension on his filing. It was one of a series of extensions he has received. Former Barack Obama auto task force head Steven Rattner blasted the new disclosure information, and posted a chart showing Thomas' disclosed and undisclosed gifts totaled $4 million. Rattner posted it was 5.6 times larger than the gifts of 16 other justices' gifts combined. Thomas disclosed a stay at a California club; he attended the exclusive Bohemian Grove with Crowe The hotel came on a trip to Bali A bombshell report about Thomas accepting gifts from billionaire Harlan Crow led to a new voluntary code of conduct The filings showed the justices' outside income, gifts and investment transactions last year. They are closely watched as the justices have faced increasing scrutiny over ethics following revelations that some of them failed to report luxury trips, including on private jets, and real estate transactions. Thomas reported no trips in 2023 after disclosing trips to Dallas, Texas and New York's Adirondack Mountains in 2022. He cited security concerns after a leak of the court's 2022 decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion to justify the need to travel privately. The disclosures showed the lucrative nature of book publishing for members of the nation's highest judicial body. The advance for Jackson's memoir "Lovely One," set for release in September, was reported as $893,750. In addition to the Beyonce tickets, Jackson said she received artwork for her chambers worth $12,500. Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh listed book "royalty income" from Javelin Group and Regnery Publishing for $340,000. News website Axios reported on Thursday that he is writing a memoir, expected to be published in 2025 or 2026. Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch reported $250,000 in book royalties, as did liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor for nearly $87,000. The publishing proceeds supplement the justices' salaries. This year the eight associate justices will receive $298,500, with Chief Justice John Roberts getting $312,200. Alito, a member of the court's 6-3 conservative majority, is embroiled in ethics controversy after refusing to recuse himself from two pending cases related to the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Alito said the flags were flown at his homes by his wife and neither of them knew the flags were associated with Trump's "Stop the Steal" movement. Under pressure from the drumbeat of criticism over ethical standards, the justices in November adopted their first code of conduct. Critics and some congressional Democrats have said the ethics code does not go far enough to promote transparency, continuing to leave decisions to recuse from cases to the justices themselves and providing no mechanism of enforcement. Democrats reiterated the need for legislation last month after Alito rejected their calls for recusal in the 2020 election cases. Republican Rep. Byron Donalds got into a heated exchange Thursday night with MSNBC's Joy Reid over comments that seemingly suggested black families had it better during the Jim Crow era than they do under President Joe Biden. At an event in Philadelphia Tuesday, the congressman - who's been floated as a VP pick for former President Donald Trump - said 'during Jim Crow the black family was together' and noted that 'more black people voted conservatively.' Reid asked how that time period - which started in 1867 and stretched until the 1960s, when black people in the South were diminished to second class citizens - was a 'golden era for black families.' The two talked in raised voices over each other, as Donalds told Reid it was 'gaslighting' and 'twisting my words,' after he was criticized by a number of black Democratic and civil rights leaders, as well as President Joe Biden's campaign. 'I never said that it was better for black people in Jim Crow. I have never said that. And even my own words say that,' Donalds told the MSNBC host. Republican Rep. Byron Donalds (right) got into a heated exchange Thursday night with MSNBC's Joy Reid (left) over comments that seemingly suggested black families had it better during the Jim Crow era than they do under President Joe Biden At an event in Philadelphia Tuesday, the congressman - who's been floated as a VP pick for former President Donald Trump - said 'during Jim Crow the black family was together' and noted that 'more black people voted conservatively' 'If you're talking about the importance of black fathers in the home or frankly all fathers in the home it is always for the betterment of children to have leadership,' he continued. Throughout the interview, Reid pressed, 'What was the authority of the black father in the family during Jim Crow?' She read to the Florida Republican a grisly tale from 1943 of 15-year-old Willie James Howard, a black Florida boy, who was forced by a group of white men to jump off a bridge after a love note Howard had written to a white girl was discovered. 'Willie jumped into the cold water below and drowned while his father was forced to watch at gunpoint. Willie's dead body was pulled from the river the next day,' Reid read from an Equal Justice Initiative account. Reid also read a quote from a Mississippi segregationist who wrote about the 'policy of crushing out the manhood of the Negro citizens was to be carried out with success.' 'So the man during Jim Crow had no rights, could not protect his wife from rape, could not protect his son from lynchings,' Reid said. 'So, again, why would you quote that era and say at that time the family all being in the home together was something we should think about as a good thing?' Donalds relented and said Howard's story was a 'tragedy - one of the great tragedies of the Jim Crow era' adding that it was 'disgusting and distasteful.' At this point the interview devolved into the Reid and Donalds talking over each other, with Reid telling the congressman, 'It's my show.' Overall, Donalds pushed that during the Jim Crow era the 'marriage rates of black Americans was significantly higher than any other time since then.' 'They have plummeted. And what we've seen recently in America, which is a very good thing we should all celebrate is that the marriage rates in the black community are rising again,' the Florida Republican said. 'That's good for black families, that's definitely good for black children.' 'It's something I want to see, I'm quite sure you want to see it as well,' the congressman added. On Wednesday, Fox News reported that Trump has narrowed down his vice presidential search to seven hopefuls - they include Donalds, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Florida's Marco Rubio, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik and former Trump HUD Secretary Ben Carson. Of that group, three are black men - and if picked and elected would serve as the nation's first male black vice president. President Barack Obama was the country's first black president and the current vice president, Kamala Harris, is both the first female and first vice president of color. Vladimir Putin has repeated his threat that Russia will consider sending missiles to enemies of the West. The Russian President did not specify where such arms might be sent, saying only that they might be 'states or even other legal entities that face certain pressure' from countries sending supplies to Ukraine. He also stressed that Moscow is not doing it currently before adding he was 'not ready to say that we will be doing it tomorrow, either.' 'If they supply (weapons) to the combat zone and call for using these weapons against our territory, why don't we have the right to do the same?' Mr Putin said at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. Earlier, Mr Putin said that the Russian economy is growing despite heavy international sanctions and the country has expanded economic ties with countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, as he sought to court investors at the forum. Vladimir Putin (pictured) has repeated his threat that Russia will consider sending missiles to enemies of the West. The Russian President did not specify where such arms might be sent. Pictured is a Russian Yars missile being launched in October 2022. The event has been used by Russia for decades as a showcase for touting the country's development, though Western officials and investors have steered clear of the session since sanctions cut off much of Russia's trade with Western Europe, the US and their allies. Addressing the presidents of Bolivia and Zimbabwe and business leaders, Mr Putin said Russia 'remains one of the key participants in world trade', despite the fact that the country is under sweeping sanctions for sending troops into Ukraine. The main driver of Russia's economic growth is the fighting in Ukraine - now as important to the Kremlin economically as it is politically. Russians are finding a few imported staples, and most global brands have disappeared - or been reincarnated as Russian equivalents. But not much else has changed economically for most people, with massive state spending for military equipment and hefty payments to volunteer soldiers giving a strong boost to the economy. Pictured is an example of how the UK could react to a large-scale air attack, and the areas that could be protected Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa at a plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum Mr Putin has heavily controlled his media appearances since sending his forces into Ukraine but he took questions on Wednesday from international journalists, including some from Western countries he has criticised, on the sidelines of the forum. At that meeting, Mr Putin warned that Russia could provide long-range weapons to others to strike Western targets in response to Nato allies allowing Ukraine to use their arms to attack Russian territory. He also reaffirmed Moscow's readiness to use nuclear weapons if it sees a threat to its sovereignty. Last year, journalists from countries that Russia regards as unfriendly - including the US, the UK and the European Union - were not invited to the forum. Social media users have labelled the BBC general election debate the 'worst episode of the Weakest Link ever'. Voters took to Twitter to joke that the BBC's studio in London left all seven political leaders standing next to plinths which bear eerily similarities to the hit BBC quiz show. The showbiz setting is the backdrop for the broadcaster's flagship political debate which has seen Tory Penny Mordaunt, Labour's deputy Angela Rayner and Reform leader Nigel Farage debate leading figures from the Liberal Democrats, SNP, Green Party and Plaid Cymru. It is the first multi-party debate comes less than a month before voters go to the polls on July 4. BBC journalist Mishal Husain has been moderating the debate and has been seen as playing the role of feisty Weakest Link host Anne Robinson. Voters took to Twitter to joke that the BBC's studio in London left all seven political leaders standing next to plinths which bear eerily similarities to the hit BBC quiz show The showbiz setting is the backdrop for the broadcasters flagship political debate less than a month before voters go to the polls on July 4 Social media users have labelled the BBC general election debate the 'worst episode of the Weakest Link ever' The lights and backdrop surrounding the contestants also appeared to give the debate a quiz show feel. One social media user commented 'Conservatives, you are the Weakest Link goodbye'. Another wrote: 'So who is the weakest link?'. While another said: 'This episode of the weakest link is just awful.' Another commented: 'Is this the weakest link's new studio?' Meanwhile another said: 'Not sure about this reboot of The Weakest Link.' The Weakest Link ran from 2000 to 2011 with its host Anne Robinson, before it was rebooted starring Romesh Ranganathan in 2022. The original format features nine contestants, who take turns answering general knowledge questions The Weakest Link ran from 2000 to 2011 with its host Anne Robinson The quiz show was rebooted starring Romesh Ranganathan in 2022 The original format features nine contestants, who take turns answering general knowledge questions. Each round a contestant would be voted off, with the iconic last line delivered by the host as 'You are the Weakest Link goodbye'. Elsewhere in the debate Nigel Farage was filmed appearing to stretch his knees to warm up. Meanwhile social media users also drew attention to Tory Cabinet Minister Penny Mordaunt's eye-catching hairstyle. The Leader of the House of Commons large mound of blonde hair became the subject of dozens of memes. Some of the tech-savvy debate watchers used their photo-shop skills to edit the Conservative's leader hair as comically large. One social media user wrote: 'Penny Mordaunt is frightening, it's growing as I watch. I'm not going to sleep tonight.' The Leader of the House of Commons large mound of blonde hair became the subject of dozens of memes Earlier this week, viewing figures showed millions of Britons snubbed Tuesday night's first showdown between the PM and Sir Keir on primetime ITV. The programme was watched by an average of just 4.8million viewers, with a peak of 5.2million viewers. This was down from the average audience of 6.7million for the ITV debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn during the 2019 general election. A YouGov snap poll revealed nearly two-thirds who did watch the clash between Mr Sunak and Sir Keir branded it 'frustrating'. The debate saw both party leaders repeatedly speak over each other during tetchy exchanges, as ITV host Julie Etchingham struggled to rein them in. Time is running out to vote on whether Lord Lucan is innocent or guilty of murder after the evidence against him was laid bare in the Mail's pioneering podcast series about his case. Listeners of the chart-topping Trial Of Lord Lucan have until noon tomorrow to decide whether he was responsible for the brutal killing of nanny Sandra Rivett 50 years ago. The success of the podcast has been staggering storming to number one in the true crime charts for both Apple and Spotify after its launch a week ago. It is also in the top ten for all podcasts in the UK. In a world first, the team behind the Mail's series has brought to life the police case against the infamous earl, who vanished within hours of Mrs Rivett's murder on November 7, 1974. Every day for the past week, new episodes have chronicled how Lord Lucan's actual Old Bailey trial might have unfolded had he been caught and tried over her death and the near fatal attack on his estranged wife, Veronica. IS LORD LUCAN GUILTY? THE VOTE IS NOW CLOSED. The final verdict will be announced on Monday, 10 June. Follow wherever you get your podcasts to be notified when the special verdict episode is released. The podcast is based on a never-before-seen, 60-page Scotland Yard document obtained by the Mail, setting out the evidence amassed by detectives in the 1970s. The case scandalised Britain at the time, when, allegedly aided by his powerful circle of friends, Lord Lucan went on the run after the family nanny, Mrs Rivett, 29, was bludgeoned to death with a lead pipe in the basement kitchen at the Belgravia mansion, and Lady Lucan believed to be the intended victim sustained serious head injuries. To add authority to the podcast series, two of Britain's most eminent barristers, Max Hardy and Edward Henry KC, have presented the prosecution and defence cases in meticulous detail. After decades of intrigue and speculation about the Lucan mystery, now it is time for listeners to decide his fate. After the votes have been cast by 12pm tomorrow, the verdict will be revealed in a special episode at 6am on Monday. Jamie East, the Mail's head of podcasts, has urged listeners to join the online jury 'to cast their precious vote'. Presented by the Mail's Associate Editor Stephen Wright and broadcast journalist Caroline Cheetham, it is based on a never-before-seen, 60-page Scotland Yard document obtained exclusively by Wright, setting out the evidence amassed by detectives in the 1970s. It has been almost 50 years since British aristocrat Lord Lucan, 39, vanished without a trace The Earl disappeared after his children's nanny Sandra Rivett was murdered in the family home The blood-soaked basement with Sandra Rivett's body inside a mail sack beside a cast-off shoe And to lend it the gravitas it deserves, two of Britain's most eminent barristers have presented the prosecution and defence cases in enthralling detail. But now it is time for listeners to decide Lord Lucan's fate. Until midday on Sunday, votes can be cast to determine his guilt or innocence before the verdict is revealed in a special episode at 6am on Monday. The drama has gripped audiences just as the world was captivated by the unsolved murder 50 years ago. The mystery scandalised Britain when Lord Lucan went on the run after the family nanny, Sandra Rivett, 29, was bludgeoned to death with a lead pipe in the basement kitchen at the Belgravia mansion, and the earl's estranged wife, Veronica believed to be the intended victim sustained serious head injuries before fleeing. Jamie East, the Mail's head of podcasts, said: 'The most exciting part is yet to come. The listeners must weigh up what they have heard and cast their precious vote. This is the first of its kind, a truly interactive event.' The Trial of Lord Lucan presents, for the first time, the prosecution case prepared by police for whenever he was brought to justice. It also reveals startling new details about the events leading up to the murder and the aftermath. Barrister Max Hardy (right) is prosecuting Lord Lucan in the trial, while Edward Henry KC is acting for the defence Lord Lucan's wife Veronica Mary Duncan suffered a near-fatal assault on the same night Lady Lucan with Frances and George, two of the three children she had with her husband As prosecuting barrister Max Hardy lays out, Lucan alone was responsible for the grisly attacks on November 7, 1974. He had planned the murder down to the last detail, he says, even discussing dumping his wife's body in the Solent and bragging he would never be caught. Mr Hardy also claims the last person to see Lucan in the hours after the attack had failed to assist police because of her 'infatuation' with the aristocrat. For the defence, barrister Edward Henry KC urges jurors to judge the case on 'the evidence alone', saying Lord Lucan 'has been vilified his whole life defamed in the Press'. Three quarters of Scots back the continued domestic production of oil and gas, according to a new survey. Members of the public favour using the North Seas resources over becoming wholly reliant on imports, according to the Survation research. It comes after the SNP failed to clarify whether it will stick to its presumption against new oil and gas licences, while Labour remains opposed to new developments. The poll of 1,026 Scots, carried out by Survation for the True North consultancy, found 75 per cent of those who responded agreed that the UK should aim to meet its demand for oil and gas from domestic production. Only 9 per cent said that the UK should aim to meet demand by importing oil and gas from overseas. The majority of Scots back new North Sea oil and gas developments rather than relying on imports True North senior energy adviser Allister Thomas said: As North Sea production reaches record lows, with projects stuck in the investment doldrums, this is a clear signal to politicians to get the sector back on track. The alternative is more imports from the US, nearly four times more carbon intensive than domestic supply. He added: Thats bad for the planet and bad for business the UK will realise little of the economic benefit if we are buying in more energy from overseas. On a visit to Scotland last week, Sir Keir Starmer defended his plan to stop new oil and gas developments, saying he is not proposing turning the taps off and would still allow production to continue for decades to come. Earlier this week, Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes was accused of trying to rewrite history after claiming the SNP has never been opposed to all new oil and gas developments, saying the party has only ever backed further licences being compatible with a climate compatibility assessment. A draft energy strategy previously published by the SNP government proposed a presumption against all new developments. Andrew Bowie, Scottish Conservative candidate for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, said: The vast majority of Scots recognise the crucial importance of North Sea oil and gas to Scotlands economy, energy security and just transition to net zero. Its crazy that the SNP, Labour, Lib Dems and Greens all oppose the granting of new North Sea oil and gas licences, when doing so threatens tens of thousands of skilled jobs in the North-East. The Survation survey revealed that 51 per cent of respondents believed that Labours plans to set up GB Energy would be effective in reducing bills, compared to 32 per cent who thought it would not. Labours Shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said This polling is a vote of confidence in Labours plans to set up a publicly-owned GB Energy company and lower bills, create jobs and deliver energy security. SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said: No one has any idea what GB Energy is, but we do know the Labour Party will use revenues from Scotlands offshore industries to fund new nuclear plans in England, whilst consigning North-East jobs to the scrapheap. Black police officers were treated differently from their white colleagues and suffered discrimination, a former constable has told the Sheku Bayoh Inquiry. Paul Castledine, who retired from Police Scotland in 2017 after 24 years, told the inquiry yesterday that he was targeted by colleagues because of his skin colour. The former officer, who worked for what was then Fife Constabulary, said that things werent great for ethnic minority officers or women when he joined in 1993. But he said he did not report the discrimination he faced as he did not want to make waves. Mr Bayoh, 31, a father of two, died after he was restrained on the ground by six police officers in Kirkcaldy, Fife, on May 3, 2015. The Sheku Bayoh Inquiry is investigating the circumstances of his death and whether race was a factor The inquiry is investigating the circumstances of his death and whether or not his race was a factor. Mr Castledine said that the abuse he received included a plot by colleagues to force him out of the job while he was still on probation and colleagues failing to respond to his calls for back-up. He told the inquiry he also faced resentment from fellow officers who thought he had only been given particular jobs because of his skin colour. The former Royal Marine said complaints against white officers were often handled with an informal slap on the wrist, whereas those against black or ethnic minority officers would typically result in formal due process being followed. In his written submission, which was read out to the inquiry, Mr Castledine said: Did I experience racism within the police? Yes, Im pretty sure I did. Mr Castledine, who was the only black officer in his station, said that as a probationer he was given an unrealistic workload, and one day found a blank resignation letter in his pigeonhole. He said his boss pulled him aside, told him he knew what was going on and signed off his probation six weeks early to protect him. Some of the officers who had been trying to force him out were moved without their behaviour being addressed, he added. Mr Castledine compared the police unfavourably to his previous Marines service, saying: I would have expected everyone to be working together. In the military, it was accepted without question that help would be offered to anyone in trouble, he said, adding: And the police was a different job. However, he said the situation had since improved and while comments made in a statement by former chief constable Sir Iain Livingstone last year about institutional racism in the force were probably true in the 1990s, there were no serious issues now. A Police Scotland spokesman said: It is vital that the role and independence of the public inquiry is respected to ensure due process and justice being served. The inquiry continues. A 24-year-old Massachusetts woman has been arrested and charged after she allegedly killed both of her parents while on their way to breakfast. Jessica Cavallaro is accused of fatally shooting parents Thelma Tatten and Mark Cavallaro, both 56, at point blank range as she sat in the backseat of their car. She was arraigned at the Concord District Court on Thursday afternoon and charged with murder, assault, battery with a dangerous weapon and carrying a firearm without a license. Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said that deputies responded to an emergency 911 call just after 9am yesterday. Jessica Cavallaro is accused of shooting her parents of Thelma Tatten and Mark Cavallaro, both 56, to their deaths She was arraigned at the Concord District Court yesterday afternoon and charged with murder, assault, battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury as well as a charge of carrying a firearm without a license Officials pronounced the mother dead on the scene while the father was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. He later died at the hospital. According to court documents, Jessica Cavallaro lived with her boyfriend and his parents on Washington Street in Bedford. Early Thursday morning, she came home from work unexpectedly and said that she was experiencing a panic attack. Her parents had picked her up from work and taken her to her boyfriend's house. Jessica reportedly went inside the Washington Street house for about 30 minutes, then came back out and got in her parents' car to go to breakfast. But as she got in, Jessica allegedly shot them both in the head and then went back inside the house and told her boyfriend's parents what she had done, according to documents. Officials pronounced Tatten dead on the scene while Mark was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. He later died at the hospital Cavallaro allegedly shot them both in the head and then went back inside the house and told her boyfriend's parents what she had done, according to documents 'Shortly before 9am this morning a 911 call was placed from a particular address where the homeowner called to say this defendant had just killed her parents,' Assistant Middlesex DA Suzanne Wiseman said in court. Prosecutors have not said why she allegedly committed the crime. According to NBC10, the weapon belonged to Jessica's boyfriend who had several in a safe inside the family home. 'The prevalence of guns and the availability of firearms, many of the incidents we've had in the last few weeks, the last couple of months, have involved firearms in the hands of people who shouldnt be having them,' Ryan told the channel. Jessica Cavallaro is being held without bail and is next scheduled to appear on August 20 in court. She will also reportedly being undergoing a psychiatric evaluation. A Reddit user was driving a truck on a Michigan highway when they suddenly captured footage of a vehicle flying through the air. The driver, with the username StormCamperTTV, posted the shocking video on two subreddits Thursday. The original poster (OP) did not clarify where he took the video, but more than one commenter claimed that the driver was traveling on I-75 in Auburn Hills. StormCamperTTV did not reveal any other details about the driver of the flying vehicle or if they needed medical attention after the airborne event. However, a Reddit user who calls themselves GoldenGarbear claimed they witnessed the incident. A Reddit user was driving a vehicle on a Michigan highway when they caught footage of another car going airborne The person on Reddit with the username StormCamperTTV posted the video on two subreddits yesterday GoldenGarbear wrote in their first comment that they 'passed the aftermath yesterday' but still needed more information on what occurred. 'I couldn't see all of it but I was getting off at that exit and you could see the tracks in the grass going up the hill and the guard rail was pretty mangled,' they wrote. 'The police had also blocked off the on-ramps, and there were a bunch of emergency vehicles around.' The user added that they were only able to see the launch side but spoke with a law enforcement officer later. 'I just spoke with the officer at the school I work at, and apparently, the lady was conscious and responsive. No sign of intoxication or a medical cause of the crash,' they wrote Friday morning. The driver posted the Reddit video just one month after another Michigan car went airborne with near-death results. Several Reddit users who commented on both video posts claimed the airborne car was driving around I-75 in Auburn Hills An alleged drunk driver crashed her truck off a riverbank with her daughter and her friends in Newport, Michigan, on May 5. The driver had lost control of the vehicle after she sped down a street near Superior Avenue and North Avenue. The crash was captured on a neighbor's surveillance camera, which showed the driver's pickup truck being airborne before landing in a river. Neighbors immediately ran outside to help the driver and the other crash victims. All three of them were removed from the vehicle and taken to the hospital. 'These are 15 mph streets, so she was very reckless. Very reckless with her child and other people's children in the car,' said neighbor Bobbi Dansard. 'No mother in her right state of mind would drive like that with children in the car or without children in the car, especially out here. It was pretty traumatic for everybody involved.' Most of the Reddit commenters who watched the recent video on the r/Unexpected subreddit did not accuse the airborne driver of being intoxicated. Most commenters instead joked about the incident and at least two Reddit users compared it to characters in films and television shows. Reddit users have not accused the airborne driver of being drunk. More than one person on two subreddits compared the driver to characters on The Dukes of Hazzard 'Another couple seconds faster and you could have caught them with the trailer, blues brothers style,' a commenter wrote on the post yesterday. One person compared the airborne driver to a character from The A-Team and a driver on Nitro Circus. Other users who commented on the video that was posted on the r/dashcamgifs subreddit compared him to a driver in The Dukes of Hazzard and one person partially praised the airborne driver. 'That is actually incredible Definitely didnt stick the landing though. What a shame,' a commenter wrote last night. Lunden Roberts revealed in a new interview with Megyn Kelly Friday that it was 'hurtful' first lady Jill Biden 'purposely' didn't put out a Christmas stocking for her daughter, Hunter Biden's love child Navy Joan. Roberts has written a tell-all book about her relationship with Hunter, Out of the Shadows: My Life Inside the Wild World of Hunter Biden, which will be released in August, and is doing the interview rounds before it hits bookshelves. Kelly, a former Fox News host, remarked of the 'callousness' Roberts and Navy Joan were treated, specifically by the first lady - with the Biden family only acknowleding the existence of the little girl in July. She went on to ask Roberts about the Christmas stockings display - that for several years included six but not seven of the Bidens' grandchildren's names - and even the names of White House pets. Lunden Roberts (right) revealed in a new interview with Megyn Kelly Friday that it was 'hurtful' first lady Jill Biden 'purposely' didn't put out a Christmas stocking for her daughter, Hunter Biden's love child Navy Joan (left) The 2021 White House Christmas stocking display had six stockings but not seven of President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden's grandchildren In 2023 - after the acknowledgement of Navy Joan - the stockings were left out of the Christmas decor. 'That's hurtful to see a matriarch of a family who's supposed to bring a family together, purposely exclude someone part of that family and part of that the bloodline,' Roberts said. 'And that's something that someday my daughter will read and my daughter will see.' 'It breaks my heart to know that it will break hers to read and see the things that she's going to see about being excluded,' Roberts continued. 'And she's gonna wonder why and all I can do is be there for her when she's old enough to understand these things.' Roberts revealed that when she talked to Hunter for the first time since being pregnant 'that was somehting that I brought up to him.' Kelly didn't pry for the first son's response. She followed up by asking how Roberts planned to explain to exclusion to Navy Joan, who has yet to meet any Biden family members. 'That's tough, because it's one of those where I have to tell her I can't tell you why. I can't explain other people's behavior for you. All I can say is I'm sorry,' Roberts said. She added that she has a lot of 'mom guilt' about the circumstances. The 2022 White House stocking display named the six Biden grandchildren - Navy Joan is the seventh - and the White House pets Roberts acknowledged that her child's father, Hunter Biden (right), has been busy with court proceedings in Delaware. He is photographed with second wife Melissa Cohen (left) 'And I feel to blame because I'm the reason she's in this predicament. This is my child that I had with him I got myself into that situation and I feel like I'm to blame for it,' Roberts said. In an interview this week with Piers Morgan, Roberts said that Hunter and Navy Joan are establishing a relationship over Zoom calls. Roberts said she would continue to work with Hunter to make sure Navy Joan would meet her dad, but acknowledged that the first son is busy. Hunter has been in federal court in Wilmington on federal charges for buying a gun in 2018 and saying he was not a drug user, when his crack cocaine addiction was in full swing. 'So that's something that I hope that with Hunter and Navy's relationship growing that - maybe he can turn things around and try to explain to her those behaviors and why,' Roberts told Kelly of the Biden family snubs. Dr. Anthony Fauci has been accused by a top Republican of making 'false' claims during his bombshell testimony in Congress and is facing calls to make another appearance. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, sent a letter to Dr. Fauci Friday requesting he sit for a transcribed interview, in part, because the former COVID-19 Response Team leader's claim he 'kept an open mind' about the lab-leak theory. Jordan alleges that Fauci's remarks are absolutely 'false,' according to the letter obtained by DailyMail.com. Fauci's claimed Monday he had 'kept an open mind' about the lab leak theory and did not play a part in the 'push to downplay the lab leak theory.' But Jordan charges that 'is false on its face' because of the 'pressure' Fauci and the Biden administration put on social media firms to choke out lab-leak posts, leading to their censoring online communication on COVID. Virologists work at the lab of Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wrote to Dr. Anthony Fauci Friday saying he gave a 'false' account of his having 'an open mind' about the COVID lab-leak theory, citing instances where the pandemic patriarch appeared to throw cold water on the idea Fauci's account is 'contradicted by Facebook's decision to remove content about the lab leak theory because of 'pressure' from the Biden Administration, particularly the Response Team, of which you were a member,' Jordan wrote. 'To better understand how and to what extent the Executive Branch has coerced or colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor Americans' speech, we respectfully request that you appear for a transcribed interview before the Committee.' Jordan further wrote that Fauci 'sidelined' former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield in a bid to silence his view that COVID 'came from a Wuhan lab.' Jordan also demanded a trove of documents from the pandemic patriarch, saying that his recent testimony warrants further investigation into his handling of COVID. Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., has agreed that Fauci should be investigated, admitting how he likes 'the idea' of the pandemic patriarch facing criminal charges. Fauci's top aide when he was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. David Morens, testified before the House Coronavirus Pandemic Committee he used his personal email to skirt transparency laws. Morens claimed to have a 'secret back channel' to Fauci and suggested to colleagues how to deliver the scientist information in ways to avoid Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Anthony Fauci, former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies in front of the House Oversight and Accountability Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on June 3, 2024 Jordan grilled Fauci when he testified before Congress on Monday 'Reporting from the Coronavirus Select Subcommittee alleges that you may have taken 'part in a conspiracy amongst the highest levels of [NIAID]' to 'destroy' or 'hide' 'official records regarding the origins of COVID-19,' including by conducting official business on your personal email and deleting official records in an attempt avoid the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and public,' Jordan alleged. The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic requested access to Fauci's personal email and phone records as well. Morens did testify under oath before the body on May 22. He defended his actions saying he didn't know using his personal email for work and then deleting the messages infringed any laws, but received scorn from Democrats and the GOP for his destruction of public records. He was also roundly criticized for editing press releases for his 'best friend' EcoHealth Alliance President Dr. Peter Daszak - who former National Institute of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Lawrence Tabak testified was conducting gain-of-function research in Wuhan at the time of the pandemic's outbreak. Fauci's former top aide, Dr. David Morens, speaks during a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing on Capitol Hill on May 22 Morens worked to help his 'best friend' Daszak, even asking him for a 'kickback' after the EcoHealth president got a massive taxpayer-funded grant from NIAID - where Morens works. Jordan requested the documents and interview by June 21. Facebook post claims to know Trump would be found guilty before verdict Trump's hush money conviction could be in doubt after a Facebook post claimed jurors were discussing plans to find the ex-president guilty before delivering their verdict. Judge Juan Merchan sparked speculation of potential mistrial when he sent a letter to the prosecution and defense attorneys about the message that read: 'My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted [heart emoji] Thank you folks for all your had work!!!!' The user, named Michael Anderson, wrote the post that sparked confusion on a New York Unified Court System's Facebook page. It raises questions about whether one of the jurors did in fact discuss the case with others when they were not allowed to. If that were the case, it could be grounds for a mistrial. Donald Trump leaving the court after a jury found him guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records It is not clear that the Facebook user who posted was related to any juror or had any prior knowledge of the verdict. It could also have been a random Facebook user looking to stir controversy or confusion. The profile for Anderson claims to be a 'professional s**t poster' - another name for an internet troll. Anderson's Facebook profile has since been deleted and DailyMail.com was unable to contact him before it was taken down. A photo of a cross-dressing, cigarette-smoking man grabbed from the profile before it was deleted was being touted as Anderson - but the man in the image is actually late punk rocker GG Allin, who died in 1993 aged 36. The jury of seven men and five women at Manhattan Criminal Court deliberated for nearly 10 hours before convicting the former President of 34 charges of falsifying business records. Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records to cover up the payment to porn star Stormy Daniels so she would stay quiet about a previous sexual encounter before the 2016 election. It was the first time a former U.S. President has faced a criminal trial and came as Trump is running for a second term as president. Judge Juan Merchan sent a letter to Trump's lawyers and prosecutors on June 7 alerting them to a Facebook post from a user claiming to have had prior knowledge of the hush money trial verdict A post from the Facebook user Michael Anderson claiming to be the cousin of a juror A sketch of the jurors listening to testimony in the hush money trial. Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records in an effort to cover up a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet before the 2016 election The ex-president has railed against the verdict and his lawyers have already said they would appeal. The Trump campaign said it was 'investigating.' DailyMail.com has reached out to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office for comment. Voters have given their verdict on the winners and losers of the second debate of the general election campaign as the leading figures from the seven major political parties went head-to-head last night. During the debate, which comes after Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer battled it out on Tuesday, the parties locked horns over Britain's security threat, the NHS, climate, policing and immigration. Voters said they felt Penny Mordaunt had been 'dealt a bad hand' by having to represent the Conservatives after Mr Sunak faced a backlash over leaving the D-Day events early. Others said Labour HQ would be happy with how 'punchy' Angela Rayner performed and claimed she fared better than her leader, Mr Starmer, did on Tuesday. But overall, many were left unconvinced by the seven-way head-to-head and felt there was no 'game-changing moment'. Here is what our panel of MailOnline readers had to say about the BBC's TV election debate. MailOnline readers have given their verdict after last night's seven-way head-to-head (L-R) Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, leader of Plaid Cymru Rhun ap Iorwerth, Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper, Stephen Flynn of the SNP, co-leader of the Green Party Carla Denyer, deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner and Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt, take part in the BBC Election Debate 'There was no game-changing moment from any of the parties': Medical student Jon Craven, 23, from Norfolk Mr Craven felt Nigel Farage performed best in the debate by setting himself apart from the establishment while Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth made the least impact. He said: 'Like him or loathe him, Farage is a good communicator and more experienced than a lot of those on the stage. 'Penny Mordaunt didn't do enough to set herself apart. She had a few key attack lines but she didn't land them. I thought she would come out stronger against Reform. 'She looked pretty uncomfortable when the whole D-Day thing came up and looked to be squirming quite hard. Mr Craven, 23, in his final year at the University of Bristol and who has secured his first professional job as a doctor in July 'Her response didn't seem very authentic. There wasn't a lot she could've said but perhaps a clearer apology would've worked better but she looked pretty uncomfortable and the rest were pretty happy about that. 'The question from the medical student on NHS funding resonated with me because it highlighted the similarities between Tories and Labour on that point. For all the talk between them there wasn't a huge difference between their plans and not a lot of honesty from either of them about the state of the NHS or the reality of dealing with an older, fatter, sicker population. 'The question about crime was interesting because where I am in Bristol we have had a lot of violent attacks here. Penny Mordaunt's line about how much safer we have all become didn't resonate with what I see on a day-to-day basis.' During the debate Nigel Farage said this was the worst general election campaign of his lifetime and Jon agreed. He said: 'I don't agree with Farage about a lot but I think on this point he is right. There has been a lack of honesty from everybody about the problems the country is facing. 'I'm 23, there's been a Tory government for as long as I can remember so the prospect of something else is exciting to me but a part of me still can't really count them out completely.' He added: 'It was an interesting debate but I don't think we really saw a game-changing moment for any of the parties. Rayner looked a lot punchier and more aggressive than Starmer had on Tuesday. 'I suspect Labour HQ are probably happier with this performance. I think Penny Mordaunt probably had a reasonable night but given the Tory record, given the dynamics of the election, it's perhaps inevitable she came under fire from six sides and probably slightly struggled to get out the Tory message. Labour's Angela Rayner and the Conservatives' Penny Mordaunt clash at last night's debate 'It was interesting to see she was still repeating the 2,000 Labour tax claim. I think one thing I was curious about tonight's debate was how Farage would use it and how his performance would stack up. 'I think he was quite keen to set himself apart from the other parties and was quite effective in doing that. The Lib Dems, Greens, Plaid, we probably didn't see much of them. It's hard to say they really broke through tonight. 'Overall, I think most people's votes probably haven't changed that much. Before this debate I was favouring Labour, and I probably still am favouring Labour now.' After the first half, Jon said: 'I'd say so far of the seven people on stage it's Stephen Flynn from the SNP and Nigel Farage from Reform who really come out the strongest and left the biggest mark on the evening. 'Inevitably because of the format and the fact there are so many parties on stage, they don't really have fundamental disagreements with each other, plaid, green to some extent, Lib Dems and SNP. It's often felt like the Nigel Farage vs the rest show. 'He will be quite happy with that, the other performers in the main parties will be quite happy with that. The only people who are going to be upset with that are Penny Mordaunt and the Conservatives. 'So far, both Labour and conservatives in this debate have slightly slipped under the radar which I think Angela Rayner will be fairly pleased with but for Penny Mordaunt looking to make a big mark tonight and do something game changing in the campaign, she might be having a bit of a half-time talk.' 'Nigel Farage is talking the most sense... he's getting my vote': Cancer patient Denise Clarke After Tuesday's leaders' debate, Denise Clarke, 59, insisted her vote was going to Labour - having previously voted Conservative. But after watching Nigel Farage's performance on the BBC, she admitted she was now tempted to give Reform UK a go. Denise, from Lewisham, South London said: 'I'm totally confused after tonight. I was heading for Labour but now I think Reform might have my vote. 'The Tories came across badly, but I don't think Labour really took advantage either. 'So, at the moment, I'm with Farage. He seemed to be the only one talking much sense. I think he was straight-talking and had a realistic plan for what needs to be done. 'I thought the others were pussy-footing around stuff too much.' Mrs Clarke has been reliant on the NHS for care after being diagnosed with cancer last August Denise said Farage's views on tackling immigration and imposing tougher stop-and-search laws in a bid to stamp down on knife crime resonated with her. She said: 'Getting children out of poverty is a big thing for me. Where I live in Lewisham you see a lot of children in poverty. 'They're selling drugs for a tenner to go and do the shopping for their mum, which is creating the gang culture and driving knife crime up. That's all around my area. 'So yes, I think there should be more stop-and-searches. 'If you've got nothing to hide, then you've not got anything to worry about.' Denise, who is reliant on the NHS for care after being diagnosed with cancer last August, watched the debate with her son Andrew Payne, 36, who served in the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. The mother-of-four had to quit her Asda supermarket job as a consequence and is now reliant on Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment handouts. She said she was 'disappointed' not to hear clear plans on how to fix Britain's NHS and drive down waiting lists. On Angela Rayner, Denise added: 'I think she did well, to be fair. She seemed to get her points across, despite Penny Mordaunt constantly pointing at her and talking over her. 'And I thought it was wrong that Mordaunt defended Sunak over leaving the D-Day memorial. She was defending him because he apologised, but there's no defence for what he did. 'She should have condemned him. 'I thought the Lib Dems had a good night. I thought Daisy Cooper came across really well and made good points. 'To be honest, I think if the lot of them came together as a union they'd probably get the country worked out.' 'The Conservatives are showing no accountability': Geography student Roshini Jaan, 19, from West London London student Roshini Jaan, 19, said the candidates' comments on tackling knife crime resonated most with her. She said: 'Where I live I'm seeing a lot of knife crime around me and while I've not been directly involved it's a constant worry being a young woman. 'It's quite unsafe walking around in London and there aren't that many police officers. I think stop and search is a good idea. Roshini is in her first year at the University of Nottingham, with hopes of working for the United Nation 'I feel like random stop and searches in boroughs with high knife crime are a good idea, not just on black and minority ethnic people but for all demographics of people would be a good deterrent. 'I would like them to get to the root of the problem and I liked the Green party's ideas about creating more youth centres because obviously the people getting involved come from hardships but that's being brushed under the mat. They need to get to the root of the problem which is how people are being brought up. 'For me Labour won the debate, Angela Rayner performed better than Starmer did on Tuesday. She was more composed and got to the point quicker. Keir and Rishi's debate was more just talking over one another. 'I thought she stood up well, especially when Mordaunt used the disputed 2,000 tax increase figure. 'I was very surprised they used the figure again but I guess it's their main point against Labour. The Conservatives brought taxes up the most during their time in power so this line feels dishonest. I think Labour were more honest and didn't lie whereas the Tories lied quite a lot. 'The SNP comment on immigration resonated the most with me, talking about the positives not the negatives. Some of the stuff Farage was saying about immigration was quite ignorant to be honest. 'I liked Labour saying they would scrap the Rwanda scheme, it's not the best.' 'At the end of the debate, I am still undecided': Dover fisherman Matt Coker, 44 'Before the debate tonight I was more inclined to vote for Rishi Sunak. 'In Dover, the migrant issue of small boats is huge. It's massive. 'And although it has taken a long time I think progress has been made on that in recent weeks and months. 'Especially the last few weeks, the weather has been perfect and I was expecting to see huge, record numbers. Matt Coker said he is still undecided after last night's debate 'When I heard today though about Rishi Sunak leaving the Remembrance event early, I could not believe that. 'I'm a massive supporter of the military and the armed forces. That seemed like a real own goal. I could not believe it. 'It was always going to be brought up tonight. 'At the end of the debate I'm a bit confused. 'I think it was wrong how they treated Nigel Farage. He should have been respected more. 'After all that debate I'm not exactly clear who I will vote for but I am more knowledgeable. I thought this debate was handled and controlled better than last time. 'I was very impressed with the Green Party. The lady really carried herself well. 'Climate change is something I think of a lot. That's a big issue for me. I think they could contribute. But at the end of it all, I am still undecided. 'I want to do more research and work. I need to check things out before I make my final decision on who to vote for.' Mr Coker said he was likely to tune into the future debates. He said: 'It feels to me like Labour are more hungry for victory. They seem more organised and planned.' 'Penny Mordaunt was dealt a bad hand': Business owner Elliot Horner, 26, from Lancaster Small business owner Elliot Horner said 'maverick' Nigel Farage put the sword into the Tories' chances of election success during the debate. Elliot, 26, who runs the Lune Brew Co craft brewery in Lancaster said: 'I'd not vote for Reform UK personally but Farage probably turned some heads tonight with the way he presented himself. 'A lot of the UK is so disparate at the moment and people look for strong characters so I think he might have won Reform a few votes. 'Even when people were shooting at him, he came back pretty strongly. Elliot Horner is a 26-year-old small business owner from Lancashire 'I think after the last couple of days the Tories have had, especially with Sunak abandoning the D-Day beaches, a lot of their traditional voters go to Reform. 'Penny Mordaunt pulled the short straw. She had the worst job tonight, having to come out and defend Sunak after what he did. 'She kept apologising for him but if you're going to win an election, having to come out with grovelling apologies is going to put you on the back foot. 'I don't think the Tories have got any confidence in Sunak at the moment.' Elliot, who also runs beer business Cannabrew, praised Angela Rayner's performance for Labour. He said: 'I thought she came out really strongly out the traps and went for the Conservatives. 'She was on the attack, which I sort of expected. She had a good night.' At the halfway point, he said: 'I can't help but wonder if the Tory party have any confidence in Rishi to lead them anymore after this debate 'The Lib Dems and Daisy came out quite strong and gave answers quite directly which is refreshing to see. She was giving numbers and years to answers which is great, you never see that from politicians. 'In terms of Labour, they definitely came out hard and particularly against Penny and the Conservatives, to be honest that was quite good fun to watch. He said the Plaid Cymru leader 'came out with really strong answers and definitely a personable chap'. But he added: 'However, he did lead a really poor attack on Nigel Farage and Reform - that was a shame, it would have been good to see a better attack 'The second questions, Lib Dems mentioned about increasing the NHS staff and doctors by 8,000 people, however I really failed to see how this will help doctors, in particular junior doctors with their strikes and increasing their wage. If anything it will put more strain on the system, which is underfunded, 'From a business perspective, something that definitely interests me and a lot of people in the UK, the only member out of all seven to mention anything about businesses was the SNP. That seems a bit bizarre to me because currently he would be getting my vote and I'm from England and definitely not Scottish in any way, shape or form. 'The Green Party, they seem to give lovely answers however I can't help but think it's just cute. It sounds a bit bad to say because they are obviously morally on the high ground, however there's not enough substance there particular when the nuclear question came up they gave really wishy-washy answers. 'I struggle to see how they are doing well. 'The better help a business gets, the more money we all get effectively. ' 'Plaid Cymru and the SNP should be proud': Lawyer Benedict Sharrock-Harris, 32 Lawyer Benedict Sharrock-Harris didn't think Penny Mordaunt did her party any favours by repeating the claim that Labour will increase tax by 2,000 for each family. He said: 'The thing that struck me as most surprising was Penny Mordaunt following through on the lie that Rishi Sunak told last time at the Sunak Starmer debate where he had put forward the 2,000 increase in tax reputedly as set out he claimed by civil servants 'It had come to light in the week in between that this wasn't civil servants who had come out with this number for the Labour policies. But rather had come from Conservative advisors, therefore it was surprising Penny Mordaunt followed through on this when Rishi Sunak had been so criticised in the intervening week.' Lawyer Benedict Sharrock-Harris, 32 At the halfway point, he said: 'There was quite a surprising dividing line on one side especially on the question of migration. 'You've got plaid, the Greens, Lib Dems and SNP willing to talk about migration and its benefits and the more humanitarian approach whereas Nigel Farage is not on that side of the line and the Tories too.' Mr Sharrock-Harris said a TV debate with several parties isn't going to have enough time for each person to speak and he didn't like the way Conservative Penny Mordaunt spoke over her Labour rival Angela Rayner. He said: 'It is especially grating when people with less polished accents are being spoken over by posh middle class people with a classic London accent.' But Mr Sharrock-Harris felt that Penny Mordaunt came over better than her leader Rishi Sunak in the first televised debate earlier this week and he believes she hasn't done herself any harm if there is a Tory leadership contest after the election. He added: 'Both the party leaders of Plaid Cymru and the SNP have come across very well. They've done themselves proud.' ' Similarly to the Sunak vs Starmer debate, all the candidates were low on detail': Student Archie Parker-Goff, 21, from Chester Student Archie Parker-Goff told how he believed political heavyweights were put on the ropes during the 'scrappy' BBC TV debate. Archie, 21, said: 'This evening's debate was always going to be more interesting with seven participants. 'It's tricky to say who were the winners and the losers on the night. 'I thought beforehand it may have been tricker to tell because leaders outside the major, major parties are able to have a go and I think that showed. 'I think it was quite a scrappy debate - Labour and the Tories failed to differentiate on a few things and the small parties had an opportunity to field some of their plans. Archie, from Chester, has just finished studying for an economics degree at Bristol University. 'I think if the strategy of the smaller parties was to label Labour and the Tories as being very similar, then they probably did a good job. 'I've yet to be convinced by either of the two major sides at the minute. There's a good 35 minutes spent on number picking and calling out - it's not very productive. Archie, from Chester, has just finished studying for an economics degree at Bristol University. He has a job lined up and is set to start work in November. He said: 'It was interesting to have the smaller parties as well because there were some quite different ways of looking at things. 'I thought the smaller parties' ideas of how do we get police on the ground and integrate them into the communities more, having a Bobby on the street, was refreshing. 'If there was a takeaway from it was probably maybe we should be looking at that a little bit more than we have been doing. 'Whilst all of them said the same things about increasing police numbers it was actually plaid, SNP, the Greens and the Lib Dems who had a little bit of emphasis about community based policing and this was something that I thought was a good idea.' 'Labour will have the keys to No 10 very soon': Londoner Eldon Davis, 45 Londoner Eldon Davis, 45, thought Labour's Angela Rayner emerged victorious in the debate after a fierce war of words with the Conservative Penny Mordaunt. The business owner said: 'I believe that Angela Rayner presented a more prepared version of Labour. This was with specific numbers and figures and a clearer stance on military spending and education policy, making her more effective in the debate than Penny, who at times seemed to be speaking over her. 'However, I feel that neither candidate presented a compelling vision or doctrine. 'I feel Labour's stance seemed like their strategy was mainly to criticize the Conservative Party without providing innovative policy ideas. Londoner and business owner Eldon Davis, 45 'The GB Energy scheme seems rushed I think. 'Much like the Conservatives - get the youth into national service. 'Penny's position focused on lower taxes, protecting pensions, security, and continuity rather than major innovations, which seemed very safe policy for those that want to keep what they have. 'The surprise standout was Daisy, who was arguably the strongest debater, but I still have reservations about voting for the Liberal Democrats due to trust issues stemming from their past coalition with the Conservatives. 'Especially around tuition fees. Even though it was 14 years ago, all of that is something I still remember and it has stayed with me. 'The Green Party had some interesting ideas and ambitious plans for recruiting health staff, but it all seemed a bit too radical for me, and I'm concerned about their stance on nuclear deterrent. Their ideas seem very idealistic. How could they really be implemented in the real world if they got in power? 'I do think that Labour came out as winner over the Conservative Party and I have the feeling they will be taking the keys to Number 10 very soon.' What did YOU think of the debate? Put your thoughts in the comments below Labour suffered an embarrassing blow last night after one of the UK's largest trade unions refused to endorse its election manifesto. The party's stance on issues like employment protection and oil and gas meant Unite the union could not back the final version, sources said. It comes after Sharon Graham, the union's general secretary, called for Labour to commit to an outright ban on practices like fire-and-rehire. Ms Graham had been due to speak to reporters after the meeting, but cancelled her appearance. Last month she warned Sir Keir Starmer that if he did not recommit to delivering Angela Rayner's 'New Deal for Working People' in full, then 'a red line will be crossed'. It comes after Sharon Graham, the union's general secretary, called for Labour to commit to an outright ban on practices like fire-and-rehire Labour has been under intense pressure from business groups to tone down the plan which contains a series of radical changes to workplace rights. It included banning zero hour contracts, ensuring workers get regular hours for twelve weeks or more, giving workers a 'right to switch off' and making flexible working 'a day one right'. Meanwhile, Left-wing campaign group Momentum said it was 'deeply disappointed' that the party has not promised to introduce free school meals or scrap the two-child benefit cap. 'We need to kick out not just the Tories, but Tory policies too,' a spokesperson said. 'Standing alongside child poverty campaigners and friends across the labour movement, we will continue to push for these policies, which represent the essence of real Labour values.' On Friday night Labour's election manifesto was agreed at the party's Clause V meeting, paving the way for its official launch next week. The manifesto will be based on the party's five missions for government announced last year on the economy, the NHS, energy, education and planning reform. While the finer points of Labour's document have been kept tightly under wraps after 2017's draft manifesto was leaked, Sir Keir yesterday confirmed that the party would pledge to recognise Palestinian statehood as part of any Middle East peace process. Last month, Ms Graham warned Sir Keir Starmer that if he did not recommit to delivering Angela Rayner 's 'New Deal for Working People' in full, then 'a red line will be crossed' The Labour leader suggested that such a move should not be blocked by a neighbouring country, saying it was an 'inalienable right' of Palestinians and not in 'the gift of Israel'. The move comes after the party faced setbacks in the local elections in some previously safe areas, particularly those with large Muslim populations, where candidates may have suffered as a result of Sir Keir's stance on the Gaza war. Attendees of the party's Clause V meeting were only told its central London location hours before. Angela Rayner 's 'New Deal for Working People' is a comprehensive plan to improve the lives of working people The gathering takes its name from the fifth clause of the party rulebook, which seeks to ensure members, affiliated organisations and elected representatives are all able to take part in policy formulation. Party sources described the meeting as 'positive' and said the manifesto had been waived through by attendees, with a spokesperson saying: 'Today's meeting has endorsed Labour's manifesto. 'On July 4, the British people will have the chance to vote for change - to stop the chaos, turn the page and start to rebuild our country.' Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has been assaulted by a man in central Copenhagen earlier today. Police said on social media platform X they had arrested a man and were investigating the incident but declined to give further detail. Her office said in a statement: 'Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was beaten on Friday evening at Kultorvet (square, red.) in Copenhagen by a man who was subsequently arrested. The Prime Minister is shocked by the incident.' A local, Soren Kjergaard, who works as a barista on the square, saw the prime minister being escorted away by security following the assault. She claimed the Prime Minister was unscathed in the attack and and had no outward signs of harm, although she 'seemed a little stressed'. Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen who has been assaulted by a man in central Copenhagen earlier today Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen speaks to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a Nordic summit, in Stockholm, on Friday, May 31, 2024 EU chief Charles Michel and European Parliament President Roberta Metsola on Friday slammed the attack on Frederiksen. Metsola urged the Danish head of government to 'keep strong', while adding in a post to X that 'violence has no place in politics.' Michel in turn said he was 'outraged by the assault'. 'I strongly condemn this cowardly act of aggression,' the European Council president said in a separate post to X. EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen also condemned what she called a 'despicable act which goes against everything we believe and fight for in Europe', in a statement to social media. The assault comes two days before Danes head to the polls in the EU election and just three weeks after Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico was seriously injured in an assassination attempt. Mr Fico, 59, was shot in the abdomen as he greeted supporters last month outside a cultural centre in the town of Handlova, nearly 85 miles north-east of the capital Bratislava. Video footage showed the Slovak premier approach people gathered at barricades and reach out to shake hands as a man stepped forward, extended his arm and fired five rounds before being tackled and arrested. Her later underwent two hours of surgery to remove dead tissue from his gunshot wounds. Conservatives are on the side of drivers. The Labour Party will find any way possible to force them off the roads. I know that for many who live in towns and villages across the UK, the car is an essential mode of transport. Something city-obsessed Labour don't seem to understand, or simply don't care about. All you have to do is look at our respective records. Wherever Labour is in power, we can see their thirst to frustrate, delay and tax drivers cannot be quenched. In Labour-run Wales, they are waging all-out war on the driver. Between blanket 20mph zones costing the economy billions and a ban on all new road infrastructure projects being built, the driver is being demonised. I know that for many who live in towns and villages across the UK, the car is an essential mode of transport. Something city-obsessed Labour don't seem to understand, or simply don't care about. All you have to do is look at our respective records. Wherever Labour is in power, we can see their thirst to frustrate, delay and tax drivers cannot be quenched. In Labour-run London , Sadiq Khan expanded the ULEZ even to areas where a car is an essential not a luxury. In Labour-run London, Sadiq Khan expanded the ULEZ even to areas where a car is an essential not a luxury. This aggressive and regressive tax on drivers, enforced by an Orwellian array of surveillance cameras, punishes the poorest drivers unable to afford a new car. Traffic piles up in areas of London due to poorly designed low traffic neighbourhoods that don't have local consent. Whereas, we have offered a secure future for drivers with our Plan for Drivers. We have made clear that it is not right that drivers feel under attack and have offered long term bold action to make their lives better. We have frozen fuel duty 14 years in a row, saving the average family thousands of pounds. We have invested hundreds of millions to make our most dangerous roads safer. And we've committed to pour billions of savings from HS2 into filling the potholes and resurfacing the roads. Ever the backseat driver, Keir Starmer has opposed these at every turn. So in an age of aggressively anti-driver local politics from the left, we will continue to actively champion the driver at every turn. That is why if re-elected, we will introduce a new 'Backing Drivers Bill' to cement the rights of drivers in law as soon as we can. We will unilaterally reverse Sadiq Khan's unfair ULEZ expansion in London. We will ban any kind of pay-per- mile scheme from appearing. The last Labour government tried to implement it., We will stop it. Finally, we will empower local people to have a vote on any new LTNs or blanket 20mph schemes and a right to challenge existing ones because it is local people who should decide what's best for their area. These are not decisions that we take lightly, and I fully expect the anti-driver left to be up in arms about it. And that will tell you everything you need to know about whose side they're actually on. So there is a clear choice. Getting around quicker, cheaper and more freely with the Conservative's plan for drivers and record of bold action or getting stuck in the slow lane with Labour. Labour will today pledge to end trail hunting as part of a major crackdown on animal cruelty. To protect Britain's pets, the party has vowed to introduce the biggest boost to animal welfare in a generation. They will end the illegal smuggling of pets including kittens, stop illegal puppy farming and ban the sale of animals with cropped ears. Labour will also stop the import of 'trophies' taken from the body parts of slaughtered endangered animals such as elephants, lions and hippos, bringing back the Hunting Trophies Bill in full and working with affected countries to strengthen conservation. Labour has also vowed to reintroduce the Kept Animals Bill, dropped by the Tories, to prohibit the importation of dogs and cats with fashion-based mutilations. Labour will stop the import of 'trophies' taken from the body parts of slaughtered endangered animals such as elephants, lions and hippos, bringing back the Hunting Trophies Bill Dogs locked away in a cage during a rescue event (file image). Labour is seeking to end illegal puppy farming And they would ban the use of snare traps and the importation of heavily pregnant cats and dogs, as well as accelerate the phasing out of animal testing. Labour said it would introduce a Strategic Advisory Board to bring together experts from academia, industry and charities to advise on phasing out the use of dogs, minipigs and rabbits in the testing of products. But the party risks stoking a fresh fox-hunting row with its plans to end trail hunting by closing what the party describes as 'loopholes' that have allowed the 'illegal hunting of foxes, deer, and hares to continue'. Traditional hunting with dogs was banned by Labour in 2004, but trail hunting which replicates it but without an animal being chased or killed is still allowed. It involves people on foot or horseback following a scent along a predetermined route with hounds or beagles. However, trail hunting is controversial with allegations that the practice can be used as a cover for traditional hunting. The National Trust stopped issuing licences for trail hunts on its land in 2021. Shadow environment secretary Steve Reed told the Mail: 'For too long, too many animals, including the world's most endangered species, have been left to suffer in silence. 'The Conservatives are on the side of animal cruelty. Labour will end it. Labour accused the Tories of having U-turned on 12 animal welfare promises during their time in government. Pictured: A fox hunt (file image) Trail hunting is controversial with allegations that the practice can be used as a cover for traditional hunting (file photo) 'The next Labour government will introduce the biggest boost to animal welfare in a generation to end animal cruelty and protect Britain's most loved pets.' Labour accused the Tories of having U-turned on 12 animal welfare promises during their time in government. Animal rights campaigner Will Young backed Labour's plans, saying: 'A vote for Labour is a vote to end animal suffering.' The 2002 Pop Idol winner added: 'Animals across Britain and the world are subjected to horrific cruelty from puppies bred in appalling conditions for profit, rabbits used in the testing of consumer products and foxes hunted down by an aggressive pack of dogs. 'Animal cruelty must be brought to an end.' Charities, including Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, also gave their support. Peter Laurie, chief executive at Battersea, said they were 'greatly encouraged to see a number of animal welfare issues'. And Peter Kemple Hardy, World Animal Protection UK campaigns director, said: 'As a nation of animal lovers the vast majority of the UK wants to see an end to brutal forms of animal exploitation. 'It is encouraging to see animal welfare prioritised in this way.' A vote for Reform will let in Labour and allow Sir Keir Starmer to reverse Brexit, strengthen militant trade unions and tear up common sense rules on gender, Kemi Badenoch warned yesterday. In an interview with the Daily Mail, the Business Secretary said Tory voters flirting with Reform risk ushering in a Labour government that will have no interest in cutting immigration and which will smother business in red tape, putting the economy into reverse. Mrs Badenoch was speaking on the campaign trail in Clacton, where she and Home Secretary James Cleverly spent the day helping fellow Essex Tory Giles Watling defend his seat against the Nigel Farage juggernaut. The Reform leader made a dramatic decision this week to stand for parliament. In a withering assessment, she dismissed Mr Farage as a 'showbusiness candidate', adding: 'The Prime Minister is somebody who has to run the country, not just drink pints.' She predicted the Tories would succeed in making it 'eighth time unlucky' for the Reform leader, whose seven previous parliamentary bids failed. 'Will Mr Farage be here when we're doing all of those less glamorous issues, doing public meetings about pylons and potholes?' she said. A vote for Reform will let in Labour and allow Sir Keir Starmer to reverse Brexit, strengthen militant trade unions and tear up common sense rules on gender, Kemi Badenoch warned yesterday In an interview with the Daily Mail's Political Editor Jason Groves (left), the Business Secretary said Tory voters flirting with Reform risk ushering in a Labour government that will have no interest in cutting immigration Kemi Badenoch with James Cleverly and Clacton candidate Giles Watling during his campaign trail on Friday Referencing the Reform leader's long-standing relationship with Donald Trump, she added: 'Is he going to be doing that or is he going to be in America? 'I think the people of Clacton need to ask that question who's going to be here working for you?' She continued: 'It is really important that we do keep Reform out because all Reform is doing is making Labour stronger. There is so much which we have been doing... while Farage has just been laughing and mocking. I'll tell my kids to get McJobs Kemi Badenoch yesterday said she would encourage her children to take a job in McDonald's to learn that 'life isn't all cushy'. The Business Secretary also called for a 'change in mindset' among young Britons reluctant to work in sectors that rely on migrants. Mother-of-three Mrs Badenoch told the Mail she took a job at McDonald's at 16. 'We shouldn't be too snooty about doing jobs,' she said. 'You know, I tell you that I've worked on the grill and I worked on the front desk, but if you're in McDonald's, you clean the toilets. You did everything, so people shouldn't be shy about doing that sort of thing.' Speaking about a Government drive to persuade more Britons to work in sectors such as hospitality, construction and care, she said: 'The more you rely on immigration, the more people start to think certain jobs are just for immigrants. I think that's a bad culture.' Advertisement 'All the work that I've been doing on equality rights, women's rights trying to stop men from going into women's bathrooms because they give themselves a label. All of that stuff will disappear under Labour. 'They are not interested in maintaining common sense. And I think a lot of the people in Clacton, a lot of people who have common sense, will understand what is at stake.' Mrs Badenoch said she was 'not surprised' that Labour opposed her recent pledge to rewrite the party's Equality Act to allow organisations to bar transgender women from single-sex spaces, or by its plan to make it easier for people to change gender. And she ridiculed Sir Keir over his struggles to define what a woman is, saying he was 'detached from reality'. She said: 'If you are prepared to say women can have penises, then what are you going to say about things, more complex issues, like the economy?' The Business Secretary is the bookmakers' favourite to succeed Rishi Sunak if the Tories lose the election. But she was diplomatic when asked if she thought she could run a better campaign. 'I don't think this would be an easy campaign for anyone,' she said. Instead, she turned her fire on Labour, saying Angela Rayner's plans to introduce a massive package of workers' rights would strengthen the hand of union barons and 'destroy' business and jobs. Mrs Badenoch also claimed Labour was clearing the path for a return to EU membership by 'blaming everything on Brexit'. She said there was 'more to do' on Brexit and made clear she would be willing to quit the European Convention on Human Rights in some circumstances. 'The convention is clearly having serious implications for the lawfare we're seeing around immigration, and it needs some kind of reform,' she said. Advertisement Seven political parties pitched to voters in a televised BBC debate in the first of its kind this general election campaign. Penny Mordaunt for the Conservatives, Labour's deputy Angela Rayner and Reform leader Nigel Farage debated leading figures from the Liberal Democrats, SNP, Green Party and Plaid Cymru. It comes less than a month before voters go to the polls on July 4. See below for a full recap of the debate by MailOnline. Patrick Orren Stephenson is charged with her murder A treasured family photograph has revealed how Samantha Murphy had long carried her phone in the distinct wallet case that it was still in when it was found in a muddy dam last month. Seated beside husband Mick, the mother of three is seen clutching onto it during what is believed to have been her last family holiday abroad. The image showed Ms Murphy's wallet stuffed with so many identification cards, credit cards, store cards and reward cards she couldn't even clip it shut. On May 29, police found what appeared to be a near identical match for the very same phone which Ms Murphy was pictured with during her holiday to Bali. The phone was retrieved on the muddy banks of a dam positioned along the Buninyong-Mount Mercer Road in the same region the phone last connected to a mobile phone tower before it went dark. An image of the device pulled from the scene showed what appeared to be an Apple iPhone contained in a wallet stuffed with identification cards. The dam sits about 15km from Ballarat East where Ms Murphy took off on her last run on February 4. Samantha Murphy clutches onto her phone in its distinctive case during a trip to Bali in 2017 Samantha Murphy owned a phone and wallet (left) which appears identical to the one pulled from a dam last month Aerial footage from the scene showed police officers hugging, backslapping and shaking hands as they examined the phone. On Friday, Victoria Police refused to provide Daily Mail Australia with any further information on the find, including whether or not it indeed was Ms Murphy's phone. Mick Murphy claimed he instantly recognised his wife's phone upon seeing the dramatic television footage. His wife had long used such a wallet to protect her phone and hold her various credit and identity cards. Ms Murphy had enjoyed a holiday to Bali in 2017 with her husband and three children. The hunt for clues in the Samantha Murphy case continues A police officer grabs a phone that appears to be a near identical match for that used by Samantha Murphy The dam where police found the muddy phone Touching photographs of what is believed to be her final overseas adventure were revealed by Daily Mail Australia in March. Dozens of images depict what appeared to be an enjoyable trip, with Ms Murphy and her family travelling to many of the island's iconic sites. Their guide into Ubud's famous monkey forest, Pete Mahendra, told Daily Mail Australia he remembered Ms Murphy and her family fondly. Mr Mahendra said the Murphys appeared happy and at ease during their time with him. 'Hopefully the authorities will be given clues to find her. I hope the news is not true. I hope she is still alive and well. God bless her,' he said. Little did the guide know then that an image he snapped of Ms Murphy then would capture the distinct phone wallet police would discover years later. It's understood detectives believe the discovery of the phone could be the key breakthrough they've been needing in the long-running search for Ms Murphy's body. The phone is believed to have been submerged in the dam since February 4 - the very day police allege Patrick Orren Stephenson, 22, murdered Ms Murphy while she was out on a Sunday jog. Daily Mail Australia was told Missing Persons Unit detectives had been suspicious of the dam soon after taking charge of the investigation, questioning its owner just weeks later. Police would not return until early May when they asked the owner again if he would mind police entering his property. Patrick Orren Stephenson, 22, has been charged with murder over the disappearance of Ballarat mum Samantha Murphy The Murphy clan enjoyed a trip to Bali in late 2017 Samantha Murphy during her final visit to Bali. Her body is yet to be located Forensic tests are ongoing on the phone as police work to obtain data from it in a bid to receive further clues. Reports indicate the phone was found to be in a near-perfect working condition. Cybersecurity expert Nigel Phair told 9News last week the phone was a 'game changer' for the investigation. 'The physical properties of the phone will obviously be damaged but whats behind it, those ones and zeros of data, will be retrievable,' he said. It is understood Stephenson, who was arrested five weeks after Ms Murphy was allegedly murdered, has not told police where her body is located. He is due to appear for a preliminary hearing at the Ballarat Magistrates Court in August. Stephenson is the son of former AFL Richmond and Geelong AFL player, Orren Stephenson and is not known to the Murphy family. Melbourne-based lawyer Paul Galbally from Galbally & OBryan, one of Australia's top criminal lawyers, has reportedly been hired by Stephenson to head his defence case. Anyone with information on the Murphy case has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. At noon today the bells of Chester's medieval cathedral will ring out in joyous peal for a wedding. For ambitious mothers of aristocratic daughters they may have a mournful tone, however. Their sound will mark the moment when Britain's most eligible suitor will be struck from the list of the kingdom's bachelors. Fittingly, Prince William, who once himself headed that eminent roll call, will be a witness to the moment when the handsome, dashing and very rich Hugh Grosvenor, the seventh Duke of Westminster, marries his middle-class fiancee Olivia Henson. History is full of occasions when an attractive young beauty courted by a man of fortune and title says 'I do'. But rarely have a bride and groom had to navigate the perils of a social minefield in the weeks and months leading up almost to the moment when they exchange vows. The reason, of course, is the Duke's relationship with two royal Princes, William and Harry. Uniquely among that gilded company who once counted themselves as friends of both brothers, Hughie Grosvenor, as he democratically likes to be known, is something of an outlier. The Duke of Westminster and Britain's most eligible suitor Hugh Grosvenor will marry his middle-class fiancee Olivia Henson today The Westminster family home: Eaton Hall rises from the ground like a vast symbol of wealthy ostentation and the power of self-promotion Where many chose sides or had sides chosen for them the Duke has retained his friendship with them both. He is godfather to their elder children, Prince George and Prince Archie, but the strain of such divided loyalties was threatening to overshadow the big day. It took the last-minute intervention of People, the American feelgood magazine which has close links with the California-based Duke and Duchess of Sussex, to explain that Harry had declined his invitation because of the challenges his presence would cause. Translation: his fraught relationship with William. Whatever the truth of this noble gesture, it has avoided the potentially awkward situation of the Prince of Wales, an usher at today's event, showing his estranged brother to his seat. All the same, questions about who was and who wasn't invited are likely to be as intoxicating as the vintage champagne due to be served at the reception. Even without Harry and the absence of the King, who is the groom's godfather, today still promises to be the most royal non-royal wedding of the year if not the decade. Given the circumstances the duke's 10 billion fortune makes him at 33 the richest person under 40 in the land it could be the most lavish and over-the-top affair. A few miles from the cathedral stands the Westminster family home. Eaton Hall rises from the ground like a vast symbol of wealthy ostentation and the power of self-promotion. Once, it was a gloomy Victorian pile only to be bulldozed and replaced by a brutally modern concrete construction. Three decades ago, Hugh's father oversaw another facelift, giving the property the elan of a French chateau. Chester Cathedral where the couple will be married. The cathedral is only a few miles from the Westminster family home Eaton Hall A fleet of florists' vans delivered scores of boxes of white and purple foxgloves and wild flowers to decorate the 1,000-year-old cathedral ... as a towering stack of chairs is carried by a workman into the venue ... and spectacular blooms in hues of purple and white arrive by truck This arrangement was so huge it took a stepladder to make the final adjustments In the neat villages that make up the estate, lawns were being mowed and hedges clipped as the duke's tenants made their own contribution to the wedding day. Some will rub shoulders with the 400 aristocrats and other society figures invited. But those expecting an exercise in extravagance may be disappointed. 'The duke's a very unassuming young man,' says one estate figure. 'He doesn't seek out the limelight, which is the way we like it too.' And it seems his bride is cut from the same self-effacing cloth. The daughter of a stockbroker, she was educated at Marlborough, the Princess of Wales's old school, and until recently was working as account manager for an ethical food company. But low-key doesn't mean they haven't put a lot of thought into the wedding. They are eschewing the traditional English service used by other royal couples for something a little more modern. 'It reflects the fact that they are a contemporary couple,' says the cathedral dean the Very Rev Dr Tim Stratford. He says they have made specific choices for the scriptures and hymns that have meaning to them. 'In many ways, this is like any other couple getting married, just on a larger scale, because they are somewhat in the public eye and some of their guests are definitely in the public eye,' the dean says. 'The couple at the centre of this want to declare their undying love for one another in the presence of witnesses, family and friends and we are here to provide the stage.' Meanwhile, lavish preparations were under way. A fleet of florists' vans delivered scores of boxes of white and purple foxgloves and wild flowers to decorate the 1,000-year-old cathedral. The florists, from Flower And Press, who provided displays for actress Lily James's 30th birthday, like to boast their sustainable credentials many of the flowers used will be dried, pressed and recycled into artwork. Given the presence of the heir to the throne Prince William at the event, security precautions were also in evidence, with police sniffer dogs checking drains and manholes In the neat villages that make up the estate, lawns were being mowed and hedges clipped as the duke's tenants made their own contribution to the wedding day A giant arch was constructed around the huge West Door to the building, decorated with branches of oak and other trees reminiscent of the display of foliage at William and Kate's Westminster Abbey wedding. Teams of riggers from Starlight Design, an edgy lighting company, were setting up purple and blue spotlights in the cathedral, while chairs wrapped in plastic were being unloaded. Given the presence of the heir to the throne at the event, security precautions were also in evidence, with police sniffer dogs checking drains and manholes. Chester, it has to be said, was containing its excitement, though on a road into the city near the entrance to the Grosvenor Hospital, staff had dressed a pair of mannequins in suit and wedding dress with photos of Hugh and Olivia's faces attached. Details about the guest list and reception plans were being kept private, at least for now, but the Duke has announced that the couple will be treating the city's citizens to free ice cream. One parlour is also offering lemon-flavoured Arctic roll, a nod to the couple's lemon wedding cake. It's not quite money behind the bar but as one local said, 'It's the thought that counts.' Grosvenor is also paying for this year's Summer Flowers, the annual blooms that are planted round by the city by the council. There was just time for one more essential element last night: the wedding rehearsal. The Duke was said to look 'pale and nervous' by onlookers but Olivia, 31, in a blue patterned dress and trendy red clogs, was described as 'relaxed and radiant'. A group of residents applauded as the couple, together with 25 or so supporters including the Duke's brother-in-law, the historian Dan Snow married to his sister Lady Edwina emerged after half an hour. Olivia smiled back at them and seemed to be brimming with excitement as she hugged a member of her party. 'It's all very exciting,' said one local. 'Now we're hoping to see Prince William tomorrow.' Should he have time, William might pop into the cathedral shop: among its bestsellers are tea caddies bearing the face of his late mother, Princess Diana, a former Countess of Chester, after whom the hospital is named. A generation ago, amid the bitter feuding of Charles and Diana, the Duke's parents showed the same remarkably even-handed approach to the warring Prince and Princess, remaining friends with them both. It's a valuable lesson that has clearly been learned by the soon-to-be-wed Hugh Grosvenor. There is a lot of fear about robots replacing human. But maybe it should be the machines worrying about us. Swedish scientists have created the world's first 'living computer' that is made out of human brain tissue. It composes of 16 organoids, or clumps of brain cells that were grown in a lab, which send information between each other. They work much like a traditional computer chip - sending and receiving signals through their neurons that act like circuits. But what makes them special is that the living machine uses less energy because living neurons can use over a one million times less energy than the current digital processors currently used. FinalSpark co-founders Fred Jordan and Martin Kutter (Picture FinalSpark) When compared with the best computers in the world, such as Hewlett Packard Enterprise Frontier, the scientists found that for the same speed and 1,000 times more memory the human brain uses 10 to 20 watts -compared to the computer using 21 megawatts. One megawatt is equal to one million watts. The living machine was developed by scientists at FinalSparks, which focuses on creating solutions with biological neural networks. Dr Fred Jordan, co-CEO of FinalSpark, a startup the focuses on creating solutions with biological neural networks, told DailyMail.com: ' This idea is common in science fiction, but there hasn't been a huge amount of real research into it.' Organoids are tiny, self-organized three-dimensional tissue cultures made from stem cells. Such cultures can be crafted to replicate much of the complexity of an organ, or to express selected aspects of it like producing only certain types of cells. Scientists take the stems cells and cultivate them for about one month until they form features like neurons. FinalSparks mini brains were built from an estimated 10,000 living neurons, about 0.5 mm in diameter The 'organoids' can store information transferred by electrodes (Picture FinalSpark) Information is transferred into the 'brain' via electrodes (Picture FinalSpark) The organoids are trained with doses of dopamine - when they perform tasks correctly they get a stream of the chemical as a reward. Scientist administer dopamine by exposing a certain area of the brain organoid to light - similar to how it is released in the human brain when a certain region is activated. The mini brains are surrounded by eight electrodes that measure activity in the organoids, and the researchers can send current through the electrode to influence the neuron. These electrodes perform the dual role of stimulating the organoids and recording the data they process. The organoids are also housed in a microfluidic incubator that acts as a mini plumbing system for tiny amounts of liquids, providing nutrients to the cells, and are provided nutrients necessary to keep them alive. The incubator keeps the organoids at body temperature and automates the flow and maintenance of cellular media, providing a stable environment free of bacteria and viruses. The cells in the 'living computer' live and die within 100 days, clumped together in a 3D organoid structure. But they are similar to the ones in real human brains, and have similar electrical activity. The organoids are trained with doses of dopamine - when they perform well they get a stream of the chemical as a reward 'The neurons in your brain will live for about 80 years - you have the same ones when you die as when you are born. We are not as good as nature at keeping them alive, so they live for 100 days.' And scientists just grow new organoids to replace the dead ones. The team recently launched the brain computer as an online platform enabling global researchers to conduct experiments remotely on biological neurons in vitro. Already, three dozen universities have expressed interest in using the platform Jordan described the 'living computer' as 'wetware' because - like actual human brains - it's somewhere between computer hardware (i.e. the chips which process information) and software (the programs that run on the hardware). 'We call it 'wetware' - I don't know who created the word - but the brain is between software and hardware,' Jordan said. 'In computers, you have a clear separation, you run different software on the same hardware. The 'organoids' can be accessed online (Picture FinalSpark) The organoids store information in the form of a 'biobit' (Picture FinalSpark) 'But in our brain, in order to learn anything, you physically change the hardware that makes the synaptic connections. So we need a new word, and 'wetware' makes sense because cells need a wet environment to survive.' The world is in the middle of an energy crisis due to fuel shortages, supply chain disruptions, geopolitical tensions and the transition to renewable energy. Not to mention the rise of AI that is predicted to use 29.3 terawatt hours per year - one terawatt is equal to one trillion watts. what are the next steps? For now the company's focus is on cloud computing, in particular the energy-hungry data centers which drive AI. Researchers work with the 'Organoids' (Picture FinalSpark) Labs and universities all over the world are already connecting to FinalSpark to test the hardware. Later this month, Jordan will visit he world's first 'biocomputing' conference will take place in Vienna this month, with visitors from Australia and the U.S: 'I don't think the organizers knew how few of us there are,' he laughed. He said that ever since publishing his findings, the phone hasn't stopped ringing: 'A lot of people are calling to offer me money,' he said. Another potential breakthrough is a new understanding of the human brain itself, which may lead to cures for diseases. The technology to create organoids is relatively new, and there has been little research into the idea of turning human neurons into a computer before. A 200-acre wide, nearly 300-foot deep pit in the Yana highlands of Siberia, known as the 'Batagaika Crater,' is expanding faster than expected due to climate change. Sometimes called the 'Gateway to Hell,' the Batagaika Crater first formed when melting 'permafrost' soil within the Siberian tundra began to release tons of previously frozen methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, into Earth's atmosphere. Now, new research has discovered that the rate of methane and other carbon gases released as the crater deepens has reached between 4000 and 5000 tons per year. The findings, according to the study's lead author, 'demonstrate how quickly permafrost degradation occurs.' He warns the crater is soon likely to leak all the remaining greenhouse gas it has left. A 200-acre wide, nearly 300-foot deep pit in the Yana highlands of Siberia, known as the 'Batagaika Crater' (above), is expanding faster than expected due to climate change New research has discovered that the rate of methane and other carbon gases released as the crater (above) deepens has hit an estimated 4000 to 5000 tons per year Glaciologist Alexander Kizyakov, the study's lead author, worked with a dozen other researchers on the new study, published this month in the journal Geomorphology. Kizyakov and his colleagues found that the crater has nearly reached the bedrock, meaning the the melting permafrost that remains melt, and thus generate further collapse, has nearly almost all melted. But Kizyakov, who teaches at Lomonosov Moscow State University in Russia, noted that there is still opportunities for the melt to continue sideways. 'Expansion along the margins and upslope is expected,' Kizyakov told Atlas Obscura. 'This lateral expansion is also limited by the proximity of bedrock, the top of which apparently rises to the saddle between the nearest mountains about 550 meters [1805 feet] uphill,' he explained. Above, 1999 (left) and 2016 (right) NASA satellite images of the Batagaika Crater's expansion The team was able to develop a 3D model of how the icy permafrost has given way during its decades-long collapse using wide-ranging data from a variety of independent sources. High resolution remote sensing collected both from satellite data and via drone flights over the Batagaika was combined with permafrost samples and other soil samples on field expeditions in 2019 and 2023. That data was all fed into their computer models. This model helped them to map and predict the melting of the underlying geological structure of the permafrost to figure out how much and what materials are thawing inside it and then what's released, whether into the water table or the atmosphere. The results revealed, as Kizyakov told Popular Science, 'how dynamically the landforms in permafrost areas change.' Nikita Tananaev, a researcher at the Melnikov Permafrost Institute in Yakutsk, who was not a contributor to the new research, noted that just this leakage from the crater is altering the nearby ecosystems permanently. 'This will lead to significant alterations to the riverine habitat, and the effect of sediment escaping the slump [the Batagaika crater] is even seen in the Yana River, the major river in the vicinity,' Tananaev said. Boeing's long-delayed Starliner capsule has finally docked with the International Space Station (ISS) after a journey plagued by helium leaks and engine failures. Video shows NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams safely entering the space station after a 26-hour flight aboard the capsule, later than initially planned. Starliner docked with the ISS at 1:34 pm ET (18:34 BST) Thursday after an earlier attempt was called off when some of the shuttle's thrusters failed on approach. However, after mission teams performed a restart, four of the five failed thrusters were enabled and the crew were able to complete the precision docking. This marks the first time that Boeing's troubled craft has been used to carry humans into space since it was commissioned more than a decade ago. NASA astronauts Suni Williams (bottom left) and Butch Wilmore (bottom right) have safely arrived aboard the International Space Station Wilmore and Wiliams were greeted with cheers and hugs by the seven astronauts already aboard the space station Boeing's Starliner launches December 2019 First uncrewed flight. Reached orbit but failed to dock with ISS May 2022 Second uncrewed flight. Successfully docked with ISS June 5, 2024 First crewed flight to ISS launched June 6, 2024 First crewed flight docks with ISS Advertisement 'Nice to be attached to the big city in the sky,' Wilmore said once the hooks between the two spacecraft were tight. Williams entered the space station first, jubilantly performing a short dance while floating in low gravity to celebrate her third arrival on the ISS. Wilmore followed, snapping his fingers, and both embraced their seven fellow space station residents. 'It was such a great welcome, a little dance party,' said Williams. 'Thats the way to get things going.' The Boeing CST-100 Starliner took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 10:52 ET (15:52 BST) on Wednesday. After entering orbit, the craft was expected to dock with the ISS at 12:15 ET (17:15 BST), but the manoeuvre was ultimately delayed by a little more than an hour. As Starliner approached the station, flight controllers found that five of the craft's 28 reaction control system thrusters had failed. These small thrusters are used to make fine adjustments to the craft's trajectory as it approaches the station, and are critical to the precision docking maneuver. After 'hot-fire' tests, four of the five failed thrusters were able to be reactivated - enough for the crew to manually bring the craft within 650 feet (200 metres) of the space station. At this point, Starliner's automated controls took over and safely brought the capsule to dock with the ISS. On X, NASA posted the video of the duo entering the orbiter, calling it an 'epic moment' and a 'grand entrance'. Someone replied: 'Better late than never.' The pair will remain aboard the ISS for a week and are scheduled to land in a remote desert area of the US on June 14 Astronaut Suni Williams, seen on the right, performed a short dance to celebrate her third arrival on the ISS Boeing's Starliner Capsule (pictured) successfully docked with the ISS at 1:34 pm ET (18:34 BST) yesterday evening An earlier attempt to dock with the station had been called off when five of the craft's 28 reaction control thrusters failed After pressure was equalised between the station and the shuttle, the hatch between the two opened at 3:46 pm ET (20:46 BST). Wilmore and Williams were greeted by applause, a ringing bell, and hugs from the seven astronauts and cosmonauts already aboard the station. The duo will remain aboard the ISS for a week and are scheduled to land in a remote desert area of the US on June 14. However, Starliner's engine troubles upon approach highlight the ongoing run of technical issues that Boeing has faced. During the flight, ground crews detected two helium leaks in addition to one known leak which had been spotted on the ground. Four of the failed thrusters, which are used to make small adjustments to the shuttle's trajectory, were reactivated and Starliner was able to successfully dock The Boeing CST-100 Starliner took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 10:52 ET (15:52 BST) on Wednesday As the Wilmore and Williams were preparing to sleep, mission control told the astronauts that that it 'looks like we picked up a couple more helium leaks.' 'We are ready tofind out exactly what you mean by 'picked up another helium leak', so give it to us,' Wilmore replied. However, the ground crews responded that they were 'still getting the story together.' Boeing said in a statement: 'Helium is used in spacecraft thruster systems to allow the thrusters to fire and is not combustible or toxic.' Yet despite its troubled journey, Starliner's successful docking with the ISS marks a definitive leap forward for Boeing's ambitions in space. This marks the first time that the Starliner has been used to transport a crew to space During the flight Wilmore and Williams (pictured) were informed that the shuttle had developed two new helium leaks The launch comes more than a decade since Boeing was first awarded the $4.2 billion contract to develop the Starliner capsule and seven years since its intended launch. An attempt on May 6 was called off just two hours before launch due to an audible 'buzzing' caused by valve issues. Another launch attempt last Saturday was halted with less than four minutes to go due to a technical glitch with a launchpad computer. Boeing's success will also come as a relief for NASA who are increasingly relying on commercial providers for travel into space. After NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis was retired in 2011, the American space agency was forced to pay around $80m (64m) for a seat in a Russian Soyuz capsule to reach the ISS. 'Boeing Crew Flight Test' - a long-awaited milestone - is also the first time that a United Launch Alliance rocket (pictured) has been used to transport a crew Boeing's Starliner spacecraft is pictured approaching the ISS in May 2022, during 'Orbital Flight Test 2' (no humans on board) But after 13 years, NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP) could finally have two different options to send astronauts to the ISS. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told a post-launch press conference that this was another milestone in this extraordinary history of NASA'. Mr Nelson added: 'With Dragon and Starliner, the US is going to have two unique human space transportation systems. 'We always like to have a backup that makes it safer for our astronauts.' And, with a SpaceX Dragon capsule already docked on the other side, this marks the first time that NASA has had two US-built craft attached to the space station. The test flight marks the culmination of NASA's 13-year-long Commercial Crew Program Starliner is lifted at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, April 16, 2024 Veteran NASA astronauts Suni Williams (left) and commander Butch Wilmore (right) prior to departure on June 5 NASA has already ordered six more astronaut rotation flights to the space station as part of the CCP. The Starliner itself also represents significant advancements in shuttle technology. Using a 'weldless' design the CST-100 (which stands for Crew Space Transportation) should reduce the risk of structural failure. Although it will typically transport four passengers the Starliner can take up to seven astronauts and can be reused up to ten times with six months of refurbishment between flights. Famous for manufacturing commercial airplanes, Boeing has been under heavy scrutiny in recent months after a chunk of fuselage blew out of one of its new 737s. The firm has been blocked from increasing production of the plane as it addresses ongoing safety issues. Arrokoth's red colour is due to alcohol being bombarded by cosmic radiation David Bowie might have asked whether there was life on Mars, but scientists now think that life may have started on a very different red world. Experts in France and the US say a snowman-shaped space rock called Arrokoth, in the outskirts of our solar system beyond Pluto, is covered in sugars. These include glucose and ribose sugars that are 'fundamental building blocks' of RNA, the molecule found in cells of humans and most of Earth's lifeforms. At 4 billion miles away from the sun, Arrokoth is 'too cold to support life as we know it', NASA says. But the new findings suggest smaller comets could have transported sugar molecules required for the origin of life from Arrokoth to early Earth, about 4.5 billion years ago. Arrokoth is a bizarre 'snowman-shaped' red rock in our solar system, around 4 billion miles away from the sun. Pictured, Arrokoth in a 2019 snap by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft Researchers say Arrokoth is rich in glucose and ribose, which are fundamental building block of RNA (a nucleic acid present in all living cells) The team of experts, led by Dr Cornelia Meinert of CNRS-University Cote d'Azur in France, think methanol ices are transformed into sugars on Arrokoth by cosmic rays, giving it its red colour. Arrokoth is not a planet but a 'planetesimal', meaning it is a very early remnant of the solar system left over from the formation of the planets. It consists of two bodies, 13 and nine miles in diameter, that were likely orbiting each other before coming together billions of years ago. Orbiting in the distant Kuiper Belt and 3.93 billion miles (6.33 billion km) from Earth, it is the most distant object ever visited by a spacecraft. In 2019, the spacecraft New Horizons completed a flyby of Arrokoth revealing its unusual shape and staggeringly red hue. But just why Arrokoth which means 'sky' in the Native American Powhatan or Algonquian language became so red has remained something of a mystery. Arrokoth's surface is coated by a layer of frozen methanol, the kind of alcohol that makes humans go blind, as well as organic compounds responsible for its red colour. One theory proposed that at very low temperatures, methanol might be converted into these red compounds under the radiation of 'galactic cosmic rays' high-energy particles that bombard the solar system. In 2019, Arrokoth became the furthest object to be visited by a spacecraft when New Horizons passed by this distant object Your browser does not support iframes. To test this theory, the researchers cooled samples of frozen methanol to -233 C (40 Kelvin) with electrons to simulate 1.8 billion years of Arrokoth being exposed to galactic cosmic rays. They not only discovered that this process produced a red colour extremely similar to that of Arrokoth, but that this also produced a 'complex suite' of 'biologically significant' sugars. However, Dr Meinert told the MailOnline that this doesn't mean Arrokoth would have been transformed into a delicious treat. Dr Meinert says: 'We detected glucose and galactose in those samples that are known to trigger the sweet taste. 'Given the low abundances of these individual sugars and especially other organic molecules in these ices that are considered to be toxic, I would definitely not lick such ices.' Setting aside the gastronomical significance, this discovery could be vital for understanding how life could emerge in the solar system. The sugars found on Arrokoth are the same simple organic compounds that make up RNA, a molecule similar to DNA found in all living cells. Although these are organic compounds, it doesn't mean that Arrokoth, or rocks like it, would be home to any form of life. Instead, billions of years ago sugars on Arrokoth could have been transferred via comets to the inner solar system, acting as one of the many ingredients needed for life to form. The researchers suggest that a 'sugar world' like Arrokoth might have been pulled out of the Kuiper Belt and collided with our planet billions of years ago. This discovery makes an object like Arrokoth a strong contender for the origins of the molecules which kickstarted life on Earth Although Arrokoth (pictured) is rich in organic molecules and is believed to contain ice at its core it is not likely that it harbours any forms of life However, Dr Meinert explains: 'Simple building blocks of life do not automatically lead to living cells. 'Evolution is required to assemble simple molecules into functional polymers.' Although studies suggest that the planetesimal might contain ancient ice at its core, it is far too cold for the formation of liquid water. Arrokoth and other planetesimals are left over from the formation of the planets 4.5 billion years ago and are found in the Kuiper Belt which harbours comets. In their paper, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers write that this could have 'delivered biologically important molecules such as carbohydrates to the early Earth.' Studies have even shown that comets which are slowed down by the gravity of other planets could keep biological molecules safe during a fiery collision with Earth. That could mean that the origins of life as we know it could have started with a sugary red rock in the frozen reaches of space. A slippery, yellow-green ocean creature born in cold, deep water northeast of the Caribbean has been pulled from the Kansas River 3,500 miles from its birthplace. The American eel, which can grow up to five feet long and can weigh up to 16 pounds, is native to the US, but is rarely seen this deep inland in modern times. The eel lands on the US shores typically within the first year of its life as a small, transparent 'glass eel,' before growing to adulthood roaming and feeding along coastal rivers and nearby ocean habitats. This specimen was the first American eel documented in Kansas since 2015. But even the rare American eel that has managed to plunge this deep into US inland river systems will make their way back to the Atlantic to spawn which American eels do as their final act, with females releasing millions of eggs before they die. The first American eel spotted in Kansas in over a decade was discovered by an invasive species team sent out by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (pictured). The team has been tasked with halting the spread of Asian silver and bighead carp, among other duties Last year, Jace Tunnell of the University of Texas Marine Institute identified what would be an American eel at much closer to its maximum size of five feet for his #Beachcombing series. This specimen, either a King Snake Eel or an American Eel, was found off the Gulf of Mexico 'Many mysteries remain with the American eel's life history,' experts said. 'They arrive to our coast with their sex undetermined and years later swim offshore for over a thousand miles to spawn once and die.' The rare inland American eel specimen was discovered by an invasive species team sent out by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP), who has been tasked with halting the spread of Asian silver and bighead carp, among other duties. But the crew took a break to pose with the eel, the first confirmed sighting of its kind in Kansas in nearly a decade. The KDWP Aquatic Invasive Species Crew found the eel while conducting a sampling operation near Kaw Point, a river bend where the Kansas and Missouri River conjoin. 'Every American Eel that is found in Kansas began its journey in the Sargasso Sea and will have traveled approximately 3,500 miles,' the wildlife agency noted. The Sargasso Sea, unlike most landlocked seas, is a portion of the Atlantic Ocean enveloped by a large spinning set of four currents. This calm blue region, where American eels journey to spawn and then end their lives, is named after its unique brown Sargassum seaweed. This death drive to reproduce is a feature these eels share with Pacific Salmon and similar species that marine biologists and fish experts describe as 'semelparous.' The KDWP Aquatic Invasive Species Crew found the American eel (pictured) while conducting sampling operations near Kaw Point, a river bend where the Kansas and Missouri River conjoin While the American eel (above) was once a more common sight in coastal rivers up and down the western hemisphere, from Greenland to Brazil, and as far inland as Minnesota and central New Mexico, dam projects have halted its migration patterns 'Spawning occurs during late winter and early spring,' as KDWP posted to its Facebook page, which included a map of 'the long, strenuous swim route this eel, and all other American Eels in Kansas had to endure to arrive here.' While the American eel was once a more common sight in coastal rivers up and down the western hemisphere, from Greenland to Brazil, and as far inland as Minnesota and even central New Mexico, dam projects have halted its migrations. The species, which can live up to 25 years, is now most frequently seen only in oceans and river systems closer to the coastline. Nevertheless, as the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries explains on its fact page, the American eel still occupies 'the most diverse habitats among fish in North America.' 'They live along the entire eastern seaboard,' the group continued, 'ranging from Canada through the Caribbean, and south to French Guiana in South America.' In 2015, a local recreational fisherman angling in the Kansas River's Bowersock Dam was the last person to pull a confirmed American eel specimen in the state. As a then-fisheries section chief for the KDWP, Doug Nygren, explained it at the time, this specimen was a little over two feet long (30 inches): a typical size for adult American eels. 'This eel made a long journey,' Nygren said, 'from the Atlantic Ocean, through the Gulf of Mexico, up the Mississippi, took a turn at St. Louis to enter the Missouri River, and another turn to go up the Kansas River to the Bowersock Dam.' Commentary: "Excessive capacity," or "excessive lies" ? Xinhua) 09:41, June 07, 2024 BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) -- It's not rare for a person to express bizarrely opposite opinions about one issue on different occasions. However, it's a sad thing for a politician. U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel's recent remarks on China perfectly demonstrate the art of self-contradiction by a seasoned politician. Ambassador Emanuel recently joined the chorus of overcapacity rhetoric on China's economy, claiming "China is taking its domestic economic problems and exporting them to the rest of the world." He went even further: "China is not going to win the good neighbor award," referring to "either economic or strategic challenges that China caused with its neighbors." Emanuel's words aroused pity and sadness. For those who are knowledgeable about the development of China-U.S. relations, they would recall that before Emanuel assumed the role of the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, he served as mayor of Chicago for many years and was an ardent advocate of trade with China. He frequently flew back and forth across the Pacific to woo Chinese investors. Chinese railcars manufacturer CRRC Sifang America won a 1.3-billion-U.S.-dollar contract in 2016 to supply 846 railcars to Chicago's railway system. These would replace nearly half of the agency's fleet, where the oldest cars had hit the tracks for more than 30 years. Afterward, a trade war initiated by the Trump administration cast a cloud over China-U.S. relations. At this urgent moment, Mayor Emanuel flew to China to allay concerns. "This project and the hundreds of jobs it will create should not fall victim to the Trump trade war," Mayor Emanuel said in July 2018. Once a zealous recipient of Chinese products, Emanuel is now accusing China of exporting its domestic problems to the rest of the world. Were those reliable and affordable Chinese railcars also "China's domestic problems" when he was mayor? If so, why did he welcome the arrival of those "domestic problems"? From Mayor Emanuel to Ambassador Emanuel, his "change of heart" is transformational. It seems that Ambassador Emanuel's rhetoric intended to drive a wedge between China and its neighbors. By apparently turning a blind eye to China's goodwill towards shared development with its neighbors, the ambassador is not contributing to a harmonious and healthy environment. Instead, he is distorting facts and misrepresenting the truth. For example, the railway linking China and its neighbor, Laos, began operations in December 2021, giving a boost to Laos' goal of converting itself from a landlocked country to a land-linked hub. With the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the construction of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, bilateral trade between China and ASEAN countries (mainly China's neighbouring countries) continued to grow in 2023, reaching 6.41 trillion yuan (about 886 billion U.S. dollars). ASEAN has maintained its position as China's largest trading partner for four consecutive years, while China has also remained ASEAN's largest trading partner for 14 years in a row. In a U.S. election year, China bashing has again become an easy way to gain political support, regardless of the truth and the common good of the two peoples. The mongers of so-called "China threat" begin to bury their heads in the sand and speak against common sense. This is a fact that can't be denied and demands vigilant attention. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) READ MORE: We took our kids out of school to go on a gap year with no regrets With a squeal of delight, my five-year-old called out my name: 'Mummy! I can see the zebras.' He was pressed up against the window of the upstairs bathroom with a pair of binoculars about the size of his head, as I was unpacking our overnight bag next door in the beautiful master bedroom of Keepers House at Longleat Safari and Adventure Park. Located on the east side of the estate, the 220-year-old property provides the most incredible view across the park's East African reserve. Earlier, when we arrived and rushed out of the car, we were greeted by a herd of ostrich, with a single Rothschild's giraffe just visible in the distance. The reserve is also home to wildebeest and painted dogs, with cheetahs and lions featuring elsewhere on the estate. It's a struggle to 'do' Longleat in a day - so staying overnight is the perfect way to visit. Lisa Snell and her family checked in to the 220-year-old Keeper's House (above) at Longleat Safari and Adventure Park in Wiltshire Keeper's House affords guests views of the zebra herd in the East African reserve, which also features a herd of ostrich and Rothschild's giraffes Having left London in the morning, we arrived with time to explore some of the attractions, including the Adventure Castle and Rockin' Rhino ride. Then, as quiet descended over the 900-acre Wiltshire estate and day visitors made their way home - the last safari entry is 4pm - we discovered our digs for the evening, located at the start of the animal drive. By the time we arrived, there was a feeling of absolute calm - apart from my over-excited children, desperate to explore. The house is homely and cosy, the walls adorned with photographs charting the parks history. The interior design pulls inspiration from all of Longleats most famous animals - the leopard print cushions on the beds are a personal favourite. In the beautifully designed kitchen, complete with Rangemaster oven and hob and coffee machine, guests are greeted with a large hamper sat atop the ample island. It contains everything you need for a tasty breakfast including a loaf of sourdough bread, eggs, croissants, muffins and strawberry jam, with milk, butter and orange juice waiting for you in the fridge. Above - the Keeper's House master bedroom, with nods to Longleat's famous animals The stunning bathroom features luxury products and views across the park Lisa's children warm up in the beautiful freestanding bath after a bank holiday downpour Driving in and out of Longleat is straightforward, as we discovered when we nipped to a local pub for a Sunday roast. Unfortunately for us, the weather was appalling for our visit, although we did insist on a bank holiday weekend, so only have ourselves to blame for the rain. After dinner, all we wanted to do was dry off and warm up, which meant a lovely big bubble bath for the children, pyjamas and a snuggle on the sofa. The constant interruption when yet another ostrich or zebra was spotted out of the living room window sparking fevered debate about whether it was dry enough for the entire family to descend outside. Again. Given we had made the journey from London to Longleat in a hire car, I didnt fancy risking the drive-through safari the following morning so after a relaxing breakfast, then a maddening rush to convince my two and five-year-old to peel themselves away from the windows to get dressed, we left the house and headed for the safari bus. The kitchen features a Rangemaster oven and guests are treated to a welcome hamper The cosy living room - the perfect place to relax after a day of exploring The second animal-inspired bedroom can be configured as a twin or double room I made some silly decisions in relation to this trip, including not bringing the kids' waterproofs or wellies, despite checking the forecast before leaving, but getting the safari bus over doing the drive was not one of them. Those Longleat monkeys clawed out parking sensors on cars like it was an Olympic sport. And it was highly amusing smugly watching this mischievous behaviour from a double-decker bus, as drivers sat behind their wheels, none-the-wiser. The car with the most damage had a banana placed strategically on the dashboard, so I cant help but think that particular owner brought it on themselves. The bank holiday traffic through the safari extended our bus tour by approximately an hour. There is somewhere to stop for supplies and a toilet break before starting the journey, so its advisable to stock up on snacks, especially if it's busy and youre travelling with young children. Lisa and family enjoy the Longleat safari aboard a double-decker bus Anne the elephant has been happily enjoying her retirement from circus performing at Longleat since 2011 Our toddler missed the big cats as he was taking a nap, but this section of the safari didnt disappoint our older son. He hadnt stopped talking about cheetahs for days, so when one stalked the bus he was delighted. But the absolute highlight was a rare sighting of Anne the elephant, only the seventh time our driver Dave had seen her out of her paddock. This beautiful animal, with such a tragic tale of life as a circus performer, has been very happily living out her retirement at Longleat since being rescued in 2011. She enjoys a state-of-the-art residence at the park and is left free to roam as she pleases, and as such spends a lot of time inside. Shes not used in any marketing for the park and often visitors miss her, making this up-close and personal experience extra special. It was a special finale to a wildly memorable stay. For more information visit www.longleat.co.uk. Longleat is just off the A36 between Bath and Salisbury. The park's on-site luxury stays cost from around 500 per night. Smiling and dancing for the camera, Suri Cruise is all grown up and ready for college. Now, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal, that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes's 18-year-old daughter has been accepted into Pittsburgh's prestigious Carnegie Mellon University. Clearly thrilled, Suri revealed her Tartan pride in a playful TikTok where she and her friends each wore their chosen college's sweatshirt and revealed the name to the camera. No nepo-baby networking for the incoming freshman as, according to sources, though her mother helped her with her applications, Suri, whose famous father has had no part in her upbringing, has always been determined to forge her own way. Incoming freshman Suri Cruise showed off her Tartan pride in a TikTok video revealing her college of choice, Carnegie Mellon University The 18-year-old daughter of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise, pictured with her mom in New York last month, is all grown up and will be flying the coop in the fall She applied to a host of colleges with the artistic teen 'leaning towards' studying fashion. Carnegie Mellon's School of Design is one of the oldest and most highly ranked programs in the country. Now, with her acceptance into its hallowed halls, a notably chic mother and a wardrobe said to be worth $5million, Suri is off to the best possible start if that is her chosen path. One insider told DailyMail.com: 'She is a smart girl, and she is turning into a very intelligent mature young woman. She has a very close group of loyal friends, and she knows exactly where she comes from.' But though Holmes, 45, will surely be proud of her daughter's stellar achievement sources say she is 'overwhelmed' at the thought of sending her little girl off to college. Speaking recently, one told DailyMail.com: 'Katie takes great pride in her but is also extremely overprotective.' Sources tell DailyMail.com the stylish teen had applied to a host of colleges with the artistic teen 'leaning towards' studying fashion Although she was born to two famous parents, Suri was largely raised by her actress mom after losing contact with Scientologist dad Tom Cruise (pictured in 2007) following their divorce Carnegie Mellon School of Design in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, has one of the oldest and most highly ranked programs in the country Perhaps it's little wonder given that, for the past 11 years, Holmes has effectively raised Suri solo. Sixty-one-year-old Cruise's only input to his daughter's life has been financial and he hasn't been seen with his daughter since 2013, after Holmes quit both the marriage and the Church of Scientology the religion to which Cruise is so devoted. According to their divorce settlement, Cruise agreed to pay Holmes $400,000 a year until Suri turned 18 and will continue to pay for her college fees as well. Under the terms of their agreement, though he may be physically absent from his daughter's life, he has and will continue to cover, 'medical, dental, insurance, education, college and other extracurricular costs.' But despite having little if any relationship with her dad, Suri is, according to sources, a happy and well-adjusted teen who has loved growing up in New York City. Earlier this week she was seen out running in the city's Central Park as she enjoyed an early morning workout in the June sunshine. Later she switched workout gear for a simple white summer dress paired with brown boots as she headed out to dinner in Soho with her mother and grandmother, Kathleen Stomer-Holmes. Katie Holmes was married to the Top Gun star and famous Scientologist from 2006 to 2012, when they divorced and she left the church The actor's close bond with his adult children is a far cry from the relationship he shares with his biological daughter, Suri, who turned 18 last month, and is reported to be estranged from her dad for well over a decade Suri wore her hair loose while her mother, of whom she is the spitting image, wore hers in a long plait. Like her daughter Holmes opted for a neutral summer dress and paired hers with black platform sandals and ankle socks. Holmes and Cruise had reportedly been keen to co-parent when they initially divorced in 2012. But Cruise's religion proved a bar to any continued contact with his ex-wife and child, just as it did to his former spouse, Nicole Kidman. The 56-year-old actress has had no relationship with the son and daughter that she and Cruise adopted since she left the Church of Scientology, and they remained in it. Non-believers are deemed 'suppressive' by Scientologists and despite the Church's official denials multiple former Scientologists speak of being forbidden from having any continued relationship with people who have left the Church, regardless of the nature of their relationship. The couple have been plagued by reports their romance is souring Timothee Chalamet is concerned Kylie Jenner will listen to 'outside noise' from critics about their relationship, according to insiders, who claim he has been quietly planning a huge birthday celebration to showcase his love for the make-up mogul. The couple who first sparked dating rumors last June have been plagued by reports their romance is souring, with Kylies family and friends said to be urging her to walk away as they feel he does not prioritize her. But despite claims the Wonka star, 28, has not been as invested, he has reportedly been in talks with Kylies family to discuss how to celebrate her 27th birthday in August. He is on such a rise in Hollywood right now and he is nurturing that as much as possible - but he has no plans to allow that to ruin his relationship with Kylie,' an insider told DailyMail.com. They claimed he is already in the process of planning how to mark her 27th birthday on August 10 with a lowkey celebration for the two of them and another big bash with all her family, friends and children Stormi, six, and Aire, two. Timothee Chalamet fears Kylie Jenner will listen to 'outside noise' about their relationship, according to insiders But despite claims the Wonka star, 28, has not been as invested, he has reportedly been in talks with Kylies family to discuss how to celebrate her 27th birthday in August He is thinking so much about the future with her and one thing he is looking forward to is her birthday, the insider continued. He has been talking to her sisters about plans for a multi-level birthday for her. He wants it to be both a low-key affair dinner alone and also wants a big bash with family and friends, and to do something that incorporates her kids. The final cherry on top? He wants to take her on a tropical getaway, where they can just be alone. Once he ends filming, he wants to go somewhere exotic and just enjoy the summer together. The wheels are in motion to make it all happen.' They continued: Kylie's sisters' concerns over her relationship are mostly falling on deaf ears because Kylie sees the true Timothee, an insider told DailyMail.com. He has made it clear that Kylie is very important to him and he would like for her to not listen to any outside noise, even if it comes from her own family, because he is being as genuine in his intentions with the relationship as possible. He loves her. Timothee is currently filming the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, in which he plays the lauded musician alongside Elle Fanning as his love interest Sylvie Russo. Shooting has taken place in New York and New Jersey thousands of miles from Kylie who lives in Calabasas on the west coast. He has made it clear that Kylie is very important to him and he would like for her to not listen to any outside noise, even if it comes from her own family,' an insider told DailyMail.com Timothee is currently filming A Complete Unknown - the Bob Dylan biopic in New Jersey (pictured) with sources previously claiming he 'is not prioritizing' her Last week, insiders told DailyMail.com that those close to the billionaire businesswoman fear Timothee hasnt been making enough time for her, with some suggesting she should walk away. 'Kylie is trying to hold onto her relationship with Timothee, but those around her fear it is becoming evident that he's just not as invested in their relationship as she is anymore,' a source said. 'Kylie is madly in love with Timothee and she put so much into this relationship. She went so public with their romance because she was sure it would last. 'But those closest to her feel he doesnt make her a priority and her sisters are now telling her to walk away, but she cant.' The couple proved they were not shy about displaying their affection for one another as they shared kisses at the US Open Men's final last September (pictured) after going public The couple first sparked dating rumors when Kylie was photographed at the actor's Beverly Hills home in June 2023. They went public with their romance in the September at a Beyonce concert. But despite a very loved up display at this year's Golden Globe Awards in January, the pair have not been pictured together since, sparking a frenzy of speculation over whether or not they secretly pulled the plug on their romance. Insiders previously told DailyMail.com the two were simply taking time away from the limelight while Timothee focused on promoting sci-fi blockbuster Dune 2. Kylie, who recently launched her new energy drink Sprinter, previously dated rapper Travis Scott, with whom she shares Stormi and Aire. Their split was officially announced the same month she was pictured with Timothee for the first time. Andy Lee has shared new details about his romantic engagement to longtime girlfriend Rebecca Harding. The couple announced their engagement on May 1 after ten years together. Speaking to The Fox's Fifi, Fev & Nick on Thursday, the comedian, 42, revealed he personally designed Bec's engagement ring, explaining that he hadn't realised what a huge decision it would be. 'I thought I had an idea, but I didn't realise how important the ring is,' he said. Andy also opened up about the long-awaited proposal, which had been the subject of engagement rumours and speculation for years. Andy Lee (right) has shared new details about his romantic engagement to longtime girlfriend Rebecca Harding (left) 'Well, I'd waited for 10 years for Bec to propose and I thought, "Bloody hell I'm just going to have to do it",' he joked. 'The hard thing is most people went, "About bloody time",' there was no congratulations, just yelling and (asking) why didn't you do it earlier,' he admitted. Andy got down on one knee at the couples $5million decrepit Melbourne mansion and proposed with a napkin - which symbolised how they met in 2014. 'When I first met Bec, in a cafe, she was a waitress, and she was busy and I wrote on a napkin,' Andy recounted. Speaking to The Fox's Fifi, Fev & Nick on Thursday, the comedian revealed he personally designed Bec's engagement ring, explaining that he hadn't realised what a huge decision it would be 'I left my email address (on the napkin), which she didn't like, but I just said, 'If you have a boyfriend, just tell him that I'm using you to get to him. I bet he's handsome',' he continued. Lee returned to the same cafe the next morning and wrote another message on the napkin. 'I'd actually gone back to the same cafe, gotten the same napkin again, and I had written, 'If you've got a husband, just tell him that I'm using you to get to him. I bet he's handsome,' he said. 'And I proposed with the napkin, which she loved.' 'I thought I had an idea, but I didn't realise how important the ring is,' he said The comedian revealed the exciting news on an episode of his Hamish and Andy podcast on May 1. Speaking with his podcast co-host Hamish Blake, Andy shared intimate details of his proposal, before inviting his fiancee on the show. 'I asked Bec to marry me on Sunday,' Andy announced. Hamish said he was overjoyed and that he and his wife Zoe Foster Blake were both 'crying' with happiness over the news. Lee also opened up about the long-awaited proposal, which had been the subject of engagement rumours and speculation for years: 'Well, I'd waited for 10 years for Bec to propose and I thought, 'Bloody hell I'm just going to have to do it,' he joked The couple announced their engagement on May 1 after ten years together 'Is it a bit quick? That's all I wanna ask,' he also joked. Rebecca, 33, also shared an update to her Instagram account while showing off the stunning diamond engagement ring. 'People keep saying we've rushed into this but we don't care what people say!' she captioned her post. Rebecca and Andy went public with their relationship at the 2015 Australian Open. In 2022, the couple confirmed they had briefly split for six months in 2016 after Rebecca felt 'immense pressure' dating someone in the public eye. However, they soon realised they were meant to be during their time apart. Andy and Rebecca are currently undertaking a $5million renovation project after buying a historic mansion in Melbourne's east. Full House fans with deep pockets have something to look forward to after the home featured on the popular sitcom went back on the market. The house in San Francisco is now on sale for a whopping $6.5 million, according to TMZ. The tech-friendly city is famous for its unaffordable housing, and the price on the iconic house has increased significantly from the $5.35 million that it was sold for in 2020. At the time, the house was owned by Jeff Franklin, the creator and executive producer of the original series. Although the outside of the Victorian Home will likely be familiar to fans of the original series, they won't recognize the interior, as only the exterior was used for the series. The house featured in exterior shots for Full House in San Francisco is now on sale for a whopping $6.5 million, according to TMZ Fans won't recognize the interior, as only the exterior was used for the series, while the interiors were shot on sound stages; still from Full House in 1987 Bob Saget, John Stamos, Dave Coulier, Lori Loughlin and the rest of the cast filmed the vast majority of their scenes on a sound stage in Hollywood with sets that likely weren't even intended to match the inside of the San Francisco home. Exterior shots on the house were completed in 1987 for the start of the series, but the homeowners at the time banned further filming outside the home. However, Franklin purchased the home in 2016, and he reversed the ban, so the house's exterior could again be filmed for the Netflix revival Fuller House, which ran for five seasons from 2016 to 2020. The house features an impressive 3,737 square feet spread out over three stories and four bedrooms. It has a tasteful modern kitchen with gray granite countertops and an island, and the cabinets and trimming are accented with a striking navy blue. In addition to up-to-date appliances and a large gas range, the kitchen includes a voluminous pantry with a stylish sliding barn door. Just off the kitchen is a modest dining table with stellar views of the city, and tucked away in the corner is a relaxed seating area that would be great for unwinding with a cocktail before or after dinner. On the ground floor is a living room located by the front entrance, and it features a small sunroom area with more stellar views of the street. The muted room includes an eye-catching chandelier with large bulbs, and it faces the stairs going up to the second floor. Tucked away in the interior of the house is a small living room and home theater where family or guests could catch a movie. The home was previously owned by Full House creator and executive producer Jeff Franklin, who bought it in 2016 He sold it in 2020 for $5.35 million, and the latest owner has increased the price by more than $1 million The house features an impressive 3,737 square feet spread out over three stories and four bedrooms On the ground floor is a living room located by the front entrance, and it features a small sunroom area with more stellar views of the street The muted room includes an eye-catching chandelier with large bulbs, and it faces the stairs going up to the second floor Tucked away in the interior of the house is a small living room and home theater where family or guests could catch a movie The master bedroom includes more lovely views of the city and plenty of natural light The remaining bedrooms are considerably smaller, though they still have pleasing views of San Francisco and the neighborhood Another small room, which is currently styled as a child's room that has a playful chalk wall The new owner will also get memories of the series, as there are concrete blocks located in the backyard featuring hand prints from some of the actors who were featured in Fuller House The master bedroom includes more lovely views of the city and plenty of natural light. The remaining bedrooms are considerably smaller, though they still have pleasing views of San Francisco and the neighborhood. Another small room, which is currently styled as a child's room that has a playful chalk wall. The new owner will also get memories of the series, as there are concrete blocks located in the backyard featuring hand prints from some of the actors who were featured in Fuller House. Former Australian Idol judge Meghan Trainor revealed on Friday the surprising Aussie celebrity who inspired the name of her baby son Barry Bruce. The Massachusetts-born pop star, 30, and her husband Daryl Sabara stayed in Australia for several months in 2023 while she filmed her role on the Channel Seven series. The blonde bombshell appeared on The Kyle and Jackie O Show and told her former Idol co-star Kyle Sandilands, 52, that he partly served as the naming inspiration. 'Barry was in my belly when I was next to you. I told you his name was Bruce but then changed it to Barry Bruce at the last minute,' she began. Kyle then asked Meghan why she had chosen such an 'old fashioned' name for her son, instead of going with something more unique - and was shocked by her response. Former Australian Idol judge Meghan Trainor revealed on Friday the surprising Aussie celebrity who inspired the name of her baby son Barry Bruce. (Pictured: Meghan with sons Riley and Barry) 'Remember I told you that you sound like the big shark in Finding Nemo, Bruce? I thought of him, and I told you on our break I was going to make a baby. 'I named him Bruce, because he is my Australian baby!' Bruce the great white shark was voiced by the late iconic Australian actor Barry Humphries in the 2003 Disney movie. The Massachusetts-born pop star, 30, and her husband Daryl Sabara stayed in Australia for several months in 2023 while she filmed her role in the Channel Seven singing competition. (Pictured: Meghan with fellow judges Kyle Sandilands, Amy Shark and Harry Connick Jr) Meghan chose her son's name from both the Dame Edna star's first name, the character he played, and the fact Sandilands' unique voice inspired her to do so. The Lips Are Movin hitmaker added she had previously told Kyle this in confidence, and was proud of him for keeping it a secret until now. Meghan and her Spy Kids star husband Daryl Sabara welcomed their second son Barry Bruce on July 1, 2023, shortly after she returned to the United States. Meghan named her son Barry Bruce after Bruce the great white shark in the children's movie Finding Nemo (pictured), the character's voice actor Barry Humphries, and the fact that Kyle's unique voice reminded her of the shark Meghan and her Spy Kids star husband Daryl Sabara (left) welcomed their second son on July 1, 2023, shortly after she returned to the United States The couple announced the news in an Instagram post at the time, revealing she had welcomed Barry exactly seven years after her and Daryl's first date -They are also the proud parents to three-year-old Riley. Trainor was part of the judging panel on last year's Australian Idol, alongside Kyle Sandilands, Amy Shark and Harry Connick Jr. Neither she nor Harry returned for this year's season, and were replaced by series veteran Marcia Hines. Amy Shark and Kyle Sandilands have continued to serve as judges for the popular singing competition. Hollywood superstar Hugh Jackman has revealed the significant meaning behind a photo of himself praying in London. The 56-year-old took to Instagram on Thursday and posted an image of himself with with his hands together, as if in prayer, his head tilted skyward and his eyes closed. He explained he was recreating an image he had taken during the early days of his career. 'I remembered I took a photo in the spot I had 32 years ago dreaming of one day being there,' he said in an audio message included in his post. 'My friend said ''be careful for what you wish for''... and I said yeah be very deliberate about what you wish for because it can come true.' Hollywood superstar Hugh Jackman has revealed the significant meaning behind a photo of himself praying in London 'And if you really believe it will.' Hugh told followers that before he became a professional performer he had a 'wish' to join Britain's National Theatre. He was so passionate about his ambition that young Hugh had a photo of himself taken standing out in front of the London theatre in which he can be seen 'praying' for his dream to come. Three years after the photo was taken, Hugh was starring in the National Theatre's acclaimed production of the stage musical Oklahoma! The Wolverine star shared how he hung the photo over his bed the entire time he was completing his acting studies at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAPA). He explained he was recreating an image he had taken during the early days of his career. Pictured Hugh in the National Theatre's stage musical Oklahoma! in London Hugh shot to fame after graduating from WAPA in 1994 when he got a role on the ABC's drama series Correlli, which starred the actor's former wife, Deborah-Lee Furness. Only four years later, in 1998 he appeared on stage in the lead role of Curly in Oklahoma in London's West End. The part led to international stardom. Hugh is now set to star in the new Deadpool film. The star recently revealed the hardest part of returning to his role as superhero Wolverine in the new blockbuster. The Wolverine star shared how he hung the photo of him 'praying' for his dream to come to come true over his bed the whole time he was completing his acting studies at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAPA). Pictured: Hugh with the cast of Oklahoma! in London in 1998 He said as his age catches up to him, training to transform himself into the buff big screen beast is tougher than ever. 'The hardest bit [was] the food,' the Free Guy actor told People magazine this week. 'I have to eat a lot. For me, for my body type, I'm naturally skinny. To get the size on, that's the hardest bit. That's the bit that does my head in.' He added: 'My body was a little sore at the beginning, but I was thrilled that my body was still responding. And I realised how good it is for your brain. Maya Jama looked more smitten than ever with boyfriend Stromzy as they cosied up at the House Party launch bash on Thursday night. The Love Island presenter, 29, showed off her enviable figure in a sexy skintight black jumpsuit as she arrived to the bash in Soho, London. She was making a rare appearance with her rapper boyfriend Stormzy, 30, who wore a white T-shirt and jeans. Maya completed her look with a smart black blazer and boosted her height with strappy heels, while accessorising with a quilted bag. The brunette beauty wore her long tresses in a sleek straight style and opted for a typically glowing makeup look. Maya Jama looked more smitten than ever with boyfriend Stromzy as they cosied up at the House Party launch bash on Thursday night The Love Island presenter, 29, showed off her enviable figure in a sexy skintight black jumpsuit as she arrived to the bash in Soho, London The brunette beauty wore her long tresses in a sleek straight style and opted for a typically glowing makeup look Also at the star-studded event was Louise Redknapp who looked chic in a black blazer and cropped trousers. Ian Wright, Love Island's Eyal Booker and Oti Mabuse were among the other names at the party. It comes after Maya flaunted her gorgeous curves in a sizzling black thigh-split dress as she kicked off the new series of Love Island in typical stylish fashion on Monday night. The beauty stunned in the plunging number that showcased her toned pins in with a very daring slit. She boosted her height with strappy heels and accessorised with sparkly silver earrings. Maya styled her long dark tresses in a sleek straight style and opted for dewy and radiant makeup. She will jet between London where she is based and Mallorca for the new series which lasts for eight weeks. Love Island's series 11 launch on Monday has proven a success for ITV as a peak of 2.2million people tuned in to watch the first episode. It comes as Maya has jetted back to the UK after the launch of Love Island on Monday - the ITV dating show which she hosts She was making a rare appearance with her rapper boyfriend Stormzy , 30, who wore a white T-shirt and jeans They made for a handsome pair as they strutted out of the venue after partying Stormzy led the way into their car home after a night of partying He reached out to hold Maya's hand as they sashayed home They later left in a swanky car together as crowds gathered around the famous couple out in London The pair looked in good spirits as Stormzy drove them home Also at the star-studded event was Louise Redknapp who looked chic in a black blazer and cropped trousers She looked in good spirits as she sauntered out of the venue Ian Wright (seen), Love Island's Eyal Booker and Oti Mabuse were among the other names at the party Stormzy looked as cool as ever in his ensemble He completed his look with comfortable white trainers He posed up a storm at the bash Oti looked great in a tight black dress and heels The debut episode, which saw TOWIE star Joey Essex enter as a surprise bombshell, averaged 1.9million across all devices. It marks a jump of 700,000 from last year's summer series which debuted to 1.5million viewers while the winter 2024 series launch was watched by 1.9million. Monday's episode marks the show's highest launch audience since Summer 2022 which drew in 2.4million. With 400k and a 36% share of 16-34s, the show commanded the highest audience of the day in this demographic. Looking at past years, 2021's launch show raked in 2.47million TV viewers and peaked with 2.9million. The 2019 summer series was the most watched launch ever with an audience of 3.3million tuning in. Series nine's debut episode also didn't prove as popular as the first ever winter version of the ITV2 dating show, which scored 1.3million viewers more. The 2020 winter series debut secured 2.5million viewers, with 43 per cent of the audience being aged between 16 and 34, according to overnight figures at the time. This rose to 2.8 million when non-TV devices were included in the figures. Corinna Brown attends the launch of House Party presented by Stormzy and Cream Group Precious Muir and Ben Ofoedu posed together at the event Precious ensured all eyes would be on her as she flashed her bra in a red trouser suit Ian wore a jazzy navy shirt for the event Emma Roberts looked as stylish as ever on Thursday when she was spotted heading back to her hotel in New York City. The 33-year-old American Horror Story actress looked angelic in a white satin mini dress as she walked into the front entrance. Her outing comes shortly after she got some legal protection from a man who has allegedly been stocking her. Emma was awarded a permanent restraining order against a 32-year-old man who allegedly broke into her home earlier in May and used a landline in the house to then call her cell phone, according to TMZ. There wasn't a hint of that scary experience on her face on Thursday, as she flashed a charming smile for the cameras. Emma Roberts, 33, looked as stylish as ever on Thursday when she was spotted heading back to her hotel in New York City Emma was decked out in a lovely white satin sack dress with long sleeves. The dress featured lustrous black accents with a thick collar that was decorated with a lacy bow, as well thick French cuffs. The film and television star complemented her look with intriguing translucent black heels and matching stockings that only reached up just past her knees. Emma accessorized with a shiny black handbag, and she wore her lovely blond hair styled straight with a middle part and let it drape down her back. She flashed a smile and waved at some of her waiting fans as she arrived at her hotel. Earlier on Thursday, a judge awarded her a five-year restraining order against Melvin Jeffery Conley, a 32-year-old man who she claims broke into her home while she was away and managed to contact her on her cell phone, according to TMZ. The order also protects her three-year-old son Rhodes Robert Hedlund. Roberts alleges that Conley said her child's name while on the phone with her, which sparked concern about her alleged stalker's goals. The niece of Julia Roberts first encountered Conley in May. He allegedly broke into her home in Los Angeles on either May 7 or 8, when she was not present. The American Horror Story star claims he found her landline and called her cell phone from there. The 33-year-old American Horror Story actress looked angelic in a white satin mini dress as she walked into the front entrance The dress featured lustrous black accents with a thick collar that was decorated with a lacy bow, as well thick French cuffs. She also wore translucent heels with knee-length stockings She received a missed call from the number and returned it, assuming it was a family member. However, Conley allegedly answered. The star claims Conley called her 'Emma' and told her she allowed him to enter and stay at the home, which she has vehemently denied. 'While still present in my residence, [Conley] used my landline to call my cellphone. During the conversation, I realized the caller was a stranger and he confirmed he was still in my residence,' she said in court documents obtained by The Blast. 'Although law enforcement was immediately contacted, [Conley] has eluded arrest and continues to send me disturbing text messages. 'I am in sustained fear and am afraid to return to my own home,' she added. The actress also alleges that she received a 'strange' text message from him. Emma is now fearful Conley will attempt to return to her home. The order bars Conley from coming within 100 yards of the actress and her son. He is also barred from coming within 100 yards of her residence, her place of work and her child's school. Emma shares her son with her ex-boyfriend, actor Garrett Hedlund. A seasoned actress with numerous starring roles under her belt, she recently made headlines for her role in the latest installment of American Horror Story: Delicate. Emma starred opposite Kim Kardashian in the latest season, and they will be teaming up again for a new Netflix series. The duo will be producing the upcoming show Calabasas alongside I. Marlene King. Kim, Emma and the Pretty Little Liars creator, 62, will be executive producing with Alexandra Milchan (of Tar fame), Deadline announced in April. Earlier on Thursday, a judge granted Roberts a five-year restraining order against Melvin Jeffery Conley, 32, whom she accuses of breaking into her LA home and using a landline to call her cell phone The order also protects her three-year-old son Rhodes Robert Hedlund. Roberts alleges that Conley said her child's name while on the phone with her, which sparked concern about her alleged stalker's goals.; Roberts pictured in May Calabasas is based on the book If You Lived Here You'd Be Famous By Now by Via Bleidner. Marlene will write the script adaptation in addition to serving as showrunner. Calabasas will tell the story of a 16-year-old girl from the Midwest named Via, who transfers to Calabasas High after her family moves to California. Kardashian and her family put the city of Calabasas on the map with their hit show Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Jennifer Garner took to Instagram to show off her dog Birdie completing a viral challenge on Thursday. The 52-year-old actress who is trying to help ex-husband Ben Affleck save his marriage to Jennifer Lopez posted an adorable video of her furry friend nailing the 'Hands In' social media trend. Similar to a team getting ready to call a group cheer, pet owners bring their hands together in front of their cats and dogs to see if they will join in on the challenge. The 13 Going on 30 star wrote 'Trying the "hands in" challenge with Birdie,' as she and an offscreen male reached their hands out. Her furry friend understood almost immediately and put his paw in on the 'first try,' making Garner laugh. Jennifer Garner took to Instagram to show off her dog Birdie completing a viral challenge on Thursday Her furry friend understood almost immediately and put his paw in on the 'first try,' making Garner laugh 'Did you see, Birdie? Yeah, you did,' the ex-wife of Ben Affleck said to her pooch. 'I mean, first time.' She rocked a gray T-shirt that read 'Once Upon a Farm, Save the Children,' and a pair of light washed jeans. Her brunette locks were swept up into a messy bun with a few strands let loose, framing her face. Garner went barefaced in the video, showing off her natural beauty as she appeared to be in good spirits during the clip. The starlet shared the post to her 16.2 million followers and jokingly captioned the silly clip, 'I had much less success with the puppy.' Fans went wild in the comments penning their support for the golden retriever's adorable talent. A top commenter said, 'Shes like. Come on Ive been waiting.' 'My dog did it a bunch of times but when we started recording she refused,' one fan joked in the comments. Birdie, who is a certified therapy dog, likely had an upper paw in the challenge as he is trained in order to visit the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. 'Did you see, Birdie? Yeah, you did,' the ex-wife of Ben Affleck said to her pooch. 'I mean, first time' The starlet is frequently seen out on walks with her children and their beloved family dog; Jennifer, son Samuel, and Birdie seen in 2019 The starlet shared the post to her 16.2 million followers and jokingly captioned the silly clip, 'I had much less success with the puppy' 'Dogs have the ability, much like children do early in life, to mimic or mirror what they're observing,' an expert said The pup turned nine-years-old last month, 'Congratulations, birthday girl!' Garner penned The star is frequently seen out on walks with her children and their beloved family dog, who recently turned nine-years-old. Philip Tedeschi, co-director of the Institute for Animal Sentience and Protection, also explained that it comes down your furry friend's instinct: 'Dogs have the ability, much like children do early in life, to mimic or mirror what they're observing,' he said explaining why dogs may understand the concept. 'Many dogs are trained early on to do things like shake hands, so I would suspect that a lot of dogs see it as a fairly familiar behavior,' he finished. Kyle Sandilands revealed on Friday the very surprising reason he 'can't say anything' negative about media mogul Rupert Murdoch on the air. The radio king, 52, was discussing the 93-year-old's recent marriage to his fifth wife Elena Zhukova, when he made the surprise admission. 'We can't say s**t about Murdoch because he owns 15% of this company. The guy has got a little bit of pie everywhere,' Kyle said. Murdoch is the owner of multi-national media corporation News Corp and through that owns 15% of Australian Radio Network, the parent company of Kyle's KIIS FM network. His co-host Jackie O Henderson, 49, added it was incredible Murdoch had found love through his recent marriage to Russian-born molecular-biologist Elena. Kyle Sandilands (pictured) revealed on Friday the very surprising reason he 'can't say anything' negative about media mogul Rupert Murdoch on the air 'You don't say, "you're my third wife but I still haven't found the love of my life". 93 and still up on the workbench, what a legend!' Kyle added. It comes after Jackie O recenttly risked losing her radio job after revealing the answer to KIIS FM's latest cash giveaway competition. The Kyle And Jackie O Show launched their latest guessing game The Noise back in April, announcing that one listener would receive $200,000 if they could identify a mystery sound. The radio king, 52, was discussing Rupert Murdoch's (pictured) recent marriage to his fifth wife Elena Zhukova, when he made the surprise admission On Tuesday's show however, Jackie admitted she'd revealed the answer to her 13-year-old daughter Kitty, putting the competition's legitimacy in jeopardy. 'I ended up telling Kitty The Noise,' Jackie confessed. 'Why did you do that? You know it's a breach of your own contract. You could be fired right now,' Kyle gasped. 'Is it?! I said to [Kitty] that she can't enter. I didn't need to say that. She knows that already,' Jackie scoffed, as newsreader Brooklyn Ross interjected: 'What if people ask her?' 'We can't say s**t about Murdoch because he owns 15% of this company,' Kyle said. Murdoch is the owner of multi-national media corporation News Corp and through that owns 15% of Australian Radio Network, the parent company of Kyle's KIIS FM network Jackie made it clear that Kitty could be trusted with the company secret. '[Kitty] said, "Mum, you have no idea. I'm so good at keeping secrets",' Jackie insisted - However, Kyle wasn't convinced, reminding Jackie that, 'kids are full of s**t'. Jackie once again promised that Kitty wouldn't share her secret, before asking the show's content director Tony whether revealing The Noise to her daughter was a contractual issue. Paris Jackson is returning to fashion as she hops from one runway to another. The Wilted artist, 26, donned a black leather bondage look while walking in the Alexander Wang show on Wednesday in New York City's SoHo neighborhood. She wore a crisscrossed harness featuring metal bolts, layered under an oversized beige hoodie. Jackson's look was finished with a pair of thigh-high distressed leather boots featuring buckles and straps. The Swarm actress shared a behind-the-scenes look at her runway look, posting a backstage photo to her Instagram Story. Paris Jackson donned a black leather bondage look while walking in the Alexander Wang show on Wednesday in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City The Swarm actress shared a behind-the-scenes look at her runway look, posting a backstage photo to her Instagram Story. 'Thank you @alexanderwangny,' Jackson wrote with a low-lit selfie in a sleeveless top Jackson was in Barcelona by the next day, attending Desigual's Spring/Summer '25 show She previously shared a clip of herself settling in on her flight. 'Ready to sleep on this red-eye,' wrote Jackson 'Thank you @alexanderwangny,' Jackson wrote with a low-lit selfie in a sleeveless top. Jackson was in Barcelona by the next day, attending Desigual's Spring/Summer '25 show. She previously shared a clip of herself settling in on her flight. 'Ready to sleep on this red-eye,' wrote Jackson. Jackson looked chic in a black button-down shirt dress with long billowy sleeves and a short ruffled skirt as she attended the Desigual show. The Soundflowers artist finished the look with a pair of strappy black stilettos and layers of necklaces and bracelets. She framed her stunning glam look with a wavy blonde hairstyle that glowed under the Spanish sunset. Jackson sat front row at the runway show with Spanish actress and model Ester Exposito, who donned a strapless multi-colored dress. The Sex Appeal actress previously took in the hottest new looks as she attended Paris Fashion Week in March. Although she signed with IMG Models in 2017, Jackson has mostly focused on acting and music in recent years. Jackson looked chic in a black button-down shirt dress with long billowy sleeves and a short ruffled skirt as she attended the Desigual show The Soundflowers artist finished the look with a pair of strappy black stilettos and layers of necklaces and bracelets. She framed her stunning glam look with a wavy blonde hairstyle that glowed under the Spanish sunset Although she signed with IMG Models in 2017, Jackson has mostly focused on acting and music in recent years Jackson sat front row at the runway show with Spanish actress and model Ester Exposito, who donned a strapless multi-colored dress In addition to dropping her debut album Wilted in 2020, Jackson has also starred in the movies Gringo (2018) and Habit (2021), as well as Star, MTV's Scream series and American Horror Stories. Jackson remains serious about fashion, donning a black Celine dress while attending the 66th Grammy Awards in February. She went as far as using makeup to cover her 80 tattoos in order to 'give this Celine dress its own moment.' 'I love the piercings, the tattoos, all the body mod stuff, but sometimes it can distract from the art,' Jackson told Extra TV at the time. Chloe Cherry turned heads in a stylish ensemble as she made an appearance at The French Italian premiere on Thursday during the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival in NYC. The actress, 26 - who is known for her role as Faye in the hit HBO series Euphoria - was also seen gently holding an adorable dog while posing for photos on the red carpet. The star donned a sleeveless, white dress that fell down towards her ankles and was made of a material that shone under the bright lights. She slipped into a pair of open-toed, white heels to coincide with the color scheme of her look for the special event. Cherry - who took on a role in the film - parted her blonde locks in the middle which effortlessly flowed down past her shoulders in light waves. Chloe Cherry, 26, turned heads in a stylish ensemble as she made an appearance at The French Italian premiere on Thursday during the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival in NYC The star donned a sleeveless, white dress that fell down towards her ankles and was made of a material that shone under the bright lights Chloe opted for minimal accessories to allow her outfit to be the main focal point, and added a flashy, gold ring on her left hand. Her makeup was classically done, and comprised of a layer of mascara to her lashes as well as a light pink, dewy blush to her cheekbones. For a finishing touch, the actress also added glossy, rosy pink tint to her lips. She also easily carried a small, white clutch bag to hold a few items she needed during the screening. While striking a variety of poses on the glitzy red carpet, Cherry was also spotted flashing a big smile as she cradled a cute pup wearing a black tuxedo in her arms. The actress took on a role in the comedic film, The French Italian - which was written and directed by Rachel Wolther. The premise is: 'Neighbors prank each other, situation escalates comically amid NYC apartment complex's cutthroat politics, exploring absurdity of conflict between residents,' per an official IMDB synopsis. Alongside Cherry, other stars that were cast in the project include Aristotle Athari, Catherine Cohen and also Elizabeth Mcfly. The 2024 Tribeca Film Festival officially kicked off earlier this week on Wednesday and comes to an end later this month on June 16. She slipped into a pair of open-toed, white heels to coincide with the color scheme of her look for the special event Cherry - who took on a role in the film - parted her blonde locks in the middle which effortlessly flowed down past her shoulders in light waves While striking a variety of poses on the glitzy red carpet, Cherry was also spotted flashing a big smile as she cradled a cute pup wearing a black tuxedo in her arms Chloe's breakout role was in HBO Max's hit series, Euphoria, where she portrayed the character of Faye in the second season. The show has been confirmed for a third and final season, however, production has been delayed due to the in-demand cast and differing schedules. Zendaya, Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney, Hunter Schafer, Maude Apatow, and Alexa Demie notably also star in Euphoria. Angus Cloud - who had taken on the role of Fezco - tragically past away at the age of 25 nearly one year earlier on July 31, 2023, with his cause of death later to be revealed as acute intoxication after an accidental overdose, per People. Cherry previously was a part of the adult film industry - which she began working in at the age of 18. By 2019, her movies on Pornhub had accumulated to around 125 million views. However, in March 2022, the star revealed that she had officially left the adult film industry. During a past interview, Chloe stated that she would not have gotten into porn if her father didn't die from cancer when she was eight-years-old. On the Going Mental With Eileen Kelly podcast in August 2022, the actress said, 'I always thought that if my dad lived that I would have just been normal.' 'I would have just gone to college like a normal f*****g person and just done some random stupid job and just been some stupid normal person.' Chloe's breakout role was in HBO Max's hit series, Euphoria, where she portrayed the character of Faye in the second season However, in March 2022, the star revealed that she had officially left the adult film industry. During a past interview, Chloe stated that she would not have gotten into porn if her father didn't die from cancer when she was eight-years-old She added, 'Like, I wouldn't be doing all this if my dad was still around. I wouldn't be Chloe Cherry if my dad was still around.' The star recalled going to child therapists with her brother, but admitted the sessions were 'bad' and 'didn't help at all.' 'Luckily my mom had a lot of close friends that were very close to us. That's what helped me get through it, knowing that...we were going to have support.' She later added, 'Part of becoming Chloe Cherry and wanting to become this completely other thing was part of wanting to escape my life, I think, and things.' 'But I guess feeling like I just wanted more from the world and also feeling this feeling of, like, theres no time to waste because you never know whats gonna happen.' 'I constantly think, "Gosh, I would be so normal if my dad never died." I would just be an average person - but I don't know if I would want to be that.' During a past interview with Flaunt Magazine, Cherry talked about moving from the adult film industry to working on a TV series such as Euphoria. 'It was a really good and fun transition.' 'I really liked shooting mainstream because people are just really focused on your acting and just stuff that I'm really into.' During a past interview with Flaunt Magazine , Cherry talked about moving from the adult film industry to working on a TV series such as Euphoria. 'It was a really good and fun transition' Other stars that were in attendance at The French Italian premiere on Thursday included Catherine Cohen who donned a fitted, lavender dress that contained an asymmetrical hem Chloe added, 'And in adult, they want you to act well, but it's not as important. I think that the transition for me was really great because I feel more appreciated.' Other stars that were in attendance at The French Italian premiere on Thursday included Catherine Cohen who donned a fitted, lavender dress that contained an asymmetrical hem. She slipped into a pair of open-toed, gold strappy heels while allowing her brunette locks to flow down past her shoulders in light curls. The actress added a dainty, gold-chained necklace as well as a chunky ring on her left hand to accessorize the look. Ruby McCallister wowed in a figure-hugging, red dress that was held up with thin straps that wrapped around her shoulders Alexi Pappas wore a semi-sheer, dark gold dress as well as a pair of white socks and also white and gold-colored sneakers that offered a casual flare Ruby McCallister wowed in a figure-hugging, red dress that was held up with thin straps that wrapped around her shoulders. She slipped into a pair of black, fishnet tights as well as open-toed, black heels for a stylish flare. The star added a pearl necklace and carried a vibrant, pink purse over her right shoulder. Alexi Pappas wore a semi-sheer, dark gold dress as well as a pair of white socks and also white and gold-colored sneakers that offered a casual flare. She wore a black, cross-body bag over her shoulder while a tan jacket was draped down past her elbows for a final touch. Roxy Jacenko has given her 268,000 Instagram followers an update following her botched house giveaway competition. The Singapore-based Australian publicist, 44, made headlines last month when she promised to personally refund all 7,000 people who had signed up to her online business course Roxy's Brand Bootcamp. The promotion, which Jacenko had launched with business partners Youssef Tleis and Kassim Alaouie, included a number of prizes, including a luxury home. In a lengthy statement shared to her social media account on Thursday, Jacenko addressed followers as the matter plays out in court. 'I recently [became] aware of certain media articles regarding my application to the Supreme Court of New South Wales for the appointment of provisional liquidators to Roxy's Bootcamp Pty Limited,' she began. Roxy Jacenko has given her 268,000 Instagram followers an update following her botched house giveaway competition The publicist made headlines last month when she promised to personally refund all 7,000 people who had signed up to her online business course. The promotion included a number of prizes, including this luxury home 'In May 2024, as a shareholder of Roxy's Bootcamp, I applied to the Supreme Court for the appointment of provisional liquidators to Roxy's Bootcamp. At the time Mr Tleis controlled Roxy's Bootcamp and my application to the court was opposed on the basis that Mr Tleis and Mr Alaouie wanted to continue to carry out the Roxy's Bootcamp Trade Promotion. 'I applied for the appointment of provisional liquidators because I considered that certain representations made to the public with the knowledge and approval of Mr Tleis regarding the promotion may be considered misleading. 'I also applied for the appointment of provisional liquidators because Mr Tleis and Mr Alaouie had refused my requests to bring the promotion to an end and the Company was not in a position to ensure that the house at Cronulla, if won, would be available as a prize.' Jacenko continued: 'After substantial attempts by me from mid-March to reach a resolution with Mr Tleis and Mr Alaouie, I was left with no alternative but to seek the court to make orders which I consider were necessary to protect the public. 'Specifically, the appointment of professional third-party external administrator to determine the best course of action when the relationship between shareholders was at a stalemate. Jacenko added that the court made orders in accordance with her application on June 5. In a lengthy statement shared to her social media account on Thursday, Jacenko addressed followers as the matter plays out in court Jacenko launched the promotion with business partners Youssef Tleis and Kassim Alaouie. All pictured 'I have done everything I can to address the issues which I consider existed in relation to the promotion, including by incurring substantial legal costs in seeking the intervention of the court. 'I am cooperating with the provisional liquidators as they request information and decide whether to conduct the promotion or determine some other outcome in respect of the promotion.' It comes as fresh details emerged in court that the competition may have been 'deceptive and misleading' after its contract failed to disclose a major contract stipulation. According to the Daily Telegraph, the court heard the agreement stipulated that the Cronulla house 'would only be put forward as a prize if the competition generated at least $11.5million in total revenue'. That condition was never made public by Jacenko during her publicity tour back in March, where she was interviewed by a number of major Australian media and broadcasting outlets. The clause was also missing from the competition's formal terms and conditions on the Roxy's Bootcamp website. Last month, Jacenko shared two videos posted to Instagram explaining she was stepping down as a director of the Bootcamp business, after the relationship with her business partners had fallen apart. Jacenko claimed she had felt 'uncomfortable' with the giveaway early on, and now felt 'bullied' by her former co-directors. Tleis and Alaouie, who own half a stake in Roxy's Bootcamp company alongside Jacenko, have since hit back at her claims. In an email sent to Roxy's Bootcamp subscribers, the pair slammed Jacenko's account, writing: 'These videos are misleading and paint a completely inaccurate picture of our intentions and actions with regards to Roxy's Bootcamp.' The duo said they started the Bootcamp business with Jacenko 'in good faith' before their relationship 'deteriorated based mainly on a difference of opinions about how to market the promotion'. 'This led Roxy, who I trusted as a business partner, to last month lock me out of the company's [social media and shopping] accounts,' they alleged. Tleis and Alaouie said they negotiated with Jacenko for 'hours' and 'nearly went to court', before finally agreeing to continue running the business together until the end of the promotion. However, the relationship soon broke down again, they claimed. Last month, Jacenko shared two videos posted to Instagram explaining she was stepping down as a director of the Bootcamp business, after the relationship with her business partners had fallen apart Jacenko claimed she had felt 'uncomfortable' with the giveaway early on, and now felt 'bullied' by her former co-directors 'Her accusations that we do not intend to give away the prizes or pay the guaranteed $250,000 prize are simply wrong and defamatory, and are extremely concerning to us. 'Just because she wants "out" of this business does not mean that the public should not get the benefit of a prize draw they signed up for,' they wrote. The pair claimed they had asked Jacenko to hand over access to online accounts associated with the Bootcamp brand, saying they hope they do 'not need to again seek legal recourse'. Jacenko's Brand Bootcamp made headlines thanks to its luxury line-up of prizes that were offered for people who signed up to the online program. Punters who paid for the course, which started at $29, were to be entered in a giveaway to win a $10 million waterfront mansion in Sydney's Cronulla, as well other prizes including $250,000 cash, a Birkin handbag and a Rolex watch. However, Jacenko informed her online followers she was refunding the fee for anyone who entered, and would be paying the reimbursements from her own bank account. 'As many of you would know, I launched a promotion on March 8 of this year. That promotion, Roxy's Bootcamp, came about when I was direct-messaged on Instagram by someone who I don't know, who had a great idea,' she began. 'And that idea was for me to run my courses and associate a trade promotion with those courses... Basically, we formed a partnership with myself and two people that I don't know. I spruiked it.' Jacenko informed her online followers she was refunding the fee for anyone who entered, and would be paying the reimbursements from her own bank account Jacenko went on to describe the vast media campaign she engaged in to promote the venture, before becoming 'uncomfortable' three days into the process and suggesting at that stage that refunds should be issued. The PR queen said she was willing to cough up $150,000 of her own money to make those refunds to customers, but the suggestion was 'rejected' by her business partners. 'So the promotion carried on going and I carried on with my mindset of, "We're going to get this done. We're gonna make three people's lives different by winning three fantastic prizes throughout the course of the last two months,"' she continued. Jacenko said she was left so 'stressed and distressed' by the process that her weight had dropped to 49 kilos and she had 'fainted twice'. After what she calls 'repeated negotiations' with her business partners, Jacenko said she 'cannot protect the $250,000' offered for 'the first prize' and had been 'holding hostage' a Rolex and Birkin that were also part of the prize pool, as she did not 'have access to the company bank account.' She went on: 'I have stepped down as a director. I am now only a shareholder. My hands are tied. I am exhausted. I feel bullied. I feel distressed and I'm embarrassed. 'Now, I can't do any more... Sadly, my name is all over this, but what I want you to know is I did my absolute best. According to the terms and conditions, the winner would have to 'select both of the two winning envelopes out of 250 available options in order to win the house' The PR professional has faced scrutiny over the competition from the start, after Crikey claimed the chances of winning the home were 'minuscule' 'I can't be in a position where I'm 49 kilos and I certainly cannot be in a position where walking to the door to answer the intercom, I faint.' She concluded: 'I value each and every one of you... And I want you to know that I did everything humanly possible to ensure that those three prizes were there and available to be given away to each of you.' She returned to Instagram for a second video in which the businesswoman offered to refund everyone who had purchased the course. 'I wanted to do an update for each and every one of you who has purchased a package since the launch of the Roxy's Bootcamp promotion on March 8, 2024, through to today, May 11, 2024,' she said. 'After much thought, I've made a decision and that decision is that I will personally refund each and every one of the 7,000-plus customers who have purchased a package in Roxy's Bootcamp. 'I'm holding my head high, standing my ground and making sure that each and every one of you who have purchased a package are refunded is really important. 'I want to sleep at night and I want to know that I did what was right, no matter what dispute within a business is going on. The general public should not be a victim of that. Full refunds from me personally will commence occurring from Monday. 'Bear with me, it will take some time as myself and the team in my office will need to collate each and every one of your data. 'There are 7,000-plus of you, and the refunds will come from me, Roxy, personally because the bank account of Roxy's Bootcamp, to which I am not a director of, is not accessible to me'. Jacenko went on: 'I feel relieved. I feel it's honourable and I feel that ethically it's what needs to be done. I was backed into a corner. My name is all over this. This money can be made again by me. I'm an entrepreneur. It's in my blood. 'So each and every one of you who's purchased from March 8 when this launched to today will receive a full refund and that will come from my bank account because you know what, you guys have supported me since day one, you've backed me. Money can be made again, but you deserve to get back what you deserve.' The PR professional has faced scrutiny over the competition from the start, after Crikey claimed the chances of winning the home were 'minuscule'. The publication reported that according to the terms and conditions, the winner would have to 'select both of the two winning envelopes out of 250 available options in order to win the house'. Jacenko told Daily Mail Australia in a statement that she felt the competition presented a good offer to entrants. 'How often can you pay $29, get an online course valued at $299 and go in to play for a chance to win a $10million property, and if you don't win, you can walk away with $250,000 cash no questions asked?' she said. 'Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars is a 20 per cent down payment to invest in a property, should you so wish. I ordered a salad with chicken the other day when in Sydney, it was $32 and it gave me indigestion and not much else,' she continued. 'Twenty-nine dollars to get access to an online course, a home or $250,000 cash, a Rolex watch or a Hermes handbag looks far more appetising.' As for the chances of winning, Jacenko explained, 'Odds of winning the prize game is 1 in 31,125. If we look at odds of winning Powerball in Australia: 1 in 134,490,400.' The competition's first prize was a three-storey, four-bedroom, five-bathroom Mediterranean-style mansion reportedly valued at $10 million. 'Australia has never seen a giveaway of this magnitude,' Jacenko earlier said. 'It's my turn to change one lucky Australian's life and turn them into multimillionaires, basically overnight.' Some confusion has additionally arisen over who owns the home, with earlier reports claiming Jacenko purchased it in 2020 for $3.36 million. However, the Daily Telegraph reported the property is in fact owned by two Bankstown-based businessmen. 'The property is owned by my business partners of Roxy's Brand Bootcamp. A title search will show that,' Jacenko previously told Daily Mail Australia. Named Zephyr, the home was up for auction in December last year with hopes of earning $10million. The property, which appeared on the TV series Australia's Best House, reportedly failed to sell and was taken off the market, before it popped up in Jacenko's giveaway. Rachel McAdams put on a fashionable display as she attended the star-studded, 24th Annual Broadway.com Audience Choice Awards in New York City on Thursday. The Notebook actress, 45 - who recently stunned at the 2024 Manhattan Theatre Club Spring Gala - joined other celebrities at the ceremony which took place at the 48 Lounge in the heart of the Big Apple. The winners of the event were previously announced last month in May, per the official website, with Merrily We Roll Along garnering the most honors - including Favorite Musical Revival. McAdams wowed wearing a semi-sheer, dark gray dress that fell down past her ankles and also had a plunging, scooped neckline. A thin, black belt was wrapped around her waist and she additionally slipped into a pair of open-toed, black pumps. Rachel McAdams, 45, put on a fashionable display as she attended the star-studded, 24th Annual Broadway.com Audience Choice Awards in New York City on Thursday Her locks were pulled back into a chic up do, preventing any loose strands from falling onto her face. Rachel opted for minimal accessories, and added a pair of mini silver earrings as well as a chunky ring on her left hand. The star's makeup was classically done for the evening, and comprised of a layer of mascara to her lashes as well as a light, shimmering shadow around her eyes. A pink blush was added to her cheekbones for a radiant glow, while a glossy, rosy pink tint was worn on her lips for a finishing touch. McAdams flashed a cheerful smile as she posed on the red carpet - and also held two awards that she received for her role in the play titled, Mary Jane. She won the awards for Favorite Leading Actress in a Play as well as Favorite Breakthrough Performance (Female). The beauty has also been nominated a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play - with the big event set to take place later this month on June 16. Mary Jane initially opened back in 2017 at the Yale Repertory Theatre and had its Broadway debut with McAdams in the leading role in April. The play is set to end shows on June 30. McAdams wowed wearing a semi-sheer, dark gray dress that fell down past her ankles and also had a plunging, scooped neckline She flashed a cheerful smile as she posed on the red carpet - and also held two awards that she received for her role in the play titled Mary Jane The star won the awards for Favorite Leading Actress in a Play as well as Favorite Breakthrough Performance (Female) During a recent interview with Broadway.com, the actress opened up about the difference of working on a play versus film or television. 'Yeah, it's very different from doing film or television. The workout my brain is going through to learn all these lines and then not just throw them away, you know?' she explained. 'In film and television, you learn a page, you throw it away, you never see it again until maybe a reshoot a year later.' Rachel humorously added, 'I love coming to work in my pajamas and staying in them. Film and television, you might show up in your pajamas, but you're not gonna stay that way.' 'So, as you know, just kind of not thinking about hair and makeup, and just really getting into the nitty gritty and the meat of it everyday...,' the star continued. Rachel also talked about being in front of a live crowd and stated, 'That sizzle of playing with an audience, and talking to them, and whatever they're gonna give back.' 'And I've been told you can hear everything, you can - you really do feel them so palpably, so I'm sort of terrified of that, and also looking forward to it.' Other celebrities were also in attendance at the event on Thursday, including Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer. She won the award for Favorite Diva Performance for her performance in Spamalot. Other celebrities were also in attendance at the event on Thursday, including Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer. She won the award for Favorite Diva Performance for her performance in Spamalot The actress was radiant in a white, sleeveless vest as well as a pair of matching, high-waisted trousers Eva Noblezada opted for stylish comfort as she posed on the red carpet, and wore a light gray, bralette top as well as a pair of black sweatpants Eva notably was honored with Favorite Leading Actress in a Musical for her role in The Great Gatsby and excitedly posed with her award Ingrid Michelson was the recipient of Favorite New Song for the music and lyrics of the song, Carry You Home, in The Notebook The actress was radiant in a white, sleeveless vest as well as a pair of matching, high-waisted trousers. Leslie easily draped a white blazer over her shoulders, and added a gold necklace to complete the overall ensemble. She donned a pair of open-toed pumps and allowed her brunette hair to fall down past her shoulders in light waves. Eva Noblezada opted for stylish comfort as she posed on the red carpet, and wore a light gray, bralette top as well as a pair of black sweatpants. The star additionally slipped into a pair of open-toed, black shoes and added a colorful scarf around her head. Eva notably was honored with Favorite Leading Actress in a Musical for her role in The Great Gatsby and excitedly posed with her award. Ingrid Michelson was the recipient of Favorite New Song for the music and lyrics of the song, Carry You Home, in The Notebook. She sported a sleeveless, black jumpsuit and opted for a pair of closed-toed, nude-colored heels that were partially concealed by the hem of the outfit. Maria Friedman - who directed Merrily We Roll Along - wore a long, floral maxi dress that contained hues of green, pink and also white The actor garnered two wins, including Favorite Featured Actor in a Musical and Favorite Onstage Pair with fellow co-star, Jonathan Groff Maria and Daniel later crossed paths while on the red carpet, and paused for a few memorable photos together The musical received three additional honors: Favorite Musical Revival, Favorite Performance of the Year (Musical) for Groff, and also Favorite Featured Actress in a Musical for Lindsay Mendez Ingrid added a variety of gold-chained necklaces that offered a flashy flare as well as an assortment of rings on each of her hands. Maria Friedman - who directed Merrily We Roll Along - wore a long, floral maxi dress that contained hues of green, pink and also white. She wore a pair of open-toed, white shoes while her blonde locks fell down to nearly brush the tips of her shoulders. Daniel Radcliffe - who took on a leading role in Merrily We Roll Along - donned a dark gray suit which was paired with a tan and blue-striped shirt underneath. For a finishing touch, the Harry Potter star also opted for a pair of gray sneakers that were secured with laces. The actor garnered two wins, including Favorite Featured Actor in a Musical and Favorite Onstage Pair with fellow co-star, Jonathan Groff. The musical received three additional honors: Favorite Musical Revival, Favorite Performance of the Year (Musical) for Groff, and also Favorite Featured Actress in a Musical for Lindsay Mendez. Maria and Daniel later crossed paths while on the red carpet, and paused for a few memorable photos together. Alexandra Socha was radiant in a strapless dress that contained colorful, floral details embroidered onto the fabric alongside Wicked co-star, Mary Kate Morrissey, who wore a semi-sheer red dress Jordan Fisher opted for a black and white-patterned shirt as well as a pair of classic, denim jeans while attending the event Alexandra Socha was radiant in a strapless dress that contained colorful, floral details embroidered onto the fabric. She slipped into a pair of open-toed, black heels and added a dainty necklace to complete the look. The actress was joined by Mary Kate Morrissey who wowed in a semi-sheer, red dress that had scattered, glittering embellishments. She donned a pair of closed-toed, red pumps as well as small, dangly earrings. Alexandra portrays the role of Glinda the Good Witch while Morrissey plays Elphaba in Wicked - which won Favorite Long-Running Show. Jordan Fisher opted for a black and white-patterned shirt as well as a pair of classic, denim jeans while attending the event. He won the award for Favorite Replacement (Male) for his performance in Hadestown. Jeremy Jordan sported a short-sleeved T-shirt and proudly held up his award for Favorite Leading Actor in a Musical for his portrayal in The Great Gatsby Later in the evening, Radcliffe was seen joining his co-stars, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez, as they held awards in their hands John Gore, Maria Friedman, Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez, Daniel Radcliffe and Lauren Reid also were seen gathered together during the festivities on Thursday David Adjmi wore a black, satin button up as well as a pair of black pants and sleek, black dress shoes. The playwright completed his look for the festivities by adding a pair of stylish shades. Jeremy Jordan sported a short-sleeved T-shirt and proudly held up his award for Favorite Leading Actor in a Musical for his portrayal in The Great Gatsby. Later in the evening, Radcliffe was seen joining his co-stars, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez, as they held awards in their hands. John Gore, Maria Freidman, Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez, Daniel Radcliffe and Lauren Reid also were seen gathered together during the festivities on Thursday. The 2009 drama series White Collar is slated to make a comeback thanks to series creator Jeff Eastin. While at Varietys TV Fest on Thursday, the 57-year-old television producer confirmed that a new version of the police procedural is in the works. 'Were gonna reboot. Im writing the script,' he said on a panel alongside stars Matt Bomer, Tim DeKay and Tiffany Thiessen. Some of the cast who remained tightknit are slated to reprise their roles or make a cameo. 'Im in!' Bomer exclaimed, confirming his return as DeKay and Thiessen also raised their hands. The 2009 drama series White Collar is slated to make a comeback thanks to series creator Jeff Eastin; Original cast members Tim Dekay, Tiffani Thiessen, Matt Bomer, Willie Garson seen in 2009 Willie Garson, who played Mozzie in the drama passed away in 2021, will be memorialized in the reboot; He is pictured in 2019 'Its a fantastic script and it answers all the questions that one would have if you watch the show,' DeKay said. 'And it would introduce the show to those who havent seen it as well. Both edges of the sword are honed,' he shared. Willie Garson, who played Mozzie in the drama passed away in 2021, will be memorialized in the reboot. 'It honors Willie, too, in a profound way,' DeKay shared. 'With such sensitivity and such heart,' Thiessen added. 'I told Jeff after I finished it, I literally was so excited, but at the same time had tears in my eyes for good reason. You captured the suspense, the thrill, the characters and the love in that reboot,' the actress shared. Variety noted that the new version will most likely hit the Hulu library upon its release, but nothing has been confirmed. The original series was run by NBCUniversal-owned cabler USA but Fox Television Studios took over production. DeKay mentioned during the panel that 'the hope is that it will be a particular streamer.' Although Eastin did not reveal much information on the plot of a release date, the original show was left open ended back in 2014. 'Im in!' Bomer exclaimed, confirming his return while at Varietys TV Fest on Thursday; seen with Garson in 2009 'It honors Willie, too, in a profound way,' DeKay shared. 'With such sensitivity and such heart,' Thiessen added; Garson seen in 2009 Although Eastin did not reveal much information on the plot of a release date, the original show was left open ended back in 2014; Bomer and Garson seen in 2009 White Collar is a crime drama that follows Neal Caffrey (Bomer) a charming con artist and master thief, and Peter Burke, an FBI agent (Dekay), as they strike an unlikely partnership; Garson and Bomer seen in 2010 'If you get to the finale, with Neal [Bomer] walking in Paris, that was always the setup,' Eastin said. 'I always left it open, and as the years passed, it seemed more like a distant hope. But say thank you to Suits for starting this streaming trend. 'They were doing great, and got people watching White Collar now on Netflix. Thats doing really, really good. Off of that, its like, "Hey, lets do another one,"' he finished. White Collar is a crime drama that follows Neal Caffrey (Bomer) a charming con artist and master thief, and Peter Burke, an FBI agent (Dekay), as they strike an unlikely partnership. Diane Keaton paid a visit this week to Ariana Madix and Katie Maloney's newly opened sandwich shop Something About Her. After a number of postponements, the two Vanderpump Rules stars were finally able to launch their business venture on May 22. Their menu includes various sandwiches named after romantic comedy stars like Reese Witherspoon, Drew Barrymore, Meg Ryan - and Diane. Now Diane herself has stopped by the establishment for a bite to eat, as seen in a picture uploaded to Katie's Insta Stories. The 78-year-old exhibited her trademark style - a bowler hat, a blazer and pair of black-rimmed spectacles - while posing with Katie's mother Teri. Diane Keaton paid a visit this week to Ariana Madix and Katie Maloney 's newly opened sandwich shop Something About Her, where she posed with Katie's mother Teri Katie glowingly wrote over the snap: 'we had an unexpected visitor today... thank you @diane_keaton for your support! it was such a pleasure having you'. She did not specify whether the The Godfather actress tried The Diane, the sandwich named after her that costs $16. The menu item is stuffed with Sicilian tuna salad, dill, olive oil, sunflower microgreens, preserved lemon and marinated fennel, served on an artisan baguette. Diane has a long history with romantic comedies, including several made by Woody Allen, such as the enduring classics Annie Hall and Manhattan. More recently, her forays into the genre have seen her star in the Book Club movies alongside Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen. One of the other themed sandwiches at Something About Her is The Cameron, named after Cameron Diaz, whose wine brand Avaline is also served there. Other offerings are named after movie stars like Kate Winslet, Kerry Washington, Viola Davis, and another is named for noted rom com director Nancy Meyers. Katie and Ariana's respective exes Tom Schwartz and Tom Sandoval own two Los Angeles bars together, TomTom and Schwartz and Sandy's. After a number of postponements, the two Vanderpump Rules stars were finally able to launch their business venture on May 22; Katie and Ariana pictured at the restaurant Diane has a long history with romantic comedies, including several made by Woody Allen, such as the enduring classics Annie Hall, in which she and Woody are pictured More recently, Diane (left) starred in the Book Club movies alongside (from left) Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen; pictured in the second Book Club film The two women spent two years gearing up for the debut of their own business Something About Her, only to hit multiple roadblocks in the process. One issue was their disputes with their chef and consultant Penny Davidi over matters such as salary, as seen on Vanderpump Rules. In April, Katie appeared on the podcast Popping Off With Teddi Mellencamp and Emily Simpson and shared that she and Ariana had parted company with Penny. However just weeks later, Katie and Ariana were able to go on Watch What Happens Live and announce to Andy Cohen that their shop was opening on May 22. Nicole Kidman's niece Lucia Hawley became flustered on Thursday evening while interviewing Austin Butler at the State Theatre during the Sydney Film Festival. The 7Bravo reporter, 25, attempted to chat to Austin, 32, about his new movie The Bikeriders, but quickly became red-faced when he turned the tables on her. In footage shared to Instagram, Hawley was seen introducing herself to the Elvis star, when in a surprise turn of events he began 'interviewing' her. 'I don't like talking about myself. Are you from Sydney?' Butler asked her, and she said yes, joking that she was supposed to be the one asking the questions. 'What else can you tell me, how old are you and what are you interested in?' Butler enquired. Nicole Kidman's niece Lucia Hawley (pictured) became flustered on Thursday evening while interviewing Austin Butler at the State Theatre during the Sydney Film Festival Hawley responded that she was interested in art and Butler then asked her where she finds 'cool' artworks, prompting an embarrassed Lucia to burst into laughter. 'I should probably jump into questions because this is my job. If I don't, I will get into trouble,' she joked. Followers quickly took to the comment section to express their amusement over the hilarious clip, and joked that Butler - who is dating Kaia Gerber - was flirting with her. The 7Bravo reporter, 25, attempted to chat to Austin Butler (pictured), 32, about his new movie The Bikeriders, but quickly became red-faced when he turned the tables on her Followers quickly took to the comment section to express their amusement over the hilarious clip, and joked that Butler was flirting with her 'This is brilliant!' one fan wrote and a second person added: 'This is incredible.' 'This made me really like him! I loved that he was curious and interested in someone else,' a third person chipped in. Hawley donned a stunning all-black look for the exclusive event as she showed off her sense of style. Rocking a smoky eye, the TV presenter slipped into a form-fitting maxi dress which featured a racy cut out across her mid-section. Lucia has a close connection with her famous aunt Nicole Kidman and the pair have often been spotted together at red carpet events She accessorised with a gold watch and stacks of rings on her wedding and middle finger, which are heirlooms passed down from her mother. Hawley is the daughter of veteran Australian TV presenter Antonia Kidman - the younger sister of Nicole - and her late ex-husband Angus Hawley. Last year, Lucia said she shouldn't be labelled a 'nepo baby', after landing a coveted new gig hosting red carpet events for Live From E! on Seven Network's new channel 7Bravo. 'I've been working towards this,' she told The Sunday Telegraph at the time. 'Having a mum who had been in the industry, through osmosis you gain that perspective and understanding and I think that's been one of the biggest things that has helped in preparing me for this role, just having watched her and how she has carried herself through everything.' In the wake of her ongoing divorce, Rachel Lindsay is regretting her decision not to get prenuptial agreement. The Bachelor Nation star married Bryan Abasolo after he won Season 13 of The Bachelorette in August 2017, for which Lindsay served as the grand prize. But by not taking the appropriate legal actions to protect her finances prior to getting married, the Dallas, Texas native, who's actually a lawyer herself, is now facing the possibility of paying her estranged husband spousal support as part of their ongoing divorce. 'A lot of people are like, "You're a lawyer. Do you have a prenup?" I don't,' the reality star revealed on the Hidden Gems With Natasha Parker podcast on Thursday. She goes on to explain her thought process for her inaction, revealing, 'The reason I didn't is because the place I'm in now financially is totally different than when I got married. We were more leveled, and I wasn't in California.' Rachel Lindsay, 39, is having second thought about her decision not to go forward with a prenup agreement after Bryan Abasolo, 44, filed for spousal support amid divorce Lindsay, 39, maintains she told her then-fiance that she thought a prenup was a good idea, but that they weren't 'on the same page.' In regards to it being in 'a different time' when they tied-the-knot in August 2019, she admitted she was leading more with her heart over logic. 'I didn't want it to be a bigger issue, so we didn't have one,' she added. 'Hindsight is 20/20. I would've done it.' In his divorce filing in January, Abasolo listed New Year's Eve as the date of his and Lindsay's official separation, for which he cited 'irreconcilable differences' as the reason for their split. The petition for divorce with the courts after four years of marriage also states that the chiropractor is seeking spousal support. Lindsay told podcast host Natasha Parker in Thursday's episode that while her split itself was 'amicable,' she thought Abasolos filing was 'unnecessarily messy.' The public announcement of their divorce in January came less than two months after Lindsay revealed that she and Abasolo had plans to try and grow their family one day with the addition of a baby. 'It's something that we want," the attorney shared with E! News in November. 'It's been harder than I thought it would be. We're trying. You think, "Oh yeah, when I'm ready, I'll make it happen." But it's just been a little bit more difficult for us. But we're definitely starting the process.' The handsome couple were all lovey dovey when Abasolo won season 13 of The Bachelorette in August 2017 The couple were married for four years by the time of the filing for divorce Lindsay quoted poet and inspirational writer Yung Pueblo (born Diego Perez) when discussing her personal life on the Hidden Gems With Natasha Parker podcast Lindsay, who's a lawyer, explained her thought process for her inaction, revealing, 'The reason I didn't is because the place I'm in now financially is totally different than when I got married. We were more leveled, and I wasn't in California' Lindsay, 39, maintains she told her then-fiance that she thought a prenup was a good idea, but that they weren't 'on the same page' The petition for divorce with the courts after four years of marriage also states that Abasolo, a chiropractor, is seeking spousal support from Lindsay Abasolo noted in the court documents, previously obtained by Page Six, that he wanted an undisclosed amount of spousal support. A prenuptial agreement, also known as an antenuptial agreement or premarital agreement, is a legally binding contract that a couple signs before marriage or a civil union, according to The American College Of Trust And Estate Counsel. It allows the couple to control many of their legal rights and what happens to their assets, debts, and spousal support if the marriage ends. The goal of a prenup is to protect each party's financial interests. Riley Keough, Quinta Brunson and Dakota Fanning wore all-black outfits on Thursday while being awarded at the IndieWire Honors in Los Angeles. The actresses were among the honorees at the first spring edition of IndieWire Honors that focused exclusively on TV achievement during an awards ceremony at Citizen News. Riley, 35, wore a black knitted knee-length dress that featured a plunging neckline. The granddaughter of Elvis Presley was honored with the Maverick Award for projects ranging from The Runaways to Daisy Jones & The Six. Riley also co-directed War Pony and co-founded her own production company Felix Culpa. Riley Keough , Quinta Brunson and Dakota Fanning wore all-black outfits on Thursday while being honored at the IndieWire Honors in Los Angeles Quinta, 34, rocked a sleeveless black dress that featured a sweeping front cutout and had her long straight hair down below her shoulders. The Abbott Elementary creator, writer and star was honored with the Visionary Award for her work on the ABC sitcom. Dakota, 30, looked lovely in a floor-length, sleeveless black gown. She was honored with the Performance Award for her work in the Netflix thriller series Ripley. Comedy legend Carol Burnett, 91, also was in attendance and was honored with the Vanguard Award that cited her recent work in the last season of Better Call Saul, her 2023 variety special as well as her performance in the new Apple TV+ series Palm Royale. John Mulaney, 41, looked sharp at the awards ceremony in which he was honored with the Innovation Award. The stand-up comic recently hosted the live, six-night Netflix series John Mulaney Presents: Everybody's in LA' that provided a new spin on the TV comedy format. Lulu Wang, 41, also was recognized with the Crossover Award for her work on the Amazon Prime Video series Expats starring Nicole Kidman. Mexican director and writer Issa Lopez won the Auteur Award for her work in the HBO series True Detective: Night Country. The granddaughter of Elvis Presley was honored with the Maverick Award for projects ranging from The Runaways to Daisy Jones & The Six The Abbott Elementary creator, writer and star was honored with the Visionary Award for her work on the ABC sitcom Dakota was honored with the Performance Award for her work in the Netflix thriller series Ripley John Mulaney, 41, looked sharp at the awards ceremony in which he was honored with the Innovation Award Quinta and John teamed up at the awards ceremony held at Citizen News Comedy legend Carol Burnett, 91, also was in attendance and was honored with the Vanguard Award Matt Bomer, 46, and Ron Nyswaner received the Wavelength Award for the Showtime series Fellow Travelers Carol and Riley sat together during the event Riley held her trophy after being awarded for her stellar TV work Matt spoke onstage while being honored at the awards ceremony Lulu Wang took home the Crossover Award for her work on the Amazon Prime Video series Expats starring Nicole Kidman Issa Lopez won the Auteur Award for her work in True Detective: Night Country Matt Bomer, 46, and Ron Nyswaner received the Wavelength Award for the Showtime series Fellow Travelers. IndieWire was established in 1996 as a film industry and film criticism newsletter with an initial focus predominantly on independent film. It was acquired in January 2016 by Penske Media. Mary J. Blige, Diane Kruger, Issa Rae, Abbi Jacobson, Sterling K. Brown, Kumail Nanjiani, and James Franco were the honorees at the inaugural IndieWire Honors in November 2017 in Los Angeles. Beyonce made a bold return to Instagram on Thursday night amid speculation that her weeks-long absence from the publicity circuit is somehow connected to Diddy. The 32-time Grammy Award-winner, 42, offloaded a slew of glamour shots that show her rocking a beige cowboy hat and a busty suede frock. Beyonce has seemingly 'disappeared' after releasing her new album Cowboy Carter this past March and she hasn't attended a single red carpet event since the iHeart Radio Music Awards on April 1. A wild conspiracy theory is suggesting that both Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z, 54, are 'laying low' amid their disgraced pal Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sexual abuse scandal, as per Page Six. An insider further speculates that the couple are so 'nervous' about drawing attention to their Diddy ties that Beyonce is purposely neglecting Cowboy Carter promo. DailyMail.com has reached out to reps for Beyonce and Jay-Z for comment. Beyonce made a bold return to Instagram on Thursday night amid speculation that her weeks-long absence from the publicity circuit is somehow connected to Diddy The 32-time Grammy Award-winner, 42, offloaded a slew of glamour shots that show her rocking a beige cowboy hat and a busty suede frock Combs, 54, is currently facing eight lawsuits relating to allegations of rape, physical abuse, sex trafficking, racketeering and other serious crimes that span across 30 years. The music mogul's Los Angeles and Miami mansions were raided by Homeland Security agents in March as part of a sex-trafficking probe that may lead to a grand jury indictment. In May, a horrifying video was released showing Combs violently assaulting his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a hotel hallway in 2016. Cassie, who was in a relationship with Combs for 10 years, accused him of rape and physical abuse in a bombshell November 2023 lawsuit that was settled one day later for $30million. Beyonce's Cowboy Carter was released on March 29 three days after the Diddy raids and it spent two consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200 album chart. With songs featuring Miley Cyrus, Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson, Beyonce also made history as the first Black woman to top the country album charts. 'This was supposed to be Beyonce's time, with her much-anticipated country album out [just] two months ago,' Page Six's source said. 'And yet, she is nowhere to be seen. The album is slipping and Jay and B aren't reveling in the spotlight.' Beyonce has seemingly 'disappeared' after releasing her new album Cowboy Carter this past March and she hasn't attended a red carpet event since the iHeart Radio Music Awards on April 1 (pictured) A wild conspiracy theory is suggesting that both Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z, 54, are 'laying low' amid their disgraced pal Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sexual abuse scandal, as per Page Six As the speculation around her public absence continues, Beyonce appeared unbothered in Thursday's Instagram snaps She looked like a busty bombshell as she twirled around in beige suede frock with vibrant floral decals The Halo hitmaker first uploaded a photo slideshow set to the tune of the Cowboy Carter track SWEET HONEY BUCKIIN' featuring Shaboozey Beyonce cinched in her already tiny waist with a thin brown leather belt and she paraded around in brown steel-toed booties She looked ethereal with shimmering eyeshadow and a glossy lip The insider then brought up Jay-Z's controversial 2024 Grammys speech, where he called out the Recording Academy for never awarding his wife Album Of The Year despite her being the most decorated female artist. 'About a month before the [March 29] release, Jay-Z got up at the Grammys and whined that Beyonce had never won Album of the Year,' they said. 'But now what? Does he think she will win . . . for Cowboy Carter with no promotion . . . no appearances and no wooing of the academy?' They noted that although Cowboy Carter had a successful release, the album is 'definitely not the juggernaut everyone thought it would be.' The insider believes that Beyonce has seemingly abandoned ship because 'something is going on' behind-the-scenes. 'Something is going on. It came out with a bang. No. 1 everywhere. [Now] it and she have disappeared,' the insider concluded. Jay-Z's friendship with Combs dates back to the early 1990s as they both navigated their early rap careers in New York. They've collaborated on a number of songs, including a track on Combs' debut 1997 studio album No Way Out. She looked over her shoulder while walking down a hallway She had a shiny choker around her neck as she smoldered for the camera Her bouncy blonde curls tumbled out from under a felt cowboy hat The mother-of-three modeled high-waisted Daisy Duke shorts that showed off her killer legs The inside of the low-cut number was lined with pink and leopard-print fabric She posed for the photos inside of an empty building as she scurried through the hallways and leaned up against blank walls She rocked gold-framed aviator shades in several shots. Beyonce's Cowboy Carter was released on March 29 three days after the Diddy raids and it spent two consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200 album chart With songs featuring Miley Cyrus, Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson, Beyonce also made history as the first Black woman to top the country album charts 'This was supposed to be Beyonce's time, with her much-anticipated country album out [just] two months ago,' Page Six's source said. 'And yet, she is nowhere to be seen. The album is slipping and Jay and B aren't reveling in the spotlight' The insider believes that Beyonce has seemingly abandoned ship because 'something is going on' behind-the-scenes Beyonce began dating Jay-Z in 2000 and she soon found the Bad Boy Records exec in her orbit. As the speculation around her public absence continues, Beyonce appeared unbothered in Thursday's Instagram snaps. The Halo hitmaker first uploaded a photo slideshow set to the tune of the Cowboy Carter track SWEET HONEY BUCKIIN' featuring Shaboozey. She looked like a busty bombshell as she twirled around in beige suede frock with vibrant floral decals. The inside of the low-cut number was lined with pink and leopard-print fabric. Beyonce cinched in her already tiny waist with a thin brown leather belt and she paraded around in brown steel-toed booties. The mother-of-three modeled high-waisted Daisy Duke shorts that showed off her killer legs. Combs, 54, is currently facing eight lawsuits relating to allegations of rape, physical abuse, sex trafficking, racketeering and other serious crimes that span across 30 years. The music mogul's Los Angeles and Miami mansions were raided by Homeland Security agents in March as part of a sex-trafficking probe that may lead to a grand jury indictment; seen in 2016 Jay-Z's friendship with Combs dates back to the early 1990s as they both navigated their early rap careers in New York; Beyonce, Jay-Z and Diddy seen in 2005 Her bouncy blonde curls tumbled out from under a felt cowboy hat and she rocked gold-framed aviator shades in several shots. Beyonce last posted on Instagram seven days ago to show off the Cowboy Carter vinyl that's available to buy on her official website. Other than using songs off the album in her IG posts, Beyonce hasn't outright promoted Cowboy Carter since May 7. Diane Von Furstenberg made a colorful comparison when discussing what she felt watching the new documentary about her life, Woman in Charge. The legendary Belgian fashion designer, 77, said that watching the feature felt 'like being at the gynecologist.' She made the hilariously candid confession during a talk after the screening of the documentary at the Tribeca Festival on Wednesday, as per Page Six. 'I looked like s**t. I said I liked wrinkles, but I didn't realize I had so many,' the fashionista, who was previously married to Prince Egon von Furstenberg of the former German princely family of Furstenberg, shared. Joining Diane whose former sister-in-law passed away earlier this year at the event was her current husband, Barry Diller, 82, as well as her son Prince Alexander von Furstenberg. Diane Von Furstenberg made a colorful comparison when discussing the new documentary about her life, Woman in Charge; Pictured at screening of the film in NY on Wednesday The legendary Belgian fashion designer, 77, said that watching the feature felt 'like being at the gynecologist'; Seen in a still from the documentary Also in attendance was model Karlie Kloss, Arianna Huffington, Selma Blair and fest co-founder Jane Rosenthal. Despite the comparison, Diane said she enjoyed the film, and that it is a tribute to her mother, Liliane Nahmias, a Holocaust survivor. 'I did enjoy [the film],' she said during a Q&A with Gayle King. 'At the end, it's really a tribute to my mom... That's why I had a big life. My mom wanted me to have a big life.' The film was directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Trish Dalton. It features interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton, and Marc Jacobs. The documentary is set to debut on Hulu on June 25. The fashion icon is known as the inventor of the iconic 'wrap dress.' Jerry Hall, Michelle Obama, Kate Moss, Madonna, even the Princess of Wales have all been seen wearing the iconic garment. 'I looked like s**t. I said I liked wrinkles, but I didn't realize I had so many,' the fashionista said during a talk after the screening of the documentary at the Tribeca Festival on Wednesday Despite the comparison, Diane said she enjoyed the film, and that it is a tribute to her mother, Liliane Nahmias, a Holocaust survivor The film was directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Trish Dalton. It features interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Marc Jacobs and more. The documentary is set to debut on Hulu on June 25 Von Furstenberg herself always described the dress as a symbol of female emancipation and sexual freedom. She has been compared to Coco Chanel for her role in liberating the female form from the constraints of wiring and tailoring. Diane wed her billionaire husband Barry, who is a senior executive and chairman of IAC (which he also founded) and chairman of Expedia Group, in 2001. Earlier this year her former sister-in-law, model and socialite Ira von Furstenberg, who was considered one of the earliest 'It girls', passed away. Ira died aged 83 in Rome, according to Italian media outlets. Her brother, Prince Eduard Egon (known as Egon), was the first husband of Diane, with the pair married from 1969 to 1983. Aside from their son Alexander, 54, Prince Egon and Diane, also share daughter Tatiana, 53. The pair wed after meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland at a birthday party when they were both 18 years old despite her admitting there was no attraction at first. Despite their split, they remained close until his death in 2004 aged 57. The pair split after they were profiled in New York Magazine in 1973 that was headlined: 'The Couple That Has Everything. Is Everything Enough?' In it the couple were portrayed as 'both promiscuous and passion-devoid,' according to InStyle. The fashion icon is known as the inventor of the 'wrap dress'; Diane pictured in an early iteration of her silk-jersey wrap dress, 1973 Diane shares two kids with her first husband, the late Prince Egon von Furstenberg, of the former German princely family of Furstenberg; Pictured in the 70s 'The result was shocking and it destroyed our marriage,' Diane would later pen in her memoir, The Woman I Wanted To Be, published in 2014. 'Reading the magazine and seeing our lives exposed under a magnifying glass, I realized that that couple was not who I was. I didn't want to be a European Park Avenue princess with a pretend decadent life.' Infidelities on both parts and her career also contributed to the couple's split. Their divorce was finalized in 1983. She was by her ex-husband's side when he died in 2004. Bryan Cranston delved into the behind-the-scenes history of his iconic crime drama Breaking Bad this week and revealed that his lead role could have gone to another A-lister. During an appearance on James Corden's SiriusXM show This Life Of Mine, Cranston admitted that Matthew Broderick was among the actors who were considered to play the chemistry teacherturnedcriminal mastermind. According to the film and television star, the final casting of the lead role was largely dependent on his scheduling availability. Broderick whose wife Sarah Jessica Parker recently spoke about what brought them together would likely have delivered a significantly altered performance if he was cast as Walter White, as he and Cranston have wildly different demeanors and reputations. But even though Broderick was in the running for the role, Cranston claimed that the role was his to lose. Bryan Cranston delved into the behind-the-scenes history of his iconic crime drama Breaking Bad (pictured) this week and revealed that his lead role could have gone to another A-lister During an appearance on James Corden's SiriusXM show This Life Of Mine, Cranston admitted that Matthew Broderick was among the actors who were considered to play the chemistry teacherturnedcriminal mastermind John Cusack has also been rumored to have been offered the role of Walter White, though he has denied ever turning down the part. The Isle Of Dogs voice actor explained that Broderick was being considered to play the anti-hero, but he was mainly a backup in case Cranston's schedule changed. 'We shot the pilot of Breaking Bad in February and March of 2007. Had Malcolm In The Middle gone an eighth season, we wouldnt be sitting here right now, or youd be sitting here, but youd be talking to Matthew Broderick or someone else who played Walter White instead of me,' he told Corden. The seventh season of Malcolm In the Middle ended up airing from September 2005 to May 2006. Luckily for Cranston, it ended with the seventh season, freeing him up to shoot the now-classic Breaking Bad pilot. Malcolm In The Middle had reportedly been on the edge of receiving an eighth season, but the creative team were able to write a satisfying conclusion to the coming-of-age comedy to prepare for cancellation and to make it seem as if the show was always intended to run for seven seasons only. Cranston played Hal, the patriarch of Malcolm's family, who was nearly as immature as his children. The role was Cranston's breakout part, and he earned three Emmy nominations for Supporting Actor for the role. While speaking of the possibility of Breaking Bad with Matthew Broderick, Cranston said that 'Broderick was being considered, but it came to me because of the fact [creator and showrunner] Vince Gilligan said, "No, hes the guy,"' referring to Cranston. The actor added that Sony and AMC 'were skeptical and they were thinking thats the one you want to be the evil kind of, ooh, no, and he goes, "Trust me. This is what they do and thats what you need." 'I needed a champion in my corner,' Cranston added. 'We shot the pilot of Breaking Bad in February and March of 2007. Had Malcolm In The Middle gone an eighth season, we wouldnt be sitting here right now, or youd be sitting here, but youd be talking to Matthew Broderick or someone else who played Walter White instead of me,' he told Corden; still from Malcolm In The Middle John Cusack has also been rumored to have been offered the role of Walter White, though he has denied ever turning down the part; seen in 2017 in Orlando, Florida Cranston said 'Broderick was being considered, but it came to me because of the fact [creator and showrunner] Vince Gilligan said, "No, hes the guy"'; Broderick pictured with wife Sarah Jessica Parker in October in NYC Cranston won four Emmy Awards for his role, while his costars Aaron Paul (pictured) and Anna Gunn both won multiple Emmys as well He got just that in Gilligan, and Breaking Bad went on to be the most important work of his career. Cranston won four Emmy Awards for his role, while his costars Aaron Paul and Anna Gunn both won multiple Emmys as well. The series later led to the acclaimed spinoff Better Call Saul, which focused on the origin's of Bob Odenkirk's dirty attorney Saul Goodman, and it also received a Netflix sequel film, El Camino. Breaking Bad went on the air in January of 2008, and it wrapped up the second half of its fifth season in September 2013. Actress Isla Fisher who had been living in her native Australia with British husband Sacha Baron Cohen is house-hunting in Hampstead, north London. Sources told The Daily Mail's Alison Boshoff that she has a budget of 13 million, give or take, and is searching for a forever family home for her and their three children. The planned move is an indication that the couples split is being handled with an exemplary lack of animosity. Sacha is believed to be in the process of buying a London house of his own. A friend said: Its all about the kids and what is best for them; there seems to be no drama at all. Judging by the size of the budget, the family will now be based in London. But Isla is going to keep her place in Australia. Isla Fisher - who had been living in her native Australia with British husband Sacha Baron Cohen - is house-hunting in Hampstead, north London (pictured in Hampstead last month) Sacha is believed to be in the process of buying a London house of his own and a friend said: Its all about the kids and what is best for them' (pictured with Sacha) Isla, 48, is currently in the UK, as she is playing a single friend of the heroine in new film Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy. (Renee Zellweger is reprising her role as the unlucky-in-love Bridget, who this time dallies with a toyboy, played by One Days Leo Woodall). Isla and Sacha, 52, announced in April that they had quietly separated last year. The couple first met in 2001 and tied the knot in 2010. They are parents to three children. Insiders claim the marriage had been shaky for years, with Sacha reportedly struggling after making the sacrifice to relocate their family to Australia in 2020. They moved from Los Angeles to Sydney, then on to Perth where Islas family live in September 2021, to escape Sydneys strict Covid lockdown rules. It is thought Sacha will keep a house in Los Angeles for work. The split announcement came shortly after actress Rebel Wilson made claims about Sacha in her memoir, Rebel Rising, which he has denied. Rebel hit the headlines after she made several claims against her former Grimsby co-star Sacha, accusing him of inappropriate on set behaviour. Isla, 48, is currently in the UK, as she is playing a single friend of the heroine in new film Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy (pictured on set with writer Helen Fielding) In the book Rebel Rising, the actress wrote she 'rues the day' she met the actor, who she had described as her 'idol', first meeting at a dinner party hosted by Little Britain star Matt Lucas. A year later Sacha offered her a role in 2016 film Grimsby as Dawn, the wife of his character Nobby. Ahead of her memoir's release, Rebel named Sacha as the celebrity responsible for making threats over the book after which his representatives hit back. Taking to Instagram to confirm the identity, she wrote: 'I will not be silenced by high priced lawyers or PR crisis managers. The a****** I am talking about in ONE CHAPTER of my book is: Sacha Baron Cohen.' In the wake of her statement, Sacha spoke out to TMZ via representatives, saying: 'While we appreciate the importance of speaking out, these demonstrably false claims are directly contradicted by extensive detailed evidence... '[With] contemporaneous documents, film footage, and eyewitness accounts from those present before, during and after the production of The Brothers Grimsby.' The book was published in the US last month, and featured a chapter titled Sacha Baron Cohen And Other A**holes, where Rebel makes the claims about his alleged behaviour during the filming of Grimsby. However the UK copies feature the wording crudely blacked out due to what Rebel branded 'peculiarities' of English law. Isla has refused to comment on Rebel's claims against her estranged husband. Carol Vorderman made sure to make a statement with her outfit choice as she left Riverside Studios after recording Have I Got News For You on Thursday evening. The presenter, 63, who has become known for her anti-Tory posts on social media, encouraged people to vote as she sported a black top with a political message. Written in red capitals, it read: 'Voting is hot AF' with an X in the centre, representing the vote in the ballot box. She was joined by Eddie Izzard, who is also known by the name Suzy, as they two looked to be engaging in an animated conversation. The pair bumped into each other outside after Eddie, 62, finished performing Hamlet in the studio next door. Carol Vorderman made a political statement with her outfit choice as she encouraged the public to vote while leaving Riverside Studios after recording Have I Got News For You on Thursday evening The star was joined by Eddie Izzard as the pair appeared to engage in an animated exchange outside the studios The presenter, 63, who has become known for her anti-Tory posts on social media, sported a black top with a political message 'Voting is hot AF' written in red capitals Chatting the pair looked to be very involved in an intense conversation as Eddie put her hands up as if trying to get her point across. Meanwhile as Carol turned around she revealed the back of her top which read: 'Polled. People find voters 40% more attractive' with a marked box which repeated 'Voting is hot AF'. The star showcased her incredible physique as she paired the statement top with a pair of skinny black leather trousers. Adding some black ankle boots, Carol's hair was styled in voluminous waves while she picked up a packet of Tyrells crisps before heading home. She will appear on Have I Got News For You on BBC One on Friday at 9pm as she joins regulars Paul Merton and Ian Hislop, guest host Alex Horne and comedian Jack Dee. Carol has been incredibly vocal in her political views, especially after the announcement of the General Election on July 4. Putting her passion for politics into words, back in April she revealed that her first political book is coming out on September 21 - titled OUT OF ORDER : What's Gone Wrong with Britain and One Woman's Mission to Fix It. In an Instagram post, she described her work as a 'rip-roaring call to arms telling the web of political influence responsible for the UK's unravelling and how we can find our voice and stand up for what we believe in'. The pair bumped into each other outside after Eddie, 62, finished performing Hamlet in the studio next door Chatting the pair looked to be very involved in an intense conversation as Eddie put her hands up as if trying to get her point across Turning around, the back read: 'Polled. People find voters 40% more attractive' with a marked box which said 'Voting is hot AF' The star showcased her incredible physique as she paired the statement top with a pair of skinny black leather trousers Carol's hair was styled in voluminous waves while she picked up a packet of Tyrells crisps before heading home She looked to being enjoying the savoury snack 'I'm pulling no punches and telling some eye watering (and funny) tales you haven't heard before,' she teased. 'Can you guess some of the names which might feature?' Last November, Carol revealed that she was axed from her BBC Radio Wales show for breaching the broadcaster's new social media guidelines as she vowed to continue her anti-Tory posts online. The presenter, who has been at the station for five years, said she was 'not prepared to stop' venting her 'strong beliefs' on X and Instagram. She has since made appearances on LBC and upped how vocal she is about her political stances on social media. Speaking about her new book and tour, the former Countdown star said: 'I've been fighting this appalling Tory government with evidence and data, looking into the morally corrupt and questionable contracts they've signed with donors and associates. 'It's endless, and exhausting and heartbreaking. I've never known this country in such a state, with so little help and hope offered to those who need it. 'But the tide has turned and I'm proud to have been a part of it.' The star showcased her enviable curves in the tight trousers Carol looked to be whispering to Eddie as she covered her mouth with her hand Eddie posed with her hand on her hip Carol looked in good spirits as she climbed into the taxi with her crisps Putting her passion for politics into words, back in April she revealed that her first political book is coming out on September 21 - titled OUT OF ORDER : What's Gone Wrong with Britain and One Woman's Mission to Fix It Meanwhile Eddie is currently starring in a contemporary reworking of Shakespeare's classic tale Hamlet which sees her single-handedly deliver the tragedy Meanwhile Eddie is currently starring in a contemporary reworking of Shakespeare's classic tale Hamlet which sees her single-handedly deliver the tragedy. Across two hours, twenty minutes and five lengthy acts, the star plays every character - from the ultimately doomed Hamlet to Danish monarchs Claudius and Gertrude, Polonius, Horatio and Ophelia - and even the ghost of Hamlet's father. However Eddie's performance has fallen rather short among unimpressed critics. While admitting her not inconsiderable undertaking is a 'marathon achievement,' The Guardian also claims it resembles 'an avant-garde cabaret, at other times like bedroom mirror Shakespeare that should perhaps have stayed that way. 'There is humour, but this comes from Izzards comic gesturing or added lines (tedious old git Hamlet says of Polonius) rather than Shakespeares acid satire of Polonius or Hamlets wordplay and antic disposition.' Giving the play a disappointing two stars, the i Paper writes: 'Right from the start, it is apparent that Izzards take is simply too frenetic, little more than a glossy vanity project, an impressive feat of line-learning. Fresh off their UK tour Girls Aloud will be performing a free intimate gig at the O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire in London on July 2nd. The iconic girl group will take to the stage with classic hits with 700 pairs of tickets available to Virgin Media broadband and O2 mobile customers through Priority. The band which features Nicola Roberts, 38, Nadine Coyle, 38, Kimberley Walsh, 42, and Cheryl, 40, kicked off their comeback concerts last month. They are currently on tour for the first time since 2013 and, during each show, they have been paying tribute to late bandmate Sarah Harding. Following the announcement of their latest gig Kimberley said: 'We can't wait to perform our favourite songs in an intimate setting with fans at the Priority gig. It's going to be a really special evening and we can't wait to see some of you there!'. Fresh off their UK tour Girls Aloud will be performing a free intimate gig at the O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire in London on July 2nd (L-R) Nicola Roberts, Cheryl, Nadine Coyle, Kimberley Walsh The iconic girl group will take to the stage with classic hits with 700 pairs of tickets available to Virgin Media broadband and O2 mobile customers through Priority O2 and Virgin Media broadband customers have the chance to win a pair of free tickets through a ballot on the Priority app and website which opens on Monday 10th June and closes on Friday 21st June. Lucky Girls Aloud fans also have the opportunity to meet the band before the show via another ballot between Monday 17 June until Monday 24 June. Gareth Griffiths at Virgin Media O2, said: 'We're really excited to bring such an iconic pop-group like Girls Aloud to O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire for O2 and Virgin Media broadband customers to enjoy'. 'To be able to see such incredible artists up close and personal is what makes Priority so special and we can't wait for the show'. It comes after Nadine shared a sweet throwback snap with late Sarah, as she remembered her bandmate during their tour. Last weekend saw Girls Aloud play at Newcastle Utilita Arena, and Nadine, 38, took to her Instagram to admit it was bringing up memories of Sarah. She shared a photo of the pair backstage at the arena after finishing a concert, unwinding by lounging on a pair of sofas in the greenroom. Both girls could be seen still wearing matching sequinned red dresses and sipping on warm drinks as they fell about in fits of giggles. They are currently on tour for the first time since 2013 and, during each show, they have been paying tribute to late bandmate Sarah Harding O2 and Virgin Media broadband customers have the chance to win a pair of free tickets through a ballot on the Priority app and website which opens on Monday 10th June and closes on Friday 21st June Captioning the touching shot, Nadine wrote: 'This was the last time Sarah & i were in this arena together!!! This was when we finished the show & stayed laughing in our dresses!!' 'We are here again tonight & thinking about this time i was lucky enough to get to spend with Sarah!!!' She then admitted that losing her friend had given her better understanding of the need to appreciate those moments, saying: 'When they say love like there is no tomorrow, it makes so much more sense now!! Xx'. Her followers flooded the comments with supportive messages, including her fellow bandmates Kimberley and Nicola, who wrote 'Love this' and shared a string of heart emojis, respectively. It comes after Nadine became visibly emotional on the first night of their reunion tour in Dublin, as the band paid tribute to Sarah. It comes after Nadine shared a sweet throwback snap with late Sarah , as she remembered her bandmate during their tour Nadine, Nicola Roberts , Cheryl, and Kimberley Walsh made up the iconic girl band alongside Sarah until her tragic death from breast cancer in 2021 at the age of 39 (band seen in 2002) Their opening night had their late bandmate at its centre with a rendition of their iconic hit The Promise, which featured Sarah's vocals as she was shown in old footage singing on the screen. Nadine, Cheryl, Kimberley and Nicola turned around for the tribute to watch Sarah on the screen, with their backs to the audience. They then turned around after Sarah's vocals on part of the song had finished as they carried on with the next part of the tune. O2 and Virgin Media broadband customers have the chance to win a pair of free tickets for Girls Alouds' intimate gig through a ballot on the Priority app and website which opens on Monday 10th June and closes on Friday 21st June. Travers 'The Candyman' Beynon has announced that he has welcomed his fifth child. The tobacco tycoon, 52, took to his Instagram Stories on Friday to confirm that he had welcomed a baby boy as he shared sweet snaps of the little one. Travers, who is married to his wife Taesha, posted a snap of himself wearing a suit and smiling as he held his newborn son in his arms. He confirmed that his son was born on June 5 and shared the baby's adorable name - Santiago Beynon. Travers also shared sweet snaps of his son bundled up in a blanket and sleeping as he excitedly shared the news of his birth with his 994,000 followers. Travers 'The Candyman' Beynon has announced that he has welcomed his fifth child as he shared adorable snaps with his son Santiago to Instagram on Friday Travers, who is married to his wife Taesha, posted an adorable video of his newborn son after revealing that he was born on June 5 'Welcome to the world son,' Travers wrote alongside a video of him holding his newborn son's hand. Travers shares two daughters Velicia, 12, and Serafina, 11, with his wife Taesha and has two other children - Valentino, 24, and Luciana, 22 - from his previous marriage to Ninibeth Leal. Travers' eldest son Valentino also took to Instagram to gush over the arrival of his baby brother Santiago as he shared an array of sweet snaps of the newborn. In 2018, Travers shared his desire to have more children, admitting he originally wanted 10 kids but would be happy with six children. He told The Mirror at the time: 'When I was a teenager I wanted 10 children, but six will do now, I would be happy with two more boys. Travers also shared sweet snaps of his son bundled up in a blanket and sleeping alongside the names of his other four children 'Taesha texted me today actually, and can I read this out? She said, "I really want a baby boy with you....like now".' In December, Travers put his extravagant 14-bedroom, 13-bathroom Gold Coast 'Candy Shop Mansion' on the market. Ahead of the birth of his son Santiago, Travers decided to relocate with his wife Taesha to a more appropriate location to raise a young child. The palatial property sits on a whopping 1.4 acres of lavish waterfront real estate and its exquisite architecture takes inspiration from European grandeur. Some of its jaw-dropping features include a grand ballroom, a 15-seat Gold Class standard cinema, a large outdoor pool and a nine car basement garage. Travers shares daughters Velicia, 12, and Serafina, 11, with Taesha and has kids Valentino, 24, and Luciana, 22 (both pictured with Travers and one of his younger daughters) from his previous marriage to Ninibeth Leal The opulent property, which has hosted many wild parties over the years, sits behind large two-ton crested gates and features a gorgeous sandstone driveway and marble-clad majestic courtyard. Its highly desirable location is close to a variety of amenities including world renowned Surfers Paradise shopping centres, restaurants and beach. Travers previously lived on the stately property with his wife of 14 years Taesha and his 'harem' of girlfriends. Travers and his wife Taesha have a polyamorous relationship and have previously spoken openly about how they continue to make their marriage work. Last January, Taesha revealed she and Travers were looking for 'new girlfriends' in a post shared to social media. Travers and his wife Taesha have a polyamorous relationship and have previously spoken openly about their marriage 'Married to Travers Beynon hot girls welcome. The only man for me, but we are looking for new girlfriends,' she wrote at the time. The couple split from their 'main' girlfriend, Queensland barmaid Nisha Downes, in 2022. She used to feature regularly on the couple's social media pages. Speaking to Daily Mail Australia in 2018, Travers previously gave an insight into his marriage to his wife Taesha and their polyamorous arrangement. 'We're very happy. I've been married to my wife for eight years and our relationship - in a fun sense, in a family sense, and in a sexual sense - is like we first met,' he shared. While Taesha added: 'Trav and I have a very strong marriage and a very strong relationship - we make enough time to spend one on one together. I feel like I'm always the centre of his life.' Travers is the managing director of Freechoice Tobacco and is said to be worth $200million. Baby Reindeer stars Richard Gadd and Jessica Gunning brushed off the furore surrounding the bombshell Netflix drama to attend a SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations event in New York on Thursday. After it was revealed that the 'real-life Martha' Fiona Harvey was suing the streaming platform for $50 million, the pair took to the stage at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Robin Williams Center. Jessica, who played Donny's stalker Martha in the series, opted for a green satin jumpsuit as she posed for snaps with co-star Richard. Richard, who created and starred in the series following his own experience as a victim of stalking, also chatted about his role in the show. On Thursday, it was revealed that the woman who claims she is the inspiration for Baby Reindeer is suing Netflix for $50million. Baby Reindeer stars Richard Gadd and Jessica Gunning brushed off the furore surrounding the show to attend a SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations event in New York on Thursday On Thursday, it was revealed that the woman who claims she is the inspiration for Baby Reindeer is suing Netflix for $50million After jetting to the US to promote the series, Jessica and Richard were in high spirits as they attended the SAF-AFTRA event Fiona Harvey, who says lead character Martha's life is based on her own, denies ever going to prison or to court, as the show portrays. Harvey alleges Netflix allowed viewers to track her down in real life and that she is now being inundated with abuse, according to legal papers obtained by TMZ. In the series Martha is depicted as a bunny-boiling stalker who is constantly harassing the protagonist Donny, played by Richard. Harvey claims that she is being bombarded with hate from around the world because of how Martha is portrayed in the Netflix hit. She asserts that she never stalked Gadd, did not sexually assault him, nor was she ever convicted of stalking. The Scot alleges that Netflix led viewers to believe that fictional elements of the show were factual. As a result, Harvey is suing the show for defamation, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and violations of right of publicity, among other charges. She is demanding more than $50million in damages. The pair were also joined by actress Nava Mau, who played Teri, Donny's girlfriend in the show Jessica, who played Donny's stalker Martha in the series, opted for a green satin jumpsuit as she posed for snaps Richard created and starred in the show Baby Reindeer, after his own experience as a victim of stalking Jessica was greeted by a group of fans as she exited the event, and stopped to sign autographs On Thursday, it was revealed that the woman who claims she is the inspiration for Baby Reindeer is suing Netflix for $50million Fiona Harvey, who says lead character Martha's life is based on her own, denies ever going to prison or to court, as the show portrays Harvey alleges Netflix allowed viewers to track her down in real life and that she is now being inundated with abuse, according to legal papers obtained by TMZ In the series Martha is depicted as a bunny-boiling stalker who is constantly harassing the protagonist Donny, played by Richard Harvey claims that she is being bombarded with hate from around the world because of how Martha is portrayed in the Netflix hit It was previously revealed that the show's writer, Richard Gadd, who based the premise on his own experiences, told production company Clerkenwell Films his stalker was never convicted It was previously revealed exclusively in the Mail that the show's writer, Richard Gadd, who plays himself and based the premise on his own experiences, told production company Clerkenwell Films that his stalker was never convicted. Sources indicate that Gadd told Clerkenwell that the stalker was the subject of an 'exclusion order' a civil order and not the same as a criminal conviction of stalking. This means that the show was always a fictionalized dramatization though it went out under a banner which read 'this is a true story'. Embarrassingly, a Netflix executive, Benjamin King, recently told a Commons committee that Gadd had suffered at the hands of 'a convicted stalker'. It's not clear how Clerkenwell Films described the situation to Netflix, or what compliance procedures were undertaken. Gadd previously said Martha's identity was so well disguised that she would not recognize herself but internet sleuths swiftly identified Harvey as Martha. The actress who plays the character, Jessica Gunning, bears a strong resemblance to her. In a previous interview, Gadd has said that the situation was 'resolved' but did not explain how. He added: 'It's very emotionally true. I was severely stalked and abused.' In an interview with Piers Morgan, Harvey denied the stalking allegations though admitted she had met Gadd several times in Camden, north London. She has instructed The Roth Law Firm in New York. Amelia Gray made sure all eyes were on her as she attended the Desigual's Spring/Summer '25 show in Barcelona on Thursday. The American model, 22, flashed plenty of skin as she showcased her toned abs in a sheer boho style black top with plunging neckline. Amelia went braless in the daring waistcoat style piece which was adorned with a floral patterns. The star, who is the daughter of Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin, paired the look with some low-waisted black cargo pants as she pouted in snaps. Elevating her height with some black strappy heels, Amelia accessorised the look with some dangly star earrings and matching necklace. Amelia Gray went braless in boho style sheer top as she attended Desigual fashion show in Barcelona on Thursday The American model, 22, flashed plenty of skin as she showcased her toned abs in the daring waistcoat style piece which was adorned with a floral patterns Paris Jackson also attend the show after she made her runway return at the Alexander Wang show on Wednesday in New York City's SoHo neighbourhood, just hour before heading to Spain. The Wilted artist, 26, donned a black leather bondage look while walking in the She wore a crisscrossed harness featuring metal bolts, layered under an oversized beige hoodie. Paris' look was finished with a pair of thigh-high distressed leather boots featuring buckles and straps. The Swarm actress shared a behind-the-scenes look at her runway look, posting a backstage photo to her Instagram Story. 'Thank you @alexanderwangny,' Paris wrote with a low-lit selfie in a sleeveless top. Paris was in Barcelona by the next day, attending the Desigual's Spring/Summer '25 show. She previously shared a clip of herself settling in on her flight. 'Ready to sleep on this red-eye,' wrote Paris. The star, who is the daughter of Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin, paired the look with some low-waisted black cargo pants as she pouted in snaps Elevating her height with some black strappy heels, Amelia accessorised the look with some dangly star earrings and matching necklace She appeared in great spirits as she kept her makeup to a minimum and styled her dark hair straight Paris Jackson also attend the show after she made her runway return at the Alexander Wang show on Wednesday in New York City 's SoHo neighbourhood Just hours later Pairs was in Barcelona for the Desigual's Spring/Summer '25 show Paris looked chic in a black button-down shirt dress with long billowy sleeves and a short ruffled skirt. The Soundflowers artist finished the look with a pair of strappy black stilettos and layers of necklaces and bracelets. She framed her stunning glam look with a wavy blonde hairstyle that glowed under the Spanish sunset. Paris sat front row at the runway show with Spanish actress and model Ester Exposito, who donned a strapless multi-coloured dress. The Sex Appeal actress previously took in the hottest new looks as she attended Paris Fashion Week in March. Although she signed with IMG Models in 2017, Jackson has mostly focused on acting and music in recent years. She previously shared a clip of herself settling in on her flight. 'Ready to sleep on this red-eye,' wrote Paris The Swarm actress shared a behind-the-scenes look at her runway look, posting a backstage photo to her Instagram Story. 'Thank you @alexanderwangny,' Paris wrote with a low-lit selfie in a sleeveless top Paris looked chic in a black button-down shirt dress with long billowy sleeves and a short ruffled skirt as she attended the Desigual show The Soundflowers artist finished the look with a pair of strappy black stilettos and layers of necklaces and bracelets She framed her stunning glam look with a wavy blonde hairstyle that glowed under the Spanish sunset Although she signed with IMG Models in 2017, Paris has mostly focused on acting and music in recent years Paris sat front row at the runway show with Spanish actress and model Ester Exposito, who donned a strapless multi-colored dress In addition to dropping her debut album Wilted in 2020, Jackson has also starred in the movies Gringo (2018) and Habit (2021), as well as Star, MTV's Scream series and American Horror Stories. Paris remains serious about fashion, donning a black Celine dress while attending the 66th Grammy Awards in February. She went as far as using makeup to cover her 80 tattoos in order to 'give this Celine dress its own moment.' 'I love the piercings, the tattoos, all the body mod stuff, but sometimes it can distract from the art,' Paris told Extra TV at the time. The woman who claims she is the inspiration for Netflix's stalking drama Baby Reindeer is suing the streaming platform for more than 130million. Fiona Harvey has accused the streaming platform of defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, gross negligence, and violations of her right of publicity in the lawsuit filed in a US court. Harvey claimed to be the inspiration behind the character of Martha Scott, who stalks Richard Gadd's character Donny Dunn after he serves her a free cup of tea in the pub where he works. The show is said to be based on the real-life experiences of comedian and writer Gadd. After the show was aired, he asked viewers not to speculate over the real people who inspired the series. In the new lawsuit filed this week, Harvey has accused Netflix of spreading 'brutal lies', including that she is a 'twice convicted stalker who was sentenced to five years in prison'. Speaking to BBC News on Thursday, Ms Harvey said she was certain that Netflix would lose the case and added: 'I have no doubt about that. Otherwise, we wouldn't be doing it. We think we are going to win.' Fiona Harvey is seeking at least 170 million dollars (133 million) in a lawsuit filed against Netflix Fiona Harvey, who says lead character Martha's life (pictured) is based on her own, denies ever going to prison or to court, as the show portrays The lawsuit, filed at the Californian federal court, states: 'Defendants told these lies, and never stopped, because it was a better story than the truth, and better stories made money. 'As a result of defendants' lies, malfeasance and utterly reckless misconduct, Harvey's life had been ruined.' The court documents allege Netflix 'did literally nothing' to confirm that the story represented was true, stating that Harvey 'has never been convicted of any crime and has never been to prison.' The lawsuit seeks actual damages and compensatory damages at 50 million dollars (39 million) each; punitive damages at 20 million dollars (16 million); as well as 'all profits' from Baby Reindeer at 50 million dollars (39 million). This totals 133 million. Harvey also claims that she is being bombarded with hate from around the world because of how Martha is portrayed in the Netflix hit. She asserts that she never stalked Gadd, did not sexually assault him, nor was she ever convicted of stalking. Harvey says the show, which features Richard Gadd and Jessica Gunning (pictured), makes false claims about her Richard Gadd, who wrote and starred in the miniseries, pictured in north London The Scot alleges that Netflix led viewers to believe that fictional elements of the show were factual. It was previously revealed exclusively in the Mail that the show's writer, Gadd, who plays himself and based the premise on his own experiences, told makers Clerkenwell Films that his stalker was never convicted. Sources indicate that Gadd told Clerkenwell that the stalker was the subject of an 'exclusion order' a civil order and not the same as a criminal conviction of stalking. This means that the show was always a fictionalized dramatization though it went out under a banner which read 'this is a true story'. Netflix executive, Benjamin King, recently told a Commons committee that Gadd had suffered at the hands of 'a convicted stalker'. It's not clear how Clerkenwell Films described the situation to Netflix, or what compliance procedures were undertaken. Gadd previously said Martha's identity was so well disguised that she would not recognize herself but internet sleuths swiftly identified Harvey as Martha. Jessica Gunning as Martha in Netflix drama Baby Reindeer Richard and Jessica pictured at the photo call in Los Angeles last month The actress who plays the character, Jessica Gunning, bears a strong resemblance to her. In a previous interview, Gadd has said that the situation was 'resolved' but did not explain how. He added: 'It's very emotionally true. I was severely stalked and abused.' In an interview with Piers Morgan, Harvey denied the stalking allegations though admitted she had met Gadd several times in Camden, north London. Richard Roth, a New York-based lawyer representing Ms Harvey, said on Thursday that he has 'incontrovertible documentary evidence' proving that his client has never been convicted of a crime. In response to the lawsuit, a statement from Netflix said: 'We intend to defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadd's right to tell his story.' Ekin-Su Culculoglu has vowed to expose all in her bombshell memoir, including what really happened in her relationship with Davide before their split. The Love Island winner, 29, who met Davide on the ITV2 dating show, confirmed she had parted ways with the Italian businessman, also 29, in February, for a second time as she blamed a 'rollercoaster of ups and downs' in their romance. Now, Ekin-Su's new tell-all book will see her open up on childhood trauma and bullying, as well as looking back on her experiences taking part in reality shows such as Love Island, The Traitors US and Celebrity Big Brother. She told The Sun: 'It's everything, my experience with Davide, there's a lot in there. I'm done hiding. I'm done lying and protecting other people, this is my truth.' She added that writing the book felt 'like therapy' and said she 'want people to know me for me, not the work Ive done or the wronguns Ive dated.' Ekin-Su Culculoglu has vowed to expose all in her bombshell memoir, including what really happened in her relationship with Davide before their split The Love Island winner, 29, who met Davide on the ITV2 dating show, confirmed she had parted ways with the Italian businessman, also 29, in February, for a second time as she blamed a 'rollercoaster of ups and downs' in their romance It comes after Ekin-Su spoke about the real reason for her out of character behaviour in the Celebrity Big Brother house, noting that it was down to how Davide had allegedly treated her. She insisted the devastating effect of his alleged deceit from her ex-boyfriend prior to their January split, which left her heartbroken. Ekin-Su skipped the Big Brother final in March after her management felt she was too 'vulnerable' to return in light of her turbulent time on the ITV series and subsequent drama-filled spin-off show appearance. The Turkish actress claimed she made a mistake by going into the house after being told Davide had cheated on her and seeing possible evidence for herself. She told The Sun: 'I should never have gone into the Big Brother house. I was angry, hurt, maybe a bit bitter, definitely insecure - Big Brother is not where you go to heal heartache, let me tell you. 'I went into the show thinking that I could rebuild myself after everything that happened with Davide, but I came off worse. My guard was up. 'I blame myself for making a poor choice in my career. People could see that I wasn't myself, and I can understand why they thought I was being fake.' She added: 'I never wanted to believe the allegations against Davide but people would tell me I was being cheated on all the time. I was so scared of being alone, and I didn't know who the hell Ekin-Su was meant to be without him.' Now, Ekin-Su's new tell-all book will see her open up on childhood trauma and bullying, as well as looking back on her experiences taking part in reality shows such as Love Island, The Traitors US and Celebrity Big Brother The couple had a turbulent 18-month relationship since they first met in the Love Island villa in 2022 after winning the show together (pictured in 2022 on Love Island) Taking to Instagram in January, Ekin-Su confirmed she had parted ways with the Italian businessman Cracks appeared in her relationship with Davide less than a month after they won Love Island as a couple in the summer of 2022. Hunky Davide was seen leaving a party with two blondes in August of that year. Ekin-Su said she was left in floods of tears after learning of the incident, insisting she did not want to believe Davide would treat her badly. When she asked him 'how could you do this to me', she claims he simply replied: 'Excuse me?' While filming their ITV2 show Homecomings, Ekin-Su said she saw pictures of Davide with females on his phone. He claims she saw images of two blonde girls in his Manchester flat wearing his clothes. Ekin-Su did not want to make anything of the situation at the time because they were being filmed. The television personality went on to claim Davide cheated on her with a girl called Harriet Wilson, with Harriet contacting Ekin-Su to tell her. Ekin-Su said that at another time Davide left his laptop open and she saw sexually explicit messages between him and a girl she herself had met on New Year's Eve. She said seeing those messages 'broke something in me'. It comes after Ekin-Su spoke about the real reason for her out of character behaviour in the Celebrity Big Brother house, noting that it was down to how Davide had allegedly treated her The Love Island star spoke about the devastating effect of the hunk's alleged deceit with other women prior to their January split, branding the relationship 'toxic' (pictured together in 2023) While filming their ITV2 show Homecomings (pictured), Ekin-Su said she saw pictures of Davide with females on his phone Actress Ekin-Su said she did not want to be embarrassed amid the cheating allegations so did her best not to react publicly but also wanted to protect Davide. Davide was later spotted snorting a suspicious white powder in Ibiza while Ekin-Su was at home in the UK. When Ekin-Su went away in September last year to film the US version of The Traitors, she returned to the UK to learn Davide had been out partying in Manchester with her love rival Harriet. It is also claimed he went on a secret holiday to Morocco with an OnlyFans model but did not tell Ekin-Su the truth when he returned. Ekin-Su said she had a rude awakening when Davide disrespected her mother during a trip to Rome, Italy. She said Davide had called paparazzi so he could get pictured making a fake proposal to her in front of the Colesseum in the city. Ekin-Su said her mother was furious as she knew her daughter was desperate for him to propose to her for real, adding that Davide told her mother to 'f**k off' when the moment did not go to his liking. Ekin-Su also said that she should never have appeared on Celebrity Big Brother due to her still suffering a broken heart following the break up (Ekin-Su, left, seen with Sharon Osbourne, right, on the show in March) Ekin skipped the show final after her management felt she was too 'vulnerable' to return in light of her turbulent time on the ITV series (pictured on Celebrity Big Brother: Late and Live in March) However, they stayed together as they had a ski trip planned and Ekin-Su felt attached to him due to feelings of guilt. She insists she never betrayed Davide but there were times when she was furious and did react, with the pair arguing. MailOnline has contacted Davide for comment. He told The Sun: ' I'm sorry to hear that Ekin still feels the need to talk about me in order to have a storyline. 'I haven't mentioned her to respect our past and because I never wanted to. I don't understand her claims since I was alone and single on all my holidays. 'I could have mentioned the messages I found on her phone many times, but I didn't. I didn't watch Big Brother, but I heard she showed her true self. 'She should wash her mouth before talking about me.' Alessandra Ambrosio enjoyed dinner with film producer Mohammed al-Turki as the two were spotted leaving Giorgio Baldi restaurant in Santa Monica on Thursday evening. The pair shared a tight embrace after spending the evening together after they recently spent time together at Cannes Film Festival. Looking stylish, Alessandra, 43, opted for a black leather jacket which she paired with a simple black T-shirt and straight cut blue denim jeans. The Brazilian model completed her look with some black pointed leather boots as she beamed in snaps while Mohammad grabbed her waist. Meanwhile the Saudi Arabian film producer, 37, matched her outfit with a black buttoned up jacket, denim jeans and black trainers. Alessandra Ambrosio embraced film producer Mohammed al-Turki as the pair enjoyed a dinner date at Giorgio Baldi restaurant in Santa Monica on Thursday evening Looking stylish, Alessandra, 43, opted for a black leather jacket which she paired with a simple black T-shirt and straight cut blue denim jeans The pair were last linked at Cannes last month as they spent the morning snapping selfies together at the famous Eden Roc hotel, enjoying the sunshine during the giggly shoot. Mohammed has previously been linked to another world famous model, attending events with Naomi Campbell, 54, recently. He accompanied Naomi to the BAFTAs in London in February, and the pair were seen holding hands on the night. The couple posed together on the red carpet, and reportedly stayed close to each other all night, according to The Sun. Naomi and Mohammed have been seen to be firm friends for several years, with Mohammed sharing a snap with the beauty on his Instagram in November 2021 in Doha. Al Turki ('Mo' to his friends), who is the boss of the Red Sea Film Festival, made his first public appearance with Naomi the following month at the festival, as they pair arrived together linking arms. They have been fixtures at each other's sides at many events since, including Cannes film festival last year, Paris Fashion Week in 2022 and 2023 and several exclusive parties, like Edward Enninfuls recent birthday bash. At a special birthday event held for Naomi last year in France, Mohammed was seen sat right by the birthday girl for the evening. The Brazilian model completed her look with some black pointed leather boots as she beamed in snaps while Mohammad grabbed her waist Mohammed has previously been linked to another world famous model, attending events with Naomi Campbell, 54, after the pair were most recently seen together at the BAFTAs in February (pictured) However a friend of Naomi has shot down reports of a romance, telling the Mail last month: 'It isn't a romance - all her friends know that he is actually in love with another model and in a settled relationship with them (pictured in October) However a friend of Naomi has shot down reports of a romance, telling the Mail last month: 'It isn't a romance - all her friends know that he is actually in love with another model and in a settled relationship with them. 'Naomi is single and focuses on her children and her sobriety.' Alessanda meanwhile was most recently linked to model Richard Lee, but Dailymail.com reported in September 2023 that the two were on a break. 'They have not been spending much time together this summer,' a source told DailyMail.com. 'She has been with pals and kids, and he has been working so they have drifted apart and have not been dating for a while.' The last time the couple were photographed together was last June in Santa Monica as they were on the beach together playing volleyball. Alison Hammond confirmed the return of The Great Celebrity Bake Off during the opening moments of Friday's This Morning. The 49-year-old and co-host Dermot O'Leary, 51, told viewers what they had been up to throughout the week when she revealed she'd been busy filming the beloved Channel 4 cookery competition. Alison and Noel Fielding, 51, present The Great British Bake Off and it's celeb spin-off where famous faces compete in the iconic tent to raises money for Stand Up To Cancer. Speaking on Friday she told Dermot, who previously competed in the competition: 'I've missed you, how's your week been?' before revealing: 'I've been doing Bake Off, Celebrity Bake Off, it's been great'. Alison Hammond confirmed the return of The Great Celebrity Bake Off during the opening moments of Friday's This Morning (pictured with co-host Dermot O'Leary) Alison and Noel Fielding, 51, present The Great British Bake Off and it's celeb spin-off where famous faces compete in the tent to raises money for Stand Up To Cancer (pictured wih co-host Noel and judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith) After his ears suddenly pricked up, Alison, who replaced Matt Lucas as Bake Off co-host last year, teased: 'But I can't tell you any of the celebrities you're gonna have to wait, you're gonna have to wait'. Before giggling: 'Ok, I might tell you in private'. Previous celebrity line-ups have included Jodie Whittaker, Danny Dyer, Teri Hatcher, James McAvoy and Ellie Goulding. It comes after Dame Prue Leith admitted that she almost didn't apply to replace Mary Berry on the Great British Bake Off as she feared she wouldn't tick the 'diversity boxes'. The restaurateur, 84, has been a judge on the cooking competition since she replaced Mary Berry 2016. However, this very nearly wasn't the case as Prue reveals she initially completely dismissed the idea. It was revealed that the women had known each other since the 1970s when a photo of them with broadcaster Jack de Manio (1914-1988) was unearthed. Prue told the Sliding Doors podcast with Jennie Becker: 'I just jumped at it. I had begun to think about it, once I knew Mary Berry was not going to go on. I thought: "Oh, Id love that job", but I dismissed the thought. Speaking on Friday she told Dermot 'I've missed you, how's your week been?' before revealing: 'I've been doing Bake Off, Celebrity Bake Off, it's been great' Alison teased Dermot, who previously competed in the competition (pictured) saying: 'But I can't tell you any of the celebrities you're gonna have to wait, you're gonna have to wait' Previous celebrity line-ups have also included Jodie Whittaker, Danny Dyer (pictured) Teri Hatcher, James McAvoy and Ellie Goulding. 'I thought: "Theyll get someone younger, someone more . . . probably a young Asian chef or something, that would tick all the diversity boxes and stuff. But no, they chose me." 'If you think about my past career, Id had 11 years sitting at the Great British Menu as a judge and every plate has about ten tastes on it - it makes Bake Off look really simple. 'With cake, with one spoonful, you can get the icing, the filling and the crumb. I knew all the top chefs, I had a Michelin restaurant of my own so I knew that level of cooking very well.' The connection to baking specialist Maty extends to Prue's own husband, fashion designer John Playfair, 77, who frequently uses it to his advantage while commenting on his wife's cooking. It comes after Dame Prue Leith (R) admitted that she almost didn't apply to replace Mary Berry (L) on the Great British Bake Off as she feared she wouldn't tick the 'diversity boxes' (both pictured in 2017) Prue (centre) and Mary (left) have known each other since at least the 1970s (pictured with broadcaster Jack de Manio [1914-1988]) 'I wont bake cakes since we are both too fat, so he taunts me with, "I wish Id married Mary Berry,"' she said. At the time of Prue's arrival, fans, already disgruntled by the move from BBC to Channel 4 and the loss of Mary, Sue Perkins, and Mel Giedroyc, did not warm to her. Prue told The Times in February: 'Oh, I hate my voice. Its too posh. When I replaced Mary Berry on Bake Off someone on Twitter said: "Oh no, not that posh b**ch", and I sort of agreed with her. But yes, Americans seem to like it.' Ashley Roberts put on a fiery display as she stepped out from Heart Radio Breakfast Show studios on Friday. The radio DJ, 42, looked incredible as she wore a figure-flattering red mesh abstract bodycon midi dress from River Island, which cost 40. She accessorised her summery ensemble with a glamourous cherry red woven shoulder bag and and some 80s-inspired sunglasses. Adding inches to her statuesque frame, the blonde beauty slipped into a pair of shiny red toe-pointed stilletos. The former Pussycat Doll is the showbiz reporter for Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden. Ashley Roberts, 42, put on a fiery display in a bargain 40 River Island bodycon dress as she left Heart Radio Breakfast Show studios on Friday The radio DJ, looked incredible as she wore a figure-flattering red mesh abstract bodycon midi dress Next week, however, Amanda is away on holiday so Davina McCall will be stepping in to host with Jamie every weekday morning from 6.30am - 10am. Davina said of her new role: 'Im so excited to be stepping in for Amanda to guest host Heart Breakfast. 'Ive known Jamie for forever so this isnt going to be like work, more like a two week playdate! I love listening to Heart, on the train, at home, anywhere really! 'I cant wait to get into the Heart studios and play all the best feel-good music for you all!' Amanda will return to Heart Breakfast on Monday, June 24. On Saturday, Ashley and Diana Vickers led the glamour as they arrived at the Mighty Hoopla music festival in London's Brockwell Park. Ashley commanded attention in a shiny faux leather crop top and matching flared trousers while Diana looked gorgeous in a 'Gays Need Sleep' crop top. For the weekend event, fellow The X Factor alum Cher Lloyd returned to the stage for the first time in almost two years. She accessorised her summery ensemble with a glamourous cherry red woven shoulder bag and and some 80s-inspired sunglasses Adding inches to her statuesque frame, the blonde beauty slipped into a pair of shiny red toe-pointed stilletos It came after Ashley enjoyed a lavish break in Turkey with her tattoo artist boyfriend George Rollinson. Ashley and George, 25, publicly enjoyed a 300-a-night stay at D-Resort Gocek after previously hiding their relationship. Despite being together for the best part of a year, the couple did not go Instagram official till April. They travelled to the Chipping Norton retreat for some down time, during which they shared their first photo as a couple. George is Ashley's first serious partner since her separation from Strictly Come Dancing professional Giovanni Pernice in 2020. Ashley was in much higher spirits during the outing, following the sad death of her friend Anthony TJ Paradise. On Wednesday, she took to Instagram to pay tribute to her friend with a series of joyful snaps of the pair and write: 'Cant (sic) believe weve had to say good bye. Next week, Amanda Holden is away on holiday o Davina McCall will be stepping in to host with Jamie Theakston and Ashley every weekday morning from 6.30am - 10am. It came after Ashley enjoyed a lavish break in Turkey with her tattoo artist boyfriend George Rollinson, 25 'Our handsome TJ. Ill remember your kindness, those beautiful brown eyes, your big heart, your insane cooking skills (those meatballs) and how you and Bobby always opened your gorgeous home to me. 'Weve been friends for so long. Wish this wasnt true. May you rest in peace dear friend. Spread those wings angel. You will be forever loved.' 'Even though I'm not exactly saying anything I should have - nay be writing more in the amount of time than I did? How to increase typing speed I wonder. Sometimes it's scarily fast. 'So sorry @bobbynewberry my heart breaks for you. Love you so much Swiss. Youre not alone.' Baby Reindeer star Richard Gadd appeared to enjoy the limelight last night as he appeared on primetime US chat show The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. This comes as 'real-life Martha' Fiona Harvey - who claims she is the inspiration for Netflix's stalking drama - says she is suing the streaming platform for more than 130million. She has accused Netflix of defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, gross negligence, and violations of her right of publicity in the lawsuit filed in a US court. But despite the possibility of an impending legal battle, Gadd and co-star Jessica Gunning, who plays Martha, were in very good spirits when being quizzed by Fallon, who opened by commending him on being lauded by the Telegraph as one of the top 50 funniest comedians of the 21st Century. 'The revered 23rd spot,' Gadd quipped. 'Funnily enough one ahead of Chris Rock. I hear he's absolutely furious.' Baby Reindeer star Richard Gadd (pictured) appeared to enjoy the limelight last night as he appeared on primetime US chat show The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon Fiona Harvey is seeking at least 170 million dollars (133 million) in a lawsuit filed against Netflix Fiona Harvey, who says lead character Martha's life (pictured) is based on her own, denies ever going to prison or to court, as the show portrays He explained how the inspiration for the show came from the 'traumatic stuff' in his life, and him doing the Baby Reindeer show at Edinburgh Fringe in 2019 about how he was 'stalked and harassed'. 'It just took off, it was this crazy thing. Netflix came to me, they said "do you want to make it into a series" and I said "yeah, go on then".' Gadd told Fallon that the show's success has changed life, saying: 'I remember when the show went out, it was this big deal for me because I was a comedian playing to five people in the back-end of pubs as of a couple of months ago.' He added: 'It felt like overnight it just exploded. My phone was going off, my doorbell was ringing, everyone just seemed to be discussing it. 'I kept having these points where I thought "this is as big as it gets". I got to number eight in the UK, I thought "that's about it", then it got to number one. 'Then it was number one over here [the US]. 'Then it was number one in Qatar and Lebanon and Saudi Arabia and all these places I really want to be big in. 'It's crazy - it's almost had this cross-cultural success that I never expected as it's so singular and it's so idiosyncratic and it's very London and it's such an odd story - and a weird traumatic story, but I guess a lot of people are suffering right now.' Richard Gadd (left) and Jessica Gunning (centre) on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (right) to talk about Baby Reindeer Harvey says the show, which features Richard Gadd and Jessica Gunning (pictured), makes false claims about her Richard Gadd, who wrote and starred in the miniseries, pictured in north London Harvey claimed to be the inspiration behind the character of Martha Scott, who stalks Richard Gadd's character Donny Dunn after he serves her a free cup of tea in the pub where he works. The show is said to be based on the real-life experiences of comedian and writer Gadd. After the show was aired, he asked viewers not to speculate over the real people who inspired the series. In the new lawsuit filed this week, Harvey has accused Netflix of spreading 'brutal lies', including that she is a 'twice convicted stalker who was sentenced to five years in prison'. Speaking to BBC News on Thursday, Ms Harvey said she was certain that Netflix would lose the case and added: 'I have no doubt about that. Otherwise, we wouldn't be doing it. We think we are going to win.' The lawsuit, filed at the Californian federal court, states: 'Defendants told these lies, and never stopped, because it was a better story than the truth, and better stories made money. 'As a result of defendants' lies, malfeasance and utterly reckless misconduct, Harvey's life had been ruined.' The court documents allege Netflix 'did literally nothing' to confirm that the story represented was true, stating that Harvey 'has never been convicted of any crime and has never been to prison.' The lawsuit seeks actual damages and compensatory damages at 50 million dollars (39 million) each; punitive damages at 20 million dollars (16 million); as well as 'all profits' from Baby Reindeer at 50 million dollars (39 million). This totals 133 million. Harvey also claims that she is being bombarded with hate from around the world because of how Martha is portrayed in the Netflix hit. She asserts that she never stalked Gadd, did not sexually assault him, nor was she ever convicted of stalking. Jessica Gunning as Martha in Netflix drama Baby Reindeer Richard and Jessica pictured at the photo call in Los Angeles last month The Scot alleges that Netflix led viewers to believe that fictional elements of the show were factual. It was previously revealed exclusively in the Mail that the show's writer, Gadd, who plays himself and based the premise on his own experiences, told makers Clerkenwell Films that his stalker was never convicted. Sources indicate that Gadd told Clerkenwell that the stalker was the subject of an 'exclusion order' a civil order and not the same as a criminal conviction of stalking. This means that the show was always a fictionalized dramatization though it went out under a banner which read 'this is a true story'. Netflix executive, Benjamin King, recently told a Commons committee that Gadd had suffered at the hands of 'a convicted stalker'. It's not clear how Clerkenwell Films described the situation to Netflix, or what compliance procedures were undertaken. Gadd previously said Martha's identity was so well disguised that she would not recognize herself but internet sleuths swiftly identified Harvey as Martha. The actress who plays the character, Jessica Gunning, bears a strong resemblance to her. In a previous interview, Gadd has said that the situation was 'resolved' but did not explain how. He added: 'It's very emotionally true. I was severely stalked and abused.' In an interview with Piers Morgan, Harvey denied the stalking allegations though admitted she had met Gadd several times in Camden, north London. Richard Roth, a New York-based lawyer representing Ms Harvey, said on Thursday that he has 'incontrovertible documentary evidence' proving that his client has never been convicted of a crime. In response to the lawsuit, a statement from Netflix said: 'We intend to defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadd's right to tell his story.' A portrait of one of Australia's bestselling authors has won the 2024 Archibald Prize. Artist Laura Jones took home the prestigious art prize, which invites artists to paint a portrait of a well-known Australian, for her artwork of Cloudstreet writer Tim Winton. She was named as the winner of the $100,000 prize after a unanimous decision in what she described as a 'life-changing moment'. Speaking to The Project on Friday, the four-time finalist of the competition said: 'I got the biggest shock of my life this morning. Heart beating out of my chest it was crazy.' Jones said she met non-fiction and novel author Winton at an environmentalist event, and eventually convinced the reluctant writer to sit for her. A portrait of one of Australia's bestselling authors has won the 2024 Archibald Prize. Artist Laura Jones took home the art prize for her artwork of Cloudstreet writer Tim Winton Jones took home the $100,00 prize after meeting non-fiction and novel author Winton at an environmentalist event, and eventually convincing the reluctant writer to sit for her The artist said the generous prize money will allow her to buy 'a lot more canvases and keep me going as an artist' for a lot longer than she expected. Winton is one of Australia's best-selling authors and most celebrated authors and has produced works of fiction, non-fiction and children's books as well as scripts. He is well-known for his works Breath, The Turning and Blueback, while his writing has also been adapted into plays, TV series and films. Winton has also won the Miles Franklin Award four times and was named a Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia in 1997. The win comes after another finalist, Caroline Zilinsky, divided fans of Jacob Elordi after the Hollywood hunk shared her shortlisted portrait of him to social media. The artist also claimed the generous prize money will allow her to buy 'a lot more canvases and keep me going as an artist' for a lot longer than she expected The Brisbane-born actor, 26, posted a photo of the oil painting, which depicts a shirtless Jacob flexing his muscles in a pair of jeans, to Instagram on Wednesday. The abstract piece is a unique interpretation of Jacob with his body drawn out of proportion, with a long neck, thin arms and very slender stomach. Many of Elordi's followers quickly took to the comment section to share their commentary about the artwork. 'Bruh, WTF is this?' one confused follower asked, while a second person added: 'I don't know what this is, but I love you.' Meanwhile, other fans loved the work and quickly praised Zilinsky for brilliantly depicting Jacob. It comes after Jacob Elordi has divided his fans after sharing an abstract portrait of himself by fellow finalist and Sydney artist Caroline Zilinsky The Brisbane-born actor, 26, posted a photo of the oil painting to Instagram on Wednesday, which depicts a shirtless Jacob flexing his muscles in a pair of jeans 'Incredibly detailed and insightful artwork that has a deserved place in the esteemed Archibald Prize!' one person gushed, while a second added: 'It's incredible.' Zilinsky also shared a photo of a shirtless Jacob sitting for the portrait in his trailer while filming on-set. 'The theme and title of the painting springs from "The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus, which Jacob was reading at the time of our sitting,' Zilinsky told Daily Mail Australia. 'My only interest was to see the man that sat before me and he in turn see himself in the work. Sometimes reality must be transcended to do that.' The modernist painter has drawn many abstract portraits of famous people throughout her career, including Donald Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un. She shocked fans again by revealing her real name Reese Witherspoon fans have been left stunned after the actress reminded the world that the moniker they know her by so well is actually not her real name, while taking part in an interview along close pal Nicole Kidman. The Legally Blonde actress has been in the spotlight her whole life, but behind the glitz and glamour and flashing lights, she's known very differently to her nearest and dearest. When she began her acting career, the 48-year-old - who was born Laura Jean Reese Witherspoon - decided to shorten the moniker to her mother's maiden name. And the name helped her go far as she became one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. However, people still often forget that Reese was born Laura - including actress Nicole who let her friend's real name slip her mind in a recent interview about the production of Big Little Lies. Fans were left in shocked after Reese Witherspoon gave them a reminder of her real name in her latest interview along close pal Nicole Kidman In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Nicole, 56, Reese reminded her pal of her real name as they were discussing their co-star Laura Dern. The Cruel Intentions actress revealed that she referred to their co-star by her last name, which left Nicole in a state of confusion. 'My other favorite thing is that I called Dern when we were shooting Big Little Lies,' Reese said. Nicole quickly interrupted and made her feelings about the nickname clear. 'I hate how you call her Dern though. It sounds weird. I'm always like, "Laura" and you're like, "no, Dern, Dern, Dern,"' the Aquaman star said. Reese assured her friend that she would tell her why she opts for the nickname. 'Do you know why? Because my name is Laura and her name is Laura and it's confusing to me,' the blonde beauty said. Nicole made it clear that she had forgotten her pal's birthname and replied: 'Oh that's right.' 'So I get confused and so I call her Dern because we can't both be Laura,' Reese clarified. However, people still often forget that Reese was born as Laura - including actress Nicole who let her friend's real name slip her mind When she began her acting career, the 48-year-old - who was born Laura Jean Reese Witherspoon - decided to shorten it to her mother's maiden name Fans took to social media to express their shock at discovering the star's moniker However, her explanation was cut short as Nicole quickly called her friend out. 'But she doesn't call you Laura, though,' Nicole added. Reese jokingly responded: 'I don't understand your point, I don't like your tone, you're trying to understand something.' Nicole noted that she would 'stay out of it' at the end of the clip. And Expats actress wasn't the only one who was left in a state of confusion upon learning Reese's real name. Fans took to social media to express their shock at discovering the star's moniker. One person said: 'I was today years old when I found out Reeses real name is Laura lmao.' Someone else wrote: 'Reese acting like ANYONE calls her Laura.' One user questioned: 'Reese is Laura?!' 'Even Nicole didn't know,' added another person. One person said: 'I did not know her full name is Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon!' Someone else added: 'Wait Reese has a real name.' Nicole recently revealed that she and Reese were 'moving fast and furious' on Big Little Lies season three 'Reese is LAURA???!!!! I never knew!' someone else said. One user added: 'Never did I ever know that was her real name.' Nicole recently revealed that she and Reese were 'moving fast and furious' on Big Little Lies season three. Based on a novel by Liane Moriarty, the HBO show was initially meant to be a one-season miniseries, but was such a runaway success with fans and critics that it received a second season, and now has yet another one in the works. Reese and Nicole both starred on and executive produced the series, which follows the intrigues and scandals simmering underneath the gilded lives of a group of suburban mothers in tony Monterey, California. Reese seems to be in the midst of many major projects as she recently announced that she was working on a prequel series for Legally Blonde. Following the pink-filled announcement that saw the 48-year-old actress reprising her role to deliver the news about the spin-off TV series - more than two decades after the film premiered - fans couldn't contain their excitement and began theorizing about who should star as the blonde beauty. The prequel, titled Elle, will feature the character's origin story as the protagonist navigates her way through high school before becoming a Harvard Law student. Many fans took to social media to call on the star's daughter, Ava, to play young Elle. Scarlette Douglas has admitted she never imagined that she would turn 37 while still being single and childless, before eventually deciding to freeze her eggs. The former A Place In The Sun host underwent the procedure earlier this year in hopes of having a family at some point in the future, despite not currently being in a relationship. Appearing on Friday's Lorraine she told guest host Christine Lampard that despite dedicating most of her life to her career she was still keen to have children. Saying: 'I never thought I'd be 37 with no man, no husband, and no baby'. 'Being a career-driven woman is fantastic but I do want to have a family so I have to take my future into my own hands and prepare myself for having kids at a later date'. Scarlette Douglas has admitted she never imagined that she would turn 37 while still being single and childless, before eventually deciding to freeze her eggs The former A Place In The Sun host underwent the procedure earlier this year (pictured) in hopes of having a family at some point in the future, despite not currently being in a relationship Before adding: 'I of course, would love to have a child naturally but that might not be the case so egg-freezing is something had to be done as a backup.' The former I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! star said she only realised the magnitude of the procedure only dawn on her when she arrived at the hospital before beginning to wonder why she hadn't done anything like it sooner. She said: 'I wasn't prepared at all, if I'm honest. I had looked into it but until you actually get there and you get given all of the medication. That moment for me was so overwhelming because I realsied I'd have to be injecting myself every day to get to a point where my eggs are healthy enough to take out. 'When you hit 35, the egg count starts to decrease and the quality of the eggs start to decrease as well. Before concluding: 'I wondered why I hadn't done this earlier in life.' In March Scarlette was left in tears during a hospital visit amid her ongoing fertility journey. The star took to Instagram and told how she was in hospital for an egg-retrieval procedure that left her feeling emotional. She told her followers: 'Well, I'm going to be honest, I was very uncomfortable going in today ladies. Appearing on Friday's Lorraine she told guest host Christine Lampard that despite dedicating most of her life to her career she was still keen to have children Saying: 'I never thought I'd be 37 with no man, no husband, and no baby' (pictured with host Christine Lampard) Scarlette pictured on A Place In the Sun In March Scarlette was left in tears during a hospital visit amid her ongoing fertility journey 'The trigger injection really did exacerbate the bloating and lower abdominal pain and the closer it was getting to my egg retrieval the more uncomfortable I was becoming. I had to sit on my left side for most of the day!' Scarlette told how she became teary ahead of the procedure because no one could accompany her. She wrote: 'Everything was explained thoroughly and I felt in good hands. I did shed a little tear just before the sedation went in, mainly because I was scared and nervous, but also because you have to do it all on your own; no one can come in with you. 'Anyway, best sleep Ive ever had, came out, was in pain so they gave me some more pain relief, hung around for roughly an hour and a half afterwards and just as I was ready to leave the recovery room, I was told of my 24 eggs that were collected, 19 were viable for freezing!!!!! I was over the moon! 'That was more than I could have ever imagined and so I was and am so so happy that, to this point, it has all been worth it.' She's no stranger to exuding confidence with her revealing swimwear. And Lisa Snowdon continued to showcase her incredible figure as she enjoyed a sunny getaway with her fiance George Smart in Majorca. Taking to Instagram to share a gallery of images from the break, the presenter, 52, posted a rare glimpse of her husband-to-be while they soaked up the sunshine together. One of Lisa's snaps showed her clad in the revealing black two-piece, teamed with a fringed crop top as she posed in her hotel's bathroom. Another image showed her boyfriend George, who proposed in 2016, striking his best pose against a wall as the pair explored the city of Palma. Lisa Snowdon, 52, continued to showcase her incredible figure as she enjoyed a sunny getaway with her fiance George Smart in Majorca Taking to Instagram to share a gallery of images from the break, the presenter shared a rare glimpse of her husband-to-be while they soaked up the sunshine together Lisa captioned her post: 'City Chic Summer in the city of Palma.. Which is your favourite look?' The former Britain's Next Top Model host has brushed aside the cities anti-tourist protests, and recently admitted that she was 'saving up all our pennies to live here one day.' Around 15,000 locals took to the streets of Palma last week, with a British holidaymaker telling MailOnline she felt 'intimidated' as protesters told tourists to 'go home'. Lisa recently said she struggled with weight gain and put on three stone at one point when she was premenopausal as she shared a photo wearing lingerie. The model admitted that she debated whether to share the photo as she was concerned it could 'cause a strong reaction.' Taking to her Instagram Story she thanked fans for their kind messages and said: 'You know I've really tried to get the weight off these last few years. Well, longer than that, four or five years. 'And I'm so proud of all the work that I've done and my willpower not drinking all the time, it's really helped me.' She added: 'It's weird. It's funny how many followers I lose when I post something like that, which I post for us ladies as inspiration and also because I'm proud and I shouldn't feel bad about that.' The former Britain's Next Top Model host has brushed aside the cities anti-tourist protests , and recently admitted that she was 'saving up all our pennies to live here one day' Lisa recently said she struggled with weight gain and put on three stone at one point when she was premenopausal Lisa has previously been incredibly open about her weight and health after she went into perimenopause aged 44 Despite her fears, Lisa received heaps of praise underneath her original post with a number of celebs liking it, including Hollywood star Jennifer Anniston. Supportive fans shared: 'You are one of many role models for me. We are the same age and lucky to have some kick ass women like Tamsin Outhwaite, Davina, Tess and Claudia, Denise etc etc all going through perimenopause and still fabulous. Which really isn't easy when you don't feel like yourself. Exercise and self care is so key and you look incredible.' Others added: 'Always looking hot Lisa 24/7!' ... 'Jesus woman insane figure'... 'Wow stunning.' Lisa has previously been incredibly open about her weight and health after she went into perimenopause aged 44. The star struggled with sleep deprivation, 'angry rages' and weight gain throughout her battle. Speaking to The Daily Express back in 2022 she said sleep deprivation was the number one issue she dealt with during menopause and struggled keeping up with her career while extremely tired. 'For me, lack of sleep was the thing that sent me to my rock bottom when I first started going through menopause,' Lisa told the publication. 'Some days I just didn't want to be here.' As Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak officially steps down after his final episode on Friday, his poignant prediction about how Vanna White would react to his departure has now been unearthed. Speaking in an interview back in 2019, the beloved TV host, 77, seemed certain that his longtime co-star would leave the show with him when the time came. 'Theres a pretty good chance that when one of us leaves, well both leave,' Sajak had claimed, according to USA Today. 'Because it would be odd for either of us to work with somebody else.' He continued: 'I always say that I want to leave while the show is still popular and before people tune in and say, "Ooh, what happened to him?"' Indeed, Sajak stayed true to his word and announced in June 2023 that he was stepping down from the show after more than four decades, with Ryan Seacrest taking his place. With longtime Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak steps down after his final episode on Friday, and his prediction about how Vanna White would react has been unearthed However, White - who has been a fixture on the beloved game show for more than four decades - has chosen to remain on the show after Sajak ends his 43-year run at the helm. She will continue with her duties on the show at least through the 2025-2026 season after inking a contract extension last fall. Though White has chosen to stay on the show, the famed letter-turner has made it clear that she is finding Sajak's departure very emotional. In a tribute posted on YouTube on Wednesday, the teary-eyed star stated: 'I don't know how to put into words what these past 41 years have meant to me, but I'm going to try.' She continued: As the years have gone by, we've grown up on television, but we've also shared so much more behind the scenes. 'And as much fun as we had on camera, those memories, milestones and life events we shared with our families outside the studio are my favorite.' It was recently revealed that Sajak will now head to Hawaii to reunite with his old friend Joe Moore, a broadcaster from KHON-TV in Hawaii, to star in an adaptation of the play Prescription: Murder, via Variety. The play will run at Honolulu's Hawaii Theatre, running from July 31, 2025 to August 10, 2025, with KHON-TV airing a commercial Friday announcing the news during Sajak's final Wheel of Fortune episode. The beloved TV host, 77, has seemed certain that his longtime co-star would leave the show with him when the time came White - who has been a fixture on the beloved game show for more than four decades - has chosen to remain on the show after Sajak ends his 43-year run at the helm Prescription: Murder was a 1962 play written by William Link and Richard Levinson, who, six years later in 1968, adapted it and turned it into the first pilot of what would become the TV series known as Colombo, which debuted on NBC in 1971. In this regional theater version, Sajak plays Roy Flemming, played by Gene Barry in the original pilot, described as, 'a brilliant psychiatrist, who hatches a plot with a perfect alibi to murder his neurotic and possessive wife.' Moore will play Lt. Columbo, 'he seemingly bumbling detective who engages the psychiatrist in a cat-and-mouse battle of wits right up to the plays surprising climax. The cast of the play also includes Moore's son Bryce (also a KHON reporter) Therese Olival, Amy K. Sullivan and Aiko Chinen. This will be the ninth play Sajak will star in alongside Moore, whose friendship dates back to 1968 when they served at the American Forces Vietnam Network in Saigon. White joined the show in 1982, a year after Sajak began his tenure on the program Earlier this week, Sajak sat down for a Good Morning America interview with his daughter Maggie and explained why now is the 'right time' to leave. Maggie, 29, who serves as the show's social media correspondent, asked: 'What made you decide that this is the right time for you to leave the show?' 'I have always said, you heard me say this dozens of times - I'd rather leave a couple years too early than too late,' Pat replied. 'Could I still do it? Yeah. I think I could for a while. [But]there's also some other things in life we'd like to do.' He continued: 'I'm enjoying this last year. It's been a great 40 years. I'm looking forward to whatever's ahead.' Eamonn Holmes has praised his daughter in a sweet post following his shock split from his wife Ruth Langsford. The broadcaster and the Loose Women presenter, both 64, announced their plans to divorce last week after 14 years of marriage and 27 years together. In an update on Friday, Eamonn detailed his 'love and adoration' for his daughter Rebecca, 33, whom he shares with his first wife, Gabrielle Holmes. Sharing a photo of them smiling together to Instagram, he wrote: 'Lots of folk posting about their daughters. Not many girls in The Holmes family but I have one who I love and adore.' Eamonn married his first wife Gabrielle Holmes in 1985 and they separated in 1996, during which time they welcomed Declan, 35, Rebecca, and Niall, 31. Eamonn Holmes has praised his daughter in a sweet post following his shock split from his wife Ruth Langsford Meanwhile, he shares one son Jack, 22, with Ruth. On Thursday, Ruth's friends reportedly insisted that there is 'no chance' she will reunite with Eamonn. She has reportedly been left hurt after discovering that he is being consoled by woman in her forties amid their split who he's befriended. Ruth has been taking an extended break from Loose Women amid the separation and has recently found out Eamonn is being comforted by a younger female pal - a blonde divorcee and relationship counsellor - who he has been on a 'string of outings with', according to The Sun. The pair reportedly struck up a friendship over the past couple of years and the publication claims Eamonn has taken her on a safari park trip, to a Manchester United game and a Beyonce concert. Eamonn has reportedly grown close to the woman over the past year. And one pal has told now told The Mirror: 'Ruth was hurt when she learned about Eamonn's friendship with another woman but she is strong and she will be back soon with a smile on her face, putting her best foot forward, as she always does. 'She needs a bit of time to regroup after everything that's gone on, which is understandable, but she plans to return to Loose Women, with renewed vigour, in July.' The broadcaster and the Loose Women presenter, both 64, announced their plans to divorce last week after 14 years of marriage and 27 years together (pictured in July 2022) In an update on Friday, Eamonn detailed his 'love and adoration' for his daughter Rebecca, 33, whom he shares with his first wife, Gabrielle Holmes The presenter married his first wife Gabrielle Holmes in 1985 and they separated in 1996, during which time they welcomed Declan, 35, Rebecca and Niall, 31 Pictured with sons Declan and Niall Eamonn pictured with daughter Rebecca (R) and son Jack (L) who he shares with Ruth in 2018 The friend also insisted that there was 'no chance whatsoever' that the pair would ever get back together. Reports claim that Eamonn and the woman made contact through social media after both being involved with a mental health charity. A spokesperson for Ruth has said: 'Ruth had holiday time booked from Loose Women and has extended her leave. She's looking forward to returning to the show in due course.' Eamonn and Ruth recently revealed they are headed for divorce after work commitments 'took their marriage in different directions'. Ruth will reportedly not be making a return to Loose Women this week as she extends her break from the daytime show. And on Saturday, reports first emerged Eamonn is being consoled over his marriage split by the blonde divorcee in her forties who is also a relationship counsellor. According to The Sun, Eamonn has been growing close to an unknown woman since last year after they first came into contact several years ago. While she is not said to be a reason for the marriage breakdown it is understood that Ruth was unaware of her until recently and she will not be back on TV this week. A source told The Sun: 'Ruth will not be back on screen this week. 'She has decided to extend her break from ITV so will not yet be making a return to the Loose Women panel.' According to The Sun, Eamonn has grow close to an unknown woman since last year after they first came into contact several years ago. The broadcaster is said to have been on outings with the woman, including a visit to a safari park and has reportedly spoiled her with gifts. She is not said to be a reason for the marriage breakdown. He has also endorsed a charity linked to her work and helped to host a fund-raising event free of charge. The woman's name has never been mentioned, with Eamonn making sure not to reveal it on social media and the publication reported that Ruth was seemingly not aware of their meetings until recently. Sources told the paper that Eamonn treated his close friend to various extravagant days out including a Beyonce concert, a Center Parcs visit last year and tickets to see his favourite team Man United play at Old Trafford. They explained: 'Ruth was obviously aware that her marriage was crumbling, but as details emerge, her upset has turned to anger. Ruth has been taking an extended break from Loose Women amid the separation and has recently found out Eamonn is being comforted by a younger female pal, according to The Sun 'Eamonn's friend is bowled over by being lavished with attention and kindness from him.' The pair met via Twitter after the woman commented on a post and it sparked a conversation between the pair. Friends explained that the woman's counselling skills include coping with 'feeling sad' and 'separation and divorce' therefore it seems fitting she will be supporting Eamonn at this time of uncertainty. MailOnline have contacted Eamonn's representatives for comment. Kylie Jenner is giving Hollywood icon vibes in her latest social media snaps. The 26-year-old shared two photographs of herself on Friday wearing a bright-blonde wig with ringlet curls, reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe's iconic look. Kylie sported brown lipliner with a pink lip, winged, black eyeliner, and light blush. The Kylie Cosmetics founder wore a simple white tank top in the selfies and went jewelry-free. She cheekily captioned the Instagram post, 'Did someone say they missed king kylie.' Kylie Jenner shared two photographs of herself on Friday wearing a bright-blonde wig with ringlet curls, reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe' s iconic look Monroe in a gold dress for a portrait session in 1953 when she starred in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Fans went wild in the comments section, leaving their stamp of approval for Kylie's new look. 'King kylie era was too iconic,' one user wrote, while another chimed in, 'DONT PLAY WITH ME KYLIEEEEEEE.' The mother-of-two also posted a picture to her Instagram Stories, giving followers a look back at her King Kylie era. A younger, blonde Kylie posed with a cigarette in her mouth and wore heavy black eye makeup, a lace black bra, thigh-high sheer tights and a brown leather jacket. Other throwback photos included close-up shots of the influencer in her leather jacket and a snap of the reality star in a red lace mesh bra and blue jeans. Rounding out the looks was Kylie donning a black t-shirt with holes that read 'I'm the Kylie you're the Kendall.' The Kardashians star's switch-up comes a day after the makeup mogul dropped the newest pieces of clothing from her Khy line. Kylie flaunted her curves in a photoshoot for the brand's chic outfits. The social media star wore a $66 light gray, suede top with twisted straps wrapped around her left shoulder and matching skin-tight pants that go for $76. The Kylie Cosmetics founder wore brown lipliner with a pink lip, winged, black eyeliner, and light blush. She also donned a white tank top and went jewelry-free Kylie pulled her hair back into a low bun and kept her makeup light with a coral blush and a nude lip. She also ditched the jewelry and slipped into white flip-flops to round out her high-end look. Kylie debuted the two-piece set in a fuchsia pink and a fiery red, as well. The mother-of-two also posted a picture to her Instagram Stories, giving followers a look back at her King Kylie era The reality star posed with a cigarette in her mouth and wore heavy black eye makeup, a lace black bra, thigh-high sheer tights and a brown leather jacket 'Just dropped: new colorrrsss for the summa in our innovative sueded stretch fabric that perfectly molds to your body in all the right places AND feels like butter,' she captioned her Thursday Instagram post. 'Khy.com @khy.' These days, Kylie isn't just leaning into her 'clean-girl esthetic' for photoshoots. In fact, the fashion designer took a moment in March to acknowledge the changes she has made over the past year. Kylie told the New York Times that she was 'stripping down a little bit,' noting, 'I dont have this thick mane down to my butt, I dont have lash extensions, I dont have these long claws.' The 26-year-old flaunted her curves in a photoshoot for the brand's chic outfits, wearing a $66 light gray, suede top with twisted straps wrapped around her left shoulder and matching skin-tight pants that go for $76 Reflecting on the scrutiny she's endured regarding her appearance, she continued, 'When you share so much, you open yourself up to more comments and more peoples opinions of your life.' 'Its just years and years of not feeling like my face or looks are accepted,' Kylie added. 'Theres nothing anyone could ever say now that would hurt me.' However, the internet has speculated that the toned-down look is a result of her relationship with boyfriend Timothee Chalamet. The mom-of-two reflected on the scrutiny she's endured regarding her appearance over the years: 'When you share so much, you open yourself up to more comments and more peoples opinions of your life' 'I don't know how I feel about that,' Kylie, who has been tied to the Wonka star since April 2023, told the outlet. 'I just don't want to talk about personal things.' Instead she attributed her evolving style to a new outlook after welcoming her son Aire, 2, in 2022. 'It takes me a while after I have a baby to feel like myself again,' she explained. 'Then you get your body back, and you're like, "Wait, the trends have changed."' And this wasn't the first time Kylie has opened up about her struggles after giving birth. 'I just want to say my postpartum has not been easy," she wrote on her Instagram Stories in March 2022. 'This experience for me, personally, has been a little harder than with my daughter.' 'Its OK not to be OK,' the California native continued. 'Once I realized that I was putting some pressure on myself and I just keep reminding myself, "I made a whole human, a beautiful healthy boy" and we have to stop putting pressure to be back, not even physically, just mentally after birth.' Veteran actor Alan Scarfe, known for his on-screen roles in Lethal Weapon 3 and Star Trek: The Next Generation has passed away after a battle with colon cancer. He was 77. The Canadian-British actor's obituary revealed the journeyman star 'passed away peacefully on April 28, 2024.. at his home' in Longueuil, Quebec, Canada. Scarfe was born in Harpenden, England in 1946 and studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art from 1964-66. From there, he went on to perform more than 100 roles in theaters around the globe. He tackled classic roles including King Lear, Othello, Hamlet, Iago, Brutus, Cassius, Petruchio, Prospero, Cyrano de Bergerac, Doctor Faustus and more. The classically trained thespian was a fixture of the famed Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada, where he starred for eight seasons in the 1970s. Veteran actor Alan Scarfe, known for his work in Lethal Weapon three and Star Trek: The Next Generation has passed away after a battle with colon cancer. He was 77 (Pictured in October 1998) It was at there he met actress Barbara March, who would become his wife in 1979 and remain by his side until her death in 2019 at age 65. The couple had a daughter, Scarfe Music founder Antonia 'Tosia' Scarfe. The obituary noted the musician and her husband Austin, took care of the ailing actor prior to his passing. The versatile star also had a son, director Jonathan Scarfe, 48, from a relationship with Canadian actress Sara Botsford, 72. 'I wanted to be a great classical actor in the long tradition of Burbage, Garrick, Kean, Booth, Olivier,' Scarfe said in a 2007 interview with The Sci-Fi World. 'Forty-five years ago when I began, it was still possible to think in such a romantic, idealistic way.' In addition to his stage credits and numerous accolades, the actor made a name for himself in shows such as Babylon 5: The Lost Tales and Andromeda. Scarfe was born in Harpenden, England in 1946 and studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art from 1964-66 During his stage career, he tackled classic roles including King Lear, Othello, Hamlet, Iago, Brutus, Cassius, Petruchio, and more at theaters across the globe The actor played Romulan Tokath on Star Trek: The Next Generation (Pictured in Los Angeles in March 1993) Scarfe starred as Dr. Bradley Talmadge for three years on the time-traveling television series Seven Days from 1998-2001 (Pictured with co-stars Nick Searcy, Justina Vail, Jonathan LaPaglia and Don Franklin in October 1998) Scarfe's many accolades include the prestigious Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in 1985 for his work in The Bay Boy and the Vancouver Film Critics Circle honorary award for lifetime achievement (Pictured in Las Vegas in August 2011) He starred as Dr. Bradley Talmadge for three years on the time-traveling television series Seven Days from 1998-2001, and as Herman Waters in 1992's Lethal Weapon 3. Scarfe was the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in 1985 for his work in The Bay Boy. He also won a 2005 Jessie Award for his theater work, the 2006 Austin Fantastic Fest Jury Prize for The Hamster Cage, which was one of his last roles. The actor also earned the Vancouver Film Critics Circle honorary award for lifetime achievement. Scarfe is survived by his children, two grandchildren and his brother. Kate Hudson has been slammed for becoming the latest multimillionaire celebrity to promote a $2,499 full body scan. The Almost Famous actress, 45, posted an snap on Instagram about her recent MRI scan from Prenuvo, and declaring 'health is wealth' in the caption - before revealing the pricey scan had been gifted. The star - worth an estimated $80million wrote: 'Not your average MRI scan. Im all about proactive healthcare, and @prenuvo provides a comprehensive deep-dive into your health #gifted #healthiswealth.' However, there is no evidence that Prenuvo's scans, which cost $2,500 and don't take insurance, have any clinical benefit. Fans quickly took to social media to slam the star for being 'out of touch' with regular US citizens and lambasted her for ignoring the 'rip off' health system in the USA in the 'embarrassing' post. Kate Hudson has been slammed for becoming the latest multimillionaire celebrity to promote a $2,499 full body scan The Almost Famous actress , 45, posted an snap on Instagram about her recent MRI scan from Prenuvo, and declaring 'health is wealth' in the caption - before revealing the pricey scan had been gifted One follower wrote: 'Right. She says "#healthiswealth" but it's actually #wealthishealth.' Another penned: 'Its so thoughtful of a celebrity to taunt healthcare that isnt affordable to everyone else. This is embarrassing.' Others wrote: 'Must be nice to just randomly get one like that. My BF needed an MRI but had to cancel when they asked for 1,200 up front in order to be seen. The medical system in America is a rip off.' 'Its very sad preventative and potentially life saving scans are available to all, just the people who can afford it. Our country makes it very clear that health is only for the wealthy. 'Its so nice when celebrities promote a save your life advertisement for people that cant afford 2500.' 'Kate I love you but youre out of touch with us commoners.' I would love, love, love the US healthcare system to provide for more imaging. This isn't available to most financially. We have a substantial amount of people uninsured in this nation, and even of those insured, your MD has to really suspect something to anywhere near hope to have it covered. ' Another wrote: 'We all want a full body scan. Love her but this is out of touch. The caption should say wealth is health instead.' Fans quickly took to social media to slam the star for being 'out of touch' with regular US citizens and lambasted her for ignoring the 'rip off' health system in the USA in the 'embarrassing' post Last year Kim Kardashian posted about her full-body MRI scan from Prenuvo, claiming the technology is 'life saving' - and was lambasted for the post Hudson is far from the only famous face to come under fire for plugging the scan. Last year Kim Kardashian was slammed for promoting a full-body MRI that experts have called a rip off. 'The Prenuvo full-body scan has the ability to detect cancer and diseases such as aneurysms in its earliest stages, before symptoms arise,' she wrote in her post, which garnered more than 2 million likes. 'It has really saved one of my friends [sic] lives and I just wanted to share.' 'This is not an appropriate screening tool for a multiplicity of human illnesses and potentially emergent conditions,' Dr Stuart Fischer, internal medicine physician in New York, told DailyMail.com. 'It's not a screening tool.' Last month Gwyneth Paltrow went to Prenuvo New York City Cancer & Disease Screening center to undergo the same scan. The Oscar-winner also shared a snap of herself sitting up on the MRI bed before the scan. She captioned the photo: 'It's so fascinating to see preventative medicine becoming important to the consumer. 'I, for one, am really curious about @prenuvo's ability to detect many conditions BEFORE symptoms appear.' There was also a video of Gwyneth being put into the machine. Last month Gwyneth Paltrow underwent a body scan to detect health issues before symptoms appear in another effort toward the Goop owner's 'longevity routine' The 51-year-old wellness enthusiast - who recently celebrated her daughter's 20th birthday - took to her Instagram Story on Wednesday to document her whole body MRI scan Lastly she posed in front of the sign at the medical business with the caption: 'Thank you thank you @prenuvo.' The mission statement on Prenuvo's website reads: 'At Prenuvo, we are on a mission to flip the paradigm from reactive "sick-care" to proactive health care. Our award-winning whole body scan is fast (under 1 hour), safe (MRI has no ionizing radiation), and non-invasive (no contrast).' Though the health benefits seem like they could be immense, the service is a bit pricey as a whole body scan - which is what Gwyneth had - costs $2,499 for an hour. Katie Holmes looked summer chic on Friday as she walked to the Chanel Tribeca Festival women's lunch in NYC. The Dawson's Creek star, 45, appeared statuesque in high-waisted, wide-legged slacks which she paired with a tank top featuring a pink flower graphic. The mom of Suri Cruise wore her long brown hair parted just off of center and cascading down her back in soft waves. Black pumps and a dainty, black crossbody handbag completed her on-trend look. This sighting comes as daughter Suri prepares to head to college in the fall. The teen revealed she will be attending the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the fall. Katie Holmes looked summer chic on Friday as she walked to the Chanel Tribeca Festival women's lunch in NYC Earlier this week, she spent some quality time with her mother Kathleen, who was visiting her in New York City. Kathleen raised Katie and four other children in Toledo, Ohio with her lawyer husband Marty and was supportive of her daughter's career from the start. In motherhood, Katie tries to follow in her mother's footsteps. Katie gushed to People magazine that Kathleen was 'just so kind and has such a pure heart; she really leads with those two qualities, so I try to do the same. 'Shes just so kind and very generous, so I try my best to embody that and pass that on to my own daughter.' Katie also spoke glowingly about the 'blessing' of being able to spend quality time with Kathleen, 'especially' in New York where they 'always have a good time.' Suri will be graduating from high school this month and then preparing for college at Carnegie Mellon University in the fall where she's reportedly leaning towards studying fashion. Carnegie Mellon's School of Design is one of the oldest and most highly ranked programs in the country. The Dawson's Creek star, 45, looked statuesque in the high-waisted, wide-legged pants which she paired with a tank top featuring a pink flower graphic Black pumps and a dainty, black crossbody handbag completed her on trend look and she walked through New York City Holmes inside the Chanel Tribeca Festival women's lunch to celebrate the THROUGH HER LENS Program at The Greenwich Hotel The day before she was seen topless in a new ad for A.P.C. Now, with her acceptance into its hallowed halls, a notably chic mother and a wardrobe said to be worth $5 million, Suri is off to start the next chapter of her life. One insider told DailyMail.com: 'She is a smart girl, and she is turning into a very intelligent mature young woman. She has a very close group of loyal friends, and she knows exactly where she comes from.' But though Holmes is proud of her daughter's stellar achievement, sources say she is 'overwhelmed' at the thought of sending her little girl off to college. Speaking recently, one told DailyMail.com: 'Katie takes great pride in her but is also extremely overprotective.' Alison Hammond went makeup-free on Friday as she was headed to a meeting in Central London. The presenter, 49, - who previously shut down engagement rumours with her toyboy boyfriend, David Putman, 26 - showed off her natural beauty as she cut a casual figure in a navy blue shirt. Alison teamed the casual shirt with a pair of skinny blue denim jeans and completed the look with some chunky white trainers. Alison layered up with a chocolate brown leather jacket and further accessorised with a gold pendant necklace. She seemed in good spirits as she ditched her usual TV glam for a fresh-faced look during the outing. Alison Hammond went makeup-free on Friday as she was pictured outside a block of offices in Central London The presenter, 49, - who previously sparked engagement rumours with her toyboy boyfriend, David Putman, 26 - showed off her natural beauty as she cut a casual figure in a navy blue shirt It comes after the TV personality broke her silence last month after she sparked engagement rumours when she was spotted wearing a giant diamond ring on her ring finger during an episode of This Morning. Alison began dating the Russian masseur after she booked him for a 150 massage and the pair reportedly hit it off and is said to be 'happier than ever' with David following a 'turbulent love life'. During the episode, Alison and Dermot O'Leary sat down for the showbiz headlines, and she took a look at her iPad and exclaimed: 'Oh my god apparently I am engaged?!' Squashing the rumours she confirmed David is yet to pop the question as she explained she had put her ring on the wrong finger. 'Oh I have put this on the wrong finger,' she said shocked, 'Let me swap it over to stop these rumours.' While the ring looked rather flashy, the presenter insisted it was just a cheap thing from Primark as she was taken aback by the engagement rumours. Slightly flustered, she added: 'It is just a cheap ring from Primark. It's nice, isn't it?! Let's swap it over as we don't want those rumours.' Seeing the funny side she laughed alongside Dermot and Will Best, as Will joked he had been planning on popping the question. She seemed in good spirits as she ditched her usual glam for a fresh-faced look during the outing (pictured at the National Television Awards in 2023) Alison has been dating the Russian masseur since she booked him for a 150 massage and the pair hit it off It comes after the TV personality broke her silence last month after she sparked engagement rumours when she was spotted wearing a giant diamond ring on This Morning While the ring looked rather flashy, the presenter insisted it was just a cheap thing from Primark as she was taken aback by the engagement rumours The couple's relationship emerged last month despite their 23-year age gap, which is said to have caused an issue with David's mother. Yet David is head over heels for the TV presenter and is said to be ignoring his mother Olga's advice to end things because of their age gap and the fame Alison has brought to her son. Olga is said to have been calling her son every day with pleas to break up with Alison, but David is firmly turning his back on her advice. A source told The Sun: 'David is happy with his relationship so anything his mum says isnt going to affect him. 'She's uncomfortable that her son is with someone who has so much more financial power than him. Olgas traditional values dont sit well with their relationship. 'She's told him in no uncertain terms that he must end it. Olga raised her children in the Orthodox Church. This kind of relationship doesnt fit her beliefs. 'She calls her son almost every day and tells him how unhappy she is.' Alison spoke out about their relationship for the first time earlier this month as she confirmed David even has her son Aiden's seal of approval. She shares Aiden with her former husband Noureddine Boufaied, and spoke about his views on her dating on Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe's podcast Parenting Hell. At 19-years-old Aiden is only a few years younger than her new boyfriend David. Explaining the struggles of dating as a mother, 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.' 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?!" Squashing the rumours she confirmed David is yet to pop the question as she explained she had put her ring on the wrong finger As Alison and Dermot O'Leary sat down for the showbiz headlines, she took a look at her iPad and exclaimed: 'Oh my god apparently I am engaged?! 'Oh I have put this on the wrong finger,' she said shocked, 'Let me swap it over to stop these rumours' David is said to be ignoring his mother Olga's advice to pull the plug on his relationship due to the age gap and the fame she has brought to her son It emerged last month, the presenter is dating David despite their 23-year age gap '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. Supermodel Trish Goff's model son Nyima has died aged 27. Nyima, the only child of 90s fashion star Goff, 47, and Aaron Ward, passed away on May 29. The cause of death is currently unknown. An emotional online tribute to Nyima praised the model who 'lived fiercely and loved deeply.' It read: 'Nyima Lee Ward of Ocala, Florida blew into this world on January 2, 1997 destined to live life his own way,' the obituary, ''He left it May 29, 2024 having lived fiercely, loved deeply and made memories with the kind of fervor that only a young man who never met a stranger could do. Supermodel Trish Goff's model son Nyima has died aged 27 Nyima is the only child of 90s fashion star Goff and Aaron Ward (Goff pictured 1996) 'Nyima was born in New York City. In Tibetan, Nyima means 'the Sun.' There is no doubt that when he was born, he was the sun to parent's Aaron Ward and Trish Goff's whole system. He remained there throughout his life. 'With family spread all over the world New York to New Zealand, London to Florida Nyima didn't get to see everyone every day. He got to see everyone for long, meaningful periods. And that suited him just fine. It was deep, present connections he craved. 'He was a boy of the world, traveling extensively, who grew into a man of the earth, falling in love with farming and animals and chasing his dreams from California to Florida. 'It wouldn't have been unheard of to find Nyima with a stray animal he'd saved on the side of the road or calling his mom to ask about animal care tips. 'He loved the water, always choosing boots and jeans for a day on the boat, and opted outside whenever he had the chance. 'The only thing in life that matched his height was his love of friends and family, never missing an opportunity to tell his people he loved them or ensuring he had stayed in touch with his people. An emotional online tribute to Nyima praised the model who 'lived fiercely and loved deeply.' It read: 'Nyima Lee Ward of Ocala, Florida blew into this world on January 2, 1997 destined to live life his own way,' the obituary , ''He left it May 29, 2024' Goff is pictured with her son in 2015 - before his runway debut at Anna Sui Nyima memorably walked for designers such as Anna Sui - 23 years after his mom made her runway debut for the designer - John Varvatos and Kye - with his flowing dark locks and chiseled features attracting attention on the runway Friends and family members got matching diamond tattoos to match Nyima's inking at his funeral Nyima is survived by his parents Trish and Aaron, stepfather David Bonnouvrier, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. Nyima started modeling aged 18. After his parents split, Goff started dating DNA Models owner Bonnouvrier - with the pair encouraging him to sign to the agency. He told W Magazine in 2015: 'Theyve just been trying to get me to sign forever and I was always like, Nah, nah. And then I turned 18 and I was like, Might as well try it'". Nyima memorably walked for designers such as Anna Sui - 23 years after his mom made her runway debut for the designer - John Varvatos and Kye - with his flowing dark locks and chiseled features attracting attention on the runway. He also shot high fashion editorials with iconic fashion photographers including Bruce Weber and Steven Meisel. Despite his successes, Nyima said he would 'consider myself more a woodworker, honestly, than a model. 'When people ask me what I do, it almost slips my mind to even bring it up. But, I guess I am a model. [Though] I definitely dont picture myself in my brain as a model. I picture myself more as a nine-to-five. Thats what I do more on a regular basis. 'Its less a career and more just something on the side. I know a lot of the people in the industry so lots of time Ill get people that I knew growing up like, 'Oh, can I shoot you?' 'Or something like that. Or my agents are like, 'Oh, this would be really cool for you to do.' And might as well. I dont really see it as a long-term career, definitely not.' Goff was scouted by a modelling agent aged 15 and dropped out of school to move to NYC and pursue a high-fashion career. She appeared on multiple Vogue covers and in campaigns for Banana Republic, Chanel, Chloe and Christian Dior (pictured 2000) Goff was scouted by a modelling agent aged 15 and dropped out of school to move to NYC and pursue a high-fashion career. She appeared on multiple Vogue covers and in campaigns for Banana Republic, Chanel, Chloe, Christian Dior, Gap, Pollini, Ann Taylor, Louis Vuitton, Versace, and YSL. She later moved to London with then-husband Angus Munro before retraining as a real estate agent in NYC. She now lives in Kenya with Bonnouvrier and works for a wildlife conservatory. Gwen Stefani attended CMA Fest in Tennessee this week, where she posed alongside husband Blake Shelton, Post Malone, and Machine Gun Kelly. The music artists Gwen, 54, Blake, 47, Post Malone, 28, and MGK, 34 all flashed megawatt smiles at the event. Stefani who wished son Kingston a happy 18th birthday in late May bared her taut tummy in a low-cut black bra and green and gold plaid shirt that she wore with just the collar buttoned. The fashionista added cutoff denim shorts, which she layered over sheer, black, lace tights. Her signature platinum blonde hair was styled in three knotted buns, creating a faux mohawk. Gwen Stefani attended CMA Fest in Tennessee this week, where she posed alongside husband Blake Shelton and Post Malone Stefani, who runs the makeup company GXVE, wore a full face of flattering cosmetics. The mother-of-three who shares Kingston, Zuma, 15, and Apollo, 10 with ex-husband Gavin Rossdale brought out her eyes with fluttery lashes. She dusted her cheeks in pink blush and finished her flawless look with a glassy pink lip gloss. The rockstar, who is the frontwoman of No Doubt, displayed long, bold French manicured nails. Meanwhile, her husband Blake, who she wed in 2021, was dressed in his usual casual look of a button-up shirt and jeans. He took the stage at the event and Gwen was a proud wife as she recorded his performance and shared it on Instagram. She also cheered on Post Malone, who at one point performed with Shelton as they each strummed acoustic guitars. For his part, Machine Gun Kelly wore a black Crazy Town T-shirt and red hat. Gwen also posed up with rapper-turned-rocker Machine Gun Kelly The music artists all flashed their smiles at the event MGK, born Colson Baker, wore a black 'Crazy Town' T-shirt and red hat Gwen is fresh off her performance at the 2024 ACM Awards, which were held in Texas in mid-May. She fittingly wore a bedazzled plum-colored costume to sing her song Purple Irises with husband Blake. Gwen released the single in February and said in a clip shared on social media that she penned the tune during a time when she was feeling 'insecure.' The awards show took place at the Omni Frisco Hotel at The Star and Reba McEntire took on hosting duties for the 17th time. Kylie Jenner's BFF Anastasia 'Stassie' Karanikolaou is enjoying a hot girl summer. The 26-year-old flaunted her flat stomach and muscular curves in an orange bikini top decorated with yellow flowers and ruching along the top edges. Stassie wore matching high-waisted bikini bottoms, giving followers a clear look at her belly ring. Her long, dark locks fell loosely around her face. The content creator posed aboard a boat in the ocean, leaning her arm against the ship's side while she ran her other hand through her hair. A second photo shows Stassie looking away from the camera with a sly smile on her lips. Rounding out the pics is a closer shot of the influencer with a sultry stare on her face. Anastasia 'Stassie' Karanikolaou flashes her toned curves in an orange bikini top decorated with yellow flowers and ruching along the top edges Stassie captioned the Friday Instagram carousel, 'summer uniform.' Her bestie's older sister, Khloe Kardashian, 39, hyped up the TikToker in the comments section, writing, 'With this body it would be mine too.' Stassie's bikini pic is the most recent glimpse inside her getaway to Cabo San Lucas. The star also posted pictures of herself in a form-fitting, chocolate-brown two-piece outfit. Stassie wore a long-sleeve crop top with an open back and a matching low-rise skirt that boasted a cut-out above her left hip. Posing on the beach as the waves crashed ashore, she captioned the Instagram snap, 'what a view @alomoves.' Stassie also rocked another chic swimsuit while on vacation, this time with a neon orange and white butterfly pattern. The social media personality emerged from the water, rocking wet hair and showing off her side profile and tiny figure. Stassie wrote beneath the shots, 'its hot but im hotter.' The influencer captioned the Friday Instagram carousel, 'summer uniform' Her bestie's older sister, Khloe Kardashian , 39, hyped up the TikToker in the comments section, writing, 'With this body it would be mine too' Khloe commented, 'OMG!!!!!! Stass stunning,' with Kylie, 26, chiming in 'sooooo pretty.' While in Mexico, Stassie filmed a Get Ready With Me video for her 4.1 million TikTok followers. 'I am touching up my makeup right now to get ready for dinner tonight,' she shared with fans. 'I did a little bit of concealer and stuff earlier for lunch and I'm too lazy to take it off fully and redo it, so we're just going to add.' Khloe commented beneath the Tiktoker's Instagram shots, 'OMG!!!!!! Stass stunning,' while Kylie Jenner, 26, chiming in 'sooooo pretty' While in Mexico, the 26-year-old filmed a Get Ready With Me video for her 4.1 million TikTok followers. She shared that both her birthday and the one year anniversary of her mom's death are approaching As Stassie started to do her eye makeup, she explained the reason for her trip and how the one year anniversary of her mom's death is quickly approaching. 'I am so grateful to be here right now on this vacation,' she quipped, 'just getting out of LA and taking a little break. I think ever since June hit, it's been like a very surreal weird feeling that I have knowing that it's coming up, literally in the next three weeks of the one year of my mom.' Meanwhile, Stassie will turn 27 on June 9, telling viewers, 'It's also my birthday this weekend,' before getting emotional. Stassie documented her and the Kylie Cosmetics founder's trip to In-N-Out on the 'gram, while announcing, 'We're headed to get the goods' 'I'm trying really hard to not let it affect that,' she admitted. 'But it feels weird to be happy and celebrating, so it's a very weird feeling. That's just what I've been dealing with.' Stassie noted that she's also been trying to stay off social media since her algorithm has showed her sad videos. 'I'm just given depressing quotes on grief or relationship stuff. My whole TikTok is sad right now,' she said while doing her lips and mascara. 'But I've been trying to stay off my phone and not scroll because it really puts me in a mood.' The star captioned her food video: 'In n out is always a good idea' Ending the video on a happy note with a face full of glam, Stassie concluded, 'Anyways, I'm happy to be here, and I am hoping it gets me out of the funk that I feel I've been in.' Stassie first revealed her mother had passed away in a touching tribute last June. 'On monday june 26th heaven gained someone so special..,' she wrote on Instagram alongside photos of her mom. 'Its hard to imagine not being able to call you or hug you or cry at literally anything and then laugh at the fact that were all such crybabies & so so much more.. well miss you everyday. we know youre at peace now with papou.. we love you to the moon & back forever. rest in paradise mommy.' The California resident has been leaning on friends and family over the past year, including her longtime pal Kylie. The BFFs recently did a mini food tour alongside friend Victoria Villarroel and Kylie's six-year-old daughter Stormi. Stassie documented their adventures on the 'gram, while announcing, 'We're headed to get the goods.' The ladies rocked out to music in the car before placing their orders. 'I eat In-N-Out three times a week,' Stassie confessed before heading off-camera to eat her food. She captioned the sweet girls day video: 'In n out is always a good idea.' Jenny Powell donned a pink bikini to recreate Lorraine Chase's iconic Luton Airport Campari advert in an Instagram Reel shared on Friday. The television presenter, 56, showed off her age-defying figure in the two-piece as she hilariously recreated the iconic advert. Jenny's pal Simon Horth asked Jeremy Clyde's famous line: 'Were you truly wafted here from paradise?' And Jenny, playing Lorraine, replied: 'Nah! Luton Airport!' before asking fans: 'The question is, what was the advert? Ha.' English actress and model Lorraine, 73, found fame as the face of Italian alcohol brand Campari in the mid-1970s. Jenny Powell, 56, donned a pink bikini to recreate Lorraine Chase's iconic Luton Airport Campari advert in an Instagram Reel shared on Friday The television presenter showed off her age-defying figure in the two-piece as she hilariously recreated the iconic advert Jenny's pal Simon Horth asked Jeremy Clyde's famous line: 'Were you truly wafted here from paradise?' And Jenny, playing Lorraine (pictured), replied: 'Nah! Luton Airport!' Lorraine's series of humorous adverts with the company featured her in a myriad of glamorous locations with posh gentleman Jeremy, now 83. In each advertisement, Jeremy would be surprised that Lorraine would opt to mix her alcohol with lemonade, rather than soda. This would lead to a voiceover saying: 'Campari. With soda, with lemonade, with tonic. But always with pleasure.' In the most memorable ad, Jeremy flirted with Lorraine by asking: 'Were you truly wafted here from paradise?' Not taking the bait, Lorraine firmly replied in her strong South-East London accent: 'No. Luton Airport!' This line, along with 'It's nice 'ere, innit?' (sic), became popular catchphrases in the UK, and let to hit record Luton Airport by girl group Cats U.K. Jenny's 150,000 followers passed her test with flying colours, answering: 'Very Lorraine Chase :)'; 'Campari . (With lemonade not soda )'; The Campari adverts featured her in a myriad of glamourous locations with posh gentleman Jeremy (pictured), now 83, who was always shocked by her preference of lemonade over soda This would lead to a voiceover saying: 'Campari. With soda, with lemonade, with tonic. But always with pleasure' 'No. Luton Airport!' and Lorraine's 'It's nice 'ere, innit?' from other adverts became popular catchphrases in the UK, and led to hit record Luton Airport by girl group Cats U.K. Jenny's pal Simon Horth asked Jeremy Clyde's famous line: 'Were you truly wafted here from paradise?' And, at the end, Jenny asked fans: 'The question is, what was the advert? Ha' Jenny's 150,000 followers passed her test with flying colours, answering: 'Very Lorraine Chase :)' and 'Campari . (With lemonade not soda )' 'Campari'; 'Campari I think, you look pretty good'; 'Lorraine Chase Campari'; 'Campari?'; 'Omg Lorraine Chase was so good in the Campari Advert. Love this. We often say " Luton Airport " in Lorraine's accent'. 'Nah! Luton Airport. But you do look heavenly'; 'Campari, wasn't it Lorraine Chase ? Looking gorgeous by the way'. Southwest Airlines' customers now have to pay as much as $149 if they want get on the plane early - a huge hike on the previous cost. Unlike traditional airlines, Southwest does not assign seats on tickets. It has open seating - so those that board first get better options. The Texas-based carrier offers customers two paid services that allow them to board earlier than they otherwise would to snag a preferred seat. It has increased the price of both of these - by as much as 300 percent. EarlyBird Check-In now ranges from $15 to $99 one-way per passenger, rather than $15 to $25 before. Upgraded Boarding is now from $30 to $149 per passenger per segment. Before tha was $30 to $80. Southwest Airlines hs increased the fees that allow customers to board earlier - which then gives them a bigger choice of seats It means those wanting the early check-in option could pay four times as much. Southwest does not allocate seats when passengers check-in. Instead, passengers board in a specific order based on whether they are in Group A B or C. Once on board, passengers can sit in any available seat. They can get boosted to a higher group three main ways - loyalty program status, burying a business seat, how early they checked-in, and whether they paid extra for early boarding. Anyone paying for upgarded boarding - available 24 hours before deaprture - typically gets to be in the A group that goes first. Only customers with disabilities preboard before them. Families with children board after Group A, then it is B and C. Each group has 60 people. Those would get EarlyBird improves the passenger's group so they get bumped up the boarding process - though it does not guarantee A. This service is available within 36 hours of a flight's departure 'This price range increase is a result of our regular evaluation of pricing for ancillary products based on market trends and customer demand and will generate incremental revenue in support of the company,' Southwest said. Every other major US airline sells first or business-class seats with more room and amenities. The likes of Delta, American and United assign seats before passengers arrive at the airport. Increasingly, these airlines charge extra if economy-class passengers want to pick a particular seat, such as one in an exit row or near the front of the cabin. Those policies generate significant 'ancillary revenue.' Eight US carriers - the three above plus Allegiant, Frontier, JetBlue and Spirit - took a total of $4.2 billion from seating fees in their domestic networks in 2022, according to WorksCompany. Southwest allows open seating - meaning passengers can sit wherever they want. But it can create a scramble to get on board Soutwest CEO Robert Jordan is looking at changing its longstanding open seating Southwest said last week it lost $231 million over the first three months of 2024 CEO Bob Jordan gave a clue in April that change was coming at the airline's quarterly earnings, as he revealed it lost $231 million over the first three months of 2024. 'We're looking into new initiatives - things like the way we seat and board our aircraft,' Jordan said in an interview with CNBC. Southwest sparked vacation chaos in April when it announced it was axing flights to four airports and firing 2,000 staff. Since it began flying in the 1960s, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines has distinguished itself from competitors with a very different seating approach. At the same earnings event, Ryan Green, Southwest's chief commercial officer, reassured cutomers it would not start charging for baggage. It's the only US carrier that lets passenger check one or two bags for free. He said Southwest also won't install curtains like those that separate premium cabins from the economy-class section on other airlines. READ MORE: Four sodas sold in restaurants across the US are recalled by FDA Costco shoppers who recently purchased packages containing Tillamook cheese slices are urged to check those items immediately. The big box wholesaler published a letter on its website written by Tillamook County Creamery Association Executive Vice President Mike Bever, who confirmed that shoppers found 'gray and black plastic pieces' in one of its products. Bever confirmed in the June 1 letter that the product in question was its twin-pack of Colby Jack and Monterey Jack sold at Costco stores in the northwest region of the US between May 9 and May 31. 'If you have already consumed the product without issue, you do not need to take any action, as the likely presence of the foreign plastic material is very minimal,' Bever wrote. 'If you still have this item, please refrain from consuming it and return the package to your local Costco for a full refund.' Tillamook County Creamery Association Executive Vice President Mike Bever confirmed on June 1 that one of its products was being recalled from select Costco stores The company specified the recalled cheese product being the 32-ounce twin-pack package of Tillamook Colby Jack and Tillamook Monterey Jack cheese slices The company specified the recalled cheese product being the 32-ounce twin-pack package of Colby and Monterey Jack cheese slices. The northwest regional states affected by this recall include Washington, Oregon, Northern California, Montana, and Idaho, according to USA Today. It's unclear how many Costco stores are in the northwest region in the US but there are currently more than 800 locations worldwide. Although customers in the northwest region are the only ones that are affected, Bever noted that cheese consumption will not cause an individual to have severe medical issues. 'If you have already consumed the product without issue, you do not need to take any action, as the likely presence of the foreign plastic material is very minimal,' he wrote. Bever concluded the letter with Tillamook's email, hello@tillamook.com, and phone number, (855)-562-3568, and urged individuals who have 'issues or concerns' to contact the company. Bever concluded the letter with Tillamook's email, hello@tillamook.com, and phone number, (855)-562-3568, and urged individuals who have 'issues or concerns' to contact the company This is not the first issue Costco has had this year regarding urgent recalls of products. The latest Costco Tillamook cheese recall takes place less than a month after a small recall of Veggies Made Great Breakfast Potato Bakes sold at the warehouse chain's stores between May 3 and May 9. 'This product is being recalled because it has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes,' wrote New Classic Cook LLC's Director of Quality Assurance Mike Limbaugh in a letter published by Costco on May 10. 'Listeria monocytogenes is an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems.' Limbaugh added that healthy individuals may only suffer 'short-term symptoms' like fevers, severe headaches, and nausea, but that can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women. Before that, the warehouse chain recalled all packs of Fratelli Beretta brand Antipasto Gran Beretta charcuterie meat from its locations after officials discovered the items were linked to a salmonella outbreak in the US in January. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning after 47 cases of salmonella were reported in two weeks. Both companies urged all Costco customers to dispose of or return the recalled products to their nearest location to receive a free refund. Chinas exports in May grew at their fastest pace in more than a year despite trade tensions, though imports fell short of analyst expectations, according to customs data released on Friday. Exports jumped 7.6 per cent in May from the same month last year to USD 302.35 billion, rising at the fastest pace since April 2023. Imports rose by 1.8 per cent to USD 219.73 billion, missing estimates of about 4 per cent growth. The uptick in exports is also partly due to a lower base in the same period last year, when exports declined 7.5 per cent. In comparison, exports grew by 1.5 per cent in April compared with the same period last year, while April imports rose by 8.4 per cent. The strong exports caused Chinas trade surplus to widen to USD 82.62 billion, up from Aprils USD 72.35 billion. The growth in exports comes as China faces escalated trade tensions with the US and Europe. The US is ramping up tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars while Europe is considering levying similar tariffs. Foreign tariffs are unlikely to immediately threaten exports; if anything, they may boost exports at the margin as firms speed up shipments to front-run the duties. said Zichun Huang of Capital Economics in a note. Huang also said that exports would be supported by a weaker real effective exchange rate. Import volumes were little changed last month, but they will probably rise soon, with increased government spending supporting the import-intensive construction sector, she said. The 10 nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations remained the largest destination for Chinese products, with exports to ASEAN growing 9.7 per cent in May year-on-year to USD 50.83 billion. Exports to the US grew just 0.2 per cent in May compared with the same time last year, while shipments to the European Union declined, slipping 3.9 per cent year-on-year. Steel, automobiles, home appliances and ships were the fastest growing categories of Chinese exports. Automobiles climbed at the fastest rate, with China exporting 569,000 cars at a growth rate of 26.8 per cent compared with the same time last year. Karnataka government has banned the screening of the Hindi movie Hamare Baarah' for at least two weeks after some Muslim organisations raised concerns. In an order, the government stalled the release of the film and its trailer in electronic media, social media, film theatres, private television channels or other media. The order said several Muslim organisations had appealed to the government not to allow the screening of the movie which portrays Islam in an "instigative and derogatory manner", and giving permission to such a film would lead to hatred between faiths and communities. The organisations said a conspiracy has been going on to target a particular faith, disturb peace and hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims. As the Congress-led Opposition still hobnobs for options to lead a Government at the Centre, the party is likely to take call on the nomination of `Leader of Opposition' in the new Lok Sabha, the official status of LoP restored after a decade, at a meeting of the party's apex CWC meeting on Saturday. Sources said logically the LoP status will fall into the kitty of Congress which is the largest amongst the Opposition but it may consider a `vocal' leader from either of parties from the INDIA Bloc. "Lets see who becomes the LoP. It's the Congress or from INDIA as a united representation has to be made to face the BJP led NDA again," quipped a senior party leader. Batting for Rahul Gandhi to take on the mantle of the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, several party leaders and newly elected MPs, including senior party leader Shashi Tharoor said the former Congress president deserves more than anyone. "I think we have a strong number now to stand up to the government and it (Leader of Opposition) should be a leader who is undoubtedly the most popular in the party," Tharoor said. Sources in the Congress said however Rahul may refuse to don the mantle of LoP in Lok Sabha as he will "have to keep a tab on many other things for the INDIA Bloc". "A decision in this regard is to be taken in the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Saturday. This will be first meeting after the great gains in just concluded LS polls and all of us looking forward to meet and greet and the leaders including high command who worked hard," said the Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary who led the Congress in the outgoing Lok Sabha however lost the elections from his home turf in West Bengal this time. Sources said there may also be a discussion on which of the two seats Rahul should retain for political reasons. He had won from two constituencies, Wayanad in Kerala and Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh. Top Congress leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, besides other leaders would participate in the deliberations. The party will also host a dinner for all its newly elected MPs on Saturday evening. The biggest Opposition party with 10 per cent of seats has Leader of Opposition post in the Lok Sabha. Congress, after being reduced to just 44 seats in 2014, and then 52 seats in the 2019 general elections fell short twice to get the post officially it led as Leader of the (largest) Party which was represented first by Mallikarjun Kharge and in the outgoing LS Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary who has lost this elections. Congress almost doubled its tally in the 2024 Lok Sabha election with 99 plus one (100) MPs to bear the torch of grand old party in LS. Congress got 99 seats and then increased its tally by one - touching the 100 mark - after Independent Lok Sabha member from Maharashtra Vishal Patil extended support to the party. "Leader of the Opposition', in relation to either House of Parliament, means that member of the Council of States or the House of the People, as the case may be, who is, for the time being, the Leader in that House of the party in opposition to the Government having the greatest numerical strength and recognised as such by the Chairman of the Council of States or the Speaker of the House of the People, as the case may be," as per the definition stated by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs in the Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977. Top leaders of the NDA- BJP, TDP, JD(U), LJP amongst others engaged themselves during the day to consolidate the process of Government formation as well as held deliberations of the shape of Council of Ministers to be led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. After the National Democratic Alliance parliamentary meeting, the top BJP leaders Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh met party president JP Nadda at his residence and discussed on the demands of the NDA partners. TDPs N Chandrababu Naidu, JD(United) Nitish Kumar, Eknath Shindes Shiv Sena and Chirag Paswan of Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas have emerged as key parties after the BJP failed to cross the halfway mark needed to form a Government in its own right. Sources said Naidu, Nitish and Shinde met Nadda separately to discuss their demands and possible Cabinet formation. Naidu was the first to meet Nadda. After that Kumar and Shinde met Nadda. Before meeting with key NDA partners, Nadda held a deliberations with Shah and Rajnath Singh, soon after the NDA parliamentary meeting is ended. The TDP wants five posts in the Cabinet, including parliamentary speaker. Kumar's JD(U) is also keen on getting two major portfolios - railways and rural development, sources said. Sources said talks are going on and the outcome is not known to others as discussions were held between top brass of the two parties. As of now, nothing has been finalised. Sources said Naidu and Kumar, both coalition-era veterans, conducted discussions with their party leaders ahead of the NDA meeting today. The BJP, however, is not keen on accommodating allies in four key Ministries that come under the Cabinet Committee on Security defence, finance, home affairs, and external affairs. The BJP will also not want to let go of portfolios that are critical to its infrastructure push, such as road transport and highways, or its welfare agenda, sources said. The four allies whose support is critical for the BJP to reach the majority are N Chandrababu Naidu's TDP, which has won 16 seats, Nitish Kumar's JD(U) (12), Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena (7) and Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas (5). Naidu and Kumar on Friday endorsed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance with a message to balance regional aspirations and national interests. The NDA won 293 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha. The BJP, which enjoyed a handsome majority in the previous two terms, secured only 240 seats, way behind the 272 mark needed to form a Government. It is learnt that BJP is considering giving the Panchayati Raj and Rural Development ministries to JD (U) while Civil Aviation, Steel & Deputy Speaker Post could go TDP. NDA allies can be appointed as Ministers of State in important ministries like Finance and Defence. Tourism, MSME, skill development, science and technology, earth sciences, and social justice and empowerment may also be given to allies. Taiwan on Friday said Chinas outrage over a cordial exchange between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te is utterly unjustified as threats and intimidation never foster friendship. The comments by the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry came a day after China protested an exchange of messages between Modi and Ching-te, saying it opposes all official interactions between Taiwan and countries having diplomatic relations with Beijing. #Chinas outrage at a cordial exchange between the leaders of 2 democracies is utterly unjustified. Threats & intimidation never foster friendships, the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry said on a social media post. #Taiwan remains dedicated to building partnerships with #India underpinned by mutual benefit & shared values, it said. On Wednesday, Lai greeted Modi on the National Democratic Alliances victory in the Lok Sabha polls and said Taiwan was looking forward to enhancing the fast-growing ties between the two sides. My sincere congratulations to Prime Minister @narendramodi on his election victory. We look forward to enhancing the fast-growing #Taiwan-#India partnership, expanding our collaboration on trade, technology & other sectors to contribute to peace & prosperity in the #IndoPacific, he said on social media. In his response to the congratulatory message, Modi said, Thank you @ChingteLai for your warm message. I look forward to closer ties as we work towards mutually beneficial economic and technological partnership. At a media briefing in Beijing on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, when asked about the exchange of messages between Modi and Lai, said China has protested to India on this matter. China considers Taiwan as its breakaway province and insists it should be unified with the mainland, by force if necessary. Taiwan, however, sees itself as completely distinct from China. Mao said there is no such thing as President of the Taiwan region. As for your question, China opposes all forms of official interactions between the Taiwan authorities and countries having diplomatic relations with China. There is but one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of the territory of the Peoples Republic of China, she said. The one-China principle is a universally recognised norm in international relations and a prevailing consensus in the international community, Mao said. India has made serious political commitments on this and is supposed to recognise, be alarmed about and resist the Taiwan authorities political calculations. China has protested to India about this, she said. Pioneer News Service n New Delhi Taiwan on Friday said Chinas outrage over a cordial exchange between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te is utterly unjustified as threats and intimidation never foster friendship. The comments by the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry came a day after China protested an exchange of messages between Modi and Ching-te, saying it opposes all official interactions between Taiwan and countries having diplomatic relations with Beijing. #Chinas outrage at a cordial exchange between the leaders of 2 democracies is utterly unjustified. Threats & intimidation never foster friendships, the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry said on a social media post. #Taiwan remains dedicated to building partnerships with #India underpinned by mutual benefit & shared values, it said. On Wednesday, Lai greeted Modi on the National Democratic Alliances victory in the Lok Sabha polls and said Taiwan was looking forward to enhancing the fast-growing ties between the two sides. My sincere congratulations to Prime Minister @narendramodi on his election victory. We look forward to enhancing the fast-growing #Taiwan-#India partnership, expanding our collaboration on trade, technology & other sectors to contribute to peace & prosperity in the #IndoPacific, he said on social media. In his response to the congratulatory message, Modi said, Thank you @ChingteLai for your warm message. I look forward to closer ties as we work towards mutually beneficial economic and technological partnership. At a media briefing in Beijing on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, when asked about the exchange of messages between Modi and Lai, said China has protested to India on this matter. China considers Taiwan as its breakaway province and insists it should be unified with the mainland, by force if necessary. Taiwan, however, sees itself as completely distinct from China. Mao said there is no such thing as President of the Taiwan region. As for your question, China opposes all forms of official interactions between the Taiwan authorities and countries having diplomatic relations with China. There is but one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of the territory of the Peoples Republic of China, she said. The one-China principle is a universally recognised norm in international relations and a prevailing consensus in the international community, Mao said. India has made serious political commitments on this and is supposed to recognise, be alarmed about and resist the Taiwan authorities political calculations. China has protested to India about this, she said. The RSS faction and the faction that came to the BJP from the Trinamool Congress have their daggers drawn out against each other putting the Bengal saffron outfit in deep trouble. Barely a week into the party's disappointing show in the just completed electoral battle the group led by former State party president Dilip Ghosh has held the ruling faction in the State outfit led by Sukanta Majumdar and Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari for the party's humiliating defeat at the hands of the TMC. The BJP got 12 seats down from 18 in 2019 while the TMC got 29 seats in the general elections. One seat was won by the Congress. Slamming the leadership for the party's poor show and raising his own issue Ghosh who too lost the polls from Burdwan-Durgapur seat said, "People fight elections to win the lost seats and not to lose the seats already won we have done so in Bengal," Ghosh a former national vice president of the party said, adding how he was shifted out of Midnapore to Durgapur against his wishes. "I had dedicated my four years working for the people of Midnapore from where I had won last time I told them (the leaders) that I want to contest from my own constituency where I had invested my time and money but I was sent to Durgapur and the result was that we lost both the seats," Ghosh, a former MP from Midnapore said. He also said he was not called in any meetings or any programmes of the party for the past several years. "I was never called in meetings or party programmes but I used to maintain my own contact with the people," Ghosh, a former national vice president of the party said. Taking up the issue of another former MP from Raiganj Debashree Chowdhury who was sent to Kolkata South reportedly against her wishes, Ghosh said, "I had told Debashree that she had done a great job in Raiganj and would definitely win that seat ... but she was sent to Kolkata South where she was a stranger whereas in Raiganj where she hard all these five years Kartik Paul an insignificant BJP candidate who was a simple ward commissioner of a town won just because of the good work done by Debashree this is the way the leadership has worked this time round. "Ghosh was immediately supported by another party MP Soumitra Khan from Bishnupur who said, "the poor result of our party was because of some kind of setting between the leadership and the TMC which must be found out. "A party MLA from Bankura Niladri Shekhar Dana too slammed the BJP leadership for the poor show complaining how, "Dilip Ghosh has created the BJP in Bengal he took the party from 2 seats to 18 seats in 2019 but all that was lost this time round due to the bad politics of some leaders you cannot compare anyone with Dilip Ghosh who is like a miniature Himalayas and see how he and many other leaders were victimised." There has been a foment inside the party against the style of functioning of the present State leadership led by Suvendu Adhikari and Sukanta Majumdar who had allegedly sidelined the older leaders who had come from the RSS. Incidentally both Adhikari and Majumdar bear TMC origins. Another defeated MP Locket Chatterjee too said that a time had come when things had to be sorted out. "There are things which should not be spoken outside but yes there is a need to go back to the drawing table," she said. Similarly, another BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul who contested and lost to TMC's June Maliya from Midnapore parliamentary seat said "We will introspect on reasons behind loss...perhaps we could not reach out to the people the way we should have we could not perhaps tell them about the central schemes which is why they were carried away by the TMC's propaganda."Reacting to the criticism from the senior leaders, Bengal State president Sukanta Majumdar said that instead of the projected poor show the BJP had done comparatively better taking a lead in about 100 Assembly seats. "We won 77 seats in the 2021 Assembly elections but have taken a lead in about 100 Assembly segments this time round this is a good show I don't know why some leaders are settling their own scores now." Sadhvi Prachi, the national president of Bhagwa Kranti Sena, attributed the defeat of Bharatiya Janata Party in UP to the neglect of party workers, suggesting that demoralised workers chose to stay home during the elections, leading to the ruling partys setback. Despite this, she noted that the ruling partys vote percentage did not decrease. Speaking at an event in Shahjahanpur, organised to celebrate Chief Minister Yogi Adityanaths birthday, Sadhvi Prachi remarked that while the oppositions numbers are increasing, the BJPs worker base appears to be dwindling. Nevertheless, she reiterated that their vote share remained steady. Sadhvi Prachi advised the BJP leadership to respect and acknowledge their workers, emphasising that only through this respect can the party recover from its loss. Addressing the BJPs defeat in Ayodhya, she stated that using the name of Lord Ram as an excuse for the loss is inappropriate, highlighting that winning and losing are part of the electoral process. Despite her criticisms, she praised the BJP, likening it to a vast ocean, and expressed confidence that the party would make up for this defeat in the next election. In recognition of World Brain Tumor Day, AIIMS Bhopal highlights the critical importance of early detection and public awareness to combat the growing incidence of brain tumors. Professor (Dr) Ajai Singh, Executive Director of AIIMS Bhopal, emphasized that identifying brain tumors in their early stages significantly improves treatment outcomes and provides quicker relief for patients. "By raising awareness and dispelling misconceptions, we can ensure that patients receive better support and integration into society," stated Dr. Singh. "Every year, approximately 28,000 people in India are diagnosed with brain tumors, and at AIIMS Bhopal, we perform brain tumor surgeries on about 400 patients annually." Dr Sumit Raj, Additional Professor in the Department of Neuro Surgery at AIIMS Bhopal, explained the types of brain tumors: "Tumors can be benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancerous). Benign tumors consist of normal cells, while malignant tumors are composed of abnormal cells that grow uncontrollably. Brain tumors develop from abnormal cells forming in any part of the brain. While the exact cause remains unidentified, prolonged exposure to radiation is believed to be a significant risk factor. Brain cancer is the second most common cause of cancer in children." Highlighting the theme for this year's World Brain Tumor Day, "Brain Health and Prevention," AIIMS Bhopal is dedicated to educating the public about the symptoms and early signs of brain tumors. Singh remarked, "Our goal is to enable more people to recognize the early symptoms and seek timely treatment, which can be life-saving." AIIMS Bhopal urges the community to take proactive steps towards brain health by being informed about the disease. Early symptoms can include persistent headaches, nausea, vomiting, blurred vision, balance issues, and cognitive or personality changes. Awareness campaigns and educational programs will be held to disseminate this crucial information. Hoping for a big role for himself in national politics, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is likely to resign from the membership of Uttar Pradesh assembly. With his resignation, Akhilesh will also give up the post of leader of opposition in the Uttar Pradesh assembly. Akhilesh Yadav was elected to UP assembly from Karhal constituency in Manipuri district in the 2022 UP assembly polls. A decision on who will replace Akhilesh Yadav as the leader of opposition in the UP assembly has not been taken yet. It is expected that Akhilesh may pick his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav for the role of leader of opposition in the assembly as he is one of the senior leaders in the party. Akhilesh reclaimed the Yadav family bastion of Kannauj by winning the Lok Sabha constituency by polling 6,42,292 votes, defeating sitting Bharatiya Janata Party MP Subrat Pathak by more than one lakh votes. Samajwadi Party had earlier announced to field Tej Pratap Yadav, nephew of Akhilesh Yadav, from Kannauj Lok Sabha constituency. However, the decision was later changed due to dissatisfaction among the party workers who wanted Akhilesh Yadav to contest from the seat. Akhilesh Yadav had made debut in politics in 2000 by contesting the by-election to Kannauj Lok Sabha seat. He later contested from Kannauj in 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha elections. In 2019, Akhilesh Yadav had contested the Lok Sabha election from Azamgarh Lok Sabha constituency. In 2022, he contested the UP assembly election from Karhal and resigned the Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat. Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav was accorded a warm welcome in the state office of the party here on Friday on his arrival there after the party won 37 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. Addressing the party cadre, the SP chief expressed his gratitude towards the electorate and the party cadre for the success of the party candidates in Lok Sabha elections. He said the Lok Sabha elections results were as per the expectations of the people. He said many more candidates would have been elected but the district administration in several constituencies sabotaged their election prospects. Akhilesh Yadav said the Lok Sabha election results were the victory of the ideology and the Constitution of India. He said the people had rejected the agenda of hate pursued by the Bharatiya Janata Party and had voted for inclusive and positive politics. The Delhi Congress Chief Devender Yadav on Friday said the Congress will contest the Delhi Assembly polls in 2025 on their own without an alliance a day after AAP state convener Gopal Rai hinted that the alliance with Congress in the national capital was limited to Lok Sabha 2024 elections. Yadav, who was appointed as the Delhi Congress President after Arvinder Singh Lovely resigned from the post and joined BJP, claimed that the alliance was made with AAP only for the general elections. I think, before elections, we tried to make a strong alliance in the form of the INDIA alliance. In this fight to save the democracy of the country, a lot of like-minded people came together. AAP too came together with us in Delhi. We contested in good coordination and you can see that but I would like to make it clear that our alliance was for Lok Sabha elections. The AAP-Congress combine drew a blank in the Lok Sabha polls in Delhi, with BJP effecting a clean sweep on all seven parliamentary seats for a record third time. The Congress, which fought in alliance with AAP, lost all the seats of North East Delhi, North West Delhi and Chandni Chowk seats. The party secured a vote share of 18.94 per cent in 2024 which was 22.6 per cent in 2019 elections. In 2014 polls, the party secured 15.2 per cent vote share. Further, Yadav stated that it will address its shortcomings in this election and work on it. We had discussions with our seniors yesterday too and we are in touch with our colleagues for the next two days too. We discussed where we fell short and why we could not convert seats. I am sure that we will work on the shortcomings and by playing the role of a strong Opposition, we will revive Congress back to Delhi too, the Delhi Congress Chief stated. The AAP that contested East Delhi, West Delhi, New Delhi and South Delhi seats could also not secure a single win. However, its vote share rose to 24.14 per cent as compared to 18.2 per cent in 2019 polls. In 2014, the AAPs vote share was 33.1 per cent in 2014 general election On Thursday, after a meeting of party MLAs and senior leaders at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals residence, Rai said that the party gave full support to the INDIA bloc in the Lok Sabha polls. However, he hinted on going solo in the assembly polls next year and stated, The INDIA bloc was only contesting the Lok Sabha polls. Several parties fought elections together and AAP was also a part of it. As of now, there is no alliance for the Delhi Assembly polls, he said. Talking about the loss of all seven seats of Delhi in Lok Sabha elections, he stated, There is a trend in Delhi that we have seen that the people vote differently in the Lok Sabha elections and Assembly elections. The pattern has repeated in this general election and will be repeated in the assembly elections also in 2025. Hence, we are focusing on the developmental projects. He added that the greatest benefit from the alliance with Congress was that the margins of loss have reduced. Delhi has 70 assembly segments, including 13 SC reserved ones, and seven Lok Sabha constituencies. Each parliamentary segment has 10 assembly seats. In the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, the AAP had allied with the Congress to contest the seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital. More than 1,400 students from the AAP run Delhi government schools qualified for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) this year marking a significant jump of 2.5 times from 2020 where 569 government school students qualified. Senior AAP Leader and Delhi Education Minister Atishi called this an unprecedented accomplishment.Sharing this great achievement through a press conference, she said, This milestone not only highlights the transformative impact of the educational reforms but also sets a new benchmark for public schooling in the entire country. The Minister shared that the students of Delhi government schools have consistently performed brilliantly in the NEET exam and after the NEET results this year, the children studying in Delhi government schools have broken their NEET records of the last several years. This year, 1414 students of Delhi government schools have qualified for the NEET exam. Atishi stated, The number of children qualifying for the NEET exam from Delhi government schools has been increasing every year. In 2020, this number was 569, in 2021, 2022, 2023 and now in 2024, this number has continuously increased to 1414. That is, in just 5 years, the number of children qualifying NEET has increased 2.5 times. Further, she added, 255 students of STEM specialisation of the Kejriwal governments flagship school, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar School of Specialized Excellence, appeared in NEET and 243 of them qualified for the exam, that is, 95 per cent of the students qualified for the NEET exam. I think that no school in the entire country or any big institute with big advertisements would have had such a great success rate of 95%. This year students of 12 Dr. B.R. Ambedkar School of Specialized Excellence, where students prepare for medical exams in the STEM stream, appeared for NEET and out of these, 6 schools have got 100% result, that is, every student who appeared for NEET has qualified the exam. Expressing her gratitude to the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, she said, I congratulate all the students who qualified for the NEET exam, their parents, teachers and school principals and on behalf of all Delhiites, I thank Delhi CM Shri Arvind Kejriwal; under whose leadership such an education revolution has come Delhi in the last 10 years, in which the poorest of the poor children studying in Delhi government schools are getting the best education and are getting admission in the best higher education institutions. Till 10 years ago, no one could have even imagined that children studying in government schools would qualify for the JEE and NEET exams. But 1414 children from poor families studying in Delhi government schools have qualified for the NEET exam and in the coming time will go to the best medical institutions of the country, bringing glory to Delhi, the country and their families, she mentioned. Highlighting the importance of the government providing good education, she stated, The Chief Minister of Delhi keeps saying that for any country to develop, it is important for the government to provide good education to every child, whether they come from a rich family or a poor family. I am happy that in Delhi, a child from even the poorest of poor families can now not only dream but can also fulfil them. A Bihar-based gangster carrying a reward of Rs 2.25 lakh was shot dead during an encounter with the police in Muzaffarnagar district, officials said on Thursday. The encounter was carried out by a joint team of the Special Task Force of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday night. The gunned down gangster Nilesh Rai, who belonged to Bihars Begusarai district, had 16 cases registered against him, including those of murder, loot and extortion, senior police official (UP STF and Law and Order) Amitabh Yash said. Today, in a joint operation of UP STFs Noida unit and Bihar STF, there was an encounter with criminals in Ratanpuri police station area of Muzaffarnagar, Yash said. In the encounter, notorious criminal Nilesh Rai of Begusarai, on whom a reward of Rs 2.25 lakh was declared by Bihar government, was severely injured and later sent to a hospital for treatment where he died, the officer said. On February 24, a police team had raided Rais hideout in Begusarai, when he along with his companions opened indiscriminate fire at the police and fled. One person was shot and seriously injured in the incident, Yash added. Further investigations are underway. The BJP used several measures to reach out to tribals from bringing back its estranged tribal leader Babulal Marandi and appointed him as the state chief, declaring tribal icon leader Birsa Munda birth anniversary as Tribal Pride Day, among others. But the BJP failed to win any of the reserved tribal seats. Out of five reserved seats, in four seats the defeat was over 1.2 lakh. The BJP is on introspection mode. On Thursday, senior BJP leaders gathered at Kav's restaurant in Harmu, discussing the reasons behind the debacle. Sources said that the results also portend tough going for the BJP in the Assembly elections due at the end of the year. The five tribal Lok Sabha seats translate into 28 ST-reserved Assembly constituencies. A BJP leader requesting anonymity said, The main reason behind BJP debacle in tribal areas is that none of the BJP tribal leaders matches the charisma and popularity of tribal leaders of JMM especially JMM patriarch Shibu Soren and former chief minister Hemant Soren. The leader further said, In 2020, BJP brought estranged tribal leader Babulal Marandi by first projecting him as Leader of Opposition (LoP), but when the speaker court refuse to grant LoP status to Marandi he was made the State Chief. Marandi's popularity in the tribal Santhal region raises questions as BJP lost both the Santhal LS seats which are reserved for ST. BJP trailed in most of the assembly seats in Dumka and Sahebganj. The leader further said, Not only Marandi has failed to make a foothold in tribal seats, he has also failed in his home Lok Sabha constituency. Marandi's home district is Giridih, but the BJP has lost two assembly bye-election Dumri and Gandey. Apart from Marandi, another tribal leader who too has failed is Union Tribal affairs minister Arjun Munda. Union Tribal Affairs and Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda lost the Khunti Lok Sabha seat to Congress's Kalicharan Munda by 1.49 lakh votes, officials said. Arjun Munda, a three-time chief minister, had defeated Kalicharan Munda by 1,445 votes in 2019. The failure of these two biggest tribal leaders has once again raised question on leadership issue in State. The beginning of 2024 witnessed seismic shifts in Jharkhands political landscape with the arrest of Hemant Soren, son of JMM patriarch Shibu Soren, on January 31. This led to Champai Soren, a long-time associate of Shibu Soren, stepping in as stopgap chief minister in February. At 67, Champai Soren lacked the charisma to challenge the formidable BJP in the Lok Sabha polls, but the emergence of Hemants wife Kalpana Soren invigorated JMM workers and added a new dimension to the political narrative. The biggest reason for tribal disenchantment with the BJP is believed to be the jailing of JMM chief and INDIA bloc leader Hemant Soren, in the run-up to the elections, in an alleged land-grabbing case. Soren stepped down as Chief Minister before his arrest, naming Champai Soren in his place. Hemant Sorens wife Kalpana won in the bypolls held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections, making her electoral debut. Kalpana, who campaigned across Jharkhand, also invoked the injustice meted out to her husband, an Adivasi CM. Bank of Baroda, Zonal Office, Bhopal signed an MoU with MP Police for life insurance package in salary account. This MoU was signed by Dr. Anshuman Agarwal, AIG, MP Police and Shri Sanjeev Menon, General Manager and Zonal Head, Bhopal Zone on behalf of Bank of Baroda. This MoU was signed in the august presence of Shri Anil Kumar (ADG).Bank of Baroda had earlier provided accident insurance facility with salary package, along with which life insurance has been included in today's MoU, under which life insurance facility of Rs 7.5 lakh and Rs. 10 lakh will be provided to the police personnel.Shri Sanjeev Menon, General Manager and Zonal Head, Bhopal informed everyone about the benefits of the insurance package. He also thanked the police for their indomitable courage, patience and continuous service with selflessness.This MoU was signed in the presence of Shri Anil Kumar (ADG). After this, the police personnel in MP will be able to easily open their salary accounts in all the branches of Bank of Baroda and will also be able to avail the benefit of life insurance facility along with various schemes of the bank. After accusing Muslims of not supporting her party even after she gave them maximum representation during ticket distribution in the just concluded parliamentary elections, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, on Friday, started a crackdown against the community by expelling Majid Ali, who was a candidate from Saharanpur, from the party. Majid came in third place with 1.80 lakh votes. The party also expelled Majid Alis elder brother and Bollywood actor Kamal Rashid Khan (KRK) from the BSP. Partys district president Janeshwar Prasad confirmed Majid Alis expulsion from the BSP. In the expulsion letter issued by BSP district president Janeshwar Prasad, it has been said that Majid Ali and his elder brother KRK, a resident of Mumbai, have been expelled from the Bahujan Samaj Party for being involved in anti-party activities and indiscipline. The letter states that Majid Ali had been warned several times, but despite this, there was no improvement in his working style and due to this, he was being expelled from the party in the interest of the party and the bahujan samaj movement. In the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, Majid Ali was made the BSP candidate from Saharanpur but the result was not as expected. Majid Ali stood third by getting 1,80,353 votes. Sources said that indecent comments made on social platform 'X' against BSP supremo Mayawati by Majid Alis elder brother Kamal Rashid Khan, who contested the election on BSP ticket, was also being discussed, and the demand for his arrest has started rising on social media. Kamal Rashid Khan lives in Mumbai. From people associated with BSP to social and political activists, Kamal Rashid Khans act was described as very cheap and they demanded action against him. Meanwhile, Majid Ali, while reacting to his expulsion, stated that Behenji is his leader and whatever decision she takes is acceptable. He said that Behenji made him contest the elections of local body chairmanship, state assembly and Lok Sabha and her decision is acceptable to us. Regarding brother KRKs comment, Majid Ali said that he had nothing to do with his brother. If he has made any comment on Behenji, then action should be taken against him, he added. Meanwhile, another BSP leader, Mohammad Gufran Noor, left the party to join Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) along with his supporters. Gufran took membership of ASP-KR in the presence of partys state president Sunil Kumar Chittor, and Chaudhary Mahendra Singh at Agra headquarters. Gufran Noor has been the district president of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). The BSP had given a ticket to Gufran Noor from the Aligarh Lok Sabha seat but after his health deteriorated, the party replaced him with Hitendra Upadhyay Bunty. Gufran Noor has left BSP and joined ASP-KR. Along with him Izhar Ahmed, Jamaluddin Malik, Salim Khan, Junaid, Zainuddin Abbasi, Aslam Abbasi, Abid Chaudhary, Imran Alvi and others also joined the party. Senior AAP leader and Delhi Water Minister Atishi on Friday said the citys water crisis will not be solved even if Himachal Pradesh releases water for it as Haryana has reduced its share a day after the Supreme Court directed the Himachal Pradesh government to provide additional water to Delhi amid water shortage and prevailing heat wave conditions. Amid the scorching heat, the Haryana government is conspiring against the people of Delhi by continuously stopping Delhis share of water and releasing less water into the Yamuna even as the Supreme Court is trying to solve the water problem in Delhi, Atishi stated. Reacting to Atishi accusing the Haryana government of not releasing adequate water to Delhi, South Delhi BJP MP Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said the Atishi is misleading the people of Delhi. Haryana has been releasing from its own quota. She is deliberately misleading on the water crisis. This government did nothing to ensure proper water supply during summer. The Minister inspected the Wazirabad barrage on Friday and said, The Haryana government is not giving the rightful due water to Delhi. Due to this, the water level has come down to 669.7 feet on June 7 as compared to 671.3 feet on June 2. The Supreme Court is trying to solve the water problem of the people of Delhi. Therefore, the Supreme Court is continuously hearing this matter and ordered the meeting of the Upper Yamuna River Board and will hear it again on Monday.But for the last 5 days, when the hearing is going on in the Supreme Court, the Haryana government is conspiring behind the back of the Supreme Court, she said, claiming that since Sunday, when the issue of water reached the Supreme Court, Haryana has continuously reduced the release of water in the Yamuna towards Delhi. As a result, the water level in the barrage at Wazirabad was 671.3 feet on June 2, which has come down to 669.9 feet on June 7, the Minister said, adding that Delhi is dependent on the Yamuna river for its entire water supply as the water that comes into the Yamuna is the same that is released from Haryana. The water coming into the Yamuna is supplied to Wazirabad, Chandrawal and Okhla water treatment plants. When the water supply itself will reduce and the water in the water treatment plant will reduce, when less water will come into the Yamuna from Haryana, then from where will the water treatment plant produce water? This will affect the supply and people will face problems, she said. On one hand, the Supreme Court is trying to solve the water problem in Delhi. Himachal Pradesh is also saying in the court that it is ready to help but the Haryana government is now hatching a conspiracy that even if Himachal Pradesh gives water, the problem of Delhiites will not be solved, that is why Haryana is constantly stopping the water that they have to send to Wazirabad, Atishi alleged.She said that we will put this entire issue before the Supreme Court and hope that Delhi will be able to get its share of water and the additional water from Himachal Pradesh without any obstruction. Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Friday said that the government's vision is to empower the poor and ensure that they benefit from government schemes through online services right from their homes. In this regard, the Haryana Antyodaya Parivar Parivahan Yojana (HAPPY) was launched today from 35 locations across the state. Under this scheme, families with an annual income of less than Rs. 1 lakh will be provided with 1,000 kms of free travel annually on Haryana Transport buses. The Chief Minister was speaking as the chief guest at the state-level event held at Dr Mangal Sen Auditorium in Karnal. Saini mentioned that many online schemes of the Haryana government have been studied and implemented in other states. He also pointed out that before 2014, poor families had to struggle to get gas cylinders. Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged self-sufficient individuals to give up their LPG subsidies, leading to millions voluntarily surrendering their subsidies. Consequently, the Ujjwala Yojana was implemented, providing 9.50 crore free LPG gas cylinders nationwide, including 12 lakh in Haryana. The Prime Minister has established a system where the poor benefit first from every scheme, such as the Ayushman Card scheme, which offers treatment worth up to Rs. 5 lakh. Haryana expanded this scheme with the Ayushman Bharat Chirayu Haryana Yojana, benefiting over 1.25 crore individuals. He also highlighted that under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, 4 crore houses have been built for the poor in the last 10 years, setting an example of empowering the poor since independence. The Prime Minister has pledged to build 3 crore more houses by 2029. Under the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Awas Navinikarn Yojna, Haryana provides Rs. 80,000 for house repairs. During COVID, interest-free loans of Rs. 10,000 each were given to street vendors. Under the Mukhyamantri Vivah Shagun Yojana, Rs. 71,000 are provided for the marriage of a poor person's daughter. Haryana is the first state in the country to provide Rs. 3,000 monthly under the Old Age Samman Allowance. Beneficiaries no longer have to visit offices; their names are automatically included in the online list as soon as they turn 60. The Prime Minister has accelerated the country's development over the past decade and aims to further enhance it in the next five years. The NDA alliance has once again chosen Sh. Narendra Modi as their leader, and he is set to take the oath as Prime Minister for the third time soon. It is noteworthy that during the Antyodaya Conference in Karnal on November 2, 2023, the then Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced the HAPPY scheme, and it was implemented during the budget session of the assembly on February 23, 2024. On March 7, 2024, the state government began providing HAPPY cards to families with an annual income of 1 lakh or less. The scheme will benefit approximately 85 lakh beneficiaries in the state, and so far, 59,708 people have received the cards before the Model Code of Conduct. These individuals have travelled 37.88 lakh Kms. Today, districts like Kaithal, Hisar, Jind, Fatehabad, Sirsa, Bhiwani, Karnal, and Kurukshetra were connected via video conferencing. The Chief Minister directly interacted with beneficiaries from several districts and handed over HAPPY cards to 20 beneficiaries in Karnal, congratulating them. Around 22.89 lakh families, totaling approximately 84 lakh people with an annual income of less than Rs. 1 lakh, will benefit from this scheme. All beneficiaries will receive smart cards linked to the e-ticketing system, allowing them to travel for free. The state government will allocate a budget of approximately Rs. 600 crores for this scheme. Transport Minister Aseem Goel, addressing the event, praised the HAPPY scheme as unique in the country and lauded the transport department officers for their implementation efforts. He mentioned that the scheme's launch right after the Model Code of Conduct ended reflects the government's commitment to the upliftment of the last person in the queue. A special plan for cleanliness at all bus stands in the state is also being prepared, aiming to make travel on Haryana transport buses feel like a happy experience. Over the past 10 years, the cleanliness standards at railway stations have been significantly improved, and similar efforts will be made at all bus stands in Haryana. Navdeep Virk, Principal Secretary of the Transport Department, provided detailed information about the scheme. He stated that currently, there are over 4,200 buses in the transport fleet, which will be increased to 5,300 in the next two years. This will include the addition of 1,800 BS-6 buses and the procurement of 150 AC buses, with 500 more to be added. Another 500 to 1,000 buses will be included under the kilometer scheme. He also highlighted that 36 citizen services provided by the transport department, with 29 already made online. He added that now, after purchasing a new vehicle, there is no need to visit the SDM office for the RC; it will be provided at the agency itself. A short film on the Haryana HAPPY scheme was also shown to the audience at the event. The Chief Minister interacted with beneficiaries from various districts, including Ranbir from Kaithal, Mukesh and Karambir from Fatehabad, Surender from Jind, Kaushalya from Sirsa, Rajesh from Bhiwani, and Kamlesh Arora from Kurukshetra. / Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann on Friday exhorted the farmers to make maximum use of surface water during the ensuing paddy season to save the groundwater. Chairing a meeting of Water resources department here, he said that the state government is fully geared to supply canal water from the forthcoming paddy season. He said that from June 11 the canal water will be supplied to farmers uninterruptedly as the work of de-silting the canals has already been accomplished. Mann said that canal water would be supplied in districts of Sri Muktsar Sahib, Faridkot, Mansa, Bathinda, Fazilka, Ferozepur and areas beyond the fence at international border from June 11 and in Moga, Sangrur, Malerkotla, Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib, SAS Nagar, Rupnagar, Ludhiana, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Tarn Taran, Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Pathankot from June 15. Mann said that Punjab is on the threshold of setting a new record for supplying canal water for the irrigational needs adding that for the first time, the state government has set up a dedicated control room for enquiries regarding supply of canal water. He said that if anyone desires to get any information regarding the supply of canal water that person can call on +91 96461 51466 to get the details. He expressed hope that the farmers will duly utilise the canal water for irrigating the paddy fields and play a major role in saving the ground water. The Chief Minister also said that to avert floods in the state the Punjab government has taken initiatives including designing the discharge of Choes/Torrents/Rivers as per 100 years flood discharge and accordingly notifying the flood plains of the Rivers and drains/choes under The Northern India Canal and Drainage Act, Strengthening of main Embankments of rivers and Restriction of works on advance bundh. He said that for emergency response system data base of people such as bag suppliers, wire binders, earth moving equipment's, tractor trolley owners, divers and local volunteers has been compiled and empty cement bags and filled bags are being planned to be stored at strategic locations for emergent use. Bhagwant Singh Mann said that Bamboo plantations are being carried out on inner slopes of rivers and Obstruction caused by NHAI, B&R and Mandi Board to the sheet flow of the flood waters have been identified and are being removed. NO REDUCTION IN RATION UNDER PDS TO BENEFICIARIES BY THE STATE GOVERNMENT: ASSERTS CM Chairing a separate meeting, Mann said that the state government is duty-bound to ensure an uninterrupted supply of ration to the beneficiaries under Ghar Ghar ration scheme. He said that due to their vested political interests, some rumour mongers had spread canards that a huge reduction has been made in ration by the state government. He said that this was baseless and unwarranted as all the beneficiaries are getting the facility under the scheme and full ration is being given to them. Bhagwant Singh Mann said that he has already sought report pertaining to it from all the Deputy Commissioners across the state so that beneficiaries get the benefits of the scheme regularly. Mann said that it is a matter of immense pride and satisfaction for the entire state that the ration is being distributed to the beneficiaries through Model Fair Price Shops (MFPS) Set Up across the state. He said that 1.54 crore Beneficiaries are getting the ration through 40.19 lakh ration cards and this will continue by all means. Bhagwant Singh Mann said that the scheme envisages smooth and hassle-free delivery of ration to the people. He said that Gone are the days when people had to face a lot of inconvenience for getting food grains under the National Food Security Act by waiting in long queues. He bemoaned that people had to face undue harassment while getting these grains most of the time while skipping their daily work or during odd hours. But Mann said that now with the distribution of ration at the vicinity of the beneficiaries, a new era has been ushered in as the beneficiary shall not be required to stand in long queues, especially in inclement weather conditions adding that this will not only ensure delivery of nutritious food grains to people but will also go a long way in saving their time, money and energy. After taking the oath as Karnal MLA at Haryana Vidhan Sabha in Chandigarh, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Thursday accused the Congress party of misleading the people by claiming that the BJP will change the constitution and abolish reservation facilities. Saini, who is also the state BJP chief, said that Congress leaders succeeded in spreading the lie that if Narendra Modi became PM for the third time, he would scrap the Constitution and end reservation. "I will appeal to people of state that they should understand the lies of Congress and propaganda they spread," he said. State Speaker Gian Chand Gupta administered the oath to Saini at his chamber in Vidhan Sabha after he won the Karnal assembly by-election that was held on May 25 along with the Lok Sabha election in Haryana. Saini defeated his main rival Congress's Tarlochan Singh to win the by-poll for the Karnal Assembly seat. Saini was sworn in as Chief Minister on March 12 when his predecessor, Manohar Lal Khattar, stepped down and went on to contest the Lok Sabha poll as the BJPs Karnal candidate and won the parliamentary election. Expressing his gratitude, the Chief Minister said, "I heartily thank the people of Karnal for their immense faith in me. Their support indicates that in the upcoming state assembly elections in October, the BJP will secure a substantial majority in Haryana under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Following the principle of 'Sabka Saath-Sabka Vikas', we will maintain the same momentum in advancing Haryana as we have done for the past nine and a half years. Talking to reporters after taking the oath, Saini accused the Congress of winning five of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state on the strength of lies as the principal opposition party had resorted to misleading people by claiming that reservation would be scrapped if the BJP was voted back to power at the Centre. Saini said, The Congress lied to win this election. It is purely on the strength of lies that they won five seats in the State. They succeeded in spreading one lie that if Narendra Modi ji becomes Prime Minister for the third time, the Constitution will be scrapped and reservation ended. The Chief Minister said that during the meeting of the BJP legislature party meeting on Wednesday evening, it emerged that the Congress had resorted to misinformation and lies to turn the tide in its favour in this Lok Sabha election. All through Congress leaders at the national and state levels, including Rahul Gandhi, were seen holding up a copy of the Constitution and spreading falsehood that if Modi ji becomes PM for the third time, the Constitution will be scrapped. Its such a big lie and its unfortunate that they succeeded in misleading the Scheduled Caste (SC) community. With the assembly elections due in October, he said BJP workers would reach out to the SC community and expose the Congress false propaganda. On Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda seeking the dismissal of the minority BJP government in Haryana, Saini said that his government had won the trust vote in March and there was no threat to it. Saini further said: Karnal has signalled its approval for the BJP victory in the assembly elections in October. In the last nine-and-a-half-year tenure of PM Modi, Haryana has achieved new heights in development with the Sabka saath, sabka vikas motto. He said that Congress may have wrested five seats, but the poll percentage of BJP in the LS polls in the state was more than the Congress. BJP secured a vote share of 46.11 per cent against Congress's 43.67 per cent. Aam Aadmi Party won a vote share of 3.94 per cent. The voter turnout in the State was recorded to be 64.80 per cent. The BJP's vote share has dropped from 58.2 per cent in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls to 46.11 per cent. The Congress, on the other hand, has increased its vote share from 28.42 per cent in 2019 to 43.7 per cent. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won all 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Hooda says BJP Govt is in minority; Urges Governor to dissolve Assembly & initiate new elections Former Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition in the Haryana Assembly Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday called for the resignation of the BJP government in Haryana, citing a loss of public trust. Hooda said that the BJP government is already in a minority in the Haryana assembly and urged the Governor to dissolve the assembly and initiate new elections. Hooda said that a Congress Legislature Party meeting has been scheduled for June 10 to further discuss political developments in the State. Hooda expressed gratitude towards State's voters, noting a significant increase in the Congress' vote share from approximately 28 per cent in the 2019 elections to almost 48 per cent in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. In contrast, the BJP's vote share fell from about 58 per cent to 46 per cent. Talking to reporters, Hooda said that while the Congress did not secure any Lok Sabha seats in 2019, it has now won five out of 10, leading in 46 assembly constituencies. He asserted that these results indicate a strong public mandate for the Congress to form the next government in Haryana. "The people of Haryana have voted not for caste or creed, but for progress and development," Hooda stated. He criticized the BJP for attempting to divide society along caste and religious lines, claiming that the electorate prioritized employment, development, and education. The former Chief Minister emphasized that the Congress presented strong candidates who campaigned vigorously, resulting in the highest vote percentage for the party in Haryana compared to the INDIA alliance across the country. Hooda criticized the BJP for failing to deliver on its promise to double farmers' incomes by 2022, stating that input costs have instead doubled. He expressed concerns over the Agneepath Yojana, pension through skill employment, and the abolishing of reservations, which he argued have harmed the state's employment landscape. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav approved the country's largest ethane cracker project to be set up by GAIL (India) Limited in Ashta tehsil of Sehore district. Chief Minister Dr. Yadav hoped that local employment will be created and industrialization will get a boost. Chief Minister Yadav directed the concerning authorities to allot the land required for the project. It is noteworthy that this project involving an investment of about Rs 60,000 crore will be the country's largest ethane cracker project. A green field petrochemical complex is also proposed in this project. Under this, petrochemicals like LLDPE, HDPE, MEG and propylene will be produced. Through this project, 15,000 people will get employment during the construction period and about 5,600 people will get employment during the operation period. A 70 hectare township is also proposed in the project. The ground breaking ceremony of the project is expected to take place by next February and commercial production is expected to start in the financial year 2030-31. Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation . Chandramouli Shukla and Director of GAIL (India) Limited R.K. Singhal were present. Kalpana Murmu Soren, a newly elected MLA and prominent leader of the JMM, has claimed that her husband, former state Chief Minister Hemant Soren, is suffering ill treatment in jail. Drawing parallels to the custodial death of tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy, Kalpana warned that Jharkhand is on the path to becoming like Manipur. She indicated that the recent Lok Sabha election results represent the beginning of retribution for Father Stan Swamy's death in custody. Kalpana emphasized that Father Stan Swamy's death is a glaring mark against the state of democracy and human rights in India. In a social media post featuring a picture of the late Father Stan Swamy and former Chief Minister Hemant Soren, she wrote, "This election marks Jharkhand's quest for justice for the unjust custodial death of 84-year-old Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy, a disgrace to India's democracy and human rights." Despite his advanced age and Parkinson's disease, Father Stan, who had long championed tribal rights, was denied bail and adequate medical care under fabricated terrorism charges by the BJP government. He wasn't even provided a straw to drink water. Due to worsening health conditions in prison, Father Stan died in custody on July 5, 2021. His death epitomizes the BJP's approach to silencing opposition and tribal voices under the guise of combating terrorism and criminalizing human rights activism. Kalpana argued that, just as Father Stan was silenced through institutional neglect and injustice, Hemant Soren is now facing similar oppression. She urged every resident of Jharkhand to support Hemant Soren, warning that otherwise, the BJP will continue their efforts to turn Jharkhand into Manipur. In the recent Lok Sabha elections, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha secured three seatsDumka, Chaibasa, and Rajmahal. During Hemant Soren's imprisonment and Shibu Soren's illness, Kalpana took the lead in the party's election campaign. She held numerous public meetings and won the bye-election for the Gandey Assembly, securing her place in the Assembly. President Droupadi Murmu has invited Narendra Modi - as leader of the National Democratic Alliance - to form the next union government, days after the coalition eased to victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Modi will take oath, as too will members of his new cabinet, at 6 pm Sunday. Modi will be the first three-term PM since Congress stalwart Jawaharlal Nehru. Days after the declaration of general election results, the state BJP unit is abuzz with speculations regarding ministerial berths in the new cabinet Narendra Modis government. In the 16th Lok Sabha (2014-2019), Jharkhands two parliamentarians Jayant Sinha (Hazaribag) and Sudershan Bhagat (Lohardaga) found a place in Modis first tenure. In the 17 Lok Sabha (2019-2024), the two parliamentarians who found a place were Arjun Munda (Khunti) and Annapurna Devi (Koderma). Out of these four only Annapurna Devi is presently MP as she won the Koderma seat for third consecutive time. While Arjun Munda who was Minister of Tribal Affairs and later given additional portfolio of agriculture minister in Modi Cabinet 2 lost to Congress Kalicharan Munda, the other two Sudershan Bhagat and Jayant Sinha did not contest the election. Sources said that this time as the Modi government has to adjust its allies especiallythe Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Janata Dal (united) it is unlikely that Jharkhand will get a fair representation this time. A senior BJP leader requesting anonymity said, The last two governments Modi 1 and 2 were BJP government and NDA allies were given token representation in cabinet, but this time as BJP has not got the magic number (272) on its own it has depend upon its allies partner for government formation. In such a situation, the allies' partners such as TDP, JDU, Chirag Paswan, Shiv Sena and others will get fair representation. Apart from this, the states where BJP made a clean sweep too will get lions share in Cabinet. States such as Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand will get many ministerial berths. In Jharkhand, Godda MP Nishikant Dubey and Jamshedpur MP Vidyut Baran Mahto are probable, who will be given ministerial berths. Sitting BJP MP Nishikant Dubey won the Godda Lok Sabha seat in Jharkhand by a margin of 1.01 lakh votes, defeating his nearest rival Congress's Pradeep Yadav. Dubey has been winning the seat since 2009. In 2019, he retained the seat by defeating Yadav, who had then contested as a JVM-P candidate, by a margin of over 1.84 lakh votes. The other MP who is in the fray is Bidyut Baran Mahto who retained the Jamshedpur constituency by a margin of 2,59,782. Maho won the Jamshedpur seat for the third consecutive time. Vidyut Varan Mahto has been continuously winning the Lok Sabha elections on BJP ticket since 2014. He defeated his nearest rival JMM candidate Sameer Mohanty by 2 lakh 59 thousand 894 votes. Koderma MP and former Union Minister Annapurna Devi, who won by 352403 votes against CPI-MLs Vinod Singh, is also one the contenders for ministerial post. Former Jharkhand DGP and BJP candidate from Palamu who won his seat by a huge margin of 288807 votes against RJDs Mamta Bhuiyan, too is in the list of cabinet berths. Students at Medicaps University now have the exciting opportunity to pursue internships at the Lyon Institute for Geostrategy and Multicultural Relations (LIGMR) in France. During a recent visit to Medicaps University, Mr. Luhit Sharma, Vice President of Business Development for Asia, and Prof. (Dr.) P. Siluvainathan, Registrar, formalized this collaboration by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). This agreement paves the way for student exchange programs, dual degree opportunities, and internships. In addition to these prospects, Vice Chancellor Prof (Dr.) D. K. Patniak has proposed the development of collaborative internships and specialized programs in Luxury Brand Management and Sustainable Development, tailored for Medi-Caps students. This partnership not only broadens academic and professional horizons but also fosters cross-cultural learning and innovation. Dr. Ravindra Pathak, Head of the Office of International Affairs, expressed heartfelt appreciation to Luhit Sharma and his team for their enlightening session and invaluable insights. Chief Minister Champai Soren today reviewed the building construction schemes of Jharkhand Police Housing Corporation Limited. On this occasion, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Jharkhand Corporation Limited, Prashant Singh informed that new police lines have been constructed in Godda, Jamtara and Pakur, which are to be inaugurated soon. At the same time, the construction work of 290 buildings related to police buildings, police lines and police stations is going on at a fast pace. He also gave information related to the proposed new police headquarters to the Chief Minister. The CM said that complete transparency should be maintained in the building construction schemes to be implemented by Jharkhand Police Housing Corporation Limited. The CM directed to start the construction of all approved police station buildings soon and complete the construction work of pending buildings as soon as possible. He also asked to plant trees in the premises of all police stations with the help of the Forest Department. On this occasion, Additional Chief Secretary to Chief Minister, Avinash Kumar and Secretary to Chief Minister, Arwa Rajkamal were present. Meanwhile the State Government has approved the proposal to impose the penalty of stopping one pay increment with non-cumulative effect against Ram Pravesh Kumar, J.P.S. (4th Limited Batch), then Circle Officer, Valipur, Dhanbad, presently Circle Officer, Karamatand, Jamtara, under Rule-14(iv) of Jharkhand Government Servant (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 2016. The State Government has also approved the proposal to impose the penalty of stopping his entire pension for life against Chandrashekhar Singh, retired J.P.S., then Block Development Officer, Sonvarsha, Saharsa (Bihar), under Rule-43(b) of Jharkhand Pension Rules. The State Government has approved the proposal to impose a penalty of deduction of 05 percent of the amount from the pension of Awadhesh Kumar Pandey, retired from J.P. (Category No.-528/03), then Municipal Commissioner, Dhanbad Municipal Corporation, Dhanbad under Rule-43 (b) of Jharkhand Pension Rules for one year. The State Government has approved the proposal to conduct departmental proceedings against Dr. Ashok Kumar Pathak, then Civil Surgeon, Bokaro under Form 'A'. Three miscreants robbed a petrol pump manager of Rs 3.79 lakh in broad daylight on Bhopal Indore Highway, the capital of Madhya Pradesh. Police have arrested one accused in this robbery. Many revelations were made in the interrogation that took place late at night. Police are also claiming to arrest two other accused soon. Thieves stole the two-wheeler of the councilor who helped the police in arresting the accused, which has been reported in Khajuri police station. Three unknown robbers robbed Manoj Bhavsar, the manager working at Bharat Petrol Pump. Around 3 in the afternoon, the manager was going from the opposite direction of the petrol pump with cash, when three youths called out at some distance from the petrol pump, but I ignored their voices and started moving ahead. After some time, those youths came in front of me and escaped away after snatching the money bag after spitting chilli powder in my eyes. < According to information received from sources, police have arrested one of the three accused, whose interrogation is going on. The accused has informed the police about the other two, in the next few days the police will arrest the other two accused and solve this robbery. Councillor Ashok Maran had parked Hero Splendor outside his house. Maran said that another motorcycle was parked next to his car, around 2:30 in the night the thieves stole the motorcycle MP040584. Maran had bought this motorcycle just a month ago, he has reported it in Khajuri police station. Along with this, another motorcycle has been stolen under Bairagarh police station, which has also been reported by the complainant in the police station. The public is scared of the thefts happening every day. The councilor said that in the next few days he will meet the top police officials once again regarding incidents like theft and robbery and will discuss this with them. Earlier also councillor and block congress president Ashok Maran had met DCP Malkit Singh regarding the thefts that had taken place and he had assured the public representatives that night patrolling and police alert would be done regarding the thefts. The councillor had helped the police in the robbery incident with the petrol pump manager on Thursday and he himself had gone to those places where the thieves might go. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, on Thursday, hailed the people of Uttar Pradesh, saying they gave a solid message to the whole country of saving the Constitution and re-establishing the old ideal that public issues are paramount. She also congratulated Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple on their victories. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance suffered a jolt in Uttar Pradesh, where it won just 36 Lok Sabha seats as against the 43 bagged by the INDIA bloc -- a significant contribution to the overall tally of the opposition alliance. In a post in Hindi on X, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, My salute to all my colleagues of UP Congress. I saw you working hard in the sun and dust, you did not bow down, you did not stop, you showed courage to fight in the toughest of times. Atrocities were committed against you, fake cases were filed against you, you were put in jail, you were repeatedly put under house arrest but you did not get scared. Many leaders left in fear, you stood firm, she said. Priyanka Gandhi further said she was proud of the vigilant people of Uttar Pradesh, who understood the depth and truth of this country and gave a solid message to the whole of India of saving the Constitution. You have re-established an old ideal in todays politics -- that the issues of the people are paramount, the price of ignoring them is heavy, she said. The election is of the people, the people fight it and the people win, Priyanka Gandhi added. Meanwhile, Priyanka Gandhi also congratulated Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav, as well as SP and Congress workers, on SP winning more seats in UP. In another message on social media platform X, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra congratulated Akhilesh Yadav, Dimple Yadav and party workers for the results of UP. Even in dire circumstances, Congress and SP have fought a historic election battle together. During the election campaign, SP and Congress workers have worked very hard. They have taken the issues of the public to every household. Along with this, they have also raised the voice of social justice and the Constitution, she said. Priyanka further wrote that despite all the threats in the elections, the workers stood at the booth as the sentinels of democracy. Due to this hard work, unity and our commitment to the issues, the people of UP have shown trust. Thanks to everyone for this, she said. Priyanka also added the slogan Jai Janata and Jai Samvidhan in the congratulatory message to Akhilesh and Dimple. After the results of the Lok Sabha elections, the Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) may not be seen forming the government, but the enthusiasm of the leaders of the INDIA bloc parties is high. All the parties of the INDIA bloc have performed much better than the last election. This time the Samajwadi Party has got 37 seats in Uttar Pradesh. Congress has won the election on six seats. For the Congress, coming back in Amethi seat is a matter of great joy and celebration, while for the SP, defeating BJP candidate Lallu Singh in Faizabad Lok Sabha seat is a matter of much discussion in the political circles. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal contested the elections together. Then the Mahagathbandhan got 15 seats. Akhilesh Yadavs SP got five seats, while BSP got a big advantage and it won 10 seats. In 2019, Congress contested the Lok Sabha elections alone in Uttar Pradesh. Then Congress suffered a bad defeat. Congress had fielded its candidates on 70 seats in Uttar Pradesh, out of which 69 of its candidates, including Rahul Gandhi from Amethi, lost the elections. Congress won only the Rae Bareli seat from where Sonia Gandhi was the candidate. As the scorching sun batters the national Capital, residents of many areas in the city have to contend with not just the extreme heat but also a severe water shortage. Many share that they have to buy water for everything, including cooking and drinking as water through tankers is insufficient to meet peoples demand. Sangam Vihar resident Om Lata fears the worst as winter gives way to summer leading to water crisis every year. Jostling for space with neighbours, often getting into disputes, just to secure enough water from the tanker, Latas struggles to find an echo in hundreds of thousands of Delhi residents as the national capital reels from a severe water shortage. Lata, who lives in Sangam Vihars L Block, emphasised the severity of the shortage, explaining how they have to buy water for everything -- drinking, cooking and cleaning. She questioned how a family can survive under such conditions. We struggle with this problem every year. The thought of summer haunts us because we dont have water to drink. Residents fight over water in queues when the tanker arrives as everyone needs water for their families, she said, adding that they dont even throw away the dirty water. Gajendra Pratap, a resident of Geeta Colony, echoes Latas sentiments while stating that this issue has plagued Delhi for years. The scarcity begins as soon as the summer starts, he said, adding that despite the Delhi government supplying water through tankers, it is insufficient to meet demand and people often return home empty-handed. The tanker arrives at 7 am and runs out of water by 7.25 or 7:30 am, Pratap said, adding that with schools shut for summer vacations, children are also at home and it becomes hard to manage. He stated that people, even those who cannot afford food on a regular basis, are forced to buy water. Sangam Vihar is one of the areas that have been hit the hardest by the shortage due to its high population density. The dire situation has frustrated many women in L Block and K Second Block. In L Block, women like Lata wait outside their homes for the Delhi Jal Board tanker, jostling with their neighbours away to be the first in line. Sunita, another Sangam Vihar resident, said, If you need water, you have to buy it. Otherwise, surviving the summer with one or two buckets of water daily is impossible, regardless of whether you have kids at home. A single tanker charges Rs 3,000 and, even after paying, they still have to wait hours for it to arrive. Expressing her frustration that the government is not addressing their plight, Sunita said, Just think, in this heat, people are getting sick, and we dont even have water to drink. The national capital has been grappling with a water shortage with the Delhi government accusing Haryana of not releasing its share of water. The acute shortage has become an existential problem in Delhi, the Supreme Court observed on Thursday and directed the Himachal Pradesh government to release 137 cusecs of surplus water to the national capital and Haryana to facilitate its flow. Chief Electoral Officer, Jharkhand, K Ravi Kumar held a meeting with Deputy Electoral Officers of all districts in his auditorium situated at the headquarters on Friday. The meeting was called with the objective of assessing any unexpected shortcomings that remained during the last Lok Sabha elections and to discuss ways to rectify them and to increase the voting percentage in the upcoming assembly elections. The CEO said that all the officers and employees associated with the elections have played an important role in conducting the Lok Sabha elections in the state in a fair, fearless and peaceful manner. He said that preparations for the upcoming assembly elections should be started from now itself. In this regard, the Booth Awareness Groups and ELC Groups formed during the Lok Sabha elections will have to be activated. He instructed that the name and number of the concerned Booth Level Officer should be inscribed on the walls of government buildings etc, so that any voter can easily contact the BLO of his area. He said that in view of the assembly elections, the cut-off date for publication of the voter list is being kept as 1st October. Before this date, go door-to-door and revise the voters. During this period, the names of all voters of urban and rural areas should be matched with the voter list and new voters should be added along with the names of voters who have shifted or who have died should be updated in the list. The CEO said that the officers should themselves physically inspect the polling stations where voting is less than 80 per cent. He said that before the Lok Sabha elections, a social audit team conducted a survey of minimum facilities at the polling stations and a survey was conducted again three days before the polling. He directed all the Deputy Election Officers to ensure minimum facilities at 100 per cent polling stations as per the instructions of the Election Commission of India. Kumar said that ensure timely payment to the polling personnel and owners of vehicles engaged in polling work as per the rules. Also, if the personnel engaged in polling work suddenly falls ill, then ensure their cashless treatment. Also, in case of loss of life or property of any employee associated with polling work, ensure to give ex-gratia grant to the family members by following the guidelines of the Election Commission of India. On this occasion, Additional Chief Electoral Officer Dr. Neha Arora, Joint Chief Electoral Officer Subodh Kumar, OSD Geeta Chaubey, Assistant Chief Electoral Officer Dev Das Dutta, Deputy Electoral Officer (Headquarters) Sanjay Kumar and Deputy Electoral Officers of all districts were present. Other officers and workers associated with the election work in the districts were also connected to the meeting through video conferencing. Sagar Institute of Science and Technology (SISTec) organized Sagar Glory 2024 to celebrate the magnificent placements of SISTec students. The celebrations witnessed the presence of Rajendra Shukla, Deputy Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh as the Chief Guest for the day. Shukla inaugurated Sagar Glory by lighting the Lamp in the presence of Sudhir Kumar Agrawal Chairman Sagar Group, Siddharth Sudhir Agrawal Managing Director Sagar Group, Dr. Jyoti Deshmukh Group Director SISTec, Dr D K. Rajoria Principal SISTec, Dr Manish Billore - Principal SISTec-R, Dr Kuldeep Ganju- Principal SIPTec, Dr Swati Saxena Vice Principal SISTec, Ms Prachi Shrivastava Head Corporate Relations, esteemed faculties of SISTec and parents of children. SISTec Glory 2024 is a platform to celebrate placements and extend boundaries of skilling beyond horizons embedded with digital interventions. This year, SISTec witnessed 200 companies visiting the campus with 1150+ Job offers to its students with the highest package of 20 LPA to Monica Joshi by CISCO. SISTec also witnessed 8 Women Campus Drives with an average package of 4.5 LPA and 96% of its students getting placed through campus interviews. SISTec Electronics and Communication Engineering Electrical Engineering Branch and Electrical and Electronics Engineering Branch witnessed 100% placements. SISTec Business School and SIPTec (Pharmacy) also registered 96% placement of its students. SISTec also witnessed 40% penetration in IT/Software companies, 22% in manufacturing-based companies, 12% in serviced companies, and 10% in telecom-based companies. CISCO, Ultratech, Autodesk, Renault Deloitte, TCS, Bridgestone, Polycab, eQ Technologic, Johnson Controls, Hexaware, SOBHA, Bajaj FinServ, Nielson IQ. Cipla, CG Power & Industrial Solutions Limited, TCS, Steel Strips Wheels Limited, Tulid Digital, Lenskart, etc. are some of the companies who visited this year for the core campus drives. Rajendra Shukla presented placement certificates to top 225 students of SISTec who will be joining their companies in a short period. Motivating the students Shukla said, "Students must have composure and patience and express themselves with confidence. Students should continue with hard work and break the shell of their comfort zone. The three revolutions, the Industrial Revolution, the Green Revolution and Tourism will change the country's unemployment scenario. Government schemes of Startup India and Skill India are necessary steps in this direction to remove unemployment. You all have opportunities to serve the nation with the companies you are joining and I am confident that you will contribute to nation-building. Your success will bring pride to your parents and enhance the glory of our state and country." Sudhir Kumar Agrawal Chairman Sagar Group in his address directed students to work hard ahead and contribute to nation-building. He said, "There is no replacement for honesty and dedication. Always compete with yourself for healthy competition." Siddharth Agrawal- Managing Director Sagar Group said "At SISTec, we have established Centers of Excellence with companies that impart consistent industry-based training and skilling specific to company requirements. These centers set up higher benchmarks and make it easier for companies to pick and choose during the selection process." Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Thursday said that the State Government has decided to run a special campaign in the State for repair of roads of the Public Works Department and Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board (HSAMB). After presiding over a meeting with the officers concerned, Saini said that an amount of Rs 1636 crore was also approved for this purpose. It was highlighted during the meeting that the repair of state highways and major district roads will be prioritized, with an aim to complete approximately 1500 works by September. Notably, the tender process for some of these roads has already been completed. The HSAMB has identified 384 roads across 17 districts, covering a total length of about 1100 kilometers. Furthermore, it was disclosed in the meeting that out of the 439 roads, spanning 5200 km, earmarked for transfer by HSAMB, roads having length of 3000 km were successfully transferred last year. The Board will now concentrate on repairing these roads before transferring them to the Public Works Department. The Board has decided that future road transfers to the Public Works Department will only proceed after a thorough demarcation. The Public Works Department will undertake patchwork repairs on 3500 km of roads before the onset of the monsoon season. It was also decided in the meeting that the commencement of soil filling and the construction of kutcha roads will begin immediately on roads and bypasses where 80 to 85 percent of the land has been available. Apart from this, the construction work on the Kosli bypass will commence shortly. Govt removes age limit cap for the Mukhyamantri Kisan Evam Khetihar Mazdoor Jeevan Suraksha Yojana Saini said that the State Government has taken a significant decision to remove the age limit cap for the Mukhyamantri kisan Evam KhetiharMazdoor Jeevan Suraksha Yojana for farmers, agriculture labourers, and market yard labourers. Now, children younger than 10 years old and persons older than 65 years will also be eligible for benefits under the scheme. Under this scheme, financial assistance ranging from Rs. 37,500 to Rs. 5 lakh is provided to farmers, agriculture labourers, and market yard labourers in case of death or disability while operating agricultural machinery. Chairing a meeting to review the projects of the Department of Agriculture, Horticulture, and Haryana State Agriculture Marketing Board, the Chief Minister directed the officers to complete all the projects within the specified time frame, without any delays at any level. No tolerance would be tolerated. Trading of apples will also commence in the apple market in Kalka from July 15, he added. The Mineral, Revenue, and Police Department, led by Collector Narendra Kumar Suryavanshi in Betul, recently took action against the sand mafia and registered many mineral cases and also criminal cases in compliance with the instructions of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav to take strict action against the sand mafia. After a quick hearing of the mineral case registered against the sand mafia, Additional Collector Betul resolved the cases of sand mafia and took action to impose a penalty of Rs 1 billion 37 crore and confiscate 02 Poclains and one JCB worth Rs 1 crore 25 lakh under Rule 22 on June 5, 2024, under Rule 18 (6) of the Madhya Pradesh Mineral (Prevention of Illegal Mining, Transportation and Storage) Rules 2022. Shahjahanabad police have nabbed a vehicle lifter and recovered 4 stolen vehicles worth Rs 2.8 lakh from the accused, a total of 16 crimes are registered against the accused at various police stations in Bhopal, out of which 9 are of thefts. Police said that on Thursday victim Shankar Pawar of H.No. 11 Dhobighat Hanuman Temple Bairagarh Bhopal, came to the police station and reported that some unknown person has stolen his vehicle TVS Radian Black Color number MP04QQ9120 from near Tajul Masjid Kala Darwaza. Based on the complaint a case under section 379 of the IPC was registered and investigation was taken up. A team was formed and accused was tracked and nabbed and recovery of stolen goods was done. Police received information that a person is roaming around in the Main Road Police Station Shahjahanabad Bhopal near Bada Bagh cemetery to sell a vehicle, who was caught by surrounding him who was identified as Mohammad Haseen Qureshi. He told that he was residing at 109, Gali No. 02, Congress Nagar, Police Station Tilajamalpura, Bhopal, from whom the stolen vehicle TVS Radian, black colour number MP04QQ9120 was duly seized. Congress Lok Sabha candidate from Ranchi, Yashaswini Sahay, on Thursday, has expressed her gratitude to the people of Ranchi. She said that she is grateful to the people for the immense love and affection they have given her in a very short time and she assured them that she will always stand with the people here. Sahay was expressing the above thoughts in a press conference held at Congress Bhawan. Congratulating the elected Lok Sabha representative Sanjay Seth, she said that the people have given him another chance and hope that he will live up to the people's issues. She also thanked Congress National President Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and all the allies of the India Alliance Party. She said that all the Congress leaders, workers at the state, district, block level and media colleagues deserve thanks, who supported us wholeheartedly in the elections and kept guiding us from time to time. We had only 25 days and we did as much as we could in such a short time. I could not reach many people, which I regret, but I will definitely go where I could not reach. I was working in the field of women's rights and child protection in Ranchi and other areas of the state and was socially connected with people. This election was my first political experience personally. I will remain connected with these works in future also. Apart from this, I will keep trying to solve the problems of people facing the problem of migration, said Sahay. The party Candidate said that the issues we raised in the election will continue. Yesterday was World Environment Day which is important for Ranchi. The tribal society here worships nature and is also the basis of our survival. We should think seriously about this. I will also work on this subject. My focus will also be on how Ranchi can make its identity as an industrial hub and what role I can play in it. I have to take forward the love I have received from the people of Ranchi, she added. State Congress media In-Charge Rakesh Sinha, Spokesperson Sonal Shanti, Kamal Thakur were present in the press conference. Senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh on Friday said the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has been identified as a family that "upholds coalition dharma" and asserted "coalition is not a compulsion but a commitment" for it. In a long post in Hindi on X, he also congratulated and extended his wishes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on being unanimously elected again as the Leader of the NDA Parliamentary Party and the Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha. Singh on Friday proposed Modi's name as the leader of the NDA Parliamentary Party and the proposal was seconded by his party colleagues Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari as well as top NDA leaders. "As his Cabinet member and colleague, I have worked with him very closely for the last ten years, and his working capacity, efficiency, vision and credibility in the country are acknowledged by all. It is a matter of great joy for all of us that the NDA government, which has been serving India and Indians for the last ten years, has received the mandate for the third time," he wrote in the post. Singh said for the first time after 62 years since 1962, a politician is going to become the prime minister of India for the third consecutive time. "The NDA family has grown due to Modiji's leadership, efficiency and vision. Since the time of Atalji, the NDA has been identified as a family that upholds coalition dharma. For us, coalition is not a compulsion but a commitment," he said. And, to achieve the huge goal of building a developed India under the leadership of the prime minister, "we have to take India forward as a capable, self-respecting, prosperous and strong nation", the senior BJP leader said. The Central government has completed its successful ten years under Prime Minister Modi's leadership. In these ten years, there has been a "revolutionary change in the condition, direction and mood of India", Singh added in his post. "In the last ten years, the country has reached a stage where not only the citizens of India but all the countries of the world believe that along with being developed, our country has the ability to give leadership and new direction to the entire world," the senior BJP leader said. "As a result of the unprecedented work done in India under the leadership of Modiji in the last ten years, India has moved towards strengthening itself not for decades, but for centuries. Many congratulations and best wishes to him," he added. While the BJP has got 240 seats, the NDA has got 293 seats and enjoys majority in the 543-member Lok Sabha after a high-stakes general elections. Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni is travelling to Albania to thank the country for its willingness to host thousands of asylum seekers and tour the sites of two migrant detention centres, a visit coming just days before local and European Parliament elections, where migration is a top campaign issue. In November, Meloni and Albanias Prime Minister Edi Rama signed a 5-year deal in which Albania agreed to shelter up to 3,000 migrants rescued from international waters each month while Italy processes their asylum claims. With asylum requests expected to take around a month to process, the number of asylum seekers sent to Albania could reach up to 36,000 in a year. Meloni has defended the controversial plan as a necessary component of her crackdown on migration, aiming to deter would-be refugees from paying smugglers to make the dangerous Mediterranean crossing. Human rights groups and opposition lawmakers have warned that refugee protections could be compromised. Meloni will kick off her visit to the tiny Western Balkan nation at Gjader, a former military airport, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the capital, Tirana, and where work for one of the two migrant centres has started. Then she moves to the port of Shengjin, 20 kilometers (12 miles) southwest of Gjader, where an accommodation center is set in a rectangular area covering 4,000 square meters (4,800 square yards). Shengjins migrant reception centre is ready to host migrants. Melonis visit comes a day before the June 6-9 European elections in which migration has been a key campaign issue. Meloni and her right-wing allies have long demanded European countries share more of the migration burden, and have held up the Albania agreement as an innovative solution to a problem that has vexed the EU for years. Meloni, of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, has also championed her so-called Mattei Plan to fund projects in African countries along migrant routes in exchange for better controls, while pressing ahead with plans to run migrant centres in Albania. The two processing centres in Albania will cost Italy more than 600 million euros (about USD 650 million) over 5 years. The facilities would be fully run by Italy while it fast-tracks migrants asylum requests. They are expected to become fully operational later this year. Both centres are under Italian jurisdiction while Albanian guards will provide outside security. Italy would welcome the migrants if they are granted international protection or organise their deportation from Albania if refused.Those picked up within Italys territorial waters, or by rescue ships operated by nongovernmental organisations, would retain their right under international and EU law to apply for asylum in Italy and have their claims processed there. Data from the Italian Interior Ministry show the number of migrants arriving in Italy is way down compared to the same period last year: As of Tuesday, 21,574 people had arrived in Italy via boat so far this year, compared to 51,628 during the same period in 2023. Albania is not a European Union member, and the idea of sending asylum seekers outside the bloc is controversial. The deal was endorsed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as an example of out-of-the-box thinking, but has been widely criticised by rights groups. Rama, of Albanias left-wing governing Socialist Party, has said the deal is a sign of gratitude on behalf of Albanians who found refuge in Italy and escaped hell and imagined a better life following the collapse of communism in the 1990s Albania. Tirana has refused other countries requests for deals similar to that of Italy, according to Rama. Italys centre-left opposition has called the deal an expensive exercise in propaganda ahead of European elections and a shameful bid to turn Albania into Italys Guantanamo. A group of 30 Albanian opposition conservative lawmakers took the case to the Constitutional Court in an unsuccessful effort to block the Italy-Albania deal on the grounds of human rights. Danish embassy in Beijing commemorates its jubilee 09:50, June 07, 2024 By Zhong Wenxing ( People's Daily Online Thomas strup Mller, Denmark's ambassador to China, makes a toast at a reception to celebrate the Danish Constitution Day and the 50th anniversary of the Danish Embassy in Beijing on June 5, 2024. (People's Daily Online/Zhong Wenxing) Denmark's ambassador to China celebrated 50 years of his embassy in Beijing on June 5, hailing China's "massive transformation" over that period. "In the past 50 years of our embassy here in Sanlitun, China has undergone a massive transformation. It's quite a remarkable journey, said Ambassador Thomas strup Mller at a reception marking Danish Constitution Day and the embassy's anniversary. Mller recalled Danish representation in China dating back to Beijing's hutong alleyways in 1950 when the two countries established diplomatic ties. The current embassy compound, completed in June 1974, blends Beijing's traditional hutongs architecture with Danish design. Photo shows the gate of the embassy in the past and at present. (People's Daily Online/Zhong Wenxing) "(It was) nothing but a road" when the embassy opened, Mller said, with hotels, malls, residential compounds, and facilities now expanding in all directions. The Denmark ambassador acknowledged that China is undergoing a massive transformation in its development. Mller also highlighted the significant strides made in environmental, energy, and climate cooperation between Denmark and China. "China and Denmark have collaborated on the environment, energy and climate since the 1980s. Together, we have founded a long and trusting green partnership," he said. According to the ambassador, mutual green cooperation reached new heights when the governments of China and Denmark launched the Green Joint Work Programme for the 2023-2026. (Intern Xing Yawen also contributed to this story.) (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is deeply concerned about the fast-growing humanitarian crisis in the Sahel Region News and commentary on organized crime, street crime, white collar crime, cyber crime, sex crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, espionage and terrorism. Blog Archive: Oct 2024 (55) Sep 2024 (149) Aug 2024 (155) Jul 2024 (155) Jun 2024 (150) May 2024 (153) Apr 2024 (149) Mar 2024 (155) Feb 2024 (145) Jan 2024 (156) Dec 2023 (155) Nov 2023 (150) Oct 2023 (155) Sep 2023 (150) Aug 2023 (155) Jul 2023 (155) Jun 2023 (150) May 2023 (155) Apr 2023 (150) Mar 2023 (155) Feb 2023 (140) Jan 2023 (155) Dec 2022 (156) Nov 2022 (150) Oct 2022 (155) Sep 2022 (150) Aug 2022 (155) Jul 2022 (154) Jun 2022 (150) May 2022 (155) Apr 2022 (150) Mar 2022 (155) Feb 2022 (140) Jan 2022 (156) Dec 2021 (156) Nov 2021 (150) Oct 2021 (155) Sep 2021 (150) Aug 2021 (155) Jul 2021 (155) Jun 2021 (150) May 2021 (155) Apr 2021 (150) Mar 2021 (155) Feb 2021 (140) Jan 2021 (155) Dec 2020 (155) Nov 2020 (150) Oct 2020 (158) Sep 2020 (150) Aug 2020 (130) Jul 2020 (124) Jun 2020 (120) May 2020 (124) Apr 2020 (120) Mar 2020 (124) Feb 2020 (116) Jan 2020 (125) Dec 2019 (126) Nov 2019 (120) Oct 2019 (124) Sep 2019 (120) Aug 2019 (125) Jul 2019 (124) Jun 2019 (120) May 2019 (123) Apr 2019 (121) Mar 2019 (124) Feb 2019 (112) Jan 2019 (125) Dec 2018 (126) Nov 2018 (120) Oct 2018 (124) Sep 2018 (121) Aug 2018 (124) Jul 2018 (125) Jun 2018 (120) May 2018 (124) Apr 2018 (121) Mar 2018 (124) Feb 2018 (112) Jan 2018 (123) Dec 2017 (124) Nov 2017 (124) Oct 2017 (141) Sep 2017 (135) Aug 2017 (138) Jul 2017 (137) Jun 2017 (134) May 2017 (138) Apr 2017 (135) Mar 2017 (139) Feb 2017 (129) Jan 2017 (143) Dec 2016 (135) Nov 2016 (138) Oct 2016 (142) Sep 2016 (128) Aug 2016 (133) Jul 2016 (136) Jun 2016 (138) May 2016 (164) Apr 2016 (311) Mar 2016 (348) Feb 2016 (320) Jan 2016 (348) Dec 2015 (314) Nov 2015 (338) Oct 2015 (363) Sep 2015 (358) Aug 2015 (399) Jul 2015 (374) Jun 2015 (331) May 2015 (337) Apr 2015 (319) Mar 2015 (320) Feb 2015 (271) Jan 2015 (286) Dec 2014 (254) Nov 2014 (238) Oct 2014 (287) Sep 2014 (267) Aug 2014 (259) Jul 2014 (260) Jun 2014 (238) May 2014 (241) Apr 2014 (228) Mar 2014 (240) Feb 2014 (217) Jan 2014 (263) Dec 2013 (226) Nov 2013 (254) Oct 2013 (256) Sep 2013 (252) Aug 2013 (263) Jul 2013 (261) Jun 2013 (251) May 2013 (250) Apr 2013 (221) Mar 2013 (193) Feb 2013 (164) Jan 2013 (157) Dec 2012 (155) Nov 2012 (240) Oct 2012 (526) Sep 2012 (411) Aug 2012 (394) Jul 2012 (284) Jun 2012 (229) May 2012 (213) Apr 2012 (213) Mar 2012 (253) Feb 2012 (269) Jan 2012 (298) Dec 2011 (273) Nov 2011 (219) Oct 2011 (204) Sep 2011 (201) Aug 2011 (236) Jul 2011 (217) Jun 2011 (211) May 2011 (206) Apr 2011 (215) Mar 2011 (215) Feb 2011 (186) Jan 2011 (215) Dec 2010 (107) Nov 2010 (98) Oct 2010 (55) Hitlers favourite birthday tune was played at the 80th D-Day Ceremony celebrating the European Union. The fourth and final movement of Beethovens Ninth Symphony is one of the most triumphant and hopeful moments in classical music. However, its central tune, the Ode to Joy, has a surprisingly dark past, from a diabolical performance at Hitlers birthday celebrations in 1942 to its use as an anthem in politically and racially repressive Fascist regimes. It was also used in Stanley Kubricks A Clockwork Orange as an incredibly disturbing counterpoint to ultraviolent scenes in the film. The Thousand-Year Reich Never Died With the EU flag flying proudly to the tune, entire choirs of EU men and children robotically sang the Ode to Joy in German and French as the US, Canadian and British veterans were forced to listen to the tune. Some veterans could be seen noticeably cringing in disbelief that Hitler and the Nazis had seemingly infiltrated what was meant to be a commemoration of their triumph over Nazism. Hitler indeed would have been very proud of the EU, because it is a German-led construct which has stripped many countries in Europe of their sovereignty and subjugated these slave nations to the primary German nation, with France closely behind in second place. Without a single shot being fired, Germany as the largest economy in Europe conquered Europe economically and with a supposed egalitarian Fascist pseudo Marxist political construct. It is this politically collectivist nature that incorporated many ideological points from supposedly opposing political ideologies, mixing them in one pot that created the European Union. The fasci rods are firmly together in the EU, as much as they were in Nazi Germany. What Adolf Hitler sought to do through brute military force, post-war Germany achieved through economic might and political indoctrination. When the Berlin Wall fell, the East German Stasi and infrastructure was amalgamated into the EU structure, thus increasing its Marxist credentials all the while preserving its fascist elements. One could even postulate that the EU is Nazi Germany backwards, where first there is a supposed union of nations created peacefully and then a war afterwards. The war in Ukraine is testament to this fact, because it was initially created by the EUs empire building efforts, impinging close to the Russian border. The Russians reacted adversely to this imperial action right up their backside by annexing the Crimea. No empire survives without constant expansion, and the EU is no exception. The only problem here is that the EUs expansionist dealings have brought the globe to the verge of a hot World War III and even stoked the Russian Empires expansionist dreams through Vladimir Putin who is now mirroring the same fascism of the Nazis and EU. Key Points: Romania is acquiring 54 South Korean K9 self-propelled howitzers, bolstering its artillery capabilities and marking a significant investment in its defense infrastructure. The K9s advanced technology and proven battlefield performance will enhance Romanias ability to respond to modern military threats. The agreement signifies a growing defense partnership between Romania and South Korea. Romania Acquires 54 South Korean K9 Self-Propelled Howitzers Romania is set to significantly enhance its artillery capabilities by purchasing 54 K9 self-propelled howitzers from South Korea, marking a substantial investment in its defense infrastructure. The procurement contract, valued at nearly USD 1 billion, reflects a strategic shift towards modernizing its military forces and reinforcing its defense posture. Get alerts: A Strong Acquisition According to information published, the deal encompasses not just the howitzers but also 36 specialized ammunition carriers, spare parts, ammunition, and other essential components. The K9, manufactured by Hanwha Aerospace, is renowned for its advanced artillery capabilities and robust performance in diverse combat scenarios. This acquisition will significantly bolster Romanias artillery strength, enabling it to respond to modern military threats effectively. Strategic Partnership and Cooperation The signing of this agreement signifies a growing strategic partnership between Romania and South Korea in the defense sector. South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-Sik is scheduled to visit Romania next month to solidify the deal and discuss further defense cooperation with Romanian authorities. The visit underscores the importance of this acquisition for both nations and signifies the strong defense ties between the two countries. A Global Powerhouse in Defense The K9 Thunder: A Formidable Asset South Koreas defense industry has emerged as a global powerhouse in recent years, driven by significant technological advancements and strategic partnerships. South Korean defense firms have gained a reputation for reliability and innovation, excelling in developing and exporting advanced military equipment. The K9 Thunder self-propelled howitzer is a prime example of this success, having been exported to numerous countries, including Turkey, Poland, Finland, and India. The K9 Thunders technological superiority has solidified South Koreas position as a leading defense exporter. The howitzer boasts a range of features that make it a formidable asset on the battlefield: Powerful Firepower: Equipped with a 155mm/52 caliber gun, the K9 can fire various ammunition types, including high-explosive, smoke, and precision-guided projectiles. With rocket-assisted projectiles, it achieves a maximum firing range of up to 40 kilometers. Equipped with a 155mm/52 caliber gun, the K9 can fire various ammunition types, including high-explosive, smoke, and precision-guided projectiles. With rocket-assisted projectiles, it achieves a maximum firing range of up to 40 kilometers. High Rate of Fire: The K9s advanced autoloader enables a rapid rate of fire, delivering up to 6 rounds per minute. The K9s advanced autoloader enables a rapid rate of fire, delivering up to 6 rounds per minute. Mobility and Range: Powered by a 1,000-horsepower engine, the K9 reaches a top speed of 67 km/h and boasts a range of 480 kilometers. Powered by a 1,000-horsepower engine, the K9 reaches a top speed of 67 km/h and boasts a range of 480 kilometers. Advanced Fire Control System: The K9s fire control system incorporates automatic gun-laying and real-time data processing, enhancing accuracy and responsiveness in combat situations. Modernization and Defense Readiness This procurement of K9 howitzers is part of Romanias comprehensive strategy to modernize its military forces and enhance its defense readiness. The K9s cutting-edge technology and proven battlefield performance will play a pivotal role in this modernization effort, ensuring that Romania maintains a robust and capable defense force. The collaboration between Romania and South Korea in this deal strengthens Romanias military capabilities and signifies a growing partnership in defense and technology. It sets the stage for further future cooperation between the two nations, highlighting the importance of strategic alliances and mutual defense partnerships in a global landscape marked by evolving security challenges. Derry City and Strabane District Council has received correspondence from the Mayor of Bethlehem City Council about the twinning of the two cities. At Tuesdays Governance and Strategic Planning Committee meeting, Rachel Craig, the Strategic Business Manager, sought approval to engage with officials from Bethlehem City Council to agree an action plan and map a way forward in twinning with the city. Former Mayor Patrica Logue sent a letter to the Mayor of Bethlehem in March proposing the move after SDLP councillor Catherine McDaid suggested the motion in December last year to show our support to the people of the region and to develop our relationship with Bethlehem. Bethlehem City Council approved the signing of a twinning agreement by both councils on April 6, and their mayor, Hannah Hanania, responded with a letter to confirm their decision. Councillor McDaid spoke of her delight in the meeting about receiving the letter. She said: We have an opportunity for this to be a very positive thing for people of all ages, and from all the political spectrum, to engage with a city of history and culture, just like ours. People Before Profit councillor Shaun Harkin was pleased about the response to the excellent response. He said: This can be very positive for our district and Bethlehem. Right now, Jerusalum and the West Bank are facing unprecedented levels of violence. I would urge us to do as much as we can to slow down the violence. And Independent councillor Gary Donnelly added: This is very positive and should be seen as a proud and historic moment. Feature Image: Lux Moundi Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. Voters are continuing to head to the polls in Ireland as ballots are cast in three highly anticipated elections. Irish people are electing a swathe of new councillors as well as picking candidates to send to the European Parliament and, for the first time, some voters will be directly electing a mayor to represent them locally. The separate elections come at a febrile time in Irish politics dominated by discussion on a housing crisis, the cost of living and migration. The coalition partnership of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Green Party has been battling criticism domestically and on the continent over other issues including climate action, agriculture policy and defence co-operation in the EU. The eagerly awaited polls will provide political parties with concrete evidence of voter sentiment, having had to wait more than four years since the last nationwide elections. In the intervening years since the last general election, politicians have had to rely on newspaper opinion polls to gauge the mood of the nation. The main takeaway of the 2020 campaign was a massive upswing in support for Sinn Fein, which took away almost a quarter of the popular vote. To leader Mary Lou McDonalds regret, this was unrealised potential as the party was still left in opposition after failing to run a sufficient number of candidates in the parliamentary constituencies. Since then, estimated support for Sinn Fein hovered above 30% for a long time even temporarily reaching highs of around 35%. However, opinion polls over the last eight months suggest that support for the party is on a dramatic slide as independents eat up more of the expected vote share. Many of the ballot papers across the elections contain a large number of independents with a variety of political leanings, several of whom have been described as anti-immigrant. For a protracted period of time, Ireland has continued to fail to provide accommodation for all asylum seekers. There have been several anti-migrant protests across the State and buildings earmarked to accommodate refugees have been damaged in suspected arson attacks. Also of note, Fine Gael appears to have had somewhat of a Harris hop in the polls following the shock resignation of Leo Varadkar as leader of the party earlier this year, leading to Simon Harris taking over that position as well as the role of Irish premier. The results of the three campaigns being decided on Friday may be instructive for the overall state of the parties and could potentially direct Mr Harris decision on when to call the next general election, which must be held by March next year. President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina cast their votes on Friday morning. The couple were greeted by staff at the polling station in Phoenix Park in Dublin. As he placed his ballot papers inside the box, Mr Higgins said: Sin e. (Thats it.) Meanwhile, the Taoiseach cast his votes early at Delgany National School in Co Wicklow ahead of a day of campaigning across the country. It is so important that people get out and vote, that they have their say, that they cast their ballots because of course if you dont turn up youre allowing someone else to speak on your behalf, Mr Harris told reporters at the voting centre in his home constituency. So polls are open to 10pm tonight, Id urge everybody to get out and have their say in what is a great exercise in democracy. We live in a healthy democracy and today is working proof of it. Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said today is the big day and said it was very important for people to use their vote. Speaking after casting her ballot at the polling station on Navan Road in Cabra, Dublin, Ms McDonald denied running too many candidates. No, we ran a great slate of candidates and they have all thoroughly enjoyed the campaign and (being) out and about meeting people. So today is the peoples day, please come out and vote. In south Dublin, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said there is no anti-government sentiment among the Irish public. As he cast his votes in Fridays elections at Muslim School Clonskeagh, Mr Ryan said there was a queue outside the door by 7am. This is a Government thats working and my sense in the last few months canvassing is there isnt you know people they recognise the Government is working, Mr Ryan said. Theyre not happy with, rightly, a whole range of different things we need to do better. But you couldnt say out there that theres a strong anti-government sentiment. Well see if thats reflected in the count in the end. Across the island, millions of residents are eligible to vote in local elections. There are 31 local government bodies in Ireland. Each county and city council is divided into local electoral areas with a specified number of council seats to be filled in the election. In total, there are 166 electoral areas in Ireland and each of them elects a number of councillors. The number of councillors to be elected nationally is 949. These representatives are tasked with making policy decisions at local level including on planning and community development. At the same time, EU citizens registered in Ireland are eligible to vote for 14 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) across three varied constituencies: Dublin, South, and Midlands-North-West. The MEPs are responsible for debating EU-wide legislation and working on the budget for the bloc. The local and European elections are held every five years. In the south west of the country, voters in Limerick city and county have the opportunity to directly elect a mayor. From now on, this vote will also take place every five years. The successful candidate will be considered the regions first citizen and will have unique executive powers around long-term strategic planning, including measures on housing delivery, road infrastructure and environmental measures. They can serve a maximum of two terms, each lasting five years. There are 15 candidates vying for the new job which carries a salary of approximately 150,000 euro. Voting will come to an end at 10pm on Friday, but the results will take days to be finalised. The role is seen as a test case for further rollout at other local authorities in the future. Ballots in the local elections can begin to be sorted straight away on Saturday but results in the European election cannot be declared until after all EU states have finished polling which will not happen until late on Sunday night. Counting in the mayoral election is expected to begin on Monday. Even then, Ireland uses a system of proportional representation which allows voters to rank every candidate in each race by order of preference. Candidates must reach a certain quota of votes in order to be deemed elected. In the likely event that not enough candidates are above this threshold following the first count, hopefuls with the least amount of votes are eliminated and their votes are redistributed based on the further preferences on the ballot papers. The same occurs when a candidate is elected with a surplus of votes. It means the paper ballots in each election, which are filled out with pencil or pens, are sorted and counted multiple times by hand. The entire process can take days to complete. Stormonts Justice Minister Naomi Long has said her opposition to the UK Governments Legacy Act remains following a meeting with the new truth recovery commission. Ms Long met this week with Peter Sheridan, commissioner for investigations at the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR). Ms Long confirmed that the justice organisations she is responsible for will comply fully with any obligations placed upon them by the Act. Mr Sheridan, a former senior ranking RUC and PSNI officer, described the meeting with the minister as a welcome signal to society. The ICRIR was established by the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation Act) 2023, although it operates independently of the Government. The body has taken on the remit to investigate hundreds of unresolved legacy deaths and cases of serious harm that happened before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. However, the new arrangements have been controversial with victims groups and organisations and are opposed by all of the main political parties in Northern Ireland. Mr Sheridan, who will lead any investigations into unresolved Troubles deaths, said he briefed the Justice Minister on how the commission plans to support victims who request it to carry out a probe. He said he also outlined how its work would adhere to Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). Mr Sheridan said: Having begun receiving contact from the public from May to explore how the commission can help them through its investigations, we are assessing initial inquiries. This involves interaction with the existing justice organisations. We are grateful for the Justice Ministers confirmation that the justice organisations for which she has responsibility will comply with the statutory obligations placed upon them to facilitate the work of the commission. This is an important and welcome signal to the entire justice sector and wider society. Ms Long has been critical previously of the Legacy Act, which created the ICRIR and has said there is a lack of clarity over how the commission would operate following a legal challenge. A statement released to the PA news agency said: My opposition to the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy & Reconciliation) Act 2023 and my concerns as to the impact it will have both on the right of victims and survivors to access justice and also wider public confidence in the justice system remain. The justice organisations for which my department has responsibility will comply fully with any obligations now placed upon them by the Act and will not seek to obstruct or frustrate in any way the delivery of truth or justice to those impacted most directly by the Troubles. In February, a High Court judge ruled that one of the central elements of the Legacy Act, the provision for conditional immunity from prosecution for Troubles offences, is not compliant with the ECHR. The UK Government is appealing that ruling. However, the judge also ruled that the ICRIR is able to carry out human rights-compliant investigations and is independent. Mr Sheridan said he also used his meeting with Ms Long to brief her on the enhanced inquisitorial proceedings, a mechanism for testing evidence, which could be used to complete investigations into deaths that were previously subject to inquests. On the 23rd Anniversary of Digit Magazine, we invited stalwarts and leaders from the tech industry to give their perspectives on the role of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in India. Mr Anku Jain, Managing Director, MediaTek India, shares his insights on the impact of AI across different sectors in India. According to Mr Jain, AI has started impacting almost all sectors in India, with a major factor driving this adoption being the digitalization that has swept the country, especially since the advent of high-speed mobile Internet through 4G & 5G. Heres the full article below. The article was originally published in the June 2024 AI Special Anniversary issue of Digit magazine. Artificial intelligence (AI) is arguably the most intelligent invention in history, impacting industries and peoples lives. Over the past decade, AI has undergone revolutionary transformation. The early 2010s marked a breakthrough period for AI, with significant improvements in machine learning (ML), computational power as well as deep learning (DL) through neural networks. From recognizing images and speech to transcribing voice commands to text, audio and even video; and from guiding a driver to avoid mishaps to generating codes for complex applications, AI has started intervening with humans in all possible ways. As we progress towards a fully technology-driven area, here is a quick glance how AI can transform Indias future and how MediaTeks mission and vision can drive this transformation faster and in a better way. India ahead of the AI boom A country with diverse culture and population, India is also blessed with immense tech talent, which is undoubtedly one of the key drivers of the growth of technologies like AI. Indian startups have surpassed their counterparts in developed countries in terms of innovations and their ability to drive faster adoption among individuals. AI has started impacting almost all sectors in India, with a major factor driving this adoption being the digitalization that has swept the country, especially since the advent of high-speed mobile Internet through 4G & 5G. Today, smartphones have become an indispensable tool for every Indian, be a farmer, a student, a professional, a trader or anyone with a purpose in life. And, thanks to the AI evolution happening across smartphone chips, AI has been seamlessly integrated into the lives of smartphone users, consciously or unconsciously. AIs impact spans across diverse sectors in India. In agriculture, it aids in weather prediction, crop monitoring, and yield optimization. Healthcare benefits from AI with precise diagnostics, remote healthcare access, and robotic surgeries. Factories leverage AI for autonomous tasks, enhancing safety and efficiency. In finance, AI aids in fraud detection and service enhancement. Education witnesses personalized tutoring and mentoring through AI. The intelligent advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) powered by AI provides real-time updates, notifying the driver about traffic patterns and hazards. On roads, AI-driven advanced driver assistance systems promise safer journeys by detecting hazards and promoting responsible driving, marking a significant revolution in transportation safety. Also Read: MediaTeks Anku Jain believes two-way satellite connectivity will fill the gap in mobile coverage Currently AI in India is in the evolving phase, and it is expected to grow at 25-35% annually between 2024 and 2027 to touch $17 billion by 2027. The increase in enterprise tech spending, the countrys expanding AI talent pool and the rise in AI investments are attributed as the primary growth drivers. The momentum has already begun, and the next step is to identify more opportunities and build a supportive ecosystem to foster the growth. Governments interventions so far are encouraging, but considering the scale and scope of the anticipated growth, a robust action plan is required to formulate favourable AI policies. More importantly, the government, in collaboration with the industry and academia, needs to adopt sustainable measures to support the two key pillars of the technology growth in India the skilled workforce and the startups by offering the necessary growth and mentorship programs. Source: MediaTek MediaTek Spearheading AI SoC Innovations As the industry leader in developing powerful, highly integrated and efficient system-on-chip products, MediaTek is enabling the future of AI by creating an ecosystem of edge-AI hardware processing paired with comprehensive software tools across its product range smartphones and laptops to smart homes, intelligent IoT in businesses, and smart vehicles. At the heart of its innovation is the AI Processing Unit (APU) with Deep Learning Accelerators (Performance Cores), Visual Processing Units (Flexible Cores), hardware-based, multicore scheduler, and software development kits (NeuroPilot) acting as its core components. MediaTeks AI chipsets for smartphones now allow several capabilities like creating avatars that mirror users facial expressions and gestures in real time, offering advanced photo editing tools, creating summary from complex documents, and more. MediaTek research is extensively focusing on Edge AI to facilitate large computations required by Large Language Model (LLM) to happen locally, thereby enhancing efficiency and user privacy. Another sector of focus is automotive, where complex neural networks need to be analysed to deliver real-time insights to the driver. Moreover, In 2024, MediaTek led Indias smartphone chipset market with 53% share in Q1. Recently MediaTek has launched MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ to accelerate on-device generative AI processing and offering broader support for LLMs. The new MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ is ideal for a wide range of AI applications that supports on-device LoRA Fusion and NeuroPilot LoRA Fusion 2.0 so developers can quickly bring to market new generative AI applications with text, images, music, and more. MediaTek is uniquely positioned to drive the adoption of Generative AI applications and technologies, whether deployed on the cloud, at the edge in devices, or as a hybrid approach that takes advantage of both the cloud and the edge together. To conclude, India has the potential to become a global leader in AI technologies and applications. Investment in infrastructure, workforce and R&D are crucial to make the dreams into reality. This happens only through the right intervention by all stakeholders. Public-private partnerships and a focus on AI education are important to create a skilled workforce capable of driving tomorrows tech development. Through these concerted efforts, India can harness AI to accelerate economic growth, improve digital inclusion, and establish itself as a leading force in the global technology landscape. Thanks to its fruitful partnership with Pantone, Motorola has become a master of design over the past few years in the smartphone industry. The Motorola Edge 50 Fusion is a standout device under 25,000, offering a luxurious design, decent performance, and impressive camera capabilities. However, its 144 Hz display, while bright and fluid, lacks HDR support, which might disappoint content enthusiasts. The Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 processor handles daily tasks well but falls short in gaming compared to competitors like the OnePlus Nord CE4 and Nothing Phone (2a). The camera setup is a highlight, particularly the 50 MP primary and 32 MP selfie cameras, which deliver vibrant and sharp images. Battery life is serviceable with a 5,000 mAh cell and 68 W fast charging, though power users may need to recharge by evening. Overall, the Edge 50 Fusion excels in design and camera performance, making it a compelling choice for those who prioritise aesthetics and photography, but it faces stiff competition in performance and display quality from rivals in its price range. Motorola has been on a roll in 2024, consistently delivering stellar products one after another. The company even achieved an impressive 110 per cent year-over-year growth in shipments, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC)s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. One notable launch this year was the Motorola Edge 50 Pro, which I described in my review as a nearly perfect mid-range phone. Now, just two months later, Motorola has introduced a more affordable version of the Edge 50 Pro, dubbed the Motorola Edge 50 Fusion. To keep costs down, the Edge 50 Fusion makes some compromises, such as using cheaper materials, incorporating a less powerful processor, and forgoing the telephoto lens. However, priced at 22,999, it still offers enough features to be intriguingat least on paper. With competitors such as the OnePlus Nord CE4 (review), Realme Narzo 70 Pro (review), and Nothing Phone (2a) (review), theres little room for error though. So, lets see how the Motorola Edge 50 Fusion stacks up against these phones in my detailed review. Motorola Edge 50 Fusion Review: Build and Design Set the Motorola Edge 50 Pro and Edge 50 Fusion side-by-side and many will find it difficult to tell the siblings apart. The curved edges, elegant contours, and seamless camera module design is nearly identical. The design screams luxury; it is commendable that Motorola has brought this level of opulence at the sub-25,000 price point. However, there are a few subtle differences between the 50 Pro and 50 Fusion when it comes to the build. Firstly, the Edge 50 Fusion is slightly slimmer and lighter, at 7.9 mm and 175 g respectively. However, given the lower price point, Motorola has opted for a plastic frame in contrast to the more premium aluminium frame on the Motorola Edge 50 Pro. Both come equipped with an IP68 rating though, making this phone one of the only devices under 25K with flagship-level dust and water resistance. Once again, the Pantone collaboration delivers some gorgeous colour options including Forest Blue (matte finish), Hot Pink (vegan suede), and Marshmallow Blue (vegan leather). I got the Marshmallow Blue variant for review and immediately fell in love with the attractive pastel hue. The box houses a translucent plastic case; sadly its not colour-matched like the one found in the Motorola Edge 50 Pros box but you can see the rear panels colour through the translucent material, so, its all good. Given that it is lighter and slimmer than the Edge 50 Pro, the in-hand feel is even betterwhich is excellent since the Edge 50 Pro was already one of the most ergonomic phones. The back panel of the Motorola Edge 50 Fusion is nice and grippy but the in-display optical fingerprint sensor is on the slower side. The haptics are good and the buttons have optimal tactility too. This is, without a doubt, one of the best-designed phones you can get your hands on under 25,000; and it is my personal favourite. Motorola Edge 50 Fusion Review: Display Motorolas display choices involve some compromises that may disappoint users, especially given that competing phones have fewer trade-offs. For example, while Motorola opts for a higher refresh rate of 144 Hz, it does not support HDR. Additionally, the 144 Hz refresh rate does not activate in Auto/Adaptive mode, meaning that if you select it in the settings, your battery life will suffer significantly. Personally, I would prefer a 120 Hz display with HDR10+ support, like those offered by competing phones such as the OnePlus Nord CE4, Realme Narzo 70 Pro, and Nothing Phone (2a). Although the phone supports Widevine L1, allowing HD content streaming on OTT platforms, the absence of HDR is a notable drawback in this price range. Given the fact that so many of us consume content on our smartphones today, HDR support is increasingly important for an ideal viewing experience. Additionally, the colour accuracy is also off. Colours appear far too vivid and contrasty, making things look unnatural. While some may prefer this look, it is far from accurate. Let me get the rest of the display specifications out of the way. The Motorola Edge 50 Fusion has a 6.7-inch pOLED display with Full HD+ resolution and 144 Hz refresh rate. It is a 10-bit display with a peak brightness of 1,600 nits on HBM (High Brightness Mode). Ive already highlighted my gripes, so let me talk about a few of the positives. The display is quite bright and it has excellent viewing angles. Blacks look inky deep on the OLED panel as well. In my tests, the Motorola Edge 50 Fusions display got a reading of 1,206 nits of brightness under bright sunlight on HBM, which is excellent. All in all, the display is a mixed bagthe lack of HDR is irksome, but the brightness levels and viewing angles are great for the price. Motorola Edge 50 Fusion Review: Performance and UI The Motorola Edge 50 Fusion is not for power users. It houses the modest Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 processor; meanwhile competitors like the OnePlus Nord CE4 and Nothing Phone (2a) house more powerful processors. The phone has 8/12 GB RAM and 128/256 GB internal storage, and theres no expandable memory support. Multitasking is smooth for the most part, but it can struggle from time to time when more than 15 apps are open. Additionally, the camera app can get particularly laggy at times. In synthetic benchmarks, the Motorola Edge 50 Fusion lags behind most of its competitors. The OnePlus Nord CE4, Realme Narzo 70 Pro, and Nothing Phone (2a) raced ahead in the AnTuTu benchmark. In GeekBench, the phone was beaten by the OnePlus Nord CE4 convincingly in both tests, but it got a better score than the Nothing Phone (2a) in the Multi-Core test and the Realme Narzo 70 Pro in both Single and Multi-Core tests. Furthermore, it also beat all its competitors in the PCMark Work benchmarks, which shows its prowess at productivity tasks. The phone also performed admirably well in the CPU Throttling Test, throttling to merely 92 per cent of its peak performance, so its stability is uncompromised even during intensive tasks. Sadly, it considerably lags behind the OnePlus Nord CE4 and Nothing Phone (2a) in GPU benchmarks such as 3D Mark and GFXBench. In real-world gaming, the phone can easily handle intensive games such as Call of Duty: Mobile and BGMI on Low to Medium graphics, but push it any further and you will face a fair amount of stutters. You also cannot reliably play games such as Genshin Impact as the amount of lag can disrupt your gameplay experience. So, naturally, this is not the ideal device for hardcore mobile gamers and power users, but for general users, the day-to-day experience is pretty smooth. Hello UI is also one of the cleanest Android skins on the market currently, making the experience more seamless and enjoyable. There are no third-party bloatware apps, which is a rarity in the mid-range Android phone landscape. Additionally, the company has promised three major Android updates and four years of security updates, which is a step in the right direction. How do the cameras perform? The Motorola Edge 50 Fusion features an impressive camera setup, led by a 50 MP Sony Lytia 700C primary camera with OIS support. This is complemented by a 13 MP ultrawide camera with Auto Focus, which doubles as a macro lensa feature Motorola has been championing, and one that other smartphone manufacturers should consider emulating. For selfies and video calls, the phone offers a capable 32 MP front camera. Photos taken with the primary camera in ideal lighting conditions are vibrant and ready for social media. The images have high contrast and are significantly sharpened, which, while not the most natural look, can be appealing to those who prefer photos requiring minimal to no editing. The dynamic range is decent, capturing sufficient detail in both highlights and shadows. Portrait shots are particularly noteworthy, with excellent edge detection and decent colour accuracy. Primary camera samples The 13 MP ultrawide camera maintains the high-contrast aesthetic but tends to produce slightly grungier photos due to less detail in shadow areas, resulting in a darker overall look. Ultrawide camera samples In low light though, ultrawide photos have excessive noise and chromatic aberration. In contrast, the primary camera fares better in low light. There is some lens flare, but its decent for the price. Ultrawide camera low-light shot with chromatic abberations Low-light camera samples Macro mode stands out as one of the best in this price range, thanks to the ultrawide lens autofocus capabilities. Macro camera sample The 32 MP selfie camera is one of the best in its segment, delivering crisp and detailed shots in both daylight and low light. It excels in colour accuracy and dynamic range, making it a reliable choice for all your selfie needs. Selfie camera samples Motorola Edge 50 Fusion Review: Battery life The Motorola Edge 50 Fusion draws power from 5,000 mAh cell. The phone supports speedy 68 W TurboPower fast charging which tops the phone up from 0-100 percent in just 57 minutes, according to my tests. The battery life, while not the best on the block, is serviceable for most. The phone gave me a good 5-6 hours of screen-on time, which is capable of getting a majority of users through a whole day. Power users may need to top it up in the evenings though. In our 4K video loop test on VLC, the phone ran for 13 hours and 31 minutes, which is pretty decent battery endurance. Playing games such as COD: Mobile for 15 minutes drains the battery by 5 per cent. All in all, if youre looking for a mid-range phone with the absolute best battery life, this is not the phone for you. However, if youre a casual user, the battery life of the Motorola Edge 50 Fusion is decent enough. Should you buy? Thanks to its fruitful partnership with Pantone, Motorola has become a master of design over the past few years in the smartphone industry. The Motorola Edge 50 Fusion is a standout device under 25,000, offering a luxurious design, decent performance, and impressive camera capabilities. However, its 144 Hz display, while bright and fluid, lacks HDR support, which might disappoint content enthusiasts. The Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 processor handles daily tasks well but falls short in gaming compared to competitors like the OnePlus Nord CE4 and Nothing Phone (2a). The camera setup is a highlight, particularly the 50 MP primary and 32 MP selfie cameras, which deliver vibrant and sharp images. Battery life is serviceable with a 5,000 mAh cell and 68 W fast charging, though power users may need to recharge by evening. Overall, the Edge 50 Fusion excels in design and camera performance, making it a compelling choice for those who prioritise aesthetics and photography, but it faces stiff competition in performance and display quality from rivals in its price range. Save my User ID and Password Some subscribers prefer to save their log-in information so they do not have to enter their User ID and Password each time they visit the site. To activate this function, check the 'Save my User ID and Password' box in the log-in section. This will save the password on the computer you're using to access the site. Note: If you choose to use the log-out feature, you will lose your saved information. This means you will be required to log-in the next time you visit our site. Wi-Fi HaLow: the next frontier in IoT connectivity As communication technology advances, the spotlight shifts beyond Wi-Fi 6 and 7 to a new protocol by the Wi-Fi Alliance: Wi-Fi HaLow. Targeting the burgeoning needs of the Internet of Things (IoT), this innovation is poised to revolutionize sectors such as agriculture, smart cities, and industry. NTT East, a leading Japanese telecom firm, recently made waves in Taiwan. Their mission? To discuss the current status and future potential of Wi-Fi HaLow in Japan, and to scale up its commercial use. For this ambitious venture, they are counting on Taiwan's robust information and communication technology expertise. Norikazu Watanabe, NTT East's General Manager, emphasized the company's aggressive push into wireless services, encompassing not just Wi-Fi, but also 5G and Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN). By integrating wireless technology, NTT East aims to introduce applications involving robots, wearable devices, and sensors. This push is particularly critical as Japan grapples with an aging population, necessitating IoT, AI, and robotic solutions. NTT East is also collaborating with local governments, deploying wireless base stations and solutions that span technologies like optical lines, LAN, and 5G. Industry insiders report a surge in inquiries, nearing 200 cases over the past three years, with a 16-fold increase in orders. The wireless solutions from Japan can be likened to Taiwan's 5G private network services, though Taiwan's focus is predominantly on indoor, small-scale settings, whereas Japan targets open outdoor environments. Japanese firms are zeroing in on Wi-Fi HaLow, or 802.11ah. Launched in 2022 in Japan, Wi-Fi HaLow excels in long-distance Wi-Fi and video transmission for IoT. Compared to Wi-Fi 6, which drains power and requires frequent charging for IoT devices, Wi-Fi HaLow offers broader coverage, making it a game-changer in IoT development. Watanabe highlighted Wi-Fi HaLow's ability to transmit over long distances and handle video, making it adaptable to various governmental needs, from anti-theft surveillance to agricultural monitoring. Remarkably, a 40,000-square-meter area requires just three base stations for comprehensive sensor monitoring. Moreover, Wi-Fi HaLow's extensive signal range makes it ideal for networking in apartment complexes and high-rise buildings. Talks are already underway with real estate developers and construction firms to roll out these services. Wi-Fi HaLow appears to fill the gaps left by current Wi-Fi standards, offering superior signal penetration and speed. Yet, Watanabe cautioned that the primary challenge remains the limited availability of terminal devices supporting Wi-Fi HaLow. Industry experts stress that the success of any wireless technology hinges on a robust ecosystem of supporting devices. While Wi-Fi HaLow adoption is growing, it still lacks widespread terminal support. Wi-Fi HaLow is at a pivotal juncture, with hopes pinned on increased collaboration, particularly with Taiwan's tech giants. Taiwan's prowess in chips and terminal products is crucial for bolstering the Wi-Fi HaLow ecosystem. Taiwanese 5G private network operators note that Wi-Fi HaLow has yet to be integrated into their solutions. Nonetheless, they acknowledge its potential, particularly in terms of energy efficiency, cost, and terminal device support, and plan to keep a close watch on its evolution. Meanwhile, Taiwanese IoT solution provider AsiaRF is already commercializing equipment embedded with Wi-Fi HaLow chips, promising a significant edge over previous IoT connections with breakthroughs in transmission range and power efficiency. Samsung chairman visits Verizon as first stop of two-week US trip Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Jae-yong recently embarked on a two-week business trip to the US. For the first stop, he met with Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg. Subsequently, Lee plans to meet with top executives of major US companies in the IT, AI, semiconductor, and robotics sectors. Whether his meetings include Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has become a point of attention. Citing information from Samsung, Korea Economic Daily and ET News reported that Lee Jae-yong left for the US on May 31, 2024, and met with Vestberg in New York on June 4 to discuss cooperation on next-generation communication technologies. Samsung and Verizon signed a long-term network equipment supply contract worth KRW8 trillion (approx. US$5.8 billion) in 2020, making Verizon Samsung's largest customer for its communications business. In the second half of 2024, Samsung and Verizon plan to enhance sales cooperation for new Galaxy products and jointly promote these products, including showcasing Galaxy's AI features at Verizon stores. They also discussed the visions of next-generation communication technologies and AI-driven technology and service solutions. Lee Jae-yong is reportedly expected to hold over 30 meetings with the top executives of various US companies within two weeks and inspect local businesses, including the plant at Taylor, Texas. The semiconductor industry is closely watching whether Jensen Huang is on his list of meetings. Currently, Nvidia is testing High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) samples from Samsung. At the Computex 2024 press conference on June 4, Jensen Huang mentioned that Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron will all supply HBM to Nvidia, raising industry expectations. In addition, industry analyses noted that companies like Microsoft, Intel, and Amazon are forming "anti-Nvidia alliances" in response to Nvidia's dominance in the GPU market. If Samsung joins these alliances, it could expand its customer base for HBM and other products. Samsung's semiconductor Device Solutions (DS) division reported a significant loss of KRW15 trillion in 2023. Not only did its wafer foundry business fail to close the market share gap with industry leader TSMC but it also ceded its top spot in the HBM sector, crucial to AI chips, to SK Hynix. It is anticipated that Lee's visit to the US will lead to the formulation of future strategies for the group to address the current crisis, in collaboration with the newly appointed DS division head, Jun Young-hyun. India remains promising, challenging EV market as Modi secures third-term Four-wheeler and two-wheeler companies will launch multiple models by 2030 in India, which has great potential in EV manufacturing and consumption. However, the unavailability of charging infrastructure, geopolitics, and other factors will continue to challenge the country's electrification ambition. In his speech at an EV forum at InnoVEX 2024 on June 6, Karthi Madhavan, Country Head of Tata Consultancy Services, Taiwan, said India's market is expected to reach US$7.09 billion in 2025. As of August 2023, the country accumulated close to 850,000 units of EV sales. India has a population of 1.4 billion people. Madhavan said Indians travel frequently. Therefore, there are many private and public-owned vehicles. For example, the Indian government has close to 280,000 buses. It plans to deploy 50,000 electric buses in four to five years, creating potential business opportunities. According to Madhavan, Tata Motor accounts for 74% of India's electric four-wheeler market, followed by SAIC-owned MG Motor's 11.8% and Mahindra & Mahindra's 6.95%. BYD, Hyundai, and Volvo take up 1% or less of the market. Those carmakers have different electrification plans in India. Madhavan said MG has partnered with India-based steel giant JSW to produce cars for domestic and global markets. Tata aims to roll out 10 more EVs. The automaker also has secured a US$678 million government order for electric buses. India has been a fast-growing market for electric two-wheelers, Madhavan said. The country sold over 86,000 electric two-wheelers in 2023, up more than 30% from 2022. Government incentives have encouraged the growing sales. One of the latest was announced in March 2024: the Electric Mobility Promotion Scheme (EMPS) 2024. The program allocates US$60.38 million to boost electric two-wheeler and three-wheeler sales. However, India's EV scale-up continues to face multiple challenges. Madhavan said more policy support is required for charging infrastructure, and battery-swapping deployment still needs financing. EVs, semiconductors to be India's economic drivers India's election result could also affect its electrification effort. According to Nikkei and Bloomberg, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated that India will achieve developed country status by 2047 after he was elected this week. Many economists estimate that India will need to grow its GDP by at least 8% from now on to reach the goal. EVs and semiconductors made in India will be crucial for the effort, as well as the reform in infrastructure and regulations. The Indian government has agreed to lower EV tariffs to encourage carmakers to produce in the country. India will still depend on imports of materials and components, especially from China, for its EV production. If India collides with China again at the borders, the former's supply chain might be disrupted. Modi will have to handle India's reliance on China as he aims to make India self-sufficient. The Indian government also subsidizes the semiconductor sector. Modi has told foreign business professionals that India, the world's largest democracy, is the most trustworthy international partner as geopolitical tension rises. US-based memory producer Micron, Taiwan-based Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC), and Japan's Renesas have all decided to invest in India. However, this is just the beginning. India's semiconductor industry still needs to be fostered in the long term. Karthi Madhavan is Country Head of Tata Consultancy Services, Taiwan. Credit: DIGITIMES Ireland will head to the polls once again on June 7th for both European and local elections. National and local politicians have been canvassing intensively all around the country in recent weeks, knocking on tens of thousands of doors and listening to the concerns of voters. Here is everything you need to know. What are the dates and times for the upcoming local and European elections? Polling takes place for both the local and European elections on Friday June 7th between 7am and 10pm. A polling information card will be sent to your home address, and this will have the details about your local polling station, which should be nearby. There are about 6,500 polling stations nationwide. What will I need in order to vote? Its always advisable to have your polling information card with you but you can vote without it; just make sure to bring a valid form of personal ID. This could include the following: a passport, a driving licence, a public services card, or an employee or student identity card with a photograph. Who can vote in the Local/European elections? Only Irish citizens aged 18 and over who are on the register of electors can vote in the European election. If youre an Irish citizen currently living in another EU country, you are able to vote in that country. If you are from another EU member state but are living in Ireland you can vote in the European election in Ireland. The difference with local elections is that you do not have to be an Irish citizen to vote. As long as you are over 18 years of age, live in the relevant local electoral area and are listed on the register of electors you can cast your vote. Voters can check the register online at checktheregister.ie as well as at your city and county council offices. What should I expect when I arrive at the polling station? Ireland uses proportional representation (PR) for voting in elections with each voter having a single transferable vote (STV). Using the PR-STV system means that voters can vote for as many or as few candidates in order of their preference. Each ballot paper contains short instructions on how to vote, which you should read and follow carefully. The ballot paper will also show a list of names, in alphabetical order, party emblems and images of each candidate. There will be a box to the right of each candidates name. You mark your preference for each candidate in the box to the right. You mark a 1 in the box beside your first choice candidate and, if you wish, a 2 in the box beside your second choice candidate, a 3 in the box beside your third choice candidate, and so on. If you do not want to fill out a preference for all candidates on the ballot paper, the box beside those you are not voting for must be left empty. Do not make any other mark on the ballot paper. If you do, your vote may be considered invalid/spoilt and not counted. How many candidates are running for election? In the local elections, there are about 2,000 candidates running in 31 local authorities, covering a total of 166 local electoral areas (LEAs). There are between three and seven seats in each. These local politicians are competing for 949 seats. There are a record 74 candidates running in the European Elections, for only 14 seats. The three constituencies for Junes EU elections are: Dublin (four seats), Midlands North-West (which had four seats but will have five in this election) and Ireland South (five seats). Across the EU, a total of 720 MEPs will be elected. Seats are allocated on the basis of population of each member state of the European Union. No country can have fewer than six or more than 96 MEPs. What do local councillors do, and how much are they paid? Councillors have both a legislative role and an advocacy role within local authorities, are responsible for the council's policy, but the chief executive, an unelected official, is then tasked with implementation. Councillors have the power to make decisions on the rate of Local Property Tax, the annual budget of the local authority, climate action plans and local area plans. They have the power to hold the local authority to account by scrutinising annual accounts, examining targets, following up on audits and requiring the chief executive to report on different matters. They also represent and advocate for their constituents, meeting with them and trying to address the issues they raise. Each councillor attends meetings of the full council and the local authority committees of which they are members. A new increased salary for councillors, which now stands at 28,724, was introduced in 2021. They also get an annual expenses allowance to cover travel and subsistence and a mobile phone allowance. What do Members of European Parliament (MEPs) do, and how much are they paid? The European Parliament does not have the power to initiate laws. Instead, the European Commission, the executive body, drafts legislation for the bloc. MEPs in the parliament can then vote to block legislation, which gives them important leverage. They also ratify international agreements, approve the EU budget drafted by the Commission and scrutinise the work of other EU institutions. MEPs also have the final say in approving the president of the European Commission, who is currently Ursula von der Leyen. Each MEP takes home the same gross salary 10,075 per month as of July 2023. After taxes and insurance, the monthly total lands at 7,853. Former members are also entitled to a pension when they turn 63. What are the European Parliament constituencies? There are three constituencies voting for MEPs in Ireland, which will elect 14 MEPs, one more than in the 2019 elections. The Dublin constituency, consisting exclusively of the county Dublin area, will elect four MEPs. The Midlands-North-West constituency will elect five MEPs, representing the counties of: Cavan, Donegal, Galway, Kildare, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo and Westmeath. The South constituency will also elect five MEPs, representing the counties of : Carlow, Clare, Cork, Kerry, Kilkenny, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford and Wicklow. When will we get the results? For the local elections, the counting of the ballots will start on the morning of Saturday, June 8th. The ballot papers will be sorted and separated. Counting of the locals will be conducted first. The first seats will be filled by the afternoon, but the final results may not be counted for several days. For the European elections, the count will commence at 9am on Sunday, June 9th. Politicians and political pundits will be carefully watching the boxes open on Saturday morning, hoping to get an idea of how the weekend will play out from early tallies. What is the significance of Local Elections? Local elections are about who leads communities and ensures the delivery of certain public services. The elections allow people to elect councillors to represent them in their local authorities. The results also serve as an important indicator of public opinion across Ireland ahead of a general election within the next 10 months. Politicians are reporting the biggest issues on the doorsteps to be housing, local issues such as infrastructure and the state of roads and paths, transport and immigration. What is the significance of European Elections? The European Parliament election is the central way for Irish citizens to have a say on shaping the European Unions policies. Almost four million voters in Ireland will join more than 330 million Europeans to choose 720 lawmakers. The results will affect the blocs plans over the next five years, but, like the local elections, the Irish vote will also be seen as a barometer of the national mood. The EU has a complex governing structure and can often seem distant from national issues. But members of the European Parliament (MEPs) vote on legislation that has a major impact on people in Ireland. On May 22nd, the world celebrated International Biodiversity Day. The 2024 edition of International Biodiversity Day, themed "Be part of the Plan," was a call to action for all stakeholders to support the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. This framework, also known as The Biodiversity Plan, aims to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by fostering collaborative action across society. Particular celebrations were held in Geneva and organized by the Geneva Environment Network, gathering a wide range of stakeholders, from government officials to environmental activists, scientists, and representatives from indigenous communities. The attendees, which included Tatiana Valovaya, the Director-General of the United Nations Office in Geneva, WWF International Director General Kirsten Schuijt, and Lucy Mulenkei, the Executive Director of the Indigenous Information Network, spotlighted the urgent need to address the global biodiversity crisis. This crisis, driven by human activities, poses a severe threat to the intricate web of life that sustains our planet. Escalating Biodiversity Loss Underscores the Urgent Need for Action Biodiversity on Earth is diminishing at an unprecedented rate. The UN has warned that the complex web of biodiversity is unraveling rapidly due to human actions, including habitat destruction, pollution, overexploitation, and climate change. Over the past 50 years, the abundance of wildlife populations has plummeted by 69% on average. The situation is so grave that it is often referred to as the "sixth extinction"the first such mass casualty period since the asteroid impact that killed off the dinosaurs. Indeed, one million species face the risk of extinction in the coming decades, a rate significantly higher than the historical average. Despite the grim outlook, there are glimmers of hope. Around the world, innovative initiatives are emerging to combat the biodiversity crisis. These efforts span various ecosystems and leverage a combination of sustainable practices, technological advancements, and community engagement. The Mejurua Project: A New Paradigm for Conserving Our Most Vital Forests? The Mejurua Project represents a comprehensive approach to conservation. Covering a 903,000-hectare area in the Brazilian Amazon, this initiative integrates sustainable forest management, biodiversity protection, and socioeconomic development. By supporting local communities, the project aims to generate sustainable value from natural resources. The Mejurua model not only prevents deforestation but also ensures long-term environmental and economic growth and stability for local communities. The project's multifaceted approach includes building infrastructure to support conservation activities and creating green jobs in biomass energy and acai berry production. Such efforts highlight the importance of integrating local communities into conservation strategies, ensuring that they benefit economically while protecting their natural heritageincluding by conserving critical species, such as the 13 species at high risk of extinction found within the Mejurua project area. "Coral IVF" Offers an Innovative Solution for Restoring the "Rainforests of the Sea" Coral reefs, often referred to as the "rainforests of the sea," are also under severe threat from rising ocean temperatures and pollution. The planet's oceans have gone "crazy haywire," an official at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently warned, underlining that last summer conditions were so severe in parts of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean that heat stress levels literally were off the charts of NOAA's existing classification system. Indeed, data from the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service indicates that sea surface temperatures have been at record highs for more than a year, triggering a mass bleaching event that has damaged more than 60% of the world's corals. However, new and innovative techniques are providing hope. Scientists in the Maldives are experimenting with using audio recordings of healthy fish to attract heat-tolerant coral larvae to degraded reefs. This method, combined with so-called "coral IVF" (in vitro fertilization) techniques, aims to enhance coral resilience and promote reef restoration. These techniques involve capturing and fertilizing spawn from heat-tolerant corals, which are then protected in nursery pools before being released onto degraded reefs. By broadcasting fish sounds, scientists can lure the coral larvae to suitable habitats, increasing the chances of successful reef restoration. "It's like sowing a field that will become a forest again," one of the scientists involved explained about the innovative approach. Technology Also Provides a Boost in the Fight Against Invasive Species Invasive species are another significant threat to biodiversity, often outcompeting native species and disrupting ecosystems. These species, spread primarily through human travel and trade, cause extensive damage to ecosystems and human infrastructure. Not only do they cost the world at least $423 billion annually, but they are one of the leading threats to the diversity of life on earthcontributing to 40% of all known animal extinctions. Here too, however, innovative and technologically advanced solutions are cropping up to try and address the problem. University of Florida scientists, for example, are developing "smart traps" equipped with artificial intelligence to target invasive species more effectively and precisely, reducing their impact on local ecosystems. The AI-bolstered traps, initially targeting Argentine black and white tegusone of the largest lizard species in the Western Hemisphere, whose population has skyrocketed after being initially introduced to Florida as pets and which are known to prey on native wildlifedemonstrate how technology can aid in managing invasive species populations. By automating the trapping process and allowing remote monitoring, these smart traps reduce the resources needed for invasive species control, presenting a cost-effective solution to a pervasive problem and conserving native species in the process. Moving Forward with Collective Responsibility These individual initiatives are highly encouraging, offering roadmaps of how various factors contributing to the biodiversity crisis can be tackled. To address the biodiversity crisis on a global scale, comprehensive frameworks, and international cooperation are essential. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted by 196 Member States, aims to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by mid-century. This ambitious plan includes protecting 30% of the planet's land and water by 2030, restoring ecosystems, and integrating biodiversity into all aspects of society. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has highlighted the urgency of this issue, calling for immediate action to protect the intricate web of life that sustains us. The framework emphasizes the need for concrete measures and the involvement of all sectors of society, from governments and businesses to local communities and individuals. The biodiversity crisis requires a collective response, encompassing international cooperation, innovative solutions, and community engagement. There are encouraging initiatives underway all over the world to halt habitat destruction and fight against the invasive species threatening Earth's biodiversity, but these efforts must be scaled up and supported by robust global frameworks and commitments. As we celebrate International Biodiversity Day, it is crucial to recognize that biodiversity is not just an environmental or animal rights issue but a fundamental component of human well-being and survival. By working together, we can turn the tide on biodiversity loss and ensure a sustainable future for all life on Earth. Christian Danter of Mistr waves a Pride flag as thousands gather to celebrate the LGBTQ community during the San Francisco Pride Parade on June 25, 2023. Bronte Wittpenn/The Chronicle A Bay Area Jewish group slammed San Francisco Pride this week over social media posts that it said were unwelcoming to the LGBTQ Jewish community. The Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council stated on X Wednesday that it was disheartened by a Instagram post from Tuesday by San Francisco Pride that noted there would be no Israeli float in the parade and that pro-Palestinian groups would be participating. Pride organizers also stated on Instagram that they encourage resistance to oppressive systems and governments that fail to recognize and support queer people. The Jewish council shared screenshots of the Pride posts on X. Advertisement Article continues below this ad We are disheartened by this poorly worded statement from San Francisco Pride, the council wrote. We call on @SFPride to clarify that everyone, including LGBTQ+ Israelis, are welcome at Pride. No one should be singled out because of their ethnic identity. In social media posts responding to the concerns Thursday, Pride leaders said that absolutely all LGBTQ+ people and allies are welcome at San Francisco Pride. Pride officials noted that some people interpreted the post about no Israeli floats in the parade to mean that those floats were rejected. We want to be clear regarding the misconception that some groups were denied entry that is emphatically not the case, Pride organizers said. Registrations for new floats in the Parade closed on June 3, and we are proud to announce that no organizations or groups were turned away from participating in this years activities, they said. We have always welcomed ALL faith communities to participate: all Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Pagans and more. Just to be crystal clear: Absolutely all LGBTQ+ people and allies are welcome at San Francisco Pride, and that includes Israelis and Jewish people just as it does Palestinians and Muslims. Tyler Gregory, chief executive officer of the Jewish council, said Wednesday on X that he had a warm relationship with Suzanne Ford, head of San Francisco Pride, and he does not believe she is anti-Israel nor does she harbor any negativity towards the Jewish community. He said hed been working with her to ensure that the LGBTQ Jewish contingent can march safely this year. Advertisement Article continues below this ad But the social media posts earlier in the week were deeply flawed, he wrote. And LGBTQ+ Jewish readers are rightfully viewing it as biased, especially Israelis, who no longer feel welcome at Pride. LGBTQ people have been leading many pro-Palestinian protests in the Bay Area and across the United States, and Jewish groups have been working for months to ensure that queer people in their community will be safe marching in Pride parades. Last week, pro-Palestinian activists interrupted the Philadelphia Pride parade, clashing briefly with marchers before police intervened. Im very worried about the public safety element of Pride, as we saw at Philly, Gregory said in an interview. I think there will be a lot of unrest leading up to and possibly during the parade. We just want to make sure the Jewish contingent feels safe this year. Gregory said that he believes the initial San Francisco Pride post about the Israeli float lacked important context: While the Israeli consulate has in the past had floats in other citys Pride parades, it never has in San Francisco and did not register one this year. Gregory said Pride officials had been approached by some pro-Palestinian people asking about an Israel float, and Pride officials were simply responding, via social media, that there would be no float. But the officials should have made clear that there was never a decision to ban a float, Gregory said, and they shouldnt have made other statements that could be perceived as anti-Jewish. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Tell us a little bit about yourself: I grew up in Rochestown, the fourth of six children. My parents met when they were in the same class studying medicine in University College Cork and when I left school, I also went to study medicine. It took me three years to realise it might not be the right course for me. I took a year out and did the Art & Design course in Colaiste Siofain Naofa, and when I was offered a place at the National College of Art & Design in Dublin, I jumped at it. I lived in Dublin for over a decade, working at the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts Gallery and with a textile designer during and after college. I then got my Master of Arts in Cultural Policy and Arts Management at University College Dublin. Following this, I worked with the Office of Public Works Art Management Office in management of the State Art Collection until the birth of my daughter in 2011. My husband Benny, originally from Ardee, and I co-founded the Vantastival Music and Campervan Festival in Co Louth during the recession. Over 13 years, we organised 12 festivals, reaching a peak of 7,000 attendees in 2019. However, covid-19 drastically impacted the independent festival scene in Ireland. In 2014, we bought our house on Blarney St and moved back to Cork. I love living in the city. We have three children, aged 6, 10, and 12, and an aging collie/labrador mix named Ziggy. When live music events halted during the pandemic, I began working with the Cancer Research Unit at University College Cork. It was a fantastic experience with a brilliant team, but I missed working in the arts. Last September, I took up the position of Creative Communities Engagement Officer with Cork City Council. In the arts office, I manage the Creative Ireland funding for community projects. Its inspiring to meet so many people who are transforming their communities through creativity. Part of my role includes coordinating the annual Cruinniu na nOg event in Cork city. Cruinniu na nOg is a national day of free creativity for under-18s, with over 40 events taking place in Cork city on June 15, all free. We collaborate with creative and cultural partners and venues across the city to provide young people with opportunities to explore new creative experiences. What is your ideal way to spend a Friday night? Its usually after 9pm before I get a chance to relax on Friday nights. I like to watch Gogglebox with a glass of wine. Its my guilty pleasure. Lie ins or up with the lark, which is it for you? I cant remember the last time I had a lie in. Im up shortly after 6am on weekdays and usually about 7.30am at the weekends to ferry kids to various activities. Does work creep into your weekend at all? There are often City Council Arts Office supported events taking place over the weekend that I might want or need to attend. It usually doesnt feel too much like work though as they are always enjoyable! If money was no object where would you head to on a weekend city break? And who would you bring with you? I very rarely get away. In 2019 Benny and I went to Lisbon for a weekend our honeymoon five years after getting married! We loved it and will go back whenever we next get a chance. In the meantime, my sister and I are hoping to go to Amsterdam soon to visit our brother, who moved there last year. Closer to home, is there some place you like to head to recharge the batteries? We go to Waterville, Co Kerry, on holidays every August and often at other times throughout the year. Ive been going there my whole life. The beaches in nearby Derrynane and Ballinskelligs are incredible and the kids love it. Do you like to catch up with family/friends at the weekend? Most weekends are very busy with the kids, but we have dinner with my sister and parents on Sundays. Every so often well get out to a gig with friends, or if my brother is home, he tends to drag me out to socialise! Do you get to indulge any hobbies? Even as a spectator? For a long time, I didnt have any time for hobbies but Im picking things back up as the kids are getting older. I started a book club with some friends so have been reading lots of great books or listening to them while walking the dog. Were currently renovating our house, and Im hoping that once its done, Ill have the space to get back into drawing and making clothes, which I used to do a lot. Members of the Cork Figure Skating Association, Sophia Bajerska , Hugh Scannell and. Nicole Merkushev with Cliona Harte (aged 8) getting creative in the Marina Park at the launch of Cruinniu na nOg Cork City, which will take place on Saturday June 15th. Picture: Clare Keogh Entertain or be entertained? If its the latter do you have a signature dish? Definitely be entertained. If I won the Lotto, the first thing I would do is hire a cook so I would never have to waste another second trying to come up with dinner ideas. If I lived on my own, Id probably never cook a proper meal. We have so many places to eat out in Cork, where are your go to spots for coffee/ lunch/ special meal? Its tragically rare that I eat out anywhere. More likely Im grabbing a takeaway coffee on the run. The last time I ate out was in Nosta on Marlboro Street and it was wonderful. The food was great, and the staff were so friendly! Sunday night comes around too fast, how do you normally spend it? My mum cooks a big roast every Sunday evening and feeds us all. Sadly, I then spend the evening folding mountains of laundry, usually while watching house build/renovation shows on Channel 4. I think Ive seen every episode ever of Grand Designs. What time does your alarm clock go off on Monday morning? 6:05am. About Cruinniu na nOg Organised by Cork City Council, more than 40 free events for young people will take place in Cork for Cruinniu na nOg. A range of arts, crafts, story, and play experiences for young children will take place in libraries across the city and the City Library will host a Teen Film Poetry Showcase in collaboration with poet/poetry filmmaker Colm Scully. See www.corkcity.ie/cnn for details and times of all events. A Cork film-makers documentary telling the story of her great grandmothers exploits during the Civil War has earned her the prestigious Radharc Award at the Fresh Film Young Film-maker of the Year Awards. Nora Twomey, who hails from Baile Mhuirne and is a Leaving Certificate student at St Marys Secondary School in Macroom, was commended by the judges in the competition for the excellence in research, use of a range in production techniques, including dramatic reconstruction and use of archives evident in her film, Devil May Care. The judges also remarked on how personally relevant to Nora the film was. Dramatic The 14-minute film, in which Nora herself plays the part of her great grandmother in the dramatic reconstructions, tells the story of May Casey who was an active IRA member in Dublin during the War of Independence and the Civil War. I wanted to highlight the activities of women during the Civil War which, for a long time, was never talked about, not even in schools, said Nora. It was very important for me to make this documentary to write her back into history. The story of the film began in October 2023 when Noras family discovered Mays application for a military pension, an application which was adjudged to be unsuccessful at the time it was made. According to Aoife Torpey, an archivist in Kilmainham Jail interviewed by Nora, Mays pension application details how she was arrested in February 1923, at the height of the Civil War, though the application doesnt specify why she was arrested, it does give details as to what activities she was involved with during the conflict. This included dispatch work (carrying messages), moving arms and ammunition around Dublin and also being involved in keeping safe houses for IRA men, said Aoife. The film illustrates how May moved arms and ammunition around Dublin in babies prams. Funds She also collected funds for the IRA, using the cover story that she was collecting for the Peadar Macken Literary Society. She met her future husband, Frank Casey, at this time and he was also active in the IRA and who was imprisoned in Mountjoy Prison and went on hunger strike. Nora also interviewed her grand aunt, May Breen, the daughter of May and Frank, who recalled how her mother kept up her activism throughout her life, volunteering with the Red Cross and helping refugee children from Germany who came to Ireland at the end of the Second World War. May Casey died 70 years ago in 1954. In this tribute to my greatgrand mother, I hoped to shine a light on the activities and political life of a person who we never knew anything about, said Nora. Although she fought tirelessly on the Anti-Treaty side during the Civil War, Mays pension application was unsuccessful because she was a woman. To me, May Casey was once just a face in an old picture frame but now she will be commemorated by our family for her commitment to the cause she believed in for years to come and her story will never be forgotten. Nora is hoping to study film at third level. A FORMER pub on the northside of the city is set for a new lease of life following planning permission to transform it into apartments. Last September, Conclusive Developments Ltd lodged a planning application with Cork City Council, seeking permission for alterations to The Bridge Inn at 88 Great William OBrien St in Blackpool, which closed a number of years ago. The plans proposed the demolition of the rear two-storey annex and single-storey public house extension and the construction of a new two-storey extension to the rear of the existing building, to develop six one-bedroom apartments. The application further sought the change of use of the remaining ground-floor pub to residential to create one studio apartment. Currently, there are two apartments at the location, with the plans bringing the total number of units to nine. Cork City Council sought further information before making a decision on the application. Among the points raised, the local authority said the proposed scheme is located within the Blackpool Architectural Conservation Area and the surviving timber shopfront on the ground floor of the Great William OBrien St elevation is considered to be of historic significance, contributing to the special architectural character of the area. It said the proposed arrangement of the window and door openings of the ground floor to the front elevation of the street should be redesigned to allow for the retention of the historic shopfront. There are 20 conditions attached to the councils approval of the development. THREATS were made to shop assistants by a man who said he would return with a shotgun if they reported to gardai the assault he carried out on another man. Now at Cork Circuit Criminal Court, Jack McCarthy of 109 Ard Bhaile, Mayfield, Cork, has been given a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence with the last year suspended. Judge Helen Boyle imposed that sentence on the 26-year-old who pleaded guilty to crimes including robbery and making threats to kill, and assault causing harm to the man whose iPhone was robbed. Detective Garda Martina Drew said the incident at the centre of the case occurred before eight oclock on the morning of October 29 2023. The injured party met him at a house party earlier in the evening and there was a suggestion that they would go and procure drugs. But after they left the house Jack McCarthys behaviour changed. The injured party was at this stage in fear of him and tried to run away. The defendant followed him up Ballyhooley Road and assaulted him on the ground and told him to withdraw 200 from an ATM. They went to the Applegreen at North Ring Road where Jack McCarthy took his phone and further assaulted him when efforts to take out money failed. He refused to hand back the phone. He threatened to kill him and to go to his home and burn down his house. He then said (to two staff at Applegreen) that he would return to the shop with a shotgun if they reported the incident to gardai, Det. Garda Drew said. Gardai arrested him nearby and they got the phone back for the injured party. Jack McCarthy could not remember the assault due to his level of intoxication but he accepted that he did assault him. Among his 48 previous convictions were some counts of burglary and assault. Defence barrister, Emmet Boyle, said, He cooperated from the get-go. He did not refuse to answer any questions. His acceptance was total. When allegations were put to him he expressed remorse and insight and revulsion at his own behaviour. Mr Boyle said the accused was so distressed at his own violent behaviour towards the injured party that he asked gardai a number of times to stop showing him CCTV of the incident. He was labouring under a significant addiction at the time, Mr Boyle said. Tanaiste and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said he believes the party might be able to secure an additional seat on Cork City Council following this year's local elections. Mr Martin made the comments while speaking to reporters outside his polling station, St Anthonys School in Ballinlough, after casting his vote in the local and European elections this morning. Difficult Asked if he believes the party could replicate its success in the 2019 locals, Mr Martin acknowledged that could be a difficult feat, but contended that Fianna Fail had put its best foot forward in this years campaign. We did exceptionally well in the last occasion in the modern era, about 27%. Now, that will be hard to achieve on this occasion. Were first place in local authorities in terms of the number of seats, so were certainly aiming to retain our seats and gain some new seats in areas where perhaps we didnt perform as well in the last local elections. Here in the South East ward, with Mary Rose Desmond and Terry Shannon, we have two exceptional councillors and across the city with Sean [Martin] and David Boyle in the South Central ward and then of course in the city South West and across the northside. So we have a very strong team in Cork and we could perhaps gain a seat across the city with some new exciting candidates and were looking forward to the outcome of that, he said. All seven incumbent Fianna Fail councillors in the city - the Tanaistes brother Sean Martin, Terry Shannon, Mary Rose Desmond, Tony Fitzgerald, John Sheehan, Fergal Dennehy and Colm Kelleher have all sought reelection. In addition, there are five non-incumbents running David Boyle, Olga Shevchenko, Terry Coleman, Shane Ryan and Margaret McDonnell. European elections Speaking today, Mr Martin also commended the Fianna Fail candidates contesting the European elections and said the Ireland South constituency which takes in all of Munster as well as four counties in south and east Leinster could make for an interesting result for the party. I think with Billy Kelleher and Cynthia Ni Mhurchu weve had a very strong team. Billy has been an exceptional worker as an MEP over the last five years. Hes been very, very present about the place and about the region and then with Cynthia Ni Mhurchu, shes been an indefatigable candidate. Shes been non-stop, tremendous commitment to the campaign I have to pay tribute to her energy and to her work ethic in this campaign. She left it all on the pitch, so to speak, along with Billy Kelleher, so I think Ireland South could be a very interesting result for us, he said. Asked if he felt the local elections can act as any sort of barometer as to how the party might fair in the next general election, Mr Martin said he doesnt believe so. I dont because experience has told us that there can be little relationship between the two. I mean, if you look at the local elections [2019] we did very well and we didnt do as well in the general election. What the local elections can do for you is introduce a new generation of politicians who in turn then could become Dail candidates. Social housing residents of a northside area made internationally famous as a backdrop for The Young Offenders say they feel like they are the forgotten people, abandoned on the top of a mountain. A number of residents in Roches Buildings and Suttons Buildings, who spoke to The Echo, said that they felt ignored by City Hall and ill-served by an unreliable bus service. Paul OLeary, 61, has lived in Roches Buildings for six years and also works in the resource centre. Were like the forgotten people up here, abandoned on the top of a mountain, he said. A lot of problems here are housing-related, a lot of the houses are in bad repair, but apparently up here you have to die before you get a new door or a window. Kevin OLeary, 64, has lived here for 13 years and he says he has spent years asking for a new front door. In the winter its like having air conditioning, he said. Issues raised All of the residents who spoke with The Echo say they find it difficult to get a response from the city council on the issues they have raised. Trying to get in touch with the council is impossible, claimed 62-year-old Maggie Blyth. Sinn Fein Cork City North East candidate Christa Daley, who has met with the residents, said that numerous homes have problems with roofs, gutters, and doors. There seems to be a complete lack of engagement by the city council on these issues, she said. Paul OLeary says the lack of a dependable bus service with a quick and simple route into town adds to the isolation felt by residents. He adds that the thrice-daily 209 bus route brings passengers out to Silverheights before eventually returning into town. We have a lot of pensioners here who need to get to Blackpool for their post office, he said. Thats a taxi, 8 up and 8 down out of a pension, and then if you have a hospital appointment, thats 20 each way. With an ageing population prone to illness and infirmity, walking into town is not an option for many, and residents claim that the hillside surfaces are often left covered with leaves and moss, making them dangerous and slippery. Cork Penny Dinners calls to several residents every day, and Paul OLeary says: The knock at the door for the dinner will be the only contact some of those people have all day. Despairing Christa Daley says many Roches Buildings and Suttons Buildings residents are despairing and feel they really have been forgotten. The situation is becoming intolerable, and residents are exasperated that their voices are being ignored." Asked for a comment, a spokesperson for Bus Eireann said bus routes and schedules are determined by the National Transport Authority. They said their Cork services are subject to external challenges, including traffic congestion and driver recruitment. A spokesperson for Cork City Council said: The Cork City Council customer service request centre is available to all tenants to report repair requests. These are then addressed by the relevant housing operations staff. THE case against a 36-year-old man accused of burgling a house and medical centre was adjourned until July 24 for directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions. Judge Mary Dorgan put the case back until that date at Cork District Court after Sergeant Gearoid Davis said DPP directions were not yet available in respect of these recent alleged incidents. The background allegations against Don Duggan, who is originally from 65 Ballinderry Park, Mayfield, Cork, are that a young man woke at night to see a stranger in his home in the early hours of April 5. Detective Sergeant Kieran OSullivan objected to bail being granted to the accused on the charge of carrying out that burglary at Old Youghal Road, Cork, at around 3am. He faced a second charge of burgling a doctors surgery at Mayfield Medical Centre on March 27. Det Sgt OSullivan said CCTV footage of that alleged incident showed a man getting into the premises by a back window, moving around inside, and taking 50 from a cashbox. In respect of the burglary at the house, the detective said: A female was home at 3am when her son saw an unknown male in the house. Seeing the son [who is in his 20s], he fled the scene. Her bank card was tapped at a nearby garage 27 minutes later for a 37 transaction, Det Sgt OSullivan said, adding that gardai recognised the defendant from CCTV at the garage and in the previous incident at the medical centre. Mr Duggan said he would be pleading not guilty to the burglary charges. Mr Collins-Daly, said it was disputed by the defendant that he was seen on CCTV, which he described as being of poor quality. Judge Mary Dorgan granted bail on extensive conditions that included twice daily signing at his local garda station, an 11 pm curfew, and 5,000 bail with half of that to be lodged. An independent surety of 7,500 was required, with 3,500 of that to be lodged in court. He is to reside at an address at Newtown Avenue, Boherboy, Lotabeg, Cork, if granted bail. Mr Duggan then applied to the High Court to vary some of those bail conditions, and he is now out on bail awaiting DPP directions. A new interactive map of publicly-funded drug treatment and drug-related family support services has been launched. The map provides information on local services for people to address their drug or alcohol use, and for families and concerned others who are struggling to deal with a loved-ones drug or alcohol use. It features 38 services in Cork; 25 in the city, and 13 in the county. The map was launched by Minister for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy Colm Burke, who said that the resource helps people to identify and access drug services in the community. People using the database will be directed to services in their community, in line with the Slaintecare principles of delivering the right care in the right place, at the right time. Enhancing access to, and delivery of, drugs services in the community is a strategic priority in the national drug strategy, he added. Visual database The project represents the first time such a visual database has been produced and features 442 services across Ireland in receipt of public funding. Former lord mayor and Fianna Fail councillor for the Cork City South West ward, Colm Kelleher, welcomed the initiative. I believe there is no family in the country that isnt touched by some form of addiction. This is another piece of the puzzle in relation to addiction services both locally and nationally, he added. For a person dealing with any form of addiction, it takes awhile for them to realise they have a problem. They tend to reach out to family members who may be completely oblivious to what services are available. An interactive map such as this is effectively a yellow pages for what is out there and will point people in the right direction. A convicted murderer who served a sentence for this in his home country of Lithuania turned up at Mallow railway station selling heroin within less than a month of his release from prison. Garda Brendan McGarry gave evidence in the case against Arnoldas Sraksys at Cork Circuit Criminal Court where he was sentenced by Judge Cormac Quinn. Garda McGarry said the accused was stopped by the divisional drug unit of An Garda Siochana at Mallow train station on September 16 2023. I found 112 packs of Diamorphine heroin in his possession. They were wrapped separately and had a total street value of 2,055. He was arrested and conveyed to Mayfield garda station. He cooperated with gardai. (Initially) he denied he had the drugs for sale or supply but he admitted possession, Garda McGarry said at Cork Circuit Criminal Court. Ultimately, the 43-year-old pleaded guilty to having the heroin for the purpose of sale or supply to others. Garda McGarry said Sraksys was in jail in Lithuania from 2005 serving sentences for murder, theft and theft using violence. Previously, he was convicted in Lithuania for robbery, money-laundering and causing criminal damage. Following the sentence for murder he was released in late August 2023 and came to Ireland more or less immediately. He travelled to Ireland for the purpose of the supply for which he has now been convicted, Garda McGarry said. The officer agreed with the suggestion from defence barrister Mahon Corkery that Arnoldas Srakysys had been cooperative with gardai. Procedurally, he was 100 per cent cooperative, Garda McGarry said. He also agreed with the description of the accused as a mule in the context of this drug-dealing operation. Mr Corkery said, He had an addiction to heroin. He has taken no drugs since he was taken into custody in September last year. He suffers (a medical condition). His involvement is at the lower end. In prison he is doing arts, woodwork and he is learning the English language. He has been in custody since his arrest in September. Judge Quinn imposed a sentence of two years on the defendant, backdated to September, on the charge of having heroin for sale or supply. International media tour engages in straw weaving crafts in Shandong Chinadaily.com.cn) 09:52, June 07, 2024 A Date with China media tour visits the Xinhe Straw Weaving Pavilion in Pingdu, East China's Shandong province on June 5, 2024. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn] Members of the 2024 A Date with China international media tour embarked on a visit to the Xinhe Straw Weaving Pavilion in Pingdu, East China's Shandong province, getting a glimpse of the rich cultural beauty and allure of the local handicrafts. During their time at the pavilion, the tour participants learned about the history of Xinhe's straw-weaving technology, which boasts a legacy spanning over 400 years. They also had the opportunity to immerse themselves in the art of crafting straw weaving, an intangible cultural heritage in Shandong. Gloria Agapiti Michael Meiseyeki, a journalist from Tanzania, drew parallels between the techniques used in Xinhe and those in her home country, noting that while similar methods are employed, the materials differ, with bark being a common alternative. "I used to make such bags when I was a kid. They were easy to wash," Gloria shared while recalling creating bags akin to those on display at the exhibition hall. A local handicraftsman works on a bag at the Xinhe Straw Weaving Pavilion in Pingdu, East China's Shandong province on June 5, 2024. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn] Exhibits are on display at the Xinhe Straw Weaving Pavilion in Pingdu, East China's Shandong province on June 5, 2024. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn] A Date with China media tour visits the Xinhe Straw Weaving Pavilion in Pingdu, East China's Shandong province on June 5, 2024. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn] A Date with China media tour visits the Xinhe Straw Weaving Pavilion in Pingdu, East China's Shandong province on June 5, 2024. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn] A Date with China media tour visits the Xinhe Straw Weaving Pavilion in Pingdu, East China's Shandong province on June 5, 2024. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn] (Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun) Ken Mattson, seen at a Sonoma City Council meeting in 2019, resigned as CEO of LeFever Mattson Property Management in May. Robbi Pengelly/Index-Tribune 2019 Two Sonoma real estate developers enmeshed in scandal are trading lawsuits in which they accuse each other of fraud, financial misconduct and other improprieties, laying bare a business partnership between close friends who met in elementary school and served as best men in each others weddings. Kenneth Mattson and Timothy LeFever co-own LeFever Mattson Property Management, a real estate development company that owns hundreds of millions of dollars worth of real estate across California, much of it in Sonoma County. The company attracted investors with promises of steady, monthly returns but began unraveling last month when LeFever accused Mattson of fraud. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Many of these investors grew alarmed after they failed to receive monthly distributions over the past few months. Then LeFever sent letters telling them Mattson had stepped down from his post as LeFever Mattsons CEO. In early May he sent other notices accusing Mattson of bilking investors out of their life savings. Weeks later, the FBI raided Mattsons Sonoma County home. Dueling narratives emerged in two state courts Thursday. In Sacramento, Mattsons attorneys filed a blistering lawsuit saying that LeFever engaged in a preplanned scheme to destroy Mattson by informing investors their investments were invalid and that Mattson had essentially stolen from them and encouraging them to sue him. Mattsons 17-page legal filing accused LeFever of unfair competition, inappropriately withholding access to company documents and duping Mattson into signing an indemnity agreement admitting to behavior he now says he didnt commit. He disputed LeFevers claim that he was unaware of Mattsons investment activities. LeFever always had access to all company documents, was privy to all material decisions and called Mattson, at least daily, to discuss operations, his lawsuit Advertisement Article continues below this ad His lawsuit came a day after a 79-year-old Brentwood woman sued Mattson, accusing him, LeFever Mattson and two of Mattsons other companies of defrauding her out of her life savings. Hours after Mattson filed his lawsuit, LeFevers attorneys fired off their own legal salvo with a biting, 43-page breach-of-contract lawsuit. The complaint laid out the development of their business over the past 30 years, which LeFever says allowed Mattson to amass a net worth of a quarter of a billion dollars. But that money was earned through fraud and deception, LeFevers lawsuit says. He accuses Mattson of creating what amounted to a secret division of LeFever Mattson to embezzle $75 million from his own company, stealing money from the retirement accounts of senior citizens, and lying to his purported investors while perpetrating a yearslong fraud scheme. Mattson took tens of millions of dollars from hundreds of people in exchange for nothing, LeFever says in his lawsuit. The lawsuits shed new light on operations of the troubled real estate investment company and according to LeFevers claims, leave scores of investors in the lurch. Advertisement Article continues below this ad According to both lawsuits, LeFever Mattson developed a business model in which the company used limited partnerships or limited liability corporations to purchase commercial properties. The dispute between the two men centers on one such limited partnership, Divi Divi Tree LP, to buy an apartment complex in Moreno Valley in 2003. LeFevers suit says Mattson bought out many of Divi Divis partners and sold false interests in the partnership to at least 177 investors worth more than $55 million which far exceeds the entire valuation for Divi. According to LeFevers lawsuit, Mattson falsified numerous documents so that the defrauded investors would not realize (Mattson) had duped them and to minimize the risk that (LeFever Mattson) would learn of (Mattsons) fraudulent scheme by an investor asking for tax forms. The lawsuit also accuses Mattson of using his companys funds to purchase a lavish home for himself, and buying properties with his money, and then selling those parcels to LeFever Mattson at higher prices or selling LeFever Mattson properties loaded with debt so that the LM Investments would be stuck with these indebted and underperforming assets rather than KSMP, his wholly owned company including several in default and two more with significant balloon payments due. All told, LeFever accused Mattson of causing their company to suffer more than $100 million in damages and lost corporate opportunities. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Mattsons lawsuit describes him as working diligently on investors behalf. Mattson paid out distributions to investors whenever possible, even though there was no obligation to do so, according to the lawsuit. Like many other real estate companies, LeFever Mattson experienced extreme hardship during the pandemic that resulted in tenant defaults, decreased demand and consequential loss of income. The lawsuit says Mattson used his personal savings to pay distributions to investors when the companys investments were struggling, but that LeFever did not and instead paid himself an annual salary of $500,000 to $1,000,000. According to the lawsuit, Mattson repaid himself, without interest or fees, when one of his investment vehicles had generated a surplus. Trouble arose in 2023, however, as the men quarreled over Divi Divi Tree. The partnership sold its interest in its Southern California property to investors, depositing the proceeds into a separate operational account for LeFever Mattsons use, according to Mattsons suit. The transaction was properly documented, the suit says. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Later in 2023, LeFever Mattson accused Mattson of financial misconduct and threatened to report him to authorities, the lawsuit says, even though Mattson believed that he had acted appropriately but proposed that if Divi investors were somehow damaged by him, he would bear the expenses associated with resolving any errors. In early 2024, LeFever held a special board meeting and wrested control of the company from Mattson, the suit says, by demanding he resign as CEO. Mattson also accuses LeFever of demanding he sign an eight-page agreement on the spot indemnifying LeFever Mattson against potential claims from Divi investors. The document included an agreement allowing LeFever to hire attorneys, regardless of cost, and require Mattson to immediately pay such fees without objection, regardless of their fairness or reasonableness. In the suit, Mattson admits he did not read the agreement closely and says he now wants a judge to declare it unenforceable. LeFever mentioned the indemnity agreement in his May 9 letter to investors, saying that Mattson had signed it in acknowledgement of the impropriety of his surreptitious actions, and also told investors LeFever Mattson had alerted federal investigators about the case. Since their dispute spilled into public view, Mattson says, his business partner has refused to provide basic documentation that he is legally entitled to. The suit accuses LeFever and his company of no longer paying regular distributions to investors, and using those funds for their own purposes. By Jonathan McCambridge, PA Irish unity is the best way of restoring Northern Irelands position within the European Union, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has said. Mr Eastwood said that while he did not consider the unity debate to be an election issue, he did believe it was important as an aspiration while dealing with immediate challenges. The SDLP leader addressed a New Ireland Commission event in Belfast on Friday as elections were taking place to the European Parliament. The commission was set up by the SDLP to facilitate discussions on the possibilities of a united Ireland. A majority of people in Northern Ireland voted remain in the Brexit referendum in 2016, which saw the UK vote to leave the European Union. Mr Eastwood addressed the New Ireland Commission event in Belfast. Photo: Jonathan McCambridge/PA. Mr Eastwood said: It is the same day the European elections are happening right across the European continent and on another part of this island. We are making the point that we have been dragged out of the European Union against our will and we would like to get back there as soon as possible. We have a prescription for that which, in the long term, is to build a new Ireland where we are part of the European Union. It has been a real tragedy and travesty that we have been dragged out of it. We hope that a new Labour government will bring us closer to Europe but we are very aware that the best way to get properly back into the European Union, to get all those benefits, is by developing and creating a new Ireland over time. Mr Eastwood said that a united Ireland also had to be a reconciled Ireland. He said: The process of building that is a process of reconciliation. It is about setting out a plan to have better economic outcomes, for lifting people out of poverty, for having a health service that actually works. This place is in a very bad state and we think there is a better way. With the General Election looming, Mr Eastwood said the united Ireland discussion was one for the long term and the medium term. He said: We cant let today pass where we know that electors all across Europe are electing to the European Parliament and our voice is not going to be heard. A new Labour government will bring us closer hopefully to Europe but there is no British government that will bring us as close to Europe as actually being part of Europe, part of the European Union. That inevitably means building towards a new Ireland, that is a long-term conversation but it is one that we should have. Is it an election issue? Probably not. But it doesnt mean just because we have immediate priorities that we cant also have a vision for the future. Mr Eastwood told the event that his party was having discussions with unionists over the future of Northern Ireland. He said: Those people who tell me that unionists arent involved in this conversation about the future, I can tell you, they are wrong because they are talking to us and we are listening to them. The opportunity that this place has is massive and I dont believe that people from a unionist background arent interested in the future. I dont believe they are not interested in trying to make our health outcomes better or our economy better. Look at the economic stats in the north compared to the economic stats in the south. Is it a panacea? Absolutely not, but for us the opportunity that exists and the conversation and the build-up to creating a new Ireland is actually about ending division on this island. Claire Hanna addressing the event in Belfast on Friday. Photo: Jonathan McCambridge/PA. The event was also addressed by Claire Hanna, the partys candidate in Belfast South and Mid-Down at the election. She said: We know that it isnt a quick route back into Europe, but it is there for the taking and we are the party and the movement to get that in place. WHAT a fast year, I cant believe it has been a year. It feels like it only happened yesterday, but then I feel like it has always been in my life. So says Kate Shaughnessy, from Ballincollig, about her time as the Cork Rose, these past 12 months. But, in fact, the Rose of Tralee has been part of this Cork womans life for many, many years - long before her selection as a Rose. Kates parents Niamh and John, were teenage sweethearts, who met at the Rose of Tralee. And when Kate was growing up, she attended the festival regularly, and had a little book with all the Rose signatures. Speaking of her time as Cork Rose, Kate said: It has been a great year. When asked about the stand-out moments, the young woman said there were many. There have been so many highlights. The parade on the Saturday night in Tralee was the highlight for me for sure. All my family were on the corner, all my friends with their banners, their flags, their badges, a life-sized cut out of me. It is a moment I will never forget. Another memory was returning to her old school. Going back to visit my old primary school Scoil Bara was an emotional moment. Being in New York to walk in St Patricks Day parade was incredible. I could write a book, there were loadss! She feels highs and lows about handing over the sash. I feel mixed emotions. So sad that I will no longer be Cork Rose. But so excited to see what someone else will bring - so looking forward to the journey they will go on. All good things have to come to an end. I am very accepting my time is up. I have done the most with the year. Sometimes, I think, not to be tanning and dressing... but I have enjoyed every minute. When it is all over, it will hit me, how great it was. Does she have any advice for the incoming Rose? You have to dive into it. What you put into the role, you will get back. If you make the most of it you have a fantastic time. It only is a year long, so you have to make the most of it. You will have great support, it is great to lean on those around you, get everyone involved. My family were a great support. Cork Rose Centre were incredible. The people in Cork, local boutiques, the local community... She has so many thank-yous. It takes a village to send someone to Tralee, Kate added. She wants to thank Silk Peaches in Ballincollig, Love Cherish in Charleville, Bella Donna and CiCi in Clonakilty, Its So Me in Douglas, and Phoenix V in Cork, who made her stage dress. She wants to thank Katie and Heather in the Cork Rose Centre, who were her biggest supporters these past 12 months and who went above and beyond. They have become great friends of mine, added Kate. She also wants to thank the people of Ballincollig and Ovens for getting behind her and sending on words of encouragement in the lead up to the festival. Her former place of employment, Norwood Grange Care Home, were also a huge part of her journey and she still calls into them. Kates ties with the Cork Rose are far from over - she will stay on to help at the centre and give them a hand and support the new Rose as she prepares for Tralee. It can be a very full on two weeks and it can be very overwhelming at times and it is just about supporting the girl, being someone to talk to about what is going to happen, about what is ahead, help with prep, give her a hand with whatever she needs. The Cork Rose selection will take place at the Rochestown Park Hotel on June 8. A total of 23 young women are taking part in the event. The judges this year are Deborah Barrett - 2005 Cork Rose - and this years judging chair Olivia Walsh Murphy - 2001 Cork Rose, as well as Steve Cox - Sales Marketing Manager of Rochestown Park Hotel. The Cork Rose Centre want to thank all the local businesses and organisations who support the Cork Rose and the centre every year. The winner of the Cork Rose selection will go on to represent the county at Tralee later this summer. Cork has held the Rose of Tralee title on three occasions during the history of the festival: Josie Ruane in 1961, Denise Murphy OSullivan in 1991, and Geraldine OGrady Finn, in 1999. 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. Pharmaceutical pollution is posing new dangers to wildlife, and humans will need to develop more eco-friendly medications to preserve ecosystems, according to a new paper published in Nature Sustainability. The specific effects that human drugs can have on wildlife has been well documented. One study found that when exposed to antidepressants present in their habitat, crayfish spent more time seeking food, which could put them in greater danger from predators. Another study found signs of methamphetamine addiction in trout that were exposed to water polluted with these drugs. A study of Floridas waterways revealed 58 different kinds of prescription drugs present in 93 bonefish, with a single fish having as many as 17 different drugs present. Now, a new paper is highlighting the many ways that prescription drugs for humans are polluting the world around us, which not only impacts wildlife but can also affect humans. There are a few pathways for these chemicals to enter the environment, Michael Bertram, co-author of the paper and an assistant professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, told The Guardian. If there is inadequate treatment of pharmaceuticals that are being released during drug production, thats one way. Another is during use. When a human takes a pill, not all of that drug is broken down inside our bodies and so through our excrement, the effluent is released directly into the environment. As The Guardian reported, there is a wide variety of drugs entering the environment, from legal drugs and prescription medications like caffeine and antidepressants to illegal drugs such as methamphetamine and cocaine. Not only can these drugs lead to behavioral changes in wildlife, but they can also leach into groundwater used for drinking water. The paper cited a recent study that looked at pollution of active pharmaceutical ingredients worldwide. In that study, researchers analyzed 61 drugs in samples of river water from 1,052 sites in 104 countries, and 43% of sites had at least one drug present at levels higher than ecological safety limits. The authors of the paper are urging scientists to develop greener drugs that will still be effective for humans but will be safer for wildlife. The recommended updates include developing drugs that more quickly and fully biodegrade as well as updating wastewater treatment infrastructure so that it can remove pharmaceutical pollutants before they reach the environment. Greener drugs reduce the potential for pollution throughout the entire cycle, Gorka Orive, co-author of the paper and a professor of pharmacy at the University of the Basque Country, told The Guardian. Drugs must be designed to not only be effective and safe, but also to have a reduced potential risk to wildlife and human health when present in the environment. They also recommended that healthcare professionals and veterinarians be trained on environmental impacts on pharmaceuticals and that there should be prescribing guidelines that take these effects into account. More broadly, in seeking to reform the drug life cycle, it is important that we incorporate the One Health approach that is, recognizing the interconnection between humans, animals and their shared environment within the rational use of all medicines, not only antimicrobials, the authors wrote in the paper. 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. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers his special address on climate action from the American Museum of Natural History in New York on June 5, 2024. United Nations United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for immediate action to avoid the world being in climate hell after this May was the warmest ever recorded, according to a recent report from the European Commissions Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). Its climate crunch time, Guterres said at New Yorks American Museum of Natural History on Wednesday, as UN News reported. We stand at a moment of truth. Guterres emphasized that, though the need for measures to combat the climate crisis globally is at an all-time high, so are the occasions for sustainable development and economic prosperity. In the case of climate, we are not the dinosaurs. We are the meteor. We are not only in danger, we are the danger. But, we are also the solution, Guterres said. The UN chief cited C3S in saying emissions worldwide must be reduced by nine percent annually to maintain the 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature limit established in the 2015 Paris Agreement. Global emissions increased by one percent last year. On Wednesday, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization said the temperature threshold has an 80 percent likelihood of being surpassed within the next five years. We are playing Russian roulette with our planet, Guterres said, as reported by UN News. We need an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell, and the truth is we have control of the wheel. C3S data revealed that every month since July of 2023 had been a minimum of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, with an average global temperature in the past 12 months 1.63 degrees warmer than in industrial times, CNN reported. This is a harbinger of progressively more dangerous climate impacts close on the horizon, said climate professor Richard Allan from the United Kingdoms University of Reading, as reported by CNN. Guterres went on to say it was still just about possible to avoid the worst effects of climate change, but that we must try harder, UN News reported. He added that this decade of choices made by political leaders particularly the coming 18 months are crucial. Guterres explained that half a degree of planetary warming could lead to some coastal communities or island nations disappearing. If the 1.5 degrees Celsius target is breached, entire coral reef systems could vanish. The West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets could also collapse, leading to disastrous sea level rise, scientists have said. The extreme weather in East Asia, the U.S. and other parts of the world has been made much worse by the climate crisis, destroying lives, pummelling economies and hammering health, Guterres added. The secretary-general slammed the Godfathers of climate chaos the fossil fuel conglomerates that, despite billions of people all over the planet suffering from the damages and increased cost of climate change, rake in record profits and feast off trillions in taxpayer-funded subsidies. Guterres made a plea for all countries to stop supporting fossil fuel companies and institute a ban on their advertising. I call on these companies to stop acting as enablers to planetary destruction. Stop taking on new fossil fuel clients, from today, and set out plans to drop your existing ones, Guterres said, as reported by UN News. The UN chief highlighted the importance of protecting forests and oceans, which absorb carbon dioxide produced by humans. He pointed out that renewables which now provide 30 percent of the planets energy are here to stay. Economic logic makes the end of the fossil fuel age inevitable, Guterres said. The worlds biggest emitters of toxic emissions, as well as the most prosperous nations, must assume the largest burden for action, the UN chief said. Advanced G20 economies should go furthest, fastest while giving financial and technical support to developing nations, he said. We cannot accept a future where the rich are protected in air-conditioned bubbles while the rest of humanity is lashed by lethal weather in unliveable lands. Guterres added that solving the climate crisis must be a collaborative effort and expressed thanks to climate activists who have been pushing for action. Make your voices heard and your choices count. This is an all-in moment, Guterres said in New York. Now is the time to mobilise, now is the time to act, now is the time to deliver. This is our moment of truth. Stanford said Friday that it will again require undergraduate applicants to submit an admissions exam either the SAT or the ACT starting with those applying to enter in fall 2025. Jessica Christian/The Chronicle In a turnabout, Stanford University announced Friday that it will again require undergraduate applicants to submit an admissions exam either the SAT or the ACT beginning with students entering in fall 2026. Stanford stopped requiring the exam in 2020, as did hundreds of colleges across the country as the escalating pandemic made it difficult for applicants to take the test. Many campuses, including Stanford, said they would reevaluate the new SAT-free system at some point. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Other highly competitive schools have already begun bringing back the admissions requirements, including Harvard and the California Institute of Technology, which announced the change this year. Yale is also bringing back the admissions exams, but it will allow students to submit advanced placement tests or International Baccalaureate exam results in lieu of the SAT or ACT. Stanford officials said Friday that they decided to back the tests after a faculty committee studied the numbers and found that the scores were an important predictor of academic performance at Stanford. Yet scores are just one part of a holistic review used in admissions decisions, the university said in a statement. More on college admissions: The UCs are a better investment than most U.S. colleges. See data on every school Advertisement Article continues below this ad Stanfords pause of the admissions tests also coincided with a national backlash against the tests that had already begun, including at the University of California, where low-income students of color won a lawsuit against UC in 2020 that outlawed the tests as biased in favor of wealthier students in a variety of ways. The judge in that case also barred UC from making the tests optional. That ruling holds, four years later. UC has ended use of standardized tests in freshman admissions for the foreseeable future, Ryan King, a university spokesperson, told the Chronicle Friday, noting that the public universitys situation is different from that of elite, private universities. Many of those schools, including Stanford, made the admissions tests optional, which allowed them to compare outcomes between students who provided scores and those who didnt, King said. When Yale announced in February that it would resume requiring the SAT and other admissions exams, it argued not only that the diversity of its student body had grown in the years before the pandemic despite its testing requirement, but that eliminating the test could actually hurt minorities from underrepresented groups. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Inviting students to apply without any test scores can, inadvertently, disadvantage students from low-income, first-generation, and rural backgrounds, the school said in a statement at the time. It was the opposite argument made by the students who had successfully sued UC and opposite from the concept that had persuaded California State University to voluntarily drop the admissions exams in 2022. CSU has no plans to reinstate ACT or SAT testing as part of first-year student admission at this time, said university spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith. High school students, meanwhile, are caught in the middle of these competing ideas about the value of the tests. It feels like, since COVID, the test has sort of, like, snuck back in and become more and more important again, said Curtis Ault, who is going into his senior year at Lowell High School in San Francisco and was among 1,400 students who were forced to sit for 3.5 hours in a Marriott Hotel in Oakland on Saturday waiting to take the SAT that was, ultimately, canceled due to technical problems. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The test went online only this year, and there suddenly arent enough places that administer the SAT, compared with the number of students who want to take it. Although Ault and everyone else trying to take the SAT in Oakland on Saturday felt frustrated and more than a little irritated by the long and fruitless wait, he said he sees the value of reinstating the test. I dont think its a fully accurate representation of intelligence, but its an important skill, he said, Well run into things like that in the real world beyond high school like the LSAT if you want to become a lawyer. Its good prep for any field. Many universities clearly agree. While some, such as Yale, are requiring the admissions exams as soon as next year, Stanford is delaying the requirement an extra year. Students applying in 2025 for entrance in fall 2026 will be the first to have to meet the requirement. Advertisement Article continues below this ad An ex-employee has accused Amazon of breaching UK sanctions by selling facial recognition technology to Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine, The Financial Times reported. Charles Forrest alleged that he was unfairly dismissed in 2023 after accusing Amazon of wrongdoing on a number of issues between November 2022 and May 2023, according to the article. The allegations were presented to a London employment tribunal as part of a hearing this week. Forrest said that Amazon closed a deal with Russian firm VisionLabs to provide access to its Rekognition facial recognition technology. It did that "through what appears to be a shell company based in the Netherlands," according to the tribunal filings. He also accused the company of breaking its self-imposed moratorium on police use of facial recognition tech implemented after the murder of George Floyd. Amazon denied the allegations. "We believe the claims lack merit and look forward to demonstrating that through the legal process," a spokesperson told the FT. "Based on available evidence and billing records, AWS did not sell Amazon Rekognition services to VisionLabs." Forrest was let go for "gross misconduct" after refusing to work his contractual hours and failed to respond to emails or attend meetings, Amazon alleged. It denied that Forrest made the sorts of disclosures that would entitle him to whistleblower protections. Amazon has denied the contention it provided police with facial recognition technology, and added in a tribunal filing that "a self-imposed moratorium does not amount to a legal obligation." Update, June 7 2024, 11:14AM ET: An Amazon spokesperson clarified that the company is denying it provided facial recognition capabilities to police, and the last paragraph of this story has been changed to reflect that. The company remains adamant it did not sell that same software to VisionLabs but has declined to provide a statement related to whether VisionLabs obtained those capabilities through an intermediary. Tesla is selling alcohol: For $450, buyers can receive a 25.34 fluid ounce bottle of Tesla Mezcal which boasts an alcohol by volume (ABV) of 43%. Apu Gomes/Getty Images Tesla began offering a new pricey product on Thursday, and, no, it isnt a new model of electric vehicles. The electric car giant is selling alcohol, mezcal to be exact. Mezcal is a type of alcohol made from the agave plant, which is found in hot and arid regions of North and South America. For $450, buyers can receive a 25.34 fluid ounce bottle of Tesla Mezcal that boasts an alcohol by volume (ABV) of 43%. The design of the bottle resembles a thunderbolt and features Teslas bold lettering. Advertisement Article continues below this ad On its website, the company describes the mezcal as Smoky and floral with a smooth finish. Our limited-release Tesla Mezcal celebrates Oaxacas artisanal Tahona-milled mezcal with an alembic distillation process by intuitively combining the distinct flavors of native Espadin and Bicuishe agaves. The result is a mezcal that is as delicate as it is spicy, with a deep citrus and green apple nose that gives way to soft herbal notes with a delicate smokiness that lingers on the tongue. Finishes with notes of tuberose, jasmine and chamomile that soften into a balanced, velvety mouthfeel. The alcohol is produced by Mexico-based company Nosotros Tequila & Mezcal, according to Tesla officials. Customers must be 21 years old to purchase, and the product can only be shipped to 35 states, California included, and the District of Columbia due to industry regulations, according to the companys website. Interested customers can purchase the mezcal on Teslas website. The company said orders would begin shipping within the next 3-6 weeks. This isnt the first time Tesla has sold alcohol. Over the past few years, the company has sold tequila and beer. A Wisconsin dad is in the hot seat after he's caught on camera shoving the superintendent at his daughter's graduation for the standard procedure of shaking her hand during commencement. The white father was accused of racist behavior and could allegedly be heard saying, "That's my daughter," to the Baraboo School District Superintendent Rainey Briggs, who is Black. "I don't want her touching him," the father stated during the late May ceremony, per 'The New York Post.' RELATED: Hillary Clinton Blames Women For Losing The 2016 Election: 'As A Woman, I'm Supposed To Be Perfect' It remains unknown as to what exactly brought the high school father to so abruptly push Briggs, who allegedly was heard saying, "Get your hands off of me." Fellow school staff standing in close proximity appeared perplexed by his aggression, as did his own daughter. The 'Milwaukee Journal Sentinel' reported that a citation shows the father was charged with disorderly conduct. He is required to make an appearance in the Sauk County Circuit Court, scheduled in August. Per the news outlet, a judge ruled that the ill-tempered father will have no contact with Superintendent Briggs following a temporary restraining order. That hearing is scheduled for June 14. RELATED: 'Atlas' Co-Stars Jennifer Lopez And Sterling K. Brown Seemingly Clash In Awkward Interview, Fans React Dr. Briggs is an excellent superintendent who cares deeply about the well-being of all students in the Baraboo District. No one should have to endure this type of gross & racist conduct. https://t.co/y8SMRRICAw Francesca Hong (@FrancescaHongWI) June 5, 2024 State Rep. Francesca Hong spoke out about the viral footage. "Dr. Briggs is an excellent superintendent who cares deeply about the well-being of all students in the Baraboo District," she penned in a repost on Twitter, now known as X. "No one should have to endure this type of gross & racist conduct," she added. Hong explained that the incident speaks to how "prevalent and problematic" racism is in the state of Wisconsin, per the 'Milwaukee Journal.' Queen Camilla and France's first lady Brigitte Macron had an awkward faux pas at the D-Day memorial in Normandy. In a video shared on X, formerly Twitter, King Charles' wife and French President Emmanuel Macron's spouse laid wreaths at the British Normandy Memorial at Ver-sur-Mer. After placing the wreaths, Brigitte reached out to hold hands with Queen Camilla, but the latter did not reciprocate the gesture and kept her arm at her side. Brigitte briefly grasped Camilla's hand before stepping to the side and folding her arms in front. They stood silent for a moment before Camilla turned toward her companion, seemingly gesturing to her, without touching Brigitte, that it was time for them to reunite with their husbands, King Charles and President Macron, who were standing a few feet behind them. The viral video has already gained nearly 2 million views as of this writing. It also received several responses, with many finding the interaction between the two women "awkward." Many also slammed Camilla for allegedly being cold. I always understood you didn't touch Royals. They seem to be getting away from so much stiffness, but hand holding is odd. Nina (@ChrisNinaHunt) June 7, 2024 "Camilla is one cold hearted broad. Lol. Ice Queen," one wrote. "Showing a kind gesture of togetherness, how very dare she? That's the royals -- all protocol, zero humanity," a second person commented. Another added, "Protocol sometimes gets in the way of humanity." "Given the nature of the event where allies came together to show unity in the face of facism [sic], you'd have thought that Camilla could have held another human's hand," a fourth person opined. "Camilla's attitude is what's wrong with the @RoyalFamily old, archaic and out of touch. Not meeting the moment!" a fifth commenter remarked. "Awesome. France wanting to show unity and UK showing the cold shoulder. These Monarchs, honestly, they do nothing for the UK. Nothing," another user said. Meanwhile, several also rallied to support Camilla. For them, her reaction was not a big deal because they believed touching was against royal protocol, and Brigitte crossed Camilla's personal space. "You never touch the Queen," one commented. Another wrote, "Personal space. Why would she try and hold her hand to walk a few steps backward?" "I loved it! Well done by the Queen," a royal supporter added. A fourth person added, "I love Camilla." "[Why touch] people we barely know without an invitation? IDC who it is," a different user said. "I'm not a royal, but I don't want another female, who I hardly know, grabbing my hand," another person opined. Interaction with royals has been a subject of debate for years. Although there were various speculations on how to interact with them, the royal family's website, which hasn't been updated since Queen Elizabeth's death in September 2022, stated, "There are no obligatory codes of behavior when meeting The Queen or a member of the royal family, but many people wish to observe the traditional forms." "For men, this is a neck bow (from the head only) whilst women do a small curtsy. Other people prefer simply to shake hands in the usual way." Footage of Malcolm Mays went viral following an incident at the 'Power' premiere party in New York City on Thursday. He was seen being escorted out by police. A video, posted by 9MagTV, depicted what looks like Mays engaging in a minor confrontation with two Caucasian police officers, gesturing with his hands to signal his lack of aggression to bystanders. Amid the commotion, the actor can be heard saying, "I'm trying to tell you," as the officers escorted him away and secured the steel barricades behind him. A woman dressed in red is observed attempting to comfort the 34-year-old performer, seemingly urging him to rejoin the party. Mays then stepped towards the officers calling them the curse word for "female dogs" before redirecting his attention to a Black man clad in a black suit positioned behind the law enforcement personnel. On the video he's heard warning him how they "can't protect you." The actor then seems to step away momentarily from the scene, only to return to the barricade to confront authorities. He queries whether the police are aware of the identity of the Black man in the suit before questioning if they recognize him. Upon receiving a negative response from the officers, the 'Snowfall' star retorts, "And that's the problem. You just listen to whoever is talking to you, but when I talk, you don't want to listen, right?" He alluded because the other man had "a suit on," they would listen to him instead without getting his side of the story also. While the video footage does not disclose the root of the verbal exchange, Mays seemingly perceived the police's actions towards him as unjust. Meanwhile, fans eagerly anticipate the continuation of the 'Power' franchise. The fourth and final season of 'Power Book II: Ghost series' is set to premiere in two parts on June 7 and Sept. 6 on Starz. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: John Posner 443-507-8494 JPosnerBooks@gmail.com Calling Balticon 58 Attendees in Baltimore, Maryland May 20, 2024, Baltimore, MD. Bestselling sci-fi/fantasy author John Posner will be meeting fans and signing books at the 58th Balticon gathering this week. Held at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel, located at 2020 E Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD 21202 from May 24 to 27. Posner is the author of Forever is Too Long. Setting the stage for 400 years in the future ... a future where human minds can be perfectly copied to live out a forever existence in the multiverse and become Mindars in the new digital world. Fans discover what happens when Humans crossover and become digital entities. They learn what happens when social boundaries are shattered. And what happens when the Unintended Consequences of technology occur. Visitors are encouraged to immerse themselves in a discussion of what future technology could do to us. Posner asks, What would you do to save the world? What would you do if you could live forever or is forever too long? His forthcoming book, He Died Two Days Ago, will be released in June 2024. When assassins mistakenly shoot the wrong person, an alien race that secretly inhabits living beings of other planets across the universe is revealed. Unbeknownst to their hosts, the aliens feed off the emotions of the entities they reside within. Come explore Battleground Earth and alien possession. At the event, Posner will be selling and signing his current book, Forever is Too Long that was released last year and quickly earned bestseller status on Amazon. They will have the opportunity to sign up for his new book. John Posner is an IT project manager and technology writer creating Sci-Fi/Fantasy Psycho Thrillers exploring the unintended consequences that humans and technology cause. Discover his website: JohnPosnerBooks.com. Shelley Berkley, Candidate for Mayor of Las Vegas, is set to meet with the National Toxic Encephalopathy Foundation (NTEF) and other national environmental and health organizations to discuss children's health concerns. Amidst the rapid growth of Las Vegas, concerns over indoor and outdoor air quality persist, particularly given the valley's geography and ongoing construction projects. The proliferation of 5G towers further complicates these issues. Angel DeFazio, BSAT, BCNHP, President of the NTEF, was inspired to arrange the meeting after hearing Berkley discuss plans for a children's hospital during a debate. DeFazio aims to educate Berkley and her peers about the comprehensive impacts of environmental factors on health, from prenatal development to elderly populations. Berkley's history as an advocate for addressing environmental toxins bolsters her suitability for this dialogue, evidenced by her past involvement in initiatives such as signing onto a letter from The Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues to the CDC Director in 2000. Recent scientific findings challenge previous assumptions about the placenta's protective role during fetal development, revealing widespread chemical exposure among pregnant women globally. Studies have detected hundreds of chemicals in fetal cord blood, raising concerns about infants being born "pre-polluted." Reports from various organizations, including the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), underscore the urgent need for action to address this issue. Berkley's previous role as Senior Vice-President of Touro University positions her as a valuable ally in raising awareness within the medical community and the public at large. By leveraging her connections and expertise, this meeting aims to foster greater understanding and action on children's health and environmental concerns in Las Vegas and beyond. San Francisco Ballet dancers Dores Andre and Isaac Hernandez rehearse a piece for the Ballets next@90 festival at the Chris Hellman Center for Dance in San Francisco in 2022. Hernandez is not renewing his contract with the company. Salgu Wissmath/The Chronicle Isaac Hernandez, the international star dancer who rejoined San Francisco Ballet when his wife Tamara Rojo became artistic director in 2022, is leaving the company to pursue other dancing opportunities. Hernandez chose not to renew his contract, which expires on July 1, company spokesperson Kate McKinney told the Chronicle. Hernandez and Rojo both declined to comment. In recent weeks, Hernandezs Instagram account has featured photos of him in New York, and on Friday, June 7, he released a Spanish language advertisement for electronics company LG. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Born and raised in Mexico and trained by his dancer father, Hernandez, 34, first joined the San Francisco Ballet as a corps member in 2008, earning a promotion to soloist in 2010. He left for the Dutch National Ballet in 2012 and in 2015 joined the English National Ballet, which was then under the direction of Rojo. Hernandez and Rojo announced their engagement in 2018. The couple have a son, born in 2021. Isaac Hernandez and his wife, Tamara Rojo, attend the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards at the Old Vic Theatre in London in 2015. David M. Benett/Getty Images Rojo, 50, will continue her role with the ballet, McKinney confirmed. Hernandez danced most major roles at San Francisco Ballet during the past two seasons, including originating the role of Prometheus in the companys AI-themed hit world premiere, Mere Mortals. A gold medalist at the U.S.A. International Ballet Competition who has appeared as a guest artist with the Paris Opera Ballet, among other companies, Hernandez is known for a confident stage presence and bravura technique. He forayed into acting in 2020 with a role in a Netflix series titled Someone Has to Die. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Hernandezs younger brother Esteban, 29, joined the San Francisco Ballet in 2013 and will remain a principal dancer at the company. San Francisco Ballet principal dancer Esteban Hernandez rehearses in 2020. His brother, principal dancer Isaac Hernandez, is not renewing his contract with the company. Jessica Christian/The Chronicle Hernandez is the latest principal dancer to leave the Ballet since Rojo took the helm, joining Yuan Yuan Tan, who retired in February after 29 years with the company, and Angelo Greco, who left in May to join Houston Ballet. Principals Dores Andre and Max Cauthorn left after the 2023 season but are returning this summer. In my first two columns, I introduced myself and then introduced Coolspring Power Museum. I now wish to do a little sketch on my hometown of Coolspring, Pennsylvania. Living in the same home for 80 years has given me a good feeling of the village. So lets take a little jaunt around town and time travel back a bit to see the beginnings. It will be a pleasant trip so keep reading. Today, Coolspring is a quiet little village located just off State Route 36, about halfway between Brookville and Punxsutawney, in rural Oliver Township. Nestled among hills on all sides, the village is in a wide, fertile valley of Little Sandy Creek with the smaller Lick Run converging from the north. Becoming a town Kate Scott, in her History of Jefferson County, published in 1888, tells us that Oliver Township was created from Perry Township and organized in 1851. Both were named from the great naval hero of the Battle of Lake Erie, Oliver Hazard Perry. The nearby village of Oliveburg also acquired its name this way. The first settler to the area was Reuben Hickok, who arrived in 1822. By 1833, Alexander McKinstry moved to Cool Spring. He bought a very large tract of land from the Holland Land Company, and sold farms to later arrivals. Indeed, my home was built by the McKinstrys. Alexander built his large home at the southern end of town, and it is still in the family. In about 1868, Thompson A. McKinstry, Alexanders son, built a modern steam and or water-powered mill on Little Sandy Creek, just east of the present bridge. It was both a saw mill and a grist mill, and was extremely profitable with the new landowners clearing the timber on their land, and growing crops. Sadly, this mill burned in 1913 and my mother, as a child of 8 years, recalled the fear of flaming shingles, driven by strong winds, being blown across the entire village. The mill was lost, but the fire did not spread. Some of the huge foundation stones of the mill are still evident in the area near the creek. The first store in Cool Spring was opened by James Gray in 1836, and it had the first post office in Oliver Township. Gray also opened a sawmill on Kellars Run, about 2 miles distant. There, he found an exceptionally cool spring and used that name for his post office. Sadly, modern construction has destroyed the spring. Naming Coolspring The two-word name, Cool Spring continued until 1896 when the village legally changed it to the present, Coolspring. However, the Caldwell Atlas of 1878 refers to the town as McKinstryville. As a young child, I recall older residents using that name. The first school was built in 1836, followed by another in 1888. No longer a school, the latter has been remodeled to serve as our Community Center. I can just barely recall when the village had four active stores. Travel was not as fast as it is today, and a trip to either Punxsutawney to the south or Brookville to the north was a big venture. One could buy gasoline from each store, and it included Araco, Sterling, Atlantic and Gulf. The face of the village continued changing over the ensuing years with some structures disappearing and new ones replacing them. The vibrant town of a century ago has survived with its own unique personality to become the quiet village it is today. A new Farm Business Tenancy (FBT) opportunity has arisen on a 550-acre Lincolnshire farm, for 15 years. The Crown Estate is searching for a tenant to take on College Farm, which comprises of first-class silt soils. The farm is ring-fenced and situated immediately inland from the New Sea Bank on re-claimed Grade 1 soil at Frampton near Boston. A 15-year FBT is on offer for the successful applicant who must submit an informal tender to property consultancy Carter Jonas, by noon on 12 July. Carter Jonas says the scale and quality of the farm is likely to attract high levels of interest from a number of farming businesses operating in the area, with the tenancy duration offering significant long-term stability. Malcolm Burns, head of rural for the Crown Estate, said: College Farm is in excellent condition, and maintaining and enhancing soil health is of particular importance to us. "We expect the successful candidate to adopt a fully integrated approach to soil management, and to fully embrace best in class environmental land management practices for the duration of the tenancy. The arable holding is available with a comprehensive range of farm buildings including more than 3,000 tonnes of grain storage, two 500-tonne cold stores and drying facilities. There are general purpose workshops, traditional buildings and a farm office, but no farmhouse is included - only three cottages may be available by separate negotiation following refurbishment this summer. Alex Morter, associate partner at Carter Jonas, said it was an 'incredibly rare opportunity' to take on quality rented land at such a significant scale. He added: The length of tenancy will also be attractive, allowing the new tenant to plan for the longer term. We would expect to see keen interest in College Farm from a range of business, given the versatility of the land and how infrequently tenancies of this nature become available. The Defra Secretary and Labour's counterpart have vowed to tackle rural crime, boost food production and protect the environment as part of a pitch to rural voters. The leading political figures from both Labour and the Conservatives made their speeches to farmers, landowners and rural workers at the Future Countryside conference, in London. The current Defra Secretary, Stephen Barclay, told delegates at the Countryside Alliance Foundation event that the election was a choice between "those who care for the countryside and those not in tune with rural areas". Mr Barclay said where Labour was in office such as in Wales they were "not in tune with rural communities". He also criticised Labour-run councils, including Oxford City and Enfield, which had voted to ban meat and dairy. He said his focus was on food production. For me, the priority for the countryside is to ensure that food production is uppermost, as the golden thread through all our policy. Without that we dont have food security, without that we dont have profitable businesses to which the next generation are attracted within the sector. Mr Barclay pointed to the new Sustainable Farming Initiative (SFI) which will pay for nature-friendly farming, such as clean water, habitats and healthy soils, as well as equipment grants to boost productivity. Other Tory policies, such as labelling to better highlight British produce and extending the badger cull, were also mentioned. He said: We are committed to nature, we are committed to the environment, but we are doing so in a way that works with our farming and our food production. Labour's Shadow Defra Secretary Steve Reed said his party would devolve power to rural communities and had a plan to give them their future back. Shadow Defra Secretary ,Steve Reed said his party would devolve power to rural communities He reiterated Labours pledge to treat rural communities with respect and tackle issues including housing and rural crime. He also reiterated that Labour would not bring in Scottish-style right to roam rules but said access to the countryside could be increased, for example by opening up closed footpaths. Mr Reed accused the government of failing to improve rural economies, tackle countryside crime and reverse declines in nature. He said Labour will treat the countryside with respect, outlining the partys policies, from its plan for a state-owned clean energy company to greater mental health support, more teachers in schools and a focus on skills, that he said would benefit people in the countryside. Acknowledging he is not from a countryside background, Mr Reed said: People from urban areas like me will not tell people who live and work in the countryside how they should live their lives. He pledged Labour would increase police patrols in towns and villages, adding: We wont accept the levels of GPS farm equipment theft and livestock worrying. Well force offenders who dump rubbish, fly-tip or vandalise our fields to join clean-up squads. And he told delegates: We need more homes but they will not be built at the expense of the environment. He said he wanted to see biodiversity net gain the requirement that developers have to boost nature by 10% linked to development work, adding: New homes will be built with tree-lined streets and access to green spaces and nature on their doorsteps. Mr Reed also pledged to make effective the environmental land management scheme of payments for farmers, which includes SFI. With the countrysides vote up for grabs in the general election, a new poll has revealed that planning reform would influence how farmers and rural firms vote. The planning system is squandering thousands of pounds for rural businesses and will sway how the countryside votes, according to a new survey. The poll of 350 rural business owners reveals that 70% agree that each partys policy on planning reform will influence the way they vote, with only 8% disagreeing. In the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) poll, nearly three quarters (73%) say they had been forced to abandon plans to invest because of planning problems. Of those, nearly half had wasted at least 10,000 on projects before giving up, with many (19%) reporting losses of more than 50,000. Most (85%) of respondents agreed that the system has hampered the growth of their own business, with just 4% saying the opposite. Nearly all (94%) say there was a lack of knowledge on rural issues and agricultural matters within the system, and 92% feel improved knowledge would be beneficial to projects. And two thirds of those who took part in the survey also believe the Green Belt restricts farm diversification projects, with 13% saying it did not. The results follow CLA polling earlier this year revealing Labour will beat the Conservatives in the 100 most rural constituencies in England, with the Tories at risk of losing more than half their seats amidst a -25% collapse in support. CLA president Victoria Vyvyan said that with the countrysides vote on a knife edge, planning reform was key to winning rural seats. "So many enterprises in rural areas could grow, create jobs, help provide housing, but are being stifled by an archaic planning regime that seems almost designed to restrict our ambition," she said. Farmers and landowners are dynamic and innovative and want to help grow the rural economy, but time and again their efforts have been hampered and frustrated. Nobody wants to concrete over the countryside, least of all us, but instead of treating rural communities as museums, political parties need to support small-scale developments." Peter Hogg, a farmer and a rural business owner in Morpeth, who took part in the survey, said the planning system was 'crippling' his business. He had a farmhouse he wanted to convert into a B&B to help diversify the farm's income, but the application took over a year due to a dispute over adding a small sunroom. The delay meant we lost a full season and over 30,000 in revenue," Mr Hogg explained, "When permission was finally granted, it took just two weeks and 800 to build the sunroom four times less than what we paid in planning costs. If businesses like mine are to succeed, government must cut the red tape thats stunting our growth and livelihoods. "Beyond the financial impact, the mental toll is profound. Many perceived problems could be sorted in 20 minutes over a cup of tea. Soup dumplings, center, and other dishes from Dumpling Hours, which has a new location in Palo Alto. Courtesy Dumpling Hours Summer openings are in full swing on the Peninsula and in the South Bay, with new restaurants specializing in dumplings, wood-fired pizza and Cajun-style seafood. Two popular San Francisco pizzerias expanded to the region, while a luxurious rooftop restaurant is drawing attention at a Peninsula mall. There are also new places to taste locally made wine and try hard-to-find Chinese desserts. Read on for 10 notable Peninsula and South Bay restaurant openings. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Hit dumpling shop touches down Dumpling Hours is on a mission to spread its top-notch soup dumplings throughout the Bay Area. A new downtown Palo Alto location joins ones in Walnut Creek, Brentwood and Oakland. (While its menu looks almost identical to San Franciscos popular Dumpling Home, staff insist the businesses are not related.) Expect multiple flavors of xiao long bao as well as crisp, golden-bottomed pork buns exploding with broth, ginger-scallion noodles and other fare. 530 Bryant St., Palo Alto. instagram.com/dumpling_hours Restoration Hardware's opulent new rooftop restaurant at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto. Courtesy RH Mall gets opulent rooftop restaurant An over-the-top restaurant perched atop the third floor of the home design store RH is now open at Palo Altos Stanford Shopping Center. There, diners ascend a double floating staircase to the splashy, glass-encased restaurant, set beneath an atrium and overlooking a rooftop park. In the center of the dining room are 100-year-old heritage olive trees and a limestone fountain. RH Palo Alto is the latest restaurant expansion of of the company formerly known as Restoration Hardware. It serves new dishes including what the company said in a press release might be the best fried chicken sandwich in America alongside items like caviar-topped avocado and whole grilled branzino. The 60,000-square-foot store also has its own wine bar, focused on Champagne and Napa Valley wines. Advertisement Article continues below this ad 180 El Camino Real, Building B, Palo Alto. rh.com/us/en/paloalto/restaurant More egg-centric Indian fare Egg-focused Indian restaurants, already popular in other parts of the country, may finally be catching on in the Bay Area. A new food truck from New Jersey-based chain Eggmania has arrived in Sunnyvale. The truck incorporates different egg cooking techniques shredded, hard-boiled, sunny side up into Indian dishes like curries, pulao (spiced basmati rice) and more. Eggmanias opening follows the success of Egglicious India, which opened in San Jose last year. 1035 W. El Camino Real, Sunnyvale. eggmania.com A Korean newcomer for the South Bay The Bay Areas Korean food hub, Santa Clara, has a sleek newcomer. Damso opened in May with Korean classics like yukhoe (beef tartare), crispy seafood pancake and grilled bulgogi. The restaurant also serves a special barley rice set menu ($38 per person): the diners choice of barley and quinoa or white rice comes with a parade of side dishes, from pumpkin porridge and japchae to radish kimchi. The modern dining room is decorated with enormous, shiny black onggi, vessels for making kimchi and other fermented foods. Advertisement Article continues below this ad 2910 El Camino Real, Santa Clara. instagram.com/damso_santaclara Wood-fired Neapolitan pizza from Doppio Zero, newly open in Campbell. Courtesy Doppio Zero Neapolitan pizza specialist expands Doppio Zero, a popular Neapolitan pizzeria with numerous Bay Area locations, has expanded to the South Bay. The new downtown Campbell location serves the same wood-fired pizza, with toppings like smoked mozzarella, mortadella and caramelized figs, plus fresh pasta and Southern Italian fare in a large, airy dining room. This is Doppio Zeros fifth restaurant, joining others in San Francisco, Mountain View, San Carlos and Concord. 220 E. Campbell Ave., Campbell. dzpizzeria.com Advertisement Article continues below this ad A buzzy new coffee shop A hip new cafe quietly opened in Palo Altos sleepy Midtown neighborhood last month. In addition to espresso, Covour Coffee serves specialty drinks like a pandan latte and matcha einspanner topped with whipped cream. For food, pastries like an everything croissant and ube bun come courtesy of Filipino bakery pop-up La Kalidad. 2706 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. instagram.com/covourcoffee Black sesame coconut pudding from Tong Sui in Palo Alto. Elena Kadvany. Popular Chinese dessert shop grows Tong Sui, known for its silky coconut puddings, just unveiled a large new outpost at Westfield Valley Fair Shopping Center in Santa Clara. Expect the same puddings in flavors like black sesame, strawberry and mango sticky rice, plus coconut-based drinks. Tong Sui has grown rapidly from its birth in the tiny kitchen of a San Jose boba shop in early 2020 to six Bay Area locations. Advertisement Article continues below this ad 2855 Stevens Creek Blvd., Floor 2, Suite 2337, Santa Clara. itongsui.square.site A new home for Cajun-style seafood The Dive Oyster Bar, newly opened in San Jose, specializes in Cajun and Creole-style seafood. It offers something hard to find in the Bay Area: pan roast, or seafood like a whole lobster and blue crab in a creamy tomato sauce, cooked in a steam kettle thats kept at a precise 250 degrees. The restaurant, decorated with a giant mural of an octopus and other nautical imagery, also serves dishes like Cajun-spiced soft shell crab, po boy sandwiches and jambalaya. This is the Dives first Northern California location, following two in Southern California. 5297 Prospect Road, Suite 40, San Jose. diveoysterbar.com Famed S.F. pizzeria arrives Slice House by Tony Gemignani, an offshoot of the San Francisco chefs famed Tonys Pizza Napoletana, is now open in Mountain View. The restaurant serves several kinds of pizza by the slice, from New York-style to thick Detroit. 2565 California St., #501, Mountain View. slicehouse.com A selection of Mount Eden Vineyards and Domaine Eden wine bottles photographed during wine tasting at Mount Eden Vineyards in Saratoga. The winery has a new, more casual tasting room. Josie Lepe/Special to the Chronicle A new winery tasting room Popular Santa Cruz Mountain winery Domaine Eden has a new tasting room in Saratoga. Its more casual than the winerys sister tasting room, Mount Eden Vineyards: Customers have the option of flights, wines by the glass and bottles plus picnicking. The picturesque property is about a mile south of Mount Eden. Darren Criss has become a father for the second time. Darren Criss' baby son (c) Instagram The former 'Glee' actor and his wife Mia Swier welcomed son Brother Laszlo into the world on Monday (03.06.24), a sibling for their two-year-old daughter Bluesy Belle. Darren shared a photo of the little boy wearing huge sunglasses, which were seemingly held over his face by Bluesy, and swaddled in an R2-D2 print blanket on Instagram. He captioned the post: "M + D just delivered their follow-up single. "[star emoji] Brother Laszlo Criss [star emoji] 6/3/24 [music notes emoji] Out now. [music notes emoji] (sic)" The caption appeared to reference the announcement the 'American Crime Story' star made when Bluesy was born. Releasing a family photo, he wrote: " M+ D made some sweet music. Bluesy Belle Crisss , 4/11/22 Out now." He emblazoned the post with heart and music emojis. Darren revealed in December that he and Mia had a new baby "coming soon". At the time, the actor shared an edited version of the 'Mama Mia: Here We Go Again' promotional poster, which featured him sticking his tongue out over Meryl Streep's face, smiling Mia's head on Amanda Seyfried's body, and Bluesy's face on Lily James' head. His Instagram post also included a photo of two positive pregnancy tests and he captioned it: And COMING SOONlets hope the sequel is better than the photoshop. (sic)" The 37-year-old star - who married Mia in 2019 - previously admitted his life was "chaos" as he sought to juggle parenting his young daughter with starring in 'American Buffalo' on Broadway and other work commitments. He told People magazine at the time: "It's a blessing to get all these things happening kind of all at once - personal, home stuff happening among the same fun, prosperity and excitement that is existing in my professional life - there's something that's very invigorating about that. So I'm rockin' and rollin'. "Chaos begets chaos,. And I, for better or worse, tend to thrive on a bit of chaos." Darren previously shared news of Bluesy's birth on Instagram. Emma Roberts has been granted a restraining order against a man who allegedly broke into her home. Emma Roberts has been granted a restraining order against a man who allegedly broke into her home The 33-year-old actress - who has three-year-old son Garrett Hedlund with her former partner Garrett Hedlund - has been given a permanent restraining order against a 32-year-old man named Melvin Jeffery Conley, according to documents obtained by TMZ. The documents also state that Emma's son is getting protection under the order after she claimed that the alleged intruder mentioned the little one by his name and she was therefore left "concerned about his intentions". The 'Wild Child' star first filed the complaint in early May, after alleging that the man in question had sought out both her landline and mobile phone number. According to the outlet, Emma claimed that she had a missed call from a number she did not recognise and had assumed it was a family member trying to reach her. But when she returned the call, she claimed that an unknown voice answered and addressed her by her first name. The caller claimed that she had given him permission to enter her property and stay there, something which she has denied ever doing. The 'American Horror Story' actress also claimed that she had received a "strange" text message from Conley and that she is "living in fear that he is going to try and come back to her home". As per the documents, the former Nickelodeon star now has protection from Conley for a period of five years and the terms of the order have barred him from coming within 100 yards of her and her son, as well as their home, her work and his school at any point during that time. Barbara Nguyen expresses support for recalling Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price in October at a petition signature drive in Oakland. Benjamin Fanjoy/Special to the Chronicle 2023 Regarding Pamela Price cuts plea deals in brutal kidnap, murder of man found gagged, strangled (Bay Area, SFChronicle.com, June 3): Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price has further solidified the effort to recall her by accepting plea deals in a vicious murder case. Three men were charged with robbing a man and terrorizing him for hours by driving around the East Bay before strangling him to death with a dog leash and dumping his body on the side of the road. All three were arrested after exemplary police work and charged with murder. But, alas, they hadnt yet met Price, who gave them the best Christmas presents of their whole lives: a plea deal. One was lowered to second-degree murder, and the two murder charges were dropped altogether. Advertisement Article continues below this ad This is exactly why the citizens started the recall of Price. Ignoring punishment, for the most heinous crimes, sends the wrong message to the community. How do you think the family members of the victim feel? Jim Gray, Rodeo Keep Prop 22 Regarding How Californias Prop 22 affects far more workers than Uber and Lyft drivers (Open Forum, SFChronicle.com, May 30): Ive been an app-based driver in California for more than seven years, and I can tell you the authors of this Open Forum get a lot of things wrong. Advertisement Article continues below this ad For starters, I make well over the states minimum wage, with benefits and the option to work with a schedule that suits my needs. I am thankful for the flexibility that Proposition 22 has afforded me. The authors refer to this as a saga, but the only group rolling out the dramatics are the special interests that have tirelessly tried to overturn the will of voters at the expense of app-based drivers. I was proud to urge voters to say Yes to Prop 22, and Im still proud to be advocating for the law. As a voter, I dont want my rights taken away, and as an app-based driver, I dont want my flexible schedule taken away. I hope the California Supreme Court does the right thing by upholding Prop 22. David Lewis, San Francisco Advertisement Article continues below this ad Defender of environment When I first moved to San Francisco in the early 1990s, like many who adopted this area, I liked entertaining out-of-town visitors. City highlights were exciting, but I also was sure to show people the Marin Headlands, Muir Woods and Bolinas Lagoon, among other places, in the North Bay. The problem was, that if someone asked me who saved all this beautiful coastline, I had no idea. Later I realized the best answer to that is Dr. L. Martin Griffin, who passed away last month just short of his 104th birthday. When I met Marty, he was already in his 90s. Even until near the end, he would call and make suggestions for research and advocacy, as we worked together with many others to get real restoration in Point Reyes National Seashore. Marty taught me that it was far better to get on with the next worthy pursuit than to waste time talking about whatever it is you think you may have already accomplished. Advertisement Article continues below this ad He will be missed and celebrated. Ken Bouley, Mill Valley Art can help downtown Regarding S.F.s iconic Powell Street is lined with empty storefronts. Can it be saved? (June 4): Creative window displays are easy, low-to-no-cost sidewalk activators for empty storefronts. Walls and window glass serve as canvases for art, graphics and murals. For a big impact, entire blocks can be turned over to artists, advertisers and businesses designed with cohesive themes and colors for a sensory feast. LED lights and recorded music can boost nighttime security. Advertisement Article continues below this ad These mini-stage sets could tell a story and create Instagrammable moments that would pump foot traffic to nearby cafes, cultural venues, hotels, restaurants and stores. Howard Wong, San Francisco Keep the music going 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 Regarding Fred Again.. and Skrillexs rave in front of S.F. City Hall ends mid-song as the duo hit curfew (San Francisco, SFChronicle.com, June 2): The thump of concerts is music to my ears! Whether during the day or night, they bring people happily together. It is a great thing for San Francisco. Johnny Wactor died of a gunshot wound to the chest. US soap opera star Johnny Wactor was shot and killed last month The actor - who played Brando Corbin on the ABC soap opera 'General Hospital' from 2020 to 2022 - was fatally shot last month aged 37 during a "robbery gone wrong" after he confronted three men apparently tampering with his vehicle and now TMZ has revealed that his death has been ruled as a homicide. In documents obtained by the outlet, it was noted that "no other significant factors" contributed to his death, and the death certificate revealed that his remains were cremated and transferred to his mother Scarlett in South Carolina. After his death, Jonny's family revealed he saved his co-worker's life when he was shot and killed, in a description that matches that of an incident shared by the Los Angeles Police Department. His brother Grant told the MailOnline: "Were Southern, born and raised, and we would never let a female walk to their car by herself. Were Southern, born and raised, and we would never let a female walk to their car by herself. "He came across them and he thought his truck was being towed. So he said something to the guys, like, 'Hey, are you towing?'. Once he turned around, he saw what was happening and he put his coworker behind him. That's when they shot him." Scarlett initially explained to TMZ that Johnny was with a colleague when they saw three men "messing with Johnny's car" and that the suspects "allegedly tried to steal a catalytic converter". She noted that Johnny "did not try to stop" the alleged suspects in their actions, and that even though paramedics rushed to the scene shortly after the shooting, he was pronounced dead in hospital. Despite a flourishing European e-commerce market, British brands and retailers have seen sales to the European Union (EU) drop by 5.9 billion (~$7.54 billion) since Brexit, according to Tradebyte research conducted in partnership with Retail Economics. Though online retail is projected to add 323 billion (~$413 billion) of annual sales to EU economies, additional trade frictions due to Brexit-linked complications are curtailing this international sales opportunity for UK-based brands and retailers. Despite a flourishing European e-commerce market, British brands and retailers have seen sales to the EU drop by $7.54 billion since Brexit. The UK non-food export environment, particularly in the clothing-footwear sector, has faced significant challenges after Brexit, with exports in this category falling from $9.46 billion in 2019 to $3.45 billion in 2023. Headquartered in Ansbach, Germany, Tradebyte helps brands and retailers connect seamlessly. London-based Retail Economics is an independent economics research consultancy. Their research drew upon official UK trade statistics compiled in the first quarter (Q1) this year. The value of non-food retail exports has fallen by almost 18 per cent since 2019. The UK non-food export environment, particularly in the clothing and footwear sector, has faced significant challenges after Brexit, with exports in this category falling from 7.4 billion (~$9.46 billion) in 2019 to just 2.7 billion (~$3.45 billion) in 2023. So for brands and retailers lacking the necessary expertise, resources or financial capacity to navigate the complexities of the new regulatory landscape, this has put substantial pressure, UK media outlets reported citing the research document. Challenges for them include escalated logistics costs, the complications of registering an EU entity for trading and increased delays in an already fiercely competitive market characterised by tight profit margins and the need for rapid response to the latest trends. Before Brexit, apparel was a top three exporter for non-food retail, but now it is not so. Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS) Cambodias foreign trade rose significantly in the first five months this year, growing by 12 per cent year on year (YoY), according to commerce ministry data. The countrys total trade volume reached over $21.6 billion, up from $19.2 billion during the same period last year. It exported goods worth $10.18 billion during the perioda YoY increase of 10.8 per cent, while it imported goods worth $11.4 billiona 13.6-per cent YoY increase, said a report document by the ministry. Cambodia's foreign trade rose significantly in the first five months in 2024, growing by 12 per cent YoY, official data showed. Its total trade volume reached over $21.6 billion, up from $19.2 billion during the same period last year. Its trade with the member countries of the RCEP bloc rose to $14.17 billion during the periodup by 14.2 per cent YoY. China, Vietnam and the United States were Cambodias biggest partners during the period, with a trade value of $5.99 billion, $3.55 billion and $3.52 billion respectively. The United States was the biggest market for Cambodias exports with a value of $3.42 billion during the period33.68 per cent of the countrys total exports. Vietnam ranked second with imports from Cambodia reaching $1.88 billion. The countrys trade with the member countries of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) rose to $14.17 billion during the periodup by 14.2 per cent YoY. Such trade accounted for 65.6 per cent of its total trade volume during the period. It exported products worth $3.97 billion to RCEP countries during the periodup by 12.4 per cent YoY, and imported goods worth $10.2 billion from such countriesup by 14.9 per cent YoY, domestic media outlets reported citing the ministry document. China, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and Singapore are Cambodias top five trading partners under the RCEP. Cambodias free trade agreement with China and South Korea and the RCEP have contributed to the rise in trade, the ministry noted. Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS) Imran Khan recently opened up about his personal life talking about his relationship status with Lekha Washington. The actor reveals that the two will be moving in together after staying alone for 5 years. The actor revealed, We are in the process of moving into the new apartment together. Covid is when we started seeing each other. Opening up about how the two of them decided to move in together, Imran said, She brought it up! Ill be real with you, man. So, I was like, Why not? Its been long enough. Imran shared that he had only three plates in his house as he was living alone, however now the two are buying more crockery. Imran and Lekha made their relationship official as they appeared together at Aamir Khans daughter Ira Khans wedding reception. Critic's rating 3.5 /5 It's been nearly three decades since Will Smith and Martin Lawrence first joined forces as Miami detectives in their 1995 action film Bad Boys. While they continue their partnership in the fourth instalment, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, time has undeniably caught up with them. In this new chapter, Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) find themselves going through a midlife crisis of sorts. The reality of ageing and the dangerous nature of their careers prompt them to reflect on the life they've led so far. Their resolve is further tested when their late captain, played by Joe Pantoliano, is posthumously implicated in a massive corruption scandal. Determined to clear his name and protect their own reputations, Lowrey and Burnett must go on the run, navigating a web of deceit and danger. As they confront old enemies and forge new alliances, the duo is driven not only by justice but also by the desire to preserve the honour of their fallen leader and their long-standing partnership. If it's been some time since you last watched Bad Boys II, it's worth revisiting to recall Reggie, as he plays a significant role in Bad Boys: Ride or Die. Portrayed by Dennis McDonald, Reggie had a brief yet unforgettable appearance in the second film as the nervous young man taking Marcus' daughter, Megan (Bianca Bethune), out on a date. In the current film, Reggie, who has married Megan, is seen as a marine who has just returned from action overseas. And the way he meticulously kills 15 goons during a house invasion forms one of the best action scenes from the film. Likewise, in part three, Bad Boys For Life, we were introduced to Mike's long-lost son, Armando (Jacob Scipio). Mike had fallen in love with Isabel Aretas (Kate del Castillo), the wife of a cartel kingpin, while he was undercover. In the last film, after almost taking him out, Armando took a bullet for his father and now is in prison. He too plays a prominent role in the film. His prison fight sequence is brutal and edgy and he finishes one of the emotional arcs of the film in the climax by saving the police chief's granddaughter. Directors Adil and Bilall have set up their film like a Marvel movie. Martin Lawrence, much like The Black Panther, has an out of the body experience which makes him think he's invincible. That leads to him taking unnecessary risks. Meanwhile, Will Smith is shown to have panic attacks, and starts questioning himself like a woke superhero. Nevertheless, they escape only with minor scratches, despite throwing themselves in the jaws of danger like every ten minutes. What works for the film is the chemistry between the two leads. It's the bromance between Smith and Lawrence which pulls you in. Their constant banter, full of witty one-liners, keeps you smiling throughout. The CGI is top notch and so is the action choreography. Will the Bad Boys ever ride again? Maybe, maybe not. It feels like the end of the road for then and a possible beginning for Reggie and Armando to take over the vehicle TRAILER : Bad Boys: Ride Or Die William Lake, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 6, 2024) - The owner of a privately owned lodge that is surrounded by declared aboriginal titled lands in central BC is issuing a warning to property owners on Haida Gwaii, following BC's recent agreement with the Haida Nation to acknowledge aboriginal title there. "Let there be no mistake - you cannot trust government to protect your interests in the so called two-year 'transition period'," said Karen McLean, owner of Ts'yl-os Lodge. "We were given similar assurances nearly 10 years ago - and to this day all we see is confusion, timidness and secrecy on the part of the BC government." Ts'yl-os Lodge is a strong supporter of Indigenous rights and supports the aspirations of the Haida people. Ms. McLean herself intervened in support of the Tsilhqot'in Nation in its historic aboriginal title case, where the Supreme Court of Canada declared aboriginal title to exist for the first time in Canadian history. "While I have strongly supported aboriginal title, I feel I have been completely abandoned by a provincial government that does not know what to do once it's established," said McLean. "And I don't know why property owners on Haida Gwaii should believe it will be any different for them." In the Tsilhqot'in decision, private lands were excluded from the aboriginal title area. But the use and value of private lands is heavily affected by how the surrounding lands are managed - especially through Land Act tenures. "Maintaining fee simple 'ownership' is not very comforting if the land is in a sea of governmental uncertainty," said McLean. Ts'yl-os Lodge strongly encourages other private property owners affected by aboriginal title to speak up and advance a vision of reconciliation that leaves no one behind. "It is essential all British Columbians understand how ill-equipped the government is to manage the situation once aboriginal title is established," said McLean. "Everyone - even those in the cities - should be worried because Premier David Eby has called the Haida agreement a "template" for other parts of BC." In 2023 McLean and Ts'yl-os Lodge initiated a legal claim against the province alleging, among other things, that the "Province misstated the protections that would be put in place to protect the plaintiffs' legal interests and operations" after the Tsilhqot'in aboriginal title declaration. That case is working its way through the court system. Ms. McLean has also today written local governments on Haida Gwaii, offering to attend open council meetings to publicly discuss her experiences with government's handling of these issues. A copy of that letter is attached. Contact: Karen McLean karen@tsylos.com June 6, 2024 North Coast Regional District 14 - 342 3rd Avenue West, Prince Rupert, BC V8J 1L5 Daajing Giids (Queen Charlotte) 903 A Oceanview Drive, Daajing Giids, BC V0T 1S0 Town of Masset 1686 Main Street, Masset, BC V0T 1M0 Town of Port Clements PO Box 198, 36 Cedar Avenue West, Port Clements, Haida Gwaii, BC V0T 1R0 Attention: Mayors and Councillors Dear Sirs and Mesdames, I am writing you regarding the recent agreement between the province and the Haida Nation Council to acknowledge Aboriginal title across the entirely of Haida Gwaii. We are private property owners and lodge operators in an area of the province that was declared subject to Tsilhqot'in aboriginal title in 2014 (though private lands were excluded) in the historic case of Tsilhqot'in Nation v. British Columbia. Due to this, we have significant experience with the processes used and challenges faced as the provincial government attempts to manage the transition from vast areas of Crown land to Aboriginal title land. Unfortunately, in our case the experience has been extremely challenging (even though we maintain "ownership" of our fee simple property). In fact, it has forced us to file litigation against the province, which is ongoing. We have followed with interest the public debate regarding the Haida agreement, and in particular assurances given by the BC government to engage third parties and integrate their interests into the two year "transition" process. Unfortunately, we feel compelled to share with you that, in our experience, such assurances provide extremely little comfort. So much so, that we believe it would be very helpful for your councils and citizens to understand more about what is actually happening in the only such "transition" happening to date in BC. In our case it has been going on for 10 years - not two - and there is still no clarity or certainty in sight. In offering these comments, I wish to emphasize that we have been strong supporters of Indigenous rights and fully support the aspirations of the Haida Nation. Indeed, I intervened in support of the Tsilhqot'in Nation in its historic aboriginal title case, where the Supreme Court of Canada declared aboriginal title to exist for the first time in Canadian history. But we believe true reconciliation cannot occur if fee simple owners and businesses are abandoned by their own government once aboriginal title is established. Given all this, I am writing to offer to meet with your councils, in public sessions, to discuss our experiences and to answer to the best of my ability any questions you or private property owners and businesses on Haida Gwaii may have. Please let me know if you have any interest in doing so. If that is the case, I will be happy to work with you to set up a time to attend such a meeting (likely virtually). Yours truly Per: Karen Mclean Tsylos Lodge and Karen McLean To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/212028 SOURCE: Tsylos Park Lodge & Adventures Ltd. Former San Pablo Mayor Rich Kinney, dressed as Uncle Sam, leads a group singing God Bless America during a rally in support of former President Donald Trump before a campaign fundraiser in San Francisco. Stephen Lam/The Chronicle Cynthia Frybarger of San Jose holds a sign protesting former President Donald Trump as his supporters rally along Marina Green before a campaign fundraiser in Pacific Heights. Stephen Lam/The Chronicle San Francisco, of all places, was a split screen of supporters for Donald Trump on Thursday. It was hard to tell which side of the screen was more mind-blowing to see in a region whose residents contributed $116 million to Joe Bidens campaign four years ago. But its easy to predict which supporters will be with him forever. Its the ones who didnt have to pay. Advertisement Article continues below this ad They were at Marina Green on Thursday, where in the shadow of the fog-shrouded Golden Gate Bridge, a couple hundred horn-honking, red-cap-wearing acolytes marinated in misinformation lined Marina Boulevard for 3 hours of lively homage to their leader. With some circling the area in pickups blasting God Bless America, the largely blue-collar crowd will ride with Trump until the end. And then some. A supporter of former President Donald Trump blows a shofar during a rally along Marina Green ahead of a campaign fundraiser. Stephen Lam/The Chronicle The other side of the screen played out a little over a mile up the hill in a Pacific Heights mansion owned by venture capitalist David Sacks. Entering the gated perimeter near Divisadero and Lyon streets in black sport utility vehicles were Trumps potential new friends. The largely techy crowd paid $50,000 to $500,000 to be in Trumps presence, even if some may find his views on immigration, electric vehicles and LGBTQ rights repulsive. And even if he showed up hours later than expected after a late departure from a rally earlier in the day in Phoenix. Aside from the potential to leave town with $12 million, according to one top GOP official, its easy to dismiss Trumps San Francisco drive-by as the ultimate troll of the city that has nurtured his top antagonists (Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom) and that hosts high-dollar Democratic fundraisers like theyre backyard barbecues. But for a rare time in Trumps life, Thursday wasnt about him. Its about his new rich tech friends. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The question to be answered: Could they ever be as loyal to him as the folks on Marina Green? Mary Pelican of Fremont cheers at Divisadero Street and Pacific Avenue before former President Donald Trump attends a fundraiser in San Franciscos Pacific Heights neighborhood. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle I hope you take some pride in this, San Francisco Republican Party Chair John Dennis told the Marina Green rally. Between the rally and the fundraiser, you have no idea how much you are freaking out the Democrat Party that there is this kind of support in San Francisco, he said, using the incorrect name of the Democratic Party that many Republicans invoke. Dennis didnt attend the high-dollar fundraiser and declined to comment on why. Neither did Jason Clark, the Bay Area regional vice chair for the California Republican Party, who was in Washington. Neither did Jessica Millan Patterson, the state party chair, who cited a scheduling conflict for missing all of Trumps events in the state. They were hard-pressed to name a Republican leader who they knew was attending the Sacks soiree other than Harmeet Dhillon, the San Francisco attorney and Republican National Committee committeewoman who has defended him in court over the years. Advertisement Article continues below this ad At the fundraiser were cryptocurrency execs Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the billionaire twins best known outside the tech world for suing Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly ripping their idea off for a social network. Trump has been far more supportive of crypto than Biden. Also there was Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance, a friend of Sacks and endorsee of Trumps who was key to pulling the event together. They noshed on tiny hamburgers with American flags adorning them, Dhillon said. Cuddling up with party leaders wasnt the point. All those people have already kissed Trumps ring smooth. Appearing with Sacks and party co-host Chamath Palihapitiya, the well-connected valley hosts of All In, the nations No. 2-ranked technology podcast, is the mother lode for Trump. Supporters of Donald Trump face off with protester Armand Domalewski before the former president attends a fundraiser in Pacific Heights. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Trump wont win California or even Silicon Valley. But the blessing of a few well-heeled techies might spur others to come out of the Silicon Valley Republican Protection Program and let their conservative flag fly. Advertisement Article continues below this ad You have high-profile, well-regarded individuals who come out, so to speak, as conservative or Republican, and that gives people the permission to say to themselves and to those around them, Hey, you know, I feel the same way as this person does, said Jay Donde, the leader of a more centrist group that won control of the San Francisco Republican Central Committee in March. Donde said the early adopters who supported Trump were people such as Peter Thiel. Sacks is leading the second tranche of pro-Trump techies. Or is it the Trump-curious in Silicon Valley? Supporters and protesters of Donald Trump face off at Divisadero Street and Pacific Avenue before the former president attends a campaign fundraiser in Pacific Heights. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Whether or not that reflects an underlying shift in sentiment towards Donald Trump or an underlying shift in sentiment away from Joe Biden, I think is TBD, Donde said. I think its less about enthusiasm for Trump and more about the dam bursting in terms of private dissatisfaction with the Biden administration in the past four years. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Thats why we wont know for a few months whether Trumps tech bromance extends beyond Sacks. One fundraiser even one with a top ticket of a half-million bucks doesnt forge a political marriage. However, this early date went well on one level: Dhillon told the Chronicle afterward that it raised $12 million. But there is no doubt about the loyalties of the people on Marina Green. Few there Thursday were San Franciscans. Many drove there from all over Northern California, including a 25-car caravan from the East Bay. And, contrary to the stereotype of Trump supporters, many were people of color, including Elizabeth Starks, a Peruvian native who leads the San Francisco/Peninsula chapter of the California Republican Assembly, one of the partys most conservative clubs. Supporters of former President Donald Trump gather at Divisadero Street and Pacific Avenue before the GOP candidates fundraiser in Pacific Heights. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle She sees Trump, fresh off of being convicted for 34 felonies in connection to paying hush money to an adult film star, as the vessel to bring more Christian values back into the culture. All the children must learn the Ten Commandments. This is very important, Starks said. With the Ten Commandments, everybody is going to be good and we are going to bring back Trump. Then there was Johnny, a restaurant server from Napa who declined to give his last name. He was waving a flag that said, Dont Blame Me, I Voted for Trump, even though he voted for Biden. Im holding the flag for somebody else, he said. Johnny now backs Trump because he said that Biden has started all these wars for political reasons. Supporters of Donald Trump rally near a paper figure of the former president before he attends a campaign fundraiser in Pacific Heights. Stephen Lam/The Chronicle We know they wanted Netanyahu out of Israel. So lets go there. And Hunter Biden was in Ukraine, Johnny said, without further explanation. Quick reality check: Russia attacked Ukraine. And Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. Obviously Hamas did it. But were there operatives in Hamas? Johnny asked conspiratorially again, with no evidence. Most alarming was that Johnny wasnt alone in blaming Biden for starting the wars. It was a common refrain. Former President Donald Trump's motorcade arrives for a fundraiser in Pacific Heights. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle So was absolving Trump for all of the slurs he has hurled at immigrants. Standing next to a long red and white banner that said Chinese Americans for Trump. Happy Birthday Prez Trump, Jennifer Strohfus, who was born in China, said she wasnt offended by Trump calling the coronavirus the China virus, or his racist attacks on Taiwan-born Elaine Chao, who served in his own Cabinet as transportation secretary. There is a difference between the Chinese government and the Chinese American people, so dont confuse the two, said Strohfus, who lives in Milpitas. The Chinese government is evil, but Chinese American people are kind and intelligent. As the chilly fog rolled in, some of the Marina Green crowd migrated up the hill to wait outside the security barricades in Pacific Heights to catch a glimpse of Trump entering the fundraiser, which he did around 7:30 p.m. They were greeted by a knot of Trump opponents. There unfolded a surreal San Francisco moment where, on opposite corners at the intersection of Pacific Avenue and Divisadero Street, the anti-Trumpers chanted, Lock him up! while the Trumpers sang, Happy Birthday to Trump, who turns 78 on June 14. Mary Lynn Pelican of Fremont wears Trump-inspired decorations during a rally before a campaign fundraiser in Pacific Heights. Stephen Lam/The Chronicle Livermore resident Ron Read, wearing a Im on a government watch list T-shirt, walked through the crowd passing out flyers for a Trump Truck Rally this month in Pleasanton. He came to San Francisco in part for the fellowship. Getting to hang out with like-minded people, he said. I know Trump is a news junkie, so if he can see on the news that this crowd showed up in San Francisco for him, maybe hell do some sort of event here for us, Read said. Instead of just showing up for the rich tech crowd. Theres no telling how long their relationship with Trump will last. But its off to a very prosperous start. Atlanta, Georgia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 6, 2024) - PNK Group is set to complete the modernization of its reinforced concrete and structural steel plant in Winder County, Georgia, within the next few months. The facility, which has been in operation for 60 years, will undergo significant upgrades to meet contemporary workplace standards and incorporate advanced machinery. The modernization project involves comprehensive equipment installations and facility renovations. Acquired by PNK Group a year ago, the plant is expected to begin reinforced concrete production and increase steel element manufacturing by the end of 2024. PNK Group will breathe new life into Winder Factories To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8814/211076_457c48c2042e2b45_001full.jpg Key upgrades include the installation of a Voeller Mixers concrete batching plant and a new metalworking line from Dutch manufacturer Voortman. This line will be integrated into an automated and conveyorized production system to improve efficiency. Additional equipment from Voortman includes a horizontal miter band sawing machine, a shot blasting machine, and a punching and shearing machine. The plant will also see upgrades in lifting equipment, drilling, turning, and milling machinery, as well as an automated line for deck production. German formworks for reinforced concrete column production from HOWAL have been procured, and orders for beds to produce reinforced concrete elements are expected soon. The modernization project will create numerous job opportunities for engineers, technicians, and workers. The upgraded workspace will feature improved offices, a canteen with free meals, enhanced changing rooms, showers, restrooms, and production facilities. These enhancements aim to provide a better work environment for employees. Additionally, all engineering utilities, including ventilation, heating, and lighting systems, are being completely renewed. The roof has been repaired, and a new transformer and electrical panel equipment will be installed to enhance the plant's electrical system reliability. Strategically located within a complex of industrial buildings covering approximately 400,000 square feet on a 75-acre plot near the local airport, Winder Factories is a key asset for PNK Group. The structural elements produced at the plant can be transported by truck to construction sites within a 500-800-mile radius, making it a convenient hub for operations. This facility, along with PNK Group's other plant in Bethel Township, PA, will serve as the foundation for future project kitting centers. PNK Group is known for its advancements in industrial construction, utilizing large-unit blocks to streamline building assembly and reduce the need for extensive labor and heavy machinery. Contact Info: Name: Mark Stiles Email: info@pnk.group Organization: PNK Group Address: 17 State Street, Suite 3930 Phone: 6465177915 Website: https://pnk.group To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/211076 SOURCE: Plentisoft Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 6, 2024) - Solarvest BioEnergy Inc. (TSXV: SVS.H) ("Solarvest", or the "Company"), an algal biologic company specializing in organic ingredient production and commercial marketing of pharmaceutical grade ingredients and health supplements, is pleased to announce the election of a new board of directors, voted and approved by shareholders, to lead the transition and focused restructuring of Solarvest. At the 2024 annual meeting of shareholders held on May 10, 2024 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Messrs. Ken Campeau, Max Goldberg and Grant Larsen were unanimously elected directors of Solarvest. In addition, Mr. Larsen has been appointed the Chief Executive Officer ("CEO"), serving and leading the Company in transition. The current auditors of the Company, Arsenault Best Cameron Ellis, were also re-appointed. Grant Larsen Mr. Larsen has more than 25 years' experience as an officer, CEO, board advisor, corporate executive and entrepreneur. During his career, Mr. Larsen has held positions with senior global companies in pharmaceuticals, OTC, consumer packaged goods and medical devices. His diverse skillset includes extensive advisory roles, strategic consulting, organizational restructuring, keynote speaking and healthcare technology integration. Kenneth W. Campeau Kenneth Campeau has a BBA in marketing, CPA designation and specializes in the auditing and analysis of startup companies in the Canadian capital markets. He has a strong background in logistics, inventory management, sales and marketing. With his management experience and background, his insights and financial based advice is critical to startup and growth companies. Max Goldberg Mr. Goldberg has been covering the organic industry for the past 14 years, runs the Organic Food Industry group on LinkedIn, which counts more than 42,000 members from around the world and is considered to be a leading expert in the organic food industry. Formerly, Mr. Goldberg was Wall Street investment banker. He received his BA from Brown University and his MBA from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. The Company will continue to pursue commercial opportunities and partners to meet short-term financial obligations and leverage future expansion to maximize commercial opportunities in the growing healthcare supplements and organic health products industries. It is the intention of the board to review all financial and partnership options and to meet short-term operational and long-term focused objectives of Solarvest. ABOUT SOLARVEST Solarvest is a Canadian algal biologic research company with several unique patents in organic ingredient production with global commercial product applications. With a commitment to innovation and a dedication to harnessing the power of nature, Solarvest is poised to transform the landscape of healthcare with its proprietary organic solutions. For more information, please visit www.solarvest.com For further information contact: Grant Larsen Chief Executive Officer Phone: 1.647.992.6487 Email: invest@solarvest.ca Forward-Looking Statement This news release includes forward-looking information and statements, which may include, but are not limited to, information and statements regarding or inferring the future business, operations, financial performance, prospects, and other plans, intentions, expectations, estimates, and beliefs of the Company. Forward-looking information and statements involve and are subject to assumptions and known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause actual events, results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from future events, results, performance, and achievements expressed or implied by forward-looking information and statements herein. Although the Company believes that any forward-looking information and statements herein are reasonable, in light of the use of assumptions and the significant risks and uncertainties inherent in such information and statements, there can be no assurance that any such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, and accordingly readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such risks and uncertainties and should not place undue reliance upon such forward-looking information and statements. Any forward-looking information and statements herein are made as of the date hereof, and except as required by applicable laws, the Company assumes no obligation and disclaims any intention to update or revise any forward-looking information and statements herein or to update the reasons that actual events or results could or do differ from those projected in any forward-looking information and statements herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, or otherwise, except as required by applicable laws. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/212035 SOURCE: Solarvest BioEnergy Inc. AKATI Sekurity delivers outstanding security solutions across key industries and regions and is constantly forging strategic partnerships to enhance its offerings. SAN ANTONIO, June 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan recently analyzed the Global digital forensics services market and, based on its findings, recognizes AKATI Sekurity with the 2024 Asia-Pacific Competitive Strategy Leadership Award. AKATI Sekurity is a leading Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) company that offers threat intelligence and computer forensics services to clients in the financial, healthcare, retail, industrial, IT, government, telecommunications, and transportation. AKATI Sekurity has established a solid presence in the large enterprise segment by providing comprehensive digital forensics services and continuously improving its vast portfolio. This strategy enabled the company's rapid growth and significantly strengthened its reputation. AKATI Sekurity's reputation is also backed by accolades such as the 15th position in the MSSP Alert's Top 250 MSSP rankings for 2023 and the Channel Futures' Security MSP of the Year 2023, MSP 501 award. AKATI Sekurity's Black Hawk Security Operations Centre provides managed security services across five pillars - Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover. Managed security services include 24*7*365 security monitoring, brand protection & dark-web monitoring, intel-led penetration testing and red teaming (Adversarial Attack Simulation Exercise (AASE)), endpoint Managed Detection and Response (MDR), cybersecurity maturity assessment, threat hunting, next-generation EDR, digital forensic and incident response (DFIR), and crisis communication. In addition, the company has recently started to offer threat exposure management services. "AKATI Sekurity's team is based in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Mexico. In 2024, the company is expanding its operations to India, Canada, and the United States. The company has over 500 customers across five continents," said Swetha Krishnamoorthi, industry principal for cybersecurity at Frost & Sullivan. "AKATI Sekurity provides the full spectrum of forensic investigation services, including digital evidence recovery, data acquisition and imaging, network forensics, mobile forensics, cloud forensics, and malware analysis. In addition to forensic investigations, AKATI Sekurity offers technical and expert witness testimony to customers that are going through legal proceedings," noted Krishnamoorthi. To further support its customers during and after forensic investigations, AKATI offers customized reports, providing a high-level summary for senior management, a technical follow-up for the IT team, and a specific report for the legal team. The company ensures all stakeholders have the information to address the breach effectively. As a result, AKATI's innovative ethos, customer-centric approach, and aggressive expansion strategy have allowed it to grow steadily and position itself as a leader in the digital forensics services market. Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has leveraged competitive intelligence to successfully execute a strategy that results in stronger market share, competitive brand positioning, and customer satisfaction. Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in various regional and global sectors for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analyses, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry. About Frost & Sullivan For six decades, Frost & Sullivan has been world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders, and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, megatrends, new business models, and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success. Contact us: Start the discussion . Contact: Tarini Singh P: +91- 9953764546 E: Tarini.Singh@frost.com About AKATI Sekurity AKATI Sekurity, an award-winning Cyber security consulting and Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP), delivers round-the-clock security monitoring and a comprehensive suite of services. Our distinctive approach encompasses multiple angles of cyber defense to protect clients from all directions. Accredited Services: Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCIDSS ASV). CREST Approved Penetration Testing and Vulnerability Assessment Service Provider. SWIFT Customer Security Programme (CSP) Assessment Provider. Payment Networks (PAYNET) Malaysia Independent Auditor for Third Party Acquirers (TPA). Contact: Joanna Woon P: +603-2779.4944 E: hello@akati.com Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2431939/AKATI_Sekurity_Award.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/akati-sekurity-earns-frost--sullivans-2024-asia-pacific-competitive-strategy-leadership-award-for-its-rapid-expansion-and-strong-presence-in-the-apac-digital-forensics-services-market-302165994.html TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - A former senior level employee in the technology operations group of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited pleaded guilty to engaging in a scheme to defraud the company of at least $2.3 million, the District of Massachusetts' U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement. Priya Bhambi and an alleged co-conspirator, who did not work at the company, were charged in an indictment filed on March 23, 2023. Between approximately January 2022 and October 2022, Bhambi and her alleged co-conspirator orchestrated and executed a scheme to defraud Takeda of at least $2.3 million in payments for purported consulting services by submitting fabricated invoices on behalf of a sham consulting company, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. According to the Attorney's Office, the co-conspirator, in coordination with Bhambi, allegedly incorporated Evoluzione Consulting LLC in February 2022. Later, Bhambi created a website for Evoluzione with false information, including fabricated blog posts, to make it appear that Evoluzione was a legitimate consulting business. After incorporating Evoluzione, Bhambi, allegedly in coordination with the co-conspirator, submitted a statement of work to Takeda and caused Takeda to sign a master services agreement with Evoluzione and issue a purchase order to Evoluzione for consulting services with a total cost of $3.542 million. Then, between March and May of 2022, Bhambi and the alleged co-conspirator fabricated and submitted to Takeda five separate invoices for services that Evoluzione had not performed, each in the amount of $460,000. Bhambi and the alleged co-conspirator made false representations regarding the services purportedly provided by Evoluzione. Takeda paid all five of the invoices to business accounts allegedly opened by the alleged co-conspirator in the name of Evoluzione. In total, Bhambi and the alleged co-conspirator defrauded Takeda of $2.3 million in payments to Evoluzione for services not provided. Bhambi and her alleged co-conspirator used the fraudulently obtained funds to purchase a Mercedes-Benz Model E; purchase a diamond engagement ring; make a down payment on a $1.875 million condominium in Boston's Seaport neighborhood; and place a deposit on a wedding venue, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. In connection with the charges, the Court issued seizure warrants for the Mercedes, over $1 million in fraud proceeds from accounts the defendants controlled, $49,985 from the wedding venue deposit and issued a restraining order to preserve the Seaport condominium for forfeiture. Copyright(c) 2024 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX 2024 AFX News Artsakh Union publishes ads highlighting the hypocrisy of Azerbaijan's "COP of Peace" amidst genocide against Armenians as government and civil society experts gather in Bonn, Germany, to set the COP agenda BONN, Germany, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Artsakh Union has launched an advertisement campaign challenging COP29 host Azerbaijan to fulfill its alleged vision of a "COP of Peace" by releasing its political prisoners. The campaign comes amid the opening week of the Bonn Climate Change Conference, where experts set the agenda for the prestigious COP meetings that will bring together world leaders in Baku later this year. The challenging advertisements come after Hikmet Hajiyev-foreign policy adviser to the Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliyev-told media in May that the country was eager to make "COP29 a COP of peace." That claim has been widely rebuked, with experts pointing to the government's genocidal actions taken against ethnic Armenians and long-standing record of human rights violations. "The Aliyev regime of Azerbaijan continues to detain Armenian political prisoners and hostages, destroy our cultural heritage and property under their occupation, systematically promote anti-Armenian ethnic hatred and block the return of the forcibly displaced Artsakh people to their homes. These actions, along with other international and domestic crimes, exemplify their ongoing genocidal policy against the Artsakh people. Our efforts aim to raise international awareness about the Aliyev regime's continuous violations and the urgent need to release our illegally detained leaders and compatriots. The international community must not allow the Aliyev regime to mislead and distract them with COP 29 and evade accountability for their perpetrated genocide and continuous violations," said Artak Beglaryan, president of the Artsakh Union and former state minister of Artsakh. The Artsakh Union is a grassroots organization created by citizens of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), an unrecognized state that was invaded by Azerbaijan in September 2023, causing the entire population of 120,000 indigenous Armenians to flee. Amid the aggression, Azerbaijani officials also arrested eight Armenian political leaders of Artsakh, a group that remains illegally detained and hostage in Baku and awaiting news on their trial date. The political prisoners include international philanthropist and humanitarian Ruben Vardanyan, who recently ended a 21-day hunger strike to protest their illegal detainment, increasingly worsening imprisonment conditions, and limited access to due process in an opaque legal system. Juan Mendez, the United Nations' first Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide reviewed these actions, solemnly confirming that "genocide has been committed against ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, but the danger of more suffering of this kind is by no means over. The international community still bears a responsibility to act to protect this population from further harm." The United Nations' International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Azerbaijan to uphold the right of return for ethnic Armenians, instructing the country to "take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration affecting Armenian cultural heritage, including but not limited to churches and other places of worship, monuments, landmarks, cemeteries and artifacts" following its invasion last year. Despite these orders, recent satellite images show destruction of Armenian cultural heritage sites and residential buildings, prompting widespread concerns. Pressure continues to grow on Azerbaijan from the international community in the lead up to COP29, otherwise known as the Conference of the Parties, which will be held this November in Baku. In a April resolution, the EU reaffirmed that "the ongoing human rights violations in Azerbaijan are incompatible with the country's preparations to host COP29." U.S. senators have also called for the release of Armenian political leaders held in Azerbaijan, with several members of congress sending a follow-up letter raising concerns in mid-May. French senators have also put forth resolutions proposing sanctions against Azerbaijan for its actions in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Bonn Climate Change Conference, which started on June 3, has driven additional backlash against the Azeri government, including from the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, which published a statement criticizing Azerbaijan for touting a "COP of Peace" while carrying out genocidal actions. Today, Azerbaijan sits below Saudi Arabia and Iran in Freedom House's annual Freedom of the World report, currently scoring just 7 out of 100 points. The country also ranks 164th out of 180 in Reporters Without Borders' 2024 Press Freedom Index, worse than Venezuela and Turkey. See the full-page advertisement on page 19 of POLITICO Europe's print edition published on June 6. Media Contact Artak Beglaryan, Artsakh Union +374 97 252623 info@artsakunion.org artsakhunion.org Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2432696/Artsakh_Union_Politico_Ad.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/advertising-campaign-launched-during-bonn-climate-change-conference-challenges-azerbaijan-to-prove-commitment-to-cop-of-peace-claims-by-releasing-armenian-political-prisoners-302166608.html Oleria Joins a Select Group of Organizations That Will Inform and Advise International Leaders in Government, Academia and Business REDMOND, WA / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / Oleria, a visionary provider of adaptive and autonomous identity security, announced today its selection by the World Economic Forum (WEF) to serve as an official 2024 Technology Pioneer. The coveted WEF Technology Pioneers program selects 100 leading technology organizations involved in developing and deploying new technologies and innovations that exemplify the transformative potential and entrepreneurial spirit essential for shaping a better future. Oleria CEO and Co-Founder Jim Alkove The designation situates Oleria in a select group of organizations that will provide input on the Forum's global initiatives and connect and share insights on cybersecurity with leaders in government, business and academia. Identity security has become the new cybersecurity battlefront. Today, 80% of all breaches use compromised identities, costing enterprises billions of dollars annually. With the proliferation of SaaS applications and AI, the volume of attacks targeting identities is also growing - with a 71% increase year over year, according to the 2024 IBM Threat Intelligence Index. In fact, for the first time ever, abusing valid accounts became cybercriminals' most common entry point into victim environments according to IBM. Essentially, attackers are no longer just hacking in - they're logging in. And they are doing so because identity security is one of the most challenging and underfunded areas of cybersecurity, leveraging legacy systems and manual processes that can't keep up with today's modern cloud and SaaS-centric organizations. "As I learned from my experience as a founding board member of the World Economic Forum's Center for Cybersecurity, identity security is a critical challenge for organizations across every continent and industry," said Jim Alkove, founding CEO of Oleria and former Chief Trust Officer at Salesforce. "Oleria was created to provide a truly adaptive and autonomous approach to identity security. Our platform offers unprecedented fine-grained access visibility and usage insights at an individual resource level, empowering CISOs and their teams to answer essential questions: Who has access to what? How did they get it? What are they doing with it?" "Enterprises, governments, and organizations increasingly face security risks, with identity emerging as the new battlefront," said Phil Quade, Chief Operating Officer with Evolution Equity Partners, former Chief Information Security Officer at Fortinet and ex-Chief of the NSA Cyber Task Force. "Oleria's innovative approach to identity security offers a comprehensive solution that addresses the complexities and dynamic nature of modern cyber threats faced by governments and organizations alike. By focusing on fine-grained access control and usage visibility, Oleria provides security leaders with the tools they need to manage identity security effectively. This collaboration with the WEF is another important step towards advancing global cybersecurity standards and protecting critical assets." "Being named one of the World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneers is an incredible honor," added Alkove. "We are eager to share our insights with global leaders and drive the future of identity security." About Oleria Oleria provides adaptive and autonomous identity security solutions to protect and enable today's dynamic enterprise. Oleria Adaptive Security, built on the Trustfusion platform, offers unparalleled fine-grained access visibility, including access usage insights, at an individual resource level so CISOs can finally and confidently answer the critical questions: Who has access to what? How did they get it? What are they doing with it? Oleria's innovative Trustfusion platform provides organizations with a single source of truth for their identity security. Founded by cybersecurity industry veterans with decades of experience building and operating some of the world's largest security programs, Oleria has received over $40 million in funding from Evolution Equity Partners, Salesforce Ventures, Tapestry VC, Zscaler, and other technology luminaries. For more information, please visit www.oleria.com and follow Oleria on LinkedIn and Twitter. Contact Information David Henderson PR & Communications Lead david@oleria.com 425-829-5971 SOURCE: Oleria View the original press release on newswire.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. Handeln Sie jetzt und sichern Sie sich Ihren kostenfreien Report! New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - June 7, 2024) - Cove Containers, the premier destination for both new and used shipping containers for sale, announces the launch of its cutting-edge online purchasing platform, simplifying container procurement with just a few clicks. With a core focus on customer convenience and satisfaction, Cove Containers aims to redefine the industry standard for accessibility and quality. Cove Containers To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8814/212038_7e1acb2a24650a15_002full.jpg Cove Containers' innovative system offers customers unparalleled convenience, allowing them to effortlessly browse and select from a comprehensive inventory of shipping containers available across multiple depot locations throughout the United States. With an intuitive interface, users can specify container size (20', 40', 40'HC), condition (WWT, One Trip), and delivery zip code. Boasting a team of seasoned specialists with decades of collective experience in the logistics industry, Cove Containers ensures customers receive top-notch service and quality products. Through meticulous monitoring of container pricing and stock trends, Cove Containers mitigates the risk of depletion and ensures a steady supply of containers for its clientele. The company's freight forwarding division plays a pivotal role in importing and redirecting containers to high-demand depot locations across the nation, ensuring optimal accessibility for clients. In addition to standard shipping containers, Cove Containers offers a diverse range of specialized container types, including refrigerated containers, open-sided containers, flat racks, open tops, and container chassis, available upon request. For more information about Cove Containers and its comprehensive range of shipping container solutions, visit https://covecontainers.com/contact/. About Cove Containers: Cove Containers is an easy checkout shipping container purchasing platform dedicated to providing customers with seamless access to a wide selection of new and used containers. With a focus on affordability and reliability, Cove Containers offers a variety of container types to meet diverse needs, including refrigerated containers, open-sided containers, flat racks, open tops, and container chassis. Through its nationwide network of depot locations and strategic partnerships, Cove Containers ensures customers receive quality products and exceptional service with every purchase. Contact Info: Name: John Doe Email: sales@covecontainers.com Organization: Cove Containers Website: https://covecontainers.com/ To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/212038 SOURCE: Plentisoft 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 Im neuen, kostenlosen Spezialreport stellen wir drei aussichtsreiche Unternehmen vor, die bei einem weiteren Anstieg uberproportional profitieren konnten. Handeln Sie jetzt und sichern Sie sich Ihren kostenfreien Report! Nota AI and Advantech sign MOU for edge AI collaboration. Partnership focuses on generative AI at the edge. Joint marketing and sales activities planned to expand market share. SEOUL, South Korea, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- AI model optimization technology company Nota AI (Nota Inc.) has signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with global industrial AIoT leader Advantech to collaborate in the burgeoning field of edge AI. This agreement marks a significant step forward for both companies as they aim to develop generative AI solutions at the edge and expand the application of edge AI across various industrial sectors, including smart cities and transportation. Nota AI specializes in hardware-aware AI model optimization and generative AI. Through its proprietary platform NetsPresso, Nota AI enables the lightweighting and optimization of AI models, enhancing their applicability across diverse industrial fields. The company has gained particular attention in sectors such as AIoT, smart factories, intelligent transportation systems, and smart cities. Advantech is a global leader in industrial computer and IoT solutions, offering innovative hardware and software across a range of industries, including smart factories, smart cities, and smart transportation. The company focuses on utilizing advanced technologies such as edge computing, artificial intelligence, and 5G to develop cutting-edge solutions. As an eco-partner in the edge AI field, Advantech fosters ecosystems through partnerships with various AI specialized companies. Myungsu Chae, CEO of Nota AI, expressed optimism about the partnership, stating, "The collaboration with Advantech is expected to extend the application of Nota AI's technology to a broader range of industrial fields. We will strive to meet the diverse needs of our customers through optimized edge AI solutions." Charlie Chung, General Manager of Advantech Korea, added, "This collaboration will significantly enhance our ability to provide optimal solutions to our customers by combining edge computing hardware with Nota AI's optimized AI algorithms. We are committed to broadening our market presence through ongoing innovation." With the signing of this MOU, Nota AI and Advantech plan to initiate various projects that apply edge AI solutions across multiple industries. Additionally, both companies aim to expand their market share through joint marketing and sales activities. Nota AI recently showcased its innovative technologies at the 2024 Embedded Vision Summit in San Jose, California. The company highlighted the capabilities of its generative AI technology at the edge and its flagship solution, NetsPresso, which supports devices from NVIDIA, Raspberry Pi, Renesas, and others, as well as the Arm IP. Visitors experienced a prototype demo of Nota AI's Vision Language Model (VLM) at the booth. At NVIDIA GTC 2024 in March, Nota AI demonstrated its VLM application, showing how generative AI can automatically detect road traffic anomalies, reducing human intervention and streamlining workflows to improve traffic management efficiency. Additionally, Nota AI will participate in COMPUTEX from June 4th to 7th, demonstrating the synergy between NetsPresso and the Arm IP. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2431069/Nota_AI_Advantech_Sign_Strategic_MOU_Pioneer_Edge_AI_Market.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/nota-ai-and-advantech-sign-strategic-mou-to-pioneer-on-device-genai-market-302164862.html The new San Francisco Nintendo store will be opening on Powell Street, on the same block as the Westin St. Francis. Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle A vacant storefront directly across the street from San Franciscos Union Square will soon bear new signage: Nintendo San Francisco. The iconic video game companys announcement last month that it has taken up a space in the citys premier retail district stoked both excitement and questions: The area has lost more longtime retailers in recent years than it has gained, and Nintendos lease commitment was hailed as a much-needed boost by downtown stakeholders, including Mayor London Breed. But critical details about the new space, like its location, were not disclosed. Permits filed with the citys Department of Building Inspection on Wednesday provide answers: Nintendo will be moving into a prominent 11,000-square-foot retail space at the corner of Powell and Geary streets. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The space, located at 331 Powell St., is part of the 1,253-room Westin St. Francis, the citys third largest hotel. The location is roughly the size of Nintendos only other U.S. store, which spans two stories and 10,000 square feet in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. The permits pulled this week show that a 42-inch by 42-inch illuminated exterior sign will be erected at the Powell Street entrance of Nintendos new space. Additional signage will be installed at that entrance and at the storefronts second entrance on Geary street. The spaces entrance doors and sidelights will be replaced, and new exterior lighting will be installed at its existing awnings, according to an application filed with the citys Planning Department in April. The tenant improvements are expected to cost about $120,000. Nintendo has said previously that it will open the new location in 2025. On Thursday, the company acknowledged that its store will be located in the Union Square shopping district, but declined to confirm the exact location, stating it would share more information at a later date. The Westin declined to comment. Julie Taylor, a veteran retail broker with Colliers, said that Nintendos Union Square location makes sense. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Its an incredibly high-profile corner, and they have an incredibly high-profile location in New York, so this is really parallel in the quality, Taylor said. Taylor estimated that Nintendos new space has been largely vacant for the better part of the past decade it once housed womens clothing brand BCBG and athleisure brand Fila. More recently, it has featured pop-ups. The deal is a bright spot in what otherwise has been a tumultuous time for Union Square, marked by retail closures and a noticeable drop in visitors in the wake of the pandemic. In February, the areas most prominent retailer, Macys, announced that it plans to shutter its 400,000-square-foot location on Geary Street. The loss marks one of the biggest retail closures that the city has ever seen. Retailer H&M permanently closed its West Coast flagship store on Powell Street, around the corner from Macys, in 2020. Others that have shuttered major Union Square stores or announced closures in recent years include Uniqlo and North Face. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Omega Pacific Resources Inc. (CSE:OMGA)(OTCQB:OMGPF)(FSE:Q0F) ("Omega" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that after successfully completing the application process it has been approved by FINRA for quotation in the U.S. The Company's common shares will begin being quoted on the OTCQB today, under the stock symbol "OMGPF" and will remain listed on the CSE under the ticker symbol "OMGA." The Company has also completed the application process for the OTC Market and for eligibility with the Depository Trust Company ("DTC"). Jason Leikam, Omega Pacific's CEO, commented, "Being quoted on the OTCQB will enhance our visibility and make the Company accessible to a broader range of U.S. investors. The quotation on the OTCQB is expected to increase liquidity by providing current and potential investors with a transparent and easily accessible trading platform where they can find Real-Time quotes and market information." The OTCQB Venture is the premier marketplace for companies that are committed to providing a high-quality trading and information experience for their U.S. investors. Qualifying for approval to trade on the OTCQB requires a Company to be current on disclosure obligations, to pass a minimum bid price test, and to provide an annual company verification and management certification process. The OTCQB quality standards create a solid baseline of transparency, as well as the technology to improve the information and trading experience for investors. About Omega Pacific Omega Pacific is a mineral exploration company focused on the development of mineral projects containing base and precious metals. For more information, please contact: Omega Pacific Resources Inc. Jason Leikam, Chief Executive Officer & Director Tel: +1 (778) 650 4255 Email: jason@omegapacific.ca Cautionary Statement Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information under the provisions of Canadian securities laws including statements about the Company's plans. Such statements are necessarily based upon a number of beliefs, assumptions, and opinions of management on the date the statements are made and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and future events to differ materially from those anticipated or projected. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors should change, except as required by law. Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Omega Pacific Resources Inc. View the original press release on accesswire.com Regulatory News: On Wednesday, June 5th, CCF Group successfully closed its first Additional Tier 1 (AT1) issuance following the acquisition of HSBC's retail banking activities in France. The Group issued 225 million of AT1 further enhancing its very strong capital position. As a result, the Group's proforma Total Capital Ratio now exceeds 20%. Concurrently, the Group launched a tender offer for the existing 100 million of AT1 instruments issued in 2019. Prior to announcing this operation on June 3rd, the Group conducted an extensive investor roadshow, effectively paving the way for this successful market reentry. Following overwhelmingly positive feedback from high-quality investors the transaction was launched with a 9.5% coupon. The order book peaked at nearly 500m (a 2.2 times oversubscription), allowing for a price tightening to a 9.25% coupon. "This successful issuance marks a key milestone for us, showcasing the bank's solidity and reflecting the broad confidence of our investors. We are very pleased with the outcome of the transaction, both in terms of size and investor participation. We extend our warmest thanks to our investors for their trust and confidence" said Niccolo Ubertalli, CCF Group's CEO. In terms of allocation, the bonds were distributed to 54 investors, including asset managers (61%), hedge funds (21%) and private banks (18%). The investor base was geographically diverse, with significant participation from the UK (53%), France (17%), Southern Europe (13%), Scandinavia (6%), and the US (5%). With this inaugural issuance, CCF Group has significantly increased and diversified its investor base, establishing its signature and credit story, and setting the cornerstone for its future capital markets issuances. About CCF Group CCF Group is a century-old French banking group which is made up of retail banking and specialized financing activities whose mission is to support its customers in bringing their projects to life. CCF Group is convinced of its role to play as an employer and as a banker in society, and has made strong commitments around three areas: quality of work life, diversity and inclusion, as well as environment. CCF Group also benefits from a strong governance, with a Board of Directors and a Management Committee made up of experienced members. Retail banking activities are operated under CCF brand, which has a network of branches across France. Specialized financing activities focus on lending to individuals as well as specialized financing for businesses. CCF Group operates in France and its headquarters are located at 103 rue de Grenelle, Paris 75007. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240607985099/en/ Contacts: Press: Isabelle Duvernay isabelle.duvernay@ccf.fr 0033 7 86 96 93 12 Guillaume Guigonis Guillaume.guigonis@ccf.fr 0033 06 89 01 73 21 Publicis Consultants ccf@publicisconsultants.com Investors: Bertrand Robequain bertrand.robequain@ccf.fr 0033 7 71 32 29 07 Fady Wakil fady.wakil@ccf.fr 0033 6 03 36 85 23 Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) is inviting drivers from around the globe to participate in its first mini Smart Driving Challenge of 2024. The event coincides with the FIA's 120th Anniversary Conference in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Like the main SDC, the mini Smart Driving Challenge will use Greater Than's AI-generated feedback and smart scores to encourage participants to drive in a safer and more sustainable manner. The event will run between 10th June and 12th June. STOCKHOLM, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) is set to launch a mini Smart Driving Challenge (SDC) to mark its 120th Anniversary Conference in Uzbekistan. The mini Challenge will form part of a packed Conference agenda, celebrating 120 Years of Innovation alongside the Federation's global Member Club community. Like the annual Smart Driving Challenge, the mini Smart Driving Challenge encourages people to drive in a more sustainable, safe, and considered way. Drivers can get involved by downloading the app, which uses Greater Than's AI technology to provide real-time feedback and scoring on drivers' on-road reactions and emissions. The Challenge is free and open to drivers using all types of vehicles (electric, hybrid or fuel). The FIA's Smart Driving Challenge was first launched in 2019. Since that time, the competition has seen significant results, with participants achieving an average CO2 emission saving of 13% versus the global average. President Mohammed Ben Sulayem will open the challenge with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. He said: "I am delighted to launch this year's mini Smart Driving Challenge. I hope that drivers from around the world will get involved, and join us in celebrating 120 Years of Innovation here at the FIA." Greater Than's Chief Business Officer and Deputy CEO Johanna Forseke said: "We're thrilled to be joining the FIA to celebrate this important anniversary. And what better way to mark 120 years of innovation than with this mini Smart Driving Challenge! It's a fantastic opportunity for any driver the world over to start decreasing their emissions in an enjoyable, engaging way. Let's all work together to make a difference!" Prizes will be awarded at the Extraordinary General Assemblies in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on Thursday 14th June. Member Club Delegates will be able to find out more at the stand. Download in App Store Download in Google Play Press contact For any FIA media queries, please reach out to aridsdillsmith@fia.com For any Greater Than media queries, please reach out to PR@greaterthan.eu This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/greater-than/r/getting-smarter--fia-launches-3-day-smart-driving-challenge-in-samarkand--powered-by-greater-than,c3995813 The following files are available for download: https://mb.cision.com/Main/11629/3995813/2849719.pdf FIA Smart Driving Challenge in Samarkand https://news.cision.com/greater-than/i/fia-sdc-in-samarkand,c3307933 FIA SDC in Samarkand View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/getting-smarter-fia-launches-3-day-smart-driving-challenge-in-samarkand-powered-by-greater-than-302166923.html Young fashion designer Bahadir Turkgeldi gains an intensive course on Textile Design at the Accademia di Belle Arti Aldo Galli in Como, part of the IED network MILAN, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Enheduanna FWC - Fashion Women Culture - the creative fashion contest launched and mentored by IED - Istituto Europeo di Design (the largest Higher Education Network in the creative field to have maintained a global outlook and a deeply Italian cultural matrix, since 1966) came to an end with the ceremony at Hotel Lazzoni in Istanbul (Beyoglu) after the fashion show in the stunning Karanlik Kanyon. The jury of the contest, part of the larger project curated by ADDU (All-in Design & Development Union) evaluated the 18 participating students, who were asked to design outfits inspired by a merge of Mesopotamian culture and Italian fashion. The winner, Bahadir Turkgeldi, was awarded with a scholarship for a course in Textile Design at the Accademia di Belle Arti Aldo Galli in Como - part of IED network. Internship opportunities were offered to 3 additional designers, as part of the Taypa Textile Special Award. The 18 young creatives - mentored by Giovanni Ottonello, IED Art Director, and by lecturer Francis Venneri - worked on the conception and production of 18 outfits: they tackled Made in Italy know-how by searching the history of Italian fashion to find elements linked to internationally known brands. The winner convinced the jury with Leyla & Columbina project, inspired by the love stories between Leyla and Mecnun, and Columbina and Arlecchino: the protagonists are two women, one Mesopotamian and one Italian, who find love in separation and relief in false reunions. Bahadir will have the opportunity to go deep into the history, key features and players behind the renowned Como textile cluster through the intensive training course on Textile Design: Fashion and Interior. The Enheduanna contest could count on the crucial collaboration with Turkish weaving mills, especially Taypa Tekstil: the production of the clothes designed by the winner and all the finalists was carried out at the Tayeks Design Center, which supports innovative and creative production processes. Designers were trained on the use of fabrics by Firat Neziroglu, designer, founder of the Anatolian Textile Network and weaving artist, who was a member of the contest jury along with Ozlem Erkan, designer, and Zeynep Ocal Ozcan, trainer. The three other winning designers were awarded with internship opportunities at Taypa. They are: Mehmet Demir with Future Culture, a capsule collection composed of suites made of soft fabric from the wool of Angora goats, denim, used to bring traditional Mesopotamian belts into present. Narod Alice Yeni with Kubaba, a capsule collection that took inspiration from the conflict between the two cultures, the Turkish and the Italian one, which coexist in the author's personal experience, mixing the colorful Italian fashion with the ethnic Anatolian fashion, starting from the study of the Sumerian culture and the figure of Kubaba, the Sumerian legendary queen. ESRANUR ISCAN TURKSOY with The Journey of Strong Women: From Anatolia to Italy, inspired by the stories of women who existed in the ancient lands of Mesopotamia, as goddess Inanna and her priestess, Enheduanna, a strong and independent woman despite living in a patriarchal world. Enheduanna contest has been realized thanks to the collaboration with Dr. Pinar Meliha Sipahi, Addu's team, Melek Bayoudh, IED Area Manager for MEA region, the Italian Institute of Culture in Istanbul, the Italian consulate and embassy in Turkey, Hotel Lazzoni, and Kemaliye Belediyesi. For further info: www.ied.edu - p.r@ied.it, +393334766640 Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2432125/IED_1.jpg Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2432126/IED_2.jpg Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2414894/4748062/IED_Logo.jpg View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/awarded-the-winners-of-the-italian-turkish-contest-enheduanna-launched-by-istituto-europeo-di-design-302166006.html PRAGUE, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Stimvia, a pioneering medical technology company specializing in neuromodulation for chronic disease treatment, has successfully completed its pilot study focused on Parkinson's Disease (PD) and is expecting promising results. "We are pleased to share preliminary findings indicating promising results. Patients have reported improvements in both the number of Parkinson's disease symptoms and their overall quality of life. Furthermore, we have observed a notable reduction in resting tremor. While the precise data are still under rigorous evaluation, we remain cautiously optimistic about the potential implications of these outcomes," states Prof. David Skoloudik, MD, Ph.D.,FESO, FEAN, the study's lead and Vice-Dean for Science and Research at the Medical Faculty of Ostrava University. Twelve patients with Parkinson's Disease who met inclusion criteria participated in the study. For six weeks, patients used the URIS device for thirty-minute stimulation sessions daily. Following this phase, patients went six weeks without stimulation, during which they continued to be monitored to assess whether any positive effects persisted after the treatment ended. "Since the URIS technology demonstrated a positive impact in treating Parkinson's Disease, Stimvia plans substantial investment in further clinical trials to validate the method's efficacy and safety. We believe our technology can introduce new, additive treatment modalities for millions of patients who currently have no other options, potentially offering a positive disease-modifying impact on those with Parkinson's disease," says Lukas Doskocil, CEO of Stimvia. The company envisions treating a significant number of people with PD using its unique technology in the near future. In the United States alone, an estimated 1 million individuals are affected by these conditions, contributing to over 10 million patients globally. Parkinson's disease ranks as the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer's disease. The complete data from the pilot study will be revealed in the upcoming months. About Stimvia and URIS technology Stimvia is a clinical-stage pioneer MedTech company focused on developing and commercializing innovative non-invasive therapies for chronic diseases. With years of research and a series of clinical studies, Stimvia has developed a unique technology known as URIS, featuring the peroneal neuromodulation method (eTNM). This pioneering approach marks the first-ever non-invasive technique for stimulating deep brain structures, where many chronic diseases originate. Current clinical studies reveal that Stimvia's technology is among the most effective in treating conditions like an overactive bladder, which impacts approximately 40 million individuals in the USA. The company's key technological components and methods are safeguarded by over 100 international patents across the EU, Japan, Russia, and the USA. Furthermore, Stimvia is distinguished by prestigious certifications from the globally respected German institution, TUV SUD. Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2432205/Stimvia_URIS.jpg Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2036393/3946833/Stimvia_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/potential-add-on-treatment-for-patients-with-parkinsons-disease-stimvia-completes-pilot-study-and-announces-promising-initial-results-302166139.html ABU DHABI, UAE, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- At BIO 2024 International Convention, the Department of Health - Abu Dhabi (DoH), the regulator of the healthcare sector in the Emirate, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Novartis Middle East FZE, a global pharmaceutical company. Under the terms of the MoU, the entities will work together to advance solutions in multiple therapeutic areas. The two priority focus areas include advancing clinical genomics research for real-world evidence (RWE) and generating and disseminating evidence to support the understanding of radioligand therapy (RLT) for cancer patients. In the presence of Thierry Diagana, Head of Global Health and California Sites Head at Novartis Biomedical Research, the MoU was signed by Dr Asma Ibrahim Al Mannaei, the Executive Director of the Research and Innovation Centre at DoH and Ibrahim Aqel, Head of Government Affairs and Value & Access - Gulf at Novartis. This collaboration will utilise Abu Dhabi's genomics expertise and its future-forward, agile regulatory framework research hub to collaborate on future clinical research and the generation of RWE. This will include exploration of innovative solutions and genomics research in oncology, cardiovascular disease, and neuroscience. The two will also work together to generate and disseminate evidence to support the awareness and understanding of RLT - a form of precision nuclear medicine that may recognise and treat disease in patients with advanced cancers - with key stakeholders. Dr. Asma Ibrahim Al Mannaei said: "Novartis has been a long-standing partner to the Department of Health, and we are proud to explore these new areas of opportunity to collaborate for the ultimate benefit of patients in the region and beyond. We believe that this partnership will allow us to further accelerate the field of personalised and precision medicine across important therapeutic areas. As we continue to establish Abu Dhabi as a hub for global life science and a centre for innovative research, we are excited to work in synergy with our strategic partners, and combine our expertise in the pursuit of common goals." Novartis and DoH will explore innovative solutions for local and regional health needs. This will include supporting the Emirati Genome Programme by collaborating to raise awareness of genetic and rare diseases. The final focus area is supporting the further improvement of the Health Technology Assessment through facilitated partnership and shared best practice. Mohamed Ezz Eldin Head of Gulf countries for Novartis, said: "We are thrilled to announce our collaboration with the Department of Health - Abu Dhabi through the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding. This partnership represents a significant milestone in advancing research and innovation in healthcare, particularly in the fields of oncology, cardiovascular diseases, and neuroscience. Novartis is committed to supporting the development of clinical research capabilities in Abu Dhabi, generating real-world evidence, and raising awareness about radioligand therapy. We look forward to working closely with the Department of Health - Abu Dhabi to drive innovation and enhance the Health Technology Assessment capabilities in the region. Our goal is to contribute to personalized and precision medicine, ultimately improving patient outcomes" Led by the Department of Health - Abu Dhabi (DoH), a high-profile Abu Dhabi delegation headed by His Excellency Mansoor Ibrahim Al Mansoori, Chairman of the DoH, is visiting the United States of America (USA) between May 29th,2024 and June 5th,2024 to showcase the Emirate's partnership opportunities and explore collaboration with leading organizations in Research and Development (R&D), manufacturing and innovation. Kicking-off in Philadelphia, delegates have met with existing and new partners to foster collaboration with leading education research institutions, governmental bodies and health-tech giants. The transnational mission has culminated in San Diego, coinciding with Abu Dhabi's participation at BIO International Convention 2024 to exhibit the Emirate's growth and development of its biotechnology industry. The participation has witnessed in-depth discussions, shared insights and expertise as well as explored collaborations in health-tech, life science and innovation. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2432775/DoH_and_Novartis.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/department-of-health--abu-dhabi-and-novartis-to-partner-to-advance-genomics-research-in-oncology-and-beyond-302166655.html News builds on previously announced primary endpoint, which showed up to 83.0% of adults achieved statistically significant improvement in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) versus placebo (18.2%). New data on the secondary endpoint shows up to 52.3% of adults with fibrosis stages F1, F2 and F3 had improvement in fibrosis due to MASH. 1 Additional sub-analysis shows up to 64.5% of adults with fibrosis stages F2 and F3 (moderate to advanced scarring) achieved an improvement in fibrosis without worsening of MASH. 1 Survodutide to advance into Phase III MASH study; results reinforce its potential as a best-in-class MASH treatment and, with ongoing trials in obesity,2 could lead to clinically meaningful benefits across the cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic spectrum. Boehringer Ingelheim today announced breakthrough results from a survodutide Phase II trial sub-analysis that demonstrate up to 64.5% of adults with fibrosis stages F2 and F3 (moderate to advanced scarring) achieved an improvement in fibrosis without worsening of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), versus 25.9% with placebo after 48 weeks of treatment [response difference: 38.6% (95% CI 18.1% - 59.1%), p=0.0005].1 F2 and F3 patient populations are at increased risk of developing liver-related complications.3 The full data results were presented today at the European Association for the Study of the Liver Congress (EASL) 2024 and published simultaneously in TheNew England Journal of Medicine1,4 The secondary endpoint shows that up to 52.3% of adults treated with survodutide (BI 456906) achieved a significant improvement in liver scarring (fibrosis) stages F1, F2 and F3 (mild to moderate or advanced scarring), versus 25.8% with placebo after 48 weeks of treatment [response difference: 26.5% (95% CI 8.37% - 44.66%), p<0.01].1 Today's news follows data announced earlier this year when the trial met its primary endpoint.5 These results demonstrated that up to 83.0% of adults achieved a statistically significant improvement of MASH versus placebo (18.2%), reinforcing the potential of survodutide as a best-in-class treatment [response difference: 64.8% (95% CI 51.1% - 78.6%), p<0.0001].5 Survodutide is a glucagon/GLP-1 receptor dual agonist with a novel mechanism of action, and the first to show this level of fibrosis benefit in a Phase II MASH trial after 48 weeks of treatment.5,6 The glucagon agonist component in survodutide has the potential to increase energy expenditure7,8 and has a direct impact in the liver, which could contribute to the improvement of fibrosis.5 The GLP-1 agonist component decreases appetite while increasing fullness and satiety.6,9 "I am particularly excited about the findings of the Phase II trial in survodutide, which demonstrate the potential for glucagon agonism, in addition to GLP-1, to both improve MASH and shift the needle on fibrosis," said Dr. Arun Sanyal, M.D., Professor of Medicine, Physiology and Molecular Pathology at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, and Principal Investigator of the trial. "These data position survodutide as a leading glucagon/GLP-1 receptor dual agonist that could be a game-changer for people living with MASH and clinically significant fibrosis." An improvement was measured as a decrease of at least one stage in fibrosis after 48 weeks of treatment in this trial.10 Fibrosis is a measurement of the progression of MASH,11 a progressive disease impacting more than 115 million people worldwide.12 MASH is caused by inflammation of the liver that can lead to fibrosis,13 and severe tissue scarring (cirrhosis) can substantially increase the risk of end-stage liver disease and liver cancer.14,15 A liver transplant may be the only treatment option at this stage,16 which can place significant financial strain on healthcare systems.17 Liver fibrosis typically worsens slowly,18 and it is easy to go undetected if the fibrosis is not extensive.19 The reversal of liver fibrosis is often challenging for advanced stages of scarring and may not be possible for cirrhosis.20 In this Phase II trial, survodutide also demonstrated significance versus placebo for all other secondary endpoints after 48 weeks of treatment.1 Actual treatment results showed that up to 87.0% of adults achieved at least a 30% relative reduction in liver fat versus 19.7% with placebo, as well as a relative reduction in liver fat content of up to 64.3% versus 7.3% with placebo.1 The absolute change from baseline in Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Activity Score (NAS, which is used to measure improvement in MASH) in actual treatment results was up to -3.3 with survodutide versus -0.4 with placebo.1 "Today's breakthrough fibrosis results further reinforce survodutide's potential as a best-in-class treatment for people living with MASH. We will advance quickly into Phase III trials," said Carinne Brouillon, Head of Human Pharma, Boehringer Ingelheim. "New treatments are urgently needed for MASH, a disease connected with cardiovascular, renal and metabolic conditions like obesity, and we are excited to continue these important discussions with healthcare authorities." Survodutide is licensed to Boehringer Ingelheim from Zealand Pharma, with Boehringer solely responsible for development and commercialization globally. Zealand has a co-promotion right in the Nordic countries. In this trial, survodutide demonstrated safety data consistent with GLP-1 based molecules, with no new safety data concerns.1 Survodutide was granted U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Fast Track Designation in 2021,21 and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) granted access to the Priority Medicine (PRIME) Scheme for MASH with fibrosis in November last year.22 Survodutide is also being explored in five Phase III studies for people living with overweight and obesity,2,23,24 both of which are associated with MASH.25 An additional Phase III trial is evaluating if survodutide helps people living with overweight or obesity, with a confirmed or presumed diagnosis of MASH, reduce liver fat and lose weight.26 Notes to Editors About the data Boehringer Ingelheim's Phase II study in MASH and fibrosis stages F1, F2 and F3 included two analyses: planned (assigned dose at randomization) and actual (dose at the end of treatment).1This press release reports on actual data results for participants (295 patients were randomized, and 293 received at least one dose of treatment and were analyzed) across both the primary and secondary endpoints. The additional sub-analysis among people with fibrosis F2 and F3 was conducted among patients with paired biopsies (223 of 293 patients had fibrosis F2 and F3 at baseline (76.2%) of which 170 had paired biopsies).1 Use of MASH terminology Boehringer Ingelheim's Phase II trial is registered on clinicaltrials.gov as 'A Study to Test Safety and Efficacy of BI456906 in Adults With Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) and Fibrosis (F1-F3)'. This trial was registered prior to a 2023 update in nomenclature made by a number of multinational liver societies including EASL, AASLD and ALEH.27 Their recommendation was to update non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), and to update non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH).27 To reflect these recommendations, Boehringer Ingelheim has adopted the use of MASH to describe this Phase II trial. About metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) MASH is a chronic and progressive liver disease caused by a build-up of fat in the liver,13,28 and is a more severe form of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD).29 In the US, cases of MASH are predicted to rise by 63% between 2015 and 2030, from 16.5 million to 27.0 million cases.16 MASH is a disease closely associated with connected cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic diseases,30,31 and it is estimated that 34% of people living with obesity also have MASH.25 MASH severity is assessed using a scale that ranges from F0 to F4, which measures the level of fibrosis (scarring):32 F0-F1: indicates no or mild fibrosis F2-F3: indicates moderate or advanced fibrosis F4: indicates cirrhosis About the trial (NCT04771273) This is a Phase II, randomized double-blind placebo-controlled dose-finding trial of 295 participants that evaluates weekly subcutaneous injections of survodutide in people living with MASH and fibrosis (F1, F2 and F3) among adults both with and without type 2 diabetes.10 The primary endpoint of trial is the percentage of participants achieving histological improvement of MASH without worsening of fibrosis after 48 weeks of treatment.10 A histological improvement of MASH is defined as a decrease of =2 points on the Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Activity Score (NAS - total score ranges from 0-8), including =1 point decrease in NASH sub-score for lobular inflammation or ballooning, and no increase in fibrosis stage.10 The NAS represents the sum of scores for steatosis (a build-up of fat in the liver33), lobular inflammation (inflammatory cells34) and ballooning (a type of liver cell degeneration35). Secondary outcome measures include:10 At least 30% relative reduction in liver fat content after 48 weeks of treatment compared to baseline Absolute and relative change of liver fat content from baseline after 48 weeks of treatment Improvement of fibrosis, defined as at least one stage decrease in fibrosis stage after 48 weeks of treatment Absolute change from baseline in total score for NAS after 48 weeks of treatment The trial consisted of dose escalation to either 2.4mg, 4.8mg and 6.0mg treatment groups for up to 24 weeks, and dose maintenance for 24 weeks.10 About survodutide (BI 456906) Survodutide is a glucagon/GLP-1 receptor dual agonist that activates both the glucagon and GLP-1 receptors, which are critical to controlling metabolic functions.6 Survodutide is licensed to Boehringer Ingelheim from Zealand Pharma, with Boehringer solely responsible for development and commercialization globally. Zealand has a co-promotion right in the Nordic countries. Survodutide is part of Boehringer Ingelheim's research and development portfolio in the cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic disease areas. Survodutide was granted U.S. FDA Fast Track Designation in May 2021 for the treatment of MASH and fibrosis,21 and it was accepted to the EMA PRIME scheme in November 2023.22 Boehringer also studied survodutide in a 2-part Phase I trial among people with cirrhosis (F4) and varying degrees of liver dysfunction.36 The purpose of Part 1 was to find out whether cirrhosis (F4) and varying degrees of liver dysfunction influences how survodutide is taken up in the body, and the purpose of Part 2 was to find out whether having cirrhosis (F4) and varying degrees of liver dysfunction influences how people with overweight and obesity tolerate survodutide treatment for 28 weeks.36 Survodutide is also being evaluated in five Phase III studies for people living with overweight and obesity.2,23,24 SYNCHRONIZE-1 and SYNCHRONIZE-2 include sub-populations of patients with comorbidities, without and with type 2 diabetes, respectively.2 SYNCHRONIZE-CVOT includes a sub-population of patients with cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, or with risk factors for cardiovascular disease.2 SYNCHRONIZE-JP in Japan and SYNCHRONIZE-CN in China are exploring survodutide for sub-populations of people living with obesity.23,24 SYNCHRONIZE-JP explores the relative change in liver fat from baseline to week 76 when treated with survodutide versus placebo, as a key secondary endpoint.24 An additional Phase III trial called SYNCHRONIZE-MASLD is evaluating if survodutide helps people living with overweight or obesity, with a confirmed or presumed diagnosis of MASH, reduce liver fat and lose weight.26 The double-blind 48-week, placebo-controlled trial initiated enrollment in March this year.26 About Boehringer Ingelheim Boehringer Ingelheim is working on breakthrough therapies that transform lives, today and for generations to come. As a leading research-driven biopharmaceutical company, the company creates value through innovation in areas of high unmet medical need. Founded in 1885 and family-owned ever since, Boehringer Ingelheim takes a long-term, sustainable perspective. More than 53,000 employees serve over 130 markets in the two business units Human Pharma and Animal Health. Learn more at www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/uk (rest of world). Boehringer Ingelheim's Intended Audiences Notice This press release is issued from our Corporate Headquarters in Ingelheim, Germany and is intended to provide information about our global business. Please be aware that information relating to the approval status and labels of approved products may vary from country to country, and a country-specific press release on this topic may have been issued in the countries where we do business. References: 1 Sanyal, Arun J. "Glucagon and GLP-1 receptor dual agonist survodutide improved liver histology in people with MASH and fibrosis: Results from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 trial". Oral presentation at European Association for the Study of the Liver Congress, Milan, Italy. 7June 2024. Abstract LB117, presentation GS-006. 2 "Phase III studies to investigate survodutide for people living with obesity and overweight, with and without diabetes, cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease." Boehringer Ingelheim. www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/phase-3-studies-survodutide-obesity-and-overweight. Accessed June 2024 3 Sanyal, Arun J., et al. "Prospective Study of Outcomes in Adults with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease." The New England Journal of Medicine. Vol. 385, no. 17, 2021, pp. 1559-1569. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2029349 4 Sanyal, Arun J., et al. "A Phase 2 Randomized Trial of Survodutide in MASH and Fibrosis." The New England Journal of Medicine. June 2024. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2401755 5 Top-line Results From A Study to Test Efficacy of BI456906 in Adults With Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) and Fibrosis (F1-F3)." Boehringer Ingelheim. Data on file 6 Zimmerman, Tina, et al. "BI 456906: Discovery and preclinical pharmacology of a novel GCGR/GLP-1R dual agonist with robust anti-obesity efficacy." Molecular Metabolism. Vol. 66, Dec. 2022, p. 101633. doi: 10.1016/j.molmet.2022.101633. 7 Tan, Tricia M., et al. "Coadministration of glucagon-like peptide-1 during glucagon infusion in humans results in increased energy expenditure and amelioration of hyperglycemia." Diabetes. Vol. 62, no. 4, Mar. 2013, pp. 1131-36. doi: 10.2337/db12-0797 8 Salem, V., et al. "Glucagon increases energy expenditure independently of brown adipose tissue activation in humans." Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. Vol. 18, no. 1, Nov. 2015, pp. 72-81. doi: 10.1111/dom.12585. 9 Shah, Meera, and Adrian Vella. "Effects of GLP-1 on appetite and weight." Reviews in Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders. Vol. 15, no. 3, May 2014, pp. 181 - 87. doi: 10.1007/s11154-014-9289-5. 10 "A Study to Test Efficacy of BI456906 in Adults With Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis. Accessed June 2024 11 Stal. Per. "Liver fibrosis in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease - diagnostic challenge with prognostic significance." World Journal of Gastroenterology. Vol. 21, no. 39, Jan. 2015, p. 11077. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i39.11077 12 "International NASH Day June 10, 2021." Global Liver Institute. June 2021. https://ecpc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/IND-report-2021-web.pdf Accessed June 2024 13 Ramai, Daryl, et al. "Progressive Liver Fibrosis in Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease." Cells. Vol. 10, no. 12, Dec. 2021, p. 3401. doi: 10.3390/cells10123401. 14 Dyson, Jessica, et al. "Hepatocellular cancer: The impact of obesity, type 2 diabetes and a multidisciplinary team." Journal of Hepatology. Vol. 60, no. 1, Jan. 2014, pp. 110-17. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2013.08.011. 15 Adams, Leon A., et al. "Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and its relationship with cardiovascular disease and other extrahepatic diseases." Gut. Vol. 66, no. 6, Mar. 2017, pp.1138-53. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2017-313884 16 Estes. Chris, et al. "Modelling the epidemic of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease demonstrates an exponential increase in burden of disease." Hepatology. Vol 67, no. 1, Dec. 2017, pp. 123-33. doi: 10.1002/hep.29466. 17 Khalil, Amjad, et al. "New Developments and Challenges in Liver Transplantation." Journal of Clinical Medicine. Vol 12, no. 17, Aug. 2023, pp 5586. doi: 10.3390/jcm12175586. 18 Kumar, Rahul, et al. "A practical clinical approach to liver fibrosis." Singapore Medical Journal. Vol. 59, no. 12, Dec. 2018, pp 628-633. doi: 10.11622/smedj.2018145. PMID: 30631885; PMCID: PMC6301869. 19 Pinzani, Massimo, et al. "Fibrosis in chronic liver diseases: diagnosis and management." Journal of Hepatology. Vol. 42, no. 1, April 2005, S22-36. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2004.12.008 20 Zhang, Chun-Ye, et al. "Treatment of liver fibrosis: Past, current, and future." World Journal of Hepatology. Vol. 15, no. 6, June 2023, pp. 755-74. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v15.i6.755. 21 "Boehringer Ingelheim and Zealand Pharma Received FDA Fast Track Designation for Investigational Treatment for NASH." Boehringer Ingelheim. www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/us/press-release/boehringer-ingelheim-and-zealand-pharma-receive-fda-fast-track-designation. Accessed June 2024 22 "List of medicines currently in PRIME scheme." European Medicines Agency. December 2023. www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/other/list-medicines-currently-prime-scheme_en.xlsx. Accessed June 2024 23 "A Study to Test Whether BI 456906 Helps Chinese People Living With Overweight or Obesity to Lose Weight." Clinicaltrials.gov. clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06214741 . Accessed June 2024 24 "A Study to Test Whether BI 456906 Helps Japanese People Living With Obesity Disease (SYNCHRONIZEJP)." Clinicaltrials.gov. clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06176365 . Accessed June 2024 25 Quek, Jingxuan, et al. "Global prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in the overweight and obese population: a systematic review and meta-analysis." The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology. Vol. 8, no. 1, Jan. 2023, pp. 20-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-1253 26 "A Study to Test Whether Survodutide Helps People Living With Obesity or Overweight and With a Confirmed or Presumed Liver Disease Called Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis. 27 Multinational liver societies announce new "Fatty" liver disease nomenclature that is affirmative and non-stigmatizing." EASL. easl.eu/news/new_fatty_liver_disease_nomenclature-2 . Accessed June 2024 28 "Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. Accessed June 2024 29 "Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. Accessed June 2024 30 Musso, Giovanni, et al. "Association of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease with chronic kidney disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis." PLoS Medicine. Vol. 11, no. 7, July 2014, p. E1001680. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001680. 31 Schnell. Oliver, et al. "CVOT Summit Report 2023: new cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic outcomes."Cardiovascular Diabetology. Vol. 23, no. 1, Mar. 2024. doi: 10.1186/s12933-024-02180-8. 32 Kleiner, David E., et al. "Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Clinical Research Network. Design and validation of a histological scoring system for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease." Hepatology. Vol. 41, no. 6, June 2005, pp. 1313-21. doi: 10.1002/hep.20701. 33 "Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Accessed June 2024 34 Vanderbeck, Scott, et al. "Automatic quantification of lobular inflammation and hepatocyte ballooning in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease liver biopsies." Human Pathology. Vol. 46, no. 5, May 2015, pp. 767-75. doi: 10.1016/j.humpath.2015.01.019. 35 Caldwell, Stephan, et al. "Hepatocellular ballooning in NASH." Journal of Hepatology. Vol. 53, no. 4, Oct. 2010, pp 719-23. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2010.04.031. 36 "A Study to. Accessed June 2024 Hanshow, a leader in Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs) and digital retail solutions, and Leroy Merlin, a global DIY leader, have partnered to enhance customer and employee experiences by deploying ESLs across over 50,000 products integrated with the Leroy Merlin mobile app in France. Customers now enjoy seamless shopping with easy product geolocation and personalized recommendations in Leroy Merlin stores. After 18 months of R&D, they implemented a fully customized solution in all Leroy Merlin outlets. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240604438443/en/ Hanshow's ESL Solution at Leroy Merlin. (Graphic: Business Wire) Enhanced Customer Support with Leroy Merlin's Mobile Application This immersive experience is powered by the Leroy Merlin mobile application in conjunction with Hanshow's state-of-the-art ESL solutions. Leroy Merlin's integration of Hanshow ESL into its app offers geolocation in-store to guide customers to products and aisles. This enhances the shopping experience and allows staff to provide more personalized advice and support. The ESL solution also provides price consistency between online and offline channels, enriching user experience with various features such as customer reviews, enriched product descriptions, access the Home Index to assess a product's environmental and social impact, and the ability to flash labels directly from the application. These functions provide flexibility for consumers and store associates. "We have successfully met the expectations of Leroy Merlin customers by developing a solution that enhances the in-store experience. By combining data and technological innovations, we have created a tailor-made tool that delivers a personalized experience for each customer," explains Pierre Fosseux, VP of Hanshow France. Enhancing Retail Efficiency and Customer Experience Whether it's stock management, restocking, or click-and-collect order preparation, the geolocation of products in the shop is a real time-saver for staff, who can devote themselves to focusing on higher-value tasks. "It now takes sales staff around 75 seconds to pick up a product, instead of 90 seconds previously, for orders placed online and picked up in the shop within a two-hour window chosen by the customer," says Olivier Personne, Merchandising Optimization Manager at Leroy Merlin. Eliminating price differences has positively improved customer satisfaction. "The solution co-constructed with Hanshow enriches the customer experience across online and offline channels while simplifying in-store team tasks. Currently deployed in France, it is designed for larger-scale rollout in other Leroy Merlin locations," explains Hugues Hartung de la Roer, Concept Merchandising Director at Leroy Merlin France. Exemplifying both companies' commitment to enhancing customer satisfaction and driving innovation in the retail sector, the new solution not only simplifies the shopping process but also provides valuable data insights to improve store operations and customer engagement. The collaboration won the Reta Awards 2024: Best In-store Solution for Leroy Merlin and Top Supplier for Hanshow, for transforming the retail environment with advanced technology. About Leroy Merlin France A pioneering company in the Adeo Group, Leroy Merlin is now the leading brand in France in all distribution channels for improving the home and the living environment. Specialising in the sale of products, projects and services, Leroy Merlin France has set itself the goal of building new ways of living with everyone, so that we can live better in the future, and puts customer satisfaction at the heart of its business. About Hanshow Hanshow is one of the global leaders in the development and manufacturing of electronic shelf labels and digital store solutions The company offers customers a series of customized IoT touchpoints and digital store solutions that deliver customer-centric insights. Hanshow's solutions have provided services to a vast number of stores across more than 50 countries and regions, helping them streamline operations, optimize pricing strategies, and offer consumers a more personalized experience. Learn more: www.hanshow.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240604438443/en/ Contacts: info@hanshow.com The fund has demonstrated a performance of growth over the past five months, with NAV increasing from $102.3 in November 2023 to $114.6 in March 2024. The firm aims to raise $150 million for a strategic real estate expansion which aims to capitalize on emerging opportunities in the real estate landscape & enhance the firm's overall stability and growth potential. Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands--(Newsfile Corp. - June 7, 2024) - Hedge & Sachs Investments Limited, a leading asset management firm, announced the launch of its newest fund domiciled in the Cayman Islands. This strategic initiative underscores the firm's dedication to innovation, growth, and providing tailored investment solutions in an ever-evolving global market landscape. Positive Performance Amidst Market Volatility: The Hedge & Sachs Fund has showcased positive performance over the past five months, achieving consistent growth in Net Asset Value (NAV) despite volatile global market conditions. From November 2023 to March 2024, the fund's NAV has steadily increased, reflecting its resilience and effectiveness in navigating challenging market dynamics. Notably, NAV figures have risen from $102.3 in November 2023 to $114.6 in March 2024, highlighting the fund's robust performance trajectory. Furthermore, the fund's Standard Deviation (STD) figures have remained stable throughout this period, with STD figures ranging at or under 22.4% over the past five months. In response to the growth of the fund and its success, Rachit Pant, CEO & Board Member of Hedge & Sachs, commented, "We are thrilled to see the performance of our fund. This achievement reflects our unwavering commitment to delivering value and excellence to our investors. As we continue to navigate the dynamic global market landscape, we remain focused on leveraging our expertise, insights, and innovative strategies to drive sustainable growth and success for our clients." Strategic Expansion into Real Estate: Hedge & Sachs Investments Limited has announced plans to raise $150 million for further diversification into the real estate sector. This strategic expansion initiative aims to capitalize on emerging opportunities in the real estate market while enhancing the overall stability and growth potential of the firm's investment portfolio. By leveraging its expertise and insights, Hedge & Sachs seeks to unlock new avenues for value creation and long-term growth for its investors. Navigating the Evolving Market Landscape: As Hedge & Sachs continues to navigate the dynamic and ever-changing global market landscape, the firm remains steadfast in its commitment to delivering value and excellence to investors. With a focus on risk management, diversification, and disciplined investment principles, Hedge & Sachs Investments Limited is well-positioned to capitalize on opportunities and overcome challenges, driving sustainable growth and success for its clients. "The strategic real estate expansion is an added offering that we aim to incorporate and further diversify our investment portfolio. We have always aimed to go further and beyond for our investors," added Adil Akhtar, Founder & Group Chairman, Hedge & Sachs. -END- Editor's Note: About Hedge & Sachs: Founded in 2021, Hedge & Sachs is an independent asset management firm offering clients personal financial advice and asset management solutions for safe, hassle-free investment across Luxembourg, Cayman Islands and European markets. Hedge & Sachs provides a broad range of Financial Services including Asset Management, Financial Consultancy, and Investment Consultancy. About Hedge & Sachs Investments Limited: Hedge & Sachs Investments Limited is a leading asset management firm dedicated to delivering superior returns and value for investors. With a proven track record of excellence and a focus on risk-managed strategies, the firm provides innovative investment solutions tailored to meet the unique financial goals and objectives of its clients. Through a combination of expertise, insight, and dedication, Hedge & Sachs strives to deliver exceptional results and build enduring partnerships with its investors. Website: https://hedgeandsachs.com/ For more information, imagery, interviews with the founder, reviews, please contact: Media Team Anand Rai - Head of Global Communications Media@hedgeandsachs.com *Disclaimer - This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Investment in the fund involves significant risks and may not be suitable for all investors. Potential investors should carefully read the offering documents before making an investment decision. This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements. Due to various risks and uncertainties, actual events, results, or performance may differ materially from those reflected or contemplated in such forward-looking statements. Hedge & Sachs undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/212050 SOURCE: Hedge and Sachs Financing Broker CHIHUAHUA, Mexico , June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Chihuahua City, the capital of the northern Mexican state of the same name, has become a reference point for exports, thanks to the arrival of major multinational companies 50 years ago. It is now leveraging the nearshoring boom to develop talent and sophisticate its economy. While Mexico has lost 3.2% of its maquiladora jobs over the past seven months due to a slowdown in the U.S. economy, Chihuahua has maintained a positive trend anchored in the relocation of production chains, with export employment growing by 4.4% over the same period. Rene Espinoza Terrazas, president of Index Chihuahua, told EFE that the city's success in attracting more export jobs lies in the unity of the industrial sector, as well as in the consolidation of talent and physical infrastructure and improve the quality of life for its residents. "The industry brings great development for the workforce. You certify an operator, and they achieve that level. Previously, the jobs were repetitive with no development, but now you can see people with certifications and a better standard of living," Espinoza said. According to Espinoza, Chihuahua has become a hub for the aerospace industry with companies like Textron Aviation, BELL, Honeywell, EZ AIR-Embraer, and Bombardier, as well as major auto parts manufacturers, led by a plant that makes engines for the car company Ford. The 106 export maquiladora plants currently operating generate 93,000 jobs and, in 2023, sent exports worth $10 billion, mostly to the United States. Jose Luis Rodulfo Mercado, former director of the Maquiladora Association, said that in the 1960s, the city was primarily agro-industrial, livestock, and construction with Cementos de Chihuahua. The arrival of the maquiladora industry introduced a work culture that has persisted since then. Conrado Rolon Hinojosa, a founding partner of the maquiladora group, explained that this export talent has been developing for 50 years since transnationals began operating in Mexico following the success in Ciudad Juarez with the National Border Program, which aimed to employ a wave of Mexicans returning from the U.S. Located 380 kilometers (236 miles) from the U.S. border, the state expects the arrival of three more investments agreed upon during the Paris Air Show 2023 and has its sights set on companies in the electromobility sector, for which it already has talent graduating from its technical schools and universities. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/desec-chihuahua-develops-talent-amid-nearshoring-boom-302166971.html San Francisco police released an image of an individual they described as person of interest in their investigation into who left racist, threatening material at the home of a dog walker near Alamo Square. San Francisco Police Department San Francisco police released images Friday of a person of interest in their investigation into racist threats sent to a well-known dog walker. The person, who can be seen wearing a long, black coat and a black hat while carrying a brown bag, was not officially identified as a suspect, according to a statement from the San Francisco Police Department. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Investigators are looking to speak with a person who may have information about the case. The SFPD is seeking the publics assistance in identifying the person, police said in a statement. Police also released what appeared to be security-camera video of the person, briefly shown walking down a city street. The dog walker, Terry Williams, who is Black, said a voodoo doll depicting a Black person with a noose around its neck along with threatening postcards were sent to his Grove Street home in April. Police said they are investigating the incident as a hate crime. One month after he reported the mail to police, his Alamo Square home erupted in flames, injuring his mother and father, who were inside at the time. San Francisco Fire Department officials said Friday that investigators will have a report completed within the next three weeks. They have not said publicly whether the fire was determined to be arson. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Erinnern Sie sich, als Moderna und BioNTech von unbekannten Unternehmen zu globalen Marktfuhrern wurden und fruhzeitige Investoren reich belohnt haben? Die Branche steht vor einem erneuten Innovationsschub von bahnbrechenden Medikamenten bis hin zu revolutionaren Therapien. Warum sollten Sie dabei sein? Sie sollten jetzt in Biotech-Aktien einsteigen, weil wir am Beginn einer neuen Ara der medizinischen Innovation stehen konnten! Gen- und Zelltherapien, personalisierte Medizin und bahnbrechende Technologien konnten das Gesundheitswesen revolutionieren und die Aktienkurse in die Hohe schieen lassen. Die nachste Erfolgsgeschichte im Biotechbereich warten nur darauf, entdeckt zu werden. Wer jetzt investiert, hat die Chance, von gigantischen Durchbruchen und enormen Renditen zu profitieren. Warten Sie nicht, bis es zu spat ist - der nachste Biotech-Superstar konnte morgen schon durchstarten! Verpassen Sie nicht diese Chance! Fordern Sie sofort unseren brandneuen Biotech-Spezialreport an und erfahren Sie, welche 3 Biotech-Aktien das riesige Potenzial haben, Ihren finanziellen Erfolg zu sichern. Dieser Report ist komplett kostenlos und zeigt Ihnen zukunftstrachtige Investments im Biotech-Sektor. Handeln Sie jetzt und sichern Sie sich Ihren kostenfreien Report! Approval of all resolutions as recommended by the Board of Directors Regulatory News: The Annual General Meeting of Arverne Group (Paris:ARVEN) was held on June 7, 2024, at 2 rue Saint Florentin 75001 Paris, under the chairmanship of Mr Pierre Brossollet, Chairman and CEO. The shareholders were able to cast their votes electronically via the secure voting platform VOTACCESS as well as by mail or by giving proxy to the Chairman by post. It was also possible to vote in session for shareholders present at the meeting. The thirty-seven resolutions put to a shareholder vote have been adopted, as recommended by the Board of Directors, including in particular: Approval of the 2023 financial statements Approval of the corporate mandate contracts of Pierre Brossollet and Sebastien Renaud Appointment for a three-year term of Mr Bruno Gerard as a Director Approval of the components of the compensation paid during 2023 or allocated for that year and of the compensation policies applicable in 2024 to the Chairman and CEO, to the Deputy CEO and the corporate officers Authorisations and financial delegations of competence granted to the Board of Directors Pierre Brossollet presented to shareholders the Group's achievements in 2023 and its ambitions for 2030. Closing the Annual General Meeting, Pierre Brossolletstated: "I am delighted that at this first general meeting since our IPO, our shareholders have overwhelmingly supported the resolutions proposed by the Board of Directors. I sincerely thank them for their trust, which commits us. We will continue to develop our activities to harness the resources of the French subsoil for the energy transition The full results of the votes as well as the presentations made to the shareholders will be available soon on www.arverne.earthwebsite. About Arverne Group Arverne Group specialises in harnessing underground resources to transform them into environmentally friendly, local and renewable energy, contributing to the prosperity of local communities. As an integrated industrial player, Arverne Group spans the entire underground value chain, from exploration to drilling and production to sales to end-users. Arverne Group aims to become the French leader in geothermal energy and its by-products, including low-carbon geothermal lithium. Founded in Pau in 2018, Arverne Group has structured its business activities around several subsidiaries, notably 2gre (sale of geothermal heat), Lithium de France (geothermal heat and extraction and sale of geothermal lithium) and Arverne Drilling Services (drilling operations). A mission-driven company, Arverne Group is listed on the professional segment of Euronext Paris and is part of the Tech Leaders segment of Euronext Paris (ISIN FR001400JWR8, mnemonic ARVEN). www.arverne.earth View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240607879641/en/ Contacts: Media Relations: communication@arverne.earth arvernegroup@image7.fr Investor Relations: investor.relations@arverne.earth SEITOSEI.ACTIFIN Mathilde Guillemot mathilde.guillemot@seitosei-actifin.com RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Infinix, a trendy tech brand crafted for young consumers, introduces the NOTE 40 Series Racing Edition, crafted in partnership with BMW Group Designworks for the phone's back cover color, material, and finish(CMF) design. This special edition captures the essence of speed and legend with its unique back panel design and customized UI. Designed for young tech enthusiasts, it offers high-octane performance and reflects a passion for racing. This marks the second collaboration between these industry leaders, showcasing their commitment to pushing limits and embracing speed. "Our continued partnership with BMW Group Designworks pushes the boundaries of mobile design, redefining excellence. Speed is not just a metric; it's an attitude. The Racing Edition embodies this spirit with speed-inspired aesthetics, legendary design, and cutting-edge technology, delivering an unmatched experience to customers worldwide." - Lake Hu, CMO at Infinix. "The Racing Edition shows off the joint passion between Infinix and Designworks for high performance and our collective commitment to pushing limits and embracing speed. At Designworks, high-performance design is our expertise. The creation of the NOTE 40 Series Racing Edition allowed us to advance the concepts of speed and sportiness in design through innovative shapes and dynamic craftsmanship," - Cece Chen, Senior CMF Designer at BMW Group Designworks. Built Like a Race Car The NOTE 40 Series Racing Edition features an exclusive Wings of Speed design, adding rich detail to the phone. Advanced UV transfer printing creates sleek, streamlined lines that flow across the device, forming tiny ridges that enhance grip and interact with light to create gentle shadows. Premium composite materials give the phone a glossy finish while keeping it lightweight. The silver finish with metallic luster enhances the sense of lightness. The iconic tri-color racing symbols on the frame beside the camera lens add a dynamic touch of color. The Racing Edition also includes exclusive wallpaper and UI, inspired by the energy of a racetrack. Dynamic lines, racing symbols, and tri-color motifs combine to reflect the lightning pace of a race. Engineered for Speed, Power & Reliability The NOTE 40 Series Racing Edition is available in the NOTE 40 Pro+ 5G, NOTE 40 Pro 5G and NOTE 40 5G models. Engineered for speed, the series features All-Round FastCharge 2.0 technology powered by the Cheetah X1 chip. It offers up to 100W Multi-Speed FastCharge, 20W Wireless MagCharge, and various charging modes to keep users powered up at all times. The Infinix MagKit, including the MagCase, MagPad, and MagPower, provides a convenient magnetic charging experience. The series also boasts a vibrant 3D curved 120Hz AMOLED display and a robust 108MP super-zoom camera system with OIS, delivering stunning visuals and photography. Active Halo AI lighting and Sound by JBL further enhance the user experience. Availability and Pricing The NOTE 40 Series Racing Edition will be available globally starting Thursday, June 6th, 2024. All models come with Infinix XOS 14 (based on Android 14) and will receive updates up to Android 16, along with 3 years of security patches. The NOTE 40 5G Racing Edition starts at SAR 849 The NOTE 40 Pro 5G Racing Edition starts at SAR 999 The NOTE 40 Pro+5G Racing Edition starts at SAR 1299 About Infinix: Founded in 2013, Infinix is a trendy tech brand crafted for young consumers. With a presence in over 70 countries, Infinix delivers cutting-edge technology, stylish design, and outstanding performance. Our product lineup includes smartphones, TWS earbuds, smartwatches, laptops, and smart TVs. In 2023, Infinix was recognized in Kantar and Google's top 50 Chinese Global Brand Builders Report and ranked sixth in Fast Company's World's Most Innovative Companies of 2024 in the Asia-Pacific sector. For more information, please visit: http://www.infinixmobility.com/. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2430609/2.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2430610/5.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2316423/Infinix_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/infinix-launches-all-new-note-40-series-racing-edition-in-partnership-with-bmw-group-designworks-in-saudi-arabia-302166985.html 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. Handeln Sie Jetzt! Fordern Sie jetzt den brandneuen Spezialreport an und profitieren Sie von dem weiter steigenden Kurs des Edelmetalls. Sichern Sie sich jetzt Ihren kostenfreien Report. 101 graduates boost UAE's AI ecosystem of research, development and commercial application advances - creating an AI tech hub of the Global South ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, attended the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence's (MBZUAI) 2024 commencement ceremony on June 6, celebrating 101 graduates from 22 countries, receiving post-graduate degrees in key AI fields including computer vision (CV), machine learning (ML), and natural language processing (NLP). The event was also attended by His Excellency Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Founding Chairman of the Board of Trustees of MBZUAI, and other dignitaries. "Before many other countries recognized its potential, government-led policies encouraged the promotion of AI in the UAE," Dr. Al Jaber said. "They nurtured the success of companies like G42 and large language models like Falcon. As a result, this small country is creating a world class ecosystem for AI talent and entrepreneurship. We are attracting major investment from tech leaders such as Microsoft and emerging as a significant hub for AI innovation and application." Dr. Al Jaber noted that the growth of AI is one of three megatrends shaping the future, alongside the accelerating pace of the energy transition and the rise of emerging markets and Global South: "The Class of 2024's growing expertise will hold the keys to unlocking solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges. In fact, if we are to achieve the ambitious goals of the historic UAE Consensus agreed at COP28 in December in Dubai, AI must play a critical role." MBZUAI's third and largest commencement celebrated the university's first Ph.D. graduates in ML along with master's graduates in ML (55), CV (28) and NLP (12) with students hailing from countries including UAE, Canada, United Kingdom, France, India, Vietnam, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka. MBZUAI President and University Professor, Eric Xing, said: "MBZUAI's Class of 2024 are the future leaders of technology, innovation, and creativity, they are equipped to accept the responsibility that comes with the stewardship of something so powerful and transformative. They depart us with the knowledge, skills, and a profound understanding of the opportunity before them - the chance to shape a future where AI serves humanity with compassion and unwavering ethical standards - they are ready to tackle the greatest challenges facing our world today." Five years since its inception, MBZUAI is now recognized as one of the world's top 100 computer science universities and is ranked in the top 20 for its specializations in AI, CV, ML, NLP, and robotics (CSRankings). To apply for admission, visit mbzuai.ac.ae or contact admission@mbzuai.ac.ae . For press inquiries, please contact: Amy Rogers, MBZUAI's Senior Communications Specialist media@mbzuai.ac.ae Roger Field/Aya Hassan mbzuai@wallispr.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/bdfc68d2-c10f-449c-85d5-dd39d3b960bd CHICAGO, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Hydrogen IC Engines Market in terms of revenue was estimated to be worth $12 million in 2024 and is poised to reach $327 million by 2035, growing at a CAGR of 34.7% from 2024 to 2035 according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. The global Hydrogen IC Engines Market is anticipated to grow at a higher level. There are various drivers responsible for the growth of the market such as government policies and incentives and technological advancements among others. Existing ICE technologies can be adapted to run on hydrogen with modifications, leveraging established manufacturing and maintenance infrastructure, and reducing the development costs and time compared to completely new technologies. Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=87368126 Browse in-depth TOC on "Hydrogen IC Engines Market" 124 - Tables 59 - Figures 205 - Pages Hydrogen IC Engines Market Scope: Report Coverage Details Market Revenue in 2024 $12 million Estimated Value by 2035 $327 million Growth Rate Poised to grow at a CAGR of 34.7% Market Size Available for 2022-2035 Forecast Period 2024-2035 Forecast Units Value (USD Million) Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered Hydrogen IC Engines Market by state, power rating, application, blending and Region. Geographies Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and RoW. Report Highlights Updated financial information / product portfolio of players Key Market Opportunities Increasing customer curiosity Key Market Drivers Increasing government policies and investments Liquid, by state, is expected to be the largest segment during the forecast period. Recent advances in engine technologies are significantly enhancing the efficiency and reliability of hydrogen combustion, thereby increasing the feasibility and attractiveness of hydrogen IC engines. These innovations are addressing key challenges associated with hydrogen fuel, optimizing engine performance, and paving the way for broader adoption in the automotive industry. One of the foremost areas of innovation is in combustion techniques. Engineers are developing advanced combustion strategies specifically tailored for hydrogen's properties. For instance, direct injection systems are being optimized to handle hydrogen's lower energy density and high diffusivity, ensuring a more controlled and efficient combustion process. This reduces the likelihood of pre-ignition and knock, common issues with hydrogen fuel, and enhances overall engine performance. The Transportation, by application, is expected to be the largest segment during the forecast period. Hydrogen ICEs offer a promising solution for reducing carbon footprints. When hydrogen is used as a fuel, it produces water vapor as its primary emission, drastically reducing the release of carbon dioxide and other harmful pollutants compared to traditional diesel or gasoline engines. This reduction in emissions aligns perfectly with corporate sustainability initiatives aimed at decreasing the environmental impact of their operations. Request Sample Pages: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=87368126 Asia Pacific is expected to be the second fastest growing region in the Hydrogen IC Engines Market. Countries in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly prioritizing energy security and diversification as part of their long-term strategic goals. The heavy reliance on imported fossil fuels poses significant risks, including supply disruptions, price volatility, and geopolitical tensions. To mitigate these risks, there is a strong push towards diversifying energy sources, and hydrogen is emerging as a key component in this strategy. Hydrogen stands out as a versatile and locally producible energy carrier that can be derived from a variety of sources, including natural gas, biomass, water (through electrolysis), and even waste. This flexibility allows countries to leverage their unique natural resources and technological capabilities to produce hydrogen domestically. Key Market Players of Hydrogen IC Engines Industry: Some of the major players in the Hydrogen IC Engines Market are Wartsila (Finland), GARRETT MOTION INC. (Switzerland), BeHydro (Belgium), DEUTZ AG (Germany), MAN Energy Solutions (Germany). The major strategies adopted by these players include new product launches, acquisitions, contracts, agreements, partnerships, joint ventures, collaborations, investments, and expansions. Get 10% Free Customization on this Report: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestCustomizationNew.asp?id=87368126 Related Reports: Hydrogen Compressors Market by Lubrication Type (Oil-based, Oil-free), Type (Mechanical, Non-mechanical), Application (Hydrogen Infrastructure, Industrial (Oil Refining, Chemicals & Petrochemicals), Design Region - Global Forecast to 2028 Hydrogen Generation Market by Technology (SMR, ATR, POX, Coal Gasification, Electrolysis), Application (Refinery, Ammonia, Methanol, Transportation, Power Generation), Source (Blue, Green, Gray), Generation Mode Region - Global Forecast to 2028 Cryogenic Equipment Market by Equipment (Tanks, Valves, Vaporizers, Pumps), Cryogen (Nitrogen, Argon, Oxygen, LNG, Hydrogen), End-user Industry (Energy & Power, Chemical, Metallurgy, Transportation), System Type, Application & Region - Forecast to 2028 Get access to the latest updates on Hydrogen IC Engines Companies and Hydrogen IC Engines Industry Growth About MarketsandMarkets: MarketsandMarkets has been recognized as one of America's best management consulting firms by Forbes, as per their recent report. 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. To find out more, visit www.MarketsandMarkets.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Contact: Mr. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com Visit Our Website: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1951202/4609423/MarketsandMarkets.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/hydrogen-ic-engines-market-worth-327-million-by-2035--marketsandmarkets-302166887.html MARYSVILLE, Ohio, June 7, 2024 - (JCN Newswire) - Honda today celebrated the start of production of the all-new 2025 Honda CR-V e:FCEV fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) at the Performance Manufacturing Center (PMC) in Ohio. The all-new CR-V e:FCEV is the only FCEV made in America, as well as the first production(1) hydrogen FCEV in the United States to combine an all-new U.S.-made fuel cell system with plug-in EV charging capability. A fun-to-drive compact CUV, the CR-V e:FCEV received a 270-mile EPA driving range rating, combining the fuel cell system with plug-in charging to provide up to 29 miles(2) of EV driving around town with the flexibility of fast hydrogen refueling for longer trips."The Performance Manufacturing Center was conceived as a small volume manufacturing facility with a focus on craftsmanship, and I'm proud of how our production technicians leveraged their experience building the Acura NSX to take on the challenge of making this all-new Honda CR-V e:FCEV," said Patrick McIntyre, lead of PMC. "Producing a zero-emission fuel cell electric vehicle is one more step toward Honda's global goal of achieving carbon neutrality for our products and operations."In addition to producing the Honda CR-V e:FCEV in America, the next gen fuel cell system that powers it is also made in the U.S. at Fuel Cell System Manufacturing LLC, in Brownstown, Michigan - the joint venture production facility established by Honda and General Motors (GM). The new fuel cell system was co-developed by Honda and GM, achieving higher efficiency and increased refinement, with durability performance doubled and cost reduced by two-thirds compared to the previous fuel cell system in the Honda Clarity Fuel Cell.PMC Innovations for CR-V e:FCEV ProductionProduction technicians at PMC navigated several challenges related to new production equipment and processes to effectively transition from building the Acura NSX supercar to the Honda CR-V e:FCEV. Following is a look at several of these key initiatives.New components:PMC technicians are taking on multiple new assembly processes specific to producing a vehicle powered by both a fuel cell system and a plug-in EV battery, requiring multiple connections for the vehicle's two power sources and the Power Supply Connector that can provide electrical power for various external devices. These include:- Sub-assembly of two hydrogen tanks, attaching high pressure piping and other parts and then installing the tanks in the vehicle- Compressing hydrogen to 10,000 PSI via a new onsite station used to fill the CR-V e:FCEV hydrogen fuel tanks- Installation of the fuel-cell system along with connecting high pressure piping and wiring- Sub-assembly and installation of the under-floor batteryNew Weld System:Transitioning to the CR-V e:FCEV required a complete transformation of the Weld Department, from a highly-automated welding system created for an aluminum spaceframe to a multi-material unibody construction.- The previous robotic weld system was removed and replaced with new steel welding robots which were installed with characteristics of a traditional weld system but are unique from mass production plants with a flexible fixture system that rolls around on a track.- PMC technicians also now perform some manual MIG welding to apply welds that are difficult for robots to reach to attach closure parts for the doors, hood and tailgate.Paint System Modifications:The larger and heavier all-steel body of the CR-V e:FCEV requires a different corrosion protection application process than the smaller, all-aluminium Acura NSX.- The CR-V e:FCEV marks the first application in Honda North America of zirconium to a mixed metal, uni-body, and utilizes the same high-appearance paint coating as the NSX. The E-coat dip tank was designed for the smaller surface area of the NSX spaceframe, not a full frame vehicle like CR-V with more surface area inside. So, engineers had to modify the dip tank to enable the CUV body shape to enter at a 38-degree angle, steeper than the 15-degree angle for NSX. More precise control of the E-coat pumps also was required for CR-V, to create higher circulation of the E-coat to cover the surface area inside the frame.- Following e-coating, but prior to application of the final paint finish, sealer is applied to prevent water leaks. The CR-V body is mounted on a rotisserie, but unlike the previous equipment arm used to turn the lighter NSX spaceframe, a more robust arm that can maintain stability of the heavier CR-V steel frame is used to turn the frame on its side. This enables associates to manually apply sealer similar to the application for the NSX.Production of the FCEV at the PMC also is laying the groundwork for production of battery-electric vehicles at the Honda EV Hub in Ohio from the standpoint of software for the Integrated Power Unit (IPU).CR-V e:FCEV Product HighlightsThe Honda CR-V is America's best-selling CUV of the past quarter century, and the CR-V e:FCEV builds on that foundation to deliver top class cabin space, cargo capacity and power.Honda engineers optimized CR-V e:FCEV's steering and suspension tuning to deliver the same sporty driving experience and class-leading refinement as turbo and hybrid-powered CR-V models.Moreover, the driver can customize the driving experience of the CR-V e:FCEV with selectable drive modes, including EV modes to maximize efficiency and a Sport mode to prioritize acceleration and responsiveness.Refueling with hydrogen takes about the same time as filling a tank with gasoline. Recharging the Honda CR-V e:FCEV takes just 1.8-hours using a level 2 charger and adds up to 29 miles of battery-powered range for short trips around town.The Honda CR-V e:FCEV also features the Honda Power Supply Connector, turning the CUV into a clean power source capable of running small home appliances, power tools or camping equipment, as well as charging the new Honda Motocompacto e-scooter.Honda Hydrogen BusinessHonda has identified four core domains for the utilization of its fuel cell system. In addition to fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV), the Honda hydrogen business strategy includes commercial vehicles, stationary power stations and construction machinery. Honda is engaged in collaboration with other companies in pursuit of these business opportunities.- Honda recently debuted a Class 8 Hydrogen Fuel Cell Truck Concept powered by three Honda fuel cell systems to showcase the start of a new demonstration project aimed at future production of fuel cell-powered products for the North American market.- Honda also began demonstration testing of a stationary fuel cell power station on its Torrance, Calif. campus in March 2023, marking the company's first step toward future commercialization of zero-emission backup power generation.- Honda also is looking at the application of its fuel cell system to equipment such as excavators and wheel loaders, which account for a large segment of the construction machinery market.Honda Electrification StrategyHonda has a vision to make battery-electric and fuel cell electric vehicles represent 100% of its new vehicle sales by 2040. Toward this goal, Honda is establishing its "Honda EV Hub" in Ohio where the company will begin production of EVs in North America. Honda also recently announced plans to build a comprehensive EV value chain in Canada with an approximate investment of USD$11 billion, to strengthen its EV supply system and capability to prepare for a future increase in EV demand in North America. It is the role of the Honda EV Hub in Ohio to establish the expertise and experience for EV production that will be shared across the Honda production network in North America, including the EV value chain initiative in Canada.Moreover, each Honda auto production facility in North America has a critical role to play in Honda's electrified future. Even as Honda accelerates preparation for EV production, the company plans to sustain current ICE and hybrid-electric vehicle production to meet continued strong customer demand. The sales growth of ICE and hybrid-electric vehicles also will support the required investment in the electrified future.Importantly, Honda expects to maintain employment stability across all locations during these key next steps in the transition to the electrified future.1. Using domestic and globally sourced parts2. EPA-estimated 29-mile all-electric driving range when fully charged. Use for comparison purposes only. Actual range will vary based on several factors, including temperature, terrain, battery age & condition, loading, use and maintenance.Honda Manufacturing in AmericaHonda has been producing automobiles in America for over 40 years, beginning in November 1982 with the start of automobile production at the Marysville Auto Plant.In 2022, more than two-thirds of all Honda and Acura automobiles sold in the U.S. were made in America, using domestic and globally sourced parts. Honda's cumulative auto production in America now exceeds 30 million vehicles.Honda established manufacturing operations in America in 1979 with the start of motorcycle production in Marysville, Ohio, and today has one of the largest and most diverse U.S. manufacturing footprints of any international company. More than 23,000 U.S. associates support the company's 12 manufacturing plants in America, supporting operations that have an annual capacity of more than 1.27 million automobiles, 1.52 million engines, 500,000 power equipment products and 300,000 powersports products, as well as the HondaJet advanced light jet and GE Honda HF120 turbofan engines.Cumulatively, Honda has invested $19 billion in its U.S. manufacturing operations, including more than $3.6 billion over the past five years alone. The company also works with 600 U.S. original equipment suppliers, with U.S.-sourced parts purchases of approximately $492 billion since 1979.Learn more at https://hondainamerica.com/.More information about Honda is available in the Digital FactBook.Source: Honda Motor Co, LtdCopyright 2024 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - June 7, 2024) - Happy Belly Food Group Inc. (CSE: HBFG) (OTCQB: HBFGF) ("Happy Belly" or the "Company"), a leading consolidator of emerging food brands is pleased to announce the opening of its newest Heal Wellness location in the City of Chilliwack, British Columbia, this Sunday June 9th, 2024. Heal Wellness To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/6625/212049_ae6d5683d49c98c1_002full.jpg "Opening our newest Heal Wellness franchised location, serving fresh smoothie bowls, acai bowls, and smoothies is just the beginning for store openings not only for Heal but for Happy Belly's portfolio of emerging brands in 2024," said Sean Black, Chief Investment Officer of Happy Belly. "This will be our eight (8th) Heal location, our first (1st) of ten (10) for British Columbia, and our third (3rd) franchised location that has opened in the Happy Belly Portfolio this year, with many more still to come. We have a commitment of 60 units for Heal in the pipeline across Canada and the US. This opening marks a significant milestone for Heal Wellness and Happy Belly, as it is our first opened location in British Columbia within our portfolio of brands as we continue to leverage our franchising experience and framework to accelerate our growth." "As each store opens, our Happy Belly footprint expands. With five (5) of our brands currently having store locations under construction, we look forward to announcing several openings throughout 2024 as we continue to sign franchise agreements and secure prime real estate locations for our franchisees across Canada." "We anticipate that The Chilliwack location will significantly extend Heal's customer base in a densely populated area that aligns well with the brand's demographics. This presents us with substantial opportunities both in-store and through delivery services. The city of Chilliwack continues to rapidly grow at an impressive double-digit rate and promotes a focus on health and wellness. It is known for its rich agricultural heritage and abundance of locally sourced fresh produce, making it an ideal location for a business centered around healthy, natural ingredients. The city's increasing population and active lifestyle culture create a strong market demand for nutritious and convenient food options like acai bowls and smoothies." "With a total of 300 contractually committed retail locations in the pipeline across all emerging brands in the Happy Belly Portfolio still to come, our team is heads down sourcing and continually reviewing real estate locations, combing through franchisee applications, and working hand in hand with our area developers to accelerate the growth of our asset light franchising model." "The rapid expansion of the Heal Wellness brand serves as a testament to our ability to execute effectively. As the brand's free cash flow grows, we anticipate accelerating our corporate store development timeline, supplemented by the growth of our franchise program." US Market Update: As we continue to progress with our entry into the US Quick Service Restaurant space ("QSR") along side our expanding US shareholder base, we are pleased to announce we have updated our US trading symbol to HBFGF (OTCQB: HBFGF). The effective date of our new OTCQB trading symbol was June 6th, 2024. About Heal Wellness Heal Wellness was founded with a passion and mission to provide quick, fresh wellness foods that support a busy and active lifestyle. We currently offer a diverse range of smoothie bowls and smoothies. We take pride in meticulously selecting every superfood ingredient on our menu to fuel the body, including acai smoothie bowls, smoothies, and super-seed grain bowls. Our smoothie bowls are crafted with real fruit and enriched with superfoods like acai, pitaya, goji berries, chia seeds, and more. About Happy Belly Food Group Happy Belly Food Group Inc. (CSE: HBFG) (OTCQB: HBFGF) ("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/6625/212049_ae6d5683d49c98c1_003full.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/212049 SOURCE: Happy Belly Food Group Inc. Not for dissemination in the United States of America VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Premier Diversified Holdings Inc. ("PDH" or the "Company") (TSXV:PDH) is pleased to announce that, further to its press release dated September 20, 2023, whereby the Company announced entering into a non-binding letter of intent related to the acquisition, by way of reverse takeover, of AJA Health and Wellness Inc. ("AJA Health") and Assured Diagnosis Inc. ("ADI") by the Company (the "RTO Transaction"), the Company has now entered into definitive agreements with respect to the RTO Transaction. The AJA Health Amalgamation Agreement On June 3, 2024, PDH, 2564858 Alberta Inc. ("Subco 1"), a wholly owned subsidiary of PDH, and AJA Health entered into an amalgamation agreement (the "AJA Health Agreement") for the purpose of completing a three-cornered amalgamation under the Business Corporations Act (Alberta) (the "AJA Health Amalgamation"), pursuant to which PDH will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of AJA Health, in exchange for the issuance of up to 36,697,133 shares of the resulting issuer that will exist upon completion of the RTO Transaction (the "Resulting Issuer") to the shareholders of AJA Health. Upon completion of the AJA Health Amalgamation, the company formed pursuant to the AJA Health Amalgamation ("Amalco 1") will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Resulting Issuer which will be engaged in the existing business of AJA Health. A draft form of the AJA Health Agreement was approved at a special meeting of shareholders of AJA Health, held on December 8, 2023. Completion of the AJA Health Amalgamation is subject to a number of conditions, including the requisite shareholder approval of PDH, the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") granting approval of the RTO Transaction, and completion of the Private Placement (as defined below). The ADI Amalgamation Agreement On June 3, 2024, PDH, 2564891 Alberta Inc. ("Subco 2") and ADI entered into an amalgamation agreement (the "ADI Agreement") for the purpose of completing a three-cornered amalgamation under the Business Corporations Act (Alberta) (the "ADI Amalgamation"), pursuant to which PDH will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of ADI, in exchange for the issuance of up to 10,600,000 shares of the Resulting Issuer to shareholders of ADI. Upon completion of the ADI Amalgamation, the company formed pursuant to the ADI Amalgamation ("Amalco 2") will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Resulting Issuer which will be engaged in the existing business of ADI. A draft form of the ADI Agreement was approved at a special meeting of ADI shareholders held on December 8, 2023. Completion of the ADI Amalgamation is subject to a number of conditions, including the requisite shareholder approval of PDH, and the TSXV granting approval of the RTO Transaction. The AJA Therapeutics Inc. Share Purchase Agreement On June 3, 2024, PDH, AJA Therapeutics Inc. ("ATI"), James Viccars, Elizabeth Bryant Viccars and Deluxe Holdings Inc. entered into a share purchase agreement (the "ATI Agreement"), pursuant to which PDH will acquire all of the shares held by James Viccars, Elizabeth Bryant Viccars and Deluxe Holdings Inc. in the capital of ATI in exchange for the issuance of 1,500,000 shares of the Resulting Issuer (the "ATI Share Purchase"). Upon completion of the ATI Share Purchase, ATI will be a subsidiary of the Resulting Issuer and AJA Health. Completion of the ATI Share Purchase is subject to a number of conditions, including the requisite shareholder approval of PDH, ATI and Deluxe Holdings Inc., and the TSXV granting approval of the RTO Transaction. The RTO Transaction In connection with the RTO Transaction, the Company is expected to change its name to "AJA Health and Wellness Inc." (the "Name Change") and continue from the Province of British Columbia to the Province of Alberta (the "Continuance"). In connection with the RTO Transaction, AJA Health is expected to complete a private placement of up to 12,500,000 shares of AJA Health at a price of $0.20 per share for gross proceeds of up to $2,500,000 (the "Private Placement"). The Private Placement is anticipated to be non-brokered and details regarding finder's fees and commissions will be announced by the Company when available. The proceeds of the Private Placement will be used to implement new marketing strategies, launch new products, and fund operations of the Resulting Issuer. The Company intends to apply for a waiver of the sponsorship requirements for the RTO Transaction under the policies of the TSXV. The RTO Transaction includes a Related Party Transaction, involves Non-Arm's Length Parties, and is subject to shareholder approval under the policies of the TSXV. The Company holds approximately 32% of the issued and outstanding shares in AJA Health and, as a result, AJA Health is a "related party" for the purposes of Exchange Policy 5.9, which incorporates the requirements of MI 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions. Sanjeev Parsad is a significant shareholder, director and the Chief Executive Officer of the Company and beneficially owns or exercises control or direction over, directly or indirectly, approximately 31.22% of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company (on an undiluted basis). Mr. Parsad is also a director of AJA Health and ATI and, as a result, AJA Health and ATI are considered Non-Arm's Length Parties under the policies of the TSXV. The Resulting Issuer intends to list on the TSXV as a Tier 2 Life Sciences Issuer and will carry on the business of PDH. If the RTO Transaction is completed, it is expected that (i) the Board of Directors of the Resulting Issuer will be comprised of G. Andrew Cooke, Alnesh Mohan, Sanjeev Parsad, Dr. Simon Sutcliffe, Eric Tsung, James Viccars, and Elizabeth Bryant Viccars, and (ii) the executive management of the Resulting Issuer will be comprise of Sanjeev Parsad (CEO), Alnesh Mohan (CFO), and Maria Nathanail (Corporate Secretary). G. Andrew Cooke is a Chartered Accountant with over 25 years of accounting experience including extensive public and private company experience and a high level of financial literacy. Mr. Cooke is currently a director of Corner Market Capital U.S. Inc. a private equity firm based in Delaware. Mr. Cooke was formerly a Treasurer of Lumbermens Mutual Group (formerly Kemper Insurance) and an Independent Consultant to Fairfax Financial subsidiaries Cunningham Lindsey, Fairmont Specialty and TIG. Alnesh Mohan is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) and has over 20 years of accounting, auditing, and tax experience providing advisory services to a wide array of clients. Acting on behalf of several public companies, Mr. Mohan has gained considerable experience in financial reporting, corporate governance and regulatory compliance. He is a founding partner of Quantum Advisory Partners LLP, a professional services firm providing outsourced CFO, financial advisory and accounting services. Sanjeev Parsad has a working knowledge of Canadian securities regulations through his as a President, CEO and Director of Corner Market Capital Corp., a private equity firm, which he has been involved with since 2006. Corner Market Capital Corp. has conducted several private financings. Mr. Parsad has a high level of investment knowledge and is the founder and owner of "The Corner of Berkshire & Fairfax" investor online forum, with over 3,000 members. Mr. Parsad was profiled in a chapter of Andrew Kilpatrick's book "Of Permanent Value", an anthology on Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway; John Mihaljevic's "The Manual of Ideas", and Guy Spier's "The Education of a Value Investor". Dr. Simon Sutcliffe, M.D., FRCP, FRCP(C), FRCR, is a distinguished clinician and scientist with training encompassing internal medicine, scientific research, medical and radiation oncology in the UK, South Africa, US and Canada. Dr. Sutcliffe has held staff appointments at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital/Ontario Cancer Institute and the BC Cancer Agency. Dr. Sutcliffe is past President and CEO of the BC Cancer Agency (2000-2009), and prior to that, he was President and CEO of Ontario Cancer Institute/Princess Margaret Hospital (1994-1996). His other professional activities include chair of the Board of the Institute for Health Systems Transformation and Sustainability; President of the International Cancer Control Congress Association, the International Network for Cancer Treatment and Research-Canada Branch (Two Worlds Cancer Collaboration); Senior Advisor to the Terry Fox Research Institute and is Chief Medical Officer for QuBiologics Inc. and Omnitura Inc.; past Chair of the Board of the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC, 2009-2012), past Chair of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR, 2006-7); Adjunct Clinical Professor at the University of British Columbia and an Associate Scientist with the Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre at the BC Cancer Agency. During Dr. Sutcliffe's multitude of business dealings and executive appointments, he became financially literate and during his tenure with the Company he has developed an understanding of Canadian securities regulation. Eric Tsung is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CGA), Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA) (UK), and holds a Masters in Business Administration (MBA). Mr. Tsung has over 15 years of experience in financial services and consulting. He has developed extensive experience in internal and external financial reporting, operations, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), public and private financing. Currently, Mr. Tsung is a senior manager of Quantum Advisory Partners LLP, a professional services firm that provides Chief Financial Officer, Controller and day-to-day accounting support services to private and public companies in Canada and the United States. He is now serving as Chief Financial Officer of Eco Oro Minerals Corp. (CSE: EOM) and acts as Chief Financial Officer of Fabled Copper Corp. (CSE: FABL). James Viccars has been involved in the emerging market for private health care in Canada since 1998. Mr. Viccars has experience working with various private companies as a principal and executive, including life insurance companies and companies operating private health facilities. Mr. Viccars is the co-founder and CEO of ATI, the co-founder and President of AJA Health, and the co-founder and President of ADI. Elizabeth Bryant Viccars has experience in strategic leadership, financial management, program/fund development and human resources. She holds a degree in Business Administration, an Excellence in Leadership designation from the Banff Center for Leadership and has received additional training in public relations, marketing, board development and media. Ms. Viccars is a co-founder of ATI, a co-founder and officer of AJA Health, and a co-founder and COO of ADI. Prior to working with the Privcos, Ms. Viccars worked with health charities, including the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, Canadian Cancer Society, and YWCA. Maria Nathanail is a corporate lawyer focused on corporate finance, capital markets and securities regulation, and business and corporate commercial law. She represents public and private clients in domestic and international transactions, including: public offerings; mergers and acquisitions; reverse takeovers; debt and equity financings; private placements; corporate reorganizations and corporate structuring. Ms. Nathanail also handles compliance with corporate and securities regulatory requirements relating to stock exchange listings, corporate governance, continuous disclosure obligations and shareholders' meetings. Ms. Nathanail received her Juris Doctor from the University of Saskatchewan in 2005 and was called to the Alberta Bar in 2006. She has been a partner with McLeod Law since August 2017. Prior to that, she was with regional and international firms from 2006 - August 2017. Ms. Nathanail has extensive experience sitting on the boards of directors of both public and private companies. Completion of the RTO Transaction is subject to a number of conditions including, but not limited to: (i) closing conditions customary to transaction of the nature of the RTO Transaction; (ii) receipt of regulatory approvals; (iii) conditional approval of the TSXV; (iv) shareholders of PDH approving the RTO Transaction, the Name Change and the Continuance; (v) the completion of the Private Placement; (vi) revocation of the failure to file cease trade order and (vii) other actions necessary to complete the RTO Transaction. There can be no assurance that the RTO Transaction, the Private Placement, the Name Change, the Continuance, or the reconstitution of the Resulting Issuer's Board of Directors will be completed as proposed or at all. PDH Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders Pursuant to and in connection with the RTO Transaction, the Company will be holding an annual general and special meeting of shareholders of the Company (the "Meeting"). The Meeting was scheduled for May 7, 2024, as disclosed in the Notice of Meeting filed on March 7, 2024, but was subsequently amended to give the Company additional time to make an application to the TSXV for conditional approval of the RTO Transaction. It is anticipated that the meeting will be held on August 12, 2024. The management information circular (the "Information Circular"), which will constitute the key disclosure document for the purpose of the Meeting, will be provided to PDH's security holders in compliance with applicable corporate and securities law requirements. PDH intends to obtain a formal valuation (as such term is defined in Section 1.1 of MI 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions). At the Meeting, the security holders of the Company will be asked to approve, among other things, the following matters: (i) the Name Change, (ii) fixing of the number of director positions, (iii) appointment of directors, (iv) the Continuance, and (v) the AJA Health Amalgamation, the ADI Amalgamation, and the ATI Share Purchase - the results of these matters will be contingent and conditional upon completion of the RTO Transaction. Full details regarding the RTO Transaction will be disclosed by the Company in the Information Circular to be prepared and filed with the TSXV and will be posted on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com in accordance with applicable corporate and securities laws. About AJA Health AJA Health is a privately owned Alberta-based Canadian telemedicine company that has developed GOeVisit, an innovative platform which provides virtual consultations 24/7 from coast to coast. GOeVisit is a fully integrated, secure and virtual based health platform to enable and support online, real-time appointments via face-to-face technology or smart phone with a health practitioner at a fraction of the time of a traditional appointment. AJA Health's medical team uses proven virtual practice guidelines to diagnose, treat and prescribe for over 450 episodic medical conditions via computer, tablet or smartphone. AJA Health also operates full-service travel clinics in Vancouver and Surrey, BC. A summary of selected financial information of AJA Health and ATI, which have consolidated financials, for the years ended December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2023 is set out below. Year ended December 31, 2022 Year ended December 31, 2023 Total Revenues $500,499 $587,754 Net Loss $1,151,416 $781,599 Comprehensive Loss $570,454 $461,415 Total Assets as at Period End $2,955,655 $2,369,717 Total Long-Term Financial Liabilities as at Period End Nil Nil Cash Dividends Declared $500,499 $587,754 The above financial information is unaudited but AJA Health and ATI are currently in the process of obtaining reviewed annual financials for the year ended December 31, 2022 and audited financials for the year ended December 31, 2023. About ADI ADI is a privately owned Alberta-based company providing Canadians with unprecedented access to North American healthcare facilities under its trademark, "MyCare". MyCare products are primarily added as health insurance options to companies and associations in Canada as an addition to their employee benefit packages. MyCare Health Benefit Option (HBO) and MyCare Advantage Insurance assist members in obtaining a diagnosis of serious illness and arrange diagnostic scans and necessary specialist assessments. This provides more service than the traditional second opinion products attached to many group benefit programs. Medical expertise is delivered remotely via an electronic medical opinion consultation. Members have the option to upgrade to MyCare Advantage Insurance at group rates for medical treatment. New products were added in August 2023 to assist Canadians forced to wait months and sometimes years for surgeries in the public system: MyCare Diagnostic Plus and MyCare Surgical Wait List Insurance for employee groups and individuals focuses on non-serious surgeries subject to long wait times in the public system. MyCare Diagnostic Plus offers members early access to private MRI and CT scans, diagnostic assistance and information on costs and surgical solutions outside the public system. MyCare Surgical Wait List Insurance utilizes independent surgical facilities to provide surgical solutions, up to $500,000 CAD, for Canadians on a wait list longer than 90 days. In December 2023, ADI began marketing and selling genomic and microbiome testing offered by BioAro Inc., an Alberta-based company. Genome sequencing testing provides insights into a person's overall health, including inherited and acquired health risks. Microbiome testing can help diagnose an imbalance a person's microbiome. A summary of selected financial information of ADI for the years ended December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2023 is set out below. Year ended December 31, 2022 Year ended December 31, 2023 Total Revenues $393,657 $318,382 Net Loss $80,029 $101,674 Comprehensive Loss $80,678 $122,777 Total Assets as at Period End $104,791 $66,861 Total Long-Term Financial Liabilities as at Period End Nil Nil Cash Dividends Declared $393,657 $318,382 The above financial information is unaudited but ADI is currently in the process of obtaining reviewed annual financials for the year ended December 31, 2022 and audited financials for the year ended December 31, 2023. About ATI ATI was incorporated in the state of Delaware, United States under the name MyCare MedTech USA, Inc. The name was subsequently changed to AJA Therapeutics Inc. ATI is a partially-owned subsidiary of AJA Health. ATI has developed a line of natural health products featuring BioFlavin; a formulation of over 20 unique flavonoids that come from non-hemp material. BioFlavin has been proven to assist with a wide range of pain levels, from mild-severe and acute to chronic pain and has been scientifically and clinically proven to be 30 times more effective than NSAIDs, such as Aspirin, with no side effects or long-term damage. ATI's skin care, pain relief and magnesium product lines were launched in Canada and the United States in June 2023. Please see "About AJA Health" above for a summary of selected unaudited financial information of AJA Health and ATI, which have consolidated financials, for the years ended December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2023. AJA Health and ATI are currently in the process of obtaining reviewed annual financials for the year ended December 31, 2022 and audited financials for the year ended December 31, 2023. Update on the Company's Cease Trade Orders On February 2, 2024, the BC Securities Commission ("BCSC") and the Ontario Securities Commission ("OSC") issued a failure to file cease trade order (the "FFCTO"), suspending the Company's shares from trading as at February 5, 2024. The FFCTO resulted from the Company's late filing of the annual audited financial statements and the annual management's discussion and analysis certification of the annual filings (the "Annual Filings"). The Company filed an application seeking an order for a management cease trade order ("MCTO") from the BCSC. Because the Company's shares are currently halted as a result of the RTO Transaction, the BCSC rejected the MCTO application and instead issued the FFCTO. The delay in filing the Annual Filings was largely related to the RTO Transaction and the special procedure audit required as part of the financial disclosure. On May 17, 2024, the Company filed the Annual Filings and the first quarter interim financial statements, interim management's discussion and analysis certification of the interim filings. On May 17, 2024, the Company submitted a dual application to the BCSC and the OSC for a revocation of the FFCTO. The FFCTO is still in place but the Company is confident that it will be revoked once the BCSC and the OSC have completed their review of the application. Following the revocation of the FFCTO, the Company's shares will continue to be halted as a result of the RTO Transaction until such time as the Transaction is approved by the TSXV. On behalf of the Board of Directors "Sanjeev Parsad" Sanjeev Parsad President, CEO and Director Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Completion of the transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including but not limited to, TSXV acceptance and if applicable, disinterested shareholder approval. Where applicable, the transaction cannot close until the required shareholder approval is obtained. There can be no assurance that the transaction will be completed as proposed or at all. Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the management information circular or filing statement to be prepared in connection with the transaction, any information released or received with respect to the transaction may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in the securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative. The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Forward Looking Statements This news release includes forward looking statements that are subject to assumptions, risks and uncertainties. Statements in this news release which are not purely historical are forward looking statements, including without limitation any statements concerning the expected results of the Acquisition; completion of the transactions contemplated by the LOI and the anticipated timing thereof; completion of the Private Placement and the anticipated timing thereof and the expected use of proceeds from the Private Placement. Although the Company believes that any forward looking statements in this news release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any such forward looking statements will prove to be accurate. The Company cautions readers that all forward looking statements, are based on assumptions none of which can be assured, and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward looking statements. Readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such risks and uncertainties and should not place undue reliance on forward looking statements. 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 or the TSXV. The forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. For further information, contact: Sanjeev Parsad, President and CEO Phone: (604) 678.9115 Fax: (604) 678.9279 E-mail: sparsad@pdh-inc.com Web: www.pdh-inc.com PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD)(TSX:ABX) and JV partner Zijin Mining Group announced today that they would jointly contribute US$1 million (Kina 3.8 million) to help communities in Papua New Guinea's Enga province in the wake of a landslide in Mulitaka that has claimed an estimated 600 lives. A team of senior Barrick executives has spent the week in PNG visiting the disaster site and working with the provincial and national governments as well as officials from the United Nations, the Asian Development Bank, Australia, New Zealand and the United States to coordinate relief and recovery activities. In addition to monetary and in-kind contributions, the Barrick-operated Porgera gold mine is supporting the Enga Provincial Government with manpower at the disaster operations center in Wabag. Five New Porgera Limited (NPL) employees have been seconded to advise and assist the operations center with logistics, inventory, community relations and media. The mine delivered its second donation of relief supplies to the Mulitaka disaster site last Friday, including food, medical items and tarpaulins for temporary shelter. It has also sourced eight shipping containers to store relief supplies and dispatched construction personnel to scope the installation of additional structures and water tanks. NPL has mobilized an excavator and a bulldozer to assist with clearing operations and has converted a truck to be capable of pulling a float to help transport equipment. The mine is also looking at the viability of using radar to help with monitoring at the slip site. Additionally, NPL is working with the Enga provincial government on temporary measures to bring much needed food and fuel to the Porgera valley communities, which depend on the Highlands Highway for essential supplies. Barrick president and chief executive Mark Bristow says NPL is working closely with the Enga Provincial Government to continue the relief efforts on the ground with key stakeholders from the donor agencies, government and other resource companies. "Porgera stands ready to provide additional relief and assistance to support impacted families and communities during this time of need," he said. Enquiries Investor and Media Relations Kathy du Plessis +44 20 7557 7738 Email: barrick@dpapr.com Website: www.barrick.com San Francisco mayoral candidate Mark Farrell, shown at 18th and Castro streets Wednesday, has pledged to get a handle on homelessness if he is elected to the job he earlier held for six months. Yalonda M. James/The Chronicle When Mark Farrell launched his campaign for San Francisco mayor this year, he drew on his previous time in public office to make a bold promise for how he would respond to one of the citys most entrenched issues: homelessness. Farrell, a 50-year-old venture capitalist who was twice elected to the Board of Supervisors, credited himself with clearing every large tent camp in the city during the half year he served as appointed mayor in 2018. He promised to accomplish the same goal within one year if he defeats incumbent London Breed and three other major candidates in November. Advertisement Article continues below this ad But a Chronicle review of Farrells record in office found mixed results on homelessness, which he has made a primary focus since his days as a supervisor representing Pacific Heights and the Marina. He achieved some success, but his work did not produce long-lasting reductions in the number of tents on the streets or the overall homeless population. And one of his signature accomplishments is not attributable only to him. Its true that San Francisco removed its largest encampments during Farrells brief mayorship. But that was actually the culmination of an initiative that started the previous year, under the leadership of the late Mayor Ed Lee. After Lees death, Farrell was appointed mayor until a special election that Breed won. City data shows that any improvements linked to Farrell were short-lived. The number of homeless tents counted in the city declined in the months after Farrell left office in July 2018 but began to rise again by the next spring. San Francisco did not conduct an official one-day count of homeless people when Farrell was mayor, but between the 2017 and 2019 tallies, the citys total unhoused population grew 17% despite many millions of dollars the city spent on shelter, housing and homelessness prevention. San Francisco mayoral candidate Mark Farrell, fourth from right, takes a photo with supporters in the Castro district during a merchant walk through the neighborhood Wednesday. Yalonda M. James/The Chronicle To Farrell, the reason he didnt make more sustained reductions in homelessness is simple: He said he wasnt mayor for long enough and that Breed failed to keep his momentum going. I was mayor for six months in 2018, and we made a significant amount of progress getting people into shelter and housing and clearing out the largest tent encampments, Farrell told the Chronicle in a recent interview. But what real results require is consistent leadership on this issue, which we have not seen from Mayor Breed ever since I left office. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The legal landscape around encampment clearing grew more complicated in December 2022, when a federal magistrate judge issued an injunction limiting San Franciscos ability to remove homeless peoples tents without offering adequate shelter. But those limitations, which resulted from a federal lawsuit filed by the Coalition on Homelessness, could be gutted by a ruling in a separate Supreme Court case expected this month. And San Francisco has reported a big reduction in homeless encampments over the past year anyway, though some residents in neighborhoods with large unhoused populations say they havent noticed much of a difference. Farrell shares Breeds moderate politics but is running to her right, arguing that the city needs to go further than she has to lead a police crackdown on drug markets and sweep encampments from the streets. He has said he would urge the state to send armed National Guard troops to the Tenderloin and would be even more aggressive than Breed has been in pushing for the removal of tents from sidewalks and sending homeless people on one-way trips to reconnect with loved ones in other cities. Farrells leading opponents doubt that he would be effective, based on his track record. Breed campaign spokesperson Joe Arellano told the Chronicle in a statement that Farrell seems to have forgotten that at the conclusion of his time as appointed mayor, there were more homeless tents in San Francisco than there are on Breeds watch now. The city counted 568 tents and outdoor dwelling structures in July 2018, the last month of Farrells mayoral tenure, compared with 361 in April this year, according to the most recent data available. Thats why his message to voters is just a nonstop loop of mindless, rehearsed talking points, Arellano said. Another mayoral candidate, the nonprofit founder and Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie, has been particularly critical of Farrells record on homelessness. Days after Farrell entered the race in February, Luries campaign issued a news release accusing Farrell of trying to rewrite his failed record on encampments and homelessness. In a statement to the Chronicle this week, Lurie campaign consultant Tyler Law said Farrells talking points as a mayoral candidate arent matching up with his long record in office. No one is questioning that he had the best of intentions. The issue is that he wasnt any good at delivering on them when he had the chance, Law said. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Farrells most prominent homelessness response effort during his mayorship came in April 2018, when he ordered the clearing of all tents from sidewalks in the Mission District. Starting the previous June when Lee was mayor city officials began a coordinated outreach effort that brought the number of tents in the Mission down from more than 285 to about 40. But by the time Farrell ordered the one-day operation, the tent count had grown again to about 100, according to a 2018 memo from Police Chief Bill Scott, then-Public Works director Mohammed Nuru and then-homelessness department director Jeff Kositsky. Farrell acknowledged in his recent interview with the Chronicle that his efforts to respond to homelessness built off the work of Lee, who was mayor from 2011 until his death in December 2017. Mayor Lee had done a lot of work around homelessness, but there was an acute issue around tent encampments especially large tent encampments when I became mayor, and I made it my priority to work on that issue, Farrell said. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Gwen Kaplan, a Mission merchant who has known Farrell for years, said she noticed a tremendous difference in the number of tents removed in the blocks near her business when he was mayor. Encampments on the sidewalk near her business, Ace Mailing Corp., had made deliveries difficult, she said, adding that Farrell helped improve the situation. You have to give credit where credit is due, she said. The encampment clearing drew the ire of homeless advocates, particularly the Coalition on Homelessness, which released a report blasting what the group called the Farrell encampment sweeps. In its report, the coalition called the tent removals an ineffective, inhumane method of cleaning up public space without addressing the underlying causes of homelessness. But Scott, Nuru and Kositsky stressed in their 2018 memo that the Mission operation that Farrell ordered was the culmination of a 10-month initiative dating to the Lee administration and was not a policy change from the Mayors office. Additionally, the memo pointed out that San Francisco had established a citywide encampment resolution strategy and team in August 2016 and made no major changes to its practices after that. From August 2016 to April 2018, the city removed 30 large encampments with more than 30 people, the memo stated. Tents popped back up on four of those sites after they were cleared, but officials said the number of people living in those encampments was fewer than 20. Yet homeless advocates at the coalition argued that the citys work under Farrell was not producing the desired results. The nonprofit analyzed 311 calls related to encampments and reported that the number of complaints grew by 16% from March to May 2018. Scott, Nuru and Kositsky countered in their memo that increases and decreases in 311 calls do not necessarily correlate to increases and decreases in encampment activity. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Farrell also worked on homelessness while he was a supervisor from 2011 to 2018. He organized a series of hearings to discuss spending on homeless services in San Francisco, and he sponsored Proposition Q, a 2016 voter-approved ballot measure that was meant to give city officials more authority to remove homeless tents from city sidewalks. Mark at that time was looking for a way to remove people off the streets and get them connected with services, said Jason Pellegrini, a city commissioner who worked with Farrell on Prop. Q. The messaging and the mission behind it resonated with people. Thats why it passed. Pellegrini works at an organization that operates supportive housing sites for formerly homeless people. He said Farrells sponsorship of Prop. Q showed that Farrell will do whatever he believes is right for the overarching city and county, versus placating to the unions and the nonprofits. He knows how it works from the inside and he knows what needs to be changed, Pellegrini said. The measure, however, didnt trigger a swell of encampment sweeps, as some hoped and others feared. Few were ever cited under the law, as city officials said they preferred to rely more on traditional outreach and street counseling. Its now one of several laws that the city is limited in its ability to enforce because of the ongoing legal battle with the Coalition on Homelessness. I think it was an attempt to thread the needle between providing services and maintaining public space and right of way, but it has not been used very much, said Sam Dodge, director of street response coordination for the Department of Emergency Management. Dodge said Farrell took the issues of homelessness and affordable housing seriously, as well as the need to make investments at scale. However, he added, no one has really invested like Breed has as mayor. e& UAE is the Top Telecoms Employer Brand in Brand Finance rankings e& ranked 16 th in theTop 20 employer brands across all categories in 16 countries in theTop 20 employer brands across all categories in 16 countries Achievement reflects the broader reputation of UAE as a global talent hub LONDON, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- e&, the global technology group, attained the highest position in Brand Finance's inaugural Employer Brand Report 2024 with its UAE entity ranking as the Top Global Telecoms Employer. The group also secured the 16th spot among the Top 20 Employer Brands across measured employer brands across financial services, telco, media, and tech (TMT), oil, gas, and energy, professional services, retail, automotive, and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the United States. Ali Al Mansoori, Group Chief People Officer, e&, said: "This recognition as an employer of choice reflects the incredible dedication and passion of our people, who are our greatest assets. It also reaffirms our commitment to cultivating a unified company culture where every employee is empowered to think differently, experiment fearlessly, and innovate continuously. In today's rapidly evolving landscape, having a talented workforce is more critical than ever." David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance, said: "Middle Eastern telecom brands are increasingly overtaking their European and American counterparts as desirable places to work. This reflects the career opportunities and exciting technological developments created by consistent, high-quality investment in the Middle East." Leading the way in employer branding and talent development in UAE, the group scored highly across several considerations, including as a 'prestigious brand,' an 'inspiring vision,' 'enjoyable and rewarding work,' and a 'well-managed and governed company.' e&'s achievement reflects the broader reputation of the UAE as a global talent hub and the preferred destination for people seeking to shape a prosperous future. "At e&, we are committed to equipping our team with the skills necessary to navigate and thrive in the digital age. Our vision is not just to keep pace with change, but to lead it. We are building a resilient, forward-thinking workforce capable of driving our company and our community towards greater heights. Our strategy includes comprehensive training programs, partnerships with educational institutions, and an environment that rewards creativity and bold thinking. We are dedicated to creating opportunities for professional growth and supporting our team as they develop the technological skills and mindset essential for the future," added Al Mansoori. The inaugural "Employer Brand Index" report showcases the world's top brands with global and regional league tables. The research-driven study is the first of its kind, measuring internal and external perceptions of employer brands from 16 countries. The Index is derived from responses from an anonymous survey of the public across various industries conducted via independent online panels. The Brand Finance 2024 Employer Brand Index follows the release in January of the global brand rankings in which e& UAE was rated the strongest telecom brand globally (AAA rating) and the strongest brand in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) across all categories. Brand Finance is the world's leading brand valuation consultancy. For more than 25 years, it has been bridging the gap between marketing and finance by evaluating the strength of brands and quantifying their financial value to help organisations of all kinds make strategic decisions. Every year, Brand Finance conducts more than 5,000 brand valuations, supported by original market research, and publishes over 100 reports that rank brands across all sectors and countries. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5ab3f4e1-ad68-4a1f-b513-0f6dd6ce45d1 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 7, 2024) - Bear Creek Mining Corporation (TSXV: BCM) (OTCQX: BCEKF) (BVL: BCM) ("Bear Creek" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the results of the Company's Annual General Meeting ("AGM") that took place in Vancouver, BC on June 6, 2024. Shareholders voted in favour of all matters of business described in the Company's Information Circular dated April 19, 2024 and put before the meeting, including the election of Susan Toews and Sandra Daycock and the re-election of Catherine McLeod-Seltzer, Eric Caba, Andrew Swarthout, Kevin Morano, and Alan Hair as directors of the Company for the ensuing year. Alfredo Bullard, a director of Bear Creek since 2019, did not stand for re-election at the meeting. The Board thanks Mr. Bullard for his service to the Company. Shareholders also confirmed, ratified and approved the Company's 10% Rolling Stock Option Plan dated April 26, 2022 (the "2022 Plan"), and approved the re-appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the Company's auditors for the ensuing year. Following the AGM Bear Creek's board of directors (the "Board") appointed Catherine McLeod-Seltzer as Chair, Eric Caba as President and Chief Executive Officer, Zoya Shashkova as Chief Financial Officer, Brian Peer as Chief Operating Officer, Barbara Henderson as Vice President Corporate Communications and Corporate Secretary and Eduard Roux as Vice President Project Development. The Board additionally constituted its standing committees for the ensuing year including the Audit, Compensation, Nominating and Corporate Governance, and Operating, Safety and Sustainability Committees. On behalf of the Board of Directors, Eric Caba President and CEO For further information contact: Barbara Henderson - VP Corporate Communications Direct: 604-628-1111 E-mail: barb@bearcreekmining.com www.bearcreekmining.com Subscribe to Bear Creek Mining news Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding the Company's directors, officers and Board committees and the roles and responsibilities of certain individuals. These forward-looking statements are provided as of the date of this news release and reflect predictions, expectations or beliefs regarding future events based on the Company's beliefs at the time the statements were made, as well as various assumptions made by and information currently available to them. In making the forward-looking statements included in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including, but not limited to: that the Company's directors and officers will continue to serve in their appointed positions for the ensuing year. Although management considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information available to it, they may prove to be incorrect. By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not be achieved or that assumptions on which they are based do not reflect future experience. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements as a number of important factors could cause the actual outcomes to differ materially from the expectations expressed in them. These risk factors may be generally stated as the risk that the assumptions expressed above do not occur, and the additional risks described in the Company's latest Annual Information Form, and other disclosure documents filed by the Company on SEDAR+. The foregoing list of factors that may affect future results is not exhaustive. Investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by the Company or on behalf of the Company, except as required by law. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/212017 SOURCE: Bear Creek Mining Corporation Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 7, 2024) - Golden Spike Resources Corp. (CSE: GLDS) (OTCQB: GSPRF) (FSE: L5Y) ("Golden Spike" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a non-brokered private placement financing (the "Offering") of up to 4,000,00 Units (the "Units") at a price of $0.15 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of $600,000. Each Unit will be comprised of one (1) common share and one-half of one transferable common share purchase warrant (the "Warrant"), with each whole transferable Warrant entitling the holder to purchase one additional common share at a price of $0.30 for a period of 2 years from closing of the Offering. The Offering is oversubscribed and expected to close no earlier than June 14, 2024. The Company has received a lead order from Mr. Eric Sprott. Mr. Sprott's investment, combined with his existing substantial shareholding, positions him as an insider with an ownership stake exceeding 10 percent. The Company deeply appreciates the backing from all of our strategic shareholders and the broader investment community. The proceeds from the financing will be used for exploration of the Company's 100%-owned Gregory River copper-gold property (the "Property") located in Newfoundland, Canada and for general working capital purposes. Keith Anderson, CEO of Golden Spike Resources, emphasized the significance of ongoing support from Eric Sprott: "We are incredibly excited to launch Golden Spike's 2024 exploration programs, and having the continued backing of a distinguished investor like Eric Sprott is a tremendous endorsement of our vision. His support, especially at a time when key commodities such as copper and gold are entering a major bullish phase, greatly enhances our confidence and momentum as we move forward." The Gregory River Property Golden Spike Resources Corp.'s Gregory River Property is located on the west coast of Newfoundland and was acquired by the Company in July 2022. The Property spans 3,425 hectares and is centered on an 11-km stretch of the prospective Gregory River volcanogenic massive sulphide ("VMS") corridor. Along this trend exploration dates back to the 1920's and since that time several priority Cu-Au-Zn VMS prospects and targets have been identified, along with multiple high-grade copper + gold veins. The Property is located along the same trend as the York Harbour deposit known for its copper-zinc-silver VMS mineralization, and has seen various phases of historical and current exploration, including prospecting, geological mapping, soil sampling, geophysics and diamond drilling. Historical exploration efforts have uncovered high-grade copper veins with grades often exceeding 10% copper. The Gregory River copper-gold property work program will commence this summer and focus on further exploration at the highly prospective Lode 9 and Steep Brook VMS-targets, as well as the Vein Zone, where a series of sub-parallel, high-grade copper-gold veins have been previously identified. All three target areas are fully permitted, allowing the company to complete the necessary work to pinpoint drill targets and execute any subsequent drill programs this coming fall. The work program will include prospecting and sampling, IP/Resistivity surveys over Steep Brook and the Vein Zone, followed by and data interpretation and modelling to generate diamond drill targets. Drilling would follow in a second phase of exploration this fall. Golden Spike is deeply committed to sustainable and environmentally conscious exploration practices. We are working in close partnership with local prospectors, consultants, and the community to kick off our exploration program. Qualified Person The scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved for disclosure by Mr. Robert Cinits, P.Geo, a Director of the Company and a "Qualified Person" within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. About Golden Spike Golden Spike Resources Corp. (CSE: GLDS) (OTCQB: GSPRF) (FSE: L5Y) is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on identifying, acquiring and unlocking value in mineral opportunities in Canada and other low-risk jurisdictions. The Company currently holds 100% interest in the 3,425-hectare Gregory River Property in Newfoundland, strategically centered over an approximate 11-kilometer-long stretch of the Gregory River VMS-belt, a north-northeast trending corridor of very prospective ground with potential to host Cyprus-type polymetallic VMS deposits. In addition, the Property hosts a cluster of historically explored, high-grade, copper gold vein structures. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Keith Anderson, President and CEO Golden Spike Resources Corp. 830 - 1100 Melville St., Vancouver, BC, V6E 4A6 +1 (604) 786-7774 info@goldenspikeresources.com www.goldenspikeresources.com "Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE") nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release." Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This release includes certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-Looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect the expectations or beliefs of management of the Company regarding future events. Generally, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "intends" or "anticipates", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should", "would" occur. Additionally, forward-looking information involve a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results to be materially different from any future plans, intentions, activities, results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks include, without limitation: the volatility of global capital markets, political instability, unanticipated costs, risks relating to the extent and duration of the conflict in Eastern Europe and its impact on global markets, the lack of availability of capital and financing, general economic, market or business conditions, adverse weather conditions, failure to maintain all necessary government permits, approvals and authorizations, failure to maintain community acceptance (including First Nations), increase in costs, litigation, failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations, failure of the exploration program, including the recent IP survey and potential future drilling to result in the discovery of significant precious and/or base metal mineralization, and those risks, uncertainties and factors set forth in the Company's disclosure record under the Company's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Although management of the Company has 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. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information contained herein. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement or forward-looking information disclosed herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/212034 SOURCE: Golden Spike Resources Corp. Laguna Niguel, California--(Newsfile Corp. - June 7, 2024) - Cartel Blue (OTC Pink: CRTL) long awaited further expansion into Canada moves forward. CEO Philip Moreb filed its application to the CSE Canadian stock exchange to place in Cartel Blue symbol CRTL in Canada. Moreb stated the Canadian stock exchange has been a long awaited move. "Placing our symbol on the exchange will open up our international doors." Our operations are scheduled to commence as soon as possible. CEO Philip Moreb has been collaborating with local farmers that will cultivate the Company's fiber hemp plants. The new facility will serve as a hub for cultivating and manufacturing hemp and hemp-based textiles to produce high-quality clothing for men and women and will represent the first of its kind in Canada by supporting the local farmers. Cartel Blue's Hemp Based Apparel To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8148/212051_d5afd62054099807_001full.jpg Director of Cartel International, Mr. Kler, is a retired US Department of Justice accredited representative for immigration. Kler states the manufacturing plant will create employment opportunities and offer training programs and competitive wages, providing huge benefits to the locals. Cartel Blue is dedicated to a skilled workforce and long-term growth within the community. Moreb states the international cultivation grow will allow us to expand back in Germany and other countries. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cartel-blue-inc-announces-multi-100000971.html He also indicates sustainability is at the forefront of the Company's mission. Cartel Blue remains committed to implementing eco-friendly practices throughout its process of operations - from growing and sourcing organic materials to minimizing waste and energy consumption. The new manufacturing plant will be focused on environmental standards and help secure Cartel Blue's position as a leader in sustainable fashion. Cartel Blue's Hemp Based Apparel To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8148/212051_d5afd62054099807_002full.jpg Cartel Blue Hemp Based Men's Denim To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8148/212051_d5afd62054099807_003full.jpg Cartel Blue's Hemp Based Apparel To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8148/212051_cartelimg2.jpg Cartel Blue's Hemp Based Apparel To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8148/212051_cartelimg3.jpg Cartel Blue's Hemp Based Apparel To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8148/212051_cartelimg4.jpg Cartel Blue's Hemp Based Apparel To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8148/212051_cartelimg5.jpg Cartel Blue's Hemp Based Apparel To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8148/212051_cartelimg6.jpg Cartel Blue's Hemp Based Apparel To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8148/212051_cartelimg7.jpg Hemp Fiber Cultivation To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8148/212051_cartelimg.jpg About Cartel Blue Cartel Blue is a forward-thinking hemp brand dedicated to revolutionizing the industry through sustainable practices, innovative products, and a commitment to social responsibility with a focus on quality craftsmanship and environmental leadership. Cartel Blue strives to inspire positive change while creating timeless apparel for the modern world. For media inquiries or further information, please contact: Philip Moreb CEO, Cartel Blue Montage.Holdings@yahoo.com (310) 955-0099 Mr. Kler Director, Cartel International MrKler007@me.com (760) 413-1200 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/212051 SOURCE: Cartel Blue Dallas, Georgia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 7, 2024) - Bemax Inc. (OTC Pink: BMXC), a private label development company with a focus on disposable diapers and women's hygienic sanitary products, is pleased to provide an estimate for its fiscal year revenue for the full year ended May 31, 2024. The full financial report will be made available later in July 2024. The company estimates a revenue increase of more than 70% for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2024, compared to the previous year ended May 31, 2023. The estimated increase is primarily due to the expansion of the Bemax distribution network and competitive price advantage. Bemax is completing plans for new distribution networks with other major wholesalers and convenience stores across North America. Bemax Inc. CEO Taiwo Aimasiko is pleased with the company's continued competitive price advantage. Taiwo Aimasiko stated, "The upcoming launch of Bemax's new private label brands with an expansive distribution network would further allow for continued revenue growth." About Bemax Inc. Bemax Inc. exports and distribute private label household products to the global emerging markets. www.bemaxinc.com Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology such as "believes," "expects," "potential," "plans," "suggests," "may," "should," "could," "intends," or similar expressions. Many forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results or implied by such statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, our ability to continue to enhance our products and systems to address industry changes, our ability to expand our customer base and retain existing customers, our ability to effectively compete in our market segment, the lack of public information on our company, our ability to raise sufficient capital to fund our business, operations, our ability to continue as a going concern, and a limited public market for our common stock, among other risks. Many factors are difficult to predict accurately and are generally beyond the company's control. Forward-looking statements speak only as to the date they are made and we do not undertake to update forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the date the forward-looking statements are made. CONTACT INFORMATION Taiwo Aimasiko Bemax Inc. Dallas, GA USA Email: admin@bemaxinc.com Tel: 4044808372 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/212052 SOURCE: Bemax Inc. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 7, 2024) - Canada Rare Earth Corp. (TSXV: LL) ("Canada Rare Earth" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the signing of a supply agreement between Simba Essential Minerals S.A.S ("Simba"), which will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Canada Rare Earth and SAKIMA SA, a Congolese state-owned mining company. This agreement will enhance Canada Rare Earth's supply chain of rare earths and other essential minerals sourced in the Democratic Republic of Congo ("DRC") and will go a long way towards enabling the Company to increase its supply volumes. This supply agreement builds on the Company's press release of February 26, 2024, which first announced the establishment of its proprietary rare earth supply chain in the DRC. Steve Sadiki, CEO and President of Simba Essential Minerals, stated: "This supply agreement with SAKIMA is another major milestone in the expansion of the Company's rare earths supply chain in DRC. We continue to be dedicated to extracting these resources responsibly, bringing benefits not only to our shareholders but also to the local communities that are integral to our operation. The concession which the supply agreement provides access to are known to have very high mineral grades and we look forward to the resulting robust margins on our sales." "We are excited about this agreement, marking a step for the Company in our growth and expansion in the global essential minerals market." said Peter Shearing, CEO of Canada Rare Earth, "By securing a reliable supply of high-quality rare earth minerals from the DRC, we strengthen our supply chain and competitive position, positioning the Company for future success." About SAKIMA SA: SAKIMA SA, a state-owned mining entity in the DRC, holds extensive mining rights and operates significant production infrastructure across several provinces. The company is dedicated to responsible mining practices and contributing to the economic development of the region. About SIMBA ESSENTIAL MINERALS S.A.S.: SIMBA ESSENTIAL MINERALS S.A.S. is a Congolese company specializing in the procurement and export of essential minerals. With a focus on sustainability and ethical sourcing, Simba is committed to supporting the DRC's mining industry and global supply chains. About Canada Rare Earth Corp. Canada Rare Earth operates a rapidly expanding global essential minerals business, built on over a decade of success in the rare earth minerals and products sector. Our strategy focuses on leveraging near-term positive cash flow opportunities to support our growth. This includes acquiring and developing proprietary projects, resources, and processing facilities. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the 'safe harbour' provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. For more information, interested parties can review the Company's filings available at www.sedarplus.ca. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Peter Shearing Chief Executive Officer pshearing@canadarareearth.com Janet Meiklejohn Chief Financial Officer jmeikjlejohn@canadarareearth.com Telephone: (604) 638-8886 Website: www.canadarareearth.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/212047 SOURCE: Canada Rare Earth Corp. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES 1933 Industries Inc. (the "Company" or "1933 Industries") (CSE:TGIF)(OTCQB:TGIFF), a Nevada-focused cannabis cultivator and producer, is pleased to announce that it intends to complete a non-brokered private placement financing (the "Private Placement") consisting of a maximum of 120,000,000 Units, at a price of $0.015 per Unit, for gross proceeds of a maximum of $1,800,000. Each Unit shall consist of one common share in the capital of the Company ("Share") and one Share purchase warrant ("Warrant"), with each Warrant entitling the holder thereof to purchase a Share at an exercise price of $0.05 for a period of five years from the date of issuance. There is an offering document dated June 7, 2024 (the "Offering Document") related to the Private Placement that can be accessed under the Company's profile at http://www.sedarplus.ca and on the Company's website at http://www.1933industries.com. This offering document contains additional detail regarding the Private Placement, including additional detail regarding the expected use of proceeds from the Private Placement. Prospective investors should read this offering document before making an investment decision. As disclosed in the Offering Document, the Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Private Placement to fund additional capital improvements at the Company's existing facilities and for general administrative and working capital expenses. The Units offered as a part of the Private Placement shall be offered to purchasers' resident in all provinces of Canada, including Quebec, pursuant to the listed issuer financing exemption under Part 5A of NI 45-106 (the "Listed Issuer Financing Exemption"). Units offered under the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption will not be subject to resale restrictions to Canadian resident investors pursuant to applicable Canadian securities laws. The Private Placement is anticipated to close on or about July 22, 2024, or such later date as the Company may determine. The closing is subject to certain conditions including the receipt of all necessary regulatory and other approvals, including the Company's completion of its filing obligations under the policies of the CSE. As disclosed in the Offering Document, the Company may pay finder's fees under the Private Placement as permitted by CSE policy and applicable securities laws. The securities described herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or any U.S. state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or available exemptions from such registration requirements. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in the United States, or in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. Paul Rosen, Chairman and CEO of the Company commented, "The Company is raising capital and reviewing various strategic options, including, M&A activity, the sale of certain Company assets, and a shift in business focus. These actions are being undertaken to position the Company well for the anticipated rescheduling of cannabis. While operating as a pure wholesale enterprise in Nevada is challenging, in May, Headset business intelligence recognized the AMA brand as Nevada's top selling concentrate brand, second top selling flower brand and third top selling pre-roll brand, based upon total revenue." The Company also announces that its General Counsel and Vice President, Mr. Caleb Zobrist's employment agreement has ended in accordance with the term specified therein. The Company thanks Mr. Zobrist for his many contributions over his tenure and wishes him well in his future endeavours. About 1933 Industries Inc. 1933 Industries is a Nevada-based licensed producer, focused on the cultivation and extraction of a large portfolio of cannabis consumer products in a variety of formats under its flagship brands, Alternative Medicine Association (AMA) and Level X. Its product offerings are cultivated at the Company's 68,000 sq. ft. indoor facility and marketed directly to retail dispensaries. AMA branded flower, infused pre-rolls, and in-house boutique concentrates consistently rank as the top products sold in Nevada. For more information, please visit www.1933industries.com. For further information please contact: Alexia Helgason, VP, IR 604-728-4407 alexia@1933industries.com Paul Rosen, CEO paul@1933industries.com Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Notice regarding Forward Looking Statements: This news release contains forward-looking statements. The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. These statements speak only as of the date of this news release. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks including various risk factors discussed in the Company's disclosure documents, which can be found under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com. 1933 Industries undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. SOURCE: 1933 Industries Inc. View the original press release on accesswire.com The "Europe Quantum Processors Market: Focus on Application, Type, Business Model, and Country Analysis and Forecast, 2023-2033" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Europe quantum processors market was valued at $262.7 million in 2023 and is expected to reach $1,321.1 million by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 17.53% between 2023 and 2033 The quantum processors market is experiencing rapid growth, fueled by progress in quantum computing technologies and rising investments from both governmental and private entities. Furthermore, partnerships among tech companies, academic organizations, and government bodies are promoting creativity and hastening the move of quantum processors to the marketplace. The Europe quantum processors market is poised for significant growth, reflecting the global surge in quantum computing advancements. Europe's strong foundation in academic excellence and technological innovation, supported by substantial investments from the European Union and private sector collaborations, is driving the development and commercialization of quantum processors. Strategic partnerships across tech companies, universities, and governmental agencies are enhancing the region's capabilities in this cutting-edge field. These collaborations aim to overcome technological challenges and establish Europe as a leader in quantum technology. As the demand for faster and more efficient computing escalates, the Europe market is well-positioned to capitalize on the transformative potential of quantum processors, influencing sectors ranging from cybersecurity to material science. The integration of quantum technologies in these fields highlights Europe's strategic approach to harnessing quantum advancements for economic and technological leadership. How can this report add value to an organization? Product/Innovation Strategy: The product segment helps the reader understand the different quantum processors. Moreover, the study provides the reader with a detailed understanding of the Europe quantum processors market based on application (quantum computing, quantum cryptography, quantum sensing, and others). Furthermore, there is a growing demand for reliable and cost-effective quantum. Manufacturers can seize opportunities to design and produce next-generation quantum processors equipped with advanced qubit coherence and error correction features. Growth/Marketing Strategy: The Europe quantum processors market has seen major development by key players operating in the market, such as business expansions, partnerships, collaborations, mergers and acquisitions, and joint ventures. The favored strategies for the companies have been product developments, business expansions, and acquisitions to strengthen their position in the quantum processors market. Competitive Strategy: Key players in the Europe quantum processors market analyzed and profiled in the study involve quantum processor manufacturers and the overall ecosystem. Moreover, a detailed competitive benchmarking of the players operating in the Europe quantum processors market has been done to help the reader understand how players stack against each other, presenting a clear market landscape. Additionally, comprehensive competitive strategies such as partnerships, agreements, acquisitions, and collaborations will aid the reader in understanding the untapped revenue pockets in the market. Key Attributes: Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 79 Forecast Period 2023 2033 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2023 $262.7 Million Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2033 $1321.1 Million Compound Annual Growth Rate 17.5% Regions Covered Europe Market Dynamics Overview Trends: Current and Future Impact Assessment Trends Shaping Quantum Processors Market Increasing Investment in Quantum Computing Research Growing Adoption of Hybrid Quantum-Classical Computing Models Market Drivers Increasing Demand for Enhanced Computational Power Advancements in Quantum Technology Market Challenges High Cost of Development and Implementation Lack of Talent in Quantum Computing Market Opportunities Expanding Applications across Industries Collaborations and Partnerships for Innovation Supply Chain Overview Supply Chain Analysis Value Chain Analysis Quantum Technology Ecosystem Market Map Quantum Processors Market Product (by Type) Superconducting Photonic Trapped Ion Cold Atom Pricing Forecast Research and Development Review Patent Filing Trend (by Country and Company) Global Initiatives Stakeholder Analysis Use Case End User and Buying Criteria Snapshot of the Quantum Computing Market Leading Countries Leading Companies Key Findings Global Market Projections Photonics: The Next Big Quantum Computing Technology Competitive Landscape IQM Pasqal Overview Top Products/Product Portfolio Top Competitors Target Customers/End-Use Industries Key Personnel Analyst View Market Share, 2022 Market Segmentation: Application Quantum Computing Cryptography Quantum Simulation Quantum Sensing and Metrology Type Superconducting Qubits Trapped-Ion Qubits Topological Qubits Quantum Dots Photonic Qubits Cell Assembly Cold Atom Processor Business Model Quantum Computing-as-a-Service Computer Sales Country Germany France Italy Spain U.K. Rest-of-Europe For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/6hmmnq 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. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240607739685/en/ Contacts: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./ CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 The forty-second re-enactment of the Red Arrow begins: five legs over 2,200 kilometres from Brescia to Rome and back BRESCIA, Italy, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Most Beautiful Race in the World returns from 11 to 15 June in 2200-kilometres that the magnificent cars built between 1927 and 1957 will cover in five legs, as per the format inaugurated last year. The unusual anti-clockwise route will add epic flavour to the tour de force of the classic gems, evoking the legend of the first 1000 Miglia speed race editions. The first historic leg finish In Turin: after the 1947 and 1948 passages, the convoy will stop for the first time in the Savoy city and, greeted by the Red Arrow projected on the Mole Antonelliana, will parade through the city centre streets until the welcoming in Piazza San Carlo. Another novelty will be Genoa, where the first race lunch will be held. Viareggio, Rome and San Lazzaro di Savena the other city legs. From the morning of Sunday 9 June, the pre-race will start with the opening of the Technical and Administrative Checks at the Brixia Forum Paddock, followed at 4:30 p.m. by the inauguration of the 1000 Miglia Village in Piazza Vittoria. Here, two hours later, the engines will be switched on for the seventh edition of the Trofeo Gaburri, with cars competing between Corso Zanardelli and the Brescia Castle, with the finish line in Piazza Paolo VI. The city centre is also ready to welcome the 1000 Miglia: on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Saturday the cars will park in the centre's squares and streets, where restaurants, bars and shops will remain open until late at night. From 6.30 p.m. on Saturday, the White Night festival stage in Piazza Loggia will host the prize-giving ceremony. Preceding the classic car convoy will be the Ferraris of the Tribute 1000 Miglia and the 1000 Miglia Green Full-Electric cars, followed by the Supercars and Hypercars entered in the 1000 Miglia Experience. The 1000 Miglia Autonomous Drive project with the Politecnico University of Milan continues: the car with the robo-driver will be presented at the inauguration of the Village and, driven again this year by Matteo Marzotto, aims to complete a large part of the route in Autonomous Drive mode. The Pink Car of the 1000 Miglia Charity also returns in support of IEO - WOMEN'S CANCER CENTER, in which various show business personalities will take turns. Full press kit: https://we.tl/t-u2teJrgrZ1 Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2433269/Mille_Miglia.jpg Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2433268/Mille_Miglia_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/1000-miglia-2024-302167095.html Lujin enchants international journalists, influencers in Shandong 09:54, June 07, 2024 By Yang Xiaoyu ( Chinadaily.com.cn Lujin, or Lu Brocade, is a hand-woven brocade with pure cotton popular in southwest Shandong province that traces back to the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC). A group of foreign journalists and influencers based in China visited the Museum of Lu Brocade located in Jiaxiang county of Jining city in East China's Shandong province on Tuesday to explore and experience the techniques associated with the ancient fabric, which was recognized as a national-level intangible cultural heritage in 2008. Under the guidance of Hao Qiuxia, a local lujin inheritor who founded the museum in 2015 - in which the building used to be her family's ancestral house - media guests tried their hand at turning cotton into yarn on the spinning wheel and weaving lujin fabric on the loom. They also learned to make pankou (traditional Chinese knot buttons) and health-preserving hammer containing medicinal herbs at the museum's intangible cultural heritage workshop. "I really enjoyed these hands-on activities, which gave me a deeper understanding of Chinese history and culture. These experiences showcased the exquisite craftsmanship and allowed me to appreciate the wisdom and creativity of the ancients. It was truly an unforgettable experience," said Mohammad Hashem Mohammadi, an Afghanistan content creator based in Shanghai. "I find lujin absolutely fascinating. The intricate designs and vibrant colors are stunning, and the skill required to produce such beautiful textiles is impressive," he said, adding that there are traditional textiles like Afghan carpets and embroideries in his country, which also involve intricate designs and skilled craftsmanship. "Lujin feels close to me. It looks plain but feels very comfortable," said Shanghai-based American vlogger Lile Song Mahoney, dressed in a hanfu made of lujin. Mahoney, who is also a second-year student majoring in Chinese Language and Literature at East China Normal University, has a fascination with traditional Chinese clothing and costumes of various ethnic groups in China. "Recent years have witnessed a hanfu frenzy on social media, but the popular hanfu styles are mostly those from the wardrobe of the noble and well-to-do families in ancient China," Mahoney noted. "I have been curious about what hanfu that common people wore in the past. Lujin-made hanfu is probably the answer and it looks very charming." According to Hao, lujin became a daily necessity for commoners with the introduction of herbaceous cotton into the Central Plains of China since after the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220). One of the five most famous brocades in China (the others are yunjin from Nanjing in Jiangsu province, shujin from Sichuan province, songjin from Suzhou in Jiangsu province and zhuangjin from the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region), lujin is the only brocade made of cotton while the others of silk. A total of 72 processes are involved in making lujin and ancient artisans could weave more than 1900 different patterns with 22 basic colors. Auspicious motifs from daily life, and ancient totems are used as lujin patterns, Hao introduced. Hao's museum also offers hands-on courses on techniques associated with lujin-weaving and hanfu-making, which are popular among students and people enthusiastic about traditional Chinese cultural heritage, said the inheritor. (Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun) Olive, a 3.5-pound mini dachshund, died from injuries after she was left at a doggie day care in San Francisco. Courtesy of Chloe Skelly Olive, a 3.5-pound mini dachshund, died from injuries after she was left at a doggie day care in San Francisco. Courtesy of Chloe Skelly Olive, a 3.5-pound mini dachshund, died from injuries after she was left at a doggie day care in San Francisco. Courtesy of Chloe Skelly When Chloe Skelly brought her 3.5-pound mini dachshund, Olive, to a puppy school with rave reviews in San Franciscos Mission District, teachers assured her the dog would thrive. But two hours into Olives first day on May 30, Skelly got an alarming phone call. An employee from Prime Paw Puppy School asked her to come to the facility on Alabama Street right away, Skelly recalled in a phone interview. Speaking to Skelly in an even tone, the employee mentioned an accident, yet provided few details. Advertisement Article continues below this ad By then, Skelly said, she had an ominous feeling: Glancing at the schools Instagram page earlier, Skelly had seen video footage of Olive trotting across the floor of the facility. On close inspection, the puppy had a scratch wound on her back one that hadnt been there earlier. So, Skelly dashed out of her Russian Hill apartment and climbed into her car. Hesitating a moment, she called the school back to get more information, this time reaching Prime Paws owner, James Baybayan. I asked, Whats wrong? Skelly recounted. And he said, We tried CPR and she (Olive) didnt make it. Baybayan met Skelly outside the facility, along with a distraught staff member who said the tiny dachshund had been playing with a much larger bernedoodle, a cross between a Bernese Mountain Dog and a poodle that Skelly believes weighed between 20 and 25 pounds. Though the employee was in the room and in charge of a group of dogs, her attention had drifted from Olive when all at once she heard a yelp, and saw the tiny puppy retreat to a corner, where, according to Skelly, she died immediately. Representatives of Prime Paw gave a slightly different version of events, noting in a statement that a staff member had been monitoring Olive, heard the yelp and isolated her then noticed she was acting irregularly and showing signs of lethargy. The employee rushed Olive to a veterinarian, but she had already passed away. Advertisement Article continues below this ad At the San Francisco SPCA Veterinary Hospital next door to Prime Paw, a veterinarian told Skelly that Olive had died from a collapsed lung likely the result of blunt force trauma and had signs of internal bleeding, Skelly said. Prime Paw spokespeople acknowledged the collapsed lung but said there were no signs of trauma, and said the veterinarian did not determine a specific cause of death. No one has provided Skelly with footage of the incident, though Prime Paw paid Skelly several thousand dollars, the companys statement said, to compensate for the cost to buy Olive from a breeder in Southern California and fly her to San Francisco, along with other expenses. Additionally, Skelly said Prime Paw offered free classes for her next dog. During nine years of operation, Prime Paw has cared for more than 10,000 dogs, the statement said, noting that Olives death is the first recorded onsite in the history of the company. The school sells packages of six sessions for $1,050, aiming to socialize puppies and teach them confidence and proper playing manners, among other things. We are heartbroken by the tragic death of a puppy named Olive that took place on May 30 at Prime Paw, Baybayan said, noting that veterinarians found no identifiable reason for her death. We pride ourselves on providing a safe, welcoming and secure environment for dogs under our care, and Olive was given that as well, he said. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Skelly took to social media to express her grief, drawing outrage and empathy from a city where dogs are so ubiquitous, they have reshaped the urban landscape. Representatives of the SPCA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. This has been a complete emotional distresser and an incredibly traumatic experience, Skelly wrote in an email to the Chronicle. Stunned, she approached several attorneys and was told that under California law, she can seek financial compensation but cannot file a wrongful death suit over a pet. Generally, suing over pet deaths is difficult because the law sees animals as property, rather than people, and customers usually sign waivers to inoculate the schools from liability, said Martin Zurada, a partner at Venardi Zurada, a Bay Area personal injury firm. Its not the first time dog owners have accused an animal care facility of mistreatment and negligence. Wag Hotels, a popular luxury pet hotel chain advertised as a stay and play resort, came under fire last year following reports that dogs returned with flea bites and lacerations. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Las Vegas Sands NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / National Hispanic Institute's first Sands-sponsored Las Vegas graduates were recognized at a celebratory dinner honoring their journeys in the high school leadership development program, which cultivates future community leaders by fostering skills in communication, community advocacy and policy-making. The program also prepares participants for success in higher education. Three years ago, NHI re-established its presence in Las Vegas through seed funding and support from Sands Cares. The graduating class of 2024 represents the first group to have completed NHI's programming, with many of the graduates beginning their participation as sophomores while others joined in their junior and senior years. These 10 graduating seniors have gained new skillsets and inspiring experiences thanks to their time with NHI. NHI's transformative leadership development curriculum includes a series of three immersive and progressive programs that prepare students to engage in community life with an asset-based perspective, organizational skills and leadership experience. Their work in each program level culminates in leadership development events held on college campuses during the summer. As graduating seniors prepare for the next steps in their education, a few of NHI's first Las Vegas graduates reflected on how participating in NHI's programs impacted their development. Isalia Minnalez Minnalez plans to attend Boston College in the fall and said NHI's programs broadened her world view and sense of community. "NHI opened my eyes to people's different backgrounds and experiences, and it made me more appreciative of my circumstances," Minnalez said. "It also helped me realize you have more community than you think you do. You learn that you share the same ethnicity, language and values with so many people from so many places, and it makes you appreciate the community you have. "What also stuck out to me was the aspect of thinking outside the box. You learn to use asset-based thinking, instead of deficit-based thinking. It teaches you to look at what you have and what you can build on. Having so many intelligent kids from all walks of life come together for these programs, driven to improve the Latinx community, is truly inspiring." Madison Messner Messner will attend the University of Pennsylvania and appreciated that NHI helped her learn how to connect with people in a deeper, more authentic way. "NHI helps you be more of an empathetic person and makes you look beyond what a person initially says," Messner reflected. "NHI taught me how to really take a step back and talk to people to get to know them, and really interact with them. "You need to dig deeper than just face value. You meet so many people from different backgrounds, and learning how to take a step out of your own bubble and shell to really understand and connect with people is really the best gift NHI has given me." Jason Resendiz Resendiz, who plans to attend UNLV, said the opportunity for personal growth was a key benefit of his participation in NHI. "I really think NHI brings you a lot of social maturity - it's a lot of high school kids in a new environment on university campuses," he said. "We gained a lot of maturity from it and [could] really see what we're capable of and how we can take these skills we learned into our life. "A big takeaway for me was realizing what you're capable of and how easy it is to grow and learn and achieve greatness. Being with 100 kids who you don't know but we came together as a family and community. It also taught me to look out for myself - that was the biggest achievement for me. If you're unable to help yourself, you can't help others as much as you want." Orethia Parks Parks plans to attend Case Western Reserve University on a full scholarship to pursue a nursing degree and said the confidence she gained in NHI was pivotal. "The main takeaway I believe I got from all of my NHI experiences is that I am worthy," Parks said. "Before joining NHI and even for a good time afterward, I believed that I didn't have any unique or redeeming qualities or experiences to set me apart from the crowd. I didn't think I could achieve anything extraordinary because of those negative thoughts. "For anyone else who has similar thoughts to the old me, I want you to proceed with this mindset: do not be the one who tells yourself no; let others tell you no." College Preparation and More NHI's first Las Vegas graduates also shared how NHI supported them in the college application process and defining their areas of study. NHI's programming helps rising seniors focus on college application fundamentals such as reflecting the best versions of themselves in their college essays and interviews and using self-inquiry to develop solid plans for the future. The results of this concentrated work during the summer months aided their college admissions process and helped create strong results for their college destinations. Each of the students found inspiration for shaping their college paths and strengthening their college applications through NHI. "I knew I wanted to major in biology and conservation because I want to be a veterinarian, but through my time in NHI, I found I'm really passionate about Latin studies, Spanish and social justice," Messner said. "So that's something I'm going to minor in. It's also going to impact what clubs I join and how I spend my time." NHI also helped Resendiz and Minnalez plan their futures. "I always knew I wanted to help people and help them figure out things about themselves," he said. "But it wasn't until I went through these programs that I realized I wanted to go into law. Talking with my education advisor at NHI really helped me figure this out, and she opened my eyes to new possibilities. After the program, I became very open to thinking that I could do this, and work to achieve my goals and strive for greatness." Minnalez originally planned to study environmental science, but her NHI experience sparked an interest in humanitarian areas and helping people improve their quality of life. "Now, I'm going to major in human-centered engineering, which aims to improve people's lives through engineering, to make sure what you're doing is the best fit for the people around you, and not damage the environment," she said. "Being in NHI also made me realize how privileged we are to live where we do and how much help people need. I want to continue that in my career and my life." Sands' partnership with the National Hispanic Institute is part of the company's priority on building the workforce of the future through support for mentorship and youth development programs. To learn more about the company's commitment to advancing education through Sands Cares initiatives, read the latest environmental, social and governance report: https://www.sands.com/resources/reports/ View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Las Vegas Sands on 3blmedia.com. Contact Info: Spokesperson: Las Vegas Sands Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/las-vegas-sands Email: info@3blmedia.com SOURCE: Las Vegas Sands View the original press release on accesswire.com Regulatory News: TotalEnergies (Paris:TTE) (LSE:TTE) (NYSE:TTE) and Air Products have signed a 15-year agreement for the annual supply in Europe of 70,000 tons of green hydrogen starting in 2030. This first long-term deal follows TotalEnergies' call for tenders for the supply of 500,000 tons per year of green hydrogen to decarbonize TotalEnergies' European refineries. Under the agreement, Air Products will deliver at TotalEnergies' Northern European refineries' doorstep, green hydrogen from Air Products' global supply network. This hydrogen will avoid around 700,000 tons of CO2 each year. The contract awarded to Air Products is a first step towards achieving TotalEnergies' objective of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions from its operated oil and gas operations (Scope 1+2) by 40% by 2030 compared to 2015 levels. Air Products, worldwide leader in terms of hydrogen supply, has been a first mover, committing more than $15 billion dollars to real, large-scale energy transition projects and launching several large low carbon hydrogen projects in the world, making it a leading and reliable supplier. "This deal with Air Products, the first signed following the call for tenders launched last year, is a steppingstone towards our goal of decarbonizing the hydrogen used in TotalEnergies' refineries in Northern Europe by the end of the decade. We are proud to partner with Air Products, a pioneer in low carbon hydrogen production, under the leadership of Seifi Ghasemi. Once again, we demonstrate our capacity to pioneer the energy transition and contribute to the emergence of a green hydrogen industry by offering long-term contracts with our six refineries and two biorefineries in Europe. We are also happy to extend our partnership with Air Products by becoming ourselves a supplier of green power to Air Products and contributing to Air Products' own decarbonization roadmap," said Patrick Pouyanne, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies. "Today, one of the largest energy companies in the world has committed to use renewable hydrogen to decarbonize its refineries in Northern Europe, and we at Air Products are honored and proud to be the producer and supplier of the green hydrogen required," said Air Products' Chairman, President and CEO Seifi Ghasemi. Noting that Air Products started on the journey of producing clean hydrogen seven years ago, Seifi Ghasemi added, "We always believed that if we made clean hydrogen available at commercial scale, the demand would be there. This contract validates our long-term strategy. Clearly the demand is here, and it will grow significantly as we move forward, playing an essential role in decarbonizing heavy industry and other sectors. I also want to express my admiration for Mr. Patrick Pouyanne's vision and courage in acting as a first-mover towards creating a cleaner future for the world." At the same time, TotalEnergies and Air Products have signed a memorandum of understanding for the supply of renewable power, which entails the signing of a first Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for 150 MW produced at a solar project in Texas. The parties also plan to explore together further PPA opportunities in the UK, Poland and France. This agreement, which strengthens the partnership between TotalEnergies and Air Products, will contribute to Air Products' decarbonization roadmap and is in line with TotalEnergies' integrated electricity strategy along the value chain. TotalEnergies and the decarbonization of its European refineries TotalEnergies is committed to reducing the carbon footprint of producing, converting and supplying energy to its customers. One of the levers identified by the Company is to use green or low carbon hydrogen to decarbonize its European refineries, a move that should help reduce its CO2 emissions by around five million tons a year by 2030. Aiming to fully decarbonize the hydrogen used in its European refineries, the Company launched in September 2023, a call for tenders for the supply of 500,000 tons per year of green hydrogen. About TotalEnergies TotalEnergies is a global integrated energy company that produces and markets energies: oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables and electricity. Our more than 100,000 employees are committed to provide as many people as possible with energy that is more reliable, more affordable and more sustainable. Active in about 120 countries, TotalEnergies places sustainability at the heart of its strategy, its projects and its operations. @TotalEnergies |TotalEnergies |TotalEnergies |TotalEnergies Cautionary Note The terms "TotalEnergies", "TotalEnergies company" or "Company" in this document are used to designate TotalEnergies SE and the consolidated entities that are directly or indirectly controlled by TotalEnergies SE. Likewise, the words "we", "us" and "our" may also be used to refer to these entities or to their employees. The entities in which TotalEnergies SE directly or indirectly owns a shareholding are separate legal entities. This document may contain forward-looking information and statements that are based on a number of economic data and assumptions made in a given economic, competitive and regulatory environment. They may prove to be inaccurate in the future and are subject to a number of risk factors. Neither TotalEnergies SE nor any of its subsidiaries assumes any obligation to update publicly any forward-looking information or statement, objectives or trends contained in this document whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Information concerning risk factors, that may affect TotalEnergies' financial results or activities is provided in the most recent Registration Document, the French-language version of which is filed by TotalEnergies SE with the French securities regulator Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF), and in the Form 20-F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). About Air Products Air Products (NYSE:APD) is a world-leading industrial gases company in operation for over 80 years focused on serving energy, environmental, and emerging markets. The Company has two growth pillars driven by sustainability. Air Products' base business provides essential industrial gases, related equipment and applications expertise to customers in dozens of industries, including refining, chemicals, metals, electronics, manufacturing, and food. The Company also develops, engineers, builds, owns and operates some of the world's largest clean hydrogen projects supporting the transition to low- and zero-carbon energy in the heavy-duty transportation and industrial sectors. Additionally, Air Products is the world leader in the supply of liquefied natural gas process technology and equipment, and provides turbomachinery, membrane systems and cryogenic containers globally. The Company had fiscal 2023 sales of $12.6 billion from operations in approximately 50 countries and has a current market capitalization of over $50 billion. Approximately 23,000 passionate, talented and committed employees from diverse backgrounds are driven by Air Products' higher purpose to create innovative solutions that benefit the environment, enhance sustainability and reimagine what's possible to address the challenges facing customers, communities, and the world. For more information, visit www.airproducts.com or follow us on LinkedIn, X, Facebook or Instagram. Cautionary Note This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management's expectations and assumptions as of the date of this release and are not guarantees of future performance. While forward-looking statements are made in good faith and based on assumptions, expectations and projections that management believes are reasonable based on currently available information, actual performance and financial results may differ materially from projections and estimates expressed in the forward-looking statements because of many factors, including the risk factors described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2023 and other factors disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, we disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the assumptions, beliefs or expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances upon which any such forward-looking statements are based. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240607466996/en/ Contacts: TotalEnergies Contacts Media Relations: +33 (0)1 47 44 46 99 l presse@totalenergies.com l @TotalEnergiesPR Investor Relations: +33 (0)1 47 44 46 46 l ir@totalenergies.com Air Products Contacts: Media Relations: (Global) Katie McDonald, tel: (610) 481-3673; email: mcdonace@airproducts.com (Europe Africa) Nicola Long, tel: +44 1932 249532; email: longn@airproducts.com Investor Relations: Sidd Manjeshwar, tel: (610) 481-1872; email: manjessj@airproducts.com Mun Shieh, tel: (610) 481-2951; shiehmh@airproducts.com LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / Tego Cyber Inc. (OTCQB:TGCB), a cybersecurity company focused on developing innovative cyber threat intelligence and autonomous correlation and threat detection tools, today announced that Argus Research, an independent investment research firm, updated its ArgusEquity Report coverage on Tego CyberInc. Click Here to view the updated Argus Equity Report. About Tego Tego Cyber Inc. was founded to mitigate the disparity in the rapidly evolving cyber threat hunting, correlation, and threat intelligence market. The Company is focused on developing solutions for threat intelligence and autonomous threat hunting/correlation. Tego's curated threat intelligence feed not only contains a comprehensive list of indicators of compromise, but also provides additional context including specific details needed to counteract threats so that security teams can spend less time searching for disjointed indicators of compromise. Tego's threat correlation engine integrates with top security and data lake platforms to proactively identify threats. The Tego threat correlation engine allows security teams to find threats faster using curated data feeds, powerful and low latency searches across large disparate data sets, and user-friendly visualizations that help reduce the time to detection and response. For more information, please visit www.tegocyber.com. Forward-Looking Statements The statements contained in this press release, those which are not purely historical or which depend upon future events, may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Statements regarding the Company's expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future constitute forward-looking statements. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements because of various factors. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based on information available to the Company on the date hereof and the Company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement. Prospective investors should also consult the risks factors described from time to time in the Company's Reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K and Annual Reports to Shareholders. Contact: Corporate Tego Cyber Inc. 8565 S Eastern Avenue, Suite 150 Las Vegas, Nevada 89123 USA Tel: 855-939-0100 (North America) Tel: +1 725-726-7840 (International) Email: info@tegocyber.com Web: tegocyber.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tegocyber LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/tegocyber X/Twitter: twitter.com/tegocyber Investor Relations Brett Maas Managing Partner Hayden IR Tel: 480-861-2425 Email: brett@haydenir.com About Argus Research Corp. www.argusresearch.com Headquartered in NYC, Argus Research is an independent equity research firm (est.1934) - providing fundamental and quantitative research coverage on more than 1,600 companies across all 11 sectors of the S&P 500, as well as macroeconomic and equity market forecasts, thematic research, model portfolios and pre-IPO research. In addition, Argus now provides sponsored research solutions for small & mid-cap companies seeking coverage. Our Institutional Asset Management, Bank Trust, sell-side advisor and self-directed investor clients value Argus's proprietary equity research methodology, analysis and commentary. Argus's Equity Research & earnings estimates are available on major research / earnings estimate aggregator platforms, including Bloomberg, Refinitiv, Factset and S&P Global. For more information re: Argus Research Services please contact: Darrell Stone 646-747-5438 dstone@argusresearch.com Argus Research Co. has received a flat fee from the company discussed in this report as part of a Sponsored Research agreement between Argus and the company. No part of Argus Research's compensation is directly or indirectly related to the content of this assessment or to other opinions expressed in this report. Please refer to the full Argus report and the disclaimer for complete disclosures. SOURCE: Tego Cyber Inc. View the original press release on accesswire.com CHICAGO, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The autologous stem cell and non-stem cell therapies market is set to grow significantly, with estimates suggesting a rise to $22.2 billion by 2029 from $5.5 billion in 2024, indicating a CAGR of 32.3%. This growth is fueled by regulatory approvals for innovative therapies like autologous CAR T-cell and Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocyte (TIL) therapies, along with increased investments in research and development. Key players such as Gilead Sciences, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, JW Therapeutics, and Iovance Biotherapeutics are leading the charge, addressing the rising demand for effective cancer treatments. Hospitals and clinics play a crucial role in facilitating efficient cell collection and treatment delivery. The North American region is expected to see the highest growth, driven by research investments, healthcare infrastructure improvements, and the adoption of autologous stem cell and non-stem cell-based therapies for cancer and chronic diseases. Overall, the market shows promising prospects driven by technological advancements and a focus on personalized treatment. Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=837 Browse in-depth TOC on "Autologous Stem Cell & Non-stem Cell Therapies Market" 326 - Tables 49 - Figures 309 - Pages In 2023, autologous non-stem cell therapies held the largest share of the type segment in the autologous stem cell & non-stem cell therapies market. Autologous non-stem cell therapies are a significant sub-segment within the autologous stem cell & non-stem cell therapies market. This sub-segment commanded the largest market share in the autologous stem cell & non-stem cell therapies market in 2023. This dominance can be attributed to the increasing approvals for CAR T cell therapies and the rising global incidence of cancer cases, driving demand for effective treatment options like autologous CAR T cell therapies. Cancer Indications Dominate the Market In 2023, cancer indications commanded the largest share among indication segments in the autologous stem cell & non-stem cell therapies market. This dominance is attributed to the growing global burden of cancer cases, propelling demand for cancer therapeutics. Ongoing research and development efforts are contributing to the creation of more effective treatments, particularly for various types of solid tumors. Hospitals and Clinics Lead in End-User Segment Hospitals and clinics emerged as the primary end-user segment in the autologous stem cell & non-stem cell therapies market in 2023. This predominance is driven by the increasing regulatory approvals for autologous non-stem cell therapies for cancer and chronic diseases. With the rising prevalence of cancer worldwide, hospitals provide essential infrastructure for apheresis, a critical process in cell collection for autologous cell therapies. Collaboration between biopharmaceutical firms and hospitals streamlines this process, ensuring prompt and efficient treatment delivery to patients. North America Anticipated to Lead in Growth North America is expected to witness the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in the autologous stem cell & non-stem cell therapies market. This growth is fueled by increased investments in research, the expansion of the healthcare sector, rising cancer prevalence, and the growing adoption of autologous stem cell and non-stem cell-based therapies for cancer and chronic diseases. Request Sample Pages: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=837 The primary interviews conducted for this report can be categorized as follows: By Respondent: Supply Side- 70% and Demand Side - 30% By Designation: C Level Executives- 55%, CXOs, and Director level - 20%, and Others- 25% By Region: North America -50%, Europe - 20%, Asia-Pacific -20%, RoW -10% Recent Developments in the Industry In April 2024, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (US) inked a global capacity reservation and supply agreement with Cellares (US) to manufacture CAR T-cell therapies utilizing Cellares's advanced automated manufacturing platform known as Cell Shuttle. In October 2023, Kite Pharma, a subsidiary of Gilead Sciences, Inc. (US), partnered with Epicrispr Biotechnologies, Inc. (US) to adopt regulatory technology for the advancement of next-generation cancer cell therapies, specifically focusing on enhancing CAR T cell functionality. Latest Insights from the Autologous Stem Cell & Non-Stem Cell Therapies Market Report The most recent iteration of the report marks a shift in the base year to 2023 and extends the forecast period from 2024 to 2029. Updated volume data for key autologous non-stem cell-based drugs is provided for the years 2022 to 2029, alongside refreshed financials and product portfolios of market players, with graphical representation of financial information from 2021-2023 for each listed company. Market developments of profiled players are covered from January 2021 to April 2024, with an encompassing overview including market dynamics, pipeline analysis of Phase III molecules, technological analysis, case study analysis, and investment and funding activities. The number of profiled companies has increased from 16 to 28, accompanied by an updated company evaluation matrix for both autologous stem cell & non-stem cell-based therapeutic product players and startups/SMEs. Furthermore, region, type, indication, source, and end-user footprints for key players are included, along with competitive benchmarking for startups/SMEs in the competitive landscape chapter. Newly integrated features into the competitive landscape chapter include brand/product comparative analysis, vendor valuation, and financial metrics. For more information, inquire now! Inquire Now Related Reports: Stem Cell Therapy Market - Global Forecasts to 2028 Biologics Safety Testing Market - Global Forecasts to 2029 Nerve Repair & Regeneration Market - Global Forecasts to 2027 Regenerative Medicine Market - Global Forecasts to 2028 Cell Expansion Market - Global Forecasts to 2029 Get access to the latest updates on Autologous Stem Cell & Non-stem Cell Therapies Companies and Autologous Stem Cell & Non-stem Cell Therapies Industry About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets has been recognized as one of America's best management consulting firms by Forbes, as per their recent report. 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. To find out more, visit www.MarketsandMarkets.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Contact: Mr. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com Visit Our Website: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1951202/4609423/MarketsandMarkets.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/by-2029--the-autologous-stem-cell--non-stem-cell-therapies-market-is-forecasted-to-attain-a-value-of-22-2-billion--marketsandmarkets-302167044.html NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / As soon as the catastrophic flooding began in southern Brazil, our FedEx Latin America team reached out to the FedEx global citizenship team to see how FedEx could help with relief efforts. With heartfelt concern for our team members and the communities impacted by the flood, within 24 hours we identified a relief agency at work in the region. We were able to provide them with a grant to provide food and clean water, hygiene kits, cleaning supplies and clothing to families affected by the floods. FedEx Brazil has been a supporter of The Salvation Army Brazil for many years. Seen in the photo accompanying this update is an emergency response canteen truck they are using to help with relief efforts. FedEx had previously donated the relief vehicle to the organization. It's been used to respond to all kinds of emergencies from distributing food during the Covid pandemic, to feeding the homeless, and now, it's being used to support flood survivors. If you would like to contribute to the relief efforts, you may volunteer or donate cash directly to an organization of your choice. We ask FedEx team members to refrain from collecting donated items, as FedEx does not provide charitable shipping for collection drives and donated items. Learn more about our support for The Salvation Army Brazil's flood relief efforts here, and about other FedEx Humanitarian Relief efforts here. View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from FedEx Corporation on 3blmedia.com. Contact Info: Spokesperson: FedEx Corporation Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/fedex-corporation Email: info@3blmedia.com SOURCE: FedEx Corporation View the original press release on accesswire.com Net Savings Link, Inc. (OTC PINK:NSAV), a leading Web3, blockchain and digital asset technology company, announced today updates on the launch of our theAlley.io website https://www.thealley.io/ and key highlights from their June 6th AMA. TheAlley.io Update: As previously announced, TheAlley.io is designed to empower the crypto community by providing resources to make informed decisions about specific projects. NSAV has compiled a database of over 15,000 crypto projects across multiple networks, offering detailed information on their development teams, liquidity, exchanges, and usability. Additionally, the platform includes a database of over 28,000 companies globally that accept crypto as a payment method, representing more than 6 million physical locations. Users can connect directly with merchants via TheAlley.io search portal to shop and pay for goods and services. As of June 6th, the crypto merchant database is live and accessible to the public. On June 8th, the Token Forum and Groups will be live, and on June 10th, the Resource Center will be added to the site. NSAVx.com https://nsavx.com/ has recently added an "Announcement" feature on the exchange, allowing the company to send direct messages to KYC account holders, SMS messages to 2FA participants, and emails to non-KYC accounts. Starting June 10th, the company will use this "Announcement" feature to market TheAlley.io, aiming to sign up a minimum of 1,000,000 crypto enthusiasts within the first 30 days. To join the whitelist or establish a free account, please visit www.thealley.io and sign up today. June 6th AMA Highlights: Speakers: New NSAV CEO Kevin Simon and HMLA CEO Ryan Nguyen. Kevin Simon's Updates: Web3 Industry Insights: Kevin shared his experience and discussions with industry leaders like Brock Pierce and the DNA Fund team, highlighting NSAV's efforts to promote widespread crypto adoption. User Base: NSAVx (CEX) now has over 6 million accounts, with more than 1,000,000 active users. Licensing: Progress continues on licensing applications in Puerto Rico, Colorado, Wyoming, Florida, Poland, Lithuania, Singapore, Brazil, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Dubai. Announcements will be made upon approval. Company Cleanup: Kevin emphasized the ongoing efforts to clean up the company's operations, acknowledging that it will take time. Clawbacks: NSAV is meeting with legal counsel next week to address clawbacks of shares for services not rendered. Updates will be announced publicly. Buyback: While not fully off the table, the focus is currently on achieving several quarters of revenue growth. The buyback strategy will be revisited quarterly. NSAVPAY: Working on the on/off ramp, with a projected launch in mid to late June. Merchants on the platform will be included in TheAlley.io. Token Launches: NSAVx, DIVPAY, GBUX, SWOP, and EVEREST have received their Dex-Trade agreements. Once the listing schedules are provided, the tokens will launch on NSAVx.com, Dex-Trade, and Uniswap. Legal Matters: Ongoing talks with Tilton and Grover under NDAs, aiming for an amicable settlement. Board Appointments: Any appointments or resignations will be announced via PR. Ryan Nguyen's Updates: Revenue Goals: Ryan emphasized the goal of rapid revenue recognition to retire debt and restore equity reserves. Partnership Synergies: Strong synergies and partnerships with HMLA and Everest LLP, focusing on technology, balance sheet cleanup, and aggressive revenue growth. Initial LP Partnership Launch: The EVEREST Token is the first LP partnership to launch and the DEX launch window is 6/6/2024 through 6/9/2024. Future Outlook: June is set to be a month full of activity, with numerous PR announcements and forward progress. NSAV is actively working on various projects, including staking, token launches, and improvements to their corporate and OTC websites. Kevin Simon, CEO of NSAV stated, "Last night's AMA was the fourth installment of what we plan to continue as a method of communication between the company and our valued shareholders. Having Ryan join the AMA really provided context to the partnership between our firms. We look forward to the explosive revenue growth this partnership provides while solidifying us a leaders in the Web3 industry." For real-time updates, join both companies' Discord channels: NSAVx: https://discord.gg/rnwszGvAjD HMLA: https://discord.gg/DZUUfrYGcT About Net Savings Link, Inc.: NSAV's vision is the establishment of a fully integrated technology company, which provides turnkey technological solutions to the Web3, blockchain and digital asset industries. The Company drives innovation in the digital currency space by developing advanced blockchain technologies, digital assets, and market solutions that bridge the gap between traditional business frameworks and the future of decentralized technology. Over time, the Company plans to provide a wide range of services such as software solutions, e-commerce, financial services, advisory services and information technology. For further information please contact NSAV at info@nsavholdinginc.com For further information please contact NSAVx.com at hello@nsavxmail.com The NSAV corporate website can be accessed at https://www.netsavingslinkinc.com The NSAV CEX website can be accessed at https://nsavx.com/ The AirdropX.co website can be accessed at https://www.airdropx.co/ The Swopx.io website can be accessed at https://www.swopx.io The NSAV Stock information website can be accessed at https://www.nsavstock.com The NSAVx Token website can be accessed at https://www.nsavxtoken.com/nsavx-token The NSAVx Discord Server can be accessed at https://discord.com/invite/7Q2Vv5NmKd The NSAV Twitter account can be accessed at https://twitter.com/nsav_tech This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which are intended to be covered by the safe harbors created thereby. Investors are cautioned that, all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, the ability of Net Savings Link, Inc. to accomplish its stated plan of business. Net Savings Link, Inc. believes that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements contained herein are reasonable, any of the assumptions could be inaccurate, and therefore, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements included in this press release will prove to be accurate. In light of the significant uncertainties inherent in the forward- looking statements included herein, the inclusion of such information should not be regarded as a representation by Net Savings Link, Inc. or any other person. Contact Net Savings Link, Inc. info@nsavholdinginc.com Media Contact Organization: Net Savings Link Inc Contact Person: James Tilton Website: https://www.nsavholdinginc.com Email: info@nsavholdinginc.com Contact Number: +17185698815 Address: 26 Grosvenor Street, Mayfair Address 2: W1K4QW City: London Country: United Kingdom SOURCE: Net Savings Link Inc View the original press release on accesswire.com ZIGUP plc - Transaction in Own Shares PR Newswire LONDON, United Kingdom, June 07 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 7 June 2024 ZIGUP PLC ("ZIGUP" or the "Group" or the "Company") Transaction in Own Shares ZIGUP plc (LSE:ZIG) announces that on 7 June 2024 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 : 50,000 Weighted average purchase price paid 424.25 pence per share Highest purchase price paid 425 pence per share Lowest purchase price paid 423.5 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 20,089,362 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 226,002,061 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 7 June 2024) Number of shares purchased Transaction price (GB pence per share) Time of transaction Transaction reference number Venue 25,000 25,000 425.00 423.50 08:35:58 14:32:18 00070209984TRLO0 00070217888TRLO0 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: ZIGUP (formerly Redde Northgate plc) is the leading integrated mobility solutions provider, with a platform providing services across the vehicle lifecycle to help people keep on the move, smarter. The Company offers mobility solutions to businesses, fleet operators, insurers, OEMs and other customers across a broad range of areas from vehicle rental and fleet management to accident management, vehicle repairs, service and maintenance. The mobility landscape is changing, becoming ever more connected and ZIGUP uses its knowledge and expertise to guide customers through the transformation, whether that is more digitally connected solutions or supporting the transition to lower carbon mobility through providing EVs, charging solutions and consultancy. The Company's core purpose is to keep its customers mobile, smarter - through meeting their regular mobility needs or by servicing and supporting them when unforeseen events occur. With our considerable scale and reach, ZIGUP's mission is to offer an imaginative, market-leading customer proposition and drive enhanced returns for shareholders by creating value through sustainable compounding growth. The Group seeks to achieve this through the delivery of its new strategic framework of Enable, Deliver and Grow. ZIGUP supports its customers through a network and diversified fleet of approx. 130,000 owned and leased vehicles, supporting over 700,000 managed vehicles, with over 175 branches across the UK, Ireland and Spain and a specialist team of over 7,500 employees. We are a trusted partner to many of the leading insurance and leasing companies, blue chip corporates and a broad range of businesses across a diverse range of sectors. Our strength comes not only from our breadth of our award-winning solutions, but from our extensive network reach, our wealth of experience and continual focus on delivering an exceptional customer experience. Further information regarding ZIGUP plc can be found on the Company's website: www.zigup.com Associates share their reflections and experiences. NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / Regions Bank By Evelyn Mitchell June is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) Pride Month. At Regions Bank, we celebrate Pride month by honoring and supporting our associates, customers and community partners. I AM. WE ARE. - Celebrating Regions Associates Our collective history is part of who we are, and Regions is a stronger company today because of our associates. Meet David David, a Relationship Banker and Team Lead, shares his I AM story. Meet Lilia I AM a Branch Manager at Regions. I AM a proud daughter, sister, and friend. I AM a proud first-generation Mexican American. I represent a culture rich in history, values and vibrant traditions. I AM a proud community volunteer. I have had the privilege of championing progress, inclusion and belonging through financial literacy - offering advice, guidance and education to build a stronger future for all. I AM a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community. Sharing my story has taught me resilience, courage, and the importance of unity. I am grateful for the support of my family and allies. During Pride month, I encourage everyone to be themselves and celebrate their differences, abilities and talents. WE ARE REGIONS Because of who I AM, WE ARE more united, inclusive and proud. Inclusive Prosperity Regions Bank and Regions Foundation invest in helping individuals, families and businesses overcome financial challenges. The bank and the foundation are proud to support organizations that are making life better for members of the LGBTQ+ community, with a focus on education, housing and small-business success. Education for All Regions supports organizations with a focus on education and workforce readiness for all. The Magic City Acceptance Academy enrolls students in grades 6-12 and provides support and assistance to LGBTQ+ youth and their families. The academy primarily serves students who have dropped out, are not thriving in traditional schools, or are enrolled in home-school programs. Regions Bank supports the school's library and media center, including the purchase of books for classroom instruction, books in Spanish, texts for required curriculum and more. A Place to Call Home Supporting safe and affordable housing for all is part of Regions' community engagement commitment to improve the communities where we live and work. DOORWAYS Housing in St. Louis, Missouri, serves a widely diverse population at the intersection of poverty, homelessness, and illness from HIV. To reach clients outside of the St. Louis Metropolitan Area, Regions Bank supports the DOORWAYS Outstate program that provides housing, rental and utility assistance and healthcare to residents of rural communities including Columbia, Cape Girardeau and parts of Southeast Missouri. Regions is a long-time supporter and provides additional resources through financial education, associate volunteerism and more. Small Business Support and Economic Development Regions recognizes the LGBTQ+ community's contributions to economic success and small-business growth and is a long-time supporter of LGBTQ+ Chambers of Commerce across the markets the bank serves. The Greater Miami LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce (MDGLCC) is the largest not-for-profit corporation in the county for gay and lesbian businesses. With more than 1,200 members, the Chamber's mission is to promote a unified and thriving, gay and gay-friendly, business and professional community throughout Miami-Dade County. In addition to being an active chamber member, Regions Bank has supported the organization's Young Professionals Network and Real Estate Council. Financial Advice and Guidance At Regions we are committed to supporting our customers by offering financial advice and guidance all year round. Regions Next Step financial wellness resources are designed to bolster money management skills and financial confidence. Relevant Insights: Planning for Retirement: Tips for Same-Sex Couples Applying for a Loan: Co-Signing for the First Time Budgeting Tips for Non-Traditional Family Planning Send a Free Ecard Pride Month ecards are available to celebrate and raise awareness throughout the month. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Regions Bank Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) are important to Regions and support our business model. While our strategy will always evolve and grow, a foundation of building trust, fostering understanding and valuing differences remains constant. DEI activities at Regions are focused on three areas of impact: workforce, workplace and marketplace. Workforce: We view diversity as a competitive advantage that enhances business performance and generates innovative solutions by fostering a broader range of perspectives and ideas. We view diversity as a competitive advantage that enhances business performance and generates innovative solutions by fostering a broader range of perspectives and ideas. Workplace: We create and maintain a work environment that is inclusive, and where associates are encouraged to collaborate across differences. We create and maintain a work environment that is inclusive, and where associates are encouraged to collaborate across differences. Marketplace: We leverage DEI and social responsibility focus to strengthen our relationships with communities, clients, customers and external stakeholders. Recommended Reading Regions Bank Celebrates Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Riding Forward: Students Can Enter to Win Scholarships Regions Bank Celebrates Women's History Month Everyday Heroes: Extraordinary Impact View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Regions Bank on 3blmedia.com. Contact Info: Spokesperson: Regions Bank Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/regions-bank Email: info@3blmedia.com SOURCE: Regions Bank View the original press release on accesswire.com Searching the web with AI to get answers instead of a hodgepodge of links has the potential to change how we use the internet. San Francisco startup Perplexity is taking on Google in search using artificial intelligence. Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle Anyone watching Game 1 of the NBA finals between the Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics Thursday evening might have been slightly perplexed by an advertisement for something called Perplexity. But look closer and it could offer a glimpse into the future of how we find information online. Perplexity is a San Francisco company valued at more than $1 billion that has picked a fight with Google, worth more than $2 trillion, to challenge its supremacy in internet search. That would have seemed like a hopeless task before the release of powerful artificial intelligence programs able to produce and summarize text like a human quickly and mostly accurately. The best known of those programs, OpenAIs ChatGPT, was released in November 2022. Perplexity was founded the following month. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The startup is betting on technology called generative search: using AI to answer a question by crawling the best pages it can find online and then summarizing them for a curious user. If that approach turns out to be superior to traditional search, and a startup like Perplexity beats Google to perfecting it, it could claim the giants crown jewel and biggest revenue source. This has been the holy grail for search, said Krishna Gade, a former Facebook engineer who also worked at Microsoft on the Bing search engine and is now the CEO of startup Fiddler AI, which makes tools to improve the safety and trustworthiness of AI. Generative AI search has long been a holy grail for tech companies. Perplexitys chief business officer, Dmitry Shevelenko, says that instead of a search engine, we call ourselves an answer engine. Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle We think about this as people have questions and were trying to answer them, instead of pointing them to places where the answer might be, said Dmitry Shevelenko, Perplexitys chief business officer. Instead of a search engine, we call ourselves an answer engine, he said. With his company now seeing hundreds of millions of queries a month, he said, Shevelenko has reason to be confident. But Google is not resting on its links. In its search results, Google has long offered magnified snippets pulled from relevant documents to give users quick answers to their questions. And it began rolling out some generative search results a year ago. Advertisement Article continues below this ad So what is generative search, exactly? How does it work? And most importantly, can it be trusted? Instead of sniffing out keywords to return the best links as Googles search engine has for decades generative search can understand concepts more broadly to get better results and then summarize them into a fluent answer for a user, said Gade, the Fiddler CEO. One disruptive effect of generative search is its potential financial impact on suppliers of information. If the AI bot provides all the answers you need, theres no need to click through to the sources and they lose advertising revenue. Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle For example, when a person asks What are the latest cars on the market? the program knows that car means Tesla or BMW or Rivian, and will collect a range of pages based on that understanding, Gade said. Using that broader knowledge of how information is connected, like in our own brains, rather than just matching keywords, the program ranks the documents it finds, summarizing the ones it thinks are the most relevant, he said. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Another example would be asking Google for information about Perplexitys valuation. The search engine thinks for a moment and then resorts to its own AI search feature, generating a few paragraphs of text explaining what the startup is worth and about its latest funding round, with the main documents where it found the information summarized just below. In this case the information came from Bloomberg and tech news website Fast Company two reliable sources with others listed beneath. One disruptive effect of generative search is its potential financial impact on suppliers of information. Googles traditional list of links sends users on a mission to hunt down what theyre looking for. But if crawler bots pull information from those pages and then summarize it for users, that does nothing to drive traffic to the original sources and undermines the concomitant advertising revenue those visits might generate. Dmitry Shevelenko in Perplexitys San Francisco office on June 6. Many questions dont have perfect answers to them, he says. If there isnt a good answer we acknowledge that. Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle Shevelenko said he couldnt share exactly what percentage of users clicked through from Perplexity to source documents, but said it was in the double digits and varied across web and mobile searches. Advertisement Article continues below this ad And, of course, sometimes generative search fails to find answers or produces comically wrong results. Since Google started showing more such results to users, summaries have recommended adding glue to pizza recipes or confidently responded to questions about how many rocks a person should eat when asked, among other bizarre answers. A blog post by Google Vice President and head of search Liz Reid argued that in those cases the technology was returning results for questions that didnt include much high quality data. People had not really been asking about eating rocks until the screenshots of that search went viral, Reid said, so when someone put that question into Search, an AI Overview appeared that faithfully linked to one of the only websites that tackled the question. Other results tracked to what Reid called sarcastic or troll-y content from discussion forums, and returned the best results it could. The company is disabling the generative search feature on some questions, and trying to make it better at recognizing nonserious questions, but the feature is still not 100% reliable. Given that imperfection, more and more (AI) tools should say Im not sure, said Matei Zaharia, a UC Berkeley professor and computer scientist, and the co-founder and chief technical officer at San Francisco tech firm Databricks. Thats because while generative search programs excel at summarizing their findings, theyre not good at reasoning, Zaharia said, such as whether a result is a joke or what it means when there arent a lot of high quality pages for it to summarize. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Shevelenko of Perplexity said his companys model is trained to say it doesnt know when it cant find enough high quality information, or when a question violates its terms of use. If there isnt a good answer we acknowledge that, he said. The bigger problem with summarizing the best information out there is that its impossible to ensure everything in a given article being summarized is 100% accurate, he noted. Many questions dont have perfect answers to them, Shevelenko said. Thats why Perplexitys bot has features such as automatically asking the same question multiple ways to source from a variety of pages. Tron DAO TRON DAO at Consensus 2024 with Exclusive Whale Night Event 07-Jun-2024 / 17:40 CET/CEST The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Geneva, Switzerland, June 7, 2024 - TRON DAO proudly marked its significant presence at Consensus 2024, held in Austin, Texas, as a 3 Block Sponsor. This premier blockchain and digital asset event brought together industry leaders, policymakers, and innovators to engage in crucial discussions shaping the future of the blockchain ecosystem. Consensus 2024: Highlighting TRON's Innovations Consensus 2024, renowned for its influential role in the blockchain and crypto space, provided TRON DAO with a platform to showcase its latest advancements and strategic initiatives. As a 3 Block Sponsor, TRON DAO actively participated in various sessions, contributing to the dynamic discourse and networking opportunities that the event facilitated. TRON Whale Night 2024: A Stellar Evening of Networking and Innovation Coinciding with Consensus 2024, TRON DAO hosted the exclusive TRON Whale Night 2024 on May 29, 2024, at the luxurious Four Seasons Hotel Austin. This invite-only event got signed up with more than 400+ guests, including top web3 industry leaders and innovators, for an evening of elegance and networking. TRON Whale Night 2024 featured a dinner buffet with TRON signature cocktails, accompanied by a live DJ set, creating a perfect blend of luxury and innovation. With nearly 100 participants in attendance, the event offered an exceptional platform for guests to engage in meaningful discussions and forge valuable connections within the blockchain community. Looking Forward TRON DAO's participation in Consensus 2024 and the success of TRON Whale Night underscore its commitment to driving blockchain innovation and fostering a robust community. These events provided valuable opportunities to share insights, collaborate with industry peers, and continue the momentum towards a decentralized internet. As TRON DAO continues to lead the way in blockchain technology, stay tuned for more updates on our initiatives and future engagements within the global blockchain community. About TRON DAO TRON DAO is a community-governed DAO dedicated to accelerating the decentralization of the internet via blockchain technology and dApps. Founded in September 2017 by H.E. Justin Sun, the TRON network has continued to deliver impressive achievements since MainNet launch in May 2018. July 2018 also marked the ecosystem integration of BitTorrent, a pioneer in decentralized Web3 services boasting over 100 million monthly active users. The TRON network has gained incredible traction in recent years. As of June 2024, it has over 233.71 million total user accounts on the blockchain, more than 7.75 billion total transactions, and over $21.82 billion in total value locked (TVL), as reported on TRONSCAN. In addition, TRON hosts the largest circulating supply of USD Tether (USDT) stablecoin across the globe, overtaking USDT on Ethereum since April 2021. The TRON network completed full decentralization in December 2021 and is now a community-governed DAO. Most recently in October 2022, TRON was designated as the national blockchain for the Commonwealth of Dominica, which marks the first time a major public blockchain partnered with a sovereign nation to develop its national blockchain infrastructure. On top of the government's endorsement to issue Dominica Coin ("DMC"), a blockchain-based fan token to help promote Dominica's global fanfare, seven existing TRON-based tokens - TRX, BTT, NFT, JST, USDD, USDT, TUSD, have been granted statutory status as authorized digital currency and medium of exchange in the country. TRONNetwork | TRONDAO | Twitter | YouTube | Telegram | Discord | Reddit | GitHub | Medium | Forum Media Contact Hayward Wong press@tron.network Contact Details Hayward Wong press@tron.network Company Website https://trondao.org/ TRON DAO Media Channels VISIT TWITTER VISIT YOUTUBE Dissemination of a CORPORATE NEWS, transmitted by EQS Group. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. SEOUL, South Korea, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Dear Fellow Shareholders, ILJIN SNT Co., Ltd. (" ILJIN ") is a long-standing investor of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (" Aurinia " or the " Company "), and, together with its affiliates, currently holds more than 5% of Aurinia's common stock. As one of the Company's largest and longest-standing shareholders, ILJIN would like to share its views regarding the Company's issuance of excessive amounts of RSUs to its executives and Board members. No doubt this is against the wishes of many Aurinia shareholders concerned about the Company's future. As you know, Company management recently revised its proposed amendment to the "Equity Incentive Plan" in Proposal 4 of the Proxy Statement/Circular, so now the number of new "Plan Shares" is reduced to 8,500,000 shares from the previous 11,375,000 shares. As we indicated in our previous letters to fellow shareholders, ILJIN has grave concerns about the Company's Equity Incentive Plan. In short, to ILJIN, the stock award plan does not appear to function effectively as an incentive plan -- but rather operates as a share give-away plan that enriches Board members and Company executives at the expense of substantial share dilution on the part of existing Aurinia shareholders. The Company has been awarding a massive number of RSUs (which, unlike stock options, are stock grants with zero cost to the recipients) to its Board members and executives during the past several years. For example, the Company awarded Mr. Peter Greenleaf a total of 1,550,000 RSUs between 2022 and 2024, and the RSUs will be vesting fully during the period of 2023-2027. Once the RSUs are fully vested, Mr. Greenleaf will acquire 1.55 million Aurinia shares without the requirement that any additional performance milestones be met. Given the significant number of free shares involved, and vesting period running through 2027 we doubt whether Mr. Greenleaf had a genuine motivation to successfully conclude the Company's Strategic Review in 2023-2024. On top of the aggregate 1.55 million RSU grant, Mr. Greenleaf is also set to receive an additional 350,000 shares upon the vesting of Performance Awards. As a result, Mr. Greenleaf may acquire up to a total of 1.9 million shares during the period of 2023-2027. Meanwhile, while Mr. Greenleaf receives substantial equity compensation, the Company's shareholders have witnessed a shareholder value destruction by more than 50% during the past 3 years. To ILJIN, these Board members and Company executives appear to have been using the Company's "Equity Incentive Plan" -to gain substantial and excessive equity awards without being required to meet any effective performance milestones. Needless to say, ILJIN believes the ineffective administration of the "Equity Incentive Plan" is a result of the Board's lack of the ability and willingness to aggressively exercise oversight of management performance. ILJIN believes these Board members have failed to properly enforce management accountability while also they have been also rubber stamping all these exorbitant stock incentive plans to the detriment of significant share dilution. The Board members should have instead ensured that Peter Greenleaf and others in management and on the Board "earn" these shares. For these reasons, ILJIN will vote against the Company's compensation plan as proposed or amended in the Proxy Statement/Circular, and will withhold support for Peter Greenleaf and certain other Board members. ILJIN believes it is time to send an unequivocal message that the Company's management and Board must be changed, and that from now on, they all should be held accountable for their performance as the Company's executives and Board members. Otherwise, ILJIN believes the destruction of shareholder value may continue while stock awards continue to be granted without any meaningful oversight by the Board. ILJIN intends to send this message with its vote at the upcoming AGM. Sincerely, KH Sung CEO of ILJIN SNT Co., Ltd. CONTACT: Yoonhwa Lee, yoonhwa.lee@iljin.co.kr View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/iljin-snt-co-ltd-announces-its-intention-to-vote-against-aurinia-pharmaceuticalss-revised-equity-incentive-plan-proposal-302167217.html Rightmove Plc - Transaction in Own Shares PR Newswire LONDON, United Kingdom, June 07 7 June 2024 Rightmove plc Share buy-back programme Rightmove plc - transactions in own shares Rightmove plc ('Rightmove'), announces that today it purchased 110,000 of its 0.1p ordinary shares at a volume weighted average price paid per share of 559.516p. The highest price paid per share was 564.600p and the lowest price paid per share was 553.200p. Rightmove purchased these shares through UBS AG London Branch. The number of shares purchased represented 0.0139% of the voting rights attributable to the total ordinary shares in issue prior to such purchase. The purchased shares will be cancelled. Since announcing a share buy-back programme on 28 December 2007, Rightmove has purchased in aggregate 514,351,676 ordinary shares. The total number of ordinary shares in issue (excluding treasury shares) following this announcement is 793,284,433. Rightmove holds 11,417,971 shares in treasury. In accordance with Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (the Market Abuse Regulation) as amended by The Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (the 'UK MAR'), the schedule below contains detailed information about the purchases made by UBS AG London Branch on behalf of the Company as part of the buyback programme. Contact: Michelle Palmer, Assistant Company Secretary CompanySecretary@rightmove.co.uk Schedule of Purchases - Individual Transactions Finsbury Growth & Income Trust PLC - Transaction in Own Shares PR Newswire LONDON, United Kingdom, June 07 For immediate release 07 June 2024 FINSBURY GROWTH & INCOME TRUST PLC (the "Company") MARKET PURCHASE OF COMPANY'S OWN SHARES The Company announce that it has today purchased 204,719 of its own shares ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 849.78 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 44,250,202; 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 180,741,101. The figure of 180,741,101may 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 Jaci Patrick, host of Coffee With Q, educates the Cayman Islands public by sharing insights from Canadian air filtration thought leader Berni Baier on the importance of air quality. Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands--(Newsfile Corp. - June 7, 2024) - Jaci Patrick, the renowned host of the popular podcast show Coffee With Q, recently interviewed Berni Baier, a Canadian air filtration thought leader from Camfil Canada. The insightful interview is now available online, offering valuable perspectives on improving air quality and filtration. Watch the Full Interview on Coffee With Q here: For a deeper dive into these topics, watch the full interview with Berni Baier. Click below to view the video and gain valuable insights into air filtration and indoor air quality improvement. Key Takeaways from the Interview with Berni Baier Misconceptions About Air Quality : Even seemingly clean environments, like the Cayman Islands, can have significant particulate contamination, most of which is invisible to the naked eye. Focus on PM1 Particles : The global focus has shifted from PM2.5 to PM1 particles due to their ability to penetrate the bloodstream and tissues, posing a greater health risk. HEPA Filters Explained : HEPA filters, known for capturing 99.97% of particles at 0.3 microns, are essential for healthcare and pharmaceutical settings but are often unsuitable for residential use due to their high-pressure drop. Urban Filtration Strategy : Camfil assesses air handling systems in urban environments to recommend suitable filters like the MV 13, ensuring they meet specific building needs and maintain efficiency over time. Commitment to Sustainability and Testing: Camfil invests heavily in research and real-world testing to ensure their air filtration products are effective and sustainable, adapting to various environmental demands. For more detailed information and to watch the interview, visit the Coffee With Q platform. https://www.coffeewithq.org/ Media Contact: Coffee With Q Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands T: 345-327-7206 Disclaimer The expert opinions on air quality expressed by our guest, Berni Baier, during the interview are his own and based on his extensive experience and knowledge in the field of air filtration. These views do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Coffee With Q or its host, Jaci Patrick. Coffee With Q does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information shared by the guest. Viewers are encouraged to consult with their own experts or conduct their own research when making decisions related to air quality and filtration. Source: CoffeeWithQShow To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/212077 SOURCE: Prodigy PR ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING RULE 15 PROPOSAL NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION (IN WHOLE OR IN PART) IN, INTO OR FROM ANY JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OF SUCH JURISDICTION. MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif., June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- On 24 May 2024, Bidco and K1 announced that the offer document (the "Offer Document") in relation to Bidco's offer to acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of MariaDB plc (the "Offer") had been published and posted to shareholders of MariaDB plc. In accordance with Rule 15(c) of the Irish Takeover Panel Act, 1997, Takeover Rules 2022 (the "Irish Takeover Rules"), Bidco today announces that a letter dated 7 June 2024 containing details of its proposal (the "Proposal") to MariaDB Warrantholders had been sent to such holders. The Proposal will be made available free of charge, subject to certain restrictions relating to persons resident in Restricted Jurisdictions, on K1's website at https://k1.com/meridian-offer-update/. Capitalised terms used but not defined in this announcement have the same meaning given to them in the Proposal and the Offer Document. Enquiries Lazard (Financial Advisor to K1 and Bidco) Adrian Duchini, Keiran Wilson, Charles White Tel: +44 20 7187 2000 Haven Tower Group (Public Relations Advisor to K1) Donald Cutler, Brandon Blackwell Tel: +1 424 317 4850 Important Notices The K1 Responsible Persons (being the investment committee of K1), the Bidco Officers and the Topco Officers accept responsibility for the information contained in this Announcement. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the K1 Responsible Persons, the Bidco Officers, the Topco Officers, (who have taken all reasonable care to ensure that such is the case) the information contained in this Announcement for which they have accepted responsibility is in accordance with the facts and does not omit anything likely to affect the import of such information. Lazard Freres & Co. LLC, together with its affiliate Lazard & Co., Limited (which is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority) ("Lazard"), is acting exclusively as financial adviser to K1 and Bidco and no one else in connection with the Offer and will not be responsible to anyone other than K1 and Bidco for providing the protections afforded to clients of Lazard nor for providing advice in relation to the Offer or any other matters referred to in this Announcement. Neither Lazard nor any of its affiliates owes or accepts any duty, liability or responsibility whatsoever (whether direct or indirect, whether in contract, in tort, under statute or otherwise) to any person who is not a client of Lazard in connection with this Announcement, any statement contained herein or otherwise. Disclosure requirements of the Irish Takeover Rules Under Rule 8.3(b) of the Irish Takeover Rules, if any person is, or becomes, 'interested' (directly or indirectly) in 1% or more of any class of 'relevant securities' of MariaDB, all 'dealings' in any 'relevant securities' of MariaDB or any securities exchange offeror (including by means of an option in respect of, or a derivative referenced to, any such 'relevant securities') must be publicly disclosed by not later than 3:30 pm (U.S. Eastern Time) on the 'business day' following the date of the relevant transaction. This requirement will continue until the 'offer period' ends. If two or more persons cooperate on the basis of any agreement either express or tacit, either oral or written, to acquire an 'interest' in 'relevant securities' of MariaDB, they will be deemed to be a single person for the purpose of Rule 8.3 of the Irish Takeover Rules. Dealing Disclosures must also be made by any offeror and by any persons acting in concert with them in accordance with Rule 8.2 of the Irish Takeover Rules. In general, interests in securities arise when a person has long economic exposure, whether conditional or absolute, to changes in the price of the securities. In particular, a person will be treated as having an 'interest' by virtue of the ownership or control of securities, or by virtue of any option in respect of, or derivative referenced to, securities. Terms in quotation marks are defined in the Irish Takeover Rules, which can be found on the Irish Takeover Panel's website. Details of the offeree company in respect of whose relevant securities Dealing Disclosures must be made can be found in the Disclosure Table on the Irish Takeover Panel's website at www.irishtakeoverpanel.ie, including details of the number of relevant securities in issue, when the offer period commenced and when any offeror was first identified. If you are in any doubt as to whether or not you are required to disclose a 'dealing' under Rule 8, please consult the Irish Takeover Panel's website at www.irishtakeoverpanel.ie or contact the Irish Takeover Panel at telephone number +353 1 678 9020. Further Information This Announcement is for information purposes only and is not intended to, and does not, constitute an offer to sell or invitation to purchase any securities, or the solicitation of any vote or approval in any jurisdiction pursuant to the Offer or otherwise, nor shall there be any sale, issuance or transfer of securities in any jurisdiction in contravention of applicable law. In particular, this Announcement is not an offer of securities for sale into the United States. No offer of securities shall be made in the United States absent registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, such registration requirements. The release, publication or distribution of this Announcement in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law and therefore persons in such jurisdictions into which this Announcement is released, published or distributed should inform themselves about and observe such restrictions. This Announcement has been prepared for the purpose of complying with the laws of Ireland and the Irish Takeover Rules and the information disclosed may not be the same as that which would have been disclosed if this Announcement had been prepared in accordance with the laws of jurisdictions outside of Ireland. Overseas Shareholders The laws of certain jurisdictions may affect the availability of the Offer (including the Unlisted Unit Alternative) to persons who are not resident in Ireland. Persons who are not resident in Ireland, or who are subject to laws of any jurisdiction other than Ireland, should inform themselves about, and observe, any applicable legal or regulatory requirements. Any failure to comply with any applicable legal or regulatory requirements may constitute a violation of the laws and/or regulations of any such jurisdiction. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable Law, the companies and persons involved in the Offer (including the Unlisted Unit Alternative) disclaim any responsibility and liability for the violation of such restrictions by any person. Unless otherwise determined by Bidco or K1 or required by the Irish Takeover Rules, and permitted by applicable law and regulation, the Offer (including the Unlisted Unit Alternative) will not be made available, directly or indirectly, in any Restricted Jurisdiction, and the Offer will not be capable of acceptance from within a Restricted Jurisdiction where to do so would violate the laws in that jurisdiction. The release, publication or distribution of this Announcement in or into certain jurisdictions may be restricted by the laws of those jurisdictions. Accordingly, copies of this Announcement and all other documents relating to the Offer (including the Unlisted Unit Alternative) are not being, and must not be, released, published, mailed or otherwise forwarded, distributed or sent in, into or from any Restricted Jurisdiction. Persons receiving such documents (including, without limitation, nominees, trustees and custodians) should observe these restrictions. Failure to do so may constitute a violation of the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable Law, K1, the K1 Group and Bidco disclaims any responsibility or liability for the violations of any such restrictions by any person. MariaDB Shareholders who are in any doubt regarding such matters should consult an appropriate independent professional adviser in the relevant jurisdiction without delay. Further details in relation to overseas shareholders are contained in the Offer Document. If you are a resident of the United States, please read the following: This Announcement is not intended to, and does not, constitute or form part of any offer (including the Offer), invitation or the solicitation of an offer to purchase, otherwise acquire, subscribe for, tender, exchange, sell or otherwise dispose of, any securities, or the solicitation of any vote or approval in any jurisdiction, nor will there be any acquisition or disposition of the securities referred to in this Announcement in any jurisdiction in contravention of applicable Law or regulation. This Announcement is not a substitute for the Offer Document and the Form of Acceptance or any other document that Bidco may file with the SEC in connection with the Offer. An offer to buy MariaDB Shares has been made pursuant to a Tender Offer Statement and Rule 13e-3 Transaction Statement on Schedule TO that Bidco has filed with the SEC. MariaDB has filed a Solicitation/Recommendation Statement on Schedule 14D-9 with the SEC with respect to the tender offer. MARIADB SHAREHOLDERS ARE URGED TO READ ANY SUCH DOCUMENTS FILED WITH THE SEC CAREFULLY IN THEIR ENTIRETY IF AND WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE OFFER. SUCH DOCUMENTS SHOULD BE READ CAREFULLY BEFORE ANY DECISION IS MADE WITH RESPECT TO THE OFFER. Investors and MariaDB Shareholders are able to obtain free copies of these materials (if and when available) and other documents containing important information about MariaDB and the Offer once such documents are filed with the SEC through the website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov. The Offer has been made in the United States pursuant to the Exchange Act and otherwise in accordance with the requirements of the Irish Takeover Rules. Accordingly, the Offer is subject to disclosure and other procedural requirements, including with respect to withdrawal rights, offer timetable, settlement procedures and timing of payments that may be different from those typically applicable under US domestic tender offer procedures and law. In addition, the Offer Document and any other documents relating to the Offer have been or will be prepared in accordance with the Irish Takeover Rules and Irish disclosure requirements, format and style, all of which may differ from those in the United States. MariaDB is incorporated under the laws of Ireland. Some of the directors on the MariaDB Board at the date of this Announcement are resident in a country other than the United States. As a result, it may not be possible for United States holders of MariaDB Shares to effect service of process within the United States upon MariaDB or some of the directors of MariaDB or to enforce against any of them judgements of the United States predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States. It may not be possible to sue MariaDB or its officers or director(s) in a non-US court for violations of US securities laws. In addition, US holders of MariaDB Shares should be aware that, if K1 and Bidco elect to proceed pursuant to a scheme of arrangement (as described herein), the federal securities laws of the United States may not be applicable. Publication on website A copy of this announcement and the documents required to be published pursuant to Rule 26 of the Irish Takeover Rules will be made available, subject to certain restrictions relating to persons resident in Restricted Jurisdictions, will be made available on K1's website (https://k1.com/meridian-offer-update/). Neither the content of any such website nor the content of any other website accessible from hyperlinks on such website is incorporated into, or forms part of, this Announcement. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/882948/K1_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/recommended-cash-offer-for-mariadb-plc-by-meridian-bidco-llc-bidco-which-is-an-affiliate-of-k1-investment-management-llc-k1-as-manager-of-k5-private-investors-lp-302167271.html El Cajon, California--(Newsfile Corp. - June 7, 2024) - VSS Body Sculpting Lab announced the launch of its academy, designed to train and empower aspiring cosmetic professionals. Founded by Virginia Salem, a leader in the cosmetic industry, the academy is committed to providing comprehensive education in the field of medical cosmetics. Virginia Salem The academy aims to equip students, particularly women, with the necessary skills, knowledge, and certifications to excel in the fast-evolving cosmetic industry. The curriculum includes practical training with the latest non-invasive body sculpting technologies, ensuring that all participants gain hands-on experience in a real-world setting. Courses are taught by licensed professionals with extensive experience in the industry. Virginia expressed her enthusiasm for the project, stating, "Our goal is to not only enhance skills but also to inspire and cultivate the spirit of entrepreneurship among our students. We are dedicated to elevating industry standards and opening new pathways for those passionate about cosmetic innovation." About VSS Body Sculpting Lab VSS Body Sculpting Lab is a cosmetic clinic located in El Cajon, California, specializing in non-invasive body sculpting and skin tightening procedures. The clinic offers a range of services, including HIFEM (High-Intensity Focused Electromagnetic) technology for muscle toning, ultrasonic cavitation for fat reduction, and RF (Radio Frequency) treatments for skin elasticity improvement. Founded by Virginia Salem, a professional with an extensive background in OBGYN and cosmetic surgery, VSS Body Sculpting Lab aims to provide clients with safe and effective cosmetic solutions tailored to their individual needs. The clinic is known for utilizing FDA-approved technologies and adhering to high standards of patient care and confidentiality. Contact Information Address: VSS BODY SCULPTING LAB, 1279W, Main ST Suite 206, EL Cajon, CA 92020 Phone no: 619-636-7395 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vssbodysculpting/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558617405509 Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@vsalem80?_t=8m0DVO0KLk6&_r=1 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/211542 SOURCE: SMG Media Group PARIS, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Committed to the preservation of marine resources since 2009 alongside Ethic Ocean, the Relais & Chateaux Association has once again joined forces with the NGO by launching a new awareness campaign. The objective? To remove all overexploited species of seafood from Relais & Chateaux menus, starting with eel, and to prioritize sustainable species. To view the Multimedia News Release, please click: https://www.multivu.com/players/uk/9272851-relais-et-chateaux-launches-sosforbiodiversity/ UN World Oceans Day: A commitment of many years to protect marine life For the ninth consecutive year, Relais & Chateaux will celebrate World Oceans Day on June 8th with the collective appeal SOSforBiodiversity. The not-for-profit Association has invited chefs to adapt their menus by removing overexploited species, such as eel, and selecting sustainable seafood. To raise awareness of this issue, Relais & Chateaux is highlighting the efforts of four chefs who embody this initiative. Mauro Colagreco (Mirazur, Menton, France), Vice President, Chefs of Relais & Chateaux, highlighted: "As an Association, we can have a major influence on global culinary culture. It is urgent and vital to serve guests species which are not overfished, or which have been responsibly farmed with respect to the environment, the animals and the people involved." SOSforBiodiversity has been created to complement Ethic Ocean's EelNoThankYou campaign, which Relais & Chateaux joined at the end of 2023, when it mobilized its chefs around the world to save endangered eel species globally. Chefs who set the tone Pedro Subijana of Relais & Chateaux Akelarre (San Sebastian, Spain) and elected member of Relais & Chateaux's World Culinary Council: "Typical Spanish dishes-such as those with elvers (juvenile eel) -are very important to our culture and heritage. But responsibility must go hand-in-hand with tradition. We must all pause serving and eating eel now to preserve it for future generations." Vicky Lau of Relais & Chateaux Tate Dining Room (Hong Kong) and elected member of Relais & Chateaux's World Culinary Council: "Many people think farmed eel is different from wild eel, when, in fact, wild juvenile eels are caught and then taken to be grown on farms. With the critical status of eels all over the world, this form of aquaculture can't be considered sustainable." David Toutain of Relais & Chateaux Restaurant David Toutain (Paris, France): "Our iconic dish has been eel since we opened the restaurant in 2013, but now we've replaced it with smoked herring.?Fishing and all other causes of the European eel's decline are issues that we need to be aware of in order to take action." Michael Cimarusti of Relais & Chateaux Providence (Los Angeles, California, USA): "Eel is something that we have had on the menu from time to time at Providence but being a member of Relais & Chateaux and understanding the importance of protecting any species that's endangered, we signed the pledge and decided to stop serving eel. Wild harvested eels are red listed pretty much all over the world." Beyond eel, the ambition to ban all Red-Listed species The figures are relentless: 35.4% of marine resources are overfished; illegal fishing represents 20% of global catch (between 11 and 26 million tons per year); and 35% of the world's catch is rejected and released, often resulting in the animals' death, without even being consumed. (Source: FAO) In partnership with Ethic Ocean, Relais & Chateaux empowers its chefs to verify that their species choices are responsibly-sourced. This commitment to sustainable seafood goes beyond eel and covers all aquatic species, whether wild and farmed. About Relais & Chateaux A MOVEMENT WITH MEANING Relais & Chateaux, established in 1954, is an association of 580 unique hotels and restaurants throughout the world, owned and operated by independent entrepreneurs - most often families - who are passionate about their craft and deeply committed to forging warm, lasting relationships with their guests. Relais & Chateaux members protect and promote the wealth and diversity of the world's culinary and hospitality traditions, to ensure they continue to thrive. They are equally dedicated to preserving local heritage and the environment, as articulated in the association's Vision presented to UNESCO in November 2014. www.relaischateaux.com About Ethic Ocean Ethic Ocean is a non-governmental environmental organization dedicated to the conservation of fisheries and marine ecosystems. Its mission is to create opportunities for change and help implement sustainable practices in the fisheries industry. Ethic Ocean works with all stakeholders to help them source species having stocks that are not overfished or which have been farmed responsibly. For more information, visit www.ethic-ocean.org . Contacts: Lars Seifert, Chief Communications Officer, l.seifert@relaischateaux.com Isabelle Gueguen, Head of PR & Influence, i.gueguen@relaischateaux.com Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2433014/David_Toutain.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2084329/4433700/Relais_et_Chateaux_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/relais--chateaux-launches-an-sosforbiodiversity-to-save-ocean-species-302167287.html Kuwait City, Kuwait--(Newsfile Corp. - June 7, 2024) - Accelerate, a business and development consultancy firm founded by renowned business influencer Ashwaq AlMudhaf, has announced the launch of Lean Startup Workshops. These workshops are specially designed to support entrepreneurs and startup teams as they navigate the complexities of launching and scaling new business ventures. Ashwaq AlMudhaf With a deep understanding of the startup ecosystem and a proven track record of successful business leadership, Ashwaq brings invaluable insights and strategies to these workshops. Participants will benefit from her firsthand experience in building businesses from the ground up, leveraging her knowledge to streamline their processes and accelerate growth. The Lean Startup Workshops by Accelerate will focus on adopting a methodology that emphasizes efficiency and effectiveness. The primary goal is to minimize waste without sacrificing the quality and speed necessary to compete in today's dynamic markets. This approach not only helps startups launch more successfully but also puts them on the fast track to achieving their business objectives. "We are excited to offer these workshops to help emerging businesses thrive in a competitive environment," said Ashwaq. "Our approach is tailored to foster innovation and efficiency, equipping participants with the tools they need to succeed from the outset." About Accelerate: Accelerate is a business incubation and consultancy firm founded by seasoned entrepreneur, business influencer, digitization expert, and influential biohacker Ashwaq AlMudhaf. The firm provides several services like startup funding, feasibility review, business planning, assistance in selling or buying, etc. Accelerate stands out because of its training programs that help businesses understand and implement cutting-edge AI solutions into their corporate operations. Contact Information: Website: http://www.ashwaqalmudhaf.com/ Address: Dasman, Kuwait City, Kuwait Phone: +96599656665 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/211543 SOURCE: SMG Media Group CSIOS ranked Top 5 among all small businesses for the total amount donated to local charities in the Greater Washington DC area during 2023. WASHINGTON, DC / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / CSIOS Corporation announced today that it was honored at the 2024 Washington Business Journal's Corporate Philanthropy Awards, an event established to recognize "the region's most active and inspirational companies and nonprofits who have made a difference in the Washington DC and surrounding communities through both financial and volunteer philanthropic work." This year, during a ceremony held at the Conrad Washington, DC Hotel on June 6, 2024, CSIOS ranked Top 5 among all small businesses for the total amount donated to local charities in the Greater Washington DC area during 2023. CSIOS President and CEO, Cesar Pie CSIOS President and CEO, Cesar Pie "At CSIOS, the spirit of giving and community service is embedded in our culture and strategic growth. We are passionate about giving back and helping our communities, our neighbors, our employees, and our families," said Cesar Pie, President and CEO of CSIOS Corporation. Mr. Josue Ayala, Chief Human Resources Officer also commented, "We are honored to be included in this year's Washington Business Journal's Corporate Philanthropy Awards list. Community focus is deeply aligned with our core values as a business; our strategic planning is designed to build and help transform the communities where we work, live and do business." Details about the 2024 Corporate Philanthropy Awards winners are available at https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/event/169893/2024/2024-corporate-philanthropy-awards. More Information: For information regarding this news release, please contact: News@csioscorp.com For information regarding our services and partnerships, please contact: BD@csioscorp.com For information regarding employment opportunities with CSIOS, please contact: Careers@csioscorp.com Contact Information Josue Ayala Chief Human Resources Officer josue.ayala@csioscorp.com (732) 710-5854 Related Images CSIOS President and CEO, Cesar Pie CSIOS President and CEO, Cesar Pie CSIOS CHRO, Josue Ayala CSIOS CHRO, Josue Ayala SOURCE: CSIOS Corporation View the original press release on newswire.com. Mercury NZ Limited has today confirmed it will proceed with the expansion of the Kaiwera Downs wind farm near Gore, following a long-term agreement signed with New Zealand Aluminium Smelters last week. Key highlights > Capital expenditure of $486 million for the project brings Mercurys total FY24 commitment to new renewables over $700 million. > Once completed, the 155 MW project (525 GWh pa) will generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of ~73,000 homes per year. > It will bring the total capacity of the Kaiwera Downs wind farm to 198 MW, the second largest in New Zealand. > Construction is expected to start in June 2024 and reach full generation by the end of calendar year 2026. Construction contracts are now executed but remain conditional on Mercury issuing Notice to Proceed (NTP). The only condition to issuing NTP is the Electricity Authority approving the remaining NZAS supply contracts. > We expect to issue NTP to all contractors in June once regulatory approvals have been granted. Were excited to start another project that will help Aotearoa New Zealand move to a lower-carbon future. Were committed to playing our part, and increasing New Zealands renewables is a key way we can contribute, said Mercurys Executive GM Portfolio, Phil Gibson. Mr Gibson said a strategic high-quality pipeline positioned Mercury well to help lead the transition to more renewables. The expansion of the Nga Tamariki geothermal station is currently in construction, and the Kaiwaikawe wind farm near Dargaville is nearing Final Investment Decision. New Zealands future is brighter because of the role of renewables, and were keen to see more renewable generation projects delivered at the scale and pace required to meet New Zealands climate change goals, said Mr Gibson. As we continue to grow, we want to be a positive part of all the communities we show up in. We know there are many in the Gore community who are deeply interested in this project, and were committed to continuing to work with the community as we have with the first stage of Kaiwera Downs, said Mr Gibson. We take our duty of care extremely seriously, and do not underestimate the expectation of us to construct and operate in a responsible manner. We acknowledge Hokonui Runanga, the local community and all stakeholders for their support and we look forward to continuing to work with our delivery partners, Vestas, Higgins, Electronet and all other sub-contractors engaged in this project. ENDS Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: TRU - WHO Agency UNITAID Features TRU in Tech Landscape Report PaySauce Quarterly Market Update - September 2024 October 2nd Morning Report Rua Releases Annual Report for Year Ended 30 June 2024 SCL - Settlement of orchard sales The Warehouse Group 2024 ASM and Director Nominations AIR - Update on Chief Operational Integrity and Safety Officer Comvita Limited - Annual Report 2024 September 27th Morning Report Spark announces departure of Finance Director Brooklyn, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - June 7, 2024) - Zakuska Vodka, a traditional shooting vodka born in Brooklyn, New York, is pleased to share that the brand has expanded its footprint across New York at local bars, restaurants, and retailers. Established in May of 2023, Zakuska embodies the spirit of community and innovation. Crafted from red winter wheat and corn sourced from Ohio and distilled with precision in Columbus, Zakuska stands committed to sustainability, utilizing 100% post-consumer recycled glass for its bottles and film labels over paper. This summer, Zakuska Vodka is available at more locations around New York. Zakuska is newly available at Adega Wine and Spirits, For the Love of Wine, Gowanus Wine Studio and Tasting Table, Englewood Wine Merchants, Xplore Wine of Demarest, and Blue Streak Wine and Spirits. Diners can also enjoy it at Casa Bond, Nurse Bettie, Creatures Selina Roof Bar, Music For a While, Virgo, Sour Mouse, and Maloya. Revechkis shares his vision for the brand, "This vodka is something that I've wanted to do for a long time. It's a direct result of my experiences around my parents' dinner table and their love of music, art, and creative expression. Zakuska is a celebration of getting together with close friends and family, enjoying and creating something special." Beyond these new retailers and restaurants, Zakuska Vodka is available through its website and in 39 locations in New York. For more information about Zakuska Vodka, please visit www.zakuskavodka.com and follow along on social media @ZakuskaVodka. Contact Information: R Public Relations info@rprfirm.com 518-321-3906 ### To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/209489 SOURCE: R Public Relations On 2024 World Oceans Day, MDPI encourages the scientific community to increase the accessibility of ocean research to accelerate ocean conservation. MDPI, a leading open access (OA) publisher, is proud to announce its active support for World Oceans Day 2024, celebrated under UNESCO's Ocean Decade framework. MDPI's CEO, Stefan Tochev hopes that "the latest ocean research can be made freely accessible to help empower scientists and communities at large to save our oceans," under UNESCO's Ocean Decade until 2030. Open Access: A Catalyst for Ocean Action MDPI's presence at the UNESCO Ocean Decade Conference 2024 highlights our unwavering commitment to using OA to advance ocean science, support research communities, and promote sustainable ocean management. "Our involvement in the UNESCO Ocean Decade Conference underscores MDPI's commitment to the underfunded Ocean SDG. By promoting OA to scientific articles and books on SDGs, we aim to inspire critical actions," said Tochev. "Our initiatives, like the World Sustainability Award and Emerging Sustainability Award, further demonstrate our dedication to advancing sustainability." Showcasing MDPI's Contributions to Ocean Research Over the past three years, MDPI has published 30,000 papers focused on ocean research and related topics. Key MDPI journals contributing to this body of work include: Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (4.9k papers) (4.9k papers) Remote Sensing (2.6k papers) (2.6k papers) Sustainability (2k papers) (2k papers) International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS) (1.7k papers) (1.7k papers) Marine Drugs (1.5k papers) (1.5k papers) Water (1.5k papers) These publications highlight MDPI's contributions to ocean science, reinforcing our role in the broader sustainability agenda by promoting blue innovation and economy. Additionally, MDPI has launched Oceans, an international, peer-reviewed forum specifically aimed at publishing studies related to all branches of oceanography with an emphasis on the functioning of the ocean and the sustainable use of its resources and ecosystem services. Affirming MDPI's Commitment to Ocean Science MDPI's commitment to OA is pivotal in addressing critical global challenges, from climate change to ocean sustainability. Our efforts resonate with Outcome 4 of the UNESCO Ocean Decade action roadmap: an accessible ocean with open and equitable access to data, information, technology, and innovation. By aligning with UNESCO's goals, MDPI continues to contribute to shaping a sustainable future for our oceans, reinforcing our position as a forward-thinking publisher dedicated to environmental stewardship and scientific excellence. About MDPI A pioneer in scholarly OA publishing, MDPI has supported academic communities since 1996. We are leading the transition to open science by making research freely accessible to everyone. With over 3.5 million researchers entrusting us with their scientific discoveries, our editorial process is supported by a network of dedicated reviewers, over 6,000 professional staff members, and an efficient in-house article submission platform across more than 440 fully open access journals. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240607276339/en/ Contacts: For more information, contact Rui Duarte at rui.duarte@mdpi.com or +41764313242. Extension of Commercial Offtake Agreement through December 2028; Ocean Partners to extend a $4M Temporary Additional Credit Line and to increase Revolving Credit Line to $12.5M, following certain conditions; Major Shareholder Golden Post LLC to purchase $2.5M Shares of Common Stock of DynaResource Inc at $1.61 per share. IRVING, TX / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / DYNR-DynaResource, Inc. (OTCQX:DYNR) ("DynaResource", or "the Company") is pleased to report the following update regarding the Company and its 100%-owned San Jose de Gracia high grade gold project in Sinaloa, Mexico ("SJG"). All figures in United States Dollars ("USD"). Ocean Partners UK Limited ("Ocean Partners"), through its 100% owned subsidiary in Mexico - MK Metals Trading Mexico S.A. de CV ("MK"), and the Company have formalized the extension of their commercial offtake agreement through December 31, 2028, and with revision of terms as per below: Ocean Partners agreed to provide a Temporary Additional Credit Line ("TACL") of $4M, payable November 30, 2024; Ocean Partners agreed to increase the Revolving Credit Line ("RCL) from $10M to $12.5M after November 30, 2024 and following the repayment of the TACL and RCL; Ocean Partners to provide the Company a Put Option to convert up to $9M of the Revolving Credit Line into Common Stock at a price expected to be approximately $1.61 per share, exercisable between November 1 and 30, 2024. The Company has agreed to issue 1,552,795 shares of Common Stock to Golden Post Rail LLC ("Golden Post") in exchange for $2.5M USD. The Company plans to utilize the funds received from Ocean Partners and Golden Post to further expand and increase mining and milling activities at SJG, to expand the tailings storage facility, to continue exploration drilling and related exploration activities, and for general corporate purposes. "We are pleased to receive this strong level of support from key stakeholders being Ocean Partners, our offtake partner, and Golden Post, our largest shareholder," stated Rohan Hazelton, President & CEO DynaResource. "These funds are an endorsement of our business plans to optimize operations and increase shareholder value." On behalf of Ocean Partners, Brent Omland, co-CEO of Ocean Partners commented: "We are very pleased to expand our strong relationship with DynaResource and are excited to be a part of the continuing development and expansion of the world class SJG Project." On behalf of the Board of Directors of DynaResource, Inc. Rohan Hazelton President & Chief Executive Officer About DynaResource DynaResource is a junior gold mining producer trading on the OTCQX under the symbol "DYNR". DynaResource is actively mining and expanding the historic San Jose de Gracia gold mining district in Sinaloa, Mexico. IMPORTANT CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING CANADIAN DISCLOSURE STANDARDS The Company is an "OTC Reporting Issuer" as that term is defined in Multilateral Instrument 51-509, Issuers Quoted in the U.S. Over-the-Counter Markets, promulgated by various Canadian Provincial Securities Commissions. Accordingly, certain disclosure in this news release or other disclosure provided by the Company has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of securities laws in effect in Canada, which differ from the requirements of United States securities laws. In Canada, an issuer is required to provide technical information with respect to PL 4332389.2 mineralization, including reserves and resources, if any, on its mineral exploration properties in accordance with Canadian requirements, which differ significantly from the requirements of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") applicable to registration statements and reports filed by United States companies pursuant to the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. As such, information contained in this news release or other disclosure provided by the Company concerning descriptions of mineralization under Canadian standards may not be comparable to similar information made public by United States companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements of the SEC and not subject to Canadian securities legislation. This news release or other disclosure provided by the Company may use the terms "measured mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources" and "inferred mineral resources". While these terms are recognized and required by Canadian regulations (under National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects), the SEC does not recognize them. United States investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of the mineral deposits in these categories will ever be converted to reserves. In addition, "inferred mineral resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian securities legislation, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or pre-feasibility studies, although they may form, in certain circumstances, the basis of a "preliminary economic assessment" as that term is defined in National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that part or all of an inferred mineral resource exists, or is economically or legally mineable. CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27 A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Certain information contained in this news release, including any information relating to future financial or operating performance may be deemed "forward-looking". All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events or developments that DynaResource expects to occur, are "forward-looking information". These statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect the Company's expectations regarding the future growth, results of operations, business prospects and opportunities of DynaResource. These forward-looking statements reflect the Company's current internal projections, expectations or beliefs PL 4332389.2 and are based on information currently available to DynaResource. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by terminology such as "may", "will", "should", "expect", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "projects", "potential", "scheduled", "forecast", "budget" or the negative of those terms or other comparable terminology. Certain assumptions have been made regarding the Company's plans at the San Jose de Gracia property. Many of these assumptions are based on factors and events that are not within the control of DynaResource and there is no assurance they will prove to be correct. Such factors include, without limitation: capital requirements, fluctuations in the international currency markets and in the rates of exchange of the currencies of the United States and Mexico; price volatility in the spot and forward markets for commodities; discrepancies between actual and estimated production, between actual and estimated reserves and resources and between actual and estimated metallurgical recoveries; changes in national and local governments in any country which DynaResource currently or may in the future carry on business; taxation; controls; regulations and political or economic developments in the countries in which DynaResource does or may carry on business; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development, including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses and permits, diminishing quantities or grades of reserves; competition; loss of key employees; additional funding requirements; actual results of current exploration or reclamation activities; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; accidents; labor disputes; defective title to mineral claims or property or contests over claims to mineral properties. In addition, there are risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining, including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations, pressures, cave-ins, flooding and gold bullion losses (and the risk of inadequate insurance or inability to obtain insurance, to cover these risks) as well as those risks referenced in the Annual Report for DynaResource available at www.sec.gov. Forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and actual results, and future events could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking information. All of the forward-looking information contained in this news release is qualified by these cautionary statements. Although DynaResource believes that the forward-looking information contained in this news release is based on reasonable assumptions, readers cannot be assured that actual results will be consistent with such statements. Accordingly, readers are cautioned against placing undue reliance on forward-looking information. DynaResource expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward- looking information, whether as a result of new information, events or otherwise. For Information on DynaUSA and DynaMexico, please visit www.dynaresource.com, or contact: Brad J. Saulter, DynaUSA V.P. - Investor Relations: 972-996-7417; General Inquiries: 972-869-9400 Rohan Hazelton, DynaUSA - President & CEO Contact Information Brad J. Saulter DynaUSA V.P. - Investor Relations 972-869-9400 SOURCE: DynaResource, Inc. View the original press release on newswire.com. HOUSTON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / Camber Energy, Inc. (NYSE American:CEI) ("Camber" or the "Company") announces with great sadness that its Director, Lawrence (Larry) B. Fisher, has passed away after a brief illness. Mr. Fisher served as a director of the Company since December 2023, and served as a director of Viking Energy Group, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Camber, since August 2018. Commenting on Mr. Fisher's passing, the Company's CEO, James Doris, "Larry was an invaluable member of our organization and we will be forever grateful for his wisdom, wit and support. He will be greatly missed. We extend our deepest condolences to Larry's family". On behalf of its Board of Directors, management and employees, the Company extends its deepest sympathies to Mr. Fisher's family and thanks him for his dedication to the Company. About Camber Energy, Inc. For more information, please visit the company's website at www.camber.energy. Forward-Looking Statements This press release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Any statements that are not historical facts contained in this press release are "forward-looking statements", which statements may be identified by words such as "expects," "plans," "projects," "will," "may," "anticipates," "believes," "should," "intends," "estimates," and other words of similar meaning. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, involve known and unknown risks, a reliance on third parties for information, transactions that may be cancelled, and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or developments in our industry, to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from anticipated results include risks and uncertainties related to the fluctuation of global economic conditions or economic conditions with respect to the oil and gas industry, the COVID-19 pandemic, the performance of management, actions of government regulators, vendors, and suppliers, our cash flows and ability to obtain financing, competition, general economic conditions and other factors that are detailed in Camber's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We intend that all forward-looking statements be subject to the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Camber cautions that the foregoing list of important factors is not complete, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made, and Camber does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that it may make, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to Camber or any person acting its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements referenced above. Contact Information Investors and Media: Tel. 281.404.4387 SOURCE: Camber Energy, Inc. View the original press release on accesswire.com VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / North Shore Uranium Ltd. (TSX-V:NSU) ("North Shore" or the "Company") is pleased to report that all resolutions put forward at the Annual General and Special Meeting (the "Meeting") of the Company's shareholders held on June 7, 2024, as further described in the Company's information circular dated April 30, 2024, were approved. The approved resolutions include the renewal of the Company's 10% "rolling" stock option plan (the "Option Plan") and approval of a fixed equity incentive plan (the "Equity Plan"). The Board of Directors approved the Equity Plan on April 8, 2024, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. The Company's current Option Plan and new Equity Plan follow the new security-based compensation policy adopted by the TSX Venture Exchange in November 2021. Stock Option Plan The Company's current Option Plan is a 10% "rolling" stock option plan which governs the granting of stock options to directors, officers, employees and consultants of the Company or a subsidiary of the Company for the purchase of up to 10% of the issued and outstanding common shares in the capital of the Company (the "Common Shares") from time to time. Equity Incentive Plan The Company's Equity Plan governs the granting of any restricted share unit (RSU), performance share unit (PSU) or deferred share unit (DSU) (collectively the "Awards") granted under the fixed Equity Plan, to directors, officers, employees and consultants of the Company or a subsidiary of the Company. The Company has reserved for issuance a fixed number of Common Shares of up to 3,683,096 Common Shares, being 10% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares at the record date of the Meeting. About North Shore Uranium The near-term business objectives of North Shore Uranium are to become a major force in exploration for economic uranium deposits in Saskatchewan's Athabasca Basin, a tier-one jurisdiction for discovering new mineable high-grade uranium deposits. The Company will work to achieve those objectives by conducting exploration programs on its two properties, Falcon and West Bear , located 90 kilometres apart at the eastern margin of the Athabasca Basin, and by evaluating opportunities to increase its portfolio of properties in the region. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Brooke Clements, President, Chief Executive Officer and Director For further information: Please contact: Brooke Clements, President, Chief Executive Officer and Director Telephone: 604.536.2711 Email: b.clements@northshoreuranium.com www.northshoreuranium.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on the Company's current expectations and estimates. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "project", "appear", "interpret", "coincident", "potential", "confirm", "suggest", "evaluate", "encourage", "likely", "anomaly", "continuous" and variations of these words as well as other similar words or statements that certain events or conditions "could", "may", "should", "would" or "will" occur. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results implied or expressed in such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others: the actual results of current and planned exploration activities including the potential for the definition of a mineral deposit of potential economic value within Falcon; that drilling results, geophysical survey results and/or interpretations thereof are defining potentially mineralized corridors; results from future exploration programs including drilling; interpretation and meaning of completed and future geophysical surveys; conclusions of future economic evaluations; changes in project parameters as plans to continue to be refined; possible variations in grades of mineralization and/or future actual recovery rates; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; the availability of sufficient funding on terms acceptable to the Company to complete the planned work programs; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing; and fluctuations in metal prices. There may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated, or intended. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or results or otherwise. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein. SOURCE: North Shore Uranium Ltd. View the original press release on accesswire.com Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 7, 2024) - Tiidal Gaming Group Corp. (the "Company" or "Tiidal") announces that, further to the Company's press release dated June 5, 2024, the Company's common shares have been delisted from the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE") effective close of business on June 7, 2024 (the "Delisting"). The CSE issued a bulletin with respect to the Delisting on June 6, 2024. ABOUT TIIDAL GAMING Tiidal Gaming is a reporting issuer in the Provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. Carlo Rigillo Chief Executive Officer e: carlo.rigillo@gmail.com t: 647-400-4794 Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Statements This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature may constitute forward-looking information. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by words or phrases such as "may", "will", "expect", "likely", "should", "would", "plan", "anticipate", "intend", "potential", "proposed", "estimate", "believe" or the negative of these terms, or other similar words, expressions and grammatical variations thereof, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" happen, or by discussions of strategy. Forward-looking information is based upon certain material assumptions that were applied in drawing a conclusion or making a forecast or projection, including management's perceptions of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other considerations that are believed to be appropriate in the circumstances. Any such forward-looking information is based on information currently available to Tiidal and is based on assumptions and analyses made in light of Tiidal's experience and perception of historical trends and current conditions. While the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to management, there is no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned that actual results may vary from the forward-looking information, and undue reliance should not be placed on such forward-looking information. By their nature, forward-looking information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. A variety of factors, including known and unknown risks, many of which are beyond our control, could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information in this news release. Additional risk factors can also be found in Tiidal's financial statements and management's discussion and analysis, which are available under Tiidal's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Unless otherwise indicated, the forward-looking statements in this news release are based on the Company's expectations at the date of this news release. Readers are cautioned to consider these and other factors, uncertainties and potential events carefully and not to put undue reliance on forward-looking information. Tiidal undertakes no obligation to update or revise such forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, estimates or opinions, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/212072 SOURCE: Tiidal Gaming Group Corp. Polaris Renewable Energy Inc. (TSX:PIF) ("Polaris" or the "Company") wishes to announce that its board of directors have authorized and approved an amendment to the Company's omnibus long-term incentive plan (the "Plan") to change from a rolling plan to a fixed plan, and will seek approval of this amendment at the upcoming meeting of its shareholders on June 20, 2024 (the "Meeting"). An amendment to the management information circular dated May 17, 2024 (the "Circular") will be filed in due course with the specific amendments. Shareholders are encouraged to review the amendment to the Circular for more details. The amendments to the Plan will not be effective unless all necessary approvals are received, including the approval of the shareholders of the Company at the Meeting and any necessary regulatory approvals. About Polaris Renewable Energy Inc. Polaris Renewable Energy Inc. (formerly, Polaris Infrastructure Inc.) is a Canadian publicly traded company engaged in the acquisition, development, and operation of renewable energy projects in Latin America. We are a high-performing and financially sound contributor in the energy transition. The Company's operations are in 5 Latin American countries and include a geothermal plant (~82 MW), 3 run-of- river hydroelectric plants (33 MW), and 3 solar (photovoltaic) projects in operation (35 MW). For more information, contact: Investor Relations Polaris Renewable Energy Inc. Phone: +1 647-245-7199 Email: info@PolarisREI.com This press release contains certain "forward-looking information" which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to future events or future performance, management's expectations regarding the ability of the Company to continue to pay dividends in the future. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans","expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others, the inability of the Company to pay or increase dividends which may be affected by such factors as general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; the actual results of current geothermal, solar and hydro energy production, development and/or exploration activities and the accuracy of probability simulations prepared to predict prospective geothermal resources; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; possible variations of production rates; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labor disputes and other risks of the geothermal and hydro power industries; political instability or insurrection or war; labor force availability and turnover; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or in the completion of development or construction activities, or in the commencement of operations; the ability of the Company to continue as a going concern and general economic conditions, as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form. These factors should be considered carefully and readers of this press release should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Although the forward-looking information contained in this press release is based upon what management believes to be reasonable assumptions, therecan 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 information. Accordingly, readers shouldnot place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The information in this press release, including such forward-looking information, is made as of the date of this press release and, other than as required by applicable securities laws, Polaris assumes no obligation to update or revise such information to reflect new events or circumstances. SOURCE: Polaris Renewable Energy Inc. View the original press release on accesswire.com LITTLETON, CO / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / Ur-Energy Inc. (NYSE American:URG)(TSX:URE) (the "Company" or "Ur-Energy") announces the results of the Company's Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders ("Shareholders Meeting") held June 6, 2024, including the election of Directors. Each of the nominee Directors listed in the Company's management proxy circular dated April 23, 2024 was elected as a Director. The Company received proxies with regard to voting on the seven Directors nominated for election, as follows: Nominee Votes For % Votes Against % Non-Votes John W. Cash 121,505,871 99.51 593,287 0.49 37,845,431 Rob Chang 120,432,400 98.63 1,666,757 1.37 37,845,432 Elmer W. Dyke 121,262,586 99.31 836,572 0.69 37,845,431 Gary C. Huber 100,200,596 82.06 21,898,562 17.94 37,845,431 Thomas H. Parker 117,512,304 96.24 4,586,854 3.76 37,845,431 John Paul Pressey 121,230,121 99.29 869,036 0.71 37,845,432 Kathy E. Walker 121,124,980 99.20 974,178 0.80 37,845,431 The Company's independent auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP were reappointed by the Shareholders, and the Directors of the Company were authorized to fix the remuneration of the auditors. The "say on pay" vote to approve executive compensation was approved with 96.17% of the votes cast voting for the non-binding advisory vote. About Ur-Energy Ur-Energy is a uranium mining company operating the Lost Creek in-situ recovery uranium facility in south-central Wyoming. We have produced and packaged approximately 2.8 million pounds U3O8 from Lost Creek since the commencement of operations. Ur-Energy has all major permits and authorizations to begin construction at Shirley Basin, the Company's second in situ recovery uranium facility in Wyoming and is in the process of obtaining remaining amendments to Lost Creek authorizations for expansion of Lost Creek. Ur-Energy is engaged in uranium mining, recovery and processing activities, including the acquisition, exploration, development, and operation of uranium mineral properties in the United States. The primary trading market for Ur-Energy's common shares is on the NYSE American under the symbol "URG." Ur-Energy's common shares also trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "URE." Ur-Energy's corporate office is in Littleton, Colorado and its registered office is in Ottawa, Ontario. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT John W. Cash, Chairman, CEO and President +1 720.981.4588, ext. 303 John.Cash@Ur-Energy.com SOURCE: Ur-Energy Inc. View the original press release on accesswire.com The decision to keep repo-rate unchanged was taken during the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting that was held from June 5 to 7 read more The Reserve Bank of India, or RBI, has kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent. The decision was announced by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das after the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held from June 5 to 7. RBI MPC decided to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent with a 4:2 majority, Das said. The Monetary Policy Committee decided by a 4:2 majority to keep the policy repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent. Consequently, the standing deposit facility (SDF) rate remains at 6.25 per cent, and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the bank rate at 6.75 per cent, Das said. Advertisement Repo rate is the rate at which the RBI lends to commercial banks in the event of any shortfall of funds. The central bank uses repo rate to regulate liquidity in the economy. The repo-rate has been kept unchanged at 6.5 per cent for the eighth consecutive policy meeting. The RBI will continue to be nimble in liquidity management both on the repo and reverse repo front, the central bank governor further said. Todays RBI policy was the first after the 2024 Lok Sabha election results were announced on June 4. It was also the second bi-monthly monetary policy of the financial year 2024-25. FY25 GDP growth forecast The RBI Governor said the Indian economy is expected to grow at 7.2 per cent for the financial year 2024-25. It is higher from earlier projection of 7 per cent. In Q1 it is expected to grow at 7.3 per cent, in Q2 at 7.2 per cent, in Q3 at 7.3 per cent, and in Q4 at 7.2 per cent. The risks are evenly balanced, he said. Q1FY25 GDP growth forecast increased to 7.3 per cent from 7.1 per cent Q2FY25 GDP growth forecast increased to 7.2 per cent from 6.9 per cent Q3FY25 GDP growth forecast increased to 7.3 per cent from 7 per cent Advertisement Q4FY25 GDP growth forecast increased to 7.2 per cent from 7 per cent CPI inflation projection In the RBI MPC announcement, Das also said that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation for the current financial year 2024-25 is expected to be 4.5 per cent. For Q1 the CPI inflation is likely to be 4.9 per cent, for Q2 it is seen at 3.8 per cent, in Q3 at 4.6 per cent and and Q4 at 4.5 per cent. RBI on food inflation Das said the uncertainties related to food price inflation need to be watched closely. We need a descent of inflation to 4 per cent target on a sustainable basis. Advertisement The RBI governor also said that vegetable prices are currently increasing due to the summer season. He attributed the deflationary trend in fuel prices primarily to reductions in LPG prices. Das also pointed out the global trend of rising food prices, indicating a shift in broader market dynamics. How Indian stock market has reacted to RBI Monetary Policy decision? Benchmark India equity indices were trading in the green. After the RBI Monetary Policy announcement, BSE Sensex rallied 700 points as the central bank raised FY25 GDP growth forecast. Nifty50 also topped 23,000 points. At 10:40 am, BSE Sensex was trading 1.04 per cent or 777.61 points higher at 75,852.12, while Nifty was up 230.10 points or 1.01 per cent and was trading at 23,051.50. While CISF guard Kulwinder Kaur has been suspended and an FIR has been registered against her, Kangana Ranaut has slammed Bollywoods silence on the attack against her read more Actress and BJP MP Kangana Ranaut was slapped by a CISF constable Kulwinder Kaur at the Chandigarh airport yesterday. The Manikarnika star was travelling to New Delhi days after her Lok Sabha election win from Himachal Pradeshs Mandi constituency. While Kulwinder has been suspended and an FIR has been registered against her, Kangana has slammed Bollywoods silence on the attack against her. Taking to Instagram stories, Kangana wrote, All eyes on Rafah Gang this can happen to you or your children as well. When you celebrate a terror attack on someone be ready for the day it comes back to you as well. Advertisement In another post, which she deleted later, wrote, Dear film industry you all are either celebrating or are totally mum on the airport attack on me remember if tomorrow if you walking disarmingly on some street of your country or anywhere else in the world and some Israeli / Palestinian hits you or your children just because you tried to bring eyes to Rafah or stood up for Israeli hostage then you will see I will be fighting for your rights of free speech, if someday you wonder why I am where I am remember you are not me Shocking rise in terror and violence in Punjab. pic.twitter.com/7aefpp4blQ Kangana Ranaut (Modi Ka Parivar) (@KanganaTeam) June 6, 2024 Bollywood celebs like Alia Bhatt, Priyanka Chopra, Kareena Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Rashmika Mandanna, Sonakshi Sinha, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Triptii Dimri, Dia Mirza and Richa Chadha had expressed their solidarity with Palestinians by sharing the phrase All Eyes On Rafah on their social media handles. Taking to X (formerly known as Twitter), Ranaut shared a video and revealed that a woman guard hit the actress on her face and hurled abuses. When I asked her the reason, she said she supports the farmers protest. I am getting a lot of phone calls, from the media as well as my well-wishers. First of all, I am safe, I am perfectly fine. The incident that happened today at Chandigarh airport was during the security check. As soon as I came out after the security check, the lady in the second cabin, a CISF security staff came from the side, hit me on my face and started abusing me. When I asked her why she did so, she said that she supports farmers protest. I am safe but I am concerned about the terrorism and extremism that is increasing in Punjab, she said in the video. The organisations said a conspiracy has been going on to target a particular faith, disturb peace and hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims read more Karnataka government has banned the screening of the Hindi movie Hamare Baarah for at least two weeks after some Muslim organisations raised concerns. In an order, the government stalled the release of the film and its trailer in electronic media, social media, film theatres, private television channels or other media. The order said several Muslim organisations had appealed to the government not to allow the screening of the movie which portrays Islam in an instigative and derogatory manner, and giving permission to such a film would lead to hatred between faiths and communities. Advertisement The organisations said a conspiracy has been going on to target a particular faith, disturb peace and hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims. Since its announcement, Hamare Baarah , starring Annu Kapoor, Manoj Joshi, and Paritosh Tripathi, has captured publics attention for its bold narrative and thought-provoking themes. Recently, Annu Kapoor, Director and Producers met with Maharashtra CM Shri Eknath Shinde ji and thanked the CM for safety and police protection provided. They also expressed gratitude for the assurance of safety during the release week. But now, Producer Birender Bhagat and Ravi S Gupta have raised serious concerns regarding the recent development to impose a stay on their film despite receiving a censor certificate. Our film has received a certificate from the censor board. It is set to release on its scheduled date this Friday. We have invested crores of our hard earned money in making of the film, risked our entire lifes savings, and made this film with great difficulty. We are shocked & disappointed since a stay has been imposed on our film without even watching it. This is a serious matter. The film was scheduled for a worldwide release on June 7. All our distributor agreements had been signed and all payments have been made to the distributors. Screenings were complete and everything was finalised. Now, we will have to halt the release everywhere, with our entire life savings at stake. Without hearing our side or watching the film, it has been stopped just days before its June 7 release, he lamented. Advertisement With inputs from PTI Director: Sriram Aditya Cast: Sharwanand, Krithi Shetty, Vennela Kishore When I was scrolling Instagram a couple of days back, I came across this post that read, Having a kid is like getting a tattoo on your face. You better be committed. Hilarious, yes. I couldnt agree more though. Parenting is a commitment, one that decides what life looks like for another human being and I see people take it lightly all around me. The choice is made to ward off the pressure from society the majority of the time, and it is something that I have always pondered on. Interestingly enough, Manamey, the film starring Sharwanand and Krithi Shetty in lead roles, is about parenting. It is about two adults who did not choose to become parents, but the situation pushes them to take on the responsibility. These two strangers Vikram and Subhadra come together to take care of their friends child after their friends lose their life in an accident. Advertisement This plotline is not really new considering we have seen that in many Hollywood films. What really makes Manamey interesting is how it sets this up in the milieu of Indian families and a society that is hardwired to frown upon a situation where the parents are not married. In Manameys case, we do not see the social context drawn upon too upon, which I personally feel could have added much weight to the film. Instead, as a romantic feel, it hides behind humor most of the times to really entertain audiences. Considering the fact that the two lead characters have opposing personalities one a fun loving irresponsible dude and the other being a responsible young lady who respects promises humor does work in the films favor. In fact, we can even call it the saving grace. For everything else about the film is either expected, or disappointing. Do you know why the majority of the audience fell in love with Hi Nanna , which was also a romance drama set around parenting? It did not veer away from the lead characters life to introduce an unnecessary villain. In fact, this trope was subverted in the film in a small way. Manamey, on the other hand, veers away from the characters quite a bit because of this villain. If we move beyond this, there is also the melodrama that comes with these two opposing characters falling in love. I believe that the villain of the story could have been the confusion and conflicts that arise in this relationship, with a child adding an interesting dynamic to the situation. Instead, the lead characters romance seem a bit removed from the child. Sure, he is a consideration, and there is enough care and attention give to his presence in the film, but not enough is given when it comes to the relationship itself. It is about caring for a child, but what does having a child in a newly blooming romance really mean? This is not explored from an emotional angle, which made the film very superficial for me. It also left me wondering, why are we so reticent to explore the emotional aspect of plotlines such as this. Why do we only choose melodrama without emotional context? Advertisement Rating: 2.5 (out of 5 stars) Manamey is playing in cinemas Priyanka Sundar is a film journalist who covers films and series of different languages with a special focus on identity and gender politics. In 2019, Ursula von der Leyen became the European Commissions first woman president. She has had to deal with crises like the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war from the get-go. Her strong work ethic has even been praised by opponents. So why is re-election still an uphill path for her? read more Almost 400 million European citizens are due to vote for representatives from their country to the European Parliament between June 6 and 9. The results of the elections will have an influence on who becomes the next president of the European Commission, one of the most powerful jobs in European politics. The position is currently held by Ursula von der Leyen , who in 2019 became the first woman to lead the commission. For her term to be extended to 2029, the EUs 27 national leaders must first nominate her for the job. Then she must be backed by a majority of the 720 new European Parliament members. Advertisement A tough road to getting a majority Last time around, von der Leyen was not running in the campaign and her nomination came as a surprise . But this year she is the lead candidate for the centre-right European Peoples Party (EPP) and is doing all she can to boost what has become an increasingly shaky bid for a second term. There are intense debates among national leaders and in the European Parliament over issues such as the future of European integration and progress in key areas including climate change. Its looking like a challenging feat for von der Leyen to build the majority she needs in both EU institutions to keep her job. She was elected in 2019 by a very narrow margin, with a majority of just nine votes, even after making substantial promises to different political groups. The groups that supported von der Leyen last time round will have expected her to keep her policy promises, and they will assess her performance in their decisions about re-electing her. So, it makes sense to take stock of her achievements. Von der Leyens crisis management Von der Leyen has had to respond to crisis from almost her first day in the job. She was confronted by a global pandemic shortly after taking office. Then, just two years later, she was beset with the biggest war on European soil since 1945. Advertisement At the same time, theres been democratic backsliding among member states , while Eurosceptic and populist governments have been brought to power in several countries including Slovakia , Italy , and, most recently, the Netherlands . Strong leadership is needed during a crisis, and a strong leader is certainly what von der Leyen has become. She played a crucial part in developing the EUs strategy for manufacturing and deploying COVID vaccines. And she has made strides on achieving equality for all one of the major priorities of her commission. People walk outside the European Parliament prior to a debate with the lead candidates for the European Parliament elections in Brussels, Thursday, 23 May 2024. AP Lawmakers passed legislation promoting pay transparency and equality in the job market, and parliament has approved new rules on tackling violence against women and domestic violence. Advertisement She has shown strong leadership in response to Russias war in Ukraine. Von der Leyen was the first European politician to travel to Kyiv after the invasion, and to raise the idea of Ukraines accession to the EU. Her commission was also key in preparing sanctions against Russia. Europes man on the moon moment The European Green Deal , which von der Leyen has called Europes man on the moon moment, was another key priority. Under her leadership, the green deal led to landmark legislation that set the EU on the path to a green transition. However, many of its concrete measures have been torn apart in response to fierce protests from farmers. In 2023, her own political group, the EPP, joined far-right lawmakers in voting against a bill aimed at restoring the EUs damaged ecosystems. The final text included major concessions and the laws targets were watered down. Advertisement Leading the EU is like steering a huge vessel, and stormy waters make it even more difficult. When the situation escalated in Israel and Gaza in late 2023, von der Leyen immediately adopted a pro-Israel stance, ignoring EU member states with different positions on Israel and Palestine. Criticism of von der Leyens leadership She has also often been criticised over her reluctance to take rule of law infringements to the European Court of Justice. Increasing numbers of attacks on media freedom in Italy will again test whether von der Leyen will launch a legal case. However, legal action is unlikely as it could harm von der Leyens efforts to secure the support of Italys far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, in her bid for a second term. During an election debate at the European Parliament on May 23, von der Leyen described Meloni as pro-rule of law. Advertisement Her leadership style is certainly not without flaws. Her rivals have bemoaned the fact that she communicates with a limited number of trusted advisers and is not sufficiently connected to her commission. In an interview with the Financial Times, the centre-lefts lead candidate for the commission presidency, Nicolas Schmit, branded von der Leyens style of leadership as unacceptable, saying she has consistently excluded her commissioners from decision making. An admirable term? But, overall, her response to crisis has been swift and determined, and even critics show some admiration for her work ethic and dedication. The co-chair of the European Parliaments Green political group (and hence not a political ally), Philippe Lamberts, even said : She is arguably the best since [Jacques] Delors. Between 1985 and 1995, Delors served as the commission president and played a key role in creating the EUs single market and monetary union. She has also made herself known to the wider public. According to a recent study , von der Leyen is now a household name. About 75 per cent of Europeans are able to correctly identify von der Leyens name and recognise her face a much higher percentage than for any of her predecessors. Reelection will be no easy task for von der Leyen, despite being in pole position and her good performance overall. Yet performance is just one out of many factors that influence the choice for the EUs top jobs. By mid-July, we should know whether von der Leyen has done enough. Gabriele Abels , Jean Monnet Professor for Comparative Politics & European Integration, University of Tubingen This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article . Hamas fighting force has been cut down by almost half. The group is now resorting to guerilla tactics to hold its ground against the much more powerful Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). A labyrinth of tunnels, sprawling 500 km, is central to this read more Hamas has been significantly weakened, with almost half of its members wiped out. Reuters A considerably weakened Hamas has shifted gears in the war in Israel. The group is now resorting to guerilla tactics to hold its ground against the much more powerful Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Hamas resistance is evolving, and quickly. We tell you how much Hamas has weakened, how its using tunnels for its guerilla tactics, and whether there is any chance of Hamas being completely vanquished. Significant losses for Hamas Eight months into the Gaza conflict that began with surprise attacks on Israel in October last year, Hamas stands significantly weakened and divided, though far from defeated, according to experts and officials. In a recent report, Reuters cited US and Israeli officials as saying that the group has seen about half its forces wiped out so far. Advertisement The officials said that Hamas fighting force has dwindled to between 9,000-12,000 fighters, down from pre-conflict estimates of 20,000-25,000. Notably, between 7,000-8,000 Hamas fighters remain entrenched in Rafah, the groups last significant bastion of resistance. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby recently told ABC News that US intelligence now believes that Hamas has been militarily degraded to the extent that it cannot replicate its October 7 attack. The group has not just been cut down militarily. It has earned the ire of some Palestinians, too. Back in April, the Guardian had reported that despite a poll suggesting support for Hamas in the territory, there is evidence of deepening anger within Gaza against Hamas. An unprecedented apology from the group in March for the suffering caused by the conflict was testament to this. Displaced Palestinians inspect their tents destroyed by Israels bombardment, adjunct to an UNRWA facility west of Rafah city, Gaza Strip. AP Yet, despite this weakening, Hamas retains control over substantial portions of Gaza, with its leadership largely unscathed. Hamas maintains control over significant population centres, and its operatives have been seen maintaining order in southern Gazas Khan Younis after the IDF withdrew from there in the first week of April. Shift to Guerilla tactics With diminished forces, Hamas has resorted to guerrilla warfare tactics. Hamas fighters are avoiding sustained engagements, opting for ambushes and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to hit Israeli targets behind enemy lines. This shift allows rapid withdrawal, regrouping, and reappearance in previously cleared areas, complicating Israeli military operations. The Wall Street Journal, in a recent report, pointed out how Hamas has leveraged its tunnel network and guerrilla tactics to launch hit-and-run attacks in northern Gaza, despite the Israeli militarys focus on Rafah. These tactics have kept Israeli forces engaged across the enclave, creating battlegrounds in previously quiet areas. Advertisement A labyrinth of tunnels aiding Hamas Hamas tunnel network spans 500 km, and is sprawled out like a subterranean city. It has been central to the groups resilience. Dubbed the Gaza metro by the Israeli military, this labyrinth shelters Hamas leaders, command centers, and weapon stores. The tunnel networks construction began in 1999 and expanded significantly after Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, according to The Week. Despite Israeli attempts to clear these tunnels using explosives and flooding with seawater, the network remains a formidable challenge. WSJ quoted sources as saying that top Hamas leaders, including Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, are believed to be hiding in these tunnels with Israeli captives. Advertisement Under Gaza, there is a huge network of tunnels that Hamas uses extensively. Reuters Peter Lerner, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), acknowledged that dismantling the network is no easy feat. There is no quick fix after 17 years of them building their capabilities, he told Reuters. Can Hamas be completely vanquished? There is never a goal to kill each and every last terrorist on the ground. Thats not a realistic goal, Lerner said. Destroying Hamas as a governing authority is an achievable and attainable military objective, he added. Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group spoke about the groups pervasive presence despite military setbacks. Hamas is everywhere in Gaza, he said. Hamas also continues to exert control through police and civil defence bodies under its interior ministry, maintaining its societal influence. Advertisement Major General Tamir Hayman, former head of Israeli military intelligence, noted that even if terror activities are eroded, the societal structures and ideological elements of Hamas persist. The sense of Islamic brotherhood is almost impossible to root out, especially given the populations growing resentment towards oppressors like Israel. Concerns have also been raised about Israels lack of a credible plan for replacing Hamas. The worry is that the absence of a governing alternative could undermine military successes. Right now, criminal gangs have already emerged in Gaza amid the power vacuum, seizing food deliveries and conducting armed robberies, drawing parallels to the insurgencies seen in Falluja post-US invasion. Advertisement Back then, US actions led to people flocking in support of what was seen as the Islamist resistance, filling up the ranks of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. A similar situation could play out in Gaza, where the mass killings could prompt members to join resistance militant groups. With inputs from agencies BJP MP-elect from Mandi Kangana Ranaut alleged she was hit by a Central Industrial Security Force woman constable at Chandigarh airport on Thursday. Videos shared online show the accused expressing anger about the actors past remarks on farmers protest. Was there no security with Ranaut when the incident took place? read more Bollywood actor and MP-elect Kangana Ranaut was allegedly slapped by a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) woman constable at Chandigarh airport on Thursday (6 June). The accused, identified as Kulwinder Kaur, has reportedly been arrested. Reports surfaced that Ranaut purportedly got into a heated exchange with the CISF constable, who then allegedly slapped the actor at the security check. A first information report (FIR) was filed against the constable and she was also suspended. Sources told NDTV that Kaur has been arrested for allegedly slapping Ranaut. Advertisement The incident raises questions about the MP-elects security. Did Kangana Ranaut have no security during the incident? How are MPs protected in India? Lets understand. Did Kangana Ranaut have security? Yes. The videos shared online show multiple security officers accompanying her to the check-in at the airport. Ranaut was about to board the flight to Delhi when the alleged incident took place. The footage on social media shows the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader embroiled in an argument before being escorted away. The clip does not capture the alleged slap. In another video that emerged online, Kaur can be seen referring to Ranauts past unsavoury remarks on farmers protests. The accused constable says that her mother was among the farmers holding a sit-in protest against the Centres farm laws (now repealed). She (Kangana) stated that the farmers are sitting there for Rs 100. Will she go and sit there? My mother was sitting there and protesting when she gave this statement Kaur said, as per ANI. In December 2020, Ranaut faced intense backlash for suggesting that women at the farmers protest were available for Rs 100 to attend the demonstration. She deleted the tweet later. NDTV report says that after allegedly slapping Ranaut, the paramilitary constable told the actor it was for disrespecting farmers. According to India Today, after Ranauts flight landed in Delhi, the BJP MP-elect from Mandi met CISF Director General Nina Singh and other senior officials to raise the incident. Advertisement Later, she shared a video on her social media accounts. I am getting a lot of phone calls, from the media and my well-wishers. First of all, I am safe, I am perfectly fine, Ranaut said. She further commented, The incident happened at the security check-in. The woman guard waited for me to cross. She then came from the side and hit me. She started throwing expletives. I asked why she hit me. She said I support farmers. I am safe, but my concern is terrorism is rising in Punjab. How do we handle that? Shocking rise in terror and violence in Punjab. pic.twitter.com/7aefpp4blQ Kangana Ranaut (Modi Ka Parivar) (@KanganaTeam) June 6, 2024 Advertisement Her remarks drew condemnation from several quarters. Samyukt Kisan Morcha or SKM (non-political) leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal told PTI action should be taken against Ranaut for her statement on Punjab. He also threw his weight behind the accused constable, demanding a proper investigation. Kangana Ranauts Y plus security Ranaut enjoys a Y plus security cover that she was provided by the Central government in 2020 after the actor claimed she feared the Mumbai Police. This came following her spat with the (undivided) Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra government which was then led by Uddhav Thackeray. The Y+ category of security, which is unofficially called VIP security, includes eight to 11 personnel, including commandos, as per a Business Standard report. Advertisement Five personnel guard the protectees residence, reported ThePrint. Two personal security officers (PSOs) are also present with the protectee at all times, one with a 9 mm pistol and another with a Sten gun. Four other PSOs are also deployed with the protectee. Last year, Shah Rukh Khans security cover was upgraded to the Y+ category after he reportedly got death threats post the success of his films Pathan and Jawan. Besides the Special Protection Group (SPG) that is reserved for Indias prime minister, the other levels of VIP security cover are Z+, Z, Y and X. They are accorded based on the perceived level of threat to the individual. Advertisement The SPG cover is also provided to families of former prime ministers for five years after the tenure ends. What security do MPs get? Kangana Ranaut, who was elected from Himachal Pradeshs Mandi in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, is eligible for security granted to Members of Parliament in India. The Blue Book issued by the Home Ministry lays down guidelines for the security of the VVIPs that include Indias President, Vice-President and Prime Minister, and visiting heads of state. The security framework for politicians and other VIPs is defined in the Yellow Book. The security arrangements for them are made after careful evaluation of the threat perception from criminals, terrorists, and other miscreants. In 2015, the then Minister of State (MoS) for Home had informed the Rajya Sabha that security cover to individuals, including MPs, was provided on the basis of individual threat perception, as per PTI. The state governments also provide security to MPs. With inputs from agencies Ajit Pawars NCP has faced a massive defeat in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, winning only one of the four contested seats. Despite all his efforts, his wife also lost the prestige seat of Baramati in Maharashtra. Now, there are rumours that a few of his MLAs are trying to switch to the Sharad Pawar faction read more NCP (Ajit faction) president Ajit Pawar is looking at tough times ahead. His party has performed very poorly in the Lok Sabha polls, winning only one of the four seats it contested. File image/PTI In politics, a lot can happen in a short period of time. In the case of Ajit Pawar, this adage seems very true. From a high of becoming deputy chief minister of Maharashtra in July 2023 after engineering a split in his uncle Sharad Pawars party, now Ajit Pawar stares at an uncertain future owing to his factions poor performance at the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections. And just three days after his partys poor performance at the Lok Sabha elections, now comes the news that he could be losing some of his MLAs to his uncle, a claim he has denied vehemently. Advertisement A poor show at the polls With the support of 39 MLAs, Ajit Pawar in July 2023 had joined hands with the BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. He had then declared that his group of MLAs was the real NCP, causing his uncle to form a different faction by the name of Nationalist Congress Party Sharadchandra Pawar (NCP{SP}). Before the Lok Sabha elections, it seemed Ajit Pawar was riding a high. But as they say all good things must come to an end. And at the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections, his NCP fared poorly, winning just one of the four seats that it contested. This compared to his uncles showing of eight wins. Ajit Pawar had made these elections a prestige battle, especially in the seat of Baramati, considered a Pawar bastion. He had fielded his wife, Sunetra Pawar, against Supriya Sule , the sitting MP and daughter of Sharad Pawar. And despite all the stops he pulled out during the election campaign, Supriya Sule won a fourth term by more than 1,50,000 votes. Despite all of Ajit Pawars efforts, his gamble of pitching his wife, Sunetra Pawar, against Supriya Sule from the Baramati constituency didnt pay off. Supriya Sule won by a margin of over 1.5 lakh votes. File image/PTI And its not just Baramati. Ajit Pawar failed to win Shirur, the other Lok Sabha seat in Pune district. NCP-SPs incumbent Amol Kolhe defeated his partys candidate Shivajirao Adhalrao Patil with a margin of over 1.4 lakh votes. Advertisement Interestingly, ahead of the polls, Nilesh Lanke, NCP MLA from Parner, who had switched to Sharad Pawars group contested from the Ahmednagar Lok Sabha constituency and won against sitting BJP MP Sujay Vikhe Patil, son of BJP heavyweight Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil. The only saving grace for Ajit Pawar was the win of Maharashtra NCP president Sunil Tatkare from the Raigad seat. Ajit Pawars poor showing at the Lok Sabha elections will also affect his future in the Mahayuti alliance. Insiders have said that with one seat in his kitty, it seems unlikely that the junior Pawar may be considered as CM face for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections. Advertisement Maha churn within NCP And following his partys poor performance at the polls, there already seems to be a rumbling within the NCP. At a meeting he held on Thursday, the absence of five MLAs raised eyebrows. Of the five who chose to skip the meeting, one was Maharashtra deputy speaker Narhari Zirwal, who is currently abroad. This also led to speculation that around 10-15 MLAs from Ajit Pawars NCP faction were in touch with the Sharad Pawar camp. This gained even more traction when NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) state president Jayant Patil without naming any party said that several leaders were in touch with them. We will think of these proposals at our meeting on 9 June. On 10 June, we have our foundation day, he said. Advertisement Even MLA Rohit Pawar of the Sharad Pawar faction told a Marathi news channel that 18-19 MLAs belonging to Ajit Pawar-led NCP were eager to cross over to their side. At least 19 MLAs of Ajit Pawars party are in touch with our party chief. In next few days, the picture regarding what decision the MLAs take will become clear, Rohit Pawar told ABP Majha, a Marathi news channel. However, in an attempt to put rumours to rest, Maharashtra NCP president and MP Sunil Tatkare said that the information that NCP MLAs are in touch with Sharad Pawar is a rumour. We are together, he said. Advertisement Core Committee meeting (of the party) was held today. A review of the Lok Sabha election results was held. In the upcoming Vidhan Sabha elections we will work aggressively. No one is going with Sharad Pawar, everyone will work together under the leadership of Ajit Pawar, he added further. Mumbai: Maharashtra NCP President and MP Sunil Tatkare says, "Core Committee meeting (of the party) was held today. Review over the Lok Sabha election results was held. In the upcoming Vidhanb Sabha elections we will work aggressively...A meeting of all NCP MLAs will be held in pic.twitter.com/Rcrxou8tce ANI (@ANI) June 6, 2024 However, it still remains to be seen if this is just conjecture. Some NCP leaders have told media outlets that they are assessing their future. Leaders chose Ajit Pawar over [Sharad] Pawar saheb because they believed they would get better prospects and opportunities. But when the election results show that their party is not doing well, they will reassess their decision and some may think of jumping ship, said one to Hindustan Times. Another added that the poll results may force MLAs to rethink their decision of siding with Ajit Pawar. According to the insider, who told Hindustan Times, the party members will rethink if they can contest the Maharashtra Assembly elections against the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA). The MVA candidates got support from the people, and the [Narendra] Modi factor not working in Maharashtra is concerning for leaders from all the three ruling parties. Following his partys poor show in the polls, many think that Ajit Pawar may switch sides again. The question is will Sharad Pawar relent? File image/PTI Choices before Ajit Pawar On Thursday (6 June), Ajit Pawar took full responsibility for his partys poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls and asserted the defeat in Baramati was surprising. When asked if he would once again join hands with NCP founder Sharad Pawar, he tersely said he accepted responsibility for the poll debacle, adding there is no need to bring family matters in public. But given his past flip-flops, it wont be surprising if junior Pawar tries to stage a return to his uncles fold. The question remains: Will the uncle relent? With inputs from agencies Despite Congress best performance in general elections since 2014, the party failed to touch the century, winning 99 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats. Narendra Modi, who is geared up for a third term as Prime Minister, even took a potshot at the Grand Old Party over this. But the situation could change soon. Heres how read more As the Lok Sabha election results came out, the Congress had much to cheer about despite being on the losing side. This time, the Grand Old Party gave its best performance since 2014, bagging 99 of the 543 parliamentary seats in the Lower House. Although it fell short of a century, that may change soon after an Independent candidate from Maharashtra offered his support to the party. With Vishal Patils backing, the Congress tally in the Lok Sabha would reach 100. Advertisement Who is he and whats going on? Lets take a look. Who is Vishal Patil? Vishal Patil is a Congress rebel who fought from the Sangli Lok Sabha constituency as an Independent after being denied a ticket by the party. He won the seat by a margin of 100,053 votes against his nearest rival the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Sanjaykaka Patil. Chandrahar Patil of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackrey) stood third with just 60,860 votes. A rift had emerged within the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), after Uddhav Thackerays party unilaterally nominated its candidate for Sangli. Sangli has for long been a stronghold of Congress. As per Indian Express, the Grand Old Party had won the seat since 1962, only to lose it to the BJP in 2014 when Sanjaykaka Patil, riding on the Modi wave, defeated then Union minister and Congress leader Pratik Patil. Sanjaykaka had retained the Sangli seat as an MP in 2019. After Shiv Sena (UBT) announced its candidate, Vishal Patil met senior Congress leaders, including party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, but Uddhavs party reportedly refused to budge. As he could not get a Congress ticket, Patil decided to contest from Sangli as an Independent candidate. Vishal, who is the grandson of former Maharashtra chief minister Vasantdada Patil, told Indian Express, that his family and Thackerays have had a close relationship. Our party leaders tried their best to convince Uddhav Thackeray to field me from Sangli. However, somehow things did not work out. My family and Thackeray family have very good rapport. Now that I have been elected, I hope all the misunderstandings between us will end, the MP-elect said. Advertisement Vishal Patil extends support to Congress Patil on Thursday handed over his letter of support to Congress president Kharge in Delhi. He also met Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi and party leader Rahul Gandhi at their official residence. He was accompanied by his mentor Congress MLA Vishwajeet Kadam, who as per Indian Express, had tried his best to secure a nomination for Patil. With Vishal Patils support, the Congress strength will go up to 100 in Lok Sabha, Kadam said, as per NDTV. In a post on X, Kharge said, Welcoming the support of the elected MP from Sangli, Shri Vishal Patil to the Congress party. Advertisement People of Maharashtra defeated the politics of treachery, arrogance and division. It is a fitting tribute to our inspiring stalwarts like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Babasaheb Dr Ambedkar who fought for social justice, equality and freedom. pic.twitter.com/lOn3uYZIFk Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) June 6, 2024 Senior Congress leader KC Venugopal mentioned the partys deep roots in Sangli, adding that with this sentiment, Patil had extended unconditional support to the Grand Old Party. Advertisement This is a truly fitting move which takes the legacy of Congress stalwart Vasantdada Patil ji forward, he wrote on X. Congress has always had deep roots in Sangli, and it is with that sentiment that Sangli MP Sh. Vishal Patil has extended unconditional support to the INC! Vishal ji met INC President Sh. Mallikarjun @kharge ji, CPP Chairperson Smt. Sonia Gandhi ji and Sh. @RahulGandhi ji on pic.twitter.com/NlbBcXjtTm K C Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) June 6, 2024 When asked whether he will formally join the Congress, Patil, as per The Hindu, replied, Once you get elected as an Independent, you extend support but there are some technical difficulties in joining. After consulting experts, I will do whatever I need to do for the road ahead. ALSO READ: Who are Lok Sabhas 7 Independent MPs? Are they with NDA or INDI alliance? Will Congress touch 100-mark? Yes, it can happen. With Patils support, the Congress strength could reach 100 in the Lok Sabha, leaders say. As per Indian Express, senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said Patil will become an associate member of the Grand Old Party. He will have to now submit a letter for becoming the associate MP of the Congress to the Lok Sabha secretariat. Only after the Lok Sabha secretariat approves it and issues gazette notification, he can be called the associate MP of CongressCongress strength in Lok Sabha will then go up to 100, Chavan said. Congress delivered its best performance in the general elections since 2014. Reuters File Photo There are also speculations that Pappu Yadav, who won from Bihars Purnea Lok Sabha seat as an Independent, could extend his support to the Congress. Ahead of the elections, he had merged his political outfit with the Congress with the hopes of getting a ticket from Purnea. However, the seat went to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress ally, during seat-sharing talks. Narendra Modi , who is set to become Indias prime minister for a third term, has attacked the Congress for failing to cross the 100-mark on its own even after a decade. Even after 10 years, Congress could not touch the figure of 100 seats. If we combine the 2014, 2019, and 2024 elections Congress did not even get as many seats as BJP got in this election. I can clearly see people of INDI Alliance were sinking slowly earlier now they are going to sink at a faster pace he reportedly said on Friday. Modis BJP was denied a majority by the voters this time and is now reliant on its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners, especially Chandrababu Naidus Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Nitish Kumars Janata Dal (United) or JD(U), to return to power for a third term. Meanwhile, for Congress, it remains to be seen whether it will touch the 100 mark in the Lok Sabha and how soon it will happen. With inputs from agencies The Maldives president Mohamed Muizzu will attend Narendra Modis third swearing-in ceremony to be held over the weekend. The invite comes as a surprise for many, as ties between Male and New Delhi have nosedived since Muizzu took office last year read more Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu has accepted Indias invite to attend the swearing-in of the new government led by Narendra Modi. File image/AFP This weekend, an array of world leaders will be in the National Capital to attend the historic third swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi and his government. Among those who have been invited, theres one invite that has caused surprise for many: Maldives president Mohamed Muizzu. On Friday (7 June), a Times of India report quoting official sources said that Muizzu had accepted Indias invite for the oath-taking event, most likely to be held on 9 June . Officials in Male said he would be accompanied by three members of his Cabinet, including Foreign Minister Moosa Zameer. This would mark his inaugural visit to India since assuming the presidency. Advertisement But why is an invite to Muizzu such a surprise? We take a closer look. An invite to Muizzu On Thursday, reports came in that Narendra Modi had extended an invite to Maldives president Mohamed Muizzu for his swearing-in ceremony, most likely to be held on 9 June and see an attendance of 8,000 dignitaries. Initially, an invite had been extended to the leaders of five countries Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Mauritius reflecting Modis commitment to his Neighbourhood First policy. The focus is on forging closer relations and enhancing cooperation with island nations in the Indian Ocean region. Besides, all the countries that have been invited have a key place in the Neighbourhood First policy, one of the people involved told Hindustan Times. However, people familiar with developments said that the Maldives and Seychelles had been added to the list. Significance of invite to Muizzu The decision to invite Muizzu has got people buzzing considering India and Males strained relations in the recent times. A person involved in Modis oath-taking ceremony, however, has said that the decision to invite him is a signal that New Delhi is keen on continuing its cooperation with the neighbouring island country. Ties between India-Maldives nosedived last November when Muizzu, known for his pro-China leanings, took charge as Maldivian president. In fact, one of the main planks of his campaign had been the India Out campaign in which he had vowed that Indian troops stationed in the island country would be made to go. Advertisement And after being sworn in, Muizzu has moved further away from New Delhi and closer to Beijing. His first foreign visit was to Beijing an indication of where his commitment lay. Maldivian president Mohamed Muizzu had chosen Beijing as his first foreign visit an indication of his pro-China stance. File image/Reuters Ties then worsened early this January when Muizzu ministers made derogatory remarks about Narendra Modi, which, in turn, snowballed into a diplomatic spat and even an Indian tourist boycott of the neighbouring country. Following the outrage, Muizzu suspended the three ministers for making the unsavoury comments about Modi. However, he also issued a strong statement, saying that Maldives is a small country, but that is not a licence for anybody to bully us. Advertisement Muizzu has also insisted and seen the total repatriation of Indian military personnel stationed there, with the last batch leaving in May. The first batch of Indian military personnel was withdrawn from Maldives in early March, followed by the departure of the second batch in April, totalling 51 soldiers. During their tenure, the Indian troops had contributed to infrastructure maintenance, leveraging helicopters and other resources generously provided by the Indian administration to the Maldives, the state-run PSM News channel reported. Muizzu also refused to renew the current hydrographic agreement with New Delhi. The agreement, signed in 2019, allowed India to comprehensively study the territorial waters of the island nation and was due for renewal in June 2024. Advertisement However, since March, Muizzu has gone soft on his anti-India stance. He called India its closest ally and urged New Delhi to provide debt relief to his country. Later in May, he sent his Foreign Minister Moosa Zameer to India to hold discussions on bilateral and regional issues of mutual interest. And shortly after the Lok Sabha election results were declared, he congratulated Modi and his party for securing a third term. Congratulations to Prime Minister @narendramodi, and the BJP and BJP-led NDA, on the success in the 2024 Indian General Election, for the third consecutive term. I look forward to working together to advance our shared interests in pursuit of shared prosperity and stability for Dr Mohamed Muizzu (@MMuizzu) June 4, 2024 Advertisement Past invitees for Modis swearing-in ceremony The presence of Maldives Muizzu along with Bangladeshs Sheikh Hasina and Sri Lankas Ranil Wickremesinghe at Modis oath-taking ceremony follows a kind of convention that Modi has set. For both of his swearing-in ceremonies in 2014 and 2019 he invited leaders from around the world. Prime Minister Narendra Modi gestures during his oath-taking ceremony in 2019. At his second swearing-in ceremony, he had invited leaders of BIMSTEC countries. File image/PTI For his first term, the leaders of regional grouping SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries had attended during which Modi was snapped shaking hands with then Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif. In 2019, he had then invited leaders of the BIMSTEC countries Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Nepal, Sri Lanka. Kyrgyz president and then chair of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Sooronbay Jeenbekov, and Mauritius PM Pravind Kumar Jugnauth were also present at the event. With inputs from agencies Activists from the South have sent balloons carrying K-pop and K-dramas on USB sticks in the direction of North Korea. This comes days after balloons filled with faeces were sent by Pyongyang to South Korea. We explain the ramifications of this balloon warfare read more South Korean activists are sending balloons filled with USBs containing K-pop, K-dramas to North Korea. Image used for representative purpose. Reuters Days after North Korea sent balloons filled with poo and trash to its neighbour, South Korea has clapped back. Activists from the South have sent balloons carrying K-pop and K-dramas on USB sticks in the direction of the North. We explain how this cross-border exchange of balloons began, and the impact it has had on the already tense diplomatic relations between the two countries. Cross-Border Balloon Campaigns For years, activist groups such as the Fighters for a Free North Korea (FFNK) have been sending balloons carrying items like medicine, radios, propaganda leaflets, and pieces of South Korean news to the isolated totalitarian dictatorship. Advertisement Late last month, North Korea sent giant balloons back South. These balloons contained trash, soil, faeces, pieces of paper and plastic. The trash from a balloon presumably sent by North Korea, is seen behind police tape in Incheon, South Korea. AP Tensions flared, but South Korean activists did not back down. Early on Thursday morning, videos captured the balloons drifting northward, some trailing large posters while others carried smaller packages. According to FFNK, the packages contained 200,000 leaflets denouncing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, 5,000 USB sticks with South Korean media content, and 2,000 one-dollar bills. Park Sang-hak, the leader of FFNK and a defector who fled to South Korea in 2000, described the materials as letters of truth and freedom. The purpose of the actions Parks inspiration for these balloon campaigns stems from his own experience as a young man in North Korea. In 1992, he witnessed a balloon with leaflets drop in a public square. The leaflet, which he secretly examined, contained stories about defectors and their escapes, eventually inspiring his own defection, CNN reported. Since beginning his mission in 2006, Park has sent leaflets containing information about the Kim family, including the assassination of Kim Jong Uns half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, as well as booklets on South Koreas economic and political progress. North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un. AP The repercussions of the balloon exchange This exchange of provocations has exacerbated the already tense diplomatic relations between the two Koreas, which remain technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty. Advertisement South Koreas Prime Minister Han Duck-soo recently announced the full suspension of a 2018 military agreement with North Korea, allowing the resumption of front-line military activities. This agreement, forged during a brief period of reconciliation, had required both countries to cease all hostile acts at border areas, such as live firing drills and psychological warfare. The suspension comes amid fears that North Korea might escalate its dirty balloon campaign. South Koreas decision to restart propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts and military exercises is likely to provoke further reactions from Pyongyang. The North has already warned of intensifying its balloon campaign if anti-North leaflets continue to arrive. Advertisement Despite the escalating tension, South Korea has noted that the practice of sending leaflets is protected under freedom of speech. This stance is likely to further complicate diplomatic relations with North Korea, which has labelled defectors as human scum and vowed to respond aggressively to provocations. South Korea has accused North Korea of sending balloons filled with faeces and trash across the border. Reuters The tough status quo The balloon campaigns serve multiple purposes. For North Korean defectors like Park Sang-hak, they are a means of providing forbidden information and media to North Korean citizens, hoping to spark curiosity and dissent. For the South Korean government, these actions highlight the ongoing struggle for influence and information control on the Korean peninsula. The balloons North Korea sent in return are aimed at delivering a message to Seoul, and pushing them to stop the propaganda campaign. Advertisement The resumption of hostile activities at the border, including loudspeaker broadcasts, marks a significant step back from the de-escalation efforts of recent years. The 2018 military agreement was already strained after violations amid tensions over North Koreas missile tests and satellite launches. How this balloon wars saga ends remains to be seen. With inputs from agencies Narendra Modi is set to take the oath of office for a third consecutive term on 9 June at 6 pm. The grand event at the Rashtrapati Bhavan will witness the presence of 8,000 guests, including foreign dignitaries. Besides them, the invitees include people from diverse backgrounds. Here is a look at who all are expected to attend read more Narendra Modi will take oath of office for a third time on 9 June. Reuters File Photo The Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) Narendra Modi is all set to return to power for a third straight term at the Centre. His oath-taking ceremony as Indias prime minister will be held on Sunday (9 June) at 6 pm. On Friday (7 June), the BJP -headed National Democratic Alliance (NDA) proposed him as the blocs Parliamentary leader and supported him as the next PM, paving the way for his third swearing-in ceremony. Besides several world leaders, invites have been sent to individuals from different walks of life. The guest list indicates Modi wants to honour the contributions of Indias marginalised communities. Advertisement Who has been invited to Narendra Modis third swearing-in ceremony? Which world leaders will be attending? Lets take a closer look. Doctors, sanitation workers & more The Rashtrapati Bhavan will be packed as the Central government aims to accommodate up to 8,000 people for Modis oath-taking ceremony. The invitees include prominent people from various vocations such as lawyers, doctors, artists, cultural performers and influencers among others. As per NDTV, Viksit Bharat ambassadors like Railway employees working on Vande Bharat and Metro trains, and beneficiaries of schemes of the Central government will also be present. Other special guests invited for the rare third swearing-in would be tribal women, sanitation workers, transgender people, and labourers involved in the Central Vista Project. Rat-hole miners who helped in rescuing the 41 trapped construction workers after a portion of the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhands Uttarkashi collapsed last year have also been invited to Modis oath-taking ceremony. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel wait to enter a tunnel during rescue operations for trapped workers, after the tunnel collapsed, in Uttarkashi in the northern state of Uttarakhand, on 28 November 2023. Reuters File Photo Other guests include National Office Bearers of the BJP, National Executive Committee (NEC) members, outgoing Parliamentarians, district presidents, MPs, MLAs and MLCs, as well as Lok Sabha in-charges. Invitations will also be sent to about 50 distinguished religious leaders from all faiths. Mann Ki Baat participants who were acknowledged by PM Modi for their contributions to the nation and society are also expected to mark their presence at the ceremony. Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri awardees will also grace the occasion. Advertisement World leaders invited for Modis swearing-in Modis invitation list for world leaders reflects his governments much-touted Neighbourhood First policy. Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina and Sri Lankas president Ranil Wickremesinghe have confirmed their presence for the Sunday event. Other foreign dignitaries reportedly invited are Nepal PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Bhutans King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, Vice President of Seychelles Ahmed Afif, and Mauritius PM Pravind Jugnauth. The surprise invitee expected at Modis swearing-in ceremony is Maldives president Mohamed Muizzu . Reports say he has accepted the invitation, which will make it his first visit to India since assuming the presidency last November. The development shows an improvement in ties between New Delhi and Male after tensions erupted in January this year. Advertisement 2014 and 2019 invitees Narendra Modi has been at the helm since 2014 when the BJP-led NDA ousted Congress from power. During his first swearing-in ceremony as Indias PM, Modi invited heads of the governments of SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. At the time, his government took everyone by surprise by extending invites to foreign leaders for what was traditionally a domestic event. After Modis BJP and NDA returned with a historic mandate in 2019, the guest list for the swearing-in again included foreign leaders. Modi, along with 57 Ministers, took oath at a grand ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan in May 2019. This time, leaders of BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) marked their presence at the event. Advertisement BIMSTEC nations consist of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Invitations were also dispatched to leaders from the Kyrgyz Republic and Mauritius. Bangladeshs Sheikh Hasina had to miss the event due to her three-nation foreign visit. The then President Ram Nath Kovind administers oath of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a swearing-in ceremony at the presidential palace in New Delhi, on 30 May 2019. Reuters File Photo The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director was also on the guest list. The chief ministers of all states were invited but not everyone attended the ceremony. Prominent actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Sanjay Bhansali, Karan Johar, Kangana Ranaut, and Tamil cinema superstars Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan were also on the guest list. Sports personalities like PT Usha, Saina Nehwal, Harbhajan Singh, Rahul Dravid and top industrialists, including Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani and Ratan Tata, were also reportedly invited. Advertisement The kin of BJP workers that the party claimed were killed in political violence in West Bengal were also extended the invitation for Modis second swearing-in ceremony. With inputs from agencies A man from Hyderabad couldnt control his laughter while he was enjoying a comedy show with his family. After laughing hard for a few minutes, things turned serious as he lost his consciousness. A doctor later explained that he suffered from a rare condition called laughter-induced syncope. Heres what it is read more Like many things in life, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. This proverb proved true for a Hyderabad man whose hearty chuckle landed him in a hospital. A 53-year-old man in Hyderabad was enjoying a pleasant evening with his family over tea. They were watching a popular comedy show on television when the man found the show so hilarious that he couldnt control his laughter. Everything seemed fine as the man laughed non-stop for several minutes until he lost consciousness, and his daughter noticed jerky movements of his hands, Dr Sudhir Kumar, a neurologist at Apollo Hospitals narrated the rare case on X. Advertisement I listened to the entire history and clinically examined him. He had no history of any medical illness, and he was not on any medications. The diagnosis was clear to me. The diagnosis was: laughter-induced syncope, Dr Kumar further wrote. What is the condition and how can you manage it? Lets take a closer look What is laughter-induced syncope? As per Cleveland Clinic, syncope is a medical term used for fainting or passing out. It is a rare but real phenomenon. It arises when excessive laughter leads to a momentary unconsciousness due to an abrupt reduction of brain blood supply, which is temporary in nature. Just consider this: while laughing heavily, you feel the pressure inside your chest increase. Sometimes this can momentarily reduce cerebral perfusion leading to light-headedness and occasionally syncope, Dr Ashray V, Consultant, Emergency Medicine, Aster Whitefield Hospital, Bengaluru told _India Today. _ Laughter-induced syncope primarily impacts the cardiovascular and nervous systems, leading to one losing consciousness, Ashray further said. The Hyderabad man who fainted suffering from the same condition was taken to the hospital, but he recovered fully on the way. He later confessed that he had no memory of what had just transpired, Dr Kumar wrote. Laughter is the best medicine, however, in case of a 53-year-old, laughter resulted in a visit to emergency department 53-year-old Mr Shyam (name changed) was enjoying a nice evening with his family over a cup of tea. They were watching a popular comedy show on TV. Mr Shyam pic.twitter.com/TZJAM45QpC Dr Sudhir Kumar MD DM (@hyderabaddoctor) May 29, 2024 Signs of a having syncope As per Heathline, brief loss of consciousness and temporary fainting are the symptoms of syncope, while they are preceded by signs that one must look out for. Advertisement It includes feelings of nausea, slurred speech, a weak pulse, changes in body temperature that make you feel suddenly flushed or chilled, sweating, blurry vision, lack of balance, lightheadedness, rapid heartbeat, body weakness, and headache. Syncope can make you feel lightheaded. Image for Representation. Reuters Dr Ather Pasha, Consultant-Internal Medicine, CARE Hospitals, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad told The Indian Express, that vasovagal, cardiac, situational, and neurologic syncope are some types of syncope, which are similar to laughter-induced syncope. As per Dr Kumar who treated the Hyderabad man, no medications were needed to treat the condition. How to manage a syncope? There is no definitive cure for laughter-induced syncope. It is important to avoid its triggers that could cause fainting episodes, including prolonged standing, excessive physical exertion, and even intense laughter, as per Kumar. Advertisement Instead, management strategies such as lifestyle changes, including steering clear of situations or activities that provoke laughter, especially if syncope episodes have previously occurred can help. Other strategies include, implementing techniques like tensing leg muscles or crossing legs when feeling lightheaded and education about the condition help one understand the condition better. As per Dr Kumar who advised the man who fainted to stay more hydrated said," I asked him to lie down, if he felt dizzy or if he had a sense of blacking out (symptoms of pre-syncope), so that the blood flow to brain would not reduce (in case of reduction in blood pressure)." Advertisement With inputs from agencies Members of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) held deliberations with the top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the new government of the alliance takes shape read more The huddle of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders at the residence of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President JP Naddas residence in Delhi has come to an end. The leaders of the NDA members held meetings with the top leaders of the BJP. The huddle at Naddas residence took place as President Droupadi Murmu appointed Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of India after the NDA staked claim to form the new government. Earlier in the day, the NDA had unanimously elected Modi as the NDA Parliamentary Party leader. Advertisement Modi and the Union Council of Ministers will have the swearing-in ceremony on Sunday (June 9) at 7:15 pm, according to Rashtrapati Bhavan. What do we know of NDA meeting at Naddas residence? The members of the NDA arrived at Naddas residence to hold deliberations as the new government of the alliance took shape. The leaders of the constituent parties of the NDA held one-on-one meetings with top BJP leaders Nadda, Rajnath Singh, and Amit Shah, according to CNN-News 18. The first meeting was with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the party was represented by Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel, and Sameer Bhujbal. The leaders of Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Janata Dal-United (JD-U), Shiv Sena, Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas), Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) arrived for the meetings. The following leaders held meetings with the BJP leaders: TDPs N Chandrababu Naidu JD-Us Nitish Kumar, Sanjay Jha, and Lallan Singh LJP-Rs Chirag Paswan NCPs Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel, Sameer Bhujbal Shiv Senas Eknath Shinde RLDs Jayant Singh JD-S leader HD Kumaraswami Following his meeting, Jayant said the Cabinet was not subject of the discussions. It was a good meeting. There was discussions on the development of the country. There was no discussion on the formation of the cabinet, said Jayant. As the BJP has failed to secure a majority of its own, the party needs allies from the NDA to form a coalition government. It has been learnt that TDP, JD (U), Shiv Sena, and LJP (R) have made demands for ministerial berths, other government posts, and a say in the governments agenda. As the largest coalition parties after the BJP, the TDP and JD (U) have emerged as kingmakers and have demanded the lions share of ministerial berths among the non-BJP members of the NDA. The Firstpost understands that the TDP has demanded eight ministerial berths, the post of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, funds for the development of Amravati as Andhra Pradeshs capital, and a special economic package for the state. The JD (U) is also understood to have demanded at least three ministerial berths and a common minimum programme for the coalition government. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) categorically rejected reservation on the basis of religion during the Lok Sabha election campaign read more The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has defended its stand on Muslim reservation. TDP leader Nara Lokesh has dubbed reservation for Muslims as social justice and has rejected the idea that its a tool of appeasement. After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed to get a majority of its own, the TDP emerged as a kingmaker for the formation of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the centre. The TDP has also won the Andhra Pradesh assembly elections. Advertisement During the Andhra Pradesh assembly elections, the TDP had promised 4 per cent reservation for Muslims. Meanwhile, TDP ally BJP had categorically rejected the reservation on the basis of religion with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he will never allow reservation for Muslims. Its nothing but social justice Despite the stance of senior NDA partner BJP, Lokesh has defended the partys position on Muslim reservation as it being nothing but social justice. In an interview with NDTV, Lokesh said the Muslims had the lowest per capita income and that no one should be left behind in the nations development. Its a fact that the minorities continue to suffer and that they have the lowest per capita income. As a government, it is my responsibility to bring them out of poverty. So whatever decisions I take are not for appeasement, but to bring them out of poverty, said Lokesh, the General Secretary of TDP and the son of TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu. #NDTVExclusive | "The fact is, minorities continue to suffer. Our responsibility is to bring them out of poverty": TDP General Secretary Nara Lokesh (@naralokesh) to NDTV's Marya Shakil (@maryashakil) pic.twitter.com/BMjCOi4YAt NDTV (@ndtv) June 7, 2024 Lokesh further said, If you want to make our nation a developed nation, we cannot leave anyone behind. We should do it together and there is a great opportunity to do it. It has been the trademark of the TDP, to take everyone together. During the elections, Naidu had said the TDPs support for the reservation of Muslims will continue. Advertisement From the beginning, we are supporting a four per cent reservation for Muslims and that will continue, said Naidu to reporters in Dharmavaram. Separately, Naidu said in a post on X (formerly Twitter): Poverty remains high among Muslims today. It is our responsibility to help them at such a time. In this order we will save 4% percentage reservation for Muslims. There is no other thought in it. #TDPWithMuslims Advertisement BJP has rejected Muslim reservations Throughout the election cycle, the top leaders of the BJP, including Modi, categorically rejected the reservations for Muslims. Modi went on to say that there will be no reservations for Muslims as long as he was alive. They (Congress) are the people who stop the functioning of the Parliament, they question the Election Commission, they question the EVM, and now for their vote bank, they are insulting the constitution Till the time I am alive, I will not let them give the reservation meant for Dalits, SCs, STs, and OBCs to the Muslims in the name of religion, said Modi at a rally in Telanganas Medak district. Advertisement Separately, senior party leaders Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah have dubbed it unconstitutional and have said it eats into the share of reservation for the scheduled castes (SCs), scheduled tribes (STs), and other backward classes (OBCs). Our Constitution does not agree with reservation based on religion. Our constitution has no provision for reservation based on religion. Congress has illegally imposed a reservation for appeasement politics that has given reservation to Muslims based on religion, cutting into the reservation of ST, SC, and OBC, and they are saying that we are lying, so I want them to clarify to the nations public. We will not do reservations based on religion, what is the fear, said Shah in an interview with Times Now. Advertisement Similarly, Rajnath questioned how you could give reservation to Muslims when the constitution does not mention it. Religion-based reservation is not there in the Constitution. How will you give it? You are talking about the Constitution and you are also misleading the Muslim community by promising reservation on the basis of religion. How is this possible? How will you give it? said Singh in an interview with CNN-News 18. India is all set to start a busy diplomatic schedule once the swearing-in ceremony concludes. Ahead of the G7, the External Affairs Minister will attend the BRICS foreign ministers meeting in Russia on June 11, in preparation for the BRICS summit scheduled for October. Indian Prime Minister is expected to host Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina in the last week of June, followed by participation in the SCO summit in Kazakhstan in July. read more Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to embark on his first international visit to Italy shortly after his swearing-in ceremony on June 9. After securing victory in the Lok Sabha elections, PM Modi has accepted an invitation from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to attend the G7 Summit, which will be held from June 13 to 15 in Borgo Egnazia, Apulia. Modi spoke to Italian PM Meloni on Thursday and thanked her for the invite to the G7 Summit Outreach Sessions to be held in Italys Puglia, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. Advertisement Italys G7 Presidency Italy holds the G7 rotating presidency this year. This summit will focus on important issues like the global economic landscape, international trade, climate change and the impacts of ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and conflicts between Israel and Hamas. The G7 countries include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US, with the EU participating in discussions as a guest. During his visit, PM Modi will meet the US President and other G7 leaders. Hectic schedule ahead India is all set to start a busy diplomatic schedule once the swearing-in ceremony concludes. Ahead of the G7, the External Affairs Minister will attend the BRICS foreign ministers meeting in Russia on June 11, in preparation for the BRICS summit scheduled for October. Indian Prime Minister is expected to host Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina in the last week of June, followed by participation in the SCO summit in Kazakhstan in July, where he may meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping post-elections. Ukraine hopes India would attend peace summit Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a congratulatory message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi following his election victory, urged New Delhi to participate in the upcoming peace summit. Zelenskyy highlighted Indias significant role in global affairs and the importance of collective efforts to achieve lasting peace. PM Modi responded, reaffirming Indias commitment to advocating for global peace but did not clarify whether he would attend the Ukraine peace summit. In March, Ukraines Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba visited New Delhi and met with Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar. During their talks, Kuleba reiterated the request for India to take part in the peace summit and emphasized the significant role India could play. However, Jaishankar did not comment publicly on Kulebas appeal, keeping Indias position on the matter ambiguous. Advertisement Indias diplomatic approach reflects its careful balancing act amid the ongoing Ukraine conflict, as it manages its relationships with both Western nations and Russia. The decision on Indias participation in the peace summit remains a point of interest and speculation in international diplomatic circles. At the NDA parliamentary party meeting on Friday, JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar reiterated that he will be with Narendra Modi and the alliance read more National Democratic Alliances (NDA) 21 leaders, including TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar, officially named Narendra Modi as the leader of the alliance in Parliament at a meeting of the bloc on Friday. The meeting was held at the Parliaments Samvidhan Sadan where Modi was also elected as the leader of Lok Sabha and leader of the BJP. Modi along with 15 other NDA leaders will head to Rashtrapati Bhavan where he will stake claim to form the government. He will take oath as the Prime Minister for the third consecutive time on Sunday, June 9 at 6 pm. Advertisement Before heading to Rashtrapati Bhavan, Modi will meet BJP veteran LK Advani. Also Read: Its official: Narendra Modi to take oath as Prime Minister on June 9 at 6 pm Earlier, Modi was welcomed in the Parliaments old building with chants of Modi Modi. After reaching the Parliament, the BJP leader also touched the Constitution of India with his forehead. LIVE: National Democratic Alliance Parliamentary Party Meeting at Central Hall, Old Parliament Building. https://t.co/ySWsqdONHt BJP (@BJP4India) June 7, 2024 As the BJP failed to cross the halfway mark of 272 in 543 seats Lok Sabha alone, it had to depend on allies TDP and JD(U). Will be with you: Nitish Kumar to Modi After the 2024 Lok Sabha election results were announced on June 4, there were speculations that Nitish Kumar may switch sides, but he assured his support to NDA in a crucial bloc meet that happened on June 5. To get all the latest & accurate updates on the new government formation, follow our LIVE BLOG by tapping HERE Speaking at the meeting in Parliament on Friday, Nitish Kumar reiterated that he will be with Modi and NDA. Advertisement It is a very good thing that all of us have come together and we will all work together with you (PM Modi). You will be taking oath as the Prime Minister on Sunday, but I wanted you to do it today itself. Whenever you take the oath, we will be with you We will all work together under your leadership, the JD(U) leader said. Advertisement Modi never took any rest, says Chandrababu Naidu Naidu in his address, said: We are congratulating all of us as we have won a wonderful majority. I have seen during the election campaign, for three months PM Modi never took any rest. Day and night he has campaigned. He stated and ended with the same spirit. In Andhra Pradesh, we had three public meetings and one big rally and it has made a huge difference in winning the election in Andhra Pradesh. Advertisement Former chief minister of Karnataka and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy also affirmed his partys support to Modi and the NDA to form a stable government. At the NDA Parliamentary Party meeting, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu says, "We are congratulating all of us as we have won a wonderful majority. I have seen during the election campaign, for 3 months PM Modi never took any rest. Day and night he campaigned.@narendramodi @ncbn pic.twitter.com/5LKzQeaFJ5 SansadTV (@sansad_tv) June 7, 2024 With inputs from agencies At the NDA parliamentary party meet on Friday, senior BJP leaders Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah proposed Narendra Modis name as leader of BJP and National Democratic Alliance in Lok Sabha read more Narendra Modi gestures as he arrives at BJP headquarters in New Delhi, June 4. Source: REUTERS Narendra Modi will take oath as Prime Minister for the third consecutive time on Sunday, June 9. Ahead of the NDA parliamentary party meeting, BJP leader Pralhad Joshi said Narendra Modi will take oath as PM on June 9 at 6 pm. Earlier, there were reports that Modi will take oath as the PM on Saturday, June 8. On Friday afternoon, the NDA parliamentary party meeting was held in the Central Hall of the old Parliament building where leaders of the alliance proposed Modis name for the prime ministerial post. Advertisement After the meeting, the NDA will go to Rashtrapati Bhavan and will stake claim to form the government before President Droupadi Murmu. Who are expected to attend Modis swearing-in ceremony? World leaders including Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe, and Nepal PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal are set to attend the ceremony. Sources told News18 that the government has sought accomodation of 7,000-8,000 at Modi 3.0 oath taking ceremony on June 9. A report by Indian Express quoted officials of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) as saying that Maldives President Mohammad Muizzu, Vice President of Seychelles Ahmed Afif, Bhutans King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, and head of state of Mauritius are coming to attend the swearing-in ceremony." They are expected to stay in four hotels in the national capital Taj Palace, The Oberoi, The Leela Palace and ITC Maurya. Apart from global leaders, Prominent persons from various walks of life including lawyers, doctors, artists and cultural performers, influencers and professions will also be called at the event. About 50 prominent religious leaders of all faiths are going to be invited to the event. Also labourers working in the Central Vista project, staff from Railways working on the Vande Bharat and Metro trains, sanitation workers, transgenders, beneficiaries of Central government schemes and Viksit Bharat ambassadors have also been invited at the ceremony. Advertisement Mann ki baat participants, acknowledged by PM; rat miners from Uttarakhand; tribal women and awardees of Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan and Padma Shree have also been invited to attend Modis swearing-in ceremony. Refresh for more details Prime Minister Narendra Modi has used his swearing-in events to send a diplomatic message. In 2014, he invited SAARC members. In 2019, BIMSTEC leaders were present at the ceremony. This time around, SAARC members minus Afghanistan and Pakistan are expected to be in attendance read more (File) Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP National President JP Nadda greet supporters upon their arrival for a meeting at the party headquarters as the party leads in the Lok Sabha elections amid the counting of votes, in New Delhi on 4 June, 2024. PTI Top South Asian leaders will attend Prime Minister Narendra Modis oath-taking ceremony on June 9. Among the dignitaries invited for Modis third consecutive swearing-in event are the heads of states from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. This means all the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) nations except Pakistan and Afghanistan will be represented at the third inauguration of the Modi government. Inviting foreign dignitaries to his swearing-in ceremonies has been a signature of PM Modis diplomatic outreach as he begins his new tenure. Advertisement In 2014, India invited all SAARC heads of states to attend the swearing-in ceremony, which was held in the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, in a departure from the norm. Before Modi, only Chandra Shekhar and Atal Bihari Vajpayee had taken oath in the open grounds at the Raisina Hill. Other prime ministers preferred the Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan for taking oath. Who all attended the swearing-in ceremony in 2014? Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, Sri Lankas Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Maldives Abdullah Yameen Abdul Gayoom, Nepals Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, Bhutans Tshering Tobgay, and Bangladesh parliament speaker Shirin Sharmin representing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was on pre-scheduled visit to Japan attended the first swearing-in of PM Modi in May 2014. Besides the SAARC leaders, Mauritian Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam was also invited to the oath-taking ceremony. Modis invitation to the leaders from eight South Asian neighbours to his swearing-in ceremony was an unprecedented gesture. This came against the background of some analysts expressing concerns over Modis apparent lack of experience in diplomacy. Conventionally, Indias foreign policy has been guided by the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) since the days of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first to hold the office after Independence. The external affairs ministers are known to carry out the vision of the prime minister in global affairs. Modis gesture was an expression that his government saw India as a dominant regional and a key global player. Advertisement Who attended Modis inauguration in 2019? In 2019, it was the turn of the BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) grouping to be invited to the national capital for PM Modis second swearing-in ceremony. It is a body of seven South Asian and South-East Asian countries for freer trade among member nations. Myanmar and Thailand join the SAARC members India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan to make up the BIMSTEC. Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid (representing PM Sheikh Hasina), Bhutan PM Tshering Tobgay, Nepal PM KP Sharma Oli, Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena, Myanmar President Wyn Myint and Thailands special envoy Grisada Boonrach attended the swearing-in ceremony from BIMSTEC nations. Others who attended PM Modis swearing-in included Kyrgyzstan President Sooronbey Jeenbekov and Mauritian PM Pravind Jugnauth. Advertisement Who else is attending this years swearing-in ceremony? A diverse group of individuals, including sanitation workers, members of the transgender community, and labourers associated with the Central Vista Project, will be honoured as special attendees at PM Modis inauguration ceremony. Additionally, railway staff from the Vande Bharat and Metro services, individuals who have benefited from central government initiatives, and representatives known as Viksit Bharat ambassadors are set to join the eagerly anticipated event at Rashtrapati Bhavan this Sunday. Preparations are underway to accommodate a gathering of over 8,000 guests at the presidential residence, as per the sources. PM Modi is scheduled to take the oath of office on Sunday evening, following his unanimous selection by coalition partners in Delhi. Those were interesting times in Indian politics. Coalition experiments were viewed from the prism of instability. BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee was trying to prove this notion wrong. And had accepted the TDPs demand for the Speakers post in the Lok Sabha. Heres what happened read more Equalling the record of Indias first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also be stepping into the shoes of his partys stalwart from yesteryears, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in leading a coalition government after his outfit fell short of a majority in the lower house. In a striking similarity, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu is reportedly placing similar demands to PM Modi as he did to Vajpayee the post of the Lok Sabha Speaker among others. Advertisement Vajpayee had accepted Naidus demand that saw India have a Scheduled Caste (Dalit) person, Ganti Mohana Chandra Balayogi, in the Speakers office for the first time. Meira Kumar later became the first woman SC to hold the office of Lok Sabha Speaker. The TDP was supporting the Vajpayee government from outside in 1998-99. What happened to the Vajpayee government? The 1998 Lok Sabha election came in the middle of a 30-year-phase (1984-2014) in India when voters did not give a clear majority to any party in parliamentary polls. The BJP got 181 seats in the 543-member House. The Congress got 141 seats. Interestingly, the offer to form the government to Vajpayee, chosen as the leader of the party by the newly elected MPs, came from President KR Narayanan only after Congress president Sonia Gandhi met him to inform that her party wouldnt stake claim to form the government, citing we have no numbers as the reason. In March 1998, Vajpayee took oath as the prime minister, heading a coalition government amid multiple pulls and pushes. A year later, AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa pulled out her ministers from the Vajpayee government, primarily over the compulsions of Tamil Nadu state politics as she fought with the DMK government there headed by M Karunanidhi. It was April 15, 1999, when Vajpayee moved the trust motion in the Lok Sabha. A day before, he had secured verbal assurances from some of the non-NDA leaders including Bahujan Samaj Partys Mayawati. Three surprises felled NDA government It was the first time that a government in India lost the trust vote in the House of People. There were 270 Nos and 269 Ayes. Advertisement The provision that Lok Sabha Speaker GMC Balayogi in this case would vote in case of a tie did not come into the reckoning. Three MPs were euphoric to claim credit for the fall of the Vajpayee government Mayawati, Saifuddin Soz and Girdhar Gamang. They had voted against the trust vote. Mayawati, in an apparent about-turn, decided to vote against the government led by a Manuvadi party during the trust. Soz, a Jammu and Kashmir National Conference of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah, was expelled from the party, which was part of the government. Soon after the defeat, when Union Home Minister LK Advani was asked what went wrong, he said the voting was on expected lines but what happened was that Mayawati and Soz voted against the government. Advertisement Gamang was, however, the most-talked about surprise. He had been sworn in as the Odisha chief minister a few weeks ago. But he had not yet resigned as the Member of Parliament. When he reached the Parliament House for voting, the ruling alliance member created an uproar. Eyes were on Balyogi, who played by the book. The Vajpayee government lost power. If there had been a tie, Speaker Balayogi would have exercised his casting vote, Advani had said. Who will be Speaker in the 18th Lok Sabha? The final decision will be known when the Lok Sabha sits for its first sitting in days to come. A senior member would be chosen as the Pro-tem Speaker to preside over the election of the Speaker. Speculation is rife that Naidu wants the post again. Advertisement Some names have also started circulating in social media and news reports. One the names doing rounds in the TDP circle is of GM Harish Madhur, who is the son of GMC Balayogi and is a first-time MP from Amalapuram constituency in Andhra Pradeshs Konaseema district. EQS-Ad-hoc: R-LOGITECH S.A.M. / Key word(s): Bond R-LOGITECH to call noteholder meetings for its existing bonds to extend maturity and ensure continuation of initiated sales process for its stake in Thaumas N.V. 07-Jun-2024 / 17:10 CET/CEST Disclosure of an inside information acc. to Article 17 MAR of the Regulation (EU) No 596/2014, transmitted by EQS News - a service of EQS Group AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. [Dissemination of an insider information pursuant to Art. 17 of Regulation (EU) 596/2014] R-LOGITECH to call noteholder meetings for its existing bonds to extend maturity and ensure continuation of initiated sales process for its stake in Thaumas N.V. Monaco/Luxembourg, 7 June 2024 R-LOGITECH S.A.M. (the Company) is asking the holders of its existing EUR 254 million (previously EUR 200 million) 10.250% notes due 24 June 2024 (the 2024 Notes) (ISIN: DE000A19WVN8) and the 50 million 10.25% notes due 2027 issued by R-Logitech Finance S.A. (RL Finance) guaranteed by the Company (ISIN: DE000A3K73Z7) (2027 Notes, together the Notes) to, inter alia, extend the term of the 2024 Notes by two years and amend the terms and conditions of both Notes such they will be redeemed only out of the net proceeds of the sale of the Thaumas shares on a pro rata basis and are not to be repaid at their nominal amounts anymore. In light of this, the Notes will not be interest bearing anymore. As already announced, in accordance with the terms and conditions of the 2024 Notes, investment bank Lazard has been appointed as M&A advisor, and an M&A process has been initiated, with the aim of selling the Company's stake in Thaumas. Since the further implementation and finalisation of the initiated M&A process by the Company requires the provision of additional liquidity to cover, among other things, transaction costs and restructuring costs incurred and still to be incurred, a further bond with a nominal value of EUR 15,000,000 (New Money Bond) and a 2.5 MOIC is to be issued by RL Holding S.A. ("RL Holding"), which will rank senior to the two existing Notes. The New Money Instrument will also be repaid out of the net proceeds of the sale of the shares in Thaumas. RL Holding is part of R-LOGITECH Group. All shares in RL Holding are pledged in favour of the holders of the Notes in implementation of the noteholders' resolution of 29 March 2023. The allocation of the net proceeds between the existing Notes and the New Money Bond shall be made in accordance with a payment waterfall with the New Money Bond being paid first and the remaining proceeds divided between the existing noteholders (pro rata amongst the two Notes), the New Money Bonds, the Issuer (to a small extent to secure the going concern) and certain existing bondholders who guaranteed the full placement of the New Money Bond. With regard to this structure and the payment waterfall, the Company has been approached by an ad-hoc group of noteholders who, the Company is informed, own approximately 30% of the Companys bonds. This is the largest bondholder group known to the Issuer, and this bondholder group has provided a proposal which is included in the conditions to be published as voting proposals. For the purpose of these amendments, resolutions of the holders of the Notes are required. Therefore, the Company invites all noteholders to a vote without meeting for both Notes in accordance with 18 of the German Act on Notes (Schuldverschreibungsgesetz - SchVG). The invitation for the 2024 Notes will be available today in the German Federal Gazette and on R-LOGITECHs website at www.r-logitech.com. The invitation for the 2027 Notes will be available shortly. In parallel, the Company is in final negotiations with two financing parties for the refinancing or redemption of the secured mezzanine facility at the level of its subsidiary R-Logitech S.A., Luxembourg, which matures on 24th June 2024 and has an outstanding amount (nominal and capitalized interest) of approximately. EUR 125 million. The mezzanine facility is collateralised by the shares in R-Logitech S.A. and the 53% shares in Thaumas N.V. R-LOGITECH S.A.M. investorrelations@r-logitech.com The current ceasefire proposal announced by US President Joe Biden may be consigned to the files like many previous ones until there is a clear decision by Israel on ending the war and getting the hostages back read more As the war in Gaza completes eight months on June 7, it is already the longest conflict in Gaza since Israels unilateral withdrawal from there in 2005. Triggered by a brutal terror attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, killing 1,140 Israeli civilians in a single day, it was expected that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), with their overwhelming technological and military superiority, would crush Hamas and achieve their military and political goals in a few weeks and end the war. Advertisement However, the Hamas threat has proved more potent and resilient, and the IDF is still way off from eliminating the Hamas military threat forever. In these eight months, the tempo of war has witnessed many highs and lows, many red lines have been crossed, and a brief Iran-Israel military spat in April brought the region dangerously close to an expanded conflict. In the middle of all this, the people in Gaza have suffered the most, with more than 36,000 killed in Israeli strikes, including over 15,000 women and children, and over 1.5 million internally displaced. Estimates suggest that there might additionally be more than 10,000 dead people buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza. Repeated attempts to end the war through a ceasefire have failed, except for a brief humanitarian truce in November last year. A UN Security Council resolution of March 25 calling for an immediate ceasefire and unconditional release of hostages has not been able to make any impression. There was, however, a glimmer of hope on May 31 when President Biden announced that a comprehensive cease-fire proposal had been offered by Israel, which he said could bring about the cessation of hostilities permanently in Gaza. Bidens Proposal What is the new proposal, and how is it different from the previous ones? The plan proposes a progressive three-phase ceasefire, which, Biden said, will bring all the hostages home, ensure Israels security, create a better day after in Gaza without Hamas in power, and set the stage for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike. Advertisement Phase 1 of the plan seeks an immediate full and complete ceasefire lasting for six weeks. During this period, the IDF will withdraw from all populated areas of Gaza. Hamas will release a number of hostages, including women, the elderly, the wounded, and several US citizens, in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. This phase will continue even if negotiations last longer than the planned six weeks. During this time, humanitarian assistance would surge, with 600 trucks carrying aid into Gaza every single day. The second phase calls for the IDF to fully withdraw from Gaza in exchange for the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers. The third and final phase is for a major reconstruction of Gaza, including rebuilding its cities, homes, schools, and hospitals that were destroyed by war. Regional Arab countries and the international community would contribute to and participate in it in a manner that does not allow Hamas to rearm. Advertisement PM Netanyahus office initially confirmed that the text of Bidens proposal had been concurred by it, but the very next day it put out a statement saying that Israel would not agree to a ceasefire unless Hamass military and governing capabilities are totally destroyed, all hostages are freed, and Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel. How is the Biden plan different from the previous ceasefire proposals? On the face of it, it looks quite similar to previous proposals presented. The previous plan presented on April 30 also envisioned a truce of six weeks in exchange for hostages. The proposal for a ceasefire on April 30 was presented after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the region for the seventh time since the onset of the war and held wide-ranging discussions with Arab leaders in Riyadh as well as PM Netanyahu in Israel on April 2930. Advertisement Instead of three phases in the current proposal, the previous plan had two phases. It involved the release of 33 hostages in the custody of Hamas during the first stage of a 40-day ceasefire. These would include women, female soldiers, elderly hostages, and people injured or ill. The deal included the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and the return of displaced Palestinians from the south of the Gaza Strip to the north. In the second phase of 40 days, the deal envisaged the release of the rest of the hostages, including male civilians and soldiers, as well as the bodies of others, in return for the end of hostilities and the return of Palestinian prisoners in Israel. While Hamas surprisingly welcomed it, Israel was quick to reject it, vowing to press on with the offensive in Rafah when PM Netanyahu announced, We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there, with or without a deal, in order to achieve total victory. Advertisement Israels Conflicting Choices A number of previous ceasefire proposals as well as the current proposal, which was offered by Israel, present Israel with two very different and conflicting choices. On one hand, the ceasefire proposals promise the safe return of Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity, but on the other hand, they also present the possibility that Hamas could regroup once the IDF withdraws from Gaza and could therefore pose another terror or military threat in the future. Within Netanyahus war cabinet, too, there are two camps that seek conflicting outcomes. It is, however, clear that none of the ceasefire proposals offer what Israel would ideally want: the return of all hostages while the IDF continues to hunt down and eliminate Hamas combat capabilities completely. With each passing day, the number of hostages remaining alive in Hamas captivity is also reducing. On June 4, the IDF reported that four more Israeli citizens in Hamas captivity had died, and now the estimated number of remaining hostages alive has come down from 132 to 120. As the war drags on, Netanyahu faces a difficult choice. On one hand, ministers in his cabinet like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir are adamant that military operations should continue until Hamas threats are completely eliminated. However, on the other hand, Benny Gantz, minister in the war cabinet, has issued an ultimatum to Netanyahu to end the war soon, demanding an agreed-upon vision for the Gaza conflict that would include stipulating who might rule the territory after Hamass defeat and warning that he would quit the coalition if there were no concrete answers by June 8. The IDF Chief of Staff, General Herzi Halevi, too, was quoted on May 11, criticising Netanyahu for the failure to develop and declare a so-called day after strategy. He added that as long as there isnt a diplomatic move to develop a governing body in the Strip that isnt Hamas, well have to act again and again in other places to dismantle Hamass infrastructure. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has also openly criticised Netanyahu over his indecision on who will govern Gaza the day after Hamas is defeated. Speaking to the media on May 15, he said that the military campaign must end with a diplomatic action. Netanyahu himself is not known to be keen on any ceasefire proposal that leaves the job of finishing Hamas incomplete, even if it comes at the cost of the lives of hostages. He perhaps sees this as the only way to remain in power. Israels National Security Adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, reportedly told a group of families of hostages on May 30 that the government wasnt ready to sign a deal to bring all hostages home and there was no plan B. President Biden too, in an interview on June 4, hinted that there is every reason to think Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is prolonging Israels war against Hamas in Gaza for political gains. What Next In the past week or so, Hezbollah has intensified targeting of areas in northern Israel, leading to damages and fires and forcing residents to flee. There was also a report of a Hezbollah rocket strike on Kiryat Shmona army base on June 4 and a drone strike on June 5 in the Israeli army base of Horfish, causing major damage coupled with deaths and severe injuries to IDF soldiers. Reports in Israeli media indicate that the IDF has ordered calling up for 50,000 additional reservists to take on new threats posed by Hezbollah. Israel too has intensified its strikes into Syria and Lebanon, and there are some calls in Israel to launch a deliberate military operation in southern Lebanon too. Meanwhile, in an Israeli airstrike near the Syrian city of Aleppo on June 3, Saeed Abiyar, an adviser to Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in Syria, was killed, triggering fears of Irans retaliation merely two months after the region came to the brink of a major conflict in April, when Israel and Iran targeted each other directly. However, statements coming from Israel make it quite evident that, at least for the time being, Israel is choosing to continue to fight on, even at the cost of the lives of the remaining hostages in Hamas captivity. Rafah operations, too, are likely to continue despite worldwide condemnation of the red line being crossed. Increased military engagements in the North against Hezbollah are extending the IDF, and any further plans to engage in a direct military engagement with Hezbollah in either Syria or Lebanon threaten the expansion of the conflict. Conclusion The current ceasefire proposal announced by President Biden may be consigned to the files like many previous ones until there is a clear decision that Israel makes on ending the war and getting the hostages back. However, if it chooses the other alternative of chasing the elusive goal of eliminating Hamas from the face of the earth, the war may drag on, people in Gaza will continue to get killed, and there will always be the overhanging threat of conflict getting out of control should any tactical mistake on the battlefield result in a strategic blunder and draw in more players. There is, unfortunately, no third choice. The author is Assistant Director, MP-IDSA. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views. The flow of Saudi aid to Pakistan has declined in recent years as it is now perceived as a high-risk investment destination due to its economic instability read more Where Pakistan once stood as Saudi Arabia's preferred South Asian partner, India's burgeoning economy, and its pivotal role in regional security dynamics has shifted the desert winds In the vast desert expanse that characterises both their landscape and political history, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan once shared a strategic alliance as unshakable as the dunes under a scorching sun. This robust partnership, marked by deep military cooperation and generous Saudi aid, thought to be in the region of $40 billion over 75 years, is now facing a shifting reality. Saudi Arabia is irritated by the repeated failures of Pakistans economy and the billions of dollars routinely needed to bail it out. The kingdom is threatened by conservative elements in Pakistani society, as Pakistan, in a classic case of the rage of the convert, pivots to Sharia Islam while Saudi Arabia is attempting a more liberal interpretation. Advertisement Finally, the US and Saudi relationship is back on the mend, with the US lifting offensive weapon sanctions against Saudi Arabia, and attempting to implement the Abrahamic accords, which will normalise Israel-Saudi relations. This is a slap across Pakistans face. The Golden Age of Cooperation The symbiotic relationship between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan has long been anchored in mutual military and economic interests. During the Cold War era and the ensuing decades, Riyadh viewed Islamabad as a crucial ally against the spread of communism and later against regional adversaries such as Iran. Pakistani military personnel often found themselves deployed in Saudi Arabia, and in times of internal strife, Saudi kings could rely on Pakistani troops to safeguard the kingdom. This military camaraderie was complemented by significant Saudi financial aid to Pakistan, which included interest-free loans, oil supply arrangements on deferred payments, and generous monetary assistance. For instance, during the 1998 economic sanctions following Pakistans nuclear tests, Saudi Arabia extended critical support that helped Islamabad navigate its economic woes. The Waning Flow of Saudi Aid However, the once-generous aid pipeline from Riyadh to Islamabad is now experiencing a severe drought. Recent years have seen a notable decline in the scale and reliability of Saudi financial assistance. High-profile memorandums of understanding (MOUs) for investments, such as the much-touted $20 billion Saudi commitment in sectors like energy and petrochemicals, have largely failed to materialise. These promises have remained as ephemeral as desert mirages. The economic recalibration under Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, marked by the Vision 2030 initiative, aims to diversify the kingdoms economy away from oil dependence. This vision has led Saudi Arabia to re-evaluate its foreign aid and investment strategies as well. As a result, Pakistan, with its economic instability and burgeoning debt crisis, is perceived as a high-risk investment. The Saudi cheque is always in the mail for the central bank of Pakistan. Advertisement Divergent Reforms and Eroding Trust Further straining the relationship are the divergent paths both nations are taking on social and geopolitical fronts. Saudi Arabias recent social reforms, such as granting women the right to drive and easing restrictions on gender segregation, have led to outrage in Pakistan. There is confusion and anger in Pakistan as the age-old divide between Arab and non-Arab Muslims comes to the fore in geopolitics. Much more controversially, Riyadhs clandestine overtures towards normalising relations with Israel are viewed with deep suspicion in Islamabad, which has historically championed the Palestinian cause. Compounding these issues is the growing perception within Saudi strategic circles that Pakistans utility as a military and nuclear power, while still significant, no longer suffices to justify an unconditional partnership. The kingdoms growing economic stature allows it to forge new alliances based on mutual economic benefits, a shift that has seen it draw closer to India, for instance, under Narendra Modis administration. Advertisement Contrasting Fortunes: Saudi-India Relations In stark contrast to its cooling ties with Pakistan, Saudi Arabias relationship with India has flourished. The Saudis have committed substantial investments in India, including a $44 billion mega petroleum refinery and petrochemicals complex, underscoring their confidence in Indias economic stability and growth potential. Military and strategic cooperation between Riyadh and New Delhi has also intensified, with joint naval exercises and intelligence-sharing agreements becoming more frequent. This pivot towards India signifies a broader strategic realignment. Where Pakistan once stood as Saudi Arabias preferred South Asian partner, Indias burgeoning economy, and its pivotal role in regional security dynamics has shifted the desert winds. Advertisement Pakistan needs to draw a line in the sand, there is only so much sovereignty you can cede for petrodollars. The writer is a senior journalist with expertise in defence. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views. New Delhis new government has a tough battle ahead in not only countering China and standing up to it in a hostile neighbourhood but also in making tough decisions on its strong ally and old friend Russia read more The defence establishment in India is sounding an alarm, which is growing louder by the day. India can no longer ignore the Russia-China bonhomie. The Indian Minister of Foreign Affairs, S Jaishankar, has defended the India-Russia partnership as unaffected by the newly found Russia-China friendship with no limits. On May 24, Swasti Rao, Associate Fellow at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA), a think tank of the Indian Ministry of Defence, published an op-ed calling for India to de-risk itself from Russia. This was an institutional first, and Rao was attacked on social media by veteran Indian diplomats. This also brought to light the amount of influence the Kremlin continues to wield in Delhi. Advertisement On May 27, Raos op-ed was followed by another piece , this time by retired Gen M M Narvane, Indias former Chief of Army Staff, cautioning the Indian government to sharpen its act. Narvane warned that India could no longer take Russias support for granted, especially in the Indo-Pacific, given Russias increasing dependency on China. The Russia-China bonhomie and Indias balancing act between Moscow and Washington only reiterate what the 19th-century British statesman and Prime Minister Lord Palmerston apparently once said: There are no permanent enemies and no permanent friends, only permanent interests," Naravane said, underscoring the need for Indias new government to keep Moscow on notice. This demand by the defence establishment for India to pivot away from Russia was addressed on May 30 by Antara Ghosal Singh of the ORF Foundation. Singh, offering a counterpoint, argued that in the triangular dynamics between China, Russia, and India, China has little option but to accept deeper India-Russia ties, face the risk of losing Russia to Indo-Pacific geopolitics, or have India slip further into the arms of the US. The rare public difference of opinion between the two pillars of Indias global outreach, its defence ministry and its ministry of external affairs, comes at a time when India is wrapping up its national elections and a Modi 3.0 government is expected to be declared on June 6. It also comes at a time when the world is distracted by the continuing war in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas conflict, the political instability in Iran, which is a key belligerent in the Middle Eastern conflict, Chinas war games with Taiwan, and its aggression in the South China Sea against the Philippines. Advertisement This also comes at a time when President Putin is making forays into the Sea of Andaman, taking over the port at Dawei, and forming the Squad, a new US-led grouping in the South China Sea that does not include India. In all these conflicts, what is ignored is the India-China standoff on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The countries share a 3,400-km border between India and Tibet, which has never been accepted by China. China continues to claim several Indian territories as its own, and the border is one of the most militarised areas in the world. India and China have had repeated skirmishes since 2020, and in March, India freed up 10,000 soldiers and moved them to better guard the border with China. Advertisement Adding to the tension, satellite imagery has shown that on May 27, China moved six J-20 stealth aircraft to Shigatse airbase in Tibet. Shigatse, at an elevation of over 12,000 ft, is one of the worlds highest altitude airports and is around 150 km from Indias Sikkim border. It is also close to Doklam at the strategic Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet trijunction. While Indias ministry of defence has not commented on the latest Chinese move, it has increased alert levels in New Delhi, given Shigatse is around 300 km from the Indian Air Forces (IAF) base in Hasimara, Bengal, which hosts the IAFs second squadron of 16 Rafale aircraft. Advertisement China also continues to establish Xiaokang villages, adding to those already present. These prosperous villages, which mushroomed suddenly in contested Tibetan border areas with India, are dual-use with reinforced military infrastructure. They are probably watchpoints, but they also serve to back up the infrastructure along the India-China border to be used by armed forces in case of conflict. As tensions rise, India continues to arm itself. India has begun negotiations with a French team from Dassault for the purchase of 26 Rafale Marine fighter jets to add strength to the INS Vikrant, Indias second and more advanced aircraft carrier. While both India and China have two aircraft carriers, China has started testing its third as India lags behind. Chinas spy vessels frequently sail close to Indias coasts, even though China has not sailed an aircraft carrier in Indian seas so far. Advertisement China continues to grow its influence in the Indian Ocean, first through its base in Djibouti and its presence in Gwadar, Pakistan. India must catch up to maintain the security of its economic zones as well as its projection power from the Gulf of Aden to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. While the US, Quad, and Europe prepare for a conflict in the oceans and guard sea lines of communication, key to any war effort, Indias war with China will be mostly fought inland. In these battlefields, India stands alone against Chinas might in some of the worlds most treacherous terrain, where both countries are at a disadvantage. China is further weakened as it is seen as an occupying power in both Tibet and Xinxiang, regions oppressed by Beijing, where neighbouring India is viewed as a friend and Chinas Han majority as an oppressor. New Delhis new government has a tough battle ahead in not only countering China and standing up to it in a hostile neighbourhood but also in making tough decisions on its strong ally and old friend Russia, which seems to lose trust from Indias defence establishment. With an uncertain Europe that is divided over its China approach and a turbulent US election that will distract further along with the two wars the world is facing, it will be India alone. It will have to stand up to the aggression of the Chinese dragon. At the end of the day, the war in the Indo-Pacific begins at the McMahon line. The author is an Indo-Italian entrepreneur and writer, has worked closely and continues to advise various governments in Europe, Middle East and Africa. He is the founder of the Dialogue on Democracy. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views. In the Indian worldview, multipolarity can be seen as a naturally occurring situation in the international order. It is a system, a global order, in which multiple civilisational states exist as fundamental poles read more The critical question today in the global strategic community is whether multipolarity is good or bad. Many Western scholars and politicians are particularly disturbed by the multipolar world order. As discussed above, several scholars prefer to use the narrow matrix of military and economic indicators to liquidate the idea of multipolarity. Republican politicians prefer to increase spending on the military and defence and use brute force in foreign policy to bring back Americas unipolar moment. Advertisement The Western worlds discomfort with multipolarity arises from an overwhelmingly Hobbesian understanding of society and inter-state relations. The realist school of international relations, rooted in the Hobbesian worldview, argues that humankind is essentially selfish in nature. Fundamentally driven by this selfish and brutish nature, mankind always makes rational decisions to maximise personal gains. According to the realist school, mankind is destined to fight. In international relations, the fulcrum of the realist school is the balance of power between different nations. With this premise, the multipolar world order is inevitably chaotic, uncertain, and disorderly in the Western understanding. In the absence of the clear superiority of one or two major states over the others, the powerful states form alliances with various powers to safeguard their strategic interests; however, such alliances are highly vulnerable and prone to major shifts if the major powers change allegiance. Such a situation was obtained in the pre-World War I and inter-war periods. However, in Indian metaphysics and epistemology, from which strategic thought originates, the fundamental understanding of human nature is starkly different from that of Western perspectives. Indian philosophical thought suggests that reality is Trigunatmak , i.e., a combination of three attributes. It is the combination of Sat (tendency towards selfless service, piety), Rajas (tendency towards movement and activity), and Tamas (darkness, rigidity, and lethargy). At any given time, human nature is the product of different permutations and combinations of these three attributes. Hence, humankind is neither selfish and violent in an absolute sense nor selfless and non-violent in an absolute sense. It is both selfish and selfless, violent and non-violent, with different permutations and combinations from person to person. Having said that, war is not the ultimate destiny of mankind, and hence, the balance of power cannot be accepted as the key underlying theoretical framework of geopolitics. Advertisement In the Indian worldview, multipolarity can be seen as a naturally occurring situation in the international order. It is a system, a global order, in which multiple civilisational states exist as fundamental poles. Multipolarity implies a plurality of values, civilisational ethos, cultural norms, beliefs, and religions. It implies that dictatorship and democracy can coexist in the same world. It also implies tolerance for such plurality and diversity. Indias first interface with the multipolar world order was in the later Vedic age (900600 BC). In the later Vedic age, 16 Mahajanpadas existed in India. These were territorial states from northern Afghanistan to the borders of Myanmar. They included Gandhara, Kamboj, Kuru, Panchala, Anga, Magadha, Mathura, Kosala, etc. Most of these states were monarchies; however, many were republics, too, with electoral democracy. A close look at inter-state relations in the later Vedic set-up unravels the fundamentals of Indias approach to multipolarity. Advertisement The notion of Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam lays the basic theoretical framework of world order in Indian strategic thought. It means the world is one family, i.e., the different states and nations are members of one big family. There are powerful states that are accepted and treated more as the leaders and elders in the family instead of hegemons. For example, the later Vedic system had powerful states like Mathura and Dwarka lorded by God Krishna and Pandavas Hastinapur; however, they did not behave like hegemons, world policemen, and bullies. The powerful states, seen as family heads or leaders, were expected to exhibit moral behaviour and benevolence and act in enlightened self-interest. The powerful states had an informal authority and an aura respected by the other states. Advertisement By sheer dint of their economic and military might, they could be flexible with rules and behaviour, which in the first place were never rigidly defined; however, they were not expected to never act out of narrow selfish motives, show generosity, and act like benevolent patrons. In essence, the inter-state dealings and engagements were not based on a zero-sum game; instead, the purpose was to ensure a win-win situation for all and maintain balance and order. At the same time, they could punish other states, such as the family head punishing errant and misguided family members. Consequently, the powerful states attacked smaller states or adversaries; however, the reasons were not fixated on selfish and petty economic and imperial motives. In many cases, the reasons were moralistic in nature. Advertisement For example, Lord Krishna defeated the powerful demon king Jarasandha of Magadha because he had captured 99 kings to sacrifice them as a part of some ritual. He was a notorious king who is mentioned as an oppressor. Interestingly, after killing him, Lord Krishna returns his kingdom to his son. Likewise, Lord Ram attacked Ravanas Lanka to rescue his wife, Sita. After killing Ravana, he also returned the kingdom of Lanka to Ravanas sibling, Vibhishana. With this baseline framework, the powerful states acted more like Vishwamitra or Vishwaguru. Recently, PM Modi called India a Vishwamitra, a friend of the world. Vishwaguru, a commonly occurring word among various scholars of Indian religious and philosophical thought, means the master or teacher of the world. In a spiritual country like India, the emphasis has always been on a moral or spiritual victory known as Dhammavijay or Dharmavijay. The ultimate power is not material; it is moral or spiritual. Hence, for any country, economic size and military might be crucial components of its comprehensive national power, however, the ultimate measure of power is their ability to translate that hard power into robust global diplomatic influence and clout. Economic and military power can enable a country to become an aggressor and help in military or economic conquest, but it is only moral and spiritual power that can make a nation like India a Vishwa Mitra or Vishwa Guru, which enjoys the trust of the entire community of nations and can lead them without double standards. Hence, India sits comfortably with the multipolar world order. During the bipolar world of Cold War times, India refused to join the capitalist and communist blocks and pursue an independent foreign policy, giving birth to the non-aligned movement. This policy of non-alignment originated in Indias civilisational alignment with multipolarity. In Indias current diplomacy, the non-alignment has transformed into a multi-alignment trajectory, as a part of which India continues to pursue an independent and principled foreign policy based on the harmonious balance of its national interests and moral considerations. New Delhi maintains relations with various nations, including those in the rival camps. For example, India has cordial relations with Israel and Iran and with Saudi Arabia and Iran. India and the US have a natural partnership premised on shared beliefs in the liberal/democratic world order, the rule of law, human rights, and freedom of expression. However, it calls its civilisational relationship with Russia a special and privileged strategic partnership . Russia continues to be its major arms and oil supplier. Despite its border clashes with China and the US-China tensions, India maintains a robust trade relationship with Beijing. Despite the American inducements, India has not yet signalled a complete shift towards Washington. In its inherent comfort with multipolarity, India rejects great power politics. It seeks reforms in multilateral institutions to reflect more diversity and achieve inclusive cooperation. With this line, India is well-suited to position itself as a leader of the Global South, which is once again an extension of its leadership of the non-aligned movement. Notably, under Indias G20 presidency, the African Union became a full member of the G20. Independent and principled foreign policy guarantees a certain degree of credibility for India, which was amply visible in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Despite intense pressure from the West, India refused to join the Western world in anti-Russia sanctions. As a result, PM Modi enjoys credibility with both camps and is considered the most suitable choice to play the role of mediator and peacemaker. US Secretary of State Blinken himself acknowledged that India, along with China, played an important role in deterring Putin from using nukes. Hence, multipolarity is not problematic. The current transformations in global politics are leading us towards a multipolar world order. Perhaps the US can take a leaf out of Indias playbook and approach multipolarity with a constructive and optimistic perspective. Understanding power distribution in purely zero-sum-game terms is not the best approach to multipolarity. Experimenting with a new style of diplomacy based on bilateralism and mini-lateralism can be very effective in making a multipolar world order beneficial by leveraging its influence in that world. Once again, India is navigating the great power politics through bilateralism and mini-laterals. The US can explore this Indian approach, increase development aid, take the lead in reforming multilateral institutions, help post-war reconstruction, desist from protectionist trade policies, and accept value plurality. To sum up, in a multipolar world, there is ample scope for leaders to act as Vishwamitras and Vishwagurus but not as hegemons. The author is the founder and CEO of Usanas Foundation, a foreign policy and national security think tank. A Cornell University grad in public affairs, and the author of Radicalisation in India: An Exploration. His latest book Terror Financing in Kashmir has been published by Routledge in December 2023. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views. The creators of these apps and games will be recognised by Apple at WWDC24 next week for their excellence in design and outstanding technical achievement in apps and games read more The winners, selected from 42 finalists, were acknowledged across seven distinct categories, each representing excellence in different aspects of app and game development. Image Credit: Apple Apple revealed the recipients of its annual Apple Design Awards, celebrating 14 outstanding apps and games recognized for their exceptional design, technical prowess, and innovation. Spanning diverse categories, developers from around the globe were honoured for their exemplary contributions to enhancing user experiences. Susan Prescott, Apples vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations, praised the winning teams for their use of Apples technology to craft remarkable apps and games, enriching user lives with powerful and immersive experiences. The winners, selected from 42 finalists, were acknowledged across seven distinct categories, each representing excellence in different aspects of app and game development. Advertisement In the Delight and Fun category, Bears Gratitude and NYT Games emerged victorious for their engaging and satisfying experiences enhanced by Apple technologies. Bears Gratitude, a journaling app by Isuru Wanasinghe, fosters daily gratitude practices with a warm and welcoming interface, while NYT Games, developed by The New York Times Company, offers a compelling mix of titles calibrated for maximum replay value. Inclusivity was celebrated with oko and Crayola Adventures, recognized for providing exceptional experiences accessible to diverse audiences. oko, developed by AYES, aids visually impaired individuals by alerting them to signal lights, while Crayola Adventures by Red Games Co. offers inclusive character choices and gameplay options for players of all ages and backgrounds. The Innovation category honored Procreate Dreams and Lost in Play for their novel use of Apple technologies. Procreate Dreams, developed by Procreate, enables users to create stunning 2D animations effortlessly, while Lost in Play by Happy Juice Games captivates players with endearing characters and captivating puzzles. Exceptional interfaces and controls distinguished Crouton and Rytmos in the Interaction category. Crouton, created by Devin Davies, streamlines kitchen tasks with a clean interface, while Rytmos by Floppy Club challenges players with intuitive puzzles and captivating gameplay. Gentler Streak Fitness Tracker and The Wreck were recognized in the Social Impact category for their meaningful contributions to improving lives. Gentler Streak, developed by Gentler Stories, promotes healthy lifestyles with optimistic reminders and thoughtful health data organization, while The Wreck by The Pixel Hunt offers deep and intimate narratives that shine a light on important issues. Advertisement Rooms and Lies of P were celebrated for their stunning imagery and cohesive themes in the Visuals and Graphics category. Rooms by Things, Inc. offers users a platform for imaginative creations with delightful detail, while Lies of P by NEOWIZ captivates players with beautiful textures and stunning effects in an imaginative adventure setting. The Spatial Computing category acknowledged djay pro DJ App & AI Mixer and Blackbox for their exceptional spatial experiences. djay pro, developed by algoriddim GmbH, revolutionizes music mixing with high-definition sound quality and immersive environments, while Blackbox by Shapes and Stories challenges players with engaging puzzles and clever spatial interactions. Advertisement These winners showcase the highest standards of creativity, craftsmanship, and innovation in app and game development, enriching the Apple ecosystem with their outstanding contributions. Tesla Chairperson Robyn Denholm has warned investors and shareholders that if Elon Musk is not paid the $56 billion dollars that he was promised as compensation in 2018, he might leave the EV company and focus his time and efforts in other ventures read more Tesla CEO Elon Musk was promised $56 billion as compensation for the incredible growth that Tesla has seen in the last few years. However, there are several reasons why it might be a challenge for Tesla to pay their CEO the compensation he was promised. Image Credit: AFP Teslas chairperson, Robyn Denholm, is urging shareholders to approve Elon Musks $56 billion compensation plan, warning that the billionaire CEO might leave if not sufficiently incentivized. This critical vote, scheduled for June 13th, will determine the fate of Musks enormous pay package, which has been described as the largest ever approved for a CEO. This will be the second vote on the issue, after a Delaware judge nullified the first vote earlier this year, citing significant flaws in the approval process. With the new vote approaching, Tesla is making a concerted effort to persuade shareholders to endorse the proposal again. Advertisement In a letter to shareholders filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Denholm highlights Musks unique role and the distinct nature of Tesla. Elon is not a typical executive, and Tesla is not a typical company, Denholm wrote. She emphasized that traditional compensation strategies wouldnt suffice for someone like Musk. She went on to add that motivating Musk requires something more than money, considering that he is the wealthiest man on the planet. Denholms letter implies that without appropriate incentives, Musk might shift his focus to other ventures, emphasizing his limited time and numerous opportunities. What we recognized in 2018 and continue to recognize today is that one thing Elon most certainly does not have is unlimited time, Denholm stated. Nor does he face any shortage of ideas and other places he can make an incredible difference in the world. We want those ideas, that energy and that time to be at Tesla, for the benefit of you, our owners. But that requires reciprocal respect. Teslas former audit committee chair and prominent clean technology venture investor, Steve Westly, has stated he wont support Elon Musks $56 billion pay package. He also understands why other investors might vote against the CEOs pay proposal next week. Elon has done an extraordinary job; hes built one of the transformational companies of the age. But to ask for a $55 billion pay increase at precisely the time when youve missed quarterly numbers, growth is slowing down, and youve laid off 15 per cent of the workforce is, Id say, hubris to say the least, Westly said during an appearance on CNBC on Thursday. Advertisement Westly, who served on Teslas board from 2007 to 2010, is also the former controller and chief financial officer of California. He has also served on the boards of the states two largest pension funds, CalSTRS and CalPERS, which manage over $500 billion in investments. However, Denholm insists that the proposed pay package is not about the money, arguing that Musks existing wealth ensures he remains one of the richest individuals globally, regardless of Teslas compensation decisions. We all know Elon is one of the wealthiest people on the planet, and he would remain so even if Tesla were to renege on the commitment we made in 2018, she said. The real issue, according to Denholm, is ensuring Musks continued dedication to Tesla and its shareholders. Advertisement Musks extensive involvement in various projects ranging from SpaceX and The Boring Company to Neuralink, X, and xAI has raised concerns about his commitment to Tesla. These ventures have undoubtedly diverted some of his attention from Tesla, the primary source of his wealth and public profile. Denholms letter reflects the anxiety among investors about Musks future with the company if his compensation package isnt approved. Despite recommendations from several proxy firms against Musks pay proposal, early voting indicates strong shareholder support. A report by the trading platform eToro last month revealed that about 25 per cent of Teslas shares had already voted, with over 80 per cent in favour of Musks package, according to Reuters. Advertisement In addition to the proposed pay package, Musk is seeking a larger stake in Tesla 25 per cent to advance his goals in artificial intelligence and self-driving technology. He currently holds approximately 13 per cent of the company, having sold billions of dollars worth of shares to fund his acquisition of Twitter. On his platform, X, Musk has even threatened to spin off Teslas AI work into a separate entity if his demands are not met. Denholms letter is a strategic appeal to shareholders, laden with subtle warnings that Musk could potentially leave Tesla if the proposed compensation isnt approved. We all made a commitment to Elon, she wrote. Elon honoured his commitment and produced tremendous value for our stockholders. Honouring our commitment to Elon demonstrates that we support his vision for Tesla and recognize his extraordinary accomplishmentsthis is what will motivate him to continue to create value for stockholders. Advertisement The upcoming vote on Musks compensation package underscores the delicate balance between retaining exceptional talent and safeguarding shareholder interests. As Tesla shareholders prepare to cast their votes, they hold the power to shape the future trajectory of the electric vehicle pioneer, weighing the potential risks and rewards of one of the most significant compensation packages in corporate history. Japan is already facing a growing labour shortage. In a bid to stop this problem from ballooning up to something catastrophic and disastrous, Prime Minister Fumio Kishidas government is actively pursuing policies to promote the birth rate read more The Japanese government is set to launch its own dating app for Japanese residents to get them to get into relationships and have more children. Image Credit: Freepik Japans fertility rate has hit a record low, prompting the government to take some rather peculiar steps and intervene in diffusing a possibly ticking time bomb. This includes the Japanese government launching its own dating app for the residents of Japan. Japan is already facing a growing labour shortage. In a bid to stop this problem from ballooning up to something catastrophic and disastrous, Prime Minister Fumio Kishidas government is actively pursuing policies to promote the birth rate. This includes incentivising singles and families with financial aid to have more children. The government is also working on policies that give easier access to child care, parental leave, and more. Advertisement The latest data from the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare shows a significant drop in births and a declining fertility rate, exacerbating the nations demographic challenges. Current situation In 2023, Japan recorded only 727,277 births, marking a sharp decline in the fertility rate from 1.26 to 1.20. This rate is significantly below the 2.1 threshold needed to maintain a stable population. In stark contrast, the country witnessed 1.57 million deaths, more than double the number of births, highlighting the severity of the issue. Moreover, the number of marriages decreased by 30,000, while divorces saw an uptick, adding to the demographic woes. Experts note that Japans fertility rate has remained below the replacement level for half a century, a trend that began post the 1973 global oil crisis. This persistent decline has resulted in a shrinking population, with profound implications for the countrys workforce, economy, welfare system, and social fabric. Despite various efforts, the trend shows no signs of reversing soon. Government initiatives Prime Minister Fumio Kishidas administration is taking proactive steps to combat the declining birth rate. Recognizing the multifaceted nature of the problem, the government has introduced several measures aimed at promoting family formation and easing the burden of child-rearing. These measures include: Financial Support: Provision of financial aid to families to help offset the costs associated with raising children. Child Care Access: Expansion of child care facilities to ensure easier access for working parents. Parental Leave: Enhanced parental leave policies to support parents in balancing work and family responsibilities. Housing Subsidies: Offering housing subsidies to parents to create a more stable environment for raising children. Advertisement In addition to these measures, the government has established new agencies dedicated to addressing the population decline and its associated challenges. A technological approach In an innovative bid to boost marriage rates, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is testing a new government-run dating app. Scheduled for full operation later this year, the app is designed to facilitate connections between potential partners through a values diagnostic test and an AI-driven matchmaking system. The app allows users to specify desired traits in a partner and aims to introduce them to compatible matches based on shared values. The apps website encourages users to consider it as the first step in their marriage journey. It also provides information on work-life balance, child care, housing support, mens participation in housework and child-rearing, and career counselling. The initiative is part of a broader strategy to build momentum for marriage among those who intend to marry eventually. Advertisement To use the app, individuals must be single, over 18 years old, and either living or working in Tokyo. The government hopes this tool will inspire users to reflect on the meaning of being in a couple and take concrete steps toward marriage. A long and complex road Despite these efforts, the road to reversing the fertility decline is long and complex. The demographic structure, with a high ratio of older adults to young people, means that even a sudden increase in the fertility rate would take decades to stabilize the population. The governments comprehensive approach, combining financial incentives, supportive policies, and innovative technological solutions like the dating app, reflects a deep commitment to addressing the demographic crisis. However, the effectiveness of these measures will depend on their ability to resonate with the younger generation and create a societal shift toward embracing marriage and family life. Advertisement As Japan grapples with these challenges, the world will be watching closely, as the solutions developed here could offer valuable lessons for other nations facing similar demographic issues. The US DoJ will investigate if NVIDIA violated antitrust laws designed to ensure fair competition and prevent monopolies. The FTC will investigate Microsoft and OpenAI for similar violations. FTC is also probing Microsoft for a recent deal with AI startup Inflection AI read more NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. The three companies are leading the AI race and have a dominant position in Gen AI. Image Credt: Reuters, Reuters, AFP Microsoft, OpenAI, and NVIDIA are set to face massive antitrust scrutiny from US regulators amid concerns over their dominant roles in AI. The US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission have reportedly reached an agreement to investigate the key players in the AI industry, according to a report by the New York Times. The agreement between the government agencies, which is expected to be finalised in the coming days, outlines the division of investigative responsibilities between the two regulatory bodies. Advertisement While the DoJ will focus on NVIDIA, the leading manufacturer of chips that train and operate AI systems, the FTC will examine OpenAI, the company behind the widely-used ChatGPT chatbot, and Microsoft. The DoJ will investigate whether NVIDIA as a company has violated antitrust laws designed to ensure fair competition and prevent monopolies. The FTC on the other hand will see if OpenAI and its largest investor Microsoft did something similar. Further complicating matters for Microsoft, the Wall Street Journal reported that the FTC is probing whether the tech giant structured a recent deal with AI startup Inflection AI just so that it could sidestep any potential antitrust review because of its relations with OpenAI. In March, Microsoft hired Inflections CEO and co-founder, Mustafa Suleyman, to head a new AI division and agreed to pay $650 million to license Inflections AI software. The FTC has already showcased a keen interest in the AI market. In January, it requested information from several tech giants, including OpenAI, Microsoft, Google owner Alphabet, Amazon, and startup Anthropic, about their investments and partnerships with generative AI companies and cloud service providers. Additionally, the FTC launched an investigation into OpenAI last year over allegations that it had violated consumer protection laws by compromising personal data. Jonathan Kanter, head of the DoJs antitrust division, expressed the agencys commitment to addressing potential monopolistic practices in the AI sector. Speaking to the Financial Times, Kanter emphasized the urgency of examining the AI landscape for monopoly choke points and ensuring that no single company dominates the market. Advertisement In response to the investigation, Microsoft stated that it is confident and will be complying with all the obligations that the antitrust investigation regarding the Inflection AI agreement will bring with it. As the AI industry continues to expand rapidly, the increased scrutiny from regulators shows the need for vigilant oversight to ensure competitive practices and prevent the formation of monopolies, something that we have seen too often happen in American tech companies. The collaborative efforts between the DoJ and FTC signal a robust regulatory approach so as to keep the AI market open and competitive. This will be crucial in fostering innovation while safeguarding consumer interests in an industry poised to revolutionize various aspects of society. Naturally, then, the outcomes of these investigations could have significant implications for the future of AI development and the broader technology landscape. The US government banned the sale of AI chips like NVIDIAs H100, to China in 2022 to prevent Chinese tech companies from using advanced AI for military or surveillance. However, Chinese businesses have been exploiting various loopholes to get around this ban read more Various Chinese tech companies, especially those with close ties to the CCP have found various loopholes to skirt US-imposed chip sanctions. Image Credit: Reuters, Reuters In a surprising revelation, Oracle is allegedly renting out Nvidias advanced AI chips to ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, despite a US ban on selling these chips to China. This practice highlights a significant loophole in the current regulations aimed at preventing advanced AI technology from falling into Chinese hands. The US government banned the sale of advanced AI chips, such as Nvidias H100, to China in 2022. This move is part of a broader effort to prevent China from using advanced AI for military or surveillance purposes and to maintain a technological edge. Advertisement However, The Information reported that Oracle is circumventing these restrictions by renting out servers equipped with Nvidias chips to ByteDance within the US. While the chips are not being exported directly to China, this arrangement still allows ByteDance to leverage US-based AI capabilities. ByteDance, suspected by many US lawmakers of having ties to the Chinese government, is reportedly utilizing Nvidias H100 chips rented from Oracle to train AI models on US soil. This arrangement is technically within legal bounds since the chips are not leaving the country. However, the spirit of the regulation, aimed at restricting Chinas access to advanced AI technology, is clearly being undermined. ByteDances Project Texas initiative aims to address US security concerns by claiming to isolate TikToks US operations from its Chinese headquarters. However, former ByteDance employees have described this initiative as largely superficial, suggesting that significant interactions still occur between the US and Beijing-based teams. Other Chinese tech giants like Alibaba and Tencent are reportedly considering similar arrangements to access Nvidias chips. These companies might find it even easier to exploit these loopholes since they own US-based data centres, eliminating the need to rent from American firms. Not all US companies are willing to engage in such practices. Two smaller American cloud providers reportedly declined ByteDances offers to rent Nvidias H100 chip-equipped servers, citing concerns about violating the spirit of US chip restrictions. Advertisement The US Commerce Department is aware of these practices and proposed a rule earlier this year to address the issue. This rule would require US cloud providers to verify the identities of foreign customers and report if they are training AI models potentially used for malicious purposes. However, many cloud providers opposed this proposal, arguing that the additional requirements would be burdensome. As a result, the proposed rule is currently in limbo. Even if the US manages to close this particular loophole, it may not prevent Chinese cloud providers like Tencent and Alibaba from purchasing Nvidias chips and using them in their US-based data centres. This presents an ongoing challenge for US regulators who must balance business interests with national security concerns. The Indian medical students - two boys and two girls - studying at Novgorod State University in Veliky Novgorod city, drowned in a river near St Petersburg in Russia. One of them has been rescued read more Four Indian medical students two boys and two girls aged between 18 and 20 years were drowned in a river near St Petersburg in Russia, confirmed the Indian Embassy in Moscow on Friday. The Indian mission also said they were coordinating with Russian authorities to send the bodies to their relatives at the earliest. The bereaved families have been contacted and assured of all the possible help, the embassy said. 1/2 @indianconsspb is working together with the local authorities of Veliky Novgorod to send the mortal remains to the relatives as soon as possible. The bereaved families have been contacted and assured of all the possible help. https://t.co/QFMdv7lKhd India in St. Petersburg (@indianconsspb) June 7, 2024 Advertisement Where were these Indian students studying in Russia? The students who drowned in river Volkhov were studying at the nearby Novgorod State University in Veliky Novgorod city. How did these Indian students drown? According to reports in Russian media, a female Indian student, who waded out from the beach on the river Volkhov, had got into trouble after which four of her companions tried to save her. In their attempt to save her, three others also drowned in the river. A third boy was pulled to safety by local people, the report in local media said. Proper medical, including psychological treatment, is being provided to the girl student who was saved Sincere condolences to the bereaved families, the embassy of India in Moscow said. With inputs from PTI June 6, 2024: The United States sent 31 M1 tanks to Ukraine. These tanks began arriving in September 2023 and were put to work, but not in ways that the mass media was able to understand or report on accurately. In the combat zone the Ukrainians quickly figured out how to best use their impressive new tanks. The Ukrainian crews had been trained before the tanks arrived and praised the efficient internally layout of the tanks and the number of useful capabilities of the M1. The battlefield in Ukraine is unlike any the M1 had ever operated in. Within a year at least five Abrams tanks were lost in combat, with another three damaged. The Ukraine War has seen an unprecedented use of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) for reconnaissance, surveillance, and attacks from above. All tanks are more vulnerable to attacks from above. Sending dozens of quadcopter type UAVs against tanks turned out to be a decisive weapon if the tank was not equipped with metal screens and signal jammers to cause some or all of the UAVs to lose their control signals and fall to the ground or fly around aimlessly. It a tank was not prepared for UAV attack it was soon immobilized as its engine was damaged and disabled. That was because armor is thin or nonexistent over the engine compartment behind the turret. Normally the engine compartment was not vulnerable to attack. The extensive use of UAVs changed that. To make matters worse there were a lot of anti-vehicle mines used in Ukraine, which could damage or destroy a portion of the tracklaying system that tanks rely on for movement and mobility. Bust a track and the tank is immobilized until the crew or someone else can fix the track. This is a laborious process that can take over an hour and cannot be done while the tank is under attack by UAVs or just rifle and machine-gun fire. The war in Ukraine has made it easier for the U.S. Army to get all the money wanted for upgrades to the American M1 tank force. The problem was few of those upgrades protected tank from UAVs. The army had already developed and scrutinized a new SEP (System Enhancement Package) update called SEP4 (or SEPV4) for its M1 tanks. The last upgrade (Sep3) entered service in 2020 after years of testing. The new upgrade contains lots of incremental improvements of features the SEP3 tanks already have. This includes upgrades to the gunners sight and a meteorological sensor that collects data on weather conditions to improve accuracy of the main gun. The U.S. Army has led the world in tank gun accuracy for decades and the SEP4 features offer small improvements. In Ukraine the 120mm gun was rarely used because the Russians had few tanks left after they lost so many in the first year of the war. Since the 1980s there have only been these incremental improvements for use against opponents who largely use T-72 upgrades that have not closed the wide effectiveness gap with the M1 and a few other similar tanks like Leopard 2, Challenger, LeClerc and Merkava. A major advantage of the M1 is that it has more combat experience than any other tank, especially its primary opponent: improved T-72/90 models. The most recent combat experience for these tanks has been in Ukraine, when the most modern Russian tank failed in a spectacular fashion against modern Western portable anti-tank weapons. These infantry weapons have a long history of success and to capitalize on that Poland has obtained lots of them and even built its own versions. Noting the similar success of the M1, in 2021 Poland ordered 250 M1A2SEP3 tanks for $6 million each. These will be new tanks, not upgrades of older models and all will not be delivered until 2026. The M1A2SEP3 is also known as the M1A2C and is currently the most advanced version of the M1. The Poles consider this tank the best option to deal with any new Russian tank developments. The 66-ton M1A2C also includes the Israeli Trophy ADS (active defense system) which has proved itself in combat and is capable of defeating ATGMs (Anti-tank guided missiles) and RPGs (rocket propelled grenades). Deliveries began in late 2022 and be completed in about four years. The 250 Polish M1A2s will complement the 240 used German Leopard 2A4s Poland obtained at bargain prices since 2002, along with a license to upgrade them to the 2A6 standard as the 62-ton Leopard 2PL. Poland is also upgrading over a hundred of its 380 older Russian T-72 tanks, most of them built in Poland during the Cold War and 225 PT-91s, a much-improved T-72 variant designed and built locally since 1995. Poland plans to retire its remaining T-72s as the M1A2s arrive and the experience of these tanks in the Ukraine fighting will accelerate the retirement process. Poland has also ordered a thousand modern K-2 tanks from South Korea, most of them to be built in Poland. Currently the most advanced Russian tank in service is the T-72B3, which is considered as good as the T-90, a 48-ton T-72 upgrade introduced in 1993 as the T-72BU but had a marketing name change to T-90. Over 3,200 were built and most were exported to India where they were produced under license. The 45-ton T-72B3 is cheaper and considered by Russian commanders and crews as equal to the more expensive T-90. Russia used to have about 2,000 T-72B3s, with most of its 590 T-90s in storage and T-72B3 used for active-duty units. Russia lost most of those T-72B3s in Ukraine since February 2022 along with many of the T-90s brought out of storage. Poland sees its M1 order as a prudent and successful investment. Russia has a new tank design, the T-14, that improves on the T-72 but has not been in combat and is too expensive to purchase in large quantities. The 48-ton T-14 is a radical new design that appears quite impressive but has so far proved too complex and too expensive to mass produce. Mass production was supposed to have started in 2015 but technical problems and shrinking defense budgets halted that until 2020 when covid19 restrictions again delayed production until 2022. The war in Ukraine meant further delays. Russia has fewer than thirty development and pre-production T-14s which have been undergoing field tests with tank units since 2016. The T-14 has a three-man crew and a fully automated turret with the three crew all in an armored capsule under the turret. The T-14 relies on a lot of new techs, some more advanced than any other Western tank has installed. Getting all that tech to work reliably has been a major problem. Getting all these problems fixed has made the T-14 more expensive, at about $4 million each. Thats twice what the reliable T-72B3 costs and Russian combat commanders and crews will have to be convinced that the T-14 works and is not just as reliable as the T-72B3, but also better at surviving in combat. Mass production to build less than two hundred more T-14s was supposed to begin in 2022. At the moment it looks like the Polish M1A2Cs will be the first American tanks to meet the T-14 in combat if Russia ever tries to make a move on Poland and has any new tanks to do it with. The Russians considered sending some T-14s to Ukraine but the list of known and potential defects made it obvious that T-14s in combat would be an embarrassment. There are major problems with the engine and electronics and now Russia cant afford the money needed to deal with those problems. The M1A2C tank is considered the best combat proven tank in the world. But there are many different models of M1s, which vary considerably in their combat capability. The earliest model is only about half as capable as the 2013 M1A2SEP2 model. The M1 is an old design with the first of 3,273 M1 tanks produced in 1978. This version had a 105mm gun. The first of 4,796 M1A1s with a 120mm gun and depleted uranium armor were produced in 1985. Another 221 were built for the U.S. Marines, 555 co-produced with Egypt and another 200 M1A1s sent to Egypt. Production of the M1A2 with its improved fire control system began in 1986, with 77 for the US Army, 315 for Saudi Arabia, and 218 for Kuwait. Another 600 M1s were upgraded to M1A2 standards. Deliveries of these upgrades began in 1998. In 2001 the army began to upgrade 240 M1A2 tanks as part of an ongoing SEP program with better thermal imaging and fire control equipment as well as communications and computer equipment that would allow tanks to operate a full color battlefield internet with each other, as well as headquarters and warplanes with similar equipment. By 2013 the army had upgraded 700 tanks to the M1A2SEP2 standard and built another 240 new M1A2SEP2 vehicles. The goal is to get at least 2,000 upgraded to M1A2SEP2 or higher in the 2020s. So far over 10,000 American M1 tanks have been produced and most of them subsequently updated at least once, mainly in the 1990s. The army is planning to maintain and upgrade its M1 tank fleet of 7,000 vehicles into the 2030s. The M1 has already been in service since the 1980s and may become the first MBT (main battle tank) design to stay in service for half a century. Technically, some World War II tanks achieved that dubious goal but not in the service of a major power. The SEP3 entered service in 2020 after being introduced for testing in 2017. SEP3 includes more improvements in the previous TUSK armor and RWS (remote weapons station) machine-gun upgrades, improved electricity generation and distribution for all the electronic gadgets that need recharging (or whatever), upgraded communications and networking and installation of VHMS (Vehicle Health Management System) and the use of LRMs (Line Replaceable Modules) to make it easier to upgrade or repair problems. The new communications features include ADL (Ammunition DataLink) to use airburst rounds. There is also an improved counter-IED (improvised explosive device) armor package, an upgraded FLIR (night vision heat sensor) and an APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) under armor to run electronics while stationary instead of using its fuel-thirsty turbine engine. The final addition was the Trophy ADS. The SEP2/3 upgrades also expanded on MVP (Multifunction Vehicle Protection) features which includes external cameras that let the crew see what is going on outside at all times, day, or night and in bad weather. The SEP program is continuous, upgrading existing M1A2 tanks to the new SEP3 standard as well as upgrading more M1A2SEPs to the SEP2 level. These upgrades keep the M1, or at least some of them, competitive with more recently designed and built tanks. The U.S. (mainly the army) has over a thousand of the SEP2 upgraded M1A2s and is getting as many of those upgraded to SEP3 as the budget allows. The original M1A2SEP was developed in the late 1990s by upgrading protection and a few other minor fixes. These were followed after 2003s combat experience in Iraq with TUSK (Tank Urban Survival Kit) and evolved into the SEP2 upgrade. TUSK was installed on hundreds of tanks headed for Iraq as well as several hundred more M1s that had battle damage repaired and TUSK upgrades installed at the same time. TUSK entered service in 2007 with reactive armor panels for the side and rear of the tank, to provide added protection from RPGs. A slat armor panel protects the engine exhaust outlet of the tank from RPGs. A 1.5-ton belly armor kit, which can be installed in two hours, provides additional protection from mines and large bombs. Enhancements also include night vision for all crew members. There is also a telephone added to the side of the tank, so that infantry can more easily communicate with the crew when the tank is "buttoned up" (all hatches closed). The complete TUSK kit costs about $500,000 per vehicle and requires about twelve hours to install all the components. Later additions to TUSK included a rear-view camera for the driver and RWS so the commanders' 12.7mm machine-gun can be operated from inside the tank. This is particularly useful if the tank is taking a lot of small arms fire. This led to providing all-round vidcam views of what was going on outside the tank. The M1A2SEP2 made most of the TUSK items standard and added more improvements like the RWS for the 12.7mm machine-gun as standard, as well in computer hardware, including color flat screen displays for the crew and software, including a new operating system along with improved TUSK ERA (explosive reactive armor), making the external phone standard and upgrading the transmission to make it more reliable. The electronics on the M1 have undergone several upgrades so far, in addition to new ammo types for the main gun. A major enhancement was depleted uranium armor, which made the M1 virtually invulnerable from the front. The one remaining item in need of major improvement is the 1,500-horsepower gas turbine engine. Past improvements here included electronic monitors on many engine components, an electronic logbook (to record all pertinent engine activity), and a maintenance program that makes the most of all this data. If the engine is monitored closely and constantly, it's possible to carry out maintenance in a timelier (before something fails) manner. The army would also like to develop an improved (more efficient and less expensive to maintain) engine, but that is also a costly item they can't afford at the moment. MVP can also link to audio sensors that work with video sensors to automatically detect where enemy fire is coming from. The United States tested MVP on their M2 IFV (Infantry Fighting Vehicle). New anti-tank weapons are always being developed and the army wants to at least be able to afford new gear to deal with new threats. One threat that is currently ignored is top attack warheads (that put a shaped charge type attack against the thin top armor). There are also new types of mines and electronic threats. If the M1 is to survive for half a century it will have to evolve, as well as endure. The M1A2C is an evolutionary design compared to the T-14 which is a revolutionary design with a lot of new techs introduced at once. These days, as job losses rise and income growth slows, many are debating whether its worthwhile to fight to make loan payments on properties with negative equity read more A growing number of mortgages are falling underwater as Chinas real estate crisis enters its fourth year and home values keep falling, putting further financial burden on both individuals and institutions. These days, as job losses rise and income growth slows, many are debating whether its worthwhile to fight to make loan payments on properties with negative equity. A finance worker in Shanghai has to pay off her past-due mortgage or risk legal action from her bank. In Hangzhou, one man is forced to sell two residences at a loss of one million yuan ($138,000) after his repayments spiralled out of control, and another couple has postponed having a child and is depending on their parents to help pay their home loan. Advertisement The possibility of negative equity is a worry for banks as well. Those with knowledge of the situation said that at least two lenders brought up the problem during a recent meeting with Chinas financial authorities, who promised to look into it. They asked not to be named since the discussions were private. After Lucy Liu missed four payments on a 3 million yuan mortgage for her Shanghai house, her bank is threatening to take her to court. This is a stark contrast to three years earlier, when she paid 4.2 million yuan for the property, believing that home values would only rise. Since then, she quit her high-paying career and took a position that paid 80% less, and the value of the property has dropped below what she owes. The 32-year-old financial worker said that she has lost all hope, explaining she fears the price will continue to fall, leading to a bigger loss. She added that if she stopped repaying the bank, she may only lose the down payment, but if she continued paying, she may lose more. Proxy data indicates Liu is not alone in having trouble repaying her house loan, even if it is challenging to quantify the issue due to a dearth of current data on underwater mortgages and defaults. According to data published by Bloomberg, household debt reached a new record of 145% of disposable income per capita at the end of 2023. This is much higher than the percentages of 126% in the UK and 97% in the US. Advertisement The countrys banks are already battling diminished balance sheets as a result of an increase in bad loans and declining profit margins. Significant competitors Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. saw a 9.6% increase in bad loans from residential mortgages to 27.8 billion yuan, while Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. reported a 4.7% increase in soured residential mortgage loans last year. In March, Bank of Communications Co. reported that its property bad loan ratio for money lent to developers jumped to almost 5% at the end of last year from 2.8% a year earlier. And the list of disappointing statistics keeps growing: According to Changjiang Securities Co. chief economist Wu Ge, the residential mortgage delinquency ratio jumped to the highest in four years as of late 2023; the number of foreclosed properties listed for legal auction hit a record in 2023, according to data from China Index Holdings; banks issued 24.7 billion yuan in financial instruments backed by non-performing mortgages in 2023, the most ever, according to cn-abs.com data compiled by Bloomberg. Advertisement Some homeowners on the verge of defaulting on their mortgages have had to delve into family funds and postpone life plans. Peter, who lost his job at a fintech business in Hangzhou last year, now relies on his parents to pay his mortgage. His wife remained employed, although with a significant salary decrease. The 32-year-old said they planned to have a baby last year but gave up. To be sure, banks may still collect at least a portion of the loans by selling the collateralized properties in the event of a default and enforcing on the borrowers other assets to recover loan losses. Advertisement However, if homeowners fail to make payments, they will be subjected to lawsuits by the bank, have their home repossessed, and finally be sold at a 20% to 30% discount. Because China lacks countrywide personal bankruptcy legislation, defaulters will be held liable for their arrears in most circumstances, resulting in a tarnished credit record that may have a long-term influence on their future financing eligibility. Some people are attempting to avoid these repercussions, even if it means taking a significant financial cost and learning a hard lesson. Carl, a former Hangzhou property consultant, had to sell two of his residences for a total loss of 1 million yuan to pay off his mortgages, one of which went underwater. After the sale, he still had to pay an additional 110,000 yuan on the property to settle the loan. At one point in 2022, he had a monthly mortgage expense of over 30,000 yuan, nearly double his salary, prompting him to take out consumer loans to pay off the debt. Advertisement Chinas recent attempt to breath life into the property market by trimming downpayment requirements is also being questioned. Reducing the downpayment ratio is treading a tightrope, said Raymond Yeung, Greater China chief economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. If the action fails to revive demand, lowering the downpayment ratio will increase the risk of falling into negative equity. New buyers taking 15% downpayment mortgage will have less buffer against price fall. According to Yeung, new homeowners took out 528 billion yuan in mortgages last year on properties valued 791 billion yuan, or 150% of total outstanding loans. Yeung estimated that the markup among mortgage borrowers has been the lowest in the previous 12 years, implying that a 33% decrease in property prices might put them into negative equity. According to Bloomberg calculations based on government statistics, Chinas new home prices have fallen 5.7% from their peak in 2021, while existing home prices have plummeted 11.4%. According to a report issued this week, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. predicts housing values in major cities will fall by at least another 30% before stabilising. However, some homeowners are attempting to persevere for the time being. Chenchen, who works for a private property business in Shanghai, has little alternative but to continue paying her mortgage so that her child may attend a local school. The 38-year-old hasnt been paid in five months, and her homes value has dropped by 40% to 4.5 million yuan. Joan, a Shanghai property agent, stated that if she continues to repay her mortgage, her money will last no more than two years. She hasnt been able to sell any residences since April and doesnt expect the property market to improve until 2027, which means no steady income for the next two years. People-to-people connections, trade, and economic ties between India and Canada have suffered as tensions rise after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said authorities were investigating credible allegations linking New Delhis agents to the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar. read more The report highlighted that foreign interference efforts have slowly increased and its efforts extended beyond countering what is perceived as pro-Khalistani efforts in Canada. A report of the Parliamentary committee in Canada has termed India as the countrys 2nd biggest foreign threat after China. The report will further deteriorate relations between the two nations which have been caught in a diplomatic spat since the June 2023 killing of a pro-Khalistan terrorist in Surrey, British Columbia. India has emerged as the second-most significant foreign interference threat to Canadas democratic institutions and processes, dislodging Russia, The Independent cited the report which was released by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) as saying. Advertisement The report highlighted that foreign interference efforts have slowly increased and its efforts extended beyond countering what is perceived as pro-Khalistani efforts in Canada. India was interfering in Canadian democratic processes and institutions, including through the targeting of Canadian politicians, ethnic media, and Indo-Canadian ethnocultural communities, the independent quoted the report as saying. Diplomatic ties between India and Canada have plummeted to their lowest after Canadian PM Trudeau told the House of Commons last fall that security agencies have credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen. India rubbishes Canadas allegations Trudeau in an emergency statement told the House of Commons that Canadian security agencies are actively pursuing credible allegations linking Indian government agents to the killing of Khalistan Tiger Force chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar on 18 June in Surrey. Nijjar, who was shot dead outside a Gurdwara in the Vancouver suburb, was designated a terrorist by India in July 2020. The Khalistan issues The Khalistan issue is a major thorn between India and Canadas relations. While India believes Canada is soft on Khalistani extremism, the North American country accuses New Delhi of interference in its domestic politics. Canada is home to the highest population of Sikhs outside Indias Punjab. It also has one of the largest Indian diaspora, comprising 1.4 million out of the total Canadian population of 40 million. People-to-people connections, trade, and economic ties between India and Canada have suffered as tensions rise after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said authorities were investigating credible allegations linking New Delhis agents to the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar. According to a statement from the Philippine Coast Guard spokesman for the West Philippine Sea Jay Tarriela, the Chinese boats engaged in dangerous manoeuvres and intentionally rammed the Philippine Navy warship read more A Chinese-flagged inflatable speedboat is shown colliding with the two stopped Philippine vessels as they get ready to transfer the patient in a sequence of recordings made public by the Philippine Coast Guard Image Courtesy AFP In a video published by the Philippine Coast Guard on Friday, two Philippine vessels meet on the open seas to transfer an ill Filipino soldier. China Coast Guard boats shadow, block, and bump the Philippine vessels. The event occurred last month while a soldier stationed on the BRP Sierra Madre, a grounded Philippine Navy warship, was being medically evacuated from Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea. The soldier was retrieved from a Philippine Navy speedboat on May 19, according to the Philippine Coast Guard, who also reported to the China Coast Guard the humanitarian nature of their mission. Advertisement A Chinese-flagged inflatable speedboat is shown colliding with the two stopped Philippine vessels as they get ready to transfer the patient in a sequence of recordings made public by the Philippine Coast Guard. Other vessels, which the Philippines has determined to be from the Chinese Coast Guard, are also visible following and obstructing the Philippine Coast Guard boats progress. According to a statement from the Philippine Coast Guard spokesman for the West Philippine Sea Jay Tarriela, the Chinese boats engaged in dangerous manoeuvres and intentionally rammed the Philippine Navy warship. The barbaric and inhumane behaviour displayed by the China Coast Guard has no place in our society, Tarriela said. What should have been a simple medical evacuation operation was subjected to harassment, he said. Their actions clearly demonstrated their intention to prevent the sick personnel from receiving the proper medical attention he urgently needed. Chinas foreign ministry said in response to the accusation it could allow the Philippines to deliver necessary supplies and evacuate personnel from the Sierra Madre if Beijing were notified in advance. However, the Philippines should not use this as an excuse to ship construction materials to the deliberately grounded warship in an attempt to permanently occupy the Renai Reef, spokeswoman Mao Ning said, using Chinas name for Second Thomas Shoal. Advertisement Beijing claims almost the entire waterway and there has been a series of confrontations involving Chinese and Philippine vessels near contested reefs, often around Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands. Second Thomas Shoal is about 200 kilometres (120 miles) from the western Philippine island of Palawan and more than 1,000 kilometres from Chinas nearest major landmass, Hainan island. The Filipino soldier was eventually loaded onto the Philippine Coast Guard boat and taken to Palawan, where he received hospital treatment. The Philippines did not provide details of the soldiers medical condition. H5N1 first emerged in 1996 but since 2020, the number of outbreaks in birds has grown exponentially, alongside an increase in the number of infected mammals read more Based on available information, the United Nations' health agency assesses the current risk to the general population posed by the virus as low Image Courtesy Reuters The WHO said on Friday that a man who had the H5N2 bird flu, the first case of the strain that had been verified in humans, had died from a variety of causes. The WHO also stated that more investigations were underway. The first human case of H5N2 avian influenza virus infection verified in a lab was reported from Mexico, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday. The 59-year-old man had a history of chronic kidney disease, type 2 diabetes, and long-standing systemic arterial hypertension, according to Mexicos health ministry. Advertisement Prior to the commencement of acute symptoms on April 17, which included fever, shortness of breath, diarrhea, nausea, and general malaise, he had been bedridden for three weeks. The man was taken to hospital in Mexico City on April 24 and died later that day. The death is a multi-factorial death, not a death attributable to H5N2, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told journalists in Geneva on Friday. The patient came to the hospital after weeks of multi-factorial background of multi other diseases, he said. His body was subsequently routinely tested for flu and other viruses, and H5N2 was detected, Lindmeier said. Seventeen contacts of the case in the hospital were identified. All tested negative for influenza. In the mans place of residence, 12 contacts in the weeks beforehand were identified. All likewise tested negative. Investigations are ongoing. Serology is ongoing. That means the blood testing of contacts to see if there was any possible earlier infection, Lindmeier said. The infection of H5N2 is being investigated to see whether he was infected by somebody visiting or by any contact with any animals before. The WHO said Wednesday that the source of exposure to the virus was unknown, though H5N2 viruses have been reported in poultry in Mexico. Based on available information, the United Nations health agency assesses the current risk to the general population posed by the virus as low. Advertisement Markus Lipp, senior food safety officer at the UNs Food and Agriculture Organization, said the risk of contracting avian influenza though eating poultry was negligibly low. In all the hundred years of avian influenza there has not been any demonstrated food-borne transmission, he told the media briefing via video-link from the FAOs headquarters in Rome. Animal handlers, of course, who are in extremely close contact with animals may get an infection but its an occupational risk. Its not a food-borne transmission, he said. Humans do not have avian influenza receptors in their gastro-intestinal tract, contrary to certain animal species, as far as we know. So there is a very slim likelihood, just from that perspective. Advertisement Of all the food safety risks when eating poultry, probably the lowest risk is connected to avian influenza, Lipp said. A different variant of bird flu, H5N1, has been spreading for weeks among dairy cow herds in the United States, with a small number of cases reported among humans. But none of them are human-to-human infections, with the disease jumping instead from cattle to people, authorities have said. H5N1 first emerged in 1996 but since 2020, the number of outbreaks in birds has grown exponentially, alongside an increase in the number of infected mammals. The strain has led to the deaths of tens of millions of poultry, with wild birds and land and marine mammals also infected. Advertisement The human cases recorded in Europe and the United States since the virus surged have largely been mild. The formal diplomatic complaint, a note verbale, will be conveyed to Global Affairs Canada, the countrys foreign ministry on Friday, a senior Indian official said, according to a report read more A day after a float depicting the assassination of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi featured during a Khalistani demonstration related to Operation Bluestar at its Vancouver consulate on Thursday, India has said that it will formally raise the matter with Canadian authorities. The float featured an effigy of Indira Gandhi, showing her riddled with bullets including through the forehead and also displayed her assassins, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, with guns pointed towards her. Advertisement #Exclusive #Khalistanis have placed the float of Indira Gandhi assassination outside the Indian consulate in Vancouver, riddled with bullets. Clearly, Trudeau is giving a free run to Khalistanis who are sowing hate. This is sheer glorification of violence. pic.twitter.com/3Kl7WfWqbr Navdeep Singh (@Navdeep_UK) June 7, 2024 The formal diplomatic complaint, a note verbale, will be conveyed to Global Affairs Canada, the countrys foreign ministry on Friday, a Hindustan Times report quoted a senior Indian official as saying. The float was part of a demonstration on the 40th anniversary of Operation Bluestar, a military action by the Indian Army targeting Khalistani extremists, notably their leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, within the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar. The call for a lockdown of Indias mission to Canada had been given by the secessionist group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ). Apart from Vancouver, protests were also organised at consulate in Toronto. However, such floats did not appear there, though each venue had protesters carrying Khalistan flags and shouting anti-India slogans, added the report. Last year, on 4 June, a float featuring the assassination of late PM was part of a martyrdom day event in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Advertisement India had hit out at Canada for allowing such activities, perceived to be a glorification of violence by Sikh separatists. I think there is a larger underlying issue about the space which is given to separatists, to extremists, to people who advocate violence, Indias External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said in New Delhi while commenting about the tableau in a parade. I think it is not good for relationships, not good for Canada, he said. Canadas High Commissioner in India also condemned the incident at a parade in the Canadian city of Brampton. I am appalled by reports of an event in Canada that celebrated the assassination of late Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Cameron MacKay said on X. Advertisement There is no place in Canada for hate or for the glorification of violence. I categorically condemn these activities, he added. With inputs from agencies Germany will need at least 75,000 additional troops to fulfil its NATO commitments as the alliance adapts its defence planning to face what it sees as an increasingly hostile Russia, according to a report on Friday read more Soldiers of the German armed forces Bundeswehr attend a swearing-in ceremony for new recruits in front of the Berlin House of Representatives, Abgeordnetenhaus, in Berlin, Germany, on 22 May, 2024. Reuters File Germany will need at least 75,000 additional troops to fulfil its NATO commitments as the alliance adapts its defence planning to face what it sees as an increasingly hostile Russia, Spiegel magazine reported on Friday. At their Vilnius summit last year, NATO leaders signed off on the first major defence plans since the end of the Cold War, detailing how the alliance would respond to a Russian attack. The move signified a fundamental shift - NATO had seen no need to draw up such plans for decades, as it fought smaller wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and felt certain post-Soviet Russia no longer posed an existential threat. Advertisement NATO and national military planners have been busy translating the plans into concrete requirements, identifying shortages of troops, weapons and other equipment needed to defend against a Russian attack that could, according to the German militarys top brass, come as early as 2029. The new NATO requirements mean that the Bundeswehr will need an extra 75,000 troops to fill additional allied corps, divisions and brigades needed to implement the defence plans, Spiegel said, citing confidential documents without giving further details. The German defence ministry was not immediately available for comment. At the moment, the Bundeswehr has some 180,000 soldiers, falling short of the target of around 200,000 troops, and 80,000 civilian employees. The two had attended events celebrating the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy the day before, where Zelenskyy received a standing ovation and Biden drew parallels between the efforts made today to support Ukraine against Russias invasion and the allied forces that helped free Europe from Nazi Germany read more The United States is by far Kyivs biggest supplier of wartime support, and Ukraine is trying to fend off an intense Russian offensive in eastern areas of the country Image Courtesy AP For the first time in public, US President Joe Biden apologized to Ukraine on Friday for the months-long legislative standoff over American military aid, which allowed Russia to gain military advantage over Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, met with Biden in Paris and asked for continued bipartisan U.S. support like it was during World War II. The two had attended events celebrating the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy the day before, where Zelensky received a standing ovation and Biden drew parallels between the efforts made today to support Ukraine against Russias invasion and the allied forces that helped free Europe from Nazi Germany. Advertisement I apologize for those weeks of not knowing whats going to happen in terms of funding, Biden said, referring to the six-month holdup by conservative Republicans in Congress to a $61 billion military aid package for Ukraine. Still, the Democratic president insisted that the American people were standing by Ukraine for the long haul. Were still in. Completely. Thoroughly, he said. The apology, along with Zelenskyys appeal for unwavering support akin to the allied coalition during World War II, served as a reminder that, despite Bidens claims of an unwavering US commitment to Ukraine, congressional Republicans reluctance and the strain of isolationism in American politics have revealed the countrys vulnerability. The discussion was also overshadowed, albeit unnoticed, by the possibility of Donald Trumps candidacy. The presumptive nominee, a Republican and former president, has expressed support for Russian President Vladimir Putin and raised concerns in Ukraine that he would demand that it cede territory in order to end the conflict. Zelenskyy pressed for all Americans to support his countrys defense against Russias invasion, and he thanked lawmakers for eventually coming together to approve the weapons package, which has allowed Ukraine to stem Russian advances in recent weeks. Its very important that in this unity, United States of America, all American people stay with Ukraine like it was during World War II, Zelenskyy said. Advertisement How the United States helped to save human lives, to save Europe. And we count on your continuing support in standing with us shoulder to shoulder. The United States is by far Kyivs biggest supplier of wartime support, and Ukraine is trying to fend off an intense Russian offensive in eastern areas of the country. The push is focused on the Ukrainian border regions of Kharkiv and Donetsk, but Ukrainian officials say it could spread as Russias bigger army seeks to make its advantage tell. The offensive is seeking to exploit Kyivs shortages of ammunition and troops along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line. Advertisement The slow pace of delivery of pledged Western weaponry has long frustrated Zelenskyy, as has Bidens hesitation over supplying more hardware for fear of provoking Russian President Vladimir Putin. That has caused tension in their relationship. The U.S. will send about $225 million in military aid to Ukraine, Biden announced Friday. The latest package includes munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, as well as mortar systems and an array of artillery rounds, U.S. officials said Thursday. A Ukrainian strike on its partially-occupied Luhansk region using U.S.-made ATACMS missiles killed three people and injured 35 others Friday, local Moscow-appointed authorities said. Israeli warships bombarded residences in the fishermens port region west of Gaza City, among other areas, according to an AFP correspondent. Gaza also came under naval bombardment read more The Isa family home near a medical facility in the Bureij refugee camp was hit, according to a medical source at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, leaving multiple people wounded Image Courtesy AFP Israeli strikes rocked a Gaza refugee camp on Friday as the war that began with Hamass unprecedented invasion on Israel entered its ninth month. Tens of thousands of people have died in the fighting, much of the Gaza Strip has been destroyed, the majority of its 2.4 million residents have been uprooted, and they now face hunger. Just one week after US President Joe Biden unveiled a new three-stage roadmap, diplomatic attempts to negotiate the first ceasefire since a week-long break in November seem to have stagnated. Advertisement Since taking power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, Hamas has not yet responded to Bidens proposal. Israel has stated that it is willing to have talks but that it will not give up on its goal of dismantling the Palestinian Islamist organization. According to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gazas Deir al-Balah, the Israeli strike on the UN-run school in Nuseirat camp on Thursday resulted in the deaths of at least 37 Palestinians. Nine terrorists were allegedly killed by Israeli fighter jets in three classrooms that housed roughly thirty terrorists from Islamic Jihad and Hamas, according to the Israeli army. The school that was hit without prior warning was providing shelter to hundreds of displaced Palestinians, according to the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees, or UNRWA. The incident was referred to as another horrific example of the price that civilians are paying by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The United States asked its friend to be fully forthcoming about the strike. The US gives Israel $3.8 billion in military aid annually. The government of Israel has said that they are going to release more information about this strike, including the names of those who died in it. We expect them to be fully transparent in making that information public, said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. The terrorists dispute Israels accusations that Hamas and its affiliates in Gaza use hospitals, schools, and other civilian infrastructure, including establishments managed by UNRWA, the UN organization for Palestinian refugees, as operational hubs. Advertisement Strikes on Friday targeted different locations in the Gaza Strip. One day after the school attack, witnesses reported that Israeli artillery bombardment and airstrikes resumed near the Nuseirat refugee camp. The Isa family home near a medical facility in the Bureij refugee camp was hit, according to a medical source at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, leaving multiple people wounded. Witnesses reportedly reported intense fire from Israeli army vehicles east of the Bureij camp, where a fire was raging at a roundabout, and Israeli attacks east of Deir al-Balah. A medical source at Baptist Hospital in Gaza City confirmed casualties following an Israeli missile assault on the Ashram family residence near the Al-Salam mosque. Advertisement According to a medical source at Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, an Israeli hit on the Wafati home in Maghazi camp resulted in six fatalities and multiple injuries. According to sources in Rafah, which is located on Egypts southern border, air force jets also targeted the Al-Sultan neighborhood of the city. Israeli warships bombarded residences in the fishermens port region west of Gaza City, among other areas, according to an AFP correspondent. Gaza also came under naval bombardment. The visit comes amid mounting pressure for the US ally and Hamas militants to agree to a permanent ceasefire as Israel faces growing diplomatic isolation over the rising death toll in Gaza read more Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address lawmakers in the US Congress on July 24, Republican party leaders announced Thursday. The visit comes amid mounting pressure for the US ally and Hamas militants to agree to a permanent ceasefire as Israel faces growing diplomatic isolation over the rising death toll in Gaza. President Joe Biden last week presented what he called an Israeli three-phase plan that would end the conflict, free all hostages and lead to the reconstruction of the devastated Palestinian territory without Hamas in power. Advertisement But Netanyahus office stressed that the war sparked by the October 7 attacks would continue until Israels goals are achieved, including the destruction of Hamas, which has not given its response to the plan. The four top party leaders in the US House and Senate from both sides asked Netanyahu last week to speak before a joint meeting of Congress in a letter voicing solidarity with Israel in your struggle against terror, especially as Hamas continues to hold American and Israeli citizens captive. Netanyahus visit symbolizes the US and Israels enduring relationship and will offer Netanyahu the opportunity to share the Israeli governments vision for defending their democracy, combating terror, and establishing just and lasting peace in the region, House Speaker Mike Johnson and top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell said in a statement. The visit comes after Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called in March for Israel to hold new elections in a rare example of strident criticism from a senior American official of the countrys handling of the war in Gaza. In a statement Thursday evening, Schumer said he invited Netanyahu to speak despite clear and profound disagreements because Americas relationship with Israel is ironclad and transcends one person or prime minister. The rebuke from Schumer, the highest-ranking elected Jewish American in history, came amid expressions of dismay from progressive Democrats who have condemned Netanyahu over his handling of the military response and vowed to snub the right-wing leaders speech. Advertisement The war was sparked when Hamas attacked Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Militants also took 251 hostages, 120 of whom remain in Gaza, including 41 the army says are dead. Israels retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 36,654 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territorys health ministry. A Gaza hospital said Thursday at least 37 people had been killed in an Israeli strike on a UN-run school that the Israeli military alleged housed a Hamas compound. US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have resumed talks aimed at securing a truce and hostage-prisoner swap in the nearly eight-month war. Advertisement But the nation has faced a mounting diplomatic chill, with international court cases accusing it of war crimes and several European countries recognizing a Palestinian state. US media reported on Monday that Netanyahu had agreed to visit on June 13, but his office told Israeli media the date had not been finalized and would not be on that date because it interferes with a Jewish holiday. Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu, Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Jugnauth and President of Seychelles Wavel Ramkalawan are among the leaders being invited to Modis swearing-in ceremony. read more Maldives President Mohammad Muizzu has accepted an official invitation to attend the oath-taking ceremony of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his third consecutive term in office. The swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the weekend, is expected to witness the presence of scores of leaders from neighbouring countries including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal, Mauritius and Seychelles. The Times of India has cited an official sources saying that Muizzu will attend the swearing-in of the new govt led by Narendra Modi. Advertisement India-Maldives ties: The invitation to Muizzu to attend the swearing-in ceremony assumes significance as it came amid frosty ties between the two countries. The bilateral relations between India and the Maldives came under severe strain since November last year when Muizzu, known for his pro-China leanings, took charge as Maldivian president. Within hours of his oath, Muizzu had demanded the withdrawal of Indian military personnel from his country. The Indian military personnel were replaced by civilians earlier this month. Following this, the travel hotspot for Indians faced a backlash after three ministers from the Maldives cabinet made derogatory comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi following his visit to Lakshadweep last week. Many netizens on social media claimed that they have cancelled their scheduled trips to the Maldives because of the row with the hashtag Boycott Maldives trending. Joining the boycott campaign, EaseMyTrip, an online travel aggregator, said it has suspended all flight bookings to the island nation on its website in solidarity with India. Boycott Maldives impact Following a diplomatic row between India and the Maldives, which led to calls for a boycott, Sri Lanka has become the preferred destination for most Indian tourists. As a result, Sri Lanka saw a surge in tourist arrivals, surpassing the Maldives in January 2024 for the first time in four years. Advertisement In January this year, Sri Lanka welcomed 208,253 tourists, compared to 192,385 in the Maldives. This represents a significant increase for Sri Lanka, which saw over 100,000 more tourists than in the same month last year. Historically, tourist numbers in Sri Lanka had lagged behind those of the Maldives, but the recent geopolitical tensions have shifted travel preferences. Reports indicate that the diplomatic tension has contributed to this trend, as Indian tourists opted for Sri Lanka over the Maldives. This shift marks a notable change in regional tourism dynamics, with Sri Lanka benefiting from the situation. According to the Maldives Tourism Ministry statistics, over 17 lakh tourists visited the island nation in 2023, out of which more than 2,09,198 visitors were Indians followed by Russians (2,09,146) and China (1,87,118). Advertisement The number of Indian visitors was more than 2.4 lakh in 2022 while over 2.11 lakh Indians flew to the Maldives in 2021. The Maldives was also one of the few countries open for international tourists during the pandemic and nearly 63,000 Indians visited that country during that period. In 2018, India was the fifth-largest source of tourist arrivals in the Maldives with 90,474 visitors. In 2019, India reached the second spot with 1.66 lakh Indians visiting that country. Modi is likely to take oath on June 9 Modi is all set to take charge as the prime minister for a historic third consecutive term with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) winning 293 seats in the Lok Sabha polls. Advertisement The guest list of foreign leaders for Modis swearing-in ceremony was primarily guided by New Delhis Neighbourhood First Policy and its strategic focus on island nations considered important in the Indian Ocean region, it is learnt. June 7, 2024: This is an update on the many ways UAVs (Unmanned aerial Vehicles) and USVs (Unmanned Surface Vessels) have unexpectedly revolutionized warfare. These systems are evidence that Combat robots have sneaked into the military, without many people in, or out of, uniform paying a lot of attention. That's still the case, especially because the media and even many senior military and political leaders dont fully understand the technology nor how it is implemented. One example of this confusion can be seen with the constant reference to UAVs as drones or robots. They are neither, they are simply remotely controlled aircraft, something thats been around for over half a century. But these UAVs are being given more and more robotic (operating autonomously) capabilities. This isnt new either, as torpedoes have had this ability for over 60 years and missiles for over 50 years. Swarms of FPV (First Person View) UAVs are revolutionizing how wars are fought. There are few methods to defeat UAV attacks. The primary defensive measure is electronic jamming of the control signal between the UAV operator and the UAV. Jamming is of limited effectiveness because active jammers are easy targets for UAVs programmed to detect, home in on and destroy jammers. Depending on how they are programmed, UAVs will either land if jammed or return to where they were launched. Despite those defensive measures, and the small explosive payload UAVs carry, about half the armored vehicles damaged or destroyed in Ukraine were done in by armed UAVs. Training of UAV operators is critical as it takes over a hundred hours of operating UAVs to gain a minimal skill level. Female soldiers can excel as UAV operators while mostly avoiding the battlefield risk of death or injury. Unlike pilots of combat aircraft, UAV operators are much less likely to be put out of action by death, injury, or capture. UAV operators are relatively close to the front lines and exposed to some risk, but not nearly as much as pilots. Such reduced casualties shorten the learning curve for UAV operators and make them more dangerous faster compared to infantry whose effective combat lifetime is much shorter. UAV warfare is increasingly common and dominating some combat zones. Tactics and techniques are also evolving as Ukraine and Russia both experiment with new tactics, techniques, and UAV designs. Both nations are also increasing production of UAVs and the number of trained operators. Both Russia and Ukraine realize that UAVs provide unprecedented surveillance of the battlefield, but not all of it. That requires more UAVs and operators. One solution for this shortcoming is operator software that enables one operator to control several UAVs. The number one operator can handle simultaneously depends on operator experience. That cannot be manufactured but must be developed. Whoever can obtain the most trained operators has an advantage. All these UAV developments make combat more dangerous for the troops on the ground. UAVs not only keep an eye on enemy troops but are always ready to go in and put them out of action, as in dead or wounded. Troops are still fighting each other on the ground, but now they have to worry about constant surveillance and attacks from the growing number of UAVs hovering over the battlefield. In addition to operators there are the UAV maintainers, who repair damaged or otherwise disabled UAVs and service those needing a battery recharge or simply a fresh battery. Ukraines military has established a UAV Academy to train UAV operators in basic and advanced skills. There are courses for commanders on how best to manage and use UAVs. This is essential because now Ukrainian infantry battalions have nearly as many UAVs as troops. The American military likes to call this a force multiplier. This means a battalion with lots of UAVs is more effective, and lethal, than a battalion without so many UAVs. The Ukrainian military is the first to go so far in this direction and appear to be benefitting from the massive use of UAVs. Other nations are closely following this development and preparing to adopt what works for Ukraine. Russia is more conservative in how they deal with this, even though they are also using massive numbers of UAVs. There are already dozens of Ukrainian companies offering training for UAV operators and the Ukrainian military uses the services of these firms. In 2023 Ukraine sought to have more than 10,000 trained operators as quickly as possible. UAV operators specialize. Most learn to operate quadcopters while a large minority learn how to operate FPV UAVs, and a smaller number learn how to operate fixed wing UAVs. Ukraine has found that the most difficult operators to recruit and train are those for FPV UAVs. The Ukrainian military considers UAV operators as a separate military specialty like infantryman, artillerymen, or radar operator. In early 2024 Ukraine created a new branch of their military, the UAV Force. This is in addition to the Ukrainian Air Force and its manned aircraft. The UAV Force does not control the UAVs Ukrainian forces use regularly but will contribute to developing new UAV models and organizing mass production for those new models that are successful. UAVs have been an unexpected development that had a huge impact on how battles in Ukraine's current war are fought. UAVs were successful because they were cheap, easily modified, and expendable. Early on both Russian and Ukrainian forces were using cheap, at about $500 each, quadcopter UAVs controlled by soldiers a kilometer or more away using FPV goggles to see what the day/night video camera on the UAV can see. Adding night vision at least doubles the cost for each UAV, so not all of them have that capability. Each of these UAVs carries half a kilogram of explosives, so it can instantly turn the UAV into a flying bomb that can fly into a target and detonate. This was an awesome and debilitating weapon when used in large numbers over the combat zone. If a target isnt moving or requires more explosive power that the UAVs can supply, one of the UAV operators can call in artillery, rocket, or missile fire, or even an airstrike. Larger, fixed wing UAVs are used for long range, often over a thousand kilometers, operations against targets deep inside Russia. Since 2022 the use of UAVs by both sides has escalated and so far, several hundred thousand UAVs have been put to work providing surveillance and attack services for both sides. Ukraine plans to produce over a million UAVs in 2024. The Ukrainians consider drones another form of ammunition that is cheaper, smarter and far more effective and lethal than guided missiles or GPS guided artillery shells. A major limitation to the expansion of UAV operations was the need for trained UAV operators. These operators need over a hundred hours of training before they are able to start operating these UAVs, and another hundred hours of actual use before they are able to make the most out of the system. These small UAVs are difficult to shoot down until they get close to the ground and the shooter is close enough, as in less than a few hundred meters, away to successfully target a UAV with a bullet or two and bring it down. Troops are rarely in position to do this, so most of these UAVs are able to complete their mission, whether it is a one-way attack or a reconnaissance and surveillance mission. The recon missions are usually survivable and enable the UAV to be reused. All these UAVs are constantly performing surveillance, which means that both sides commit enough UAVs to maintain constant surveillance over a portion of the front line, to a depth, into enemy territory, of at least a few kilometers. This massive use of FPV-armed UAVs has revolutionized warfare in Ukraine and both sides are producing as many as they can. Military observers from other countries are reporting that warfare has undergone a fundamental change because of the widespread use of UAVs in Ukraine. Many armed forces at peace are reluctant to change, despite the evidence from Ukraine that any future war will provide the more prolific user of UAVs with a significant edge in combat. These drone have also revolutionized naval warfare. In early 2024 Ukraine built 35 Sea Baby USVs. These are made of a material that is nearly invisible to radar. Each can carry up to 850 kg of explosives. Less explosives can be carried if you want the Sea Baby to travel farther. With a full load of explosives, it can reach targets up to 1,000 kilometers distant. Top speed is 90 kilometers an hour but more economical, in terms of fuel use, cruise speed is about half the top speed. That means it would take the Sea Baby about twenty hours to travel a thousand kilometers. That is a one way trip to a target, like a naval base or any ships docked at the base which is then attacked. Sea Baby navigates using several devices including GPS, INS, and short range sensors to detect and avoid obstacles. These sensors can also be programmed to identify and attack a specific target like a ship or other naval base facility. Sea Baby can also be equipped with short range weapons like explosive rockets that can hit targets a thousand meters distant with thermobaric/fuel air warheads. When used to launch rocket attacks, the Sea Baby can escape and return to a Ukrainian base for reuse. Some Sea Babys are equipped with video cameras to carry out reconnaissance and surveillance missions. In this case, communications equipment must be carried to transmit video or individual digital photos back to the Ukrainian base. The Ukrainians have been very imaginative and flexible in their use of these unmanned seagoing vessels. Ukrainian USVs have been quite successful in attacking and sinking or disabling Russian navy ships. So far there have been over a dozen attacks which resulted in damage to 12 ships and the sinking of a cruiser, two small landing ships and one missile corvette. The longest range raids have been against targets in Kerch Strait and the more distant Russian naval base at Novorossiysk. Ukrainian USV operations in the Black Sea forced the Russian Black Sea Fleet to withdraw to the eastern shore of the Black Sea. Sevastopol was no longer a safe place to be, and Russian ships could no longer launch their Kalibr cruise missiles without moving closer to Ukrainian territory and risking attack by Ukrainian USVs. The presence and aggressive use of the USVs means that Ukraines grain corridor has been kept open despite Russias threats to interfere. Beyond symbolic significance, the corridor holds critical economic importance for Ukraine and is expected to contribute 5-7 percent to GDP growth in 2024 because of the grain shipments. The aggressive and successful use of Ukrainian USVs against the Russian Black Sea fleet was unprecedented in the history of naval warfare. Not only were these USVs tactically successful but financially as well. For example, new frigates cost about $1.5 billion each. That much money can also pay for 5,000 such USVs. Destroyers cost twice as much. The frigates and destroyers are high seas ships and can travel all over the world. The USVs operate in coastal waters although some of the larger USVs can operate up to a thousand kilometers from where they were launched. These USVs carry video cameras and satellite-based communications systems to collect information and, in peacetime, do so without fear of attack. Severe storms are another matter, but any storm damage will be broadcast as it is happening, at least until the video cameras or communications equipment is disabled. Commercial cargo ships can carry hundreds of armed UAVs equipped with satellite communications so operators anywhere in the world can control them. These USVs can be unloaded at sea and sent to carry out attacks on targets in the area or move to a nearby harbor and remain tied to a dock until needed. The only maintenance is keeping the USV batteries charged. These USVs are a radical new weapon for naval warfare and the war at sea will never be the same because of the success of Ukrainian USVs in their victorious war against the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Nations with major warship fleets, like the U.S. and China, have much to fear from this new development of weaponized seagoing USVs. These USVs are difficult to spot visually, especially at night. Sonar can detect them, and autocannon equipped ship systems, like Phalanx, can be adapted to accurately target and destroy USVs. Since the United States provides most of the military aid to Ukraine, they can get some cooperation from the Ukrainians that will help American warships and those of other NATO nations develop weapons and tactics to deal with USVs. The Russians were taken by surprise when their Black Sea Fleet was attacked by USVs. In less than a year, most of the Black Sea Fleet warships were destroyed or severely damaged by USVs. Because of the USVs, Ukraine, which does not have a conventional navy, now controls most of the Black Sea. The nuclear submarine Kazan and three other Russian naval vessels, including the missile frigate Admiral Gorshkov, an oil tanker and a salvage tug, will dock in the Cuban capital from 12-17 June, according to a report, citing Cubas ministry of the revolutionary armed forces in a statement read more Amid rising tensions with the US over the war in Ukraine, Russian nuclear-powered submarine which will not be carrying nuclear weapons will next week visit Havana, which is less than 100 miles from the US coast, Cuba confirmed on Thursday. According to The Guardian report, citing Cubas ministry of the revolutionary armed forces in a statement, the nuclear submarine Kazan and three other Russian naval vessels, including the missile frigate Admiral Gorshkov, an oil tanker and a salvage tug, will dock in the Cuban capital from 12-17 June. Advertisement While Russian presence in the Caribbean isnt unprecedented, the current deployment holds significance. President Vladimir Putins recent commitment to respond with asymmetrical steps globally following President Joe Bidens decision to allow Ukraine to utilise US-supplied weapons against Russia in defence of Kharkiv adds weight to this deployment. None of the vessels is carrying nuclear weapons, so their stopover in our country does not represent a threat to the region, The Guardian quoted the ministry as saying. According to Eurasian Times, citing authorities, although Russia did not officially inform the US about the drills amid simmering tensions, the US Navy has been monitoring the movement of Russian ships. While countries usually alert one another to prevent miscalculation, Russia chose not to involve the US in the process, added the report. Officials said the exercise would be part of a broader Russian response to US support for Ukraine. According to The Guardian, citing the foreign ministry, during the Russian fleets arrival at the port of Havana, 21 salvoes will be fired from one of the ships as a salute to the nation, which will be reciprocated by an artillery battery from Cubas revolutionary armed forces. Should US be concerned? It may be noted that Russia has been bolstering ties with two Caribbean countries Cuba and Venezuela, both embroiled in tensions with the US for several years in recent times. Russian military drills in the Caribbean may not alarm the US, but port calls at Cuba and Venezuela are likely to keep the Americans interested. Advertisement Cuba, refraining from joining international sanctions on Russia post-Ukraine invasion, saw enhanced relations since February 2022. President Miguel Diaz-Canel criticised sanctions, advocating against NATO expansion toward Russia. Cuba aims for deeper economic ties with Russia, marked by a Russian naval ships docking in July 2023 and ongoing Cuban delegation visits to Russia. Cuban Deputy Prime Minister Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz has also assured continued Russian parliamentary support. Reports hint at Russian recruitment of Cubans against Ukraine since mid-2023. Another country that has strengthened cooperation with Russia is Venezuela. The relationship goes back several years, and Russia has traditionally condemned the use of force threatened by Washington in the country. Advertisement Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has charged the West on several occasions for trying to dismember and demolish Russia by intensifying the war in Ukraine. He called the Western sanctions against Russia madness and referred to the Ukrainian leadership as a neo-fascist elite. In February this year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Venezuela on a Latin American tour that included Cuba and Brazil and called to reinforce and strengthen the entire strategic map of comprehensive cooperation between the two countries under their unbreakable friendship. The Russian Minister also noted that Moscow would back Venezuelas efforts to become a member of the BRICS organizationfounded in 2009 by South Africa, Brazil, Russia, India, and Chinato challenge the political and economic hegemony of the US and Europe. Advertisement Military drills in international waters not uncommon Like many other countries, Russia frequently conducts military exercises in international waters not under any nations jurisdiction. For instance, the US and nearly 20 NATO allies are gearing up for BALTOPS 24, a major naval and aviation exercise in the Baltic Sea, which borders Russia closely. Even before the Ukraine invasion in February 2022, Russia was active in various global drills. In 2022, it simulated Arctic defence, an area of interest for both Russia and NATO. Naval exercises also took place in the Mediterranean Sea in October 2022, joint war games were held in Venezuela, and the Russian Pacific Fleet conducted significant drills off Siberia and near Alaska last autumn. Advertisement The Russian vessels visit to Cuba will also overlap with Bidens visit to the G7 leaders summit in Italy. Russia-Cuba ties closer than ever Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel met with Putin last month for the annual 9 May military parade on Red Square outside the Kremlin. During the cold war, Cuba was an important client state for the Soviet Union. The deployment of Soviet nuclear missile sites on the island triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when Washington and Moscow came close to war. Relations between Russia and Cuba have become closer since a 2022 meeting between Diaz-Canel and Putin. With inputs from agencies The head of the People Salvation Movement, Diane Rwigara, who was also disqualified in 2017, announced her candidacy for office in May and turned it in last week. The electoral commission released a provisional list of candidates on Thursday, but her name was absent read more Rwigara was disqualified from the 2017 contest due to allegations that she had falsified the signatures of her supporters on her application. She spent more than a year in jail after being taken into custody on charges of forgery and inciting rebellion Image Courtesy Reuters Paul Kagames main rival in the three-decade-long presidential contest scheduled for next month has been disqualified from running. The head of the People Salvation Movement, Diane Rwigara, who was also disqualified in 2017, announced her candidacy for office in May and turned it in last week. The electoral commission released a provisional list of candidates on Thursday, but her name was absent. After all the time, work and effort I put in, I am very disappointed to hear I am not on the list of presidential candidates, Rwigara said on X. Paul Kagame, why wont you let me run? Advertisement According to the electoral commission, she did not obtain the necessary 600 citizen signatures in support of her candidacy and did not submit the needed criminal background declaration. Only two candidates were permitted to compete against Kagame: independent Philippe Mpayimana and Democratic Green Party candidate Frank Habineza. One month prior to the July 15th presidential and legislative votes, on June 14th, the final candidate list is due. Rwigara was disqualified from the 2017 contest due to allegations that she had falsified the signatures of her supporters on her application. She spent more than a year in jail after being taken into custody on charges of forgery and inciting rebellion. Rwigara is the daughter of Assinapol Rwigara, an entrepreneur who, before to his falling out with the partys leaders, was a major donor to Kagames ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front. Since the genocide in 1994, Kagame has ruled Rwanda de facto. He has been president since 2000 and has won three elections with over 90% of the vote. It is generally predicted that he will win again in July. Although he has received recognition for leading the nation toward economic reform in the wake of the genocide, he is frequently criticized for violating human rights and showing intolerance towards the opposition. Prior to this years election, well-known opposition politicians Bernard Ntaganda and Victoire Ingabire had already had their petitions to overturn prior convictions that effectively disqualified them from standing denied by Rwandan courts. Zelenskyy was also in France to seek more Western help even as his forces battle to stave off a Russian onslaught near the eastern city of Kharkiv in a war that has become Europes biggest conflict since World War II. read more Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left is greeted by French President Emmanuel Macron, at the international ceremony at Omaha Beach, near Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer. Thursday, June 6, 2024. - AP French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that France will provide Ukraine with its Mirage combat aircraft to help the countrys defense against Russias aggression. He spoke after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joined world leaders in France to commemorate the D-Day invasion. Macron told the French public broadcaster he will announce Friday a new cooperation with Ukraine and the sale of French-made combat aircraft, the Mirage 2005, which will allow Ukraine to protect its soil, its airspace against Russian attacks. Advertisement France will also start training Ukrainian pilots, Macron said as he reiterated that Ukraine should be allowed to use weapons provided by its Western allies to target Russian military targets and neutralize the points from which (the country) is being attacked. Zelenskyy was also in France to seek more Western help even as his forces battle to stave off a Russian onslaught near the eastern city of Kharkiv in a war that has become Europes biggest conflict since World War II. The Netherlands and Denmark promised last year to give F-16 warplanes to Ukraine and the United States is training Ukrainian pilots at a base in Arizona. Macron did not specify when the French combat aircraft would arrive. Zelenskyy and his wife, Olena, attended the 80th anniversary events in Normandy with President Joe Biden and European leaders who have supported Kyivs efforts in the war, now in its third year. Zelenskyy will meet with French officials in Paris on Friday. Although the promise of French aircraft will be welcome in Kyiv, Ukraine is currently fighting to hold back a recent Russian push in eastern areas, including the border regions of Kharkiv and Donetsk, that seeks to exploit Kyivs shortages of ammunition and troops along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line. Ukraine has framed the conflict as a clash between Western democratic freedom and Russian tyranny. Russia says it is defending itself against a menacing eastward expansion of the NATO military alliance. Advertisement Overnight, Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery and a fuel depot in Russian border regions, officials in the targeted areas said Thursday, in Kyivs ongoing effort to disrupt the Kremlins war machine. As part of that effort, NATO allies said they would allow Ukraine to use weapons they deliver to Kyiv to carry out limited attacks inside Russia. The decision could potentially impede Moscows ability to open a new front in the northeastern regions. Ukrainian officials feared a fresh assault was imminent after the May 10 offensive against Kharkiv, in which Moscows troops exploited weaknesses and successfully diverted Ukrainian forces. Ukraine has Washingtons permission to use U.S.-supplied weapons to shoot at targets inside Russia, with limitations. Advertisement Ukrainian lawmaker Yehor Cherniev told The Associated Press that they can be used only in Russian border regions east of Ukraine where the Kremlins forces assemble and launch attacks, but they cannot hit airfields or aircraft that fire missiles at Ukraine, including at civilian areas. He said Ukraine has stopped the momentum of the northeast offensive in the Kharkiv region. Although Russian forces might still try to advance, now we can destroy their troops on the territory of Russia near the border of Kharkiv, added Cherniev, deputy chairman of parliaments National Security, Defense and Intelligence Committee. White House national security spokesman John Kirby noted there has never been a restriction on Ukrainian forces shooting down hostile aircraft, even if those aircraft are not necessarily in Ukrainian airspace. They can shoot down Russian airplanes that pose an impending threat. And they have. They have since the beginning of the war." Advertisement On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Russia could provide long-range weapons to other countries so that they could strike Western targets. Biden countered by noting the limits that Washington imposed. Were not talking about giving (Ukraine) weapons to strike Moscow, to strike the Kremlin, Biden told ABC News. Ukraine has received authorization to use the weapons just across the border where theyre receiving significant fire from conventional weapons used by the Russians to go into Ukraine to kill Ukrainians, Biden said. Biden said he was concerned by Putins behavior and called him a dictator. He also pledged that we will not walk away from the defense of Ukraine and allow Russia to threaten more of Europe. Advertisement Moscow officials were unconvinced by Western arguments. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russias Security Council, said Putins comments amounted to a quite significant shift in our foreign policy." Let the U.S. and its allies feel the impact of direct use of Russian weapons by others, Medvedev wrote on his messaging app channel. Putin deliberately didnt identify who would receive Russian weapons, Medvedev said, adding that they could go to anyone who considers the U.S. and its allies their enemies. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday the use of Western weapons against Russia cant be left without consequences, and those consequences will certainly follow. Putin claimed that using some Western-supplied weapons involves military personnel of those countries controlling the missiles and selecting targets, and therefore he said that Moscow could take asymmetrical steps elsewhere in the world. The U.S. military said that it doesnt control the missiles it provides to Ukraine or the targets, and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg emphasized the alliance has no plans to deploy forces to Ukraine. We are focusing on how we can establish a stronger framework for our support, with an institutionalized framework for the support to Ukraine and how to establish an agreed long-term financial commitment to ensure that we stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes, Stoltenberg said in Finland. An overnight drone attack hit the Novoshakhtinsk refinery in Russias Rostov region and started a fire, Rostov Gov. Vasily Golubev said. Firefighters had to pull out briefly because of a second attack, he said. The extent of the damage to the facility wasnt immediately clear. Golubev said that there were no casualties. In Belgorod, another border region, a drone hit an oil depot overnight, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said. It caused an explosion and a fire in one of the oil reservoirs. The blaze was quickly extinguished and there were no casualties, Gladkov said. It wasnt immediately possible to verify the reports. Refineries, fuel depots and oil terminals have been targets of increasingly sophisticated Ukrainian drone attacks that have reached deep into Russia. The attacks deny Moscow revenue, and Western sanctions have added to the pressure on Russias energy sector. Russia, meanwhile, has been attacking Ukraines energy infrastructure and causing widespread power outages. The apparent goal is to sap public morale and affect military manufacturing plants. The current draft welcomes the ceasefire proposal, describes it as acceptable to Israel, calls upon Hamas to also accept it, and urges both parties to fully implement its terms without delay and without condition read more Russia and China, which hold veto powers in the U.N. Security Council, raised concerns on Thursday with a U.S. draft resolution that would back a proposal outlined by President Joe Biden for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas. The councils only Arab member, Algeria, also signaled it was not ready to back the text, diplomats said. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the U.S., France, Britain, China or Russia to pass. Advertisement Biden laid out a three-phase ceasefire plan for the Gaza Strip a week ago that he described as an Israeli initiative. The U.S. is seeking international support for the plan that Hamas is still studying. It circulated a one-page draft resolution to the 15-member U.N Security Council on Monday and a revised version on Wednesday, both seen by Reuters. The current draft welcomes the ceasefire proposal, describes it as acceptable to Israel, calls upon Hamas to also accept it, and urges both parties to fully implement its terms without delay and without condition. It lists some details of the proposal with a full and complete ceasefire in the Gaza Strip as part of phase one and upon agreement of the parties, a permanent end to hostilities in phase two. But some council members have raised questions about whether Israel has actually accepted the plan and want the council to stick to a demand made in March for an immediate ceasefire and unconditional release of all hostages, diplomats said. Russia proposed amendments to the U.S. text, which were seen by Reuters, that included calling upon both Hamas and Israel to accept the proposal and demanding an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire respected by all parties. Moscow also wants the draft to stress that the phase one ceasefire will remain in place as long as negotiations continue on phase two, reflecting remarks made by Biden last week. Advertisement For months, negotiators from the U.S., Egypt and Qatar have been trying to mediate a ceasefire. Hamas says it wants a permanent end to the war in the Gaza Strip and Israeli withdrawal from the enclave of 2.3 million people. Israel is retaliating against Hamas, which rules Gaza, over an Oct. 7 attack by its militants. More than 1,200 people were killed and over 250 taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, according to Israeli tallies. More than 100 hostages are believed to remain captive in Gaza. Israel launched an air, ground and sea assault on the blockaded Palestinian territory, killing more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. I havent seen those specific reports, so I dont want to comment on them in detail, but I would say that such congratulatory messages are the normal course of diplomatic business, said US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller read more Hours after China protested the exchange of messages between PM Modi and Taiwan President Lai Ching-te on the Lok Sabha election outcome, the US on Thursday played down the issue saying that such congratulatory messages are the normal course of diplomatic business. Responding to a question from a journalist during a daily press briefing about several state and non-state actors going on social media and saying that India would have a price to pay and the coercive and threatening behaviour coming out of China, US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said, I havent seen those specific reports, so I dont want to comment on them in detail, but I would say that such congratulatory messages are the normal course of diplomatic business Advertisement #WATCH | On being asked China has protested to India after an exchange of greetings between Prime Minister Modi and President of Taiwan following which, there have been several state and non-state actors going on social media and saying that India would have a price to pay. What pic.twitter.com/EaAujNT1da ANI (@ANI) June 7, 2024 Following his election victory, PM Modi received a congratulatory message from Lai on X on Wednesday, saying, My sincere congratulations to Prime Minister @narendramodi on his election victory. We look forward to enhancing the fast-growing #Taiwan-#India partnership, expanding our collaboration on trade, technology & other sectors to contribute to peace & prosperity in the #IndoPacific." My sincere congratulations to Prime Minister @narendramodi on his election victory. We look forward to enhancing the fast-growing #Taiwan-#India partnership, expanding our collaboration on trade, technology & other sectors to contribute to peace & prosperity in the #IndoPacific. Lai Ching-te (@ChingteLai) June 5, 2024 Advertisement Responding to the message, PM Modi wrote on X, Thank you @ChingteLaifor your warm message. I look forward to closer ties as we work towards mutually beneficial economic and technological partnership. Thank you @ChingteLai for your warm message. I look forward to closer ties as we work towards mutually beneficial economic and technological partnership. https://t.co/VGw2bsmwfM Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 5, 2024 Advertisement The exchange of greeting, however, didnt go down well with China, which protested to India on Thursday, saying that it opposes all interactions between Taiwanese authorities and countries having diplomatic ties with Beijing. During a daily media briefing in Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning while addressing questions on recent message exchanges said that China had lodged a protest with India concerning the matter. Mao asserted that there is no recognised position of President for the Taiwan region, emphasising Beijings opposition to any official engagements between Taiwan authorities and nations with diplomatic ties to China. Advertisement She reiterated Chinas stance that there exists only one China globally, with Taiwan being an integral part of the Peoples Republic of China. Referring to Beijings one-China policy, Mao contended India has made serious political commitments on this and is supposed to recognise, be alarmed about and resist the Taiwan authorities political calculations. With inputs from agencies Chinas outrage at a cordial exchange between the leaders of 2 democracies is utterly unjustified. Threats & intimidation never foster friendships. Taiwan? remains dedicated to building partnerships with India underpinned by mutual benefit & shared value, wrote Taiwan MOFA on X read more Taipei on Friday reacted sharply to Chinas protest over Prime Minister Narendra Modis reply to Taiwan President Lai Ching-tes congratulatory message, saying that Beijings outrage at a cordial exchange between the leaders of two democracies is utterly unjustified. Taking to X, Taiwan MOFA said, Chinas outrage at a cordial exchange between the leaders of 2 democracies is utterly unjustified. Threats & intimidation never foster friendships. Taiwan remains dedicated to building partnerships with #India underpinned by mutual benefit & shared values, it added. Advertisement #Chinas outrage at a cordial exchange between the leaders of 2 democracies is utterly unjustified. Threats & intimidation never foster friendships. #Taiwan remains dedicated to building partnerships with #India underpinned by mutual benefit & shared values. https://t.co/B5R1EtXEAO Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan) (@MOFA_Taiwan) June 7, 2024 Following his election victory, PM Modi received a congratulatory message from Lai on X on Wednesday, saying, My sincere congratulations to Prime Minister @narendramodi on his election victory. We look forward to enhancing the fast-growing #Taiwan-#India partnership, expanding our collaboration on trade, technology & other sectors to contribute to peace & prosperity in the #IndoPacific." Responding to the message, PM Modi wrote on X, Thank you @ChingteLaifor your warm message. I look forward to closer ties as we work towards mutually beneficial economic and technological partnership. The exchange of greeting, however, didnt go down well with China, which protested to India on Thursday, saying that it opposes all interactions between Taiwanese authorities and countries having diplomatic ties with Beijing. During a daily media briefing in Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning while addressing questions on recent message exchanges, said that China has lodged a protest with India concerning the matter. Mao asserted that there is no recognised position of President" for the Taiwan region, emphasising Beijings opposition to any official engagements between Taiwan authorities and nations with diplomatic ties to China. Advertisement She reiterated Chinas stance that there exists only one China globally, with Taiwan being an integral part of the Peoples Republic of China. On Thursday, the Chinese Embassy in India reiterated that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China. The embassys spokesperson further emphasised that the one-China is a universally recognised norm in international relations and a prevailing consensus in the international community. There is but one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of the territory of the Peoples Republic of China. The one-China principle is a universally recognised norm in international relations and a prevailing consensus in the international community, the spokesperson added. Advertisement Moreover, it also stressed that India is supposed to recognise and resist the Taiwan authoritiess political calculations on the one-China policy. India has diplomatic relations with China and knows Chinas position well. On the one-China principle, India has made serious political commitments and is supposed to recognize, be alarmed about and resist the Taiwan authorities political calculations, the spokesperson added. The India-Taiwan economic partnership has grown significantly in recent years. Taiwan has considered India as a critical partner under its New Southbound Policy, and both countries have also signed a migration agreement to allow Indian workers to be employed in Taiwanese industries. Lai Ching-te, in a stern warning to China, called on Beijing to stop intimidating the island nation, over which China continues to make its claim. China has also intensified military drills after Lai was sworn in as the president of the island nation, raising tensions in the region. Advertisement With inputs from agencies June 7, 2024: Russia and Ukraine both use the same heavy artillery weapon, the 2S7 Pions 203mm (eight inch) self-propelled howitzer, which weighs 51 tons and does not have a turret, but an open deck for the twelve meter long 203mm gun barrel. This cannon fires 103 or 110 kg shells 37.5 kilometers, or 55.5 kilometers using a rocket assisted shell. The longer the range, the less accuracy you get. If you have to hit a small target, like a reinforced concrete fortification, you have to move the tracked S7S tracked vehicle closer to the target. The tracked vehicle has a top speed of 50 kilometers an hour but can move 650 kilometers on roads at a cruising speed of about 40 kilometers an hour. Each 2S7 is accompanied by a support truck which carries four shells and seven of the gun crew. The vehicle carries four shells and it takes minutes for the fourteen man crew to emplace the gun, which includes backing up to plunge steel spikes into the ground to stabilize the 2S7. Additional shells are moved forward on heavy trucks. Russia still, as of 2024, does not use forklifts to load and unload trucks. Russian gun crews have to manually heave these 110 kg shells around. The 2S7 battery (of four guns) has a command vehicle equipped with GLONASS/GPS (satellite navigation) equipment to determine the precise location of 2S7 firing positions. The GPS location of stationary targets is known but that of mobile military units is constantly changing. The 2S7 shells are designed to destroy fortifications, especially those constructed of reinforced concrete. Military maps are designed so users can easily determine the GPS location of any buildings or stationary military units. The Pions 203mm ammunition is only produced in Russia but the United States still produces ammunition for its M110 203mm gun. While the U.S. stropped using the M110 in 1994, there are still ten other countries, mainly in the Middle East, that still use the M110. These users include Iran, Israel and Turkey. So when Ukraine needed additional ammunition for their 2S7, the Americans sent them M110 shells, which worked in the 2S7. In Ukraine both sides use the 2S7 and these 2S7s are prime targets for counterbattery fire by artillery, rockets, or air strikes. Russia has several hundred 2S7 in storage. The 2S7 was produced between 1970 and 1990. Russia wont reveal how many were produced but it could have been as many as a thousand. Russia only has a few hundred left and most of those are still in storage, awaiting refurbishment before being sent to Ukraine. The United States does not have any retired M110 guns to send to Ukraine. Instead the United States sends HIMARS vehicles armed with GLMRS or ATACMS guided missiles. The longer range, more accurate GLMRS missile replaced the M110 203mm cannon. Fighter jets get ready for flight training China Military Online) 10:13, June 07, 2024 Fighter jets attached to an aviation brigade of the PLA Air Force taxi on the runway for a flight training exercise in early May 2024. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Cui Baoliang) Fighter jets attached to an aviation brigade of the PLA Air Force taxi on the runway for a flight training exercise in early May 2024. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Cui Baoliang) Fighter jets attached to an aviation brigade of the PLA Air Force taxi on the runway for a flight training exercise in early May 2024. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Cui Baoliang) Fighter jets attached to an aviation brigade of the PLA Air Force taxi on the runway for a flight training exercise in early May 2024. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Cui Baoliang) (Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun) Finanzen Protection of Savings and Sustainable Development (Quelle: Roberto Magni Daniela Comi By Foto ReD Photographi) Protection of Savings and Sustainable Development (Quelle: Roberto Magni Daniela Comi By Foto ReD Agency) GDN - After a long series of interviews with Ferdinando Lettieri, let's hear what he has to say about the protection of savings and sustainable development. It may seem that saving with environmental choices is not related, but they are actually closely connected: Economy and Environment, Investments and Sustainable Development are two sides of the same coin. Saving with environmental choices may seem unrelated, but they are actually closely connected: Economy and Environment, Investments and Sustainable Development are two sides of the same coin. Environmental protection is a priority for Society, Governments, and also for Savers. We are all aware of the current geological era's climate change, which some define as the "Anthropocene," precisely because, especially in the last fifty years, humans and their activities have been the main causes of these changes. It is in the youth that there is greater sensitivity to this issue: just think that if the three most populous nations ten years ago were China, India, and the United States, today they are Facebook, Youtube, and WhatsApp. The pressure from young people can change governments' attitudes. An example of this is the video "Under the Dome" published on YouTube in 2015 by a Chinese woman, Chai Jing, who denounces the effects of pollution on her daughter, born with a benign tumor: within 24 hours, this video had already surpassed 155 million views, and in three days, it reached 400 million views. The Chinese authorities' attempt to block the video was futile, as they were forced to immediately re-release it online! From this episode, a massive commitment from the Chinese government stemmed from it with significant investments in fighting pollution, so much so that in 2017, China invested $86.5 billion in photovoltaics, more than 50% of the entire planet's investment. The world is moving in this direction, and attention to the environment can also be expressed through investment choices. Unfortunately, investors almost always choose by looking at the past, but times are changing: until about ten years ago, reaching an alpine refuge would have meant finding two things for sure: grappa and a camera roll! Today, the latter no longer exists, and if I had continued to invest my savings in that company, I would have lost them! Even oil will have its end: just think that the world's richest sovereign wealth fund, the Norwegian one enriched with oil, started liquidating specific investments. This is not because it necessarily has to run out: simply because, just as the Stone Age did not end due to a lack of stones, the age of oil could end long before the world depletes its reserves. From 2040, Britain will ban fossil fuel cars, so investment choices, by definition, concern the future and must be Sustainable, i.e., directed towards companies projected towards our planet's future. This does not mean that these investments are less profitable, as erroneously believed, but, on the contrary, they guarantee Sustainability to the investment itself. As the great economist Benjamin Graham said: "The investor is one who believes in a better world." Sat Saturday 85 /53 More sun than clouds. Highs in the mid 80s and lows in the low 50s. Tue Tuesday 79 /53 More sun than clouds. Highs in the upper 70s and lows in the low 50s. Secretary-General's special address on climate action "A Moment of Truth" United Nations Secretary-General 05 June 2024 Dear friends of the planet, Today is World Environment Day. It is also the day that the European Commission's Copernicus Climate Change Service officially reports May 2024 as the hottest May in recorded history. This marks twelve straight months of the hottest months ever. For the past year, every turn of the calendar has turned up the heat. Our planet is trying to tell us something. But we don't seem to be listening. Dear Friends, The American Museum of Natural History is the ideal place to make the point. This great Museum tells the amazing story of our natural world. Of the vast forces that have shaped life on earth over billions of years. Humanity is just one small blip on the radar. But like the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, we're having an outsized impact. In the case of climate, we are not the dinosaurs. We are the meteor. We are not only in danger. We are the danger. But we are also the solution. So, dear friends, We are at a moment of truth. The truth is ... almost ten years since the Paris Agreement was adopted, the target of limiting long-term global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is hanging by a thread. The truth is ... the world is spewing emissions so fast that by 2030, a far higher temperature rise would be all but guaranteed. Brand new data from leading climate scientists released today show the remaining carbon budget to limit long-term warming to 1.5 degrees is now around 200 billion tonnes. That is the maximum amount of carbon dioxide that the earth's atmosphere can take if we are to have a fighting chance of staying within the limit. The truth is... we are burning through the budget at reckless speed - spewing out around 40 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. We can all do the math. At this rate, the entire carbon budget will be busted before 2030. The truth is ... global emissions need to fall nine per cent every year until 2030 to keep the 1.5 degree limit alive. But they are heading in the wrong direction. Last year they rose by one per cent. The truth is... we already face incursions into 1.5-degree territory. The World Meteorological Organisation reports today that there is an eighty per cent chance the global annual average temperature will exceed the 1.5 degree limit in at least one of the next five years. In 2015, the chance of such a breach was near zero. And there's a fifty-fifty chance that the average temperature for the entire next five-year period will be 1.5 degrees higher than pre-industrial times. We are playing Russian roulette with our planet. We need an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell. And the truth is... we have control of the wheel. The 1.5 degree limit is still just about possible. Let's remember - it's a limit for the long-term - measured over decades, not months or years. So, stepping over the threshold 1.5 for a short time does not mean the long-term goal is shot. It means we need to fight harder. Now. The truth is... the battle for 1.5 degrees will be won or lost in the 2020s - under the watch of leaders today. All depends on the decisions those leaders take - or fail to take - especially in the next eighteen months. It's climate crunch time. The need for action is unprecedented but so is the opportunity - not just to deliver on climate, but on economic prosperity and sustainable development. Climate action cannot be captive to geo-political divisions. So, as the world meets in Bonn for climate talks, and gears up for the G7 and G20 Summits, the United Nations General Assembly, and COP29, we need maximum ambition, maximum acceleration, maximum cooperation - in a word maximum action. So dear friends, Why all this fuss about 1.5 degrees? Because our planet is a mass of complex, connected systems. And every fraction of a degree of global heating counts. The difference between 1.5 and two degrees could be the difference between extinction and survival for some small island states and coastal communities. The difference between minimizing climate chaos or crossing dangerous tipping points. 1.5 degrees is not a target. It is not a goal. It is a physical limit. Scientists have alerted us that temperatures rising higher would likely mean: The collapse of the Greenland Ice Sheet and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet with catastrophic sea level rise; The destruction of tropical coral reef systems and the livelihoods of 300 million people; The collapse of the Labrador Sea Current that would further disrupt weather patterns in Europe; And widespread permafrost melt that would release devastating levels of methane, one of the most potent heat-trapping gasses. Even today, we're pushing planetary boundaries to the brink - shattering global temperature records and reaping the whirlwind. And it is a travesty of climate justice that those least responsible for the crisis are hardest hit: the poorest people; the most vulnerable countries; Indigenous Peoples; women and girls. The richest one per cent emit as much as two-thirds of humanity. And extreme events turbocharged by climate chaos are piling up: Destroying lives, pummelling economies, and hammering health; Wrecking sustainable development; forcing people from their homes; and rocking the foundations of peace and security - as people are displaced and vital resources depleted. Already this year, a brutal heatwave has baked Asia with record temperatures - shrivelling crops, closing schools, and killing people. Cities from New Delhi, to Bamako, to Mexico City are scorching. Here in the US, savage storms have destroyed communities and lives. We've seen drought disasters declared across southern Africa; Extreme rains flood the Arabian Peninsula, East Africa and Brazil; And a mass global coral bleaching caused by unprecedented ocean temperatures, soaring past the worst predictions of scientists. The cost of all this chaos is hitting people where it hurts: From supply-chains severed, to rising prices, mounting food insecurity, and uninsurable homes and businesses. That bill will keep growing. Even if emissions hit zero tomorrow, a recent study found that climate chaos will still cost at least $38 trillion a year by 2050. Climate change is the mother of all stealth taxes paid by everyday people and vulnerable countries and communities. Meanwhile, the Godfathers of climate chaos - the fossil fuel industry - rake in record profits and feast off trillions in taxpayer-funded subsidies. Dear friends, We have what we need to save ourselves. Our forests, our wetlands, and our oceans absorb carbon from the atmosphere. They are vital to keeping 1.5 alive, or pulling us back if we do overshoot that limit. We must protect them. And we have the technologies we need to slash emissions. Renewables are booming as costs plummet and governments realise the benefits of cleaner air, good jobs, energy security, and increased access to power. Onshore wind and solar are the cheapest source of new electricity in most of the world - and have been for years. Renewables already make up thirty percent of the world's electricity supply. And clean energy investments reached a record high last year - almost doubling in the last ten [years]. Wind and solar are now growing faster than any electricity source in history. Economic logic makes the end of the fossil fuel age inevitable. The only questions are: Will that end come in time? And will the transition be just? Dear friends, We must ensure the answer to both questions is: yes. And we must secure the safest possible future for people and planet. That means taking urgent action, particularly over the next eighteen months: To slash emissions; To protect people and nature from climate extremes; To boost climate finance; And to clamp down on the fossil fuel industry. Let me take each element in turn. First, huge cuts in emissions. Led by the huge emitters. The G20 countries produce eighty percent of global emissions - they have the responsibility, and the capacity, to be out in front. Advanced G20 economies should go furthest, fastest; And show climate solidarity by providing technological and financial support to emerging G20 economies and other developing countries. Next year, governments must submit so-called nationally determined contributions - in other words, national climate action plans. And these will determine emissions for the coming years. At COP28, countries agreed to align those plans with the 1.5 degree limit. These national plans must include absolute emission reduction targets for 2030 and 2035. They must cover all sectors, all greenhouse gases, and the whole economy. And they must show how countries will contribute to the global transitions essential to 1.5 degrees - putting us on a path to global net zero by 2050; to phase out fossil fuels; and to hit global milestones along the way, year after year, and decade after decade. That includes, by 2030, contributing to cutting global production and consumption of all fossil fuels by at least thirty percent; and making good on commitments made at COP28 - on ending deforestation, doubling energy efficiency and tripling renewables. Every country must deliver and play their rightful part. That means that G20 leaders working in solidarity to accelerate a just global energy transition aligned with the 1.5 degree limit. They must assume their responsibilities. We need cooperation, not finger-pointing. It means the G20 aligning their national climate action plans, their energy strategies, and their plans for fossil fuel production and consumption, within a 1.5 degree future. It means the G20 pledging to reallocate subsidies from fossil fuels to renewables, storage, and grid modernisation, and support for vulnerable communities. It means the G7 and other OECD countries committing: to end coal by 2030; and to create fossil-fuel free power systems, and reduce oil and gas supply and demand by sixty percent - by 2035. It means all countries ending new coal projects - now. Particularly in Asia, home to ninety-five percent of planned new coal power capacity. It means non-OECD countries creating climate action plans to put them on a path to ending coal power by 2040. And it means developing countries creating national climate action plans that double as investment plans, spurring sustainable development, and meeting soaring energy demand with renewables. The United Nations is mobilizing our entire system to help developing countries to achieve this through our Climate Promise initiative. Every city, region, industry, financial institution, and company must also be part of the solution. They must present robust transition plans by COP30 next year in Brazil - at the latest: Plans aligned with 1.5 degrees, and the recommendations of the UN High-Level Expert Group on Net Zero. Plans that cover emissions across the entire value chain; That include interim targets and transparent verification processes; And that steer clear of the dubious carbon offsets that erode public trust while doing little or nothing to help the climate. We can't fool nature. False solutions will backfire. We need high integrity carbon markets that are credible and with rules consistent with limiting warming to 1.5 degrees. I also encourage scientists and engineers to focus urgently on carbon dioxide removal and storage - to deal safely and sustainably with final emissions from the heavy industries hardest to clean. And I urge governments to support them. But let me be clear: These technologies are not a silver bullet; they cannot be a substitute for drastic emissions cuts or an excuse to delay fossil fuel phase-out. But we need to act on every front. Dear Friends, The second area for action is ramping up protection from the climate chaos of today and tomorrow. It is a disgrace that the most vulnerable are being left stranded, struggling desperately to deal with a climate crisis they did nothing to create. We cannot accept a future where the rich are protected in air-conditioned bubbles, while the rest of humanity is lashed by lethal weather in unliveable lands. We must safeguard people and economies. Every person on Earth must be protected by an early warning system by 2027. I urge all partners to boost support for the United Nations Early Warnings for All action plan. In April, the G7 launched the Adaptation Accelerator Hub. By COP29, this initiative must be translated into concrete action - to support developing countries in creating adaptation investment plans, and putting them into practice. And I urge all countries to set out their adaptation and investment needs clearly in their new national climate plans. But change on the ground depends on money on the table. For every dollar needed to adapt to extreme weather, only about five cents is available. As a first step, all developed countries must honour their commitment to double adaptation finance to at least $40 billion a year by 2025. And they must set out a clear plan to close the adaptation finance gap by COP29 in November. But we also need more fundamental reform. That leads me onto my third point: finance. Dear friends, If money makes the world go round, today's unequal financial flows are sending us spinning towards disaster. The global financial system must be part of the climate solution. Eye-watering debt repayments are drying up funds for climate action. Extortion-level capital costs are putting renewables virtually out of reach for most developing and emerging economies. Astoundingly - and despite the renewables boom of recent years - clean energy investments in developing and emerging economies outside of China have been stuck at the same levels since 2015. Last year, just fifteen per cent of new clean energy investment went to emerging markets and developing economies outside China - countries representing nearly two-thirds of the world's population. And Africa was home to less than one percent of last year's renewables installations, despite its wealth of natural resources and vast renewables potential. The International Energy Agency reports that clean energy investments in developing and emerging economies beyond China need to reach up to $1.7 trillion a year by the early 2030s. In short, we need a massive expansion of affordable public and private finance to fuel ambitious new climate plans and deliver clean, affordable energy for all. This September's Summit of the Future is an opportunity to push reform of the international financial architecture and action on debt. I urge countries to take it. And I urge the G7 and G20 Summits to commit to using their influence within Multilateral Development Banks to make them better, bigger, and bolder. And able to leverage far more private finance at reasonable cost. Countries must make significant contributions to the new Loss and Damage Fund. And ensure that it is open for business by COP29. And they must come together to secure a strong finance outcome from COP this year - one that builds trust and confidence, catalyses the trillions needed, and generates momentum for reform of the international financial architecture. But none of this will be enough without new, innovative sources of funds. It is [high] time to put an effective price on carbon and tax the windfall profits of fossil fuel companies. By COP29, we need early movers to go from exploring to implementing solidarity levies on sectors such as shipping, aviation, and fossil fuel extraction - to help fund climate action. These should be scalable, fair, and easy to collect and administer. None of this is charity. It is enlightened self-interest. Climate finance is not a favour. It is fundamental element to a liveable future for all. Dear friends, Fourth and finally, we must directly confront those in the fossil fuel industry who have shown relentless zeal for obstructing progress - over decades. Billions of dollars have been thrown at distorting the truth, deceiving the public, and sowing doubt. I thank the academics and the activists, the journalists and the whistleblowers, who have exposed those tactics - often at great personal and professional risk. I call on leaders in the fossil fuel industry to understand that if you are not in the fast lane to clean energy transformation, you are driving your business into a dead end - and taking us all with you. Last year, the oil and gas industry invested a measly 2.5 percent of its total capital spending on clean energy. Doubling down on fossil fuels in the twenty-first century, is like doubling down on horse-shoes and carriage-wheels in the nineteenth. So, to fossil fuel executives, I say: your massive profits give you the chance to lead the energy transition. Don't miss it. Financial institutions are also critical because money talks. It must be a voice for change. I urge financial institutions to stop bankrolling fossil fuel destruction and start investing in a global renewables revolution; To present public, credible and detailed plans to transition [funding] from fossil fuels to clean energy with clear targets for 2025 and 2030; And to disclose your climate risks - both physical and transitional - to your shareholders and regulators. Ultimately such disclosure should be mandatory. Dear friends, Many in the fossil fuel industry have shamelessly greenwashed, even as they have sought to delay climate action - with lobbying, legal threats, and massive ad campaigns. They have been aided and abetted by advertising and PR companies - Mad Men - remember the TV series - fuelling the madness. I call on these companies to stop acting as enablers to planetary destruction. Stop taking on new fossil fuel clients, from today, and set out plans to drop your existing ones. Fossil fuels are not only poisoning our planet - they're toxic for your brand. Your sector is full of creative minds who are already mobilising around this cause. They are gravitating towards companies that are fighting for our planet - not trashing it. I also call on countries to act. Many governments restrict or prohibit advertising for products that harm human health - like tobacco. Some are now doing the same with fossil fuels. I urge every country to ban advertising from fossil fuel companies. And I urge news media and tech companies to stop taking fossil fuel advertising. We must all deal aso with the demand side. All of us can make a difference, by embracing clean technologies, phasing down fossil fuels in our own lives, and using our power as citizens to push for systemic change. In the fight for a liveable future, people everywhere are far ahead of politicians. Make your voices heard and your choices count. Dear friends, We do have a choice. Creating tipping points for climate progress - or careening to tipping points for climate disaster. No country can solve the climate crisis in isolation. This is an all-in moment. The United Nations is all-in - working to build trust, find solutions, and inspire the cooperation our world so desperately needs. And to young people, to civil society, to cities, regions, businesses and others who have been leading the charge towards a safer, cleaner world, I say: Thank you. You are on the right side of history. You speak for the majority. Keep it up. Don't lose courage. Don't lose hope. It is we the Peoples versus the polluters and the profiteers. Together, we can win. But it's time for leaders to decide whose side they're on. Tomorrow it will be too late. Now is the time to mobilise, now is the time to act, now is the time to deliver. This is our moment of truth. And I thank you. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Standardisation of small calibre ammunition: armasuisse takes part in European Defence Agency project Swiss Government Bern, 06.06.2024 - Switzerland is further expanding its international cooperation with the European Defence Agency (EDA). The Federal Office for Defence Procurement armasuisse is taking part in a project in which the requirements for the effectiveness of small calibre ammunition are to be standardised and the technologies for these bullets thus optimised. The Head of the DDPS, Federal President Viola Amherd, has authorised the corresponding agreement on participation in the project "Small Arms Ammunition Technologies". The Federal Office for Defence Procurement armasuisse is taking part in another EDA project. The project "Small Arms Ammunition Technologies" (SAAT) will serve to standardise small calibre ammunition at European level. Specifically, the project will cover, among other things, the definition of joint requirements for the effectiveness, logistics and sustainability of small calibre ammunition. In this context, an optimised prototype or a model of a small calibre bullet is to be developed and a contribution made to optimising the technologies for ammunition components. The SAAT project will lay important foundations with regard to future procurements for the Swiss Armed Forces in the area of small calibre weapons and ammunition. armasuisse will involve representatives from the armed forces, important stakeholder groups such as the Swiss Shooting Sport Federation (SSV) and other experts in this work. There is also the possibility of involving Swiss industry. This will allow the findings from the project to flow directly into the production of small calibre ammunition. Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Italy and Switzerland are participating in the project. Switzerland is participating in eight EDA Capability Technology Groups This is based on the agreement on cooperation with the EDA of 16 March 2012. This agreement enables Switzerland to participate in EDA projects and programmes in the area of research and technology as well as armaments cooperation. As part of this cooperation, Switzerland can identify programmes, projects and activities of the EDA in which it takes part. Participation will take place through contributions in specific expert forums and research groups. Switzerland is currently participating in eight Capability Technology Groups (CapTechs) of the EDA and has joined several research projects. These groups and projects will carry out the joint research and technology activities in accordance with the capability requirements defined by the EDA member states. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address June 6, 2024 Release Joint Statement on the Inaugural Meeting of the Joint Angolan-American Defense Cooperation Committee Within the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of National Defense of the Republic of Angola and the Department of Defense of the United States of America on Defense Cooperation, signed on 17 May 2017, the Inaugural Meeting of the Joint Angolan-American Defense Cooperation Committee was held at the Pentagon, Washington DC, United States of America, from 05 to 06 June 2024. The delegations were led by Their Excellencies Tressa Guenov, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, as Chair of the Committee, and General Ret Afonso Carlos Neto, Secretary of State for Military Industry, as Co-Chair. The Committee meeting affirmed the commitment of both countries to strengthen defense cooperation, based on recent high-level meetings between the United States Department of Defense and the Ministry of National Defense, Former Combatants and Veterans of Homeland of the Republic of Angola The delegations discussed a range of topics, with emphasis on regional security, security cooperation, peace operations, cyber security, maritime security and capacity building. The heads of delegations signed the Cooperation Agreement on Acquisition and Cross Services, an instrument that will allow for closer logistical cooperation between their Armed Forces. The parties intend to pursue a closer security relationship and will continue to examine and work to implement cooperation in the areas discussed during the next meeting of the Joint Angolan-American Defense Cooperation Committee to be held in Luanda, in 2025. https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3799641/ NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address June 6, 2024 Speech Remarks by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III Commemorating 80 Years Since D-Day (As Delivered) As Delivered by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III NORMANDY AMERICAN CEMETERY, Colleville-sur-Mer, France President Biden, Dr. Biden, President Macron, Mrs. Macron, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, and above all, the veterans of World War II: I am honored to stand again at this hallowed place. We bow our heads to remember the more than 9,000 U.S. and Allied soldiers killed or wounded on D-Day by Hitler's forces. On behalf of the United States Department of Defense, I am here to give thanksinadequate as that word may be. Eighty years later, we thank the young Americans who took the beaches, who helped liberate France, and who helped free this continent from Nazi tyranny. We thank every Allied warrior who fought for freedom on June 6, 1944. And we thank the American and Allied veterans who have rallied once more on the shores of Normandy. Victors of D-Day: we are humbled by your presence. The young Americans who fought through the clamor and the chaos on D-Day have grown old, or left us. And whenever a veteran of D-Day is gathered to his Maker in the fullness of time, after a long life lived in freedom, he wins a final victory over Hitler. You helped defeat what Churchill called "a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime." And you laid the foundation for a more just, free, and decent world. Together with our Allies, we built peace out of wara hard-headed peace, a peace renewed by constant commitment, a peace forged by the generation that won the bloodiest war in human history. And so our gratitude must never fade. Our memories must never dim. And our resolve must never fail. We still seek a world where aggression is a sin, and where human rights are sacred, and where all people can live in freedom. And so we must rally again to defend the open, postwar world of rules, rights, and responsibilities. Those rules protect us. Those rights define us. And those responsibilities summon us once more. At this hinge in history, we must again stand firm against aggression and tyranny. And as I said here last year: If the troops of the world's democracies could risk their lives for freedom then, surely the citizens of the world's democracies can risk our comfort for freedom now. So let us again uphold the spirit of D-Day. Let us again defend the principles that the Allied armies carried. And let us again thank the heroes of D-Day who kept freedom alive for us all. [Applause] You saved the world. [Applause] You saved the world. And we must only defend it. Gentlemen: we salute you. [Secretary Austin turns and salutes the World War II veterans; audience applauds] May God bless the American and Allied troops who fought here. May God bless the United States of America. And may God bless all who cherish human freedom. Thank you. [Applause] https://www.defense.gov/News/Speeches/Speech/Article/3798811/ NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Normandy Declaration on the occasion of the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Elysee - President of France Posted on 6 June 2024 As we gather today on the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landing to commemorate the sacrifice of all those who freed Europe from oppression, we are reminded of the ideals and principles that they fought for. Eighty years on, these ideals continue to guide our every action as they are the foundations of global peace and security. Enshrined in the United Nations Charter, and defended by NATO Allies since the Washington Treaty was signed 75 years ago, these principles are once more under direct attack on European soil. In the face of illegal war of aggression, our countries reaffirm their common adherence to these fundamental values: First, we support the territorial integrity of sovereign states. Borders cannot be changed by force. Second, we reject the use of force as a means of settling disputes. Our Alliance and our partnerships are strictly defensive and do not represent any form of threat to the security of another state. Our collective purpose is to safeguard and preserve peace. Third, we respect the freedom for all states to choose their security relations, and their right to be or not to be a part of alliances. It is the expression of national sovereignty and a desire for security and stability that we all share. Fourth, we are committed to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, for all without distinction. Fifth, we uphold the rights of all peoples to freely determine their political status by virtue of their right to self-determination, in accordance with international law. Sixth, we promote access for all persons to reliable news and information, as well as an open, safe and secure digital information environment. The protection of free, independent and pluralistic journalism and media is essential to this goal. Seventh, we advocate for peaceful economic exchange, people to people ties, and international cooperation to promote security and prosperity within Europe and beyond. These universal principles are the core of our collective commitment to peace and security. Since the Second World War they have been the cornerstone of the alliance between the United States, Canada and European countries - and the long-standing global partnerships that wereforged. Today, they remain at the heart of our engagement with the wider world, as we strive to foster global norms, promote values, and support sustainable development for all. They guide us in our unwavering determination to support Ukraine to defend itself against the Russian war of aggression, for as long as it takes to restore peace in Europe. As we are tragically reminded that peace is not eternal and that security is not a given, the efforts to bolster our collective defense, deterrence and resilience are required more than ever. We reaffirm the centrality of NATO to European security as well as the importance of a stronger and more capable European defense that contributes positively to global and transatlantic security. We acknowledge that more remains to be done. When the allied soldiers landed in Normandy eighty years ago, they were only beginning their long and heroic journey to victory. It was a victory of freedom and of all the principles we hold dear, that founded our very world order, and that are once more threatened today. As we remember their courage, let us also remember our historical duty to protect these ideals. Australia Belgium Canada Czech Republic Denmark France Germany Greece Italy Luxembourg Monaco Netherlands New Zealand Norway Poland Slovakia Ukraine United Kingdom United States NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Quad leaders statement on the situation in the Middle East. Elysee - President of France Posted on 6 June 2024 In the margins of the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, the Leaders of Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and France reaffirmed their full support for the comprehensive deal outlined by President BIDEN that would lead to an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all the hostages, a significant and sustained increase in humanitarian assistance at scale for distribution throughout Gaza, to include temporary shelters, and an enduring end to the crisis with Israel's security and Gazan civilian safety assured. They emphasized that the deal further calls for the immediate refurbishment of essential services, including medical facilities, bakeries, electricity and water lines, clearing rubble, and setting conditions for a long-term reconstruction program. They reiterated their demand for Hamas to express its full acceptance of this comprehensive proposal, which has been presented and agreed to by Israel, and called on the parties to implement the plan without further delay, so to ultimately bring an end to this war. They committed to work in support of the mediation efforts to that end. The four Heads of State and Government reiterated their commitment to a negotiated two-state solution, which remains the only viable solution to respond to the legitimate aspirations of the two peoples for peace and security. They reaffirmed the legitimacy of the Palestinian aspirations for an independent State living in peace and security alongside Israel, and the need to mark out for a clear path in the direction. The Leaders stressed their unwavering commitment to Israel's security. They reaffirmed their support to the Palestinian Authority and for the reform program of Prime Minister Mohammed MUSTAFA, and called for greater regional and international backing of his government, including the transfer of revenues by the Israeli government. In this regard, they underlined the need to restore a legitimate Palestinian governance in Gaza, with the appropriate international support, while answering Israel's security needs. To that end, they stressed their determination to contribute to an international support effort to stabilization in Gaza, with a view to a long-term regional security for all, and ensuring that a crisis like this can never again recur. The Leaders also underlined the utmost importance of preserving the stability of Lebanon and their determination to combine their efforts in supporting de-escalation on the Blue Line consistent with UNSCR 1701. They called on all parties to exert maximum restraint to avoid further regional escalation. The Leaders stressed their determination to continue working together in support of the implementation of the deal as outlined by President BIDEN and towards regional peace and stability. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address U.S. Air Force bombers conduct training mission to Eastern Mediterranean The mission was a long-planned bilateral, international training mission conducted under Bomber Task Force 24-3. The bombers integrated with Royal Air Force fighter aircraft and French Air Force aircraft in the Eastern Mediterranean before returning to RAF Fairford. By 1st Lt Joe Hark, USAFE-AFAFRICA Public Affairs , United States European Command RAF Fairford, UK Jun 06, 2024 Two U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bombers assigned to the 69th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron flew from their deployed location at Royal Air Force Fairford, United Kingdom, to the Eastern Mediterranean on Tuesday. The mission was a long-planned bilateral, international training mission conducted under Bomber Task Force 24-3. The bombers integrated with Royal Air Force fighter aircraft and French Air Force aircraft in the Eastern Mediterranean before returning to RAF Fairford. Through BTF missions, U.S. Air Forces in Europe - Air Forces Africa enables dynamic force employment in the European theater, providing strategic predictability and assurance for Allies and partners while contributing to deterrence by introducing greater operational unpredictability for potential adversaries. Bilateral training contributes to cooperation and shared defense in the region. Allies and partner nations take every opportunity to train together to refine tactics, techniques, and procedures to improve interoperability. BTF 24-3 is a part of Large Scale Global Exercise 2024, an umbrella term that incorporates dozens of separate exercises and military activities under multiple combatant commands, which enables U.S. forces to train with Allies and partners to improve shared understanding, trust, and interoperability on security challenges. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address PLA Navy holds maritime response drills in South China Sea amid Philippine provocations Global Times By Liu Xuanzun Published: Jun 06, 2024 06:04 PM The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy's maritime border defense forces stationed in Nansha Qundao (also known as Nansha Islands) in the South China Sea recently conducted a maritime response exercise amid repeated provocations by the Philippines in the region. The exercise was held by a patrol boat unit affiliated with the PLA Navy's Nansha Qundao garrison, which is stationed at the frontier of the South China Sea responsible for the defense of China's southern maritime border, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Wednesday. During the exercise, a patrol boat equipped with a machine gun at its bow cruised at a fast speed and performed tactical maneuvers including small radius turning. It carried eight PLA Navy personnel, who were armed with light weapons including QBZ-95 assault rifles which had grenade launchers as attachments, the CCTV report shows. In a drill session, the troops issued a verbal warning to an unidentified vessel through the open radio channel while closing in on the target: "Unidentified vessel, this is the Chinese Navy. You are approaching our military exercise area. Please state your intention and leave immediately!" The exercise was held at a time when the Philippines has been repeatedly conducting provocative activities on Chinese islands and reefs in Nansha Qundao in the South China Sea such as Ren'ai Jiao (also known as Ren'ai Reef), Tiexian Jiao (also known as Tiexian Reef) and Xianbin Jiao (also known as Xianbin Reef), including by sending vessels and personnel to trespass into waters adjacent to the Chinese islands and reefs. Such moves violated China's sovereign security and territorial integrity, and harmed peace and stability in the South China Sea, analysts said. In many past cases, the Philippines deployed boats and small ships, or airdropped goods to conduct so-called resupply missions in moves to permanently occupy the Chinese islands and reefs, so the Chinese exercise also featured a small patrol boat, which has unique advantages such as high mobility and flexibility in dealing with the Philippine tactics accordingly, a Chinese military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Thursday. The exercise featured a patrol boat from the PLA Navy's Nansha Qundao garrison rather than a larger warship, which reflected China's diversity in force deployment in the South China Sea, the expert said. Recently, Philippine personnel on the illegally grounded warship at Ren'ai Jiao reportedly pointed guns at China Coast Guard (CCG) law enforcement personnel. Against this background, the exercise by fully armed PLA Navy personnel could also serve as a preparation in the event of a dangerous scenario, the expert said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Norway and EU sign Security and Defence Partnership Government of Norway Press release | Date: 06/06/2024 Today, Minister of Defence Bjrn Arild Gram, Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell signed an agreement establishing a new Security and Defence Partnership between Norway and the EU. The agreement was signed in Brussels prior to the EU's second annual Schuman Security and Defence Forum. 'Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has changed the security policy landscape in Europe. NATO is, and will remain, the cornerstone of Norwegian defence and security policy. At the same time, the EU is increasingly seeking to strengthen its role in security and defence, in a way that complements NATO. In line with this, Norway and the EU have increased their cooperation, for example on support to Ukraine, including the provision of equipment and training for Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel, as well as measures to increase defence production capacity in Europe. This is also of importance to the Norwegian defence industry,' said Minister of Defence Bjrn Arild Gram. The partnership agreement outlines and reaffirms the ongoing cooperation between Norway and the EU in the area of security and defence. The intention is, among other things, to strengthen cooperation relating to crisis management, the defence industry, space activities, critical infrastructure and hybrid threats. 'This partnership agreement consolidates the various elements of our security and defence cooperation with the EU. It provides a foundation for our already existing cooperation, while at the same time identifying areas where it would be beneficial to increase cooperation in the future,' said Mr Eide. The new partnership provides a sound framework for dialogue and consultations between Norway and the EU at all levels. It allows for Norway to be invited to EU ministerial meetings, and we are establishing a formal annual dialogue on security and defence at the political level. 'The partnership is also intended on strengthen cooperation on consular matters, i.e. the services a country offers its citizens abroad. This is crucial in the context of crisis management, and closer cooperation will benefit Norway, the EU, and our citizens,' said Mr Eide. The partnership agreement highlights the full breadth of Norway's close cooperation with the EU on security and defence, in particular the important role played by the Norwegian defence industry in the European market. Norway already participates in the European Defence Fund (EDF), the European Defence Agency (EDA) and the PESCO project on military mobility. We also provide funding and personnel to the EU's training mission for Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel (EUMAM Ukraine) and have decided to participate in the new EU programmes on ramping up ammunition production capacity (ASAP) and on promoting joint procurement of defence capabilities (EDIRPA). The Norwegian Government is also continuing efforts to ensure that the Norwegian space industry can participate in the EU's secure connectivity programme. The new partnership also provides a framework for increasing the exchange of classified information and strengthening cooperation on addressing cyber and hybrid threats. It also forms a basis for continued Norwegian participation in EU civilian missions and defence industry programmes. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iraq's Islamic resistance confirms joint operation with Yemen IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jun 6, 2024 Tehran, IRNA -- In a statement, the Islamic Resistance of Iraq confirmed on Thursday conducting a joint military operation with Yemen against the Zionist regime. According to Al Jazeera, the Iraqi Islamic Resistance announced in a statement that it has conducted two joint military operations with the Yemeni armed forces against the Zionist regime. In this statement, it is stated that these two operations were carried out using drones and in the port of Haifa. 2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US-UK coalition conducts airstrikes on western Yemen IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jun 6, 2024 Tehran, IRNA -- Yemeni media outlets have reported new aggressions on coastal areas in western Yemen by the US and the UK. According to Yemen's Al-Masirah TV channel, fighter jets of the US and Britain bombed Al-Lahiya district in the northwest of Al Hudaydah Governorate located off the coast of the Red Sea. Lebanon's Al-Mayadeen TV network also reported that fighter jets belonging to the US-UK coalition targeted two fishing boats off Al-Khawba and Al-Lahiya coastal regions. In response to these attacks, Sayed Abdulmalik Badruldeen Al-Houthi, leader of the Ansarullah movement in Yemen, stressed in a speech on Thursday that the US and UK aggression against Yemen will never affect Ansarullah's principled position, and that regardless of the volume of US-UK attacks, we will never abandon our position in support of Gaza. We warn all those whom the United States is trying to attract not to cooperate with the US, and that anyone who gets involved in plots to serve the enemy will suffer losses. We will consider any action against the Yemeni people as an aggression to serve the Zionist enemy and will respond to it. The loser is the one who helps the Zionist enemy, and we will never remain silent in the face of targeting our nation. Over the past months, the Yemeni army targeted several US, British, and Israeli ships or vessels heading to the occupied territories in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait in support of the resistance of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. The Yemeni Armed Forces have pledged that as long as the Israeli regime does not stop its attacks on Gaza, they will target the ships bound for the regime in the Red Sea. 4208**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Spain seeks joining ICJ Gaza genocide case IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jun 6, 2024 Tehran, IRNA -- Spain has called for intervening in South Africa's case against the Israeli regime at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing the regime of genocide in Gaza, Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said. Spain joins a group of countries, including Ireland, that have expressed a desire to get involved in the case. Ireland, along with Spain and Norway, recently recognized the Palestinian state. The Spanish minister said Madrid wants to support the ICJ in implementing any measures it orders, such as a directive for the regime to cease its military operations in Rafah city, southern Gaza. Albares announced that Spain is doing this because of its commitment to international law, in its desire to support the court's work and to strengthen the United Nations by backing the ICJ as the top legal authority in the system. The ICJ is the highest UN judicial body, established in 1945 to resolve disputes between states. Its recent emergency order for the Israeli regime to immediately stop its Rafah attack was a landmark ruling, following South Africa's filing of the genocide case against the Tel Aviv regime. The Israeli regime's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip has left at least 36,654 people martyred and 83,309 wounded since October 7, 2023. 4208**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Al-Qassam Brigades say they destroy Israeli forces, tanks in Gaza IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jun 6, 2024 Tehran, IRNA -- A number of Zionist soldiers are reportedly killed, and several tanks are destroyed in an operation launched by the Al-Qassam Brigades, military wing of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas. IRNA citing Al Jazeera, reported on Thursday that the Al-Qassam Brigades announced in a statement, "We targeted a Merkava tank of the Zionist regime with an Al-Yasin 105 rocket in the east of the Deir al Balah city in the center of the Gaza Strip, and destroyed it." In another statement, the Al-Qassam Brigades announced the destruction of two more tanks of the Zionist regime in the mentioned area. The military wing of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas also announced it blew up the entrance of a bombed tunnel in "Tel al-Arab" west of Rafah, and five soldiers were killed during this operation. Media sources also reported rocket attacks on Zionist settlements adjacent to the Gaza Strip. 6125**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Israel regime army conducts fresh attacks on southern Lebanon IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jun 6, 2024 Tehran, IRNA -- News sources have reported on Thursday morning that the Zionist army has conducted fresh attacks on some regions of southern Lebanon. News sources reported that the Israeli regime's military has conducted fresh attacks on areas in southern Lebanon on Thursday morning. According to the Lebanese media, Israeli planes are currently bombing the town of Beit Yahoun in southern Lebanon. There are also some reports of repeated attacks by the Zionist regime's artillery on southern Lebanon. According to the reports, in addition to Beit Yahun, the areas around the towns of "Al-Adisa", "Kunin", and "Sadiqin" were also targeted by the Zionists. Following these attacks, some media reported the second rocket attack of the Lebanese resistance on the north of the occupied territories. 6125**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Secretary General makes first visit to Helsinki since Finland joined NATO, welcomes strong support to Ukraine NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation 05 Jun. 2024 Last updated: 06 Jun. 2024 Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met with President Alexander Stubb in Helsinki on Thursday (6 June 2024), in his first visit since Finland joined NATO. The Secretary General stressed that with Finland as an Ally, NATO is stronger and Finland is safer. He welcomed that Finland invests 2% of its GDP in defence. "We also welcome the many Finnish contributions to NATO missions and operations. Just actually this week, you started to do air policing out of Romania. That's yet another example of how you contribute to our shared security," he said. Mr Stoltenberg also commended Finland for its support to Ukraine, including 2 billion euros in military aid thus far. "We will discuss at the NATO Summit and in the preparations for the NATO Summit, how to ensure that we stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes," he said. "Over the last months, we have seen some gaps, some delays in the provision of military support to Ukraine. We need to ensure that that doesn't happen again. And that's the reason why we are now working in NATO on how to establish a NATO mission for Ukraine," added Mr Stoltenberg. He said that Allies should agree on a long-term financial pledge to ensure that Ukraine gets the predictability and accountability it needs. While in Helsinki, the Secretary General also participated in an event hosted by the Atlantic Council of Finland alongside President Stubb, and met with Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen and Defence Minister Antti Hakkanen. On Friday, the Secretary General will visit Sweden and meet with Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Gunman fires shots at U.S. embassy in Lebanon: army People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 10:22, June 06, 2024 BEIRUT, June 5 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. embassy in Lebanon, located in the north of the capital Beirut, came under gunfire Wednesday morning, according to a statement by the Lebanese Army Command. "The U.S. embassy in Lebanon was exposed to gunfire by a Syrian national. Army members were deployed in the area and responded to the sources of fire, resulting in the injury of the shooter," the statement said, adding the shooter was arrested and taken to a hospital for treatment. An investigation was launched into the incident, according to the statement. The U.S. embassy confirmed in a separate statement on social media platform X that "small arms fire" was reported near the entrance to the embassy at 8:34 a.m. local time (0534 GMT). "Thanks to the quick reaction of the LAF (Lebanese Armed Forces), ISF (Internal Security Forces), and our Embassy security team, our facility and our team are safe," the embassy said. Meanwhile, local media reported that the embassy was attacked by three gunmen on motorcycles, leading to a heavy exchange of gunfire and a violent clash. Reports indicated one attacker was killed, another was wounded, and the third escaped. Security agencies are searching for the third suspect. Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said he was following up on the incident with the army commander and leaders of security forces. So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the incident. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US aircraft carrier still in our crosshairs, will be hit harder next time: Al-Houthi Iran Press TV Thursday, 06 June 2024 11:35 PM The leader of Yemen's popular resistance Ansarullah movement vows that the country's Armed Forces will keep targeting USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, the aircraft carrier that has so far been struck twice during the forces' anti-American operations. "The American aircraft carrier 'Eisenhower' will remain a target for our Armed Forces whenever the opportunity arises," Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said in a speech on Thursday. "The upcoming strikes will be more impactful and effective," he pledged. The carrier was hit by the forces in the Red Sea on Friday and then on Saturday in response to the United States' acts of aggression against Yemen. American and British forces have been staging various offensives against the Arab Peninsula nation as means of trying to stop its pro-Palestinian operations. Most recently, American and British warplanes and US warships targeted the western Yemeni provinces of Sana'a, al-Hudaydah, and Ta'izz, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 40 others. Al-Houthi went on to detail the forces' operations against the carrier, which he praised as "one of the most notable and important operations to be carried out this week." He noted that the vessel had been hit twice within 24 hours, using seven cruise missiles and four drones. After the strikes, "it (the carrier) retreated towards the northern Red Sea, fearing further targeting by our Armed Forces," the Ansarullah leader said. "The 'Eisenhower' was 400 kilometers from the Yemeni coast during the targeting, then moved about 880 kilometers northwest of [the Saudi port city of] Jeddah," he remarked. "The operation to target the 'Eisenhower' was successful, and its air traffic halted for two days after the targeting." Washington, however, tried to deny that the vessel had been targeted, al-Houthi added, putting the denial down to "their (the Americans') embarrassment and sense of defeat and loss of prestige." However, "the facts will be revealed no matter how much the Americans try to deny the targeting operations," he stated. On Israeli failure in Gaza Elsewhere in his remarks, the Yemeni official said the Israeli regime had failed to realize its goals in the Gaza Strip, which Tel Aviv has brought under a genocidal war since last October. Among other things, the regime has been trying unsuccessfully to eliminate Gaza's resistance movements through the military onslaught that began following a retaliatory operation by the groups. Al-Houthi contrasted the resistance's successful steadfastness in the face of the Israeli military to Arab armies' failure against the Israeli regime during Tel Aviv's Six-Day War of 1967 against regional Arab territories. "The Arab armies in 1967 had hundreds of planes, thousands of tanks, and armored vehicles, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers, yet they did not last for six days," he said. "Currently, the Palestinian resistance has light and medium weapons, and the available rockets, yet the world sees the actual defeat level of the Israeli enemy." 'Joint anti-Israeli operations with Iraqi resistance to escalate' The Ansarullah leader, meanwhile, hailed Yemeni forces' earlier joint anti-Israeli operations with the Iraqi resistance. Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the forces' spokesman, announced the operations earlier in the day, saying they featured attacks on three ships that were carrying military equipment in the port of Haifa in the northern part of the occupied territories. "The path of joint operations with the Islamic Resistance in Iraq will be important, strategic, and escalating," al-Houthi asserted. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 'Made in India' bomb used in Nuseirat massacre lays bare New Delhi's stance on Palestine Iran Press TV Thursday, 06 June 2024 7:10 PM A "Made in India" label was discovered on the remains of a bomb dropped by Israeli warplanes on a UN shelter in the besieged Gaza Strip. It brought to light the involvement of Indian-made military equipment in the bombardment of Gaza. A video that has gone viral depicts the aftermath of the attack. It shows the destruction of the building in Nuseirat earlier on Thursday. Israeli aircraft conducted airstrikes on the UNRWA's Sardi school in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The target was being used as a shelter for at least 6,000 displaced Palestinians. The involvement of Indian arms manufacturers in Israel's savage campaign raises significant concerns, providing additional evidence of India's participation in human rights violations and war crimes in Gaza. Official records in May showed India's Munitions India Ltd. (MIL), a public sector enterprise under the Ministry of Defense, was granted permission to export weapons to Israel. Similarly, Premier Explosives Ltd. (PEL), a private company based in the southern Indian state of Telangana, has been granted permission to export explosives and associated accessories to Israel on two separate occasions. Collaboration between India's business tycoon Gautam Adani's Adani Defense and Aerospace and Israel's Elbit Systems has delivered more than 20 Hermes 900 UAVs to Israel for military purposes from 2019 to 2023. Additionally, India has maintained its position as the leading purchaser of Israeli arms, acquiring weaponry valued at $2.9 billion from the regime in the past ten years, coinciding with the ascent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party to power. Ever since Modi came to power in 2014, New Delhi and Tel Aviv have seen unprecedented highs in their relations. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Israel's strike on Gaza school 'horrific example' of civilian suffering: UN Iran Press TV Thursday, 06 June 2024 6:49 PM United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned Israel's deadly bombing of a school-turned-shelter in the besieged Gaza Strip, saying the carnage is a "horrific example" of civilian suffering in the war-torn Palestinian territory. An Israeli strike targeted a UN-run school sheltering displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the Palestinian territory on Thursday, killing at least 40 people, including a number of women and children. The aerial aggression wounded dozens more and its death toll is expected to rise due to the large number of serious and critical injuries, according to the director of the government media office in Gaza. "It's just another horrific example of the price that civilians are paying, that Palestinian men, women and children who are just trying to survive (are paying)," said Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric in a press conference later in the day. When he was asked whether Guterres condemn this attack, Dujarric replied "Of course he condemns this attack. There will need to be accountability for everything that has happened in Gaza." Earlier, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also called for an investigation into the horrific strike. "Reports coming from Gaza time and again show that violence and suffering are still the only reality for hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. This appalling news must be independently investigated," he wrote on X. The ill-fated school was run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the area. The agency is the primary source of humanitarian aid not only to Gaza but also to Palestinian refugees throughout the region. Israel's bloody war machine has killed over 36,500 Palestinians since October 7, 2023. The vast majority of the fatalities are women and children. The savage campaign was launched after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out its historic Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for the regime's intensified atrocities. Israel has additionally enforced a comprehensive blockade on the coastal sliver, severing the supply of fuel, electricity, sustenance and water to the population of over two million Palestinians residing there. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address EU calls for investigation into Israel's Nuseirat massacre Iran Press TV Thursday, 06 June 2024 5:14 PM Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, has called for an investigation into the Israeli attack on a UN-operated school in Gaza, which resulted in the death of at least 40 people, including 14 children and nine women. On Thursday, at least 6,000 people were sheltering at the al-Sardi school situated in central Gaza's Nuseirat camp, when Israeli fighter jets conducted the airstrike using US-made weapons. "Reports coming from Gaza time and again show that violence and suffering are still the only reality for hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians," Borrell wrote on X. "This appalling news must be independently investigated, in line with (the) last International Court of Justice (ICJ) order," he said. Video footage showed Palestinians removing bodies following the incident, occurring during a critical juncture in negotiations for a ceasefire that would entail the release of hostages by Hamas and certain Palestinians abducted by Israel. The chief of the UN Palestinian refugee agency has reported that Israel carried out an attack on one of its schools in Gaza "without prior warning", where numerous displaced individuals sought refuge. "Another UNRWA school turned shelter attacked," said Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). "Attacking, targeting or using UN buildings for military purposes are a blatant disregard of International Humanitarian law," he wrote on X on Thursday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Monday, expressed his reluctance to halt the conflict in Gaza, stating that he was "not ready to stop" the war. He also criticized President Biden's comments on the cease-fire suggestion, deeming them as "inaccurate." Israel is facing allegations of genocide at the ICJ, with the most recent decision requiring Tel Aviv to cease its activities in the southern city of Rafah. This area had become a "safe haven" for over a million Palestinians fleeing the conflict before it was occupied in early May. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Yemen, Iraqi resistance carry out joint operations against Israel Iran Press TV Thursday, 06 June 2024 5:10 PM Yemeni armed forces and Islamic Resistance forces in Iraq have launched new joint operations against the Israeli regime over its genocidal war against the Palestinians in Gaza. The spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces said on Thursday that the two joint operations with the Islamic Resistance in Iraq launched attacks on three ships in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea carrying military equipment in the port of Haifa. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq said in a statement that, "In continuation of our path of resisting the occupation, and in support of our people in Palestine, and in response to the massacres committed by the usurping entity against civilians including children, women, and the elderly, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq carried out two joint military operations with the Yemeni Armed Forces at Haifa port using drones." "The Islamic Resistance confirms the continuation of its operations in striking the enemies' strongholds with increasing intensity," it added. The spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, said that Yemen's Armed Forces conducted two new operations in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who are enduring a genocidal Israeli war. Saree added, in response to the US's aggression against their country, an anti-American operation had also been carried out. "The first operation targeted two ships carrying military equipment at the port of Haifa. The second operation targeted a ship that violated the entry ban into the port of Haifa in occupied Palestine," Saree announced. He added in the video statement released by Yemeni Armed Forces that the operations were carried out with drones and hit their targets. "Both operations were carried out using several drones, and by the grace of Allah, the strikes were accurate." The spokesman added, "The joint port of Haifa operation comes in response to the 'Israeli' enemy's massacres in the Rafah area. The 'Israeli' enemy should expect more qualitative joint operations in the upcoming period until it ceases its brutal criminal aggression and lifts its siege on our brothers in the Gaza Strip". "The Yemeni Armed Forces call on all Arab armies to participate in support operations for the Palestinian resistance, fulfilling their religious and humanitarian duty towards the Palestinian people," he said. American and British forces have been staging military offensives against the Yemenis in an attempt to stop its pro-Palestinian operations. Since early October, at least 36,654 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children, in the Israeli regime forces genocidal war against Gaza's Palestinian population. The Iraqi resistance group has vowed to continue retaliatory attacks on Israeli targets. It has also hit American military bases in Iraq and neighboring Syria in retaliation for Washington's support for the Israeli genocide in Gaza. The group has been launching attacks on Israeli targets ever since the occupying regime started a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip early last October. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Israel kills 68 Palestinians in Gaza in one day: Health ministry Iran Press TV Thursday, 06 June 2024 2:57 PM Israel has killed at least 36,654 people in the besieged Gaza Strip since October, the Gaza Health Ministry says. The toll from the past 24 hours includes a minimum of 68 fatalities. Over 83,300 people have also been injured in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza. "The Israeli occupation commits 6 massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, including 68 martyrs and 235 injuries during the past 24 hours," the health ministry said in a statement on Thursday. "The toll of the Israeli aggression has risen to 36,654 martyrs and 83,309 injuries since the seventh of last October," it added. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday it has documented over 464 Israeli attacks since October. The "attacks have resulted in 727 fatalities, 933 injuries, affected 101 health facilities and 113 ambulances," the WHO in occupied Palestinian territory said in a statement on X. At least 40 individuals, including 14 children and nine women, were killed on Thursday when Israel carried out a deliberate airstrike on a Gaza school, which it claimed was being used as a hiding place by Hamas. Gaza's Media Office denied Israeli claims of Hamas presence in the UN school in Nuseirat, located in central Gaza, and accused Israel of carrying out a "horrific massacre." Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of the media office, dismissed Israel's claim that the school was concealing a Hamas command center. "The occupation uses ... false fabricated stories to justify the brutal crime it conducted against dozens of displaced people," Thawabta told Reuters. Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, said the school, managed by the UN Palestinian refugee agency, was providing shelter to 6,000 displaced individuals. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 'Genocide' in Gaza must stop: Iraq president Iran Press TV Thursday, 06 June 2024 2:57 PM Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid has said the Israeli "genocide" of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip must stop. "This genocide has to be stopped... We want to see the end of the war immediately," Rashid said in an exclusive interview with RT on Thursday. The goal of the government in Baghdad is to ensure that the Palestinians are given "complete self-determination," and that the State of Palestine is recognized internationally and "plays its role in the region." Rashid called on the international community to take prompt action in regard to providing the Palestinian people with all the necessary humanitarian aid. Figures published onThursday showed since the Israeli regime forces launched their genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, more than 36,654 Palestinians, most of them children and women, have been killed and at least 83,300 more have been injured. UNICEF said on Thursday that based on data gathered by the UN organization, ninety percent of Gaza children were "experiencing severe food poverty, surviving on two or fewer food groups per day." The Israelis months-long genocidal war on Gazans and the Tel Aviv's restriction on humanitarian aid reaching the Palestinians have collapsed food and health systems in Gaza and resulted in "catastrophic consequences" for children and their families, the UNICEF report stated. "This is evidence of the horrific impact the conflict and restrictions are having on families' ability to meet children's food needs - and the speed at which it places children at risk of life-threatening malnutrition," the UN agency noted in its report. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UNRWA chief: Israel hit Gaza school 'without warning' Iran Press TV Thursday, 06 June 2024 2:54 PM The UN Palestinian refugee agency's chief has said that Israel bombed one of its schools in Gaza "without prior warning" to thousands of displaced sheltering there. "Another UNRWA school turned shelter attacked," said Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). "Attacking, targeting or using UN buildings for military purposes are a blatant disregard of International Humanitarian law," he wrote on social media platform X on Thursday. The Israeli military on Thursday killed at least 40 Palestinians, including children in a school-turned-shelter in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli strike targeted the UN-run school sheltering displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the besieged Palestinian territory. Lazzarini stated that UNRWA "shares the coordinates of all its facilities (including this school) with the Israeli army and other parties in the conflict." "Targeting @UN premises or using them for military purposes cannot become the new norm," said Lazzarini, who added that the school was sheltering 6,000 displaced people when it was hit. A rights group B'Tselem called the strike a "suspected war crime." "If, as Israel claims, Hamas used the school to plan military operations, this action is illegal, but it cannot justify the massive harm to civilians who sought shelter in the school from the horror of prolonged fighting," the group said in a statement. "As demonstrated throughout the war, the killing of civilians is an unavoidable result of the character of Israel's military activity in the Gaza Strip," it said, calling on the international community to help stop the war. In a statement following the school carnage, the Israeli military confirmed that its warplanes had hit a UNRWA school in the area, claiming that the compound was a safe haven for fighters of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas. However, Ismail al-Thawabta, director of the government media office in Gaza, strongly rejected the allegation. "The occupation uses lying to the public opinion through false fabricated stories to justify the brutal crime it conducted against dozens of displaced people," he said. UNRWA is the primary source of humanitarian aid not only to Gaza but also to Palestinian refugees throughout the region. Hours before the deadly strike, Israel also attacked the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, killing and wounding scores of Palestinians. Israel's bloody war machine has killed over 36,654 Palestinians since October 7, 2023. The vast majority of the fatalities are women and children. Israel has additionally enforced a comprehensive blockade on the coastal sliver, severing the supply of fuel, electricity, sustenance and water to the population of over two million Palestinians residing there. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address June 5: 'Axis of Resistance' operations against Israeli occupation Iran Press TV Thursday, 06 June 2024 1:32 PM By Press TV Website Staff Amid Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed more than 36,654 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. Al-Qassam Brigades' operations on June 5: - Targeted the command and control center of the Israeli military located on the "Netzarim" axis south of Gaza City with heavy-caliber mortar shells. - Targeted an Israeli military Merkava tank with an Al-Yassin 105 shell east of the city of Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. - Targeted an Israeli military D9 bulldozer with an Al-Yassin 105 shell east of the city of Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. Al-Quds Brigades' operations on June 5: - Shelled a position of Israeli soldiers on the supply line in the "Netzarim" axis, south of Gaza City, with heavy-caliber mortar shells. - Targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their military vehicles on the front lines in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip with appropriate weapons. - Targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their military vehicles with a number of Ababil explosive projectiles east of the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. - Targeted a group of Israeli forces storming the occupied West Bank city of Jenin and the Jenin refugee camp with a heavy barrage of bullets and explosive devices. - Targeted a group of Israeli soldiers and their military vehicles with mortar shells on the axis of advance east of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades' operations on June 5: - Targeted a group of Israeli forces penetrating east of the Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip with a 107-type rocket barrage. - Targeted a gathering of Israeli forces and their military vehicles with mortar shells on the axes of advance east of the Bureij camp, central Gaza Strip. - Targeted a gathering of Israeli forces stationed in the "Netzarim" axis with a barrage of 107-caliber rockets and regular 60-caliber mortar shells. Mujahideen Brigades' operations on June 5: - Sniped an Israeli soldier on the "Netzarim" axis south of Gaza City. - Targeted a gathering of Israeli forces located in the southeast of the Bureij camp with a 107-type rocket barrage. Martyr Omar Al-Qasim Forces' operations on June 5: - Targeted an Israeli military troop carrier with an RPG shell near Al-Awda Roundabout in the center of Rafah city, southern Gaza. - Targeted a group of Israeli forces stationed at the "Netzarim" axis with mortar shells. Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades' operations on June 5: - In a joint operation with the Al-Quds Brigades, targeted Israeli regime forces positioned in the "Netzarim" axis southwest of Gaza City with mortar shells. Al-Nasser Salah Al-Din Brigades' operations on June 5: - In a joint operation with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, targeted the "Kissufim" military site east of the Central Governorate with 107-type rockets. Al-Asifah Forces' operations on June 5: - Engaged in fierce clashes using machine guns and anti-tank rockets with Israeli soldiers on the front lines in the city of Rafah, southern Gaza. Hezbollah's operations on June 5: Eastern Sector: - Targeted an "Iron Dome" platform in the "Ramot Naftali" barracks with a guided missile. - Targeted the Al-Samaqa site in the occupied Lebanese Kfar Shuba Hills with rockets. - Targeted a location where Israeli soldiers were stationed in the Al-Baghdadi site with a drone. - Targeted a deployment of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of the Zebdine site in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms with a rocket barrage. Western Sector: - Targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the "Hanita" forest with a barrage of rockets. - Targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of the "Birkat Risha" site with a barrage of rockets. - Targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of the "Al-Malikiyah" site with appropriate weapons. - Targeted an Israeli military deployment in the "Baram" forest with rockets. - Launched assault drones on a newly established Israeli military site south of the settlement of "Elkosh." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Children among dozens killed in Israeli bombing on UN school in Gaza Iran Press TV Thursday, 06 June 2024 7:50 AM The Israeli military has killed "dozens" of people, including children, after it bombed a school-turned-shelter in the war-torn Gaza Strip. An Israeli strike targeted a UN-run school sheltering displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the besieged Palestinian territory on Thursday, killing at least 40 people, including five children. According to Ismail al-Thawabta, director of the government media office in Gaza, the death toll is expected to rise due to the large number of serious and critical injuries. The deadly strike, which also wounded dozens more, came on the heels of Israel's fresh air and ground aggression in central Gaza amid rising casualties. In a statement following the school carnage, the Israeli military confirmed that its warplanes had hit a school of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the area, claiming that the compound was a safe haven for fighters of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas. However, al-Thawabta strongly rejected the allegation, saying, "The occupation uses lying to the public opinion through false fabricated stories to justify the brutal crime it conducted against dozens of displaced people." UNRWA is the primary source of humanitarian aid not only to Gaza but also to Palestinian refugees throughout the region. Hours before the deadly aggression, Israel also attacked the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, killing and wounding scores of Palestinians. According to the medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, at least 70 people were killed and more than 300 wounded had been taken to Al-Aqsa hospital since Tuesday as a result of Israeli airstrikes on central Gaza. Israel's bloody war machine has killed over 36,500 Palestinians since October 7, 2023. The vast majority of the fatalities are women and children. The savage campaign was launched after Hamas carried out its historic Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for the regime's intensified atrocities. Israel has additionally enforced a comprehensive blockade on the coastal sliver, severing the supply of fuel, electricity, sustenance and water to the population of over two million Palestinians residing there. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Vietnamese woman tycoon sentenced to death faces new charges Truong My Lan is accused of money laundering and currency trafficking. By RFA Staff 2024.06.06 -- Property tycoon Truong My Lan, already facing the death penalty for masterminding Vietnam's biggest fraud, faces additional charges, state media reported on Thursday. Lan, chairwoman of Vietnamese developer Van Thinh Phat, was sentenced to death in April for causing losses equivalent to US$27 billion at Saigon Commercial Bank in which she owned a 91.5% stake. Now, along with 33 others, she has been accused of fraudulent appropriation of assets, money laundering and illegal cross-border currency trafficking. Investigators concluded that Lan had been moving illegal funds abroad and investing in Vietnam's property market. Police also said Lan and her accomplices issued VND30 trillion (US$1.2 billion) of bonds and pocketed the cash. She has lodged an appeal against her death sentence. Edited by 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 June 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Opponents Of Georgia's 'Foreign Agent' Law Accuse Government Of Targeting Them In Campaign Of Intimidation By Joshua Kucera June 06, 2024 TBILISI -- Early in May, veteran investigative journalist Nino Zuriashvili arrived at the office of the news outlet she runs, Studio Monitori, to find the building vandalized. The walls were covered in posters with a photo of her face and the caption "There is no place in Georgia for agents." Spray-painted on the walls was "Agent Headquarters." The next day, she found a new set of posters on the outside of her apartment building. Her car had also been vandalized, spray-painted with crude images of penises and the word "slut." The attacks, she says, are due to her outspoken opposition to Georgia's controversial new "foreign agent" law. Just before the vandal attacks, she had started getting threatening phone calls late at night, cursing and insulting her. "You're calling the European law on transparency the 'Russian law,'" one caller yelled at her, she said. It is a story that has been repeated many times across Georgia in recent weeks, amid what opponents and victims describe as a government-led campaign of intimidation and violence against its opponents. The campaign has unfolded with dizzying speed and, combined with several new pieces of repressive legislation and unprecedented attacks on Georgia's traditional European and U.S. partners, bodes a disorientating new direction for the country. 'Trying To Shut Us Down' For 25 years, Zuriashvili's journalism has been a thorn in the side of three successive Georgian governments, earning her death threats as long ago as the era of former President Eduard Shevardnadze. Now, though, she fears that her career is under its greatest threat yet. "They are trying to shut us down," she said. Several other leaders of media organizations and watchdog NGOs have faced vandalism and threats following the same pattern as the attacks on Zuriashvili. Political opposition leaders have been physically attacked. Large numbers of ordinary Georgians who attended protests against the law have reported getting threatening phone calls. In the two months since the government introduced the law in parliament, "we have witnessed [human rights] violations that we have not witnessed before," said Tamar Oniani, the director of the human rights program at the Georgian Young Lawyers Association, a legal aid and watchdog group. At protests against the law, many participants have been beaten badly by police, something uncommon before. The officers "even did not wear face masks and they knew that there were cameras, but they were not afraid of this. So, it's a very clear signal that they have guarantees of impunity," Oniani said. Police and prosecutors have opened investigations into the attacks on government opponents and the threatening phone calls, but they appear to be "shams" that evince little interest in finding or punishing the perpetrators, she said. 'We Have A List' Officials from the ruling Georgian Dream party have denied direct involvement in the attacks and harassment campaign. But senior officials have openly acknowledged that they are compiling databases of opponents. One senior police official, asked by a reporter why officers were beating young people at the protests, replied: "I don't beat young people, I beat scoundrels.... We have a list, I'll show it to you." One Georgian Dream member of parliament, Dito Samkharadze, posted on May 31 on Facebook a list of organizations and parties that he accused of "bullying" the party. "Whatever you plan against us, we will return to you a thousand times worse," he wrote. Most of the groups he identified on the list, including Studio Monitor, had already been attacked; others were attacked shortly after his post was published. Samkharadze's post amounted to an admission of the government's guilt, Oniani says. "We deem this as state-organized violence," she said. "He openly said it." Zuriashvili says she forwarded Samkharadze's post to the officer investigating her case, as evidence of who had ordered the attacks. She said the officer was "a young, serious guy" but that she believed that his superiors would prevent him from pursuing the case. She blamed the attack on "titushky," a word with origins in Ukraine's 2013 revolution meaning mercenaries hired by the government to violently attack opponents. The word has gained widespread usage in Georgia as these types of attacks have spread. Putin Moment? At least 17 media organizations and NGOs have had their offices vandalized in the campaign, according to a tally by RFE/RL's Georgian Service. Ten political party offices, representing six different parties, have been similarly attacked. At least five opposition leaders have been physically attacked. The country's Special Investigation Service has referred over 400 cases about threatening phone calls to the Prosecutor-General's Office, though that number is likely a fraction of the total number of calls, given that most people who get the calls don't report them, Oniani says. Georgian Dream took office in 2012 promising to improve the human rights record from the previous regime, led by President Mikheil Saakashvili, which by the end of its rule also had become repressive, notorious for violence against protesters and intimidation of political opponents. When Georgian Dream and its founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili, were campaigning then, "they were harassed and there was the same kind of intimidation," said Kornely Kakachia, the head of the Tbilisi think tank Georgian Institute for Politics. Now, as elections loom in October in which Georgian Dream will seek a fourth term, the party is following that same pattern, Kakachia says. This repression is an "old tradition of ruling parties, especially when they are ending up their second or third term, they...go with violence because this is the only thing, since they have nothing to offer the voters," he said. As for the former promises of improving on the old regime's human rights record, "that is history," Kakachia said. Georgian Dream leaders appeared to have been surprised by the size and intensity of opposition to the "foreign agent" law and their rule generally, Kakachia says. Now, they think "the best defense is a good offense. This is how they understand this," he said. Making matters more unpredictable is the fact that Ivanishvili -- still widely considered to be leading the party behind the scenes, now as its "honorary chairman" -- is apparently isolated and surrounded only by yes-men, Kakachia says. Ivanishvili is "having this [Russian President Vladimir] Putin moment...I think there is nobody in his entourage who can challenge him or tell him that this cannot be accepted by the international community or Georgian society," Kakachia said. "There is no leverage on this person who is unaccountable to anybody," he added, "he just believes that he has to win this election, at any cost." Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/georgia-opposition- government-campaign-intimidation/32981730.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Moldovan Opposition Leader Shor Calls for Joining Union State of Russia and Belarus Sputnik News 20240606 Moldova should grow closer to Russia, so it would be worth discussing the possibility of joining the Union State of Russia and Belarus, Moldovan opposition politician Ilan Shor, the leader of "Pobeda" (Victory) political bloc, told Russian media. "Russia is our friend, our partner; we should move forward together. Moreover, I believe that there is a possibility to expand even the format of the Russia-Belarus Union State. There is a possibility for consideration and for dialogue. This is important,' Shor clarified. According to the politician, only by uniting could Moldova and Russia stand against the West, as Moldova itself is needed by the West only for its own purposes. "Why do they need Moldova? And I'll tell you - it's a testing ground. A testing ground of free hands for war. It's a testing ground to bully. Maybe they'll send immigrants to us at some point. We have nothing in common with them. Here [with Russia and Belarus] we've been in the same family for years, we know each other, we speak the same language. We understand each other, we have common values," he added. Most Moldovans believe in a future with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Shor said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. "We believe that the only way out for the Republic of Moldova today is to become a full-fledged, full member of the EAEU. We really understand today that we want to become a participant of the platform, a unified platform in the field of economy, in the field of ideology, in the field of foreign policy, in the field of security policy. Today this is more important for Moldova than ever," Shor emphasized, addressing the SPIEF session "The Greater Eurasian Partnership as a New Pole of Growth: Potential and Prospects". Shor claimed that the majority of Moldovan voters have already become disillusioned with the European Union and European values, as politicians who entered power on these slogans are closing opposition television channels in the republic and removing unwanted politicians from elections. "We clearly understand that today the majority of the people of Moldova believe in a future with the EAEU... We have had enough of fairy tales and carrots on sticks for the last 20 years. Today we want real friendship, cooperation and mutual understanding and relations," he declared. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address NATO's Routes for Troop Redeployment to Russia Run Via Italy, Norway, Balkans - Reports Sputnik News 20240606 ROME (Sputnik) - Corridors for swift redeployment of US troops in Europe in the event of a direct conflict between NATO and Russia are running in three directions: through the Apennine Peninsula, Scandinavia and the Balkans, Italian newspaper La Stampa reported on Thursday, citing a Western intelligence source. On Tuesday, The Telegraph newspaper reported, citing officials, that NATO countries were developing land corridors for swift redeployment of troops and military hardware to the front line in the event of a war with Russia in Europe. The source told La Stampa that NATO had developed three land routes to the Russian borders to be used by US forces in the event of potential "Russian aggression." One is through an Italian port and further across Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary; another is through a port in Turkey or Greece and further across Bulgaria and Romania, and the third is through a port in Norway and then across Sweden and Finland. Should Moscow attack North European ports in the mid-run, which is what NATO believes it intends to do, the alliance will be ready to swiftly deploy its troops on the Russian borders, the report said. In an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson earlier in February, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow had no intention of attacking any NATO countries. Putin added that NATO countries were trying to intimidate their own populations with an imaginary Russian threat. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia's Shoigu Accuses NATO of Training for Invasion of CSTO Countries Sputnik News 20240606 ALMATY (Sputnik) - Sergei Shoigu, a former Russian defense minister who now chairs the national security council, accused NATO on Thursday of increasing the number of military drills along the western and northern flank of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in what he said was a preparation for invasion. "The alliance has been building up military presence and deploying new weapons along the northern and western flanks of the collective security zone. The number of airspace provocations is on the rise, and numerous military exercises are being conducted to train, among other things, for an invasion of CSTO countries' territories," Shoigu told fellow secretaries of CSTO member states' security councils. He called "NATO's continuous expansion" a direct threat for CSTO allies. The Russian official said the West was using the conflict in Ukraine as a weapon against Russia in the hope of inflicting as much damage as possible. "The West is pursuing the obvious goal of using Ukraine as a weapon against Russia in order to inflict as much damage as possible on our country. It has become absolutely clear that the attempt to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia has failed," Shoigu said. Turning to the CSTO's eastern flank, Shoigu said Russia was concerned about new militant training camps cropping up across Afghanistan and jihadists flocking to the Central Asian country from Syria and Iraq. He said the risk of terrorist spillovers was increasing. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Houthis Announce First Joint Operation With Iraqi Groups Against Israeli Ships Sputnik News 20240606 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Yemen's Ansar Allah movement, also known as Houthis, has announced the first joint operation with Iraqi military groups against Israeli ships in port of Haifa. "The Yemeni Armed Forces carried out two joint military operations with the Iraqi Islamic Resistance, the first targeted two ships carrying military equipments in the port of Haifa. While the second targeted a ship that violated the decision to ban entry to the port of Haifa in occupied Palestine. The two operations were carried out with a number of UAVs, and the strikes... were accurate," the movement said on telegram. Houthis vowed in November 2023 to attack any ships associated with Israel until it halts military actions in the Gaza Strip. Amid the Houthi attacks, some companies suspended shipments through the Red Sea. The attacks prompted the United States to form a multinational coalition, which includes the United Kingdom among others, to protect shipping in the area of the Red Sea, as well as to strike Houthi targets on the ground. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address At Least 30 Killed in Israel's Airstrike on Refugee Camp in Gaza Strip - Reports Sputnik News 20240606 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - At least 30 people, most of them women and children, have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, media reported on Thursday. Displaced Palestinians were sheltering in a school that came under attack, China's Xinhua news agency reported, citing health sources. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had targeted a camp run by Palestinian movement Hamas inside a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) school in central Gaza. On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a large-scale rocket attack against Israel and breached the border, attacking both civilian neighborhoods and military bases. Nearly 1,200 people in Israel were killed and some 240 others abducted during the attack. Israel launched retaliatory strikes, ordered a complete blockade of Gaza, and started a ground incursion into the Palestinian enclave with the declared goal of eliminating Hamas fighters and rescuing the hostages. Over 36,500 people have been killed so far by Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, according to local authorities. More than 100 hostages are still believed to be held by Hamas in Gaza. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address ASEAN States Will Not Support US Plans to Deploy Missiles in Region - Official Sputnik News 20240606 JAKARTA (Sputnik) - Member states of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) are unlikely to positively assess the plans of the United States to deploy shorter- and intermediate-range missiles in the region, Indonesian Ambassador to Russia Jose Tavares has told Sputnik. In April, a spokesperson for the US Army Pacific told Sputnik that the US was on track to deploy a new medium-range missile system in the Asia-Pacific region by the end of 2024. "I don't think anyone in our region would appreciate if other countries deployed armament in our region," the ambassador said, speaking about ASEAN's reaction to the US Plans to deploy such missiles in the region. He added that Indonesia has always been advocating peace and stability in the region and hopes that major powers also adhere to these principles. Jakarta hopes that Southeast Asia will be a region of cooperation and common good and not a center of an arms race, the ambassador said. He added that the Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone has yet to be ratified by the nuclear-weapon states while expressing hope that it will happen soon. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Secretary Antony J. Blinken With Mika Brzezinski, Jonathan Lemire, and Michael Barnicle of MSNBC's Morning Joe US Department of State Interview Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State Normandy American Cemetery Colleville-sur-Mer, France June 6, 2024 QUESTION: And joining us now from Normandy, the United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Thank you very much for joining us here on Morning Joe. What should our allies and enemies SECRETARY BLINKEN: Morning, Mika. QUESTION: take away from the President's speech this morning in Normandy? SECRETARY BLINKEN: The same resolve that the extraordinary men and women that we're celebrating today showed then, he's showing now. Because they did what they did, we're here today. And we not only have a responsibility to honor what they did, but the real way to honor it is to make sure that we're good in our time, in our moment, in standing up to the challenges that we face. And one of those we see now is aggression from Russia, not only against Ukraine but against the very principles at the heart of the international system that were put in place after World War II to try to make sure that we didn't have another world war, that we maintained peace and security. The President's determined to make sure we're standing up today, just as they stood up 80 years ago. QUESTION: And the President talked about Ukraine as one of the current challenges that exemplified the fight against dark forces that never fade. And he made another - yet another commitment. He reinforced the commitment to Ukraine. And by the way, if I may, we're watching live pictures right now of President Biden and the First Lady walking through the cemetery in Normandy, France. And as we look at these pictures -which really symbolize the losses 80 years ago on D-Day - and talk about the losses that Ukraine is incurring right now from the same type of aggression, the President did say that the support for Ukraine would continue, that we will be there for Ukraine. How does that parallel with some of the reticence we have seen in Washington that actually delayed the much-needed aid Ukraine needed to push back against Russian aggression? SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, you know, Mika, that aid should have gotten there a long time ago. But I'm glad it's there now, and it's making a difference. Every single day we're pushing it out to the frontlines, making sure the Ukrainians who need it against this Russian aggression have it and can use it. But there's a really powerful parallel too between what we're commemorating today and what we're doing now. Back then, it wasn't just the United States. Here in Normandy, 12 countries came together, 160,000 men coming to this beach, coming to start the final fight that ultimately, 11 months later, led to victory in World War II. In Ukraine, we have more than 50 countries standing up, standing together, making sure that Ukraine has what it needs to defend itself and to push back this aggression. And that's the power of our alliances and that's the biggest difference maker we have in the world. Our adversaries, our competitors, they don't have the same kind of voluntarily alliances. Yes, sometimes they coerce countries into helping them, or maybe they pay them off. Here we have country after country that volunteers to stand together, stand together in defense of principles that we share and know need defending. We're seeing that in Ukraine; we saw that 80 years ago in Normandy. QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, good morning. Jonathan Lamire. Of course, the war in SECRETARY BLINKEN: Jonathan. QUESTION: Ukraine is the backdrop to where you are today there in Normandy. And I wanted to get your reaction - Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has said now a few times, including last night on social media, that - he is saying that Vladimir Putin will release Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who of course is being held prisoner on espionage charges, has been so for more than a year. And Trump suggests that Putin will do so right after the election, were Trump to win. Can you give us a sense as to what he's talking about? Is there some sort of back-channel conversation between Trump and Putin, or is this sort of just dangerous and incendiary rhetoric? SECRETARY BLINKEN: Look, I don't know what he's talking about; I can't speculate on it. All I can tell you is we're working every day to make sure that Americans who are being detained arbitrarily, whether it's in Russia or anywhere else, come home. And we've managed to bring more Americans home who are being arbitrarily detained than, I believe, any administration. And I carry a list with me every day of the Americans who remain detained by one power or another, and we're working every day to make sure that not another day goes by before they're brought home to their families. So I'm not sure what he's referencing, but I can tell you we're working at it every day. QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, as you sat there this morning on sacred ground, you witnessed a group of veterans aged 98 to 103 struggling to stand in order to receive the Legion of Merit from both the President of the United States and the President of France. Given the burden that the President is carrying and that you are carrying in Gaza, in the Donbas, in Kyiv, I was wondering, as you watched the ceremonies and looked at the faces of these aged veterans, what were you thinking about? SECRETARY BLINKEN: Mike, it's - it was such an incredibly powerful moment to look at these men and to try to imagine what it was like for them 80 years ago, when they were 18, 19, 20 years old. And I've got to tell you, I thought back, too, because it resonated with me - my dad then, 80 years ago, had just left college in the middle of his schoolyear to sign up for the Air Force, to prepare to go into World War II. And somewhere else on this continent, my stepfather was incarcerated in a concentration camp, a death camp. And the men who came here to Normandy 80 years ago and turned the tide in the war - because 11 months later, World War II was over - some of them went on to liberate those camps and liberate my stepdad. And he was liberated by an American tank with that five-pointed white star on it, rushing up to a GI in the tank who opened the hatch - an African American GI - and he said them the only words that he knew in the English language: God bless America. That's what I was thinking about today. God bless America. God bless those men who were before us who saved the world. QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, the President talked about NATO, how it's growing, how much stronger it will become against these dark forces. We have had a time in the United States where the commander in chief, the - at the time did not respect NATO - I'll say it kindly - undermined it. Can you share what's most important about the conviction and commitment of this international Alliance? SECRETARY BLINKEN: Mika, it's really, as I said, our comparative advantage that we can bring other countries together in common purpose so that it's not just America alone. It's all of us taking on and upholding the cause of freedom. In Ukraine, it's more than 50 countries, not just the United States, and for everything that we're putting into it, collectively, our partners, our allies are putting in even more. And that's what's making the difference. So to deny ourselves those alliances, those partnerships would be to shortchange our own interests and to mean that we'd either have to do everything ourselves or it wouldn't get done. You know, we used to have an idea after World War II called enlightened self-interest, where the investments we made in others, the work we did with others, that came back 10 times, 100 times, 1000 times to our benefit. It meant we had new allies to deter aggression; it meant we had new partners to deal with big problems that one country can't deal with alone. We had new markets for our businesses and our workers to sell to. That made sense for America. It still makes sense for America, and President Biden is determined and - as he has been from day one to make sure that our alliances are strong, our partnerships are real, because that's good for the country. QUESTION: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, thank you very much for being on this morning, live from Normandy. We appreciate it. SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thanks, Mika. QUESTION: All right. Take care. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Sanctioning Violent Palestinian Group in the West Bank US Department of State Press Statement Matthew Miller, Department Spokesperson June 6, 2024 The Department of State is today imposing sanctions on "Lions' Den," a militant Palestinian group centered in Nablus's Old City in the West Bank. In October 2022, Lions' Den claimed responsibility for several drive-by shootings in the Nablus area. Lions' Den members opened fire at Israeli vehicles driving close to the nearby settlement of Elon Moreh, injuring a taxi driver and damaging vehicles. In a separate attack, numerous shots were fired toward the West Bank settlement of Har Bracha. In September 2022, Lions' Den fighters injured and killed Palestinian civilians during clashes between Palestinian fighters and Palestinian Authority Security Forces in Nablus. In April 2024, Palestinian media reported that Lions' Den fighters targeted Israeli forces with small arms at an Israeli checkpoint in Nablus. The United States condemns any and all acts of violence committed in the West Bank, whoever the perpetrators, and we will use the tools at our disposal to expose and hold accountable those who threaten peace and stability there. Today's target is being designated for being responsible for, or complicit in, or having directly or indirectly engaged or attempted to engage in, actionsincluding directing, enacting, implementing, enforcing, or failing to enforce policiesthat threaten the peace, security, or stability of the West Bank, pursuant to section 1 (a)(i)(A) of Executive Order (E.O.) 14115, as well as for being responsible for or complicit in, or having directly or indirectly engaged or attempted to engage in planning, ordering, otherwise directing, or participating in an act of violence or threat of violence targeting civilians, affecting the West Bank, pursuant to section 1(a)(i)(B)(1) of E.O. 14115. Petitions for removal from the SDN List may be sent to: OFAC.Reconsideration@treasury.gov. Petitioners may also refer to the Department of State's Delisting Guidance page. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of D-Day US Department of State Press Statement Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State June 6, 2024 Today, we commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, a pivotal moment in our shared history that resonates deeply with Americans, our Allies, and the world. On June 6, 1944, brave Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy in a heroic effort to liberate Europe from the grip of Nazi tyranny. We honor the extraordinary courage and sacrifice of those who fought on the front lines for freedom and those who supported them from afar. The bonds forged on the beaches of Normandy have endured for eight decades, evolving into the alliances that underpin our collective security and defense of democracy today. We extend our profound gratitude to the people of France, who have preserved the memory of D-Day with unwavering dedication. As we prepare to host the NATO Summit in Washington, D.C., we are reminded of the enduring importance of our Alliance. Together, we face renewed challenges to freedom and democracy. These challenges have reignited the spirit of cooperation and shared purpose that led to victory for those who came before us. The NATO Summit will be an opportunity for us to highlight our collective commitment to liberty, democracy, prosperity, and security. As we mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, we face the future together with courage and determination. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Joint Statement on the PSI Baltics Workshop and Tabletop Exercise US Department of State Media Note Office of the Spokesperson June 6, 2024 The text of the following statement was released by the Government of Estonia and the Government of the United States of America on the occasion of the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) Baltics Workshop and Tabletop Exercise (TTX). The Republic of Estonia hosted a Regional Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) Baltics Workshop and Tabletop Exercise (TTX) in Tallinn, Estonia on June 4-6, 2024. This meeting was co-chaired by Counsellor Argo Kangro, Department of Sanctions and Strategic Export Control, Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), and U.S. Head of Delegation, Thomas Zarzecki, PhD., Director of the Office of Counterproliferation Initiatives, U.S. Department of State. The PSI meeting featured more than 60 representatives of 14 countries primarily from Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe. Mr. Joosep Kaasik, Undersecretary for Internal Security, Estonian Ministry of the Interior, delivered opening remarks emphasizing the significance of the PSI within the region for promoting worldwide security from a European standpoint, as well as the crucial role of global collaboration in preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), related materials, and delivery systems. Gabrielle Cowan, Charge d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Tallinn highlighted the strong relationship between the United States and Estonia and the two countries' efforts to promote peace and stability in the region. Dr. Zarzecki underscored the importance of the PSI Baltics event and the collaboration among regional PSI partners, noting that such engagements are vital in combating the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery. Over the course of the event, civilian and military leaders from Estonia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Ukraine, and the United States examined the proliferation pathways for WMD and their delivery systems, deepened their understanding of associated interdiction obligations, explored the legal frameworks and the best practices of partners, and strengthened the ties within the regional countering WMD community. The workshop's briefs, panel discussions, case-study presentations, and scenario-based tabletop discussion focused on intra-governmental information sharing, best practices, and decision-making related to real-world WMD-related proliferation activities in the region. Additionally, various European agencies analyzed the implications of regional threats and regulation through mutual cooperation and trade controls. The PSI was established in 2003 to stop or impede transfers of WMD, their delivery systems, and related materials flowing to and from states and non-state actors of proliferation concern. Thus far, 113 states have endorsed the PSI Statement of Interdiction Principles. Estonia and the United States encourage all countries to endorse the PSI as a visible commitment to further develop relationships with like-minded states to foster the increased collaboration needed to address today's proliferation challenges. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Special sitting on the situation of workers of the occupied Arab territories. Statement delivered by the UK's Permanent Representative to the WTO and UN, Simon Manley. 6 June 2024 Thank you Chair. The UK, like others in this room today, wants to bring the Gaza conflict to a sustainable end as quickly as possible. We are shocked by the sheer scale of the loss of lives and livelihoods of both Israelis and Palestinians. On 7 October, Israel suffered the deadliest terrorist attack in its history. Almost 250 days on and Hamas continues to hold hostages. In Gaza, the situation is desperate. Palestinian civilians face a devastating and growing humanitarian crisis. We again urge Israel to let humanitarian aid enter Gaza through all relevant crossings, including Rafah. The UK is grateful to the Director General and the ILO for their vital engagement. In particular, we commend the ILO's staff who have been working tirelessly to implement the emergency response programme under immensely challenging circumstances. We of course regret that the annual mission could not take place in its usual format. Both Palestinian and Israeli labour markets have been affected by this crisis. The absence of a functioning labour market in Gaza; rising rates of unemployment; and the effects on vulnerable workers including women and those with disabilities is particularly concerning. This has only been compounded by the destruction of businesses. If we are to stop the loss of life, and allow the rebuilding of the labour market in both the West Bank and Gaza, the fighting needs to stop now. The fastest way to end the conflict is to secure a deal which gets the hostages out and allows for a pause in the fighting in Gaza. We must then work together to turn that pause into a sustainable, permanent ceasefire. The UK supports an irreversible two-state solution that guarantees security and stability for both the Israeli and Palestinian people. The UK has offered support to the Palestinian Authority to implement much-needed reforms, and we encourage labour and social policy reforms to be resumed at the appropriate time. An effective PA is vital for lasting peace and progress towards a two-state solution. Just as the PA must act, so must Israel. This means releasing frozen funds, halting settlement expansion, and holding to account those responsible for extremist settler violence. The UK has already moved to ban those responsible for violence in the West Bank from entering the UK, and announced new sanctions designations against four extremist Israeli settlers. UK stands with Moldova as it seeks to safeguard the democratic choices of its people: UK statement to the OSCE Ambassador Holland voices support for Moldova, as it pursues a bold reform agenda and builds its future in Europe, in line with the wishes of the Moldovan people - all while defending against increased attention from hostile actors. 6 June 2024 Thank you, Chair. The UK supports Moldova in its considered rejection of the claims made by the Russian delegation at the Permanent Council meeting on 23 May. The Moldovan delegation's comments speak for themselves, but I would nonetheless like to voice the UK's support for Moldova. This is a country which is pursuing a bold reform agenda and building its future in Europe, in line with the wishes of the Moldovan people - all while defending against increased attention from hostile actors. Firstly, the measured and proportional steps taken by Moldova in recent years have been necessary to address unprecedented levels of Russian disinformation, in an attempt to undermine Moldova's democratic process. All Moldovans are entitled to credible and transparent journalism, free from propaganda and foreign interference. And as noted by my Moldovan colleague, Reporters without Borders placed Moldova 31st on the World Press Freedom Index. A well-earned position which demonstrates Moldova's clear commitment to a free and independent media. Moldova's commitment to OSCE principles on election integrity and election observation is similarly welcome, building on the commitments agreed by all participating States at Copenhagen. We commend Moldova's longstanding and close cooperation with ODIHR, including Moldova's recent request for a legal opinion on postal voting and their other work to follow up on ODIHR's election recommendations. Regarding the Transnistrian settlement process, Russia's request to resume the 5+2 format makes no sense. We would dearly have liked the 5+2 to continue but, as Russia well knows, it is on hold because Russia has chosen to pursue its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, and will continue to be on hold until all sides agree to resume. The UK continues to support a peaceful settlement under the 1+1 format, and we are grateful to the parties on both sides of the Nistru for their persistence in seeking constructive dialogue despite Russia's repeated attempts to instrumentalise the process. Madam Chair, it is ironic that many of the accusations made by the Russian delegation are a thinly veiled attempt to criticise them for taking the steps necessary to protect its democracy and territorial integrity from the very hybrid threats that Russia alone is responsible for. The UK stands resolutely with Moldova as it seeks to safeguard the democratic choices of its people. Thank you. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Department of Public Information . News and Media Division . New York 6 June 2024 The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General. ** Myanmar Good afternoon. I'll start off with a statement for you on Myanmar. The Secretary-General is deeply concerned by the increasing violence across Myanmar and strongly condemns the recent attacks by the Myanmar military that have reportedly killed scores of civilians, including in Rakhine State and Sagaing Region. The latest incident targeting ethnic Rakhine in Western Myanmar, and the ongoing persecution of the Rohingya, underlines the need for protection of all communities. Indiscriminate aerial bombings and human rights violations continue to be reported in many parts of Myanmar. Those responsible must be held to account. The Secretary-General calls on all parties to the conflict to exercise maximum restraint, prioritize protection of civilians in accordance with international humanitarian law and prevent further incitement of communal tensions and violence. The Secretary-General is deeply concerned about the widening regional ramifications of the deteriorating situation in Myanmar and reiterates his appeal for a unified approach. The Secretary-General urges Member States and all stakeholders to engage and support his newly appointed Special Envoy, Julie Bishop, in her efforts to alleviate the suffering and help build an inclusive Myanmar-led process towards sustainable peace, including through close cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and neighbouring countries. ** Secretary-General UN Staff This morning, the Secretary-General laid a wreath in remembrance of the 188 United Nations personnel who lost their lives in 2023, in the line of duty. He said that among those personnel are 135 women and men who worked for [the United Nations Relief and Works Agency] UNRWA, in Gaza. That, Mr. [Antonio] Guterres said, is by far the highest number of our personnel killed in a single conflict or natural disaster since the creation of the United Nations a reality we can never accept. He repeated his call for a full accounting for each of these deaths. The Secretary-General noted that, when seeking consent of family members for the inclusion of their loved ones' names in today's service, we were unable to contact many of the family members of the UNRWA staff because they have either been killed or forced from their homes by Israeli military operations. He said that he is personally devastated that despite our best efforts, we could not protect our staff in Gaza. And he added that, for all our fallen colleagues in Gaza or elsewhere in the world we recommit to continuing their essential work to build lives of dignity and hope for all. ** UN Relief and Works Agency And staying on the situation in Gaza, you will have seen that Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, said that an UNRWA shelter was attacked today in Nuseirat, in the Middle Area of Gaza. It was hit overnight by the Israeli forces without prior warning to the displaced people or to the UNRWA staff in the building. At least 35 people were killed and many more injured, he said. The school was sheltering 6,000 men, woman and children who were displaced. The Commissioner-General added that attacking, targeting or using UN buildings for military purposes are a blatant disregard of international humanitarian law. UN staff, premises and operations must be protected at all times. ** Occupied Palestinian Territory Further on Gaza and the deepening situation there, our colleagues from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) say that fewer than 100,000 people remain in Rafah governorate following the flight of about a million people, who were again on the run, moving toward Khan Younis and Deir al Balah. The military operations have significantly destabilized humanitarian aid flows, forcing ourselves and partners to reorganize their entire operations. As things stand, aid convoys still need to navigate active hostilities, barely passable roads, unexploded ordnances and recurrent delays. Our humanitarian community is engaging with the Israeli authorities to ensure sustained, secure and unimpeded access for humanitarian aid into and within the Strip. It has also engaged with local communities to tackle the issue of law and order by protecting convoys from takeover. The closure of Rafah has also reduced fuel supplies, affecting trucks, hospitals, sewage systems, and desalination operations, as well as bakeries. Meanwhile, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros [Adhanom Ghebreyesus], warns that insecurity and the ongoing closure of the Rafah crossing continue to compromise efforts to get supplies and staff in and around Gaza. He says intense hostilities have severely crippled health care in Rafah. The head of UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund), Catherine Russell also warned that yesterday that with the summer heat and lack of water, food and health care in Gaza, deadly diseases could soon run rampant. She said the children of Gaza are living alongside mountains of trash and raw sewage as basic services reach a breaking point, amid ongoing fighting and displacement. Also in Gaza yesterday morning, a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse in Deir Al Balah sustained damage after an Israeli projectile missile hit the adjoining Palestinian flour mill building one of only two flour mills in Deir El Balah, where the warehouse is used as a main storage and transit hub for commodities in the Gaza Strip. While all WFP and partner staff working in the warehouse at the time are accounted for, WFP was forced to suspend its operations at the warehouse and the missions to it yesterday, but it has now been able to resume its activities today. The World Food Programme plans to conduct an assessment on the extent of the damage. The food agency urges all parties to the conflict to uphold their obligation to respect the integrity of humanitarian premises and assets, as well as aid workers serving people in desperate need of help. And just moving on to the West Bank, the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Muhannad Hadi, said yesterday that although all eyes are on Gaza, the situation in the West Bank remains volatile with houses demolished, infrastructure destroyed, and health facilities attacked. Mr. Hadi was speaking during a visit to the central West Bank, where he and Member States representatives heard from Palestinian herding and Bedouin communities, as well as the organizations supporting them. They spoke of their concerns over the humanitarian impact of heightened violence, settler activities, access restrictions, demolitions and other coercive practices. ** Sudan Turning to Sudan and the horrifying reports that we're hearing about a high number of casualties in attacks that took place yesterday in the village of Wad Al-Noura in Al-Jazirah State: I can tell you that in a statement issued a short while ago, the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, expressed her shock at the events. While we, as the United Nations, do not have the full details surrounding yesterday's horrific events, she said that we have received credible reports of heavy gunfire and the use of explosive weapons in populated civilian areas where the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have confirmed they have been involved in ground operations. For her part, the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Nderitu, called for a thorough and impartial investigation to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice. Meanwhile, our colleagues at the World Food Programme are urgently expanding emergency food and nutrition assistance in Sudan amid the looming threat of famine, as conditions for civilians continue to deteriorate. The scale-up aims to provide life-saving food and nutrition assistance to an additional 5 million people by the end of this year, doubling the number of people that WFP had planned to support in its planning at the start of 2024. WFP will provide cash assistance to 1.2 million people in 12 states of Sudan, giving a vital boost to local markets and food producers. The International Organization for Migration (IOM), for its part, is warning that the number of people displaced by conflict inside Sudan could top 10 million in the coming days. This includes 2.8 million men, women and children that were displaced prior to the start of this phase of the conflict in April 2023 and 7.1 million since that date. More than half of all internally displaced people are women and girls, and over a quarter of those displaced are children under the 5 years old. This is in addition to the 2 million people who have fled to neighbouring countries mainly in Chad, South Sudan and Egypt. ** Central African Republic In the Central African Republic, our peacekeeping mission there (MINUSCA) reports that a UN electoral needs assessment team has arrived in the country, at the request of the Government, to determine support for forthcoming presidential, legislative and local elections expected to take place over the next two years. The team will consult widely, including with the Government, political and institutional actors, civil society, international partners and potential donors. Meanwhile, as part of its efforts to protect civilians, the peacekeeping mission reports it has intensified patrols in the country's east, including in the Haute-Kotto prefecture, following reports of the presence of armed groups in this area. Peacekeepers are also continuing to work to rehabilitate roads [between] Obo and Bambouti in the Haut-Mbomou prefecture to facilitate the delivery and distribution of humanitarian aid, and that's ahead of the rainy season when roads become very difficult to navigate. ** Ukraine Moving to Europe and to Ukraine, today marks one year since the Kakhovka Dam destruction, which unleashed massive flooding in the Kherson region of Ukraine. The flooding displaced families, damaged homes and livelihoods and disrupted the water supply. We and our humanitarian partners were mobilized from day one to help impacted communities. Meanwhile, yesterday and today, intensified attacks caused civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure in the Dnipro and Donetsk centre and east of the country; that's what local authorities are telling us. Millions of people in the Dnipro, Donetsk, Kyiv and Odesa regions, as well as in Kyiv City, have been suffering from electricity interruptions due to damage to energy facilities, as reported by the national grid authority. On another note, our colleagues from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that, yesterday, three staff members of their national partner organization, called Humanitarian Mission Proliska, came under artillery fire while delivering humanitarian aid around the Zaporizhzhia Region in the south of Ukraine. There were no casualties reported, but the car marked as humanitarian was damaged. ** Sri Lanka Our team in Sri Lanka, led by our Resident Coordinator Marc-Andre Franche, is supporting the Government in assessing and meeting the immediate needs of over 250,000 people impacted by the ongoing severe floods and landslides since 2 June. Supplies like protective gear, dignity kits and maternity kits have been dispatched and prepositioned for rapid deployment. Various UN agencies are also working on improving sanitation in health-care facilities and purifying water wells. Mr. Franche conveyed the UN's sympathies to all those communities impacted and to families who lost loved ones due to the devastating floods. We stand committed to supporting national efforts to address the impacts and support livelihoods. ** International Days As today you know, is International Russian Language Day. Russian is one of our six official languages. This year's celebration coincides with the 225th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Pushkin, a giant of literature whose legacy transcends borders and languages. There is an exhibition dedicated to Russian fairytales and the poet Pushkin near the Vienna Cafe. ** Questions and Answers Spokesman : Dezhi? Question : First a clarification, when we talk about the UNRWA school, can UN confirm that that school is for shelter use for the civilians and children? Spokesman : Let's be very clear. There are no schools operating in Gaza, which means that 300,000 children who were being schooled by UNRWA are out of school, and we think probably about another 200,000 in Palestinian schools are also out of school. So, when we refer to an UNRWA school, I think we should really refer to a building that was once used as a school that is just currently being used as a shelter, trying to keep people safe when we know, as we saw just yesterday or today, there are no safe places. Question : You can confirm that it's used for shelter. It's not used for shelter for Hamas, but shelter for civilians? Spokesman : It is shelter... it is being used by UNRWA to shelter people and provide some basic services. This is just yet another tragic, horrific whatever word you want to use of the price that civilians are paying in Gaza for this conflict. So, it's continuing. Question : So, a couple of follow-ups. First, IDF (Israel Defence Forces) said they are having a precise attack on Hamas. So that's a lie? Spokesman : I'm not... you can listen to what others are saying, and you could report that. You can report what I'm saying, and you make your own analysis. What I can tell you is that a large number of civilians were killed number of children were killed, as well. Question : And second, we heard Mr. Philippe Lazzarini and his statement. Does the Secretary-General have any statement on this? Spokesman : I speak on his behalf, right. So, I can tell you that for him, I can say it again, it's just another horrific example of the price that civilians are paying, that Palestinian men, women and children who are just trying to survive, who are being forced to move around in sort of a death circle around Gaza, trying to find safety, are paying. Question : So, will the Secretary-General condemn this attack? Spokesman : Of course, he condemns this attack. Question : And does he think the Israeli IDF committed war crimes? Spokesman : There will need to be accountability for everything that has happened in Gaza. [pause] I mean, there's a moment like, after 15 seconds, there are no hands up, I get out. So... Well, yeah, exactly. Question : Well, yesterday, there were some figures on how many trucks had gone in sort of since the end of May and it wasn't a lot. Has, you know, since this agreement between, well, the US kind of brokered it, I guess, where Egypt sends the trucks through Kerem Shalom, is that having any effect, given the numbers don't seem to reflect that? Spokesman : We're just... I just feel like we're begging for crumbs, for humanitarian crumbs. I mean, some trucks are going in. A lot of trucks are not going in. We had the floating dock no longer operational. We hope that will be operational again. The way to actually solve this humanitarian crisis, step one is to see a stop to the fighting, is to see a ceasefire, to see the release of hostages. All of that will allow us to bring more humanitarian aid. Question : So why, since there's been this new deal to send more, why isn't more aid getting in through Kerem Shalom? Spokesman : Because the conflict is continuing. Indeed, trucks are crossing from Israel through Kerem Shalom. The challenges, the difficulties, the obstacles for us to pick up that aid remain, plus the continued closure of Rafah. Okay, Dennis. New Dennis. Question : Thank you. Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the US and the UK are involved in choosing targets for the strikes to be carried out by the Ukrainian forces, and according to him, this may and will probably lead to further escalation in Ukraine. So, I'm wondering, what's the UN's assessment of these statements? Spokesman : Look, our position on the war in Ukraine is unchanged. Our focus, what we want to see is peace is an end to this conflict, in line with international law, in line with the territorial integrity of Ukraine. We have no insights on military strategy beyond what we see in the media. Serife and Volodymyr. Question : Thank you, Stephane, getting back to the numbers that you gave us. So, it's 135 UNRWA workers, just in one year, out of 188. That's what the Secretary-General said this morning. And today we see the news of the school that was hosting 6,000 displaced people being hit. Israel has hit schools, hospitals, universities, homes. I mean, there's basically nothing left that Israel has not hit. And as you say, there's no safe place in Gaza. But there seems to be also nothing that Israel will not hit. Is there a red line for the Secretary-General? Spokesman : The Secretary-General is not in the habit of drawing red lines. The Secretary-General wants to see an end to this conflict. Now, it may seem boring because I keep repeating the same things over and over again: We want to see a ceasefire. We want to see unfettered humanitarian goods access. We want to see more goods come in. We want to see the release of all hostages. In this conflict, as in many others, the Secretary-General is not the one with his finger on the trigger. Volodymyr? Spokesman : Thank you. Stephane. As you mentioned, today marks one year since Russia committed a terrorist act and blew up the Kakhovka Dam. Dozens of people were killed and are missing, and the number of casualties in Russian-occupied territories is still unknown. Would the Secretary-General like to remind us on this day of the imminent responsibility for this war crime? Spokesman : Look, we have... I would... The statements we made at the time stand, so you can refer to what we said exactly a year ago. That is unchanged. We want to see an end to this conflict, with the full respect of the full territorial integrity of Ukraine, as well, and all of that in line with international law and all relevant UN resolutions. Tony? Oh, sorry. Ephrem. I'm so sorry. I apologize. Question : Thank you, Stephane. How did the Secretary-General react to Spain joining the case of genocide against Israel at the ICJ (International Court of Justice)? Does he think this is a positive move? Does he encourage other countries to join, as well? Spokesman : He has no comment on the decision by Member States to join this case. He will just remind everyone that the decisions of the International Court of Justice are binding. Mr. Ignatiou? Question : How are you, Stephane? The Secretary met yesterday with Foreign Minister of Greece and with Ms. [Maria Isabel] Holguin, his Special Representative [sic] for Cyprus. Do you have anything to say, any readout about the meetings? Spokesman : I can tell you that the Secretary-General met, indeed, earlier this week with his Personal Envoy, Ms. Holguin. She continues her engagement with the parties and other relevant stakeholders in the search for common ground. She's going to be in New York for a bit, and she discussed with the Secretary-General the way forward. With the Foreign Minister of Greece, I don't have an official readout, but I have no doubt they discuss Cyprus and a host of other issues of mutual interest. I'm going to go to the screen to Abdelhamid. Question : Thank you, Stephane. Just a few hours ago, three Palestinians were killed in Jenin. The Al Aqsa Mosque was stormed by settlers and some members of the Government. One of them gave a strong statement, saying, "This is ours." And there are more like 500 people were killed in West Bank since 7 October, which triggered the High Commissioner for Human Rights and OCHA to issue strong statements. But I didn't hear anything from the SG raising his moral voice against the genocide going on, not only in Gaza, but in the West bank. Why is that? Spokesman : We have been very clear on behalf of the UN, various UN officials the Secretary-General has referred to it, to the situation in the West Bank. I think what we saw yesterday in the march in East Jerusalem was shocking. There was a lot of hate being spewed. Our message is that we want the status quo to remain in terms of the Holy Places in Jerusalem. Go ahead. No, no, go ahead. Question : Yesterday, it was the fifty-seventh anniversary of 5 June war, which also marks 57 years of occupation of Palestinian land and people, 57 years of dispossession, 57 years of settlers' attacks, 57 years of despair. Does not that worth a statement on this occasion by the Secretary-General? Spokesman : I think the Secretary-General has been very clear on what he sees as the only way forward, which is a two-State solution, which is giving people a political horizon towards peace to find, and to stop all the violations of human rights, to stop the killings that we have been seeing. Stefano? Question : Thank you, Stephane. The Secretary-General, when he started this mandate, actually several years ago, he based the strategy on prevention of conflict. Now, didn't work, apparently; but now, for example, the situation in Lebanon, maybe, are we still in time to prevent that the situation gets even worse? There is any plan, something that the Secretary-General is doing to prevent this conflict. Spokesman : There's always time. It's never too late to stop a conflict. We're extremely worried about what we're seeing along the Blue Line. It is... even as things escalate, it is not too late for them to de-escalate. And it's important that all of the parties involved work towards de-escalation. Again, we have seen civilians impacted by what is going on, whether it's deaths, but also the mass movements of people who have been forced from their homes in Lebanon, in Israel, we have a UN force there, UNIFIL, which has mechanisms for dialogue between the parties. We also have a Special Coordinator for Lebanon. They're all engaged in doing whatever they can to try to get this conflict or a huge escalation of this conflict not to happen. Dezhi? Question : Yes, Steph. The SG just mentioned that this round of Gaza conflict has become the most deadly conflict for UN personnel. I'm just wondering, has the UN ever considered to establish a permanent instrument here in the United Nations Headquarters to commemorate those people who work for you who lost their lives in this? Spokesman : Well, I think there are a number of memorials in the visitors' entrance, where wreaths are laid every year, where commemorations are laid. And you have seen since the beginning of the birth of this Organization, a lot of our colleagues have paid the ultimate price. Some of them are well known, others less so but regardless, we remember all of them. Thank you. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address At least 55 children reportedly killed and injured amid fighting in Wad al Noura, Sudan UNICEF Statement by UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell 06 June 2024 NEW YORK, 6 June 2024 -- "I am horrified by the reports that at least 35 children were killed and more than 20 children were injured during the attack yesterday on the village of Wad al Noura, in Sudan's al-Jazira state. While the full details are still emerging, the scenes on the ground are devastating. "This is yet another grim reminder of how the children of Sudan are paying the price for the brutal violence. Over the past year, thousands of children have been killed and injured. Children have been recruited, abducted and subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence. Over five million children have been forced from their homes. "Attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are unacceptable and must cease immediately. Parties to the conflict must abide by their obligations under International Humanitarian Law to protect civilian lives. UNICEF reiterates its urgent call for an immediate cessation of hostilities, ensuring the protection of children from harm and facilitating the safe, unimpeded, access of humanitarian aid. "It is time for the violence to end. The children of Sudan need a ceasefire now." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Dozens feared dead in Israeli airstrike on UNRWA school in Gaza 6 June 2024 - Amid early reports that an Israeli strike on a UN-run school in Gaza overnight into Thursday left dozens dead, humanitarians warned that cholera and other potentially deadly diseases stalk people uprooted by the war, forced to live among "mountains of trash". "UNRWA can confirm that one of our schools in the Nuseirat area [in central Gaza] was hit overnight/early morning by Israeli Forces. The school was possibly hit several times," the UN agency for Palestinian refugees told UN News. "The number of those reported killed is between 35 and 45. Scores others are injured. We are not able to confirm the above figure at this stage." Children caught up in war Local officials in Gaza reported that 37 people were killed in the school building attack in the Nuseirat refugee camp near Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza. The toll included 14 children, it was also reported. Media cited the Israeli military that the strike's objective was to eliminate Hamas operatives and that it was only given the go-ahead after aerial surveillance, with additional measures taken to reduce the risk to civilians. In an early response condemning the school attack, UNRWA said that 6,000 people had been sheltering on the premises. Since the war began, more than 180 buildings belonging to the UN agency have been hit, killing more than 450 displaced people in those facilities. "The vast majority" were schools-turned-shelters, UNRWA said, as it issued a reminder "to all parties to the conflict that schools and other UN premises must never be used for military or fighting purposes...UN facilities must be protected at all times". Rubble for a home The development came as humanitarians issued alerts about the already dire sanitary emergency in Gaza as civilians displaced by the war "have no choice but to live amid the rubble and in destroyed UNRWA facilities". In its latest report on relief activities in May, the UN agency flagged that aid teams were allowed to pick up "just under 450 trucks in the past three weeks in support of the humanitarian operation". "This is nothing in the face of the needs," UNRWA said, insisting that at least 600 trucks per day "of commercial, fuel and humanitarian supplies" are required to help stave off famine and death in Gaza. "Fuel is running short; our teams are standing by to pick it up when the Israeli authorities give the green light," UNRWA said, before highlighting "horrific" scenes of devastation from Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, home to thousands of displaced people. "All eyes are on the proposal to reach an end to this war through a ceasefire, the release of all hostages and substantial and safe flows of urgently needed supplies into Gaza," the UNRWA update continued as the US and 16 other countries reportedly expressed their full support for the ceasefire and hostage release proposal presented by President Joe Biden on 31 May. Cholera killer As summer temperatures rise, humanitarians also expressed deep concerns that preventable disease outbreaks could spread more widely. "Children in Gaza are living alongside mountains of trash and raw sewage as basic services reach a breaking point amid continued fighting and displacement," said Catherine Russell, head of UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, on X. The lack of clean drinking water has also fuelled warnings that cholera may strike too, just as healthcare provision remains "crippled", UN health agency chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "Intense hostilities have severely crippled health care provision in Rafah where tens of thousands of vulnerable people still remain," he said in post on X, noting that the partner medical non-governmental organization (NGO) International Medical Corps had moved its 160-bed field hospital from Al Mawasi to the west of Rafah to its existing facility in Deir Al-Balah. The World Health Organization (WHO) chief noted that the only functioning field hospital in Al Mawasi was the one run by the International Committee of the Red Cross. In Rafah City, meanwhile, only the United Arab Emirates field hospital currently provides health services, "but is increasingly difficult to reach due to hostilities", Tedros said. West Bank spiralling In a related development in the occupied West Bank, the UN's top aid official in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) warned of rising violence, bloodshed and killings, mainly of Palestinians. More than 500 Palestinians and 12 Israelis have been killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 7 October, according to the UN aid coordination office, OCHA. About 280 olive and fig trees and 580 grape vine trees were also vandalized by Israeli settlers in seven communities across the West Bank during the week-long reporting period, the UN office said in a scheduled update. "While all eyes are on Gaza, the people of the West Bank must also be supported and protected. The situation here is volatile," said UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the OPT Muhannad Hadi. "We can't wait for the West Bank to become another Gaza." Mr. Hadi's comments followed meetings on Wednesday with Palestinian herding and Bedouin communities in the central West Bank. Members and organizations supporting the Palestinian communities reported "heightened violence, settler activities, access restrictions, demolitions and other coercive policies and practices", OCHA said in its update. In the same report, the UN aid office said that Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinian men near a military gate located in the Barrier west of Tulkarm city on Tuesday, "after the two men reportedly opened fire at them. Their corpses have been withheld by Israeli forces". NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Statement by the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, on the high number of casualties in the village of Wad Al-Noura in Aj Jazirah State UNOCHA - United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Port Sudan, 6 June 2024) - I am shocked by reports of violent attacks and a high number of casualties in the village of Wad Al-Noura in Aj Jazirah State on 5 June 2024. While the UN does not yet have the full details and facts of yesterday's events, there are credible reports of heavy gunfire and the use of explosive weapons in populated civilian areas. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have publicly confirmed that their elements were involved in ground operations in this area on 5 June. Even by the tragic standards of Sudan's conflict, the images emerging from Wad Al-Noura are heart-breaking. I have said it before and I will say it again: wars have rules that need to be respected, no matter what. Armed clashes and the use of explosive weapons in heavily populated areas must be avoided at all costs. Civilians can never be a target. All parties to the conflict must take all feasible precautions to protect civilians, in line with International Humanitarian Law and the commitments they undertook in Jeddah. I call for a thorough investigation into the circumstances and facts of what happened in Wad Al-Noura, and for those responsible of crimes to be held accountable. Human tragedy has become a hallmark of life in Sudan. We cannot allow impunity to become another one 6 June 2024 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Peru, Brazil, US collaborate on TCCC training Published June 6, 2024 By Tech. Sgt. Devin Boyer 12th Air Force (Air Forces Southern) LIMA, Peru (AFNS) -- Peruvian and Brazilian armed forces participated in a joint Tactical Combat Casualty Care course led by the U.S. Air Force as part of exercise Resolute Sentinel 2024 at Las Palmas Air Base in Lima, June 4. This collaboration aimed to enhance the medical readiness and interoperability of the participating countries, ensuring they are better prepared to handle combat injuries in various operational scenarios. Approaching the training holistically, the TCCC course included a series of comprehensive modules, covering battlefield medicine, trauma care and evacuation procedures. Peruvians and Brazilians engaged in hands-on simulations and lectures led by experienced medical personnel assigned to the 167th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron from McLaughlin Air National Guard Base, West Virginia. "As West Virginia, we are state partners with Peru," said U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Matt Lyons, 167th AES senior enlisted leader. "It's a good working relationship. They have been in West Virginia numerous times and visited us. This is our second year in a row where we've visited them and been involved in their exercises." The Peruvian partners specifically requested the training seeking qualifications in TCCC. Lyons and the rest of his team made sure to cover all components of the course throughout the week with the help of a U.S. Army interpreter to facilitate conversation. Peruvian Air Force Tecnico de Tercera (technical sergeant third class) Carlos Rufino, aeromedical evacuation technical nurse, said this training shows that it doesn't matter what country one is from, but the importance of working together to save a life. Widely recognized for its effectiveness in reducing preventable combat deaths, TCCC focuses on providing life-saving care at the point of injury. It includes techniques for controlling severe bleeding, managing airways and treating other critical injuries on the battlefield. "It's important to train on these things so the patient can get home to their family," Rufino said. "Nothing is more important than family." Not only do these exercises maintain the long-standing history of cooperation between nations, but they exemplify their ongoing efforts to bolster regional security and operational readiness. The Peruvian, Brazilian and U.S. partners plan to continue these joint exercises in the future, with the goal of further improving their medical response capabilities. "This is the biggest contingency of people that we've ever sent down here," said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Forrest Moodispaw, 167th AES flight nurse. "This has been eye opening to see more capabilities than we usually do - we're building up some good relationships, for sure." The TCCC training at Las Palmas Air Base underscores the commitment of the U.S. and partner forces working together in addressing common challenges and enhancing their joint operational effectiveness. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Naval Intelligence Senior Leaders Travel to Belgium, Italy and Germany for Strategic Engagements US Navy 06 June 2024 Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence (DDNI) Mr. Steve Parode and Assistant Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence (ADDNI) Ms. Sandra Brown traveled to Belgium, Italy and Germany May 19-24 for strategic engagements with key European partners. The trip centered on increasing engagement with long-established allied member nations through enhanced information sharing, regional security cooperation, and cooperation in new domains. The international trip began in Brussels where DDNI and ADDNI met with Mr. Scott Bray, NATO's Assistant Secretary General for Intelligence and Security to discuss threat vulnerabilities and strengthening intelligence cooperation with NATO. DDNI and ADDNI then travelled to Italy where they visited U.S. 6th Fleet leadership to discuss multi-domain intelligence capabilities and operational priorities. The next stop was NATO's Joint Force Command Naples where DDNI and ADDNI were briefed by American military members on NATO operational priorities in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean and established a common understanding of maritime security. DDNI closed out his international trip in Stuttgart, Germany where he met with European Command intelligence leaders to discuss threat warning priorities and processes for intelligence dissemination in response to Russian aggression in Europe. Meetings and engagements like these with international Navy and Intelligence counterparts furthers understanding and deepens the partnerships that are essential to ensuring global security. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address USS Normandy (CG 60) Attends 80th D-Day Remembrance US Navy 06 June 2024 From U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa/ U.S. Sixth Fleet Public Affairs CHERBOURG, France -- Sailors assigned to the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG 60) arrived in Cherbourg, France June 3, 2024, to commemorate their namesake's region while paying tribute to the 80th year of D-Day. During the visit, USS Normandy will participate in a remembrance event that marks the 80th anniversary of the Allied invasion of France, scheduled for June 6, 2024, which marked the turn in America's campaign during World War II. Leadership will also participate in a reception attended by The 76th Secretary of the Navy, The Honorable Carlos Del Toro, Admiral Stuart B. Munsch, Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa (NAVEUR-NAVAF) and Allied Joint Forces Command (JFC) Naples, and Admiral Nicolas Vaujour, 63rd Chief of Staff of the French Navy. "It is an honor to be a part of this historic milestone and pay tribute to the men and women who paid the ultimate price in the name of freedom," said Capt. Errol Robinson, Commanding Officer of USS Normandy. "Representing not only these Sailors, but the countless other French, American, and Allied heroes who gave their lives on these hallowed grounds is a moment in time that will never be forgotten." USS Normandy is named after the French region of Normandy, the site of the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944 that shifted the tide of WWII in favor of the allies. In the months that followed D-Day, American, French resistance, and Allied forces fought to drive Nazi occupiers from the region and establish a strong base for the final push to liberate France. USS Normandy is independently deployed to enhance integration for future operations and demonstrate the U.S. Navy's commitment to a peaceful, stable and conflict-free Atlantic region. For more than 80 years, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-U.S. Naval Forces Africa (NAVEUR-NAVAF) has forged strategic relationships with our Allies and partners, leveraging a foundation of shared values to preserve security and stability. Headquartered in Naples, Italy, NAVEUR-NAVAF operates U.S. naval forces in the U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) and U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) areas of responsibility. U.S. Sixth Fleet is permanently assigned to NAVEUR-NAVAF, and employs maritime forces through the full spectrum of joint and naval operations. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address USS Oak Hill Departs Brest, France US Navy 06 June 2024 From Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Justin Kemble BREST, France -- The Harper's Ferry-class amphibious landing dock USS Oak Hill (LSD 51) departed Brest, France after a scheduled four-day port visit, June 3, 2024. Oak Hill Sailors and Marines, as well as the embarked 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) Special Operations Capable (SOC) and Sailors assigned to Beach Masters Unit (BMU) 2 visited with French Navy counterparts assigned to amphibious assault ship FS Mistral (L9013) while in Brest. Together, U.S. and French forces planned and participated in a variety of events celebrating the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings and Operation Overlord, the decisive World War II campaign that brought Allied troops ashore in nearby Normandy. Cmdr. Jason Nowell, Oak Hill's commanding officer, visited the Mistral to meet Capt. Olivier Roussille, Mistral's commanding officer, for a concept of operations (CONOPS) brief about the D-Day celebration. "I worked alongside Roussille and our staffs to coordinate all of the events our ships are executing," said Nowell. "We all have the same goals, safely and smartly executing our evolutions to commemorate and honor the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy. It's important we work together for this event. Our demonstrations ensure people don't just read about these brave historic events in booksthey see and experience it. Equally important, we continue to strengthen our partnership with France." The events Sailors and Marines will participate in during the D-Day celebration at Normandy include ceremony, landing craft, utility (LCU) demonstrations, and a commemorative hike. Tours for French and U.S. Sailors and Marines were conducted aboard both Oak Hill and Mistral. In addition to these tours, the Mistral crew hosted a high-intensity interval training competition aboard the French ship, allowing not only for a friendly test of strength, but also creating bonds and strengthening relations between countries. "I don't think I'll have a chance like this again," said Information Specialist 2nd Class Bretburton Clark, one of Oak Hill's competitors. "The course was fun, but it destroyed us. Teaming up with [the French Navy,] I got to talk to them and make friends with them. I learned so much about their culture." France is a long-standing NATO ally of the United States, dating back to NATO's inception in 1949. The celebration provided a chance to further strengthen the U.S.'s relationship with France, while allowing the Sailors and Marines to memorialize World War II and a cultural exchange. D-Day was an amphibious and airborne assault on the beaches of Normandy during World War II conducted by United States, United Kingdom and other Allied forces to liberate France from Nazi-Germany control on June 6, 1944. Oak Hill deployed from Norfolk, Virginia, May 22, and has conducted training, exercises, and operations to support maritime stability and security in defense of U.S., Allied, and partner interests. Oak Hill is conducting operations in U.S. Naval Forces Europe area of operations as part of the Wasp Amphibious Ready Group (WSP ARG)-24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) Special Operations Capable (SOC). The WSP ARG-24th MEU (SOC) is comprised of its flagship namesake, the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1), San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS New York (LPD 21), Oak Hill, and the embarked 24th MEU (SOC). The 24th MEU (SOC) is a Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) with a command element, Aviation Combat Element (Medium Marine Tiltrotor Squadron 365 (Reinforced), Ground Combat Element (Battalion Landing Team 1/8), and Logistics Combat Element (Combat Logistics Battalion 24). For more than 80 years, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-U.S. Naval Forces Africa (NAVEUR-NAVAF) has forged strategic relationships with our Allies and partners, leveraging a foundation of shared values to preserve security and stability. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address USS Hershel "Woody" Williams (ESB 4) Arrives in Malaga, Spain US Navy 06 June 2024 From U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa/ U.S. Sixth Fleet Public Affairs MALAGA, Spain -- The Lewis B. Puller-class expeditionary sea base USS Hershel "Woody" Williams (ESB 4) arrived in Malaga, Spain for a scheduled port visit, June 3, 2024. The ship departed Rota, Spain, in late February 2024 to begin its current deployment throughout European and African waters. The ship has conducted previous port visits to Tema, Ghana, and Libreville, Gabon since departing in February. Hershel "Woody" Williams is forward deployed to Souda Bay, Greece and serves as the first U.S. Navy ship assigned to the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) area of responsibility. The ship is capable of conducting expeditionary missions, counter piracy, maritime security, and humanitarian and disaster relief operations. Hershel "Woody" Williams' unique capabilities are part of the critical access infrastructure that supports the deployment of forces and supplies to support global missions. The ship operates with blue and gold crews, allowing it to remain continually deployed throughout AFRICOM. For over 80 years, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-U.S. Naval Forces Africa (NAVEUR-NAVAF) has forged strategic relationships with allies and partners, leveraging a foundation of shared values to preserve security and stability. Headquartered in Naples, Italy, NAVEUR-NAVAF operates U.S. naval forces in the U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) and U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) areas of responsibility. U.S. Sixth Fleet is permanently assigned to NAVEUR-NAVAF, and employs maritime forces through the full spectrum of joint and naval operations. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address SECNAV Del Toro As-Written Remarks at Monument Federal a Utah Beach US Navy Speech by Carlos Del Toro Presented on 06 June 2024 Date Published 06 June 2024 Monument Federal a Utah Beach Good evening, everyone! It is an honor to join you all today here at Utah Beach as we commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day and Operation Overlord, which marked the turning of the tide in the Allies' campaign to liberate Europe from Nazi oppression. General Poppas, Mr. Brunetiere, distinguished guests, and especially our World War II Veterans, thank you for joining us this evening to reflect upon and commemorate the actions of both United States and Allied servicemembers, in the air, at-sea, and on-land here at Utah Beach. As the United States' 78th Secretary of the Navy, I stand before you as the representative of the nearly one million Sailors, Marines, and civilian employees who comprise our Navy and Marine Corps Team worldwide and carry the legacy of those who fought and gave their lives to ensure the success of the amphibious landings at Normandy. And here at Utah Beach, we recall the actions of the US battleship USS Nevada and the Royal Navy's monitor HMS Erebus as well as scores of smaller US, British, French, and allied warships, bombarding German positions in support of Force "U." Our Sailors and Coastguardsmen helmed landing craft that took US, British, and Canadian forces ashore, combatting rough seas so that they would have a fighting chance on land. Our Beachmasters and clearance teams worked tirelessly to ensure that beaches and littoral waters were clear of obstacles that would impede our troops. Our naval personnel knew they could not fail in their mission, and strove valiantly to ensure they supported our U.S. Army counterparts from VII Corps and the 82nd Airborne. The landings across Normandy on June 6th, 1944, while challenging, demonstrated to the world the resolve of our alliance to stand up to tyranny and oppression, and to fight for the common ideals and freedoms we still hold dear, 80 years on. As General Eisenhower stated in his Order of the Day to the personnel of the Allied Expeditionary Force on June 6th, 1944, "I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory." On that fateful day, members of the "Greatest Generation," from our Sailors, Marines, Soldiers, Coastguardsmen to the French resistance fighters who fought to set the conditions for victory behind enemy lines, demonstrated a level of devotion to duty, gallantry, and heroism that was unparalleled in the history of mankind. They accepted nothing less than full victory. Their bravery and sacrifice are forever etched in the histories of our nations and will continue to serve as inspiration for future generations. We indeed owe a profound debt of gratitude to our Veterans of D-Day and World War II, for the battles they fought during their time afforded us all a chance to live in peacea peace we, our allies, and our international partners are still fighting to preserve across the world today, from the battlefields of Ukraine to the waters of the Red Sea. We honor those in whose footsteps we follow by remaining steadfast in our commitment to our trans-Atlantic alliance, and we are fully committed to countering any and all challenges that threaten peace and security across Europe. Again, it is an absolute honor to be with you all today at this hallowed ground. May we never forget the sacrifices of our countrymen, and may we always strive to live up to the examples they set forth in defense of liberty across the globe. May God continue to grant our nations liberty and prosperity, and may God Bless our World War II Veterans and their families, as well as those who follow in their footsteps today. Thank you. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Secretary of the Navy Travels to Normandy; Participates in 80th Anniversary of D-Day Commemoration Events US Navy - Press Release 06 June 2024 COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France -- Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro observed the 80th commemoration of Operation Overlord and the Allied landings in Normandy at the Normandy American Cemetery and spoke at Monument Federal a Utah Beach, June 6, 2024. Secretary Del Toro attended the ceremony alongside dignitaries including President of the United States Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, veterans, and representatives of the allied nations. The Normandy American Cemetery is the final resting place for over 9,300 American soldiers. The 80th anniversary serves as a solemn reminder of the immense cost of war. D-Day resulted in heavy casualties on both sides, highlighting the sacrifices made to secure freedom. These commemorations aim to honor the fallen while celebrating the ultimate triumph of the Allied forces. "On that fateful day, members of the 'Greatest Generation,' from our Sailors, Marines, Soldiers, Coastguardsmen to the French resistance fighters who fought to set the conditions for victory behind enemy lines, demonstrated a level of devotion to duty, gallantry, and heroism that was unparalleled in the history of mankind," said Secretary Del Toro. "They accepted nothing less than full victory. Their bravery and sacrifice are forever etched in the histories of our nations and will continue to serve as inspiration for future generations." D-Day, codenamed Operation Overlord, was the largest amphibious assault in history. On June 6, 1944, over 150,000 Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, marking the beginning of the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi control. The battle was fiercely contested, and the success of D-Day paved the way for the eventual Allied victory in Europe. As the number of surviving D-Day veterans dwindles, these commemorations take on even greater significance. They serve as a powerful reminder of the sacrifices made during World War II, and the importance of international cooperation in the face of tyranny. "We indeed owe a profound debt of gratitude to our Veterans of D-Day and World War II, for the battles they fought during their time afforded us all a chance to live in peacea peace we, our allies, and our international partners are still fighting to preserve across the world today, from the battlefields of Ukraine to the waters of the Red Sea," said Secretary Del Toro. "We honor those in whose footsteps we follow by remaining steadfast in our commitment to our trans-Atlantic alliance, and we are fully committed to countering any and all challenges that threaten peace and security across Europe." Unlike the heavily fortified Omaha Beach, Utah Beach faced less initial resistance. However, the American troops of the 4th Infantry Division still encountered fierce German defenses. Despite facing rough seas and landing off-course, they managed to secure a foothold and push inland. By honoring the Allied forces who fought there, the commemoration emphasized the crucial role of international cooperation in the face of adversity. The ceremony allowed attendees to not only remember the past, but also to inspire future generations with the ideals of freedom and international solidarity. Read Secretary Del Toro's remarks here. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Israeli airstrike hits UN school in central Gaza By VOA News June 06, 2024 Israel's military carried out an airstrike Thursday on a U.N. school in central Gaza, where Palestinian health officials said at least 37 people were killed. The Israel Defense Forces said Hamas fighters who participated in the October 7 attack against Israel were using the school as shelter and "directed terror" from the site. The Hamas media office rejected Israel's statement and said Israeli forces had carried out a "brutal crime" against displaced people and said 23 women and children are among the dead. "The occupation uses ... false, fabricated stories to justify the brutal crime it conducted against dozens of displaced people," Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run government media office, told Reuters. Israeli military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told reporters Israel was not aware of any civilian casualties. He said 20 to 30 fighters were located in the compound. The strike occurred at a school run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in Nuseirat. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement. "He underscores that U.N. premises are inviolable, including during armed conflict, and must be protected by all parties at all times," Dujarric said. "The secretary-general calls on all parties to respect and protect civilians." Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the U.N. relief agency, described the scene as "another horrific day in Gaza." He said on the X social media platform that Israel launched the attack without warning, neither to the 6,000 displaced Palestinians staying there, nor to the U.N. agency. Lazzarini said that the U.N. agency has shared the coordinates of all its Gaza buildings with the Israeli military, including the one hit Thursday, but that even so, 180 of them have been hit during the nearly eight-month war and more than 450 people have been killed in the attacks. He said the U.N. relief agency could not verify the Israeli claim that Hamas fighters were using the school as a shelter. He said "targeting U.N. premises or using them for military purposes cannot become the new norm. This must stop and all those responsible must be held accountable." The U.S. government said it expected Israel to be entirely candid in making information about the attack public. "As a general matter, and as we've said before, Israel has a right to go after Hamas. But we've also been clear that Israel must take every precaution possible and do more to protect civilians," a White House National Security Council spokesperson said. Nearly a week after U.S. President Joe Biden publicly detailed a proposed six-week cease-fire in Gaza, the United States and 16 other nations issued a joint statement Thursday expressing their support for the deal. "We call on Hamas to close this agreement, that Israel is ready to move forward with, and begin the process of releasing our citizens," the statement said. The proposal includes the release of some of the hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza, a surge in humanitarian aid for Palestinians and calls for continued negotiations aimed at achieving a permanent cease-fire. The joint statement said it is time for the war to end. "At this decisive moment, we call on the leaders of Israel as well as Hamas to make whatever final compromises are necessary to close this deal and bring relief to the families of our hostages, as well as those on both sides of this terrible conflict, including the civilian populations," it said. Aside from the U.S., Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain and Thailand signed the statement. A senior Hamas official said Thursday that Biden's proposed Gaza cease-fire deal was "just words." Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said Thursday that Hamas had not yet responded to the latest cease-fire proposal and was still examining it. Hamas sources said there was no new proposal to reply to and that the Israeli proposal was old. They said they rejected the proposal because it did not mention an end to the war or a complete exit from Gaza. Hamas on October 7 launched a terror attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, and capturing about 250 hostages. Hamas is holding about 120 of the hostages in Gaza, although the Israeli military says 37 of them are dead. Israel's retaliatory bombardments and ground offensive have killed at least 36,600 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The United Nations, in a report released Wednesday, warned that at least 1 million Palestinians would reach the highest level of starvation by mid-July. The heavy restrictions on the flow of food, water, fuel and medical aid are worsening the situation in Gaza, particularly in northern Gaza, the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization said in their joint report. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address At least 100 killed in RSF attack on Sudanese village By Melos Ambaye June 06, 2024 A recent attack by Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Wad al-Noura village has killed at least 100 people and injured dozens, according to regional officials. Social media posts by Darfur Governor Mini Arko Minawi say women, children and the elderly were among victims of the attack, the latest in ongoing clashes between RSF fighters and the country's regular army over the past 14 months. The grassroots Madani Resistance Committee, a pro-democracy organization that monitors attacks in the region, said RSF fighters used heavy artillery in Wednesday morning's two-stage assault, which it called an act of genocide. The committee, which said pleas for rescue by Sudan's armed forces went unheeded, accused RSF troops of looting Wad al-Noura throughout the attack, forcing civilians, including women and children, to take refuge in the nearby village of Managil. Sudan's army said Thursday that it will deliver a "harsh response" to the attack. Alex DeWaal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, described it as a routine practice, explaining that RSF fighters tax locals and steal food to the point of starvation in villages they overrun. "The Sudan Armed Forces, which are also the internationally recognized government, are cutting off all material supplies to areas under RSF control, including humanitarian aid, hoping to reduce the RSF's capabilities through starvation," DeWaal told VOA. "The logics of war are leading relentlessly to famine." Sudan crisis 'neglected' Wednesday's attack coincided with recent United Nations warnings that Sudan is faced with the "looming threat of famine" as violence intensifies. "The situation in Sudan is not so much forgotten as neglected," said Michael Dunford, regional director for the U.N.'s World Food Program (WFP) in Eastern Africa, in a Thursday press release. "It is already the largest displacement crisis in the world, and it has the potential to become the world's largest hunger crisis." The U.N. organization said people are resorting to eating grass and wild leaves to survive, which poses especially high risks for children. "Malnutrition among children in Sudan has also hit shocking levels, leaving an entire generation at risk," the statement said. "Children are already dying of malnutrition-related causes." WFP increases its support The WFP is boosting its assistance in Sudan, expanding its cash support to reach 1.2 million people in 12 states, which will aid local food producers and markets. The organization says it is also increasing the food and money it gives to 2 million people across more than 40 WFP-identified hunger hotspots. According to The Associated Press, RSF forces posted statements late Wednesday alleging they carried out Wednesday's raid because Sudan's military had planned to attack its troops in Jabal al-Awliya. The AP, which could not verify the allegation, also reported on RSF claims that its fighters clashed with Sudanese armed forces while attacking three camps west, north and south of Wad-al Noura. More than 14,000 people have been killed, thousands have been wounded, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced since fighting began in April 2023. Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address WFP expands emergency response to avert famine in war-torn Sudan World Food Programme 6 June 2024 PORT SUDAN -- The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is urgently expanding its emergency food and nutrition assistance in war-torn Sudan amid the looming threat of famine, as conditions for civilians deteriorate and fighting intensifies in battle zones like El Fasher and Khartoum The UN food agency is scaling up to provide life-saving food and nutrition assistance to an additional 5 million people by the end of this year, doubling the number of people WFP had planned to support at the start of 2024. Hunger is deepening in Sudan and in neighbouring countries to which millions of people have fled, creating a hunger crisis that could become the world's largest. "Sudan is in the grip of widespread hunger and malnutrition. WFP continues to expand its food and nutrition assistance to reach millions more people who are living through the daily horrors of war. The situation is already catastrophic and has the potential to worsen further unless support reaches all those affected by conflict," said Michael Dunford, WFP's Regional Director for Eastern Africa. As part of the scale up of assistance, WFP will provide support in cash to 1.2 million people in 12 states. This also gives a vital boost to local markets and food producers. WFP is also increasing how much food or cash it provides to people facing the most severe levels of hunger - more than two million people across more than 40 hunger hotspots identified by WFP. Certain communities in these areas - mostly in regions where fighting is ongoing, like the Darfurs, Kordofans, Khartoum and Gezira - are at a high-risk of slipping into famine-like conditions if they do not receive urgent and sustained support. "The situation in Sudan is not so much forgotten as neglected. It is already the largest displacement crisis in the world, and it has the potential to become the world's largest hunger crisis. As global leaders focus elsewhere, it is not receiving the necessary attention and support to avert a nightmare scenario for the people of Sudan. The world cannot claim it doesn't know how bad the situation is in Sudan or that urgent action is needed," said Dunford. WFP is working around the clock to expand access and open new humanitarian corridors to get food supplies moving to communities in all parts of the country - across frontlines from eastern Sudan via Dabbah in Northern State, from Kosti into the Kordofans, and across borders from Chad, Egypt and South Sudan. WFP is also pre-positioning food at key border crossings and along supply routes because the imminent rainy season will make roads in the Darfurs and Kordofans impassable. Additionally, WFP is working with smallholder farmers, many displaced by conflict, to boost wheat production. The first harvest supported through this programme - financed by the African Development Bank - gave 170,000 farmers climate-adapted wheat seeds and fertilizer, boosting their production by up to 70 percent over the last year and offering them a vital safety net as Sudan's lean season begins. Against the backdrop of the ongoing war, humanitarian agencies are struggling to support everyone in need. Food security is drastically deteriorating and could hit levels not seen in Sudan since the early 2000s. Famine-like conditions are caused not only by a lack of food, but also a lack of medical care and clean water - all a devastating reality for Sudan's population. People in Sudan are resorting to desperate measures like eating grass and wild leaves just to survive. Malnutrition among children in Sudan has also hit shocking levels, leaving an entire generation at risk. Children are already dying of malnutrition-related causes. Notes to editor: WFP has provided assistance to over 6.7 million people in all of Sudan's 18 states since the conflict started in April 2023. WFP urgently needs over US$200 million to continue delivering life-saving assistance through the rest of the year. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Remarks by President Biden Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of D-Day | Collevile-sur-Mer, France June 06, 2024 Normandy American Cemetery Colleville-sur-Mer, France 2:01 P.M. CEST THE PRESIDENT: The hour had nearly come. Monday, June 5th, 1944. The evil of (inaudible) Third Reich was devastating the world. Nazi Germany had subjugated the once-free nations of Europe through brute force, lies, and twisted ideology of racial superiority. Millions of Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Millions of others killed by bombs, bullets, bloody warfare. Hitler and those with him thought democracies were weak, that the future belonged to dictators. Here, on the coast of Normandy, the battle between freedom and tyranny would be joined. Here, on that June morning, the testing was at hand. President Macron, Mrs. Macron, Secretary Austin, Secretary Blinken, distinguished guests. Most of all, our honored veterans, who met that test to the ages a test of ages to that moment 80 years ago 80 years ago today. (Applause.) On behalf of the American people and as Commander-in-Chief, it's the highest honor to be able to salute you here in Normandy once more all of you. God love you. (Applause.) Winston Churchill called what happened here, quote, "the greatest, most complicated operation ever," end of quote. After years of planning, Operation Overlord was ready to launch just as soon as the weather turned. Across the choppy Eng- choppy Eng- English Channel, the Supreme Commander of the Allies, Dwight D. Eisenhower, waited. The largest force ever of its kind, built by 12 nations men, guns, planes, naval craft of every description waited. The world, captive and free, waited. Finally, Eisenhower's forecasters said there was a window in the weather. It would open briefly on Tuesday the 6th of June. The general weighed the options and gave the order: At dawn, the Allies would strike. The "Great Crusade" to free Europe from tyranny would begin. That night, General Eisenhower drove to the English town of Newbury to visit paratroopers of the 101st Airborne. They were men from all over America. It was estimated that 80 percent of them would be killed within hours. That was the estimate. But they were brave, they were resolute, and they were ready. One soldier told General Eisenhower, quote, "Don't worry, sor- sir. The 101st is on the job. Everything will be taken care of." That's what he said. And because of their courage and their resolve, because of the courage and resolve of their allies, it was taken care of. From the sea and sky, nearly 160,000 Allied troops descended on Normandy. Many, to state the obvious, never came home. Many survived that "longest day," kept on fighting for months until victory was finally won. And a few, a noble band of brothers, are here with us today. Kenneth Blaine Smith is here. On that day, under heavy artillery fire, he operated a range finder and radar on the first American ship to arrive at Normandy's coast, providing direct gunfire support for the Rangers scaling the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc on their daring mission to take out the German batteries. Bob Gibson is here. He landed on Utah Beach about 10 hours after the invasion began. Bullets flying everywhere. Tracers lighting up the sky. Bob drove an M4 tractor with an anti-aircraft gun mounted on top, providing critical protection for the infantry against the German air force. On that day and for many days after, he continued. Ben Miller is here. A medic with the 82nd Airborne. At 3:00 a.m. on June 6th, he and 13 other medics flew over the Channel in a rickety glider. Its wings were ripped off by giant poles that the Germans buried halfway in the ground to stop them from landing. They crashed, but they survived. And they did their duty: dragging injured soldiers to safety, treating wounds, saving lives while the battle raged. Every soldier who stormed the beach, who dropped by parachute or landed by glider; every sailor who manned the thousands of ships and landing craft; every aviator who destroyed German-controlled air fields, bridges, and railroads all all were backed by other brave Americans, including hundreds of thousands of people of color and women who courageously served despite unjust limitations on what they could do for their nation. Louis Brown is here. Part of the "Red Ball Express," a truck convoy made up mostly of African American drivers. They landed at Normandy in the wake of D-Day. They rushed supplies to the rapidly advancing frontlines. Woody Woodhouse is here. Members of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen, who flew over 15,000 sorties during the war. Marjorie Stone is here. She enlisted in the women's branch of the Naval Reserve, became an aircraft mechanic, spent the war keeping American planes and pilots in the air. Theirs has always been the story of America. Just walk the rows of this cemetery, as I have. Nearly 10,000 heroes buried side by side, officers and enlisted, immigrants and native-born. Different races, different faiths, but all Americans. All served with honor when America and the world needed them most. Millions back home did their part as well. From coast to coast, Americans found countless ways to pitch in. They understood our democracy is only as strong as all of us make it, together. The men who fought here became heroes not because they were the strongest or toughest or were fiercest although they were but because they were given an audacious mission knowing every one of them knew the probability of dying was real, but they did it anyway. They knew, beyond any doubt, there are things that are worth fighting and dying for. Freedom is worth it. Democracy is worth it. America is worth it. The world is worth it then, now, and always. The war in Europe didn't end for another 11 months. But here the tide turned in our favor. Here we proved the forces of liberty are stronger than the forces of conquest. Here we proved that the ideals of our democracy are stronger than any army or combination of armies in the entire world. We proved something else here as well: the unbreakable unity of the Allies. Here with us are men who served alongside the Americans that day, wearing different flags on their arms but fighting with the same courage, for the same purpose. What the Allies did together 80 years ago far surpassed anything we could have done on our own. It was a powerful illustration of how alliances real alliances make us stronger a lesson that I pray we Americans never forget. Together, we won the war. We rebuilt Europe, including our former enemies. It was an investment in what became shared and a prosperous future. We established NATO, the greatest military alliance in the history of the world. And over time (applause) you got it; it is and over time, we brought more nations into NATO the NATO Alliance, including the newest members: Finland and Sweden. (Applause.) Today, NATO stands at 32 countries strong. And NATO is more united than ever and even more prepared to keep the peace, deter aggression, defend freedom all around the world. America has invested in our alliances and forged new ones not simply out of altruism but out of our own self-interest as well. America's unique ability to bring countries together is an un- undeniable source of our strength and our power. Isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago, and it is not the answer today. (Applause.) We know the dark forces that these heroes fought against 80 years ago. They never fade. Aggression and greed, the desire to dominate and control, to change borders by force these are perennial. And the struggle between a dictatorship and freedom is unending. Here, in Europe, we see one stark example. Ukraine has been invaded by a tyrant bent on domination. Ukrainians are fighting with extraordinary courage, suffering great losses, but never backing down. (Applause.) They've inflicted on the Russian aggressors they've suffered tremendous losses, Russia. The numbers are staggering 350,000 Russian troops dead or wounded. Nearly 1 million people have left Russia because they can no longer see a future in Russia. The United States and NATO and a coalition of more than 50 countries standing strong with Ukraine. We will not walk away (applause) because if we do, Ukraine will be subjugated. And it will not end there. Ukraine's neighbors will be threatened. All of Europe will be threatened. And make no mistake, the autocrats of the world are watching closely to see what happens in Ukraine, to see if we let this illegal aggression go unchecked. We cannot let that happen. To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators is simply unthinkable. (Applause.) Were we to do that, it means we'd be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches. Make no mistake: We will not bow down. We will not forget. Let me end with this. History tells us freedom is not free. If you want to know the price of freedom, come here to Normandy. Come to Normandy and look. Go to the other cemeteries in Europe where our fallen heroes rest. Go back home to Arlington Cemetery. Tomorrow, I will pay respects at Pointe du Hoc. Go there as well and remember: The price of unchecked tyranny is the blood of the young and the brave. In their generation, in their hour of trial, the Allied forces of D-Day did their duty. Now the question for us is: In our hour of trial, will we do ours? We're living in a time when democracy is more at risk across the world than at any point since the end of the World War Two since these beaches were stormed in 1944. Now, we have to ask ourselves: Will we stand against tyranny, against evil, against crushing brutality of the iron fist? Will we stand for freedom? Will we defend democracy? Will we stand together? (Applause.) My answer is yes. And it only can be yes. (Applause.) We're not far off from the time when the last living voices of those who fought and bled on D-Day will no longer be with us. So, we have a special obligation. We cannot let what happened here be lost in the silence of the years to come. We must remember it, must honor it, and live it. And we must remember: The fact that they were heroes here that day does not absolve us from what we have to do today. Democracy is never guaranteed. Every generation must preserve it, defend it, and fight for it. That's the test of the ages. In memory of those who fought here, died here, literally saved the world here, let us be worthy of their sacrifice. Let us be the generation that when history is written about our time in 10, 20, 30, 50, 80 years from now it will be said: When the moment came, we met the moment. We stood strong. Our alliances were made stronger. And we saved democracy in our time as well. Thank you very much. And may God bless you all. And may God protect our troops. Thank you. (Applause.) 2:17 P.M. CEST NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Airbus Wingman Airbus presented its new Wingman concept at the 2024 International Aerospace Exhibition ILA in Berlin. In military aviation, a Wingman is a pilot in another aircraft that protects and supports the flight lead, delivers more tactical options and thus contributes to mission success. In the Airbus concept, the Wingman is going to operate very much in the same way - only that it is neither a pilot nor a fighter jet flown by one. It is a fighter-type drone that will be commanded by a pilot in a current combat aircraft such as the Eurofighter and can take on high-risk mission tasks that would pose a bigger threat to manned-only aircraft. The 1:1 model, which Airbus exhibited from June 5 to 9 on its static display at ILA, is similar to a show car used as a design exercise by the automotive industry. The Wingman model showcases all of the foreseen capabilities required, such as low observability, the integration of various armaments, advanced sensors, connectivity and teaming solutions. As with show cars, not all of what is on display may find its way into series production. In this aspect, the model on display at ILA Berlin will serve as a foundation and catalyst to drive the design requirements for each generation of the Wingman. Based on the current concept, the Wingman is intended to augment the capabilities of current manned combat aircraft with uncrewed platforms that can carry weapons and other effectors. Across Europe, in France, Germany and Spain, Airbus and its partners are working at full speed to ensure that the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) will be operational by 2040. FCAS will be operational in France, Germany and Spain and will gradually replace existing combat aircraft such as the Eurofighter or the Rafale. FCAS will be centred around a core Next Generation Weapon System (NGWS). In this system of systems, a New Generation Fighter (NGF) will work together with remote carriers (RC) and be connected to other systems in space, in the air, on the ground, at sea and in cyberspace via a data link and mission service cloud. The involvement of Airbus with Manned-Unmanned Teaming began in 2018, when the first flight test campaign took place to validate initial capabilities. Since then, the development has seen increasing levels of maturity with Airbus and its partner teams focusing on several key areas. Synchronized and efficient use of manned and unmanned vehicles necessitates coordination and optimisation, with requirements that may vary from one mission to the next. To address this, Airbus is developing artificial intelligence-based teaming concepts and algorithms, including swarming behaviours and distributed teaming intelligence shared among the platforms. This novel approach is reflected in the payloads, which can be integrated on the unmanned aircraft, as well as in the way they are used. For example, a distributed electronic warfare sensor was shown to be capable of precisely and quickly locating a threat and sharing its location across the network. To achieve such capabilities, the unmanned assets must be able to communicate with the manned resources and among each other in an agile and robust way, which is why an advanced data link is one pillar of the development. Additionally, Airbus is preparing airframe solutions for future unmanned systems, building on experience in both unmanned aerial vehicles and combat aircraft. As the development progresses, these solutions will materialise as the FCAS Remote Carriers unmanned aircraft designed to cooperate with fighters. To achieve the full potential, MUM-T technologies will also need to be relevant for already-existing unmanned aerial systems and for those developed in the future. Building upon lessons learned from the previous MUM-T-related milestones, Airbus marked a major achievement with a live demonstration that linked company-built Do-DT25 target drones acting as surrogate Remote Carriers with an in-flight German Air Force Eurofighter aircraft. This occurred during the Timber Express 2021 multinational exercise organised by the German Armed Forces. During the trial, the Eurofighter was able to assign tasks to two Airbus Do-DT25 Remote Carriers in real time. These unmanned platforms demonstrated the ability to perform several tasks, including aerial reconnaissance and electronic warfare. Upon receiving the tasks, the Remote Carriers autonomously planned their flight routes, adhering to prescribedairspace restrictions and circumnavigating known threats. In 2022, MUM-T-related flight tests were performed outside of Germany for the first time. A test campaign organized in the Finnish areas of Rovaniemi and Kemijarvi and directed by the Finnish Defence Forces (FDF) marked the official start of cooperation with the German Armed Forces on this key capability. In 2022, Europes first large-scale multi-domain flight demo was led by Airbus, as two fighter jets, one helicopter and five unmanned remote carriers teamed up and accomplished a mission that could occur in real-life situations. The Future Combat Air System (FCAS) Manned-Unmanned Teaming Demonstrator project will now move to the next phase: further paving the way for FCAS by developing a flying remote carrier (RC) demonstrator in the coming years. With the Multi-Domain Flight Demo, or MDFD, we demonstrated for the first time in Europe how manned-unmanned teaming capabilities and functionalities with up to ten connected assets work in a real-life inspired scenario and under near operational conditions, said Jean Brice Dumont, Head of Military Air Systems at Airbus. "This is yet another example of how we push boundaries and pioneer technologies so that our customers can fulfill their missions: saving lives and ensuring a better future for us all. In the demo conducted in late summer 2022, the fighter jets, helicopter and unmanned remote carriers were connected via a meshed compact airborne networking data link (CANDL) that allowed them to seamlessly interact above Rovajarvi, Finland - and help to rid the world of a fictional rogue warlord. In the FCAS Demonstrator Phase 1B, roles and responsibilities are clearly defined: For each pillar, there is a leader, a so-called prime, and main partners who are involved in the developments. Airbus in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance, is responsible for the remote carriers, combat cloud and stealth technologies. In Saint-Cloud, France, Dassault Aviation will notably lead the New Generation Fighter pillar together with Airbus as a main partner. Now the project is going to enter Phase III, which will lead to the maturing of existing capabilities and development of new ones to enable initial operations in the 2030s with existing combat aircraft and remote carriers developed by then. Remote carriers with different sizes and capabilities are vital assets for FCAS, where they will operate in a team with the manned New Generation Fighter and the Eurofighter, connected to a cyber-secured combat cloud network. Operating under the command of a manned fighter aircraft, RCs provide better protection for pilots while enhancing the operational envelope and the ability to act in risky situations. Airbus revealed the new loyal wingman drone at the International Fighter Conference 2022 on November 16, 2022. It includes a modular design, which depicted the drone with a common fuselage and three options for the nose: one sporting a radar for air-to-air engagements, another for air-to-ground attack, and a final option intended for electronic warfare. The drone is envisioned as carrying jamming pods, two Meteor long-range air-to-air missiles, two GBU-54 precision-guided bombs, four Spear air-to-ground missiles or two light remote carriers smaller drones developed under the FCAS program in its internal weapons bay. The German Air Force has expressed a clear need for an unmanned aircraft flying with and supporting missions of its manned fighter jets before the Future Combat Air System will be operational in 2040, said Michael Schoellhorn, CEO of Airbus Defence and Space. Our Wingman concept is the answer. We will further drive and fine-tune this innovation made in Germany so that ultimately we can offer the German Air Force an affordable solution with the performance it needs to maximise the effects and multiply the power of its fighter fleet for the 2030s. The Wingmans tasks can range from reconnaissance to jamming targets and engaging targets on the ground or in the air with precision guided munitions or missiles. Pilots in manned aircraft acting as command fighters will always have control of the mission. They are always the final decision-making authority, while benefiting from the protection and smaller risk exposure that the delegation of tactical taskings to unmanned systems offers. An additional focus is on increasing the overall combat mass in an affordable manner so that air forces can match the number of opposing forces in peers or near-peers in conflicts. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russo-Ukraine War - 06 June 2024 - Day 834 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 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 on 29 May 2024 Ukrainian missile strikes damaged two Russian roll-on roll-off (RO-RO) rail ferries on the Crimean side of the Kerch Strait crossing, rendering them non-operational. These rail ferries almost certainly provided the primary means of rail transportation for Russian fuel and ammunition train loads to Crimea due to the stringent security measures employed on the Kerch Bridge. Russia also operates vehicle RO-RO ferries to support the movement of heavy loads across the Strait, which have resumed operations post-strike. The degraded rail crossing capacity almost certainly caused significant temporary disruption to Russian military logistics operations and potentially, Crimea's fuel supply. Russia will almost certainly be forced to replace the rail ferry service as soon as possible, likely impacting its wider maritime logistics operations, or risk relaxing its procedures by using the rail bridge to transit fuel and explosive stores. The Ukrainian strike on the ferry crossings and a subsequent attack on a nearby fuel depot, highlights again the vulnerability of the Strait to Ukrainian interdiction, despite Russia's significant investment in security and air defence. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that so far, 73 combat encounters have taken place. For the current 24 hours, the Russian occupiers have launched on the territory of Ukraine one missile strike with the use of two missiles and 35 aviation strikes of 58th kabama, applied 477 kamikadze drones. Russian forces carried out almost 2,734 shelling on the positions of Ukrainian troops and settlements using different types of weapons. In the Kharkiv direction, the Russian aggressor did not carry out active offensive actions, trying to push out Ukrainian units, causing intense fire effect. The situation is under control. In the Kupyansky direction, Russian occupiers during the day are trying to advance to Ukrainian positions in the areas of Druzhelyubivka and Petropavlivka. Three Russian attacks were repelled by the Defense Forces. In the Lymans komu direction, Russian forces attacked 11 times in the areas of Nevsky, Serebryans kogo Forest, Terniv and Masozarivki. Loss of territories and positions is not allowed. In the sivers komu direction, Russian forces tried to break through Ukrainian defense five times in the areas of bilogorivka and verkhnyokamans kogo. Never been successful. The situation is under control. In the Kramators komu direction, the activity of Russian zagarbnikiv was limited to five combat clashes. Four attacks in the areas of Ivanivsky, Klishchievka and Kalinivka were successfully repelled by Ukrainian defenders. The situation is tense, ongoing fight in the area of Kalinivki. The greatest activity of the Russian forces showed today in the pokrovsky direction. Just since the beginning of the day, the Russian invaders 28 times tried to infiltrate Ukrainian defense in the areas of Novoselivka First, Sokola, Evgenivka, Kalinovogo, Novooleksandrivka, Jasnobrodivka, Novopokrovsky and Progress. At the moment, 22 Russian attacks have been repelled, six militants continue. Ukrainian defenders are taking measures to stabilize the situation and prevent Russian forces from advancing deep into Ukrainian territory. In the Kurakhiv direction, Russian forces attacked Ukrainian positions five times in the areas of Paraskoviivka and Krasnogorivka. They did not have any success. The situation is under the control of Defense Forces. Nine times, the Russian occupiers have unsuccessfully stormed Ukrainian positions on the Vremivsky Direction in the areas of Staromayorsky, Urozhayny and Novodarivka. In the Orihiv and Pridniprovsky directions, the situation has not changed significantly, under the control of the Defense Forces, loss of positions and territories are not allowed. In the rest of the directions, there were no significant changes in the environment. Ukrainian Air and Missile and Artillery units have since earlier this day attacked four personnel concentration areas, one weapons and military equipment cluster area, one PPO vehicle and one RLS of the Russian occupiers. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that units of the Sever Group of Forces improved the tactical situation along the front line and inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of the AFU 57th Motorised Infantry Brigade, 31st, 110th mechanised brigades, 113rd, 120th, 125th territorial defence brigades near Volchansk, Beliy Kolodez, Veseloye, Visokaya Yaruga, Zhovtnevoye, and Tsirkuny (Kharkov region). Six counter-attacks launched by assault detachments of the AFU 82nd Air Assault Brigade, 101st Guard Brigade of the General Staff, and 13rd National Guard Brigade were repelled. The AFU losses amounted to up to 140 Ukrainian troops, one tank, two armoured personnel carriers, seven motor vehicles, one German-made 155-mm Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled artillery system, two 152-mm D-20 howitzers, and three 122-mm D-30 howitzers. Units of the Zapad Group of Forces took more advantageous lines and inflicted losses on formations of the AFU 21st and 67th mechanised brigades near Borovaya (Kharkov region), Ivanovka, Kolodezi, and Novoye (Donetsk People's Republic). Two counter-attacks launched by units of the AFU 3rd Assault Brigade were repelled. The AFU losses amounted to up to 155 Ukrainian troops, two armoured personnel carriers, one Polish-made 155-mm Krab self-propelled artillery system, two U.S.-made 155-mm M198 howitzers, one 152-mm Akatsiya self-propelled artillery system, and one U.S.-made 105-mm M119 howitzer. Units of the Yug Group of Forces improved the situation along the front line and inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of the AFU 5th Assault Brigade, 79th Air Assault Brigade, 54th, 92nd mechanised brigades, and 116th Territorial Defence Brigade near Verkhnekamenskoye, Elizavetovka, Konstantinovka, and Kurdyumovka (Donetsk People's Republic). The AFU losses amounted to up to 640 Ukrainian troops, two armoured fighting vehicles, one U.S.-made M113 armoured personnel carrier, two motor vehicles, one U.S.-made 155-mm M198 howitzer, three 152-mm Msta-B howitzers, and one 152-mm D-20 howitzer. One Bukovel-AD electronic warfare station and two AFU field ammunition depots were destroyed. Units of the Tsentr Group of Forces improved the tactical situation and inflicted losses on units of the AFU 71st Jaeger Brigade, 23rd, 28th mechanised brigades, 109th Territorial Defence Brigade, and 2st National Guard Brigade near Yevgenovka, Karlovka, Novgorodskoye, and Selidovo (Donetsk People's Republic). Six counter-attacks launched by assault detachments of the AFU 68th Jaeger Brigade, 24th, 47th, 110th, and 118th mechanised brigades were repelled. The AFU losses amounted to up to 345 Ukrainian troops, one tank, two armoured fighting vehicles, two motor vehicles, one U.S.-made 155-mm M777 howitzer, four 152-mm Msta-B howitzers, and one 122-mm D-30 howitzer. Units of the Vostok Group of Forces took more advantageous lines and inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of the AFU 58th, 72nd mechanised brigades, 102th and 128th territorial defence brigades near Vodyanoye, Neskuchnoye, and Urozhaynoye (Donetsk People's Republic). The AFU losses amounted to up to 150 Ukrainian troops, two infantry fighting vehicles, nine motor vehicles, one 122-mm D-30 howitzer, and one 100-mm Rapira anti-tank gun. Units of the Dnepr Group of Forces inflicted losses on formations of the AFU 141st Infantry Brigade, 35th Marines Brigade, 121st Territorial Defence Brigade near Pyatikhatki (Zaporozhye region), Mylovoye, Novotyaginka, and Ingulets (Kherson region). The AFU losses amounted to up to 60 Ukrainian troops, five motor vehicles, one 152-mm Akatsiya self-propelled artillery system, and one 122-mm Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system. Operational-Tactical and Army aviation, unmanned aerial vehicles, and Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces wiped out one uncrewed surface vehicle depot, airfield-type landing pad for preparing and launching unmanned aerial vehicles, temporary deployment areas of foreign mercenaries, as well as manpower and hardware in 127 areas. Air defence units shot down 48 unmanned aerial vehicles, one Neptune anti-ship missiles, and seven U.S.-made HIMARS and Olkha MLRS projectiles. In total, 610 airplanes and 274 helicopters, 25,177 unmanned aerial vehicles, 527 air defence missile systems, 16,264 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,330 combat vehicles equipped with MLRS, 10,124 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 22,286 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address California Man Found Guilty of Sending Threatening Emails to FBI that Included Threats to Bomb Its L.A. Field Office Thursday, June 6, 2024 For Immediate Release Office of Public Affairs A federal jury convicted a California man for sending threatening emails to the FBI, including ones in which he threatened to bomb the FBI Los Angeles Field Office and referenced the notorious "Unabomber." Mark William Anten, 52, of Sun Valley, was found guilty of two counts of threats by interstate communication. He has been in federal custody since December 2023. According to evidence presented at a three-day trial, from July 2023 to December 2023, Anten sent a series of increasingly threatening communications to the FBI, culminating in two threats to bomb the FBI field office in Westwood. "This verdict should make clear that the Justice Department has no tolerance for threats of violence against the FBI," said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. "The men and women of the FBI are courageous public servants who do their work with integrity and skill, and we will stop at nothing to hold accountable those who threaten them with violence." "Law enforcement officers put their lives on the line to keep our community safe and therefore deserve our thanks and respect," said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California. "Those who threaten the FBI and other law enforcement officers ignore the daily sacrifices these officers make to protect us and undermine the rule of law. We will continue to stand with our law enforcement partners." These emails included repeated references to Theodore John Kaczynski, also known as "The Unabomber," whose 20-year bombing campaign killed three people and injured nearly two dozen more. Kaczynski was convicted of federal crimes, spent the bulk of his prison sentence in the Supermax federal prison in Colorado and died in a different federal prison last year. On Nov. 20, 2023, two FBI task force officers interviewed Anten in front of his residence. During the interview, Anten admitted to sending the previous communications and the officers admonished him to stop contacting agents, the affidavit states. Despite the admonition, Anten's conduct escalated. On Dec. 5, 2023, Anten sent to FBI agents an email in which he wrote, "I AM THE UNABOMBER" and "I WILL UNABOMB THE LOS ANGELES FBI HQ." The next day, Anten wrote to FBI agents, "I can go on a mass murder spree. In fact it would be very explainable by your actions." He concluded the email with, "[y]ou ain't getting away with this one," and signed the email, "SuperMax or Death." Anten also sent FBI agents an email, which attached a photograph depicting the results of an internet search for "how to make a dirty bomb." Later that day, Anten visited the FBI Los Angeles Field Office and later emailed agents that he visited their building and would continue to do so. Surveillance footage confirmed Anten's presence there. Anten was convicted of two counts of threats by interstate communication. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 13 and faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison for each count. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. The FBI is investigating the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Clifford D. Mpare and Kedar S. Bhatia for the Central District of California are prosecuting this case. Topics: Counterterrorism National Security Components: National Security Division (NSD) USAO - California, Central Press Release Number: 24-710 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Treasury Sanctions Ecuador's Los Lobos Drug Trafficking Organization and Its Leader U.S. Department of the Treasury June 6, 2024 WASHINGTON a Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the Ecuador-based Los Lobos Drug Trafficking Organization (Los Lobos) and its leader Wilmer Geovanny Chavarria Barre (also known as "Pipo"). Numbering thousands of members, Los Lobos has emerged as Ecuador's largest drug trafficking organization and contributes significantly to the violence gripping the country. This action builds on Treasury's February 7 designation of Los Chonerosaa prominent Ecuadorian drug gangaand comes as Ecuadorian criminal organizations backed by Mexico's Cartel Jalisco Nueva GeneraciAn (CJNG) and Sinaloa Cartel continue to drive violence and instability in Ecuador. "Drug trafficking groups with ties to powerful drug cartels threaten the lives and livelihoods of communities in Ecuador and throughout South and Central America," said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. "As today's actions demonstrate, we steadfastly support Ecuador in its efforts to combat drug trafficking and counter the threat of drug-related violence." ONGOING CRISIS IN ECUADOR On May 22, 2024, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declared a new state of emergency in seven of the country's 24 provinces in response to ongoing gang violence. The January 7 disappearance of Los Choneros leader JosA Adolfo MacAas Villamar from his cell in a Guayaquil prison triggered widespread riots, bombings, kidnappings, the assassination of a prominent prosecutor, and an armed attack on a TV network during a live broadcast. On January 9, President Noboa declared his country to be in a state of "internal armed conflict" and designated 22 of the country's gangsaincluding Los Lobos and Los Chonerosaas terrorist groups. President Noboa's May 2024 declaration follows an April referendum in which Ecuadorian voters overwhelmingly approved proposals that would allow his government broad leverage to fight the drug gangs, including deploying soldiers alongside police and permitting law enforcement to use weapons seized from gangs. TARGETING ANOTHER PROMINENT CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION Los Lobos began as a group of hitmen working under their now-rival gang Los Choneros. The 2020 assassination of a Los Choneros leader left a power vacuum that Los Lobos and its allies filled by coordinating attacks against Los Choneros' fragmented leadership, culminating in prison riots that left scores of inmates dead. Los Lobos has been involved in drug trafficking, murder-for-hire, and illegal gold mining and additionally provides security services for Mexico's CJNG in support of CJNG's efforts to dominate cocaine trafficking routes in Ecuador's port city of Guayaquil. Los Lobos is also accused of orchestrating the assassination of 2023 Ecuadorian candidate Fernando Villavicencio. In September 2023, the Department of State issued an award of up to $5 million for information on unknown subjects responsible for Villavicencio's murder. In Ecuador, a country once regarded as a safe haven from the drug-related violence plaguing its Latin American neighbors, murals like this are a constant reminder of the drug gangs whose violence has thrown the country into crisis since January. In Ecuador, a country once regarded as a safe haven from the drug-related violence plaguing its Latin American neighbors, murals like this are a constant reminder of the drug gangs whose violence has thrown the country into crisis since January. Wilmer Geovanny Chavarria Barre (Chavarria Barre) is a top leader of Los Lobos. During his imprisonment between 2011 and 2018, Chavarria Barre gained notoriety while managing a group of hitmen who operated as a sub-component of Los Choneros and assumed the name Los Lobos or "the wolves" before their rise as a powerful drug gang in their own right. In 2022, Chavarria Barre ordered the murder of his rivals Leandro Norero and Samir Maestre to seize control of their valuable drug trafficking routes. Chavarria Barre remains at large, with public reports suggesting he may have fled Ecuador under an assumed identity. OFAC designated Los Lobos pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 14059 for having engaged in, or attempted to engage in, activities or transactions that materially contributed to, or pose a significant risk of materially contributing to, the international proliferation of illicit drugs or their means of production. OFAC designated Chavarria Barre pursuant to E.O. 14059 for being or having been a leader or official of Los Lobos. 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. U.S. persons may face civil or criminal penalties for violations of E.O. 14059. Today's action is part of a whole-of-government effort to counter the global threat posed by the trafficking of illicit drugs into the United States that is causing the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans annually, as well as countless more non-fatal overdoses. OFAC, in coordination with its U.S. government partners and foreign counterparts, and in support of President Biden's Unity Agenda, will continue to hold accountable those individuals and businesses involved in the manufacturing and sale of illicit drugs. The power and integrity of OFAC sanctions derive not only from OFAC's ability to designate and add persons to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (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. For detailed information on the process to submit a request for removal from an OFAC sanctions list, please click here. For more information on the individual and entity designated today, click here. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Chang'e-6 bags precious lunar sample in Earth-returning vehicle Global Times US alone in 'space race' narrative: observers By Deng Xiaoci Published: Jun 06, 2024 10:02 PM Updated: Jun 06, 2024 10:32 PM Two days after lifting off from the moon's surface, the ascender of China's Chang'e-6 lunar probe completed a rendezvous and docking with the orbiter-returner combination, delivering the world's first lunar samples collected from the far side of the moon to the Earth-returning vehicle on Thursday afternoon. The Global Times learned from the China National Space Administration (CNSA) on Thursday that the rendezvous and docking took place at 2:48 pm Thursday and the safe transferring of lunar samples at 3:24 pm. This marks the second time China has achieved a lunar orbit rendezvous and docking, following Chang'e-5. After its epic lift-off from the far side of the moon on Tuesday morning, the ascender of Chang'e-6, carrying the lunar samples, entered the lunar orbit and carried out four orbit adjustments, per the CNSA. When the ascender was about 50 kilometers ahead and 10 kilometers above the orbiter-returner combination, the orbiter andreturner combination used close-range autonomous control to gradually approach the ascender, completing the orbital rendezvous, according to mission insiders. The orbiter's three sets of K-shaped grappling claws aligned with the three connecting rods on the ascender's docking surface, securely connecting the two devices by tightening the claws, precisely completing the docking. After that, the container holding the precious samples from the far side of the moon was safely transferred from the ascender to the returner. The Chang'e 6 orbiter and returner combination will next separate from the ascender and enter a lunar orbit waiting phase, preparing for a lunar-to-Earth transfer orbit control at an opportune time, according to the mission plan. After undergoing key steps such as the lunar-to-Earth transfer and the separation of the orbiter and returner, the returner is scheduled to land with the lunar samples at the Siziwang Banner landing site in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Open to cooperation with US Chang'e-6 completed the world's first-ever mission of collecting samples from the far side of the moon and is on its way home. This is a historic step in humanity's peaceful use of space, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said during a routine press conference on Thursday. When commenting on reports of NASA's congratulations on the latest leap in China's decades-long moon exploration, Mao told the Global Times on Thursday that China is always open toward space exchanges and cooperation with the US. The two sides established mechanisms such as the working group on Earth science and space science cooperation, and the China-US Civil Space Dialogue. At US request, the competent authorities of the two countries established a mechanism to exchange orbit data on each other's Mars probes to ensure long-term successful mission operation, according to the spokesperson. There are, however, difficulties in China-US space cooperation at the moment, which are caused by US domestic legislation such as the Wolf Amendment that prevents normal exchanges and dialogue between Chinese and US space agencies, Mao said. "If the US truly wants to push forward space exchanges and cooperation with China, it needs to take practical steps to remove these obstacles," Mao noted. The achievements of China's ongoing Chang'e-6 moon probe mission thus far have evidently become a source of anxiety for the US amid the Western media's fabricated hot saga of the US-China space race, Chinese space observers said on Thursday. When covering the ascender of Chang'e-6's lift-off from moon surface, US media outlet CNN reported on Tuesday that the successful return of the samples would give China a head start in harnessing the strategic and scientific benefits of expanded lunar exploration - an increasingly competitive field that has contributed to what NASA chief Bill Nelson calls a new "space race." When asked which country would be the first to have a base on the moon, Keith Cowing, former American rocket scientist and current editor of NASAWatch.com, bluntly said that it might be China. "We (the US) are trying to get there first... but we will land next to them (China), roll down our window and say 'Hi, y'all, where do you want us to park our big lander'." During the same interview with DW, David Ariosto, an American journalist and founder of Space Watch Daily, said that China has the edge at this point, but that could change. The anxiety and sour grapes mentality are quite evident on the US side, Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Thursday. When handling ties with China, the US is desperate to hold an absolute edge over China in all spheres including the space domain to deal with China's rapid development. The obstacles are rooted in this mentality, Li noted. "Strategically, the US is also unwilling to be on an equal footing with China in space. This mind-set is deeply ingrained and traditional, making it difficult to change. This is also an important factor." US media and the head of NASA have repeatedly tried to stir up the US-China space race narrative, aiming to increase investment in the space sector and accelerating technological progress and related activities in space, Chinese observers said. The US wants to create a scenario of mutual confrontation rather than cooperation, which has led to the so-called space race the US desires. However, at present, the conditions for such a race do not exist because China and other countries are not willing to participate. If only the US is invested in it, it can't be called a race. In the end, it becomes a one-sided effort by the US, they said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran to inaugurate West Asia's biggest spaceport: Minister Iran Press TV Thursday, 06 June 2024 9:28 PM Iran's minister of communications and information technology says the Islamic Republic is to inaugurate the West Asia region's biggest spaceport in its southern port city of Chabahar by early next year. Issa Zarepour made the remarks in the southeastern city of Zahedan on Thursday. "[The process of construction of] the first phase of the port is being completed thanks to round-the-clock endeavor," he said. He noted that the process had so far witnessed as much as "56-percent physical progress." "The facility would be inaugurated by the Ten-Day Dawn ceremonies," the minister said. He was referring to the 10-day-long annual celebrations that mark the historic run-up to the victory of the country's Islamic Revolution in 1979. The celebrations will start in late January next year. The spaceport is expected to host its first launch by next March, Zarepour added. The official said construction of the facility had begun under Ebrahim Raeisi's administration, referring to Iran's former president, who was martyred alongside his companions in a helicopter crash last month. The spaceport, he concluded, would also serve as a tribute to the late chief executive. Despite sanctions imposed by Western countries in recent years, Iran has taken giant strides in its civilian space program. Back in February, Zarepour said Iran was among the world's top-10 countries as far as manufacturing satellite and space launch vehicle was concerned. "Our space launch vehicles can carry satellites weighing up to 200 kilograms and place them in orbit," he said at the time. The Islamic Republic planned to send heavier satellites into space in the next five years, the minister said, and hailed that the country had also managed to place its satellites in a Low Earth orbit, which was at a distance of 450 to 2,000 kilometers from the Earth. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address SpaceX Starship Flight 4 SpaceX's Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket , collectively referred to as Starship, represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond. The fourth flight test of Starship - Booster 11 and Ship 29 - launched 06 June 2024 from Starbase in Texas. The 120-minute test window opened at 7:00 a.m. CT. A live webcast of the flight test began about 30 minutes before liftoff. The launch window opened as early as 7 a.m. CT. The rocket, lifted off at about 7:50 a.m. local time (1250 GMT). The company's three previous attempts resulted in destruction of the rockets before the flights were completed. Starships third flight test made tremendous strides towards a future of rapidly reliable reusable rockets. The test completed several exciting firsts, including the first Starship reentry from space, the first ever opening and closing of Starships payload door in space, and a successful propellant transfer demonstration. This last test provided valuable data for eventual ship-to-ship propellant transfers that will enable missions like returning astronauts to the Moon under NASAs Artemis program. The fourth flight test turned the focus from achieving orbit to demonstrating the ability to return and reuse Starship and Super Heavy. The primary objectives will be executing a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico with the Super Heavy booster, and achieving a controlled entry of Starship. To accomplish this, several software and hardware upgrades have been made to increase overall reliability and address lessons learned from Flight 3. The SpaceX team will also implement operational changes, including the jettison of the Super Heavys hot-stage following boostback to reduce booster mass for the final phase of flight. Flight 4 flew a similar trajectory as the previous flight test, with Starship targeted to splashdown in the Indian Ocean. This flight path did not require a deorbit burn for reentry, maximizing public safety while still providing the opportunity to meet the primary objective of a controlled Starship reentry. The fourth flight of Starship aimed to bring SpaceX closer to the rapidly reusable future on the horizon. SpaceX is continuing to rapidly develop Starship, putting flight hardware in a flight environment to learn as quickly as possible to build a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond. Minutes after liftoff, SpaceX confirmed Starship's Raptor engines had ignited during hot-staging separation. The first-stage booster, known as Super Heavy, executed the flip maneuver and boostback burn. Super Heavy has splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico. Starship coasted in space, and re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. About 1 hour and 5 minutes after launch, SpaceX confirmed Starship's splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The Super Heavy booster lifted off successfully and completed a full-duration ascent burn. Starship executed another successful hot-stage separation, powering down all but three of Super Heavys Raptor engines and successfully igniting the six second stage Raptor engines before separating the vehicles. Following separation, the Super Heavy booster successfully completed its flip maneuver, boostback burn to send it towards the splashdown zone, and jettison of the hot-stage adapter. The boosters flight ended with a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico seven minutes and 24 seconds into the flight. Starship's six second stage Raptor engines successfully powered the vehicle to space and placed it on the planned trajectory for coast. Starship made a controlled reentry, successfully making it through the phases of peak heating and max aerodynamic pressure and demonstrating the ability to control the vehicle using its flaps while descending through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds. Starlink on Starship once again enabled real-time telemetry and live high-definition video throughout every phase of entry, with external cameras providing views all the way to the flights conclusion. Flight 4 ended with Starship igniting its three center Raptor engines and executing the first flip maneuver and landing burn since our suborbital campaign, followed by a soft splashdown of the ship in the Indian Ocean one hour and six minutes after launch. The fourth flight of Starship made major strides to bring us closer to a rapidly reusable future. Its accomplishments will provide data to drive improvements as we continue rapidly developing Starship into a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond. Flight 4 flew similar trajectory as the previous flight test, according to SpaceX. The company's three previous attempts resulted in destruction of the rockets before the flights were completed. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk congratulated SpaceX team on the achievement. "Despite loss of many tiles and a damaged flap, Starship made it all the way to a soft landing in the ocean!" Musk said on X. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address MFA statement on the summoning of Belarus's chargA d'affaires Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Republic of Poland 06.06.2024 Due to the tragic events at the Polish-Belarusian border resulting in the death of a Polish soldier on duty, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned ChargA d'Affaires of the Republic of Belarus Aleksei Ponkratenko. He was handed a protest note in which Poland firmly calls on Belarus to stop provocations at the Polish-Belarusian border and orchestrating migration pressure. As the crime was committed on the Polish side of the border and given an ongoing prosecutorial investigation, the MFA also demands that the person responsible for murdering the Polish citizen be identified and surrendered. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Remarks by Minister of National Defence Bill Blair at IISS Shangri-La Dialogue 2024, Plenary Session 6 National Defence Speech June 2, 2024 Distinguished delegates, panel members, good morning, bonjour tout le monde. It is a great pleasure and an honour to be here at the 21st Shangri-La Dialogue as Canada's Minister of National Defence. This is my first trip to the Shangri-La Dialogue. I have been extraordinarily impressed by this gathering and its emphasis on the importance of collaboration and communication as we all work together to uphold peace and security in the two oceans that connect this vast and vital region. I want to take the opportunity as well to thank the IISS and Singapore for hosting this important dialogue. It has actually changed perceptions for me personally in a very material and important way and I'm very grateful for the experience. I am very pleased to be able to say that Canada is a proud Pacific nation. My country has a Pacific coastline stretching some 25,000 kilometres, and, as a Pacific nation, Canada's future and prosperity is deeply tied to the stability and security of the entire Indo Pacific region. It is the fastest growing region by economy and by population and it is Canada's second-largest regional export market and trading partner. The ties between our peoples are strong. Nearly one-fifth of all Canadians have family origins that began here in the Indo Pacific. Canada's role as a Pacific nation is part of who we are as a country. For that reason, a free open and inclusive Indo-Pacific is vital to our nation's future as well. We recognized a few years ago that we needed to be more present in this part of the world. It's one of the reasons we released Canada's Indo-Pacific Strategy back in 2022, a strategy that is investing some two and a half billion dollars to increase our presence in the region, including over half a billion dollars to increase our security and defence ties. This investment allows us to increase our naval presence from two to three frigates each year. It has enabled us to increase our participation in joint exercises in a new military capacity building program. And we are engaging with regional partners in order to bolster cyber capabilities, to address issues of disaster risk reduction, emergency relief and humanitarian assistance. Our partners and Allies have told us that they need to see a more reliable and consistent partner. I want to assure you all that Canada is making the necessary investments not only to be more present here, but to be an engaged and contributing partner to all of the very important initiatives that we have spoken about throughout this dialogue. Our presence here in the Indo Pacific runs deep. We have benefitted tremendously from long-standing engagements with the military in the region and these relationships, as I have come to learn, are the strength of our ties. Since the Korean War our military has maintained a continuous presence in the United Nations Command in South Korea where today a very proud Canadian, Lieutenant-General Derek McCaulay, serves as its deputy commander. On Operation NEON, we deploy aircraft and ships to monitor UN Security Council sanctions evasion by North Korea. And we are present in the region today. For decades we've been sharing expertise with our regional partners particularly in Southeast Asia through our military training and cooperation program and we want to do even more with partners in the region. Today, for example, I'm very pleased to confirm that Canada will join the new initiative on Defence Industrial Base Resilience in the Indo-Pacific that was announced earlier in this conference by US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin. I would be remiss if I didn't take the opportunity to commend Secretary Austin for his extraordinary leadership in every theater of the world. This initiative is going to strengthen our collective security and it's going to ensure that Canada, the United States and all of our partners can harness innovation and reduce barriers to cooperation. It's going to help us build a more secure Indo-Pacific region and support our domestic defence industries. Now if I may return to the theme of this panel. Canada is a trading nation and our economy relies on a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific. That's why through our Indo-Pacific Strategy we are increasing our naval deployments in the region. We've long deployed warships from our west coast to the regions but most recently through our Indo-Pacific Strategy we have announced that we are also beginning to deploy our ships from the Atlantic Ocean through the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Indian Ocean. These warships sail through the Indian Ocean on their way to the Pacific. And as a matter of fact, His Majesty's Canadian Ship MontrAal is currently making that passage and at this moment the ship and crew are conducting a port visit at Port Klang in Malaysia, just up the coast. And in the coming days that ship with its Canadian sailors will transit through the Strait of Malacca and onward towards the Pacific. The reason we deploy these ships is to support the rules-based international order in the region because we believe that all of our ships must be able to travel freely and along trade routes. Both the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean must always be free and open for all to sail according to international rules. We must keep these two great oceans secure and connected by respecting the rules that govern conduct between nations. The MontrAal is the first of three Canadian frigates that will be in the region. And today I'm also pleased to announce that this week HMCS Vancouver will be departing from our Pacific Coast to train later this month along with the naval forces of 28 other countries through RIMPAC We'll be deploying a supply ship Asterix, our new Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessel Max Bernays, and sending nearly 300 Canadian Armed Forces members into the region. And following these military exercises in Hawaii, Vancouver will then sell westwards to perform its duties in the Indo-Pacific. I'm very proud to also share with you that Royal Canadian Navy Commodore Kristjan Monaghan will be commanding RIMPAC's entire maritime component this year. For us that is a testament to Canada's commitment to leadership as we engage with all our partners in the Indo-Pacific. In short, our Indo-Pacific Strategy is intended to deliver results. We're conducting more port visits in your countries, and we're participating more in multinational training exercises with your militaries. We're also expanding our military capacity and building upon efforts through training programs that improve interoperability. Perhaps most importantly, given the very understandable concerns that the region has expressed with respect to climate change and climate-related emergencies and disasters, we believe there's great opportunity to continue to invest in humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, risk reduction and emergency response. Nearly two months ago our prime minister and I launched Canada's new defence policy which we've entitled Our North Strong and Free. This policy takes note of some very significant geopolitical shifts that we are all facing, including the fact that our Arctic is becoming far more accessible as a result of climate change. We anticipate that perhaps by 2050 the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia will be through our Arctic. It takes note in of Russia's illegal and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine. I want to take this opportunity as well to assure both President Zelenskyy and Defence Minister Umerov that Canada will always stand with Ukraine until its victory. Our commitment to Ukraine is unwavering and unyielding and that is why our prime minister will also reiterate that position at the upcoming Ukraine peace summit taking place in Switzerland on June 14th. But in addition to the Euro-Atlantic, our defence policy identifies the Indo-Pacific as one of the two priority regions for our military presence for the very first time. Our presence in the region is critical. That's why our policy is going to be investing over ten billion dollars to sustain our naval fleets so that we can continue to deploy our ships into the region on a regular basis and be that reliable and dependable partner that our Allies and friends have asked for. This policy is very clear about the challenges we are facing. We know for example that some countries have been pursuing their own interests or behaviours that challenge existing laws and norms. We believe that these actions contribute to rising instability and an increased risk of miscalculation and error. It therefore falls to each of our countries to work together to uphold the global rules that have delivered peace and prosperity for billions of people in this region and around the world. And we stand ready to engage with China, for example, and with all our partners throughout the Indo-Pacific to ensure a secure and stable region. I think the most important element of that engagement is strong communication between our defence institutions and it is vital. To that end, I had the opportunity through this dialogue to engage with China's Defence Minister Admiral Dong Jun. This was an important and welcome step. It has been over 11 years since Canada's Minister of National Defence sat at the table and had a discussion with their Chinese counterpart. It was long overdue. I can share with you some of the things that I expressed to the Minister. I expressed our concern about China's recent military exercises around Taiwan and the potential provocation that could result. I also expressed concern about the growing economic support that China is supplying to Russia. That is a concern to Canada and all our Allies who stand united with Ukraine in its defence of the illegal invasion of their sovereign territory. I shared with him that we expect all countries in this region to behave responsibly and to respect the international rules that keep us safe. It was a frank but important discussion and we also found common ground and interest in ensuring that together we work on disaster risk-reduction, an appropriate response to emergencies throughout the region and around the world. I'm very hopeful that this dialogue will continue. Let me conclude by reiterating that Canada is very eager to increase its cooperation with regional partners in both of the great oceans that we are here to discuss this morning. We know that we've got work to do to earn our place at that table. I want to assure you all we are prepared to do that work. We welcome opportunities to strengthen our defence relationship with each of your countries. We are committed to increasing our presence and our engagement so that you will not only see more of us, but we will build stronger relationships together. Our ties to the Indo-Pacific, as I've said, run deep and those ties are only growing to deliver a secure, prosperous future for all our peoples. Let us work together to ensure a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific where rules and norms prevail. I look forward to continuing this dialogue with all of you and I want to than once again the IISS for convening this important conversation. Thank you. Merci. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal Prime Minister of Canada - Justin Trudeau June 6, 2024 Courseulles-sur-Mer, France Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with the Prime Minister of France, Gabriel Attal, on the margins of the ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of DaDay and the Battle of Normandy in France. The two prime ministers expressed their deep appreciation for all veterans who contributed to Operation Overlord and the liberation of Europe. They honoured the memory of those who lost their lives in the service of peace and freedom during the Second World War. Prime Minister Trudeau and Prime Minister Attal welcomed the dynamic relationship between Canada and France and the opportunity to continue their discussions so soon after Prime Minister Attal's visit to Canada in April. The longstanding friendship between our two countries and our shared history are powerful assets for advancing our common priorities and the values that unite us in an increasingly complex, competitive, and unpredictable world. The Prime Ministers discussed bilateral cooperation, particularly in the areas of defence and the promotion of peace and stability in the world, as well as in the climate and environment sector. They also underscored their commitment to work together in the fisheries sector and to resolve any dispute related to Atlantic halibut. Prime Minister Trudeau reaffirmed Canada's unwavering support for Ukraine, and its commitment to working with France and other allies to achieve a just and equitable peace in Ukraine. Prime Minister Trudeau expressed that he is looking forward to welcoming President Macron to New Brunswick this year for the first Canada-France Joint Council of Ministers in order to deepen the bilateral relationship between the two countries and promote shared priorities. Prime Minister Trudeau and Prime Minister Attal agreed to maintain regular contact. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with President of the European Council Charles Michel Prime Minister of Canada - Justin Trudeau June 6, 2024 Courseulles-sur-Mer, France Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, on the margins of the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy in France. Prime Minister Trudeau and President Michel expressed their profound appreciation for all veterans who contributed to Operation Overlord and the liberation of Europe. They paid their respects to those who gave their lives in service of peace and freedom during the Second World War. The two leaders discussed ongoing geopolitical crises around the world. They highlighted the close relationship between Canada and the European Union on shared priorities, including promoting security, democracy, human rights, and upholding the rules-based international order. The Prime Minister and the President condemned Russia's ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine and reiterated their shared commitment to standing with Ukraine for as long as it takes. Prime Minister Trudeau and President Michel agreed to remain in close contact and looked forward to advancing discussions next week in Italy for the G7 Summit and in Switzerland for the Summit on Peace in Ukraine. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China to take necessary measures to safeguard Chinese firms' rights against EU's trade protectionist acts: MOFCOM Global Times By Global Times Published: Jun 06, 2024 06:37 PM China will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights of Chinese enterprises, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Thursday, in response to the EU's multiple trade protectionist measures targeting China, which it said has escalated bilateral trade friction and heavily impacted Chinese firms' confidence in operating business in Europe. "We hope the European side will work with China to properly handle trade and economic frictions and take into account the reasonable concerns of both parties through dialogue and consultation," He Yadong, spokesperson of MOFCOM said. He said, recently the EU has been hyping up China's "overcapacity" and "unfair competition," launching an intensive series of investigations into Chinese companies and products, distorting tender definitions and supplementing rules and procedures during the investigation process, which has undermined China-EU economic and trade cooperation, while the risk of friction continues to rise, which has seriously impacted Chinese companies operating in Europe. The overall confidence of Chinese enterprises in the European business environment has been diminished, with the EU intensively adopting unilateral measures such as probes under the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation, the China Chamber of Commerce to the EU said on Sunday, expressing concern about the intensified situation for Chinese companies in the bloc. The remarks were made in response to media reports that China's Great Wall Motor (GWM) is shutting its Europe headquarters in Munich, Germany, a move that has immediately drawn wide attention as the EU's protectionist moves targeting Chinese carmakers are multiplying, following in the US' footsteps. GWM plans to close its European headquarters and lay off its all 100 employees on August 1, citing tough market conditions for electric vehicles and the threat of European tariffs on Chinese imports, according to Bloomberg. China has always believed that China and the EU are each other's important economic and trade partners and have a good foundation for cooperation. The key to correct treatment is to expand cooperation and achieve win-win results in healthy competition, He from MOFCOM said. The fact that some Chinese auto companies choose to build factories in Europe is a reflection of China and Europe's complementary advantages and mutual benefit and win-win results. It is conducive to stimulating local economy and employment, and is conducive to promoting the development of Europe's new energy automobile industry, He added. We hope that the EU and China will conscientiously implement the important consensus reached by the recent China-France-EU Trilateral Leaders' Meeting in Paris, addressing economic and trade problems through dialogue and consultation, and accommodating the important concerns of both parties, He noted. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China's 'wolf warrior' diplomat to take up post in Cambodia The appointment of Wang Wenbin as ambassador follows a rapid expansion of bilateral ties. By RFA Staff 2024.06.06 -- Former Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin has been appointed ambassador to Cambodia, a Chinese official source said. Wang had a meeting with Luo Zhaohui, director of China International Development Cooperation Agency, on Tuesday in his new capacity as ambassador-designate to Phnom Penh, said the agency on WeChat. The appointment of the high-profile Wang is seen by many as an indication of a move for Cambodia up Beijing's foreign policy priority list. Until May 24, Wang chaired a regular press briefing at the foreign ministry, but on that day he ended the session with an unusual "farewell" and he shook hands with journalists, prompting speculation about his next move. Born in 1971 in Anhui province, Wang has been with the ministry of foreign affairs for 30 years and became one of its spokespeople in 2020. Wang is one of the original "wolf warrior" diplomats known for their direct and assertive, sometimes combative, approach to international relations. Another "warrior" and a fellow spokesperson, Hua Chunying, has been promoted to vice minister of foreign affairs. The term "wolf warrior," adopted from the title of a Chinese action film, describes those who stand ready to denounce any criticism of the Chinese government and the Communist Party, and their policies. Wang is regarded as a celebrity on Chinese social media, with a fan base that idolizes him for his fierce professionalism but also his calm, refined manners. There are several forums dedicated to "Uncle Wang" - a reference to his gray hair - on the Weibo microblogging site, with thousands of posts. 'Inseparable relations' Wang will replace Wang Wentian, who has served in Cambodia for nearly six years. The relationship between China and the kingdom has grown quickly over the past decade, with Beijing becoming Phnom Penh's biggest investor and closest partner. Cambodia's veteran leader and now its Senate president, Hun Sen, said during a meeting last week with the outgoing Wang that China's assistance to Cambodia not only helps the economic development but also "strengthens Cambodia's political independence." Cambodian officials have also said that they were confident that the former spokesperson would help further elevate Cambodia's relationship with China. So Naro, minister delegate attached to Prime Minister Hun Manet in charge of ASEAN affairs, told the Khmer Times newspaper that Wang Wenbin's appointment was a sign of strength for ties and that the Chinese government attaches great importance to Cambodia. A Chinese state company is to begin a major infrastructure project of strategic importance - the Funan Techo canal - in August. At the same time, Cambodia's relations with the United States have become strained during the past decade partly over U.S. concerns about the suppression of Cambodia's political opposition. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin paid a visit to the kingdom this week but no agreement has been reported. There has also been a rift between Cambodia and Vietnam, its neighbor and staunch ally in the past, over the implications of the Funan Techo canal project which Phnom Penh is determined to build with China's help. Edited by Taejun Kang 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 June 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address In China, Turkish foreign minister calls Urumqi and Kashgar 'Turkic' cities Meanwhile, protesters in Istanbul blast a song-and-dance performance featuring Uyghurs as whitewashing by Beijing. By Arslan and Erkin Tarim for RFA Uyghur 2024.06.06 -- On a visit to China this week, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan described two key cities in the far western region of Xinjiang as "Turkic and Islamic cities" in clear recognition of the 11-million strong mostly Muslim Uyghurs who live there, and their roots in the region. The comments came on Monday after Fidan met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing to discuss regional and international issues, and ahead of his planned visits to the two cities midweek. "These two cities are ancient Turkic and Islamic cities that have contributed significantly to China's cultural heritage," Fidan said. "They serve as a bridge between China and the Turkic and Islamic worlds, symbolizing our historical friendship and neighborliness." On Wednesday, Fidan visited the Yanghang Mosque and the International Grand Bazaar in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and later went to Kashgar. There was no reaction in the Chinese media to his comments, but Hamutkhan Kokturk, the former president of the East Turkistan Foundation, a Turkey-based advocacy group, said that Fidan's statement appeared to be a rejection of China's claims about Xinjiang, which Beijing took control of in 1949. "Throughout history,... the Chinese oppressors have always claimed that East Turkestan has been an inseparable part of China," Kokturk said, using the term Uyghurs prefer for their homeland. "This time, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan's statement that Kashgar and Urumqi are inseparable parts of the Turkic world is a historic declaration," he said. "I understand that this was a response to China's lies." The Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang, who have cultural and linguistic ties to Turkey, have been oppressed by the Chinese government, with an estimated 1.8 million herded into "re-education" camps where they are subjected to forced labor and human rights violations. Beijing says the camps are vocational training centers and have since been closed. The United States has labeled Beijing's treatment of the Uyghurs a "genocide. The World Uyghur Congress said Fidan's comments "emphasizing the historical truth emphasizing the historical truth that Urumqi and Kashgar are Turkic and Islamic cities is of great historical importance." The advocacy group said it hoped that Fidan would "raise the issues of crimes against humanity and human rights violations that the Uyghurs are suffering during his trip to China," and not become "a tool for China's false propaganda." Istanbul protest On Sunday, before Fidan's trip, scores of Uyghurs living in Istanbul, Turkey, staged a protest against China for bringing Uyghur artists from Urumqi to perform traditional songs and dances at a concert hall as part of a "Xinjiang is a Wonderful Place" program they claim whitewashes Beijing's treatment of the Uyghur people. Protesters gathered in front of the Cemal ReAYit Rey Concert Hall to chant slogans including: "Terrorist China, stop the genocide!" "Terrorist China, stop the lies!" "Murderous China, get out of East Turkestan!" The phrase refers to what the Uyghurs prefer to call their homeland. When the bus carrying the Uyghur performers and the Chinese government officials approached the concert hall, protesters tried to block its way but they were stopped by the Turkish police. Some Chinese standing on the balcony of the concert hall took photos of the Uyghur protesters below, and the protesters took photos of the Chinese as well. At an outdoor press conference during the street protest, Kubilay Kerem Buraq, chairman of the Anadolu Members Association, blasted China for falsely portraying Uyghur culture as Chinese culture. "To cover its assimilation and genocidal policies, the Chinese government has been calling Uyghur dance as Chinese folk dance, Uyghur songs as Chinese folk songs," Buraq said. "They are trying to show Uyghur culture as Chinese culture and implant their false claim, namely, East Turkestan is a part of China, into people's minds around the world," he said. Buraq also criticized the Turkish government for allowing the performance and accepted invitations to it. "We condemn them for what they did," he said. During the protest, representatives from other Uyghur associations in Istanbul also took turns condemning China. "Oppression and massacres are taking place in East Turkestan, Uyghur men are being sent to the concentration camps, and their wives are being forced to live with Han Chinese," said Kok Bore, head of the Blue Turk Bodun Association, an advocacy group promoting the rights of Turkic peoples around the world. "How long shall we be silent?" RFA reporters tried to enter the concert hall but were not allowed to do so, being told that only those invited by the Chinese Ambassador Wei Xiaodong were permitted to enter. Translated by Martin Shawn. 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 June 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China reminds Indian side not to violate one-China principle, following Modi's remarks Global Times By Global Times Published: Jun 07, 2024 12:00 AM The Indian side is supposed to recognize, be alarmed about and resist the Taiwan authorities' political calculations, and refrain from doing things that violate the one-China principle, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Thursday, after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was looking forward to having closer ties with the Taiwan region. Modi made the remarks on Wednesday after Taiwan's regional leader Lai Ching-te congratulated Modi on his election win. Modi claimed victory in the country's parliamentary elections on Tuesday, securing a third term, albeit with a narrower majority. India has diplomatic relations with China, and China opposes all forms of official interaction between the Taiwan authorities and countries that have diplomatic relations with China. This position is very clear and India knows this well. India has also made serious political commitments to the one-China principle, Mao said. When commenting on Modi's remarks, Mao said that there is but one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of the territory of the People's Republic of China, and the one-China principle is a universally recognized norm in international relations and a prevailing consensus in the international community. Chinese experts noted that Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed to secure an outright majority in the election, so it will be hard for the prime minister to push for economic reform. This means Modi may resort to playing the nationalism card, they said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Malaysia-China relationship strong and fruitful: PM Xinhua) 10:35, June 07, 2024 KUALA LUMPUR, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Ties between Malaysia and China remain strong and fruitful as the two countries mark the 50th anniversary since the establishment of diplomatic ties, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Thursday. In his keynote address at the 37th Asia-Pacific Roundtable (APR), Anwar highlighted the fact that China is the Southeast nation's largest trade partner, a key investor and a close bilateral and multilateral partner, while noting the success it has had especially in poverty eradication. The progress that China has made in the past, especially the vast improvement in the quality of life for hundreds of millions of its people, is nothing short of spectacular, he said. Anwar also stressed that Malaysia, which has a long-standing non-aligned policy, will continue on this path, seeking cooperation and mutual benefits while avoiding confrontation and geopolitical entanglements. "In remaining faithful to the principle of non-alignment, we have proven that the pursuit of dynamic neutrality is not only feasible but highly desirable," he said. The APR, which runs on Tuesday to Thursday, is the signature international conference of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia. Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Ouyang Yujing said on Wednesday that as this year also marks the "China-ASEAN Year of People-to-people Exchanges," China is willing to work closely with its ASEAN partners in further tightening people-to-people bond by increasing exchanges in culture, media, education, tourism, youth and think tanks and other fields. "China is ready to work with ASEAN countries in more effectively implementing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, deepening industrial collaboration, stabilizing production and supply chains, enhancing regional connectivity, and releasing further the potentials of emerging industries such as digital transformation and green economy. China is also willing to deepen cross-border industrial cooperation with ASEAN countries," he added. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Heads of state of China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan congratulate signing of intergovernmental agreement on railway project People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 08:02, June 07, 2024 BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on Thursday congratulated via video link the signing of an intergovernmental agreement in Beijing on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project. Xi pointed out that the railway is a strategic project of connectivity between China and the Central Asia and a landmark project of the three countries' cooperation efforts under the Belt and Road Initiative. He said the signing of the intergovernmental agreement will provide a solid legal basis for the construction of the project, marking the transition of the railway from a vision into a reality, and demonstrating to the world the firm determination of the three countries to promote cooperation and seek development together. China is ready to work with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to prepare for the launch of the project and build this strategic corridor at an early date to benefit the three countries and their peoples and boost the economic and social development of the region, Xi said. Japarov said the railway is a flagship project of the three countries in jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative. Once completed, it will become a new transport route linking Asia to Europe and the Persian Gulf countries, which is of great significance to promoting connectivity and strengthening economic and trade exchanges among the countries along the route and in the region as a whole, he said. It is hoped that the railway will be completed and put into operation at an early date to provide new impetus for the common development of the region and the well-being of people in all countries, Japarov added. Mirziyoyev said the signing ceremony is of historic significance and a substantial step forward in building regional connectivity. He said the railway will become the shortest land channel between China and the Central Asian countries, and open up the big markets of the South Asian and Middle East countries. This will help further expand cooperation with China and deepen friendly relations between countries in the region, and serve the long-term interests of all countries, Mirziyoyev added. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Exclusive: Azerbaijani Officials Targeted France With New Caledonia Disinformation Campaign By RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service June 06, 2024 BAKU -- An RFE/RL investigation has discovered that several individuals with links to Azerbaijan's ruling party were involved in what appears to have been a coordinated social media campaign targeting France over the recent unrest in the French-ruled Pacific island of New Caledonia. Dozens of accounts on X, formerly Twitter, were suspended for spreading the disinformation, namely misleading photos and videos, RFE/RL has learned, after similar accusations leveled by French officials. Following the digital trail of some of the suspended accounts, RFE/RL was able to uncover details of those linked to them, including their roles or positions in the New Azerbaijan Party (YAP), which is led by President Ilham Aliyev. Aliyev, who inherited the presidential office from his late father in 2003, has drawn harsh criticism at home and abroad for repressing his rivals, severely limiting civil rights, and abusing his authority to benefit his own family. Nurlan Qalandarli, a YAP spokesman, denied as "absurd and biased" any claims that the party or the Azerbaijani authorities were behind the online campaign. "Party members can freely express their opinions on social and political issues in the mass media and social media and comment on any events and processes taking place in the country and at the international level. This is not an exception in relation to the issue of New Caledonia," Qalandarli told RFE/RL. RFE/RL also reached out to the X account holders implicated in the investigation but received no response. Hashtag Campaign The French government's watchdog for online disinformation campaigns, Viginum, issued a report on May 17 identifying Azerbaijani social media accounts spreading anti-French propaganda. Viginum said at least 86 posts on X were published by profiles of people who listed a connection to the YAP. They used the hashtags #RecognizeNewCaledonia and #FrenchColonialism. An RFE/RL analysis found there were 1,413 postings on X under the hashtag #RecognizeNewCalendonia between May 16 and May 22, with a posting peak on May 16. Analysis by RFE/RL showed X accounts most active in either posting or reposting under the hashtag #RecognizeNewCaledonia were based in Azerbaijan. New Caledonia was rocked by violent unrest in May, sparked by a proposed change to the electoral law and fueled by sharp economic inequality between the indigenous Kanak population and people of European background. Seven people were killed, hundreds arrested, and buildings and cars destroyed in two weeks of rioting that started on May 13. France declared a state of emergency in its Pacific territory on May 15 and sent hundreds of troop reinforcements to help police put down the revolt. Azerbaijani flags were spotted at the protests, and political activists in New Caledonia were reportedly in contact with the Baku Initiative Group, an Azerbaijani organization set up in July 2023 that supports independence movements in French territories. On May 27, French President Emmanuel Macron lifted the state of emergency in New Caledonia in a bid to facilitate dialogue between local political parties and French authorities and restore peace for the 270,000 residents of the archipelago. Tense Ties Between Paris And Baku Ties between Paris and Baku have been strained in recent months and have worsened since Baku took control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region in October 2023, triggering a mass exodus of tens of thousands of Armenians from their homes. At the time of the military campaign, France had repeatedly criticized Azerbaijani authorities over the blocking of the Lachin Corridor, the key road that linked Armenia to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. It's not the first time France has accused individuals linked to Azerbaijan of targeting it with a social-media smear campaign. In November 2023, Viginum issued another report claiming an Azerbaijani individual with links to YAP had orchestrated a campaign aimed at undermining Paris's capacity to hold the upcoming Olympic Games. According to the Viginum report, the campaign featured images of riots, the city of Paris, and the logo of the Olympic Games, under two hashtags, #PARIS2024 and #BOYCOTTPARIS2024. The report said it could not link that campaign directly to the Azerbaijani authorities. Emin Ibrahimov, a former Azerbaijani diplomat, told RFE/RL that the Aliyev government was always eager to mold and manipulate public opinion. "For this purpose, the Azerbaijani government also created an army of trolls. Those who work in government offices, without a doubt, always do it to prove their loyalty and to improve their careers," Ibrahimov explained. Misleading Photo The current campaign included a picture montage showing dead pro-independence protesters in New Caledonia next to a white man in a khaki outfit pointing a rifle, with the caption: "The French police are murderers." This image, which French fact-checkers established was in fact two separate pictures spliced together, was widely reposted under the hashtag #RecognizeNewCaledonia, RFE/RL found. Using the analytical tool TweetBinder, RFE/RL was able to determine that this viral post under this specific hashtag was first published by an account belonging to @esmirakhahil. Not mentioned by name in the latest Viginum report, RFE/RL linked the account to Esmira Xalil, who is currently employed at the Azerbaijani State Committee for Diaspora Affairs, although her exact position is unclear. A 2014 news report described her as the head of the press service of the committee. Despite questions about her exact role, Xalil appeared to be a high-profile bureaucrat, representing the committee at several events between 2014 and 2022, when she was among its members singled out for awards for implementing state policy in work related to the Azerbaijani diaspora. This viral post, which appeared to show dead pro-independence protesters, was also shared by an X account linked to Rasadat Xaliqov, who identifies himself as a district deputy chairman of YAP. His account has since been suspended by X. X also suspended the account of Ramila Seyidova for sharing the misleading image. Although her account offered no biographical details, RFE/RL found that Seyidova was a regional deputy chairwoman of YAP, based, in part, on an article from 2022 that included a photo of her. An X account linked to Anar Sahmurad was also suspended by the social media company for spreading the misleading information. Sahmurad also worked for YAP, a local media article from 2022 indicated. Turkan Quliyeva, another member of YAP, also had her X account suspended for the same offense, according to her Facebook account. Among the suspended X accounts is one belonging to Vuqar Agayev, who campaigned for YAP in Baku's Garadagh district ahead of the country's presidential election in February. In December 2021, Agayev confirmed working for the state-run news agency, Azertac, as a special presidential correspondent. The second most widely shared post under the hashtag #RecognizeNewCaledonia, RFE/RL found, was a video accusing French police of murder in New Caledonia, which was originally published on the X account belonging to Elmeddin Behbud, whose name is mentioned in the French report. Citing his own biographical data, Viginum stated that Behbud was employed at Azerbaijan's Council of State Support to NGOs, which functions under the auspices of the Azerbaijani presidency. Behbud's account was apparently not suspended, as RFE/RL was able to access it recently. None of the accounts mentioned responded to RFE/RL requests for comment. Some of them had been quoted by the Baku-based APA news agency as saying they had been targeted by what they called a "coordinated harassment campaign led by Viginum," adding that it had affected their personal security, professional reputation, and freedom of expression. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/azerbaijan-france- new-caledonia-disinformation/32979044.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address President of Sri Lanka congratulates Prime Minister Modi India - Ministry of External Affairs June 05, 2024 President of Sri Lanka, H.E. Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe spoke with Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi over phone and congratulated him on his historic electoral victory. Prime Minister Modi thanked President Wickremesinghe for his warm wishes. He conveyed India's continued commitment to building stronger ties between India and Sri Lanka in keeping with India's Neighbourhood First Policy and SAGAR vision. The two leaders also noted the significant progress that has taken place in implementing the Vision Document issued during the visit of President Wickremesinghe to New Delhi in July 2023. In particular, both leaders reiterated their commitment to accelerate the progress in enhancing connectivity in all its dimensions for catalysing mutual growth, development and prosperity. New Delhi June 05, 2024 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Prime Minister of Mauritius congratulates Prime Minister Modi India - Ministry of External Affairs June 05, 2024 Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi received a congratulatory telephonic call from the Prime Minister of Mauritius H.E. Mr. Pravind K. Jugnauth today. Prime Minister Jugnauth congratulated the Prime Minister on his historic third consecutive term as Prime Minister and underlined that this victory was a testament to the trust placed by the largest electorate of the world in Prime Minister Modi's leadership. Prime Minister Jugnauth also congratulated PM Modi on the successful and inspirational execution of the largest democratic exercise in the world. Prime Minister Modi thanked Prime Minister Jugnauth and reaffirmed his continued commitment to further strengthen the special relationship between India and Mauritius and deepen the long-standing bilateral collaboration in all areas as well as the strong people-to-people ties between the two countries. New Delhi June 05, 2024 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Prime Minister of Nepal Calls Prime Minister Modi to congratulate him on the historic third term India - Ministry of External Affairs June 05, 2024 Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had a telephone conversation with Prime Minister of Nepal, H.E. Mr. Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda'. Prime Minister Prachanda congratulated Prime Minister Modi on his historic victory for the third term in the recently concluded General Elections in India. He expressed his conviction that under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, India-Nepal relations will continue to further strengthen. Prime Minister Modi thanked Prime Minister 'Prachanda' for his greetings. He fondly recalled the visit of the Prime Minister of Nepal to India last year noting that they had then taken several initiatives to further strengthen traditional, friendly and multifaceted partnership between the two countries. Nepal shares deep-rooted cultural and civilizational links with India and remains a special partner in India's 'Neighbourhood First' policy. The telephone call continues the tradition of high-level exchanges between the two countries. New Delhi June 05, 2024 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Congratulatory call by His Majesty the King of Bhutan to Prime Minister India - Ministry of External Affairs June 05, 2024 His Majesty, The King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, called Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today to congratulate him on the victory of NDA in the 18th Lok Sabha elections. His Majesty The King conveyed his warm greetings and best wishes for the continued progress and prosperity of the people of India under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi. Prime Minister thanked His Majesty The King for his warm wishes. Reiterating the exemplary ties of friendship between Bhutan and Bharat, Prime Minister reaffirmed Government of India's commitment to working with the Royal Government of Bhutan and taking the unique bilateral partnership to greater heights. India-Bhutan partnership is characterized by utmost trust, goodwill, and mutual understanding at all levels and is reinforced by robust people to people linkages and close economic and development partnership. New Delhi June 05, 2024 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina congratulates Prime Minister Modi India - Ministry of External Affairs June 05, 2024 Prime Minister Narendra Modi received a congratulatory telephone call from the Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, H.E. Sheikh Hasina for the victory of NDA in the 18th Lok Sabha elections. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was among the first foreign leaders to congratulate the Prime Minister, reflecting the warmth and personal rapport between the two leaders. The two leaders pledged to continue working together to further deepen the historic and close ties under the renewed mandate towards achieving under the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047 and Smart Bangladesh 2041. They acknowledged the significant improvements achieved in the lives of the people of both countries in the last decade and looked forward to further enhancing the transformative relationship across all domains that include economic and development partnership, energy security, connectivity including digital linkages and people-to-people contacts among others. New Delhi June 05, 2024 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte congratulates PM Narendra Modi on his re-election India - Ministry of External Affairs June 05, 2024 Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi received a telephone call today from H.E. Mr Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands. PM Rutte congratulated PM Modi for success in the elections and extended best wishes for a historic third term. PM thanked PM Rutte for his warm wishes and conveyed his appreciation for his personal interest in furthering the close relations between the two countries. The leaders underlined the special and valued relationship between India and the Netherlands. PM reaffirmed his commitment to continue to work for further strengthening the bilateral ties for the benefit of the people of the two countries. New Delhi June 05, 2024 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak congratulates PM Narendra Modi on his re-election India - Ministry of External Affairs June 05, 2024 Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi received a telephone call today from Rt. Hon. Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. PM Sunak congratulated Prime Minister on the success in the general elections and conveyed best wishes for a historic third term. PM Modi thanked PM Sunak for his warm wishes and reaffirmed his commitment to continue to work for further strengthening the India-UK Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in diverse areas. Prime Minister conveyed his best wishes for the upcoming elections in the UK. New Delhi June 05, 2024 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address CONDUCT OF 6TH EDITION OF INDIAN NAVY - ROYAL NAVY OF OMAN STAFF TALKS India - Press Information Bureau Ministry of Defence Posted On: 06 JUN 2024 3:56PM by PIB Delhi Towards further strengthening the existing Defence relations between India and Oman in the maritime domain, 6th edition of Staff Talks between Indian Navy (IN) and Royal Navy of Oman (RNO) were conducted from 04 - 05 Jun 24 at New Delhi. The delegation from RNO was led by Cmde Jasim Mohammed Ali Al Balushi, DG Ops & Plans. Cmde Manmeet Singh Khurana, Commodore (FC) led the delegation from IN. The series of Navy-to-Navy Staff Talks is testimony of the strong bilateral relations between two historical maritime neighbours. During the Staff Talks, both sides deliberated on common maritime security challenges, which necessitate enhanced interoperability at sea, and also discussed issues pertaining to operational collaboration, information sharing, Maritime Domain Awareness, training, meteorology, hydrography and technical assistance. The delegation also visited IFC-IOR, Gurugram and called on VAdm Tarun Sobti, Deputy Chief of Naval Staff, Indian Navy. Oman is one of the India's closest partners in the Gulf region and regular conduct of Staff Talks plays a key role in consolidating gains in naval cooperation and deepening the existing partnership between both Navies. ****** VM/SPS (Release ID: 2023162) NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran rules out IAEA Board of Governors' resolution IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jun 6, 2024 New York, IRNA -- The Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Iran to the United Nations in New York Amir Saeed Iravani has rejected the allegations made against Iran in a recent resolution by the Board of Governors (BoG) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Iravani wrote a letter to address the UN Security Council and elaborated on Iran's positions concerning the stance of the Board of Governors. He wrote that upon instructions from "my Government, and further to my letter dated 21 November 2023 (S/2023/899), I am writing in regards to the joint letter dated 3 June 2024 from the Permanent Representatives of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom to the United Nations, addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council (S/2024/429). The Islamic Republic of Iran rejects all the allegations raised in the letter and reiterates its position concerning its peaceful nuclear program and the JCPOA as follows: The E3 continues to falsely accuse the Islamic Republic of Iran of non-compliance with JCPOA commitments, while deliberately disregarding the underlying origin of the current situation. As it has been stated on numerous occasions, Iran's decision to take remedial measures was in full accordance with its inherent right under paragraphs 26 and 36 of the JCPOA, in reaction to the United States' unlawful unilateral withdrawal from the agreement on 8 May 2018, and the subsequent failure of the E3 to uphold their commitments. The objective behind Iran's decision, which was made a full year after the US's unlawful withdrawal and the E3/EU's failure to fulfill their sanctions-lifting obligations, was crystal clear: to restore a balance in reciprocal commitments and benefits under the JCPOA. The claim that the E3 has consistently upheld its JCPOA commitments is simply untrue. On the contrary, the E3 has constantly failed to honor its obligations under paragraph 20 of Annex V of the JCPOA. This significant non-compliance is still ongoing. The E3's failure to implement its sanctions-lifting commitments specified in paragraph 20 of Annex V of the JCPOA on Transition Day (18 October 2023) as an unjustifiable unilateral is a clear example of substantial non-performance of their obligations, thereby violating both the JCPOA and UNSC Resolution 2231 (2015). The Islamic Republic of Iran has persistently complied with its obligations under the Comprehensive Safeguard Agreements (CSA), including through maximum cooperation with the IAEA to implement its verification activities in Iran. To date, Iran has been under the most robust verification and monitoring activities of the Agency. Regarding the modified Code 3.1 of the Subsidiary Arrangements, it should be emphasized that the implementation of modified Code 3.1 was among the transparency and confidence-building measures, as reflected in paragraph 65 of Annex I of the JCPOA. As part of Iran's decision to stop implementing voluntary transparency measures beyond its Safeguard Agreement, the implementation of modified Code 3.1 was ceased. It was taken in full conformity with paragraphs 26 and 36 of the JCPOA, according to which, in the case of re-introduction or reimposition of nuclear-related sanctions by the U.S. or the EU, Iran has the right to cease performing its commitments under the JCPOA in whole or in part. Similarly, Iran's decision to enrich uranium in Fordow was a remedial measure in response to non-compliance of the United States and E3/EU with their legally binding obligations under Resolution 2231 (2025) and their significant non-performance under the JCPOA commitments. That decision was also made in exercising Iran's rights expressly stated in paragraphs 26 and 36 of the JCPOA and in full accordance with its inherent rights under the NPT and the commitment under CSA. However, all such activities have been and continue to be under the supervision of the IAEA. The Islamic Republic of Iran's commitment to its obligations under the NPT remains steadfast. States parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) shall not be prevented from exercising their inalienable rights under the Treaty to develop research, production, and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in full conformity with articles I and II of the Treaty. Any allegation to the contrary is baseless and categorically rejected. The claim that Iran's nuclear program has reached a critical and irreversible point, coupled with assertions that Iran's peaceful nuclear activities pose a threat to international peace and security, are entirely false and unfounded. The expression of concern over the termination of UNSCR 2231(2015) on 18 October 2025 is misleading, irrelevant, and provocative, given the absolutely peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program. Iran has constantly demonstrated its rejection of nuclear weapons and its commitment to NPT. This principled policy remains unchanged. Iran firmly rejects all forms of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, based on solid ideological teachings and strategic considerations. Iran is determined to remain actively engaged in all genuine international efforts to save humanity from the menace of nuclear weapons. The Islamic Republic of Iran reaffirms its unwavering commitment to diplomacy. It has repeatedly shown its willingness to resume talks with the aim of full implementation of the JCPOA by all participants. The JCPOA is a hard-won multilateral diplomatic achievement that remains the best option with no alternatives. It exemplified successful dialogue and diplomacy, effectively averting an undue crisis. Its revival is indeed in the interest of all participants. 4208**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran condemns IAEA's BoG anti-Iran resolution IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jun 6, 2024 Tehran, IRNA -- Iran's Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned the issuance of an anti-Iran resolution, stressing that such moves would not have any negative effect to undermine Iran's nuclear development plans. Iran's Foreign Ministry in a statement condemned the anti-Iran resolution passed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s Board of Governors (BoG). Issuing the resolution will have no effect on the Islamic Republic's resolve to continue its peaceful application of the nuclear energy and operationalize its developmental nuclear plans in line with the rights that are accorded to the country under the relevant international agreements, the statement reads. It also considered the resolution to be a "politically-motivated" and a non-constructive measure and an attempt on the part of some Western countries to take political advantage of international mechanisms to target independent countries. "Iran is committed to continue technical cooperation with the agency within the framework of its international rights and obligations based on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Safeguards Agreement." Iran has repeatedly said that it is not seeking nuclear weapons, stressing its nuclear technology is solely for civil purposes. Also, there is a Fatwa by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution which bans any possession and use of weapons of mass destruction. 6125**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address E3 responsible for consequences of IAEA resolution: Iran envoy IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jun 6, 2024 London, IRNA -- Iran's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Mohsen Naziri has criticized Britain, France and Germany, together known as the Troika or E3, for proposing "a non-constructive" anti-Iran resolution at the agency's Board of Governors meeting. According to IRNA, Naziri speaking at the meeting on Wednesday warned that the responsibility for the negative consequences of the resolution on the positive atmosphere required for Iran's interactions with the IAEA now lies with the three European countries. He cautioned that the anti-Iran resolution will undoubtedly affect the positive atmosphere needed to work on the mutually-agreed measures between Tehran and the UN nuclear watchdog, saying "now the Troika must take responsibility for any consequences." "This resolution cannot divert the attention of the international community from the real intention of the Troika to give the Israeli regime enough time to continue the genocide in Gaza with impunity and cannot pressure Iran to give up its rights to pursue a peaceful nuclear program", Naziri told the gathering. He emphasized that while the Islamic Republic, in words and actions, has shown its desire for constructive interaction, it is now ready to react to any non-constructive stance and action. The resolution proposed by Britain, France and Germany, against Iran's peaceful nuclear program was approved by the IAEA's Board of Governors on Wednesday, with 20 votes in favor, 2 votes against and 12 abstentions. It asks Tehran to take "necessary and urgent measures" to resolve the alleged safeguard issues. Before the voting, several countries issued a joint statement calling the adoption of the anti-Iran resolution a miscalculation and warned of its negative consequences. They also urged member states to resist the efforts to politicize safeguarding issues by not voting on the resolution. 4399 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran won't back down from its inalienable rights: AEOI spox IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jun 6, 2024 Tehran, IRNA -- Spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi has said that the Islamic Republic will not back down from its inalienable rights in the face of political pressures, calling on Western countries to "take the path of interaction and cooperation". Kamalvandi made the comment on Wednesday after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors passed a resolution against Iran's peaceful nuclear program, which was proposed by the three European countries of France, the UK and Germany. The resolution called on Iran to "reverse its withdrawal of the designations of several experienced Agency inspectors which is essential to fully allow the Agency to conduct its verification activities in Iran effectively." The Iranian official called the passage of the resolution a political and unconstructive move by the IAEA Board of Governors. "Western countries are expected to take the path of interaction and cooperation, instead of misusing international organizations and exerting pressure", Kamalvandi said, adding that those countries should know from the past experiences that Iran will not back down from its inalienable rights in the face of political pressures. 4194 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran strongly rejects IAEA allegations in new resolution Iran Press TV Thursday, 06 June 2024 4:25 PM Iran's permanent ambassador to the United Nations has firmly rejected allegations by the IAEA against the Islamic Republic's peaceful nuclear program. In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the rotating president of the UN Security Council Joonkook Hwang on Thursday, Amir Saeed Iravani said Tehran's decision to take remedial measures is in full compliance with its inherent right under Iran's 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The resolution was issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors on Wednesday. The Iranian diplomat also lambasted Britain, France and Germany - known as the E3 - for spearheading the anti-Iran resolution at the UN's nuclear agency. Tehran, he said, "rejects all the allegations" in the E3's letter and "reiterates its position concerning its peaceful nuclear program and the JCPOA." Iravani said the E3 continues to level unfounded allegations against Iran for non-compliance with JCPOA commitments. "Iran's decision to take remedial measures was in full accordance with its inherent right under paragraphs 26 and 36 of the JCPOA, in reaction to the United States' unlawful unilateral withdrawal from the agreement on 8 May 2018, and the subsequent failure of the E3 to uphold their commitments. The objective behind Iran's decision, which was made a full year after the US's unlawful withdrawal and the E3/EU's failure to fulfill their sanctions-lifting obligations, was crystal clear: to restore a balance in reciprocal commitments and benefits under the JCPOA," Iran's ambassador to the UN said. "The claim that the E3 has consistently upheld its JCPOA commitments is simply untrue. On the contrary, the E3 has constantly failed to honor its obligations under paragraph 20 of Annex V of the JCPOA. This significant non-compliance is still ongoing. The E3's failure to implement its sanctions-lifting commitments specified in paragraph 20 of Annex V of the JCPOA on Transition Day (18 October 2023) as an unjustifiable unilateral is a clear example of substantial non-performance of their obligations, thereby violating both the JCPOA and UNSC Resolution 2231 (2015)," Iravani stated. He said Tehran has persistently complied with its obligations under the Comprehensive Safeguard Agreements (CSA), including through maximum cooperation with the UN nuclear agency to implement its verification activities in Iran, emphasizing that Iran has so far been under the most "robust verification and monitoring activities" of the IAEA. "Iran's decision to enrich uranium in Fordow was a remedial measure in response to non-compliance of the United States and E3/EU with their legally binding obligations under Resolution 2231 (2025) and their significant non-performance under the JCPOA commitments. That decision was also made in exercising Iran's rights expressly stated in paragraphs 26 and 36 of the JCPOA and in full accordance with its inherent rights under the NPT and the commitment under CSA. However, all such activities have been and continue to be under the supervision of the IAEA," Iravani further wrote in the letter. Iran's UN envoy also stated that Iran's commitment to its obligations under the NPT remains steadfast. "States parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) shall not be prevented from exercising their inalienable rights under the Treaty to develop research, production, and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in full conformity with articles I and II of the Treaty. Any allegation to the contrary is baseless and categorically rejected. The claim that Iran's nuclear program has reached a critical and irreversible point, coupled with assertions that Iran's peaceful nuclear activities pose a threat to international peace and security, are entirely false and unfounded," he said. In conclusion, Iravani said Iran "reaffirms its unwavering commitment to diplomacy. It has repeatedly shown its willingness to resume talks with the aim of full implementation of the JCPOA by all participants. The JCPOA is a hard-won multilateral diplomatic achievement that remains the best option with no alternatives. It exemplified successful dialogue and diplomacy, effectively averting an undue crisis. Its revival is indeed in the interest of all participants." Iran asserts that it runs one of the most transparent peaceful nuclear energy programs among the IAEA's members. The Islamic Republic has also repeatedly voiced its readiness to resolve differences with the IAEA within a framework of constructive and mutual interaction and technical cooperation. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iranian envoy warns negative consequences of IAEA resolution lie with E3 Iran Press TV Thursday, 06 June 2024 9:56 AM Iran's permanent representative to the United Nations office in Vienna has censured Britain, France and Germany for spearheading a resolution against Tehran at the IAEA, warning that the three European countries will bear responsibility for the negative consequences of the move. Mohsen Naziri Asl made the statement at a session of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Wednesday after the 35-member body passed a resolution accusing Iran of withholding sufficient cooperation with the agency. Ratified by 20 votes in favor, two against with 12 abstentions, the resolution proposed by the European troika a also known as the E3 a demands that the Islamic Republic step up its cooperation with the IAEA and provide "technically credible explanations which satisfy the Agency's questions." The resolution also supports the IAEA to pursue its dialogue with Iran to clarify all outstanding safeguards issues. "Beyond a shadow of a doubt, this resolution will severely impact the positive atmosphere needed to work on further measures that must be mutually agreed upon by Iran and the agency," Naziri Asl said. "Now, the troika must take responsibility for any consequences because Iran may act accordingly and in full compliance with its rights and obligations," he added. Stressing that Iran has shown its interest in words and actions for constructive interaction with the IAEA, the senior diplomat said, "The Islamic Republic is now ready to react to any non-constructive stance and action." Naziri Asl also underlined that the anti-Iran resolution cannot divert the international community's attention from the real intention of the troika, which is to give the Israeli regime enough time to continue its genocide in Gaza with impunity, and cannot pressure the Islamic Republic to abandon its right to pursue a peaceful nuclear program. Iran not to back down from its inalienable rights: AEOI spox Also on Wednesday, Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), strongly condemned the resolution and said the Islamic Republic will not back down from its inalienable right in the face of political pressures. Kamalvandi denounced the anti-Iran resolution as a "non-constructive" measure and called on the Western governments to adhere to the "path of interaction and cooperation." "Western countries are expected to take the path of interaction and cooperation instead of exploiting international organizations and exerting pressure," the AEOI spokesman said, adding that "experience must have proved to them that Iran will not give up on its inalienable rights in the face of political pressure." Over the past years, Iran has made great strides in its peaceful nuclear energy program in defiance of illegal sanctions and other hurdles created by the Western governments. The country, which is among the original signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has also been closely cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency. The country showed to the world the peaceful nature of its nuclear program by signing the 2015 nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with six world powers. But, Washington's unilateral withdrawal in May 2018 and its subsequent re-imposition of sanctions against Tehran left the future of the deal in limbo. Tehran started to suspend some of its obligations under the agreement in 2019 and then agreed to some additional IAEA inspections and resolved issues related to one of the three sites and the alleged presence of uranium particles there. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address IAEA resolution won't undermine Iran's nuclear development plans: Ministry Iran Press TV Thursday, 06 June 2024 2:22 AM The Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned the United Nations nuclear agency's earlier passage of an anti-Iranian resolution, insisting that such moves would not serve to undermine the country's nuclear development plans. The ministry issued the remarks in a statement on Wednesday after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s Board of Governors passed the resolution, accusing the Islamic Republic of withholding sufficient cooperation with the agency. "Passage of the resolution will have no effect on the Islamic Republic's resolve to continue its peaceful application of the nuclear energy and operationalize its developmental nuclear plans in line with the rights that are accorded to the country under the relevant international agreements," the ministry's statement read. It considered the resolution to be a "politically-motivated and non-constructive measure" and an attempt on the part of some Western countries to take political advantage of international mechanisms to target independent countries. Iran asserts that it runs one of the most transparent peaceful nuclear energy programs among the IAEA's members. The country has also repeatedly voiced its readiness to resolve differences with the IAEA within a framework of constructive and mutual interaction and technical cooperation. The ministry's statement likewise declared that "Iran is committed to continue technical cooperation with the agency within the framework of its international rights and obligations based on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and [the agency's] Safeguards Agreement." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran Slams 'Unconstructive' Resolution By Nuclear Watchdog, Vows 'No Retreat' By RFE/RL's Radio Farda June 06, 2024 Iran has criticized a resolution by the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) calling on Tehran to step up its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog. The IAEA's 35-nation board on June 5 voted 20-2, with 12 abstentions, to adopt the censure resolution tabled by Britain, France, and Germany -- the three Western European nations that are party to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and are known as the E3. In a statement, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said it "strongly condemns" the resolution, which it described as a "political and unconstructive" move. It added that Tehran is "committed to continue its technical cooperation" with the watchdog under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA. Ahead of the vote, Iran had warned that it would respond to the censure resolution. Behruz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said after the adoption of the resolution that Tehran had "started taking steps" in response to the vote. He did not elaborate. "Past experience should have proved to them [the West] that Iran does not retreat from its inalienable rights in the face of political pressure," he said. Nour News, an Iranian outlet affiliated with Ali Shamkhani, senior political adviser to Iran's supreme leader, warned on June 6 that applying pressure on Tehran would only encourage it to expand its nuclear program. Meanwhile, the Kayhan newspaper, whose chief editor is appointed by the supreme leader, on June 6 demanded the expulsion of all IAEA inspectors from Iran. It also alleged that the resolution was meant to influence Iran's upcoming presidential election by forcing voters to elect a government willing to negotiate with the West. Despite its adoption, the resolution did not receive as many votes in favor as the last two resolutions. A June 2022 resolution was adopted 30-2, while a November 2022 resolution was passed 26-2. Iran responded to the June 2022 resolution by removing IAEA cameras and monitoring equipment from several nuclear sites. In reaction to the November 2022 censure, Tehran started to enrich uranium to 60 percent purity at a second site, the Fordo plant. In September 2023, despite there being no resolution against Iran, the Islamic republic moved to bar several experienced UN inspectors from monitoring its equipment. The new resolution calls on Iran to reinstate the veteran inspectors. Iran insists that it has been cooperative with the IAEA, but the agency's director-general, Rafael Grossi, maintains that Tehran has failed to provide "technically credible" explanations for traces of uranium found in two old but undeclared sites. Damon Golriz, a lecturer at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that the resolution may be a step by European powers toward "taking a political decision" to trigger a "snapback" of UN Security Council (UNSC) sanctions against Iran. The "snapback" mechanism is outlined in UNSC Resolution 2231, which enshrined the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. However, the option to reimpose the sanctions expires in October 2025. "With the activation of the 'snapback' mechanism, we go back to how things were 15 years ago, when six UN resolutions obliged the world to put Iran under pressure," Golriz said. Written by Kian Sharifi based on reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Farda and AP Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-iaea-nuclear-censure- resolution-snapback/32981751.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Concerns Grow For Detained Iranian Activist As His Whereabouts Remain Unknown By RFE/RL's Radio Farda June 06, 2024 The family of Hossein Shanbehzadeh said they do not know where the Iranian literary editor and activist is after security officers arrested him for unknown reasons in the northwestern city of Ardabil. The case highlights the tightening grip on freedom of expression in Iran by hard-line Islamists. Shanbehzadeh's detention on June 4 followed a viral response to a tweet by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in which the activist simply posted a period. The reply garnered more attention than Khamenei's original tweet, which featured a photo with the Iranian national volleyball team. In a statement released on June 6, Shanbehzadeh's family said they were concerned for his well-being amid the severe accusations being leveled against him. "Our primary concern is for Hossein's health, as we are unaware of the arresting authority and his place of detention," the family said while criticizing Iranian authorities for denying him basic legal rights, such as access to a lawyer and family contact. The family's statement came after the prosecutor of Ardabil reported the arrest of a "fugitive and a suspect sought by the Intelligence Ministry" whom it labeled as an "Israeli spy." While the prosecutor did not directly name Shanbehzadeh, the Tasnim News Agency, which is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), identified him as the detainee. Shanbehzadeh, known for his sharp criticism of the Iranian regime, has been a well-known activist in the digital realm. Operating under a pseudonym on social media platform X, he has been a vocal advocate for free expression. He has also edited influential literary works, including Naguib Mahfouz's Heritage And Life With Him. In 2019, Shanbehzadeh faced imprisonment for "insulting the sanctities and the leader of the Islamic republic" due to his critical comments about Iran's leadership on social media. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iranian-actvist- concern-location-unknown/32982288.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia, China Voted Against IAEA's Resolution on Iran Sputnik News 20240606 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia and China voted against the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) resolution condemning Iran's alleged "nuclear escalation," its adoption could significantly complicate cooperation between the organization and Tehran, Russia's Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said. Earlier, Ulyanov said the IAEA's Board of Governors adopted a resolution condemning Iran's alleged nuclear escalation. He said 20 votes were cast in favor, 2 against with 12 abstentions. "#Russia and #China voted against anti-Iranian resolution in the #IAEA Board of Governors, because its adoption can significantly complicate cooperation between the IAEA Secretariat and #Tehran. For a similar reason 12 states from "the Global South" abstained," Ulyanov wrote on X. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Junta troops abandon 2 oil fields after militia members block supplies Oil fields run by the state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise are the military's top sources of foreign cash. By RFA Burmese 2024.06.06 -- Junta forces have given up control of two oil fields managed by Myanmar's state energy company after rebel guerillas cut off food supply routes to nearby military camps. Production at the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise's oil fields is the military junta's main source of foreign revenue. The company is estimated to generate US$1.5 billion in annual revenues - or half the country's foreign currency reserves. Junta troops abandoned an oil field in Kyauk Khwet village in Myaing township on March 2 and another one in Let Pan To village in Pauk township on April 19, two residents told Radio Free Asia. The oil fields are about 12 km (20 miles) from each other. "They finally ran out of food and left their camps," said a Myaing township resident, who like others quoted in this report asked not to be identified for fear of retribution. "We did not need to fight them. We didn't do anything with them." Before leaving, the troops burned down the buildings in both camps and also set fire to the oil field in Let Pan To village to keep equipment out of the hands of residents. A military jet also dropped several bombs on the Let Pan To oil field, the Myaing township resident said. No one has been seen working at either of the oil fields since the junta troops left, although nearby residents are still able to carry out some small-scale extraction, according to a resident from nearby Pauk township. "This is a blow to their mechanism. The junta has lost a lot of natural gas," said a former employee of Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise who left after the 2021 military coup to join the Civil Disobedience Movement. 'We are cutting them off' More than 200 wells have been drilled in the two fields since around 1996, oil field staff members told RFA. The two oil fields produced the maximum amount of oil in 2018 and 2019, with about 1,080 barrels each day. The wells in Kyauk Khwet have also produced 1 million cubic feet (28 million liters) of natural gas each day, the staff members said. Other oil fields in Magway region are still under the control of the junta troops, said Yan Gyi Aung, a member of a rebel People's Defense Force, or PDF, group in Magway's upper Minhla township. PDF fighters are aware of the strategic importance of halting junta operations at the oil fields, he said. "The junta is getting funds from this. If they get more funds, they will buy more bullets and weapons to kill people," he said. "We are blocking the lifeblood of their revenue and financial resources. Currently, we are cutting them off." Sanctions were directed at Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise following the February 2021 military coup. Another round of sanctions was announced last year by the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. RFA attempted to contact junta spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun and the junta's spokesman for Magway region, Myo Myint, about the loss of the two oil fields, but they did not immediately respond. Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Matt Reed 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 June 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Conscription in Myanmar drives insurgent recruits: civilian government Hundreds of trainees completed military courses on Wednesday. By RFA Burmese 2024.06.06 -- Nearly 1,000 people eligible for conscription into the Myanmar military's ranks are instead seeking training from the shadow civilian government's armed forces, the group announced. The junta, which seized power in 2021 and has since faced increasing desertions and military losses nationwide, announced the implementation of the People's Military Service Law in February. The military has since recruited about 9,000 people through two rounds of conscription based on a lottery system. Many young people have fled the country out of fear that they may be drafted. Recruitment by junta soldiers has involved coercing young people, including minors, threatening violence or property destruction and most recently, threats and heavy fines for parents of draft dodgers as a third round of conscription approaches, residents say. About 960 people have chosen to seek training under the civilian National Unity Government's People's Defense Forces, or militias opposing the junta, the group's southern military office said in a statement on Wednesday. The statement included photos of a recent graduation. The N.U.G. was formed by members of the civilian administration ousted in the February 2021 coup. A 28-year-old man eligible for military conscription under the junta in central Myanmar's Mandalay Division told RFA he initially planned on going abroad, like many people already have, but he was now aiming to join anti-junta forces. "At first I was hesitant to put my family at risk but now I canceled my preparations to go abroad and work and have decided to take up arms. Now I am preparing and am still trying to connect with the training group," he said, asking to remain anonymous for security reasons. "I can't take it anymore, mainly because of the [junta's] injustice, the way they are killing and torturing people. Most young people would make the same decision. This is the only way left for us to root out the military dictatorship." The National Unity Government's Southern Military Headquarters No. 3 began accepting trainees to undergo basic military courses in April and May, it said in its statement. RFA phoned the headquarters for more information, but it could not be contacted due to limited telecommunications access. 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 June 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UN chief condemns escalating violence and civilian attacks in Myanmar 6 June 2024 - The UN Secretary-General AntAnio Guterres is deeply concerned about escalating violence in Myanmar, he said in a statement released on Thursday. UN Spokesperson StAphane Dujarric said the Secretary-General "strongly condemns" recent attacks by the Myanmar military in Rakhine State and Sagaing Region that have reportedly claimed the lives of many civilians. "The Secretary-General is deeply concerned about the widening regional ramifications of the deteriorating situation in Myanmar and reiterates his appeal for a unified approach," Mr. Dujarric said. Conflict in Myanmar Myanmar's Rakhine State has seen a spike in violence between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army that has left tens of thousands homeless. Many of the attacks reportedly targeted the minority Muslim Rohingya community, who have been based in Rakhine for generations but denied full citizenship. Hundreds of thousands were forced to flee into Bangladesh from there in 2017 following persecution by government forces. During the attacks, some members of this community experienced beheadings and burning of their homes. Recent data from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) revealed that about 226,000 people from this community have been uprooted due to the violence who are in need of resettlement. Even further, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had previously reported cases of "shooting at unarmed fleeing villagers" and disappearances in Myanmar. The country is now recognised as a hunger hotspot where "acute food insecurity is likely to deteriorate further in coming months." Being held accountable Mr. Dujarric, said that recent incidents "targeting ethnic Rakhine in Western Myanmar, and the ongoing persecution of the Rohingya, underlines the need for protection of all communities." He said that aerial bombings and human rights violations are constantly reported in many parts of Myanmar and "those responsible must be held to account." Further, he said the Secretary-General "calls on all parties to the conflict to exercise maximum restraint, prioritise protection of civilians in accordance with international humanitarian law and prevent further incitement of communal tension and violence." Mr. Dujarric said that the Secretary-General is urging member states and stakeholders to support his newly appointed Special Envoy, Julie Bishop as she works on fostering sustainable peace through close cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and neighbouring countries. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address South Korean group floats anti-North balloons over the border They ignored the North's warnings it would send more trash-filled balloons in response to such campaigns. By Taejun Kang for RFA 2024.06.06 -- South Korean activists flew large balloons carrying propaganda leaflets towards North Korea on Thursday, a few days after the North threatened to send more trash-filled balloons across the border in response to such campaigns. The group, Fighters for a Free North Korea, led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, said it floated 10 balloons tied to 200,000 anti-Pyongyang leaflets, USB sticks with K-pop songs and South Korean television dramas, and one-dollar U.S. bills, from a border town. "We sent the truth and love, medicines, one-dollar bills and songs. But a barbaric Kim Jong Un sent us filth and garbage and he hasn't made a word of apology over that," Park said in a statement, referring to North Korea's leader and balloons the North sent over the South last week. "Our group, the Fighters for Free North Korea, will keep sending our leaflets, which are the letters of truth and freedom for our beloved North Korean compatriots." The group's new balloon flights followed a South Korean announcement that it will resume all border military activities for the first time in more than five years, ending a 2018 inter-Korean military pact in response to the North sending trash-bearing balloons to South Korea and its jamming of GPS signals. The South's suspension of the pact could mean a resumption of South Korean propaganda broadcasts, blasted through giant speakers on the border into North Korea. North Korea sent waves of trash-filled balloons into the South from last Thursday to Sunday in what it said was a tit-for-tat campaign against South Korean activists who sent balloons carrying propaganda material denouncing the North's regime. Separately, the North staged GPS jamming attacks in waters near South Korea's northwestern border islands for the fifth straight day on Sunday. The Fighters for Free North Korea last month sent 300,000 leaflets and 2,000 USBs containing K-pop music videos to the North suspended from 20 big balloons. The balloons from the south infuriate the North and have long been another source of tension between the two Koreas, which are still technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. On Sunday, North Korea said it would temporarily suspend its cross-border balloon campaign, though it also threatened to resume it if anti-Pyongyang leaflets were sent from South Korea. Edited by 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 June 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's answers to media questions during a joint news conference following talks with Abderaman Koulamallah, Minister of State and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chadians Abroad of the Republic of Chad, N'Djamena, June 5, 2024 5 June 2024 23:03 1060-05-06-2024 Question (translated from French): Chad and the Russian Federation have maintained diplomatic relations since 1964. The two countries signed a wealth of agreements between 1964 and 1974 concerning the economy, culture, technology and aviation. Could you give us a summary of the outcome of these agreements 60 years later? Sergey Lavrov: We did not summarise any results today but rather spoke about our plans for the future, standing on our accumulated experience and following the strategic courses outline by President of Russia Vladimir Putin and President of Chad Mahamat Idriss Deby during their meeting in the Kremlin in January 2024. In addition to the agreements you mentioned, we signed more agreements subsequently, including on cooperation in military affairs and military technology. There is a Memorandum on Foreign Political Consultations Between the Foreign Ministries of Russia and Chad that has been implemented since 2013. But we may consider modernising and updating it, to ensure that the memorandum aligns with the present-day world politics with its enormous scope of problems. President of Chad Mahamat Idriss Deby spoked about this extensively today. We are developing cooperation in security. Chad is interested in it, considering that the terrorist threats in the region, associated with the destruction of Libyan statehood in 2011, persist. That event became the main source of terrorist and extremist activity that continues and even increases in the Sahara-Sahel countries, in West Africa and other parts of the continent. At this stage, we have agreed to pay priority attention to the efforts that would give a boost to our trade and economic links and investment cooperation to reach the same high level as our political dialogue as well as links in defence and security, humanitarian affairs and education. There are several rather interesting proposals to this effect and President Mahamat Idriss Deby also mentioned them today. We have agreed that our Chadian friends would communicate their wishes about the forms of cooperation and the sectors of their economy where they would consider presence of Russian economic operators useful. A delegation of the Chadian Chamber of Commerce and Industry is attending the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. The chamber has opened a permanent representative office in Russia. It is an important and stable channel for exchanging opinions on what sort of projects would serve the interests of Chad's economic development, contribute to resolving social issues and follow the principle of mutual benefit. Our common view is that the tasks set last January at the level of presidents, must be our priorities. Today, we have discussed immediate steps to progress in these tasks. Our financial and economic government bodies and agencies dealing with investment and other associated issues will pick it up. I believe we have had a constructive conversation and will keep working harder. Question (translated from French): You have been touring Africa for several days now. Today, you are here. Can we say that this visit consists of assessing what has been achieved in Russia's relations with Chad? We noted that there were several items on your agenda today, including education. Infrastructure is one of the topics we are interested in. What can you say about it? How will Russia assist Chad and other African countries? Sergey Lavrov: Regarding infrastructure, as I have already said, we asked our friends in Chad to draft a list of economic and infrastructure-related proposals where they would like to work with Russian economic actors. Our companies have built a positive track record when it comes to infrastructure. In particular, Russian Railways works in many African countries and has been coming up with projects to build railways and the corresponding infrastructure. If this sector is on the list of proposals that we will receive from our friends in Chad, the reaction will be positive on our behalf. Let me emphasise that we have a wealth of experience in this sector. Question (translated from French): The Western policy of interference in the domestic affairs of sovereign states caused the Ukraine crisis. What is Chad's attitude towards the Western approaches to regime change and its failure to respect the independence of other countries, or the traditions and values of their people? Sergey Lavrov (after Abderaman Koulamallah): First, we fully respect Chad and other countries in their position which consists of emphasising their neutrality. Just like Chad, we would also prefer talks. Moreover, these talks took place in April 2022, at Ukraine's initiative, when Ukraine came forward with a basic outline of a peace treaty and a settlement. We agreed to these principles, and both sides initialled this text. But then the Kiev regime's Western masters prevented it from signing this document by saying that it must fight in order to inflict what they called a strategic defeat on Russia. For that, the West said, it would supply Kiev with the cutting-edge weapons. This is what they are doing right now. They have been delivering long-range missiles and publicly telling Ukraine to attack any target on the territory of the Russian Federation. In the meantime, they are convening a would-be peace conference in Switzerland. It is scheduled to take place in ten days. But where do these two lines meet? It is hard to understand that. You can either stand for inflicting what they call a strategic defeat on Russia, or for holding peace conferences. But if you side with the peace cause, this probably means that, as Mr Koulamallah has just said, all the involved parties must contribute to finding a solution, instead of convening a conference in Switzerland for reasserting or supporting Vladimir Zelensky's infamous formula without any reservations. This formula boils down to an ultimatum and implies Russia's strategic defeat. And we are supposed to voluntarily accept it. Peace is not what the organisers of this conference want. In their efforts to ensure that countries representing the Global Majority attend this conference, they are guided by the following principle, and have been quite open about it: it is up to you to choose sides, whether you stand with us, or with Russia. We will punish those who side with Russia. This is what this conference is all about. Lastly, and I hope that I am not revealing any secrets here, many African leaders, just as President of Chad Mahamat DAby Into said today, have long pleaded for mutual respect among all countries around the world. We have heard more than once that the time when Western ambassadors could walk into the offices of African presidents and order them to act in a certain way are gone. Thank God, we have put this behind us. What is now happening in Ukraine is following a post-colonial pattern. Senior government officials of the Kiev regime receive their instructions from Western ambassadors. So it is up to you to draw the conclusions. We state our position in all honesty. Question (translated from French): You said that Chad was setting an example for other Sahel states, while facing security challenges. Is Russia ready to help Chad deal with these grave challenges? If so, then how? Sergey Lavrov: I covered this topic in detail on two occasions today. I have mentioned the agreements on defence and military-technical cooperation, which the Russian Federation and the Republic of Chad signed long ago. These agreements were not left on paper; they are being implemented. The Chadian armed and security forces receive Russian weapons and military equipment that strengthen your country's defence capability and enable it to fight terrorism more effectively. This cooperation will go on. Question: Russia and Chad discussed major joint projects in geological exploration, the use of subsurface resources, and nuclear power production in Chad. Have you managed to reach some specific agreements? Maybe some companies are ready to come here, aren't they? Sergey Lavrov: We did reach certain specific agreements. Our Chadian friends will soon compile a list of projects, in which they would welcome Russian corporate involvement. The areas you are talking about - power industry, agriculture, etc. - we have mentioned them, too. President of Chad Mahamat Idriss Deby was particularly interested in peaceful uses of nuclear energy. He mentioned the experience that Russia's Rosatom Company, one of the world leaders in peaceful uses of nuclear energy, had amassed while cooperating with African countries (and not only African). We will expect concrete proposals from our Chadian friends. We are ready to send down an economic mission to discuss promising projects on the ground. We have reached an agreement on this today. Question (translated from French): Will relations between Chad and the Russian Federation affect the relationship between France and Chad? Chad is supporting other countries, specifically neighbouring countries like the Sudan. Can Chad strengthen relations with other countries? What is your position? There are many migrants in this country now. Isn't this the consequence of the Sudan developments? Sergey Lavrov (after Abderaman Koulamallah): Efforts are being taken by Chad and likely to be taken by other countries to bring peace back to the Sudan... There is no doubt that this war is pernicious. It already involves refugee flows and terrorist threats. As in other cases, all sides should sit down to the negotiating table and come to terms on the mode of living for their people. Let me remind you that the Sudan's problems are of long standing. At some point, the United States started to insist that the Sudan must be divided into Sudan and South Sudan and had its way. President Omar al-Bashir cooperated within the framework of this agreement. It would seem that Washington had reached one of its foreign policy goals. Soon, however, the United States "took offense" at how both Sudan and South Sudan behaved and introduced sanctions against them. The "experiment" has failed. They want to spit on people's destinies, and will only mind their own interests. Right now, everyone must stop and engage in negotiations. Like in Libya or any other crisis area. We support what Chad is doing. We also understand that it is one of the most heavily dependent states in terms of the consequences of that confrontation. As for your former question, I can guarantee that out friendship with Chad will in no way affect our relations with France. France has different approaches. It proceeds from the assumption that either you are with us or against us. I recall an episode that happened at the UN General Assembly session some five years ago. The then French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell approached me and started asking questions, like why we were sending Russian military instructors to Mali? I was taken aback and asked: What's the problem? The legitimate Malian leaders had asked us to. I explained that their request related, among other things, to the fact that the French were withdrawing their armed units from Mali, where they were supposed to fight terrorism. But I was told once again that Mali was a "French influence zone." As simple as that. We have a different principle. We are friends with those who want to be friends. We never ally with someone against someone else. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's opening remarks during talks with Minister of State, Minister for Foreign Affairs, African Integration, Overseas Citizens of Chad and International Cooperation Abderaman Koulamallah, N'Djamena, June 5, 2024 5 June 2024 22:13 1059-05-06-2024 Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank sincerely our Chadian friends for their warm and hospitable welcome. I thank President of the Republic of Chad Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno and my colleague Minister of State, Minister for Foreign Affairs, African Integration, Overseas Citizens of Chad and International Cooperation Abderaman Koulamallah for the useful, informative and eventful talks. This is my first visit to Chad. I would like to profit by this occasion and once again congratulate my counterpart on being appointed to this high post. Symbolically, the Russian Foreign Minister's first visit to the Republic of Chad takes place during the year, when we mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between our countries. Earlier today, we recalled the USSR's contribution to the decolonisation process, including its assistance to Chad in gaining independence. We should preserve these traditions, as Mr Minister stressed, for the younger generations to remember our common history. We have appraised positively the progress in our relations. We maintain regular political dialogue. In January 2024, Mr Mahamat Idriss Deby, then the President of the Transitional Period of Chad, paid an official visit to Moscow and held substantive talks with President of Russia Vladimir Putin. I was in regular contact with the previous Foreign Minister of Chad, including during the Second Russia-Africa Summit in St Petersburg in July 2023. Today, we have agreed to intensify the work across the board to bring our relations to a qualitatively new level. We congratulate our Chadian colleagues on the success of the presidential election that marked the end of the transitional period and the country's return to the civilian rule. We actively support the Chadian president's policy to stabilise all areas of life. We have confirmed our shared interest in expanding Russian-Chadian trade, economic, and investment cooperation. There are numerous initiatives here, which require a focus on both sides, primarily from economic and financial agencies, as well as business communities. Today, we discussed this in detail. We are glad that a Chadian delegation is taking part in the SPIEF-2024. This is a good opportunity for establishing contacts with potential business partners. We have an interest in developing mineral resources, geological prospecting, and energy, as well as the construction of infrastructure facilities, agriculture, healthcare, and education. At a meeting today, President of the Republic of Chad Mahamat Idriss Deby said he would personally direct the activities of his country's ministries and agencies, which will be involved in implementing mutually beneficial projects in conjunction with their Russian partners in the above areas and more. We appreciate bilateral humanitarian cooperation, including the training of Chadian specialists at the Russian universities. We have agreed to use education to establish direct contacts between the higher educational institutions of both countries which we practice in our relations with many African countries. I'm confident that it will work for the Russian-Chadian relations as well. We have been successfully involved in traditional military and military-technical cooperation for a long time now. Today, we obtained a confirmation of interest in providing the Chadian armed forces with the Russian equipment, especially now that Chad needs to strengthen its defence capabilities in the face of continuing terrorist threats that come primarily from Libya after NATO forces destroyed that country and its statehood in 2011. We have close and in many instances overlapping positions on key regional and global issues. Like our Chadian friends, we believe that democratisation of international life, ensuring the sovereign equality of all states - large or small - as laid out in the UN Charter, and implementing the principles of the Charter in their entirety and interrelation rather than selectively (depending on the case at hand) is imperative and critically important. As part of the ongoing work to reform the UN Security Council, we are interested in ensuring the African countries' rightful place in this main organisation ensuring international interaction in matters of peace and security. African countries share a common position. We treat it with respect and will push to ensure that the interests of Africa, as well as Latin America and Asia, are fully taken into account no matter how the reform plays out eventually. We are grateful to our partners for supporting Russia's numerous initiatives at the United Nations. We will support coordination at other multilateral venues as well. We focused particularly on the Libya crisis and the situation in the Sahara-Sahel area and West Africa. We share our approaches to Libya. We believe all outside players must respect the Libyan people's fundamental and long-term interests and facilitate the launch of a nationwide and inclusive political process involving all political forces in that country without exception. The Sahara-Sahel area is plagued by the problems that do not go away and just get worse. Just like our Chadian friends, we are convinced that the settlement in this part of Africa, as well as resolving other crises ravaging the continent, should rely on the "African solutions to African problems" principle. The international community should support the solutions developed by the Africans and help them implement these solutions. I assured our Chadian friends that Russia was willing to continue to make a constructive contribution to the efforts designed to stabilise the situation in the Sahara-Sahel and help the countries of the region, including Chad, improve the combat effectiveness of their national armed forces and the training of military and law enforcement personnel. We are grateful to our Chadian colleagues for understanding what is happening in Ukraine, the root causes of this crisis, and the actions we had to take to prevent the creation of direct military threats to Russia's security right on our borders, as well as the discrimination against the Russian people who had lived on these territories for centuries and where, 10 years ago, they refused to acknowledge the results of the Western-backed anti-constitutional coup d'Atat. We are interested in promoting our dialogue across all areas. President of the Republic of Chad Mahamat Idriss Deby shared today deep thoughts about the trends that are unfolding worldwide, and how important it is to fortify the processes leading to genuine multipolarity, equality of rights, and mutually respectful dialogue of all countries without exception in order to arrive at a balance of interests whenever needed. We discussed Russia-African Union interaction, with two Russia-Africa summits held in the recent past. The second one took place in St Petersburg in July 2023. Following the summit, a ministerial Russia-Africa Partnership Forum was created. This forum will meet for the first time in Sochi in November. I invited my colleague to take part in this event which will be important to make sure that the agreements negotiated by the heads of state get implemented. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Press release on Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's working visit to the Republic of Chad 5 June 2024 23:13 1061-05-06-2024 On June 5, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited N'Djamena for the first time in the history of bilateral relations. During the visit, President of the Republic of Chad Mahamat Idriss Deby received Sergey Lavrov who also held talks with Minister of State - Minister for Foreign Affairs, African Integration, Overseas Citizens of Chad and International Cooperation, Abderaman Koulamallah. During their detailed conversations, the officials discussed multiple issues of strengthening the traditionally friendly Russia-Chad ties still further. Moscow and N'Djamena reaffirmed their commitment to deepening trust-based political dialogue and expanding foreign policy coordination on topical issues of the international and regional agendas at the UN and other multilateral platforms. The officials reviewed options for expanding trade, economic and investment partnership, upgrading the contractual and legal framework, implementing promising joint projects in the field of energy, construction and infrastructure modernisation, minerals production and processing, agriculture and healthcare. They focused on expanding education cooperation and training specialists for Chad at Russian educational institutions. While exchanging opinions on key issues of the global and African agendas, they emphasised the consolidated and principled approach of Moscow and N'Djamena in favour of forging a more equitable and polycentric world order that would prioritise the leading role of international law and the UN Charter, renounce the practice of dictate and neocolonialism in global affairs. The sides coordinated their positions on issues of overhauling the UN Security Council and reaffirmed their common interest in increasing the share of sovereign African states among UNSC members. While discussing efforts to unblock conflicts on the African continent, the sides emphasised that there was no alternative to using political and diplomatic methods, with regional organisations playing the leading role, and the international community providing its support through the UN. Sergey Lavrov invited the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chad to take part in a ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum in November 2024 in Sochi. The conference is called on to expedite diverse Russian-African cooperation, while relying on strategic decisions of the 2nd Russia-Africa Summit in July 2023 in St Petersburg. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Meeting with New Development Bank President Dilma Rousseff Vladimir Putin met with Dilma Rousseff, President of the BRICS New Development Bank. June 6, 2024 18:30 St Petersburg President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Ms Rousseff, I am happy to see you. Last year we met on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa Summit. I am glad to have a chance to continue our dialogue. I must note that over this year the bank has managed to do a lot under your leadership. It has shown a significant net profit for the first time; in fact, it is becoming sustainable and operating more smoothly and successfully. I hope today we will have a chance to talk about the bank's further development and our cooperation with the bank, as well as discuss what can be done together, including on such large platforms as the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. Moreover, the topic is very acute: Developing multipolarity and strengthening its economic base. Of course, your opinion as the bank's chair and as former president of Brazil, political figure, and head of a big financial institution, would be very important in all the discussions held on the site of the International Economic Forum. Please give my best regards to the current President of Brazil, Mr Lula da Silva. We agreed to have a telephone conversation in a few days, to discuss bilateral ties. We also look forward to seeing him at the BRICS summit in Kazan this autumn. I am very glad to see you. Welcome. Dilma Rousseff, President of the BRICS New Development Bank (retranslated): Mr President Vladimir Putin, I am very honoured to once again be here, in St Peterburg. I thank you with all my heart for having me here. I believe that this is a very important moment that Russia is presiding at BRICS and organising his forum. The relations between the bank and the BRICS member countries are very important. Russia and Brazil are co-founders of this bank, so Russia plays a very important role for developing countries. Today I had the honour to take part in this very important forum about the new emerging multipolar world. I believe that today the world increasingly needs to become more multipolar, as the Global North has not been able to solve the global problems of humanity. The NDB [New Development Bank] has specific goals: to fill this gap and provide the necessary investments; and Russia certainly plays a very important role in this. We are a different bank from the rest. We are a bank created by the countries of the Global South for the countries of the Global South, and we have some very important characteristics; we cannot impose conditions on our members. I believe that we are a bank that plays an essential role in what is the theme of today's forum: multipolarity is impossible without the multipolar economy. Of course, the multipolar world is also reflected in national currencies, which is another obligation of the bank: to attract and carry out settlements in national currencies. This is very important for developing countries that do not have their own strong currencies and suffer greatly from exchange rate volatility. Therefore, it is very important for us to be together today and discuss such an important topic as the NDB's presence and involvement in the life of the BRICS member countries, Russia being one of them. <...> NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address French Citizen Detained In Moscow On Suspicion Of Collecting Military Data By Current Time June 06, 2024 A French man has been detained in Moscow on suspicion of collecting information related to the activities of Russia's armed forces, the Russian Investigative Committee said on June 6. The Investigative Committee said he "carried out targeted collection of information in the field of military and military-technical activities of the Russian Federation," which, according to Russian law, is considered a crime, although less serious than espionage. The Investigative Committee also said the detainee should have submitted documents to include himself in the register of "foreign agents" but did not do so. It said the man repeatedly visited Russia, including Moscow, where he held meetings with Russian citizens. The data he collected can "be used against the security of the state," the committee said, adding that the man detained will be charged and any pretrial restrictions will be decided in the near future. The Investigative Committee didn't identify the man, but TASS gave his name as Laurent Vinatier, an employee of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), a Geneva-based NGO. HD confirmed Vinatier's detention in a statement released to the Associated Press. "We are aware that Laurent Vinatier, an adviser at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), has been detained in Russia," the statement said. "We are working to get more details of the circumstances and to secure Laurent's release." REN-TV also identified Vinatier as the man who was detained, citing sources. It gave his age as 48. The arrest was announced just as France hosted world leaders on the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Russia wasn't invited to the ceremony. French President Emmanuel Macron told French television that the French citizen was "in no way...working for France" and that he "works for a Swiss NGO founded by former UN chief Kofi Annan." The arrest comes after Macron raised the possibility of deploying French troops in Ukraine. Moscow has warned that if France takes such a step, its soldiers would be legitimate targets. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/french-citizen-detained-moscow- military/32981925.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address U.S. Soldier Goes On Trial In Russia On Charges Of Theft, Threatening To Kill By RFE/RL June 06, 2024 U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Gordon Black, who was arrested in the Far East city of Vladivostok in early May, went on trial on June 6 in a case that further complicates relations between Moscow and Washington. Black was arrested in late May and initially charged with stealing 10,000 rubles [$110] from his Russian girlfriend Aleksandra Vashchuk. He was additionally charged with "forcibly grabbing" Vashchuk by the neck during a quarrel, which she considered as a threat to her life. If found guilty, the 34-year-old Black faces up to seven years in prison. Vladivostok's Pervomaisky district court started the trial on June 6, with Vashchuk and a witness questioned. Vashchuk asked the court not to send Black to prison, saying he needed psychiatric assistance. "He is just an unhappy person. He does not deserve to be imprisoned. He deserves treatment, which he was not provided by his country, although they knew about his situation...The man needs help. Yes, he committed a crime, but he did not do something so terrible to be sent to prison," Vashchuk said. After the testimony, the trial was then adjourned until June 17. U.S. authorities said earlier that Black had been arrested in Russia and accused of stealing from a woman after traveling via China from South Korea -- where he had been assigned before heading back home to Texas -- without informing his superiors. Weeks later, Russian authorities also said that another U.S. citizen, identified as William Russell Nycum, had been detained in late April on "petty hooliganism" and alcohol charges in a separate case, adding that Nycum was being held in a detention center in Moscow. The two arrests have once again raised questions over whether Russian authorities are targeting Americans by detaining them and then using them in potential prisoner swaps amid sharp disagreements between Moscow and Washington over the war in Ukraine and other international security issues. The detentions of Black and Nycum added to a list of U.S. citizens being held in Russia under various circumstances and came as tensions between Moscow and Washington are at their highest levels since the Cold War. Among those being held are journalists Alsu Kurmasheva of RFE/RL and Evan Gershkovich of The Wall Street Journal. Both have been detained on charges they, their employers, and their supporters reject as politically motivated. American Paul Whelan in 2020 was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in Russian prison on espionage charges that he and the U.S. government have repeatedly rejected. Russia's Foreign Ministry has said the cases involving Black and Nycum are not political and neither is accused of espionage. The State Department in September 2023 issued a "do not travel" warning to U.S. citizens and cited "the singling out of U.S. citizens for detention by Russian government security officials." Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-soldier-trial-russia- theft-charges-gordon-black/32981779.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Imprisoned Kremlin Critic Yashin Loses Appeal Against Fine Over 'Foreign Agent' Status By RFE/RL's Russian Service June 06, 2024 A Russian court on June 5 rejected an appeal filed by imprisoned opposition politician Ilya Yashin against a fine he was ordered to pay over what authorities called a violation of the law on "foreign agents." Yashin is serving an 8 1/2-year prison term for his criticism of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The former Moscow municipal lawmaker was fined 30,000 rubles ($334) in March for publishing materials online without denoting that they were made by a foreign agent. Yashin's lawyers insisted that the fine was groundless as their client is serving a prison term and is unable to publish online materials. Yashin, 40, is an outspoken Kremlin critic and one of the few prominent opposition politicians who stayed in Russia after a wave of repression against those who have condemned Russia's aggression against Ukraine since the full-scale invasion was launched in February 2022. The sentence handed to Yashin in December 2022 was the harshest among the cases against those charged with discrediting Russia's armed forces under a new law introduced days after the invasion commenced. The criminal case against Yashin was launched in July 2022. The charge against him stemmed from his YouTube posts about alleged crimes committed by the Russian military in the Ukrainian city of Bucha. Yashin was added to the Justice Ministry's foreign agents' registry in July 2022. In December last year, a Moscow court fined him for failing to label his online materials as made by a foreign agent. Many critics and rights groups say the so-called "foreign agent" law is used by the Kremlin to crack down on any dissent. Repeated violations of the law on foreign agents may lead to a new criminal case against the politician. Yashin took part in the June 5 hearing via a video-link. He stated that he does not consider himself a foreign agent and "devoted" all of his life to supporting Russian interests. "Do not dare to call me a foreign agent," Yashin said. Yashin is serving his prison term in correctional colony No. 3 in the western Smolensk region. Since May 22, Yashin has been placed in a solitary confinement, which disrupted a scheduled three-day stay with his parents on the penitentiary's premises. Judge Aleksei Shteinle allowed Yashin's parents to speak to their son for 25 minutes after the hearing on June 5. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/kremlin-critic-yashin-appeal- foreign-agent-law/32981397.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russian Navy Vessels to Arrive in Havana on June 12 - Cuban Foreign Ministry Sputnik News 20240606 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - A detachment of four Russian naval vessels, including the Admiral Gorshkov frigate and the Kazan nuclear submarine, will arrive at the port of Havana on an official visit on June 12-17, the Cuban Foreign Ministry said Thursday. "A naval detachment from the Russian Federation consisting of four vessels a the frigate Gorshkov, the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan, the Pashin fleet sea tanker and the rescue tug Nikolai Chiker a will pay an official visit to the port of Havana from June 12 to 17, 2024," the ministry said in a statement. This visit is justified by "historically friendly relations" between the two countries and strictly complies with international regulations, the statement said. "None of the vessels carries nuclear weapons. Therefore, their stop-over in our country does not represent any threat to the region," the statement read. During their stay, Russian sailors are expected to pay a courtesy call on the Cuban Revolutionary Navy commander and Havana's governor, according to the statement. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia detains French citizen accused of gathering military intelligence By VOA News June 06, 2024 Russia detained a French citizen on Thursday and accused him of gathering information about the Russian military and failing to register as a "foreign agent." Laurent Vinatier, 47, has been an adviser to the Russia and Eurasia program for the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue for 10 years. Russia's state Investigative Committee said that Vinatier was suspected, over a period of several years, to have "purposefully collected information in the field of military and military-technical activities of the Russian Federation." "This information, when obtained by foreign sources, can be used against the security of the state. For these purposes, he repeatedly visited the territory of Russia, including the city of Moscow, where he held meetings with citizens of the Russian Federation," it added. The Investigative Committee also said Vinatier failed to submit documents needed for "inclusion in the register of foreign agents." Under Russian law, anyone who receives foreign support or is under "foreign influence" must register as a foreign agent. The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue told The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse in a statement that it was trying to secure Vinatier's release. "We are aware that Laurent Vinatier, an advisor at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, has been detained in Russia. We are working to get more details of the circumstances and to secure Laurent's release," the statement said. The French foreign ministry has not made a comment concerning Vinatier's arrest. Vinatier "is one of our citizens working for a Swiss NGO ... it was in no way someone who was working for France," President Emmanuel Macron told French television in an interview Thursday evening. "We will follow this closely and he will receive all consular protection." If convicted, Vinatier could face up to five years in prison, a serious charge amid heightened tensions between Moscow and the West because of the conflict in Ukraine. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Putin: Any deal to free American journalist must benefit Moscow By VOA News June 06, 2024 Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week that any deal to free Evan Gershkovich, the American journalist jailed in Russia on espionage charges, would have to be mutually beneficial for Moscow. Gershkovich, who reports for The Wall Street Journal, has been jailed in Russia since March 2023 on spying charges that he, his employer and the U.S. government vehemently deny. The State Department has also declared him wrongfully detained. Speaking Wednesday, Putin also said that Washington has been pushing hard for Gershkovich's release. "I know the United States administration is indeed taking vigorous steps to free him," Putin told reporters in St. Petersburg. "But such issues are not resolved through the media. They like a quiet, calm, professional approach and dialogue between intelligence agencies. And, of course, they should be resolved only on the basis of reciprocity." Moscow and Washington have been discussing a possible prisoner exchange over the past few months, but the Russian government has said momentum decreased lately after saying the U.S. government was ignoring its proposals. Putin has previously indicated he may want to trade Gershkovich, 32, for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian man jailed in Germany as an assassin for Moscow. One day earlier, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution calling for Gershkovich's immediate release. "Evan Gershkovich has been in jail for over a year for simply doing his job," said Senator Jim Risch, who sponsored the resolution. The resolution "demonstrates Congress' commitment to bringing Evan, and all Americans wrongfully detained in Russia, home safely," Risch, a Republican from Idaho, added in his statement. The resolution, however, did not mention the second American journalist currently jailed in Russia: Alsu Kurmasheva, 47. The dual U.S.-Russian national, who works at VOA's sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague, has been jailed in Russia since October 2023 on charges of failing to register as a so-called "foreign agent" and spreading what Moscow views as false information about the Russian military. Kurmasheva and her employer reject the charges against her, which carry a combined sentence of up to 15 years. The U.S. government has also called for Kurmasheva's immediate release. On Wednesday, Senator Jeanne Shaheen called for Kurmasheva to be declared wrongfully detained. "It's past time that Alsu is designated as wrongfully detained so the U.S. can work to secure her release and reunite her with her husband and children," Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, said in a post on social media platform X. Press freedom groups have criticized the State Department for not yet declaring Kurmasheva wrongfully detained, which would open up additional resources to help secure her release and commit the U.S. government to work for her freedom. "The Department of State continuously reviews the circumstances surrounding the detentions of U.S. nationals overseas, including those in Russia, for indicators that they are wrongful," a State Department spokesperson previously told VOA. Russia's Washington embassy did not immediately reply to a VOA email requesting comment. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Cabinet to have Legislature reconsider 'unconstitutional' amendments ROC Central News Agency 06/06/2024 05:20 PM Taipei, June 6 (CNA) The Executive Yuan is preparing to have the Legislature reconsider recently passed amendments aimed at improving government checks and balances on the grounds they are "unconstitutional" and "difficult to implement." Minister without Portfolio Lin Ming-hsin () told a press briefing Thursday that the Cabinet found the measures passed on May 28 by opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People's Party (TPP) lawmakers, who form a majority in the Legislature, "difficult to implement." He said the Cabinet was preparing, pending the president's approval, to request that lawmakers reconsider those revisions in accordance with Article 3-2 (2) of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China. Lin was referring to the measures that would give the Legislature new investigative powers and the power to hold hearings, which include potentially imposing penalties on public officials and related individuals if they refuse to attend or provide information, or present false information. Lin argued that those measures contradicted past Constitutional Court interpretations, according to which the exercise of investigative and hearing powers must be restrained. Furthermore, the measures stipulate that public officials failing to comply will be deemed guilty of contempt and subject to imprisonment, but lack a clear definition of what constitutes contempt, Lin said. He added that the punishments set out by the amendments contravened constitutionally enshrined principles of proportionality. Lin also called amendments requiring the president's presence at the Legislative Yuan to give an annual state of the nation address and then take questions from the floor unconstitutional, saying it was not in line with Taiwan's current semi-presidential system. On top of that, he continued, the deliberation that led up to the passage of the measures "lacked substantive discussions" in the Legislature and therefore "violated democratic principles." Lin said the amendments to the Law Governing the Legislative Yuan's Power and the Criminal Code were approved through "unconstitutional procedures," and that those revisions, regardless of their justifiability, remained unconstitutional. The amendments seeking greater oversight of the president's and Cabinet's powers have caused brawls in the Legislature and sparked heated debate in Taiwanese society over the past few weeks. Although the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has vehemently opposed the revisions, it advocated for increased oversight of the executive branch of the government while in opposition. However, the party has sidelined this issue since coming into power in 2016. The KMT and TPP, meanwhile, maintain that the revisions have followed due process and are a necessary reform, particularly in light of previous allegations of corruption and wrongdoing arising from the DPP government's major policies and investment projects across various sectors. The Constitution stipulates that if the Executive Yuan finds a bill passed by the Legislative Yuan difficult to execute, it can, provided that it has the president's approval, request the Legislature's reconsideration within 10 days of receiving the bill. Presidential Office spokesperson Kuo Ya-hui () said that President Lai Ching-te () would make a decision after a careful assessment, once receiving the request from the Executive Yuan. Within 15 days of receiving the Cabinet's request, the Legislature must vote on whether to uphold the passage of the bill. If the Legislature fails to reach a resolution within this period, the bill will become invalid. At Thursday's briefing, Cabinet spokesperson Chen Shi-kai () cited Premier Cho Jung-tai () as saying earlier the same day that the Cabinet's plan was not meant to escalate division and conflict between the ruling and opposition parties. Rather, it is hoped that the Legislature will reexamine the content of the passed amendments and ensure they align with the Constitution and national interests, according to Chen. In response to a reporter's question about whether the Cabinet will bring this case to the Constitutional Court if the Legislature ends up upholding the passage of the amendments, Lin declined to give a clear answer, saying it was "too early" to consider such a "hypothetical" question. Apart from the Cabinet, the DPP can also have its lawmakers request a ruling from the Constitutional Court on the revisions' constitutionality. (By Teng Pei-ju and Wen Kuei-hsiang) Enditem/ASG NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Yunlin, Kinmen magistrates apply to attend Straits Forum in China: MAC ROC Central News Agency 06/06/2024 11:54 PM Taipei, June 6 (CNA) The magistrates of Yunlin and Kinmen counties have applied to attend the 16th Straits Forum in China, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said Thursday, urging them to comply with Taiwan's regulations on cross-strait exchanges. Taiwan's government prohibits personnel from government ministries and their affiliated units from attending the Straits Forum, which will be held in China's Xiamen city on June 15, said Liang Wen-chieh (), deputy head and spokesperson of the MAC, Taiwan's top government agency handling cross-strait affairs, at Thursday's press conference. However, he said that the MAC has received applications from the two local government officials -- Yunlin County Magistrate Chang Li-shan () and Kinmen County Magistrate Chen Fu-hai () -- seeking to attend the forum. Chang and Chen are from the opposition Kuomintang and Taiwan People's Party, respectively. Regarding their applications, Liang said that "we are not happy to see it, but the central government will not obstruct it." From the central government's perspective, it is not favorable to see personnel from the local governments joining such a forum, he added. On Thursday evening, Chang told CNA that the tense cross-strait relations in recent years have affected many industries in Taiwan, and that she hoped to promote dialogue and exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait by participating in the forum. The Yunlin County government said that Chang has reported to the central government according to regulations and received approval, and she will take leave from June 14 for the two-day trip, during which she will comply with the Cross-Strait Act and related regulations. According to the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (Cross-Strait Act), county magistrates or city mayors "shall apply for permission to enter into the Mainland Area," with their applications to be reviewed and approved by a committee formed by various ministries and agencies, including the MAC. Liang said that the government's stance on the forum remains consistent, seeing it as "a platform for united front work by the Chinese Communist Party," and prohibiting any agencies, individuals, groups, and political parties from joining any form of activities related to the so-called "One Country, Two Systems Solution for Taiwan" or "Democratic Consultation." For those who will attend the forum, Liang urged them to comply with the Cross-Strait Act and related regulations and said they must not engage in illegal cooperation, or form alliances with the Chinese authorities. The Straits Forum, an annual conference between China and Taiwan, started in 2009. Last year's forum was organized by China's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) and the government of Fujian province, in collaboration with 82 cross-strait organizations, according to a press release by the TAO last June. This year's forum will be held on June 15 in Xiamen, Fujian province, with the theme "Expanding Civil Exchanges, Deepening Integrated Development," according to the organizing committee of the 16th Straits Forum, which has said that the event will include four major activities focusing on grassroots, youth, cultural, and economic exchanges. Meanwhile, Liang mentioned in the press conference that a member of a Taiwanese tour group traveling to China was recently detained for investigation for several days before being released, marking the first incident of a Taiwanese tour group member to China being detained. The tour group was on a five-day tour and one of the group members was taken away by the Chinese authorities midway through the trip and was not released until several days after the group returned to Taiwan, Liang said, adding that the details and reasons for the detention are still under investigation. Liang noted that due to the state security law and counter-espionage law in China, the number of Taiwanese being detained and investigated upon entry has increased recently, reminding Taiwanese that such incidents may not only occur during individual travel but can also happen even when they join a tour group. (By Sunny Lai) Enditem/cs NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US State Dept. OKs Sale of F-16 Spare Parts, Equipment Worth $300Mln to Taiwan Sputnik News 20240606 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The US Department of State has approved a $300 million sale of spare parts and extra equipment for F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said in a statement. The initiative is expected to help Taiwan modernize its armed forces and contribute to the so-called "balance of power" in the region, the statement said. "The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States [TECRO] of a F-16 Standard Spare and Repair Parts and related equipment for an estimated cost of $220 million ... The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the [TECRO] of a F-16 Non-Standard Spare and Repair Parts and related equipment for an estimated cost of $80 million," the DSCA said in the statement released Wednesday. The equipment is meant to be sold in two parts, the defense agency said, adding that Taipei also requested the support of US engineering, logistics and technical services. "This equipment will be transferred from U.S. Air Force stock. ... There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale," the DSCA said. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Washington has supplied Taiwan with $70 billion worth of arms and ammunition in recent years. Taiwan has been governed independently from mainland China since 1949. Beijing views the island as its province, while Taiwan a a territory with its own elected government a maintains that it is an autonomous country. Beijing opposes any official contacts of foreign states with Taipei and considers Chinese sovereignty over the island indisputable. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address PLA activities in the waters and airspace around Taiwan ROC Ministry of National Defense 2024/06/07 PLA activities in the waters and airspace around Taiwan 1. Dateis 6 to 6 a.m. (UTC+8) Thursday to Friday, Jun. 6-7 2. PLA activitiesis 6 PLA aircraft, 6 PLAN vessels, and 4 CCG vessels operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 a.m. (UTC+8) today. 2 of the aircraft entered Taiwan's southwestern and southeastern ADIZ. ROC Armed Forces have monitored the situation and employed CAP aircraft, Navy vessels, and coastal missile systems in response to the detected activities. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Turkish diplomat's visit to Uyghur region in China raises concerns By Kasim Kashgar June 06, 2024 On Wednesday, wrapping up his three-day official visit to China, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan tweeted about fulfilling his long-held dream of visiting Urumqi and Kashgar in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in western China. "For many years, I have had the opportunity to visit many historical cities that contributed to the establishment of the Turkic and Islamic civilization," Fidan said in his tweet. "However, Urumqi and Kashgar always remained in my heart as a regret. Thanks to my contacts in China, I finally visited these two ancient cities." Xinjiang, often referred to as East Turkestan by Uyghurs and the Turkish diaspora, is home to nearly 12 million ethnically Turkic and Muslim Uyghurs. Experts highlight the Uyghurs' significance in Ankara's ties with Beijing because of shared ethnic and religious bonds. "Turkish people have long held concern for the well-being of the Uyghurs, which influences decision-makers in the government," Erkin Ekrem, director of the Ankara-based Uyghur Research Institute, told VOA. "Actions or inactions concerning Uyghurs can impact the outcomes of local or national elections each term." Turkey hosts nearly 50,000 Uyghurs, many of whom fled escalating repression in Xinjiang, establishing one of the largest Uyghur communities outside China. Detention, imprisonment Since 2017, following reports of China's arbitrary mass detention and imprisonment of more than 1 million Uyghurs and other human rights violations against the Turkic Muslim population, the U.S. and several parliaments have designated China's actions in Xinjiang as genocide. In 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Office concluded in a report that Beijing's actions toward Uyghurs might constitute crimes against humanity. China denies these accusations, asserting that the measures in Xinjiang are acts of counterterrorism. Historically, Turkey has allowed Uyghurs in the country some freedom to protest China's treatment of Uyghurs. However, since urging China in 2019 to close the internment facilities and respect Uyghurs' human rights, the Turkish government has not publicly criticized China, according to experts. Turkey has long been pressured by China, one of its largest trade partners, to stop Uyghur advocates and organizations from calling out China's repression, Ekrem said. "Turkey has made efforts to limit Uyghur activism within its borders," he said, "but many Uyghur and East Turkestan groups and individuals operate within Turkish law, making it impossible for the government to completely comply with Chinese demands." During the trip, Fidan met with several high-ranking Chinese officials, including his counterpart, Wang Yi, Chinese Vice President Han Zheng and Chinese security chief Chen Wenqing. He also held talks with officials in Xinjiang. In a statement following his meeting with Wang Yi in Beijing, Fidan described Urumqi and Kashgar as "ancient Turkic and Islamic" cities that serve as bridges between China, the Turkic world and the Islamic world. "They are symbols of our historical friendship and neighborliness," Fidan said. However, since 2017, China's official messaging to Uyghurs in Xinjiang is that they are a non-Turkic group with deep roots in the Chinese nation. According to Abdurresit Celil Karluk, professor at Haci Bayram Veli University in Ankara, Fidan's emphasis on the Turkic and Islamic identity of Urumqi and Kashgar, along with his decision to visit these cities, was a diplomatic signal to his Chinese counterparts and the international community that Turkey remains concerned about the fate of the Uyghurs. "To the best of my knowledge, previous high-level Turkish officials have not previously highlighted the Turko-Islamic identity of this region or TArkiye's geocultural presence in the region during their visits to Beijing," Karluk said in an email to VOA. "It seems that the message was intended for both China and Turkish domestic politics and the Uyghur diaspora." Repression rose In the past, however, repression against the Uyghurs has steadily increased after each visit of high-level Turkish officials to "East Turkestan," according to Karluk. "Since the early 2000s until 2012, at least four top Turkish government officials, including [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, visited East Turkestan," Karluk said. "Consequently, Uyghurs faced increasing repression, and since Erdogan's visit in 2012, Uyghurs have endured ongoing genocide." While in China, Fidan prioritized trade talks between the two countries, seeking to boost Chinese investment in Turkey and attract more Chinese tourism to help balance the trade deficit. "As you know, China is Turkey's second-largest trading partner, and currently, there's almost a $50 billion trade volume between the two countries," Fidan told China Media Group. "However, it's currently in favor of China, and during this trip, we are focusing on how to balance this trade deficit." According to Karluk, Turkey, as a developing country currently struggling with economic problems, seeks to benefit from China's Belt and Road Initiative. Conversely, China aims to utilize foreign diplomats' "visits to the East Turkestan to counter accusations" of genocide by portraying these visits as evidence of normalcy. "Fidan's visit to East Turkestan may serve several purposes: While TArkiye seeks to demonstrate [to] the world its concern for the Uyghurs, it also reminds China of TArkiye's deep ties to the region and thus TArkiye's geopolitical presence in the region. China is trying to put a positive spin on its treatment of the Uyghurs," he told VOA in an email. Chinese media reported that Fidan stated Turkey is committed to the "One China" principle, opposes any actions undermining China's territorial integrity, and agreed to "strengthen anti-terrorism" cooperation between the two countries. Some advocates of Uyghur independence believe that by inviting the Turkish foreign minister to Xinjiang and securing support from Turkey, a prominent Turkic Muslim-majority country, China aims to diminish the impact of international condemnations of its actions against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities. "[T]his maneuver will be perceived by the international community, particularly Western nations, as an endorsement of China's genocidal regime," Salih Hudayar, a member of the Washington-based Uyghur group East Turkestan Government in Exile, said in an email to VOA. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Update 231 - IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine International Atomic Energy Agency 53/2024 Vienna, Austria 6 Jun 2024 The challenging nuclear safety and security situation in Ukraine was in the spotlight again this week at the International Atomic Energy Agency, with its Board of Governors discussing recent developments detailed in a new IAEA report and Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi meeting the country's energy minister. Director General Grossi and Energy Minister German Galushchenko discussed the IAEA's ongoing efforts to support nuclear safety and security in Ukraine in their meeting today on the sidelines of the regularly scheduled June Board session at IAEA headquarters, where the Director General earlier in the week made clear his continued deep concerns about the situation. Nuclear safety and security remains especially precarious at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), and is potentially also fragile elsewhere in Ukraine following attacks on its energy infrastructure in recent months, including on electricity sub-stations which are vital in providing off-site power to the operating nuclear power stations, as well as to the ZNPP, Director General Grossi said after his talks with Minister Galushchenko. Nuclear power plants (NPPs) need reliable access to off-site power in order to cool their reactors and for other essential nuclear safety and security functions, as underlined in the Seven Pillars of Nuclear Safety and Security. However, Ukraine's electricity grid has been severely impacted by the conflict, with the ZNPP repeatedly losing connections to all its power lines. "For the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in particular, the external power situation remains extremely vulnerable, prone to frequent outages. But it is also a wider concern in the current circumstances, where a loss of off-site power event has the potential to be even more serious given the higher nuclear fuel temperatures for reactors in operation in Ukraine. We are continuing to follow the situation very closely in this regard, as I also informed Minister Galushchenko in today's meeting," Director General Grossi said. Director General Grossi, who had met with Rosatom head Alexey Likhachev in the Russian city of Kaliningrad last week, reiterated to Ukraine's energy minister that there was an understanding that the ZNPP would not be re-started as long as nuclear safety and security remained in jeopardy due to the conflict. "In these circumstances, operating this major nuclear plant would not be advisable," he said. Ahead of this week's Board meeting, the Director General issued the 11th report on nuclear safety, security and safeguards in Ukraine since the conflict began in February 2022, covering developments in the three months to 24 May this year. At the ZNPP this week, the IAEA team of experts stationed at the site has continued to conduct regular walkdowns to monitor nuclear safety and security at the plant. At the same time, the team has continued to hear explosions some distance away from the site, a regular reminder of the ZNPP's frontline location. A year after the destruction of the downstream Kakhovka dam disrupted the ZNPP's supplies of cooling water, the team visited the site's cooling pond and observed that its height was almost 1.5 metres below the level before the dam was destroyed. The plant, whose six reactors are all in cold shutdown, receives the cooling water it needs, for the reactors in the current shutdown state, from 11 groundwater wells that were built to supply about 250 m3 of water per hour to the site's sprinkler ponds. The IAEA team continues to closely monitor the maintenance activities at the plant, another area highlighted by the Director General as posing a potential risk to nuclear safety and security in his Board statement on Monday. As part of these activities, the IAEA experts visited the 750 kilovolt (kV) open switchyard and discussed ongoing maintenance on the relay protections for the transformer of reactor unit 2, among other activities. They saw that some of the switchyard components, for one of the 750 kV lines, that were damaged in 2022 had been dismantled. However, the ZNPP is not currently planning to complete repairs, at this time, as the line itself remains unavailable due to damage sustained earlier in the conflict, away from the site. The ZNPP had four 750 kV lines available before the conflict, but only one is remaining. The IAEA experts were informed that western-supplied switchyard equipment, installed before the conflict, remained in good condition. The ZNPP also stated that some spare parts remain available on site from western supplies and, if required, it can order similar equipment through suppliers from the Russian Federation. The IAEA team of experts also visited the two fresh fuel storage facilities and the turbine building of unit 6, once again without being granted access to the western side of the building. In addition, the ZNPP informed the IAEA experts on the status of its on- and off-site radiation monitoring stations. The team was informed that all four on-site radiation monitoring stations are operational, but that three of the 14 off-site stations remain damaged as a result of military activities in 2022. The ZNPP said that manual radiation monitoring measurements are also carried out, and that there are plans to purchase new radiation monitoring stations consistent with the regulations of the Russian Federation, and a mobile radiation measurement laboratory for use in case of a nuclear or radiological emergency. The IAEA experts present at Ukraine's other NPPs - Khelmnytskyy, Rivne and South Ukraine - and the Chornobyl site continue to perform routine walkdowns and assess nuclear safety and security. The teams reported that nuclear safety and security is being maintained despite the effects of the ongoing conflict, including air raid alarms on several days over the past week. One reactor unit at each of the Rivne and the South Ukraine NPPs were in shutdown over the last week for planned maintenance and refuelling, while one other unit at the South Ukraine NPP is in planned outage. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Putin warns Moscow could 'act the same way' after West let Ukraine strike inside Russia Iran Press TV Thursday, 06 June 2024 10:41 AM Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Moscow could supply arms to other countries to hit Western targets after the West allowed Ukraine to strike inside the Russian Federation. The Russian leader on Wednesday lambasted the decision made by the West to allow Ukraine to fire donated long-range missiles toward targets inside Russia, warning Moscow in retaliation could arm the West's enemies with similar weapons to do the same. "If someone thinks it is possible to supply such weapons to a warzone to attack our territory and create problems for us, why don't we have the right to supply our weapons," Putin said at a press conference with editors from international news agencies on the sidelines of the annual economic forum in St. Petersburg. Why Russia would "not have the right to supply our weapons of the same class to those regions of the world where there will be strikes on the sensitive facilities of those countries that are doing this against Russia?" the Russian president asked. Putin also denounced the recent green light given by the West to Kiev as a "very serious and dangerous step." He stressed that "supplying weapons to a conflict zone is always a bad thing, especially if this is linked to the fact that those who supply them are not only delivering weapons but managing them." Late last month, US President Joe Biden gave Kiev permission to fire long-range missiles supplied by the Americans to strike targets inside Russia. Germany quickly followed suite, granting Kiev the green light to use German-supplied long-range missiles against Russian targets. Britain and France have already signaled that they were okay with Ukraine striking targets inside Russia. "In the end, if we see that these countries become involved in a war against us, what they are doing makes them directly involved in a war against the Russian Federation, we reserve the right to act the same way," Put further said on Wednesday, warning, "Overall, it leads to some serious problems." Last month, a Ukrainian intelligence source revealed Kiev forces had targeted a long-range radar site deep inside Russia that was part of Russia's early-warning system to detect whether it is under nuclear attack. In February 2022, Moscow launched its special military operation in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region to stop NATO's eastward expansion after warning that the US-led military alliance was pursuing an "aggressive line" against Russia. The West responded with imposing waves of harsh sanctions against Russia and pouring advanced arms and military hardware into Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly warned that a continued supply of Western arms and military equipment for the Ukrainian military would only prolong the war. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 'We Will Not Walk Away From Ukraine,' Biden Pledges At D-Day Commemoration By RFE/RL June 06, 2024 U.S. President Joe Biden, marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day, said the free world stands with Ukraine and won't cave in to Russian aggression, drawing a parallel with the Allies' fight to liberate Europe from Nazi Germany's subjugation in World War II. The United States and NATO "will not walk away" and abandon Ukraine, Biden said in a speech at commemorations in Normandy on June 6 to mark the anniversary of the 1944 Allied landing in Normandy, a turning point that contributed decisively to Adolf Hitler's ultimate defeat in 1945. "Make no mistake: We will not bow down, we cannot surrender to the bullies; it is simply unthinkable. If we do, freedom will be subjugated, all Europe will be threatened," Biden said in Colleville-sur-Mer at a ceremony hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron in honor of the dwindling number of surviving World War II veterans and attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Britain's King Charles III, and other heads of state and dignitaries. Neither Russian President Vladimir Putin nor any other officials from Russia were invited to the commemoration. "Ukraine has been invaded by a tyrant, they're fighting with extraordinary courage, suffering great losses but never backing down," Biden said describing Putin as a "tyrant bent on domination." The U.S. president, meanwhile, hailed NATO as "the greatest military alliance in the world" and said it is "more determined than ever to keep peace." Drawing again a parallel with World War II, Biden said America's "isolation was not the answer 80 years ago and it's not the answer today," a thinly veiled reference directed at some Republican politicians who are sceptical of U.S. support for Ukraine. "We must remember that the fact that they were heroes here that day does not absolve us of what we have to do today. Democracy is never guaranteed. Every generation must preserve it, defend it, and fight for it. That's the test of the ages." Macron, speaking at Omaha Beach, also drew a parallel with the war in Ukraine and thanked the Ukrainian people for their bravery in the face of the Russian full-scale invasion launched in 2022. "Faced with the return of war on our continent...faced with those who purport to change borders by force to rewrite history, let us be worthy of those who landed here," Macron said. The ceremony was held near Omaha Beach, the code name of one of the two U.S. forces' landing spots, where American troops suffered more than 2,500 deaths -- more than half the total of 4,414 Allied troops killed on D-Day. D-Day, the start of the landing in Normandy codenamed Operation Overlord, was the largest amphibious assault in history, with 156,115 troops from 12 countries taking part. Biden called it a "powerful illustration of how alliances, real alliances, make us stronger," adding it was "a lesson that I pray we Americans never forget." In a message posted on social media, Zelenskiy said, "This event and today are a reminder of the courage and determination shown for the sake of freedom and democracy." "Allies defended the freedom of Europe then, Ukrainians defend the freedom of Europe now. Unity won then, true unity is capable of winning even now," Zelenskiy added. Zelenskiy is due to hold talks with Biden and Macron during his trip to France. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/biden-france-dday-ukraine- macron-veterans/32982053.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Drone Strikes On Russian Oil Installations Cause Fire, Damage By Current Time and RFE/RL's Russian Service June 06, 2024 Suspected Ukrainian drone strikes early on June 6 set Russian oil installations on fire in two regions bordering Ukraine as Russia continued to launch strikes on civilian targets in several Ukrainian regions. A drone attack on an oil refinery in Novoshakhtinsk in Russia's Rostov region early on June 6 has caused a fire, prompting a temporary halt of operations, regional governor Vasily Golubev said. "Work was suspended due to a repeated attack, the personnel were evacuated to a safe distance," local Telegram channels quoted Golubev as saying. The fire covered an area of 100 square meters, Golubev said, adding that, according to preliminary data, there were no dead or injured. The SHOT telegram channel, citing eyewitnesses, reported that several loud explosions were heard in Novoshakhtinsk in the early hours of June 6, then fire and smoke became visible in the area of the oil refinery. The Astra channel published a video of a large fire at a plant the Novoshakhtinsk installation. The strike was the third on the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery, which is located some 10 kilometers from the border with Ukraine. Two previous attacks in March and April also temporarily stopped its activity, according to Russian media. Meanwhile, Belgorod regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported that a drone attack on an oil depot in Stary Oskol, less than 100 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, started a fire. "The Ukrainian Armed Forces, using a kamikaze drone, attacked an oil depot on the territory of the Stary Oskol urban district. As a result of the explosion, one of the tanks caught fire. Four fire crews quickly extinguished the fire. The blast wave blew out the windows in the security building. There were no casualties," Gladkov wrote. Kyiv has not commented on the reports, which could not be independently verified. Ukraine has been subjected to incessant Russian drone and missile strikes on its civilian and energy infrastructure since the start of the war that have caused numerous casualties among civilians and huge material damage. Kyiv in turn has increasingly resorted to targeting Russian energy infrastructure, mainly oil installations, with its own drone strikes in order to degrade the Russian military's fuel reserves. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air force said that its air defense systems shot down 17 out of 18 Russian drones over the Mykolayiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, and Khmelnytskiy regions early on June 6. Separately, Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the southern region of Dnipropetrovsk, said that a Russian drone hit a passenger minibus in the city of Nikopol, injuring four people and triggering a fire. Lysak posted photos of the burnt-out vehicle on his Telegram channel. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-rostov-belgorod- novoshakhtinsk-refinery-attack-ukraine/32981343.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Estonia to Reduce Ukraine Aid by 10% Due to 'Difficult Circumstances' - Foreign Ministry Sputnik News 20240606 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Estonia intends to reduce the volume of foreign aid and in this regard will cut funding for Ukraine, the director general of the Estonian Foreign Ministry's communication department, Mihkel Tamm, said on Thursday. "In the context of the cuts, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will see a reduction of a1.46 million [$1.59 million] in its allocations for development cooperation and humanitarian aid, and in project launches. In addition, projects for Ukraine, for which the government allocated a14 million last year, will be cut by 10 percent, or a1.4 million," Tamm was quoted as saying by Estonian broadcaster ERR. This decision was dictated by "difficult circumstances" in the country, he added. Earlier in the day, the undersecretary for defense planning at the Estonian Defense Ministry, Tiina Uudeberg, told ERR that Estonia had been forced to postpone the procurement of military vehicles and communications equipment, as well as reduce its participation in foreign missions due to budget constraints amid plans to purchase more ammunition. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ukraine Redeploying Military Units From Zaporozhye to Kharov - Russian Official Sputnik News 20240606 ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) - Ukraine is redeploying some military units from the Zaporozhye area to the Kharkov region, Zaporozhye Governor Yevgeny Balitsky told Sputnik on Thursday on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). "Yes, this is the case [redeploying]. First of all, we see it from the reports that our military leadership gives us from our direction. Second of all, we see it from the fact that the enemy is showing less and less resistance, and, of course, by the shelling [the intensity is decreasing]," the official said. Zaporozhye is a new Russian region that joined the country following a referendum in September 2022. Kiev does not recognize its results and continues to continuously shell Zaporozhye's territory. Currently, Russian forces control over 70% of the region. Since March 2023, Zaporozhye's administrative center was temporarily moved to the city of Melitopol. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia says Ukrainian drone attack hit oil refinery By VOA News June 06, 2024 Officials in southwestern Russia said Thursday that a Ukrainian drone attack ignited a fire at an oil refinery. Vasily Golubev, the regional governor of the Rostov-on-Don region, said on Telegram that the attack hit the Novoshakhtinsk refinery and that work at the site was suspended. In Russia's Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said a Ukrainian exploding drone hit an oil depot in Stary Oskol. Another drone attack damaged an agricultural business in Belgorod, Gladkov said. Russia's Defense Ministry said Thursday it intercepted six Ukrainian drones over Belgorod, as well as 13 over Russia-occupied Crimea. Ukraine's military reported Thursday downing 17 of 18 drones that Russia launched in overnight attacks. The Ukrainian air force said the intercepts took place over the Kherson, Khmelnytskyi, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia regions. Serhii Tiurin, governor of the Khmelnytskyi region, reported damage to an infrastructure facility, but no injuries from the attack. French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that France would be providing Ukraine with Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets. The Ukrainian pilots will be trained in France, he added in an interview on French TV. Macron said the fighter jets would "allow Ukraine to protect is soil, its airspace" against Russian attacks. "Peace," Macron said, "will only be achieved if Ukraine can resist. ... Peace cannot mean Ukraine's capitulation." Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russia could use nuclear weapons if its sovereignty is threatened. "If somebody's actions threaten our sovereignty and territorial integrity, we consider it possible to use all means at our disposal," Putin said, citing what he described as his country's security policy. "For some reason, they believe in the West that Russia will never use it," Putin told a group of international journalists, adding that Russia's nuclear arsenal is much more powerful than what the United States used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan during World War II. The Russian leader spoke on the sidelines of the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Charles Kupchan, senior fellow and director of European Studies at the Council of Foreign Relations, told VOA, "I think what we've seen here is more rhetorical saber-rattling posturing by President Putin." Putin also warned the United States and Germany that allowing Ukraine to fire long-range, Western-made weapons into Russia could prompt him to place similar Russian weapons in countries within range of the U.S. or its European allies. "If they consider it possible to deliver such weapons to the combat zone to launch strikes on our territory and create problems for us, why don't we have the right to supply weapons of the same type to some regions of the world where they can be used to launch strikes on sensitive facilities of the countries that do it to Russia?" he said, according to The Associated Press. Kupchan said, "I think that it's very unlikely that President Putin would either escalate to the nuclear level or begin to deploy Russian missiles in areas close to the United States or to Western Europe. I think we know from the 1960s Cuban missile crisis, when the Soviets were getting ready to deploy." Germany joined the United States last week in authorizing Ukraine to hit targets on Russian soil along Ukraine's Kharkiv regional border using long-range weapons it supplied. Putin mentioned U.S. ATACMS as well as British and French missiles. German tanks arriving in Ukraine surprised many in Russia, according to Putin, who said, "When German tanks first appeared on Ukrainian soil, it already produced such a moral, ethical shock in Russia, because relations toward [Germany] in Russian society had always been very good." "Now, if they use missiles to strike facilities on the Russian territory it will completely ruin Russian-German relations," Putin said. Asked about the upcoming U.S. election, the Russian leader said he is not concerned about the results. "To say a I am speaking quite sincerely a that we believe that after the elections something will change toward Russia in American policy, I would not say so. We don't think so," said Putin. "We think that nothing really serious will happen." Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. Kim Lewis contributed reporting. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Biden on D-Day: West won't abandon Ukraine By Anita Powell June 06, 2024 U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday met with the rapidly dwindling number of American veterans of the Allies' bold invasion of Normandy, where he marked the 80th anniversary of the decisive World War II battle. Biden, speaking just steps away from the American cemetery where 9,387 U.S. troops were laid to rest from the high-pitched battle to loosen Nazi Germany's grasp on France, said the past is ever present. He vowed the United States and NATO would not abandon support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia's two-year invasion. "We will not walk away" from Ukraine's defense and "surrender to bullies," he said. He described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "tyrant intent on domination" and said democracy is now more at risk than at any other point since World War II. "Make no mistake, we will not bow down, we cannot surrender to the bullies, it is simply unthinkable. If we do, freedom will be subjugated, all Europe will be threatened," he said in offering wide support for the global world order that emerged in the aftermath of World War II. "To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators, is simply unthinkable," he said. "If we were to do that, it means we'd be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches." D-Day was the largest amphibious assault in history, and Biden called it a "powerful illustration of how alliances, real alliances, make us stronger." He said that was "a lesson that I pray we Americans never forget." Biden's appearance came in the midst of his 2024 reelection campaign for the presidency against Republican Donald Trump, who spoke at the 75th anniversary of D-Day five years ago. Trump, who has often questioned the necessity of the U.S. commitment to NATO, the West's main military alliance, hailed the soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy in his 2019 speech but did not praise the global alliances that emerged after the war. Trump has often attacked European members of NATO who do not spend the equivalent of 2% of their national economic output on defense, a NATO-suggested level for defense of their own countries. Biden has cited his administration's record of building global alliances as a key accomplishment. He recently told Time magazine that Trump "wanted to just abandon" U.S. allies and suggested the former president would ultimately pull the country out of NATO if he were elected again. World leaders and luminaries - including actor Tom Hanks and director Steven Spielberg - signaled their appreciation by attending Thursday's events. But for ordinary French people - who also packed a beachside stadium for a moving tribute to the actions of Allied soldiers - this is a special day. "U.S. engagement changed the fate of the continent at that time," Leonie Allard, a visiting fellow at the Atlantic Council's Europe center and a former French defense official, told VOA. "And probably projected some of the lessons that we take from that engagement regarding the challenges we're facing today in Europe, with the return of war in the continent due to Russia's aggression of Ukraine." And French President Emmanuel Macron zeroed in on the heroism of men who were, at the time, just out of boyhood. "In the summer of 1944, you were barely 20 years old, maybe less," he said to the veterans before presenting 11 of them with his nation's top decoration, the Legion of Honor. "You had a family, friends, a fiancee, a wife, sometimes children. You had dreams, plans, a future. And you left everything, crossed the ocean and landed on the shores of France eight decades ago. You left everything and took all the risks for our independence, for our freedom. We will not forget this." Biden and first lady Jill Biden also personally greeted several dozen World War II veterans who participated in the D-Day landings, including many in wheelchairs and some who are more than 100 years old. "You saved the world," Biden told one man. He greeted each veteran one by one, offering a salute or a handshake, and handing them a special coin designed for the occasion. "This is the honor of my life," said a 102-year-old as he stood between the Bidens for a photo. "The honor of mine," Biden replied. And when Biden learned that another one of the veterans would be turning 102 in a few days' time, he turned to the gathered clutch of American press and explained that, per Biden family tradition, a rendition of "Happy Birthday" was in order. "And the press, you'd better damn well join," Biden said. We sang. Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report from Washington. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address At the battle of Stirling Bridge, 11 September 1297, the movie Braveheart has William Wallace provoking the English to battle, saying "Here are Scotland's terms. Lower your flags, and march straight back to England, stopping at every home to beg forgiveness for 100 years of theft, rape, and murder. Do that and your men shall live. Do it not, and every one of you will die today. ... Before we let you leave, your commander must cross that field, present himself before this army, put his head between his legs, and kiss his own ass." Putin's Nuclear Crisis - June 2024 Threats about the use of nuclear weapons from the Kremlin have been heard since the beginning of a full-scale war. This is cynically called protection of Russian interests. On 31 May 2024, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the Biden administrations decision to allow Ukraine to use Western weapons to hit targets in what Washington considers Russian territory. A week later, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated his country's red lines in this regard, promising an asymmetric response, without providing specific details. Jeremy Bowen, a BBC International television presenter, wrote this week after a trip to Ukraine that most Western analysts think the Kremlin is bluffing when it rattles the nuclear saber. China, Russias essential ally, has made it clear it does not want any use of nuclear weapons, he argued. There is some merit in such an argument. At any rate, Blinken simply ignored the sensitive issue of tactical nuclear weapons, but asserted that NATO will not be cowed. US President Joe Biden may end up destroying the world in a nuclear conflict, his election rival Donald Trump claimed 05 June 2024. Speaking to Fox News host Sean Hannity on Wednesday, the former president warned that we have a chance of going into World War III because of our leader. Biden is not at the top of his game and was never the brightest bulb among American politicians even when he was younger. It is currently the most dangerous time in the history of our country, he warned, citing the destructive potential of nuclear weapons. In the event of a nuclear exchange, nothing will matter because practically nothing will be here anymore, he warned. This is obliteration. Maybe world obliteration. And we have a man that is incapable of even discussing it. Trump pointed to the Ukraine conflict as a major source of danger. Russian President Vladimir Putin is talking about nuclear weapons, he said. During a meeting 05 June 2024 with foreign press, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin warned the West against thoughtless conflict escalation, stressing that Moscow could repel NATO attempts to threaten its sovereignty both asymmetrically and directly. Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with foreign journalists on June 5 within the framework of the 27th annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). Addressing the Ukraine conflict the Russian president noted that Western weapon deliveries to the Kiev regime, coupled with the approval to hit targets deep inside Russia, is fraught with severe escalation risks. V. Putin: "You know, they always try to accuse us of waving some kind of nuclear baton. But have I now raised the question of the possibility of using nuclear weapons? That's what you did. You bring me up on this topic, and then you will say that I waved a nuclear baton. "You know, this is such a very tough topic. Americans, the United States is the only country that used nuclear weapons in World War II: Hiroshima, Nagasaki - 20 kilotons. Our tactical nuclear weapons are 7075 kilotons, such tactical nuclear weapons. Let's not lead not only to use, but even to the threat of use. "For some reason, the West believes that Russia will never use this. We have a nuclear doctrine - look what is written there. If someone's actions threaten our sovereignty and territorial integrity, we consider it possible to use all the means at our disposal. "You cant take this lightly, superficially, but you need to treat it professionally. I hope that everyone in the world will treat issues of this kind in the same way. "I am often asked: how do you manage to have such modern weapons as, say, Avangard glide units, conditionally, or some others. Because we concentrate our efforts, finances, and administrative resources on solving the main problems. And the United States is forced to spend money on maintaining the armed forces, because if [there are] extensive bases around the world, [then] the costs are huge, the theft is limitless. Now I am not accusing anyone of anything, and we have a lot of theft and fraud - everywhere, and in your countries everywhere, but in the States there is more in the army. Why? Because people always steal more when they are on payroll, its simply inevitable. "Just imagine: we would now be doing in Canada what the United States is doing on our doorstep, here in Ukraine or in Mexico. Or would we now say that the United States seized part of Mexico's territories at one time and encouraged Mexico to fight for the return of its territories. In principle, this is approximately the same as what Western countries are doing in relation to the Russian-Ukrainian crisis. Is this something you ever wanted to think about? "You dont need to look at these flags - you need to look at the essence of the events taking place. We have no imperial ambitions, believe me, this is all nonsense, just like the threat from Russia towards NATO countries and Europe. What are you doing? Look at NATO's potential and look at Russia's potential. What, you decided that we were crazy, or what?" During his meeting with the foreign press on June 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the West's increasing involvement in the Ukraine conflict, as well as NATO member states greenlighting the use of its weapons to hit targets inside Russia by the Kiev regime. Putin highlighted that Russia has a wide array of options to respond with, including asymmetrical and nuclear ones in case the country's sovereignty and independence are gravely threatened. The United States launched a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile on 06 June 2024, marking the second such test in a week, the Vandenberg Space Force Base said. Minuteman III is a US Cold War-era intercontinental ballistic missile deployed in the 1970s. According to public data, the United States has about 400 Minuteman III ICBMs armed with a single warhead each. In 2015, the US nuclear arsenal underwent expensive modernization that prolonged Minuteman III's service to the 2030s. "An unarmed Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile launches during an operational test at 1:46 a.m. Pacific Time 6 June, 2024, at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. ICBM test launches demonstrate that the U.S. ICBM fleet is ready, reliable and effective in leveraging dominance in an era of strategic competition," the statement said. The recent Minuteman III launches are a regular audit of the strategic forces rather than nuclear saber-rattling. Scott Bennett is a former U.S. Army Special Operations Officer (11th Psychological Operations Battalion, Civil Affairs-Psychological Operations Command), and a global psychological warfare-counterterrorism analyst, formerly with defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. He worked in the highest levels of international counterterrorism in Washington DC and MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. He has developed and managed psychological warfare theories, products, and operations for U.S. Special Operations Command, U.S. Central Command, the State Department Coordinator for Counterterrorism, and other government agencies. "The world is not in danger because of Russia," Bennett told Sputnik. "The world is not threatened by Russia. The world has no fear of Russia. That's the reality. The propaganda that the West has generated, and particularly the United States, and more specifically the LGBT [ed note: extremist organization banned in Russia] left-wing Democrat, uniparty Republican epicenter in Washington, they are inventing this fountain of lies about Russia and spreading that to poison the minds of people in Europe. And I think only Europe is susceptible to it. You don't have anyone in Africa or Asia drinking from that fountain of lies and death." According to the expert, the US government is pushing its "woke globalist left-wing agenda" without any sense of restraint, self-reflection or professional intelligence, while Russia is standing its ground and warning that the West's conduct could lead to war. "We're seeing Russia being pushed into a position where it is going to defend itself and that defense could be a military strike against Western targets not because it wants to, but because it has to," Bennett stressed. "I think it is a good way to get the West's attention," said Bennett, comparing Putin's signal to that made by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev when Washington sought to install its nuclear-armed, medium-range ballistic missiles in Turkey. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 became a wake-up call to the Kennedy administration and made it backpedal on the missile deployment. Technological advances and escalating geopolitical tensions are imperiling the global population with the highest risk of a nuclear conflict since the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned. Humanity is on a knifes edge, Guterres said in a recorded speech presented on 07 June 2024 at the annual Arms Control Association meeting in Washington. The risk of a nuclear weapon being used has reached heights not seen since the Cold War. The UN chief claimed that countries are engaged in a qualitative arms race, employing such technologies as artificial intelligence (AI) to boost their readiness for a potential conflict. Such advances are multiplying the danger of nuclear weapons being used, he added, and the last remaining arms control agreement between the US and Russia is heading toward expiration in 2026. Guterres made his comments as US support for Ukraine in its battle with Russia stoked fears of a wider, and potentially nuclear, conflict. The US and other NATO members have accused Moscow of nuclear saber-rattling, while Russian leaders have pointed out that deepening Western involvement in the Ukraine conflict could trigger an escalation. Moscow has never been the first to resort to aggressive nuclear rhetoric, President Vladimir Putin told a question-and-answer panel at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on 07 June 2024. The nations nuclear doctrine only allows the use of atomic weapons in exceptional cases and the current situation is not one, he added. When asked whether Russia should climb the nuclear escalation ladder faster, Putin replied that Moscow has never initiated such escalation. Russia has never said it was ready to push the red button, the president stated, adding that Moscow has always called on other nations to treat such issues seriously but was instead accused of nuclear saber-rattling. We are not brandishing [nuclear weapons], Putin said. Russias nuclear doctrine clearly states that atomic weapons can only be used in the face of a threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country, the president stated. I do not believe that it is the case now. The president expressed hope that it will never come to a nuclear exchange between Moscow and the West. He said Russia possesses an effective early-warning system and a vast nuclear arsenal, including tactical nuclear weapons, which are three or four times more powerful than the bombs dropped by the US on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The EU lacks both and only the US has comparable capacity, he added. Moscow has no reasons to even think about using nuclear weapons, according to Putin. Russia vastly outguns its enemy when it comes to tanks and aviation, the president said. Ammunition production in Russia has also increased by a multiple of 20 amid the ongoing conflict, he added. Putin then called on Russian officials to not even touch upon the subject of nuclear weapons unless absolutely necessary. Vladimir Putin took part in the plenary session of the XXVII St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The moderator of the discussion was political scientist, historian, scientific director of the Faculty of World Economy and World Politics of the Higher School of Economics Sergei Karaganov. S. Karaganov: "America benefits from this war, and they will continue it, driving Ukrainians to slaughter and finishing them off, and now they will also drive Europeans to slaughter - This war will not be able to be stopped in the near future without rapid movement along the ladder of nuclear escalation.... There used to be a nuclear fuse, but now it has seriously weakened - fear of nuclear weapons. Do we understand that we have a huge responsibility not only to win this war - and for this we need to go much tougher on the ladder of escalation and be ready to use it - but also to return this nuclear fuse to the international system in order to prevent movement towards a huge wave of conflicts. After all, who, besides us, will do this? Who, besides you, will do this?... And if we crawl so slowly up this ladder, although there is, of course, movement, then I am afraid that we will seem to be shirking this responsibility. Although I understand the gravity of the moral choice." Vladimir Putin: "Regarding nuclear escalation: we never started this rhetoric. I dont remember the name of this lady, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, who, when asked when she became Prime Minister, said that she was ready to press the nuclear button. We never said that. This is where it all started. We simply responded that we needed to take this more seriously; we immediately started saying that we were rattling nuclear weapons. We don't rattle. First. "Secondly, what is use, non-use, in what case to use. We have a nuclear doctrine, and everything is written there. Yesterday I just spoke with the heads of news agencies and said this. We have everything written there: use is possible in exceptional cases - in the event of a threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country, in exceptional cases. I dont think that such a case has arisen there is no such need. But this doctrine is a living instrument, and we closely monitor what is happening in the world, around us, and do not rule out making some changes to this doctrine. "Now this is also connected with the testing of nuclear weapons. We once not only signed it, but also ratified it, the Americans signed it, but did not ratify it, so in today's conditions we have withdrawn our ratification. But, if necessary, we will conduct tests. So far there is no such need either, since our information capabilities, computer ones, allow us to produce everything in its current form." S. Karaganov: " Nevertheless, we understand perfectly well that accelerating movement along the nuclear escalation ladder can save a large number of lives, because it can bring some sense to our opponents, who took advantage of the fact that we, among other things, had such an easy doctrine. I have no doubt that it will be changed, I hope that it will be changed soon, and you will now have the formal right to respond, if you so decide, with a nuclear strike to any attacks on our territory. This absolutely must be the sovereign right of our leader. I hope that such a statement will appear in our doctrine, and it will cool our opponents a little, and will also save our soldiers sooner or later. Of course, now its probably too early to go for nuclear escalation, but we need to move towards this in order to cool down our opponents. They went crazy, especially the Europeans. They are going to war for the third time in almost a hundred years. The Americans are much more careful, they fed the Ukrainians, they push them, and they themselves are much more careful. But the Europeans are going to war.... Again, I repeat this question - I bring it to the end. If we do not move more decisively along the ladder of escalation, will we not anger the gifts of the Almighty? After all, the Almighty once showed us the way, when he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fiery rain for dissipation and debauchery. And after this, humanity remembered this for many years and behaved carefully, but now it has forgotten about Sodom and Gomorrah. So, maybe let's remember this rain and try again to bring some sense into humanity or that part of humanity that has lost faith in God and has lost its mind?" Vladimir Putin: "Without me, maybe not? You will set the heat there! They were already scared. Although, of course, one might think: You are now talking about Europeans - any logic is possible. If, God forbid, it comes to some kind of strike, then everyone should understand that Russia has an early warning system - a missile attack warning system. The USA has it. There is no such developed system anywhere else in the world. We have. In Europe there is no developed system; in this sense, they are more or less defenseless. This is the first one. "The second is the power of the blows. Our tactical nuclear weapons are four times more powerful than the bombs the Americans used against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, three to four times. We have many times more of them - both on the European continent, and even if the Americans bring theirs from the USA - we still have many times more. If it comes [to this], God forbid, which we really dont want, then you said lets reduce the sacrifices they can increase indefinitely. This is the first one. "And second. Of course, these same Europeans will have to think: if those with whom we exchange such blows do not exist, will the Americans get involved in this exchange of blows at the level of strategic weapons or not? I very much doubt it, and Europeans should also think about it, thats for sure. "But still, I proceed from the fact that it will never come to this and we do not have such a need, because our Armed Forces are not just gaining experience, increasing their efficiency - our defense-industrial complex is demonstrating its effective work. I have said it many times, I can repeat it: we have increased the production of ammunition by more than 20 times, we are many times greater than the enemys capabilities in aviation technology, we are significantly superior in armored vehicles, and so on, and so on. We don't even need to think about this topic. "Please, and I would also ask everyone not to mention such things in vain once again. " S. Karaganov: "You behave so responsibly and speak so responsibly, but we are dealing with partners who are absolutely irresponsible and have lost their minds.... Although I understand perfectly well and support your hesitation, because this is a terrible choice, and the choice should be made only as a last resort. But if they know that you are not ready to make this choice, they will endlessly try to fight and bleed us. "And at the same time, they are fighting not only against us - they are also fighting against our friends in the world majority, because we are the military-strategic root, the core of this world majority. If they turn us back, they will begin to suppress them again. I dont know whether the gentlemen presidents agree with this." Vladimir Putin: "Allow me to make one remark. The decisions of both mine and my colleagues with whom I work in this area are not associated with any hesitation - there is no hesitation and cannot be. All our decisions must be based on analysis - a real, objective analysis of the current situation. That's what we do." Pranay Vaddi, Special Assistant to the President of the United States, Senior Director for Arms Control, Disarmament and Nonproliferation at the National Security Council (NSC) of the White House told the Arms Control Association on 07 June 2024 that the US may reach a point "in the coming years where an increase from current deployed numbers is required ... We need to be fully prepared to execute if the president makes that decision," Vaddi said, adding that "more nuclear weapons are required to deter our adversaries and protect the American people and our allies and partners." Vaddi said Russia, China and North Korea "are all expanding and diversifying their nuclear arsenals at a breakneck pace, showing little or no interest in arms control. Those three, together with Iran, are increasingly cooperating and coordinating with each otherin ways that run counter to peace and stability, threaten the United States, our allies and our partners, and exacerbate regional tension." Vaddi said "We are committed to seeking the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons with undiminished security for all; To upholding strategic stability; To working with allies and partners to strengthen arms control and nonproliferation under the rules-based international order; And to reducing the global salience of nuclear weapons..... Unlike our adversaries, we will not develop radiation-spewing, nuclear-powered cruise missiles or nuclear weapons designed to be placed in orbitwhich would be a clear violation of the Outer Space Treaty.... we do not need to increase our nuclear forces to match or outnumber the combined total of our competitors to successfully deter them." Some excitable headline writers screamed "US issues major nuclear weapons alert amid fears of all-out war", withthe use of the term of art "alert" suggesting a raising of the DEFCON level, whihc was not the case. The United States is undermining nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime and should stop doing it, official representative of the Chinese Embassy in the United States said 08 June 2024, commenting on the statements of Pranay Vaddi, TASS reported. "The US needs to reflect on its behavior and commit itself to doing the right thing. The US should stop undermining the international nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation regime, reduce the role of nuclear weapons in national and collective security policies and act responsibly for the welfare of the world," the un-named embassy representative said [connoisseurs of this art will appeciate that a "un-named official" at the "embassy" is pretty low on the tolem pole as such things go]. "The US sits on the largest and most advanced nuclear arsenal in the world. Even so, it clings to a first-use nuclear policy, devises nuclear deterrence strategies against others and has invested heavily to upgrade its nuclear triad. It has withdrawn from treaties and organizations concerning arms control, enhanced the NATO nuclear alliance and expanded cooperation with allies on advanced military technologies," the embassy press service said. Dmitry Trenin, a research professor at the Higher School of Economics and a lead research fellow at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, wrote 10 June 2024 :"The American belief in its own exceptionalism and European strategic parasitism, devoid of any sense of self-preservation, is a dangerous combination. Its in such an environment that the idea of inflicting a strategic defeat on the nuclear power the is Russia in a proxy conventional war in Ukraine has been born. Russias atomic capabilities are being ignored. The parallels that Moscow tried to draw with the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, when Washington considered the possibility of a nuclear war with the USSR in response to the deployment of Soviet missiles in the neighbourhood of the United States, were rejected by the Americans as far-fetched.... "This is an extremely dangerous illusion that can and must be dispelled by an active nuclear deterrence strategy, including the lowering of the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, which is currently too high. The key condition for use should not be a threat to the existence of the state but a threat to the vital interests of the country! ... The world order is experiencing an acute systemic crisis. In the past, such crises inevitably led to wars. Now nuclear deterrence is working, albeit with some issues. To prevent a world war, it is necessary to strengthen deterrence by activating the nuclear factor in foreign policy, restoring fear and building a ladder of escalation." The actions of the United States and its allies raise the question of bringing documents in the field of nuclear deterrence in line with current needs. Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Ryabkov told reporters about this 11 June 2024. on the sidelines of the BRICS Foreign Ministers' Meeting. All I can say is that the situation is trending towards further deterioration, and the challenges that are multiplying as a result of the unacceptable and escalatory actions of the United States and its NATO allies undoubtedly raise before us the full question of how the basic documents in the field of nuclear deterrence can be brought more into line with current needs, the diplomat said, answering the question of what points could be affected by possible changes in the basis of state policy in the field of nuclear deterrence. Before making the appropriate decisions, in our practice there is no preliminary coverage of what kind of changes can be made, Ryabkov added. The second stage of drills focusing on the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons by Russian and Belarusian forces has commenced, the Russian Defense Ministry said on 11 June 2024. The drills have the objective of safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Union State. Previously, troops underwent training to operate Iskander missiles and to equip Kinzhal hypersonic missiles with specialized warheads. "In accordance with the decision of Russian President [Vladimir Putin], the second stage of the exercise of non-strategic nuclear forces began," the ministry said in a statement. During the exercise, the joint training of units from the armed forces of Russia and Belarus was carried out. The second stage of the non-strategic nuclear forces drills is aimed at maintaining readiness to use nuclear weapons to ensure the sovereignty of the Union State of Russia and Belarus, the Russian Ministry of Defense added. The exercises are aimed at maintaining the readiness of personnel and equipment for the combat use of non-strategic nuclear weapons of Russia and Belarus in order to unconditionally ensure the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Union State, the statement says. As part of the first stage, the Ministry elaborated on the process of acquiring specialized ammunition for the Iskander tactical missile system. Additionally, the aviation forces engaged in training exercises involving the equipping of special [ie, nuclear] warheads for the Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. The Ministry added that missile units from the Southern Military District performed training exercises to equip Iskanders with special warheads. Russias Foreign Ministry explained that drills must be considered in the light of hawkish statements made by Western politicians and NATOs destabilizing activities. It was directly stated that all exercises are carried out with training special combat units. Not that anyone seriously doubted it, but some citizens were worried. The geography of the exercise expanded quite far beyond the boundaries of the Southern Military District. In principle, after the involvement of the Belarusian allies, it became logical to involve the Leningrad Military District (remember the historical analogies yourself). Moreover, it is in the Baltic Sea that, apparently, the main activity of the Navy will be in the context of the ongoing exercise. Special thanks for the beautiful, chthonic, atompunk shots of the Mosquito loading. Also, the UKSK cells were suddenly shown in the naval unit, but the loading of nuclear training "Calibers" was not announced. Note that in the naval part we are talking about anti-ship missions. All those involved are actively rolling out the Iskander-M, both launching and transport-loading vehicles. At the same time, the unusual transport and launch containers for cruise missiles of this complex were shown only at the very beginning, in the Southern Military District. Blurred aeroballistic missiles should probably be deterred much better than conventional ones, but they forgot to share this military trick with their Belarusian colleagues . Only in Belarus have they shown front-line aviation so far. Aviation weapons on the Su-25 (sorry, we cant help but remember the authors meme ) are diligently hidden in digital and physical ways (tactical packages are excellent), but, we would venture to guess, strikes with free-falling bombs are being practiced. Finally, almost the main participants in the event were given the floor: the leadership of the 12th Main Directorate spoke about the interaction of nuclear support and combat use. Delivery to field storage points and duty with training nuclear weapons is of particular interest, of course. The main question is why is all this? It seems that the main signal remains the same: dear European neighbors on the Eurasian continent, do not think that if you suddenly go to war with us, we will allow ourselves to be defeated in the pre-nuclear phase. The situation remains quite explosive, but it is through demonstration of potential, and not loud statements, that we must now try to cool it down. NATO countries have begun consultations on how to put nuclear weapons on alert due to threats from Russia, China and North Korea. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated this in an interview with The Telegraph 17 June 2024. According to Stoltenberg, NATO member countries are currently negotiating the deployment of more nuclear warheads. The removal of missiles from warehouses and their transfer to standby mode is being discussed. Of course, NATOs goal is a world without nuclear weapons, but as long as there are nuclear weapons, we will remain a nuclear alliance, because a world in which Russia, China and North Korea have nuclear weapons, and NATO does not, is a more dangerous world, he stressed. "For Russia, the strategic defeat means the end of its statehood and thousand-year history. Then the question arises - why should we be afraid? Isn't it better to go to the end?" - Putin said 20 June 2024. The head of state made a statement saying that the collective West is constantly increasing the degree of escalation. This is probably being done in the expectation that Russia will get scared at some point, the president suggested. Decker Eveleth noted Putin appears to now be using Karaganov and Trenin as a useful extreme to point to whenever he wants to appear more moderate."" At the same press conference , Putin explained that possible changes in the nuclear doctrine of the Russian Federation are associated with lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons in Western countries. At the same time, the president noted that Russia does not need to prescribe in its nuclear doctrine the possibility of launching a preventive nuclear strike, since in a retaliatory strike, the enemy will be guaranteed to be destroyed. Russia is thinking about possible changes to its nuclear doctrine, President Vladimir Putin said at the press conference in Hanoi following his visit to Vietnam. According to the Russian leader, this is due to the lowering of the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons in the West . We are now thinking about changing the nuclear doctrine and strategy. In any case, we know that the potential enemy is working on this, on new elements related to lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, Putin said. According to the Russian leader, Moscow is aware of the development in the West of an ultra-low-power nuclear device with the possibility of its further use. This prompted Russia to reconsider its nuclear doctrine, the president clarified. Vladimir Putin : At the same time, they (Western countries) say that they want to achieve the strategic defeat of Russia on the battlefield. For Russia, this (strategic defeat) means the end of its statehood. (...) This means the end of the thousand-year history of the Russian state. I think this is clear to everyone. And then the question arises, why should we be afraid? Isnt it better then to go to the end? The President noted that this is elementary formal logic. "If the war is lost, the nation will also perish. This fate is inevitable. There is no necessity to take into consideration the basis which the people will need to continue a most primitive existence. On the contrary, it will be better to destroy things ourselves because this nation will have proved to be the weaker one and the future will belong solely to the stronger eastern nation [Russia]. Besides, those who remain after the battle are only the inferior ones, for the good ones have been killed." - Adolf Hitler, August 1944 President Putin 28 June 2024 on the Russian Federation measures regarding the unilateral moratorium on the deployment of ground-based intermediate- and shorter-range missiles: "In 2019, we announced that we would neither produce these missiles, nor deploy them as long as the United States does not deploy such systems anywhere around the globe. We now know that the United States is not only producing these missile systems, but has brought them to Europe, Denmark, to use in exercises. Not long ago, it was reported that they are in the Philippines. It is unclear whether they have taken these missiles out from the Philippines or not. In any case, we need to respond to this and decide on our further steps in this regard. It appears that we need to begin producing these attack systems and then, based on the actual situation, decide on where to deploy them to ensure our security, if necessary."" NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Sydney, June 06, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sydney, New South Wales - Sydney, Australia - Google recently launched an experiment that could impact the amount of traffic that businesses get from organic and paid searches, for better or worse. The search engine is testing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to help people find reliable and condensed information faster in Google search, within a fraction of a second. Google Search Generative Experience (SGE) is being trialled in more than 120 countries and should roll out in Australia later this year. As part of the experiment, Google has integrated artificial intelligence into its search engine. When people search for a topic, AI creates an easy-to-understand summary at the top of the search engine results page. This summary is based on information from multiple websites that feature in a prominent source panel alongside the summary. The experiment also has a conversational element, with Google suggesting follow-up queries to help the user dive deeper into the topic. Google SGE is expected to make searching easier for consumers, but digital marketing experts speculate about possible downsides for online businesses. The Google snippet box may answer simple queries so well that internet users dont need to click on any of the indexed websites, according to Sam Shetty, CEO of Sydney-based SEO agency E-Web Marketing. If an internet user finds all the information they need from the Google snippet box, indexed websites may experience a drop in traffic as fewer people click on their site, Mr Shetty said. Having said this, the experiment is in its early stages, so its still unclear how Google SGE will impact the online visibility of businesses. In fact, Mr Shetty says businesses that have optimised their websites for SEO could actually benefit from higher traffic with Google SGE, especially when influencing leads for in-depth search queries. When the experiment launches in Australia, businesses should try to get their website featured in the prominent source panel, because internet users will be inclined to visit those pages for complex queries that an AI-generated snippet cannot comprehensively answer," Mr Shetty said. "To prepare for the launch of Google SGE, we suggest you prioritise creating engaging and accessible content relevant to your audience's specific needs." The E-Web Marketing team focuses on creating user-friendly content that appeals to technical search algorithms, to increase the visibility, traffic and engagement of their clients websites. As part of their strategy, they generate well-researched content that targets relevant SEO keywords and phrases. E-Web Marketing recently published an article titled What is Google SGE?, which explains what Australian business owners can expect when the experiment launches here. The article explains whether or not it's safe to trust Google SGE for accurate information. This is particularly important for complex searches related to medical, financial or legal needs. Interested readers will also find a description of the technical features of the experiment, in a way thats easy to understand for people who lack IT experience. E-Web Marketing is a full-service digital agency with more than two decades of experience helping businesses to get noticed and thrive online. Their team of experts specialise in using cost-effective strategies such as SEO, paid search and social media marketing. Most of the employees have been working together for six years, on average. Business owners interested in using E-Web Marketings services can contact us or call 1300 792 811. ### For more information about E-Web Marketing, contact the company here: E-Web Marketing Sam Shetty 1300 785 122 press@ewebmarketing.com.au Suite 701, South Tower, 1 Railway St, Chatswood NSW 2067 Press Release Vallourec joins the Dii Desert Energy Initiative to support energy transition in the Middle East and Africa Meudon (France), June 7, 2024 Vallourec, a world leader in premium tubular solutions, announces its effective membership in Dii Desert Energy, a global organization dedicated to energy in the desert regions of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Consequently, the Group also joins the MENA Hydrogen Alliance, a collaborative network committed to the development of green hydrogen projects across this region. Created in 2020 by Dii Desert Energy, the MENA Hydrogen Alliance supports initiatives aimed at developing the hydrogen value chain. It brings together private and public industrial players as well as scientists and academics to stimulate the growth of the green hydrogen market. The network serves as a valuable resource for the entire hydrogen ecosystem, including by providing expert guidance, developing feasibility studies, structuring R&D projects, and facilitating roundtable discussions. Additionally, the Alliance offers a platform for partners to connect and meet. Vallourec's membership reflects its unwavering commitment to reducing emissions and promoting low-carbon energy solutions alongside international partners. As part of the Dii Partner Meeting, taking place in France from June 5 to 7, Vallourec is hosting 27 members of the organization for a visit to its R&D facilities, as well as the demonstrator of its Delphy hydrogen storage solution. This visit, organized today, will showcase Vallourec's expertise and innovative, sustainable solutions in the hydrogen sector. Vallourec's membership in the MENA Hydrogen Alliance underscores its ambition to further strengthen its industrial and commercial performance in New Energies. We are honored to join a network of leading industry players in the MENA region. This collaboration reinforces our commitment to the energy transition and empowers us to support the development of hydrogen in a key, high-potential region where we have a strong presence. says Vincent Designolle, Delphy Director at Vallourec. About de Dii Desert Energy Dii Desert Energy is an international, independent industry network operating from Dubai. With its footprint in the MENA region, it connects people, countries and markets to clean energy on a global scale, paving the way to net zero emissions, secure and affordable energy from the deserts. The organization launched the MENA Hydrogen Alliance in 2020. Dii's platform, which includes over 110 companies and organizations from more than 35 countries, mobilizes senior executives, government decision-makers, R&D institutions and academics. About Vallourec Vallourec is a world leader in premium tubular solutions for the energy markets and for demanding industrial applications such as oil & gas wells in harsh environments, new generation power plants, challenging architectural projects, and high-performance mechanical equipment. Vallourecs pioneering spirit and cutting edge R&D open new technological frontiers. With close to 15,000 dedicated and passionate employees in more than 20 countries, Vallourec works hand-in-hand with its customers to offer more than just tubes: Vallourec delivers innovative, safe, competitive and smart tubular solutions, to make every project possible. Listed on Euronext in Paris (ISIN code: FR0013506730, Ticker VK), Vallourec is part of the CAC Mid 60, SBF 120 and Next 150 indices and is eligible for Deferred Settlement Service. In the United States, Vallourec has established a sponsored Level 1 American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program (ISIN code: US92023R4074, Ticker: VLOWY). Parity between ADR and a Vallourec ordinary share has been set at 5:1. For further information, please contact: Investor relations Connor Lynagh Tel: +1 (713) 409-7842 connor.lynagh@vallourec.com Press relations Heloise Rothenbuhler Tel: +33 (0)6 45 45 19 67 heloise.rothenbuhler@vallourec.com Individual shareholders Toll Free Number (from France): 0 805 65 10 10 actionnaires@vallourec.com Attachment Zurich, Switzerland, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hitachi Energy will invest an additional $4.5 billion in manufacturing, engineering, digital, R&D and partnerships by 2027, doubling the investments done in the last three years. This complements the recently announced $1.5 billion investment in April this year to ramp up global transformer production. These investments will enable the company to meet customers' commitments and market demand, increasing its global R&D, engineering and manufacturing capacity of transformers, high-voltage direct current (HVDC) and high-voltage products. It will also support the deployment of power electronics-based solutions, grid automation and software solutions, and services in line with the Hitachi Energy 2030 Plan. Investments will also go into partnerships, supply chain, digitalization and automation, which are enablers to support capacity expansion and increase speed to market. Electrification is pivotal to achieving Net-Zero goals and the energy transition requires innovative software solutions and services and a significant increase in the production of critical technologies for an expanded electricity grid. Integrating more renewable energy sources like solar and wind, alongside meeting the electrification demands of transport, buildings, industry, and other sectors, necessitates a secure and flexible grid infrastructure. According to IEA, the increased usage of Gen AI and the ever-growing quantity of digital data requires an expansion of data centers and the global electricity demand from data centers and AI could double towards 2026. The company also announced today that it is investing around $330 million to expand and modernize its flagship factory in Ludvika and a new campus in Vasteras, Sweden, across all product portfolios. The Ludvika factory, with over 120 years of innovation, manufactures transformers, high-voltage products and HVDC systems, and will expand by more than 30,000 square meters. This will especially enable new manufacturing capacity of large transformers to meet the deliveries of key HVDC projects. A new campus in Vasteras will accommodate 1,800 employees, including an R&D center and a state-of-the-art production facility for grid automation. The workforce in Sweden will additionally grow by 2,000 to support the accelerating energy transition. According to the IEA Report in October 2023: The recent clean energy progress we have seen in many countries is unprecedented and cause for optimism, but it could be put in jeopardy if governments and businesses do not come together to ensure the worlds electricity grids are ready for the new global energy economy that is rapidly emerging. This report shows whats at stake and needs to be done. We must invest in grids today or face gridlock tomorrow. Electricity will be the backbone of the entire energy system and the change is happening faster than many thought possible. New business models, harmonization of designs, along with partnerships are key drivers for the increase in the pace of change, said Claudio Facchin, CEO, Hitachi Energy. The world is in a race to transform energy systems. Technology is not the bottleneck and electrification is creating unprecedented demand for power grids systems combined with digital solutions and services. As the market leader, we are responding with an unprecedented level of investment, people and innovation to meet that demand. Just in the last month, key HVDC projects were announced that are urgently needed to meet rapidly growing market demand. Underpinned by new scalable business models pioneered by Hitachi Energy, framework agreements were signed with RTE in France, RWE in Germany, Marinus Link in Australia, in addition to a service contract with Pattern Energy in the US. The company also announced the Sa.Co.I.3 interconnection between Italy and France, another industry-leading multi-terminal solution. Governments, industries, and consumers are accelerating the switch from fossil energy to electricity to power transport, building heating and cooling, and industrial processes. Decision-makers and operators require real-time grid data for insights and collaboration. Digitally enabled transformers, switchgear, substations, converter stations, Lumada Asset Performance Management and digital twin data platforms like IdentiQ are critical for a more sustainable, flexible, and secure energy system. The company is also leveraging synergies between Hitachi Energy and Hitachi Digital to provide the unique position across IT, OT, product and service capabilities to support our customers throughout the entire lifecycle. - End About Hitachi Energy Hitachi Energy is a global technology leader that is advancing a sustainable energy future for all. We are advancing the worlds energy system to be more sustainable, flexible and secure and we collaborate with customers and partners to enable a sustainable energy future for todays generations and those to come. Hitachi Energy has a proven track record and unparalleled installed base in more than 140 countries, serving customers in utility, industry, transportation, data centers and infrastructure sectors. With innovative technologies and services including the integration of more than 150 gigawatts of HVDC links into the power system, we help make the energy value chain more efficient, making electricity more accessible to all. Together with stakeholders across sectors and geographies, we enable the digital transformation required to accelerate the energy transition towards a carbon-neutral future. Headquartered in Switzerland, we employ around 45,000 people in 90 countries and generate business volumes of around $13 billion USD. https://www.hitachienergy.com https://www.linkedin.com/company/hitachienergy https://twitter.com/HitachiEnergy About Hitachi, Ltd. Hitachi drives Social Innovation Business, creating a sustainable society through the use of data and technology. We solve customers' and society's challenges with Lumada solutions leveraging IT, OT (Operational Technology) and products. Hitachi operates under the 3 business sectors of Digital Systems & Services supporting our customers digital transformation; Green Energy & Mobility contributing to a decarbonized society through energy and railway systems, and Connective Industries connecting products through digital technology to provide solutions in various industries. Driven by Digital, Green, and Innovation, we aim for growth through co-creation with our customers. The companys revenues as 3 sectors for fiscal year 2023 (ended March 31, 2024) totaled 8,564.3 billion yen, with 573 consolidated subsidiaries and approximately 270,000 employees worldwide. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at https://www.hitachi.com. Attachment Dublin, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global UV-Curable Adhesives Market Report by Resin Type, Substrate, End User, and Region 2024-2032" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global UV-curable adhesives market size reached US$ 352.2 Million in 2023 and is projected to reach US$ 605.4 Million by 2032, exhibiting a growth rate (CAGR) of 6.20% during 2023-2032. The market is majorly driven by the escalating product demand in numerous end-use industries for the production of ceramic, rubber, metal, electronics, pharmaceuticals and plastic substrates. In addition to this, the growing need for better production rates resulting in the rapid utilization of assembly lines in the electronics industry is fueling the market. Also, the rising demand for UV adhesives for flexible packaging applications requiring weather resistance is providing an impetus to the market. This can be attributed to the rapid utilization of these adhesives in laminating films, papers, and foils for product packaging purposes. Apart from this, the widespread utilization of environment-friendly industrial coatings and the escalating demand for UV-curable inks in packaging applications are fueling the market. Moreover, the increasing use of UV-curable resins in 3D printing, barrier films, and printed circuits is impacting the market positively. Some of the other factors contributing to the market include rapid urbanization and industrialization, considerable growth in the e-commerce industry, and extensive research and development (R&D) activities. Key Market Segmentation This report provides an analysis of the key trends in each sub-segment of the global UV-curable adhesives market report, along with forecasts at the global, regional and country level from 2024-2032. The report has categorized the market based on resin type, substrate and end user. Breakup by Resin Type: Silicone Acrylic Polyurethane Epoxy Other Resin Types Breakup by Substrate: Ceramic Glass Composites Metal Plastics Rubber and Elastomers Others Breakup by End User: Medical Electrical and Electronics Transportation Packaging Furniture Others Competitive Landscape The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined along with the profiles of the key players being 3M Company, Beacon Adhesives Inc., DELO Industrie Klebstoffe GmbH & Co. KGaA, Denka Company Limited, Dow Corning Corporation (Dow Chemical Company), Dymax Corporation, Epoxy Technology (Meridian Adhesives Group LLC), H.B. Fuller Company, Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, Master Bond Inc., Panacol-Elosol GmbH, Permabond LLC and Sika AG. Key Questions Answered in This Report What was the size of the global UV-curable adhesives market in 2023? What is the expected growth rate of the global UV-curable adhesives market during 2024-2032? What are the key factors driving the global UV-curable adhesives market? What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global UV-curable adhesives market? What is the breakup of the global UV-curable adhesives market based on resin type? What are the key regions in the global UV-curable adhesives market? Who are the key players/companies in the global UV-curable adhesives market? Key Attributes: Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 135 Forecast Period 2023 - 2032 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2023 $352.2 Million Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2032 $605.4 Million Compound Annual Growth Rate 6.2% Regions Covered Global Key Topics Covered: 1 Preface 2 Scope and Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Introduction 4.1 Overview 4.2 Key Industry Trends 5 Global UV-Curable Adhesives Market 5.1 Market Overview 5.2 Market Performance 5.3 Impact of COVID-19 5.4 Market Forecast 6 Market Breakup by Resin Type 6.1 Silicone 6.2 Acrylic 6.3 Polyurethane 6.4 Epoxy 6.5 Other Resin Types 7 Market Breakup by Substrate 7.1 Ceramic 7.2 Glass 7.3 Composites 7.4 Metal 7.5 Plastics 7.6 Rubber and Elastomers 7.7 Others 8 Market Breakup by End User 8.1 Medical 8.2 Electrical and Electronics 8.3 Transportation 8.4 Packaging 8.5 Furniture 8.6 Others 9 Market Breakup by Region 10 SWOT Analysis 11 Value Chain Analysis 12 Porters Five Forces Analysis 13 Price Analysis 14 Competitive Landscape 3M Beacon Adhesives DELO Industrie Klebstoffe Denka Company Dow Corning Dymax Epoxy Technology H.B. Fuller Henkel Master Bond Panacol-Elosol Permabond Sika For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/go15vg About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. Attachment Dublin, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Dental Implants and Prosthetics Market - A Global and Regional Analysis: Focus on End User, Product, and Region - Analysis and Forecast, 2024-2034" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Considering the optimistic scenario, the global dental implants and prosthetics market has been valued at $11.64 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.41% to reach $34.3 billion by 2034. Dental implants and prosthetics represent a burgeoning market in the field of restorative dentistry, offering solutions for individuals seeking to replace missing teeth or improve their dental aesthetics. Despite the promising prospects for growth, the market encounters several restraints. One such challenge is the higher initial cost associated with dental implant procedures compared to traditional dental treatments. Additionally, the lack of adequate reimbursement coverage for dental implants under certain insurance plans may deter some patients from pursuing these treatment options. However, amidst these challenges lie opportunities for innovation and expansion within the market. Advancements in technology, such as the integration of digital dentistry, computer-aided design (CAD), and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) systems, present lucrative opportunities for enhancing the efficiency and precision of dental implant procedures and prosthetic fabrication. Moreover, the rising demand for aesthetic dentistry and personalized treatment options has spurred innovation in implant materials and prosthetic designs, catering to the diverse needs and preferences of patients. In the Asia-Pacific region, the dental implants and prosthetics market has been experiencing significant growth, driven by factors such as increasing healthcare expenditure, growing awareness of oral health, and favorable government policies promoting dental care. Countries such as China, India, Japan, and South Korea have announced initiatives to improve access to dental services and promote the adoption of advanced dental technologies. Key players in the market, including Straumann Group, Dentsply Sirona, and Nobel Biocare Services AG, are investing in research and development to innovate new products and improve treatment outcomes. These companies offer a wide range of implant and prosthetic solutions tailored to meet the needs of patients and dental professionals alike. The dental implants and prosthetics market has witnessed several acquisitions aimed at enhancing product offerings, expanding market presence, and advancing technology in the field. For instance, in May 2023, Straumann Group acquired GalvoSurge, a dental implant manufacturer, to bolster its comprehensive dental implant solutions specifically addressing peri-implantitis. These acquisitions have aided Straumann Group in expanding its dental product offerings, entering new markets, and driving research and development. Key Market Players and Competition Synopsis The companies that are profiled in the global global dental implants and prosthetics market have been selected based on input gathered from primary experts and analyzing company coverage, product portfolio, and market penetration. Some of the prominent companies in this market are: Dentsply Sirona Envista Holdings 3M Henry Schein Ivoclar Vivadent OSSTEM Implant Key Questions Answered in this Report What are the major drivers, challenges, and opportunities within the global dental implants and prosthetics market? What are the major patents filed by the companies active in the dental implants and prosthetics market? Who are the key players in the dental implants and prosthetics? What is the regulatory scenario of the global dental implants and prosthetics market? What are the initiatives implemented by different governmental bodies and guidelines put forward to regulate the commercialization of dental implants and prosthetics market products? What partnerships or collaborations are prominent among stakeholders in the dental implants and prosthetics market? What are the strategies adopted by the key companies to gain a competitive edge in dental implants and prosthetics market? What is the futuristic outlook for the dental implants and prosthetics market in terms of growth potential? What is the current estimation of the dental implants and prosthetics market, and what growth trajectory is projected from 2024 to 2034? Which end user and product segment is expected to lead the market over the forecast period (2024-2034)? Which regions demonstrate the highest adoption rates for dental implants and prosthetics market, and what factors contribute to their leadership? Key Attributes: Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 100 Forecast Period 2024 - 2034 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2024 $11.64 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2034 $34.3 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 11.4% Regions Covered Global Key Topics Covered: 1. Markets: Industry Outlook 1.1 Trends: Current and Future Impact Assessment 1.2 Supply Chain Overview 1.3 R&D Review 1.4 Regulatory Landscape 1.5 Impact Analysis for Key Global Events 1.6 Market Dynamics Overview 2. Global Dental Implants and Prosthetics Market, by Application 2.1 Application Segmentation 2.2 Application Summary 2.3 Global Dental Implants and Prosthetics Market by End User 2.3.1 Dental Hospitals and Clinics 2.3.2 Dental Support Organization 2.3.3 Other End Users 3. Global Dental Implants and Prosthetics Market by Products 3.1 Product Segmentation 3.2 Product Summary 3.3 Global Dental Implants and Prosthetics Market by Product 3.3.1 Dental Implants 3.3.1.1 By Material 3.3.1.1.1 Titanium 3.3.1.1.2 Zirconium 3.3.1.2 By Type 3.3.1.2.1 Root Form Implant 3.3.1.2.2 Plate Form Implant 3.3.2 Dental Prosthetics 3.3.2.1 Bridges 3.3.2.2 Crowns 3.3.2.3 Inlays and Onlays 3.3.2.4 Dentures 3.3.2.5 Others 4. Global Dental Implants and Prosthetics Market by Region 5. Companies Profiled 3M Bicon Dentsply Sirona Envista Holdings Glidewell Henry Schein Institut Straumann Ivoclar Vivadent KeystoneDentalGroup Nobel Biocare Services OSSTEM Implant SHOFU Dental DIO Thommen Medical ZimVive For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/iqd32w 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, BC, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AMERICAN SALARS LITHIUM INC. ("AMERICAN SALARS" OR THE "COMPANY") (CSE: USLI, OTC: ASALF, FWB: Z3P, WKN: A3E2NY) announces it has filed an NI 43-101 technical report titled Technical Report on The Black Rock South Lithium Brine Property, Washoe County, Nevada, USA, dated June 4th, 2024, prepared by Mr. William Feyerabend CPG, that has been filed on SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.ca) and will be made available on the Companys website at www.americansalars.com/black-rock-south-lithium-salar/ Image 1. Photo taken at the Blackrock South Lithium Project, Nevada, USA Please click here to view image R. Nick Horsley, CEO & Director States, Mr. Feyerabend notes in his report that the claims cover a conceptual target for lithium brines which are very similar to the published geology of the Clayton Valley lithium brine production area approximately 200 miles to the Southeast. The concept is consistent with generally accepted data and theories about the formation of lithium brine resources. The Black Rock area is known have brines hosted in basin-fill sediments. Were excited at the prospect of developing the Blackrock South project and look forward to an initial exploration program. Our Blackrock South project is situated in a tier 1 jurisdiction home of the Tesla Gigafactory and Americas only producing lithium mine. The opportunity to discover a domestic lithium supply would be a great compliment to our NI 43-101 compliant 457,000 tonne LCE inferred lithium resource in Argentina. About the Blackrock South Lithium Brine Project The Blackrock South Lithium Brine Project is located 72 Miles North of the Tesla Gigafactory, 93 Miles Southwest of Thacker Pass, and 215 miles Northwest of the United States only producing lithium mine, the Silver Peak Lithium Mine owned by Albermarle Corporation. The claims cover a conceptual target for lithium brines which is very similar to the published geology of the Clayton Valley lithium brine production area approximately 200 miles to the Southeast. The concept is consistent with generally accepted data and theories about the formation of lithium brine resources. The target area is lithium brines hosted in basin-fill sediments. Image 2. Blackrock South Lithium Brine Project proximity to Tesla Gigafactory and Americas only producing lithium mine, Silver Peak. Please click here to view image A recent mineral exploration on the Galt claim group under option to Surge Battery Metals (CSE:NILI) located 11 Miles to the South includes 51 playa sediment samples collected for chemical analysis at ALS Geochemistry in Vancouver, B.C. Results of aqua regia leaching of the samples show 68 to 852 parts per million lithium (mean 365 ppm), 5.3 to 201 ppm cesium (mean 72 ppm) and 35 to 377 ppm rubidium (mean 180 ppm). Results from two seven-foot-deep auger holes show lithium, cesium, and rubidium concentrations in the range of 143.5 to 773 ppm Li, 56.8 to 102.5 ppm Cs and 155 to 272 Rb. American Salars management cautions that past results or discoveries on properties in proximity to American Salars may not necessarily be indicative of the presence of mineralization on the Company's properties. Additionally, the Company has entered into a Digital Marketing Services Agreement (the "Agreement") with Black Swan Solutions Inc. DBA VHLA Media Inc. ("VHLA") pursuant to which VHLA will provide certain digital marketing services (the "Services") to the Company. The Services provided by VHLA will include, but not be limited to, social media content and ads, marketing, and CEO interviews distributed through social media platforms such as Instagram, X, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit and LinkedIn. The Agreement has a term of one (1) month which may be extended by agreement in writing between VHLA and the Company for up to 6 months. As consideration for the provision of the Services, and in accordance with the terms and provisions of the Agreement, the Company will pay VHLA a fee of C$55,000 plus GST. VHLA is a British Columbia based company headed by Dawson Ignatieff, Tyler Kujala and Adam Emes who are operating at arm's length from the Company. VHLA owns 103,000 shares of the Company, and neither VHLA nor any of its principals and affiliates holds any other interest, direct or indirect in the Company. Qualified Person Mr. William Feyerabend, CPG, a Consulting Geologist and Qualified Person under NI 43-101 contributed to the production of this press release and approves of the technical and scientific information contained herein. About American Salars Lithium Inc. About American Salars Lithium Inc. American Salars Lithium Inc. is an exploration company focused on exploring and developing high-value battery metals projects to meet the demands of the advancing electric vehicle market. Its flagship project is the Candela II Salar Project in Argentina which features a NI 43-101 inferred resource. All Stakeholders are encouraged to follow the Company on its social media profiles on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. On Behalf of the Board of Directors, R. Nick Horsley R. Nick Horsley, CEO For further information, please contact: American Salars Lithium Inc. Phone: 604.880.2189 E-Mail: info@americansalars.com Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information Certain statements in this release are forward-looking statements, which reflect the expectations of management regarding American Salars intention to continue to identify potential transactions and make certain corporate changes and applications. Forward looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions regarding the future. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance, or developments to differ materially from those contained in the statements. No assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur or, if they do occur, what benefits American Salars will obtain from them. These forward-looking statements reflect managements current views and are based on certain expectations, estimates and assumptions which may prove to be incorrect. A number of risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including American Salars results of exploration or review of properties that American Salars does acquire. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and American Salars assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results differed from those projected in the forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Dublin, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Raising a Glass to the Future: Innovation in Alcoholic Drinks" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Alcoholic drinks have always straddled the line between traditionalism and novelty, with heritage providing timeless gravitas, while innovation recruits younger consumers or allows for fresh occasions or need states to emerge. The pandemic years derailed new product launch pipelines as the focus shifted back towards streamlining operations, but as Gen Z is coming of age, brand and category promiscuousness replace blind loyalty, and new rituals emerge, what does the future hold for innovation? This global briefing offers an insight into to the size and shape of the Alcoholic Drinks market in both the off-trade and the on-trade, it highlights buzz topics, emerging geographies, categories and trends as well as pressing industry issues and white spaces. It identifies the leading companies and brands by total volume, offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be they new product developments, packaging innovations, economic/lifestyle influences, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts illustrate how the market is set to change and criteria for success. Product coverage: Beer, Cider/Perry, RTDs, Spirits, Wine. Data coverage: Market sizes (historic and forecasts), company shares, brand shares and distribution data. Why buy this report? Get a detailed picture of the Alcoholic Drinks market Pinpoint growth sectors and identify factors driving change Understand the competitive environment, the market's major players and leading brands Use five-year forecasts to assess how the market is predicted to develop. Key Topics Covered Introduction Setting the scene Indulgence, escapism and a cocktail of nostalgia with a twist Sustainability, packaging and thinking outside all boxes Ready to dominate? RTDs are back Do drinkers dream of electric bartenders? Conclusions and recommendations For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/z4shc3 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. ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, attended the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligences (MBZUAI) 2024 commencement ceremony on June 6, celebrating 101 graduates from 22 countries, receiving post-graduate degrees in key AI fields including computer vision (CV), machine learning (ML), and natural language processing (NLP). The event was also attended by His Excellency Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Founding Chairman of the Board of Trustees of MBZUAI, and other dignitaries. Before many other countries recognized its potential, government-led policies encouraged the promotion of AI in the UAE, Dr. Al Jaber said. They nurtured the success of companies like G42 and large language models like Falcon. As a result, this small country is creating a world class ecosystem for AI talent and entrepreneurship. We are attracting major investment from tech leaders such as Microsoft and emerging as a significant hub for AI innovation and application. Dr. Al Jaber noted that the growth of AI is one of three megatrends shaping the future, alongside the accelerating pace of the energy transition and the rise of emerging markets and Global South: The Class of 2024s growing expertise will hold the keys to unlocking solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges. In fact, if we are to achieve the ambitious goals of the historic UAE Consensus agreed at COP28 in December in Dubai, AI must play a critical role. MBZUAIs third and largest commencement celebrated the universitys first Ph.D. graduates in ML along with masters graduates in ML (55), CV (28) and NLP (12) with students hailing from countries including UAE, Canada, United Kingdom, France, India, Vietnam, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka. MBZUAI President and University Professor, Eric Xing, said: MBZUAIs Class of 2024 are the future leaders of technology, innovation, and creativity, they are equipped to accept the responsibility that comes with the stewardship of something so powerful and transformative. They depart us with the knowledge, skills, and a profound understanding of the opportunity before them the chance to shape a future where AI serves humanity with compassion and unwavering ethical standards they are ready to tackle the greatest challenges facing our world today. Five years since its inception, MBZUAI is now recognized as one of the worlds top 100 computer science universities and is ranked in the top 20 for its specializations in AI, CV, ML, NLP, and robotics (CSRankings). To apply for admission, visit mbzuai.ac.ae or contact admission@mbzuai.ac.ae . For press inquiries, please contact: Amy Rogers, MBZUAIs Senior Communications Specialist media@mbzuai.ac.ae Roger Field/Aya Hassan mbzuai@wallispr.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/bdfc68d2-c10f-449c-85d5-dd39d3b960bd NEW YORK, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The winners of the eleventh annual Photo Competition for United Nations World Oceans Day were announced today during the United Nations World Oceans Day celebration at the UN Headquarters in New York. A panel of world-renowned judges selected five (5) first place winners from thousands of global entries made by both amateur and professional photographers. The 2024 categories for photography aligned with the United Nations World Oceans Days 2024 theme Awaken New Depths and included: Underwater Seascapes, Small Island Developing States, Big and Small Underwater Faces, Awaken New Depths, and Above Water Seascapes. With each first place winner hailing from a different country, the winning photographers are: Renee Grinnell Capozzola (USA), Taryn Schulz (Canada), Andrea Marandino (Brazil), Mathieu Macias (France), Michael Sswat (Germany). The first place winners, along with the second and third place winners for each category, will be featured in the competitions virtual gallery at www.unworldoceansday.org starting June 7th as well as displayed during next years UN World Oceans Day event in 2025. Winning Photos Per Category & Corresponding Captions Can be Viewed Here. * All photos must include the caption with photographer credit listed per photo, as well as www.unworldoceansday.org to be published. The eleventh annual Photo Competition is coordinated in collaboration between the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, DivePhotoGuide (DPG), Oceanic Global, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO and Nausicaa. It has been curated by underwater and wildlife photographer Ellen Cuylaerts and judged by a world-renowned panel of judges every year since its inception in 2013. Judges for 2024 included photographer and dive center operator Mohamed Rifshan Shaheem, cave instructor and explorer Julia Gugelmeier, underwater photographer Mayumi Takeuchi-Ebbins, and underwater photographer Tom St George. The Photo Competition for UN World Oceans Day is a free-and-open public competition that calls on photographers and artists from around the world to communicate the beauty of the ocean and the importance of the respective United Nations World Oceans Day theme each year. All winners and participants in the competition signed a charter of 14 commitments regarding ethics in photography. Winning photos from 2024 as well as from previous years can be viewed via the virtually gallery at www.unworldoceansday.org . ABOUT UNITED NATIONS WORLD OCEANS DAY Since its inception in 2008, United Nations World Oceans Day (UN WOD) has celebrated the ocean and its importance to the planet and our lives, while raising awareness about the many threats it faces. As the challenges to the ocean continue to grow, so does the need to understand and mobilize globally. In celebration of the 2024 theme, Awaken New Depths, the United Nations is joining forces with decision makers, scientists, private sector executives, civil society representatives, indigenous communities, celebrities and youth activists and more, to put the ocean first. The annual celebration, this year held on June 7th, is hosted by the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea of the Office of Legal Affairs in partnership with Oceanic Global since 2019. Following the format of previous years, the 2024 World Oceans Day event will be hosted in-person at the UN Headquarters in New York and broadcast globally via UNTV. For more information visit www.unworldoceansday.org ABOUT DIVE PHOTO GUIDE DivePhotoGuide (DPG) is a comprehensive underwater photography and videography resource and award-winning website for photographers and videographers of all levels. DPG has a community of over 50,000 underwater photographers and videographers from around the globe. Several times each year DPG also hosts underwater photography expeditions. To learn more: www.divephotoguide.com CONTACTS MEDIA CONTACT: Natasha Berg +1 (631) 241-0398 natasha@oceanic.global *Brought to you by ESG News, a proud media partner of World Oceans Day. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/fe0ca78f-ebdb-49cf-a4bc-0cc7d4b152f4 ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland & Labrador, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EverWind Fuels ("EverWind"), North Americas leading developer of green hydrogen projects, is excited to release new site renderings for its world-scale green fuels project in development on the Burin Peninsula in Newfoundland & Labrador. The Burin Peninsula renderings leverage EverWinds recent FEED completion on the first phase of its Point Tupper green hydrogen and ammonia project in Nova Scotia, the first project in the Western Hemisphere to reach this milestone. FEED completion is always an important milestone on any project, said Trent Vichie, CEO of EverWind, but it is exponentially more important when its a first of a kind design in a new industry like green hydrogen and ammonia. The renderings for our project on the Burin Peninsula are based on over 110,000 hours of engineering that have gone into our Point Tupper Project, but have been adjusted to reflect the massive size and scale of our project on the Burin Peninsula, continued Vichie. Our Nova Scotia project may be first to market, but our Newfoundland project will be bigger! The project is also drawing significant support and excitement from communities on the Burin Peninsula. This project represents the future for the Burin Peninsula the jobs and the economic opportunities that our region has been losing for decades, expressed Dave Pittman, Mayor of Winterland and member of the Burin Peninsula Energy Board. I know there is a tremendous amount of work left to bring the project to our peninsula, but these renderings are an exciting glimpse into the future we hope to see. EverWind has been advancing the development of its green hydrogen and ammonia project on the Burin Peninsula since early 2022. On August 30, 2023, EverWind was selected as one of four successful proponents in the Crown Land for Wind Process administered by the Department of Industry, Energy and Technology. EverWind has been focused on critical long lead development workstreams including its wind resource campaign. In 2023, EverWind commissioned four meteorological towers (MET) and is in the process of constructing an additional four MET towers and installing two LiDAR systems. The 10 measurement locations on the Burin Peninsula will make it the largest wind measurement campaign underway in North America. EverWind also enjoys significant support from communities on the Burin Peninsula, and has completed a total of 49 community consultations to date. In terms of next steps, EverWind is preparing to register its Environmental Assessment for the project in July 2024. Phase I of the project contemplates 3GW of wind energy, and combined, the multiple phases represent upwards of 10GW of the strongest wind resource on the planet. Combined, EverWind is actively developing a pipeline of over 15GW of renewables across Atlantic Canada. Site Renderings Image 1: EverWinds Proposed Production Facility for its Burin Peninsula Green Fuels Project. Image 2: EverWinds Proposed Marine Terminal and Production Facility for its Burin Peninsula Green Fuels Project. About EverWind EverWind is North America's leading independent green hydrogen developer, currently developing a pipeline of 15GW of renewables across Atlantic Canada. EverWind is developing one of the worlds largest green fuels projects on the Burin Peninsula in Newfoundland & Labrador. This project will be critical in delivering the scale and competitive wind resource required to support the green energy transition ambitions of some of the largest industrial companies in the world. EverWind is currently preparing its environmental approval application and to date has collected 18 months of environmental data and is executing the largest wind measurement campaign in the province. EverWind continues to engage with communities and stakeholders on the Burin Peninsula and work closely with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to ensure the economic, social and environmental prosperity of the region for generations to come. EverWind is also concurrently developing a sister green fuels project at Point Tupper in Nova Scotia. The Point Tupper Project received the first Environmental Approval in North America for a large-scale green hydrogen project, and is well progressed in design, engineering, and development for the first phase of both its green energy generation projects and the production facility which will convert this energy into green hydrogen and green ammonia. EverWind owns and operates the Point Tupper Transshipment Terminal, which is the deepest ice-free berth on the East Coast of North America, with world class access to rail, roads, and pipelines. Our safety-first culture, evidenced through 18 years without a lost time injury, reflects a highly skilled and extensively certified workforce. EverWind is led by Trent Vichie, a co-founder of Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners, and a former Blackstone Partner. EverWind's development team consists of over 20 members who have previously held senior positions at various infrastructure, private equity, renewable power, engineering, and utility companies. EverWind is supported by a local team of Newfoundland & Labrador based partners including ICI Innovations, Angler Solutions, Eunoia Consulting, Robot Interactive and Edwards & Associates. Adam Langer Director, Public Affairs info@everwindfuels.com (902) 201-0643 Photos accompanying this announcement are available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/101430e6-b92e-49bc-9fd1-d301255160dd https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/80845220-6616-4e88-a19a-82aa6868747a Westford, USA, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SkyQuest projects that Global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chipsets Market will attain a value of USD 262.78 Billion by 2031, with a CAGR of 37.1% over the forecast period (2024-2031). AI or artificial intelligence chipsets which are cloud-based are special computer chips for artificial intelligence inference and training works. The market for artificial intelligence chipsets would see opportunities as cloud technology advanced. The need for AI chipsets based on cloud is anticipated to increase significantly in the coming years. This is due to the expanding number of data centres being established globally in a variety of industries, including IT & telecom, automotive, etc. Furthermore, cloud-based AI chipsets are provided by firms like NVIDIA Corporation, Alibaba Group Holding Limited, Intel Corporation, and others. Download a detailed overview: https://www.skyquestt.com/sample-request/artificial-intelligence-chipset-market Browse in-depth TOC on the " Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chipsets Market " Pages - 197 Tables - 132 Figures 77 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chipsets Market Overview: Report Coverage Details Market Revenue in 2023 $21.05 Billion Estimated Value by 2031 $262.78 Billion Growth Rate Poised to grow at a CAGR of 37.1% Forecast Period 20242031 Forecast Units Value (USD Billion) Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered Hardware, Computing Technology, Technology, End User, Function Geographies Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, Latin America Report Highlights Trends in computing power and efficiency driving market growth Key Market Opportunities Growing potential of AI based tools in healthcare sector Key Market Drivers Catalysts for Growth in Autonomous Vehicles, Robotics, and Edge Computing Edge Computing can Dominate the Market Thanks to Lower Latency and Wider Bandwidth Utilization The worldwide AI chipsets market is being led by edge computing as it leads to less delay and use of bandwidth due to local data processing. In turn, the demand has increased, and this led to the growth of the market for such ai chipsets. So, we can say that this has resulted in faster real-time decision making as well as improved efficiency in the case of driverless vehicles or IOT devices. Effective Management of Complicated AI Algorithms, GPU Chip Type Will Rule the Sub-Segment Their enhanced parallel processing capabilities enable GPU chips or types to dominate the world market for AI chipsets as they can handle challenging AI algorithms and substantial datasets more effectively than other designs. As a result, AI applications run faster and perform better in areas such as gaming industry, medical field and Self-driven vehiclesthereby facilitating their massive adoption and subsequent market growth. North America Can Maintain a Large Market Share Due to the Presence of Major AI Chipset Manufacturers With the biggest market share, North America led the global artificial intelligence (AI) chipset market in 2020. This increase can be attributed to the fact that the region is home to several big AI chipset manufacturers such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Nvidia Corporation, and Intel Corporation, which are the major investors in research and development (R&D) projects concerning artificial intelligence (AI) in America. Request Free Customization of this report: https://www.skyquestt.com/speak-with-analyst/artificial-intelligence-chipset-market Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chipsets Market Insight Drivers: Growing Need for Edge Computing Catalysts for Growth in Autonomous Vehicles and Robotics Demand for AI in Data Centers and Cloud Computing Restraints: High Development Costs Complexity and Technical Difficulties Limited Ecosystem Support Prominent Players in Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chipsets Market Tenstorrent Inc. (Canada) Wave Computing, Inc. (US) XMOS Limited (UK) MediaTek Inc. (Taiwan) GreenWaves Technologies (France) Koniku Inc (US) Kalray Corporation (France) Mythic Inc. (US) Fujitsu Limited (Japan) SambaNova Systems Inc (US) View report summary and Table of Contents (TOC): https://www.skyquestt.com/report/artificial-intelligence-chipset-market Key Questions Answered in Global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chipsets Market Report What is the estimated market size for artificial intelligence (AI) chipsets globally by 2031, and what is the anticipated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the 20242031 projection period? What are the main advantages of edge computing, and why is it predicted to rule the AI chipset market? What are the reasons for North America's dominant market share in the worldwide AI chipset industry? This report provides the following insights: Analysis of key drivers (Increasing need for AI chipsets in emerging technologies such as EVs, performing complex computations in real-time, reducing latency & improving efficiency and advancements in deep & machine learning), restraints (Chipsets are complex & require advanced manufacturing processes, cost of AI chipsets can be a significant barrier for startups & researchers and limited adoption of AI technology across various industries), opportunities (Introduction of AI-driven technologies such as smart cities, need for dedicated hardware acceleration and less power consumption), and challenges (New attack vectors & security flaws and needing constant investment in cybersecurity measures) influencing the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) chipsets market Market Penetration: Comprehensive information on the product portfolios offered by the top players in the artificial intelligence (AI) chipsets market Product Development/Innovation: Detailed insights on the upcoming trends, R&D activities, and product launches in the artificial intelligence (AI) chipsets market Market Development: Comprehensive information on lucrative emerging regions Market Diversification: Exhaustive information about new products, growing geographies, and recent developments in the market Competitive Assessment: In-depth assessment of market segments, growth strategies, revenue analysis, and products of the leading market players. Related Reports: Global Artificial Intelligence Market Global Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) Market Global Edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) Market Global Mobile Artificial Intelligence (AI) Market Global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Robots Market About Us: SkyQuest is an IP focused Research and Investment Bank and Accelerator of Technology and assets. We provide access to technologies, markets and finance across sectors viz. Life Sciences, CleanTech, AgriTech, NanoTech and Information & Communication Technology. We work closely with innovators, inventors, innovation seekers, entrepreneurs, companies and investors alike in leveraging external sources of R&D. Moreover, we help them in optimizing the economic potential of their intellectual assets. Our experiences with innovation management and commercialization have expanded our reach across North America, Europe, ASEAN and Asia Pacific. Contact: Mr. Jagraj Singh Skyquest Technology 1 Apache Way, Westford, Massachusetts 01886 USA (+1) 351-333-4748 Email: sales@skyquestt.com KARL STORZ to acquire Asensus for $0.35 per share in cash Creating a leading surgical robotics division within KARL STORZ RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Asensus Surgical, Inc. (NYSE American: ASXC) (Asensus Surgical or Asensus), a global leader of innovative digital solutions for the operating room, today announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement (the Merger Agreement) with KARL STORZ Endoscopy-America, Inc. ("KARL STORZ"), a wholly owned direct subsidiary of KARL STORZ SE & Co. KG, an independent, family-owned global medical technology company. Under the Merger Agreement, KARL STORZ will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Asensus Surgical for $0.35 per share in cash (the Merger). The purchase price represents a premium of approximately 67% based on the per share closing price of the Asensus common stock on the NYSE American on April 2, 2024 (the date prior to announcement of a potential transaction), and a premium of approximately 52% to the closing price of the common stock on the last trading day prior to the date of this announcement. The transaction has been unanimously approved by Asensus Board of Directors. "We are pleased to have reached this agreement with KARL STORZ, which we believe maximizes value for our stockholders, said Anthony Fernando, Asensus Surgical President and CEO. This transaction is a testament to the value of our innovative robotic and digital technology, intellectual property, and the hard work of our talented team. We are excited to enter the next chapter for Asensus with KARL STORZ, which will allow us to continue to develop and deliver precise, safer, predictable surgery and digital tools to patients and surgeons around the world." The transaction would enhance KARL STORZs portfolio and market presence, strengthening KARL STORZs position in the growing robotic surgical market, particularly with the development of the next generation LUNA system. Asensus Surgical will work expeditiously to secure stockholder approval of the transaction and to close the transaction in accordance with the terms of the Merger Agreement. The transaction is anticipated to close during the third quarter of 2024, subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of approval from the Asensus stockholders. Upon completion of the transaction, Asensus Surgical will become a subsidiary of KARL STORZ Endoscopy-America and will no longer be publicly listed or traded on the NYSE American Exchange. Jefferies LLC served as financial advisor to Asensus Surgical, and Ballard Spahr LLP served as legal counsel to Asensus Surgical. UBS Investment Bank served as financial advisor to KARL STORZ, and Ropes & Gray LLP served as legal counsel to KARL STORZ. About Asensus Surgical, Inc. Asensus Surgical is revolutionizing surgery with the first intra-operative Augmented Intelligence technology approved for use in operating rooms around the world. Recognized as an award-winning leader in digital technology, Asensus is committed to making surgery more accessible and predictable while delivering consistently superior outcomes. Asensus novel approach to digitizing laparoscopy has led to system placements globally. Led by engineers, medical professionals, and industry luminaries, Asensus is powered by human ingenuity and driven by collaboration. To learn more about the Senhance Surgical System and the new LUNA System in development, visit www.asensus.com. About KARL STORZ The medical technology company KARL STORZ was founded in 1945 in Tuttlingen, Germany, and is an international leader in the world of endoscopy. Now in its third generation, the family-owned company employs 9,400 people in more than 40 countries worldwide. The company portfolio includes 13,000 products for human and veterinary medicine. KARL STORZ stands for visionary design, precision craftsmanship and clinical effectiveness. Preliminary sales in the 2023 financial year amounted to 2.17 billion euros. Production sites are located in Germany, the USA, Switzerland and Estonia. KARL STORZ Endoscopy-America is a subsidiary of KARL STORZ SE & Co. KG. Caution Regarding Forward Looking Statements This communication includes certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include statements concerning anticipated future events and expectations that are not historical facts. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. Actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements herein due to risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those associated with: (i) the parties ability to meet expectations regarding the timing and completion of the Merger; (ii) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that would give rise to the termination of the Merger Agreement; (iii) the fact that Asensus stockholders may not approve the Merger Agreement and the Merger; (iv) the fact that certain terminations of the Merger Agreement require Asensus to pay a termination fee of $3,600,000; (v) the failure to satisfy each of the conditions to the consummation of the Merger; (vi) the disruption of managements attention from ongoing business operations due to the Merger; (vii) the effect of the announcement of the Merger on Asensus relationships with its customers, as well as its operating results and business generally; (viii) the outcome of any legal proceedings related to the Merger; (ix) retention of employees of Asensus following the announcement of the Merger; (x) the fact that Asensus stock price may decline significantly if the Merger is not completed; (xi) the fact that Asensus may be obligated to repay amounts advanced under that certain Secured Promissory Note, dated April 3, 2024, by and between Asensus and KARL STORZ SE & Co. KG under the circumstances described therein and whether the Company will be able to repay the Note if the Merger is not completed, and other factors described under the heading Risk Factors in Asensus Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, as amended, and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, as each may be updated or supplemented by subsequent reports that Asensus has filed or files with the SEC. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date such statements are made. Asensus is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or alter any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions or otherwise, except as required by law. Important Additional Information and Where to Find It In connection with the Merger, Asensus will be filing preliminary and definitive proxy statements and other relevant documents relating to the proposed transaction with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC). This communication is not a substitute for the proxy statement or any other document that Asensus may file with the SEC or send to its stockholders in connection with the Merger. Before making any voting decision, Asensus stockholders are urged to read all relevant documents filed with the SEC, including the proxy statement, when they become available because they will contain important information about the Merger. Investors and security holders will be able to obtain the proxy statement and other documents filed by Asensus with the SEC (when available) free of charge at the SECs website, www.sec.gov , or from Asensus at the investor relations page of its website, www.asensus.com, Investors. These documents are not currently available. No Offer or Solicitation This communication is for information purposes only and is not intended to and does not constitute, or form part of, an offer, invitation or the solicitation of an offer or invitation to purchase, otherwise acquire, subscribe for, sell or otherwise dispose of any securities, or the solicitation of any vote or approval in any jurisdiction, pursuant to the proposed transaction or otherwise, nor shall there be any sale, issuance or transfer of securities in any jurisdiction in contravention of applicable law. Participants in the Solicitation Asensus and its directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from the holders of Asensus common stock in respect of the Merger. Information about Asensus directors and executive officers is set forth in Asensus Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, filed with the SEC on March 21, 2024, as amended by the Form 10-K/A filed with the SEC on April 29, 2024. The names of participants in the proxy solicitation and a description of their direct and indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, will be contained in the proxy statement and other relevant documents to be filed by Asensus with the SEC in respect of the proposed transaction. ASENSUS SURGICAL CONTACT: INVESTORS Mark Klausner or Mike Vallie ICR Westwicke invest@asensus.com 443-213-0499 ASHEVILLE, N.C., June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aeroflow Health , a pioneering healthcare company that leverages cutting-edge technology to support the delivery of medical products and services, today announced its attendance and participation in the AHIP 2024 conference. The annual event from AHIP, the nations leading health plan trade association, brings together health care experts and industry thought leaders from across the country to discuss the future of healthcare, along with emerging trends and innovations in care. Aeroflows Chief Medical Advisor Mike Cantor, MD, JD, will lead a session on Wednesday June 12th, 2024 at 4:45 p.m. PT titled, Building Equity Bridges: Integrating Network and Tech to Drive Improved Outcomes, where a panel will discuss how to bridge the gap in care for underserved patients. AHIP membership includes health insurance companies who offer coverage through employers, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid managed care, and more. Joining Dr. Cantor in the discussion will be Aeroflows Jennifer Jordan, Vice President of the Mom & Baby Division. Additional panelists include Moses Adedoyin, Director of Venture Design and Innovation at GuideWell, Brittany Melhado, Lead Strategist and Solution Consultant at Guidewell, Susan Jang, Lead Strategist, Venture Design & Innovation at GuideWell, and Anne Wanlund, Co-founder and CEO of Canopie. The conversation will identify the ways in which technology and advanced analytics can be used to gain valuable insights and actionable strategies that ultimately drive equitable outcomes. Aeroflow Health is dedicated to providing patients with high-quality products, resources and education to ensure success in their healthcare journey and to collaborating with our health plan partners. We look forward to an important discussion on how a partnership between GuideWell Health, the health plan and solutions company, Aeroflow Health, and Canopie, provider of maternal mental health supports, can more effectively help expectant and new moms, leading to a better maternal journey. Specifically, the partnership between Aeroflow, GuideWell and Canopie improved physical and mental health outcomes by addressing healthcare equity issues and addressing challenges with efficient access to resources, said Dr. Mike Cantor, Chief Medical Advisor at Aeroflow Health. It was possible to scale this intervention because Aeroflow emphasizes using technology to more effectively engage pregnant people and new moms by personalizing patient interactions and streamlining access to care. For our health plan partners, this enhanced member engagement leads to elevated program participation, new data insights, and overall better satisfaction rates and enrollment rates that allow them to achieve their goals while meeting the needs of the populations they serve. Aeroflow Health provides a portfolio of solutions for patients across multiple categories including each unique stage of motherhood, urology and incontinence care, sleep and CPAP essentials, and diabetes supplies. Attend our session and meet with our team to learn more about their core medical equipment offerings and services, and how they utilize technology to improve the patient experience. To learn more about Aeroflow Health, please visit www.aeroflowhealth.com About Aeroflow Health: Founded in 2001, Aeroflow Health is a pioneering healthcare company that leverages cutting-edge technology to support the delivery of medical products and services. With a steadfast commitment to empowering patients and improving their understanding of benefits, Aeroflow Health provides a curated experience for every individual and group. Offering a comprehensive portfolio of high-quality products, Aeroflow Health is dedicated to enhancing health outcomes and closing care gaps, ensuring that patients receive the care they deserve. Aeroflows commitment to accessible healthcare has resulted in partnerships with over 1000 different insurance plans, solidifying its reputation as a trusted healthcare companion, and making quality healthcare more accessible to all. For additional information, please visit www.aeroflowhealth.com . HUDSON, Ohio, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- JOANN, the nations category leader in fabric and sewing and one of the fastest growing competitors in the arts and crafts industry, announced today the appointment of Michael Prendergast, a Managing Director in Alvarez & Marsals Consumer and Retail Group, as Acting Chief Executive Officer of JOANN. Michael is an experienced executive who has helped companies transform successfully and has served as an interim leader for other retailers. Chris DiTullio and Scott Sekella, who served as Co-Leads of the Interim Office of the CEO since May 2023 and led JOANN through a successful and expeditious Ch. 11 process, will continue their leadership as Chief Customer Officer and Chief Financial Officer, respectively. A search for a permanent CEO is under way. In addition, JOANN is pleased to announce the appointment of a new Board of Directors as it moves forward as a stronger private company. The group brings deep experience in business and retail to the organization and will offer valuable guidance and support to JOANNs existing senior leadership team. The new Board Members are: Mary Campbell, Joe Hartsig, Darrell Horn, Michelle Israel, and Bill Wall. We are honored to join what is truly a new JOANN, and we look forward to supporting the company and its leadership team in its mission to inspire creativity, said Darrell Horn, Interim Chairman of the Board. On behalf of the Board, wed like to thank Chris and Scott for their extraordinary leadership through the past year, which has brought the company to its strongest financial foundation in many years. We are confident Michaels expertise in retail will help the company continue its positive momentum while we commence a search for the new President & CEO, and we look forward to a bright future for this unique brand. About Michael Prendergast: Michael Prendergast is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal Consumer and Retail Group in New York. He brings over 20 years of leadership experience from the fashion and consumer products industries. He is an innovative leader who identifies top-line revenue growth vehicles while maximizing profit within complex organizations. He has a proven track record working across all major retail segments including wholesale, retail, and e-commerce and is an expert in the successful operation of processes throughout the supply chain (from product concept design through delivery to customer). He has extensive experience in merchandising, sourcing, marketing, sales force optimization and customer retention. Prendergast has a proven track record of securing opportunities for improvement in businesses, building strategies for the execution of these initiatives, and leading teams to deliver results. He built his career on combining strategic vision with implementation and delivering results. He has served as CEO and Interim CEO for several retail companies throughout his career. About the Board Mary Campbell: Mary Campbell has served on the Kontoor Brands board since February 2024 and the Leggett & Platt, Inc. board since 2019. Ms. Campbell was previously the President, vCommerce of Qurate Retail Group until her retirement in 2023. Qurate Retail is comprised of a select group of retail brands, including QVC, HSN, Ballard Designs, Frontgate, Garnet Hill, and Grandin Road and is a leader in video commerce, a top top-10 ecommerce retailer, and a leader in mobile and social commerce. During her more than 20 years with the company, Ms. Campbell held various leadership positions across the Merchandising, Planning and Commerce Platforms functions. Most recently, and prior to serving as President, vCommerce, she served as Chief Merchandising Officer of Qurate Retail Group and Chief Commerce Office of QVC from 2018 to 2022. Prior to that, she held the position of Chief Digital, Content and Platforms Officer of QVC. Joe Hartsig: Joe Hartsig is a Managing Director at Raines International where he leads the Retail and Business Services practices. As a past retail banner president, chief merchandising and marketing officer, Joe has managed full P&Ls up to $26 billion in revenue across brick and mortar and e-commerce channels. He was the Chief Merchandising Officer for a $95 billion business and is a former corporate officer of Fortune 500 publicly traded companies. Joe brings over 30 years of operational experience building world-class teams and leading large organizations at consumer blue-chip companies in the retail industry. His senior leadership experiences include roles at Bed Bath & Beyond, Walgreens and Walmart. Darrell Horn: With more than 25 years of experience, Darrell serves in a strategic advisory role with Green Square clients, advising on investment strategies to meet families' long-term objectives. He also serves as a trusted advisor and consultant regarding private business strategies ranging from exit options, re-capitalization strategies, shareholder strategies and other needs as they arise. He has been instrumental in assisting families with pre-and post-transaction issues, including pre-sale estate planning, as well as post-sale investment strategy and implementation. Darrell is a member of Green Squares executive committee, investment committee and board of directors. Darrell is also the co-founder of Center Coast Capital Advisors, a mid-stream energy investment management firm headquartered in Houston, Texas, with more than $3.5 billion under management. Prior to founding Green Square in 2001, he held positions at Goldman Sachs, SunTrust Bank, and First American Bank. Michelle Israel: Michelle joined Consensus Advisors as a Strategic Advisor in 2023 after playing a senior role in the leadership of both Macys and Bloomingdales. A second generation and career retailer Michelle has spent her career building brands from Luxury to Off Price. From 2020-2022, Michelle was SVP/GMM for Beauty and Center Core at Macys, where she was responsible for approximately 1/3 of Macys revenue and focused on strategies for emerging and luxury beauty brands and maximizing Fine Jewelry and Shoes. From 2015-2020, Michelle led Macys Off Price growth strategy, building out the Bloomingdales Outlets business and opening nearly 175 Macys Backstage outlets in a capital-efficient and highly successful store-within-a-store business model. Under her leadership, Macys established itself as the only national on-mall, off price retailer. Prior to her off price assignments, she spent nearly ten years as a leader in the Bloomingdales Home business after multiple roles within Bloomingdales starting with the buyer training program. Bill Wall: Bill Wall manages special situations and identifies distressed investment opportunities for Fidelitys High Income and Alternatives Group. Before re-joining Fidelity in 2020, Mr. Wall was a partner at OQ Partners investing in small private start-ups and served as a director of several public companies. He also served as general counsel at Abrams Capital, a value-oriented investment firm focused on public and private investments. Previously, he was a founding partner at a hedge fund, Andover Capital, and spent seven years at Fidelity in various investment and legal roles. He began his career as an associate at Ropes & Gray, providing legal advice on private equity and corporate finance. About JOANN For more than 80 years, JOANN has inspired creativity in the hearts, hands, and minds of its customers. From a single storefront in Cleveland, Ohio, the nations category leader in sewing and fabrics and one of the fastest growing competitors in the arts and crafts industry has grown to include more than 800 store locations across 49 states and a robust e-commerce business. With the goal of helping every customer find their creative Happy Place, JOANN serves as a convenient single source for all of the supplies, guidance, and inspiration needed to achieve any project or passion. Dublin, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Refurbished Mobile Phone Market Outlook, 2029" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global refurbished mobile phone market is anticipated to cross USD 100 billion by 2029, increasing from USD 64.91 billion in 2023. The market is expected to grow with 7.80% CAGR by 2024-29. As consumers become more environmentally conscious and financially savvy, the demand for refurbished devices continues to soar. The market for refurbished phones is highly dynamic, with various players contributing to its growth and evolution. Refurbishers, retailers, e-commerce platforms, and mobile carriers all play a role in the distribution and sale of refurbished devices. Additionally, advancements in technology and refurbishment techniques have led to improvements in the quality and reliability of refurbished phones, further fueling market growth. Key Highlights The refurbished phones segment dominated the market share in 2023 and is expected to maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period, primarily due to the increasing popularity of refurbished smartphones among end consumers. Mid-priced refurbished and used mobile phones ($200-$350) lead due to their optimal balance of affordability and quality, offering consumers value for money without compromising on performance or features. Offline distribution channels lead due to the personalized experience they offer, allowing consumers to inspect devices physically and receive immediate assistance from knowledgeable staff. Asia Pacific is experiencing significant growth due to the factors such as the large population, rising smartphone penetration, and increasing demand for affordable devices. Market Drivers Access to Premium Features: Refurbished phones provide consumers with access to premium features and specifications at a more affordable price point. This allows individuals who may not be able to afford new flagship devices to enjoy advanced technology and capabilities. Refurbished phones offer an opportunity for consumers to experience high-end features such as advanced cameras, enhanced processing power, and innovative design, without the premium price tag associated with new devices. Refurbished phones provide consumers with access to premium features and specifications at a more affordable price point. This allows individuals who may not be able to afford new flagship devices to enjoy advanced technology and capabilities. Refurbished phones offer an opportunity for consumers to experience high-end features such as advanced cameras, enhanced processing power, and innovative design, without the premium price tag associated with new devices. Warranty and Support: Many refurbished phones come with warranties and support services, offering consumers added peace of mind and protection against potential issues. These warranties often cover defects in materials or workmanship, providing consumers with recourse in the event of malfunction or failure. Additionally, refurbished phone vendors may offer customer support services to assist with setup, troubleshooting, and device maintenance, further enhancing the overall ownership experience. Market Challenges Consumer Perception: Overcoming skepticism and dispelling misconceptions about refurbished phones remains a significant challenge for the industry. Some consumers are hesitant to purchase refurbished devices due to concerns about product quality, reliability, and warranty coverage. Building trust and confidence among consumers requires education, transparency, and consistent quality assurance measures throughout the refurbishment process. Overcoming skepticism and dispelling misconceptions about refurbished phones remains a significant challenge for the industry. Some consumers are hesitant to purchase refurbished devices due to concerns about product quality, reliability, and warranty coverage. Building trust and confidence among consumers requires education, transparency, and consistent quality assurance measures throughout the refurbishment process. Regulatory Compliance and Data Security: Adhering to regulations and standards regarding data privacy, environmental sustainability, and product safety poses challenges for refurbished phone vendors. Ensuring compliance with industry certifications and regulations, such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and e-Stewards, is essential to maintaining consumer trust and market credibility. Additionally, safeguarding sensitive data during the refurbishment process and implementing robust data erasure techniques are critical to protecting consumer privacy and preventing data breaches. Market Trends Rise of Online Marketplaces: The increasing popularity of online marketplaces and e-commerce platforms has fueled the growth of the refurbished phone industry. These platforms provide a convenient and accessible channel for consumers to purchase refurbished devices, offering a wide selection of products from various vendors. Additionally, online marketplaces often feature customer reviews and ratings, helping consumers make informed purchasing decisions and build confidence in refurbished products. The increasing popularity of online marketplaces and e-commerce platforms has fueled the growth of the refurbished phone industry. These platforms provide a convenient and accessible channel for consumers to purchase refurbished devices, offering a wide selection of products from various vendors. Additionally, online marketplaces often feature customer reviews and ratings, helping consumers make informed purchasing decisions and build confidence in refurbished products. Focus on Quality and Certification: As consumer demand for refurbished phones continues to grow, there is a greater emphasis on quality assurance and certification within the industry. Refurbishers and retailers are investing in rigorous testing, inspection, and refurbishment processes to ensure the quality and reliability of refurbished devices. Industry certifications, such as Certified Refurbished programs offered by manufacturers, provide consumers with assurance regarding the authenticity and quality of refurbished products, further driving market acceptance and trust. The Asia-Pacific region has emerged as the leader in the refurbished phone industry, propelled by several key factors contributing to its dominance. Firstly, the region boasts a massive market size with a diverse population spanning countries such as China, India, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asian nations. This vast market presents immense opportunities for refurbished phone vendors to cater to the diverse needs and preferences of consumers across different socioeconomic backgrounds. Moreover, the Asia-Pacific region has experienced rapid technological adoption and smartphone penetration in recent years, driven by factors such as urbanization, rising disposable incomes, and the availability of affordable mobile data plans. As a result, there is a growing demand for smartphones, particularly among price-sensitive consumers who seek cost-effective alternatives to new devices. Refurbished phones offer an attractive solution, providing high-quality smartphones at significantly discounted prices compared to new models, thus meeting the needs of budget-conscious consumers without compromising on quality or performance. Additionally, the Asia-Pacific region is characterized by a strong entrepreneurial spirit and a thriving ecosystem of refurbishers, retailers, and e-commerce platforms catering to the refurbished phone market. This vibrant ecosystem fosters innovation, competition, and collaboration, driving the growth and development of the refurbished phone industry in the region. Furthermore, increasing awareness of environmental sustainability and the circular economy has further bolstered the demand for refurbished phones in the Asia-Pacific region. As consumers become more conscious of the environmental impact of electronic waste and seek greener alternatives, refurbished phones offer a sustainable solution by extending the lifespan of electronic devices and reducing e-waste. Refurbished smartphone sales are rising in India because of a new generation of tech-enabled firms like Cashify, HyperXchange, and Flipkart-owned Yaantra, among others. Refurbished mobile devices offer affordable choices for buyers and sellers, and they are growing in popularity due to the money they save both parties. Local merchants, like Shopzen India, provide high-quality refurbished mobile phones at wholesale prices. With all brands available on one platform, customers can shop for their ideal smartphones and mobile phone accessories while minimizing costs. The market demand in this area is driven by the rising popularity of e-commerce platforms for used and refurbished cell phones. Timeline considered for this report Historic year: 2018 2018 Base year: 2023 2023 Estimated year: 2024 2024 Forecast year: 2029 By Type Refurbished Phones Used Phones By Pricing Range Low-priced Refurbished and Used Mobile Phones (Less than $200) Mid-Priced Refurbished and Used Mobile Phones ($200-$350) Premium Refurbished and Used Mobile Phones (More than $350) By Distribution Channel Offline Online Key Attributes Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 174 Forecast Period 2023-2029 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2023 $64.91 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2029 $100 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 7.8% Regions Covered Global A selection of companies mentioned in this report includes, but is not limited to: Alibaba Group Holding Limited Apple Inc. Amazon.com, Inc. eBay Inc. Samsung Group Swappie OY Best Buy Co. Inc. Walmart Inc Back Market Cashify One97 Communications Ltd. AT&T Inc. Target Corporation Best Buy Co. Inc. MercadoLibre, Inc. Recommerce Solutions Recent Developments In December 2023, Smartphone refurbishing startup ControlZ aims to invest nearly USD 2 million in its Gurugram repair facility again in 2024. The company aims to repair 1 lakh units at the facility in 2024 and scale it to 5 lakh units by 2025. In November 2023, Reboxed announced that it secured GBP 1.6 million (USD 2.03 million) in seed funding led by ACF Investors. Reboxed offers a commerce platform connecting customers and businesses with a better and more sustainable way to buy and sell technology. It provides premium refurbished and pre-owned devices, including phones, tablets, laptops, and smartwatches, through a 'like new' experience that focuses on quality, consistency, and a genuinely circular approach. The company will use the funds to drive growth and further develop its retail partner programs and Reboxed for business service. In September 2023, Back Market launched 'Let Them Buy New' - a provocative new international campaign that calls 'BS' on Big Tech's obsession with creating a need for new products. The campaign parodies Big Tech's marketing ploys to challenge the accepted norm of buying new tech every time, to question a consumer bias for new, and to show that refurbished devices are a high quality, more affordable, and more eco-friendly choice. In September 2023, Expon Capital's portfolio company, REFURBED, which achieved 1 billion in GMV since its founding in June 2023, announced a USD 57 million (EUR investment led by existing investors with significant participation from All Iron and several new backers). With this Series C investment, the company will continue to drive its mission to become the leading platform for sustainable products and services to empower consumers to purchase refurbished technology in a more accessible, risk-free, and sustainable manner. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/rcgbtk 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 Henderson, Nevada, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aqua-Tots Swim School, the largest international swim school franchise, is excited to announce the opening of Aqua-Tots Henderson, its newest location worldwide and second in Nevada. The new facility is conveniently located at 617 Mall Ring Cir. and is ready to serve families living in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Spanning a spacious 6,400 square feet, Aqua-Tots Henderson offers a wide range of swim lesson options to cater to the needs of the community. Parents can enroll children aged four months to 12 years old in classes ranging from private lessons to small groups of four students. Aqua-Tots provides a safe, attentive and nurturing environment for students to learn and improve their swimming skills. In addition to standard classes, the company also offers specialized programs tailored to the needs of students, such as Fast Track, Students Needing Adaptive Programming, Swim Club, and adult swim lessons. Henderson is home to many new residents who want to stay close to Las Vegas while enjoying the benefits of a sunny, up-and-coming community, stated Matthews. Many of those who live here turn to swimming to beat the heat. Its why were so excited to offer Aqua-Tots' incredible, world-renowned curriculum to this remarkable community. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drowning is the leading cause of death for children under the age of four. However, participation in formal swim lessons can reduce the risk of drowning by up to 88%. Aqua-Tots Swim School has remained the foremost leader in the global swim instruction industry since 1991. The company is committed to ensuring that all students and parents are equipped with the necessary skills to prevent water-related incidents. Aqua-Tots Swim School in Henderson is open Monday through Thursday and Saturday, ensuring flexibility for busy families. The school is conveniently located to serve the nearby communities of Whitney Ranch, Gibson Springs, and Green Valley North. To learn more about Aqua-Tots Henderson or to enroll in lessons, please visit aqua-tots.com/henderson, call 702-941-7970 or email hendersoninfo@aqua-tots.com. About Aqua-Tots Swim School Founded in 1991 and headquartered in the Phoenix area, Aqua-Tots Swim School is making waves as the largest international provider of year-round, indoor swim instruction, community outreach and drowning prevention education. Its trusted program is dedicated to children of all abilities from four months to 12 years old and features a proven curriculum used to teach more than five million swim lessons each year. Aqua-Tots is recognized in Franchise Business Reviews Top 100 Franchises for Women in 2024, Entrepreneur's Top 15 Childrens Franchises of 2023, Entrepreneurs Franchise 500, Inc. Magazine's Top 5000 and Franchise Times Top 200, Aqua-Tots has more than 155 locations in 25 states across 14 countries and is rapidly expanding with 90 locations in development. To learn more about franchise opportunities, visit aqua-tots.com/franchise-development and for more information about Aqua-Tots or to sign up for lessons near you, visit aqua-tots.com and follow Aqua-Tots on Facebook and Instagram. ### Attachment Dallas, TX, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dickeys Barbecue Pit is treating Dallas/Ft Worth barbecue lovers to a special pulled pork treat, as well as FREE delivery for a limited time. The summer is heatin up, and so are the deals at Dickeys! Local Dallas/Fort Worth barbecue enthusiasts can now visit their favorite Dickeys store and purchase the famous pulled pork sandwich for only $4.99. This smokin special is available all day, every day, and can be purchased in store, online, and on the Dickeys App with no additional purchase necessary. Additionally, the historic Dallas barbecue brand is offering their loyal guest FREE delivery, with a minimum purchase of $15, for a limited time. This deal is only available by ordering on the Dickeys website or on the Dickeys App. At Dickeys Barbecue we know that hot, Texas summers can get expensive, said Laura Rea Dickey, CEO of Dickeys Barbecue Pit, Inc. Thats why were thrilled to offer our loyal, longtime, Dallas/Ft Worth guests this value friendly sandwich deal and Free Delivery for a limited time. *As a reminder, Kids Eat Free on Sundays with a minimum $12 adult meal purchase. Barbecue guests can dine in at their local Dickeys store or enjoy their pit-smoked meal from the comfort of their own home by ordering online or in the Dickeys App using code KEFOLO. 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. 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 over 500 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. Attachment Denver, CO, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AINOW Cryptocurrency Exchange, a global leading cryptocurrency exchange and wallet platform, is fulfilling its social responsibility through a series of public welfare activities. As a pioneer in global blockchain and AI technology, AINOW is dedicated to helping more people around the world achieve financial freedom, narrow the wealth gap, and escape poverty through its technology and resources. Through a series of innovative public welfare initiatives, AINOW is bringing change to information-isolated areas, accelerating the informatization process in impoverished regions. AINOW firmly believes that technology can not only bring economic benefits but also drive social progress. To achieve this vision, AINOW actively supports educational endeavors by donating AI-teaching electronic devices to schools in impoverished areas, thereby improving educational conditions. Additionally, AINOW funds research projects in blockchain and AI at universities, promoting innovation and development in these fields. Founded in May 2021, AINOW brings together top blockchain technology talents from over 10 countries worldwide. Its core team members have previously worked at globally renowned fintech companies, possessing extensive industry experience and profound technical expertise. AINOW provides a variety of trading services in more than 30 countries, including spot trading, options, smart trading, and perpetual contracts, making it one of the most comprehensive and diverse options platforms in the industry. As AINOW's core technology, AI intelligent trading utilizes cutting-edge techniques such as machine learning and deep learning to analyze vast amounts of market data and historical information. This technology helps reduce the impact of human factors on trading, enhancing stability and consistency. Recently, AINOW announced funding for tablets and smartphones in impoverished areas, along with providing necessary technical support, enabling local residents to access online financial and other network resources. These devices not only help residents integrate into the information society but also offer opportunities to learn AI and blockchain technology. AINOW has also launched a series of digital literacy training activities to help residents in impoverished areas master basic electronic device skills and improve their information literacy. AINOW's efforts not only help residents in impoverished areas achieve information freedom but also promote sustainable development. By providing online financial services, AINOW uses AI technology to assist those who cannot access traditional financial services, enhancing their quality of life and economic opportunities. AINOW is committed to donating a portion of its income to charitable organizations, supporting various social welfare causes. These donations will be used to improve social welfare, promote social equity, particularly in education, healthcare, and community development. AINOW believes that only through active social contributions can long-term industry development and social progress be achieved. AINOW states: "We deeply understand that the power of technology lies not only in creating economic value but also in changing the world. Through our public welfare projects, we hope to help more people achieve financial freedom, narrow the wealth gap, and extend the benefits of technology to more people." AINOW is dedicated to social welfare endeavors, aiming to improve living conditions and education levels in impoverished areas through more donations and project support. 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 and securities. Cleveland, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP has been recognized as a 2024 Leading Law Firm in Ohio, Indiana, Washington, D.C., and nationally in the recently released edition of Chambers USA Guide: Americas Leading Business Lawyers. Chambers and Partners assess law firms on technical legal ability, client service, commercial vision and business understanding, diligence, value, and depth of teams. Law firm departments are ranked on the qualities of their attorneys and the effectiveness and capability of the department as a whole (its strength and depth). Law firms and individual lawyers are ranked in bands from 1 (highest) to 6. Being ranked in any band is considered a significant achievement in the global legal community. Chambers USA 2024 recognized Calfee in the following 17 practice areas, jurisdictions, and bands: Antitrust (Ohio: Band 2) Banking & Finance (Ohio: Band 2) Bankruptcy/Restructuring (Ohio: Band 3) Corporate/M&A (Ohio-North: Band 2) Corporate/M&A (Ohio-South & Central: Band 3) Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation (Ohio: Band 2) Energy & Natural Resources (Indiana: Band 1) Energy & Natural Resources (Ohio: Band 1) Environment (Ohio: Band 3) Government Relations: State & Local (USA-Nationwide: Band 1) Insurance: Policyholder (Ohio: Band 1) Intellectual Property (Ohio: Band 1) Investment Funds: Regulatory & Compliance (USA-Nationwide: Band 3) Labor & Employment (Ohio: Band 3) Litigation: General Commercial (Ohio: Band 2) Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations (Ohio: Band 2) Real Estate (Ohio: Band 3) Chambers ranks individual attorneys based on their legal knowledge, experience, ability, effectiveness, and client service. Each of the following 43 Calfee attorneys has been recognized as a Leader in Their Field" by Chambers USA 2024: Fritz E. Berckmueller Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations (Ohio: Band 2) Karl S. Beus Banking & Finance (Ohio: Band 2) Mitchell G. Blair Litigation: General Commercial (Ohio: Band 1) Michael W. Bowen Government Relations: State & Local (USA-Nationwide: Up & Coming) Phillip A. Casey Energy & Natural Resources (Indiana: Band 1) John R. Cernelich Labor & Employment (Ohio: Band 3) Matthew A. Chiricosta Insurance (Ohio: Band 3) John S. Cipolla Intellectual Property (Ohio: Band 1) Robert M. Cipolla Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation (District of Columbia: Band 4) Mara E. Cushwa Real Estate (Ohio: Band 3) Steven W. Day Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation (Ohio: Band 2) Terrence F. Doyle Corporate/M&A (Ohio-North: Band 4) Gary L. Ellsworth Real Estate (Ohio: Band 4) Michael K. Gall Tax (Ohio: Band 2) Elizabeth Zoller Golish Real Estate (Ohio: Band 4) Arthur C. Hall III Corporate/M&A (Ohio-North: Band 4) Patrick D. Hayes Investment Funds: Regulatory & Compliance (USA-Nationwide: Band 2 and ranked in Chambers Global-USA: Band 3) James C. Holsclaw Energy & Natural Resources (Indiana: Band 2) Maura L. Hughes Antitrust (Ohio: Band 1) Michael B. Hurley Corporate/M&A (Ohio-South & Central: Band 4) Christopher Jones Environment (Ohio: Band 2) Gus Kallergis Bankruptcy/Restructuring (Ohio: Band 3) Steven C. Karzmer Corporate/M&A (Ohio-South & Central: Band 3) James F. Lang Energy & Natural Resources (Ohio: Band 1) James M. Lawniczak Bankruptcy/Restructuring (Ohio: Senior Statesperson) Mark W. McDougall Intellectual Property (Ohio: Band 3) Brian A. McMahon Banking & Finance (Ohio: Band 3) Matthew M. Mendoza Construction (Ohio: Band 4) Robert A. Miller Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation (Ohio: Band 2) Douglas A. Neary Corporate/M&A (Ohio-North: Eminent Practitioner) Todd F. Palmer Labor & Employment (Ohio: Band 4) Leah Pappas Porner Government Relations: State & Local (USA-Nationwide: Band 1) Brent M. Pietrafese Corporate/M&A (Ohio-North: Band 4) Billy C. Raulerson Intellectual Property (Ohio: Band 3) Karla M. Rogers Real Estate (Ohio: Band 3) Joshua R. Sanders Government Relations: State & Local (USA-Nationwide: Band 1) Ann Z. Seger Banking & Finance (Ohio: Band 2) K. James Sullivan Insurance (Ohio: Band 1) Salvatore J. (Sam) Totino Corporate/M&A (Ohio-North: Up & Coming) Todd Tucker Intellectual Property (Ohio: Band 2) Jennifer L. Vergilii Corporate/M&A (Ohio-North: Band 3) Thomas M. Welsh Corporate/M&A (Ohio-North: Band 4) Christopher S. Williams Litigation: General Commercial (Ohio: Band 2) With more than 200 researchers, Chambers has been conducting independent research into top law firms worldwide for more than 30 years and is considered the preeminent ranking organization in the legal industry globally. The Chambers.com website includes detailed and independently researched editorials describing each listed law firm, department, and lawyer as well as each firms strengths and quotes from clients and peers. The Chambers High Net Worth Guide will release its 2024 rankings later this summer. Calfee's Estate and Succession Planning and Administration practice group was ranked in Chambers HNW 2023 as a "Leading Law Firm" in Private Wealth Law in Ohio (Band 1). Three of Calfee's Estate and Succession Planning and Administration attorneys were ranked as "Leaders in their Field" in Private Wealth Law in Ohio for 2023: Joseph M. Mentrek, Partner and Chair of the practice group (Band 1), Jaclyn M. Vary, Partner (Band 3), and Amy K. Friedmann, Senior Counsel (Band 3). About Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP is a full-service corporate law firm with 160 attorneys and professionals and six offices in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, New York, and Washington, D.C. Calfee serves clients in the Midwest, nationally and globally in the areas of Business Restructuring and Insolvency, Corporate and Finance, Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation, Energy and Utilities, Estate and Succession Planning and Administration, Government Relations and Legislation, Intellectual Property, Investment Management Law, Labor and Employment, Litigation, and Real Estate Law. A founding member of Lex Mundi, Calfee offers international representation through a network of independent law firms with access to 22,000 attorneys located in more than 125 countries. Visit Calfee.com for additional information on the firm's attorneys and practice areas. OKOTOKS, Alberta, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (TSX: MTL) Mullen Group Ltd. ("Mullen Group", "We", "Our" and/or the "Corporation") today announced that it has priced an approximately CAD$400 million aggregate principal amount senior secured notes offering (the "Notes Offering"), by way of a private placement. The senior secured notes (the "Notes") will be guaranteed by Mullen Group's subsidiaries, MT Investments Inc. and MGL Holding Co. Ltd. (each, a "Guarantor") and secured by a first ranking charge over all present and after-acquired property of the Corporation and each Guarantor. The Notes will mature on July 10, 2034, and are comprised of aggregate principal amounts of US$75 million with a yield of 6.50% per annum and CAD$300 million with a yield of 5.93% per annum. Interest on the Notes will accrue from the date of issue and be payable semi-annually in arrears on June 7 and December 7, beginning on December 7, 2024. The Notes Offering is expected to close on July 10, 2024, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. Mullen Group intends to use the net proceeds from the Notes Offering to repay its existing private placement debt maturing in October 2024 and for general corporate purposes. "Today, is an exciting day for the Mullen Group. Long-term investors have indicated an intention to subscribe for over CAD$400 million, in new 10 year senior secured notes, providing our organization with added liquidity to fund our growth plans for the next 10 years. I couldn't be more pleased with the reception and response our organization received from investors," commented Mr. Murray K. Mullen, Chair and Senior Executive Officer. The Notes have been offered only in a private placement to institutional accredited investors in reliance on Section 4(a)(2) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"). The Notes have not been registered under the Securities Act, Canadian securities laws or the securities laws of any other jurisdiction, and may not be offered or sold within the United States, or to or for the account or benefit of any U.S. Person, absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements. Mullen Group is under no obligation, and has no intention to, register the Notes under the Securities Act, Canadian securities laws or the securities laws of any other jurisdiction in the future. The Notes have not been and will not be qualified for distribution to the public under applicable Canadian securities laws and, accordingly, any offer and sale of the securities in Canada will be made on a basis which is exempt from the prospectus and dealer registration requirements of such securities laws. The Notes have been offered in Canada on a private placement basis only to "accredited investors". This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the Notes. This press release also does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the Notes in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of that jurisdiction, or an exemption is available from such registration or qualification. About Mullen Group Ltd. Mullen Group is one of Canada's largest logistics providers. Our network of independently operated businesses provide a wide range of service offerings including less-than-truckload, truckload, warehousing, logistics, transload, oversized, third-party logistics and specialized hauling transportation. In addition, we provide a diverse set of specialized services related to the energy, mining, forestry and construction industries in western Canada, including water management, fluid hauling and environmental reclamation. The corporate office provides the capital and financial expertise, legal support, technology and systems support, shared services and strategic planning to its independent businesses. Mullen Group is a publicly traded corporation listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "MTL". Additional information is available on our website at www.mullen-group.com or on the Corporation's issuer profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Contact Information Mr. Murray K. Mullen - Chair, Senior Executive Officer and President Mr. Richard J. Maloney - Senior Operating Officer Mr. Carson P. Urlacher - Senior Financial Officer Ms. Joanna K. Scott - Senior Corporate Officer 121A - 31 Southridge Drive Okotoks, Alberta, Canada T1S 2N3 Telephone: 403-995-5200 Fax: 403-995-5296 Disclaimer Mullen Group may make statements in this news release that reflect its current beliefs and assumptions and are based on information currently available to it and contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. This news release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risk factors associated with the overall economy and the oil and natural gas business. These forward-looking statements relate to future events and Mullen Group's future performance. All forward looking statements and information contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature constitute forward-looking statements, and the words "may", "will", "should", "could", "expect", "plan", "intend", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "propose", "predict", "potential", "continue", "aim", or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements represent Mullen Group's internal projections, estimates, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions, intentions or statements about future events or performance. These forward-looking statements involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Mullen Group believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable; however, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. In particular, forward-looking statements include but are not limited to the following: the terms and timing of the Notes Offering and the use of proceeds of the Notes Offering. These forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and analyses made by Mullen Group in light of our experience and our perception of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors we believe are appropriate under the circumstances. These assumptions include but are not limited to the following: (i) that the Notes Offering will close as expected. For further information on any strategic, financial, operational and other outlook on Mullen Group's business please refer to Mullen Group's Management's Discussion and Analysis available for viewing on Mullen Group's issuer profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Additional information on risks that could affect the operations or financial results of Mullen Group may be found under the heading "Principal Risks and Uncertainties" starting on page 50 of the 2023 Annual Financial Review as well as in reports on file with applicable securities regulatory authorities and may be accessed through Mullen Group's issuer profile on the SEDAR+ website at www.sedarplus.ca. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained herein is made as of the date of this news release and Mullen Group disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly any such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, other than as required by applicable Canadian securities laws. Mullen Group relies on litigation protection for forward-looking statements. Investors can contact the law firm at no cost to learn more about recovering their losses LOS ANGELES, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Portnoy Law Firm advises UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UnitedHealth Group or the Company) (NYSE: UNH) investors that a class action has been filed on behalf of investors. UnitedHealth Group investors that lost money on their investment are encouraged to contact Lesley Portnoy, Esq. 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. The Complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, UnitedHealth repeatedly assured investors that it had taken steps to avoid anti-competitive behavior, including by setting up robust firewall processes to prevent customer sensitive information (CSI) from being shared between UnitedHealthcare and Optum after the merger. Specifically, the Complaint alleges that UnitedHealth explicitly stated that Optum invests extraordinary time, money, and resources into safeguarding [CSI] and keeping it walled off from UnitedHealthcare and that UnitedHealth Groups existing firewalls and data-security policies prohibit employees from improperly sharing external-customer CSI. As a result of these misrepresentations, the lawsuit claims that UnitedHealth stock traded at artificially inflated prices during the Class Period. Please visit our website to review more information and submit your transaction information. The Portnoy Law Firm represents investors in pursuing claims against 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 NORFOLK, Va, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Old Dominion University (ODU) and Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) hosted a community celebration at Hilton Norfolk The Main on June 7 to commemorate the integration of EVMS into ODU. The celebration is a direct result of a community-inspired and collaboratively led journey to provide increased levels of support and visibility to EVMS and followed a more than two-year extensive planning process that involved hundreds of people from both campuses, as well as key partners, including the Commonwealth of Virginia and Sentara Health. The integration, effective on July 1, 2024, establishes the Commonwealth of Virginias most complex and largest academic health sciences center with 56 academic programs, some of which are unique programs not offered elsewhere in the state. This effort was made possible due to the leadership of Governor Glenn Youngkin and support of the General Assembly, including The Honorable L. Louise Lucas, who serves as the President Pro Tempore of the Senate of Virginia, and The Honorable Barry D. Knight, who serves as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates. Both Senator Lucas and Delegate Knight served as chief co-patrons of the enabling legislation for the authorization and structure of the ODU-EVMS integration. During the event, state leaders shared their excitement and support for this transformational initiative. Governor Glenn Youngkin Over 50 years ago, EVMS was founded by local leaders in one of the few grassroots created medical schools in the nation. As one of the few independent medical schools remaining in the nation, EVMS will significantly enhance regional health outcomes through its merger with ODU. This significant merger in the Hampton Roads community will help tackle the pressing shortages of nurses and doctors. It will also boost our medical programs, attract top talent, and ultimately provide better healthcare services and outcomes to our entire Commonwealth. Together, we are committed to a healthier future for all. Welcome to the new era of excellence in healthcare and education. Lets get to work making Virginia the best and healthiest place to live, work, and raise a family. Over 50 years ago, EVMS was founded by local leaders in one of the few grassroots created medical schools in the nation. As one of the few independent medical schools remaining in the nation, EVMS will significantly enhance regional health outcomes through its merger with ODU. This significant merger in the Hampton Roads community will help tackle the pressing shortages of nurses and doctors. It will also boost our medical programs, attract top talent, and ultimately provide better healthcare services and outcomes to our entire Commonwealth. Together, we are committed to a healthier future for all. Welcome to the new era of excellence in healthcare and education. Lets get to work making Virginia the best and healthiest place to live, work, and raise a family. Speaker Don Scott The research that ODU can bring and leverage with EVMS is going to be huge and make us a leader not only in the Commonwealth of Virginia, but in the world. I'm excited to be a part of it and have had a hand in making it happen. And, I'm excited about what we're going to be able to do here in Hampton Roads with EVMS and ODU leading the way and saving lives. The research that ODU can bring and leverage with EVMS is going to be huge and make us a leader not only in the Commonwealth of Virginia, but in the world. I'm excited to be a part of it and have had a hand in making it happen. And, I'm excited about what we're going to be able to do here in Hampton Roads with EVMS and ODU leading the way and saving lives. Chairman Luke E. Torian This merger is an indication of the vision at ODU to not be stagnant or comfortable, but always operating with a vision and wanting to grow Norfolk, Hampton Roads, and the Commonwealth. This merger in so many ways will help a lot of communities. This merger is an indication of the vision at ODU to not be stagnant or comfortable, but always operating with a vision and wanting to grow Norfolk, Hampton Roads, and the Commonwealth. This merger in so many ways will help a lot of communities. Senator L. Louise Lucas As a resident of Portsmouth, I am so delighted to see this day come for our region and our people. The integration of EVMS into ODU has been a labor of love for so many and something that I have personally championed with care and commitment, as well as passion and pride. The stark truth is that people in our local communities are dying due to a lack of accessible and available healthcare. With the increased financial investment from the Commonwealth to make this integration a reality, I am confident that more people will get the care that they need and deserve. Without question, today represents a bold step forward for our region and our state. As a resident of Portsmouth, I am so delighted to see this day come for our region and our people. The integration of EVMS into ODU has been a labor of love for so many and something that I have personally championed with care and commitment, as well as passion and pride. The stark truth is that people in our local communities are dying due to a lack of accessible and available healthcare. With the increased financial investment from the Commonwealth to make this integration a reality, I am confident that more people will get the care that they need and deserve. Without question, today represents a bold step forward for our region and our state. Delegate Barry D. Knight This is going to be good not only for the state, but more especially for our area. We're going to graduate doctors, and we're going to retain these doctors. I can envision five or 10 years from now some earth-shattering medical advances that are going to come out of this. I can just see it happening, and we're all going to make strides together. The ODU-EVMS integration also received high praise from members of Virginias federal delegation. Senator Mark R. Warner I am thrilled to mark the integration of ODU and EVMS. As the largest academic health sciences center in the Commonwealth, ODU and EVMS will provide greater opportunities for students, faculty, and staff while better serving the Hampton Roads community. This merger will catapult education, research, healthcare training, and patient care access throughout the region. I am thrilled to mark the integration of ODU and EVMS. As the largest academic health sciences center in the Commonwealth, ODU and EVMS will provide greater opportunities for students, faculty, and staff while better serving the Hampton Roads community. This merger will catapult education, research, healthcare training, and patient care access throughout the region. Senator Tim Kaine Im so pleased that historic institutions like EVMS and ODU have come together to offer stronger educational programs to enhance care across the Commonwealth. The exciting collaboration between these two institutions will help us build a stronger, more robust healthcare workforce in Virginia, and I look forward to seeing the new opportunities it will create. Congratulations on your success in bringing these institutions together and thanks for all your valuable work to make this possible. Im so pleased that historic institutions like EVMS and ODU have come together to offer stronger educational programs to enhance care across the Commonwealth. The exciting collaboration between these two institutions will help us build a stronger, more robust healthcare workforce in Virginia, and I look forward to seeing the new opportunities it will create. Congratulations on your success in bringing these institutions together and thanks for all your valuable work to make this possible. Congressman Bobby Scott Both institutions have provided critical education and workforce development opportunities to Hampton Roads for decades. In this new chapter, ODU and EVMS will build on the success of both institutions and enhance educational research initiatives for Virginia, address workforce gaps, and help combat health disparities facing our community and the entire Commonwealth. Thank you again to everyone who made this integration possible, especially President Hemphill and President Abuhamad for their tireless work and close collaboration. I cannot wait to see all the great work that is going to take place in the years ahead. Both institutions have provided critical education and workforce development opportunities to Hampton Roads for decades. In this new chapter, ODU and EVMS will build on the success of both institutions and enhance educational research initiatives for Virginia, address workforce gaps, and help combat health disparities facing our community and the entire Commonwealth. Thank you again to everyone who made this integration possible, especially President Hemphill and President Abuhamad for their tireless work and close collaboration. I cannot wait to see all the great work that is going to take place in the years ahead. Congresswoman Jen Kiggans This day has been a long time coming. The next generation of healthcare providers and their patients will benefit from the hard work you have put into establishing the largest academic health sciences center in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This project will be a shining example of collaboration, and I am eager to see the high quality of students you will train and the paths they will take in their provider journeys. A powerful partnership with Sentara Health is a cornerstone of the ODU-EVMS integration with a long-term commitment to provide approximately $350 million in dedicated funding over the next decade. President and Chief Executive Officer Dennis Matheis stated, Sentara is committed to healthcare education and training and looks forward to what this merger will bring, particularly since this integrated health sciences center will offer the largest portfolio of health sciences degrees in the Commonwealth training the next generation of clinical talent. In front of an audience of nearly 1,000 guests from both campuses and the broader community, a historic announcement was made regarding a generous $20 million gift from Dennis and Jan Ellmer to provide scholarships for students pursuing health sciences degrees at ODU. Students will be eligible for the scholarships if they are enrolled in the EVMS School of Health Professions, the Joint School of Public Health, the ODU College of Health Sciences, or the ODU School of Nursing. With this gift, the Ellmers are proudly paving the way for the next generation of health sciences professionals. A defining characteristic of the Ellmers generous contribution is the significant level of support per student through an annual award of $12,000, with $6,000 in the fall and $6,000 in the spring. The awards through the Dennis & Jan Ellmer Health Scholars Program and the Dennis & Jan Ellmer Nursing Scholars Program represent a unique mix of both need- and merit-based criteria. Within a decade of operation, the Dennis & Jan Ellmer Health Scholars Program alone will provide a total of $3.3 million in direct support of 275 total scholarship awards in both new and renewable formats. Additionally, the Ellmers commitment to Hampton Roads is evident by a requirement for scholarship recipients to remain in the region or state following graduation. In recognition of their leadership in creating opportunities for current and future Monarchs, the University announced the naming of the Ellmer College of Health Sciences and the Ellmer School of Nursing, thereby forever etching the distinguished Ellmer family name as part of the Universitys legacy and its promise for this integration. A feature of this widely attended event was the unveiling of the name and brand of the Commonwealths newest academic health sciences center. In recognition of a $20 million gift from Joan Brock, the integrated center will be named Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University. This entity will serve as the overarching structure for all health sciences programming and operations, including the Ellmer College of Health Sciences, the Ellmer School of Nursing, the EVMS Medical Group, the EVMS School of Health Professions, the EVMS School of Medicine, and the Joint School of Public Health. This naming is a reflection of Joans unwavering dedication to creating opportunities across the region. Her generous gift to establish and fund the Brock Opportunity Scholarship in the EVMS School of Medicine supports promising students with financial need who live in Virginia, are interested in caring for underserved populations, and plan to practice in Hampton Roads or Virginia upon completion of their residency or fellowship. Joan is also providing support to furthering the arts through the Barry Art Museum expansion project. During the event, the visual identity for Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University was revealed with great fanfare, supported by the ODU Pep Band and Big Blue, donning his first white coat. The logo featuring ODUs iconic crown, symbolizing a tradition of excellence, seamlessly integrates the Rod of Asclepius, the Greek symbol of medicine and healing. The snake faces east, signifying Eastern Virginia as a preeminent destination for health education, clinical research, and healthcare delivery. Board of Visitors representatives from both EVMS and ODU shared their support for this groundbreaking partnership. EVMS Rector Bruce D. Waldholtz, MD, said, As a physician, educator and member of the EVMS and Hampton Roads communities, I am excited that we have come together today to celebrate this momentous event in our shared story at the heart of that story is people. These connections exist all around our community, because ODU and EVMS have long been part of the same story a story of a healthier Hampton Roads. ODU Vice Rector P. Murry Pitts 80 added, This event and the integration are a reflection of the caring and innovative spirit of our institutions, coupled with a shared commitment to continued advancement and increased impact across education, research, and clinical care. For the ODU Board of Visitors, this integration was a no-brainer due to a bold vision and thoughtful plan as a critical linkage to a brighter future and a better region. During the community celebration, EVMS President, Provost, and Dean Alfred Abuhamad, MD, highlighted the institutions rich history, community focus and lasting impact by saying, EVMS was founded in 1973 by the community for the community. Over the course of the last academic year, we have celebrated this half-century milestone and reflected on what our history means and how it shapes our future. The impact weve had on the lives of students, faculty, patients, and the people of Hampton Roads is a credit to many of you in this room today and to the visionaries who came before us. Serving as president of this institution has been a great joy and a privilege. It is an honor and a responsibility I have taken seriously because I understand how much EVMS means to our students, alumni, donors and the community. I am so proud to be part of this moment of transition and transformation. This integration and our new academic health sciences center represent a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to Hampton Roads and the Commonwealth to build something new and historic for the benefit of our children and grandchildren alongside our partners at ODU. ODU President Brian O. Hemphill, Ph.D., said, Todays event celebrates a long journey, symbolizes a new beginning, and serves as a preview to our promising future, which is a shared future that would not be possible without individuals who made this their passion and purpose for decades. Hampton Roads has waited for this moment. Our citizens deserve this moment. Our people are worthy of this opportunity. In closing, President Hemphill said, To all those who are here today, we make a pledge. We pledge to fully uphold the overarching vision of this worthwhile effort. We pledge to thoughtfully execute the bold plan that we created. Lastly, we pledge to maintain a sharp focus on education, research, and clinical care! ### ABOUT THE INTEGRATION Old Dominion University and Eastern Virginia Medical School will integrate July 1, 2024, to form Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University. The affiliation creates the largest, most comprehensive suite of healthcare programs in the Commonwealth of Virginia, providing 56 health sciences programs, some of which are not offered elsewhere in Virginia. Grounded in a commitment to the diverse communities in which it serves, Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University will develop a larger pipeline for healthcare professionals and lead the transformation of the health and economy of Hampton Roads and beyond. ABOUT EVMS Eastern Virginia Medical School enjoys a unique relationship with the people of southeastern Virginia. It all began 50 years ago, when community leaders created EVMS to address the regions serious shortage of physicians. Today, the relationship is stronger than ever as the institution continues to safeguard the communitys health. To keep pace with the regions growth over the last half century, EVMS has added and enlarged educational programs. Similarly, the schools clinical and research missions target the health issues that confront the people of Hampton Roads. EVMS researchers and physician-scientists work together to rapidly translate laboratory discoveries into new treatments to help patients. Given EVMS deep roots in the community, its no surprise that students, faculty, and staff embrace the schools commitment to service. Community service is a part of the schools DNA and service learning is an integral part of the medical school curriculum, encouraging future health professionals and healthcare providers to adopt a lifelong commitment to service. MBABANE Prime Minister (PM) Russell Dlamini has called to question the competence of the Auditor Generals Office and further cast doubt on the reliability of the audit reports it produces. Responding to media questions during the breakfast meeting with the Editors Forum of Eswatini, the PM said the AG, Timothy Matsebulas reports, on the books of the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), left a lot to be desired. Dlamini is former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NDMA. During his term as the CEO, the AG pointed out serious alleged accounting irregularities during the COVID-19 era. Unqualified He said while all other auditors found that the books were unqualified, only the AGs reports pointed to the unaccountability of funds. He wondered if the reports were not inspired by that he (Dlamini) was the CEO of the NDMA during the period under review. NDMA has been audited eight times now, by professional auditors over the COVID-19 era, such as the internal office of the Ministry of Finance; the Eswatini Public Procurement Regulatory Agency (ESPPRA) and SNG. We need to rethink if the reports of the auditor general can be relied upon. We need to reconsider if there is no corruption in the Office of the Auditor General. What is motivating all this negative publicity about the NDMA? the PM questioned. He said other auditors found that there was only a management issue that needed to be corrected and that all the management issues pointed out by the auditors were corrected. It seems that every time the auditor general audits NDMA, he wants to use incorrect information and spread it to the media. If professional auditors produce clean audits and the auditor general always counteracts that, and all the time its him alone. Its important that we have to begin to look at whether the reports of the auditor general can now be relied upon. The country now understands that there is E180 million missing from the NDMA. There was never a sum of E180 million missing there. Now, he has actually said there is another E30 million. All that is false, I can surely tell you. It actually points to the incompetence in that office. It is so sad that the whole country believes this thing that is being written, the PM said. Dlamini also blamed the media for failing to properly analyse what the AGs report stated. The auditor general did not say that the money was stolen. The technical term is unaccounted for. But all that is being turned to mean that there is corruption and money missing, he said. He said the NDMA management had articulated its position on the matters, even issuing a media statement to shed light. The PM was responding to a question by The Nation Magazine Editor, Bheki Makhubu, who asked the PM to come clear on his work when he was NDMA CEO. In his audit report tabled in 2022 in Parliament, the AG found that names of institutions such as, the Bethel Court, Esibayeni Lodge, Global Village, Siteki Hotel and others, had allegedly received funds in a manner that disregarded accounting regulations. This was where there was unmonitored accommodation expenditure for quarantine and isolation of health officers and COVID-19 patients. The layoff fund was also not spared from audit queries, as E4 million was said to have been unaccounted for. After finding the discrepancies, the AG wrote: I expressed concern that layoff employees were denied their rightful entitlement and their poverty status may have been worsened as a result of the diverted funds. Similarly, the personal protective equipment (PPE), attracted audit queries with over E2. 5 million unsupported payments made to companies. In the reports pages, payments to beneficiaries of relief aid made through Mobile Money were also found to be questionable. The Auditor General Timothy Matsebula did not respond to questions from this newspaper yesterday. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Newcore Gold Ltd. ("Newcore" or the "Company") (TSX-V: NCAU, OTCQX: NCAUF) reports it has filed the technical report supporting the positive results from the independent, updated Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") completed for the Companys 100%-owned Enchi Gold Project ("Enchi" or the "Project") in Ghana. The PEA was led by Lycopodium Minerals Canada Limited ("Lycopodium") of Toronto, Canada and was prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. The technical report, titled "NI 43-101 Technical Report, Preliminary Economic Assessment on the Enchi Gold Project, Ghana" has an effective date of April 24, 2024 and is available under the Companys profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. The positive PEA, the results of which were announced on April 25, 2024, provides a base case assessment of developing Enchi as a low capital intensity, open pit, heap leach operation, processing 8.1 million tonnes per annum ("mtpa") utilizing contract mining. The PEA incorporated updated costing as well as development work completed on the Project since 2021 including a larger Mineral Resource Estimate completed in 2023, a significant amount of bench-scale and bulk sample metallurgical testwork and an updated environmental and social baseline study. All currencies in this news release are reported in U.S. dollars. Highlights from the PEA at Enchi Strong project economics with low capital intensity. At a gold price of $1,850/oz: $586 million pre-tax net present value discounted at 5% ("NPV 5% ") and a 77% pre-tax internal rate of return ("IRR"), $371 million after-tax NPV 5% and a 58% after-tax IRR. At a gold price of $2,350/oz: $987 million pre-tax NPV 5% and a 127% pre-tax IRR, $632 million after-tax NPV 5% and a 92% after-tax IRR. Initial capital costs estimated at $106 million (including a 20% contingency), with a short after-tax payback of 1.6 years. Robust production profile with a low-cost structure driven by a technically straightforward, open pit, heap leach operation and low strip ratio. Average annual gold production of 121,839 ounces; peak gold production in year 6 of 155,188 ounces; 1.1 million ounces gold recovered over a 9-year life of mine ("LOM"). LOM strip ratio of 2.67 to 1, mined grade of 0.60 g/t Au and gold recovery of 81.8%. LOM operating costs (1) estimated at $801/oz of gold, cash costs (2) estimated at $934/oz of gold, LOM all-in sustaining costs (AISC) (3) estimated at $1,018/oz of gold. Economics incorporate significant development work completed since 2021. The PEA incorporated the Mineral Resource Estimate completed in 2023 which reflected the addition of approximately 34,000 metres of Reverse Circulation ("RC") and diamond drilling completed in 2021 and 2022. Significant metallurgical testwork completed to date, highlighting the Projects amenability to heap leach processing. Advanced metallurgical testwork consists of more than 390 tests including bottle rolls, column tests and two bulk-scale pilot heap tests. Significant longer-term growth potential from the district-scale exploration opportunity at Enchi. Enchis property covers 248 km 2 along a prolific gold belt that hosts multi-million-ounce gold mines. Newcore has identified more than 20 pre-resource targets across the property and with less than 10% of the property explored. The district scale exploration opportunity at Enchi remains largely underexplored and untested. All deposits and targets remain open along strike and at depth, with potential for resource growth in both shallow oxides and within the sulphide mineralization. Note: All currencies in this news release are reported in U.S. dollars unless otherwise specified. Base case parameters assume a gold price of $1,850/oz. NPV calculated as of the commencement of construction and excludes all pre-construction costs. Cash costs and AISC are non-IFRS financial measures (see cautionary language). (1) Operating costs consist of mining costs, processing costs and mine site G&A. (2) Cash costs consist of operating costs plus treatment and refining charges and royalties. (3) AISC consists of cash costs plus sustaining capital (excluding closure costs). The PEA is preliminary in nature, includes Inferred Mineral Resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves, and there is no certainty that PEA results will be realized. Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. Further detail regarding the PEA for the Project is summarized in the Companys news release dated April 25, 2024, as well as the technical report which is available on Newcores website at newcoregold.com and under the Companys profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Qualified Persons The PEA for the Enchi Gold Project was prepared for Newcore by personnel from Lycopodium and other industry consultants, each of whom is a "qualified person" within the meaning of NI 43-101 and considered to be "independent" of the Company under section 1.5 of NI 43-101. Each Qualified Person has reviewed and confirmed that the scientific and technical information in this news release accurately reflects the summaries or extracts of the NI 43-101 Technical Report for which they are responsible. Lycopodium Mineral Canada Ltd.: Preetham Nayak, P.Eng. (Infrastructure and Project Economics), Ryda Peung, P.Eng. (Metallurgy and Mineral Processing) Micon International Limited: Kerrine Azougarh, P.Eng. (Mining) SEMS Exploration: Simon Meadows Smith, P.Eng/P.Geo (Geology and Mineral Resources) Mr. Gregory Smith, P. Geo, Vice President of Exploration at Newcore, is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. He has reviewed and approved other scientific and technical information contained in this news release for which the independent Qualified Persons who prepared the NI 43-101 Technical Report are not responsible. About Newcore Gold Ltd. Newcore Gold is advancing its Enchi Gold Project located in Ghana, Africas largest gold producer (1). Newcore Gold offers investors a unique combination of top-tier leadership, who are aligned with shareholders through their 21% equity ownership, and prime district scale exploration opportunities. Enchis 248 km2 land package covers 40 kilometres of Ghanas prolific Bibiani Shear Zone, a gold belt which hosts several 5 million-ounce gold deposits, including the Chirano mine 50 kilometers to the north. Newcores vision is to build a responsive, creative and powerful gold enterprise that maximizes returns for shareholders. (1) Source: Production volumes for 2022 as sourced from the World Gold Council. On Behalf of the Board of Directors of Newcore Gold Ltd. Luke Alexander President, CEO & Director For further information, please contact: Mal Karwowska | Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations +1 604 484 4399 info@newcoregold.com www.newcoregold.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release includes statements that contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation ("forward-looking statements"). All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussion with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often, but not always using phrases such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to: timing of completion of a technical report summarizing the results of the PEA; the development, operational and economic results of the PEA, including cash flows, capital expenditures, development costs, extraction rates, recovery rates, mining cost estimates; estimation of mineral resources; statements about the estimate of mineral resources; magnitude or quality of mineral deposits; anticipated advancement of the Enchi Gold Project mine plan; future operations; future exploration prospects; the completion and timing of future development studies; anticipated advancement of mineral properties or programs; future exploration prospects; and the future growth potential of Enchi. These forward-looking statements, and any assumptions upon which they are based, are made in good faith and reflect our current judgment regarding the direction of our business. The assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to Newcore. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of Newcore believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, Newcore cannot assure its shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking information also involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others: risks related to interpretation of metallurgical characteristics of the mineralization, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, future metal prices, availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, uninsured risks, regulatory changes, delays or inability to receive required approvals, taxes, mining title, the speculative nature of the Companys business; the Companys formative stage of development; the Companys financial position; possible variations in mineralization, grade or recovery rates; actual results of current exploration activities; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in spot and forward prices of gold and other commodities; fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar to United States dollar exchange rate); change in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, unusual or unexpected geological formations); the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development (including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities); and title to properties. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, except as may be required by applicable securities laws. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Non-IFRS Financial Measures The Company has included certain non-IFRS financial measures in this news release, such as initial capital cost, sustaining capital cost, total capital cost, cash costs and AISC, which are not measures recognized under IFRS and do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS. As a result, these measures may not be comparable to similar measures reported by other companies. Each of these measures used are intended to provide additional information to the reader and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures prepared in accordance with IFRS. Non-IFRS financial measures used in this news release and common to the gold mining industry are defined below. Cash Costs and Cash Costs per Ounce Cash costs are reflective of the cost of production. Cash costs reported in the PEA consist of mining costs, processing costs, mine site G&A, treatment and refining charges and royalties. Cash costs per ounce is calculated as cash costs divided by payable gold ounces. AISC and AISC per Ounce AISC is reflective of all of the expenditures that are required to produce an ounce of gold from operations. AISC reported in the PEA includes cash costs plus sustaining capital, but excludes closure costs, corporate general and administrative costs and taxes. AISC per ounce is calculated as AISC divided by payable gold ounces. Milford, Connecticut, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tri-City Heating and Cooling, a family-owned business that started as a modest appliance repair service in 1963, has successfully evolved to become a powerhouse in the HVAC and plumbing industry. Amanda Root, the current CEO, and a third-generation leader continues the legacy and steers the company toward unprecedented growth. The roots of this company trace back to Amandas grandfather, a skilled appliance repair expert. Recognizing the potential for expansion, he laid the foundation for a business that would grow beyond its initial three-city reach. In the mid-80s, Amandas father, Seamus Warakomski, took the reins, passionate to grow the business. He later initiated the companys foray into heating and air conditioning, broadening its services. Her father wasn't finished there and had no intention of slowing down. Plumbing and generators were added as integral parts of the business. Although handing over the position of CEO, he remains involved in key strategic decisions for the company. The company's growth trajectory is remarkable. Over the years, the company continues to grow, reaching $5 million in 2008 and hitting the $10 million mark in 2023. Amanda Root envisions scaling the business further, aiming for an impressive $20 million within the next 5 to 7 years. Tri-City Heating and Cooling is expanding its geographical reach to cover the lower half of Connecticut, and service categories to dominate the market. The company is introducing new services like electrical work as well as developing their commercial division. The addition of the Lifetime Comfort Club (LCC), which gives them priority services, allows the company to reach them no matter the situation, with no emergency fee. Customers also have the option to choose bundled services, reflecting the company's commitment to providing comprehensive whole-home solutions. Despite the challenges inherent in a family business, Amanda Root takes pride in defying the stereotype that the third generation often falters. She acknowledges the weight of the responsibility of an industry, where customers rarely call in with joy, but rather when they face broken systems. Amanda's determination is bolstered by a close-knit family unit including both her brother, Seamus Patrick, and her husband, Chris Root. This team is essential to helping her overcome challenges daily and continuing the pursuit of the founder's vision, leading to Tri-City Heating and Cooling's sustained multigenerational success. Community involvement is a cornerstone of Tri-City Heating and Cooling's business philosophy. Amanda Root emphasizes the importance of giving back to the community by supporting local organizations like Keeping Milford Warm, a heating assistance program for the residents of Milford Connecticut. The company's commitment to supporting the Milford community has not only enriched the lives of its residents but has also proven to be a strategic business decision, garnering reciprocal support. Amanda reflects on her familys entrepreneurial journey and the pivotal role community support has played in their success. The commitment to the community is a core value that has propelled the company forward. The more we do for our customers and the community, the more we grow and receive support. Our commitment to the family business and the community has been the driving force behind our success, she states. The company is set to surpass its current heights, solidifying its position as a leading figure in the HVAC and plumbing industry in Connecticut and beyond. Media Contact Name: Rassica Bakane Email: Info@tricityappliance.com Bangkok, Thailand, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LA BOUTIQUE This new location promises to be a premier destination for high-end fashion enthusiasts and tourists visiting Bangkok, Thailand. Celebrating 12 years in the fashion industry, LA BOUTIQUE has consistently pushed the boundaries of design and innovation, creating timeless pieces that captivate audiences worldwide. The brands exquisite collections have been worn by international celebrities such as Eva Longoria, Olivia Palermo, and Kristina Bazan, as well as prominent Thai celebrities including Araya A. Hargate, Baifern Pimchanok, and Davika Hoorne. Their endorsement of LA BOUTIQUE highlights the brands global appeal and commitment to high fashion. The LA BOUTIQUE flagship store at Gaysorn Amarin is designed to offer an exclusive and luxurious shopping experience, featuring both ready-to-wear collections and bespoke Atelier services tailored to meet the needs of discerning high-end customers. Visitors can expect to find an array of meticulously crafted garments that epitomize the brands commitment to elegance, innovation, and timeless style. Opening our new flagship store at Gaysorn Amarin marks a significant milestone for LA BOUTIQUE, said Mr. Phatcharawatt Trakarnsunthikun, the Brand Director. We have created a space that not only showcases our unique designs but also provides an immersive shopping experience that reflects our brands ethos. We are excited to welcome fashion enthusiasts and offer them our signature service. In addition to the store opening, LA BOUTIQUE is proud to highlight the recent achievements of Mr. Phatcharawatt Trakarnsunthikun, who has been selected to receive a prestigious accolade at the HOFS (Hall of Fame Singapore) Awards 2024 in Singapore. This award recognizes outstanding contributions to the fashion industry through innovative thinking and creativity. LA BOUTIQUEs new store at Gaysorn Amarin is set to become the new spotlight and must-visit location in Bangkok. With its prime location and exceptional service offerings, it promises to attract high-end tourists and fashion-forward individuals seeking the finest in Thai design. For media inquiries, please contact: Mr. Purinutt Wongsathapornsakun Brand Manager LA BOUTIQUE contact@laboutiqueofficial.com www.laboutiqueofficial.com About LA BOUTIQUE LA BOUTIQUE is a leading Thai designer brand renowned for its neo-romantic and new vintage concepts. With 12 years of experience in the fashion industry, the brand offers high-quality womens fashion through both ready-to-wear and bespoke Atelier collections. LA BOUTIQUE has dressed international celebrities such as Eva Longoria, Olivia Palermo, and Kristina Bazan, as well as Thai celebrities like Araya A. Hargate, Baifern Pimchanok, and Davika Hoorne. Visit our flagship stores at Gaysorn Amarin and Siam Paragon for an exclusive shopping experience. Follow us on social media: Instagram: LA BOUTIQUE Facebook: LA BOUTIQUE Store location Google maps: at LA BOUTIQUE 2nd floor, Gaysorn Amarin, Phloen Chit Rd, Lumphini, Pathum Wan, Bangkok 10330 THAILAND Tel: +6696-884-0295, +6696-884-0295 FULLY FUNDED FOR DRILLING ON EXTENSIVE HIGH-GRADE COPPER-GOLD TARGETS Vancouver, June 7, 2024 - Juggernaut Exploration Ltd. (TSX-V: JUGR) (OTCQB: JUGRF) (FSE: 4JE) (the "Company" or "Juggernaut") further to its May 24, 2024 and June 5, 2024 news releases, Juggernaut is pleased to report that it has received final approval from the TSX Venture Exchange to close its institutionally supported oversubscribed flow-through private placement financing (the "Financing") for aggregate gross proceeds of $3,799,613.49. Following the closing, Crescat Capital will hold 13,828,386 shares of Juggernaut Exploration Ltd. The use of funds from this financing will be to drill ~5000 meters on Juggernaut's 100% controlled Bingo and Midas properties, targeting prolific high-grade Copper and Gold at the surface. Dr. Hennigh stated, "Very promising results from 2023's maiden drill program confirmed strong potential for "Surebet" style intrusive-related gold-base metal lodes at Bingo. In addition, follow up drilling at Midas continues to demonstrate the presence of a large volcanogenic massive sulfide system in need of further work. With interest in the mining exploration space quickly heating up, it is critical that companies like Juggernaut get back to the job of making discovery. I look forward to working with the Company's team as plans are made for this year's drill campaign at both of these exciting projects. " "We look forward to helping Juggernaut continue their work at Bingo and Midas in the coming drill season, given the potential for a significant discovery, remarked Kevin Smith, Crescat's founder and Chief Investment Officer. "This is the same exploration team that delivered a major gold and silver discovery for us at Goliath Resources' Surebet. They are highly capable of doing the same at one or both targets." This investment and strategic partnership with Crescat Capital, coupled with the ongoing support and interest from other globally recognized Institutions and senior miners, is a strong endorsement that clearly demonstrates the significant near-term expansion discovery potential of our 100% controlled properties-highlighting just one recent discovery on Bingo where multiple drill holes intersected high-grade gold-silver-copper mineralization along an extensive north-trending, west-dipping, shear-hosted vein with grades up to 11.42 gpt AuEq (7.57 gpt Au, 20.23 gpt Ag and 2.72 % Cu) over 5.11 meters, including 19.69 gpt AuEq (13.05 gpt Au, 24.93 gpt Ag and 4.70 % Cu) over 2.90 meters. The shear-hosted vein at the Bingo Main Zone is partially exposed at surfaces for over 600 meters, and only the main outcrop has been drill-tested to date, leaving the system open in all directions. The company has issued 31,272,539 flow-through units ("FT Units"), priced at $0.1215 each for gross proceeds of $3,799,613.49. Each FT Unit consists of one flow-through common share plus one common share purchase warrant, each warrant being exercisable for an additional common share at $0.14 for a thirty-six-month period. The FT Units will entitle the holder to receive the tax benefits applicable to flow-through shares, in accordance with provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada). The Company will use an amount equal to the gross proceeds received by the Company from the sale of the FT Units, pursuant to the provisions in the Income Tax Act (Canada), to incur eligible "Canadian exploration expenses" that qualify as "flow-through mining expenditures" as both terms are defined in the Income Tax Act (Canada) (the "Qualifying Expenditures") on or before December 31, 2025, and to renounce all the Qualifying Expenditures in favor of the subscribers of the FT Units effective December 31, 2024. The Company has paid cash finders' fees totaling $39,361.03 and issued 524,814 non-transferable broker warrants exercisable at $0.14 for 3 years. All securities issued pursuant to this financing are subject to a four-month plus one-day hold. About Juggernaut Exploration Ltd. Juggernaut Exploration Ltd. is a precious and base metals project generator in the geopolitically stable jurisdiction of Canada, focused on the prolific geologic setting of northwestern British Columbia encompassing the Golden Triangle. Qualified Person Rein Turna P. Geo is the qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 for Juggernaut Exploration's projects. He supervised the preparation of and has reviewed and approved the technical information in this release. View Juggernaut videos by Clicking Here. For more information, please contact Juggernaut Exploration Ltd. Dan Stuart President, Director, and Chief Executive Officer 604-559-8028 info@juggernautexploration.com www.juggernautexploration.com NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT Certain disclosure in this release may constitute forward-looking statements that are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties relating to Juggernaut's operations that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements, including its ability to complete the contemplated private placement. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these statements. NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR TO U.S. PERSONS OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES. THIS PRESS RELEASE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL OR AN INVITATION TO PURCHASE ANY SECURITIES DESCRIBED IN IT. Copyright (c) 2024 TheNewswire - All rights reserved. TORONTO, June 07, 2024 - Lithium Ionic Corp. (TSXV: LTH; OTCQX: LTHCF; FSE: H3N) ("Lithium Ionic" or the "Company") announces the closing, on an oversubscribed basis, of its previously announced non-brokered private placement offering (the "Offering") led by long-term strategic shareholders, Fourth Sail Capital and the PowerOne Capital Group. Under the Offering, the Company issued 17,769,778 units (the "Units") at $0.90 per Unit for gross proceeds of $15,992,800.30. Each Unit is comprised of one common share in the capital of the Company (each a "Common Share") and one-half of one Common Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one Common Share at an exercise price of $1.05 per Common Share until the date that is 18 months from the date hereof. The Company plans to use the aggregate net proceeds of the Offering for exploration and development of its Brazilian properties and general corporate purposes. In connection with the closing of the Offering, the Company paid finder's fees of $588,721 in cash and issued 613,884 non-transferable finder's warrants (the "Finder's Warrants"). Each Finder's Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to purchase one Unit at a price of $0.90 for a period of 12 months from the date hereof. The Offering is subject to the receipt of all necessary approvals, including the final approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. All of the securities issued by the Company pursuant to the Offering will be subject to a four-month statutory hold period which expires on October 8, 2024. An officer of the Company has subscribed for 111,111 Units in the Offering (the "Insider Investment"). The Insider Investment constitutes a related party transaction, as such term is defined under the policies of the TSXV, and the Company has relied on certain exemptions from the minority approval and formal valuation requirements under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101") as the fair market value of the aggregate Insider Investment is below 25% of the Company's market capitalization for the purposes of Sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101. The securities being offered have not, nor will they be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons absent U.S. registration or an applicable exemption from the U.S. registration requirements. This release does not constitute an offer for sale of securities in the United States. On behalf of the Board of Directors of Lithium Ionic Corp. Blake Hylands Chief Executive Officer, Director About Lithium Ionic Corp. Lithium Ionic is a Canadian mining company exploring and developing its lithium properties in Brazil. Its flagship Itinga and Salinas projects cover 14,182 hectares in the northeastern part of Minas Gerais state, a mining-friendly jurisdiction that is quickly emerging as a world-class hard-rock lithium district. The Itinga Project is situated in the same region as CBL's Cachoeira lithium mine, which has produced lithium for +30 years, as well as Sigma Lithium Corp.'s Grota do Cirilo project, which hosts the largest hard-rock lithium deposit in the Americas. Investor and Media Inquiries: +1 647.316.2500 info@lithiumionic.com Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains statements that constitute "forward-statements." Such forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements, or developments to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes, in light of the experience of its officers and directors, current conditions and expected future developments and other factors that have been considered appropriate that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on them because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. When used in this press release, the words "estimate", "project", "belief", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "plan", "predict", "may" or "should" and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. The forward-looking statements and information in this press release include information relating to the prospectivity and development of the Company's mineral properties, the Offering, the use of proceeds of the Offering and the Company's future plans. Such statements and information reflect the current view of the Company. Risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in those forward-looking statements and information. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the expectations of the Company as of the date of this news release and, accordingly, is subject to change after such date. Readers should not place undue importance on forward-looking information and should not rely upon this information as of any other date. 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. Information and links in this press release relating to other mineral resource companies are from their sources believed to be reliable, but that have not been independently verified by the Company. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. Toronto, June 7th, 2024 - Tantalex Lithium Resources Corp. (CSE: TTX) - (FSE: DW8) - (OTCQB: TTLXF) ("Tantalex" or the "Corporation") is pleased to report on progress with the TiTan plant optimization program with the arrival of the new scrubber at the project site this week. Optimization works will continue and installation of the scrubber will proceed in the coming weeks for a planned resumption of production of our tin and tantalum concentrates in approximately 6-8 weeks. The Corporation intends to close further tranches of its non-brokered private placement consisting of approximately 117,090,857 common shares (the "Common Shares") at a price of $0.035 per Common Share for gross proceeds of up to USD$3,000,000 that was previously announced on April 29, 2024 (the "Private Placement"). The number of Common Shares to be issued is subject to change depending on the foreign exchange rate of the US currency to Canadian currency to be determined on the closing date. The Corporation may pay finder's fees on a portion of the Private Placement, subject to compliance with the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange and applicable securities legislation. The Corporation closed its first tranche on May 6, 2024 and its second tranche on May 27, 2024 and intends to close further tranches. Certain insiders of the Corporation may acquire Common Shares in the Private Placement. Any participation by insiders in the Private Placement would constitute a "related party transaction" as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). However, the Corporation expects such participation would be exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 as the fair market value of the Common Shares subscribed for by the insiders, nor the consideration for the Common Shares paid by such insiders, would exceed 25% of the Corporation's market capitalization. The proceeds of the Private Placement will be used for project expenditures related to the optimization of the TiTan tin and tantalum plant and for general working capital. All securities issued pursuant to the Private Placement will be subject to a four-month-and-one day statutory hold period in accordance with applicable securities law. The Common Shares being referred to in this news release have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States (U.S.) Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the U.S. or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This news release does 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 jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. About Tantalex Lithium Resources Corporation Tantalex Lithium is an exploration and development stage mining company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and distribution of lithium, tin, tantalum and other high-tech mineral properties in Africa. It is currently focused on operating its TiTan tin and tantalum concentrate plant and developing its lithium assets in the prolific Manono area in the Democratic Republic of Congo; The Manono Lithium Tailings Project and the Pegmatite Corridor Exploration Program. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements This presentation includes certain statements that may be deemed forward looking statements. All statements in this document, other than statements of historical facts, which address future production, reserve potential, exploration activities and events or developments that the Company expects, are forward looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation: (i) estimates of future lithium, tin and tantalum prices, supply, demand and/or production; (ii) estimates of future cash costs and revenues; (iii) estimates of future capital expenditures; (iv) estimates regarding timing of future development, construction, production or closure activities; (v) statements regarding future exploration results; (vi) statements regarding cost structure, project economics, or competitive position, (vii) statements comparing the Company's properties to other mines, projects or metals; and (viii) the subsequent tranches closings of the Private Placement. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward- looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, 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, that the Company expressly disclaims any responsibility for revising or expanding the forward- looking statements to reflect actual results or developments, and that actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected, in the forward-looking statements, except as required by law. For more information, please contact: Eric Allard President & CEO Email: ea@tantalex.ca Website: www.tantalexlithium.com Tel: 1-581-996-3007 Copyright (c) 2024 TheNewswire - All rights reserved. VANCOUVER, June 07, 2024 - Gatos Silver Inc. (NYSE/TSX: GATO) ("Gatos Silver" or the "Company") today reported that its stockholders voted in favour of all items of business at the Company's Annual Meeting of stockholders held on June 6, 2024 (the "Meeting"). A total of 50,802,836 votes were cast or represented by proxy at the Meeting representing 74.43% of the outstanding shares of common stock as of the record date. A total of 46,481,235 votes (including "for" and "withheld" but excluding "non-votes") were voted in connection with the election of directors. The results on the election of directors are set out below (excluding non-votes). Name of Nominee Votes For % For Votes Withheld % Withheld Janice Stairs 41,444,667 89.16 5,036,568 10.84 Dale Andres 46,438,144 99.91 43,091 0.09 Ali Erfan 46,428,271 99.89 52,964 0.11 Igor Gonzales 46,401,194 99.83 80,041 0.17 Karl Hanneman 37,899,716 81.54 8,581,519 18.46 Charles Hansard 41,447,713 89.17 5,033,522 10.83 David Peat 38,094,727 81.96 8,386,508 18.04 Daniel Muniz Quintanilla 46,247,444 99.50 233,791 0.50 At the Meeting, stockholders also ratified the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the Company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ended December 31, 2024. The results are set out below (excluding 22 abstentions). Votes For % For Votes Withheld % Withheld 50,425,136 99.26 377,678 0.74 About Gatos Silver Gatos Silver is a silver dominant exploration, development and production company that discovered a new silver and zinc-rich mineral district in southern Chihuahua State, Mexico. As a 70% owner of the Los Gatos Joint Venture ("LGJV"), the Company is primarily focused on operating the Cerro Los Gatos mine and on growth and development of the Los Gatos district. The LGJV includes approximately 103,000 hectares of mineral rights, representing a highly prospective and under-explored district with numerous silver-zinc-lead epithermal mineralized zones identified as priority targets. Investors and Media Contact Andre van Niekerk Chief Financial Officer investors@gatossilver.com +1 604 424 0984 GoverningSome small countries have had outsized success with e-government. For years, Denmark, Estonia, the Netherlands, Singapore and South Korea have scored high on international rankings for online service delivery. But another small country from outside the digitally advanced regions of Europe and Asia has quietly yet quickly moved to the forefront of tech-savvy governments: In 2012, the United Nations ranked the United Arab Emirates (UAE) 28th in its global survey of e-government, up from 49th in 2010.Its no small feat to advance 21 positions in just two years, and how this small Middle Eastern country on the Persian Gulf did that should have state and local CIOs paying close attention.Once considered a backwater in the Middle East, the UAE today is highly developed. Dubai, one of the UAEs seven states, hosts some of the worlds tallest and most impressive buildings. Governed by a Supreme Council made up of seven emirs who appoint a prime minister and cabinet, the UAE started down the e-government path in 2001 when it launched an electronic card to collect service fees. Since then, the kingdom of 9 million has continued to build its e-government reputation, which was solidified earlier this year when the tech giant Accenture placed it third in its annual roundup of leading digital governments.A lot of UAEs success has to do with its management style. Its taken an approach that states and their local partners might find interesting: Government departments in the UAEs principalities can create any new online services they want, while the central authority focuses on building the common parts that all departments need, like payment and customer support. This hybrid approach results in standardization, best-practice sharing, cost savings and fast deployment.Look at Markabati, a portal from the central authority that lets all UAE residents connect easily with every aspect of vehicle service in the public and private sector. Whether the need is car insurance, spare parts, customs and registration forms, or car rental, everything can be found and transacted through the portal.Or look at the countrys experiment with mobile technology. The UAE sees itself as moving from e-government to m-government. Home to one of the largest smartphone and mobile penetration rates in the world, the government announced earlier this year that it was setting up the Arab regions first lab to test secure ways to offer residents mobile government services.This initiative is part of the UAEs larger effort to make digital technology, networks and apps a central part of how it operates and interacts with citizens. By May 2015, the UAE hopes to have all government departments providing a one-stop store for apps and enabling all transactions through a single log-in. It will allow the public to deal with government departments using their smartphones any time, any day of the year, Dubais ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum toldThe UAE backs up all of its e-government initiatives with serious money. IT spending is expected to grow nearly 13 percent from $716 million in 2013 to $808 million in 2014, according to the International Data Corp. All this investment and work is paying off in two ways. First, UAE views its public spending on e-government as another way to seed the field for private investment in the countrys growing technology sector. Second, it has led to one of the highest rates of customer satisfaction in the world for service delivery.There are certainly many differences between the UAE and the U.S., but we should admire the level of state and local cooperation there, and consider how we can replicate that here. New Delhi, June 7 (UNI) Noting that there have been unfortunate incidents of drowning of Indian students in Russia, including the latest one of four students, the Indian Embassy in Moscow on Friday urged Indian students to be extremely careful and take all necessary precautions while going to water bodies. The advisory came following the incident of four students who were studying at a university in Veliky Novgorod, near St Petersburg, in Russia, drowning in the Volkhov river. In the advisory, the Indian Embassy in Moscow said: Fatigue is bad for any work environment. But for police, the stakes are much higher. Officers have to respond to late-night calls, make split-second decisions and de-escalate tense situations -- sometimes in the middle of a 16-hour shift.A small but growing body of research links long hours and officer fatigue to a host of public safety issues. Fatigue may do more than affect the way officers perform routine tasks such as maneuvering a patrol car -- recent evidence suggests it can influence their ability to exercise good judgment. Yet many law enforcement agencies maintain lax policies governing just how long officers can work, and some fail to track extra hours at all. Only a third of law enforcement agencies in the most recent federal Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey reported limiting how many overtime hours sworn personnel could work, and barely half placed a ceiling on off-duty employment. Thats a big problem, says Karen Amendola, the Police Foundations chief behavioral scientist. If you put a lot of tired cops into a very sensitive situation, a lot could go wrong.Fatigues effects are most prominent in routine situations that otherwise arent stressful for police, according to Lois James of Washington State University, who studies sleep deprivation and policing. From an officer safety perspective, there are serious consequences of fatigue, James says. One such result might be impaired performance while driving late at night. But researchers at Washington State also found that inadequate sleep may heighten pre-existing implicit biases. They monitored the sleep of 80 police officers and presented them with a series of tests. Officers who slept less were significantly more likely to associate African-Americans with weapons. study of the Phoenix Police Department, published in, compared officers working 10-hour shifts with those who worked more than 13 hours. Longer shifts didnt result in fewer arrests or field interrogations, nor did they hinder pass rates on shooting tests. But the number of complaints made against those in the 13-hour group was significantly higher than for the 10-hour officers. recent audit of the King County, Wash., Sheriffs Office further associated overtime with a litany of personnel problems. Working only one additional hour of overtime per week increased the chances that an officer would be involved in a use-of-force incident the following week by 2.7 percent, and increased the odds of ethics violations by 3.1 percent.These issues certainly arent unique to police -- a large body of research has noted that safety risks and health problems are worsened by long working hours for truck drivers, pilots and other professions.But current pressures mean some police officers are working increasingly longer hours. Some agencies face staffing shortages resulting from budget cuts or baby boomer retirements. An audit of the San Jose, Calif., Police Department, for example, found average officer overtime had doubled since 2008 as the agency struggled to fill vacancies. Additionally, a large number of law enforcement agencies have received funding allocated for overtime to combat the opioid epidemic.Scheduled shifts are lengthening, too. Police Foundation surveys suggest most departments still utilize eight-hour shifts, but more are moving to longer ones. A study by the group found that 10-hour shifts yielded the highest quality of work life, and officers slept a half hour longer than those on eight-hour shifts. But police on 12-hour shifts were shown to be sleepy on the job, with lower levels of alertness.Some overtime work is unavoidable. Officers need to make off-duty court appearances, complete arrests late in their shifts, fill in to cover absences or assist with crowd control. But the extra hours arent usually distributed evenly among the entire workforce. News reports frequently single out individual officers whove accumulated staggering amounts of overtime, sometimes more than doubling their salaries.Overtime restrictions that do exist are often lenient -- some departments allow 18 work hours over a 24-hour period. Many dont even monitor overtime at all. Amendola of the Police Foundation recommends that law enforcement agencies limit officers to no more than 14 hours per day and mandate rest periods between long shifts. The policies are generally about what unions want or what agencies want, but its not based on science, she says. Another recommendation from a National Institute of Justice-funded study calls for agencies to incorporate officers input into shift scheduling. Older officers in particular have been found to be less fatigued when theyre able to choose their own shifts.Off-duty employment can take a further toll on officers, but most police departments dont track basic information about that either, says Seth Stoughton, a University of South Carolina law professor and former police officer who recently surveyed departments practices . Most departments permit police to work for private employers in a law enforcement capacity, which provides them additional income at a rate often exceeding what theyre paid as public employees. Half the local departments Stoughton reviewed, though, lacked any limits on how many hours officers could work on- and off-duty. And of those with policies, few restricted officers to less than 16 hours a day. Its very easy for agencies to underestimate the risk of officers working long hours, Stoughton says.There are no state or federal mandates regarding police work length, and police associations mostly havent adopted model policies. Part of that likely stems from different needs and capabilities of departments, as smaller ones with fewer officers may find it more difficult to fill shift absences without imposing significant overtime. In any case, unions generally oppose restrictions on hours worked. (The Fraternal Order of Police did not respond to requests for comment on this issue.)Dangers are especially apparent for cops working graveyard shifts. A few years ago, in Henderson, Nev., police officers crashed their patrol cars in three separate overnight accidents during a relatively short period. That prompted Wade Seekatz, now a captain with the department, to explore potential solutions. The result was four quiet rooms scattered around the city, outfitted with hand-me-down recliners from the fire department, where officers are permitted to nap on their lunch breaks. (They are required to keep their cellphones turned on.)We expect officers to come to work rested and prepared, Seekatz says. But there are those times outside of our control when they hit a wall. The rooms afford officers some privacy and may prevent the kind of adverse publicity that the Richmond, Ind., police department saw earlier this year when photos of a pair of officers sleeping in their cruiser went viral on social media. If you have a 24-hour operation, then you have officers who are sleeping on duty, Seekatz says. Theyre human beings. Big-name rumours a good sign for Aston Martin says Alonso The rumours swirling around Aston Martin at the moment is a "good sign", according to lead driver Fernando Alonso. Fernando Alonso, Monaco GP 2024 Aston Martin Racing Red Bull's departing technical guru Adrian Newey has been linked with a move to Ferrari, but Mercedes and Aston Martin have also been mentioned as potential destinations. It is a privilege that he is connected to Aston Martin, Alonso told DAZN. Good news that a legend of this sport and Aston Martin are related in some way. But it's not just Newey who has been linked with Aston Martin in recent weeks and days. Corriere della Sera newspaper believes Ferrari's technical director Enrico Cardile has also been offered a deal to move to Aston Martin, the highly ambitious and rapidly developing team owned by billionaire Lawrence Stroll. And another rumour is that former Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto might return to Formula 1, either with a leading technical role at Aston Martin or even to replace team principal Mike Krack. It's all despite the fact that Aston Martin's performance has actually dipped in 2024 compared to last season. Logically, we have a desire to improve, two-time champion Alonso said. "But I also believe that people from outside see something very interesting in this project for the future. We have the new factory at full capacity now and we have the wind tunnel that will arrive at the end of the year, the 42-year-old Spaniard, signed up for 2025 and 2026, added. I think that several of the names that are now trying to join Aston Martin are a good sign that the team is attractive, Alonso said. "I hope we have a good technical team and, above all, that we can improve the car in the short term, which is what interests us as the drivers or the people who are here, at the races, who only see tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday. But our managers and Lawrence logically have to see the project in two, five or ten years. But what we really want is a fast car on Sunday and that is what we have to concentrate on. (GMM) Tsunoda, not Ricciardo, secure in F1 for 2025 Yuki Tsunoda can breathe a sigh of relief, because his future in Formula 1 looks more than secure for now. Yuki Tsunoda, Monaco GP 2024 Red Bull Red Bull Racing confirmed this week that Sergio Perez is staying put not only in 2025 but also 2026 - locking up the energy drink company's top F1 team to other drivers. We want to ensure continuity and both drivers get on really well, there are simply no conflicts, Red Bull F1 consultant Dr Helmut Marko told Kleine Zeitung newspaper. Checo is also incredibly popular in Latin America. We sell more merchandise of his there than that of (Max) Verstappen, and when he's on his game, he's almost unbeatable. And at the junior squad RB, Japanese Tsunoda has also secured his place. Yuki Tsunoda is set, that's clear, Red Bull F1 consultant Dr Helmut Marko told Kleine Zeitung newspaper. However, the on-form Tsunoda clarified in Canada that is actually yet to sign a contract - even though Red Bull seems to have an overriding long-term deal with the 24-year-old. I also had some options with other teams, he admits. But I am already very committed to Red Bull and hopefully I can get a little more commitment from them too. It is believed Tsunoda would like a clause written into his new deal freeing him up for a future team switch if a cockpit doesn't open up at Red Bull Racing. Perez still has to perform in the next two years, he said. Anything can happen in these kinds of circumstances. I just have to keep growing and make sure that at some point Red Bull can no longer ignore me. As for the other seat at RB, that now seems to be a direct tussle between the incumbent, Daniel Ricciardo, and Liam Lawson, whose contract already enables him to sign elsewhere if Red Bull cannot offer him a 2025 race seat. He (Lawson) is there at every race and we are in close contact, Marko said. There is a clause with Lawson that if we don't offer him a seat, he is free for other teams. Ricciardo freely admits that he didn't impress Red Bull enough to secure his coveted spot at the top team. You have to be realistic, said the Australian. I simply didn't deliver enough. If you want one of the top cockpits, you have to show exceptional performance. (GMM) Williams contract rumours make Sainz laugh Carlos Sainz has scoffed at rumours that he has finally put pen to paper on a Formula 1 team contract for 2025. Carlos Sainz, Monaco GP 2024 Ferrari The big rumour in Montreal ahead of the Canadian GP is that the Ferrari refugee has said 'no' to Audi-owned Sauber and will instead wait for a potential opening at Red Bull or Mercedes for 2026. So for 2025, it is whispered that the 29-year-old has now signed a one-year Williams deal. I saw it in the media but when I look at these things, it makes me laugh, Sainz said on Thursday. "It makes me laugh because I remember seeing news three months ago that I had signed for Mercedes, and then news that I had signed for Red Bull, and neither of those things happened. "Now probably the same people say that I have signed for Williams, so it's funny. It also makes me laugh or worried that sometimes this is not punished in some media - and I'm not talking to you (reporters), because you are here and you know when something has been signed or not. When I have something to say or something to announce, you guys will be the first to know and I'll be here talking about it openly, the Spaniard said. Sainz continued that he still has multiple options on the table for his future, and I am happy and proud to be able to choose my future in Formula 1 . I don't think many drivers have the opportunity to choose where they are going to race for the next two or three years, he said. With the people I have spoken to, I feel respected and that makes me positive for the future. Sainz insists that news of Sergio Perez being re-signed by Red Bull this week did not surprise him. I've known for a while that the path to Red Bull Racing was blocked, so that didn't change anything for me, he said. I still have excellent options on the table. (GMM) Educational materials donated to commemorate 74th anniversary of China-Myanmar diplomatic relations Xinhua) 10:43, June 07, 2024 Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Chen Hai (1st R) attends a donation event at the No. 14 Basic Education High School in Hlaingtharya Township in Yangon, Myanmar, June 6, 2024. The Chinese Embassy in Myanmar and the China Foundation for Rural Development jointly donated educational materials and food to a high school here on Thursday to commemorate the 74th anniversary of China-Myanmar diplomatic relations. (Photo by Myo Kyaw Soe/Xinhua) YANGON, June 6 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Embassy in Myanmar and the China Foundation for Rural Development jointly donated educational materials and food to a high school here on Thursday to commemorate the 74th anniversary of China-Myanmar diplomatic relations. The educational materials donated to the No. 14 Basic Education High School in Hlaingtharya Township included backpacks, exercise books, drawing books and pencils. Speaking at the event, Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Chen Hai said that the donation to the school is aimed at reviewing the original intention of establishing diplomatic relations, inheriting the fraternal friendship and supporting the development of the school. China is willing to work with Myanmar to create more opportunities and platforms for the young people of the two countries to deepen understanding and friendship, he added. Yangon Region Chief Minister U Soe Thein thanked China for its support for Myanmar's education in his speech, saying that Myanmar and China have a deep brotherly relationship. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Gaza, June 7 (UNI) The Palestinian mayor of central Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp, Iyad al-Mughari, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Thursday, Palestinian medical and security sources said. Palestinian security sources told Xinhua that the mayor was killed, along with a number of his family members, as an Israeli attack targeted a building in the camp. Medical sources said al-Mughari's body was transferred to al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah city in central Gaza. Al-Mughari, one of the cadres of the Hamas movement, was appointed mayor by acclamation, the sources noted. The killing of al-Mughari came hours after the killing of about 35 Palestinians in an Israeli attack on a school affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which was housing displaced people in the Nuseirat camp. Israel said Hamas and Islamic Jihad "terrorists" were embedded themselves inside the school, and a number of steps had been taken to reduce the risk of harming uninvolved civilians. The Israeli army has been conducting a large-scale offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, after Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on the Israeli towns adjacent to the strip, during which approximately 1,200 people were killed and about 250 others were taken hostage. The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks in the enclave has risen to 36,654, with 83,309 people injured, updated the Gaza health authorities on Thursday. UNI XINHUA GNK The Guam Power Authority announced that it is preparing for the new round of $100 energy credits which will cover the months of April through September after a bill was signed into law. On June 5, Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero signed Bill 277-37 into law, now Public Law 37-104, which extends the Prugraman Ayuda Para I Taotao-ta Energy Credit program for another six months for a total of $600 in energy credits for GPA customers. The credits will be made in $100 increments for the April through September 2024 billings and will account for an additional $31.6 million in direct assistance. This is the sixth extension of the Prugraman Ayuda Para I Taotao-ta Energy Credits. The Department of Administration is the lead agency that will release the funds to GPA for the energy credits. Once the funds are received from DOA, GPA undergoes the process to expedite the uploading of the $100 energy credits to all active residential and commercial accounts. GPA will then make an announcement to confirm that the credits have been posted to all active accounts. Customers will see the credit listed in their online accounts immediately and on their next bill. GPA thanks the 37th Guam Legislature for introducing this new round of energy credits for the GPA ratepayers and to Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero and Lt. Gov. Joshua Tenorio for passing the bill into law ... We are committed to working expeditiously with our partners at DOA to get the $100 energy credits applied to our customers accounts so they can enjoy the savings as we enter the summer months, GPA General Manager John M. Benavente said in a release. Financial assistance programs available to customers GPA notes that there are programs available from the Department of Administration and the Guam Energy Office for customers in need of assistance. DOAs Emergency Rental Assistance Program Cycle 6 remains open for new and continuing applicants. Additionally, the Guam Energy Office offers assistance such as the Weatherization Program and the recently launched Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Customers should inquire or apply directly with the agency or organization. As the island moves toward the summer months, GPA is reminding residents to prepare for warmer temperatures and learn how they can conserve energy and Beat the Peak between the high-demand hours of 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. GPA provides tips for how customers can reduce their power bills further by managing their energy consumption and implementing energy saving tips. For more information, visit GPAs customer service website (guampowerauthority.com), newsletters, and Facebook and Instagram pages (@guampowerauthority). New Delhi, June 07 (UNI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday termed NDA as the most successful alliance in India's history, saying, "Our aim will be to reach unanimity in all our decisions." Addressing the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parliamentary meeting at Centre Hall in old Parliament building, PM Modi said, "Today, the NDA shines as an organic alliance in the political system of Bharat and it becomes synonymous with good governance." During the meeting, the NDA Parliamentary Party members have unanimously elected Narendra Modi as its leader. Senior BJP Leader and Union Minister Rajnath Singh moved a proposal to elect Modi as NDA leader and it was supported by the leaders of all NDA constituents. The Prime Minister was also elected as the leader of BJP in Lok Sabha, and BJP parliamentary party. Talking about the alliance, the Prime Minister said the NDA was not a grouping of parties that have come together for power, but an organic alliance committed to the principle of 'nation first'. He further added, "Today, the NDA shines as an organic alliance in the political system of Bharat...adding The NDA government has given good governance to the country and in a way, just saying NDA becomes synonymous with good governance. Poor welfare and good governance have been paramount in the focus of all of us." Thanking the newly elected members for choosing him as NDA leader, PM Modi said, " It is my good fortune that all of you have unanimously chosen me as the leader of the NDA and given me a new responsibility." He also took a swipe at the opposition INDIA alliance, saying those questioning EVMs and the Election Commission during the elections were silenced on June 4. He claimed that the Opposition's attempts to paint the 2024 Lok Sabha results as a loss for the BJP-led NDA were thwarted by the people, who "know we never lost". In a snide dig at the Congress, he said the grand old party couldn't touch the 100-mark in the Lok Sabha polls even after a decade. "I strongly feel people of INDI alliance belong to the previous century when they question tech advancements like EVMs, Aadhaar," said Narendra Modi, bringing up speculations of rigging of EVMs ahead of results." While Proposing the name of Narendra Modi as NDA leaders, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said, " He is the most suitable person for this post and this alliance is not a compulsion but it is our commitment." Supporting the proposal, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, "This is not only the wish of leaders sitting in the NDA Parliamentary Party meeting but of 140 crore people of this country." TDP Chief Chandrababu Naidu, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and other NDA allies supported the proposal of naming Narendra Modi as the leader of Lok Sabha, leader of the BJP and NDA Parliamentary Party. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar said, "All the pending works of Bihar will be done. It is a very good thing that all of us have come together and we will all work together with you (PM Modi). You will be swearing in as the Prime Minister on Sunday, but I wanted you to do it today itself." Making initial remarks, TDP Chief Chandrababu Naidu said, "NDA government under the visionary leadership of Narendra Modi has taken significant initiatives in the last ten years." He said the country has witnessed remarkable progress and transformation. "We are congratulating all of us as we have won a wonderful majority. I have seen during the election campaign, for 3 months PM Modi never took any rest. Day and night he has campaigned. He started and ended with the same spirit." He added, "Balancing regional aspirations, national interest must run parallel to ensure holistic development for all strata of society." Union Ministers Piyush Goyal, Anurag Singh Thakur, LJP (R) Chief Chirag Paswan, NCP leader Ajit Pawar, RLD Chief Jayant Chaudhary, Jan Sena Chief Pawan Kalyan, Apna Dal (S) leader Anupriya Patel, JD (S) leader H D Kumaraswamy were among others present in the meeting. Following the meeting, the NDA will stake a claim to form the government. All NDA constituents are expected to present letters of support to President Droupadi Murmu, endorsing Modi as the new Prime Minister. Narendra Modi will take oath as the Prime Minister of India for the third consecutive time on June 9 at 6 pm. UNI JA KK Staff Sgt. Thomas Iglesias, Guam Army National Guard, left, supervises as Sgt. Jomar Sorio, center, and Spc. Morgan Oshiro work on foundation preparation for concrete pouring as part of their annual training and a Veterans Memorial Monument project at the Dededo Veterans Memorial Park in Dededo on June 16, 2022. A new poll reveals 66% of Florida voters now support a constitutional amendment that would legalize marijuana throughout the state for adults ages 21 and older. In a Fox News Poll released Thursday, registered voters in the Sunshine State, from all sides of partisan politics, overwhelmingly say they support legalizing recreational marijuana, with 76% of Democrats, 71% of independents and 57% of Republicans in favor of the initiative. After receiving a nod of approval from the State Supreme Court in April, Amendment 3 also called the Florida Marijuana Legalization Initiative will appear on the state ballot in November, where it will need to secure a 60% majority vote from the electorate to pass. The new poll is welcome news for marijuana advocacy groups. In April, two separate surveys showed approval numbers below the required 60% threshold. A survey by Florida Atlantic University found that 47% of voters back the cannabis initiative, while a USA Today survey indicated 56% support. With a $40 million price tag, the successful drive to bring recreational marijuana to Floridas 2024 ballot, an initiative spearheaded by the Smart & Safe Florida campaign, was one of the most expensive marijuana legalization campaigns in U.S. history. Following the courts coveted approval, several new donors appeared on the scene, adding another $15 million to the cause, which was initially funded exclusively by Trulieve, a prominent Florida based medical marijuana provider. If passed, Amendment 3 would allow Floridians to buy and hold limited marijuana amounts for personal use without a medical license. In 2016, Florida voters overwhelmingly supported a constitutional amendment to legalize medical marijuana, with more than 70% in favor, paving the way for a significant number of Floridians to access medical cannabis. As of June 7, 2024, the state had 883,096 registered medical marijuana patients. The Fox News Poll was conducted June 1-4 and includes interviews with a sample of 1,075 Florida registered voters, randomly selected from a statewide voter file. Floridians want and deserve the same right to consume recreational marijuana that more than half the country already enjoys, Smart & Safe Florida spokesperson Morgan Hill said. This poll reflects what we at Smart & Safe Florida know to be true: legalizing recreational adult-use marijuana is good for Floridians health, safety, and individual freedom. Haiti - Education : Corruption in matters of legalization of diplomas and certificates, the Ministry sanctions The Ministry of National Education informs that it has taken sanctions against employees involved in acts of corruption in the handling of documents to be legalized such as diplomas and certificates. The Ministry has decided to suspend the employees involved in these acts and will follow up to obtain their dismissals and to strengthen the control provisions of these files. This decision was taken following a report from the Directorate of Legal Affairs (DAJ) and the complaints received against these employees, as well as after the verification of the allegations of this act of corruption. Following the instructions of the authority of the Ministry, the General Inspectorate of the Ministry will take care to deepen the investigation, with the collaboration of the DAJ, to identify all the other people who would be involved in these unacceptable acts, so that they can obtain the sanctions they deserve in accordance with the law and regulations in this area. The Ministry takes this opportunity to remind the public that there is only one receipt to purchase from the DGI for each document that will be legalized within the Ministry. No citizen will have to pay an additional gourde for this service. The Ministry recalls that it has already taken several measures in its fight against corruption on this issue, such as when it took the decision to close the ministry's office in Babiole and that everyone can have their license diplomas legalized also online, on the Ministry's website. In addition, the Ministry does not take a University diploma to legalize someone. It is the Universities which must ensure follow-up directly with the Ministry through the Directorate of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the DAJ which are in charge of this file. The ministry invites everyone to file a complaint against individuals who ask for money to provide services when the law and regulations do not require it. You can call the Ministry's call center to file complaints at the numbers: +509 31267519/+509 47204375. It is hand in hand that we will succeed in putting an end to corruption in public services. HL/ HaitiLibre Amitava Kumar at The Guardian: The Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), led by Indias prime minister, Narendra Modi, has won more seats than the opposition alliance, and yet its victory tastes of defeat. Why? In the days leading to the election, the BJPs main slogan had been Abki baar, 400 Paar, a call to voters to send more than 400 of its candidates to the 543-member parliament. This slogan, voiced by Modi at his campaign rallies, set a high bar for the party. Most exit polls had predicted a massive victory for the BJP and now the results, with that party having won only 240 seats, suggest that the electorate has sent a chastening message to the ruling party and trimmed its hubris. Lets take as an example what has happened in the Faizabad constituency. More here. Haiti - Kenya Mission : Amnesty International concerned On Tuesday, June 4th, 2024, in a statement Amnesty International raised urgent concerns about the lack of transparency regarding the establishment of human rights guarantees for the Multinational Security Support (MSS) Mission in Haiti, which should be deployed soon. "It is imperative to ensure that any action taken by this multinational mission led by Kenya and supported by the United States and other countries strictly complies with international human rights law as mandated by the United Nations Security Council [...]" said Ana Piquer, Americas Director at Amnesty International. Despite clear requirements in UN Security Council Resolution 2699 (2023) authorizing the mission for participating UN member states to ensure the highest standards of transparency, there is still a lack of detailed public information about the rules, procedures, structure, as well as an accountability mechanism to investigate human rights violations, in particular sexual exploitation, and abuse. "Apart from vetting procedures, the mission personnel should receive comprehensive pre-deployment and in-theater training of basic United Nations principles, human rights law, prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, civilians and child protection. It is also essential that an independent mechanism be in place to receive complaints, investigate all allegations of human rights violations, rule on redress, and refer individual cases to a Haitian civilian court, or any jurisdiction of a country providing personnel for investigation and, where appropriate, prosecution," said Piquer. Amnesty International considers that the participation of Haitian organizations, including feminist organizations, in this process is crucial. Civil societys collective memory and knowledge of a series of actions, which often led to abuses and other wrongdoings, must be considered during the entire process of defining and implementing human rights safeguards for the MSS. HL/ HaitiLibre (CNBC) The Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department are set to open antitrust investigations into Microsoft, OpenAI and Nvidia, examining the powerful companies influence on the artificial intelligence industry. The FTC will take the lead on looking into Microsoft and OpenAI, while the DOJ will focus on Nvidia, and the investigations will focus on the companies conduct, rather than mergers and acquisitions. To read this article: The Finnish public broadcasting company reported yesterday that support for the populist right-wing party has jumped by 2.4 percentage points from last month to 16.5 per cent, a share that if it translates to votes would guarantee three seats in the European Parliament. POPULAR SUPPORT for the Finns Party has surged on the eve of the elections to the European Parliament, according to a poll commissioned by YLE . A lot, though, hinges on how well the party succeeds in mobilising its supporters, Jari Pajunen, the managing director of Taloustutkimus, said to YLE on Thursday. That could be the decisive factor when it comes to this third seat, he predicted. The National Coalition was preferred by 20.6 per cent of the people interviewed for the poll, a vote share that would be enough to secure four seats in Brussels. The Social Democratic Party remains on track to win three seats with an approval rating of 19.4 per cent. Each of the three most popular parties would see their seat number grow by one compared with the outgoing European Parliament. The Centre and Left Alliance are both set to win two seats an increase of one seat for the latter with vote shares of 11.9 and 10.8 per cent, respectively. Support for the former, centre-right party fell by more than one-and-a-half points from the previous poll. The Green League could be the biggest loser in the elections, with the poll finding that the party is preferred by 9.3 per cent of the public. The vote share would see it lose two of its three seats in Brussels. Support for the Swedish Peoples Party came in at 4.2 per cent, an outcome that would leave the centre-right party without a seat for the first time ever. Also the Christian Democrats and Movement Now would be left without a representative in Brussels as the electoral alliance formed by the two parties received support from 5.1 per cent of respondents. The National Coalition, however, edged out the electoral alliance for the 15th and final seat allocated for the country by only about 400 votes, according to YLE. The Swedish Peoples Partys struggles in European election polls have been attributed to, for example, the fact that no polling data is collected on the Swedish-speaking Aland Islands. The YLE poll suggests that votes from the archipelago would not be enough to guarantee a seat for the ruling party. Maybe itd provide ten thousand more votes. That isnt enough to win a seat. Another ten thousand would be required, remarked Pajunen. Taloustutkimus contacted 2,111 people for the poll between 29 May and 4 June. The poll yielded 1,500 responses, half by phone and half on an internet panel. The results have a margin of error of roughly two percentage points. Aleksi Teivainen HT Naomi Klein highlights the failures of establishment parties, stating, These elections are so critical because the far right is not the only problem. As the European Elections approach on June 9, notable public figures Naomi Klein , Norman Finkelstein , and Roger Waters are urging voters in Germany, Greece, and Italy to support MERA25. They emphasize that the party stands as a crucial alternative to both far-right and establishment parties, offering a pathway to peace, freedom, and dignity for Europeans. It's the policies of establishment parties that created the context for the far right to flourish. The austerity, the poverty, the tax dodging, the concentration of wealth, and the endless wars. Klein advocates for MERA25 as a party that provides real solutions without pitting people against each other. Norman Finkelstein and Roger Waters also endorse MERA25, recognizing the party's commitment to peace, particularly regarding the ongoing conflicts in Palestine and Ukraine. They believe MERA25 is dedicated to demilitarization, social justice, economic freedom, and the democratization of political decisions. Finkelstein warns of the dangers of inaction, drawing parallels to the 1930s. He asserts, If we dont do something now, the danger is that its going to be a repeat of the 1930s, except its going to be a repeat without a struggle. And so now its more urgent than ever that we get into business of organizing, trying to create honorable and trustworthy leadership. () Now, I believe MERA25 is able to respond to that challenge. Roger Waters underscores the importance of supporting MERA25 for those who advocate for a free Palestine. Its very very important that you all cast your votes for MERA25. Its extremely important that we all vote in support of a free Palestine from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea so lets blow the winds of change in these European Elections, Waters stated. MERA25 has been steadfast in its commitment to peace and social justice, advocating for the end of oppression in Palestine and a consistent peace process in Ukraine. The party also champions economic freedom, the democratization of political decisions, and a genuine green transition that ensures social rights and environmental protection. As the elections draw near, the endorsements from Klein, Finkelstein, and Waters aim to galvanize support for MERA25, presenting it as a vital force for progressive change in Europe. HT A COUPLE who came to South Oxfordshire after fleeing the war in Ukraine are getting married in Henley today (Friday). Bogdan Karashevskyi, 30, and Svitlana Korovina, 29, will wed at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Vicarage Road watched by 15 friends and family members. The couple will then have another ceremony in Warsaw later this month for other family and friends in Ukraine who were unable to get UK visas to attend. They arrived here in 2022 and went to live with Rosie and Jeremy Brazil in Newnham Hill, near Highmoor, under the Governments Homes for Ukraine scheme. Mr Karashevskyi proposed to Miss Korovina as her 28th birthday present in August when they were in London with the Brazils who had given her tour bus tickets and a river cruise. Miss Korovina, a nail technician, and Mr Karashevskyi, who works at a BMW warehouse in Oxford, have worked extra shifts to save up for their big day. At one stage they were worried the wedding wouldnt go ahead as they didnt have their baptism certificates with them. Mrs Brazil said: Svitlana and Bogdan had gone on holiday to Poland in February 2022 to stay with his brother. They hadnt taken much with them and then the invasion happened so they never went back to Ukraine and consequently, when the church asked for their baptism certificates, they didnt have them. Luckily, Bogdans mother was able to find them and send them over. They were worried they wouldnt be able to get married without them. Mr Karashevskyi said: We are very excited and very happy that the Government didnt give us any issues with the marriage. He said the couples friends in Ukraine would be able to watch the ceremony online. Mr Karashevskyi said: It will be a very simple wedding. It will be our family, Rosie and Jeremy, Svitlanas sister with the children and some friends from London. In Poland it will be bigger because I havent seen my father in two years. I haven't seen a lot of friends either so to see them again will be exciting. We are very happy that Rosie and Jeremy could put us up because they are like our family. Now they will meet our actual families. Now we have a very big family. Mrs Brazil said: We now feel like weve got a second family with Svitlana and Bogdan. The really good thing is that we were there at the engagement, so its lovely to be there at the legal wedding in the church and also at their Polish wedding. Theyve asked us to make a speech, which will be interesting because we dont speak any Ukrainian or Polish. Were really excited about meeting their families because they are lovely. Sometimes the parents send us presents because theyre grateful that weve taken them in. Theyve sent us homemade wine and Bogdans mother did a tapestry for us of horses because she knows Ive got a horse. I think they are very grateful. To us, having them in our annexe is no trouble at all. We really feel weve gained from it. When the sponsor payments stop, we would be quite happy for them to stay on because it is a joy to have them. The couple did have doubts about marrying in a leap year because in Ukraine that is deemed to be unlucky. Mrs Brazil said: We said to them, If you get married in the UK, then its a UK tradition and getting married in a leap year here is not at all unlucky. In the end, they decided they would wait until after Bogdans father turned 60, which was in April, because then they knew he could perhaps get a visa to come as he would be past the age for fighting. Alternatively, they could get married in Poland because he would be able to leave Ukraine. It was very important to both of them that Bogdans parents be there. Miss Korovina nearly didnt have a wedding outfit after she flew out to collect her wedding dress in Poland to find it had been altered two sizes too big and would not be ready for today. She bought a new outfit for the ceremony and will wear the original dress in Poland when it has been altered again to fit her. It was a little bit stressful, she said. The dress is too big for me after a lady in Warsaw altered it for me but we hope it will be fine for the second wedding. Its sad of course but not too bad. The couple plan to have their honeymoon in Greece in August. Friday June 7, 2024 By Mohamed Olad Hassan Somali officials celebrated in the General Assembly after the vote [EPA] WASHINGTON The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday elected Somalia to the 15-member U.N. Security Council for a two-year term starting in 2025. The tiny Horn of Africa nation was among five countries that received the winning votes, alongside Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, and Panama. For the first time in more than 50 years, he said, Somalia will have a vote on decisions regarding world conflicts."The Security Council is the only U.N. body that can make legally binding decisions such as imposing sanctions and authorizing use of force. Therefore, Somalia would get a vote that determines the world issues and resolutions," Wardhere said.Announcing the elections results, the U.N. General Assembly President Dennis Francis, said, "In a secret ballot, the elected countries secured the required two-thirds majority of Member States present and voting in the 193-member General Assembly."Following the news, the United Nations in Somalia congratulated the Somali government and its people "on their country's election today to a seat on the UN Security Council for 2025-2026.""Somalia has come a long way over the past three decades on its path to peace, prosperity, and security," said the UN Secretary-Generals Acting Special Representative for Somalia James Swan. "Election to a seat on the Security Council is recognition of that commendable progress.""Somalias experiences place it in a unique position to contribute to Council deliberations on international peace and security," Swan added.The Security Councils five permanent veto-wielding members are Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.The five countries that got elected Thursday will replace Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland, whose terms end December 31.Somali and the other elected new members will join existing non-permanent members Algeria, Guyana, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia, whose terms started in January.According to United Nations, the 10 non-permanent seats on the Security Council are distributed according to four regional groupings: Africa and Asia; Eastern Europe; Latin America and the Caribbean; and the Western European and other States group.The newly elected members were endorsed by their respective regional groups and ran largely uncontested.Margaret Besheer contributed this report from New York. Capricorn (22nd December to 19th January) Daily Horoscope Prediction says, you know to make the right strokes Keep the love life intact today and this will also reflect in professional success. No major monetary issues exist and your health is also normal today. Capricorn Daily Horoscope Today, June 8, 2024: Keep the love life intact today and this will also reflect in professional success. Stay happy in the love life. Shower affection on the lover and also strive to give the best result at job. Financially you are good enough to make crucial decisions and health is perfectly normal today. Capricorn Love Horoscope Today Spend more time together and always complement the lover in both personal and professional endeavors. Displeasures may be there in the relationship but you need to patiently overcome them as things will get resolved sooner. Female natives may complain about the interference of the family members of spouses but this can be resolved amicably today. Capricorn Career Horoscope Today Your day will be busy as new responsibilities will knock on the door. Some official tasks will require you to stay overtime at the office. You may be a victim of office politics. Stick to the principles and stay away from controversies. Businessmen will find more opportunities to expand the trade. Capricorn Money Horoscope Today Some of you will be able to repair the home or buy a new one. You may also consider buying a vehicle. As you are financially good today, you may consider stock, trade, and speculative business. Businessmen will see funds from promoters and the business expansion plan will go as assumed. Capricorn Health Horoscope Today Minor ailments like headaches, oral issues, and throat infections can be there but they wont cause serious threats to daily life. Do not take part in adventure activities while you are under the influence of alcohol. Have a menu rich in proteins and vitamins while skipping aerated drinks to stay healthy. Capricorn Sign Attributes Strength: Intelligent, Practical, Trustworthy, Generous, Optimistic Intelligent, Practical, Trustworthy, Generous, Optimistic Weakness: Persistent, Stubborn, Suspicious Persistent, Stubborn, Suspicious Symbol: Goat Goat Element: Earth Earth Body Part: Bones & Skin Bones & Skin Sign Ruler: Saturn Saturn Lucky Day: Saturday Saturday Lucky Color : Grey : Grey Lucky Number : 4 : 4 Lucky Stone: Amethyst Capricorn Sign Compatibility Chart Sagittarius (22nd November to 21st December) Daily Horoscope Prediction says, sincerity is your attribute Stay positive in your love life. Strive to give the best at the office. Take up new responsibilities to prove your mettle. Wealth is good. Minor health issues exist. Sagittarius Daily Horoscope Today, June 8, 2024: Stay positive in your love life. Overcome the ruckus in the relationship to stay happy. Handle issues at the office tactically to prove the mettle. Wealth will come in today but minor health issues will be there. Sagittarius Love Horoscope Today You should devote more time to the relationship. You may sit together to make a call on the future. You may plan a happy weekend and can also have a long drive where you may also indulge in activities that both love. Those who had a breakup may come across someone interesting today. But it may take time to turn into a romantic affair. Married females may have troubles with their in-laws and this should be addressed by discussing with the spouse. Sagittarius Career Horoscope Today Skip gossip at the office and focus on your assigned tasks. Your professionalism will receive accolades today. Job seekers will find a new one and professionals will see good opportunities to grow in office. Teamwork will be the key to success and your opinions and concepts will be accepted without much effort. Your opinions will receive support at meetings. Utilize the communication skill to impress the client. The students who are also appearing in competitive examinations need to work a little more. Sagittarius Money Horoscope Today Wealth will come in the first part of the day. This will help you invest in safe options including mutual funds and fixed deposits. Those who want to try the luck in realty business can do it. You may also buy a vehicle or electronic appliances today. Some natives will require spending for the marriage of a child. A sibling may ask for financial help and you may provide it as the condition permits. Sagittarius Health Horoscope Today Your health may have minor issues. Some Sagittarius natives will develop chest-related infections. Those who have a history of cardiac issues will need medical attention. Viral fever, sore throat, and pain in joints will be common. Females may complain about gynecological issues. Pregnant girls must not do bike riding, rock climbing, or bungee jumping today. Seniors may travel but ensure a medical kit is ready. Sagittarius Sign Attributes Strength: Wise, Practical, Audacious, Beautiful, Lively, Energetic, Lovely, Optimistic Weakness: Forgetful, Careless, Irritating Symbol: Archer Element: Fire Body Part: Thighs & Liver Sign Ruler: Jupiter Lucky Day: Thursday Lucky Color: Light Blue Lucky Number: 6 Lucky Stone: Yellow Sapphire Sagittarius Sign Compatibility Chart Table for Two is divided into two sections: New York and Los Angeles. Would you say that the American dream looks different in these two cities? Author Amor Towles (Courtesy the publisher) Thats a great question, and the answer is absolutely yes! A part of the American dream, which is the opportunity to improve ones life as compared to previous generations, is universal. And that gets particularized around things like owning a house of your own, also sending your children to a good school, and enjoying your freedom as a right. Going to California, and Los Angeles or Hollywood in particular, is associated with becoming famous and having a glamorous lifestyle. The weather is warm, there are palm trees, and of course the great Pacific Ocean the dream presented here is a combination of all these things that make it an almost paradisical setting. This is often juxtaposed against the Midwest, where the weather is terrible. There are hurricanes, tornadoes, dust and famines. The New York version of the American dream was best captured by Frank Sinatra when he sang If I can make it there, Im gonna make it anywhere. New York is a place where you go to become the best you can possibly be in business, fashion, art, restaurants, music, theatre. The presence of the skyscraper itself is a metaphor for upward ambition. There is a different kind of glamour associated with New York the glamour of the penthouse, not palm trees. Aspiration is a very strong aspect of American culture. This may look slightly different in different parts of the nation but the American dream is what holds the people together. As a former investment manager on Wall Street, what was it like to create a fictional world set in communist Russia for your short story titled The Line? How were you able to write with so much empathy and insight rather than condescension? I wrote fiction while studying at Yale and Stanford, much before I became an investment manager. None of my friends in college were surprised that I was writing fiction. For them, my going to Wall Street was the diversion; fiction was always a part of my life. I belong to a generation of writers who were asked to write short stories from as many different perspectives as possible in order to master the craft. This practice sharpens the imagination. Some writers take their own circle of life and delve into it deeply. They write about their own family and their own community. My training was a bit different; because of that, I am constantly putting myself in the shoes of people whose life is different from mine. I have been honing the ability to imagine the life of other human beings. One is not simply trying to see what another person might see but also feel how they might feel in their situation. With the character of Pushkin in The Line, I was interested in exploring the life of someone who was not good at very much in the eyes of society but he was good at standing in lines. Russia in the 1920s and 1930s was full of various kinds of lines. With the Great Depression in America in 1929, we too had lines lines to get work, and lines to get money from banks. I thought it would be interesting to write a story around lines in Moscow and in New York. Suddenly, these two very different societies had something in common. Lines usually signal some kind of stress but whats interesting about them is that there is a stranger in front of you and a stranger behind you. Everyone is on an equal footing. There is something beautiful about that, and I wanted to write about the humanity that could be discovered in such lines. 464pp, 545; Penguin People love standing next to Pushkin when they are in a line because he is cheerful, interested in their lives, and always willing to help. While conceptualizing this character, were you thinking of any strangers you have met while standing in lines? I tend not to draw much from personal life but there are some exceptions. One short story in Table for Two is based on a real-life incident. I am referring to The Bootlegger, where a man attending a concert at Carnegie Hall has the nerve to record it. This really happened when I was attending a classical concert with my wife in my early thirties. I was so mad at the old man in a raincoat sitting beside us and recording it. He was breaking the law and betraying the piano player. Evgeny Kissin, the famous pianist, was on stage that night but I could not pay attention to the music because I was so furious. This part is autobiographical but the rest of the short story isnt. I did not call security that night. Of course, I really wanted to. This story is my fantasy of what could have happened if I had chosen to report him. In I Will Survive, another story in Table for Two, I write about a grown man who spends his Saturday afternoons on roller skates. This idea came from one of my walks through Central Park in New York. There is an area where roller skaters gather and perform with music. I stopped by to watch and listen, and was quite surprised by the sight of this old aristocratic gentleman among all the younger skaters. He was perhaps in his sixties, and certainly one of the best. His presence in that setting seemed unusual, so I got thinking about whether his family and colleagues might be aware of this part of his life. That was the starting point of the story, and everything else is my imagination. The Didomenico Fragment unfolds at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. What kind of research went into making this setting come alive for your readers? Did you go on guided tours of the museum, or explore it on your own? I have not done any research for any of my short stories. I have been living in New York for 35 years and know many of the nooks within the Met. I was surprised to run into Paul Auster in your story titled The Ballad of Timothy Touchett. What made you turn a contemporary author into a character in this book? How did you look back at this choice when he died recently? I tend to plan all my stories well in advance. I write detailed outlines. Before I start writing, I know the setting very well. I know all my characters and all the events. When I was planning The Ballad of Timothy Touchett, I knew that I was going to write about a man who forges autographs of famous authors and that the story would have one author who spots an autograph and realizes that the signature is not his own. I could have made up a character. But I was already using names of real people, authors like F Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos and Leo Tolstoy in the story, so I wanted to have a real author as a character. I have never met Paul Auster. I am a fan, of course, and his work influenced me as a young man. In The New York Trilogy, he turns himself into a character, and also has someone pretending to be Auster. He likes playing with these hazy concepts mirrors and doppelgangers so he was the perfect choice for my story. Timothy does not forge signatures of authors who are alive but he convinces himself that Auster would not mind being forged. I had no idea that Table for Two would come out around the time that Auster was struggling with his life. It was sad and tragic. He had asked to see a copy of the story shortly before he died, and it was sent to him at his request. I dont think he was well enough to read it. In a way, as a fan, I am glad about the timing of the book because the story is a tribute to him. If you found out that someone was forging your autographs and fake first editions were being sold at exorbitant prices, how would you react? Would you do what Paul Auster does in the story or would you approach the problem differently? I am told that the art market is full of forged copies of paintings, so I am sure there are a lot of fake first editions of books too. I think I would react like Auster does in the story. With the novella Eve in Hollywood in Table for Two, you revisit Eve Ross who first appeared in your novel Rules of Civility (2011) and later in an interlinked series of short stories called Eve in Hollywood: A Penguin Special (2013). What led you to pour so much time and attention into working with this particular character? In Rules of Civility, Eve says that she is leaving New York and going to Indiana. She carries this feeling of being a failure in New York because her relationship does not work out, she meets with an accident, and her face is scarred. While she is headed home, just before her train arrives at the station, she decides to extend her ticket and go all the way to California. I had this thought that Eve would never go right back to her parents. That would mean defeat. I was fascinated with her as a character so I wrote 60 pages about her meeting different people. When I began working on Table for Two, I wanted to develop her story further and include it in the form of a more extended novella to do justice to her characters journey. Last year, I checked into the Beverley Hills Hotel, where Eve lives, and turned those 60 pages into 200. I hope that I have finally given her the story that she deserved, and that readers deserve. Your books have been translated into 35 languages. Have you ever felt like learning a language to read the translations or would it be too much of a vanity project? That would definitely seem like a vanity project. To learn a language well enough to be able to read literature at an advanced level usually requires years of study. It is just not practical even if I wanted to. I would like to be able to read French because I love the language. Sadly, I read only in English. I learnt Latin as a child but did not put it to much use. Tell us about your experience of working with translators. I have great respect for people who are skilled in the art of translation. It involves more than language. Sometimes, I create notes for translators, especially about cultural nuances from American society that they might not be familiar with. Sometimes, if there is a motif running through the book, I might want to bring that to the attention of the translator. If I use the word looking-glass in one place, and mirror in another, I have reasons behind that choice, and I communicate that to the narrator. If the same object is being described as a knapsack, a backpack and a rucksack by three different narrators in the same work of fiction, as it happens in my novel The Lincoln Highway (2021), I make notes for the translator. I think that spelling out my intentions behind specific word choices might be helpful. Do you also make notes for people who adapt your novels? To what extent were you involved in the TV adaptation of A Gentleman in Moscow (2016)? I was not going to write the script. The agreement was that I would be involved in the hiring of the director, the hiring of the head writer, and the casting of the actors in the lead male and female roles. I had a chance to interview people. If I found that they did not understand the book, or their interpretation was going in a direction that I did not like, the producers would move on to the next person. Since I was given an opportunity to talk with these people have a say in hiring them, I had to trust them to do their job and step back. Recently, you served on the jury for the O Henry Prize for Short Fiction. How was reading to select a winner different from reading only for your pleasure? It was an honour and a pleasure to judge the O Henry Prize for Short Fiction because the team sorted through 1,000 stories and gave me the best 100 from which I had to choose 20 stories. It was not difficult to find 20 excellent examples of the form. Do you plan to visit India anytime soon and meet your readers here? I have never been to India. But I would very much like to come to the Jaipur Literature Festival at some point in the next few years. Chintan Girish Modi is a writer and journalist who is @chintanwriting on Instagram and X. In the educational landscape of Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, Utthan Shambhunath Institutions has left a mark for over 21 years. With a focus on quality education, the institution offers diverse courses crafted to meet the demands of a dynamic world. Guided by experienced faculty members and supported by modern infrastructure, Utthan Shambhunath endeavors to empower students with the knowledge and skills necessary for success. Courses available in Utthan Shambhunath Institutions Utthan Shambhunath Institutions provides education in B.Tech, M.Tech, D.Pharm, B.Pharm, M.Pharm, Pharm.D, B.C.A, B.B.A, M.B.A, B.A.L.L.B, A.N.M, G.N.M, B.Sc. (Nursing) and B.T.C courses. All these courses are regulated by the Government of India. All the courses of the pharmacy college are approved and recognized by the bodies of the pharmacy like AICTE, AKTU, Pharmacy Council of India, Indian Nursing Council, Bar Council of India, Atal Bihari Medical University and Allahabad State University. All the courses of the pharmacy college are recognized by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA). The campus is spread over 22 acres and is equipped with all the necessary facilities. The campus of Utthan Shambhunath Institutions is spread over 22 acres in which facilities like many educational buildings, hostels, lifts, cafeterias, grounds for indoor and outdoor games, a gym, etc. are available. There is also a bank facility on the campus. There is a branch of NCC in the institute, which develops discipline and efficient leadership skills in the students. The placement record of the institute has been excellent for the past several years. Guidance of Skilled and Experienced Teachers The institute has qualified and experienced faculty members who help students to enhance their knowledge. To enhance the quality of education in the institute, expert lectures and workshops are organized which help in increasing the technical knowledge of the students. Under the guidance of experienced teachers, our students Shrestha Shrivastava (B.Pharma), Richa Kushwaha (MBA) secured second and sixth positions in the examination of AKTU, Lucknow; and Shalini Singh (BA LLB) secured third and Vandana Maurya (BCA) and Ritika Verma (BCA) secured sixth and eighth positions in the examinations of Allahabad State University, Prayagraj. Shalini Singh (BA LLB) has also been awarded a bronze medal by the Honorable Governor of Uttar Pradesh. Special focus on placement and industrial visits The Training and Placement Cell of the institute coordinates and signs MoUs with many higher educational institutions and multinational companies for the training and placement of students. MoUs have been signed which enhance the technical skills of the students. The placement cell of the institute has tie-ups with many reputed multinational companies for industrial visits of the students. Through these industrial visits, the students develop an understanding of the working culture of the industry. The main objective of the institute is to provide modern, technical and employment oriented education to the young generation. The placement record of the institute has been excellent for the past several years. Utthan Shambhunath Institutions is dedicated towards providing quality education to its students. Shambhunath Institute of Engineering and Technology (College Code-162) Shambhunath Institute of Pharmacy (College Code-241) Shambhunath Institute of Management (College Code-727) Shambhunath Institute of Law (College Code-01304) Shambhunath College of Education (College Code-01329) Shambhunath Research Institute of Medical Sciences and Hospital (College Code-1556) Address- Shambhunath Institute of Engineering and Technology, Opposite Utthan Hospital, Jhalwa, Prayagraj- 211015, Uttar Pradesh Website: https://siet.in, https://siet.in/AdmissionEnquiry Mobile No. : 8127100101, 8127100202, 8127100303, 9044052941, 9044052942 Disclaimer: This article is a promotional feature and does not have journalistic/editorial involvement of Hindustan Times. Hindustan Times shall not in any manner, be responsible and/or liable in any manner whatsoever for all that is stated in the article and/or also with regard to the view(s), opinion(s), announcement(s), declaration(s), affirmation(s) etc., stated/featured in the same. The content may be for information and awareness purposes and does not constitute any financial advice. Flipkart has made its inverter batteries live for sale online towards the end of May. Through its marketplace platform, the inverter batteries can be ordered across more than 19000 pin codes. Notably, the e-commerce giant has ventured into a multi-year alliance with Livguard Energy with a vision of contributing to 20% of overall inverters and inverter batteries business in India by 2030. Talking about how this partnership will promote growth, Nikhil Sharma, Director Small Home Appliances, Flipkart, stated: Our strategic alliance with Livguard Energy will enable us to accelerate our growth, drive product innovation to cater to the digital consumer and democratize the inverter batteries category. We are excited by Livguards unique strengths and experience in this industry, all of which will be critical in our next phase of growth. Further, Gurpreet Bhatia, Managing Director & CEO, Livguard Energy Technologies Pvt. Ltd., shared his views on the alliance: "Flipkart's growth in India has been powered by its digital-first strategy and commitment to deliver value to the consumer. As the company continues to scale and grow its e-commerce platform, we will work together to drive product innovations and help Flipkart drive breakthrough businesses in the future." Notably, Livguard tubular inverter batteries come with the carbon nanotube technology that ensures high power, faster charging and better charge efficiency. They are built with a futuristic design that complements modern-day homes. Requiring low maintenance, these inverter batteries are made of premium, durable and leak-proof PPCP plastic for superior heat sealing, ensuring complete safety. Additionally, they feature a 3D grid and non-woven gauntlet for extended battery life. You can buy and check out the catalogue here: https://www.flipkart.com/j9e/~cs-a36tejyj8v/pr?sid=j9e&collection-tab-name=Inverter+Batteries&pageCriteria=default&cmpid=social_org_external_campaign_HT_Inverter_Batteries Besides, Flipkart plans to enhance the current customer purchase journey and post-purchase experience by improving product installation, uninstallation and product exchange services. Also, it will focus on no-cost EMIs and bank and Super Coin offers to drive affordability. For the unversed, Livguard aims to redefine energy storage solutions through its automotive batteries, inverters, and residential solar solutions. Its mission is to be a strong player in the energy storage solution space in India and develop an ecosystem of delighted customers, committed partners, and exceptional product quality and service. Operational for 9 years, Livguard is considered the fastest-growing energy storage solutions brand in the country. Dedicated to delivering limitless energy to homes and businesses, the company not only supports innovative technologies but also the world's shift to a cleaner future. Moreover, it wants to create a world where energy is accessible, efficient, and sustainable. Disclaimer: This article has been produced on behalf of the brand by HT Brand Studio. Bengaluru, Karnataka, June 3, 2024: YAAY CARDS, a greeting card company started in 2019, is led by a simple yet potent idea: to make unique, memorable greeting cards. This Bengaluru-based brand encourages connections in a world increasingly dominated by digital interactions. Sharief Ayesha, the founder of this firm, feels that the act of giving itself offers enormous joy, and that physical greeting cards, despite the rise of digital communication, still hold a special place in strengthening relationships. YAAY CARDS offers a personalised touch, allowing individuals to add photos and messages, making them a thoughtful and sentimental gift for any occasion. Ms. Ayesha's journey began by selling YAAY CARDS from her home in Bengaluru. The brand now has a pan-India presence, with customers across the globe cherishing these personalised tokens of affection. This greeting card brand has even found its way into the hands of celebrities. Ms. Ayesha recognised the fading popularity of traditional greeting cards and aimed to reinvent them for the modern age. Her cards bridge the gap between the digital world and the tangible expression of care. Studies have shown that receiving a physical greeting card can significantly improve the recipient's mental well-being. It fosters a sense of connection and combats feelings of isolation. Sending a personalised YAAY CARD communicates thoughtfulness and care, reminding the recipient of their worth. The emotional impact of a physical card, research suggests, surpasses that of its digital counterparts. YAAY CARDS provides a smart approach to expressing emotions, strengthening bonds, and creating lasting memories. Ayesha believes, "Nobody ever becomes poor by giving," as a result, this greeting card company offers a unique and personal way to show someone truly cares. Disclaimer: This article is a paid publication and does not have journalistic/editorial involvement of Hindustan Times. Hindustan Times does not endorse/subscribe to the content(s) of the article/advertisement and/or view(s) expressed herein. Hindustan Times shall not in any manner, be responsible and/or liable in any manner whatsoever for all that is stated in the article and/or also with regard to the view(s), opinion(s), announcement(s), declaration(s), affirmation(s) etc., stated/featured in the same. Singapore, Brisbane-based renewable energy technology company ZekiTek is assessing the Indian market and plans to shift its manufacturing facility from the Australian city to India, the company's Indian-origin CEO Rikesh Ram said on Friday. Indian-origin CEO of Australian firm ZekiTek says company eyes India's renewable energy market for expansion The company, which also manufactures electrical charging systems, aims to supply an integrated renewable energy generation ecosystem as well as electric charging solutions in India. "We want to help communities, especially those in remote regions, with mobile and portable power systems," Ram said at the sidelines of the 2024 Clean Economy Investor Forum, organised under the auspices of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework here June 5-6. Once remotely located communities get access to power, they would be able to connect to networks covering health and education, and other services, he added. According to Ram, ZekiTek has already identified a potential investor in Gujarat. Once regulatory approvals and certifications are obtained, ZekiTek will start raising funds and shift its manufacturing facility from Brisbane to India. The ZekiTek CEO sees huge potential for green and clean energy in India. ZekiTek's ZekiGen system taps solar and wind energy to generate electricity and offers direct connections without requiring high investments in the distribution network, Ram explained. ZekiGen systems are designed to operate 24 hours a day, generating and storing power through an in-built vertical wind turbine and solar panels, he said, adding that the system is also designed to tap wind energy created by fast-moving vehicular traffic in urban areas. Besides, Ram said, the company is studying the potential of supplying DC systems of 2 Kwh for two- and three-wheeler electric vehicles as well as replacing diesel-powered generators. At present, ZekiTek is undertaking a pilot project in Fiji in partnership with the Australian government's Market Development Facility. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text. All private and public sector banks are closed on the second and fourth Saturdays and all Sundays of the month. Meanwhile, the first, third, and fifth Saturdays of the month are working days in the banks. For bank customers who want to visit branches, you must make sure that banks are working on that particular Saturday when you plan your visit. The central bank designates certain holidays under the Negotiable Instruments Act, Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) holidays, and Banks' Closing of Accounts. June 8 bank holidays: RBI designates holidays under the Negotiable Instruments Act, Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) holidays, and Banks' Closing of Accounts but they may differ from state to state. Is it a bank holiday on June 8? Yes, June 8 is a bank holiday as it is the second Saturday of the month. As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) rules, banks are closed on Sundays and the second and fourth Saturdays of the month. You can use mobile banking and net banking services even on these days. June bank holiday 2024 list June 8: Banks are closed on account of the second Saturday. June 9: Banks are closed on account of Sunday. June 15: Banks will be closed in Mizoram will be closed for YMA Day. Banks in Odisha will be closed for Raja Sankranti. June 17: Bakri Eid banks will remain closed across India, except in Mizoram, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. June 18: Banks will be closed in Jammu and Srinagar on the occasion of Bakri ID (Id-Uz-Zuha). June 22: Banks are closed on account of the fourth Saturday. June 23: Banks are closed on account of Sunday. June 30: Banks are closed on account of Sunday. Can use net banking, mobile banking and ATMs? Bank customers can still use the Internet, mobile applications, and ATMs when banks are closed. Seven assailants allegedly set a 24-year-old man ablaze after pouring petrol on him in broad daylight in Jagraon. Officials said that in the attack likely because of an old rivalry, the victim suffered 80% burns and his condition is stated as critical. The victim, Manpreet Singh, is a resident of Rani Wala Khoo in Jagraon. (HT File) The victim, Manpreet Singh, is a resident of Rani Wala Khoo in Jagraon. The City Jagraon police registered an FIR against the accused, Pradeep Singh alias Tittu, Vijay Kumar, Harsh, Nikhil, Nikka, Kaja, Jatin of Rani Wala Khoo and Jimmy of Kabir Nagar of Jagraon. The FIR has been registered following the statement of victims father Rakesh Kumar. Rakesh said that he is an auto-rickshaw driver. On June 4, the accused intercepted his son in the village. He alleged that while Pardeep held the victim, Vijay poured petrol on him before setting him on fire using a lighter. He said that his son was rushed to the civil hospital, where the doctors referred him to Guru Gobind Singh Medical College in Faridkot. Investigating officer assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Mohan Lal said that police have registered a case under sections 326A (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by use of acid, etc) and 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the accused at City Jagraon police station. He added that the reason behind the incident is yet to be ascertained. The administration has announced the initiation of an extensive plantation drive, aiming to plant 1.5 lakh tree saplings across the district starting next month. Each department has been assigned specific targets for the campaign. Additional deputy commissioner Anmol Singh Dhaliwal talking to other officials about the implementation of plantation drive in Ludhiana, on Friday. (HT) During a meeting at Bachat Bhawan, additional deputy commissioner Anmol Singh Dhaliwal, along with South Circle Conservator of Forests Ajit Kulkarni and divisional forest officer Rajesh Kumar, discussed the implementation strategy with departmental heads. Dhaliwal emphasised that with the upcoming monsoon season, the administration plans to commence the drive to expand the districts forest cover. The saplings will be planted on Panchayati lands, around village ponds, along roadsides, and on the premises of educational institutions, healthcare centres, and other departmental vacant lands to enhance green cover. Dhaliwal urged department heads to appoint nodal officers to ensure the effective planting and maintenance of the saplings, stressing that every department must actively pursue their set targets. He highlighted the critical role of trees in environmental preservation, air quality improvement, water and soil conservation, and called for youth participation to champion the cause of a Green and Clean Ludhiana. Kulkarni underlined the importance of such initiatives in addressing environmental pollution and mentioned that individuals could obtain free saplings from the forest department via the i-Hariyali app. The campaign will prioritise site-specific plants adapted to the local environment. Kumar announced the creation of a Nanak Bagichi, where 500 saplings will be planted on one acre of land in Ludhiana. He also noted the availability of 19 lakh saplings of native species such as Jamun, Arjun, Amrood, Amla, Kikkar, Amaltas, Gulmohar, Semul, Tahli, and Neem across 24 nurseries in the Ludhiana circle. Departmental heads were encouraged to plant and care for at least one sapling each to benefit future generations. Local police arrested four individuals after a 65-year-old man who was allegedly Injured during a clash between two groups in Jalah Majra village of Macchiwara over parking of a bus succumbed to his injuries. Earlier, the Machhiwara police had booked at least 28 people in a cross-case after both the groups filed separate complaints. (HT File) The victim, Dilbagh Singh, was admitted to a hospital. At least 10 accused have been booked in connection with the death, including four women. Earlier, the Machhiwara police had booked at least 28 people in a cross-case after both the groups filed separate complaints. Police officials identified the arrested accused as Bahadar Singh, Kulwant Singh, Amrit Singh and Kulwinder Singh. Officials said that Sukhchain Singh, Gagandeep Singh alias Billa, Gurpreet Kaur, Chanderjit Kaur, Paramjit Kaur and Manjit Kaur were yet to be arrested in connection with the case. The complainant, Jaskaran Singh, said that accused Bahadur Singh drives a bus of a private institute and used to park the bus outside a local gurdwara. The victim used to stop the Bahadur Singh from parking the bus outside the gurdwara. On June 1, when Dilbagh Singh deterred the accused, he allegedly attacked him. The accused called his aides and attacked the victim and his family members with sharp-edged weapons. The family members of the deceased had tried to intervene to stop the clash, the complainant alleged. The complainant added that the accused also hit Dilbagh Singh with their car. He was rushed to a hospital. Sensing his critical condition, the doctors referred him to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, where he succumbed on June 5. Machhiwara station-house officer (SHO) sub-inspector Bhinder Singh said that earlier, a first-information report (FIR) under sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 148 (rioting armed with a deadly weapon) and 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered against the accused. After the death of the man, the police added section 302 (murder) to the FIR. Earlier, police had registered a cross-case against Dilbagh Singh and 17 others following the complaint of Kulwinder Singh, Badhadur Singhs son. The SHO added that a hunt was on to arrest the remaining accused. A labourer hired for a paint job allegedly decamped with 7.5 lakh from an anganwadi workers house. The Tibba police lodged a first-information report (FIR) against accused Sahil Nahar. The woman said that her son directed the accused to paint the walls of their bedroom and went to the other room to watch a movie. (HT File) The woman, Sukhwinder Kaur of New Subhash Nagar, said she had hired some labourers for a paint job through contractor Raj Kumar. The woman said that her son directed the accused to paint the walls of their bedroom and went to the other room to watch a movie. The accused opened their box bed and stole the cash, she alleged, and added that she was not home at the time of the incident. She found the money missing on opening the box bed in the evening and informed the police. Assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Ravinder Kumar, who is investigating the case, said an FIR under sections 380 and 454 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been lodged against the accused. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted light rain for the national capital on Friday, June 7. This will be accompanied by dust storms or thunderstorms and strong surface winds blowing at speeds of 25 to 35 kmph, occasionally gusty throughout the day. Commuters during light rain in NCR. (File) Partly cloudy sky. Dust storm/thunderstorm with very light rain. Strong surface winds (speed 25-35 kmph) occasionally in gusty during the day, the regional meteorological centre, New Delhi, said in its weather forecast for Friday. The maximum temperature is likely to settle at 43 degrees Celsius and the minimum temperature at 29 degrees Celsius. The weather agency in its latest weather bulletin said, Isolated to scattered very light to light rainfall with thunderstorm, lightning & gusty winds (40-50 kmph) very likely over Punjab, Haryana-Chandigarh-Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan during 06th-07th June, 2024. Duststorm very likely over Punjab, Haryana-Chandigarh-Delhi, Uttar Pradesh on 06th and Rajasthan during 06th-07th June, 2024. Isolated hailstorm very likely over West Rajasthan on 07th June, 2024. Similar cloudy weather is expected on June 8. On June 9, the sky will be clear with gusty winds. From June 10 to June 12, the national capital will experience a partly cloudy sky with strong surface winds. Weather change due to western disturbance The IMD said that the city is experiencing a weather change due to the influence of a new western disturbance. On Thursday night, a strong dust storm swept across several areas of Delhi-NCR. The maximum temperature dropped from 44 degrees Celsius the previous day to 41.2 degrees Celsius, slightly above normal, according to the IMD, providing residents with some relief from the intense heat. According to the IMD bulletin, the minimum temperature settled at 24.6 degrees Celsius, which is three degrees below normal, while the relative humidity fluctuated between 39 per cent and 57 per cent. Safdarjung, the city's primary weather station, recorded a high of 41.2 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, other weather stations in Delhi, such as Najafgarh and Narela, observed maximum temperatures of 44.4 degrees Celsius and 42.8 degrees Celsius, respectively. Aya Nagar recorded a high of 43.2 degrees Celsius, Ridge 40.6 degrees Celsius, and Palam 42.3 degrees Celsius. Delhi water minister Atishi on Friday said the Haryana government was conspiring against Delhi by releasing less water into the Yamuna, depleting water levels in the river over the last five days the latest allegation on the water dispute between the two states. Extreme heatwave in north India has led to depleting water levels in the Yamuna. (Sanchit Khanna/HT) Haryana refuted the charges saying the Delhi government was playing cheap politics over water, and added that the state has been supplying water according to the mutual agreement. The allegations flew from both sides a day after the Supreme Court ordered Himachal Pradesh to release 137 cusecs of surplus water to help Delhi tide over the summer water shortages, emphatically stating that there must be no politics surrounding the issue of water release. Also Read | SC directs Himachal Pradesh to immediately release surplus water to Delhi Atishi said Haryana was deliberately interrupting the water supply the apex court directed Himachal Pradesh to release. ... the Supreme Court is trying to resolve the problem. Haryana is attempting [to ensure] that even if Himachal releases additional water, adequate water should not be available for Delhi. We will put forward this conspiracy before the Supreme Court on Monday, the minister said while inspecting the Wazirabad barrage site which acts as the primary holding area for the water coming via the Yamuna channel. The Delhi government has alleged that the surplus water released by Himachal would not help the city recuperate from the crisis if Haryana slashes its own share as the surplus water takes around 48 hours to reach the Capitals reservoirs. Also Read | Delhis water augmentation plans fail to take off However, Haryana chief minister Nayab Saini said the Delhi government was politicking the issue. They [Delhi government] are getting involved in cheap politics. During a meeting of the Upper Yamuna River Board attended by bureaucrats from the Union government and the two states, Delhi officials accepted that Haryana is giving its share of water. We informed that we also have shortage of water, but if Himachal Pradesh agrees to release water, it will be checked, said Saini. A Haryana government official from irrigation department reiterated Sainis claim, and said the Delhi government is trying to hide its failures by giving a political colour to this issue something the state has been maintaining since the tussle over water supply first came to the fore this season. Water route from Himachal The stretch of the river from its origin at Yamunotri (in Uttarakhand) to Okhla barrage in Delhi is called Upper Yamuna. Of the rivers tributaries, Giri and Pabbar originate and flow in Himachal Pradesh. Flowing through Poanta Sahib, the water reaches the Hathnikund Barrage, manned by Haryana. The river passes along the boundary of Kurukshetra, Karnal, Panipat and Sonipat before entering Delhi and reaching the Wazirabad barrage, managed by Delhi. Atishi said the water level in Yamuna on June 2 was 6,713ft which dropped to 669.7ft on June 7. The water level was going down even as the SC was hearing the matter. When SC directed Himachal to give extra water, Haryana reduced its own quantum being released. We will put forward this date in the court on Monday, she added. The data shared by the minister ssuggested that from June 2 to 7, the water level at Wazirabad was 671.3 ft, 671.2 ft, 671.1 ft, 671 ft, 670.5 ft and 669.7 ft. Water production at record level: DJB data On June 6, the Supreme Court ordered Himachal Pradesh to release 137 cusecs of surplus water available to help curtail the acute water shortage in Delhi. A vacation bench of justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and KV Viswanathan underscored the gravity of the situation, describing it as an existential problem for Delhi, exacerbated by the extreme heat and soaring demands. It pointed out that since Himachal Pradesh has shown willingness to share 137 cusecs of surplus water with Delhi, Haryana must provide the right to passage at the Wazirabad barrage. The bench said water will be released on June 7 with prior intimation to Haryana and the Upper Yamuna River Board shall measure the water for onward supply. ... Haryana shall facilitate the flow of additional water from Hathnikund through Wazirabad..., the court added. To be sure, the daily bulletins issued by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) have pointed out that the water production by the water utility is at record levels. Though the peak summer target is 1,000 million gallons per day (mgd), DJB said that it has supplied over the target over the past five days. According to DJB data, the water production on June 3 was 1,002.61 mgd, 1,002.67 mgd on June 4, 1,004.18 mgd on June 5, 1,003.05 mgd on June 6 and 1,002.89 mgd on June 7, the bulletins said, adding that the nine WTPs are operating above their maximum capacities. After the apex courts directions, Omkar Chand Sharma, additional chief secretary of the Jal Shakti department, Himachal Pradesh, said the state has been releasing water according to the agreements between Delhi and HP. An MoU was signed between DJB and HP in December 2019. Since then, we have been releasing our share of water for Delhi as per agreement. If there is any issue, it is between Delhi and Haryana. Delhi government spokespersons and DJB did not respond to questions on how they plan to treat the additional water procured from Himachal. Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said that Atishi is blaming Haryana government falsely for Delhis water crisis. How long will the minister mislead Delhi residents about the water problem? Delhis water problem is not due to a lack of raw water or purification but because of the wastage caused by the sludge-filled storage ponds, said Sachdeva. New Delhi, As winter gives way to summer every year, Sangam Vihar resident Om Lata fears the worst. HT Image Jostling for space with neighbours often getting into disputes just to secure enough water from the tanker, Lata's struggles find an echo in hundreds of thousands of Delhi residents as the national capital reels from a severe water shortage. As the scorching sun batters Delhi, residents of many areas of the national capital have to contend with not just the extreme heat but also a severe water shortage. Lata, who lives in Sangam Vihar's L Block, emphasised the severity of the shortage, explaining how they have to buy water for everything drinking, cooking and cleaning. She questioned how a family can survive under such conditions. "We struggle with this problem every year. The thought of summer haunts us because we don't have water to drink. Residents fight over water in queues when the tanker arrives as everyone needs water for their families," she said. Highlighting the severity, Lata said, "We don't even throw away the dirty water." Gajendra Pratap, a resident of Geeta Colony, echoes Lata's sentiments. This issue has plagued Delhi for years. The scarcity begins as soon as the summer starts, he said. Despite the Delhi government supplying water through tankers, it is insufficient to meet demand and people often return home empty-handed, he said. "The tanker arrives at 7 am and runs out of water by 7.25 or 7:30 am." With schools shut for summer vacations, Pratap said children are also at home. "Water is needed for everything ... How can anyone manage without water?" People even those who cannot afford food on a regular basis are forced to buy water, he said. Sangam Vihar is one of the areas that have been hit the hardest by the shortage due to its high population density. The dire situation has frustrated many women in L Block and K Second Block. In L Block, women like Lata wait outside their homes for the Delhi Jal Board tanker, jostling with their neighbours away to be the first in line. Sunita, another Sangam Vihar resident, said, "If you need water, you have to buy it. Otherwise, surviving the summer with one or two buckets of water daily is impossible, regardless of whether you have kids at home." A single tanker charges 3,000 and, even after paying, they still have to wait hours for it to arrive. Expressing her frustration that the government is not addressing their plight, Sunita said, "Just think, in this heat, people are getting sick, and we don't even have water to drink." The national capital has been grappling with a water shortage with the Delhi government accusing Haryana of not releasing its share of water. The acute shortage has become an "existential problem" in Delhi, the Supreme Court observed on Thursday and directed the Himachal Pradesh government to release 137 cusecs of surplus water to the national capital and Haryana to facilitate its flow. Earlier on Friday, Delhi Water Minister Atishi visited the Wazirabad barrage to take stock of the situation. She said the shortage will not be solved even if Himachal Pradesh releases water as Haryana has "reduced" the city's share. "Haryana is conspiring against the people of Delhi behind the back of the Supreme Court," she alleged. "The water level of the Yamuna at Wazirabad has come down from 671 feet on June 2 to 669.7 feet on Friday. If the water level falls so low, how will the water treatment plants supply water to the people of Delhi?" she told PTI Videos. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text. The Delhi Police have arrested four people, including a Syrian national, for allegedly selling illicit cancer and lifestyle drugs in the national capital, officers aware of the matter said, adding that they have recovered fake medicines worth an estimated 3.5 crore from two wholesale vendors in the city. Police said that in April, they received a tip that some wholesalers of medicine were allegedly selling fake specimens of drugs such as Opdivo, Revolade, Keytruda. (HT Photo) Deputy commissioner of police (crime branch) Rakesh Paweriya identified the arrested accused as Naveen Arya, 40, Saurabh Garg, 34, Karan Khaneja, 27, and Syrian national Monir Ahmad, 54. Giving details of the case, police said that in April, they received a tip that some wholesalers of medicine were allegedly selling fake specimens of drugs such as Opdivo, Revolade, Keytruda, Erbitux, Ozempic, and Lenvima, among others. The information was developed, and on April 4, two simultaneous raids were conducted at wholesalers at Bhagirath Palace and Daryaganj. An inspector-rank officer, along with officials of the Delhi drugs control department and authorised representatives of the concerned pharmaceutical companies were a part of the raiding party, Paweriya said. The officer said that the team seized imported drugs worth 1.5 crore from Shree Ram International Traders in Bhagirath Palace. The samples were lifted and after a thorough check, it was revealed that the owner of the shop was selling fake and unregistered drugs, Paweriya said. The team conducted another raid on the same day at Tery White Life Care in Daryaganj. During cursory search of the shop, medicine stock worth rupees 2.5 crores were found and when the batch numbers were matched with the manufacturing agency, the team discovered that they were fake as well and were being sold illegally. The recovered medicines were imported and not authorised for sale and distribution in India. Therefore, a case was registered and investigation was taken up, the DCP said. Police said that Arya was arrested from Bhagirath Palace and Garg and Khaneja were arrested from Daryaganj. Police said Aryas call detail records revealed that he was importing medicines using a foreign national. The information was then developed, and the identity of the man was revealed as Monir Ahmad, a resident of Aleppo in Syria, the DCP said, adding that he was arrested in Delhi on May 14. During interrogation, police said, Ahmad revealed that he acts as a courier to supply fake medicines in Turkey, Egypt, and India. He regularly supplies Turkish and Egyptian medicines to India and Indian medicines to Turkey and Egypt, the DCP said, adding that the kingpin of this syndicate is a foreign national operating from Egypt. The case comes hot on the heels of the crime branch arresting 12 people in March from Delhi-NCR in connection with the manufacturing and sale of fake cancer medicines. The accused sold the fake medicines at medical stores across Delhi and in other states, police said. Jaipur: Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) chief and winner of the Nagaur Lok Sabha seat, Hanuman Beniwal, has expressed his disappointment for not being invited to the INDIA bloc meeting in Delhi. Rashtriya Loktantrik Party founder and MP Hanuman Beniwal (File Photo) The Congress-led INDIA bloc on Wednesday held its first meeting after its impressive gains in Lok Sabha election results 2024. RLP is part of the INDIA alliance. In the recently concluded Lok Sabha results, Beniwal won the Nagaur Lok Sabha seat by defeating Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate and former Congress MP Jyoti Mirdha with a margin of 42,225 votes. Out of the total 25 seats, the BJP secured 14, the Congress won eight, and INDIA bloc partners Communist Party of India (Marxist), RLP, and Bharat Adivasi Party won one seat each. Expressing resentment over not being called for the INDIA bloc meeting in Delhi, Beniwal said, The meeting was held twice on June 1 and June 5 in which I was not invited. Why was I not invited? When small parties from the south were invited, why was Hanuman Beniwal not invited? He said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge talked to him over the phone on Thursday and apologised for not inviting him to the meeting. If such a mistake is made, then it is a blunder. Every single MP is needed in the country, and people like Hanuman Beniwal are forgotten. Congress should celebrate that the INDIA bloc has brought 11 seats in Rajasthan, but do we (RLP) not have a role in bringing 11? I got three lakh votes of Congress, but 20 lakh votes of RLP went to Congress, due to which they got so many seats, he said. Beniwal further accused the Congress of breaking his party. He alleged that the Congress party got its leader Ummedaram Beniwal to quit RLP in Barmer and made him the Congress candidate. On one hand, they were talking of alliance with me, and on the other hand, they were breaking my party, he said. He, however, dismissed any rumours of joining the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and affirmed his commitment to remain in the INDIA bloc. Ummedaram Beniwal left RLP and joined Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. He won the Barmer seat, defeating Union minister and BJP candidate Kailash Chaudhary. Hanuman won the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Nagaur as an RLP candidate in alliance with the BJP but left the NDA fold in December 2020 over the farm laws issue. This time, he contested from Nagaur as an INDIA bloc partner. Following Hanumans remarks, senior Congress leader Sachin Pilot expressed optimism about the alliances future. Commenting on the development, Pilot stated, Whoever is in the INDIA bloc is there, and today they remain part of the alliance. I believe that in the coming time, more will join the alliance. After remaining subdued for a few days over partys poll debacle in the state, Uttar Pradesh BJP workers finally recovered on Friday, celebrating the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)s overall victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls even as PM Narendra Modi was unanimously elected NDA leader in Delhi for a third consecutive term. BJP leaders and workers celebrating at the party headquarters in Lucknow on June 7. (HT photo) The initial results from Uttar Pradesh had dampened spirits among party members, leading to a brief period of subdued reactions and introspection. The BJP could win only 33 of 80 LS seats in the state. However, the partys triumph on the national stage, securing 240 seats on its own and 293 with allies paving the way for Modi to lead the country yet again eventually reignited BJP workers and supporters. At the BJP headquarters, the atmosphere transformed into one of joy and celebration as workers gathered to mark the occasion. Sweets were distributed, and fireworks lit up the sky. Partys women workers also participated in the celebrations held at the BJP headquarters and expressed that under Narendra Modis leadership, India will continue on the path of development. Prominent figures such as Lucknow mayor Sushma Kharkwal also joined the celebrations, extending her congratulations to the party members and supporters. The headquarters resonated with chants of Bharat Mata Ki Jai. Among others joining celebrations included partys state general secretary and MLC Govind Narayan Shukla, state general secretary and MLC Anoop Gupta, state vice president Braj Bahadur, party Lucknow metropolitan unit president Anand Dwivedi and MLC Mukesh Sharma. In a democracy, Big Data is emerging as the invisible hand that shapes political narratives and predicts outcomes with a precision that was once the domain of oracles. This was evident in the recent elections when political parties wielded it to orchestrate their strategies and campaigns. But this column is not about politics, rather it is about how Big Data is deployed, what it does to us, and whether we should be concerned by how its used. (Representative Photo) But first, what exactly is Big Data? Imagine an ocean with countless points of information that contains voter preferences, social media interactions, and demographic details. Political parties cast their nets to analyse, understand and predict voter behaviour. All this morphs into campaign strategies. The ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), for example, is a master at this and stormed into power back in 2014 by leveraging Big Data to craft highly targeted campaigns. The Congress party latched on to it much later. The power of Big Data in elections is not confined to India, in the United States, the 2012 Obama campaign famously used Big Data to revolutionize political campaigning. Another significant aspect of Big Datas role in the recent elections was sentiment analysis from social media feeds. Platforms like X, Facebook, and WhatsApp have become critical battlegrounds for shaping public opinion. By analysing the sentiment of millions of social media posts, political parties could gauge the public mood in real-time and adjust strategies dynamically. If a particular policy announcement generated negative reactions, swift corrective measures could be taken to mitigate any potential backlash. This ability to adapt on the fly is reminiscent of a chess grandmaster recalculating strategies several moves ahead after each opponents turn. While this sounds great, the problem with how Big Data is used is that its not just political parties but pretty much any entity that can deploy it to manipulate behaviour and violate privacy. The Cambridge Analytica scandal is a cautionary tale, where personal data harvested from Facebook was used to influence the Brexit referendum and the 2016 US Presidential election. This highlighted how data, when mishandled, could undermine democratic processes. This is why we need data protection laws. The good news is that a law is on its way. Much work has gone into the Digital Data Protection Bill (DPDP). Shwetashree Majumder, Managing Partner at Fidus Law Chambers, thinks its only a matter of time before it is implemented. The DPDP Act was published in the Gazette of India after Presidential Assent on 11th August 2023. However, it is yet to come into force as the rules are yet to be notified and much of the Act is delegated to the rules. She adds, The central government also has to appoint the chairperson and members of The Data Protection Board of India under the Act. The expectation was that this would be done by July 2024, but I suspect that it may get pushed by another month or two. However, people such as Venkatesh Hariharan, a Bengaluru-based public policy analyst, dont sound gung-ho about the Bill. With the DPDP Act, with AI and with Big Data, the key question is how well will the government protect an individuals privacy. The individual is called a Data Principal in the DPDP Act. If individuals have meaningful agency, choice and control over their data, the term becomes meaningful. However, if individuals do not have agency, then we are mere Data Subjects, he says. Very simply put, a principal is someone who owns the data wholly while a subject is a person who does not have complete control over it. When asked to explain where his pessimism comes from, he says the governments intent and ability to enforce laws are weak. He goes on to describe his pessimism, Technology will keep evolving. But will the law keep pace as well? For example, on social media, so many women get rape threats, and there is so much hate speech, but zero enforcement. But hope, we must. If data is indeed the new oil, then it must be extracted like oil, refined, and used responsibly. Only then can it power the engines of democracy and development. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Cr PC were imposed in Manipurs Jiribam district over the alleged killing of a 59-year-old man in the state. (Representative file photo) Deputy Commissioner (DC) Krishna Kumar of Jiribam district issued an order in this regard on Thursday. The deceased, identified as Soibam Saratkumar Singh (59) of Sorok Atingbi Khunou of Jiribam, went missing after he had gone to his farm on Thursday morning. Also Read: Manipur banker, accused of looting 2 cr, held in Delhi: Police Later his body was found with wounds in the evening during a search by security forces. Meanwhile, a case has been registered in connection with the alleged killing to take up necessary steps, police said. Following the incident, irate locals staged a protest in front of Jiribam police station demanding justice. In view of the development, the DC, Jiribam directed the district Superintendent of Police to utilise the security forces available in the district in such a manner to avoid any unwanted incidents. SP Jiribam also asked to coordinate with his Tamenglong district counterpart to maintain the law & order in the neighbouring areas of Jiribam and Tamenglong. The DC also appealed to people to maintain peace in the region. While the district administration has promulgated a public curfew prohibiting the movement of all persons outside their respective residences, it is also trying to help all persons in need during these trying times, it said. Alamir Alam, who was arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) last month in connection with a money laundering case, has now been rendered a minister without portfolios, and Jharkhand chief minister Champai Soren will now be heading the portfolios allotted to the Congress leader, top officials in the state government said on Friday. All these four departments have been with Alam in the previous Hemant Soren and incumbent Champai Soren cabinets. (PTI) The department of cabinet secretariat and vigilance on Friday issued a notification, allotting the four departments headed by Alam to the chief minister. The notification was issued after approval from the Governor. Besides other departments already allotted to him, the Chief Minister would now also hold the four departments headed by Alam, including Parliamentary Affairs, Rural Development, Rural Works, and Panchayati Raj, a senior official aware of the development said. Top officials said the chief minister decided to take away the portfolios as work in these departments after the Election Commission lifted the model code on June 6 would be affected. All these four departments have been with Alam in the previous Hemant Soren and incumbent Champai Soren cabinets. The ED arrested Alam on May 15 on money laundering charges, days after the agency recovered 35 crore from the house of his personal secretarys domestic help. The ED raided the premises in connection with an alleged tender scam in the rural development department. Alam, also the leader of the Congress Legislature Party, was arrested after being questioned by the central agency in connection with the cash seizure. The minister, currently in judicial custody, is yet to resign as minister. Jharkhand Congress in-charge Ghulam Ahmed Mir told HT last week that the party would take a call on Alams resignation after the conclusion of the Lok Sabha election process. Jujutsu Kaisen fans are experiencing all the highs and lows as the Mangas Shinjuku Showdown Arc is just around the corner. The fight to take down the King of curses, Sukuna has stretched over a year but the villain remains undefeated. Fans of the popular Manga had also endured numerous deaths including those of their favourite characters in this period like Gojo. Gege Akutami apologises to his fans. Read to know more Also Read: Jujutsu Kaisen Chapter 262 spoilers: Major plot bomber you can expect Gege Akutami apologises to JJK fans This week fans got disheartened again with the announcement of the release of the new chapter of their favourite manga. Chapter 262 was supposed to be released this week but was not released as the creators took their regular week-long break while writing mangas. However, now the manga has taken a two-week hiatus and Gege Akutami apologises to Jujutsu Kaisen fans for this sudden decision. The series is going on a two-week hiatus because of the declining health of the mangas creator Gege Akutami. The news disappointed fans waiting for the next chapter for obvious reasons. Following the two-week hiatus news, Akutami, unable to release the next chapter for his audience, apologised through a comment on social media. According to Dexerto, a popular JJK fan page translated his comment, which read I got sick and have been having weird symptoms. Sorry for all the trouble Ive been causing. Akutamis sudden illness shocked his fans. Also Read: Blue Lock Chapter 265: Exact release date, time, where to read and more Netizens show support and concern for Akutami Upon the sudden news of Akutamis illness, netizens took to social media platforms to show their support for the manga writer. The fans of manga wrote kind words for the writer and wished him a speedy recovery. One X user showed concern and wrote Praying for a speedy recovery for GOAT Gege. Hopefully it doesnt get too serious. A second user wrote Get well gege. Another X user wrote Hope he takes a rest and know that its alright, Get well soon. Praying for a quick recovery, while another wrote Why do Japanese people apologize when they are sick? Its not their fault anyway, pressure? Kangana Ranaut's slap incident at the Chandigarh airport is getting all kinds of diverse reactions from politicians, Bollywood artists and common citizens. Raveena Tandon recently took to her Twitter handle to post about violence hooliganism in society. She also pointed out at women achievers being disparaged for their fame. (Also read: Nakuul Mehta invites Kangana Ranaut fans' ire as he asks 'who will play lead role in CISF woman's biopic?') Raveena Tandon called for unity against violence post Kangana Ranaut's slap incident. Raveena Tandon urges unity against hooliganism Raveena tweeted, In a world where public scrutiny is relentless, it is essential to remember that women achievers are human too. Disparaging them solely for their fame is unfair and harmful. This increasing violence against women and children world over needs to be addressed urgently. She also shared a note of the same quote on her handle. The actor further opined, Its time we stand united against violence and hooliganism. Kangana Ranaut condemned mob attack on Raveena For the unversed, a few days ago, Raveena was attacked by a mob in a road rage incident. Kangana had come forward in her support at that time. She took to her Instagram stories and wrote, What happened to Raveena Tandon ji is absolutely alarming; had there been 5-6 more people in the opposite group, she would have been lynched; we condemn such road rage outbursts; those people must be reprimanded. They must not get away with such violent and poisonous behaviour. Kangana Ranaut's airport incident and political innings Kangana was attacked by a CISF constable named Kulwinder Kaur at the Chandigarh airport on Thursday, June 6. The actor-turned politician was heading to Delhi post her electoral victory in Lok Sabha Election 2024. She had defeated her opponent Congress leader Vikramaditya Singh by 74,755 votes in Mandi. She secured 537,002 votes against 462,267 votes polled to Vikramaditya. The four-times national award winner was declared the BJP candidate from Mandi in March 2024. Kangana Ranaut's upcoming project Kangana will be next seen in her directorial Emergency produced by her home banner - Manikarnika Films. She is playing the character of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the political-drama. Nag Ashwins Kalki 2898 AD with Prabhas, Deepika Padukone, Amitabh Bachchan and Kamal Haasan in the lead roles will be released on June 27. On June 10, the sci-fi films trailer will be released. Amitabh took to X (formerly Twitter) on Friday to share a new poster of his from Kalki 2898 AD. (Also Read: Prabhas on the high budget of Kalki 2898 AD: 'The whole film is made for international audiences) Amitabh Bachchan plays Ashwatthama in Kalki 2898 AD. In the company of greats A new poster of Amitabh as Ashwatthama was released on Friday. The actor looks battle-ready, holding a weapon, with the divine gem flashing on his forehead. He is seen standing in the middle of a battlefield with wounded men on the ground around him. Theres also a massive vehicle behind him which looks intriguing. Amitabh shared his excitement for the trailer by sharing the poster on X, writing, Waiting yes for this great honour of being in the company of GREATS!! His wait is ending3 days to go for #Kalki2898AD Trailer, out on June 10th. Amitabh as Ashwatthama Amitabh plays Ashwatthama in the sci-fi film. His character was unveiled through a projection at Nemawar, Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh, earlier this year. The event took place there because its still believed Ashwatthama walks the grounds of Narmada. Nag also released a video introducing his character in the film. He's shown as someone waiting for the Kalki avatar. Since then, Amitabh has shared his excitement about playing the character multiple times. About Kalki 2898 AD Kalki 2898 AD is a sci-fi film based on Indian mythology. The film also stars Disha Patani and is produced by Vyjayanthi Movies. Apart from Telugu, the film will release in all south Indian languages and Hindi. Recently, the makers released an animated prelude called Bujji and Bhairava on Amazon Prime Video, which sets up the world Prabhas Bhairava and his robotic AI sidekick Bujji, voiced by Keerthy Suresh, reside in. A grand event is being planned in Mumbai for the trailer launch. The makers are reportedly also planning events in Delhi and Andhra Pradesh to promote the film. Recently, Yash, Ram Charan, Allu Arjun and a few other stars received merchandise based on Bujji from the films team. The prelude also announced that Nag is launching a Kalki Cinematic Universe, making fans curious to know what else is in store. Actor-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut has released a fresh statement on Thursday evening's slapping incident at the Chandigarh airport. During the security check, a female CISF officer slapped Kangana, for her comments about the farmers' protests a couple years ago. Kangana released a video after the incident, assuring her followers that she was alright and unharmed. Now, the actor has shared another post on Instagram Stories about the incident. (Also read: Kangana Ranaut slapped: Devoleena Bhattacharjee strongly condemns act, calls it nothing less than a security threat) Kangana Ranaut was slapped by a CISF officer at the Chandigarh airport.(PTI) Kangana's new response Reposting a tweet that suggested that the CISF officer's act might be politically motivated, Kangana wrote, This makes most sense to me. She strategically waited for me to cross her and in signature Khalistani style, quitely came from behind and hit my face without saying a word. When I asked why she did that, she looked away and started to speak to the phone cameras focused on her (as can be seen in her videos), hogging sudden public attention. Farmers Laws have been repealed and they don't concern anyone anymore probably this was her way of joining Khalistani bandwagon which is getting major political seats in Punjab. Kangana Ranaut's Instagram post. Kangana Ranaut was slapped by a CISF constable while she was headed to Delhi to attend a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), scheduled for tomorrow. What's the update on the incident? Taking cognizance of the incident Chandigarh Superintendent of Police (Detective) KS Sandhu arrived at Chandigarh airport and held a meeting with a CISF officer regarding the Kangana Ranaut incident. "CISF Commandant has called me, I am going to the airport for investigation. I will Commandant CISF and let you know," KS Sandhu said. Meanwhile, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini asserted that action will be taken against the accused. "An investigation is underway and action will be taken against the accused. It is sad that a person involved in the security is involved in this. Whatever happened was wrong," Haryana CM said. After the incident, Ranaut took to her social media account and asked how growing "extremism" and "terrorism" can be ended in Punjab. "I am safe. I am perfectly fine. The incident took place during the security check. After I was done with the security check, a woman constable of the CISF waited for me to pass through the cabin. Later, she came from the side, hit me in the face and started abusing me", Ranaut said in a post on 'X'. "When I asked her why she did this, she told me that she (CISF official) had supported the farmers' protest. My (Kangana) question is how we end growing extremism and terrorism in Punjab", the BJP leader added. Meanwhile, the CISF constable said that her mother was among the farmers holding a sit-in protest against the farm laws, which now have been repealed. "She stated that the farmers are sitting there for 100. Will she go and sit there? My mother was sitting there and protesting when she gave this statement..." she said. The 15-month-long farmers' protest was held against the farm laws (now repealed) including other issues. Kangana Ranaut was slapped by a CISF personnel at Chandigarh airport on Thursday, after which she also released a statement on her social media stating that she is safe. Now actor Devoleena Bhattacharjee, who played Gopi in Saath Nibhana Saathiya, has reacted to the incident in a new post on her X account. She condemned the act and said that it represents a severe breach of public trust and security protocols. (Also read: Kangana Ranaut reacts to getting slapped by CISF personnel at Chandigarh airport: I am safe but) Devoleena Bhattacharjee has reacted to the incident involving Kangana Ranaut getting slapped. What Devoleena said In a new X post, Devoleena said, It is deeply troubling to learn about the incident involving Kangana Ranaut and a CISF officer during a security check-in. Such actions represent a severe breach of public trust and security protocols. A duty-bound officer should never allow personal grudges to interfere with their professional responsibilities. This incident raises significant concerns about the safety and security of every citizen when personal vendettas are acted upon in such a manner. She continued, Supporting the actions of this CISF officer means justifying a crime and spreading unnecessary hatred. It is crucial to remember that endorsing such behavior sets a dangerous precedent, potentially allowing others to take personal revenge under the guise of authority. We must collectively condemn this act and ensure that those in positions of power are held accountable. The actor also said, I urge everyone to consider how they would feel if a similar incident were to happen to their loved ones. This isn't just about one individual, but the standards of conduct we expect from those entrusted with our safety. Let's stand for justice, impartiality, and a system where personal biases have no place in our security forces. In a separate post, she wrote, It is not just a slap. Its a matter of Indian security. It can be more dangerous than one can think of. Nothing less than a security threat , should be dealt like one. More details Earlier on Thursday, Hindustan Times reported that Kangana was slapped at a security check for pushing the security personnel after refusing to put her phone in the tray. Kangana left for Delhi from Mandi at 3 PM by a Vistara flight. She released a statement via a video message where she said, I am safe, but my concern is, how will you handle the terrorism and extremism growing in Punjab? Thank you. The actor-politician won the Lok Sabha elections for Mandi in Himachal Pradesh. She defeated Congress rival Vikramaditya Singh for the seat. Kiara Advani has often spoken about her friendship with Mukesh Ambani's daughter Isha Ambani. The actor knows Isha since school days and the duo has been close friends since then. Kiara took to her Instagram handle and posted a stunning picture with Isha. (Also read: Kiara Advani turns heads in pink and black gown as she attends a gala dinner in Cannes) Kiara Advani recently shared a picture with her close friend Isha Ambani. Kiara Advani-Isha Ambani set fashion goals In the photo, Isha and Kiara can be seen holding hands while turning backwards. Both looked glamorous n their gowns in the shot. Isha wore an orange backless gown while smiling at the camera. She completed her look with huge earrings as she kept her hair loose. Kiara, on the other hand looked captivating in her black backless gown paired with green earrings. She can be seen holding a black purse as well as she looked happy posing with her childhood friend. The Satyapem Ki Katha actor captioned her post with "(two friends, heart and back emojis)." A fan commented, She's the prettiest actress right now U can't convince me otherwise!! Another user wrote, Gorgeous has other name, name is Kiara Advani (heart emoji). A fan also wrote, The most beautiful women (fire emoji). A user also commented, prettyyy prettyyy besties (teary eyes and heart emojis). Kiara and her actor husband Sidharth Malhotra recently attended Anant Ambani-Radhika Merchant's pre-wedding Italy cruise bash. Kiara, Sidharth and many other Bollywood celebrities were spotted at the party. About Kiara Advani Kiara made her Bollywood debut with Fugly. However, she shot to fame with films like MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, Lust Stories, Kabir Singh and Good Newwz. She later received appreaciation for her work in Shershaah, Jugjugg Jeeyo and Satyaprem Ki Katha. Kiara Advani's upcoming projects Kiara's next release will be Shakar's action-thriller Game Changer starring Ram Charan in the lead role. The film also stars Srikanth, Anjali, S. J. Suryah, Jayaram, Sunil, Samuthirakani and Nassar. She is paired opposite Hrithik Roshan in YRF's War 2 as well. New Delhi, "Authoritarians" are unfortunately a global phenomenon and perhaps why "The Boys" has appealed to audiences, says creator Eric Kripke whose show is set in a fantasy world but tackles real life issues such as corruption and the consequences of unchecked power. Anyone who says we're saving you is lying: Eric Kripke on superhero genre bender 'The Boys' Beware of authoritarians! The message comes through loud and clear in the show, where superheroes, known as "Supes", are popular and idolised but, unlike the traditional depiction of them as all good, are corrupt, selfish to the core and morally compromised. "I think people really get the message of beware anyone who says they're trying to save you because they're probably lying. I think the characters are dealing with really human universal things that I think just translate around the world," Kripke told PTI in a virtual interview. The satire, which redefines the superhero genre with its over-the-top violence and nudity, returns with its fourth season on June 13 on Prime Video. "I find the reaction has been amazing and people, in India and everywhere, really get what we're trying to say. We're reacting a lot to US politics but I think the notion of authoritarians and 'Hey, maybe you shouldn't trust authoritarian so much' is sort of unfortunately a worldwide phenomenon," the creator said. Based on The New York Times bestselling comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, "The Boys" follows the eponymous team of vigilantes, led by Bill Butcher as they combat super-powered individuals, especially the unhinged, egotistical and sadistic leader Homelander, played by Antony Starr. Ever since its premiere on Prime Video in 2019, the show has received immense praise from critics and viewers for the way it tackles real world issues, including power, corruption, celebrity culture and the consequences of unchecked authority. The fantasy genre, according to Kripke, allows storytellers to comment on reality and hold a mirror up to it. "People can view it just with a little bit of separation and think about it in a different way. In 'The Boys', we have a society that's completely fragmenting, but they're fragmenting in people who support Homelander and people who support Starlight . "We take a real world event, but we supify it . We add in people who can shoot lasers from their eyes and fly, but otherwise it's pretty much a real phenomenon," he said. This way, the writers can talk about things in a "subversive way", Kripke, the brains behind the show, added. "If I was just making a straight ahead drama, I wouldn't be able to get away with it because it would be too earnest." The characters in "The Boys" come in all shades of greys such as Urban's Butcher, whose aim is to vanquish superheroes at any cost. He is the counterfoil to Starr's Homelander, a kind of prejudice-fuelled public figure who is also the epitome of greed, narcissism and corruption. Despite their negative traits, Butcher and Homelander are the two most popular characters from the show with fans rooting for them each season. Decoding the popularity of Butcher, Kripke said it comes from audiences' love for the vigilante genre. "I think we're trying to deconstruct that a little bit and say that behind a vigilante is someone who is very broken. If you're an action hero, chances are that you're a pretty messed up dude in reality." But if someone believes that Homelander is a good guy, then Kripke has some advice for them. "The people who seem to sympathise with Homelander, I don't know what to say to those people. This show is many things, subtle is not one of them. If you genuinely think Homelander's the good guy, my only message would be to seek professional help," he said. As far as the response to the show is concerned, Kripke said the team does "pay attention" to all kinds of reactions from fans. "We pay attention. I mean, I'd be lying if I said I'm not on social media when the episodes air and sort of obsessively reading what people think. I've learned over the years to not try to obsess over the one person who really hates what you're doing. But when you find like 300 people all have the same problem, you start paying attention to that problem," he added. Another element that makes "The Boys" stand apart from the rest of the movies and shows in the superhero space is the graphic violence. According to Kripke, the violence and gore is mostly to make people realise what the reality would be if superheroes existed in society. "A lot of this extreme violence to be fair came from the original comic books written by Garth Ennis. They're very, very graphic and to be honest, they make our show look conservative by comparison. They're insane and so part of it is that, and part of it is just the truth that if you had superpowers in the real world then you would be making a horrific mess of regular humans... We're trying to make that point as well." "The Boys" also stars Jack Quaid, Erin Moriarty, Jessie T Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capone, Karen Fukuhara, Colby Minifie, Claudia Doumit and Cameron Crovetti. Susan Heyward, Valorie Curry and Jeffrey Dean Morgan are the newcomers for the upcoming instalment. The fourth season of the superhero series will premiere with its first three episodes on June 13, the rest will drop weekly. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text. Kai Cenat lashed out at his viewers over them being too invested in his friendship with fellow Twitch streamer BruceDropEmOff and asked to stop. Kai Cenat has sparked a conversation about the relationship between Twitch and its top streamers. (Image Credit: Twitch) The story of Twitch streamers Kai Cenat and BruceDropEmOff has always been intertwined and filled with drama. For some time, the two broadcasters do not speak to each other, yet viewers expect a reunion of these two. Kai Cenat took to his stream on June 5th to address his viewers meddling in his personal affairs by saying as far as they were concerned, they were too invested in it. I dont talk about certain situations, because in my real life, I went through it, and I made the smart decision on making my circle the way its supposed to be. You guys are too invested, and its crazy, Kai stated. Its so bad. Its actually bad, Im not gonna lie, bro. We got to work this year, Ive got so much that Ive gotta do. Please, just stop. Its so bad, bro. Its actually forced. I havent spoken on the situation since I spoke on the situation. Let that sink in. Its bad. I dont force anything, bro. ALSO READ| Internet comedian accuses Twitch star Kai Cenat of copying his Hunger Games-type show idea Kai Cenat fires back after BruceDropEmOff's apology Kai's reaction follows an apology from BruceDropEmOff, who expressed regret for the conflict between them during his return to Twitch from Kick. Bruce acknowledged, I kinda miss what we had. As Black men, were supposed to be together. Im fed up, chat. Ill take that sh*t on the chin, any f**king day. The rift between Kai Cenat and BruceDropEmOff began in the summer of 2023 when Bruce left Twitch to join Kick. Their relationship deteriorated further when Kai revealed in a live stream, The root of the problem was, and it broke my heart bro. Bruce said that we were never friends and the only time I called him up or quote unquote used him was for content. In October of the same year, leaked DMs allegedly from Bruce surfaced on social media, where he disparaged Kai and his creative endeavours: Now f**k wanna go into acting like they aint been acting. on GOD, Im not watching that sh*t. ALSO READ| Twitch star Kai Cenat flies to Taiwan for this emotional event After seeing the DMs live stream Kai urged Bruce to go to therapy. I dont want to do s**t with you no more, I dont want to be associated with you no more, I dont give a f**k what you got going on. Because it is too dangerous to have a n***s like that in my circle. One day smiling, next time you in your phone gossiping to your top mods. DJ Alex Pall of the American music duo The Chainsmokers would like to collaborate with actor Ram Charan someday. Talking to Raj Shamani on his podcast, the American DJ was clear that he wanted to collaborate with the hot dude from RRR. (Also Read: Pawan Kalyan touches Chiranjeevi's feet; celebrates political win with Ram Charan, Varun Tej. Watch) Alex Pall would like to collaborate with Ram Charan some day. Alex Pall on Ram Charan When Raj asked Alex who his dream Indian artiste is for a collaboration, Alex wasnt forthcoming. He said whomever he collaborates with; he wants it to be a proper fusion of two worlds, something thats not for the sake of it. He also said he doesnt want to do it just to make more fans in India because music is sacred. But when asked if there was a Bollywood actor he would like to work with, Alex was quick to answer. While not recollecting Rams name, he said, Who is that guy in RRR who is like that hot dude? When the host points out that both Ram and Jr NTR have a massive fan following, Alex says, The less goofy one, the more military one. I want to collaborate with him; the whole movie was unbelievable. In RRR Ram played Sitaramaraju, an Indian Imperial police officer. The Chainsmokers' love for Bollywood Alex also shared his love for Bollywood cinema on the podcast, talking about how when he was on a plane and a passenger in the seat in front of him was watching a Bollywood movie, he was entranced by the dancing, scenes, colours and choreography. This is not the first time Alex or Andrew Taggart, the other half of The Chainsmokers have spoken about their love for Indian movies and artistes. In 2017 they told Hindustan Times, We want to act with Priyanka Chopra now. We have already done a song [together], so now we want to act in a Bollywood movie with her! We were supposed to meet Shah Rukh Khan in Mumbai, but because of the schedule everything got messed. Hell yeah! We're interested in Bollywood. Upcoming work After SS Rajamoulis RRR, Ram is currently working with Shankar on a film called Game Changer. The film, which will also feature Kiara Advani in the lead role, will be released in September this year. The actor has also given his nod to a film with director Buchi Babu Sana of Uppena fame, apart from a movie by Sukumar. Its a happy tear In a video shared by the media house, a producer can be heard prompting Quinta to ask Jennifer what its like to watch Friends in 2024. Jennifer asks Quinta not to make her cry, but the latter notices that shes already crying and asks if she needs a minute or if she doesnt want to discuss it at all. Do you want a minute? We dont have to talk about says Quinta to which Jennifer responds, No, no. Sorry. I just started thinking aboutYeah, no. Im okay. Its a happy tear, seemingly remembering her friend Matthew Perry. After getting her bearings, Jennifer says its strange to even think about the show being 30 years old. She also said that she appreciated the sitcom's long legacy. The fact that its had this long, wonderful life and it still means a lot to people is one of the greatest gifts I think all five of us all six of us we never could imagine. I talked on FaceTime with Courteney (Cox) last night for an hour, and Lisa (Kudrow) and the boys, and we just have a really its a family forever. Fans react A fan shared the video of Jennifer getting emotional on X (formerly Twitter), writing, I wasn't ready to see something like this... with broken heart emojis. Fans were not happy with the line of questioning, with one commenting, Whats it like watching something you made with your bestfriends, since one of your best friends recently died? Is insanely unnecessary. Another wrote, i feel so bad for jennifer, why would they ask her that question though? One commented, this was so weird for them to ask this About Friends Friends is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman. The show revolves around six friends in their 20s and 30s played by Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer. All the cast members returned for Friends: The Reunion in 2021 to discuss the show. Matthew, who played Chandler Bing in the show, passed away in October 2023. He was found unresponsive in a hot tub at his home in Los Angeles. In May 2024, an investigation was opened by the Los Angeles Police Department to determine how Perry obtained the high dose of ketamine that caused his death. Farida Jalal is known for playing versatile roles in many films and television shows. The veteran actor was recently seen in a crucial role in Heeramandi. Farida, in an interview with India Today, she reacted to the criticism faced by co-star Sharmin Segal over her performance in the series. (Also read: Richa Chadha defends Heeramandi co-star Sharmin Segal amid heavy trolling for her performance) Farida Jalal has reacted to Sharmin Segal getting trolled for her performance in Heeramandi. Farida Jalal says Sharmin Segal did her best in Heeramandi The Heeramandi actor, during her interaction, expressed her views over Sharmin being trolled. I know, I am not happy about this. Be kind. What her capacity as an actor is, she has done her best. I dont feel the character needs to be very boisterous and loud, the role was not like that. She further said, What were you expecting? Yes, what you thought you needed Its ok, why should we be mean to the girl? Be kind, maybe thats her capacity, just that much. I dont think the real role was boisterous, it wasnt. She is a shayara, she falls in love with my bacchha (Taha Shahs character) and thats it. Heeramandi team defends Sharmin Segal For the unversed, Sharmin faced criticism from a section of cinephiles who were disappointed by her performance in Heeramandi. The actor was called expressionless and wrong choice for the role. Many social emdia users also pointed out that Aditi instead of Sharmin should have played Alamzeb. Aditi, in interview with Puja Talwar was asked if it's unfair to pick on Sharmin over her performance. The actor replied, 100%. It's horrible to pick on anybody. I know some people like something and some people don't. There is a way to say it. It can get very mean. It has gotten very mean and I think it's not fair and it shouldn't happen like that. I don't know what else to say but I do feel bad. I think we should all understand it and be there for each other. Richa Chadha and Shekhar Suman also came in support of the actor. While Adhyayan Suman took a neutral position and said it's important to accept any sort of reality and not live in a bubble. While interacting with Bollywood Hungama he adviced Sharmin to come forward and speak to people for the feedback. About Heeramandi Heeramandi's title is derived from the red-light district of Heeramandi in Lahore (present-day Pakistan) in pre-partition India. The story is set in the backdrop of Indian independence revolution of the 1920s-1940s amid the power tussle between courtesans of Lahore, Nawabs and British officers. The epic series is Sanjay Leela Bhansali's OTT debut. It also features Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Richa Chadha, Shekhar Suman, Adhyayan Suman, Fardeen Khan and others in crucial roles. Heeramandi is available for streaming on Netflix. The show has been officially renewed for the second season. In Rajasthan's unorganised sector, workers in the stone quarrying/crushing/cutting/polishing industry endure physically demanding labor amid extreme temperatures, excessive noise levels, poor housing conditions and meagre wages, placing them at heightened risk of dust-related occupational lung diseases. These workers face daunting health risks like silicosis due to insufficient protections and have no access to social security measures. As awareness of silicosis grew, native Rajasthani laborers have increasingly opted out of the sector and migrant workers, often from the landless and lower caste communities of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal stepped in to fill the labor gap. These migrants, out of economic necessity are often pushed to overlook health risks associated with the sector. A close interaction with the ground reality, called for urgent action to ensure safety, health care and social security access of the migrant workers and to address labor rights violations in Rajasthan's stone crushing sector through comprehensive interventions. Stone crushing unit (HT FILE) The stone-related industries in Rajasthan are centuries old, reflecting the region's deep-rooted dependence on stone for construction, evident in both historical monuments like forts and contemporary architecture. This reliance extends to rural and urban areas, with Rajasthan being a significant exporter to both domestic and international markets, holding 30% of the country's Rs.60,000 crore stone industry. Through the passage of time and on demand of the market, along with the stone mining industry stone crushing units have also been set up adjoining major cities of Rajasthan. Beawar, which was previously part of Ajmer district and became a new district in 2023 is one such location. Although people from the rural blocks of Beawar like that of Masuda had been migrating to Dabi in Bundi district and to Bijolia in Bhilwara district for sand stone cutting work since the last two generations, the development of stone crushing units flanking the Kishangarh-Beawar highway is a relatively new phenomenon. The stone crushing industry in Beawar is twenty years old and it supplies raw materials to the ceramic industry in Morbi, Gujarat for making sanitary items, like wash basins, bathtubs, cisterns etc. Silicosis is a prevalent affliction among laborers in these areas of work. Silicosis is a prevalent occupational lung disease worldwide, primarily affecting workers exposed to silica dust in jobs such as construction and mining. It stems from inhaling silica particles, commonly found in sand, quartz, feldspar rocks. Activities like cutting, breaking, crushing, drilling, polishing, grinding, or abrasive blasting of these materials generate fine silica dust, leading to its deposition in the lungs. Unfortunately, there is no cure for silicosis as lung damage is irreversible. Treatment focuses on managing symptoms and slowing disease progression. In Beawar, Rajasthan awareness and history of deaths from silicosis has led locals to withdraw from this work and these jobs are being taken up by inter-state migrant workers. Currently, the 1,600 small stone crushing units, within which only 100 are registered, rely on migrant labor from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, and West Bengal. These workers face limited access to social security measures in Rajasthan due to their non-local status and not possessing the Jan Aadhar card; further their roles in these units increase their exposure to silicosis. Rajasthan has the largest yearly incidence of silicosis cases in India, which is mostly related to sandstone mining. Since 2009, the state's silicosis prevalence has received more attention due to greater awareness. In that year, the National Human Rights Commission reported 22 deaths and 52 cases; between 2012 and 2014, there were over 800 cases and 57 deaths. As Rajasthani workers became more aware of the health risks linked to prolonged exposure to stone dust many opted to leave the stone industry. In Beawar when native Rajasthani labourers choose to remain in the stone crushing sector, they make sure to secure lucrative roles, like "loading" jobs, which pays them 1,000-1,200/per day for three to four hours of engagement. Additionally, Rajasthani labourers from Pali, Bharatpur, Rajasamand avoid the difficult summer time and work in this job role only for the two to three cooler months of the year, when they do not have agricultural engagements. In contrast, inter-state migrants are engaged in these units throughout the year and only return to their source location on occasion of marriage, death, births and festivals. These workers who are mainly landless or small farmers belong to the marginalised Scheduled Caste (SC) and other backward castes (OBC) community and lack livelihood options in their source locations. Consequently, out of economic necessity and limited options these migrant labourers, some unaware, others knowingly opt for job roles with greater dust exposure and lower pay, which unintentionally makes them more susceptible to respiratory infections, other related health problems and silicosis. For example, women migrants in the stone crushing units work in the role of stone loaders largely, which pays them 250 per day. Whereas, migrant men or sometimes a migrant couple together are engaged in the role of sack fillers who have to fill the crushed stone powder into sacks and seal them by stitching. This job role pays them 700-800, for 12-hour long exposure to stone dust. These inter-state migrants are also not very keen about joining labour unions, as unions rally for entitlements that are not applicable to migrant workers. Furthermore, their dependency on the factory owners for housing, job security and survival in a new city make them hesitant about joining unions. After working in the stone crushing industry, migrant workers encounter more difficulties when they return to their hometowns or places of origin. Even if they have silicosis from their time working in the stone crushing units, it is difficult to properly diagnose the illness when they return. The diagnosis of silicosis is challenging, made more so by the general lack of knowledge about the illness. Doctors have become somewhat acquainted with silicosis in areas such as Rajasthan. However, in states with less exposure to mining-related health hazards, such as Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh, health care professionals often lack the promptness to recognise and accurately diagnose silicosis. The Rajasthan government has identified the seriousness of Silicosis and has implemented measures to facilitate early diagnosis and provide assistance schemes for affected families. However, migrant workers remain out of the purview of such schemes. The Chiranjeevi Health Insurance Scheme, introduced by the government of Rajasthan, offers cashless medical insurance of up to Rs. 5 Lakh to all families in the state. However, due to non-resident status migrant workers find themselves excluded from the scheme's purview which leaves them vulnerable to medical expenses when they fall ill. This omission highlights the scheme's restriction, which covers only Rajasthani citizens, creating a gap in the state's health care system for inter-state migrant workers. The country's first state to adopt a silicosis policy for the welfare of mining workers is Rajasthan. The Pneumoconiosis Policy-2019 was introduced by the state government with the intention of offering vital assistance to those suffering from silicosis. A lump sum help of 3 lakh, a monthly assistance of 1,500, and other benefits are provided under this policy. However, there are various concerns regarding the implementation of this policy. Out of almost 2,200 recorded cases of silicosis deaths, just 365 families, or 16.6%, have got aid, according to a state government portal that gives a district-wise summary of these cases. For patients who are still receiving treatment, the shortcoming is much more apparent since they are eligible for a monthly pension and a payout of 3 lakh. Only 1,333, or 1.5%, of the almost 86,000 patients who registered had received the assistance. During a field visit to Beawar District, the research team from Policy and Development Advisory Group engaged with workers to gain insights into their experiences. One such interaction was with Riyasa Khatun (names have been changed to ensure anonymity), a migrant from Bihar who relocated to Rajasthan with her family, when her father, who was landless could no longer sustain the family by working as a cotton carder (known as dhunuri or lepwallah) in Kolkata and there was a dire need to gather money for his elder daughters dowry. Riyasa, who started working in the stone crushing units of Beawar from the age of 11 and is now married to a local truck driver, expressed concerns about her father's declining health. When asked about silicosis, Riyana was unfamiliar with it and she responded: I have not heard of this disease. If you eat a banana, chickpea or jaggery after you come back from the factory, your stomach gets clean and you wont have any problems after inhaling dust. Another couple, Kamal and Nandini from Madhya Pradesh and belonged to the OBC community shared their challenges as migrant workers in Rajasthan. They highlighted the difficulty in securing safer job roles that minimize exposure to silica particles, such as loading, which is predominantly occupied by local workers. When asked about how they prevent themselves from being exposed to the deadly disease, they replied, We buy masks to cover our face. We dont buy the cheap ones that retail for 10, We spend 300 on buying a good mask which will do some benefit. We also cover our face with a scarf over it. It is suffocating and difficult, but now we are used to it because it's important. For a state so rich in minerals, little is being done to protect the workers who put their lives at stake and in turn, keep the states economy running. The plight of workers in Rajasthan's stone crushing industry, underscores the urgent need for comprehensive interventions to address the prevalence of silicosis. The precarious working circumstances, no measures for protective gear, restricted access to social security and healthcare, further increased the vulnerability of migrant workers from other states. The stone crushing units in Beawar being unregistered, further becomes a geography for labour rights violation. Addressing these challenges requires a focus on occupational safety and health (OSH) measures to ensure a safer working environment for all workers involved in the stone crushing industry. The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020 consolidates 13 existing Acts pertaining to health, safety, and working conditions, including the Factories Act, Mines Act, and Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act. Under it employers are mandated to provide a hazard-free workplace, offer annual health examinations, and report accidents resulting in death or serious injury. However, most of these stone crushing industries are unregistered and thus do not comply by the necessary standards set. OSH measures could include implementing proper ventilation systems and technological advancement in the machinery to reduce exposure to harmful dust containing silica particles, providing personal protective equipment such as respirators and goggles, and conducting regular health screenings for early detection of occupational diseases like silicosis. Additionally, comprehensive training programmes on OSH practices and hazards awareness should be implemented to empower workers to identify and mitigate risks in their workplace. Government initiatives like the Pneumoconiosis Policy-2019, which attempts to support those suffering from silicosis, have made some progress, but there are still a number of serious gaps and loopholes. Migrant workers' exclusion from health care programmes like the Chiranjeevi Health Insurance Scheme is another example of this lack of assistance and aid. There is a need for provisions to be implemented to ensure inclusion of migrant workers in policies and schemes surrounding Silicosis. There is also a need for regular health checkups through setting up pneumoconiosis boards (to deal with respiratory disorders among workers). It is clear from talking to workers on the ground that there is still a lack of knowledge regarding silicosis and preventive measures. Despite efforts to protect themselves with masks and scarves, the difficulties persist, underlining the need for robust mechanisms from the administration, focused education, and health care access to address and prevent a deadly disease like silicosis and to assure well-being of all workers in the stone sector of Rajasthan. This article is authored by Ekata Bakshi, senior consultant, Anwesha Konar, associate consultant and Eshita Trivedi, communications assistant, Policy and Development Advisory Group. On June 4 Claudia Sheinbaum made history by becoming the first woman president of Mexico, a country of 130 million people. Interestingly and equally relevant her opponent in the presidential race was also a woman. President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum addresses supporters at the Zocalo, Mexico City's main square, after the National Electoral Institute announced she held an irreversible lead in the election, early Monday, June 3, 2024. (AP) This unprecedented victory didnt come easily. It is the result of a long struggle of Mexican women fighting for their rights, the womens movement in Mexico and in Latin America, its link with global womens movements and the role of the United Nations in putting the agenda of womens empowerment on the table. In 1916, the First Feminist Congress took place in Merida, Yucatan, with 620 delegates. The well-known activist and writer Hermila Galindo did not attend but sent a letter titled Women in the Future, advocating for sex education, legal rights, employment opportunities, and secularity. Some attendees found these topics radical and well ahead of their time. In the last session of the Congress, delegates submitted a proposal to modify the Constitution of the State of Yucatan to allow womens vote. It worked. Elvia Carrillo Puerto, Beatriz Peniche Barrera, and Raquel Dzib Cicero became the first women elected to the state legislature in Yucatan. Moving forward, in 1922, Rosa Torre Gonzalez won a city council seat in Merida and became an icon of the local struggles for women equality. These local achievements laid the groundwork for womens rights movements in Mexico leading to a national struggle to get the right for women to vote, which finally happened in 1953. Mexico has been a pioneer in implementing gender equality in elected office by pushing for quotas. The discourse on increasing the participation of women in leadership and policy making started in 1975 at the United Nations First World Conference on Women, coincidentally held in Mexico City. At the time, the UN recommendations emphasised the importance of womens political inclusion, but women activists and elected officials knew party leaders would need more than words. So, in Latin America and elsewhere, women began pushing party leaders to set targets for nominating women. Researchers in Europe in collaboration with the UN Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) and the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) had been working on the theory of critical mass of women or exactly what percentages of women would be essential to make change in any institution, including governance, and not be coopted. This was the 33 percent. This then was included in the final document of the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, the Forward Looking Strategies. In 1991, Argentina adopted a 30% gender quota law for women candidates. In 1996, Mexico followed with a law recommending that parties nominate 30% women for the federal Congress, and a 2002 law requiring them to do so. After this, there was rapid progress for women in elected office. In 2018, women won half the seats in Mexicos Congress and introduced a ground-breaking constitutional reform: Gender parity for all candidates for elected office, and for top posts in the executive and judicial branches. Called parity in everything, the reform was adopted in 2019. Not a single member of Congress voted against it. The political reforms of 2014 in Mexico included a constitutional amendment mandating 50% gender parity in candidate nominations for federal and local congressional elections. This obligated political parties to actively ensure equal representation of women in the electoral process-which, in theory, would give women a fair shot at equal representation in elected positions. By 2019, political parties were respecting the 5050 rules when nominating candidates for the federal Congress, the state legislatures, and the municipal governments, including mayors. The last holdout was the coveted governor positions. Only seven of Mexicos 32 states had ever elected a woman governor: Thats seven women compared to 344 men since Mexican women gained the right to vote in 1953. Women in elected office have their share of harassment. The National Womens Institute of Mexico analysed social media messages sent to women candidates during the 2018 elections, finding that 70% contained gendered language that was insulting, abusive or harassing. Mexico has worrisome rates of violence against women. According to a Reuters report of April 2022, more than 70% of 50.5 million women and girls aged over 15 in Mexico have experienced some kind of violence. As of April 2020, femicides (or crimes against women and girls) had increased 137% in the last five years, and 93% of these crimes against women were not reported or investigated. And around 10 women are murdered in Mexico every day. With a rich cultural history and diversity, and abundant natural resources, Mexico is among the 15 largest economies in the world and the second-largest economy in Latin America. It has solid macroeconomic institutions, is open to trade, and has a diversified manufacturing base connected to global value chains. According to the World Bank report of March 2024, over the last three decades, Mexico has underperformed in terms of growth, inclusion, and poverty reduction compared to similar countries. Its economic growth averaged just above 2% a year between 1980 and 2022, limiting progress in convergence relative to high-income economies. The official multidimensional poverty rate fell from 43.9% in 2020 to 36.3% in 2022, lifting 8.8 million Mexicans out of poverty, although extreme poverty has decreased more slowly. Claudia Sheinbaum, as the new president faces many challenges. She has a sound background in environmental science and energy engineering, local and global experience. She was Mexico Citys first female mayor, from 2018 until her resignation this year. But like women heads of states in developing countries, a powerful man mentors her. There are questions whether the legacy of Lopez Obrador (her mentor) is truly desirable and as she has been reticent about her own public policy positions, many Mexicans ask: Who is the real Sheinbaum? How will she manage to define her own platform, separating herself from Lopez Obrador, given that he is her mentor and hand-picked her as his successor? Only time will tell. This article is authored by Anita Anand, communications and development specialist, New Delhi. Actor Suvinder Vicky, best known for his portrayal of sub-inspector Balbir Singh in Kohrra, became an overnight sensation after the crime drama series released last year. However, the actor asserts that his journey to recognition has been a slow and steady climb. Sometimes an artist playing small roles like me gets noticed very quickly, and sometimes even the artists playing lead roles dont get the fame that they expect, says Vicky, who was recently seen playing the antagonist in Manoj Bajpayee-starrer Bhaiyya Ji. Suvinder Vicky was seen in Kohrra. Vicky has been acting since 2001, and he says it was only after 2014 that his career started to escalate. He adds, I invested my time in acting but didnt get very successful roles in the beginning. Somewhere inside me, I knew that I deserved something bigger and better, but I wasnt getting the opportunity. Before Kohrras breakthrough success, Vicky had also garnered praise for the web show, CAT, besides also featuring in an episode of Paatal Lok (2020), though with limited screen time. Though Vicky gained significant recognition through his roles on OTT shows, he stresses on giving credit to the entirety of his career. Also Read: Kohrra review: Sudip Sharma juggles between slow-burn and sledgehammer I wouldnt like to give full credit to streaming platforms since Ive worked in the Punjabi cinema before. If anything, OTT has helped me establish myself in Bollywood. I got a lot to learn while shooting for OTT, so I can give partial credit but not full credit, the 51-year-old tells us. Asked if he was apprehensive about audiences reaction towards his negative character in Bhaiyya Ji, the actor says he likes to portray diverse parts. Ive played negative roles in the Punjabi industry in the past, so, I didnt feel any kind of support slipping away from my audiences side. Every human has a negative quality in them, and I use it up to refine my character. I feel lucky to portray what my directors envision for me, explains the actor, having no qualms about getting typecast in any way. Given that Bhaiyya Ji marked Bajpayees 100th release, the film ought to celebrate his legacy. And Vicky couldnt be more grateful that he got to star alongside him. Expressing his admiration for Bajpayee while humbly acknowledging his star power, Vicky adds, Manoj ji has been in the industry for a very long time, so I knew from the beginning that he would get more attention than anyone else, and he is also deserving of that attention. He has invested 20-25 years here. I really appreciate getting an opportunity to work with such an icon. Im just a beginner in commercial cinema; maybe someday Ill hit the milestone myself. Actor Varun Dhawan and designer Natasha Dalal commenced a new chapter in their lives as they welcomed their first born, a daughter, on Monday. After the mother-daughter duo's brief stay at Mumbai's Hinduja Hospital, videos of Varun bringing his 'baby no.1' home have been going viral. While there may be some time to Varun and Natasha formally announcing their little one's name, the internet appears to have already gotten down to business, christening the new born. Varun Dhawan and Natasha Dalal with their daughter Multiple videos of Varun and Natasha exiting the hospital with their newborn daughter have been doing the rounds of the internet. Soon enough, the comments section of these videos stood flooded with suggestions from fans with regards to what Baby Dhawan should be named some playful, some genuine. The name 'Varsha', stands out from the lot as it makes for the most obvious derivation when it comes to joining Varun and Natasha's names. Incidentally, this is also something which Shahid Kapoor and Mira Kapoor had done for their daughter Misha. Coming back to the new parents, one fan in particular broke down the analogy well, also explaining how 'Varsha' means 'rain' in Telugu. The comment read, "VARun and NataSHA : VARSHA ( means rain in Telugu )." Not just this, 'Vaidahi' too came up as a suggestion, presumably a reference to the actor's co-star Alia Bhatt's character in their super-hit 2017 release Badrinath Ki Dulhania. Interestingly, another comment pointed out how 2 of the 3 Student of the Year alums, Varun and Alia, have both welcomed daughters as their first borns. Is Sidharth Malhotra next? We wish Varun and Natasha all the best as they begin their journey as parents, and eagerly await to formally be introduced to Baby Dhawan. Four Indian students from Maharashtra studying at a university in Russia drowned in a river while on an outing and a fifth was saved and is receiving medical care, the external affairs ministry said on Friday. Representational image. All the students were enrolled at the Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University in Veliky Novgorod. The incident occurred when they were out on a walk along the Volkhov river. Local emergency services have recovered two bodies so far and are searching for the two others who died. Our consulate in St Petersburg remains in contact with the university and local authorities and is providing all possible assistance, the external affairs ministry said in a statement. We offer our condolences to the families, the ministry said, adding that all the five students involved in the incident were from Jalgaon district of Maharashtra. The student who was saved from drowning is receiving medical attention, the ministry said. The Indian consulate in St Petersburg is coordinating with local authorities to repatriate the bodies of the students. The consulate is also in contact with the families and the district administration in Jalgaon. A report from PTI identified the dead students as Harshal Anantrao Desale, Jishan Ashpak Pinjari, Jia Firoj Pinjari and Malik Gulamgous Mohammad Yakub. It named the student who survived as Nisha Bhupesh Sonawane. They were all aged between 18 and 20. The students were on a walk along the Volkhov river, when they entered the waters, the report quoted an unnamed official as saying. Jishan Pinjari was on a video call with his parents when he and three others drowned, a family member said. When they entered the Volkhov river, Jishan made a video call to his family. His father and other family members were pleading with Jishan and the others to come out of the waters when a strong wave swept them away, the family member told local media. Jishan Pinjari and Jia Pinjari were siblings and were from Amalner in Jalgaon district. Desale was from Bhadgaon, also in Jalgaon district. Ayush Prasad, the district collector of Jalgaon, said arrangements are being made to bring the bodies to India. The administration of Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University expressed condolences in a message to the Indian envoy to Russia. The tragedy was accidental and unexpected. Nisha Bhupesh Sonawane survived. Now she is under the care of medical staff, a university official said. President Droupadi Murmu on Friday appointed Narendra Modi as Prime Minister and invited him to form the next government hours after he was formally elected the leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parliamentary party and leader of the Lok Sabha, setting the stage for a record-equalling third straight term at the helm of the worlds largest democracy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the media at Rashtrapati Bhavan after being invited to form the Union government by President Droupadi Murmu in New Delhi on June 7.(Raj K Raj/HT photo) Modi will take oath as Prime Minister at 7.15pm on Sunday on the premises of Rashtrapati Bhavan. Along with him, other Cabinet ministers will be sworn in, and the list of the names will be sent to Rashtrapati Bhavan over the course of the weekend. As Modi staked claim, with alliance and consensus the buzzwords of his noon address at the old Parliament buildings Central Hall, leaders of the NDA huddled at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief JP Naddas residence in the evening, possibly discussing Cabinet berths and other appointments. Hectic negotiations have dominated the last two days in the Capital. Also Read | Congress calls NDA Nitish/Naidu dependent alliance Having regard to the fact that yours is the single-largest party and the largest pre-election alliance and taking note of the letters of support from the constituent parties of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) enabling you to command majority support of the newly constituted 18th Lok Sabha, I have the pleasure to appoint you as the Prime Minister of India in exercise of powers conferred on me under Article 75(1) of the Constitution of India, said the letter from Murmu to Modi. In the afternoon, a delegation of the NDA led by Nadda called on the President at 2.30pm and handed over a letter stating that Modi was elected as leader of the BJP parliamentary party. Letters of support from NDA constituents were also handed over by the delegation that included Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Ashwini Vaishnaw, N Chandrababu Naidu, Nitish Kumar, Eknath Shinde, HD Kumaraswamy, Chirag Paswan, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Pawan Kalyan, Ajit Pawar, Anupriya Patel and Jayant Chaudhary, among others The President requested Narendra Modi to indicate the date and time of the swearing-in-ceremony to be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan and also advise her about the names of other persons to be appointed as members of the Union council of ministers, said a statement released by Rashtrapati Bhavan. Also Read | What the verdict holds for the BJP, its mascot, Modi Modis BJP emerged as the single-largest party in the recently concluded general elections but saw its tally drop almost 60 seats to 240, below the majority mark of 272. With allies such as the Janata Dal (United), Telugu Desam Party and Shiv Sena, and a clutch of smaller partners, the NDA is comfortably placed to form the government. Modi will become only the second man after Jawaharlal Nehru to achieve three consecutive terms as PM. The President called me just now and asked me to work as the PM designate and she has informed me about the oath ceremony. I have told the President that we will be comfortable on the evening of the 9th of June, Modi said outside Rashtrapati Bhavan. NDA will form a strong, stable and growth-oriented government. Modi said that the list of the council of ministers will be presented to the President ahead of the oath ceremony. I thank the people for giving us the opportunity. I want to assure countrymen that development work will continue as before. 25 crore people have been taken out of poverty. It is a matter of pride for every Indian, he said. A little past noon, in the magnificent Samvidhan Sabha, the erstwhile central hall of Parliament, the PM bowed before the Constitution and was welcomed with a thunderous applause. Members raised slogans of Modi, Modi and thumped their desks. Party president JP Naddas welcome address was followed by Rajnath Singh moving the resolution to elect Modi as the leader of the BJP and NDA parliamentary party and the leader of the Lok Sabha. Singh said Modi was the best suited for the position and described the NDA as a family that upholds coalition dharma. The NDA family has grown due to Modijis leadership, efficiency and vision. Since the time of (former PM Vajpayee) Atal ji, the NDA has been identified as a family that upholds coalition dharma. For us, coalition is not a compulsion but a commitment, he said. Union ministers Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari who seconded the resolution, also highlighted how the election of Modi as the leader was not just the wish of the NDA partners, but that of 1.4 million Indians. In his speech, Modi struck an assertive tone even as he spoke about building consensus and attacked the Opposition over electronic voting machines. Na hum hare the, na hare hain (We were neither defeated nor are we defeated). But our behaviour after the 4th of June (when results were announced) shows our identity... We know how to digest victory. Our values are such that we do not get over excited in the lap of victory and neither do we have the values of mocking the defeated, he said. Lashing out at the Congress, Modi said that even after 10 years, the party couldnt touch the figure of 100 seats. If we combine the 2014, 2019 and 2024 elections, Congress did not even get as many seats as the BJP got in these elections. I can clearly see the people of the INDI alliance were sinking slowly earlier, now they are going to sink at a fast pace, he said. Modi said the NDA reflects the true sense of Indias spirit with its presence in tribal-dominated states and also the northeast. Our path is sarv panth sambhav (respect for all religions)...in Goa or the North-East, where our Christian brothers and sisters are in large numbers, we have our governments. Striking a conciliatory tone, Modi said consensus will be the hallmark of the NDA and described it as the most successful alliance in Indias history. Assuaging concerns that all views will be taken on board, Modi spoke about debate and discussion before decision-making. Majority is needed for running the government, but sarvamat (consensus) is required for running the country. He said it is the responsibility of the allies to use consensus for taking the country forward. Modi said that the coalition did not come together to grab power, but was an organic alliance committed to the principle of nation first. Modi also exuded confidence about the longevity of the alliance and said that the coalition of members with a record of good governance will write new chapters of good governance in the next 10 years . Leaders of the coalition partners also endorsed Modis leadership and were effusive in praise. Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar, who first parted ways with the NDA in 2013 after opposing Modis elevation as the PM candidate, was effusive in his praise. He even bowed to show respect to the PM after finishing his speech. For 20 years he has served the country, and I am confident that whatever is left he will now complete it. We will be with him at every step, Kumar said. He also drew laughs when he predicted that the Opposition will not win as many seats in the next general election as it currently had. TDPs Chandrababu Naidu, who has also pledged support to the NDA, described Modi as the right leader at the right time. He credited Modis rallies and public addresses for making a huge difference in Andhra Pradesh where the NDA is all set to form the government. We are very confident, under his leadership India will become either one or two globally, Naidu said. In 2018, the TDP chief walked out of the NDA in protest against the delay in granting special status to the state that was carved out into two, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Modi later met BJP veterans LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi at their residences on Friday, in a throwback to the coalition years of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. Went to Advani jis residence and sought his blessings. Every BJP karyakarta is inspired by Advani jis monumental efforts to strengthen the party, Modi later said in a post on X. Modi also met former president Ram Nath Kovind. He also had a word of caution for newly elected MPs and urged them not to fall victim to fake news or to believe anyone with news about their inclusion in the Cabinet. People may approach and call you with claims that you have been allotted a Cabinet berth. Todays advanced technology may also lead to release of documents with my digital signatures. But, you must not believe them...The country cannot run on breaking news, he said. The Congress mocked the PM and called him one-third PM, with Naidu and Kumar making up the other two-thirds. The BJP parliamentary party did not meet but the NDA appointed one-third PM in advance. This was done because Narendra Modi was not sure whether the elected MPs of the BJP would choose him as their leader or not, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)s allies on Friday endorsed Narendra Modi as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Parliamentary Party, setting the stage for his third term as the Prime Minister, even as Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Chandrababu Naidu underlined the need for regional aspirations and national interests to go hand in hand to ensure holistic development of all sections. Narendra Modi speaking at the NDA Parliamentary Party meeting. (PTI) Naidu lauded Modi for making India the worlds fifth-largest economy and said they are confident that it will become either number one or two under his leadership. At the same time, Indians under his leadership globally will become number one. As of today, Indians, every you go, if you go anywhere in the world, have the highest per capita income...Indians are earning. I am confident under his leadership, Indians are going to become global leaders. He said India is going to serve the global community in public and corporate governance. Naidu cited Modis vision of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas (inclusive development), and Viksit Bharat (developed India). He added with the collective efforts of the NDA, India can become a zero-poverty nation. Naidu lauded Modis zeal during campaigning. In Andhra Pradesh, we had three public meetings and one big rally. It made a huge difference in winning the elections in Andhra Pradesh. [Union] home minister [Amit Shah] also came. He addressed one meeting. It changed the situation in a big way. Rajnath Singh, [JP] Nadda, and [Nitin] Gadkari addressed rallies. It gave confidence to people that the Centre is with the state, Naidu said. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) acknowledged the dip in the seats of the BJP. He said Modi had lost in some places but next time the Opposition will lose everywhere. I am completely confident. [the Opposition] has done no work thus far, has not served the nation at all. But you [Modi] have done so much for the nation that they will have no chance in the future. The country will progress very far. Bihar will also be sorted. Whatever you need, we will continue to support you. Everybody is together. We will move together, Kumar said. He said his only request is that Modis swearing-in ceremony should take place at the earliest. It will take place on Sunday. I wanted it today [Friday], he said. Defence minister Rajnath Singh earlier proposed Modis name as the leader of the NDA Parliamentary Party. His colleagues Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, and top NDA leaders backed the proposal. The NDA meeting was held against the backdrop of negotiations to form the next government. Allies have been jockeying for crucial Cabinet berths behind the scenes even as NDA leaders remained tight-lipped and projected a united front. Kumar and Naidu were scheduled to join Modi in meeting President Droupadi Murmu to present her with the list of parliamentarians supporting him. On Thursday, the TDP and JD(U), the second and third largest constituents of the NDA, held meetings and finalised the list of demands. Nadda and Shah separately met Modi after meeting Rajnath Singh to discuss portfolio allocation. The BJP fell short of the halfway mark of 272 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha for the first time since 2014, making it dependent on allies for the next government formation. TDP, which has 16 parliamentarians, was likely to seek five ministerial berths and two more for pre-poll ally Jana Sena, which won two seats. The party was also expected to ask for special status for revenue-starved Andhra Pradesh, which lost IT Hyderabad to Telangana during the states bifurcation in 2014. HT on Friday reported that TDP is keen on getting the Lok Sabha Speakers position in addition to ministries such as urban development, information technology, road transport, and highways. JDU, which has 12 parliamentarians, is likely to demand four ministerial berths and special status for Bihar. NDA won 30 out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. The JD(U) was hoping to get two Cabinet and two ministers of state berths accommodating a mix of castes and communities for maximum political leverage ahead of Bihar assembly elections due next year. In 2019, JD(U) turned down a token representation of one berth in the Union Cabinet. The JD(U) was seeking portfolios such as railways, the countrys biggest recruiter, and rural development, that will help it consolidate its position in Bihar ahead of the 2025 state polls. Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde of the Shiv Sena, who was among those who spoke at the NDA meeting, said the Opposition tried to mislead people by spreading rumours and lies. He added the people saw through it to accept Modi as the prime minister. Everybody is a witness to the work that was done in 10 years. People chose development while the Opposition that chose only politicking has been made to sit at home, Shinde said. He called Shiv Senas bond with the BJP unbreakable. Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas Paswan)s Chirag Paswan said Modi was the only one with the determination and he registered a decisive victory. As he moved off the dais, Chirag hugged Modi. Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy, Nationalist Congress Partys Ajit Pawar, Jana Sena Partys Pawan Kalyan, Hindustani Awam Morchas Jitan Ram Manjhi, and Apna Dal (S) Partys Anupriya Patel were among others who attended the NDA meeting. Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud has underscored the pivotal role of arbitration in the realm of commercial justice, asserting that it is no longer an alternative but a preferred method of dispute resolution. He stressed that arbitration must be steered by considerations of public policy, thereby empowering courts to intervene when necessary to prevent injustice. He was delivering his address at the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom on Thursday evening. (HT photo) Delivering his address at the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom on Thursday evening, the CJI highlighted the evolution of arbitration from a supplementary dispute resolution mechanism to a primary choice for commercial entities worldwide. Arbitration is no longer an alternative. It is, in fact, the preferred method of seeking commercial justice, stressed the judge, adding the shift is driven by the desire of parties to distance themselves from domestic court systems and resolve their disputes through a neutral, third-party arbitrator. Adding a historic touch to the event, Lord Reed, the President of the UK Supreme Court, extended the unique privilege to justice Chandrachud of occupying the Presidents seat during his speech, signifying a deep respect and solidarity between the judiciary of the two nations. Also Read:Judges arent princes but service providers: CJI at J20 Summit in Brazil The event took place last evening and was attended by a distinguished audience of legal luminaries and arbitration experts from around the globe. In his address, the CJI pointed out that courts in India are overburdened despite high courts disposing of 2.15 million cases and the district courts disposing of 44.70 million cases in 2023. These figures show the trust that the people of India have in their judiciary... Every aggrieved person who approaches the doors of the judiciary has the right to a just remedy. In attending to these grievances, the courts in India perform their plain constitutional duty. The width of our jurisdiction was designed to ensure the widest access to justice. But surely every case need not find a remedy before a court, with emerging forms of dispute resolution such as arbitration and mediation gaining acceptance, he said. According to justice Chandrachud, the values of a liberal democracy enshrined in the Indian Constitution allow people to seek individualised solutions to their legal problems outside the judicial setup, if the solutions do not violate established law, and that arbitration is one such alternative method of dispute resolution. The democratisation of the political space, access to public institutions and liberalisation of commerce, he said, has enabled private parties to converse within a structure of ordered liberty governed by the rule of law, regardless of their positions or hierarchies, on a level playing field. Arbitration provides this level playing field outside domestic court systems. I firmly believe that now is the time for countries such as India to step up to the occasion to create and promote a culture of commercial arbitration. The robust institutionalisation of arbitration will further the culture of arbitration in the Global South, maintained the judge, adding arbitral institutions ought to be transparent, accountable, technologically advanced and at the same time bring greater diversity in terms of gender or from the Global South to make for a broad-based process. In his speech, the CJI also emphasised the importance of public policy in guiding arbitration proceedings and the enforcement of arbitral awards. He articulated that while arbitration offers autonomy and flexibility, it must still adhere to the overarching principles of justice and fairness, which are integral to public policy. Domestic courts should adopt a pro-arbitration approach and limit their interference to grounds explicitly provided in the New York Convention, he remarked, indicating a balanced approach where judicial oversight ensures fairness without undermining the autonomy of arbitration. The New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York Convention) provides a framework for the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards across jurisdictions. Both the UK and India are signatories to the New York Convention, and their domestic arbitration laws are aligned with the Conventions provisions. Furthermore, justice Chandrachud addressed the critical role of courts in preventing and correcting injustices within the arbitration framework. If arbitration has to be efficient by reducing delay, the law must ensure that the adjudication of substantive legal rights of all parties, including non-signatories who are intricately connected to the underlying contract, is achieved within the fold of arbitration. This will preclude satellite litigation by non-signatories and allow arbitration to maintain its credibility in the face of domestic legal systems, he underscored. The CJI also commented on the necessity of judicial intervention in exceptional cases to uphold the integrity of the arbitral process and safeguard against procedural and substantive injustices. Referring to a much-quoted statement of UK judge Lord Burrough in one of his judgments in the 19th century that public policy is an unruly horse, justice Chandrachud stressed that it is this unruly horse which allows the courts to step in and rein in injustice after the award has been granted. The intervention of courts in such situations where the arbitral award will cause grave injustice essentially upholds the rule of law...If judges were not to interfere when the process of arbitration has been subverted on matters bordering on fraud, the credibility and legitimacy of the universe of arbitration may be in danger of being brought into disrepute, said the CJI. Justice Chandrachud concluded with a significant endorsement of arbitration as the primary avenue for commercial dispute resolution while setting a forward-looking agenda for arbitration practices, emphasising the dual imperatives of maintaining procedural autonomy and adhering to public policy considerations to ensure justice and fairness. Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi on Friday took a dig at the Opposition for their claims of tampered Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), stating that the election results on June 4 disproved all their allegations and demonstrated the integrity of the voting machine and electoral process, effectively silencing their complaints. Senior BJP leader Narendra Modi (PTI) Follow NDA meet LIVE Updates Addressing the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Parliamentary meeting, PM Narendra Modi said when the results were being announced on Tuesday, he asked someone if the EVMs were still alive or dead. He added that they always accused the voting machine and the electoral process and have ensured that people stop believing in democracy and the democratic process of India. "When results were coming out on 4th June, I was busy with work. Phone calls started coming in later. I asked someone, numbers are fine, tell me EVM zinda hai ki mar gaya. These people (Opposition) had decided to ensure that people stop believing in democracy and democratic process of India. They continuously abused EVM," news agency ANI quoted Modi as saying. Modi slammed the INDIA bloc leaders and said he thought that the former would take out the funeral procession of the EVM and would harp about the machine over their loss. But the results made them shut their mouths. Narendra Modi unanimously elected as leader of NDA Parliamentary party; Chandrababu Naidu, Nitish Kumar back his name The senior BJP leader, however, claimed that perhaps the EVM would be accused again in the 2029 Lok Sabha polls. "I hope I won't hear about EVM for 5 years. But when we enter 2029, perhaps they will again harp about EVM...The country will never forgive them," Modi added. In the meeting, Narendra Modi was elected was unanimously elected as the leader of the NDA, and the Lok Sabha, and is set to become the prime minister for the third time. He would take the oath on Sunday at 6pm. Earlier, Chief Election Commission Rajiv Kumar also took potshots at those raising questions about the EVMs, saying the EVMs should be left to rest until the next elections as they are to be readied to be abused again in the upcoming polls. Addressing the media on the allegations of EVM tampering, Rajiv Kumar said for the past 20-22 elections, a similar tradition has been followed where EVMs were accused of being tampered with, and their credibility was always questioned. But in the end, they have always shown the results. 'Let EVMs rest...to be abused in next elections': CEC Rajiv Kumar on tampering accusations Lok Sabha elections 2024 results: According to the Election Commission of India, the BJP won 240 seats, significantly lower than its 2019 tally of 303. The Congress made substantial gains, winning 99 seats. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured 293 seats, while the INDIA bloc crossed the 230 mark, posing stiff competition and defying predictions. (With inputs from agencies) New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Delhi High Court to decide within three months the bail plea filed by Sukanya Mondal, arrested in a money laundering case related to cattle smuggling in West Bengal. Cattle smuggling case: Decide bail plea of Sukanya Mondal in 3 months, SC to Delhi HC Sukanya is daughter of Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal, who too is under judicial custody in the same case. A vacation bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and Sandeep Mehta noted the submission by senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for Mondal, that the bail proceedings are being repeatedly deferred before the high court "The petitioner who has sought for being enlarged on bail before this court is contending inter alia that the application filed for being enlarged on bail before the High Court is being adjourned from time to time. "We request the High Court of Delhi to dispose of the bail application filed by the petitioner expeditiously and preferably within three months from the date of re-opening," the bench said. The top court made it clear that it has not expressed any opinion on merits of the case. Sukanya, who was arrested by the ED on April 26 last year, has challenged a trial courts June 1, 2023 order dismissing her bail plea. Anubrata Mondal, the Trinamool Congress' Birbhum district president, was arrested by the CBI in connection with the same case on August 11, 2022. The ED arrested him on November 17, 2022 in the alleged multi-crore rupees cattle smuggling scam after questioning him at an Asansol jail where he was lodged. According to the ED, it registered the money laundering case following an FIR registered by the CBI in Kolkata against Satish Kumar, who was then a BSF Commandant. The CBI FIR alleged that Anubrata Mondal, along with Kumar, other public servants and private persons, was involved in the cattle smuggling racket. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text. Chandrababu Naidu is a maker, not a disruptor. As a serious political ally, he has helped build and save, not rock, coalitions in power. Those who disagree must look at his track record and compare it with his contemporaries, dead or alive, who failed to pass muster in identical roles. Naidu can, in fact, gain from his experience in managing difficult coalitions. (PTI photo) Having styled himself as a development icon in Andhra Pradesh, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader has had a hand thus far in the making of three prime ministers: HD Deve Gowda, Inder Kumar Gujral and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. When he takes oath, Narendra Modi will be the fourth in that order. Naidu played the unflappable Mr Sagacious in difficult political situations in the first three instances. His managerial skills and ability to balance his own priorities with those of coalitions in which he had stakes, shone while he dealt with powerful peers with difficult temperaments. He stayed the course as he was well-regarded by others who competed with one another. That was also because he never laid claim to the PMs office. Also Read: Also Read: Naidu to take oath as Andhra CM on June 12 at Amaravati This lesson from the past should be instructive for the BJP leadership on how to deal with Naidu. He shouldnt be given the short shrift that made him walk out of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 2018. They can, in fact, gain from his experience in managing difficult coalitions. He responds to reason and isnt given to throwing tantrums the way Jayalalithaa and Mamata Banerjee did with Vajpayee. United Front experience During the 1996-98 United Front coalition, a permanent thorn by Naidus side was Sitaram Kesri, the mercurial Congress president who had an axe to grind with Deve Gowda. Others with vaulting ambitions and pathological interpersonal rivalries were Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Lalu Prasad (Rashtriya Janata Dal) and to some extent Harkishen Singh Surjeet, the Marxist veteran who, in sum, was an enabler with preferences of his own. For instance, on Deve Gowdas fall, the CPI-M general secretary lobbied hard for Mulayam whom Lalu did not want. But for Naidus political savvy and former premier VP Singhs tacit advice, Gujral couldnt have become PM. As a technocrat who wasnt a challenge to anyone in popular politics, he became the consensus pick through a process of elimination, not as much selection. The UF-2 government fell eventually to the internal Congress shenanigans with Arjun Singh making a big issue of the Jain Commission report (on the conspiracy aspect of Rajiv Gandhis assassination) that pointed a needle of suspicion at the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). Using the Gandhi name, Singh could predicate the Congress support on DMKs ouster. Gujral refused. Losing patience with the UF, which in any case was headed to extinction, Naidu quit as its convener to tie up with Vajpayee for the 1999 polls. His explanation to this writer for what ostensibly was an ideological paradigm shift was: The Andhra people want to see Vajpayee as PM. I have to partake of the sentiment to stay relevant in the state -- without which I cant be relevant at the Centre. He promised in the same breath to be a restraining influence on the BJP which he indeed was as the Vajpayee dispensations key outside supporter. Falling out with Modi 1.0 In 2014, Naidu became the first big regional player outside the NDA ambit to articulate support for Modi. They even shared power before falling out on the TDPs demand for the special status promised to Andhra at time of its bifurcation from Telangana. Naidu had made a strong case for it in the PMs presence at the 2015 foundation-laying ceremony of the new capital at Amaravati. Among all southern states, Andhra alone did not have a revenue generating centre after losing Hyderabad to Telengana. There was no forward movement on the issue for a good three years when the proverbial straw broke the camels back in 2018. As the Centre prevaricated, Naidu quit the NDA to join forces with the Opposition United Progressive Alliance (UPA). What followed was a bitter verbal spat in the run up to the 2019 elections which the UPA lost nationally and the TDP regionally. Historical irony The wheel now has turned full circle. In a repeat of 1999, Naidu is backing from a position of strength a weakened Modi, a la Vajpayee. After his first interactions in Delhi, he indicated that the terms of engagement were in the works. The (power-sharing) issue didnt come up from their side neither did I raise it, he told this writer. The only point of certainty is the TDP will stay put in the NDA: We contested elections together. My credibility with the people is non-negotiable. Be that as it may, theres a historical irony about this equation. A votary that he is, like Vajpayee, of coalition and raj dharma, Naidu took a very difficult call after the 2002 Gujarat riots to continue backing the government at the Centre. Instead of taking back his outside support, which wouldve brought down the NDA edifice, he allowed himself to be persuaded by Farooq Abdullah who privately argued that with what face would his National Conference stay in the government if Naidu decided to quit. he middle course Naidu then took was to symbolically distance himself from the BJP. He did not take the Lok Sabha speakership after the death of the incumbent, GMC Balayogi, his party nominee who was killed in a chopper crash. That set the stage for the Shiv Senas Manohar Joshi getting the prized job. In another rearguard action to assuage his minority support base, Naidu played a key role in tandem with the SPs Amar Singh, in the 2002 elections of APJ Abdul Kalam as the Republics 11th president. But the attempted damage-control did not work. The political price Naidu paid for being a reliable, credible ally to the BJP was evident in his 2004 washout and the emergence of the Congresss YS Rajasekhara Reddy in Andhra. He later cited his failure to withdraw support to the NDA as one of the major reasons for his defeat besides the disproportionate focus he put on developing Hyderabad as a cyber hub rivalling Bengaluru. He told this writer later: It was a mistake not to plough to the countryside some of the extra revenue we earned on account of first-generation reforms. In this backdrop, the TDP chief has a legitimate case to revive his demand of special status for Andhra. Very much linked to it could be his choice of ministerial portfolios in the event of the TDPs direct participation in governance. The bridge will be crossed when the alliance gets to it. The Char Dham Yatra has seen a record-breaking influx of pilgrims, with Kedarnath Dham surpassing the number of pilgrims of more than seven lakh since May 10, the date of opening of the temple portals, till June 6. Devotees throng the Kedarnath Temple during the 'Char Dham Yatra' in Rudraprayag district.(PTI) According to Rudraprayag district magistrate, 7,10,698 pilgrims have paid obeisance at the shrine in just 28 days. Earlier on June 2, over 19,000 pilgrims visited the revered shrine, one of the 12 jyotirlingas of Lord Shiva, bringing the total number of pilgrims who had visited the shrine to over 6,00,000, according to the Uttarakhand government. Meanwhile, the Uttarakhand government has made registration mandatory for all pilgrims coming for the Chardham Yatra. It has also paused the offline registration mode in the wake of the influx ofpilgrims visiting the shrines. Travellers have been advised to come to the Yatra only on the scheduled date after registration. The portals of Kedarnath Dham were opened for the devotees on the auspicious occasion of Akshay Tritiya on May 10. The ceremony was performed amid a recital of bhajans and Har Har Mahadev chants. Additionally, flowers were showered on the devotees standing in the queue by choppers. At a height of nearly 3,500 metres above sea level, Kedarnath temple is located near the Mandakini river in Rudraprayag district in Uttarakhand. On November 15, 2023, the temple doors were closed before the winter season, and two thousand five hundred pilgrims witnessed the event. Further, eighty-six deaths have been reported so far due to health-related ailments during this year's Char Dham yatra. According to the state government data, out of 86 deaths reported so far, 18 were reported from Badrinath Dham, 42 from Kedarnath Dham, 7 from Gangotri Dham, and 19 from Yamunotri Dham till Wednesday evening. Meanwhile, in a tragic accident, at least 20 people were injured after a bus carrying pilgrims from the Char Dham Yatra overturned in Rajasthan's Dausa. According to the police officials, the incident took place near Brahmbad village under the Mehandipur Balaji police station on National Highway-21. When the accident occurred, the pilgrims were returning from their journey to Kedarnath and Badrinath as part of their Char Dham pilgrimage. (With inputs from agencies) Chinese community in Kenya celebrates dragon boat festival Xinhua) 10:51, June 07, 2024 NAIROBI, June 6 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese community in Kenya on Thursday celebrated the upcoming dragon boat festival at the Confucius Institute based at the University of Nairobi, Kenya's oldest university, to help grow Sino-Kenyan ties. The event is commemorated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month according to the Chinese lunar calendar, which falls on June 10 this year, and features the preparation and eating of Zongzi, which is a form of rice dumpling wrapped in plant leaves, as well as watching of dragon boat racing. Zhang Zhizhong, minister counselor and deputy chief of Mission of the Chinese Embassy in Kenya, said that the festival is one of the major traditional festivals from the Asian nation that can help strengthen the bonds between Kenya and China. "The dragon boat festival can be used to symbolize the strengthening of the bond between Kenya and China," Zhang said. Qin Minxue, a representative of the Chinese community in Kenya, said that the celebration of the dragon boat festival helps overseas Chinese to remain in touch with their culture. "It is also a time of significance because it provides space for friends and families to gather together and share a meal," Qin added. Iris Yu, another representative of the Chinese community in Kenya, said the event provides an opportunity to promote cross-cultural cooperation between Kenya and China, adding that the festival is of cultural significance because it is believed that eating Zongzi helps to bring good luck and ward off evil spirits. Wang Shangxue, director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi, said that there is a rising popularity of the dragon boat festival in Kenya due to the expanding Sino-Kenyan ties. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Mohali: The Chandigarh police on Friday registered a first information report (FIR) against Kulwinder Kaur, a woman Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) constable posted at Chandigarh airport, for allegedly slapping newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Kangana Ranaut, officials said. BJP MP Kangana Ranaut was allegedly slapped by a CISF woman constable at the Chandigarh airport when she was on her way to Delhi A case has been registered under sections 323 and 341 of the Indian Penal Code against Kaur following the complaint, said police. The CISF constable was immediately suspended after the alleged incident on Thursday. While officials did not comment on the motive of the alleged assault, Ranaut appeared to link it to extremism and terrorism in Punjab, although a video of the suspect appeared to suggest she lashed out over the Mandi MP-elects stand on the farmers protest. I was hit on the face, abused. I am safe but concerned about terrorism in Punjab, Ranaut said in a video uploaded to her social media handle on X at 6.14pm with the caption Shocking rise in terror and violence in Punjab. The incident took place around 3pm at the security checkpoint ahead of Ranauts flight. The BJP MP claimed that the constable approached her from the side as she was waiting in the security check area, hit her and began hurling abuses at her, seemingly without any provocation. When Ranaut asked for the reason for her behaviour, Kaur allegedly told Ranaut that she was a supporter of the farmers protests. Airport authorities, on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Kaur was unhappy with the actor-turned-politicians stand on the farmers protest when she said that the agitators were people paid to demonstrate. Several videos from the aftermath of the incident were being widely shared on social media. In one video, Kaur can be heard defending herself to bystanders, questioning the kind of statements Ranaut made during the farmers protest. She said that women had taken 100 to sit at the protest. Did she sit there? My mother was among the women protesters in the sit-in when she gave that statement, Kaur is heard saying in the video. HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the clip. Kaur hails from Sultanpur Lodhi in the Kapurthala district of Punjab and is the sister of farmer leader Sher Singh Malhiwal. Kaurs husband is also posted with CISF in Jammu and the couple have two children. While farmers have come in support of the accused, many politicians, including former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and BJP Himachal Pradesh CM Jai Ram Thakur condemned the attack. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fallen short of the halfway mark of 272 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha for the first time since 2014, making it dependent on allies for the next government formation. Chirag Paswans Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) or LJP (RV), which won all the five seats it contested in Bihar, is among such allies. Paswan spoke to HT about his partys performance, Dalit politics, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is set to become the first leader since Jawaharlal Nehru to secure a third consecutive term, etc. Edited excerpts: Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan. (HT PHOTO) Were you surprised by your partys performance? I was not surprised. It is a deserved victory because of the hard work my party workers and I put in. We were very confident because of the kind of support we were getting from the people, especially for the vision of the Bihar First, Bihari First. That gave me much confidence that we would bag all the five seats. All the credit goes to my party and the people of Bihar. What is the kind of profile of the candidates that the people voted for? Some parties make political equations based on casteism, and communalism and proudly flaunt it. My political equation is centred around younger people. Four of the five LJP (RV) members of Parliament (MP) are young. There is Rajesh Verma. Arun Bharti, an MBA from Jamui, and Shambhavi Choudhary (Samastipur), one of the youngest MPs. They represent the youngsters of my state. This is the kind of image I want to portray of Bihar. To date, Bihar is known for uneducated and corrupt. Now you have these young educated faces, who will talk about Bihar. Two of the MPs are women. This is the combination that the people have voted for. Chief minister Nitish Kumars Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) has also done well winning 12 seats. How do you read that? We have managed to do well because, as allies, we all were so intact. The BJP took care of JD(U) seats. I did almost 200 rallies, ensuring I put in extra effort for JD(U). The opposition tried to float rumours like JD(U) is not working for LJP and LJP is not for JD(U). I think all of us went the extra mile to ensure we worked together. Why have BJPs seats gone down? This is a matter of concern. We will look into it. We have to sit down to analyse what went wrong. We set such a high target for ourselves; 400 plus seats. The target was so high. It was not easy to return to power for the third time. It has happened only for the second time in history after seven decades. The party [BJP] and the alliance [NDA] worked so well to win. If you look at this, we have done really well, but definitely we have fallen short. It is okay we missed this time. But in 2029, we will achieve our target. There was no anti-incumbency. I have been on the ground. I have been with the people ...we could not achieve the desired results...some shortcomings...we need to analyse the results. I think in the due course of time, all the alliance partners will sit together and discuss and resolve this before 2029. Are you comfortable with the Uniform Civil Code (UCC)? It is not about being comfortable or not. We are in an alliance and we will sit and discuss. This is an issue-based alliance. Everybody has their issues and their concerns. I have been concerned with ST [Scheduled Tribes], SC [Scheduled Castes], and weaker sections of society including the minorities. When I talk about minorities, I would add Muslims also. These are concerns...about policies... whether it is UCC, caste census, or Agniveer. These are issues that we should address when we sit across the table with our alliance. We will put forth our concerns ...The Law Commission is yet to draft the format for its [UCC] implementation. Unless the final draft does not come, I will not be able to say anything. You have so many partners in NDA. Does the dialogue process go well? It always goes well...the Prime Minister has said he is available and open to talk. He welcomes suggestions. This is the liberty that we have in NDA. ...The Prime Minister has handled the alliance superbly and I believe that he should continue doing so. He is a strong Prime Minister and he will remain a strong Prime Minister. What role are you seeing for yourself in the coming years? My vision is Bihar First and Bihari First. My priority is my state and we have state elections next year. I will be focusing on it. ...my ultimate goal is to make my state developed. Is there any portfolio you have asked for? No. The Prime Minister gave me five seats to contest believing in me. Imagine a single-member party getting five seats to contest on and that is all. I will say I have proved myself. What do you think about the Dalit leadership? There is a vacuum in the Dalit leadership. ...As a youngster, I would also want to represent one of the largest sections of society without talking about their caste...I want to talk about youth...around 65% of the population is under 35. So would also have to represent that young section. Lucknow, The Congress-Samajwadi Party coalition is a "natural alliance" and it would continue in the next assembly polls as well to "uproot" the BJP from power in Uttar Pradesh, state Congress chief Ajay Rai said on Friday. Cong-SP alliance in UP natural, will continue in assembly polls too: Ajay Rai The two parties fought the Lok Sabha polls together and performed well in Uttar Pradesh, with the SP emerging as the largest party in the state by wining 37 seats. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi won from the Rae Bareli seat in Uttar Pradesh, apart from Kerala's Wayanad. "Our alliance with the Samajwadi Party is natural and this will also continue in the next assembly elections in UP," Rai told PTI. The PCC chief said he will be going to Delhi on Saturday and "make a strong request that Rahulji retains the Rae Bareli seat in Parliament". Rai, who lost the Lok Sabha election to Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi, said the victory margin for the BJP stalwart has come down substantially and "this is a moral loss for him". Modi won from Varanasi by a margin of 1,52,513 votes this time. He had won the 2019 polls by a margin of 4,79,505 votes. SP's Shalini Yadav had come second in Varanasi last time while Rai had secured the third position then. Shalini Yadav later left the party and joined the BJP. The Congress leader alleged that Modi's "development work" in Varanasi is "hyped", and the fact is that "precious little is visible on the ground". Rai thanked the workers of his party as well as those from the SP and the Aam Aadmi Party for reaching out to people at the grassroots in Varanasi to bring a good result for the opposition in the seat. Rai started his political journey with the BJP but later shifted to the Congress. He served as an MLA five times since 1996. He left the BJP after being denied a ticket in 2009 LS elections. He was fielded by the Congress in 2014, 2019 and 2024. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text. New Delhi Jun 7 The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to suspend the 10-year jail term awarded to expelled BJP leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar for the custodial death of the Unnao rape victims father. Death of Unnao rape victims father: Delhi HC refuses to suspend Kuldeep Sengar's sentence Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma dismissed Sengar's plea seeking suspension of his sentence during the pendency of his appeal against conviction. "This Court is not inclined to allow the present application seeking suspension of sentence at this stage. Accordingly, the present application stands dismissed," the court said. Sengar sought suspension of his sentence on the ground that he has already served almost 6 years and the prosecutions case against him is solely based on circumstantial evidence. Justice Sharma, however, said once an accused has been held guilty, the presumption of innocence gets erased, and his application for suspension of sentence has to be considered on the basis of a prima facie view of his role, gravity of offence, etc and the period undergone in jail is only one of these several factors. The court, in its judgement, said factors such as the nature of the crime, criminal antecedents of the convict, impact on public confidence and threat to the victims also have to be appreciated while deciding the issue of suspension of sentence. The court noted that Sengar has already been convicted of raping the minor daughter of the deceased man and sentenced to imprisonment for the remainder of his life in that case. Sengar's appeal challenging the trial court's verdict in the main Unnao rape case is already pending in the high court. He has sought quashing of the December 16, 2019 judgement of the trial court which convicted him in the rape case. Sengar has also sought setting aside of the December 20, 2019 order sentencing him to imprisonment for the remainder of his life. The girl was kidnapped and raped by Sengar in 2017 when she was a minor. On March 13, 2020, Sengar was sentenced by the trial court to 10 years rigorous imprisonment, besides a fine of 10 lakh, in the case of death of the rape victims father in custody. The trial court had said "no leniency" can be shown for killing a family's "sole bread earner". It had also awarded 10 years jail term to Sengar's brother Atul Singh Sengar and five others for their role in the custodial killing of the father of the rape victim. The girl's father was arrested at the behest of Sengar under the Arms Act and had died in custody on April 9, 2018 owing police brutality. The trial court, which did not hold the accused guilty of murder under the IPC, awarded the maximum sentence for the offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder to the convicts under section 304 of the IPC after holding that there was no intention to kill. The case was transferred to Delhi from a trial court in Uttar Pradesh on the directions of the Supreme Court on August 1, 2019. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text. CHENNAI: Tamil Nadus ruling DMK and the Opposition AIADMK on Friday attacked the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate, or NEET-UG, saying the national-level examination for admission to medical colleges should be scrapped. Chennai: A candidate undergoes security check as she arrives to appear for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) (UG) 2024 exam at an examination centre in Chennai, on May 5 (PTI FILE PHOTO) The double-barrelled attack on NEET-UG comes days after the National Testing Agency declared the results of the 2024 NEET-UG on June 4 in which 67 students shared the all-India rank one by scoring perfect 720/720 marks, including six students from the same exam centre in Haryana. The results have triggered a massive uproar across the country, with several aspirants and parents demanding a probe and seeking a re-exam, alleging that the paper was leaked at certain centres where students got high scores. Tamil Nadu chief minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief MK Stalin waded into the row, reiterating the state governments position to scrap the national-level entrance examination and revert to the previous system of letting states conduct their entrance examination. The controversy, said Stalin in a post on X, have once again vindicated our principled opposition to the exam. Issues such as question paper leaks, clustering of toppers at specific centres, and award of marks, which are mathematically impossible, under the guise of grace marks highlight the pitfalls of the current Union Governments centralisation, he said. The chief minister said these events emphasise the need to restore the preeminence of state governments and the role of the school education system in determining criteria for professional course selection. Stalin said NEET and other such national-level entrance exams were anti-poor. They undermine federal polity are against social justice (and) impact the availability of doctors in deserving areas, he added. Leader of the Opposition in the assembly and AIADMK general secretary, Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) said there had been allegations of malpractices at multiple levels in northern states, right from allocation of exam centres to distribution of question papers. While a case has been filed regarding these irregularities such procedural irregularities confirm the anti-NEET position which AIADMK has been continuously taking, Palaniswami said, asking the newly formed government to come up with a clear explanation about the alleged irregularities and to cancel the NEET examination. The AIADMK leader also questioned the decision to release the results on June 4, the day the Lok Sabha election results were to be announced. Election Results highlights: The newly elected MPs of the BJP-led NDA met today and elected Narendra Modi as their leader, paving the way for him to take oath as Prime Minister for a third consecutive term. After being elected as leader of NDA alliance, Narendra Modi met veteran BJP leaders Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi at their respective residences. Modi also met ex-President Ram Nath Kovind....Read More Later in the day, Narendra Modi met the President to present her the list of MPs supporting him and stake claim to form the government. Senior BJP leaders, including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and J P Nadda, have also been holding deliberations with allies to work out an amicable formula for their share of representation in the new government, which will critically depend on them for survival. Lok Sabha elections 2024 results: A simple majority of 272 seats is required to form the government. According to the Election Commission of India, the BJP won 240 seats, significantly lower than its 2019 tally of 303. The Congress made substantial gains, winning 99 seats. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured 293 seats, while the INDIA bloc crossed the 230 mark, posing stiff competition and defying predictions. Sanjay Lalwani has been credited with the biggest victory margin in the recently concluded Lok Sabha election. His victory margin of 11,75,092 votes comes against his closest rival Sanjay Solanki, a Bahujan Samaj Party who got 51,659 votes in Madhya Pradeshs Indore constituency. A view of the Lok Sabha in the new Parliament building. (File Photo) However, the NOTA option got 2,18,674 votes in Indore, making it the runner up in the constituency. Taking that into account, Lalwani's victory margin is 10,08,077. Therefore, the biggest win title goes to Congress Rakibul Hussain who won from Assams Dhubri constituency with a margin of 10,12 476 votes. Hussain, aged 59, was among the 13 candidates from Assams Dhubri constituency. His closest rival for the seat was Mohammed Badruddin Ajmal, a perfume baron and former Lok Sabha MP, who polled 4,59,409 votes. Read: Modi speaks of consensus as NDA elects him as leader ahead of his inauguration Before running for the general assembly polls, Hussain has represented the Samaguri assembly segment in the Assam Legislative Assembly since 2021. He also served as the minister of state for jail and home guards, border area development during the Tarun Gogoi government from 2002 to 2006. From 2006 to 2011, Hussain served as minister of environment and forest, information and public relations in the state. Here are the other leaders who won with big victory margins: Shivraj Singh Chouhan: Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and five-time MP Chouhan won in his sixth parliamentary electoral bid from the Vidisha constituency with a total of 1,116,460 votes. His rival for the seat was former Lok Sabha MP and veteran Congress leader, Pratap Bhanu Sharma, who lost by 8, 21,408 votes. The Vidisha constituency is considered Chouhans stronghold, where he secured victories in the 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2004 Lok Sabha elections. CR Patil: President of BJP Gujarat state unit since 2020 and sitting MP from Navasri, Patil won with the biggest victory margin 7.73 lakh votes in the state. His nearest rival Naishadhbhai Bhupatbhai Desai, a Congress candidate, received 2,57,514 votes. Amit Shah: BJP leader and former Union home minister Amit Shah won the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency of Gujarat for a second consecutive term by a margin of 7,44,716 votes securing 10,10,972 of total votes polled. Shahs nearest rival for the seat was Congress partys Sonal Patel, who received 2,66,256 votes. Shah was among the fourteen candidates in the seat. Abhishek Banerjee: Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP and national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee won West Bengals Diamond Harbour constituency by a margin of 7,10,930 votes in the Lok Sabha election. He received 10,48,230 of the total votes polled, while his rival Abhijit Das, a BJP candidate, polled 3,37,300 votes. Read more: TDP seeks five cabinet berths at Centre, two for its ally Jana Sena Biplab Kumar Deb: Former Tripura chief minister and BJP leader Biplab Kumar Deb won the Tripura West Lok Sabha seat received 8,81,341 of the total votes polled and won with a margin of 6,11,578 votes. His nearest rival for the seat was Congress partys Asish Kumar Saha, who received 6,11,578 in the Lok Sabha election. Hemang Joshi: Bharatiya Janata Partys Hemang Joshi claimed a clear victory in Vadodara constituency of Gujarat. He received 8,73,189 of the total votes polled and won by a margin of 5,82,126 votes, defeating Padhiyar Jashpalsinh Mahendrasinh, who polled 2,91,063. Brijmohan Agrawal: A BJP candidate and education minister of Chhattisgarh, Agrawal was contesting from Raipur Lok Sabha constituency. He won by a margin of 5,75, 285, and his closet rival Vikas Upadhyay of the Congress party polled 4,75,066 Sasikanth Senthil: Former IAS officer and Congress candidate Sasikanth Senthil emerged as the candidate with the highest victory margin in the Lok Sabha election in Tamil Nadu. Senthil, who was contesting from Tiruvallur Lok Sabha seat received 7,96,956 total votes and defeated BJPs V Pon Balaganapathy by a margin of 5,72,155 votes. The Election Commission on Thursday clarified on the differences between votes polled and votes counted, attributing it to certain votes not being counted as per rules. An electoral officer opens an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) to display the number of votes at a counting center for the Lok Sabha Election on June 4 (HT Photo/Parveen Kumar) A user on social media platform X alleged discrepancy between total votes cast on EVMs and total votes counted, sometimes amounting to thousands. Follow: Election Results LIVE Poll body explains mismatch Uttar Pradesh's chief electoral officer responded, explaining that such differences can occur due to specific protocols. Some polling stations votes are not counted due to: 1. The Presiding Officer failing to clear mock poll data from the Control Unit before starting the actual poll or not removing mock poll slips from the VVPAT. 2. A mismatch between the total votes polled in the Control Unit and the record in Form 17-C prepared by the Presiding Officer due to an error. Votes from these polling stations are only counted at the end if their total is equal to or greater than the margin between the first and second candidates. If the total is lower than the margin, these votes are not counted, leading to the observed differences between votes polled by EVMs and votes counted, the poll body said. ALSO READ- Narendra Modi unanimously elected as leader of NDA Parliamentary party; Chandrababu Naidu, Nitish Kumar back his name Many seats decided by slim margin The counting of votes for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections was completed on Tuesday. According to the Election Commission of India, the BJP won 240 seats and, with its allies, secured a total of 293 seats. The INDIA bloc has over 230 MPs in the new parliament, with the Congress strength touching 100 after independent MP Vishal Patil extended support to the grand old party. In several constituencies, the results were decided by just a few thousand votes. One of the closest contests was in the Mumbai North West constituency in Maharashtra, where Ravindra Dattaram Waikar of Shiv Sena defeated Amol Gajanan Kirtikar of Shiv Sena (UBT) by only 48 votes. ALSO READ- Rahul Gandhi gets bail from Bengaluru court in defamation case filed by BJP Another tight race was in Kerala's Attingal constituency, where Adoor Prakash of INC narrowly defeated V Joy of CPI (M) by 684 votes. Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who is in jail, is facing the same kind of oppression that led to the custodial death of Jesuit priest Stan Swamy who dedicated his life working for tribal rights, according to social media post by the JMM leader. Former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren. (ANI) The latest Lok Sabha elections mark the beginning of Jharkhand's revenge for the custodial death of Swamy who had been fighting for tribal rights, said the Facebook post from Soren's account which is being managed by his wife Kalpana Soren. Hemant Soren was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam. Read more: Misuse of power: ED claims Hemant Soren forcefully acquired land worth 31 crore in Ranchi "Just as Father Stan, who raised his voice for the most vulnerable section, was silenced by institutional neglect and injustice, today the same kind of oppression is being done to Hemant Soren. Today there is a need for every Jharkhandi to stand strongly in support of Hemant Soren. Otherwise, no one can stop turning Jharkhand into Manipur," the social media post said. In Manipur, the ethnic conflict between Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and hills-based Kukis has led to the deaths of over 200 people and rendered thousands of people homeless. Soren's social media post also said, "This election marked the beginning of Jharkhands revenge for the wrongful custodial death of Father Stan Swamy, an 84-year-old Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist a black mark on Indias democracy and human rights situation". Read more: Supreme Court refuses to entertain Hemant Soren's interim bail plea against ED arrest, pulls up ex-Jharkhand CM The BJP, which had dominated the last three Lok Sabha elections in Jharkhand, faced a significant setback in the state's five tribal constituencies - Khunti, Singhbhum, Lohardaga, Rajmahal and Dumka. Three of these seats were won by the ruling JMM and two by the Congress, including the Khunti constituency where Union Minister Arjun Munda suffered a defeat, losing to Congress' Kalicharan Munda by 1.49 lakh votes. Kalpana also won the Gandey bypoll by 27,149 votes over her nearest BJP rival Dilip Kumar Verma. Soren's Facebook post read: "Despite his old age and Parkinson's disease, Father Stan, who had been fighting for the rights of tribal communities for decades, was denied bail and proper medical treatment on false terrorism charges framed by the BJP government. He was not given a straw worth 25 paise to drink water...Due to deteriorating health conditions caused by prison conditions, Father Stan, unfortunately, died in custody on July 5, 2021." Swamy, who spent long years working among tribals in Jharkhand, died in Mumbai, hours before his appeal for bail in a case in which he was accused of being an 'Urban Naxal' was to be heard. "His death is an example of the BJPs policy of suppressing the opposition and tribals under the pretext of terrorism and criminalizing human rights work," it said. Read more: Jharkhand CM, six ministers fail to sway voters in their seats: LS poll data After Swamy's death, Soren, who was then chief minister, had alleged that the central government should be "held accountable for the absolute apathy" towards the Jesuit priest. Swamy had worked for about three decades among tribals in Jharkhand. Ranchi Catholic Archdiocese, expressing grief over Swamy's death, had said the "caged parrot now sings in Heaven". The Archdiocese had said: "The fact that this sick man suffering from Parkinson's disease was arrested at the age of 84, refused bail for over seven months, not even allowed a sipper and finally contracted COVID in jail itself is a sad reflection on those who got the innocent man arrested and the courts that refused to give him bail." Swamy, a cancer patient, was arrested from his home in Ranchi on October 8, 2020. He was taken to Mumbai in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case and was booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Sleuths of the National Investigation Agency had claimed that investigations established he was actively involved with the CPI (Maoist). New Delhi, Delhi minister Atishi on Friday said the city's water crisis will not be solved even if Himachal Pradesh releases water for it as Haryana has "reduced" its share. Haryana reducing water flow to Delhi, conspiring against people: Atishi Atishi inspected the Wazirabad barrage earlier in the day and accused the Haryana government of "conspiring" against the people of Delhi by continuously stopping the capital's share of water and releasing less water into the Yamuna, even as the Supreme Court is trying to solve the crisis. During the inspection, the Aam Aadmi Party leader said Haryana is not giving Delhi its rightful share of water and due to this, the water level has come down to 669.7 feet on June 7 as compared to 671.3 feet on June 2. "The Supreme Court is trying to solve the water problem. The Supreme Court is continuously hearing this matter and has ordered a meeting of the Upper Yamuna River Board. It will hear the matter again on Monday. But for the last five days, when the hearing was on in the court, the Haryana government has been conspiring behind its back," she alleged. Atishi's remarks came a day after the apex court directed the Himachal Pradesh government to release 137 cusecs of surplus water to Delhi and asked Haryana to facilitate its flow. The court also said there should be no politics over water. The minister said Delhi is dependent on the Yamuna for its entire water supply. The water that comes into the river is the same that is released from Haryana. "The water coming into the Yamuna is supplied to the Wazirabad, Chandrawal and Okhla water treatment plants. If the water supply reduces and consequently, the water in these plants reduces, when less water comes into the Yamuna from Haryana, then from where will these plants produce water? This will affect the supply and people will face problems," she said. "Himachal Pradesh is telling the court that it is ready to help, but the Haryana government is now hatching a conspiracy that even if Himachal Pradesh gives water, the problem of Delhiites will not be solved and that is why Haryana is constantly stopping the water that it has to send to Wazirabad," the minister alleged. She said the issue will be brought before the top court and hoped that the capital will get its share of water and the additional water from Himachal Pradesh without any obstruction. Delhi has been grappling with a water crisis this summer. The city residents are facing daily struggles to secure enough water for their basic needs, relying heavily on tankers, which often leads to disputes over access to water. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text. Newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Kangana Ranaut on Thursday alleged she was slapped and abused by a woman constable of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) at the Chandigarh airport before she boarded a flight to Delhi. CISF officials carry out an investigation at the airport in Chandigarh on Thursday. (Keshav Singh/Hindustan Times) While officials did not comment on the motive of the alleged assault, Ranaut appeared to link it to extremism and terrorism in Punjab although a video of the suspect appeared to suggest she lashed out over the Mandi MP-elects stand on the farmers protest. I was hit on the face, abused. I am safe but concerned about terrorism in Punjab, Ranaut said in a video uploaded to her handle on X at 6.14pm with the caption Shocking rise in terror and violence in Punjab. The CISF constable, identified as Kulwinder Kaur, was immediately detained after the incident, and later suspended after Ranaut lodged a complaint with CISF officials on her arrival at the Indira Gandhi airport. The CISF was also in the process of filing a police complaint. The incident occurred around 3pm at the security checkpoint ahead of Ranauts flight. While some reports suggested the confrontation occurred after Ranaut did not heed Kaurs instructions to put her phone on the tray during the routine frisking, the BJP MP, in her video, alleged that the constable approached her from the side as she was waiting in the security check area, hit her and began hurling abuses at her, seemingly without any provocation. When Ranaut asked for the reason for her behaviour, Kaur allegedly told Ranaut that she was a supporter of the farmers protests. I am safe. I am perfectly fine. There was an incident at the Chandigarh airport during the security check. As I was leaving after completing security checking process, a woman CISF officer came from the side and hit me on the face. She began hurling abuses. When I asked her why she was doing this, she said she is a supporter of the farmers protest. I am safe but my question is how we end growing extremism and terrorism in Punjab, Ranaut said in the video. Airport authorities, on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Kaur was unhappy with the actor-turned-politicians stand on the farmers protest when she said that the agitators were people paid to demonstrate. Ranauts flight, Vistaras UK707 to New Delhi at 3.30pm, was delayed, eventually departing at 4.10pm. The BJP MP-elect was met by CISF officials from the airport and Delhi headquarters when she landed in the national capital, where she lodged an official complaint. The force is yet to issue a statement. But an official aware of the development in Chandigarh said, Constable Kaur was immediately detained after the incident. Kangana Ranaut proceeded to board her flight. Punjab police officials also reached the airport. Punjab police officers, including deputy superintendents of police (DSPs) KS Sandhu and HS Bal, checked the CCTV cameras and took the statements of the airport staff, said a police officer who asked not to be named. Kaur was being questioned by the authoritiesat the airport, a CISF officer in Chandigarh said, adding that a probe had been launched. A senior CISF officer in Chandigarh said they were also in the process of registering a First Information Report (FIR) against the constable. We have given a complaint at the local police station against the lady constable concerned. She has been suspended with immediate effect and an inquiry has been ordered into the matter, the officer said. Sandhu said that police are yet to register an FIR in the case. Several videos from the aftermath of the incident were being widely shared on social media. In one video, Kaur can be heard defending herself to bystanders, questioning the kind of statements Ranaut made during the farmers protest. She said that women had taken 100 to sit at the protest. Did she sit there? My mother was among the women protesters in the sit-in when she gave that statement, Kaur is heard saying in the video. HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the clip. Kaur hails from Sultanpur Lodhi in Kapurthala district of Punjab and is a sister of farmer leader Sher Singh Malhiwal. Between November 2020 and December 2021, thousands of farmers from food-bowl states such as Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan held a sit-in protest at the three borders of the national capital to protest the three farm laws proposed by the central government to liberalise agricultural markets. The laws were later repealed. Ranaut was on Tuesday was elected to Lok Sabha from Himachal Pradeshs Mandi constituency, defeating Congress heavyweight Vikramaditya Singh by a margin of over 74,000 votes. Farmers leader Sarvan Singh Pandher, one of the leaders of a second farmers agitation in January, on Thursday criticised Ranaut for speaking against farmers and disrespecting their mothers. He also condemned police and CISF for detaining Kaur. Terming the incident a serious matter, National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Rekha Sharma called for serious action and said the panel had taken up the matter with the CISF. Congress leader Sachin Pilot has claimed that the Lok Sabha election 2024 results indicated that people have rejected the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and therefore, Narendra Modi should not try to form the government. Congress leader Sachin Pilot said that BJP's campaign of 'Mandir Masjid' was rejected. (PTI) Follow- Election results live updates The BJP should introspect. When the 1989 election happened, Rajiv Gandhi got around 200 seats. He was asked to form the government, but he refused saying he had not got the mandate. Then, the next largest party was asked to form the government, Sachin Pilot said while interacting with reporters on Thursday. The Rajasthan Congress leader added that the current election results were against the BJP and NDA. ALSO READ- BJP-led NDA meeting today, Chandrababu Babu asks all TDP MPs to attend it The ruling BJP won 240 seats, falling short of the majority mark of 272. However, its pre-poll coalition partners in the NDA, including N Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party and Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United), have pledged support for Modi 3.0. The NDA government is likely to take oath on Sunday. Voters rejected Mandir Masjid campaign: Sachin Pilot "People didn't accept BJP's campaign of 'Mandir Masjid', Hindu-Muslim issues, and 'Mangalsutra'. The central government adopted an attitude, especially against the opposition, targeting them, imprisoning elected chief ministers, and misusing agencies like the ED and CBI. All these actions have been rejected by the people," Pilot said. ALSO READ- Rahul Gandhi to appear before Bengaluru court today. What's the defamation case filed by Karnataka BJP? In Rajasthan, the BJP won 14 out of 25 seats, while the Congress secured eight seats. The CPI (M), Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, and Bharat Adivasi Party won one seat each. "The Congress, whose numbers have now doubled, was better understood by the public in terms of our manifesto, our narrative, and our campaign. The double-engine has failed in Lucknow (UP), Jaipur (Rajasthan), and Haryana. I am thankful to the workers, leaders, and candidates of Congress," Pilot added. (Inputs from PTI) Imphal: The authorities in Manipurs Jiribam district on Thursday imposed an indefinite curfew as security preventive measures to avoid unwanted incidents in the aftermath of a person found beheaded, officials said. Army personnel patrol an area in Manipur S Saratkumar, a resident of Jiribam district, was found beheaded on Thursday after he went missing, following which an irate mob allegedly set ablaze three abandoned villages belonging to the Kuki-Zo community in the district on the same night. In retaliation, two residents belonging to the Meitei community at Leishabithol and Jiribam were also set ablaze, reportedly by Kuki militants. Also Read | 59-year-old man found beheaded in Manipur, houses set on fire The situation remained tense as locals stormed Jiribam police station demanding to hand over the licensed arms that were seized ahead of the 18th Lok Sabha election after the model election code of conduct was imposed. The arms were later handed over to the respective licensed holders after necessary procedures. Some Kuki Zo residents who had returned to the nearby villages of Jiribam district in the past weeks have again moved to safer areas of nearby areas of the district and Assam after Thursdays incident. 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 | 75 women rescued from Kuki militants after 2-hour gunfight in Manipur Kuki Inpi Jiribam-Tamenglong-Noney (KIJTN), an apex body of the Kuki community, vehemently condemned the killing of Saratkumar by unknown miscreants. It also demanded to book the culprits at the earliest. Besides, it also appealed to release L Thianmuang, a resident of the Jiribam district belonging to the Kuki community unconditionally to prevent further aggravation of the situation. Thianmuang was picked up by some unknown miscreants wearing black outfits from his residence at around 6pm on Thursday. KIJTN appealed to the general public, civil society organisations and community leaders, particularly the Kuki Zo and Meitei, not to aggravate the situation but to stand for peace. On Friday, amid the curfew being imposed, some rounds of firing were heard near Jiribam town. According to the people familiar with the matter, the rounds were fired in the air by village volunteers of Jiribam as warning shots to prevent Kuki militants. Kuki National Front- Military Council (KNF-MC), a Kuki militant outfit, clarified on Friday that Thongminthang Haokip alias Thangboi Haokip alias Roger, who was arrested by a team of National Investigation Agency (NIA) from Imphal airport is not related to the outfit. NIA had stated earlier that Thangboi had admitted that he is a member of KNF-MC and United Tribal Volunteer (UTV). Meanwhile, in a fresh incident on Friday, suspected Kuki militants attacked Meitei village with country-made bombs in Sekmai, Imphal West district, Manipur, which is about 25 kilometres from Imphal. The incident took place around 11.45am at Pangaltabi along the Sekmai River under the jurisdiction of the Sekmai police station. People mentioned above said that the bombs were fired towards the Meitei labourers who were working in the Sekmai River to collect quarry and sand. The labourers escaped the spot to nearby safer places as the bomb attack was followed by several rounds of gunshots. No causality has been reported and Manipur police have taken security measures in and around the area. Earlier similar incidents had occurred at Andro, Imphal East district, before the recent Lok Sabha election. In a remarkable turn of events, Sheikh Abdul Rashid and Amritpal Singh have won their respective Lok Sabha seats while in custody on terror-related charges. Sheikh Abdul Rashid and Amritpal Singh won Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab. (HT PHOTO) Rashid, also known as Engineer Rashid, won the Jammu and Kashmir constituency of Baramulla. Rashid, currently lodged in Delhis Tihar jail on charges of financing terrorism, defeated Omar Abdullah, the leader of the National Conference, by more than 200,000 votes. On the other hand, Singh, a radical Sikh preacher who is in Assams Dibrugarh jail, won the seat in Punjabs Khadoor Sahib, beating the Congress contender, Kulbir Singh Zira, by a wide majority of 197000 votes. This development brings to light the legal intricacies and historical precedents surrounding the ability of incarcerated persons to contest and win elections in India. Legal framework Indian law does not explicitly prohibit undertrials from contesting elections. According to the Representation of the People Act (RPA), 1951, a person is disqualified from contesting elections if they are convicted of an offence and sentenced to imprisonment for two years or more. While a lawfully imprisoned person is prohibited from voting under Section 62(5) of the RPA (if they are confined in a prison, whether on a sentence of imprisonment or transportation or otherwise or if they are in the lawful custody of the police), a 2013 amendment to the Act states that the person will still be considered an elector if their name is on the electoral rolls. The amendment was carried out to overcome July 10, 2023, Supreme Court judgment, which ruled that anybody in police custody or jail will not be able to contest elections because the person ceases the right to vote as an elector. The amended provision, however, allows even an imprisoned person to contest elections. To be sure, the Supreme Court has clarified through a series of judgments that the right to contest an election is neither a fundamental right nor a common law right. It is a right conferred by a statute, which is subject to several restrictions, including a valid order of police or judicial custody or detention. Therefore, an individual cannot claim that he has a right to contest an election and that certain valid stipulations violate fundamental rights. However, undertrials, who are yet to be convicted, retain their mandate to contest elections, provided they secure necessary permissions from courts that have their custody. This principle is rooted in the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, a cornerstone of the Indian judicial system. Section 8(3) of the RPA states that a person convicted of an offence and sentenced to imprisonment for at least two years is disqualified from contesting elections for six more years after their release. However, this does not apply to undertrials, who have not been convicted. In Shibu Soren Vs Dayanand Sahay & Ors (2001), the Supreme Court maintained that the right to contest an election and to be a member of the legislature is a very important right in any democratic setup. A practical view not [a] pedantic basket of tests must, therefore, guide the courts to arrive at an appropriate conclusion. A ban on candidature must have a substantial and reasonable nexus to the object sought to be achieved namely, elimination of or in any event reduction of [the] possibility of misuse of the position which the concerned legislator holds or had held at the relevant time, said the judgment. In K Prabhakaran Vs P Jayarajan (2005), the Supreme Court held that the disqualification under Section 8(3) of the RPA applies only after a person is convicted and sentenced. Until then, they are presumed innocent and retain their electoral rights. It is trite that the right to contest an election is a statutory right. In order to be eligible for exercising such right the person should be qualified in the terms of the statute. He should also not be subject to any disqualification as may be imposed by the statute making provision for the elective office. Thus, the legislature creating the office is well within its power to prescribe qualifications and disqualifications subject to which the eligibility of any candidate for contesting for or holding the office shall be determined, this judgment said. The landmark Supreme Court Judgment in Lily Thomas Vs Union of India (2013) ruled that MPs, MLAs, and MLCs convicted of offences and sentenced to imprisonment of two years or more will be immediately disqualified, reaffirming the principles laid down in the RPA. The verdict struck down Section 8(4) of the RPA, which provided for a three-month window for the convicted legislator to file an appeal during which the disqualification would not take effect. Historical precedents There have been some notable instances in Indian history where individuals have contested and won elections while in jail, providing precedents for Rashid and Singhs recent victories. During the Emergency (1975-1977), many Opposition leaders were jailed, including Jayaprakash Narayan and George Fernandes, who were prominent figures in the movement against the Indira Gandhi government. While Narayan did not contest elections and his imprisonment galvanised public opinion and contributed to the victory of the Janata Party in the 1977 elections, Fernandes contested the 1977 Lok Sabha elections from jail. He was arrested under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) but won from the Muzaffarpur constituency in Bihar with a significant majority. While incarcerated in 1996, Mukhtar Ansari, a don-turned politician who passed away in March, ran on the Bahujan Samaj Party ticket for the Uttar Pradesh Mau assembly seat and won. Kalpanath Rai, the former Union minister who was imprisoned in 1996 due to a TADA case, ran from prison for the 1996 Lok Sabha election and won the Ghosi seat. Another gangster-turned-politician, Mohammad Shahabuddin, emerged victorious from jail to win the Siwan seat in Bihar in 1999. Later, he was found guilty of several murders and given a life sentence, disqualifying him as a lawmaker. Assamese RTI activist Akhil Gogoi ran and won the Sibsagar seat in the 2021 Assam assembly elections while being lodged in jail on charges of sedition and inciting violence during the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act movement. In the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections of 2022, veteran Samajwadi Party leader and nine-time Rampur MLA Azam Khan, still incarcerated, won the Rampur assembly seat. Later, Khan lost his eligibility as a legislator after being found guilty in a 2019 case involving suspected hate speech. Current scenario, oath Rashid and Singhs victories, while under custody, underscore the application of the legal principles enunciated above. Both individuals are undertrials, which means they are not disqualified from contesting elections. Once elected, the next step for Rashid and Singh is to take the oath of office, which is a constitutional requirement for all members of Parliament. For this, the court may grant temporary bail to allow the elected representatives to attend the oath-taking ceremony in Parliament. Alternatively, the court can facilitate their swearing-in by sending them to Parliament in police custody only for the oath ceremony and the Parliament security can escort them inside. They will have to go back to the jail after the ceremony is over. Rashid has approached a Delhi court seeking interim bail, or in alternative custody parole, to take the oath and perform other ancillary functions as a Member of Parliament. On Thursday, the court sought a response from the National Investigation Agency (NIA), scheduling the next hearing on Friday (June 7). In the present scenario, Article 101(4) of the Constitution will also come into play since Rashid and Singh may not be able to attend the House proceedings owing to their incarceration. The provision states that if for 60 days a member of either House of Parliament is absent from all meetings without permission of the House, the House may declare his seat vacant. Therefore, Rashid and Singh will have to notify the Speaker in writing of their unavailability to attend House proceedings after taking the oath. The Speaker will then place their request before the House Committee on Absence of Members from the Sittings of the House, which will recommend whether to allow the members to continue missing from House sessions. This Committee consists of 15 members nominated by the Speaker. The chairperson of the Committee is appointed by the Speaker from amongst the members of the Committee. The House will next vote on the recommendation, as proposed by the Speaker. The electoral triumphs of Rashid and Singh highlight a unique aspect of Indias democratic framework, which upholds the right to contest elections even for those in custody, as long as they are undertrial. While the two get ready to take their oaths, their cases will continue to spark conversations about the intersection of law, politics, and ethics in Indias vibrant democracy. Kangana Ranaut News: Sher Singh Mahival, a farmers' leader and the brother of a woman CISF constable who allegedly slapped and abused actor and Bharatiya Janata Party MP-elect Kangana Ranaut at the Chandigarh airport on Thursday, has backed his sister while reacting to the incident. Actor-MP Kangana Ranaut, farmers' leader Sher Singh Mahival, CISF Constable Kulwinder Kaur. Constable Kulwinder Kaur, who appeared to be upset with Kangana Ranaut over her stance on the farmers' protests, was suspended and an FIR lodged against her. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which provides airport security, has also ordered a court of inquiry into the incident. Reacting to the ugly fracas, two days after Kangana Ranaut won from the Mandi Lok Sabha seat in Himachal Pradesh, Sher Singh Mahival said, I learned through the media that something happened at the Chandigarh airport. I now understand that this incident occurred during the checking of Kangana's mobile and purse. Kangana had said during the farmers' protest that women were there for 100. After the argument, my sister must have become emotionally angry, which led to this incident. Both soldiers and farmers are important and are fulfilling their duties in every way. We fully support her in this matter, constable Kulwinder Kaur's bother can be heard saying in a video surfaced on social media. According to media reports, Sher Singh Mahival is a farmer leader. He also holds the position of organisation secretary in the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee in Kapurthala. Meanwhile, Shivraj Singh Bains, a Zirakpur (Mohali)-based businessman, has announced a reward of 1 lakh for the woman constable for slapping the Bollywood actor. Sharing a video, the businessman also saluted Kulwinder Kaur for protecting Punjabi people and Punjabi culture. Kangana Ranaut slapped: What happened at Chandigarh airport? Recapping in detail what had happened, Kangana Ranaut said she had been getting a lot of calls from the media and her well-wishers. The constable, she said, came towards her from the side. She hit me in the face and started abusing me. I asked her why she did it, and she said she supports the farmer protests. "I am safe but my concern is that terrorism is increasing in Punjab... How do we handle that?," Kangana Ranaut said in the video statement. What did constable Kulwinder Kaur say? A video doing the rounds of social media showed an agitated Kulwinder Kaur talking to people presumably after the incident. "Kangana made a statement that farmers were protesting in Delhi because they were paid 100 or 200. At the time, my mother was one of the protesters," Kulwinder Kaur purportedly heard saying in the video. (With inputs from PTI) Some farmer outfits on Friday threw their weight behind the CISF woman constable who allegedly slapped actor and BJP MP-elect Kangana Ranaut, saying the entire sequence leading to the incident needs to be properly investigated. BJP MP Kangana Ranaut was allegedly slapped by a CISF woman constable at the Chandigarh airport when she was on her way to Delhi(HT_PRINT) The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha are among the prominent outfits which said they stand in support of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) constable. Constable Kulwinder Kaur, who allegedly hit Ranaut and abused her during security check at the Chandigarh airport on Thursday, has been suspended and an FIR lodged against her. Kaur was apparently upset with Ranaut over her stance on the farmers' protests. The CISF, tasked with providing security at airports, has also ordered a court of inquiry into the incident. ALSO READ| When you say stupid thingsthere's a reaction': Harsimrat Badal slams Kangana Ranaut over attack by CISF personnel The Mohali Police has booked Kaur under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint). Both are bailable offences. No arrest has been made yet, officials said and added that the FIR was registered on a complaint from the CISF. Ranaut, in a video message on Thursday, said she was hit in the face and abused by the constable during a security check at the Chandigarh airport, the ugly fracas breaking out two days after she was elected to the Lok Sabha from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh. SKM (Non-Political) leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher met Punjab's Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav on Friday afternoon, seeking a proper investigation into the matter. "The main issue which we raised is that there should be no injustice to the constable. We have been assured that investigations are being held impartially," Dallewal said after the meeting. Mohali Police SHO (Airport) Inspector Periwinkle Grewal said the matter is under investigation. In a meeting, CISF officials gave the Mohali police information about the incident, another police official told reporters. He added that footage from CCTV cameras are being scanned and after that the next course of action will be taken. Earlier in the day, while addressing a press conference here with Pandher and some other farmer leaders, Dallewal said an "Insaaf march" to the senior superintendent of police's office will be taken out in Mohali on June 9 "to demand that no injustice be done in this case with the constable". In a video statement titled "Shocking rise in terror and violence in Punjab" posted on X after she landed in Delhi after the incident on Thursday, Ranaut said she was safe and fine. The constable, Ranaut had said, came towards her from the side. "She hit me in the face and started abusing me. I asked her why she did it and she said she supports the farmer protests." "I am safe but my concern is that terrorism and extremism are increasing in Punjab... How do we handle that?" Ranaut had said. Another video doing the rounds on social media showed the agitated constable talking to people presumably after the incident. "Kangana made a statement (earlier) that farmers were protesting in Delhi because they were paid 100 or 200. At the time, my mother was one of the protesters," she said in the purported video. Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar termed the incident "most unfortunate" and said any form of violence as a means of expressing dissent was unacceptable and warrants condemnation. "What is even more concerning is that a person wearing a security uniform indulged in such an unlawful violent act," he said. Dallewal and Pandher said the constable's brother was active in farmer movements and was part of their organisation. Sher Singh Mahiwal, the brother of the constable, who is based in Kapurthala, on Friday, told the media that his sister has been in service for the past 15 years and served in many places, including Kerala, Chennai and Amritsar. "Kulwinder Kaur is my younger sister. We are six brothers and sisters," he said. About the incident, he said, "As per the information we have, Kulwinder Kaur told her (Kangana) to put her purse and mobile phone through the scanner during security check over which some argument broke". "We are saying if Kaur has slapped, some video proof should be there," he said. "Sometimes Kangana makes some remarks about farmers, sometimes about our women. 'Kaur Khalistani' word was used by Ranaut and she should be booked for this," he alleged. Kulwinder Kaur's mother Veer Kaur said the family has several relatives who are in the defence forces. "Ranaut must have said something provocative," she alleged. Refusing to believe that her daughter could have slapped Ranaut, she said, "Is there any video proof that she slapped her?" Both Dallewal and Pandher lashed out at the actor for stating that terrorism was increasing in Punjab. Dallewal said what they have come to know from various reports is that there was some argument from Ranaut's side during the security check when her purse and mobile phone were being put in for checking. If this is so, then the constable is not to be blamed, she was doing her duty, he said. "And everyone knows the previous track record of Ranaut and the kind of language she has used for farmers. There must have been an argument and that must have led to the incident. All these things need proper investigation," he said. Taking on Ranaut over her "terrorism" and "extremism" remark, Dallewal said, "In Punjab, communities of all faiths are peacefully co-existing. We demand that a case should be filed and courts should take suo motu cognisance of the wordings used by the BJP MP." "Ranaut is an actor and now even an MP, she should not speak such language. This is condemnable. We demand that action be taken against her," he said. The two farmer leaders claimed that people, including farmers, have taught the BJP a lesson in the recently held Lok Sabha polls. "From rural areas, 73 of their candidates lost this time," he claimed. In Haryana, they could win only five seats, in Uttar Pradesh, they had to face heavy defeat while they also lost heavily in Rajasthan. During the farmer's agitation, they used tear gas, and bullets and people of the country have expressed their anger through the ballot, Dallewal claimed. Bengaluru: The Karnataka high court on Friday granted anticipatory bail to Bhavani Revanna, mother of suspended Janata Dal (Secular) [JD(S)] MP Prajwal Revanna, in a kidnapping case filed against her linked to the sexual abuse allegations against her son. Karnataka high court (Representative Photo) The high courts decision to grant her bail mandates that she must fully cooperate with the investigation by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is probing the alleged sexual abuse charges against Prajwal. Last week, the SIT had issued a notice to Bhavani asking her to be present at her home for questioning in the kidnap case linked to allegations of sexual abuse against her son. However, when an SIT team reached Bhavanis house, Chennambika Nilaya, she was not present. The high courts order also restricts Bhavani from entering Hassan district or KR Nagar in Mysore. These conditions aim to ensure that the investigation proceeds without any interference or influence from the involved parties. A single judge bench of Justice Krishna S Dixit granted the interim order, saying, Direction is issued to state and police neither to apprehend and arrest the petition or keep her in detention. This is following stringent conditions, this is an order granting bail and not awarded to petitioner and not be celebrated. Further, it directed her to remain present before the office of jurisdictional investigating officer by 1pm on Friday and cooperate with the investigation. In the guise of investigation, she shall not be retained in the office beyond 5pm, the order said. The high court also ordered that the warrant of arrest issued by an Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) court be kept in abeyance. The Magistrate court had in its order dated May 31, rejected the application filed by Bhavani seeking anticipatory bail. Kulwinder Kaur, a woman CISF constable posted at the Chandigarh Airport, allegedly slapped Kangana Ranaut a Bollywood actor and Bharatiya Janata Party MP-elect from Himachal Pradeshs Mandi on Thursday. Kulwinder Kaur, who appeared to be upset with Kangana Ranaut over her stance on the farmers' protests, has been suspended, and an FIR was lodged against her. Kulwinder Kaur, a woman CISF constable posted at the Chandigarh Airport, who allegedly slapped actor Kangana Ranaut. (@SaffronSunanda) The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which provides airport security, has also ordered a court of inquiry into the incident. In a video statement titled "Shocking rise in terror and violence in Punjab" posted on X (formally Twitter) after Kangana Ranaut landed in New Delhi, the "Queen" actor said she was safe and fine. Watch the video here: Who is CISF constable Kulwinder Kaur? Kulwinder Kaur joined the CISF in 2009 and has been with the aviation security group of the force at the Chandigarh airport since 2021. The 35-year-old Kulwinder Kaur is from Sultanpur Lodhi in Punjab. She has been posted at Chandigarh Airport for the last two years. Her husband is also a personnel with the CISF. Her brother, Sher Singh, is a farmer leader and the organisation secretary of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee. Kulwinder Kaur has two children. She has had no vigilance inquiry or punishment against her in the force till now, officials said, adding her husband, too, is posted at the same airport. What happened with Kangana Ranaut at Chandigarh airport? Recapping in detail what had happened, Kangana Ranaut said she had been getting a lot of calls from the media and her well-wishers. The constable, she said, came towards her from the side. She hit me in the face and started abusing me. I asked her why she did it, and she said she supports the farmer protests. "I am safe but my concern is that terrorism is increasing in Punjab... How do we handle that?," Kangana Ranaut said in the video statement. What did constable Kulwinder Kaur say? A video doing the rounds of social media showed an agitated Kulwinder Kaur talking to people presumably after the incident. Watch the video here: "Kangana made a statement that farmers were protesting in Delhi because they were paid 100 or 200. At the time, my mother was one of the protesters," Kulwinder Kaur purportedly heard saying in the video. (With inputs from PTI) Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Thursday took a dig at those raising questions on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) saying the EVMs should be left to rest until the next elections as they are to be readied to be abused again in the upcoming polls. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar(PIB) Follow Lok Sabha Election Updates here Addressing the media on the allegations of EVM tampering, Rajiv Kumar said for the past 20-22 elections, a similar tradition has been followed where EVMs were accused of being tampered with, and their credibility was always questioned. But in the end, they have always shown the results. "The results of EVM are in front of everyone. Why to accuse that poor fellow? Let it rest for a few days. Let EVM rest till the next election. Then it will come out, then its battery will be changed, then its papers will be changed. Then it will get abused again, but will deliver good results. It has been showing similar results since the last 20-22 elections, the government keeps changing," news agency ANI quoted Rajib Kumar as saying. The poll body chief also said that perhaps the EVM was born at a time when it had to be accused and criticised regularly. But it is very reliable; it has become neutral in every way and does its work," he added. The opposition has been at loggerheads with the Election Commission over the credibility of the EVMs. The Supreme Court had earlier refused to entertain a petition regarding the conduct of elections using ballot paper by setting aside Section 61A of The Representation of the People Act, 1951, saying that more than 10 cases have been examined on various issues related to the functioning of EVMs by the court time and again. Meanwhile, the CEC, along with Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and S S Sandhu, presented the notification constituting the 18th Lok Sabha and the list of newly elected parliamentarians to President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. "A copy of the notification issued by the Election Commission of India, in terms of Section 73 of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951, containing the names of the members elected to the House of the People following the General Elections to the 18th Lok Sabha, was submitted by them to the President," it said. 'Adhuri hazraton ka ilzaam..': CEC's poetic dig over EVM tampering accusations President Murmu congratulated the Election Commission on the successful completion of the electoral process, the largest democratic exercise in the world. "On behalf of the entire country, she appreciated the efforts of the Election Commission, its officials and members of staff, other public officials who were involved in management and superintendence of the campaign and polling, and police and security personnel, Central and State, for working tirelessly and diligently to uphold the sanctity of the peoples ballot and successfully completing a free and fair election," it said. The poll body has also dedicated the "violence-free" Lok Sabha polls to Mahatma Gandhi and asserted that it rebuffed attempts to vitiate the electoral process with "rumours and baseless doubts" that could have fomented unrest across the country. CEC Kumar along with Gyanesh Kumar and S S Sandhu visited the Raj Ghat, the Mahatma Gandhi's memorial. CEC had pledged that the EC's service to the nation, now in its 76th year, will go on with "unflinching" dedication. He said the Commission ensured that the world's largest electoral contest created democratic surpluses; and that violence of any form was not allowed to cast even the smallest shadow in the intense activity involving crores of people. President Murmu had on Wednesday dissolved the 17th Lok Sabha. The term of the current Lok Sabha ends on June 16 and before that, a new government has to be established. Mob throws EVM, VVPAT in Bengal's South 24 Parganas amid polling, EC responds Lok Sabha elections 2024 results: According to the Election Commission of India, the BJP won 240 seats, significantly lower than its 2019 tally of 303. The Congress made substantial gains, winning 99 seats. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured 293 seats, while the INDIA bloc crossed the 230 mark, posing stiff competition and defying predictions. (With inputs from agencies) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday attacked the opposition for raising doubts about Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), saying it wanted people to stop believing in democracy and the democratic process. Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (PTI) These people [Opposition] had decided to ensure that people stop believing in democracy and democratic process of India. They continuously abused EVM. I thought they would take out the funeral procession of the EVM. But by the evening of June 4 [when Lok Sabha election results were announced].... EVM shut them up. This is the strength of Indias democracy, its fairness...I hope I will not get to hear about EVM for five years. In 2029, perhaps they will again harp on EVM...The country will never forgive them, Modi said in his speech as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) passed a resolution naming him the leader of its parliamentary party. Modi hit out at the Opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) for complaining to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Supreme Court about the transparency in EVMs. They interfered so much in the Election Commissions work. There was only one party outside the Supreme Court...those who distrust democracy used the Supreme Court to stop the electoral process. ...They attacked... [ECI] so that the results of the election do not come out. He accused the opposition of trying to defame India. This was part of a conspiracy. He accused the opposition of increasing distrust in Indian technologies and democracy across the world. This distrust in technology is not just shown in EVM but also in UPI [Unified Payments Interface]. This is a matter of concern that they are going around and saying that democracy in India is dead...now the world will also be attracted to know and understand the diversity, vastness, and the depth of Indias democracy... Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday underlined the need for consensus to run the country and said it was their responsibility to pursue it and leave no stone unturned for the countrys development as he was elected as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Parliamentary Party leader ahead of his inauguration for his third term. Prime Minister Narendra Modi with TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu (PTI) We have a majority and we need it to run the government. But to run the country, we need consensus. It is our responsibility to pursue consensus and not leave any stone unturned for the development of the country, Modi said in his speech at the NDA Parliamentary Party meeting in the Central Hall of the Old Parliament building. Modi listed his priorities as he is set to become the first Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to get a third term. He emphasised the need to fulfil the aspirations of common people as quickly as possible. We have to make big decisions and push for fast development. We do not want to waste time. We have to become the third largest economy from the fifth largest, he said. In the next 10 years, we will write a new chapter on good governance, development, and quality of life for citizens. Modi said the governments interference should be less when it comes to the middle and upper-middle classes. There will be no more delay in fulfilling the aspirations of people, Modi said. Modi cited the work of NDA allies at the grassroots level and said this has made the grouping organic. There has to be a strong link between regional and national aspiration, Modi said after two key allies, N Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar, reminded Modi about the pending development works in their states. Modi said the NDA reflects the true sense of Indias spirit with its presence in tribal-dominated states and also the northeast. Our path is sarv panth sambhav [respect for all religions]...in Goa or the Northeast, where our Christian brothers and sisters are in large numbers, we have our governments. Modi spoke about NDAs grand victory and called the grouping synonymous with good governance. Our focus has always been on the welfare of the poor. The country has not only seen the 10 years of good governance but they have lived it. People have felt the purpose of government. Modi spoke about the inroads the alliance made in South India and how people embraced the coalition in states such as Karnataka and Telangana even as the Congress won the assembly elections. In Tamil Nadu, we might have won no seats, but our vote share shows what is going to happen in the coming days, he said. Modi said NDA has been the most successful alliance in Indias history. Never in the history of India, a pre-poll alliance has been as successful as NDA. He pointed out that NDA from the days of Atal Bihari Vajpayee has completed three decades. I can also claim that this is the most successful alliance. This alliance has completed three full terms and now it is entering its fourth term. If a political analysis is done with an open mind, this coalition can be seen as not just a group to form the government or gain power. This is a group committed to nation first. This is an organic alliance. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) allies earlier endorsed Modi as the NDA Parliamentary Party leader even as Naidu underlined the need for regional aspirations and national interests to go hand in hand to ensure holistic development of all sections. Naidu lauded Modi for making India the worlds fifth-largest economy and said they are confident that it will become either number one or two under his leadership. He cited Modis vision of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas (inclusive development), and Viksit Bharat (developed India) and added with the collective efforts of the NDA, India can become a zero-poverty nation. Kumar acknowledged the BJPs dip in the seats. He said Modi had lost in some places but next time the Opposition will lose everywhere. I am completely confident. [the Opposition] has done no work thus far, has not served the nation at all. But you [Modi] have done so much for the nation that they will have no chance in the future. The country will progress very far. Bihar will also be sorted. Whatever you need, we will continue to support you. Everybody is together. We will move together, Kumar said. He said his only request is that Modis swearing-in ceremony should take place at the earliest. It will take place on Sunday. I wanted it today [Friday], he said. Defence minister Rajnath Singh earlier proposed Modis name as the leader of the NDA Parliamentary Party. His colleagues Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, and top NDA leaders backed the proposal. Modi was elected the NDA leader against the backdrop of negotiations to form the next government. Allies have been jockeying for crucial Cabinet berths behind the scenes even as NDA leaders remained tight-lipped and projected a united front. Kumar and Naidu were scheduled to join Modi in meeting President Droupadi Murmu to stake to form the government. On Thursday, the TDP and JD(U), the second and third largest constituents of the NDA, held meetings and finalised the list of demands. Nadda and Shah separately met Modi after meeting Rajnath Singh to discuss portfolio allocation. The BJP fell short of the halfway mark of 272 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha for the first time since 2014, making it dependent on allies for the next government formation. TDP, which has 16 parliamentarians, was believed to have sought five ministerial berths and two more for pre-poll ally Jana Sena, which won two seats. The party was also expected to ask for special status for revenue-starved Andhra Pradesh, which lost IT Hyderabad to Telangana during the states bifurcation in 2014. HT on Friday reported that TDP is keen on getting the Lok Sabha Speakers position in addition to ministries such as urban development, information technology, road transport, and highways. JDU, which has 12 parliamentarians, is likely to demand four ministerial berths and special status for Bihar. NDA won 30 out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. The JD(U) was hoping to get two Cabinet and two ministers of state berths accommodating a mix of castes and communities for maximum political leverage ahead of Bihar assembly elections due next year. New Delhi, A Delhi court on Friday granted bail to former Unitech directors Sanjay Chandra and Ajay Chandra in a money laundering case related to alleged cheating of several home buyers, saying the purpose of pre-trial detention can never be punitive. Money laundering case: Delhi court grants bail to Unitech directors Sanjay, Ajay Chandra According to the Enforcement Directorate, the accused, along with others, collected funds running into several hundred crores from the home buyers for housing projects. The accused persons, however, laundered the amount, the Enforcement Directorate said. Additional Sessions Judge Dheeraj Mor granted bail, noting that both the accused were languishing in jail for the last two and a half years though the trial of the case has not yet commenced. "The maximum punishment in this case is seven years and they have already undergone substantial part of the maximum punishment that can be awarded to them in this case," the judge said. The judge also noted the submissions made by advocates Arshdeep Singh and Vishal Gosain, appearing for Sanjay Chandra and Ajay Chandra respectively, that the trial was likely to take substantive time since there were 71 accused persons, 121 witnesses and lakhs of supporting documents in the complaint. "Considering the humongous set of documents, enormous prosecution witnesses and huge number of accused persons coupled with the fact that the trial in this case has not yet commenced despite passage of more than two years, there is no hesitation to record that its trial may go beyond seven years i.e. even more than maximum punishment of this case. The purpose of pre-trial detention can never be punitive. Detention or jail before being pronounced guilty of an offence should not become punishment without trial. The trial in this case cannot be concluded within a foreseeable time," the judge said. The judge added that co-accused persons, including Preeti Chandra and Rajesh Malik, have already been enlarged on bail after they suffered incarceration for nearly one and a half years. ED's Special Public Prosecutor N K Matta opposed the application, claiming that the allegations against the applicants and roles assigned to them are dissimilar and graver to the co-accused persons. The judge, however, said that "in the wake of the above discussions regarding the evidentiary value of the material available on record against them, there seems to be enough justifiable reason for invoking the principles of parity in favour of both the applicants who have already undergone two and a half years of incarceration in this case having maximum punishment of 7 years". According to the ED, the case was registered based on several FIRs registered by the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police and Saket Police station under various sections of the IPC on the allegations of layering and laundering of home buyers' money in the projects of the company, i.e. Proceeds of Crime derived or obtained as a result of criminal activity relating to the said scheduled /predicate offences. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text. Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi on Friday met President Droupadi Murmu and staked claim to form the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre. Modi, 73, will be sworn on Sunday, June 9, in as the prime minister for a third straight term, equalling the feat of India's first premier Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. This is the first election after Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav...For the third time, the NDA government has been given a chance by the people to serve to country...I assure the people of the country that in the last two terms, the speed with which the country has moved forward, change is visible in every sector and for 25 crore people to move out of poverty is a proud moment for every Indian, Modi said in his address after meeting the president. Narendra Modi government formation LIVE updates Earlier in the day, Modi was formally elected as the leader of the NDA, receiving support from Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu, Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar and Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy. Our 10 years just trailer, we will work much harder, faster for development of our country; people know we will deliver, Modi said. ALSO READ: At NDA meet, Narendra Modi's EVM dig at Opposition: 'Phone calls started' "There were efforts to not acknowledge this very victory, to cast a 'shadow of defeat' on this victory. But all such efforts remained fruitless... Such things 'die very young', and it happened," Modi said at the meeting of the NDA Parliamentary Party. Today, India is having the right leader at the right time, that is Narendra Modi. This is a very good opportunity for India. If you miss now, you will miss forever. That is why we are having a wonderful opportunity today, Naidu said, while endorsing Modi as the leader of the coalition. PM Modi with President Murmu Narendra Modi was on Friday officially elected as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), days after the Lok Sabha election results were declared. **EDS: VIDEO GRAB VIA SANSAD TV** New Delhi: Senior BJP leader Narendra Modi being felicitated by TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, BJP National President JP Nadda, Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar, BJP leader Amit Shah and others during the NDA parliamentary party meeting at Samvidhan Sadan, in New Delhi, Friday, June 7, 2024. (PTI Photo) (PTI06_07_2024_000245A)(PTI) The meeting took place on Friday at the Samvidhan Sadan in Parliament. The NDA parties agreed to choose Modi as the leader of the NDA parliamentary party Since the BJP couldn't win enough seats alone, they relied on their allies TDP and JD(U). During the NDA meet, Modi said that mutual trust was at the core of this alliance and they were committed to the principle of 'sarv pantha sambhava' (all sects are equal). "If we look at it in terms of numbers in the history of coalitions, this is the strongest coalition government," Modi said, asserting the NDA knows it very well to digest victory. The election, which lasted six weeks, ended on Wednesday. BJP won 240 seats, falling short of the majority mark of 272 in the 543-member house. The NDA coalition won 293 seats in total. The Opposition put up a strong performance and won 234 seats. Modi, along with his cabinet minister, resigned as the Prime Minister on Wednesday paving the way for new government. Let's look at the next steps involved in government formation: After Modi's election as the leader of the NDA parliamentary party, the NDA will meet President Droupadi Murmu and stake claim to form the government. Senior BJP leader Pralhad Joshi has said that Modi, 73, will take oath as prime minister for the third time on Sunday, June 9 at 6 pm. Read Here: PM Narendra Modi touches Constitution book to forehead at NDA meeting The oath ceremony will witness heads of states from countries including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives and Mauritius in attendance. The focus is on forging closer relations and enhancing cooperation with island nations in the Indian Ocean region. Besides, all the countries that have been invited have a key place in the Neighbourhood First policy, a person familiar with developments told HT. Narendra Modi will take oath as prime minister for the third time on June 9 at 7:15 pm, the Rashtrapati Bhavan said on Friday. The members of his council of ministers will also be sworn-in on that day. Modi government formation LIVE coverage Earlier, Modi met President Droupadi Murmu and staked claim to form the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government under his leadership. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief J P Nadda handed her a letter on Modi's election as the leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party and NDA leaders submitted their letters of support. Exercising powers vested in her under Article 75 (1) of the Constitution of India, President Droupadi Murmu today appointed @narendramodi to the office of Prime Minister of India, the President's office posted on X. ALSO READ: View: Why Modi's third term is historic, and why Nitish & Naidu won't dump BJP? Indian Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi displays a letter from the President of India, Draupadi Murmu, inviting him to form the next central government, outside the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.(AP) The President requested Shri Narendra Modi to: i) advise her about the names of other persons to be appointed members of the Union Council of Ministers; and ii) indicate the date and time of the swearing-in-ceremony to be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Rashtrapati Bhavan added. This is the first election after Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. For the third time, the NDA government has been given a chance by the people to serve the country. I want to thank the people of this country for giving us this chance, Modi said at a briefing after his meeting with the President. I assure the people that the government will not fail in fulfilling their aspirations in the third term. I assure the people of the country that in the last two terms, the speed with which the country has moved forward, change is visible in every sector and for 25 crore people to move out of poverty is a proud moment for every Indian, he added. ALSO READ: Modi speaks of consensus as NDA elects him as leader ahead of his inauguration Modi, 73, was formally chosen as the leader of the NDA, with the proposal being supported by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Janata Dal (United), whose support is crucial to the ruling coalition. The NDA is comfortably placed with 293 MPs in the 543-member Lok Sabha. Out of these, BJP is the single largest party with 240 seats. In the 2019 elections, the BJP had secured 303 seats. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday underlined the need for consensus to run the country and said it was the ruling coalitions responsibility to pursue it and leave no stone unturned for the countrys development as he was elected as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leader, setting the stage for his third term. Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets the BJP and NDA leaders during the NDA parliamentary party meeting at Samvidhan Sadan, in New Delhi, on Friday. (HT Photo) In an expansive speech that lasted over an hour, Modi projected confidence as he hit out at the Opposition, countered the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliances allegations that he had lost the national mandate and over electronic voting machines, and called the NDA an organic alliance in a speech that had three broad themes: alliances; the oppositions failure; and New India. No alliance has ever been as successful as the NDA, he said as lawmakers and senior leaders thumped tables and applauded, with some standing and chanting Modi, Modi in the central hall of the old parliament building.NDA means new India, developed India and aspirational India. Dressed in a white kurta and cream jacket, Modi bowed to the Constitution before the NDA meeting began. Key allies such as Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar were given prominent positions in a table that also accommodated senior BJP leaders such as Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and JP Nadda. Also Read | What the verdict holds for the BJP, its mascot, Modi Modis speech came hours before he formally staked claim to form the government. His Bharatiya Janata Party emerged as the single-largest party in the recently concluded general elections but saw its tally drop almost 60 seats to below the majority mark of 272. With allies such as the Janata Dal (United), Telugu Desam Party and Shiv Sena, and a clutch of smaller partners, the NDA is comfortably placed to form the government. Modi said the NDA reflects the true sense of Indias spirit with its presence in tribal-dominated states and also the northeast. Our path is sarv panth sambhav [respect for all religions]...in Goa or the Northeast, where our Christian brothers and sisters are in large numbers, we have our governments. People know that we had not lost and have not lost, he said, adding that even a child would tell that it is the NDA that was in power before the polls and is in power after the polls. Where did we lose? The NDA was there yesterday, is there today and will be there tomorrow. By every parameter, the world recognises that the results reflect the NDAs grand victory, he said. Striking a conciliatory tone, Modi said consensus will be the hallmark of the NDA and described it as the most successful alliance in Indias history. Assuaging concerns that all views will be taken on board, Modi spoke about debate and discussion before decision-making. Majority is needed for running the government, but sarvamat (consensus) is required for running the country. He said it is the responsibility of the allies to use consensus for taking the country forward. Also Read | Narendra Modi meets President Murmu, stakes claim to form govt Modi said that the coalition did not come together to grab power, but was an organic alliance committed to the principle of nation first. Modi also exuded confidence about the longevity of the alliance and said that the coalition of members with a record of good governance will write new chapters of good governance in the next 10 years . Under the NDA government (there will be ) good governance, development, quality of life for citizens. And my personal dream is that when I think about the prosperity of democracy, I want minimal government interference in the lives of common people, especially the middle class and upper middle class, as that strengthens democracy...he said. Addressing the NDA lawmakers in the Central Hall, now known as Samvidhan Sadan, Modi said perceptions about the poll results being a verdict against the NDA was fallacious. He credited former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Shiromani Akali Dals Prakash Singh Badal, Shiv Senas Balasaheb Thackeray, and Janata Party stalwarts George Fernandes and Sharad Yadav for sowing the seeds of the NDA, which he said has grown into a tree, nurtured by peoples trust in the coalition. Few people talk about it, maybe it doesnt suit them, but look at the strength of Indias democracy that people gave NDA the opportunity to form governments and serve people in 22 states. This alliance of ours reflects Indias spirit in the true sense, he said. The PM was joined by TDPs Chandrababu Naidu, JDUs Nitish Kumar, HAMs Jitanram Manjhi, LJPs Chirga Paswan, Apna Dals Anupriya Patel, JDS HD Kumaraswamy, Jana Senas Pawan Kalyan in addition to BJP president JP Nadda, union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh. Lashing out at the Opposition that raised questions about the efficacy of EVMs, the PM said his opponents were silent after the verdict. I strongly feel people of INDI alliance belong to previous century when they question technological advancements like EVMs, Aadhaar. It is the power of Indias democracy that those questioning EVMs, and Election Commission were silenced after results, he said. These people [Opposition] had decided to ensure that people stop believing in democracy and democratic process of India. They continuously abused EVM. I thought they would take out the funeral procession of the EVM. But by the evening of June 4 [when Lok Sabha election results were announced].... EVM shut them up. This is the strength of Indias democracy, its fairness...I hope I will not hear about EVM for five years. In 2029, perhaps they will again harp on EVM...The country will never forgive them, Modi said He also took a pot shot at the Opposition by saying that he has been missing quality debates in Parliament and said the opposition parties may be against the BJP but are not against the Rashtra (country). Ive been missing parliamentary debates, I hope opposition MPs will also contribute to nation-building when they come to Parliament, he said. Amid thumping and cheering from lawmakers, the PM spoke about the NDAs growing footprint. He referred to the coalitions presence in the Northeast and in the southern states where the BJP won one seat in Kerala but could not open its account in Tamil Nadu. The way NDAs vote share has increased in Tamil Nadu clearly shows what is in the offing...In the next 25 years Odisha will be among the countrys growth engines for the countrys vikas yatra, he added. Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor told PTI,It will be a challenge for Mr (Narendra) Modi and Amit Shah who have not been used to consulting very much in running their government and I think this is going to test their ability to change their way of functioning and be more accommodative and more conciliatory within the government and also I hope with the opposition. . Modi also outlined his vision for a new India and assured the people that the pace of development will not stop. If I keep NDA on one side and the aspirations and resolves of people of India, then I would say: NDA: New India, Developed India, Aspirational India, Modi said. Our government believes in competitive and cooperative federalism, he said. Modi said that the focus for his governments third term would be on empowerment of the poor and the middle class. Empowering poor, middle class our priority, we will continue to ensure welfare of people, deliver quality life to all, he added. Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah on June 7 hit out at the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance for almost no representation of minorities in the government. Former Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah (HT File) His response has come just ahead of the government formation at the Centre. Its not just the BJP, the NDA is Muslim mukth, Christian mukth, Buddhist mukth, Sikh mukth and yet the government will claim to represent 140 crore Indians, Omar wrote on X (formerly Twitter). Omars response was to a report, highlighting that the MPs elected from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and various other parties that are part of the NDA were Hindus. Read: BJP-led NDA meeting today, Chandrababu Naidu asks all TDP MPs to attend it The Lok Sabha polls for 543 seats were held in seven phases starting from April 19, with the last phase on June 1. The Bharatiya Janata Party has won 240 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha, while its partners have won 53 seats including TDP (16), JDU (12), Shiv Sena (7), LJPRV (5), JD-S (2), JNP (2), RLD (2), ADAL (1), AGP (1), AJSUP (1), HAMS (1), NCP (1), SKM (1), and UPPL (1). The BJP had fielded only one Muslim candidate Abdul Salam from Keralas Malappuram constituency, who was defeated by Indian Union Muslim League leader Mohammed Basheer with a margin of 30,0,118 votes. The newly elected MPs of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance met in New Delhi on Friday, June 7, to elect Narendra Modi as their leader. Telugu Desam Party supremo N Chandrababu Naidu had directed all party MPs to attend NDA's meeting. Also read: In 1989, Rajiv Gandhi: Sachin Pilot on why Narendra Modi shouldn't form govt The TDP alone won 16 MP seats in Andhra Pradesh, while the NDA alliance of TDP, BJP and Janasena collectively won the lion's share of 21 seats out of 25. Narendra Modi will take the oath of office for his third consecutive term as prime minister at a swearing-in ceremony likely to be held on Sunday, June 9. Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi on June 7 referred to actor-turned-politician and Jana Sena Party (JSP) president Pawan Kalyan as a storm (aandhi). Narendra Modi(ANI) While addressing the elected MPs of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Central Hall of the Old Parliament, Narendra Modi highlighted the performance of the BJP and its allies in the recently concluded general elections. He said that, for the first time in Indian history, a BJP leader has been elected to the lower house of Parliament from Kerala, referring to actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi, who won from Thrissur. Read: TDP seeks five cabinet berths at Centre, two for its ally Jana Sena Gopi received 412,338 votes, defeating CPIs VS Sunil Kumar (337,652 votes) by a margin of 74,686 votes, according to data available on the Election Commission of India (ECI) website. We have been winning in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, and I was asking Babu (Chandrababu Naidu) about the performance in Andhra Pradesh, and he told me it was historical. Pointing at Pawan Kalyan, who was seated next to the dais, Modi said, And what you see, Pawan, he is not a breeze; he is a storm. Modi said that Andhra Pradesh has given a landslide mandate to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Naidu-led TDP won 16 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the recently concluded general election, the Jana Sena won two, and the BJP won three as part of a seat-sharing agreement. Kalyans party also made significant strides in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly polls. The Jana Sena Party, which contested 21 Assembly and two Lok Sabha constituencies, performed well by winning all the seats it contested. Meanwhile, Narendra Modi was unanimously named as the leader of the NDA alliance in the Parliament on Friday, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar, JD(S) MP-elect HD Kumaraswamy and other leaders part of the alliance supporting the proposal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said he would strive to ensure unanimity in all decisions of his next government and asserted that the NDA is an organic alliance committed to the principle of nation first, after he was elected as the leader of NDA parliamentary party. PM Narendra Modi was elected as leader of NDA parliamentary party.(Sansad TV) During the meeting held at the Samvidhan Sadan in the Parliament building, senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh proposed Narendra Modi as the leader of the NDA's parliamentary party. The proposal was seconded by Amit Shah, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, Bihar CM and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar and others. It was approved unanimously, setting the stage for Modi to become the Prime Minister for a third time. After this, PM Modi addressed the gathering, here is his top quotes. Follow- Election Results LIVE PM Modi at NDA meet | Top quotes PM Modi said, In Indian politics, the NDA has achieved a historic feat as the most successful pre-poll alliance ever seen. Unlike other political gatherings, the NDA is more than just a power grab; it is a group committed to Nation-First! Today, the NDA shines as an organic alliance in the political system of Bharat. "In the next decade, my personal dream for India is focused on good governance, development, and improving the lives of every citizen. I believe that reducing government interference in people's lives will only strengthen our democracy," Modi said. ALSO READ- Narendra Modi unanimously elected as leader of NDA Parliamentary party; Chandrababu Naidu, Nitish Kumar back his name "In reflecting on the outcome of the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, it's evident to the world that this marks the 'Mahavijay' of the NDA from every standpoint. Despite initial appearances, where our opponents resorted to conjuring imaginary promises to uplift their morale, the statistics reaffirm that this is the most robust alliance government in our history. There was an attempt to delegitimise this victory, but neither did we falter then nor do we now! Our conduct post-June 4 demonstrates our ability to gracefully accept victory. Indeed, we recognise triumph!" Modi took aim at opposition. "When results were coming out on June 4, I was busy with work. Phone calls started coming in later. I asked someone, numbers are fine, 'Are the EVMs alive or dead?' The opposition's relentless assault on the credibility of EVMs aimed to erode faith in India's democratic processes. They seemed poised to orchestrate a funeral procession for the EVM. However, by the evening of June 4, they found themselves silenced. India's democracy and its inherent fairness prevailed. I sincerely hope to not hear about EVM controversies for the next five years. Yet, as we approach 2029, they may resurface. The nation will not forget their actions," PM said. "The recent elections showcased the strength of India's democracy, with critics of EVMs and the Election Commission silenced by the people's verdict. It's unfortunate that some still cling to outdated skepticism, failing to embrace technological advancements like EVMs and Aadhaar, which are crucial for India's advancement," he said. ALSO READ- Rahul Gandhi gets bail from Bengaluru court in defamation case filed by BJP "We are embarking on a new journey of development, good governance, and inclusive participation. Together, we will realize the dream of a developed India. Our commitment to the principle of 'sarva panth sambhava' underscores our belief in the equality of all religions," he said. "Over the past decade, we have propelled the nation to new heights of success. The cornerstone of the NDA's leadership has been good governance. Whenever given the chance to serve, each and every leader of the NDA has ensured good governance across the nation. NDA has become synonymous with effective governance," Modi said. ALSO READ- Why does vote count not equal votes cast on few seats? ECI gives 2 reasons "For me, every leader in the Parliament, irrespective of party affiliation, holds equal significance. When we speak of 'Sabka Prayaas,' everyone is on an equal footing, regardless of party allegiance. This inclusivity has fortified the NDA alliance, propelling it forward over the past three decades," he said. "We are pleased to announce significant victories in various states. Kerala witnessed the triumph of one of our representatives for the first time. Arunachal Pradesh has shown remarkable performance, while in Sikkim, we are on the verge of a 'clean sweep.' Additionally, the historic victory in Andhra Pradesh reflects our growing strength," Modi lauded NDA's poll performance. "Whenever I think of Lord Jagannatha, I feel he is God of poor; for next 25 years, Odisha will be among country's key growth engines," PM said as BJP swept Odisha and is set to form government there. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was granted bail by a local Bengaluru court on Friday in connection with a defamation case filed by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader. The case was filed by the BJPs Karnataka unit for issuing defamatory advertisements in mainstream newspapers. (HT photo) Special magistrate KN Shivakumar granted bail to Gandhi after he appeared in person. The court has scheduled the next hearing for June 30. The bail was secured with former Member of Parliament (MP) DK Suresh providing property worth 75 lakh as security on Gandhis behalf. Also Read:Karnataka: Congress DK Shivakumar calls BJP defamation case bogus BJP had pressed charges against the Congress leaders for disseminating false advertisements targeting its party leaders, including the then Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. BJP MLC and general secretary Keshav Prasad had filed the defamation case alleging that 40% commission was charged for the execution of all public works. The case was filed against Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar and Gandhi. On June 1, Karnataka CM and deputy chief minister appeared before the 42nd Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate. Following their plea, the court granted them bail. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will appear before a special court in Bengaluru on Friday, June 7, in connection with a defamation case filed by the Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party for issuing allegedly defamatory advertisements in mainstream newspapers. Rahul Gandhi was seen at the Delhi airport early morning, leaving for Bengaluru. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi summoned over allegedly derogatory ads in Karnataka. The court has asked Rahul Gandhi to appear before it on June 7 in connection with a defamation lawsuit brought by the Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regarding the publication of allegedly derogatory advertising in mainstream newspapers before the 2023 state assembly election. ALSO READ- Karnataka Lok Sabha election 2024 winners list: BJPs Tejasvi Surya wins in Bangalore South Rahul Gandhi to appear before court at 10:30 am The Karnataka Congress said Rahul Gandhi will appear before the City Civil Court at 10:30am. Following this, he will meet with the Congress's newly elected MPs from the state and defeated candidates at Bharat Jodo Bhavan on Queens Road at 11:30am. Chief minister Siddaramaiah and deputy chief minister KPCC president DK Shivakumar will also be present, according to the party's state unit. ALSO READ- 'Rahul Gandhi conspiring': BJP on Cong's stock market scam charge What is the case against Rahul Gandhi? The advertisement, ahead of last year's assembly polls, accused the BJP government in Karnataka of large-scale corruption during its 2019-2023 term. The BJP's complaint, filed in June 2023, claimed that false and reckless allegations were made in ads published on May 5, 2023, in all major Karnataka newspapers. These ads, titled "Corruption rate card," accused BJP's Basavaraj Bommai government of being a "40 per cent Commission Sarkara (government)." ALSO READ- What is Congress' 40% commission charge against Karnataka government? The complaint alleged that the ads were issued by the state unit Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee through its president, Shivakumar, and Siddaramaiah, the then Leader of the Opposition in the legislative assembly. It also highlighted that Rahul Gandhi shared this "defamatory advertisement" on his social media account on X. On June 1, the court granted bail to Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar after they appeared in connection with the case. Judge K N Shivakumar set June 7 for Rahul Gandhi's personal appearance. During the hearing, Gandhi's counsel requested an exemption from appearance, which the complainant's side opposed, arguing against repeated exemptions. Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Friday proposed Narendra Modis name as the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Parliamentary Party, setting the stage for his third term as the Prime Minister. His colleagues Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, and top NDA leaders backed the proposal. Narendra Modi with TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. (PTI) Singh credited Modi for expanding the NDA and said the grouping is not a compulsion but a commitment for the BJP. I believe that Narendra Modis name is the most suitable...We are fortunate that we are going to get a sensitive Prime Minister..., said Singh in his address at the NDA meeting at the central hall of the old Parliament House. Shah echoed Singh and said there is widespread support for Modi. This proposal is not only the desire of the people sitting here. This is the proposal of 1.4 billion people in the country...This is the voice of the country that Modi lead the country for the next five years. BJP chief JP Nadda lauded Modis dedication to national service. [He has] spent every moment in the service of the nation. That is the reason that India is creating history today and NDA is forming a government for the third consecutive time with a majority. Gadkari said he had the good fortune of working under Modis leadership for the last 10. He [Modi] has worked with dedication to ensure that our country is happy, prosperous, become a global superpower and that there is progress and development in all aspects... The NDA meeting was held against the backdrop of negotiations to form the next government. Allies have been jockeying for crucial Cabinet berths behind the scenes even as NDA leaders remained tight-lipped and projected a united front. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Chandrababu Naidu, who were among those present at the NDA meeting, were scheduled to join Modi in meeting President Droupadi Murmu to present her with the list of parliamentarians supporting him. On Thursday, the TDP and Kumars Janata Dal (United) or JD(U), the second and third largest constituents of the NDA, held meetings and finalised the list of demands. Nadda and Shah separately met Modi after meeting Rajnath Singh to discuss portfolio allocation. The BJP fell short of the halfway mark of 272 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha for the first time since 2014, making it dependent on allies for the next government formation. TDP, which has 16 parliamentarians, was likely to seek five ministerial berths and two more for pre-poll ally Jana Sena, which won two seats. The party was also expected to ask for special status for revenue-starved Andhra Pradesh, which lost IT Hyderabad to Telangana during the states bifurcation in 2014. HT on Friday reported that TDP is keen on getting the Lok Sabha Speakers position in addition to ministries such as urban development, information technology, road transport, and highways. JDU, which has 12 parliamentarians, is likely to demand four ministerial berths and special status for Bihar. NDA won 30 out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. The JD(U) was hoping to get two Cabinet and two ministers of state berths accommodating a mix of castes and communities for maximum political leverage ahead of Bihar assembly elections due next year. In 2019, JD(U) turned down a token representation of one berth in the Union Cabinet. The JD(U) was seeking portfolios such as railways, the countrys biggest recruiter, and rural development, that will help it consolidate its position in Bihar ahead of the 2025 state polls. Three-time parliamentarian of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) from Srikakulam Lok Sabha constituency Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu will likely be inducted into the Union Cabinet of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which will be sworn in on Sunday, party leaders familiar with the matter said on Friday. Three-time parliamentarian of the TDP from Srikakulam Lok Sabha constituency Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu will likely be inducted into the Union Cabinet (ANI) The TDP is expected to get a Cabinet minister post, besides two posts of ministers of state in the Modi cabinet, though the party has pitched for four berths two Cabinet and two MoS posts. Besides, there is a possibility of the party being offered the deputy speaker post, a party leader said on condition of anonymity. Rammohan Naidu (37) entered the politics in 2012, after the death of his father Kinjarapu Yerran Naidu, who served as the Union Cabinet minister in Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujral cabinets between 1996 and 1998, holding the portfolio of rural development and employment. Also Read | Chandrababu Naidu likely to revive projects abandoned by YSRCP govt A graduate in engineering and a post-graduate in business administration, Rammohan Naidu has tremendous oratorical skills. In all probability, Naidu will recommend him for the cabinet berth, the TDP leader quoted above said. Two other leaders who might make it to the Union council of ministers are: Pemmasani Chandrasekhar from Guntur and Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy from Nellore. While Chandrasekhar has tremendous connections among the NRI investors, Prabhakar Reddy is an influential person in the corporate circles. They would be helpful in attracting investments to the state, he said. If the TDP gets a fourth berth in the cabinet, Naidu may propose a name of an MP from Scheduled Caste community either D Prasada Rao from Chittoor or T Krishna Prasad from Bapatla. Also Read | Amid Cabinet talks, names emerge from TDP, JD(U), smaller partners The TDP leader said if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader agrees to give deputy speaker post to the TDP, Naidu might recommend the name of GM Harish Balayogi from Amalapura, who is the son of former Lok Sabha speaker GMC Balayogi, who held the post in the early years of PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government. From Jana Sena Party (JSP), the Prime Minister may accommodate Vallabhaneni Bala Showry from Machilipatnam. Among the BJP MPs from Andhra Pradesh, party state unit president Daggubati Purandeshwari might get a chance, the TDP leader added. Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Friday reacted on actor-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut being slapped by a woman CISF constable at the Chandigarh airport on Thursday. Some people give votes and some give slaps. I don't know what has happened actually... If the constable has said that her mother was also sitting, then it is true. If her mother was there in the farmer's agitation and someone said anything against it, then it would create anger, Raut told reporters at a briefing. But if PM Modi says that there should be the rule of law, then it should not be taken into hands... The people in the farmer's agitation were sons and daughters of India. If someone insults Bharat Mata and someone is offended by it, then it is something to think about. I have sympathy for Kangana. She is an MP now. An MP should not be attacked but the farmers should also be respected, Raut added. Actor-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut and Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut On Thursday, Ranaut, the BJP MP-elect from Himachal Pradesh's Mandi, was slapped by CISF constable Kulwinder Kaur during security check. I am safe. I am perfectly fine. The incident took place during the security check. After I was done with the security check, a woman constable of the CISF waited for me to pass through the cabin. Later, she came from the side, hit me in the face and started abusing me, Ranaut said in a post on social platform X. The CISF constable said that her mother was among the farmers holding a sit-in protest against the farm laws, which now have been repealed. "She stated that the farmers are sitting there for 100. Will she go and sit there? My mother was sitting there and protesting when she gave this statement..." she was heard saying in a viral video after the incident. The CISF sprung into action and suspended the constable and said that the investigation is underway. (With agency inputs) Former Chhattisgarh chief minister and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel on Friday claimed that mid-term Lok Sabha elections will be held within a year. Senior Congress leader and former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel (File Photo) Fellow workers, be ready! Mid-term elections can be held within six months to one year. Fadnavis is resigning, Yogi ji's chair is shaking. Bhajan Lal Sharma is also wavering, Baghel posted on social platform X. ALSO READ: Demo-kursi, not democracy: Jairam Ramesh takes PM dig at Narendra Modi Commenting on NDA ally Janata Dal (United), the Congress leader said,"The government has not been formed yet but JD(U) spokesperson is talking about cancelling the Agniveer scheme and conducting caste census. They say that there is no need for the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). These are all the issues that Rahul Gandhi has raised." "Now the government will be formed and the fight will start. Aur ye samaj le ki jab jhagda shuru hoga to ghar ujadne me zyada der nahi lagega. Sarkar benegi aur jhagda shuru honge (You should understand that when the fights begin, the house will be eroded. The government will be formed and squabbles will begin)," Baghel, who lost from Rajnandgaon to BJP's Santosh Pandey by 44,411 votes, said. In Chhattisgarh, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) won 10 out of 11 seats while Congress secured one seat, Korba, which was won by Jyotsna Charandas Mahant. Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi and his council of ministers will take oath of office at 7:15 pm on June 9. President Droupadi Murmu appointed 73-year-old Modi as the prime minister-designate after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief J P Nadda handed her a letter on the BJP stalwart's election as the leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party and NDA leaders submitted their letters of support. The BJP won 240 seats in the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls, falling short of the halfway mark in the 543-member House, but the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) together won 293 seats, which is a comfortable majority. HYDERABAD: Neerabh Kumar Prasad, a 1987 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, took charge as Andhra Pradeshs chief secretary on Friday, hours after the state government appointed him as the states top bureaucrat to replace KS Jawahar Reddy. Neerabh Kumar Prasad (right) called on governor S Abdul Nazeer at Raj Bhavan after his appointment as Andhra Pradesh chief secretary on Friday (X/governorap) Reddy, a 1990-batch IAS officer, went on leave on Thursday after meeting Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu, who is going to take over as the next chief minister on June 12. Reddy turned 60 on June 2 and is due to retire by the end of this month. The 1987 batch officer was previously serving as Andhra Pradeshs special chief secretary in charge of the environment, forest, science & technology departments. Prasad thanked Chandrababu Naidu for the opportunity and vowed to do his best to implement the new governments development and welfare programmes The state government has also transferred three other senior IAS officers, Poonam Malakondaiah, R Muthyala Raju and Narayan Bharat Gupta, who held important positions in the outgoing YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government. The officials have been told to report to the general administration department. People familiar with the matter said the state government has decided not to relieve bureaucrats and top police officials who came to the state on deputation during the Jagan Mohan Reddy regime. Among the officers who have asked the government to relieve them are Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams executive officer A V Dharma Reddy, AP State Fibernet Limited managing director Madhusudhan Reddy, AP state mineral development corporation MD V G Venkat Reddy, state information commissioner Tumma Vijay Kumar Reddy, AP state beverages corporation MD Vasudeva Reddy, state industries corporation MD Ch Rajeshwar Reddy and inspector general of stamps and registration Ramakrishna. Some officials have also applied for inter-state transfer. For example, the special chief secretary of finance department SS Rawat and the special chief secretary of municipal administration Y Srilakshmi have requested to be shifted to the Telangana cadre. However, the government rejected all their applications and asked them to stay put in their respective departments, till Naidu takes over as the chief minister and takes stock of the situation, an official in the state secretariat said on condition of anonymity. The government also decided not to grant leave to the top bureaucrats, pending inquiry into their alleged acts of omission and commission during the previous regime. On Thursday, the government ordered the removal of all advisors appointed by the previous government in various fields with immediate effect. Some of them, including advisor (public affairs) Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, national media advisor Devulapalli Amar, information advisor GVD Krishna Mohan and principal advisor to CM Ajay Kallam already resigned within hours of the YSRCP losing the elections on Tuesday. Similarly, chairman of the state council of higher education Hemachandra Reddy, TTD chairman Bhumana Karunakara Reddy, additional advocate general Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy, state public prosecutor Yarram Reddy Nagi Reddy and additional public prosecutor Dushyant Reddy also submitted their resignations. NEW DELHI: The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress on Friday taunted Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary for not being accommodated on the dais at the meeting of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) lawmakers, saying it was an insult to Chaudhary and the jat community . Prime Minister Narendra Modi being garlanded by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meeting,at Samvidhan Sadan in New Delhi on Friday. (BJP/ANI) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rejected the interpretation, and underlined that Chaudhary could not be accommodated on the dais due to space constraints at the NDA meeting to formally endorse Narendra Modi for a third term. On social media, several opposition leaders from Uttar Pradesh counted Jayant Chaudharys exclusion from the dais an insult to the RLD, which has 2 Lok Sabha MPs, though Apna Dal (S) president Anupriya Patel and Hindustan Awami Morcha (HAM) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi, both of whom have won just one seat each, were seated on the stage. A senior BJP leader said space constraints did not allow more than 13 chairs to be placed on the stage. While Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu are leaders of the party, and chief ministers, Jitanram Manjhi is a former CM, Ajit Pawar and HD Kumaraswamy are also deputy CMs And Anupriya was given space because we needed a woman representative... said the leader. Asserting that there was no ulterior motive or signal in the seating arrangement, the leader said, We could not even accommodate several other allies who have a single member in Parliament.... To be sure, Andhra Pradeshs JanaSena Party led by Pawan Kalyan, who was on the stage, also has two MPs in Lok Sabha. In a post on X, Samajwadi Partys media cell said Jayant Chaudhary should walk away from the NDA. If Jayant Chaudhary is really a farmers well-wisher, he should distance himself from the NDA and raise his voice against the BJP in farmers interests. One should not trade self-respect and the interests of farmers with the BJP due to petty and immediate greed, it said. UP Congress president Ajay Rai said this wasnt a first. The BJP has a habit of doing such things. insulting its smaller allies, he said. The RLD was part of the Oppositions INDIA bloc but switched sides weeks before the national elections were announced. It was allotted two seats by the NDA and won both; Chandan Chuhan from Bijnor and Rajkumar Sangwan from Bagpat. RLD MLA Anil Kumar said too much was being made of the seating arrangement. When has the INDIA bloc given us respect? Whether one sits above or below is not a big deal. One should do politics with a broad mind. One should not think about small matters. RLD is a main constituent party of the NDA and will remain with it, Kumar told India Today Delhi Tis Hazari Court on Friday dismissed the second bail application of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's aide Bibhav Kumar, who was arrested for allegedly assaulting Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal inside the AAP convenor's residence. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwals aide Bibhav Kumar (PTI FILE) This is the second regular bail plea by Kumar which was rejected by the court. His first bail application was submitted on May 27. Bibhav Kumar's bail application was filed by Advocate Sanjeev Nasiar, the head of Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) legal cell. On May 31, Delhi's Tiz Hazari court remanded Bibhav Kumar in 14-day judicial custody in connection with the alleged assault on Maliwal. Kumar was arrested by the Delhi Police on May 18 for allegedly assaulting Swati Maliwal. He will be produced before a court when his judicial custody ends, on June 14. The Delhi Police last month sought an extension of Kumar's judicial custody for proper investigation of the case. The cops also alleged that the accused is in a position to tamper with the evidence, interfere with the investigation, and make threats to any of the witnesses. On May 28, Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Atul Srivastava submitted that the accused formatted his mobile phone and refused to share the password. It was also submitted that police have received an interim report from a forensic expert on CCTV footage. The accused is seen entering the area where the DVR was there. He remained there for 20 minutes. There are chances of tampering with the evidence, the APP argued. In her FIR, former DCW chief Swati Maliwal alleged that Bibhav Kumar slapped her 7-8 times, kicked her in the chest and abdomen and hit her with full force on May 13, when she went to meet Arvind Kejriwal at his residence in Delhi. According to the medical examination conducted by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi, Swati Maliwal had multiple bruises on her body, including her left leg, and her right cheek below the eye. After the assault, she alleged victim shaming by the Aam Aadmi Party, saying that there were attempts to make her the villain and Kumar the hero in the case. Maliwal told ANI, I am very hurt and saddened by the behaviour of Arvind Kejriwal. I and my entire family are in trauma because I have been working since 2006. I have been working since I had no position or prestige. There were no governments in the two states then. I have been working since then, with passion, selflessness, and honesty. (With inputs from agencies) Taiwan on Friday dismissed Chinas protest over an exchange of messages between Taiwanese and Indian leaders, saying Beijing is using political coercion and spreading fallacies to confuse the world community. Taiwans President Lai Ching-te was among world leaders who greeted PM Modi on securing a third term. (Reuters file photo) China protested to India on Thursday over the exchange of messages between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Taiwan President Lai Ching-te on the ground that it opposes all interactions between Taiwanese authorities and countries that have diplomatic ties with Beijing. Lai was among world leaders who greeted Modi on securing a third term and said in a post on X that he looked forward to boosting the Taiwan-India partnership and expanding collaboration in sectors that contribute to peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. Modi responded on X by saying he looked forward to closer ties between India and Taiwan. Also Read: Exchange of messages on X between PM Modi and Taiwan President angers China China has traditionally bristled at contacts between Taiwan and any country and insisted on nations hewing to the one-China policy. However, India stopped referring to the one-China policy in official documents and pronouncements more than a decade ago. A statement from Taiwans foreign ministry said China, in its protest over the exchange of messages between Modi and Lai, had falsely claimed that India has a political commitment to the one-China principle and should resist Taiwans political plots. While countries around the world are congratulating India on its successful completion of parliamentary elections and Prime Minister Narendra Modis re-election, China is using political coercion and spreading fallacies in an attempt to confuse the international community, which in turn highlights the nature of its authoritarian system, the statement said. There has been no reaction so far from the Indian side to the protest lodged by China. Taiwans foreign ministry said it is not only an international practice for Taiwan and India to pay tribute to each other on the results of democratic elections, it also fully demonstrates the friendship between the two sides and their firm belief in the universal value of democracy. It added, Other countries have no right to comment. The Taiwan government is willing to deepen cooperation with the Indian government in economy, science and technology and continue to establish closer friendly relations, the foreign ministry said. The Taiwan government will also adhere to democracy and actively work with countries with similar ideals to promote peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. The foreign ministry reiterated Taiwan is a sovereign and independent country and is not affiliated with the Peoples Republic of China. This, it said, is a status quo generally recognised by the international community. Taiwan upholds and defends its democratic system and respects human rights and the rule of law. It will not give in because of Chinas intimidation and coercion, nor will it change its sovereign status just because China falsely claims that Taiwan is part of it, it added. Taiwan interacts with the world community based on the shared values of freedom, democracy and human rights. On the other hand, Chinas unreasonable and arbitrary pressure and intimidation of Taiwans international friends will only increase negative effects, the statement said. India and Taiwan dont have formal diplomatic relations, though both sides established representative offices in each others capitals in 1995. Taiwanese firms have emerged as key players in Indias efforts to attract technology and know-how from abroad to become a manufacturer of semiconductors. TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar, JD(S) MP-elect HD Kumaraswamy and other leaders part of the NDA supported the proposal of naming Narendra Modi as the 'eader of the alliance in Parliament at a key meeting of the bloc on Friday, days after Lok Sabha elections results were announced. Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Telugu Desam Party leader N Chandrababu Naidu and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar during a meeting.(AP) The meeting was held on Friday at the Samvidhan Sadan of the Parliament building where Narendra Modi was later unanimously elected as the leader of Lok Sabha, leader of the BJP and leader of the NDA Parliamentary Party. Narendra Modi was also present at the NDA meeting. The prime minister was welcomed with chants of Modi Modi as he arrived to join the meeting. Modi also touched the Constitution of India with his forehead. TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu said, "We are congratulating all of us as we have won a wonderful majority. I have seen during the election campaign, for three months PM Modi never took any rest. Day and night he has campaigned. He stated and ended with the same spirit. In Andhra Pradesh, we had three public meetings and one big rally and it has made a huge difference in winning the election in Andhra Pradesh..." After the BJP failed to cross the halfway mark needed to form a government of its own, it had to depend on allies TDP and JD(U). BJP MP Rajnath Singh, addressing the gathering, said, "I want to congratulate all the newly elected MPs...Today, we are here to elect the leader of the NDA. I believe that PM Narendra Modi's name is the most suitable for all these posts..." BJP national president JP Nadda said, "The NDA got a majority in the Lok Sabha Elections, and we also formed our government in Odisha. I am happy to inform you that the NDA government was also formed in Andhra Pradesh. In Arunachal Pradesh, too, we formed our Government for the third time. In Sikkim, the NDA formed its government, too. "We remember that 10 years ago, there was an indifferent India, it was said about India that nothing was going to change here and today, 10 years later, under the leadership of PM Modi, the same India has become an aspiring India and has set out with the resolution of a developed India...," Nadda said. Modi was greeted by Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar, among other leaders, at the meeting. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP- Ajit Pawar) Chief Ajit Pawar, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Chirag Paswan were also present at the meeting. Former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy affirmed that his party's support to Modi and the NDA to form a stable government. On Wednesday, leaders of parties in the NDA held a meeting and elected Modi as their leader. Modi later said NDA will work towards building a developed India. Narendra Modi will take oath as Prime Minister for the third time on Sunday, senior BJP leader Pralhad Joshi said at the NDA parliamentary party meeting. The oath-taking ceremony will take place at 6pm on June 9, Joshi told the NDA leaders assembled here at the Central Hall of the old Parliament Building to elect Modi as their leader. TDP General Secretary Nara Lokesh, the son of Andhra Pradesh chief minister elect Chandrababu Naidu, spoke about maintaining a symbiotic relationship with the Narendra Modi-led central government, offering his party's unconditional support to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Nara Lokesh, TDP general secretary and Chandrababu Naidu's son (HT Photo) In an interview to PTI at TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidus residence in Undavalli, Lokesh said that his party joined NDA unconditionally before the Lok Sabha election. However, he reasoned that there should be a give-and-take in the relationship in case of any future investment opportunity. We joined NDA unconditionally before elections; we will continue to be in NDA unconditionally... We believe that he (Modi) should be the Prime Minister of India and there is no second thought about it, said Lokesh. He further said that if some opportunity for investment arises, the party would like Andhra to get and would expect Centre's push for it. We will definitely ask for it. It is about building a symbiotic relationship, representing the states interests, every states interest, Lokesh asserted. He further said that there will be hundreds of things" where negotiation with the Centre would be required. There would be 100 things such as Agniveer, Uniform Civil Code, reservations, allocation of budgets, development and others which could be negotiated across a table, Nara Lokesh said. When asked a question about whether the new Andhra Pradesh government will offer reservations for the Muslim community, the TDP leader said that his party doesnt know caste, creed or religion, and only represents the interests of the Telugu people. TDP has been clear from day one. TDP represents the interests of Telugu people. We dont know caste, creed and religion. We stand only for Telugu people. We believe that the Telugu state should be a strong state, he noted. Emphasizing on the concept of one state, one capital, Lokesh asserted that Amaravati is the capital city of Andhra Pradesh, but highlighted that decentralised development will be done. The Telugu Desam Party won the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections by winning 135 seats, with Chandrababu Naidu set to be the new chief minister of the state. Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh Lok Sabha election also saw a victory for the NDA alliance, with TDP winning 16 out of the 25 seats and BJP winning 3 seats. (With inputs from PTI) Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk congratulated Prime Minister designate Narendra Modi on winning the 2024 general elections in India. Musk on Friday took to social media platform X to extend his well wishes to Modi, and talked about the future of his companies in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hand with Tesla chief executive Elon Musk during their meeting in New York City in 2023 (Reuters)(via REUTERS) Three days after the Lok Sabha results 2024 were declared, Elon Musk tweeted, Congratulations @narendramodi on your victory in the worlds largest democratic elections! Looking forward to my companies doing exciting work in India. PM-designate Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the single largest political party in India on June 4, bagging 240 out of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats. Its rival party, Indian National Congress, won 99 seats. the While BJP on its own did not have enough seats to touch the majority mark this election, the NDA alliance is set to form the government with 293 seats. Speculations are rife that Elon Musk will put up his first Indian Tesla plant in Maharashtra, Gujarat or Tamil Nadu. The potential $3 billion investment by the electronic carmaker comes at a time when India, earlier this year, lowered its import taxes on certain electric vehicles produced by carmakers that commit to invest at least $500 million. Musk also had plans to visit India between April 20 and 22, but his trip was cancelled at the last minute. He cancelled his visit citing heavy obligations from Tesla, and expressed his plans to visit the country later this year. Unfortunately, very heavy Tesla obligations require that the visit to India be delayed, but I do very much look forward to visiting later this year," wrote Elon Musk on X days before his trip to India. Apart from Musk, dozens of businessmen and world leaders congratulated Narendra Modi on his win in the elections including US President Joe Biden, Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron. Three labourers have been arrested for illegally entering the high-security Parliament complex by allegedly using "forged" Aadhaar cards, reports claimed on Friday. The three men were apprehended by the CISF at the flap gate entry of the Parliament and were later arrested by the Delhi Police. BSF jawan stand infront of Parliament (Hindustan Times) Statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Chhattrapati Shivaji, BR Ambedkar shifted within Parliament; Congress says atrocious The Delhi Police arrested the three accused, Kasim, Monis and Soyeb, on charges of forgery and cheating. According to the FIR, the trio were intercepted and detained by CISF when they had lined up for security and identity card checks using a casual entry pass. Two of them possessed Aadhaar cards with identical serial numbers but their own photos. The identity of the third worker, Soyab, is being ascertained and is also under investigation, as per the FIR filed by the Delhi Police. The CISF personnel, while checking, found the cards to be doubtful and, on further scrutiny, found that those were forged. An investigation reveal0ed that they were hired by Dee Vee Projects Limited and had been engaged in the construction of the MP's lounge inside the Parliament complex for the past three months. The police have booked the accused under the sections 465 (forgery), 419 (cheating by personation), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Three labourers held for trying to enter Parliament using forged documents The CISF recently replaced the CRPF and Delhi Police contingents and took over the entire security of the Parliament complex in the wake of the Lok Sabha security breach in December 2023 when two men, Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan D, jumped inside the Lok Sabha from the visitor's gallery above the chamber and threw smoke cannisters inside the Parliament, and shouted anti-establishment slogans before being overpowered by the MPs. Two protestors, Neelam and Amol, protested outside Parliament with similar gas canisters. (With inputs from agencies) Bengaluru, Shocked, shattered and depressed, the survivors of the trekking tragedy in Uttarakhand sat for nearly 36 hours with the bodies of their nine companions, S Srivatsa, Secretary of Karnataka Mountaineering Association, said while recalling the sight at the Dehradun hospital the survivors were taken to. "When I spoke to them, they recalled how because of the heavy wind, their windcheater, jackets and gloves were flying and visibility was zero. So, they took shelter next to a big boulder. But because of exhaustion, hypothermia and lack of sufficient oxygen, four of them collapsed at first. Five others collapsed later. "They said they were unable to move, caught in the blizzard, and became exhausted. They were carrying food but could not eat because they were unable to open the tiffin boxes amid strong winds," he told PTI. Later, from the lower camp, a guide and other mountaineers sent two more tents with sleeping bags and a cook managed to give them some hot water, he said while narrating the sequence of events post-tragedy. "With that help, the survived. Otherwise, they would have also collapsed," he added. Among those who lost their lives was 71-year-old Asha Sudhakar, a KMA member for over three decades and one of the oldest women trekkers from the state. According to KMshe had been on several such treks with her husband S Sudhakar in the past, who was the team leader of this trek. He survived the calamity. "Age was not an issue at all. Asha was an experienced mountaineer and trekker. This team was a combination of mountaineers and trekkers. They were all experienced. In fact, Asha's husband was the leader of the team. Caught in the inclement weather, she unfortunately lost her life but her husband survived," Srivatsa said. The group comprised physically fit, experienced trekkers in the age group of 34 to 71, Srivatsa said. "This tragedy happened only due to this fatal bad weather. They were all trained and experienced trekkers. It was not very tough terrain also. The terrain was very accessible to any common person...," he added. He said he rushed to Dehradun as soon as he heard about what happened. "I know each one of them personally. They all are KMA members and I have trekked a lot with them in the past but during this trek, I was in Nepal." Recalling what he saw at the hospital, he said, "They were in complete shock, shattered and depressed. Some of them were sitting with the bodies of their team members for nearly 36 hours, It was depressing." It is not for lack of preparation that the tragedy happened, he asserted. "Primarily, before going on an expedition, there are two or three mandatory local treks as a prep for physical fitness. Apart from that, we meet every Saturday." He recalled how they often organised pre-monsoon and post-monsoon treks across India and to neighbouring countries like Nepal. "We organised three expeditions in Nepal and all of them were successfully completed. Two were Everest base camps and the other was Annapurna Base Camp Trek. A camp in Manali was also organised for children between the age group of 12-15 years. In the Uttarakhand region alone, two other camps were held recently, which were completed successfully. This was the last expedition. "This itinerary was from May 29 to 8. They left on May 29 and were supposed to reach Bengaluru on June 8," he said. Talking about the sequence of events before the tragedy, Srivatsa said after reaching Uttarkashi, the group established a camp at Sahastra Tal. From there, they went to a high point, but while climbing down, the weather turned bad. On June 3, due to bad weather, they all took shelter at the big boulder. Due to intense cold and inclement weather, people went into hypothermia and four of them collapsed at night and the next morning, a few of them came down with the guide, he said. "After the guide reached the nearest signal point, he called me on the evening of June 4, and with the help of the Secretary of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, we organised logistics for rescue on June 5," he said. The Chief Secretary of Karnataka and the Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand both coordinated and helped us, he added. "We lost nine members while 13 survived. They all were rescued and brought to Dehradun hospital. After treatment, they were put up at the state government guest house where they were taken care of," he said, adding that the bodies of the deceased were sent to Bengaluru after post-mortem. When PTI contacted some of the survivors, they were still in shock. "We are still in shock and are not able to come to terms with what just happened. We are grateful to the government for their efforts but, unfortunately, we have lost some of our friends in this tragedy. We need time to come to terms with it," one of them said. All nine bodies have arrived and been handed over to their respective families for final rites. Uttarakhand trekking tragedy: 'Survivors sat with the bodies of their dead companions for 36 hours' A day after an underwhelming electoral result for the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his cabinet colleagues at Lok Kalyan Marg office and delivered the bottom line that the NDA was going to form the government at the Centre for the third time. Narendra Modi being felicitated by party leaders JP Nadda and Amit Shah, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar and others during the NDA parliamentary party meeting at Samvidhan Sadan, in New Delhi,(PTI) He basically told his ministers that unexpected results are part of the electoral game but the fundamental fact was that the BJP had more seats than the INDI alliance and that the NDA was forming the government for the third time. At a time when there is a global churn and uncertainty with the restless public favouring more change than continuity, the world leaders have welcomed the return of Narendra Modi as the prime minister of India for the third time. Fact is that to date, no less than 121 world leaders have congratulated him and this includes 83 heads of state and heads of government. Apart from the top leadership of organizations like the European Union and UN bodies like the WHO, the P-5 and the QUAD leaders have personally called up and congratulated PM Modi. While China has used its propaganda media to hit out at the PM for unexpected electoral results, the world leadership has reacted in the way it has due to the importance of the verdict and the weight of India. The world leaders like US President Joe Biden, Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron, UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have also reacted enthusiastically due to their personal relations with PM Modi. All understand that getting elected for the third time in a turbulent world is an extraordinary achievement and their response to PM Modi's re-election is also directly proportional to their expectation from India in future. Add to this, no less than seven leaders from Indian neighbourhood are expected to attend the swearing-in ceremony for PM Modi on Sunday evening, with leaders like Maldives president Mohamed Muizzu being more than keen to mark their presence in India. Although the world leadership had regaled the return of PM Modi for the third time, it is also time for the BJP's top leadership to do serious introspection on what went wrong with the final result and what should be done to address it with Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections round the corner. Many may not know it but PM Modi is the most ruthless auto-corrector when it comes to electoral reach of the BJP and the results. It is quite evident that he will be extremely positive externally but will do a ruthless self-introspection internally to correct what went wrong on June 4. Even though many in the media are trying to play on perceived fault-lines within the NDA and the number vulnerability of Modi 3.0, the fact is that both TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu and JD (U) boss Nitish Kumar are virtually the same age as PM Modi and are looking towards establishing legacy in their own states. ALSO READ: Narendra Modi unanimously elected as leader of NDA Parliamentary party; Chandrababu Naidu, Nitish Kumar back his name TDP's Chandrababu Naidu wants to leave a mark on Andhra Pradesh by making it the most sought-after investment destination in India and wants support from Centre for building the state. He could not care less about what portfolios his party gets at the Centre as he believes that just like PM has a vision for India, he has a vision for Andhra. JD (U) boss and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has had a long innings at both the state as CM and as a central minister. He will be using his relationship with PM Modi to development the state of Bihar as his political career goes into twilight zone. He also wants a lasting legacy for himself in Bihar and hence needs support from PM Modi. While it is quite evident that PM Modi will be able to provide a stable government at the Centre, the big question is what went wrong with the 2024 electoral results, particularly in UP and Maharashtra. One must not forget that the NDA managed to bag all the Assembly elections including Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and crown jewel Odisha. What went wrong in Lok Sabha elections? Given the complex nature of politics in both UP and Maharashtra, the unexpected result for the BJP in these states is a total of a number of factors and cannot be pin-pointed to a single factor. In UP, there was an internal issue of Lok Sabha candidate selection within the BJP central leadership, the state leadership and the RSS. The second reason was that while the leaders got caught in their own self-propaganda of sweeping UP, the public also got caught in the self-deception and stayed at home thinking the party was as it is coming to power. Third reason was the shift of Dalit votes from the BJP and Bahujan Samaj Party towards the INDI alliance, which topped up the Muslim vote for them and made the Opposition breach the tape. The upper caste Thakur community also had local issues with the candidates in UP, and with no over-arching issue dominating the election, it all boiled down to the local grievances at the constituency level. To make matters worse were uncalled for statements from senior BJP leaders stating words to the effect that the party did not need the RSS workers and that issues like Kashi and Mathura were not on agenda. All this came in the heat of election and ensured that the hard-working Karyakartas preferred to stay at home rather than drag their voters to the polling booth. While the Muslims voted en-masse for Opposition to foil the perceived image of mega march of BJP in UP, its own cadre got caught in its own self-propaganda or local politics and let go of polling booth management. Another key factor was the shifting of UP State in charge Sunil Bansal to the frontlines of Odisha, Telangana and West Bengal from UP. While he delivered in both Odisha and Telangana, his successors in UP like the in-charge in Punjab were unfamiliar with the idiom and ethos of the states. While everything is 20/20 post event and can be justified, the fact is that splitting of both Shiv Sena and NCP did not go well with the electorate, particularly the inclusion of Ajit Pawar, who had a public image different from what the BJP supporters wanted out of the party in Maharashtra. There were multiple factors in Maharashtra with rivalry within the BJP state leadership and a lack of electoral synergy among the NDA allies on the ground. While Modi haters came out in full numbers, the supporters again got caught in local issues and stayed out of the exercise. They got complacent. The underwhelming results in Rajasthan and Haryana were a reflection of the state leadership with the fall-out of famers movement used to advantage by the Opposition in Haryana and for that matter Punjab. Knowing the nature of both PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, the party will not go into depression but move into top gear as soon as PM Modi and his cabinet get sworn in. The party and the RSS top leadership have already had a dialogue at the top level on how to improve coordination for the future and communication with the electorate will be improved both at the party and state leadership level. As one of key allies of NDA told me that he lost his state in the past as he was more busy setting up IT parks, building roads and ports rather than communicating with his supporters. The BJP leadership should rectify this mistake as it will cost votes in future. NEW DELHI: Filling two key positions in the US and choosing a new foreign secretary will be among the priorities in the realm of foreign policy for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government set to take office over the weekend. Foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra is widely expected to become the next envoy to the US within the next few months (PTI) Foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra, who was given a six-month extension in service in March, is widely expected to become the next envoy to the US within the next few months, people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity. The key slot in Washington has been vacant since the last ambassador, Taranjit Sandhu, retired in January. Deputy national security adviser Vikram Misri, an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of the 1989 batch who has the rare distinction of serving as private secretary to three prime ministers, is tipped to take over as foreign secretary when Kwatra moves to the US, the people said. Misri, one of the leading China hands in the external affairs ministry whose last ambassadorial posting was in Beijing, was appointed to his position in the National Security Council Secretariat in January 2022. The people said he would be a natural fit as the foreign secretary in view of his expertise on China, which remains the foremost foreign policy challenge for India. Indias ambassador to France, Jawed Ashraf, who served as joint secretary in the Prime Ministers Office under both Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi and was granted a year-long extension in service that is set to end in September this year, is widely tipped to replace Misri in the National Security Council Secretariat, the people said. The incoming government will also have to fill the post of the permanent representative of India to the United Nations (UN) in New York, which became vacant with the retirement of Ruchira Kamboj the first woman to hold the position at the beginning of this month. The two frontrunners for this post are Parvathaneni Harish, an officer of the 1990 batch of the IFS and the current envoy to Germany, and BN Reddy, from the 1993 batch of the IFS and the current high commissioner to Malaysia, the people said. Other names doing the rounds for this position are Vikram Doraiswami, a 1992 batch officer who is the high commissioner to Britain, and Naveen Srivastava, from the 1993 batch of the IFS and currently the ambassador to Nepal. Sanjeev Singla, who has been the ambassador to Israel since July 2019, is widely tipped as the next ambassador to France, the people said. Singla, from the 1997 batch of the IFS, also served as private secretary to the prime minister during 2014-2019. The government will also have to choose some new ministers of state for external affairs since two of the three ministers in the outgoing administration Meenakshi Lekhi and Rajkumar Ranjan Singh werent given tickets by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to contest the Lok Sabha election, while the third former Rajya Sabha member V Muraleedharan lost in the polls in Attingal constituency in Kerala. Days after the Lok Sabha election results were announced, a meeting of the newly elected MPs of Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA alliance was held on Friday at Parliament to decide the leader of the coalition. PM Modi at NDA meet The meeting took place at the Samvidhan Sadan of the Parliament building, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was welcomed with chants of 'Modi Modi'. Upon his arrival, Prime Minister Modi paid respect to the Constitution of India by touching the book to his forehead. Follow- Election Results LIVE BJP MP Rajnath Singh proposed Narendra Modi as the leader of the NDA's parliamentary party, which was approved unanimously, setting the stage for him to become the Prime Minister for a third time. I want to congratulate all the newly elected MPs...Today, we are here to elect the leader of the NDA. I believe that PM Narendra Modi's name is the most suitable for all these posts, Singh said. ALSO READ- Narendra Modi unanimously elected as leader of NDA Parliamentary party; Chandrababu Naidu, Nitish Kumar back his name The proposal was seconded by Amit Shah, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, Bihar CM and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar, Janata Dal-Secular leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) Chief Ajit Pawar, Lok Janshakti Party Chief Chirag Paswan, and others. TDP chief Naidu stressed the importance of balancing regional aspirations and national interests to ensure holistic development for all strata of society. We will all stand with Narendra Modi in all his decisions every day, said Bihar CM and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar at the NDA meeting. After proposing Modi's name, he was seen attempting to touch Modi's feet, which was promptly stopped by Modi. ALSO READ- On Nitish Kumar touching PM Modi's feet at Bihar rally, Tejashwi Yadav says we felt very bad Narendra Modi is going to take oath as the Prime Minister for the third consecutive time at 6 pm on June 9, said BJP leader Pralhad Patel. According to the results announced by the Election Commission of India on Tuesday, the BJP won 240 seats, and along with its allies, it stands at 293 seats. Chandrababu Naidu's TDP and Nitish Kumar's JD(U), having won 16 and 12 seats respectively, have extended their support to the NDA. The INDIA bloc has 234 MPs in the new parliament, with the Congress winning 99 seats. The Central Water Commission (CWC), on Thursday, released its weekly bulletin, showing the reduction in storage available in billion cubic metres (BCM) across 150 reservoirs in India. It also highlighted that southern states were facing a more acute water shortage in terms of available capacity than northern states. People queue up for water from tanker amid crisis in New Delhi (PTI Photo) The water crisis in India has led to long queues for water, heat exhaustion and inter-state disputes. Read more: A victory for people: Atishi on SC order asking HP to release water to Delhi According to the CWC's weekly bulletin, the current capacity in river basins in northern states is more than the average capacity over the last 10 years. In the Central Water Commission's weekly bulletin released on Thursday, the live storage available is 39.765 BCM, 22 per cent of the total capacity of these reservoirs. This is less than the storage available last year which was 50.549 BCM and less than a 10 year average of 42.727 BCM. These numbers indicate that though rivers like the Ganga and its tributaries have more water storing capacity than average this year, reservoirs in the region have less capacity available to store water. Read more: World wars of the future will be fought over water: Former IAS Alok Ranjan In particular, the report identifies Himachal Pradesh as having better storage than in the last 10 years, in reservoirs and river basins. On Thursday the Supreme Court ordered Himachal Pradesh to release water to Delhi. One of the reasons for the water crisis in Delhi, which is dependent on Himachal Pradesh and Haryana for water, is the lack of use of surface water bodies like lakes and ponds. According to a 2023 report by the Ministry of Jal Shakti, 73.5 per cent of surface water bodies in Delhi were not usable due to effluents, waste and drying up. While northern states deal with low reservoir levels, southern states are also facing drying up rivers and deficient basin capacity in rivers like Cauvery and Krishna. Southern states also struggle due to inter-state water sharing agreements such as the issue of the Cauvery dam and claims on its water by Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Read more: Bengaluru braces for water supply disruption; Check dates, timings: Report In Southern states, the current storage available in reservoirs has come down to 13 per cent after last year's 23 per cent. Cities like Bengaluru are facing a two day water supply cut to deal with the shortage. I might be a film critic, but one of my favourite quotes begins with the line: It is not the critic who counts. In 1910, American president Theodore Roosevelt declared that the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood. The man, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. In Indian cinema this year, perhaps we will see no bigger example of daring greatly than Kalki 2898 AD, due for release later this month. The Telugu film will be released in five languages (key dialogue was also shot in Hindi; and there are dubbed versions in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada), and it represents a leap of faith, propelled by staggering ambition. Set in a dystopian future, this is a science-fiction drama that attempts worldbuilding of the sort we are only used to seeing in Hollywood (think Star Wars, Blade Runner or, more recently, the Dune films). Even more exciting, the influences here are distinctly Indian: Kalki refers to the Kali Yuga, when Ashwatthama, born to Dronacharya and cursed with immortal life, meets Kalki, the tenth avatar of Vishnu. The cast is a whos who of Indian cinema, led by Prabhas and Deepika Padukone, featuring the iconic Amitabh Bachchan (as Ashwatthama) and Kamal Haasan, Rana Daggubati, Disha Patani, Dulquer Salmaan and Saswata Chatterjee. Keerthy Suresh plays a pivotal role as the voice of Bujji, an AI bot who serves as the brain of a futuristic car. Keerthy won a National Award for her last association with director Nag Ashwin, Mahanati (2018); Bujji is already making waves. In the run-up to the release, an animated series called B & B: Bujji and Bhairava (thats the character played by Prabhas) is out on Amazon Prime. The series, which is set two years before the film, introduces this world that is divided firmly into haves and have-nots. Bhairava is a bounty hunter who seems to owe everyone money. The currency of the time is units, which are transferred via armbands. For Bujji and Bhairava, the ultimate aspiration is to live in The Complex, an inverted pyramid where the most powerful reside. This is only Nags third feature but, clearly, he isnt a timid storyteller. There is little precedent in Indian cinema for what he is attempting here. The various introductory and behind-the-scenes assets being released currently offer a peek into what has gone into the making of this film. Among other things, the team designed futuristic technology, weapons, homes and a car for Bhairava, in a process aided by Mahindra and CEAT. In an interview, Nag has said he made Kalki 2898 AD for his younger self and hopes that people will exit the theatres as disoriented as he was after watching James Camerons Avatar in 2009. We are meant to be so fully immersed in his imagined world that the real one feels jarring and unfamiliar at first. It is impossible to predict whether audiences will be adequately seduced (the film is rumoured to have cost 600 crore to make), but what supreme effort, passion and courage Nag and his producers his wife Priyanka Dutt, her sister Swapna Dutt and their father, veteran producer C Aswani Dutt have shown in taking a swing this big. In the movies at least, the meek rarely inherit the earth. (To reach Anupama Chopra with feedback, email feedbackforanu@gmail.com) Protest is a uniquely human activity. Weve been at it for at least a few thousand years, in surprisingly similar formats. The earliest such movement on record is a labour strike in Egypt in the 12th century BCE, during the reign of Ramses III. Tomb builders and artisans from Deir el-Medina, who were among the highest paid and respected in the country, set down their tools to protest poor working conditions and consistent late payments. Large sums were being donated to temples across Egypt. There had been successful war campaigns against the Libyans and the Sea Peoples (marauders who arrived via the coast). Why then were they not being paid, they demanded. Their stir was recorded in a scroll called the Judicial Papyrus of Turin, an administrative document found in Deir el-Medina in the early 19th century. The workers were appeased when their dues were eventually cleared, but periodic strikes continued over three years, every time payments were delayed, the scroll notes. Workers blocked access to temples, preventing priests from making offerings to the deceased, which was considered a serious offence. Labour strikes have followed a similar format, then, for millennia. In the US, it is considered very poor form to cross a picket line and patronise a business that has driven its workers to protest outside. As tactics change, with children skipping school, women withholding sex from spouses, and climate protestors throwing soup at the glass shields around works of art, all to little effect, researchers are examining what makes for a successful protest. In their 2011 book Why Civil Resistance Works, political scientist Erica Chenoweth and political strategist Maria J Stephan found that non-violent movements were twice as likely to succeed, because they appeal to a wider range of people. The authors examined 323 violent and non-violent campaigns from 1900 to 2006 and analysed how success typically does hinge on numbers. If one can galvanise about 3.5% of the population, it more or less guarantees a successful campaign, the book states. That sounds like a really small number, but in absolute terms its really an impressive number of people, Chenoweth added, in an interview in the Harvard Gazette. In the US, it would be around 11.5 million people today. Could you imagine if 11.5 million peoplethats about three times the size of the 2017 Womens Marchwere doing something like mass non-cooperation in a sustained way? The chances of such a mass gathering depend partly, of course, on the ruling dispensation. In the US, thousands of students at more than 130 colleges and universities have demonstrated against Israels war on Gaza since it began in October. By May, more than 2,000 student protestors had been arrested, suspended, expelled or prevented from graduating. In India, wrestlers who were protesting a lack of action against a wrestling federation chief who was accused of sexual harassment, were manhandled and dragged away from their protest site in Delhi. I am concerned that the decline of the global left has taken the teeth out of protest over the last 100 years, and the rise of social media has dematerialised protest over the last 10 or 15 years, says journalist and writer Raghu Karnad. In the last few years in India, police are creating an expectation that a protest is illegal until deemed legal, which is completely backwards. Lone rangers Perhaps the most unusual kind of protest is the one consisting of a single individual. A new film still under production explores the life of Irom Chanu Sharmila, before, during and after what has gone into the records as the worlds longest hunger strike. It lasted for 16 years, with Sharmila force-fed through a tube as she protested the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). The Act gives soldiers the power to arrest without warrants and shoot to kill, if there is reasonable suspicion that there is need for such action, while fighting insurgents in the state. Sharmila was a 28-year-old activist in Manipur when, empowered by the Act, Indian soldiers shot and killed 10 civilians, including a teenager and a senior, at a bus stop near Imphal. From that year, 2000, to 2016, Sharmila stopped eating, making news statewide, then countrywide, then worldwide as she demanded a repeal of AFSPA. In August 2016, with tears streaming down her face, she ended her fast with a few drops of honey. The protest hadnt worked. AFSPA remains in place in parts of Manipur and in parts of Nagaland, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Sharmila has since found love, married, and has two daughters, twins aged six. What drew me to her story was this idea of how the world is quick to create heroes and is equally quick to discard them, says Akshat Nauriyal, the new-media artist who is making the film, titled How Sweet Does the Honey Taste? They do declare A protest does work best when it is joined by multitudes. Rosa Parks leading to the bus boycott and then to I have a dream the power of one paired with the power of the crowd has changed the world. Pharaohs learned to pay workers on time. Women were included among those with the right to vote. Monarchies fell, modern democracies were born. Slavery came to an end, then segregation. Laws against sexual minorities have been repealed; new formats of the family embraced. India was freed from its colonisers; apartheid ended in South Africa. We have the five-day work week and eight-hour workday (at least notionally) because of workers protests in the late 1800s in the US. Even when success is less dramatic, or not visible at all, every protest succeeds in at least one way. Because of Sharmila, parts of the worldand millions in Indiawere forced to learn about AFSPA, what it is, and what it can be used to do. What a protest tries to manifest is a growing circle of awareness and of agitation. So even a small protest is meant to inform and awaken a larger group of people who witness it, says Karnad. Whether the protest is led by an individual or a small or large group, then, that multiplier effect is its purpose. You want to capture peoples attention and that is the main threat to the larger powers you are standing up against. What is a protest you joined, a cause you fought for, or a mission you wish to see succeed? Write in and add to our history of humanitys most ancient method of sending out the powerful message: Weve had enough. A librarian at Colorado College, Jessy Randall, 54 would often pore through books on historical women in science. She had read several biographies, memoirs, scientific articles, which prompted the idea of writing poems on the most interesting anecdotes she had read. After a while, it felt like some of the poems almost wrote themselves, she says. She compiled 70 such verses into the book, titled Mathematics for Ladies: Poems on Women in Science (2022). Im very glad to be a writer in the age of the internet, because I dont have to explain the entire back story for each poem the reader can pursue more information without even getting out of their chair, she says. Take a look at three of her poems on: Bertha Benz, the German automotive pioneer known for setting off on the worlds first long-distance drive in the Patent-Motorwagen built by her husband, Karl Benz; British mathematician Charlotte Angas Scott and American professor and botanist Rachel Bodley. Bertha Benz (18491944) I wanted to see how far I could drive in one day. We left at dawn, my sons and I. No, I didnt tell my husband. Why should I have? I didnt need his permission. It was my money built those cars. My sons thought it was a lark, stopping in the little towns, the wind in our faces. Those things you drive now are more like tanks. We were picnicking on wheels. A formidable bike. We made 66 miles from sunup to sundown. Mannheim ate our dust. Pforzheim was like another planet. We didnt return right away. We let Karl stew. The car cooled down. I bought a new hat and ate pastries. The boys ran about, taking all the credit. As if anyone couldve done what I did. Its all right. Their names may be emblazoned on the signs, but I know who I am and what drove me. Charlotte Angas Scott (18581931) When I was at college for mathematics I attended Cambridge lectures from behind a screen, of course. So the male students couldnt see me. (I might have distracted them.) And so I had to picture all the numbers in my head. I had no view of the board. Maybe the strain of all that imagining is why I tied for 8th place on the exam. Being female, I was not allowed to attend the ceremony. Nor could my name be read aloud. But when the list got to 8th place the men called out SCOTT and cheered, and waved their hats. Or so Im told. I wasnt there. Rachel Bodley (18311888) I was quite boring. I did science. I was meticulous. I dont have any funny stories about it. Stop requiring women to be charming and delightful! Just let us do our work. Thank you (Excerpted with permission from Mathematics for Ladies: Poems on Women in Science by Jessy Randall, published by Goldsmiths Press; 2022) We prefer not to use the Did you know line in Wknd But did you know that the term scientist was coined for a woman? (We thought this one warranted it.) Heres how it happened: Cambridge University historian William Whewell invented the phrase in the early 19th century, to describe Mary Somerville, a woman known for her English translation of the French mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplaces five-volume work on the mechanics of the solar system. The term stuck on simply because the more common man of science needed an alternative. If we didnt even have a term for women of science until so recently, how were we telling their stories? The answer is that we werent. Which isnt new. Whats new is the ways in which this is changing, as women begin to tell stories of other women that should have been told long ago. Theres a sea of extraordinary stories out there that are waiting to be told, says journalist turned historian Anita Anand, author of Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary (2015) and co-host of the Empire podcast with William Dalrymple. And more boats are fishing in that sea, mostly manned by women, who are pulling those stories out for a wider public. Sometimes these are biographies or biopics; or corrective notes made in the annals of history. He didnt invent that, actually. She did. This week, were looking at four projects that take a wider view, zooming out to explore an entire landscape differently: botany, math, war. In Mathematics for Ladies (2022), American library curator Jessy Randall frames poems about women in science, infused with humour and outrage, surprise and sarcasm, as she documents the lives and work of people who resisted the conventions of their times, succeeded where no one expected it, and were still rendered invisible. Theres a poem on the Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani (19772017), who became the first woman to be awarded a Fields Medal in 2014. There are ironic references to Marie Curie (18671934), who won two Nobels, one each in physics and chemistry, and went on to become the only woman scientist most people could name, for several decades. Stop comparing me to every woman scientist! Another Madame Curie this. A new Madame Curie that, the poem goes. Stop re-naming women altogether! From poetry and science to botany and motherhood, Canadian evolutionary biologist Erin Zimmerman recently released a memoir titled Unrooted: Botany, Motherhood and the Fight to Save an Old Science (April; Melville House). It is her response to being edged out of a highly competitive research career, she says, as soon as she started a family. In her book, Zimmerman explores the battles of mothers with PhDs, and what it would take to make academia kinder to caregivers. She also traces the intriguing history of botanical illustration (one of her specialties), which started out as a rare field open to women. Today, women still outnumber men in botany classrooms, she adds, but as one moves into the higher ranks, they fade away. In war-ravaged Ukraine, meanwhile, where stories are centred on violence, bloodshed and forced migrations, British photographer Polly Braden decided to focus on the women who were suddenly becoming single mothers, fleeing the country and navigating new worlds with their children. Her subjects range in age from 16 to 51. And in India, Nidhi Goyal, founder of the disability rights group Rising Flame, is rewriting classic European fairytales. And They Lived Ever After (March; HarperCollins), features a wheelchair-using Rapunzel who wont leave her tower till the prince builds ramps across his province, liberating all those who are trapped by their absence. A neurodivergent duckling finds their tribe. And a Cinderella refuses to marry a visually challenged but rather spineless Prince Charming. Each tale is written by a differently abled woman; Goyal, who has also written one of the stories, is blind herself. The idea came to her, she says, because across rural and urban India, I would meet women resigned to the idea of never finding love because they never saw themselves as the main character of these stories. Seeing oneself as the main character can be hard, when one is a woman. In history, economics, science and even in recorded data, women have been conspicuous by their absence through the years because nobody had thought it worth recording their lives and contributions, says writer and essayist Urvashi Butalia, founder of Zubaan, the feminist publishing imprint of Kali for Women. Ethnographers, till barely 20 years ago, were going into villages and writing definitive stories about spaces by talking only to men, and never thinking that their work was incomplete. This led to an exclusion that was barely missed because not enough women themselves questioned this lack of representation, she adds. The change today is small but impactful. It will be hard to lose these voices again, Butalia says, as more women also, finally, insert themselves into the narrative. Hidden figures: Old stories in new verses Maria Mitchell,the first professional woman astronomer in the US, gazing at the stars in a painting by artist Herminia Dassel in 1851. (Wikimedia) Being a woman is such a huge handicap that my religion has never mattered, the Jewish physicist Lise Meitner said, when what should have been a shared Nobel went to her collaborator, the German chemist Otto Hahn, in 1944. They had worked together for years on their discovery of nuclear fission, and all she got was a brief mention in Hahns acceptance speech. It is stories like this one that inspired Jessy Randalls book of 70 poems on 70 long-overlooked women scientists, titled Mathematics for Ladies: Poems on Women in Science (2022; Goldsmiths Press). The poems weave professional and biographical details into exasperated, mischievous and easy-to-read verse. The women range from astronomers and physicians to botanists, physicists and chemists. They include women from the Middle Ages, such as Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179; a philosopher, composer, medical writer and practitioner) and more recent legends such as the Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani (1977-2017), who became the first woman to win a Fields Medal, in 2014. They include her personal heroes too. As a kid, I admired Elizabeth Blackwell very much, not just for becoming the first doctor in the US, but for very specifically choosing a career path so that she could make it easier for other women after her, Randall says. Jessy Randalls book Mathematics for Ladies: Poems on Women in Science features 70 poems about long-overlooked women scientists. (Bryan Oller) Raised by a working single mother, Randall grew up being told she could be anyone she wanted to be, which makes her marvel, she says, at women who were raised so differently, and yet blazed new trails. Some faced challenges that most of us cannot even begin to know. James Miranda Barry (17891865) was much admired for his skills as a military surgeon, until at death it was revealed he had been a woman, born Margaret Ann Bulkley. Some of the poems almost wrote themselves, the metaphors and lyricism were unmissable, Randall says. Of Rebecca Lee Crumpler (18311895), the first black woman doctor in the US, she writes: They call her the first Black woman to earn a medical degree. She called herself doctress. She called herself businesswoman. She called herself being. They say first, first, first, as though everyone before her lost. Of the first professional woman astronomer in the US, Maria Mitchell (18181889), Randall writes: My comet. My observatory, built for me. My moon crater. Ill lay claim. Ill take them all. Most of all, my students. If they belong to me, let me let them stay up late. Curse your curfews, Vassar. We cant study stars in the daylight. These students are mine, and the night is ours. The books title draws from the fact that descriptive math was at one time derided as a useless branch of the subject, more philosophy than math. It was called Mathematics for Ladies, and that idea was just absurd to me. Math is not subjective! There are times when you have to take a break from crying and screaming and just laugh, Randall says. The title sets the tone: wry, exhausted, but retaining a sense of wonder and pride. I figure that these women had to be wry and snappy and have a sense of irony, or they could never have stayed in STEM. But poems dont wholly do justice to the stories of these powerful women, she adds. If Randall were to reimagine Blackwells life, shed like to do it as a Broadway musical, she says. American marine biologist Rachel Carson (1907-1964) deserves the full Hollywood treatment, a biopic that would win an Oscar. June Bacon-Bercey (1928 2019), the first female African American meteorologist who landed her job after her predecessor was arrested for robbing a bank, should have a comedy feature based on her, she adds. If we can imagine what it was like for these women, doing what they did at the time, we can understand the history of science and sexism, and can perhaps see the value for everyone in a more gender-balanced future of STEM. Roots and wings: Footnotes from academia Evolutionary biologist Erin Zimmerman on field. She left research as a botanist after the intense system seemed to leave no room for motherhood. (Eric Chevalier) In Europe, between the late 17th and early 19th centuries, botany was one of the branches of science that women had the greatest access to. One could have samples dispatched to ones address, and create sketches without ever leaving the house. This is how it works for the reclusive protagonist Kya in the 2022 Hollywood film, Where the Crawdads Sing (based on the novel by Delia Owens). Only now do we call these women what they were: naturalists. Meanwhile, as botany moved into the labs and became more organised, the women began to be edged out. Many of the scientific societies where new discoveries were unveiled and discussed didnt admit women as members. As part of some rather insidious re-branding, the activities of women in the field were dubbed polite botany and dismissed as a hobby, says Erin Zimmerman, 41, an evolutionary biologist from Ontario, Canada. The struggles of women in botany are far from over, she adds. Zimmermans memoir Unrooted: Botany, Motherhood and the Fight to Save an Old Science (April; Melville House) traces the intriguing history of the field, and unpacks the biases and obstacles of today. Running in parallel to the loss of both species and our capacity to build knowledge about them, a different loss of diversity is happening within scientific research... she writes. Women who have spent years studying, training and rising through the ranks are leaving academia after they become parents. Within months of completing her PhD, Zimmerman was pregnant with her first child. With no room for motherhood in the intensity of the system, things really quickly got impossible to maintain, she says. She felt isolated; faced snide remarks about how she was changing. She found herself pumping breast milk in a mildewed shower stall and remembers thinking: How was I once worth six figures in doctoral scholarship money and now was not worth a clean pumping space? She remembers feeling humiliated and unwelcome. Her observation, that the field is mostly women at the undergraduate level but mostly men in the middle and higher ranks, is borne out by research. An eight-year study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2019 found that 43% of women leave full-time STEM employment after their first child. Zimmerman left too. She is now a science writer and botanical illustrator. I felt a lot of shame when I left research, as though I just hadnt tried hard enough, she says. Id like other women like me to see that its okay to make this choice and that there are other ways to use their skills and expertise too. Leaving Ukraine: New battles, old scars Yulia in Warsaw during Polands Independence Day march last year. She remembers how some people on the march chanted 'Poland for Poles.' (Courtesy Polly Braden) In February 2022, British photographer Polly Braden had just created a project called Holding Baby, documenting single-parenthood, when she saw similar frames splashed across newspapers and on TV screens. They were images of women leaving Ukraine, babies wrapped in their arms, teenagers by their sides. With the men not allowed to leave Ukraine these women werent only crossing a border, they were becoming single mums, says Braden, 49. It struck her that they would have to find housing and schooling, make their way through a new bureaucracy while perhaps not knowing the local language. The artist decided to travel to the region, go beyond the frontlines, stay with them, dig into what it is like to become a single parent in the face of war, and tell their story. Lena calling her mother Tatiana soon after getting a job with a law firm in London, 2022. (Courtesy Polly Braden) She flew into Moldova, which shares a border with Ukraine, and started documenting the lives of six women. She stayed with them, on and off, for two years. Her photo and video project, Leaving Ukraine, is currently on display at the Foundling Museum in London until September. Braden, a single mother herself, captures the women in the listless moments before their next move, in the emotional highs of finding work in a new country, in the isolation of living far from loved ones and from home, while surrounded by people whose lives have not changed at all. These women (Braden has only used first names) were teachers, lawyers,sign language interpreters for the news, before Russias invasion of their country. I was like, Oh, no no no! Its going to end in like two weeks. But then it all changed, says Lena, 21, a lawyer, in a video that forms part of the project. She had just started her first job when her life was reduced to scrolling through the news on her phone, unable to imagine her future. She fled with her mother, Tatiana, a sign-language interpreter with a Ukrainian news channel, but then they parted ways too, after Lena moved to London under the Homes for Ukraine scheme. A year on, Lena has found love, married and had a son she named Noah. Tatiana is back in Ukraine, desperate but unable to be the involved grandmother she had dreamed of being. Its been really important to document all these women because they are the future, the people who will be rebuilding Ukraine,says Braden about the exhibition at the Foundling Museum in London (above). (Fernando Manoso) Meanwhile, 16-year-old schoolmates Sofiia, Aliesia and Yuliia started out attending online classes in which the teachers and students were scattered across countries and time zones. They have since graduated from those classrooms, and have new homes. Sofiia is enrolled in school in Switzerland, where her mother Nataliia, once a teacher and real-estate agent, now works the night shift at a bakery. Yuliia is similarly settled at a university in Poland. Aliesia is back to online learning in Ukraine. The teenagers reunited recently in Ukraine for prom, but their school had been bombed so it had to be held at a private hall. Its been really important to document all these women because they are the future, the people who will be rebuilding Ukraine, Braden says. If it seems like theres an element missing (What happened to the men?), try a thought experiment: If the genders were reversed, would one still be asking that question? From fairytales to fierytales Classic European fairytales are being retold, by differently abled women, as stories that are full of female agency, joy and compassion in And They Lived Ever After. A wheelchair-bound Rapunzel saves a prince and his province. A neurodivergent Ugly Duckling finds a sense of community. A female Rumpelstiltskin learns that one neednt have extraordinary talents in order to be worthy of love. Classic European fairytales are being retold, by differently abled women, as stories that are full of female agency, joy and compassion. Written by 13 women authors from India and Sri Lanka representing autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and visual, hearing, locomotor and psychosocial disabilities, And They Lived Ever After (March; HarperCollins) was born as a part of an online workshop organised during the pandemic, by the disability rights NGO Rising Flame. I realised the power stories had when I would meet women at workshops across both rural and urban India, who were resigned to the idea of never finding love because they never saw themselves as the main character of these stories, says Nidhi Goyal, 38, founder of Rising Flame. Instead, they identified, she says, with the characters who were disabled: the hunchback of Notre Dame, the scarred witch with a crooked nose, the villainous captain with an eye patch and a wooden leg. The idea was to break down this prevailing structure and replace it with a new set of tales, says Goyal, who wrote one of the retellings, and is blind. The stories dont just recast their main characters. They make room for a range of smaller players who have also been stereotyped or ignored in the originals, such as a Cinderellas stepsister, also trapped in a world governed by her mother; Rapunzels guardian, recast as a woman who is independent and strong yet isolated and struggling; and the mother of the Ugly Duckling, quietly soldiering on, trying to be a good parent to her differently abled child. The idea of the book was to break down the prevailing structure of fairytales and replace it with a new set of fables, says Nidhi Goyal, the founder of Rising Flame. She wrote one of the retellings too, and is blind. This approach allowed the writers to get a lot said. Kolkata-based entrepreneur Soumita Basu, 41, for instance, used part of the Rapunzel tale to address a pet peeve. Basu runs an inclusive clothing line called Zyenika, operates with 20% mobility, and is always irked when well-meaning people intervene and help her without speaking to her first. So, in her story, a character named Grandpa Tebog is blind and stands at the corner of a street. People routinely just take his hand and help him across. So he keeps going back and forth, back and forth, when all he wants is to stand at the corner and enjoy the breeze, she says laughing. The hope is that a book like this aimed at children will introduce an altered mindset early on. A mother told me that this was her six-year-old sons first exposure to fairytales. Shed kept them away from him so far, says Goyal. I was delighted because now he will never find it odd if Snow White is deaf or Rapunzel saves the prince. He will also have in his early memory examples of empathy, kindness and respect for people who may vary from the norm. The aim, Goyal adds, is to rewrite normal altogether, because the way it is defined isnt really accurate, and hasnt really worked very well. A couple of years ago, when I first watched a livestream of Mdou Moctar and his band playing on KEXP, the non-commercial Seattle FM radio station, two things amazed me. First, how he can absolutely electrify and blow ones mind with the way he shreds his guitar; and, second, how absolutely calm and composed he remains as he does this. There is no dearth of guitar heroes in rock musics past and present; in fact, a list of their names would be long. Yet, few lead guitar virtuosos as talented as Moctar appear as tranquil as he does when he belts out his searing, soaring, intricate lead riffs. Now in his late-30s, Moctar is a Tuareg musician based in Agadez in Niger. The genre of music he plays is known as tishoumaren, a fusion of blues and rock with Tuareg, Malian, and other North African music styles. In the West, the genre is referred to as the desert blues. Songs are usually sung in Tamasheq, a variety of Tuareg. The guitar is the genres central instrument. Tishoumaren is believed to come from the French chomeur, or unemployed. The Tuareg are a semi-nomadic pastoral ethnic group that inhabits Saharan regions in countries such as Mali, Niger, Morocco, Burkina Faso, southern Libya and southwestern Algeria. Tuareg history is marked by rebellion against French colonialism, and massacres of their tribes, who were forced to flee their original settlements. In a post-colonial Africa, the Tuareg continued to clash with the armies of countries such as Mali and Niger. There have been violent clashes as recently as in 2012. Many have had to give up their traditional nomadic way of life. Their music, including tishoumaren, faces bans; musicians have been imprisoned and detained; some have lost their lives. Moctar grew up in the mining town of Arlit. He took up the guitar as a child, inspired by the music of Nigers Abdallah Oumbadougou, considered the godfather of the desert blues. Unsurprisingly, this music is highly political and often contains anti-establishment protest lyrics. Nigers Abdallah Oumbadougou (right), who is considered the godfather of tishoumaren. (Wikimedia Commons) Moctar fashioned his first guitar out of bicycle cables and taught himself how to play it. Soon he was playing at weddings and sharing his music with local fans via Bluetooth. By 2008, he had recorded his first album locally, but it would be a while before he became internationally known. Tishoumaren already was. It began to spread beyond Saharan Africa in the 1970s, via the prominent collective from Mali named Tinariwen (Tuareg for Desert People). In 2012, Tinariwens LP, Tassili (named for a plateau in the Sahara), even won the Grammy for Best World Music Album. But, that same year, Islamist factions in Mali banned their music and refused some of their members permission to travel abroad. Several were then imprisoned. This would have long-lasting effects on Tinariwens music, and on the tishoumaren genre in general. On Moctars latest album, Funeral for Justice, released in May, the mood is certainly political. His fiery solos, which fuse Tuareg musical traditions with psychedelic rock and blues guitar riffs, are angry. The Tamasheq lyrics speak of political strife, rebellion and protest. In the past, Moctar has been vocal about how uranium mining exploits the people of Niger. Uranium accounts for 75% of Nigers exports but France, its former colonial ruler, still controls much of the deposits, using it as a source of electricity at home. Meanwhile, most Nigeriens still have no access to electricity. On the opening track of his album, the lyrics address this directly, referring to how former occupiers exploit Nigers domestic resources. On the track Oh France, he sings in French about how devastating colonialism has been for his country and its people; on another track, Modern Slaves, he sings in Tamasheq but the title is self-explanatory. Tet another track is titled Imajighen, which means free men. To most audiences outside his home region, the lyrics may not be decipherable. But Moctars angry riffs and spontaneous melodies leave even casual listeners with little doubt about the mood of his songs. The accompanying musicians, Mikey Coltun (bass), Souleymane Ibrahim (drums) and Ahmoudou Madassane (rhythm guitar), complement his vocals and riffs. Funeral for Justice is Moctars sixth studio album. His previous one, Afrique Victime (2021) is also politically charged. As a left-handed guitarist known for his electrifying riffs, Moctar is sometimes called the Hendrix of the Sahara. He is much more than that. Tishoumaren has always been a genre marked by the struggles of an ethnic communitys attempts to assert its identity. Moctar is todays trailblazer of that movement. (Watch out for Download Central every month. Write in to sanjoy.narayan@gmail.com) The Ambani family recently hosted the grand pre-wedding celebrations of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant in Italy onboard a luxury cruise and in the Italian coastline village of Portofino. The festivities saw attendance from many big names and performances by Katy Perry, Andrea Bocelli, and the Backstreet Boys. Though the galas were a grand affair, with a display of stunning outfits worn by celebrities and members of the Ambani family, most outfits were kept under wraps. However, new pictures of Radhika from the celebrations have surfaced, and they show the bride-to-be in an enchanting blue gown. Keep scrolling to know more. Radhika Merchant turns into a princess in a blue Versace gown with Anant Ambani. (Instagram) Radhika Merchant turns real-life Disney Princess in a blue gown New images from Radhika Merchant and Anant Ambani's four-day pre-wedding gala in Italy have surfaced on social media. They show Radhika in a blue-hued corset gown with an off-shoulder design and silver sequin detailing. The gown is from Atelier Versace and transformed the bride-to-be into a real-life Disney Princess. Fans called the look a mixture of Elsa and Snow White. Another highlight of Radhika's look was the eye-catching diamond necklace and diamond earrings, adding an elegant touch to the look. Radhika's sleeveless Versace gown features an off-shoulder neckline flaunting the decolletage, silver sequin embellishments, a corseted bodice hugging her frame, and crisscross drape detailing. Meanwhile, her diamond necklace features an opal pendant and heart-shaped diamonds. She paired it with drop earrings featuring mismatched diamonds, a double-string bracelet, and a statement-making diamond engagement ring. Lastly, Radhika tied her long tresses in a twisted bun and adorned the hairdo with a see-through fascinator covering her face. Meanwhile, she chose shimmering silver eye shadow, blush pink lip shade, rouge on the cheekbones, mascara on the lashes, beaming highlighter, and darkened brows for the glam picks. About Radhika Merchant and Anant Ambani's wedding Radhika Merchant and Anant Ambani's wedding will be a three-day affair from July 12 to July 14. The ceremonies will start on Friday, July 12, with the wedding function or the Shubh Vivah. Antimicrobial resistant infections kill millions every year. They have the potential to take us back to the dark ages, when common infections like urinary tract infections (UTIs) or pneumonia were lethal and untreatable. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when the germs that cause infections bacteria, viruses, or fungi develop ways to evade the drugs used to treat them. (Also Read | Superbugs pose graver threat than Covid-19. Here's all you need to know about antimicrobial resistance) Antibiotic-resistant "superbugs" have become a top health concern around the world. Scientists creating new antibiotics are leading the fight against antimicrobial resistance. (DW/Dr.Gary Gaugler/OKAPIA/picture-alliance) Over-use of antibiotics in places like chicken farms and healthcare clinics has become a leading driver of AMR. The good news is that a major scientific push is making significant progress in the fight against AMR. "Antibiotic resistance is still far from solved, but there has been a lot of progress in both better understanding and better practices for discovering new antibiotics [which overcome antimicrobial resistance]," said Luis Pedro Coelho, a computational biologist at Queensland University of Technology in Australia. Coelho led a new study published in the journal Cell, which presents a huge database of nearly one million potential antibiotic compounds. The study is proof we can be optimistic about AMR, said Sebastian Hiller, a structural biologist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, who was not involved in the research: "This is just one example of ongoing research showing our scientific capabilities to fight superbugs are huge," Hiller told DW. Using AI to discover new antibiotics The study used machine learning to search for potential antibiotic agents in a huge database of microbes which live in environments such as soil, the ocean, and human and animal guts. "Bacteria fight against each other constantly in these environments, using warfare tools called peptides which are shot against other bacteria to kill them. The researchers mined this space for antibiotic peptides and found some hidden gems," Hiller said. The algorithm sifted through billions of potential protein sequences and narrowed it down to the top candidates with predicted antimicrobial actions. In total, 863,498 new antimicrobial peptides were predicted, more than 90% of which had never been described before. Coelho said all the peptides had the same general mechanism of action for killing bacteria by disrupting the cell membranes which protect bacteria from the environment. "We also see that some peptides are more effective against certain bacterial strains than others, but we cannot yet predict exactly why, or [say] which peptide will work against which bacterium," Coelho told DW. Peptide antibiotics effective against bacterial infections To find out which of these peptides could be useful as antibiotics, the researchers synthesized 100 peptides and tested them against 11 disease-causing bacterial strains in laboratory dishes. They found that 79 peptides disrupted bacterial membranes and 63 peptides specifically targeted antibiotic-resistant bacteria, such as Escherichia coli (E.coli) and Staphylococcus aureus. The researchers also tested the compounds in mice with infected skin abscesses, but only three of the peptides showed antimicrobial effects in vivo (in a living organism). "This indicates that their efficacy may be limited in vivo. Still, this is a remarkable result, and the compounds might circumvent severe toxicity side effects of last-resort antibiotics like polymyxins," said Seyed Majed Modaresi at the University of Basel in Switzerland, who was also not involved in the study. Are these reasons to be optimistic about the fight against AMR? The authors published their dataset with open access, which allows other scientists to review the 863,498 peptides and develop antibiotic drugs with specific uses in mind. For example, scientists could tailor antibiotic properties to minimize effects on "friendly" bacteria in the human gut. Many antibiotics in use are known to destroy beneficial gut microbiota, which can lead to health issues and potentially deadly pathogens to take over. Scientist could also use the dataset to create antibiotics against which bacteria do not develop resistances, greatly helping in the long-term fight against AMR. Modaresi said the new study shows that artificial intelligence has become instrumental in the scientific fight against AMR and that "the application of machine learning has accelerated the process of discovering new antibiotics." He added that the type of peptides discovered in this latest study were just one type of many antimicrobial agents out there, and that the same techniques could be used to discover many other types of antibiotics, including bacteriophages. Hiller said that while there are reasons to be optimistic about the scientific fight against AMR, the next major challenge is creating new antibiotic agents which are commercially viable. "We only use new antibiotics when the old ones don't work anymore. This is good as it prevents bacteria from developing resistances to them but means they're not financially viable," said Hiller. Hiller said health organizations and governments were working on ways to make antibiotic commercialization more viable so that they can draw from the huge pools of potential antibiotics that scientists have discovered. Sources: Discovery of antimicrobial peptides in the global microbiome with machine learning, published in Cell (2024) by Santos-Junior et al. Antimicrobial Resistance Collaborators. Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in 2019: a systematic analysis. Published in The Lancet (2022) In a world where technological advancement is at its peak, presenting oneself professionally has become an essential necessity to make a positive impact and communicate effectively as today, the world not only sees ones skills, knowledge and talent but also how he or she presents themselves plus how confident and punctual they are and in this pursuit, it is beneficial to know how one can show oneself professionally in meetings and presentations. To sort these woes, we got a few experts on board who also spilled the beans on how college students can gain valuable insights and equip themselves with tools that will make a lasting impression and thrive in their academic and future professional ventures. How to conduct yourself professionally in meetings and presentations (Photo by Edmond Dantes on Pexels) In an Interview with HT Lifestyle, Anil Somani, the Chairman of FOSTIIMA Business School said, Professionalism isn't just a trait, it's a language we speak in every meeting and presentation and to truly excel in it, one must master its dialect. Whenever you are about to enter a meeting, researching the meeting's objectives and crafting insightful talking points can help lay the groundwork for impactful contributions. However, true mastery lies in individual readiness and in encouraging a collaborative atmosphere where all voices are heard and valued. Also, always listen actively, speak with clarity, and engage thoughtfully. He advised, Always remember it's not just about what you say, but how you say it. Lastly, prepare diligently and make sure that every word and gesture communicates competence and respect. For management students who have or are about to step into the professional world, it is important for them to understand the importance of professionalism and hone these skills to build trust, inspire confidence, and encourage meaningful relationships with colleagues, clients and stakeholders. Akash Sharma, Director Admission and Outreach at Noida International University, shared, Meetings are one of the most essential or crucial aspects where a person represents himself as well as his company. Everything depends on how you display yourself in front of everyone around you. Discipline and dressing sense matter a lot. Be time-conscious and well-dressed according to the place and the time. Dont over-dress- try to be simple and comfortable to give your best. Be punctual and let your personality speak more than your words. Keep your presentation short and precise to stay focused on your objective. Have eye contact with the person for better communication. He further recommended, Be active either physically or cognitively, you must understand what is going on and the potential implications. Don't forget to do homework before you present yourself. It's crucial to learn more about the people around you to understand their goals, methods, and next steps, so you don't end up in the incorrect spot. Be a good listener and observer to analyze and respond to any particular question or situation. Be professional and give attention to everyone present. Your body language speaks a lot about you trying to be decent, gentle, and calm. This will have a good impact on the person. According to Shivam Dixit, CEO and Co-Founder of Counsel India, a meeting is the most vital setting in which an individual represents both himself and his firm. He suggested, Making a good impression and accomplishing your goals depends heavily on how you conduct yourself in meetings and presentations. Planning is an essential aspect of starting any meeting. One should make sure to maintain eye contact with people present and be in a posture of trust throughout the discussion or presentation to project engagement and authority. He should also avoid using slang or too technical terms as this could turn off certain people. One should be brief and direct in his speech, showing consideration for the time and attention of others. Refrain from controlling the entire conversation or straying off topic. When presenting, use visual aids to increase comprehension and audience participation, but refrain from packing too much text or imagery onto the slides. Rather, employ them for highlighting important details or clarifying complex concepts. He concluded, Resolve conflicts or disruptions politely by respecting opposing points of view and guiding the conversation back on course. If you are not aware of any specific subject matter, say so politely and ask that you'll check on this later. To guarantee clarity and alignment, compile a summary of the main ideas and action items at the end of the meeting or presentation. Express gratitude to everyone for their time and input, and remain receptive to criticism or additional conversation. Finally, show dependability and professionalism by immediately fulfilling any promises made during the meeting. The mood's gone cold, there's a growing indifference between you and you're always arguing it can take months or even years for the hurt to build in a relationship, but it always comes out in the end. And when it does, it can spell the end of the relationship. You might have seen it coming, but it may just as well have taken you by complete surprise. (Also Read | Feeling numb after a breakup? 8 reasons why it may happen) Lonely and sad: Accepting your emotions is an important part of getting over a breakup. (DW/Thomas Warnack/dpa/picture alliance) If you're the one who's left behind, you'll probably feel the separation differently from the person who's left you, or how people feel when couples make a mutual decision to go their separate ways. The end of a relationship is for many people the beginning of a painful process. But it's about more than the loss of an important person: It can feel like "an entire design for life has failed," said psychologist and psychotherapist Doris Wolf. Four phases of separation The initial shock and disbelief are quickly followed by a fighting spirit and some embarrassing attempts to win the other person back. Then there's the emotional cyclone of grief, despair, feelings of guilt, bitterness and a raging anger. It's chaos. But it's a chaos that has a crazy kind of order about it, one with four distinct phases, according to Wolf. "In my experience, it can be helpful for the person to know they're going through a process that will end," said Wolf, adding that some psychologists say the four phases model fails to take individual circumstances into account. But she said it worked for her in her practice. The four phases: Denial Erupting emotions New orientation Future perspectives Each phase has its own emotional palette. Wolf said that understanding this can help people realize that what they are feeling is normal: "It can also help them realize when they get stuck in a particular phase and are struggling to move on." 1. Denial: I can't go on without you You keep calling them. You promise that it'll be different this time. You become affectionate and loving. Sex in separation? Sure, why not? Anything to save us! Wolf said it's a feeling of helplessness and loss of control that drives people who have been left to pull all the stops in a bid to keep the old relationship alive. "The risk of humiliation is real," said Wolf. Denial in separation can go so far as a person pretending their partner is on an endless business trip or looking after an aging parent rather that than be open about it. Wolf advises people to throw out any objects that remind them of their ex. For one, it's important to protect yourself if the simple sight of a half-empty can of shaving foam is enough to throw you into a state of despair. And on the other hand it's important to remove those reminders and talk to people about your separation because that will help you accept the reality for what it is: It's over. 2. Erupting emotions: I love you, I miss you, I hate you When all your pleading and begging has failed, there's no avoiding what's next: "Now's time for the pain, the loneliness, the fear, the anger, the self-doubt and the feelings of guilt," said Wolf. It sounds brutal, and it is. Breakups are common. Some people go through a load of them. But they are never trivial. Some people find it really hard to move on, said Wolf and that can lead to depression and anxiety. One way to avoid the worst of this phase is to accept those emotions as they come and go, said the psychotherapist. Instead of expecting yourself to continue as if nothing had happened, you should channel your emotions into a diary, for instance, or talking to friends, people in a similar situation or seek professional help. It's tougher to live through these emotions than to suppress them with things like drugs, sex or too much work. But how much talk does it take? How much distraction is good? Doris Wolf said it was important to consciously take time out every day to focus on your emotions, and to be just as conscious about carrying on with your life. Life has to go on, somehow. And anger can be quite helpful. "Anger often comes later on and it's an important sign, said Wolf. "When you're angry, you [feel like you] want to do something, you don't feel so helpless." 3. New orientation: Perhaps I can go on without you All of a sudden, you not only realize that life can go on, but that you can also imagine enjoying it again. You begin to realize how much you neglected your friends while you were in the relationship, although they're very dear to you. While in the first two phases your thoughts kept revolving around the person you had lost, in the third phase, anger helps you refocus on yourself. "There are moments this phase when you even forget that you're separated," said Wolf. It's in this phase that many people begin to venture into new relationships. But it's still too early, said Wolf. "It's only now that you start to work through the reasons why you broke up," she said. So, there's a danger that you might make the same mistakes with your new partner, if you fall in love again too soon. 4. Future perspectives: It was nice that you were there and good that you're gone This is the phase when Wolf hears a lot of people say: "The breakup was the best thing that could've happened to me!" To get to this point, you've had to go through grief, anger, acceptance and a painful review of the lost relationship. But all those emotions are history now. And even if some old relationships go on to feel like badly healed bone fractures, this is the time for something new. In the video, Sanjna Jatav is dancing to Rajasthani folk music. Her head is covered but her joy shines through. Shot on June 4, soon after the results were declared, the clip has already gone viral with close to 100,000 views and god only knows how many retweets and forwards. The new Congress representative of Bharatpur is Dalit, married, a mother of two, a graduate and will, at 26, be amongst the youngest MPs in the 18th Lok Sabha after defeating the BJPs Ramswaroop Koli by nearly 52,000 votes. This must seem like a sweet vindication. Six months earlier, Jatav, a former zilla parishad member, had contested the assembly elections and lost by just 409 votes. Now, shes one of the eight Congress candidates whove won from the state. Away from the heat and dust of the campaign, just days before counting day, Iqra Hassan was in London, back at the School of Oriental and Asian Studies to collect her masters degree. Plans to complete a PhD on parliamentary processes have had to be put on hold now that the 27-year-old is the new representative of Kairana and the Samajwadi Party in Parliament where she will be one of just 25 Muslim women ever to be elected. Her priorities are clear, she tells me on the phone: Higher education for women who otherwise drop out because they arent allowed to attend co-ed institutions. Despite the well-deserved euphoria of individual victories, the new Lok Sabha looks depressingly like the old Lok Sabha in one significant way: The low representation of women. Eight months after political parties in a rare show of unanimity enthusiastically endorsed 33% reservation for women in Parliament and the assemblies, there is, for the first time since 2004, a marginal decline in the number of women MPs, from a historic high of 78 (or 14.3%) of the outgoing Lok Sabha to 74, or 13.6%. We should be careful about even a slight dip, says Akshi Chawla who curates WomenLead that tracks womens political representation. In percentage terms, Mamata Banerjees TMC will be sending 11 women, or 37.9% of its 29 MPs, to the new Parliament. Two of the 12 winning MPs of Nitish Kumars JD(U), 16.7%, are women. Three of the 22 elected DMK MPs, or 13.6% are women. At the Samajwadi Party and Congress, women are 13.5% and 13.1% of its elected MPs. And even though the BJP will be sending the most women, 31 of 240, to Parliament, in percentage terms they amount to just 12.9% of its winning MPs, according to Chawlas calculations. Its a principle of simple math. If parties dont, or wont, put up women contestants, where will the winners come from? This election, like others before it the 1977 post-Emergency comeback, the Bofors/rise of V.P. Singh of 1989 saw a fall in the number of elected women. It's as if the need to improve gender representation subsumed the din of the urgent and competing narratives of saving the constitution vs 400 paar. In a do-or-die election theres a tension between opting for a pragmatic power grab and standing for principle, points out analyst Yamini Aiyar who is headed to Brown University as a senior fellow for 2024-25. As in the past, the message was clear: Women can wait. And yet parties know that they cannot afford to ignore the woman voter, who is increasingly turning up to cast her ballot, exercising personal choice and autonomy and even, in many cases, out-voting men. Quite naturally then, manifestoes were embroidered with wonderful promises, speeches peppered with nari shakti, and, where in power, governments were quick to announce monthly cash handouts and other largesse. And, yet, whats seen as a sop doesnt always yield results. For instance, free bus rides for women, ration, electricity, and allowances by the Congress government in Karnataka did bump up its tally to nine, but still left it trailing behind the 19 won by the BJP-led NDA. In Delhi, despite free bus rides for women and significant improvements in government schools and mohalla clinics, the Aam Aadmi Party failed to get a single Parliamentary seat. But, says Aiyar: Treating women as a vote bank and creating a narrative of womens empowerment doesnt really build a genuine thread of womens rights. Women voters are able to see through the grotesque violation of giving a ticket to an accused serial rapist like Prajwal Revanna, now in jail and suspended from the JD(S), a BJP ally who, mercifully, lost. Or when the BJP bypassed six-time MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh accused of sexual harassment by Indias leading wrestlers, but handed the Kaiserganj ticket to his son instead. To nobodys surprise, Singh Junior won by a margin of 1.4 lakh votes. In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee has, feisty as ever, single-handedly warded off the BJP that had made sexual abuse charges against TMC strongman Shahjahan Sheikh, currently in jail, its major plank, even fielding Rekha Patra who had led the campaign against him. The charge unravelled rapidly after the emergence of a sting video purportedly showing how it had been cooked up and one of the women retracted her accusation. Rekha Patra lost by 3.3 lakh votes. Despite the entrenched misogyny of political parties, the women MPs of 2024 have, by and large, scripted their own story. Some come backed by family lineageand in this, they are often no different from male MPs. In Bihars Samastipur, it was two dynasts against each other. Shambhavi Kunal Choudhary, the daughter of a Bihar minister for the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) pitted against the Congresss Sunny Hazari, the son of another minister. In the end, it was the 25-year-old sociology post-graduate who beat Hazari by 1.87 lakh votes. In Maharashtra, four-time Dharavi MLA, president of the Mumbai regional Congress committee, and a post-graduate in maths, Prof Varsha Eknath Gaekwad beat the BJPs Ujjwal Nikam, the former special prosecutor who once admitted making up a story of 26/11 terrorists being fed biryani in jail. And in Gujarat where the BJP has won all 26 seats since 2014, the Congress finally made a dentits sole winning candidate in the state has a strong grassroots connect but was forced to crowdfund and accept as little as two rupees. Of course, she is a woman. Geniben Thakor, a 48-year-old OBC who has won two past assembly elections and is now called a giant killer. Namita Bhandare writes on gender. The views expressed are personal The 2024 election in Punjab has the following five takeaways for consideration. Mansa, June 01 (ANI): Voters cast their vote at a polling station for the 7th phase of the Lok Sabha Polls at Moosa Village in Mansa, Punjab on Saturday. (ANI Photo/Amit Sharma)(Amit Sharma) First takeaway: Making sense of the Congress' success The Congress won seven out of 13 seats in the quadrangular contest. The incumbent AAP managed to win only three seats. The Akali Dal could win only one seat, while 10 of its 13 candidates lost their security deposits. The grand old party's success can be attributed to the following possible factors. First, there was disillusionment amongst the voters against the AAP government. The very fact that the Congress did not have an alliance with the AAP, unlike in other parts of the country, did help the party as anti-incumbency votes apparently went to it. Also, the alliance, even if forced from above, would not have worked in the mutual transfer of a vote due to a great degree of animosity between the state units of the two parties. Second, what went in favour of the Congress was the repeat of its time-tested strategy of putting up its faction leaders as the party candidates so that there is no internecine undercutting. In comparison, AAP, the main contender, had relatively inexperienced candidates. Third, the angst amongst farmers, well-organised and mostly belonging to the numerically strong land-holding Jat-Sikh community, against the party in power at the centre did help the Congress as, unlike the Akali Dal, it has consistently extended its support to the agitation. Fourth, the Congress campaign strongly invoked the message of inter-community fraternity that did endear the party to the electorate. Rahul Gandhi's visits to the Golden Temple and doing community service endeared him to the Sikh masses. The ones who were opposed to the right-wing majoritarian politics of the BJP saw in the Congress a viable alternative. Fifth, past surveys and electoral results have clearly shown that the party has always received support from the Hindu and Sikh communities belonging to all three regions of the state, and this election was no different. Second key takeaway: Victory of two separatist independents A worrying takeaway is the unexpected victories of two independent candidates, Amritpal Singh and Sarabjit Singh Khalsa respectively, from the Khadoor Sahib and Faridkot constituencies with impressive margins. Both candidates have been identified with the idea of separatism. Their wins are a grim reminder of a segment of the Sikh electorate still harbouring a wounded psyche, a result of decades-old unfulfilled demands and also the unfortunate events that happened in the dark days of militancy. Also, and probably more correctly, their wins can be attributed to peoples growing alienation from the traditional parties. The youth of Punjab have suffered due to the endemic economic distress, the dismal state of the education sector, and the lack of employment opportunities. The continued prevalence of drugs, illegal and illicit practices, and gangsterism, has all inculcated a sense of hopelessness, making the youth susceptible to radical propaganda. There is also a growing demographic anxiety due to the large-scale immigration of Sikh youth to the greener pastures in the west and an influx of the Hindu migrant working class. Of late they have been settling down in the state. Third key takeaway: Future of the Akali Dal The third takeaway is the concern about the future of the Akali Dal, the oldest regional party in India, which has shaped the politics of Punjab since the days of the Gurdwara movement. Its perpetual decline in both organisational and ideological terms, and turning from a cadre-based party to a family party is once again on evidence, in its solitary win, that of Bathinda, the home turf of the Badal family. The decline is a bad omen for state politics as its ability to represent the panthic constituency has diminished, which makes it possible for the radical elements, so far relegated to the fringe since Badal senior, to re-emerge. The Badal leadership will come under pressure and there is a lurking danger that Akali Dal so far in control of the SGPC and the Akal Takht would be tempted to resort to taking a hardline on the panthic issues to counter the rise of radical Akali factions, as happened in the past. Fourth key takeaway: The future of the Aam Aadmi Party The fourth takeaway is the question mark over the AAP in the only state where the party has registered wins in the Lok Sabha elections since its inception in 2012. The party won three seats and got 26. 02 percent of the votes polled compared to the Congress, which polled 26.30 per cent, showing that the party is not down and out, but it is definitely a thumbs down over the Mann government's performance. The party, since its entry into the state in the 2014 elections, has been promising to end mafia-infused loot of the states natural resources, corruption, and most importantly the drug menace. Even its promise of replicating its Delhi model of rejuvenating the education and health sectors has not been redeemed substantially. The party sought votes based on its tall populist campaign promises that are bound to remain mostly unfulfilled in a state, which is so heavily indebted. The party campaign, to be fair, got hit due to the partys top leadership either in jail or facing trial. The rout of the party in all the seats it contested outside Punjab, especially in Delhi, raises further questions over the partys future. The leadership skills of Bhagwant Mann will be tested in the months to come. Fifth key takeaway: The state of the BJP in Punjab The fifth takeaway is the BJP, contesting alone after 27 years, was unable to win even a single seat. It, however, polled 18.4 per cent of the vote, larger than its erstwhile senior ally, the Akali Dal, which managed 13.53 percent of votes polled. The party in alliance with Akali Dal secured victories in the past: Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur (5 times) and Amritsar (3 times). This time the party was runner-up only in the Gurdaspur constituency. The party, however, also did well to come up second in the urban constituencies of Ludhiana and Jalandhar, which have a significant Hindu presence. In the 2027 elections, the party could remain sanguine about its chances, as the electorates in Punjab have been constantly looking for a viable political alternative. However, to get there, the party has to take corrective measures. Ashutosh Kumar is professor of Indian Politics at Panjab University, Chandigarh. Views expressed are personal) At the first meeting of the MPs of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister (PM)-elect, touched the Constitution to his forehead before taking his seat. Therein lies a symbolic story of this election verdict and its chastening, humbling, corrective power. BJP supporters during a campaign rally. (ANI Photo)(HT_PRINT) If we want to understand what shifted in the 2024 campaign and how the Constitution came to occupy a starring role even in the BJP bastions, lets start with the result in Ayodhya, the pilgrim town that is home to the Ram Mandir. When Modi presided over the consecration of the temple in January, it was widely assumed that this would be the BJPs Pulwama moment for 2024 an emotive issue that would define the campaign and easily push them over the finish line. But once I started travelling it became evident that the Mandir was no electoral issue at all. There was reverence for the temple but it was seen as a matter of faith, not politics. From Bengaluru to Bhopal, people shrugged their shoulders when I asked about the temple they never brought it up on their own and said, Yes, but thats done now. The defeat of the BJP in Ayodhya two-time MP Lallu Singh losing to a Dalit candidate of the INDIA bloc brings home multiple truths of this verdict. Lallu Singh was among the motormouths of the BJP who spoke of needing more than 272 seats for making a new Constitution. Speeches like these coupled with Narendra Modis call for 400 paar boomeranged. What might have been an esoteric campaign by the Opposition about saving the Constitution became a live wire debate among historically oppressed and marginalised communities who derive their identity and protections from the Constitution. The Opposition succeeded in pushing the Modi campaign on the defensive on this score. Dalits constitute 26% of the Ayodhya-Faizabad constituency. The caste configurations compounded pockets of local anger among those who had lost homes and property in demolitions as the town was beautified for the Mandir. Eventually what unfolded in Ayodhya replicated itself in other constituencies. The BJP lost five seats in the Ayodhya Faizabad region. Elsewhere too, it took a hit in reserved constituencies (Ayodhya is a general seat). In 2014, the BJP won all reserved seats in Uttar Pradesh, in 2019 the BJP and its allies took 15 of these seats. In this election, the division in Dalit votes resulted in the BJP taking only eight of these constituencies. While many other factors went wrong for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh poor ticket selection, import of outsiders among them the fact is that had Mayawati not fielded candidates that helped to split the anti-BJP vote, the BJP could have lost another 10-15 seats. In fact, it could have fallen as low as 19. The results have also exposed the limitations of religion as an instrument of political mobilisation. The BJP lost Banswara, in Rajasthan, where Modi made his most inflammatory speech, one in which he spoke of mangalsutras and Muslims and used words like ghuspaithee (infiltrators). Later, he disassociated from his own words. His voters noticed. Everywhere I travelled when I would ask BJP voters what they liked about the Modi government they would invariably list infrastructure, internal security, Indias place in the world order. When I would ask what he should change, from Bareilly to Bengaluru, the answer was the same: Focus more on jobs and dial down the Hindu-Muslim rhetoric. In a small village of Uttar Pradesh, a farmer used the word bekaar (useless) for politics of religion. Dont talk to us about Hindus and Muslims. Talk to us about electricity and jobs. Not surprisingly, the BJP has done much worse in rural and semi-urban constituencies than in urbanised ones. Modi will enter the history books for being only the second Prime Minister since Indias independence to secure a third term. The first was Jawaharlal Nehru. Its ironic, but that is not the biggest headline from the election mandate. Above all the results are about the pushback against unbridled power and unilateralism. In Maharashtra, for instance, I remember meeting countless Modi voters who were distinctly unhappy about how the Shiv Sena had been split. In Madhya Pradesh, where the BJP has done very well, there was still vocal disapproval about how Shivraj Singh Chouhan had been ousted as chief minister. Chouhan, who has won by the highest margin of votes, may now take the role of party president or home minister. And, perhaps, the unceremonious humiliation of Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan also made its impact felt in the numbers. Modi will have to transition from being an alpha male to a consensus builder to manage not just the allies who have emerged as kingmakers, but also the changing power dynamics within his own party. Whether he can fly with clipped wings for the next five years is the question still in search of an answer. Barkha Dutt is an award-winning journalist and author. The views expressed are personal When it comes to choosing the best 4 star inverter AC in India, there are several factors to consider. From energy efficiency to cooling capacity, each AC has its own unique features that cater to different needs. In this article, we have compiled a list of the top 10 4 star inverter ACs available on Amazon, complete with detailed product descriptions, pros and cons, and a feature comparison table to help you make an informed decision. Whether you're looking for an AC with a convertible feature, antibacterial technology, or a comprehensive warranty, we've got you covered. Read on to find the perfect AC for your home or office. Cut down on energy bills with these 4 star inverter acs The LG Convertible Anti-Virus Protection TS-Q13JNYE is a powerful 4 star inverter AC with a convertible feature that allows you to adjust the cooling capacity as per your needs. With its advanced antibacterial technology, this AC ensures clean and fresh air for you and your family. Its comprehensive warranty provides peace of mind for years to come. 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Specifications of Blue Star 1.5 Ton 4 Star Convertible 4 in 1 Cooling Inverter Split AC Capacity: 1.5 ton Energy Efficiency: 4 star Stabilizer: Yes Antibacterial Technology: Yes Warranty: Standard Reasons to buy Reasons to avoid Stabilizer feature for consistent performance Standard warranty coverage Energy-efficient cooling for cost savings Advanced features for enhanced comfort Also read: Top 4 star split ACs: Choose from top 9 options for exceptional cooling at home 9.Convertible Anti-Virus Protection MS-Q18KNYA The LG Convertible Anti-Virus Protection MS-Q18KNYA is a top-of-the-line 4 star inverter AC with advanced antibacterial technology and a comprehensive warranty for long-term peace of mind. Its convertible feature and energy-efficient performance make it a perfect choice for modern homes and offices. Specifications of LG Convertible Anti-Virus Protection MS-Q18KNYA Capacity: 1.5 ton Energy Efficiency: 4 star Convertible: Yes Antibacterial Technology: Yes Warranty: Comprehensive Reasons to buy Reasons to avoid Convertible feature for customized cooling Higher capacity may not be suitable for smaller spaces Advanced antibacterial technology for clean air Comprehensive warranty for extended coverage Also read: Best ACs to beat heatwave: Find our top 7 picks from brands like Lloyd, Samsung and Blue Star 4 star inverter ac Top Features Comparison: Best 4 star inverter acs Capacity Convertible Antibacterial Technology LG Convertible Anti-Virus Protection TS-Q13JNYE 1.0 ton Yes Yes Blue Star Inverter Convertible ID418YNU 1.5 ton Yes Yes Blue Star Inverter Convertible IC412YNU 1.0 ton Yes Yes Voltas Adjustable 124V Vectra Elegant 1.0 ton Yes No Panasonic Convertible Purification CS-CU-NU12ZKY4W 1.0 ton Yes Yes Hitachi Xpandable Inverter Comprehensive Warranty 1.5 ton Yes Yes Panasonic Convertible Purification CS-CU-NU12ZKY4W 1.0 ton Yes Yes Blue Star Convertible Stabalizer IA418DNU 1.5 ton Yes Yes LG Convertible Anti-Virus Protection MS-Q18KNYA 1.5 ton Yes Yes Haier Inverter Convertible Antibacterial HSU18K-PYFR4BE1-INV 1.5 ton Yes Yes Best value for money 4 star inverter ac: The Voltas Adjustable 124V Vectra Elegant is the best value for money as it offers adjustable cooling settings, efficient cooling technology, and a sleek design at a competitive price point. Best overall 4 star inverter ac: The Hitachi Xpandable Inverter Comprehensive Warranty stands out as the best overall product with its expandable design, comprehensive warranty, and advanced features for enhanced performance. Also read: Best 1 ton split ACs: Top 10 picks with inverter technology that are efficient and energy-saving How to find the perfect 4 star inverter ac: When choosing the perfect 4 star inverter AC, consider the specific features you need, such as convertible options, antibacterial technology, and energy efficiency. Compare the pros and cons of each product to find the best fit for your requirements. FAQs on 4 star inverter ac What is the energy efficiency rating of these ACs? All the ACs listed are 4 star energy efficient, ensuring cost savings on electricity bills. Do these ACs come with a warranty? Yes, most of the ACs come with a comprehensive warranty for extended coverage and peace of mind. Are these ACs suitable for small spaces? While some ACs offer adjustable cooling settings, it's essential to consider the capacity and dimensions for smaller spaces. Do these ACs require professional installation? Yes, it is recommended to have these ACs installed by a professional to ensure optimal performance and longevity. Disclaimer: At Hindustan Times, we help you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and products. Hindustan Times has an affiliate partnership, so we may get a part of the revenue when you make a purchase. We shall not be liable for any claim under applicable laws, including but not limited to the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, with respect to the products. The products listed in this article are in no particular order of priority. Noritaka Wakuda, a top executive at Suzuki Digital Private Limited, spent the last decade working in India and is now returning to Japan. He took to LinkedIn cherishing his experience in India and how it shaped his career. Noritaka Wakuda is Managing Director at Suzuki Digital Private Limited. (LinkedIn/Noritaka Wakuda) Wakuda, Managing Director at the company, recalled three pivotal moments that he encountered in India. "Thank you India! After 10 years, I have returned to Japan. I am grateful for all the opportunities I was given. I have been able to learn and grow. Value creation has become my core," Wakuda wrote in a LinkedIn post that is getting traction among Indian executives. Noritaka Wakuda spoke about his first day of work in India, when his boss asked assigned him an important task. "I had no idea how to create it so I honestly told him 'I don't know how.' Next words from him were "read some books and just do it." I learnt the power of an idea," he said. Next, at Nexa's launch event in July 2015, his boss asked him, "Have you read today's Nikkei (Japan's economic newspaper)?" To this, Wakunda said he had not read the newspaper and that he would read it the same day. "Next words he said was 'I've already committed 50% market share it needs to be achieved'. After one year in India, I was smart enough not to reply 'I don't know how' or else I would be told to 'read the newspaper and just do it'." In 2021, the executive from Japan had an idea. The idea was to build a tech company in India for Suzuki. Rather than relying on others, we would design, develop, deploy and continuously improve ourselves. Agility, creativity and ownership will increase, Wakunda said. There is so much of talent and passion in India, it was an easy choice. The company is called Suzuki Digital. See Noritaka Wakuda's LinkedIn post here: Thanking the people he worked with in India, Wakunda said, It was such a fun time in India. I will miss you. Let's see what the next challenge will be. (Also Read: Japanese CEO moves to Bengaluru, says will live life with the help of Indians) Toronto: India will formally raise with Canada the matter of a float depicting the assassination of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during a protest related to Operation Bluestar by pro-Khalistan elements in front of its consulate in Vancouver on Thursday. A float featuring the assassination of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, in front of the Indian consulate in Vancouver, Canada on Thursday. (Supplied photo) The float was part of protest on the 40th anniversary of Operation Bluestar, when the Indian Army stormed the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar to flush out Khalistani extremists including their leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. The call for a lockdown of Indias mission to Canada had been given by the secessionist group Sikhs for Justice. The formal diplomatic complaint, a note verbale, will be conveyed to Global Affairs Canada, the countrys foreign ministry on Friday, a senior Indian official said. While protests were also organised at consulate in Toronto as well, such floats did not appear there, though each venue had protesters carrying Khalistan flags and shouting anti-India slogans. Gurpatwant Pannun, SFJs general-counsel, warned that Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a target for transnational terrorism and the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18 last year. Local law enforcement along with diplomatic security units prevented any untoward incident at the missions as protesters gathered outside them. The float featured an effigy of Indira Gandhi, showing her riddled with bullets including through the forehead and also displayed her assassins, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, with guns pointed towards her. Beant Singh, who was part of her security detail, was hanged for the assassination and his son Sarabjit Singh Khalsa was elected to the Lok Sabha from Faridkot in Punjab on June 6. His election was referenced by SFJ as well as the election of jailed separatist Amritpal Singh from Khadoor Sahib, also a Punjab constituency. Last year, on June 4, a float featuring the assassination of late Prime Minister was part of a martyrdom day event in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). At the time, Canadas High Commissioner to New Delhi Cameron Mackay had condemned the float, as he said, I am appalled by reports of an event in Canada that celebrated the assassination of late Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. There is no place in Canada for hate or for the glorification of violence. I categorically condemn these activities. Indira Gandhi served as the first and only woman Prime Minister of India from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984. She was shot dead by two of her own bodyguards at her official residence on October 31, 1984. The assassination was followed by anti-Sikh riots in Delhi and elsewhere in the country, in which thousands of Sikhs were killed and businesses looted. By Stefanno Sulaiman and Kate Lamb Indonesian president in damage control over new capital JAKARTA, - Indonesia's president is rushing to reassure investors and bureaucrats about his $32 billion new capital city in a malaria-prone pocket of Borneo, after the resignations of two officials overseeing the plan raised fresh doubts about its future. President Joko Widodo's announcement that he will start working next month from an office in Nusantara, a giant construction site over 1,200km from the current capital Jakarta, is unlikely to allay fears about his legacy project, analysts say. "Investor confidence has dropped, I think. They were already in doubt and in 'wait-and-see' mode, partly because of the unclear land status, partly because of a lack of transparency in governance of the new capital," said Yanuar Nugroho, the president's former deputy chief of staff. "The resignations worsen this instead of explaining what really happened, the government is trying to cover it up," he said, describing the president as in damage control mode. Travelling to Nusantara just a day after the two respected technocrats in charge resigned without explanation, the president broke ground on schools, office complexes and promised foreign investment was coming. But years after the president announced his signature project, intended to ease the burden on the traffic-ridden, polluted, sinking and over-populated Jakarta, zero foreign funding has been committed. A presidential spokesperson referred question regarding doubt on Nusantara's future to previous President Widodo's comment saying the project will continue as plan. Jokowi, as the president is known, leaves office this October after serving the maximum two terms as his legacy project faces a host of problems, including land issues, water supplies, the threat of tropical diseases such as malaria, and widespread reluctance among civil servants to move. An even bigger stumbling block could be president-elect Prabowo Subianto. Prabowo won February's election promising "continuity", but the ex-commander has a legacy project of his own: a $29 billion "free meal" programme intended to curb stunting. Privately, Prabowo is yet to discuss moving to Nusantara with his team, and while he has pledged to continue developing it, it is unlikely to be at the same speed, one politician with direct knowledge told Reuters. A spokesperson for Prabowo did not immediately respond to request for comment, but publicly Prabowo has said he is committed to continuing the project. Members of Prabowo's coalition have also privately discussed doubts about the capacity of the state budget to fund both the new capital and the nutrition programme, said a separate senior politician involved. "If resources become scarce, could just become a backburner item," said political analyst Kevin O'Rourke. "There's going to be a lot of competition for other spending items in the Prabowo administration." 'A SACRIFICE' Envisioned as an uber-modern, green smart city complete with flying taxis, Indonesia's Nusantara is more technologically and logistically ambitious than new administrative capitals in the region such as Myanmar's Naypyidaw, and Malaysia's Putrajaya. Thousands of civil servants are scheduled to be sent to Nusantara starting this September, but some are reluctant to go. Of almost a dozen civil servants who spoke to Reuters, only two wanted to move, while others said they would consider quitting or seeking a transfer if asked. "There is nothing there, health and education facilities and so on," said one civil servant in the communications ministry, "It's not a choice but a sacrifice." The government has ensured basic facilities including apartments, water, electricity and internet will be ready when civil servants arrive, said Danis Sumadilaga, the head of the infrastructure task force for the Nusantara project. "We must understand that not all of the facilities will be available in an instant...We are going there for work, what kind of facilities you want? You can't expect it to be like Jakarta," he said in a recent interview. Other key government buildings including the presidential office, state palace, and some ministerial buildings will be ready in August when Indonesia will hold its independence day. Foreign investment has been held back due to the election and associated risks, said Chris Wren, CEO of BritCham Indonesia, adding that interest was now picking up. "There are interested parties as investors across the range of needs and opportunities infrastructure, smart city tech, utilities, education, etc, he said. However, the sense remains that the pitch is far from perfected at this point. Public health experts have also expressed concern about malaria, with East Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo where the new capital is located, home to the country's second-highest rate of the mosquito-borne disease. The government has stressed the capital site is malaria-free, but transmission remains a risk because of undocumented workers who illegally log nearby forests, epidemiologists say. Official data shows the rate of malaria in Balikpapan, the closest city to Nusantara, more than doubled from 2022 to 2023. "If they are not careful, I suspect malaria cases will increase in the next six months to a year," said Iqbal Elyazar, from Oxford University's clinical research unit in Jakarta. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text. Israeli forces bombarded a Gaza refugee camp Friday after a deadly strike on a UN-school there, as the war sparked by Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel entered its ninth month. Members of a displaced family look at the damage to a school run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) which was hit during an Israeli army strike the day before, in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 7, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas.(AFP) Efforts to mediate the first ceasefire in the bloody conflict since a week-long pause in November appear to have stalled a week after US President Joe Biden offered a new roadmap. Hamas has yet to respond to Biden's proposal, while Israel has expressed openness to discussions but remains committed to destroying the Palestinian Islamist group. In a new diplomatic push, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel and key regional partners Egypt, Jordan and Qatar from Monday on his eighth Middle East trip since the war began, the State Department said. Also Read | Hamas still to give response on Gaza truce plan, says Qatar As Gaza faced Israeli attacks from land, sea, and air Friday, witnesses said the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza was hit again, a day after the Israeli strike on the UN-run school. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah said at least 37 people were killed in Thursday's air strike, which the Israeli military said targeted "terrorists" hiding in three classrooms. On Friday the military as well as the Hamas-run government media office reported another Israeli strike on a school run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in Al-Shati refugee camp. The army said it targeted Hamas militants operating from a container on the northern Gaza school grounds. An AFP photographer saw Palestinians inspecting the remains of the charred container after the strike that the media office said killed three people. - Strikes across Gaza - UNRWA said hundreds of displaced Gazans were sheltering at the Nuseirat school targeted Thursday, which was "hit without prior warning". The agency's chief, Philippe Lazzarini, said on X that despite UN premises being "damaged, destroyed, targeted or used for military purposes almost on a daily basis... no one is being held accountable". Israel accuses Hamas and its allies in Gaza of using civilian infrastructure, including UN-run facilities, as operational centres -- charges the militants deny. A separate Israeli strike late Thursday killed Nuseirat mayor Iyad al-Mughari and four family members as he visited a water pumping station, a municipality spokesman said Friday, with the army saying he was a Hamas operative. Witnesses and the Israeli military reported strikes and fighting east of Deir al-Balah and near the Bureij camp. A central Gaza hospital source said a strike on the Wafati home in Maghazi camp killed six people. Warships bombarded areas west of Gaza City, an AFP correspondent said, and the military released footage of troops in the southern city of Rafah. Osama al-Kahlut of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society told AFP Israeli forces east of Deir al-Balah were firing on people along Gaza's main thoroughfare, reporting "several wounded". - Israeli isolation - The war was sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Militants also took 251 hostages, 120 of whom remain in Gaza, including 41 the army says are dead. Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 36,731 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. Israel has faced growing diplomatic isolation, with international court cases accusing it of war crimes and several European countries recognising a Palestinian state. Israel's UN envoy, Gilad Erdan, said Friday he was "disgusted" that the Israeli military will be on an upcoming United Nations list of countries and armed forces that fail to protect children during war. A diplomatic source later told AFP that Hamas as well as Palestinian Islamic Jihad would also be included in the annual UN report, which highlights human rights violations against children in conflict zones and is expected by the end of June. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to address the US Congress next month, also faces pressure from within his government. On Friday, the office of war cabinet member Benny Gantz announced a news conference for Saturday, the deadline he gave Netanyahu last month to approve a post-war plan for Gaza. Israeli media reported that Gantz, a centrist former military chief, was likely to announce his resignation. - 'Just words' - A week ago, Biden outlined what he labelled an Israeli plan to halt the fighting for six weeks while hostages are exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and the delivery of aid into besieged Gaza is stepped up. G7 powers and Arab states have backed the proposal, with 16 world leaders joining Biden's call for Hamas to accept the deal. But Beirut-based senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan called Biden's proposal "just words". Qatar said Thursday Hamas has not yet given its response to the truce plan. Major sticking points include Hamas insisting on a permanent truce and full Israeli withdrawal -- demands Israel has rejected. On his visit, Blinken "will emphasise the importance of Hamas accepting the proposal on the table" which "would benefit both Israelis and Palestinians", said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. The conflict has laid waste much of the Gaza Strip, uprooted most of its 2.4 million people and put them at risk of starvation. The UN's labour agency said Friday the war had "caused loss of jobs and livelihoods on a massive scale", with nearly 80 percent of Gazans now unemployed. As aid entering Gaza has slowed to a trickle, a temporary pier meant to boost humanitarian shipments by sea has been "successfully reestablished" after storm damage, the US military said Friday. Pope Francis, speaking on the 10th anniversary of an Israeli-Palestinian meeting at the Vatican, deplored "the hatred" sowed by the conflict "even among future generations". "All of us must work and commit ourselves to achieving a lasting peace, where the State of Palestine and the State of Israel can live side by side," he said. The man behind the viral social media post featuring #TheDress, which famously caused a stir on the internet, has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail for assaulting his wife, BBC reported, citing the Glasgow High Court. The incident occurred in March 2022, when Keir Johnston, 39, reportedly pinned his partner Grace to the ground and choked her. (Source: via BBC) The incident occurred in March 2022, when Keir Johnston, 39, reportedly pinned his partner Grace to the ground and choked her during a disagreement at their residence on the island of Colonsay in Argyll and Bute. Also Read | Wisconsin warden jailed hours before news conference on prison death investigations The couple gained worldwide media attention in 2015 when a photograph of his mother-in-law's dress sparked a heated internet debate over its colour. They also appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show in the US, where they received $10,000 and a luxury trip to Grenada. Here's what happened The court was informed that the couple's relationship was described as volatile and according to the BBC report, Johnston became enraged with his wife during an argument at their home. Subsequently, he tackled her to the ground and strangled her with both hands. Johnston allegedly maintained pressure on her neck until a bystander intervened and separated them. He then reportedly threatened to "finish her off," engaged in another struggle with his wife, brandished a knife, uttered a further threat that somebody was going to die, and then attempted self-harm, as per the court proceedings. He admitted guilt at the same court last month for assaulting his wife, causing her injury, and putting her life in danger. The defence lawyer urged the judge to consider a non-custodial sentence, stating that Johnston had voluntarily sought help for his behavioural issues. However, the judge determined that only a custodial sentence was appropriate, saying, "She feared for her life. The strangling lasted 20 seconds." The judge further said that Grace's memory of the incident would have a lasting impact and that she couldn't comprehend her husband's lack of remorse. In addition to a 54-month jail term, which was reduced from 60 months because of his early guilty plea, Johnston received a 10-year prohibition from contacting or coming near his wife. What was the original colour of The Dress? The phenomenon began with a photo of a dress posted on Facebook, where viewers debated whether it was blue-black or white-gold. Despite the dress being black and blue, the photo's conditions caused many to perceive it as white and gold, sparking widespread debate. Over a week, the dress garnered over ten million tweets, with even celebrities like Taylor Swift chiming in, adding to the viral sensation. This phenomenon shed light on differences in human colour perception, leading to scientific investigations in neuroscience and vision science. Researchers conducted studies on the phenomenon, published in Current Biology on May 14, Their findings suggest that differences in perceived colour relate to how the brain interprets colours under varying lighting conditions, known as colour constancy. In one study involving 1,401 participants, 57% saw the dress as blue-black, 30% as white-gold and smaller percentages as blue-brown or other colours. Some participants reported changing their perception of the dress's colours upon repeated testing. The brain's assumptions about the dress's illumination likely contribute to these differences in colour perception. Kathmandu, Nepal has extradited to India a Bangladeshi citizen, one of the main accused in the brutal murder of Bangladeshi MP Anwarul Azim Anar in Kolkata last month, a media report said here on Friday. Nepal extradites one of the prime accused in murder of Bangladesh MP in Kolkata: Report Mohammad Siyam Hussain was handed over to Indian authorities by Nepals Interpol branch on Monday morning after Nepal Police contacted him, MyRepublica.com news portal reported, quoting police sources. Hussain, who fled to Nepal after the murder, was arrested from the border area of Nepal last Thursday, the report said. The 56-year-old Awami League MP Anar, who was in Kolkata for medical treatment on May 12, went incommunicado on May 17, according to a complaint filed by his acquaintance on May 18. Anar was allegedly murdered in a posh flat in the New Town area near Kolkata. Police in West Bengal have arrested a butcher, who allegedly chopped the body of the Bangladeshi lawmaker into 80 pieces and mixed them with turmeric before disposing of them at different locations including a canal around New Town. It is suspected that Anars friend and business partner Akhtaruzzaman, who is now a US citizen, plotted the murder. Although Bangladesh police wanted Hussain, he was handed over to Indian authorities as he had come from India, it said, quoting highly placed police sources and said, the accused was sent to India by land. Nepals Interpol organisation did not keep the local police in the loop regarding the arrest of Hussain, Nepal police said. A team of four members from the Detective Branch under the Dhaka Metropolitan Police of Bangladesh had come to Kathmandu to pick Hussain up. The team met a senior officer of Nepal Police and requested them to deport Hussain but their request was disregarded as Nepal does not have any extradition treaty with Dhaka. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text. If you work in a white-collar job in an office and make your way there this week, it is unlikely that anyone will be able to guess exactly what you do from your clothes. That is not true for lots of the people you will interact with. The bus driver who gets you to your destination, the barista who makes your coffee and the people at reception who wish you good morning as you enter the buildingthey, and many others, are likely to be wearing some kind of corporate uniform. A poll of American workers conducted last summer by Gallup found that although most employees wear casual clothessome smart, some really notalmost a quarter donned a uniform. For employers who require them, there are several arguments in favour of uniforms. They help ensure a level of professionalism in appearance. They project a brand identity, from the red coats of Virgin Atlantic crew to the Browns uniform of UPS delivery drivers. They may have useful job-specific features: chefs jackets are double-breasted to protect against burns and can be reversed to hide stains. They send a clear signal to customers about whom they should approach with questions, avoiding those awkward do you work here? moments. Those customers draw different conclusions if staff are in uniform, for good and bad. A study by Robert Smith of Tilburg University and his colleagues asked people to imagine being on the receiving end of poor service when picking up a pizza. They were then shown pictures of uniformed or non-uniformed employees; the person who had notionally treated them badly was circled. Participants were more likely to blame the company than the individual or the circumstances for a bad experience when a uniform was involved. If corporate clothing makes each worker seem more representative of their employers, the authors suggest that it may be a good idea not to give it to inexperienced workers. Uniforms can also affect the psychology of employees. In 2012 Hajo Adam, now of the University of Bath, and Adam Galinsky, now of Columbia Business School, coined the term enclothed cognition to describe the effect that specific clothes have on the way that people think and feel. Questions have been raised over the validity of enclothed cognition, but a new meta-analysis by Messrs Adam and Galinsky, along with Carl Blaine Horton of Columbia Business School, concludes that the phenomenon is real. In one study Guillaume Pech of Universite Libre de Bruxelles and Emilie Caspar of Ghent University gave participants the option to administer electric shocks to other people in return for money; those dressed up in Red Cross uniforms showed more empathy than those in normal outfits. Xuehua Wang of Asia Europe Business School and her co-authors found that formal clothes made people more likely to make healthy eating choices. According to a paper by Saaid Mendoza of Providence College and Elizabeth Parks-Stamm of the University of Southern Maine, people who wore a police uniform during a video-game simulation designed to test reaction times were more likely than those in their own clothes to shoot unarmed targets. Clothes maketh the bang. The effects that uniforms have on workers will obviously vary. A uniform that confers a sense of professional identitya doctors white coat, sayis likely to be more motivating than one that does not. People will be happier to be a corporate billboard if they feel pride in their employer. Some work clothing looks good and some of it is a paean to polyester: you do not so much represent a brand as a fire hazard. Some uniforms are comfortable and some are not, with women usually getting the worst of it. Only in 2023 were female police officers in Britain issued with body armour made to suit their anatomy. The obvious objection to uniforms, at least from people who do not wear them, is that they suppress individuality and autonomy. However employees who do not have to wear a formal uniform often gravitate towards a costume anyway. Some coders seem to be under an unspoken obligation to wear T-shirts. The combination of shirt, trousers and Patagonia gilet is known as the midtown uniform for finance types in New York. Executives wear cultlike corporate lapel pins. Celebrity bosses build brands by wearing the same outfit day after day. You may not be required to don a uniform when you head off to work. You may nonetheless be wearing one. 2023, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under licence. The original content can be found on www.economist.com The widow of Hunter Biden's brother told jurors in his federal gun trial Thursday about the moment she found the revolver in his truck, describing how she put it into a leather pouch, stuffed it into a shopping bag and tossed it in a trash can outside a market near her home. Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, departs the federal court during his trial on criminal gun charges in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., June 6, 2024. REUTERS/Hannah Beier(REUTERS) "I panicked, and I wanted to get rid of them, she testified about finding the gun and ammunition in the vehicle's console in October 2018. I didnt want him to hurt himself, and I didnt want my kids to find it and hurt themselves. The purchase of the Colt revolver by Hunter Biden and Hallie Biden's frenzied disposal of it are the fulcrum of the case against him. Federal prosecutors say the president's son was in the throes of a heavy crack addiction when he bought the gun. Hes been charged with three felonies: lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the application by saying he was not a drug user and illegally having the gun for 11 days. Hunter Biden, who has pleaded not guilty, has said the Justice Department is bending to political pressure from Republicans and that hes being unfairly targeted. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden said in an interview with ABC he would accept the jury's verdict and ruled out a pardon for his son. And the first lady left France, where she attended D-Day anniversary events with the president, to head back to Delaware. She was expected to attend the trial again Friday before returning to France for a state dinner. Hallie Biden, who had a brief romantic relationship with Hunter after Beau Biden died in 2015, testified that from the time Hunter returned to Delaware from a 2018 trip to California until she threw his gun away, she did not see him using drugs. That time period included the day he bought the weapon. Much of her testimony focused on Oct. 23, 2018 11 days after he bought the gun and when she tossed it. Hunter was staying with her and seemed exhausted. Asked by the prosecutor if it appeared that Hunter was using drugs around then, she said, He could have been. ALSO READ| Hunter Biden called stepmom Jill Biden vindictive moron in explosive 2018 texts Hallie Biden says I was just panicking and regret that time of my life As Hunter slept in her home, Hallie Biden went to check his car. She said she was hoping to help him get or stay sober, free of both alcohol and cocaine. She said she found the remnants of crack cocaine and drug paraphernalia. She also found the gun Hunter purchased in a box with a broken lock that kept it from fully closing. There was ammunition too. Hallie said she considered hiding the gun but thought her kids might find it, so she decided to throw it away. I realize it was a stupid idea now, but I was panicking, she said. Hunter Biden watched expressionless from the courtroom during her testimony. She told jurors that she found crack at her home and saw him using it. She was with him occasionally when he saw dealers. Prosecutor Leo Wise asked Hallie about her own 2018 trip to California, where she visited Hunter at the Roosevelt Hotel, and asked her whether she was also using drugs. Yes, I was, she said. And who introduced you to it? Hunter did, Hallie said as Hunter rested his face on his hand and looked down. It was a terrible experience that I went through, and Im embarrassed and ashamed, and I regret that period of my life, she added. Hallie testified she stopped using drugs in August 2018, but Hunter continued smoking crack. ALSO READ| Hunter Bidens wife blasts one-time Trump adviser during emotional outburst in trial break: You Nazi piece of' Prosecution focuses on Hunter Biden's drug use and gun purchase lies Much of the prosecutions case has been dedicated to highlighting the seriousness of his crack addiction and showcasing to jurors bare-chested moments with ex-girlfriends, infidelity and crack pipes judgment lapses they believe prove he was actively using when he checked no on the form. Prosecutors argue that the evidence is necessary to show his state of mind when he bought the gun. After Hallie Biden threw the unloaded gun in the trash can at Janssens Market, he noticed it missing and asked her whether she had taken it. Are you insane? he texted. He told her to go back to the market to look for it. Surveillance footage played for jurors showed her digging around in the trash can for the gun, but it wasn't there. She asked store officials if someone had taken out the trash. Hallie said Hunter told her to file a police report because the gun was registered in his name. She called the police while she was still at the store. Officers located the man who inadvertently took the gun along with other recyclables from the trash and retrieved it. The case was eventually closed because of lack of cooperation from Hunter Biden, who would have been considered the victim. Jurors also heard from the officers who handled the case and from the man who found the gun. The Democratic presidents son arrived at court Thursday with a copy of his memoir, Beautiful Things, tucked under his arm. The book, written after he got sober in 2021, figures heavily into prosecutors case: Theyve played audio excerpts for jurors in which he details his descent into drugs and alcohol following the death of his brother in 2015 from cancer. Defense attorney Abbe Lowell has said Hunter Bidens state of mind was different when he wrote the book than when he purchased the gun, when he didnt believe he had an addiction. And hes suggested Hunter Biden might have felt he had a drinking problem at the time, but not a drug problem. Alcohol abuse doesnt preclude a gun purchase. Jurors have also heard from the gun store clerk, who testified about how he walked Hunter Biden through a few options before he settled on the gun. The clerk then watched as the customer filled out the firearms transaction record, a required document for the purchase of a gun, and saw him check off no to the question of whether he was an unlawful user of or addicted to marijuana, stimulants, narcotics or any other controlled substance. Gordon Cleveland, the former clerk at StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply, said he saw Biden sign the form, which includes a warning about the consequences of submitting false information. In his cross-examination Thursday, Lowell pointed out that some of the questions on the form are in the present tense, such as are you an unlawful user of or addicted to drugs. He has suggested Hunter Biden did not believe he had an active drug problem. The proceedings are unfolding after the collapse of a plea deal that would have resolved the gun charge and a separate tax case, and spared the Biden family the spectacle of a trial so close to the 2024 election. ALSO READ| Hunter and Jill Biden attend jury selection for firearms case against former The president's sister, Valerie, was in court Thursday. First lady Jill Biden spent the first part of the week there before leaving for France. Allies worry about the toll the proceedings will take on the president, who is deeply concerned about the health and sustained sobriety of his only living son. If convicted, Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison, though first-time offenders do not get anywhere near the maximum, and its unclear whether the judge would give him time behind bars. He also faces a separate trial in September on charges of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes. The trial is playing out shortly after Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was convicted of 34 felonies in New York City. The two criminal cases are unrelated, but their proximity underscores how the courts have taken center stage during the 2024 campaign. Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman on Friday questioned incumbent President Joe Biden's mental acuity and physical capabilities forWhite House rerun, stating that the US presidential election is not a family wedding where we can make light of grandpas declining faculties. Blasting Joe Biden Bill Ackman said US Presidential election is not a family wedding where we can make light of grandpas declining faculties.(AP) Ackman was responding to a video shared on X, formerly Twitter, by advocate Chris D. Jackson. The clip comes as a clarification after Biden faced mockery for suffering an embarrassing moment while sharing a stage with French President Macron and his spouse Brigitte Macron, as well as US First Lady Jill Biden at a D-Day memorial in France. With a caption reading Awkward and a cringe emoji, Republican Partys official RNC Research on Thursday shared a clip that went viral on X, garnering over four million views. In the video, POTUS appeared to be completely lost for a moment while trying to sit on a chair behind him. Though there was a chair placed behind Biden, some users on X called out the President for attempting to sit in an imaginary chair. However, the actual footage of the occasion indicates that milliseconds later, after stopping for a few seconds to allow Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin introduction to be completed, Biden did sit in a very genuine chair, as shown in the video. Biden's supporters come to his rescue as Donald Trump Jr. blasts POTUS Meanwhile, former US President Donald Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. also chastised Biden by sharing the similar video. Is there ever a time when Americans realize just how much of an embarrassment this is on a world stage? Does this kind of incompetence and weakness encourage our enemies to act the way theyve been acting? Of course it does! he added. Following the backlash, the Biden supporters came for his rescue and backed his re-run for the White House, with Jackson writing, This is how misinformation works. They show part of a clip for a reason. President Biden starts to sit down because that's what he is supposed to do! @CommunityNotes, where are you at?! Also Read: 'Shouldn't be allowed to run', Donald Trump's remark on indicted president goes viral Biden should have stepped aside for another candidate a year ago, says Ackman Reacting to his post, Ackman stated that Biden is clearly out of step her, mentioning that Macron, France's First Lady and the entire audience clearly understand when it is appropriate to stand respectfully and when to sit down. Mocking Biden's supporters, the billionaire remarked that those who accept Bidens failed decorum here do so in the way you look the other way from an aged grandfathers gaffes at a family event while considering whether you should include him in the next one. Calling the White House elections a sacred ceremony, he went on to say it acknowledges the US role in saving the free world because of the strength and commitment of our military and the thousands of Americans who sacrificed their lives to save the world on D Day. He further highlighted that President's mental and physical abilities matter in how the US project its power around the globe. Our failure to show strength in the White House and deter our enemies is one of the principal causes for the deterioration of the world order. Continuing his tirade against Biden, he stressed that the Democrat must have stepped aside for another candidate a year ago, adding that his failure to do so will be his legacy. Just one week after former US President Donald Trump was convicted guilty in the Stormy Daniels hush money case at a rally hosted in Arizona Thursday, the former President called President Joe Bidens order to tighten borders bulls**t. Former US President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump raises his fist as he walks off stage after participating in a town hall event at Dream City Church in Phoenix, Arizona, on June 6, 2024. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)(AFP) Joe, youre fired! Trump said, turning to a person in the audience on Saturday, the audience, which included more than 3,000 people, witnessed it, this is the first rally he has held since his conviction on 34 counts of filing a false business record. The rally also had its restraints as a number of at least 11 participants collapsed from heat stroke while standing in line in very hot sun with temperatures not below 100 degrees Farenhite. The town hall, hosted by Turning Point Action and the Turning Point Political Action Committee, was intended to promote their Chase the Vote effort. The election is now bigger than Donald Trump, it is now about a civilization, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk said, addressing voters who may be hesitant to vote for the former president. This is a class struggle. This is a struggle between the ruling class and you, he added. ALSO READ| Kate Middleton health updates: Netizens saying she may never come back Trump slams Bidens border executive order as Bulls**t Trump focused largely on immigration in his speech before taking questions from the audience. Discussing the state of the southern border, he remarked, In 2016, it was beautiful by comparison. But well fix it again. He mused, noting how most questions from the audience were centred on these topics. He criticized his successors immigration policy, describing it as a heinous and criminal obliteration of our southern border, and called Bidens recent executive order as bulls**t though Trump noted he didnt like using the word in front of these people. He said that Bidens open border policies would be scrapped on Day One if he is re-elected. According to US Customs and Border Protection data, Arizonas Tucson Sector is one of the busiest, with 373,220 documented encounters so far in fiscal year 2024. Trump said, I tell you, its so sad to see whats happened here. I have to say Arizona is turning into a dumping ground for the dungeons of the third world. Trump also touched on the Manhattan verdict, claiming he dealt with a highly conflicted judge where there was no crime. ALSO READ| Donald Trump says states enacting abortion is a beautiful thing to watch ahead of his speech at Christian group event State Democratic leaders held a news conference on behalf of the Biden campaign Thursday morning ahead of Trumps visit to the Valley. Arizona Democratic Party Chairwoman Yolanda Bejarano commented, Its jarring and yet somehow unsurprising to me that on his first visit to our state in two years, Trumps sole mission today is not to win over Arizonans but to raise money, undermine our democratic institutions, and promote political extremism. Voters across Arizona will face a stark reminder of why they rejected Trump in 2020 when he brings his campaign of revenge and retribution to the state, and we will continue to reject him. Former US President Donald Trump is set to appear virtually at an event hosted by the Danbury Institute, a Christian advocacy organization advocating for a complete ban on abortions and same-sex marriage and promoting the use of the Bible in public policy while calling it child sacrifice. Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally, Thursday, June 6, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)(AP) Trump stated, Now the states are deciding, and, And by the way, in many cases, like Ohio, it became if you want to use the word liberal or progressive it was more liberal or progressive than people would have thought. But the people of Ohio decided. The people of Kansas decided. The people are now deciding. In some cases, theyre going the other direction. But the people are deciding and in many ways, its a beautiful thing to watch. Ammar Mousa from President Joe Bidens campaign criticized Trump for aligning with abortion ban extremists. ALSO READ| Donald Trumps hush money conviction now means he faces potential travel ban from THESE nations Trump to speak at Christian Group event calling abortion child sacrifice Trump has stated earlier that the issue of abortion should be decided by states following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. This position disappointed many anti-abortion advocates when he declined to support a national limit on abortion in April. Arizona GOP strategist Barrett Marson commented, Talking about abortion is playing on your enemys home turf, and suggested, The people that Trump has to win over in Arizona are those suburban women who may even be pro-life but still dont want an absolutist position on abortion. They will almost certainly bristle at this kind of language and certainly it would detract from a better conversation that could be had about immigration and the economy. The Danbury Institute, established by a coalition of churches and Christian organizations earlier this year, said it will not rest until it is eradicated entirely. Sharayah Colter, a spokesperson for the Danbury Institute, expressed she is grateful for the work President Trump did in nominating Supreme Court justices who eventually ruled in the Dobbs decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. ALSO READ| Donald Trump panics when asked if he'd declassify Epstein documents, netizens wonder what is he afraid of? She stated that Trump continually advocated for the sanctity of human life which Christians championed and were eager to support. While The Danbury Institute does not endorse candidates for political office, we acknowledge the historic support he has given to the pro-life movement and commit to praying that, if elected, he will govern in a way that honors the intrinsic value of every human being and the fundamental right to life. Former US State Secretary Hillary Clinton stoked controversy with her social media post comparing D-Day to the presidential election. Hillary Clinton, a Democrat who ran against Donald Trump in 2016 presidential elections, faced immense backlash for a post that was deemed demeaning toward America's heroes.(AP) Taking to X, formerly Twitter, Clinton asserted that Americans can "protect democracy" this November, citing the example of US forces entering Normandy, France during World War II. "Eighty years ago today, thousands of brave Americans fought to protect democracy on the shores of Normandy, the former first lady wrote. This November, all we have to do is vote. The D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, which took place on June 6, 1944, is one of the most well-known events in the US military's history. It was a watershed moment in World War II, signaling the starting point of US and Allied forces' liberation of Europe from Nazi's domination over Germany. Clinton faces heat over sick and disgusting remarks Clinton, a Democrat who ran against Donald Trump in 2016 presidential elections, faced immense backlash for a post that was deemed demeaning toward America's heroes. Slamming Clinton, RedState writer Bonchie called her pure evil for comparing the sacrifices of those who died to defeat Hitler and retake Europe to Democrats voting against Donald Trump. "Sick and disgusting," Bonchie wrote on X. Meanwhile, Radio host Dana Loesch also chimed in: "Were my WWII vet grandparents alive today theyd slam this." "Ruthless" podcast host "Comfortably Smug" wrote, "What kind of shameless, broken, lizard person do you have to be to tweet out some nonsense like this?" Stating that Democrats couldn't be more dramatic and deranged, Senator Tuberville wrote: They're comparing storming the beaches of Normandy on #dday to voting against Trump. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, criticized Clinton's statement as "disrespectful" to American World War II heroes who faced "unimaginable fear" with "immense courage." Also Read: E. Jean Carroll and Hillary Clinton's subtle digs at Trump after hush money conviction go viral Biden warns democracy is at risk in upcoming elections President Joe Biden, who will most certainly face Trump in November, has warned that democracy is at jeopardy in the forthcoming election, highlighting the former president's desire to become a dictator on the first day of his second term. Clinton agreed, stating last month that people are unaware of how dictatorships emerge. Appearing on MSNBC, she said, "The world has been here before. People did not take the kind of threats that we saw in the 1930s as seriously as they should, including American journalists. People were taking at face value that, 'Oh, this can be controlled. He may have said some outrageous things, but the institutions will hold'," she added. Hunter Biden's daughter Naomi testified about her father's drug treatment as part of his defense on Friday at a criminal trial where he stands accused of failing to disclose his addiction on his application when he bought a gun in 2018. Naomi Biden departs from federal court, Friday, June 7, 2024, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)(AP) Naomi Biden, 30, told the jury about seeing her father in California in the weeks leading up to his gun purchase, describing his treatment for addiction and his sobriety. "He seemed really great." Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden's son, has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of failing to disclose his addiction when he bought a Colt Cobra revolver and of illegally possessing the weapon for 11 days. On cross-examination, Naomi Biden was shown she was messaging and calling her father and unable to reach him. "I can't take this," she texted her father several days after he purchased the gun. "I miss you so much and I just want to hang out." Prosecutors introduced prior testimony and evidence that they said showed Hunter Biden was arranging to buy crack during that time. The jury in the 5-day-old first-ever criminal trial of a U.S. president's child heard witnesses including Hunter Biden's ex-wife, former girlfriend and sister-in-law testify about his use of crack cocaine. His sister-in-law, Hallie Biden, on Thursday recounted finding the gun and throwing it away out of concern for the safety of Hunter Biden and her children. Prosecutors said there was overwhelming evidence he was actively using crack in the weeks before and after he purchased the gun in October 2018 and that he lied by answering "no" on a government screening document when asked if he was a drug user. Defense attorney Abbe Lowell has said Biden did not intend to deceive because he did not consider himself an addict when he purchased the gun. Hunter Biden told the judge at a 2023 hearing that he had been sober since 2019. Earlier on Friday, prosecutors rested their case and Hunter Biden's team asked the judge overseeing the case to acquit him. His lawyers said the evidence did not support a conviction. U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika did not immediately rule on the request which is routinely filed by defendants and often denied. Lowell called as witnesses an employee and the owner of the gun shop who played a role on the day Hunter Biden purchased the firearm to try to cast doubts about the accuracy of the background check form at the center of the case. He said Hunter Biden had yet to decide whether to testify. Criminal defendants rarely testify as they then have to face prosecutors' cross-examination. The trial follows another historic first - last week's criminal conviction of Donald Trump, the first U.S. president to be found guilty of a felony. Trump is the Republican challenger to Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the Nov. 5 election. Trump and some of his fellow Republicans in Congress have accused Democrats of pursuing that and three other criminal prosecutions to prevent Trump from regaining power in his rematch with the president. Congressional Democrats have pointed to cases including the Hunter Biden prosecution as evidence that Joe Biden is not using the justice system for political or personal ends. Joe Biden told ABC News on Thursday that he would not pardon his son if he was convicted. Asked if he would accept the trial outcome and rule out a pardon, Biden responded, "Yes." If Hunter Biden is convicted on all charges, he faces up to 25 years in prison, though defendants generally receive shorter sentences, according to the U.S. Justice Department. In an exclusive and extensive live interview with ABC News anchor David Muir at the Normandy American Cemetery on the occasion of the anniversary of D-Day on June 6th, President Joe Biden was asked whether he would pardon his son Hunter, who was for the time under felony gun trial and the president said he would not. And the president said he would not. US president Joe Biden, and his son Hunter Biden(AP) Muir asked Biden on Thursday if he would accept the outcome of his son's trial in Wilmington, Delaware, to which the president responded, Yes. Biden also nodded yes when Muir asked if he would rule out a pardon for Hunter. The 46th US presidents only surviving son, Hunter Biden, is standing trial in Delaware for multiple felonies over a failed bid to buy a firearm in 2018 that detectives allege he was unfit for due to substance abuse. It also represents a new kind of trial since no son of a sitting president had been charged with a crime before this case. This has to do with Hunter Biden, who was indicted last October by the special counsel named David Weiss, and Hunter entered a not-guilty plea. ALSO READ| Ashamed widow of Beau Biden tells jurors she found Hunter Bidens gun and tossed it into a trash can: Watch Biden says Trump got fair trial During the interview with Muir, Joe Biden also touched on former US President Donald Trump's own historic trial, following Trumps conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Trump has baselessly described his guilty verdict as a politically motivated witch hunt and a rigged trail. Biden accused Trump of seeking to undermine the rule of law, saying, He's trying to undermine it. He got a fair trial. The jury spoke. Biden also addressed his recent executive action to close the border to asylum seekers between official points of entry. This action came months after Republicans in Congress, at Trump's behest, killed a bipartisan border security deal. When the ABS News host asked Biden, Do you wish you had done it sooner? Biden replied, No. ALSO READ| Donald Trump says states enacting abortion is a beautiful thing to watch ahead of his speech at Christian group event Biden discussed international concerns, particularly Israel's military operations against Hamas in Gaza. President has grown increasingly critical of these operations and has called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to credibly consider the safety of civilians in the southern Gazan town of Rafah. I think he's listening to me, Biden said of Netanyahu. Hugh Grosvenor, The Duke of Westminster, exchanged vows with Olivia Henson at Chester Cathedral. The billionaire's wedding was the most-awaited prestigious event and high-profile wedding of the year, with the arrival of some 400 guests. After tying the knot and sharing the kiss, the Duke and Duchess of Westminster made their way outside the cathedral but they were halted by JSO demonstrators who used fire extinguishers to let off their signature orange smoke.(AP/X) Prince William, The Prince of Wales, arrived at the venue in his Mercedes to attend the wedding of his son Prince George's godfather. However, George skipped the event due to it being his school day. Meanwhile, the sweet moment was disrupted by Just Stop Oil (JSO) protesters. They attempted to disrupt the Duke and Duchess of Westminster's departure from Chester Cathedral following their wedding. The Prince of Wales, who served as the groom's usher, is said to have observed the chaos. After tying the knot and sharing the kiss, the newlyweds made their way outside the cathedral but they were halted by JSO demonstrators who used fire extinguishers to let off their signature orange smoke. While one the women protestors yelled, Just Stop Oil, crowds continued to laud the pair, attempting to drown out the jeering of the demonstrators' actions. Following the disruption, the demonstrators were heckled by the people before being stopped and led away by police. JSO has taken responsibility for the disturbance. While sharing the video of the incident, Connor Stringer, senior reporter at Daily Telegraph, wrote on X, WATCH: The moment two Just Stop Oil protestors tried to ruin the sweet moment that the newlyweds Duke and Duchess of Westminster shared after leaving Chester Cathedral. King Charles, the godfather of Hugh Grosvenor, skips the Duke's wedding Queen Camilla and King Charles, who is counted by Hugh Grosvenor as one of his godparents, missed out on nuptials between the Duke and his wife Olivia. Charles, who is currently undergoing cancer treatment, has been very busy for past few days. He and Camilla arrived in France to attend several events, marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Wednesday and Thursday. Also Read: France's First Lady Brigitte Macron faces awkward faux pas as she tries to hold Queen Camilla's hand at D-Day memorial Chester has been adorned with 100,000 flowers for the wedding of the Duke, who made it onto the Sunday Times 40 Under 40 Rich List. After the wedding, the flowers are said to be donated to community groups. While Grosvenor arrived for his wedding in a dark green Land Rover Defender, accompanied by three of the duke's long-time best pals, the bride came wearing a customized gown and tiara made by Emma Victoria Payne, a British bridal designer. The dress and veil were linked to her lineage through elaborate stitching evocative of her great-great grandmother's outfit. Amidst the reported feud between King Charles and his brother Prince Andrew over Royal Lodge, many have speculated that Prince William, second in the line of succession to the British throne, would take over the grand 30-room mansion. However, a Royal expert has claimed something completely different. As per the reports, the monarch has appealed to the Duke of York to vacate the lodge and shift into smaller Frogmore Cottage, which was previously owned by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.(AP ) As per the reports, the monarch has appealed to the Duke of York to vacate the lodge and shift into smaller Frogmore Cottage, which was previously owned by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. In an interview with GBN America, Royal commentator Lady Hervey appeared to back Prince Andrew, stating that Charles intends to set new rules by taking everything into his hands. Calling the Royal Lodge Andrew's house, the expert said that he has a lease on that house. They can't just take it away. Lady Hervey claims King wants Royal Lodge for Harvey highlighted during the interview that the monarch already owns many house. They've got Windsor Castle. Why have a house that the Yorks have lived in for 20 years? Why do they have to keep going? Late Queen Elizabeth's beloved corgis were inherited by Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson and they have been taking care of them since her passing. They have the Queen's corgis, why displace the corgis? And Prince Andrew, who was the favourite son. I just find it really quite disgusting, she mentioned. Questioning that what does Charles need another house for?, she said he wants the Royal Lodge for Queen Camilla. Also Read: Prince Andrew hiding away in darkened room after King Charles threatens him of serious consequences if Andrew and his favourite mansion Andrew, 64, holds Royal Lodge, which is his favourite lodge, on lease, but Charles has the purse strings. The Duke has been ignoring King Charles's direction to vacate the house. The King has reportedly threatened to cut ties with Andrew if he continues to stay in the 30 million house, where he has lived for over 20 years since signing the lease in 2003. The monarch is now thinking about slashing fundings for his younger brother, especially his 3 million security bill. According to a Royal source, the King's kindness has limits and Andrew has got a good option to move into Frogmore Cottage, which will provide him the "benefit of being within the Windsor Castle security cordon, reducing the need for alternative round-the-clock security for Royal Lodge." If the Duke of York doesn't agree to move to a location that better suits his needs, the source said then the King may have to reevaluate the amount of support he is willing to provide. By Jonathan Stempel Netflix sued in $170 mln 'Baby Reindeer' defamation lawsuit June 6 - Netflix was sued on Thursday for at least $170 million by a Scottish woman who said she was defamed over her portrayal as a stalker in the hit mini-series "Baby Reindeer." The plaintiff Fiona Harvey has publicly claimed to be the inspiration behind the character Martha, played by actress Jessica Gunning, who shares a physical resemblance and like her is a lawyer in London. But in a complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court, Harvey said Netflix and "Baby Reindeer" creator Richard Gadd went too far by suggesting through the show, which calls itself a "true story," that she was a twice-convicted stalker who had been sentenced to five years in prison. Harvey denied having stalked Gadd, who on the show plays a fictional version of himself named Donny Dunn, or having been convicted or imprisoned. But she said many people couldn't tell the difference, and thousands of Reddit and TikTok users talk about her as the "real" Martha. "Defendants told these lies, and never stopped, because it was a better story than the truth, and better stories made money," the complaint said. Netflix, in response to the lawsuit, said it intended to "defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadd's right to tell his story." The lawsuit seeks at least $50 million each for actual damages, compensatory damages including mental anguish and profits, plus at least $20 million of punitive damages. Harvey sued two days after Netflix settled a defamation lawsuit by former prosecutor Linda Fairstein over her portrayal in "When They See Us," a 2019 series about the Central Park Five rape case three decades earlier. Netflix agreed to move a disclaimer that some characters may have been altered for dramatic purposes to the start of episodes from the closing credits. It also agreed to donate $1 million to a nonprofit that helps free wrongfully convicted people. The case is Harvey v Netflix Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 24-04744. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have been labelled frauds after they reportedly started looking into outrageously expensive schools for their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle blasted for taking advantage while royals are unable to conduct overseas tours (Photo by Kola SULAIMON / AFP)(AFP) Some of the extremely reputed schools that are said to be on their list of preferences include a private school whose fees are known to go up to 40,000 per annum. This is the school that it attends and is located in Montecito, the posh Califonia area where they live. Earlier this week, Richard Mineards from the Montecito Journal claimed, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are eyeing entering their two children, Archie and Lilibet, at a local private school, I can exclusively reveal. ALSO READ| King Charles III will never allow Prince Harry back to Frogmore Cottage: Expert Prince Harry and Meghan facing backlash for the outrageous decision Royal commentator Lee Cohen has criticized the Sussexex for contemplating such an outrageously expensive school for their children and their supposed commitment to progressive causes is nothing but a facade. He went on saying, The Riven Rock twosome were spotted inspecting an institution's campus last week, bringing them one-step closer to a decision, and added, School fees in our area range from $60,000 to $50,000 plus for older grades, with most of the institutions having 100 per cent of students going on to attend four-year colleges. Cohen told GB News, If they're willing to indulge in this epitome of elitism, there is no advocating for equality. Yet they're willing to pay staggering tens of thousands per year for their children's education. He questioned, Yet they're willing to pay staggering tens of thousands per year for their children's education. How can they possibly justify this when so many families struggle to afford even the basic necessities? Sending their children to such a prestigious institution completely exposes the frauds that Harry and Meghan are. By perpetuating the very systems of privilege that they claim to expose. ALSO READ| Meghan Markle wants to return to Nigeria, ignoring First Lady's nakedness remark Many netizens have defended the Sussexes One user on X (formerly Twitter) wrote, No one should begrudge Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan choosing a school where they can feel Prince Archie is the safest possible setting. Education is a priority for Meghan and Harry, another commented. The Duke of Sussex attended prestigious institutions such as Ludgrove Prep School and Eton College, following his older brother Prince William. Meghan also attended a private Catholic school, Immaculate Heart High School. Prince Harry and William, once inseparable royal brothers, are now estranged and rarely seen together. Things between royal siblings seem to be frostier than ever. According to a recent bombshell by a royal expert, the brothers' relationship has hit a new "all-time low." We're talking not just a family squabble, but a full-on communication breakdown. This tension was notably evident during the Duke of Westminster's wedding invitation. A file photo of Prince William, left, and Prince Harry.(AP) Prince Harry and William's relationship hits new low Royal expert Katie Nicholl spoke to ET on Thursday, shedding light on the connection between Harry and William, the brothers who are not even trying to hide their relationship cracks anymore. Despite being a good friend to Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster, who is also his son Archies godfather, Harry declined to attend his wedding simply for the sake of 'peace,' as William was there to play usher. Also read: Donald Trump accidentally admits he and Melania barely speak anymore after guilty verdict "Relations between the Sussexes and the Wales remains at an all-time low," Nicholl told ET. Stressing the deepening rift between Prince Harry and Prince William, reports surfaced about Harry's diplomatic decline of a big society event in the UK the wedding of the Duke of Westminster to Olivia Henson.Royal analysts suggest that Harry might have deliberately chosen not to attend the ceremony, which took place at the Chester Cathedral because he was concerned about the possible discomfort of being in the same place, especially a large one like a cathedral with his brother, where all media eyes would follow them. Prince William and Harry not even on talking terms Im told that William and Harry really are not even on speaking terms," Nicholl further said explaining, that Grosvenor is close friends of both William and Harry. In fact, he's godfather to [their children], Prince Archie and to Prince George. So I think he was in a very difficult position when it came to invitations, and of course, seating plans and everything else. Also read: Prince William gives emotional update on Kate Middleton's cancer battle; she would have loved.. Adding to the complexity of the situation was the role William was assigned as usher. Part of his role would be to show other guests to their seats, so one can only imagine how awkward it would be if Harry and Meghan turned up, and William ended up showing them to their seats. It's clear the Sussexes tried to avoid such discomfort. Why Harry didnt attend Royal wedding Another aspect of the story, aside from Harry's reluctance to face his brother, was the duke's clear desire not to overshadow Westminster's wedding. He understands that once William and he are under one roof, all eyes will be on them. "I think the thing with Harry turning up is, it's always going to generate headlines, and therefore risk overshadowing whatever it is that he's attending. The expert also believes that Harry's relationship with sister-in-law Kate Middleton remains strained. Hugh Grosvenor is no longer Britain's most eligible bachelor, as the 33-year-old married Olivia Henson Friday, June 7. The newlyweds tied the knot in front of nearly 400 people at Chester Cathedral. Dubbed the society wedding of the year, the opulent event was attended by Prince William. Although the Duke of Westminster is friends with both the Prince of Wales and his brother, Prince Harry rejected the invite amid the duo's ongoing rift. Prince Harry skipped Hugh Grosvenor and Olivia Henson's wedding while Prince William served as an usher Why did Prince Harry skip Hugh Grosvenor and Olivia Henson's wedding? Although both princes received the invite to the high-society wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Westminster, only the eldest showed up, who served as an usher. The Prince of Wales was also joined by his cousin Princess Eugenie. However, the Duke of Sussex reportedly stayed away over fears of his fallout with Prince William overshadowing his friend's wedding. Last week, a source told People that though Prince Harry received an invite, there was an understanding between the two friends over his decision to opt out. It would be especially difficult for him to stay in the UK as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were recently evicted from Frogmore Cottage. The source added that Prince Harry sends his love and support and admiration for the couple on their wedding. Grosvenor, Britain's youngest billionaire, is close to both Princes and is among the very few people who have remained in contact with them through the years leading up to their feud. Another source said, Hughie did the right thing inviting both brothers while Harry did the diplomatic thing and politely declined saying there were no hard feelings. In addition to being the godson of King Charles, the Duke of Westminster is also the godfather to Prince William and Kate Middleton's eldest son, Prince George, 10, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's son Prince Archie, 5. It would have been terribly awkward if he [Prince Harry] had said yes because of the situation with William, the source added, per Vanity Fair. Former President Donald Trump has vowed to protect TikTok at all costs, asserting that he will "never ban it." Continuing his presidential campaign and eyeing the White House for a second time, even after making history as the first criminally convicted former President of the US, Trump appears determined to win over the youth by voicing support for the Chinese government-linked social media app. Trump shifts stance on TikTok, gains over 5.8 million followers despite legal battles. Vows to protect the Chinese social media giant. (AFP) Trump pledges TikTok safety The Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee made one of his most emphatic statements yet to attract voters while discussing his broader strategy to engage youngsters. This discussion occurred with Turning Point USA's founder, Charlie Kirk. Subsequently, after their town hall event in Arizona, he shared a message on his TikTok profile. The 30-second video instantly received 1.8 million views and more than 300,000 likes (at the time of writing.) Given that he was the initial opponent of TikTok and had issued an executive order to outlaw it in 2020, it's quite intriguing that he has now reversed his stance since leaving office. In the discussion, Kirk questioned Trump about his stance on TikTok bans, to which Trump committed "I would never do it," if re-elected after making a subtle attack on President Biden. Also read: Donald Trump accidentally admits he and Melania barely speak anymore after guilty verdict Trump calls Biden the worst president ever Well, the main message is to vote for Trump. Were going to make our country greater than ever before, Trump asserted, labelling Joe Biden the worst. "That was incredible and just horrible whats happened. This is the worst president in history Joe Biden," he declared. Kirk then went on to refer to Trump as "TikTok's favourite president in a caption with a TikTok clip of their conversation. The Chinese-owned social media giant is currently facing a lot of heat in US following the enactment of laws by the current administration that stipulate a ban on TikTok unless it is acquired by a US-based company within the next year. Donald Trump is running campaign on TikTok The ex-president of the United States, who recently joined TikTok less than a week ago, has quickly become the platform's preferred leader, despite ongoing legal battles in the Hush Money Trial. Trump has posted just one video but has quickly gained over 5.8 million followers, far exceeding the number of followers Biden's campaign account on the app has, which stands at just 360,000. However, TikTok is expected to be taken off the app stores in the U.S. on January 19, 2025. Also read: Jennifer Garner shares cryptic this too shall pass poem amid ex hubby Ben Affleck and JLO split rumours Earlier, addressing the challenges, President Joe Biden said, The path to my desk was difficult. It should have been easier and it shouldve gotten there sooner...But in the end, we did what America always does, we rose to the moment, U.S. federal and state agencies are planning research into potential respiratory spread of bird flu among dairy cattle, according to a Reuters interview with Michigan state agriculture and public health officials. Scientists and government officials hope the research will guide efforts to contain the virus and reduce exposure to humans.(Unsplash) Scientists and government officials hope the research will guide efforts to contain the virus and reduce exposure to humans. Respiratory spread could give the virus more opportunity to evolve, they said. Scientists have so far suspected the virus spreads among animals and humans through contact with infected milk or aerosolized milk droplets, or from exposure to infected birds or poultry. The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is working with Michigan State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to plan research on farms to evaluate respiratory spread, Tim Boring, the department's director, said in an interview. "This is an area of concern that we're building out and looking more into," Boring said. The research is a high priority and will be important to guiding the state's public policy, he said. The USDA did not respond to a request for comment. Bird flu has been reported in more than 80 dairy herds across 11 states since late March. The exact mechanics of the spread of the virus are still unclear, though there is evidence of spread to cows from wild birds and other cows. The virus has been identified mainly in milk, but also in nasal swabs at lesser levels, said Zelmar Rodriguez, a dairy veterinarian and assistant professor in Michigan State University's College of Veterinary Medicine who has researched affected farms. "If it's present in the nose when the cow is shedding (virus), it's potentially transmitted through air," he said. Any change in how the virus is transmitting gives it the opportunity to evolve, said Richard Webby, a St. Jude Children's Research Hospital virologist who studies flu in animals and birds for the World Health Organization. "We certainly don't want that," Webby said. But for the virus to be a more significant threat to human health, it would need to undergo further genetic mutations, Webby said. The third dairy worker to contract avian flu, who lives in Michigan, reported respiratory symptoms, including coughing. Flu experts said the worker was most likely infected through close contact with milk through splashes or aerosolized droplets. Respiratory symptoms have often been seen in prior human bird flu infections. The first two U.S. workers known to be infected during this outbreak only reported symptoms of conjunctivitis, or pink eye. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the latest case does not change its assessment that bird flu is a low risk to the general public, and that it has not seen evidence of human-to-human transmission. The worker with respiratory symptoms was still recovering as of a few days ago, said Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan's chief medical executive, in an interview. Michigan aims to begin its study of blood samples looking for evidence of prior bird flu infection among farm workers this month, Bagdasarian said. Reuters reported on May 30 that the state and CDC would be conducting the study to understand the prevalence of human illness and whether any dairy workers had previously contracted the virus. Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster and Britain's most eligible bachelor, is set to marry Olivia Henson in Chester Cathedral today. Kate Middleton's lookalike Olivia Henson arrives for her wedding.(AP) The 33-year-old Duke, who ranks 14th on the 2024 Sunday Times Rich List with an approximate worth of 10.1 billion, is marrying Henson in Chester Cathedral, making her The Duchess of Westminster. The relatively secretive pair made their first public appearance together last month, And now, their wedding is expected to be one of the year's most important social events. Despite being one of the UK's wealthiest men, Hugh likes to live a tranquil life away from the limelight just like Olivia. She has kept a low profile despite the hoopla surrounding their wedding. Here's what all we know about the new Royal family member: Olivia Henson arrives for her wedding to Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster at Chester Cathedral, in Chester, England, Friday June 7, 2024.(AP) Who is Olivia Henson? Olivia attended the Dragon School in Oxford before moving on to Marlborough College, which has alumni including Princess Kate Middleton and Pippa Middleton. She subsequently traveled to Ireland to attend Trinity College in Dublin, where she earned a 2:1 in Hispanic Studies and Italian. Olivia is currently employed as a senior account manager at Belazu, an environmentally conscious B-corp that imports high-quality foods like rose harissa and preserved lemon around the Europe. It is unclear if she plans to continue to work after her marriage. Olivia and Hugh became friends after being introduced by the mutual acquaintances and dated for two years before he proposed her at Eaton Hall, west of Chester, the place where he was raised and which is home to the Grosvenor family since the 1400s. Exploring similarities between Kate and Olivia Henson Meanwhile, Royal experts and supporters have pointed out her resilient similarities with Princess Kate as they both are willowy women with brunettes and a poised but easygoing attitude. Olivia and Kate, who is ten years older than the bride-to-be, had comparable upbringings. The duo were raised in the Home Counties, with their brother and a sister. While Kate grew up in Bucklebury, Berkshire, Olivia spent her childhood in Longworth. According to The Daily Mail, Olivia has both an aristocratic pedigree and royal connections. "She is the elder daughter of Rupert Henson and his wife Caroline, who is a scion of the Hoare banking family and the Marquess of Bristol. Henson is also a descendant of John Manners, the 5th Duke of Rutland." Also Read: Kate Middleton health updates: Netizens saying she may never come back Know about Hugh Grosvenor The Duke, nicknamed 'Hughie' by his pals, is known for being extremely low-maintenance. Hugh is quite low-key. He takes his roles very seriously but when he's not working he's relaxed, one of his friends told The Times. Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster, left, arrives at Chester Cathedral for his wedding to Olivia Henson in Chester, England, Friday June 7, 2024.(AP) The Grosvenor family has a long history with the Royals; King Charles is Hugh's godfather, and the groom is also a godfather to Prince William's son Prince George and Prince Harry's son Archie. Hugh, the 7th Duke of Westminster, acquired his title and the vast familial wealth when he was only 25 years old, following the demise of his father in 2016. From a centenarian to an octogenarian: "Don't get old." President Joe Biden, 81, was honoring military veterans who stormed the beaches of Normandy on the invasion's 80th anniversary when a 100-year-old offered him some age-old advice. "Don't get old," Robert Gibson told Biden, who was a toddler when D-Day took place, the Associated Press reported. Veterans, many of whom were in their teens during the invasion, were helped out of their wheelchairs at the ceremony, with some saluting or hugging the commander in chief. When Biden, who was accompanied by First Lady Jill Biden, discovered it was one veteran's birthday, he led the audience in singing Happy Birthday. Biden was one of several world leaders at events marking the massive Allied landing in 1944. French President Emmanuel Macron awarded the Legion of Honor to 11 U.S. veterans and a British female veteran. Police in Massachusetts say an intoxicated boater ran a 43-foot boat out of the water and onto the beach on Martha's Vineyard. Stunning photos released by the state police showed the Hinckley Sport Boat 40C sitting on sand along the shoreline. The Massachusetts State Police says Dukes County dispatch notified them of an intoxicated male running a boat aground on Friday evening. Trooper Zachary Bolcome arrived at Chappaquiddick Island and immediately located the stranded vessel. Bolcome questioned the two men who had been on the boat during the time of the accident. They claimed it was a navigational error. The trooper spoke to the operator of the boat, Riley Blizard, 32, of Cotuit, and says he instantly recognized signs of impairment. Blizard and his passenger were both given field sobriety tests. Based on the results of the tests, Blizard was placed under arrest and transported to the Dukes County Jail for booking. He was scheduled to be arraigned at Edgartown District Court on two charges: operating a boat under the influence of liquor and negligent operation of a boat. An Israeli missile strike killed at least 33 people who were sheltering inside a school, located within a central Gaza refugee camp, in the early hours of Thursday morning, the United Nations said. The Israeli military alleges that there were Hamas militants located inside the school but the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) maintains that the building was sheltering displaced Palestinians and UN employees - and that they are unable to verify the presence of any armed groups. "Another horrific day in Gaza. Another UNRWA school turned shelter attacked," Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the UNRWA posted to X. "This time in Nuseirat, in the Middle Areas, hit overnight by the Israeli Forces without prior warning to the displaced or the UNRWA. At least 35 people were killed and many more injured. The school was sheltering 6,000 displaced people when it was hit." Another horrific day in #Gaza. Another @UNRWA school turned shelter attacked. This time in Nuseirat, in the Middle Areas, hit overnight by the Israeli Forces without prior warning to the displaced or @UNRWA. At least 35 people were killed and many more injured. The school pic.twitter.com/VL5XWWhmYd Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) June 6, 2024 Hospital employees and reporters for the Associated Press tallied at least 14 children and nine women killed in the airstrike. Another strike on a house in Nuseirat killed six people. Nuseirat is a refugee camp inside Gaza that was created in the aftermath of the Nakba - the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Mandatory Palestine, perpetrated by militants seeking land to build what would become the state of Israel. Ayman Rashed, an internally displaced Palestinian from Gaza City, was sheltering inside the school during the airstrike. He told reporters that he assisted in removing five dead people from the school, including an old man and two children. "It was dark, with no electricity, and we struggled to get out the victims," he said. Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said the military was unaware of any civilian casualties, adding that it attempted "to reduce the risk of harming uninvolved civilians ... including conducting aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence information. Ukrainian missile strikes on rail crossings in Crimean last month caused "significant temporary disruption" to Russian forces on the peninsula, the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense concluded in an intelligence update on Thursday. The ministry said the May 29 attack on the two rail ferries on the Crimean side of the Kerch Strait crossing knocked them out of operation. "These rail ferries almost certainly provided the primary means of rail transportation for Russian fuel and ammunition train loads to Crimea due to stringent security measures employed on the Kerch Bridge," Defense Intelligence said on X. The assessment said Moscow will "almost certainly" be forced to replace the ferry service, "likely impacting its wider maritime logistics operations, or risk relaxing its procedures by using the rail bridge to transit fuel and explosive stores." "The Ukrainian strike on the ferry crossings and a subsequent attack on a nearby fuel depot, highlights again the vulnerability of the Strait to Ukrainian interdiction, despite Russia's significant investment in security and air defense," the statement said. Ukrainian forces have been stepping up attacks against Russia after getting the nod from the Biden administration to go after military targets inside the country using U.S.-made weapons. Ukraine fired dozens of precision-guided arms at Russian troop placements, artillery systems and the bridge, using M42 missiles that are fired by track-mounted M270 rocket launcher and the wheel-mounted HIMARS rocket launcher. President Vladimir Putin warned that Russia may supply long-range weapons to enemies of the West in retaliation for the United States and its NATO allies sending arms to Ukraine, according to reports. The Russian leader, speaking to international journalists in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, suggested he would arm the West's adversaries around the globe with the same advanced weapons the West is providing Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia. "We are thinking that if someone thinks it is possible to supply such weapons to a war zone in order to strike at our territory and create problems for us, then why do we not have the right to supply our weapons of the same class to those regions of the world where there will be strikes on sensitive facilities of those countries that are doing this to Russia?" Putin said, Reuters reported. "So the response could be symmetrical. We will think about this," he said. The Kremlin on Thursday reinforced Putin's comments. "They need to reckon with us and our position. We won't compromise our interests," Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Asked which countries Russia might supply, Peskov wouldn't elaborate. "It's a very important statement that is very transparent that the supply of weapons that will be fired at us cannot go without consequences, and those consequences are certain to come," he said. Putin's threat comes as many European leaders gathered in France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. President Joe Biden speaking at the ceremony pledged that the West "will not walk away" from defending Ukraine. "To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators, is simply unthinkable," Biden said, the Associated Press reported. "If we were to do that, it means we'd be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is also attending the ceremonies in Normandy. Putin was not invited #mce_temp_url#to take part in the events by France because of Russia's "war of aggression" on Ukraine. A 23 year old social media user went viral after attempting to define words used by the even younger generation, "gen alpha." Gen Z content creator Haley Jo Klein, who boasts over 300,000 followers on TikTok, has compiled a list of slang terms popularized by Gen Alpha (those born after 2010) that are perplexing even to members of the preceding Gen Z cohort. In a recent TikTok video, Klein attempts to decode these emerging phrases, underscoring the rapid evolution of language and how easy it is to feel "not with the times" in these generational gaps. The first term that Klein highlights in the video is "bop," which, contrary to its Gen Z usage as a descriptor for an enjoyable song, has taken on a derogatory connotation among Gen Alphas when referring to girls. The second word, "riz," is reportedly used to denote charisma or personal appeal. Perhaps the most puzzling entry on Klein's list is the term "Ohio," which, according to her understanding, has become synonymous with being a "loser" in the lexicon of the youngest generation. Klein acknowledges the seeming absurdity of the association, but maintains that she is merely reporting the usage as relayed by Gen Alphas. The last phrase Klein mentions, that resonates more clearly is "that's podium," which Klein equates to Gen Z expressions like "that's lit," "that's fire," or "that's gas" - all denoting enthusiasm or approval for something deemed exceptionally impressive or desirable. Klein's video serves as a lighthearted yet insightful commentary on the rapidly evolving nature of language, particularly among younger demographics. She invited her millennial followers to "stitch the video" and share the equivalent slang from their era, and encourages a cross-generational dialogue on the ever-changing linguistic landscape. A federal judge ordered former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon to report to prison on July 1 to begin serving a four-month sentence as he appeals a conviction for contempt of Congress. Judge Carl Nichols said Thursday that Bannon must self-surrender just days before the Republican National Convention gets underway in Milwaukee on July 15. The ruling comes after a Washington, D.C. court of appeals last month rejected his bid to overturn his conviction, the Hill reported. "The government's motion is granted," said Nichols, who was appointed to the bench by then-President Donald Trump. Bannon was found guilty of contempt of Congress in 2022 for failing to testify and provide documents to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6. 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The Justice Department, after the appeals court ruling, moved to have Bannon immediately jailed, saying there was no longer a "substantial question of law that is likely to result in a reversal or an order for a new trial." In court filings, Bannon's lawyers claimed Nichols didn't have the authority to imprison him before the full appeals process played out, including if the case was taken up by the Supreme Court. "There is no basis for considering the removal of the stay of the sentence pending appeal until the appeals process has fully run its course," Bannon's lawyers said, CNN reported. Outside of court, Bannon lashed out at the Justice Department. "They're not going to shut up Trump. They're not going to shut up (Peter) Navarro. They're not going to shut up Bannon. And they're certainly not going to shut up MAGA." Police in Louisiana arrested a 30-year-old mother after her six-week-old infant died from fentanyl exposure. Meghan Cortez of Houma was being held by the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's Office on a $500,000 bond after her arrest on Monday. Authorities say they were called to a home in February after receiving reports of an unresponsive child. The infant was immediately rushed to a local hospital, where they were later pronounced dead. Following an investigation, detectives determined that the mother had been using heroin just hours before the incident, according to WWL-TV. In April, the Jefferson Parish Coroner classified the infant's death as a homicide by fentanyl overdose. Regardless of how the narcotic entered the child's system, DEA experts reveal it doesn't take much of the substance to be deadly. "The New Orleans division, which consists of the entire state of Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, and Mississippi, we see fentanyl poisonings every single day," Special Agent of the New Orleans DEA Field Division, Steven Hofer, said. In recent years, local kids have allegedly fallen victim to the drug. Kenner Police reported the death of a one-year-old in 2023 after the coroner found a fatal dose of fentanyl in their system. In 2022, a two-year-old boy in Baton Rouge died after overdosing three times on fentanyl found inside his home. The Orleans Parish Coroner disclosed that of the 500 accidental drug-related deaths last year, nearly 86 percent were fentanyl-related. A defiant Steve Bannon warned that "they won't shut up MAGA" on Thursday after a federal judge ordered him to report to prison to serve out his four-month sentence for a contempt of Congress conviction. The former Trump White House adviser blasted the leadership of the Justice Department, including Attorney General Merrick Garland. "They're not going to shut up Trump. They're not going to shut up Navarro. They're not going to shut up Bannon. And they're certainly not going to shut up MAGA," Bannon said, referring to Peter Navarro, a Trump adviser currently serving his sentence on the same charge. "All of this is about one thing. This is about shutting down the MAGA movement, shutting down grassroots conservatives, shutting down President Trump,"he continued. "Not only are we winning, we are going to prevail in every number, and every poll shows that there's nothing that can shut me up and nothing that will shut me up. There's not a prison, there's not a prison, there's not a prison built. There's not a prison built or jail built that will ever shut me up," he said. Earlier Thursday, Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, ordered Bannon to report to prison July 1 to begin serving his four-month sentence after a Washington, D.C., court of appeals in May rejected his attempt to overturn his conviction. Bannon, who hosts the "War Room" podcast, was found guilty of contempt of Congress in 2022 for refusing to testify or turn over documents to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6., 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Gabby Petito's family is revealing her presence is never too far, as she's always with them and constantly sending signs. Her stepmother, Tara Petito, told People Magazine, "She sends us butterflies and rainbows." She'll send me signs, and I'll start texting them. As I'm texting them to Nichole, Nichole is getting the same signs." "It'll be at the same time," Gabby's mother, Nichole Schmidt, adds. Gabby Petito, 22, disappeared on a cross-country trip with her fiance Brian Laundrie in summer 2021, and her body was eventually found near a Wyoming campground. Laundrie, who later died by suicide, was discovered in a Florida nature preserve with a notebook "claiming responsibility" for Gabby's death. Gabby's parents turned their grief into a positive to help others in need. They found purpose and healing by using the publicity from their daughter's case to help prevent similar tragedies for other families, and along with their spouses, they created the Gabby Petito Foundation. The nonprofit focuses on raising awareness about domestic violence while advocating for tougher laws that govern how police respond to reports of intimate partner abuse and missing persons. "We have to prevent this from happening to other people," says Nichole. "It keeps us strong. Gabby works through us. We can't not do it. We have to move forward and change the world together." Gabby's father, Joe, a warehouse store chain manager who specializes in policy and legislation for the foundation, also added, "When you help one person, you help change the course of their life in a positive way, and you want to do that again." President Joe Biden said he would accept the jury's verdict in the federal trial of his son Hunter Biden and would not pardon him if he is convicted. The president, speaking with ABC News while in Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, was asked if he would accept the jury's verdict at his son's trial in Wilmington, Del., on gun charges. "Yes," he said, adding another "Yes" when asked if he would rule out a pardon. The White House has said since Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to the charges last year that the president would not pardon his son, who faces 17 years in prison if convicted. "I've been very clear; the president is not going to pardon his son," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters in December. Hunter Biden's federal trial began Monday. The first son, whose history with addiction and drug abuse has been well chronicled, is charged with lying about his drug use when he purchased a firearm in 2018. He also faces another trial on tax charges that is slated to begin in September in California. The president issued a statement on Monday saying he won't comment on the federal cases. "But as a Dad, I have boundless love for my son, confidence in him, and respect for his strength. Our family has been through a lot together, and Jill and I are going to continue to be there for Hunter and our family with our love and support," he said. The president, in the ABC News interview, also blasted his predecessor, Donald Trump, who has called his conviction last month in Manhattan criminal court of 34 charges of falsifying business records a "rigged" trail. Biden said Trump is trying to "undermine" the rule of law. "He got a fair trial. The jury spoke," he said. China calls for efforts toward effective European security architecture Xinhua) 10:56, June 07, 2024 UNITED NATIONS, June 6 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Thursday called for joint efforts toward a more effective European security architecture. The Ukraine crisis needs a political solution that addresses the security architecture of Europe. An early restoration of peace bears on the future of Europe. Nobody should have the illusion that they can force the other side to the negotiating table by gaining the upper hand on the battlefield. Such a mindset could only further escalate confrontation and prolong the war, said Fu Cong, China's permanent representative to the United Nations. In the current situation, the principle of indivisible security is of particular importance and should be championed and put into practice. The legitimate security concerns of all countries should be taken seriously and addressed in a balanced manner and joint efforts should be made to build a balanced, effective, and sustainable European security architecture, he told a UN Security Council informal meeting with the EU Political and Security Committee. "The world today is faced with major challenges and a grim security situation. To end conflicts, restore peace, and effectively address different kinds of threats and risks, we must tackle the root causes of conflicts, jointly pursue peace and stability, and make genuine efforts to uphold the spirit of multilateralism," he said. "In this context, the United Nations, as the core of the international system, must live up to its mission, and the EU, as an important force on the international stage, must shoulder its responsibilities." In Europe, there is a phrase called a Pyrrhic victory, meaning a victory achieved at so great a cost that negates any true sense of achievement. In China, there is a similar saying: "injure 1,000 enemy soldiers but lose 800 of your own." Many issues facing today's world, such as security, trade, and technology, may end up in such a lose-lose scenario if handled inappropriately, he warned. "That's why we need multilateralism, with the UN at the center, to help us find a proper solution. Countries don't have to engage in zero-sum competition. There is no need for a new Cold War. And the world is big enough for all countries to progress together," he said. Fu urged countries to come together under the banner of multilateralism and jointly safeguard the international system with the United Nations at its core, the global order underpinned by international law, and the basic norms of international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. It is only natural for countries to have different views on certain issues. However, this should not prevent countries from treating each other as partners. Rather, it is all the more imperative for countries to enhance mutual understanding through dialogue and jointly address global challenges, he said. China puts Europe high on its diplomatic agenda and views Europe as a key partner for cooperation. China has always attached great importance to its relations with the EU and hopes to see the EU strengthen its strategic autonomy, play a greater role in international affairs, and make greater contributions to world peace and security, said Fu. Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic ties between China and the EU. China stands ready to deepen cooperation with the EU in the United Nations and other multilateral fora, and together make unremitting efforts to safeguard world peace, promote common development, and improve global governance, he said. The EU Political and Security Committee is responsible for the bloc's common foreign and security policy and common security and defense policy. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Dils, the Italian-origin real estate group, has just announced the appointment of Pedro Lancastre as CEO to lead its operations in Portugal. This follows the recent acquisition of Castelhana, one of the country's leading real estate companies with over 600 projects managed and a total value exceeding 2.3 billion euros in the last decade. The move is part of Dils' internationalization strategy to become the independent, smart and innovative player in the European real estate market. Pedro Lancastre joins Dils, bringing his extensive experience in the real estate sector. Previously, he led JLL in Portugal, one of the largest real estate consultancies in the market, where he served as CEO and was responsible for the company's operations and business strategy. During his twelve-year tenure, Pedro Lancastre distinguished himself through his leadership and performance, successfully managing large real estate projects and contributing to the growth and innovation of the business. The group's strategy also includes attracting the best professionals in the country, as evidenced by Pedro Lancastre appointment. He will be supported by Dils' internal transformation team, which will be crucial in implementing the company's vision in Portugal, by combining local expertise with advanced skills and technologies. Prior to joining Rosewood, Stephanie led Sales and Marketing at The Carlton Tower Jumeirah and The Lowndes London where she achieved remarkable milestones in revenue growth and strategic partnerships. The opening and positioning of The Carlton Tower was a key success in the development of the Jumeirah brand in Europe. Stephanie has made significant contributions to esteemed establishments in the luxury hospitality sector, starting her career at The Ritz Paris where she played an integral role overseeing sales and marketing during the hotel's four-year renovation project. She later became Director of Sales and Marketing at Le Royal Monceau Raffles Paris, where she orchestrated a comprehensive commercial strategy and developed partnerships. Virtuoso , the leading global network specialising in luxury and experiential travel, has appointed Brigid McDonnell as its first ever General Manager, Middle East & Africa to spearhead efforts of the network's further expansion within the region. McDonnell is overseeing all operations in the market, including the implementation of a regional business plan, growing and managing a dedicated team, and operating as an on-the-ground reference for the Virtuoso network within the Middle East and Africa. Her appointment to this role was shared during Virtuoso's Symposium, a high-level business meeting with executives from the network's top agencies and preferred partners, which happened to take place this year in Dubai. McDonnell comes to Virtuoso with impressive experience in the tourism industry from all corners of the world. Most recently, she served as Trade Executive Director for the Saudi Tourism Authority, in which she led the organization's trade strategy for the American markets. She also held roles previously at Disney Destinations in Paris, EMI Meetings & Incentives in Rome and the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau in Honolulu. McDonnell studied at Southern Illinois University, earning a Bachelor of Science in Communications, as well as the renowned Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, where she participated in the Strategic Alliances and Managing Relationships Program. McDonnell, who now joins a strategic team of eight regional general managers, is based in Dubai and reports to Londregan. AENDRE Group, a real estate platform focused on the development and conceptualisation of lifestyle aparthotels, has launched with backing from newly formed private equity firm JuneX Capital Partners, and co-investor New End, to execute on its strategy of creating and scaling disruptive hospitality brands. As an interdisciplinary development studio, AENDRE has been established to convert office buildings and hotels in London and European gateway cities into lifestyle extended stay hotels. AENDRE is founded by Eric Jafari, previously Co-Founder and Chief Development Officer at Brookfield backed edyn, one of Europes largest aparthotel groups, and Chris Strong, previously edyns Head of UK & Ireland Acquisitions. Eric and his team were responsible, under Oaktrees stewardship, for repositioning the SACO portfolio, creating & launching the Locke brand, before selling the platform to Brookfield in 2018. Whilst under Brookfields ownership, Eric and his team scaled the platform fourfold across Europe between 2018 and 2023 through the acquisition and development of real estate opportunities across the UK and European gateway cities (France, Portugal, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland & Switzerland). Prior to this, Eric was Co-Founder and Managing Director to Union Hanover Securities where he oversaw a 400 million development portfolio. The team has recently made a number of high-profile hires, which will be announced imminently. We intend on taking our experience and learnings to capitalise on the current market conditions and launch AENDRE in response to evolving consumer needs that are not being met by existing brands. We were privileged to work on a number of developments and brands across multiple jurisdictions, experimenting and assessing various concepts, ideas and theses across a portfolio of over 25 projects. Consequently, we have identified a number of gaps in the market and intend on creating a series of new scalable hospitality brands and are privileged to have the backing from New End and JuneX Capital Partners to do so. Eric Jafari, Founder and Managing Director Just last year, STR provided statistics that by 2025 lifestyle hotels are expected to make up 23% of the hotel development pipeline, with a new generation looking for relaxed lifestyle experiences in favour of old-fashioned luxury resorts. Property analysts CoStar recently stated that more than 25% of office sales over the past year have been from developers looking to convert office buildings into hotels. Our mission is to transition carbon inefficient office buildings into green destination properties that foster communal belonging. We seek to create spaces that attract locals and travellers with an opportunity to experience a better way of life. Coincidentally, these office conversions uniquely lend themselves to lifestyle extended stay, due to their high-quality locations and relatively deep floor plates, which are challenging for traditional hotel layouts. Chris Strong, Co-Founder France and UK based JuneX Capital Partners, set up by Benjamin Vedrenne-Cloquet and Regis Micheli, has just launched a 100m evergreen fund to invest in entrepreneurs in Europe, while New End is a London based advisory firm active in the alternatives space, providing support to private capital GPs. This financial backing will enable AENDRE to execute on its strategy. We are delighted to be backing AENDRE. Our platform is designed for founders, and on meeting Eric Jafari and the AENDRE team, we felt this was a great opportunity to back a challenger in the sector, who has a strong track record and can apply this experience into something forward-thinking with green destination properties. JuneX Capital Partners New End added: We are excited to support AENDRE in its launch and see a strong future in this asset class. We are impressed by the teams strong experience in the sector and look forward to seeing how AENDRE develops. Kelsey Traynor Accor Greater China, together with Changzhou High-Speed Railway Town and Changzhou High-Tech Group Co., Ltd., has announced the signing of a multiple property hospitality project in the fast-growing community of Changzhou High Speed Rail New Town. Sofitel Changzhou will bring a French luxury experience, complemented by Novotel Changzhou and a Novotel Living Changzhou extended stay hotel. The deal comes as Accor is experiencing an ambitious period of growth across Greater China, having recently opened its 700th hotel, with more than 100 hotels set to open by year-end and 150+ development projects currently underway. Accor is a market leader in matching the right brand with the right destination, in line with our partners development objectives. Working with Changzhou High-Tech Group, we have the ideal opportunity to create an inspired mix of luxury, midscale and extended stay hotels that we believe will be ideally suited to the vibrant and booming community of Changzhou High Speed Rail New Town. Gary Rosen, CEO, Accor Greater China Changzhou High-speed Rail New Town at Xinbei in Jiangsu Province has become the one of the most important economic development zones of Changzhou and a strategic link to the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone. Renowned for its innovations in advancing sustainable technology, as well as being an international center of expertise for artificial intelligence manufacturing, Changzhou is also a host to the alternative energy sector, the automative industry, bio-tech medicine, new energy cluster industries, advanced machinery, and more. Accor is an obvious leader when it comes to offering a wide range of the worlds most renowned hospitality brands, such as Sofitel and Novotel, which we are excited to bring to the city of Changzhou. The addition of Novotel Living will add a modern and fresh spin on the hospitality experience, which is particularly important to the young business travelers who are increasingly traveling to Changzhou and wanting to connect with the local community. Ge Yafang, Secretary of the Party Committee, Chairman & General Manager of Changzhou High-Speed Railway Town and Changzhou High-Tech Group Co., Ltd. Sofitel, the worlds first international French luxury hospitality brand, has become Accor's global ambassador of the French zest. The brand holds strong appeal among Chinese travelers, who appreciate its exquisite hospitality experiences, refined sense of modern luxury and its ability to masterfully blend Chinese and French cultures in a beautiful and harmonious way. In 2024, Sofitel is celebrating its 60th anniversary, with joyful festivities and cultural events happening at hotels across Greater China and around the world. Sofitel Changzhou will be a shining tower in Star City, next to Changzhou North Station, ideally positioned amid a neighborhood of modern, ecologically minded businesses, high-end offices, and tech enterprises. The hotel will bring a luxurious sense of art de vivre to 310 guestrooms, a sumptuous spa and wellness center with pool, an executive lounge, stylish restaurants and bars, and meeting facilities that will include two elegant ballrooms, ideal for weddings and celebratory events. In nearby Changzhou International Talent Plaza, Accor will create Novotel Changzhou, a 324-guestroom tower, with a second 223-room tower for Novotel Living Changzhou. As one of the worldsbest known midscale brands, Novotel is renowned for its longstanding commitment to the concept of balance. This is expressed through its guest experiences, community actions, sustainable operations, and ethos of positive hospitality. With a new extended stay concept, Novotel Living, the brand invites travelers to feel at home with comfortable, apartment-style accommodations. The relaxed, longer-stay hospitality experience is on-trend with todays modern travelers and younger generations who enjoy mixing business with leisure and delving more deeply into their destinations and the local ways of life. About Accor, a world-leading hospitality group Accor is a world leading hospitality group offering experiences across more than 110 countries in 5,700 properties, 10,000 food & beverage venues, wellness facilities or flexible workspaces. The Group has one of the industry's most diverse hospitality ecosystems, encompassing more than 45 hotel brands from luxury to economy, as well as Lifestyle with Ennismore. Accor is committed to taking positive action in terms of business ethics & integrity, responsible tourism, sustainable development, community outreach, and diversity & inclusion. Founded in 1967, Accor SA is headquartered in France and publicly listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange (ISIN code: FR0000120404) and on the OTC Market (Ticker: ACCYY) in the United States. For more information visit group.accor.com or follow us on X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok. Travelodge, the UKs first budget hotel brand which operates over 600 hotels across the UK, Ireland and Spain, continues its Spanish expansion and has today announced the opening of five new Travelodge hotels; Alicante Puerto, Barcelona del Valles, Madrid Alcala de Henares, Malaga Aeropuerto and Murcia, totalling 635 rooms. The hotels opened for business under the Travelodge brand on 31st May, following the recent acquisition from Louvre Group. The addition of these hotels to Travelodges existing strongly performing Spanish portfolio of six hotels offers guests further choice, ensuring that good quality and value accommodation is more accessible for both business and leisure travellers across the country. Last year, Travelodge announced its strategic expansion programme in Spain, as part of the groups overall development strategy. This expansion programme reflects the key findings from comprehensive research, including a study of the Spanish hotel market that the group commissioned from Christie & Co. Research showed that Spain is one of the most visited countries in the world and one of the fastest growing hotel markets across the globe, but there is a significant gap for branded, low cost and good quality accommodation in the midscale and economy segment. This growing segment points favourably towards modern travellers who are looking for affordable accommodation options. At present, the Spanish hotel market is dominated by independent hotel owners, franchise and management agreement operators and shorter leasehold operators. However, the research has shown that investors are increasingly looking for stable long term income streams in support of Spains growing tourism industry. This fits well with Travelodges traditional long term fixed lease model, as used in the UK. The group has nearly four decades of expertise in operating budget hotels, a strong brand, and a proven successful long term lease model in place. Therefore, it can also offer investors and landlords an alternative long term income stream in Spain as well as acquiring freeholds. To help capitalise on this Spanish growth opportunity, Travelodge has identified 20 initial target locations areas that currently have a shortage of good quality, economy branded accommodation. Target locations include: Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Alicante, Bilbao, Cadiz, Malaga, Palma Mallorca, San Sebastian, Seville, Benidorm, Cordoba, Gerona, Granada, Las Palmas De Gran Canaria, Santiago de Compostela, Santander, Tarragona, Valladolid and Zaragoza. We are delighted to expand our offering across Spain by opening these new hotels, including our first hotels in Alicante, Murcia and Malaga, as well as adding to our existing estate in Madrid and Barcelona. Each location is carefully selected to suit the needs of the modern business and leisure traveller and we look forward to welcoming our guests at these fantastic new additions to our growing hotel portfolio. The Spanish hotel market is growing at pace and we want to take this opportunity to take the Travelodge brand to new business and leisure locations across Spain. There are significant ongoing opportunities for our business, with the potential to offer good value and quality accommodation in many more locations across the country. We look forward to working with our new colleagues, and growing our hotel network, providing further choice and great value to business and leisure travellers across Spain. Steve Bennett, Chief Property and Development Officer, Travelodge Travelodge already operates a successful leased hotel model in Spain and has been trading in the country for 20 years. The company opened its first hotel in Madrid (Torrelaguna) in 2004, which was followed by Barcelona Fira (2006), Valencia Airport (2011), Barcelona Poblenou and Madrid Metropolitano, formerly Madrid Alcala (both 2013). Last year, Travelodge opened Madrid Coslada Aeropuerto, its first opening in Spain in 10 years. The Travelodge management team in Spain is led by Angel Beleno, who joined Travelodge in 2013 as Director of Operations and then was appointed General Director for Spain in 2014. Angel has been working in the hotel sector for more than 20 years. Before joining Travelodge, Angel worked for Melia Hotels International and Barcelo Hotels & Resorts in Spain and Mexico. About Travelodge Founded in 1985, Travelodge is Britain's very first budget hotel chain and today is one of the largest budget hotel chains in the UK, with a portfolio of over 600 hotels and over 46,000 bedrooms across the UK, Ireland and Spain. In Spain, Travelodge has an established profitable presence and as of April 2024, its portfolio doubled to 12 hotels, having recently acquired a further six properties. Travelodge has ambitious growth plans within this market and has identified the top 20 key locations where it would like to open additional hotels in Spain. Welcoming over 22 million guests annually across the UK, Ireland and Spain, the majority of Travelodge hotels are located in major cities, towns and holiday hotspots as well as by airports and key business hubs. With 90% of its hotels rated 4* or above on TripAdvisor, Travelodge is proud to offer guests across its diverse customer base a good value experience whether they are travelling for business or leisure. In 2023, approximately 50% of rooms were sold for less than 60. Whether out celebrating a birthday, going to a concert or sporting event, visiting friends and family, taking a business trip, working away from home, or taking a short break, we help people to go and do their thing by Being the Brilliant Base. Travelodge continues to invest in its ongoing hotel refit programme which is expected to see 50% of the Travelodge room estate upgraded to its new design by the end of 2024. The brand is also continually evolving its quality offering to deliver a better experience for its diverse mix of business and leisure guests such as its new look Bar Cafe design, 85 Bar Cafe, which has been rolled out to selected UK hotels as part of the refit programme. Travelodge is focussing on its environmental and social impact, with sustainability integral to its business strategy. It's Better Future sustainability plan aims to build a more sustainable future for its customers, colleagues and the planet, and it is underpinned by three core pillars: Inclusive ensuring we are accessible, inclusive and well-priced to our customers and colleagues; Caring creating a caring and healthy environment for our colleagues and customers and ensuring their wellbeing; and Conscious Travelodge is conscious of its impact on the planet, taking into account the waste it produces, the energy and other resources it consumes and the carbon emissions it generates. For further information visit travelodge.co.uk or the Travelodge Hotels Limited LinkedIn page. The Travelodge Press Office +44 1844 35 8703 Travelodge Tune in for a dynamic conversation with Hala Matar Choufany, President of HVS Middle East and Africa led by Rosanna Chopra, Executive Director, Red Sea Global as they discuss the transformative growth of tourism in Saudi Arabia. This discussion explores the influential role of women in driving Vision 2030 and the broader dynamics shaping the industry, such as the integration of cultural authenticity and the expansion of luxury tourism. Learn about the challenges and opportunities within the sector, the impact of societal shifts on the industry, and how Saudi Arabia is leveraging these changes to foster a sustainable and inclusive tourism landscape. This dialogue highlights the balance between empowering female leadership and fostering overall industry growth, showcasing Saudi's commitment to becoming a global tourism leader. Listen to the talk here: Hala Matar Choufany President for HVS Middle East, Africa & South Asia and Managing Partner of HVS Dubai HVS View source Wait! Before you go Please sign up for our Evening Digest and Breaking Newsletters Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. ADVERTISE Hypebot & MusicThinkTank With the internet and digital technologies driving rapid change within the music industry, articles about new releases and who has been hired and fired are no longer enough. Our up to the minute industry news alongside insightful commentary helps our readers sift through the rumors and developments to find the information they need to keep their businesses moving forward. Hypebot is read daily by more than 30,000 music industry professionals including executives and senior staff of music related tech firms, internet based music sites, every major label group and most indies as well as many managers, artists and members of the live music community: Contact us for the latesst stats, ad rates and sponosorship opportunites. We also offer combined rates with MusicThinkTank. Friday 7 June 2024, 12:16 - Last updated: 8 June, 12:40 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED This article is automatically translated Can more than one candidate be voted for, or just a list? And how does it work for those who also have to vote in the administrative elections? Today in Italy it is election eve, and the Beautiful Country is preparing for an important moment of democratic participation. In this election round, in fact, Italians are called to vote for the European elections, for the administrative in over 3,700 municipalities, and, limited to Piedmont, also for the regional elections. When do the polling stations open? The first day, namely (Saturday, June 8), the polls will be open from 3 pm to 11 pm, while on Sunday it will be possible to go to the polling stations from 7 am until 11 pm. How to vote in the European elections All member countries must use a proportional electoral system. This means that the allocation of seats takes place in a way that ensures the various lists a number of seats proportional to the votes received. Italy uses the preference vote, which gives voters the possibility to indicate, within the same list, from one to three preferences, voting, in the case of two or three preferences, for candidates of different genders. For the election of Italian members to the European Parliament, the lists must have obtained at least 4% of the valid votes expressed at the national level. The Ballots In these electoral consultations, Italy has been divided into five constituencies to which different colored ballots for voting will correspond. Gray, for the electoral constituency I - Northwestern Italy (Piedmont, Aosta Valley, Liguria, Lombardy). Brown, for the electoral constituency II, which includes Northeastern Italy (Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Emilia Romagna); Ruby red, for the electoral constituency III - Central Italy (Tuscany, Umbria, Marche, Lazio); Orange, for the electoral constituency IV - Southern Italy (Abruzzo, Molise, Campania, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria). Finally, pink, for the electoral constituency V - Insular Italy (Sicily, Sardinia). How are MEPs elected? Since the first direct elections in 1979, the European elections take place every five years. The Members of the European Parliament from this year will be 720 and the EU treaties establish the allocation of seats per country. Each Member State has a fixed number of Members of the European Parliament, from six for the smaller Member States such as Malta, Luxembourg, and Cyprus to ninety-six for Germany, the largest Member State. Italy will elect 76. How to vote in the administrative elections The method changes based on the number of inhabitants of the individual Municipalities. In those with more than 15,000 inhabitants, there are three different options on how to fill in the electoral ballot. You can draw a mark on the symbol of a list: in this way, the preference will go both to the list and to the connected mayoral candidate. You can also put a mark on the name of the mayoral candidate, voting in this case only for him/her. Finally, split voting is possible, that is, voting for a mayoral candidate and for a list not connected to him. Next to the symbol of the list, you can also indicate one or two preferences, in case they are two they must concern candidates of different genders otherwise the second is canceled. Municipalities with a number of inhabitants less than 15,000 vote with a majority system in a single round, split voting is not allowed and the one who obtains the most preferences wins. You can express one or two preferences of the list connected to the Mayoral candidate, but in the case of two, gender parity must be respected, otherwise the second is canceled. How to vote in the regional elections Also for the regionals in Piedmont, you can vote in three different ways. It is possible to vote only for the candidate for the presidency of the Region. In this case, the vote will not be extended to the list or lists connected to the name. If you decide to express a preference only for the list, the vote also extends to the candidate it represents. You can also vote both for the list and for a connected presidential candidate or for a list and for a candidate who is not connected. There is the possibility of expressing up to two preferences. In this case, next to the chosen list, in the appropriate lines, you must write the surname (or the name and surname) of the regional councilor candidates who belong to the same list: the expression of two preferences for candidates of the same sex results in the cancellation of the second preference. Sign up to Roisin OConnors free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Get our Now Hear This email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Taylor Swift fans are at risk of being ripped off by opportunists amid the frenzy over the pop stars UK leg of her Eras tour. The Reputation artist has landed in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she will be performing three shows at Murrayfield Stadium before further gigs in cities including Cardiff, Liverpool, and London. Ahead of her first performance on Friday (7 June), and as eager fans camped outside the stadium in the hopes of securing the best spot on the venue floor, tickets were being sold on secondary ticketing site Viagogo for as much as 4,256 each. The tickets listed for the eye-watering sum claimed to offer a clear view of the show, despite being for the floor zone, which does not guarantee a place near the stage. Elsewhere on Viagogo, a pair of seated tickets were being flogged for 1,198 each, while a pair in the East5 section were listed at 1, 182 apiece. A Viagogo spokesperson told The Independent: Viagogo doesnt sell tickets or set prices. Sellers set the price of their listings and fans ultimately choose the listing that meets their budget. This is a reflection of supply and demand. The tickets you still see listed on the platform at extremely high prices, by default, have not sold and rarely ever will. In July last year, Swifties were left fuming after tickets to her record-breaking Eras Tour were sold only to reappear on secondary ticketing websites within minutes. open image in gallery Taylor Swift fans are at risk of being ripped off by opportunists ( Getty ) Sites selling tickets crashed, with nearly 40,000 people joining the online queue for when the presale for the US pop stars London and Edinburgh shows began. Enjoy unlimited access to 100 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 4 month free trial (3 months for non-Prime members) Sign up Enjoy unlimited access to 100 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 4 month free trial (3 months for non-Prime members) Sign up Early access was granted to fans who had pre-ordered Swifts 2022 album Midnights. At the time, tickets for for Londons Wembley Stadium show were on sale for as much as 3,352. The original sale price for a standing ticket in the front row was 172.25. Some fans blamed Ticketmaster over apparent glitches while they were in the online queue. I was first in the queue for Taylor Swift tickets and Ticketmaster kicked me out of the queue for literally no reason, one fan tweeted in July. There goes my chance at tickets. open image in gallery Swifties pose with their Taylor merch outside Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh (6 June) ( Getty Images ) Scottish National Party MP Gavin Newlands said he had experienced the same issue on Ticketmaster while trying to secure tickets for his daughter. Just as I got in, you kicked me out with an error, he wrote. Now back in queue at 18,000 odd, with no chance of a ticket. Super. Ticketmaster did not reply to The Independents request for comment at the time of writing. In April, Lloyds Bank issued a warning to fans as it said that more than 600 of its UK customers had reported being scammed while trying to buy Swift tickets. The figures from Lloyds Bank were based on analysis of relevant purchase scams reported by customers at Lloyds Bank, Halifax, and the Bank of Scotland, where Swift and/or the Eras Tour were referenced as part of the claim, between July 2023 and March 2024. On average, each victim lost around 332, though Lloyds said that in some cases customers were fleeced of more than 1,000. open image in gallery Fans were at risk of being scammed amid the unprecedented demand to see Taylor Swift live ( Getty ) Lloyds said that there are usually two waves of fraud: the first when tickets go on sale, and the second closer to when the event is taking place. Liz Ziegler, fraud prevention director at Lloyds Bank, said: For her legion of dedicated Swifties, the excitement is building ahead of Taylors Eras Tour finally touching down in the UK this summer. However cruel fraudsters have wasted no time in targeting her most loyal fans as they rush to pick up tickets for her must-see concerts. Its easy to let our emotions get the better of us when we find out our favourite artist is going to be performing live, but its important not to let those feelings cloud our judgment when trying to get hold of tickets. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Author Holly Smale has hit back at criticism of the Netflix adaptation of her book, Geek Girl. The popular YA book series, published in 2015, has been turned into a 10-part series, starring House of the Dragon actor Emily Carey as 16-year-old self-declared geek Harriet Manners, who gets bullied at school until a modelling agency scouts her during a field trip to London Fashion Week. While the show has been met with praise from critics, it has faced criticism over the authenticity of its portrayal of autism through Careys character Harriet. Smale defended the show on X/Twitter, arguing that it is authentic, since she, and the lead actor Carey, are both austistic. Its based on books written by me (autistic), about me as a teen (autistic), Smale wrote. I wrote all of Harriet for the show (still autistic) and the lead actor is autistic. The author continued: I think people are so used to seeing inauthentic representation they dont recognise it when its in front of them. And, honestly, I dont really blame them. Geek Girl isnt the first YA Netflix series to include autistic representation. The Australian teen series Heartbreak High sees actor Chloe Hayden, Australias first autistic actress in a mainstream series, portraying year 11 student Quinni, who is autistic. open image in gallery Emily Carey in Geek Girl' ( Netflix ) When it comes toGeek Girl, Harriets character is not described as autistic or neurodivergent in the series, but her enthusiasm for subjects, wearing of headphones in the classroom and her internal dialogue presented through voiceover while in busy or loud environments, are clearly designed to allude to the likelihood of a possible diagnosis, without explicitly stating it. Other moments include when Harriet notices conflict in her relationship with her best friend Nat, and asks her: Are we arguing right now? It marks a difference from other YA series inclusion of autistic characters. In Heartbreak High, there is a scene where Quinni is forced to explain her autism to her friends, who are left confused when she has a non-verbal period. open image in gallery Geek Girl author Holly Smale next to lead actor Carey at the series premiere ( Getty Images ) In a four-star review of Geek Girl,The Guardians Lucy Mangan questioned whether explicitly stating that Careys character is autistic would have communicated a different message. The question of whether she will or should be given the diagnosis is an interesting one does it shut down conversation or open one up? Do you champion visibility or avoid labels and circumscription? When does eccentricity become a medical matter? Such questions run underneath the fun, but are probably better wrestled with after the credits roll. Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days New subscribers only. 8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled Try for free Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days New subscribers only. 8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled Try for free The Geek Girl books series was written before Smale was diagnosed with autism and dyspraxia a few years ago, at the age of 39, but she has retroactively described Harriet as having both conditions as well. Smale has received praise from viewers, who say the subtle nods to Harriets autism normalise it, rather than making it a trope in the series. open image in gallery Careys character being chosen by model agent Wilbur ( Netflix ) It feels very authentic because the focus is not what makes Harriet autistic but its what makes Harriet, Harriet, said one viewer. In that sense, its all authentic and natural, and not something set aside from who she is. Another added: I think the great thing about your books (not started the TV series yet) is that you wrote them not knowing and so not being influenced by how it should or shouldnt come across. Smale responded: Exactly. I was focused on telling the truth about how it felt, so its the opposite of a trope. open image in gallery Emily Carey acting alongside Tim Woodrum, who plays heartthrob model Nick Park in series ( Netflix ) Another viewer praised Smale for not using the label: As an autistic person, I loved this show. I relate to Harriets behaviours, though I am nowhere near being a supermodel. Once you recognise the autistic traits, its blindingly obvious. Smale replied, saying that she wanted to keep the show as close to the books as much as possible, since she wrote them while undiagnosed. Being undiagnosed as a girl is a whole thing in and of itself and true for the majority of autistic girls, she concluded. Geek Girl is now streaming on Netflix. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Two British judges have quit Hong Kongs top court amid a pro-China crackdown on dissent in the city. Lord Jonathan Sumption, 75, and Lord Lawrence Collins, 83, said they had resigned from the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal this week. It comes afterThe Independent reported that the judges were paid 40,000 with flights, accommodation and travel expenses, to sit on the court for up to a month at a time. Lord Sumption and Lord Collins were two of five British judges all of whom are retired from their British roles listed as overseas non-permanent judges for the Court of Final Appeal, who could be selected at any time to sit on cases. Lord Collins, who has served since 2011, cited the political situation in Hong Kong as his reason for stepping down from the court. Lord Sumption, who was appointed to the court in 2019, told The Independent he would make a statement next week about his resignation. open image in gallery The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal ( AP ) Lord Collins told The Independent: I have resigned from the Court of Final Appeal because of the political situation in Hong Kong, but I continue to have the fullest confidence in the court and the total independence of its members. British judges have sat on the court since 1997 on a non-permanent basis as part of an agreement when the city was handed back to China by the UK. The intention was to help preserve the rule of law, provide expertise to local lawyers and reassure businesses and financial markets. Human rights groups have criticised Western judges for continuing to serve on Hong Kongs top court, which still includes judges from the UK, Canada and Australia. More than 1,800 political prisoners have been detained in Hong Kong in a crackdown on dissent since mass pro-democracy protests in 2019. This has intensified since the passing of a national security law by the citys pro-Beijing legislature in 2020, although British judges cannot rule on national security cases. open image in gallery Pro-democracy protesters react as police fire water cannons outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong in 2019 ( AFP via Getty Images ) The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation has previously accused the Western judges of lending their prestige to a justice system that has been undermined and co-opted by Beijing. Last week, 14 pro-democracy activists were found guilty of charges of subversion under the national security law in a Hong Kong court, a decision which Amnesty International described as a near-total purge of the citys political opposition. In 2022, two of the UKs most senior current judges, Supreme Court justices Lord Robert Reed and Lord Patrick Hodge resigned from the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal on the basis that continuing to serve on it would appear to endorse Hong Kongs pro-Beijing administration. In a statement at the time, Lord Reed said on behalf of himself and Lord Hodge: I have concluded, in agreement with the government, that the judges of the Supreme Court cannot continue to sit in Hong Kong. It would appear to endorse an administration which has departed from values of political freedom, and freedom of expression, to which the justices of the Supreme Court are deeply committed. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Australias ambassador to the United States has sounded a warning over a potential Taiwan war, which he said would make the world "a radically different place". The impact of a war over Taiwan would be as great as the Second World War, Kevin Rudd said in a speech in Honolulu on Thursday. Taiwan has come to be the biggest bone of contention in the Asia-Pacific between China and the United States and its regional allies. Beijing maintains that the self-governed island is a part of China and has not ruled out the use of force to bring Taipei under its control. This position, known as the One China policy, is recognised or acknowledged by most countries, including the US, meaning they do not consider Taiwan a separate sovereign entity. China, as a result, is firmly opposed to Taiwan establishing diplomatic relations with foreign powers. It has stepped up military exercises around Taiwan in recent years and recently simulated an invasion of the strategic island. Chinese president Xi Jinping will likely seek to achieve "final national unification" with Taiwan over the next decade before turning 80, Mr Rudd, who has previously served as Australia's prime minister, said. "We would be foolish to ignore the increasing clarity of China's military signalling, including the pattern of its most recent military exercises. As time begins to run out from Chinas perspective, he said, we will begin to see a change in Chinese strategy toward the 'Taiwan problem. Beijing has adopted a multidimensional gray zone strategy in the past 18 months, Mr Rudd said. The strategy is aimed at applying new forms of pressure on Taiwanese and international public opinion to force Taipei to the negotiating table, he explained. Whether China actually acts will depend on its perception of the strength of the US deterrence, he said. The US has expressed concern about Chinese military activity near Taiwan, including after last months inauguration of president Lai Ching-te. China has repeatedly warned the US and its allies to not interfere in China's affairs with Taiwan, describing it as "playing with fire". The US has no formal diplomatic relationship with Taiwan as Washington acknowledges Beijings as the sole legal government of all of China but is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself and is the island's most important international backer. Washington is worried that Taiwans annexation by China would damage US credibility and have "profound, and potentially irreversible effect, on the perceived reliability of US alliances worldwide", Mr Rudd said. "The economic costs, domestic political impacts, and unknowable geostrategic consequences that such a war would generate would likely be of an order of magnitude that we have not seen since the Second World War," he said. "Whatever the outcome, the world is likely to become a radically different place after such a war than it was before." American defence secretary Lloyd Austin said earlier this month that a war with China was neither imminent nor unavoidable. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Narendra Modi was formally elected on Friday as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition, setting the stage for his third term as prime minister of India. While Mr Modis Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fell well short of the majority mark of 272 seats, winning only 240 seats in its own right, the NDA coalition together won 293 seats, some 61 ahead of the opposition INDIA alliance led by the Congress party. Mr Modi, 73, will be sworn in as prime minister on Sunday to begin a rare third term, making him only the second person, after Indias independence hero and first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, to win three consecutive elections. Though Mr Modis Hindu nationalist BJP has governed India as part of the NDA coalition over the past decade, this is the first time under his leadership that the party has relied on support from its smaller allies to form a government. Mr Modi tried to play down the significance of this development, which analysts say could have significant implications for his ability to pass major policies in the years to come. This alliance of ours reflects Indias spirit in its true sense, Mr Modi said after the BJP and coalition members backed him as their prime-ministerial candidate. We were neither defeated nor are we defeated ... It was an NDA government in the past, still is and will be. The presidential palace, or Rashtrapati Bhavan, is expected to host up to 8,000 people for his oath-taking ceremony at 6pm on Sunday. They will include prominent figures from different walks of life, including foreign heads of state, lawyers, doctors, artists, cultural performers and social media influencers. Official invitations have been extended to Nepals prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Bhutans King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, vice-president of Seychelles Ahmed Afif, and the prime minister of Mauritius, Pravind Jugnauth. A notable invitation has also been extended to Maldives president Mohamed Muizzu, who has reportedly accepted, meaning he is set to visit India for the first time since assuming office in November last year. It comes amid strained relations between the two nations Mr Muizzu won his election with an India out campaign, and has aligned his government more closely with China instead. Bangladeshs prime minister Sheikh Hasina and Sri Lankas president Ranil Wickremesinghe have also confirmed their attendance at the ceremony on Sunday. Other special guests will include labourers involved in the Central Vista redevelopment project and rat-hole miners who assisted in rescuing 41 trapped construction workers from a tunnel in Uttarakhand last year. Before Mr Modi was formally elected as the NDA leader, local media reported that the two key regional allies with the power to make or break his coalition government the Telugu Desam Party in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh and Janata Dal (United) in the eastern state of Bihar were still eyeing cabinet posts in important ministries. The state of those talks remains unclear, and Mr Modi wont reveal his cabinet until after his inauguration. But the leaders of the two parties reiterated their support for the alliance on Friday as they endorsed Mr Modi for his third term. I will be with PM Modi at all times, said Mr Kumar, whose Janata Dal (United) secured 12 seats in the election. It is a very good thing that all of us have come together, and we will all work together with you [Mr Modi]. You will be swearing in as the prime minister on Sunday, but I wanted you to do it today itself. Whenever you take the oath, we will be with you... We will all work together under your leadership, Mr Kumar said. Mr Naidu, whose Telugu Desam Party secured 16 seats in Andhra Pradesh, also extended his support for Mr Modi. He has a vision and a zeal, his execution is very perfect, said Mr Naidu. He is executing all his policies with a true spirit... Today, India is having the right leader that is Narendra Modi. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Narendra Modi was formally elected on Friday as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition, setting the stage for his third term as prime minister of India. While Mr Modis Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fell well short of the majority mark of 272 seats, winning only 240 seats in its own right, the NDA coalition together won 293 seats, some 61 ahead of the opposition INDIA alliance led by the Congress party. Mr Modi, 73, will be sworn in as prime minister on Sunday to begin a rare third term, making him only the second person, after Indias independence hero and first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, to win three consecutive elections. Though Mr Modis Hindu nationalist BJP has governed India as part of the NDA coalition over the past decade, this is the first time under his leadership that the party has relied on support from its smaller allies to form a government. Mr Modi tried to play down the significance of this development, which analysts say could have significant implications for his ability to pass major policies in the years to come. This alliance of ours reflects Indias spirit in its true sense, Mr Modi said after the BJP and coalition members backed him as their prime-ministerial candidate. We were neither defeated nor are we defeated ... It was an NDA government in the past, still is and will be. The presidential palace, or Rashtrapati Bhavan, is expected to host up to 8,000 people for his oath-taking ceremony at 6pm on Sunday. They will include prominent figures from different walks of life, including foreign heads of state, lawyers, doctors, artists, cultural performers and social media influencers. Official invitations have been extended to Nepals prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Bhutans King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, vice-president of Seychelles Ahmed Afif, and the prime minister of Mauritius, Pravind Jugnauth. A notable invitation has also been extended to Maldives president Mohamed Muizzu, who has reportedly accepted, meaning he is set to visit India for the first time since assuming office in November last year. It comes amid strained relations between the two nations Mr Muizzu won his election with an India out campaign, and has aligned his government more closely with China instead. Bangladeshs prime minister Sheikh Hasina and Sri Lankas president Ranil Wickremesinghe have also confirmed their attendance at the ceremony on Sunday. Other special guests will include labourers involved in the Central Vista redevelopment project and rat-hole miners who assisted in rescuing 41 trapped construction workers from a tunnel in Uttarakhand last year. Before Mr Modi was formally elected as the NDA leader, local media reported that the two key regional allies with the power to make or break his coalition government the Telugu Desam Party in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh and Janata Dal (United) in the eastern state of Bihar were still eyeing cabinet posts in important ministries. The state of those talks remains unclear, and Mr Modi wont reveal his cabinet until after his inauguration. But the leaders of the two parties reiterated their support for the alliance on Friday as they endorsed Mr Modi for his third term. I will be with PM Modi at all times, said Mr Kumar, whose Janata Dal (United) secured 12 seats in the election. It is a very good thing that all of us have come together, and we will all work together with you [Mr Modi]. You will be swearing in as the prime minister on Sunday, but I wanted you to do it today itself. Whenever you take the oath, we will be with you... We will all work together under your leadership, Mr Kumar said. Mr Naidu, whose Telugu Desam Party secured 16 seats in Andhra Pradesh, also extended his support for Mr Modi. He has a vision and a zeal, his execution is very perfect, said Mr Naidu. He is executing all his policies with a true spirit... Today, India is having the right leader that is Narendra Modi. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A message from Taiwans president congratulating Narendra Modi for winning a third term as Indias prime minister has sparked a diplomatic row between New Delhi and Beijing. Lai Ching-te joined a slew of world leaders, including Rishi Sunak of the UK and Joe Biden of the US, in wishing Mr Modi after an alliance led by his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party secured a narrow victory in Indias latest national election. My sincere congratulations to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his election victory," Mr Lai said on X. "We look forward to enhancing the fast-growing Taiwan-India partnership, expanding our collaboration on trade, technology & other sectors to contribute to peace & prosperity in the IndoPacific. Mr Modi responded by thanking the Taiwanese leader for his wishes. "I look forward to closer ties as we work towards mutually beneficial economic and technological partnership," he said. India and Taiwan do not have a formal diplomatic relationship but they have made several trade and labour deals over the years. China considers Taiwan a part of its territory and its position, called One China policy, is recognised or acknowledged by most countries, including India, meaning they dont consider Taipei a sovereign entity. Beijing therefore did not take kindly to Mr Modi's interaction with the Taiwanese leader. It "opposes all forms of official interactions between the Taiwan authorities and countries having diplomatic relations with China, foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said. Ms Mao added that there was no such thing as president of the Taiwan region. open image in gallery Activists of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party spray black paint on a poster depicting Chinese President Xi Jinping during a protest against China ( AFP via Getty ) Indias relations with China collapsed during Mr Modi's second term when soldiers of the rival Asian powers clashed in Galwan Valley in the disputed northern border region of Ladakh, leading to the death of 20 Indian soldiers, in 2020. Mr Modi's acknowledgment of the Taiwanese leaders message only aggravated the frosty relations. "India has diplomatic relations with China and knows China's position well. On the One China principle, India has made serious political commitments and is supposed to recognise, be alarmed about and resist the Taiwan authorities' political calculations," a Chinese embassy spokesperson in India said on Friday. Congratulating Mr Modi on his election victory, Ms Mao said a sound and stable relationship between India and China was in the interest of both countries and conducive to the peace and development of the region". In the 10 years of Mr Modis rule, India has sought closer relations with the US, which in turn has seen it as a counterweight to a rising China. China really is India's long-term strategic challenge, both on the border and in the Indian Ocean, Viraj Solanki from the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London told Associated Press. This has resulted in a number of defence partnerships by India shifting, or just focusing on countering China's growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region. The US, Taiwan's primary ally despite acknowledging the One China policy, dismissed Beijings criticism on Thursday. "I would say such congratulatory messages are the normal course of diplomatic business," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. Taiwan lambasted Beijing for using "political coercion and spreading fallacies" to influence global powers. It is not only an international practice for Taiwan and India to pay tribute to each other on the results of democratic elections, it also fully demonstrates the friendship between the two sides", the island's foreign ministry said. Other countries have no right to comment. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The Philippines has denounced Chinas barbaric and inhumane efforts to block a medical evacuation mission in the South China Sea last month. The Philippines coast guard alleged that despite informing the Chinese Coast Guard via radio and public address system about the humanitarian nature of our mission for medical evacuation they still engaged in dangerous manoeuvres and even intentionally rammed a vessel transporting the sick personnel. Philippine sailors eventually managed to evacuate the sick soldier to nearby Palawan, Commodore Jay Tarriela, a coast guard spokesperson, said. The incident occurred on 19 May near the contested Ayungin Shoal but the Philippines coast guard made videos of the altercation public on Friday. The barbaric and inhumane behaviour displayed by the China Coast Guard has no place in our society, Mr Tarriela said. What should have been a simple medical evacuation operation was subjected to harassment, with the excessive deployment of two China Coast Guard vessels, two small boats and two rubber boats. Their actions clearly demonstrated their intention to prevent the sick personnel from receiving the proper medical attention he urgently needed. The Philippines says that Ayungin lies within its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea but Beijing contests this claim. In 1999, the Philippines deliberately grounded a vessel named BRP Sierra Madre on the shoal, converting it into a military outpost. The sick soldier was stationed on Sierra Madre. Philippine missions to hotspots like Ayungin or the similarly contested Panatag Shoals have grown tense in recent years and are often marked by Chinese coast guard harassment. Manila last month summoned a Chinese envoy to protest the Chinese coast guards use of a water cannon that reportedly damaged a Filipino vessel in the disputed waters of the South China Sea. The countrys foreign ministry said it protested the harassment, ramming, swarming, shadowing and blocking of its vessel. open image in gallery A photo released by the Philippine coast guard shows a Chinese inflatable boat blocking a Philippine vessel on a medical evacuation in the South China Sea ( AFP ) China and the Philippines have previously said they would seek better communication and management of skirmishes in the vast South China Sea, but tensions have risen lately as the Philippines has forged stronger diplomatic and military ties with the United States. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has declared that a Filipino casualty in the disputed waters could trigger the activation of Manilas Mutual Defense Treaty with the US. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} A volcanic eruption on Mount Kanlaon in the Philippines has sent rivers of cold lava, or lahar, flowing through a village miles away from the summit on the Negros Island. Pictures and videos taken by the villagers and shared on social media showed a torrent of grey mud and rocks flowing down a watercourse in Biaknabato village in the Negros Occidental province. The eruption on Monday sent plumes of ash into the sky, leading to evacuation of Biaknabato and cancellation of dozens of flights. According to The Guardian, a six-minute earthquake caused by the eruption also led to suspension of work and schools in nearby Canlaon City. The citys mayor, Jose Chubasco Cardenas, urged people to move to designated evacuation centres, stay alert and collect essential supplies like water and food. The state volcanology agency raised the alert level for Mt Kanlaon from one to two, indicating the potential for more explosive eruptions. villagers wading through lahar from the eruption of Mount Kanlaon volcano at a village in the town of La Castellana ( EPA ) Authorities also warned of hazardous ash fall and sulfuric odour and noted that rivers downstream faced risks of flash floods, mudflows and other hazards. In footage shared by the BBC, people can be seen walking barefoot through thick sludge covering a road in a village several kilometres away from the volcano. The lahar on the streets is knee-deep, Stills Fernandez of the municipal disaster agency was quoted as saying by AFP. Cold lava is a cooled mixture of volcanic material and pebbles and can have smooth or rough texture. It flows like wet concrete and can travel far from the volcano, gathering debris and expanding in volume, experts said. We are still determining the extent and volume of the lahar, said Teresito Bacolcol, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. According to the US Geological Survey, cold lava can crush and bury objects in its path, making it potentially more destructive than conventional lava flows. This grab taken from a thermal camera on June 3 shows the Kanlaon volcano erupting in Canlaon City, Negros, Philippines ( AP ) The Philippines is situated along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a region known for frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity. Mt Kanlaon is one of the 24 active volcanoes in the archipelago nation. There are many dormant volcanoes as well. In 1991, the long-dormant Mount Pinatubo north of Manila witnessed one of the largest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people. Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet Get our free Climate email Get our free Climate email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The unprecedented heatwaves that scorched northern and central India in May were made 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter by the climate crisis, a new scientific assessment has found. In the last week of May, India experienced a spell of severe heatwaves, with 37 cities recording temperatures above 45C, prompting warnings of heatstroke. The capital Delhi saw a record temperature of 49.1C. The heatwaves led to hundreds of deaths, including one voter and several workers conducting the mammoth national election, which ended after six weeks on 1 June. The heatwaves were nearly 1.5C warmer than the hottest heatwaves the country had seen previously despite occurring later in the typical summer season, according to a report published by ClimaMeter, a research project funded by the European Union and the French National Centre for Scientific Research, or CNRS. The study found that the heatwaves were a largely unique event whose characteristics can mostly be ascribed to human driven climate change. This May was the hottest ever on record globally, completing an entire year of record-breaking extreme heat for the planet. An increase of 1.5C in average temperature has serious implications for public health in a country where summers are already scorching. Higher temperatures elevate the risk of heat exhaustion, heatstroke and other illnesses, especially among vulnerable populations such as the elderly, children and those with underlying conditions. The new study compared weather conditions in 20012023 to patterns in 19792001 to gauge the impact of the climate crisis. ClimaMeters findings underscore that heatwaves in India are reaching unbearable temperature thresholds because of fossil fuels burning, Davide Faranda of CNRS said. There are no technological solutions for adapting Indian metropoles for temperatures approaching 50C. We should all act now to reduce CO2 emissions and avoid exceeding vital temperature thresholds in large areas of the subtropics. In addition to health risks, this seasons heatwaves placed an immense burden on infrastructure. Delhis power demand, for one, soared to a record high as people turned to air conditioning, coolers and fans to beat the heat. Half of Indias population, however, works outdoors and activists said the death toll was significantly higher than reported. There have been over 200 deaths in the second half of summer, Sunil Kumar Aledia, an activist working with the homeless in Delhi, told The Independent. The government is yet to confirm any heatstroke deaths. Acute water shortage also became a pressing issue in Delhi, with authorities warning against wastage and imposing fines. Delhis water minister said 200 teams would crack down on people washing cars with hose pipes and letting tanks overflow. On Thursday, the Supreme Court of India ordered the northern state of Himachal Pradesh to supply water to Delhi. The agricultural sector also felt the brunt of the heatwaves. Higher temperatures negatively affect crop yields, reduce soil moisture and lead to drought conditions, potentially causing food shortages. Livestock are similarly vulnerable to heat stress, which can decrease productivity and increase mortality rates. Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Naomi Campbell has expressed concern about younger women being put off from having children due to economic factors. The 54-year-old British supermodel, who welcomed two children via surrogate birth in 2021 and 2023, has told young women that the financial commitment that comes with parenthood is worth it. In an interview withThe Times, Campbell shared her worries that Generation Z appear to have given up on having children due to the economic climate. I have heard a lot of young girls saying that it is too expensive to have children and they may not want them, and I have said, You will change your mind. You will want to be a mum, said Campbell. I understand economically it is tough. But my mum had nothing and she made it work. Its worth it. It is so amazing. The fertility rate in England and Wales had fallen to its lowest level since records began in 1939. The ONS recently reported that total fertility, calculated based on the birthrate across different age groups, fell to 1.49 children per woman in 2022. That figure is said to be well below the rate of 2.1 needed to maintain a steady population without significant immigration. Campbell has a three-year-old daughter and one-year-old son, who she is currently raising as a single parent. open image in gallery Campbell, 54, became a mother in 2021 ( Getty Images ) Asked whether she used surrogacy for their births, she replied: I did. I hope for a better world for my children. They are 110 per cent my priority. I have to be there for them on their first day at school. My babies are everything to me. Its made me fear for the future. While she did not outline her concerns about the future, she said she was glad that young people today are more literate and open about mental health compared to previous generations. Young people feel comfortable to come out and share that they have a problem. Before you were considered crazy or self-obsessed if you said, I am going to see a psychologist or psychiatrist or a shrink. That is ignorant; there is nothing wrong in that, bettering your quality of life. There is nothing wrong in going to rehab to recover. Campbell, who received therapy as well as attending rehab when she was younger, praised the benefits of being open about seeking professional mental health support. I had therapy back in the day but I feel like being in the recovery programme has been a good therapy for me. I never felt alone, she said. I have a great group and we all uplift each other doing conference calls. I can get on that call and trust who is on that call. Its got me through. Its all I need now. open image in gallery Campbells life and work will be depicted in a new exhibition ( Getty Images for Victoria's Secr ) Campbells life and work will be chronicled in a new exhibition at Londons Victoria and Albert Museum later this month. The exhibition will mark the first time the South Kensington museum has held an exhibition focusing on the career of a living fashion model. NAOMI: In Fashion will trace key moments in Campbells career and personal life by displaying 100 curated outfits from her personal wardrobe, comprised of ready-to-wear and haute couture ensembles. Speaking about the exhibition, the model said her favourite part of the installation is the display of the pair of blue Vivienne Westwood platform shoes worn when she famously tumbled on the catwalk in 1993. It felt great to show that you can fall over in public and get up and smile, she said. You cant take everything that seriously in life. You have to laugh. Everyone can fall down and get up. Its what we all have to do, numerous times. Even models. Its the same in life: you go up and down and keep going. Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy An emergency room doctor has the warned of the one way parents should avoid lifting their children. Dr J Mack Slaughter is known for his TikTok videos where he shares what hes witnessed as an ER doctor. One of his recent videos explained the possible consequences of lifting a child up by the wrist. Whats one way you should never pick up a child? his video started as he asked his viewers. The conversation quickly turned into an explanation of an injury known as nursemaids elbow. The term nursemaids elbow dates back to when nursemaids took care of children and were blamed for causing the injury by tugging on childrens arms, according to the Boston Childrens Hospital. The injury is also called a pulled elbow or radial head subluxation. The injury will occur when the radius part of the elbow joint slips out of place, leaving the elbow partially dislocated. Nursemaids elbow is only temporary and can be fixed through a reduction of the elbow to have the radius returned to its proper position. It is most common in toddlers between the ages of two and six and rare in children above that age due to how mature their ligaments are, according to the hospital. According to Slaughter, one way the injury can occur is when parents grab their kids by the wrist and just start swinging. He said children normally love this interaction until the head of the radial bone gets dislocated. The ER doctor even admitted that hes accidentally given his own child a nurses elbow before. Dont tell my wife, but I accidentally did this to our child one day, he told his viewers. My daughter was two at the time and started falling down the stairs. I pulled her up by the wrist, saving her from falling down the stairs but dislocating her elbow. The good news is that I popped it right back into place. Nursemaids elbow (aka radial head subluxation) affects over 20,000 children per year in the US with over 80 percent of those patients being between the ages of one and three, Slaughter further explained in his videos caption. His TikTok went on to receive over 20,000 views, with many people taking to the comments to reveal theyve accidentally given their own children nursemaids elbow, and how easy it is to cause the injury with simple actions like picking up their childs hand. My friend did this accidentally with my two year old. He felt so bad! Incredible ER staff though! one comment read. This happened once when I was holding my toddlers hand and they suddenly fell. Super scary but easy to fix once the ER staff told us how to! another story read. My son had nursemaids elbow, a third commenter wrote. It would pop out just reaching to take his hand sometimes. After a ton of ER visits, I learned to pop it back in myself. I did this to my daughter accidentally. I was terrified that they were gonna take me to jail when we went to the ER. Turns out they see it frequently, a fourth story read. Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Tig Notaros twin sons werent aware that their mothers were gay until recently. During a 4 June episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the 53-year-old Star Trek actor revealed how her 7-year-old twin sons Max and Finn finally found out that their parents were gay. After Colbert asked the actor how her Pride Month was going so far, Notaro regaled him with the hilarious story. At the time, Notaro and her wife Stephanie Allynne discovered that they hadnt made the connection until one morning when the family of four was driving to school together. Their school is six minutes away from our house, and at minute three we were in the front seat of the car talking about something gay, she recalled. Our son Finn leans forward and says, Youre gay? I was so stunned because weve lived together almost eight years, and Ive been gay the whole time even prior! she joked. So, I was like Yes! We are. I was so shocked. As they expected, Notaro noted that it wasnt an easy conversation, Were like three minutes now from the school, and I start explaining what gay is. And then while I was explaining it, I started getting insecure, thinking, what if he doesnt like this? But when she asked her sons one simple question, any worries she had went away. What do you think about what I just told you? she asked her sons, to which Finn replied: Oh I love my family. After the pair dropped their sons off at school, Notaro and Allyne began to speculate how their sons didnt know their mothers were gay. Notaro recounted, We drop them off at school and were like, bye! and we truly drove off going like half-a-mile-an-hour, like How on earth do our kids not know were gay? Because, dare I say, were also an iconic gay couple. She added, I realized that even though theres pictures of our wedding day and they know they have two moms, that doesnt mean they know what gay is. This isnt the first time Notaros sons have caught her off guard, with the comedian admitting on Live with Kelly and Mark, that the first time her sons watched one of her standup shows, they heckled her. They heckled me. They werent meaning to heckle me. They were fact-checking, Notaro joked to hosts and longtime couple, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos. They didnt think I was telling the truth. And so my son Max was just sitting there and he said, Yeah right! The hosts laughed, and Notaro pointed out that the audience did the exact same thing. And thats what the audience did! And he was like, Thats not true, Notaro shared. And I started laughing and I was like, Im sorry, my kids are here and theyve never seen me do stand-up. That was recent! Notaro and Allyne tied the knot in October 2015 in Notaros hometown, Pass Christian, Mississippi, with a star-studded guest list including Sarah Silverman, Alicia Silverstone, Lake Bell, and more. They welcomed their twin boys via a surrogate on June 26, 2016. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} A jury reached a verdict Friday in the case against seven Minnesota residents accused in a scheme to steal more than $40 million that was supposed to feed children during the pandemic. The case has received widespread attention after someone tried to bribe a juror with a bag of $120,000 in cash. U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel dismissed that juror before deliberations began, as well as another juror who was told about the bribe attempt. An FBI investigation of the attempted bribe continues, with no arrests announced. Defense attorneys argued that the defendants provided real meals to real people. Jurors, prosecutors and defendants gathered in court to hear the verdicts read before Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, who was standing in for Brasel because she was traveling on Friday. The seven defendants are the first of 70 to stand trial in what federal prosecutors have called one of the nations largest COVID-19-related frauds, exploiting rules that were kept lax so that the economy wouldnt crash during the pandemic. More than $250 million in federal funds was taken in the Minnesota scheme overall, with only about $50 million of it recovered, authorities said. An Associated Press analysis published last June documented how thieves across the country plundered billions in federal COVID-19 relief dollars. Fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion, while another $123 billion was wasted or misspent. Combined, the loss represented 10% of the $4.3 trillion the government disbursed by last fall. Nearly 3,200 defendants have been charged and about $1.4 billion in stolen pandemic aid has been seized, according to the U.S. Justice Department. The Minnesota case drew attention after the judge and attorneys for both sides learned about the bribe attempt. The judge ordered all seven defendants to surrender their cellphones so that investigators could look for evidence. She also ordered all seven taken into custody, and sequestered the jury. According to an FBI agents affidavit, a woman rang the doorbell at the home of Juror #52 in the Minneapolis suburb of Spring Lake Park the night before the case went to the jury. The juror wasnt home, but a relative answered the door. The woman handed the relative a gift bag with a curly ribbon and images of flowers and butterflies and said it was a present for the juror. The woman told the relative to tell Juror #52 to say not guilty tomorrow and there would be more of that present tomorrow, the agent wrote. After the woman left, the relative looked in the gift bag and saw it contained a substantial amount of cash. The juror called police right after she got home and gave them the bag, which held stacks of $100, $50 and $20 bills totaling around $120,000. The woman who left the bag knew the jurors first name, the agent said. Names of the jurors have not been made public, but the list of people with access to it included prosecutors, defense lawyers and the seven defendants. It is highly likely that someone with access to the jurors personal information was conspiring with, at a minimum, the woman who delivered the $120,000 bribe, the FBI agent wrote, noting that the alleged fraud conspiracy at the heart of the trial involved electronic communications, including text messages and emails. Federal charges of bribery of a juror and influencing a juror carry a maximum potential penalty of 15 years in prison. The food aid came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and was administered by the state, which funneled the meal money through nonprofit organizations and other partners. As rules were eased to speed support to the needy, the defendants allegedly produced invoices for meals never served, ran shell companies, laundered money, indulged in passport fraud and accepted kickbacks. Federal prosecutors said just a fraction of the money the defendants received through the Feeding our Future nonprofit went to feed low-income kids, while the rest was spent on luxury cars, jewelry, travel and property. The seven collectively stole more than $40 million, they said. These seven defendants are: Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Mohamed Jama Ismail, Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, Said Shafii Farah, Abdiwahab Maalim Aftin, Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff and Hayat Mohamed Nur. All were charged with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering, and some faced additional charges in the 43-count indictment. Each had their own lawyers. The common thread in their defenses was that investigators failed to dig deep enough to see they served real meals to real kids. Eighteen other defendants pleaded guilty. Among those awaiting trial is Aimee Bock, the founder of Feeding our Future. She has maintained her innocence, saying she never stole and saw no evidence of fraud among her subcontractors. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} A teenager who was convicted of fatally shooting four students at his high school in Michigan is appealing his life sentence, his attorneys announced Friday. Officials with the state Appellate Defender Office said in a statement that they have filed a request for Ethan Crumbley to be resentenced. Crumbley, now 18, pleaded guilty to 24 charges, including one count of terrorism and four counts of first-degree murder, and was sentenced in December to life without parole. He was 15 at the time of the shooting. His lawyers said new evidence shows seven witnesses could have testified about Ethans troubled childhood, his mothers alcohol abuse during her pregnancy, and the potential impact of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder on Ethan, including how it could have stunted his maturation. They said the evidence also raises questions about whether Ethan knew what he was doing when he pleaded guilty to the 2021 shooting at Oxford High School, and stressed that children can change. A life without parole sentence for a child is unconscionable, the office said. The Oakland County Prosecutors Office did not immediately respond to a message Friday seeking comment on the appeal. Judge Kwame Rowe said during sentencing that the shooting was well-planned and Crumbley had plenty of time to stop as he walked through the school. The judge said he was especially troubled by how one victim was repeatedly shot and another was forced to watch as he shot a student at point-blank range. The teen's parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were convicted of manslaughter earlier this year after prosecutors accused them of allowing Ethan to access a gun, ignoring his mental health problems and declining to take him home when confronted with his violent drawings at school on the day of the attack. They were the first U.S. parents to be convicted in a mass school shooting committed by their child. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} An author in Samoa has been charged with murdering another prominent Samoan writer, who was also the aunt of former U.S. congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, authorities in the South Pacific island nation said. Papalii Sia Figiel, 57, is accused of killing Caroline Sinavaiana-Gabbard 78, after an argument last month, officials told The Associated Press. Both women were prominent figures in the Pacific literary community, and Sinavaiana-Gabbards family is involved in U.S. politics. Figiel is in custody awaiting a court appearance next week. She has not entered a plea to the charge of murder. Figiel is not yet represented by a lawyer, police said, and could not be contacted for comment. Sinavaiana-Gabbard, a poet and environmentalist, in 2013 became the first person of Samoan ancestry to reach the rank of full professor at a U.S. university, according to the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she taught from 1997 until her retirement in 2016. She and Figiel, a poet and novelist, had been friends for 30 years, said Samoas deputy police commissioner Papalii Monalisa Tiai-Keti in written comments provided to AP. The women had argued on the day Sinavaiana-Gabbard was killed, Tiai-Keti said. Her body was found at Figiel's home in Samoa's capital, Apia, two days after Figiel reported the death to police officers, authorities said. She was accompanied by a family member who was the first person she confided to regarding the incident, said Tiai-Keti. Officials could not confirm a cause of death for Sinavaiana-Gabbard. A forensic pathologist was due to travel from Fiji to Apia, a city of 36,000 people on Samoas second-largest island, Upolu, to conduct an autopsy later this month. Tulsi Gabbard, a former U.S. congresswoman from Hawaii, wrote on Instagram that her aunt had often shared her poetry with me, and encouraged me to pursue my own writing" when Gabbard was a child and stayed at her aunt's cottage in Manoa. Sinavaiana-Gabbard's horrific death sent shockwaves through our family, wrote Gabbard, who renounced the Democratic party in 2022 and said during a public event this month that she would be honored to serve as Republican Donald Trump's running mate in the November presidential election. I was a rascal growing up, and thats an understatement. But she always stayed positive and always encouraged me to pray to God and ask for his mercy and his love, said the late writer's brother, Mike Gabbard, a Democratic state senator from Hawaii. He later followed in his sister's footsteps to attend Sonoma State University, Mike Gabbard told AP, and he credited her for his time as a teacher at a rural high school in American Samoa. She also inspired me to give back, that life wasnt always about just doing what made you happy, but also to consider serving others, you know, serving God and serving others, he said. Sinavaiana-Gabbard played an essential role in moving the Department of English toward a more robust engagement with the literatures of the Pacific, said Professor John David Zuern from the University of Hawaii in written comments to AP. Her outstanding work with students earned her an award from the university, he said. ___ McAvoy reported from Hawaii. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Two people have been arrested after a man was stabbed to death in Deptford, south-east London. The man, in his 20s, was found with a fatal knife wound at the scene in Carteret Way at around 10.35pm on Thursday. Police and paramedics attended to the victim but despite their best efforts - he died at the scene.The mans family have been informed of his death. Scotland Yard said three men have been arrested on suspicion of murder and remain in custody.A crime scene remains in place on the residential estate. Anyone with information at this early stage is asked to call police on 101 or X @MetCC and quote CAD8733/6June. You can also provide information anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Residents in East Anglia are warning that their rivers would become as polluted as the River Wye which has been branded filthy if a farming giant goes ahead with plans for two of the largest megafarms in Europe. Cranswick, which supplies meat to major supermarkets, wants to set up a pair of intensive farms that together would rear 6.4 million chickens and 56,000 pigs a year. That is likely to make the scheme the biggest industrial facility of its kind in the UK. The River Wissey could be contamined, its feared ( Getty Images ) But environmental and animal-rights organisations fiercely oppose the idea, and residents say the development would threaten the River Wissey, a key source for public water supplies and irrigation. The River Wye has become a cause celebre for waterways campaigners after pollution from farming started harming its wildlife. Charles Watson, chairman of River Action said last year: The Wye should be running clear - not that filthy sh*t colour, after it appeared brown in a tweet promoting it to tourists. In 2020, a thick algal bloom covered over 140 miles of it, and last year its official status was downgraded. This year, the pollution was so bad that River Action took the Environment Agency to court, accusing it of not being tough enough on farmers. The sheds would each house up to 1,000 pigs at once ( AFP via Getty Images ) The charity has campaigned to save the river from what it calls the filthy onslaught of chicken manure, which runs into waterways. Cranswicks plan involves expanding its site between Methwold and Feltwell in the Norfolk countryside, creating what locals have dubbed a monstrosity. Each of the 20 new sheds would house nearly 50,000 chickens or 1,000 pigs at once. Thousands of objections have already gone to the council from people who claim the smell, noise and flies will be sickening and extra lorries will turn a simple journey for us into an absolute nightmare. The Cranswick Objection Group aims to raise 10,000 to fight the plan. Organic chicken manure caused pollution to the Wye ( PA Archive ) Co-founder Shirley DeAth said the plans were already hitting the local property market. Estate agents had told some homeowners they would get less when selling their properties, while one recent buyer had put their home back on the market, she said, and another house price was unchanged from two years ago. It will blight peoples lives, she said. The Wissey, which experts say has an internationally important chalk stream ecology with water that is usually clear, was restored in 2018, and is a popular fishing spot. Its now thought to be in good enough condition for fish such as burbot to return, according to Anglian Water. Another campaigner, Patricia Welsh, said the farms would harm peoples health, and an independent environmental report had found the effects would be felt six miles away. We have been horrified to find out how much damage the air pollution, particularly ammonia, will cause the unique flora and fauna of Thetford forest and our chalk stream the River Wissey. Farrowing crates, which are widely used in pig farming, prevent mother pigs from turning round ( Jo-Anne McArthur / Essere Animali / We Animals Media ) Personally I am incensed that Cranswick think its fine to put these vile factory farms so close, not only to villages with three schools within a short distance, but also to Thetford forest with its Sites of Special Scientific Interest and Special Protection Areas. The site is close to the Breckland Special Area of Conservation, which is home to birds such as stone curlew. A farming source said more and larger pig and chicken sheds were necessary because the UK was only 40-50 per cent self-sufficient in pork and 70 per cent in chicken. Crowded conditions contribute to disease and antibiotic resistance, its claimed ( World Animal Protection ) The UK pig herd fell by 20 per cent in 2022 and 10 per cent last year, according to The National Pig Association. In 2022, Cranswick was fined 75,000 after it discharged contaminated liquid from a pork processing site into a rare chalk stream, although the Environment Agency said it found no lasting harm. After the case, the company said it took steps to reduce the risk of any recurrence. Ms DeAth said since the farm expansion plans were unveiled, her family had cut their meat consumption by about half, and other objectors had reduced theirs too. Manure, silage, carcasses and dirty water from industrial farming are known to cause environmental damage, according to government research. High levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in chicken manure cause excessive algae, starving fish and plants of oxygen, according to the Soil Association. A lorry loaded with poultry in Hereford, where intensive farming is blamed for pollution to the Wye ( AFP via Getty Images ) And animal activists say crowded conditions contribute to disease and antibiotic resistance. In April, The Independent revealed how a Cranswick worker hit pigs in the face with a paddle as they sent them into gas chambers. Cranswick did not respond to requests to comment on that incident. A Cranswick spokesperson said: The council have asked for further analysis before plans are resubmitted including a regulation 25 request to provide a detailed assessment of the key operations, from vehicle movements to the environmental measures linked to the redevelopment of the farm. This is being completed by specialist advisers and will be assessed by advisers appointed by the council. We will provide a full update once this process is complete, which will be at some point over the summer months. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Sewage has been pumped into one of the countrys most unique rivers for nearly five months, including 21 days when it was not raining, The Independent can reveal. Thames Water, which serves Greater London and the Thames Valley, has discharged waste from its site in Amersham into the Misbourne river continuously between 25 January and 5 June. Water companies say they only activate storm overflows during extreme weather and heavy rain. But human waste was also pumped into the river, one of the small number of the countrys unique chalk stream ecosystems, on 21 dry days during the nearly five-month period, according to analysis of Met Office data by The Independent. The Environment Agency (EA) defines a dry day as one when there has been no rainfall above 0.25mm on that day and the preceding 24 hours. Dry spilling is illegal because it can lead to higher concentrations of sewage in waterways. Campaigners said it was scandalous that there had been no interventions or sanctions by authorities despite nearly five months of sewage spills into the river. Thames Water, the first water company to publish a near real-time map of its discharges, blamed the eighth wettest winter on record for the sewage spills, saying this had led to exceptionally high ground and water levels, causing its storm tank to overflow. The embattled water company, reportedly scrambling to raise cash to stay afloat, said it was sorry for the discharges and that its engineers were working hard to minimise the impact to the river. Thames Water blamed the unseasonably wet winter for the discharges ( PA Archive ) Water companies have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years after it emerged that many have been discharging sewage into the countrys rivers and coastal waters. Across the UK, rain and sewage share the same pipes in a combined system, meaning that sewage treatment works can sometimes become overwhelmed. When this happens waste is spilled into waterways from storm overflows to prevent the system from blocking up, potentially causing problems in homes and other properties. Human waste, wet wipes and sanitary products can be contained within the overflows, posing a risk to wildlife and swimmers. The EA published figures in March showing that sewage spills into Englands rivers and seas by water companies more than doubled last year. There were 3.6 million hours of spills compared to 1.75 million hours in 2022, according to the data. The Misbourne river rises above Great Missenden in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and flows for about 17 miles (27km) through Little Missenden, Amersham and the Chalfonts to Denham, where it meets the River Colne. It is one of just 330 chalk streams in the world and the river is notable for being very clear, and supporting a large diversity of wildlife. File photo: A secion of the river Misbourne in Amersham ( Getty Images/iStockphoto ) Charles Watson, chairman and founder of River Action UK, said: The notion that the river has been subjected to this incessant deluge of raw sewage is not only utterly disgusting. It is also poses a totally real existential threat to the rivers biodiversity. The fact that this unlawful pollution has been happening now for months on end, with no regulatory intervention or sanction, is scandalous. Steve Reed, Labours shadow environment secretary, accused the Conservatives of standing back and folding their arms while water companies pump a tidal wave of sewage into the countrys rivers, lakes and seas. The next Labour government will put the water companies under special measures to force them to clean up their act, he added. Steve Reed recently took over as the shadow environment secretary from Jim McMahon (Peter Byrne/PA) ( PA Archive ) We will give the regulator tough new powers to make law-breaking water bosses face criminal charges and ban the payment of their multi-million pound bonuses until they clean up their toxic filth. The Conservative Party was contacted for comment. A spokesperson for Thames Water said: We know how much rivers are loved and enjoyed by everyone, and we are committed to seeing our waterways thrive. Our engineers are using filter units at the storm tanks and are working hard to minimise the impact to the river. We have published plans to upgrade 250 of our sites across the region, as we strive to increase treatment capacity and reduce the number of necessary discharges. However, more investment is needed across the entire sector, as infrastructure ages and demand on it increases. Thats why weve asked for increased investment in the next regulatory cycle between 2025-2030. The EA said it is investigating dry sewage spills. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} The last time federal elections were held in Belgium in 2019, it took nearly 18 months before a new prime minister could be sworn in to lead a seven-party coalition government. The wait was even longer after the 2010 vote when the country needed 541 days to form a government, still a world record. Belgian voters return to the national polls on Sunday, in conjunction with the European Union vote, amid a rise of both the far-right and the far-left in the country. The vote could mean complex negotiations ahead in a country of 11.5 million people who are divided by language and deep regional identities. Belgium is split along linguistic lines, with francophone Wallonia in the south and Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north, and governments are invariably formed by coalitions made of parties from both regions. The latest opinion polls suggest that a new headache is on the horizon. Two Flemish nationalist parties are poised to gather the largest shares of votes in Flanders, with the far-right Vlaams Belang, which backs independence for Flanders, is expected to win more than 25% of the vote. Just behind, the right-wing nationalist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) could get around 20% of the vote. In French-speaking Wallonia, the Socialist Party is projected to garner as much as a quarter of the ballots ahead of liberals and the far-left Belgium's Workers Party. Poorer Wallonia whose decline started in the 1960's while Flanders economy went up traditionally leans in favor of national unity because the region would likely find it difficult to survive economically on its own. If the lokatest projections are confirmed, the making of a government will be extremely difficult, especially if the Flemish nationalists join forces with the extreme-right at regional level, a move that would likely exclude them from coalition talks with moderate parties. Belgian voters on Sunday not only elect a new federal parliament but also regional parliaments and members of the European Parliament. Sophie Wilmes, a former pro-business liberal caretaker prime minister, has already warned that she won't get involved in possible coalition talks with either the far-right or the far-left. She also predicted enormous problems if an alliance between the N-VA and the Vlaams Belang takes shape something N-VA leader Bart De Wever has so far ruled out. It would make the formation of a federal government almost impossible," she was quoted in Belgian media. "Nobody wants to form a coalition with a party that allies itself with Vlaams Belang. The surge of the anti-immigrant and separatist Vlaams Belang is reflecting a trend that has seen populist and far-right parties making gains across the EU in recent years. In Belgium, Vlaams Belang has however so far been blocked from entering governments as other Flemish parties vowed to exclude it from power. According to Laura Jacobs, a political scientist at the University of Antwerp, one of the main assets of Vlaams Belang is that it did not take part in the current government led by the liberal Alexander De Croo. We are seeing a rise in discontent among voters, a lot of negative emotion, and the party is managing to channel this anger and embody a solution to the mistrust of the political class in Flanders," she said in an article for the The Research and Studies Centre, at Robert Schuman Foundation. Polls show that few voters feel represented by the political class in office, and Vlaams Belang plays on this feeling to a great extent, she said. It's also unclear whether the Socialists and the radical left could find a common ground and unite with the Greens after the elections notably because of the Workers Party's ambiguous views on the Western support to Ukraine and NATO. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} A Tory MP deselected at the eleventh hour to make way for Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has hit back at his own partys claims he is too sick to stand. Mr Ross is on the partys management board, which ruled former minister David Duguid not well enough to contest the seat of Aberdeenshire North and Moray East. But Mr Duguid, who has been in hospital since April, said the claims are "simply incorrect" and a factual inaccuracy. He said the board decided to stand him down although none of them had visited me". David Duguid has not been selected to stand in the General Election (Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament/PA) ( PA Media ) "They apparently took this decision based on two visits from the party director and without receiving any professional medical prognosis," he said. The former MP, who will not be eligible for thousands of pounds in redundancy pay from Parliament, said he was "very saddened by the way this whole episode has unfolded". Mr Ross has been accused of betraying a colleague for his own career. He previously said he would quit Westminster to focus on Holyrood and his post as leader of the Scottish Conservatives. Scottish deputy first minister Kate Forbes branded Mr Ross's behaviour as "straight out of the Farage playbook", while Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie said it showed there is "no promise flip-flop Ross won't break". Mr Ross has defended his decision, saying there were "very unique circumstances" and timings which meant the party had just 24 hours to get another candidate in place. He told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme boundary changes meant a part of the seat includes his former Moray constituency. Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross has been accused of betrayal ( Andrew Milligan/PA Wire ) He added: "I want to lead from the front, this is a really important seat. "It's one of the many key seats across Scotland where it is a straight choice between the Scottish Conservatives and the SNP." He said Mr Duguid had been an "absolute champion" for the area and the Conservative party management board had had a "difficult decision" to make. Mr Ross said: "The party management board had to look at the situation right now, the situation with David's health, his recovery, which was at the heart of the decision the management board took. "It was a very difficult decision, and I understand how difficult it has been for David, for his family, for his staff. I have been in touch with his office." Asked whether he has spoken to Mr Duguid since he put himself forward for the seat, Mr Ross said he had "reached out" to him, adding that "he will maybe speak when he is able to and he feels able to speak". Pressed on whether he had messaged Mr Duguid or tried to speak to him, Mr Ross added: "We have done both, but given he is in hospital it is not straightforward. "I have been in conversation with David's office and such like, relaying as much support as we can." Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} The childrens minister has admitted he does not know how much child benefit payments are in the latest gaffe to rock the Tory campaign. David Jonhston was put up by the Conservatives on Friday morning to discuss the partys latest election pledge, to let high earners keep more of their child benefit if Rishi Sunak is re-elected. But Mr Johnston, a parliamentary under secretary of state at the Department for Education, said he did not know what the child allowance was. Click here for our live coverage of the general election campaign. In an excruciating exchange with LBCs Nick Ferrari, the veteran broadcaster asked him: Just for my listeners who are not familiar, so they can get full details, how much is child allowance? David Johnston, minister for children, families and wellbeing, said the Government cannot compel nurseries and childminders to offer children free hours in April when the first phase of its childcare expansion begins (UK Parliament/PA) ( PA Media ) Mr Johnston said: Err, that, Im afraid, I dont know. Its actually not a Department for Education policy this. Its a DWP one and Im afraid I dont know the exact. He then confirmed that his title is minister for children, adding that youre right [Nick], I should have found out before I came on here. Well, look, Im sorry that I didnt know the amount of it. You are quite right about it, he added. Child benefit is paid at 25.60 per week for the eldest or only child, and 16.95 for a second child. The embarrassing gaffe came as Mr Sunak made a grovelling apology for leaving the D-Day commemorations early to take part in a TV interview. After being widely criticised for cutting short his visit to France the prime minister admitted today he had blundered. He said: It was a mistake and I apologise. Shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth said: The Prime Minister skipping off early from D-Day commemorations to record a television interview where he once again lied through his teeth is both an embarrassment and a total dereliction of duty. Our country deserves so much better than out-of-touch, desperate Rishi Sunak and his chaotic Tory Party. The Conservatives have promised to raise the high income child benefit tax charge threshold to 120,000 - and charge it to households rather than individuals. Under existing rules, parents or parents partners start to lose child benefit if they earn more than the 60,000 threshold. Once parents or their partners income tops 80,000, they cannot keep any of their childs benefit. The announcement follows a bitter row over Conservative and Labour tax pledges. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt claimed his partys proposals could cut tax bills by an average of 1,500 for 700,000 families. He said the scheme would "boost families financial security and give them more money to spend on the things that matter most". Rishi Sunak was forced to apologise for leaving D-Day commemorations early to film an ITV interview ( POOL/AFP/Getty ) Mr Hunt added: "Raising the next generation is the most important job any of us can do so its right that, as part of our clear plan to bring taxes down, we are reducing the burden on working families." According to the Conservative Party, the change would "end the unfairness that means single-earner households can start paying the tax charge when a household with two working parents and a much higher total income can keep the child benefit in full". For example, a single parent who earns more than 60,000 begins to lose their benefit, but a two-parent household with a combined earning of 119,999 could keep it all. Conservative finance chiefs have said "parents" would instead be treated as households, if they win the General Election. Families or single earners would begin to lose their child benefit entitlement if they earn more than 120,000 - and would only face losing it all if they hit 160,000. The party claims the proposal will cost 1.3 billion in 2029/30 - with the money set to come from a crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion. The Tories hope to raise 6 billion from their proposed crackdown - with 1 billion already committed to a proposed new national service for 18-year-olds and 2.4 billion to the proposed pensions "triple lock plus". Mr Hunt said: "There is a clear choice for voters at this election: bold action to cut taxes for working families under the Conservatives, or a 2,094 tax rise to fill Labours 38.5 billion spending black hole." A Labour spokesman said it was another chaotic scattergun announcement from Rishi Sunak, adding to his list of desperate and unfunded policies that he knows cant be delivered. Sir Keir Starmer is set to be prime minister for a decade, Tory supporters want Nigel Farage to succeed Rishi Sunak as leader, and many in the Conservative Party fear that it faces extinction. These are among the shock findings of an exclusive poll conducted for The Independent by Redfield and Wilton. It shows that 45 per cent of all voters believe Labour will win not just this election but the next one, too. With a parliamentary term lasting up to five years, that could see Sir Keir retaining the Downing Street keys until around 2034. Only 19 per cent of the public do not expect Labour to record two successive victories. The poll makes depressing reading for Mr Sunak but indicates that the rise of Mr Farage, now bidding to win his first Commons seat, also has serious implications for Labour. He is the clear choice of the public and, crucially, of Conservative supporters to be the next Tory leader, if, as expected, the party loses on 4 July and Mr Sunak resigns. Asked to choose a successor from a list comprising the six current Tory leadership favourites and the Reform Party leader, Mr Farage wins across both groups of voters. Only Commons leader Penny Mordaunt runs him close. Among the electorate as a whole, 19 per cent want Mr Farage to be the next Conservative leader; he is followed by Ms Mordaunt on 15 per cent. James Cleverly, Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman, Priti Patel and Robert Jenrick all failed to poll higher than 6 per cent. Mr Farage is even further ahead with those who voted Conservative in 2019. A total of 22 per cent of this group want him to be the next leader of the party, with Ms Mordaunt on 16 per cent and the rest way behind. Nigel Farage has caused a stir by entering the general election campaign ( PA Wire ) A significant chunk of the Conservative faithful appear to think their party is doomed. One in three (32 per cent) of those who voted for it in the last election think it will cease to exist in its present form within 10 years. Nearly half (46 per cent) of this group are more optimistic and think it will recover. The wider public are more sceptical of the Conservative Partys long-term prospects. A total of 37 per cent who took part in the survey believe it will survive more or less as it is today; 35 per cent said it will not. Equally alarming for Mr Sunak is that, assuming Sir Keir wins power, 42 per cent of 2019 Tory voters want Mr Farages Reform Party to replace the Conservatives as the main opposition to Labour. A total of 31 per cent of these voters want the Tories to remain the main opposition to Labour. Among the whole electorate, 37 per cent want the Reform Party to replace the Tories as the main counter to Labour; 40 per cent do not favour this scenario. Despite the widespread view that Sir Keir is on course for victory, it seems he will be given little personal credit for it. Nearly half (49 per cent) of all voters said a Labour triumph would be the result of Tory failures; 18 per cent said Labour policies should be credited; and just one in seven (14 per cent) said it would be the fruit of Sir Keirs leadership. Moreover, the poll indicates that Labour could also be vulnerable to the potential rise of Mr Farage. In findings that might surprise and worry senior Labour figures, a total of 39 per cent of the group of Labour supporters said Mr Farages immigration stance is generally right, while 40 per cent said it is generally wrong. Nearly half of voters said a Labour triumph would be the result of Tory failures rather than Keir Starmers policies ( PA Wire ) Nearly six in 10 (59 per cent) of 2019 Labour voters said they agree with Mr Farages controversial claim that a growing number of young British Muslims do not subscribe to British values. Only 12 per cent claimed to disagree. A total of 54 per cent of these Labour voters endorsed Mr Farages equally provocative statement that there are streets in Britain where no one speaks English. One in three (32 per cent) of this group disagreed. Among the broader population, Mr Farages views on these topics command even greater support, according to the poll. When Mr Sunak, Sir Keir and Mr Farage were pitched against each other in a three-way popularity contest covering personal and political qualities, Sir Keir won hands down, coming first in 13 of 14 categories, from the NHS and economy to charisma. The Labour leaders sole defeat was by Mr Farage in the stop the boats category. Mr Sunak did not win a single category and was beaten by Mr Farage on nine counts, including stands up for the little guy; courageous, and would win TV debate. Redfield and Wilton interviewed 2,000 adults online on 5 and 6 June. Here is a breakdown of the statistics: Highlights of Redfield and Wilton poll for The Independent: (All figures in percentages) Is Labour likely to win next two elections? (All voters) Yes: 45 No: 19 Neither/dont know: 36 If Labour wins on 4 July, what will be the main reason? (All voters) Tory failures: 49 Labour policies: 18 Starmer leadership: 14 Other/dont know: 19 Will the Conservative Party exist in its current form in 10 years? (All voters, followed by 2019 Conservative voters) Yes: 37, 46 No: 35, 32 Dont know: 28, 22 Who should be the next Tory leader? (All voters, 2019 Conservative voters) Nigel Farage: 19, 22 Penny Mordaunt: 15, 16 James Cleverly: 6, 6 Kemi Badenoch: 5, 7 Suella Braverman: 4, 6 Priti Patel: 2, 4 Robert Jenrick: 1, 1 Other/dont know: 48, 38 Should the Reform Party replace the Conservatives as the main opposition to Labour? (All voters, 2019 Conservative voters) Yes: 37, 42 No: 30, 31 Neither/dont know: 33, 27 Is Farage right or wrong on immigration? (All voters, followed by 2019 Labour voters) Generally right: 40, 39 Generally wrong: 30, 40 Dont know: 30, 21 Do you agree/disagree with the statement: A growing number of young British Muslims no longer subscribe to British values? (all voters, 2019 Labour voters) Agree: 63, 59 Disagree: 10, 12 Neither/dont know: 27, 29 Is the following statement true or false: There are some streets in Britain where no English is spoken? (All voters, 2019 Labour voters) True: 59, 54 False: 27, 32 Dont know: 14, 14 (The final two questions relate to comments made this week by Nigel Farage) Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Rishi Sunak is facing backlash after he admitted to skipping out early on a poignant D-Day 70th Anniversary memorial to fly back to the UK for an interview with ITV. The prime minister has made a string of gaffes since he announced the general election in the pouring rain without an umbrella last month and his latest setback has attracted even more mockery from the internet. After being widely criticised for cutting short his visit to France, Mr Sunak admitted on Friday he had blundered. He said: It was a mistake and I apologise. But it didnt appear to be enough for the internet. Here are some of the best reactions: The Alan Partridge/ Rishi Sunak comparisons dont appear to be going anywhere soon. Others pointed out the irony in Rishi Sunak wanting 18-year-olds to undertake national service as one of his key election pledges. Some X users werent impressed with Mr Sunaks attempt at an apology. One parody account is trying to keep up with the latest gaffes by Mr Sunak. Others wondered what is next in the pipeline for the man trying to run the country for the next five years. Some commentators are already looking to the next Conservative leader. And finally, you dont want to be getting the Paddington treatment this close to polling day. It came as Mr Sunak was told that he had misjudged the mood of the nation by deciding to return early. Asked whether it was a mistake for the prime minister to miss the event, Colonel Stuart Crawford who served for 20 years in the Royal Tank Regiment, said: Its a solemn occasion and sadly the last major anniversary of the landings which will feature many of the surviving veterans. Campaigning for an election which everyone knows hes going to lose anyway is a poor excuse. He should be there with the others, and his absence and Starmers presence makes it look as if hes passed the premiership to Sir Keir already. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Rishi Sunak has been urged to give 5 million from a Tory donor at the centre of a race row to a veterans' charity. The Liberal Democrats said it was the least that our veterans and service personnel deserve" after the prime minister made the decision to leave the D-Day commemoration events early on Thursday. Earlier this week it emerged Rishi Sunak accepted an additional 5m from Tory donor Frank Hester, who has been accused of saying Diane Abbott should be shot. The money was a major boost to the Tories campaign war chest, after Mr Hester donated 10m to the Conservative Party last year, Electoral Commission figures show. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaking during the UK national commemorative event for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, held at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, Normandy. He later returned early to the UK. (Jane Barlow/PA) ( PA Wire ) Mr Hester allegedly told colleagues that looking at Ms Abbott makes you want to hate all Black women, adding that the veteran Labour MP should be shot. Ms Abbott said the further Tory donation was an insult to me and all Black women. Mr Hester has apologised for making rude comments about Ms Abbott, the first Black woman elected to Parliament, but claimed they had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin. Liberal Democrat defence spokesperson and veteran Richard Foord said: The Prime Minister has badly let down veterans and our country. He disrespected his office and the United Kingdom. "Yesterday it emerged that the Conservative Party accepted another 5m from Frank Hester, a man who has made the most appalling racist and misogynistic comments. "Rishi Sunak must personally ensure this money is donated instead to a veterans' charity as an apology for his absence yesterday. It's the least that our veterans and service personnel deserve." Veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott was the subject of the comments ( Getty Images ) Alongside his role as the Conservative Partys largest individual donor, Mr Hester has personally funded Mr Sunak. The PM visited Mr Hesters office on a 16,000 helicopter trip to Leeds paid for by the businessman last year. The Conservatives have said they will not hand back Mr Hesters latest donation. A spokesman said: Mr Hester has rightly apologised for comments made in the past. As Mr Hester has apologised and shown contrition and we consider the matter resolved. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Rishi Sunak has accused his critics of politicising D-Day after he was forced to make a grovelling apology for leaving the commemorations early to take part in a TV interview. A Normandy veteran and the former head of the Royal Navy were among those who criticised him for cutting short his visit to France, as the prime minister conceded he had blundered. It was a mistake and I apologise, he said. But he later claimed the events should not be politicised and called for the focus to be on veterans when challenged over his D-Day ceremony snub. Rishi Sunak left D-Day commemorations to record a TV interview while foreign secretary David Cameron remained ( POOL/AFP/Getty ) Normandy veteran Ken Hay, 98, accused Mr Sunak of letting the country down. Lord West of Spithead, the ex-head of the navy, said it was stupid and an own goal of the Tory leader to miss the major international ceremony. He said the prime ministers advisers should have told him to stay, adding: What a cock-up. Lord West, who is also a Labour peer, told BBC Radio 4s World at One: I find it very strange that he should do such an own goal. When youve got people like the president of the United States, the president of France, [Volodymyr] Zelensky and others all there, and the one person who is not there is the political head of the United Kingdom, I think it comes over very badly. And Reform UK leader Nigel Farage seized on the controversy to say Mr Sunak was not a patriotic leader of the Conservative Party. Meanwhile, a new poll shows Mr Sunaks decision is more likely to alienate older voters he hopes will back him at this election. Data from pollsters Redfield and Wilton shows only one in six voters aged 18-24 knows what happened on D-Day, compared to nearly two-thirds, 59 per cent, of those aged 55-64. Speaking to broadcasters on a campaign visit to Wiltshire, the prime minister said he did participate in a number of events in Portsmouth and France to honour those who risked their lives to defend our freedom and our values 80 years ago. He added that the itinerary was set weeks ago, before the start of the general election campaign. And again admitted he had made a mistake and apologised but he went on to suggest others were using the row for political gain. He said: I think its important though, given the enormity of the sacrifice made, that we dont politicise this. The focus should rightly be on the veterans who gave so much. Mr Sunaks miscalculation in coming home while other world leaders stayed in Normandy to honour the sacrifice and courage of thousands of Allied troops is bound to be seen as yet another major Conservative error in the election campaign. It will add to the feeling among many Tory MPs that despite his undoubted skills in handling economic matters, the prime minister has a tin ear on other key aspects of leadership. Sunak speaks at an 80th anniversary of D-Day event in Portsmouth on Wednesday ( PA ) In an extraordinary turn of events, Downing Street was also forced to deny that Mr Sunak had initially planned not to attend the commemorations at all and that the French government had been informed a week ago. No 10 said that was not true and that it had always been the plan he would go. But even a senior Tory MP, veterans minister Johnny Mercer, said the decision to leave the anniversary events early was a significant mistake. The prime minister has been accused of a dereliction of duty after he snubbed the event and gave a TV interview about the election. Downing Street was also forced to deny that Sunak had initially planned not to attend the commemorations at all and that the French government had been informed a week ago ( AP ) It emerged on Thursday that the prime minister came home early to sit down with ITV to defend claims he had made that Sir Keir Starmer planned to hike taxes by 2,000 per person. The tax claim, first made in a TV debate with the Labour leader, was also seen as a political own goal after the Treasurys chief mandarin disowned the figure. It meant he left commemoration events in France before a gathering of the world leaders on Omaha Beach with King Charles and veterans. The Independent first revealed that he had also skipped the event attended by the King, presidents Zelensky, Biden and Macron, and other world leaders to return to the UK to campaign in the election with his party still losing ground in the polls. In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), Mr Sunak said: The 80th anniversary of D-Day has been a profound moment to honour the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to protect our values, our freedom and our democracy. This anniversary should be about those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. The last thing I want is for the commemorations to be overshadowed by politics. I care deeply about veterans and have been honoured to represent the UK at a number of events in Portsmouth and France over the past two days and to meet those who fought so bravely. After the conclusion of the British event in Normandy, I returned back to the UK. On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer and I apologise. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} The Conservatives election campaign was hit by chaos as two candidates announced they were pulling out less than an hour before nominations closed. It is unclear whether the Tories have been able to select a candidate for every constituency in the UK. At least five people on the candidates list have told The Independent that they refused to contest unwinnable seats. Rishi Sunak (PA) ( PA Wire ) It comes amid fury over accusations that advisers and those close to the prime ministers inner circle have been parachuted into safe seats. At 3.50pm, less than an hour before nominations closed, Jaymey McIvor, the partys candidate for Hemel Hempstead announced he was not standing, citing personal reasons. At the same time another candidate Adam Gregg, for Spen Valley in West Yorkshire, quit after reports he ran club nights for kids as young as 13 and shared a picture showing girls appearing to have the words horny and b***h on their chests. The pictures are thought to be from 2006 and he told the Mirror the events were of their time and I can understand how they could be viewed differently in todays world. But the Conservatives received some good news after former pop star Holly Valance decided not to stand for Nigel Farages Reform UK. Former Neighbours star Valance decided at the eleventh hour not to stand in the nominally safe Tory seat of Basildon and Billericay, where there is anger among activists in the Tory chairman Richard Holden was forced on them as their general election candidate. She told GB News: Its not going to work for me - it was very difficult logistics-wise. In February Mr Holden described himself as loyal to the North East of England. He was the MP for North West Durham, but that ceased to exist following the boundary review. He secured the new seat by after he was presented to the association on a shortlist of one. Earlier unwell former MP David Duguid hit out at claims he was too sick to stand after he was ditched at the last minute to make room for the leader of the Scottish Tories, Douglas Ross, in another nominally safe seat of Aberdeenshire North and Moray East. Rishi Sunaks allies have been accused of operating a chumocracy in parachuting special advisers and others into winnable seats. David Goss, the prime ministers deputy political secretary, has been selected for Wellingborough and Rushden, recently lost to Labour in a gruelling by-election. He followed former army officer James Clark, a special adviser to defence secretary Grant Shapps, being selected for Great Yarmouth. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} A Mississippi state trooper was fired after sending explicit images and videos to other cops and now she and the woman she had sex with on video are suing each other. MHP Trooper Ivana Williams was let go from the agency after distributing the video. The unnamed woman in the video claims Williams said she would delete the tape, but instead shared it. A Mississippi Department of Public investigation into her behavior found that Williams sent explicit images of herself to her superiors and visited porn websites on her state-issued phone. The other woman in the tape has sued Williams for $11million, and now the former trooper has filed her own suit against the woman for $20million. Williams said the womans lawsuit has damaged her reputation and business relationship. Williams - who is active on social media with several sites - has said that she is innocent or wrongdoing and claims her firing was retaliatory. Mississippi State Trooper Ivana Williams was fired after sending a video of her having sex with another woman to other troopers. ( Ivana Williams/Facebook ) The unnamed woman says Williams took a video of their sexual encounter without her permission, according to the lawsuit obtained by WLBT. The filing accuses Williams of inflicting emotional distress, invasion of privacy, defamation, conspiracy, and civil battery. Much of that night is a blur, the unidentified victim said in the lawsuit. I became unusually and extremely intoxicated. The next morning I woke up in bed without my clothes on... I was aware a sexual encounter had taken place but had difficulty remembering any of what happened. The former trooper has said the encounter was consensual and that she only shared it with one other person. The woman filing the suit against Williams is reportedly representing herself after two of her previous attorneys withdrew. Now, Williams and the other woman have filed lawsuits against each other over the scandal. ( Ivana Williams/Facebook ) Williams has maintained her innocence throughout the proceedings, and called her firing "retaliatory." Two other state troopers - Julius Hutson and Jeremy Lott - were also fired in connection the incident. Williams said her firing was discriminatory, claiming that male troopers had done similar and had not been held accountable. Williams claimed she was aware of a master sergeant who had a video of himself having sex with someone on his state-issued phone, WBLT reports. After Williams was named in the lawsuit, she was transferred from Rankin County to Bolivar County, which she said was done without explanation and that it had put her more than 100 miles away from her children. She appealed the decision and was fired by DPS six days later. Williams has an active social media presence and told her follower that she is innocent of wrongdoing ( Ivana Williams/Facebook ) A letter from state officials accused her of unprofessional conduct and misuse of state property, according to WBLT. Williams said in a social media post that she looks forward to her day in court and described it as a she-said, she-said situation. I have told you all that I am innocent and I cant wait until my day in court so I can prove my innocence, Williams stated. Lately in society, its not until youre proven guilty. No, youre guilty until proven innocent. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} A bizarre letter shows how LA socialite Rebecca Grossman pleaded for forgiveness with the parents of two boys she killed in a hit-and-run in the fall of 2020. Rebecca Grossman, 60, was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Mark Iskander, 11, and his brother Jacob Iskander, 8, in February, after a six-week trial. During the trial, the court heard how the socialite had been having drinks with her lover, former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson, before the pair engaged in a street race, driving at high speed through an intersection in the residential neighbourhood of Westlake Village, north west of LA. The two youngsters were killed when she struck them with her Mercedes-Benz SUV as they walked in the marked crosswalk with their mother Nancy Iskander and 5-year-old brother Zachary. Mark died at the scene of the incident, while his younger brother Jacob died later at a local hospital. In a letter, obtained by the Daily Mail, Grossman pleaded with the parents of the two boys for forgiveness, writing that she would have driven her car into a tree if shed had the chance. Dear Nancy and Karim, Ive not had the opportunity to write you since I was incarcerated, Grossman wrote to the Iskanders. Rebecca Grossman speaking in 2014 ( (Grossman Burn Foundation - YouTube) ) First I want to express my profound sadness that I feel daily and that theres not a day that passes that I dont think about you and pray that you and your children are surrounded by guardian angels, and that of course includes your forever angels Mark and Jacob, Grossman added. She goes on to state she hopes the boys are watching over her to protect [her] from any more pain while shielding her family from harm for each of [their] remaining days on earth. The letter adds that she desperately wanted to reach out to the couple, but was stopped time and time again by people presiding over the case. I have been and will always be so very sorry, she continues. Grossman later goes on to claim that she would have driven her car into a tree if she had the chance, before embarking on a sob story about her childhood and life. As God is my witness, if I had seen anyone in the road ahead of my car, my knee-jerk reaction would have been to immediately steer away hard, to avoid hitting anyone or anything, she wrote. I wish that I had seen something, even a glimpse - any sign of anything. I have re-lived that split second in time over and over in my head a billion times. I give you my word that if I had been given the opportunity, I would have driven my car into a tree. I wish God had given me the opportunity to give my life instead of that of Mark and Jacobs. Im not afraid of death, I know that our souls live eternally, the letter adds. Grossman then makes the strange revelation that shed reached out to NASA to see if they had video recordings of what happened that night. I wished I had a dash cam on my car that night. I told my husband and children that at the same time my airbags deployed, I thought something came down on top of my car, she said. I even reached out to people at satellite companies like NASA and Space X in hope that maybe there was a video that captured what happened. Grossman later goes into detail about the days after the incident. At first, It was difficult to function at all. I could not remember what people had said to me minutes earlier, she wrote. She then remarks how her elderly mother died within a year of the tragedy, after five years of suffering from Alzheimers - after which she could not get up off my hand and knees from sobbing uncontrollably for months on end. I couldnt believe how many tears could come out of my body, she gripes. I so desperately wanted to reach out to you. Conceding her pain was only a fraction of what both [parents] were feeling, she goes on to claim she was suicidal, recalling that a news broadcast she saw from the hospital was when [she] first learned that the children had died. I started hyperventilating. I could not breathe. I could not stand. I no longer wanted to live on, she wrote. Throughout her trial, prosecutors argued that Grossman did not deserve any remorse as she has proven to be a narcissist, arguing for the maximum punishment for the fatal hit-and-run. But Grossmans lead attorney repeatedly blamed Scott Erickson, a retired MLB pitcher, for the deaths, suggesting his car hit the boys first as the pair - reunited after Grossman briefly separated from her husband - sped down the street. However, the jury didnt buy it - and a judge four days ago threw out Grossmans bid to have her murder convictions overturned. Grossman is yet to be sentenced, but prosecutors have asked that she serve two consecutive 15-years-to-life terms, plus an extra four years for fleeing the scene. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Twenty-six migrants were rescued from a rural residence outside of San Antonio, where they were being held in a shack in blistering heat with no water or toilets, according to Texas officials. "Its miserable conditions in there and its just blazing hot," Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar told reporters on Thursday. "Fortunately, we were able to get these people before any of them passed as a result." Eleven of the migrants were taken to hospitals for heat-related injuries and are expected to recover. Seven smuggling suspects were arrested as part of the operation. Sheriff Salazar said officials found the residence after they were tipped off about a trailer potentially being used in a smuggling operation, and later observed migrants stowed in a false compartment beneath the truck for hours before being unloaded into the house. Once inside, the police said the smuggling appeared to be clearly cartel-related, and that rifles and bulletproof vests were discovered. Only one of the 26 migrants identities has been confirmed, and she is Guatemalan. "Its possible that we have others from other countries, but just her, we know for a fact she paid $16,000 to be smuggled to this point," Sheriff Salazar said. "So, I mean, if you just got one of these people paying 16 grand and theres 26 smuggling victims, this is a big money operation." The sting is reminiscent of a tragedy from two years prior, when 53 migrants, including eight children, died nearby as a result of being smuggled in a trailer with a malfunctioning air-conditioning unit. Its believed to be the deadliest smuggling incident in US history. Earlier this week, President Joe Biden issued an executive order giving himself power to shut down the US-Mexico border to asylum-seekers after separate, illegal crossings, reached an average daily threshold of 2,500 people. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} A YouTube star faces up to 10 years in prison for a stunt that involved a low-flying helicopter shooting fireworks at a Lamborghini. Suk Min Choi, 24, - aka Alex Choi - was charged in California federal court for causing the placement of an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft. He was arrested on Wednesday. On July 4, 2023, Choi posted the video on his YouTube channel entitled Destroying a Lamborhini with Fireworks. The video saw Choi press a fire missiles button while two women were in the helicopter. Choi has now been charged with was charged with causing the placement of an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft. The video then shows fireworks being shot at the speeding Lamborghini, according to prosecutors. The stunt was done to mimic a scene from a video game. Suk Min Choi, 24, - aka Alex Choi - faces federal charges for a stunt where fireworks were shot from a helicopter at a Lamborghini ( U.S. District Court ) Investigators believe the stunt was filmed in the El Mirage Dry Lakebed in San Bernardino County, California. Authorities said the stunt was done without filming permits. A second part of the YouTube video shows a behind-the-scenes look at the filming. In it, Choi makes references to coordinating and directing the shoot, prosecutors said. He also thanks the camera crew for being part of my crazy stupid ideas. Choi also decided to end filming when someone asked if they would film again and the YouTuber said No, thats it. Were out of fireworks, right? Prosecutors believe the stunt was filmed a month earlier and that Choi did not have a permit to film using fireworks on a helicopter. He also purchased the fireworks in Nevada because they were illegal in California. The pilot initially told a Federal Aviation Administration inspector that he did not know about anything about the video, according to prosecutors. He later said he didnt want Choi to know he was speaking to authorities and that the YouTube star was doing unsafe activities involving cars and aircraft. FAA officials revoked the pilots license in January. A drone operator also expressed concerns with the shoot and said he did not remember any first responders nearby. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Watch arrivals at a court in Wilmington, Delaware, as Hunter Biden's trial on criminal gun charges continued on Friday, 7 June. Joe Biden's son, 54, has pleaded not guilty to three felony charges accusing him of failing to disclose his use of illegal drugs when he bought the gun in October 2018 and of illegally possessing the weapon for 11 days. The trial has heard testimony from Hallie Biden Hunters sister-in-law-turned-lover to testify about Hunters drug use and the firearm she discovered in his pickup truck. Hallie told jurors she panicked when she found the gun and decided to discard it in a trash can behind a grocery store. Proceedings were expected to continue on Friday with more testimony from three witnesses. When asked if he would accept whatever outcome of his sons trial taking place in Wilmington, Delaware, the president said, yes and that he would rule out a pardon. Earlier this week he issued a statement saying: I am the President, but I am also a Dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today." The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} They really took this one apart. Two suspects have been arrested and accused of running a Lego yes, Lego theft ring after authorities found thousands of boxes of stolen products in a California home, the Los Angeles Police Departement said. Richard Siegel, 71, and Blanca Gudino, 39, were taken into custody on Wednesday after police served a search warrant and found thousands of boxes of Lego toys inside the Long Beach house. Detectives first became aware of the Lego thefts in December 2023 after several products were stolen from a Target in San Pedro, California, including Star Wars, Harry Potter and Marvel sets. Authorities with the Los Angeles Police Department recovered nearly 3,000 boxes of stolen Legos this week and arrested two people connected to the crime ( Los Angeles Police Department ) On Tuesday, members of the Los Angeles Police Department caught Gudino stealing items from Targets in Torrance and Lakewood before taking the toys to Siegels home in Long Beach. The sets were being resold through online ads, police said. While serving the search warrant the following day, authorities found over 2,800 boxes of stolen products varying in value from $20 to $1,000. Potential buyers even showed up to purchase the Legos while officers were at the home. Siegel was arrested for organized retail theft while Gudino was arrested for grand theft. Authorities are asking that anyone with information on the crimes report it to police. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} President Joe Biden on Friday urged the current generation of Americans to heed the example of the Greatest Generation by defending democracy at home and abroad in a speech rife with allusions to his 2024 election opponent. Speaking from the same location where then-president Ronald Reagan honored the boys of Pointe du Hoc four decades earlier, Biden channeled the memory of the US Army Rangers whod fought their way up the sandy heights to open a hole in Nazi Germanys so-called Atlantic Wall and cast the contemporary tensions between democracy and modern authoritarian movements as a similar battle. His remarks, while official in nature, came at a time when he is seeking to cast Trump as a grave threat to democracy allied with the same authoritarian forces that Americans have fought in generations past. As we gather here today, its not just to honor those who showed such remarkable bravery that day June 6, 1944 its to listen to the echo of their voices. To hear them. Because they are summoning us, he said. As he invoked the memory of the soldiers whod climbed up the sheer cliffs while facing German gunfire 80 years ago to defeat the hateful ideology of Nazism, Biden suggested without mentioning Trumps name that those honored veterans would have sided against him in the present time. He asked: Does anyone doubt they would move heaven and earth to vanquish hateful ideologies of today? Theyre asking us what will we do. Theyre not asking us to scale these cliffs. Theyre asking us to stay true to what America stands for, he said, adding that the current generation is the fortunate heirs of those departed heroes. We must also be the keepers of their mission ... the bearers of the flame of freedom they kept burning bright, he said. Bidens speech, the second in as many days in which he drew parallels between the Second World War and current conflicts both at home in the US and abroad, came just over 24 hours after he delivered a passionate call for the West to stand by Ukraine in its ongoing fight against Russian invading forces. In his Thursday remarks at the American cemetery overlooking the beaches where British, American, and Canadian soldiers landed in France and began the fight to liberate Europe, he told an audience that included dignitaries and nearly three dozen veterans of the battle fought 80 years ago that their war against fascism is echoed in the fight against Russian aggression being waged by Ukrainian soldiers and their allies today. The men who fought here became heroes, not because theyre the strongest or toughest or fiercest, although they were but because they were given an audacious mission, knowing the probability of dying was real. But they did it anyway, he said. They knew ... beyond any doubt that there are things that are worth fighting and dying for: Freedom is worth it. Democracy is worth it. Americas worth it, the world is worth it, then, now and always. Earlier in the day on Friday, Biden met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and apologized for the months-long delay in providing his country with much-needed military aid as he announced a new $225 million arms package for Kyiv. He also praised Zelensky and his people for their steadfast determination over the more than two-year war that began in February 2022. You havent bowed down. You havent yielded at all. You continue to fight in a way that is just remarkable, just remarkable, he said. Were not going to walk away from you, he added. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Nearly a dozen people were hospitalized with heat exhaustion while they waited to enter a Donald Trump town hall event in Arizona, according to local officials. Eleven people were taken to area hospitals as they gathered outside of the Dream City Church in north Phoenix, Phoenix Fire told ABC 15. The crowds were there to see Trump as he held his first major event since the guilty verdict in his New York hush money trial late last month. Temperatures ahead of the event reached 110 on Thursday for the first time in the region this year. During his remarks, Trump did not mention any of his supporters who were hospitalized, though he did joke that a large crowd outside the venue hadnt been able to get in to see him speak. Elsewhere, the former president bashed the Biden administrations climate policies and other attempts to battle the climate crisis, which is exacerbating the risk of extreme heat deaths in states like Arizona. In a question-and-answer portion of the event, Trump branded Green New Deal-style proposals as a green new scam, and accused Joe Biden without evidence of being in on some kind of conspiracy with the makers of electric cars and renewable energy infrastructure like windmills and solar panels. Theres something going on, Trump suggested, accusing Biden of trying to benefit his friends who make all this crap. Trump said he did like Elon Musk, who he said does an incredible job with Tesla, but claimed he told the billionaire of his cars that, They dont go far. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} An interview with Donald Trump from TV therapist Dr Phil appeared to contain abrupt cuts with a social media account connected to the presidential campaign of Joe Biden suggesting the edits had been made to cover up the Republicans gaffes and confusion. The former president sat down with Dr Phil in an interview that was published on Thursday evening. But it has quickly been criticised for being fawning, while Dr Phil has been accused of pandering to Mr Trump. The account Biden-Harris HQ posted a video on X, formerly Twitter, appearing to show a series of Mr Trumps answers to certain questions that have been stitched together. Dr. Phils interview of Trump appears to abruptly cut out Trumps gaffes and confusion, the Biden-affiliated account wrote. The edits appear to have been made as Mr Trump was asked by Dr Phil about claims the Chinese government has bought land near US military facilities. Another social media user who shared the Biden-Harris HQ video suggested these kinds of edits were becoming commonplace for interviews with Mr Trump. This keeps happening with every Trump propaganda interview, MeidasTouch wrote. These edits are bizarre. Journalist Aaron Rupar claimed on X at the start of this week that a Fox interview with Mr Trump published on Sunday had also been heavily edited. Reacting to that video, other users accused the news channel of being too friendly with Mr Trump. Trumps interview on Fox & Friends was clearly heavily edited, wrote Mr Rupar. Dr Phils hour-long interview with Mr Trump was staged at the former presidents Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Social media users reacted to the interview harshly, accusing the former therapist turned TV host of pathetic fawning over Mr Trump. At one point, Dr Phil told the recently convicted former president that he believed he had been muzzled by a judge in his New York hush money trial, during which the jury found Mr Trump guilty on all 34 counts. The TV star told Trump that he hoped that Joe Biden would step in and prevent the legal cases against the former president, two of which are state and not federal jurisdiction. Dr Phil also claimed that he had been to the border and been told by officials there without providing evidence that 13 million migrants had been let into the US. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trump told Dr Phil about the toll the 2024 election is having on his family as the two spoke on a number of issues during a wild interview. When asked how his wife Melania is holding up, Trump said she was good and remains supportive of his presidential campaign. However, he admitted, it was not easy for her to see fake reports. I dont think its an easy thing for her, he said. And I think if it wasnt good, she wouldnt want to tell me about it to be honest with you. Because, you know, she sees that Im fighting like hell, Im trying to become president and make America great again. Donald Trump returns to the White House with First Lady Melania Trump and their son Baron after a weekend in Bedminster on August 16, 2020. Trumps discussed the toll the 2024 election is taking on his family during an interview with Dr. Phil. ( AFP via Getty Images ) Trump offered a similar assessment of how his youngest son Barron was handling the difficulties of his father being in the spotlight - especially after turning 18 years old. I think he doesnt say because he doesnt want to hurt me and thinks its a possibly a hurtful conversation, but it has to affect my family, Trump said. Ultimately, though, the former president believes his family tolerate his 2024 campaign out of patriotism and their faith in Donald Trump. I think to a certain extent, my family wants me to do it. Our countrys in trouble. We could be in a world war very soon, Trump told the host, adding, My family loves this country and I think they feel I do a good job. Donald Trump and Dr. Phil discuss several topics including the election and his family during an interview on June 6. ( Dr. Phil Merit Street ) Trumps proclamation comes as several members of his immediate familyincluding Barron, his daughter Ivanka, and Melaniadid not attend the hush money trial, where Trump was convicted of falsifying business records as part of a 2016 campaign scheme to pay hush money to women claiming they had affairs with him. The absences reportedly definitely bothered the former president. In private, Melania reportedly considered the trial a disgrace and election interference, a source close to the Trump family told The New York Times. However, Donald Jr. and Eric were frequent attendees at the trial and spoke out against the witch hunt. Tiffany Trump also made a rare appearance to support her father during the trial. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} During a fawning one-on-one interview with Donald Trump, Dr Phil echoed the former presidents conspiratorial claims that Democrats silenced him during his recent hush money trial to interfere with the 2024 election - as both ripped his conviction. From the opening moments of the conversation on Dr Phil Primetime, the host made it clear he was on his guests side and offered little pushback to the former presidents lies and disproven claims. They need to stop this, Dr Phil said of the criminal case against Trump. They need to stop pursuing you. The host continued that he believed the prosecution against Trump in New York, which ended in a guilty verdict, and the ongoing 2020 election conspiracy case in Georgia, were both secretly White House plots, even though they are state cases, controlled by state governments. Dont be naive people, Dr Phil told viewers. Understand theres a power play going on here. The host also claimed a gag order imposed against Trump in March during the hush money trial, based on concerns he would use his platform to intimidate witnesses and jurors, was really an attempt to muzzle the Republican frontrunner. When you get muzzled in the way that this judge muzzled this case, [the jury] are sitting there saying, Whats the rest of the story? Dr Phil said, claiming that the scales get tipped. Trump, despite the ongoing gag order, showed no hesitation attacking the New York verdict, claiming the trial was backward and he was guilty until proven innocent. Donald Trump gives brief remarks alongside his attorney Todd Blanche after the conclusion of his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30, 2024 in New York City ( Getty Images ) He reserved special ire for Judge Juan Merchan, the official who oversaw the hush money trial, describing him as a corrupt official who is so conflicted. Im the Republican nominee, Trump said elsewhere. I was the president and Im leading the current Democrat by a lot, but I have a gag order from a local judge who was appointed by the Democrat party (sic). Trump even took issue with the air condition during his New York trial, which he said he believed was set that way by the judge. Theyve taken away my voice, Trump told Dr Phil of the trial. Theyre keeping me in this icebox and theyve taken away my voice. Michael Cohen departs home to testify in Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York ( REUTERS ) The former president also slammed the witnesses who testified against him, including his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, claiming the witnesses were coerced with threats and told, You have to say bad things about Trump. In regards to Cohen, Trump said, Theyve destroyed his life. Hes a fascist. These are really bad people Phil. Both men took issue with the legal principle that Trump couldve faced prosecution for something he said on the stand in the hush money trial, where he ultimately declined to testify. If you say it was a beautiful day as I remember and it was raining out, were going to indict you for perjury, Trump said. I wouldve thrown myself in front of a car to keep you from testifying, Dr Phil responded, adding, One of the big myths is that the burden of proof lies with the prosecution. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} George Clooney reportedly called one of Joe Bidens top aides last month to rebuke the administration for its reaction to an international arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - a case the famed actors wife backed. The call between Clooney and Bidens officials reportedly occurred last month, according to anonymous sources who spoke to the Washington Post. They said Clooney called Bidens counselor, Steve Ricchetti, to push back on Bidens condemnation of the International Criminal Courts arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. They said the actor was especially upset that Biden called the ICCs actions outrageous. The ICC prosecutors application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous, Mr Biden said following the warrant announcement. Clooney also expressed concerns that the administration was considering sanctions against the ICC, which would possibly make his wife, Amal, subject to Bidens retaliation. The report comes before a fundraiser for Biden set for this weekend where Clooney is scheduled to appear. Biden-world officials are reportedly worried that he may withdraw from the event which will also feature an appearance by former President Barack Obama, late night host Jimmy Kimmel, and Julia Roberts over the administrations position on the ICC warrant. Vice President joe Biden meets with George Clooney, Monday, Feb. 23, 2009 at the White House in Washington. Vice President joe Biden meets with George Clooney, Monday, Feb. 23, 2009 at the White House in Washington. Clooney reportedly called the White House recently to blast them for the reaction to his wifes work with the International Criminal Court ( The White House ) Last month, the ICC announced arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders, accusing both sides of war crimes during the ongoing conflict. I support the historic step that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has taken to bring justice to victims of atrocities in Israel and Palestine, she said after the warrants were announced. Amal Clooney served with other experts and agreed to recommend to the ICC to seek the warrants. The decision was unanimous. However, the US is not a member of the court. Netanyahu, Gallant and three Hamas leaders Yehia Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh were all accused of war crimes for their actions over the Israel-Gaza war. The conflict started on Oct. 7 when Hamas invaded Israel and killed 1,200 people. More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed since. Kennedy Center honorees US actor George Clooney (L) and Bono of Irish band U2 attend a reception for the Kennedy Center Honorees in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on December 4, 2022 ( AFP via Getty Images ) Biden and George Clooney have had a long relationship. Clooney once met with Biden when he was vice president. In 2022, Biden spoke highly of Clooney during a presentation of the 45th Kennedy Center Honors, saying he sincerely respected the actor for his deep empathy. In addition to dealing with an incensed actor, Biden may also be infuriating Ukraine's President Volodomyr Zelensky, as his fundraiser is scheduled for the same night as the embattled leader's peace summit in Switzerland. Zelensky warned that the summit "needs" to have Biden present for maximum effect, but the president will be skipping. His absence would only be met by an applause by Putin, a personal, standing applause by Putin, Zelensky said during a recent visit to Belgium. Instead, the White House plans to sent Vice President Kamala Harris over in his place, according to The Telegraph. The Vice President will underscore the Biden-Harris administrations commitment to supporting Ukraines effort to secure a just and lasting peace, based on Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity and the principles of the UN Charter, the White House said in a statement. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} The US Supreme Court is one of the last black boxes in American politics. No anonymous sources talking to the press. No secret videos recorded on the inside. What happens in the chambers when the nine justices meet to decide their cases remains strictly confidential. However, annual disclosures from the high court judges do give us one peak into the world of SCOTUS: they get a ton of free stuff and plenty of big checks for their work off the bench. Far from a dull government disclosure form, these records are the latest bit of fodder for observers of a court thats suffered a string of ethics controversies in recent years. Released Friday, the disclosures capture the high-flying life of Americas top jurists. Justice Clarence Thomas, for instance, amended his past disclosures to capture gifts from conservative billionaire Harlan Crow, who paid in 2019 for the justice to visit the Indonesian island of Bali and the Bohemian Grove, an elite mens club in California. He also disclosed free private jet travel he got in 2022, citing the courts recently adopted ethics policy, a first-of-its-kind set of requirements for the high court adopted in November. United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas poses for an official portrait at the East Conference Room of the Supreme Court building on October 7, 2022 in Washington, DC ( Getty Images ) The justice has said he began flying private after the court suffered an unprecedented May 2022 leak of a draft ruling of the decision in which the court ultimately overturned the constitutional right to an abortion in Roe v Wade. The disclosures contain other eye-popping figures. Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson reported receiving four concert tickets from Beyonce, valued at $3,700, and $10,000 in artwork for her chambers from artist Lonnie Holley. Justice Jackson is Crazy in Love with Beyonces music. Who isnt? court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe told The Washington Post of the gift, referencing the pop stars 2003 hit of the same name. Justice Jackson also reported a nearly $900,000 dollar advance for an upcoming memoir. Ketanji Brown Jackson, nominated to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit, is sworn in to testify before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on pending judicial nominations on Capitol Hill, April 28, 2021 in Washington, DC ( Getty Images ) Justice Sonia Sotomayor, meanwhile, reported $1,900 in earnings from the arts as well. She lent her voice to Almas Way, a PBS animated childrens show about a Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx, the jurists home borough. No justice has been the subject of more scrutiny for his gifts than Thomas, though. A recent analysis of financial gifts to Supreme Court members between 2004 and 2023 showed that the conservative justice raked in roughly $2.4m of the nearly $3m total current justices have received during that period. Supreme Court justices should not be accepting gifts, let alone the hundreds of freebies worth millions of dollars theyve received over the years, Gabe Roth, executive director at Fix the Court, the advocacy group that compiled the data, said in a statement to The Independent. Over the years, Thomas flew multiple times on the private jet of billionaire Wayne Huizenga, and Crow paid $160,000 for a yacht cruise around the Greek isles. All the free stuff Supreme Court justices got in 2023 ( Getty Images ) Tax and property records show Crow also bought three parcels of land from the justice for $133,363 in 2014, including the one where Thomass mother currently lives. In a statement to CNN, Crow said he bought the land so he could one day create a public museum at the Thomas home dedicated to telling the story of our nations second black Supreme Court Justice. Thomas has defended his association with the conservative donor. As friends do, we have joined [ Crow and his wife] on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them, Justice Thomas said of the trips in a statement last year. The court has been dogged by ethics issues in recent years. In the throes of the 2020 election, where the Supreme Court would eventually hear cases from Donald Trump challenging election results, Ginni Thomas, wife of Clarence Thomas, lobbied the White House to continue falsely claiming Trump won the contest. Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!! reads one message from November of that year she sent to Mr Trumps chief of staff, Mark Meadows. You are the leader, with him, who is standing for Americas constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History. Such messages landed Ms Thomas in front of the congressional January 6 committee, where she denied exerting any improper influence over her husbands work at the Supreme Court. In 2011, Justice Thomas, under scrutiny from watchdog groups, updated years of disclosure forms to include the fact that Ms Thomas, a conservative activist, earned more than $686,000 in income from the right-leaning Heritage Foundation between 2003 and 2007, a discrepancy Mr Thomas attributed to a misunderstanding of filing instructions. More recently, Justice Samuel Alito has come under fire, after an upside American flag was seen flying above his home in 2021, which some observers took to be a statement of allegiance to pro-Trump protesters challenging the validity of the 2020 election. Alito says his wife flew the flag as part of a dispute with neighbors in which he had no part. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Dr Phil McGraw was panned for his pathetic fawning interview with Donald Trump and was accused of going full-on MAGA. Trump sat down at Mar-a-Lago for an hour-long interview with the TV therapist during which he faced a series of softball questions and was allowed to lie repeatedly about his record and Joe Biden. Dr Phil told the recently convicted president that he believed he had been muzzled by a judge in his New York hush money trial. The TV star told Trump that he hoped that Joe Biden would step in and prevent the legal cases against the former president, two of which are state and not federal jurisdiction. Dr Phil also claimed that he had been to the border and been told by officials there that 13 million migrants had been let into the US. Donald Trump reacts during an interview with Dr Phil from Mar-a-Lago ( Dr. Phils Merit Street ) He also showed Trump a map of where he claims the Chinese government has bought land near US military facilities, suggesting that something nefarious was going on. At one point, Dr Phil asked Trump why he bothered to run for president. I know you got thick skin. Youre not one of those people afflicted with the need to be loved by strangers. Youre a billionaire. You got a great family. Youre a very dedicated father. Why do you subject yourself to this? Dr Phil was quickly slammed online for his conspiracy-theory-heavy interview, with one X user calling him an unlicensed therapist. I suggest a cognitive test for anyone falling for drama queen and droning oaf Dr. Phil McGraw. "He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, though he ceased renewing his license to practice psychology in 2006." Now a tv personality and unlicensed therapist. Leahbug (@leahbug56) June 7, 2024 I suggest a cognitive test for anyone falling for drama queen and droning oaf Dr. Phil McGraw. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, though he ceased renewing his license to practice psychology in 2006. Now a tv personality and unlicensed therapist, wrote the user. I used to LOVE you!!! My DVR was set to record your shows. So you being imaprtial was an act? Youve fell into the politics rabbit hole where you CANT be impartial and hold a politician ACCOUNTABLE!? Donald Trump treated unfairly while he cheered to lock up Hillary? DISGUSTED! wrote another person on X. @DrPhil I feel so sad for you believing that bunch of nonsense. So, with anyone else , you would have called out these lies of Trump. What is so evil is that you feeding his lies to the American people. Dr Doc Phil , I am totally DONE with you because are definitely a supporter. Wanda Buie (@Buie3Buie) June 7, 2024 Tuned in to see @DrPhil interview Trump, but this is far from an interview. Im watching Phil declare himself as full-on MAGA. Ignoring facts. Letting him say he never met @ejeancarroll Phil is on his knees in front of a convicted criminal, wrote another user. Another user branded the interview a bunch of nonsense. Dr Phil going for that rich tax cut . Pathetic easy interview for Trump and kissing his diaper. Trump looks horrible. All bout him no policy issues. No idea who she is lol. Wife disagrees with you. She is MIA. I didnt see any boxes in the background Anthony Saldana (@ajs1390) June 7, 2024 So, with anyone else , you would have called out these lies of Trump. What is so evil is that you feeding his lies to the American people. Dr Doc Phil , I am totally DONE with you because are definitely a supporter, they wrote. One user said that Dr Phil was going for that rich tax cut. Dr. Phil with some serious journalism right here: I know you got thick skin. Youre not one of those people afflicted with the need to be loved by strangers. Youre a billionaire. You got a great family. Youre a very dedicated father. Why do you subject yourself to this? pic.twitter.com/CjiXaxIQUP Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) June 7, 2024 Pathetic easy interview for Trump and kissing his diaper. Trump looks horrible. All bout him no policy issues. Another user added: Dr Phil is MAGA scum. Just saw his interview with Trump and he was saying how the judicial system turned against you and how on earth does the poor man deal with all the stress? Two malignant narcissists. Dr Phil should join Dr Oz wherever the H he ended up!! Two frauds supporting a BIG fraud!! wrote another person on X. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trump issued a chilling warning that revenge can be justified during a wild interview with Dr Phil, less than a week after a New York jury convicted him on all charges in the hush money trial. The former president, and new felon, has gone on to blast the judge and jury, while falsely accusing President Joe Biden of orchestrating the criminal case against him. Trump has also made repeated threats to prosecute his political rivals should he return to the White House. Dr Phil addressed Trumps threats of retribution during Thursday evenings interview. I think you have so much to do, the TV host said. You dont have time to get even. You only have time to get right. Trump replied: Well revenge does take time, I will say that. And sometimes revenge can be justified. The former president also told Fox News Sean Hannity earlier this week that he believed he had every right to go after his rivals. Trump had made his intended retribution against Biden clear even before the trial. From January 1, 2023- April 1, 2024, Trump has posted 25 direct or implied threats on his Truth Social platform about his plans to target Joe Biden using the power of the federal government if he returns to the White House, according to a Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) analysis. Trumps allies have joined in his calls for revenge. Texas Republican Representative Ronny Jackson told Newsmax that he planned to aggressively go after the president and his entire family after Biden leaves office. Fellow Texas GOP Rep. Troy Nehls also warned there will be hell to pay for the guilty verdict. Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Trumps 2016 rival for the White House, tweeted after the verdict that Biden was a demented man propped up by wicked & deranged people willing to destroy our country to remain in power. He added, using emojis: Its time to fight [fire] with [fire]. Dr Phil began his interview on Thursday by aligning himself with Trump. They need to stop this, Dr Phil said, referring to the New York criminal case. They need to stop pursuing you. The clinical psychologist-turned-TV host also asked whether the gag order against Trump, which bars him from discussing the jury, witnesses, and others until after the court proceedings end, was an attempt to muzzle him. Theyve taken away my voice, Trump said. Theyre keeping me in this icebox and theyve taken away my voice. Trump has violated the gag order multiple times and was hit with hefty fines. His lawyers this week asked the judge to lift the gag order. Prosecutors opposed this suggestion, writing to the judge that the gag order should remain not only on the need to avoid threats to the fairness of the trial itself but to protect the integrity of the proceedings and the orderly administration of the court. Trump pleaded not guilty at his hush money trial, and has maintained that he is a very innocent man. He will be sentenced on July 11 but has vowed to appeal the verdict. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} The judge presiding over Donald Trumps hush money trial has alerted prosecutors and Trumps defense team about a Facebook post from an apparent social media troll announcing Trumps conviction one day before a jury announced a guilty verdict. A brief letter from New York Justice Juan Merchan on Friday tells the parties that the court became aware of a comment from a user named Michael Anderson that states: My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted Thank you folks for all your hard work!!!! The comment was posted under an unrelated post on the New York court systems Facebook page from May 29, the day before jurors found Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records, according to the letter. A Facebook profile that appears to belong to the person who posted that comment as well as similar comments on the courts page describes himself as a professional s***poster. Judge Merchan asks both sides to view the comment. New York Justice Juan Merchan. He has alerted the sides to a potential issue with a juror after a Facebook post. ( AP ) Former federal prosecutor and NBC News contributor Joyce Alene said that Judge Merchan would be smart to advise the parties [and] hold a hearing on the record to resolve this. If its someone posting with no basis for it as it appears, the record will be clear and if theres something to it, good to get it out [and] do justice, she wrote. New York Courts spokesperson Al Baker said in a statement to The Independent that as appropriate, the Court informed the parties once it learned of this online content. A jury in Manhattan found Trump guilty on all 34 counts against him after deliberating for roughly nine hours over two days, and after hearing witness testimony and evidence over roughly five weeks. The former president covered up reimbursement payments to his former attorney Michael Cohen, who paid hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniel at Trumps direction to prevent her story about having sex with Trump from reaching voters before Election Day in 2016. The Independent has requested comment from Trumps attorneys and the office of Manhattan District Attorney. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} The fallout from Donald Trumps conviction on 34 charges turned out to be manifold, but one of the main takeaways was it allowed for Republicans to play out their revenge fantasies. On Thursday, Trump told television psychologist Dr Phil in an interview that sometimes revenge can be justified. During the same show, the former president and the television host both pleaded for the investigations into Trump to stop. In fairness, most Republican actions particularly in the House of Representatives and on the state level could be interpreted as an act of revenge these days. Thats because most of them feel Trump was wronged by the Deep State and Democrats, and that the multiple investigations and two impeachments are somehow proof of that. But Trump has not been shy about his very personal desire for revenge. Indeed, hes said that: I am your justice, and for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution. Republicans failed impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden can best be understood through the lens of retribution since the GOP has mostly failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing. Now that the de facto head of the Republican Party has notched a criminal conviction, Republicans have removed even the pretense that they will focus on doing anything except exacting vengeance. Trump largely lost the 2020 election on the back of his poor handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. In turn, Republicans have sought to find another culprit for the virus raging across the country in 2020. That would explain why Republicans hearing on Monday, where they brought Anthony Fauci to testify after he had already testified behind closed doors after accusing him of funding research that led to the Covid outbreak. They also claimed that he tried to suppress information about the virus. It also would explain Marjorie Taylor Greenes refusal to acknowledge Fauci as a doctor while she held up pictures of beagles who were experimented on by the National Institutes of Health and said, We should be writing a criminal referral because you should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. Of course, Greenes influence has significantly diminished ever since she failed to eject House Speaker Mike Johnson. But she still speaks for a large swath of Republican voters and, should Trump win, will likely be one of the main people holding the House GOP conferences feet to the fire to make sure they do what the president wants. The same could be said with the House Judiciary Committees hearing with Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday. Jim Jordan, who played a key role in trying to help Trumps scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, leads that committee. The hearing was ostensibly meant to examine how the [Department of Justice] has become politicized and weaponized. Of course, the Justice Department had nothing to do with the case as Alvin Bragg, a district attorney elected in New York City, was the one who brought it. Nonetheless, during that hearing, Representative Matt Gaetz Trumps loudest apologist in the House engaged in a heated back-and-forth with Garland. He mainly asked questions about Judge Juan Merchans daughter, who works for a digital firm aligned with Democrats a common attack Trump made on the judge presiding over his case throughout his trial. While Merchans daughter did work for the firm, the idea there was a mass conspiracy against the former president orchestrated by various branches is not substantiated by any evidence. But that doesnt matter. What matters more is that House Republicans are seen as acting in total fealty to Trump and that Trump sees Congress and all other branches of government, for that matter as in total service to him. Even the speakers decision to nominate both Representatives Ronny Jackson of Texas and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania to be on the House Intelligence Committee comes back to this. Both men are seen as having been slighted in service of Trump: Trump was forced to rescind nomination for Jackson, the former White House physician, to be secretary of Veterans Affairs after reports that Jackson was repeatedly drunk on the job. Similarly, Perrys phone was seized by the FBI, and the January 6 Committee alleged that he was involved in the scheme to overturn the election. Now Perry will be on the committee that has jurisdiction over the FBI. That move can only be interpreted as Johnson needling the agency that executed a search warrant on Trump and led to one of his two federal indictments. All of this serves a preview of what Trump will value above all else, should he reassume the White House. While he will certainly attempt to enact conservative policies that Mike Johnsons Republican conference would enact, vengeance will be the main driver of this second term. Not only that, but he will have the full support of Republicans in Washington and elsewhere as he does it. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trump raised $12 million in a single night on Thursday as he attended an event held for him by tech venture capitalists in San Francisco intended to attract Silicon Valleys wealthy conservative-leaning investors. Husband-and-wife David and Jacqueline Sacks joined Chamath Palihapitiya in hosting the Republican presidential candidate and convicted felon for a reception and gala dinner at the Sacks home in the citys exclusive Pacific Heights neighbourhood, according to Reuters. Tickets for the private event went for $500,000 per couple, according to the news agency, which quotes Republican National Committeewoman Harmeet Dhillon on the nights final fundraising total. President Trump is relaxed, happy, and cracking jokes about AI, she posted on X as the event was ongoing. Dhillon also reported that the cryptocurrency community was well represented at the gathering, with famed twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss in attendance and a major topic of conversation being Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren going after crypto. Although San Francisco remains a predominantly liberal city where Joe Biden picked up 85 per cent of the vote in 2020 and where Kamala Harris staged her own event on Wednesday a growing number of influential tech investors are sounding out Trump on the subject of cryptocurrency as the perception grows that the president is hostile to the sector. The crypto industry is increasingly trying to influence Washington as it faces heightened scrutiny from regulators, especially in the wake of a wave of bankruptcies at major firms in 2022 that spooked investors, exposed fraud and misconduct and left millions of investors out of pocket. Sacks and Palihapitiya have made no secret of their own investments in bitcoin and appear to have been put in touch with Trump by Ohio senator JD Vance, who previously lived in the city and worked in venture capital but is now a potential running mate for the former president. Vance was reportedly in attendance at Thursdays gathering as was North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, another possible veep and was thanked by David Sacks in his speech to his guests. The evenings fundraising bounty follows the $141 million the Trump campaign said it raised in May, which included $52.8 million collected in the 24 hours immediately after its candidate was found guilty on all counts at his New York hush money trial on May 30. Since the Manhattan jury reached its verdict in that case, Trump has wasted little time in carrying out a conservative media blitz, granting a series of grievance-airing interviews to Fox News, Newsmax and, most recently, Dr. Phil McGraws web show. Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona, on Thursday 6 June 2024 ( Rick Scuteri/AP ) His sitdown with the former Oprah TV therapist, broadcast on Thursday while the San Francisco gala was underway, yielded some revelations about the pressure Trumps family is placed under by the intense scrutiny surrounding his political career and how he copes with stress, but was otherwise given over to the interviewees familiar conspiracy narratives and insistence that his trial had been rigged. Prior to arriving in California, Trump had been in Phoenix, Arizona, addressing a Turning Point USA town hall in which he again played the victim while also railing at Bidens handling of illegal immigration at the southern border as bulls***, declaring that the United States risked becoming a dumping ground for the dungeons of the Third World without a secure border. Additional reporting by agenices. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Former House Democrat Tulsi Gabbard appears to have thrown herself into consideration for secretary of state or defense secretary in a potential Donald Trump administration. Gabbard, who has reportedly met with the Trump campaign in recent months, was asked on the Wisconsin-based radio show The Regular Joe Show on Thursday whether there was one thing she could do that would be serving the country in the best way possible if Trump is elected president. I think there are a few different ways I could serve, as secretary of state, secretary of defense. There are a few different ways I believe I could best serve our country, she said. Ultimately, weve got to save our country and win this election. I look forward to finding the best way that I can do that, she added. Gabbard endorsed Joe Biden after she dropped out of the Democratic primary race in 2020, and then left the Democratic Party in 2022. Within eight years, Gabbard has moved from being an ally for Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign to a Democratic presidential candidate to a right-wing influencer who has filled in as a host on Tucker Carlsons former Fox News show, making appearances at Trumps Mar-a-Lago compound. Tulsi Gabbard speaks at CPAC in March 2023. ( Getty Images ) After leaving Congress and the Democratic Party, Gabbard has been a frequent guest on right-wing media platforms and at the Conservative Political Action Conference, sandwiched between speeches from far-right personalities and elected officials. She has repeatedly expressed her interest in serving as Trumps vice president in several interviews, including on Donald Trump Jr.s podcast. Last week, while promoting her book For Love of Country: Leave the Democrat Party Behind, Gabbard told supporters in California that she would be honored to be named Trumps running mate. Gabbard, an independent, hasnt ruled out formally joining the Republican Party. I never say never, she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week while traveling across Wisconsin to promote her book. We need leaders, whether youre a Democrat or Republican or independent, whatever the label, political label that is attached to you, to put the interests of our country and the American people first and foremost, she said. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} The US will soon dispatch an arms and aid package to Ukraine amounting to $225million as Kyiv works to repel renewed Russian attacks, President Joe Biden said on Friday. Biden announced the new tranche of defense assistance in Paris during a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, a day after the Ukrainian president joined the US president and other world leaders for ceremonies commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day. In remarks at the American cemetery in Normandy during the ceremony, Biden had described Ukraines fight against Russia as a modern-day analog of the war against Hitler and Nazism while stressing the importance of beating back isolationist sentiment, providing an implicit contrast with his predecessor and likely 2024 election opponent, former president Donald Trump. Sitting alongside Zelensky on Friday, Biden again told the Ukrainian leader that the US would stand with [him] and praised the countrys resistance to Russias invasion, specifically how forces have pushed back on Moscows offensive in the city of Kharkiv. U.S. President Joe Biden shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris, Friday, June 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) ( AP ) The way youve stood in holding onto Kharkiv, youve proven once again that the people of Ukraine cannot and will never be overtaken ... you are the bulwark against the aggression thats taking place. We have an obligation to be there, Biden said. You havent bowed down. You havent yielded at all. You continue to fight in a way that is just remarkable, just remarkable. Were not going to walk away from you, he added. Biden also apologized for the months-long delay in approving new aid to Ukraine, caused by Republicans in Congress who opposed the defense assistance at the behest of former president Donald Trump. We had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass that had the money in it. Some of our very conservative members were holding it up. But we got it done finally, Biden said. The president has repeatedly linked Ukraines defense to a broader struggle between democracy and autocracy a theme which dovetails with the one he has used to describe his re-election fight against Trump. The presumptive Republican nominee has threatened to cut off all aid to Ukraine if he wins the November presidential election. Zelensky thanked Biden for the continued US support and said it was very important for America to stand with Ukraine the way the western allies stood together during the Second World War, shoulder to shoulder. We are with you, with our strategic partner, Zelensky said. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} A Vermont police department has been slammed for staging a mock shooting that school officials say left students scared and confused. The incident happened as Burlington High School students attended a presentation at the Burlington Police Department as part of their Year End Studies (YES) program. That presentation, which was designed to teach students about how detectives solved crimes, included a mock gunman played by a police officer who burst into the room while wearing a mask and pretended to open fire. Im shaking and crying because Im like, Oh my god, Im gonna get shot, an unnamed student who attended told local outlet Seven Days Vermont. It felt so real. A letter sent to parents by the Burlington School District said the enactment involved screaming and fake gunshot sounds that took place without warning. As a result, some students believed the demonstration was real and were left feeling scared and confused, the letter reads. We take our responsibility to keep students safe very seriously, and we are deeply sorry that this event occurred, the letter continues. Students who attended a presentation at the Burlington Police Department, pictured, were frightened by a mock shooting presentation put on by police ( Google Maps ) The Burlington Police Department said in a statement they told school officials about the simulation ahead of time, asking teachers if they thought the roleplay would be acceptable for their students. It is about as real life as you can get and is certainly exactly the sort of thing we deal with most frequently, officers told school officials, per the police department. The department said school officials responded: I think these students will be fine with this simulation. We will give a heads up to parents and students. It is unclear whether parents and students were warned ahead of time. Two students who spoke to Seven Days said they were unaware of the simulation beforehand. The Independent has contacted the Burlington School District for comment. Im baffled, one unnamed mother told Seven Days. It is a very real threat to kids these days to have a school shooting. Its something they worry about. The police department apologized for the incident. First and foremost, the Burlington Police Department apologizes to any students in attendance who were upset by the specific scenario and crime scene portion of the presentation, the police department said. The role-playing scenario only involved three department personnel simulating a robbery scenario and was not directed at any students or faculty. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} A new police report details a white fathers explanation to cops for why he shoved a Black school superintendent off a Wisconsin graduation stage to stop him from shaking his graduating daughters hand. The scandal began on May 31, when Matthew Eddy walked onto the stage at Baraboo High Schools graduation as his daughter was shaking hands with school officials. As she approached Superintendent Rainey Briggs, who is Black, the father jumped on stage, grabbed the superintendent by his arm, and dragged him away from his daughter, viral video of the incident shows. He put both of his hands on me to push me out of the way stating, You are not going to touch my (expletive) daughter, Briggs told police . At that time I created space and stated get your hands off me. Now, Eddy has been charged with disorderly conduct and Briggs has filed a restraining order against the man. The police report, obtained by local outlet WMTV 5 News, says Eddy told officers he had past issues with Rainey and dislikes him. Eddy told police he wanted to prevent Rainey from having the satisfaction of shaking his daughters hand, so he went onto the stage to prevent that from happening. An unnamed father of a graduate pictured shoving Superintendent Rainey Briggs (far left) off the stage. In 2018, the same high school made national news after a photo emerged of several students performing the Nazi salute ( TV43 Baraboo ) Officers said the push was pre-planned and that the father was sorry for the incident but only because of the impact it had on his graduating daughter. We would like to emphasize that the safety and well-being of our students, staff, and community members is a top priority, Baraboo School District spokesperson Hailey Wagner said in a statement regarding the incident. Meanwhile, the Baraboo School Board condemned it. No employee of the School District of Baraboo should fear for their physical safety when fulfilling their job duties or at any other time, the school board stated. That this adult felt emboldened to behave in this way in front of hundreds of students and other adults should deeply trouble us all; this type of behavior will not be tolerated. The police report does not include evidence the incident was racially motivated. But David Hart, president of Blacks for Political and Social Action of Dane County, told WMTV 5 he is concerned about how Briggs was treated. After Dr. Briggs was pushed out of the way and prevented from doing his job, it does not appear that anyone checked on Dr. Briggs welfare, and he was forced to continue on amid this trauma, Hart told the outlet. While this incident could certainly have race neutral explanations, the treatment of Dr. Briggs looks all too familiar to us. Community members shared similar concerns. This is absolutely wild that this isnt already being called out for the outright racism that it is, one user commented on Facebook earlier this week. I know there are criticisms Dr. Briggs, some of which may be valid, but nothing that would remotely justify anything like this. Its a handshake. What century are we in? Baraboo High School made national news in 2018 when a photo emerged depicting several current and former students doing the Nazi salute. A group of current and former Baraboo High School students pictured performing the Nazi salute ( Twitter ) One boy in the front row can also be seen forming his index finger and thumb into an OK sign, a symbol co-opted by followers of far-right and white supremacist movements. The image was taken ahead of their junior prom and was not affiliated with the school or school district. However, the school district ultimately refused to take disciplinary action against the students, citing their first amendment rights. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Denmarks prime minister was assaulted by a man in a square in the capital, Copenhagen, the state news agency has reported. Mette Frederiksen was shocked by the assault, her office said. She walked away from the attack with security officers and appeared unhurt, a local resident said. Copenhagen police said a man had been arrested and an investigation was under way. Ms Frederiksen had been campaigning with the Social Democrats EU lead candidate, Christel Schaldemose. Media reports said the attack was not linked to a campaign event. The prime minister attended D-Day commemorations in Normandy on Thursday. Prime minister Mette Frederiksen was hit by a man Friday evening on Kultorvet in Copenhagen. The man was subsequently arrested, a police statement said. She seemed a little stressed, Soren Kjergaard, who works as a barista on the square, told Reuters after seeing the prime minister being escorted away by security following the assault. Danes are preparing to vote in EU elections on Sunday. Latvian prime minister Evika Silina posted on social media: Deeply shocked by the outrageous attack on my colleague and friend, prime minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen. All our thoughts are with you and your loved ones. Wishing you a speedy recovery, she added. Three weeks ago, Slovakias prime minister suffered life-threatening injuries when he was shot in public. Swedens prime minister Ulf Kristersson said an attack on a democratically elected leader is also an attack on our democracy, while Charles Michel, president of the European Council, condemned what he called a cowardly act of aggression. Between now and Sunday evening, several hundred million people will vote in elections for the next EU parliament, in what is billed as the second-largest exercise in representative democracy in the world after elections in India. But the numbers actually voting have habitually been far fewer than in national elections, with turnout overall barely registering above 50 per cent, and a lot less in some countries, especially those further east. There are hopes that this year could see that pattern change. The reason is that these are the first EU-wide elections to be held since Russias 2022 invasion of Ukraine. And while the election agenda as seen from the western and southern parts of Europe has been dominated by hostility to migration and cost of living issues, with forecasts of gains for the far right, electoral concerns as seen from the northeast of the EU are different. How different is what I have been trying to find out, travelling from Finland, through the Baltic states, to northeastern Poland. And here, while you will find a flicker of the same preoccupations that have dominated the campaigning further south and west, the big topic on what is essentially the European Unions northeastern frontier is summed up in one word: security. Five years ago, when EU parliament elections were last held, there was certainly far less urgency over the issue. Although there was a security aspect to the EU, it was seen as the responsibility of Nato, and attitudes to Nato diverged. Finland and Sweden were neutral; the Baltic states and Poland were impassioned Atlanticists, while Hungary stood out as a weak link. EU elections anyway largely reflected domestic issues. The war in Ukraine has changed that. With Finland and Sweden joining Nato, the borders of the EU match those of Nato to a far greater extent than before, even though Austria has retained its neutrality. What is more, by mounting prompt (and mostly united) support for Ukraine, the EU has become associated with the defence of Europe in a way it was not in the past. Finnish guards with dog Nita patrol in Joensuu near the border with Russia ( Lehtikuva/AFP via Getty ) This shift has been evident in every country I have visited, where the preponderance of candidates campaign pitches focuses on defence and security as never before. There is some evidence, too, that this is translating into a higher level of public engagement. In Finland, projections suggest that turnout could exceed 50 per cent (compared with the 40 or so per cent in recent EU elections). People were actually stopping to look at the many prominent election posters not a given at EU elections! I was told that the calibre of candidates had risen markedly, with more seen as having a political future rather than seeking a sinecure in Brussels. It has to be said that the level of public interest seems to diminish on the route south. Estonians, like Finns, have been exposed to copious advertising, TV and social media coverage, but the EU is less apparent in southern Lithuania and northeastern Poland. While the war in Ukraine has brought practical changes for all the countries on the EUs northeastern flank starting with the arrival of tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees (generally still welcomed) and cheap Ukrainian farm produce (rather less welcomed by local farmers) the emphasis on security is less of a change for the Baltic states and Poland than it is for Finland. In the latter, military preparedness was a fact of life, but it went along with the countrys neutrality and its pragmatic relations with Russia. The Finnish border with Russia is now closed, and legislation is being tabled to combat irregular Russian migration. Some diplomatic channels, it appears, are being kept open, but discreetly. The age-old pragmatism has not been completely lost. Estonias prime minister Kaja Kallas (right) and president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen (second right) visit Narva in 2022 ( AFP via Getty ) The Baltic states exude a sense of vindication. The rest of Europe, they say, has finally caught up with the reality of Russias malign intentions (although still not quite as much as they would like). The rhetoric often maintains that if Russia were to defeat Ukraine, it would be emboldened to advance into the Baltic and beyond. Which is not out of the question. But there is a lot less certainty on this score on the ground. Partly that might reflect a desire not to tempt fate, but it is perhaps more of a positive surprise at the way EU solidarity has been maintained, generating confidence that it can provide a security umbrella into the future. This is cited as a reason why support for the EU has held up well even in countries, such as Poland, with a definite Eurosceptic strand in their politics. Whether this translates into more voter support for its institutions, such as the European parliament, however, is another matter. The one place where defence infrastructure efforts seemed to be in full swing and it could just have been elaborate road-building was in what is known as the Suwalki Gap, a 60km-wide tract of land joining Lithuania to Poland, which has (Russian) Kaliningrad to the west and (Russian satellite) Belarus to the east. The gap has long been seen as a prime point of Western vulnerability that Russia could block and so sever the Baltic states from the rest of European Nato. With Sweden and particularly Finland now in the alliance, that is less of a risk, and it could be Russia worrying about its ships being locked into St Petersburg. A view of Ivangorod fortress looking from Estonia into Russia over the Narva River ( Getty ) I visited one city: Narva, in eastern Estonia, a place that has long been regarded as most vulnerable for the West and potentially even a fifth column for the Kremlin, given it is largely Russian-speaking. I was there just a few days after accusations (supported by video) that Russia had removed buoys that demarcate the official border running down the Narva river. This in turn was only days after Russia had broached redrawing some maritime borders in the Baltic a proposition that was subsequently withdrawn. And first impressions are forbidding. Twin forts face off across the river, the Estonian one painted with huge Estonian, Ukrainian and EU flags. There is a road bridge hung with Cold War-style barbed wire, whose only traffic seemed to be border guards reporting for their shifts, and a station where the train that once took two hours to go on to St Petersburg now stops and returns to the capital, Tallinn. On the one hand, Narva is a strange and potentially tense place, where there have been flare-ups in the past and could be again. At the same time, it is becoming ever more of a backwater. Its economy is in trouble, having lost trade and Russian daytrippers, and so long as the EU freeze with Russia continues, it is hard to see any sort of prosperous future for the city. The population, now officially 57,000, is in decline, and although Russian speakers account for more than 90 per cent, the mood is muted. Not surprising, given the war and the arrival of refugees from Ukraine. There will be voting in the EU parliamentary elections in Narva, as in the rest of Estonia, as in the rest of the EU and there are posters and TV appeals to prove it. But there can be few places that seem further from Brussels just now than this eastern tip of the EU sticking out into Russia, and the abstention rate among the EUs Russian minority is always high. There will probably be many more people in Finland, Poland and other now-frontline states that can be expected to turn out and vote with security at the front of their minds. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Russia has arrested a French NGO worker on suspicion of spying on its military, a move that is likely to further strain already frought relations with Paris. The Russian authorities claimed, without providing evidence, that the Frenchman was involved in the targeted collection of information in the field of military-technical activities of the Russian Federation. They have launched a criminal case against him for allegedly violating the countrys law requiring any person receiving foreign support to register as a foreign agent. Such information, if obtained by foreign sources, may be used against the security of the state, it added. Moscow did not name the Frenchman, who was detained at a cafe, but the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue identified him as its employee Laurent Vinatier. The NGO, which is based in Geneva and works to prevent and resolve armed conflicts through mediation and discreet diplomacy, said it was trying to secure Mr Vinatiers release. We are aware that Laurent Vinatier, an adviser at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, has been detained in Russia, the NGO said in a statement to AFP news agency. We are working to get more details of the circumstances and to secure Laurents release. Mr Vinatier faces up to five years in prison if convicted. His LinkedIn profile describes Mr Vinatier as a conversationalist and shows that he has worked at the Geneva NGO for over a decade, focusing mostly on former Soviet republics, Turkey and the Middle East. The French foreign ministry said it was aware of the arrest of a citizen and that its embassy in Moscow had requested consular protection for him. It is one of our citizens working for a Swiss NGO, French president Emmanuel Macron told a TV station on Thursday evening. It was in no way someone who was working for France. We will follow this closely and he will receive all consular protection. Mr Vinatiers arrest came at a low-point for relations between Russia and France, most notably after Mr Macrons repeated statements that his country would not rule out deploying troops in Ukraine. Moscow has warned that French troops, including non-combatant military trainers sent to support Ukrainian bases, would be legitimate targets for Russia if they were sent to Ukraine. Activists have criticised the new Russian law requiring anyone receiving foreign support as a foreign agent. The Kremlins critics have denounced the law and similar newly enacted legislation as an attempt by Moscow to crack down on independent media and political activism. Russia has made several arrests of people it describes as alleged spies since the Ukraine in February 2022. Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, was arrested on espionage charges in March 2023, and Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist, was held in late 2023 for failing to register as a foreign agent. Both have strongly denied any wrongdoing, and say they were engaged in normal journalistic activities. Additional reporting by agencies For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Watch live as Volodymyr Zelensky inspected French-manufactured military equipment in Paris on Friday, 7 June, after Emmanuel Macron promised warplanes to Ukraine. France plans to provide Mirage 2000 warplanes to Ukraine and train Ukrainian pilots this summer, the French president said. It was not confirmed how many single-engine jet fighters would be provided, by when or under what financial terms. Mr Macron added that France had proposed to train 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers but did not say where the soldiers would be trained. Russian president Vladimir Putin has threatened to retaliate against Western countries that are allowing Ukraine to hit Russia with their long-range missiles. The announcement came after the Ukrainian president joined other world leaders at a ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy. A veteran told Mr Zelensky that he is "the saviour of the people" as the pair called each other "hero" and hugged. China's top political advisor meets Venezuelan FM Xinhua) 13:08, June 07, 2024 BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- China's top political advisor Wang Huning met with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto in Beijing on Friday. Wang, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said that last year the two heads of state had jointly announced the elevation of China-Venezuela relations to the all-weather strategic partnership, leading the bilateral relationship into a new historical period. Wang said China is willing to work with Venezuela to take the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries as a new starting point to translate the important consensus reached by the two heads of state into practical actions that will continue to promote China-Venezuela friendship, and jointly create a better future for China-Venezuela relations in the next 50 years. The CPPCC National Committee is willing to create a favorable environment and gather more positive energy for China-Venezuela cooperation, he added. Yvan Gil Pinto said that under the guidance of the two heads of state, Venezuela-China relations have entered the best period in its history. Venezuela fully supports the series of global initiatives proposed by China, and will continue to be China's most reliable friend, firmly adhere to the one-China principle, and work together to promote the all-weather strategic partnership between Venezuela and China, Yvan Gil Pinto added. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Zhong Wenxing) Speaking in Normandy at the commemoration event held for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, Joe Biden declared that the US and the West are committed to unwavering support for Ukraine against Russian aggression, and robust resistance to Vladimir Putin a tyrant bent on domination. The US president went on to meet Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris to assure him that $225m (176m) worth of weapons supplies is on its way. It was their first meeting since December, when the Ukrainian leader visited Washington during a congressional impasse over a $60bn arms package for Kyiv. The bill, held up at the time by Republican opposition, has now been passed by Congress, easing trepidation that Ukraine would face defeat this year without that lifeline. Importantly, the Biden administration, after prolonged hesitation, has belatedly allowed Ukraine to use American weapons, chiefly ATACMS missiles, to strike targets inside Russia as long as they are not aimed at Moscow and the Kremlin. The problem now is ensuring that Ukraine receives adequate quantities of missiles and artillery shells. While Russia has put its economy on a war footing, and has secured supplies from countries including Iran and North Korea (and to a lesser extent China), factories in the West are struggling to meet the demand. The $225m worth of weaponry is for Ukraines immediate need in the east of the country against the Russian threat in the Kharkiv oblast and the Donbas, after the capture of the city of Avdiivka. A logjam remains in the longer term, with a search for production capacity. If there were two things that we could provide an infinite number of to the Ukrainians to try to turn the tide in this war, it would be artillery munitions and air defence interceptors, US deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said this week, acknowledging the shortfall in supplies. Away from the battlefield, he added: There is also a competition taking place in our factories, the factories in Europe, the factories in Ukraine. Joe Biden shakes hands with Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris ( Reuters ) The European Union failed in its pledge to provide Ukraine with a million shells by the start of March. A $54bn aid package is in place after Viktor Orbans Hungary stopped blocking the deal. The UK is sending an extra 500m on top of the 2.5bn it had already pledged to contribute in 2024. Supply and demand also remains an issue in regard to the warplanes Ukraine is due to receive. Getting the jets would enable air combat to take place against the Russian Sukhoi fighter-bombers that have been used to rain down 3,000 precision glide-bombs every month. Kyiv has said it has at least 30 pilots who are ready to start training immediately in America. But the US administration can only provide places for 12 pilots at a time at the programme set up in Arizona. Two other Nato facilities, in Denmark and Romania, have a similar lack of availability for the task. Emmanuel Macron announced at the D-Day commemoration that France will donate surplus Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine. Training for pilots can take place in France or other Nato states, like Greece, using the planes. But, going by the F-16 timescale, all that could take up to a year to reach fruition. The 70th anniversary of D-Day, in 2014, took place amid warnings that Europe was going through a particularly dangerous time. Ukraine, where the pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych had been overthrown, was on the brink of a separatist war. The European Union was in crisis, and the Conservative right in Britain was calling for a Brexit. Far-right parties were rising across the continent. Francois Hollande, Frances president at the time, in his contribution to the British official brochure for the event, gave a pointed reminder that, 70 years on from the end of the Second World War, there was a union of Europe now at peace. The unwritten but implicit next line was: But for how long? At that time, despite the tension, Putin held a short meeting with the newly elected Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko at the commemoration. Afterwards, the Kremlin spokesperson said the two leaders had agreed that the bloodshed in eastern Ukraine must end, and a comprehensive long-term agreement come into place while there is time. Time is a factor that is now more critical than ever for Ukraine. Supplies are needed to combat an expected Russian offensive in the summer. Far-right parties, many of them sympathetic to Moscow, are at their strongest in Europe since the Second World War. And looming on the horizon is the possibility of Donald Trump, accused in the past of being the Moscovian Candidate for the White House, winning the US election in November. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Israel has bombarded swathes of central and southern Gaza, while tanks have advanced to the western edges of the border city. In its latest update, the Israeli military said it had killed dozens of Hamas militants during operations in al-Bureij refugee camp and the nearby city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. Palestinian medics in the area reported that at least 15 civilians had been killed overnight in Israeli airstrikes. In the larger city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, an Israeli airstrike on a house killed eight people and wounded several, including children, medics added. And in northern Gaza, three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza City school building that was sheltering displaced families, rescue workers said. It follows a strike on a United Nations-run school in central Gaza earlier this week that killed dozens of people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. In the southernmost city of Rafah, meanwhile, tank-led forces have advanced to the southwest fringes of the city that skirts the Gaza Strips border with Egypt, according to accounts from local residents. Palestinian men take part in Friday noon prayers under the shade of a tarpaulin in the Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, as destroyed buildings can be seen in the background ( Getty ) A month after the first Israeli tanks rolled across the border towards the outskirts of the city, one Palestinian resident said they believed Israel was trying to reach the beach on Gazas western Mediterranean coast. The raids and the bombing overnight were tactical, they entered under heavy fire and then retreated, the resident told Reuters via a chat app. Another resident said snipers had commandeered some buildings and high ground, trapping people in their homes, while Israeli machine gun fire had made it too dangerous to go out. Gaza health officials added that two Palestinians had been killed and several wounded in western Rafah from tank shelling there. It comes as sources close to the ceasefire negotiations in Qatar said there were still no signs of a breakthrough. US-backed Qatari and Egyptian mediators have tried again this week to reconcile clashing demands that are preventing a halt to the hostilities, a release of Israeli hostages and Palestinians jailed in Israel, and an untrammelled flow of aid into Gaza to avoid a humanitarian disaster. Israeli soldiers work with munitions on an armoured personnel carrier near the border with the Gaza Strip ( Getty ) Since a brief week-long truce in November, repeated attempts to arrange a ceasefire have failed, with Hamas insisting on a permanent end to the war and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Israel has ruled out peace until Hamas is eradicated, and much of Gaza lies in ruins, but Hamas has proved resilient, with militants resurfacing to fight in areas in which Israeli forces had previously declared they had defeated them. Israel launched its most ferocious bombardment of Gaza ever in retaliation for the 7 October attack by Hamas on southern Israel, during which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 hostages taken. Israels subsequent invasion and bombardment of Gaza has killed at least 36,731 people, including 77 in the past 24 hours, Gazas health ministry said in an update on Friday. Thousands more are feared buried dead under rubble, with most of the 2.3 million population displaced. The latest round of indirect talks began on Wednesday, when CIA director William Burns met senior officials from Qatar and Egypt in Doha to discuss a proposal US president Joe Biden publicly endorsed last week. Mr Biden described the three-phase plan as an Israeli initiative. Qatar said on Thursday that Hamas had not yet handed mediators its response to the latest proposal and was still studying it. Two Egyptian security sources said ceasefire mediators were soldiering on but without any inklings of a breakthrough. Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The Conservative Party has paused its digital advertising on major platforms, having spent tens of thousands of pounds a day in the early period of the election. The party has halted all its campaigns on Google and Meta platforms which include YouTube, Facebook and Instagram in a move that may suggest the party is changing its political strategy ahead of the general election on 4 July. As of 7 June, the Conservatives are not spending to promote adverts, according to the tech companies transparency platforms. At the end of May, spending peaked, with the party paying out 100,000 in just one day, according to Who Tracks Me, a group that monitors online political advertising. The Conservative Party has not responded to a request for comment on the advertising pause. It comes as Mr Sunak faces considerable criticism for his decision to return to the campaign trail before the end of the D-Day commemoration events in France, which were attended by other world leaders. open image in gallery Rishi Sunak spoke in Portsmouth for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, before facing criticism for missing some events in France. (Neil Hall/PA) ( PA Wire ) The Conservative Party was previously using Facebook, in particular, to push its campaigns, many of which attacked Labour. It has reduced its spending on digital advertising in recent days. Earlier this week, the party was running very few adverts on Facebook two attacking Sir Keir Starmer and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, with another about state pensions and it had stopped spending on Google and YouTube. On Facebook, adverts focused on a range of issues, including accusing the Labour leader of wanting to abolish the monarchy. The most prominent adverts on Google and YouTube attacked Sir Keir over small boats, with claims he had no plan being seen millions of times. The party also promoted messages attacking Reform UK, with one suggesting a vote for Nigel Farages party meant a vote for Sir Keir. It remains unclear when, or whether, new campaigns will be launched. Both Meta and Google run ad transparency platforms which enable the public to see details of advertising political parties and other organisations are buying. Labour continues to spend heavily on adverts, many of which show former Conservative voters explaining why they have switched party. Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Get Simon Calders Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy D-Day veterans returning from northern France face fresh travel problems today, with port workers at Calais walking out and disrupting ferries to Dover. The Port of Calais warns of the risk of major disruption during the strike, which is due to continue until 11pm British time on Friday. Irish Ferries says: There is expected to be delays and disruptions to all sailings on the Dover-Calais route. We will work to ensure you are put on the next available sailing. We thank you for your patience. The Port of Dover has warned travellers: of a widely followed strike at the French port, saying: This means that potentially limited traffic and vessels will be allowed into or out of Calais Port. The Port of Dover remains open, and we understand that Dunkirk is unaffected. We will monitor the situation closely in liaison with our ferry partners and the Port of Calais, however, please note that there may be delays to some services. We apologise for any delays or inconvenience as a result of the industrial action in France. Customers are advised to contact their chosen ferry operator before travelling. DFDS Ferries says it anticipates disruption to our services and says: All affected customers are being contacted directly. P&O Ferries says: Our teams will do their best to limit the disruption but if you are due to travel, please come prepared for a potential wait. LeShuttle services through the Channel Tunnel between Calais and Folkestone are unaffected. Brittany Ferries, which sails to English ports from Le Havre, Caen and Cherbourg, is also unaffected by the industrial action. On Thursday, the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings, Ryanair was forced to cancel more than 100 flights because of a strike by air-traffic control staff at Beauvais airport in northern France. Aviation workers in France are expected to take further industrial action in June. Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Get Simon Calders Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Roughly 70 passengers on a Celebrity Cruises vessel contracted norovirus while on a recent trip to Alaska, health officials say. The Centers for Disease Control reports that 68 of the 2,264 guests aboard the Celebrity Summit fell ill during their cruise, which finished its voyage on Friday. Five crew members were also listed among the ill. The main symptoms reported by the sick passengers and crew were vomiting and diarrhea. Infected guests and crew were required to be isolated and provided biological samples for testing, the CDC reported. Norovirus is a very contagious virus that causes vomiting and diarrhea. Anyone can get infected and sick with Norovirus, the CDC states on its website. Norovirus is sometimes called the stomach flu or stomach bug. However, norovirus illness is not related to the flu, which is caused by influenza virus. open image in gallery Nearly 70 of the 2,264 guests aboard the Celebrity Summit cruise ship fell ill with norovirus during a recent cruise ( Celebrity Cruises ) After dropping passengers off on Friday, the ship began a week-long Alaska trip between Vancouver and Seward, according to USA TODAY. A spokesman for Royal Caribbean Group, which owns Celebrity, said the Summit was sanitized and that none of the passengers who fell ill are on the ship's current journey. This is the second time this year that a norovirus outbreak occurred on a Celebrity cruise ship. In January, nearly 100 guests on the Celebrity Constellation fell ill with the virus. In April, approximately 67 of the 1,933 passengers on Royal Caribbean International's Radiance of the Seas fell ill to norovirus, the New York Post reports. That same month, another 94 of the 2,532 passengers on Princess Cruises' Sapphire Princess contracted norovirus. The CDC has logged seven outbreaks of gastrointestinal illnesses on cruises this year significant enough to trigger its threshold for public notification. In all but one of the outbreaks the cause of the illnesses was the norovirus. While norovirus does represent the cause of many cruise ship outbreaks, cruises are not disproportionately prone to the virus. The majority of norovirus infections 62 percent are contracted in healthcare facilities. Approximately 20 million people who are not on cruise ships contract the virus every year, according to the CDC. The virus can spread anywhere where people tend to congregate, whether that be a cruise ship or a restaurant or hospital. Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Get Simon Calders Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Until this weekend, a Qantas passenger who happened to doze off during the 800-mile flight from Darwin to Alice Springs could be forgiven for thinking the plane had diverted to Hong Kong. The city in Australias Red Centre is the home of Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage. For much of the past four years, the dry heat of the Outback has embraced a large part of the fleet of Cathay Pacific arguably the airline most affected by the Covid pandemic. With a single hub on the edge of the nation, China, which experienced the most draconian travel restrictions, the CX schedule was so thin it made a skeleton service look well nourished. The initial Cathay Pacific plane to seek sanctuary in the desert was an Airbus A330 that touched down in July 2020. At its peak, Alice Springs was home to 76 wide-bodied jets bearing the livery of the Hong Kong intercontinental airline. The first to arrive was the last to depart, after more than 200 weeks. Every Cathay Pacific aircraft has now flown north to get on with the important business of flying people safely around the world. I call the end of the Covid era (whatever North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un may have to say about that). A good moment, then, to look back at what we have learnt. The lesson is simple: when the next pandemic arrives, politicians should be cut out of the travel restriction process. Looking back makes me shudder at the profound and prolonged incompetence of our elected representatives. Monday 10 June will mark four years since the then-home secretary, Priti Patel, announced two weeks of mandatory quarantine for almost all arrivals from abroad. Now we are past the peak of this virus, we must take steps to guard against imported cases, triggering a resurgence of this deadly disease, she said. Five days later lockdown mark 1 ended and easyJet resumed flights. Tina Milton, one of the cabin crew aboard the airlines first departure, flight 883 from Gatwick to Glasgow, told me: Its the start of the future. A month on, travel corridors opened for British travellers, allowing quarantine-free trips to France, Italy, Spain and Turkey, but not to Portugal or Croatia. Transport secretary Grant Shapps was the caller in what would become a regular game of travel bingo. Within two weeks, at a few hours notice, the government said: People returning to the UK from Spain from midnight tonight will need to self-isolate for two weeks. Yes: after just 15 days, the most popular destination for British holidaymakers has been put back on the quarantine list. By 15 August 2020, anyone with the temerity to visit the second-most popular nation, France, had to sit in a room for two weeks on their return. The Netherlands was also red-listed and this was when we saw the first of several episodes of transport providers speeding up to get people back before the 4am deadline; Stena Line went full speed ahead from Hook of Holland to Harwich so that its passengers would not need to quarantine. By September, things got exotic, with quarantine mandatory from just seven Greek islands: Crete, Lesvos, Mykonos, Santorini, Serifos, Tinos and Zakynthos. In bronze position on the maddest pandemic decisions podium is the moment the Foreign Office put Portugal in the same risk category as central Kabul and parts of Somalia. The government, though, was preparing to go nuclear with a total ban on international leisure travel. Some of the people who missed the Jingle & Mingle party at Conservative Campaign HQ on 14 December 2020 were busily drafting a law imposing fines for anyone at an airport, seaport or international railway station without good cause. Three weeks after the 10-week prohibition began, Patel complained: There are still too many people coming in and out of our country each day. The following week, hotel quarantine began, costing around 2,000 for 10 days. A later report showed the entire hotel quarantine process to have been pointless, so it takes silver medal for the worst ministerial decisions. Every new restriction on freedom, such as the ill-conceived declaration to travel, diminishes us, and our place in the world, I write. The gold goes to amber plus a category created in July 2021, especially for France. It amounted to a travel ban at the start of the school summer holidays in England and Wales, because of what foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, called the so-called Beta variant, in particular in the Reunion bit of France. That it was 5,800 miles away from Paris was deemed irrelevant and indeed the island itself escaped the ignominy of amber plus. Frances then-Europe minister, Clement Beaune, tweeted: The UKs quarantine measures for France are excessive and incomprehensible in health terms. Correct. The French got their revenge, though. Proving that the UK government did not have a monopoly on nonsensical Covid decisions, France imposed a travel ban on British passengers for three weeks over Christmas 2021 and the start of 2022, wiping out holidays and family reunions for hundreds of thousands. The fact that the UKs travel industry survived such an onslaught of irrationality, with many decisions taken by what we now know to be partying politicians, is a tribute to the resilience of the men and women who work in it. We can once again spread our wings. I hope you may one day visit the wonderful Red Centre of Australia and that no long-haul planes are parked at Alice Springs when you touch down. Simon Calder, also known as The Man Who Pays His Way, has been writing about travel for The Independent since 1994. In his weekly opinion column, he explores a key travel issue and what it means for you. Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Get Simon Calders Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy This week, a big German travel combine, FTI Touristik, collapsed. It was the third-largest tour operator in Europe. The company is telling passengers: All travel arrangements booked via FTI Touristik GmbH with a departure date up to and including Friday, 5 July 2024, unfortunately have to be cancelled. The number of UK holidaymakers directly affected ie having packages booked with the defunct German travel giant is vanishingly low. Furthermore, they are covered by the German Travel Security Fund. But two subsidiaries of the FTI group are business-to-business middlemen that provide hotels, transfers and excursions to online travel agents (OTAs). They are Youtravel.com and Meeting Point International. Both offshoots are in financial suspended animation while the FTI insolvency is sorted out. For now, though, British travellers who had no idea part of their holiday was booked through a German firm are told: Have you booked other touristic services as individual services with FTI, such as excursions, airport transfers, etc.? Unfortunately, individual services do not fall under the statutory insurance protection for package tours and are therefore not covered by the German Travel Security Fund. These are the key questions and answers. I booked a Mediterranean holiday with a UK online travel agent. How come my trip could be in peril? It all comes down to the way that online travel agents construct package holidays. Traditional tour operators of which Jet2 Holidays and Tui are the largest generally have direct relationships with Mediterranean hotels, bus companies and excursion providers. In contrast, OTAs such as Love Holidays and On The Beach often source these elements through intermediaries that, in the realm of accommodation, are known as bed banks. One of the biggest bed banks is Youtravel.com, which calls itself the trades favourite supplier. The UK-based offshoot of FTI had immense buying power and was therefore able to offer hotel rooms at very favourable rates. Millions of Brits have probably enjoyed holidays that have involved Youtravel.com and been blissfully unaware that a German-owned middleman was involved. But suddenly, the fate of the company is uncertain. FTI says Youtravel.com is not insolvent and is working actively on its future. It aims to secure our future without the support of FTI. Evidently, though, some Mediterranean hoteliers are alarmed at the prospect that they may not get paid by the FTI-owned intermediary. Knowing that the guest will ultimately be reimbursed, they are asking for cash up front. But people may not be able to pay. Youtravel.com says: We are aware of situations where guests in destination are being asked to pay for their accommodation locally. The FTI Touristik failure has resulted in an unprecedented issue in destination and in these instances, we are trying to support where possible by sharing as much information as we can to help our partners resolve the issue for your valued guests. Whose responsibility is it to pay? Assuming you did the sensible thing and chose a proper package holiday with flights and accommodation booked in the same transaction the responsibility rests with the tour operator (holiday company). It is obliged to deliver the trip you booked. If one of its suppliers suspends operations, that is the for the company to sort out. Love Holidays says: A very small portion of our customers accommodation arrangements will be affected. However, were working hard to honour these bookings with other suppliers to minimise disruption to any holidays. If youre travelling with us soon and your accommodation was booked through Youtravel, please dont worry. Our team is working on reinstating these bookings so you can travel as normal. How can I tell if my booking is with Youtravel? Love Holidays says: Please check the hotel voucher on your booking confirmation. If your booking is affected, please rest assured were working hard to rebook your accommodation and minimise any disruption to your holiday. I can only afford to pay again if I put it on a credit card who will pay the interest charges? If you have no choice but to pay again and claim from your holiday company, you should be indemnified in full for the costs involved. What about transfers and excursions? Some transfers and excursions were organised by various incarnations of the FTI Meeting Point brand, which was headquartered in Munich but had a range of subsidiaries across Europe and the Middle East. Again, if you are affected, the voucher for that part of your trip should name the firm. If this is the case, your holiday company should be urgently organising an alternative. Are bookings with Jet2 Holidays or Tui affected? Not directly, though some of the hotels they use may be ultimately owned by FTI subsidiary Meeting Point, which has a range of hotel brands. Both firms are telling customers that they are working to protect any affected holidays. Whats the view of the UK travel industry? Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of the Advantage Travel Partnership, told The Independent: We were shocked to see the news of FTI, one of Europes largest tour operators, which is a further blow to the German travel industry, given the Thomas Cook collapse in September 2019. It will be a difficult time for all affected staff and customers and no doubt, FTIs situation will not only have a significant impact on the German holiday market but also have a knock-on impact on the supply chain across Europe and beyond, as we are a globally connected industry. We know of a small number of our agent partners who have been impacted and we are keeping them updated with developments as far as we can and with many agents having already secured alternative arrangements for their impacted travellers There will be a lot of attention now on getting those impacted on alternative holidays, however, the issue will be one of price and trying to find alternative holidays at a similar price originally paid. Does this make further collapses more likely? No. As with the Thomas Cook in 2019, FTI had been having financial difficulties for some time, even before the Covid pandemic. It was unable to repay government loans, and a planned rescue deal from investors did not materialise. Generally, if a large player goes out of business, other companies actually prosper. Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Get Simon Calders Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight that was forced to turn around after a tire failed just after takeoff recalled the panic on the plane as travelers prepared for an emergency landing. When the flight attendants said we were going to have an emergency landing, we started to panic a little bit. People were definitely crying and screaming and trying to console one another, Julianna Donadio recalled to Fox 31. Southwest Airlines flight No 225 had just taken off from Denver International Airport around 6:30 p.m. on June 3 and was heading to Phoenix, Arizona, when the tire failed, according to the airline. Donadio, who lives in Boulder and was on her way to visit her mother, said the tire made a loud sound. We knew we blew a tire, but we didnt know what the landing gear situation was, she said. They started preparing us for crash position, so having our head between our knees, and they were informing the emergency exit line how to open the doors and operate potentially the slides. open image in gallery A United Airlines flight lost a tire in March and landed on a Toyota Corolla, destroying it ( Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved ) The crew on board the flight remained calm as they braced for impact. When we landed, everyone was cheering and clapping, the woman said. In a statement, Southwest confirmed the plane landed without incident. Southwest Flight 225 returned safely to Denver on Monday, June 3, after a tire failed during takeoff. Following standard Safety procedures, the Pilots declared an emergency prior to landing. The flight landed without incident and taxied off the runway. A separate aircraft operated the scheduled flight to Phoenix, the airline said. A similar - but more extreme - situation occurred in March when a United Airlines flight left San Francisco International Airport for Japan and lost a tire. The wheel fell off the plane and landed on a Toyota Corolla, destroying it. The plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport, where authorities had fire engines on standby. In both cases, the aircrafts were manufactured by Boeing. The company has come under intense scrutiny after an Alaska Airlines flight in January lost a door plug at 16,000 feet. The Federal Aviation Administration grounded 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircrafts worldwide until they could be inspected. Some of the planes returned to the skies later that month. The Independent emailed Southwest for comment. Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Get Simon Calders Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A potential disaster was narrowly avoided when a packed passenger plane took off just seconds before it was about to run out of runway because of a software glitch. The Boeing aircraft, operated by TUI, departed from Bristol Airport for Las Palmas, Gran Canaria on 9 March with 163 passengers on board when it struggled to take off. The 737-800 plane cleared runway nine with just 260 metres (853ft) of tarmac to spare at a height of 10ft. It then flew over the nearby A38 road at a height of just 30 metres (100ft) travelling at the speed of around 150kts (about 173mph). The A38 is a major A-class busy road, connecting South West England with the Midlands and the north. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), part of the Department for Transport, said the incident was the result of insufficient thrust being used during take-off. Pilots manually set the thrust level following a software glitch that Beoing was aware of before take-off. open image in gallery ( Getty Images ) A Boeing 737-800 completed a takeoff from Runway 09 at Bristol Airport with insufficient thrust to meet regulated performance, the AAIB report said. The autothrottle (A/T) disengaged when the takeoff mode was selected, at the start of the takeoff roll, and subsequently the thrust manually set by the crew (84.5% N1 ) was less than the required takeoff thrust (92.8% N1 ). Neither pilot then noticed that the thrust was set incorrectly, and it was not picked up through the standard operating procedures (SOPs). The planes acceleration was significantly slower than 99.7 per cent of other aircraft of the same model departing the same airport, performance data collated by the AAIB showed. The autothrottle system on a Boeing 737-800 can control the thrust from takeoff to landing, the AAIB added. Boeing told investigators looking into the incident that they were aware of a long history of nuisance disconnects during takeoff mode engagements. It added that plane was fitted with and FDR recording device, known as a black box, which records flight data and a CVR, which records the recent sounds in the cockpit. The AAIB said: G-FDZS was fitted with both an FDR and a CVR. The CVR fitted to G-FDZS was not removed from the aircraft as it continually overwrites itself, retaining only the last two hours of audio. As such, the recording of the takeoff would have been overwritten during the flight to Las Palmas. However, the FDR was removed and downloaded. The incident is the latest in a string of problems with Boeing jets in recent years. The aerospace giants safety standards are coming under increasing scrutiny following several recent incidents , including one where a disused door fell off a brand new 737 Max shortly after take-off. There were no injuries. In April a FedEx Airlines Boeing cargo plane landed at Istanbul Airport without the front landing gear deployed but managed to stay on the runway. Five years ago, Boeing agreed to pay $2.5bn and make safety improvements after two new 737 Max jets crashed within the space of five months - one in Indonesia in 2018 and one in Ethiopia in 2019, killing a total of 346 people. In May US officials warned Boeing it could face criminal charges after claims the airline failed to improve plane safety and adhere to a settlement after the deadly 737 crashes. A TUI UK&I spokesperson said: We have worked closely with the authorities to provide all available information. The AAIB recommendations and learnings resulting from this take-off will support the whole aviation sector and other airlines. The safety of our passengers and crew is always our highest priority. Boeing was contacted for comment. Two emotional days of D-Day 80th anniversary commemorations were brought to a close on Thursday, 6 June, as a beacon was lit in Portsmouth. More than 800 D-Day beacons were lit across the UK and overseas to remember those who served during the 1944 beach invasion. World leaders and veterans gathered in France to mark the anniversary. King Charles III and the Prince of Wales both made speeches, with the monarch appearing emotional at events in Portsmouth on Wednesday and in Ver-sur-Mer the following day as they heard tributes to, and words from, servicemen. An NHS nurse clashed with a Tory minister during a heated Question Time debate on Thursday (6 June) as she told him You talk absolute rubbish. The nurse, who had worked in the NHS for 37 years, addressed Mark Harper, telling him social care had been decimated. She said: Patients are dying in corridors. If you sorted out social care and put your money where your mouth is, then all these issues would be sorted. You are talking absolute rubbish because you are trying to decimate the NHS and we all know that. You dont want it and you never have wanted it. Are you going to let me come back on it?, Mr Harper asked. WhatsApp and iMessage are likely to carry the majority of messages sent, according to latest telecoms figures The number of traditional calls and texts on smartphones continues to collapse in Ireland, according to the latest figures from the telecoms operator. Texts between phones fell by 34pc in the last year, while calls fell by 12pc. However, mobile and smartphone subscriptions continued to rise, with 3pc more users compared with the same time last year. The figures suggest that Meta-owned WhatsApp and Apple-owned iMessage may now control the majority of Irish text messaging and a growing percentage of voice calls in the country. Irish telecoms networks are licensed and regulated differently from internet tech giants, with companies such as Vodafone, Three and Eir traditionally facing more conditions to their voice and messaging services. However, that is currently changing, with a raft of EU rules and laws including the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act placing more onerous responsibilities on over-the-top operations such as Meta-owned WhatsApp. The Irish telecoms regulator also reported that takeup of fibre broadband is 44pc, significantly above telecoms industry projections of 35pc. Critics of the National Broadband Plan had predicted a lack of demand for high-speed fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband. However, the regulators latest report says there are now 712,616 high-speed FTTP lines installed, 43pc of all fixed broadband connections. FTTP is the most purchased broadband technology in Ireland, ComReg said, in a note. Two-thirds of the country now have access to fibre broadband, it added, with three-quarters having access to fibre or cable. FTTP is the most purchased broadband technology in Ireland Meanwhile, Vodafone says it is about to switch off its 3G signal in Dublin, Cork and Galway. The countrys largest mobile operator says that some older phones will not fully work any more. The move is also set to affect some customers of Clear Mobile and An Post Mobile, both of which use Vodafones mobile network. Commenting on the switch-off, ComReg has warned that several mobile-connected devices may not work any more, as they are dependent on the 3G signal. This could include some security alarms, retail point-of-sale machines, heating systems and e-readers. It could also affect some cars. Tesla has told its Irish customers that some of its older Model S vehicles will lose features such as roadside assistance to unlock the car remotely, navigation, maps and Supercharger availability over the mobile data network. It has advised that these vehicle owners will need to spend at least 163 for installation of a new 4G modem in their cars. Vodafone has already switched off the 3G network in Limerick. It says that it is ditching the 3G signals to help redirect capacity to its 4G and 5G networks. Vodafone claims to have 99pc population coverage for its 4G network, but this has not been fully independently tested. A coverage map published by ComReg claims that large chunks of the country remain with weak or no coverage by Vodafones 4G or 5G signal. Under Irish law, mobile operators are not required to have 100pc coverage across the country, with licensing conditions typically requiring between 70pc and 90pc of population coverage. Vodafone says customers in areas without a 4G or 5G signal may still be able to make phone calls using its older 2G network. However, they will not be able to use their phones for data services, such as WhatsApp, Facebook or Maps. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) is to reconsider a decision that an extract of monk fruit manufactured by a Chinese firm must go through an evaluation process before it can be marketed, the High Court heard. Guilin GFS Monk Fruit Corporation brought judicial review proceedings in 2022 claiming the FSAI acted irrationally and unreasonably when it classified its monk fruit decoction product as a novel food under an EU regulation. Monk fruit is a small round fruit from the melon family primarily cultivated in southern and eastern provinces of China. Decoctions are water extracts obtained by steeping the fruit in hot water. A novel food is one that has not been used to a significant degree for human consumption in the EU before May 15, 1997. It must therefore meet requirements including being safe for consumers and being properly labelled so as not to mislead. Guilin, which is registered in Guangxi, China, and is a joint venture with a New Zealand company called BioVittoria, claimed the FSAI decision would have serious, long-lasting and unjustified repercussions for the firm. It was claimed it was completely unclear how and why the FSAI rejected extensive documentation Guilin submitted about the pre-1997 food consumption of the decoction in the United Kingdom. The authority also misdirected itself on what was the appropriate legal test to apply in determining significant pre-1997 consumption within the EU had not been proven, it was claimed. In legal documents, the company also said it provided evidence from members of the Chinese community resident in the EU that they consumed monk fruit foods, which were readily available in most Chinese supermarkets in the UK/EU prior to 1997. The FSAI, it said, has described data from questionnaires and face-to-face interviews as being of limited use as primary evidence of a history of significant consumption, since it may not be verifiable compared to product receipts or import and export data published by a reliable source. In 2022, Guilin was granted leave by the High Court to bring its proceedings against the FSAI and the matter was adjourned from time to time. Earlier this week Ms Justice Niamh Hyland was told it had been agreed to quash the decision and, on consent, to send it back to the FSAI for reconsideration. Lynch was born in the UK to Irish parents and has built a series of software businesses before facing the epic US trial. The not-guilty verdicts reached Thursday by a federal court jury in San Francisco followed an 11-week criminal trial that delved into the history of HPs 2011 acquisition of Autonomy, a business software that Lynch founded and then oversaw as CEO in Britain. HP at first celebrated the purchase as a huge coup that would propel the Palo Alto, California, company down a promising new path, but then quickly came to regret under its then-CEO Meg Whitman. The jury acquitted Lynch on all 15 felony counts facing him. Toward the end of the trial, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer threw out a count of securities fraud included in the US Justice Department case against him in an indictment dating back to 2018. It took years to extradite Lynch from the U.K. and then more legal wrangling before the trial finally began in mid-March. Lynch, 58, had been free on $100m bail. Being accused of a massive fraud represented a dramatic turn in fortune for an entrepreneur once described as the Bill Gates of Britain a title he seemed to live up to when he negotiated the Autonomy sale that generated a more than $800m millin windfall for him. The acquittal vindicates Lynch, who spent years fiercely denying he did anything wrong, while painting HP as a technological train wreck. Its yet another setback for HP, which had spent years blaming Lynch for duping the company into a deal that deepened its troubles and stained a legacy dating back to the company's 1939 inception in a Silicon Valley garage. In a statement, Lynch said he was elated with the verdict and thanked the jury for poring over the facts in the complex case. I am looking forward to returning to the UK and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field, Lynch said. The Justice Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Another former Autonomy finance executive, Stephen Chamberlain, faced fraud charges alongside Lynch during the complex trial. The same jury acquitted Chamberlain, too. After prosecutors called more than 30 witnesses to the stand to help make their case, Lynch testified in his own defense over several days last month and occasionally spoke directly to the jurors while explaining various turns of British phrasing. Like his own lawyers, Lynch contended he did nothing wrong and argued that Whitman unjustly turned him and Autonomy into a scapegoat for HPs own mismanagement and deteriorating financial condition. Whitman, who became HPs CEO after an unsuccessful campaign to become Californias governor in 2010, ended up recognizing $8.8 billion in losses in the Autonomy deal and eventually fired Lynch in 2012 while accusing him of cooking the books. She also laid off thousands of workers as HPs fortunes sagged and eventually split the company in two to separate its personal computer and printer operations from products and services sold to other businesses. Although Whitman wasnt called to testify, the trial probed into HPs downfall under her direction. Another former HP CEO, Leo Apotheker, who negotiated the Autonomy deal, was called to the stand by federal prosecutors to outline Lynchs alleged misconduct. Apotheker initially saw Autonomy as a key piece of his plan to lessen HPs dependence on selling PCs and printers during the advent of the smartphone. Evidence presented at the trial indicated that HP had internally valued Autonomy at as much as $46bn, primarily because of its software that helped other businesses quickly find valuable information buried in email and other digital documents. While federal prosecutors depicted Lynch as an iron-fisted and underhanded boss during his 16-year reign as Autonomys CEO, his lawyers cast him as the prototypical tech nerd who enjoyed eating cold pizza late at night while brainstorming through ideas that could turn into gold. A Meta plan to use personal data to train its artificial intelligence (AI) models without seeking consent came under fire yesterday from advocacy group NOYB, which called on privacy enforcers across Europe to stop such use. NOYB (none of your business), which was founded by Austrian activist Max Schrems, urged national privacy watchdogs to act immediately, saying recent changes in Metas privacy policy, which come into force on June 26, would allow it to use years of personal posts, private images or online tracking data for the Facebook owners AI technology. Luke ONeill: Everything you need to know about Ozempic and why it could soon be used to treat depression, Parkinsons and addiction A labourer who provided a false no-claims bonus certificate in an attempt to secure car insurance had been given a name of an individual who could help him by a fellow worker on a building site, a court has heard. Fears of escalation in Dublin city northside vs southside dispute after petrol bomb attack Watch: Gang on scramblers launch petrol bomb attack on home in Dublin Ken Foy Fri 7 Jun 2024 at 14:25 Detectives are investigating whether an arson attack in Dublins Sheriff Street this week is linked to a bitter dispute between people who live in the area and a rival faction based across the River Liffey in the Pearse Street flats. Hugh Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster, and Olivia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster, wave and smile to well-wishers after their wedding ceremony at Chester Cathedral on Friday in Chester, England. Pic: Chris Jackson/Getty Images The Duke of Westminster has married a graduate of Trinity College Dublin in the high society wedding of the year attended by Prince William. Olivia Henson (31), who reportedly went to the same school as Kate and Pippa Middleton before studying Hispanic Studies and Italian at Trinity College, married Duke Hugh Grosvenor (33) at Chester Cathedral earlier today. The Duke, who has an estimated fortune of 10.1bn and is considered one of the richest men in the UK, inherited the title and control of the Grosvenor Estate at the age of 25 following the death of his father. Today's News in 90 Seconds - June 7th 2024 The property company, Grosvenor Group, owns around 300 acres of land in Mayfair and Belgravia and developments such as the ONE shopping centre in Liverpool. The couple reportedly met through mutual friends, when the Duke was dubbed the most eligible bachelor in the UK due to his wealth and titles. They announced their engagement last year April after being together for two years, though have been described as one of the more private royal couples. Ms Hewson is a senior accounts manager at food company Belazu and is reported to have studied at Marlborough College the same school as Kate and Pippa Middleton and Trinity College Dublin. The Prince of Wales leaves Chester Cathedral after the wedding (Pater Byrne/PA) She is noted as the eldest daughter of Rupert and Caroline Henson, who is descended from Britains Hoare banking family and the Marquess of Bristol. Ms Henson has also been reported as descended from John Manners, the 5th Duke of Rutland, and is a distant cousin of the Manners sisters Lady Violet, Lady Alice and Lady Eliza. She wore the Faberge Myrtle Leaf Tiara, which has been in the Grosvenor family since 1906. Prince William served as an usher at the wedding attended by around 400 guests, including Princess Eugenie. The Duke is godfather to Prince George and reportedly, to Prince Harrys son Archie. The Cheshire Police made two arrests following a Just Stop Oil protest outside the cathedral ahead of the wedding ceremony this afternoon. A local election candidate has told how a Meath resident scrubbed racist slogans from his posters after they were vandalised. Sivakumar Murugadoss, who lives in Ratoath, said he was hurt a little but it did not stop him running as an Independent for one of the 40 seats on Meath County Council. The father of two is originally from India and has been living in Ireland for 21 years. The physiotherapist works at St John of God Services in Celbridge and has a private practice in Ashbourne. Follow Independent Meath on Facebook I dont take it very personally, he said of the vandalism. I dont feel that non-Irish in a sense. There is a small number of people like that. Wherever I go, people are giving me a welcome and a hug after it. When Im going door to door, and they see me on a leaflet, they say, We are very sorry to see this happen to you, that its disgraceful, Ireland is not like that. When you come into the public eye, its part of the things you are facing anyway. Im so happy with the support Ive had from the people from Ashbourne. He said one man sent him a text saying he went out with washing-up liquid and a scrubbing bush to wash it off. Im so integrated here. I feel Im part of the community and this will not stop me at all, he added. I just wanted to come out of my comfort zone as a physio and bring some change to the community. My family has a medical background. Even my wife was asking me, What made you think of going for it? But she knows for me, Ive always had a passion for working with people. Meanwhile, local journalist John Donohoe, who has taken leave of absence from his job as deputy editor of the Meath Chronicle, has been added to the Fianna Fail ticket to contest the Ratoath municipal area. He says working in the local media has made him aware of the concerns he is now coming across on the doorsteps. They include speeding in Kilmessan, school building provision in Dunshaughlin and water problems in Ratoath. Today's News in 90 seconds - 6th June 2024 I was approached and felt it was best I stepped aside from my job, he said. I would have done some work for [former Fianna Fail minister] Noel Dempsey in my college years and then went into journalism and would have taken a step back from that. I would also have had connections through my cousin Liz McCormack, who was the first female chairperson of Meath County Council. He remembers getting a lift from the late taoiseach Albert Reynolds, whom he got to know while working at the Longford Leader, when stuck for transport at Punchestown once. He joins councillor Caroline OReilly in running for Fianna Fail in Ratoath. Sitting Fianna Fail councillor Deirdre Geraghty Smith is not running in this years elections. Mr Donohoe, from Killeen in Dunshaughlin, has been involved in the GAA and has published histories of Dunshaughlin, Dunsany and Kilmessan. He previously worked at the Meath Weekender and the Longford Leader before returning to the Meath Chronicle in 2002. European Elections Ireland South The eighth count in Ireland South saw Clare-based Independent candidate Michael McNamara pick up the largest number of transfers. He secured 1,088 transfers from Independent candidate Una McGurk, bringing his total to 58,897. Ms McGurk, who is a barrister from Kenmare, Co Kerry was eliminated in this count. Her 8,328 papers will be distributed in the next count. Billy Kelleher (Fianna Fail) looks set to be elected tomorrow. He is currently on 93,959 votes and is a considerable distance away from the quota of 114,761. It will take a number of counts for him to reach the quota. He is followed by Michael McNamara (Independent) on 58,897; Cynthia Ni Mhurchu (FF) on 57,144; Mick Wallace (I4C) on 55,967; Kathleen Funchion (Sinn Fein) on 52,106 and Grace OSullivan (Green Party) on 49,289. Incumbent Sean Kelly (FG) remains the only candidate elected. He was elected in the first count. Olivia Kelleher President Michael D Higgins and his wife, Sabina Coyne, have cast their votes in the local and European elections. The couple were greeted by staff at the polling station in Phoenix Park in Dublin on Friday morning. All four dogs involved in the incident have been destroyed by the authorities Funeral details have been announced for Limerick dog attack victim Nicole Morey who died on her 23rd Birthday. Ms Morey, a native of Limerick City, had returned to a home she was renting in Ballyneety, Co Limerick, around 11.30pm, last Tuesday night. When she turned the keys in the door, she was attacked and killed by her four dogs. Ms Morey will repose at Cross's Funeral Home, Gerald Griffin Street, on Saturday from 2pm to 4pm. The funeral will take place on Monday at the Holy Family Church, Southill at 11am, followed by burial afterwards at the Mount St Oliver Cemetery. Her death notice on RIP.ie said: Very deeply regretted by her mother Lisa, father Patrick, stepparents Joseph and Nicola, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents Gerry Morey and Teresa ODonnell, cousins, other relatives and her many friends. Meanwhile, a man who alerted emergency services about a fatal dog attack in which Nicole Morey died on Tuesday did all he possibly could to help her, sources have said. The male had access to a security camera video feed of the scene of the attack, but was not at the scene, and was not physically able to assist Ms Morey who was attacked by her four dogs and killed. Today's News in 90 seconds - 6th June 2024 A memorial was held for Ms Morey on Thursday evening in Limerick city which was attended by hundreds of people, included a balloon release in her memory. The vigil held Thursday evening in memory of Ms Morey at Bawnmore View, Crossagalla, Limerick, was attended by over 200 people. Ms Moreys sister, Jolene, led a countdown at the vigil before hundreds of coloured balloons were released into the sky as a selection of Ms Moreys favourite songs were played on a loud speaker. Members of Ms Moreys family wept and comforted one another as neighbours and friends embraced them and each other under a canopy of multi-coloured balloons. Members of Nicole Morey's family at her vigil this evening in Limerick city. Photo: Brendan Gleeson. A source confirmed this Thursday evening that all four dogs were dogs that are included on a restricted dog breeding list and are all banned in the UK, however no such ban exists in the Republic of Ireland. They also confirmed that all four dogs had been destroyed by the authorities today. Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster has conducted a post mortem on the body of Ms Morey today and the autopsy results were not being released for operational reasons, although Gardai did not suspect any foul play in respect of Ms Moreys death. The man who was alerted to the attack via a CCTV video feed had initially contacted the emergency services after being alerted to the attack. After alerting 999, which in turn alerted Gardai and paramedics, the male then shared the CCTV footage with the victims family - in order to alert them to the incident. The individual that had access to the (footage), and that saw the incident occur, was not in the vicinity of the house, and was largely helpless, so they contacted the emergency services first, a source said. The man shared the footage with the womans family only after contacting the emergency services. The footage was widely shared thereafter by unknown parties, sparking a Garda appeal on Wednesday which requesting the public not to share these videos, out of respect for the deceased. Today, Gardai reiterated the appeal for people not to share the video footage. Gardai attached to the Regional Armed Support Unit (ASU) made the scene of Ms Moreys death safe after they encountered four aggressive dogs there. Gardai shot one dog at this scene and restrained the other three which were taken into the custody of a dog warden, but were all later destroyed. Despite valiant efforts by the emergency services to save Ms Morey, she was pronounced dead at the scene. Gardai are aware of speculation being spread around the circumstances of the fatal dog attack. This speculation has not been helpful to the investigation and there was no evidence to suggest any foul play was involved, they said. The investigation into Ms Moreys death was continuing, led by Roxboro Road Garda Station (061214340). Ms Moreys death has sparked fresh debate about whether dogs such as the XL Bully, which was suspected of being involved in her awful death, should be banned in Ireland. The little girl was rushed to University Hospital Waterford (UHW). Photo: Getty It is suspected that a one-year-old child who tragically died in Waterford on Wednesday choked on the cord of a window blind in which she had become entangled at her home. The incident happened shortly before 5pm on Wednesday at a property in the Dungarvan area of Co Waterford. No foul play is suspected in the case after it was established to be a tragic accident. Desperate efforts were made at the scene to stabilise the condition of the little girl and she was rushed to University Hospital Waterford. Despite the efforts of doctors and nurses, the girl was pronounced dead a short time after admission. The child has a twin sister who is understood to have been in the house at the time. Neighbours have spoken about their sense of shock. They are such lovely people. Everyone here is heartbroken, said one member of the community. How can they ever get over this? All the indications are that it happened so fast and was a terrible accident. Gardai quickly established that the tragedy was not a criminal matter but an official cause of death has not yet been determined. Gardai in Waterford responded to a call on Wednesday evening in relation to a child found unresponsive in her home in Co Waterford, a garda spokesman said in a statement. The child was conveyed by ambulance to University Hospital Waterford where she was later pronounced deceased. A file will be prepared for the Coroners Court. A family liaison officer has been appointed to provide support and assistance to the family of the deceased at this time. An inquest into the tragedy is expected to be held next year. Irish prisons have almost reached full capacity and are on the edge of overcrowding, a report from the Council of Europe has found. The annual penal statistics found evidence of severe overcrowding in prisons in Cyprus, Romania, France, Belgium, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia, and showed Ireland was among a number of administrations on the edge of overcrowding. Ireland had a prison density of 99.4 prisoners for every 100 places available on January 31 last year. This compared with 84.5 prisoners for every 100 places in Northern Ireland and a Europe-wide median figure of 90.2. There were 3,381 cells in penal institutions in Ireland, with an average number of 1.3 inmates to each one. The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) has said record-breaking levels of people in prison have led to deteriorating conditions in Irish prisons that are negatively affecting the delivery of services. While these statistics indicate that we were on the verge of overcrowding at the beginning of 2023, we have now surpassed this with record-breaking levels of people in prison, said IPRT executive director Saoirse Brady. Only last Friday, there were 436 more people in custody than there were beds, with the prison population edging ever closer to a record 5,000, with many of them serving short-term sentences of 12 months or less. We are seeing multiple people in cells designed for one person and people sleeping on mattresses on cell floors beside toilets. This huge number of people in the prison estate has resulted in deteriorating conditions and hinders delivery of rehabilitation services such as mental healthcare, addition services and education. Ms Brady said the rates of people in pre-trial detention is unprecedented and represents one in five people in custody. The overall European prison population rate grew slightly for the second consecutive year, with 1,036,680 inmates detained across 48 administrations on January 31 last year. The median prison population across Europe grew by 2.4pc, largely in line with the year before. However, Ireland experienced a significant increase in the prison population between January 2022 and January 2023. In Ireland, the incarceration rate increased by 12pc year-on-year, while between 2005 and 2023 the prison population rate in Ireland increased by 10.8pc. Violent and drug-related offences represent more than half of the main crimes for which European prisoners are serving sentences. The average daily spend for the detention of one person amounts to 230 per inmate in Ireland, while the average cost per person in juvenile detention per day was calculated at 1,292. An overwhelming majority of the prison population across Europe were men. Women accounted for just 5pc of the total number of inmates in Irish prisons, according to the report. The average age of the Irish prison population is 38, with those aged 26 to 49 accounting for over 70pc. Just 3.3pc of inmates are over the age of 86, while just over 13pc are aged between 18 and 25. The report also found Irish prisoners had a higher rate of escape than the European median of 1.9, with a rate of 4.5 per 10,000 inmates in Ireland. Killers Tom and Molly Martens are warned that any contact with victim Jason Corbetts family may breach parole conditions Father and daughter walked free from separate prisons on Thursday Tom and Molly Martens walk free from jail after serving just over four years for killing Jason Corbett Ralph Riegel Fri 7 Jun 2024 at 03:30 Tom and Molly Martens have been warned that any attempted contact with the family of Jason Corbett will be treated as a potential breach of their parole. Kayaker and Motor Neurone Disease (MND) campaigner Adrian Harkin (54) died at his home in Co Donegal on Wednesday night surrounded by his family. It was only six short weeks ago that Adrian embarked on what was the biggest challenge of his life organising an all-island adventure to raise money for MND research, a disease that had robbed him of so much. Accompanied by his youngest daughter Jessica in a double kayak, Adrian was able to make the journey from Greencastle on the Inishowen Peninsula to Moville, where he ran Inish Adventures an outdoor adventure centre on the shores of Lough Foyle. He knew on that sunny April day when dozens of his friends joined him in the water and on the shore that it would be his last paddle, his last day on the water, the place where he was most at home. Today's News in 90 Seconds - June 7th 2024 Two years ago Adrians worst fears were realised when something that began with a slight tremor in his hand was diagnosed as MND. In a very short space of time, he went from being the fittest of men to being in a wheelchair, being peg fed and communicating with friends and family with an eye gaze computer. No longer able to get out on the water, he turned his attention to trying to raise money for research into MND, coming up with the summit2sea4mnd which saw every section of the Irish coastline paddled with the summit of each county climbed in one day. To date over 100,000 has been raised with money still coming in. Adrian was not only a world class kayaker, he was also a champion swimmer. If he wasnt in a kayak on the water, he was in the water swimming across the small bay in front of Inish Adventures in Moville. Kayaking brought him around the world and around the country. Pride of place in his home is the photograph of the nose of a kayak floating in a big expanse of calm, blue water. It was taken on one of his many trips to Norway where he paddled the fjords. Growing up in Derry, hed fallen in love with the River Foyle when hed started fishing along it, building shelter and fire when he was just 12 years-old. It fostered a life-long love of the outdoors, of camping and of adventure. For those of us who had the privilege of swimming with him, it was as if he possessed super power and he would always be the first to a destination wondering what kept the rest of us when we finally made it. Like the British rugby league legend and fellow MND campaigner Rob Burrow, who urged people not to waste a moment of their lives, Adrians message was for people to live every day as if it was their last. Adrians funeral will take place on Saturday. He is survived by his wife Sharon, his daughters Jessica and Kayleigh, his step children Ryan and Leanne, his seven grandchildren and many friends. It must have been a case of better late than never as Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin arrived in Galway to honour his canvass promise to European Election candidate Lisa Chambers. It was canvassing at the 11th hour but in top gear as Martin pucked sliotars, scoffed a Supermacs and greeted the great and the good of Galway city. And he clearly liked what he saw, the welcome sufficiently warm for Chambers that he ran way over his scheduled run through Galway. And running it was. The Cork native is known for his high-octane canvassing, but he was certainly kept on his toes by the energetic Mayo candidate as they worked their way through the streets. Speed and access around Galway was a big topic of the day. Chambers will tell you its been the big issue of the campaign in the City of the Tribes. While housing, policing and migration concerns all feature, the big Galway election blockbuster is the Ring Road. No guessing where Chambers leaves the blame for this with the Greens. Shes not been short on hammering Eamon Ryan and his party in the campaign, particularly on their refusal to trigger the great green rush for the west of Ireland, floating offshore wind, by commencing zoning of sites on the Atlantic seaboard. Chambers believes thousands of jobs, national energy security and an economic rebalancing of the island of Ireland is being kept on ice because of Eamon Ryans refusal to d-map the west coast for floating wind while other nations race ahead. And on her belated big canvass day, she laid blame for the hold-up on the ring road on the Greens. The Greens, she said, have even openly celebrated the High Court quashing of the Galway Ring road. And in a campaign of many memorable soundbites, Chambers came with one more. Better late than never, indeed. On the doorsteps of Galway, she declared boldly that the Greens were guilty of window basket economics in its approach to the west of Ireland, particularly Galway. Chambers said she had no personal issue with the Greens but their policies were hammering the west and north-west of the country, in particular Irelands only region with a European economic profiling as disadvantaged. Galway is the heartbeat of the west, she said, but its growth has flatlined because of the failure to deliver the Ring Road. Yet, we have the Green Party opposing the Ring Road and in doing so not alone denying the quality of life that Galway people today are entitled to but future growth of Galway and the wider region, she said. The stats speak for themselves. Ireland north and west has infrastructure at 34pc of the EU average, while Dublin is at 115pc. The gap would be closed by the Galway Ring Road but in their wisdom, the Green Party doesnt want this, she stated. Develop the Ring Road and we transform the quality of life, transform the citys growth potential and, therefore, the entire region. We just need the Greens to switch from idealism to realism. Not an easy one for party leader Micheal Martin to swallow and hell be hoping that one swallow doesnt determine a summer. Therell certainly be some wounds to heal when government partners return to their cabinet nest next week. A man in his 60s has died in a collision between a minibus and a car in Co Waterford this evening. The fatal accident happened at Monvoy in Tramore, Co Waterford at 6.20pm. Gardai confirmed a male in his 60s, who was the driver of the minibus, had been fatally injured in the collision. A male, who was the driver of the car, was assessed at the scene but did not require immediate hospital treatment. The road is currently closed with local diversions in place, and an examination by the Garda Forensic Collision Investigators is underway. Today's News in 90 Seconds - June 7th 2024 "The local coroner has been notified, and arrangements will be made for a post-mortem examination, a garda spokesperson told the Irish Independent. Gardai are asking for any witnesses of this collision to contact them. Any road users who may have camera footage, including dash-cam, and were travelling in the area at the time are asked to make this footage available to investigating gardai. Anyone with any information is asked to contact Tramore garda station on 051 391 620, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any garda station, they said. STAFF at a ground handling company at Dublin Airport could take strike action this summer, a union has warned. Siptu said there is a risk of industrial action by baggage handlers and check in staff if Sky Handling Partner does not engage positively with the union at the Workplace Relations Commission next week. It said the company has agreed to attend a meeting on Friday, after it referred a dispute to the commission. The union wants to negotiate a collective agreement for staff at the company that includes higher pay and better terms and conditions. Sky Handling Partner is a subsidiary of Group CRIT and workers provide services to airlines at Dublin Airport. They include Qatar, Etihad, Delta, Tap Airlines, SAS, Air Canada, Air France, KLM, West Jet, Air Transat and Air Baltic. Jerry Brennan, Siptu industrial organiser in the aviation sector, claimed staff are paid less than workers doing the same job at other ground handling companies. Were just looking to achieve the same things for our members in Sky Handling Partner, he said. If the company arrive at the WRC and their intent is not to engage positively, well be left with no option. There is a risk of strike action if we dont get positive engagement, which is our absolute hope. "At all times, we look to avoid industrial unrest but if they arrive and their intent is not to engage positively the next option after that is to discuss industrial action with our members and take whatever steps are needed to achieve the same conditions as exist for other workers in Dublin Airport. He claimed the company had refused to recognise the union for over 20 years before agreeing to attend next week's meeting. The employees have been mixing and mingling with all the other employees on the ramp, he said. They know what theyre being paid and its significantly less for doing the exact same function. He claimed pay rates are around 2 an hour less and staff do not get night shift allowances, Sunday premium pay, or sick pay. He said the union represents around half of the staff at Sky Handling, which is the second largest ground handling operation at the airport. A recent Siptu survey found that 98pc of staff want the union to negotiate their pay and conditions of employment with management. The union said their concerns included low pay, lack of respect, stress, poor work/life balance and issues with contracts of employment. The Irish Independent has asked Sky Handling Partner for a comment. Irish-Israeli girl Emily Hand, who was abducted by Hamas gunmen, is reunited with her father Thomas Hand after she was released in November. Thomas Hand has said he is ashamed to call himself Irish following the Governments decision to recognise the State of Palestine. His daughter, Irish-Israeli girl Emily Hand, was kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7 attack. She was released in November after spending 50 days, including her ninth birthday, as a hostage in Gaza. Mr Hand, who is originally from Dublin, told Reuters that Ireland has been instrumental in Emilys release but strongly criticised recognition of Palestine. "Ive been a very proud Irishman all my life. I advertise the fact, I tell people yes Im Irish, he said. "Im not so proud anymore. Im actually embarrassed, ashamed to call myself Irish now. After whats happened to Emily, and they [Irish authorities] were integral in the whole process of it Okay, shes only an individual but she is an Irish citizen. "Knowing everything Hamas has done, Im sure theyve seen the videos of their GoPros, theyve seen all the evidence. He said recognising a Palestinian state served as a reward for Hamas. "Okay, here is your reward then for absolute violence. Heres your reward, we recognise you as a state. Nice one, he told Reuters. Ireland recognised the state of Palestine alongside Spain and Norway from May 28. Taoiseach Simon Harris said it was an act of powerful, political and symbolic value. "Irelands dream is that the Israeli and Palestinian children of May 28th 2024 will grow up to be neighbours at peace, Mr Harris said at the time of the announcement. Both the Palestinian and Israeli people are inherently kind and decent." Mr Hand said the decision taken by the three countries was wrong. "I don't mind pro-Palestine, but when you're pro-Hamas, that's a different ballgame. Really? You're supporting that? Those three countries, they're basically showing support for that. It's wrong. "We're praying for it [a peaceful resolution] to happen and for all of this to end. All they [Hamas] have to do is hand over the hostages and the war is over. Emilys release in November came during a temporary cessation of hostilities as part of an agreement between Israel and Hamas. More than 100 Israeli and foreign national hostages were released. Nearly half of the hostages kidnapped on October 7 remain in captivity. Since being reunited, Mr Hand and Emily have been moving from one place of temporary accommodation to another with just a few belongings and their family dog Johnsie. He said he is trying to provide a sense of normality for his daughter and she is making her way towards a full recovery despite one or two triggers. The problem with the celebrity post-baby bounce-back body is that most bodies dont Celebrity mums show off washboard stomachs weeks after delivery and serve beautiful realness in nursing bras, but theres more to finding yourself as a mum than rediscovering your waistline Sienna Miller shows of her bump in September 2023. Photo: Mike Marsland/WireImage Tanya Sweeney Fri 7 Jun 2024 at 03:30 Paparazzi pictures of Sienna Miller surfing the waves in Costa Rica in April looked very much business as usual. Wearing a black bikini, the actress looked happy, healthy and very toned. Margaret Seery in her grocer's shop in Arva, Co Cavan, which is for sale at Victor Mee William Orpens unfinished painting of Edith, Gypsy Girl, sold for 100,000 at De Veres on May 28. In 1909, the artist was preoccupied with Dublin street entertainers and especially dancing bears. This painting is one of several portrait sketches of Edith, who was possibly Hungarian and one of the keepers of a brown North-American bear. There were many performing bears in Ireland. One killed its owner in Cork in 1909. Another escaped in Mullingar and was hunted by armed police. By 1913, the letters pages of Dublin newspapers complained how performing bears were treated by their owners. Orpens portrait shows Edith against an unfinished landscape. You wouldnt want to mess with her. The painting, also known as The Bear Woman, was purchased by the artist Sarah Purser for 35 in 1909. See deveres.ie. Edith, gypsy girl by William Orpen Victor Mee The complete shop, pub counter and advertising collection from a grocers shop in Arva, Co Cavan, is going under the hammer at Victor Mees Pub Memorabilia & Collectables Sale from June 18-20. Pub memorabilia in the sale includes: a Willss Gold Flake enamel advertising sign (Lot 145: est. 400 to 600); an early 20th century McGees Old Liqueur Whiskey framed advertising mirror (Lot 813: est. 1,800 to 2,800); a 1960s Coca-Cola vending and ice-cooler (Lot 1400: est. 600 to 1,200): an enamel sign advertising Lyons 2d Fruit Pies Many Varieties (Lot 216: est. 200 to 300); and a Staffordshire pottery Martell Brandy advertising figure (Lot 819: est. 300 to 500). The sale takes place live online from 5.30pm. See victormeeauctions.ie. Heritage Auctions in Texas established a new record when a prototype Rocket-Firing Boba Fett L-Slot/Hand-Painted AFA 60 (Kenner, 1979) fetched $525,000 (483,577) on May 31. The action figure is now the most expensive Star Wars toy ever sold at a public auction. Its value came from its rarity: the figure never made it to production and the only surviving examples are prototypes. Boba Fett was a bounty hunter who played a minor role in The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and The Return of the Jedi (1983). Then, he was famous for never removing his helmet. Since then, hes inspired his own miniseries (The Book of Boba Fett, 2021). In America, Boba Fett was first seen in The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978), a television series broadcast by CBS. Kenners Boba Fett with rocket-firing back pack was advertised in the US as a giveaway in 1979. If you provided proof that youd purchased four other Star Wars action figures, you could send away for Boba Fett, who was not available in any store. This awakened the collecting instinct in many a young bounty hunter, but when their figurines arrived, they were disappointed. The advertised projectile weapon had been replaced by a rocket that was glued into place. There were sound reasons for this. A Battlestar Galactica toy produced by a rival company, Mattel, had a similar projectile, which was identified as a choking hazard. Tragically, one child died, while another had the missile removed from his lung. Boba Fetts weapon was swiftly made safe. Around 100 prototypes survived, 70 of which are known, but the Boba Fett at Heritage Auctions was rarer still. It was one of five hand-painted prototypes, and one of two in this particular colour scheme. It was salvaged from a box of discarded toys, left for Kenner employees to take home. Rocket-Firing Boba Fett is famous for generating false memories. According to Heritage Auctions, its the figure everyone thought they had, but didnt. Such false memories are known as the Mandela Effect. The name comes from the popular misconception that Nelson Mandela died in prison in the 1980s. It was untrue, but widely believed. Mandela lived until 2013, but even while he was alive, many people remembered his death. Similar memory glitches are common among Star Wars collectors. Its also been called the Mandalorian Effect or Rocket Fett Syndrome. It happens with other figurines too. I clearly remember playing with a Luke Skywalker with a double-telescoping lightsaber as a child. Reportedly, many people have similar recollections. These are false memories, mores the pity. In February 2023, a Luke Skywalker with double-telescoping lightsaber sold at Morphy Auctions in Denver, Pennsylvania, for $35,000 (32,239). The toy is valuable because only a handful were released. The fragile double-telescoping lightsaber was replaced by a sturdier fixed weapon. Kenner, the American producer of Star Wars toys, produced three action figures with double-telescoping lightsabers: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. All three are listed in the top five most valuable Star Wars figures ever sold. Star Wars action figures made by Palitoy in the UK are more common in Ireland. Palitoy figures tend to be more valuable than their Kenner equivalents and one of the most coveted figures is the Vinyl Caped Jawa action figure from 1978. A Palitoy Star Wars Jawa figure with rare vinyl cape As the story goes, George Lucas complained that the vinyl cloak wasnt good enough and had it replaced by a cloth version. Now, almost 50 years later, the unsatisfactory version is worth a great deal more than its better-quality replacement. In July 2003, Excalibur Auctions in Hertfordshire sold a Jawa figure with a vinyl cape for 26,670 (31,297), far exceeding the 10,000 to 15,000 (11,735 to 17,602) estimate. The vendor, who worked for Marvel UK in the 1970s, received a range of figurines from Palitoy when the Star Wars toys were being promoted in Marvel comics. He went back to search his attic, where he found a second vinyl-caped Jawa. It sold this January for 15,000 (17,602). As always, condition is everything. Star Wars figurines are only valuable in their original packaging. To fetch really high prices, this needs to be pristine. Also, watch out for fakes. Vinyl-caped Jawas have often been reproduced so skilfully that only a trained eye can identify an original from a fake. See ha.com and excaliburauctions.com. It is one of the most serious breaches of trust at the heart of Irish charity. An RTE Prime Time investigation managed to get access to internal documents from the Peter McVerry Trust (PMVT), the housing charity that had to be bailed out by the Government to the tune of 15m last year. As reported by RTE, the documents show that over the course of six years, the biggest housing charity in the country had used 40m in restricted donations for other purposes, which included covering the trusts debts. The principal consideration now for those at the helm of the charity must be how to repair the damage the story has likely done to what was previously a deep bond between PMVT and the Irish public. On June 3, the day before Indias election results were to be revealed, most Muslims went to bed worried about their future. The campaign had been like none they had seen. In April, after India completed the first phase of polling, prime minister Narendra Modi gave a speech in Rajasthan that shocked even some of his own supporters. A Go Fund Me page has been set up to cover Toms medical expenses and to help get him back home to Ireland Tom Eustace was involved in a tragic accident in Rome that has left him fighting for his life. Photo: Go Fund Me A young man from Co Carlow has been left fighting for his life following an accident in Italy. Tom Eustace from Tullow in Co Carlow was in Rome, Italy attending a friends wedding with his girlfriend and other friends when a tragic accident occurred. This accident has left Tom in a coma with life-threatening injuries. The Eustace family say that Tom is currently fighting for his life. Follow Independent Carlow on Facebook Toms family are now faced with a long road to recovery that will be both physically and financially demanding. A Go Fund Me page has been set up by the Eustace family to help with Toms medical expenses, rehabilitation costs and travel expenses to get him home to Ireland. My amazing boyfriend is facing some unexpected challenges right now after being involved in an extremely serious accident in Italy and weve set up a GoFundMe campaign to help cover the costs, explained Toms girlfriend Miriam Holden on social media. "If you can, please consider donating to support him during this tough time. Every little bit helps and your support means more than words can express, she concluded. Today's News in 90 Seconds - June 7th 2024 Tom is an amazing person who has always been there for his friends and family, added Toms family on the Go Fund Me page. Now he needs our help more than ever. The road to recovery will be long and demanding, both physically and financially. Medical expenses, rehabilitation costs and travel expenses to get him back to Ireland are just some of the challenges we are facing. In less than 24 hours, the Go Fund Me page has reached over 67,000 as the local Carlow community and beyond come together in support of a young man and a family who have been integral members of the Tullow community. The money raised will go directly towards medical expenses including surgeries, treatments, transport and hospital stays. Funds will also be needed for rehabilitation and therapy sessions to aid Tom's recovery and for any unforeseen expenses related to his care and recovery.Carlow school gets green light for new building to accommodate 750 pupils "The outpouring of support, messages and calls has been a tremendous source of strength for Toms family and girlfriend, said Toms family. We deeply appreciate every gesture of kindness and support during this difficult time. Tom was a member of Tullow Rugby Club until a few years ago and is currently a member of Fighting Cocks GFC club in Co Carlow. "We are shocked and saddened to hear of Toms accident during the week. As many of you know, the Eustace family are one of our neighbours and have many family links within the club, along with Tom playing rugby himself, said a spokesperson from Tullow RFC on Facebook. "Please donate what you can towards Toms recovery fund. As a club, we send our support to Miriam Holden, the Eustace family, wider family members and many friends at this worrying time. "Sending all our support and strength to Tom. Anyone who would like to donate, can do so via the Tom Eustaces recovery journey page on GoFundMe.com or by clicking here. The school has been shortlisted for its Ocean Literacy and Deep Sea project Corks Glasheen Boys National School is one of the 15 primary schools from across Ireland to have been shortlisted for the Explorers Education Programmes Ocean Champion Awards 2023-2024. The school has been shortlisted for its Ocean Literacy and Deep Sea project in the SDGs & the Ocean School Project category. The Marine Institute announced that the Cork school and others who completed impressive projects were shortlisted in celebration of World Oceans Day on June 8. According to the Marine Institute, many of the successful projects showed children working with their community towards creating a sustainable ocean and blue future. They included art exhibitions, documentary films; the creation of rock sculptures and messages for tourists on the beach; learning about medical research and generating social media campaigns; sharing fun facts about the influences of the ocean; designing boats for the future and cooking with seaweeds and children participating in a national choir singing about the sea. Patricia Orme, corporate services director of the Marine Institute said that the projects completed by the teachers and children this year really highlight the value of ocean literacy themes being taught in schools, along with the importance of community collaboration in changing how we care for our marine environment. The last two decades have seen the concept of ocean literacy grow in Ireland through the influence of the Explorers Education Programme working with schools and also its participation in World Oceans Day to celebrate our ocean planet collectively within our local communities, Ms Orme said. It has been fantastic to see over 70 per cent of the healthy ocean project applications this year focus on ocean literacy and the arts in the Ocean Champions School submissions. We were also delighted to see strong projects submitted by schools across nine coastal counties in categories that focused on STEAM and the ocean, SDGs and the ocean, as well as marine outdoor education. The shortlisted projects showcased how we connect and engage with the ocean from Donegal to Kerry and from Cork to Dublin. The projects with added value demonstrated how the children were actively involved in influencing members of their local communities in creating behavioural changes. We were very impressed with the interviews with fishers, parents and teachers and the incredible art work that engaged many communities in learning about the importance and intrinsic value of our ocean. The winners of of the Awards will be presented with plaques and certificate by the Explorers teams this month, and the winning schools in each category will receive special awards. More information about the Explorers Education Programme is available at www.explorers.ie The extension of the existing Local Authority Home Loan has been welcomed by Cork TD Aindrias Moynihan TD. The Fianna Fail TD for Cork North West told The Corkman it will be launched in the coming weeks. Government approval was given on a new and exciting product. The new Local Authority Purchase and Renovation Loan will be launched in the coming weeks and will be made available for homes which are eligible for the existing Vacant and Derelict Property Refurbishment Grant. Deputy Moynihan continued: This is very welcome news as the Vacant and Derelict Property/Croi Conaithe Grant has proven to be very popular with over 8,100 applications made nationwide and 5,000 already approved. With this new product being made available it will mean that a first time buyer who is looking to carry out works to a vacant or derelict property can qualify for a loan to both purchase and carry out the necessary renovation works, he added. Eligibility for the new support is subject to the applicant meeting the existing local authority mortgage lending eligibility criteria and the project meeting scheme lending criteria. The introduction of the LAPR significantly expands the types and numbers of homes eligible under current local authority mortgage lending rules. Today's News in 90 Seconds - June 7th 2024 Previously, only homes which were habitable were eligible for the Local Authority Home Loan and the loan was only available for the purchase of the property, not renovation. The loan, which will be available in the coming weeks is a key objective of Housing for All, while also providing another funding pathway for individuals to realise their goal of homeownership. They were stopped and it was found that they were an unaccompanied learner with no tax or insurance. The driver is pulled over in Blanchardstown Gardai who apprehended a motorist who was filming a traffic accident as they passed have seized their van. Blanchardstown gardai were at the scene of a collision when they saw the driver using their phone to video the incident. They were stopped and it was found that they were an unaccompanied learner with no tax or insurance, gardai posted on X. The van was seized and we will be in touch. The gardai were applauded for her actions with one person commenting: Great stuff. Thatll put manners on him. Another added: Any sharp tools in the truck? The driver certainly is not the sharpest anyway. Good, another stated. Well done. Anybody whose 1st reaction is to film a potential traumatic incident on their stupid smart-phones should go to jail anyway. No courts, no trial. Jail. Gardai have had to publicly warn people previously that motorists caught recording a video of a serious crash on their phones face two penalty points and an 80 fixed charge for driving without reasonable consideration. This rises to 120 if not paid within 28 days. If you are convicted in court, you could be fined a higher amount and will get four penalty points. Just last month, in an unrelated incident, three motorists were fined for filming the scene of a collision on a motorway in Co Louth. According to a post shared on the An Garda Siochana Facebook page, gardai were dealing with this complicated scene when officers witnessed three motorists driving past while recording the scene with their phones. The three drivers were pulled over by gardai and issued fixed penalty notices. Gardai also warned drivers to never record the scene of a crash as "using your phone increases the risk of another accident taking place potentially injuring or possibly causing a fatality at a collision". "Gardai and other emergency services have a job to do and we expect the public to drive appropriately at or near a scene (which most people do)," Gardai said in the Facebook post. "Not only that it is completely disrespectful to anyone involved in the collision. You have to ask yourself would you like a photo/video of you being uploaded onto social media if something like this happened to you. There is insufficient evidence to bring charges in relation to the baffling disappearance of Abbeyfeale native Paddy Moriarty in Australia, the Northern Territory Director of Public Prosecutions (NT DPP) has stated. Its a major new development in a saga which dates back to December 16, 2017, when Mr Moriarty (70), believed to be from the Kerry-Limerick border town, vanished without trace from Larrimah, an exceptionally remote Australian hamlet whose population is rarely over a dozen and is two hours south of the next town. Mr Moriarty had been to the nearby Pink Panther Larrimah Hotel for a few drinks, but after driving home on his quad, he and his dog, Kellie, were never seen again. His wallet, a cooked chicken he received from a tourist, and his quad were all on site when police began their investigations days later. A $250,000 reward for information that leads to solving the case which was quickly upgraded to a murder investigation remains on offer. https://www.independent.ie/regionals/kerry/news/lost-in-the-outback-what-became-of-paddy-moriarty/38823462.html Mr Moriarty was born in Croom, County Limerick, in 1947 and was a son to Abbeyfeale woman Mary Teresa Moriarty. He left for Australia in 1966, and theres no evidence he ever returned, and despite having relatives living in Ireland and the UK, The Kerryman has been unable to find anyone who knew Mr Moriarty. In my opinion, Paddy was killed in the context of and likely due to the ongoing feud he had with his nearest neighbours, coroner Greg Cavanagh said following a 2022 inquest into Mr Moriartys likely death. Secret police recordings formed part of the inquest, in which local garderer Owen Laurie is allegedly heard saying F***ing killed Paddy, hit him on the headSmacked him on the f***ing nostrils with my claw hammer and I killerated old PaddyI struck him on the f***ing head and killerated the bastardbasherated him. Mr Laurie has denied making these comments and any involvement in Mr Moriartys disappearance. "The DPP has determined that there is insufficient evidence to make out a charge against any person in relation to the disappearance of Paddy Moriarty," this weeks NT DPP statement read. The NT DPP said it will not comment further on the matter. https://www.independent.ie/regionals/kerry/news/lost-in-the-outback-what-became-of-paddy-moriarty/38823462.html Terry OBrien at the launch of Stephen Fernanes book The Life and Times of Bernard Dillion The Narie that won the Derby at The Strand Road Club house on Thursday evening - Photo by Mark OSullivan Having a good time at the book launch on Thursday evening in Tralee. At the Kerins O'Rahilly's GAA Club on Thursday for the launch of a new book on jockey Bernard Dillon. A significant and necessary addition to the history of Tralee is how Mayor of Tralee Terry OBrien described The Life and Times of Bernard Dillon: The Narie that Won the Derby which was launched at the Kerins ORahillys GAA Club on Thursday evening. The large gathering included MEP Sean Kelly, Sinn Fein Deputy Pa Daly, Minister Norma Foley, and Tralee horse trainer Tommy Cooper as the guests were first serenaded with classical music from the talented Yershovy family from Ukraine. The music was followed by speeches from MC for the evening and book publisher, Jeremy Murphy, Kerins ORahillys Chairman Oliver Molloy, Mayor of Tralee Terry OBrien, and book author Stephen Fernane. Oliver Molly said he was delighted on behalf of the club to welcome Bernards story back to where it all started as the famous jockey was born in 1887 near to where the clubhouse now stands. Mayor of Tralee Terry OBrien thanked Stephen Fernane for writing the story on one of Tralees long-lost sporting personalities who took the racing world by storm when moving to England in 1901. Bernards high-point came when winning the Epsom Derby in 1910, a race that elevated his stature among flat racings elite. Stephen spoke about the significance of launching the book in what is Bernards spiritual home of Caherina. Bernard led some life and he was as talented as he was tenacious in a life that was anything but straight forward, he said. Stephen thanked the crowd for attending and remembering one of Tralees most colourful and complex characters. He said that while Bernards finest hour came in 1910 when winning the Derby, it also marked the eleventh hour in his life as it went into sharp decline before his death in 1941. The Life and Times of Bernard Dillon: the Narie that Won the Derby is available at Polymath Book Store in Tralee and www.buythebook.ie cake will be made to mark birth of Yeats 159 years ago A previous birthday cake baked to celebrate the birthday of WB Yeats at the Yeats Building, Sligo. A number of events will take place in Sligo this week to mark the anniversary of the birth of W B Yeats. Yeats Day takes place on June 13th and there will also be several events to mark the occasion. OHehirs Bakery will continue their tradition of creating a birthday cake for Yeats Day since its inception in 2012. Eily Kilgannon drama students will recite Yeats poetry. Cake will be shared at 1pm on Thursday 13th at Yeats Building, 1pm and admission is free. This years Nora Niland lecture will be delivered by author Jan Carson, who hails from Belfast. It will take place on Wednesday, June 12, at 7pm at the Yeats Building, Tickets at door: 5/3. Jans lecture is entitled Becoming Various - Untangling the Knots of Northern Identity. Jan has been writing novels and short stories for ten years. She has been awarded the EU Prize for Literature and has been shortlisted for the Dalkey Novel of the Year Award, Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year and the Kerry Group Novel of the Year. She also runs arts projects and events with older people, especially those living with dementia. Nora Niland was the County Librarian in Sligo for many years. She was a founding member of Yeats Society Sligo in 1958 and was instrumental in setting up the Yeats International Summer School, 65 years old this year. She was also key to creating the Niland collection of 20th century contemporary art works, now housed in The Model, Sligo. This includes works by Jack Yeats, WBs younger brother. Jans new book is published by Doubleday. Dr Joseph Hassett is visiting from Washington on Yeats Day, June 13, to launch his new book Under the Metal Man: Sligo in Yeats. Dr Hassett has been visiting Sligo, and the Yeats International Summer School, for many decades, inspired by the work of Yeats and by Yeats own deep-rooted love of Sligo, inspired by his mother, Susan Pollexfen. Honorary President of Yeats Society Sligo, former Ambassador Daniel Mulhall will also attend the launch. The Pollexfen family were merchants who owned and ran the steamships in Sligo port in the 19th century. The book launch will also see the opening of a new exhibition, inspired by Dr Hassetts new book. It will feature some of the books which Yeats wrote and where, Dr Hassett argues, the traces of how Sligo was internalised in Yeats imagination, can be found. The book launch is on Thursday June 13, 5pm, Yeats Building with free admission. An Edwardian afternoon tea, with fresh sandwiches, scones and cake, all home-made will be hosted on Friday June 14th, at the Yeats Building, with admission costing 10. Poetry will be shared while people enjoy the food. It takes place in the Yeats Building to continue to celebrate the Nobel poets birthday. Places can be booked at info@yeatssociety.com Sligo woman and author Cecily Gilligan will be reading and sharing her knowledge from her successful book Cures of Ireland A Treasury of Irish Folk Remedies on Saturday June 15, 11am, Yeats Building, Tickets at door: 5/3 Cecilys interest in traditional cures dates back to her childhood when her father treated her successfully for jaundice and she has been gathering up stories for many years since. She combines her love of traditional Irish life, history and folklore with her work as a primary school teacher. The Yeats Society is always delighted to mark Bloomsday, June 16, the date selected by James Joyce for the characters in his famous book, Ulysses. Those who know Leopold Bloom know, of course, that Bloom ate his gorgonzola in a sandwich, with mustard, while drinking some burgundy. Paul Murray, whose great-aunt May Murray was Joyces mother, has been reading Ulysses for very many years. He will be reading some of his chosen extracts on Sunday, June 16, 1pm, Yeats Building with free admission. TUI members could well take to the picket line in September as they have done in the past in Sligo (above). The Mayo Sligo and Leitrim Education and Training Board (MSLETB) has expressed its disappointment at the decision of the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) to take industrial action in September. MSLETB has urged the TUI to engage in renewed dialogue over the coming weeks to prevent what it says will be unnecessary disruption to students and educators. In a statement the MSLETB said: The disagreement revolves around implementing the 1999 TUI/IVEA Transfer Agreement. MSLETB confirms that it is fully compliant with all sectoral and national agreements. MSLETB has consistently applied the agreement successfully to several internal transfers. "The TUI has a differing interpretation of one specific element of the agreement that impacts on one teacher. MSLETB has engaged consistently with TUI regularly on this issue and again requests that the TUI utilises local policies and procedures to address the matter. MSLETB believes that open and continuous dialogue is essential in addressing the concerns raised by our teachers and ensuring that all parties adhere to the collective agreement. The priority for all must be the educational needs of our students, and we believe that all sides should work collaboratively to avoid this disruption, the statement outlined. Earlier Members of the Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim Branches of the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) said it will take strike action in September because of the continuing failure of the employer to honour and implement the terms of the relevant collective agreement on the transfer of staff. In a recent ballot, the TUI members in the branches voted by a margin of 95% to 5% to engage in industrial action should the situation remain unresolved. The Union remains open to having this matter resolved, subject to adherence to the relevant collective agreement, a statement from the TUI said. TUI President, David Waters stated: We have used and exhausted multiple avenues to bring this matter to resolution. Regrettably, due to the continuing failure of MSLETB to adhere to the terms of the national collective agreement on the transfer of teachers we have been left with no choice but to take strike action. Following lengthy negotiation, MSLETB finally agreed in May to adhere to and apply this critically important collective agreement. However this pledge has now been broken by the ETB as it has decided to transfer a teacher beyond the 45km limit agreed with the Department of Education and the TUI. Therefore, in addition to strike action in September, the Union has issued a directive to any member who is being compelled by MSLETB to transfer beyond the 45km limit to report to work in their current base location at the commencement of the next school year and will protect any such member. "A transfer is a very significant event in any teachers working life, with obvious and considerable professional and personal implications. It is also important to note that MSLETB covers the largest area of any ETB in the country, which potentially makes the implication of mandatory transfers all the more significant. In recognition of this fact, any transfer is subject to the terms of a national collective agreement (the 1999 TUI/IVEA Transfer agreement) in the case of teachers and to the established procedures and contractual arrangements in the case of other grades. This affords the protection of fair process to all concerned including school/centre and ETB management. The agreed limit confirmed by the Department of Education for transfer is 45km from the teachers existing base location or home, whichever is the shorter commute. TUI respects collective agreements and we expect employers to do the same. "Regrettably, and despite our interventions and continuous efforts to resolve this issue, MSLETB has failed in its duty to adhere to this collective agreement. As a result, the TUI has been left with no option other than to proceed with industrial action. Follow Independent Leitrim on Facebook Follow Independent Mayo on Facebook Transfers must be treated with due seriousness and our members must be treated with respect. We cannot and will not allow MSLETB or any ETB for that matter - to transfer a member without following the agreed procedures and adhering to the agreed limits. The TUI, as always, remains willing to having this matter resolved, subject to adherence to the relevant collective agreement. National Broadband Ireland (NBI) has announced that engineering survey works for over 1,000 premises in the rural surrounds of the Hollyfort deployment area, which includes communities in Carnew, Coolboy and Arklow, are now underway. NBI crews have made substantial progress in Wicklow, where 1,021 premises in the Hollyfort deployment area have recently begun surveying work. These initial works pave the way for the next stage of deploying fibre on poles/ducts and include the erection of poles, unblocking of ducts, and the insertion of sub ducts into existing ducts, for the fibre to be installed. There are currently 7,079 homes, businesses, and farms in Wicklow that can order or pre-order high-speed, reliable broadband, with 2,446 connections made to the NBI network so far, and approximately 16,000 premises in the Intervention Area (IA), which includes homes, farms, commercial businesses, and schools. Under the National Broadband Plan, Wicklow will see an investment of 59m in the new high-speed fibre network. This will enable e-learning, remote monitoring of livestock or equipment, e-health initiatives, better energy efficiency in the home, and facilitate increased levels of remote working. Progress continues across Wicklow with network build works now underway throughout the county. Almost 2,500 homes and businesses should be connected to the NBI network by the end of this year in the Enniskerry and Baltinglass deployment areas, with a further 2,000 premises near Aughrim and Tinahely due to be connected next year. TJ Malone, Chief Executive Officer, National Broadband Ireland Deployment said: Momentum has been steadily building in the progression of the National Broadband Plan, with premises across the country being connected to high-speed broadband. Our teams continue to work on the rollout plan and steady progress has been made from surveying, design, build to connection works in Wicklow. There are over 7,000 homes, businesses and farms ready to connect in rural areas in Wicklow. This includes almost 3,400 premises in Redcross, 2,300 near Kilcoole, and over 1,400 near Blessington. National Broadband Ireland is calling on people living in Wicklow to visit nbi.ie/map/ and enter their Eircode to see if they are ready to connect. Minister James Browne and Cathaoirleach Pip Breen officially opened the restoration works at the Fr. Murphy Centre in Boolavogue on Sunday, May 26. Senator Malcolm Byrne, Cllr Mary Farrell, District Manager Philip Knight, Cathaoirleach Pip Breen, Minister James Browne, Cllr Oliver Walsh, Chair of the Fr Murphy Centre Padraig Sinnott and Director of Services Liz Hore were in attendance at the official opening of the restoration works at the Fr. Murphy Centre in Boolavogue on Sunday, May 26. The Fr. Murphy Centre in Boolavogue in Wexford was officially opened recently following the completion of restoration works. Minister James Browne and Cathaoirleach Pip Breen officially opened the Fr. Murphy Centre on Sunday, May 26, which is a significant date as it marks Fr Murphys first encounter with the Yeoman that sparked the Battle of Oulart Hill. Chair of the Fr Murphy Centre Padraig Sinnott spoke about the restoration works which had been carried out on the centre and said that the condition of the cottages roof had deteriorated to an extent that the building was no longer accessible. Funding was sourced through Creative Irelands 225 Commemoration of the 1798 Uprising to complete the restoration. A new timber frame was installed to support the reed thatch that is traditional to County Wexfords thatched buildings. Padraig Sinnott thanked those involved in bringing about the renovation with special mention to Catherine McLoughlin, former Heritage Officer with Wexford County Council. Cathaoirleach Pip Breen paid tribute to the Fr. Murphy Centre Committee and the work that is done on a voluntary basis to keep the centre open. I would like to thank the people of my home Parish for their support in keeping this wonderful heritage project alive, said Cllr Breen. Indicating other buildings the Cathaoirleach noted that there is still work to be done and would be working with his fellow councillors in the district to secure funding for those works. Minister James Browne thanked the Committee the local councillors and officials of Wexford County Council their work in bringing the renovation project to completion. He noted the support of Creative Ireland in funding the initiative and thanked Minister Heather Humphreys. The Minister and Cathaoirleach then cut the ribbon that was tied between two pikes in front of Fr. Murphys cottage door and a rousing rendition of Boolavogue concluded the event. Facility is near wholly dependent on fundraising and contributions while filling the gap in elder care services Following a report in last weeks edition about a HIQA report into New Ross Community Hospital which highlighted a number of issues at the hospital, including non-compliance regarding staffing, fire safety, the recording of important information and its government and management systems on a particular day in mid-January, the facility has issued the following response: There are no unregistered staff in New Ross Community Hospital (NRCH). HIQA did not see the NMBI (Nursing & Midwifery Board of Ireland) annual renewal of registration for three nurses. What happens is that each year the nurses have to renew their registration with NMBI; they have until 31/01 of each year to do this, HIQA visited on 18/01/2024. These would be the same registration number and documents they supplied the years previous as same staff since last report. Regarding nutrition HIQA did not determine NRCH was non-compliant because it did not provide nutritious meals. NRCH prides itself on the homecooked meals prepared in the kitchen on-site. Factually, there were errors in communication and on the day between kitchen/catering staff and nursing/care staff; a resident received food that was not of the correct consistency and according to their assessed needs i.e. pureed. The communication systems in place for nutrition and hydration were unreliable, these have been reviewed and revised. Records regarding emergency lighting report of faults now have all the relevant information showing the faults repaired. The several large holes in the ceiling have been repaired and the walls and brick work in the Comms Room have been soundboarded as required by fire regulations. The unlabelled substance removed and area covered with cement. A mini gas cylinder cage with fire protection has been purchased and signage in place to alert people in the building and the fire service to the presence of oxygen. Responsibility for the weekly inspection of the fire alarm, fire doors, emergency lighting and fire-fighting equipment has been allocated to two staff to ensure continuity of the fire system in NRCH. The floor plans have been amended to indicate the alternative escape routes to places of safety. Personal evacuation plans have been improved to make them more specific. A cleaning booklet is in place regarding lint removal from the tumble dryer and one staff has the responsibility of completing this document. The fire drill records have been revised in accordance with the HIQA report. A hospital spokesperson said: None of the above even addresses the human element in all of this and the knock-on reputational damage. We are near wholly dependent on fundraising and contributions while filling the gap in elder care services. "We have always appreciated featuring in your print editions in respect of our projects or milestones. Staff changes and nervousness can effect performance/errors on the day of a long inspection. Some of most regular purchasers of the paper in print are our residents. "The board are very familiar with HIQA and aware our yearly reports are published. Seeing they are already in the public domain for everyone to read we would question why when nursing homes and community hospitals are under such pressure the editorial team deemed fit to proceed with such a front page considering there is no actual danger across fire, food or staffing in our case. "Currently there is a public information campaign by Nursing Homes Ireland, #saveournursinghomes which most definitely demands the public and governments attention. "We stand in solidarity with our neighbours in the New Houghton Hospital and the entire board will continue to serve our clients and community into the future without reservation and with heightened determination. The families of those diagnosed with Alzheimers or dementia in Wexford are not availing of supports which provide up to 56 hours of respite care per week. Having met with her local Alzheimers and dementia support group, Sinn Fein candidate Aoife Rose OBrien said many of those impacted by these illnesses were simply unaware of the range of supports available to them. Citing a home care support called The Intensive Homecare Plan for Dementia Sufferers (IHCP), which provides homecare to people diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimers disease, Ms OBrien said she was shocked to discover that many patients and families in Wexford hadnt heard of this support service. Some of the patients require 24/7 care from their families and I know first hand how difficult this is after caring for my grandmother. I moved in with her to help my mother after my grandmothers stroke when she developed dementia and it was extremely tough not having help from the HSE to care for her. After speaking with local families, I realised that for whatever reason, this support wasnt widely known to them. It was very upsetting to see their reactions. I know these patients and their families would benefit greatly from having a homecare support and it is within their rights to receive it. Having liaised with Sinn Fein TD Johnny Mythen, Ms OBrien is now seeking answers from the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly. We have asked for specific figures for the past number of years to find out how many people in Wexford have applied for this service and also how many were actually granted the care, she said. Whether its an issue of a lack of staff or something else, we want to see this service being rolled out across our county and reach every home that is in need. Id like to think that highlighting this issue will bring hope to these families and bring a positive change into their lives. The Alzheimers Society of Ireland are fantastic, they meet in different locations across the county, with their local social club held in Our Ladys Island Community Centre every Wednesday morning from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. "Christina and her team bring great comfort and joy to everyone who attend. Im happy to have worked with them on accessing a local artist to hold workshops for the families that attend. The team behind Beyond the Trees Avondale were recipients of the Marketing Innovation and Creativity Award from the Marketing Institute of Ireland at the All-Ireland Marketing Awards last week. The awards ceremony saw Marketing Institute Ireland celebrating the outstanding achievements of this years winners, who have demonstrated exceptional skill, creativity, and dedication across the diverse disciplines of the marketing profession. Beyond the Trees Avondale consists of a treetop walk and viewing tower, the first of its kind in Ireland, which takes you into the very heart of Avondale forest, before you whizz your way back to earth on the gigantic spiral slide, or take a more leisurely journey, down the gently sloping boardwalk. Its also the home to Avondale House, where Charles Stewart Parnell was born. Speaking after the awards ceremony, Ann Kilcoyne, Marketing and Sales, Beyond the Trees Avondale said: Were delighted to share that Beyond the Trees Avondale has been awarded the Marketing Innovation and Creativity Award at the Marketing Institute Ireland Awards. Last year, Beyond the Trees Avondale introduced their Treetop Nightlights campaign, an initiative designed to drive visitor numbers during the winter months. Each evening, the tree canopy, was illuminated by more than 67,000 twinkling lights along its 1.4km walking route and 38-metre viewing tower, offering a new and unique opportunity to witness the Wicklow countryside from an entirely new perspective. With this amazingly visual and experiential product, they were able to use world-class digital content to light up social media and create a 100x amplification across all social channels. A huge congratulations to all our colleagues and support partners involved. The events are being coordinated by Glendalough Heritage Forum, Wicklow Heritage Office and UCD School of Archaeology. A series of community archaeology events in Glendalough, and a guided walk of the valley, will take place to coincide with European Archaeology Day. Co-ordinated by UCD School of Archaeology, in partnership with the Heritage Office of Wicklow County Council, a community archaeology programme has been taking place annually at Glendalough for over seven years. In previous years the focus has been on a two-week volunteer excavation for Heritage Week, however this year the focus will be on post excavation work, with opportunities for volunteers to participate for one or more days during two separate weeks. One week takes place in Brockagh Resource Centre, Laragh from June 10 to June 13, while the second week will be based at the UCD campus in Dublin from July 29 to August 2. Post excavation work provides a unique opportunity to conserve and handle artefacts uncovered during previous excavations at Glendalough. The Glendalough Valley walking tour will be a daylong event on Friday, June 14, departing from the Monastery at 10am and returning by 4.30pm. The pace will be gentle, but the distance will be approximately 10km, participants should dress appropriately for the weather conditions, wear walking shoes and bring a packed lunch and water. Cathaoirleach of Wicklow County Council, Cllr Aoife Flynn Kennedy, said: These upcoming community archaeology events and volunteer opportunities are a fantastic way for everyone to engage with and learn more about Wicklows rich heritage. Chief Executive of Wicklow County Council, Emer OGorman, commented: I very much welcome the Councils longstanding partnership with UCD and the local community through the Glendalough Heritage Forum and the County Wicklow Heritage Plan. This is a wonderful way to research and share Glendaloughs rich archaeological heritage with new audiences. All events are free of charge, but the number of participants is limited and anybody who is interested should email glendaloughheritageforum@gmail.com for registration details. Fans are beginning to gather outside Murrayfield for Taylor Swifts first UK date on her Eras tour (Ryan McDougall/PA) Hundreds of fans are gathering at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh as Taylor Swift prepares to perform the first of three Scottish dates on her Eras tour. Crowds of Swifties began arriving at the venue on Friday, some wearing the stars official tour merchandise while others are attending in fancy dress and various costumes. Dozens of street vendors have set up stalls selling Hawaiian lei garlands, glow sticks, novelty hats and other costume pieces. The fans arriving early for Friday evenings gig enjoyed bright sunshine, but it was interspersed with heavy showers. Music lovers have travelled from far and wide to attend the show. Zoe Wick, left, Aidan Nicholson and Alana Johnstone travelled to Murrayfield from Orkney (Ryan McDougall/PA) Friends Aidan Nicholson, 27, Zoe Wick, 22, and Alana Johnstone, 22, have travelled from Orkney. Mr Nicholson said: We got a boat and drove for about six hours to get here. Were also flying out to Denmark tomorrow on holiday. Asked what he is most excited about, he said: Im looking forward to her playing You Belong With Me, because its vintage Taylor, the best Taylor, and thats the way to go. Ms Wick said: Im excited to hear Love Story because its a classic and everybody grew up listening to it. Ms Johnstone said she is looking forward to the song All Too Well, adding: I cant wait to hear it. Kai Walker and Jasmine Brown, both 22, drove around six hours from Essex to Edinburgh for the concert. A venue on Lothian Road, Edinburgh, has changed its signage ahead of Taylor Swifts arrival in the city (Nick Forbes/PA) Ms Brown, who is wearing a pink dress, said: Ive basically been a Taylor Swift fan since I was born, since I was a little girl. I saw her live on her Reputation tour (in 2018). Mr Walker, dressed in a tuxedo, pale pink waistcoat and tie, said: I think Im most looking forward to a song called Enchanted that she sings, because it was the song me and Jasmine first heard when we got together. Ms Brown responded: Aw, that was really cute. Im the same as Kai, obviously, but Im also looking forward to the song Lover and also The Tortured Poets Department set. Meaghan Grattan, 26, travelled from Derby. Ms Grattan, who says she has been a fan of Swift since she was around seven years old, said: My dad got me into her because he loves country music so Ive been a fan ever since and followed her ever since. Its my first time seeing her, Im really excited. Wearing a red dress inspired by Swifts outfit in the video for I Bet You Think About Me, Ms Grattan spoke about which songs she is most excited to hear. Lifelong Taylor Swift fan Meaghan Grattan, 26, is wearing a red dress and headpiece (Ryan McDougall/PA) She said: I think its the surprise songs because theyre different every night and she seems to be doing an amazing thing at the moment where shes mashing up multiple songs, so its really exciting to see that its something really personal to each night that everyone will get, so thats really fun, Im excited. Mother and daughter Kim and Kevser Sari, aged 39 and 14, travelled from Norfolk by train. The pair said they are making a holiday of the trip, and arrived in Edinburgh on Monday to stay for a week. Kevser said she is incredibly excited about seeing Swift, while her mother added: Its been so nice being up here and getting all the people around and all the trams and the trains and the atmosphere really, its just happiness everywhere, which is lovely. Kim Sari and her daughter Kevser travelled to Edinburgh from Norfolk (Ryan McDougall/PA) Kevser is wearing a deep-blue dress inspired by the stars Midnights album, while her mother is in a bright pink dress inspired by the Lover album. Ms Sari said she is most looking forward to seeing Swift perform Ready For It?, while her daughters favourite is Style. Ms Sari added: She has the surprise songs that she does different at every [concert]. I just cant wait to see all the visuals where she goes under the stage and everything its just so exciting. Kieran, who did not want to give his surname, is attending with his cousin Olivia, 12. Kieran, 26, and Olivia, 12, are both wearing pink in Swifts honour (Ryan McDougall/PA) The 26-year-old, from Barrhead near Glasgow, said he has listened to Swift since high school, while Olivia first recalls hearing the star more recently when she was in primary five. Dressed in a pink jacket and matching jeans, Kieran said his outfit is inspired by Swifts Lover album, with his hair dyed pink and blue to complement it. He joked: No doubt anybody who sees this that knows me Im going to get ridiculed. Olivia was dressed in a pink hoodie in honour of the Speak Now album. Our fashion editor rounds up the latest style news and fashion trends This column is a guide to summer buys based on things I saw as I planned for my holidays, which are going to be extended this year as Im taking early retirement from the job. However, Im not vanishing from writing or from the world of fashion, which I love, so Ill be back in print after catching some rays and walking/running along the Wild Atlantic Way and further afield. First into the suitcase: a handy dress that will work day or night. I went for the Ellen from the Irish brand Fee G. Never Fullly Dressed wrap skirt, 79, Avoca At the Avoca store, I spotted the Jasper blue bandana wrap skirt (79) from Never Fully Dressed, so handy for a chic cover-up on the way to and from the beach. For lolling around, Avocas own-brand cotton PJs in the blue bird print (79) have a very cute pleating detail on the legs and cuffs and you can also buy a matching quilted, zipped travel bag (29.95), in which I like to pack my bits and bobs such as earrings, keeping track of everything as I move locations. avoca.com Summer running Asics Gel-Kayano 31 running shoe, 200, Elverys and asics.com Asics have just launched Gel-Kayano 31, the latest in what has long been one of their most popular stability running-shoe series. Ill confess, I prefer walking fast to running but the long, bright nights have spurred me on to do more than just increase my steps, so running it is. Apart from being a very cool shade of lime green, this new shoe (200) has a refurbished upper; from Elverys and asics.com. Parfois prints Printed nylon tote bag with additional long shoulder strap, 35.99, Parfois Oh, how I miss mooching around the Parfois shop in Terminal 1 at Dublin Airport. It was a complete magnet for me and there was the time I missed the final boarding call on a delayed flight because I was too busy shopping in Parfois! Anyway, I was so thrilled last week when I discovered that the Portuguese brand have opened a giant store in Dublins Jervis Shopping Centre (on the ground floor) and in addition to the accessories, they stock a big selection of clothing and shoes. The garment selection in their summer collection features two-piece top-and-trouser outfits, and dresses in white, black or brown, plus crochet garments ranging from semi-sheer dresses in khaki tones to multi-coloured cropped sweaters. Prints in vibrant colours are one of the main features in the collection. I am no different from a lot of Irish women, it seems I love the flexibility and lightness of a nylon tote bag when travelling. Parfois have elevated some of theirs with colour and print. I really liked the printed nylon tote bag (35.99) with its short handles (left), but it also comes with an additional long strap and theres a very smart matching printed shirt dress in cooling 100pc cotton (35.99). parfois.com Stunning sunnies Barbour sunglasses, 190, Specavers In a new collab, Specsavers have partnered with Barbour, the British heritage lifestyle brand, to launch an exclusive collection of optical and sunglasses frames. We know Barbour for their modern countryside style, and the range features colours and patterns inspired by the great outdoors, with 13 optical frames, three sunglasses and four frames for kids. specsavers.ie LBDs to wow at weddings Halterneck dress, 175, COS COS have a truly beautiful summer collection of long black dresses. The architectural lines are sublime, and I can imagine nothing more joyful than travelling to a summer wedding abroad knowing you have a fab A-line halterneck in Tencel fabric (175) in your bag. cos.com Vests in vogue IrelandsEye Sweetpea V-Neck Diamond vest in Morning Sky and Sunflower, 86.95 Oh, how the knitted vest has come back into vogue a bit like the mullet-haircut-and-droopy-moustache combo on boys, they seem to be everywhere. If you are in the market for a vest with an Aran look something handy for layering on those summer days when we get three seasons in an hour do check out the Sweetpea V-neck diamond vests (86.95) from IrelandsEye Knitwear, the family-owned business in Baldoyle, Co Dublin. They have one in a very uplifting shade of yellow called Sunflowers and this season, they introduced one in a beautiful blue called Morning Sky. You will be spoilt for choice because they come in a total of 13 colours, including a very lovely Orange Marl. The shade is made up of two tones of orange and it looks especially fab in the Clover cropped Aran cardigan (119.95).irelandseyeknitwear.com Carraig Donn in the sun Rowen Avenue 'Emmie' dress, 59 The creative team at Carraig Donn were up at 3am recently to shoot their new Rowen Avenue Canyon Sunrise collection. A lightweight V-neck dress is always a winner in the heat, and I thought the Rowen Avenue Emmie dress (59) accessorised with a Gionni woven crossbody bag in orange (42) looked sophisticated together. That handy clutch also comes in blue, purple and navy. The collection includes co-ords in a pink ombre print with tunic and trousers costing 39 and 45. Carraig Donn have 43 stores around the country and you will find them on carraigdonn.com. No charges to be brought in case of missing Irishman which was subject of Netflix show In my opinion Paddy was killed in the context of and likely due to the ongoing feud he had with his nearest neighbours Paddy Moriarty Neil Fetherstonhaugh Fri 7 Jun 2024 at 09:27 Nobody is to face charges in connection with the disappearance of an Irish pensioner from a remote Australian town almost seven years ago, it has been revealed. Creator of viral dress post from 2015 jailed for choking his wife The social media post featuring a dress famously broke the internet in 2015 Keir Johnston (39) was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for assaulting and strangling his wife. Photo: Police Scotland/PA Wire Paul Cargill Fri 7 Jun 2024 at 03:30 The man behind a social media post featuring a dress that famously broke the internet has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for assaulting and choking his wife. BREAKING | Sunak apologises after skipping international D-Day ceremony for TV interview The British prime minister said that on reflection he should have stayed in France for the international event to mark the 80th anniversary of the allied landings Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during the UKs national commemorative event for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, hosted by the Ministry of Defence on Southsea Common in Portsmouth (PA) David Hughes Fri 7 Jun 2024 at 09:01 Rishi Sunak has apologised after skipping a major international ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day in order to carry out a General Election TV interview. Denmarks Prime Minister and head of the the Social Democratic Party Mette Frederiksen (Martin Sylvest/Ritzau Scanpix via AP) Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen walked away following an assault by a man in central Copenhagen on Friday and had no outward signs of harm, a local resident told Reuters. "Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was beaten on Friday evening at Kultorvet (square, red.) in Copenhagen by a man who was subsequently arrested. The Prime Minister is shocked by the incident," her office said in a statement without giving further detail. LATEST | Amanda Knox vows to fight for truth after slander conviction The US woman who was a flatmate of murdered Meredith Kercher said her false accusation stemmed from a confession that violated her human rights Amanda Knox has told Italian TV she intends to fight for the truth (AP) Irish Independent Newsdesk Fri 7 Jun 2024 at 12:27 Amanda Knox has told Italian TV that she was surprised by a Florence appeals courts decision to find her guilty of slander in light of a European court ruling that police who took her confession had violated her human rights. Russia threatens to arm enemies of nations supplying weapons to Ukraine Putin made stark claim after referring to Britain and the US Russian president Vladimir Putin (right) attends a meeting with Milorad Dodik, the president of Republika Srpska, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Photo: Reuters Dmitry Antonov and Andrew Osborn Fri 7 Jun 2024 at 03:30 The Kremlin has said Western nations supplying Ukraine with weapons to strike Russian territory will have to reckon with Russia, after president Vladimir Putin said he was considering arming the Wests enemies in retaliation. A sign points to Saint Nikolas beach in the Pedi area of Symi, Greece, where a search and rescue operation is under way for TV doctor and columnist Michael Mosley after he went missing while on holiday (Yui Mok/PA) Residents of the Greek island of Symi have been out in force searching for missing British TV doctor Michael Mosley, according to the mayors daughter. Police and firefighters have been using drones to try to locate Mr Mosley, while divers were also searching for the 67-year-old who vanished after setting off on a walk to the centre of the island on Wednesday. Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a UNRWA school sheltering displaced people, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip yesterday. Photo: Emad Abu Shawiesh/Reuters Israel hit a Gaza school on Thursday with what it described as a targeted airstrike on up to 30 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters inside, and a Hamas official said 40 people were killed including women and children sheltering at the U.N. site. Video footage showed Palestinians hauling away bodies and scores of injured in a hospital after the attack, which took place at a sensitive moment in mediated talks on a ceasefire that would involve releasing hostages held by Hamas and some of the Palestinians held in Israeli jails. US president Joe Biden said isolation was not the answer 80 years ago, and is not the answer today, in a thinly veiled attack on Donald Trump during a D-Day commemoration speech. Speaking at the Normandy American Cemetery, on a bluff above Omaha beach, Mr Biden said the autocrats of the world are watching closely to see what happens in Ukraine, drawing a comparison with the Nazi occupation of France in the 1940s. Families of the Sandy Hook massacre victims claimed victory in Alex Jones' bankruptcy case on Friday, accepting the conspiracy theorist's proposal to sell his assets, including InfoWars, to partly pay legal judgments to them for his lies about the 2012 US school shooting. Jones, who filed for US bankruptcy protection 17 months ago, has given up trying to reach a bankruptcy deal that would reduce the $1.5 billion that he owes to the relatives of 20 students and six staff members killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. With the receding of the Modi wave, Indian democracy shows its pulse but fears remain for minority groups Prime minister Narendra Modi, in power since 2014, had promised his followers 400 seats, but his party won just 240 a sign of cautious hope that his brand of Hindu nationalism may be fading An Indian woman holds India's national flag and shows a marked finger after voting. Photo: Getty Azmia Riaz Fri 7 Jun 2024 at 03:30 When an election year rolls around back home in India, I brace myself for the worst of times. The streets, national TV and all forms of social media are usually filled with the kind of hate and hopelessness that would make you want to leave a country you love. Having already done that, I spent these last few months trying to prepare myself for the third term of a prime minister whose regime has silenced the best of journalists, activists and ordinary people protesting across the country. Photo courtesy: File image of WHO chief meeting Modi/ X handle New Delhi/IBNS: World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus congratulated Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi on his historic term at government formation. "Congratulations Prime Minister @narendramodi on your reelection. I look forward to continuing @WHO-#India close collaboration for #HealthForAll," the WHO chief posted on X. Modi responded to the message asserting India's cooperation with WHO to promote "our vision of 'One Earth One Health". Thank you my friend Tulsi Bhai ! India's cooperation with WHO promotes our vision of One Earth One Health. The first WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in India adds to our joint efforts towards #HealthForAll. Thank you my friend Tulsi Bhai ! India's cooperation with WHO promotes our vision of One Earth One Health. The first WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in India adds to our joint efforts towards #HealthForAll. https://t.co/kJihsbm63F Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 6, 2024 Congratulatory messages have been pouring in for Narendra Modi from several world leaders including US President Joe Biden. Happy to receive call from my friend President @JoeBiden. Deeply value his warm words of felicitations and his appreciation for the Indian democracy. Conveyed that India-US Comprehensive Global Partnership is poised to witness many new landmarks in the years to come. Our Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 5, 2024 French President Emmanuel Macron also congratulated his "dear friend" Narendra Modi on getting a straight term and said he looks forward to "strenghtening the strategic partnership that unites India and France." Thank you for your warm wishes my friend @EmmanuelMacron. - strategic partnership is underscored by exceptional trust and confidence. I look forward to working with you to realise our Horizon 2047 vision for the benefit of our people and the world. https://t.co/q4EL5DecAi Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 5, 2024 Narendra Modis swearing-in ceremony is likely to be rescheduled on June 9 instead of June 8 as known earlier, to accommodate various heads of states from other countries, especially India's immediate neighbours, according to media reports quoting sources. Instead of June 8, the oath-taking ceremony can be held at 6 pm on Sunday as the final schedule is being worked out, said reports. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe will be among the foreign leaders to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Modi as the Prime Minister is set for a historic third consecutive term equalling the record of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The premiers of Bhutan, Nepal and Mauritius are also likely to be invited for the swearing-in ceremony. Photo Courtesy: Narendra Modi X page The United States has congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for scripting the third straight victory in the general polls and said his country would continue to further the partnership with India to promote prosperity and innovation, address the climate crisis, and ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region. "The United States congratulates Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the National Democratic Alliance on their victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha general elections. With approximately 650 million voters casting their ballots over the past six weeks, these elections represent the largest exercise in democracy in human history," Matthew Miller, the spokesperson of the US State Department, said in a statement. "We commend Indian voters, poll workers, civil society, and journalists for their commitment and vital contributions to Indias democratic processes and institutions," he said. Miller further said: "We look forward to continuing to further our partnership with the Indian government to promote prosperity and innovation, address the climate crisis, and ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region." Narendra Modis swearing-in ceremony is likely to be rescheduled on June 9 instead of June 8 as known earlier, to accommodate various heads of states from other countries, especially India's immediate neighbours, according to media reports quoting sources. Instead of June 8, the oath-taking ceremony can be held at 6 pm on Sunday as the final schedule is being worked out, said reports. Congratulations to @narendramodi and the National Democratic Alliance on their victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha general elections. The U.S. looks forward to advancing our partnership with the Indian government and commends the estimated 650 million voters who exercised their right Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) June 5, 2024 Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe will be among the foreign leaders to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Modi as the Prime Minister is set for a historic third consecutive term equalling the record of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The premiers of Bhutan, Nepal and Mauritius are also likely to be invited for the swearing-in ceremony. Photo Courtesy: Narendra Modi X page The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance or NDA is likely to meet on Friday to formally elect PM Narendra Modi as their leader, media reports said. According to reports, Telugu Desam Party supremo N Chandrababu Naidu has directed party leaders to attend the meeting in New Delhi. The TDP alone clinched 16 seats in Andhra Pradesh in the recently held Lok Sabha polls. After being elected as the NDA's leader, Narendra Modi will take the oath of office for his third term as prime minister at a swearing-in ceremony likely to be held on Sunday, June 9, reported Hindustan Times. Modi 3.0 with a weaker mandate and strings Narendra Modi on Tuesday returned for a rare third consecutive term in office with his allies, but fell short of an absolute majority for his BJP, in an election that gave a new lease of life to a Congress-led disparate Opposition bloc- INDIA - as the anti-Modi union halted the saffron juggernaut to under 300. Modi, who is set to be the second Prime Minister after Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to return to office for third consecutive term, had kickstarted the campaign for his BJP setting the target for 370 seats and 400 for the NDA alliance. Quite contrary to the "Abki bar 400 par" or "400 plus seats this time" slogan, Modi's BJP failed to achieve the majority mark (272) on its own, paving way for a return of a coalition government trend after a decade. In what would trigger the debate of anti-incumbency setting in, Modi's BJP could manage to get to 240 while NDA touched 293, a comfortable figure to run the government but at the mercy of regional parties like TDP and JD-U. As a slew of exit polls that gave a clear majority to Modi proved wrong, even in the win of the NDA, the celebrations are louder in the INDIA Bloc after they bagged a higher than expected number of seats. The INDIA bloc has won 234 seats, offering a tough fight to the incumbent. Though several political pundits, opinion and exit polls had almost written off the Opposition, Congress (99 seats) led INDIA comprising several key regional players in offering a close contest to the incumbent. Photo courtesy: X/@PawanKalyan New Delhi/IBNS: Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi has showered his praises on Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan calling him a "storm" after the actor-turned politician won in Andhra Pradesh with 100 percent strike rate. Addressing the NDA MP-elects in parliamentary party meeting, Modi said, "Pawan is not Pawan. He is a storm." Praising Modi, Pawan said, "I am fortunate and grateful for giving this opportunity to be here. Starting 2014, in the same place. As honourable Chandrababu Naidu-ji said, 'We want to see Modiji to rule this country for 15 years' and its happening. "Chandrababu-ji, your prophecy came true. Modi ji, you truly inspire the nation. As long as you are the Prime Minister of this country, our country will never bow down to anyone." Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena has won both the Lok Sabha and all 21 assembly seats it had contested in Andhra Pradesh, which fell in NDA's kitty. Chandrababu Naidu's TDP has won 16, BJP won 3 out of 25 seats. Modi was on Friday elected as the leader of the NDA, in one step closer for him to become the Prime Minister for the third consecutive term. However, unlike his previous two terms, Modi this time requires the support of his allies to form government as the BJP stopped at 240, 32 short of the majority mark (272). The TDP (16 seats), JDU (12 seats), Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena (7 seats) and Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas (5 seats) have emerged as the kingmakers. Photo Courtesy: PIB Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina may hold an important meeting on the sideline of her upcoming visit to India to attend the oath-taking ceremony of the BJP strongman. Press Minister of the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, Shaban Mahmood, told ANI: " Our PM Sheikh Hasina is coming tomorrow to take part in the oath ceremony program the day after tomorrow. PM Narendra Modi has invited our PM and she has accepted the invite. There should be an important meeting between the two leaders although there is no other scheduled program. Meanwhile, Hasina and Indian PM Narendra Modi vowed to achieve the Viksit Bharat 2047 and Smart Bangladesh 2041 during their recent conversation. Hasina called Modi to congratulate him on the recent victory in the Indian general polls. She was one of the first foreign leaders to call him following the poll victory. In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said: "The two leaders pledged to continue working together to further deepen the historic and close ties under the renewed mandate towards achieving under the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047 and Smart Bangladesh 2041." "They acknowledged the significant improvements achieved in the lives of the people of both countries in the last decade and looked forward to further enhancing the transformative relationship across all domains that include economic and development partnership, energy security, connectivity including digital linkages and people-to-people contacts among others," the statement said. Several top world leaders congratulated Modi on clinching victory in the Indian general polls which was held for over six weeks in a staggering seven phases. Modi will be the second politician after Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to become Prime Minister for the third consecutive term. However, unlike his previous two terms, Modi this time requires the support of his allies to form government as the BJP stopped at 240, 32 short of the majority mark (272). The TDP (16 seats), JDU (12 seats), Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena (7 seats) and Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas (5 seats) have emerged as the kingmakers. In images Modi meets LK Advani & MM Joshi/ courtesy: X handle New Delhi/IBNS: Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi met veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi on Friday before he went to stake claim to form the government for a third consecutive time. Modi will be the second politician after Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to become Prime Minister for the third consecutive term. However, unlike his previous two terms, Modi this time required the support of his allies to form a government as the BJP stopped at 240, 32 short of the majority mark (272). The TDP (16 seats), JDU (12 seats), Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena (7 seats) and Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas (5 seats) have emerged as the kingmakers. The NDA has chosen PM Modi as the leader of the alliance, which paved the way for his oath ceremony as Prime Minister for a third term. About his meeting with Advani, Modi called the senior BJP leader as an inspiration for every party worker of the saffron outfit. Went to Advani Jis residence and sought his blessings. Every @BJP4India Karyakarta is inspired by Advani Jis monumental efforts to strengthen the Party. pic.twitter.com/GJVwh6W4OL Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 7, 2024 Advani, who was conferred India's highest civilian award Bharat Ratna in February, had been a deputy prime minister. He also served as BJP chief for the longest time since the party was founded in 1980. He is credited with crafting the BJP's rise through the 1990s when it came to power for the first time as the head of coalition governments under former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Advani had labelled himself the "charioteer" who steered the 'rath yatra' that began in Gujarat's Somnath on September 25, 1990, and culminated with the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, with Advani on the spot. Speaking about his meeting with Murli Manhoar Joshi, Modi said he has learned a lot under the senior leader's guidance. Called on Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi Ji. I have learnt so much from him when I was working in the Party organisation. He is greatly respected across India for his wisdom and knowledge. pic.twitter.com/qzvymoG0YB Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 7, 2024 Modi will take oath as of the office to return as the Prime Minister for the thrid time on Sunday. New Delhi/IBNS: Amid reports of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis being firm on his decision to resign, taking responsibility for the NDA's poor performance in the state, Amit Shah spoke to him on Friday and asked him to continue his work in the government. Fadnavis, a former chief minister, is part of the Maharashtra government with the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). In 2019, the undivided Shiv Sena and the BJP won 41 of the state's 48 seats but the new coalition- the Mahayuti in Maharashtra - managed to get only 17 this time. The Maha Vikas Aghadi, consisting of the Congress, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), has won 30 constituencies. Fadnavis had offered to resign on Wednesday, a day after the counting of votes, and several BJP leaders have spoken to him since. After the NDA meeting earlier on Friday, the BJP leader sat down with fellow Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to discuss the coalition's performance in the state. When the deputy chief minister met Shah at his residence, the home minister reportedly asked him to continue working for the Maharashtra government and also prepare a plan for revitalising the BJP in the state. Assembly elections in Maharashtra are likely to be held around October this year. "If you resign, it will affect the morale of BJP workers. So don't resign now," Shah was quoted as saying Fadnavis. Shah also told him that they would discuss the resignation in detail after the swearing-in of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister for the third time, which is scheduled to be held at 6 pm on Sunday. The INDIA alliance's performance in Maharashtra, the second-biggest contributor of MPs to the Lok Sabha, was one of the reasons the BJP was reduced to 240 seats from its tally of 303 in 2019. The NDA, however, won 293 Lok Sabha seats, comfortably over the majority mark of 272. In image Kanaga Ranaut & CISF officer/ courtesy: Videograbs from X New Delhi: Kulvinder Kaur, the airport security official suspended and arrested after she allegedly slapped actor and BJP MP-elect Kangana Ranaut , struck a defiant note Friday stating that she is ready to sacrifice thousands of jobs for her mother's respect. In a post on X, Kaur said: "I am not afraid of losing this job... I am ready to lose thousands of such jobs for my mother's respect." Kaur allegedly slapped Ranaut, who won Himachal Pradesh's Mandi seat, at Chandigarh airport Thursday, while the actor-turned-politician was waiting to board a Delhi flight, and accused her of "disrespecting farmers". , - Kulvinder Kaur (@Kul_winderKaur) June 7, 2024 Within hours she was suspended and an inquiry was ordered. On Friday morning, Kaur, a CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) Constable, was arrested. She was booked under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), and 341 (wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Kulwinder Kaur Thursday said she was triggered by an old remark by the actor-turned-politician about the farmers' protest. "She gave a statement... that farmers are sitting there for 100. Will she go and sit there? My mother was sitting there and protesting when she gave this statement..." Kaur was quoted as saying in media reports. She said she had reacted to Kangana Ranaut - who won Himachal Pradesh's Mandi seat and was going to Delhi - of "disrespecting farmers". After reaching Delhi. Kangana had raged about "terrorism rising in Punjab". "The incident happened at the security check-in. The woman guard waited for me to cross. She then came and hit me... started throwing expletives. I asked (her) why she hit me. She said, 'I support farmers'. I am safe... but my concern is terrorism is rising in Punjab. How do we handle that?" she said in her message. Shocking rise in terror and violence in Punjab. pic.twitter.com/7aefpp4blQ Kangana Ranaut (Modi Ka Parivar) (@KanganaTeam) June 6, 2024 Kangna alleged that a CISF security official at Chandigarh Airport slapped her when she was proceeding to board the flight to reach New Delhi. "I am safe," she later said, adding that one should take it seriously for the rise in terror and violence in Punjab. Viral mobile video footage shows Kangana escorted to a check-in counter and, when she reaches it, a verbal spat breaks out. The video does not show her being slapped. Kaur was referring to a crude and widely criticised jibe by Kangana which she posted on X in 2020 during the height of a nationwide protest by farmers against three farm laws passed, under contentious circumstances, by the Centre. In a social media post, the actor had tweeted about an elderly woman seen at one of the protests and said she was "available for Rs. 100". She was forced to delete the tweet after public outrage. Earlier in the day some farmer groups - including the non-political wing of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, the umbrella organisation that led the 2020/21 farmers' protest expressed support for Kaur and called for an investigation. "We demand a proper investigation... there should be no injustice with the woman constable," Jagjit Singh Dallewal, the SKM (non-political) leader said, citing unconfirmed reports Ms Kaur had asked to examine the actor-politician's handbag and mobile phone before boarding her flight to Delhi. "Everyone knows the track record of Ranaut and the kind of language she has used towards farmers. There must have been an argument which led to the incident. A proper investigation is needed." Photo Courtesy: UNICEF/Vincent Tremeau As violence escalates and millions of people continue to be displaced in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), grave violations against children are reaching an all-time high, said the UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday. UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Orlando Bloom visited the region for the first time this week to see the dire conditions there for himself. The staggering scale of the conflict in eastern DRC, the horrific level of violence and its devastating impact on the children and women I met is heart-wrenching, said Mr. Bloom. No child should live in the dire conditions I witnessed in displacement camps, separated from their families, hungry, unable to go to school and constantly at risk of sexual abuse, violence and exploitation. The ongoing conflict in the DRC stems from years of strife between a plethora of non-State armed groups, most significantly the M23 and so-called Allied Democratic Forces (AFD). The conflict has led almost seven million people to be displaced, a 25 per cent increase in 2023. There are 25.4 million people that need humanitarian assistance, the largest number in any country globally in 2024. Children and women are disproportionately impacted by the conflict. Following the Hollywood actors trip to a displacement site, he made a plea for far more humanitarian support in the conflict-ravaged region. Impact on children The UN has verified over 1,000 grave human rights violations against children in the three eastern provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu during the first quarter of this year, 30 per cent higher than the last quarter of 2023. Its a heartbreaking reality that children caught up in the conflict face abduction, recruitment and use by armed groups, violence and abuse, and we know the reports we have are only the tip of the iceberg, said UNICEFs DRC Representative Grant Leaity. The UN childrens agency called on the parties to this conflict to end grave violations against children and for perpetrators to be held accountable. Support from UNICEF Mr. Bloom visited a UNICEF-supported child-friendly space in the Bushagara displacement site, a safe environment where children can engage in supervised recreation and receive psychosocial support. Despite the constant threat of violence still permeating the area, he said he had witnessed a glimmer of hope. In these UNICEF-supported spaces, I saw hope as girls and boys found a place where they felt safe, where they could receive psychosocial support, dance and play and enjoy being children. Over the last year, UNICEF has also reunited more than 9,000 children in eastern DRC with their families or placed them with temporary foster families. They have assisted more than 400,000 children, adolescents and caregivers with mental health and psychosocial support. Gender dimensions Gender and conflict-based sexual violence against women and children remained high in 2023 and has further increased this year. Mr. Bloom met survivors of sexual violence at the Panzi Hospital and Panzi Foundation in South Kivu during his visit, noting that the harrowing stories shared were utterly devastating. However, Mr. Bloom saw first-hand the difference that dedicated support can make. Support, including healthcare, psychological support and legal assistance, is helping survivors find the strength to rebuild their lives, but more needs to be done to protect every girl and woman, said Mr. Bloom. Humanitarian needs growing In eastern DRC, around five million people, including 2.8 million children, urgently need humanitarian assistance. UNICEF is providing education, health and psychosocial support. The agency is also providing water and sanitation services and protection assistance for children, women and families affected by the conflict. However, the agencys humanitarian appeal for $804.3 million is only 10 per cent funded. Every day, children and women in the DRCs displacement camps face tremendous hardships. Their needs are overwhelming, and the response to the crisis is falling short. We must urgently unite to ensure they live in safety and dignity, said the Goodwill Ambassador. Photo courtesy: Screenshot grab from X video Vijayawada/IBNS: Actor-politician Pawan Kalyan has stunned with his 100 percent strike rate win in Andhra Pradesh where he bagged all 21 assembly and 2 Lok Sabha seats where his party had contested. In a video which went viral on social media, Pawan, who heads Jana Sena Party, was seen celebrating his victory with actor Ram Charan. He then went on to bow down and touch the feet of his elder brother, superstar Chiranjeevi. The Jana Sena chief also cut a big cake with Chiranjeevi and other family members by his side. VIDEO | Hyderabad: Jana Sena Chief Pawan Kalyan took blessings from Megastar Chiranjeevi, day after participating in NDA meeting in Delhi. pic.twitter.com/33OmP4tHzi Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 6, 2024 Creating ripples in the Andhra politics, Pawan won as the MLA from Pithapuram constituency by a margin of over 70,000 votes. Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi too heaped praises on Pawan on Friday saying, "Pawan is not Pawan. He is a storm." Pawan's party was in an alliance with Modi's BJP and N Chandrababu Naidu's TDP. Photo Courtesy: UN Photo/Mark Garten Its climate crunch time when it comes to tackling rising carbon emissions, the UN Secretary-General said on Wednesday, stressing that while the need for global action is unprecedented, so too are the opportunities for prosperity and sustainable development. Choosing the iconic Family Hall of Ocean Life at the American Museum of Natural History in New York to deliver his impassioned plea to grasp the solutions at hand, Antonio Guterres warned that "we stand at a moment of truth. In the case of climate, we are not the dinosaurs. We are the meteor. We are not only in danger, we are the danger. But, we are also the solution. Citing the latest European Commission Copernicus Climate Change Service report showing last month was the hottest May in history, the UN chief said global emissions need to fall nine per cent every year just to keep the 1.5 temperature rise limit above pre-industrial levels alive. Last year, they went up by one per cent. The UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) also reported on Wednesday that there is an 80 per cent chance the 1.5 limit the target established in the Paris Agreement in 2015 will be passed in one of the next five years. We are playing Russian roulette with our planet, said Mr. Guterres. We need an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell, and the truth is we have control of the wheel. 18 months to save the world Pulling back from the brink is still just about possible, he continued, but only if we fight harder. It all depends on decisions taken by political leaders during this decade and especially in the next 18 months. The need for climate action is unprecedented, but so is the opportunity, not just to deliver on climate but on economic prosperity and sustainable development, Mr. Guterres explained. Question of degrees He said a half degree difference in global warming could mean some island States or coastal communities disappearing forever. Scientists point out that the Greenland ice sheet and West Antarctic ice sheet could collapse and cause catastrophic sea level rise. Whole coral reef systems could disappear along with 300 million livelihoods if the 1.5 goal is not met. Extreme weather from East Asia to the western seaboard of the US has been turbocharged by climate chaos, destroying lives, pummelling economies and hammering health, said the Secretary-General. Fossil fuel Mafia While billions around the world see their lives grow costlier due to climate change, the Godfathers of climate chaos the fossil fuel conglomerates rake in record profits and feast off trillions in taxpayer-funded subsidies, he exclaimed. He said many in the oil and gas industry have shamelessly greenwashed while actively trying to delay climate action, aided and abetted by advertising and public relations companies. Oil and gas ban plea I call on these companies to stop acting as enablers to planetary destruction. Stop taking on new fossil fuel clients, from today, and set out plans to drop your existing ones, said the Secretary-General. Creative minds in the sector are already focusing on saving the planet, not helping destroy it, he added. Mr. Guterres called on every country in the world to institute a ban on advertising from fossil fuel companies. Salvation is at hand Beyond the toxic corporations, we have what we need to save ourselves, he assured the audience gathered at the museum just off New Yorks Central Park. Forests and oceans continue absorbing harmful carbon and must be protected. The renewable energy business worldwide is booming as costs plummet and now make up 30 per cent of the worlds electricity supply. Meanwhile, clean energy investments reached a record high last year, almost doubling in the past decade, the UN chief said. Economic logic makes the end of the fossil fuel age inevitable, he added All-in for climate action Climate finance is not a favour; it is a fundamental element to a liveable future for all, he said. People around the world are far ahead of the politicians". "Make your voices heard and your choices count, he implored, adding that no one country or institution can solve the climate crisis on its own. This is an all-in moment. The United Nations is all in, working to build trust, find solutions and inspire the cooperation our world so desperately needs, said the Secretary-General. He thanked the climate activists at all levels of society who have pushed for action so far. You are on the right side of history. You speak for the majority. Keep it up; dont lose courage, dont lose hope. He said it is now "We the Peoples versus the polluters and profiteers" and united together "we can win." Photo Courtesy: UN Photo/Cia Pak UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres convened Heads of State and Government in New York on Wednesday to advance efforts to get countries back on course to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the 2030 deadline. The inaugural meeting of his 10-member SDG Stimulus Leaders Group took place as many developing countries are still reeling from repeated economic shocks and debt burdens that far outstrip their ability to pay. The group advocates at the highest level for equipping developing countries with the financial resources to invest in the 17 SDGs, which provide the blueprint for a more just and equitable future for all people and the planet by 2030. Mr. Guterres underlined the need for a surge in action now for the SDGs. Fuelling sustainable development Developing countries and billions of people are facing the worst economic outlook in more than a generation, he said. Financing is the fuel of development, and we must ensure that countries are not forced to run on empty. Leaders attending the meeting discussed the Secretary-Generals call for an SDG Stimulus. The wide-ranging proposal calls for near-term actions to provide developing countries with the financial resources to alleviate their immediate constraints and put countries back on an accelerated development path. The SDG Stimulus identifies three areas of action: tackling the high cost of debt and rising risks of debt distress; massively scaling up affordable long-term financing, especially through multilateral development banks (MDBs), by at least $500 billion per year; and expanding contingency financing to countries facing liquidity constraints. Better life for all Prime Ministers Justin Trudeau of Canada and Andrew Holness of Jamaica are co-chairs of the SDG Stimulus Leaders Group. The other members include Heads of State and Government of Barbados, Brazil, France, India, Italy, Kenya, South Africa and Spain. The Sustainable Development Goals are crucial to growing our communities, building a better future and keeping the air clean, said Mr. Trudeau. Lets keep working together to make life fairer, more sustainable and more prosperous for everyone. Financing is critical Mr. Holness warned that the SDGs will be unattainable unless developing States have access to financing. The international financial system must urgently respond through innovative mechanisms to create the fiscal space needed for developing States to build a sustainable and resilient future for present and future generations, he said. Group member Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, who is also among 17 SDG Advocates appointed by the Secretary-General, warmly welcomed this opportunity to turbocharge the implementation of the goals. Only way forward The SDG Stimulus alongside the Bridgetown Initiative, the Paris Pact for People and Planet and other international initiatives are converging to scale up the scope of financing and speed up its disbursement, she said. This is the only way that the entire global community, especially the most vulnerable among us, can meet the climate crisis and overcome the obstacles to the true sustainable development that all of our peoples deserve. The Secretary-General first proposed elements of the SDG Stimulus some 18 months ago. Since then, it has gained traction at many global gatherings and most recently was welcomed by world leaders at the SDG Summit in New York last September and in the G20 New Delhi Leaders Declaration that same month. Advancing the plan G20 countries have rechannelled $100 billion of special drawing rights (SDRs), enabling the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to assist developing countries with liquidity financing. MDBs also have embarked on a series of reforms that will enable them to collectively expand lending by some $300 to 400 billion dollars over the next decade. Despite these initial steps, conditions in many developing countries are worsening, underscoring the need for bolder and faster action, the UN said. In this regard, the Leaders Group will proactively seek to advance the SDG Stimulus over the next year. Photo Courtesy: UN Photo/Loey Felipe As the UN team charged with investigating crimes committed by the Daesh terrorist group in Iraq prepares to conclude its mandate in September, significant strides have been made in transferring crucial evidence to the authorities, its acting head said on Wednesday. Thus far, some 28 terabytes (TB) of data have been transferred, representing a majority of the 40TB held by the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da'esh/ISIL (UNITAD). Briefing ambassadors at the Security Council, UNITAD acting head Ana Peyro Llopis said she has regularly engaged with Iraqi officials, notably the judiciary, survivors of terrorist violence and civil society organizations. All stakeholders were eager to intensify cooperation prior to the conclusion of the mandate, particularly on the delivery of evidence, other materials and analyses as well as on capacity building. Ana Peyro Llopis, acting head of UNITAD, briefing the Security Council. The legacy Since its inception, UNITAD has been pivotal towards ensuring accountability for the atrocities committed by the so-called Islamic State (ISIL/ Daesh) between 2014 and 2017, which may constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, Ms. Peyro Llopis said. The evidence, meticulously collected and preserved by the team, includes testimonials from witnesses, data from ISILs digital devices, on the ground investigations and content extracted using advanced forensic methods. This vast repository of information has been compiled into a digital archive adhering to rigorous international standards for evidence, ensuring that it can be used in ongoing and future judicial proceedings, Ms. Peyro Llopis said. These products will remain, beyond the closure of the team, and Member States, including Iraq, could consider them in the future to hold ISIL perpetrators accountable for the international crimes they committed in Iraq, she added. Handing over evidence Ms. Peyro Llopis further informed Council members that UNITAD had transferred its 28TB of evidence in March. On Monday, another tranche of evidence, including online and open-source information, was transferred while evidence collected from the Kurdistan regional authorities is ready for delivery. Some of this returned evidence was generated because of the close collaboration between the team and the Iraqi authorities, she added, through activities such as excavating a mass grave or data from seized ISIL held devices. Drawdown and liquidation Ms. Peyro Llopis further briefed the ambassadors of progress towards the drawdown and liquidation of the team by 17 September. This includes the closure of its offices, proper management of its human resources and assets and archiving of both evidentiary and non-evidentiary records. The importance of maintaining, preserving and managing these archives has been at the centre of my discussions, she said, noting that Iraqi authorities would retain custody and preserve, store and manage the original evidence in Iraq. This will be for use in domestic criminal proceedings and achieving accountability at the national level, she added. A copy of the original evidence will be kept by the UN Secretariat as part of its archives. After the Bombay High Court cleared the release of Hamare Baarah following an appeal by its producers against a prior order that had delayed its release until June 14, the Karnataka government has now banned the movie's release for at least two weeks to prevent communal tension. The decision has been taken by the government on several minority organisations' requests after watching the trailer of the film starring Annu Kapoor, Manoj Joshi, Paritosh Tripathi, and Parth Samthaan. Earlier, Bombay High Court had lifted the ban making a committee of three members, including at least one Muslim member, to watch the film and report back to the court. What is Hamare Baarah about? The #Karnataka #Congress government has banned the release of the film #HamareBaarah for two weeks In this order you have not stated who requested the movie ban or who investigated this. Are we under dictatorship rule? Supreme court says if you don't like it don't watch it pic.twitter.com/40IAFIr9ia Nishkama_Karma (@Nishkama_Karma1) June 7, 2024 The film that highlights the issue of population explosion is about Manzoor Ali Khan Sanjari, who lost his first wife during childbirth and continues to have children with his second wife, who is now pregnant with their sixth. Despite doctors warning that the pregnancy endangers her life, Khan refuses to consider an abortion. Determined to save her stepmother, his daughter Alfiya takes her father to court to demand the procedure. The film delves into whether Alfiya can persuade her father and the court, while also challenging the deeply rooted patriarchy in their society. Accusations of Islamophobia I really dont want to jump the gu9 here and say something that this film might not be aboutbut by the looks of it @annukapoor_ seems to be promoting an islamophobic trope. And that would make kapoor your average hind00 du. https://t.co/VfWZLNr30b poonam (@poonamkachanddd) August 7, 2022 Ever since the first poster of the movie was released, a lot of people accused the film of Islamophobia, criticizing it for portraying Muslims as the cause of the population explosion. Hum Do Hamare Baarah director Kamal Chandra on accusations of Islamophobia Director of the movie Kamal Chandra had earlier said that the poster of the movie isn't objectionable and needs to be seen in the right context. "We assure you that we aren't targeting any one particular community through our film," he told ETimes and added, "We are making it without any prejudice and hurting sentiments of any particular community." He continued, "Today, people from one particular community are feeling that they are being targeted through our film. If we would have made a poster reflecting any other community, they would had said the same thing. I feel that cinema is the best medium to express our thoughts and feelings. I urge everyone to not make an issue out of this." The film is slated to be released on June 7 at 10 am. For more news and updates from the world of OTT, and celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment. The much-talked-about Ambani cruise party concluded on July 1st, 2024. As expected, the star-studded guest list featured some of the biggest names from Bollywood and international celebrities. However, it was the absence of several prominent Bollywood actors that created a buzz among fans and media alike. Bollywood Stars Who Were Missing From The Ambani Cruise Party The Ambani family, known for their lavish events and influential connections, hosted the exclusive party to celebrate the upcoming wedding of their son Anant Ambani with Radhika Merchant. The guest list included actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Ranveer Singh, Janhvi Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Sidharth Malhotra, Disha Patani, and more, all of whom were seen mingling and enjoying the festivities. Yet, noticeable by their absence, were several Bollywood stars. Here's a list of actors who were missing from the cruise party: 1. Amitabh Bachchan Picture Of Amitabh Bachchan/X According to media reports, Amitabh Bachchan was not invited to the second pre-wedding bash celebrated by the Ambanis on the cruise. 2. Priyanka Chopra Pictures Of Priyanka Chopra/Instagram and X Priyanka, who has been balancing her career between Bollywood and Hollywood, was also not present. The reason for her not attending the event is still unclear. 3. Akshay Kumar Picture Of Akshay Kumar With Wife Twinkle/Pinterest According to reports, Akshay Kumar also did not receive any invitations for the cruise party. 4. Deepika Padukone Picture Of Deepika And Ranveer/Instagram Deepika Padukone's husband, Ranvir Singh, attended the party as he was seen dancing to Guru Randhawa's song in a viral video, but reportedly Deepika skipped it due to her pregnancy. Also Read: Ranveer Singh Steals The Show Alongside Guru Randhawa, Katy Perry's Performance Sets Ambani Pre-Wedding Bash Aglow 5. Kangana Ranaut Picture Of Kangana Ranaut/IG Kangana Ranaut, known for her bold statements and outspoken nature, was one of the most talked-about absentees at the first pre-wedding bash, which was also celebrated in Jamnagar. This time, reports claim that she was not invited. Also Read: Radhika Merchant dazzles in diamond and opal jewellery: 7 times Ambani women wore pieces worth crores The Ambani cruise party, with its glittering guest list and luxurious setting, remains the highlight of the social calendar. Anant Ambani and Radhika's wedding is set to take place on July 12th at the Jio World Convention Centre in BKC, Mumbai. For more news and updates from the world of OTT, and celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment. "Gajjab bezzati hai yaar"! This one line made Aasif Khan who plays Ganesh (bridegroom) popular among Panchayat fans. In the show's first season, his dialogue became a meme template. As he returned in season 3 this year, from being most hated in S1, he turned out to be the most loved character in season 3. Do you know Aasif Khan washed dishes at Saif-Kareena's wedding reception? From being one of the most annoying character to one of the standout character of season 3. Ganesh, aka Aasif Khan.#Panchayat #PanchayatOnPrime pic.twitter.com/jN0YIP0w6V Ayushman (@ayushmannhere) May 28, 2024 Remember him from Jamtara, Pataal Lok, and Mirzapur? You might recognize Aasif from various shows like Jamtara, Pataal Lok, and Mirzapur, where his smaller roles might not have stood out. However, in Panchayat, despite having a minor role, he garnered significant popularity due to his outstanding performance. Arrival in Mumbai and initial struggle X Do you know he came to Mumbai in 2009 with a dream of working in Bollywood? He started working at a hotel, where he used to wash dishes. During Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor's wedding reception, he asked his manager if he could go out once to see his idols, but he was denied permission. He cried that day. Also Read: Panchayat Season 4 Release Date: Who Shot At Pradhan Ji? Here's Everything You Need To Know X "I started working as a waiter at a hotel. After a few months, when I was working in the kitchen department, we had a party which was Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoors reception. The first time I saw film stars and Mr (Amitabh) Bachchan. Soon after, I left that job, and started working in a mall and giving auditions. I was told to learn acting and do theatre," he had told Hindustan Times in an interview. Also Read: 10 Panchayat Season 3 Dialogues That Are So Good They Have Sneaked Into Our Daily Conversations Rejections and the Turning Point Struggling to become an actor in Mumbai, he managed to get an appointment with a casting agency that rejected him on the basis of his looks. He was advised to learn acting first. He took this quite seriously and he went to Jaipur and joined the theatre. Also Read: Meet Harish Joshi, real-life 'Sachiv Ji' from Mahodiya, the village where Panchayat has been shot Instagram After doing that for six years, he came back to Mumbai and joined Abhishek Banerjee and Anmol Ahuja's casting company. He did casting for a year and gradually started featuring in movies for cameo roles. He has played small roles in movies like Toilet Ek Prem Katha, Pari and Indias Most Wanted among others. For more news and updates from the world of OTT, and celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment. Radhika Merchant celebrated her second pre-wedding party with husband-to-be at a lavish cruise in Italy worth 900 million USD (as per TOI), which roughly amounts to Rs 7509 crores. Now, new pictures of Nita Ambani's daughter-in-law-to-be have surfaced in which she is wearing a blue princess-akin gown. In her blue-hued Atelier Versace corset gown, she looks like a Disney princess. But what caught people's attention was her diamond necklace and earrings. Radhika Merchant's diamond necklace grabs eyeballs Radhika wore an opal pendant with heart-shaped diamonds and paired it with drop earrings featuring mismatched diamonds, a double-string bracelet, and a statement-making diamond engagement ring. 7 times Ambani women wore jewellery worth crores 1. Nita Ambani's emerald set X Nita Ambani's emerald jewellery set that she wore at the hastakshar event was reportedly worth Rs 400-500 crores. 2. Nita Ambani's diamond ring Instagram Nita Ambani's diamond ring that caught people's fancy at the launch of Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) was worth Rs 40 crores. 3. Shloka Mehta's necklace X The 'Rani Haar' Shloka Mehta wore at her wedding as part of her bridal jewellery was worth Rs 3 crores. Also Read: Gold-Plated Gifts & More! Inside Akash & Isha Ambani's Wedding Cards Reportedly Worth Rs 3 & Rs 1.5 Lakhs 4. Shloka Mehta's diamond necklace X Shloka once wore a diamond necklace worth Rs 451 Crores, which is world's most expensive necklace. 5. Isha Ambani's necklace Instagram The necklace that Isha Ambani wore for the launch event of Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) was worth Rs 165 crores. 6. Isha Ambani's uncut diamond necklace X The cost of Isha's uncut diamond necklace was reportedly Rs 165 crores. 7. Radhika Merchant's necklace X Radhika Merchant's heart-shaped necklace was worth over Rs 12 crores. For the unversed, during the final event of Radhika Merchant and Anant Ambani's pre-wedding bash on the cruise, titled La Dolce Vita, Radhika captivated everyone in a stunning pink cocktail dress from Dior's 1959 vintage collection. The dress, with its elegant cowl neck, fitted bodice, and bow detailing on the front, perfectly showcased her timeless style. Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant's second pre-wedding gala was nothing short of a fairy tale, and Radhika's exquisite dresses and stunning jewellery, like always, is once again making headlines. Also Read: From Shakira To Rihanna, The Jaw-Dropping Fees Of 9 Global Icons Who Performed Ambani Weddings For more news and updates from the world of OTT, and celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment. National Best Friend Day 2024: Friendship is a wonderful thing and very important in our lives. Without friends, life feels incomplete. They are the ones who love, laugh, support, and cherish us in both good and bad times. Friendship is a beautiful relationship and an unbreakable bond that brings people together in many ways. Every year on June 8, National Best Friend Day is celebrated to show our friends how much they mean to us and how much we appreciate their company. Today, get together with your best friends or take some time to reconnect if you live far apart. Strengthen your bond and make them feel special. National Best Friend Day 2024: Wishes to celebrate the beauty of friendship | Freepik National Best Friend Day 2024: History Friendship can be celebrated any day of the year, but National Best Friend Day is a special day to cherish and enjoy with friends. According to various sources, in 1935, the US Congress decided to dedicate one day to honor close friendships. On this day, people meet their friends, celebrate, and create memorable moments. Happy National Best Friend Day 2024: Wishes And Messages in English There are friends, there is a family, and then there is you who is a friend that becomes family. Sending you all my love on National Best Friend Day 2023. Theres nothing better than a friend unless it is a friend with chocolate. Happy National Best Friend Day! True friends are like diamondsbright, beautiful, valuable, and always in style. Happy National Best Friend Day! Happy Best Friends Day. You Are My Ultimate Platonic Soulmate. If it was not for you, I dont know how Id be. Thank you for holding me up, without me telling you to. Happy National Best Friend Day! The only way to have a friend is to be one. Happy National Best Friend Day! Friends should be like books, few, but hand-selected. I may have lots of friends but you are the only one who is closest to my heart and soul and I will always love you the most in this world.. Sending my love and warm wishes on National Best Friend Day! to the most amazing friend, I have. The most invaluable thing I have is your friendship. I will forever cherish it. Happy National Best Friend Day Bestie. There is no day when we can thank God enough for blessing us with a best friend, someone who has always been there. Happy Best Friend Day! In a world full of trends, you're my forever classic. Cheers For You and Me! To the one who knows all my secrets and still loves me. Celebrating our friendship in Life! Adventure awaits with my partner in crime. Happy #BestFriendDay, let's make more unforgettable memories! You're not just my best friend; you're my chosen family. Sending love on this National Best Friend Day! Here's to the friends who make life extraordinary. Happy National Best Friend Day, my extraordinary soulmates! National Best Friend Day 2024: Wishes to celebrate the beauty of friendship Happy Best Motivational Best Friend Day Wishes and Messages 2024 You are the reason I believe in myself. Thank you for always pushing me to be my best. Happy National Best Friends Day! No matter how tough life gets, I know I can always count on you to lift me up. Heres to conquering all our dreams together. Happy Best Friends Day! When the going gets tough, the tough get goingand I'm so grateful to have you by my side. Happy Best Friends Day! You are my rock, my confidant, and my biggest cheerleader. Thank you for believing in me when I didnt believe in myself. Happy Best Friends Day! Weve climbed mountains and crossed valleys together. Lets keep reaching for the stars. Happy Best Friends Day, my forever motivator! Lifes journey is easier with someone like you by my side. Thank you for being my source of strength and inspiration. Happy Best Friends Day! You inspire me to be a better person every day. Thank you for your unwavering support and endless encouragement. Happy Best Friends Day! Through every high and low, youve been my guiding light. Lets keep shining together. Happy Best Friends Day! Together, we can conquer anything. Heres to more adventures, more victories, and more amazing memories. Happy Best Friends Day! Your faith in me gives me the courage to chase my dreams. Thank you for always being there. Happy Best Friends Day! A true friend is someone who sees the greatness in you even when you cant see it yourself. Thank you for always seeing my potential. Happy Best Friends Day! With you by my side, theres no challenge too big or dream too far. Happy Best Friends Day to the one who makes everything possible! Your positivity and strength are infectious. Im grateful every day for your friendship and encouragement. Happy Best Friends Day! Youve always been my biggest supporter and my greatest source of motivation. Thank you for being you. Happy Best Friends Day! No obstacle is too big when you have a friend like you cheering you on. Heres to smashing all our goals together. Happy Best Friends Day! You make me believe in the impossible. Thank you for being my constant source of motivation and strength. Happy Best Friends Day! Your friendship is a blessing that keeps me going. Lets keep pushing each other to greater heights. Happy Best Friends Day! Lifes challenges are easier to face with you by my side. Heres to more victories and more shared dreams. Happy Best Friends Day! Youve always believed in me, even when I didnt believe in myself. Thank you for your endless support and motivation. Happy Best Friends Day! National Best Friend Day 2024: Wishes to celebrate the beauty of friendship Your friendship is the fuel that keeps my dreams alive. Thank you for being my partner in everything. Happy Best Friends Day! Every step we take together brings us closer to our dreams. Heres to many more shared successes. Happy Best Friends Day! Your unwavering belief in me gives me the courage to keep going. Thank you for being my constant source of inspiration. Happy Best Friends Day! Together, we are unstoppable. Lets keep pushing each other to be our best selves. Happy Best Friends Day! Youre not just my best friend; youre my source of strength and inspiration. Thank you for everything. Happy Best Friends Day! Happy National Best Friend Day 2024: Quotes Happy National Best Friend Day 2024: Quotes "Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. Its not something you learn in school. But if you havent learned the meaning of friendship, you really havent learned anything." - Muhammad Ali "I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light." - Helen Keller "A true friend accepts who you are, but also helps you become who you should be." - Unknown Things are never quite as scary when youve got a best friend. - Bill Watterson A friend is the one who comes in when the whole world has gone out. Grace Pulpit There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship. Thomas Aquinas "What draws people to be friends is that they see the same truth. They share it." - C.S. Lewis Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession; friendship is never anything but sharing. - Elie Wiesel A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down. Arnold H. Glasgow "A friend is someone who makes it easy to believe in yourself." - Heidi Wills National Best Friend Day 2024: Messages in English To my amazing best friend, you understand me like no one else. Thank you for always being there for me. Happy National Best Friends Day. Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends leave footprints in your heart. - Eleanor Roosevelt. To my partner in crime, my confidant, my sibling from another mother, and my rock through the highs and lows of life, Happy National Best Friends Day. Friendship is born at the moment when one person says to another, "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself." - C.S. Lewis. You bring so much joy and light into my life. I am grateful to have you by my side. Happy National Best Friends Day. On this National Best Friends Day, I want to celebrate our bond, built on trust, support, and endless laughter. You are the best friend anyone could be lucky to have. Friendship isn't a big thingit's a million little things. - Paulo Coelho. It's hard to find someone who will stay with you in your hard times and help you rise again after you fall. Fortunately for me, I have you. Happy National Best Friends Day. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Walk beside me; just be my friend. - Albert Camus. Distance doesn't matter if two hearts are loyal to each other. Similarly, it doesn't matter how far we are; we will always be in each other's hearts. Happy National Best Friends Day. Happy National Best Friend Day 2024: Quotes Happy National Best Friend Day 2024: Instagram and Facebook Captions Friends forever, love always. Thanks for being you. Besties for life, always. Forever grateful for you. My chosen family, forever. Friendship that never ends. You complete my squad. Lifelong memories, endless laughter. Cheers to our bond. Inseparable since day one. Unbreakable friendship, infinite memories. Together, we conquer everything. Friendship goals, forever strong. Heartfelt gratitude, eternal friendship. You make life better. Forever grateful for us. Celebrating our amazing bond. You're my person always. Through thick and thin. Best friends forever, always. Happy Best Friends Day for Girl 2024 Happy Best Friends Day to the girl who makes every moment brighter. Love you always! To my partner in crime and sister by heart, Happy Best Friends Day! Cheers to my bestie, the girl who knows me better than anyone. Happy Best Friends Day! You are my sunshine on a cloudy day. Happy Best Friends Day, beautiful! Happy Best Friends Day to the girl who adds sparkle to my life. Love you tons! Through thick and thin, youve always been there. Happy Best Friends Day, lovely! Heres to many more adventures with my best girl. Happy Best Friends Day! Happy Best Friends Day to my rock, my confidant, my best friend. You make the world a better place just by being in it. Happy Best Friends Day! To the girl who is like a sister to me, Happy Best Friends Day! Forever grateful for you Funny Happy Best Friends Day Messages Happy Best Friends Day to the one who knows all my secrets and still decides to stick around. Youre clearly a glutton for punishment! To my partner in crime, lets keep getting into trouble together. Happy Best Friends Day! Happy Best Friends Day! Thanks for always pretending to listen to my endless rants. Heres to the friend whos as weird as me. Happy Best Friends Day, you nutter! Happy Best Friends Day! If we were on a deserted island, Id totally share my snacks with you. To my bestie: Youre like a sister to me, but better because you cant steal my clothes. Happy Best Friends Day! Happy Best Friends Day! Lets celebrate by doing something well probably regret tomorrow. Thanks for always being there to laugh at my terrible jokes. Happy Best Friends Day! Happy Best Friends Day! Youre the only person I can send a text to without using any words, and you still understand. To the friend whos always up for an adventure, even if its just to the fridge. Happy Best Friends Day! For more informative articles on historical and upcoming events from around the world, please visit Indiatimes Events. Anant Ambani-Radhika Merchant Pre-Wedding Bash In Italy: The Ambani family recently hosted a grand extravaganza to celebrate Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant's second pre-wedding festivities aboard a luxurious cruise. The celebrations went on for four days with stops in Italy and the south of France and the glitzy event was attended by all of Bollywood royalty including Shah Rukh Khan, Ranveer Singh, Ananya Panday, Suhana Khan, Kiara Advani, Sara Ali Khan, Janhvi Kapoor and many more. Since the glitzy event ended, new unseen images and videos have been popping up on the internet daily featuring the glamorous guests and revealing their elegant outfits. Also Read: Anant Ambani-Radhika Merchant Italian Bash: A Look At The Fanciest Menu You'll Ever See Glimpse of guests during the Ambani cruise bash Nita Ambani ambani_update/Instagram For the masquerade party, the mother of the groom Nita Ambani donned a dazzling purple-hued gown with shimmery 3D embellishments and a matching mask. Pairing her ethereal gown with statement emerald and diamond necklace and earrings she kept her make-up minimal with a beautiful pink lip and rounded off her look with curled hair. The Kapoor fam Instagram Karisma Kapoor posted a photo on her Instagram giving the fans a glimpse of Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt along with Armaan Jain and his wife Anissa Malhotra. All the cousins were seen wearing casual beachwear. While the girlies were flaunting flirty floral summer dresses, Ranbir and Armaan were in perfect cruise attire of board shorts and casual shirts. All were seen rocking stylish sunnies and hats. Ranbir Kapoor was seen sporting a completely new look, with a fresh haircut and clean-shaven face the award-winning actor reminded us of his 'Saawariya' days. Radhika Merchant shloka_ambani/Instagram The bride-to-be donned a mesmerizing blue-hued corset gown with an off-shoulder design and silver sequin detailing transforming herself into a modern-day princess. The number was designed by Atelier Versace, which she accessorized with jaw-dropping diamond necklace earrings. Radhika styled a delicate birdcage veil with her shimmery gown giving her look a regal and mystical touch reminiscent of the royal family. Kiara Advani and Isha Ambani Childhood friends Isha Ambani and Kiara Advani were all smiles they held hands and posed for the camera. Looking every inch the dazzling diva, Kiara can be seen wearing a stunning black gown with a low back that she styled with statement green earrings. Dewy makeup with 'kohl'-rimmed eyes and a slick bun completed her look. On the other hand, Isha Ambani stood out in a bright orange floor-length gown that featured a long train and was adorned with gold chain details. Keeping the eye-catching dress, the star of the show, Isha completed her look with minimal makeup, pearl earrings and tied-back hair. For the unversed, Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant will tie the knot on July 12 in Mumbai in a traditional Hindu Vedic ceremony. Also Read: From Nita Ambani To Radhika Merchant, What Ambani Family Wore At Pre-Wedding Bash In Italy For more on travel, astrology and health from around the world please visit Indiatimes Lifestyle. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Boeing Starliner, which launched from the Cape Canaveral Space Station in Florida, arrived safely at the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft is piloted by Sunita Williams and crewmate Butch Wilmore, both of whom are veteran NASA astronauts. Who posted the viral video of Sunita Williams? Sunita Williams made history on this journey by becoming the first woman to pilot a crewed spacecraft | Image: X Williams made history on this journey by becoming the first woman to pilot a crewed spacecraft on its inaugural mission. Visuals of the spacecraft's launch and arrival at the ISS have dominated social media, as expected. One of these depicts Williams' response to reaching the ISS. It shows her bouncing with pleasure and greeting astronauts already on board the space station. That feeling when you're back on the station! Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams are greeted by the space station crew after Boeing Space Starliner's first crewed journey from Earth," reads the caption to the video of Williams that NASA posted on X. What happens in the viral video? she begins dancing joyfully and smiling widely | Image: X The film begins with Williams entering the ISS after Starliner docked at the forward-facing port of the ISS's Harmony module. As soon as she walks in, she begins dancing joyfully and smiling widely. She then hugs the astronauts who had welcomed her. Williams and Wilmore, according to NASA, performed "manual piloting demonstrations of Starliner" and "completed a sleep period" during their voyage from Earth to the ISS. Also read: Who is Muneeb Amin Bhatt? After Apple Now The Indian Techie Entered NASAs Hall of Fame Sunita Williams spent 322 days in space over the course of two missions. Her first voyage took place in 2006, followed by a second in 2012. She has done seven spacewalks so far. How did people on the internet react? Since being shared roughly eight hours ago, the post has received over 2.7 lakh views. The share has since received nearly 1,600 likes. People left various comments in response to the share. Also read: NASA Plans To Construct A Railway Station On The Moon, Enabling Train Service On The Moon "What a space day," remarked an X user. "Quite a feat! "I'd like to learn more about the system that tracked the Starliner's trajectory during the docking process," said another. "Amazing achievement," added a third. That feeling when you're back on the station! @NASA_Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are greeted by the @Space_Station crew after @BoeingSpace #Starliner's first crewed journey from Earth. pic.twitter.com/fewKjIi8u0 NASA (@NASA) June 6, 2024 What do you think about this? Tell us in the comments. For more trending stories, follow us on Telegram. They create the technology that keeps us glued to our screens, but how do tech CEOs and founders manage screen time for their own children? Surprisingly, many tech giants homes are far less digital than one might expect. A survey by The Information revealed that Silicon Valley children spend considerably less time on screens than the average American child. Some tech parents even hire nannies to police their childrens screen time. From digital curfews to banning devices at the dinner table, heres how seven tech giants raise their kids with minimal technology. Sundar Pichai: Google Google CEO Sundar Pichai admitted in an interview with the BBC that he has always been worried about technology. He understands the digital world his children are growing up in and prefers to stress the importance of digital literacy rather than set strict limits. Pichai encourages his children to develop their own boundaries, fostering a sense of personal responsibility. Google CEO Sundar Pichai | Phto: Reuters Bill Gates - Microsoft Bill Gates, the renowned technology mogul, might appear to be the least likely person to impose limitations on his children's technology use, correct? However, that assumption is incorrect. As the founder of Microsoft, the largest software company globally, Gates has implemented significant restrictions on his children regarding the usage of smartphones and tablets. jennifer-gates-net-worth In an interview with the Mirror, the visionary technological innovator disclosed that he prohibits his children from possessing a smartphone until they reach the age of 14. Furthermore, he forbids them from using gadgets at the dinner table. Mark Zuckerberg: Meta As the co-founder of Facebook and CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg is one of the most recognizable names in tech. He allows his kids to video chat with relatives but draws the line at mindlessly consuming content. Zuckerberg says, I dont generally want my kids to be sitting in front of a TV or a computer for a long period of time. Chamath Palihapitiya: Formerly Facebook Former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya feels tremendous guilt about the platform he helped build, saying it has ripped apart the social fabric of society. As a result, his own children arent allowed to use social media at all. Susan Wojcicki: Former CEO of YouTube, Google Susan Wojcicki, former CEO of YouTube, admits to struggling with screen time for her kids. "We spend as much time as other parents taking phones away from our kids, she told the Belfast Telegraph. While Wojcicki allows her younger kids to use YouTube Kids, she limits their screen time, believing too much of anything is not a good thing. Alexis Ohanian: Reddit Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian looks forward to playing video games with his daughter Olympia but isnt in a hurry to introduce screens. He and his wife Serena Williams ensure their daughter gets time to be with her thoughts and toys, regulating tech use heavily. For the latest and more interesting financial news, keep reading Indiatimes Worth. Click here 10 years of greatness! Satya Nadella has clocked 10 years as CEO of Microsoft this year as per a report by Business Insider report. In his tenure, he has been behind the tremendous growth of the company which has managed to dethrone Apple as the worlds most valuable public company earlier this year. Nadella's leadership style is marked by several key principles that have contributed to his success. Lets check them out. Create energy around you "There is no simple thing that is always under your control, so the idea that you have got to create energy all around you is another elementyou have got to really pick up the skills to do it," he told the Chicago Booth magazine in an interview in 2019. Also Read: Inside The Life of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella: Multimillion-Dollar Net Worth And Stunning Mansions Listen more and talk less and be decisive microsoft "Listen more, talk less, and be decisive when the time comes," he had said in a 2015 interview with The Wall Street Journal. Be empathetic as it is the hardest skill to learn Nadella emphasizes the significance of empathy in leadership, considering it not merely a soft skill but rather "the hardest skill we learn," he said in an interview with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Dopfner. "If you have empathy for your people, they will do their best work and you'll make progress," Nadella said in a 2020 episode of LinkedIn's "Hello Monday" podcast. "Innovation is about meeting the unmet unarticulated needs of customers," he said on the podcast. What's the source of it? You could say it's design thinking, but design thinking is empathy. Give your best in your current role Nadella shared that he never envisioned becoming the CEO when he first joined Microsoft more than 30 years ago. Instead, he was committed to excelling in whatever role he occupied at the time. His advice, as conveyed in one of his interviews, is not to wait for the next job opportunity to deliver one's best work, but rather to consistently strive for excellence in the present role. satya nadella/getty Continue to be adaptable During his tenure at Microsoft, Nadella emphasized the importance of continuous adaptation, which he found necessary as he navigated different teams and managed various divisions, all while staying abreast of rapidly evolving technologies. Notably, he played a pivotal role in overseeing the development of several intricate Microsoft products, such as Bing and Xbox Live, as reported by CNBC. Ambanis have been in a celebratory mood this year. From Jamnagar bash to a lavish luxury cruise, Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchants pre-wedding events were the only thing that people across the globe talked about for days on end. Mukesh Ambani celebrated his son Anant's engagement to Radhika Merchant by hosting an extravagant four-day luxury cruise from Palermo to the south of France and back. The cruise included exclusive visits to Rome, Portofino, Genoa, and Cannes, where meticulously planned celebrations took place. The Cruise Party Was Quite A Hit With The Guests But It Has Left A Sour Taste In Local Peoples Mouth x While it was a gala time for the hosts and the guests both, this celebration didnt sit well with businessess and individuals in Portofino. Why you ask? Well, the affluence of Mukesh Ambani is such that he closed off the entire bay, making it inaccessible to residents and tourists alike. While this picturesque town has never been closed for an event previously, it has long been a sought-after destination for celebrities seeking an idyllic wedding venue. Notable figures such as Australian musician Sia and reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian have tied the knot in this charming location. Also Read : Inside The Net Worth Of Indias Richest Man Mukesh Ambanis Children & Family Ambanis Finalised The Caterer At The Last Minute Offering Them Rs 9 Lakh And A 20-day Notice Numerous restaurants were approached with offers to cater the event, with menu items ranging from focaccia and paneer tikka to beetroot goat cheese kebabs, priced between 7,000 and 10,000 (Rs 6.3 lakh - Rs 9 lakh). Andrea Miroli, the manager of the renowned restaurant Il Puny, which has previously served celebrities like Steven Spielberg, Sir Elton John, Denzel Washington, and Silvio Berlusconi, disclosed that they were requested to prepare lobster sandwiches. However, they were given only a 20-day notice before the event. gran tourismo Andrea Miroli, the manager of the esteemed restaurant Il Puny, was one of the individuals expressing dissatisfaction. He disclosed that they were offered 10,000 (Rs 9 lakh) just 20 days before the event, a proposition he deemed insulting, disrespectful, and inappropriate. His main priority was safeguarding the reputation of his patrons and the restaurant's esteemed image, a sentiment echoed by numerous other local establishments. He told The Times, We were offered 10,000 just 20 days before the event. I find this offensive, bad mannered and incorrect. I have my customers and an illustrious history to protect. On social media platforms, both locals and visitors lamented the inaccessibility of various locations in Portofino. One Italian user on X expressed their frustration., Many other celebrities and billionaires have celebrated in Portofino, none of them have ever removed access to the main point for others. Many billionaires have come to party here, but no one has ever taken away access to the main part of the city. Who do they think they are? They cant just come in, throw their party, and make it difficult for people to do their daily chores. Also Read: From charter flights to silver jewellery: Gifts and services guests enjoyed on Anant Ambani & Radhika Merchant's pre-wedding cruise People On The Internet Noted That Several Other Celebs Have Tied The Knot At The Picturesque Town But No One Shut The Entire Area Before The Ambanis Ambani Update As Mukesh Ambani, Asia's wealthiest individual with a net worth of $115 billion (approximately Rs 9.6 lakh crore), along with his family, enjoyed themselves at their personal party venue in Portofino, locals were left irritated and tourists inconvenienced. The commune of Portofino, one of the most significant, picturesque, and bustling areas of the tiny fishing village on the Italian Riviera coastline, was wholly cordoned off for the affluent assemblage. No tourists or locals were allowed near the bay, which understandably rubbed many the wrong way, especially the tourists. I couldnt see the main attractions of Portofino this weekend due to a private event organized by an Indian or Pakistani billionaire for his spoiled son. There have been many events hosted by billionaires in the past, but none have ever closed the area, shared another. Genoa Locals Complained Of Loud Music Which Kept Them Awake All Night After Shakira, Are Guru Randhawa And Pitbull Among The Celeb Performers At Anant Ambani's Cruise Party? /X Reports from Il Secolo suggest that the loud music from the 1,072-foot-long cruise ship kept three neighborhoods in Genoa awake all night. Despite their complaints, authorities took no action, and the music only ceased at dawn when guests departed for Cristoforo Colombo Airport to catch their chartered flights. While the celebrations exuded splendor and opulence, demonstrating the Ambani family's generosity and grandeur to their guests, a bit more consideration for the people of Portofino could have transformed a contentious event into a truly memorable occasion for all involved. Rhodes municipal officials have ordered the closure of a beach bar in Santa Marina by June 20 after finding it was illegally built on an archaeological site. The bar owner illegally installed 19 metal platforms with sunbeds in the sea, discovered by inspectors using the MyCoast app. The same bar was fined last year for serving customers in the water. Authorities emphasize the bars location within an archaeological site prohibits any licensing. The owner had expanded a food truck permit from 2014 and 2015 with illegal structures. Despite a demolition order in 2016 and a sealing order in 2017, the bar remained open. Inspection teams, acting on reports from users of the governments innovative MyCoast app, found that the owner of the Santa Marina bar had unlawfully installed 19 unlicensed metallic structures with sunbeds extending into the water. This establishment had previously incurred fines for similar offenses, highlighted last year when a video of a waiter serving patrons mid-water became an internet sensation. Subsequently, authorities had mandated the removal of these illegal structures. The most significant irregularity, however, is the bars location within the bounds of Rhodes citys archaeological site. The local archaeological authority has categorically ruled out the possibility of legalizing the establishment, stating that no approval has ever been, nor could ever be issued for the operation of this business, in light of the archaeological laws, as it has illicitly taken over the communal seafront and beach area. The owner, who was initially granted a permit for a food truck in 2014 and 2015, expanded his operations with unauthorized constructions. The first demolition order was issued in 2016, followed by a municipal sealing directive in 2017. Despite these measures, the bar continued its operations. Local media reported this week that despite the closure decree the establishment continued its illegal operation. Not only did the establishment continue to operate as usual on Thursday, but it also hosted a party. According to a report by Mega television, the owner did not remove the floating sun loungers but instead organized a party. Dozens of holidaymakers were seen enjoying their swim, food, and drinks on the illegal structures in the water. iefimerida.gr No less than seven policemen were killed in a bandits attack in Magarya village in Zurmi Local Government Area of Zamfara State on Thursday. Muhammad Shehu Dalijan, Commissioner of Police in the State, who confirmed the attack, disclosed that twelve villagers were also killed during the onslaught. He added that among the victims were a member of the Zamfara State Community Guards, also known as Askarawan Zamfara and four residents of the village. Advertisement According to Dalijan, the bandits, numbering about 300, stormed the village on motorbikes. On arrival, the bandits, he said, surrounded our men and opened fire on them, thereby killing seven of them and injuring several others. He stated that the assailants were unhappy with the police officers because they stopped them from carrying out their many criminal and nefarious act. The bandits were not happy with our men who prevented them from carrying out their heinous act for over two years now. Since the deployment of police to the area, the bandits could not have a chance to attack the village, the Commissioner added. Muhammad Yusuf, a resident, told Daily Trust that the assailants invaded the village at 5.10am when people were preparing for morning prayer. READ ALSO: Suspected Terrorists Kill Three Passengers In Yobe He said the bandits also burnt two houses, a car and many silos. The bandits also rustled three camels and some cows, sheep and goats. However, they did not abduct anybody during the operation. When the bandits attacked the village, the occupants ran into the bush. When they returned, we took a head count and discovered that 12 people, including seven mobile policemen, were killed. This is the fourth time bandits are attacking our village. The first attack was two years after the deployment of a mobile police unit to the area. They attacked the village three times before the deployment of security personnel, Yusuf said. Another resident, Ibrahim Shehu, said many of the villagers had fled for fear of further attacks. The bandits had warned that they would come for another attack; hence the residents fled their homes. Some residents moved to Gusau, the state capital, while others went to nearby towns. We are terrified. And you know that these people are like animals. Since they promised to come back, it is better for us to leave the area for our lives. Very few people remained in the village, he added. Inuwa Isa, another resident, said the attackers conducted a house-to-house search before killing people, burning two houses and a car. Reality personality Mercy Eke has appealed for assistance after Heritage Banks operating licence was revoked by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). She claimed that she had over N100 million in her Heritage Bank account. Eke claimed that she opened the account because the bank sponsored the fourth season of the reality show Big Brother Naija, which she won. Advertisement She further blamed her account manager for luring her into fixing her money at the bank despite being aware of the issues. On her X handle Thursday, Eke wrote: I really dont no how to react about this I have been hoping for the best .. thinking theres a way out. [Hash tag] HeritageBank. Taking to the comment section, a fan asked, Omg Lambo hope you dont have acct with them? to which Eke replied, I do and have above 100m with them. Another fan asked, Why did you open an account with them in the first place? and the reality star replied, That was the bank that sponsored Bbn during my set, for them to pay our money we were advised to open an account with them stupid me went ahead and funded the account dont worry Im full of regrets right now. A concerned fan asked, What is your account manager saying? READ MORE: As A Lady Only Choose Who Wants You Pastor Kingsley Okonkwo Mercy Eke responded, She lured me into fixing my money, knowing fully well theres been issues with the bank I dont have words for her, I blame myself. The reality personality also revealed that she has filed a notification with the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Commission in an attempt to collect her money. The Nigerian Deposit Insurance Commission recently began the liquidation process of Heritage Bank, including verification and reimbursement of bank depositors. However, the NDIC claimed that the reimbursement would start with individuals having N5 million or less. SEE POST: Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, says the Organised Labour committed treason by shutting down the national grid during Mondays indefinite strike. Akume disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday during a meeting with the National Executive Council of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). His words: Nowhere in the world has labour ever tampered with the national grid. It is treason! Treasonable felony is economic sabotage; you dont do that. Advertisement We are trying to rebuild the economy. The president is picking it up, and they want to destroy it. Of what use is that to all of us? That is not the way. Reacting to the efforts of the government to ease the economic hardship in the country, he assured that Compressed Natural Gas buses, rice, and other essentials would soon be available to Nigerians to ease the hardship. READ ALSO: Finance Minister Didnt Propose N105,000 As New Minimum Wage It is not that we are not working. We are working, and that is why we implemented the N35,000 wage, which is more than the minimum wage. There are buses ready to be distributed, and soon, rice and other essentials will be available, he added. He furthered that the church must collaborate with the government in the provision of infrastructure for the citizens. The church must collaborate with the government in providing facilities for people, whether it is in education, health, or agriculture. We dont separate; we combine. There is a symbiotic relationship that can never be destroyed, Akume said. Lifeguard Alexander Whaley at the West Philly YMCA in Philadelphia, Pa., on Thursday, June 6, 2024. A pilot program at the site trained 10 students this spring to become lifeguards. Read more Becoming a lifeguard was transformational for Theresa Edmondson, the advanced aquatics director at the West Philadelphia YMCA. I didnt really realize the importance in what [lifeguards] were actually doing, she said. Just to be able to help a person instead of just being stuck and scared and not knowing what to do, those are things that made it more transformational for me the actual realization that they do so much more and the fact that I could learn to do these things as well. Advertisement About a year ago, Edmondson was having trouble finding a lifeguard to hire, amid a national lifeguard shortage. A young man at the club was interested in getting a job but didnt have the skills to be a lifeguard yet, so she decided to help train him. It took him about 2 months to get certified, but then he started working for the YMCA as a lifeguard. I did that because we couldnt find anybody to work at that time, she said. I was like, well, you know, he has the desire to learn, let me help train him. And then he started working and that helped us. Edmondson realized that if she created a structured program, she could train more students to do the same. This spring, Edmondson led a pilot program at the West Philly YMCA helping to train young people to become lifeguards. As the summer approaches, the site is looking to hire three or four additional lifeguards, says Edmondson, and the hope is that this new program will train students that could potentially be employed by the YMCA or elsewhere in the future. Most of the more professional swimmers are usually going into something else and are too busy, she said. Using our young people as resources, and in turn, helping them learn skills and work I think is the best way to go about it. The Greater Philadelphia YMCA employed about 1,400 young people aged 18 to 24 last summer in positions including lifeguards, who make $17 an hour. Throughout a 6-week program in April and May, 10 students in Edmondsons program, ages 15 through 18, met twice a week in person on Mondays and Wednesdays to practice swim drills at the West Philly YMCA. On Tuesdays, they met over Zoom to watch instructional videos on topics including those about CPR and first aid. There was no prerequisite to join the course and the classes were fully funded by donors. The program started from an idea because a lot of youth would come in and they would want to get trained in lifeguarding, and they werent sure how to approach it, said Edmondson. On the last day of class in late May, around 5 p.m. on a Wednesday, Edmondson walked up and down the length of the pool timing students one at a time in drills. In a nearby lane, small children, some wearing goggles and swim caps, made their way across the pool holding flip boards, and splashing about, in a pool filled with some 20 people. Edmondsons students have been training to take the American Red Cross lifeguard certification course, which requires participants be able to complete a set of drills that include swimming, treading water, and retrieving a 10-pound object from the pool. On that Wednesday, Edmondsons students had 50 seconds to swim about 20 meters, pick up a brick from the pool floor, and return to the side of the pool where they had started. Edmondsons first student clocked in at 56 seconds. The second at 49 seconds. The hope is that the pilot program could be offered again throughout the year going forward, training more students to become lifeguards, and be implemented at other YMCA branches if there is interest among youth. With the lifeguard shortage, this helps combat that, said Edmondson. The challenge of hiring lifeguards has also plagued the citys public pools in recent years. In 2021, the city said 22 pools would remain closed for the summer season, and in 2022, 21 city pools were closed due to staffing shortages. In 2023, there were delays in opening some pools due to staffing attrition and delays in getting lifeguards paperwork to clear, Parks and Recreation told The Inquirer. Last year, all 60 of the available pools opened, and the same amount is expected to open again this year, according to a spokesperson for Parks and Recreation. Pools began opening June 14 in 2023, and they are also expected to begin opening mid-June this year. The pool opening schedule is expected to be announced in the second week of June. For now, the city says it is on track to hire enough lifeguards for the summer. There has been a high interest in lifeguarding opportunities this year, and we have more lifeguards hired now than we did at the same time last year, said a spokesperson in mid-May. As of June 3, the city had hired about 325 lifeguards towards the 400 positions it needs to open all 60 pools, according to a spokesperson. Lifeguards who work for the city pools are employed an average of eight weeks in the summer season for 35 to 40 hours a week, and earn between $16 and $18 an hour. The department has been focused on recruiting efforts in many ways, including the Philly Phreeze in February, which helped raise nearly $53,000 toward paying lifeguard bonuses. Hiring enough staff to open all 60 available pools is our number-one priority for the summer. We understand how important our pools are to communities across the city, said a spokesperson for Parks and Recreation via email in mid-May. For many Philadelphians, their local city pool is their summer vacation, and is necessary for recreating safely and cooling down during the hottest months. I would like to thank the good people of Philadelphia for not calling for my excommunication when I reluctantly complimented Bostons Freedom Trail a 2.5-mile path embedded in the sidewalk that connects Beantowns sites in a column last month. I still feel weird about it but as it turns out, I am not alone. Advertisement Dozens of people reached out to say that, like me, theyve wondered why Philly doesnt have its own version of the Freedom Trail, and I heard from others who recalled prior attempts to get one established. I learned theres a term for using physical elements like a trail to help people connect sites and navigate from one place to another. Its called wayfinding and almost everyone admits, were pretty bad at it in Philadelphia. Any attempts to bring wayfinding to Phillys district must, by necessity, involve Independence National Historical Park, but when the park isnt even funded to operate in an optimal way now, how can wayfinding or any other improvements be implemented before the nations 250th anniversary in 2026? Thats the point Kathryn Ott Lovell, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Visitor Center Corporation, which runs the Independence Visitor Center in cooperation with the National Park Service, and Jonathan Burton, director of development for Independence Historical Trust, the philanthropic partner of Independence National Historical Park, wanted to drive home when I met with them last week. Independence [Park] is in grave need of resources, Ott Lovell said. We talk as a country about democracy being under attack, but thats theoretical. This is physically the birthplace of democracy and its not being cared for in the best way that it can be. Woefully behind for 2026 Independence Parks $27 million budget has been relatively stagnant for a decade, Burton said, and buildings across the space remain closed or are operating with reduced hours. And while $85 million is going to repairs this year, thats less than half of the parks $199 million backlog of deferred maintenance. To raise awareness of the parks needs, an advocacy group called United for Independence was recently formed by the District Partners, a coalition of more than 30 institutions, museums, and sites. The partners began meeting last fall, after Ott Lovell, the former director of the citys Parks and Recreation Department, took the reins at the Visitor Center and Steven Sims was named Independence Parks new superintendent. U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D., Pa.), who picked up the park and Old City in a redistricting last year, said theres now a much better working relationship between all stakeholder groups and leadership of Independence National Historical Park. Boyle told me he was frankly concerned to learn that preparation for the semiquincentennial at Independence Park is woefully behind for 2026. He pointed to the fact that there are no plans to open Declaration House, the building reconstructed for the bicentennial on the site where the Declaration of Independence was written. It has been closed since 2018. I cannot believe right now theres no plan for Declaration House literally where the committee wrote the Declaration of Independence to be open on the Fourth of July for 2026, Boyle said. That is frankly an embarrassment. Millions of visitors Established in 1948, Independence National Historical Park covers 54 acres in Center City and Old City and counts Independence Hall, Congress Hall, and the Liberty Bell among its many sites. Sims who also oversees the Edgar Allan Poe National Site, the Gloria Dei Church National Site, and the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial in Philly is unflappably optimistic about Independence Park and 2026, even as those around him sound warning bells. When I asked if the park was well-funded, Sims said, I think anybody would accept more [money]. What I will say is we have sufficient funding to operate all four parks for Philadelphia, he told me. That doesnt mean everybody will be happy with how we operate them Thats where partnerships really come in handy. Sims said hes honored the District Partners have formed United for Independence to advocate for the park. It demonstrates how much they care about these resources and our relationship, he said. For the District Partners, a thriving Independence Park is about self-preservation too. Visitors who go to the park, which is the most-visited attraction in Philly, often head to other museums and sites in the area. Burton said the 2.7 million people who visited Independence Park in 2022 added an estimated $178 million to the regional economy and, according to the National Park Service, the parks annual impact on the local economy is $228 million. If the park thrives, we thrive. If the park doesnt do well, we dont do well, Ott Lovell said. Prior to the pandemic, the park had about 4.5 million visitors annually. Last year, it was just over 3 million. Closed or reduced hours Among Ott Lovells and Burtons concerns is that the recently-rehabbed Second Bank of the United States, which houses an impressive portrait gallery and was open three days a week last summer, will not open this season, aside from special events and holiday weekends. Sims said he doesnt have the staff to keep it open otherwise. The Liberty Bell and Independence Hall were open last summer until 7 p.m., but this year, both sites will close at 5 p.m. While Independence National Historical Parks budget wasnt technically cut this year, there was a $2 million salary increase mandated for the parks 195 staffers, so the park had to find that money within their budget by cutting other things, Ott Lovell said. Its been shocking to me, as someone who ran a parks and rec system, to see how challenged the leadership is at Independence and the hard decisions that they have to make, she said. Then there are the buildings within Independence Park that have been closed for years with no timeline for reopening, like the Declaration House, the Dolley Todd House, and the Bishop White House, all of which remain on the National Park Services Places To Go website for Independence Park. Its not just about the next 24 months Philanthropic dollars raised by Independence Historical Trust amounted to $1.2 million last year, but its not enough. The park needs a budget increase of at least $10 million annually to manage and program the park at optimal levels, Ott Lovell estimated. Were agnostic about where the money comes from, she said. That is up to our elected officials to hash that out. Boyle said hes lobbied Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to prioritize Independence Park and dedicate more resources to it and said shes pointed out, in turn, that the National Park Service needs more funding from Congress. I agree and its something Ive been working on, Boyle said. Using the 250th anniversary of the country as an opportunity to secure greater funding is a priority for me. And its not just about the next 24 months, its about the next 24 years. Ott Lovell said shed like to see the city and state step up too. Independence Hall a UNESCO World Heritage site is actually owned by Philadelphia and operated by the National Park Service through an agreement, but it receives no money from the city (ditto for the Liberty Bell). Along with increased funding, United for Independence is advocating for more Philadelphians to frequent Independence Park and see it as their national park and not just a place for tourists. Its a shame that we as Philadelphians dont feel this deep connection to this park, Ott Lovell said. This idea of democracy was an experiment and that experiment is still unfolding. Were all part of that and its never been more important for people to understand what their role is in helping that great experiment to continue to unfold. The past and the future On Friday, the District Partners will hold its first United for Independence Day of Service, which Subaru of America is sponsoring with a $10,000 donation. More than 100 staffers from museums and institutions in the district will spend the day on Independence Mall picking up litter, mulching, planting flowers, and doing maintenance. Organizers hope it will become a reoccurring event that will expand to include city residents. Its good United for Independence was created to draw awareness to the needs of Independence National Historical Park and to advocate for more funding, but I cant help but think that like Jalen Hurts donating $200,000 so that 10 Philly schools could buy air conditioners, its pretty sad it needed to happen at all. Our governments should recognize the importance of providing non-sweltering places for children to learn and of preserving and promoting the hallowed ground where our nation and democracy were birthed. We must invest in our future and in our past, for they remain, as always, inextricably linked, especially as the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence approaches. I havent lost hope for Philly to get its own version of the Freedom Trail, but I now understand why we dont have one yet because Independence Park cant properly fund what already exists, let alone undertake new projects. As self-evident truths go, thats a tough one to swallow. Dozens of Philadelphia police officers will be deployed to Kensington in the coming weeks. Read more Dozens of Philadelphia police officers will be deployed to Kensington in the coming weeks as the city officially begins its phased approach of more strictly enforcing drug laws in the troubled neighborhood, The Inquirer has learned. On Monday, the city will begin the communication phase of its plan to stabilize the neighborhood, according to police sources. Signs will be posted and fliers distributed warning people that a stronger police presence is on the horizon, and that open drug use, sales, and quality-of-life crimes will no longer be tolerated. Advertisement Then, beginning June 18, the entire 78-person class of officers graduating from the Philadelphia police academy will be assigned to Kensington, Inspector Anthony Luca of the police departments East Division told neighborhood residents during a community meeting Thursday night. The new additions will bring the total number of officers policing the neighborhood up to 120, he said, and most will be patrolling on foot. In three different shifts, the officers will move from block to block, more strictly enforcing laws, reducing the amount of open-air drug use and sales, and making arrests if necessary, he said. Sgt. Eric Gripp, a spokesperson for the police department, said he could not confirm specific deployment and staffing plans for tactical reasons, but that sharing our plans with community members first has always been a top priority. We are sending a clear message that such [drug] operations are unacceptable in Philadelphia, he said, adding that the department will have more information to share on strategies for the neighborhood in the coming week. Part of Mayor Parkers plans for Kensington The planned deployment marks the most significant commitment of police resources to the neighborhood since Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and the department announced a multi-phased plan to shut down the open air drug market. If the plan unfolds as envisioned, it would be a marked shift for Kensington, the center of a billion-dollar heroin industry that has operated for years. Drug dealers occupy dozens of corners in the neighborhood, raking in thousands of dollars a day. More than 600 people are homeless and live on the streets, openly injecting drugs and experiencing complex physical and mental health crises. Suffering is widespread, and the neighborhood has historically seen some of the highest rates of violence in the city. Parker took office in January vowing to change those conditions and stabilize the neighborhood, and in April, Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel outlined a five-phase approach to doing that. First, police will warn people living on the streets or committing crimes of their plans to ramp up enforcement in the area, he said. Then, officers will begin clearing the streets, making arrests, and removing drug users. Bethel has declined to set a timeline for when each phase would begin and end. Gripp said that increasing resources in the area is absolutely essential to effect the change that the neighborhood deserves, and that attention will be paid not only to people in addiction, but also the dangerous sellers who contribute to the violence and instability. Luca also told residents Thursday that the police departments entire narcotics division has been in Kensington the past few weeks, and that federal authorities have been investigating firearms traffickers. You guys are definitely taking back your community, he told the crowded room. How Philly police will enforce the plan in Kensington Beginning Monday, according to sources, officials will post signs telling people what to expect this summer in Kensington, outlining crimes that will no longer be tolerated. There will be a QR code for people to scan for information about treatment and resources. The police departments plan said that during the enforcement phase, officers will first focus on the areas from E Street to Jasper Street, and Tioga Street to Indiana Avenue. Police have said this will be a multiday initiative that will include arrests for narcotics, prostitution, quality-of-life crimes and other criminal acts. Once that initial corridor is cleared and secured, police will expand into surrounding blocks. Eventually, sidewalks will be secured with bike racks and barricades, and deep cleaned. Bethel said people in addiction will be provided resources for recovery and sobriety, but that they will no longer be permitted to live on the street and openly use drugs. It was not immediately clear how the city intended to step-up enforcement before a robust treatment system was in place. The city has said there are about 5,200 treatment beds and 2,700 shelter beds citywide availability varies, but they are consistently more than 90% full. Still, outreach workers from the city have been more visible in recent months, connecting people in addiction with support and resources for housing and treatment. Parker this week announced plans to spend more than $100 million building a drug-treatment center that could house more than 600 people near the citys jail complex in Northeast Philadelphia. While some beds could be available within the next year, the facility would take three years to be completed. It was also not clear how law enforcement would handle users complex health needs. Kensingtons drug supply is toxic and unpredictable. The vast majority of people are injecting fentanyl and xylazine, or tranq, which leaves users with large open flesh wounds that are easily infected. Withdrawal symptoms are intense and can begin within 90 minutes. And when dealers and users are dispersed or arrested, residents said, turf battles and violence can follow. On May 31, a 37-year-old man, crossing the street near the Kensington and Somerset intersection, was shot in the shoulder after two dealers were arguing over a corner, and one opened fire, police said. Luca, the police inspector, acknowledged that a power vacuum among dealers could lead to more shootings, and Councilmember Mike Driscoll told residents its gonna get worse before it gets better. Theres gonna be more deaths, he said. This is gonna get ugly. Still, he said, Parker inherited a mess and he trusts that she knows what shes doing. How do community members feel? Shannon Farrell-Paktis, president of the Harrowgate Civic Association, said she was skeptical about how the plan would work in the long term without a robust treatment system up and running. Where will they go? she said. There has to be follow through for access to shelter and treatment. Still, she said, more police could get people to leave the neighborhood voluntarily, and the threat of constant displacement might tire people out to the point they will finally seek help. Alfred Klosterman, 73, who lives near Kensington Avenue and Venango Street just outside the police departments first enforcement target zone said he worried that users and dealers would migrate to his block. The street where he has lived for 30 years had been quiet for a few months after a series of police raids, he said, but since the encampment along Kensington Avenue was cleared in May, users and dealers have returned. We will see where it leads, he said. Weve gotten promise after promise. Weve been fighting this battle for five years. And Theresa Ling, who lives off of Frankford Avenue, said that she has been heartened by Parkers plans for the area, but worries for the safety of the newly minted and inexperienced police officers encountering such a complex and, at times, violent area. Im kind of nervous theyre sending a bunch of rookies out, said Ling, 59. Ling, who said she was homeless with her daughter for more than two years, living in a shelter before finding her current housing, said she feels for the people living on the street, but something has to change. Homelessness isnt a crime, she said. But sleeping in public places is. They have civil rights, but so do we, she said. You shoot up in front of our children, you deal in front of our children were the people suffering. Darlene Abner-Burton, who has lived next to Harrowgate Park for 26 years, said shes just trying to be patient. Everyone wants a quick fix but there is none, she said with a sigh. I try to be hopeful. I really, really do. A sign reading Save UArts seen outside Dorrance Hamilton Hall at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Read more The University of the Arts, an institution with roots dating back nearly 150 years, laid off 613 staff members Friday on its chaotic, final day of formal existence. Advertisement We are confirming that the university is closing today, June 7, as previously announced this means we are starting the process of an orderly wind down and we will not hold any further classes, a message from the consulting firm hired to oversee closure wrote in a message to staff. Unfortunately, because of the financial state of the university, we are unable to retain most employees after today, the message said. About 100 university staff are being kept on indefinitely. Many UArts faculty and staff learned they would be laid off Friday over a Zoom call led by consultants from Alvarez & Marsal, the firm hired by UArts to manage its abrupt closure. Leaked audio revealed the moment they were told they no longer had jobs and would lose their medical insurance within weeks. We know that this has been a very difficult time and uncertain time and that you have many questions regarding your employment status, said Jim Grady, one of the Alvarez & Marsal consultants. We apologize for not providing sufficient notice on the closure based on the financial position of the university, Grady continued. The consulting firm did not take questions from those losing their jobs. No faculty or staff spoke during the eight-minute meeting, during which people could be heard crying. A call center is expected to be set up to address their questions in the near future, according to Grady. UArts is expected to deliver staff members final paychecks in full, and will pay out their unused vacation time, Alvarez & Marsal member Jenelle Beavers said. Employee medical insurance will continue through June 30; staff members will have the option to purchase COBRA insurance through the next 18 months. Staff members were encouraged to apply with the state for unemployment benefits. Grady told faculty and staff that UArts was committed to taking whatever actions we feasibly can to support you through this very challenging time. An emotional carousel Anger. Sadness. Bittersweet laughter. Vows of retribution and promises of hope. The scene Friday outside of the now-shuttered South Broad Street institution was an emotional carousel, as students, faculty, staff members, and elected officials rallied together to protest the schools abrupt closure on its final official day and mourn the loss of a creative home. Over 200 people gathered at the universitys grand staircase, which, for over a century, has swept students out of Philadelphias hustle and bustle and into what many described as a haven for the arts that will be nearly impossible to replicate. For recent theater graduate Brenna Patzer, UArts was a dream destination since high school, she told the crowd in tear-filled remarks. The student spent this week begging for answers to no avail from the very same institution, she said. Our administration and those who have failed us will be stained by their actions forever, Patzer said. UArts faculty member Allen Radway told the crowd he spent this week witnessing the tears of my students and the broken hearts of alumni. Many of them gathered at the rally and reminisced with past classmates. Theres been zero transparency from our leadership for something that was absolutely predictable, Radway said, before leading the crowd in a chant of the word transparency. Elected officials of the district, State Rep. Ben Waxman and State Sen. Nikil Saval, both Democrats, also made appearances. This is outrageous; what happened here should not be able to stand, Waxman said. The legislator said he plans to bring lawmakers together with displaced students and staff in a public meeting next week. Saval said he rejected the idea that there was a crisis in higher education. It is a political crisis, it is a manufactured crisis. This is not some inevitable drift of history. There are people behind this and those people need to be held accountable, said Saval. Laura Frazure, an artist, associate professor, and sculpture and crafts coordinator, blamed the board of trustees and the universitys president emeritus, David Yager, for the closure. (Yagers name drew boos from the crowd.) I was so looking forward to working elbow-to-elbow in the shops and studios with my sculpture and thesis students in the years to come, Frazure said, wiping away tears. They have taken our collective future away, and I will never forgive them for that. A new group emerges to support students and reimagine UArts Amid the uncertainty, a new group of parents and alumni has emerged as a committee of concerned community members to support students, appeal to lawmakers and others potentially in a position to help, and possibly stave off closure and reimagine what University of the Arts can be. Frank Machos, head of the Philadelphia School Districts Office of the Arts & Creative Learning, is helping anchor the group. Machos, who earned his bachelors, masters, and Ph.D. at UArts, was set to join the universitys board of trustees this month. In conversations with top university executives just a few weeks before the closure announcement, there was no inkling that a catastrophe was imminent, he said. I feel confident that nobody in the upper leadership nobody that I was in contact with had any idea this was coming, Machos said. I was on calls with foundations, securing support for campus expansion. I was receiving texts from upper leadership. After a planned town hall Monday with university leaders was canceled 10 minutes before it was scheduled to begin, people who had never met each other before began to mobilize. The group now includes not just parents and alumni with experience in multiple fields, but also two deans who hope to save the school. Machos said representatives of the group have already had a conversation with the Middle States Committee on Higher Education, the agency that pulled University of the Arts accreditation after it announced it was closing. They are open to having a conversation with us, Machos said. We think the largest piece that needs to be addressed is the financial issues. Machos said the group was particularly stunned that once the crisis became evident, no one at University of the Arts turned to its alumni, a network of creatives known for thinking outside the box. In the short term, the groups focus is supporting students as they transfer to institutions that have already raised their hands to help. Next, they want to focus on some way to preserve the university. Can these students walk in graduation as University of the Arts students, with that diploma? Thats our ideal situation, rather than some type of absorption, said Machos. Every higher ed institution is reimagining what their future is going to be. We can probably create one of the most forward-thinking schools on the planet. Seven days of turmoil A week ago, university president Kerry Walk and board of trustees chair Judson Aaron announced the school would close June 7 because of an unspecified financial crisis. Another trustee later estimated that the crisis whose details even she did not have would take about $40 million to solve. Walk has since resigned. READ MORE: UArts closure will be the subject of Philadelphia City Council hearings, as a Temple merger moves one step closer One staffer said they were interviewed by representatives of Alvarez & Marsal, the global consulting firm hired to oversee the universitys closure, on Thursday, but given no answers. The staffer, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said they were not even sure if they should show up to work when the weekend is over. None of us have heard whos being extended past June 7, or if anyones being extended, the staffer said. We dont know if we have jobs on Monday. Also unanswered is whether a merger with Temple University, which officials have confirmed is currently being explored, is possible and, if the parties agree, what will be left to save. Temple has signed a nondisclosure agreement with the University of the Arts to formally explore the merger, according to a source close to the process who asked not to be named because the talks are private. Mergers typically take at least a year to complete, and University of the Arts whose leaders said they explored every possible alternative to closure prior to the announcement told the Middle States Commission on Higher Education it would close Friday. Commentary: Biden's remarks on China flout basic facts Xinhua) 13:11, June 07, 2024 BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- When U.S. President Joe Biden suggested recently that China's economy is on the brink, he appeared to overlook the fact that his previous "ticking-time-bomb" characterization from August last year had fizzled, given the persistent improvement in the world's second-largest economy. In a recent interview with the TIME magazine, the U.S. president conveyed his opinions on China in a sarcastic tone. He accused China of xenophobia and disparaged the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). All of these negative remarks blatantly disregard basic facts and serve as rhetoric aimed at belittling others to elevate oneself and garnering support from the voters. Last year, China achieved an annual economic growth rate of 5.2 percent, surpassing other major economies. In the first quarter of this year, the Chinese economy grew by 5.3 percent year on year, contrasting sharply with the U.S. annual rate of 1.3 percent during the same period. In late May, the International Monetary Fund raised its projection for China's 2024 growth from 4.6 percent to 5 percent. With China advancing new quality productive forces and planning major reform measures, more vitality will be unleashed to sustain the economy's high-quality growth. So, where is this supposed brink? Xenophobia should not be used to describe contemporary China. The country's economic success can be attributed in part to its opening-up policy over the past decades. China remains committed to broadening its global engagement, aiming for mutual development by reducing restrictions on international firms, fostering a law-based international business environment, and encouraging domestic companies to expand overseas. China's actions align with its words. It continues to enhance high-level openness in industry and information technology, introducing measures to eliminate restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector and piloting initiatives to further open up in value-added telecommunications services. In the January-March period, China granted over 1.98 million foreign travelers visa-free entry, up 266.1 percent year on year. In the first four months, the tally of newly established foreign-funded companies surged by 19.2 percent year on year to reach 16,805. In late May, Tesla commenced construction on a large-scale factory in Shanghai aimed at producing its energy-storage batteries, known as Megapacks, a development lauded by the company as a significant "milestone." In light of such trends, the question arises: If the Chinese are indeed xenophobic, how can one account for the notable growth in foreign investors and travelers flocking to China? As a matter of fact, it is the United States, not China, that is witnessing a surge in xenophobic sentiment. Issues deeply entrenched in exclusion and discrimination against immigrants, coupled with recent substantial tariff increases on imports of Chinese goods spanning from electric vehicles to medical equipment, serve as a testament to the escalating xenophobia, protectionism and isolationism within the United States. In his remarks on Belt and Road cooperation, Biden dismissed it as a "nuisance graveyard initiative." The BRI, pioneered by China, has spurred the development of ports, railways and industrial parks across partner nations, catalyzing substantial enhancements in local infrastructure and the generation of hundreds of thousands of employment opportunities. Through a plethora of flagship projects and meticulously designed people-centric programs, the initiative ushers in convenience and vitality on a global scale. The overwhelming participation of over 150 partner countries underscores the initiative's resonance and acclaim as a global public good. Amid this widespread acclaim, one may wonder: Where does the notion of "nuisance" emerge? What the U.S. president said exposes the true mindset of the United States. It is perhaps really a nuisance to the United States in the sense that it has facilitated the independent development of other nations, thereby potentially impacting traditional U.S. interests. In essence, the BRI boosts the ascendance of countries in the Global South, a development that the United States appears apprehensive about confronting. Actually, the reason for the president's intentional denigration of the BRI might be found in a congressional testimony by Daniel F. Runde, a senior vice president at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, on May 16. Admitting that the BRI is an ambitious and hopeful project that speaks to the aspirations of partner countries, Runde said the United States needs an alternative positive narrative as the BRI threatens to constrain "America's ability to project power." Employing the "China card" has become a common tactic for U.S. politicians seeking to garner votes during election cycles or divert attention from domestic issues. However, distorting facts to mislead the public and tarnish the reputation of others in international affairs is highly irresponsible, unethical and detrimental. In particular, such behavior is unbecoming of a major global power. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Zhong Wenxing) University of the Arts film student Danni Seidel holds a sign protesting the school's closure outside Hamilton Hall in Philadelphia on Thursday. Read more Hours before it was set to close its doors for good, the beleaguered University of the Arts was hit with another lawsuit Thursday this time from students who say the school breached its enrollment contracts, leaving them without degrees and short tens of thousands of dollars. The suit the first filed by students since the nearly 150-year-old institutions abrupt announcement last week that it would permanently shut down on Friday was brought on behalf of 14 plaintiffs and seeks class-action status to represent the universitys wider 1,300-member student body. Advertisement It came a day after two groups of faculty and staff separately filed their own suits against the school, alleging it failed to provide them sufficient notice that they would be imminently losing their jobs. The mounting list of legal claims is only likely to grow in the coming weeks as students, staff, accrediting institutions, state regulators, and City Council sort through the schools sudden, unexpected, and barely explained collapse. The closure of the university leaves students with great uncertainty about the future of their education and careers as well as severe financial hardship from having spent effort, time and money to attend the university and live in the Philadelphia area, Daniel C. Levin and Nicholas J. Elia, attorneys for the students, wrote in their complaint. University officials did not respond to requests for comment Thursday on the students lawsuit, continuing the silence theyve largely maintained for days. READ MORE: UArts said it was closing. Heres a day-by-day look at whats happened since. Most of the plaintiffs in the newest suit were pursuing masters degrees in performance arts. Many of them specifically moved to Philadelphia to pursue their studies at University of the Arts. And nearly all were enrolled in classes at the Pig Iron School, through a nearly decade-old partnership the university forged with the Olde Kensington theater company. Almost all, their attorneys said in court papers, had only one semester to finish before earning their degrees. Like all of the schools enrollees, they were caught off guard by the announcement last week of the schools imminent closure. Most of them learned of it through reading news articles. Each one remains frustrated by the lack of explanation from university administrators about what went wrong, Levin and Elia wrote. According to the attorneys, none of the plaintiffs has received what are known as teach-out plans from the school, assistance that universities that are closing are required to provide to help affected students transition to other institutions. READ MORE: UArts closure will be the subject of Philadelphia City Council hearings, as a Temple merger moves one step closer Their lawsuit asks a federal judge to award them full reimbursement of all tuition theyve paid since enrolling at University of the Arts as well as compensation for all expenses they incurred to attend the school, including money paid for textbooks, rent, moving costs, and student fees. Theyre also seeking punitive damages, alleging that University of the Arts which was accepting applications for enrollment up until last week deceived them by portraying itself as a financially and academically stable school. The consequences of the universitys poor financial position were foreseeable to university leadership, Levin and Elia wrote. Its lack of explanation [shows] that the university simply waited for this inevitable outcome until the last minute while failing to provide reasonable notice to students and faculty. The judge overseeing lawsuits against the university has not yet set a hearing in any of the cases. Susan Friedenberg, daughter, unveils the statue during the Bernie Friedenberg World War II Memorial unveiling and Dedication Ceremony at ODonnell Memorial Park in Atlantic City, N.J., on Thursday, June 6, 2024. Read more ATLANTIC CITY Bernie Friedenberg, an army medic who served on Omaha Beach on D-Day 1944, was honored in his hometown of Atlantic City with a bronze sculpture unveiled Thursday that depicts him cradling a wounded soldier in his arms. I am overwhelmed, said Susan Friedenberg, his daughter, who worked for the last six years with a committee of volunteers to raise funds and make the ODonnell Park memorial a reality. She put her hand to her heart after she loosened the purple draping to reveal the six-foot-high monument. Advertisement She recalled how her father fought to join the military. He quit Temple University on the day of the Pearl Harbor bombing and went home to enlist, initially being turned down by all three branches of the military. Jews all over the United States knew what was happening in Europe, and my father wanted to fight, she said. He drove the recruiters crazy at the Atlantic City Post Office, and they kept turning him down because of his vision. Finally, the Army took him for what it said would be limited service, ultimately training him as a medic. He attained the rank of staff sergeant, assigned to the Medical Detachment, 1st Battalion, 16th Regiment, 1st U.S. Infantry Division. Limited service. Right, Friedenberg said. Two Purple Hearts, two silver stars and two bronze medals later. The event was held on the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, France, when Allied troops from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Australia and Canada landed on five stretches of the German-occupied French coastline. The largest amphibious invasion in history, it laid the foundations for the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Friedenberg treated wounded soldiers on Omaha Beach. His daughter told how he encountered a wounded German soldier, and chose to treat him, telling him in Yiddish, Never forget a Jew saved you. In Atlantic City, about a dozen World War II veterans were among the hundreds who attended the ceremony, complete with a military flyover by the New Jersey National Guards 177th Fighter Wing, a cannon salute by the Last Salute Military Funeral Honor Guard, and posting of the colors. Friendenbergs rabbi, Rabbi Aaron Krauss, recited Kaddish, the Jewish prayer of mourning. Herb Stern 97, of Longport, a Navy veteran and a friend of Friedenbergs, called him a true hero. May Brill, 100, of Cherry Hill, a member of the original WAVES, the womens branch of the United States Naval Reserve during World War II, said the memorial was important to ensure that people remember the service of veterans. Families remember, she said. People dont remember. Friedenberg went on to open the Dusty Roads Bar and the Monarch Bar in Atlantic City, and two hotels, the Penn Crest and the Fiesta. He wrote a book called Of Being Numerous: World War II As I Saw It. The Philadelphia native died at age 96 in 2018. The monument is surrounded by a circular pavement known as the Cost of Freedom circle, which contains granite inlays, each of which summarizes a historic moment of U.S involvement in World War II. It is the work of Chad Fisher, of Fisher Studios, who first created a model of the memorial in his Dillburg, Pa., studio in 2020, and echoes Michelangelos famous Pieta sculpture. READ MORE: Will Atlantic City be home to a statue honoring WWII medic Bernie Friedenberg? Back in 2020, in the Fisher Studios, the model of Bernie Friedenberg sat right next to one of Allen Iverson. Yesterday, after more than four years in the making and lots of fits and starts including a last infusion of cash from the city of Atlantic City the full sculpture was revealed in its intended spot: ODonnell Park in Atlantic City, at Atlantic and Albany Avenues. Friedenberg recalled that her father never spoke about the war until he went to see Saving Private Ryan at the Tilton Theater in Northfield. My father was a very humble man, she said. I had no idea that Daddy was a hero. The makeup line Youthforia faced sharp criticism when its newest and darkest foundation was revealed to be seemingly pitch black. A month later, the brand made its first social media post since the backlash. Read more Black and brown beauty influencers are frustrated with a popular makeup company. For a month, theyve called for an apology. Instead, they found a new job listing. Youthforia, which launched in 2021, securing a deal on Shark Tank along with the loyalty of content creators across the internet, was criticized after unveiling its darkest foundation shade yet. Advertisement Date Night Skin Tint Serum Foundation in the shade 600 was created to reach customers with darker skin tones. But the resulting product seemed to be a solid black shade with no apparent overtones or undertones. The botched foundation was yet another example of beauty brands failure to reach a larger Black and brown audience. In turn, the foundation prompted a slew of product trials and teardowns from beauty influencers. Golloria George, a popular dark-skinned beauty influencer from Texas, posted a TikTok viewed over 38 million times comparing Youthforias foundation to a bottle of black acrylic paint. The two products appeared indistinguishable. [Its] literally jet black, George said. When we say that we want you guys to make shades for us ... what we mean is to take the browns you have made, create undertones, and do what you need to do in the lab so its a darker shade of brown. @golloria the darkest shade of the youthforia date night foundation. original sound - golloria George also pointed out that the brands next shade lighter shade 590 was a significantly lighter shade of brown with no range offered in between, while there were several variations for lighter skin tones. George did not respond to a request for comment as of publication time. Another Black beauty and lifestyle creator, Ayeyi Aboagye who goes by Ayeyi at Home called the foundation shades release actually asinine. It is so obvious to me that this brand released this shade begrudgingly as some sort of half-baked consolation prize, Aboagye said in her TikTok. Some TikTokers have even gone as far as using the foundation as a dye or paint in lieu of a makeup product. One TikToker used the foundation to dye her ballet pointe shoes black. Youthforia has remained largely silent about the criticism, save for a now-deleted video from the companys CEO, Fiona Co Chan. When I first started Youthforia two years ago, all I wanted to do was create a safe space where individual beauty could be celebrated, she said. And unfortunately with our latest launch, we just fell short of that mission. After Chan deleted her video, both she and Youthforia went dark on social media, avoiding new posts all May. The contentious foundation shade, 600 Deep, remains available for purchase. Some retailers, including Credo, Thirteen Lune, and Revolve have dropped Youthforia from shelves in response to the backlash. On Tuesday, the brand broke its silence, posting on TikTok for the first time since the debacle. The post contained a statement about Youthorias commitment to providing inclusive products and an announcement that it was hiring a new director of product development. You forgot the sorry part, one of the top comments said. According to the brands careers page, the new role will focus on inclusivity and creating diverse product lines. This role will be instrumental in ensuring our products cater to a wide range of skin tones and cultural preferences, the job listing said. The ideal candidate will have a deep understanding of product development processes, project management, regulatory requirements, and marketing strategies, coupled with a strong commitment to DEI principles. Youthforia did not respond to a request for comment as of publication time. By Thursday, the TikTok announcing the job had been viewed hundreds of thousands of times and was filled with comments calling the company out for its large delay in response and the lack of an apology. A New York City police officer has been charged in a May road-rage incident in Camden County in which he allegedly shot a man following a multi-vehicle crash. Hieu Tran, 27, of Yonkers, was arrested in New York Thursday and charged with attempted murder and other offenses in connection with the incident, authorities said Friday. Advertisement Trans arrest comes following an apparent road rage incident May 17. Just after 11 p.m., Voorhees Township police responded to a crash at the intersection of Route 73 and Cooper Road. They arrived to find a driver, a 30-year-old Voorhees man, suffering from a gunshot wound. The man was taken to Cooper University Hospital in Camden, where he remains in treatment, authorities said. Detectives used surveillance video, cell phone records, and ballistics evidence to identify Tran as the alleged shooter. Investigators allege that Tran used his department-issued firearm in the shooting. Tran joined the NYPD in 2021, working in its press office, public records indicate. He was suspended without pay following his arrest, a department spokesperson said. Tran is being held in New York as he awaits extradition to New Jersey, the Camden County Prosecutors Office said. A Philadelphia judge has substantially reduced a $2.25 billion verdict against agricultural giant Monsanto, ruling that a Pennsylvania man who contended he developed cancer from the companys weed killer Roundup ought to receive $400 million. Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Susan Schulmans ruling comes following a Philadelphia jurys January verdict in favor of John McKivison, of Lycoming County, who used Roundup to control weeds at his home for about two decades. Exposure to Roundup, McKivison claimed, caused him to later develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer. Advertisement The jury found in favor of McKivison, and ordered Monsanto to pay $250 million in compensatory damages and $2 billion in punitive damages. Now, Schulmans ruling has reduced that penalty by more than 80%, to $50 million in compensatory damages and $350 million in punitive damages. McKivisons attorneys, Tom Kline of Kline & Specter in Philadelphia and Jason Itkin of Houston-based Arnold & Itkin, said they will appeal the reduction ruling. We are pleased that the trial judge, like many other judges, overruled all of Monsantos attempts to derail the message behind the jurys verdict namely, that Roundup causes cancer, Kline and Itkin said in a statement. However, we also believe the reduction of the amount of the jurys verdict is a clear departure from established Pennsylvania law that we plan to address in an appeal seeking reinstatement of the jurys full damage award to compensate John McKivison and deter Monsantos unapologetic behavior for selling its carcinogenic product to unsuspecting consumers. Following the January verdict, German pharmaceutical giant Bayer, Monsantos parent company, said it would appeal, calling the $2.25 billion award unconstitutionally excessive. Now, with the award reduced, Monsanto said it plans to further appeal the verdict to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. While the courts decision reduces the unconstitutionally excessive damage award, we still disagree with the ruling on the liability verdict, as the trial was marred by significant and reversible errors that misled and inflamed the jury, the company said in a statement. Monsanto and Bayer have been sued thousands of times in cases linking Roundup to cancer. At issue in the cases is the chemical glyphosate, Roundups active ingredient, which has become one of the worlds most widely used herbicides. Despite concerns that the chemical may cause cancer, world health agencies have not come to a consensus on glyphosates carcinogenic properties. Monsanto said in its statement that it stands behind Roundup, and contended that scientific research and assessments support the safety of glyphosate-based products. It is clear that when trials focus on the science and regulatory consensus, the company prevails at trial, the company said, adding that it has resolved the overwhelming majority of claims in this litigation. Among cases with favorable outcomes for Monsanto was one Philadelphia case in March in which a Lansdale man alleged that Roundup caused his cancer. That cases jury voted unanimously in Monsantos favor. A colonial period tour guide walks with students along South Sixth Street near the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. Read more Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter Happy Friday. Itll be another mostly sunny day with high temps in the mid-80s. 2026 is set to be a big year for Philadelphia. Yet Independence National Historical Park, the center of the citys historic district, is woefully behind in preparations for the U.S. semiquincentennial and in grave need of resources, stakeholders say. Can a new cultural coalition fix the problem? Advertisement And in University of the Arts final days, student and faculty artists shared their illustrations, photos, and words to convey their feelings about the abrupt closure. Find these stories and many more below. Julie Zeglen (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com) If someone forwarded you this email, sign up for free here. When Philly is in the international spotlight two years from now, will it looks its best? The United States will celebrate its 250th birthday in 2026. Stakeholders say Independence National Historical Park should be a cornerstone of the celebration. But long-standing funding woes are keeping much-needed improvements from getting done not only for the semiquincentennial, but for everyday visitors. The park has a nearly $200 million backlog of deferred maintenance. An advocacy group called United for Independence has formed to generate awareness of the parks needs. Kathryn Ott Lovell, head of the Philadelphia Visitor Center Corporation and a member of the new coalition, hopes a rejuvenated park would bring more hometown pride to Philadelphians. We talk as a country about democracy being under attack, but thats theoretical, Ott Lovell told The Inquirer. This is physically the birthplace of democracy and its not being cared for in the best way that it can be. Read columnist Stephanie Farrs take on the urgent, yet ongoing challenges facing Independence Park. P.S. On a lighter note, youll also want to check out Farrs column on a choral hymn about Gritty (who else?) that premieres this weekend. Today is the University of the Arts final day, an idea that would have been unthinkable a mere week ago. Since last Fridays sudden closure announcement so sudden, City Council called for hearings into how things collapsed so quickly community response has been swift. Even as they mourned the nearly 150-year-old institution, students and staffers took action by suing the school for various alleged breaches. Student artists questioned what would become of their degrees, as well as what would happen to their pieces housed at the school, including one giant, metal goat. In the meantime, they made art. The Inquirer asked faculty and students to share their work and words to illustrate how they feel about UArts end. Several expressed fear, uncertainty, anger, and sadness. But they also said they feel hopeful that creativity and community will persist. Watch Inquirer.com throughout the weekend for the latest coverage on UArts last day. What you should know today Welcome back to Curious Philly Friday. Well feature both new and timeless stories from our forum for readers to ask about the citys quirks. This week, were resurfacing an explainer from December on Philadelphia street nomenclature. Reader John Chivers wanted to know why avenue numbers in Philadelphia start at 64th. Why 63rd Street, not 63rd Avenue? Or First Avenue, for that matter? It turns out, no one really knows not the city, not the Free Library, not the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. But reporter Michelle Myers did unearth some cool history about how other streets got their names. Heres the full explanation. Have your own burning question about Philadelphia, its local oddities, or how the region works? Submit it here and you might find the answer featured in this space. Trivia time About how many lifeguards does the city need to hire in order to open all 60 public pools this summer? A) 60 B) 100 C) 400 D) 1,000 Think you know? Check your answer. What were... Planning for: This weekends Odunde Festival celebrating African culture. Not moving: Our cars (because we dont have to) before the city deep cleans our block. Wishing: We could eat like the Phillies do, courtesy of their team chef. Unscramble the anagram The beloved monster currently auditioning to become a Buckingham Palace guard. ANA PITCH Email us if you know the answer. Well select a reader at random to shout out here. Cheers to Susan Spencer, who solved Thursdays anagram: London, where the Phillies are playing this weekend. This U.K. superfan is thrilled but these Philly fans who can no longer make the trip are not. (And yes, this is a big, green hint for todays anagram.) Photo of the day Enjoy your weekend! Ill be back in your inbox on Monday. By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirers Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10. University of the Arts students gather on campus Thursday, protesting the closure of their school. Read more Becoming an artist isnt a straight line. For me, it wasnt even a single art school. It was a single city. Advertisement Until this spring, Philadelphia offered, and I have, over the years, attended, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia College of Art (as the University of the Arts was known for much of its life), Moore College of Art, and the Fleisher Art Memorial. Now, one of them PAFA finds itself on precarious financial footing, and another UArts, the former PCA announced last week that it would be closing Friday. Like so many others in Philadelphias arts community, I ache over the challenges these institutions face. But, mostly, I feel for the students who will not have the benefit of the life-changing programs now on the chopping block, and for their teachers whose dedication animated those programs. I cant help but reflect on the vital role so many of their predecessors played in my own artistic growth. My extensive sampling of Philadelphias art schools began in my suburban high school, when our art project was to cut out flowers in magazines, tape them down in an arrangement, and then trace them onto a surface we could then paint. Voila! Art. Not amused, my mother enrolled me at Moore College of Art Saturday classes for high schoolers. We used real art materials on real easels. No clipping and tracing. My eyes were opened to a new world of real art (and being able to hit Sansom Street on the way back to the train). Recently, Ive hired three terrific Moore grads to help organize an archive of my drawings and cartoons. Returning from my art-desert college, I got back into art at Philadelphia College of Art evening classes. I still have an egg tempera painting from a magical class taught by John Grauer. Now, decades later, a PCA grad and great designer helps me untangle my fraught relations with Photoshop when preparing cartoons for print. After PCA, I enrolled part-time at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where teachers followed in the footsteps of artists like Thomas Eakins and Cecilia Beaux. Instructors, themselves practicing artists, helped me learn to really look at what I wanted to draw and paint. Robert Beverly Hale, the late artist and art curator, who was nearly 80 at the time, would train down from New York City to teach anatomy by quoting Leadbelly and drawing with a long stick topped with charcoal to impress on us that being able to render a hand that supple, always in motion appendage at the end of our arms can express as much as a face. My interest in graphic art bloomed in PAFAs lithography and etching classes, then located in a building on Chestnut Street. PAFA did not, thankfully, have a cartooning department, but the basics PAFA taught are applicable to all sorts of art and design. My etchings began to express my political opinions, one winning a nod at the annual student show. In the last few years, Ive been taking classes at the Fleisher Art Memorial, which is not a degree-granting institution but offers classes in everything from oil painting to ceramics to jewelry and photography. Classes are taught by working artists including PAFA, PCA, and UArts grads. Their childrens programs have produced artists like Allan Edmunds, who went on to found South Broad Streets Brandywine Workshop, and Tariq Black Thought Trotter, who cofounded the hip-hop group The Roots. Their remarks at Fleishers fundraising dinner last fall were brimming with love and gratitude for how Fleisher opened their eyes to the wider world of art. Fleisher continues to be a community treasure where many PCA, PAFA, and UArts alumni teach. Drexels Westphal College of Media Arts and Design and Temples Tyler School of Art and Architecture offer really good art programs. And Moore is thriving according to the colleges president, Cathy Young, this is the schools 23rd year running an operating budget surplus, their applications rose 12% over last year, and 97% of their students find employment within a year of graduation. Perhaps its time to send the leadership of PAFA and UArts to one of Philadelphias really good business schools. Signe Wilkinson, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, spent 35 years as an editorial cartoonist at The Inquirer and the Daily News. She will speak on June 11 at 6 p.m. at the opening of the Pennsylvania Historical Societys exhibit Cartoons as Political Speech in Colonial America, which includes some of her cartoons. To me, the sudden news on May 31 that the University of the Arts would close within the week felt like a death in the family. I taught writing and film at UArts for 15 years. I was a student in the renowned Saturday School as a teenager and worked at the college as an artists model while a student at Temple. My late wife, artist Maddy Gold, was an undergraduate at the school when it was still known as the Philadelphia College of Art, and then began teaching there while she was a graduate student at the Pratt Institute. Advertisement Maddy taught at UArts for 35 years. Her father, World War II combat artist and renowned social realist painter and illustrator Albert Gold, headed the illustration department for nearly 40 years. My mother-in-law, painter Aurora Gold, met Albert as a student at the college their love story at the school preceded Maddys and mine. Aurora also taught there for nearly 20 years. My brother-in-law, composer and pianist Bob Gold, got his masters in music education from UArts. The University of the Arts was such a part of Maddys and my life that our wedding rings feature a carving of that famous Hamilton Hall facade. Our wedding rings feature a carving of that famous Hamilton Hall facade. When we were high school sweethearts, we would steal kisses in the studios in the basement of Hamilton Hall, the smell of modeling clay and linseed oil all around us. There was nowhere in Center City Maddy and I went where we didnt run into one of her UArts students. One night after midnight Mass on Christmas Eve at St. Marks Church at 16th and Locust, we walked to Rittenhouse Square. It was snowing lightly and the scene was pure Currier and Ives. As we leaned in for the first kiss of Christmas, we heard, through the muffled snowy quiet, Ms. Gold! Maddy Gold! One of her students ran up to us in the park, wishing her a Merry Christmas. For so many years, UArts was the locus of our lives. We spent New Years Day standing on Hamilton Halls steps watching the Mummers Parade in our teens and college years. Faculty art shows, film festivals, student events, holiday parties, graduations on our calendar, UArts was always present. Because more than anything, UArts was a community, a small liberal arts college in a big city that catered to the fine and performing arts. Its students were immensely talented and eager to be part of that camaraderie and closeness one rarely associates with big-city schools. That tight-knit, artistic community cannot be replicated elsewhere. It was distinct to UArts. Sometimes in my writing classes, we could hear music students performing. UArts had the atmosphere of a small New England college in a big city where music students could leave their classes and head to the jazz clubs on the Avenue of the Arts, or theater students could get cheap seats at the Wilma or the Merriam. UArts was a center for Phillys independent film scene and festival circuit. So many artists and entertainers began their careers at that school, and we all felt the light of promise emanating from it. I loved teaching at UArts the students, the school. I loved sharing a connection with both my wife and in-laws. READ MORE: My wife loved the Eagles. On Sunday, Ill turn Maddys picture to face the TV. | Opinion We all knew there were issues with enrollment and funding even before the pandemic. Maddy left in 2012 and went to teach at Drexel after the school shut down the department in which shed taught for over three decades. Still, none of us were prepared for the abrupt announcement that it would close entirely. The subsequent days brought little clarity. The administration announced a meeting with students, faculty, and media for late Monday afternoon, but canceled it minutes before it was scheduled to begin, with only a cursory statement that it wasnt possible to address the issues and the university simply had no option but to close. The schools president, Kerry Walk, resigned on Tuesday, wreaking further havoc by causing the cancellation of a bargaining session on the terms of the closure, leaving faculty and staff in limbo over payments, benefits, and severance. On Wednesday, the faculty filed lawsuits against the school. What a mess. And a totally avoidable one. When the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts announced it was closing at the end of the 2024-25 school year back in January, it provided a plan in which juniors, seniors, and Master of Fine Arts students on track to graduate in 2024 or 2025 would still be able to do so. Why didnt current UArts students get this level of respect? And what about incoming first years, now high schoolers from all over the country, who had chosen UArts as their college? What about them? Imagine how this news hit them their sense of loss and betrayal. Where will they go now? Where will current students go now? While Temple has said it is exploring a merger, Temple is a vast campus of more than 30,000 students, hardly that compact campus Maddy and I taught at where everyone knew everyone. Not the campus that angry, wounded community members have been protesting over outside Hamilton Hall since the news of the closing first hit. Im angry that so little care was given to that community Maddy and I were so deeply invested in for so many years. I cant imagine how painful this would be for my wife to witness, and how devastated she would be for our friends and for the students. The UArts community both past and present deserved better than last week. Most importantly, we deserve a chance to keep the doors open. We deserve, somehow, to let the legacy continue. Victoria A. Brownworth is a local writer and reporter. She is the recipient of the 2023 Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for Journalist of the Year from NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists and the 2023 Curve Foundation Award for Excellence in Lesbian Coverage. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right? I cant sugarcoat it anymore. Thats pretty much what I hear from my legion of right-wing trolls every time I post a new column link on X/Twitter, but this time the words didnt come from @ben94756387 from St. Petersburg. Instead, this was uttered by Will Lewis, the controversial Brit whom one of Earths richest men, Jeff Bezos, brought in as publisher of his Washington Post the storied newspaper whose investigative journalism brought down a president and became the stuff of Hollywood legend. Advertisement Lewis blunt lecture in announcing a radical shake-up at the Post to a room of unhappy journalists was kind of obnoxious (he also implied Americans are too dumb to know what penultimate means), but it wasnt wrong. A decade after the owner who made Amazon into the 800-pound gorilla of American capitalism took his talents inside the Beltway, Bezos Post reportedly lost a whopping $77 million last year. Just as Lewis said, the Post has lost about half its once-sizable digital readership since 2020, undoing a temporary surge during Donald Trumps nightmare presidency. The radical shake-up Lewis announced for the Post was highlighted by a so-called third newsroom, tasked with finding ways to reach the millions of Americans, and especially young people, who get most of their information from social media sites like TikTok, if they get any information at all. But it had the feel of a Hail Mary pass in an annus horribilis for the American news media that began with a wave of layoffs, buyouts, and more closures. (My own newsroom at The Inquirer has, sadly, not been immune.) So, have we now hit rock bottom? Not even close. As we begin a new hurricane season, the American news media is like a Shore house thats been battered by the 100 mph winds of digital change and is about to get totally swamped by a storm surge known as artificial intelligence, or AI. Last month, with some fanfare in the tech world but less attention among everyday consumers, the world-dominant search engine Google introduced a change in which a growing number of online searches are prompting Google AI-generated answers, overpowering links to traditional publishers like the Post, The Inquirer, or Yahoo News. Website traffic will heavily suffer, financier Cloris Chen recently told the Observer, which cited media industry studies that web traffic from search could plunge an astronomical 90%. Remember, this would come on top of the 2020s drop in readership cited by the Post and other news organizations. When the internet took off in the late 1990s, there was a popular saying: Content is king. Although newsroom leaders were caught flat-footed by this newfangled World Wide Web, there was also a sense that Yahoo, Google, Facebook, and Twitter needed something, written by journalists and their non-artificial intelligence, to actually link to. This delicate and often awkward dance lasted for 25 years until it ended with a body slam. When the music stops, Google is a capitalist corporation that makes more money keeping readers on its site, exposed to its advertisers, than by sending them to someone else. And its Gemini AI tool has given it the means to do exactly that. The same holds for Facebook, which also changed its algorithms and deemphasized news links last year after the platform signaled that its relationship with journalism in a world of growing disinformation wasnt worth the headache. Ditto for Elon Musks X, formerly Twitter: The site encourages paid users to write longer posts so you wont leave it. I cant sugarcoat it: American newsrooms are staring into the darkness of a death spiral. These are the same newsrooms that hire human journalists who investigate why your new mayor pays her top aides so much, keep an eye on how City Hall and the cops are treating the powerless, and wonder why your bus terminal is a mess. The free press our founders enshrined in the Bill of Rights might be experiencing its penultimate moment, if you know what I mean. The one newsroom that apparently made a big profit last year was the Epoch Times and that was through an allegedly criminal money laundering scheme. A perfect storm happens for more than one reason. For one thing, even before the Google AI and Facebook crises, traditional journalism still under the sway of newsroom leaders who came up with a (supposedly) objective, voice-of-God tone that was empowered by newspapers 20th-century monopoly seems ill-suited to a 21st century in which young people clamor for the visual vibe of Instagram and rapid-fire, highly opinionated world of TikTok. In the fast-food nation of todays social media, a legacy publisher can taste like kale. This inherent culture clash makes me dubious that Lewis youth-oriented third newsroom at the Post can succeed. The other problem is that, in a nearly impossible environment, newsroom leadership would have to hold an almost perfect vision for steering through the immediate crisis and imagining a brighter future. And the current crop of top editors feels like anything but. Exhibit A is the New York Times, which has used its (ironically) Amazon-like grip as the category killer of U.S. journalism to actually grow its digital audience, but serves this mass audience an unappealing gruel of forced objectivity in which Trump can be portrayed as a hypermasculine outlaw, and not the would-be dictator who might prosecute the Times top editors if elected in November. So far, the one new idea in 2024 has been to import a lot of top British white guy journalists: the Post publisher Lewis and his new top editor from the U.K.s right-wing Telegraph, scandalized by phone hacking and paying sources, as well as new English leaders at the Daily Beast, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, and even CNN. The British Invasion of 1964 the Beatles, the Stones, the Animals was awesome, but this 2024 version feels off-key. I suspect these newer boy bands of editors will be just as befuddled by TikTok as the Americans they replaced but with a more posh-sounding accent. At least theyll bring a better understanding of monarchy to U.S. newsrooms after Jan. 20, 2025. READ MORE: Biden losing with voters who get their news from nowhere | Will Bunch Newsletter Many praised, and some mocked, the Posts post-Trump motto, Democracy dies in darkness. In this years election season, American liberty and the light of journalism are fast fading in tandem. The medias implosion is creating a vacuum to be filled by a growing pool of disinformation some of it for profit, like Fox News and the rural umbrella of talk radio, and some of it foreign propaganda by Russia or Iran or even Israel and the rest by the utter disinterest of millions. The reason the United States might be on the brink of electing a 34-times convicted felon as its 47th president is that the felon is getting 53% of the vote from those who admit they dont follow political news. You dont need to be a data scientist to connect the dots between the readership plunge for traditional journalism, Trumps sustained popularity, and some stunning recent statistics, like the 17% of voters who blame the pro-abortion-rights President Joe Biden for overturning Roe v. Wade, or the 49% who believe U.S. unemployment is at a 50-year high when its at a 50-year low. Many voters arent afraid of looming autocracy because 76% of Americans know little or nothing about Project 2025, the far-rights 900-page blueprint for a Trump dictatorship. If there was an easy solution beyond calling London, wed be seeing it already. You wont be shocked to learn that Googles rollout of AI search results has encountered glitches including some wildly wrong answers called hallucinations and maybe that will give large publishers and Silicon Valley some time to hash things out in court. Especially when one considers that AI search results are based on decades of actual, copyrighted labor by human journalists. Theres a potential role here for government, either in legislation that might address the current power imbalance between Big Tech and traditional publishers, or even in the radical solution of government subsidies for media which is a bad idea, but not as bad an idea as having no real news media at all. But how likely is political intervention when one of Americas two major parties already considers journalists the enemies of the people? Indeed, the desire for uninformed voters seems to be the common cause that unites the Republican Party and the Silicon Valley billionaires it showers with tax cuts. I cant imagine a more dystopian future than the one that Google head of search Elizabeth Reid touted in rolling out AI search results with a slide reading, Google will do the brainstorming in an America where the actual brains of voters become a vestigial organ. Does democracy really die in darkness? Were about to find out, very soon. READ MORE: SIGN UP: The Will Bunch Newsletter Congressman Byron Donalds smokes a cigar during Congress, Cognac and Cigars at The Cigar Code in Philadelphia on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. Read more In his struggle to fend off the furor he caused after suggesting Black families were stronger under Jim Crow segregation at an event in Philadelphia aimed at helping the GOP reach Black voters, a frustrated U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds (R., Fla.) told CNN Wednesday: Lets agree on something: I am, you know, obviously, one of the better communicators in the Republican Party. Advertisement Others many others, it turns out appear to disagree. READ MORE: Rep. Byron Donalds draws backlash for expressing nostalgia for Jim Crow era during Philly event The backlash against Donalds, whose comments were first reported by The Inquirer on Tuesday night, has been swift and relentless. So fierce is the vitriol, in fact, that a spokesperson for former President Donald Trump said Thursday, Please make it clear: This was not said at an official Trump event. Donalds has been named as a potential running mate for Trump as he searches for a vice presidential candidate that would help him increase his popularity at the polls in November. Here is what to know about a moment in politics that began in a Philly cigar bar, made it to the floor of Congress, and could reshape Trumps run for the White House. Just what did U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds say in Philly? Donalds referenced the Jim Crow era of racial segregation and disenfranchisement during an event in Philadelphia on Tuesday. He said this: You see, during Jim Crow, the Black family was together. During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative Black people have always been conservative-minded but more Black people voted conservatively. And then H.E.W., Lyndon Johnson you go down that road, and now we are where we are. Donalds was referring to President Lyndon Johnsons Great Society programs, which expanded social services and aid programs for low-income Americans. Many of those programs were implemented by the former U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, or H.E.W. Johnson introduced this legislation on the heels of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which overturned the Jim Crow-era caste system that enabled African Americans to remain unequal, second-class citizens after slavery was abolished. The comments, first reported by The Inquirer on Tuesday night, came during a Congress, Cognac, and Cigars event featuring Donalds and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt (R., Texas). Both men are conservative Black Republicans, and the event was the first in a series aimed at helping the GOP reach Black voters and promote former President Donald Trumps campaign to retake the White House. Listen here: What are people saying? On the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York did not hold back: Thats an outlandish, outrageous and out-of-pocket observation, referencing the oppression of the Jim Crow era in the South, running from the 1877 to the mid-1960s. How dare you make such an ignorant observation? You better check yourself before you wreck yourself. Sarafina Chitika, a spokeswoman for Mr. Bidens campaign, was no less assertive, telling the New York Times: Donald Trump spent his adult life, and then his presidency, undermining the progress Black communities fought so hard for so it actually tracks that his campaigns Black outreach is going to a white neighborhood and promising to take America back to Jim Crow. In a statement to The Inquirer on Thursday, Brian Hughes, Trump campaign senior adviser, took the president to task: The Biden campaign is arguing that a Black member of Congress talking to a Black audience about Black history needs lessons from the campaign of an 81-year-old feeble white man who said to Black voters if they dont vote for him you aint Black. This kind of hypocrisy is why record numbers of Black voters are supporting President Trump. As it happens, Biden himself was once connected to a Jim Crow reference, according to the Rutgers Eagleton Institute of Politics. In 2019, Trump surrogates wrote in a fundraising email that Jim Crow Joe had not done enough for the Black community in his nearly 50 years of public service. In a tweet, Rep. Gregory Meeks, a Democrat from New York, wrote, This is ignorant. The Jim Crow era inflicted deep wounds on Black families through segregation laws, economic disenfranchisement and violence. Our country is still reeling from this stain in American history. Rebuking Donalds along with others in his party, the Congressional Black Caucus also weighed in on Wednesday: This is a pattern of embracing racist ideologies that we see time and again within the MAGA Republican Party. Donalds remarks were shameful and beneath the dignity of a member of the House of Representatives. He should immediately offer an apology to Black Americans for misrepresenting one of the darkest chapters in our history for his own political gain. Who is U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds? Long connected to conservative causes, Donalds, 45, was once accused by Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) of being a prop who supports white supremacy. He vehemently denied the charge. Donalds endorsed Trumps false claim that the 2020 presidential election was illegitimate, voting to reject state-certified results from Arizona and Pennsylvania. He is close with controversial Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and has opposed gun control and the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. During a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago last month, Trump said Donalds had something very special out there politically and the Florida lawmaker continues to be floated as a potential contender for vice president. Hes married to Erika Donalds, a conservative education activist. Both she and her husband, according to the New York Times, have deep ties to right-wing groups such as Moms for Liberty, which has done significant advocacy work in the Philadelphia suburbs to elect conservative school board candidates, ban books that they said indoctrinate children with liberal ideas, and fight masking mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moms for Liberty held its national convention in Philadelphia last spring featuring Trump, who made his 2024 pitch for the White House there and attracted hundreds of protesters. They are also linked to Hillsdale College, which has been a source of curriculum embraced by conservative activists, including in the Philadelphia suburbs. Whats Jim Crow and how is it currently viewed? Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system that operated primarily, but not exclusively, in southern and border states, between 1877 and the mid-1960s, according to the Jim Crow Museum of Racist History in Big Rapids, Mich. Jim Crow, the legitimization of anti-Black racism, was more than a series of rigid anti-black laws it was a way of life, according to the museum. Many Christian ministers taught that white people were the Chosen people, Black people were cursed to be servants, and God supported racial segregation. Marriage historian Stephanie Coontz, author of The Way We Never Were: American Families And The Nostalgia Trap, said in an interview with The Inquirer on Thursday that marriage was given a magical quality it never had during Jim Crow. Under the stress and adversity of Jim Crow, just being married did not save Black people from the extraordinary difficulties of the day. Lynchings, the murders of children, humiliating attacks on successful Black people who had their possessions stolen, and white repression all marked the time, said Coontz, director of research at the Council on Contemporary Families. Asked her view on Donalds statement, she concluded, Its insane to think Jim Crow was a better time from people just because Black people had high rates of marriage. Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and City Council President Kenyatta Johnson during a news conference about the city budget on Thursday at City Hall. Read more Many Philadelphia property owners will see higher real estate tax bills next year despite the new city budget containing no tax rate increases. Thats because the city is resuming property reassessments, which were paused in the final year of Mayor Jim Kenneys administration. The new valuations will capture two years of growth and are likely to increase steeply in neighborhoods with strong real estate markets. Advertisement READ MORE: Phillys next city budget will fund University City affordable housing, library upgrades, and Mural Arts The Office of Property Assessment was supposed to have published the new assessments by the time first-year Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and City Council reached a budget deal early Thursday morning. Instead, lawmakers gave preliminary approval to the budget based on estimates for the real estate tax, which is levied at 1.3998% of a propertys assessed value. The new valuations will be available by the end of the month, Finance Director Rob Dubow said Thursday. Those values will be used to calculate property tax bills due by March 31. Parkers administration in March estimated that revenue from residential properties will increase 8% while staying flat for commercial properties, due in part to uncertain valuations for office buildings amid the work-from-home era. That would produce $877 million in revenue during the budget year that begins July 1. Its possible valuations will come in even higher, as the city bases assessments on the amount for which a home could sell. To help offset tax increases for homeowners, Parker and Council agreed this week to approve two new property tax relief measures for homeowners. Heres what to know about the options that will be newly available to homeowners: The homestead exemption is expanding What it is: The homestead exemption allows for Philadelphians who own their homes to reduce the value of their assessments when calculating tax bills. The exemption is increasing from $80,000 to $100,000. That means that if your home is assessed at $200,000 this year, you will only be taxed based on a value of $100,000 if you apply for and are granted the homestead exemption. Homeowners whose houses are worth less than $100,000 will owe no taxes, and those whose properties are valued above $100,000 will save an additional $280 on their property tax bills. Thats on top of the about $1,000 homeowners already save with the existing $80,000 exemption. Who qualifies: Anyone who owns the home they live in. There are no income requirements, and people who owe back taxes or mortgage payments can still apply. How to get it: Homeowners can apply online, through the mail, or by phone at (215) 686-9200. You can find detailed instructions on how to apply here. The deadline is Dec. 1 each year. If you already have the homestead exemption, you dont need to reapply to take advantage of its increase. The impact to the city budget: The expansion of the exemption will cost the city about $21 million this year, according to Dubow. READ MORE: Thousands of Philly homeowners lose millions in tax relief each year. Are you one of them? Low-income homeowners will be able to freeze their bill What it is: Philadelphia already allows low-income seniors to freeze their tax bills as a result of hikes in their assessments or a tax rate increase. Now, under legislation approved Thursday by Council and supported by the mayor, that opportunity will be available to about 60,000 more low-income Philadelphians. The legislation, authored by Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, was made possible because the Pennsylvania General Assembly this year passed legislation by State Rep. Jared Solomon (D., Philadelphia) allowing municipalities to enact property tax freezes for low-income homeowners. Who qualifies: Individuals who make less than $33,500 per year and married couples who combined make less than $41,500. Those cutoffs are based on state law, which defines low income as the current maximum allowable income for the state PACENET pharmaceutical assistance program. The state can adjust the range based on economic factors, meaning eligibility for the tax freeze could change over time. How to get it: Residents arent yet able to sign up for the relief, but they will likely be able to do so by applying with the city. Seniors can currently apply for the tax freeze by filling out a form online or mailing one in. The impact to the city budget: The tax freeze program is projected to cost the city about $2 million this year, a number that is expected to rise annually as more people sign up, Dubow said. Estimates suggest the program would result in at least $39 million in lost revenue over five years, about half of which would have gone to the School District of Philadelphia. Parker said Thursday her administration advocated for setting aside $1 million to fund a public service announcement program that ensures people know about the tax relief options available to them. Nelson went on to comment: Its vital that cyber insurers give brokers the tools they need to provide their clients with a realistic picture of the risks they face and the costs they may face in the event of an attack. Were committed to supporting our brokers and will continue to develop more sales aids over the coming months. "The new study by Alimonti and Mariani vindicates what we said in a GWPF report three years agoclimate-related disasters are not on the rise, despite global warming. Claims to the contrary have been made for years by several international agencies. Yet, these agencies failed to recognize that the apparent increase in natural disasters since the 1970s simply reflects a major increase in disaster reporting due to new technology, said Dr. Ralph Alexander, who is an expert critique of erroneous climate disaster claims. Joining forces with ALKEME is a significant milestone for InsurePro, said Torry Wilcox, president of InsurePro. With ALKEMEs extensive resources and national reach, we are excited to expand our footprint and enhance our service offerings to better meet the needs of our clients. This partnership will allow us to continue our tradition of excellence while exploring new growth opportunities. The lower courts had dismissed Truck's objections, asserting the plan was "insurance neutral" and did not alter Trucks pre-bankruptcy obligations or rights. However, the Supreme Court found this approach flawed, noting that Section 1109(b) is intended to identify who has the right to participate based on potential impact, not on the specifics of the plan's merits. We are thrilled to welcome April to the North American leadership team, he said. April brings a wealth of knowledge across operations, deep expertise and proven leadership -- invaluable assets to support the business as we embark on the next chapter of our growth story. We are also excited to have filled this position from our existing talent. Arrowhead is highly regarded in the industry for its superior underwriting standards and specialized E&S insurance capabilities. Together, we are proud to bring a novel solution focused on risk quality to the market that meets the growing need for capacity. This is the foundation of a meaningful relationship with natural synergies, and we are looking forward to our mutually valuable partnership with Arrowhead, Ingrey said. Former Manhattan prosecutor Linda Fairstein and Netflix announced Tuesday theyve settled the defamation lawsuit she filed four years ago over her portrayal in the streaming services miniseries about the five Black and Latino teenagers known as the now-exonerated Central Park Five. Fairstein had argued that the 2019 four-part series When They See Us defamed her by portraying her as a racist, unethical villain and attributed actions, responsibilities and viewpoints that were not hers. The case was expected to go to trial later this month. Fairstein said in a statement that the decision to conclude this fight was not an easy one, expressing confidence she would have presented a compelling case to the jury. While Fairstein will not receive any money as part of the settlement, Netflix has agreed to donate $1 million to the Innocence Project, a nonprofit that works to exonerate people whove been wrongly convicted. Viewers of the series will also now see a disclaimer that states, While the motion picture is inspired by actual events and persons, certain characters, incidents, locations, dialogue, and names are fictionalized for the purposes of dramatization. This is what this case was all about not about winning or about any financial restitution, but about my reputation and that of my colleagues, she said in a statement. It was about setting the historical record straight that the villainous caricature invented by the defendants and portrayed on screen was not me. Fairstein was the top Manhattan sex crimes prosecutor in 1989 when the five teenagers were charged with a vicious attack on a jogger in Central Park. The convictions were overturned in 2002 after convicted murderer and serial rapist Matias Reyes confessed to committing the crime alone. DNA linked him to it. Fairstein, who became a best-selling crime author after retiring from the Manhattan district attorneys office, observed the boys interrogation but didnt personally try the case. She was dropped by her publisher and resigned from several boards she served on after When They See Us, which dramatizes the events surrounding the trial, debuted. Ava DuVernay, who directed and co-wrote the series, and Attica Locke, a writer and producer of the series, were named as defendants in the defamation lawsuit. DuVernay said in a statement posted on the social media platform X that she still believes that Fairstein was responsible for the investigation and prosecution of the five teens. As the head of the Manhattan Sex Crimes unit, Linda Fairstein was in the precinct for over 35 hours straight while the boys were interrogated as adults, often without parents present, she said, claiming that Fairstein knew what was happening in the interrogation rooms. DuVernay accused Fairstein of not being willing to face a jury of her peers. I hope that one day Linda Fairstein can come to terms with the part she played in this miscarriage of justice and finally accept responsibility she said. Copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits New York lawmakers on Tuesday said they were finalizing legislation that would allow parents to block their children from getting social media posts curated by a platforms algorithm, a move to rein in feeds that critics argue keep young users glued to their screens. Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James have been advocating for the regulations since October, facing strong pushback from the tech industry. The amended version removes provisions that would have limited the hours a child could spend on a site. With the legislative session ending this week, Albany lawmakers are making a final push to get it passed. The algorithmic feeds are designed as dopamine for kids, Assembly sponsor Nily Rozic, a Democrat, said Tuesday. We are trying to regulate that design feature. The legislation in New York follows actions taken by other U.S. states to curb social media use among children. Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation banning social media accounts for children under 14 and requiring parental permission for 14- and 15-year-olds. Utah in March revised its policies, requiring social media companies to verify the ages of their users, but removing a requirement that parents consent to their child creating an account. A state law in Arkansas that also would have required parental consent was put on hold last year by a federal judge. Supporters say New Yorks Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) For Kids Act, which would prohibit algorithm-fed content without verifiable parental consent, is aimed at protecting the mental health and development of young people by shielding them from features designed to keep them endlessly scrolling. Instead of having automated algorithms suggest content classified as addictive and based on what a user has clicked on in the past, young account holders would see a chronological feed of content from users they already follow. Rozic said the New York bill doesnt attempt to regulate the content available on social media, only the vehicle that supercharges the feed and makes it more addictive. Critics of the bill, including the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, warn it could make things worse for children, including leading to internet companies collecting more information about users. Lawmakers are legislating a fairy tale, the privacy advocacy groups executive director, Albert Fox Cahn, said in a statement. There simply is no technology that can prove New Yorkers ages without undermining their privacy. The tech industry trade group NetChoice, whose members include Meta and X, accused New York of trying to replace parents with government. Additionally, this bill is unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment by requiring websites to censor the ability of New Yorkers to read articles or make statements online, by blocking default access to websites without providing proof of ID and age, and by denying the editorial rights of webpages to display, organize, and promote content how they want, Carl Szabo, NetChoices vice president and general counsel, said in an emailed statement. The legislation also would prohibit sites from sending notifications to minors between midnight and 6 a.m. without parental consent. Companies could be fined $5,000 per violation. If passed by the Assembly and Senate, Hochul is expected to sign the bill and another regulating data collection into law after calling the legislation one of her top priorities. We stopped marketing tobacco to kids. We raised the drinking age. And today, were fighting to protect kids from the defining problem of our time, Hochul wrote in an op-ed in the New York Post last week. Thompson reported from Buffalo, New York. Associated Press writer Anthony Izaguirre contributed from Albany, New York. Copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics New York State agencies in Maryland will be required to submit a plan to help address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, under an executive order signed by Gov. Wes Moore on Tuesday. The plan calls for all state agencies to submit a report to the governor by Nov. 1 showing how they will help the state meet its goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2031 to 60% of 2006 levels, the governor said at a news conference in Baltimore. The report must include steps and a timeline for implementation for all required actions within each agencys purview. But the governors office did not specify what those actions would be. These proposals must be submitted by every single state agency, because every single state agency is going to have a role to play and is going to have accountability measures that we must meet, Moore, a Democrat, said before signing the order at the Henderson-Hopkins School in Baltimore. The Moore administration also aims to achieve 100% clean energy by 2035 and reach net-zero emissions by 2045. That means at least as much carbon would be removed from the atmosphere as what is being emitted. The order signed Tuesday also directs the Maryland Department of the Environment to propose new polices to reduce emissions from buildings, a provision applauded by environmental advocates. To meet its climate goals, Maryland must tackle fossil fuel use in buildings, which represents 13% of the states greenhouse gas emissions, Anne Havemann, general counsel for the nonprofit organization Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said in a statement. Were proud to see Governor Moore take a massive step toward this goal through todays executive order, which will gradually reduce this climate pollution from buildings and send a signal to manufacturers, retailers, and installers to prepare for an increased demand in clean technologies such as heat pumps. The governor said the Maryland Department of the Environment will be the nerve center for the states approach to climate change. The order also creates a new subcabinet on climate change, which will be led by the departments chief, Serena McIlwain. The subcabinet will be required to report on Marylands progress by Dec. 1 and annually thereafter. We are creating a clean environment and a strong economy together, and I know that we can all do it because all of us who are here today are dedicated, and were all going to see it through, McIlwain said. The order also notes that the states efforts will include a focus on environmental justice. To be clear, climate justice is economic justice, if youre doing it right, and we are going to craft policies that actually reflects that mindset, Moore said. Kim Coble, co-chair of the Maryland Commission on Climate Change, praised the governor for taking a comprehensive step toward reaching the states goals. The governor is calling on his administration and every state agency to plan and measure and act, Coble said. And, equally important, the executive order creates an accountability system for those actions by creating the first-ever climate subcabinet, and an annual report on implementation of those actions by the state agencies. Copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Agencies Maryland Climate Change PLYMOUTH, Conn. (AP) A student pilot was attempting a solo cross-country flight before crashing into a Connecticut campground, according to a federal aviation report released Tuesday. The 1968, fixed-wing, single-engine Cessna 172 aircraft had sputtered and quit on Monday, prompting the pilot to contact air traffic controllers and attempt to land the plane at Waterbury Airport, a small airfield with turf runways. But the pilot could not find the field in time and landed into the trees, the Federal Aviation Administration report said. The unidentified pilot was seriously injured and the plane was listed as destroyed in the report. The crash occurred at Gentiles Campground in Plymouth, which is less than a half mile away from the airfield. Video from the scene showed the mangled plane, upside down, and just yards away from recreational vehicles, propane tanks and electrical wires. Copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Aviation Connecticut Santa Barbara Systems, a General Dynamics subsidiary in Spain that is refurbishing Leopard tanks for delivery to Ukraine, suffered a cyberattack on its website, a pro-Russia hacker group said. A spokesperson for General Dynamics confirmed that the defense contractors Spanish unit had been targeted in an attempted cyberattack that was detected immediately and has not compromised any of the companys systems. They said the company decided to temporarily disconnect its website until an ongoing investigation concluded. The companys sensitive data remains well-protected, the spokesperson added. A spokesperson for General Dynamics in Germany said all of the companys operations in Europe were running normally. The NoName hacking group claimed responsibility for the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack via the Telegram messaging service. These types of attacks direct high volumes of internet traffic towards targeted servers to knock them offline. We sent our DDoS-missiles against websites in russophobic Spain, the group, which often directs such actions against countries which support Ukraine, wrote on Telegram on Tuesday. NATO said last month that Russia was behind an intensifying campaign of hybrid attacks on companies and infrastructure in member states, an accusation Russia dismissed as misinformation. Santa Barbara assembles heavy vehicles such as Leopard tanks and artillery equipment for the Spanish army and has been involved in refurbishing Spains mothballed Leopard tanks for delivery to the Ukrainian army, according to the Defence Ministry. Spains National Cybersecurity Institute had warned the company in the past few days about the possibility of such attacks, the General Dynamics spokesperson in Madrid said. Spain last week pledged 1 billion euros ($1.08 billion) in military support for Ukraine this year, which according to local media reports includes 19 Leopard 2A4 tanks. (Reporting by Inti Landauro and Andrei Khalip; editing by Aislinn Laing, Jason Neely and Jane Merriman) Topics Cyber Russia Amazon is facing a one billion-pound ($1.3 billion) collective lawsuit from British retailers who allege that the online marketplace misused their data to boost its own market share and profits. The British Independent Retailers Association (BIRA), an umbrella body grouping numerous small traders, was due to file the lawsuit on behalf of around 35,000 retailers at the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in London on Thursday, its lawyers said. The suit alleges that Amazon made use of non-public data provided by retailers selling goods on Amazons Marketplace to offer cheaper rival products for sale directly to consumers. BIRA Chief Executive Andrew Goodacre said small retailers had little choice but to use Amazon, given its reach, but that the case was intended to stop it putting them out of business. The filing of the claim today is the first step towards retailers obtaining compensation for what Amazon has done, Goodacre said in a statement. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. BIRAs case also alleges that Amazon manipulated the Buy Box feature on its website, shown near the top of product pages, to its own advantage. The Buy Box is the subject of a separate lawsuit brought on behalf of consumers and valued at up to 900 million pounds ($1.1 billion). Britains Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said in 2022 that it was investigating Amazon, including the way it selects the products placed within the Buy Box. Last year, the CMA said it had accepted commitments from Amazon to help protect fair competition on its retail platform. ($1 = 0.7830 pounds) (Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by Kevin Liffey) Topics Lawsuits LIVONIA, Mich. (AP) A tornado killed a 2-year-old boy and injured his mother Wednesday when a tree fell on their house in suburban Detroit, while emergency workers in Maryland were responding to reports of collapsed structures with people trapped inside after a tornado there. Officials in Livonia, Michigan, said in a post on the citys website that the quick-developing tornado struck several neighborhoods in the city on Wednesday afternoon. A massive tree was uprooted and fell onto the familys house and through the roof, landing on a bed where the woman and her 2-year-old were sleeping, officials said. Crews worked for nearly an hour to remove the roof and parts of the tree and then lift the tree to get the victims out. The toddler was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said. The mother was transported to a local hospital in critical condition. A 2-week-old sibling who was in a crib in a separate room was not injured but taken to a hospital for an evaluation, Livonia Fire Department Chief Robert Jennison told WDIV-TV. This is a terrible tragedy for our community, Mayor Maureen Miller Brosnan said in the statement. Our hearts are broken, too, and we send our deepest sympathies. The city of Livonia activates warning sirens based on notifications from the National Weather Service or tornado reports, officials said. However, Livonia Emergency Preparedness Director Brian Kahn said in the statement that the city did not receive any advance warning from the agency or others. A representative from the weather service called it a spin-up storm that didnt show up on their radars in enough time to issue a warning, according to city officials. The National Weather Service in Detroit confirmed on the social platform X Wednesday night that an EF1 tornado with a peak wind speed of 95 mph (153 kmh) moved through Livonia. The agency said the twister traveled a path spanning over 5 miles (8 kilometers), uprooting and damaging trees and damaging some houses. In Maryland, emergency workers responded to reports that people were trapped inside structures that collapsed after a tornado was spotted in the area during rounds of strong storms Wednesday night. A tornado was spotted in a suburban area of Montgomery County northwest of Washington, the National Weather Service said in a social media post warning people in the area to take cover. There were reports of three collapsed structures in Gaithersburg with people trapped inside, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson Pete Piringer said. Piringer said the most significant damage occurred when a large tree fell on a single-family house, leaving five people injured, including one with traumatic injuries. He said they were all transported to a hospital. Local television footage showed large downed trees that damaged houses when they fell. David Pazos, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue assistant chief, said there were a lot of power outages. We dont know what peoples needs are, so were having to go door to door to assess whether they need fire and rescue services or need relocation because of damage to their homes, he said. Tornado warnings were still being issued throughout the state and in Delaware on Wednesday night. Copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters USA Windstorm Maryland Michigan A panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that a Louisiana statute voids the formation of an arbitration clause in a surplus lines insurance contract. In its opinion, the appellate court reasoned that the general principles of contractual freedom found in the surplus lines business cannot surpass specific statutory commands, like Louisianas anti-arbitration policy for most insurance contracts. The underlying case in front of the 5th Circuit involves the owner of a Best Western hotel in Abbeville that suffered damage from Hurricane Laura in 2020 and its surplus lines insurer, Independent Specialty Insurance Company. The hotel owner, SKAV, L.L.C., submitted a claim on a surplus lines insurance policy it had purchased from Independent Specialty. Though the policy contained a broad arbitration clause directing all matters in dispute to be resolved by arbitration, SKAV sued Independent Specialty in the Western District of Louisiana, alleging the insurer had timely and adequately cover the hotels hurricane damage under the policys terms. After months of unsuccessful court-directed mediation, Independent Specialty moved to compel arbitration. The district court denied the motion, citing a prior decision in which the court determined that 22:868 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes reverse preempts the Federal Arbitration Act. Independent Specialty appealed. The parties dispute what effect, if any, the statute has on a surplus lines insurance policys arbitration clause. The statute prevents insurance policies from ousting Louisiana courts of jurisdiction. It also permits, in limited cases, forum- and venue- provisions for policy forms that are not subject to approval by the Louisiana Department of Insurance. The 5th Circuit noted that many district courts in Louisiana are split on the issue of whether a surplus lines insurance policys arbitration clause is barred by one subsection or permitted by another. The Louisiana Supreme Court declined to answer a certified question on the issue last year. As a federal court exercising diversity jurisdiction, the 5th Circuit decided to resolve the case as it thinks the Louisiana Supreme Court would. The appellate court panel noted that Louisiana courts from the start have viewed 22:868 as an anti-arbitration policy. While the statute does not expressly mention arbitration, it bars insurance policies from depriving Louisiana courts of action against the insurer. In 2020, the Louisiana Legislature added a subsection to the statute that allows surplus lines insurers to include forum- and venue-selection clauses in their policies. Some district courts have since adopted arbitration clauses as a type of forum- or venue-selection clause, but the 5th Circuit disagreed. The panel said arbitration clauses are a qualitatively different type of forum-selection clause based on past Louisiana Supreme Court opinions. This distinguishing jurisdictional feature of arbitration clauses survived, in our view, the Legislatures amendments in 2020, the panels opinion says. The court addressed Independent Specialtys argument that surplus lines insurers should have a wide degree of freedom to choose where and how to resolve disputes because of the acutely high risks in their business. The panel said that surplus lines insurers quest to have more freedom and flexibility for accepting risks and designing and pricing their policies makes no difference to its statutory analysis. The court also rejected Independent Specialtys argument that the issue of the arbitration clauses validity should itself go to arbitration. When a statute prevents the valid formation of an arbitration agreement, as we read 22:868 to do,20 we cannot compel arbitration, even on threshold questions of arbitrability, the opinion reads. The case, SKAV, L.L.C. v. Independent Specialty Insurance Company, can be found here. Topics Excess Surplus Louisiana After multiple deaths in the jail, criminal charges against an employee and alleged sexual relationships with inmates, a North Carolina sheriffs office has lost its law enforcement liability insurance coverage from Travelers. The News & Observer and other news outlets reported this week that Travelers had notified Rockingham Countys risk manager that the insurer will drop the sheriffs office July 1. County officials said they are now looking for new coverage but expect premiums to jump significantly if coverage can be found. Travelers cited a number of issues, including failure by the sheriff to report claims or potential claims; criminal charges filed against an office worker; and allegations that a now-terminated employee had relations with inmates outside the jail, the newspaper reported. The county has been sued by the family of Kyle Kepley, who died by suicide in the jail in 2022. The family charges the jail lacked proper supervision of at-risk inmates. Five inmates have died by suicide in the past three years and another six died from drug overdoses, the news site noted. A sheriffs captain was recently dismissed and charged with assault and sexual battery on a female prisoner. Another officer was terminated after officials uncovered sex with inmates. The sheriff of Rockingham County is Sam Page, who recently ran unsuccessfully for North Carolina lieutenant governor. Topics Lawsuits Liability North Carolina North Carolina authorities have charged a Battleboro insurance agent with 74 counts after they said he forged life insurance applications for 16 people. Jonathan Michael Vlasak, 35, a licensed producer qualified to sell property, casualty, life and accident insurance, took out life insurance policies on the individuals and attempted to obtain some $8,200 from Occidental Life Insurance Co. and $3,750 from Americo Life Insurance, the North Carolina Department of Insurance reported. This was an extraordinary case and I thank our agents for staying with the investigation and uncovering this scheme, state Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey said in a statement. Consumers need to be extra vigilant to protect sensitive information such as this from getting into the hands of the wrong person. Investigators with the department charged Vlasak with 25 counts of forgery, 25 counts of identity theft, 22 counts of obtaining property by false pretenses and two counts of attempting to obtain property, all of which are felonies. Vlasak was arrested this week and released on a $100,000 bond. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners license-check site shows that Vlasak has been licensed since 2017. He is currently appointed with seven life insurers, but not with Occidental or Americo. He could not be reached Friday morning at the phone number listed on the license lookup page. Its the second arrest this week of a Southeastern U.S. insurance agent allegedly attempting to forge policy applications with Americo. In Florida, authorities charged a Fort Myers producer with writing life insurance policies on a person without the persons consent, and fraudulently using the persons identification information. Topics Agencies A Colorado woman who was seriously injured when a freight train hit the parked police vehicle in which she sat handcuffed has reached an $8.5 million settlement, a lawyer representing two of the involved police officers said. The city of Fort Lupton and nearby town of Platteville, which together employed the three officers sued in the 2022 crash, will each pay half of the settlement to Yareni Rios, said attorney Eric Ziporin. Ziporin represents the two officers who worked for Fort Lupton at the time, Jordan Steinke and Ryan Thomeczek. He declined to comment further on the agreement. Fort Lupton Police Chief William Carnes said in a statement that the settlement was reached to the mutual satisfaction of the parties, recognizes the gravity of this matter, and allows all parties to move forward. Former Platteville police Sgt. Pablo Vazquez was also sued. The Associated Press sent his attorneys an email seeking comment. Related: Woman Who Survived Train Crash into Patrol Car Files Lawsuit in Colorado Steinke and Vazquez were both sentenced to probation in connection with the crash; Thomeczek was not charged. Rios, then 20, was pulled over by Vazquez on Sept. 16, 2022, after a road rage incident that police said at the time involved menacing with a handgun. Shortly afterward, Steinke and then Thomeczek arrived to help, and Steinke put Rios in the back of Vazquezs patrol car. Vazquez had parked on railroad tracks, according to the lawsuit and testimony in Steinkes trial last year. Steinke testified that she did not realize where the car was parked, though the tracks and railroad crossing signs can be seen in her body camera footage. She was found guilty of reckless endangerment and assault, fired from her job and sentenced to serve 2 1/2 years of supervised probation. In comments recorded on body camera footage, Vazquez told other officers that he thought he had cleared the tracks when he parked behind Rios. He said he was focused on her because he was concerned that she possibly had a weapon. Vazquez pleaded guilty to one count of reckless endangerment and was sentenced to a year of unsupervised probation. Rios screamed for help after seeing the train approaching, and although a door in the police car had been left open, she was not able to get out of the caged-in back seat, according to the lawsuit, which stated that she suffered serious injuries, including severe head trauma. The suit accused police of being reckless and failing to protect Rios while she was in their custody. Rios pleaded no contest to a charge of misdemeanor menacing. Copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Auto Law Enforcement Colorado VANCOUVER, British Columbia - June 7, 2024 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Alaska Energy Metals Corporation (TSX-V: AEMC, OTCQB: AKEMF) ("Alaska Energy Metals", the "Company", or "AEMC") today announced that it plans to raise $3,000,000 gross proceeds through a non-brokered private placement (the "Offering") of special warrants (the "Special Warrants") to purchase units (the "Units") at a price of $0.15 per Unit. The Special Warrants will convert to Units upon obtaining a receipt from the TSX Venture Exchange for a Base Shelf Prospectus supplement document to be filed by the Company. Each Unit will consist of one common AEMC share (the "Shares") and one share purchase warrant (the "Warrants") to purchase another Alaska Energy Metals share at a price of $0.20 for a three-year term. This news is paid advertisement/ news disseminated on behalf of/issued on behalf of Alaska Energy Metals The Company intends to use the net proceeds for drilling to test geological, geophysical and geochemical targets at the Canwell block of claims that form part of its Nikolai Nickel Project in Alaska. Three holes totaling 1,200 meters are planned for drilling. Proceeds will also be used for metallurgical testing of Eureka deposit drill core, marketing, and general working capital. The Canwell prospects are located near the Company's Nikolai project Eureka deposit which represents a large accumulation of nickel with copper, cobalt, chrome, iron, platinum, palladium and gold. Corporate Changes The Company's Annual General Meeting ("AGM") of shareholders, scheduled for June 10, 2024, will be adjourned following the receipt of the annual consolidated financial statements and appointment of the auditor in order to facilitate changes to the Board of Directors. A notice of the date and time of the adjourned AGM, together with an addendum to the Information Circular and proxy, will be distributed to shareholders. Upon approval by shareholders, the Board will be set at six directors. The management nominees for election at the adjourned AGM will be Mario Vetro, Tyron Breytenbach, and Ian Stalker, along with incumbent directors Gregory Beischer, Mark Begich and, Corri Feige. Stepping off the board will be Peter Chilibeck and Larry Cooper. The Company thanks these two directors for more than a decade of service each. Mr. Chilibeck and Mr. Cooper have been invited to remain as advisors to the Company. Mario Vetro: Mr. Vetro is an Investor / Financier and Partner at Commodity Partners of Vancouver, BC. Mr. Vetro has extensive experience in structuring and advising resource companies. He has successfully raised hundreds of millions of dollars for resource development projects and has participated in transactions ranging from $100 million to $1.5 billion. Tyron Breytenbach: Mr. Breytenbach presently serves on the Company's Advisory Board and has provided excellent advice. He is a strong technical geologist with experience in magmatic nickel deposits and extensive experience in international capital markets, having worked with Cormark and Stifel Canada. Ian Stalker: Mr. Stalker is Executive Chairman of Bradda Head Lithium and has held numerous executive and board positions with resource-oriented companies. He has been involved in raising more than US$750 million from capital markets for a range of successful mining projects. Paul Matysek: Joining the Company's advisory board, Mr. Matysek is a well-known mineral resources developer and deal maker. He is the Executive Chairman for a number of companies including Nano One Materials Corp (TSE: NANO) and LithiumBank Resources Corp. (TSX-V: LBNK). Greg Beischer, the Company CEO, commented: "The current team and board did a great job of identifying and defining the maiden mineral resource estimate at the Nikolai Nickel Project. The resource established to date is on track to be one of the largest nickel deposits in the United States. As companies grow, it becomes important to have depth in capital markets and operations. Seasoned mining veterans having key attributes for this stage of corporate development are needed. Tyron Breytenbach and Ian Stalker have great track records. If elected, I am confident they will maximize the Company's chances of developing a world-class battery metals project at Nikolai in Alaska." ABOUT ALASKA ENERGY METALS Alaska Energy Metals Corporation is an Alaska-based corporation with offices in Anchorage and Vancouver working to sustainably deliver the critical materials needed for national security and a bright energy future, while generating superior returns for shareholders. AEMC is focused on delineating and developing the large-scale, bulk tonnage, polymetallic Eureka deposit containing nickel, copper, cobalt, chromium, iron, platinum, palladium, and gold. Located in Interior Alaska near existing transportation and power infrastructure, its flagship project, Nikolai, is well-situated to become a significant domestic source of strategic energy-related metals for North America. AEMC also holds a secondary project, 'Angliers-Belleterre,' in western Quebec. Today, material sourcing demands excellence in environmental performance, carbon mitigation, and the responsible management of human and financial capital. AEMC works every day to earn and maintain the respect and confidence of the public and believes that ESG performance is measured by action and led from the top. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "Gregory Beischer" Gregory Beischer, President & CEO FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Gregory A. Beischer, President & CEO Toll-Free: 877-217-8978 | Local: 604-638-3164 Sarah Mawji, Public Relations Final Edit Media and Public Relations Email: sarah@finaleditpr.com Forward-Looking Statements Some statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information (within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation), including, without limitation, the statements as to the Company's intention to raise C$3 million, to drill exploratory drill holes at the Canwell prospects, and to perform metallurgical studies. 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. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date those statements are made. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guaranteeing 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 regulatory actions, market prices, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. 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 law, the Company 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 the Company updates any forward-looking statement(s), no inference should be drawn that it will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements. This news release does not constitute an offer for sale, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, in the United States or to any "U.S Person" (as such term is defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "1933 Act")) of any equity or other securities of the Company. The securities of the Company have not been, and will not be, registered under the 1933 Act or under any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to a U.S. Person absent registration under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws or an applicable exemption therefrom. 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. Alaska Energy Metals Corporation (TSXV: AEMC) (OTCQB: AKEMF) (FRA: V7F) is a featured mining stock on Investorideas.com More info on AEMC at Investorideas.com Visit: https://www.investorideas.com/CO/AEMC/ Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Contact management and IR of each company directly regarding specific questions. Disclosure: Alaska Energy Metals is a paid featured mining stock on Investorideas.com effective January 5, 2023, More info https://www.investorideas.com/About/News/Clientspecifics.asp More disclaimer info: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp Learn more about publishing your news release and our other news services on the Investorideas.com newswire https://www.investorideas.com/News-Upload/ Business leaders have a critical role to play in developing global networks and skilled teams that will attract future Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for Ireland, says Shane OSullivan, CEO of Irish Management Institute (IMI). The business educational institute leader says that Irelands outward-looking approach to investment has helped to create high-value jobs across the country for more than 75 years. He argues, however, that Irelands model for attracting FDI is entering an era with significant new challenges. Business leaders in Ireland and Irish business executives in overseas roles with leading multinationals can, he suggests, can help protect future FDI investment in Ireland, safeguarding future employment. Shane OSullivan, CEO of the Irish Management Institute (IMI). Ireland has developed an enviable track record for attracting FDI for the past 75 years, said Shane OSullivan. Renowned for its pro-business environment, skilled workforce and strategic location linking Europe and the US, we have consistently attracted multinational corporations seeking to establish a foothold in the Single Market and beyond. Today, 14 of the top global 15 medical technology companies, alongside the top five global software companies, have significant operations in Ireland, creating employment in communities across the country. Over 300,000 people (over 11% of the entire Irish workforce) are currently employed in IDA-backed companies. However, our traditional FDI model is facing challenges on multiple fronts, including increased global competition, evolving geopolitical and economic challenges, and uncertainties such as the OECD agreement on corporation tax. Mr OSullivan says that the strategic value of having Irish leaders positioned within multinational corporations across the globe cannot be underestimated. These leaders act as vital ambassadors for Ireland, forging extensive networks in the US, China and emerging markets, and maintaining direct relationships with potential investors, which IDA Ireland has developed extremely effectively. These links will become increasingly valuable as we strive to stay ahead of our global competitors and enhance the capabilities of our workforce, he says. Foreign companies account for over two-thirds of annual business expenditure on research and development in Ireland. By investing in R&D, fostering entrepreneurship and upskilling personnel, leaders ensure that Ireland remains competitive in areas like AI and climate change solutions critical in today's knowledge-based economy. With the World Economic Forum predicting that nearly a quarter of all jobs globally will change in the next five years as the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies accelerates, Mr OSullivan believes that this investment in the upskilling and reskilling of talent will be crucial to Irelands future success. He says that, to navigate the changing FDI landscape, Ireland must adapt to attract the next wave of investment. Effective leadership is the linchpin for unlocking this future potential. In a rapidly evolving global landscape, organisations and economies that embrace change and adapt quickly will be at the forefront of success. Effective leadership is essential in identifying market opportunities, managing change and enabling the workforce to navigate unexpected crises, technological changes and evolving market conditions. Strong leaders can ensure that Ireland charts a course through these changes and maintains its competitiveness into the future. The IMIs view is that continuous enhancement of leadership capabilities is central to developing the leadership skills that will help sustain Ireland's FDI model. Recent IMI research, however, shows just one in four leaders currently possess the skills to effectively harness AI within their organisations, and a significant proportion lack the capabilities to drive organisational change. With AI set to have a revolutionary impact on the workforce, it is crucial that leaders are able to support workers develop the necessary AI fluency and skills to ensure that they thrive during this transformation and are fully prepared for an AI-enabled workplace. By focusing on nurturing, developing and challenging the next generation of leaders, we can help advance their careers, empower the workforce and attract the next wave of investment into Ireland, says Mr OSullivan. Through initiatives like the Leading with Strategic Intent programme, developed by the IMI in association with IDA Ireland, along with our recently announced partnership with Invest NI, we help to shape the next generation of international leaders. By equipping leaders with the necessary skills to navigate complex global challenges and promoting best practices in leadership development, the IMI significantly contributes to enhancing Irelands global competitiveness. Additionally, fostering a culture of continuous learning and innovation within organisations can help maintain a competitive edge. The IMI chief believes that investing in the upskilling and capability development of leaders will not only strengthen Irelands position as an FDI powerhouse but will also ensure we remain a globally recognised destination for business. Furthermore, it can ensure that our workforce is prepared for the significant transformation ahead and create a knowledge-based economy fit for the future. Collaboration between government, academia and industry is crucial for unlocking Irelands potential driving innovation, growth and prosperity in the global marketplace. As Ireland faces an increasingly competitive and dynamic global economy, strengthening leadership development and harnessing the collective talents of its workforce will allow us to weather present challenges and also emerge as a beacon of innovation and opportunity, Shane OSullivan concludes. It may have a B-movie title, but The Dead Dont Hurt (15A) is an ambitious Western that thrives on its emotional intelligence. The set-up is a cliche: The weatherbeaten, monosyllabic Olsen (Viggo Mortensen), sheriff of a small Nevada town, finds himself up against the grasping rancher Alfred Jeffries (Garret Dillahunt) and his murderous son, Weston (Solly McLeod), with whom the towns grasping mayor Schiller (Danny Huston) is in cahoots. Mortensen, who also writes and directs, frames his story as a revenge narrative: It begins with Olsen burying his wife and turning in his sheriffs badge, before trotting off, with his young son, Vincent (Atlas Green), clinging gamely to his saddles pommel, in pursuit of the sociopathic Weston. Most of the film takes place in extended flashbacks, however, where we meet its true centre, Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps), an unconventional young woman who throws off the trappings of urban civilisation to join Olsen in the Nevada wilderness. Krieps is brilliantly cast as the spiky, non-conforming Vivienne who, in her refusal to toe the line and behave as a good little pioneer woman should, unwittingly casts herself as the civilising influence in a community cowed by brutality, bullets, and a contempt for law and justice. Weston Jeffries is a rather one-dimensional villain and the role requires little more than deranged snarling from Solly McLeod. But Mortensen provides Krieps with solid support in his role as the noble, but flawed, Olsen. Based on a somewhat true story, Hit Man (15A) stars Glen Powell as Gary Johnson, a philosophy professor who moonlights for the New Orleans PD as a fake hitman, helping to trap those who seek to employ the services of a professional killer. But when Madison (Adria Arjona) tries to get Gary to kill her abusive husband Ray (Evan Holtzman), Gary takes the morally questionable step of dissuading Madison from hiring him, and things quickly get complicated when Madison falls in love with a man she believes to be a contract killer. Written by Glen Powell, Skip Hollandsworth, and Richard Linklater, with Linklater directing, Hit Man is a black comedy of tortuous plot twists as the mild-mannered Gary and his hitman alter-ego Ron finds himself living parallel lives, both of which are headed for disaster. The chameleon-like Powell is terrific fun, especially when Ron starts believing his own press and starts donning ever more outre disguises, while Arjona is a ball of fire as the worlds most hapless femme fatale. Jessica Ni Mhaolain has sometimes resented her albinism. As a teenager, I went through a phase of dying my hair any colour but blonde, because I tied it to the albinism, she says. I still have days when I wonder what it would be like to see properly. Albinism is a genetic condition that affects the bodys ability to produce melanin, and therefore colour in the hair, skin, and eyes. It also affects the development of the eyes. People with albinism usually have poor sight, are sensitive to light, and experience involuntary movement in the eyes, called nystagmus, which can be tiring. There is a 25% chance that a child will be born with albinism if both parents carry the gene that causes albinism, and one in 10,000 people in Ireland have the condition. I was the one in my family born with the condition, says Ni Mhaolain. There are lots of different subtypes... Ive been registered blind since I was a child. I walk with a white stick and I can only really read the top letter in the doctors eye chart. School was a huge struggle, says Ni Mhaolain, and though everyone did their best to try and treat her the same as everyone else, she only started to excel academically when she was assigned a special needs assistant (SNA) in fourth class. There were also the inevitable social challenges. The bullying as a child was tough, says Ni Mhaolain. There wasnt so much physical stuff. There was a lot of isolation. I dont blame the kids. They dont know any different, but the parents see you as a different child. There are a few things that still stick with me. She recalls the difficulties in getting funding for a laptop. Having been refused, the official dealing with her case told her parents, If people like her dont learn how to read and write, its not the end of the world. Luckily, when Ni Mhaolain joined University College Cork, education and scribe support were in place from day one. Since graduating in 2015, with a BSc in public health and epidemiology and an MBS in government, she has gone on to work for a TD in the Oireachtas. It shocks me to think of that official now, says Ni Mhaolain, but things have changed for the better since then. Jessica Ni Mhaolain: "Ive been registered blind since I was a child." Photograph Moya Nolan Support group Sean Wensleys children, Willow, four, and Enda, one, both have albinism. Though Willow was born with what Sean describes as an amazing shock of blonde hair that got a lot of attention on the maternity ward, she wasnt diagnosed with albinism until she had difficulty with her sight and at creche had a tendency to walk through things rather than around them. My wife and I had to start learning about albinism, recalls the Bangor resident. We were put in touch with a support group, and its good and practical. There are online forums and get-togethers with other families in Northern Ireland. We dont attend everything, but appreciate being able to dip in and out. We have a qualified teacher for the visually impaired (QTVI), who comes out to the house regularly and plays with Willow, and now that she has started pre-school, she has a classroom assistant, too. The school has made lots of reasonable modifications. So theres a lot of help and Willow is thriving. When Enda was born and the diagnosis was made, they were better prepared to take on the challenges without feeling overwhelmed. It also helps that Wensley and his wife, Jenny, are both vets and thus well-practised in the need for age-sensitive communication. The main thing for us is when to talk to them about it appropriately, Wensley says. As far as we know, Willow is not aware that she has albinism and she wouldnt recognise the word or link it to herself. We do talk about difference quite a lot. If she asks us Why has that lady got a wheelchair? or Why has that man got a walking stick?, wed use that as an opportunity to talk about difference, the value and benefits of difference, and how people cope with being different. Dr Mark Wheeler, of Edenpark GP surgery in Raheny who works with people who have albinism in Malawi. The GP, along with his wife Carol O'Dea set up a skin cancer prevention programme back in 2016. They were also aided by local campaigners and clinicians. Photograph Moya Nolan Stigma and superstition On average, one in 18,000 people across the globe has albinism. In East Africa, particularly in Malawi and Tanzania, the conditions incidence is particularly high, with approximately one in 1,000 people having it. We dont quite understand why it hasnt become rarer, says Dr Mark Wheeler, a Dublin-based GP who works in Africa. But I think that people still tend to marry within communities and so that may have concentrated the gene in that location. In 2013, Wheeler and his wife, Carol ODea, took a sabbatical to Malawi, where they worked at the Billy Riordan Clinic in the village of Cape Maclear. There were eight people with albinism, Wheeler recalls. Youd see them wandering around with severe sunburn, cracked lips, and problems with their eyes. I have a big interest in dermatology, so I invited them to the clinic for an examination and I was shocked. The degree of sun damage was awful and two of them had skin cancer. As they spent more time in the village, they discovered that there was no national programme and that the country, with a population of approximately 17m, had just one dermatologist. When they returned home, the couple contacted the UK-based charity Standing Voice to see if there was an opportunity to work together to help people living with albinism in Malawi. Much of the charitys focus at the time was in Tanzania. With Standing Voices knowledge and experience and the couples determination, the charity started to bring their programme to towns and villages across Malawi. They now visit twice a year to deliver consultations, training, and education. Apart from the medical difficulties, people living with albinism in Malawi have to contend with stigma and superstition, which often leads to mutilation, murder, and the desecration of burial sites. They are constantly in fear of being attacked, says ODea. The last time we visited, we attended a clinic and a young girl came into us: Her whole arm had been chopped off. The culture of taking the limbs and body parts of people with albinism is rooted in the belief that it can bring luck to those who know how to use them in various spells. The perpetrators are usually poor people who are paid, but above them are people of power, says Wheeler. About three years ago, there was a conviction for a murder. Unbelievably, there was a priest involved. These ancient beliefs are still very pervasive. Fundamentally, education is very important, but it is very difficult to change. I always say Im quite lucky to have been born in Ireland, says Jessica Ni Mhaolain. Were in a much better position than people with albinism in other parts of the world. Twenty or 30 years ago, it was terrible to be born with sight loss here, but things have come a long way. I work full-time. Im paying my rent, I go out with friends, go on holidays, go on solo breaks. Im living a fully independent life. International Albinism Awareness Day is on Thursday, June 13 June 18, 2024: This article was edited to remove a quote that referred to many people with albinism having pink or red eyes. This is incorrect. The eyes of people with albinism are usually purple or blue but can appear red when light shines on them due to lack of pigment in the Iris (coloured part of the eye) which makes the blood vessels more visible. IT seems hard hats can also be hard on the head. While employee support scaffolding has improved and attitudes appear to be shifting, the roof isnt on yet. New data indicates that the unique pressures of the job may contribute to mental health struggles. A report conducted by the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) titled Mental Health in the Construction Sector found that 60% of companies reported considering the mental health of employees in the last 12 months. The data in the report was compiled on the eve of the covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and based mainly on a survey of 301 construction companies. Some 81% of employers said employee mental health was a very sensitive issue and difficult to address, and 68% said they would find it much easier to manage an employee who is physically sick than one with a mental health difficulty. The same percentage of respondents believed the construction sector had a serious issue with staff under-reporting issues with their mental health in the workplace. As for the causes of mental health issues, they could be non-work related, although 70% of companies believed the job was at least a factor, with the primary work-related reasons listed as general work stress (44%), unrealistic work targets (29%), long working hours (22%), a macho work culture where employees are uncomfortable seeking help (16%), a bullying culture (15%), and poor communication between management and staff (9%). Its a concerning finding, even as the CIF and others believe the sector has made huge strides in addressing mental health concerns. Yet more recently, Dr Shane ODonnell of South East Technical University (Setu) and colleagues conducted a large-scale study on the prevalence and associated risk factors for suicidal ideation, non-suicidal self-injury and suicide attempt among male construction workers in Ireland. Based on a large sample of 1,585 male construction workers, it found that more than one in five (22%) had suicidal ideation at some point in their lifetime, while 6% had non-suicidal self-injury and 6% had made a suicide attempt. Younger age was associated with suicidal ideation and non-suicidal self-injury, not being in a relationship was more of a factor for those involved in a suicide attempt, and working a 35- to 44-hour week, impacting family and recreational time. The researchers estimated that, at the time of data collection, approximately 151,800 males were employed in the Irish construction industry. We thought that the lifetime prevalence rates for suicidal behaviour might have been higher among male construction workers compared to the general population in Ireland, but the rates were slightly lower, ODonnell says. However, the rates of suicidal behaviour his team observed in Ireland were higher than those previously observed among male construction workers in the US and Australia, so suicide prevention training that is specific to the Irish construction industry is needed. Indeed, what was surprising to me was how many participants had lost someone close to them through suicide (46%), he says. Findings highlight a need to support younger male construction workers and those bereaved by suicide. They also highlight the need for the early detection and treatment of generalised anxiety disorder and depression in order to intervene in, and potentially prevent, suicidality among male construction workers. A macho workplace culture and conformity to masculine norms particularly self-reliance and emotional control have been implicated in the relationship between construction workers and suicide. Interventions that are most acceptable among men tend to be those that work with and not against cultural ideals of masculinities. However, the training we have developed is just one small step wider initiatives are needed to create cultural change across to industry that reduces mental health/suicide stigma, and encourages help-seeking and help-offering. Moreover, if or when construction workers seek help, it is important the help is available to them [this is a wider issue on the availability of mental health services]. Sarah Faughnan, an Occupational health and wellbeing nurse working with Arcadis at the Intel plant extension in Leixlip, photographed with contractors working on site from Sisk, PM Group, Jacobs , Arcadis, Jones, Mercury, Ross, Kirby, Suir, Actavo, Duffys PJ Hegarty and JLL. Photograph: Moya Nolan Man up mentality Sarah Faughnan is the occupational health nurse at the Intel site in Leixlip, where around 4,000 construction workers are currently working. Usually, I have around 10-15 mental health conversations a month, she says. These can range from people simply chatting about something going on at home to those who know they need to speak to someone but dont know where to start. My main goal in these conversations isnt to provide all the answers but to offer a point of reference through the health and wellbeing clinics, guiding them to the help they need. The confidentiality of the service means it removes the worry that some may have. The impact of mental health on physical health, and vice versa, means sometimes one issue raised at one of the two health and wellbeing clinics onsite can lead to admissions about another. As our mental health can impact our physical health, it usually brings about a conversation where they discuss things that could be playing on their mind, Faughnan says. I would be a big believer in the holistic approach to healthcare, and it has shown itself to be a good way to start a conversation and allows people to open up more and have a confidential chat about things that may be worrying them. When people come to me with mental health concerns, its rarely just one isolated issue. Its often an accumulation of events and stressors impacting their mental wellbeing. Many of these concerns originate outside of work but can also be common industry-related worries, such as job security and financial pressures, especially as projects near completion. Faughnan says being at work can be a beneficial distraction for some, but others may need time off to focus on their wellbeing. More broadly, the sector-wide focus on health and safety fosters more open discussions among staff, but she believes that old stigma can linger. There is still a societal mentality about man up for men, which can be detrimental to people seeking support, not only in construction. Thankfully, this is changing slowly, with male leaders advocating for mental health supports and encouraging the younger workers to reach out if they need help. Intel runs mental health awareness events, a mental health first aider programme and senior leader figures support mental health awareness. However, I still think everyone finds the initial admission that they are struggling hard we all can be in denial about how well we are coping. That is why we need to ask people [how they are doing] as by asking it gives them an opportunity to pause and think, says Faughnan. As for the contributory factors, they range from cost of living and housing, to work-orientated issues. It is as simple as asking are they OK, she says of ways other people can help. Unique challenges The Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity offers mental health immediate support, wellbeing programmes, education and financial support if needed. Increasingly visible on sites around the country, the organisation covers Britain and Ireland. Last year, saw 281 calls from Ireland to its helpline, out of a total received of 4,435. As a percentage of population, this is slightly lower than the British figure, prompting CEO Sarah Bolton to say Lighthouse would like to see more people reaching out for support. Of the 281 calls received by our Irish helpline, 154 of these were responded to by our frontline helpline team, who were able to offer immediate assistance and support, she says. The remaining 127 calls were managed by our caseworkers who can support people with complex and multiple needs including a variety of emotional, physical and financial difficulties. Seventy-six per cent of these cases involved emotional wellbeing, and we were able to deliver 205 counselling sessions to provide fast and easy access to specialist support to those that needed it. Bolton believes Lighthouse is uniquely positioned to help those in construction deal with what could be described as unique challenges. The stigma of talking about emotional wellbeing is lessening, especially in the younger members of the workforce but it is a challenge that we need to continue to overcome. Our #MakeItVisible onsite initiative is directly reaching some of the industrys most vulnerable workers. Since the initiative was launched in Ireland last March, we have visited 94 locations across Ireland and engaged with over 8,000 site workers. Our team deliver an engaging and down-to-earth talk where they share their own lived experiences. This helps to reduce the stigma of opening a conversation and site workers also have the opportunity to talk one-on-one with our team and share any concerns. This is an ongoing journey, but we are definitely moving in the right direction of encouraging open and frank conversations and ultimately improving the wellbeing culture in our industry. Other encouraging developments are in the works. The Mens Health Forum in Ireland was commissioned by the HSEs National Office for Suicide Prevention to investigate this issue in the Republic of Ireland and to develop CAIRDE (Construction Alliance to Reduce Suicide). This initiative aims to reduce suicide stigma, enhance knowledge of suicide and mental health issues, and increase help-seeking and help-offering in the construction industry. We had a very positive experience going onto construction sites. Many construction companies volunteered to take part in the research and passed our details onto other companies to participate, ODonnell says of the research conducted by his team in association with the CAIRDE project. When we arrived on site, the construction workers were very willing to be involved and to help us recruit others to take part. This highlights that male construction workers do care about their mental health. Many of the companies that we worked with had already trained-up their staff in mental health awareness training. So there is an appetite and willingness there which we all need to build upon. Samaritans: Call 116123 or see samaritans.org Lighthouseclub.org/Text hardhat to 50808 or call 1800 939 122 The Lighthouse Club Ireland summer lunch takes place in the Mansion House on June 14. Mens Health Week runs from June 10 to June 16 mhfi.org for more information. John Boland, a mental health and wellbeing ambassador for men in the building sector. Photograph: Moya Nolan Work hard, play hard For John Boland and many of his colleagues in the early noughties boomtime, the mantra was simple: work hard, play hard. There was definitely a play-hard theme and that was alcohol and cocaine, he says of his time, almost two decades ago, working on some of the biggest sites in the country. That was my experience with several other people. I am an addict, I am clean and sober years but I use it as a present tense. Now 54 and employed in a different sector, Boland spent eight years working on huge projects in the early part of the millennium in Dublin. He says he worked very hard as a ganger man, with long hours and good pay. They were the most enjoyable years ever, he says, but also tough the constant pressures, the work was never-ending. The 12-hour shifts were one thing, but the culture at the time was another. The ego, the age profile it was not a place to express vulnerabilities, that would be seen as a weakness, that would be seen as less manly. As well as the hard hats, he characterises it then as a mask-wearing industry. Boland says he had some difficulties in his childhood and more relationship issues in his adult years, but he began drinking too much and that caused him problems. He recalls that he and his workmates would never want to be seen to bring any problems onto the site. Now a wellbeing ambassador with his company, he tells his story to help others as a mental health advocate, including through Lighthouse on sites. He can see a shift in attitudes. I have been at the last three Lighthouse [annual] charity events in Croke Park, and what I can see now compared to when I worked, its night and day, he says. There is a huge culture change, and it is for the better. Islands are few and far between along the County Wexford coast. There are the mighty Saltees of course, currently hosting a throng of puffins (hopefully). Then there is Tuskar Rock, (the scene of the tragic Aer Lingus crash in 1968), and yet to be visited by this columnist, alas. Off Bannow Bay there are a pair of islands, the Keeraghs, scene of a shipwreck in 1914 when nine lifeboat men on the Helen Blake drowned in an attempt to save the crew of the Norwegian schooner, the Mexico. These islands are just south of the lovely Cullenstown Strand, which brings us neatly to this weeks subject, Cull Island. Stretching between the villages of Cullenstown and Kilmore Quay for about 8km is the magnificent Ballyteige Burrow, a sand-dune system standing about 7m high which protects the mainland from incursions by the sea. It rises and falls like a wave of sand and offers a home to dozens of bird species. Behind the burrow the sea has encroached to make a huge lagoon and in this lagoon at the opposite end to the incursion is found Cull Island. The lagoon fills from the sea in a west to east direction with the tidal range distinct over its length in the few hours it takes to fill. The Governments free schoolbooks scheme is pulling the rug out from under small independent book shops and even putting some out of business. Thats according to independent book shop owners and their representative organisation Booksellers Ireland. Since the rollout of free schoolbooks for all primary school children last September, nine book shops have closed around the country, with some explicitly blaming the free school book scheme. Irish-owned books and stationery retailer Eason claimed last September the scheme cost it 2.5m in loss of revenue last year. Now, industry insiders fear many smaller bookshops will close with the impending expansion of free schoolbooks to 213,000 Junior Cycle students in 672 post-primary schools this September. Its really sad because theyre in small communities and a book shop is great to have, chair of Booksellers Ireland Dawn Behan told the Irish Examiner. Its hard to get one back because nobody makes big money opening a book shop. Most people do it because they love books and they want to encourage reading or give something to their community, she said. The biggest issue for book shops and schools alike is that the Department of Education is putting the onus on schools to organise buying the books, rather than allocating vouchers to parents to buy the books wherever and whenever they want. Chair of Booksellers Ireland Dawn Behan: 'Scheme didnt take into account small businesses, local employment and the relationships between schools and their local book shops.' Booksellers Ireland lobbied the Department of Education for a voucher system but claims they werent interested in that. They just wanted to give the money to the school and let the school look after the procurement. If a school now needs to order books costing over 50,000, which will be the vast majority, they are obliged under EU law to put it out to tender, select a single supplier who must deliver hundreds of books to the school in a once-off delivery, by August, preferably sooner. Small bookshops dont have the cash flow or the manpower to deal with the eTender system. Its a lot of paperwork to respond to a tender in the first place. Even if you get the tender, youre talking about having 50,000 available to buy the books in the first place to deliver to the school and then invoice the school to get the money back. Its taken a lot of people out of the market whether they like it or not, said Behan. It also means less footfall in book shops throughout the summer, something which June Rahilly of Philip's Book Shop in Mallow describes as a crushing blow for shops like hers. Footfall if you dont have it its a crushing blow for shops because the novels, exam papers would have been spun out throughout the year and youd have people coming in and out all the time, youd have teachers ringing down telling you a class needed a novel, students coming in to pick up exam papers and stationery, calculators and youd have a load of summer staff on site there to provide the service. If its all done through e-tenders or quotes it means instead of having 100 families coming in picking up things throughout the year, its just one drop-off at the school, she said. I know from speaking to a lot of other bookshops that theyre not going to go with the e-tendering because its too much for them to take on. If you dont have a big premises or warehouse trying to have all the books for 120 students and deliver them all in one go its massive. Therell be no need for students to come in and pick up fancy stationery or school bags and bits and pieces. The main things that kept a lot of the school bookshops going throughout the rest of the year was their summer trade and its been taken off us. Theyre just pulling the rug out from under us, she said. Its very worrying, theres an awful lot of tenders up on the e-Tenders website and whether theyll get offers from shops or not is anyones guess, she said. Value of local book shops The intangible educational and cultural contribution of a book shop to its local community has not been considered by the Government, June believes. June Rahilly: 'If youre not getting business from the local schools, its very hard to keep the doors open because those three months keep you going for the rest of the year.' Picture: David Keane A school book is the same no matter where you get it from but if you want to keep your local bookshop, your transition year work experience, all the sponsorships throughout the year, World Book Day, all these things small bookshops do. But if youre not getting business from the local schools, its very hard to keep the doors open because those three months keep you going for the rest of the year. It's a totally changing phase for school book sellers and after this year, Id say therell be more closures. "I definitely know of a few bookshops who were selling schoolbooks and theyre just getting out of schoolbooks completely and trying to find other areas to go in to. "If you dont have the business, theres not much else you can do." While the idea certainly eases the financial burden on parents, Dawn Behan also claims the way the scheme has been implemented didnt take into account small businesses, local employment and the relationships between schools and their local book shops. Director of the National Association for Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) Paul Crone also received many suggestions of a voucher scheme from his members. Theyre very worried about the relationships that they had with their local book shops, which were very positive and supportive and collaborative. They are very worried that this will put that person out of business. We did suggest that to the department and it wasnt picked up, he said. Principal of Colaiste Eamann Ris in Cork City Aaron Wolfe has similar concerns. You could have had a great relationship with your local bookshop and now I have to put it on eTenders and maybe they might decide theyre not going to apply to that or they dont have the capacity to apply. Its nuts, he told this newspaper. There is simmering resentment among many of the 728 principals and 1,003 deputy principals tasked with buying the books through eTenders, according to Mr Crone. Our problem is that the schools do not have the expertise nor the capacity to do this. So, whats happening is that principals are having to neglect other tasks to try and get this done. Theres genuine anger among principals that this is being put on them without the specialist capacity in the system, he said. Colaiste Eamann Ris principal Aaron Wolfe: 'The eTenders is farcical.' Picture: Dan Linehan The Department of Education has put supports in place to help schools navigate eTenders through its Schools Procurement Unit, along with funding of up to 16 administration days which staff can use to do the paperwork. But Crone would still argue that despite such support, principals shouldnt be doing this. Theyve more important things to be doing, dealing with students, teaching and learning development, working with staff. Our big call is for specialist administrative support to be given to schools, he said. Ultimately, it will be great for schools because youll know every student will have the correct book in front of them, it promotes equality and inclusion yet to impose that without increasing the capacity of the schools means something else has to lose out to be able to do it, he said. Whats coming down the road is the free school meals project, thats going to involve a procurement process and logistics as well. Thats not the principals job either, he added. As head of almost 800 pupils, Aaron Wolfe is scathing in his view of the Government forcing schools to organise the provision of schoolbooks, despite the obvious benefits. As a parent myself, Im delighted school books are free. But eTenders is farcical because who on earth in Europe is going to apply to supply my school? Hardly a German supplier will say oh well supply the books to Colaiste Eamann Ris in Cork city. It was nonsense to put it on eTenders, he said. Mr Wolfe is lucky because he has two deputy principals, unlike most schools. My heart goes out to anyone who has just one deputy because theyre having to do it themselves, it is so complex. It was landed on us very, very late and in a voluntary secondary school, you have to do it yourself. "We have to do this in a very short time because the State exams are coming. The difference between the quotations is huge. There was a 10,000 difference between stationery quotes. Its nuts. Theres massive disparities between the quotes. "Now were having to go and get samples of the stationery. Principals generally try to get July off and get our holidays but youve to have the books all lined up now to come in August, how theyre going to be packaged, whether the supplier will deliver each box. I have 140 first years, not to mention my second years and third years theres huge work for it, said Mr Wolfe. A Department of Education spokesperson said having schools organise books rather than giving vouchers to parents was the best way to guarantee every child received the free school books. There are also concerns suppliers will even be able to provide all the books in time. It's putting a lot of pressure on school book suppliers to get a lot done in a small time. On this scale, that they all need to be delivered at the same time to the schools, I cant see it working, it just seems impossible, said Behan. Could some teachers be facing students with no books in front of them come September? Youd hope not but youd wonder will the publishers be able to get the books out on time? If every school needs the same number of books, will there be enough in time? wonders Wolfe. By rights they need to put administrative positions in schools to handle these large-scale things because the core business of the principal is meant to be teaching and learning. I do feel in this country we are getting further and further away from teaching and learning. And thats not good for education. In response, a Department of Education spokesperson said having schools organise books rather than giving vouchers to parents was the best way to guarantee every child received the free school books. They refuted the scheme was resulting in book shop closures which they said were a result of many other factors affecting retailers, such as rising costs and competition from online book stores. They also insisted schools with little experience of the eTenders process were being offered significant additional guidance and support by a dedicated support team, admin grants and materials such as procurement guides, webinars and training videos. The Sanctuary Runners, the Irish solidarity-through-sport movement, is urging the public to join its new project, designed to show solidarity for those living in forced displacement and extreme poverty. The Global Solidarity Run, which takes place on October 19, aims to see one million people join together across the globe, either running, walking or jogging. The initiative was officially launched on Friday during an international conference on displacement hosted by the UNHCR in Geneva and attended by delegates from almost 40 countries, including Ireland. The run is backed by the Department of Foreign Affairs as one of several initiatives to mark the 50th anniversary of the Irish Aid programme. The ambitious project is also supported by the Ireland Funds and worldwide sporting software platform Strava. This mornings launch was attended by the Ambassador of Ireland to the United Nations, Noel White. Minister of State for International Development and Diaspora, Sean Fleming, described the Global Solidarity Run as an opportunity to mark the great work Irish Aid has done with displaced people and those living in poverty over the last five decades. For 50 years, Irish Aid has been working with partners around the world to create a more equal, peaceful and sustainable world. To mark this anniversary, Irish Aid is supporting the Global Solidarity Run, he said. Graham Clifford, founder and head of international development with Sanctuary Runners, who was in Geneva on Friday for the launch, said the run will see people across the world take part in a unique moment to express their support for creating a better world. The support of Strava means people can take part virtually wherever they are but we will have organised runs too including amongst our network of 40 Sanctuary Runner groups in Ireland, he said. We will start the days events on the Pacific islands of French Polynesia and work westwards, through Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe, and onto the Americas and we will track the day in real time online, sharing images from across the globe. "It will be one team running, jogging, walking or rolling together on one day. To find out more about the Global Solidarity Run visit: Ireland.ie/globalrun A dangerous sexual predator was jailed for seven years with the final six months suspended after being convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman. Denis ODonovan, aged 38, a father of one, from Ballyryan, Donohill, Co Tipperary, had pleaded not guilty to five criminal offences at his trial last April. However a jury found him guilty of four offences, including one count of false imprisonment, two counts of sexual assault, one count of assault causing harm. The jury failed to reach a verdict on one alleged sexual assault. Limerick Circuit Criminal Court heard ODonovan drove to the womans house, situated in an isolated rural area of Co Limerick, on the night of January 17, 2020, and knocked on the front door of her property. When the woman opened the door there was nobody there but when she went to investigate the presence of a car with its engine running and its headlights on in the front yard, ODonovan pulled her into the car. ODonovan drove himself and the woman at speed to an isolated lay-by where he sexually assaulted her while choking her in his car. ODonovan put his arm around her [the womans] throat and flung her between two seats, she was terrified, Judge Dermot Sheahan said. She was crying and shouting and praying to god that he [ODonovan] would stop, she said she thought she was going to die. Judge Sheehan said ODonovan used significant violence during the sexual attack on the woman. He clearly impeded the victim during the sexual assaults, which occurred while he was choking the victim. The victim was terrified and that trauma has stayed with her. The judge said ODonovan restrained and choked the victim while sexually assaulting her. The attacks were degrading and humiliating for the victim, as ODonovan used force to restrain her as he choked her and manhandled her. Terrified, the woman eventually made her escape when ODonovan was repositioning himself in the car during the attack. The victim suffered bruising to her throat and private parts in the attacks as well as cuts and scars when she jumped into a ditch and hid from ODonovan. After the coast was clear, the woman made her way home and alerted the emergency services who quickly responded. Lily Buckley, prosecuting, said ODonovan kept the victim in his car against her will, pulled down her underwear and repeatedly sexually assaulted her. After his arrest, during Garda questioning, ODonovan immediately placed himself at the womans house, but wrongly claimed he was there to drop off cannabis. He was eventually charged after forensic tests resulted in his DNA being found in salvia discharge found on clothing worn by the woman on the night. DNA results provided in court from tests conducted by Forensic Science Ireland had strongly supported the prosecutions case. ODonovan, who has an addiction to alcohol, had consumed five pints of stout and four cans of cider prior to calling to the womans home. Reading a victim impact statement to the court, the woman said it had been an absolutely terrifying, traumatising, degrading and disgusting ordeal. I was dragged into his car, driven at speed down the road, and had to try to escape by jumping out of a moving car, only for him to grab me with both hands, choking me violently, pinning me down with one hand on my throat while he sexually assaulted me in a disgusting, degrading way. No words can ever fully describe the absolute terror of being choked, and believing I was going to die. After the attack I couldn't eat or sleep, I used to stay awake at night listening for fear of him returning. A year after the attack, I couldn't cope with the trauma anymore. I was suicidal and was going to kill myself, I had it all planned, I had a breakdown and ended up in hospital, spending weeks in a secure mental health unit. I have suffered panic attacks, flashbacks and nightmares since the attack on an almost daily basis, and I became confined to home because the fear and panic was overwhelming. I changed from being a happy confident person who loved the outdoors, hiking and walking to not being able to leave my house for years. has taken everything I enjoyed about life away from me. After all of this, for him to put me through a trial which was so daunting, as I had never been to court in my life before all of this, to have to sit and listen to his outrageous and disgusting lies, felt like another attack. He has taken years of my life that I will never get back. He may be going to jail, but I feel like I've been in jail the last four years. The physical injuries from that night have healed, but the trauma will stay with me for the rest of my life. It has been an incredibly difficult and dark time in my life, but today I am a stronger person for surviving everything he [ODonovan] has done to me and I refuse to let him destroy the rest of my life. The judge lifted reporting restrictions in respect of ODonovan on May 17, after the woman said she wanted people to know his name and what he had done. The woman told the judge: He is a dangerous sexual predator and everyone should know his name. ODonovan, who had 39 previous convictions, was on bail at the time for aggravated burglary and criminal damage in which he smashed his way into another womans house using an axe, and chased her upstairs, but left the house without harming the woman as she was not the intended target, and for which he later received a three year suspended sentence. Judge Sheehan said ODonovan had been hugely impacted by the death of his mother when he was four years old, and his family were still prepared to support him when he gets out of prison. After passing sentence, Judge Sheahan said O'Donovan must attend an alcohol rehab course to deal with an addiction to alcohol. The judge said he was not imposing a post release supervision order. He placed ODonovan on a sex offenders register for an indefinite period. A Cork musician plans to bring the craic back across Ireland helping musicians tour again by converting a van into accommodation and an outdoor gig venue. Aine Duffy, who previously created the Duffbox by turning an old donkey box into a mobile gig venue so she could continue to tour her music safely during pandemic restrictions, said that the housing crisis and cost of living is now stopping many musicians from touring. The pandemic also closed multiple music venues. So she is expanding her donkeybox-as-gig-venue idea into Duffbox 2.0 by renovating a van which can be used by musicians for both accommodation and transport when touring in Ireland. It can also be used by venues to host outdoor gigs with its retractable stage, stretch tent, and heat lamps. As a touring original musician myself I understand the downfalls and obstacles we face, she said. These include prohibitive accommodation costs, high overheads associated with live performance such as venue hire, travel and sustenance costs; childcare; access to airplay; and time to write. She also said that the capitalist nature of the music industry creates fashions that inhibit individuality and creative expression. Mobile music unit Colleagues have told her they cannot afford to perform more than two gigs a year due to the associated travel and accommodation costs. My solution is to professionally convert a box van into a multifunctional mobile music unit, which will provide accommodation, cooking facilities, and WC to keep costs of a touring musician to a minimum. Vitally this vehicle will have an innovative in-built stage to enable outdoor gigs as trialled successfully with the prototype Duffbox. This will also allow musicians to travel to more rural venues, creating something special for people to go to in some of the most beautiful places in Ireland. Ms Duffy is fundraising for 15,000 to help with the costs of buying the van and transforming it into a mobile musician hotel and gig venue. We live in the most beautiful country, she said. But culture, music, stories, and song need to be kept alive. Venues also have a backlog of acts since the pandemic. "This could allow them to boost numbers of shows to meet their commitments. I want to inspire musicians to tour again with ease and excitement and fall in love with our beautiful county and what it has to offer, from characters to scenery. And live music lifts peoples spirits, it brings people together, it creates community. We need that cameraderie more than ever now." Ms Duffy previously created the Duffbox after she found an old donkey box for sale and turned it into a mobile gig venue, with its own stage and sound system from which she could safely perform outdoor gigs during the pandemic. She also built her own tiny home after struggling to find somewhere to live during the housing crisis. Ms Duffy will also begin a monthly radio show playing Irish musicians called Blas to promote and protect Irelands rich musical ecosystem on overthewestonlineradio.com. To donate go to: Fundraiser by Aine Duffy: The Duffbox , BRINGING THE CRAIC BACK, music revolution! (gofundme.com) A dog which had attacked two people at a house in a Cork City suburb was shot dead by armed gardai on Thursday evening. The incident happened in Ballyphehane at around 5.20pm when the dog a pit bull terrier attacked two people at a premises in the Connolly Road area. It is understood that the dog first attacked a woman as she walked towards the rear of the property, before attacking a man who had come to the woman's aid. Upon arriving at the scene, Togher gardai and the Armed Response Unit (ARU) engaged with the animals owner and, after a number of unsuccessful attempts to sedate it, the decision was made for the ARU shoot the dog. The animal was subsequently euthanized by a local vet. The man and a woman who were attacked were taken to Cork University Hospital for medical assessment and treatment. The extent of their injures is not known at this time. They are believed to be the dog's owners. Pit bull terriers are one of 11 breeds of dogs on the Restricted Breed List (RBL). Thursday's incident was the second this week in which a dog had to be shot after attacking someone. On Tuesday, 23-year-old Nicole O'Donnell Morey died after being attacked by a dog at her home in Ballyneety, Co Limerick. Ms O'Donnell Morey, a Limerick City native, had been celebrating her birthday in the hours before the incident. After arriving on the scene, gardai said they encountered a number of aggressive dogs. The main dog involved in the attack, understood to have been an XL bully, was shot by gardai. Three other dogs that were at the house were taken into the custody of a dog warden. All were subsequently destroyed. An investigation into Ms O'Donnell Morey's death is ongoing and gardai are appealing for information. Anyone with information is asked to contact Roxboro Road Garda Station on (061) 214 340, the Garda Confidential line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda station. The sale of one of Irelands most iconic specialty food brands, Arbutus Breads, sees owners Declan and Patsy Ryan hang up the aprons for the very last time, ending one of the most storied careers in modern Irish food. Arbutus Bread lovers and the bakery's 18 staff members can rest easy as new Dublin-based owners, The Bretzel Trading Company, have every intention of ensuring the continued operation of one of Cork's most renowned food businesses. The principal reason for the sale is the march of time, with Mr Ryan having endured a litany of health challenges in recent years that have spurred him into retirement. Next July, Ill be 81. The knees are gone and there are a few more things broken, said Mr Ryan. And the opportunity to work with Bretzel offered continuity, and even the chance to improve the operation, and we have admired what they were doing for a number of years. "I looked at their bakery in Dublin before we opened [the current bakery] and they sent bakers down here, so theres been a mutual admiration there. Declan Ryan: 'The opportunity to work with Bretzel offered continuity'. File picture: Dan Linehan At the outset of his career, Mr Ryan studied hotel management and cheffing in London and France including stints with legendary chefs Paul Bocuse and Jean Troisgro. In 1970, he and wife Patsy took over Arbutus Lodge and four years later, the hotel restaurant received the first ever Michelin Star in Ireland along with Dublins Russell Hotel, which subsequently lost it the following year. Having been joined by brother Michael and Michaels wife Catherine now co-owners of Isaacs, another iconic Leeside restaurant Arbutus Lodge held the star until 1983. It regained it again in 1987, while also gaining a star for another family enterprise, the Cashel Palace Hotel, in 1982-1983. The Irish food landscape was infinitely bleaker in 1974 and as Mr Ryan said in 2013, winning what is undoubtedly one of the most prestigious accolades in international fine dining did not cause quite the same stir on home turf as it would now. It came as a shock to us, Mr Ryan recalled in the Irish Examiner. But Michelin wasn't in the Irish consciousness at the time we probably got page 4 in the [then Cork] Examiner. It wasn't a big deal. These things were taken far more seriously in Britain than in Ireland at the time. In Ireland there was an egalitarian feeling that this kind of thing was only for the privileged. While we were busting a gut and certainly weren't privileged, it was very hard to do what we were doing cheaply. The Ryan's sold Arbutus Lodge in 1999 but Mr Ryan wasnt done yet with food and began baking sourdough breads in his garage. He would go on to reinvent himself as an artisan baker, the first in Ireland to produce commercial sourdough bread. Declan Ryan would go on to reinvent himself as an artisan baker in 1999. File picture: Dan Linehan Selling them primarily in the farmers markets, he later moved into a bespoke bakery where he was soon turning out 2,000 loaves a night of traditional handmade sourdough breads along with their very popular brown bread, which is still made to this day using his grandmothers original recipe. His innovation and success with Arbutus Bread inspired a new wave of younger Irish bakers determined to move away from the industrialised model instead opting to produce deeply flavoursome sourdough loaves using just flour, water, salt and extended fermentation times of up to 24 hours. Mr Ryan was one of the original six founding members of Real Bread Ireland in January 2015 which now has over 300 bakery members in the 32 counties of Ireland producing traditional handmade artisan sourdoughs, breads and pastries, transforming much of the offering now available in the national bread basket. The original Bretzel Bakery was established in 1870 and taken over by William Despard in 2000. He and Mr Ryan soon established a mutually supportive professional and personal relationship. Multi-award winning Bretzel currently operates from its original shop in Portobello, with two additional bakeries in Dublin and Kildare. They supply a diverse range of artisanal breads and pastries to both retail and trade customers, and Mr Despard is keen to continue their shared ethos around baking and selling breads. The reason for this sale is that Declan and I are really good friends since I bought Bretzel back in Christmas 2000," said Mr Despard. "He was like a father figure to me when I first started, taking my bakers down to Cork under his tutelage, and there is no doubting the attractiveness of the Arbutus Breads business, there is a fantastic synergy between the two companies and we were delighted when they approached us about the sale. Future plans are to keep it exactly as it is, like I did with Bretzel for the first half a dozen years, and keep all the good quality fermentation that is so good for the health of the nation, nurturing its position in Cork and making it as good as I possibly can in the South West of Ireland. It set pulses racing when it was sold earlier this year to British billionaire Janes Dyson for a staggering 30m. Now, the already-salubrious Ballynatray House, on the banks of the River Blackwater, is getting ready for a makeover. The house, which sits on an 850-acre estate on the Cork-Wateford border, has been almost completely encased in scaffolding and screening, as Dyson one of Britain's richest men awaits planning approval. Details of planned renovation The application, which was lodged with Waterford City and County Council on May 22, seeks to carry out roof alterations, stone chimney rebuilding, removal of a non-historic external staircase, and window replacements. The house, which is a protected structured, has an astonishing 350 windows. An earlier photo of Ballynatray House on the Waterford-Cork border gives an indication of the stately home's grandeur. File picture: Denis Scannell Internal alterations include new mechanical and electrical installations, insulation works, and floor restorations. While the council's decision is scheduled for July 17, an estimated 100 workers have already arrived on the scene, many of whom are employees of Northern Ireland company Curramore Construction Ltd. All workers are bound to non-disclosure agreements. Billionaire businessman James Dyson set a new record for Irelands biggest-ever private house sale when he purchased Ballinatray House on the River Blackwater earlier this year. File picture The renovation works are seen as giving economic leg-up for Youghal, which is just 5km downriver, with local services contracted and townspeople recruited for security duties and other tasks. 'Good news for the town' Youghal Business Alliance chairman Ger Flanagan, who runs a printing business, said he has received "several orders for stationery and signage" as a direct result of the renovations. Mr Flanagan also owns two coffee shops, where he also reports an upsurge in trade. "It's very good news for the town", he said. Cafes and pubs across the board are experiencing a very welcome boost. We very much welcome these new visitors, including Mr Dyson and his family, he adds. Colin Doyle, the proprietor of JD's pub said: "We had some workers from Northern Ireland in for a drink last weekend and there is a noticeable increase in strange faces around since the renovations began. Everything points towards a benefit for the town, which is needed more than ever this year due to Ironman's absence. Ballynatray was sold by its owner, London and Waterford-based Henry Gwyn-Jones, who doubled its lands to 850 acres after buying it 20 years ago for over 11m. Its 30m price tag makes it one of Ireland's most expensive properties. Some estimates place Dysons personal and family fortunes at over 20bn, and he owns extensive farms and estates in the English shires, along with homes in London, France, and Singapore, as well as a 300ft superyacht. Amanda Knox has told Italian TV that she was surprised by a Florence appeals courts decision to find her guilty of slander in light of a European court ruling that police who took her confession had violated her human rights. I will fight for the truth, Ms Knox told Sky TG24 in her first public comments since the guilty verdict on Wednesday. Its been 17 years that I have been unjustly accused. Ms Knox was a 20-year-old exchange student in the university town of Perugia in November 2007 when she and her then-Italian boyfriend were accused of murdering her housemate, 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher, who was found dead in the apartment they shared. Meredith Kercher was murdered in 2007 (Family handout/PA) After years of flip-flop trials, they were both exonerated in 2015, but the slander conviction endured against Ms Knox for wrongly accusing an innocent man, the Congolese bar owner who employed her part-time. She served four years in prison before being freed on an earlier acquittal in 2011, covering the three-year slander sentence. Another man, Rudy Hermann Guede of Ivory Coast, was convicted of killing Ms Kercher and served 13 years of a 16-year sentence. Ms Knox, now 36, appeared in the Florence court on Wednesday when she was reconvicted of slandering bar owner Patrick Lumumba, who was held for two weeks on suspicion of murder before police released him with an iron-clad alibi. Amanda Knox was 20 years old when she was initially accused of killing Ms Kercher she was completely exonerated years later (AP) Italys highest court ordered the retrial after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that her human rights had been violated during a long night of questioning without a lawyer or competent translator, when she accused Mr Lumumba in two statements typed by police that she signed. The high court stipulated that the Florence appeals panel could not consider the two signed documents, but only four handwritten pages penned by Ms Knox the next afternoon in a bid to walk back the statements. There is one document in question, that we can all read, and the message of this document is: I dont know who killed Meredith. I thought I was extremely clear, Ms Knox said, in fluent Italian. Ms Knox insists that she only named Mr Lumumba under extreme police pressure. I was abused, mistreated, psychologically tortured by police that night, Ms Knox said in the TV interview. It was the worst experience of my life. It was worse than being convicted, to tell the truth, because they made me think I was crazy, that I couldnt trust myself. US President Joe Biden has publicly apologised to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky over a months-long holdup in American military assistance that allowed Russia to make gains on the battlefield. Speaking in Paris, where they both attended ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, Mr Biden told Mr Zelenskyy that he apologised to the Ukrainian people for the weeks of not knowing if more assistance would come while congress waited six months before sending the US leader a $61bn military aid package for Ukraine. Mr Biden insisted that the American people were standing by Ukraine for the long-haul. He said: Were still in. Completely. Thoroughly. The United States is by far Kyivs biggest supplier of wartime support, and Ukraine is trying to fend off an intense Russian offensive in eastern areas of the country. The push is focused on the Ukrainian border regions of Kharkiv and Donetsk but Ukrainian officials say it could spread as Russias bigger army seeks to make its advantage tell. The offensive is seeking to exploit Kyivs shortages of ammunition and troops along the roughly 620-mile front line. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky looks at military vehicles (Michel Euler/AP) That shortfall in weaponry came after US military aid was held up in Congress for six months before Mr Biden in April signed the $61b US dollar package into law. The slow pace of delivery of pledged Western weaponry has long frustrated Mr Zelenskyy, as has Mr Bidens hesitation over supplying more hardware for fear of provoking Russian President Vladimir Putin. That has caused tension in their relationship. The US will send about 225 million US dollars in military aid to Ukraine, US officials said. The latest package includes munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or Himars, as well as mortar systems and an array of artillery rounds, officials said. Easing their stance amid Russias most recent onslaught and with Ukraines army reeling, some Nato allies including the US said last week they would allow Ukraine to use weapons they deliver to Kyiv to carry out limited attacks inside Russia. That step brought a furious response from the Kremlin, which warned that Europes biggest conflict since the Second World War could spin out of control. Mr Biden and Mr Zelenskyy attended the 80th anniversary events of D-Day in Normandy, northern France, on Thursday, along with European leaders who have supported Kyivs efforts in the war. Mr Biden pledged we will not walk away from Ukraine, drawing a direct line from the fight to liberate Europe from Nazi domination to todays war against Russian aggression. Ukraine depicts its fight against the Kremlins forces as a clash between Western democratic freedom and Russian tyranny. Russia says it is defending itself against a menacing eastward expansion of the Nato military alliance. In a 20-minute speech on Friday at the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament, Mr Zelenskyy drew a parallel with the sacrifices made during the Second World War and his countrys current fight. This battle is a crossroads, Mr Zelenskyy said. A moment where we can now write history the way we need it. Or we can become victims of history as it suits our enemy. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses the National Assembly (Thomas Padilla/AP) Mr Zelenskyy, who spoke in Ukrainian, was frequently interrupted by politicians applause and cheers. He prompted a standing ovation when he said in French: Dear France, I thank you for standing by our side as we defend life. French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, announced late Thursday that France will provide Ukraine with its Mirage combat aircraft. Mr Macron has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine. He said in February that putting Western troops on the ground in Ukraine is not ruled out. Mr Zelenskyy began a day of meetings in Paris with an official welcome ceremony at the golden-domed Invalides monument, site of Napoleons tomb. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a military honour ceremony, Friday, June 7, 2024 at the Invalides monument (Sophie Garcia/AP) During the day, Mr Zelenskyy was due to visit the Nexter arms manufacturer in Versailles, which makes the Caesar self-propelled howitzers that are among the weapons provided by France to Kyivs forces. He was also to meet with Mr Macron at the Elysee Palace. Mr Zelenskyys foreign trips aim to keep Ukraines plight in the public eye, secure more military help for its fight against Russias invasion and lock in long-term Western support through bilateral alliances. France and Ukraine in February signed a 10-year bilateral security agreement. Mr Zelenskyy has since signed similar bilateral agreements with many European countries. The family of Julian Assange has welcomed more support from US politicians for an end to the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder. The Australian remains in Belmarsh prison in London as he continues his campaign not to be sent to the US, where he fears spending the rest of his life in jail. President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia will consider sending weapons to adversaries of the West, repeating a warning made days earlier. He did not specify where such arms might be sent, saying only that they might be states or even other legal entities that face certain pressure, including military (pressure), from those countries that send weapons to Ukraine and urge it to use it against us, against the Russian territory. He also stressed that Moscow is not doing it currently. If they supply (weapons) to the combat zone and call for using these weapons against our territory, why dont we have the right to do the same? Mr Putin said at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. But Im not ready to say that we will be doing it tomorrow, either. Russias President Vladimir Putin, Bolivias President Luis Arce, and Zimbabwes President Emmerson Mnangagwa (Anton Vaganov/AP) Earlier, Mr Putin said that the Russian economy is growing despite heavy international sanctions and the country has expanded economic ties with countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, as he sought to court investors at the forum. The event has been used by Russia for decades as a showcase for touting the countrys development, though Western officials and investors have steered clear of the session since sanctions cut off much of Russias trade with Western Europe, the US and their allies. Addressing the presidents of Bolivia and Zimbabwe and business leaders, Mr Putin said Russia remains one of the key participants in world trade, despite the fact that the country is under sweeping sanctions for sending troops into Ukraine. The main driver of Russias economic growth is the fighting in Ukraine now as important to the Kremlin economically as it is politically. Russians are finding a few imported staples, and most global brands have disappeared or been reincarnated as Russian equivalents. But not much else has changed economically for most people, with massive state spending for military equipment and hefty payments to volunteer soldiers giving a strong boost to the economy. Mr Putin has heavily controlled his media appearances since sending his forces into Ukraine but he took questions on Wednesday from international journalists, including some from Western countries he has criticised, on the sidelines of the forum. At that meeting, Mr Putin warned that Russia could provide long-range weapons to others to strike Western targets in response to Nato allies allowing Ukraine to use their arms to attack Russian territory. He also reaffirmed Moscows readiness to use nuclear weapons if it sees a threat to its sovereignty. Last year, journalists from countries that Russia regards as unfriendly including the US, the UK and the European Union were not invited to the forum. 1371138342::cfb49c8e-2422-11e5-99a3-d7f5c6e8b241 A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more. Airburst Munitions Used Unlawfully in Populated Areas Human Rights Watch (Beirut) Israels widespread use of white phosphorus in south Lebanon is putting civilians at grave risk and contributing to civilian displacement, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch verified the use of white phosphorus munitions by Israeli forces in at least 17 municipalities across south Lebanon since October 2023, including 5 municipalities where airburst munitions were unlawfully used over populated residential areas. White phosphorus is a chemical substance dispersed in artillery shells, bombs, and rockets that ignites when exposed to oxygen. Its incendiary effects inflict death or cruel injuries that result in lifelong suffering. It can set homes, agricultural areas, and other civilian objects on fire. Under international humanitarian law, the use of airburst white phosphorus is unlawfully indiscriminate in populated areas and otherwise does not meet the legal requirement to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm. Israels use of airburst white phosphorus munitions in populated areas indiscriminately harms civilians and has led many to leave their homes, said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. Israel forces should immediately stop using white phosphorus munitions in populated areas, especially when less-harmful alternatives are readily available. Human Rights Watch interviewed eight south Lebanon residents and verified and geolocated 47 photos and videos from south Lebanon posted on social media or shared directly with researchers indicating the use of white phosphorus munitions. In five municipalities, photos and videos show airburst munitions containing white phosphorus landing on top of residential buildings in the southern Lebanese border villages of Kafr Kila, Mays al-Jabal, Boustane, Markaba, and Aita al-Chaab. The mayor of Boustane said that two people from the village had to be rushed to the hospital as a result of asphyxiation from inhaling white phosphorus smoke following the attack on October 15. These are civilians, who were both in their houses, the mayor said. One was a member of the municipality, and the other was a farmer. People told Human Rights Watch that the use of white phosphorus in populated areas in south Lebanon contributed to the displacement of residents from several villages at the Lebanon-Israel border. Al Jazeera Video: Israel using white phosphorus in Gaza, Lebanon, endangering civilians: Amnesty Lebanons Ministry of Public Health said that, as of May 28, exposure to white phosphorus had injured at least 173 people since October. Human Rights Watch did not obtain evidence of any burn injuries resulting from the use of white phosphorus munitions but heard accounts indicating possible respiratory damage. The most severe effects of white phosphorus are the dermal or skin effects, which can include second and third degree burns that can lead to very significant, deep necrotic and full thickness burns, said Dr. Tharwat Zahran, a medical toxicologist and assistant professor of emergency medicine at the American University of Beirut. Exposure to white phosphorus smoke could [also] lead to acute upper respiratory damages including shortness of breath, fast breathing, [and] coughing, but it could also have delayed effects, [including] chemical pneumonitis, which might require hospitalization and respiratory support through a machine. Israels widespread use of white phosphorus in south Lebanon highlights the need for stronger international law on incendiary weapons, Human Rights Watch said. Protocol III of the Convention on Conventional Weapons is the only legally binding instrument dedicated specifically to incendiary weapons. Lebanon is party to Protocol III, while Israel is not. Protocol III applies to weapons that are primarily designed to set fires or cause burns, and thus excludes certain multipurpose munitions with incendiary effects, notably those containing white phosphorus. In addition, it has weaker regulations for the use in concentrations of civilians of ground-launched incendiary weapons like the ones used in Lebanon than air-dropped incendiary weapons, even though they produce the same horrific injuries. Concentrations of civilians is defined broadly to encompass populated areas ranging from villages to refugee camps to cities. Human Rights Watch and many countries have long called for closing these loopholes in Protocol III and creating international norms that better protect civilians from the harm caused by incendiary weapons. At a national level, Israel should prohibit all use of airburst white phosphorus munitions in populated areas because it puts civilians at risk of indiscriminate attacks. There are available alternatives to white phosphorus in smoke shells, including some produced by Israeli companies, such as the M150 smoke projectile, which the Israeli army has used for its forces in the past as an obscurant, a means of hindering the visibility of its forces. These alternatives can have the same effect and dramatically reduce the harm to civilians. Lebanon should promptly file a declaration with the International Criminal Court (ICC), enabling the investigation and prosecution of grave international crimes within the courts jurisdiction on Lebanese territory since October 2023. Stronger international standards against the use of white phosphorus are needed to ensure these weapons do not continue to endanger civilians, Kaiss said. Israels recent use of white phosphorus in Lebanon should motivate other countries to take immediate action toward this goal. Click to expand Image 2024 Human Rights Watch White Phosphorus Use in Armed Conflict White phosphorus can be used as a military tool to obscure, mark, or signal, or as a weapon to smoke out enemy forces. Concerns over its use in populated areas are amplified given the indiscriminate technique shown in videos of air-bursting white phosphorus projectiles, which spread 116 burning felt wedges impregnated with the substance over an area between 125 and 250 meters in diameter, depending on the altitude and angle of the burst, exposing more civilians and civilian structures to potential harm than a localized ground burst. White phosphorus ignites when exposed to atmospheric oxygen and continues to burn until it is deprived of oxygen or is exhausted. Its chemical reaction can create intense heat (about 815C/1,500F), light, and smoke. White phosphorus that contacts people can burn down to the bone. Fragments of white phosphorus can exacerbate wounds even after treatment and can enter the bloodstream and cause multiple organ failures. Already dressed wounds can reignite when dressings are removed and the wounds are reexposed to oxygen. Even relatively minor burns are often fatal. For survivors, extensive scarring tightens muscle tissue and creates physical disabilities. The trauma of the attack, the painful treatment that follows, and appearance-changing scars lead to psychological harm and social exclusion. Rocket and missile attacks and armed clashes between the Israeli military and various Lebanese armed groups, including Hezbollah, have continued since October 8, the day after the Hamas-led attack by Palestinian armed groups in southern Israel killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to the Israeli government. As of May 29, at least 36,171 Palestinians have been killed amid heavy bombardment and military operations in Gaza by Israeli forces since October 7. Human Rights Watch has documented the Israeli militarys use of artillery-fired white phosphorus in south Lebanon and Gaza in October 2023, in addition to previous hostilities in Gaza, including in 2009. Human Rights Watch previously verified the use of artillery-fired white phosphorus munitions in south Lebanon on October 10 in two locations near the Israel-Lebanon border and in Gaza City. On October 12, the Israeli military spokesman denied the use of white phosphorus munitions in south Lebanon and in Gaza during a CNN interview. On October 30, Amnesty International found that that an October 16 attack on the Lebanese border village of Dhayra using white phosphorus munitions was an indiscriminate attack that injured at least nine civilians and damaged civilian objects. The attack included use of US-supplied white phosphorus munitions, according to the Washington Post, which carried out its own investigation. The Israeli military said that its main smoke shells do not contain white phosphorus, but stated that similar to many Western armies, the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] also has smoke shells that contain white phosphorus and the choice to use them is influenced by operational considerations and availability compared to alternatives. The military further said that such munitions are intended for smokescreens, and not for an attack or ignition. The dispersal of felt wedges from white phosphorus munitions, as observed in photos and videos reviewed by Human Rights Watch, are consistent with artillery-fired projectiles reportedly used by the Israeli military in both Gaza and south Lebanon. As of May 29, Israeli attacks in Lebanon since October 2023 have reportedly killed at least 88 civilians, in addition to more than 300 fighters, according to media reports. Attacks in Israel by Hezbollah and armed Palestinian groups in Lebanon since October 2023 have reportedly killed at least 11 civilians and 14 soldiers. More than 93,000 people have been displaced from their homes in south Lebanon and at least 80,000 people have been displaced from northern Israel. Methodology Human Rights Watch researchers reviewed over 100 photos and videos posted on social media and shared by journalists, news agencies, and residents of south Lebanon, in addition to footage shared directly with researchers. Researchers identified use of white phosphorus munitions in 47 of these photos and videos, then geolocated those photos and videos to confirm their locations and, when possible, precisely identify the area where the burst felt wedges impregnated with white phosphorus had landed. Human Rights Watch also spoke to eight south Lebanon residents, including the head of the union of agricultural workers in south Lebanon, a schoolteacher, two photographers working in the region, a rescue worker with the Lebanese Civil Defense, and the mayors of Kafr Kila, Mays al-Jabal, and Boustane. Human Rights Watch also spoke to a medical toxicologist in Beirut. On May 22, Human Rights Watch sent a letter with findings and questions concerning the use of white phosphorus to the Israeli military but has not received a response. Documented Use in Populated Areas Through its analysis of verified videos and photos, Human Rights Watch identified the use of white phosphorus munitions in 17 municipalities across south Lebanon since October 2023. This includes five municipalities where airburst munitions were used over populated areas. In videos and photos posted on social media or published by news agencies from the villages of Boustane on October 15, from Kafr Kila on November 12, January 14 and January 31, from Mays al-Jabal on November 12, from Markaba on March 4, and Aita al-Chaab on April 3, burning felt wedges visibly landed directly on top of residential buildings. Human Rights Watch was unable to determine whether there were military targets in areas where Israeli forces used white phosphorus munitions in south Lebanon. The mayor of Boustane said that nearly all residents had still been living in the village when it was attacked. During the first week of the war almost all 900 residents of Boustane were still in the village, he said. After two weeks, almost 700 people were left. [] Then we had only around 14 families. [] Gradually they kept decreasing, and now there are only four people left. Data collected by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for the period between October 10 to 15 indicates that displacement from the village was minimal until the date of the attack. When Boustane was attacked on October 15, virtually all of the population remained in the village. In Mays al-Jabal, the mayor of the village, Abdelmonem Choucair, said that around 25 people, all civilians, were sent to hospitals because of white phosphorus during the first months of the war. Human Rights Watch verified photos and videos showing white phosphorus munitions being used in Mays al-Jabal in videos and photos posted on social media on November 12 and December 5. The use of the white phosphorus munitions in Mays al-Jabal pushed people out of the village and turned it into a military zone, Choucair said. The mayor of Kafr Kila said that he estimates that at the time of the white phosphorus attack in November, about 50 to 70 percent of the residents were still living there. People stayed in their houses, although they would leave for some time and then come back, he said. But from January onwards, the village started emptying out. It was the use of white phosphorus and also the direct strikes on residential houses that pushed people to leave. Human Rights Watch verified photos and videos shared by news agencies or posted on social media on October 17, November 12, January 14, January 31, and March 2 showing white phosphorus munitions being used in Kafr Kila. A photographer said that after inhaling smoke from white phosphorus munitions used in an attack in Kafr Kila, he stayed in bed, sleeping, for two days. To this day, my wife tells me I still have a cough. At one point I had to get closer to the white phosphorus smoke to get out of the village because the phosphorus was on the outskirts, the man said. I had my windows open while driving, and the smoke went into the car. Im not sure what happened but Im sure that I inhaled [] I felt my stomach turning. My throat, lungs, and stomach felt awful. I got diarrhea that night. After that I couldnt eat for a while, for about five days or so. Ramiz Dallah, a photographer from south Lebanon, who shared footage he took of white phosphorus attacks on the village of Shebaa, which Human Rights Watch verified, said that after one attack in December the smoke from the shells covered portions of the Shebaa valley and the village itself. Many people started getting scared of buying anything from the village or from the south because theyre afraid it may have been hit with [white] phosphorus, he said. People didnt want to buy produce from our village. Ive smelled and inhaled white phosphorus when they struck Shebaa. All this smoke inside my body I dont know what its effects are going to be on the long term. Dr. Zahran, the medical toxicologist, said that doctors found in some cases that people who went to check on their houses had secondary exposure where they experienced respiratory symptoms due to inhalation of white phosphorus that was still burning and present in the impacted area. Israels Policy on White Phosphorus Use In 2013, the Israeli armed forces announced that they were developing new smoke shells without white phosphorus. The military said that it would nonetheless use and stockpile its white phosphorus munitions until it had sufficient alternatives but said that [d]epending on the outcome of this development process, the new shells are intended to gradually replace the current smoke shells as the primary means employed by the IDF for screening purposes. The move to develop alternatives came after Israels Operation Cast Lead in Gaza from December 27, 2008, to January 18, 2009, when the Israeli military fired approximately 200 ground-launched white phosphorus munitions into populated areas of Gaza. Israeli forces relied particularly on 155mm M825E1 artillery projectiles, which send burning phosphorus wedges 125 meters in all directions, giving them a wide area effect. Israels Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the Israeli military used the shells only to create smokescreens. However, in March 2009, Human Rights Watch documented dozens of civilian casualties in the six incidents it researched. The white phosphorus munitions also damaged civilian structures, including a school, a market, a humanitarian aid warehouse, and a hospital. This use of white phosphorus generated international and domestic outcry and scrutiny. In 2013, in response to a petition before Israels High Court of Justice regarding the Gaza attacks, the Israeli military asserted that it would no longer use white phosphorus in populated areas except in two narrow situations that it revealed only to the justices. In the courts ruling, Justice Edna Arbel explained that the conditions would render use of white phosphorous an extreme exception in highly particular circumstances. Although this pledge to the court did not represent an official change in policy, Justice Arbel called on the Israeli military to conduct a thorough and comprehensive examination and adopt a permanent military directive. Via Human Rights Watch Munich, Germany (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) Pegasus, the main cyber-surveillance weapon developed by the Israeli company NSO Group, had been at the center of formidable reporting before July 2021. Still, the revelations presented by the Pegasus Project partners in a cascade of articles that began on July 18, 2021, represented a watershed moment. The Pegasus Project was a working group of international investigative journalists that incorporated 17 media organizations. The project included publications such as the Belgian Le Soir, the Indian The Wire, and the Mexican Proceso alongside bigger media organizations such as The Guardian, Die Zeit, or The Washington Post. Starting on publication day, the 17 media partners released in a synchronized way their reporting on the use of Pegasus to hack into the mobile phones of human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, and politicians across the globe. The Pegasus Project ended up involving around 800 journalists. However, it would never have been possible without an initial, individual decision. The one taken by a source whose identity, to this day, is only known by a very few. The source leaked a list of 50,000 phone numbers that had been targeted for hacking through Pegasus. Before the Pegasus Project became a reality, there was a core group of only four people. The team consisted of two Amnesty International cybersecurity experts, Claudio Guarneri and Donncha O Cearbhaill, and two journalists, Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud, the founder and editor, respectively, of the non-profit media organization Forbidden Stories, based in Paris. It was Forbidden Stories that received the list with 50,000 phone numbers targeted by Pegasus. Richard and Rigaud explain the story of the Pegasus Project in their book Pegasus: The Secret Technology That Threatens the End of Privacy and Democracy. In the beginning, the reporters main task was to corroborate, thanks to the technical expertise of Guarneri and O Cearbhaill, that the list they had received truly included targeted people. They initially did so by matching some phone numbers in the leaked list with journalists who had collaborated with Forbidden Stories in the past and were on the reporters phone contact lists. Richard and Rigaud reached out to the journalists suspected of having been attacked, asking whether they would agree to have their mobile phones remotely scanned by the Amnesty International cybersecurity experts. Some of them also sent their mobile phones for forensic analysis. Guarneri and O Cearbhaill started to discover signs of attempted or successful infection in the devices. Those who turned out their mobile phones at this early stage, brave people such as the Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova, spied on by her own government, were fundamental for the success of the investigation. The investigative effort had to be carried out in the utmost secrecy. This required obvious measures such as keeping mobile phones away from work-related conversations or continuous scans to guarantee that the mobile phones of those involved in the investigation had not been compromised. But it also implied very complicated equilibria, such as approaching suspected targets and convincing them to hand over their mobile phones while sharing little information about the ongoing journalistic investigation. Previous personal acquaintances helped create the relationships of trust needed for the targeted people to feel confident enough to depart from their mobile phones and the personal information contained there. Here, the success of Forbidden Stories and the partners it later incorporated was all the more impressive against the background of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which limited international travel and face-to-face interactions. After consulting with the German journalist Bastian Obermayer, who, together with Frederik Obermaier, had been responsible for the Panama Papers investigation, Richard and Rigaud carefully expanded the circle of people involved in the Pegasus reporting. Forbidden Stories embarked four partner media organizations on the project Le Monde, Die Zeit, Suddeutsche Zeitung, and The Washington Post. With this decision, the risk of NSO getting wind of the investigation and introducing changes in its Pegasus attacks something that would have greatly complicated the work of the Amnesty International forensic team expanded exponentially. But so did the capacity to establish the names behind the 50,000 phone numbers on the list and gain access to new targeted mobile phones for further analysis. After a period of successful cooperation with these four media organizations, and as the intended publication day approached, the Pegasus Project grew to the final 17 partners. Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud Pegasus: How a Spy in Your Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2024. Click here to buy. With the help of these partner media organizations, the Amnesty International cybersecurity experts received a constant flow of mobile phones that helped them better understand how Pegasus operated. Guarneri and O Cearbhaill progressively developed their own forensic tools to detect Pegasus infections with growing accuracy and detail. In the book, Richard and Rigaud succeed in making understandable the highly complex procedures involved in hacking a mobile phone as well as in detecting these infections. What the Amnesty International forensic investigation showed was that WhatsApp and SMS messages were two of the easiest and most common avenues to get access to the targeted mobile phones, but not the only ones. The NSO had developed so-called zero-click attacks that did not need the targeted person to click on a fake message for the hacking to be successful. Once inside the mobile phone, the attackers using Pegasus had access to any information contained in the device. The mobile phones microphone and camera could also be activated to capture everything within their range. As the investigation would reveal, Pegasus was at the hands of governmental agencies in dictatorships such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, or Azerbaijan, as well as illiberal democracies such as Hungary and India. The most proliferous user was Mexico, where Pegasus was deployed against drug traffickers and critical journalists alike. Among the victims of Pegasus were the closest entourage of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, or the French President Emmanuel Macron, a target of Morocco. But these famous names were only the tip of the iceberg, with at least hundreds of human rights advocates, journalists, and lawyers being targeted. The Pegasus Project investigation directly contradicted NSOs long-standing claim that their cyber surveillance star product, Pegasus, was being deployed by trusted governmental agencies only to prosecute criminals and terrorists and guarantee global security. Before the Pegasus Project revelations, NSO had defended that misuse of Pegasus immediately led to the violator agency losing access to it. The magnitude of the Pegasus Project revelations put this lie to rest. In their book, Richard and Rigaud provide an interesting portrait of Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie, who, together with Niv Karmi the N in NSO Group founded the self-styled cybersecurity company in 2010. Niv Karmi would leave NSO only one month after its foundation. In Pegasus, Hulio and Lavie emerge as perfect examples of the dangers inherent in letting profit maximization trump any ethical concern. What the book leaves relatively unexplored are the strong ties between the Israeli government and NSO. As an Israeli company, NSOs technology exports have to be approved by the Israeli government. This is something common to many other countries with a powerful weapons industry, which similarly have little compunction about selling their technology to serial human rights violators. But the connections between the Israeli government and NSO go further than this. As Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti from The New York Times documented, sales of Pegasus played an unseen but critical role in securing the support of Arab nations in Israels campaign against Iran and even in negotiating the Abraham Accords.[1] After the agreement in September 2020, Israel established diplomatic relations with the UAE and Bahrain. In his acclaimed 2023 book The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation around the World, journalist Antony Loewenstein explains how both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have served as a display room for the effects of Israeli weapons. These weapons are then exported worldwide securing significant revenue and influence for Israel. Despite the efforts to keep up the appearance of a clear-cut division between the public and the private realms, Israeli cyber-arms firms, as well as traditional weapons companies, act as an extension of Israels foreign policy agenda, supporting its goals and pro-occupation ideology.[2] In his book, Lowenstein explains that in 2020 Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman called the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after his defence ministry had decided to suspend the licensing of Pegasus to the Saudi kingdom. Around that time, reports had emerged connecting Pegasus with the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, which shed a bad light on NSO and the Israeli government. Netanyahu, for whom the new Saudi-Israeli geopolitical alignment against Iran weighed more heavily than PR concerns, made sure Saudi Arabia regained access to Pegasus. Back to Richard and Rigaud, it is no overstatement to say that their book is an incomparable opportunity to understand what serious journalism is about. If this is the case, it is not so much because of the findings the book reveals. These, after all, are accessible through the reporting of the 17 partners in the Pegasus Project and the follow-up stories by hundreds of other media organizations. The genius in Pegasus is to be found in the impressive description of an even more impressive process. That is, how a single leak developed into a major-scale international investigation up to the highest journalistic standards, all the while staying below the NSOs powerful radar. Right before publication, when the company was approached for comment about the impending revelations, NSOs PR armor collapsed under the weight and scope of the Pegasus Project findings. Failing to engage with the content of the allegations, NSO threatened defamation lawsuits and attempted a divide-and-rule approach toward the different Pegasus Project partners. This last-ditch effort failed to prevent the 17 media organizations from pressing the publish button when the day arrived. The revelations by the Pegasus Project had significant consequences, such as the Biden administrations blacklisting of NSO in November 2021. NSO has kept fighting, though. After the Hamas attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, NSO attempted to have its blacklist status in the US reversed citing the threat of Hamas and the role the Israeli company could play against it. The lobbying efforts did not succeed. In February 2024, NSO suffered a significant defeat when it was forced to hand its code to WhatsApp as a result of a lawsuit dating back to 2019 over NSOs hacking using WhatsApp messages. These successes notwithstanding, the lack of a global regulatory framework on the use of cyber-surveillance methods is a strong reason to remain concerned. As Richard and Rigaud themselves note in the epilogue to their book, NSO might be crippled, but the technology it engineered is not.[3] [1] Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti, The Battle for the Worlds Most Powerful Cyberweapon, The New York Times, January 28, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/28/magazine/nso-group-israel-spyware.html. [2] Antony Loewenstein, The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation around the World (London and New York: Verso, 2023), p. 59. [3] Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud, Pegasus: The Secret Technology That Threatens the End of Privacy and Democracy (London: Pan Macmillan, 2023), p. 301. Trending in China | Dragon Boat Festival (People's Daily App) 15:00, June 07, 2024 The Dragon Boat Festival, also called Duanwu Festival, is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, which falls on June 10 this year. During the festival, Chinese people eat Zongzi, hold dragon boat races, wear five-color rope and hang moxa grass. (Source: Kuaishou) (Web editor: Tian Yi, Zhong Wenxing) Fully Funded For Drilling On Extensive High-Grade Copper-Gold Targets Vancouver, British Columbia TheNewswire - June 7, 2024 Juggernaut Exploration Ltd. (TSXV: JUGR) (OTCQB: JUGRF) (FSE: 4JE) (the Company or Juggernaut) further to its May 24, 2024 and June 5, 2024 news releases, Juggernaut is pleased to report that it has received final approval from the TSX Venture Exchange to close its institutionally supported oversubscribed flow-through private placement financing (the Financing) for aggregate gross proceeds of $3,799,613.49. Following the closing, Crescat Capital will hold 13,828,386 shares of Juggernaut Exploration Ltd. The use of funds from this financing will be to drill ~5000 meters on Juggernauts 100% controlled Bingo and Midas properties, targeting prolific high-grade Copper and Gold at the surface. Dr. Hennigh stated, "Very promising results from 2023s maiden drill program confirmed strong potential for Surebet style intrusive-related gold-base metal lodes at Bingo. In addition, follow up drilling at Midas continues to demonstrate the presence of a large volcanogenic massive sulfide system in need of further work. With interest in the mining exploration space quickly heating up, it is critical that companies like Juggernaut get back to the job of making discovery. I look forward to working with the Companys team as plans are made for this years drill campaign at both of these exciting projects. " We look forward to helping Juggernaut continue their work at Bingo and Midas in the coming drill season, given the potential for a significant discovery, remarked Kevin Smith, Crescats founder and Chief Investment Officer. This is the same exploration team that delivered a major gold and silver discovery for us at Goliath Resources Surebet. They are highly capable of doing the same at one or both targets. This investment and strategic partnership with Crescat Capital, coupled with the ongoing support and interest from other globally recognized Institutions and senior miners, is a strong endorsement that clearly demonstrates the significant near-term expansion discovery potential of our 100% controlled propertieshighlighting just one recent discovery on Bingo where multiple drill holes intersected high-grade gold-silver-copper mineralization along an extensive north-trending, west-dipping, shear-hosted vein with grades up to 11.42 gpt AuEq (7.57 gpt Au, 20.23 gpt Ag and 2.72 % Cu) over 5.11 meters, including 19.69 gpt AuEq (13.05 gpt Au, 24.93 gpt Ag and 4.70 % Cu) over 2.90 meters. The shear-hosted vein at the Bingo Main Zone is partially exposed at surfaces for over 600 meters, and only the main outcrop has been drill-tested to date, leaving the system open in all directions. The company has issued 31,272,539 flow-through units (FT Units), priced at $0.1215 each for gross proceeds of $3,799,613.49. Each FT Unit consists of one flow-through common share plus one common share purchase warrant, each warrant being exercisable for an additional common share at $0.14 for a thirty-six-month period. The FT Units will entitle the holder to receive the tax benefits applicable to flow-through shares, in accordance with provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada). The Company will use an amount equal to the gross proceeds received by the Company from the sale of the FT Units, pursuant to the provisions in the Income Tax Act (Canada), to incur eligible Canadian exploration expenses that qualify as flow-through mining expenditures as both terms are defined in the Income Tax Act (Canada) (the Qualifying Expenditures) on or before December 31, 2025, and to renounce all the Qualifying Expenditures in favor of the subscribers of the FT Units effective December 31, 2024. The Company has paid cash finders fees totaling $39,361.03 and issued 524,814 non-transferable broker warrants exercisable at $0.14 for 3 years. All securities issued pursuant to this financing are subject to a four-month plus one-day hold. About Juggernaut Exploration Ltd. Juggernaut Exploration Ltd. is a precious and base metals project generator in the geopolitically stable jurisdiction of Canada, focused on the prolific geologic setting of northwestern British Columbia encompassing the Golden Triangle. Qualified Person Rein Turna P. Geo is the qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 for Juggernaut Explorations projects. He supervised the preparation of and has reviewed and approved the technical information in this release. View Juggernaut videos by Clicking Here. For more information, please contact Juggernaut Exploration Ltd. Dan Stuart President, Director, and Chief Executive Officer 604-559-8028 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. www.juggernautexploration.com NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT Certain disclosure in this release may constitute forward-looking statements that are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties relating to Juggernauts operations that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements, including its ability to complete the contemplated private placement. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these statements. NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR TO U.S. PERSONS OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES. THIS PRESS RELEASE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL OR AN INVITATION TO PURCHASE ANY SECURITIES DESCRIBED IN IT. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 6, 2024) - Xplore Resources Corp. (TSXV: XPLR) ("Xplore" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has entered into an assignment agreement dated May 30, 2024 (the "Assignment Agreement"), with Lithium One Metals Inc. ("LONE"), Bounty Gold Corp. ("Bounty"), and Last Resort Resources Ltd. ("Last Resort" together with Bounty, the "Optionors"), whereby LONE has agreed to assign and transfer to Xplore all of its rights, titles, benefits, and interest in, to, and under an option agreement dated December 20, 2022, between LONE and the Optionors (the "Option Agreement"). Pursuant to the Assignment Agreement, Xplore will expand its land position along the Root Lake lithium trend with its option to the Root South property (Figure 1) (the "Root South Property"), which is adjacent to Xplore's Surge Lithium Project ("Surge Project") and Green Technology Metals Ltd.'s Root Bay Project - host to a new lithium deposit with a 10 Mt at 1.29% Li 2 O JORC Resource1. The Root South Property is comprised of 175 claims over 3,570 ha. The Company also announces it has entered into a property purchase agreement (the "Surge North Agreement") dated June 5, 2024, with an arm's length vendor to acquire 100% right, title and interest in and to mineral property claims located in the Surge Project area (Figure 1) (the "Surge North Property"). The Surge North Property is comprised of 86 claims over 1,800 ha. The Root South Property and Surge North Property expand the Company's Surge Project to approximately 12,480 ha. Since 2023, the Root lithium area has seen rapid growth following a new lithium discovery at the Root Bay deposit. The deposit now holds a JORC Resource of 10.1 MT at 1.29% Li 2 O, extending over approximately 1.5 km of the Root Bay trend. The Root South Property is located less than one km south of the Root Bay deposit. Recent exploration drilling by Green Technology Metals has revealed a potential new stacked system of pegmatites at Root Bay East, with drill results located 25 to 50 m from the boundary of the Surge Project (Figure 2). The Surge Project lies along the eastern extension of the trend, covering approximately 10 km of prospective geology. Figure 1. The Surge Project area showing the new Root South and Surge North property acquisitions, drill targets, nearby deposits and prospects. Figure 2. Annotated drone photo taken near Xplore's Surge Project boundary with Green Technology Metals' Root Project (looking east). Annotations show the location of recent drilling by Green Technology Metals with lithium drill results as close as 25 m from the Surge Project boundary. Assignment Agreement Terms Pursuant to the Option Agreement, the Optionors granted to LONE the exclusive right and option (the "Option") to acquire 100% of the rights, title and interest of the Optionors in and to certain mineral claims located in the Red Lake Mining District, Ontario, subject to a net smelter returns royalty of 2% to the Optionors (payable on commencement of commercial production) (the "Royalty Agreement"). To exercise the Option, the Company will need to: within seven calendar days of the receipt of TSXV approval for the Assignment Agreement, issue to the Optionors an aggregate of 260,000 common shares of the Company (each, an " Xplore Share ") and pay to the Optionors an aggregate of $29,000 (of which, $19,000 has already been paid); and on or prior to January 11, 2025, the Company will issue an additional 530,000 Xplore Shares and pay an additional $38,500 in cash to the Optionors. Subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV"), the Company will pay an assignment fee of $200,000 to LONE in cash pursuant to the Assignment Agreement. In connection with the Assignment Agreement, LONE, the Optionors and the Company have also entered into a royalty assignment agreement (the "Royalty Assignment Agreement"), pursuant to which the Company assumed the Royalty Agreement. Under the Royalty Assignment Agreement, the Company has agreed to assume the obligation to grant a 2% net smelter returns royalty (the "NSR") from activities carried out on the optioned property to the Optionors. The Company may, upon payment to the Optionors of $1,000,000, reduce the royalty payable under the NSR to a 1% net smelter returns royalty. Joseph Meagher, the Chief Financial Officer of the Company, is also the Chief Financial Officer of LONE. Other than Mr. Meagher, the Company and LONE do not have any common directors or officers. The Company is arm's length to each of the Optionors. The Assignment Agreement and the transactions contemplated therein are subject to the acceptance of the TSXV. Surge North Property Agreement Terms Pursuant to the terms of the Surge North Agreement, the Company will purchase 100% of the right, title and interest in and to the Surge North Property by paying the $75,000 in cash and issuing 1,500,000 Xplore Shares to the vendor upon acceptance of the Surge North Agreement by the TSXV. The vendor will retain a 2% NSR on the Surge North Property, one-half of which, being 1%, can be purchased by the Company at any time for $750,000. The Surge North Agreement and the transactions contemplated therein are subject to the acceptance of the TSXV. Qualified Person The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Karly Oliver, P.Geo., director of the Company and a Qualified Person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101. About Xplore Resources Xplore Resources is a North American lithium exploration company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under symbol XPLR. The company has a prospective land package in the emerging Root Bay lithium district located in northwest Ontario. Xplore's flagship property is the Surge lithium project, on trend and near two lithium deposits and just 25 m from a new lithium discovery. The Company is led by a highly experienced management team with a strong track record of growing shareholder value. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, Dominic Verdejo, CEO Xplore Resources Corp. For further information on Xplore, contact: Telephone: 604-678-5308 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Website: www.xploreresources.com Neither the TSXV nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Information and Statements This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. 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". These forward-looking statements or information may relate to the grant of the Option thereunder, the entrance into the Surge North Agreement and the Option Agreement, the ability of the Company to complete its obligations thereunder, the success and expectations of any exploration activities conducted on the Surge North Property, the Root South Property, or the Surge Project, and TSXV approval of the Option, the Assignment Agreement, the Royalty Assignment Agreement, the transactions contemplated in the Surge North Agreement, the Surge North Agreement, the royalty agreement pursuant to the Surge North Agreement and/or other ancillary agreements. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management at the time, are inherently subject to business, market and economic risks, uncertainties and contingencies that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. Such assumptions include, but are not limited to, the ability of the Company to obtain approval from the stock exchange for the Option, the Assignment Agreement, the Royalty Assignment Agreement, the transactions contemplated in the Surge North Agreement, the Surge North Agreement and/or the royalty agreement pursuant to the Surge North Agreement; the ability of the Company to complete its obligations thereunder, the success and expectations of any exploration activities conducted on the optioned property or the Surge Project. 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. 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. Such statements represent the current view of the Company with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social risks, contingencies and uncertainties. Risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to the following: the nature of mineral exploration; commodity pricing; stock market volatility and general market conditions; changes in global and regional demand for products; the business prospects of the Company, competition; unanticipated changes in market price for the Company's shares; risks inherent in mineral exploration including risks related worker safety, weather and other natural occurrences, accidents, availability of personnel and equipment, and other factors; inflation; trade uncertainties as a result of, among other things, changes to global trade restrictions and tariffs; the availability of credit on commercially reasonable terms; foreign exchange risks; legal and regulatory risks (including changes in law or regulation); risks related to relationships with stakeholders including any first nations or aboriginal groups; costs of inputs; weather and other acts of god and their impact on activities proposed to by carried on by the Company. Other factors which could materially affect such forward-looking information are described in the filings of the Company with the Canadian securities regulators which are 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. 1 Green Technology Metals news release dated November 22, 2023 VANCOUVER, BC, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AMERICAN SALARS LITHIUM INC. ("AMERICAN SALARS" OR THE "COMPANY") (CSE: USLI, OTC: ASALF, FWB: Z3P, WKN: A3E2NY) announces it has filed an NI 43-101 technical report titled Technical Report on The Black Rock South Lithium Brine Property, Washoe County, Nevada, USA, dated June 4th, 2024, prepared by Mr. William Feyerabend CPG, that has been filed on SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.ca) and will be made available on the Companys website at www.americansalars.com/black-rock-south-lithium-salar/ Image 1. Photo taken at the Blackrock South Lithium Project, Nevada, USA R. Nick Horsley, CEO & Director States, Mr. Feyerabend notes in his report that the claims cover a conceptual target for lithium brines which are very similar to the published geology of the Clayton Valley lithium brine production area approximately 200 miles to the Southeast. The concept is consistent with generally accepted data and theories about the formation of lithium brine resources. The Black Rock area is known have brines hosted in basin-fill sediments. Were excited at the prospect of developing the Blackrock South project and look forward to an initial exploration program. Our Blackrock South project is situated in a tier 1 jurisdiction home of the Tesla Gigafactory and Americas only producing lithium mine. The opportunity to discover a domestic lithium supply would be a great compliment to our NI 43-101 compliant 457,000 tonne LCE inferred lithium resource in Argentina. About the Blackrock South Lithium Brine Project The Blackrock South Lithium Brine Project is located 72 Miles North of the Tesla Gigafactory, 93 Miles Southwest of Thacker Pass, and 215 miles Northwest of the United States only producing lithium mine, the Silver Peak Lithium Mine owned by Albermarle Corporation. The claims cover a conceptual target for lithium brines which is very similar to the published geology of the Clayton Valley lithium brine production area approximately 200 miles to the Southeast. The concept is consistent with generally accepted data and theories about the formation of lithium brine resources. The target area is lithium brines hosted in basin-fill sediments. Image 2. Blackrock South Lithium Brine Project proximity to Tesla Gigafactory and Americas only producing lithium mine, Silver Peak. A recent mineral exploration on the Galt claim group under option to Surge Battery Metals (CSE:NILI) located 11 Miles to the South includes 51 playa sediment samples collected for chemical analysis at ALS Geochemistry in Vancouver, B.C. Results of aqua regia leaching of the samples show 68 to 852 parts per million lithium (mean 365 ppm), 5.3 to 201 ppm cesium (mean 72 ppm) and 35 to 377 ppm rubidium (mean 180 ppm). Results from two seven-foot-deep auger holes show lithium, cesium, and rubidium concentrations in the range of 143.5 to 773 ppm Li, 56.8 to 102.5 ppm Cs and 155 to 272 Rb. American Salars management cautions that past results or discoveries on properties in proximity to American Salars may not necessarily be indicative of the presence of mineralization on the Company's properties. Additionally, the Company has entered into a Digital Marketing Services Agreement (the "Agreement") with Black Swan Solutions Inc. DBA VHLA Media Inc. ("VHLA") pursuant to which VHLA will provide certain digital marketing services (the "Services") to the Company. The Services provided by VHLA will include, but not be limited to, social media content and ads, marketing, and CEO interviews distributed through social media platforms such as Instagram, X, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit and LinkedIn. The Agreement has a term of one (1) month which may be extended by agreement in writing between VHLA and the Company for up to 6 months. As consideration for the provision of the Services, and in accordance with the terms and provisions of the Agreement, the Company will pay VHLA a fee of C$55,000 plus GST. VHLA is a British Columbia based company headed by Dawson Ignatieff, Tyler Kujala and Adam Emes who are operating at arm's length from the Company. VHLA owns 103,000 shares of the Company, and neither VHLA nor any of its principals and affiliates holds any other interest, direct or indirect in the Company. Qualified Person Mr. William Feyerabend, CPG, a Consulting Geologist and Qualified Person under NI 43-101 contributed to the production of this press release and approves of the technical and scientific information contained herein. About American Salars Lithium Inc. About American Salars Lithium Inc. American Salars Lithium Inc. is an exploration company focused on exploring and developing high-value battery metals projects to meet the demands of the advancing electric vehicle market. Its flagship project is the Candela II Salar Project in Argentina which features a NI 43-101 inferred resource. All Stakeholders are encouraged to follow the Company on its social media profiles on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. On Behalf of the Board of Directors, R. Nick Horsley R. Nick Horsley, CEO For further information, please contact: American Salars Lithium Inc. Phone: 604.880.2189 E-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor i0ts Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information Certain statements in this release are forward-looking statements, which reflect the expectations of management regarding American Salars intention to continue to identify potential transactions and make certain corporate changes and applications. Forward looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions regarding the future. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance, or developments to differ materially from those contained in the statements. No assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur or, if they do occur, what benefits American Salars will obtain from them. These forward-looking statements reflect managements current views and are based on certain expectations, estimates and assumptions which may prove to be incorrect. A number of risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including American Salars results of exploration or review of properties that American Salars does acquire. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and American Salars assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results differed from those projected in the forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 6, 2024 / Arras Minerals Corp. (TSXV:ARK) ("Arras" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that further to its news release dated May 29, 2024, it has closed its previously announced non-brokered private placement (the "Offering") for an aggregate of 20,268,662 units of the Company ("Units") at a price per Unit of C$0.26 for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately C$5.3 million. Pursuant to the Offering, Teck Resources Limited ("Teck") acquired 1,141,000 Units and, following closing, holds approximately 9.3% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company (on a partially diluted basis) ("Common Shares"). Darren Klinck, President of Arras, commented, "We are very pleased to close this upsized financing and wish to acknowledge and express appreciation for the strong endorsement our shareholders, including Teck, have shown in supporting the next exploration phase for Arras in Kazakhstan. Our third summer field program is well-underway and we look forward to having steady news flow over the coming months from the more than 3,300 sq km land package we have assembled in northeastern Kazakhstan. During 2024, we expect to be drill-testing targets at Elemes, Tay as well as on projects within the Arras-Teck Strategic Exploration Alliance. As an early-mover into Kazakhstan approximately three years ago, Arras is well-positioned to continue to rapidly evaluate, advance and test copper-gold targets across the third largest land package assembled for copper exploration in the country." Each Unit is comprised of one (1) Common Share and one-half of one (1/2) non-transferable Common Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each whole Warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one (1) additional Common Share at a price of C$0.40 for a period of (3) years from the closing of the Offering (the "Expiry Date"). In the event the volume weighted average trading price of the Common Shares on the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") meets or exceeds C$0.60 for fifteen (15) consecutive trading days at any time after four months and one day following closing of the Offering, the Company shall have the option, but not the obligation, at any time thereafter to accelerate the Expiry Date to a date that is thirty (30) days following the date of issuance of a news release by the Company announcing the acceleration of the Expiry Date. The securities issued pursuant to the Offering are subject to a four-month hold period in Canada are subject to U.S. resale restrictions under U.S. securities laws as applicable. Finders fees were paid on a portion of the Offering. Certain insiders have participated in the Offering and thus a portion of the Offering constitutes a "related party transaction" within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). Pursuant to sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101, the Company is exempt from obtaining a formal valuation and minority approval of the Company's shareholders as the fair market value of the insider participation is below 25% of the Company's market capitalization as determined in accordance with MI 61-101. The net proceeds of the Offering will be used to advance exploration activities at the Company's projects in northeastern Kazakhstan and for general corporate purposes. Qualified Person: The scientific and technical disclosure for this news release has been prepared under supervision of and approved by Matthew Booth, Vice President of Exploration, of Arras Minerals Corp., a Qualified Person for the purposes of NI 43-101. Mr. Booth has over 19 years of mineral exploration experience and is a Qualified Person member of the American Institute of Professional Geologists (CPG 12044). On behalf of the Board of Directors "Darren Klinck" Darren Klinck President and Director INVESTOR RELATIONS: +1 604 687 5800 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Further information can be found on: the Company's website https://www.arrasminerals.com or follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/arrasminerals or or follow us on X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/arrasminerals About Arras Minerals Corp. Arras is a Canadian exploration and development company advancing a portfolio of copper and gold assets in northeastern Kazakhstan, including the Option Agreement on the Beskauga copper and gold project. The Company has established the third-largest license package in the country prospective for copper and gold (behind Rio Tinto and Fortescue). In December 2023, the Company entered into a strategic alliance with Teck Resources Limited ("Teck") in which Teck will sole fund a US$5 million generative exploration program over a portion of the Arras license package in 2024-2025 focusing on critical minerals. The Company's shares are listed on the TSXV under the trading symbol "ARK". Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements: This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding the Offering, future events and Arras' future results that are subject to the safe harbors created under the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and the Exchange Act, and applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements include, among others, statements regarding the Offering, the receipt of TSXV and other required regulatory and third party approvals in respect of the Offering, exercise of the Company's acceleration right in respect of the Warrants (or the satisfaction of the acceleration condition in respect thereof), use of the net proceeds of the Offering by the Company, and plans and expectations of the exploration program Arras is in the process of undertaking. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections about Arras' exploration projects, the industry in which Arras operates and the beliefs and assumptions of Arras' management. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "targets," "goals," "projects," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "continues," "may," variations of such words, and similar expressions and references to future periods, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond management's control, including investor interest in the Offering and perception of the Company and its business and assets, regulatory approval of the Offering, changes to the market price for the Company's securities, changes to economic conditions, changes to metals and commodity prices, price of inputs, expected costs and timelines to achieve the Company's goals, that general business and economic conditions will not change in a materially adverse manner, financing will be available when needed on economically reasonable terms, undertaking further exploration activities, the results of such exploration activities and that such results support continued exploration activities, unexpected variations in ore grade, types and metallurgy, volatility and level of commodity prices, the availability of sufficient future financing, and other matters discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Management Discussion and Analysis filed on the Company's profile on SEDAR+ on February 28, 2024 and in the Company's Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2023 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on February 28, 2024 and available at www.sec.gov. Readers are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that actual results or developments may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement made by the Company in this news release is based only on information currently available and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. TORONTO, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lithium Ionic Corp. (TSXV: LTH; OTCQX: LTHCF; FSE: H3N) (Lithium Ionic or the Company) announces the closing, on an oversubscribed basis, of its previously announced non-brokered private placement offering (the Offering) led by long-term strategic shareholders, Fourth Sail Capital and the PowerOne Capital Group. Under the Offering, the Company issued 17,769,778 units (the Units) at $0.90 per Unit for gross proceeds of $15,992,800.30. Each Unit is comprised of one common share in the capital of the Company (each a Common Share) and one-half of one Common Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a Warrant). Each Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one Common Share at an exercise price of $1.05 per Common Share until the date that is 18 months from the date hereof. The Company plans to use the aggregate net proceeds of the Offering for exploration and development of its Brazilian properties and general corporate purposes. In connection with the closing of the Offering, the Company paid finders fees of $588,721 in cash and issued 613,884 non-transferable finders warrants (the Finders Warrants). Each Finders Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to purchase one Unit at a price of $0.90 for a period of 12 months from the date hereof. The Offering is subject to the receipt of all necessary approvals, including the final approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. All of the securities issued by the Company pursuant to the Offering will be subject to a four-month statutory hold period which expires on October 8, 2024. An officer of the Company has subscribed for 111,111 Units in the Offering (the Insider Investment). The Insider Investment constitutes a related party transaction, as such term is defined under the policies of the TSXV, and the Company has relied on certain exemptions from the minority approval and formal valuation requirements under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (MI 61-101) as the fair market value of the aggregate Insider Investment is below 25% of the Companys market capitalization for the purposes of Sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101. The securities being offered have not, nor will they be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons absent U.S. registration or an applicable exemption from the U.S. registration requirements. This release does not constitute an offer for sale of securities in the United States. On behalf of the Board of Directors of Lithium Ionic Corp. Blake Hylands Chief Executive Officer, Director About Lithium Ionic Corp. Lithium Ionic is a Canadian mining company exploring and developing its lithium properties in Brazil. Its flagship Itinga and Salinas projects cover 14,182 hectares in the northeastern part of Minas Gerais state, a mining-friendly jurisdiction that is quickly emerging as a world-class hard-rock lithium district. The Itinga Project is situated in the same region as CBLs Cachoeira lithium mine, which has produced lithium for +30 years, as well as Sigma Lithium Corp.s Grota do Cirilo project, which hosts the largest hard-rock lithium deposit in the Americas. Investor and Media Inquiries: +1 647.316.2500 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains statements that constitute forward-statements. Such forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Companys actual results, performance or achievements, or developments to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes, in light of the experience of its officers and directors, current conditions and expected future developments and other factors that have been considered appropriate that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on them because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. When used in this press release, the words estimate, project, belief, anticipate, intend, expect, plan, predict, may or should and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. The forward-looking statements and information in this press release include information relating to the prospectivity and development of the Companys mineral properties, the Offering, the use of proceeds of the Offering and the Companys future plans. Such statements and information reflect the current view of the Company. Risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in those forward-looking statements and information. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the expectations of the Company as of the date of this news release and, accordingly, is subject to change after such date. Readers should not place undue importance on forward-looking information and should not rely upon this information as of any other date. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that managements beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Information and links in this press release relating to other mineral resource companies are from their sources believed to be reliable, but that have not been independently verified by the Company. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. MONTREAL, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Falco Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: FPC) ("Falco" or the "Corporation") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Red Cloud Securities Inc. to act as lead agent and sole bookrunner on behalf of a syndicate of agents including Canaccord Genuity Corp. and Paradigm Capital Inc. (collectively, the "Agents"), in connection with a best efforts private placement for aggregate gross proceeds of up to C$5,000,000 from the sale of the following: units of the Corporation (the " Units ") at a price of C$0.23 per Unit; and ") at a price of C$0.23 per Unit; and up to 3,571,429 flow-through shares of the Corporation (the "FT Shares", and collectively with the Units, the "Offered Securities") for gross proceeds of up to C$1,000,000 from the sale of FT Shares. Each Unit will consist of one common share of the Corporation (each, a "Common Share") and one half of one Common Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each whole Warrant shall entitle the holder to purchase one Common Share (each, a "Warrant Share") at a price of C$0.35 at any time on or before that date which is 24 months after the closing date of the Offering. Each FT Share will consist of one Common Share to be issued as a flow-through share within the meaning of the Income Tax Act (Canada) (the "Income Tax Act"). The Corporation has granted the Agents an option, on the same terms and conditions as the Offering, exercisable until the second business day prior to the closing date of the Offering, to sell up to an additional C$1,000,000 in Offered Securities including up to C$250,000 additional FT Shares ("Agents Option"). If the Agents Option is exercised in full, the aggregate gross proceeds of the Offering would be C$6.0 million. The Corporation intends to use the net proceeds from the sale of Units for the advancement of the Horne 5 Project in Quebec as well as for working capital and general corporate purposes. The net proceeds from the sale of the FT Shares will be used to fund exploration on the Companys other properties. The FT Shares will be issued as "flow-through shares" as defined in subsection 66(15) of the Income Tax Act. The Company will, in a timely and prescribed manner and form, incur (or be deemed to incur) resource exploration expenses which (i) will constitute "Canadian exploration expenses" as defined in subsection 66.1(6) of the Income Tax Act and "flow through mining expenditures" as defined in subsection 127(9) of the Income Tax Act, and (ii) will, for eligible Quebec resident subscribers of FT Shares, be entitled to both additional 10% deductions provided for under section 726.4.10 and section 726.4.17.2 of the Taxation Act (Quebec) ("Qualifying Expenditures"), in an amount equal to the amount raised pursuant to the sale of FT Shares, and the Company will, in timely and prescribed manner and form, renounce the Qualifying Expenditures (on a pro rata basis) to each subscriber of FT Shares with an effective date of no later than December 31, 2024 in accordance with the Income Tax Act and the Taxation Act (Quebec). The Offering is anticipated to close on or about June 27, 2024 (the "Closing Date") and is subject to certain conditions including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary approvals including the approval of the TSXV. The Offered Securities are being offered by way of private placement in all of the provinces of Canada to investors who qualify as "accredited investors" under Canadian securities legislation or who are otherwise exempt from prospectus delivery requirements. The Offering may also be offered in the United States to "accredited investors" (as defined in Rule 501(a) of Regulation D) pursuant to an exemption from registration under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and in such other jurisdictions outside of Canada in accordance with applicable law. 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 the United States or in any other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The securities have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements thereunder. The Common Shares issuable from the sale of Offered Securities to "accredited investors" in Canada or otherwise on a prospectus exempt basis will be subject to a hold period of four months plus one day from the date of issuance of the Offered Securities. About Falco Resources Ltd. Falco Resources Ltd. is one of the largest mineral claim holders in the Province of Quebec, with extensive land holdings in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt. Falco owns approximately 67,000 hectares of land in the Noranda Mining Camp, which represents 67% of the entire camp and includes 13 former gold and base metal mine sites. Falcos principal asset is the Horne 5 Project located under the former Horne mine that was operated by Noranda from 1927 to 1976 and produced 11.6 million ounces of gold and 2.5 billion pounds of copper. Osisko Development Corp. is Falcos largest shareholder owning a 17.3% interest in the Corporation. For further information, please contact: Luc Lessard President and Chief Executive Officer 514 261-3336 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (together, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Statements, other than statements of historical facts, may be forward-looking statements. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "plans", "expects", "seeks", "may", "should", "could", "will", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", or variations including negative variations thereof of such words and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing statements, the Corporation meeting all conditions for a timely closing of the Offering, including obtaining all required approvals, and the proposed use of the proceeds of the Offering are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual plans, results, performance or achievements of Falco to differ materially from any future plans, results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risk and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set out in Falcos annual and/or quarterly management discussion and analysis and in other of its public disclosure documents filed on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca, as well as all assumptions regarding the foregoing. Although Falco believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements, which only apply as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. Except where required by applicable law, Falco disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. A Sudanese pro-democracy activists' committee Thursday reported "more than 104" dead in a single day when paramilitary forces attacked a village, as the UN warned of mass displacement and starvation. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been at war with the regular army since April 2023, on Wednesday attacked the central village of Wad al-Noura in al-Jazira state with heavy artillery, the Madani Resistance Committee said. It reported on Wednesday that the feared paramilitaries had "invaded the village", causing dozens of casualties and widespread displacement. The attack "claimed the lives of more than 104 martyrs" and "injured hundreds" said the committee, one of hundreds of similar grassroots groups across Sudan, adding that it reached the toll via "initial communication with village residents". On social media, the committee shared footage of what it said was a "mass grave" in the public square. The UN resident coordinator for Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, said she was "shocked by reports of violent attacks and a high number of casualties" in the village. She called for an investigation and for "those responsible to be held accountable". "Human tragedy has become a hallmark of life in Sudan. We cannot allow impunity to become another one," she added. The head of the UN's children's agency Catherine Russell said she was "horrified by the reports that at least 35 children were killed and more than 20 children injured" during the attack. The UNICEF chief called on those fighting to abide by international law and for an end to the war. - Toll unclear - In a little over a year, the war has killed tens of thousands of people, including up to 15,000 in a single West Darfur town. However, the overall death toll remains unclear, with some estimates of up to 150,000, according to US special envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello. The RSF has repeatedly besieged and attacked entire villages, and has been notorious for widespread looting as well as sexual and ethnic violence. In a statement late Wednesday, the RSF said it had attacked three army camps in the Wad al-Noura area, and clashed with its enemy "outside the city". The resistance committee called the RSF's statement an "expected" attempt to "criminalise the people of Wad al-Noura and label them a legitimate target". It also said the villagers had "called for help from the armed forces, which did not respond". The military has not issued an official comment, but Sudan's ruling sovereignty council, under army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, called Wednesday's attack a "heinous massacre of defenceless civilians". The army has come under repeated criticism from civilians for "abandoning" them and retreating in the face of RSF offensives, particularly in al-Jazira and the western Darfur region. Both the army and the RSF -- commanded by Burhan's former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo -- have been accused of war crimes, including targeting civilians, indiscriminately shelling residential areas and looting or obstructing humanitarian aid. - 'War crime' - The Emergency Lawyers, a pro-democracy group of volunteers who document the war's atrocities, said Thursday the attack on Wad al-Noura was a "war crime" and called on the international community to "exert pressure" on both sides to abide by international law. The UN migration agency warned Thursday that internal displacement figures in Sudan could "top 10 million" within days. Since the war began, more than seven million people have fled their homes for other parts of Sudan, adding to 2.8 million already displaced from previous conflicts in the war-torn country of 48 million inhabitants. "The world's worst internal displacement crisis continues to escalate, with looming famine and disease adding to the havoc wrought by conflict," the International Organization for Migration said in a statement. Across Sudan, 70 percent of those displaced "are now trying to survive in places that are at risk of famine", it added. The UN says 18 million people in Sudan are acutely hungry, with 3.6 million children acutely malnourished. Aid agencies say a lack of data has prevented the official declaration of a famine. If the current humanitarian situation continues, 2.5 million people could die of hunger by the end of September, according to recent estimates by the Clingendael Institute, a Dutch think tank. That figure is "about 15 percent of the population in Darfur and Kordofan", the vast western and southern regions which have seen some of the worst fighting, it said. The UN has accused both sides of "systematic obstructions and deliberate denials" of humanitarian access. It has been one year since the Netherlands and Canada initiated proceedings against the Syrian Arab Republic, and more than six months since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague has ordered provisional measures, but the Syrian regime continues to extensively use torture, with thousands of lives still at stake in government detention centres. So far, in addition to the ongoing lack of compliance by Damas, the case has been negatively affected by the ICJs falling short in reflecting the gravity of the violations. In its November 16th 2023 order, the Court first asked Syria to take all measures within its power to prevent acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and to ensure that its officials, as well as organizations or people who may be subject to their control, direction or influence, do not commit acts of torture. Secondly, the Court required Syria to take effective measures to prevent the destruction of evidence and to ensure the preservation of any evidence linked to allegations of acts falling within the scope of the Convention against Torture. These two provisional measures taken pending a decision on the merits did not reflect the history and magnitude of torture perpetrated by the Syrian regime agents against those in detention. Initially, the Netherlands and Canada requested a series of very specific measures that aimed at responding to accountability challenges: among others, an immediate cessation of torture and arbitrary detention, granting access to detention facilities, prohibiting the destruction of evidence, and disclosing the locations of burial sites. Furthermore, the two countries had requested that Syria submit regular reports to the Court on all measures taken. Lack of ambition from the ICJ While the two provisional measures decided by the Court address some of the matters raised by the complaint of June 8th regarding ongoing acts of torture by the Syrian state and its attempts to destroy and conceal evidence of such acts, both its form and its content fall short to responding to the level of expectations of the victims of torture and the survivors. Indeed, the general nature of the provisional measures strikes with the reality on the ground. Furthermore, some key elements in the decision are simply not there: for instance, a measure for Syria to immediately cease torture, instead of only preventing it. In this regard, Syrian families of the disappeared expressed disappointment that the ICJ failed to pass specific measures concerning enforced disappearance, such as measures aimed at providing information on the fate and whereabouts of individuals who disappeared and allowing access to independent humanitarian organisations in detention centres. As to the obligation of reporting, the Syrian civil society was keen to ensure that broader accountability-driven efforts might benefit from it, and had requested the Netherlands and Canada to ensure that the reporting could be of public nature. Such a request was intended not only to support the monitoring of the Syrian regimes actions on provisional measures but it was also meant to serve as a precedent to support other civil society and survivors demands on this issue. The Netherlands and Canada effectively asked the Court to require the Syrian regime to submit periodic reports on the implementation of the provisional measures due to the ongoing nature of the violations and the significant risk of irreparable harm. Both countries declared that it would be in the fair administration of justice to render these reports public. Regretfully, in its order on November 16, 2023, the Court did not follow their request and therefore deviated from the provisional measures in The Gambia v. Myanmar case ordered on January 23, 2020, the Azerbaijan v. Armenia case ordered on November 17, 2023, and the South Africa v. Israel case ordered on May 10, 2024. The lack of ambition from the Court regarding Syria is quite distressing and leading to a form of general passiveness towards the Syrian conflict that ultimately only favours the Syrian regimes atrocities. Indeed, since 2011, the Syrian government has committed systemic torture and other human rights crimes. Persistent torture and violations The latest report issued in February 2024 by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic confirms the regimes ongoing practices of torture, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, as well as deaths in government custody, including those in the infamous Sednaya military prison. This confirms ongoing patterns of crimes against humanity and highlights the persistent and systematic use of torture in Syria, despite the ICJ case and the issuance of the courts order. The same month, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rightsalso published a report detailing human rights violations faced by Syrians upon their return to Syria after fleeing the country. The report concludes that many Syrian returnees are subjected to grave human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, torture, restrictions on freedom of movement, inadequate housing, and violations of property rights. Moreover, enforced disappearances persist as both a standalone crime and a form of torture inflicted upon the disappeared individuals and their families. As of April 18, 2024, the Syrian Network for Human Rights has documented 112,000 cases of Syrians still forcibly disappeared. This lack of information about their whereabouts leaves their family members in a state of limbo and uncertainty that amounts to torture. Consequently, families are not only subject to torture as a result of enforced disappearance but also due to the States failure to fulfil their right to know the truth. The Syrian regime has so far refused to actively engage with the ICJ. It initially requested a postponement of three months for the first public hearings, in July 2023. It then refused to attend the hearings in October and sent a letter arguing against the jurisdiction of the Court on acts of torture occurred in Syria. Since 2011, attempts by the Syrian regime to evade responsibility and its lack of compliance with binding orders have ran parallel to and have been integral part of the commission of crimes against humanity in Syria. It is possible that the Court may have decided to not request public periodic reporting because it is already aware of the lack of engagement by the Syrian regime on this front. However, for the Syrian civil society, it is evident that additional oversight and accountability are called for in the event of non-compliance, not the other way around... The urgent need for bolder actions While Syria is the most emblematic case of systematic and mass-scale torture of the 21st century, the case before the Court has not achieved its intended objectives so far - both from a legal standpoint and in terms of bringing the Syrian president Bashar al-Assads crimes more to the attention of the international community, a goal that is all the more urgent given that Syria is gradually losing its place on the news agenda. The ICJ has been viewed as a significant and innovative tool for combating impunity and shedding light on the state responsibility of the Syrian regime. The courts judicial and strategic value is undeniable; nonetheless, more efforts should be made to fully activate its function and ensure that the Court can play its part in Syria. The South Africa v. Israel case provides some lessons in this regard. Within this case, South Africa has taken bold steps to address Israels lack of compliance with the Courts order. Most importantly, it constantly and immediately responded to changes in the ground that required the ICJs attention, such as the start of the Rafah offensive and the policy of deliberate starvation of civilians. It also tried to defy the Courts initial inability to adequately respond to the crimes being committed in Gaza by forcing the judges to re-engage with the case on a regular basis, to the point of even questioning the information provided by Israel. Since the initiation of the proceedings, South Africa has made two requests, in March and in May, for provisional measures, in addition to its request to urgently re-assess the initial order in February. Despite the most recent order calling on Israel to halt the military offensive in Rafah, there has not been any impact on the ground. However, we argue that this failure is not in the hands of the ICJ, which is by statute unable to enforce its judgements: it is instead the result of the deliberate (in)action of Israels allies. Nevertheless, the fact that the Court have engaged extensively on the case and gradually progressed to make a stronger order for Gaza is in itself of value and strategically important within the ongoing advocacy efforts by Palestinian organizations and political endeavors. In the Syrian case, further activation of the ICJ on acts of torture in Syria could have a similar positive impact in ongoing efforts by the Syrian civil society to keep Syria on the agenda, and in addressing issues related to refugees return and the principle of non-refoulement and normalization with the Syrian regime by European and regional countries. Notwithstanding the differences between the two cases, they face similar challenges: in both cases, there is an initial conservative approach by the ICJ to the situation (in Syria and in Gaza), and a lack of compliance by a country (Syria and Israel), emboldened by decades of impunity and support by its allies. However, it is the bold and unrelenting approach of South Africa that gradually enabled the Court to be better equipped in addressing Israels crimes in Gaza. The reality is that torture is ongoing in Syria. Hundreds of thousands are still missing. Numerous families have lately received death certificates for their loved ones, leaving them with no prospect of knowing the truth. And Syrian refugees are being forced to return to Syria from Lebanon, placing them at risk of detention and torture. All these cases warrant for the ICJs involvement in the Syria case to be expanded further. Now, hopes are in the hands of Canada and the Netherlands to follow the example of South Africa and make bolder moves that would push the ICJ to better respond to the violations perpetrated by the Syrian regime. ADRIAN LAKRICHI Adrian Lakrichi is a legal analyst at the Syrian Legal Development Programme (SLDP). He supports complaints and UN submissions on international law. He also works on state engagement, especially with Latin American countries. MOUHANAD SHARABATI Mouhanad Sharabati is a Syrian lawyer specialising in international law and a senior legal officer at the SLDP. Graduated from Damascus University, Lund University, and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, he has practiced law in Syria and was a member of the Syrian Bar Association. VERONICA BELLINTANI Veronica Bellintani is the head of the International Law Support Unit at the SLDP, where she provides legal support to victims, survivors, and families associations to achieve justice, truth, and remedy for human rights violations in Syria. Amid the "Lovely Runner" craze, Kim Hye Yoon has sparked a fierce rivalry among brands as she reportedly leaves for Bali. Following "Lovely Runner" conclusion, the lead stars continue to make headlines as they do their individual projects in and out of South Korea. Kim Hye Yoon, as a matter of fact, has become an in-demand celebrity following the drama's completion. On June 5, the actress sealed an endorsement deal from a shoe brand and is scheduled to film promotional videos in Bali, Indonesia this June 8. Normally, announcements for airport fashion of celebrities' departures are disseminated. It's a natural process for the brands sponsoring stars to disclose the schedule and terminal of the departures at the airport. Disclosing the "SKY Castle" star's departure schedule, a brand promoter sponsoring the actress suddenly made a notice to the public: "Actress Kim Hye Yoon will wear shoes of the shoe brand XXX upon at Incheon International Airport leaving for Bali on June 8. We would appreciate it if you could take full-body shots of her to show the shoes, if possible." Apart from this, another brand also requested the same: "Please capture Kim Hye Yoon's appearance." Proving her fame, the demands showcase the intense competition among brands that the actress is collaborating with. Each brand's approach also reflects the fierce rivalry. Regarding this matter, a brand CEO elaborated on the situation. "As the drama ('Lovely Runner') is a hot topic, the brand must have put a lot of effort into working with the actress. It is understandable. However, such an announcement was made due to the brand's concerns that they wouldn't get the shots they desired because it's about shoes rather than clothes." In addition to this, another brand official said that such demand certifies the power of the series and Kim Hye Yoon. "There are still differences in the brand's approaches, but as they made polite requests, there would be no major problem." Kim Hye Yoon leaving for Bali on 8th June for a photo shoot, fully sponsored from her airport departure outfit & brands are clamoring to get her to wear their brands & promote it. [Article] Usually, when celebrities leave the country, guidance is provided for coverage of pic.twitter.com/a1kktB4v1Q Soljaeverse (@kdramasverse) June 5, 2024 Since it will be Kim Hye Yoon's first schedule abroad, many are looking forward to seeing more of her future activities. To know the latest updates on Kim Hye Yoon, you can follow her on Instagram @hye_yoon1110. YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE : Kim Hye Yoon Experiencing Burnout + Dishes on How She Handles Negative Comments What can you say about Kim Hye Yoon's new brand endorsements? 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. Trending actress Kim Hye Yoon is garnering attention as she has become a magnet for tall and handsome guys in her previous dramas. Keep on reading to know more about the celebrity's amazing chemistry with her leading men. Kim Hye Yoon Gains Attention for Being A Magnet of Tall, Handsome Guys Known for her top-notch acting, the rising-to-fame actress Kim Hye Yoon is on major news and social media platforms. Following the successful completion of her megahit series "Lovely Runner," the female star became the center of discussion online. On June 5, multiple online communities posted about Kim Hye Yoon, highlighting her frequent pairings with towering actors. She is said to be a magnet for tall and handsome guys as she has consistently worked with exceptionally tall male stars in her drama projects. Some posts like 'Kim Hye Yoon, the Tall Guy Collector' as a title explained why the young versatile actress has earned nicknames by highlighting the height differences with her co-stars since 2019. Kim Hye Yoon's K-Drama Leading Men: Byeon Woo Seok, Rowoon, More To recall, in 2019, Kim Hye Yoon portrayed the role of Eun Dan Oh in the fantasy-romance series "Extraordinary You." The drama also starred idol-actor Rowoon, who was her screen partner and has a height of 190 cm. Lee Jae Wook who is standing 187 cm was also in the project, creating a 30 cm height difference with Hye Yoon with 160 cm frame. In 2021, the award-winning actress made her screen comeback through the historical-romance series "Secret Royal Inspector & Joy," where she teamed up with 2PM member and actor Ok Taecyeon. The male star is said to have a height of 186 cm. This 2024, Kim Hye Yoon made a surprising return with another impressive drama "Lovely Runner." As of this writing, the series is still experiencing a global craze including its stars. The actress played the character of Im Sol and was paired with model-actor Byeon Woo Seok, who is standing 190 cm tall. Apart from their top-tier performances, fans and viewers are praising their natural and undeniable chemistry. It has been said that their height differences played a big role in their strong presence as an on-screen love team. Some fans expressed their sentiments over Kim Hye Yoon's great chemistry with her leading men despite having a big gap in their height. "I hope Kim Hye Yoon continues this trend." "It's hilarious how Kim Hye Yoon is a magnet of tall and handsome guys." Meanwhile, Kim Hye Yoon is heading to Bali, Indonesia this June 8 to film her upcoming promotional videos for a shoe brand. Who among Kim Hye Yoon's past leading men has great chemistry with her? 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. Ji Sung dishes on an interesting story about his family and how protective he is as a father to his kids. The "Connection" star is married to fellow celebrity Lee Bo Young after meeting on the set of the 2004 K-drama "Save the Last Dance for Me." Following their wedding in 2013, they were blessed with two kids, a daughter and a son, born in 2015 and 2019. Although both of them are in the show business, they wanted to keep their lives as private as possible but show a glimpse of them to fans. During his interview with the YouTube show "MMTG, Ji Sung revealed an interesting story about his role as the head of the family. Ji Sung Reveals Why He Chose Sleeping at the Foot of the Bed One of the hosts revealed Ji Sung's odd sleeping position. The actor sleeps at the foot of the bed with his wife and kids. "I sleep horizontally at the foot of the bed while my wife and children sleep normally," he said. Interestingly he had an endearing reason for choosing to sleep at the foot of the bed. "I do it to prevent my kids from falling off the bed during the night." The award-winning actor also mentioned how he and his wife, Lee Bo Young, are "committed" to raising their kids well. "It's our dream for our kids to grow up healthy and wonderfully," he added. Meanwhile, "Connection" co-star Jeon Mi Do confessed that he often mentions Ji Sung's name to her husband. "You know, whenever I talk with Ji Sung, I feel like I'm some kind of trash. I always talk about Ji Sung to my husband at home," she revealed, causing laughter. This is not the first time that he has spoken about his family, especially his wife. In 2023, Ji Sung and Lee Bo Young celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary. Since both of them are in the same industry, the actress revealed how her husband sees her. Describing him as someone who has a "mature and reliable attitude," she revealed how Ji Sung loved her for who she is. "No matter the situation, he is someone who is not embarrassed of me and does not try to change me." Speaking of Ji Sung's revelation regarding the bed, Lee Bo Young previously mentioned it in her interview with Allure Korea. According to her, she and her husband "do everything together." "We still all sleep on a king size bed together. Our first child, second child, and myself lie down [normally], and [Ji Sung] sleeps horizontally." Meanwhile, when asked about Ji Sung's dream activity or place with Lee Bo Young, the actor said that he wanted to visit Toledo, Spain, again. He said that it is the location of their marriage proposal, adding, "and take the same photo again." 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, June 7, 2024 - Peter Kamau Muniu, Timothy Irungu Karimi, and Antony Maina Njoroge have been arrested in the wake of escalating cases of motorcycle theft in Ruai and Kamulu areas, thanks to teams from DCI Hqs Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau (CRIB) and DCI Ruai. The three who are believed to be the architects of the illegal dealings were pursued and arrested following a tuk-tuk theft report by the devastated owner, who parked it on Tuesday night after work but found it missing the next day. Taking up the matter, the officers conducted an intelligence-led operation in Kamulu, recovering the said tuk-tuk reg. no. KTWB 975T within the homestead of Peter Kamau Muniu (a former Kenya Navy officer) with the other two suspects in the process of dismantling it. Also found at the scene were a motorcycle make Jin Cheng reg. no. KMDN 972B (maroon) and a Nissan Wingroad reg. no.KCD 143Y (silver) believed to be used in distributing dismantled parts. The two were seized and detained at Ruai Police Station. Two other known suspects said to have sneaked away during the raid are being pursued. The Kenyan DAILY POST. Friday, June 7, 2024 If elections were held today, President William Ruto would lose badly to his opponents after it emerged that the majority of Kenyans have lost confidence in him. According to the latest survey by Infotrak, Kenyans in Nairobi, Eastern, Nyanza, Central, Western, Rift Valley, and the Coast regions believe the country is heading in the wrong direction. Per the report, Nairobi led with the number of people who believe the country is not heading in the right direction at 74 per cent. Residents in Eastern were ranked second at 69 per cent, followed by Nyanza at 68 per cent, Western at 64 per cent and Central at 63 per cent. Some of the main concerns raised include; increased taxes, high cost of living, unemployment, poor infrastructure, poverty, poor governance, flooding, bad politics, and corruption. The report revealed that Kenyans were worried about three key issues; the high cost of living, unemployment, and the state of transport, infrastructure, and roads. "The cost of living and employment have been the prevalent and recurring issues of concern in recent polls conducted since August/ September 2023 and March 2024," read part of the report. Notably, this is an increase compared to a different survey conducted in February 2023 where a majority of Kenyans were complaining about the cost of living. Ethnicity and tribalism, which have dominated political talk in the country, are among the least concerns by Kenyans. Infotrak further revealed that the Finance Bill 2024 was also a concern with a majority of Kenyans opposing some of the proposals. On the other hand, 19 per cent of Kenyans believe the country is going in the right direction. The Rift Valley led the list of Kenyans who believe the country was on track at 23 per cent, North Eastern at 22 per cent, Coast at 21 per cent, Western at 21 per cent and Central at 20 per cent. The Kenyan DAILY POST Friday, June 7, 2024 Renowned pollical analyst Mutahi Ngunyi has urged Kenyans to pay taxes without complaining too much. This follows the contentious Finance Bill, 2024 which has caused a serious uproar among members of the public due to many taxes it seeks to impose and raise on some commodities. However, taking to his social media platform, Mutahi Ngunyi supported the punitive Finance Bill, saying people must pay tax. Fellow KENYANS: Tax is the RENT you PAY for living in Kenya. End of Discussion, Ngunyi stated. According to the political analyst, hustlers do not eat bread and neither do they drink bottled water. They dont even own cars and as a result, will not be affected by the taxes imposed on them. Dear Hustlers: What is your PROBLEM? Only 1.2 million Kenyans out of 52 million OWN cars. "40 million of YOU will NEVER own a car. "Question: Why defend Car Owners if you have No Car? "Also: Do Hustlers drink BOTTLED WATER or use Tea bags? NO! Ruto is TAXING the RICH. Is this WRONG? Tax on BREAD is downright WRONG. It is a SIN. But THINK about it! How many families eat BREAD in Kenya? "20 million Village Kids eat 'left-over' UGALI and porridge for breakfast. Check the UNDP Index on poverty. "If Tax on BREAD is a SIN, why? It affects the middle class. RIGHT? he added. The Kenyan DAILY POST Friday, June 7, 2024 Friday, June 7, 2024 - Former Law Society of Kenya(LSK) chairperson, Nelson Havi, has dared those who have been criticising Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua to go ahead with their plan of impeaching him. Lawmakers led by Kapsaret MP Oscar Sudi and some Kalenjin MPs have taken sides, with a good chunk ganging up and threatening to impeach him. The bone of contention has been Gachagua's resolve to unite Mt Kenya, with his naysayers castigating him for advancing politics of tribalism and ethnicity. Having observed the goings-on in the governing party, Havi called out Gachagua's critics, whom he suggested did not appreciate the significance of the deputy president post. The lawyer, who chairs the Board of Directors at the Retirement Benefits Authority, therefore, invited Gachagua's newfound enemies to the challenge of ousting him from power. Two MPs and 1 governor denigrating DP Gachagua should know that we are not living yesterday, 30 years ago, when Kuria Kanyingi and David Mwenje removed Dr Njuguna Karanja. "The DP has been a heartbeat from the presidency for 10 years. If they have balls, why not initiate his impeachment?" Havi posed The Kenyan DAILY POST Friday, June 7, 2024 - Kakamega County Senator, Dr. Boni Khalwale, has accused National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula and Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi of doing nothing to help the Luhya community. Speaking on Friday, Khalwale accused Wetang'ula and Mudavadi of not using their positions in the government to help the Western region. "We fought hard to win the acceptance of President William Ruto by our people while you were whining and dining with the handshakes. "When you joined us, we happily took a step back for you and Musalia Mudavadi to lead us in this government. "But alas, none of you has ever pushed for the agenda of Kakamega! Our people are watching, Khalwale said. Khalwale joins Trans Nzoia County governor George Natembeya who has been accusing Mudavadi and Wetangula of being useless leaders and blamed them for increased poverty in Luhyaland. The Kenyan DAILY POST Friday, June 7, 2024 - National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung'wah has asked the National Treasury CS Njuguna Ndungu to tighten annual financial projections contained in the Supplementary Budget. While making his remarks on the floor of the house, Ichungwah explained that realistic projections would limit the revisions to only one and therefore save them some time. "I want to re-emphasise the need for the National Treasury to ensure that this supplementary budget as we have emphasised before that over the years, this house has called on the National Treasury to limit Supplementary budgets to at least one supplementary budget in a financial year so that whatever you plan to the annual estimates, you only revise it once," he stated. "Otherwise, the business of having to do budgetary revisions twice or thrice in a year are not a very good budgetary practice." Ichung'wah further argued that extreme layers of revisions disadvantaged government agencies that are likely to fail in meeting their programmes. "It speaks volumes to the level of preparedness that we have when we are preparing our budgets," he added. "In a way, it creates uncertainty with the implementing agencies in government as to whether we will have adequate resources to implement all the programmes that have been budgeted for in a financial year since they do not know whether that money is subject to review." He further asked the CS to ensure that the economy's state of liquidity informs their supplementary budget. Ichung'wah made the remarks after the Budget & Appropriations Committee Chairman Ndindi Nyoro tabled the committee's report on Supplementary Budget II 2023/24. The Kenyan DAILY POST Thursday, June 6, 2024 - A husband who went viral with his wife after a dress bought for their wedding broke the internet by sparking hot debate over its true colour has been jailed for attacking her. Keir Johnston, 39, pinned his partner Grace to the ground and choked her during a row at their home on the island of Colonsay, in the Inner Hebrides, in March 2022. He only let go when a witness stepped in. He then went on to struggle with Mrs Johnston a second time before brandishing a knife and shouting: Somebody is going to die. The couple gained worldwide fame following their 2015 nuptials after the mother of the bride wore a dress that sparked global debate over its true colours. While some said the dress was black and blue or white and gold. Celebrities including Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Justin Bieber, and Taylor Swift all chimed in with their takes, while the photo was tweeted up to 11,000 times a minute. The couple went on to appear on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where they were handed $10,000 and a trip to Grenada. However, behind closed doors Mrs Johnston feared for her life, the High Court in Glasgow heard. Prosecutor Chris Macintosh told the court at a previous hearing: There is no permanent police presence on the island, and she was in a situation where she felt trapped. Petrol station attendant Johnston pleaded guilty to assaulting his wife to her injury and danger of life. Jailing him for four-and-a-half years, Judge Lady Drummond said: "In her victim impact statement, she went over the emotional and psychological on her from your behaviour. "She suffers in various aspects of her life emotionally, psychologically and financially. "The impact of your actions will last forever. She cannot understand your lack of remorse or empathy towards her. "I have taken account of all the information and considered the submission that the court can deal with this with a community disposal. I am afraid the only appropriate sentence for a crime such as this is imprisonment. A 10-year harassment order was also granted restricting Johnstons contact with Grace. The court heard that days before the assault, Grace had gone to the mainland for a job in defiance of her husbands wishes. In the hours prior to him turning on his wife, Johnston had been drinking at a pub quiz. Grace had been elsewhere. She got strange texts including him stating: You should support me, but you do not. Feeling worried and anxious, she returned home where her husband already was. Mr Macintosh said: "Johnston woke up and said that he was going to leave her. She went outside the property to stop him leaving. "He followed her and pinned her to the ground. He placed both knees on her arms, so she was unable to move. He then began strangling her with both his hands. She was initially able to scream. She feared for her life and believed Johnston intended to kill her. He was very forceful. Johnston briefly went back inside the house when a neighbour stepped in to try and pull him away from his wife but he quickly came back threatening to finish her off. Grace suffered visible bruising and marks to her neck as a result of the assault, but luckily needed no medical treatment. The court heard Johnston later alluded to previous episodes of marital violence when talking to a doctor. He also described bouts of emotional distress since he was a child. Marco Guarino, defending, asked Lady Drummond for her to consider a non-custodial sentence. The lawyer said: "There is no attempt to give him an excuse today for what he did. "He understands how he came to be in this situation, and it is clear from the outset what should have happened as they should have parted. "This was a relationship which was far too volatile for each other, it became apparent that their lifestyles were diverging, and he was unable to cope with that. "He acted in a way where he requires to be punished for it. "That punishment need not be custody as there is a lack of background and there is nothing outstanding. There was an emotional reaction from him for what he did and what he caused. Friday, June 7, 2024 More Kenyans are set to lose jobs after a Canadian company operating in Mombasa announced that it is closing part of its operations following harsh tax conditions. The firm is the hub for East Africa operations of the overseas packaging manufacturers of corrugated cartons and paper sacks. In a press statement, the packaging company cited that it will be shutting down its Paper Sack Division based in Shimanzi Mombasa County. The company further cited that it needed to close some of its operations to remain profitable following the implementation of the Finance Act 2023. Further, the firm detailed that following the closure of the operations they would have to let go of over 70 members of their staff who had been declared redundant. The company also cited that the closure of the operations was informed by the need to mitigate potential losses which were occasioned by the increased cost of doing business. The CEO, while announcing the folding of the operations, detailed that the implementation of the Finance Bill of 2023 played a major role in the creation of a steep taxation regime for the company. The closure of the firm falls on the backdrop of a warning issued by the Kenya Association of Manufacturers who have cited that their members would flee the country following a harsh business landscape. According to KAM, if the Finance Bill 2024 is passed as it is, the business landscape in the country may continue to plummet creating more job losses. The Kenyan DAILY POST Friday, June 7, 2024 - An outspoken Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) senator has said he will not support sharing national resources using the one-man, one-shilling formula even after former Prime Minister Raila Odinga endorsed the policy on Thursday. Speaking on Friday, Narok County Senator Ledama Ole Kina said the formula would discriminate against 24 counties, and he would not vote for it because it would deny other counties money. "I disagree with a one man, one vote, one shilling; in 24 counties, the majority have been discriminated against for way too long! I will never vote to deny any county money!" According to Ledama, equity and even development across the country could be achieved by allocating money according to land size rather than population. "The only way to have equity in Kenya and for development to be spread across the nation is for money to be divided based on land size! Not population," Ledama stated. The Kenyan DAILY POST Friday, June 7, 2024 Azimio Leader Raila Odingas bid for the African Union Chairmanship has received a huge boost. This is after President William Ruto appointed a secretariat to lead Railas campaigns throughout Africa. The president appointed a distinguished team to ensure Baba clinches the AU seat, among them Ambassador Mahboub Maalim, Professor Makau Mutua, Ambassador Elkanah Odembo, Ambassador Anthony Okara, and Ambassador Caroline Karugu. This comes even as Rutos government has declared its full support for Railas AU candidature. Support for Azimio leader Raila Odinga's candidacy for the African Union Commission chairmanship continues to surge, with significant backing from the government. During a press conference at his Railway offices in Nairobi on Wednesday, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi affirmed the government's commitment to ensuring Raila's success in securing the prestigious position. The campaign team will now prepare all the briefs for use by the candidate, develop campaign materials including digital presence, and prepare for the public debate to be broadcast live for African citizens. It will equally prepare Babas application documents together with requisite translations of his resume into 6 languages; Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, French, English, and Kiswahili. The Kenyan DAILY POST Friday, June 7, 2024 The fallout between President William Ruto and his Deputy, Rigathi Gachagua, is getting messier by the day. This follows calls for Gachagua to step aside and let someone else take over as Rutos deputy since it is no longer tenable for him to continue serving as deputy president when all he cares about is his Mt. Kenya region and not any other. Speaking during an interview, Webuye East MP Martin Wanyonyi stated that the fight for dominance in Mt Kenya politics must end. Wanyonyi stated that if Gachagua doesn't stop the balkanisation of the region, he should resign and allow Ruto to find a supportive deputy. "I am saying that if this story of Mt. Kenya and leadership dominance and arrogance continues, we have requested that Honourable Riggy G pave the way for someone else to become Deputy President to President William Samoei Ruto," he said. However, Wanyonyi stated that if the second in command didn't step aside, then he would be impeached. "If he won't pave the way, our constitution is clear on how Parliament can compel the Deputy President to step aside or resign, paving the way for someone else to assist Ruto in building the Republic of Kenya, uniting Kenya, and advancing the country," Wanyonyi stated. The lawmaker claimed Gachagua's recent calls for Mt Kenya unity were undermining Ruto's efforts to unite the country. "Tribalism is something that sets Kenya back and was buried in the election of William Ruto as the President of the Republic of Kenya," he added. Wanyonyi underscored that anybody trying to regress the country by playing regional or tribal politics is an enemy of the nation. The Kenyan DAILY POST Friday, June 7, 2024 State House is reportedly in panic after ODM Party Leader Raila Odinga hinted at working with Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua going forward. Speaking at the ODM Party headquarters yesterday when he met the conveners of the Limuru III conference, Raila endorsed Gachaguas one man, one vote, one shilling revenue sharing formula which has been a hot topic in Kenya currently. According to Raila, Gachagua has finally seen the light and has turned from Saul to Paul. The former Premier also noted that Gachagua is a member of the Kenya Kwanza government which is supporting his bid to become the African Union Commission (AUC) chairperson. I am working with everybody in this country, nobody specifically, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is a member of the government and on Wednesday the government pledged to support my bid for AU. He has seen the light, he is a Saul who has become a Paul, Raila remarked. The opposition chief declared support for the one man one vote one shilling formula, saying it would ensure fair distribution of resources in the country. Raila further said it was time for a nationwide conversation on the distribution of resources. Some people dont want to hear it but we want to ensure that every Kenyan is equally treated that is why we are saying one man one vote one shilling, I agree totally with this, I am not a populist, I always talk my mind openly, Raila stated. Gachagua announced he would push for the adoption of the one-man-one-shilling formula. The second in command explained that the formula is critical for development in the Mt Kenya region; something that is causing him friction with Ruto. The Kenyan DAILY POST Friday, June 7, 2024 - Former Muranga County Woman Representative Sabina Chege has asked Kenyans to pray hard so that President William Ruto and his deputy, Rigathi Gachagua, do not part ways. Speaking on Friday, Sabina said Kenyans should go down on their knees and seek God's intervention to avert a fallout. The nominated MP spoke amid reports of widening cracks between the president and his deputy, with allies engaging in a war of words. "My Prayer as a woman who has been in politics for some time is that let us pray for the president and his deputy so that the bond continues to hold,'' Chege said Chege called on Kenyans to be vigilant and guard against any divisions that may create enmity between them. "We pray that satan should not get away into your relationship, we have supported you and we want to support you so that Kenya moves forward,'' she added. The Kenyan DAILY POST Friday, June 7, 2024 - Major Karumba wa Nyoike was a senior British Military Officer until his sudden death in 2016 just at the age of 36. In a military with very few senior Black officers, the death of Major Karumba became a major concern to the British Army leadership and his colleagues. Trained at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, he had served in Afghanistan and Germany and had also served as British Army's Telecommunications and ICT Director during one of his postings. He had been married to his wife Suchada Karumba for seven years until July 2016 when they separated. It appears the collapsed marriage took a toll on him. At the time of his death, he was leading a military professional course at Defence Academy at Shrivenham Barracks Oxfordshire. According to his colleague, Karumba, a very strict timekeeper failed to report to work. According to the colleague, this was really strange because it was the first time he was missing work. As a result, the concerned colleague sent him a WhatsApp message to find out what was happening to which Major Karumba replied " Sorry , I overslept. I couldn't sleep last night". Later the colleague, also holding the rank of Major, visited Karumba at his accommodation within the Barracks where they had a lengthy discussion with him. Karumba complained about his marriage issues which he said were really affecting his sleep. Even though Karumba resumed work again, he became absent again on another day sending his colleague a message; "Sorry I overslept, I will be over shortly. I have booked a doctor's appointment and hopefully, they will be able to help me sleep." The next day Major Karumba didn't report to work again, this time never responding to any messages. His concerned colleague got a spare key from the reception and gained entry to his accommodation but they couldn't find him. Eventually, they broke into the bathroom which was locked from the inside with lights still on, and found his body hanging. Next to it was a suicide note and a will. During the inquest into his death, his personal doctor told the coroner that Major Karumba had complained to her about being stressed. Just three months before his death, his wife whom he had separated with, decided to move to the military Barracks where he (Karumba) lived and worked. With the divorce not yet formalised, she still had a right to accommodation because of her marriage to Karumba. However, they lived in separate houses. According to her, the aim of moving there was so that their two children could be close to their father. But this close proximity must have affected Karumba even more. Seeing his estranged wife made it difficult for him to move on and his debts were also piling up. Many wondered why a young man just in his 30s and holding a senior rank in the military would take his own life. But matters of the heart are very complicated and sensitive. The Officer's father Mr Chris Karumba Mburu had served as director of External Intelligence at the Kenya National Intelligence Service (NIS) before President Uhuru Kenyatta appointed him as Kenya's Ambassador to South Sudan in 2018. In 2020, just four years after the tragic death of his son, he collapsed and died at his residence in Juba. The following year his wife also died. By Odhiambo Levin Opiyo. The Kenyan DAILY POST. Thursday, June 6, 2024 - A school crossing guard in Pennsylvania has been arrested and charged for giving middle school students drugs and even smoking weed with at least one of them. Police in Delaware County arrested 26-year-old Kiara Lee on Tuesday after she allegedly gave the children electronic cigarettes and marijuana edibles. Lee, a crossing guard for Penn Wood Middle School in Darby, Pa., was seen on multiple occasions by a student witness giving drugs and vapes to at least two students. The student witness reported Lee to school officials after one of the students shared that they were frequently smoking weed with the crossing guard. She was known to have provided vapes to the juvenile several times, and the student was known to be in possession of marijuana, according to WCAU. One students guardian confirmed to police that Lee had been giving the child vapes and marijuana edibles, the outlet reported. We walk past every day, so a lot of students see her passing it around and they would say, Oh, let me hit the vape, let me hit the vape,' one student told WTXF. Along with the unethical gift-giving, Lee reportedly kept up a conversation through text messages with one of the students, in which they would share their experiences after ingesting edibles. Law enforcement officials blasted Lees behavior and actions, saying it was unacceptable for anyone, especially school crossing guards, to be giving drugs to minors. While marijuana may not seem like a big deal to some folks in the community, I think we can all agree that crossing guards should not be providing narcotics even if it is just marijuana to our kids, Darby Borough Chief Joseph Gabe said, according to WPVI. School crossing guards epitomize the role of public servant. They are quite literally entrusted with the lives of our children and hold a position of sacred trust in communities across the Commonwealth and the country, said Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer. For an individual to abuse that trust is deeply disturbing, and corrosive to the well-being of the entire community, Stollsteimer added. Parents in the community were outraged to learn about Lees actions. Its already bad enough as a parent, keeping them away from influences, but to hear that an employee of the borough would even sell to kids. Its insane, Maya Bryant told Fox 29. Its a shame to have these people on these corners to do their job, to protect children, and now youre telling me the kids are receiving drugs from them? Its utterly disgusting, Malekka Dade added. Lee was charged with two felony counts of drug possession with intent to deliver, two misdemeanor counts of corruption of a minor and two misdemeanor counts of possession of marijuana, court records viewed by The Post show. She is being held in the Delaware County jail after being unable to post her $20,000 bail. Lee is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on June 14. Friday, June 7, 2024 - Senior National Intelligence Officer (NIS), Tom Adala, reportedly left a suicide note in his bedroom after he took his own life at his Kilimani home a few days ago. When senior police officers visited his lavish residence on Tuesday, they found the neatly written suicide note on top of the bed. The note had been written, Going home. Nobody to blame. Just need permanent peace. Peace, love, humility,. Adala, an Assistant Director at the National Intelligence Service (NIS) headquarters in Ruaraka, shot himself in the head at servants quarters. The bullet went through the head from the left side and exited from the right. His colleagues revealed that he had sought treatment after depression took a toll on him. His situation worsened when he was demoted. He failed to report to work several times after being demoted and wanted to resign. However, his friends urged him to stay. We visited him at home several times when he failed to report to work after the staff changes. Adala wanted to resign but we urged him to stay, a colleague revealed. The Kenyan DAILY POST. Friday, June 7, 2024 - A DCI officer who was among the detectives deployed to hunt down and arrest 19-year-old Ian Njoroge after a video of him assaulting a traffic police officer in Mirema has been arrested in connection with a robbery. The rogue DCI officer, identified as Simon Macharia Mwangi, was among four cops who trailed the accountant of Rophine International School from a bank in Utawala on Monday afternoon before breaking into his car and disappearing with Ksh 2.2 million. A total of Ksh 473,000 believed to be part of the stolen amount was recovered from the suspects, who were ambushed in the stations official police vehicle. In the early incident reported at Mihango Police Station at 4pm Monday, the accountant had withdrawn an amount in excess of the Ksh 2.2 million that was stolen, intended for the payment of casual workers at the said school. Using a saloon car Reg. No. KCR 959D, the suspects were on his trail right from when he parked his car outside the bank to when he left with the cash. Meanwhile, DCI officers from Nairobi region and Kayole obtained crucial actionable intelligence and proceeded to Utawala area in pursuit of a suspect they had identified from CCTV analysis. On arrival, the team learnt that the suspect had been picked up moments earlier by unknown people driving in a Subaru car. Further intelligence led the team to the Kasarani station, where the suspects were ambushed in a GK vehicle and forced to identify themselves in the presence of the Sub-County Police Commander, his deputy, and the Sub-County Criminal Investigations Officer. They were identified as Sgt Antony Ndegwa Anwal, Cpl Daniel Lekakeny Sunkuli, PC Simon Macharia Maina (of DCI Kasarani), PC Antony Mwenda (KPS Ruai), Lukas Magwaga and Young Wakise. The DCI sub-county head confirmed that the arrested officers were neither on official duty to Utawala nor working under his instructions. Upon search, Ksh 350,000 was found in the car and another Ksh 123,000 retrieved from their pockets. Watch the report courtesy of NTV. The Kenyan DAILY POST. Friday, June 7, 2024 - The family of a business lady identified as Veronica Mulwale Omurunga has raised fears over her disappearance. It's alleged that Ms. Omurunga was kidnapped with the support of police officers with a view of forcing her to hand over a company that got a lucrative tender at Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) recently. She is a listed director of Yichtsu Enterprises Limited alongside Bernard Konyi Rumenya. Both have 500 shares each. Yichtsu recently got awarded KPLC Last Mile project contracts valued at approximately Sh2.6 billion. According to family sources, Veronica was picked up on Thursday 6th June 2024 from her workplace along Kindaruma Road in Kilimani in the early afternoon hours. She was then taken to Nairobi Area police regional headquarters but when the family went there, they were told that she had been transferred to Buruburu police station. Cops refused to inform the family reasons for her arrest or detention and by this evening, she has not been seen or contacted by the family. She has been denied access to her legal representatives and her phone is not being answered. "We suspect that some powerful forces are using police to compel her to relinquish her shares at the company. They have probably taken over her gadgets so that they can approve the transfer of shares to some other persons," the source said. It's said that Veronica's co-director Konyi is working with a close associate of a member of the first family to transfer the shares. If they succeed, she has to resign and initiate the process of transfer of shares through the Business Registration Services (BRS) online platform. With the cabal having her and commandeering her gadgets, it will be easy to do it without any hitch. A Chinese associate of Veronica has been denied entry into the country after he travelled to Beijing. He is now stranded in Beijing after he was told that he can't be allowed to enter Kenya. Via Cyprian Nyakundi. The Kenyan DAILY POST. Thursday, June 6, 2024 - A 47-year-old woman, Kedibone Lonia Nyathi, has been sentenced to 25 years imprisonment by the High Court of South Africa; Limpopo Division in Polokwane, after she pleaded guilty to killing her husband, Sandy Nyathi. Nyathi was previously charged with three young men whom she had contracted to kill her husband. National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Regional Spokesperson, Limpopo Division, Mashudu Malabi Dzhangi, who disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, said Nyathi, was charged with murder. The charge relates to an incident of 03 December 2022, in Enable village in the district of Mopani. The accused was previously charged alongside three young men who she had contracted to kill her husband, the statement read. The erstwhile co-accused persons: Remember Surprise Malepe (19), Ethen Raganya(18) and Poopo Ventry Mabela(18) entered into a plea and sentence agreement with the state and they were expected to testify against the accused. The accused were sentenced as follows: Malepe to an effective 10 years, and Raganya and Mabela were sentenced to an effective 8 years each. After their conviction and sentence, the trio became state witnesses and the case against Nyathi was separated. In an about turn, the accused (Nyathi) who had earlier indicated that she intended to plead not guilty changed her tune and negotiated a plea and sentence agreement with the state. Her plea and sentence agreement revealed that she contracted the former co-accused to kill her husband for a fee of R15 000, she further asked her accomplices to stage a hi-jacking by barricading the road where she will pass together with the deceased. The accused was driving her vehicle pretending that she was accompanying her husband to work, on the other hand informing her accomplices to prepare themselves for killing. Before she reached the workplace, she then stopped the car and asked the deceased to remove objects which were thrown into the road. The deceased alighted from the vehicle, and thats when the deceased was stabbed to death by the former accused persons and one of the former co-accused pretended to attack her (Nyathi). In mitigation, the defence submitted that there are substantial and compelling circumstances present in this matter because the accused was a first offender, she had shown true remorse by pleading guilty, she has a minor child, and she is suffering from two chronic illnesses. In aggravation of the sentence, the senior state Advocate Nkhetheni Munyai submitted that this offence was committed out of greed since the investigations revealed that she ( Nyathi ) had several insurance policy payments that she was entitled to in the event of the deceased death. Advocate Munyai further said that the suitable sentence, in this case, should be 25 years imprisonment. The acting judge Ngobeni found that the plea and sentence agreement was in the interests of justice and accordingly sentenced the accused to 25 years of direct imprisonment. The accused was also declared unfit to possess a firearm. The NPA welcomed the sentence and the Director of Public Prosecutions, advocate Ivy Thenga commended both the State advocate Munyai and the investigation Officer, Detective Sergeant Sello Rony Maepa of Maake police station for building an insurmountable case against the accused which left her with no option but to plead guilty. Friday, June 7, 2024 - Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has urged Kenyan content creators not to be discouraged by the cyberbullying they undergo online. Speaking on Thursday evening during the launch of the new Netflix reality show The Bahatis Empire, the second-in-command disclosed that he has also been the subject of ridicule and bullying online. If I were to get distracted, I would not be Deputy President. You know the way Ive been bullied in online spaces and political rallies, he said. They were even saying I dont know English, they were saying I dont know how to dress. Si munaona vile nakaa. Gachagua went ahead to narrate how some of his perceivably noble actions have always been taken out of context online. He cited the recent backlash he has undergone in his quest to presumably unite the people of his backyard, Mt. Kenya region. Many people when they see we are focused and we get along with the people of Kenya and they appreciate us, they now call me a tribalist because I want to unite my people, Never get distracted by prophets of doom, naysayers, and envious people with evil hearts and they are very many. Today, I am focused on assisting President Ruto and assisting this great country, stated the DP. The Kenyan DAILY POST Thursday, June 6, 2024 - Iconic American actor, Tom Hanks has given a shock response when asked about a possible return of Donald Trump to the White House. The Academy Award winner spoke with CNN's Amanpour in Normandy, France on Thursday, June 6, as President Biden met with military veterans to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Tom Hanks says former President Trump winning a second term in the White House could indicate that Americas journey to a more perfect union has missteps in it. I think theres always reason to be worried about the short term, the Saving Private Ryan star told CNNs Christiane Amanpour on Thursday, when asked if he worries about the countrys commitment to democracy and freedom if Trump wins in November. But I look at the longer term of what happened I think theres an ongoing look, our Constitution says, We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, that journey to a more perfect union has missteps in it, Hanks, 67, said. Over the long term, however, we inevitably made progress towards, I think, that more perfect union. And how does it come about? It comes about not because of somebodys narrative of who was right, or who was a victim or not. It comes out of the slow melding of the truth to the actual practical life that we end up living, Hanks said. It comes down to the good deed that is practiced with your neighbor, the performer continued. I will always have faith that the United States of America, and the Western societies that have adopted more or less the same sort of democracy, cannot help but turn towards what is right, he said. In 2022, Hanks narrated a video touting the Biden administrations accomplishments in its first year, saying at the time that the country was stronger than we were a year ago today. He also hosted Bidens prime-time inaugural TV special in 2021. Watch the video below Kilkenny company Arivu joined a dozen other high-growth start-ups on the fourth Prep4Seed programme delivered by the Irish BICs in collaboration with Enterprise Ireland, preparing them for seed investment. Arivu, led by Matthew Nelson and Mark Cliffe, is a software company that helps businesses prove their products meet European Deforestation EUDR is an EU law coming into force in December 2024 and impacting over 110bn in European imports alone. Arivu is gaining early traction with integrations into leading ERP and related software platforms already serving affected companies. Having raised pre-seed funding with Enterprise Irelands PSSF in late 2023, Arivu is now raising a seed round to scale and maximise this opportunity. The first 12-week Prep4Seed Programme of 2024 culminated this week at the Investor Pitch Day when 12 startups pitched to an audience of Angel Investors and VCs at Enterprise Irelands headquarters. The programme, delivered by the four Irish Business Innovation Centres (BICs), in collaboration with Enterprise Ireland, prepares start-up clients for seed investment bringing participants through the investor readiness process quickly and effectively. The Irish BICs are AxisBIC, Furthr, South East BIC and WestBIC. The 12 Irish based early-stage companies pitching for over 14.6 million in investment were from a variety of industry sectors including: Industrial, Life Sciences, FinTech, Food and ICT. The ambition and capability of Irelands start-ups has never been higher than it is today," said Leo McAdams, Divisional Manager, Enterprise Ireland. "The evidence is clear in the calibre of talent and innovation demonstrated by the 12 start-ups spread across a range of sectors that are pitching today. Through the Prep4Seed programme, delivered in collaboration with the four BICs, Enterprise Ireland will continue to support these future enterprise leaders and start-ups to thrive and influence the future of global business. Commenting on the programme, Matthew Nelson, CEO & Founder of Arivu said: "As an early-stage start-up, Arivu Labs has been honoured to be backed by Enterprise Ireland and to become part of the Prep4Seed programme. From our first interaction with Rosemary, Ayzel and the South East BIC team, we received professional and personalised support specific to our business model and our needs at this stage in our companys journey. The Prep4Seed programme has exceeded our expectations specifically in the area of financial planning for the purposes of capital raising and ensuring alignment between our investor narrative and our budgeting, forecasting and capital raising requirements. South East BIC teams focus on financials as well as strategic narrative stands out to the Arivu Labs team not only for its significant value add for our fundraising efforts but as a differentiator among accelerator and incubator programmes we have experienced in the past. Participants attended five Masterclasses run by the Irish BICS and tailored one-to-one meetings with experienced BIC consultants which covered a broad range of areas including Sales & Marketing, Financial Modelling, Market Validation, Pitching & Investment and Company Foundation. Participants were also brought through intensive investor pitch preparation sessions and trial pitches preparing them for todays Investor Day. To date 54 startups have participated in the 12-week Prep4Seed investor-ready programme delivered nationally by the Irish BICs: AxisBIC, Furthr, South East BIC and WestBIC in collaboration with Enterprise Ireland. With the polls now closed, D-Day has arrived for the 50 local candidates seeking your vote to represent you on Kilkenny County Council for the next five years. Over the next 72 hours, we'll find out exactly where everyone stands when the dust has settled. The team behind the Kilkenny People and Kilkenny Live will be present throughout this years election count at the Lyrath Estate convention centre. Well be bringing you live, up-to-the-minute information from the count centre, as the winners celebrate and the runners-up count their losses. You can follow our liveblog on KilkennyLive and you wont miss a minute of it. With the voters now having had their say, here are a few of the questions we are looking forward to getting an answer to over the coming days. How will the two largest Government parties fare? Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have dominated the council in recent years, and the two parties hold 19 of the 24 seats between them on the incumbent council. Two sitting Fianna Fail and one Fine Gael councillor did not contest this election, but both parties had many new faces coming forward to put their names on the ballot. What of the Green Party? The junior partner in Government often gets a raw deal. The Greens hold just one seat on the current council for years held by Malcolm Noonan, and now occupied by Cllr Maria Dollard who was co-opted on the formers election to the Dail. Newcomer Kristina Doyle enters the fray in the Callan-Thomastown area, and Benny McDonagh in the south. With other issues pushing climate change out of front and centre in some areas recently, will there still be room for Green voices on the local council? Whither Sinn Fein? The last time out, the 2019 Local Elections was a disaster for the party. They lost all three sitting councillors and were left with no representation on the council until the defection by then-Labour Party councillor Denis Hynes over two years later in 2021. In the 2020 General Election, however, Sinn Feins Kathleen Funchion topped the poll with a massive 17,493 first preference votes. The record result was seen as a clear sign the party had plenty of voter support here. They could have run a second candidate even. Since then, support for Sinn Fein nationally has slumped, dropping again in the most recent poll. This time, they ran eight candidates in Kilkenny, including three in the city. Can Labour make any inroads? Sitting councillor Tomas Breathnach has been a mainstay in South Kilkenny since 2004. Elsewhere, things have proven tricky since the retirement of Maurice Shortall in Castlecomer. Two candidates running in the city aim to retake a seat there, once a stronghold of Seamus Pattison. It may be challenging. How will the independent candidates do? The outspoken Eugene McGuinness announced his arrival in the 2019 Local Election, winning plenty of supporters during his campaign. Half a dozen other independents are now seeking to replicate his success. Some of them have been very vocal on social media will that translate to votes at the polling station? The Social Democrats, People Before Profit, Irish Peoples Party, and the Irish Freedom Party are all running candidates, each hoping to be their partys first-ever elected member in County Kilkenny. What were the defining issues? Well, it depends who you talk to. Some are the old dependables, for example, housing. This remains a huge issue for everyone from those who dont have it, those who can hardly afford it, tenants, landlords and owner occupiers. Even big employers are identifying the lack of housing as a major issue limiting their growth and as an impediment to attracting and retaining talent. The cost of living comes up again and again people feel their euro is getting them less and less. Has immigration been a big issue? It seems to be coming up a bit more, particularly in certain areas and for some candidates. However, many of the main established party candidates have also said it didn't come up much at all for them. Could it be a quiet issue that people are keeping to themselves or has it been overblown in the media and in particular, on social media? It will be interesting to see the performance of those candidates who have made it the central platform of their campaign. About a year out from a General Election, with one more Budget to be passed, this Local Election will be seen as a bellwether, to a certain extent, for what is to come. Councillors will have to give input and adopt their own annual budget of around E100 million, which affects a lot of the local services and amenities we all use from social housing and road maintenance through to street cleaning, fire, libraries, parks to economic and community development. They are responsible for agreeing the price of commercial rates, as well as the level of Local Property Tax to be paid. At the end of the day, what most people want from their local councillor remains unchanged someone who is seen to be busy, not afraid to put in the work, and can help them with the issues that affect their daily lives. Can they help get a house for someone locally? Yes, perhaps. Can they rewrite national housing policy? No. If they have good relationships with colleagues in the Dail, they may be able to make representations. They may have the ear of someone among the council executive who can progress matters. If they win enough public support, perhaps others will take notice, or they will find a platform for their message. Some of the issues some candidates have campaigned on are things that ultimately, a local councillor can have little influence on. They are issues that require addressing at a national, or indeed, a European level. Its interesting looking back. Ten years ago, I did a survey of candidates contesting the 2014 Local Election. Many of them are since retired or were not elected. Some are sitting councillors to this day. One of the questions asked was what the big issue on the doorsteps was. Unsurprisingly given the political climate at the time, the answer for almost all candidates was water charges. The timing was a bit of a perfect storm; canvassers had to knock on doors amid huge public protests and unhappiness with the planned charges. With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that the groundswell of anger toward the Government was enough that plans to introduced the charges were abandoned within two years. Another question asked which nearly always received the same answer from all the candidates was: The brewery site/mart sites in Kilkenny City - whats the one thing you would like to see in them? A lot has changed in 10 years. The former mart site remains undeveloped, although plans are in the offing for it. The former brewery site has seen a lot of development in that time. It now boasts new state-of-the-art office blocks, a long-sought skatepark for young people, a linear park, and now a jewel in the crown in the new Mayfair Library building. These are all things that the council and the elected members have helped advance, and for those asking what can they do, there are some tangible things to acknowledge. But the one thing that nearly all candidates said they would like to see was a third-level education campus of some description. Sadly, this is one thing that has not come to pass despite its seemingly universal popularity. Perhaps its something that requires more will at a national level, and perhaps its something the next council will attempt to take on. So as well as fixing the road and cutting ribbons, the role of the local councillor is a varied one. Those 24 people must meet and try to find common ground, compromise, and progress things, all putting on the black and amber jersey to do their best for Kilkenny. They must have in their head a vision of the kind of Kilkenny we all want to live in for the next five, 10, 50 years. Finally, the best way to keep up to date on all the happenings at the election count over the weekend is to follow our social media channels and most importantly, www.kilkennypeople.ie. The KilkennyLive team will be working hard to bring you all the action from the count centre, all the drama, the highs and lows, the little bits of colour and most importantly the winners and losers as we find out what our next council will look like. Well see you there and if not, get in touch on our live blog or social media, and let us know what you make of it all. Twelve candidates are going head to head in a bid to secure the five seats on offer in the Piltown Electoral Area in the local elections. Click here to see the candidates and their bios Four out of the five sitting candidates Pat Dunphy ( Fine Gael), Ger Frisby ( Fianna Fail), Fidelis Doherty ( Fine Gael) and Tomas Breathnach (Labour) are seeking to be re-elected with Jenny Catt Slattery (Fianna Fail), Maria Wall (Fianna Fail), Damien Donoghue (Fine Gael), Natasha Newsome Drennan (Sinn Fein), Michael Wemyss (Sinn Fein), David Kane (Social Democrats), Benny McDonagh (Green Party) and Richard Daly (The Irish People) all vying for seats. Interestingly for the area, Eamon Aylward (Fianna Fail) has decided not to re-run in the local elections this year. Hailing from the mighty Aylward political dynasty in South Kilkenny, Eamon claimed the third seat in the constituency last election. His now-vacated seat offers an opportunity for this years new candidates, and Aylwards non-sitting party colleagues Jenny Catt Slattery and Maria Wall will be hoping to retain the seat for the party. With two more overall contenders than in the 2019 local election, the end result of the Piltown LEA election is far from certain. Sinn Fein will certainly be hoping that one of their two candidates will be able to contest a seat and it will be interesting to see how Fine Gaels new candidate Damien Donoghue fairs. The same can be said for Green Party candidate Benny McDonagh, Irish People Party candidate Richard Daly and Social Democrats candidate David Kane - all three of whom did not contest the previous local election. The Piltown LEA is a contrasting mix of urban and rural communities. Some of the urban areas include Mooncoin, Piltown, Mullinavat and parts of Ferrybank. Elected councillors in the area hold their monthly meetings in the library at Ferrybank Shopping Centre. Big issues in the area include road and water infrastructure, housing, farming, the rising cost of living and healthcare. Stuff reports: A charitable law organisation that assisted survivors of abuse in faith-based institutions is standing by its decision to hire a former Anglican dean as its head despite an array of concerns from staff, saying perception has clouded reality. Community Law Canterbury (CLC) hired Lawrence Kimberley in October. Kimberley was previously the Anglican dean since 2015, telling The Press he stood down as he was looking for a new job before retirement to buy a house. Following the appointment, a letter was sent to CLCs board outlining concerns including how survivors of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into abuse in faith-based institutions, which the organisation assisted, would feel about the appointment. It stated 29 staff members had expressed concerns about Kimberleys appointment that they wanted communicated to outgoing chief executive Paul ONeill and the board, including the process used to select him. So 29 snowflakes signed a letter protesting the new CE, because he used to be a Bishop in the Anglican Church. Most staff held no personal ill will towards Kimberley, and were conscious they had not met him. However, they believed the board had not considered that there were 11 members on staff who openly identified as being part of the LGBTQIA+ community. The fraught and complex relationship between religious organisations generally and LGBTQIA+ communities is well documented, the letter said. If a senior Muslim cleric has been appointed, I wonder if the 29 staff would have written a letter opposing the appointment on the basis of how many rainbow staff they had? Kimberley told Stuff that since he was appointed, 10 employees had left for various reasons. CLC had also appointed seven people and one contractor to various roles. Two interns were about to move into solicitor roles. Some of the staff who left did so before I started so I didnt even get the chance to meet them. I believe its so important to treat every human being with reverence and respect. He believed anyone at CLC should feel safe, adding it was his job to ensure that. My role in working for the Anglican Churchs response to the Royal Commission into the Abuse in Care was to help revise the approach to policies and procedures on the various boards on which I served. I worked really hard in a policy sense to make sure that it was survivor focused. There is no suggestion in any way that Kimberly has ever acted inappropriately. It is purely because he was in the Anglican Church. It is religious bigotry. Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp More Pinterest Print Tumblr Interest.co.nz reported: The Tiwai Point aluminium smelter in Southland will continue to operate until at least 2044 after striking a deal with Kiwi energy companies to supply renewable electricity until then. New Zealand Aluminium Smelters (NZAS), which is owned by multinational mining group Rio Tinto, has often talked of closing due to low commodity prices and high electricity costs. In 2019, Rio Tinto announced a strategic review of the smelter after a year of losses and eventually decided it would halt operations in 2021. NZAS says it employs 1000 workers, indirectly supports another 2200 and makes up about 6.5% of Southlands gross domestic product. The potential closure became an election issue in 2020, with various parties pitching plans to rescue the important regional employer, but ultimately aluminium prices came to the rescue. The Callaway County prosecutor has declined to file charges against a man who shot and killed another man outside a bar in March. In a letter to the Callaway County Sheriff's Office Thursday, prosecutor Benjamin Miller wrote Dennis Collier acted in self defense when he shot and killed Orion Quesenberry in the early morning hours of March 2 outside Uncle D's Bar in Steedman. "If this case was filed and presented to a jury, Mr. Collier would be entitled to a self-defense instruction. Based upon my experience, training, and understanding of the law, I do not believe the State would be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Collier did not act in lawful self-defense," Miller wrote. The sheriff's office in April said it completed its investigation and submitted all findings to the prosecutor's office, including surveillance footage, witness statements and forensic evidence. According to Miller's letter, Quesenberry, 26, was involved in an altercation with another male earlier in the evening. The man pulled out a knife, and Collier asked the man to leave the bar. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. Quesenberry and Collier, who was described as a bar employee by the sheriff's office, later got into a verbal argument, and Quesenberry was asked to leave, the letter states. The altercation turned physical, and Quesenberry allegedly assaulted Collier and a woman who tried to break up the fight, according to the letter. Quesenberry and Collier went outside the bar, and the woman called 9-1-1, the letter states. The 9-1-1 call captures about 20 minutes of their argument outside the bar. "Over the course of that standoff, both Collier and Quesenberry make threats against one another. Collier both taunted and insulted Quesenberry and threatened to shoot him if he came any closer to the bar," Miller wrote. "Quesenberry, seemingly undeterred, continued making attempts to come back into the bar. Collier ultimately ends up with his back to the door that leads back into the bar. Ultimately, Collier fatally shoots Quesenberry one time in the chest after Quesenberry was coming towards Collier and had closed the distance to roughly 4 feet of Collier." Miller wrote that per state law, deadly force could be used "if that person believes that such deadly force is necessary to protect both himself and (the woman)." "Having already been assaulted by Quesenberry in his residence and business and having exhibited a firearm to attempt to get Quesenberry to leave, Collier had a reasonable belief that deadly force was necessary to protect both himself and (the woman)," Miller wrote. Miller also cited another state law that says a person does not have a duty to retreat from a "dwelling, residence or vehicle where the person is not unlawfully entering or unlawfully remaining." "..as this was both Colliers residence and business, he did not have any duty to retreat back into the building," Miller wrote. Yoon set to visit Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan next week By Nam Hyun-woo Korea will create a summit with five Central Asian countries and hold its first meeting in Seoul next year, as part of its new diplomatic strategy for the region, dubbed Korea-Central Asia K Silk Road. Toward that end, President Yoon Suk Yeol will make state visits this week to three Central Asian nations Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to embolden Koreas partnerships with the countries having abundant natural resources and economic growth potential. During a press briefing, Friday, Seouls First Deputy Director of National Security Kim Tae-hyo said that Korea and five Central Asian countries, including Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, will create the Korea-Central Asia Summit and hold its inaugural meeting here next year. Kim said the summit will be the latest edition of the Yoon governments efforts to expand its diplomatic frontline, following the Korea-Pacific Islands Summit last year and the Korea-Africa Summit earlier this month. The summit is pursued as part of the "K-Silk Road initiative," which is aimed at creating a new platform for partnerships with Korea and Central Asian nations. The K-Silk Road initiative contains the blueprint for upgrading Koreas partnerships with the Central Asian region a step higher, Kim said. Through the initiative, we seek to facilitate free, peaceful and prosperous Korea and Central Asia together. The initiative has four main partnership pillars: resources, official development assistance, cultural and people-to-people exchange and government and private-level networking. Based on these pillars, Korea will focus on tailored cooperation with each of the five nations in respective areas. For example, Korea will focus on energy and infrastructure cooperation with Kazakhstan, water resources and tourism partnerships with Kyrgyzstan and energy plant partnerships with Turkmenistan. The initiative is in line with the increasing strategic importance of the region, which has rich reserves of natural gas and key minerals including uranium, lithium and tungsten. Due to this, the United States, European Union and Germany have each held five-plus-one summits since 2022, while Russia and China are also deepening their ties with the region. The region has a young and dynamic demographic structure and is full of growth potential, a senior official at the presidential office said. Global powerhouses such as the U.S. and China are striving to enhance their ties with the region. However, there are concerns that these countries, in their position of receiving investment and support, sometimes feel pressured or, to put it bluntly, are subject to a new form of imperialism. Due to this, Koreas approach is being welcomed by these countries. Their desire to partner with Korea spans from infrastructure, industrial development, climate and digital efforts, making this partnership meaningful. To materialize the initiative, Yoon will make state visits to Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan from Monday to Saturday. On Monday, Yoon will have a summit with Turkmenistan President Serdar Berdimuhamedow and will attend a business forum attended by the two countries companies on the next day. He will stop by in Kazakhstan on Tuesday for a summit with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Wednesday. The leaders also plan to attend a business forum attended by the two countries companies. Yoon will arrive in Uzbekistan on Thursday and will hold a summit with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and attend a business forum on Friday. Yoons wife, Kim Keon Hee, will accompany him on the trip. Korea-Kazakhstan summit to take place in Astana, Kazakhstan, June 12 By Kim Hyun-bin As anticipation builds for the upcoming summit between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, set to take place in Astana, Kazakhstan, June 12, Kazakh Ambassador to Korea Nurgali Arystanov provided comprehensive insights into the significance, agenda and potential outcomes of the high-profile talks during an interview with The Korea Times, May 27. "Kazakhstan and Korea are enjoying a very friendly relationship with an enhanced strategic partnership at the highest level," Arystanov said. "We share this level of cooperation with only a few countries and Korea is one of our most important strategic partners." The summit's agenda will focus on three main areas: political dialogue, economic and commercial investment cooperation and people-to-people ties. The summit will provide a platform to enhance diplomatic relations and explore new avenues for cooperation on regional and global issues. The C5+K platform, which facilitates dialogue between Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Korea, will be a key topic of discussion. The summit will aim to identify new opportunities for commercial and investment partnerships. The discussion will also touch on expanding trade, with an emphasis on diversifying the range of Kazakh products in the Korean market. "We will discuss the C5+K platform for Central Asia-Korea dialogue, major economic projects like Hyundai's car plant and cultural exchanges, including the increasing popularity of Korean street food and K-pop in Kazakhstan," Arystanov said. Economic cooperation stands as a cornerstone of the Korean-Kazakh partnership. Trade turnover between the two countries reached an impressive $6 billion last year, marking a significant milestone. "Korea is Kazakhstan's fourth-largest trade partner and the fifth-largest foreign investor," Arystanov said. So big companies like Kia, Samsung, Hyundai, Shinhan Bank and many others have opened their facilities in Kazakhstan. The ambassador highlighted that Kazakhstan is set to see substantial growth in the presence of CU convenience stores, with an initial 10 stores planned for Almaty and over 500 stores expected to open nationwide in the coming years. "This is a huge opportunity for us to introduce our consumers to Korean products, including K-pop merchandise," the ambassador said. "Through these CU stores, our people will be exposed to Korean products, culture, tastes and more. Its going to be a wonderful give-and-take and a mutual cultural enrichment." Arystanov noted that Korean culture in Kazakhstan, particularly among the youth is evident saying, "All our youngsters are very fond of Korea and that K-pop and K-goods are at their peak popularity as well as Korean street food, which is becoming increasingly popular in Kazakhstan. On the topic of exports, Arystanov expressed optimism about expanding the range of Kazakh products available in Korea. "We have been trying to export Kazakh grain, honey and chocolate. It's a long process, but we are working on it. Soon, you might even see Kazakh ice cream in Korean stores," he said. In addition, the ambassador underscored the potential for increased Korean investments in Kazakhstan, particularly in high-tech and infrastructure projects. "We are building the Middle Corridor connecting Europe with Asia, and we need investments in green projects, waste management and smart water resource management," he said. The Middle Corridor, a major infrastructure project, aims to create a seamless trade route between Europe and Asia, offering opportunities for Korean investors. One of the most anticipated developments is the upcoming launch of direct flights connecting Astana and Seoul. "From June 15, we are launching flights from Astana to Seoul, adding to the existing flights from Almaty," Arystanov said. This new route is expected to enhance connectivity between the two capitals, facilitating easier and more frequent exchanges of people, goods and services while visa-free travel between the two countries has already facilitated increased exchanges. "Korean citizens can visit Kazakhstan visa-free for up to 30 days, and the number of Korean travelers to Kazakhstan more than doubled last year," he added. Education and technology are pivotal areas of cooperation between Kazakhstan and Korea. Several agreements have already been put in place to enhance collaboration in these fields. "Kazakhstan and Korea have made great strides in education and technology cooperation. We are establishing AI and IT schools in Kazakhstan and SeoulTech is exploring opportunities to open a branch in our country," he said. By KTimes Netflix has issued an apology for labeling the East Sea as the Sea of Japan in the subtitles of the series "The 8 Show." The problematic naming echoes previous errors in "Time to Hunt" (2020) and "Bride of the Water God" (2017). A Netflix official said that the original series "The 8 Show" had "mislabeled" the East Sea as the Sea of Japan in its Spanish subtitles. "We have identified the incorrect labeling in some language subtitles and are in the process of correcting it. We are also reviewing similar instances to ensure accuracy in future translations." Prof. Seo Kyoung-duk of Sungshin Women's University pointed out that in a scene where Ryu Jun-Yeol sings the Korean national anthem, the Spanish (Latin America) subtitles labeled the East Sea as the Sea of Japan. Emphasizing Netflix's global influence, Seo urged the company to amend the subtitles as swiftly as possible "to prevent global viewers from being misinformed." "The 8 Show," released on May 17, revolves around eight individuals trapped in a secretive, multi-level space where they participate in a tempting but dangerous game to earn money over time. This incident has brought renewed attention to previous controversies involving Netflix's subtitles. In 2020, the movie "Time to Hunt" faced a backlash from Koreans for labeling the East Sea as the Sea of Japan in its German subtitles. Netflix apologized for not thoroughly reviewing the subtitles and promptly amended the subtitles. Similarly, in "Bride of the Water God," the French subtitles labeled the East Sea as The Sea of Japan. Last year, Netflix also faced criticism for referring to "kimchi" as "pao cai," a Chinese pickled vegetable dish, leading to outcry over cultural misrepresentation. Seo said that global companies must exercise greater caution regarding sensitive issues in different countries. The issue over the naming of the body of water between the Korean Peninsula and the islands of Japan stems from long-disputed territorial claims by governments on both sides of the sea. This article from the Hankook Ilbo, sister publication of The Korea times, is translated by generative AI and edited by The Korea Times. Taiwan compatriots with residence permits now eligible for basic medical insurance in Fujian Province Global Times) 15:18, June 07, 2024 Aerial photo taken on October 26, 2018 shows the scenery in Fuzhou, East China's Fujian Province. File Photo: Xinhua Officials in East China's Fujian Province have implemented basic medical insurance for Taiwan compatriots, according to the Fujian Provincial Healthcare Security Bureau. Both employed and unemployed Taiwan compatriots, as well as students from the Taiwan region studying in Fujian, are entitled to insurance as mainland residents. Taiwan compatriots who have mainland travel permits for Taiwan residents can apply for activation of the medical insurance code online via WeChat, Alipay, the official app of the National Healthcare Security Administration, and other channels, in the same way as mainland residents. All healthcare insurance handling offices at the county level and above across the province will also support offline activation of the insurance code for Taiwan residents who present the necessary documents. Fujian has also set up service centers for Taiwan compatriots throughout the province, to provide one-stop services including reimbursing medical costs. The bureau said the online service platform for medical and health insurance for Taiwan compatriots will be improved and perfected. The notice also clearly supports the inclusion of Taiwan-funded medical institutions in Fujian as designated institutions for medical insurance, as they will be subject to the same insurance management as medical institutions in Fujian. A special service for Taiwan enterprises and compatriots will also be set up, to provide more convenient medical insurance services including enrolment registration, expense settlement, off-site medical care, and fixed-point management, so as to create a fair, high-quality, and highly efficient medical insurance service environment. Taiwan compatriots who participate in the basic medical insurance in Fujian can purchase medicine for off-site medical treatment in all the province's networked fixed-point medical institutions, according to the bureau. (Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun) The mystery thriller "Night Fishing," starring Son Suk-ku, has been invited to compete in the short film category at Canada's Fantasia International Film Festival, its distributor said Friday. "With its intriguing universe, 'Night Fishing' has the potential to be expanded into a feature film," CGV quoted Nicolas Archambault, a programmer of the film fest, as saying. The 12-minute and 59-second film revolves around a driver who experiences a mysterious incident at a car charging station at night. It is directed by Moon Byoung-gon, who won the Palme d'Or for Short Films at the Cannes Film Festival with "Safe" in 2013. Launched in 1996, the genre-focused film festival has cultivated a devoted following among ardent fans and distributors of genre films, like fantasy, horror and science fiction, among others. It takes place in Montreal, Canada, from July 18 to Aug. 4. The film is set for release in Korea on July 14. (Yonhap) By Yi Whan-woo Commercial banks are increasingly allowing their employees to spend more time with their children and to take longer breaks even after taking parental leave. The employees can then spend more quality time with their families and return to work at a later date. The extended unpaid leave initiative was first adopted by KB Kookmin Bank in January and will also take effect at Woori Bank starting at the end of this month, according to the two companies and industry sources, Friday. The system resembles the two-year parental leave, as parents can take off up to three years. Another resemblance to parental leave comes from the fact that the employee can return to work at the same rank and position they had before they left, to ensure they do not suffer a career setback caused by the lengthy breaks. The system, however, is different from parental leave as no wages are paid during these breaks. Those who want to spend time with their children can secure up to five years in total under the conditional extended unpaid leave initiative, a KB Kookmin Bank public relations employee said. Anyone who has worked at the bank for more than three years and has children aged seven or younger is entitled to apply for conditional extended unpaid leave. A total of 45 employees are already benefiting from the system since its adoption, according to the staffer. We hope our extended unpaid leave initiative helps to bolster Koreas low birthrate, he added. A Woori Bank public relations employee expressed hope that the firms conditional extended unpaid leave will help parents to better focus on child care and also feel secure about retaining their jobs. An industry source speculated that the system may spread to other major commercial banks as well as other business sectors. Many salaried workers, who are in their 20s and 30s, regardless of industry, are from dual-income families with little children and will find the system very helpful, the source said. Another source speculated a mix of parental leave and the conditional extended unpaid leave system will especially benefit women, saying Women struggle to cope with both the housework and their careers despite improvements in womens empowerment over the years. By Anna J. Park Samyang Foods' latest decision to further expand its production lines to increase exports of its global hit Buldak Ramen instant noodles has led the food company's stock price on a continual rise. In the past month alone, Samyang's stock price has nearly doubled. According to the Korea Exchange (KRX) on Friday, the bourse operator of the Korean stock markets, the stock price of Samyang Foods finished at 603,000 won ($441), a 3.79 percent increase from the previous trading session. Friday's rise followed the previous trading session's 6.61 percent jump. The company's bullish trend has been ongoing since May over strong overseas sales of key products, such as Buldak Ramen, following successful first-quarter earnings. In the quarter, Samyang Foods posted consolidated sales of 385.7 billion won, up 57 percent from the same period last year. Among these, overseas sales amounted to 288.9 billion won, marking an 83 percent jump year-on-year. Reflecting the first-quarter earnings, the company's stock price nearly doubled over the past month alone. On top of this winning streak, the company's public disclosure on Wednesday that it will further increase its production line by the first half of next year to meet the explosive increase in overseas demand has led another round of upward trajectory, breaking the 600,000 won mark for the first time since the company's founding in 1961. Wednesday's public disclosure announced a revision in the company's plan for its upcoming Miryang 2 factory, expanding the initially proposed five production lines to six, in response to increasing global demand. "Demand from the U.S. market was already increasing when we initially decided to expand the production lines. As demand from the U.S. has continued to exceed our expectations, Samyang Foods has decided to increase the production lines further," the food company explained. When the factory is completed, Samyang Foods' annual maximum instant noodle production capacity is projected to increase from the current 1.8 billion to 2.5 billion. In particular, the expected annual production volume of Buldak Ramen will increase to 690 million, from previous 560 million, with the additional production capability. Hanwha Investment & Securities adjusted its target price for Samyang Foods from the previous 710,000 won to 800,000 won. T'way Air, a Korean low-cost carrier, said Friday it will open four new routes to Europe this year, taking over the four redundant passenger routes of Korean Air under its planned integration with Asiana Airlines. In February, the European Union (EU)'s antitrust regulator conditionally approved a merger between the two Korean full-service carriers, clearing a major hurdle in their consolidation process. In a bid to win the European Commission's approval, the companies decided to sell Asiana's cargo business and divest passenger flight routes to the four European cities, and reported the remedial measures to the commission in November. To avoid any monopoly issues, T'way Air was designated as an alternative carrier for four routes operated by Korean Air to European cities Rome, Barcelona, Frankfurt and Paris the company said in a statement. T'way plans to provide three flights per week both on the Incheon-Rome route from Aug. 8 and on the Incheon-Barcelona route from Sept. 11. Routes from Incheon to Frankfurt and Paris are scheduled to open in October and within this year, the statement said. As for the Paris route, the French and Korean governments agreed last month to temporarily allow three Korean carriers to offer services on the route until the integration process is completed, according to the transport ministry. Korean Air had been the sole Korean carrier offering flights to Paris for 34 years since 1974, when the two nations signed an aviation agreement. Since 2008, two carriers Korean Air and Asiana have been allowed to fly to Paris. Korean Air, the national flag carrier, has so far obtained approval from 13 countries and regions and is waiting for the final approval from the United States. As of June, T'way Air had 32 chartered passenger jets 26 B737-800NGs, two B737-8s, three A330-300s, and one A330-200 to offer flights on four domestic and 49 international routes to Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Guam, Saipan, Mongolia and the Philippines. The budget carrier currently operates one European route to Croatia, which opened on May 16. (Yonhap) Reports of NK soldiers in Ukraine may show Russia's 'profound' desperation: US official North Korea has held various events to celebrate the 78th anniversary of the founding of its major youth organization, state media reported Friday, a move seen as aimed at eliciting the younger generation's loyalty for its leader, Kim Jong-un. The Korean Children's Union (KCU), established in 1946, organized a national conference in Pyongyang on Thursday, followed by a concert by its members, according to multiple reports from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The KCU is a youth organization comprised of children aged around 7 to 14. Its members, known for wearing red neckerchiefs, are estimated to number around 3 million. Attending the concert were notable figures, such as Choe Ryong-hae, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, and a visiting Russian youth delegation, the National Council of the Russian Association of Youth and Children. The Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's main newspaper, also reported on the event, saying the KCU members pledged to "serve beloved father" with "utmost loyalty and strive to bring him only joy." In addition to the events in Pyongyang, similar gatherings and meetings commemorating the 78th anniversary of the KCU's founding took place across various parts of the country. (Yonhap) YouTuber deletes videos related to Miryang gang rape case By KTimes A YouTuber has recently revealed the identities of perpetrators involved in a sexual assault case from 20 years ago that occurred in Miryang City, South Korea. This sparked a flood of requests from viewers asking for updates on other criminals, with some even offering financial support to encourage further expose cases. While many applaud these vigilante efforts as a form of social justice, there are significant risks involved. Mistaken identity and secondary victimization are among the prominent issues. Despite these potential pitfalls, the monetary gains from donations far outweigh the legal penalties for privacy violations, suggesting that this trend will likely continue. The YouTube channel "nalock9" has seen a deluge of comments and requests for the exposure of various criminals since it began posting videos about the Miryang middle school gang rape case on June 1. Each video garners thousands of comments, with viewers urging the YouTuber to expose individuals involved in other notorious cases. Some commenters even provide personal information about suspected perpetrators, including their real names and current occupations. Financial incentives further fuel these activities. Through YouTube's Super Thanks feature, supporters can donate amounts ranging from 2,000 won ($1.50) to 500,000 won, essentially commissioning the YouTuber to investigate and expose criminals. This financial support stems from distrust in the judicial system, with many believing that lenient punishments necessitate alternative forms of justice. Substantial financial rewards Lee Yoon-ho, a professor of police studies at Cyber University of Korea, said, "There is a pervasive distrust in the judicial system due to perceived leniency in sentencing. This distrust fuels support for YouTubers who engage in doxxing, encouraging others to think, 'If they can do it, why can't I?' and prompting financial contributions." The financial rewards for these YouTubers are substantial as "nalock9" gained approximately 300,000 subscribers in one week. According to Nox Influencer, a platform that estimates YouTuber earnings, their monthly revenue could reach 17.6 million won, with an additional 6.4 million won from ad revenue. Given that fines for privacy violations under the related laws are capped at 50 million won, and many defamation cases result in fines rather than jail time, the financial benefits significantly outweigh the risks. However, this practice of doxxing has serious consequences. The Korean Sexual Violence Relief Center (KSVRC), a support organization for the victims of the Miryang case, has refuted claims that the YouTuber obtained consent from the victims' families to carry out these acts of exposing others. On June 5, the organization said, "The YouTuber's claim that they obtained consent from the victim's family is false." Incorrectly identifying individuals as perpetrators can have devastating effects. The "nalock9" YouTuber had to request a halt to attacks on a nail salon owner who was mistakenly identified as the girlfriend of one of the perpetrators. Deletion of related videos The KSVRC has also requested the removal of videos, stating, "We did not agree to the disclosure of all perpetrators." While these disclosures may provide a sense of immediate gratification, they could ultimately erode trust in the legal system, it said. On Friday, the "nalock9" operater who had been disclosing the identities of the perpetrators involved in the Miryang case, deleted all related videos. The deletion came after those whose personal information was exposed in these videos have filed defamation charges against the YouTuber with the police. Attorney Park Joon-young warns, "If this kind of exposure spreads, anyone could unjustly have their personal information revealed and be filmed, with the footage widely disseminated. Revisiting a 20-year-old case and seeking apologies from perpetrators could prolong the victims' trauma and fuel ongoing anger and resentment." In the long run, the focus should shift from public shaming to healing and rehabilitation. "Instead of perpetuating anger and hostility, efforts should be made to support the victims' recovery and facilitate meaningful changes in the perpetrators," Park said. This article from the Hankook Ilbo, sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by generative AI and edited by staff of The Korea Times. By Jung Min-ho The number of whooping cough cases has reached its highest level in more than 20 years in Korea as health authorities call for greater precautions and expanded vaccination programs. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Friday, 1,365 people have been infected with the highly contagious respiratory disease as of June 1. The figure has already exceeded the annual total of 292 last year and is higher than any year since 2001, the earliest year for which data is available. Minors are the most vulnerable group, data shows. Those aged between 13 and 19 account for 49.6 percent of the confirmed cases this year, while children aged between seven and 12 account for 37.5 percent. By region, 39.8 percent of cases were reported as occurring in South Gyeongsang Province, followed by Gyeonggi Province (17.4 percent), Busan (8 percent) and North Gyeongsang Province (6.6 percent). The first signs of whooping cough, also known as pertussis, are similar to those of a cold, like a runny nose and sore throat. In about a week or two, the patient may develop more serious symptoms such as uncontrollable coughing that ends with a high-pitched whoop sound and vomiting among others. The cough may last for several weeks or even months. Health officials in other countries are also scrambling to curb their rising cases of the disease. There have been at least 4,864 whooping cough cases reported in the U.S. this year. This is nearly three times higher than the 1,746 cases reported in 2023 during the same period. In China, more than 90,000 cases were reported this April alone. Whooping cough can be life-threatening for babies younger than six months. But over the last decade, no deaths, caused by the disease, have been reported in Korea, thanks to the high vaccination rate among infants here higher than 97 percent. Officials at the health agency have urged parents and teachers of young children to pay extra attention to their health condition, saying that those who have not been vaccinated should start their vaccine series to minimize the risk of severe complications if infected. Korea's foreign ministry said Friday it will decide whether to assent to Japan's listing of its old mine complex as UNESCO World Heritage, depending on how Japan addresses the location's history as a site linked to its wartime forced labor. Seoul's stance came a day after the Japanese government released details of the evaluation by a UNESCO advisory body on its submission of the Sado gold and silver mines for the World Heritage inscription. The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) recommended that the case be "referred back" to Japan to complement the application, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported, citing Japan's cultural affairs agency. Japan has been pushing to inscribe the Sado mines, once the largest producer of gold in the 17th century, on the World Heritage list. Korea has protested that Japan intends to leave out the part of its history as a site where thousands of Koreans were forced to toil during World War II, when Korea was under Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule. "We could oppose it, or we could not. It depends on how Japan goes about doing it," a foreign ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity when asked whether Korea will give consent to the application. "The objective of both governments is to reach an agreement and avoid the situation where this will end up in a vote," the official said. An inscription on the World Heritage list requires over two-thirds of the votes from member states of the World Heritage Committee (WHC), but it has been customary that the final decision is delivered upon consensus. Korea is one of the 21 rotating members of the WHC this year, along with Japan. The WHC will decide on the Sado mine application at a meeting in New Delhi, set for July. The official emphasized that Korea will continue to tell Tokyo its position until it delivers Seoul's demands for full reflection of the history of the Sado mines related to the wartime forced mobilization of Koreans. "Should our government determine that our position has been sufficiently reflected to a point, we are considering not blocking a consensus being formed," the official said. The official also pointed out that the government is focused on "finding a way" for Japan to carry out the UNESCO recommendations, given that it has still not delivered on its promise to fully show the history of the Hashima Island, another site linked to the forced labor of Koreans, since its World Heritage inscription in 2015. "We're continuing to make these demands to Japan to keep its promise," the officials said. (Yonhap) Seoul hints at opposing inscription if Tokyo fails to include wartime forced labor history in nomination letter By Lee Hyo-jin Korea's diplomatic abilities will face a critical test in the coming weeks as Japan pushes to include the Sado mines a contentious wartime site linked to forced labor of people including Koreans on UNESCO's World Heritage list. The final decision regarding the inscription will be made during the UNESCO World Heritage Committee (WHC) session in New Delhi, India, from July 21 to 23. The meeting will gather all 21 members of its rotating committee, which includes both Korea and Japan this year. Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, Friday, that Korea may officially oppose the Sado mines' inclusion in the World Heritage list, unless Japan includes the history of forced labor in its nomination bid. According to UNESCO guidelines, a property's inclusion on the World Heritage list requires a two-thirds majority vote from committee members present. However, decisions are typically reached through consensus, with formal voting only occurring when consensus cannot be achieved beforehand. "Whether we will oppose it or not depends on Japan," a ministry official told reporters during a closed-door briefing. "We are considering not obstructing a consensus formation if our position is reflected adequately. But if our stance is not acknowledged, we may potentially delay a consensus and push ahead with holding the vote," the official said. In other words, Seoul would not categorically oppose Tokyo's bid for inscription on UNESCO's list unless it properly incorporates the mines' wartime history and forced labor in its submission letter to UNESCO. The mines on the island of Sado were used for manufacturing war-related materials during World War II. Historical documents show that nearly 2,000 Koreans were forced to work there during Japan's colonial occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945. In its letter of recommendation submitted to UNESCO, the Japanese government described the mine as having value of its mining technology and system from the 16th century until the mid-19th century, effectively excluding its 20th-century wartime atrocity. The Korean government has been demanding Japan include the full account of the mine's history, including the forced labor of Koreans. With less than two months to go until UNESCO makes its final decision, the foreign ministry is actively engaging in negotiations with its Japanese counterpart, aiming to prevent the bilateral issue from affecting other UNESCO member states. "Failure to resolve bilateral issues through dialogue, which could potentially lead to confrontational situations, could undermine the overall practices and atmosphere of the UNESCO WHC," the ministry official said, noting that both the Korean and Japanese governments are committed to reaching a consensus and avoiding the need for a vote. Korea's diplomatic effort is expected to intensify as the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), a UNESCO advisory body, referred the nomination of the Sado mines, Thursday, requesting Japan to submit additional documents about the property. ICOMOS, one of the three advisory bodies to the UNESCO WHC, plays a crucial role in the final decision-making process for inscription. The evaluations conducted by the advisory body result in one of the four recommendations: inscription, if all requirements are met; referral, referring back to the state for additional information about the property; deferral, meaning that the nomination requires more in-depth assessment or study; and denial. According to ICOMOS, reasons for referral could be associated with a lack of adequate definition of the property. But this decision is viewed as relatively encouraging to the applying state, as it may lead to quicker inscription compared to a deferral decision. In 2023, all eight properties initially recommended for referral by the advisory body were ultimately inscribed in the final decision. Following the referral decision, the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs announced "the Sado mine has been recognized as worthy of consideration for World Heritage inscription," expressing optimism about its inclusion in the upcoming July session, according to Kyodo News. A Korean fleet of warships and maritime aircraft and around 840 Navy and Marine troops were set to depart for Hawaii on Friday to join a U.S.-led multinational maritime exercise slated to kick off later this month, the Navy said. The fleet will leave a naval base on the southern resort island of Jeju on Friday afternoon to join the biennial Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) scheduled to run from June 26 through Aug. 2, according to the Navy. The Korean fleet comprises naval ships including the 7,600-ton ROKS Yulgok Yi I Aegis-equipped destroyer, the 1,800-ton ROKS Lee Beom-seok submarine, a P-3 maritime surveillance aircraft, a Lynx helicopter and six Korean Assault Amphibious Vehicles. It will be Korea's 18th participation in the drills, where some 40 vessels, three submarines, 150 aircraft and some 25,000 personnel from 29 countries, including the U.S., Japan and Australia, will also take part. This year, the Korean contingent will take on the role of deputy commander for the first time to assist the commander in operating the multinational naval force, the Navy said. It will also participate in various drills, such as special warfare operations and disaster response and rescue operations, aimed at enhancing interoperational capabilities with the combined forces. Launched in 1971, the RIMPAC exercise is designed to enhance cooperation among participating countries in securing sea lines of communication and countering potential security challenges at sea. (Yonhap) By Kim Hyun-bin After 55 years of service, the Republic of Korea Air Force's fleet of F-4 Phantom fighter jets retired on Friday, marking the end of an era in the nation's military history. During the retirement ceremony attended by Minister of National Defense Shin Won-sik, the two F-4E jets took to the sky for their final flight at the 10th Fighter Wing in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, the home base of the fleet. Commemorative flights by F-16, KF-16, FA-50, RF-16, F-15K and F-35A fighter jets served as the grand finale of the event, marking the handover of the mission to defend the skies to a new generation of aircraft. Shin reflected on the Phantom's illustrious history and described the past 55 years as a testament to South Korea's triumphs, stating that with the introduction of the Phantom, the nation swiftly gained air superiority over North Korea. "The noble spirit of the Phantom, dedicated to safeguarding South Korea's airspace, will forever remain with us," Shin said. The retirement ceremony also honored fallen pilots and patriots, commemorating those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service of their country. The first batch of the U.S.-made jets arrived in South Korea in 1969, playing a pivotal role in bolstering the nation's defense capabilities against threats posed by North Korea's Soviet-made jets. Some 220 Phantoms have been operated by the Air Force, culminating in a distinguished career that included various missions ranging from reconnaissance to interception, but only around 10 jets were in service recently. South Korea is currently working to deploy the KF-21, its own domestically developed supersonic fighter, by 2026 to replace its aging fleet of F-4 and F-5 jets. Prosecutors on Friday indicted one of three suspects behind the murder last month of a South Korean tourist in Pattaya, Thailand. The suspect in his 20s was apprehended last month in the southern city of Jeongeup, 217 kilometers south of Seoul, in connection with the murder of a Korean traveler in his 30s and the abandonment of his body in Pattaya in early May. Thai police earlier found the victim's body inside a black plastic container filled with cement from a reservoir in the Thai city. The Changwon District Prosecutors Office indicted the man with physical detention on charges of robbery-murder and body abandonment, prosecutors said Friday. "In search of money and valuables, the suspects approached, murdered him and abandoned his body in a foreign country beyond Korea's jurisdiction," a prosecution official said. Last month, another of the three suspects was nabbed by police in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and the Korean police were negotiating with the Thai police to secure his extradition. A manhunt was also continuing for the last suspect, who remains at large. (Yonhap) By Lee Hae-rin Korea University has invited the President of Botswana Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi, Wednesday for a special lecture on how to foster cooperation in higher education between Korea and the southern African nation. The lecture was attended by Korea University President Kim Dong-one and some 180 students and staff of Korea University, as well as 20 government officials from Botswana. Botswana is one of the African countries that best practices democracy and has huge potential in resources and education, Kim said during a welcoming speech. We expect to cooperate (with Botswana) in several ways, especially considering that President Masisi was formerly an educator. President Masisi highlighted the African nations potential for cooperation and development in the future and expressed anticipation over how partnerships between Korea University and Bostwanas six major universities will contribute to advancing higher education in the two countries. Korea and Botswana established diplomatic relations in 1968, and this is the African nations third presidential visit to Korea. The occasion came as Masisi visited Seoul for the first-ever Korea-Africa Summit. Korea University and key prestigious universities of Botswana plan to engage in student exchanges and ICT research cooperation, according to Korea University. Prime minister expected to keep his job for time being By Nam Hyun-woo President Yoon Suk Yeol is contemplating a Cabinet reshuffle as soon as late June, which may involve replacing several ministers who have held their positions since the start of his presidency. The reshuffle is seen as a bid to rejuvenate and prevent further weakening of his control over state affairs, following the ruling People Power Partys (PPP) crushing defeat in the April 10 general elections. An official at the presidential office said Friday that the office is now in an early stage of vetting a number of candidates to replace ministers and vice ministers. During a press conference on May 9, Yoon said that he has been refraining from using a Cabinet reshuffle as a tool for political maneuvering despite criticisms, but it is time for a Cabinet reshuffle because there are some ministers who have been serving for more than two years, and there is a need to refresh the atmosphere in various ministries to better address public welfare issues. Due to his remarks, speculation is growing that Yoon is contemplating replacing his ministers who have been in office since Yoon's 2022 inauguration. They include Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min, Minister of Science and ICT Lee Jong-ho, Minister of Environment Han Wha-jin and Minister of Employment and Labor Lee Jung-sik. However, the reshuffle is anticipated to take time, as appointing a minister requires a National Assembly confirmation hearing, and the opposition parties, which currently control the Assembly with 192 out of 300 seats, are determined to be uncompromising on any nominees that Yoon name. The confirmation hearing is a non-binding questioning session, meaning the president can appoint a nominee no matter what the Assembly recommends, as Yoon has done a number of times already. However, snubbing the opposition again will likely undermine his promise to cooperate with the opposition. Against this backdrop, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo is expected to retain his job. Han, who has been serving in the post since May 2022, offered to resign on April 11 to take responsibility for the general elections defeat suffered by the People Power Party. At the time, Han was anticipated to be replaced, with a number of names frequently being mentioned connected to ruling bloc insiders. However, there were also some names associated with several heavyweights from the opposition bloc mentioned, including four-term former lawmaker Park Young-sun of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and former Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum who played a role in the administration of Yoon's predecessor, liberal President Moon Jae-in. However, Yoon neither accepted Hans resignation nor named his successor, with sources saying that there are difficulties in finding the right candidates. Unlike ministers, a prime ministers appointment requires the Assemblys approval. If a nominee is rejected by the opposition, the ruling party has no power to overturn the decision, and Yoon will then have to name another candidate, potentially suffering a serious loss of influence regarding state affairs. The partisan conflicts of the Assembly are ever-increasing. The ruling People Power Party did not participate in a vote to elect the Assembly speaker during a plenary session on Wednesday, blaming it on the DPKs unilateral push to hold the session. The two main rival parties were also butting heads over appointing chairs for the Assembly committees, especially for the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, which plays a gatekeeping role before the tabling of any bills at a plenary session. Under these circumstances, getting the oppositions approval on a prime minister nominee is viewed as a tough task, ruling bloc officials said. We also know that there have been controversies in appointing ministers so far, another official at the presidential office said. And the office is now making efforts to explore fresh faces. By Park Jung-won Due to its unique geopolitical situation, sitting astride both land and sea, the security of the Korean Peninsula is greatly influenced by external circumstances. If there is a common factor in the historical disasters that Korea has experienced in international politics, it is that political leaders have been complacent with their existing status and focused on internal conflicts and power struggles, paying little attention to ominous signs from outside. Since the end of the Cold War, especially over the past generation, there has been an unprecedented period of peace. However, things are now changing. Crises are brewing in Europe, the Middle East, the South China Sea and closer to home, in the Taiwan Strait. As if anticipating such a situation, North Koreas leader has declared that the North and South are no longer one nation and that reunification will be achieved by force between two hostile states. Over the past 70 years, the South Korea-U.S. alliance has prevented further large-scale military conflict on the Korean Peninsula and provided the basic security needed for South Korea to achieve industrialization and democratization. But can this guarantee continue? If faced with difficult choices, what decisions and preparations should South Korea make? Recently, NBC News reported that President Joe Bidens administration is preparing contingency plans for an October surprise from North Korea, based on interviews with unnamed government officials. They believe that North Korea will engage in the most significant localized military provocation against South Korea, just before the U.S. presidential election in November. The exact timing of the provocation is expected to be such that it could have a decisive impact on American voters. This report views North Koreas potential provocation this year as an extension of Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Just as Vladimir Putin aimed to aid Donald Trump's victory then, this time he is expected to encourage Kim Jong-un to provoke South Korea. Given the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the emergence of a third front just before the election would cause global chaos and damage Bidens leadership. The official meeting between President Yoon Suk Yeol and opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, which took place on April 29 for the first time since President Yoons inauguration two years ago, was nothing more than a political show. There was no discussion or exchange of opinions about fundamental issues, let alone on any countermeasures regarding the security situation on the Korean Peninsula. Shouldnt Yoon have earnestly requested cooperation from opposition leader Lee, at least on security issues? When the leaders of the ruling and opposition parties finally met, they should have prioritized discussions on forming a bipartisan consultative body to achieve a national consensus on security. But perhaps expecting this was unrealistic from the start. This reality highlights the uncomfortable truth that South Korea is facing now, showing that the country is dangerously veering away from addressing the security situation around the Korean Peninsula. Although Yoon still has three years left in his term, his remaining tenure seems like an unpredictable fog. He faces a constant threat of impeachment, while the future is equally uncertain for leaders of opposition parties. Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the main opposition party, and Cho Kuk, the leader of another minority opposition party, both face their own legal risks. One thing is clear: each of the three has many vulnerabilities, raising serious questions about their qualifications as state leaders. The fact that these individuals dominate South Korean politics epitomizes the tragicomedy of the country's political landscape. The issues they are fighting over are not related to South Korea's security or urgent social issues such as housing, childcare, and elderly care. Instead, they are immersed in a do-or-die fight for their own survival. Even if it may not be apparent to Yoon, from an objective viewpoint his administration is suffering a massive crisis from which it will be difficult to recover. Last months presidential press conference strongly gave the impression that Yoon is living in a different world. The opposition is now openly targeting first lady Kim Keon Hee. The death of Marine Corporal Choi was an extremely simple incident. It was a regrettable accident where the commanding officer, who sent soldiers into the water without life jackets during a search operation for missing persons swept away by heavy rain, was rightfully held accountable. This incident should not have had any major or even minor ramifications. However, it was the Yoon administration itself that turned this incident into a big issue. Yoon showed the same attitude during the Itaewon disaster. Despite 159 people losing their lives in this unprecedented alleyway tragedy, he showed virtually no gesture of apology or reflection. His stance was that the government was not legally at fault. He protected the minister of the related department, who happened to be his high school and university junior, until the end. The ruling partys crushing defeat in the last general elections was not a consequence of strong support for Lee Jae-myung and his opposition party. The opposition was also perceived as incompetent and corrupt, but centrist voters believed Yoon was even worse. However, Yoon still seems to lack a proper understanding of this public sentiment. The goal to build a country where fairness, common sense, justice, and principles stand firm was the reason the people chose him as president. The only way for him to survive politically is to clearly demonstrate to the public that he is upholding this aim. This is not a situation from which he can escape through clumsy political maneuvers. He must show that no one is above the law not his wife, not former President Moon Jae-in and his wife, nor Lee Jae-myung and his wife. The result of failure will redound much further than his political fate; the future of the Korean Peninsula is at stake. Yoon is now at a critical crossroads. Park Jung-won (park_jungwon@hotmail.com), Ph.D. in law from the London School of Economics (LSE), is a professor of international law at Dankook University. A Samsung Electronics union staged its first walkout on Friday, signaling more assertiveness among workers just as Korea's most powerful conglomerate races to catch up in chips used in artificial intelligence (AI). The National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU), whose roughly 28,000 members make up over a fifth of the firm's workforce, said it will stop work for a day to demand better pay. The walkout is unlikely to immediately impact semiconductor production or shipments but will add pressure on Samsung Electronics as it chases AI and narrows a gap in contract chip manufacturing with Taiwan's TSMC, analysts said. "The purpose of today's strike action is to have meaningful conversation with management," NSEU official Lee Hyun-kuk told Reuters. He said the union was preparing further action on Friday, without providing details. Samsung Electronics said there was no impact on production or business activity. The strike fell a day after a public holiday and the number of employees on annual leave was fewer than on the equivalent day last year, the firm said. The union did not disclose how many members participated in the strike through annual leave. "We have sincerely engaged with the union and will continue talks with them," said a company official. Samsung Electronics' share price was up 0.1 percent versus 0.7 percent in the benchmark KOSPI as of 2:34 p.m. (local time). The walkout is unlikely to impact DRAM or NAND flash memory production or lead to shipment shortages as manufacturing is highly automated, said market researcher TrendForce. Moreover, the walkout appears to involve more workers from the firm's Seoul headquarters than in production and is planned for a single day after a public holiday which some staff had likely already applied to take off, TrendForce said. The strike follows other worker protests in recent weeks outside offices in Seoul as well as outside a chip production site in Hwaseong, south of the capital. They started after Samsung Electronics decided to increase wages this year by 5.1 percent. The NSEU, the biggest of five unions at the firm, want further commitments such as improvement to the performance-based bonus system and an extra day of annual leave. Last week, a coalition of five unions at Samsung affiliates including another smaller Samsung Electronics union called on the NSEU to pursue negotiation rather than confrontation, indicating they would not join the strike. Samsung Electronics' run of success is being challenged in some areas, including in some cutting-edge chips. It recently replaced the head of its semiconductor unit to navigate what it called a "crisis" affecting the industry. Union membership increased rapidly after the firm in 2020 pledged to end to its practice of discouraging the growth of organised labour. Union officials said, among younger employees, there is growing perception that unions can help create a fairer workplace, whereas older generations felt unions could disrupt productivity. Overall, Korea's union membership rate has hovered around 10 percent since 2004, labour ministry data showed. (Reuters) By Baek Byung-yeul SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won met with TSMC Chairman C.C. Wei to discuss collaboration on AI semiconductors, in an effort to further strengthen the grip of the group's memory chip maker SK hynix, the group said Friday. The Korean conglomerate said that the chairman met his counterpart on Thursday in Taipei, Taiwan. TSMC is the world's largest foundry company, which produces chips for chip design companies. SK hynix is a leader in AI memory chips and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, with more than half of the market share last year. "During their meeting, Chairman Chey conveyed the message, 'Let's open the era of AI that benefits humanity together,' and agreed to strengthen the cooperation between SK hynix and TSMC in the HBM sector, the group said. In April, SK hynix signed a memorandum of understanding with TSMC to develop HBM4, a sixth-generation HBM chip, and to enhance its advanced chip packaging technology capabilities. This meeting is an extension of Chey's aggressive moves in the AI semiconductor field, the group said. Chey has shown a series of aggressive moves for global cooperation in the AI and semiconductor fields since the end of 2023, citing the growing importance of establishing a global cooperation ecosystem that can meet the wide-ranging demands of customers in the AI and semiconductor sectors. Last December, Chey visited the headquarters of ASML, a Dutch company producing extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment, and drew out technical cooperation measures for EUV and next-generation EUV development with SK hynix. In April, Chey also discussed strengthening the partnership between SK hynix and the U.S.-based AI chip giant Nvidia, during his meeting with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in San Jose, California. Chairman Chey's recent moves are based on the judgment that it is important to build a global cooperation network to enhance the competitiveness of Korea's AI and semiconductor industry as well as SKs business capability, a spokesperson of the group said. A potential discovery of oil and gas reserves off Korea's East Sea is "highly prospective," Vitor Abreu, the owner of the U.S. geoscience research company Act-Geo behind the project, said Friday, citing the presence of hydrocarbons in the offshore fields. "So to summarize ... the basin is highly prospective," Abreu, the owner of the Houston, Texas-based research firm, said during a press briefing in the central city of Sejong, noting that the discovery "has presence of all the key main elements." The briefing organized by the state-run Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC) came after President Yoon Suk Yeol announced Monday that Act-Geo's study suggested significant gas and oil deposits may be buried in the deep sea off the coast of Yeongil Bay in Pohang, about 260 kilometers southeast of Seoul. Act-Geo estimated that the deposits could hold between 3.5 billion and 14 billion barrels of gas and oil. Once confirmed, the quantity would be theoretically sufficient to meet the country's gas and oil demand for up to 29 years and four years, respectively. (Yonhap) SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won had held a meeting with C.C. Wei, chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), in Taiwan and they discussed bolstering cooperation on artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies, SK Group said Friday. SK Group has SK hynix, the world's second-largest maker of memory chips, under its wing. Chey and Wei agreed to enhance the two companies' collaboration on the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, group officials said. "Let's lay the foundation of the AI era together to benefit the humankind," Chey told Wei, according to a statement released by SK Group. The meeting came about a month and a half after SK hynix signed a strategic partnership with TSMC as part of efforts to bolster its capabilities in producing premium HBM chips and advanced packaging technologies. Under the partnership, SK hynix plans to utilize TSMC's technologies in developing its sixth-generation HBM4 chips, set for mass production in 2025. The two companies also plan to join hands to optimize the integration of their packaging process, CoWoS technology. HBM chips, integral components used for AI computing, have garnered increasing attention with the rise of applications such as generative AI, exemplified by models like ChatGPT. SK hynix supplies its fourth-generation HBM3 chips to global AI chip giant Nvidia, which has a monopolistic status in the market. SK hynix is a key customer of Nvidia, a major player in the AI semiconductor market, supplying its fourth-generation HBM3 chips almost exclusively. Meanwhile, Chey's meeting with Wei marked his first overseas trip since he was ordered to pay a record 1.38 trillion won ($1.01 billion) in property division to his estranged wife Roh So-young. "I apologize for the distress that my personal matter has caused to SK employees and stakeholders alike," Chey said in a statement issued after the ruling. (Yonhap) By Baek Byung-yeul There is a high probability that up to an equivalent of 14 billion barrels of crude oil and natural gas is present in a deposit off the coast of the southeastern city of Pohang, according to Vitor Abreu, owner of the U.S.-based geoscience research company Act-Geo, Friday. He said the exploration success rate is about 20 percent, which is higher compared to that of the Guyana oil field in South America, responding to doubts about the feasibility of the oil reserve that arose after President Yoon Suk Yeol announced it on June 3. "To summarize, the Ulleung Basin (an oceanic basin in the East Sea near Ulleung Island) is highly prospective. It has the presence of all the key main elements," Abreu, owner and an advisor of Act-Geo, said in a press conference in Sejong. The Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC) established a mid-to-long-term exploration plan for the domestic continental shelf in October 2022 as part of its oil exploration in the East Sea. After assessing the possibility of the presence of oil in the deep-sea areas in the East Sea, KNOC received evaluations of the presence possibility in seven large promising structures through Act-Geo. Based on that possibility, Yoon announced that there is a high probability of up to 14 billion barrels of oil and gas buried in Yeongil Bay, off the coast of Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province. This led to Abreu visiting Korea to further explain this. The development of oil and gas fields consists of geophysical surveys, exploration drilling and commercial development. Yoon said that the government would start exploratory drilling by the end of this year, and the results of the exploration are expected in the first half of next year. The Act-Geo owner said that the potential oil and gas fields in Korea have similar structures, types and related factors to those of the oil fields in Guyana, South America, adding that Korea's exploration success rate is higher than that of Guyana's. "In the prospective rate to drill, 20 percent is very good. Just for comparison, the largest discovery in the world in the last 20 years or 25 years, is the Liza prospect in Guyana. I participated in that as well when I was working for Exxon Mobil, and the Liza was 16 percent," he said. The oil exploration expert added that in order to forecast whether oil is actually there, four criteria need to be met: source rock, reservoir rock, cap rock and trap. And confirmed that such factors are present in the depths of the East Sea. Lee Hyun-suk, a researcher at the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, who also joined the conference, said that the government confirmed the reliability of the estimation after reviewing scientific evidence. "The Ulleung Basin in the East Sea was in a state where uncertainties were resolved through the analysis of drilling wells due to various geological factors," the researcher said. "After reviewing the scientific evidence, the reliability was confirmed." Despite the expert's clarification, the controversy over whether there are oil and gas fields in the East Sea continues. According to Woodside Energy, an Australian resource development company, their semi-annual report on the region released in August 2023, said that the oil and gas fields are unlikely to succeed, adding that the deep-sea exploration project in Yeongil Bay was "no longer considered prospective. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said that this does not match the facts. "KNOC and Woodside Energy have been conducting geophysical explorations together since 2007. However, Woodside Energy is judged to have withdrawn without reaching the promising structure stage, which is a preliminary step before pushing ahead with drilling, through more precise and in-depth data interpretation," the ministry said in a statement. "Therefore, the interpretation that Woodside Energy concluded there was no potential through a deep assessment of the promising structure and withdrew, is judged not to match the facts considering the circumstances at the time," the ministry added. Boeings new capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Thursday, delayed by last-minute thruster trouble that almost derailed the docking for this first test flight with astronauts. The 260-mile-high (420-kilometer-high) linkup over the Indian Ocean culminated more than a day of continuing drama for Boeings astronaut flight debut carrying NASA test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Boeing plans to keep Starliner at the space station for at least eight days before guiding it to a landing in the western U.S. Nice to be attached to the big city in the sky, Wilmore said once the hooks between the two spacecraft were tight. Williams entered the space station first, dancing on the way in to music. Wilmore followed, snapping his fingers. They embraced the seven space station residents. It was such a great welcome, a little dance party, said Williams. Thats the way to get things going. The Starliner capsule already had one small helium leak when it rocketed into orbit with two NASA astronauts Wednesday. Boeing and NASA managers were confident they could manage the propulsion system despite the problem and that more leaks were unlikely. But just hours into the flight, two more leaks cropped up and another was discovered after docking. Later, five of the capsule's 28 thrusters went down. The astronauts managed to restart four of them, providing enough safety margin to proceed. By then, Starliner had passed up the first docking opportunity and circled the world for an extra hour alongside the station before moving in. The thrusters problems were unrelated to the helium leaks, NASAs commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said after the docking. Going forward in the flight, we have some tools in our tool kit to manage this, Stich said. Earlier in the day, before the thrusters malfunctioned, officials stressed that the helium leaks posed no safety issues for the astronauts or the mission. Helium is used to pressurize the fuel lines of Starliners thrusters, which are essential for maneuvering. Before liftoff, engineers devised a plan to work around any additional leaks in the system. A faulty rubber seal, no bigger than a shirt button, is believed responsible for the original leak. Boeing program manager Mark Nappi said there should be plenty of helium in reserve for the trip home. After the space shuttles retired, NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX to ferry astronauts to and from the space station. SpaceXs taxi service began in 2020. Boeing was supposed to start around the same time, but was held up for years by safety concerns and other troubles. Stich said none of the problems so far would require a repeat of an astronaut test flight before certifying the capsule for regular use. (AP) The U.S. will send about $225 million in military aid to Ukraine, U.S. officials said Thursday, in a new package that includes ammunition Kyivs forces could use to strike threats inside Russia to defend the city of Kharkiv from a heavy Russian assault. The officials said the aid includes munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, as well as mortar systems and an array of artillery rounds. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss aid not yet publicly announced. Under a new U.S. directive, Ukraine can use such weapons to strike across the border into Russia if forces there are attacking or preparing to attack. That change, however, does not alter U.S. policy that directs Ukraine not to use American-provided ATACMS or long-range missiles and other munitions to strike offensively inside Russia, according to U.S. officials. The new aid package comes as President Joe Biden used his speech Thursday at the American cemetery in Normandy on the 80th anniversary of D-Day to vow that the U.S. will not walk away from the defense of Ukraine and allow Russia to threaten more of Europe. To do so, he said, would mean the U.S. has forgotten what happened here on these hallowed beaches. Biden is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris on Friday. On Wednesday, a Western official and a U.S. senator said Ukraine has used U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia. And a June 3 report from the Institute for the Study of War suggests that Ukrainian forces used a HIMARS system to strike a Russian S-300/400 air defense battery in the Belgorod region in recent days. The new aid package is being provided through presidential drawdown authority, which pulls systems and munitions from existing U.S. stockpiles so they can go quickly to the war front. Officials said the aid package also includes missiles for the HAWK air defense system, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, Javelin and AT-4 anti-armor systems, 155mm Howitzers, armored vehicles, trailers, patrol boats, demolition materials and a wide range of other spare parts and equipment. Ukrainian officials have pressed the U.S. to allow Kyivs forces to defend themselves against attacks originating from Russian territory. Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, sits just 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Russian border and has come under intensified Russian attack. In response to NATO allies allowing Ukraine to use their arms to attack Russian territory, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Wednesday that Russia could provide long-range weapons to others to strike Western targets. The additional HIMARS munitions are part of a U.S. effort to beef up Ukraine's use of the key weapons. The State Department last month approved a proposed emergency sale of HIMARS systems to Ukraine for an estimated $30 million. State said Ukraine has asked to buy three of the rocket systems, which would be funded by the government of Germany. (AP) We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form EXO Suho became a sizzling topic for his main vocalist-worthy voice following his performance in "Killing Time." On June 5, the soloist performed on Dingo's web music content, "Killing Time," the spin-off to "Killing Voice." In this segment, solo artists are given the spotlight to amaze everyone with their live vocals without any AR as they sing the songs from their recently released music. Although Suho is not the main vocalist of EXO, he proved that his voice alone can represent them as the "Kings of Live Vocals," as he performed the seven tracks from his 3rd-mini album, "1 to 3." Warming up with the song "Mayday," Suho showcased his versatility as he sang his double title tracks, "1 to 3," which has a British rock sound, as well as "Cheese" (feat. Red Velvet Wendy), which has a pop-rock genre. He continued to amaze viewers with his b-sides, "Wishful Thinking," "Moonlight," "Alright Alright," then concluding his stage smoothly with "Zero Gravity." Contrary to his usual heavenly and ballad sound, all of his songs presented a rock genre, and rockstar Suho truly served! About 2 days after its release, Suho's clip uploaded by Dingo already reached 61k views and in the comment sections, the solo artist is receiving positive words from music fans! ALSO READ: EXO Suho Reveals He Wrote THIS Song With Late SHINee Jonghyun in Mind: 'I Cried A Lot' Some of the comments are: "The rockstar he is! Kim Junmyeon, we are so proud of you." "Let's go bunny rockstar! Love you, Suho." "The all-rounder Suho, musical actor, K-drama actor, EXO leader, respect1!" "Our smart and talented baby bunny rockstar! I'm so touched because he performed all of the songs live." "He is an angel." "This is such a high-quality album with organic stories from the first track to the seventh one. On top of that, Suho's high-quality vocals reached my expectations, not to mention that he performed everything live. What else can't he do?" Watch EXO Suho's full "Killing Time" performance below! Meanwhile, after Suho released his 3rd mini album "1 to 3" on May 31st, he amassed high support from fans all over the world, sitting atop the iTunes top album chart in 29 regions around the world. Thanks to the explosive support especially of EXO-Ls, the idol is planning to widen his influence through his first solo concert, "SU:HOME" which already kicked off in Seoul. This June, he will be starting the concert's Asian leg touring in Japanese cities including Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, then in Manila, Hong Kong, Taipei, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Jakarta. He will also go to Europe to promote himself as a soloist, visiting London, Paris, Dusseldorf, Berlin, and Warsaw. Don't forget to stream Suho's "1 to 3" album! Which is your fave track? IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: THIS EXO Member Claims He's the Most Handsome: 'Fans Said Their Prayers to Me' For more K-Pop news and updates, keep your tabs open here at KpopStarz. KpopStarz owns this article. Written by Eunice Dela Cruz aespa Ningning has always been known for her striking visuals, but her latest appearance has left fans absolutely mesmerized. After a recent fansign event, photos and videos of Ningning quickly went viral, showcasing a fresh and stunning transformation. Netizens took to social media to express their admiration for Ningning's new look. Comments ranged from pure astonishment to detailed observations about her style and makeup. "She's freaking hot, wow......" "That's aespa's Ningning?? She really looks like another person." "Wow she's too pretty." IN CASE YOU MISSED THIS: aespa NingNing Criticized After Fan Reveals Reason They Left Fandom: 'She failed to...' Some fans even drew comparisons between Ningning and other well-known figures, noting a similarity in style and presence. "Why does she give me Bada's vibes like this?" "As expected, idols become even prettier after losing their baby fat..." Ningning's outfit and makeup also caught the eyes of many, with some fans trying to track down her fashion choices. "Her outfit is pretty... what brand is that..." "Wow did she change her makeup? Too too pretty." In another thread, netizens shared their appreciation for the unique charm of Chinese idols like Ningning. "I've always found Chinese unnies so pretty... they just have that unique vibe... so cool." "Shen Xiaoting and Ningning are freaking jjang pretty." One fan even expressed their frustration at not being able to find Ningning's hat, showcasing the impact of her style choices: "I looked up Ningning's hat because it looked pretty but it's sold out..." Meanwhile, in a recent episode of the YouTube show "Level Up" hosted by Hyoyeon from Girls' Generation, aespa's NINGNING shared her struggles with balancing her professional and social life. She expressed sadness over not having enough time and energy to socialize with her group members as she used to. Reflecting on her journey, she mentioned that she feels she is about 70% of what she envisioned for herself before debut but continues to strive for growth and improvement. NINGNING also discussed her stress management, emphasizing her acceptance of the challenges that come with her chosen path and the responsibility she feels toward her fans. Recently, she faced criticism for not recognizing a fan despite multiple interactions, which sparked debate among online communities about the expectations placed on idols. YOU MIGHT BE ALSO INTERESTED IN: aespa NingNing Goes Viral for Pre-Debut vs Current Visuals: 'There's a big difference in...' For more K-Pop news and updates, keep your tabs open here at KpopStarz. KpopStarz owns this article. Written by Cassidy Jones. The Hanteo Charts are experiencing a whirlwind of surprises, all thanks to BTS and their impending milestone. As fans eagerly await Jin's military discharge, the charts have witnessed an unprecedented domination by the group's albums, both old and new. Netizens were left in awe as BTS's presence engulfed the top spots on Hanteo Charts' "Physical Album Chart," showcasing not just their collective prowess but also the enduring appeal of their solo releases. Even albums released over a year ago found their way back into the spotlight, highlighting the timeless appeal of BTS's music. Throughout the day, BTS maintained a strong presence on the charts, securing ten out of the top fifteen spots by evening. This consistent performance left fans both surprised and proud of BTS's enduring popularity. Hanteo physical record real-time: All albums from chapter 2 are dominating top11 pic.twitter.com/jSKoOAA8gi (@ILovejokers3) June 7, 2024 THIS IS JUST SO SEXY BTS DOMINATION ON HANTEO #BTS #pic.twitter.com/6dZHEcuMnN pic.twitter.com/2SorUuS2TO BANGTAN DELIGHT NEVER LET GO TODAY (@Lovly_mochitwin) June 7, 2024 .@BTS_twt's Albums are currently occupying the entire Top 10 on Hanteo! BTS PAVED THE WAY pic.twitter.com/wdI12GYYxC . 2025 (@InTheChart) June 7, 2024 IN CASE YOU MISSED THIS: BTS Jin's Generosity Shines in the Military - Treating Fellow Soldiers to Weekend Feasts The real catalyst behind this chart-topping phenomenon? Jin's "Hug Event." With his military discharge on the horizon, fans have been eagerly participating in a special event where purchasing certain albums grants them entry into a raffle for a chance to meet Jin and share a hug. This initiative not only boosted album sales but also solidified ARMYs' unwavering support for BTS. All of the albums eligible for the raffle entered hanteo real-time physical album chart. Everyone say: thank you, Kim Seokjin pic.twitter.com/HDJ4JpfHUk seokjin's mother (@seokjiniepost) June 7, 2024 In recent news, BTS member Jin currently serving in the South Korean military, has been praised for his generosity towards his fellow soldiers. Known as "Pretty Jin who buys me food well," Jin frequently purchases meals for his comrades using his own money. This act of kindness was highlighted in a recent online post, which shared anecdotes from soldiers who have experienced Jin's generosity firsthand. Besides treating his peers to food, Jin has been noted for his physical transformation and active engagement in fitness. This revelation follows previous reports of Jin's charitable nature, such as gifting his salary to fellow BTS member Jimin. Fans have responded positively, lauding Jin for his compassion and eagerly awaiting his return from service in June 2024. YOU MIGHT BE ALSO INTERESTED IN: BTS Jin Meets Members During His Military Leave For more K-Pop news and updates, keep your tabs open here at KpopStarz. KpopStarz owns this article. Written by Cassidy Jones. On 6 June Cubas government said that four Russian ships would arrive in Havana between 12 and 17 June. End of preview - This article contains approximately 398 words. Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article Not a Subscriber? Choose from one of the following options President Joe Biden's new border measures have begun to take effect as the deportations have now begun under the new rule, leaving many migrants unsure of their future and whether or not they would still be able to enter the country. Those migrants who missed the deadline are now subject to the new deportation rule and there is already a sense of uncertainty among them, with senior Homeland Security Department officials confirming that the first deportations under the new rule took place Wednesday. Despite the strict new rule, many migrants are still trying to push their luck, with young Ecuadorian father Sergio Franco telling the Associated Press that he was "confident that he would prevail in his plea to find a safe haven" in the US as he has evidence of his flight. The young father came with his 2-month-old daughter to the US-Mexico border, surviving a nearly 2-month journey that involved going through the treacherous Darien Gap. Asylum remains suspended along the US-Mexico border, as average daily arrests must fall below 1,500 for a week straight before it can be implemented again. However, migrants who expressed fear for their safety if they were deported would still be screened by asylum officers. This would be done under higher standards though, and if they pass, they can remain in the US and continue to pursue other forms of humanitarian protection. It is still unsure if these measures would be able to stop large-scale migrant entries, but Mexico has revealed that it has agreed with the US to deport migrants who are not Mexican. This is, however, only limited numbers and nationalities. The deportations do not include Ecuador, which has a diplomatic row with Mexico, as well as faraway places like India. Joe Biden's Executive Order for the US-Mexico Border Was Months in the Making The Biden border order took effect after the number of border encounters between ports of entry hits 2,500 per day. Because the threshold was reached immediately after the deadline, it immediately took effect and CBP began deporting migrants. READ MORE: Joe Biden Announces Executive Order on the US-Mexico Border, Set Border Restrictions However, the executive order took so long as Biden was banking on the bipartisan border deal to pass. The deal was embraced by both Republicans and Democrats but was killed after Donald Trump pressured Republican lawmakers to kill it because it would flip their narrative that Biden was doing nothing in the southern border. "Republicans have left me no choice," said the president, adding that he was acting on his own to "gain control of the border" while also insisting that "I believe immigration has always been the lifeblood of America." "Donald Trump told the Republicans ... that he didn't want to fix the issue, he wanted to use it to attack me," he added. "It was a cynical, extremely cynical, political move and a complete disservice to the American people who are looking for us not to weaponize the border but to fix it." Joe Biden Allies Not Happy With His US-Mexico Border Measures and Migrant Deportations Biden made the executive order to appease voters who lean more to the right but are not exactly happy with Donald Trump. While this was made to satisfy them, it only angered his actual allies, with progressives expressing their anger at the new border measure. "It is my hope that Biden goes back to the campaign promises that he made four years ago - that we will see policies that embrace immigrants and address some of the systemic problems that we have, including a lack of legal pathways and opportunity for more immigrants," Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center, said in a statement. "So I'm not giving up hope. I fully anticipate that this administration in the coming months will come out with some pro-immigration policies." Meanwhile, Congress Democrats are slamming Biden and have vowed to make sure that his executive order would be humane, with Washington Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal telling reporters, "The one silver lining is that [Biden] did say that there will be positive actions to make the system more humane and fair. And we will be looking and pushing for those actions in coming weeks." READ MORE: Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, US President Joe Biden Agree To Clamp Down on Illegal Immigration This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Rick Martin WATCH: First deportations begin under Biden's new immigration order - CBS News A 59-year-old Mexico man has died from the H5N2 bird flu virus, the first known human case. The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the death, noting the man had underlying health issues and had been bedridden for weeks before showing symptoms like fever and shortness of breath. Authorities say there is no risk to the wider public, and none of the man's close contacts have contracted the virus, BBC reports. The source of infection is unclear, but cases have been reported in some poultry farms in Mexico. READ NEXT: Suspect Identified in Mexico Surfer Murders Underlying Health Issues A Mexico man who had chronic kidney failure, diabetes, and high blood pressure has died from the H5N2 bird flu virus, the first confirmed human case globally. He sought hospital care on April 24 but died the same day. Initial tests showed an unidentified flu type, later confirmed as H5N2, according to Aljazeera. The source of infection is unclear, though H5N2 has been reported in Mexican poultry. An outbreak occurred in a backyard chicken farm in Michoacan state, bordering the man's state, but no direct link has been established. Authorities tested his contacts at home and in the hospital, all returning negative results, indicating no risk to the general population. In response, Mexican authorities have set up a monitoring system to detect other cases of wildlife around the man's home. The WHO and other health agencies are watching for signs of the virus mutating into a form that could spread between humans. Dr. Ed Hutchinson from the University of Glasgow suggested the infection was likely a spillover event from an infected animal. Surveillance efforts continue, including testing people who may have been exposed to the virus to check for immune responses. Global Bird Flu Context Bird flu, or avian influenza, includes various strains, with H5N2 being one. While it primarily infects birds, some wild mammals like seals, otters, wild dogs, and foxes can also contract it. Human cases are rare but possible, AP News noted. Most patients recover, though certain strains like H5N1 have caused significant concern. Recently, H5N1 has spread among dairy cow herds in the US, with a few human cases. In the UK, no new H5N1 cases have been reported since an outbreak among poultry and captive birds prompting the country to declare itself bird-flu-free. Professor Ian Brown from the Avian Virology Group at the Pirbright Institute reassured that prompt follow-up with healthcare professionals and family members of the infected patient indicates an isolated case. Andrew Pekosz, an influenza expert at Johns Hopkins University, noted that the Mexico man's underlying health conditions increased his risk of severe influenza, but how he contracted the virus remains unclear. Pekosz stressed the importance of monitoring these infections, as each spillover event presents an opportunity for the virus to mutate and potentially spread more easily among humans. The WHO, along with Mexican health authorities, continues to monitor the situation closely. Farms near the Mexico man's home are under surveillance, and a permanent monitoring system has been established to detect any other cases in local wildlife. Global health authorities remain vigilant, especially when bird flu circulates in poultry. Those in close contact with infected flocks are at risk, and experts worry about the virus evolving to spread more easily among humans. The WHO emphasized that while the current risk to the public remains low, they are prepared to respond swiftly if more human cases arise. READ MORE: American Man Gets 42 Years in Colombia for Girlfriend's Murder This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Ross Key WATCH: WHO confirmed a man in Mexico died from the bird flu. Here's what to know - From NBC News Russia will be sending three warships and a nuclear submarine to Havana, Cuba next week, as confirmed by the Cuban government amid Russia's current tensions with the US over its aid to Ukraine. This means that Russian warships will only be miles from US soil, the nearest being Florida. The Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces released a statement regarding the visit, confirming that the Russian missile frigate Admiral Gorshkov, the nuclear submarine Kazan, the oil tanker Pashin, and the salvage tug Nikolai Chiker are all arriving in the Port of Havana for an official visit on June 12. The ships are reportedly staying in the country for around a week. The Russian warships will be in Cuba for "heightened naval and air activity near the United States," a US official told the Miami Herald. These military exercises will involve both Russian aircraft and combat naval vessels and would be the first coordinated air and sea exercise by Russia in the Western Hemisphere in around 5 years. "While we are disappointed that Cuba has likely agreed to host visiting Russian ships, we are not surprised," the official stated and addressed the inclusion of the nuclear submarine, stating that the US intelligence community "assesses it is not carrying nuclear weapons, and poses no direct threat to the national security of the United States." Biden administration officials suspect that these naval exercises were approved by Cuba "at least in part" over an incident last year where a US nuclear submarine docked at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. "We are not surprised by it given Russia's long history of Cuban port calls," added the official. "These are routine naval visits that are part of Russian military exercises, which have ratcheted up because of US support to Ukraine and exercise activity in support of our NATO allies." READ MORE: Russia Sending Warships to the Caribbean for Naval Drills with Venezuela and Cuba US Still Tracking Russian Warships and Planes Heading to Cuba For Russia's part, the country sending warships near US waters may be in response to the situation in Ukraine. According to the Associated Press, Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested that Moscow could take "asymmetrical steps" elsewhere in the world as a response to President Biden allowing Ukraine to use weapons provided by the United States to strike Russia. US officials have stated that they are currently monitoring the Russian vessels as they head to the Caribbean. When they arrive in port, the fleet is expected to fire 21 salvos as a salute to Cuba. This will be reciprocated by an artillery battery of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces. Russian Warships in Cuba for 'Friendly Relations' Cuban officials have cited "historically friendly relations" between the two countries as the reason why the Russian warships are visiting Havana next week, according to France 24. They were also the ones that assured its neighbor, the US, that none of these ships, including the nuclear submarine, were carrying any nuclear weapons. This comes as tensions between the US and Russia are continuing to escalate. READ MORE: Russia Spreading Disinformation About US Border Crisis To Undercut Ukraine Aid This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Rick Martin WATCH: Russia military exercises expected in the Caribbean - CBS News Alex Jones has often portrayed himself as a manly man, but when his Info Wars conspiracy theory show was almost shut down, he began weeping and crying, prompting the judge overseeing his bankruptcy case to hand the Sandy Hook shooting denier a lifeline. The families of the Sandy Hook children killed in the horrific shooting that Jones denies ever happened won several lawsuits against him and juries have handed them some massive rewards. Because of this, the conspiracy theorist has declared bankruptcy but the families have repeatedly called him out for his lavish lifestyle. The Sandy Hook families have gone after Jones's show and it is now facing an imminent shutdown by the federal government because of this. However, after Jones appeared to cry at points during one of his "emergency broadcasts" to whine about his company going under, a judge allowed Jones to keep operating for the next two weeks as the issue of whether his assets should be liquidated is still being decided. Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, were ordered d to pay $1.5 billion to the Sandy Hook families and Jones has been trying to reorganize his assets after declaring bankruptcy. However, the Sandy Hook families filed an emergency motion to convert Free Speech Systems' bankruptcy reorganization into liquidation, leading to Jones crying on air about losing his company. Judge Christopher Lopez stated that he will address the motion on June 14 and he will be expected to decide whether or not to liquidate Jones and his company's assets on that date. As Jones was rallying his followers and begging the judge, Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, shot back, claiming that the conspiracy theorist was "manufacturing a crisis" about the threat of being shut down imminently. READ MORE: Baltimore Bridge Collapse: Misinformation and Rightwing Conspiracies Pop Up After Francis Scott Key Bridge Incident Sandy Hook Families Also Going After Alex Jones's Ranch The families of the Sandy Hook Massacre are not just going after Alex Jones's show, but also his 127-acre plot of land valued at least $2.8 million. In other words, the families are also going after his prized ranch in Texas. A judge ruled that Jones could sell his 127-acre ranch to help pay off the Sandy Hook victims' families as his other assets also face liquidation. Republican strategist Steve Bannon, who is about to head to prison, suggested that Info Wars supporters can surround the building where Alex Jones's studio is and protect it from authorities who must "come through a chain of patriots." Alex Jones Files for Chapter 7 Liquidation Despite trying to sound defiant in front of his supporters who he convinced that he would stand up to the government, Jones has now asked a US judge to convert his bankruptcy into a Chapter 7 liquidation. According to Reuters, this is a sign that he is "giving up on an effort to settle massive legal judgments related to his lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre." In the filing, Jones stated that he believed that "there is no reasonable prospect of a successful reorganization" of his debts. If approved, the Chapter 7 liquidation would not allow him to "escape paying the legal judgments, but it offers a streamlined procedure for selling his assets under the supervision of a court-appointed trustee." READ MORE: Sandy Hook Controversy: Alex Jones' Wild Spending Criticized Amid Non-Payment To Conspiracy Theory Victims This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Rick Martin WATCH: Oh No! Alex Jones Can't Use Bankruptcy to Avoid the Sandy Hook Judgments - LegalEagle A tragic Washington shooting outside Garfield High School in Seattle claimed the life of a 17-year-old boy on Thursday afternoon, sending shockwaves through the local community. The victim succumbed to his injuries at Harborview Medical Center, sparking a swift police response as authorities searched for the suspect. Seattle Police Department (SPD) reported that shots were fired in the school's parking lot during lunchtime, resulting in the injury of a Garfield High student, Seattle Times reports. Despite efforts to save him, the victim died at approximately 6:15 PM Police suspect the shooter to be a high school-aged male, who fled the scene following the incident. Mayor Bruce Harrell, a Garfield High School alum, expressed profound sorrow over the shooting, emphasizing the emotional toll on the community. He announced increased police patrols in the area to enhance safety and reassurance for students and families. READ NEXT: Ex-Cop Wanted for Murder and Kidnapping Found Dead from Self-Inflicted Gunshot in Washington Details of the Incident According to SPD Deputy Chief Eric Barden, the shooting occurred when a confrontation between high school-aged individuals escalated. The victim intervened to stop the altercation, prompting the Washington shooting suspect to open fire. The tragic outcome underscores ongoing concerns about gun violence affecting youth in Seattle, according to King5. Mayor Harrell addressed the media, highlighting the pervasive issue of firearms on city streets and calling for sustained efforts to curb violence. Interim Police Chief Sue Rahr echoed these sentiments, emphasizing community engagement over punitive measures in response to the tragedy. Following the Washington high school shooting, a lockdown for approximately two hours disrupted normal school activities. Nearby Nova High and Washington Middle School also took precautions, maintaining a shelter-in-place status until the situation was deemed safe. Parents anxiously awaited their children's release, reflecting on the heightened anxiety and frequency of such incidents near the school. Jeff Scott, relieved upon reuniting with his daughter, expressed concern over the recurring violence and its impact on the community. Escalating Concerns and Past Incidents The fatal shooting is the latest in a series of violent incidents near Garfield High School in recent months. Previous incidents include a shooting involving vehicles near the campus, which resulted in property damage but no injuries. A drive-by shooting in March injured a teenage girl at a nearby bus stop, further fueling community concerns, Fox13 noted. Residents and advocates joined city officials in condemning the escalating violence, with Bishop Reggie Witherspoon lamenting the loss and urging collective action to protect Seattle's youth. Mayor Harrell designated June 7 as National Gun Violence Awareness Day, inviting the community to honor victims and support efforts for change. The Washington high school shooting has reignited discussions about safety and gun violence in Seattle, prompting calls for stronger community support and preventive measures. READ MORE: Ohio Woman Arrested for Fatally Stabbing 3-Year-Old Boy in Grocery Cart This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Ross Key WATCH: Student fatally shot while trying to break up fight outside Garfield High School - From KOMO News Rex Heuermann, the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer who terrorized New York state across three decades, is now facing even more murder charges as he stands accused of killing 6 people over the decades. This comes as prosecutors announced two more charges that accused the alleged serial killer of two more killings. Before the new charges, Heuermann was accused of killing four women whose bodies were discovered buried along the popular Long Island beach called Gilgo Beach. These two new charges accuse him of killing Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla. Police have long suspected that they were victims of men preying on sex workers. While Taylor disappeared in 2003, Costilla had been missing since 1993, which means that prosecutors now believe Heuermann has been a serial killer for much longer than previously thought, according to the Associated Press. The new charges came after police once again searched Heuermann's Massapequa Park, as well as a wooded area on Long Island tied to the investigation. New forensic methods were used and they managed to "match hairs found on or near the vicinity of both victims" to a DNA profile that matches the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer. As for his plea to those two new charges, Heuermann pleaded not guilty to both of them. He was soon ordered to be held without bail afterward, with his lawyer, Michael Brown, saying that his client is "obviously in a bad place in terms of the new charges." Prosecutors, meanwhile, told the press that these additional charges should provide "some small measure of closure" for the families of the two victims. New Evidence Shows Suspected Gilgo Beach Serial Killer Rex Heuermann Kept Blueprints of His Crimes Suffolk County prosecutor Nicholas Santomartino revealed during the hearing that authorities have also found some disturbing content on Heuermann's devices. This includes a planning document that outlined his strategies to conduct his killings. READ MORE: Mexico City Serial Killer Miguel Cortes Now Being Called 'Mexican Jeffrey Dahmer,' 8 Victims Known So Far According to CNN, his computer contained a Word document with a section called "body prep." This includes detailed steps to clean, dismember, and transport bodies. The document file also outlines how to dispose of a body, avoid apprehension, and not leave DNA evidence. "This was a planning document used by Heuermann to methodically blueprint and plan out his kills with excruciating detail. His intent was specifically to locate these victims, hunt them down to bring them under his control and to kill them," explained Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney, adding that other pieces of evidence "revealed Heuermann's significant collection of violent, bondage, and torture pornography, currently dating back to 1994." DNA Evidence Tied Rex Heuermann to the 4 Previous Murders As TMZ noted, Rex Heuermann has already been accused of killing four other women before these two new charges were brought, as he stood accused of killing Amber Lynn Costello, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes over a decade ago The Gilgo Beach murders were discovered when authorities found the human remains belonging to 11 different people in the area between 1996 and 2011. Along them are the four women the alleged serial killer was accused of murdering. READ NEXT: Rex Heuermann's Properties Raided; Nearly 300 Guns Found in 'Gilgo Beach Serial Killer's' Home This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Rick Martin WATCH: Serial Killer Suspect Rex Heuermann Charged with More Murders - COURT TV Trina McGee, famously known for her role as Angela Moore in the beloved sitcom "Boy Meets World," stunned her fans with a recent announcement that she's expecting a baby at the age of 54. The actress shared the news on her Instagram account on Monday, June 3, accompanied by a heartfelt message and a request for prayers for a safe delivery, USA Today reports. This revelation comes as a surprise to many, considering the challenges of conceiving at an older age. McGee, already a mother of three, is married to actor, producer, and director Marcello Thedford. Their relationship spans 28 years, originating from their meeting during the filming of Sylvester Stallone's action-thriller movie "Daylight" in Rome. McGee's career has seen her feature in various '90s TV series and films, alongside her notable role in "Boy Meets World." Notably, she played a teenager on-screen while being six months pregnant, as revealed in a post from April 2023. READ NEXT: Justin Bieber and Hailey Bieber Expecting Their First Child Celebrity Moms Embracing Motherhood in Their 50s Trina McGee joins a cohort of celebrity moms who've embraced motherhood in their 50s, according to People. Cameron Diaz welcomed her son at 51, while supermodel Naomi Campbell became a mother at 53. McGee's announcement has sparked conversations about fertility, aging, and the pursuit of motherhood later in life. Congratulations poured in from McGee's former co-stars, including Danielle Fishel, who played Topanga Lawrence on "Boy Meets World." McGee expressed sheer joy at her pregnancy and emphasized her focus on her upcoming motherhood journey. Despite stepping away from social media during her pregnancy, McGee remains engaged with her followers, sharing her journey and seeking advice from fellow celebrities who've experienced motherhood later in life. While McGee attributes her pregnancy to natural remedies and a healthy lifestyle, medical experts caution against misconceptions. Dr. Allison Rodgers, a specialist in reproductive endocrinology infertility, emphasizes the rarity of conceiving naturally at 54 and warns against placing undue faith in unproven remedies. Dr. Jessica Shepherd underscores the declining fertility rates with age, highlighting the importance of realistic expectations and informed decisions. Embracing Motherhood with Wisdom As McGee prepares for motherhood anew, she reflects on the wisdom gained from her previous experiences. With her older children now adults, she approaches motherhood with a unique perspective, combining past learnings and newfound wisdom to nurture her upcoming child, AOL noted. Despite the challenges and uncertainties, McGee's journey inspires hope and reflection on the evolving landscape of motherhood. Trina McGee pregnancy at 54 defies conventional expectations, sparking discussions on fertility, age, and the pursuit of motherhood. While her journey offers inspiration, it also underscores the importance of informed decisions and realistic expectations. As McGee embraces this new chapter, her story resonates with individuals navigating their own paths to parenthood in an ever-changing world. READ MORE: Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck Confirm Relationship with PDA This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Ross Key WATCH: Boy Meets World's Trina McGee Shares 'Miracle' Pregnancy News at 54! (Exclusive) - From Entertainment Tonight Several House Republicans walked out and jeered as two former U.S. Capitol Police officers were honored on the House floor Wednesday. The officers were injured while defending the U.S. Capitol during the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. They are traveling the nation and sharing their stories to raise awareness to the threats of democracy in our nation, Speaker Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia, said in her remarks introducing the officers. Several House Republicans then booed. Ive never seen anybody booed in the middle of an introduction, Michael Schlossberg, D-Lehigh County, said. I saw two House members leave. Others present on the House floor, Democrats and Republicans, also said they saw at least two Republicans walk out. Schlossberg, who is the Democratic caucus chair, sits in the front row facing the speakers rostrum. He said he saw a minority of his Republican colleagues stand and applaud the officers. U.S. Capitol officers Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell were honored for their heroic actions during the insurrection on Jan. 6.Pa. House Democrats Schlossberg and other people on the House floor witnessed Rep. Stephanie Borowicz, R-Clinton County, screaming say her name about a Jan. 6 rioter who was killed by U.S. Capitol police, prompting Schlossberg and Rep. Jordan Harris, D-Philadelphia, to intervene. It was embarrassing, Schlossberg said. Thats the best way I can describe it. Borowicz did not respond to requests for comment. Rep. Jesse Topper, R-Bedford County, said he saw some Democrats shouting at Republican members, in addition to some Republicans jeering and walking out. I kind of heard the floor erupt in chaos, he said. Rep. Tarah Probst, a Monroe County Democrat, said there was chatter among Democrats when Borowicz began screaming and yelling about how the Jan. 6 riot didnt happen. Probst said that Rep. G. Roni Green, D-Philadelphia, shouted at Borowicz to be quiet. It really upset me pretty hard, Probst said, noting that she served on a police commission for seven years. Rep. Russ Diamond, a Lebanon County Republican, said he got up to go to the bathroom because of a medical condition at the same time the officers were introduced. Nevertheless, Diamond said he was offended by what the speaker did, some of the things she said. Its completely uncouth, Diamond said of what he called the speakers politicization of the House floor. Topper also criticized House Democrats for what he said was using the officers for political purposes. Ive never seen every member of the Democratic caucus up at the front getting their picture taken with guests, Topper said. The officers, Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell, are on a national campaign tour for President Bidens re-election bid. They participated in a campaign event with McClinton on the Pennsylvania Capitol steps half an hour before the incident. Schlossberg said that Republicans, when they controlled the chamber, would introduce guests on the House floor who were in Harrisburg on political business. The introductions were always done in an apolitical way, Schlossberg said. When the individuals biography was read, if it was a first responder, police officer, we always stood and applauded. There was never anything to it. Democrats sent out fundraising emails shortly after the incident in the House. House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster County, stood to applaud the officers after McClinton introduced them in the House. He then rose to shake their hands and take photos with them. Cutler told reporters after the incident that he viewed the Democrats reactions as a partisan stunt, but he clarified that he respects the police officers nonetheless. Gonell, one of the officers, took to X, formerly Twitter, to decry what he saw as a contradiction by Republicans. The House GOP like many elected officials I helped protect and defend at the U.S. Capitol, have abandoned the truth/sided with those who attacked us, the police, while at the same time saying they support the police and the rule of law, Gonell wrote. Im not buying your bridges. Family and friends gathered at Miller Symphony Hall to see their seniors graduate from Executive Education Academy Charter School Thursday night. Freelance photographer Donna Fisher was there to capture a few of the students on their big day. Lehighvalleylive.com will send photographers to graduations throughout the Lehigh Valley and Warren County this season. Our full coverage of graduations across the region can be found at lehighvalleylive.com/graduation. Check out the gallery above to see moments captured from this years ceremony. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com. Saed Hindash may be reached at shindash@lehighvalleylive.com. The Town of Phillipsburg and Phillipsburg School District have asked a New Jersey District Court to consider removing them from a 1982 child sexual abuse claim that named them both as defendants in April. The lawsuit filed by a plaintiff who is identified only as Jane Doe in court documents, claims town officials and school district employees were aware that defendant Gary Hosbach posed a known danger to children under his care. Officials failed to use ordinary care to determine whether the facilities they used were safe, and failed to adequately investigate sex abuse/ and or sexual misconduct claims against ... Hosbach, the claim states. The lawsuit also alleges the school district and town broke their promises not to transport minors to unsafe locations while acting in loco parentis, or in the stead of parents or guardians. Attorneys for the town and the school district argue the plaintiffs claims are cobbled together and fail to prove that either the town or the school district were complicit or, in any way, responsible for the incidents that occurred in or about 1982. The motion filed by Florio Perucci Steinhardt Cappelli & Tipton and Lavery Selvagi & Cohen on behalf of the town and the school district also states neither party acted in place of parents within the household. Spokespersons for the town and school district turned down requests for comment on the lawsuit. Lehighvalleylive.com was unable to identify an attorney for Hosbach, as of Thursday. Hosbach had not returned any messages left at numbers listed for them as of Thursday. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff was 13-years old when the alleged sexual abuse and rape happened. Court papers say she was groomed privately by Hosbach at the same time she participated in a school-sponsored cheerleading program at Firth Youth Center where he worked as the centers director. Jarred Freeman, the attorney for the plaintiff, did not immediately return calls to clarify whether, at any time, police were informed about the allegations against Hosbach . Hosbachs wife, Deborah, who served as a co-director of the Phillipsburg Athletic Club and cheerleading coach; as well as 10 unnamed individuals and 10 unnamed organizations were also named in the lawsuit. They are being sued for failing to report known/ or suspected abuse of children, the lawsuit states. Calls to Deborah Hosbach were not immediately returned. Glenn Epps can be reached at gepps@lehighvalleylive.com or glenn_epps_on X (formerly known as Twitter.com), Facebook and Threads. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe to lehighvalleylive.com today. Editors Note: Lehighvalleylive.com is offering a benefit to subscribers: Click the photo gallery to see if we photographed your favorite prom-goer, and get free, print-quality downloads - as well as the option to purchase keepsakes at half the price. Belvidere High School students celebrated their prom at the Stroudsmoor Country Inn on Thursday evening. Freelance photographer Tim Wynkoop was there to capture a few of the students as they arrived for the prom. Lehighvalleylive.com will be sending photographers to proms throughout the Lehigh Valley and Warren County this season. Our full coverage of proms across the region can be found at lehighvalleylive.com/prom. Check out the gallery above to see everyone dressed up for a night to celebrate. SHARE YOUR PROM PHOTOS Dont forget to tag @lehighvalleylive in your Instagram photos and @lehighvalley on Twitter - we just might highlight the best pics! Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com. Saed Hindash may be reached at shindash@lehighvalleylive.com. A new unique exhibition that blends art and climate action will run at Portlaoise library throughout June. The exhibition 'Picture Our Future' is an interactive experience designed for public participation. It is open to the public from Friday, June 7 and is free. Laois County Council, in partnership with Irelands Knowledge Centre for Carbon, Climate, and Community Action (IKC3), recently concluded a ground breaking course titled Systems Innovation for Sustainable Enterprises and Communities (SISEC). This course, focused on the Portlaoise Low Carbon Town Project, bringing together participants from various organizations and businesses across Laois over three months. The course empowered local participants with the skills and knowledge necessary to address sustainability challenges within their communities. It taught how to apply systems thinking to tackle local climate change issues collaboratively and for the long term. Throughout the course, artist Oisin McGann employed a technique called graphic recording to create a unique visual record of the participants' learning journey. This process inspired a new set of illustrations by Oisin, exploring climate challenges and forming a major part of the Picture Our Future exhibition. Oisin collaborated with fellow artists Laura Dunne and Aisling Brennan to creatively interpret the achievements and future plans for the Portlaoise Low Carbon Town Project. The resulting Picture Our Future exhibition invites visitors to explore Laois climate action through a series of illustrations by Oisin and informative pieces by Aisling, all showcased in the heart of Portlaoise Library. CONTINUE READING BELOW PHOTO Photo: Artists Aisling Brennan and Laura Dunne at the installation of the Picture Our Future exhibition in Portlaoise Library. Picture: Alf Harvey. In addition to the exhibition, there will be free, interactive workshops for all age groups. These workshops will guide visitors through climate actionsbig or smallthat they are passionate about, using systems thinking. Another workshop focus will be on capturing complex ideas in a simple, visual, and engaging manner. To book a workshop space, visit https://tinyurl.com/5n7jwwks or emailportlaoiselibrary@laoiscoco.ie or call 057 86 22333. Bernie Foran County Librarian and Creative Ireland Coordinator commented: "Creative Ireland Laois are delighted to support the Picture Our Future Exhibition and workshops. Exploring how the arts can be used to promote dialogue and action around Climate Change in ways that are provocative and engaging is an essential part of this transformational process. Suzanne Dempsey Climate Action Coordinator Laois County Council, added: "By integrating art and systems thinking, we can make complex climate challenges more accessible and relatable. This approach fosters greater community involvement and drives meaningful positive change." Laura Dunne, Artistic Director, shared: "Collaborating on this project has been a rewarding experience. The illustrations and workshops are designed to inspire and empower individuals to take actionable steps toward a sustainable future." The excitement is palpable as Laois and their manager, Willie Maher, gear up for Saturday's final in Croke Park. Maher is immensely pleased with his team's journey thus far, particularly highlighting their stress-free progression to the final, with their first-round victory over Offaly proving instrumental. Maher said, Were really excited about where were at now, the lads took control of our destiny ultimately here in the first match. Its been really good since, the performances have been excellent and were delighted to be in the final, its brilliant. Saturday will be the first time that Maher leads Laois to Croke Park, but he was there as a manager before and led his native Tipperary to a minor All-Ireland. Its a long time ago now, yeah I managed a minor team to win the All-Ireland in 2012, its the last time I was on the sideline in Croke Park, he told us. "Its amazing how time goes and how opportunities slip through your fingers in different teams youre involved with so Im delighted to be back and Im really looking forward to making hay when were up there because thats the only thing you can do in Croke Park." Everybody has worked to hard to get to this point and this is the enjoyable bit, summer evenings and the ball is starting to fly, lads are really coming up to it and were playing our biggest rivalries in Offaly so thats brilliant. Many members of Mahers panel have previously seen Joe McDonagh Cup success in 2019, but for others it will be their first time experiencing the big stage of Croke Park. Teams are so different in regards to ages and experience levels of the panel, so we have some guys that have experienced it with a positive note of winning the Joe McDonagh in 2019, shared Maher. The younger fellas are just so excited, theyve never played there or been in the dressing rooms so its a whole new experience for them, but its an experience every hurler deserves, he added. This is an All-Ireland final in our book and were playing it against Offaly who are on a high and our lads are itching to get at it. Maher says Laois success this year so far has been all down to control, and that started way back in the Walsh Cup in January. From the start of this year we said we were going to take control of our own destiny and that was very disappointing last year, the first round performance against Offaly where we were beaten by three and then we were caught by Carlow with a last second penalty so that took everything out of our hands. He followed by saying, The emphasis this year was to stay in control, we played Offaly here in the Walsh Cup, we wanted to stay in control and we did. We played them here in the championship and we were out of control for a lot of the time but we stuck in and came good in the end. Last year was tough for Maher and his players as they exited the Joe McDonagh Cup after the league portion and theres a huge change in fortunes 12 months later as they now face into the final and Maher spoke on the difference a year makes. Weve changed around the panel with a few new additions, weve had seven new starters which is a big change. The momentum of the Division 2A win has springboarded us into this years championship as opposed to last year when we had taken heavy defeats against Tipp, Kilkenny and Waterford in three weekends here. It was a really difficult time, I was only getting to know the players. Weve been really focused after a really good league campaign and the first four matches in the Joe McDonagh were excellent, we had a blip last Saturday against Westmeath, but all the time knowing we were in the final. Its been a good campaign to date, but we want great, we want to win the Joe McDonagh Cup and thats what were trying to do. Since that first round loss Offaly hurling has been on the crest of a wave as their seniors won all four Joe McDonagh Cup games afterwards and their U-20s raced into an All-Ireland final. Theyre roaring back into contention as a top ranked hurling team, stated Maher. Offaly are in a superb place, they had 15 or 20,000 people here for the Leinster final last week, theyre buzzing and the county is flying it. They have new stars in Screeney and Dan Bourke and its up to us to come up to that level, its not a case of trying to drag anyone down, if Offaly are streaking ahead we need to get back on top. With Offaly being in the media so much and being commented on for moving forward so much, its important for Laois to stay into that and to do something about it. After a relatively lucky season with injuries Maher has seen four of his big name forwards go down in recent weeks and its a race against time to get them back to fitness and to confirm what weapons he has at his disposal. Were waiting on injuries now to make sure we have a full deck to pick from. Picky is still working his way back to fitness, we dont know how that will be and Mark Dowling dislocated his elbow so theres a good chance hes out and Martin Phelan got a bad crack on the head last week. We have an idea of where we want to go and how were going to attack this game. Maher gave one final rallying cry to the public of Laois to do their best to get to Croke Park on Saturday and give the team all their support. "I appeal to every man, woman and child in Laois to be there to support these fellas. They have worked incredibly hard over the last eight months to get into this position and we need support, with the huge number of Offaly fans that are going to matches at the moment. Im sure they will and theyll get behind us as this team represents a lot of the hard working, skillful, hard, honest teams that Laois have had in the past. If it comes down to the last few minutes well need people to help our players to summon that piece of energy to do the right thing at the right time. The players are really hungry for work and are pushing themselves to get back to Liam McCarthy hurling and thats the prize on the 8th. The importance of using your vote was the big theme from early on Friday as political leaders and punters headed to the ballot boxes in Ireland. Politicians emphasised the value of democracy and of the possible risk to it across Europe and one Irish minister said polling day was like crowning voters as king or queen for the day. Irish premier Simon Harris turned up to vote just minutes after polls opened in his locale in Co Wicklow to a gaggle of media and beaming polling station workers. Arriving just after 7am, the Taoiseach cast his vote in the local and European elections, Irelands first nationwide poll in four years. An early start, he said to a worker at the polling station in Delgany National School. Referencing former British premier Boris Johnson being turned away from a polling station in May because he did not have photo ID, Mr Harris added: And I brought my ID just so we dont have a Boris moment. He then shook hands with all of the polling station workers and spoke to the media about the importance of voting before heading off on what is being touted as a 14-hour canvass across the country. Right, Cork! he said as he marched towards the school car park. The elections are being viewed as a test of Mr Harris popularity, who became leader of Fine Gael and of the coalition government in Ireland just eight weeks ago. Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, who has been in government with Fine Gael and Fianna Fail since 2020, wouldnt divulge whether he gave his coalition partners a preference on the ballot paper. The privacy of the ballot box will be retained, he cautioned a reporter who asked. Mr Ryan said he was hopeful of a high turnout and had been told there was a queue outside his local polling stations door at 7am. We dont have a king or queen, we decide who governs and the expression of that sovereignty is in the vote. That is not a small act, he said. When you vote, youre king, youre queen for the day. So I hope theres a big turnout, thats the most important thing. In Phoenix Park, Irish President Michael D Higgins arrived at his local polling station with his wife Sabina to cast their votes. Sabina Higgins asked an official at the polling station whether they have been busy, to which she responded not really. Meanwhile, as Mr Higgins posed for pictures, he said: How well you are all looking, I must say. Looking forward to summer. After placing his ballot papers in the box, Mr Higgins said: Sin e. (Thats it.) More than 80 participants from 15 French academic regions and 15 Irish Education and Training boards came together over four days to reinforce the links between France and Ireland in the field of Further Education and Training and increase the mobility of Irish and French students and staff from Colleges of Further Education or Training Centres. The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Occitanie Academic Region and City of Dublin Education and Training Board, on June 4 at the French Residence, marks the first step towards stronger and deeper cooperation. Speaking at the signing, French Ambassador to Ireland, H.E M. Vincent Guerend said, The links that unite France and Ireland are particularly strong in the field of education. For example, France is the #1 partner of Ireland within the Erasmus+ program. However, this source of opportunities and funding and is still very new to the students and staff from the Vocational Education Sector. With this signature, CDETB and Occitanie academic region are leading the way in strengthening cooperation in the field of vocational education training, further accelerating exchanges and strengthening ties between our two countries. William Beausang, Assistant Secretary General with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Skills said of the event "Ireland and France agreed a Joint Plan of Action (2021-2025) to strengthen and deepen relations between the two countries across a range of cultural, educational, and political activities including strengthening education and research links. We welcome the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the rectorate of the Occitanie region of France and City of Dublin Education and Training Board, which extends our excellent partnership and supports the achievement of the aims of the Joint Plan of Action." Through this 4-day event, the aim of this Symposium on Vocational Education Training is to offer participants a better understanding of each others vocational training systems and to provide an opportunity to reflect on cooperation opportunities through workshops, presentations, networking sessions and field visits all over Ireland. It is composed of senior members of the Irish Ministry of Further and Higher Education, the French Ministry of Education, ETB Chief Executives, Directors of Further Education and Training and staff, French directors and international relations advisers from the various academic regions. Paddy Lavelle, General Secretary of Education and Training Boards Ireland speaking at the launch of the event in The Residence of The French Ambassador to Ireland extended a warm welcome to guests from across the breadth of the FET Sector in France and Ireland and Education and Training Boards Ireland highlighted the opportunity the event brings. He said, We are privileged to have several key voices who will share their knowledge, expertise, and personal learning experiences today facilitating the sharing of knowledge and expertise within the sector and promoting engagement on strengthening bilateral cooperation in the field of vocational education and training." The Franco-Irish dynamic supporting vocational training will provide an opportunity for cross-country engagement showcasing innovation and collaboration. The aim will be to bring together French education authorities and Irish Education and Training Boards to initiate partnerships and explore areas of cooperation as part of European and international expansion. In order to develop student and staff mobility within this sector and ensure that participants all have different points of contact from which to develop exchanges, ETBI and the French Embassy have identified matchings between academic regions and ETBs, based on their priority vocational domains or pre-existing links. Based on these partnerships, the French academic regions will visit different parts of Ireland with their counterparts on the June 6 and 7. In 2022, the signing of the Declaration of Intent between the French Minister for Education and the Irish Minister for Vocational Training on strengthening bilateral cooperation in the field of vocational education and training gave impetus to cooperation at the level of French education authorities and Irish Education Training Boards (ETBs). Kildare voters have been warned that taking photos or videos is not allowed in polling stations. Many first-time voters may be tempted to take a selfie but it's an offence to breach the secrecy of the ballot. This is the advice from the Electoral Commission - An Coimisiun Toghchain which is a statutory, independent body, established last year with responsibility for a broad range of electoral functions set out in the Electoral Reform Act 2022. The Commission has a handy Frequently Asked Questions FAQs section: https://www.electoralcommission.ie/faqs/ One question is why are pencils are available at all polling stations. The Commission says: Pencils are provided at all polling stations as: they last longer and do not dry out between electoral events; pencil lead cannot smudge onto other ballot papers; pencil lead will not smudge/leak if the ballot paper gets wet; If ink from a pen smudges or leaks onto another ballot paper this may cause that paper to be invalid. Using pencils for voting is an international standard and not just used in Ireland. The UK, Australia, Canada and many other countries all use pencils to vote. However, you may bring and use your own pen. Media Sales Representative Leinster Leader / KildareLive.ie Multi-Media Attractive salary package Based in Kildare If youre a natural communicator, this could be the launch pad for a rewarding multi-media career. Here at Iconic Media Group Irelands biggest local digital and newspaper publisher we have a fantastic new opportunity for a media sales representative to contribute to the groups exciting development strategy. Youll learn the ropes and start building up your skills as part of the highly experienced and supportive advertising sales team working across Leinster Leader and KildareLive.ie. Youll be expected to hit the ground running and to take on responsibility for a portfolio of existing customers, as well as for developing new relationships with potential advertisers. Of course, well also give you all the training and encouragement you need to hit your targets and grow in your role. So what are we looking for? Above all else, the communication and relationship-building skills to present well and persuade customers of the immense value of advertising. It would be great if youve already sharpened those skills in a customer-facing or telesales role (retail or call centre), but relevant experience is not essential. If youre ambitious, confident, able to think on your feet and able to inspire others youve got this. Come and join this expanding team at an exciting time for the entire media industry. An attractive salary and industry-leading holiday entitlements are available for the right candidate. To apply please email your CV with a covering letter to Olivia Cooper at ocooper@iconicnewspapers.ie. Met Eireann has made two big predictions for our weather in Ireland this weekend but only one of them will be welcome news for most people. The country enjoyed a warm and largely sunny June Bank Holiday weekend but temperatures have tapered off since. While we've seen some sunny spells this week, they have been broken up by heavy showers at times. That is again the theme this weekend with those braving BBQs told to watch the forecasts very carefully to avoid their flames being dampened by rain. Met Eireann's general outlook predicts "showers at times, most often affecting the north and west where it will also be coolest. Drier with closer to average temperatures in the south." Their longer forecast says Friday "will start mostly cloudy with scattered outbreaks of rain and drizzle moving southeastwards across the country. It will become drier and a bit brighter across the north later in the day with just isolated showers. Highest temperatures of 13 to 17 degrees in a light to moderate westerly wind. "Scattered showers on Friday night, most frequent in the north and west. Generally cloudy, although there will be occasional clear breaks. Lowest temperatures of 6 to 10 degrees in a light to moderate westerly wind. "Sunny spells and scattered showers at first on Saturday, mainly affecting the north and west. Most places will become dry as the day goes on. Highest temperatures of 13 to 17 degrees in a moderate northwesterly wind. "Mostly dry with clear spells early on Saturday night. Cloud will increase over the northern half of the country overnight, bringing some outbreaks of rain. Lowest temperatures of 7 to 10 degrees in a light to moderate west to northwest wind. "Cloud and patchy rain over the northern half of the country will move southwards on Sunday morning, giving way to sunny spells and scattered showers from the north. Highest temperatures of 12 to 15 degrees in a moderate northwesterly breeze. "Mostly dry with long clear spells and isolated showers [on Sunday night]. Lowest temperatures of 6 to 9 degrees in a light to moderate northwesterly wind." Beyond the weekend, Met Eireann says it will be "largely dry with sunny spells on Monday morning, but getting increasingly cloudy with some showers later. Highest temperatures of 11 to 18 degrees, warmest in the south, in a light to moderate northerly breeze." LION SIGNS URANIUM MOU Vancouver, British Columbia, June 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Li-Ion Graphite Corp. ("Global Li-Ion" or, the "Company") (CSE: LION, OTCQB: GBBGF, F: 0TD) Is pleased to announce it has entered into a MOU with a private Malagasy Company to complete due diligence on its Uranium prospects in Madagascar. The projects have been subject to previous exploration work which has shown great potential to host Uranium. The 20th century saw extensive exploration work that proved Madagascar to host significant Uranium deposits and also saw Uranium produced in Madagascar. Uranium exploration undertaken in Madagascar since 2000, has improved the understanding of Malagasy Uranium prospects and led to heightened interest in this underdeveloped Uranium province. Chairman Jason Walsh commented, "We are very pleased to have this opportunity to add a Uranium project to our portfolio. Uranium and thereafter nuclear energy are by far the most important key piece to the Global effort of green energy for electrification. Nuclear energy has also become a hot topic in the AI world as the tech industry realizes the amount of power needed to run the computers for generative AI." About the Uranium Project The focus is on the Karoo Supergroup which work to date has shown to be the most prospective stratigraphic unit in Madagascar for Uranium with some areas of skarn also to be considered. Exploration and appraisal work will identify areas for ground truthing of known "hot-spot" Uranium along with intensive ground radiometrics (augmented potentially by targeted very high resolution aerial radiometry) and topographical mapping of targeted areas. This work will form the basis of planning for a detailed drill program. About Ambato-Arana Graphite Mine, Madagascar The 3 forty-year renewable mining exploitation licenses that comprise the Project total 4,375 hectares (10,811 acres) are located in the vicinity of Andasibe in Toamasina Province in Madagascar, 20 km to the southwest of Sheritt's large-scale nickel/cobalt laterite open pit mine at Ambatovy and 15 km northeast of the town of Moramanga from which national highway RN2 connects with capital city Antananarivo (114 km) and Madagascar's main port of Toamisina (Tamatave) (240 km). Graphite was produced on the licenses, at a modest rate constrained by the technology employed on the licenses at that time, for roughly a century from 1910. Production was suspended by the previous owners due to a slump at the time in Global Graphite markets and with the deposits only partially mined. The deposits are now ready for larger scale exploitation with modern production techniques. They lie within the graphitic horizons of the highly prospective Manampotsy Formation and are associated with topographic highs that are exploited via free digging of lateritic ore and open pit mining, providing a lower cost exploitation without need for blasting. The graphite mineralization on the Project appears within well-defined north-south belts with interbedded graphite-rich friable layers. The geological layers of interest have continuity of several kilometres and exhibit a shallow dip angle. Sample data indicate good grade (up to 10% carbon content with some samples up to nearly 14%) and large flake (jumbo size) consistent with other nearby mines e.g. Gallois (Elate Graphite), Sahamamy & Vatomina (Tirupati Graphite) and DNI Metals' Vohitsara (DNI Metals). Further information about Global Li-Ion is available under its profile on the SEDAR website, www.sedar.com, on the CSE website, www.thecse.com, and the Company's website, www.globalli-iongraphite.com. For Further information about the Company, please contact: Jason M. Walsh Global Li-Ion Graphite Corp. Telephone 604.608.6314 Email: [email protected] Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its regulation services provider have reviewed or accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. Forward-Looking Information: This press release contains forward-looking statements. The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "intend", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. These statements speak only as of the date of this press release. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks discussed in the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com. While the Company may elect to, it does not undertake to update this information at any particular time. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available. 7 june 2024 at 09:00 News published onand distributed by: French President Emmanuel Macron, right, shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a joint press conference, Friday, June 7, 2024, at the Elysee Palace in Paris. YOAN VALAT / AP French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday, June 7, lashed out at what he called a "camp of pacifists" and the "spirit of defeat" over Ukraine's fight against the Russian invasion, vowing Ukrainian resistance would not end with capitulation. "We know this camp of pacifists. It is the one of capitulators. It's the spirit of defeat. We are not like this," Macron told reporters in Paris alongside Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, in a thinly veiled jab at his critics including the far-right opposition at home. He added peace in the conflict could not come through the "capitulation of the side who was aggressed". "We are for peace in line with international law, but which recognizes the legitimate right of a people to resist when it is aggressed," Macron said. "This is the only peace that counts. So the pressure we are exerting is on Russia," he said. 'It's important to have a fair and lasting peace' With a peace summit due in Switzerland later this month, Zelensky said peace had to last. "It is very important to have a fair and lasting peace. Not for an hour, not for a month, not for a year. Preferably forever." Macron also said he wanted to "finalize" the creation of a coalition of military instructors for Ukraine in the coming days. "We will use the days to come to finalize the largest possible coalition to implement Ukraine's demand," Macron said alongside Zelensky who had on Thursday attended ceremonies for the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy. "We want to have a coalition and several of our partners have already given their agreement... We are not alone." Zelensky said he was "grateful for this initiative." Read more Subscribers only Zelensky visits France to discuss Ukraine's 'needs' to fend off Russia Russian authorities have insisted that French instructors would become a "legitimate target" for Moscow. "Who would we be to give in to... threats from Russia?" retorted Macron. He also said he wanted Kyiv's EU accession talks to start "by the end of the month." "France continues to support Ukraine in all areas including on the European level by seeking to have the effective launch of membership negotiations by the end of the month," Macron said, adding France also wanted an "irreversible path" to NATO membership for Ukraine. The European Union's executive told member states earlier Friday that Ukraine and Moldova had met all the criteria needed to launch negotiations to join the bloc, officials said. A raft of EU countries are pressing the 27-nation bloc to formally start the talks on June 25 after leaders took the landmark decision to open negotiations in December. A French Mirage 2000-5F fighter jet takes off from the Luxeuil-Saint-Sauveur air base (eastern France) on March 13, 2022. SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP French President Emmanuel Macron surprised observers on Thursday, June 6, in a televised interview on TF1 and France 2 conducted after the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, when he announced that France would be sending fighter jets to Ukraine. "A plan for the transfer" of Mirage 2000-5s fighters will be launched "as soon as tomorrow," the French president said, on the eve of a visit to Paris by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Read more Subscribers only Zelensky visits France to discuss Ukraine's 'needs' to fend off Russia In recent months, several sources within the armed forces and the government suggested that they had given up on this option, which was considered too complex, opting instead to step aside in favor of transfers of American F-16s proposed by other countries Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway. The president's announcement has signified a break with that line. Macron did not specify how many Mirage jets might be sent, but he did say that "a coalition" was being "built" "with other partners," and that this could take "five to six months." In practice, there aren't many realistic options for France to hand over a reasonable number of aircraft to Ukraine. The French air force has only a limited number of fighters at its disposal (26 Mirage 2000-5s, out of around 200 Mirage and Rafale aircraft). These numbers have already barely sufficed for France to carry out all the missions for which it is responsible on a day-to-day basis (territorial surveillance, deterrence, participation in NATO missions, etc.). Read more Subscribers only War in Ukraine: Emmanuel Macron's metamorphosis from dove to hawk The last French fighter squadron still operating Mirage 2000-5s is the 1/2 Cigognes, stationed at the Luxeuil air base in eastern France. Yet withdrawing aircraft from this squadron to give to Kyiv would amount to ending the unit. Another option, discussed by experts, would therefore be to send Ukraine the Mirage 2000-5s that are currently in the hands of Qatar, which has been trying to sell them to Indonesia for several years. In February, Jakarta unexpectedly backed down from purchasing the 12 aircraft, valued at around 700 million. Pilots to be 'trained in France' Mirage 2000-5s are the French air force's oldest fighter aircraft, alongside Mirage 2000-Ds, which Kyiv has also been requesting. They have been scheduled for replacement by 2029. Nevertheless, they are still very much in use, notably in Djibouti, where the aircraft have been permanently based as part of a defense agreement on policing the skies over the Horn of Africa. In March, some of these aircraft were deployed to intercept Houthi drones in the Red Sea. You have 47.79% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Assemblee Nationale in Paris, Friday, June 7, 2024. THOMAS PADILLA / AP Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday, June 7, urged the West to do more to achieve a "fair peace" as Ukraine continues to battle the Russian invasion, and expressed confidence that Kyiv would emerge victorious from the conflict. One day after Western leaders descended on northern France to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in the Second World War, Zelensky addressed France's Assemblee Nationale, as US President Joe Biden was to deliver a keynote speech on democracy in Normandy. Zelensky told the Assemblee in Paris that he hoped a summit hosted by Switzerland later this month on bringing peace to Ukraine would hasten a fair end to the conflict. "The inaugural peace summit could become a format that would bring closer a just end to this war," Zelensky said. "I am grateful for all you are already doing and it is a lot. But for a fair peace, more must be done." He warned that 80 years after the D-Day landings, Europe was "unfortunately no longer a continent of peace" after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. "Can [Russian President Vladimir] Putin win this battle?" Zelensky asked. "No. Because you and I have no right to lose." Zelensky dismissed the notion there could be peace in Ukraine based on the current front lines, with Russia deep inside Ukrainian territory. "Can this war end on the lines that exist now? No. Because there are no lines for evil: not 80 years ago, not now. And if someone tries to draw temporary lines, it will only give a pause before a new war." French Mirage fighters Kyiv has been pushing Europe to increase military support, with Russia gaining the upper hand on the battlefield in recent months and concerns growing over what a United States led again by former president Donald Trump could mean for the conflict. Speaking on French television on Thursday, June 6, President Emmanuel Macron announced that Paris would transfer Mirage 2000 fighter jets to Ukraine and train Ukrainian pilots as part of a new military cooperation. Elaborating on this training, he said: "You need normally between five and six months. So by the end of the year there will be pilots. The pilots will be trained in France." Read more Subscribers only War in Ukraine: By sending Mirage fighters, France steps up support for Kyiv He said Western allies would consider a request from Ukraine to send military instructors to train its forces on its soil, to meet the growing challenge of building up troop numbers. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Macron's comments indicated he was ready for France to take a "direct" role in Ukraine conflict. Zelensky will hold a bilateral meeting with Biden in Paris, before talks in the afternoon with Macron. Read more Subscribers only Frenchman's arrest in Moscow constitutes new escalation by Russia Melih Tanriverdi, Sadat Group boss (and son of founder Adnan Tanriverdi), in Istanbul, October 2021. SADAT COMPANY / AFP Are pro-Turkish Syrian mercenaries operating in Niger? The suspicion, not yet confirmed by conclusive documents, was first raised at the beginning of May with the announcement by the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) of the first dead repatriated to the country. The OSDH reported they were Syrian victims deployed in the Sahel region in the name of Turkey's geopolitical designs. Since then, the OSDH, an information center linked to the Syrian opposition, has regularly reported arrivals in Niger of "over a thousand" of these Syrian fighters from Sadat, a private Turkish security company close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. While Turkey's offensive in Africa is an old story, where security deals blend with economic contracts, humanitarian aid and the promotion of an Islam similar to the one envisioned by the Muslim Brotherhood, renewed attention seems to be focused on the Sahel at a time when the departure of the French and American forces is inviting new strategic players. Read more Subscribers only American troops withdraw from Niger while facing pressure from Chad "In Niger, Syrian mercenaries are supposed to guard mines, oil installations or military bases," said OSDH director Rami Abdel-Rahman. "But they then find themselves involved in fighting against jihadist groups. Nine of these Syrian fighters have died to date." Disturbingly, OSDH reports that these men find themselves fighting alongside the "Russians" of Africa Corps (ex-Wagner), or even abandoned to the Corps' authority, even though Moscow and Ankara are supposed to be rivals in the Syrian war. "Russians and Turks are cooperating in Niger," said Abdel-Rahman. Read more Subscribers only 'Africa Corps': Russia's Sahel presence rebranded On May 16, Agence France-Presse published an article quoting two pro-Turkish Syrian fighters contacted by telephone, one present in Niger, the other preparing to go there. However, the presence of these Syrians in Niger has not yet been formally and irrefutably established. Security, political and diplomatic sources in Niger contacted by Le Monde claim to have no proof of the deployment of these paramilitaries hired by Sadat. Erdogan's 'parallel army' Such a military projection by Ankara in the Sahel, if confirmed, would not be a big suprise, considering Turkey's practices. According to West African security sources, negotiations have indeed taken place between the military junta in Niamey and Sadat, an asset at the service of Turkey's strategy of influence. In the fall of 2020, Sadat sent Syrian mercenaries to support Azerbaijan in its conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh. Nine months earlier, the same operation had taken place in western Libya on behalf of the Tripoli-based government. A US Department of Defense report dated June 2020 unambiguously established Sadat's role in supervising some 5,000 Syrian auxiliaries in Tripolitania alongside soldiers from Ankara's regular army. The intervention enabled the government of Fayez al-Sarraj, a Turkish ally, to repel an assault by Marshal Khalifa Haftar, backed by Wagner's Russian militiamen. The American report expressed concern about the notorious indiscipline of these Syrian mercenaries likely to provoke a hostile reaction from the Libyans, including thefts and sexual assaults. You have 57.66% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only. ITS THE most fundamental change in local government in 100 years. Its groundbreaking and history making. The verdict of Dr Pat Daly, who, from next week, will become the first ever director general of a local authority in Ireland. The election of an executive mayor in Limerick this week - or early next week - is going to lead to a huge shake-up in the administration of Limerick City and County Council. Whoever is returned as Limericks first directly elected mayor will assume a huge swathe of powers, and will be responsible for a budget of 700m. Up to now, that has been the responsibility of Dr Daly, who, for the last few years, has led Limericks local authority as its chief executive. Although he will retain many responsibilities, many of the powers he currently holds will be handed over to Limericks first directly elected mayor. The council boss says its vital the new structures work for Limerick, and stressed that the councils workforce of more than 1,500 people will row in behind the new mayor. Its my job as director general and with colleagues across the organisation to make it happen. The mayor can be guaranteed whoever he or she may be, of total and utter support to make it happen. Thats a guarantee - no problem, he vowed. The former Shannon Development boss says its in all of Limericks interest for this to be the case. Limerick is on a growth path. I think the mayor is going to be part of it, so its key we continue our progress and even double down on it, he explained. He also pointed out an often overlooked fact: that after the president, the directly elected mayor will be the office with the next biggest vote behind it. Its a decade since Limerick City Council merged with Limerick County Council in what was a historic move. Now, Limerick is creating more history by becoming the first city and county to elect a mayor following the passing of a plebiscite five years ago. If the next 10 years will be as good as the last 10 years, I will absolutely be very happy, Dr Daly said. We promised a new organisation which will deliver one vision, one voice, and one Limerick effectively through an organisation that was built on a culture of entrepreneurship. We will be risk-taking, enterprising, in addition to making sure we deliver the best quality services to the people. The council boss sees himself as working hand-in-glove with the new mayor, right from the get-go. He said: I want to see a seamless transition and that it becomes a very dynamic working partnership, not just with me as director general, with the staff, management and with the council as well, and they get to deliver fully their programme. And this becomes a real vision of new local government. And we continue the path on the progress weve made. Work is progressing at speed to complete a new mayoral suite in the council's corporate headquarters at Merchant's Quay in the city centre. The facility will provide space for the five new staff that the directly elected mayor will be able to employ. There are meeting and function rooms for attending dignitaries. Dr Daly stressed there will be an open door policy between the executive mayor and staff members, and there will be regular meetings. If there is any notion of resistance here - absolutely not. In fact, there is excitement to make it happen. Limerick were confident enough to take this decision, and I think it's a badge of honour for us, he concluded. MANY people think that Luimneach Abu means Up Limerick or Cmon Limerick but of course it translates to Limerick Forever. When the Limerick senior hurling team won the All-Ireland final for the first time in 45 years in 2018, Patrickswell man Tony Hurley decided to commemorate the moment by designing an infinity symbol necklace for his wife and three daughters. He had to order a minimum of 10 so he decided to give the rest to hurling fans he knew and as word spread he found himself receiving numerous requests for the necklaces. Along with his wife Betty, Tony saw the opportunity to sell the necklaces and donate the proceeds to charity. The couple gave the necklaces to people free of charge with the promise that they would donate 20 to a charity of their choice. Over the last six years they have raised over 6,000 for charities including Adapt House and Milford Care Centre. Sadliers Seafood on Roches Street has become the distribution centre for the necklaces with customers asked to donate 20 to the Adapt House fundraising box in exchange for the unique piece of jewellery. A CHAPTER in the history of the Cappamore Show has closed with the passing of its last founding member - Patrick (Pa) Gleeson. A group of enthusiastic youngsters full of ambition and not afraid of hard work got together in the early 1950s to organise an agricultural show in Cappamore. Mr Gleeson was one of those. On Sunday evening, May 19, members of Cappamore show were present at the removal of Mr Gleeson to lead a guard of honour from the funeral home along the street of Cappamore village. John Hassett, Cappamore Show secretary, said Mr Gleeson was a fellow Murroe man who was born and lived all his life at Cappanuke, Murroe but was also very active in the community of Cappamore. The townland of Cappanuke was also home to another man synonymous with the show - Paddy Ryan (Luke). Pa was a founding member of Cappamore Show and its first treasurer. Early days of the show were challenging. Former chairperson Marie Hayes tells me funds for the first show came mainly from a church gate collection, admission charges and entry fees. A show dance was held in Lynch's hall, Doon Road. Profit from that helped pay out prize money. The show dance continued for many years in the Star Ballroom, Oyster Ballroom, Dromkeen, Cappamore Community Centre and Hayes' function room. In the early years, Pa introduced a system whereby members who were stewarding on show day would be given a steward's badge. On show night that badge was handed in and entitled the member to free admission to dance, recalled Mr Hassett. The current show secretary said as an officer of the show in 2024 he does not envy the challenges of those early days. Community development is not all about physical assets, it is about the intangible assets namely our volunteers and the betterment of our communities. "Volunteers like Pa who engaged in local, agricultural and community advocacy groups in their day recognised that the State was not in a position to resource rural communities and therefore these groups depended on their home base to support and drive initiatives. A true bottom up approach to community development, said Mr Hassett. The attributes of trust, humility and personal principles are admirable qualities and Pa excelled in all three. Mr Hassett said he first came to know Pa as a neighbour and while generations his senior he held great respect for Pa as a very progressive and neat farmer. As a farmer myself I aspire to neatness but sometimes fail, Pa however excelled in maintaining a neat farm. Pa was joined in his hard working ethic by his wife Mary Doyle from Buffanoka, Cappamore and they were a great team. Where you saw one you saw the other, said Mr Hassett. The couple were blessed with five children - Mary, Breda, June, Maggie and PJ. Farming can be a challenging occupation subject to many unpredictable forces namely the market and the weather. Pa excelled in his farming activities, meeting those competing forces. Pa had a great interest in horse breeding and was known in the sector for his famous stallions Sonny Light and Pere Humbert, said Mr Hassett. He said Mr Gleeson is one of the last of those pioneering community members from the 1950s onwards who mobilised to advocate a strong community voice of rural communities. Pa was involved in the key rural advocacy groups, NFA later IFA, agricultural shows, namely Cappamore Show, Macra, and the local water scheme, Glenstal water scheme. In Macra, Pa won an All-Ireland in public speaking and another in debating. In the water scheme he was involved in supplying a reliable clean water source to local homes and farms, said Ms Hassett. Mr Gleeson was part of the fabric of local society and helped to build and nourish it. On behalf of Cappamore Show, I wish to again offer our condolences to his wife Mary and his family. May he rest in peace, said Mr Hassett. READER DISCRETION ADVISED A TIPPERARY man described by his Limerick victim as a dangerous sexual predator and everyone should know his name has been jailed for seven years with the final six months suspended at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court this Friday. The woman, aged in her 40s and who doesnt wish to be identified, had told the court what he had done to her "has completely destroyed my life. Denis ODonovan, aged 38, of Ballyryan, Donohill, Co Tipperary was found guilty by a jury of two sexual assaults, false imprisonment and assault causing harm at a two week trial in April. The defendant was before Judge Dermot Sheehan for judgement on Thursday, May 16. Lily Buckley, prosecuting barrister, instructed by State solicitor Padraig Mawe, gave a summary of the evidence with the assistance of Detective Garda Chris Cowan. Ms Buckley told the court that the victim had been kidnapped from outside her home in County Limerick on a date in January 2020 by O'Donovan, who was on bail at the time for an aggravated burglary and criminal damage. The court heard that O'Donovan pulled the victim into his car, drove off at speed, then repeatedly jabbed his fingers into her vagina and licked her vagina while choking her. The victim made good her escape by saying she wanted to get more comfortable. She fell out of the car, pulled up her tracksuit and panties and was so desperate to get away that she went through a ditch". On that date in May, Judge Sheehan said he needed time to consider sentencing and adjourned matters until this Friday. ODonovan was remanded in continuing custody. He has been in prison for 129 days on this matter. READ MORE: He is a dangerous sexual predator and everyone should know his name: says Limerick victim This Friday, Judge Sheehan said the woman was "clearly terrorised" by the accused from listening to the 999 call. The judge said O'Donovan displayed "significant violence" when he repeatedly jabbed his fingers into the victim's vagina and then licking it immediately after, while choking her. "She said her humiliation was increased due to her being on her mensis," said Judge Sheehan, who referred to the panic attacks, flashbacks and nightmares suffered by the victim following the incident. In mitigation, the judge said O'Donovan had made partial admissions, comes from a decent family, has a young daughter and drink had played a part in all his offending. O'Donovan has 39 previous convictions. Judge Sheehan imposed a seven year sentence for the digital penetration sexual assault with the final six months suspended for rehabilitation to deal with his alcohol addiction. The judge imposed a seven year jail term with the final six months suspended for the second sexual assault of licking her vagina. A term of five years was handed down for false imprisonment and four years in jail for the assault causing harm, namely choking the victim. All sentences are to be served concurrently. O'Donovan is to be placed on the sex offenders register for an indefinite period. Speaking to the media after the verdicts were delivered, the victim said she was happy with the sentence and "I feel that justice has been served". Judge Sheehan said at a previous court sitting that nothing should be published that would identify the victim but the accused can be named. Nestled in the tranquil landscape of Bruree, Co Limerick, Beech Lodge Care Facility stands tall as a symbol of compassion and dedication. Owned by Anne Maria and James Moore, Beech Lodge Care Facility celebrated its 21st anniversary on May 18th 2024, a testament to over two decades of unwavering dedication to the welfare of its residents and the wider community. Since its beginnings as a 40-bed facility in 2003, Beech Lodge has grown, evolved, and expanded its capacity to now accommodate 66 residents. Proudly family run, it has over 60 staff members and has been a pillar of the community since. Anne Maria Moore and Margaret Divilly Each of the 66 rooms has their own en-suite and is equipped with a nurse call-bell, electronic profiling bed and flat screen TV. The expansion reflects not only the foresight and perseverance of its founders but also the enduring support of the local community, which has rallied behind the facilitys mission of service and care. Beech Lodge has excellent nursing staff, in-house physio, medications delivered by a pharmacy, on-site GP visits, optical, dental, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, psychological and speech therapy and tissue viability. The care facility specialises in accommodating post-operative hip/knee rehabilitation, are private health insurance approved, have an in-house laundry facility, dedicated kitchen staff providing homemade daily meals and accommodating nutritional needs, along with a driver and carer to bring residents to appointments with our own bus. Beech Lodges activities team provide music and art therapy, celebrate all birthdays and special occasions, hold seasonal parties and welcome visitors. All GAA matches are screened in their beautiful warm, bright and airy Dome. They are also proud to offer hairdressing and chiropody on-site and Mass is celebrated. Throughout its 21 year journey, Beech Lodge has strived to become a home from home where residents can find solace, companionship, and the highest standard of care. Joseph and Mary Nolan With services ranging from long-term nursing and medical care to retirement and lifestyle options, Beech Lodge caters to a diverse array of needs, ensuring that each resident receives personalised attention and support. Proprietors Anne Maria and James Moore, alongside their family and dedicated team, hosted a vibrant celebration to mark this significant milestone. Residents, families, and friends came together to honour 21 years of community-focused care, sharing in laughter, music by the one and only Shaun ODowd, pictured below, and heartfelt reminiscences - a true testament to the bonds that have been forged within the walls of Beech Lodge. Looking ahead, Beech Lodge remains committed to excellence and innovation, continually adapting to meet the evolving needs of its residents and the broader community. As it embarks on the next chapter of its journey, Beech Lodge reaffirms its role as a beacon of hope, compassion, and dignitya testament to the enduring power of love and community spirit. Here's to 21 years of Beech Lodge Nursing Homea testament to the unwavering dedication and enduring impact of its founders, staff, and supporters alike. Mary and Eithne Slattery For more information or to contact the Bruree care facility, log onto www.beechlodgecarefacility.ie or see their Facebook page here *Sponsored content Stock Market News FTSE 100 Shares - FTSE 100 LIVE: European stocks dip as London stocks look to fourth week of losses 07-06-2024 01:12 Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.uk NEW DELHI : Soon, you may not be able to hop from Google search results to a hotels website to make a reservation, or even to Google Maps once you find the place you are looking for. Allowing users to head straight to Google Maps or a hotels website from the results page goes against the tenets of the draft digital competition bill, say industry executives and experts. The draft bill, which seeks to prevent anti-competitive behaviour, proposes prohibiting the intermixing and cross-use of personal or business user data across different products or services without user consent. Google and other search engines might also have to stop surfacing sponsored links to products and services in its search results, as the bill proposes prohibiting whats called self-preferencing. This is broadly defined as giving preference to a digital platforms own products or service, to those of related parties, or to third parties with whom it has an arrangement, an industry executive said on condition of anonymity. The idea of the digital competition law is to ensure competitiveness in digital markets, which will ultimately benefit users and consumers. However, many of the big tech companies and Indian digital entities are concerned that in the pursuit of ensuring competitiveness in the market, the law should not lose sight of the end goal, i.e., better products and services," said Pranjal Prateek, partner at law firm Khaitan & Co. Some of the widely worded prohibitions under the draft bill could potentially diminish user experience and product usefulness." Google and the ministry of corporate affairs, which introduced the draft bill in March, did not reply to emails sent on Wednesday. Good intentions, unintended consequences Users unwilling to allow Google to use their personal or business data might find their experience on the tech giants platforms highly diminished, said one of the industry experts mentioned earlier. Finding an address on Google Search and hopping to the location on Google Maps could involve multiple steps if the proposed legislation takes effect in its current form. A user would have to copy the address from the results page and paste it on Google Maps for the route, explained a technology expert. Also read | Digital competition bill not before November. Heres why The proposed digital competition bill has good intentions and seeks to protect competition in the market, preventing network effects and entry barriers that reinforce the incumbent player. Network effect allows a product or servicea search engine, an e-commerce platform, or a digital navigation toolto gradually become more accurate and predictable as more users engage with it, attracting even more users to it. This, however, could potentially shift the market dynamics in its favour. Industry experts worry about potential unintended consequences of the digital competition bill, which could hinder efficiency, innovation, and user experience. Consent fatigue According to Navneet Sharma, director general of CUTS Institute for Regulation and Competition, a nonprofit research body, digital platforms seeking user consent for different individual services within their ecosystemsay, an online travel company seeking consent separately for booking air tickets, hotels and cabswill lead to consent fatigue. Besides, the proposed ex-ante (forward-looking) regulations are a double-edged sword, which would apply to not only multinational big tech firms but also to Indian digital economy firms, which are showing tremendous promise now," Sharma said. Regulations entail a cost and should be adopted only if market solutions do not address market problems, he said, adding that India does not face compulsions for ex-ante" competition regulation such as that introduced by the European Union. The European influence In Europe, Google had to implement at least 20 changes to its search results, including in the areas of shopping and flight and hotel bookings, after the EUs Digital Markets Act (DMA) came into force in March. It also had to introduce consent banners for linking different Google products. Google also removed some features from its results page that were meant to help consumers find businesses, such as the Google Flights unit, an online flight booking search service. Indias proposed digital competition bill has heavily borrowed from the DMA. Also read | India need not follow EU regulations on Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store Google also had to make other changes to its search results in Europe, having the effect of sending more traffic to large intermediaries and aggregators, and less traffic to direct suppliers such as hotels, airlines, merchants and restaurants, Google said in its blog. FIRST India (Forum for Internet, Retailers, Sellers and Traders), a division of India SME Forum, and the US India Partnership forum, an independent body, have written to Indian authorities expressing their concerns about the draft bill. Mint has seen copies of their representations. The technology expert mentioned earlier said the changes to Google Search in Europe have had a chilling effect" on business users who rely on the search results for internet traffic to their business. This really highlights that there isnt any need for Indian policymakers to rush through this legislation," said this expert. They have the opportunity to observe whats happening with the DMA, which came into force in March, and give that some time, particularly when there is existing legislation in place where the Competition Commission of India can continue to pursue any anti-competitive conduct that it observes in the market." The Food & Safety Standards Association of India (FSSAI) has inspected a Blinkit warehouse in the state and found the space to be "disorganised, unhygienic" and in violation of various food handling and storage regulations. Further action is pending. Blinkit is the grocery and quick delivery arm of food delivery aggregator Zomato. On June 6, the official handle of the Commissioner of Food Safety, Telangana, posted on the social media site X (formerly known as Twitter) that a task force inspected the Blinkit warehouse at Devar Yamjal in the state's Medchal-Malkajgiri district. Violations Discovered In a list of violations discovered, the Commissioner noted that the premises were "very disorganised, unhygienic and dusty at storage racks." Further, there was no Food Safety Training and Certification (FoSTaC) trainee available at the site. The food handlers were found without headgear, gloves, and aprons and did not have medical fitness certificates available. The team also seized 52,000 worth of "suspected (to be) infested" whole farm ragi flour and toor dal and sent the samples to a lab for testing. The commissioner added that a notice regarding the investigation will be issued, and further action will be taken accordingly. Notices to be Sent Besides this, the team also found that Whole Farm Congruence Trade and Services' license was not in compliance with the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (FSS Act), regarding the address mentioned on the label, and a notice will also be sent for this. Further, Kamakshi Foods' license was found to be expired, and hence, products from the company suji, raw peanut butter, maida, poha, besan, and bajra worth 30,000 were seized. Track | RBI Monetary Policy LIVE Updates here In a statement to the media, a Blinkit spokesperson said they are working with their warehouse partner to take corrective actions. Thomas Dohmke, the CEO of GitHub, is in India for an event and, in a post on the social media site X (formerly known as Twitter), shared his love for the country. "Although this is my first visit as GitHub CEO in India, this is not my first time here. I love this country. This is me in 2008, in Bengaluru I havent aged at all," Dohmke wrote earlier this week, sharing a photo from his first visit to India's IT hub. He also acknowledged about India's potential to become home to the world's largest developer community in the "age of AI". "India is at the nexus of monumental economic opportunity, as it is set to become the worlds largest developer community at the exact point in time the age of AI is taking off. More from me on this soon," he stated. Next Great Start-up from India In subsequent posts throughout the week, Dohmke was all praise for the country's "vivid creative expression" and AI innovation. "Its not just how you will build with AI, its the AI innovation you will build right here in India. The next great AI startup will be as likely to come from Mumbai or Bengaluru as SF or Seattle," he wrote on X. Further adding, "India has always been known as a vivid tapestry of creative expression. But what I also know: there is still yet a sleeping tiger of Indian creativity waiting to be unleashed. Together, we will unleash it." Dohmke is in Bengaluru to attend the 2024 GitHub Constellation scheduled on June 12. It is the company's in-person developer conference, which connects the Indian developer community on topics like AI, collaboration, community, and security. Layoffs Last Year In March 2023, Microsoft-owned GitHub laid off 142 engineering roles in its India operations, and employees were given two months' pay as severance. The layoff was not based on the performance of employees, and the whole engineering team in GitHub India was asked to leave, as per a Business Today report. The laid-off employees were also made to sign a strict Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) in lieu of the severance benefits, the report added. The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has given the green light for the merger of Air India and Vistara, paving the way for the formation of India's largest International carrier, PTI reported. Following the merger, announced in November 2022, Singapore Airlines will hold a 25.1 percent stake in Air India. Vistara is a joint venture between Singapore Airlines and Tata Group. With a combined fleet of 218 aircraft, the merged Air India-Vistara entity will become India's largest international carrier and second-largest domestic carrier, as per a statement from the Tata Group. The American Airlines Group, with a fleet of 1,521 is the world's largest, and IndiGo is the country's largest domestic carrier with a fleet of 350 aircraft. Approval Details The Chandigarh bench of the NCLT issued a 31-page order approving the "composite scheme of arrangement" involving Talace, Air India, and Vistara all part of the Tata Group. Air India expects the merger to be finalised by the end of this year. A two-member bench confirmed that the merger scheme had secured necessary approvals from shareholders and creditors of both airlines. It also received approvals from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Additionally, no significant objections were raised by the Income Tax department or any other parties. Accordingly, a sanction is hereby granted to the 'Composite Scheme of Arrangement' amongst the petitioner companies and their respective shareholders under Sections 230 to 232 and other applicable provisions of the Companies Act, 2013, the NCLT order said. It also specifies that the scheme shall be binding on the companies and their shareholders. Post-Merger Formalities The order states that Vistara will dissolve without undergoing the winding-up process after the merger, following receipt of necessary approvals and security clearances, within nine months from the date of the order. The Transferor Companies (Vistara) shall stand dissolved without undergoing the process of winding up on completion of the merger and associated formalities after receipt of necessary approvals including FDI approval/security clearances as required under relevant CARs (Civil Aviation Regulations) issued by DGCA/MCA/any other authority within a period of nine months from the date of this order, it stated. The companies must ensure FDI approval by Singapore Airlines and security clearances from DGCA/MOCA within nine months from the order date. In March, Singapore's competition regulator CCCS conditionally approved the proposed merger. In September 2023, the CCI also gave its approval subject to certain conditions. Also Read | We could have handled the delays better, says Air India CEO Campbell Wilson Tata Group took control of the financially struggling Air India in January 2022. RIVNE, UkraineAfter Russias full-scale military invasion, Ukraine abruptly stopped buying nuclear fuel from Moscow, its top supplier in an industry that accounted for more than half of the countrys electricity generation. Now, a storied name in American industry is stepping in to keep reactors running, and offering other countries reliant on Soviet-designed power plants an alternative supplier. Westinghouse Electric, which for two decades struggled to challenge Russias dominant position in Ukraine, now makes fuel bundles that are compatible with all of the countrys reactors and is working on a plan that could allow Ukraine to start making some of that fuel itself. Ukraine also plans to build nine Westinghouse-designed reactors. Ukraines rapid shift marks a big international win for the West, which has long sought to erode Russias dominance in the industry and the political influence that comes with it. Russias invasion in 2022 pushed Ukraine and Westinghouse to accelerate work that was already under way, cementing Ukraines break from Russia and carving a path for European countries with similar, Soviet-designed reactors to follow. Russia lost 15 reactorsfor loading of their fuel because of their aggression," said Petro Kotin, who leads Ukraines state nuclear company, Energoatom. Russia is a globally dominant supplier of uranium conversion and enrichment services, two crucial steps in the nuclear-energy supply chain. It is less dominant in producing fuel bundles, which package enriched uranium into a container that can be loaded in a reactor. But for years it was the only supplier for Soviet-designed VVER reactors, of which 34 now operate across the European Union and Ukraine. Westinghouse sought repeatedly to break into the VVER fuel supply market, supported in part by the U.S. government. The company delivered fuel to a handful of those reactors in the 2000s but faced technical problems in the Czech Republic and Ukraine that pushed it to modify its fuel design. It also struggled at times to compete with low prices offered by TVEL, the fuel division of Russian state-owned nuclear company Rosatom. And efforts to displace TVEL faced opposition from Moscow. Rosatom paid reporters to publish false stories about Westinghouses efforts in order to spread fear in Ukraine and the West of a second Chernobyl," according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and a contractor who says he coordinated the work. The Kremlin would use its political and economic influence over Ukraine to thwart plans to curb purchases of Russian fuel, according to former Ukrainian government advisers. Rosatom said it never paid journalists or authorized such payments by contractors. Rosatom has a zero-tolerance policy on corruption," a spokesperson for the company said. A spokesman for the Kremlin said Russia has always stood for fair competition. After Russia seized Crimea and covertly invaded eastern Ukraine in 2014, Kyivs efforts to reduce dependence on Russia became more urgent. Energoatom ramped up purchases of Westinghouses fuel assemblies and, by the beginning of 2022, six of Ukraines 15 reactors had been loaded with fuel from the company. Westinghouse, now under Canadian ownership with headquarters in Pennsylvania, had also started work to supply Ukraine with fuel assemblies for another model of VVER reactor, the VVER-440. Ukraine has two of them, and the company had initially planned a first delivery for one this year. Then, in February 2022, Russia launched its full-scale invasion. It occupied Ukraines largest nuclear power station, Zaporizhzhia, and targeted other energy infrastructure with missiles and explosive aerial drones. Energoatoms Kotin knew he needed to act quickly. Without deliveries of the VVER-440 fuel Westinghouse was developing, one of Ukraines reactors might need to be shut down, compounding an electricity shortage that was causing blackouts. Guys, we need to increase the speed," Kotin recalled telling Patrick Fragman, Westinghouses chief executive, on a phone call. What followed was a high-stakes race to make the fuel and load it in a reactor near the western Ukrainian city of Rivne, which faced occasional aerial bombardment despite being far from the wars front line. The project required Westinghouse to quickly source new machinery and rework its factory floor in Sweden, upending traditional ways of working in a tightly-regulated sector that is better known for its glacial pace. Ukraines urgent need pushed Westinghouse to slash a quarter of the time needed for a two-year processwhile simultaneously ramping up fuel production for other reactors in Ukraine and Europe. The effort stood out, in part, because the fuel was destined for a country that is the site of the worlds worst nuclear disaster, in Chernobyl. Westinghouse said there are no safety risks associated with speeding up the production of the fuel. It was a massive undertaking," Fragman said in an interview. All the disciplines of the organization were basically recruited" into the effort, he said. The company did have a head start in making the VVER-440 fuel, having previously supplied a Finnish nuclear power plant for several years in the 2000s. But Russia had won back Finlands business and Westinghouse, with no other customers for its design, mothballed production. The world of nuclear power is methodical and cautious by design, and Westinghouse had no road map for accelerating manufacturing. Westinghouse set up a task force of about 60 people, including a smaller, core group that held weekly meetings to assess progress and identify potential bottlenecks. The urgency was compounded by Russias occupation of Ukraines Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, where staff reported being terrorized by Russian security officials and all six reactors were shut down. Russian bombing campaigns cut power to cities across the country for days at a time in an effort to demoralize civilians and create a mass exodus from the country. The Kremlin said statements about alleged threats at the power plant are unfounded. Westinghouse also launched talks with other utilities across Europe. During a meeting at the companys Sweden facilities in March 2022, representatives from the Czech Republic and other European countries with VVER-440 reactors agreed to accept the same basic fuel assembly design as the one Westinghouse was planning to use for Ukrainea step officials said helped speed up production because it eliminated some of the time the company would usually spend on customization. EU imports of Russian nuclear fuel shot up in 2023 as utilities stockpiled supplies, trade data shows, but that could be short-lived. Utilities in five countries including Ukraine have since signed deals with Westinghouse for VVER-440 and VVER-1000 fuel deliveries. Some have also announced plans to work with Framatome, a subsidiary of French state-owned utility Electricite de France. Framatome plans to assemble the fuel in Germany through a joint venture with Rosatoms TVEL, in an arrangement some officials have criticized because they say it would extend European dependence on Russia. Framatome said it needs Russian know-how to manufacture VVER fuel in the short-term, and the company is simultaneously working on its own design that it hopes to have licensed by 2030. Building new reactors in Ukraine could prove a thornier challenge. Westinghouse, a spinoff from the Pittsburgh-based conglomerate that morphed into CBS, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2017 after running into trouble with the U.S. construction of four AP1000 reactorsthe same model Ukraine plans to build. It emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2018 and is now owned by Canadian firms Brookfield and Cameco. Delays and cost overruns are common when building nuclear reactors, said Mycle Schneider, an independent nuclear-policy analyst who is often critical of the industry. Now you have, in addition, a full-blown war ongoing in the country." Westinghouse said it learned from its U.S. experience during the 2010s and no longer takes on reactor construction. Four of the companys AP1000 models have since come online in China and are operating successfully, it said. In Ukraine, Westinghouse said Energoatom will be responsible for construction of the new reactors and it will be up to Ukraine to determine when work should begin. Financing discussions are ongoing with the U.S. governments export credit agency and its development finance institution, the company said. To produce the fuel assemblies for Ukraine, Westinghouse bought new manufacturing equipment and repurposed existing tools. It pressed suppliers to accelerate orders, often at a steep cost. To speed production, it also 3-D printed some intricate components, which had the added value of providing more consistent quality. Ten experts from Energoatom traveled back and forth to Sweden to help with the fuel development, often working weekends and late at night. The experts completed documentation for the fuel assemblies in Ukrainian so they wouldnt need to be translated later, Kotin said. In September, days before the Rivne reactor would need to be reloaded, the new fuel assemblies were ready. Fragman, the Westinghouse CEO, traveled to Rivne for the event, where he grinned as he posed for a photo with Kotin and Ukraines energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, both clad in army-green. Westinghouse delivered a first batch of VVER fuel to a nuclear power plant in Bulgaria this spring and has said a delivery to the Czech Republic should take place this year. Energoatom says it is working on plans for a new factory south of Kyiv where it plans to manufacture its own Westinghouse-designed fuel assemblies. Workers in April poured cement to prepare for the construction of two Westinghouse-designed nuclear reactors at the Khmelnytskiy plant, which Energoatom hopes will surpass Zaporizhzhia to become the countrysand Europeslargest nuclear facility. Write to Kim Mackrael at kim.mackrael@wsj.com, James Marson at james.marson@wsj.com and Jennifer Hiller at jennifer.hiller@wsj.com Chinas travel surge continues as Dragon Boat Festival expected to further stimulate domestic consumption 15:20, June 07, 2024 By Ma Tong ( Global Times A shopping mall in downtown Shanghai displays the logo of the Shanghai 5.5 Shopping Festival to attract shoppers on April 27, 2024. Photo: Qi Xijia/GT China's tourism sector is poised for another travel peak during the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival and summer vacation period, following the resurgence in tourist numbers seen during the May Day holidays. This trend highlights the enduring vitality of China's domestic consumption, laying the groundwork for a full economic recovery this year, experts and industry insiders said. Tourism agencies and online travel platforms have witnessed a surge in bookings as the traditional festival approaches. Meituan, China's leading online retail platform, reported a nearly 70 percent year-on-year increase in pre-bookings for cultural and tourism activities during the holidays, with short-distance destinations gaining popularity, according to the platform's most recent data. Data from the travel platform Fliggy showed that this year's Dragon Boat Festival has seen higher per capita booking volumes for both domestic and outbound travel compared to the previous year, with some lesser-known destinations across the country emerging as the fastest-growing travel hotspots. Bookings for overseas products such as cruises, car rentals, and private tours have also doubled in volume. The homestay booking platform Tujia informed the Global Times on Thursday that bookings for the three-day holiday period have surged by 40 percent year-on-year. Searches for homestays featuring folk activities have risen by 50 percent month-on-month, with bookings doubling year-on-year. Cheng Xin, a sales consultant at the travel agency UTour Group Co, told the Global Times on Thursday that there has been a notable uptick in both inquiries and bookings ahead of the Dragon Boat Festival compared to the May Day holidays. "Domestic group tour bookings have risen by over 10 percent, while outbound group tour bookings have surged by more than 15 percent," she said. Cheng highlighted the surge in travel inquiries, attributing it to the approaching summer holidays which follow the Dragon Boat Festival, prompting many consumers to proactively plan their travel schedules ahead of time. Cheng expected the travel surge will extend into the second half of the year. China's tourism sector posted robust growth during the May Day holidays. The country recorded 295 million domestic trips nationwide, marking a 7.6 percent increase year-on-year and a 28.2 percent surge from pre-Covid levels in 2019. Tourism revenue totaled 166.89 billion yuan ($23.1 billion), up 12.7 percent from the previous year and 13.5 percent from 2019, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. "The improvement of people's living standards and the upgrading of their consumption habits have greatly propelled tourism growth," Li Chang'an, a professor from the Academy of China Open Economy Studies of the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times on Thursday. With the government's various facilitation measures for travel and the rapid infrastructure advancement, particularly in high-tech sectors, consumers will embrace a wider range of travel products to choose from, showcasing the vast untapped potential in the sector, Li said, adding that "the continuous travel boom will inject more vitality and stronger momentum into the country's domestic consumption." During the three-day holiday, flexible and convenient car rental self-driving trips have emerged as the top choice for many holidaymakers. Data from Trip.com reveals that the platform has experienced a 260 percent year-on-year surge in domestic car rental self-driving bookings. 92 percent of travelers prefer short-distance self-driving trips, with intra-provincial travel also gaining popularity. Industry insiders noted the emergence of various new travel trends has given ordinary people more options, and is expected to drive accelerated consumption expansion and enhance the quality of local services, thus laying a solid foundation for the upcoming peak season in the cultural and tourism industry across various regions. (Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun) To understand how Japan is changing, consider the 7-Eleven convenience store in Minami-Azabu 1-chome, in central Tokyo. At first glance, it appears to be like any other konbini, as such shops are known locallya paragon of impeccable Japanese service culture. Clerks shout Irasshaimase", a greeting to customers, each time the doors open. Rows of neatly arranged seasonal snacks fill the shelves and the scent of freshly fried chicken wafts through the air. Yet all the staff are Burmese, including the owner, May Zin Chit, the first person from Myanmar to own a Japanese 7-Eleven franchise. Konbini are the lifeblood of modern Japan. Since emerging in 1969, they have outgrown their American antecedents, becoming an essential part of the countrys social infrastructureand a $77bn-a-year industry. The four main chains7-Eleven, FamilyMart, Lawson and MiniStopboast a total of 55,700 branches, dotted across every city and town; last year they served a combined 16bn customers. Japanese rely on them as places to buy fresh food, pay bills, pick up sumo tickets, send parcels, and much more, 24 hours a day. Foreign tourists marvel at the range of their offerings; famous international chefs praise their egg sandwiches. Yet there are ever fewer Japanese to make the konbini magic happen. Japans working-age population peaked at 87m in 1995 and is projected to fall to 55m by 2050. Bringing more women and elderly Japanese into the workforce can help counteract the trend, but only to a limited extent. Japanese politicians are loth to say it out loud, but immigration is also part of the answeras Ms Mays journey up the konbini ladder demonstrates. Ms May first came to Japan as an exchange student. When she began working at 7-Eleven in 2008, there were just 500,000 foreign workers in Japan. People would stare at her. Customers often asked to speak with Japanese staff. While avoiding talk of an official immigration policy", the Japanese government has quietly opened the door for more foreigners to enter the country in recent years. The number of foreign workers has quadrupled since 2008, reaching the 2m mark for the first time last year. (Another 1.2m foreigners live in Japan, but do not officially work.) On March 29th the government expanded the list of fields eligible for skilled-worker visas. The number will have to rise faster. Japan needs 4.2m foreign workers by 2030 to sustain even its modest GDP growth targets. Though wariness about large-scale immigration is still widespread, the labour crunch has convinced many business leaders and officials of the necessity of a more multicultural Japan. Foreigners make up roughly 2.5% of Japans population today, but according to the governments own projections, the ratio will exceed 10% by 2070, similar to current levels in France. As Yasui Makoto, who leads efforts on multicultural coexistence at 7-Eleven, notes, that era falls within the lifetime of todays children. Inside Japans konbini that era has already arrived. Some 80,000 foreigners work in the industry, accounting for 9% of the workforce; in many big cities, half of 7-Eleven staff are foreigners. (Many of them are students.) At Ms Mays shop, she seeks to provide a Japanese level of service", stressing to staff the importance of the little details", such as how to bag products and not squish them. At 7-Eleven, Ms May is held up as a model the company hopes to replicate. Yet too many roadblocks remain for others to follow in her path. Many of the students who work at konbini struggle to get visas to continue working there after graduation. Relatively few rise to the level of store manager, much less an owner. Ms May had to secure permanent residence, an arduous process, and a line of credit in order to achieve her dream of owning a shop. For all the governments tweaks to the migration rules, it is still far too difficult for prospective migrants to put down roots in Japan. Ms May, for her part, hopes to stay in the country for good. She is raising two young children, who speak Burmese at home and Japanese at school. Now that I have a family here, Japan feels like home," she says. Like many native-born Japanese, she enjoys travelling to onsen (hot springs) and has a favourite konbini snack of her own: gyu meshi, a rice bowl topped with stewed beef. Becoming a store manager gave her confidence. It made me think that it doesnt matter if Im a foreigner, as long as I work hard," she says. Japan, slowly but surely, may be learning the same lesson. 2024, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under licence. The original content can be found on www.economist.com New Delhi: The Union health ministry plans to establish a national eye bank registry to facilitate cornea transplants and ensure timely treatment for those with vision impairments. At present, resource and logistical constraints prevent many patients from receiving harvested corneas despite availability, resulting in long waiting lists. The proposed registry will notify patients and doctors about cornea availability in advance. Now, only 50% of patients in need receive corneas, while the rest do not have access to treat their blindness, said a health ministry official. Most common cause of blindness In India, corneal conditions are the leading cause of blindness in individuals up to 49 years old, accounting for 37.5% of the cases, according to the recent Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness (RAAB) survey. Recently, we have conducted a meeting to streamline the process of cornea donation, allocation and distribution because there is no appropriate system as of now. Cornea is primarily stored in eye banks, and these are harvested in hospitals which have transplant facilities." "However, cornea lifting is not done in the way organs are transported. The way we maintain the allocation process of vital organs like the heart, similar kind of system we are trying to bring in for cornea transplant. So, the plan is to develop a national eye bank registry, the official said. Read | Indias drug regulator drafts norms to report adverse effects of vaccines We are able to meet 50% requirement of patients. However, waiting list is very long. The entire exercise is being done under the one-nation-one-organ donation policy; he added. A harvested cornea remains viable for up to four days. Cornea transplants involve replacing damaged corneal tissue with healthy donor tissue. Few eye bank facilities Currently, only a few hospitals, such as All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), have eye bank facilities. Without a national registry, patients in various states and cities face challenges in receiving transplants. Eye banks are responsible for collecting, processing, and distributing donor corneas only to trained corneal surgeons. In India, we have a huge waiting list of patients. Approximately 100 thousand corneal transplants are required in a year. However, we are able to perform only around 40,000 transplants nationally. These patients comprise of children, patients blind with both eyes and other complex cases," said Dr Radhika Tandon, professor of ophthalmology at AIIMS, Delhi. Also read | Private hospitals pull back on Ayushman Bharat amid low state funding At any point of time, we at AIIMS have 400-500 patients waiting for cornea transplant. But we try to make sure that the children and people who are blind get it on priority. Whenever cornea is harvested, it gets used up locally and we do not have a surplus, she added. Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra Modi took a dig at the Opposition INDIA bloc on Thursday, June 7, accusing them of trying to undermine the Election Commission of India. Regarding poll rigging allegations, Modi said the Opposition was attempting to weaken the Election Commission of India. He wondered if the EVMs were dead or alive now. Modi's remarks have prompted a sharp rebuttal from the Congress, with senior members insisting that they were collecting evidence to support their claims. When results were coming out on June 4, I was busy with work. Phone calls started coming in later. I asked someone, numbers are fine, tell me EVM zinda hai ki mar gaya (Is the EVM dead or alive), Modi said during a meeting with newly elected NDA MPs in Parliament. Several Opposition leaders have levelled allegations of EVM tampering during the multi-week Lok Sabha Elections and alleged irregularities in counting. Definitely, we will answer. We are in the process of collecting a lot of evidence. We will collect the evidence and return to you, said Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar. ALSO READ: Election Results 2024: INDIA bloc never worked for the nation, says Nitish Kumar at NDA meet ahead of Modi's 3rd term Modi claimed that the Opposition had been constantly blaming EVMs before June 4 and remained determined to make people lose faith in the democratic process of India. I thought they would take out the funeral procession of the EVM. But by the evening of June 4, unko taale lag gaye. EVM ne unko chup kar diya (EVM silenced them). This is the strength of India's democracy, its fairness. I hope I won't get to hear about EVM for 5 years. Perhaps they will again harp about EVM when we go into 2029. The country will never forgive them, he added. Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said that there was no fight against EVMs. The lawmaker has repeatedly raised questions about the Electronic Voting Machines in the tallying of votes and claimed that his struggle concerning EVMs would persist. Had there been any problem in EVMs, Uttar Pradesh would not have produced such results. We have no fight with the EVMs. We advocate for the assurance that our votes are cast securely in our hands. We lack trust in the software utilised in EVMs, Singh said. A big hoarding of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar hailing him with Tiger Zinda Hai (Tiger is alive) slogan have come up in state capital Patna as the Janata Dal United (JD-U) leader extended support for the Narendra Modi to lead the next National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Union government on June 7. Kumar's JD-U, which is an alliance partner in the NDA, won 12 seats in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections 2024, the results of which were announced on June 4. Bihar sends 40 members to Lok Sabha. The BJP won 12 seats while the Chirag Paswan-led LJP won 5 seats in the general elections. Overall, the NDA bagged 30 of the 40 seats in Bihar while the opposition INDIA bloc won 9 seats. Tiger Zinda Hai refers to the Salman Khan starrer 2017 movie which was a sequel to the record-breaking blockbuster Ek Tha Tiger. The hoarding with a picture of Kumar and two tigers has been put up near Tara Mandal in Patna, the state capital. There is a picture of Sonu Singh, perhaps a JD-U worker, on the hoarding too. Earlier in the day, senior BJP leaders, newly-elected MPs, and allies, including TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar on Friday extended support for Narendra Modi to lead the next National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Union government. Modi was elected as NDA's Parliamentary leader during the meeting in the Parliaments central hall. Narendra Modi is poised to take oath as Prime Minister on Sunday. Modi, along with Naidu and Nitish Kumar, is expected to meet President Droupadi Murmu later today to formally stake claim for government formation. New Delhi: The union health and family welfare ministry has advised states to create policies and identify strategies to prevent over-the-counter sales of drugs that require a prescription, according to the officials aware of the matter. The move is aimed at allying growing worries about the harmful effects of using pharmaceuticals improperly. Though it's already illegal to sell prescription medicines over the counter, a lack of checks means the practice remains rampant. "A meeting was held in May for health representatives of all the states. There was a detailed discussion on what steps could be adopted and new guidelines issued to end over-the-counter sale of prescription drugs," said one of the officials cited above. Kerala has already taken measures to do so. The state's drug control department conducts such inspections under Operation AMRITH. Citizens can also report pharmacies that sell prescription drugs without documents. "The purpose of the meeting with all states was that to exchange ideas on how these sales can be controlled. There is no data available on which states have the highest over-the-counter sales of prescription drugs, but the centre is taking the matter seriously. The Indian Medical Association was also consulted for the meeting. However, as of now, no new guidelines are being framed by the central government," another official said. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) recently formed a sub-committee to examine potential amendments of the Drugs Rules to declare certain drugs as fine for over-the-counter sale, based on a recommendation by the Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB). Over-prescription is a problem, too The rampant sale prescription drugs without a doctor's note isn't the only major problem India's drug industry and regulators are facing. Over-prescription of antibiotics is a serious issue, too. Earlier this year the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) published a report that said many common diseases in India were slowly becoming drug-resistant and that patients were taking longer to recover thanks to over-prescription of antibiotics. It said 3rd Gen Cephalosporines was most commonly prescribed antibiotic, followed by Imidazoles and Aminoglycosides. Dr Jugal Kishore, head of community medicine at Safdarjung Hospital, said many doctors prescribe antibiotics using guesswork rather than expertise, causing damage to public health. NEW DELHI : Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Cube Highways are in the final fray for the road assets of National Investment and Infrastructure Funds Athaang Infrastructure, two people aware of the matter said. The two entities are expected to submit their binding bids shortly. JP Morgan is running the transaction, which is expected to have an equity value of around 4,000 crore. Final bids are expected in two weeks. While CPPIB is among Canada's largest pension funds, Cube is one of Indias largest private toll road operators. The portfolio on sale includes five road assets totalling 230 km. The Economic Times had earlier reported that as many as 10 global and domestic infrastructure funds including CPPIB, KKR, Spains Abertis, France Vinci Highways, Edelweiss Sekura Roads and Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ) had signed non-disclosure agreements for the deal. Also Read: CPDQ may buy five road projects from Ashoka Consessions CPPIB and Cube Highways are the final two companies in fray for Athaangs road assets. The final bids are expected within two weeks," said one of the two people cited above, requesting anonymity. Spokespersons for CPPIB and JP Morgan declined comment, while spokespersons for NIIF and Cube Highways didnt respond to queries emailed on Wednesday afternoon. Investor interest The investor interest comes against the backdrop of rapid road construction in the country, with the government front-loading its 2.72 trillion capital expenditure in FY25. Mint earlier reported that in just the first month of the fiscal year, more than 20% of the capex allocated to the road ministry had been spent. In the previous fiscal year, this level of spending was achieved only by the end of May. NIIF is sponsored by the Indian government, which holds a 49% interest. It focuses on core infrastructure sectors such as transportation, airports, ports, logistics and roads, green energy and digital. The fund manages around $5 billion of equity capital commitments across its three fundsMaster Fund, Fund of Funds and Strategic Opportunities Fundwith investments in sectors such as ports and logistics, renewable energy, roads, digital infrastructure, and manufacturing. Meanwhile, NIIF is looking to sell a significant majority stake in Ayana Renewable Power Pvt Ltd, which has seen non-binding offers from state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC), Sembcorp Industries Ltd, Macquarie Group, and JSW Neo Energy, that may translate into up to 100% stake sale at an equity valuation of around $800 million. Singapore-based Cube Highways investors include I Squared Capital, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, International Finance Corp., and a consortium comprising Mitsubishi Corp., Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corp. for Transport and Urban Development, East Nippon Expressway Co. Ltd and Japan Expressway Co. International Ltd. Cube Highways was IFCs first investment in the Indian road sector, with an equity investment of $100 million to buy operational road projects. Canada's pension funds represent the so-called patient capital, which seeks modest yields over time. India fits their risk profile given that the markets here have matured from the early risk stage. Canadian funds, including Brookfield Asset Management, have been placing significant India bets. Major Canadian pension funds raising their investments in Indian infrastructure include CPPIB, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ), Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) and Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS). New Delhi: The government plans to make Indian Standards Institution (ISI) certification compulsory for all plywood makers from next year, two people familiar with the matter told Mint. Plywood that's advertised as boiling-water-proof will also require ISI certification to that effect, they added. The move is aimed at improving the quality and durability of plywood used in furniture and other goods, ensuring they last longer even in challenging environments, one of the people said. It's also expected to curb the import of low-quality plywood from Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Nepal. This is particularly important as India's trade deficit in plywood widened from $85.83 million in FY19 to $154.57 million in FY24. The new standards will require plywood manufacturers to undergo a mycological test for fungal resistance for all grades of plywood, one of the people said. Mixed reactions from plywood makers JK Bihani, president of Haryana Plywood Manufacturers Association, told Mint, The new standards will improve the quality of plywood, ensuring that consumers receive better products. The industry has enough time to comply with the norms, which will benefit manufacturers and compel those producing substandard products to rectify their practices." However, Naresh Tiwari, chairman of the All India Plywood Manufacturers Association, said the move will cause plywood prices to jump 15% next year. He also expressed concern about the import of substandard plywood products, and urged all plywood makers to adhere to Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) norms. Certification for BWP plywood One of the most important quality standards that has been made mandatory from next year is ISI certification for boiling-water-proof (BWP) plywood, said one of the people cited above. The BWP process ensures stronger and more durable plywood by testing how many times it can be exposed to boiling water before delaminating. This high-end plywood is designed for specific applications, catering to a limited number of consumers," said Manraj Singh, proprietor of Woodbay India, Yamuna Nagar in Haryana. He added, BWP plywood is generally used to make kitchen cabinets, bathroom furniture, outdoor furniture, partitions and paneling, and exterior doors and windows, among other things, such as boats. BWP plywood costs significantly more than regular plywood. Regular plywood with a thickness of 18mm is available for 45 to 52 a square foot, while the BWP version ranges from 90 to 100 a square foot. Queries emailed to spokespersons of consumer affairs ministry and BIS remained unanswered. Imports peak as exports fall Kerala, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat are among the key plywood manufacturing hubs in India. Over the past few years, the industry has seen significant shifts in global trade. While plywood exports increased steadily from $32.28 million in FY19 to $75.26 million in FY23, they dropped to $57 million in FY24, suggesting a potential change in market conditions. In contrast, plywood imports were more volatile, hitting a peak of $132.43 million in FY23 after declining from $118.11 million in FY19, commerce ministry data showed. This fluctuation, coupled with the steady rise in exports, cause the plywood trade deficit to shoot up. Zerodha founder-CEO Nithin Kamath, on June 7, praised the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for making the Indian markets safer and more investor-friendly. In a post on the social media site X (formerly known as Twitter), Kamath referred to the market regulator's circular on June 5, which mandates that clients' securities payouts be made directly into their demat account upon purchase. The move, aimed at enhancing efficiency and reducing risk to clients' securities, will be effective from October 14, as per a PTI report. "Since 2019, SEBI has brought in several changes that have made our markets safer and more investor-friendly. It started with the segregation of client funds, compulsory quarterly bank runs on brokers (quarterly settlement), removing pooling of funds for MF transactions, and more," Kamath wrote. Expect the 'Gradual Reduction in Brokers' Role', says Kamath "Today, when investors buy securities, they're credited by the clearing corporation to the stock broker's pool account, who in turn transfers them to the clients. With the introduction of new regulation, CCs will directly transfer securities to the client's account, bypassing the broker's pool. This also eases operations at a broker's end," Kamath noted. He added that he expects more moves from the SEBI to further ease investor-side interactions with the markets. "Another move which will most likely be introduced is around increasing the limit for a Basic Services Demat account (BSDA) from the current 4 lakh to 10 lakh. So, investors will pay 0 or reduced AMC on their demat accounts with holdings up to 10 lakh. The reduction in the AMC is, in a way, a result of the gradual reduction in a broker's role. In the not-so-distant future, I wouldn't be surprised if all that the brokers will be doing is just processing orders," he added. What Does the SEBI Circular Mandate? SEBI recently made direct payout of securities to the client's account mandatory, as opposed to the brokers' pool account. In a statement, the markets regulator said the decision came after "extensive deliberations with the stock exchanges, clearing corporations (CCs) and depositories." CCs have also been directed to provide trading or clearing members a mechanism to identify unpaid securities and funded stocks under the margin trading facility. It added that shortages will be handled through auction, and brokers should not levy charges on the client over and above the charges levied by the clearing corporations. In May 2023, SEBI specified various processes for handling clients' securities regarding the pay-in and pay-out of securities. This was to protect clients' securities and ensure that the stock broker segregates the securities of the client or clients so that they are not vulnerable to misuse. On 8 June 1924, two Englishmen, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, left Camp VI (26,800ft), the highest camp of the British 1924 Everest expedition, to make an attempt for the summit of Mount Everest via the mountains north face and north-east ridge route. On the same morning, another British climber, Noel Odell, was making his way up from Camp IV to Camp VI. Odell, a geologist, was collecting fossils from the slopes of Mount Everest. In Edward Nortons The Fight for Everest: 1924, Odell recalled that rolling banks of mist" were sweeping across the mountain and covering the north face, though the wind did not attain its usual boisterous degree". Neither the face nor the summit ridge could be seen clearly by Odell. At 26,000ft Odell decided to climb a 100ft crag and as he reached the top at 12.50pm, the whole summit ridge and the peak of Everest was unveiled. Odell spotted high above on the ridge, a black spot climbing a rock step, which he at that point identified as the Second Step, one of three rock steps" leading up to the summit of Everest. Soon after, Odell saw another black spot following the first. But before Odell could be sure that the second spot had joined the first, the mist rolled in and blanketed the mountain. The two spots that Odell saw were George Mallory and Andrew Irvine heading for the summit of Everest. Mallory and Irvine were never seen alive again. Mallorys body was found on 1 May 1999 by American mountaineer Conrad Anker at around 26,730ft, close to the 1924 British Camp VI. But even today, 100 years after the disappearance of Mallory and Irvine, the legend of Mallory lives on. Books are being written about Mallory, efforts have been underway for many years now to find Irvines body and a camera that he was carrying, because Everest experts believe that the camera will unlock the secret of Mallorys last climb and one of the greatest mysteries of mountaineering. Did Mallory and Irvine summit Everest on 8 June 1924, a full 29 years before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgays first successful ascent? View Full Image The 1924 British expedition. From top left, Andrew Irvine, George Mallory, Edward Norton, Noel Odell and John Macdonald. Seated, from left, Edward Shebbeare, Geoffrey Bruce, Howard Somervell and Bentley Beetham. (Royal Geographical Society/Getty Images) Because its there From the very beginning of climbing in the Himalaya, the British looked upon Mount Everest as their mountain. They had given it a name and established its height. The British obsession with climbing Everest was essentially a redemption for a country which had lost the race for the Poles and to prove the supremacy of the British as a nation of climbers and explorers. World War I had ended in 1918 and many of the climbers who were part of the early Everest expeditions had fought in the war. Death and suffering were no strangers to them. In the 1920s, mountaineering was a gentlemans sport and the exclusive privilege of the British upper crust. Officers from the army and alumni from prestigious universities like Oxford and Cambridge were welcome to join this elite club. Mallory epitomised the gentleman climber with his dashing good looks, Cambridge education and army background pursuing a noble goal to bring glory to his country by summiting Everest. George Mallory, born on 18 June 1886, studied at Winchester School and Magdalene College in Cambridge. He later became a school teacher at Charterhouse in the county of Surrey, England, teaching English and history. He honed his climbing skills in the Lake District and the Swiss Alps. On 29 July 1914, six days before the start of World War I, Mallory married Ruth Turner in the town of Godalming in Surrey. In January 1916, Mallory enlisted and started artillery training. In May 1916, he crossed into France and fought the battle of Somme. From 1916-18 he continued to fight in France, returning to England on short visits to see his wife and children. After the war ended, Mallory returned to England in January 1919 and rejoined his teaching position at Charterhouse. In 1921 he resigned from Charterhouse to join the British Reconnaissance Expedition to Mount Everest. In the early 1920s, Nepal was closed to all foreigners and hence approaching Everest from Nepal was not possible. Tibet offered the only approach to the mountain. The 1921 reconnaissance effort was made possible by the efforts of Charles Bell, the de-facto British India ambassador to Tibet, who convinced the 13th Dalai Lama to allow the expedition to enter Tibet and make the first survey of the country around Mount Everest. The first goal of the expedition was to find the mountain", as Mallory put it. The team left Darjeeling on a wet May morning and travelled through the leech-infested and rain-drenched forests of Sikkim and across the Jelep La to the cool and dry confines of the Chumbi valley in Tibet. The expedition then moved north towards Phari and was greeted with azure blue skies and a tremendous view of the peak of Chomolhari across the Tibetan plateau, before swinging west to the fortress of Kampa Dzong, and then south to Rongbuk, a settlement/village at the foot of the north face of Everest. Also Read How Mount Everest was mapped in 1921 View Full Image The Northeast Ridge of Everest, photographed during the 1921 Reconnaissance Expedition. (Wikimedia Commons) Mallory had his first view of Everest from above Kampa Dzong and promptly fell under the spell of the mountain. He described it as a prodigious white fang excrescent from the jaw of the world". In a letter to his wife Ruth Mallory, he wrote .. this is a thrilling business altogether I cant tell you how it possesses me and what a prospect it is." Now that the mountain had been found, Mallory and fellow expedition climber Guy Bullock struggled for several weeks to find a way to climb up to the North Col 23,000ft, a precipitous ledge in the ridge connecting Everest to the neighbouring peak of Changtse, without success. Finally Oliver Wheeler, the map maker of the expedition, sent a sketch to Howard Bury, the expedition leader, showing the approach to the North Col from the East Rongbuk Glacier. Following Wheelers map, Mallory, Bullock and Wheeler reached the North Col on 24 September 1921. This was the high point of the expedition, which also mapped 12,000 square miles of territory in Tibet, forming the base of all future maps of the region. Fresh from this success, the next year, the British decided to send an expedition to climb Everest, with Mallory back in the team. The 1922 expedition was a landmark, not just for Everest expeditions, but for starting many other debates that continue to dominate Himalayan climbing. One of these was that of climbing Everest by fair means", without using supplemental oxygen. Members of the expedition had differing views, with Mallory against using oxygen, while George Finch, an Australian climber and chemist, who had worked on the equipment, a firm believer in the efficacy of bottled oxygen. The 1922 expedition made three summit attempts. The first, led by Mallory and three other climbers, without using supplemental oxygen, reached an altitude of nearly 27,000ft. The second attempt was by climbers George Finch and Geoffrey Bruce usingoxygen, reached an altitude of around 27,300ft, the highest point that anyone had reached, till then. With the Indian monsoon approaching, and the window for settled weather closing fast, Mallory launched a third and final attempt despite bad conditions and fresh snowfall. Accompanied by three expedition climbers and 13 Sherpas, Mallory started out for the North Col on 7 June from Camp III. At 1.30pm, about 600ft below the Col, there was an ominous sound like an explosion of untamped gunpowder". In an instant, the entire slope gave way. A huge avalanche thundered down and seven Sherpas diedthe first of many tragedies on Everest. Only Sherpas and Bhotias killedwhy, oh why could not one of us Britishers have shared their fate?" Somervell remarked later. This tragedy ended the 1922 expedition, and shook Mallory to the core. In a letter to Ruth, Mallory wrote, The consequences of my mistake are so terrible; it seems almost impossible to believe that it has happened forever and that I can do nothing to make good." After two years of smooth sailing on Everest, Mallorys peak fever" had prompted him to make an error of judgement and the expedition paid heavily for it. Also Read How Everest's commercialisation is threatening lives and livelihoods View Full Image Members of the 1924 expedition with local Tibetan officials. (Wikimedia Commons) Walking off the mountain In 1923, the British started preparations for the third Everest expedition while Mallory, now a celebrity, spent a significant amount of time that year on lecture tours in the US and England. These long absences from his wife were putting a severe strain on their marriage. If Mallory returned to Everest in 1924, then it would be their sixth parting, including the war years, in eight years. Ruth was extremely uneasy about Mallory going to Everest again, and Mallory himself was unhappy and full of premonitions. He was torn between his love for Ruth and his children on one hand and an obsession with Everest that, he feared, would lead to his doom. He knew that 1924 would be his last chance at climbing Everest. He hoped that by reaching the summit, he could finally reconcile his love for Ruth and his obsession with the mountain. Mallory knew that 1924 would be his last chance at climbing Everest. He hoped that by reaching the summit, he could finally reconcile his love for Ruth and his obsession with the mountain. However, as anthropologist and Mallory biographer Wade Davis observed in his 2011 book Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest, The mountain had become him, and he the mountain, not only in the minds of the British public but within his own." Mallory gave a hint to his obsession with the peak when he famously quipped, when asked before the expedition why he wanted to summit Everest, Because its there." On 29 February 1924, the SS California sailed from Liverpool, carrying the expedition to India. Ruth saw Mallory off at the pier, waving to him until the steamer was out of sight. The 1924 team was led by General Charles Bruce (he had led the previous expedition too) and had a number of climbers from the earlier expeditions, including Howard Somervell, John Noel, Edward Norton and Geoffrey Bruce. The newcomers were Noel Odell, Andrew Irvine, Bentley Beetham, Edward Shebbeare and John Hazard. Major Hingston was the expedition doctor. On 13 April, while on the Tibetan plateau, Charles Bruce fell ill with malaria and returned to Darjeeling. Norton assumed leadership of the expedition and Mallory was promoted to climbing leader. Mallory immediately sat down to make the climbing plan and the teams for the summit bid. It was decided that Norton and Somervell would make the first attempt without supplemental oxygen, followed by Mallory and Irvine using oxygen. Mallory chose the inexperienced Irvine as his partner primarily due to the latters skill with the oxygen equipment. Mallory wrote to Ruth on 24 April from Shegar Dzong, .. the whole plan is mine... and my part will give me, perhaps, the best chance of getting to the top. It is almost unthinkable with this plan that I shant get to the top; I cant see myself coming down defeated." The team took five weeks to reach the Rongbuk Glacier from Darjeeling and arrived at Base Camp on 29 April. However the inclement weather with snow storms and blizzards, far worse than in 1922, made climbing and setting up camps very difficult. The target for the expedition to reach the summit was 17 May, but by the 11th, the team had not even reached the North Col. On 19 May, with the expedition running two weeks behind schedule, Mallory, Somervell and Norton headed up from Camp III for the Col and by 2.30pm had reached an ice shelf below the summit, where they dumped their supplies and headed down. On the way Mallory fell 10ft into a crevasse, and was saved by his ice axe getting wedged. None of his climbing partners were in sight and luckily he managed to get himself out. Bad weather struck again, with gale force winds and blizzards, and four porters marooned on the North Col had to be rescued by Mallory, Norton and Somervell. On 27 May, Mallory wrote his final letter to Ruth. Darling I wish you the best I canthat your anxiety will be at an end before you get thiswith the best news It is 50 to 1 against but well have a whack yet and do ourselves proud." View Full Image A page of the final letter written by George Mallory to his wife Ruth. (AP) On 4 June, Norton and Somervell set off for the final push to the summit, from the summit camp, Camp VI, at 26,800ft. Without using supplemental oxygen, their progress was slow, and at about 28,000ft, Somervell, who was suffering from a hacking cough, sat down on a rock and asked Norton to proceed alone. Norton managed another hour of climbing. High up in Everests Death Zone", Norton was suffering from hypoxia, and was nearly snow blind after he had removed his googles to see better. He decided to retreat from 28,126ft, the highest that anyone had climbed without supplemental oxygen. It would remain an altitude record till 1978. It was now Mallory and Irvines turn. On 6 June, at the North Col, Odell took a photograph of Mallory and Irvine setting out for the summit. The party moved off in silence as we bid them adieu," Odell would later write. It was a sombre moment. They reached Camp V in good time and Mallory sent down a note to Noel asking him to look for them either crossing the rock band or going up the skyline at 8pm (he had meant 8am). To Odell, he wrote ...well probably go on two cylindersbut its a bloody load for climbing. Perfect weather for the job!" It is not known at what time the two climbers left Camp VI on the 8 June, but sunrise on Everest was at 4.45am so it would probably be after that, maybe between 5am and 7am. At 2pm a fierce storm hit the upper reaches of the mountain and it started to snow heavily as Odell reached Camp VI. Despite the snow, Odell climbed another 200ft in the hope of spotting Mallory and Irvine again, but clouds covered the mountain. In accordance with Mallorys instructions, Odell left Camp VI at 4.30pm and headed down to the Col. The entire north face and the upper section of the north ridge was now bathed in sunshine, but there was no sign of the two climbers. On 9 June, with no further news, Odell set off again at midday with two porters to search for the missing climbers. He found that Camp V had not been slept in. The next morning, despite the inclement weather, he pushed on to Camp VI and found that the tent poles had collapsed in the wind but things were otherwise just as he had left them. Fearing the worst, Odell then pushed on further for a few hours, a lone climber on the huge north face searching for his friends. Odell said, the mighty summit seemed to look down in cold indifference on me and howl derision in wind gusts at my petition to yield up its secretthe mystery of my friends." As the weather was worsening, Odell decided to retreat. Mallory and Irvine were gone. The price of obsession On 19 June, Ruth Mallory received a telegram from Arthur Hinks, the secretary of the Mount Everest Committee who managed all the British Everest expeditions from 1921-53. She had hoped that it would announce the success of the expedition. Instead she read, your husband and Irvine killed last climb heartfelt sympathy..." Mallorys daughter Clare recounts how Ruth gave this news to the three children. She lay between us and told us this bad news," Clare said, We all cried together." Amidst the tragedy, members of the expedition and other contemporaries, were still fixed on ascertaining if Mallory had summited. Many of them, including Odell, believed that Mallory had reached the summit. Geoffrey Winthrop Young, one of Mallorys mentors, said, Difficult as it would have been for any mountaineer to turn back with the only difficulty pastto Mallory it would have been an impossibility my own opinion is that the accident occurred on the way down and if that is so, the peak was first climbed because Mallory was Mallory." In referring to the only difficulty", Young meant the Second Step, thought to be the final mountaineering challenge on the north face, before a gradual walk up to the summit. View Full Image The North Face of Everest, seen from the Tibetan Plateau. (Getty Images) When the British returned to Everest in 1933, climber Percy Wynn Harris found an ice axe at an altitude of 27,760ft, near the First Step. From the notches on the axe it was identified as Irvines and it was located possibly at the scene of an accident where Mallory had fallen. The ice axe was retrieved and brought back to London. In 1936, another British climber, Frank Smythe, wrote in a letter to Edward Norton that he had seen a body on the mountain. I was scanning the face from base camp through a high-powered telescope last year," his letter read, when I saw something queer in a gully below the scree shelf. Of course it was a long way away and very small this object was at precisely the point where Mallory and Irvine would have fallen had they rolled on over the scree slopes." The body which Smythe saw was in all likelihood that of Mallory. In 1960, seven years after Norgay and Hillarys Everest summit from the Nepalese Southeast Ridge, a Chinese team made the first ascent of Everest from the Tibet side. Many years later, in 2001, the deputy leader of the Chinese expedition, Xu Jing, said that as he was descending through the Yellow Band (a distinctive layer of rocks high up on Everests north face), he saw a body in a crevasse at around 27,200ft, close to where Irvine s ice axe had been found. If true, the body was probably Irvines. Reports of Mallory and Irvines remains kept coming through the following decades. In 1975, a Chinese climber named Wang Hong-bao stumbled across an English dead" at 26,570ft. Wang reported the find to his climbing partner shortly before being swept away by an avalanche himself. Finally, on 1 May 1999, climber Conrad Anker, a member of the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition, found Mallorys body face down on some rocks at an altitude of around 26,700ft, not far from the 1924 Camp VI. The climbers back was like white alabaster with his body embedded in the rocks of Everest, his hands stretched out as if trying to arrest a fall. George Mallory had become one with his greatest obsession. It was concluded that Mallory had fallen after dusk (as his snow goggles were in his pocket), while descending. Of Irvine and the camera there was no sign. Significantly, the photograph of Ruth that Mallory had planned to leave on the summit was not found on him, leading to more speculation that Mallory had indeed summited and had left the photo on top. From 2001-18, there were several attempts to search the mountain and find Irvine but they drew a blank. Finally in 2019, National Geographic sent a final expedition to search for Irvines remains. The possible location of Irvine had been extensively studied through satellite imaging of the north face. There was nothing there," reported expedition climber Mark Synott when he reached the spot. A bonfire of vanities At the time of writing, this May, there are more than 400 paying climbers, and possibly an equal number of supporting Sherpas at the Everest Base Camp in Nepals Khumbu Glacier, preparing for their summit attempt. Many of these clients have paid $60,000 (around 50 lakh) or more for a chance to stand on the summit. The route-laying Sherpas of the treacherous Khumbu Icefalldubbed the Icefall Doctorshave opened the route for the year, and are maintaining it for the client climbers. The elite team of Sherpas are fixing guiding ropes all the way from the Base Camp to the summit, which mountain guide Scott Fischer, who lost his life in the infamous 1996 Everest disaster, called the yellow brick road". This May, there were more than 400 paying climbers, and possibly an equal number of supporting Sherpas at the Everest Base Camp in Nepals Khumbu Glacier, preparing for their summit attempt. Many of these clients paid $60,000 or more for a chance to stand on the summit. At Base Camp, large dome tents have been converted into luxury lounges with plush sofas and cappuccino machines. High-speed Wi-Fi, satellite phones and film screenings in the evenings keep the climbers engaged as they wait for their turn on the mountain. One hundred years ago, Everest climbers survived on tins of bully beef and Kendal mint cake, writing letters home in candlelight. The obsession remains the same, its just that the hubris has heightened. In the past 100 years, as Everest has become unimaginably commercialised, there has been a sea change in the ethics and ethos of mountaineering on the mountain. These days, commercial clients use helicopters to return to Kathmandu or Namche Bazaar for a few days rest in between their acclimatisation climbs. This year on Annapurna I, client climbers took helicopters from Camp III on their way after summiting the peak, all the way to Kathmandu. View Full Image A human traffic jam on Everest in 1921. (AFP) The problem of human traffic jams on the final summit ridge of Everest has made news for the last few years. Climbers stand in line for hours using up precious oxygen waiting to get to the summit. Reports of oxygen bottles, cached on the higher slopes of Everest, being stolen by competing companies further adds to this sordid tale of cut-throat obsession with standing on the highest point on Earth. Climbing Everest is no more about mountaineering in the true sense, it is a multimillion-dollar business. One hundred years after an epochal moment in the history of mountaineering, we are still unable to answer the question which was put to Odell in 1924, in the wake of Mallory and Irvines disappearance. Odell said, Has Mount Everest been climbed? It must be left unanswered for there is no direct evidence. But bearing in mind all the circumstances and considering their position when last seen, I think there is a strong probability that Mallory and Irvine succeeded. At that I must leave it." Looking back, one cannot but marvel at the exploits of these Everest climbers of the 1920s in their hob-nailed boots, Shetland pullovers, Donegal tweed jackets and rudimentary oxygen systems climbing above 27,000ft in inhospitable terrain and gale force winds. Their indomitable spirit, quest for exploration and their climb into the unknown, when you could walk off the map, remains a stark contrast with what is being called mountaineering today. A century later, despite these sweeping changes, Mallorys words still ring true. Have we vanquished an enemy? None but ourselves." Sujoy Das is a Kolkata-based trekker, photographer and co-author ofEverest: Reflections on the Solukhumbu. Also Read Climbing up a volcano in Africa Veteran actor Alan Scarfe has passed away. He was 77. As per The Hollywood Reporter, Scarfe died on April 28 of colon cancer at his home in Longueuil, Quebec. He is survived by his son, actor Jonathan Scarfe. Scarf gained fame with his role as bad guys in Double Impact and Lethal Weapon III and as Dr. Bradley Talmadge in the UPN sci-fi series Seven Days. Born in England and raised in Vancouver, Scarfe portrayed the Romulans Tokath and Admiral Mendak on episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1991 and 1993 and was another alien, the powerful Magistrate Augris, on a 1995 installment of Star Trek: Voyager. Scarfe died on April 28 of colon cancer at his home in Longueuil, Quebec, his family announced. Also read: Leonard Nimoy, Spock in Star Trek movies, series, dies at 83 Survivors include his son, actor Jonathan Scarfe (ER, Raising the Bar, Hell on Wheels, Van Helsing). Born in England and raised in Vancouver, Scarfe portrayed the Romulans Tokath and Admiral Mendak on episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1991 and 1993 and was another alien, the powerful Magistrate Augris, on a 1995 installment of Star Trek: Voyager. Also read: Dead body of man in his 80s frozen to revive in future; 94 lakh spent for 'Star Trek in play' Scarfe battled twins Alex and Chad Wagner (both portrayd by Jean-Claude Van Damme) as the wicked Nigel Griffith in the action film Double Impact (1991), then played the underhanded Internal Affairs chief Herman Walters in Lethal Weapon III (1992). Also read: Kangana Ranaut slap incident: Actor Devoleena Bhattacharjee, sister Rangoli react, 'Isn't just about one individual, but He appeared as National Security Agency member Talmadge, director of the Backstep Project operations, on all 66 episodes of Seven Days, which ran for three seasons, from 1998-2001. New Delhi: The Gujarat Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling has clarified that flour mixes containing additives attract an 18% Goods and Services Tax (GST) as they fall under a class of food preparations for which a lower tax rate is not specified in the law. The ruling came in response to an application filed by a Gandhinagar-based company selling flour mixes for dishes like idli, dhokla, and dahi vada. The company argued that these flour mixes should be classified under a category liable to a 5% tax rate. The authority, in an order on 29 May, said flour mixtures with spices and other ingredients in proportions not specified in the law cannot claim the lower tax rate. This decision upheld an advance ruling given earlier by the Gujarat Advance Ruling Authority. Also Read: GST authorities drop plans to enforce stricter e-way bill norms The Authority cited a 2018 revenue department order stating that mixtures of flour of ground pulses and cereals, including those improved by adding very small amounts of additives, are taxed at zero or 5%. If unbranded, these mixtures do not attract GST, and if branded and packed, they attract 5% tax. However, mixtures with additives in proportions not mentioned in this category cannot benefit from the lower rate. The appellate authority, relying on the revenue departments order, stated that only flour with very small quantities of specified substances qualifies for the lower tax rate. In this case, the additives ranged from 5-27%. Advance rulings allow companies to seek clarity on tax matters from the authorities, which helps prevent litigation and ensures certainty about their obligations. Raveena Tandon, who was embroiled in hit-and-run case near her Carter Road residence in Bandra recently, has come out with a moral of the story vis-a-vis the purported hit-and-run case involving her driver--- install CCTVs and dashcams without fail. The actress came out with an Instagram story in which she stated, Thank you for the overwhelming love, belief, and support! Moral of the story? Get dashcams and CCTVs now! The actress was hinting that she could prove her innocence only because the CCTV footage clearly provided the evidence. Expressing gratitude to her followers, Raveena acknowledged their love, support, and faith in her, via the post. Also read: Actress Raveena Tandon gets clean chit in Bandra Road rage incident A complaint was filed against the actor for purportedly abusing and assaulting three individuals on June 1 after the alleged rash driving incident occurred near Rizvi College on Carter Road. Also read: 'Please dont hit me': Actress Raveena Tandon, driver attacked by mob in Mumbai's Bandra amid rash driving allegations A CCTV camera installed outside Raveena Tandons residence had captured the incident on June 1. The footage showed the actress and her driver surrounded by a furious mob. A video of the incident, that also surfaced on social media, showed the actress shielding her driver from the crowd. In the video, she can be heard pleading Please don't hit, reported ANI . The complainant, who was among the mob, charged that Raveena's car had hit her mother while having a stroll along with her sister and niece near the residence of the actor. The footage confirmed that Raveena's car did not harm anyone. The Mumbai police confirmed it was not a case of rash driving. Also read: Mumbai Police issues statement on 'attack' on Raveena Tandon, says both parties denied. The complainant also reportedly charged that the driver assaulted his niece and mother when they reached her residence to complain about rash driving. But the Mumbai police said her driver was trying to reverse the car to park it and in the melee, those who gathered there, including three people of the family, could have felt the car would have hit them. The complainant also reportedly accused Raveena Tandon of causing head injuries to his mother while trying to defend her driver in an allegedly inebriated state. Furthermore, he alleged that after waiting for four hours at the Khar Police Station, the police declined to file a First Information Report (FIR). (Bloomberg) -- Retail rents in Hong Kong districts near the border with Shenzhen are likely to miss out on a revival elsewhere in the city as residents flock to the mainland to do their shopping. Real estate brokers say a softening in rents in the northern part of the New Territories contrasts with core locations such as Central and Tsim Sha Tsui, which are expected to stay resilient or recover this year as spending by tourists slowly picks up. When we negotiate with the landlord, we know its going in two directions, said Lawrence Wan, senior director of retail advisory and transaction services at CBRE Group Inc. Wan expects a reduction of rent levels in border areas, and a zero to 5% increase in places such as Central and Causeway Bay, creating a gradual divergence, he said. Hong Kongs retail landscape has been hit by a surge in cross-border travel, with residents going to Guangdong province for cheaper goods, better services and a wider selection of offerings. The yuan is also weakening against Hong Kongs currency, which is pegged to the US dollar. Its become a new normal, said Kevin Lam, executive director and head of retail services at Cushman & Wakefield Plc in Hong Kong. He sees rents in border areas under pressure and those in core locations slightly rising. This is one of the headaches for most of the landlords who own a portfolio near the border. Hong Kong residents living in the New Territories can easily get to Shenzhen in less than an hour by using the newly extended East Rail Line that connects the two regions via the Lo Wu crossing. They have recently been restricting purchases at home to basic necessities on weekdays before splurging in mainland China during the weekend, said Lam, citing discussions with landlords and other stakeholders. On top of that, people are visiting Shenzhen for increasingly varied purposes. While most travelers last year were focused on shopping, they are now going for services such as health checkups and car maintenance, said Lam. During the four-day Easter holiday in April, Hong Kong residents made nearly 1.76 million trips to mainland China and Macau. They are going so frequently that Shenzhen authorities said last month that they will consider building a new joint checkpoint to speed up the immigration process. Some landlords are hoping more mainlanders can visit Hong Kong. Link REIT, a trust that has more than 30 shopping developments in the New Territories, called for Hong Kong to resume multi-entry visas from Shenzhen, its chief executive said in an interview last week. While the firms portfolio still has a high occupancy rate of 98%, it was recently downgraded by UBS Group AG partly on cross-border consumption. Newer shopping centers have been hit harder. They are finding it difficult to get tenants, which delays openings, according to executives from Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. Rents in the New Territories are expected to be more flat compared with a 5% to 10% gain for high street shops in core locations this year, JLL forecasts. Despite the increasing flow of shoppers heading north, some brokers say the trend is cyclical. Hong Kong residents will still be keen to go to mainland China in the next three to six months, said Oliver Tong, head of retail at JLL. But in the medium term, he said, rising retail sales in Shenzhen will prompt landlords to increase rents, which will translate into higher prices. Shoppers may then decide to resume spending locally, aiding retail rents, he added. In the short term, yes, people may still have the hype, said Tong. But in a few more months, people will feel the fatigue. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com The newly elected MPs of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance are set to elect Narendra Modi as their leader on Friday, clearing the path for him to be sworn in prime minister for a third term. The swearing-in ceremony is expected to take place on Sunday. Here are top updates on NDA's key meet today, 1) After Modi is elected the leader of the NDA MPs, senior alliance members including TDP's N Chandrababu Naidu and JD(U)'s Nitish Kumar will accompany the caretaker prime minister to meet President Droupadi Murmu and present her with the list of parliamentarians supporting the alliance. 2) Shrawan Kumar, JD(U) leader and Bihar Rural Development Minister, told PTI, The matter of cabinet berths will be decided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and our party chief Nitish Kumar ji. But, it should be respectable. 3) Senior BJP leaders, including Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, engaged in discussions throughout Thursday as the party initiated efforts to form the government. This development comes amid demands from a senior Janata Dal (United) leader Shrawan Kumar for a respectable representation to his party in the Union Council of Ministers. 4) A JD)U) leader demanded three ministerial berths for his party. The NDA has 293 MPs, comfortably above the majority mark of 272 in the 543-member Lok Sabha. 5) Chirag Paswan, leader of BJP ally LJP(R) and a potential candidate for a cabinet position, emphasized that his party's support for Modi is unconditional, citing that the NDA secured a majority under Modi's leadership, PTI reported. 6) According to Shiv Sena sources, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde prefers senior MPs to be considered for ministerial roles, instead of his son and three-term MP Shrikant Shinde. 7) All NDA constituents are likely to present letters of their support to the President for Modi as the new prime minister on Friday, sources told PTI. 8) As he prepares to be sworn in for a third consecutive term as the head of a coalition government, Modi chaired a meeting on Wednesday with members of the ruling alliance, who unanimously elected him as their leader. JD(U) leaders also held discussions with the party president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. 9) JD (U) aims to secure key ministerial positions to regain its influence in Bihar, where it recorded a strong performance in the just concluded Lok Sabha polls after lagging behind the BJP and RJD in political strength over the past few years. 10) With 12 MPs, the JD(U) is the second-largest ally of the BJP, after the Telugu Desam Party, which has 16 parliamentarians. The survival of the new BJP-led government will heavily rely on the support of these two parties. Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams, who safely docked the Boeing's Starliner with the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, danced a little as she arrived at the space station on Thursday. The 59-year-old astronaut was joined by fellow NASA astronaut Barry Butch Wilmore at the space station. She has achieved the milestone of being the first woman to pilot and assess a new crewed spacecraft during its inaugural mission. Williams and Wilmore were welcomed by the ringing of the bell, an old ISS tradition. NDTV has shared the video of Williams' dance. That's the way to get things going. Thank you for such a great welcome, said Sunita Williams, calling her crew members another family". The test flight had faced multiple delays earlier. Approximately 26 hours after their launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, they successfully docked the Boeing- Starliner spacecraft to the ISS. Williams and Wilmore are the first crew to fly the Starliner. At 58, Sunita Williams has achieved a historic milestone by becoming the first female astronaut to embark on the inaugural flight of a crewed spacecraft. This marks her third voyage into space. The success of the Starliner mission will determine whether the spacecraft receives certification for NASA's six-month astronaut missions to and from the ISS. Elon Musk's SpaceX already provides this service. Upon reaching the space station safely, Wilmore and Williams became part of the Expedition 71 crew. This team consists of NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Matt Dominick, Tracy C Dyson, Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin, and Oleg Kononenko. Suni and Butch are scheduled to stay aboard the ISS for approximately one week before departing and re-entering Earth's atmosphere. According to NASA, the spacecraft is expected to land in the southwestern United States on June 10, assisted by parachutes and airbags. After the successful liftoff on Wednesday night, NASA chief Bill Nelson described the event as a special moment" during a post-launch press conference. It's another one of those great markers in history," he said. In 2014, NASA's Commercial Crew programme awarded funding to both Boeing and SpaceX. The aim was to transport astronauts to the ISS following the retirement of NASA's Space Shuttle Program in 2011. Sher Singh Mahival, the brother of Kulwinder Kaur, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) woman constable who slapped actress-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut, has reacted to the incident. Mahival, who is also a farmer leader, has said that they will fully support his sister in this matter. According to Hindustan Times, Mahival said that he learned about the incident through the media. "I now understand that this incident occurred during the checking of Kangana's mobile and purse. Kangana had said during the farmers' protest that women were there for 100, Kaur's brother said. After the argument, my sister must have become emotionally angry, which led to this incident," said Sher Singh Mahival. A video of Sher Singh Mahival's comment on the incident has surfaced on social media. "Both soldiers and farmers are important and fulfill their duties in every way. We fully support her in this matter, Mahival was heard saying in a video. What actually happened? To attend the NDA leaders meeting in Delhi on June 7, Kangana, the newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Mandi had reached the airport to catch a flight. During the security check, she was allegedly slapped by the CISF constable Kulwinder Kaur. FIR Filed The police filed an FIR against the constable. She has also been suspended from her job. CISF has also launched a probe into the matter. What Kangana said? The actress claimed that the constable hit her in the face and also abused her. "Shocking rise in terror and violence in Punjab," said Kangana in a post on X along with a video message. What angered Kulwinder Kaur? Kulwinder Kaur, who belongs to a farmer's family, said that her mother was also among the protesting farmers. Kangana made a statement that farmers were protesting in Delhi because they were paid 100 or 200. Kaur joined the CISF in 2009. Kaur's husband is also posted at Chandigarh airport. The Karnataka High Court granted anticipatory bail to suspended Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna's mother, Bhavani Revanna, in a case filed against her on Thursday, reported Bar and Bench. However, the court has asked Bhavani to ensure cooperation with the probe and not enter Hassan district or KR Nagar in Mysore. On June 1, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) had issued a notice to Bhavani asking her to be present at her home as there was a need to question her in the kidnap case linked to allegations of sexual abuse against her son. When a team of SIT sleuths reached Bhavanis house on the same day, Chennambika Nilaya, she was not present. The SIT also carried out searches at various locations including Mysuru, Hassan, Bengaluru, Mandya and Ramanagara. The searches were also done at Bhavani's relatives' houses to track her, but she was not found earlier this month. The JD(S) first family, especially former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda's son H D Revanna, his wife Bhavani and son Prajwal, is in soup after scores of explicit videos came out on April 21 and Prajwal, who lost the Lok Sabha elections from the Hassan constituency as an NDA candidate, fled to Germany. Prajwal was arrested over allegations of sexually abusing several women. Bhavani's husband, Holenarasipura JD(S) MLA H D Revanna, is also on bail in the same case. The Karnataka government formed the SIT to probe the cases against Prajwal on the recommendation of the Karnataka State Commission for Women chairperson Nagalakshmi Chowdhary, who wrote to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to investigate the matter. Prajwal, facing sexual abuse allegations, returned from Germany on Friday and was immediately arrested by the SIT at the Bengaluru airport. A special court in the city remanded him to police custody till June 6. Days after Devendra Fadnavis expressed his desire to step-down from the post of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister following the BJP's debacle in the state in Lok Sabha elections, Home Minister Amit Shah rejected his offer. The development comes amid reports of Fadnavis being firm on his decision. Fadnavis met Shah at his residence where the home minister asked him to continue working for the Maharashtra government, reported NDTV quoting sources. Shah has also asked Fadnavis to prepare a plan for the revival of the party in Maharashtra, where assembly elections are likely to be held in October. Shah reportedly told Fadnavis that if he resigns, it will affect the morale of BJP workers. Of the 48 seats in Maharashtra, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates were elected in just nine seats, whereas the NDA alliance partners NCP (Ajit Pawar) and Shiv Sena (Shinde) received one and seven seats, respectively. Whereas, the Congress party emerged as the largest party with 13 seats, followed by Shiv Sena (UBT) 9 and NCP (SP) 8. Addressing a press conference after the results, Fadnavis said that he takes responsibility for the result in Maharashtra. "I am requesting the party leadership to relieve me from the responsibility in the government so that I can work full time for the party in upcoming assembly elections, he said. Fadnavis also stated that he agrees that he was lacking somewhere in all this and going to make all efforts to overcome this shortcoming. Several BJP leaders asked Fadnavis to rethink about his desire to quit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that every moment of his life is dedicated to upholding the noble values enshrined in the Constitution of India. After the meeting of NDA leaders at the Samvidhan Sadan of the Parliament building, in a post on X, Modi shared a photo of him touching the Constitution book to forehead. Every moment of my life is dedicated to upholding the noble values enshrined in the Constitution of India, given to us by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, said Modi. He further added that it is only due to the Constitution that a person like him, born into poverty and in a backward family, is able to serve the nation. Our Constitution gives crores of people hope, strength and dignity, Modi said. Today, later in the day, Modi is scheduled to meet President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhawan to stake claim to form the government. Earlier in the day, Rajnath Singh proposed Narendra Modi's name as the leader of the NDA Parliamentary Party. Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari and top NDA leaders seconded the proposal. Meanwhile, Modi also met former President Ram Nath Kovind and BJP veterans L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi. Modi greeted by NDA members TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, Bihar CM- JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP- Ajit Pawar) Chief Ajit Pawar, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) Chief Chirag Paswan were among several leaders who greeted Modi at the NDA meeting. Oath taking ceremony on Sunday For the third term, Narendra Modi will take oath as Prime Minister on Sunday, June 9, at 6 pm. Foreign leaders to attend swearing-in ceremony Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe and leaders from Bhutan, Nepal, Mauritius, and Seychelles are expected to visit Modi's swearing-in ceremony. Several individuals were remanded in judicial custody on Friday amid an ongoing investigation into the Pune Porsche accident case. A cheating and criminal intimidation case was filed against the father and grandfather of the juvenile driving the vehicle. The police have also separately filed a case against the duo and three others for abetting the suicide of a businessman's son in the city. Two IT professionals from Madhya Pradesh were killed last month after a 17-year-old boy rammed their motorcycle while driving a Porsche. The minor driver had allegedly been driving under the influence of alcohol and currently remains in an observation home. The Police had earlier arrested two doctors and a hospital employee from Sassoon General Hospital over allegations of tampering with the minor's blood samples in order to falsify evidence that he was not under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident. It is suspected that one of the doctors had been in communication with the teenager's father. Several family members of the accused boy have also wound up in custody over the past few weeks. His father real estate developer Vishal Agarwal and his mother are currently in police custody in a case related to the blood sample swapping. The teenager's grandfather is currently in judicial custody for alleged kidnapping and wrongful confinement of their family driver. The latter was pressurised into telling the police that he was behind the wheels when the fatal accident took place. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will appear before a special court in Bengaluru on Friday in connection with a defamation case filed by the Karnataka BJP for issuing alleged defamatory advertisements in mainstream newspapers before the assembly elections last year. The ad had accused the then-BJP government in the state of engaging in large-scale corruption during its 2019-2023 rule. On Thursday, the state Congress said, Congress national leader Rahul Gandhi will attend the (hearing at) City Civil Court at 10.30 am tomorrow (Friday). Siddaramaiah arrived at Bengaluru court to receive Rahul Gandhi from the airport. Later, he will hold a discussion with the Congress' newly-elected MPs and defeated candidates from the state at Bharat Jodo Bhavan on Queens Road at 11.30 am. CM Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM DK Shivakumar will also be present," the PTI reported quoting a statement by the state unit of the party. What's the defamation case? On June 1, the Bengaluru court granted bail to Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar when they appeared before it regarding the case. Judge KN Shivakumar issued the order, scheduling Rahul Gandhi's personal appearance for June 7. In last week's hearing, Gandhi's counsel submitted a request for his client's exemption from appearing, which was challenged by the complainant's side. They argued against granting repeated exemptions. In June 2023, the BJP lodged a complaint alleging that the accused had made false and irresponsible claims in advertisements published on May 5, 2023, in various Karnataka newspapers during the assembly election campaign. The advertisements, titled "Corruption rate card," accused the government of taking "40 per cent Commission Sarkara (government)." The complaint alleged that the advertisements were disseminated by the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) through Shivakumar, serving as its president, and Siddaramaiah, the former Leader of the Opposition in the legislative assembly. The BJP highlighted that Rahul Gandhi had shared this "defamatory advertisement" on his social media platform X account. As the scorching summer heat brings with it long waits and even longer queues for collecting water from municipality tankers, the Central Water Commission's (CWC) weekly bulletin on Thursday showed a reduction in water storage nationwide. Delhi, Rajasthan, and West Bengal are among the states facing severe water shortages. However, the southern states of India are the worst affected. Also read: Long queues form next to tankers as Delhi faces water crisis amid scorching heat The CWC report shows a reduction in storage available in billion cubic metres (BCM) across 150 Indian reservoirs. It also highlighted that the southern states were facing a more acute water shortage than the northern states, in terms of available capacity. Water shortage in Delhi Several areas in Delhi are facing an acute water shortage at a time when mercury is at its peak. However, this is not the first time the water crisis has plagued Delhi. "The scarcity begins as soon as the summer starts," a resident of Geeta Colony told PTI. Although the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government is supplying water through tankers, "it is insufficient to meet demand". A Sangam Vihar resident told PTI that a single tanker charges 3,000, but "even after paying, we have to wait hours for it to arrive". Rajasthan: Jaipur water crisis With the onset of summer, Jaipur has been reeling from a severe water crisis. Several areas in the city are facing trouble securing water for daily life. Jaipur administration is also supplying water through tankers. In Ajmer's Balwanta village, the water crisis is also affecting marriage prospects. To make themselves heard, villagers even boycotted the 2024 general elections. Water shortage in West Bengal A scuffle broke out recently between the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Mahila Morcha supporters and police when the former were marching towards Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) over the drinking water crisis. Maharashtra water crisis Residents of Mariampur village in Amravati are facing an acute water crisis and are forced to consume water by digging pits on the banks of a polluted pond. When World Health Organization's (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus congratulated Narendra Modi on his election victory on Thursday, the caretaker Prime Minister thanked Tulsi Bhai for the wishes. Modi also said the first WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in India has added to efforts towards #HealthForAll. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Modi said, Thank you my friend Tulsi Bhai! India's cooperation with WHO promotes our vision of One Earth One Health. The first WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in India adds to our joint efforts towards #HealthForAll. Modi is all set to take charge as Indias prime minister for a historic third consecutive term with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Though the BJP could not get a majority on its own in the polls, the party-led alliance secured 293 seats out of 543. The majority mark in the lower house is 272. Modi's oath ceremony Top leaders of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal, Mauritius and Seychelles are likely to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the weekend. As per reports, India has already sent invites to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe and some other leaders of the countries chosen to grace the ceremony. Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda', Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu, Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Jugnauth and President of Seychelles Wavel Ramkalawan are among the leaders being invited to Modi's swearing-in ceremony, which is likely to take place on June 9. (Bloomberg) -- LVMH has chosen an eventual successor to its long-time chief financial officer as billionaire Bernard Arnault prepares a new generation of leaders to steer the worlds biggest luxury group. The parent company of Louis Vuitton appointed Cecile Cabanis as deputy finance director, reporting to CFO Jean-Jacques Guiony. A former CFO of French yogurt maker Danone SA, Cabanis is currently deputy chief executive officer of Tikehau Capital. Cabanis, who starts on Monday, will join the executive committee, becoming the third woman on the body alongside Delphine Arnault, the eldest child of the billionaire CEO, and Chantal Gaemperle, 61, whos in charge of human resources. The appointment of Cabanis is part of a wider management shake-up. Arnault, 75, got a new deputy when Stephane Bianchi took over that role from Antonio Belloni after Aprils annual general meeting. The question of succession is of growing interest to observers of the worlds largest purveyor of high-end goods. Arnaults five children all hold key roles within the group, and four have been named to the companys board. They also have oversight and management duties at family holding vehicles. This week, the worlds wealthiest person named his son Frederic Arnault, 29, as managing director of Financiere Agache, one of the holding companies through which the family controls its stake in LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE. Takeover Spree Bernard Arnault, with a fortune of about $215 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, has said he has no plans to retire. The family holds almost half of LVMHs share capital, with about 64% of the voting rights. During his two decades as CFO, Guiony has helped oversee acquisitions including Tiffany & Co. the biggest to date in the luxury industry Bulgari, Loro Piana and Belmond. When Guiony joined from the investment bank Lazard Freres in September 2003, initially as deputy CFO, the market capitalization of LVMH was about 26 billion ($28 billion). Its now 381 billion, making the Paris-based group Europes third-biggest company by market value. Arnault and Guiony also faced some M&A defeats, notably when an attempted takeover in 2010 of Hermes International SCA failed. Guiony will get new, as-yet-undisclosed responsibilities at LVMH in due course, the company said. During Guionys tenure, the company has capitalized on booming global demand for luxury goods, especially in China. More recently, sales have slowed in that key market, but LVMH has been more resilient than rivals such as Gucci owner Kering SA. (Updates with more context throughout) More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had informed that southwest monsoon will set in Maharashtra on Thursday, June 6. The first pre-monsoon showers of the season on Wednesday morning brought some respite to the financial capital, Mumbai, from scorching heat. Many parts of the state were reeling under intense heat over the past few days. High temperatures and heatwave conditions in certain regions would wane in the coming days as showers have been forecast due to the onset of southwest monsoon. An IMD release on June 6 forecast that southwest monsoon is set to advance over Mumbai, remaining parts of Karnataka, coastal Andhra Pradesh and southern parts of Chhattisgarh until June 9 or 10. The weather agency noted that the monsoon's progress has been nearly normal until now. However, the southwest monsoon is yet to bring wet spells in some areas. Currently, the northern limit of the monsoon is passing through Ratnagiri and Solapur in Maharashtra, Medak in Telangana, Bhadrachalam and Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh, and Islampur in West Bengal. The monsoon usually sets in over Mumbai by June 10 or June 11. Also read: Weather update today: IMD issues heatwave alert in THESE states; rains in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and more The southwest monsoon reportedly advanced into some more parts of central Arabian Sea, most parts of Karnataka, some more parts of Maharashtra, Telangana, coastal Andhra Pradesh and west central and northwest Bay of Bengal on Thursday. What experts say The Meteorological Department in its weather report stated, Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon into some more parts of central Arabian Sea, remaining parts of Karnataka & coastal Andhra Pradesh, some more parts of Maharashtra (including Mumbai), Telangana, some parts of southern Chhattisgarh and southern Odisha, remaining parts of west central & more parts of northwest Bay of Bengal during the next 3-4 days. Director General of Meteorology at IMD Mumbai stated, "Monsoon arrived in Maharashtra on 6th June in the Southern Konkan region. Till morning, it has advanced upto Ratnagiri and Solapur. The next 4 days are quite favourable for the advancement of monsoon in Maharashtra. Monsoon expected to arrive in Mumbai around 9-10 June." Once the monsoons northern limit reaches parts of central India next week, it would have covered half the country. Areas covered by the monsoon are unlikely to record heatwave conditions any further. The quantum of rainfall for June remains normal so far, HT quoted IMD director general M Mohapatra as saying. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut alleged on Friday, June 7, that the CISF woman constable who allegedly slapped Kangana Ranaut was provoked by the actress' comments during the farmer's protests. Kulwinder Kaur, the woman CISF constable stationed at Chandigarh Airport, reportedly slapped Bollywood actress and actor-politician Kangana Ranaut on Thursday. Also read: Kangana Ranaut slap incident: Actor Devoleena Bhattacharjee, sister Rangoli react, 'Isn't just about one individual, but Raut said that if the CISF woman constable' mother was there in the farmer's agitation and Kangana Ranaut said anything against it; then it would naturally arouse anger. Some people give votes and some give slaps. I don't know what has happened actually... If the constable has said that her mother was also sitting, then it is true. If her mother was there in the farmer's agitation and someone said anything against it, then it would create anger, ANI quoted Sanjay Raut. Also read: Kangana Ranaut's slap incident brings back focus on BJP MP-elect's post on 2020 farmers' protest |All you need to know But if PM Modi says that there should be the rule of law, then it should not be taken into hands... The people in the farmer's agitation were sons and daughters of India. If someone insults Bharat Mata and someone is offended by it, then it is something to think about, he added. Raut appealed to the public to respect the newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Himachal Pradesh's Mandi, saying, "I have sympathy for Kangana. She is an MP now. An MP should not be attacked, but the farmers should also be respected." Soon after the "Queen" actress landed in New Delhi, she posted a video statement on social media platform X (formally Twitter), titled, Shocking rise in terror and violence in Punjab, and said that she was safe and fine. Also read: Kangana Ranaut slapped by CISF jawan at Chandigarh airport The 35-year-old Kulwinder Kaur from Sultanpur Lodhi in Punjab posted at Chandigarh Airport for the last two years claimed that the Mandi MP made a derogatory remark during a farmers' protest. She alleged that Kangana said farmers protested in Delhi because they were paid 100 or 200. This remark had angered Kulwinder Kaur as her mother was also among the protesters stationed there. (Bloomberg) -- A surprise tax change in agriculture powerhouse Brazil is disrupting business and drawing the ire of groups representing some of the worlds top crop traders including Cargill Inc. and Bunge Global SA. Companies including Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. and Amaggi Importacao e Exportacao Ltda withdrew new offers for commodities such as soybeans and corn, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Traders were taken by surprise and need more clarity on the new policy, which limits the ability of some companies to monetize tax credits, the people said. The provisional measure, signed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday, threatens to raise costs for commodity exporters and processors in the worlds largest supplier of everything from soybeans to sugar and beef. If approved by Congress, it would be another blow for the troubled relationship between Lula and the agribusiness sector at a time when his approval rates are eroding. Abiove, an industry group that represents major crop merchants including the storied ABCDs an acronym for ADM, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus Co. said the decision is disrespectful and would slash profits for soybean processors. Crushers would need to pay $12 per metric ton less for their soy to keep current margins, according to Andre Nassar, who heads the Sao Paulo-based group. Unica, the lobby for sugar and ethanol producers including Raizen SA, said the measure will erode cash flow for companies and increase their debt. ABPA and Abiec, which count meat giants JBS SA and BRF SA among members, said the initiative violates World Trade Organization rules as it amounts to a tax on exports. The agribusiness sector, Brazils fastest growing, is more impacted than others by the new restrictions part of Finance Minister Fernando Haddads efforts to shore up the countrys budget. Thats because of existing rules that already make it harder for food processors and exporters to use tax credits. Still, industries including energy will also be harmed. Total losses across different sectors are forecast at 29.2 billion reais ($5.6 billion) this year, according to the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry. The impact could double in 2025, the group said. The measure may struggle to pass. Nearly two dozen industry caucuses are asking Lower House Speaker Arthur Lira and Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco to reject the rule, which has immediate effect for 120 days. --With assistance from Tarso Veloso. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com Congress leader Pawan Khera on Friday flagged online abuse of voters in Ayodhya following the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) defeat in the Faizabad constituency of Uttar Pradesh in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. Khera said the BJP could not win a seat in Ayodhya and is now abusing the voters. Addressing the Press, the Congress leader said, The people of Maharashtra have given a befitting reply to them (BJP)...They could not win a seat in Ayodhya and now you can see how they are abusing the people of Ayodhya. He also took a jibe at the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which is set to form the central government on June 9 with Narendra Modi as its choice for prime minister. "NDA's full form is Naidu Dependent Alliance or Nitish Dependent Alliance," Khera said. How are Ayodhya voters being abused online? After the BJP candidate Lallu Singh lost to Samajwadi Party's Dalit candidate Avadhesh Prasad in Faizabad, the Hindutva followers began a hate campaign against the voters of Ayodhya. This defeat comes soon after the inauguration of Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya in January this year. Reacting strongly to the unfavourable result for the BJP, some Hindutva groups began using inflammatory and disparaging language against Ayodhya voters. Two social media influencers Daksh Chaudhary and Annu Chaudhary -- have also been arrested for abusing Ayodhya voters. In the video, they made offensive remarks against them for voting against the BJP. The two have been arrested under sections pertaining to deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings (295A) and intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace (504) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The latest abuses that surfaced online against Ayodhya voters are: The people of Ayodhya have once again repeated history. At that time, Shri Ramchandra ji was betrayed and today the people of Ayodhya have betrayed BJP. No one is more selfish and cruel than the public, one user commented. I am surprised & angry on the Hindus of Ayodhya who votes this bigot Anti-Hindu guy, another added. The Japanese Government is taking peculiar measures to boost the dwindling national birth rate. It is set to launch a dating app called Tokyo Futari Story this summer, the Japan Times reported. Amid growing labour shortages, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's government is actively pursuing policies to promote the birth rate, including provision of financial aid to families, easier access to child care, parental leave, and more. In Japan, birth rates dropped to an all-time low in 2023. Therefore, it isn't uncommon for municipalities to hold matchmaking events, but it is quite rare for the government to create an app. Also read: Japan consumer spending rises in April for first time in 14 months How to enrol on dating app? To access the dating app, users must sign a letter stating they are willing to get married and submit documentation proving that they are legally single. Other requirements include a tax certificate slip to prove their annual salary. A Tokyo government official in charge of the new app said, We learned that 70% of people who want to get married aren't actively joining events or apps to look for a partner, reported Japan Times. He added, We want to give them a gentle push to find one. Also read: Japan's service activity extends gains on solid demand, PMI shows Since late 2023, the Tokyo government app has been on a test run for free. Netizens on social media were strong to react to this dating app with scepticism. Japan Times quoted one user as saying, Is this something the government should be doing with our tax? Another user expressed interest, citing safety over fraud. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk stated, Im glad the government of Japan recognises the importance of this matter. If radical action isnt taken, Japan (and many other countries) will disappear! Saudi Arabia declared the sighting of the crescent moon on Thursday, signalling the commencement of the month of Dhul Hijjah. This confirmation indicates that Eid Al Adha's first day will fall on June 16. The Day of Arafah, the pinnacle of the Hajj pilgrimage, will be observed on June 15. Arafat Day falls on Saturday, June 15, while Sunday, June 16 will be the first day of Eid Al Adha," a Saudi Supreme Court statement said on Thursday. While most Gulf countries concur with Saudi Arabia's declaration, Oman has announced a differing stance. Oman stated that the crescent moon was not sighted within the country on Thursday, thus determining that Eid Al Adha will be celebrated on Monday, June 17. Significance of Eid Al Adha Eid Al-Adha, also known as the Festival of Sacrifice, is one of the most significant Islamic holidays celebrated worldwide. It honors the willingness of Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son Isma'il (Ishmael) as an act of obedience to God's command. However, before he could carry out the sacrifice, God provided a ram to sacrifice instead. Eid Al-Adha also marks the end of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, the fifth pillar of Islam, where Muslims perform rituals commemorating events in the lives of Ibrahim and his family. Apart from prayers, feasting, and sharing, Eid Al-Adha is a time for spiritual reflection, strengthening bonds with family and community, and showing compassion towards others. Popular sweets made in Eid Al Adha Baklava: A rich pastry made of layers of filo dough filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey. Maamoul are small shortbread pastries filled with dates, nuts, or other sweet fillings and often dusted with powdered sugar. Basbousa: A moist and dense semolina cake soaked in syrup, often flavoured with rose water or orange blossom water and topped with almonds or coconut. Sheer Khurma: A traditional dessert made with vermicelli noodles cooked in milk and sweetened with sugar, flavoured with cardamom, and saffron, and garnished with nuts and dried fruits. Kunafa: A Middle Eastern dessert made of shredded phyllo dough layered with cheese or nuts and soaked in syrup. The Supreme Court of Saudi Arabia announced that the crescent moon of Dhu al-Hijjah was sighted on Thursday evening, June 6. Consequently, Friday, June 7, will mark the beginning of Dhu al-Hijjah, the final month of the Islamic calendar. After astronomical observatories spotted the crescent moon, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said, The Supreme Court determined that Dhu al-Hijjah, the 12th and final month of the Islamic calendar, would begin on Friday. Following this development, the authorities from the land of the Two Holy Mosques confirmed that the Hajj pilgrimage would commence on June 14. Also read: Eid Ul Adha 2024 date: When will India celebrate Bakrid? Saudi Arabia asks Muslims to witness Dhul Hijjah Crescent moon What is Hajj? Hajj is considered to be one of the five pillars of Islam. Followers of the religion with adequate means must undertake the pilgrimage tour at least once during their lives. Devotees undertake a series of rituals and practices that span at least four days in Mecca and its surroundings in the west of Saudi Arabia. Also read: Saudi Arabias Lenovo Deal Showcases Cash for Investments Strategy The high point of the pilgrimage is on the second day, which will fall on June 15 this year. During the time, the pilgrims gather for prayers on Mount Arafat, where Prophet Mohammed delivered his final sermon. During a press conference on Thursday, the Saudi hajj and Umrah minister, Tawfiq al-Rabiah, said, Approximately 1.2 million pilgrims from various countries of the world had already arrived in Saudi Arabia for this year's Hajj, reported AP. According to official figures from 2023, over 1.8 million Muslims undertook the Hajj pilgrimage. Saudi Arabia houses Islam's shrines in Mecca and Medina, earning billions of dollars annually from the annual Hajj pilgrimage and the Umrah, undertaken at other times of the year. Also read: Saudi Arabia announces Eid Al Adha 2024 on THIS date. Know details When is Eid al-Adha? The Saudi Press Agency further informed that Eid al-Adha will fall on June 16 this year. In a statement on Thursday, the Saudi Supreme Court said, Arafat Day falls on Saturday, June 15, while Sunday, June 16, will be the first day of Eid Al Adha." While most Gulf countries follow Saudi Arabia's announcements and agree on the date of Eid-Al-Adha celebrations, Oman declared that the crescent moon was not sighted on Thursday. Consequently, Eid-Al-Adha will be celebrated in Oman on Monday, June 17. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress on July 24, AP reported, citing sources. AP further reported that Congressional leaders extended a formal invitation to Netanyahu last week, showcasing continued support for the ally amidst ongoing political divisions regarding Israel's military actions against Hamas in Gaza. Though the speech date was uncertain, it has now been confirmed for July 24, the source told AP. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, along with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, signed the letter extending the invitation to Netanyahu. They said the offer was intended to highlight America's solidarity with Israel. The political climate surrounding Netanyahu's upcoming address to Congress is anticipated to be contentious, with potential protests both inside and outside the Capitol. The event will likely underscore the divisions within Congress, particularly among Democrats, regarding Netanyahu's handling of the conflict with Hamas. Democratic lawmakers most critical of Netanyahu's strategy are expected to be no-shows for the address. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, said: Netanyahu is a war criminal. I certainly will not attend. Netanyahu's visit to the Capitol also came after the relationship between US President Joe Biden and the leader of the Jewish state had been frayed in recent months. Also Read: Biden Denies Netanyahu Playing Politics in War After Hinting It Biden has privately and publicly criticized Netanyahu's handling of the war and criticized the Israeli government for not letting more humanitarian into Gaza. Late last week, Biden announced a proposed agreement to end the fighting in Gaza, putting growing pressure on Netanyahu to accept the deal. Many Israelis have been urging him to embrace the terms, but his far-right allies have threatened to leave his coalition government if he does. Netanyahu called a permanent cease-fire in Gaza a nonstarter until long-standing conditions for ending the war are met, appearing to undermine the proposal that Biden described as an Israeli one. Johnson first suggested inviting the Israeli leader, saying it would be a great honour of mine to invite him. His move came soon after Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the US, delivered a stinging rebuke of Netanyahu in a lengthy speech on the Senate floor. Schumer said in the speech that Netanyahu had lost his way amid the Israeli bombing campaign in Gaza, AP reported. Even so, Schumer had said he would join in the invitation because our relationship with Israel is ironclad and transcends any one prime minister or president. Imran Khan, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, who is currently in jail, invoked interim bail granted to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal while complaining to the country's supreme court about mistreatment meted to him in jail. Khan told the Supreme Court that the apex court in India granted interim bail to Arvind Kejriwal to campaign ahead of general elections, PTI reported. The former prime minister also said that he was facing oppression in Pakistan which was under undeclared "martial law". The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman complained to apex court during his appearance on Thursday before a five-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa in a case related to amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO). Justices Aminuddin Khan, Jamal Khan Mandokhel, Athar Minallah, and Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi also sat on the bench. Justice Minallah remarked that it was unfortunate that Khan was in jail as he was the head of a large party with millions of followers, reported PTI. Imran Khan also complained that he was convicted within five days to keep him away from the general elections which were held on February 8. Khan also expressed dismay over the Supreme Courts judgment rejecting Khyber Pakhtunkhwas government plea requesting the live streaming of the case. You wrote [in the judgment] that I did political point scoring during the last hearing. I did not get it, what political scoring did I resort to, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder asked Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa. At this, Chief Justice Isa said a judge does not owe an explanation to anyone over the verdict. You can file a review petition, the top judge said. According to report, Khan also asked the court to compare the facilities given to him in jail with the facilities given to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. However, in a lighter vein, Justice Mandokhel said the elder Sharif was not in jail at the moment, Do you want us to send him to jail? This election placed the Constitution of India in the national spotlight, but what its results have brightened overnight is the prospect of Amaravati emerging as an entirely new city to serve as the capital of Andhra Pradesh (AP). A prime mover of this project, N. Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), has risen to political prominence. Not only did Naidus party win power in AP, a state bifurcated a decade ago with Hyderabad to be hived off as part of Telangana, its 16 Lok Sabha seats constitute crucial support for the BJP-led coalition thats set to take charge at the Centre. Reports suggest the TDP chief is looking for a big central package to dust off a plan that stayed mostly on paper for half a decade, the result of neglect by APs outgoing regime, which wanted Amaravati only as the states legislative seat, with Kurnool as its judicial HQ and Visakhapatnam its administrative capital. High real-estate stakes may have made tussles inevitable over whats best built where, but this weeks power tilt has loaded the odds in favour of Amaravati as originally conceived. While Naidu is the chief champion of this project, there is also a major opportunity in it for the BJP and Narendra Modi as Prime Minister. Infrastructure development has been a definitive thrust under Modis national leadership, but no planned-from-scratch city has arisen in recent memory on the scale of, say, Chandigarh, which arose under Nehrus watch. Amaravati may well be a chance for both Modi and Naidu to literally consolidate an urban legacy. India has been urbanizing so rapidly that its a wonder how our existing urban spaces have managed to hold up (even if this isnt evenly true across an overcrowded urban-scape). It has long been obvious we need whole new cities that afford citizens the same sort of job and life-style options that metro-dwellers enjoy. We need dispersal. Instead, we have seen urban sprawls emerge and expand in haphazard ways around the few mega-cities we have, with great bulks of extra concrete and asphalt doing little to help residents lead better lives. Technology seers had once expected digital connectivity to make cities obsolete as generators of economic value, reversing an industrial trend of people swarming into them. The pandemic even tested how work could be done without gathering together. Yet, cities that throb with life in all their diversity seem set to endure for a variety of good reasons, some organic and cultural, others intrinsic and practical (think airport proximity). Also read: Capital confusion If urban living is what the future holds for most of us, regardless of how technology reshapes the economy, then it might be worthwhile to double down on a grand urban plan and make up for lost time. If Amaravati proves a success, it could set the tone for more to come. Nehrus dream city of Chandigarh reflects an aesthetic that held highbrow appeal in the heady days of early freedom, a modernity drawn from self-evident truths of Euclidean and Constitutional inspiration both. This is a hard act to followpartly because statism is passebut Amaravati could also be mounted as an art project. Reports of the involvement of filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli had hinted of an architectural theme taken from portrayals of palatial grandeur in his film Baahubali. Whatever the citys outward look is inspired by, it should be built to be climate friendly and tech-focusednot just in the sense of being perfectly green and digitally equipped, but also to convey Indias idea of a city created for tomorrow. The concept of parity pricing, first introduced by US Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace in 1922, was designed to ensure a fair exchange value for agricultural products. In India, this principle was first applied as part of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) system during the peak era of the green revolution (1966-67), aiming to encourage farmers to adopt the dwarf wheat varieties. India, with vast arable land spanning 400 million acres and 60 soil types, holds the potential for abundant year-round agricultural production. However, the current MSP procurement mainly targets four water-intensive cropssugarcane, paddy, wheat, and cottoncontributing just over 22% of Indias agricultural output. These crops are further promoted by MSPs for yield enhancement and market stability. Cereals dominate farming (58.2% of the cropped area), followed by oilseeds and pulses, with over 20 crops competing for acreage. Also read: First cabinet meeting of new government to declare MSP for kharif crops According to the 77th round National Sample Survey, the proportion of households farm output sold within the MSP framework varies from 0 to 24.7% (excluding sugarcane). Agriculture ministry data shared in August 2021 indicates slightly over 14% of land-owning farmers benefit from MSPs. A September 2021 Centre for Policy Research article reveals that households with over 2 hectares rely on farming for 70% or more of their income, contrasting with under 44% for those with 1 hectare or less. Small and marginal farmers, comprising 89.4% of all agricultural households, primarily earn from livestock and wages, are largely excluded from the MSP system due to low marketable surplus. Using 2021 MSPs of 1,940 for paddy and 2,015 for wheat, with yields of 25-30 quintals of paddy and 15-20 quintals of wheat per acre, several reports suggest that Food Corporation of Indias direct procurement costs are at around 55,000 and 35,000 per acre for paddy and wheat, respectively. Excluding additional expenses of 1,300 and 1,100 per quintal for storage and transportation over six months, farmers' net income per acre is about 10,000-15,000. The government spends two to three times this amount for the farmers modest income without accounting for free electricity and fertilizer subsidies. Livestock and horticulture, over 50% of agricultural produce, thrive without MSP reliance, growing at 5 to 8%, surpassing cereals 1.8% growth over two decades. Total demand, assuming 10kg monthly consumption per Indian and requirement under Seed, Feed, Wastage, and Industry use, falls within the countrys production capacity at about 168 million tonnes yearly. Continued reliance on price supports and input subsidies has promoted monoculture, leading to unsustainable use of natural resources. Punjab's intense wheat and paddy cultivation is depleting water tables by 70-80cm yearly, with 80% at risk and fear looming large that groundwater may deplete to 300 metres by 2039. Nationally, issues like waterlogging, acidification, salinization and biodiversity loss have prompted a rethink of current cropping systems for soil health and sustainability amidst climate change concerns. With evolving tastes, urbanization, and a diverse consumption basket, the demand for non-cereal food items is rising. According to the NSSOs HCES data for fiscal year 2022-23, both rural and urban Indians allocated more expenditure towards fruits and vegetables than food grains for the first time. Fruit spending also exceeded pulses. This trend is expected to continue as Indias per capita GDP improves. As per an analysis presented on Statista, in 2023, Indias imports of agricultural and allied products were valued at $37 billion, and the nation witnessed a 40% increase in pulses imports due to consecutive years of lower production. Indias total agricultural imports that year amounted to over 70,500 crore. A research report by GTRI suggests that India is the worlds largest importer of vegetable oils, with imports estimated to double to $20.8 billion in 2023-24 over the last 5 years. This is not an exercise in juggling rhetoric and statistics but an attempt to put all pieces of the puzzle together. India's agriculture has ample room for growth, and studying our own and other countries' experiences can guide its path. Take the case of the US: its agricultural policy has transitioned from traditional price support programmes to direct payments. While complying with international trade standards, we could consider a shift to support mechanisms that are more market-focused for large farmers, while direct payments are made to small and marginal farmers. Another case to study is the EUs Common Agricultural Policyspecifically, India can benefit from its emphasis on encouraging agricultural sustainability and adjusting to changing market conditions. Further, Brazils dual agricultural policy framework highlights another lesson to consider, for it emphasizes the value of customized approaches by providing different pathways for small-scale family farmers and commercial agribusiness. India may use such tactics to support resilience while attending to the various requirements of Indian farmers. We cannot continue to have a Panglossian outlook. The changing consumption patterns and evolving agricultural landscape necessitate studying the disconnect in the dashboard and drawing board. India's agricultural sector needs a balanced interplay of food security, farmer welfare, and environmental stewardship. Limited land expansion means shifting from food grains to non-food crops is necessary. Here are some suggestions as food for thought: First, We need a customized MSP approach for each category of farmers (large, small, and marginal). Feminization of agriculture, particularly with small landholdings, is a special case to consider separately. Second, in place of a fixed MSP, we should try a regional rotational MSP, tailored to diverse factors like plant family, harvested portion, compatibility, fertilizer needs, market conditions, consumer preferences and Indias agri import substitution requirements. Third, we can incentivize soil health through farmer earnings by front-loading rotational MSPs with incentives for organic activities for soil rejuvenation. Fourth, we need agricultural R&D for crops like cotton, soybean, groundnut, rapeseed and mustard to make the MSP effective by increasing their yields. Lastly, taking a 15-year cycle in mind, we should aim for a gradual shift from rotational MSP to market processes, in conjunction with instruments for income stabilization, a partial crop insurance subsidy and direct assistance for smallholder farmers. These suggestions should be viewed as a bottom-up version update rather than a factory reset. From a farmers perspective, it is important to create certainty, as farmers continue to face multiple constraints and deserve better. After all, this is a dal-roti matter. The author is a development practitioner. After the Lok Sabha Elections 2024, all eyes are now set on six assembly elections likely to be held between June 2024 and November 2025. Five states Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Delhi and Bihar will hold assembly elections in the next one year. The assembly election in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir is expected to be held before September 2024. Two states will be the most keenly watched among these -- Haryana and Maharashtra. The assembly elections in these two states will take place around October this year, just about four months after the Lok Sabha Elections 2024. While the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP's Mahayuti alliance was jolted by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (INDIA bloc) in Maharashtra, the BJP's seat share dropped to five from the previously held ten in Haryana. In the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections, many see the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections impacting the electoral contest. The outcome will impact the Vidhan Sabha elections in Maharashtra, Nationalist Congress Party stalwart Sharad Pawar was quoted as saying by Deccan Herald . However, there is no credible evidence to suggest Lok Sabha election will have a definite impact in the subsequent assembly polls. In Delhi, for example, the BJP won all seven seats in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections but lost to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) during the 2015 and 2020 assembly polls. This year too, the BJP won all seven seats in the Delhi Lok Sabha polls, but uncertainty looms over the 2025 assembly elections. The assembly elections in Delhi are likely to be held in February 2025. The AAP has maintained that it will contest the Delhi assembly elections without an alliance with the Congress. AAP leader Gopal Rai said the two parties had come together in Delhi only for Lok Sabha polls. Similarly, in Jharkhand, the BJP had won the largest number of seats --11-- in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls but lost to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in the 2019 assembly polls. In the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, the BJP won eight seats, while the JMM's tally rose from one in 2019 to three seats in 2024. The assembly elections in Jharkhand are due in November-December 2024. Meanwhile, in Haryana, given the political developments and Lok Sabha Election results, the Congress seems to be seeing a resurgence in its electoral prospects ahead of the assembly elections. The BJP and the Congress secured five seats each in the Lok Sabha Polls. The BJP's vote share declined from 58 per cent in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to 46 per cent in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Meanwhile, the Congress's vote share increased from 28.5 percent to 43.67 percent in the Lok Sabha polls 2024. The Congress-AAP alliance's (INDIA bloc partners) vote share was around 1 percent more than the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. According to a Tribune report, the alliance leads in 46 assembly segments compared to the BJP, which leads in 44 segments, going by the voting pattern in the recently concluded LS polls. Also, recently, three Independent MLAs withdrew their support from the ruling BJP in Haryana, indicating that a crisis is brewing for the state government. The assembly elections in Bihar are likely in October or November in 2025. Nitish Kumar's JD(U) is currently in power in the state, while being in alliance with the BJP. The JDU-BJP alliance won most of the seats in the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 in Bihar. In the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had emerged as the single-largest party, despite the NDA winning the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in the state. Senior BJP leader Pralhad Joshi has said that Narendra Modi will take oath as the Prime Minister of India for the third time on Sunday, June 9. Addressing the NDA parliamentary party meeting at the Central Hall of the old Parliament building, Joshi said the oath-taking ceremony is scheduled for 6 pm on June 9. Senior alliance leaders, including chief ministers and NDA MPs, attended the meeting. BJP president J P Nadda is expected to propose a resolution supporting Modi's leadership, which allies and MPs are likely to endorse. Other NDA leaders, such as Chirag Paswan, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Anupriya Patel, and Pawan Kalyan, were also in the meeting. The NDA, with 293 MPs, comfortably exceeds the majority mark of 272 in the 543-member Lok Sabha. At the meeting, BJP national president JP Nadda said, "We extend heartiest congratulations to the Prime Minister, who spent every moment in the service of the nation. That is the reason that India is creating history today and NDA is forming a government for the third consecutive time with a majority." Upon reaching the Parliament, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio said, I had already congratulated him (PM Modi) for his third term and the success of the NDA as the third term government. Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who was among those who arrived to attend the NDA Parliamentary Party meeting, said, We were able to win only one seat in Goa. I am sad that we could not win the other seat as well. Following Modi's election as the leader of NDA MPs, prominent alliance members such as TDP's N Chandrababu Naidu, JD(U)'s Nitish Kumar, and Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde are expected to accompany the Prime Minister for a meeting with President Droupadi Murmu. They will present her with the list of parliamentarians supporting Modi. With 293 MPs, the NDA comfortably exceeds the majority mark of 272 in the 543-member Lok Sabha. Chandrababu Naidu's TDP and Nitish Kumar's JDU, having won 16 and 12 seats, respectively, in their respective states, have extended support to the NDA. The INDIA bloc has 234 MPs in the new parliament and Congress 99. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday was granted bail by a special court here in connection with a case filed by the BJP's Karnataka unit for issuing defamatory advertisements in mainstream newspapers. As reported by PTI, the advertisement ahead of Assembly polls last year accused the then BJP government in the state of indulging in large-scale corruption during its 2019-2023 rule. The court had on June one granted bail to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who is also the State Congress chief, after they appeared before it in connection with the defamation case, PTI reported. Judge K N Shivakumar had directed Gandhi to appear before the court on June seven without fail. In February, the Congress leader attended court proceedings related to the defamation case and was granted bail. The complaint against Gandhi was lodged by BJP leader Vijay Mishra. Last December, a warrant was issued against Gandhi, prompting him to suspend his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Amethi and appear in court on February 20, where he obtained bail. The complaint stemmed from remarks Gandhi made during a press conference in Bengaluru in May 2018, during the Karnataka elections. Gandhi's comments referred to the BJP's claim of upholding honest politics despite having a party president who was accused in a murder case. Amit Shah was the BJP president at the time of Gandhi's statement. Four years before Gandhi's remarks, Shah was acquitted by a special CBI court in Mumbai in connection with a 2005 fake encounter case during his tenure as Minister of State for Home in Gujarat. The four-time parliamentarian and senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday said he does not see himself contesting another Lok Sabha elections, if they take place five years down the line, because the Thiruvananthapuram MP believes that one needs to know when to step aside for the younger blood to come in. In the recently concluded elections, Tharoor beat the former Union Minister and BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar by 16,077 votes to register 4th win from Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat. In an interview with news agency PTI, Tharoor, when asked if this election was his electoral politics swansong, said, Not electoral politics but certainly Lok Sabha. I think I have done my bit and I honestly feel that at some point, we all need to know when to step aside for younger blood to come in and have a crack at it. The Congress leader said he has done his very best for the constituents and will continue doing so, but believes that "there are ways of serving in public life" without having to contest for the Lok Sabha. "I think if the election is five years from hence, I don't really see myself at that stage wanting to have another go at the Lok Sabha," he said. However, Tharoor said there that are five years for him to serve as of now, and he is determined to do his best for the people he represents during that time. When asked about the BJP winning its first seat in Kerala with actor-politician Suresh Gopi winning the Thrissur seat by a huge margin, Tharoor said it needs to be taken seriously. However, the MP said, Suresh Gopi is not a typical BJP candidate. "He went out of his way to declare his secular credentials, appealed overtly to the minority voters in Thrissur particularly to the Christian community, and had this personal quality of being a celebrity candidate, a well regarded movie star as well as the host of the Malayalam edition of the Kaun Banega Crorepati," Tharoor said. All of these make him a very unusual figure and it may not be that easily replicable elsewhere, he added. New Delhi: Policymakers and legal experts fear unfinished technology policies and laws, including the overarching Digital India Act (DIA), to go on the back-burner, as a coalition government in the potential third term of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) may focus on more pressing political issues. A key factor behind this could be a bigger influence of political agenda among independent parties within NDA, which could play spoilsport to an influx of tech regulations that peppered the second term of NDA. With a new coalition government, priorities will vary from how it worked in the previous term. The general understanding is that existing legislations that were at an advanced stage are likely to continue in the same vein, while new and proposed tech regulations that were at an early stage may see a fresh legislative approach, once the new government forms," said Supratim Chakraborty, partner at law firm, Khaitan & Co. Chakrabortys assessment is largely in line with what other industry stakeholders are expecting of the upcoming government. While the second NDA term introduced a spate of technology regulations, many remain unfinished. Laws that have been passed in Parliament include the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and the Telecommunications Act, 2023. However, the Digital Competition Bill, 2024 remains at a draft stage, while the proposed umbrella regulation, the DIA, could not proceed beyond preliminary industry consultations with the previous government. Regulatory Delays Now, stakeholders expect unfinished regulatory work to be considerably affected. A senior policy official who works closely with the ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity) said on condition of anonymity, Given that this is a coalition government, what is likely going to come under the scanner are more contentious political issues. Driven by a broader, more encouraged Opposition, the Centre will likely focus on such points to begin with. As such, it is unlikely that the erstwhile proposed technology regulations such as the DIA will simply resume from where they had left off." The overarching DIA was already confirmed to be resumed from scratch by the to-be-formed government at the Centre, former Union minister of state for IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, had told Mint in November. Now, two senior policy officials who work closely with Meity told Mint that the Act itself could be revised and replaced by an entirely new regulatory approach. Prioritization of tech policy, as a result, remains a concern. One of the two senior policy officials who work closely with Meity said that it will depend entirely upon the incumbent cabinet minister for IT, and their personal interest in it, to bring tech legislation to the foreat present, this looks unlikely, and this does not spell confidence for the DIA." Policy Concerns Policy consultants also raised concerns around how this may impact the future of Indias tech ecosystem. Isha Suri, research lead for technology and telecommunications at policy think-tank Centre for Internet and Society, said, It is definitely an encouraging prospect to have substantial opposition in Parliament. The previous government went through multiple tech and telecom policies, but left much to be desired in the actual implementation of what the impact of these policies on the ground could be. For instance, the Telecommunications Act, 2023 saw the previous government promise to replace the previously draconian laws in the telecom space, but questions have been raised in terms of the on-ground impact and implementation of this Bill." Similarly, the impact of the Digital Personal Data Privacy Act, 2023 remains yet to be seen as its rules are yet to be notified. This remains pending for the next government, and it will be crucial for the opposition to raise a strong voice of concern against unchecked powers of surveillance that the previous government afforded itself. All of this can potentially change, but it is unclear how important tech policy itself will be in the next term," Suri further added. Most, however, agree that policy uncertainty is not a major concern at the moment. It will, in all likelihood, be the same central government in powerwhich means that the overall thought process is unlikely to change," the other senior policy official who works closely with Meity said. The first of the two senior policy official working closely with Meity further added that uncertainties may lessen. If you look at how certain aspects, such as Meitys advisory on artificial intelligence from March this year, played out, youd think that a new ministerial hierarchy for IT and telecom could bring a less turbulent and knee-jerk advisory-based rule-making at the Centre. This, in turn, could be key." In a series of articles this week, Wall Street Journal reporters from around the world go inside the escalating global chip battle. At stake: leadership of an industry expected to double in size by the end of the decade to $1 trillion. TOKYOToppan is a 124-year-old Japanese company known for printing magazines and newspapers. Since the start of last year its stock price has doubled. The rise isnt from a surge in subscriptions. Rather, the Tokyo-based company holds a leading position in a type of packaging board for semiconductors, a part in high demand thanks to the artificial-intelligence boom. Japan is a quiet powerhouse in the rarely mentioned corners of the chip supply chain: chemicals, packaging materials and tools. Its companies account for nearly half of the worlds six crucial semiconductor materials, according to Omdia, a market researcher. If you dont have these, the defense industry that the U.S. gets most worried about cant function," said Toppans semiconductor business head, Akihiko Furuya, gesturing to some of his products. As countries around the world race to make more chips at home, Japan now feels its pole position is under threat. Companies such as Toppan sit at the heart of Japans effort to stay ahead. Tokyo is pumping billions of dollars into the countrys menagerie of obscure suppliers, viewing its dominance there as important to the countrys national security. Having control of an important link in the semiconductor supply chain solidifies Japans military ties with its main ally, the U.S., because it can contribute its technology to the alliance rather than simply relying on American hardware. And officials say this control ensures Tokyo has a seat at the table when the U.S. counters Chinas bid to gain semiconductor dominance. This month, a Japanese state-backed fund will complete its $6 billion acquisition of JSR, which was originally a rubber producer and is now valued for making a resin called photoresist used in transferring a circuit pattern onto a chip. The fund urged more action through aggressive investment and mergers: We must raise our international competitiveness," it said, by pursuing a bolder overhaul of the industry." Smaller amounts have flowed to Toppan and other chip-related companies under government subsidy programs. Government officials say they dont want to see a rerun of the 1990s when Japan lost its lead in the overall semiconductor industry to the U.S., Taiwan and South Korea. While the U.S. is working to eliminate dependence on China, it still says it intends to rely on democratic allies for chips and chip-making materials. Japan showed the potential geopolitical value of its chip-materials dominance by using it against South Korea in 2019 when the two Asian neighbors were squabbling over historical issues. Tokyo threatened to block South Korean semiconductor makers such as Samsung Electronics from obtaining Japanese photoresist and other materials. Nearly three years later, a new president took office in Seoul with a more conciliatory line on history. Japan dropped its threats. Specialized clusters Types of semiconductor expertise have a way of clustering in single countries or regions. South Korea dominates in advanced memory chips, factories in Taiwan make most of the worlds best logic chips, and a single company in the NetherlandsASMLhas a lock on the most advanced chip-making lithography machines. Japan is the origin of many specialized materials used in chip making. Often the makers are companies with roots in pre-computer-age businesses such as fertilizer, monosodium glutamate, printing and photography film. Toppan and another Japanese company, Dai Nippon Printing, hold much of the worlds market share for photomasks, a kind of master plate for printing circuit boards, not including those made in-house by chip makers. Fujifilm, best remembered for the green packages of film that competed with Kodaks yellow-packaged film in the previous century, is among the Japanese companies that make much of the worlds chip-making slurry, a chemical mix used to polish and flatten the surface of chips. Most of the photoresist for chip making comes from JSR, Fujifilm and their domestic rivals. Old-economy companies have found these niches because there are deep connections between chip making and technologies from earlier eras. Imprinting a circuit pattern on a silicon wafer adapts many of the techniques of book and art printing, a strength of Japanese craftspeople going back to the woodblock prints that charmed Westerners in the 19th century. Tetsuya Iwasaki, general manager of Fujifilms electronic-materials division, said the principle of photoresistexposing a photosensitive material to a pattern of light to create an imagewas the same whether the outcome was a photograph or an integrated circuit. In that sense, this is an area our company is really good at," he said. Iwasaki said Fujifilm entered the photoresist business in the 1980s because rival Kodak was doing it. Long after Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection, Fujifilms stock price closed at a record high Thursday and is up 30% this year, partly on the back of plans to double the Japanese companys semiconductor materials revenue to more than $3 billion by around 2030. Remaining global The U.S. says it expects to work with such companies as it pumps tens of billions of dollars of subsidies into new chip plants, including those built by Intel, Samsung Electronics and TSMC in Ohio, Texas and Arizona. Semiconductor supply chains will remain global, so international collaboration is critical to our collective success," said a U.S. Commerce Department representative. Still, U.S. companies are wary about supply-chain chokepoints and are pressing Japanese suppliers to diversify their production. In March, Toppan said it would add a factory in Singapore to make its specialized type of chip-packaging board, which it currently produces at a single plant in Niigata, Japan. Ill be honest, that was what customers demanded," said Furuya, the Toppan semiconductor head. He said Broadcom of the U.S. was among them. Broadcom didnt respond to a request for comment. Furuya said the customers view was: Its going to be a huge mess if youve got some kind of production stoppage because of an earthquake or a natural disaster." Megumi Fujikawa contributed to this article. Write to Peter Landers at Peter.Landers@wsj.com and Yang Jie at jie.yang@wsj.com JEERS ... to Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, both R-Idaho. Wednesday, they joined most of their Republican colleagues by blocking a federal right to contraceptives. Only two GOP members of the Senate Maines Susan Collins and Alaskas Lisa Murkowski joined with Senate Democrats. But the move fell nine votes short of clearing the threshold for cloture. Along with 20 of their fellow Republicans, Crapo and Risch accused Democrats of fear mongering on this important issue to score cheap political points. Dont believe it. Contraception is the next logical target for those who would impose their own judgment over the individual choices of others. The same principle that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected in overturning Roe v. Wade the right to privacy fortifies an earlier court decision affirming access to contraception. As the court was abandoning 50 years of reproductive freedom, Justice Clarence Thomas left open the door to reconsidering the prior ruling on contraception. The same theory cited by anti-abortion rights advocates that life begins at conception can be targeted against hormonal contraceptives, IUDs and the morning-after pill because a fertilized egg is blocked from implanting in the uterine wall. As reported by Politico, the Project 2025 blueprint spelling out a second Trump administration is likely to require coverage of natural family planning methods and remove requirements that insurance cover certain emergency contraception. Last month, Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed a bill to protect access to contraception. Nor is any of this lost on the public. In its poll taken in March, Kaiser Family Foundation found that 21% believe the right to contraception is threatened and likely to be overturned. Another 34% are not sure if the right is threatened or secure. That leaves less than half of the adults 45% in the United States who have any confidence that the courts or politicians will leave the right to contraception in place. What could explain Crapo and Risch opposing this bill? Havent they learned anything watching their Republican colleagues in the Legislature interfere with the private health care decisions made by Idaho women and their families? This is 2024, not 1924. CHEERS ... to Annabelle Jenkins. In a dignified but firm way, the 18-year-old stood up against the book banning taking place across the Gem State, including in her own West Ada School District. As she walked the line during graduation exercises at the Idaho Fine Arts Academy last month, Jenkins pulled out a graphic novel adaptation of The Handmaids Tale and attempted to hand it to school Superintendent Derek Bub. The Trump era and, of course, the convicted felon himself have done potentially irreparable harm to American democracy by perpetuating the greatest lie in our history, namely that a presidential election was fraudulent. By repeating this lie over and over and over again, an idea has been deeply embedded in the minds of millions that no election save the one Donald Trump wins is legitimate. All the court cases, the indictments and convictions for election interference, all the fraud of this big lie has reshaped American politics. One poll earlier this year found one-third of Americans continue to believe the lie, and apparently there is no dissuading them. The Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at our nations Capitol was a natural outcome of this enormous lie. People who believed Trump and those who spread his lies and some who clearly wanted to believe attempted to halt the peaceful transfer of power, a bedrock concept of American democracy that was never before in doubt, even in the tumultuous days before our Civil War. Now comes Trumps second big lie, namely that his recent conviction in a New York state court on 34 felony counts was a rigged process perpetrated by a weaponized U.S. Justice Department acting at the direction of the president of the United States. This lie, as with the other big one, has now been amplified by nearly every Republican member of Congress, many of them with law degrees, providing at least a modicum of evidence that they know better, but still they lie. Consider the stunning pandering to Trump of former Ada County Prosecutor and now Sen. James E. Risch. As a former prosecutor, Risch said, I learned early the importance of our constitutional right to the due process of law. Due process is simply basic fairness. ... New Yorks mock trial did not attempt even an appearance of fairness. Or Sen. Mike Crapo, a Harvard-educated lawyer, who took to social media to proclaim that a politically motivated prosecutor has ashamedly and unprecedentedly weaponized the legal system against a former United States President. A dangerous move, Crapo said, threatening the security of our entire justice system. Or Congressman Mike Simpson, in full MAGA dudgeon and singing from the Trump script, also invoked the term weaponized. Trumps unanimous guilty verdict, Simpson thundered, was the result of an absurd political trial. Or Congressman Russ Fulcher: Americans are awake; the current presidents unjust sham trial of a political opponent has mobilized an army of freedom-loving Americans to take our country back! Fulcher actually attempted a twofer with his denunciation of the justice system, for good measure throwing in a reference to unsecured elections. First, and most strikingly, no Republican, at least not the four mentioned here, proclaimed Trumps innocence. None dealt with the actual charges brought against him, including falsifying business records to hide a hush money payment related to his one night stand with adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Through this illegal scheme, prosecutors argued and a 12-person jury agreed Trump was determined to keep the tryst with a porn star secret from voters by paying hush money. The timing of these acts matter because at the time they happened the infamous Access Hollywood tape, where Trump bragged of grabbing womens genitals, had recently been released. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close Two rental scam victims have shared their harrowing experiences while trying to find a home in Dublin, being conned out of thousands, with one even having to move back to Scotland due to the losses he incurred. Brian and Ciaran both shared their stories on RTE Radio 1s Liveline with Joe Duffy, shedding light on the fraudulent scheme that left them both financially devastated and without homes. Brian, an Irish mental health nurse who has been searching for suitable housing for approximately six months, recounted his encounter with the scam. Using Daft, Brian found an apartment in Dublin 7. He told Joe that he believed the listing appeared legitimate, and communication with the purported landlord and tenant did not raise any initial suspicions. "I went to view the flat on a Sunday evening," he explained. "The person acting as the tenant had everything set up cooking in the kitchen, the place looked lived in. There was a family photo on the landlord's WhatsApp profile." The convincing setup included a detailed backstory from the supposed tenant, who claimed to be a law student and a care assistant in a Dublin hospital. "So all the boxes were sort of checked in my head," he said. After the viewing, Brian was informed via email that he had been selected for the apartment. He transferred 1,740 as a deposit and first months rent, only to be met with silence thereafter. "By Thursday morning, I couldnt contact either the tenant or the landlord. It became clear I had been scammed," he said. Ciaran, a victim originally from Scotland experienced an identical scam at the same residence. Also searching for a place in Smithfield, he viewed the apartment alongside other prospective renters. "I was told I got the place, sent over my wage slips, and transferred the money," he said. "I was supposed to move in on Wednesday, couldn't get an answer on any phone or the door," Ciaran shared. The 1,740 scam left him no choice but to move back to Scotland, having lost both his deposit and then his job in Dublin as he could not afford another rental. Both victims reported the incidents to the Gardai, where they coincidentally met and realized they had been scammed by the same people. It was said on Liveline that the Gardai have noted similarities to previous scams but have not provided particular information about them. Polling booths across county Longford opened at 7:00pm this morning. Polling booths for the European and Local Elections have seen a steady trickle of voters. This morning voters in Newtownforbes polling booth have been turning up to cast their ballot since the opening of the polling station. Invigilators say that although it has been quiet, there has been a steady stream of voters. In Clondra the turnout has been described as steady. At the St Joseph's NS polling booth in Longford town the uptake of voters has been moderate. By 10am in one booth 5% of voters had cast their ballot. One voter was in at 7am to exercise their franchise. Invigilators said that the first hour and a half turnout was steady, with sporadic bursts of voters. With five hours gone and 12 hours remaining it is difficult to predict a pattern of voting. Thirty-nine candidates will contest 18 seats in three municipal districts - Longford (7), Granard (5) and Ballymahon (6). It is the first local election since 2019. Voters have commented on the length of the ballot paper. The Midlands North West is a five seat constituency. It's a packed field with a record 27 candidates on the ballot paper. Three Longford candidates will have their name and picture on the ballot sheet; Stephen Garland (Independent), Ciaran Mullooly (Independent Ireland) and James Reynolds (National Party). Voting takes place in three electoral contests; the local elections, the European elections and the contest to elect a mayor for Limerick. More than 3.7 million people are registered to vote in the local elections across the country, they will choose 949 councillors in 166 local electoral areas. There are nearly 3.6 million people registered to vote in the European elections. Local News By Chris Boyle Published: June 07 2024 Francesca Augello immediately responded and performed the Heimlich technique on the child. Francesca Augello is holding her proclamation, commending her actions, (center) and with her are from left to right Michelle Collison, principal of Wood Park Primary School, Commack School Superintendent Jordan Cox, Legislators Rob Trotta and Leslie Kennedy, her children Vincent, Adrianna and Rocco and husband Sammy. At a recent General Meeting of the Suffolk County Legislature, Legislators Leslie Kennedy and Rob Trotta recognized Francesca Augello, a school monitor at Wood Park Primary School, who noticed a second grader was choking on his slice of pizza during lunch. She immediately responded and performed the Heimlich technique on the child, which dislodged the piece of food. Ms. Augello had seen posters at the school and in the cafeteria that explains and illustrates the Heimlich maneuver. Married and a mother of three school aged children she believes she did what any parent would do. Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced that a Georgia woman was arraigned today on manslaughter and other charges for allegedly driving while high on marijuana and t-boning another vehicle on Sunrise Highway in Massapequa causing the death of the 64-year-old driver and injuries to another passenger in April 2024. Rachel Lodice, 21, was arraigned today before Judge Tammy Robbins on charges of Manslaughter in the Second Degree (a C felony); Vehicular Manslaughter in the Second Degree (a D felony); Assault in the Second Degree (a D violent felony); Assault in the Third Degree (an A misdemeanor); Leaving the Scene of an Incident Without Reporting as a Felony (a D felony); Leaving the Scene of an Incident Without Reporting (a B misdemeanor); Operating a Motor Vehicle While Under the Influence of Drugs (an unclassified misdemeanor); Grand Larceny in the Third Degree (a D felony); Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree (an E felony) and Reckless Driving (an unclassified misdemeanor). The defendant pleaded not guilty, and bail was continued at $250,000 cash, $500,000 bond and $1.25 million partially secured bond. She is due back in court on July 8, 2024. If convicted, the defendant faces up to 7-1/3 to 22 years in prison. Rachel Lodice was allegedly high on marijuana when she drove a harrowing several miles down Hicksville Road, speeding into oncoming traffic, weaving in and out of lanes, running red lights and narrowly missing other cars, said DA Donnelly. This defendants alleged trail of terror ended only when she blew one last red light onto Sunrise Highway, slamming into Cynthia Mitchells vehicle, ending her life and injuring her friend. Cynthia was a wife and mother to a teenage daughter who will now graduate high school this month with an empty seat where her mother should be sitting beaming with pride. Whether a person is impaired by alcohol or marijuana, driving impaired can end in tragedy. I urge Nassau County residents to heed this warning: do not get behind the wheel high on marijuana. Our thoughts remain with Cynthias family and friends as they grieve her tremendous loss. DA Donnelly said that, according to the charges, on the evening of April 23, 2024, the defendant got into her 2023 Kia Rio at a Target store in Hicksville and began driving south on Newbridge Road. The defendant a short time later pulled into a Walgreens parking lot at the corner of Old Country Road and Hicksville Road where she stopped momentarily. The defendant then pulled onto Hicksville Road and allegedly began driving erratically at a high rate of speed. The defendant drove approximately six miles southbound on Hicksville Road and at multiple points allegedly drove on the wrong side of the double yellow line, around medians, and through several red traffic lights. At approximately 6:45 p.m. the defendant allegedly ran a red light at the intersection of Hicksville Road and Sunrise Highway while impaired by marijuana and t-boned a 2022 Nissan Altima driven by 64-year-old Cynthia Mitchell and carrying another passenger. Mitchell suffered extensive injuries and was transported to Nassau University Medical Center (NUMC) where she was pronounced deceased shortly after arrival. Mitchells passenger suffered several broken ribs and a spleen hematoma and was also transported to NUMC where she was treated and released. According to the event data recorder from Lodices vehicle, the defendant was allegedly driving approximately 75 miles per hour five seconds before the crash. The speed limit at that section of roadway is 35 miles per hour. Mitchell and her friend were on their way to a Hobby Lobby store in Massapequa to go shopping at the time of the crash. A Town of Oyster Bay Public Safety Officer traveling eastbound on Sunrise Highway saw the collision and stopped to assist and block off traffic. The officer assisted the defendant, asked her to stay in the area, and proceeded to the victim vehicle. The defendant allegedly then entered the drivers side of the officers vehicle and drove the car eastbound on Sunrise Highway away from the crash site. Lodice allegedly drove the vehicle several miles before stopping on Neptune Avenue in Seaford where the street terminated at a dead end. The Town of Oyster Bay public safety vehicle was equipped with GPS tracking technology and a remote kill switch to disengage the engine when the vehicle is stationary. The vehicle was disabled, and the defendant was taken into custody by officers of the Nassau County Police Departments Bureau of Special Operations. The case is being prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Tara DePalo of the Vehicular Crimes Bureau. The defendant is represented by Jenna Spelke, Esq. IDF soldiers operating in central Gaza on June 5. (IDF) On the morning of June 6, Hamas terrorists used a tunnel to try to enter an area near Gazas border with Israel and carry out an attack. The incident was relatively small, involving approximately four Hamas members. That Hamas was able to conduct the operation in the first place after almost eight months of war illustrates how the group continues to plan and execute attacks. The incident took place as fog had settled on the border of Gaza. This provided the terrorists some cover to exit a tunnel shaft that was within two hundred meters of the Israeli border. The men were seeking to approach an area of the border fence near the communities of Holit. This area is made up of fields in Israel that stretch along the border. It is flat terrain and the border on the Israeli side is accessed by a road that leads directly from the fence toward the community of Sufa. This is the same area attacked on October 7, one of many sites Hamas targeted. There is an IDF post at Sufa, next to a Kibbutz with the same name. Across the road and across some fields is the community of Holit. Beyond Holit is Kerem Shalom and the Egyptian border. The IDF released details about the incident throughout the day, including video of the Hamas members walking in the fog. The initial assessment of the incident was that it began around 4:20am, about one hour before sunrise. Israels IDF observers detected suspicious movement and an IDF unit of the Beduin Reconnaisance Unit was sent to investigate. This unit operates along the border and knows the specific complexities of the border and the men in the unit, who mostly come from a bedouin minority community in Israel, are trained in tracking and detecting suspicious activity. The reconnaissance unit arrived and investigated the suspicious activity. They were then fired upon around five in the morning. The terrorists had an RPG and rifles, and the IDF responded with a Hermes 450 Zik drone and a tank. Three of the terrorists were killed and one fled. IDF Sergeant Major Zeed Mazarib was killed. He is from the community of Zarzir in northern Israel. The IDF emphasized that the terrorists did not cross the fence built along the Gaza Strip. The incident nevertheless illustrates that Hamas is planning these types of attacks and can still approach borders using tunnels, a cause for concern among those in Israeli communities along the border. The terrorist cell that emerged from the tunnel is in line with many reports about how Hamas now conducts the war. It has broken down its battalions into small groups of men, usually between three and five, and they typically operate with rifles and RPGs but do not have as much access to other weapons. Hamas says these smaller groups also have access to mortars, 107mm rockets and some other types of anti-tank weapons. Inside Gaza, Hamas and other terrorist groups continue to try to wage a low-level insurgency or war of attrition with the IDF. Hamas has rejected a ceasefire and hostage deal, despite pressure and calls from the US and other countries. According to reports on June 6, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has said Hamas will not turn over its weapons in Gaza as part of a deal. The IDF conducted a number of sweeps of areas in Gaza. The 162nd Division in Rafah in southern Gaza located a tunnel in a childs room, the IDF said. The troops identified six terrorists near a school in the area of the troops. The terrorists were eliminated by a UAV and tank. A unit of Givati infantry in Rafah also found a weapons production workshop along with rifles, grenades and munitions. Using a drone, the unit also also found a booby-trapped house. In central Gaza, the IDF is carrying out raids in Deir al Balah and Bureij, two urban areas that were built over historic refugee camps founded in the 1950s. The IDF found tunnel shafts and other weapons and carried out a number of airstrikes in Gaza. One of them hit what the IDF said was a Hamas compound embedded inside an UNRWA school in the area of Nuseirat. The IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the strike targeted dozens of terrorists and was called off twice due to civilians being present. The IDF disputed claims that most of the victims were civilians. 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). US Banking Crisis 2024 That No One Is Paying Attention To Credit card and auto loans are increasing the risk on bank balance sheets. The largest holders of these loans include JP Morgan, Citibank, and Capital One. You have to engage in due diligence regarding the banks that house your hard-earned money to make sure you're not caught during a banking crisis. A month ago, we published an article on consumer debt, which is becoming a huge issue for the banks from a credit quality perspective, as both credit cards and auto loans have posted sharp increases in delinquency ratios. Recent data published by the NY Fed shows that asset quality metrics have deteriorated even further in the first quarter, particularly in the credit card segment. Moreover, there was a huge increase in the delinquency ratio among low-income borrowers, which looks especially worrisome given the reasons that led to the 20072009 GFC. Despite the fact that forward-looking indicators have pointed to major asset quality issues in credit cards and auto loans for more than 2 years, the NY Fed has changed its rhetoric only now: In the first quarter of 2024, credit card and auto loan transition rates into serious delinquency continued to rise across all age groups. An increasing number of borrowers missed credit card payments, revealing worsening financial distress among some households. Approximately 8.9% of credit card balances and 7.9% of auto loans transitioned into delinquency in the first quarter. As the chart below shows, the transition rates in these segments have been increasing for several quarters. And heres the chart showing the percentage shares of 90-day plus delinquent loans. As you can see, there was a large increase in credit cards, while car loans have almost reached their GFC peak. In addition, this quarter, the NY Fed has disclosed very interesting data on the so-called maxed-out borrowers, or borrowers that have a high credit card utilization rate. As a reminder, a high credit card utilization rate is usually a sign that a borrower has a tight cash flow situation and financial issues. As the chart below shows, there was a huge increase in the transition ratio among borrowers with a 90-100% utilization rate and also quite a remarkable increase among borrowers with a 60-90% utilization rate. The 30%-plus transition rate looks really horrendous. In our view, these numbers completely refute the mainstream thesis that delinquency ratios are simply normalizing following the pandemic. As you can see, transition rates among borrowers with higher utilization rates have reached the peak level since the regulator started to collect this data. The obvious question here is how high is the share of these maxed-out borrowers? As we can see from the chart below, the NY Fed discloses these numbers. It is important to note that delinquent borrowers (more than 10% of total loans) are excluded from the data shown below. As shown, the shares are quite high, and these shares exclude delinquent borrowers and borrowers with a utilization rate of 6090%, which have transition rates of around 15%. Even if we simply approximate the current trends, then the delinquency ratio in the credit card segment is very likely to surpass the GFC level soon. Obviously, even a mild slowdown in the job market would make things much worse. Notably, the NY Fed, which is usually very optimistic, draws the following conclusion based on all these numbers: For a positive improvement in credit card delinquency, we would need to see the delinquency transition rate among maxed-out borrowers begin to decline and/or the share of maxed-out borrowers fall. So far, the data shows neither of these trends is moving in the right direction. Bottom line As a final note, we would like to remind you that the U.S. credit card market is oligopolistic, as three banks control almost 50% of total outstanding credit card loans: JPMorgan ($181B), Citi ($165B), and Capital One ($142B). So, I want to take this opportunity to remind you that we have reviewed many larger banks, including the three just noted, in our public articles. But I must warn you: The substance of that analysis is not looking too good for the future of the larger banks in the United States, and you can read about them in the prior articles we have written. And, as these issues get worse, the risk continues to rise. Moreover, if you believe that the banking issues have been addressed, I think that New York Community Bancorp, Inc. (NYCB) is reminding us that we have likely only seen the tip of the iceberg. We were also able to identify the exact reasons in a public article which caused SVB to fail, well before anyone even considered these issues. And I can assure you that they have not been resolved. It's now only a matter of time before the rest of the market begins to take notice. By then, it will likely be too late for many bank deposit holders. At the end of the day, we're speaking of protecting your hard-earned money. Therefore, it behooves you to engage in due diligence regarding the banks which currently house your money. You have a responsibility to yourself and your family to make sure your money resides in only the safest of institutions. And if you're relying on the FDIC, I suggest you read our prior articles, which outline why such reliance will not be as prudent as you may believe in the coming years, one of the main reasons being the banking industry's desired move towards bail-ins. (And, if you do not know what a bail-in is, I suggest you read our prior articles.) It's time for you to do a deep dive into the banks that house your hard-earned money in order to determine whether your bank is truly solid or not. Feel free to use our due diligence methodology outlined here. Avi Gilburt is a widely followed Elliott Wave analyst and founder of ElliottWaveTrader.net, a live trading room featuring his analysis on the S&P 500, precious metals, oil & USD, plus a team of analysts covering a range of other markets. He recently founded FATRADER.com, a live forum featuring some of the top fundamental analysts online today to showcase research and elevate discussion for traders & investors interested in fundamental rather than technical analysis. 2042 Copyright Avi Gilburt - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors. 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. Dear Eric: My husband and I just celebrated our first anniversary, and we cutely decided to give each other a gift in keeping with the antiquated anniversary gift themes. The first year is paper or clocks. Smartly and thoughtfully, my husband gifted me a clock made of paper he had seen me looking at in a museum gift shop. But this thing is huge, and it makes noise! We live in a tiny apartment! There was a different paper clock in that same shop that I spent a lot more time watching that was small, silent, and super cool. He noted that hed kept the receipt if I didnt like the gift, but I dont want to appear ungrateful. Should I suggest an exchange, or am I breaking too many gift-giving boundaries and being unappreciative? Torn Paper Dear Torn: No need to paper over your displeasure. Go back to the museum, recycle the big clock, and you can happily wrap this whole thing up. Its great that your husband already offered to make an exchange because that indicates an awareness that, though the sentiment was appreciated, the gift wasnt quite right. He wants you to be happy, you want to be happy, the museum wants to keep the money. So, if you would appreciate the smaller clock, everyone wins if you trade in the original gift for a new one. Clear communication and the ability to revise is a great gift to give each other as the clock (silently) ticks into your second married year. Dear Eric: I retired early and dont know what to say when people ask derisively what do you do all day? Any sassy comebacks? Out of Office Dear Office: Try this: What do I do all day? Whatever I want! Theres also the razor-sharp diva way of responding to this I pursue joy, darling; see if you can relate. But a lot of folks are genuinely curious about what an unstructured day looks like, so mixing sass with a bit of gentle education is helpful. The transition out of a task-oriented 9 to 5, with its attendant social structures, can be daunting. Many seniors I know talk about that first day of school feeling. And theyre doing it without a curriculum. Be that wise, if sassy, alum leading the way. Dear Eric: Is there a way to politely ask someone to use headphones when listening to media on their device in public? Wish You Were on Mute Dear Mute: Polite, sure. Effective? Doubtful. When you find yourself in these situations, you can try saying something like Im having trouble concentrating, would you mind putting in headphones? or even simply, Your media is loud; could you listen to it privately? But if someone is happily blasting a TikTok or cooking video on the bus, train, sidewalk, chances are theyre that most dangerous combination aware and dont care. Grab some noise-canceling headphones and preserve your peace. Dear Eric: I gave up smoking in 1991. I was 21. Should I see this through, or is there some time I can start again? Cold Nostalgic Turkey Dear Nostalgic: The idea that there is some kind of statute of limitations on the dangers of cigarette smoking is genuinely amusing to me. Ah, if only all of lifes temptations had an expiration date after which all would be hunky dory. But Im going to tell you what you already know: no such expiration date exists. And while tobacco companies have changed the composition of some cigarettes since 1991, smoking remains not just a temptation but, according to the American Lung Association, the number one preventable cause of death in the U.S. So, why risk it? Nostalgia is often a yearning for a world that didnt quite exist the present never seems as rosy as our memories of the past, does it? Maybe you miss the social aspect of smoking or the chance to just think for 10 minutes. If thats the case, is there another hobby you can strike up a conversation with strangers around? Or try setting aside 10 minutes a day to sit outside, take a walk, or practice mindfulness. Smoking culture has changed so much that lighting up like Bette Davis in All About Eve will most likely make you a pariah in many places, anyway. Also, your body has had 33 years to repair the damage smoking caused it and, at 54, its not going to bounce back as quickly, if at all even if youre in great shape. One last thing: Youre in good company. According to data from the CDC, the percentage of Americans who are smokers dropped from 25.7 percent in 1991 to 11.5 percent in 2021. You, along with millions of others, kicked the habit. Reap the benefits of your effort. (Send questions to R. Eric Thomas at eric@askingeric.com or P.O. Box 22474, Philadelphia, PA 19110. Follow him on Instagram and sign up for his weekly newsletter at rericthomas.com.) 2024 Tribune Content Agency, LLC. For four years, Marthas Vineyard resident Sally Rizzo has used medical marijuana from dispensaries on the island to treat insomnia and chronic back pain. But her reliable supply of medicine is now at risk. Rizzo, of Tisbury, is one of more than 230 medical marijuana patients and many more recreational customers whose marijuana supply will likely dry up by summers end without action from the state. The Vineyards two cannabis dispensaries appear headed for the exits. Island Time, in the town of Vineyard Haven, shut down last month. Its source for marijuana, Fine Fettle dispensary of West Tisbury, the islands only cannabis grower, has stopped production and plans to close its shop by September. The owner of Fine Fettle blamed strict regulations and financial challenges for its closure. Marijuana is federally illegal. Whether intended for medical or recreational purposes, the federal government does not allow businesses to ship the controlled substance through federal waters or airspace. Some states have made exceptions for cannabis businesses located offshore. Massachusetts has not. We need to find a solution as well, Rizzo told members of the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission when they visited Marthas Vineyard Thursday for a formal meeting and public listening session. No access is just not acceptable. She was one of more than a dozen people including dispensary owners, staff, other medical marijuana patients and advocates who spoke with commissioners Thursday at the Oak Bluffs Public Library. Members of the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission listen to testimony about problems with the delivery of cannabis products to Martha's Vineyard during a meeting at Oak Bluffs Public Library on Thursday. Left to right are Commissioners Kimberly Roy, Ava Callender Concepcion and Bruce Stebbins. (Will Katcher/MassLive)Will Katcher/MassLive Im persuaded that we have a problem we have to solve, Commissioner Bruce Stebbins said after hearing their testimony. Other states allow transport of cannabis across federal waters and airspace Whether and how the commission changes state policy could be determined at its next meeting on June 13. For guidance, commissioners could look to states such as California, Hawaii, Alaska, New York and Maine, which have already tackled the thorny question of bringing an illegal drug through a federal jurisdiction. Californias 239-page cannabis industry regulations authorize shipping cannabis via waterway to licensees located on Catalina Island, more than 20 miles off the coast of Los Angeles. Tisbury resident Sally Rizzo (left) and Geoff Rose (right), owner of Martha's Vineyard dispensary Island Time, listen to testimony during a Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission meeting Thursday in the Oak Bluffs Public Library regarding the delivery of cannabis products to the island. (Will Katcher/MassLive)Will Katcher/MassLive For nearly a year, Hawaii has allowed licensed medical marijuana companies to ship wholesale bundles of product between the states islands, according to Marijuana Business Daily, a cannabis industry publication. In Alaska, where some remote communities are accessible only by boat or plane, police and state officials allow marijuana business owners to fly with suitcases full of cannabis, the Anchorage Daily News reported in 2017. Without the ability to transport cannabis from the mainland, Island Time owner Geoff Rose, a 22-year resident of the Vineyard, said his business and Fine Fettle would close for good. Ive worked hard to be part of the cannabis industry in Massachusetts, Rose said Thursday. And Im now turning away patients and consumers my friends and neighbors because Im no longer able to source product. The island shops face many of the same issues as dispensaries across Massachusetts, including strict and lengthy state regulations, painfully high operating costs and razor-thin margins. Geoff Rose, owner of Martha's Vineyard cannabis dispensary Island Time, stands in front of empty shelves and a vault on Thursday.Will Katcher/MassLive But operating on Marthas Vineyard presents unique challenges. Rent and operating costs can be steep. Customer demand varies wildly by season. And because of the ban on transporting products from the mainland, all cannabis must be tested on-island a pricey endeavor, dispensary employees told the commissioners. There are so many different costs on the island that result in the situation were in, Chloe Loftfield, the general manager of Fine Fettle, said Thursday. Its simply not a sustainable business anymore. Arbitrary, unreasonable and inconsistent cannabis policy Desperate to reopen, Rose and Nantucket dispensary Green Lady sued the commission last month, hoping to compel the state agency to change its policy prohibiting the transportation of cannabis from the Massachusetts mainland. In court filings, they accused the commission of maintaining an arbitrary, unreasonable and inconsistent policy that isolates island dispensaries without any rational basis. The sides are now in settlement negotiations, according to publicly available court records. Nicole Campbell, the co-owner of Green Lady, sees an ironic disparity in the ban on bringing cannabis to the islands. Empty shelves at Martha's Vineyard cannabis dispensary Island Time on Thursday. The shop closed after the island's only grow facility shut down. (Will Katcher/MassLive)Will Katcher/MassLive The water is federal water, but we all drive the cannabis to do deliveries on the federal road system, she said in a phone call Tuesday. Were already using the federal infrastructure to move a product thats federally illegal. The Steamship Authority, a quasi-state agency that operates ferries between the Cape and Islands, does not allow its vessels to transport federally illegal drugs. Rose learned late last year that Fine Fettle was preparing to shut down its cannabis farm. With his supply line closing, he urged the commission to adjust its regulations to explicitly allow dispensaries to ship from the mainland. In need of product, he said he partnered with a mainland supplier who transported weed to the Vineyard on board a Steamship Authority ferry. The commission ordered Rose to stop selling the product. He sold his remaining supply until May 14, right up to the last chocolate bar. After that, he closed the doors of Island Time. A Steamship Authority spokesperson referred questions about its cannabis policy to the U.S. Coast Guard, which did not respond to a request for comment from MassLive. But the Coast Guard is aware of the issue, according to Lauren McDermott, a spokesperson for U.S. Rep. William Keating, whose district includes Cape Cod and the Islands. After learning how other states had resolved the problem, McDermott said the congressmans office contacted the Coast Guard so its representatives could begin to explore possible solutions with the commission. While the absence of marijuana would hit recreational consumers, the impact on medical marijuana patients has raised particular concern for state officials. Medical marijuana is sometimes prescribed for people with cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain and other medical conditions. They arent able to really pause or stop their medication, Jeremiah MacKinnon, president of the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance, said in a phone call Tuesday. Its necessary for them to have consistent access. Gabrielle Bisson, a medical marijuana patient and employee of Fine Fettle, told commissioners that cannabis helped her manage pain with fewer side effects than other pharmaceuticals. Geoff Rose, owner of Martha's Vineyard cannabis dispensary Island Time, stands in front of his store's empty product vault on Thursday. (Will Katcher/MassLive)Will Katcher/MassLive The idea that Id have to commit a crime to bring my medicine home is baffling to me, she said. Dr. Terry Kriedman, a Vineyard physician, said she is the only medical provider prescribing marijuana to patients on the island. Living on the island presents problems, and we all accept that, Kriedman told commissioners. But getting your medication shouldnt be one of them. Tourist season pivotal for cannabis dispensary businesses For the dispensaries, time is of the essence. The Vineyards busiest months, which fuel the islands economy, have arrived. Year-round, 23,000 islanders call Marthas Vineyard home. On peak summer weekends, that number can balloon to as many as 200,000, according to the islands Chamber of Commerce. Missing those crucial months of business would be detrimental to Island Times survival, Rose said. More than 40% of his revenue comes during the summer. Unlike Island Time, Green Lady is not at imminent risk of going out of business. Sailboats are moored in Vineyard Haven harbor in Tisbury, Mass., Oct. 13, 2013, on the island of Martha's Vineyard. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)AP But Campbell, of Nantucket, said she wants to ship cannabis to the companys other store in Newton. Unable to, she said the island cannabis companies are missing out on a privilege enjoyed by mainland businesses of all industries. Theres a need to resolve this issue, Rose said. Because if we dont, the cannabis industry is going to disappear from Dukes County [Marthas Vineyard]. Despite being in the same competition, diving couple Molly Carlson and Aidan Heslop dont let the sport come between their relationship. If anything, the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series just fuels their love for each other and the sport that brought them together. We absolutely get competitive at home ... but never in diving, Carlson told MassLive after she and Heslop topped the leaderboard after the series first day in Boston on Friday, June 7. We want the best for each other. And even if one of us has a bad day, were there for each other on those days as well. So in my case, I would say were not that competitive in our sport, Carlson said. Weve learned over the years that when one person does better than the other, the other person is usually pretty annoyed at themselves in the first place, Heslop added. So, supporting each other in whichever way you need to, whether its celebrating their win or commiseration for their loss. Carlson and Heslop are competing in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, which is taking place in front of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Bostons Seaport neighborhood for the third consecutive year. The competition will travel to eight cities across the globe, ending Nov. 10 in Sydney, Australia. Boston was the second stop in the series and also the 100th stop of the diving series since it started in 2009. The Boston competition continues through Saturday. At each stop of the 2024 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, 12 women and 12 men compete to earn points in their quest for the coveted King Kahekili Trophy. There will be eight female and eight male permanent divers, as well as four wildcards for each division, meaning 24 divers will be fighting for the title. Carlson also placed first at the series first stop in Athens, Greece on May 26. She said she actually prefers diving in Boston for the views and colder water. Those docks right where were landing, you come out of your dive and you see them right away, she explained. And the water is freezing, so you actually make less splash because when its in Greece, it was salty and really hot, so any splash kind of went up really high whereas the cold gets sucked down with you and [you] get some pretty high scores with that. On the contrary, Heslop said one of the biggest challenges is dealing with the tide in Boston during the dive. The tide is actually changing quite a lot here, he explained. From the training to the actual competition, the tide can move by around a meter and then go back down again for the training post competition. So we cant do the dives the exact same that we do them in training. We still have to adapt in competition, and thats something that we dont usually see too often. Tides aside, both divers were happy with their performances and are hoping to continue their success during day two in Boston, which will be Saturday, June 8. The Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series is open to the public and free of charge. People are encouraged to get to Seaport early for a prime viewing spot. Gates open at noon and the action kicks off at 1 p.m. Those who cant make it in person can catch the series live Saturday from 12-3 p.m. on ESPN. The series will also be available on Red Bull TV after the ESPN broadcast. A revolutionary rock band that is credited with being one of the earliest pioneers of punk music is releasing new music for the first time in decades despite none of the original members still being alive. MC5 will release a new album called Heavy Lifting on Oct. 18, Ultimate Classic Rock reported. The project will mark the bands first record in 53 years. The 13-track album was spearheaded by the bands founding guitarist Wayne Kramer, who died from pancreatic cancer in February, the outlet reported. The project will feature performances by original MC5 drummer Dennis Thompson, who died after a heart attack in May. Producer by Bob Ezrin told UCR that the new album is very heavy. It has a revolutionary message but also a good sense of humor. Theres a little bit of heavy metal. Theres quite a bit of funk. But it is a heavy record, Ezrin told the outlet. Just a wall of guitars most of the time, and mostly driven by Wayne and his ethos. Its a snapshot of a guitar man at the height of his powers. We all feel a responsibility to make sure that his work is heard, and he is celebrated. We poured our hearts into the project. The first song off the album Boys Who Play With Matches, was released Thursday, June 6. You can listen to the new song below: The full track list, per UCR, is as follows: Heavy Lifting (feat. Tom Morello) Barbarians At The Gate Change, No Change The Edge Of The Switchblade (feat. William Duvall and Slash) Black Boots (feat. Tim McIIrath) I Am The Fun (The Phoney) Twenty-Five Miles Because Of Your Car Boys Who Play With Matches Blind Eye (feat. Dennis Thompson) Cant Be Found (feat. Vernon Reid and Dennis Thompson) Blessed Release Hit It Hard (feat. Joe Berry) Formed in formed in Lincoln Park, Michigan, in 1963, MC5s original lineup consisted of vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Sonic Smith, bassist Michael Davis and drummer Dennis Thompson. After making their debut in 1969 with the live album Kick Out the Jams, MC5 released their only two studio albums: 1970s Back in the USA and 1971s High Time. Despite the group disbanding in the 1972, MC5s popularity resurged in the 1990s as they were the subject of a steady stream of reissues and rarities packages, according to AllMusic. Tyner released several solo records before dying from a heart attack in September 1991. Meanwhile Smith formed Sonics Rendezvous and issued the underground classic City Slang in 1977 before leaving the group. He got married to Patti Smith in 1980 and died of heart failure 14 years later, according to AllMusic. Kramer launched his solo career in 1995 with the album The Hard Stuff as well. Thompson retired from active touring not long after the band broke up. MC5 will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for Musical Excellence the day after Heavy Lifting drops. The induction ceremony will be held Oct. 19 at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio. It will stream live on Disney+ with an airing on ABC at a later date and be available on Hulu the next day. Doughnuts, the soft, sweet food of the pastry world, will get their annual recognition on Friday. National Doughnut Day is celebrated on the first Friday in June, according to Nationaldaycalendar.com. The day was originally meant to honor the Salvation Army Lassies, women who served doughnuts to soldiers during World War I. In 1917, the Salvation Army sent a group of women to the front lines in France to help set up field bases as a way to boost the armys morale, Nationaldaycalendar.com reported. These makeshift huts were where soldiers could stock up on supplies and get a small break from the war. But the Salvation Army Lassies wanted to do more than restock army supplies, so they decided to cook the troops home-cooked meals, according to Nationaldaycalendar.com. One of the meals that the Salvation Army Lassies cooked was a sweet baked treat that would later be called the Salvation Army Doughnut. In 1938, the Salvation Army created National Doughnut Day as a way to honor the Salvation Army Lassies, according to Nationaldaycalendar.com. Although the day started as a fundraiser for Chicagos Salvation Army, today it has become a day to celebrate doughnuts. Here are some places to get an epic doughnut on National Doughnut Day. At Blackbird Doughnuts, customers wont just find the typical fare chocolate, sprinkle and vanilla glaze they can choose from a variety of unique doughnuts. Blackbird specialties include the pineapple upside-down doughnut made with vanilla cake, pineapple glaze and maraschino cherries; the Strawberry Rhubarb Jam Bismarck doughnut filled with brioche, house-made jam and vanilla sugar; and the guava and cheese roll doughnut made with brioche, cream cheese, guava jelly and a cream cheese glaze, according to the bakerys menu. Doughnuts are available for either pick-up or delivery on Friday, according to the bakerys website. The boxes include 12 mini doughnuts for $23, a vegan six-pack of doughnuts for $21 and a dozen assorted doughnuts for $42. Since June is Pride month, Blackbird will also serve rainbow-colored pastries such as rainbow doughnut cakes and pride-lettered doughnuts. Blackbird has locations in Bostons Southend, Fenway, Harvard Square, Brighton, Newton Centre, Beacon Hill/West End and Watertown. Store hours vary by location, according to Blackbirds website. A lineup of doughnuts served at Union Square Donuts.Bex Walton Union Square Donuts offers pastries such as the Vietnamese coffee doughnut, made with sweetened condensed milk and espresso and covered in a creamy glaze, according to its menu. Customers can choose the sea salt whiskey caramel doughnut, which is covered in a caramel gaze with a hint of whiskey, sprinkled off with a few flakes of Maldon sea salt, the menu reads. Fans of The Simpsons can try the Homer, a strawberry-glazed doughnut with sprinkles, according to Union Square Donuts menu. As Fathers Day approaches on June 16, customers can pre-order boxes of doughnuts for pickup. Customers can choose a box of six doughnuts for $26 or a box of 12 doughnuts for $52, according to the bakerys menu. Union Square Doughnuts has locations in Somerville, Boston, Cambridge and Brookline. Store hours vary by location. Roccos Doughnut Company offers a variety of doughnuts, including Maple bacon, cotton candy milkshake, Boston cream and apple fritter. For those with a big appetite or a friend group, try the giant doughnut. For $30, this doughnut feeds eight to 10 people and is great for birthday parties, weddings [and] pretty much any event that needs a dessert, according to the bakerys website. This doughnut is available for pick up at Roccos Westborough location only. Customers can also order a doughnut platter, which is made for hosting events, according to Roccos menu. The platter can be ordered with 12 doughnuts cut in quarters wrapped in pastry papers on an 18-inch round deli-style platter or 6 doughnuts cut in quarters on a 12-inch round deli-style platter. Because 4 bite size doughnuts are less cals than a whole doughnut right? Roccos wrote about the platter in its menu description. Customers can also buy a mystery doughnut box and/or build a custom box of doughnuts, according to the bakerys menu. Roccos is located in Westborough, Worcester, Millbury and Burlington and is open Wednesday to Sunday. At Shire Donuts in Dalton, there are three categories of doughnuts listed on the stores website. The basics for those who like to keep things simple include a plain donut, powdered sugar, maple iced and glazed doughnuts, according to the bakerys menu. The standards, which are doughnuts that are popular with customers, include smore doughnuts, cinnamon doughnuts and crumb cake doughnuts. The third category is staff favorites, which include cookie and cream doughnuts and a peanut buttercup doughnut. Fans of The Flintstones can enjoy a Yabba Dabba Doo doughnut covered with vanilla icing and fruity pebbles. Warm, fresh, made-to-order donuts with hundreds of build-your-own topping combinations. Its not just a donut its an experience, the bakery website says. Also serving coffee and daily baked-good specials. Treat yourself because you deserve a better donut. Shire Donuts is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. to noon and Fridays from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m., according to its website. The blueberry n' cream old-fashioned donut with a blueberry glaze whipped cream and an oat streusel is sold at Duke's Donut Worx in MashpeeBecca McGuire Dukes Donut Worx in Mashpee serves yeasted and cake donuts that are hand-cut and made fresh throughout the day, according to its website. The first of every month, Dukes changes its menu, which is then posted on its Instagram account. June doughnut flavors include classics such as double-glazed, chocolate and black raspberry glazed jelly. Each classic is priced at $3.25, while deluxe flavors, such as blueberry n cream and premium flavors, such as peanut butter pie, cost $4.75, according to the shops menu. At Dukes, customers can get a classic six-pack of double-glazed doughnuts for $18 or a variety pack of chocolate, pink and glazed doughnuts for the same price, according to Dukes menu. Customers can also pre-order a box mixed with classic and premium doughnuts for $21 and a premium six-pack for $25, according to its menu. Dukes Donut Worx is open daily from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. At Captain Bakers Donuts in West Dennis, customers can design their own doughnuts, according to the bakerys website. First, they can select a doughnut options include old-fashioned or seasonal doughnuts such as the summer old-fashioned blueberry. Then customers select from several glazes, which include espresso, vanilla and honey, and toppings, some of which are bacon, oreo crumbs and raspberry jelly. Lastly, customers can select a drizzle, some options include caramel, maple and peanut butter. Captain Bakers also serves specialty doughnuts made each day, according to its website. Some specialty doughts include a BamBam doughnut, which is an old-fashioned doughnut made with a vanilla glaze, fruity pebbles and a dinosaur gummy, and a Lemon Cloud doughnut, an old-fashioned doughnut rolled in powdered sugar with lemon custard on top. The bakery also serves seasonal summertime doughnuts. Starting on June 5, Captain Bakers Donuts will operate during its summer hours from 7 a.m. to noon, according to its website. The father of a Bedford woman who is accused of killing him and her mother in a car Thursday morning had been open about his struggles with mental health. He was to be honored at an annual community mental health center event in Bedford on the day he was killed, according to posts on social media. Jessica Cavallaro is accused of shooting her mother, Thelma Tatten, and her father, Mark Cavallaro, Thursday morning with a gun belonging to her boyfriend, whose family she was living with. The accused and her parents had planned to go out to breakfast when the shooting occurred. Cavallaro had left work earlier that morning and told her boyfriends father she was having a panic attack, according to police reports filed in Concord District Court. A Facebook page for TJ Tatten and MC Cavallaro, that features photos of Jessica Cavallaro, launched a fundraiser in April for a walk organized by the National Alliance on Mental Illness in which Mark Cavallaro was registered as a participant. In a post on the page and in the fundraiser, Mark Cavallaro wrote that he had struggled with social anxiety and bipolar disorder since he was 12 years old. Being around people is a HUGE struggle for me, Cavallaro wrote, adding that he had found refuge at The Edinburg Center, a Bedford community mental health center. Sessions he participated in at the center taught him how to feel better about myself in a realistic and positive way and he began teaching a guitar group there, he wrote. None of this could ever have happened without their support, Cavallaro said. Mark Cavallaro was killed mere hours before he was to be recognized at the centers annual Night of Shining Stars, held on Thursday. A Facebook post on Wednesday includes his name on the list of recipients of winners of shining stars from the center along with 19 other people. Jessica Cavallaro was arraigned in Concord District Court Thursday afternoon on two charges each of murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury as well as a charge of carrying a firearm without a license. Cavallaro was held without bail pending a pre-trial hearing in August and will undergo a mental health evaluation at the request of her attorney. During the brief court proceeding, Assistant District Attorney Suzanne Wiseman said Bedford police were called to Washington Street around 9 a.m. Thursday by the owner of the home Cavallaro was living in who reported the incident. The homeowner told police the gun used in the killings was still inside the car where Cavallaros parents were. When police arrived at 11 Washington St., they found two individuals later identified as Mark Cavallaro and Thelma Tatten unconscious with gunshot wounds to the head in the two front seats of a car. Tatten was pronounced dead at the scene and Cavallaro was taken to an area hospital, where he later died. Wiseman told Judge Lynn C. Brendemuehl that Jessica Cavallaro had gone to work earlier Thursday morning as normal before returning home unexpectedly. Cavallaro was then set to go to breakfast with her parents and entered the car, where prosecutors say she shot them. She came back in the house and then she announced that she had killed her parents, Wiseman said. Jessica Cavallaro does not have a prior criminal record, according to prosecutors. Her attorney, Lorenzo Perez, did not contest prosecutors request she be held without bail. Speaking to reporters after the arraignment, he called the case a tragedy but said little information was immediately available. Its absolutely mind-bogglingly difficult to understand because we dont have any information, Perez said. Theres just a dearth of information here, heartbreaking tragedy, but dearth of information. Daniela Teixeira, now of Billerica, told MassLive on Friday that she lived on Genetti Street in Bedford near the Cavallaro family for about five years. In that time, she said, the Cavallaros appeared to be a regular family. There was nothing weird about them, she said. A Boston man with a criminal history was charged in connection with a machete attack in May that left another man injured, according to Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Haydens office. Charles Selph, 62, was arraigned on May 28 and charged with one count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, Haydens office said in a statement released on Thursday. Boston Municipal Court Central Division Judge James Coffey ordered Selph to be held on $1,000 bail and ordered him to stay away from the victim and the area where the incident happened, Haydens office said. Selph is scheduled to return to court on June 21 for a pre-trial hearing. At around 10:15 p.m. on May 23, Massachusetts State Police troopers arrived at the area of Storrow Drive under the Longfellow Bridge regarding a call for a person covered in blood, Haydens office said. Troopers found a man, 54, bleeding from several lacerations on top of his head and he told them he was attacked while he slept under the bridge. He ran onto Storrow Drive, where commuters stopped to help him. The man gave troopers a description of who attacked him, Haydens office said. He was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital to be treated. Troopers were given one drivers cell phone video that showed the man pointing to another man, holding a long object in his hand, under Longfellow Bridge, Haydens office said. Troopers also looked at a video from the Charles/MGH Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority station that showed a man in similar clothes also holding a long, metal object just before the time of the attack. After troopers canvassed the area, they found a machete in a grassy area near the Longfellow Bridge that matched the object seen in the video, along with a black backpack that had a hospital bracelet and a prescription medication bottle both featuring Selphs name. Found in Boston, troopers arrested Selph on May 27. Selph has a long criminal history and history of guilty convictions in Massachusetts, Haydens office said. This included charges of assault with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a police officer, failure to register as a sex offender, sexual assault and rape. Selph was sentenced to nine months in prison last May for assault and battery. I am extremely grateful for the motorists who stopped and helped this victim, and for the victims assistance in giving troopers a solid description of his attacker, Hayden said in the statement. This assistance, along with surveillance video and excellent investigative work, led to a quick arrest in this brutal attack. A 49-year-old man who served as the chair of the Select Board in Grafton was arrested on Friday in connection with a scheme to defraud investors in a marijuana dispensary he planned to launch after resigning from the board, acting U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Joshua S. Levys office announced. Bruce W. Spinney III, of Grafton, was indicted Thursday on three counts of wire fraud related to the scheme and one count of conducting an unlawful monetary transaction, according to Levys office. He made an initial appearance in federal court in Worcester on Friday following his arrest, where he was released on conditions. After resigning as chair of the Grafton Select Board in August 2019, prosecutors say Spinney solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars in investments for a new marijuana dispensary venture, Noble Manna, Inc. Before incorporating Noble Manna in October of that year, Spinney ran a rental equipment and rental linen business known as Spinney Enterprises that accumulated large amounts of debt. Spinney is accused of telling investors in the marijuana venture that he would use the money for the construction and licensing of retail dispensaries in Grafton and Menon. He instead used the money to pay down debts from the other business, according to the statement. Prosecutors say Spinney used investment money to pay debt collectors, outstanding business loans, cash withdrawals, and personal expenses. In March 2020, prosecutors said Spinney used the proceeds of a wire fraud scheme to transfer $27,000 to pay off a debt tied to his rental business an unlawful monetary transaction. Each count of wire fraud carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, while the charge of unlawful monetary transaction carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, according to federal prosecutors. A Brookline woman who worked at a senior level at a pharmaceutical company pleaded guilty to engaging in a scheme to defraud that company of $2.3 million, Acting United States Attorney Joshua Levys office announced Thursday. Priya Bhambi, 40, of Brookline, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of wire fraud, Levys office said in a statement. Bhambi worked as senior level employee in the technology operations group of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited. She and an alleged co-conspirator, who did not work at the company, were charged in an indictment filed on March 23, 2023. Between January and October 2022, Bhambi and her alleged co-conspirator orchestrated and executed to defraud the company in payments for purported consulting services by submitting fabricated invoices on behalf of a sham consulting company, Levys office said. One month after the scheme began, they incorporated Evoluzione Consulting LLC and Bhambi later created a website for Evoluzione with fake information, including fabricated blog posts, so that it looked like Evoluzione was a legitimate consulting business. They then gave Takeda a statement of work and had Takeda sign a master services agreement with Evoluzione and issue a purchase order to Evoluzione for consulting services with a total cost of $3.5 million, Levys office said. Between March and May 2022, Bhambi and the co-conspirator fabricated and submitted five separate invoices to Takeda for services that Evoluzione had not performed, each in the amount of $460,000. Takeda employees asked Bhambi and the co-conspirator about this, but they made false representations regarding Evoluziones services, Levys office said. Takeda paid all of those invoices to business accounts, opened by Bhambis co-conspirator, in Evoluziones name. The $2.3 million was used to buy a Mercedes-Benz Model E, purchase a diamond engagement ring, make a down payment on a $1.9 million condominium in Bostons Seaport neighborhood; and place a deposit on a wedding venue, Levys office said. Seizure warrants were issued for the Mercedes, over $1 million in fraud proceeds from the accounts that Bhambi and the co-conspirator controlled, $49,985 from the wedding venue deposit and issued a restraining order to preserve the Seaport condominium for forfeiture. The charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud carry a sentence of no greater than 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense. A South Boston man, with a 22-page criminal record including five open cases in South Boston, has been charged with assault to murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after being arraigned in connection with a June 4 knife attack at Andrew MBTA Station, according to the Suffolk County District Attorneys office. At about 4:14 p.m. on Tuesday, an MBTA police officer saw two men fighting near Ellery Street at Andrew Station. When the officer approached the fight, one of the men ran toward Southampton Street. The officer arrested the suspect near the station, who was later identified by the district attorneys office as Thomas Digaetano, 42. Surveillance footage shows Digaetano attacking a 41-year-old man and hitting the mans upper body several times with what officials believe was a knife, the district attorneys office said. A second suspect was shown kicking and punching the 41-year-old while he was on the ground. The second suspect had fled the scene before police arrived, the Suffolk County District Attorneys office said. Police are still searching for the second suspect. The 41-year-old had several lacerations to his head and abdomen and was taken to Boston Medical Center. Digaetano was ordered to be held pending a dangerousness hearing on June 11. A New Bedford man is facing multiple criminal charges in connection with a scheme in which prosecutors say he stole more than $450,000 intended for a 20-year veteran of the Marine Corps suffering from Lou Gehrigs disease. Joseph Smith is charged with one count each of theft of government benefits and conspiracy to steal government benefits, acting U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Joshua S. Levys office announced Friday. Smith is in federal custody on unrelated charges and will appear in federal court in Boston on Tuesday. In August 2015, shortly after the Marine veteran was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, the Veterans Benefits Administration approved his application for disability benefits, awarding him about $8,300 in monthly payments, according to Levys office. The administration began the payments the following month, in September 2015, through monthly checks mailed to the mans former residence in New Bedford, where he had lived with Smiths relative and others before he was hospitalized. Between 2015 and 2020, while the man was hospitalized, prosecutors say Smith and others received the monthly disability checks intended for the man and deposited the money in bank accounts they controlled. Smith is accused of first depositing the checks in an account in his own name and then beginning to deposit them in an account he and others opened in the name of the man the checks were for, according to federal prosecutors. Shortly after depositing the checks, Smith is accused of withdrawing the money as cash, which he used for personal expenses, federal prosecutors said. In all, between 2015 and 2020, Smith and others are accused of stealing more than $450,000 in disability benefits intended for the man, Levys office said. Levy called the allegations against Smith beyond the pale. The immorality exposed by the criminal justice system is, at times, simply stunning, he said in the statement. Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Boston Division Ketty D. Larco-Ward said it is difficult to imagine a financial crime more despicable than one alleged to have targeted a vulnerable member of our community. If he is convicted on both charges, Smith could face up to 15 years in prison, according to Levys office. They came to celebrate the opening of an innovative new building and left with the promise of a trans-Atlantic education and research partnership. The budding collaboration between scientists at the World Health Organization [WHO] and the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School was announced Friday before a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new research and education building in Worcester. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, was the keynote speaker at the event, which included remarks from UMass Chan Chancellor Michael Collins and other elected and school dignitaries. Tedros spoke directly to Collins during his speech in the UMass Chan auditorium. He noted his organizations initiative to open a WHO Academy in Lyon, France, in December as a global center for life-long learning and health and to build up the medical workforce worldwide after the COVID-19 pandemic. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was the keynote speaker at UMass Chan Medical School's opening of its New Education and Research Building Friday. (Irene Rotondo/MassLive)Irene Rotondo Chancellor Collins, we would very much welcome the opportunity to discuss with you how the WHO Academy could partner with UMass Chan Medical School to leverage your expertise and experience for the world, Tedros said. Read more: UMass Chan unveils first lab to monitor AI use in health care simulations This new building will provide a platform for education; so too, it will provide a platform for building on the schools impressive track record in research in HIV, cancer, diabetes, infectious diseases and in understanding the molecular basis of disease, the WHO Director-General said. Collins returned to the microphone to respond. Our model here at UMass Chan is advancing together, he said. This reflects our commitment to collaboration, our recognition, in this case, the building that now dominates our quad, [as it] requires the support, ideas and advocacy of many. And we accept your invitation to partner with the WHO Academy. After speeches about the New Education and Research Building and its expected impact on medical advancement were finished, the 400-person gathering headed outside for the ribbon cutting and a tour of the building. The nine-story, 350,000-square-foot building boasts collaborative workspaces on the ground floor and an open-concept design with seating and conference rooms. Glassed-in labs, office spaces, private rooms and other work areas filled the other floors. The $350 million building has a climate-conscious design and uses a geothermal system for heating and cooling. The space is expected to accommodate 70 people in charge of clinical trials and researchers focused on gene therapy, neuroscience and molecular medicine. Read more: Judge approves June 24 bid deadline for Steward hospitals Future doctors, nurses and scientists from UMass Chan will train at the facility. UMass President Martin Meehan said it will allow the school to attract the best medical school faculty that we can. The school also took pride in completing its construction through the pitfalls of the COVID pandemic and in the use of women- and marginalized community-owned businesses for the project, Meehan said. The exterior of the New Education and Research Building at UMass Chan Medical School on Friday. (Irene Rotondo/MassLive)Irene Rotondo Of the partnership with WHO, Meehan said he envisions a synergy with some of the best public health people in the world in both Worcester and France. During his speech, Tedros noted the importance of health-care workers around the world, especially with the disparities many countries faced in accessing the COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic. He said WHO, UMass Chan and the new building share the same purpose in efforts toward education and research, to make a difference in our world, to save lives, to prevent suffering and to close inequities. Collins presented Tedros with an honorary degree and he was awarded a key to the city of Worcester by Mayor Joseph M. Petty. Latest A Wellesley psychiatrist who billed Medicare and other private insurance companies for more than $19 million in treatments he didnt provide and who later used the money to buy a multi-million dollar vacation home among other personal expenses was sentenced to more than eight years in prison on Thursday. Gustavo Kinrys, 53, of Wellesley, was convicted of seven counts of wire fraud, six counts of false statements relating to health care matters, and one count of obstructing a criminal health care investigation following a jury trial in October 2023, acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levys office said in a statement. Kinrys was a licensed psychiatrist who owned and operated a business in Natick where he offered treatments to patients with depression. Between January 2015 and December 2018, Kinrys engaged in a variety of fraudulent billing scheme in which he requested and received reimbursements for $19 million in services he never provided, Levys office said. Kinrys billed Medicare and other insurers $10.6 million for thousands of transcranial magnetic stimulation sessions he never provided, including 8,000 sessions he said were provided to 74 patients. In reality, none of those patients ever received a single session of the therapy, according to prosecutors. Kinrys also billed Medicare and private insurance companies for millions worth of psychotherapy sessions he never provided, which included more than 900 face-to-face sessions he claimed to hold. However, during those purported sessions, he was on vacation in locations such as the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and the Czech Republic, Levys office said. On 382 days, Kinrys billed Medicare and others for providing more than 24 hours worth of psychotherapy in a single day. On one day in July 2017, he claimed to have provided hour-long sessions to 70 patients while he was outside the country on vacation. With the proceeds from the fraud, Kinrys paid off a $1.8 million home in Wellesley, purchased more than $600,000 in jewelry from luxury brands like Cartier and Tiffany & Co. and bought a $2.1 million vacation home in Nantucket, according to Levys office. To further his scheme, Kinrys made a number of false statements to patients, a billing company, and to insurers he was seeking reimbursements from. When Medicare and other insurers sought records from Kinrys to back up his exorbitant claims, he took steps to conceal the fraud, creating and forcing an employee to create fake patient records that were then submitted to Medicare and other providers. Later, in response to a subpoena from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, Kinrys created and produced more fake patient records showing patients had received dozens of treatments that never happened and reported that their conditions were improving. Dr. Kinrys undermined the trust that our healthcare system relies upon, Levy said in the statement. When someone commits health care fraud, we all suffer it drives up costs for everyone, diverts precious resources and erodes the publics confidence in our healthcare providers. June 19, also known as Juneteenth, was first celebrated as an official state holiday in Massachusetts and a federal holiday throughout the United States in 2021. Approaching this years Juneteenth holiday, MassLive asked readers and staff to identify Black leaders throughout the state who are working to make a difference in their own area of interest. Profiles of these leaders are being published on MassLive beginning today through June 19. Juneteenth celebrates the date of June 19, 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger and soldiers from the Union Army entered Galveston, Texas, and informed the remaining enslaved African Americans that they were freed under the Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Abraham Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863. According to Dr. Noelle Trent, President of the Museum of African American History Boston & Nantucket, news of the proclamation did not travel quickly, and that some communities were unaware 3.5 million people who were enslaved were now free. Despite a lot of people saying the Emancipation Proclamation means all slaves in the United States were free, it came as a shock to others, Trent said. Additionally, the Emancipation Proclamation only went into effect in Confederate areas that were under Union control, according to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It took two years after the proclamation was signed and one year after the American Civil War ended for the remaining 250,000 enslaved African Americans to be informed that they were to be freed. So, how did this day become a holiday? According to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, the first large-scale Juneteenth celebrations happened on June 19, 1866. Early celebrations featured a prayer service, a reading of the proclamation, games, dances and rodeos. These celebrations continued in the late 19th century in Texas and beyond, according to the commission. As African American Texans migrated to states including Alabama, Florida and California, they brought their tradition of celebrating Juneteenth with them. During the early 1900s, however, there was a decline in Juneteenth celebrations in the southern states due to economic hardships caused by the great depression and the rise of Jim Crow laws that disenfranchised African Americans in southern states, according to History.com. During the civil rights movement of the 1960s, there was a renewed interest in the date when the Southern Christian Leadership Conference designated the day as the solidarity day of the Poor Peoples Campaign in 1968. During. that day, activists and civil rights leaders marched in Washington, D.C., demanding the government take action to address poverty throughout the country. This renewed interest in the history of Juneteenth sparked a revival of large-scale celebrations in Texas throughout the 1970s. In 1979, Texas Gov. William P. Clements Jr. signed a bill into law that made Juneteenth an official state holiday. The following year, Texas became the first state to observe and recognize the holiday state-wide. In the years following, several states, including Massachusetts, began to observe Juneteenth. In 2007, Gov. Deval Patrick, the states first black governor, signed a proclamation commemorating Juneteenth. The murder of George Floyd and wider-scale Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 brought new attention to recognition of Juneteenth as an official holiday. On July 24, 2020, Massachusetts officially recognized Juneteenth as a state holiday after Gov. Charlie Baker signed a budget bill with a provision that designated June 19 as Juneteenth Independence Day. Because the bill was signed one month after June, bay-staters had to wait until 2021 before celebrating Juneteenth as an official holiday. Throughout 2020 and 2021, several state governors approved laws that designated June 19 as an official holiday. U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., introduced a bill to Congress on Feb. 25, 2021, to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. On June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed the bill the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law. Juneteenth contains our countys jagged edges and smooth curves, its stains of servitude and bright spots of justice, Markey wrote in an opinion piece in 2023. Juneteenth is America, with all of its oppression and progress bundled together. We have an obligation to unravel our countrys complicated history and address its injustices. And that means we have an obligation to observe Juneteenth. MassLive recently asked readers to identify people they consider Black leaders in Massachusetts, working to make a difference in politics, education, business, the arts or another area of interest. Profiles of these leaders will be published leading up to the Juneteenth holiday on June 19. 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. Staisha Chavis. Courtesy of Sev-One Media.Sev-One Media Staisha Chavis Age: 38 Community: Worcester Her story: When she graduated with a degree in political science and public policy, Staisha Chavis knew she wanted to work towards promoting justice, equity and access for all people, she told MassLive. In choosing to become a public servant, she said it was a calling instead of a choice and pursued a career as an affordable housing advocate. My commitment and passion for public service was fostered during my time with the Massachusetts Trial Court, she said. I worked hand-in-hand with the general public providing support to individuals and families navigating a very complex and nuanced legal system. I witnessed first-hand how systemic inequities and institutional pitfalls showed up in the lives of everyday working-class people. Her involvement drove her to want to be an active part of the solution of tackling peoples challenges, she said. She took on roles in local and state government assessing and evaluating needs, creating equitable policies and practices, and developing high-impact programs, she added. In these roles, shes engaged with elected officials, housing agencies and grassroots organizations as a means to find sustainable and long-lasting solutions to homelessness and housing disparities. There is no greater reward than seeing the tangible impact of the work you care deeply about, she said. From August 2020 to October 2023, she worked for the citys Housing Development Division with the aim of assisting and supporting housing rehabilitation and new construction with an emphasis on offering quality affordable housing, she said. Our primary focus was on the delivery of enhanced physical and human infrastructure systems in Worcesters most under-resourced neighborhoods, Chavis continued. I worked in tandem with stakeholders, community members and elected officials to ensure federal, state and local funding was allocated responsibly and reached areas of disinvestment, low to moderate-income communities, and BIPOC communities that were disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Chavis has, since October 2023, moved on to work at Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, a quasi-government agency whose mission is to support business formation and growth in the states technology sector, helping Massachusetts lead in the global digital economy, she said. Operating with the state Legislature, municipalities, broadband service providers and other partners, Chavis said the agency bridges the digital divide in Massachusetts [to bring] vital resources to both undeserved and unserved communities alike. In her words: In the words of the great Amilcar Cabral: Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories. 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. Editors note: This story, which first appeared on palabra, the digital news site by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, is a collaboration with Puente News Collaborative. Puente News Collaborative is a bilingual nonprofit newsroom, convener and funder dedicated to high quality, fact-based news and information from the U.S.-Mexico border. Words by Eduardo Garcia and Alfredo Corchado | Edited by Dudley Althaus MEXICO CITY Outperforming even the rosiest predictions, leftist Claudia Sheinbaum has swept into Mexicos presidency in a landslide that likely will enable her to accelerate the nationalist-populist program of her patron, who hands over power in four months. Sheinbaum, 61, took nearly 60% of votes in a three-way race, double the support of her nearest opponent. The ruling Morena party, founded by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, will control two thirds of both chambers of Mexicos national congress and 24 of its 32 state governorships. What Sheinbaum does with that mandate will define Mexicos economic policy including treatment of private investment in key industries like energy. Her government must also determine whether and how to alter Lopez Obradors lackluster efforts against militarized criminal gangs. And it will be forced to decide on the treatment of hundreds of thousands of global migrants transiting the country enroute to the U.S. border. For Texas and other U.S. border states, theres a lot riding on how Sheinbaum proceeds. Mexico has overtaken China as the main U.S. trading partner, with some $800 billion in goods crossing the border. That trade is expected to jump as manufacturing returns to North America amid growing U.S.-China tensions. Texas is the destination, origin and transit point of two thirds of binational trade with Mexico, said Tony Payan, director of the Center for the U.S. and Mexico at Rice Universitys Baker Institute.The U.S. Mexico relationship runs through Texas, and the Mexican community in Texas is enormous - Dallas Houston, San Antonio Austin, El Paso. Were talking a very intense relationship. Payan, who is also Professor of Social Sciences at the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez, added: I hope the next administration really, really understands that Washington (D.C.) is not everything. That the state capitals, whether its Sacramento, in California or Phoenix in Arizona, or Austin in Texas, are the places of power for Mexico City. Called the Fourth Transformation, or 4T, the Morena partys economic and social program is aimed at improving the lot of Mexicos poor and working class. Under Lopez Obrador, the minimum wage has doubled, labor unions have grown a bit more free and needed cash has been delivered to the aged and other marginalized Mexicans. In recent years, Mexicos export-fueled economy has proved resilient. Its super peso gained 23% against the U.S. dollar since 2018 and is now considered among the globes strongest currencies. But some analysts say Lopez Obradors anti-capital rhetoric has kept private investors money off the table. As supply chains move out of China, Mexico is one of the best-positioned countries in the world to take advantage of this once-in-a-generation opportunity, said Shannon ONeil, a Mexico expert at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of The Globalization Myth, which argues that regional economies like North Americas will emerge as an economic powerhouse in future years. The next government needs to double down on infrastructure, education, public safety, and clean energy to attract the hundreds of billions of dollars of investment up for grabs, ONeil said. The United States accounts for two thirds of Mexicos global trade, with economic ties reaching deep into the U.S. industrial heartland. With analysts citing the need for dramatic improvement in the electrical grid, highways and other public works, Sheinbaum in her victory speech sought to assure investors that she is open to working with them. We will respect entrepreneurial freedom and will honestly promote and facilitate both national and foreign private investment that fosters social well-being and regional development Sheinbaum said. Always ensuring respect for the environment. Energy investment, which was opened to Mexican and foreign provide investment a decade ago, only to be squelched under Lopez Obrador, presents a critical test for Sheinbaum. The commitment to change course on the energy sector was clear with both candidates, yet the political baggage Sheinbaum carries will make it harder for her to move quickly, said Jose Antonio Aguilar, a businessman who develops wind farms to generate renewable energy. Sheinbaums resounding victory over Xochitl Galvez, the candidate of a coalition of three opposition parties, might also signify the return of a one-party rule that characterized Mexicos political system for nearly all of the 20th century. It was Galvezs conservative National Action Party that ushered in greater democracy in Mexico by winning presidential elections in 2000 and then holding the office for 12 years. A member of Galvezs failed coalition, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, had ruled Mexico for more than 70 years before National Actions victory. But a record of mediocre rule by conservative presidents, and the PRIs disastrous return to the office in 2012, became the foundation for Morenas hold on power. Critics fear that Morenas bolstered political majority enables Sheinbaum and Lopez Obrador to weaken civic institutions painstakingly created in the 1990s to safeguard democracy and limit presidential power. This year Lopez Obrador sent Congress a number of proposals to alter Mexicos constitution. The proposals include limiting the power of the autonomous National Elections Institute, which oversees federal votes and direct election of judges, including members of the Supreme Court. The proposals would also eliminate autonomous agencies that regulate energy, telecommunications and other industries that Lopez Obrador sought to keep under government control by limiting private investment. Morena lacked the votes to push the measure through the last Congress. But Sheinbaum ran her campaign in part on vows to make the limits a reality. With the Morena coalitions strengthened majority, Congress reconvenes Sept. 1. Sheinbaums 59% of the vote is six points greater than what Lopez Obrador won in a four-way race six years ago. Galvezs tally was far less than that predicted by most opinion polls in recent weeks, including a nationwide survey commissioned by Puente News Collaborative. Most respondents in the Puente poll said Sheinbaum most capable of dealing with the U.S. relationship. The poll suggests that 69% of Mexicans believe Joe Biden would prove better for Mexico, compared with just 11% saying that about Donald Trump. Claudia, Morena just swept, said Francisco Olivarez, who sells newspapers on a corner in Mexico City. Not even close. While Sundays vote cements Lopez Obradors political legacy, some of his policies havent delivered promised results. And there are more challenges awaiting Sheinbaum: Lopez Obradors doubling down on support of the bankrupt national oil company Pemex, flies in the face of worldwide moves toward a decarbonized planet. And his expensive bets on public works, including a new, underutilized Mexico City airport and a tourist train encircling the Yucatan Peninsula, so far seem like unprofitable vanity projects. In claiming victory just before midnight Sunday, Sheinbaum sought to calm her critics. We envision a plural, diverse, and democratic Mexico, she said. We understand that dissent is part of democracy and although the majority of the people supported our project, our duty is and always will be to look after each and every Mexican without distinction. Angela Kocherga, news director at KTEP public radio in El Paso, contributed to the story. KTEP is part of the Puente News Collaborative. Eduardo Garcia established Bloombergs Mexico bureau in 1992 and served as its leader until 2001, overseeing the agencys award-winning coverage in the country. In 2001, he embarked on a new venture by founding his own news organization, Sentido Comun. For nearly 18 years, he guided Sentido Comun to become one of Mexicos most esteemed financial websites. Later, he merged his company with the local financial news agency Infosel, assuming roles as editor-in-chief and subsequently Chief Content Officer. @egarciascmx Alfredo Corchado is the executive editor for Puente News Collaborative and the former Mexico/Border Correspondent for The Dallas Morning News. Hes the author of Midnight in Mexico and Homelands. @ajcorchado Angela Kocherga, an award-winning journalist and news director of the public radio in El Paso, and NPR contributor for regional and national stories about the border. Shes also a co-host for the Texas Standard statewide daily news program. @AngelaKBorder Dudley Althaus has reported on Mexico, Latin America and beyond for more than three decades as a staff newspaper correspondent. Beginning his career at a small newspaper on the Texas-Mexico border, Althaus had an award-winning 22-year stint as Mexico City bureau chief of the Houston Chronicle. After a four-year run as a Mexico correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Althaus covered immigration and border issues as a freelancer based in San Antonio for Hearst Newspapers. He has covered every Mexican presidential election since 1988, when Mexicos troubled transition to democracy began. @dqalthaus Alex Verdugo will visit Fenway Park with the Yankees next Friday for the first time since the Red Sox traded him. Chris Sales first visit to Boston since being traded to the Braves just happened this week. With more than a third of the 2024 season finished, lets take a look at how some former Red Sox players are doing. Ex-Red Sox from 2023 roster: Alex Verdugo, Yankees: The 28-year-old is batting .255 with a .315 on-base percentage, .427 slugging percentage, .742 OPS, eight homers, 12 doubles, one triple, 34 RBIs, 29 runs, 21 walks and 31 strikeouts in 61 games (248 plate appearances). Boston traded Verdugo to New York in December for reliever Greg Weissert and pitching prospects Richard Fitts and Nicholas Judice. Justin Turner, Blue Jays: The 39-year-old DH is batting .232 with a .316 on-base percentage, .359 slugging percentage, .675 OPS, four homers, 11 doubles, 20 RBIs, 20 runs, 21 walks and 33 strikeouts in 54 games (206 plate appearances). Turner signed with Toronto in free agency in late January. Chris Sale, Braves: The 35-year-old lefty won the NL Pitcher of the Month for May. He is 8-1 with a 3.06 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, 82 strikeouts and 10 walks in 11 starts. Opponents are batting .213 against him. He struggled with his changeup his final three years with Boston. But opponents have gone just 5-for-35 (.143) against the pitch this year. The Red Sox traded Sale to Atlanta for second baseman Vaughn Grissom in December. James Paxton, Dodgers: The 35-year-old lefty is 5-1 with a 4.19 ERA, 1.49 WHIP, 33 strikeouts and 30 walks in 11 starts. Opponents are batting .254 against him. Paxton signed with the Dodgers in free agency in January. Adam Duvall, Braves: The 35-year-old is just 23-for-118 (.195) with a .284 on-base percentage, .381 slugging percentage, .665 OPS, six homers, four doubles, 17 RBIs, 14 runs, 12 walks and 33 strikeouts in 43 games. Duvall signed as a free agent with Atlanta in mid-March. BetMGM BET UP TO $1,500! BONUS BET REFUND AFTER A LOSS CLAIM OFFER Promo code: MASS150 STATES: AZ, CO, IA, IL, IN, KS, LA, MD, MI, NJ, OH, PA, TN, VA. Visit BetMGM.com for Terms and Conditions. 21 years of age or older to wager. MA Only. New Customer Offer. All promotions are subject to qualification and eligibility requirements. Rewards issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets. Bonus bets expire 7 days from issuance. In Partnership with MGM Springfield. Play it smart from the start with GameSense. GameSenseMA.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org. US Promotional Offers not available in New York. John Schreiber, Royals: The 30-year-old righty has a 2.77 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 14 holds, 18 strikeouts and seven walks in 28 outings (26 innings). Opponents have batted .265 against him. Boston traded Schreiber to Kansas City in February for pitching prospect David Sandlin. Kike Hernandez, Dodgers: The 32-year-old is just 26-for-130 (.200) with a .261 on-base percentage, .285 slugging percentage, .546 OPS, three homers, two doubles, 10 RBIs, eight runs, 11 walks and 29 strikeouts in 47 games (142 plate appearances). Boston traded Hernandez to LA last July. He then re-signed with the Dodgers in free agency during the offseason. Christian Arroyo, Brewers: The 29-year-old signed a minor league contract with the Brewers in the offseason. He has been on the IL since April 27 with Triple-A Nashville. This is his second IL stint this year. He has been limited to three games (0-for-8 with two walks and four strikeouts). Luis Urias, Mariners: The 27-year-old third baseman/second baseman went 12-for-79 (.152) with a .264 on-base percentage, .316 slugging percentage, .580 OPS, three homers, four doubles, 12 RBIs, eight runs, seven walks and 31 strikeouts in 34 games for Seattle before they optioned him to Triple-A Tacoma. He was removed from the 40-man roster June 4. Boston traded Urias to Seattle in November for right-handed reliever Isaiah Campbell Zack Littell, Rays: The 28-year-old, who pitched in two games for Boston last year before being designated for assignment, is 2-3 with a 3.56 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 66 strikeouts and 11 walks in 12 starts (68 innings) for the Rays. Opponents are batting .280 against him. Tayler Scott, Astros: The 32-year-old righty has a 1.82 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 30 strikeouts and 15 walks in 26 outings (29 innings). Opponents are batting .178 against him. He appeared in four games for Boston last year before they designated him for assignment. A few other former Red Sox: Mookie Betts, Dodgers: The 31-year-old is batting .312 with a .411 on-base percentage, .512 slugging percentage, .923 OPS, 10 homers, 14 doubles, three triples, 35 RBIs, 46 runs, nine steals, 42 walks and 28 strikeouts in 63 games (292 plate appearances). Hes fifth in the majors in fWAR (3.5). Xander Bogaerts, Padres: The 31-year-old is out with a shoulder fracture. He was batting .219 with a .265 on-base percentage, .316 slugging percentage, .581 OPS, four homers, six doubles, 14 RBIs, 23 runs, 12 walks and 40 strikeouts in 47 games (200 plate appearances). Nathan Eovaldi, Rangers: The 34-year-old righty is 2-2 with a 2.70 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 53 strikeouts and 19 walks in nine starts. Opponents are batting only .209 against him. J.D. Martinez, Mets: The 36-year-old DH is batting .281 with a .331 on-base percentage, .467 slugging percentage, .798 OPS, five homers, eight doubles, one triple, 15 RBIs, 13 runs, 10 walks and 43 strikeouts in 36 games (146 plate appearances). Andrew Benintendi, White Sox: Chicago placed the 29-year-old on the IL earlier this month with left achilles tendinitis. He was batting only .195 with a .230 on-base percentage, .284 slugging percentage, .514 OPS, four homers, five doubles, 18 RBIs, 13 runs, nine walks and 35 strikeouts in 51 games (200 plate appearances). Christian Vazquez, Twins: The 33-year-old catcher is batting .169 with a .194 on-base percentage, .237 slugging percentage, .431 OPS, two homers, two doubles, eight RBIs, seven runs, three walks and 30 strikeouts in 37 games (126 plate appearances). SPRINGFIELD Three men have been arraigned for spraying gunfire and a subsequent police chase through the city Wednesday night that left one police officer shot in the head and leg, and two state highway workers hurt as the alleged assailants fled. Arraigned this morning were the alleged shooter, 18-year-old Isak Font, of Springfield, Jaime Griffin, 31, of Springfield, and 18-year-old Alberto Torres, also a city resident. Springfield police on Friday identified the officer who was shot while driving to the departments headquarters on Wednesday evening as Nestor Santos, a seven-year veteran of the police force. Santos was shot in the face and the leg and was airlifted to a Boston hospital with injuries considered serious, but not life-threatening, police said previously. In a Facebook post Friday, police said Santos has a bullet fragment lodged in his head and has already undergone surgery. A personal note on election day: I was excited when I woke up this morning. Starting the day with a nice oat milk coffee because it's nicer for my stomach, sitting in front of an open window and thinking about the elections. It's my first time voting in Ireland since I moved here almost a year ago. The European Union allows me to vote for the Local and European elections for which I am grateful. We always have to make ourselves aware of how privileged we are as residents in Europe. Without freedom of labour and freedom of movement, the relationship with my Irish fiancee might have turned out more difficult. Obviously nothing is ever perfect and that naturally applies to the European Union as well. But that is why we have elections. My vote matters and that is why I used it today. So I walk down to my polling station in Scoil Phadraig in Westport. Casting my ballot in itself is as unspectacular here as it is at home in Germany. Little hiccups are down to little administrational mistakes. First, my name was only down for the local elections not the European ones but a phone call with Mayo County Council as well as my identity card cleared that up quickly. Everyone was so helpful and friendly. The same is to say about a man in front of me who spoke with a Northern accent, requesting his ballot paper for the European elections. He was asked his nationality to which he replied "I have a UK passport" - "Well, the UK left the EU" the lady calmly replied to which the man replied "But I didn't". I then minded my own business, so I don't know how this encounter ended. But it's a short episode which tells a lot about the complexities of European and Irish politics. On top of my personal experience today, I'm also excited to report live from the count centre tomorrow in Castlebar, bringing all the news of the elections to you. We should embrace and cherish democracy. Many fought for our democratic rights during past centuries. We should not take that for granted. Read more on the Elections: LIVE-BLOG from the count centre starting Saturday morning Voting underway in 235 polling stations in Mayo European Election Explainer: What we vote for and how to vote Big read: The Irish voting system: How your vote can travel a long way REVEALED: Full list of candidates who contest Mayo Local Elections To promote comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of Palestinian question 10:12, June 07, 2024 By He Yin ( People's Daily A strong voice was made to safeguard peace and justice regarding the Palestinian question at the 10th ministerial conference of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF) held in Beijing, capital of China, May 30, 2024. Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the conference, expounding on China's position on the Palestinian question. The conference adopted a China-Arab states joint statement on the Palestinian issue, which demonstrates the important consensus of the two sides in ending the fighting in Gaza as soon as possible and promoting a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the question. Since last October, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has escalated drastically, throwing the people into tremendous sufferings. At the opening ceremony of the 10th ministerial conference of the CASCF, Xi stressed that war should not continue indefinitely, and justice should not be absent forever, and commitment to the two-State solution should not be wavered at will. The China-Arab states joint statement on the Palestinian issue adopted by the conference expresses deep concerns of China and Arab states over the prolonged conflict in Gaza, which has resulted in a humanitarian crisis. It emphasizes the firm stance of the two sides in promoting a ceasefire in Gaza, ensuring humanitarian aid, opposing forced displacement of Palestinian people, supporting Palestine's full membership in the United Nations (UN), and steadfastly working toward an early resolution of the Palestinian question based on the two-State solution. Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, Palestine's minister of state for foreign affairs and expatriates, said the statement is conducive to strengthening the international community's support for the just cause of Palestine, and reflected China's position on the Palestinian question. History has repeatedly shown that the recurrent Palestine-Israel problem is rooted essentially in the failure of actual enforcement of relevant UN resolutions, in the continued erosion of the foundation for the two-State solution, and the deviation of the Middle East peace process. Restoring justice to the Palestinian people and fully implementing the two-State solution is the only way to break the vicious circle of Palestinian-Israeli conflicts, to eliminate the breeding ground of extremist ideologies, and to realize enduring peace in the Middle East. The two-State solution is the only realistic path to resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, with granting Palestine full UN membership being an important step toward this goal. China firmly supports the establishment of an independent State of Palestine that enjoys full sovereignty based on the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital. It supports a more broad-based, authoritative and effective international peace conference. The National, a daily newspaper in the United Arab Emirates, said in an editorial that the words from Chinese President Xi Jinping, delivered at the CASCF in Beijing, not only align with the position of the many senior Arab leaders in attendance, but will resonate with millions of people across the Middle East. Since the outbreak of the latest Palestinian-Israeli conflict, China has maintained close communication and coordination with the Arab countries, built broad-based consensus with relevant parties in the international community, and promoted the comprehensive ceasefire with the greatest sense of urgency. China attaches great importance to the humanitarian situation in Gaza and has provided multiple batches of emergency humanitarian assistance to Gaza through bilateral and multilateral channels. China will continue to provide support and emergency humanitarian assistance to help ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and support post-conflict reconstruction. Chinese representatives have made multiple visits to regional countries and attended relevant international peace conferences to mediate among different parties. As the rotating president of the UN Security Council for November 2023, China pushed for the adoption of the first resolution after the current round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict broke out, and issued the Position Paper of the People's Republic of China on Resolving the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, actively promoting the UN Security Council to take meaningful and responsible actions. China actively supports all Palestinian factions in achieving reconciliation through dialogue and consultation and firmly supports "the Palestinians governing Palestine." This year, China has issued joint statements with Egypt and other Arab countries, the General Secretariat of the Arab League, and France to build consensus in promoting the resolution of the Palestinian question. The leaders from Arab countries attending the opening ceremony of the 10th ministerial conference of the CASCF highly praised China's fair and just stance on the Palestinian question. They said they are willing to closely collaborate with China in efforts to alleviate the tense situation and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, help Palestinians establish an independent state, and promote a comprehensive, just settlement of the Palestinian question at an early date. The current situation in Gaza is unsustainable. An unconditional and immediate ceasefire is an international consensus. Improvement of humanitarian conditions on the ground is an urgent imperative. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a responsible major country, China will continue to stand in solidarity with Arab states. China will speak up and stand up for justice, and push for the early, comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian question. (Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun) Award-winning harpist, Ursula Burns, is set to enchant Mulranny with her acclaimed one-woman show, How Many Bardic Harpers Does It Take to Change a Lightbulb?. Known as The Dangerous Harpist, Ms Burns will take to the stage of the intimate Oratory of the Old Convent at Mulranny Arts tonight, Friday, June 7. A trailblazer in the world of harp music, Ms Burns has spent 30 years shattering the conventional image of the harp. Her innovative style blends music, theatre, circus and comedy, captivating audiences around the globe. Known for her dynamic and engaging performances, Burns has reinvented harp playing, bringing it to thrilling new heights. Her accidental foray into comedy led her to win the Irish Musical Comedy Awards in 2012, and since then, she has been a regular at the Edinburgh Festival, earning a nomination for the prestigious Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality. Most recently, Burns was honoured with the Everywoman Global TV Award for Outstanding Innovative Harpist of the Year in December 2023. Burns' performance at Mulranny Arts promises to be a highlight of the Circus250 Daring Dames Festival, which recently wowed audiences in Achill and Mulranny. The Oratory at the Old Convent, who host sell-out shows such as Kate Kerrigan's Am I Irish Yet and the Keening Festival recently, provides the perfect setting for this one-of-a-kind event. With six solo albums and a wealth of music composed, Ms Burns is a compelling artist who continuously pushes the boundaries of her craft. Don't miss the unforgettable evening with The Dangerous Harpist and experience the magic she brings to the harp. Tickets are available now on the Mulranny Arts website. The first 12 months of baby Caragh Cohill's life have been quite a journey for both her and her parents Maureen and Michael. Having been born at just 25 weeks, weighing the equivalent of half a bag of sugar, Caragh survived the first eight weeks of her life with the assistance of tubes and oxygen masks. If that was not bad enough, she developed sepsis while in intensive care ... so for her to come through that unscathed has been quite the journey. On May 19, Caragh celebrated her first birthday at her home in Saula on Achill Island and mum Maureen McGinty says it was a very special milestone for all the family. It has been such a quick year. It was so nice even to put a candle in a cake for her. Seeing her opening her presents and pulling at the wrapping like any other baby. It was a really nice day, she told The Mayo News. Caragh's was Maureen and Michael's first baby and everything seemed fine until she went for a routine 20 week scan in University Hospital Galway, where she worked as a nurse. She was told to return in two weeks when another scan showed abnormalities in the blood flow to the placenta. The following morning Maureen was transferred by ambulance to the Coombe Hospital in Dublin where she was told that her baby would have to be delivered and it was just a question of when. A week later, a scan showed the blood flow to Caragh had gone into reverse so on May 19, 2023, Caragh was born weighing just 521 grams or one pound three ounces. She was teeny tiny. When she was delivered that day I could not believe how small she was. When she was delivered they got Michael to put his hand up against her on the incubator and she was just the length of Michael's hand, Maureen recalls. As soon as Caragh was born, she was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit. Different world Once you go through the doors of the intensive care unit it is a different world. There are machines, there's beeping and very unwell babies through those doors. Honestly the first time I saw her in the incubator I got such a fright because she was just so tiny. There was a sense of hopelessness at the start because we couldn't do anything, she explained. For Maureen and Michael, the first few weeks were very difficult with doctors telling them not to look too far forward as Caragh battled for survival. With their immediate families in Achill and Clifden respectively, they were in a vulnerable place and all alone in Dublin. Finding a place to stay in a city with a housing crisis was the last thing they needed. Thankfully, the social service workers in the Coombe set them up with Hugh's House, a charity which provides family accommodation for parents who have ill children in Temple Street, Holles Street, The Coombe and Rotunda Hospitals. It was a godsend for Maureen and Michael. Hugh's House took so much stress off us, she said. Once we were given that room we were told not to worry about any other accommodation and we would have that room until the day we left Dublin with Caragh. It took so much stress off us and they never asked us for one penny. We never thought we would be in this position. Obviously for the first few days you are trying to wrap your head around what was happening. After being in the hospital all day, it was really nice to stay there with other families who are going through the same thing as you and chat with them. You listen to other people's stories and chat to somebody who has been through that ... they give you hope, Maureen commented. When Caragh was born her lungs were not fully developed and after three days she was placed on a ventilator to regulate her breathing. Obviously it is not a nice sight to see your baby ventilated but it did her the world of good and after two days she took the tube out herself. She was after telling them 'enough is enough'. As the weeks progressed, Caragh started to thrive and after eight weeks of being fed through tubes and given oxygen through masks, she was now ready to eat and breathe on her own. I will never forget the day when I went in and they had taken everything off her face and she looked so different. We never saw her properly between masks and tubes for eight weeks. Since then she never looked back. Journey home On August 20, seven days before her actual due date, Maureen and Michael were able to bring Caragh home to Achill for the first time. It was crazy walking out of the hospital with her ... it was all so surreal, Maureen admits. We waited so long to get her home that when the day came we were asking the doctors and nurses are you sure we can take her? When we came home all of our neighbours were out waving and with balloons and it was so nice. We were so lucky to be able to bring Caragh home. We met parents in Dublin who did not get to bring their babies home so it was a bit bittersweet thinking of all those other people. Maureen and Michael and their families will be forever grateful to the medical staff in Galway and the Coombe Hospital for all they did in identifying the initial problem and ensuring she survived. As a gesture of their gratitude, Maureen and 38 of her friends and family, known as Caragh's Crew will be heading to Wicklow this Saturday, June 8 to take part in the Hell and Back Challenge adventure race, to raise funds for the NICU at the Coombe Hospital and Hugh's House. When we were leaving Dublin we said we would always fundraise and give back to them. They never asked us for a penny and they were always there for us. All our family were down here and it would have been a real struggle for us without the help and support we received from the Coombe Hospital staff and everyone in Hugh's House. They became our second family, she explained. The Hell and Back Challenge is quite apt as it is what both Maureen and Michael went through in the first few months of Caragh's life but now she has come through on the other side. She is such a happy child. She is always happy laughing away and she's nearly crawling now. She is just like any other child and a pleasure to bring her anywhere. She's a great girl and we are so proud of her. To make a donation to Friends of Coombe and Hugh's House, visit the iDonate page. Over 80 participants, from French academic regions and Irish Education and Training boards including the Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim Education and Training Board, came together to reinforce the links between France and Ireland in the field of further education and training. Beginning this week, the first ever four-day France-Ireland Symposium on Vocational Education also increased the mobility of Irish and French students and staff from Colleges of Further Education or Training Centres. The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Occitanie Academic Region and City of Dublin Education and Training Board at the French Residence this week marked the first step towards stronger and deeper cooperation. Speaking at the signing, HEM Vincent Guerend, French Ambassador to Ireland, called the linked uniting France and Ireland in education particularly strong. For example, France is the number 1 partner of Ireland within the Erasmus+ program. However, this source of opportunities and funding and is still very new to the students and staff from the Vocational Education Sector. With this signature, CDETB and Occitanie academic region are leading the way in strengthening cooperation in the field of vocational education training, further accelerating exchanges and strengthening ties between our two countries, he added. William Beausang, Assistant Secretary General with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Skills said of the event: "Ireland and France agreed a Joint Plan of Action (2021-2025) to strengthen and deepen relations between the two countries across a range of cultural, educational, and political activities including strengthening education and research links. He continued; We welcome the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the rectorate of the Occitanie region of France and City of Dublin Education and Training Board, which extends our excellent partnership and supports the achievement of the aims of the Joint Plan of Action." Antonine Healy, Director of FET Longford & Westmeath ETB, Tom OGrady Chief Executive of MSLETB and Liz Lavery, Chief Executive of Longford & Westmeath ETB The conference, which concludes today, offers participants a better understanding of each others vocational training systems and to provide an opportunity to reflect on co-operation opportunities through workshops, presentations, networking sessions and field visits all over Ireland. Senior members of the Irish Ministry of Further and Higher Education, the French Ministry of Education, Education and Training Board (ETB) Chief Executives, Directors of Further Education and Training and staff, French directors and international relations advisers from the various academic regions made up the event. General Secretary of Education and Training Boards Ireland, Paddy Lavelle, spoke at the launch, and acknowledged the privilege to have several key voices sharing their knowledge and expertise within the sector and promoting engagement on strengthening bilateral cooperation in the field. In order to develop student and staff mobility within this sector and ensure that participants all have different points of contact from which to develop exchanges, Education and Training Boards Ireland and the French Embassy have identified matchings between academic regions and ETBs, based on their priority vocational domains or pre-existing links. Based on these partnerships, the French academic regions have visited different parts of Ireland with their counterparts yesterday and today. by Fern Siegel , June 7, 2024 Independent agency Cramer-Krasselt hired Kevin Drew Davis as its new executive creative director. Prior to joining C-K, Davis held executive creative and digital roles at DDB, FCB, Wieden + Kennedy and Digitas. He has created award-winning work for clients such as BMW, McDonalds, Nike and Volkswagen. In this new post, Davis will lead creative work across C-Ks existing clients, including Porsche and Tropicana, focusing on innovation and business growth. Other agency work includes Landmark, Rain-X and Baird. Kevin comes to C-K with an amazing track record leading award-winning creative teams, at agencies, in-house and working independently. This has prepared him to lead C-Ks creative team on our mission of making friends, not ads, said Karen Seamen, president-COO. He has built a strong reputation as a digital and social pioneer on global teams. The best work of my career has been when creative, strategy, digital, media, social, PR, data and tech are all working together, added Davis. To have all of them under the same roof, interconnected on the same team, is a dream for me. In addition, Kirk Pratt has been upped to executive director of media. Pratt has been at C-K for two and a half years. Before joining Cramer-Krasselt, Kirk worked at Initiative as the managing director, client advice and management. He also worked at ID Media. by Danielle Oster , June 6, 2024 For trans people facing a historic wave of anti-trans legislation and hate in recent years, visibility is a complicated issue. Too often that visibility comes in the form of fear-mongering and misinformation about trans people, in service of attacks on trans rights. LGBTQ+ advocacy groups GLAADs trans acceptance campaign Here We Are, allows trans people of different backgrounds to tell their stories in their own words, in order to reach audiences with a lack of exposure to such perspectives -- including many who have never met or seen positive media representation of a trans person. GLAAD Transgender Advocacy Consultant Shane Diamond told Marketing Daily about the double-edged sword: With increased visibility of trans people, we see increases in violence against trans people. advertisement advertisement The campaign aims to combat anti-trans hate at a crucial moment. This year, far right state legislators have introduced a record 586 bills targeting trans people (eclipsing the record of 550 set the previous year). Here We Are doesnt focus on laws or political issues, instead focusing on humanizing transgender people through a series of six powerful videos of three trans people from different backgrounds, and their families: a college student named Nadya and her dad, Mickey; a speaker and consultant from Ohio named Ashton and his father, Rick, a Republican public affairs consultant; and Gio, a U.S. Air Force veteran, and his sister, Chantille. Its important to give us a mic, Nadya said, to show we are here, we are visible, Being trans is a part of our identity but not the only part of our identity. The campaign will run nationally in 60- and 30-second video formats through the end of June but is just the beginning, Diamond said. To the extent that trans people are given voice in positive representation at all, its largely limited to a subsection of the trans community. There was not any representation when I was coming out, of trans men, Ashton told Marketing Daily. I had to dig to find grainy videos on YouTube to see this was an actual possibility. As a Black trans man, Gio said experiences like his own have been even less visible. You're going to see more trans women, some white trans masc folks but not Black trans masc folks, he said. Media is trying to do better, but its not there. Each of the participants spoke of the importance of showing positive depictions of trans people and their families. Not many trans women in media [are shown] smiling with their families, Nadya said, adding that sharing her story showed people it was possible. The campaign follows 10 months of extensive research from the organization and Ground Media, its partner on the campaign. 12,000 Americans across the political spectrum who reported being undecided on trans rights issues were surveyed quantitatively, along with eight qualitative focus groups. The study found that only 28% of non-LGBTQ Americans reported personally knowing a transgender person. For the majority of Americans who say they haven't met a trans person, it's really easy to vilify people that you dont know. We need to introduce Americans audiences to more trans people, Diamond said. How do we do that [at a large scale], in way that protects the safety of trans people? Among the findings of the report were that around 53.5% of Americans lean towards believing that being transgender is real and not changeable -- with 12% responding that they were undecided. This suggested such people lacked exposure to quality information on the subject and were persuadable. The campaigns primary focus is on addressing this movable middle or winnable middle, which Diamond describes as people who believe everyone has a right to happiness, to live without fear, and the right to be themselves but maybe because they haven't met a trans person. it's very easy to swallow and digest so much of the disinformation flooding the media right now. So, for example, Ashton noted that "I have done a lot of advocacy work with my dad. He's a conservative Republican guy...but he supports me as his son." GLAAD rigorously tested all six videos with audiences in a randomized controlled trial with a sample of more than 8,000 Americans to ensure their efficacy. They found that the videos increased viewers belief that being trangender is real and unchangeable by an average of 10%. Strikingly, however, among the group of viewers who felt the U.S. has gone too far in accepting transgender people, the videos increased this belief by an average of 18%. Still, making introductions across community lines, Diamond explained, and giving such audiences a window into the real world experience of trans people in their own words can still act as a positive antidote to hate. In many ways, the campaigns power comes from confronting people with the simple truth about the humanity of a group of people so often dehumanized. It feels so simple: It is just me and my dad. and were walking in this park next to my house, Ashton said, yet its seemingly so complex for people outside of my world. It really is so simple, he added. Im a human being and I don't even want to keep saying that. How could you not see the humanity in me to begin with? by Ray Schultz , June 6, 2024 International publisher Axel Springer wants all employees to work in the office five days a week. The decision by the Axel Springer board applies not only to staffers on German publications Bild and Welt, but to those working in all units, including Business Insider and Politico, according to MedienInsider. Managers were asked to present their views on how this would work from the legal and operational standpoints by July, it adds. Like companies and industries, Axel Springer loosened up workplace requirements during the pandemic. But CEO Mathias Dopfner feels there is strength in personal interactions, a fact that came into focus during a recent company management meeting in Warsaw, the report says. In effect, there will be no more hybrid model, but a return to the standard five-day-a-week regime that existed prior to the pandemic. It is not yet clear how this will affect recruitment and retention this is happening as U.S. firms like Gannett are giving up office space and allowing more flexibility. But Dopfner has enunciated the slogan, Office first. by Teresa Buyikian , June 7, 2024 Now theres no need for caffeine cravers to go out for their Starbucks Grande Caramel Nonfat Latte or Iced Vanilla Chai Tea with Macha Foam; they can enjoy the barista-made drinks at home, courtesy of Grubhub. This week Starbuck and Grubhub announced a partnership to bring Grubhub delivery to Starbucks customers in the U.S. According to the release, Starbucks was the most searched merchant not yet available on Grubhub's Marketplace. Beginning this month Starbucks Delivery with Grubhub will roll out to select markets in Pennsylvania, Colorado and Illinois. National availability via the Grubhub platform is slated for August. "Customer demand to get Starbucks delivered continues to increase, as evidenced by double-digit growth in the U.S. delivery business this past quarter, indicating that our customers continue to want convenience in their everyday lives," said Meg Mathes, vice president of digital experiences at Starbucks, in the release. "Our new partnership with Grubhub will help fuel this growth by increasing availability of Starbucks products to Grubhub's millions of customers." advertisement advertisement In order to facilitate the correct, spill-free delivery of its beverages, Starbucks developed its own multiple packaging solutions, including two-cup to-go trays and upgraded shopper bags for drinks. Starbucks Delivery will be available through the Grubhub mobile app, and customers can track their order just like any other Grubhub delivery. Most of the Starbucks menu will be available through Grubhub, including seasonal beverages and food. And those who like to customize their order with espresso shots, flavor, type of milk or espresso roasts, will now be able to do so on the Grubhub app. So that Venti Iced White Mocha with oat milk and a double pump of caramel with a chocolate swirl will be delivered just as if the customer had ordered it in store. by Danielle Oster , June 7, 2024 AT&T and Tribeca announced writer/director Lilian T. Mehrel as the winner of the seventh consecutive Untold Stories program at the Tribeca Festival today, awarding the filmmaker a $1 million sponsorship to produce her film, Honeyjoon. AT&T described Honeyjoon as a darkly comedic travel film about a Kurdish-Persian mother named Lela and her diaspora daughter June, who take trip to the Azores archipelago off the coast of Portugal following a recent loss. Introduced in 2017 as a collaboration between AT&T and Tribeca, the Untold Stories mentorship program was designed to connect up-and-coming filmmakers from historically underrepresented backgrounds to opportunities for advancement by providing resources necessary to bring their stories to the screen. advertisement advertisement In a statement, Mehrel thanked AT&T, Tribeca, and the greenlight committee who made the selection for the award, adding, To be seen for my distinct blend of humor, heart, and cinema, and to get to do what I love on this level, is a dream come true. The announcement is the culmination of the Untold Stories event at the 2024 Tribeca Festival, which saw the film winning out over a group of four other finalists. Participants pitched their Untold Stories film ideas to a greenlight committee of film industry talent that included actors Yvette Nicole Brown, Daveed Diggs, Cynthia Erivo; playwright and TV writer Tanya Saracho; and director So Young Shelly Yo, 2022 Untold Stories winner. AT&T Assistant Vice President of Sponsorships Sabina Ahmed told Marketing Daily the program has received almost 2,000 submission over the course of its existence, with over 430 submissions for this years program -- eclipsing last years record. In partnership with our colleagues at Tribeca, we review every single script and application and bring forward those compelling stories that truly feel untold. During the pitch event, we evaluate their casting vision, forecasted budget, filming location and more to determine which film will be granted $1 million and move to production, she explained. Attracting more submissions isnt the only way Untold Stories has evolved over the years. To bring in more of the finalists perspective, we began including previous Untold Stories winners to our Greenlight Committee. They offer a fresh filmmakers point of view because theyve been in the finalists shoes, Ahmed told Marketing Daily. This years finalists all fall under the dramedy genre, which is pretty unique, with many of the films written and produced by women. In addition to the $1 million prize, Mehrel will also get the chance to premiere her feature film at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. As part of her year-long mentorship, AT&T and Tribeca will also assist her with the development, production, and marketing of the film, alongside offering consultations with film industry experts. PARIS U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday for the first time publicly apologized to Ukraine for a monthslong congressional holdup in American military assistance that let Russia make gains on the battlefield. The apology came as Biden met in Paris with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who appealed for bipartisan U.S. support going forward like it was during World War II. A day earlier, the two had attended ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, where Biden had drawn common cause between the allied forces that helped free Europe from Nazi Germany and today's effort to support Ukraine against Russia's invasion and Zelenskyy had been greeted with a rapt ovation. I apologize for those weeks of not knowing whats going to happen in terms of funding, Biden said, referring to the six-month holdup by conservative Republicans in Congress to a $61 billion military aid package for Ukraine. Still, the Democratic president insisted that the American people were standing by Ukraine for the long haul. Were still in. Completely. Thoroughly, he said. The apology and Zelenskyys plea for rock-solid support akin to the allied coalition in WWII served as a reminder that for all of Bidens talk of an unflagging U.S commitment to Ukraine, recalcitrance among congressional Republicans and an isolationist strain in American politics have exposed its fragility. And, although unremarked upon, the specter of Donald Trumps candidacy loomed over the discussion, as the Republican former president and the presumptive nominee has spoken positively of Russian President Vladimir Putin and sparked Ukrainian concerns that he would call for it to cede territory to end the conflict. Zelenskyy pressed for all Americans to support his country's defense against Russia's invasion, and he thanked lawmakers for eventually coming together to approve the weapons package, which has allowed Ukraine to stem Russian advances in recent weeks. Its very important that in this unity, United States of America, all American people stay with Ukraine like it was during World War II, Zelenskyy said. "How the United States helped to save human lives, to save Europe. And we count on your continuing support in standing with us shoulder to shoulder. The United States is by far Kyivs biggest supplier of wartime support, and Ukraine is trying to fend off an intense Russian offensive in eastern areas of the country. The push is focused on the Ukrainian border regions of Kharkiv and Donetsk, but Ukrainian officials say it could spread as Russia's bigger army seeks to make its advantage tell. The offensive is seeking to exploit Kyivs shortages of ammunition and troops along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line. The slow pace of delivery of pledged Western weaponry has long frustrated Zelenskyy, as has Bidens hesitation over supplying more hardware for fear of provoking Russian President Vladimir Putin. That has caused tension in their relationship. The U.S. will send about $225 million in military aid to Ukraine, Biden announced Friday. The latest package includes munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, as well as mortar systems and an array of artillery rounds, U.S. officials said Thursday. Biden cast the additional aid in his meeting with Zelenskyy as money to reconstruct the electric grid in Ukraine, a reference aides said was to additional air defense and missile defense systems in the new package. Easing their stance amid Russia's most recent onslaught and with Ukraine's army reeling, some NATO allies including the U.S. said last week they would allow Ukraine to use weapons they deliver to Kyiv to carry out limited attacks inside Russia. That step brought a furious response from the Kremlin, which warned that Europe's biggest conflict since World War II could spin out of control. Biden and Zelenskyy attended the anniversary events of D-Day in Normandy, northern France, on Thursday, along with European leaders who have supported Kyivs efforts in the war. Biden pledged we will not walk away from Ukraine, drawing a direct line from the fight to liberate Europe from Nazi domination to todays war against Russian aggression. Ukraine depicts its fight against the Kremlin's forces as a clash between Western democratic freedom and Russian tyranny. Russia says it is defending itself against a menacing eastward expansion of the NATO military alliance. In a 20-minute speech Friday at the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament, Zelenskyy drew a parallel with the sacrifices made during World War II and his country's current fight. This battle is a crossroads," Zelenskyy said. "A moment where we can now write history the way we need it. Or we can become victims of history as it suits our enemy. Zelenskyy, who spoke in Ukrainian, was frequently interrupted by lawmakers applause and cheers. He prompted a standing ovation when he said in French: Dear France, I thank you for standing by our side as we defend life. French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, announced late Thursday that France will provide Ukraine with its Mirage combat aircraft. Macron has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine. He said in February that putting Western troops on the ground in Ukraine is not ruled out. Zelenskyy began a day of meetings in Paris with an official welcome ceremony at the golden-domed Invalides monument, site of Napoleons tomb. During the day, Zelenskyy was due to visit the Nexter arms manufacturer in Versailles, which makes the Caesar self-propelled howitzers that are among the weapons provided by France to Kyivs forces. He was also to meet with Macron at the Elysee Palace. Zelenskyys foreign trips aim to keep Ukraines plight in the public eye, secure more military help for its fight against Russias invasion and lock in long-term Western support through bilateral alliances. France and Ukraine in February signed a 10-year bilateral security agreement. Zelenskyy has since signed similar bilateral agreements with many European countries. ___ Barbara Surk in Nice and Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed. The top officer for Ohio State University's Reserve Officers' Training Corps, or ROTC, has been suspended from his role on campus amid an ongoing investigation related to sexual misconduct, according to a university spokesperson. Lt. Col. Michael Kelvington was removed from the ROTC position after being given a "stay away" order by campus police at the central Ohio university and then violating that order in February and March, one source with direct knowledge of the situation told Military.com. Kelvington was allowed on campus only for official work amid a Title IX investigation. That law prohibits sexual discrimination on college campuses, which can include sexual harassment and assault. The Lantern, OSU's independent student newspaper, was first to report the suspension and "stay away" order violations. Read Next: US Appeals Court to Reconsider Dismissal of Former Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's Conviction "Kelvington has been removed from his position at the university and is on a restricted work status away from cadets until the ongoing investigations are completed," Maj. Dan Lessard, a spokesperson for U.S. Army Cadet Command, told Military.com in a statement. Kelvington could not be reached for comment ahead of publication. It was unclear whether he had hired an attorney and how long the Title IX investigation had been underway. It was also unclear what the specific allegations are, or whether they involve cadets. "Ohio State has no tolerance for sexual misconduct or harassment of any kind," Chris Booker, a campus spokesperson, said in a statement to Military.com. "When misconduct is alleged, we respond quickly to offer support services where needed and investigate the allegations and hold individuals responsible when warranted." The news comes after the officer who led the ROTC program at California Polytechnic State University was reprimanded in January after pleading guilty to charges related to hiding a camera in a changing room at a clothing store in 2022. Lt. Col. Jacob Sweatland was arrested by civilian authorities at the time of the incident after the camera was discovered by a teenage girl. A reprimand serves as an administrative censure and is effectively the lowest form of punishment in the military justice system. It's unclear whether Sweatland will be allowed to leave the service with full honors and retirement. Kelvington was commissioned at West Point in 2005 as an infantry officer, according to Army records. He spent much of his time in the 75th Ranger Regiment, including time as a battalion executive officer. He deployed 14 times overseas to Afghanistan and Iraq, and earned a Bronze Star with Valor and two Purple Hearts, among other accolades. Editor's note: This story has been updated to better reflect Kelvington's background with the 75th Ranger Regiment. Related: Army ROTC Instructor Who Pleaded Guilty to Hiding Camera in Changing Room Gets Reprimand In the four years since Congress passed a law allowing troops to file claims against the Defense Department for medical malpractice, the military services have received 597 claims and approved just 20, or 3%. Before the law was signed in late 2019, military hospitals and physicians largely were immune to claims from active-duty members under the Feres doctrine, a 1950s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that bars personnel from suing the federal government for injuries considered incidental to service. But the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act included a provision allowing troops to file compensation claims for malpractice at U.S. military medical treatment facilities moving forward and made it retroactive from Jan. 1, 2020, by two years. Read Next: US Appeals Court to Reconsider Dismissal of Former Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's Conviction Data provided by the services to Military.com showed the Army, the largest service, has received 258 claims and approved 12, worth $3.3 million. The service did not provide more details about the approved claims, but roughly $2 million of the payout went to the family of an Army soldier diagnosed with Stage IV rectal cancer after his military treatment facility denied multiple requests for colonoscopies recommended by his doctor, according to the family's attorney, Natalie Khawam, founder of Whistleblower Law Firm in Tampa, Florida. The Army has denied 81 claims and, according to the service, is considering three under appeal and 162 under investigation. In a statement to Military.com, Army officials said the service and the Defense Health Agency "strive to provide world-class medical care to soldiers and beneficiaries." "As part of this care, we employ a robust review and reporting system to ensure safe, high-quality care," an Army spokesman said in an email to Military.com. The Navy has received 188 claims since Jan. 1, 2020, from sailors, Marines or surviving families of service members who filed claims before they died. The Navy has approved three, for a total of $950,000 -- one of which was a $250,000 payout. The sea service has denied 103 claims and has two on appeal and 80 under investigation. The Air Force has received 151 claims and has approved five, for a total award amount of $75,325 -- the lowest average for any service. It has denied 71 claims, transferred 18 to other services and has one on appeal. The remainder are under investigation. By law, troops can file claims for harm caused by military or civilian physicians in military hospitals and clinics, including dental facilities, but they cannot make a claim for medical malpractice that occurs in a combat zone or on a ship. The law does not apply to civilians who receive medical care at military treatment facilities; military family members, retirees and civilians treated by the Defense Department who are victims of malpractice may file for compensation under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Under the regulations, malpractice claims from service members seeking less than $100,000 in compensation may be paid out directly by the Pentagon. The Treasury Department is responsible for reviewing and paying claims that the DoD approves above that amount. Last October, the Defense Department raised the cap on payments for non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, physical discomfort or loss of quality of life, from $600,000 to $750,000. And in May, the DoD announced that the amount paid for non-economic reasons would no longer be offset by Department of Veterans Affairs disability compensation. Critics have said the process has been too slow and cumbersome to actually help service members. Troops denied claims can appeal but, according to Khawam, the reviews simply look at whether the claims process was done correctly and is not an analysis of the medical decision, nor does it allow for additional input from the service member to support their claim. "It's outrageous -- we have clients who have died from such gross medical negligence," Khawam said during an interview with Military.com in May. The fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act included a provision that required the Defense Department to provide claimants detailed reasons for why their claim was denied. Master Sgt. Richard Stayskal, for whom the provision in the legislation was named, was denied his claim and then denied his appeal. Stayskal was diagnosed with lung cancer that had metastasized by the time he received his diagnosis, despite multiple indicators that he had a large tumor. Legislators introduced a bill in Congress last year that would allow service members to take their medical malpractice claims to district court once the Defense Department process is exhausted. That proposed legislation, the Healthcare Equality and Rights for our Heroes Act, has yet to be considered by the House Judiciary Committee. Stayskal's wife Megan said the Army admitted that it had breached the standard of care but said the breach did not constitute malpractice. Now that Stayskal's appeal has been denied, he has no additional recourse. The family, Megan said in an interview with Military.com on May 9, is "moving on." "We hope that the legislation helps other families now and in the future," she said. Related: Supreme Court Denies Military Medical Malpractice Case Petition The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Military.com. If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@military.com for consideration. Virginia made my family and thousands of others a promise, that if a Virginia service member dies while serving their country or is seriously disabled, their kids and spouse will still be able to afford an education. Now, in the largest rollback of veterans benefits in the history of the commonwealth, it has broken that promise. With no planning and no warning, Virginia has gone from being one of the best states in the nation for Gold Star and disabled veteran families to one of the worst. The Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP) was a program that provided eight semesters of education to spouses and dependents in Gold Star families, as well as those of 90% to 100% totally and permanently disabled veterans, as determined by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. It was, by design, a fantastic benefit specifically created to lure veteran families like mine and our spending power to put roots down in the state. Just six months ago in its annual report, the Virginia Department of Veterans Services highlighted the program as aiding the agency in its biggest goal of increasing the number of veterans who choose to permanently reside in Virginia. In that report, the department wrote it hoped to increase the number of participants in VMSDEP from the current 6,120 students to 9,000 by the end of Gov. Glenn Youngkin's term in 2025. Why? Well, likely because of some sense of patriotic duty, but also because Virginia is absolutely dependent on Defense Department spending and veterans' pensions have a $9.5 billion economic impact statewide. That's also why the state, in an effort to be "the most military-friendly state in the nation" started the VMSDEP program in 1996, and then expanded and affirmed it in 2006, 2019 and 2021. In fact, VMSDEP is older than most of the people using it. We weren't naive to assume the state was good for it. But then, just three weeks ago, the Virginia General Assembly abruptly declared VMSDEP to be too expensive and gutted it, with Youngkin signing the decision into law. For those of us who accepted the state's offer of free college tuition for our children and uprooted our families, bought homes, changed jobs and started our lives over here in the Old Dominion, it feels like a bait and switch. Now, Youngkin has indicated that he thinks the state should repeal the changes to VMSDEP he just approved, but it's far from clear whether Virginia's legislators are willing to do that. While they hem and haw, students across the state and their parents have no idea how they will pay for an education that they thought was already guaranteed. As is true for most military families, our decision on where to put down roots after military life felt impossible. Years of the Army telling us where to live had made us flexible. My husband is from Virginia, and all his family live here. I'm from Tennessee, and that's where all my relatives live. We had enjoyed life in Colorado, Florida and North Carolina, and a lot of our friends ended up in Texas and California. We debated where to settle every night. We researched. We made spreadsheets. We drew out our options on a whiteboard. No one gets rich from serving in the military, and my work history is as haphazard as most military spouses, which is to say we don't have college savings for our children. And, after spending their childhoods seeing their father leave for war nearly every year and seeing the lifelong damage service and war did to him, we did not want our children to have to enlist to go to college. They have already served our country. Their patriotic debt has been paid. Every state we considered had a lot going for it. Florida, Texas and California all offered some college funding for our children. My home state of Tennessee allows its high school graduates, military or not, to attend two years of community college totally free. But, because my husband has a Department of Veterans Affairs' disability rating of 100%, Permanent and Total, Virginia, through VMSDEP, offered to educate our three children in its excellent public universities tuition-free. We took the deal. Now, with our oldest having just completed his freshman year of college and our two younger children in high school and middle school; with us having bought a home, forced our kids to start a new life yet again, and having paid all the taxes that Virginia charges us, the state has decided to renege. Make no mistake, Americans: This is a test case. If veterans' benefits are on the chopping block in Virginia -- the state that gets more defense dollars than any other ($62.7 billion) and where defense, at 9.7%, makes up the largest contributor to its economy, veterans in every state should be on high alert. Other states are undoubtedly watching. If Virginia can get away with breaking its promises to Gold Star families and disabled veterans, veterans' benefits won't be safe anywhere. -- Rebekah Sanderlin is a freelance writer and the spouse of a retired soldier. Her work has appeared in Military.com many times, among other publications. She lives with her family in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The Pirates have sent catcher Grant Koch outright to Triple-A Indianapolis, per the transaction log at MLB.com. Pittsburgh designated him for assignment on Tuesday when they recalled Henry Davis to pair with Yasmani Grandal behind the plate. Koch, 27, played in his first three MLB games. A fifth-round pick out of Arkansas in 2018, Koch has played parts of six seasons in the minors. He has never been much of an offensive threat, running a .203/.284/.322 slash line in nearly 1200 plate appearances on the farm. Koch was hitting .167/.211/.259 with 25 strikeouts in 59 trips to the plate for Indianapolis when the Bucs selected his contract on May 28. That first promotion came in tandem with a trip to the injured list for Joey Bart. The Pirates evidently didnt want to promote Davis at that time. Koch got a few days in the big leagues and his first eight MLB plate appearances he went 0-7 with six strikeouts and a walk before the Pirates decided to turn to Davis. Pittsburgh also welcomed back Jason Delay from the 60-day injured list this week, though he was immediately optioned to Triple-A. Its the first career outright for Koch, wholl stick in the organization. Hell back up Delay in Indianapolis while returning to his previous role as a non-roster depth catcher. Koch would qualify for minor league free agency at the start of the winter if the Pirates dont reselect him to their 40-man roster this season. Dear Eric: Is there a way to politely ask someone to use headphones when listening to media on their device in public? Wish You Were on Mute Dear Mute: Polite, sure. Effective? Doubtful. When you find yourself in these situations, you can try saying something like Im having trouble concentrating, would you mind putting in headphones? or even simply, Your media is loud; could you listen to it privately? But if someone is happily blasting a TikTok or cooking video on the bus, train, sidewalk, chances are theyre that most dangerous combination aware and dont care. Grab some noise- canceling headphones and preserve your peace. Send questions to R. Eric Thomas at eric@askingeric.com or P.O. Box 22474, Philadelphia, PA 19110. Follow him on Instagram and sign up for his weekly newsletter at rericthomas.com. 2024 Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Nancy Black Tribune Content Agency Linda Black Horoscopes for Friday, June 7, 2024 Todays Birthday (06/07/24). Pursue passions to grow this year. Your career grows naturally with consistent practice. Adapt around social challenges next summer, before a professional blastoff this autumn. Adapting with a winter change of heart motivates springtime domestic projects to support your family. Let your own beauty shine. To get the advantage, check the days rating: 10 is the easiest day, 0 the most challenging. Aries (March 21-April 19) Today is a 7 Make a change at home that youve been dreaming about. A little elbow grease generates huge results. Research, plan and organize efforts. Collaborate with family. Taurus (April 20-May 20) Today is a 7 Share, connect and network. Creative ideas abound. Avoid gossip, rumors or lies. Focus on practical priorities. Simplify to meet your objectives. Communication wins. Gemini (May 21-June 20) Today is a 9 Disciplined efforts pay off in gold and silver. Dont get distracted. Stick to your plan. Prioritize basics and leave elaborations for later. Illusions abound. Cancer (June 21-July 22) Today is a 9 Advance a dreamy possibility. Personal discipline scores a fine prize. Polish your presentation, brand and public image. Celebrate milestones, traditions and special moments. Leo (July 23-Aug. 22) Today is a 7 Listen to your dreams. Follow up imaginative ideas with organization, planning and coordination. Consistent steps can realize an exciting vision. Imagine the possibilities. Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Today is an 8 Coordinate efforts to advance beyond expectations. A shared dream energizes teamwork. Pull together and surge ahead. Inspire each other with a powerful vision. Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) Today is an 8 A professional prize lies within reach. Advance disciplined plans with steady steps. Realize a career objective by providing reliable excellence. Your work is in demand. Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) Today is a 7 You can find what you seek. Keep it practical. Go for substance over symbolism. Things arent as they seem. Organize itineraries, plans and reservations. Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Today is an 8 Discuss shared finances with your partner to manage for positive cash flow. Pennies saved add up over time. Fantasies get expensive. Maintain practical priorities. Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Today is a 9 Collaborate for an exciting possibility. Step by step, you can build a shared dream. Avoid distractions or procrastination. Determine and coordinate plans together. Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Today is an 8 Discipline with your work, health and physical performance results in growing ease and endurance. Appearances can deceive. Maintain an inspiring goal to advance. Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) Today is an 8 Practice compassion. Keep your sense of humor while maintaining flexibility. Dont tease someone who isnt laughing. Prioritize fun, romance and creative projects. Relax. Astrologer Nancy Black continues her mother Linda Blacks legacy horoscopes column. She welcomes comments and questions on Twitter, @LindaCBlack. For more astrological interpretations like todays Gemini horoscope, visit Linda Black Astrology by clicking daily horoscopes, or go to www.nancyblack.com. 2024 Nancy Black. All rights reserved. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency. DETROIT - It was already one of the most epic concerts in Michigan history ... and then Eminem showed up and blew the roof off of the newly renovated Michigan Central Station. MLive said the recipe was right for the legendary Detroit rapper to made a surprise appearance. And surprise he did, performing his new single, Houdini with Adam Blackstone, as well as Dream On with Jelly Roll, followed by Welcome 2 Detroit with Trick Trick and concluding the concert with Not Afraid with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. As you can imagine, the 15-20,000 in attendance delivered very loud cheers when Eminem took the stage, introduced by Bill Ford Jr. Eminem was an executive producer of the concert, which was broadcast nationally on Peacock and locally on WDIV-TV. It will also be part of an edited primetime special on Sunday, June 9 at 7:00 p.m. on NBC. Detroit and Motown legend Diana Ross kicked off the concert performing some of her biggest hits with Im Coming Out, Upside Down, Thank You and Aint No Mountain High Enough. Other big performers at tonights monumental concert included: Jack White, Big Sean, Common, Slum Village, Illa J, the Clark Sisters, Sky Jetta and Theo Parrish. Melissa Etheridge, Fantasia and Jelly Roll did a 4-song tribute to Bog Seger. Joining the performers at this concert throughout the evening were number of famous Detroit faces as presenters, like Barry Sanders, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jared Goff, Judge Greg Mathis, Loni Love, Sam Richardson, Taylor Lautner, Mike Epps and Sophia Bush. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Ford Jr. also addressed the crowd right before the concert began. Michigan Central first opened back in 1913. It closed in 1988 where it lay abandoned until Ford purchased it in 2018. After a six year restoration, Ford just unveiled this week what the inside looks like. More Michigan Central: First look inside the once abandoned Michigan Central, restored to its 1913 glory See Michigan Central Station before and after 6 years of restoration Take a tour of Michigan Central Stations ground floor renovations UPDATE (3:25 p.m.): Spears was located at a friends house on Friday afternoon. He was transported to the MSP Cadillac Post where he was interviewed and found to be in good health. MISSAUKEE COUNTY, MI -- Michigan State Police are asking for public help in locating a missing 70-year-old man. Troopers from the Cadillac Post are leading the search for Ronald Spears of Missaukee County, who left his residence in Lake Township on Wednesday. He was last seen walking northbound near the intersection of S. Mitchell Street and W. Chapin Street in Cadillac at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday. Spears is a 5-foot white male who weighs 170 pounds with brown eyes, long gray balding hair and a long gray beard. He walks with a cane and is believed to be wearing a flannel shirt with a black ball cap. Anyone with information concerning his whereabouts is asked to contact the Missaukee County Dispatch at (231) 839-4338 or call 911. HILLSDALE, MI They rattle through woodlands, past fields edged with wildflowers and over waterways snaking through grasses, trees and brush. On this day in May, the noisy caravan spooked a group of horses outside an Amish barn, and the animals bolted away from the tracks. But to the passengers and riders aboard these tiny, retired railcars, the clatter provides a sort of pleasant percussion to an otherwise quiet landscape. The viewpoint is unique. Their companions, a railway fraternity. I could do this every day, Bob Fox, 79, of Columbus, Indiana, said as he drove west from Hillsdale on the Indiana Northeastern Railroad in Lemon Squeeze, built in 1964 and since wrecked and restored. His was one of about 35 motorcar or speeders on the rails for an excursion that began May 18 and ended May 19 in Ashley, Indiana. The party stopped for lunch in Hillsdale, spent the night at a Best Western tucked behind a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Coldwater and then returned the same way they came. RELATED: Hobbyists tour Michigan, turn heads in tiny, retired railcars Another trip is planned for Friday, June 7, and Saturday, June 8, on the Great Lakes Central Railroad between Cadillac and Petoskey. The motorcars, traveling just short of 200 miles, head north Friday, take a short trip Saturday to break in Kingsley, south of Traverse City, and end late in the afternoon in Cadillac. In August, the speeders will again be in southern Michigan, repeating the 150-mile trip through Indiana and Hillsdale County. Bob Fox, 79, of Columbus, Indiana, operates a 1960s motorcar. He's put 5,000 track miles on the retired railroad maintenance vehicle, traveling all over the country. "There ought to be a law against having this much fun," he joked.Danielle Salisbury Along the way, curious or unfamiliar onlookers will inevitably stare at the uncommon procession. The speeders nicknamed such because they are faster than their predecessors, manually powered pump cars were once used to transport workers maintaining and inspecting railways and signal activity, but theyve been out of commission for decades. More versatile and less disruptive hi-rail vehicles, trucks with retractable guide wheels useable on roads and rails, replaced them starting in about the 1980s. They have since been rescued from scrap yards and repurposed for leisure, some more elaborately than others. The motorcars operate simply. They usually have seats for two to four people, are singularly powered by a diesel or gasoline engines and travel up to 60 mph on longer, smoother expanses out west, Fox said. While in Michigan, they went about 15 to 18 mph, on average, but sometimes as fast as 35 mph. At one point on the trip, a hustling man on a mountain bike passed the caravan. Excursions are organized through the North American Railcar Operators Association. Formed in 1980 and incorporated as a nonprofit in 1988, the association regulated the hobby. As railroads junked the cars, they started cutting the axels to avoid bootlegging, when people would take the speeders on unauthorized railway runs, said Dan Willey, 68, of North Carolina who owns a Woodings railcar from about 1982. Now, operators must pass a test, work with a mentor and obtain insurance. The association has more than 1,400 members and trips are planned across the country and Canada. Organizers make arrangements with railroads and rent tracks, often on days when trains are not running. Participants drive hundreds of miles, transporting speeders on trailers to set on spots. Fox did five runs last year and put 46,000 miles on his truck. His motorcar covered more than 5,000 track miles in the last 12 years. Patches from railroads across the U.S. are stuck to the doors. "You get to see America like nobody else does," said Bob Fox, 79, of Columbus, Indiana. He's been to Montana, Colorado, Idaho, Utah and almost every state east of the Mississippi outside of New England. He collects patches from the various railroads he has traveled.Danielle Salisbury Behind the Hillsdale Burger King, with a line of speeders parked along M-99, Fox and Willey scrolled through pictures on their phones. A Connecticut River bridge in Vermont. At 11,000 feet in Colorado. Fox remembers crossing a 1,000-foot expanse 500 feet above the water in Alabama and seeing a preacher delivering a sermon from a steeple in West Virginia. There is a postcard picture around every turn, said Willey, who worked for IBM for 30 years. He met Fox by accident, Fox jokes when their cars collided. They and the other operators are friendly, with each other and visitors. The make jokes, swap stories. Bring a child to a stop and he is sure to collect a half dozen lollipops and a pocket-full of Tootsie Rolls. Those involved, mostly older male train enthusiasts, say the hobby isnt too expensive. It costs $40 a year to join the association. People sell motorcars on the associations website for a range of prices. A Fairmont MT 14-L, which carries up to four occupants, is listed for $14,600. A Texas man selling a project car missing wheels and a drive shaft is asking for $1,000. Speeder or motorcars operate simply. They have few gears forward, backward, high and low. They commonly have a 20-horsepower Onan 4-cycle engine, according to the North American Railcar Operators Association. They travel slowly, often about 20 mph.Danielle Salisbury Stan Conyer of Columbus, Indiana, acquired one for a fire bucket and a hat. To be fair, it was a unique hat and bucket, he said. Conyer, a former electronic technician for a power utility who turns 74 this month, was standing with his son and 10-year-old grandson in Coldwater outside a Fairmont MT-19 from the late 1960s that once operated on the Monon Railroad in Indiana. Hes bought, sold or horse-traded a long list of railcars in the last 40 years, taking along Jeremy Conyer, now 42, since he wasnt old enough to choose. A picture in Trains magazine sparked Stan Conyers interest decades ago, hes been involved with the association since the beginning and introduced Fox, a fellow member of a model railroad club, to the hobby; Fox purchased his car in 2012. He took me on a trip to West Virginia and I fell in love with it right then and there, said Fox, a semi-retired truck driver, former motorcycle racer and veteran who is occasionally accompanied by his wife of 58 years. As he drives, he wears a headset and receives updates from cars ahead and behind. He lets a child passenger sound the airhorn at any motorist, pedestrian or resident who shows interest. The speeder, close to the ground and with its side doors open, clacks past dirt roads, a herd of cows. Riders can peer into backyards, sometimes neat and sometimes not. There are the typical markings of the rural Midwest, ruined trailers, debris and disabled vehicles with weeds growing about their wheels, but also wildlife. Fox recalls chasing moose or deer down tracks. He has seen beavers, otters and, once, a bear standing on a track in Kentucky. Speeders park in Coldwater during a May excursion back and forth from Ashley, Indiana. The hobby attracts mostly male retirees, but their backgrounds differ. "From bums to airline pilots," one operator said with a smile.Danielle Salisbury A different way to see the world, said Ted Wojcik, 69. His wife Cheryl, 78, bought him a motorcar as a present for their ivory or 14th anniversary. They have three of them, and a caboose, at their llama and alpaca farm in Evart, near Cadillac. He likes trains. I indulge him, Cheryl said. Ted, retired after a career at Consumers Energy, grew up in Bay City and heard trains every day. He started with a childs train set and his interest grew. He and his wife have traveled all over the country by Amtrak. The blue-painted motorcar carrying them through Hillsdale, a 1969 Woodings, is named Waldo, after a llama. You meet a lot of great people, Ted said shortly before the excursion coordinator signaled the Sunday break had almost concluded. He and Cheryl climbed into the cab and the motorcars clanked, one at a time, toward the state line. A speeder or motorcar travels between Coldwater and Hillsdale on the Indiana Northeastern Railroad.Danielle Salisbury Want more Jackson-area news? Bookmark the local Jackson news page or sign up for the free 3@3 Jackson daily newsletter. GRAND HAVEN MI - A two-day free extravaganza celebrating military heroes is about to begin in Grand Haven. The experience, hosted by Creative Community Entertainment (CCE), is Friday, June 7, and Saturday, June 8, with activities scheduled for 5-10 p.m. on Friday and 4-10 p.m. on Saturday. The event is located at Mulligans Hollow in Grand Haven. This event does require pre-registration. MUSKEGON, MI - Tourism and hospitality is the fourth largest industry in Muskegon County. Bob Lukens, community development director for Visit Muskegon, shared that information during a short-term rental panel Friday, June 7 at the Muskegon County Economic Summit. China sees robust consumption of products related to Dragon Boat Festival People's Daily Online) 15:44, June 07, 2024 A worker arranges Zongzi at a food company in Ding'an County, south China's Hainan Province, June 2, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun) As the Dragon Boat Festival, or Duanwu Festival, approaches, sales of products related to the traditional festival, which falls on June 10 this year, have witnessed rapid growth. Currently, sales of zongzi, a glutinous rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves and a time-honored delicacy that Chinese people eat during the festival, have almost doubled compared to the same period last year, with Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces claiming the top three spots, according to e-commerce platform data. New flavors of zongzi have become a hit with people across the country. At some supermarkets and shopping malls in Jiangmen city, Guangdong Province, innovative varieties such as hawthorn fruit zongzi and durian zongzi have changed peoples perception of the traditional delicacy. Over 20 new varieties of zongzi produced by a food company in Jiaxing city, Zhejiang Province, have hit the market. These products with brand-new flavors, which are both tasty and healthy, have gained the favor of dealers and become extremely popular. While new flavors of zongzi provide more choices for customers, traditional flavors of the delicacy evoke a feeling of nostalgia. At an intangible cultural heritage center in Jinyuan district, Taiyuan city, north China's Shanxi Province, employees have been busy making zongzi according to traditional methods in recent days to ensure supply for customers. These sweet zongzi are very popular among consumers. A worker arranges Zongzi gift boxes at a food company in Ding'an County, south China's Hainan Province, June 2, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun) In 2024, many companies are shifting from expanding zongzi exports to increasing their brand presence overseas. This year, orders have been pouring in to Zhejiang Wufangzhai Industry Co., Ltd., a time-honored zongzi brand, with output more than doubling compared to last year. Xu Wei, deputy general manager of the company, said that the recent launch of a digital workshop improves production efficiency by about 30 percent and ensures better flavor and more tender meat fillings. According to the China General Chamber of Commerce, a national standard on zongzi, the world's first international standard for traditional Chinese seasonal foods, was released this year, creating new opportunities for zongzi to enter the international market. To date, more than 30 varieties of zongzi from Chinese food companies have been sold to more than 10 countries and regions, up 18.5 percent year on year. (Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun) OTHERS OTHERS Follow us on: My Account or or Hello, Login All Maharashtra RTE Lottery 2024 today, result to be announced on June 13 Want to boost research and innovation more in this term: PM Modi on education sector Follow us on: Want Andhra Pradesh to become hub for electronics, automobile sectors, says TDP's Nara Lokesh You are already a Moneycontrol Pro user. OK J. Kumar J.Kumar is an author, journalist and a political commentator based in Mumbai 1/6 Narendra Modi arrived at Parliament's Central Hall, bows before the Constitution. 2/6 Achieving unanimity will be our aim in all decisions: Modi at NDA meet 3/6 Newly-elected MPs of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) are meeting at Parliament complex to elect Narendra Modi as their leader, paving the way for him to take oath as prime minister for a third term. 4/6 Narendra Modi, Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar attends NDA's Parliamentary party meeting at Parliament central hall. 5/6 Rajnath Singh has proposed Narendra Modi's name as the leader of BJP and National Democratic Alliance in Lok Sabha. I support this proposal. This isnt only the wish of leaders sitting here but of 140 crore people of this country. Amit Shah said. Meghna Mittal MEGHNA MITTAL is Deputy News Editor at Moneycontrol. Meghna has experience across television, print, online and wire media. She has been covering the Indian economy, monetary and fiscal policies, Finance and Trade ministries. She tweets at @Meghnamittal23 Contact: meghna.mittal@nw18.com OTHERS OTHERS Follow us on: My Account or or Hello, Login All Powered by Nitish-Naidu endorsement, PM Modi outlines 'next 10 years' of NDA sarkar Follow us on: Congress could not cross 100 mark in 10 years, says PM Modi *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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I Accept Follow us on: Fadnavis firm on offer to quit as Maharashtra deputy CM; RSS steps in OTHERS OTHERS Follow us on: My Account or or Hello, Login All NDA MPs arrive to elect Modi as their leader Follow us on: PM Modi is right leader at right time for India, says Chandrababu Naidu President to administer oath to Narendra Modi and his council of ministers at 7.15 pm on June 9 OTHERS OTHERS Follow us on: My Account or or Hello, Login All Rahul Gandhi gets bail in defamation case filed by BJP OTHERS OTHERS Follow us on: My Account or or Hello, Login All 'Ready to eat humble pie': Prashant Kishor on getting poll predictions wrong OTHERS OTHERS Follow us on: My Account or or Hello, Login All Uttar Pradesh poll debacle: Why this strategy proved costly for BJP Follow us on: Will Amaravati get a new lease of life? Follow us on: Aamir Khan shoots for his next film 'Sitaare Zameen Par' in Vadodara Actress and BJP MP Kangana Ranaut slams film industry for their silence after her slap incident, says, 'You are either celebrating or totally mum on the airport attack on me' Follow us on: Kangana Ranaut slap incident: Urfi Javed, Vivek Agnihotri come out in support of the BJP MP Kartik Aaryan on he performed the One Take war sequence in 'Chandu Champion', says 'Maine one shot monologue toh bahut diye hain, pehli baar one shot action sequence kar raha hoon' Richa Chadha comes out in support of her 'Heeramandi' co-actor Sharmin Segal, says, 'It is okay to dislike but please do not troll' Adrija Chatterjee is an Assistant Editor at Moneycontrol. She has been tracking and reporting on finance and trade ministries for over eight years. Follow us on: Wipro soars 5% on bagging $500 mn contract from US client but brokerages still remain skeptical Follow us on: Attractive pockets exist within the manufacturing theme, says Krishna Sanghavi of Mahindra Manulife AMC OTHERS OTHERS Follow us on: My Account or or Hello, Login All KCP stock posts double-digit gains for 3rd straight day as TDP win boosts prospects of Amaravati developmentfli OTHERS OTHERS Follow us on: My Account or or Hello, Login All PB Fintech stock falls after Sebi issues show cause notice to CEO Yashish Dahiya Follow us on: MC Inside Edge: Bulls look for Naidu angle, founders dont want to be promoters, Biocon on a tear, coalition concerns OTHERS OTHERS Follow us on: My Account or or Hello, Login All Delay in mutual fund allotment robs retail investors of gains from June 4 market crash Follow us on: Home buying: Why you should check RERA registration of developers and agents Follow us on: RBI governor says no worries on heavy inflows from global bond inclusion RBI MPC Meeting 2024 Highlights: The RBI will keep a close watch on liquidity, growth and inflation over the next few weeks and months, but it is likely to keep the status quo with regard to interest rates. This will be the second meeting of the RBI MPC in FY25. The Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on April 5 decided to keep policy rate unchanged for the seventh time in a row and said that it remains vigilant towards upside risks to food inflation. RBI MPC Meeting Date: June 7, 2024 RBI MPC Meeting Timing: 10am RBI MPC Meeting Live Streaming Link: It will be aired live and one can also watch on Moneycontrol's youtube channel. The rate increase cycle was paused in April last year after six consecutive rate hikes aggregating to 250 basis points since May 2022. Announcing the first bi-monthly monetary policy for FY25, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the MPC has decided to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.5% by a majority vote of 5:1. The RBI in April retained inflation projection at 4.5% for the current financial year, lower than 5.4% in the last fiscal. Assuming a normal monsoon this year, CPI (consumer price index-based) inflation for the current year is projected at 4.5%, with Q1 at 4.9%, Q2 at 3.8%, Q3 at 4.6%, and Q4 at 4.5%. Assuming a normal monsoon this year, CPI (consumer price index-based) inflation for the current year is projected at 4.5%, with Q1 at 4.9%, Q2 at 3.8%, Q3 at 4.6%, and Q4 at 4.5%. A majority of the experts believe that the central bank will maintain its projection of India's GDP. OTHERS OTHERS Follow us on: My Account or or Hello, Login All RBI proposes easier FEMA guidelines in export and import of goods, services Follow us on: Need to ensure arbitration institutions are not controlled by 'self-perpetrating clique': CJI DY Chandrachud OTHERS OTHERS Follow us on: My Account or or Hello, Login All Rahul Gandhi appears before Bengaluru court, granted bail in defamation case filed by BJP Who is Kulwinder Kaur? Know everything about the CISF constable who slapped actress and BJP MP Kangana Ranaut Andy Mukherjee is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies and financial services. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication. Follow us on: Why do BJP's allies want to review the Agnipath scheme? Follow us on: Suzuki Digital MD reflects on a decade of growth and innovation in India: 'I am grateful...' Follow us on: Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu set to address the US Congress on July 24 Andreas Kluth is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering European politics. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication. Follow us on: Russia, China wrangle with US over UN resolution on Gaza ceasefire plan Invite your friends and family to sign up for MC Tech 3, our daily newsletter that breaks down the biggest tech and startup stories of the day By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Bird Song of the Day Killdeer, Marmon fields, Williams, North Dakota, United States. * * * In Case You Might Miss (1) Trump, Trump, Trump.. (2) A lot of new Covid numbers. I admit that some of my notes are a little irritated. (3) Taylor Swift, superspreader. (4) Vivian Maier: first exhibition (5) Steroids: is everybody really taking them? * * * Politics So many of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in fact a rational management of symbolic capital. Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles * * * 2024 Less than a half a year to go! RCP Poll Averages, May 24: No discernible effect from Trumps conviction yet (though Democrats have only just begun to exploit it). Swing States (more here) still Brownian-motioning around. Of course, it goes without saying that these are all state polls, therefore bad, and most of the results are within the margin of error. If will be interesting to see whether the verdict in Judge Merchans court affects the polling, and if so, how. * * * Trump (R) (People vs. Trump): Vermont GOP rules bar it from promoting any candidate who is a convicted felon' [NBC]. So change the party rules. But more seriously Trump (R) (People vs. Trump): Plot twist: WA has a law against felons running for office [Seattle Times]. I have clients lined up who are going to be all over pursuing a ballot challenge in this case, says David Vogel, a Seattle attorney and former deputy prosecutor for King County who was briefly involved in an earlier ballot challenge against Trump before the presidential primary. It would be interesting to know if there other states with such laws. Readers? NOTE: Trump is now subject to the criminal justice system in the State of New York. It will be interesting to see how that plays out. * * * Trump (R): Behind the Curtain: MAGAs jail plan [Axios]. Another Trump insider pointed to a federal civil rights statute, Conspiracy Against Rights' 18 U.S. Code 241 Conspiracy against rights If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; (I assume the highway part is for night riders in the Civil Rights era.) The Sixth Amendment in Braggs case, I would say (since the architecture of Paul, Weis Braggs case didnt give the Defendant time to prepare a proper defense; though I grant the Trump team isnt making that argument, and since IANAL, perhaps Ive gotten that wrong). Trump (R): Multiple Trump Witnesses Have Received Significant Financial Benefits From His Businesses, Campaign [ProPublica]. Importantly: Trump campaign head Susie Wiles, a Florida political consultant, was present when Trump allegedly went beyond improperly holding onto classified documents and showed them to people lacking proper security clearances. When Trump was indicted on June 8, 2023, over his handling of the documents, the indictment described Wiles as a PAC representative. It described Trump allegedly showing her a classified map related to a military operation, acknowledging that he should not be showing it and warning her to not get too close. That June, Right Coast Strategies, the political consulting firm Wiles founded, received its highest-ever monthly payment from the Trump campaign: $75,000, an amount the firm has equaled only once since. Wiles had been a grand jury witness before the indictment. News reports indicated Wiles had told others that she continued to be loyal to Trump and only testified because she was forced to. (And, according to Wiles, Trump was told she was a witness sometime before the indictments June release.) The Trump campaign official told ProPublica that the spike in payments was largely because Wiles was billing for previous months. She also got a 20% raise that May, from $25,000 to $30,000 per month. She went back and redid her contract, the official said, adding that her role as a witness was not a factor in that raise. A few months later, the Wiles family got more good news. Wiles daughter Caroline, who had done some work for Trumps first campaign and in the White House, where she reportedly left one job because she didnt pass a background check, was hired by his campaign. Her salary: $222,000, making her currently the fourth-highest-paid staffer. (The Trump campaign official said her salary included a monthly housing stipend.) Then again: It feels very shady, especially as you detect a pattern. I would worry about it having a corrupt influence, Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, said after hearing from ProPublica about benefits provided to potential Trump witnesses. But McQuade said these cases are difficult to prove, even if the intent were actually to influence testimony, because savvy defendants dont explicitly attach strings to the benefits and would more likely be all wink and a nod, Youre a great, loyal employee, heres a raise.' And in fact, if you look at the numbers, Wiles is doing a great job. Trump (R): Wisconsin attorney general files felony charges against attorneys, aide who worked for Trump in 2020 [Associated Press]. Felony forgery charges were filed in Wisconsin* on Tuesday against two attorneys and an aide who helped submit paperwork falsely saying that former President Donald Trump had won the battleground state in 2020. The state charges are the first to come in Wisconsin and follow separate charges brought in Arizona*, Michigan*, Nevada* and Georgia related to the fake electors scheme. The Wisconsin charges were brought against Trumps attorney in the state, Jim Troupis, 62, attorney Kenneth Chesebro, 62, who was advising the campaign and Mike Roman, 51, who was Trumps director of Election Day operations. Roman allegedly delivered Wisconsins fake elector paperwork to a Pennsylvania congressmans staffer in order to get them to then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021. All three are due in Dane County Circuit Court on Sept. 19, according to court records. They each face one felony count punishable by up to six years in prison and fines of up to $10,000. NOTE * Swing states. Would be interesting to see the karmic hammer strike the Trump campaign in 2024 for the contingent electors scheme in 2020 (and even Fani Willis butchered the Georgia case, similar cases are proceeding, quietly, elsewhere. * * * Trump (R): Trumps doc requests reveal VP short list [Axios]. Former President Trump has requested financial and other documents from eight potential VP picks as he formalizes his vetting, an official tells Axios. Some candidates got more extensive paperwork requests than others a possible clue to how hotly theyre being considered. The contenders, in no particular order: Sen. J.D. Vance (Ohio); North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum; Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.); Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.); Ben Carson, former HUD Secretary; Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.); Rep. Byron Donalds (Fla.); and Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.). Were told the list, reported earlier by Politico and others, is very much subject to change. Time Scott would make some heads explode. Stefanik, too, for that matter. * * * Trump (R): Why Trumps Second Victory Would Be Worse [Robert Borosage, The Nation]. Here, for a change, is a Democrat yarn diagram (better than the usual, because the relationships are typed; far worse, since the relationships are often free-floating, not connecting any of the players): One such relationship, from Stephen Miller to nothing, is Insurrection Act used to pursue political enemies (whoever would have come up with such an idea). In any case, what that does show is that Project 2025 is existential for Democrats, personally. Borosage writes: Of course, there will be resistance [whatever did happen to Neera]in Congress, the bureaucracy, and the press. Well, given that election 2024 is indeed existential for our democracy Democrats and its not just this diagram thats saying that it follows that Trump must be prevented from taking office by any means necessary, as Malcolm X said, ironically enough. So its odd that Borosage, now that events in Paul, Weis Judge Merchans court seem to have been the high tide of lawfare, doesnt mention, besides Congress, the bureaucracy, and the press, the spooks. Or not so odd. Everybody knows it (six ways from Sunday), so why not say it? NOTE I should take a look at what Project 2025 has to say about the spooks. Perhaps thoughtful people have anticipated the relevant scenarios. * * * Realignment and Legitimacy That DEI thing is working out great: Here are the Chiefs of Harvard, NYU, USC & Yale police: three Black men & one Black woman 100% Black head cops. The %of Black students at these four campuses is, respectively, 6.3%, 6.1%, 6.3% & 6.%. % Black faculty? 5% (HU), 3.8 (NYU), 3 (USC), 1.3% (YU) #OverseerAwards pic.twitter.com/9lO1wusbqN Prof. Thrasher (@thrasherxy) June 4, 2024 * * * Conservative family who relocated from California to Idaho to escape liberal politics reveal why theyve now moved back [Daily Mail]. We decided after 3 years in Idaho, we are going back home. We wanted to move to a Conservative state, but we realized what it would mean to fit in, [the TikTok] continued. It would mean we would need to be judgmental. We would need to gossip about others. Have our kids forget how to say please and thank you. Talk bad about new people moving here for a better life. We left California because of politics[,] but forgot there are other kinds of politics to consider' Hmmm.. Florida is so last year here is the new affordable hotspot people are moving to in 2024 [New York Post]. In 2023, Florida practically owned the list of most moved-to cities, with six in the Top 20 and five in the Top 10. This year, South Florida is the third most fled, right behind much-maligned Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, [Zillows] numbers showed. Housing, insurance costs, cost of living. Pretty mundane! Anyhow, now its the Carolinas and Nashville. Syndemics I am in earnest I will not equivocate I will not excuse I will not retreat a single inch AND I WILL BE HEARD. William Lloyd Garrison * * * Covid Resources, United States (National): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot ; includes many counties; Wastewater Scan, includes drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); Iowa COVID-19 Tracker (in IA, but national data). Infection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts (especially on hospitalization by city). Lambert here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To update any entry, do feel free to contact me at the address given with the plants. Please put COVID in the subject line. Thank you! Resources, United States (Local): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin, dashboard; Stanford, wastewater; Oakland, wastewater); CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); FL (wastewater); GA (wastewater); HI (dashboard); IA (wastewater reports); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur dAlene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard) ; NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard) ; PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (dashboard); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV ( wastewater ); WY ( wastewater ). Resources, Canada (National): Wastewater (Government of Canada). Resources, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usees); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater). Hat tips to helpful readers: Alexis, anon (2), Art_DogCT, B24S, CanCyn, ChiGal, Chuck L, Festoonic, FM, FreeMarketApologist (4), Gumbo, hop2it, JB, JEHR, JF, JL Joe, John, JM (10), JustAnotherVolunteer, JW, KatieBird, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (6), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, square coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3). Stay safe out there! * * * Look for the Helpers Please consider taking the time to sign this petition to the the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: COVID CONSCIOUS PEOPLE We only have until June 10th to submit! PLEASE take 2 minutes out of your day to fill out a comment at this link. Select healthcare industry in what is your comment about. This is to make hospitals report COVID infections https://t.co/MgfZfMVRAK L (@hutchleah) June 6, 2024 Transmission: H5N1 Euphonious: If it's endemic in the birds it's endemic in the herds. I don't see the FDA getting a handle on this one, sorry. https://t.co/MqzsFsJygq AJ Leonardi, MBBS, PhD (@fitterhappierAJ) June 7, 2024 I can only hope that this time Leonardi is wrong. A long, informative thread from Fiegl-Ding on the H5N2 case in Mexico: NEWThe WHO & Mexico reports worlds first-ever human case & death from H5N2 bird flu (another bird flu type, not the H5N1 thats more active lately). 59-year-old died in Mexico City and had **ZERO** exposure contact with any poultry or other animals. Close contacts negative too. pic.twitter.com/zIQuEa8vDz Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) June 5, 2024 Vaccines I dont know if, at this point, we can ever have a rational discussion of vaccines, but if we manage to achieve this, the historical record on morbidity should be taken into account: I just listened to someone insist that all vaccines cause more harm than good. Here is the impact of 9 vaccines. To suggest we reintroduce these diseases by avoiding vaccines is societal amnesia and medical lunacy. https://t.co/2dCJsYHdk6 pic.twitter.com/E5qcQxjYjH Bob Morris, MD, PhD (@rdmorris) June 7, 2024 Censorship and Propaganda Cases? What cases? This image showing the increasing disconnect between counted cases and wastewater data is a reminder that when someone says 'post-pandemic' it is not a factual or scientific statement, but rather an admittance of adoption of a cultural delusion propagated by capitalism. pic.twitter.com/efNTi8b8ID COVID NEWS NETWORK (@COVIDnewsfast) June 6, 2024 (I discuss the how case data and wastewater data diverged, after tracking in unison, here in April 2023.) AFAIK, so-called public health always focused on reducing transmission, never on hospitalization and deaths, which is what CDC focused on (although now even that data is going dark). Of course, even mild infection can cause vascular and neurological damage, as well as Long Covid, as readers know, but which cannot be too often stated. A good list of blame-worthy thought leaders: We're going to need a bigger graph. Whooping Cough in England. This is the fault of the people who think sickness makes you well. Anti-vaxxers. Natural immunityers. Pro-infectioners. Anti-mitigationers. Immunity Debtors. Most Peoplers. Anti-Maskers. We-Have-The-Toolers. pic.twitter.com/DKm5GpYmbJ tern (@1goodtern) June 7, 2024 But even more to blame are the people who funded the thought leaders, betrayers who should be sunk in the ice of the Ninth Circle of Hell. (Also, has anyone checked in on the UK? Seems to be rather a lot of illness about.) Celebrity Watch Taylor Swift spreads Covid: thousand of fans fall ill after Madrid and Paris concerts [El Nacional]. Taylor Swift certainly does not leave her fans indifferent. A week after the US singer performed in Madrid as part of her Eras Tour, the 130,000 people who saw her at the two concerts held in the Spanish capital still remember an unforgettable night. What many dont know is that they left the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium with more than just souvenirs and outrageously-priced merchandising. Many also picked up an unexpected souvenir: a dose of Covid-19. Over the past few days, thousands of fans have commented on social media that they fell ill after attending the concerts on May 29th and 30th. A situation that is not surprising, considering the large crowd packed into the stadium, all of them singing their favourite tunes at the top of their lungs. And despite the fact that the severity of the pandemic situation is now much reduced, the virus itself persists To give an idea, the leading Spanish fan Twitter/X account dedicated to Taylor Swift held a poll asking followers if they had come down sick after going to one of the singers concerts in Madrid. A full 35% of people who took part the equivalent of 3,780 responded positively. On June 9th and 10th, Paris hosted two concerts by Taylor Swift three weeks before the Madrid shows and a similar situation was experienced there, in which thousands of French fans reported feeling unwell, with symptoms compatible with Covid. See here at NC on Taylor Swift, who makes every effort to protect herself and her entourage from Covid, but does nothing to protect here fans Notice the difference between indoors and outdoors: Swifties kindly share their CO2 measures at @taylorswift13 shows. This allows us to make comparisons on the quality of indoor air renewal in several venues: Paris and Las Vegas (indoor arenas), Madrid (retractable roof stadium) and Sydney (open-air stadium). More venues to come. https://t.co/eU7m9UAS6O pic.twitter.com/8qF9si7Y9o LET'S AIR / NOUS AERONS (@nousaerons) June 4, 2024 Would it really be so difficult for squillionaire Swift to confine herself to outdoor venues? Assuming that not giving her devoted fans heart and brain damage is a priority for her? The latest concert must-have? Stylish earplugs [Financial Times]. Not, of course, N95s as branded merch, heaven forfend. Elite Maleficence Youd think the Republicans could blame mass infections on Biden (and theyd be right): The House Committee on COVID isnt talking about long covid because theyll have to admit that repeat infections increases the risk of long covid, which is its own pandemic, all while admitting that repeat infections is the de facto policy of the U.S., and its an election year. https://t.co/KSQYbfxuLR EYES ON RAFAH (@joaquinlife) June 6, 2024 Collective issue? Is Cuomo some kinda Communist? Long covid is real and more significant than many thought. And while we all would like to turn away from this collective issue, its now the time to face the problem so that we create awareness and find treatment. Dir. of Rehabilitation Innovation at Mt Sinai Health System, Dr. pic.twitter.com/ZR3bh8ekgy Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) June 7, 2024 No but seriously, Cuomo has commendably been plugging away at Long Covid coverage. WHO recommends handwashing, but not PPE or masks, against bird flu: Learn about Avian Influenza. Who is at risk? How can you protect yourself, and which foods are safe to eat during an outbreak ? Dr Wenqing Zhang explains in Science in 5pic.twitter.com/lBXJtNgaNv World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) June 6, 2024 European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control: The virus spreads directly from bird to bird via airborne transmission or indirectly, through faecal contamination of material, feathers or feed. CDC: However, human infections with avian influenza A viruses can happen when enough virus gets into a persons eyes, nose or mouth, or is inhaled. This can happen when virus is in the air (in droplets or possibly dust) and a person breathes it in, or when a person touches something that has virus on it and then touches their mouth, eyes or nose. We learn nothing. #DavosSafe: World Economic Forum meeting this week you can only attend with a negative Covid PCR. Meanwhile at chemo clinic today waiting room packed with maskless patients, no testing, no staff tested or masked. Covid on both main wards & no staff tested, no masks. Who cares right? pic.twitter.com/nsalcWQ7pF Prognostic Chats (@PrognosticChats) June 5, 2024 They know. They just dont want you to know. The Bullingdon Club at play: On that very day, my mother, with hospital-acquired Covid, told the doctors give the ventilator to someone younger. She died less than a week later, along with over 1000 other victims of governments failure to take the pandemic seriously. https://t.co/qkgmheingw Trisha Greenhalgh (@trishgreenhalgh) June 6, 2024 * * * Lambert here: Patient readers, Im going to have to rethink this beautifully formatted table. Biobot data is gone, CDC variant data functions, ER visits are dead, CDC stopped mandatory hospital data collection, New York Times death data has stopped. (Note that the two metrics the hospital-centric CDC cared about, hospitalization and deaths, have both gone dark). Ideally I would replace hospitalization and death data, but Im not sure how. I might also expand the wastewater section to include (yech) Verily data, H5N1 if I can get it. Suggestions and sources welcome. UPDATE I replaced the Times death data with CDC data. Amusingly, the URL doesnt include parameters to construct the tables; one must reconstruct then manually each time. Caltrops abound. TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts Cases National[1] Biobot May 13: Regional[2] Biobot May 13: > Variants[3] CDC June 8 Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC May 25 Hospitalization New York[5] New York State, data June 6: National [6] CDC May 18: Positivity National[7] Walgreens May 28: Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic June 1: Travelers Data Positivity[9] CDC May 20: Variants[10] CDC May 20: Deaths Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11]CDC May 18: Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12]CDC May 18: LEGEND 1) for charts new today; all others are not updated. 2) For a full-size/full-resolution image, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows) on the chart thumbnail and open image in new tab. NOTES [1] (Biobot) Dead. [2] (Biobot) Dead. [3] (CDC Variants) FWIW, given that last week KP.2 was all over everything like kudzu, and now its KP.3. If the Nowcast cant even forecast two weeks out, why are we doing it at all? [4] (ER) This is the best I can do for now. At least data for the entire pandemic is presented. [5] (Hospitalization: NY) Slight leveling out? (The New York city area has form; in 2020, as the home of two international airports (JFK and EWR) it was an important entry point for the virus into the country (and from thence up the Hudson River valley, as the rich sought to escape, and then around the country through air travel.) [6] (Hospitalization: CDC). This is the best I can do for now. Note the assumption that Covid is seasonal is built into the presentation. At least data for the entire pandemic is presented. [7] (Walgreens) 4.3%; big jump. (Because there is data in current view tab, I think white states here have experienced no change, as opposed to have no data.) [8] (Cleveland) Going up. [9] (Travelers: Positivity) Up. Those sh*theads at CDC have changed the chart so that it doesnt even run back to 1/21/23, as it used to, but now starts 1/1/24. Theres also no way to adjust the time rasnge. CDC really doesnt want you to be able to take a historical view of the pandemic, or compare one surge to another. In an any case, thats why the shape of the curve has changed. [10] (Travelers: Variants) Same deal. Those sh*theads: [11] Deaths low, but positivity up. [12] Deaths low, ED not up. Stats Watch Employment Situation: United States Unemployment Rate [Trading Economics]. The unemployment rate in the United States rose to 4% in May 2024, the highest since January 2022, up from 3.9% in the previous month and surprising market expectations, which had forecasted the rate to remain unchanged. Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate dropped to 62.5% from 62.7%, and the employment-population ratio decreased to 60.1% from 60.2%. * * * CNBC: United Airlines starts serving passengers personalized ads on seat-back screens [CNBC]. Now playing on United Airlines seat-back screens: personalized ads. The carrier on Friday said it launched a media platform to serve travelers personalized advertisements on seat-back screens and in its app, among other platforms, as it seeks to leverage customer data. Customers can opt out of seeing targeted ads through a United web page [oh, right], and United says advertisers cant access customers personally identifiable information, the airline said. There is the potential for 3.5 hours of attention per traveler, based on average flight time, United said. Its a gold mine, Im tellin ya! (Also, personalized without being personally identifiable is a neat trick.) * * * Todays Fear & Greed Index: 44 Fear (previous close: 45 Neutral) [CNN]. One week ago: 43 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jun 6 at 1:53:46 PM ET. Photo Book In 'Unseen Work,' Vivian Maier's Incredible Photographs Go On Display for Her First U.S. Retrospective [Colossal]. In 2007, Chicago resident John Maloof landed on the discovery of a lifetime at a thrift auction house on the citys Northwest Side. A stunning archive of more than 100,000 negatives by photographer Vivian Maier (1926-2009) went under the hammer, marking a new chapter in the prolific documentarians story. Maiers incredible images focus on people she passed on the street around her hometown in France, then New York and Chicago, illustrating her deep love for the medium and innate ability to capture moving portraits and candid, natural interactions. Over the decades, her dedication amounted to one of the most remarkable photographic collections of the century Maier (previously) never exhibited her work during her lifetime, and she rarely made prints from her negatives. Having worked as a nanny for many years, she faced financial instability later in life, and her photographs ended up in storage along with other belongings, which were ultimately sold off when the rent went unpaid. I cant believe this is the firsr Maier exhibition: Zeitgeist Watch Why Is Everyone on Steroids Now? [GQ]. Someone in your life is using performance-enhancing drugs. I feel comfortable making that bet because I recently discovered how many people in my life are using performance-enhancing drugs [(PEDs]. Well Multiple guys said they were bothered by the persistent stereotypes of PED users as meatheads, as aggro dudes prone to so-called roid rageit just didnt square with the people they had befriended. There are doctors, engineers, government officials, nurses, software engineers, attorneys, small-business owners, accountants, a 32-year-old named J.R. told me. He lives in North Carolina and serves as an administrator in one of the forums. There are devoted husbands and committed fathers. There are men more well-versed in organic chemistry and scientific literature than most of the people I went to college with .' In other words, PMC men are on steroids (with the possible exception of nurses). There may certainly be a PED culture in the working class, but if so, this genuinely creepy article doesnt show it. Study Says That People Who Like Loud Exhaust Are Psychotic [Car and Driver]. Works for me. A new study by Western University in Ontario says that if youve got a car with a modified exhaust system, odds are youre a guy and probably also psychotic and sadistic. The study group comprised 529 undergrad business students who were asked whether they thought loud cars are cool, whether they viewed their cars as an extension of themselves, and if theyd modify their own cars to make the exhaust louder. Further, each participant took a Short Dark Tetrad personality survey to assess predilection toward general malice and belligerencepsychopathy, narcissism, manipulativeness. Somewhat surprisingly, the straight-pipe crowd didnt score high on narcissism, indicating that the appreciation of stridently broadcast internal combustion isnt motivated by, Hey, look at me! Its more like, Hey, listen to my Nissan VQ, whether you like it or not.' Thats reassuring. More: If youre wondering what sort of other affinities might be predicted by high scores in sadism and psychopathy, the study says that those sorts of traits have also shown up in responses asking if the participant had intentionally started an illegal fire. Now do people who use cellphones like walkie-talkies. Class Warfare Vinod Khosla, Marc Andreessen And The Billionaire Battle For AIs Future [Forbes]. Andreessen and his allies envision a best-case-scenario future in which AI prevents disease and early mortality, and all artists and businesspeople work with an AI assistant to enhance their jobs. Warfare, without bloody human blunders, will have fewer human casualties. AI-augmented art and films will appear everywhere. In a manifesto detailing his position last year, Andreessen, who declined an interview request for this story, dreams of open-source paradise, with no regulatory barriers to slow AIs development or red-tape moats that protect big companies at the expense of startups. All three billionaire investors appear on this years Midas List of the worlds top tech investors for investments that reach beyond AIwith Hoffman at No. 8, Khosla at No. 9 and Andreessen at No. 36but its in the emerging category where their influence is most acutely felt. These prominent leaders of the last tech revolution are now pushing their views on the key topics of the next. AI = BS. None of this will ever happen. AI will not augment humans; thats not how capital accumulation works. AI art will be horrid and no human artists will have any work, because AI art is good enough, and all those who could show what the difference is will be too impoverished to create, let alone educate. Its really telling that the first big AI innovation to hit the labor market was eliminating call center employees (which, artists, is what you are to capital as well). News of the Wired We Are Made of Waves [Nautilus]. As Strassler writes, we are all wavicle-creatures, and the universe sings everywhere, in every thing.' Maybe. I looked hard for something to excerpt. This was it! * * * Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. From Mark Kinnucan: Mark Kinnucan writes: A stone hoisted into the air by the roots of a fallen hemlock, Mohican State Park, Ohio. Great metaphor. * * * Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. So if you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldnt see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know Im on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for three or four days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals: Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated: If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you! The Three Little Pigs Are Hurting Their Own Cause, an Op-Ed by The Big Bad Wolf McSweeneys Internet Tendency The California Taxpayer Is on the Hook WSJ There are risks lurking in the world of private capital Gillian Tett, FT. The deck: A recent court ruling against SEC reforms of the sector is an unfortunate blow to transparency and fairness. Borrowers, Especially the Young, Struggle With Credit Card Debt in Potentially Bad Sign for Economy AP Climate Water Syndemics China? Myanmar AUKUS: No refund for $9.4 billion gift to US & UK submarine companies Asia-Pacific Defense Reporter India The Koreas Syraqistan European Disunion Dear Old Blighty New Not-So-Cold War The Caribbean 2024 Spook Country TWITTER FILES Extra: The Defaming of Brandon Straka and #Walkaway Matt Taibbi, The Twitter Files Antitrust Digital Watch The Bezzle UnitedHealth CEO Sold $5.6 Million in Shares the Same Day as Ransomware Attack HealthCare Uncovered (antidlc). Boeing Supply Chain Aluminum at epicenter of US reshoring efforts with renewable energy twist S&P Global Groves of Academe Columbia Law Review Is Back Online After Students Threatened Work Stoppage Over Palestine Censorship The Intercept Class Warfare Surveillance pricing Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic What one man learned living alone in the wilderness for 40 years WaPo How complex systems fail Richard Cook (2002). Antidote du jour (JJ Harrison): Bonus antidote: i probably check the page 10x a day for updates. he went from grumbling about how he hates cats to posting picture slideshows, taking her to the vet, laundromat, grocery store, buying every conceivable toy/scratcher/accessories/treats for her. it's been 11 days big challenges (@pududeer) May 23, 2024 See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here. Yves here. The generally scary heat levels of this year are set to abate a bit. But a break in trends should not be mistaken for much of a change in trajectory. By Bob Henson, a meteorologist and journalist based in Boulder, Colorado. He has written on weather and climate for the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Weather Underground, and many freelance venues. Bob is the author of The Thinking Persons Guide to Climate Change and of The Rough Guide to Climate Change, a forerunner to it, and of Weather on the Air: A History of Broadcast Meteorology, and coauthor of the introductory textbook Meteorology Today. For five years and until the summer of 2020 he co-produced the Category 6 news site for Weather Underground. Originally published at Yale Climate Connections f youve got a chronic health concern and you suddenly get acutely sick, you and your doctors face two big issues: whats behind your short-term crisis, and what are the implications for your longer-term health? Our worlds planet doctors have been at a similar stress point for close to a year now. Theyve been scrambling to figure out why Earths surface including both atmosphere and oceans got hit with an unprecedented spike of heat thats run from mid-2023 well into 2024. Theyve also been addressing what, if anything, the spike tells us about the next few years and beyond. Several fresh papers are out on two unique and much-publicized factors that may have influenced the astounding global heat of 2023-24. Theres much more coming down the research pike: for example, five journals within the Nature umbrella are joining forces for a special cross-journal issue that will focus on the spike. As the submission invitationput it, It is not yet clear what caused the various climatic anomalies in 2023, but the answers will shape our understanding of what is to come whether 2023 was a singular outlier year, or if it is a new baseline from which warming will continue to new levels. The planets immediate fever hasnt yet broken. Looking at the global-scale averages calculated daily by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, surface air temperatures have set records on dozens of dates since mid-2023, and sea surface temperatures have set records each day for more than a solid year (see Figures 1 and 2 below). Figure 1. Globally averaged daily surface air temperature from 1940 through June 2, 2024. Record global highs were set on nearly every date in the second half of 2023 and on many days in the first half of 2024. (Image credit: Copernicus Climate Change Service). Figure 2. Globally averaged sea surface temperature (SST) from 1940 through June 2, 2024. Every date since May 4, 2023, has set a new global record for that date, and on March 20 and 21, 2024, the global SST average set the current all-time record high of 21.09C. (Image credit: Copernicus Climate Change Service). As catalogued here in monthly posts by Jeff Masters, every month since June 2023 has been the warmest globally in observations and analyses going back to 1850. This month NOAA and NASA will likely concur with the Copernicus Climate Change Service that May 2024 set yet another global monthly heat record. In a special address on Wednesday (World Environment Day) titled A Moment of Truth, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres referred to the latest Copernicus data as well as a new report from the World Meteorological Organization. The WMO gave a 47% chance that the period 2024-2028 will average at least 1.5C above preindustrial levels, and an 86% chance that at least one year in that period will set a new yearly global record, beating out 2023. May 2024 was the hottest May in history, marking 12 straight months of hottest months ever. Our planet is telling us something, but we dont seem to be listening. Its time to mobilise, act & deliver. Its #ClimateAction crunch time. pic.twitter.com/7IIy5mJaxg Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) June 5, 2024 In April alone, 34 locations set all-time monthly highs for their respective nations and territories. And in May and early June, many populous tropical and subtropical locations from India to southeast Asia to Mexico have endured miserable, dangerous heat at or or near all-time records. Even satellite-based lower-atmosphere temperature data long used as ammunition by those who would dismiss or deny long-term warming havent escaped the intense spike. Global warming has stopped! The pause has begun! NO WARMING SINCE APRIL 2024! pic.twitter.com/q1FQCGyckJ Andrew Dessler (@AndrewDessler) June 4, 2024 The handwriting does appear to be on the wall for the demise of the 2023-24 heat spike, mainly because the Pacific is rapidly transitioning toward La Nina. The upwelling caused by La Nina typically brings immense volumes of deeper, cooler water to the surface of the eastern tropical Pacific, spanning an area that can sprawl larger than the United States. We can expect that cool infusion to bring down globally averaged air and ocean temperatures by a few tenths of a degree Fahrenheit for at least a few months. That should be enough to end the current string of daily global records and near-records, perhaps as soon as July. It may take a lot longer to fully understand whats happened in the last year, and what it may portend for our future. El Nino peaked in December 2023 as one of the five strongest on record. Because of the extra heat and moisture in our atmosphere, our weather will continue to be more extreme. #EarlyWarningsForAll initiative remains WMOs top priority. https://t.co/13qHHwNYDW pic.twitter.com/tmjAiwJ3Dy World Meteorological Organization (@WMO) June 4, 2024 Ships, Smokestacks, and Sunlight It should go without saying that the 2023-24 heat spike arose on top of relentless long-term warming, caused by the greenhouse gases pumped out as fossil fuels get burned. Global temperatures simply couldnt have hit such a peak without a century-plus of global heating bolstering the spike. The next biggest factor was the El Nino event of 2023-24, the strongest since 2015-16 and one of the two strongest of the 21st century thus far. In contrast to La Nina, the oceanic warmth slathered across the eastern tropical Pacific by El Nino typically raises global surface air temperature by several tenths of a degree Fahrenheit. In fact, Michael Mann (University of Pennsylvania) and others have argued that much like the El Nino heat peak of 2015-16, the 2023-24 values fall within the margin of natural variability around the longer-term warming trend. Still, there was a hefty difference of around 0.24 degree Celsius or 0.43 degrees Fahrenheit between the 2015-16 and 2023-24 peaks (based on May-to-April data from NOAA, as shown in Fig. 3 below). And questions remain: exactly how did natural variability, and/or something more, manage to produce such a jump from one strong El Nino event to the next? And why was September 2023 in particular such a record-destroyer? Its when you drill down past long-term warming and El Nino that the science saga gets more intriguing and more contentious. Figure 3. Global surface temperatures (land and ocean), averaged for 12-month periods from May through April. The 2023-24 period was 0.24C (0.43F) warmer than 2015-16, compared to a long-term warming trend (1974-2024) of 0.15C (0.27F) when carried across the same eight-year period. (Image credit: Annotated from original via NOAA/NCEI) One of the often-cited secondary factors at work is a sharp drop in the sulfate aerosol emissions spewed out from global shipping. That decline was triggered by regulations put into effect by the International Maritime Organization in 2020. They reduced sulfate emissions from shipping by some 70% and global sulfate emissions by roughly 10%. The direct effect fewer sun-blocking aerosols and thus more sunlight reaching Earths surface is fairly straightforward. Changes in sulfates also have indirect effects: the presence of aerosols can shift the numbers and size distribution of cloud droplets, which in turn affects how much sunlight reaches Earths surface. Taking both processes into account, a 2023 analysis by Carbon Brief estimated that global temperatures will be about 0.05 degrees Celsius warmer than otherwise expected by 2050 as a result of the 2020 sulfate emission cuts in effect, speeding up global warming by about two years. That may seem like a mere drop in the climate-change bucket. But the influx of energy has been greatest along oceanic shipping lanes including, importantly, those across the North Atlantic, the spawning ground for U.S. Gulf and Atlantic hurricanes. Sea surface temperatures across the North Atlantic have been smashing records over most of the past year. Theyre now at unprecedented heights for the start of hurricane season, as discussed here by Michael Lowry in a May 22 post. The sea surface temperature averaged over the North Atlantic has now been record-warm for 15 consecutive months. One does start to wonder how or when it stops breaking its own records every month and year this is not normal. pic.twitter.com/BbLPS7U43Y Brian McNoldy (@BMcNoldy) June 4, 2024 A new paper in Communications Earth and Environment led by Tianle Yuan (GESTAR-II/University of Maryland) estimates that the increased solar input from the drop in sulfates which the paper calls an inadvertent geoengineering termination shock could lead to a doubled rate of global warming in the 2020s compared to the last half-century. The new energy balance estimates from the Yuan paper are roughly consistent with earlier studies, but theres been some pushback on technical grounds in the papers extrapolation from energy balance to global temperature trends. This is a timely study, but it makes very bold statements about temperature changes and geoengineering which seem difficult to justify on the basis of the evidence, said Dr. Laura Wilcox, associate professor at the UKs National Centre for Atmospheric Science in the University of Reading, in a roundup of reactions at Science Media Centre. Update (June 5): Another new paper still in preprint form at EGUSphere, and not yet peer-reviewed describes CESM ensemble simulations that incorporate a 90% drop in sulfate emissions from shipping in 2020, and produce a delayed global-warming spike in 2023 not unlike the one actually observed. Three new papers just added to the ongoing research surrounding the role of 2020 reduction in shipping sulfates on the recent spike in global temperatures two suggest minor contributions while @danvisioni and colleagues find a more substantial warming. Science in action! https://t.co/Tx1LdwfDia Michael Lowry (@MichaelRLowry) June 5, 2024 Figure 4. A view from the Himawari-8 satellite of the Hunga TongaHunga Haapai volcanic eruption as it pushed above the Southwest Pacific at 0450 UTC on January 15, 2022. (Image credit: Japan Meteorological Agency, via Digital Typhoon and Wikimedia Commons) What About That Undersea Volcano? The eruption of the Hunga TongaHunga Haapai volcano in the Southwest Pacific on January 15, 2022, grabbed the attention of vulcanologists and climate scientists worldwide. The eruption was the most powerful since that of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991. The immense blast from Pinatubo spewed enough sulfates into the stratosphere to bring down global temperatures by as much as 0.6 Celsius (1 degree Fahrenheit) over the next year-plus. The new wrinkle with the latest eruption: Hunga Tonga is located beneath the Southwest Pacific, rather than atop an island. The eruption ended up pushing less sulfur dioxide than Pinatubo into the atmosphere, but it added a massive infusion of water vapor, enough to boost the total amount of stratospheric moisture by as much as 10 percent. The added water vapor has since worked its way to higher latitudes within the stratosphere. As with other greenhouse gases at high altitudes, the radiative effects of the water vapor added by Hunga Tonga have been to cool the stratosphere while slightly warming Earths surface. A couple of early estimates were that the eruptions sulfates led to around 0.004C of global cooling in 2022, and that the water vapor would lead to as much as 0.035C of global warming over five years, perhaps accounting for a minor slice of the recent global heat spike. A paper in review at ESS Open Archive led by Mark Schoeberl (Science and Technology Corporation) estimates that the net effect from both water vapor and sulfate aerosols from Hunga Tonga has actually been a tiny cooling of Earths surface, and that the combined radiative effects were nearly gone by the end of 2023. The study does not evaluate conditions above 35 km in the stratosphere, where water vapor remains roughly 10 to 20 percent more prevalent than before the eruption, as the effects on climate from water vapor at such high altitudes have been considered negligible. The transition to higher altitude is particularly pronounced. Its plausible, e.g. Solomon et al. 2010, that this greatly reduces the climate impact of this water vapor, but I also wonder how well we really understand these changes, which have essentially never been seen before. pic.twitter.com/EVAZA3u3Z7 Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde) May 7, 2024 Another recent paper, this one just published in the Journal of Climate, asserts that we could see a complex web of regional weather and climate effects for years to come as a result of Hunga Tongas water vapor. Led by Martin Jucker (University of New South Wales), the paper uses the WACCM global climate model, which incorporates stratospheric chemistry, to simulate a Hunga Tonga-like eruption and its impacts up to a decade out. The studys estimate of global warming from the added water vapor was a mere 0.015 degrees Celsius. Whats much more striking is a projected reshuffling of weather patterns over the latter half of the 2020s, apparently caused by interacting circulation changes and cloud feedbacks. If this new studys projections end up on target, winter warming across the northern high latitudes (including the Arctic) and springtime warming across much of Eurasia could intensify, while Australian winters could be cooler and wetter than average, all else being equal. There are also hints of El Nino conditions being favored in the tropical Pacific. Discussing these and other surprising, lasting impacts in an essay for The Conversation, Jucker added: we hope that our study will stir scientific interest to try and understand what such a large amount of water vapor in the stratosphere might mean for our climate. Yet another (but very minor) factor is the timing of the ongoing peak in the 11-year solar cycle. Variations in solar heat energy across the cycle are minimal (less than 1%) compared to the forcing from greenhouse gases, and the ups and downs of the cycle dont affect our long-term warming trajectory. Still, the sun is now approaching the peak of Solar Cycle 25, spitting out active regions (and triggering a spectacular auroral display in May), so there may be a tiny, temporary dollop of extra solar energy in the mix right now. This cycle has been more active than predicted, even if its still among the weakest of the last 200 years. The Main Headline Hasnt Changed For all the cool science its generating, the 2023-24 heat spike is first and foremost a danger sign. Even assuming that globally averaged air and sea temperatures manage to drop a bit below record levels for the next one to several years something thats quite possible, perhaps even likely the spike has given us a preview of what might become normal as soon as the 2030s, as greenhouse gases from human activity continue to accumulate in the atmosphere. That accumulation will continue even when global emissions level out and begin to drop, as may happen over the next several years. Only when emissions drop to near zero will the accumulation cease. Given how strange the spike has been, its wise not to assume too much about its demise just yet. One of the most ominous recent takes is from eminent NASA climate scientist James Hansen, who asserted with coauthors in a 2023 Oxford Open Climate Change paper, Global Warming in the Pipeline, that declining global aerosol emissions (including the cuts triggered by the new shipping regulations) will accelerate the planetary warming rate well beyond standard projections. Zeke Hausfather offered a counterpoint in a Carbon Brief post on April 4, stressing that some acceleration in warming has long been projected by models and that the 2023-24 spike may not signal anything unusual: There is a risk of conflating shorter-term climate variability with longer-term changes a pitfall that the climate science community has encountered before. An ongoing thread launched with a RealClimate post on May 30 is highlighting new research and data points related to the 2023 extremes. Post author Gavin Schmidt, who succeeded Hansen as director of NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Studies, also penned a commentary in Nature on March 19 entitled Climate models cant explain 2023s huge heat anomaly we could be in uncharted territory. In that writeup, Schmidt stressed: the 2023 temperature anomaly has come out of the blue, revealing an unprecedented knowledge gap perhaps for the first time since about 40 years ago, when satellite data began offering modelers an unparalleled, real-time view of Earths climate system. If the anomaly does not stabilize by August a reasonable expectation based on previous El Nino events then the world will be in uncharted territory. Jeff Masters contributed to this post. The feebleness of the US response to a Russian incursion into Kharviv, which was to prevent further strikes on civilian targets in the border city of Belgorod, and the quick Russian counter-moves, confirms how the Collective West has no good options, even if its leaders cant yet admit that to themselves and come up with better alternatives than punching into air or a wall, as the case may be. Obama warned that Russia would have escalatory dominance with respect to Ukraine, and we are seeing that play out now. The short version of what follows is that the Biden Administration may have made a tiny gain against its big objective of not losing in Ukraine before the November election, since Russia may slightly delay an expected next move, of entering Sumy oblast. An advance into Sumy would further lengthen the line of contact, increase the degree of over-extension of Ukraine forces, and thus accelerate the process of attrition, which is Russias big goal. But even if the US policy change did produce this effect (and since none of us have Russian plans, we cant know if any change occurred), it is coming at considerable geopolitical cost, that of Putin suggesting, and deputy chair of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev confirming, that Russia will arm third countries in conflicts with the United States. To recap the recent state of play: earlier this week, the US described a policy change regarding the use of US weapons by Ukraine On a superficial level it seemed simply to give permission for what Ukraine had been doing already, as in using Western (here US) missiles to hit Russian territory, as in pre-the-2014-dispute Russia. The reason for this move was signs of panic in Ukraine, and substantial concern in the Western media, that Russia had re-opened a front by sending forces into Kharkiv on May 10. Even Russia fanboi map watchers were impressed by how quickly Russian forces advanced despite the Russian priority of destroying fighting power over taking ground. One reason was that the Western funding to build defense lines in Kharkiv had apparently been looted. The Western press was correspondingly alarmed, as headlines like Ukraine faces its worst crisis since the war began from the BBC on May 28 attest. Zelensky in particular was reported as being panicked over the possibility of losing Kharkiv city, the second biggest, even though that seemed vanishingly remote. The Russian deployments werent large enough for such a sprawling city with many many sturdy buildings, plus Putin said Kharkiv was not on the menu right now. But Zelensky nevertheless deployed what little he had left of reserves to Kharkiv and also thinned defenses elsewhere to bolster manpower levels in the north. Recall that around the time of the Russian entry into Kharkiv, it was also becoming clear in Ukraine that the US approval of the $61 billion in Ukraine funding (which took place on April 23) would result in perilous little in the way of additional arms delivers. That led to renewed efforts by Zelensky to wring more weapons out of his Western backers, such as pressing Germany for Taurus missiles, and pretty much anyone who had them for Patriot missiles and F-16 jets. During this period there was an outbreak of escalation fever, with French president Macron and some of the more rabid Baltic states trying to get support for the idea of NATO-member boots on the ground in Ukraine. Russian officials told France in no uncertain terms that any French forces, even trainers or others operating as something other than sheep-dipped little green men, would be aggressively hunted down, and any staging areas outside Ukraine would be targets for Russian attack. Mind you, it is not as if Russia has not warned before agains doing stupid things like flying F-16s out of, say, Poland before, but Russia has to use more threat-display language of late for the message to penetrate. Macrons effort to rally Europe to take on big bad Russia went splat as many countries such as Italy, Germany, and Belgium flatly said no. But the Biden Administration seemed to feel the need to assert leadership and defend Western manhood while (perhaps) trying to de-escalate by making what it likely perceived was a very limited response to the Russian entry into Kharviv. While there were complaints about how unclear initially the new policy was, and it finally emerged that the US was authorizing Ukraine to use longish-range missiles, but not ATACMS, which have a range of up to 300 KM, the longest range of US missiles delivered from mobile platforms, and the limited to areas in Russia that were supporting the operation in Kharkiv1 Now to close conflict-watchers, this change might seem like a nothingburger, since it was authorizing what Ukraine had been up to already, which was attacking Belgorod and environs. But there is a big difference between de facto and de jure. Having to pretend that Ukraines NATO friends werent providing a lot of help may have limited the scale of past operations. And Ukraine is an established rule-breaker in ways more than just selling Western provided weapons on the black market. It has repeatedly done things the US disapproved of, such as (ineffectually so far) attacking Russian refineries. But now the US is unabashedly making it possible for Ukraine to hit Russia in ways that would be impossible absent not just US supplies, but also US targeting data and assistance. So the sharp response from Putin should have been no surprise. Given that the US and NATO conduct of this conflict is still well behind the state of play, as in Russia almost certain to dictate whatever the final map and cessation terms look like, it may seem overly generous to think that the US might have had something more than the need to look tough and try to get Zelensky to quit undermining that via his almost constant whinging about short materiel supplies.2 There might have been an attempt at cunning here. Specifically, note that Administration spokescritters, when they finally figured out their messaging, stressed that any attacks would be limited and would target assets that were supporting the Russian forces in Kharkiv. Consider also that during this offensive, Russian troops were reported as building up on the border with Sumy oblast. An obvious next step would be for Russia to move some troops into Sumy to further overtax Ukraine forces by lengthening the line of contact. There also would likely be Ukraine, NATO and media freakout that this move was a step-stone to moving on Kiev. So the Kharkiv limited response precedent would tidily set up the US and perhaps then some of the more frisky NATO allies to extend the permitted targeting area to Russia near the Sumy border. Since Belgorod is now under attack, the current US escalation, in terms of practical effect, is likely not to amount to much. But the US scheme sets up more areas of Russia to be deemed fair game if/when Russia increases its physical conquests, which will be the result as its attrition campaign grinds on and the US continues to refuse to negotiate. So the Russian General Staff might mildly de-prioritize Sumy until Russia further bolsters its air defenses in the nearby areas of Russia (that might not take very long). The present US reactiveness to territorial gains might also lead Russia to place even more emphasis on its campaign against the Ukraine grid. Oddly that is under-reported in image-sensitive Western capitals. And since summer has only just begun, loss of power wont produce the same level of distress as in the winter, again diminishing its visibility/controversy level in NATO, despite its effectiveness. Look at how far the damage has gone in Kiev, which until recently was spared the impact of the war. From on June 4: According to DTEKs schedules, each guaranteed blackout in Kyiv will last up to 4 hours in a row, with the possibility of extending it for another three hours. Guaranteed electricity will be supplied only for 2 hours a day. The blackouts will last throughout the day. For example, one of the capitals streets will be without electricity for at least 9-12 hours a day, and possibly for all 18 hours. An example of power outages on a street in Kyiv The article does say that repairs of two nuclear plants are underway and a power line from Slovenia are underway, implying conditions should become less dire.absent further Russian action. So back to the main event, the Russian response to this new US gambit. Remember that Russia had warned the West as far back as 2022 that if the US and NATO attacked pre-conflict Russia, Russia would need to establish a buffer zone in Ukraine, and the extent of that buffer zone would also depend on the range of the missiles used against Russia. Putin reiterated, including at his big meeting with international journalists this week, that the incursion was the direct result of the continued shelling of Belgorod, as in Ukraine and its backers had triggered a defensive response. In addition, Russia has held back from taking military action outside the Ukraine theater, which in fact under international law it would be permitted to do in light of Western countries openly providing substantial assistance to Ukraine, which had already been attacking Belgorod and other targets in Russia.3 Putin described in the aforementioned international journalists how the US move would justify Russian responses in kind. From a transcript at Mirage News: Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Italian agency ANSA, Stefano Polli: I would like to ask about the recent events in Ukraine. NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg proposed allowing Ukraine to strike targets on Russian territory with weapons supplied from Europe. European countries and the United States have agreed with this idea. Not all, but the United States is among them. At the same time, there is a discussion in some countries about sending military advisers and instructors. I would like to ask you to comment on these two decisions and what Russias response will be. Thank you. President Putin: [..] What should we do in response? First, we will certainly improve our air defense systems. We will destroy them [the launched missiles aimed at Russia]. Second, we are considering the idea that if someone deems it possible to supply such weapons to the conflict zone for strikes on our territory and to create problems for us, then why shouldnt we have the right to supply our weapons of the same class to those regions of the world where strikes will be carried out on sensitive targets in the countries that are doing this against Russia? In other words, the response could be symmetrical. We will think on this. Third, of course, such actions will ultimately, and they have already reached the highest degree of degradation, but they will ultimately destroy international relations and undermine international security. Ultimately, if we see that these countries are being drawn into a war against us, and this is their direct participation in the war against the Russian Federation, then we reserve the right to act similarly. But generally, this is a path to very serious problems. Medvedevs remarks of today, amplified by the Russian Foreign Ministry, indicate Putin was not just being rhetorical. Take note of the first line of this tweet: #DmitryTelegram#Medvedev #Zakharova #Russia Dmitry Medvedev, 6 June Yesterday, the President of Russia for the first time allowed the shipment of our weapons to regions that are at war with states that supply weapons to Ukraine (or rather, use these weapons against our pic.twitter.com/FY3W3jBykl Maria Zakharova (Commentary) (@_MariaZakharova) June 6, 2024 Another line of response is for Russia to interfere with surveillance of the Black Sea, which would severely curtail Ukraine/NATO efforts to attack targets in Crimea and Russian ships in the Black Sea. These strikes depend on precision targeting data. Some Russia friendly commentators suggested Russia might go so far as to shoot down Reaper drones and harass surveillance planes. Both Simplicius and Alexander Mercoursis described a possible electronic warfare attack instead. From Simplicius on June 5: After several new persisting rumors that Russia intends to take action against NATOs Black Sea surveillance drones, today an interestingly anomalous incident occurred. The American RQ-4B Global Hawk was said to have disappeared from radars, spurring headlines that it was shot down, but soon after reappearedseemingly indicating it had turned off its transponders at a certain point near Crimea: However, thats when things got even stranger. Amid other rumors that it was jammed and even sent out an SOS signal of malfunction, the RQ-4 immediately flew back to Romania and did several circlesitself a non-standard action. Then it continued to the Black Sea again, but this time did its tracks much further south than usual, near Turkeys coast. The obvious conjecture would be thatfor nowRussia has resorted to messing with it electronically. The operators first panicked and took it to the safety of NATO airspace to make sure all systems were nominal, then upon return they flew it ou tof Russian EW range for the remainder of the flight. Thats my educated guess as to what could have happened, and I would assume it would serve as warning to the U.S. So the US and its allies have again been warned against trying to bluff with a weak hand. Have they finally learned their lesson _____ 1 Putin had recently pointed out via a detailed lecture, the pretense that Ukraine could operate these systems without Western targeting assistance from satellite and other inputs was absurd, and so the various nations providing these systems used against Russia were in fact attacking Russia. 2 Mind you, Zelensky is completely within his rights to make as much trouble as we can. It was the Collective West that pumped him up for this fight (see the Munich Security Conference of 2022 if you have doubts) and promised repeatedly wed back him for as long as it takes. Then we got him to ditch the Istanbul negotiations of late March 2022. And we turned him into the reincarnation of Churchill, so even in his diminished state. he still has lots of media access. 3 Per former Lt. Colonel and State Department officer Larry Wilkerson in this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xV5qVEV-HY The personal data processed by this X subcontractor includes data of a sovereign nature. An identity document is a sensitive document. This raises a number of questions In late May, online influencers who produce revenue-generating content on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, received notifications that they will have to pass identity verification checks by July 1. Those checks require users to take a selfie and a photograph of a government-issued ID. Failure to do this will mean they will no longer continue receiving income from the platform. According to some sources, content producers that have not yet provided the requested photos are already being locked out of their accounts. Heres a screenshot of the automated message sent to users with creator subscriptions and ads revenue share programs, courtesy of the user known as Censored Men: Naturally, many users are up in arms about this new condition, particularly those with liberal (in the classic sense) sensibilities. After all, Elon Musk himself posted a tweet in July 2023 stating that his X platform would protect anonymous users, or anons as he called them. This platform will protect anons for this reason particularly Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 9, 2023 There is a very important lesson in all this one that Yves flagged up in her 2021 post, If Your Business Depends on a Platform, You Dont Have a Business: [I]ts all well and good to want to be the creative person and not be bogged down with having to deal with the business side of publishing (and trust me, I do not like administrativa). However, when you choose to hand off the tech and monetization activities to the suits, you are at their mercy. Sensitive and Sovereign Data Users concerns on Twitter/X were further magnified when they learnt that the company that would be handling the face biometrics matching is AU10TIX, an Israeli firm with deep ties to the countrys intelligence agencies. It is also a big global player in the fast-emerging digital identity industry. In a 2023 article, the company identified lack of public awareness and trust and concerns about security and privacy as major obstacles to the mass roll out of digital IDs. In response, the article said, governments and organizations must prioritize educating the public about the benefits, security measures, and safeguards associated with digital identities. Are digital IDs the ultimate game-changer for global identification? Join the discussion on the current usage, challenges hindering adoption, and the promising future of #DigitalIDs. Read the full article here https://t.co/xeXy8m2exA pic.twitter.com/lq3Shn2O6R AU10TIX (@AU10TIXLimited) July 23, 2023 In other words, not only will Xs premium users have to give up their biometric details and a government-issued ID number in order to be able to continue generating an income stream on the platform, the company to which they will be entrusting that sensitive data is deeply embedded within Israels intelligence security complex. This is particularly worrisome for users living in Arabic countries with strained relations with Israel, reports the Lebanese newspaper LOrient Today: The problem is that AU10TIX, the company chosen to process users personal data, is based just outside Tel Aviv. This could complicate access to account verification for citizens of Arab countries that have not normalized their relations with Israel. Notably, many services with close links to Israel are banned in Lebanon, as there is no peace agreement between the two countries. For Hadi Khoury, an IT expert, the concern is understandable. The personal data processed by this X subcontractor includes data of a sovereign nature. An identity document is a sensitive document. This raises a number of questions: is this company capable of keeping personal data secure? Is it aware of its responsibilities and its duty to notify in the event of a data leak? The X platforms intentions to impose biometric verification were already evident in August last year. App researcher Nima Owji revealed that the social media platform was working on a new selfie biometrics and ID document verification process. Owji noted via screenshots that the new identity verification process would require users to take a selfie and photograph a government-issued ID. Days later, Twitter disclosed that it had added two new sections to its data collection privacy policy. Per CNN: Based on your consent, we may collect and use your biometric information for safety, security, and identification purposes, the policy read. In addition, under a new section labeled job applications, X said it may collect users employment and educational history. The company also said it could collect employment preferences, skills and abilities, job search activity and engagement, and so on in order to suggest potential job openings to users, to share that information with prospective third-party employers or to further target users with advertising. For X Premium users, the company will give an option to provide a government ID and a selfie image for verification purposes. The company may extract biometric data from both the government ID and the selfie image for matching purposes, the company told CNN in a statement. This will additionally helps us tie, for those that choose, an account to a real person by processing their Government issued ID, according to the company. Note the use of the word choose, as if the platforms premium users will have any real choice in the matter. If they want to remain a premium user and continue making money through the platform, they must, as things currently stand, submit the data requested in return for what Tech Crunch described last August as almost no benefits. The company insists that the verification feature will be applicable only to Premium users with creator subscriptions and ads revenue share programs, and an optional extra for all other Twitter users. That, as I will explain a little later, is unlikely. But first Who or What Is Au10tix? AU10TIX is an identity verification and risk management company that began life in 2002 as the technological division of Dutch-based parent company ICTS International CV. This is where things start getting spooky. ICTS was founded in 1982 by former members of the Shin Bet, Israels internal security agency, and airline security agents of El Al, Israels flagship airline. It develops products and provides consulting and personnel services in the field of aviation and general security. According to Wikipedia, that includes operating airport checkpoints and electronic equipment, such as x-ray screening devices, and verifying travel documents. AU10TIXs product suite includes an Identity Verification Suite, Serial Fraud Monitor and Reusable Digital ID, as well as the AU10TIX Platform, a hub unifying the companys backend technology and frontend interfaces. Its clients include some of the biggest technology companies in the world, including Google, Uber, Airbnb, PayPal, LinkedIn, and Fiverr. X has been using its services for almost four years, well before Musk bought the platform, and is one of its ten largest clients. AU10TIX also recently teamed up with Thomson Reuters, the self-described worlds largest international multimedia news provider, to provide its customers with what they call identity verification at every level, which includes end-to-end identity verification, authentication, and fraud prevention services. For customers looking for an an additional level of security, AU10TIX DOUBLECHECK offers manual reviews by their trained personnel in sensitive situations and for verifying unclassified documents. AU10TIX enables its customers to verify the identity of their users by rapidly checking their ID card or drivers license. And uploading the data couldnt be quicker, simpler or more painless for users, as the Israeli media giant Globes soothingly reports: All the user needs to do is scan the certificate with the phone and speak for a few seconds in front of the camera and the verification process is complete in up to eight seconds. But its what happens to the data afterwards that worries some Twitter users. Though AU10TIX insists that it is committed to every international standard on protecting privacy and does not pass on details to any third party, not everyone is convinced. Why is X forcing us to send our biometric and government id data to an Israeli company? Monetization => ID verification => Israel (Au10tix)? Including selfie! pic.twitter.com/QbOLBovk82 S.L. Kanthan (@Kanthan2030) May 25, 2024 Israels Intelligence Industrial Complex The paranoia is probably warranted given: a) the sensitivity of the data being requested; b) the user terms and conditions on offer, including granting X the right to store users full name, address and hashes of [their] digital identity number for as long as [they] participate in the Creator Subscription or Ads Revenue program; and c) the deep connections between AU10TIXs parent company (already mentioned), AU10TIXs senior executives and Israels intelligence industrial complex. From the Lebanese newspaper LOrient de Jour (English version): Ron Atzmon, the founder of AU10TIX, spent his military service with the Shin Bets notorious unit 8200. With a staff numbering between 5,000 and 10,000, this unit is Israels main intelligence strike force, providing it with 90 percent of its intelligence material, Yair Cohen, who headed the unit for five years, told Forbes. More than a mere military unit, 8200 serves as an incubator for Israels tech industry, which accounts for 14 percent of the countrys jobs and nearly 20 percent of its GDP. Waze, Wix, Viber and NSO, which produced the infamous Pegasus spyware, have one thing in common: their founders include former members of the unit. The problem is the porosity between the Israeli tech and the defense world, said [Hadi Khoury, an IT expert]. Israel has reached this level of technological sophistication thanks to this porosity and the financial support that links defense to technology start-ups. Its part of their defense strategy in order to build supremacy. Israeli media are denying the allegations that Atzman or AU10TIXs current CEO, Dan Yerushalmi, have connections with unit 8200. According to the Globes article, Atzmon is an Israel Navy veteran, while Yerushalmi was an adjutant in the IDF Communications Corps. In a 2018 article, the Times of Israel claimed that only six of the 35 companies [in Israels cyber security industry] had founders from the fabled Unit 8200, the Israeli equivalent of the NSA. But it didnt say which ones. What is beyond doubt are the strong ties Yerushalmi has with Check Point Software Technologies (CPST), Israels fourth largest company, having previously served as its Risk Officer and Chief Customer Officer. CPST is a Tel Aviv-based US-Israeli cybersecurity company whose customers include governments and large corporations, including some of Israels biggest arms companies. Both the founder of CPST, Gil Shwed, and its vice president, Dorit Dor, served in Unit 8200. One Thing We Can Count On: Mission Creep As for the X/Twitter users whose livelihood, or part of it, depends on X/Twitter, they now face a stark choice: hand over data of a highly sensitive nature to AU10TIX or risk losing a chunk of their daily bread. Presumably, most of them will choose the former after all, what is potentially at stake is not just money but also all the hordes of followers they have built up over the years, and followers = influence. Next, the same stark choice will be presented to blue-tick subscribers who do not have creator subscriptions or ads revenue share programs. And then lastly, everyone else. Mission creep is one of the few guarantees of these digital identity initiatives. Weve already seen this play out with the vaccine passports that were initially marketed as purely optional but quickly became necessary for just about everything, from being able to travel to accessing basic public services and places, to even holding onto your job. We will soon see the same occur with the digital identity wallet programs rapidly rolling out across the West (and just about everywhere else) as well as with online platforms. If you want to use social media platforms in the future, even as they rapidly degrade, you will have to give up your biometrics, ID number and any other personal data they request. With regard to Twitter/X, we know this to be true because Elon Musks himself has already said as much at the 2023 edition of the World Government Summit, just months after completing his purchase of Twitter: I have this long-term ambition. Its something called X.com from way back in the day which is kind of like an everything app. It is maximally useful. It does payments, it provides financial services, it provides information flow, really anything digital It also provides secure communications, you know, be as useful as possible, as entertaining as possible, and also to be a source of truth. To find out what is going on, what is really go on, you should be able to go on X and find out. So, it is a source of truth and a maximally useful system. And Twitter is essentially an accelerant to that maximally useful everything app I think trying to have as many organisations and people verified as being those organisations and people is important. And to have the organisational affiliation clearly identified so that if you want to find out if an account is actually from a member of parliament or journalist or if, lets say, a Twitter handle actually belongs to the Disney corporation or something like that, you can go on Twitter and its sort like an identity layer of the Internet. You can confirm that that is actually the case. Once youve got these interlocking identities, its very hard to be deceptive. But deceptive is precisely the adjective one might use to describe Elon Musks behaviour since taking over Twitter. He has duped millions of Twitter users into thinking of him as a champion of freedom of speech, as well as other equally important freedoms and rights, yet what he really wants is to create his own super app that will give him access to unprecedented volumes of user data. Musks plans have drawn inevitable comparisons, including from Musk himself, with the We Chat super app in China, which has a staggering 1.3 billion monthly users and can be used for a myriad of daily activities, from reading the news to chatting with friends, to hailing rides, to paying bills and taxes. But as Tech Crunch noted in 2022, while a super app might bring convenience to users as they hardly need to leave the platform which in turn helps drive revenues for the company the model can stifle competition and rule out user choices. Musks plans for X are likely to be unattainable anyway, largely due to the fierce competition he would face from other tech giants that already have a stronghold in their sectors and control over user data. Meanwhile, a backlash of sorts has begun brewing on the platform Musk wants to use as an accelerant for his everything app, particularly among libertarian users for whom Musk is or at least was until recently a hero. After days of silence, the tech mogul finally tweeted: I will investigate this. This response whether genuine or not appears to have set off jitters in Israel. The Israeli tech news site Calcalistech warns that Musks refusal to reject outright the allegations against AU10TIX only strengthens them and raises the fear that Musk will act to satisfy the anti-Israel users and stop the engagement with AU10TIX. Such an outcome could have devastating potential not only for the company but for all Israeli companies that deal with cyber protection and information security issues, as it will make them all suspicious and may ignite an extensive campaign to stop contracting with them on the part of large technology companies. On Tuesday, 11 June 2024, the NATO Secretary General, Mr Jens Stoltenberg, will visit Riga, Latvia. He will participate in the B9 Summit, hosted by the President of Latvia, Mr Edgars Rinkevics, the President of Romania, Mr Klaus Iohannis, and the President of Poland, Mr Andrzej Duda. Mr Stoltenberg will also have bilateral meetings with the President of Latvia and the Prime Minister, Ms Evika Silina. Media advisory 08:45 (CEST) Joint press conference by the Secretary General and the President of Latvia 10:30 (CEST) Remarks by the Secretary General at the opening of the B9 Summit 15:00 (CEST) Joint press conference by the Secretary General and the President of Latvia, the President of Romania, and the President of Poland Media coverage The Secretary Generals press conferences and remarks will be streamed live on the NATO website, and broadcast live on EBU World feed and EBU News Exchange. Transcripts of the Secretary Generals engagements, as well as photographs and video, will be available on the NATO website. For more information: Contact the NATO Press Office For more information on the B9 Summits programme and media access, please contact Ms Elina Kresa (elina.kresa@president.lv). For media access requests, please contact prese@president.lv by 9 June. Follow us on X (@NATO, @jensstoltenberg and @NATOPress). On 4-6 June, NATO and Ukraine took further steps to enhance cooperation to address most pressing technological challenges in the defence and security. More than 400 innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, academics, researchers and operational end users from 17 countries, including more than 100 startups, took part in the three-day NATO-Ukraine Defence Innovators Forum at AGH University of Krakow, Poland. The event was organized in partnership with Ukraine government defence innovation platform BRAVE1, the U.S. Defence Innovation Unit (DIU), and the Polish Ministry of National Defence. Discussions notably focused on the challenges that Ukraine faces with the rapid development, production and use of uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) and counter-UAS systems. The Forum also included a hackathon with live flight testing for drone software, investor pitching sessions, and interactive panel sessions. With generous support from the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit and National Security Innovation Network, the hackathons winners received prize totalling USD 100,000. For the first time, Ukrainian innovators were also able to access some of the accelerator work developed for the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) and get real-time feedback from NATO Innovation Fund. The aim is to bring NATO and Ukrainian innovation ecosystems closer together to keep pace with fast-evolving dual-use technologies. In May 2023, NATO and Ukraine had held their first High-Level Innovation Dialogue at NATO Headquarters. The energy for more collaboration between Ukrainian and Allied innovation ecosystems was contagious, and is exactly why Allies and Ukraine are working together on a new innovation agreement in the NATO-Ukraine Council, said David van Weel, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Innovation, Hybrid and Cyber. Nataliia Kushnerska, Chief Operating Officer of BRAVE1, praised the benefit of such two-way innovation. We believe that Ukraine is a central hub for defence technology innovation. Ukrainian experience in technology and warfare, combined with Allied expertise, has potential to be the technological foundation for a safer and more secure Europe, she said. Major General Edward Vaughan, Executive Director of the U.S. Joint Rapid Acquisition Cell in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment underscored the life-engaging importance of innovation as war rages in Ukraine for the third consecutive year. Ukraines brave men and women are fighting to defend themselves and our shared values he said. Their peoples innovative spirit drives rapid technology adoption, proving why collaboration is essential. (As delivered) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg: [speaking in Norwegian] Let me say some word in English. First of all, I thank you for the good cooperation and good meetings we had today and yesterday. And, Sweden as a NATO Ally is contributing in many different ways to our shared security, to our collective defence. Sweden is an Ally that already spends 2% or even a bit more actually, of GDP on defence. You have well trained, well equipped forces, you have an advanced defence industry. So therefore, it is a great privilege to be here for the first time as Secretary General in NATO in Sweden as a full-fledged member. Swedish membership also helps to strengthen our presence, not least in the Nordic, the High North and the Baltic region. And I welcome the announcement today that Sweden will contribute to NATO's Air Policing. This demonstrates how Sweden is making major contributions to our Alliance just three months after you joined. We discussed the preparations for the upcoming NATO Summit in Washington. More support will be one of the main topics, the most urgent task for the Alliance. And we are now working on how NATO can create a better and stronger framework for our support to Ukraine. So, we can play a bigger role in coordinating and providing security assistance and training for Ukraine. We're also addressing how we can provide and agree long term financial pledge for Ukraine. So, we have more predictability and more accountability. And also, that we send a clear message to Moscow that Moscow cannot wait us out in Ukraine. The [inaudible] is that the stronger our commitment is for Ukraine for long haul, the shorter, the sooner this war can end, because then Moscow, President Putin will understand that they cannot wait out NATO Allies and Ukraine. We will also address at the Washington Summit how we can further strengthen our deterrence and defence to ensure that our new defence plans are fully operational and fully possible to execute. That means more investments and therefore I welcome that more and more Allies are now spending 2% of GDP on defence. But as we agreed at the last Summit in Vilnius last summer, 2% is a minimum to deliver on the NATO capability targets which Allies have agreed. Most Allies will need to spend more than 2% on defence to ensure that they meet those targets. So, it is always a pleasure to visit Sweden. Again, a great pleasure to visit Sweden as a NATO Ally. Thank you. 4 out of 10 Israelis support IDF TAKING CONTROL of post-war Gaza Forty percent of Israelis support their army taking control of post-war Gaza , according to a new poll published by Israeli television channel i24NEWS. The i24NEWS survey, released on June 1, was conducted between the end of March and early April involving 1,001 Israeli respondents, show that around 40 percent of Israelis are "advocating for Israel to assume control over Gaza following the ongoing conflict." Additionally, the poll reveals "broad support for current military actions," with 39 percent of respondents deeming the Israeli armys conduct in Gaza appropriate, and 34 percent believing the army has not gone far enough. (Related: Israels post-war plan for Gaza puts Israel, U.S. in charge of the very people theyre trying to exterminate.) Only 19 percent of respondents said Israels actions in Gaza have been excessive and disproportionate. Moreover, 40 percent expressed confidence that Israel would achieve its goals in the Gaza Strip, while 27 percent said they were too optimistic. The survey also indicates that 61 percent of participants are concerned about the potential for the conflict to escalate to other regions. When it comes to Gaza's governance post-war, only 14 percent of respondents think that the residents of Gaza should decide their future. However, the poll highlights a stark contrast when it surveyed Israeli Arabs, with 74 percent believing that Israel's conduct in Gaza has been excessive, and only three percent in favor of Israel taking control of Gaza at the conclusion of the conflict. 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. Netanyahu interested in occupying Gaza Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted on Israel taking control of Gaza at the conclusion of the conflict. In November, Netanyahu stated that Israel would need to establish security control over Gaza for an indefinite period once the war is over. In late October, a Hebrew outlet leaked an intelligence document outlining a plan to re-occupy and ethnically cleanse Gaza, calling for the re-establishment of "Gush Katif," the Jewish settlement bloc in Gaza that existed before Israel's disengagement from Gaza in 2005. Last April, Netanyahus pick for his next military secretary, Brig. Gen. Roman Gofman, recommended in a document that Israel should retain control over the Gaza Strip after defeating Hamas in the ongoing conflict. Gofman wrote the document, which was distributed among key political and security decision-makers. Although Gofman stated that the document reflected his personal opinion and was not coordinated with the Prime Ministers Office, security officials suggested otherwise. The IDF clarified that the document represents Gofman's view alone and not the official position of the IDF. Gofman was seriously wounded during clashes with Hamas near Sderot on October 7, the day Hamas launched a devastating cross-border attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel. Israel responded with a military campaign to destroy Hamas, topple its regime in Gaza, and free 253 hostages taken during the attack. Israeli sentiment over the re-occupation of the Gaza Strip is in stark contrast with the proposals of the United States and other Western nations, which believe that a reformed Palestinian National Authority could take control over post-war Gaza under the joint supervision of Israel and Arab states. Netanyahu has rejected this, and only 12 percent of Israelis support it, according to polling. Learn more about the conflict in Gaza at IsraelCollapse.com. Watch this discussion with Michael Jaco and Ole Dammegard regarding how false narratives spun by Israeli Zionists led to the conflict in Gaza. This video is from the TowardsTheLight channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: SURVEY: Majority of Palestinians support Hamas retaining control of Gaza after the war. Israels post-war plan for Gaza puts Israel, U.S. in charge of the very people they're trying to exterminate. MUTINY: Israeli soldiers plan REVOLT if war on Gaza ends before "complete victory." Sources include: TheCradle.co TimesOfIsrael.com Brighteon.com Calgary business owner who refused to enforce vaccine passports during the pandemic sues government for illegal shop closure edict The owner of a pizza shop in the city of Calgary in Canada's Alberta province is suing both the city and provincial government, alongside Alberta's former top health officials, over the illegal closure of his business during the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Entrepreneur Jesse Johnson, the owner of Without Papers Pizza (WOP), announced that he is seeking restitution for the province's illegal edict that forced his business to close. The order stemmed from WOP continuing to serve patrons who weren't injected with the COVID-19 gene therapy. Johnson has filed a $3.6 million lawsuit against the City of Calgary, the Province of Alberta and former Alberta Chief Medical Officer Deena Hinshaw. The latter served as the head of Alberta Health Services (AHS) from January 2019 until her termination in November 2022. In a post on WOP's website, Johnson expressed optimism that he is "going to win" the lawsuit. He added: "It is our hope that our case will set [a] precedent and that Albertans are never medically segregated again." Back in October 2021, Hinshaw in her capacity as AHS head ordered the permanent closure of WOP over its refusal to enforce the COVID-19 vaccine passport and serving unvaccinated Canadians. Aside from the closure, she also imposed massive fines on Johnson for his opposition to the draconian vaccine passport mandate. But almost two years later in July 2023, the Alberta Court of Kings Bench (ACKB) ruled that all COVID-19 mandates issued by Hinshaw were illegal including the restriction exemptions program used to justify the closure of WOP. Months later in November, all charges filed against Johnson were dropped. Human knowledge is under attack! Governments and powerful corporations are using censorship to wipe out humanity's knowledge base about nutrition, herbs, self-reliance, natural immunity, food production, preparedness and much more. We are preserving human knowledge using AI technology while building the infrastructure of human freedom. Speak freely without censorship at the new decentralized, blockchain-power Brighteon.io. Explore our free, downloadable generative AI tools at Brighteon.AI. Support our efforts to build the infrastructure of human freedom by shopping at HealthRangerStore.com, featuring lab-tested, certified organic, non-GMO foods and nutritional solutions. Despite being exonerated, the business owner paid a huge price. He told independent journalist Mocha Bezigran: "It cost me everything. I lost my restaurant, my other two restaurants in Calgary, my marriage, my family, my houses, my wealth and a good portion of my sanity." Johnson confident his lawsuit will be successful According to Johnson, he is confident that his lawsuit filed in the ACKB by renowned criminal trial lawyer Leighton Grey of the Grey Wowk Spencer law firm will be a success. The court's ruling that COVID-19 measures imposed by Hinshaw were illegal only contributes to this optimism. "It was literally a miracle," he said. "It went from me having essentially a zero percent chance of seeking retribution for the crimes that they've committed to, I believe, a 100 percent chance of me receiving the retribution. I view it literally as a miracle from God." Aside from seeking compensation for his losses, Johnson is also seeking justice for Canadians who were blocked from dining at restaurants due to their COVID-19 vaccination status. (Related: PAPERS, PLEASE! Mother and child kicked out of New York City restaurant by police because young boy had no covid vaccine passport.) The business owner is also picking up the pieces almost three years after WOP was order closed. As of writing, he now operates a new pizza truck called POW Pizza in the city of Windermere in the neighboring British Columbia province. According to LifeSiteNews, Johnson set up POW Pizza after losing his four restaurants and 50 employees. "Hope is more contagious than the virus, and so is courage. I think what I did made a lot of people realize that it's the people who are the power. And all we need to do is unite together and stand up in defiance of this tyrannical regime," Johnson optimistically remarked. "I love this country. I love it very much. I think it's the most beautiful, inspirational, magnificent place in the whole world. We only have a few problems with it, and all of them are sitting in government right now." Head over to MedicalTyranny.com for more similar stories. Watch Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announcing the end of vaccine passports in the province in the clip below. This video is from the Storm Warning News channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Alberta to scrap covid vaccine passport scheme, announces plans to lift "almost all" restrictions. NYC restaurants REFUSE to enforce vaccine passport mandate and become "vaccination police." Restaurant owners and employees reject enforcing vaccine mandates and acting as vaccine police. South Australia ordered statewide lockdown after pizza restaurant worker contracted the coronavirus. Sydney restaurant owner FURIOUS after surprise police inspection of restaurant's COVID-19 compliance. Sources include: LifeSiteNews.com WOPizza.ca Brighteon.com RIGGED DEATH SENTENCE: If Democrats can get Trump in a jail cell, he will surely be suicided during some grid-down scenario, with no videos or witnesses It's surprising that the Democrats and their judge friend in New York did not blame the Russians for helping Trump cover up payments to the raunchy Stormy Daniels. It seems now that the Democrats, led by George Soros and Obama, must find a way to "rig" the Supreme Court of New York to deny Trump's appeal of the disheartening verdict of "guilty" on a few dozen counts of the crime of well something about book-keeping errors. Realize right now that George Soros, the billionaire King of Funded Mayhem, FUNDED and INSTALLED Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, (along with 70 other D.A.'s across the U.S.) who just prosecuted and persecuted Trump, despite having no jurisdiction, with the ramped-up weaponization of the Left's Justice Department. The radical Left Judge Juan Merchan will sentence Trump on July 11, most likely to at least 10 years in prison, where he would likely then be "suicided" Jeffrey Epstein style. "Orange Man Bad" Donald J. Trump can still run and serve as President of the United States What you might not know is that Trump can still RUN and SERVE as president, while the appeals process for the latest witch hunt on Trump takes a few years. It's just the latest in a long line of staged attacks on Trump's character, from the Russian-collusion hoax, to the made up, sexed-up dossier, to the Ukraine scandal, to the 2020 election denial, to the completely staged and Soros-funded go-straight-to-jail for accounting errors scandal that came to a head this week. Remember back in May of 1998, President Bill "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" Clinton PAID Paula Jones nearly a million dollars to keep her mouth shut, and nobody on the Left called THAT a felony, nor did Bill "Cigar Boy" Clinton face prosecution or arrest for the hush-money payments. We are building the infrastructure of human freedom and empowering people to be informed, healthy and aware. Explore our decentralized, peer-to-peer, uncensorable Brighteon.io free speech platform here. Learn about our free, downloadable generative AI tools at Brighteon.AI. Every purchase at HealthRangerStore.com helps fund our efforts to build and share more tools for empowering humanity with knowledge and abundance. The wicked son of George Soros, Alex, posted on social media that Democrats should refer to Trump as a convicted felon at every opportunity. Don't you know that this was the entire goal from the beginning, knowing they probably will not be able to get Trump into a prison cell, unless they can rig appellate and Supreme Courts as well. Repetition is the key to a successful message and we want people to wrestle with the notion of hiring a convicted felon for the most important job in the country! Alex "Son of Satan" Soros wrote, like they're selling America some medicated, farm-raised GMO chicken (Biden) and are trying to bad mouth the wild-caught fish (Trump). Here's what Trump's legal team can do next to keep him out of the New York gulags After the Trump-hating judge sentences Orange Man to 20 years in prison for being bad, Trump's legal team can file a direct appeal to the First Judicial Department of New York's Appellate Division within 30 days, citing all the major issues they have with prejudiced trial testimony, the judge restricting Trump from using any evidence his team had for defense (that's enough to throw out the whole thing right there), and with the judge's radical multiple-choice-style instructions where he told the jury to choose any offense they wanted (just like choosing a happy meal from a fast food menu) to help put Trump away. Also remember -- no crime has been committed, Trump has NO record for any crimes, and these wrong-doings were all nonviolent. If anything, he should be released on his own recognizance, or get cash bail option. It's not like he's a flight risk or anything, folks, he's running for President and will most likely legitimately win by landslide, or so it is showing in all the big polls. Meanwhile, the first layer of appeal should take about one year. Even if that level is unsuccessful, Trump still has the opportunity to file a leave application with the New York Court of Appeals, and if granted would get an appeal with New York's highest court. At that point Trump's team would file a briefing that reads for Trump, I was denied my constitutional rights under both the New York Constitution and the U.S. Constitution," or that they simply did not follow criminal procedure. All that could take another whole year, and by then, we're halfway into Trump's second term as POTUS. By then, surely Trump can take down the real criminals the Communists who have seized Washington DC, the U.S. military, Big Pharma, Big Media, and are trying to finish dismantling the Constitution once and for all. Lastly, realize that the kangaroo court in Manhattan STILL has not said what crime Trump has committed, and still has NOT told anyone what the jury decided on. Are we still living in America? Keep your truth news in check by adding Preparedness.news to your favorites list and tuning in daily for updates on Trump and the Constitutionalists trying to save the Republic from sure doom. Sources for this article include: Censored.news ZeroHedge.com NaturalNews.com TheGatewayPundit.com Disabled Canadian man reveals hes been offered EUTHANASIA multiple times by hospital staff A Canadian man who lives with a chronic disability has disclosed how he has received offers to undergo medical assistance in dying (MAiD) "multiple times" while in the hospital. Roger Foley, 49, revealed this to filmmaker Amanda Achtman as part of her "Dying to Meet You" series. In a video posted on YouTube as part of the series, Foley who was "very sick" as a child described himself as "very uncoordinated and always tired" as he lay on a hospital bed. While the disabled Canadian didn't disclose the exact nature of his condition, he said he couldn't function without medication and is essentially bedridden. He continued: "They didn't really have a lot of testing of what I ended up being diagnosed with. So I just thought I'm lazy, I can work through it." When asked if he had been offered MAiD Canada's legal term for euthanasia Foley replied in the affirmative. He added that he has received offers to end his own life "multiple times," recounting one instance to Achtman. "One time, [my doctor] asked me: 'Do you have any thoughts of self-harm?' I'm honest with him and tell him, 'I do think about ending my life because of what I'm going through, being prevented from the resources that I need to live safely back at home,'" he shared. "And from out of nowhere, he just pulls out, 'Well, if you don't get self-directed funding, you can always apply for an assisted, you know what I mean?' You feel so pillaged." Foley lamented that Canada's current healthcare system has not helped him to live his life better. Instead, it has caused him more struggles. 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. "It's completely traumatized me. It's this overlying option, where in my situation when I say I'm suicidal, I'm met with 'Well, you know, the hospital has a program to help you with that if you want to end your life,'" he said. "That didn't exist before MAiD was legalized [in 2016]. But now it's there. There is not going to be a second within the rest of my life that I'm going to have flashbacks to it, the devaluing of me and all that I am." Foley optimistic that he can break through the MEDICAL MURDER system Foley also mentioned that when it comes to MAiD, he observed that the mainstream media parrots the narrative that only people of faith are against euthanasia. This, he pointed out, is nothing but "gaslighting." "That's the ultimate gaslighting statement. I'm not religious. I respect people who are religious. [But] saying that it's just religious persons who oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide are completely wrong." He also mentioned that when it comes to his future, he has "hope" that he will soon be able to "break" through the system and live at home." "The thing that gives me hope is that one day, this titanium wall of a system, I'll be able to break through it and get access to the resources that I need, and to live at home with workers who want to work with me and I want to work with them. We can work as a team, I have a passion [for] that. I don't want to give up my life." In February, the federal government in Ottawa under the Liberal Party of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delayed its planned expansion of MAiD to those suffering solely from mental illness to 2027. However, this only happened after pushback from pro-life, medical and mental health groups alongside provincial governments. (Related: Anti-euthanasia group vows to keep fighting Trudeau government's plan to include mentally ill people in ASSISTED SUICIDE program.) Around 65,000 Canadians had been killed through euthanasia since the practice was made legal in 2016, with an estimated 16,000 recorded in 2023 alone. Visit Euthanasia.news for more similar stories. Watch Clayton Morris revealing a horrific truth about Canada's medical assistance in dying program in the clip below. This video is from the Neroke-5 channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Canada now allows people to request medical suicide for AUTISM. Canada expands assisted suicide laws to allow for killing of INFANTS for profit. KILLING THE HELPLESS: Canada set to legalize euthanasia for mentally ill patients. Sources include: LifeSiteNews.com Brighteon.com EU could start regulating Telegram because its made in Russia With new "misinformation" and "disinformation" laws coming down the pike, the European Union (EU) is reportedly considering special regulations for Telegram because the popular messaging app comes from Russia. EU officials want to designate Telegram as a "very large online platform" in order to capture it in the bloc's newly imposed censorship rules. First, though, the EU has to figure out how many people actually use Telegram, which could be a challenge. Anonymous sources cited by Bloomberg claims that Brussels reached out to Telegram with questions about its user base. In general, Telegram has said in the past that there are around 41 million active users every month, which is below the 45-million-user threshold established by the EU for regulation under the so-called Digital Services Act (DSA). As of this writing, there are 19 "very large online platforms" that the European Commission classifies as needing regulation under the DSA. They include Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and a number of search engines, i.e., Google. The terms of the DSA stipulate that all "very large online platforms" must label all of their advertisements while avoiding targeted ads based on "sensitive data" collected from users. Such data includes ethnicity, sexuality or political orientation. Furthermore, the DSA requires that "very large online platforms" adhere to strict provisions to protect the "privacy, security, and safety of minors," which is entirely valid. (Related: Are you aware of the backup comms for Telegram, Natural News, Brighteon and other apps and sites during an emergency?) 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. Telegram won't cave to EU tyranny Where the DSA goes very wrong is in its handling of "disinformation" and the "dissemination of illegal content." In order to "address the spread of disinformation," the DSA outlines a number of Orwellian requirements that interfere with free speech. The text of the DSA mentions the word "disinformation" 13 different times, though not once is the word actually defined. Because of this vagueness, free speech activists are warning that the EU is using the DSA to stamp out "factually correct yet politically inconvenient narratives," to quote RT. The DSA officially came into effect in early 2024 just in time for the upcoming election cycle both in the EU and in the United States. Platforms that operate in the EU can be fined up to six percent of their global annual turnover if they are caught not adhering to the DSA's restrictions. Pavel Durov, the Russian-born owner of Telegram, has repeatedly stated that the privacy and free expression rights of his platform's users will always trump the paranoid demands of, in this case, unelected EU leaders who want to control everything. In a recent interview with journalist Tucker Carlson, Durov stated that he continues to refuse requests for user data such as the kind coming from the EU. Durov also said that he will not allow the U.S. government to build so-called surveillance "backdoors" to spy on Telegram users. "Like WhatsApp or Messenger, Telegram allows users to send private and group messages," RT reported. "Unlike its American competitors, it also allows users to set up 'channels' to disseminate news and updates to followers." Ukraine is also upset about the free speech that takes place on Telegram. Top Ukrainian spy Kirill Budanov hates the fact that Telegram users can set up anonymous channels to publish information because much of it conflicts with the official narratives coming out of Kiev. Statistics company SimilarWeb says Telegram is the number-one most popular messaging app in Ukraine. This is a "huge problem," according to Budanov, because it is interfering with the Volodymyr Zelensky regime's military plans against Russia. The deep state is deathly afraid of Russia and what it might do if the global power structure changes. Learn more at Globalism.news. Sources for this article include: RT.com NaturalNews.com Miriam Adelson wants West Bank annexation in return for $100M donation to Trump Miriam Adelson, the wife of the late Israel First GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson , is reportedly donating at least $100 million to Donald Trump and wants his support for Israel annexing the West Bank in return. (Article by Chris Menahan republished from InformationLiberation.com) That's according to a new column from the Israeli paper Haaretz titled, "Trump is Desperate for Miriam Adelson's Cash. Her Condition: West Bank Annexation" (Archive): After five months during which he refused to make clear his position on the Israel-Hamas war, instead sniping at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, thanks to [pressure from Miriam] Adelson [withhold donations], Trump finally expressed unequivocal support for Israel. However, according to [New York Magazine's Elizabeth Weil's recent article on Miriam Adelson], Trump made a tactical error that distanced him from the money he so desperately wants. "You have to finish up your war," he said. "You have to finish it up. You got it done. And I'm sure you'll do that. And we got to get to peace." Adelson, a resident of Herzliya and a megadonor for settlement development in the West Bank, did not wish to hear Trump yearning for peace. She didn't want to hear anything that could have been construed as criticism of Israel. According to the report, what she really wants from Trump's second term is an Israeli annexation of the West Bank and a U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty in all the regions of the land. Under these conditions, there's no room for the Palestinian Authority, and nobody to sign a peace accord with. The New York Magazine story ends with an implicit threat to Trump: "The presidential election is five months away. Adelson continues to sit out the race." Within just 10 days, Politico reported that the former president and Adelson met and spoke on the phone several times since that March dinner. What they talked about remained unreported, but Trump's give-and-take relationships with his billionaire donors tend to replicate themselves. Adelson is not the only major donor; others also come with their lists of demands. The Washington Post recently reported about another meeting between Trump and some donors, a group which, Trump said, included "98 percent of my Jewish friends." During this meeting in New York on May 14, donors asked Trump about students demonstrating against Israel on campuses, and he replied: "Any student that protests, I throw them out of the country. You know, there are a lot of foreign students. As soon as they hear that, they're going to behave." When one of the unnamed donors complained that students and professors could one day hold positions of power, Trump called the demonstrators part of a "radical revolution" that he vowed to defeat. "If you get me elected, and you should really be doing this, ... we're going to set that [pro-Palestinian] movement back 25 or 30 years." During Trump's first term, he did everything Sheldon Adelson wanted and more for Israel while fulfilling only a few of the promises he made to his own voters. To help Israel, Trump: - Pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal - Appointed Nikki Haley to fight for Israel at the UN - Pushed forward with a bill to give Israel $38 billion from US taxpayers - Put maximum sanctions on Iran - Endorsed the expansion of settlements - Moved the US embassy to Jerusalem - Cut all US aid to the Palestinians - Backed Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights - Outlawed criticism of Israel on college campuses by executive order - Gave speeches commanding Americans to "love Israel" - Assassinated Iranian General Qassem Soleimani - Pardoned a host of Chabad-linked supercriminals Trump is now promising Jewish megadonors he will crush pro-Palestine protests and deport demonstrators and he's talking about bringing Nikki Haley onto his "team" if he win the White House. Trump says Nikki Haley is "going to be on our team" because the two of them share "a lot of the same ideas." The 2024 GOP Primary was a giant scam to convince suckers and dupes that Trump had any major policy differences with people he had previously hired, endorsed, and elevated pic.twitter.com/gwYO6iGZ1z Michael Tracey (@mtracey) May 24, 2024 Well, will you look at that! Nikki Haley apparently flew to Israel for her big quasi-official visit on one of the Adelsons private jets. Just as Miriam Adelson announced her $100+ million campaign spend on Trump https://t.co/ht3NqBuiYB Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 5, 2024 ? May 25: Blackstone CEO endorses Trump due to rise in antisemitism ? May 27: Trump meets Jewish donors, promises full support for Israel ? May 30: Bill Ackman to endorse Trump ? June 3: Miriam Adelson promises Trump 100 mil in exchange for Israeli annexation of West Bank pic.twitter.com/VzorEwhXGL Keith Woods (@KeithWoodsYT) June 4, 2024 Trump's potential second term is already gearing up to be even more Israel First than his first term! Trump, far more than 2016 or even 2020, is personally going around to donor confabs asking for millions or even billions (!) of dollars. "Im begging for your money," Trump half-joked at one recent event. For the implications of this, look no further than Trump's own past remarks pic.twitter.com/YFDx2cbVBD Michael Tracey (@mtracey) May 29, 2024 Read more at: InformationLiberation.com Moscow warns: U.S. must rethink its miscalculated decisions as these could lead to fatal consequences The United States could face "fatal consequences" if it continues to ignore Russia's warnings on allowing Ukraine to deploy U.S.-supplied weapons against targets inside Russia. This is Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov's response on Monday to the announced decision of the Biden administration to ease the ban on using American weapons outside what Washington considers Ukrainian territory. The move is supposedly limited to a small piece of Russia's Belgorod Region relevant to hostilities across the border in Ukraine's Kharkiv Region. "I would like to warn American actors against miscalculations that can lead to fatal consequences. For some unclear reason they underestimate how serious a response they could face," Ryabkov said. "I urge these figures (in the U.S.) ... to spend some of their time, which they apparently spend on some kind of video games, judging by the lightness of their approach, on studying what was said in detail by Putin," Ryabkov said, referring to President Vladimir Putin's comments last week on NATO countries playing with fire and risking a deeper global conflict. Putin previously said that the West would be directly involved in any use of its weapons by Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia because such attacks would require its satellite, intelligence and military help. Ryabkov also warned that Russia could react asymmetrically to a Ukrainian attack on its nuclear deterrence and Moscow would hold the U.S. responsible. Officials in Washington "have given Kyiv a permit for any crimes, any action and do nothing to curb provocations by their clients But the U.S. does not get this for free and will feel consequences," the deputy FM warned. (Related: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says the West DOESNT WANT the Russia-Ukraine war to end.) 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. Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the White House had approved a Ukrainian request to deploy U.S.-supplied weapons against targets in Russian territory. "Over the past few weeks, Ukraine came to us and asked for authorization to use weapons that were providing to defend against this aggression, including against Russian forces that are amassing on the Russian side of the border and then attacking Ukraine. And that went right to the U.S. president. And, as youve heard, hes approved the use of our weapons for that purpose," Blinken said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kyiv was grateful to Washington for allowing it to use U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket systems in the Kharkiv region, but this was not enough. Ukraine has long argued that restrictions on the way it can use Western-supplied weapons are seriously limiting its ability to defend itself. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is willing to assist Zelensky saying last week that NATO had the right to help Ukraine uphold its right to self-defense and this did not make NATO a party to the conflict. Kyiv fires U.S.-made rocket launcher HIMARS inside Russia Russian sources reported that Ukraine had fired U.S.-made weapons inside Russia for the first time after the White House lifted the ban on using its ammunition in Moscow. The Ukrainian military reportedly used the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (Himars), which is a light multiple rocket launcher, to hit bordering Belgorod city. Ukrainian officials further confirmed the attack, announcing they had successfully hit a Russian S-300 missile system using Western-supplied weapons. "It burns beautifully. It's a Russian S-300 on Russian territory. The first days after permission to use Western weapons on enemy territory," Ukrainian government minister Iryna Vereshchuk posted on Facebook alongside a picture purporting to show the strike. It was unclear in the admission if they indeed used U.S.-supplied war weapons. Meanwhile, Russian air defense units reportedly intercepted 20 Ukrainian drones in southern Russia's Kursk region bordering Ukraine, regional governor Alexei Smirnov said on Monday. The governor claimed that the Ukrainian forces attacked four villages in his region using attack drones and helicopters, but no injuries were reported. In the Belgorod region, to the southeast, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said air defense units had downed "several airborne targets" that damaged residential roofs. Amid the attacks, Zelensky accused China of helping Russia to disrupt an upcoming peace conference he was organizing to be held in Switzerland. Speaking at Asia's premier security conference, he insisted that China is pressuring other countries and their leaders not to attend the upcoming talks. "Regrettably this is unfortunate that such a big, independent, powerful country as China is an instrument in the hands of (Russian leader Vladimir) Putin," he said at a news conference at the Shangri-La Dialogue defense forum. Check out WWIII.news for more news on the burgeoning conflict between Russia and Ukraine and their allies. Sources for this article include: RT.com CNBC.com Independent.co.uk Edition.CNN.com SIDS, a cover story for infant vaccine deaths A Canadian detective was suspended and vilified after it came out that she was personally investigating cases of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in relation to childhood vaccination. Helen Grus took it upon herself to look into the matter after nine babies died in Ottawa following their mothers getting "vaccinated" for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). Grus wanted to determine whether or not the shots had anything to do with the babies' deaths. Some of the families felt as though their privacy was breached by Grus' probe, prompting the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) to settle with at least one of them. Grus was then suspended and had her life turned upside-down, all for trying to get to the bottom of what killed the babies. According to reports, Grus allegedly contacted the father of a deceased baby whose family was part of the settlement on Jan. 30, 2022. She asked about the mother's COVID "vaccination" status, police documents indicate. The family then filed a complaint against Grus with OPS, which resulted in Grus being suspended with pay on Feb. 4, 2022. The family's lawyer, Lawrence Greenspan, said the case was finally settled this past week for an undisclosed amount of money. "Parents are not put on this earth to bury their children," Greenspan told CTV News Ottawa. "When a tragedy happens, the family's privacy must be respected." Ottawa Police Detective Helen Grus was suspended for investigating 9 babies who died from SIDS after their mothers received covid Vaccinations. The Pfizer 'baby death' statistic is shocking.pic.twitter.com/MaPS91aR11 Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) May 28, 2024 (Related: Last fall, a former law enforcement detective came forward to reveal that half of all SIDS cases occur within 48 hours after babies get vaccinated.) There's a massive "jab coverup," Grus says Since the settlement, Grus has come forward with her side of the story. She says there is a massive "jab coverup" taking place that deserves much more investigation than even she was able to conduct before being stopped. "Why on earth wouldn't we want to uncover any potential harm caused by this vaccine?" asked the editor(s) of Revolver. "When did people become such mindless, spineless jellyfish that they take the government's word as gospel?" 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. "It's alarming to witness this transformation, especially at a time when our government and so-called 'experts' are so widely distrusted and disliked." It is not as though the SIDS-vaccine connection is something new. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) acknowledges it in relation to childhood vaccination, as does the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting Database (VAERS) it maintains. SIDS remains the third leading cause of death in infants in the United States, a country that by the way has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the developed world. NEW ARTICLE: Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Data Shows Links Between Vaccines and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) - 749 deaths linked to Hib (Haemophilus influenzae Type b) and 51% were recorded as "SIDS" on AUTOPSY A study published in 2015 by CDC scientists (first author pic.twitter.com/K8gd5Gw1O7 William Makis MD (@MakisMD) March 26, 2024 Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Vaccine data Almost all the SIDs (cases) happen the week After a vaccine...97%...& it's NOT happening the week before vaccination. pic.twitter.com/ufgsNMe7VF Paul Kikos ? (@PKikos) February 17, 2023 Despite the seemingly endless persecution she faces, Grus is carrying on in her mission to expose the true causes of SIDS, one of the most obvious but ignored causes being childhood vaccines. "It seems the only thing the COVID 'vaccine' doesn't kill is the COVID virus," wrote one commenter about the madness of all this. "The most dangerous thing to tyranny is the truth, and those who seek it," wrote another. Keep vaccines out of your child's body and he or she will be much healthier for it. Learn more at Immunization.news. Sources for this article include: Revolver.news NaturalNews.com South African transgender refugee charged with manslaughter for stabbing Syrian security guard to death in Germany A South African-born transgender woman has been arrested in Germany for allegedly stabbing a 33-year-old Syrian security guard to death According to several reports, a colleague discovered the Syrian victim, who was working as a security guard at a refugee shelter in Potsdam, Brandenburg, on the premises of the asylum accommodation on Geschwister-Scholl-Strasse at around 4:30 a.m. on May 30, while suffering from severe stab wounds. The colleague rushed the victim to the hospital, but he succumbed to his injuries later that morning. The authorities quickly responded to the scene, deploying sniffer dogs and clearing off the area near Sanssouci Park to gather evidence and locate the suspect. Plainclothes officers trailed and arrested the suspect following a verbal altercation at a nearby market. The suspect was detained in Berlin near the Zoologischer Garten train station that same day, with the homicide squad of the West Police Directorate leading the interrogation. (Related: Transgender convicted of murder and rape files lawsuit demanding to be released into general population of womens prison.) The Potsdam Public Prosecutor's Office has requested that the local district court bring the suspect before a judge in Potsdam on charges of manslaughter. However, the authorities have only disclosed limited details about the stabbing, as the investigation is still in its initial stages. Potsdam Mayor Mike Schubert, a vocal opponent of anti-migrant sentiment in Germany, expressed his sorrow over the incident: "Today is a sad day for our city. A person who protected people seeking protection on behalf of our city has become the victim of a violent crime." 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. LGBT Africans are escaping abuse in their home countries only to become murderers The phenomenon of refugees identifying as transgender seeking asylum in Europe from Africa is well-documented, as many face significant risks of physical assault and persecution in their home countries. In 2021, a Human Rights Watch report highlighted the dangers faced by the LGBT community in Cameroon. Since February 2021, security forces have arbitrarily arrested, beaten or threatened at least 24 people, including a 17-year-old boy, for alleged consensual same-sex conduct or gender nonconformity. Additionally, at least one individual was forced to undergo an HIV test and an anal examination. Each year, dozens of LGBT Africans flee similar persecution in their home countries, where 32 nations criminalize same-sex relationships. In northern Nigeria, Mauritania, Somalia and South Sudan, LGBT Africans face the possibility of the death penalty. This led the majority of their community to seek asylum in more tolerant African countries or apply for resettlement in Europe or North America. But even during their journeys, they often encounter the same violence and discrimination they were trying to escape. Experts note that safe migration routes are scarce and costly and asylum requests based on persecution for one's gender identity or sexuality are rarely successful. "There is no specific law or international instrument for LGBT+ people to get processed when they seek asylum," said Richard Lusimbo, a program director for the African branch of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. But despite knowing how it feels like to be abused, African LGBTs seeking asylum in Europe still end up being murderers in foreign countries. Head over to Gender.news for more stories about the pushback against transgenderism. Watch this Epoch TV report about a California judge dropping a bombshell decision on a transgender-related case. This video is from the GalacticStorm channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Transgender pedophile arrested for production, distribution and possession of child pornography. Transgender inmate charged with rape while in custody at a womens facility. Sexual predators avoid jail time by identifying as "transgender." ANOTHER deranged transgender caught planning mass shooting against children; arrested with Communist Manifesto and kill list. WHO appoints former prostitute, other transgender activists to transgender task force. Sources include: Infowars.com Tagesschau.de Telegraph.co.uk Brighteon.com Ukrainian official says British long-range missiles are already being used to strike Russia Russia issued another one of its "red lines" this week warning the West not to allow Ukraine to use its weapons to strike targets deep in Russian territory, but apparently this is already happening In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Yuri Sak, Adviser to Ukraine's Minister of Strategic Industries, announced that the Ukrainian military is already using British-made Storm Shadow missiles to strike Russian targets after being authorized to do so by London. Sak's revelation came after British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said earlier this month that Kiev has a right to strike Russia using weapons supplied to it by the United Kingdom. When Sak was asked directly if the Ukrainian military plans to use foreign weapons to cross Russia's red line, this is how he responded, providing no further details: "The United Kingdom has already previously allowed Ukraine to use their long-range missiles, Storm Shadows, and we have been successfully using them." (Related: A recent study found that Americans are much worse off financially under Biden than they were under Trump.) Ukraine using U.K.-supplied weapons to target Russian civilians Not long after Cameron's comments from earlier this month, Russian Foreign Ministry official Sergey Belyaev said much the same that "U.K.-supplied weapons are being actively used by the Ukrainian military in terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure and the civilian population of Donbass, as well as other Russian regions." In other words, Russia's position is that Ukraine has already crossed the red line not only to strike Russian military targets but also, allegedly, Russian civilian targets, which is just asking for World War III. 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. As this is all happening, the Volodymyr Zelensky regime continues to demand that the U.K., the United States and other Western backers continue to allow it to strike targets deep within Russia to their own demise. The U.K. has given the green light, as have Poland and Latvia. Apparently those three countries want to mess around and find out what happens next. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is also fully on board with Ukraine using foreign-supplied weapons against Russian targets deep within Russia. Stoltenberg argues that to not allow this would amount to denying Ukraine the ability to defend itself sound familiar? Israel uses the same line about "defending itself" whenever foreign entities have anything critical to say about its questionable military operations. Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to all this by warning that long-range strikes on Russia using Western weaponry will not be tolerated. "This constant escalation can lead to serious consequences," Putin remarked. "If these serious consequences occur in Europe, how will the U.S. behave, bearing in mind our parity in the field of strategic weapons? Hard to say. Do they want global conflict?" London's position on Ukraine's use of U.K.-supplied weapons in Russia implies that in a reverse scenario Russian-supplied missiles could be used by other countries to strike targets deep within England. Would the world be okay with this? "It means that any country can employ any group of mercenaries, arm them, pay them and set them against whoever they perceive to be their enemy," is how one commenter at RT put it. "It might be OK insofar as domestic politics is concerned because it avoids the political fallout of thousands of body bags returning home on a weekly basis on special flights. Let the Ukrainians worry about the body bags. We are getting real value for money sending them money, weapons and showering them with faux euphemisms. How does this square up to the U.N. charter??? It's already a useless, inept and corrupt institution, used and abused by the U.S. to pursue its geo-political goals." The West is herding the planet into WWIII. Learn more at WWIII.news. Sources for this article include: RT.com NaturalNews.com Walmart faces social media backlash over Pride Always Collection for Pride Month Walmart is under fire on social media following the launch of its new collection of LGBT-themed merchandise for Pride Month. Walmart, in partnership with gay- and lesbian-owned companies, launched its "Pride Always Collection," which features different products from clothing and hats to school supplies and pool floats on May 23. The collection has items available both online and in physical stores, while some products are only exclusive to online shopping. "We couldn't be prouder of this year's LGBTQIA+ founders and designers," Walmart announced on Instagram. "Today. Tomorrow. Always." A week after the Instagram post announcing the collection, the retail giant posted another video featuring the designers behind the collection discussing their favorite pieces with the caption: "Not just a slogan. #PrideAlways is a reminder to lead with love." However, the response from some shoppers was far from loving. A segment of its customer base quickly took to the comments section to voice their, disappointment, irritation and disgust. "So tired of this nonsense. If anyone should have a month of honor it should be for our soldiers, our nurses, and police officers. People who actually are making a difference in this world, one Instagram user wrote. Another critic disapproved of the collection and linked it to broader societal issues. "Walmart and Pride whatever it is, I hate all this because you glorify everything in this world except what God has created to be from the beginning, which is a family, man married to a woman and their children!!" The user went on to question why traditional family units are not given special recognition, but the LGBTQ community must be "glorified" for an entire month. 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. Additional comments included accusations of Walmart being "woke," with one user sarcastically suggesting the store might soon sell Palestinian flags and abortion kits. "Gross. Pretty much all of this will end up on the clearance aisle," predicted another detractor, anticipating a lack of consumer interest in the collection. Furthermore, other users questioned the necessity of Pride Month itself, with one comment reading, "No one needs a month of this," and another asking, "Why is this in my feed? I dont want to be forced to accept your lifestyle." Mockery of the perceived victimhood of the LGBTQ community was also present, with one user sarcastically stating, "A whole month. Yall [sic] are SO oppressed." Walmart should have learned from Target and Bud Light Critics say Walmart should have learned from Target and beer manufacturer Anheuser-Busch InBev, the parent company of Bud Light, which faced significant declines in sales in 2023 due to controversial LGBTQ-related marketing campaigns. On Aug. 16, Target, known for its advocacy of diversity and inclusion, reported a more than five percent drop in second-quarter sales after introducing LGBTQ-themed merchandise, including newborn onesies and rainbow socks for kids, in support of Pride Month. Target encountered backlash on two fronts: critics accused the company of pushing a "woke" agenda with its LGBTQ merchandise, while LGBTQ and human rights advocates criticized Target for not fully supporting the community after it removed some items from displays. In that same month, the company's CEO Brian Cornell told reporters that Target learned from the backlash. He added that the big-box retailer would be more thoughtful about merchandise decisions for heritage months that celebrate the achievements of marginalized groups. Cornell also recounted that seeing what staffers had endured at the height of the backlash against Target was "gut-wrenching." (Related: Target DOWNSIZES LGBT Pride products after last years backlash.) Similarly, Bud Light, which also showed support for the LGBTQ community, saw a steep drop in sales after conservatives condemned its collaboration with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The controversy led to calls for a boycott of Bud Light, but in response to that, Anheuser-Busch fired executives involved in the partnership. Watch Tim Pool's commentary about Target losing $9 billion as a result of the Pride merchandise backlash in the clip below. This video is from the SecureLife channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Target DOUBLES DOWN on WOKEISM by promoting LGBT Pride strategist. Target loses $9B in week following boycott calls over LGBTQ-friendly kids clothing. Target launches new "Satanist Pride" line of LGBTQ+ clothing for CHILDREN, prompting anti-woke boycott. Target and Bud Light suffer huge drops in sales after going all out in support of LGBTQ cultism. Outdoor apparel company The North Face named as major sponsor of LGBT youth camp that grooms kids to become drag queens. Sources include: 100PercentFedUp.com Breitbart.com WSJ.com NPR.org APNews.com Brighteon.com Dr. Phil urges Biden to DISMISS bogus charges, verdict against Trump Renowned TV host Dr. Phil McGraw has called on President Joe Biden's administration to consider rescinding the felony conviction of former President Donald Trump. The host of the talk show "Dr. Phil," which had a 21-year run from 2002 until 2023, argued that the good-faith gesture would save America from going in the wrong direction. McGraw slammed the "weaponization of our great institutions," and urged his viewers "to demand from your politicians today an end to this craziness in order to save the soul and sanity of our country." "We need [the Department of Justice] to return to the business of meting out justice and not running the political agendas of those currently in power blindly seeking convictions, warranted or otherwise, and attacking political opponents," McGraw said during his new program "Dr. Phil Primetime," which began in April. He added that it would require "forgiveness" from the ruling class because the U.S. is "not some banana republic." "What are we going to do next, have a Putin Poisoning Posse? And start finding political opponents foaming at the mouth at home, not so mysteriously dying in their La-Z-Boy recliners? We're better than that. We must be better than that." McGraw concluded by pointing out that he isn't advocating "voting for one candidate over another." Rather, he chooses to address human behavior "collectively" and "culturally" with a particular focus on "how we can have maximum control in our lives and turn this ship of State called America in the right direction, and get her back on track so we can be proud." 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. "The current administration could and should do the right thing: Dismiss now even now, post-conviction of a political opponent, all such lawfare and pledge to return to the normal functioning of a government rightly run." Dr. Phil also addresses both sides of the fence McGraw's plea comes as a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsification of business records, following the rigged hush money trial presided over by Judge Juan Merchan. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a progressive prosecutor bankrolled by Hungarian globalist billionaire George Soros, was responsible for pushing the former president's conviction. (Related: Donald Trump found GUILTY on all 34 charges in blatantly rigged New York trial, could be sentenced to 20 years in prison.) But the talk show host's warning wasn't just addressed to the ruling Democratic administration. He also aimed at those incensed over Trump's unfair conviction. According to McGraw, the temperature needs to be turned down on both sides of the political divide. "This is so not just about Trump," he said. "If you let your hatred for Trump compromise your ability to find true north on your moral compass, shame on you. If you let your disgust for Biden make you blind to the inevitable consequences of pursuing revenge, then God help the children who will inherit the dystopian nightmare we create. "We need leaders who will pledge to end this vicious cycle right now and return us to that safe place where our institutions are no longer bastardized and weaponized, but rather simply serve their intended purpose. We have serious problems to solve, and it will take serious people to solve them. "Men and women who we hold accountable for doing that which they were selected or hired to do, they need to know we are watching, and their positions are privileges, not legacies. They work for us, until they don't." Head over to Fascism.news for similar stories. Watch this clip from "Next News Network" about former President Donald Trump and Dr. Phil McGraw uniting to save America. This video is from the Sanivan channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Dr. Phil slams the HARMFUL effects of COVID-19 lockdowns on kids. Texas AG Ken Paxton says Trump verdict is "dark and shameful day in American history." RFK Jr. slams GUILTY verdict on Trump, calls it a blow to democracy and the Democratic Party. Dr. Phil, who's not an infectious disease expert, claims lockdowns and economic shutdown are worse for people than coronavirus itself. Sources include: InfoWars.com Breitbart.com Brighteon.com Jonathan Emord decries SHAM trial and RIGGED verdict against Trump in explosive new interview with Mike Adams Jonathan Emord, who is running as a U.S. senator for Virginia, decried the sham trial and rigged verdict against former President Donald Trump on the "Health Ranger Report." The expert on litigation and constitutional law told the Health Ranger Mike Adams that there was so much wrong with the Trump hush money case. He remarked that the legislature's role is to create laws, and the prosecutor is supposed to enforce it. Emord responded to a question by Adams by explaining that Manhattan District Attorney (DA) Alvin Bragg was indeed making a new law by deeming an accounting error as a campaign finance violation. He further argued that Bragg took a standard business records case way past the statute of limitations and manipulated it to result in a conviction. (Related: Donald Trump found GUILTY on all 34 charges in blatantly rigged New York trial, could be sentenced to 20 years in prison.) "You have no basis to create law by the action of a DA. Here you have a DA who literally created new law and a court that went along with it, rather than dismiss it. It was barred because they brought it too late," the senatorial candidate continued. "So in order to overcome that bar, [Bragg] invents new law. And what he does is he says that this misdemeanor business records case is going to be a felony. It's going to be a felony because he's going to allege that there's not only an intent to falsify a business record, which is utterly untrue, but that there's also an intent to interfere with the elections since 2016." Emord further described the progressive DA's case against Trump as preposterous due to the lack of basis in fact to support it and the lack of foundation to proceed with it. 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. Trump may suffer political bias in New York appeals court Adams mentioned that Trump's legal team has said he was going to appeal his case, but even the appeals process still subjected him to biases at a higher level. Emord agreed, noting that his appeal might be rejected. He also pointed out that the case is interfering with Trump's ability to campaign and has resulted in a gag order. "There has been an enormous reputational damage too. So, you have irreparable injury. You have the equities favor him because there's no particular need to throw Trump in jail. The equities favor him, he's running a national campaign so you should allow that," Emord said. Ultimately, Adams mentioned that Bragg and the other prosecutors involved in the case know it won't survive appeal. He likewise added that they don't care because it can cause damage to Trump ahead of the 2024 presidential election. The Natural News and Brighteon.com founder also asked Emord about the amicus brief he plans to file with the court to try to overturn Trump's verdict. The senatorial candidate for the Old Dominion explained that he plans to file the amicus brief after Trump is sentenced on July 11, and the court will then enter a scheduling order. Follow Trump.news for more stories about former President Donald Trump. Watch the full conversation between senatorial candidate Jonathan Emord and the Health Ranger Mike Adams below. This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: US Senate candidate Jonathan Emord: The Biden administrations goal is to COLLAPSE the American economy. ESCAPE FROM NY: Rigged Trump trial will devastate NY real estate and commercial investment sector. Trump hush money trial is blatant election interference designed to keep him off the campaign trail. Trump celebrates civil trial triumph in Big Apple court, predicts 80% of the case would likely be dismissed. SUPPRESSED: NY appeals court DECLINES Trumps request to overturn GAG order. Sources include: Brighteon.com EmordForVA.com APNews.com Laura Loomer says Dems should face treason charges and receive severe court-ordered penalties if found guilty Conservative activist Laura Loomer has suggested that Democrats should face treason charges and the possibility of the death penalty if former President Donald Trump defeated President Joe Biden in November. In a recent episode of "Timcast," podcast host Tim Pool discussed the potential actions the Trump administration could take against the Democrats in retaliation for the former president's felony conviction. Loomer, a self-proclaimed "die-hard" supporter of Trump, suggested that certain Democrats could be imprisoned. "Should Democrats be in jail? No question. When Donald Trump gets elected, should he start locking them up? No question. Should there be lists of Democrats that need to go to jail? 100 percent," Pool said. "And the reason for that is theyve committed crimes. (Related: Should traitors in Congress be charged with treason and all manner of crimes?) "We need to make sure that when Donald Trump wins, weve got an attorney general, a deputy attorney general, a head of the [Central Intelligence Agency] and the [Federal Bureau of Investigation], and then they can start having their investigators and the feds issuing subpoenas, pulling up evidence, and with real evidence, bring them to judges for warrants," Pool added. "Then these people can spend three years of their lives fighting tooth and nail for [their crimes] against the government, for crimes they committed and we can prove, and the reason why we put them on trial is that we can show the whole world. We will uncover what youve done. We will make sure everyone knows, and you will be held accountable for it," Pool concluded. 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. Loomer then responded and suggested that Democrats should face treason charges, which could result in the death penalty for those found guilty. "Not just jail," Loomer said. "They should get the death penalty; you know, we actually used to have the punishment for treason in this country." The discussion received a response from the Biden campaign, which shared a clip of the conversation between Pool and Loomer on its account on X, formerly Twitter. "Trump operatives say their plan is to jail and execute those who dont support Trump if he wins, echoing Project 2025," the Biden team said on X, referring to the Project 2025 framework of the Heritage Foundation which will remove liberals from the levers of power and install conservatives during the next Trump term. After the Biden campaign shared the video, Loomer responded on X, claiming that her appearance on Timcast had "triggered" Biden. "The Biden campaign doesnt like that Im calling out Democrats who committed Treason by staging a coup against Trump," Loomer wrote. "Is Joe Biden guilty of treason?" Democrats have been silencing Loomer since 2019 through Big Tech This is not the first time Democrats have been threatened with Loomer. In 2019, Loomer found herself banned from Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram. Left-wing reporters alerted her about the ban before even receiving any official notice from Facebook. "Today I was silenced by Mark Zuckerberg. I woke up this morning and found out I was banned on Facebook and Instagram by Left wing reporters who were tipped off about my ban before I was even banned. News reports about my ban from Facebook and Instagram were published before I was actually banned from the platforms. In fact, I was able to post that I was banned from Instagram, on my Instagram, 30 minutes before I was banned," she wrote in an article titled, "I Am Now The Most Banned Woman In The World" for her website Loomered. Loomer claimed at that time that the ban was BigTech's efforts to silence conservative voices, particularly those supportive of Trump. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, and Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of X, were specifically targeted in the article. She accused Zuckerberg of allowing Holocaust deniers to remain on his platform while banning her, a pro-Israel Jew, on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Loomer also criticized Dorsey for his inaction on social media censorship despite previous claims that X is a "public square" and that social media is a human right. Loomer was banned from X, Facebook, Instagram, PayPal, Venmo, GoFundMe, Uber, Uber Eats, Lyft, Medium, and TeeSpring. Additionally, she faced temporary suspension of her Chase Bank online banking access in February. And now, the recent episode of Timcast where she guested was removed from YouTube. Watch this clip from "Timcast IRL" as the hosts and guest Kash Patel discuss the Democrats' attempts to remove Trump from the 2024 presidential race. This video is from the GalacticStorm channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: TREASON: Majority of House Democrats voted against the deportation of CRIMINAL MIGRANTS. The greatest act of collective treason in U.S. history. TREASON: Biden administrations secret transportation of 320,000 illegal immigrants into the U.S. revealed. Arizona residents drive entire Maricopa County Board of Supervisors out of meeting after serving them for TREASON. Matrixxx Grooove: Federal indictment against Trump shows absolute TREASON and TYRANNY Brighteon.TV. Sources include: InfoWars.com Heritage.org Loomered.com Brighteon.com Melinda Gates shells out $1 BILLION to promote abortion and feminism Melinda Gates, the former wife of technocrat and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, has shelled out $1 billion to promote abortion and feminism A June 1 article by Forbes magazine expounded on this donation by the philanthropist, which included grants to be made by her Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation. The piece also named several entities set to receive this substantial amount. As per the article, $200 million will go to U.S. organizations ostensibly protecting "women's rights" with a noted emphasis on "women's reproductive freedom," a euphemism for infanticide. These groups include the Center for Reproductive Rights, MomsRising Education Fund and the National Women's Law Center. Another $240 million will go to 12 global leaders, who are set to receive $20 million each. These leaders will then allocate the $20 million "to charitable organizations they consider to be doing urgent, impactful, and innovative work to improve womens health and well-being in the U.S. and around the world." Some of the 12 global leaders include former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, seven-time Olympic gold medalist and track and field athlete Allyson Felix and award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay. Melinda also mentioned that $250 million from the $1 billion endowment will be awarded through an open call to grassroots organizations, which will be launched in the fall. According to Forbes, such grassroots organizations are often under-served by big donors. "Economic power is social power is political power. In that regard, [Melinda] holds immense power and with a laser focus on shaping the future of women's rights, the implications are profound," the magazine wrote. 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 [a] statement, [Melinda] made clear where she's set her sights, stating: "This is a critical moment for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world and those fighting to protect and advance equality are in urgent need of support.' Indeed, women's rights are at a precarious juncture that will likely reverberate for decades to come." Melinda bankrolls INFANTICIDE under the guise of "women's rights" Melinda's billion-dollar endowment follows the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) undergoing a massive reshuffle as a result of the couple's divorce, which arose from Bill's extramarital affairs and his friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. She recently announced her resignation from the BMGF, which will soon be known as the Gates Foundation, dropping the first names of its founders. (Related: Melinda Gates to resign from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.) "Bill and Melinda Gates have long been passionate advocates for the abortion industry, pouring tens of millions into initiatives designed to ensure less children make it into the world," Jonathon Von Maren wrote for LifeSiteNews. "Bill has donated exclusively to [the] International Planned Parenthood Federation, funded journalists to write pro-abortion stories [and] condemned pro-life policies." Von Maren also recounted that the Microsoft co-founder celebrated how "global health" initiatives have led people to decide they "don't need to have as many children" during an interview with journalist and former White House Press Secretary Bill Moyers. When the journalist asked the technocrat where his passion comes from, Bill Gates replied that his father served as head of Planned Parenthood. In a May 13 post on X, Melinda announced that her priority would focus on "women and girls in the U.S. and around the world" which culminated in the $1 billion endowment. "In short, a substantial fortune is about to be thrown into the abortion wars. The Gates Foundation endowment was over $75 billion as of last year," Von Maren pointed out. "Melinda and other abortion activists hope that the Gates fortune will tip the scales in favor of the abortion industry." Watch David Icke talking about Melinda Gates' resignation from the BMGF in the clip below. This video is from the High Hopes channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Bill Gates's "geek dad" image falls apart following divorce with Melinda. 'Furious' Melinda Gates warned Bill over Jeffrey Epstein escapades: Report. Melinda Gates drops MULTIPLE BOMBSHELLS about former husband Bill Gates. Melinda Gates unloads on globalist husband Bill Gates: He had multiple affairsHis "abhorrent" meetings with Jeffrey Epstein was last straw Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein "was evil personified." Sources include: LifeSiteNews.com Brighteon.com Never forget that your own government tried to murder you Each day that you wake up, never forget that your own government plotted to murder you with a theatrical plandemic that was engineered as a fear PSYOP to convince you to line up and take an experimental mRNA injection that programmed your bodys cells to manufacture spike protein bioweapons with the intended purpose of ending your life. If you ever trust a single thing that your government says, does or demands, you are suffering either from Stockholm Syndrome or severe brain damage, and if you continue to follow your governments advice on health and medicine, you will likely soon find yourself dead. Depopulation is their goal, and vaccines are their weapons. Pandemics are the fear engine, and censorship is how they prevent people from coming to their senses and seeing right through the whole charade. Watch my powerful interview with Andy Wakefield to get fully red-pilled on vaccines, autism and Big Pharma's ongoing crimes against humanity: Brighteon.com/8a8a572e-eefe-4506-a055-cbe1c740beda ### Follow my podcasts, interviews, articles and social media posts on: Twitter: https://twitter.com/HealthRanger Brighteon.social: Brighteon.social/@HealthRanger Brighteon.io: Brighteon.io/healthranger Telegram: t.me/RealHealthRanger Brighteon.com: Brighteon.com/channels/HRreport Rumble: Rumble.com/c/HealthRangerReport Substack: HealthRanger.substack.com Banned.video: Banned.video/channel/mike-adams Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@healthranger Bastyon: https://bastyon.com/healthranger Gettr: GETTR.com/user/healthranger BitChute: Bitchute.com/channel/9EB8glubb0Ns/ Clouthub: app.clouthub.com/#/users/u/naturalnews/posts Join the free NaturalNews.com email newsletter to stay alerted about breaking news each day. Download my current audio books -- including Ghost World, Survival Nutrition, The Global Reset Survival Guide and The Contagious Mind -- at: https://Audiobooks.NaturalNews.com/ Download my new audio book, "Resilient Prepping" at ResilientPrepping.com - it teaches you how to survive the total collapse of civilization and the loss of both the power grid and combustion engines. Putin responds to Ukraines long-range missile strikes by arming allies Because the West continues to cross Russia's "red line" by arming Kiev to the teeth with long-range weapons capable of striking the inner parts of Russia, President Putin is planning to arm Russia's allies in "sensitive" areas. The "asymmetric" plan involves strategically equipping allies of Russia in key areas with weapons that Putin says will deter Western powers from continuing to threaten Russia. "We have no illusions in this regard," Putin told an audience at the recent St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). Even though Ukrainian troops are technically the ones pulling the trigger, their weapons in hand come from places like the United States and the United Kingdom, which Putin wants to stop. In order to do so, Putin says he will boost the air defenses of strategically located Russian allies while destroying the long-range missiles that the Volodymyr Zelensky regime is blasting into Russian territory. "If someone deems it possible to supply such weapons to the war zone, to strike our territory ... why shouldn't we supply similar weapons to those regions of the world where they will be used against sensitive sites of these countries?" Putin asked at the gathering. "We can respond asymmetrically. We will give it a thought." (Related: Did you know that 97 countries are planning to participate in the upcoming BRICS 2024 Games hosted by Russia?) Western powers pushing the limit toward WWIII Should the West continue even after that to supply Kiev with long-range missiles and other advanced weaponry, then Russia will have no choice but to escalate things even further to protect its interests. 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. Russia "will completely destroy international relations and undermine international security," Putin further threatened as a notice to the West to back off immediately or else face the ire of the Russian military. "If we see that these countries are being drawn into a war against us, and this is their direct participation in the war against Russia, then we reserve the right to act in a similar way," Putin added. "This is a recipe for very serious problems." Concerned only about its continued existence, NATO, at the expense of Western economies and society, is flagrantly crossing Russia's red lines by sending military instructors and advisers to Ukraine. According to Putin, many of these people have been killed in Russian strikes. NATO insists that providing weapons and manpower to Kiev does not make any NATO country party to the conflict with Russia. Russia disagrees, though, not to mention the fact that Kiev keeps trying to bend the rules the further Russia advances in its special military operation. Last month as Russian troops began their advance towards Kharkov, Ukraine started begging for permission to bring in outside Western help to fight the Russian army. A British-led pressure campaign towards this end ultimately persuaded Washington to comply, which means the U.S. is also putting itself in Putin's crosshairs. "You can't find anything more toxic than the Zionist lobby," wrote a commenter at RT about how the Anglo powers that be, in this case Great Britain, always instigate these kinds of escalations while convincing Americans to go along with it. Another speculated that perhaps the allies of Russia that will be strategically armed in Putin's asymmetric warfare strategy will include Yemen, Iran, Syria and Venezuela. "Expect sporadic conflicts overseas on both sides," wrote someone else. "Citizens of the West and Russia will be on high alert." "Offer assistance to the Houthis which are sinking U.S. ships in the Red Sea," suggested another. "The shadow U.S. government is asking for a war it won't win." Things are heating up on the war front. Keep up with the latest at WWIII.news. Sources for this article include: RT.com NaturalNews.com Israeli official threatens to turn West Bank into RUINS just like the Gaza Strip An Israeli official has threatened to turn the West Bank into ruins in the same manner as the Gaza Strip. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich issued this threat in a video posted on May 30. The video filmed outdoors showed the official addressing his "neighbors beyond the fence." In particular, Smotrich's message was aimed at Palestinians living in the West Bank cities of Tulkarem, Nur al-Shams, Shuweika and Qalqilya. "We will turn you into ruins like in the Gaza Strip if the terror you are inflicting on the settlements continues," he said. "Terrorism against the citizens of Israel must stop." The finance minister warned of an unsafe future should the international community recognize the right of Palestinian statehood. He also warned that the Oct. 7 Operation Al-Aqsa Flood attack, launched by Hamas from the Gaza Strip, can happen in the West Bank as well. "This will not come to be and will not happen. We will strike at the terror. We will continue to rule [the West Bank] because this is the security buffer for the settlements here in the seam zone and for the major cities located west of here within the state of Israel." Smotrich's remarks sought to address alleged "violence" by Palestinians in the West Bank against illegal Israeli settlers. The finance minister and leader of the Mafdal-Religious Zionism party is also an illegal settler himself, as he lives in the Israeli settlement of Kedumim. Aside from his portfolio in the Israeli Ministry of Finance, Smotrich also holds a position in the Israeli Ministry of Defense that gives him the power to expand settlements in the West Bank making him the occupation governor of the territory. 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. According to the Huffington Post, the video message also comes amid escalating violence in the West Bank launched by both the Israeli military and Israeli settlers against Palestinians. These raids have been ongoing since the Oct. 7 Operation Al-Aqsa Flood attack launched by Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. "Palestinians in the West Bank have been subjected to settler violence and forced evictions for years," the outlet continued. (Related: TIMELINE: 75 Years of Israel's human rights abuses against Palestinians.) "Though Smotrich's threat is concerning, it is also unsurprising for someone who has historically been outspoken about his hatred of Palestinians. Last year, Smotrich said he believes there is 'no such thing' as Palestinian people. Earlier this year, he admitted Gaza is a 'ghetto' and said it should be resettled for Israelis." Israel's offensive against Hamas extending to the West Bank The Huffington Post also pointed out that Tel Aviv has been justifying its campaign in the Gaza Strip by claiming it wants to dismantle Hamas, formally the Islamic Resistance Movement. But Hamas does not have a presence in the West Bank; the Palestinian National Authority (PA) under Mahmoud Abbas governs the area. A week before posting the video, Smotrich who also oversees the budget for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said he would stop transferring tax revenue earmarked for the PA. He and other members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government are not shy about their desire to annex the West Bank and push Palestinians out. When the government was first formed in December 2022, the coalition issued a statement saying the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank would be prioritized, with annexation being the ultimate goal. "I think many Palestinians in the West Bank fear that [based on] what Israel is doing in Gaza, the logical extension of it is to continue in the West Bank," said Yousef Munayer, a senior fellow at the nonprofit research organization Arab Center Washington, D.C. (ACW). "It is the wildest dreams of these right-wing extremists to be able to depopulate the West Bank, force those Palestinians out and further establish their control over the territory." The ACW senior fellow continued: "Now the difference, of course, is that this is coming at a moment [when] there is massive destruction in Gaza. And he is saying 'Well, we're going to do this in the West Bank.' That is threatening a level of violence that we have not seen in the West Bank yet." Visit IsraelCollapse.com for similar stories. Watch this video that discusses the ongoing expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank. This video is from the alltheworldsastage channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Israel declares major LAND GRAB in West Bank. Fears of impending attack on Israel from the West Bank mount as convoys of Muslim women and children evacuate to Jordan. "Great Israeli Real Estate Event" sparks outrage after illegally advertising properties that are on track to be confiscated from besieged West Bank. Sources include: News.Antiwar.com HuffPost.com Brighteon.com State Department official RESIGNS over falsified report defending Israel from accusations of blocking Gaza aid A senior official in the U.S. Department of State has stepped down from her post over a "falsified" report clearing Israel of accusations that it blocked aid meant for the Gaza Strip. Stacy Gilbert resigned from the State Department on May 28 after a 20-year stint. Before her departure, Gilbert had served as a senior civil-military adviser in the agency's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. She had also been one of the department's subject matter experts (SMEs) who drafted a report mandated under National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20) that was published on May 10. The report found that it was "reasonable to assess that Israel had used U.S. weapons in a way that was "inconsistent" with international humanitarian law. However, it noted that there wasn't enough concrete evidence to link specific U.S.-supplied weapons to violations despite evidence showing Tel Aviv did so. (Related: CONFIRMED: Israel used "U.S.-made weapons" in Rafah "safe zone" massacre.) The NSM-20 report also pointed out that the State Department didn't "currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance" in the Gaza Strip. Had the agency cited Israeli attempts to block aid to Gaza, Washington would be obliged to cut arms sales and security assistance to any country found to have blocked delivery of U.S. aid as per a clause in the Foreign Assistance Act. According to Gilbert, the final version of the report went against the overwhelming view of State Department experts who were consulted on it. She and other SMEs "were taken off the report sometime at the end of April" and "were told it would be edited at the higher level." 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. "When the report came out I read it and I had to re-read it. I could not believe it stated so starkly that we assess that Israel is not blocking humanitarian assistance. Two hours after it was released, I sent an email to my front office and the team that is working on this, saying I will resign as a result of this," the erstwhile official shared. State Department going above and beyond to protect Israel Gilbert argued that despite the presence of other factors, it was clear that Israel was playing a role in limiting the amount of food and medical supplies crossing the border into Gaza. "There is consensus among the humanitarian community on that," she said. "It is absolutely the opinion of the humanitarian SMEs in the State Department, and not just in my bureau people who look at this from the intelligence community and from other bureaus." "I would be very hard-pressed to think of anyone who has said [Israeli obstruction] is not an issue. That's why I object to that report saying that Israel is not blocking humanitarian assistance. That is patently false." But Chris Menahan of Information Liberation pointed out that Secretary of State Antony Blinken "had his underlings overrule the advice of the State Department's experts on the issue to ensure that U.S. weapons kept flowing to Israel to aid in their ethnic cleansing campaign. He also mentioned that this wasn't the first time Blinken's office went above and beyond to protect the interests of Tel Aviv. In one recent instance, the State Department took steps to move forward on sanctions to the Israel Defense Forces' Netzah Yehuda battalion, which was accused of human rights abuses. However, it backed off with the sanctions following pressure from the Israeli government. "It can't get any more clear that for this administration, defending the interests of Israel comes before defending the interests of America." Watch retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg remarking that world opinion is turning against Israel "quite strongly" in the clip below. This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: U.S. cuts Israel off from arms deliveries after halting ammo shipments. U.S. finds 5 Israeli military units GUILTY of human rights violations, decides to do NOTHING. Blinken ignores recommendation to restrict aid to Israeli military and police who committed human rights violations. WHITE HOUSE REPORT: Israel may have used U.S.-supplied weapons to kill civilians, which violates international humanitarian law. U.S. State Department says Israel's Netanyahu has absolute diplomatic immunity against ICC arrest warrants for genocide, war crimes. Sources include: BlacklistedNews.com TheGuardian.com InformationLiberation.com Brighteon.com Wake up! The Russians are NOT bluffing Nuclear war is not something we should be gambling with. In the event of a full-blown nuclear exchange between the United States and Russia, millions of people would die immediately, and hundreds of millions would die during the nuclear winter and global famines that occur in the aftermath. So nuclear war should be avoided at all costs. Unfortunately, both sides just continue to escalate matters in Ukraine, and the Russians keep warning us that if they are pushed too far they will be forced to use nuclear weapons. But our leaders are not taking such threats seriously. They seem to believe that they can keep creeping closer and closer to the red lines that the Russians have established because they are convinced that the Russians will never actually risk a nuclear war. Of course we better hope that our leaders do not miscalculate, because if a nuclear war erupts most Americans are going to end up dead. (Article republished from EndOfTheAmericanDream.com) The Biden administration has foolishly decided that Ukraine should be free to use missiles provided by the United States to hit targets deep inside Russian territory. In response, Dmitry Medvedev has warned that this could lead to a direct nuclear conflict between our two nations Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has given his strongest warning that the invasion in Ukraine may end up in a nuclear disaster, after US president Joe Biden lifted restrictions on Ukraine using American weapons for direct attacks on Russian soil. Two US officials confirmed that the US has lifted the restrictions, after officials from the White House, the US military and the State Department spent weeks discussing Ukraines usage of the weapons behind closed doors. Medvedev was president of Russia before, and he may be president again someday after Putins reign ends. So the fact that he is publicly threatening us with nuclear destruction should be deeply alarming to all of us The use of tactical nuclear weapons can also be miscalculated, although this would be a fatal mistake, said Medvedev, who was Russian president with his finger on the nuclear button from 2008 to 2012. After all, as the President of Russia rightly noted, European countries have a very high population density. And for those enemy countries whose lands are further than the coverage area of tactical nuclear weapons, there is finally a strategic potential. And this, alas, is not intimidation or a nuclear bluff. The current military conflict with the West is developing according to the worst possible scenario. Of course he is not the only one that is making such statements. Dmitry Suslov, a member of the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, is suggesting that the Russians should actually set off a nuclear device in order to show the rest of the world how serious they are Finally, to confirm the seriousness of Russias intentions and to convince our adversaries of Moscows willingness to escalate, it is worth considering a demonstration (i.e. non-aggressive) nuclear explosion. The political and psychological effect of an atomic mushroom cloud, broadcast live on all the worlds television channels, will hopefully bring back to Western politicians the one thing that prevented wars between the great powers after 1945, and which they have now largely lost the fear of nuclear war. Sadly, most Americans have absolutely no idea how close we are to nuclear war. While our major news networks are obsessed with politics, Russians news channels are filled with talk of war. One of Russias most important journalists, Vladimir Solovyov, recently made headlines when he boldly declared that nuclear war is inevitable either way Nuclear war is inevitable either way. Lets compare whose strategic weapons are bigger! Solovyov said on his television program, according to a clip translated into English and posted on the YouTube channel of Russian Media Monitor, a watchdog group created by journalist Julia Davis in an effort to combat Russian propaganda, on Saturday. There is a growing consensus inside Russia that a final showdown with western powers is unavoidable. And the Russians very clearly understand that whoever strikes first in a nuclear war has the best chance of surviving. So if there is a way out of this mess, our leaders should be trying to find it while they still can. Unfortunately, we are allowing the Ukrainians to provoke Russia in very alarming ways. They just hit another early warning radar system deep inside Russian territory, and that was an extremely dangerous move Ukraine has struck another early-warning (over-the-horizon) radar, this time in Orenburg region, near Orsk, some 1500 km from Ukraine. This radar did not even look at the direction of Ukraine, which makes the strike an act of madness, or something sinister. These strikes to the Russian early-warning system can serve only two aims: Ukrainian leadership is desperately trying to fully commit NATO to the war in Ukraine, or Strikes are a preparation for nuclear strikes to Russia by the U.S. Needless to say that the latter is extremely speculative. However, it is one of the two motives that can be established for the strikes. Alas, we have to acknowledge its existence. The Ukrainians are losing the war, and they realize that the only way that they will be able to win it is to get NATO directly involved. So the Ukrainians are trying to provoke the Russians into doing something that will make that a reality. I dont think that it will happen immediately, but a day could come when we see western troops dying on the killing fields of eastern Ukraine. In fact, the Daily Mail is reporting that NATO is drawing up plans to send American troops to the frontlines of Europe in the event of an all-out conflict with Russia NATO is drawing up plans to send American troops to the frontlines of Europe in the event of an all-out conflict with Russia, it has been revealed. New land corridors are being carved out to quickly funnel soldiers through central Europe without local bureaucratic impediments, allowing NATO forces to pounce in an instant should Putins devastating war in Ukraine move further west. The plans are said to include contingencies in case of Russian bombardment, letting troops sweep into the Balkans via corridors in Italy, Greece and Turkey, or towards Russias northern border via Scandinavia, officials told The Telegraph. Speaking of deploying American troops, we are being told that Joe Biden is not ruling out boots on the ground when China invades Taiwan President Biden has affirmed he is not ruling out boots on the ground in Taiwan, in the scenario of a future Chinese invasion. While this type of response is really nothing new when it comes to American politicians being asked hypothetical questions about the future of Taiwan, it does come at a tense moment when an anti-Beijing hawk, Lai Ching-te, has just ascended as Taiwans new president. Joe Biden and his all-star team of warmongers have us on the brink of war with both Russia and China. Isnt that wonderful? Meanwhile, the war in the Middle East could go to the next level at any time. On Monday, Israel conducted major airstrikes deep inside Syrian territory Israel launched major airstrikes on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo in the overnight hours, which killed an Iranian military adviser, and possibly more Iranian militia members, as well as civilians. At approximately 12:20 AM at dawn on Monday, the Israeli enemy launched an aerial attack with missiles from a direction of southeast Aleppo, targeting a number of points in the vicinity of Aleppo city, and the army air defenses intercepted the aggressions missiles and shot down some of them, Syrian state SANA said. The three wars that I just discussed are the three wars of the apocalypse that I have been warning about for years. I feel like I am watching a slow-motion train wreck unfold right in front of my eyes and I cannot do anything to stop it. No matter how much noise we make, Joe Biden and his minions will not listen to us. With each passing day, they are dragging us even closer to an apocalyptic nuclear conflict. So let us hope for the best, but let us also continue to get prepared for the worst. Read more at: EndOfTheAmericanDream.com Wall Street admits that ALL new jobs in past year went to illegal aliens All last year, the Biden regime was bragging about how many "new jobs" it was supposedly creating. Well, we now know that every single one of those jobs went to illegal aliens Over the past six years starting in July 2018, there has been no increase in employment for native-born workers in the United States, this according to the latest data out of Wall Street. The Biden regime's so-called "economic recovery" is a fraud, in other words. Stunning statistic: there has been ZERO INCREASE in jobs for native-born workers in over five years, since July 2018! pic.twitter.com/mxdpmPHIbO zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 5, 2024 Strategically implemented immigration loopholes allowed for all these illegals to suck up every new job that came down the pike. As this was happening, the powers that be lied to Americans about how the economy was "booming." Why have all new jobs since 2018 gone to foreign-born workers (i.e. immigrants)? Because you can be an illegal immigrant in deportation proceedings (not to mention anyone seeking asylum) and get authorization to work in the US for up to 5 years, no questions asked. pic.twitter.com/VmhTBUM1I2 zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 10, 2024 Fact-check: 1. Prices have never been higher and are starting to accelerate to the upside again 2. All the jobs created in the past year have been part time. 3. There has been zero job growth for native-born Americans since 2018; all jobs have gone to immigrants (mostly illegal https://t.co/MeX7KhbaHl pic.twitter.com/OJI79p9oLp zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 29, 2024 (Related: Remember when Tyson Foods admitted that it would easily hire 42,000 migrants to work its chicken factories "if we could find them?") Biden, Trump's "biggest political talking point" a total lie Keep in mind that this illegal alien job heist goes back well into the Donald Trump years as well. In July 2018 when the data timeframe begins, Trump was president of the same corrupt U.S. economy that is being handed over to illegals at the expense of citizens. Over the past six years, there has actually been a net decrease in jobs among native-born U.S. workers. As foreign-born workers gained three million jobs, 1.4 million native-born jobs disappeared. Steve Englander, Standard Chartered's global head of macroeconomics, wrote an article recently that estimates "undocumented immigrants account for half of job growth in FY24 so far," this being a conservative underestimate. Most of the illegals who took these jobs are "asylum seekers and humanitarian parolees," Englander says. "... the continued rise in EAD approvals likely will extend strong employment growth in 2024," Englander adds, this again referring to strong employment growth for illegals rather than native-born workers and citizens. 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. Because illegals tend to work for far less money than natives, large multinational corporations governed by greedy, overpaid executives are eager to hire on as many of them as they can get away with while leaving actual Americans stranded and in the dark. With Election Day just a few months away, we are likely to start hearing all kinds of deceptive rhetoric about how the American economy is "strong," but do not be fooled. America's younger generations are increasingly having to live like paupers while the rich make out like bandits. "Detailed data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) suggest that half of non-farm payroll (NFP) growth to date for FY24 (started 1 October 2023) has been from undocumented immigrants who have received an Employment Authorization Document (EAD)," Englander revealed. The Biden regime is sure to spin the numbers as much as it can get away with to create an illusion of economic vibrance, but will it actually work? The answer this time is probably not, but we will see what happens. America is fast being taken over by illegal foreigners. Learn more at InvasionUSA.news. Sources for this article include: NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com Op-ed: World Health Organization remains DANGEROUS despite collapse of Pandemic Treaty The globalist World Health Organization (WHO) remains dangerous even though its proposed Pandemic Treaty has collapsed, an op-ed warns. Brownstone Institute Senior Scholar David Bell issued this warning in a May 28 op-ed. According to him, both the WHO and its Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus "have completely divorced themselves from reality" and are "illustrating how dangerous and unfit for purpose" the global health body has become. Bell, himself a former medical officer and scientist at the WHO, pointed to Ghebreyesus' emphasis on "pandemics and the faltering agreements intended to address their risk" at this year's World Health Assembly (WHA). He wrote: "While these are watered down and the Pandemic Agreement may not even get to a vote, [Ghebreyesus'] continued justification for centering greater coordination and power at the WHO speaks volumes about the problem we face." According to the WHO director-general, the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in up to 20 million additional deaths. But Bell pointed out that the global health body's policies contributed to this number. He further mentioned that the WHO's medical tyranny also caused far-reaching damage to other aspects of society. "The policies the WHO promoted closed supply lines; shut down the workplaces of tens of millions of day laborers; stopped travel and tourism income on which millions of low-income people rely; closed markets; pushed over hundreds of millions into severe poverty; [and] increased the indebtedness of nations globally." 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. Bell also mentioned that the causes of infectious disease fatalities "predominantly revolve around poor nutrition, sanitation and supply lines for basic medicines." These aspects, which had been improving before 2020, "are now put at risk." The Brownstone Institute fellow also referenced Ghebreyesus' remarks that "the whole world was taken hostage." But in reality, the world was indeed taken hostage "by the appalling people who took over public health, used the WHO as a tool with its leadership's consent and made hundreds of billions of dollars in profit through these harms foisted on others." Bell: World wasn't prepared for WHO's hijacking Bell continued that the world wasn't prepared for the WHO and public health policy at large being hijacked. "Pretending that deaths from 'lockdowns' were due to COVID-19 adds to the current denial of reality," he stressed. "'Lockdown' was, and should remain, a term describing imprisonment. In public health, it has been promoted by those who ended up gaining from the COVID-19 debacle private and corporate funders, and their followers." Bell also referenced the prevailing theory about the origins of COVID-19, which ostensibly point to a lab leak from a facility in China's Wuhan province conducting gain-of-function research. "If the world is to actually address the risk presented by a repeat of COVID-19, then it had better address its cause," he wrote. "Nothing in the texts of the proposed Pandemic Agreement or [the International Health Regulations] amendments even refers to this." "Spending tens of billions per year on a surveillance network for natural threats will impoverish millions and divert funds from diseases of far higher burden, but do nothing to address the problem of research laboratories being paid to enhance virus virulence in humans." (Related: WHO "pandemic treaty" normalizes bioweapon development and vaccine experiments, incentivizes nations to share data on "gain-of-function" research.) "We can all be relieved that the proposed pandemic texts are watered down from their egregious original versions and the Pandemic Agreement is unready for this WHA session. However, any increased coordination of power in the hands of the WHO, in its current state, is dangerous. The world has undergone enough damage in the past four years through misdirection and deliberate misinformation from an international agency that always knew better." Check out Globalism.news for more stories about the WHO. Watch Jefferey Jaxen and Del Bigtree discuss the collapse of the WHO Pandemic Treaty on "The HighWire with Del Bigtree" below. This video is from The HighWire with Del Bigtree channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: WHO Pandemic Treaty: A power-grabbing act to control health responses of UN member countries. WHO backs off on Pandemic Treaty, makes substantive changes to address tyranny concerns. WHO's Pandemic Treaty will only benefit Big Pharma and billionaires like Bill Gates. Report: Talks to establish WHO Pandemic Treaty seem to have collapsed. Sources include: LifeSiteNews.com Brighteon.com A new study reveals that soil microorganisms may be able to lower the greenhouse gas emissions that come from growing food. The Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) and IIASA carried out this study. Nitrous Oxide Emission Nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from fertilized agricultural soils account for a large portion of the total greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. It has long been accepted that emissions of N2O cannot be prevented. However, a global group of scientists from NMBU has created a technique to reduce these emissions. They found that certain bacteria may "consume" nitrous oxide, keeping it from escaping into the atmosphere while it thrives in the soil. According to the experts, utilizing this strategy by itself might reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions in Europe by 33%. Scientists have been studying the transformation of nitrogen by soil bacteria for more than 20 years. They have studied microorganisms in hypoxic environments-that is, settings with low oxygen concentrations-in great detail. The scientists have developed a brand-new method for researching denitrification and have discovered crucial information regarding controlling this process. In addition to using robotic solutions in the lab and on the job, they have developed a special robot that can measure the emissions of soil nitrous oxide in real time. They contrasted the soil's characteristics with and without the microorganisms. The bacteria, according to the researchers, cut the initial fertilizer treatment's nitrous oxide emissions by 94%. The bacteria cut the emissions from a second fertilizer treatment in half after two weeks. The composition of the microbial life forms remained the same after roughly three months. This gave the researchers hope that the soil wouldn't be harmed or altered by their microbes. The microorganisms employed by the researchers are indigenous to anaerobic digesters, which are currently in use to convert organic waste materials like cow dung into biofuels. The microorganisms are not genetically engineered, according to the researchers. According to Paul Carini of the University of Arizona, this might make their use easier to accept. Lowering N2O emissions is feasible by utilizing a certain type of bacterium that is incapable of creating nitrous oxide but can convert it into harmless nitrogen gas (N2). Utilizing a specific type of bacteria that can transform nitrous oxide into harmless nitrogen gas (N2) but is incapable of producing nitrous oxide itself is one way to reduce N2O emissions. Read Also: Cable Bacteria Set to Mitigate Oil Spills and Methane Emissions: New Report Global Use Of Bacteria Nitrous oxide has the ability to warm the atmosphere 265 times faster than carbon dioxide of the same mass. It is possible for nitrous oxide to linger in the atmosphere for over a century. The amount of nitrous oxide generated in soil is increased by farmers' use of nitrogen fertilizer. According to the U.S. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, nitrous oxide accounted for 6% of all greenhouse gas emissions from human activity in the country in 2022. Lars Bakken of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences said the bacteria might be added to some agriculture fertilizers in three to four years if people believe it is worth the cost. But he made the point that farmers do not receive compensation for lowering their emissions of nitrous oxide. He believes that more incentives are needed to reduce pollution. "It is the responsibility of the authorities to implement policy tools that generate revenue in any manner," he stated. Experts said that before the bacteria could be employed globally, more field research would probably be required. This is due to the fact that soil varies greatly throughout the planet. Related Article: This Bacteria Can Consume Greenhouse Gas Methane and Convert it Into Fuel In a groundbreaking study that has caught the attention of marine biologists and climate scientists alike, recent findings have revealed a significant shift in the migratory patterns of Pacific salmon. This change, brought about by warming ocean temperatures, has led to an increase in salmon populations in the Canadian Arctic, a region where these fish were historically scarce. A Pathway Through Warmer Seas The research, conducted by a collaborative team from Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, points to a two-part mechanism that facilitates the salmon's journey into uncharted waters. The first 'gate' opens with the late-spring warmth in the Chukchi Sea, which lies northwest of Alaska, drawing salmon into the Arctic. The second 'gate' requires summer conditions in the Beaufort Sea, northeast of Alaska, to remain warm and ice-free, allowing the salmon to continue their migration into Canada1. Satellite data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) since 2000, juxtaposed with salmon catch rates, has shown a clear correlation between the abundance of salmon and the oceanic conditions that favor their northward expansion. "You need both gates to be open, which is fascinating in itself," explains Curry Cunningham, an associate professor at UAF's College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. "If they don't align in terms of having open, ice-free water, salmon don't turn that corner." Also Read: Salmon Population Feared To Be Devastated After Thousands Escape From Icelandic Farm Community Observations and Ecological Implications Indigenous communities in the Canadian Arctic have been instrumental in tracking these incidental salmon catches through the Arctic Salmon Program, in partnership with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. For over two decades, subsistence harvesters, who typically target species like Dolly Varden and Arctic char, have recorded catches of salmon outside their usual range. Chum and sockeye salmon, known for their higher cold tolerance, have been the most frequently caught, aligning with previous research on the species' adaptability to Arctic conditions. Karen Dunmall, a research scientist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada and co-lead author of the study, highlights the importance of this research for local communities. "It really helps to address some questions from community members about biodiversity change and subsistence and how they feed their families," she says. The presence of salmon in years past has been unpredictable, and while not always welcomed, it has sparked curiosity and concern about the broader implications of climate change on local ecosystems and subsistence practices. The study, published in the journal Global Change Biology, underscores the need for continued monitoring and research to understand the full impact of climate change on Arctic biodiversity and the livelihoods of those who depend on these fragile ecosystems Adaptation of Pacific Salmon to Arctic Conditions Pacific salmon exhibit remarkable adaptations that allow them to thrive in the harsh Arctic environment. Their cold tolerance is facilitated by specialized proteins that prevent ice formation within their bodies. These fish regulate their metabolic rate to conserve energy during extreme cold. Behaviorally, salmon seek deeper, warmer waters during winter and migrate to specific spawning grounds during the brief ice-free period. Genetic adaptations likely enhance their survival, affecting metabolic processes, immune responses, and reproductive strategies. The presence of salmon in the Canadian Arctic has implications for local ecosystems and indigenous communities, providing an additional food source and economic opportunity while raising questions about broader ecological impacts. Related article: Salmon Has a Remarkable Amount of Carbon Footprints Similar to Chickens Due to the Amount of Their Feed In a world grappling with multiple crises, the urgency of climate change often gets overshadowed. A recent study by Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, published in the European Journal of Political Research, sheds light on the challenges of garnering public support for climate policies during times when immediate crises demand attention. The Dilemma of Distraction The study, led by Professor Laura Seelkopf, reveals a concerning trend: while information about the climate crisis can increase public support for measures like fuel taxation, this support is significantly weakened when people are reminded of other pressing issues such as pandemics or geopolitical conflicts. The research, which surveyed 21,000 individuals across 17 European countries, found that support for a tax on fossil fuels was 12% higher among those informed about the climate crisis compared to those who were not. However, when participants were also reminded of current crises like COVID-19 or the war in Ukraine, their willingness to support the tax dropped notably. The Power of Policy Framing The findings underscore the importance of how climate policy is presented to the public. To counteract the diluting effect of policy distraction, the authors suggest that political decision-makers should emphasize the immediacy of climate change and link it to other urgent events to boost support for necessary measures. Instruments like the "Net Zero by 2050" scenario of the International Energy Agency or the EU's "Fit for 55" plan serve as reminders that current climate policies are falling short and require immediate action. How can Policymakers Effectively Communicate Climate Urgency? To effectively communicate the urgency of climate change, policymakers can employ a multifaceted approach. They should start by using authoritative scientific information to combat misinformation and ensure the public receives accurate data. Emphasizing the immediacy of climate action and employing trusted messengers like scientists and medical doctors can help engage the audience. Consistent messaging is key to building trust and understanding, while connecting climate impacts to local experiences and telling compelling stories can make the issue more relatable. Additionally, translating policies into actionable steps and clearly explaining them can foster a stronger commitment to tackling climate change. These strategies, when combined, can educate, mobilize, and advocate for change, ensuring that the message of climate urgency resonates with the public and prompts action. Also Read: Australia Could Lead the World in Low-Carbon Economy With Fossil Fuel Levy, Say Experts How can policymakers engage with youth and marginalized communities? Engaging with youth and marginalized communities is a multifaceted endeavor that requires policymakers to adopt inclusive and empowering strategies. By recognizing and amplifying youth voices, providing quality education and workforce development, fostering collaborative partnerships, and investing in holistic support systems, policymakers can build thriving ecosystems for young people. Centering equity in policy development ensures that systemic inequalities are addressed, and understanding the specific needs of marginalized groups allows for tailored engagement. Additionally, shifting power dynamics to include marginalized residents in decision-making and implementing inclusive engagement practices can lead to more equitable and effective policies. These efforts are essential for creating an environment where the voices of all community members are heard and their needs are met, ultimately leading to a more inclusive society Conclusion: A Call to Keep Climate on the Agenda The study concludes with a call to action for policymakers: to maintain climate change as a priority on the political agenda and to communicate its urgency effectively. As the world navigates through various crises, the battle against climate change must not be sidelined. It is imperative that climate policies are framed in a way that resonates with the public, even amidst the cacophony of global challenges. This article synthesizes the key findings from the study and presents them in a simplified manner, adhering to the request for a newspaper-style format with an introduction that provides the essential details promptly. Related article: This Bacteria Can Consume Greenhouse Gas Methane and Convert it Into Fuel Sorry, something doesn't look right. Something seems unusual about your device or browser. Please contact support. As opposed to his films, Anurag Kashyap was scared of shooting gory scenes for 'Bad Cop' F ilmmaker actor Anurag Kashyap shared that he was scared and skeptical about shooting for gore scenes in 'Bad Cop', as opposed to the films he has made. He also shared that he was inspired by Nana Patekar from 'Parinda' and Irrfan Khan from 'Haasil' for his role in the series. Anurag, who plays the lethal Kazbe Mama in the series, said, "Kazbe Mama is a one-of-a-kind villain. His aura is charismatic and lethal at the same time. I was scared and skeptical when shooting for gore scenes; as opposed to my films." He shared that his character Kazbe is powerful, and hard-hitting and that he drew traits from many of the negative characters that the filmmaker-actor had created, to prepare for this role. "I had no process for Kazbe, in fact, I was inspired by Nana Patekar from 'Parinda' and Irrfan Khan from 'Haasil'. I take the script only before I shoot it and the dialogue writer would help me how to approach it. It's cathartic for me to play a negative character and I take it all out of my system. I hope audiences enjoy me in this avatar. In 'Bad Cop', actor Gulshan Devaiah swiftly steps into the double role of twins Karan and Arjun, who are polar opposites and choose a path of their own. Actress Harleen Sethi takes on the role of Devika. Saurabh Sachdeva and Aishwarya Sushmita star in significant roles in this thriller. Gulshan said, "What drew me the most to the script was the character/s I had to play. Karan and Arjun are identical twins with very different personalities and one is a cop and the other a crook... Karan and Arjun although twin brothers have a very diffident outlook towards life and are dealing with very different interpersonal problems." The actor revealed he had to physically and mentally prepare himself for playing the part. "I had to physically and mentally prepare myself first. I think playing the twins in Bad Cop has been the most amazing time I've had in my career until now and I really hope the masses find it fun too." Actress Harleen Sethi said when she was first approached for the role of Devika, she was skeptical about taking it on, but right in the middle of the shooting schedule she had a realisation and is glad to not let this opportunity pass. "Devika is everything a woman would want to be; she is powerful, fierce, witty, resilient, fights for her right in her personal life and believes that she is not inferior or superior to anyone around her, Harleen said. "She holds her own in the male-dominated police workforce and has a clear vision for what she wants," she said. Talking about the series, director Aditya Datt said, "Bad Cop is like your original cult masala stories with a captivating storyline, a deadly villain and your hero in a double role. We have designed the action and chase sequences from scratch and have hoped to provide the audiences a larger-than-life viewing experience." Heaping praise on his cast, Datt said, "With actors like Anurag, Gulshan, Harleen and Saurabh, we wanted to bring a sense of realism to the story. They are all actors who come from a very different school of cinema and what they bring to the table, no one else can." The series will stream from June 21 on Disney+ Hotstar. As opposed to his films, Anurag Kashyap was scared of shooting gory scenes for 'Bad Cop' Post your comments Found this article helpful? Spread the word and support us! Sheinbaum officially confirmed winner of Mexico's presidential vote F our days after Mexico held presidential elections, government candidate Claudia Sheinbaum has been officially declared the winner, making her the first female president in the country's history. On Thursday, the electoral authority said that a former mayor of Mexico City, Sheinbaum, from the ruling left-wing Morena party, won 59.75 per cent of the votes. Her rival, opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez, came in second with 27.45 per cent. Jorge Alvarez, from the smaller centre-left Movimiento Ciudadano party, had always been seen as having no chance. Almost 100 million citizens were eligible to vote to fill all seats in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, as well as regional and municipal posts, making it an election day of historic proportions. While the final results of the parliamentary vote are still pending, Sheinbaum's Morena party is projected to have garnered a solid majority. The party is hoping to secure a two-thirds majority in both chambers to be able to single-handedly push through constitutional reforms, including the appointment of judges by direct vote, a plan that has critics fearing the democratic separation of powers in Mexico. Following the election, the Mexican stock exchange suffered losses and the national currency, the peso, lost around 5 per cent of its value against the US dollar. The 61-year-old is from the same party and a longtime ally of outgoing left-wing populist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The popularity of the president, who was not allowed to run again after six years in office, helped the 61-year-old scientist to win the election. Sheinbaum is expected to continue his policies, in particular, the popular state aid schemes for young and old people. Although the opposition conceded defeat, it intends to file a complaint with the electoral court about alleged irregularities in the electoral process, denouncing Lopez Obrador's undue interference and the use of state resources in favour of Sheinbaum. --IANS/DPA Sheinbaum officially confirmed winner of Mexico's presidential vote Post your comments Found this article helpful? Spread the word and support us! Centre gears up for International Day of Yoga 2024 T he Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B) and the Ministry of AYUSH on Friday started the preparations for the organisation of the International Day of Yoga (IDY) 2024. The scale and the level of celebration of the IDY have increased every year since the recognition of June 21 as the "International Yoga Day". On the occasion of the 9th IDY 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the festivities at the UN headquarters attended by delegates from 135 nations. A Guinness World Record was set with 135 nations participating in the Yoga celebration. The event was also celebrated on a larger scale with new initiatives. The estimated participation in the IDY 2023 was 23.4 crore. As IDY 2024 approaches, the Media Units of the I&B Ministry started preparing to organise a variety of programme activities to create awareness about the Common Yoga Protocol (CYP) along with awareness about the benefits of practising Yoga. Key activities are planned by various media units including Press Information Bureau, Prasar Bharati, New Media Wing, and others. Public Service Broadcaster, Prasar Bharati will be broadcasting and telecasting different programmes through Doordarshan (DD)/All India Radio (AIR) Network. Akashvani will broadcast programmes to promote Yoga as a way of life and for the overall wellness of people. The New Media Wing (NMW) would be conducting activities like the Yoga with Family contest through the I&B ministrys social media accounts as a challenge for families to do Yoga together and upload reels using the Yoga Geet. A Yoga Quiz - Guess the Aasan will also be organised and the IDY 2024 Podcast will be released. Apart from this, various Media Units and Organizations of the Ministry of I&B will organise sessions/workshops on yoga as a run-up to IDY. Yoga camps, seminars, etc., will also be conducted this year to promote yoga and wellness among the employees. Centre gears up for International Day of Yoga 2024 Post your comments Found this article helpful? Spread the word and support us! Michael Mervis, left, and others listen as Laura Jaramillo speaks about a proposal for a third cannabis dispensary and other development at Thursdays meeting of the Danville Planning and Zoning Commission. Colorectal Cancer (CRC) is set to transform from a severe disease to a controllable condition through early detection and intervention. "The ultimate goal is to transform colorectal cancer from a life-threatening disease into a manageable condition through widespread, early screening and intervention", said Dr. Zhu Shida, Executive Dean of the Institute of Intelligent Medical Research (IIMR), BGI Genomics. To better understand the global status of colorectal cancer (CRC) in the medical setting and seek ways to close the awareness gap in the future, we've invited two experts: Prof. Varut Lohsiriwat, from Mahidol University, and Dr. Zhu Shida, from BGI Genomics, to share their thoughts after reading the BGI Genomics 2024 Global State of Colorectal Cancer Awareness Report. With the improvement of detection precision and accuracy of molecular biotechnology, CRC can be identified and addressed at earlier stages, greatly improving survival rates and the quality of life for those affected. The COLOTECT Fecal Gene Methylation Detection is an example of a non-invasive fecal DNA test. It can provide early warnings of abnormal intestinal lesions through the use of sensitive molecular biology techniques. Unlike colonoscopy, it does not require preoperative preparation and fasting. Gold standard with limitations From the perspective of clinical medicine, colonoscopy is the gold standard for CRC detection. It can provide the most accurate results during the early stages of cancer development, yet it has limitations. Prof. Varut Lohsiriwat, a Professor of Surgery in the Division of General Surgery (Section of Colorectal Surgery), Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, highlights this challenge. Colonoscopy requires an appointment and queuing, which can be a hassle for many patients due to limited hospital resources and long waiting times." Prof. Varut Lohsiriwat, Professor of Surgery, Division of General Surgery (Section of Colorectal Surgery), Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University As a result, patients frequently delay making an appointment until they experience symptoms. Fecal DNA test can be the first step Early symptoms of CRC are often subtle and similar to common intestinal diseases such as enteritis and hemorrhoids; this similarity often leads to late-stage diagnoses. Data show that 20% of CRC patients have metastases at the time of diagnosis, with the liver, lungs, peritoneum, and local lymph nodes being common sites of spread. By the time symptoms appear, some cases are already in Stage IV, resulting in a drastic drop in the 5-year survival rate from 90% in Stage I-II to 14% in Stage IV. Non-invasive fecal DNA testing, which has higher accuracy and is widely accepted by patients according to the report, can be used as a first step before a colonoscopy. If the result is positive for biomarkers, a colonoscopy can be performed for a more detailed diagnosis. "The best screening method is the one that the patient accepts and adheres to because that's the method that will actually benefit them," Prof. Varut highlighted. Lucky draw! "In Thailand, everyone likes to draw prizes," Professor Varut suggests innovative promotional programs for CRC early screening. The government or medical institutions can promote early screening by organizing a lottery for those who receive the screening. "It's a win-win," he explains. The proposed approach blends local culture with public psychology to encourage early screening participation. By doing so, it holds the potential to significantly lower CRC incidence rates and ease long-term financial strains on the local healthcare system. While colorectal cancer remains a formidable health challenge, innovative approaches and technological advancements offer a promising future for improving early detection and reducing the global burden of this disease. "By continuously improving our methods and maintaining a patient-centric approach, we are committed to playing a pivotal role in the global fight against cancer," said Dr. Zhu. Dr. Zhu envisions the future and concludes, "At BGI Genomics, we recognize that there is a gap [between acceptance and accessibility] and we focused our efforts on developing advanced molecular biology testing techniques to close the gap. The ultimate goal is to transform colorectal cancer from a life-threatening disease into a manageable condition through widespread, early screening and intervention." In a recent review article published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, public health experts discussed the critical need for health policies that integrate child-specific adaptation measures to address children's heightened vulnerability to climate change. Their analysis of 160 adaptation policies revealed that only 72% included child-relevant measures. The predominant domains were education, nutrition, and community engagement, but none addressed children's mental health needs. Study: Child health prioritisation in national adaptation policies on climate change: a policy document analysis across 160 countries. Image Credit: SUKJAI PHOTO / Shutterstock Background Children are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change as they are dependent on caregivers, have specific physiological characteristics, and are exposed for extended periods over their lifetimes. Climate change directly impacts children's health through extreme climatic events and indirectly through factors like malnutrition, air pollution, and infectious diseases. Despite this, national policies have often inadequately addressed children's needs. Early frameworks like the National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) and their successors, National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and Health National Adaptation Plans (HNAPs), aim to enhance climate resilience and health system adaptation, but few have integrated child-specific considerations. International bodies emphasize the necessity of incorporating children's perspectives into climate policies. However, there has been little research on how well national adaptation policies target child health, leaving a significant gap in understanding and action. About the study This study investigated the extent of integration of child health as a target in national adaptation policies, identifying predominant adaptation domains such as education, community engagement, and nutrition while highlighting the neglect of this population's mental health needs. Researchers gathered a national adaptation policy from 218 countries, prioritizing documents with substantial health-related content. These policies were sourced through Google, governmental websites, United Nations databases, and the European Climate Adaptation Platform and included papers in various languages, translated into English as necessary. The analysis followed a thematic framework, and researchers conducted a line-by-line analysis of HNAPs to identify child-specific adaptation measures and define relevant terminology inductively. Three researchers coded the HNAPs, resolving disagreements through discussion. The resulting codebook was applied to the entire sample of policy documents. For broader analysis, keywords from the HNAPs were used to code additional NAPAs and NAPs. Domains and countries organized emerging themes were ranked based on the extent to which they included child-specific measures concerning their ranking in the Children's Climate Risk Index. The study also explored various conceptualizations of children within these policies using a lens-based approach informed by contemporary childhood theories. Findings The study analyzed 160 national adaptation policies for child-specific health measures related to climate change, identifying policies from 160 out of 218 countries. The documents included 22 HNAPs, 119 NAPs, and 19 NAPAs. The majority of these documents came from middle-income and high-income countries, but low-income countries had the highest proportion of adaptation policies available. The analysis revealed 19 adaptation themes, 16 of which were child-specific, such as strengthening public health infrastructure, disaster preparedness, disease surveillance, environmental pollution control, and improving water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). Education and awareness-raising were the most common themes mentioned by 63% of countries. However, the coverage of child-specific measures varied significantly by country income status, with low and middle-income countries emphasizing health infrastructure, equity, WASH, and poverty alleviation, while high-income countries focused on city planning and environmental monitoring. Only five countriesAustria, Jordan, Samoa, Sudan, and Timor-Lesteincluded comprehensive child-specific adaptation measures across multiple domains. In contrast, 44 countries had no child-specific measures. Conclusions The study highlighted the need for better integration of child-specific health measures in national adaptation policies to effectively address climate change-related risks. The findings reveal a significant gap in national adaptation policies regarding the integration of child health considerations, with only 3% of countries addressing child-specific adaptation measures substantively. The majority of countries either barely mentioned child-related measures or omitted them altogether. The study highlights several significant gaps, including the lack of mental health programs for children, the perpetuation of harmful gender roles, and the failure to recognize children as active agents in climate adaptation. The research underscores the necessity for a systematic approach to integrating child health needs into all adaptation policies, advocating for comprehensive frameworks that address various domains such as health systems, food security, and sanitation. The findings emphasize the importance of involving children in policy planning, recognizing their diverse needs and roles, and ensuring their participation as co-creators in adaptation efforts. Future research should focus on evaluating the implementation of these policies and exploring effective strategies to safeguard children's health in the context of climate change. By addressing these gaps and promoting child-centered approaches, policies can better protect and empower children, contributing to a more resilient and equitable response to climate challenges. BERLIN, Germany, 3 June 2024 MGI (MGI Tech Co., Ltd. or its subsidiaries, together referred to MGI), a company committed to building core tools and technologies that drive innovation in life science, today showcased its cutting-edge technologies via a Corporate Satellite Meeting at this years European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) conference in Berlin, Germany. MGI users across Europe, ranging from leading researchers to clinicians, academics, and industry leaders, shared first-hand insights on adopting MGIs core DNBSEQ technology in screening, diagnostics, and population health initiatives among various applications, highlighting the strides MGI has made in advancing research in the life science sector across the region. Image Credit: MGI During the meeting, Dr. Davide Cacchiarelli from the Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine in Italy credited DNBSEQ for his organizations ability to offer affordable screening services for the Italian population. Dr. Paula Sancho Salmeron from Sistemas Genomicos in Spain demonstrated a diagnostic workflow for monogenic hereditary diseases, while Daniel Langhoff, Senior Director for Population & Consumer Genomics at Eurofins in Germany, presented a multi-omics approach in population health utilizing MGIs sequencing technology. Image Credit: MGI Additionally, Dr. Marie-Laure Yaspo from Germanys ALACRIS Theranostics shared insights into the quality upgrade made possible by the new StandardMPS 2.0 (SM 2.0) sequencing chemistry, first announced during AGBT 2024 in February. Enabled by updated sequencing reagents and software, SM 2.0 delivers an impressive 85% of base quality scores reaching or exceeding Q40 during sequencing on MGIs DNBSEQ platform. Continuous improvement of the sequencing chemistry, without necessitating changes to the instrument platform, underscores the companys commitment to quality and cost-effectiveness through innovation. Image Credit: MGI During the conference, MGI also exhibited its fleet of sequencing equipment ranging from small to ultra-high throughput. Notably, the company launched its new DNBelab C-TaiM 4 (TaiM 4) Single-Cell Droplet Generator, designed to generate high-throughput single-cell RNA libraries compatible with DNBSEQ instruments, including DNBSEQ-G400, DNBSEQ-T7 and DNBSEQ-T202. Image Credit: MGI Im delighted that MGI is able to showcase new product and technological developments year on year during the premier genomics event in the region, shared Dr. Yong Hou, General Manager of MGI Europe and Africa. We are thrilled to share with visitors our portfolio of sequencers and new single-cell device, as MGI continues to open new possibilities for DNBSEQ users, particularly in the European and African markets." Backed by the advantage of cost-effectiveness, accuracy and technical capabilities, MGI continues to provide a reliable and efficient sequencing solution for both research and clinical applications by way of DNBSEQ and relevant products, empowering the life science community to step into the future of genomics. For more information about DNBelab C-TaiM 4 Single-Cell Droplet Generator, please visit here. About MGI MGI Tech Co., Ltd. (or its subsidiaries, together referred to MGI) is committed to building core tools and technologies that drive innovation in life science. Our focus lies in research & development, manufacturing, and sales of instruments, reagents, and related products in the field of life science and biotechnology. We provide real-time, multi-omics, and full spectrum of digital equipment and systems for precision medicine, agriculture, healthcare and various other industries. Founded in 2016, MGI has grown into a leader in life science, serving customers across six continents and have established research, manufacturing, training, and after-sales service facilities globally. MGI stands out as one of the few companies capable of independently developing and mass-producing clinical-grade gene sequencers with varying throughput capacities, ranging from Gb to Tb levels. With unparalleled expertise, cutting-edge products, and a commitment to global impact, MGI continues to shape the trajectory of life sciences into the future. To learn more, please visit https://en.mgi-tech.com/, LinkedIn, X, and YouTube. The medical industry is a new frontier in Raman spectroscopy. Raman has been employed in dental and cancer studies in recent years, and its success is being expanded into Point-of-Care (POC) applications. This article provides a summary of some new and intriguing research into using Raman spectroscopy to detect malignant tissue, disease biomarkers, and disease-causing pathogens. Detecting bone infection with a handheld Raman spectrometer Complication from infection is a serious concern when using human bone grafts in musculoskeletal surgery. Bone-related infections are typically caused by Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus, which are challenging to treat effectively. Image Credit: Adobe Stock Detecting staph bacteria on graft material and distinguishing between healthy and diseased bone are both critical in preventing infection. Laboratory culture typically takes 710 days to produce results and is susceptible to contamination during transportation and testing. In positive cases, the patient must be treated retroactively with large amounts of antibiotics. On-site analysis is an ideal solution to this problem since it allows the surgical team to detect and avoid diseased bone on the spot. A study group in Austria recently demonstrated a successful distinction between healthy and infected bone samples, as well as between two strains of staph bacteria, utilizing a handheld MIRA Raman spectrometer.1 Their method analyzed the fingerprint Raman bands of phosphates, amides, and collagens, as well as their varying intensity and peak width ratios, to differentiate between healthy and diseased bone. Principal component analysis (PCA) facilitated optical analysis and was used to distinguish between staph strains more precisely. The Austrian group appreciated MIRAs lightweight, small, and battery-powered design and the fact that Raman spectroscopy requires minimum sample preparation and produces rapid results. Testing only requires a small bone sample for in-situ testing during surgery and offers quick and precise results directly in the operating room. Raman spectroscopy for cancer detection Ramans molecular fingerprint spectra are sensitive enough to identify the chemical changes associated with disease. Thus, compact Raman spectrometers can help surgeons examine tumors during surgical procedures, allowing for rapid decision-making. Application examples for breast cancer and pancreatic cancer are presented in the sections below. Image Credit: Adobe Stock Traditional Raman spectroscopy in breast cancer assessment When breast cancer is suspected, one surgery is usually needed for a biopsy and another for the removal of cancerous tumors. The capability to analyze suspected tissues during preliminary surgery allows for immediate removal if necessary. The benefit to the patient and the medical sector is immeasurableand research indicates that Raman spectroscopy may be able to meet this demand for some types of cancer. Raman spectroscopy is sensitive enough to detect tissue changes caused by various types of cancer. For instance, there are very subtle differences in Raman spectra from healthy breast tissue and malignant tumors. Researchers in the United Kingdom employed a high-resolution i-Raman laboratory device (Figure 1) and multivariate methods, including PCA, to successfully distinguish between healthy and cancerous tissues.2 Figure 1. The i-Raman Prime 785S Portable Raman Spectrometer from Metrohm. Image Credit: Metrohm Middle East FZC SERS for detection and measurement of pancreatic cancer biomarkers SERS (surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy) can be the best option when Raman is not suitable for analysis. This can be the case in situations where the target exists in a complex sample matrix or due to the fluorescence of carbon-based molecules. SERS improves the Raman signal but not the competing fluorescence signal. The SERS effect allows for sensitive detection of analytes at mg/L levelssometimes as low as g/L. Finally, SERS peaks are sharp and well-defined, enabling effective detection and identification of target analytes. Pancreatic cancer is fatal, partly because it is difficult to diagnose. However, several biomarkers are found at increased levels in about 75 % of positive cases.3 These can be detected using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), which test a range of biomarkers such as antibodies, antigens, and proteins. In an emerging technique, an i-Raman laboratory spectrometer was used at the University of Utah for SERS analysis in combination with ELISA to identify an antigen linked to pancreatic cancer.2 The SERS signal was produced by a reporter molecule that was complexed with both a gold nanoparticle and the target analyte in an otherwise standard lateral-flow or sandwich immunoassay (Figure 2). This extremely accurate technique allows for the sensitive detection and even quantification of the biomarker of interest. Figure 2. Detection of an antigen associated with pancreatic cancer is possible with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Image Credit: Metrohm Middle East FZC Rapid, point-of-care (POC) assay for femtogram-level detection of COVID-19 Researchers from the University of Wyoming used an alternative ELISA technique to detect antigen biomarkers linked with COVID-19 infection.4 This study used a magnetic nanoparticle-supported assay to concentrate the target biomarker in solution for subsequent SERS detection with MIRA XTR (Figure 3). It outperformed commercial lateral flow assays in terms of sensitivity, compatibility with both solvent and saliva samples, adaptability to new viral variants, and highly sensitive point-of-care COVID-19 diagnosis. Lateral flow immunoassays produce reasonably fast results. However, they only deliver nanogram-level detection and have quantification restrictions. In contrast, the SERS-based ELISA is sensitive to femtogram quantities of antigen and provides rapid results at the point-of-care using a commercial handheld Raman instrument. Figure 3. MIRA XTR, a handheld Raman spectrometer from Metrohm. Image Credit: Metrohm Middle East FZC Multiplex immunophenotyping of blood and breast cancer cells with Raman spectroscopy Another study used MIRA DS to test a portable SERS-based ELISA for immunophenotyping various types of red blood and breast cancer cell surfaces.5 Distinguishing between healthy and diseased cells, as well as detecting several biotargets in a single sample, can help with the informed treatment of several types of breast cancer. Image Credit: Adobe Stock This assay demonstrated higher specificity, sensitivity, and repeatability for immunophenotyping in diverse cell types using a smaller analysis sample volume than traditional multiplex immunoassays. It was also less labor-intensive and technically easier to perform. The authors praised MIRAs Orbital Raster Scan for enhancing the sensitivity of their assay by interrogating a larger area and taking spatially averaged measurements. Conventional multiplexed flow tests may be limited by the availability of different colored stains and the interpretation of results. They are also associated with a large laboratory footprint. In comparison, this approach based on handheld Raman spectroscopy has the potential to produce accurate POC results with short sample-to-result time, multiplexing capabilities, and very compact equipment. Easy detection of enzymes with the electrochemical-SERS effect A very different SERS method for characterizing biological molecules has been reported by Metrohm.6 Electrochemical SERS (EC-SERS) allows for two experiments at once: electrochemical activation of SERS features of silver electrodes (Ag SPEs) followed by spectroscopic detection of the sample (with SPELECRAMAN638, Figure 4). The SERS substrate is produced in situ from silver electrodes (both screen-printed and conventional). This is performed in the presence of the analyte while being continuously interrogated with Raman to optimize the detection of SERS-active species. The 638 nm excitation produces a strong SERS effect while minimizing the risk of sample damage and fluorescence. The structure of enzymes (and their role in disease), like aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), can help when it comes to understanding diseases. Using EC-SERS, application scientists identified previously unreported fingerprint Raman bands of ALDH in solution. Similarly, the redox states of cytochrome C reveal information regarding electron transport across cell membranes.7 During the EC experiment, cytochrome C changes oxidation and conformation states, and these redox states have distinguishable SERS spectra. Figure 4. The SPELECRAMAN638 instrument from Metrohm performs spectroelectrochemical Raman measurements using a 638 nm laser. Image Credit: Metrohm Middle East FZC Conclusion Research teams around the world are harnessing Raman technology in innovative ways. Leveraging its benefits, such as trace detection, high sensitivity, compact size, and rapid results, this technology is making significant strides in identifying cancerous tissues, detecting disease biomarkers, and pinpointing pathogens that cause illnesses. The outcomes of these applications are both exciting and promising. References Lindtner, R. A.; Wurm, A.; Pirchner, E.; et al. Enhancing Bone Infection Diagnosis with Raman Handheld Spectroscopy: Pathogen Discrimination and Diagnostic Potential. IJMS 2023, 25 (1), 541. DOI:10.3390/ijms25010541 Thomas, R.; Bakeev, K.; Claybourn, M.; Chimenti, R. The Use of Raman Spectroscopy in Cancer Diagnostics. Spectroscopy 2013, 28 (9), 3643. Goonetilleke, K. S.; Siriwardena, A. K. Systematic Review of Carbohydrate Antigen (CA 19-9) as a Biochemical Marker in the Diagnosis of Pancreatic Cancer. Eur J Surg Oncol 2007, 33 (3), 266270. DOI:10.1016/j.ejso.2006.10.004 Antoine, D.; Mohammadi, M.; Vitt, M.; et al. Rapid, Point-of-Care ScFv-SERS Assay for Femtogram Level Detection of SARS-CoV-2. ACS Sens. 2022, 7 (3), 866873. DOI:10.1021/acssensors.1c02664 Wang, J.; Koo, K. M.; Trau, M. Tetraplex Immunophenotyping of Cell Surface Proteomes via Synthesized Plasmonic Nanotags and Portable Raman Spectroscopy. Anal. Chem. 2022, 94 (43), 1490614916. DOI:10.1021/acs.analchem.2c02262 Metrohm AG. Easy Detection of Enzymes with the Electrochemical-SERS Effect; AN-RA-008; Metrohm AG: Herisau, Switzerland, 2023. Brazhe, N. A.; Evlyukhin, A. B.; Goodilin, E. A.; et al. Probing Cytochrome c in Living Mitochondria with Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy. Sci Rep 2015, 5 (1), 13793. DOI:10.1038/srep13793 About Metrohm Middle East FZC Metrohm Middle East FZC is a subsidiary of Metrohm AG, Switzerland, located at Sharjah Airport International Free Zone, UAE. Metrohms Product range involves both Lab instruments & online Analysers for various industry segments - Water, Petrochemical, Pharmaceutical, Food and Beverages, Environmental Analysis, Chemical analysis, Research and development, Educational Institutions, Sewage Treatment and more. MME has a team of well trained; knowledgeable and experienced team specialized in Product Management, Service and Application support. Apart from extending our support to distributors, MME also provides direct support and training to our customers on site or at our world class Regional Support Centre. Sponsored Content Policy: News-Medical.net publishes articles and related content that may be derived from sources where we have existing commercial relationships, provided such content adds value to the core editorial ethos of News-Medical.Net which is to educate and inform site visitors interested in medical research, science, medical devices and treatments. The field of forensic science is continually advancing as it integrates newer and more reliable analytical technologies. The landscape of illicit drug detection is ever-changing, with yearly shifts increasing the need for effective screening methods. Currently, these screening approaches are the focus of extensive research. Rapid and dependable detection of legal and illicit drugs is critical for developing suitable analytical protocols, gathering useful information, conducting successful field investigations, and improving safety for laboratory staff, medical professionals, and crime scene investigators. This article addresses the opioid fentanyl and how Raman spectroelectrochemistry can help with its forensic identification, according to Dr. Colby Ott, the 2022 Metrohm Young Chemist Award (MYCA) winner. Fentanyl: Wonder drug or public health menace? Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is about 50 times more powerful than heroin and about 100 times more potent than morphine.1,2 Due to its potency, pharmaceutical fentanyl is used to treat severe pain, such as advanced-stage cancers. However, patients who are prescribed fentanyl must be carefully monitored because it is a leading cause of drug overdoses and fatalities in the United States and other countries. Illicit fentanyl comes in several forms, including liquid and powder. In addition, it is often mixed with other illegal substances (such as heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine) and made into pills that resemble prescription drugs or other opioids. Fentanyl-laced drugs are very harmful, and many people are unaware that they could come into contact with such a potent opioid while taking illicit drugs. As little as two milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal, with the risk varying based on an individual's body size, tolerance, and past usage. This minuscule amount significantly heightens the danger of overdose. Recently, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) discovered counterfeit tablets containing up to 5 milligrams of fentanyl per tablet, which is more than double the deadly amount. Fentanyl crisis in society: The data From 1999 to 2022, over 1.1 million people in the US succumbed to drug overdoses.3 Based on data from the 12 months ending in September 2023, it is projected that synthetic opioids like fentanyl are causing over 200 deaths daily.4 In 2023, the DEA made record seizures, including 79.5 million fentanyl-laced pills and nearly 12,000 pounds (about 5400 kg) of fentanyl powder.5 Additionally, more than 376.7 million lethal doses of fentanyl were confiscated.5 Laboratory tests revealed that 70 % of these seized tablets contained lethal fentanyl levels.5 Nearly 110,000 people died in the US as a result of drug overdose in 2022 alone.6 Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids were responsible for almost 74,000 of these deaths (Figure 1), or nearly 70 % of the total (Figure 2).6 When compared to the rate of opioid overdose deaths, including prescription opioids and heroin (Figure 3), it is evident how dangerous fentanyl is and why there is such a high demand for rapid and reliable fentanyl identification. Figure 1. Synthetic opioid overdose deaths (mostly fentanyl) in the U.S. over the period of 19992022 7. Image Credit: Centers for Disease Control Figure 2. In 2022, fentanyl was responsible for almost 70% of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. 7. Image Credit: Centers for Disease Control Figure 3. Deaths attributed to opioid overdoses in the U.S. over the period of 19992022 [7]. It is clear that synthetic opioids (including fentanyl) have become a major threat to public health in the past decade. Image Credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Challenges for fentanyl detection methods Fentanyl test strips are a low-cost detection technique that can assist in the prevention of overdoses. They are made up of small strips of paper that can identify the presence of fentanyl in a variety of drugs (such as cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin) and forms (like pills, powder, and injectables). Fentanyl strips, however, usually produce results in three to five minutes. This delay could mean the difference between life and death. Even if the test is negative, this does not necessarily suggest that the drugs are safe, as the test strips may not detect more potent fentanyl-like chemicals. In addition, test strips are qualitative rather than quantitative, indicating only the presence or absence of fentanyl. For these reasons, the development of rapid, simple, sensitive, and selective methods for fentanyl detection is crucial. Raman spectroelectrochemistry combines the benefits of both electrochemistry and Raman spectroscopy to provide an intriguing alternative technique for detecting fentanyl in various substances. The surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) phenomenon can be used to increase intensity when metallic objects are electrochemically activated. This phenomenon increases sensitivity and enables the detection of extremely low concentrations of the analyte being studied. Under the guidance of Dr. Luis E Arroyo, Associate Professor in the Forensic and Investigative Science Department at West Virginia University, Dr. Colby Ott has concentrated his research on the development of innovative methods for screening confiscated drugs. The aim is to provide swift and dependable detection in both laboratory and field settings. The combination of electrochemistry and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (EC-SERS) offers a low-cost and effective approach for detecting fentanyl and its analogs. Dr. Otts research,8-10 funded by the National Institute of Justice, was conducted using SPELEC RAMAN. SPELEC RAMAN is a spectro-electrochemical instrument that includes a 785 nm laser, a spectrometer, and a potentiostat. It is controlled by a single software that produces synchronized optical and electrochemical results. Dr. Ott received the 2022 Young Chemist Award from Metrohm USA for his innovative and impactful work. Dr. Colby Ott (center) receiving the Metrohm USA Young Chemist Award in 2022. Image Credit: Metrohm Middle East FZC Forensic identification of fentanyl drugs with spectroelectrochemistry In the following interview, Dr. Colby Ott discusses how his approach to this research opens up new doors for future applications in clinical settings, Point-of-Care (POC) analyses, and other kinds of forensic analysis. 1. What is the advantage of Raman spectroelectrochemistry over other traditional drug detection methods? The majority of drug identification methods use complex instruments such as GC-MS and LC-MS/MS, which are costly, time-consuming, and require extensive training and maintenance. Aside from instrumental methods, chemical color tests are commonly used for screening; however, they can produce false positive and negative results. Spectroscopic processes are often faster and cost-effective, and they provide structural information and identification. Raman spectroelectrochemistry is a rapid method for improving drug screening in the field. It also has the potential to reach rural areas where access to other instruments is limited because of size or costs. 2. What is the contribution of electrochemistry to Raman spectroscopy for the detection of fentanyl? The inherent downside to Raman spectroscopy is that the signal intensity is substantially lower than that of other spectroscopic methods. However, when a surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) experiment is utilized, the resultant signals are much stronger, resulting in a powerful tool for identifying fentanyl. Due to its potency, signal enhancement is required when identifying fentanyl, as it is usually found as a minor component mixed with other adulterants and cutting agents. Electrochemistry provides a quick and easy way to generate an acceptable SERS substrate, fulfilling the need for signal enhancement. 3. What are the advantages of using screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) compared to SERS substrates? Screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) are widely used in many electrochemical applications because of their small size, reproducibility, and ease of usage. Silver SPEs are an excellent surface alternative for electrochemically generating silver nanoparticles in situ from the electrode material, enhancing the ease of usage in the field. In addition, the disposable and reproducible nature of SPEs makes them useful in forensic settings. Dr. Colby Ott using SPELEC RAMAN in combination with SPEs for his research on fentanyl detection. Image Credit: Metrohm Middle East FZC 4. How has a portable and fully integrated instrument (potentiostat, laser, and spectrometer in one box) such as SPELEC RAMAN contributed to the success of your research? The ease of use of the fully integrated Raman spectrometer and potentiostat has made it possible to set up measurements and experiments on one software platform rather than attempting to communicate between different software and instruments. More importantly, the small footprint has enabled portable measurements, where we have taken the instrument off-site for measurements. 5. How relevant is the real-time acquisition of optical and electrochemical measurements for this research? As chemical color tests continue to be scrutinized for their restrained performance in screening confiscated drugs, innovative screening methods have become a focal point in forensic chemistry. Many existing spectroscopic approaches are unable to identify components at low concentrations, particularly in the presence of large amounts of cutting agents and adulterants. Our spectro-electrochemical method has allowed for the detection of fentanyl and fentanyl analogs in low concentrations and in the presence of common drugs and diluent compounds, offering a potential screening solution for seized drug materials. 6. What is the potential commercial impact of your work? This approach can be used in analytical schemes at the front end to inform down-the-line decision-making for confirmatory processes. In addition, the portability of the instrument and the experimental method make it suitable for field testing at border crossings, ports of entry, and crime scenes. We are currently developing methods that could be beneficial in toxicological contexts, where this affordable and easy approach would be used in rural communities, compliance testing, and drug screening. Conclusion Fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid, poses a major overdose risk. Its rapid and dependable detection is crucial for investigative and safety purposes. Raman spectroelectrochemistry provides a quicker and more effective solution than existing detection methods, particularly in field settings. Dr. Colby Otts research in this area, using portable instrumentation, shows potential for clinical and forensic applications with major commercial impact. References Opioid Overdose | Drug Overdose | CDC Injury Center. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/ (accessed 2024-03-13). Fentanyl Facts. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/ (accessed 2024-03-13). Drug Overdoses - Data Details. National Safety Council. https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/home-and-community/safety-topics/drugoverdoses/data-details/ (accessed 2024-03-13). Ahmad, F. B.; Cisewski, J. A.; Rossen, L. M.; et al. Provisional Drug Overdose Death Counts. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm (accessed 2024-03-13). One Pill Can Kill. United States Drug Enforcement Administration. https://www.dea.gov/onepill (accessed 2024-03-13). Weiland, N. US Recorded Nearly 110,000 Overdose Deaths in 2022. The New York Times. May 17, 2023. Are fentanyl overdose deaths rising in the US?. USAFacts. https://usafacts.org/articles/are-fentanyl-overdose-deaths-rising-in-the-us/ (accessed 2024-03-13). Ott, C. E.; Burns, A.; Sisco, E.; et al. Targeted Fentanyl Screening Utilizing Electrochemical Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (EC-SERS) Applied to Authentic Seized Drug Casework Samples. Forensic Chemistry 2023, 34, 100492. DOI: 10.1016/j.forc.2023.100492 Ott, C. E.; Perez-Estebanez, M.; Hernandez, S.; et al. Forensic Identification of Fentanyl and Its Analogs by Electrochemical-Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (EC-SERS) for the Screening of Seized Drugs of Abuse. Frontiers in Analytical Science 2022, 2. DOI:10.3389/frans.2022.834820 Gonzalez-Hernandez, J.; Ott, C. E.; Arcos-Martinez, M. J.; et al. Rapid Determination of the Legal Highs 4-MMC and 4-MEC by Spectroelectrochemistry: Simultaneous Cyclic Voltammetry and In Situ Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy. Sensors 2021, 22 (1), 295. DOI:10.3390/s22010295 About Metrohm Middle East FZC Metrohm Middle East FZC is a subsidiary of Metrohm AG, Switzerland, located at Sharjah Airport International Free Zone, UAE. Metrohms Product range involves both Lab instruments & online Analysers for various industry segments - Water, Petrochemical, Pharmaceutical, Food and Beverages, Environmental Analysis, Chemical analysis, Research and development, Educational Institutions, Sewage Treatment and more. MME has a team of well trained; knowledgeable and experienced team specialized in Product Management, Service and Application support. Apart from extending our support to distributors, MME also provides direct support and training to our customers on site or at our world class Regional Support Centre. Sponsored Content Policy: News-Medical.net publishes articles and related content that may be derived from sources where we have existing commercial relationships, provided such content adds value to the core editorial ethos of News-Medical.Net which is to educate and inform site visitors interested in medical research, science, medical devices and treatments. Kronox Lab Sciences IPO GMP Today, Listing Date: The share allotment of the initial public offering of speciality chemical company Kronox Lab Sciences Ltd has been finalised, and its listing will now take place on both BSE and NSE on June 10, Monday. According to market observers, the unlisted shares of Kronox Lab Sciences in the grey market are suggesting a nearly 25 per cent listing gain on June 10. The Kronox Lab Sciences IPO allotment status can be checked on registrar Kfin Technologiess portal and the websites of BSE and NSE. The Rs 130-crore IPO, which was open for public subscription between June 3 and June 5, received a 117.25 times subscription. Kronox Lab Sciences IPO: What Does GMP Indicate Ahead of Listing? According to market observers, unlisted shares of Kronox Lab Sciences Ltd are trading Rs 33 higher in the grey market as compared with its issue price. The Rs 33 grey market premium or GMP means the grey market is expecting a 24.26 per cent listing gain from the public issue. The GMP is based on market sentiments and keeps changing. Grey market premium indicates investors readiness to pay more than the issue price. The price of the Kronox Lab Sciences IPO was fixed at Rs 129-136 per share. Kronox Lab Sciences IPO: How To Check Allotment Status The Kronox Lab Sciences IPO allotment will likely be finalised on June 6, while its listing will take place on both BSE and NSE on June 10. Once the IPO allotment is finalised, the status can be checked by following these steps: 1) Go to the official BSE website via the URL https://www.bseindia.com/investors/appli_check.aspx. 2) Under Issue Type, select Equity. 3) Under Issue Name, select Kronox Lab Sciences Limited in the dropbox. 4) Enter your application number, or the Permanent Account Number (PAN). 5) Then, click on the I am not a robot to verify yourself and hit Search option. Your share application status will appear on your screen. You can also visit direct Link Intime portal https://rti.kfintech.com/ipostatus/ and check Kronox Labs Sciences IPO allotment status. Kronox Lab Sciences IPO: More Details The Kronox Lab Sciences IPO received bids for 78,54,49,390 shares against 66,99,000 shares on offer, as per NSE data. The portion for non-institutional investors fetched a whopping 301.92 times subscription while the quota for Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) got subscribed 89.03 times. The category for Retail Individual Investors (RIIs) received 54.23 times subscription. The initial public offer (IPO) has an offer for sale of up to 95,70,000 equity shares. The price range for the offer is Rs 129-136 a share. Kronox Lab Sciences has raised Rs 39.04 crore from anchor investors. Pantomath Capital Advisors is the book-running lead manager to the offer. The companys equity shares are proposed to be listed on the BSE and NSE. Vadodara-based Kronox Lab Sciences is the manufacturer of high-purity speciality fine chemicals. Its high purity speciality fine chemicals portfolio has more than 185 products. The products are used mainly for applications across pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, biotech, animal health, scientific research, agrochemicals, and personal care, among others. Kronox exports to more than 20 countries with major exports to the US, the UK, Mexico, Australia, and Egypt. The company has 3 manufacturing facilities and a Research, Development and Testing (RDT) laboratory, situated in Vadodara, Gujarat. Additionally, the company has acquired land in Dahej, Gujarat to set up a new manufacturing plant. As India reels under intense heatwave, the sales of dehydration-preventing drink Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) are zooming. The sales have spiked this sweltering May by over 20 per cent compared to last year, the data by Pharmatrac shows. One of the most significant health impacts of high temperatures is diarrhoea, which results in the loss of excessive water and electrolytes recovered by cheap and effective ORS. According to the trend data shared by Pharmatrac, the market of ORS has a seasonal trend wherein consumption increases from February as the temperatures soar. While monsoons are set in June and July, the consumption stays on the higher side as a lot of water-borne diseases are set in monsoons leading to ailments like dysentery and diarrhoea which also need oral electrolyte consumption during treatment, a Pharmatrac spokesperson said. ORS is created by mixing readily available ingredients at any home and reduces the need for hospitalisation from dehydration following diarrhoeal diseases. Although temperatures in India typically reach their highest in May and June, this season has seen more than twice the usual number of heatwave days in the northwestern and eastern regions. Parts of the country have reached new record highs where two areas in Delhi also recorded 49.9 degrees Celsius the day before, marking an all-time high for the city. What Does Data Say? The data shows that in the month of May this year, the market sold 6.8 crore sachets of ORS solution worth Rs 84 crore. In comparison, last year, it sold 5.8 crore units in May, worth Rs 69 crore. The moving annual turnover (MAT) of ORS has more than doubled in the last four years. The moving annual turnover (MAT) for May 2020 stood at Rs 334 crore which swelled to Rs 716 crore in May 2024 more than doubled. Whereas in last May, MAT stood at Rs 583 crore. FDC Limiteds Electral is the biggest brand in the ORS market with more than 50 percent of the market share followed by FDCs Enerzal and Wallace Pharmaceuticals Walyte. Out of the total sales, brand Electral sold 3.6 crore sachets worth Rs 41 crore. Why is ORS Important? A Lancet editorial in 1978 termed ORS as potentially the most important medical advance this century. Experts call it a biggest advantage because it requires no expertise or medical knowledge, and, hence, it saves lives even in remote parts of the world with no healthcare access. According to Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, ORS has a fascinating mechanism of working. He explained that the composition of the solution helps the body absorb vital electrolytes, energy and water all at the same time. It is like getting a full-fledged IV drip. The mechanism is a sodium-glucose co-transporter in the gut, that carries one molecule of glucose with every molecule of sodium thats absorbed. Overconsumption Can Make You Ill While ORS has several advantages, Dr Yatin Mehta from Medanta advised to apply caution in certain cases. Mehta, who is a chairman at the Institute of Critical Care and anaesthesiology at Medanta, Gurugram, said that ORS should be alternated with plain water or coconut water. Also if you have significant heart disease, kidney disease or electrolyte disturbances, check with your doctor before consuming. Also, you should take only in small but frequent amounts, he added. Echoing similar concerns, Dr Sumit Ray, medical director at Holy Family Hospital, New Delhi, told News18 that excessive ORS can increase or decrease sodium in the body, depending on how much of it is taken along with which other fluid. It also has potassium, and those with some forms of kidney disease may get high potassium levels from an inability to excrete the excess potassium. It also contains glucose and this can cause high sugar levels in diabetics if taken in inappropriately high amounts, Ray said. Petrol, Diesel Prices On June 7, 2024: Oil marketing companies have updated the petrol and diesel prices on Friday, June 7. Check the latest petrol, and diesel prices to know if there is an increase in the amount that you have to shell out for a litre. Government oil marketing companies release updated petrol and diesel prices every day at 6 am in the country. Today, there has been no change in the petrol and diesel prices in the countrys capital Delhi, and other metros. Companies like Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, and Indian Oil Corporation of India release the prices of petrol and diesel on their websites. Let us know the new fuel prices. Petrol Diesel Price Today In India (Check city-wise rate list below) Mumbai Petrol & Diesel Price As of June 7, the petrol price in Mumbai continued to exceed the Rs 100 mark, reaching Rs 104.21 per litre, while diesel was priced at Rs 92.15 per litre. Delhi Diesel Price Today As of June 7, the cost of diesel is priced at Rs 87.62 per litre. Delhi Petrol Price Today As of June 7, the cost of petrol in Delhi is Rs 94.72 per litre. Kolkata Petrol & Diesel Price In Kolkata, the price of petrol is Rs 103.94 and the price of diesel is Rs 90.76 per litre. Chennai Petrol & Diesel Price In Chennai, the price of petrol is Rs 100.85, while the price of diesel is Rs 92.43 per litre. Check city-wise petrol and diesel prices on June 7: Petrol-Diesel Rates in other cities (Petrol-Diesel Rates 7 June 2024) Noida: Petrol Rs 94.66 per litre and Diesel Rs 87.76 per litre Gurugram: Petrol Rs 95.05 per litre and diesel Rs 87.91 per litre Chandigarh: Petrol is Rs 94.24 per litre and diesel is Rs 82.40 per litre Hyderabad: Petrol is Rs 107.41 per litre and diesel is Rs 95.65 per litre Jaipur: Petrol is Rs 104.88 per litre and diesel is Rs 90.36 per litre Patna: Petrol is Rs 105.42 per litre and diesel is Rs 92.27 per litre Lucknow: Petrol is Rs 94.52 per litre and diesel is Rs 87.61 per litre Know the price of petrol and diesel through SMS You can also find out the latest petrol and diesel prices in your city through SMS. If you are a customer of Indian Oil, then you will have to write RSP along with the city code and send it to 9224992249. If you are a customer of BPCL, then you can get information about the new price of petrol and diesel by writing RSP and sending it to 9223112222. Whereas, if you are a customer of HPCL, then you can find out the price of petrol and diesel by writing HP Price and sending it to 9222201122. Stocks To Watch On June 07: Benchmark indices continued positive momentum second day in a row, showing relatively lower volatility compared with the results day. In todays trade, shares of Hero MotoCorp, ICICI Bank, ITC, PB Fintech, Tata Chemicals, and Indian Oil among others will be in focus due to various news developments. Bajaj Finance: The companys subsidiary, Bajaj Housing Finance, approved an IPO of equity shares valued at Rs 10 each. The IPO will consist of a fresh issue of equity shares totaling up to Rs 4,000 crore. Wipro: The IT service company announced a contract worth $500 million, valued at approximately Rs 4,175 crore awarded by a leading US communication service provider. Over a five-year period, Wipro will deliver managed services for various products and industry-specific solutions. ICICI Bank: SEBI has issued an administrative warning to the bank for alleged employee outreach to influence votes on the delisting of ICICI Securities equity shares. PB Fintech: CEO Yashish Dahiya faces a show cause notice from SEBI over a $2 million investment by the Dubai unit in YKNP Marketing Management, with the company seeking legal advice. Tata Chemicals: The companys subsidiary, Tata Chemicals Europe, has been fined 1.1 million by the Chester Crown Court in the UK for a safety incident in 2016. This incident, which resulted in a contractors injury and subsequent death, occurred at one of the companys UK sites. Hindustan Unilever: Arun Neelakantan has been appointed as Executive Director, effective July 1. RVNL: NTPC awarded the company a project worth Rs 495 crore, as per a letter of acceptance received. Hero MotoCorp: Indias largest two-wheeler manufacturer acquired an additional 2.2 per cent stake in Ather Energy, a Bengaluru-based electric mobility startup, for Rs 125 crore. ITC: Paving the way for the listing of ITC Hotels, shareholders of diversified conglomerate ITC Ltd today approved the demerger of the hotels business. Indian Oil: Indian Oil Corp has agreed to amicably settle suit by Welspun Enterprises through a mediation process by Delhi high court. Muthoot Microfin: Muthoot Microfin has entered into a strategic co-lending partnership with the State Bank of India (SBI). Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently applauded major gains in Indias education sector, as represented in the QS World University Rankings. Modi highlighted the qualitative shifts in education over the past decade in his tweet, applauding institutions, teachers, and students for their hard work. This acknowledgement came after a post from CEO and Managing Director of QS Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd, Nunzio Quacquarell, pointing out that there has been an astounding 318% rise in Indian universities rankings among the worlds best, from 11 in 2015 to 46 at presentthe greatest growth among G20 countries. Also Read| QS World University Rankings 2025: IIT Bombay, IIT-Delhi in Top 150, DU Most Improved The post put out by PM Narendra Modi on X (formerly Twitter) reads Over the last decade, we have focused on qualitative changes in the education sector. This is reflected in the QS World University Rankings. Compliments to the students, faculty and institutions for their hard work and dedication. In this term, we want to do even more to boost research and innovation. Over the last decade, we have focused on qualitative changes in the education sector. This is reflected in the QS World University Rankings. Compliments to the students, faculty and institutions for their hard work and dedication. In this term, we want to do even more to boost https://t.co/smy5bn6UnD Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 7, 2024 The improvement in rankings reflects a change in the nature of higher education in India. It emphasises how the government is working to make educational reforms and initiatives that promote excellence and global competitiveness a top priority. The Prime Ministers future vision calls for stepping up these initiatives, especially in the areas of innovation and research, to ensure that India remains on an upward trajectory in global educational standards. Under Narendra Modis leadership, the last 10 years have seen continued improvement in the performance of Indian universities in QS World University Rankings, stated Nunzio Quacquarelli in his post on X. According to the QS World University Rankings 2025, IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi have attained noteworthy rankings. IIT Bombay jumped to 118th rank from 149th rank last year, while IIT Delhi jumped 47 places to 150th rank. Stay ahead with all the exam results updates on News18 Website. The Lok Sabha election results in Uttar Pradesh dented the Bharatiya Janata Party, which lost 29 seats in the state, bringing down its vote share from an all-time high of 49.98% in 2019 to 41.37%. The list of candidates who failed to secure their seats for the party includes the names of seven union ministers. Smriti Irani The biggest setback for the BJP in the state was losing Amethi, with incumbent MP and union minister for women and child development Smriti Irani defeated by Gandhi family loyalist Kishori Lal Sharma of the Congress by 1,67,196 votes. Sharmas announcement as the Congress candidate for the seat was seen by many as a walkover for Irani, who emerged as a giant slayer by defeating Rahul Gandhi from Amethi in 2019. I express my gratitude to all the BJP party workers and supporters, those who have worked in the service of the constituency and the party with utmost dedication and fidelity. Today, I am grateful to PM Narendra Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath that their governments have completed the pending works of 30 years in just 5 years. I congratulate those who win. I will continue to be in the service of the people of Amethi, Irani wrote on social media site X after the defeat. To those who stood by me through loss and victory, I am forever grateful. To those celebrating today, congratulations. And to those asking, Hows the josh? I say- its still high, Sir. Ajay Mishra Teni Union minister of state for home affairs Ajay Mishra Teni lost to the Samajwadi Partys Utkarsh Verma from the Kheri Lok Sabha seat by 34,329 votes. He was running for a third term and aiming for a hat-trick from the same seat. Teni faced resentment over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident in which his son was accused of running over and killing several people who were part of a protest against the Centres farm laws. Sanjeev Balyan Another big upset came from Muzaffarnagar, which saw a clash between the two Jat leaders. SPs Harendra Malik defeated union minister of state for fisheries, animal husbandry, and dairying Sanjeev Balyan in a close contest. Balyan lost by a margin of 24,672 votes. Sanjeev Balyan previously won the Muzaffarnagar seat in 2014 and 2019. Reacting to the mandate, he wrote on X, The decision of the people of Muzaffarnagar is accepted. I will be with you in your happiness and sorrow in the future too. Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma Union minister of state for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) Bhanu Pratap Verma lost to SPs Narayan Das Ahirwar from UPs Jalaun by 53,898 votes. The minister polled 4,76,282 votes while Ahirwar got 5,30,180 votes. Verma is a five-time MP from this seat, having won it in 1996, 1998, 2004, 2014, and 2019. Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti Union minister of state for consumer affairs, food and public distribution, and rural development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti lost to SPs Naresh Chandra Uttam Patel by 33,199 votes from UPs Fatehpur. She won the same seat in 2014 and 2019 decisively with winning margins crossing 1.8 lakh and 1.9 lakh and was aiming for a third term. Kaushal Kishore Samajwadi Party candidate and former Uttar Pradesh minister RK Chaudhary triumphed over union minister of state for housing and urban affairs and BJP candidate Kaushal Kishore in the Mohanlalganj (reserved) parliamentary seat by a margin of 70,292 votes. According to the Election Commission, Chaudhary secured 6,67,869 votes, while Kishore received 5,97,577 votes. BSPs Rajesh Kumar, a newcomer who contested the zilla panchayat election in 2015, garnered 88,461 votes. Kishore, who had previously won the Mohanlalganj seat for the BJP in 2014 and 2019, failed to achieve a hat-trick this time. The contest was notable as Kaushal Kishore, having held the seat for two terms, faced a strong challenge from RK Chaudhary of the Samajwadi Party and India bloc, as well as Rajesh Kumar from the BSP. This election highlighted a significant shift in voter sentiment in the constituency, ending Kishores winning streak. Mahendra Nath Pandey Samajwadi Partys Birendra Singh defeated BJPs Mahendra Nath Pandey, the union minister for heavy industries, in the Chandauli parliamentary constituency by approximately 21,000 votes. Chandauli, which voted in the seventh phase on June 1, has a Scheduled Caste population of 4,46,786 and a Scheduled Tribe population of 41,725, according to the 2011 Census. The voter turnout was notable, reflecting significant electoral engagement. This victory marks a shift from the 2014 elections, where Mahendra Nath Pandey of the BJP won decisively with 4,14,135 votes (42.23%), demonstrating the partys strong connection with the electorate. In 2014, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate, Anil Kumar Maurya, secured the runner-up position with 2,57,379 votes (26.25%). Despite a spirited campaign, the BSP fell short, underscoring the BJPs regional dominance. However, in 2024, the electorate favoured the Samajwadi Party, signalling a change in political dynamics in Chandauli. These seven were among 11 union ministers the BJP fielded from various Lok Sabha constituencies of Uttar Pradesh. Two UP ministers from the Yogi Adityanath government too faced defeat in the polls. Congresss Rahul Gandhi defeated Dinesh Pratap Singh, minister (independent charge) of horticulture, agriculture marketing, and agriculture foreign trade, in Raebareli by 3,90,000 votes. SPs Dimple Yadav trumped Jaiveer Singh, the tourism minister of the UP government, in Mainpuri by 2,21,000 votes. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has emerged as the biggest face in this election in UP, giving his party its greatest triumph so far. He brought the SP to 37 seats from five in 2019. The vote share of the INDIA bloc or SP-Congress combine in the state almost doubled from the last election. The SP got 33% votes while the Congress got 9%. In 2019, the two parties contested the elections separately and got 24% votes (Congress 6% and SP 18%). As the oath-taking ceremony for Prime Minister Narendra Modis historic third term approaches this weekend, speculation is rising over which important Cabinet berths will be allocated to BJP allies as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition government takes shape. As the possible formula for Cabinet allocation within the NDA is being discussed, its being said that the BJP will retain the key ministries on Raisina Hill, including Home, Finance, Foreign and Defence. This report comes as key BJP partners Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Janata Dal (United) are said to be eyeing at least three to four Cabinet positions in the Union Council of Ministers. Who Is Getting What In NDA? The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as the majority party in the alliance, wants to maintain good terms with all allies but is unlikely to give up any of the key ministries such as Railways, Law, Information Technology, and Education. These ministries are crucial for advancing the agenda of PM Modis historic third term. Though no formal demand has been made, the BJP is willing to accommodate one cabinet post and two Minister of State (MoS) for the TDP and JD(U). Shiv Sena (Shinde) and Lok Janashakti Party (Ram Vilas) of Chirag Paswan could get one full cabinet berth and one MoS berth. JDS, Jan Sena, and RLD may receive one cabinet or independent charge MoS. HAM and Apna Dal will each be allotted one MoS. TDP and JD(U) Earlier, News18 learned that the TDP wishes for at least 3-4 berths in the Union Cabinet. They had one minister and one MoS in the earlier term with the NDA, with the same number of 16 seats as now. The Minister of Civil Aviation and Minister of State IT were earlier from the TDP until the party pulled out of the NDA government in 2018. MoS Finance is expected to be a key post for the TDP which would help in Andhras development agenda. Amid intense speculation about the government formation for Modis third term, JD(U) is also seeking around four key cabinet portfolios. It is said to be eyeing the Railways and Agriculture ministries. Reports also suggest that multiple allies want the same ministers, but formal discussions have yet to begin. But the BJP is clear that it has a very cohesive and constructive NDA alliance and everything will be sorted amicably. These reports on the allocation of cabinet berths come as newly elected MPs of the BJP-led NDA will meet on Friday to elect Narendra Modi as their leader, paving the way for him to take oath as prime minister for a third term. The swearing-in is likely to be held on Sunday. After Modi is elected the leader of NDA MPs, senior members of the alliance like TDPs N Chandrababu Naidu, JD(U)s Nitish Kumar and Shiv Senas Eknath Shinde will join the PM for a meeting with President Droupadi Murmu to present her the list of parliamentarians supporting him. He may be sworn in over the weekend, likely Sunday. The NDA has 293 MPs, comfortably above the majority mark of 272 in the 543-member Lok Sabha. Senior BJP leaders, including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and J P Nadda, have also been holding deliberations with allies to work out an amicable formula for their share of representation in the new government. Narendra Modi was elected as the Leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Leader of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Parliamentary Party and Leader of the Lok Sabha on Friday, paving way for him to take oath as the Prime Minister of India for the third time. As the BJP and its allies came together under one roof to form the next government at the Centre, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu heaped praises on Modi. As he proposed Modis name for the next Prime Minister of the country, he said, Ive seen various governments. We are in very inspiring times. Anything, that you want to achieve, can be done if you visualise. Narendra Modi has a vision and a zeal, his execution is very perfect. He is executing all his policies with a true spirit. #WATCH | Delhi: At the NDA Parliamentary Party meeting, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, Narendra Modi has a vision and a zeal, his execution is very perfect. He is executing all his policies with a true spiritToday, India is having the right leader that is Narendra Modi. pic.twitter.com/70cbomc94j ANI (@ANI) June 7, 2024 Today, India is having the right leader that is Narendra Modi. This is a very good opportunity for India, if we miss it now, we will miss it forever, Naidu added. We stand at a crucial juncture at nation history. Modi ji has taken significant stature in last 10 years. Modi jis dedicated approach has transformed the nation into a global powerhouse. I give entire credit to Modi ji for making India a global powerhouse, Naidu said. He added that he was confident of India becoming the third largest economy in the world under the leadership of Modi. Concluding his speech, Naidu said he proudly proposes Narendra Modis name for the next Prime Minister of India. Along with Naidu, other BJP allies including Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal United (JDU) leader Nitish Kumar and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Chirag Paswan, NCP chief Ajit Pawar also proposed Modis name as NDA Parliamentary Party leader, thereby, proposing him for the position of the Prime Minister of India. Praising Modi, Paswan said, I congratulate my Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is because of you that NDA has achieved this massive victory. The credit for this goes to you. It was that willpower which helped in recording such a massive victory in history. It was not a normal thing that NDA kept getting such a big victory under the leadership of the Prime Minister for the third time in a rowBecause of you, today in front of the world we can proudly say that India has become the fifth-largest economy of the country. The people of India have full faith in you #WATCH | At the NDA Parliamentary Party meeting, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) National President Chirag Paswan says I congratulate my Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is because of you that NDA has achieved this massive victory. The credit for this goes to you. It was that pic.twitter.com/jk9H1H3YHb ANI (@ANI) June 7, 2024 Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan also endorsed PM Modi, saying, Modi ji, you truly inspire the nation. As long as you are the Prime Minister of this country, our country will never bow down to anyone. #WATCH | At the NDA Parliamentary Party meeting, Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan says Modi ji you truly inspire the nation. As long as you are the Prime Minsiter of this country, our country will never bow down to anyone pic.twitter.com/ZppyY58oqH ANI (@ANI) June 7, 2024 Narendra Modis swearing-in ceremony as the Prime Minister is set to take place on June 9, Sunday. Delhi Declared 'No Flying Zone', Section 144 Imposed Before Swearing Ceremony On June 9 National capital announced as no flying zone before the Prime Ministers oath-taking ceremony which is set to take place on June 9. Drones, paragliders, para jumpers or any remotely operated vehicle have been banned in the national capital. Generally, the New Delhi area is a no-flying zone, however, over the next two days paragliding and para-jumping have also been banned. The restriction is for June 9 and 10. Also, section 144 has been imposed. President Murmu Will Administer Oath Of Office And Secrecy To Prime Minister On June 9 The President will administer the Oath of Office and Secrecy to the Prime Minister and other members of the Union Council of Ministers on June 09, 2024 at 07:15 pm at Rashtrapati Bhavan. NDA Delegation Led By JP Nadda, Amit Shah Meets President Murmu An NDA delegation, led by J.P. Nadda, President, BJP, and comprising Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Ashwini Vaishnaw, C.N. Manjunath, N. Chandrababu Naidu, Nitish Kumar, Rajiv Ranjan Singh (Lalan Singh), Sanjay Jha, Eknath Shinde, H.D. Kumaraswamy, Chirag Paswan, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Pawan Kalyan, Ajit Pawar, Anupriya Patel, Jayant Chaudhary, Joyanta Basumatary, Atul Bora, Indra Hang Subba, Sudesh Mahto, Chandra Prakash Choudhary, and Ramdas Athawale called on the President. A letter stating that Narendra Modi had been elected leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party was handed over to the President. Letters of support from NDA constituent parties were also handed over to the President, the official X handle of Rashtrapati Bhavan said in a statement. Next Five Years Going To Be Very Useful...: Narendra Modi Narendra Modi said, During this tenure of 10 years, India has emerged as a Vishwabandhu for the world. Its maximum advantage is starting now. And I am sure that the next 5 years are going to be very useful for India in the global environment as well. The world is going through many crises, many tensions, disasterswe Indians are fortunate that despite so many big crises, we are today known as the worlds fastest-growing economy. We are also being praised in the world for growth. Proud Moment For Every Indian That 25 Crore People Moved Out Of Poverty: Narendra Modi This is the first election after Azadi Ka Amrit MahotsavFor the third time, the NDA government has been given a chance by the people to serve the countryI assure the people of the country that in the last two terms, the speed with which the country has moved forward, change is visible in every sector and for 25 crore people to move out of poverty is a proud moment for every Indian, Narendra Modi said. I Hope Health Of My Friends From Media Is Good: PM Modi Just like us, media persons also have to work hard during elections, covering different locations. You all have taken a lot of pain, and I hope that health of all my friends from the media world is good, said PM Modi in remarks after meeting President Droupadi Murmu to stake claim to form the government. Narendra Modi To Take Oath As Prime Minister On June 9 The President called me just now and asked me to work as the PM delegate and she has informed me about the oath ceremony. I have told the President that we will be comfortable on the evening of the 9th of June. Now the Rashtrapati Bhavan will work out the rest of the details and by then we will hand over the list of the Council of Ministers to the President. After that, the oath ceremony will take place, Narendra Modi said. PM Modi Thanks People For Giving NDA The Opportunity To Serve Country For Third Time NDA got the opportunity to serve the people for the third time. I thank the people for giving us the opportunity. I want to assure countrymen that development work will continue as before. 25 crore people have been taken out of poverty. It is a matter of pride for every Indian, PM Modi said. PM Modi Meets President Droupadi Murmu And Stakes Claim To Form Government Narendra Modi met President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan and staked claim to form the government. He was chosen as the leader of the NDA Parliamentary Party earlier in the day. Meeting Of Top BJP Leaders Underway At BJP National President JP Nadda's Residence A meeting between top BJP leaders including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and allies is underway at party president JP Naddas residence. A one-to-one meeting is scheduled between top BJP leadership and NDA at Naddas residence. The first meeting is with NCP-APs Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel, and Sameer Bhujbal. RLD chief Jayant Choudhary has also arrived for the meeting. PM Modi Arrives At Rashtrapati Bhavan To Meet President Droupadi Murmu 'Learnt So Much From Him...': PM Modi Calls Upon Senior BJP Leader Murli Manohar Joshi Called on Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi Ji. I have learnt so much from him when I was working in the Party organisation. He is greatly respected across India for his wisdom and knowledge, the prime minister wrote in an X post. Every Party Worker Inspired By Advani Ji: PM Modi PM Modi visited veteran BJP leader LK Advani at his residence on Friday along with other NDA leaders to take his blessings. Went to Advani Jis residence and sought his blessings. Every @BJP4India Karyakarta is inspired by Advani Jis monumental efforts to strengthen the Party, he wrote in an X post. 'Because Of Constitution...' PM Modi Talks About 'Noble Values' Given By Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Every moment of my life is dedicated to upholding the noble values enshrined in the Constitution of India, given to us by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar. It is only due to the Constitution that a person like me, born into poverty and in a backward family, is able to serve the nation. Our Constitution gives crores of people hope, strength and dignity, PM Modi wrote in an X post. PM Narendra Modi Expresses Gratitude To NDA MPs And Allies For Their Trust Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after being elected the Parliamentary leader of NDA, expressed gratitude to the alliances MPs and allies. It is with utmost humility that I accept the responsibility of leading the NDA to yet another term of development-oriented governance. I am grateful to our fellow NDA allies and MPs for their trust in me, the prime minister said in an X post. Matter Of Happiness That Modi Will Be PM For Third Time: NCP leader Praful Patel On the NDA Parliamentary meeting, NCP leader Praful Patel said, It is a matter of happiness that PM Modi will be PM for the third time. There will be big contribution of PM Modi and NDA in the development of the country. 'NDA Is Naidu/Nitish Dependent Alliance': Congress Leader Pawan Khera Congress leader Pawan Khera on Friday said, The people of Maharashtra have given a befitting reply to them (BJP)They could not win a seat in Ayodhya and now you can see how they are abusing the people of AyodhyaNDAs full form is Naidu Dependent Alliance or Nitish Dependent Alliance. What Is The Representation Of Women MPs In Lok Sabha This Time? Change In Strength Over Years Explained In the 18th Lok Sabha, results for which were announced on June 4, there are 74 women MPs, a slight dip from 2019 when the Lower House had 78 female lawmakers. This means, women members constitute only 13.5% strength of the House in 2024 as against 14.3% in the 17th Lok Sabha, according to the Election Commission data. Of the 74 women MPs elected, 43 are first-time MPs, and one Misa Bharti of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is a first-time Lok Sabha MP. This is higher than the overall percentage of newcomers in the House (59% vs 52%). Women MPs have only 0.76 Lok Sabha terms of experience (one term is generally 5 years long). 'Opposition Bloc Disintegrating': Modi Tears Into Congress's Claim Of Moral Victory In Polls, EVM Manipulation Senior BJP leader Narendra Modi on Friday attacked the INDIA bloc parties saying the opposition tried to paint the Lok Sabha election results as a loss for the NDA, while the Congress could not even cross 100 seats after 10 years. He said the BJPs tally in this election was more than the grand old partys total seats in the last three polls. Senior BJP leader Narendra Modi on Friday attacked the INDIA bloc parties saying the opposition tried to paint the Lok Sabha election results as a loss for the NDA, while the Congress could not even cross 100 seats after 10 years. He said the BJPs tally in this election was more than the grand old partys total seats in the last three polls. In some pointed messaging about the poll results, Modi stressed upon the historic NDA victory and praised key allies TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. NDA sarkar thi, NDA sarkar hai; we have not lost even though the opposition tried to paint 2024 Lok Sabha results as loss for us but people of our country know we never lost. I see 2024 Lok Sabha results as grand victory for NDA but opposition tried to reject our victory. Our values are such that victory does not create hysteria and we do not even ridicule the defeated, he said at the NDA parliamentary party meeting, where he was chosen by the BJP-led NDA as its leader to become prime minister for the third time. Referring to AAP leader Gopal Rais statements about the INDIA bloc fighting the Delhi assembly elections together, Modi said the opposition fronts hunger for power trumped everything else. INDI alliance parties have already started saying alliance was only for LS polls; it shows their character, hunger for power, he said. Rai said the INDIA bloc is only for the general elections and there is no tie-up for the Delhi assembly polls yet. Responding to this, Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav, too, said the party would like to make it clear that the alliance was only at a national level. I think, before elections, we tried to make a strong alliance in the form of INDIA alliance. In this fight to save democracy of the country, a lot of like-minded people came together. AAP too came together with us in Delhi. We contested in good coordinationBut I would like to make it clear that our alliance was for Lok Sabha elections We had discussions with our seniors yesterday too and we are in touch with our colleagues for the next two days too I am sure that we will work on the shortcomings and by playing the role of a strong Opposition, we will bring Congress back in Delhi too, he said. INDI alliance belong to previous century Modi also hit out at the opposition for questioning the validity of EVMs and the electoral process conducted by the Election Commission of India. I strongly feel people of INDI alliance belong to previous century when they question technological advancements like EVMs, Aadhaar. It is the power of Indias democracy that those questioning EVMs and Election Commission were silenced after results, he added. Addressing NDA MPs, chief ministers and other senior leaders, Modi said he will strive to ensure unanimity in all decisions of his next government and stressed that the NDA is an organic alliance committed to the principle of nation first. NDA leaders including N Chandrababu Naidu (TDP), Nitish Kumar (JDU), Eknath Shinde (Shiv Sena), Chirag Paswan (LJP-RV), H D Kumarswamy (JDS), Ajit Pawar (NCP), Anupriya Patel (Apna Dal-S), Pawan Kalyan (Jana Sena) attended the meeting along with newly elected Lok Sabha members from the ruling alliance. Modi congratulated the victorious NDA leaders and said he must salute the lakhs of ground workers who worked to ensure this victory. This is the most successful alliance in the history of our country. It has completed three successful terms and is now entering its fourth. (With PTI inputs) Trinamool Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee has been a busy man since the June 4 Lok Sabha election results handed the oppositions INDIA bloc a better-than-expected tally, making the ruling BJP dependent on TDP and JD-U to form the government. The TMCs tally of 29 Lok Sabha seats makes it the third-largest party in the INDIA bloc. On Thursday morning, Abhishek Banerjee first met SP chief Akhilesh Yadav for one hour. He next met AAP leaders Raghav Chaddha and Sanjay Singh. In the evening, Banerjee, along with party colleague Derek OBrien went to Matoshree in Mumbai to meet Shiv Sena-UBT leaders Uddhav Thackeray and Aditya Thackeray. Sources say the meeting lasted for 90 minutes during which the INDIA allies discussed the road ahead. While courtesy calls like these are routine, Abhishek Banerjees back-to-back meetings with the regional satraps in the INDIA bloc carry deeper significance. I.N.D.I.A UNITY At the outset, the meetings convey a sense of unity in the INDIA bloc which has decided to sit in the opposition. With better numbers in the incoming Lok Sabha, the opposition is all set to exert pressure on the NDA over key issues in Parliament, including the row over central funds for West Bengal. Not only will the regional parties in India want to chalk out a joint strategy to push for issues in their state, but such meetings would also build tactical pressure on the Congress, which is widely seen as the INDIA bloc leader. TACTICAL PRESSURE ON CONGRESS Smaller parties in the opposition coalition would seek to remind the Congress that it may have emerged as the single-largest party in INDIA bloc with 99 seats, but still needs the support of regional parties to put up a formidable opposition. Sources say the TMC believes the alliances seat count would have been higher had the parties arrived at seat-sharing in the state. TMC MP Jawahar Sarkar tweeted as much on Thursday. The TMC also does not want a Left-oriented Congress. Mamata Banerjee has said in her campaigns too that the Congress listens to the Left in INDIA. PROTECT THE FLOCK Political observers say such meetings are necessary to keep the flock together in greater interest of the alliance. With Maharashtra going to polls later this year, political circles are already abuzz at attempts to poach leaders and MLAs. Banerjees meeting with the Thackrays is a symbolic gesture of alliance support. Its only with numerical strength that the opposition can effectively corner the government in the Lok Sabha, thus protecting its MPs from being poached becomes crucial. Mamata Banerjee had also appealed on results day against joining hands with the BJP. In an election pitched as a contest between the charisma of Narendra Modi and the popularity of Congresss guarantee schemes, 12 of the BJPs 19 Karnataka candidates won by margins of 1-2 lakh votes, with one candidate crossing the 3-lakh mark as well. Vishweshwar Kageri, former Speaker of Karnataka, came out trumps by winning against Congress candidate Anjali Nimbalkar by a margin of 3,37,428 votes. Next comes JD-S leader HD Kumaraswamy, who won by a margin of 2,84,620 votes from his home turf. The JD-S had struck up an alliance with the BJP in attempts to keep the partys prospects alive at a time when it has been facing an existential crisis and is plagued by sexual abuse charges against Prajwal Revanna. Dr CN Manjunath, the giant-killer of Karnataka, defeated outgoing Congress MP DK Suresh in Bengaluru Rural by a margin of 2,68,094 votes. Manjunath is the son-in-law of JD-S patriarch and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda. Bengaluru North MP-elect Shobha Karandlaje, the BJPs first woman MP from Bengaluru, and firebrand youth leader Tejasvi Surya, who contested from Bengaluru South, won by margins of around 2,59,470 votes. Capt. Brijesh Chowta, a new face fielded by the BJP, won Dakshina Kannada by a margin of 1,49,208 votes. Kota Srinivas, who contested from the Udupi Chikkamagalur Lok Sabha seat, won by 2,58,090 votes. As part of the change that the BJP brought in, a fresh face was fielded in Mysore, replacing MP Prathap Simha. Scion of the Wadiyar royal family, Yaduveer KC Wadiyar, won the seat by a margin of 1,39,262 votes. BY Raghavendra, the elder son of senior BJP leader and parliamentary board member BS Yediyurappa, won the Shimoga seat and became an MP for the fourth time by a margin of 2,43,715 votes. Former Karnataka chief minister Jagadish Shettar, who shifted to the Congress after being denied a ticket during the Assembly polls from the Hubli-Dharwad assembly constituency and returned to the BJP in 10 months to contest from the Belgaum Lok Sabha seat, won by 1,65,651 votes. A BJP insider told News18 that though they the party was confident of the win, the leaders were quite surprised by the margin. Clearly the mandate this time was for Modi, and so people came out in large numbers in support of the BJP and to make Modi PM again, said the leader who did not wish to be named. Two former BJP ministers who lost the Assembly polls, V Somanna (Tumkur) and K. Sudhakar (Chikkaballapur), won their seats by margin of 1,75,594 votes and 1,62,099 votes, respectively. While many of the wins in the BJP were big and, as a leader said, out-of-the-ballpark hits, there were seats like Bengaluru Central where three-time MP PC Mohan, who at first trailed behind Congress Mansoor Ali Khan, emerged victorious at the last minute by 32,707 votes. Basavaraj Bommai, the former chief minister under whose leadership the BJP fought the 2023 Assembly polls and won just 66 seats, contested from the Haveri Lok Sabha seat and won by defeating his Congress opponent Anandaswamy Gaddadevaramath by a margin of 43,513 votes. Another former BJP minister and the leader whose name was announced on the last day of nomination filing, Govind M Karjol, defeated Congresss BN Chandrappa by 48,121 votes in the Chitradurga seat. For the Congress, which won nine seats in Karnataka, Bidar and Chamarajanagar were resounding victories. Sagar Khandre, the son of Congress minister Eshwar Khandre, won the Bidar seat by a margin of 1,28,875 votes, and Sunil Bose, son of another Congress state minister HC Mahadevappa, won the Chamarajanagara seat by a margin of 1,74,044 votes. However, in a few other seats, the Congress scored very close wins, a couple of them by a slender margin of around 26,000 votes. Prabha Mallikarjun, who won on a Congress ticket from Davangere, defeated Gayatri Siddeshwar, the wife of outgoing MP GM Siddeshwar, by a narrow margin of just 26,094 votes. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharges son-in-law, Radhakrishna Doddamani, won the Gulbarga seat by defeating sitting MP Umesh Jadhav by 27,205 votes. In Hassan, Shreyas Patel defeated the incumbent and now-arrested MP Prajwal Revanna by 32,707 votes. In Koppal, Congress candidate Rajashekar Hitnal defeated BJPs Basavaraj K. Sharanappa by a margin of 46,357 votes. Senior BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah has asked Devendra Fadnavis to continue as Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister days after he stepped down due to the partys poor performance in the state during the Lok Sabha elections. Fadnavis met Shah on Thursday at his residence, reaffirming his decision to resign, according to News18 sources. While discussing the need for organisational efforts and reasons behind the BJP-led NDAs performance in Maharashtra, Fadnavis was advised by Shah to resume his duties until further discussions post Narendra Modis oath-taking ceremony over the weekend. The Mahayuti, as the NDA is known in Maharashtra, suffered heavy electoral reverses in the state with the BJP managing to win nine Lok Sabha seats in the state, as against 22 won in the 2019 elections, while the Shinde-led Shiv Sena emerged victorious on seven seats and Ajit Pawar-led NCP could win only one. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Shiv Sena-BJP coalition had won 41 out of a total of 48 seats in the state. Fadnavis had offered to resign two days ago, but chief minister Eknath Shinde said the electoral defeat was a collective responsibility as an alliance and he will speak with his deputy. I will speak to Devendra ji soon, Shinde said. Shinde said Fadnavis wants to focus on rebuilding the party for the assembly elections later this year and the reasons for the Mahayutis defeat will be reviewed. We have worked together in the past and we will keep on working in the future. Failures must not discourage us, he said. The Sena leader had ousted Uddhav Thackeray from his party, with the support of most of the MLAs and MPs in 2022. Thackerays faction, meanwhile, performed better than his by winning nine seats in the general elections. If you look at the vote share, Mahayuti got more than two lakh votes in Mumbai, the chief minister said. He said the ruling coalition of BJP-Shiv Sena and NCP collectively failed to counter the oppositions misleading claims during the election campaign. The false narrative that the Constitution will be changed hurt us, he said. (With PTI inputs) The Lok Sabha election results have have kept meme factories running overtime on social media since June 4. Revelling in this demand and supply of election content is the Congress Kerala X handle @INCKerala which posted a photo of Akhilesh Yadav and Chandrababu Naidu sitting and chatting. The caption asked the BJP not to worry since its an old photo, a jibe at the saffron party which now has to rely on allies like Naidus TDP and Nitish Kumars JD-U to form the government at the Centre. In the same vein, Congress Youth Wing chief BS Srinivas posted a dated video of party chief Mallikarjun Kharge welcoming Nitish Kumar. Both posts clearly mentioned that the photos were dated, but suggested that similar photo-ops could come to pass in the future, implying that Naidu and Nitish could ditch the NDA as they have done in the past. But this time, it makes more sense for both TDP and JD-U to stick with the NDA throughout the next five years. MORE IMPORTANT IN NDA THAN IN I.N.D.I.A With 16 seats, Naidus TDP is the second largest party in the National Democratic Alliance after the BJP which won 240 seats, giving it much more room to ask for key portfolios and even the Lok Sabha Speakers post. The second rank makes the TDPs position important in the NDA. In the INDIA bloc, the TDP would have been nowhere near the second spot. With an Independent MP in Maharashtra lending it support, the Congress has touched 100 seats in the Lok Sabha. Next comes Akhilesh Yadavs Samajwadi Party whose 37 seats in Uttar Pradesh turned the election on its head. Then is Mamata Banerjees Trinamool Congress with 29 seats followed by MK Stalins DMK with 22 seats. These are much bigger numbers than Naidus 16 seats, which makes them first in line for plum ministries and positions in any attempt at government formation. Had the TDP switched to the INDIA bloc and still wanted the Lok Sabah Speakers post, it would have to battle the Congress, SP, TMC and DMK who emerged better performers. In the NDA, regardless of the election outcome, the TDPs demand for the same is taken with more seriousness since the BJP is dependent on it for support. Similarly, Nitish Kumars JD-U with just 12 seats is the third largest party in the NDA, but would have been the sixth largest in the INDIA bloc had both Naidu and Nitish switched over. ANDHRA PACKAGE & AGNIVEER If the TDP walks out of the NDA and the INDIA bloc fails to form the government, Naidus party would be out of power. Its primary promise to the people of Andhra that it will get special status for the state will be left hanging in the balance. Even if the INDIA bloc got to form the government, TDPs electoral promise wont be a key concern for it since it would fulfill demands of bigger parties from the North and East first. Government sources say the nomenclature of special status no longer exists, but the new Narendra Modi government will provide as much economic aid to Andhra Pradesh as required for its development, including building Naidus dream city Amravati. The TDP had quit the NDA in 2018 over a similar demand. Though the JDU has also been making noise for similar aid for Bihar, Modi can better reign it in unlike the INDIA front where the Prime Minister itself is undecided. The BJP and the JD-U have suffered in areas like Sasaram, Aurangabad, Arah, Jehanabad, Patliputra, and Buxar due to sentiments against the Agniveer scheme. Soon after the NDA leaders meeting, JD-Us KC Tyagi floated the idea of a relook at the scheme. Being the number No.3 party in the NDA it has a much better chance of getting small modifications to the scheme. Additionally, no party would want to stay out of power. Joining the INDIA bloc would complicate the TDPs relationship with the BJP in the state government well. Nitish Kumar, too, risk it with Bihar going to polls next year. The recently elected MPs of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance are scheduled to meet on Friday in order to elect Narendra Modi as the leader of their alliance. The coalition will then stake claim to form the government. Ahead of Narendra Modis oath taking ceremony for his third consecutive term as the Prime Minister, the meeting of the NDA MPs will be held on Friday 11 AM in Parliaments Central Hall. After the meeting, the NDA will stake claim to form the government. All the members of the NDA are expected to present letters of support to President Droupadi Murmu, while extending their support to Modi as the new Prime Minister. Senior BJP leader Narendra Modi said mutual trust is at the core the National Democratic Alliance, which elected him as the leader of the BJP, parliamentary party and the Lok Sabha. He called it the most successful alliance in Indias history. We are committed to the principle of sarva dharma sambhava (all religions are equal), he said while addressing NDA MPs, allies, chief ministers and other senior leaders present at the meeting on Friday. This is most successful alliance in Indias history; our aim will be to reach unanimity in all our decisions, he said. He added: I express my heartfelt gratitude to all the leaders of the constituent parties present in this assembly hall, all the newly elected MPs and our Rajya Sabha MPs. It is a matter of happiness for me that I have had the opportunity to welcome such a large group here today. All those leaders who have come victorious deserve congratulations. The lakhs of workers who have worked day and night, today from this central hall, I bow down and salute them Leaders of the NDA allies garlanded Modi as a proposal by senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh to make him the alliance leader was unanimously endorsed. He will be sworn in as the prime minister of India for the third time during the oath-taking ceremony on June 9 at 6 pm. This will be the 73-year-old leaders third term, which has in the past only been held by Indias first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Besides TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar and Shiv Sena boss Eknath Shinde, Chirag Paswan, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Anupriya Patel, Pawan Kalyan were among the NDA leaders present on the main dais, alongside senior BJP leaders. The NDA has 292 MPs, comfortably above the majority mark of 272 in the 543-member Lok Sabha. The BJP leadership has moved swiftly since the Lok Sabha election results on June 4 for government formation to end any sense of uncertainty after the verdict, which was a setback to the ruling party as it lost majority for the first time since 2014 and needs allies support to maintain its hold on power. Here is all you need to know: Amid scrutiny of the performance of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) in the Lok Sabha elections, convener of the coalition and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said that the bloc is not working as it used to before he took over as Assam CM. Reacting to the Assam CM, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said Sarma should resign as NEDA convener. Formed in 2016, the BJP-headed NEDA is an alliance of non-Congress parties in the North East. Addressing the media on Thursday, Sarma said: NEDA is not working as it used to before I became the CM of the state. I have been asked by the central leadership to focus more on development of Assam as I am now the CM. Even for Lok Sabha elections, I was not asked to campaign in any other state in the Northeast, except for Arunachal Pradesh. And you see the results there for the BJP. I am not much aware of what happened in other northeastern states in the elections. In seats we lost in Manipur, its the religious leaders who were contesting elections. When a religious leader is contesting elections, no political leader can take over it. In certain states, results were unexpected. In seats like Tura, the defeat of Agatha Sangma was unexpected. In Sikkim, our partner SKM has done well. In Arunachal and Tripura, we have done well. As Assam shares a border with most northeastern states, I was asked not to go campaigning in most states, he added. In the northeastern states of India, excluding Assam, most alliance partners of NEDA lost, except for in Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, and Sikkim. In Arunachal Pradesh, the BJP maintained its dominance, winning both seats with substantial margins. Meghalaya saw a mixed outcome, with the VPP securing one seat in Shillong and the Congress winning the other in Tura. In Manipur, there was a significant political shift, with the Congress making a strong comeback by winning both seats, signalling a change in voter sentiment and dissatisfaction with the BJP amid months of ethnic violence and strife. In Mizoram, the ZPM retained the lone seat and Tripura followed the regional trend, with the BJP winning both seats and solidifying its presence in the Northeast. However, in Nagaland, the NDPP-BJP alliance faced a setback, losing both seats to the Congress, marking a surprising turn in the states political dynamics. Sikkim saw the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) maintain control of its single seat, demonstrating the regional partys ongoing influence. Reacting to CM Himanta Biswa Sarmas comment on NEDA performance in Northeast, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi told News18: Himanta Biswa Sarma should resign as NEDA convener looking at the results of NDA in the Northeast. It is shameful that instead he is targeting a particular community for his failure. In Assam as well, his statements targeting a particular community have been rejected by majority of the people and the results show that. The None of the above or NOTA votes usually polled when a voter decides to not go for any of the leaders fighting the elections have seen a drop across 10 major states while on eight, they were higher than 2019, according to official numbers analysed by News18. There are 18 states that have Lok Sabha seats in double digits, collectively accountable for 501 seats out of 543 in the House. For ease of understanding, these states have been considered in the analysis. Across these 18 states, the NOTA votes in 2019 were 62.82 lakh. In 2024, the total number of votes dropped to 59.02 lakh. Among the states that reported a rise in NOTA votes was Madhya Pradesh. Increased by 1.91 lakh votes, the state reported 3.40 lakh NOTA votes in 2019 that has gone up to 5.32 lakh in 2024. The main reason behind this was Congress supporting NOTA in Indore, after its candidate ditched the party at the last moment and moved to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The seat saw just 5,045 votes for NOTA in 2019, as against 2.18 lakh in 2024. In 2019, among the seats with the reported highest NOTA votes in the state was Ratlam also listed in the top 10 seats for the same across the county. However, this time, the NOTA votes on the seat have dropped from 35,431 to 31,735. With 90,126 fewer NOTA votes, Uttar Pradesh also seemed to be more decisive this time from 2019. However, in both the years, the state was at the second position in terms of absolute NOTA votes, with Bihar topping the charts in 2024 and 2019. This time, Bihar saw almost nine lakh NOTA votes, over 80,000 more from 2019. In Uttar Pradeshs Lucknow and Faizabad seats, NOTA votes have dropped. In Faizabad, the NOTA votes have gone down from 9,388 in 2019 to 7,536 this time. In Lucknow, the drop was minor from 7,416 to 7,350. Varanasi, Anantnag Saw significant Increase in NOTA Votes Jammu and Kashmirs Anantnag has seen one of the sharpest increase in NOTA votes from 1,412 in 2019 to 6,223 now. Srinagar also reported a rise in NOTA votes from 1,566 in 2019 to 5,998 now. On the other hand, in Baramulla, the NOTA votes have reported a significant drop from 4,984 to 8,128. In Uttar Pradeshs Varanasi, the NOTA votes have gone up from 4,037 in 2019 to 8,478 now more than doubled. Although with a small voter base, when compared to other Lok Sabha constituencies, the NOTA votes in islands of India Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep have also increased. On the other hand, two of Bihar and Indias top seats from 2019 NOTA vote list have seen drop in these votes. In 2019, out of the five seats with highest NOTA votes, two were from Bihar Gopalganj and Paschim Champaran. Both these seats have reported a drop in NOTA votes. Paschim Champaran, which elected BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswa for a fourth time, has seen NOTA votes drop from almost 46,000 to just 11,000. Gopalganj was at the top position for NOTA votes in 2019, this time it has seen 8,797 fewer votes against political parties. More Votes for NOTA in Assam, Kerala and Gujarat Apart from Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, there were six more states where NOTA votes have increased from 2019 Assam, Kerala, Gujarat, Odisha, Jharkhand and Haryana. In Assam, the rise is close to 60,000 votes, resulting in 0.19 percentage point jump in its vote share in the total polled votes. In Kerala, it is around 53,000 or 0.28 percentage points higher. Gujarat has reported a jump of more than 45,000 NOTA votes, increasing its vote share by 0.16 percentage points. In Odisha, the NOTA votes have gone up by 13,764 votes. But in terms of percentage of the votes polled, it is about 0.02 percentage points fewer than in 2019. In Haryana, the NOTA votes have gone up by 1,411 making no change in the vote share of the option in the total votes polled. NOTA Votes halved in Punjab, Andhra Pradesh In Punjab, the NOTA votes have more than halved from 2019, resulting in 0.28 percentage points drop in its vote share. In 2019, the state gave 1.54 lakh NOTA votes that reduced to 66,263 in 2024. From 1.13 per cent in 2019, the share of NOTA votes in 2024 was just 0.49 per cent. Andhra Pradesh, which voted back Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to power in 2024, has seen the highest drop in votes for NOTA about 2.30 lakh. In 2019, the state saw 4.68 lakh votes to NOTA that dropped to 2.38 lakh. Interestingly, one of the Lok Sabha seats from the state, Aruku, was among the top five NOTA polled constituencies in 2019. While all other four seats have reported a drop in NOTA votes, the votes in this seat have gone up by 2,493 votes. WHAT IS NOTA? The Election Commission of India introduced NOTA in October 2013 based on a Supreme Court order from September 2013. The main objective of the option was to enable electors who do not wish to vote for any of the candidates to exercise their right not to vote for any candidate without violation of the secrecy of their decision. On a winning streak, UP Ke Ladke left a severe dent on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the partys strongholds by securing 16 of out 27 seats in Uttar Pradeshs Purvanchal (East) region, bringing down BJP-led NDAs tally from 20 seats (which it had secured in 2019 LS Polls) to 11. Not only did the NDA suffer a loss of nine seats in Purvanchal, but the duo of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav, a part of INDI Alliance, who were widely referred as UP Ke Ladke during 2024 Lok Sabha Elections campaign, also grasped another set of six seats, won by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 2019 LS Polls from the region, further bringing down its tally to zero. BJP-Led NDAs Tally Down From 20 to 11 Seats Of the total 16 seats, which went into INDI alliances kitty, SP won 15 seats including Azamgarh, Machhlishahr (SC), Ballia, Basti, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Sant Kabir Nagar, Chandauli, Ambedkarnagar, Shrawasti, Lalganj (SC), Jaunpur, Ghosi, Ghazipur and NDA partner Apna Dals (S) Robertsganj seat. Congresss victory on the Allahabad seat took the tally to 16. SPs score came in contrast with its previous score when it managed to bag mere one seat Azamgarh in 2019 Lok Sabha Polls. It was the seat from where Akhilesh had himself contested. But after winning the assembly elections, he left this seat and BJP captured this seat in the by-elections. The seats which the BJP managed to win are Phulpur, Dumariyaganj, Bhadohi, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Deoria, Bansgaon, Salempur and Mirzapur. And the seats which it won in 2019 and lost this time include Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Machhlishahar, Ballia, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Chandauli and its allies Apna Dals (S) Robertsganj seat. UPs Purvanchal region accounts for 27 Lok Sabha seats, of which 14 voted in the sixth phase of 2024 Lok Sabha Elections while the remaining 13 seats went to polls in the seventh and final phase held on June 1. Most-watched among these are Varanasi constituency, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi contested for the third time, and Yogi Adityanaths home turf Gorakhpur, where the BJP fielded actor-politician Ravi Kishan. Besides, BJP had pressed all its heavyweights into action here with PM Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath leading the charge with nine and 28 rallies, respectively, in Purvanchal. In public meetings, road shows and rallies across eastern UP, the leaders headlined their speeches with the state governments crackdown on mafia, alleging that their rivals record on the same has been dismal. But, what are the possible factors which led to BJPs defeat in the region, often considered among BJPs strongholds? UPs political observers largely blamed Thakurwaad or Thakur politics behind BJPs loss and also giving importance to irrelevant issues like mafia raj and Ram temple while ignoring local and developmental issues. Thakurwaad, The Possible Factor That Led to BJPs Downfall in Purvanchal Purvanchal or East UP is not only known as UP CMs home turf but is also a Thakur dominated region. There are big Thakur names which include Kunda MLA and Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) chief Raghuraj Pratap Singh, popularly known as Raja Bhaiya, former MP and strongman politician Dhananjay Singh and other notable Thakur leaders such as Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Brijesh Singh, and Abhay Singh play crucial roles. These leaders, whose influence extends beyond their constituencies, hold substantial sway in Purvanchal when it comes to UP Politics. What possibly led to the resentment among the Thakur leaders in Purvanchal was the alleged disrespect towards the Thakur community and the odd ticket distribution. And the trigger point of all was the the controversial statement of BJP leader Parsottam Rupala, who contested from Rajkot, Gujarat and it got further fuelled by allegations of Kshatriya history distortion, especially on the Mihir Bhoj row and other crucial issues, pointed out Manoj Singh, a political analyst who hails from Gorakhpur district. The Beginning Rajya Sabha MP Parshottam Rupala kicked off a controversy on March 22, 2024 after he said at a Dalit event that the erstwhile maharajas broke bread with the British and also married off their daughters to them. The video went viral, inviting the wrath of various Kshatriya organisations including Thakurs (Rajputs), who are believed to be the descendants of erstwhile royal or princely families in Saurashtra, Gujarat. Even kings and royals bowed down to the British, started family bonds with them, broke bread with them, and even married their daughters to them. But our Dalit Samaj neither changed their religion nor established such ties though they were persecuted the most, Rupala reportedly said. Though Rupala managed to win the Rajkot seat but the controversial statement he gave caused a disaster in other states including UP, Singh told News18. Dissent Among the Thakurs in UP Singh said the effect of Rupalas remark coupled with the controversy surrounding the identity of the 9th-century Hindu king Mihir Bhoj, who, both the Rajputs and the Gurjars claim, belonged to their community, was much visible among the people from Thakur community in UP. The community also held many mahapanchayats across the country ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to express their resentment against the BJP. In UP, the controversy surfaced when seven-time MLA from Kunda and president of Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) Raghuraj Pratap Singh aka Raja Bhaiya made an announcement that he will not support any political party or candidate in the Lok Sabha elections. Singh refrained from endorsing any specific candidate or party, a surprising move given his recent meeting with union home minister Amit Shah in Bengaluru, which had led to speculation about his potential support for the Bharatiya Janata Party. Singhs absence from Shahs stage during the Kunda rally and his non-commitment to the BJP were unexpected. This again sent a strong message among the people from Thakur community, said Singh. However, taking advantage of the situation, the opposition further fuelled the situation by making a remark that BJP is planning to remove Yogi Adityanath, who himself belongs to the Thakur community, he said. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a joint press conference with SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav accused BJP of removing UP CM Yogi Adityanath once it comes to power to establish a dictatorship. BJPs Anti-Mafia Pitch Failed to Set The Narrative The second reason which led to the downfall of BJP in UPs Purvanchal region was giving importance to irrelevant issues like mafia raj and Ram temple while ignoring local and developmental issues. Modi and CM Yogi who led the charge with nine and 28 rallies, respectively, in Purvanchal, in almost all events, they spoke about state governments crackdown on mafia, alleging that their rivals record on the same has been dismal. Be it in Mirzapur where Narendra Modi blamed Samajwadi Party government for ruining the image of the entire Purvanchal and for making it a safe haven for the mafias or in other rallies where he admired Yogis bulldozer strategy for ending the mafia raj, he added. He, however, said that Modi-Yogis anti-mafia pitch failed to set the narrative following recent developments where Amit Shah held a meeting with bahubali Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya and mafia-politician Dhananjay Singhs wife. Later, Dhananjay Singh, who is an influential figure in Jaunpur, announced his support to the BJP. Another development is the induction of mafia-politician Abhay Singh, the rebel Samajwadi Party MLA who cross-voted during Rajya Sabha elections into the saffron party. In the era of social media, people are aware of the mismatch between words and action. Whereas at the same time the INDIA bloc seemed to have struck the right chord by highlighting the other relevant issues including paper leak, unemployment and others, he further added. Political observers say the cocktail of events, poor ticket distribution and the alleged disrespect towards the Thakur community, however, left a severe dent to BJP, bringing down its tally to 33 compared to 62 seats it got in the 2019 general election. Arti Singh married Dipak Chauhan in April this year in a beautiful ceremony surrounded by family and close friends. The couple is now embracing their new journey together. Recently, after spending quality time with their family, Arti Singh and Dipak Chauhan jetted off on their honeymoon. Destination? The city of love, Paris. Arti Singh shared a candid reel from her trip with the caption, Off to Paris hello honey can you take to the moonHoneymoon. The reel begins with Arti Singh at the airport, brimming with excitement for the trip. The clip also captures her getting ready to take off and reaching the destination. She shared photos of iconic sights like the Eiffel Tower and also dropped glimpses of her delectable French cuisine. Arti is clearly enjoying her time exploring the romantic city with Dipak Chauhan. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Arti singh sharma (@artisingh5) Previously, Arti Singh shared a video of her journey to Paris. To pass the time on a 9-hour long flight, Arti decided to groove for some time inside the aircraft (of course, just for fun). In the clip, she can be seen putting on her headphones and dancing to Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya. What else to do? she wrote. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Arti singh sharma (@artisingh5) As per a report by ETimes, the newlywed couple are on a 12-day honeymoon. They will first explore Paris followed by Greece. Sharing about why she selected Paris, Arti said. A couple of years ago during my visit to Paris, I bought a lock and promised that my first ever trip abroad with my husband would be to Paris, where we would place the lock together. Prior to her wedding, Arti had told the publication that they were so busy with wedding preparations that they had no time to plan a honeymoon. Her first priority was settling into their new house. Arti Singh married her lifelong companion, Dipak Chauhan, on April 25 at the ISKCON temple in Mumbai. Krushna Abhishek and Kashmera Shah hosted the wedding. Bipasha Basu, Karan Singh Grover, Govinda, Kapil Sharma, Rashami Desai, Priyanka Chahar Chaudhary, Ankit Gupta, Bharti Singh, Haarsh Limbachiyaa and many others were among the stars who attended. The coalition era is back, with the BJP-ruled NDA allies forming the government at the Centre after the Lok Sabha results gave fractured mandate to the ruling saffron party with just 242 seats. The prominent NDA allies Telugu Desam Party and Janata Dal (United) from Andhra Pradesh and Bihar will play a key role in government formation after they secured a handsome win in their state. The BJP could not repeat its 2019s massive victory of 303 seats this time, and will likely have to trade favours with Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu to reach the 272-majority mark needed to form the government. The BJP-led coalition has 292 seats, while the Congress-led Opposition has 234 seats. With the humbling verdict for the BJP, NDA partners Kumar and Chandrababu will step in with their 12 and 16 Lok Sabha seats respectively to help the coalition reach the magic figure. In big states like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, which send the maximum number of MPs to Parliament, the BJP could win only 33 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats and 17 of the total 48 seats, respectively. The party had won 41 seats in Maharashtra and 71 and 62 seats in Uttar Pradesh in 2014 and 2019 elections respectively. Narendra Modi will be taking the oath of Prime Minister for the third time on June 8. History of Lok Sabha Elections Since Independence First Lok Sabha Election (1952) The first ever election in Independent India was held for 489 seats, representing 26 states, with over 17.3 crore eligible voters. The Congress won 364 seats, securing 45% of the total votes polled. The CPI and Socialist Party bagged 16 and 12 seats, respectively, and the Bharatiya Jan Sangh won only 3 seats. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru became the first elected Prime Minister. The Lok Sabha, which was constituted on April 17, 1952, lasted its full term till April 4, 1957. The first Lok Sabha also witnessed 677 sittings (3,784 hours), the highest recorded count of the number of sittings, with GV Mavalankar as the first Speaker. Lok Sabha lasted its full term from April 17, 1952 to April 4, 1957. Before the elections, Nehrus two former colleagues, Shyama Prasad Mookherjee found Jana Sangh in October 1951, while BR Ambedkar revived the Scheduled Castes Federation, which was later named as Republican Party. Second Lok Sabha Election (1957) The Indian National Congress again won with 371 seats in its kitty out of the total 494 seats, divided across 17 states and Union Territories. Its vote share increased to 48% of the total votes polled. Other parties such as CPI, Praja Socialist Party and BJS won 27, 19 and 4 seats, respectively. Nehru was again elected the Prime Minister while there was no official Leader of Opposition during the second Lok Sabha. The 1957 election was the first one to be held after the enactment of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 under which states were reorganised and new boundaries were drawn along linguistic lines. On May 11, 1957, M Ananthasayanam Iyengar was unanimously elected the Speaker of the second Lok Sabha. Third Lok Sabha Election (1962) Indian National Congress won 361 of the total 494 seats. However, its vote share was reduced to 45% from 48% in the previous election. Four other parties CPI, Jan Sangh, Swatantra Party & PSP won double digit seats. Nehru became the PM again, but his health started declining amidst the Sino-Indian war. After his return from Kashmir, where he went for recuperation, Nehru suffered a stroke and later a heart attack, and died on May 27, 1964. Gulzari Lal Nanda was appointed the interim PM, who was succeeded by Lal Bahadur Shastri for 19 months before his death. Indira Gandhi then took over in 1966. Fourth Lok Sabha Election (1967) Under the leadership of Indira Gandhi, the Indian National Congress won 283 seats out of the total 520 constituencies. But the partys vote share was down to about 41%. It also suffered a major setback as non-Congress ministries were established in Bihar, Kerala, Orissa, Madras, the Punjab and West Bengal. Six parties won in double digits, with C Rajagopala Charis Swatantra Party winning 44 seats and emerging as the single largest opposition party. Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister for the second time. Fifth Lok Sabha Election (1971) Congress under Indira Gandhi won 352 seats of the total 518 while the faction under Morarji Desai secured only 16 seats. Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister for the third time. On June 12, 1975, the Allahabad High Court invalidated her 1971 election on the grounds of electoral malpractices. Instead of resigning, Indira Gandhi declared an Emergency in the country and jailed the entire Opposition. The Emergency lasted till March 1977. Sixth Lok Sabha Election (1977) Bharatiya Lok Dal or Janata Dal emerged a winner, defeating Congress for the first time. The BLD was formed at the end of 1974 with the coalition of seven parties, including the Swatantra Party, the Utkal Congress, the Bharatiya Kranti Dal, and the Socialist Party. The BLD won 295 of the 542 seats while the Congress bagged only 154. Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister, but had to step down in 1979 after alliance partners withdrew support. He was succeeded by Charan Singh. Seventh Lok Sabha Election (1980) The Congress came riding to power by securing 353 seats of the 529 seats, while the Janata Party could manage only 32 seats. Eighth Lok Sabha Election (1984) Indira Gandhis assassination led to anti-Sikh riots in 1984. The Congress came to power with a landslide win due to sympathy for Indira Gandhi, and her son Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister. It won 414 of the 514 seats. Ninth Lok Sabha Election (1989) Amidst the Bofors scandal, rising terrorism in Punjab, and civil war between LTTE and Sri Lankan government, Congress began to lose credibility and popularity. The elections were held in two phases on November 22 and November 26, 1989 for 525 seats in the Lok Sabha. India saw hung house for the first time, with the Congress winning 197 seats, Janata Dal 143 and BJP 85. The Janata Dal formed the National Front government with outside support from BJP and the left parties. VP Singh became the Prime Minister. Forging alliances with Congress (S), Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), and Asom Gana Parishad, Singh led the National Front. Chandra Shekhar broke away from Janata Dal in 1990 and formed the Samajwadi Janata Party. He became the 11th Prime Minister, and finally resigned on March 6, 1991. 10th Lok Sabha Election (1991) Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by LTTE ahead of the 1991 general elections. The Mandal Commission fallout and the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid became the two pivotal issues of the elections. The Mandal Commission report implemented by the VP Singh government gave 27% reservation to the OBCs in government jobs, and Mandir issue became a major electoral issue. Several riots broke out in the country on the Ram Mandir issue, and the electorate was polarised on caste and religious lines. No party could get a majority. Congress emerged as the single largest party with 244 seats while the BJP won 120, and Janata Dal came a distant third with 59 seats. PV Narasimha Rao of the Congress was sworn in as the Prime Minister. 11th Lok Sabha Election (1996) The BJP won 161 seats, Congress 140 and Janata Dal 46 of the total 543 constituencies. Regional parties began to come to fore, and won 129 seats. Prominent among them were TDP, Shiv Sena and DMK. The President invited the BJP to form the government, which attempted to build a coalition. But could not go far and Atal Bihari Vajpayee had to resign as the PM in 13 days. Out of nowhere, HD Deve Gowda became the Prime Minister and he lasted for 18 months before he had to step down and make way for IK Gujral, who was the stopgap arrangement. There was a triangular battle involving PV Narasimha Rao, BJP under Vajpayee, and the emergence of a Third Force. This Third Front, akin to the National Front, was spearheaded by the Janata Dal and comprised regional parties such as the Samajwadi Party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), All India Indira Congress (Tiwari), the Left Front (CPI, CPM, CPI (M-L), AIFB), Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC), the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (JKNC), and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP). 12th Lok Sabha Election (1998) The BJP emerged as the single largest party with 182 seats out of 543 constituencies. Congress won 141 and the other regional parties won 101 seats. The BJP formed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) with other regional parties. Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the Prime Minister for the second time. His government couldnt last and he had to resign 13 months later after the AIADMK withdrew its support. Nuclear tests at Pokhran, Kargil war were some of the important incidents in this term. 13th Lok Sabha Election (1999) Amidst the Kargil war, the BJP emerged as the single largest party with 182 seats, and Congress securing 114 seats only. Region parties performed well with 158 seats in its kitty. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was sworn in as the Prime Minister for the third time. 14th Lok Sabha Election 2004 The economy showed steady growth during the BJP rule and the disinvestment of PSUs was on track. The Foreign Exchange Reserves of India stood at more than $100 billion. The service sector had also generated a lot of jobs. The BJP fought the elections as part of the NDA, although some of its seat-sharing agreements were made with strong regional parties outside of the NDA such as the TDP in Andhra Pradesh and the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu. But the Congress was able to put together a comfortable majority of more than 335 members out of 543 (including external support from BSP, SP, MDMK and the Left front) under the direction of Sonia Gandhi. This post-poll alliance was called the United Progressive Alliance. Sonia Gandhi refused to become the Prime Minister amidst the controversy about her foreign origin, and Manmohan Singh instead was chosen as the PM. 15th Lok Sabha Election 2009 The Congress-led UPA started the Right to Information and National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, along with waiving farm loans in 2008. The Congress won 206 seats and the BJP secured 116 while the regional parties won 146 seats. Manmohan Singh was sworn in as the Prime Minister for the second time. 16th Lok Sabha Election 2014 The UPA-II term was fraught with 2G, coal block, Adarsh scams, and Commonwealth Games scams. Amidst the perception of the Prime Minister, BJP projected Narendra Modi as the man of the hour. Congress Prime Ministerial candidate Rahul Gandhi was nowhere a match to Modi. The BJP won on its own with 282 seats while the Congress recorded its worst ever performance with just 44 seats. AIADMK, AITC and BJD won 37, 34 and 20 seats. A total of 551.3 million people or 66.38% of the total electorate came out to vote in an election spread a little over a month in nine phases. Top leaders Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari won from Madhya Pradesh and Nagpur, respectively. BJP and its allies won 71 of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, and all 25 seats in Rajasthan. 17th Lok Sabha Election 2019 Riding on the Modi wave, the BJP increased the mandate with 303 seats and 350 with the NDA, while the Congress faced a massive rout with only 52 seats. Narendra Modi became only the third person in Indias history to have secured a single party majority two times in a row, after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Congress president Rahul Gandhi lost from Amethi. Not just the Hindi heartland, the BJP swept West Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra and Karnataka. The party increased its vote share to over 50% in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana. It thwarted the BSP-SP Mahagathbandan in Uttar Pradesh. North Korea has indulged in a psychological warfare by dropping hundreds of trash-laden balloons across South Korea. Since last week, North Korea has sent thousands of trash balloons across the Demilitarised Zone separating the two Koreas. Once the balloons reached South Korean airspace, their timers released the plastic bags containing assorted rubbish, including scraps of used paper and cloth. South Korea has, however, ruled out that the balloons were carrying any human waste but did note that the garbage did contain compost. Why North Korea Has Dropped Trash Balloons on South Korea? Since late May, North Korea has jammed GPS signals over a wide area off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula, potentially endangering civilian air and maritime traffic. The North also fired 10 short-range ballistic missiles and rounds from 18 multiple rocket launchers into the Sea of Japan, as per Deutsche Welle. North Korea said the balloons were launched in retaliation for an ongoing propaganda campaign by North Korean defectors and activists in South Korea, who regularly send inflatables containing anti-Pyongyang leaflets, food, medicine, money and USB sticks loaded with K-pop music videos and dramas across the border. North Korea is extremely sensitive to the leaflets that South Korean activists float across the border, because they carry information about the outside world and criticism of the three-generation Kim dynastys rule since the founding of North Korea by Kim Il Sung in 1948, as mentioned in a report by Al Jazeera. On Sunday night, Kim Kang Il, a North Korean vice defence minister, said Pyongyang would temporarily suspend its balloon activities. He said the 3,500 balloons carrying 15 tonnes of wastepaper had left the South Koreans with enough experience of the unpleasantness. What will South Korea Do? South Koreas ruling People Power Party (PPP) convened a meeting to consider responses to North Koreas actions after the rocket carrying the satellite exploded in midair shortly after the launch. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol held a meeting of his National Security Council, which condemned the balloons, and simultaneous GPS jamming by North Korea. The South Korean government has also announced that it will discontinue the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement, saying large-scale floating of balloons had seriously threatened the safety of our people and caused property damage. Seoul is also understood to be considering resuming propaganda broadcasts into the North from large loudspeakers placed close to the Demilitarized Zone that separates the feuding neighbors, as per Deutsche Welle. Resuming the broadcasts, which were turned off since 2018, would represent an escalation, as they are considered to be a form of psychological warfare. The North has in the past threatened to target the speaker sites with artillery barrages. What is the 2018 Inter-Korean Military Deal? The agreement was reached during a brief period of reconciliation between Kim and then-liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Both countries agreed to completely cease all hostile acts against each other, including propaganda broadcasts and military drills near their heavily fortified border. Tensions rose in November last year after South Korea responded to North Koreas launch of spy satellite by announcing it would partially suspend the deal and resume aerial surveillance along their border. In response, North Korea said it was not bound by the deal, and deployed troops and weapons at guard posts that it had previously removed. Pyongyang has yet to respond to Seouls decision to fully suspend the 2018 accord. History of Balloon Rivalry During the Cold War, North and South Korea would try to influence each others citizens with radio broadcasts on propaganda. Along the Demilitarised Zone, loudspeakers bombarded rival soldiers with propaganda songs. The countries would also launch leaf-laden balloons into each others airspace. The leaflets would contain vilifying materials, which both Koreas banned their people from reading. In 1990s, North Koreas propaganda was losing its relevance and South Korean economy was making strides. The South became a vibrant democracy while North Korea faced food shortages and relied on information blackout to control its people. The two countries in 2000s decided end government-sponsored acts to influence each others citizens. But North Korean defectors and Christian activists in the South carried on the information war, sending balloons laden with Bibles, transistor radios, medicines, computer drives containing K-pop music and drama, and leaflets that called Kim a pig. A bank employee in Chennai was arrested on Thursday for a string of thefts from jewellery stores across the city, allegedly to support his lavish lifestyle and purchase expensive gifts for his girlfriend. The suspect, identified as 26-year-old Sathish Kumar, was caught after a two-sovereign gold ring disappeared from Saravana Elite stores in T Nagar during a routine inventory check on Tuesday evening, triggering an investigation by the Mambalam police. Surveillance footage uncovered a customer making off with the ring, prompting a formal complaint. Kumar, an MCA graduate employed at a local bank, then attempted another theft at a different branch of Saravana Elite stores on Usman Road. However, this time the store staff apprehended him and handed him over to the police. During questioning, Kumar admitted to the theft, citing his monthly salary of Rs 30,000 as insufficient to maintain his lifestyle. He confessed to indulging in extravagant dinners and frequent expensive gifts for his partner, as per The Times of India report. He also revealed how he carried out the thefts in different places like Chromepet, Pallavaram, and T Nagar, taking advantage of busy business hours to escape without being noticed. Additionally, Kumar confessed to using loans from mobile apps to handle his finances, but he didnt repay them. He usually entered the shops when they were crowded, in the morning or evening hours. He would ask the staff to take out the jewellery and take his phone out under the pretext of clicking pictures. He used to slip away with the valuable when the staff were not attentive, a police officer told the publication. Following legal proceedings, Kumar was presented before a magistrate and remanded into judicial custody. The CISF constable who allegedly slapped Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut was identified as Kulwinder Kaur, the sister of a farmer leader whose organisation was part of the protests against the three now-repealed farm laws. The BJPs MP-elect, who won the Lok Sabha polls by defeating Himachal Pradesh minister and Congress leader Vikramaditya Singh from Mandi, was at the Chandigarh airport when the incident took place. Kulwinder is the sister of Sher Singh Mahiwal, who is the organisational secretary of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee. The 35-year-old now-suspended constable joined the CISF in 2009 and has been with the aviation security group of the force at the Chandigarh airport since 2021. She is from Punjabs Sultanpur Lodhi and is the mother of two children. According to officials, she has had no vigilance inquiry or punishment against her in the force to date. Her husband is also posted at the same airport. She appeared to be upset with Ranaut over her stance on the farmers protests, officials said. A video doing the rounds of social media showed an agitated Kulwinder talking to people presumably after the incident. Kangana made a statement that farmers were protesting in Delhi because they were paid Rs 100 or Rs 200. At the time, my mother was one of the protesters, she said in the purported video. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), tasked with providing security at airports, has also ordered a court of inquiry into the incident and lodged an FIR against Kulwinder. Terming the incident a serious matter, National Commission for Women chairperson Rekha Sharma called for serious action and said the panel had taken up the matter with the CISF. Those responsible for security at airport are themselves breaching security, she said in a post on X. Leader of the opposition and former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur termed incident very unfortunate and condemned it. Such behaviour with an elected representative by security personnel at the airport is very unfortunate and calls for action, he told PTI. State public works minister Vikramaditya Singh, who lost to Ranaut in the elections, said, The incident is unfortunate and we condemn it. He said action should be taken against the constable. In a video statement titled Shocking rise in terror and violence in Punjab posted on X after she landed in Delhi, the Queen actor said she was safe and fine. Recapping in detail what had happened, Ranaut said she had been getting a lot of calls from the media and her well-wishers. The constable, she said, came towards her from the side. She hit me in the face and started abusing me. I asked her why she did it and she said she supports the farmer protests. I am safe but my concern is that terrorism is increasing in Punjab How do we handle that? The four-time National Award winner has been a high-profile, prominent voice supporting the ruling party on issues like the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in 2019-20 and farmer protests in 2020-21. During the agitation against the three farm laws, Ranaut allegedly misidentified a woman farmer from Punjab and called her Bilkis Bano, an octogenarian who had made international headlines during the anti-CAA protests earlier in the Delhi neighbourhood of Shaheen Bagh. She had then shared a tweet alleging that the Shaheen Bagh dadi also joined the farmers agitation over the new agriculture laws at various border points of the national capital. She retweeted the post with pictures of two elderly women and wrote that the same Dadi who featured in Time Magazine was available in 100 rupees. The actor later deleted the tweet after Twitter users pointed out that both the women were different. (With PTI inputs) The Special Cell of the Delhi Police on Friday filed its first chargesheet in the case regarding the breach of security at Parliament in 2023. A chargesheet running into 1,000 pages has been filed against six accused Manoranjan D, Lalit Jha, Amol Shinde, Mahesh Kumawat, Sagar Sharma, and Neelam Azad who were produced before the court physically as their judicial custody came to an end. Special public prosecutor (SPP) Akhand Pratap Singh and Advocate Samriddhi submitted before the court that sanctions for prosecution under Section 186 IPC and under Section 13 of UAPA are awaited for which a supplementary chargesheet will be filed within a period of two weeks. The court has now listed the matter for filing of the supplementary chargesheet and consideration of the chargesheet on July 15. The court also extended the judicial custody of all the six accused till the next date of hearing. On December 13, 2023, two of the six accused jumped into the well of Parliament activating colour spray canisters hidden in their shoes. On Thursday, the Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Delhi accorded prosecution sanction under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, against the six accused. Delhi LG VK Saxena accorded prosecution sanction against under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), for allegedly attacking the Parliament, on 13.12.2023, while the House proceedings were on. The Delhi Police had registered a case vide FIR No. 142/23 dated 14.12.2023, u/s 186/353/452/153/34/120B of IPC and 13/16/18 UA (P) Act, at the Parliament Street Police Station on the complaint made by the Security officer in the Lok Sabha. The investigation of the case was later transferred from the Parliament Street Police Station to the Counter Intelligence Unit of the PS Special Cell, New Delhi. During the investigation, the six accused persons were arrested and at present, all of them are in judicial custody. The case pertains to a security breach at parliament on the anniversary of the Parliament attack case on December 13, 2023. The Pune Police have found another piece of evidence linking the Sassoon hospital doctor, who is an accused in the Porsche crash case, and local MLA Sunil Tingre. It has emerged that 70 calls were exchanged between Dr Ajay Taware and a man, identified as Ashpak Makandar, who is known to be a close aide of the legislator whose name has come up several times since Day 1 of the case. Not only this, the grandfather of juvenile accused has filed a plea before the court, saying his arrest on kidnapping charges is illegal. Other than that, he and his son, the 17-year-old boys father, have also been booked in a separate case of abetment to suicide. Also, as part of administrative action, 21 police personnel have been transferred since the case was registered and a probe started after May 19 night, when two IT professionals were killed when the luxury car rammed into their motorcycle. Here is all you need to know about the latest developments in the case: The investigation into the case has revealed that there were 70 phone calls exchanged between Dr Ajay Taware and Ashpak Makandar in the last five months. Makandar, who is a close aide of local MLA Sunil Tingre, is in police custody along with a man called Amar Gaikwad till June 10. Makandar was arrested on June 3, after it was revealed that he had allegedly collected money from the teens father, Vishal Agarwal, and paid Dr Taware. Surender Agarwal, the grandfather of the teenager accused in the case, has moved the high court against the Pune Police, alleging that his arrest on charges of kidnapping the driver was illegal. His petition stated that he was falsely implicated in this crime. The grandfather is presently in judicial custody for alleged kidnapping and wrongful confinement of their family driver, who was pressured to tell the police that he was behind the wheels when the fatal accident took place. The petition further stated that investigating authorities on mere allegations and based on a complaint submitted after inordinate delay of five days, filed the case without following due procedure mandated under section 42A of the CrPC against the 77-year-old senior citizen (juveniles grandfather). It stated that the driver, after being released around 11 pm on May 20 from the Yerawada police station following investigation, was received by the petitioner (teens grandfather). Since he was frightened and devastated and there being risk to his life, it was mutually decided by both driver and the petitioner to go the latters home, said the plea. It stated that the petitioner assured safety and protection of the driver and his family. The plea, calling the complaint by the driver as concocted and bogus in regards to his alleged abduction and wrongful confinement, prayed the HC to direct the police to immediately release the petitioner, and also sought strict action against cops. At least 21 personnel of the Pune Police were transferred with immediate effect, including five assistant commissioners of police, five senior police inspectors, nine police inspectors and two sub-inspectors. Police booked Vishal Agarwal and Surender Agarwal, as well as three others, in a separate case related to abetment of suicide of a businessmans son in the city. According to the police, a complaint in this regard was registered by a man, DS Kature, who runs a construction business in Punes Vadgaon Sheri area, against one Vinay Kale, from whom his son Shashikant Kature, had taken a loan for construction work. After he could not pay the loan on time, Kale allegedly started adding compounding interest to the principal amount and harassing Shashikant Kature. Fed up with constant harassment, Shashikant died by suicide in January, police said. A case was registered against Kale under IPC sections 306 (abetment of suicide ) and 506 (criminal intimidation) at the Chandannagar police station. During investigation, the role of the juveniles father (a builder), grandfather and three others cropped up in the suicide case. We have now added sections 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC to the case, said a police officer. Real estate developer Vishal Agarwal and his wife are also in police custody in a case related to the swapping of the juveniles blood samples. (With PTI inputs) An unidentified car driver ran over a toll worker in Uttar Pradeshs Hapur to avoid paying toll tax while speeding through a toll booth on the Delhi-Lucknow highway, police said on Friday. The incident was captured on CCTV camera of the toll booth in Chhijarsi late Thursday night. The video showed the toll booth worker walking across the vehicle lane when the speeding car hit him from behind. The impact of the collision was such that the toll worker was tossed in the air and landed on the cars bonnet as it sped through the toll booth. The man was trampled by the car after it ran through the toll booth, officials said. The toll worker was rushed to a nearby hospital however, his condition remains critical, an NDTV report said. an investigation is underway in the case and the police are looking for the cars driver. Last month, an unidentified car driver hit and ran over a woman staffer at the Kashi Toll Plaza on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway on being asked to pay. As the driver attempted to escape the scene, the woman toll worker fell onto the cars bonnet and subsequently slid off as the vehicle fled the scene and the other staff members rushed to her rescue. The woman received severe injuries and was rushed to the hospital. A court here on Friday dismissed the bail plea of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals aide Bibhav Kumar for allegedly assaulting AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal, saying he was facing grave and serious charges and that there was an apprehension that he could influence witnesses. Kumar who was sent to 14 days judicial custody last Friday, has been accused of assaulting Maliwal on May 13 at the Chief Ministers official residence. He had moved the court for bail for a second time. His first bail plea was dismissed on May 27. Special Judge Ekta Gauba Mann said, The investigation is at initial stage and there is fear in the mind of victim regarding her security as well as security of her family members as she is receiving continuous threats. There is also every apprehension that applicant or accused Bibhav Kumar would influence the witnesses, if at liberty. So, I do not find any merit in the present bail application, the judge added while dismissing the plea. The court said Kumar allegedly misbehaved with a woman member of the Aam Aadmi Party at Kejriwals official residence where the party members and general public can meet the chief minister. This creates fear and panic in the mind of general public to meet their leader. Thus, there are grave and serious allegations against applicant or accused Bibhav Kumar, it added. Counsel for Kumar said around 21 days had elapsed since Kumars arrest and his custodial interrogation was not required. He said Kumar was not an influential person as he was merely a personal secretary in the rank of a clerk, and his appointment was on a co-terminus basis or on the recommendation of Kejriwal. Though his service was terminated one month before the alleged incident, Kumar had remained a PS in a personal capacity, the advocate said. Maliwal has said after she lodged the complaint, she was ostracised by the entire Aam Aadmi Party and some party leaders were shaming or assassinating her character. Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastava said Kumar was a very influential person and investigation had revealed that no register was maintained of people meeting Kejriwal. The general public and even MLAs could meet the chief minister only after seeking an appointment from Kumar. Kumars first bail plea was dismissed by another sessions court, which said there appeared no pre-meditation by Maliwal in lodging the FIR and that her allegations could not be swiped away. Kumar was arrested on May 18. He was sent to police custody for five days the same day by a magisterial court, which observed that his anticipatory bail plea had become infructuous because of his arrest. On May 24, he was sent to four days judicial custody, following which he was again remanded in police custody for three days. An FIR was registered against Kumar on May 16 under various Indian Penal Code provisions, including those related to criminal intimidation, assault or criminal force on a woman with the intent to disrobe and attempt to commit culpable homicide. Chitrangada Singhs acting prowess needs no introduction. But besides establishing a position in Bollywood, she has also carved a niche in the fashion industry. She has etched her name in the good books of the fashion police. Be it a traditional wonder or a chic silhouette, Chitranganda slays in both. Her fashion wardrobe boasts variety and versatility, making us search for pens and paper to take notes. She also drops glimpses of her stunning fashion outings on Instagram. In her latest entry, the Inkaar actress set the internet on fire in a bright red midi dress. In the picture carousel, Chitrangada Singh picked out a red midi dress from the shelves of fashion label Trendyol. The deep plunging neckline number came with a figure-grazing design and full sleeves. The knotted designs on the front added pizazz to her look. The actress was unafraid to take the bold route, as the dress came with a risque thigh-high slit. The structured fit ended just above her ankles in a ruffled fashion. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chitrangda Singh (@chitrangda) Chitrangada Singh complemented her hot-red avatar with bold, bronzed makeup. She went for contoured cheeks with a hint of blush, coupled with light brown lipstick with a glossy tint, shimmery metallic eyeshadow, a stroke of winged eyeliner, mascara-coated long lashes, and fluffy eyebrows. Chitrangada accessorised her feminine-chic look with golden hoops and statement rings, minus any necklace. Nude-pink stilettos offered a subtle contrast to the bright silhouette. The actress rounded off her fashion outing with wavy and long, open hair. Chitrangada Singh has a special fondness for red outfits. Earlier, the actress wore a strapless, bright red dress from the fashion label Antithesis. The ensemble featured a corseted bodice and butterfly-shaped borders. The cinched waistline cascaded down to create a form-fitting mermaid skirt with plated details. The knee-high slit added to the allure. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chitrangda Singh (@chitrangda) For accessories, Chitrangada Singh chose a multilayered diamond necklace and an identical ring. In terms of makeup, the actress opted for rosy-contoured cheeks, red lips, dark eyeliner, and well-sculpted brows that framed her face beautifully. She kept her silky tresses open as they cascaded down in length, in all their glory. We all have one person in our friends or family circles who laughs like theres no tomorrow. Laughter is the finest medication a doctor can ever prescribe, after all. But anything in excess is bad, as we are all aware. A unique case illustrating this was revealed when a man in Hyderabad ended up in the hospital due to excessive laughter-related fainting. Dr Sudhir Kumar, a neurologist from Apollo Hospitals in Hyderabad, provided information about the incident on the X platform (formerly Twitter) and clarified its specifics. The 53-year-old man, referred to in the post as Mr Shyam, was drinking tea and watching a comedy show with his family when the incident occurred, as per the tweet. Mr Shyam laughed uncontrollably because he thought it was so humorous. He kept laughing for a few minutes. Everything was going smoothly until something unforeseen happened. Mr Shyam mishandled the teacup, causing it to tumble out of his grasp. Not long after, he fainted to one side, toppling over the chair and onto the floor. He was then carried to the hospital. He was given tests and doctors found nothing suspicious in him. Then he was referred to Dr Sudhir Kumar. He recommended the guy get a cardiac evaluation done but did not provide him with any prescription drugs. Also, the physician advised Mr Shyam to stay away from known syncope triggers like prolonged standing, excessive laughing, and strenuous physical activity. The Doctor posted the whole incident and shared it on X. The post reached a lot of views and some people are laughing and some are astonished with the incident. Laughter is the best medicine, however, in case of a 53-year-old, laughter resulted in a visit to emergency department53-year-old Mr Shyam (name changed) was enjoying a nice evening with his family over a cup of tea. They were watching a popular comedy show on TV. Mr Shyam pic.twitter.com/TZJAM45QpC Dr Sudhir Kumar MD DM (@hyderabaddoctor) May 29, 2024 An uncommon medical disorder known as laughter-induced syncope occurs when someone faints from prolonged, hard laughter. Often referred to as fainting, syncope is a brief loss of consciousness that is usually brought on by a reduction in blood pressure that lowers blood supply to the brain. The main symptom is an abrupt, generally transient loss of consciousness. Additional related symptoms could be dizziness or lightheadedness, pale skin, sweating, and nausea. Few studies have been conducted on certain risk variables linked to syncope brought on by laughter. According to experts, there is a possibility that people who have a family history of palpitations, chest pain, or sudden deaths may be more susceptible to syncope overall and thus to laughter-induced syncope in particular. Prevention and patient education are the two main approaches to treating this illness. Laughter-induced syncope has no particular treatment. Management techniques, on the other hand, concentrate on averting situations that could set off syncope episodes, such as loud laughter. This may entail adjusting ones lifestyle, such as staying away from amusing situations or activities, especially if syncope episodes have already happened. Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoors daughter Raha is very adored by the couples fans. With each appearance, fans point out the similarities between Raha and her parents. Amid this, an unseen photo of the actress holding her daughter has surfaced on the microblogging site, Reddit. The photo quickly went viral and fans could not stop gushing over Alia and her mini-me. In the now-viral photo, Alia Bhatt could be seen with a serious expression on her face as she held Raha and walked. Raha matched her mothers expressions and fans flocked to the comments section to express their appreciation. Check it out here: One person wrote, Not the matching expressions lolll. So cute. Another added, Alia has given birth to her mini-me. Actually, the third one coz Alia herself is a ditto of her mum Soni Razdan. Another comment read, I guess after Saif Ali Khan we have now Alia Bhatt giving birth to herself lol! Another fan commented, She is already such a cutie pie and now she looks more like Alia. Another added, This is a black mirror episode. Alia carrying Alia. One person wrote, She has a perfect mini-me version. One fan commented, She literally gave birth to herself . Alia Bhatt married Ranbir Kapoor in April 2022 in an intimate ceremony held at their Mumbai home. The couple then welcomed their daughter Raha in November 2022. Ranbir and Alia officially introduced Raha to the media and the world last Christmas and the blue-eyed baby girl left everyone gushing over her cuteness. Last month, in conversation with her mother, actress Soni Razdan, Alia spoke about how she wouldnt want Raha to move out of home in her early 20s. Talking to The Nod Mag, Alia recalled, I remember when I was pregnant and shooting in London for Heart of Stone, I couldnt sleep for three days because I felt so guilty about how maybe I wasnt a good enough daughter. To this, Soni added, She works hard on her mental health, but there are days she feels anxious about not picking up my calls or giving us any attention. Alia said that she couldnt get enough time to spend with her mother because she started working when she was just 23. She said, I was barely 23 when I moved out of the house. Id be away on long shooting schedules, and sometimes you wouldnt even know which city I was in. So that was a defining point in my life and our relationship. But I do feel I left home too soonand I wont let that happen with Raha. Believe it or not, usually Im a forward-thinking kind of person, but with Raha, Im just taking each day as it comes. Papa recently told me: If you dont let Raha fall down, it will be the biggest mistake youll make because shell never learn how to pick herself up. The most-awaited and entertaining trailer of the year with its twin drama series, Hotstar Specials Bad Cop, is here. Produced by Fremantle India, directed by Aditya Datt and written by Rensil DSilva the series is a complete mass entertainer and set to stream exclusively on the platform. The series is all set to release on June 21, 2024. Bad Cop has been reimagined for India by Fremantle India from RTLs original German drama of the same name. Versatile actor Gulshan Devaiah swiftly steps into the double role of twins Karan & Arjun, who are polar opposites and choose a path of their own. Karan, a power-packed cop and Arjun, a witty thief find their fates intertwined in the most unexpected way, altering the course of their lives forever. Anurag Kashyap effortlessly essays the role of the deadly, manipulative, and lethal, Kazbe Mama, leaving us wanting for more. A righteous cop, Harleen Sethi takes on the role of Devika. Saurabh Sachdeva and Aishwarya Sushmita star in significant roles in this thriller. Talking about the series, Director Aditya Datt said, Bad Cop is like your original cult masala stories with a captivating storyline, a deadly villain and your hero in a double role. I have always been an avid watcher of twin dramas, so when I was working on Bad Cop with Rensil, Aradhana and the team at Fremantle India, we knew this element would be our hook. We have designed the action and chase sequences from scratch and have hoped to provide the audiences a larger than life viewing experience. With actors like Anurag, Gulshan, Harleen, and Saurabh, we wanted to bring a sense of realism to the story. They are all actors who come from a very different school of cinema, and what they bring to the table, no one else can. Audiences are in for a treat and I hope they enjoy this one. Talking about the series and his character, Anurag Kashyap said, Kazbe mama is a one of a kind villain. His aura is charismatic and lethal at the same time. I was scared and sceptical when shooting for gore scenes; as opposed to my films. Kazbe is powerful, hard-hitting and I drew traits from many of the negative characters that I had created, to prepare for this role. Fremantle India and Aditya are great collaborators, and this show has brought to light a very different side of me. I had no process for Kazbe, infact I was inspired by Nana Patekar from Parinda and Irrfan Khan from Haasil. I take the script only before I shoot it and the dialogue writer would help me how to approach it. Its cathartic for me to play a negative character and I take it all out of my system. I hope audiences enjoy me in this avatar. Gulshan Devaiah, on the other hand said, Bad Cop is a thrilling story that doesnt pretend to be anything else but entertaining. What drew me the most to the script was the character/s I had to play. Karan and Arjun are identical twins with very different personalities and moreover one is a cop and the other a crook. Im very happy that Fremantle India and Disney+ Hotstar brought me this opportunity where I yet again get to play twin brothers. Karan and Arjun although twin brothers have a very diffident outlook towards life and are dealing with very different interpersonal problems. A huge twist intertwines their destiny and I think the most challenging aspect of playing the characters started from there because I had to do a lot of action scenes, which Id admit wasnt easy at all. I had to physically and mentally prepare myself first. I think playing the twins in Bad Cop has been the most amazing time Ive had in my career until now and I really hope the masses find it fun too. Dalljiet Kaurs separation from her estranged husband Nikhil Patel has been making headlines for a long time now. Amid all this, the actress took to her Instagram stories on Thursday evening to share a picture of her mangalsutra.In this latest photo, Dalljiet was seen holding mangalsutra in her hand. A mangalsutra is a form of jewellery worn by Indian women to signify their marriage. This comes days after Dalljiet also shared her wedding video online. In the clip, Dalljiet was seen dressed as a bride as she talked about feeling apprehensive about her second marriage. She mentioned that she decided to take a deep breath and say, Lets do it. She captioned the emotional video, 1 year three months back! However, soon after the video was shared, netizens expressed disappointment and fans thronged the comments section, trolling her. Please try to move on, one of the users wrote. Have some self-respect. The man cheated on you, added another. Dalljiet later deleted the video from her Instagram handle. Rumours of Dalljiet and Nikhils separation first made headlines in February this year i.e. after 10 months of their wedding. It all started after the actress left everyone shocked by deleting all her wedding pictures from her Instagram handle. Not just this, she also dropped Patel from her name. However, Nikhil confirmed their separation last week when he told E-Times, In January this year, Dalljiet decided to leave Kenya with her son Jaydon and return to India, which ultimately led to our separation. We both realized that the foundation of our blended family wasnt as strong as we had hoped, making it hard for Dalljiet to settle in Kenya. In March 2023, we held an Indian wedding ceremony in Mumbai. Though it held cultural significance, it was not legally binding. This ceremony was intended to reassure Dalljiets family about her move to Kenya. Despite our efforts, Dalljiet found it challenging to adjust to life in Kenya, missing her career and life in India. The complexities of our family dynamics became increasingly apparent, he added. Reportedly, Nikhil later also sent a legal notice to the actress and accused her of harassment. ETimes reported that Patel said under the Indian Penal Code, The Information Technology Act of 2000 (India), and The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act of 2012 (India), Dalljiet Kaurs social media posts accusing him of an extra-marital affair were wrong. Meanwhile, for the unversed, this was Dalljiet Kaurs second marriage. The actress was previously married to Shalin Bhanot but the two parted ways in 2015 after she accused him of domestic violence. The Bombay High Court has allowed the release of the movie, Hamare Baarah. The decision was announced on Friday after the makers of the film agreed to delete two dialogues from their movie. Since the courts approval, Hamare Baarah will hit theatres on Friday itself i.e. June 7. As reported by India Today, the High Court announced its decision and said that it was done only to balance the equities. The court also felt that the film may also be required to be viewed to draw any conclusion with regard to the rival contentions. The court has also reportedly asked to form a committee of three members, including at least one Muslim member, who will watch the film and report back. Previously, the High Court had imposed a stay on the films release due to the controversy surrounding it. Since its announcement, Hamare Baarah, starring Annu Kapoor, Manoj Joshi, and Paritosh Tripathi, has captured the publics attention for its bold narrative and thought-provoking themes. Several people have alleged that there is a glimpse of uncouth crude and communal propaganda in the films trailer. Others argued that Hamare Baarahs trailer is disturbing and can poison the minds of an entire generation. Amidst the raging controversy, the films trailer was abruptly pulled down from online platforms, after releasing on May 30. Recently, Annu Kapoor also slammed those criticising his film. In an exclusive chat with News18 Showsha, the actor shared that everyone is quick to make judgments on the film even before watching it. He urged people to watch the film first and then make an opinion about it. At a personal and an impersonal level, Im an atheist. My director and producers thought that I was the right person who would be able to implement their vision on celluloid. So, I tried my best to justify my character. Im not bothered about the rest. Films are a make-believe world where Im chosen as an artist and my job is to justify my art, the actor said. People talk about propaganda all the time. Im not bothered about it. I would urge people to watch the film first and then decide what our film stands for. They havent watched it, so I dont understand why theyre judging it, he added. Meanwhile, Hamare Baarah has been banned in Karnataka. Ankita Lokhande is a popular Television actress who shot to fame with the serial Pavitra Rishta opposite Sushant Singh Rajput. The hit serial catapulted her to immense fame and made her a household name. The actress proved her acting mettle and gradually cemented her place in the small screen industry. Later, she ventured into Bollywood and gained further recognition and fame. Her glamour and style statement is often the talk of the town. It is a known fact that the actress loves sarees. But Ankita Lokhande can rock any outfit with the utmost oomph. Here is a quick glimpse of her in a gown- Ankita Lokhane recently wore this stunning strapless gown in white colour. The body-hugging outfit highlighted her toned body and the thigh-high slit added an oomph factor. She elevated her look by choosing a statement earring and high heels. The Pavitra Rishta actress adds her own charm to every outfit she carries. Take a look at this blue and yellow fringe dress with sheer panels below the waist. The actress looked smashing and definitely on fire with her impeccable makeup. Take a look at this teal-coloured layered fringe dress that added drama to her look. What elevated her look further is the flawless makeup with eyeliner on the lids, blushed cheeks and bright tinted lips. The actress slipped into a fairy-tale-ish blue gown. It has a cut-out detail near the torso an asymmetrical hemline and a thigh-high slit. The flowy gown along with her sparkling heels are an excellent pairing. The backless gown highlighted her perfectly toned body. Ankita Lokhande was dressed in a greyish-silver sequinned gown with a side slit. The actress can be seen holding transparent and grey balloons. With the sparkling gown, she added a pair of shimmery black heels and hoops making it the perfect outfit for a birthday evening. Heeramandi songwriter AM Turaz has expressed his disappointment with the actor of Sanjay Leela Bhansalis show. In a recent interview, Turaz accused the actors of stealing the limelight and questioned them for not giving any credit to the technicians who work tirelessly behind the scenes day and night. If actors let the creators of the songs speak The creators are not getting the appreciation that they deserve, Turaz told Bollywood Now. The songwriter demanded respect for writers and urged the actors to speak about them also in their interviews. Until the actors stop hogging all the limelight, you cant create good things, he said and then added, Why did you work with them (directors, writers)? You write it yourself, who is telling you not to? You should credit them because not naming them is like snatching their credit away. And it is unfair. The songwriter further claimed that the writers in Bollywood arent paid well, which affects their creativity. In our industry, all the credit and the appreciation and the money is taken by them (actors). Because the creators are not given enough (credit and money), it affects their creativity and their next project suffers. When the creation is bad, the performances are also bad, he said. Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar stars Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Richa Chadha, Sanjeeda Shaikh, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sharmin Segal Mehta, Farida Jalal, Fardeen Khan, Shekhar Suman and Adhyayan Suman in key roles. It explores the various aspects of a womans trials and tribulations. When Sanjay Leela Bhansali Said Actors Hijack a Project Previously, in an interview with Galatta Plus, Bhansali also said that actors tend to hijack a project when he said, A performance does not belong to an actor. A good performance belongs to a director, dialogue writer, cinematographer, art director, costume designer, choreographer, editor, the guy who has painted the wall behind you. You are saying my performance, but you are never saying that these people are responsible for my performance. Everything is suddenly hijacked by the actor, which is where the problem in Indian cinema is. Heeramandi is currently streaming on Netflix. Jennifer Garner has shared a cryptic post on her Instagram story amid rumours about her ex-husband Ben Afflecks alleged separation with Jennifer Lopez. Garner shared it gets better poem written by Cleo Wade in her Instagram Stories. However, the actress did not add any caption to the post and just tagged the poet along with a heart emoji. The poem reads, when the night sky / falls upon you / look up at her / see the darkness and vastness of her blues / hold your eyes steady on her / watch / the sun sneak in / see how even she, the great big sky / changes with / the new day / This too shall pass. Garner, 52, hasnt yet commented on the rumours surrounding Afflecks marriage with Lopez. Affleck married his Daredevil costar Jennifer Garner in 2005 in a private Turks and Caicos ceremony. They finalised their divorce in October 2018 three years after initially separating. The ex-couple has three kids; Violet, 18, Seraphina, 15, and Samuel, 12. Affleck and Lopez rekindled their romance in 2021 and married the following year. Lately, Lopez has stepped back from the limelight, prioritising her well-being and family over her career. She also cancelled her highly anticipated This Is Me Live tour, which left her fans disappointed. Recently, Lopez penned heartfelt message to her fans, mentioning a lot of negativity out in the world right now, as rumours about her potential separation from Affleck continued to make headlines. Lopez informed fans that her latest film, Atlas, has been trending on number 1 position on Netflix for the past two weeks. I just found out some great news and its all because of YOU!! Lopez wrote in a message to fans on her website, On the J-Lo. Atlas is #1 worldwide again this week!!! Thank you all so much!!! It may seem like theres a lot of negativity out in the world right now but dont let the voices of a few drown out that there is soooo much love out there. Actress-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut was slapped by a CISF guard at the Chandigarh airport on Thursday afternoon. Kangana was travelling to New Delhi days after her Lok Sabha elections win from Himachal Pradeshs Mandi constituency. The CISF woman constable, identified as Kulwinder Kaur, has been suspended. An FIR is being registered against the CISF constable at Chandigarh Airport based on a written complaint by CISF officials. A complaint has also been filed by CISF to the local police. Kangana has now slammed the film industry for celebrating the attack and not supporting her. Taking to Instagram Stories, Kangana wrote, All eyes on Rafah Gang this can happen to you or your children as well. When you celebrate a terror attack on someone be ready for the day it comes back to you as well. In another post that she deleted soon after, she had written, Dear film industry you all are either celebrating or are totally mum on the airport attack on me remember if tomorrow if you walking disarmingly on some street of your country or anywhere else in the world and some Israeli / Palestinian hits you or your children just because you tried to bring eyes to Rafah or stood up for Israeli hostage then you will see I will be fighting for your rights of free speech, if someday you wonder why I am where I am remember you are not me It is to be noted that Bollywood celebs including Alia Bhatt, Priyanka Chopra, Kareena Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Rashmika Mandanna, Sonakshi Sinha, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Triptii Dimri, Dia Mirza and Richa Chadha among others had expressed their solidarity with Palestinians by sharing the viral phrase on their respective Instagram stories. The phrase All Eyes On Rafah gained momentum on social media after Israeli air strikes killed 40 Palestinians and injured dozens in an area in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. CNN-News18 has learned that Kangana Ranaut was slapped by CISF personnel LCT Kulwinder Kaur while proceeding to the boarding gate after the security check. The motive behind the attack remains unclear, but it is speculated that it could be related to Kanganas previous remarks on the farmers protest in India. Kulwinder Kaur mentioned that Kangana had made disparaging remarks about Punjab women during the farmers agitation against the three farm laws. Although the CISF has not offered any clarification on the incident, it is reported that an inquiry committee consisting of senior officers has been set up to look into the matter. Actress-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut was slapped by a CISF guard at the Chandigarh airport on Thursday afternoon. Kangana was travelling to New Delhi days after her Lok Sabha elections win from Himachal Pradeshs Mandi constituency. The CISF woman constable, identified as Kulwinder Kaur, has been suspended. An FIR is being registered against the CISF constable at Chandigarh Airport based on a written complaint by CISF officials. A complaint has also been filed by CISF to the local police. It is deeply troubling to learn about the incident involving Kangana Ranaut and a CISF officer during a security check-in. Such actions represent a severe breach of public trust and security protocols. A duty-bound officer should never allow personal grudges to interfere with Devoleena Bhattacharjee (@Devoleena_23) June 6, 2024 TV actress Devoleena Bhattacharjee has reacted to the incident. Taking to her X account, she wrote, It is deeply troubling to learn about the incident involving Kangana Ranaut and a CISF officer during a security check-in. Such actions represent a severe breach of public trust and security protocols. A duty-bound officer should never allow personal grudges to interfere with their professional responsibilities. This incident raises significant concerns about the safety and security of every citizen when personal vendettas are acted upon in such a manner. Devoleena also wrote that siding with the officers actions means justifying a crime and spreading hatred. She added, Supporting the actions of this CISF officer means justifying a crime and spreading unnecessary hatred. It is crucial to remember that endorsing such behavior sets a dangerous precedent, potentially allowing others to take personal revenge under the guise of authority. We must collectively condemn this act and ensure that those in positions of power are held accountable. The actor also wrote, I urge everyone to consider how they would feel if a similar incident were to happen to their loved ones. This isnt just about one individual, but the standards of conduct we expect from those entrusted with our safety. Lets stand for justice, impartiality, and a system where personal biases have no place in our security forces. CNN-News18 has learned that Kangana Ranaut was slapped by CISF personnel LCT Kulwinder Kaur while proceeding to the boarding gate after the security check. The motive behind the attack remains unclear, but it is speculated that it could be related to Kanganas previous remarks on the farmers protest in India. Kulwinder Kaur mentioned that Kangana had made disparaging remarks about Punjab women during the farmers agitation against the three farm laws. The Karnataka government has banned the release of Annu Kapoors film, Hamare Baarah. As reported by the news agency ANI, the film has been banned in the state for two weeks or until further notice. The state government claimed that the decision had been taken after considering requests from several organizations and after watching the trailer. It further said that the film has been banned to avoid communal tension in the state. The decision is in accordance with the Karnataka Cinema Regulations Act 1964, sections 15(1) and 15(5). What Is The Controversy Around Hamare Baarah? Even before its release, Hamare Baarah has been facing a major backlash from viewers. Several people have alleged that there is a glimpse of uncouth crude and communal propaganda in the films trailer. Others argued that Hamare Baarahs trailer is disturbing and can poison the minds of an entire generation. Amidst the raging controversy, the films trailer was abruptly pulled down from online platforms, after releasing on May 30. Annu Kapoor Opens Up On Hamare Baarah Controversy Recently, Annu Kapoor also slammed those criticising his film. In an exclusive chat with News18 Showsha, the actor shared that everyone is quick to make judgments on the film even before watching it. He urged people to watch the film first and then make an opinion about it. At a personal and an impersonal level, Im an atheist. My director and producers thought that I was the right person who would be able to implement their vision on celluloid. So, I tried my best to justify my character. Im not bothered about the rest. Films are a make-believe world where Im chosen as an artist and my job is to justify my art, the actor said. People talk about propaganda all the time. Im not bothered about it. I would urge people to watch the film first and then decide what our film stands for. They havent watched it, so I dont understand why theyre judging it, he added. Later, in another interview, actor Manoj Joshi, who is also a part of Hamare Baarah, added, This movie was not made to target any religion. Today, there are discussions about the respect of women in our country. In any society, there should be no disrespect to women. A woman is not an object or a thing; she should be respected, as has been happening in this land of India. Secondly, that film talks about various topics such as education, upbringing, employment, womens respect and empowerment, and population. So, everyone should watch this film with their families. Previously, the CBFC granted Hamare Baarah a U/A certification. They also asked the makers to make 11 changes starting with the title of the film. It was earlier christened Hum Do Hamare Baarah. Munjya Review: Some films ride high on emotions, and then some stories ride high on Indian culture and Hindu mythology. Maddock Films is surely managing to balance both kinds with their authenticity. The production house is creating its supernatural universe comprising horror-comedy films that are earthy and rooted in Indian folklore. These films are no less than bedtime stories coming alive. They make you believe in the magic and mystery of Indias rich mythological heritage, that blur the lines between reality and fantasy. The film series kicked off in 2018 with the release of Stree, starring Rajkumar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor. It was then followed by Roohi in 2021, starring Janhvi Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao. The following year, 2022, Bhediya was released with Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon, where the plot draws inspiration from the Arunachal Pradesh legend of the Yapum. Their next movie, Munjya, starring Abhay Verma, Sharvari Wagh, and Mona Singh, perfectly blends the eerie essence of horror with the rich folklore of the Konkan region. The movie draws inspiration from a spirit from the Brahmin community of Konkan, known as Brahma Rakshas. In the film, a dark and twisted legend comes to life as we delve into the haunting past of Bittus (Abhay Verma) family. Years before he was born, his great uncle, once a respected member of the Brahmin community in Konkan, transformed into a fearsome Brahma Rakshas, as he died within 10 days of his mundan ceremony. This was also triggered by his sinister desire to kill his sister, Abhays grandmother (Suhas Joshi), to clear his path to marry his lover, Munni, a woman seven times his age. Adding to the complexity of this tale, Abhays grandmother and Munni were once the closest of friends. Bittu lives with his mom (Mona Singh) and his grandmother in Pune, far from their ancestral home in Chetukwadi, a small village in the Konkan region with a beautiful coastline. Together with his mom, he runs a salon, and they lead a happy, simple life. Things go smoothly for them until one day, they receive an invitation from their village to attend the engagement ceremony of Bittus cousin. Bittus mom, whos reluctant and apprehensive to meet eye-to-eye with her brother-in-law, finds herself in a situation where she is bound to go with her son. Her mother-in-law also accompanies her. As they reach Chetukwadi, they dont really receive a warm welcome. Monas brother-in-law despises her, ever since his brother passed away. Amidst the heated family feud, Bittu, overwhelmed by the tension, flees their home and heads towards the coastline, once walked by his great uncle towards the banyan tree where his tragic demise occurred. There, Bittu encounters the Munjya the spirit transformed by his great uncles restless soul. After a tragic incident, while Bittu gets rescued from that spot, he soon realises that the demon had hit him and marked his territory at his back. The demon who gets behind him threatens him to fulfil his one wish to find his lover Munni and get them married. Abhay Verma is a natural. He steps into the shoes of his character, Bittu, with a lot of conviction. In the film, he is scared and anxious with an honesty that seems so palpable that youd empathise with him. His childlike eyes and smile light up every frame. He brings in the right sense of charm, sense and sensitivity with his on-screen persona. He carries the entire film on his shoulders effortlessly. Another amazing aspect, is Abhays CGI co-star, Munjya. The character is well-made. The animation is pitch-perfect for the monstrous personality he owns. Sharvari Wagh delivers her career-best. Despite a short screen time, her commendable acting skills bring in the required depth. She portrays Bella, a character that brings in a much-needed twist for the film. I would have wanted to see more of her in the film given her potential. Its her second big film, and shes slowly showing her cards. Mona Singh, as always, despite the short screen time, is real and effortless in her scenes. She has the potential to take risks and pick roles that are uncomfortable to watch and unconventional to portray. She does a splendid job on her part and has even outdone herself in some scenes. The movie is balanced and well-paced. The 2-hour 18-minute run-time wouldnt dread you, as the plot keeps you on the edge. The jump scares, the screams, the chase everything feels nail-biting. The scenes are entertaining as well as eerily scary. However, one thing that did not sit right with me was the background score. In parts, the background music, attempting to sound haunting, ended up as mere noise. All in all, Munjya beautifully draws inspiration by blending elements of horror and cultural depth to weave a story that is both enthralling and deeply rooted in Indian mythology. The movie delivers a good cinematic experience owing to its good writing and the gripping folklore. It is a clean entertainer. It has family-friendly written all over it and has all the elements of a typical commercial horror comedy. This is a must-watch for anyone interested in folklore and horror storytelling. And yes, you do not want to miss the post-credit scene. A good watch! On Friday, the NDA gathered its newly elected MPs in the Parliament to claim leadership of the next central government. Telugu star and JSP President Pawan Kalyan, who contested from the Pithapuram Assembly constituency in AP and won, was also present. A clip from the meeting wherein PM Narendra Modi praises the actor-turned-politician is going viral on the internet. Talking about him, the PM said, Yeh pawan nahi hai. Andhi hai. Read more: Pawan Kalyan Is All Smiles As PM Narendra Modi Praises Him At NDA Meet: Pawan Nahi, Andhi Hai | Watch Aishwarya Rai Bachchans song in Bunty Aur Babli, Karja Re, is one of the most iconic songs in Bollywood. From the lyrics to the choreography and costumes, fans love every aspect of the song. It quickly became one of the most talked about moments of the film as we saw Aishwarya groove with Abhishek and Amitabh Bachchan. While several celebrities have tried to recreate the popular song, Anushka Sharmas version has resurfaced online and has now gone viral. Read More: Anushka Sharma Recreates Aishwarya Rai Bachchans Iconic Kajra Re In Viral Video | Watch Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan recently talked about his marriage to Salma Khan during an interview with his son Arbaaz Khan. He shared that before they officially started dating, he wanted to meet Salmas parents, feeling it was wrong to hide their meetings. When he finally visited her house, he joked that it seemed like all the Maharashtrians from India were there, which made him quite nervous. Read more: Salman Khans Dad Salim Khan On His Interfaith Marriage: Father-in-law Said I Was Nice But Religion Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap seldom ventures in front of the camera and treats fans to his acting prowess. He has now teamed up with Gulshan Devaiah for Disney+ Hotstars new series Bad Cop, a classic cop vs villain story with a twist. Anurag recently opened up about what intrigued him about playing a character like Kazbe, who is fearful and deadly with unique quirks. Read more: Anurag Kashyap On Playing Villain In Bad Cop: Being So Emotionally Attached To | Exclusive The Karnataka government has banned the release of Annu Kapoors film, Hamare Baarah. As reported by the news agency ANI, the film has been banned in the state for two weeks or until further notice. The state government claimed that the decision had been taken after considering requests from several organizations and after watching the trailer. It further said that the film has been banned to avoid communal tension in the state. Read more: Karnataka Government BANS Hamare Baarah, Claims Decision Taken To Prevent Communal Tension Urfi Javed has condemned the Kangana Ranaut slap incident. On Friday, the actress took to her Instagram stories and penned down a note expressing disappointment. Urfi mentioned that even though she does not agree with Kanganas political ideology, she believes that violence is never the answer. Dont agree with Kangana Ranaut politically but I still feel it aint right to physically assault someone when you disagree with them. Not cool. Violence is never the answer, she wrote. Urfi Javed is not the first television actress to condemn violence on Kangana Ranaut. Earlier today, Devoleena Bhattacharjee also extended her support to the newly-elected MP and called the slap incident deeply troubling. She penned down a long note on her X handle and questioned those who are supporting the CISF personnel. It is deeply troubling to learn about the incident involving Kangana Ranaut and a CISF officer during a security check-in. Such actions represent a severe breach of public trust and security protocols. A duty-bound officer should never allow personal grudges to interfere with their professional responsibilities. This incident raises significant concerns about the safety and security of every citizen when personal vendettas are acted upon in such a manner, a part of Devoleenas note read. Supporting the actions of this CISF officer means justifying a crime and spreading unnecessary hatred. It is crucial to remember that endorsing such behaviour sets a dangerous precedent, potentially allowing others to take personal revenge under the guise of authority. We must collectively condemn this act and ensure that those in positions of power are held accountable, it added. On Thursday, Kangana Ranaut was travelling to New Delhi when she was slapped by an on-duty female CISF constable at the Chandigarh Airport. The female CISF staff identified as Kulwinder Kaur was unhappy with Kangnas comment on Punjab ladies during the farmers agitation against the three farm laws, suggesting they participated in the protest for money. The lady constable was arrested later in the evening. Later, Kangana also issued a video statement to talk about the incident and questioned terrorism in Punjab. Namastey dosto! I have been getting a lot of phone calls from the media and my well-wishers. I am safe, I am perfectly fine. What happened at the Chandigarh airport today was during the security check. When I left after the security check, the CISF personnel hit me on my face. She abused me. When I asked her why she did it, she told me that she supports farmers protests. I am safe but my concern is, how do we handle terror in Punjab? she said. The CISF woman constable, who allegedly slapped actor and BJP MP-elect Kangana Ranaut, has been arrested after she was suspended in the wake of the incident, a video of which went viral on the internet. Ranaut, in a video message, had on Thursday said she was hit in the face and abused by the constable during a security check at the Chandigarh airport, the ugly fracas breaking out two days after she was elected to the Lok Sabha from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh. The constable Kulwinder Kaur, who appeared to be upset with Ranaut over her stance on the farmers protests, was earlier suspended and a probe was launched into the incident. The CISF, tasked with providing security at airports, had also ordered a court of inquiry into the incident. The constable, Ranaut had said, came towards her from the side. She hit me in the face and started abusing me. I asked her why she did it and she said she supports the farmer protests. I am safe but my concern is that terrorism and extremism are increasing in Punjab How do we handle that?, Ranaut had said. Another video doing the rounds of social media had shown the agitated constable talking to people presumably after the incident. Kangana made a statement (earlier) that farmers were protesting in Delhi because they were paid Rs 100 or Rs 200. At the time, my mother was one of the protesters, she said in the purported video. Earlier today, some farmer outfits threw their weight behind the CISF woman constable who allegedly slapped Kangana, saying the entire sequence leading to the incident needs to be properly investigated. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha were among the prominent outfits which said they stand in support of the CISF woman constable. SKM (Non-Political) leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher said they will meet Punjabs Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav for a proper investigation into the matter. We will demand a proper investigation and we will tell him that there should be no injustice with the woman constable, Dallewal said. (With agency inputs) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has asked both the winning and defeated election candidates of the party to stay in their constituencies and continue working closely with the people, rather than being in the capital city. In a pep talk, while addressing these candidates at Bengalurus Bharat Jodo Auditorium, Gandhi congratulated the MPs who won and told those who were defeated not to lose heart, continue working for the people with dedication, and not neglect their constituencies. The Congress won nine out of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, up from just one in 2019. The Bharatiya Janata Party bagged 17 seats this time and its alliance partner Janata Dal (Secular) won 2. Several leaders that News18 spoke to said Rahul Gandhi was very encouraging during the meeting. He energised us again and wanted us to do better at every given opportunity, said a leader. Gandhi, in his 15-minute address, sent out a strong message that it was important to safeguard the Constitution of India and work with the people who have supported the Congress in its endeavour to do so. He said that in Karnataka the Congress was expecting more seats, at least 15 seats, but we will accept the decision of the people and continue working with sincerity. He said that the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have taught the BJP a lesson and people have once again understood the values that the Congress brings, said another leader who did not wish to be named. Yet another leader told News18 that Gandhi spoke extensively on how the Dalits have voted in favour of the party and it is important that each and every caste and community is served and taken care of. He told us to continue our fight to win back democracy, how we have been successful in some places and not so successful in others, but the work must go on. We must stay strong and fight for the country; they are our people, and we must continue in the same spirit in wins and losses, said a leader who wished to remain anonymous. Gandhis meeting, though initially aimed at trying to analyse the Congresss shortfall in reaching the 15-seat mark, restricted itself to statements that pepped up the morale of those present, a leader said. Gandhi also had a word of caution about not trusting everything that the media says or does and keeping their eyes and ears close to the ground. He said this election has shown that people are no longer enamoured by Narendra Modis personality cult, and it has been destroyed, seeing how voters voted for the Congress. The Congress fought this election with its hands tied behind its back, even with the media taking sides. Yet the results have been very good, and it has shown how the people are fed up with Modi and his false promises was what he told us, said another Congress leader present in the meeting. Gandhi also spoke of how the National Democratic Alliance may have won 293 seats, but the coalition partners are already fighting internally. Nitish is asking for a caste census, Chandrababu Naidu is against it, then there is the fight for portfolios; they are already on sticky ground. Whatever their problems, we are going to stick to our Congress ideologies and work for the people of the country, said a Congress leader. Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah and party state unit president DK Shivakumar also attended the meeting and expressed their intent to continue working towards the Congresss goals. Where you sit matters, especially in politics. So, when Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary with two MPs was not spotted on the dais at the NDA parliamentary meeting on Friday, it led to much controversy and a social media trending debate. Buoyed by a good Lok Sabha electoral performance in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party jumped in, asking why the RLD president was missing from the stage and seen sitting among other MPs. The SP pointed a finger at the Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJPs hatred for the Jat community and the false respect towards late Chaudhary Charan Singh and Chaudhary Ajit Singh has been exposed. If Jayant Chaudhary is truly a farmer-friendly leader, he should distance himself from the NDA and raise his voice against the BJP for the interest of farmers. He should not trade his self-respect and farmer interests for small and close temptations with the BJP, it said. The RLD, however, dismissed it as a small issue. The party had walked out of an alliance with the Congress and SP just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and joined hands with the BJP. Government and Parliament sources issued a clarification. There was a pecking order of the seating, they said. N Chandrababu Naidu: former CM. Going to be CM Pawan Kalyan: Going to be deputy CM Anupriya Patel: Incumbent union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi: Former CM of Bihar Chirag Paswan: With 5 MPs (third biggest constituent of NDA) HD Kumaraswamy: Former CM of Karnataka All other NDA constituents like Jayant Chaudahry of RLD, chief ministers, and deputy CMs were seated in the Central Hall of Parliament, said the sources. The fact that PM Narendra Modi was flanked by Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar over two days, including during the NDA meeting has also been noticed. Its an effort to show the bonhomie between the three to counter the INDIA front narrative that the government about to be formed may not survive the tugs of coalition politics, said the sources. With a belligerent opposition, every issue is an issue to take on the government. And where Jayant Chaudhary sat is not an issue that the opposition will allow to be forgotten in a hurry. Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar has expressed unhappiness over state BJP minister Chandrakant Patils comment on Sharad Pawar during the recent Lok Sabha election campaign. Seeking to blame the BJP minister for negative impact in voting, Ajit Pawar, whose wife lost in Baramati to Supriya Sule by more than 1.5 lakh votes, said Patil should not have made the statement against his uncle. Patil, while addressing reporters in Baramati, had made clear his intentions to defeat Sharad Pawar in his stronghold. He had accused the NCP patriarch of undermining the 2019 election mandate that favoured the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance by taking away the Shiv Sena, despite the alliance securing 161 MLA seats. I and my party workers want defeat of Sharad Pawar in Baramati and that is enough for us, Patil had said during electioneering. Ajit Pawar had then responded to Patils remarks, saying, Sharad Pawar was not a contestant for Baramati Lok Sabha seat. It was a wrong statement made by Patil, and after he said it, we asked him not to campaign in Baramati. I had said it then and I am saying it now. People didnt like his (Patils) statement that he had come to Baramati to defeat (Sharad) Pawar, Ajit Pawar told reporters on Thursday. His latest statement, coming after his wife lost to Sule, is being seen as an attempt to put the onus for the poll debacle to the negative impact Patils remarks had in the constituency. Sule, daughter of NCP founder and Ajit Pawars uncle Sharad Pawar, bagged 7,32,312 votes as against 5,73,979 votes polled by Sunetra and won by a margin of 1,58,333 votes. After attending the key NDA parliamentary party meeting on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met veteran BJP leaders LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi at their residence in Delhi ahead of the Sunday swearing-in ceremony of the two-time PM after his re-election. His meetings with the top BJP leaders came shortly before his schedule to meet President Droupadi Murmu to present her with the list of parliamentarians supporting him and stake a claim to form the government. Went to Advani Jis residence and sought his blessings. Every @BJP4India Karyakarta is inspired by Advani Jis monumental efforts to strengthen the Party, Modi wrote in a post on X. #WATCH | PM Narendra Modi meets Bharat Ratna and veteran BJP leader LK Advani at the latters residence in Delhi. pic.twitter.com/fZtIlOj5yw Newly elected MPs of the BJP-led NDA today met at the old Parliament building to elect Modi as their leader, paving the way for him to take oath as the countrys PM for the third term. As the NDA leaders gathered at Parliament to name Modi as the alliances leader, Bihar CM Nitish and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu pledged their support to the Modi-led NDA government. Called on Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi Ji. I have learnt so much from him when I was working in the Party organisation. He is greatly respected across India for his wisdom and knowledge, Modi said in a post on X. #WATCH | PM Narendra Modi meets veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi at the latters residence, in Delhi pic.twitter.com/7yuTbEZB54 ANI (@ANI) June 7, 2024 Earlier today, PM Modi addressed the Parliamentary meeting that elected him as the NDA leader. As the meeting began, senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh proposed Narendra Modis name as the leader of the BJP and National Democratic Alliance in Lok Sabha. Senior members of the alliance like TDPs Chandrababu Naidu, JD(U)s Nitish Kumar and Shiv Senas Eknath Shinde, who vowed support to the NDA government, will join the PM for a meeting with President Murmu. Modi will be sworn in as PM for the third time over the weekend. The NDA has 293 MPs, comfortably above the majority mark of 272 in the 543-member Lok Sabha. Senior BJP leaders, including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and J P Nadda, have also been holding talks with BJP allies to work out an amicable formula for their share of representation in the new government. Telugu Desam Party leader Nara Lokesh on Friday attributed the NDAs stellar performance in the Andhra Pradesh assembly and Lok Sabha polls to teamwork. The TDP won 16 Lok Sabha and 135 seats in Andhra and has emerged as a key player in the National Democratic Alliance that is set to form the government again at the Centre as well as in the state. Lokesh, the son of TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, said in an exclusive interview with CNN-News18 that his partys support to Narendra Modi is unconditional. Edited excerpts: Were you expecting this kind of a win in the Lok Sabha and assembly polls? What would you attribute this victory to? It was a teamwork that we did. We won 164 out of 175 Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh. I did 3,132 padyatras where I got a chance to meet people from all walks of life. There was a lot of hatred and resentment against the government. Apart from inefficiency and complacency, people didnt like the arrogance with which they were being governed. One of the major reasons for their loss is arrogance. No government should be arrogant. It should be approachable. It should be the peoples government, a government led by the people. That is the approach with which NDA in Andhra is forming the government. Six months ago, it was a difficult time. Your father was arrested and the party was on shaky grounds. What gave you hope that you will turn it around and what gave you hope that people will vote for you the way they have? TDP is never on shaky ground and that is because of our strong cadre base. We always bounce back stronger and thats been our history. When Mr Naidu was arrested, people across 100 countries stood in solidarity with him. In Hyderabad, IT professionals held a gratitude concert, and close to 45,000 IT professionals joined. That is the strength we have. That is what has remained. So, I never had any doubt, about TDP forming the government, even before or after Mr Naidus arrest or during my padyatras. CBN is the architect of modern-day Hyderabad. He brought in Cyberabad. First politician to have almost a CEO-type approach for governance. Can we see the same vision and approach for Amaravati? Will Mr Modi and Mr Naidu be on the same page for this? What should we expect? Mr Naidu was invited by Mr Modi to attend the vision for India summit, where they spoke about Viksit Bharat. Why cant India be a developed country after 100 years of its independence? Hyderabad is an example where we created massive economic activity. Back then, circumstances were different. It was all about one city. No one knew Hyderabad internationally. Now we have a golden opportunity. Andhra is a big state, different districts can have different thrust areas. If you look at five years of TDP government, Anantpur, which is one of the most backward districts of India, got Kia Motors to invest in, Chittoor district, one of the most dry districts, we got electronics manufacturing cluster there. So, we took each district and thought why cant we create a micro-ecosystem across a theme like automotive, electronics, pharma, defence, IT in Vizag, capital city Amaravati. We took a thematic approach. Unfortunately, we lost power then and all those thoughts scuttled. Our agenda is development, and we will start all the work that stopped. The first promise in our manifesto is to create 20 lakh jobs in five years and that means we have to create a robust economy in AP. In the past, the way we worked with Vajpayee ji, we look forward to working with Modi ji to make India strong. What are your demands? All speculation. TDPs support to Vajpayee ji and now Modi ji is unconditional. We continue to extend our support to NDA unconditionally. We believe that the nation needs a strong leadership. A leadership that has vision, a leadership that can make India a developed nation. We believe in Narendra Modi ji. No second thoughts about it. We have never asked for anything. We have never asked for ministries. Yes, we will ask for funds, performance-linked incentives to promote industries. That is how AP developed. We will need the Centres help there. What about special status? Just to set the context, the bifurcation of the state was against the wishes of the majority of the state. The single reason was that 62 years were spent in the development of Hyderabad. All investments went there. There were certain commitments made to us in the bifurcation bill on which we continued to fight. Special status is one such commitment. Special status was given to AP because its mainly an agrarian economy. We now look forward to creating 20 lakh jobs. Andhra has the longest coastline, which can create a lot of work. Our agenda is clear. And how would you address any differences? We will discuss this across the table. The kind of relationship we had with Vajpayee ji was golden and we look forward to this. We dont want to fight. We want solutions. Would you want a state role or a central role for you? I have lots of agenda. I have a lot of work to do. I look forward to working in the state and contributing to building a strong nation. How has the journey been, from Stanford to being a politician? Its been incredible. Stanford taught me how to manage business, but padyatras taught me about Andhra, about Bharat. Its been a phenomenal experience. An eye-opener. The average speed of Vande Bharat trains has decreased from 84.48 kmph in 2020-21 to 76.25 kmph in 2023-24, the railway ministry said in a response to an RTI query. Railway officials said not only Vande Bharats but many other trains are also maintaining cautionary speed at places were huge infrastructural work is underway. Besides this, some Vande Bharat trains have been launched in difficult terrain areas where there are speed restrictions due to geographical reasons or extreme weather conditions, a railway official said. Citing the example of the Vande Bharat train between Mumbai CSMT and Madgaon, an official of the Central Railway Zone said, Most of the Konkan railway area is ghat section where trains pass through low height mountain ranges. It is a difficult terrain area where increasing speed could compromise safety. Things become very challenging during the monsoon season when we have to keep the maximum speed for all trains at 75 kmph, he added. The RTI applicant, Madhya Pradesh-based Chandra Shekhar Gaur, said, The data, obtained through the RTI, shows that the average speed of Vande Bharat trains was 84.48 in 2020-21, which decreased to 81.38 kmph in 2022-23. It further deteriorated in 2023-24 to 76.25. Launched on February 15, 2019, the Vande Bharat is a semi-high speed train which can run at a maximum speed of 160 kmph. However, it cannot go beyond 130 kmph anywhere in the country, except on the Delhi-Agra route, due to unsuitable track conditions. There are certain segments of tracks between Delhi and Agra which were developed in 2016 for Indias first semi-high speed train Gatiman Express to run at 160 kmph. Only on those segments, the Vande Bharat also runs at 160 kmph speed. Rest of the places, its maximum speed is either 130 or less than, another railway official said. He said the railways has been upgrading tracks to meet the speed requirement of the Vande Bharat and it is because of these reasons there are cautions at various places. Once these upgrades are over, we will have trains which will go up to 250 kmph, the official said. Some of the routes on which the Vande Bharats speed is worse than its overall average speed are Dehradun-Anand Vihar (63.42 kmph), Patna-Ranchi (62.9 kmph) and Coimbatore-Bangalore Cantt (58.11 kmph). An expert engaged in track construction said the first Vande Bharat was launched in February 2019 and it has been more than five years since then, but the railways is yet to replace tracks on any route so that the train can run at its maximum operating speed of 160 kmph. The railways argument is that since infrastructure work is going on, it restricts the speed of Vande Bharat trains. But this is also true that in five years, it has failed to lay tracks suitable for running semi-high speed trains, the expert said requesting anonymity. However, the railway ministry maintains that Vande Bharat trains are very popular and till March 31, more than 2.15 crore people have travelled by it. The Vande Bharat lists a number of features such as Kavach protection, faster acceleration and semi-high speed operation up to 160 kmph, fully sealed gangway for free passenger movement, automatic plug doors, reclining ergonomic seats and comfortable seating with revolving seats in executive class, better ride comfort among others. A total of 284 districts across the country have been connected to the Vande Bharat Express and This number will continue to increase in the future. A total of 102 Vande Bharat trains are providing services on 100 routes of the railway network, a railway official said. Google and Samsung have upped their OS support for flagship and other tier devices. But Apple has been doing that for many years without blowing the trumpet for everyone to hear. Now, the company seems to have changed its strategy, as an official document reveals what the iPhone 15 buyers can expect from Apple in terms of the iOS upgrades and for how many years they will be supported. iPhone users have generally felt comfortable with the iOS upgrade timeline for their devices, even the older ones but Googles latest manoeuvre suggests a change is warranted. What Apple Says About iOS Support for iPhone 15 Models Apples support document in the UK, spotted by reliable tipster Mishaal Rahman says that iPhone 15 users will get a minimum of 5 years of OS updates from the company. As we all know that Google and Samsung have increased their respective OS policies recently, where Google has raised the stakes by promising 7 years of updates for Pixel users. Why Now, Apple? Could these changes have forced Apple to make these details public after all these years, it is quite possible. But we are hoping that Apple also looks to increase its support for iPhones and that could start when the iPhone 16 models are announced later this year. We have usually seen Apple quietly go about its business and keep its customers happy with reliable service experience and product shelf life. Even the resale value of iPhones help the brand gain higher traction and in countries like India, iPhones are viewed as an aspirational purchase. And while Google says it will offer 7 years of OS upgrades for the newer Pixel phones, we cant be assured of the fact that these devices will run for that long. In comparison, Apple has shown its quality can last the mile, so if the company decides to increase its support claim anytime soon, people would probably believe it over Google with its previous track record in play. OS support is not only about keeping the device refreshed but also allowing them the scope to fight any possible security issues that can later become a major concern for millions and the companies as well. Thomas Dohmke, CEO of GitHub is currently in India on a business trip. GitHub is a platform that allows people to create, store and share their code. Although this is Thomas Dohmkes first visit as the CEO of Microsoft-owned GitHub, this is not the first time he has been to the country. On Wednesday, the tech CEO announced his arrival in India by sharing a 2008 photo from his previous visit to Bengaluru. Thomas Dohmkes throwback photo appears to have been taken at Brigade Road, a bustling commercial area in the city. While sharing this photo, Thomas Dohmke wrote, Although this is my first visit as GitHub CEO in India, this is not my first time here. I love this country. This is me in 2008, in Bengaluru I havent aged at all. India is at the nexus of monumental economic opportunity, as it is set to become the worlds largest developer community at the exact point in time when the age of AI is taking off. More from me on this soon. This post gained over 3 lakh likes. Although this is my first visit as GitHub CEO in India, this is not my first time here. I love this country. This is me in 2008, in Bengaluru I havent aged at all India is at the nexus of monumental economic opportunity, as it is set to become the worlds largest developer pic.twitter.com/Afhe6taG9S Thomas Dohmke (@ashtom) June 5, 2024 Soon after dropping the above-mentioned throwback photo, the tech mogul also shared a lighthearted post about Indian food. He posted a photo that showed a bowl of green chillies kept along with a bottle of Bhut Jolokia hot sauce. He wrote, I survived. Barely! The food is so damn good here. Bhut Jolokia, also known as ghost pepper, is believed to be one of the hottest chilli peppers in the world I survived. Barely! The food is so damn good here. pic.twitter.com/RPIeLIkCgA Thomas Dohmke (@ashtom) June 6, 2024 The GitHub CEO also took X to share his optimistic attitude towards Indian engineers and tech workers excelling in the field of artificial intelligence technologies. In an X post, he wrote, Its not just how you will build with AI, its the AI innovation you will build right here in India. The next great AI startup will be as likely to come from Mumbai or Bengaluru as SF or Seattle. Its not just how you will build with AI, its the AI innovation you will build right here in India. The next great AI startup will be as likely to come from Mumbai or Bengaluru as SF or Seattle. #githubconstellation coming soon Thomas Dohmke (@ashtom) June 6, 2024 In another post, he wrote, India has always been known as a vivid tapestry of creative expression. But what I also know: there is still yet a sleeping tiger of Indian creativity waiting to be unleashed. Together, we will unleash it. India has always been known as a vivid tapestry of creative expression. But what I also know: there is still yet a sleeping tiger of Indian creativity waiting to be unleashed. Together, we will unleash it. Thomas Dohmke (@ashtom) June 7, 2024 So far, during his trip to India, Thomas Dohmke has had meetings with Paytm, HCL Technologies and Microsoft. The Boeing Starliner with astronaut Sunita Williams and her crewmate Butch Wilmore safely docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday. The 59-year-old Indian-origin astronaut became the first woman to pilot and test a new crewed spacecraft on its maiden mission. Celebrating her arrival at the space station, she did a little happy dance and hugged the seven other astronauts who was there along with her at the ISS. Hugs all around! The Expedition 71 crew greets Butch Wilmore and @Astro_Suni aboard @Space_Station after #Starliner docked at 1:34 p.m. ET on June 6. pic.twitter.com/wQZAYy2LGH Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) June 6, 2024 Earlier, Williams carried an idol of Lord Ganesh and the Bhagavad Gita to space and this was her third trip. As a part of an old tradition in ISS, Ms Williams and Mr Wilmore were welcomed by the ringing of a bell, an NDTV report stated. While talking about her dance party, Williams said, Thats the way to get things going. She thanked all her crewmembers for such a great welcome, while calling them another family. Ms Williams and Mr Willmore are the first crew to fly Starliner and the duo successfully docked the Boeing spacecraft to the ISS, 26 hours after launching from Floridas Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Wilmore and Williams retired Navy captains and former space station residents stressed repeatedly before the launch that they had full confidence in Boeings ability to get it right with this test flight. Crippled by bad software, Starliners initial test flight in 2019 without a crew had to be repeated before NASA would let its astronauts strap in. The 2022 do-over went much better, but parachute problems later cropped up and flammable tape had to be removed from the capsule. Boeing was hired alongside Elon Musks SpaceX a decade ago to ferry NASAs astronauts to and from the space station. The space agency wanted two competing US companies for the job in the wake of the space shuttles retirement, paying $4.2 billion to Boeing and just over half that to SpaceX, which refashioned the capsule it was using to deliver station supplies. SpaceX launched astronauts into orbit in 2020, becoming the first private business to achieve what only three countries Russia, the US and China had mastered. It has taken nine crews to the space station for NASA and three private groups for a Houston company that charters flights. Four Indian medical students drowned when they entered a fast-flowing river near St Petersburg in Russia, authorities said on Friday, prompting the Indian embassy here to issue an advisory to the students to be extremely careful while going to the beaches, rivers, lakes, ponds and other water bodies. In the worst tragedy to hit the Indian student community in Russia, four students from Maharashtra Harshal Anantrao Desale, Jishan Ashpak Pinjari, Jia Firoj Pinjari and Malik Gulamgous Mohammad Yakub drowned in the Volkhov River. They were studying at the Novgorod State University in Veliky Novgorod city. A fifth student, Nisha Bhupesh Sonawane, was rescued. The Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi termed it as an unfortunate incident. Four Indian students who were studying at the Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University located in Veliky Novgorod, Russia, drowned in an unfortunate incident in the Volkhov river. In the incident, a fifth Indian student was saved from drowning and is presently receiving medical attention, it said. Local emergency services have so far recovered two dead bodies from the Volkhov River. The search for the remaining two missing students continues. Local media reports said that the students drowned as they tried to save one of their female friends. They all were aged 18-20. The tragedy has prompted the Indian embassy here to issue an advisory to the students. Unfortunate incidents of drowning of Indian students in Russia are taking place from time to time. In such incidents this year so far, four Indian students have lost their lives. In the year 2023 there were two incidents and in 2022, there were six cases of death of Indian students by drowning, the embassy said on Friday. The Embassy, therefore, urges Indian students in Russia to be extremely careful while going to beaches, rivers, lakes, ponds and other water bodies. Students are advised to take all necessary precautions and safety measures in this regard, it added. Two of the four students, Jishan and Jia, were siblings. They hailed from Amalner in the Jalgaon district. Harshal Desale belonged to Bhadgaon, also in the Jalgaon district. Jalgaon district collector Ayush Prasad said arrangements are being made to bring the bodies to India. We are working to send the bodies to the relatives as soon as possible. Proper treatment is also being provided to the student whose life has been saved, the Embassy of India in Moscow said on X. The Consulate General of India in St Petersburg said these students were pursuing medical education at Veliky Novgorod State University. Sincere condolences to the bereaved families, it posted on X. The Consulate General said it was working together with the local authorities of Veliky Novgorod to send the mortal remains to the relatives as soon as possible. The bereaved families have been contacted and assured of all the possible help, it said. A family member told local media: When they entered the Volkhov River, Jishan made a video call to his family. His father and other family members were pleading with Jishan and others to come out of the river waters when a strong wave swept them away. In a message to the Indian envoy to Russia, the administration of Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University has expressed condolences over the tragedy. The students were taking a walk near the citys beach along the Volkhov River, in the evening, during their study-free time. The tragedy was accidental and unexpected. Nisha Bhupesh Sonawane survived. Now she is under the care of medical staff, a university official said. The universitys representatives are monitoring her state closely and doing everything possible to help her, he added. The university informed the parents immediately and is currently working closely with all respective agencies in the Russian Federation, he said. The university has requested the Indian envoy for assistance in repatriation of the students bodies to India, he added. In June last year, two final-year MBBS students from Kerala drowned in a lake in Russia. They were studying at Smolensk State Medical University. Indian students study medicine across Russia. There are around 25,000 Indian nationals of which a majority are Indian students studying medicine, the Indian embassy said, quoting the latest data. There are also Indian students studying engineering, economics, sciences and other subjects in other universities. Israeli strikes hammered a Gaza refugee camp on Friday after a deadly strike on a UN-run school there, as the war sparked by Hamass unprecedented attack on Israel entered its ninth month. The conflict has killed thousands, laid waste to much of the Gaza Strip, uprooted most of its 2.4 million population and put them at risk of starvation. Diplomatic efforts to mediate the first ceasefire since a week-long pause in November appear to have stalled, only a week after US President Joe Biden offered a new three-stage roadmap. Hamas has yet to respond to Bidens proposal. Israel has expressed openness to discussions while insisting on pursuing its war aim of destroying the Palestinian Islamist group. Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, said at least 37 people were killed in Thursdays Israeli strike on the UN-run school in Nuseirat camp. The Israeli military said its fighter jets killed nine terrorists in three classrooms where about 30 militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad had been hiding. UNRWA said hundreds of displaced Palestinians had been sheltering at the school which was hit without prior warning. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the strike as another horrific example of the price that civilians are paying. Strikes across Gaza The United States, which provides Israel with $3.8 billion in annual military aid, urged its ally to be fully transparent about the strike. The government of Israel has said that they are going to release more information about this strike, including the names of those who died in it. We expect them to be fully transparent in making that information public, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. Israel accuses Hamas and its allies in Gaza of using schools, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure including facilities run by UNRWA as operational centres charges the militants deny. A day after the school was struck, eyewitnesses said the Nuseirat refugee camp came under attack again as Gaza faced Israeli attacks from land, sea, and air. A source at Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said the Isa family home in the Bureij refugee camp was targeted, wounding several people. Witnesses also confirmed Israeli strikes east of Deir al-Balah, as well as intensive fire from army vehicles near the Bureij camp, where a blaze was raging. The Israeli military said it eliminated dozens of terrorists in eastern Bureij and eastern Deir al-Balah, and was continuing operations in the southern city of Rafah. In Gaza City, casualties were reported from an Israeli strike on the Ashram family home near Al-Salam mosque, according to a source at Baptist Hospital. Six people were killed and several wounded in an Israeli strike on the Wafati home in Maghazi camp, said a source at Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital. Fighter jets targeted the Al-Sultan neighbourhood of Rafah, sources in the city on the border with Egypt said. Gaza also came under fire from the sea, with Israeli warships bombarding homes in the fishermens port area, among others, west of Gaza City, an AFP correspondent said. Osama al-Kahlut of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said occupation forces and snipers east of Deir al-Balah were firing on people along Gazas main thoroughfare. Gunfire on Salaheddin Street has severely restricted peoples movement, and several wounded people have been evacuated from the area, he told AFP. Israeli isolation The war was sparked by Hamass October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Militants also took 251 hostages, 120 of whom remain in Gaza, including 41 the army says are dead. Israels retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 36,654 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territorys health ministry. Israel has faced growing diplomatic isolation, with international court cases accusing it of war crimes and several European countries recognising a Palestinian state. Spain, which last week sparked Israeli fury by formally recognising Palestinian statehood, said Thursday it would become the latest country to join South Africas case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has meanwhile accepted an invitation from lawmakers in the United States to address Congress on July 24, a congressional source told AFP. A week ago, Biden outlined what he labelled an Israeli plan to halt the fighting for six weeks while hostages are exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and the delivery of aid into Gaza is stepped up. G7 powers and Arab states have backed the proposal, with 16 world leaders joining Bidens call for Hamas to accept the deal. There is no time to lose. We call on Hamas to close this agreement, the joint statement said. Just words Egypts state-linked Al-Qahera news quoted a high-level source on Thursday saying Cairo had received positive signs from the Palestinian movement signalling its aspiration for a ceasefire. But the Beirut-based senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan later cast doubt on the proposal, calling it just words. Qatars foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday that Hamas has not yet given its response to the truce plan. Major sticking points include Hamas insisting on a permanent truce and full Israeli withdrawal demands Israel has rejected. The war has caused tensions to soar across the Middle East, with increased violence between Israel and its allies on one side, and Iran-backed armed groups on the other. The Israeli military on Thursday announced a soldier was killed in a drone strike by Lebanons Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group the day before on Hurfeish. Israeli politicians have threatened more intense fighting against Hezbollah. Netanyahu said this week that Israel was prepared for a very intense operation along the border with Lebanon. The state of Israel is in a difficult campaign on many fronts, he said. This effort is being carried out amid complicated international pressure on us. Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu has accepted the invitation to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modis swearing-in ceremony in New Delhi over the weekend, according to a media report on Friday. News portal Edition.mv quoted its sister-publication in Dhivehi, Mihaaru News, as saying that President Muizzu will leave for New Delhi on Saturday for the ceremony accompanied by several other senior government officials. There was no official confirmation yet from the Maldives Presidents Office about Muizzus first official visit to India. Earlier on Wednesday, Muizzu had congratulated Modi and voiced his desire to work with the Indian prime minister to advance the bilateral ties. Congratulations to Prime Minister @narendramodi and the BJP and BJP-led NDA, on the success in the 2024 Indian General Election, for the third consecutive term. I look forward to working together to advance our shared interests in pursuit of shared prosperity and stability for our two countries, Muizzu posted on X. This marks the pro-China presidents first official visit to India since assuming office on November 17 last year. Unlike his predecessors, who made the first port of call to New Delhi after assuming office, Muizzu had travelled to Turkiye first and to China for his first state visit in January. Within hours of his oath, Muizzu had demanded the removal of 88-odd Indian military personnel from his country, straining bilateral ties. The military personnel were repatriated from three aviation platforms and replaced by civilians from India by the May 10 deadline set by Muizzu. The swearing-in ceremony is expected to witness the presence of leaders from neighbouring countries, including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal, Mauritius, and Seychelles, in addition to the Maldives, as part of Indias Neighbourhood First policy. Nepal government has recalled ambassadors from 11 countries, including those serving in India and the US and appointed under the Nepali Congress quota, three months after Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda terminated his alliance with the party and joined hands with KP Sharma Oli. Despite strong reservations from Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha, the government on Thursday recalled these ambassadors, including Nepals envoy to India Shankar Sharma, The Kathmandu Post newspaper reported. This comes ahead of Prime Minister Prachandas likely visit to New Delhi on Sunday to witness Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis swearing-in ceremony. Such a move sends a very undiplomatic message, multiple foreign ministry officials told the newspaper. Foreign Minister Shrestha had reportedly been opposing the proposal to recall ambassadors appointed in the quota for the Nepali Congress and other parties, but Prime Minister Dahal and CPN-UML Chairman Oli unilaterally decided to recall the ambassadors, a minister told the paper. Foreign Minister Shrestha reportedly told both Dahal and Oli not to recall all 11 envoys because the performance of some of them was good, the minister said. Dahal and Oli are learnt to have pressured Shrestha to accept the move which was later decided by the Cabinet. The decision was supposed to come from the foreign ministry but the Cabinet had endorsed it without much discussion. Shrestha opposed the decision in the Cabinet meeting too, sources said. The recalled ambassadors are Sharma (India), Sridhar Khatri (USA), Gyan Chandra Acharya (United Kingdom) and Jyoti Pyakurel Bhandari (South Korea). They were appointed in the quotas allotted to the Nepali Congress when the party president Sher Bahadur Deuba headed the government in 2021. Sharma, Acharya and Khatri were recommended ambassadors in October, 2021. Other ambassadors whose terms were cut short are Naresh Bikram Dhakal (Qatar), Nawaraj Subedi (Saudi Arabia), Sharmila Parajuli Dhakal (Spain), Ram Swartha Ray Yadav (Denmark), Kanta Rizal (Israel), Dilliraj Poudel (Malaysia) and Salin Nepal (Portugal). Dhakal, Rizal and Nepal were also appointed in the Congress quota before the party left the Dahal-led government in March. Subedi and Yadav were recommended by the Janata Samajbadi Party. Dhakal was appointed in the quota for the Prachanda-led CPN (Maoist Centre) but her influence in the party was weak, sources claimed. Poudel was appointed in the quota for the CPN (Unified Socialist) but he failed to build a cordial relationship with Minister for Labour D P Aryal. The envoys have been given three to four weeks to return, according to a minister. Four Indian students drowned in a river near St Petersburg, Russia, the Indian mission in the country said on Friday, adding that they were coordinating with Russian authorities to send their bodies to their relatives as soon as possible. The four students, including two boys and two girls aged 18-20, were studying at the nearby Novgorod State University in Veliky Novgorod city. Russian media reports said that a female Indian student, who waded out from the beach on the river Volkhov, got into trouble and four of her companions tried to save her. In their attempt to save her, three others also drowned in the river. A third boy was pulled to safety by local people. Body Of One Indian Student Recovered From Russian River, Lone Survivor Leaves Hospital TodaySearch operations for the 4 missing students were hindered by heavy rain on Wednesday, however the remains of one unfortunate was found June 5. The 19-yr-old female student, who was https://t.co/O9fdqyjKt3 pic.twitter.com/OZDM2QKTbB RT_India (@RT_India_news) June 6, 2024 We are working to send the bodies to the relatives as soon as possible. Proper treatment is also being provided to the student whose life has been saved, the Indian mission said. Proper medical, incl. psychological treatment is being provided to the girl student who was saved. These students were pursuing medical education in Veliky Novgorod State University. Sincere condolences to the bereaved families, the Indian mission in St Petersburg wrote on X. The Consulate General of India in St Petersburg said these students were pursuing medical education at Veliky Novgorod State University. Sincere condolences to the bereaved families, it posted on X. The Consulate General said it was working together with the local authorities of Veliky Novgorod to send the mortal remains to the relatives as soon as possible. The bereaved families have been contacted and assured of all the possible help, it said. #WATCH | Maharashtra | Jalgaon District Collector, Ayush Prasad says, A very unfortunate incident has come to light in which five students have drowned in a river near St.Petersburg in Russia, of which one students life has been saved by the authorities in Russia and four pic.twitter.com/dxzpyp5NHe ANI (@ANI) June 6, 2024 Ayush Prasad, District Collector of Jalgaon, told ANI that they contacted the embassy in Russia and the consular general in St.Petersburg. They have been very supportive to the family and weve been coordinating with the judicial as well as the police and disaster management authorities. Best medical care is being provided to the student whose life has been safe. We are hoping that the bodies will be sent back to India as per the international protocol, he said. Amid Chinas protest over the exchange of greetings between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, the Taiwan foreign ministry said that Beijings outrage at a cordial exchange between the leaders of two democracies is utterly unjustified. Modis remarks on Wednesday came in response to a congratulatory message from Taiwan President Lai Ching-te on his election victory. Lai, elected as Taiwans President last month, in a message posted on X said: My sincere congratulations to Prime Minister @narendramodi on his election victory. We look forward to enhancing the fast-growing #Taiwan-#India partnership, expanding our collaboration on trade, technology & other sectors to contribute to peace & prosperity in the #IndoPacific. #Chinas outrage at a cordial exchange between the leaders of 2 democracies is utterly unjustified. Threats & intimidation never foster friendships. #Taiwan remains dedicated to building partnerships with #India underpinned by mutual benefit & shared values. https://t.co/B5R1EtXEAO Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan) (@MOFA_Taiwan) June 7, 2024 In his reply posted on X, Modi said he looks forward to closer ties as we work towards mutually beneficial economic and technological partnership. Chinas outrage at a cordial exchange between the leaders of 2 democracies is utterly unjustified. Threats & intimidation never foster friendships. #Taiwan remains dedicated to building partnerships with #India underpinned by mutual benefit & shared values, Taiwans foreign ministry said in a post on X. China views Taiwan as a rebel province that must be reunified with the mainland, even by force. On Thursday, China objected to the exchange between the Indian and Taiwanese leader, insisting that New Delhi should resist Taiwan authorities political calculations. During a media briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China opposes all forms of official interactions between the Taiwan authorities and countries having diplomatic relations with China. There is but one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of the territory of the Peoples Republic of China. On Thursday, the United States rebuffed Chinese concern over Beijings protest following the exchange of greetings between Modi and Lai Ching-te. I would say that such congratulatory messages are the normal course of diplomatic business, State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Thursday at his daily news conference. He was responding to a question on China protesting over Modis comment that he looked forward to having closer ties with Taiwan after his victory in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections. The United States on Thursday rebuffed Chinese concern over Beijings protest following the exchange of greetings between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te. I would say that such congratulatory messages are the normal course of diplomatic business, State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Thursday at his daily news conference. He was responding to a question on China protesting over Modis comment that he looked forward to having closer ties with Taiwan after his victory in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections. READ MORE: PM Modi Responds To Taiwan President Lais Greetings On NDA Election Win, China Protests Such congratulatory messages are the normal course of diplomatic business, says US State dept on China protesting PM Modi responding to congratulatory message by Taiwan President pic.twitter.com/SnqymbqKQM Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) June 7, 2024 Earlier on Wednesday, Modis remarks came in response to a congratulatory message from Taiwan President Lai Ching-te on his election victory. Lai, elected as Taiwans President last month, in a message posted on X said: My sincere congratulations to Prime Minister @narendramodi on his election victory. We look forward to enhancing the fast-growing #Taiwan-#India partnership, expanding our collaboration on trade, technology & other sectors to contribute to peace & prosperity in the #IndoPacific. In his reply posted on X, Modi said: Thank you @ChingteLai for your warm message. I look forward to closer ties as we work towards mutually beneficial economic and technological partnership. China views Taiwan as a rebel province that must be reunified with the mainland, even by force. On Thursday, China objected to the exchange between the Indian and Taiwanese leader, insisting that New Delhi should resist Taiwan authorities political calculations. Speaking at a media briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China opposes all forms of official interactions between the Taiwan authorities and countries having diplomatic relations with China. There is but one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of the territory of the Peoples Republic of China. This comes as China views Taiwan as a rebel province that must be reunified with the mainland, even by force. (With agency inputs) Chief Felix Nhlanhlayamngwe Ndiweni has noted that the outcome of the recent elections in South Africa provides a platform for Zimbabweans in the diaspora to have a listening ear from regional and international communities regarding their various grievances. Chief Ndiweni alleges that Zimbabwes ruling party, Zanu-PF, was enjoying backing from South Africas African National Congress (ANC), and the loss of the majority vote for the latter sheds a ray of hope. The ANC managed to acquire 40.18 percent in the May 29, 2024 election losing its dominance for the first time in 30 years. The Zanu PF administration in Zimbabwe did their very best to help their fellow revolutionary comrades, the ANC in South Africa, to win the South African elections. This was a high-risk strategy for Zanu PF, an all-or-nothing chess move because it exposed the hand of Zanu PF in South Africas domestic politics, Chief Ndiweni said. For ordinary Zimbabweans in Zimbabwe and in the diaspora, this is the brightest light we have seen in a long time for change to occur in Zimbabwe. We now will have countries in our region who will genuinely listen and act upon our grievances. For a start, it is now 100 percent certain that the Zimbabwean diaspora will vote in the next elections. SADC will ensure that happens, especially with Hakainde Hichilema in Zambia and the coalition in South Africa pushing for it. There are no more extenuating reasons left for why the Zimbabwean diaspora may not vote in Zimbabwean elections. That Zanu PF narrative has expired. All we Zimbabweans have to do is conduct the biggest engagement effort in our history, in our region and beyond, for this diaspora vote. The listening ears are there, and they are willing to give us a hearing. Chief Ndiweni encouraged the Zimbabwean diaspora community to engage the relevant authorities and seek assistance to initiate the diaspora votes for the next harmonised elections. This calls for the Zimbabwean diaspora to be active. If the Zimbabwean diaspora does nothing, then nothing will happen. If the Zimbabwean diaspora is active and engages the region, the diaspora will vote in the next elections, bringing in a new civilian opposition government for Zimbabwe, he said. This South African election result will also aid the push for the SADC Tribunal in Namibia to be re-opened, for individuals to seek redress there if their domestic legal systems have failed them. This means that a single individual will be able to challenge a rigged election in the Tribunal and cancel it. We must engage and support the new coalition government of South Africa. It will be receptive to our message: diaspora vote, rule of law, democracy. For the first time, Zanu PF finds itself without the protection of a strong ANC governmentan ANC that has massive issues on the home front, for its very survival. CITE For 30 hours, as mortar shells rained around him on Omaha Beach, Army medic Cpl. Waverly Woodson Jr. treated wounded Allied soldiers, even while wounded himself. For that brave act, Woodson has been posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, "the second-highest military decoration that can be awarded to a member of the Army," per CNN . The fight for recognition carried on far longer than World War II itself. Woodson was shortlisted for the Medal of Honor in 1997 but was not selected due to a lack of documentation, according to Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who joined an effort to secure recognition of Woodson's bravery, "too long ... overlooked due to his race." Woodson, who died in 2005, was part of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, "an all-Black unit tasked with deploying balloons to protect troops along the beaches of Normandy from German fighter planes during D-Day," per CNN. Van Hollen credits him with saving "an estimated 200 lives" on June 6, 1944, as Allied forces invaded Normandy, leading to the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi occupation. "Waverly would have felt honored to be recognized for what he knew was his duty," says his widow, 95-year-old Joann Woodson. "But we all know it was far more than duty; it was his desire to always help people in need." Seriously injured when his boat hit a mine, Woodson swam to shore and made himself useful, amputating limbs, bandaging wounds, removing bullets, and performing blood plasma transfusions, despite the shrapnel injuries to his groin and back. "I had pulled a tent roll out of the water and so I set up a first-aid station," he later recalled, per Politico. "There wasn't any other medic around." He was relieved from duty at 4pm on June 7, but still assisted three men who'd gone underwater during a landing attempt before seeking help for himself, journalist and historian Garrett M. Graff writes at Politico. story continues below If the total casualty count is accurate, "Woodson personally helped treat somewhere around five to seven percent of all US casualties on the bloodiest beach of D-Day," Graff writes. Yet "his record of valor that day became a casualty of entrenched racism, wartime bureaucracy and Pentagon record-keeping." Capt. Kevin Braafladt, the command historian of the First Army, found records of commanding officers rejecting award nominations from Woodson's brigade. His family, Braafladt, and Van Hollen continue to call for Woodson to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Woodson, who earned the rank of staff sergeant during the Korean War, was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and the Combat Medic Badge last year, Stripes reports. (More D-Day stories.) President Biden says he won't pardon son Hunter if his ongoing trial on federal gun charges ends in a conviction. In an interview with ABC News , the president answered yes when asked by David Muir if he would accept the outcome of the trial, and he gave the same answer when asked if he would rule out a pardon. The full interviewconducted in Normandy, France, where Biden traveled for D-Day ceremonies airs at 6:30pm Eastern on Thursday. In regard to Donald Trump's recent conviction, Biden accused the former president of trying to "undermine" the rule of law by labeling the trial a sham. "He got a fair trial," said Biden. "The jury spoke." On another topic, Biden emphasized to Muir that no US weapons would be used by Ukraine to strike Moscow or the Kremlin, per ABC. Instead, Biden said Ukraine is authorized to use American weaponry only on Russia territory that is close to the border between the two countries. (More President Biden stories.) A judge on Thursday dismissed several state charges against Paul Pelosi's attacker, who was convicted in federal court last month, based on the argument that the counts fall under double jeopardy, according to the San Francisco Public Defender's Office. David DePape was convicted last month of assaulting a federal official's family member and attempting to kidnap a federal official. He was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison, which will run concurrently with any potential punishment to come out of the state trial. He will likely be deported to Canada after he completes his punishment, the AP reports. Following the victory in federal court, state prosecutors continued to pursue their own case against DePape, who bludgeoned former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband with a hammer inside their San Francisco home in 2022. Paul Pelosi was 82 at the time of the attack. But DePape's public defenders say the state trial represents double jeopardy following the federal conviction. Even though the criminal counts are not exactly the same, the two cases stem from the same act, the public defender's office said. The judge on Thursday dismissed the state charges of attempted murder, elder abuse, and assault with a deadly weapon. DePape still faces charges of false imprisonment, residential burglary, threatening a family member of a public official, attempting to sway a witness and aggravated kidnapping, per the AP. Those were not part of the federal trial. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. DePape admitted during his federal trial that he planned to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage, interrogate her, and "break her kneecaps" if she did not admit to the lies he said she told about "Russiagate," a reference to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. Paul Pelosi suffered two head wounds in the attack, including a skull fracture that was mended with plates and screws he will have for the rest of his life. His right arm and hand were also injured. (More David DePape stories.) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to address a joint meeting of Congress on July 24, the AP reportsan appearance that Democratic leaders already are anticipating will be boycotted by some of their members. Congressional leaders formally invited Netanyahu last week without settling on a date. The letter was signed by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries. The invitation was extended to "highlight America's solidarity with Israel," they said. The visit also could highlight the growing election-year divisions among Democrats over Netanyahu's management of the war against Hamas. When he spoke to Congress in 2015, 58 Democratic lawmakers did not attend, and many tried to head off the invitation this time, per Axios. Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern said he's not going, and the No. 2 Democrat in the other chamber, Sen. Dick Durbin, said he wouldn't have sent the invitation because the prime minister hasn't endorsed a two-state solution in the Middle East, per the Hill. Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders said: "Netanyahu is a war criminal. I certainly will not attend." Johnson first suggested the invitation, and some Democrats called it an attempt to divide their party. Several Progressive Caucus members have opposed the speech since the possibility was first brought up in March, per Axios. One caucus member cautioned colleagues. "Boycotting means smiling GOP staff faces will take our seats," said Rep. Mark Pocan. "I think we need to see how to best highlight the real Netanyahu" in a way other than boycotting, he added. (More Congress stories.) Donald Trump appears to be zeroing in on a running mate. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee's campaign has requested vetting documents from eight people, sources tell the Washington Post: GOP Sens. Marco Rubio, JD Vance, Tom Cotton, and Tim Scott; North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum; Republican Reps. Elise Stefanik and Byron Donalds; and a member of his own former cabinet, Ben Carson, who served as secretary of housing and urban development. Coverage: Axios has a rundown on what Trump likes about some of the candidates, noting that the No. 1 thing the former president is looking for in a VP candidate is loyalty. NPR runs down the "pros and cons" of the top contenders. A Washington state family says an address mix-up led to the slaughtering of their two pet pigs. In a lawsuit filed by Natalie and Nathan Gray against Farmer George Meats, the Grays say employees of the butcher shop entered the wrong propertytheir property in Port Orchard, Washingtonand fatally shot the two female Kunekune pigs, USA Today reports. The Grays returned home to find the two-year-old pigs, Betty and Patty, dead, the Washington Post reports. Per the lawsuit, the butcher shop received an order from a man who lived nearby and wanted his pigs slaughtered and turned into meat, and had given employees permission to enter his property and shoot the pigs. Instead, employees took a wrong turn and ended up on the Grays' property, the lawsuit says. After the Grays arrived home to the shocking scene, the lawsuit says that, "adding to the devastation, and despite Hines and Dillon being told Betty and Patty were family, the Grays were then callously offered free butchering of Betty and Patty." The family is suing the butcher shop and its workers for trespassing, reckless infliction of emotional distress, and more. They want economic damages, including burial expenses for the pigs, damages to their land, and damages "representing the intrinsic value of Betty and Patty." The butcher shop, and the employee who allegedly made the error, apologized to the Grays, who have daughters ages 12 and 9 and raise a number of animals as pets on their small farm. (More Washington state stories.) An author in Samoa has been charged with murdering another prominent Samoan writer, who was also the aunt of former US Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, authorities in the South Pacific island nation said. Papalii Sia Figiel, 57, is accused of killing Caroline Sinavaiana-Gabbard, 78, after an argument last month, officials told the AP. Both women were prominent figures in the Pacific literary community, and Sinavaiana-Gabbard's family is involved in US politics. Figiel is in custody awaiting a court appearance next week. Sinavaiana-Gabbard, a poet and environmentalist, in 2013 became the first person of Samoan ancestry to reach the rank of full professor at a US university, according to the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she taught from 1997 until her retirement in 2016. The Sandy Hook families to whom Alex Jones owes more than $1 billion might finally see some cash soon. CNN reports that the conspiracy theorist, "facing mounting legal pressure" from the families of the school massacre victims, has agreed to liquidate his personal assets. Jones has asked a judge to convert his personal bankruptcy to a Chapter 7 liquidation, reports Reuters . In a court filing Thursday, his lawyers said there is "no reasonable prospect of a successful reorganization" of his debts. Earlier this year, the families rejected an offer of $55 million over 10 years and voted in favor of liquidating his assets. Avi Moshenberg, an attorney who represents some of the Sandy Hook families, tells CNN that the move means Jones' ownership in Free Speech Systems, parent company of his Infowars outlet, "is going to get sold." The company, which has also filed for bankruptcy, is currently being supervised by a court-ordered trustee. Relatives of some of the 20 children and six educators killed in the mass shooting said they faced harassment and death threats after Jones claimed it was all a hoax. Last year, a judge ruled that Jones' personal bankruptcy filing doesn't apply to judgments resulting from "willful or malicious injury." Under liquidation, Jones will be allowed to keep his home and other personal belongings, the AP reports. Proceeds from the sale of other assets, including his company, will go to the Sandy Hook families and other creditors. Last weekend, Jones claimed in "emergency broadcasts" that web and radio shows could be shut down at any minute. He urged supporters to form a human chain around his studio in Austin, Texas. "There's really no avenue out of this," he said Sunday. "I'm kind of in the bunker here." The AP reports that some of his remarks "came in profanity-laden rants" and he appeared to cry at points. (More Alex Jones stories.) The Moundsville Daily Echo, a small, independent daily newspaper in northern West Virginia, has stopped publication after 133 years. Publisher Charlie M. Walton said this week he was "exploring options." Walton told the AP the newspaper published its last edition last Thursday and he locked the doors Friday afternoon. Walton said he and two part-timers were the only employees at the newspaper and his efforts to expand the staff were unsuccessful. "We simply cannot get anybody to work there," Walton said. "I've been advertising for years for people. I don't get any resumes. It's just been a disaster to find anybody to even work part time." A note on the newspaper's door reads "The Echo Is Permanently Closed Due To Lack of Help," WTRF reports. The Daily Echo, published weekdays, was delivered by mail and had no website. Unusually, it regularly published obituaries on the front page. It was founded in October 1891 by James Davis Shaw. His son, Craig Shaw, took over in 1917 and grandson Sam Shaw followed in 1951. For more than 40 years, Sam Shaw was the publisher, editor, and chief reporter who collected the day's news by bicycle. After Shaw's death in 1995, his longtime assistants Charlie L. Walton and Marion Walton published the Echo for the next two decades before handing over control to Charlie M. Walton, their son. Moundsville, population 7,800, is located along the Ohio River about 68 miles southwest of Pittsburgh. WTRF reports that former residents all over the country subscribed to the Echo by mail to keep up with hometown news. (More West Virginia stories.) It's always awkward when you reach for someone's hand and they refuse to give it. But it's far worse when that person is the Queen. French First Lady Brigitte Macron reached for Queen Camilla's hand during a D-Day memorial service in France on Thursday and was decidedly rebuffed. The pair had laid wreaths at the British Normandy Memorial at Ver-sur-Mer. Macron then stood up and, still facing the memorial, reached back for Camilla's hand. Camilla, who was slightly behind her, took a few steps back, but Macron still kept reaching for the gloved hand planted firmly at Camilla's side. Macron eventually grasped it for a few seconds then let her hand fall as both women faced the memorial for a moment of silence. Camilla turned away first and, with a flick of the hand, instructed Macron to follow her. About 20 high school students were touring a police department in Burlington, Vermont, on Wednesday when a masked gunman burst into the room where an officer was speaking. The man fired his weapon while terrified students ran for cover. Only later did they learn the gun was firing blanks and the man in the mask was another police officer, hoping to teach them a lesson. The scene was a surprise active shooter demonstration, which the department had previously tested on college students and adults, reports Vermont weekly Seven Days . "It felt so real," a student told the outlet. "I'm shaking and crying because I'm like, 'Oh my god, I'm gonna get shot.'" Some parents said they felt police were playing on their children's fears. "It is a very real threat to kids these days to have a school shooting," one mother told Seven Days. "I'm baffled." The simulation was "meant to show the unreliability of witness statements," per the outlet. Burlington police said it was a simulated "robbery scenario" and "was not directed at any students or faculty," per MSNBC. Police also said teachers had been told there would be a "gunshot-related crime" depicted during the tour. Emails show police told school staff there would be "a mock shooting" involving "fake firearms." "Do you think that sort of incident would be ok for your group of students? It is about as real life as you can get," the department asked May 23, per Seven Days. "I think these students will be fine with this simulation," school staff reportedly responded, adding, "We will give a heads up to parents and students." Students and parents said they were not informed in advance. Teachers said they hadn't expected the mock shooting to come as a surprise. The Burlington School District issued an apology and made counseling services available to students, per the New Republic. In an email to parents, teachers noted "the detectives did apologize after they realized that the reenactment did not translate well to high school students." (More Burlington, Vermont stories.) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked President Biden for America's support in his country's fight against Russiaand Biden apologized for the six-month delay to the latest military aid package. "I apologize for the weeks of not knowing what's going to pass in terms of funding because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass," he said during their meeting in Paris on Friday. "Some of our very conservative members were holding it up. But we got it done finally." Russia launched an offensive and gained territory in parts of Ukraine during the gap in funding from the US, the Hill reports. "We're not going to walk away." "We're still in," Biden told Zelensky. "Completely. Thoroughly." He added: "You haven't bowed down. You haven't yielded at all. You've continued to fight in a way that's really remarkable," per the Washington Post. "We're not going to walk away from you." President Biden invoked the Army Rangers who scaled the cliffs on Pointe du Hoc on D-Day as he delivered a speech at the Normandy site on Friday, saying they're "asking us to do our job, to protect freedom in our time, to defend democracy." He described how the 225 Rangers ran toward Nazi gunfire and clawed their way up the precipice after Nazis cut their ladders and ropes. The heroes of that day, Biden said, would want Americans to fight Vladimir Putin's aggression in Europe. In 1984, Ronald Reagan delivered a speech in the same spot in Normandy, warning against American isolationism. "As we gather here today, it's not just to honor those who showed such remarkable bravery that day, June 6, 1944," Biden said. "It's to listen to the echo of their voices. To hear them. Because they are summoning us." "They're not asking us to scale these cliffs," the president said, per CBS News. "But they're asking us to stay true to what America stands for. They're not asking us to give or risk our lives. But they are asking us to care for others in our country more than ourselves." President Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made time to attend the ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday, but the UK's prime minister had an election season TV interview scheduled. So Rishi Sunak left France for home, and the UK was represented by its king and queen, as well as Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who used to be prime ministerbut not the current occupant of the office held by Winston Churchill on June 6, 1944. After an outcry, Sunak expressed regret on Friday. "On reflection, that was a mistake and I apologize," he said, NBC News reports. Rivals' criticism came from: Labor Party: "Rishi Sunak will have to answer for his choice. ... For me there was only one choice. ... There was nowhere else I was going to be."Keir Starmer, who attended the ceremony Thursday, per the AP "Rishi Sunak will have to answer for his choice. ... For me there was only one choice. ... There was nowhere else I was going to be."Keir Starmer, who attended the ceremony Thursday, per the AP Liberal Democrats : "A total dereliction of duty"Ed Davey, per the Hill : "A total dereliction of duty"Ed Davey, per the Hill Reform Party : "Patriotic people who love their country" should not vote for Sunak.Nigel Farage : "Patriotic people who love their country" should not vote for Sunak.Nigel Farage More Labor Party: "Given that the prime minister has been campaigning on the idea young people should complete a year's national service, what does it say that he appears to have been unable to complete a single afternoon of it?"defense spokesman John Healey, per the Guardian His allies' criticism came from: A former Cameron aide : "It was a huge error of judgment" that gave the impression Sunak "put politics before what really matters."Craig Oliver : "It was a huge error of judgment" that gave the impression Sunak "put politics before what really matters."Craig Oliver Sunak's veterans minister: A "significant mistake."Johnny Mercer Sunak, who had spent a day and a half at D-Day events in England and France, followed up his apology with, "I think it's important, though, given the enormity of the sacrifice made, that we don't politicize this." With the election less than a month away, that seems a challenge. Some polls have shown his Conservatives more than 20 points behind Starmer's Labor. A 98-year-old D-Day veteran said that while Sunak let the country down, his own expectations were met. "I don't have a great regard for politicians," Ken Hay told Sky News. (More Rishi Sunak stories.) Seventeen kilograms of cocaine hidden in a shipping container in Auckland has been seized, resulting in the arrests of two men, police say. The container was shipped from Brazil before transiting through Brisbane and arriving in Auckland late last month. Police said the container was being kept at a commercial address in the Auckland suburb of Onehunga. The pair, who allegedly travelled to New Zealand from Australia to retrieve the drugs, were arrested on Saturday as they tried to leave the address on electric scooters, said Detective Inspector Tom Gollan, of the National Organised Crime Group. "They left behind a ladder that had [been] transported to the yards by way of the scooters," he said in a statement. Some of the animals died of secondary infections contracted after bird flu weakened their immune systems, said state veterinarians, agriculture officials, and academics assisting in state responses to bird flu. Other cows were killed by farmers because they failed to recover from the virus. Cattle infected with bird flu suffer reduced milk production, digestive issues, fever, and diminished appetite, according to farmers and veterinarians. In South Dakota, a 1700-cow dairy sent a dozen of the animals to slaughter after they did not recover from the virus, and killed another dozen that contracted secondary infections, said Russ Daly, a professor with South Dakota State University and veterinarian for the state extension office who spoke with the farm. "You get sick cows from one disease, then that creates a domino effect for other things, like routine pneumonia and digestive issues," Daly said. A farm in Michigan killed about 10% of its 200 infected cows after they too failed to recover from the virus, said Phil Durst, an educator with Michigan State University Extension who spoke with that farm. Michigan has more confirmed infections in cattle than any state as well as two of three confirmed cases of US dairy workers who contracted bird flu. In Colorado, some dairies reported culling cows with avian flu because they did not return to milk production, said Olga Robak, spokesperson for the state Department of Agriculture. Ohio Department of Agriculture spokesperson Meghan Harshbarger said infected cows have died in Ohio and other affected states, mostly due to secondary infections. The Texas Animal Health Commission also confirmed that cows have died from secondary infections at some dairy operations with avian flu outbreaks. Officials could not provide figures for the number of statewide cow mortalities. New Mexico's state veterinarian, Samantha Uhrig, said farmers increasingly culled cows due to decreased milk production early in the outbreak, before the US even confirmed bird flu was infecting cattle. Culling decreased as farmers learned that most cows gradually recovered, she said. Officials in North Carolina and Kansas said there have been few to no cow deaths associated with bird flu in their states. Idaho officials did not respond to requests for information. Bird flu virus particles were found in beef tissue taken from one dairy cow sent to be slaughtered for meat, and meat from the animal did not enter the food supply, USDA said last month. The agency has reported that no viral particles were found in samples of ground beef collected at retail stores, and that no bird flu virus was found after cooking ground beef to medium to well done, after it was injected with a virus surrogate as part of an experiment. Reuters Win McNamee/Getty Images U.S. President Joe Biden greets U.S. World War 2 veterans after French President Emmanuel Macron awarded 11 veterans the Legion dhonneur at the Normandy American Cemetery during a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day on June 06, 2024 in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. Veterans, families, political leaders and military personnel are gathering in Normandy to commemorate D-Day, which paved the way for the Allied victory over Germany in World War II. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alaska Beacon maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Andrew Kitchenman for questions: info@alaskabeacon.com. Follow Alaska Beacon on Facebook and Twitter. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com A smooth-talking investor promised to double the money of two unsuspecting victims but instead left them with a pile of fake cash and a gaping hole in their wallets. His elaborate scheme has landed him behind bars for seven long years, thanks to a vigilant deputy corporal who exposed his fraudulent ways. The 46-year-old African investor's claim to double the money of two victims turned into a nightmare when they discovered he was dealing in counterfeit currency. The Supreme Criminal Court of Appeal didn't buy his sob story, upholding the lower court's verdict and slapping him with seven years in the slammer. On top of that, he's been fined 1,000 dinars, had his bogus stash confiscated, and will be booted out of the country once he's served his time. The investor managed to deceive an Asian man and his girlfriend by asserting he could double the 5,000 dinars they had collected. They handed over the money, expecting it to become 10,000 dinars, but later found out he was dealing in fake currency. The court found him guilty of counterfeiting legally circulated currency in Bahrain and another country, specifically 20 Bahraini dinar notes, with the intention of using and promoting them. He also managed to swindle cash from the victims through deceitful methods. Details of the incident reveal that a deputy corporal testified he knew the accused through his girlfriend, who met the man through her job at an accommodation services office. The accused asked her for a loan of 5,000 dinars, promising to return 10,000 dinars in a week. She and her friend collected the money, but but the defendant disappeared after making off with it. The deputy corporal, posing as a businessman, set a trap for the accused by arranging a meeting. When they met in Manama, the accused took them to his apartment. There, the deputy corporal discovered fake 20 Bahraini dinar notes totalling 1,000 dinars. Upon confrontation, the accused admitted the money was counterfeit and asked for a chance. After missing the deadline to return the 5,000 dinars, the victims filed a report. An investigation officer testified that the accused was known for fraud, using deceptive techniques to convince victims he could double their money. His modus operandi for producing counterfeit notes involved using various materials, including paper, charcoal, powder, dyes, chemicals, rulers, and adhesive tape. Mohammed Darwish TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com Bahrain is poised for a promising economic future, with recent forecasts predicting robust growth driven by a thriving non-oil sector and strategic investments in infrastructure and education. The Kingdoms efforts in diversifying its economy and improving the quality of education are beginning to bear fruit, painting a bright picture for its development in 2024 and beyond. Safaa El Tayeb El-Kogali, Country Director for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), confirmed that estimates indicate an increase in Bahrains economic growth rate to 3.5% in 2024, driven by growth in the non-oil sector. She noted that the hydrocarbon sector is expected to expand by 1.3% in 2024, while non-hydrocarbon sectors are anticipated to grow by about 3.9%, supported by the recovery of tourism and services, alongside ongoing infrastructure projects. Significant progress El-Kogali highlighted Bahrains significant progress in improving education quality over the past decade, as reflected in international education assessments. Increased investment in education and human capital development can significantly contribute to long-term economic sustainability and diversification in Bahrain and the wider GCC. Education enhances individual well-being by equipping people with skills that meet future labour market demands, leading to better job opportunities and higher wages. Economic growth The skills and knowledge acquired through education boost productivity, driving economic growth. Additionally, education helps build resilient economies that can adapt to changing work environments, technological advancements, and global challenges. However, the impact of education on economic growth depends on improving the skills and knowledge of the workforce. Hence, while access to education is vital, the quality of education and the skills gained are crucial for economic growth. Education system Reports indicate improvements in Bahrains education system, such as a notable increase in student performance scores on international assessments. For instance, fourth-grade students achievement in mathematics and science improved by 44 points between 2011 and 2019, equivalent to 2.2 years of schooling. At the intermediate level, Bahrain has made significant progress in mathematics, achieving a level equivalent to 3.6 years of schooling, positioning it prominently among GCC countries. However, there remains substantial scope for improvement, particularly in promoting foundational skills such as reading and arithmetic at an early age. Labour market These skills form the bedrock of future learning and advanced skill acquisition, which are increasingly sought after in the contemporary labour market. To continue this upward trajectory, it is essential to refine teaching practices, support comprehensive student assessments, and leverage these evaluations to enhance schools and the broader educational system. The World Banks outlook for Bahrains economy is notably positive, with a growth rate of 3.5% projected for 2024, driven primarily by the non-oil sector. The hydrocarbon sector is expected to grow by 1.3%, while non-hydrocarbon sectors are anticipated to expand by 3.9%, buoyed by a resurgence in tourism and services and the continuation of infrastructure projects. Future Looking to the future, the economic growth of the GCC countries is projected to reach 2.8% in 2024, influenced by a slowdown in the oil sector, which is expected to grow by 1.7%. This trend is anticipated to reverse in 2025, with oil production predicted to rise, leading to a 4.7% increase in the regions GDP. The non-oil sector, however, remains resilient, with a growth rate of 3.6% forecasted for 2024 and the medium term. The prevailing uncertainty in the global economy and OPEC+ production decisions will play a significant role in shaping the economic prospects of the region. Two Men Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Robbery in Bahrain Two Men Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Robbery in Bahrain TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com The High Criminal Court has sentenced two men to five years in prison each for robbing an Asian man in Busaiteen. The court heard that the defendants, aged 27 and 36, approached the victim and claimed to be police officers. They then demanded his identification, and when he complied, the first defendant snatched his wallet. The victim attempted to retrieve his wallet, but the first defendant struck him in the face and the back of the head. Although the blows did not cause any injuries, they frightened the victim, allowing the defendant to steal 85 dinars and a card from his wallet. The defendants then fled the scene and split the stolen money equally. During the investigation, the first defendant admitted to stealing the 85 dinars, while the second defendant admitted to sharing the stolen money with the first defendant. The court found the defendants guilty of robbery and sentenced them to five years in prison each. The court ruled that the defendants used force to steal the victim's money, causing him fear and preventing him from resisting. As part of a partnership with Tim Hortons coinciding with his big hometown race, Lance Stroll will have the Tim Hortons Flatbread Pizza logo on his helmet throughout the weekend's race events. MONTREAL, June 7, 2024 /CNW/ - Canadian Formula One driver Lance Stroll is back home for his big hometown race this weekend but before hitting the track, he made a unique Tims Run with a Tim Hortons-branded race car. Montreal-native Stroll went through a west-end Tims drive-thru earlier this week and picked up some new Tims Flatbread Pizzas. "I have a lot of great memories going to Tim Hortons while growing up in Montreal and so there's something nostalgic about going on a Tims Run when I am back in Canada," said Stroll. "My go-to order has always been an Iced Capp but it was great to sample the delicious new Tims Flatbread Pizzas while taking the Tim Hortons car for a spin." As part of a partnership with Tim Hortons coinciding with his hometown race, Stroll will have the Tim Hortons Flatbread Pizza logo on his helmet throughout the weekend's race events. "We're proud to be partnering with Lance as he returns home for this weekend's big race," said Hope Bagozzi, Chief Marketing Officer of Tim Hortons. "We know our guests and restaurant owners in Montreal and everyone right across Canada will be cheering Lance on and we're thrilled that he'll have the Tim Hortons Flatbread Pizza logo on his helmet when he takes to the track." About Tim Hortons In 1964, the first Tim Hortons restaurant in Hamilton, Ontario opened its doors and Canadians have been ordering Tim Hortons iconic Original Blend coffee, Double-Double coffees, Donuts and Timbits in the years since. Over nearly 60 years, Tim Hortons has captured the hearts and taste buds of Canadians and has become synonymous with serving Canada's favourite coffee. Tim Hortons is Canada's largest restaurant chain operating in the quick service industry with nearly 4,000 restaurants across the country. More than a coffee and bake shop, Tim Hortons is part of the Canadian fabric and guests can enjoy hot and cold specialty beverages including lattes, cappuccinos and espressos, teas and our famous Iced Capps alongside delicious breakfast, sandwiches, wraps, soups and more. Tim Hortons has more than 5,700 restaurants in Canada, the United States and around the world. For more information on Tim Hortons visit TimHortons.ca. SOURCE Tim Hortons [email protected] SAINT JOHN, NB, June 7, 2024 /CNW/ - On Friday, June 7, 2022, The Salvation Army will be celebrating the goodness of doughnuts, but did you know that National Doughnut Day has it roots in doing good? National Doughnut Day (CNW Group/The Salvation Army Maritime Division) During the First World War, Salvation Army 'Doughnut Lassies' made thousands of fresh, complimentary doughnuts daily for the soldiers serving in France. These Salvation Army ladies found creative ways to make doughnuts for those who were facing the daily horrors of warfare. The fresh smell and taste of baked goods lifted the soldiers' morale during the darkest days of the war. This legacy now serves as a symbol of comfort that The Salvation Army provides to those in need. "Doughnut Day is a way for us to celebrate the history of The Salvation Army, connect with our community through a sweet treat and raise public support for the vital services we provide in the Saint John area," says Lieutenant Jason Brinson, Corps Officer (Pastor). To commemorate the day this year, The Salvation Army in Saint John will be handing out doughnuts donated by the Atlantic Superstore Rothesay Ave. on Friday, June 7 at King's Square from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. About The Salvation Army: The Salvation Army is an international Christian organization that began its work in Canada in 1882 and has grown to become one of the largest direct providers of social services in the country. The Salvation Army gives hope and support to vulnerable people in 400 communities across Canada and in more than 130 countries around the world. Its community and social service activities include: hunger relief for individuals and families through food banks and feeding programs; shelter for people experiencing homelessness and support for those needing housing; rehabilitation for those struggling with substance-use recovery; long-term care and palliative care; Christmas assistance such as food hampers and toys; after-school programs, camps and school nutrition programs for children and youth; and life-skills classes, such as budgeting, cooking for a family, and anger management. When you give to The Salvation Army, you are investing in the future of people in your community. SOURCE The Salvation Army Maritime Division Lieutenant Jason Brinson, Corps Officer (Pastor) The Salvation Army Saint John, Office: 506-634-7166 ext. 204, Cell: 506-608-2150, Jason [email protected] The JD(U) and TDP, considered kingmakers, have pledged to support the NDA government and have elected Modi as their leader. Despite the NDAs majority, it suffered a significant setback, losing 63 seats from its 2019 tally of 303. NewswrapIndia: Prime Minister Narendra Modi secured a third term in power on June 4, but he will rely on allies as the BJP fell 32 seats short of the 272-seat majority mark in the Lok Sabha. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 293 seats, while the Congress-led INDIA bloc secured 234 seats. The Congress improved its tally to 99 seats from 52 in 2019, and the BJP won 240 seats. The BJP faced challenges in its strongholds, ending up with lower tallies in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Its efforts to expand in the South were unsuccessful, and its ambitions in West Bengal did not materialize. In Odisha, however, the BJP achieved a significant victory, winning power for the first time and securing 19 out of 21 Lok Sabha seats. The Congresss strategic alliance with the Samajwadi Party, targeting OBC voters, yielded substantial results in Uttar Pradesh, where they won 44 seats, reducing the BJPs tally to 35 from 62 in 2019. In Bihar, the Congress-RJD alliance did not resonate with voters, allowing the NDA alliance to maintain its position. The verdict suggests that the BJP, while dominating within the NDA, will need to adopt a more consensual approach as its allies support was crucial for surpassing the halfway mark in the Lok Sabha. An NDA meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, with TDP and JD(U) confirming their attendance. The INDIA bloc will also meet in New Delhi on the same day. PM Modi described the poll results as a victory of the worlds largest democracy. India and China: Enemies on Border, Partners in Trade Opposition and Uttar Pradesh dented BJPs hope The Opposition INDIA bloc, comprising the Congress, Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress, and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, won a total of 232 seats. The Congress revitalized its presence with 99 seats, and the Samajwadi Party delivered a remarkable performance, increasing its seats from 5 in 2019 to 37 in Uttar Pradesh. The TMC won 29 seats in West Bengal, while the DMK led in 22 seats. The NCP, led by Sharad Pawar, won 7 seats, and Uddhav Thackerays Shiv Sena secured 9 seats. In Bihar, the RJD led in 4 constituencies, with the AAP and JMM leading in 3 each. Despite having a majority, the BJP faced a setback, losing 63 seats from its 2019 tally of 303. The party had aimed for 370 seats and 400+ for the NDA, but it encountered reversals from East to West, particularly in the heartland state of Uttar Pradesh. Its vote share declined from 37.7% to 36.56%. Although exit polls predicted gains in the South, the BJP did not win any seats in Tamil Nadu. However, it made a breakthrough in Kerala for the first time and doubled its seats from 4 to 8 in Telangana. The BJP set an ambitious target of 370 seats (400+ including NDA partners), but the opposition alliance, led by the Congresss INDIA bloc, significantly curtailed this goal. The oppositions stellar performance earned them 234 seats, defying exit polls and reducing the BJPs lead in key states. In a major development, the BJP, seeking to secure JD(U) as a reliable coalition partner, has agreed to play a supporting role in Bihars upcoming state elections. The NDA will contest the 2025 Bihar election under Nitish Kumars leadership. Meanwhile, former Congress President and INDIA bloc leader Rahul Gandhi is expected to be the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament. Uttar Pradesh to build Indias First AI City in Lucknow A New York City police officer has been charged with attempted murder following a road rage shooting in South Jersey, prosecutors said on Friday. Hieu Tran, 27, of Yonkers, New York, was arrested on Thursday on the attempted murder charge in addition to charges of aggravated assault and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, the Camden County Prosecutors Office said in a news release. Tran is accused of shooting a 30-year-old man during a road rage incident in Voorhees Township last month. Police responded to a motor vehicle crash at the intersection Route 73 and Cooper Road at 11:13 p.m. on May 17. On the scene, one of the drivers was suffering from a gunshot wound, officials said. The man is still undergoing treatment at Cooper University Hospital, authorities said. Detectives accused Tran of shooting the man after reviewing surveillance footage and cell phone records. Ballistics evidence was also linked to his department-issued gun, prosecutors said. He has since been suspended from his job without pay, an NYPD spokesperson said. Tran is being held in custody by the NYPD and is awaiting extradition to Camden County. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Nicolas Fernandes may be reached atnfernandes@njadvancemedia.com. A woman from New York City has been charged with a federal crime over allegations that she stole mail from her former employer and deposited about $167,000 worth of checks into her bank account. Kathryn Mountain, 36, of Brooklyn, was charged with possession of stolen mail, the U.S. Attorneys Office District of New Jersey said in a news release. She appeared in Newark federal court on Thursday and was released on a $100,000 bond. A criminal complaint alleges that Mountain placed a hold on the companys mail, which caused it to be held at a post office in Newark until a representative of the company came to pick it up. Mountain then showed up at the post office, pretending to still be a member of the company in order to retrieve the mail, authorities alleged. Claiming Ravi Bhalla has done a lousy job running the city of Hoboken wasnt solely a campaign strategy by several city councilmembers to get Rep. Rob Menendez a victory in the Democratic primary. It was also, and maybe more importantly, laying the groundwork for a possible run for mayor in 2025. The PATH trains take commuters to and from work and various appointments, but one look at a poster adorning train cars this summer will show them where theyd much rather be. Hoboken third-grader Miriam Rasuls bright drawing of a PATH train riding a wave was selected as the winner of the annual Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Summer Poster Contest at the Hoboken Terminal Thursday morning. The contest was open to Hoboken students. It didnt take long for the Secaucus Police Department to find out if the new technology it installed around the town would be successful. Just hours after the departments Planning and Intelligence Section began the first phase of installation of the license plate reader camera system around town, one of the cameras captured a suspects license plate, leading to the arrest of a Jersey City man who targeted prostitutes at Secaucus hotels. Kendall Smith, 32, was arrested June 5 by the departments Detective Unit and he was charged with four counts of robbery, two counts of aggravated assault, terroristic threats, three counts of conspiracy to commit robbery, two counts of engaging in prostitution, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon for incidents between May 17 and June 4. Prostitution is not a victimless crime, especially when they are victimized themselves, Miller said. I am extremely proud of the investigative work of my detectives and for the support provided from the Jersey City Police Department. Also, the availability of the technology used in this case is a testament to the commitment of Mayor (Mike) Gonnelli and his Town Council who are extremely supportive in providing the Secaucus Police Department with tools that can assist us in our common goal, the safety of Secaucus residents and visitors of the town. On May 17, at 9:51 p.m., Secaucus police responded to the La Quinta Hotel on Lighting Way on a report of an armed robbery. The assailants, including Smith, forced their way into the victims hotel room while brandishing knives, Miller said. After a struggle, the men fled with some of the victims money, personal belongings and documents. Two weeks later, on May 31 at 12:23 a.m., police responded to the Red Roof Inn on the Meadowlands Parkway on a report of a robbery. The victim told police she was in the room with a man when two men, one later identified as Smith, forced their way into the room. After assaulting the victim, the men stole some of the victims personal belongings and fled. Several hours before the May 31 robbery, the police department installed the first batch of the cameras that read license plates and instantaneously provide police with information about the vehicle. The camera near the Red Roof captured the suspects vehicle when they fled, providing detectives with a vital lead. On June 4, at 5:39 p.m., the police responded to the Meadowlands Plaza Hotel on Wood Avenue on a report of a robbery. The victim told police two people, one later identified as Smith, entered her hotel room and choked her. After threatening to kill her, the suspects stole some of her personal belongings and fled. Once again, the license plate readers captured Smiths vehicle after the assailants fled. Detectives also obtained other evidence through other investigative means that links Smith to the robberies. On June 5, Secaucus detectives and Jersey City police stopped Smith in the area of Martin Luther King Drive and Armstrong Avenue in Jersey City, where he was arrested. A court-authorized search of Kendall Smiths vehicle led to the seizure of additional evidence linking him to these crimes. Several months ago, my administration pledged funds to install license plate reading cameras at all the entrances/exits in town with the intent to help prevent as well as solve crime, Gonnelli said. I am so glad to see the system, which is only partially installed, is already providing assistance. I am so proud of our police department and their efforts to keep our town safe. The investigation is ongoing and additional arrests may follow. Anyone with information can contact the Secaucus Police Detective Division at (201) 330-2052 or detectivedivsion@secaucusnjpolice.gov. A 25-year-old New Jersey man charged with stabbing his mother to death inside their home in Monmouth County early Monday morning told her he was sorry before plunging a knife into her chest while she was in bed, authorities said. Police officers found Loretta Parody lying on the floor in the houses foyer when police officers arrived at the house on Porter Road in Howell at about 1:10 a.m., according to the criminal complaint outlining murder and weapons charges against her son, Robert Parody. Robert Parody was standing outside the house when officers showed up, the complaint states. When a police officer asked Robert who was hurt, he responded, My mom. The officer then asked if she was alive and the man replied, No. Theres nothing like a nasty sunburn to ruin the perfect beach day, but dont count on using tents or canopies to escape the sun at 23 of Jersey Shore beaches that have enacted bans or restrictions. The reasons are varied, with some citing too-small beaches, others saying the giant tents block others view of the water, and at least one beach saying its too hard to evacuate when lightning hits. The event was meant to honor a pair of former police officers who visited the Pennsylvania House floor Thursday for what they endured during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. But instead of unanimous praise for law enforcement, the two men who were tasked with protecting the Capitol drew boos and walkouts from some GOP state lawmakers. At least one person reportedly shouted at the men, calling them cowards. Former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and his ex-boss, former Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, were among those officials injured while defending the failed insurrection. They are traveling the nation and sharing their stories to raise awareness to the threats of democracy in our nation, House Speaker Joanna McClinton said in her remarks introducing the officers, according to a report from Pennlive.com. Several House Republicans then booed, it continued. Ive never seen anybody booed in the middle of an introduction, Michael Schlossberg, D-Lehigh County, said. I saw two House members leave. Others present on the House floor, Democrats and Republicans, also said they saw at least two Republicans walk out. Hundreds of law enforcement officers were beaten and bloodied in the attack by supporters of former President Donald Trump. Gonell said the attackers assaulted him repeatedly. He recounted how he was beaten, punched, kicked and hit with his own baton in the head. Someone tried to drag him into the mob and beat him with an American flag still attached to a flagpole, he said. Gonell said his injuries required two surgeries. Donald Trump called the people who injured me and attacked our Capitol hostages, patriots and political prisoners. If those people are those things, who are we? Gonnell said, adding that the officers on Jan. 6 were defending elected officials from both parties regardless of their political ideology, Dunn, who is Black, has previously described how the crowd in the Capitol yelled racial slurs at him, something that never happened while he was on duty during more than a dozen years on the force. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MatthewArco. Six-day (Tuesday through Sunday) print subscribers of the Watertown Daily Times are eligible for full access to NNY360, the NNY360 mobile app, and the Watertown Daily Times e-edition, all at no additional cost. If you have an existing six-day print subscription to the Watertown Daily Times, please make sure your email address on file matches your NNY360 account email. You can sign up or manage your print subscription using the options below. Effie Richardson and chef Serigne Mbaye are partners in the restaurant Dakar NOLA in Uptown. The tasting menu restaurant highlights his modern Senegalese cuisine and is a finalist for a James Beard Foundation award for Best New Restaurant. (Winners will be announced June 10 in Chicago.) Mbaye started hosting Juneteenth events when Dakar was in its pop-up phase. Mbaye and Richardson now organize Afro Freedom Afro Feast together. The next edition is at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 16, at Grow Dat Youth Farm. Participating chefs include Mbaye, Nina Compton of Compere Lapin, Charly Pierre of Fritai, Martha Wiggins of Cafe Reconcile, Prince Lobo of Addis Nola, Kaitlin Guerin of Lagniappe Bakery and Shonda Cross of Chef Shondas Fine Dining To-Go. Visit dakarnola.com for information about the restaurant. Tickets and details for Afro Freedom Afro Feast are available via afrofreedomafrofeast.com. Gambit: How are things at Dakar? Effie Richardson: Things are going well. We are in Dakar 2.0. We started our liquor program in the fall and that has gone well. Just as were intentional with the food, we are intentional pairing beverages that make the flavors shine. Thats been fun to introduce. We now have two seatings on Fridays and Saturdays, so were thrilled that demand has increased to that level. We want to add a fifth day, Sunday. So were working toward that. We also are just thrilled about the James Beard nomination and getting to go to Chicago. Were taking as many of our team members as are able to come. Its a great opportunity to celebrate with the people who helped us get there. Gambit: How has Afro Freedom Afro Feast grown? R: During the pandemic in 2021, Serigne did a Juneteenth chef series as part of the Dakar NOLA pop-up. On different Tuesdays in June, he cooked with a different chef, and that was the first Juneteenth celebration. The first Afro Feast was June 19, 2022. Chef Serigne had gone to the farmers market, and hes very close with Ben Burkett from Petal, Mississippi. He wanted to do something on the farm to celebrate farming. We got 126 people to Mississippi. We brought it to New Orleans last year. We wanted to continue with the farm theme and be outdoors. Its a terribly hot day, but thats what our ancestors were doing. Its a way to connect in that sense. We wanted something closer, so it was serendipitous that Grow Dat is a youth farm in the city. We fell in love with the space. Its great to bring awareness to it. The (Grow Dat) vision is really amazing for a city that has gotten national attention for what happens with youth here, and not always in a positive light. Heres something that works with youth from all walks of life and literally changes their lives. We thought that space is better: a farm in the city. We love the mission and the space is beautiful, and the purpose is something we are proud to talk about. This will be the second year there. We are going to have seven chefs, including Chef Serigne. The point is to bring people together and celebrate. It celebrates what Black people and the diaspora have done; what Black people have done in New Orleans, and what theyve contributed through food. Its an international event. You have African-American chefs, you have Creole chefs, you have Ethiopian chefs, St. Lucian, Haitian and Senegalese. All of them are working together to celebrate Black culinary excellence. Its food, music, reflections. Its going to be a rich cultural experience. Theres going to be music by Victor Campbell and a DJ, too. We have a great sponsor in Uncle Nearest, and Turning Tables has been our beverage partner. Theyre introducing us to Black-owned wines and spirits. Youll hear from the chefs. Its a great opportunity to hear from them directly. Theyll also talk about their connections to farming. Theyre going to talk about their experience. There are reflections on Juneteenth. Its a family-style dinner. Its like youre enjoying someones backyard barbecue. The event starts out with walk-around appetizers, and theres an open bar. Gambit: Whats on the menu? R: Traditionally weve had some sort of grilling. Chef Charly Pierre will be doing some sort of barbecue. Thats big in all the countries of the diaspora, some sort of outdoor grilling. We will have some seafood as well. A vegetarian or a pescatarian can dine at this. Chef Nina Compton is doing a salad. Chef Prince from Addis is doing an Ethiopian-style collard greens. Chef Serigne is doing jollof rice. He loves outdoor cooking. Guests can watch them cook. Its not a demo, but its an open event, so you can walk up to the chefs while theyre cooking and talk to them. Its an opportunity to interact with the chefs that you dont normally get in their restaurants. Chef Martha Wiggins has used Anson Mills Sea Island peas to make smothered peas and cornbread. Thats been a traditional dish of ancestral cooking. Chef Kaitlin Guerin from Lagniappe Bakery will bake a strawberry cake. Red is a significant symbol in Juneteenth. It signifies celebration. A local artist based near Barnstaple has been shortlisted for the prestigious Wildlife Artist of the Year 2024 award. Sarah Rhiannon, who specialises in painting African wild dogs, has garnered attention for her vibrant and expressive portrayal of wildlife. The announcement comes as a pleasant surprise to Sarah, who only began painting in 2020. She said: I've always grown up surrounded by nature, spending lots of time outdoors and exploring the wildlife on Exmoor. That connection to nature has always been a part of me, which eventually led me to working with animals and studying zoology. Sarah's shortlisted painting, titled The Dozen at Dusk, captures the essence of a pack of African wild dogs against the backdrop of a twilight sky. ABOVE: The Dozen At Dusk entry She said: I'm drawn back to painting African wild dogs because of their character and social interactions. They're fascinating creatures, and I find joy in depicting their playful and dynamic nature. The Wildlife Artist of the Year competition received entries from artists in 46 countries this year, making Sarah's achievement even more remarkable. She said: It's quite surreal to be included among so many talented artists from around the world. I'm just honoured to be part of it. The awards ceremony is scheduled for July 1, where category winners will be announced. Despite the anticipation, Sarah remains focused on the opportunity to showcase her artwork at the prestigious Mall Galleries in London. She said: It's such a beautiful space, and seeing my painting displayed there would be a dream come true. In addition to her recognition in the Wildlife Artist of the Year competition, Sarah will also be participating in Devon Open Studios from September 7 to 22. Visitors will have the chance to explore Sarah's studio, learn about her artistic journey, and view her captivating wildlife paintings. ABOVE: Sarah doing what she does best Reflecting on her journey as an artist, Sarah expresses gratitude for the support and opportunities that have come her way. She said It's been an incredible experience to discover my passion for painting and to share my love for wildlife through art. I'm excited to see where this journey takes me next. Bideford marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day with a special event that included the lighting of a beacon, music and a poignant tribute to those who gave their all to make the invasion of Normandy possible eight decades ago. Bideford Town Council organised the event at the Pollyfield Centre yesterday (June 6) to enable the community to honour all those who played their part in the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, which brought about the beginning of the end of World War Two. Above: Bideford Youth Pipe Band. Credit: BTC The evening began with music from Bideford Youth Pipe Band, with the centre decorated with bunting, flags and Tommy silhouettes in remembrance of the nations war dead. Above: The Liberty Sisters and (below) Bideford Town Crier Bideford Town Crier started the official proceedings with the official cry, then The International Tribute was read by the town clerk. The official D-Day beacon, part of the Pageantmasters beacon lighting ceremonies taking place around the UK to mark the anniversary, was lit by Bideford Mayor Rachel Clarke at 9.15pm, which would have coincided with beacons around the world and on the Normandy beaches. Above: Mayor Rachel Clarke with the D-Day beacon lit in the background She then read out the specially prepared local Roll of Honour and piper Mike Harper played a lament before the evening was rounded off with the National Anthem. Tribute was paid to everyone involved in the landings and included the regions fishermen, farmers, land girls and growers. The popular Liberty Sisters performed two sets with iconic wartime music from the 1940s that saw many singing and some dancing. The town council thanked the girls for the long journey to Bideford and hope they enjoyed it as much as everyone who was there did. Above: Piper Mike Harper. Credit: BTC Tourism committee chairman Jude Gubb also thanked everyone who had been involved in setting up the event and to those families who had sent information about their loved ones who were involved in the D-Day landings. Calumet Fisheries, the nearly century-old Calumet Region institution that was featured in "Blues Brothers" and beloved by Anthony Bourdain, reopens Saturday after a long hiatus. The old-school fish shack not far from the state line at 3259 E. 95th St. in Chicago's far South Side South Deering neighborhood will reopen at 9 a.m. It will serve fried seafood all day but won't have smoked seafood until about 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Calumet Fisheries, which smokes seafood the old-fashioned way in the shadow of the 95th Street bridge on the far South Side once dominated by steel mills, had been closed since last fall. It was closed by health inspectors and then suffered a devastating fire right after it opened in November. The 96-year-old fish shack smokes salmon, sturgeon, catfish, oysters and other seafood in brick smokehouses for six or seven hours. It has earned James Beard American Classic Award and recognition from CNN as one of America's 10 Best Historic Restaurants. It's appeared on television shows like Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations," WTTW's "Check Please!" and "Hungry Hound." Calumet Fisheries also appears in "Blues Brothers" in the scene where Elwood and Joliet Jake Blues jump the 95th Street Bridge to test out the new Bluesmobile. The film crew dined there for three days while shooting the bridge jumping scene. The long-running institution is takeout-only and cash-only but has an ATM inside. People order their seafood out of a glass case and then eat it in their cars on the bridge or outside on picnic benches overlooking the Calumet River near its mouth on Lake Michigan. Calumet Fisheries warned customers on social media that chubs are scarce and it will post on Facebook when they're available. It took fish chips off the menu and is just calling the Alaskan Pollock cut up into a chip size fish now. It serves fried seafood by the pound or half pound with mild, hot or tartar sauce. The dinner option includes fries and a cup of slaw and cans of pop also are available. Calumet Fisheries recommends people can ahead to order smoked fish. They for instance should call a week ahead of time to order a whole salmon or trout. For more information, call 773-933-9855 or find the business on Facebook. OGDEN DUNES Emergency officials rushed to the local beach Wednesday night for a water rescue only to discover it was all a false alarm triggered by a special buoy installed just offshore, according to the Ogden Dunes Fire Department. Department officials said they and other emergency agencies responded to the beach shortly before 9 p.m. prepared to carry out a rescue. What they discovered was a data gathering buoy with flashing lights that had recently been installed in Lake Michigan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, officials said. No one was in distress, firefighters said. Mike Lynch, a British software mogul who was once one of his countrys most celebrated chief executives, was acquitted of fraud on Thursday in San Francisco federal court, clearing him of charges that he had led one of the biggest frauds in the technology industry. A jury found him not guilty of falsely inflating revenue at Autonomy, the company he founded and led, when he sold it to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011. Mr. Lynch, 58, who faced decades in prison, had initially been charged with 16 counts of fraud and conspiracy, though one fraud charge was eventually dismissed. Thursdays verdict, after a trial that began in mid-March, is a milestone in Mr. Lynchs decade-long odyssey to clear his name. A San Francisco judge on Thursday dismissed some of the most serious state charges against the man who invaded Nancy Pelosis home and bludgeoned her husband with a hammer in 2022. Judge Harry M. Dorfman of San Francisco County Superior Court granted a request from defense lawyers to throw out the charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse, according to a court spokeswoman. The defendant, David DePape, still faces five other charges, including false imprisonment, felony burglary and aggravated kidnapping. Mr. DePape was convicted in November of two crimes in a separate federal trial: attempted kidnapping of a federal officer and assault on an immediate family member of a federal official. He was sentenced last month to 30 years in federal prison. Mr. DePapes defense lawyers in the state trial, which began last week, argued that prosecuting him again at the state level amounted to double jeopardy. Mr. DePape, they said, had already been convicted of crimes for the same acts for which he was now on trial. As of 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, the U.S. border with Mexico was shut down to nearly all migrants seeking asylum in the United States. The drastic action, the result of an executive order signed by President Biden, was designed to keep the border closed at least through Election Day and defuse one of the presidents biggest vulnerabilities in his campaign against former President Donald J. Trump. The question is how broadly it can be enforced, especially along a 2,000-mile border that does not have nearly the capacity to manage the number of people who want to enter the United States. As of Wednesday morning and into Thursday, the order appeared to be working, although it was still too early to make a real assessment. Migrants in the border towns of Mexicali and Ciudad Juarez were being turned away, and the word was spreading. Jill Biden, the first lady, left President Bidens side in France on Thursday to make the trans-Atlantic trip back to Delaware, where Hunter Biden is standing trial on gun charges. The first lady is then scheduled to return to France for a state visit on Saturday, according to her communications director, Elizabeth Alexander. The departure of the first lady from a high-profile foreign trip was perhaps the most dramatic illustration yet of the Biden familys personal priorities, which lie some 3,600 miles away from France, in Courtroom 4A of the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Del. Hunter Biden is on trial on charges of lying about his drug use on a form to buy a gun in October 2018, and of illegally possessing the weapon. In his first campaign event since he became the first American president to be convicted on felony charges, Donald J. Trump on Thursday tried to turn the focus on President Biden by likening his border policy to a criminal enterprise. Broadly denouncing the migrants crossing the border illegally of being violent criminals and terrorists, Mr. Trump criticized Mr. Bidens recent executive order meant to curb crossings, saying it would be ineffective after Mr. Biden had taken little action for months. With his actions on the border, Joe Biden is the ringleader of one the most vile criminal conspiracies of all time, Mr. Trump said at a town hall in Phoenix hosted by Turning Point Action, a conservative group. Mr. Trump, whom prosecutors in Manhattan accused of a criminal conspiracy, and who is also facing felony conspiracy counts in a federal election-interference case, often defends himself from criticisms by dismissing the claims against him, then pointing fingers at his opponents and accusing them of worse transgressions. The emotional exchange was broadcast on large screens to applause from the thousands who had gathered at Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, on Thursday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. And then it swiftly reverberated across the internet. An American World War II veteran in a blue cap, seated in a wheelchair with a blue blanket draped over his lap, was introduced to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine by Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister. Youre the savior of the people, the veteran, Melvin Hurwitz, 99, of Frederick, Md., told Mr. Zelensky after pulling the Ukrainian leader into an embrace. You bring tears to my eyes. No, no, no, you saved Europe, Mr. Zelensky responded. Youre our hero, Mr. Hurwitz, whose identity was confirmed by a great-niece, Sarah Hurwitz Robey, said moments later, as Mr. Zelensky knelt next to him for a photograph. As dawn broke on Thursday, Haitham Abu Ammar combed through the rubble of the school that had become a shelter to him and thousands of other displaced Gazans. For hours, he helped people piece together the limbs of the ones they loved. The most painful thing I have ever experienced was picking up those pieces of flesh with my hands, said Mr. Abu Ammar, a 27-year-old construction worker. I never thought I would have to do such a thing. Early on Thursday, Israeli airstrikes hit the school complex, killing dozens of people among them at least nine militants, the Israeli military said. Over the course of the day, corpses and mangled limbs recovered from the rubble were wrapped in blankets, stacked in truck beds and driven to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the last major medical facility still operating in central Gaza. Israels military described the airstrike as painstakingly planned. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters that Israeli forces had tracked the militants in the school-turned-shelter for three days before opening fire. The Israeli military and the Shin Bet found a solution to separate the terrorists from those seeking shelter, he said. But accounts from both local and foreign medics, and a visit to the hospital by The New York Times on Thursday afternoon, made clear that civilians died, too. Outside the hospital morgue, crowds gathered to weep and pray over the dead. Hospital corridors were crowded with people pleading for help, or at least a little comfort. A young girl with a bloodied leg screamed, Mama! Mama!, as her sobbing mother followed her through the hospital corridors. Image Palestinians taking in the damage from the airstrike. Credit... Bashar Taleb/Agence France-Presse Getty Images The precise toll could not be verified, but the Gaza Health Ministry said that of the roughly 40 people killed in the attack, 14 were children and nine were women. Later in the day, The Associated Press reported different numbers, saying at least 33 people died, including three women and nine children, citing the hospital morgue. Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital has become a symbol not just of the heavy loss of life in central Gaza, but also of the increasing sense of desperation among Gazans struggling to find a place there that is still safe. In the past few weeks, the region has swelled with people fleeing another Israeli offensive, this one in the southern city of Rafah. Before that offensive began, Rafah was the main place of refuge for civilians, at one point holding more than half the population of the Gaza Strip. Then on Wednesday, Israel announced that it had started a new operation against Hamas militants in central Gaza the very place where many Gazans who had fled Rafah had ended up. The strike on the school complex came early the next day, around 2 a.m. It hit a building at a complex run by UNRWA, the main U.N. Palestinian aid agency in Gaza. Since the Israeli offensive in Gaza began in October, in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on Israel, such schools have been used to shelter Gazans forced from their homes by the fighting. Israel says Hamas hides its forces in civilian settings like schools or hospitals, an accusation the group denies. In the past two days of the new military campaign, Al Aqsa took in 140 dead and hundreds of wounded, health workers said. Image A Palestinian woman at the hospital holding the hand of a boy said to have been killed in the strike. Credit... Eyad Baba/Agence France-Presse Getty Images Its complete chaos, because we have mass casualty after mass casualty, but less and less medical supplies to treat them, said Karin Huster, a nurse with the international aid group Doctors Without Borders who has been working as a medical coordinator at the hospital. During the visit to Al Aqsa by The Times, medics could be seen pushing through crowds of panicked people to try to reach operating rooms, delayed by the sheer mass of people. Amid the confusion, Ms. Huster said, medics sometimes brought mortally wounded people into operating rooms, wasting vital time for those who still had a chance at survival. Ms. Huster said that the majority of people she had seen in the past few days were women and children. By early afternoon Thursday, after burying a friend he pulled from the rubble of the school complex, Mr. Abu Ammar found himself once again at the hospital. This time, he was accompanied by the friends brother, whom he was trying to cram into a hallway near the entrance. The brothers face was cut by shrapnel, and he had a deep gash in his right leg. But he was not the only one desperate for help. All around them were wounded people, some lying in their own blood on the floor, others on beds calling for help. A man whose face was blackened with burns and dust from the explosion that morning begged two relatives who were with him to fan his face with a piece of cardboard they were waving over him. Image Clearing rubble at the school complex after the strike. Credit... Mohammed Saber/EPA, via Shutterstock The scenes among the dead in the morgue were almost as chaotic as those among the living. Bodies lay everywhere, as relatives crowded in, weeping and screaming over them. The stench of blood was overpowering. Crowds outside the morgue ebbed and flowed as bodies wrapped in blankets shrouds were in short supply were lifted onto pickup trucks to be taken for burial. Relatives and friends lined up to pray before the dead were driven away. Even passers-by on the street stopped to join in. When is it too much? Ms. Huster said. I dont know anymore how I can phrase this so that it shocks people. Where has humanity gone wrong? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel will address a joint meeting of Congress on July 24, the top two congressional Republicans announced on Thursday night. Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, said in a statement that the speech would offer Mr. Netanyahu the opportunity to share the Israeli governments vision for defending their democracy, combating terror, and establishing just and lasting peace in the region. But in a separate statement that hinted at the deep political divides over Mr. Netanyahu and Israels war in Gaza, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said he harbored clear and profound disagreements with the prime minister, which I have voiced both privately and publicly and will continue to do so. He said he nevertheless had joined the request for Mr. Netanyahu to address Congress because Americas relationship with Israel is ironclad and transcends one person or prime minister. Earlier this year, Mr. Schumer called for Mr. Netanyahu to step down and for Israel to hold new elections. The Pennsylvania attorney generals office and state lawmakers said Friday that they were reviewing the abrupt closure of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, which blindsided students and faculty members. We are very concerned by the sudden closure of the University of the Arts, said Brett Hambright, a spokesman for Michelle A. Henry, the attorney general of Pennsylvania. We are reviewing the circumstances of the closure and any transfer or loss of assets. Other state lawmakers are calling for additional investigations into the universitys collapse. We are looking into holding a hearing and seeing what broader investigative powers we can use in the state legislative committees to investigate, State Senator Nikil Saval said. It should wake many of us up to the fragility of the arts infrastructure in Philadelphia, which is extraordinary given how little support it gets. The University of the Arts, a nearly 150-year-old institution, was a cultural hub for the state, where many local painters, musicians, composers and actors found work training future artists and arts leaders. The announcement last week that the university was closing left the future uncertain for more than 1,100 students and 700 employees. A few days later the universitys president, Kerry Walk, resigned. Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous nights highlights that lets you sleep and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now. The Real Hot Wives of Trumps V.P. Picks Late night hosts reacted to reports that former President Donald Trump is vetting four potential running mates as he attempts to regain the nations highest office. Jimmy Fallon wished the hopefuls luck on Thursday, saying, Its like signing up to be the babysitter in The Exorcist. In 2022, British television producers released an open casting call, looking for a Black full-figured woman, aged 22 to 30, with a London accent. Thousands of people sent in audition tapes, hoping to land the role of Queenie Jenkins, whom many in Britain already knew as the titular character in Candice Carty-Williamss best-selling debut novel. Carty-Williams, who was also the TV adaptations showrunner, knew that she was looking for an actress who could convey Queenies introspection. Dionne Brown whom she had met during auditions for another show had the right temperament. Dionne is constantly thinking in a way that Queenie is, Carty-Williams said. You see her standing there and her head is whirring that was important to me. Queenie, streaming on Hulu, is a coming-of-age story about the titular 25-year-old Londoner navigating the gulf, in love and life, between her reality and what she wants. She is a social media assistant at a newspaper, but has ambitions to write meaningful journalism; her relationship with her boyfriend is falling apart despite her efforts; and she wants carefree sex, but her encounters often leave her feeling disempowered. Modis choices Narendra Modi has won re-election as Indias prime minister, though by a far narrower margin than expected. With his third consecutive term, the charismatic strongman has sealed his position as the countrys most significant leader in generations. Despite having led India for a decade, Modi has in some ways kept his country guessing about his vision. On major issues Indias relationships, its economy, its society and its government its still unclear what sort of country Modi wants India to be. In todays newsletter, Alex Travelli, who covers South Asia, explains four of the big questions. Where will India find friends? India has spent recent years deepening its relationship with the U.S. It has gotten closer to American allies, including Japan and Australia, and has ordered high-end American weapons systems the kind that create dependence down the road. And it is unlikely to side with China. In 2020, Chinese troops crossed into territory controlled by India and killed 20 soldiers in a skirmish. Modi has kept Beijing at arms length since then. Trumps techie friends Last week, Donald Trump became the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a felony. Thursday night, he was feted at a fund-raiser in San Francisco hosted by David Sacks, the tech investor, that pulled in more than $12 million. But even as Trump is making new friends in Silicon Valley few tech moguls backed him publicly in 2016 the LinkedIn co-founder and Democratic donor Reid Hoffman has issued a blunt warning about Trump 2.0. This was Trumps first fund-raiser since being found guilty. Among the attendees: Chamath Palihapitiya, Sacks co-host of the All In podcast and former Democratic donor; Jacob Helberg, an adviser at Palantir; and crypto entrepreneurs, including the Winklevoss twins. Also there: Senator J.D. Vance, Republican of Ohio and former venture capitalist seen as a potential Trump running mate, who connected Trump with Sacks, writes the Timess Theodore Schleifer. In 2015, in the back of Star Casino in Sydney, Australia, Paul Carmichael began something extraordinary. As the new chef at Momofuku Seiobo, the first of David Changs Momofuku restaurants outside the United States, Mr. Carmichael turned what had been a fine-dining venue with European, American and Asian influences into a bastion of thoughtful Caribbean cooking. Waiters wearing tie-dyed shirts served a tasting menu that included cou-cou with caviar, and beef patties stuffed with bone marrow and abalone. It was an unlikely convergence of time, place and talent: a Barbados-born chef at an American-owned restaurant making world-class Caribbean food in Australia. In a casino. But something about Mr. Carmichael, the team he built and the Momofuku brand conjured magic. Seiobo was named Restaurant of the Year in 2016 by Gourmet Traveller magazine. Mr. Carmichael was also the magazines Chef of the Year in 2020, and the restaurant received glowing reviews in local, national and international publications. Australian food obsessives were dismayed when, in 2021, Momofuku and Mr. Chang decided not to renew a lease with Star Casino. Seiobo closed, and Mr. Carmichael stayed on with Star as an executive sous-chef overseeing operations of the casinos food venues. Now hes headed to New York City, where the Momofuku company has tapped Mr. Carmichael to play a key role in overseeing restaurant operations companywide. Hell start with a new restaurant in the East Village space that housed Momofuku Ko until last October. To be media literate these days is to understand that no ranked list, whether it is the 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time or the 35 Cutest Dog Breeds to Ever Exist, should be taken too literally. We all know that the cuteness of the Maltipoo and the awesomeness of Keith Moon are matters of opinion. When it comes to parsing the annual dining survey known as The Worlds 50 Best Restaurants, though, you really have to open your mind. Forget asking whether these establishments are the best in the world. The bigger question is: Are they restaurants? Consider some of the highest-ranking winners from this years edition, which was announced Wednesday night in a ceremony at the Wynn Las Vegas that began with feathered and painted dancers twirling light sticks to electronic dance music on a darkened stage. Gaggan, in Bangkok, was named not just the ninth-best restaurant in the world but the single best restaurant in Asia. The chef, Gaggan Anand, greets diners at his 14-seat table facing the kitchen with Welcome to my . completing the sentence with a term, meaning a chaotic situation, that will not be appearing in The New York Times. The society wedding of the year as it was called by British tabloids went off without a hitch on Friday at noon. Hugh Grosvenor, the seventh Duke of Westminster and one of the richest people in the United Kingdom, married Olivia Henson at Chester Cathedral, a centuries-old Gothic church in England. Despite the rapid winds, hundreds of observers and even a few protesters gathered outside to catch a glimpse of the duke, 33, the new duchess, 31, and William, Prince of Wales, a close friend of the groom and an usher at the wedding. (He attended without Catherine, Princess of Wales, who is currently undergoing treatment for cancer.) The Very Rev. Dr. Tim Stratford, the Dean of Chester, led and officiated the Anglican service. Ms. Henson arrived in a vintage 1930 Bentley with her father, Rupert Henson, wearing a floor-length silk crepe satin dress with a six-and-a-half-foot detachable train and an embroidered veil inspired by one that Ms. Hensons great-great-grandmother wore in the 1880s. The look was designed by Emma Victoria Payne, who is based in London. A hefty dose of sparkle was added with the Faberge Myrtle Leaf Tiara, which various Grosvenor women have worn since its creation in 1906. Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, went into Donald Trumps hush-money trial besieged by death threats from extremists, reproval from political commentators for creating a national distraction (Save the mug shots for Georgia, the handcuffs for Jan. 6, wrote Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal) and criticism from legal analysts who saw the case as structurally unsound, too quixotic to proceed. The result nevertheless was a guilty verdict on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the name of concealing a shady scheme to disrupt the 2016 election. The district attorneys work will soon turn to the sentencing memo his office will present to the judge in the case, Juan M. Merchan, which ought to prove equally controversial no matter what it recommends. Mr. Trump was convicted of class E felonies, the lowest level in the state, and could be sentenced to probation or up to four years in prison or, alternatively, what is known as a split sentence, with a relatively brief amount of time spent in a city jail in advance of a probationary determination. (The notion of a former president and his requisite Secret Service detail all piling into Rikers Island is unlikely.) Certainly to be considered is the fact that Michael Cohen, one of the executors of the conspiracy for which Mr. Trump served as impresario, was sentenced to three years in federal prison though he ultimately did not serve the full term after pleading guilty to campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. Last year, Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, spent 100 days in jail after pleading guilty to tax fraud involving his former employer also a paperwork violation. And he was sentenced to jail time again in April, in accordance with Mr. Braggs recommendations, after pleading guilty to perjury in Mr. Trumps civil fraud trial. The political consequences around this issue are layered, both in terms of the presidential election and Mr. Braggs own career. Unlike a federal prosecutor in a similar position, Mr. Bragg is an elected official. (Granted, history provides no analogous example of a county prosecutor weighing in on the fate of an ex-president with a criminal conviction.) Should he bend toward leniency, he faces the potential backlash of the Trump-hating Manhattan Democrats who would keep him in office. Should he lean into harsh punishment, he faces charges of hypocrisy from legal purists as well as a vast Trump support system, which, as one former prosecutor put it, would raise millions of dollars instantly off the designation of a maximum sentence. Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who prosecuted former President Donald J. Trump, agreed on Friday to testify before Congress as Republicans seek to discredit Mr. Trumps conviction. But Mr. Bragg suggested his testimony would need to wait until after Mr. Trump is sentenced next month. Mr. Bragg, who had previously resisted congressional involvement in the case, indicated his willingness to testify in a letter to Representative Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican who leads the House Judiciary Committee. Mr. Braggs office said the district attorney wanted to speak first with House Republicans to better understand the scope and purpose of the proposed hearing. After Mr. Trumps May 30 conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, Mr. Jordan called for a hearing on June 13 that he said would examine what he called politically motivated prosecutions of federal officials by state and local prosecutors, in particular the recent political prosecution of President Donald Trump by the Manhattan district attorneys office. In addition to Mr. Braggs testimony, Mr. Jordan, who also leads a subcommittee investigating what Republicans call the weaponization of government, is seeking the testimony of one of the prosecutors, Matthew Colangelo, who helped lead the case against Mr. Trump. A New York City police officer has been charged with attempted murder after shooting another motorist during an apparent road-rage episode in New Jersey and then driving off, prosecutors said on Friday. The officer, Hieu Tran, is also charged with second-degree weapons possession and second-degree aggravated assault. A lawyer listed in court records as representing him, Gregory G. Smith, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The confrontation that led to the charges occurred on May 17 at around 11 p.m., according to a news release from the Camden County prosecutor, Grace C. MacAulay, and a probable cause affidavit. Police officers from Voorhees Township responding to a multivehicle crash at the intersection of Route 73 and Cooper Road noticed that the driver of a yellow truck involved in the crash had been shot, according to the affidavit. Its a miracle on the water, the actress Candice Bergen said, gazing at a grove of trees on Thursday evening as she took shelter from the sun beneath a canopy. It was the opening night of the summer performance season at Little Island, the three-year-old floating park built on a reconstructed pier in the Hudson River. Despite thunderstorms earlier in the afternoon, around 700 actors, designers and media moguls turned up under a smattering of canopies near the islands amphitheater, among them Andy Cohen, the Bravo host and executive producer; Annie Leibovitz, the photographer; Fran Lebowitz, the writer; Natasha Lyonne, the actress; Bryan Lourd, the chief executive of the talent agency CAA; and Jason Blum, the film producer. In 2000, Sheri Kathleen Cole and Ellen Elizabeth Moore took one of the greatest steps toward commitment in the modern era: They bought a home together. The act of purchasing a small rowhouse in the Southwest Center City section of Philadelphia felt like a natural progression in a friendship that began in 1992, when the two met at the University of Cincinnati while pursuing masters degrees in womens studies. The glue that initially bonded them? Duran Duran. Ms. Cole, 54, who described fandom as basically obligatory when she was in high school, hadnt listened to the band much since. That is, until she met Ms Moore, also 54, and a lifelong Duranie, as die-hard fans are called. Ms. Coles interests focused on the way images of girls and women created by men affect womens sense of self and Duran Durans videos offered plenty of material. Beth and I spent hours picking apart their videos, and analyzing what she described as pornographic images of women. (Nevertheless, she remains a fan.) Their fervent discussions inspired Ms. Cole to write her masters thesis on the subject. In April, Princess Cruises told passengers that it was canceling a scheduled stop in Santorini, Greece, citing congestion. Four cruise ships were already anticipated to arrive on the same day in June, and were it to join, the ships would have brought some 17,000 visitors to an island of 15,500 residents. In the Aegean Sea, more than 1,000 islands fill the waters between Greece and Turkey, and the coastlines are lined with spectacular bays. Both countries set tourism records last year, a boon for two fragile economies, but one that follows and in turn fuels frenzied development that threatens local livelihoods, cultural heritage and ecological balance, particularly on the Greek islands. With plenty of whitewashed islands and historic coastal towns offering the same charms as their neighbors, its time to look beyond Mykonos and Marmaris to lesser-known spots that might benefit from more visitors. Whether youre in search of a hiking adventure, a cultural excursion or seclusion in rugged beauty, here are five destinations that offer distinctly Aegean experiences, without the crowds. Turkey Urla When Michelin expanded its Turkey guidebook last year, the quiet district of Urla, near the port city of Izmir, stole the spotlight. On a windy peninsula with clay-heavy soil, the hilly region has a rich winemaking tradition that dates back 6,000 years. A near-total government monopoly on winemaking stymied production for decades, but recently boutique makers and chef-driven restaurants have carved a path for themselves and put Urla on the gastronomic map. David DePape broke into Nancy Pelosis house in San Francisco in the early hours of Oct. 28, 2022, and bludgeoned her husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer, fracturing his skull. The brutal attack had national reverberations, sowing fear about political violence less than two weeks before the midterm elections. In police interviews after the attack, DePape acknowledged what he had done, and he was charged with a number of state and federal felonies. His federal trial concluded last month with convictions and a 30-year prison sentence. His state trial began last week. At DePapes federal sentencing hearing, Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said that it was important to send a message that politically motivated violence was absolutely unacceptable to our democracy, and added that she wanted to make sure there are no copycats. The San Francisco District Attorneys Office is prosecuting the state case. Yesterday, a judge dismissed some of the most serious charges, but DePape still faces a maximum state sentence of life in prison if convicted. A federal jury in Minneapolis on Friday convicted five people who had been accused of embezzling millions of government dollars from programs aimed at feeding hungry children during the pandemic. Two others accused in the case were acquitted. The trial, the first of what is expected to be several, lasted six weeks. It ended with a stunning revelation from a juror, who officials said was apparently given a gift bag crammed with $120,000 in a bribe attempt seeking acquittals. The juror was dismissed and an alternate juror took part in deliberations. A second juror was also replaced, court officials said on Tuesday, because the juror had learned about the attempted bribe. The six men and the one woman on trial in Minnesota had been charged with several felonies, including wire fraud, federal programs bribery and money laundering. In the end, four of the men and the woman were convicted. Some of the most serious charges can carry sentences of up to 20 years in prison. At the height of the surge in immigration last year, Cindy Garza found it hard to recognize the small Texas town of Garciasville, where she lives not far from the Rio Grande. Large crowds of people were often poking their fingers through the fence near the border crossing and screaming for help. Mothers and children kept trying to swim across the treacherous river. Once she came home and found a man who was fleeing the Border Patrol hiding under her bed. Ms. Garza, a mother of four, has always seen herself as a Democrat, and voted for both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. But she has come to believe that President Bidens softer policies on immigration have attracted the migrants from all over the world who have been seen spilling into the streets of her community. She is convinced that only a return of Donald J. Trump to the White House can restore order. When Biden won the last election, he said he was going to help people, and I saw a lot of people coming, said Ms. Garza, who regularly crosses the local international bridges to visit and shop in Mexico. I would see packs and packs of people. People saw it as a green ticket. Latinos all over the Rio Grande Valley, like many elsewhere in Texas, were once likely to be reliable Democrats, as Ms. Garza was. Now, widespread consternation over unauthorized crossings among residents along the border, where the majority of the population in most communities is Latino, could threaten support for Mr. Biden in what otherwise might be one of his key constituencies. School and police officials in Burlington, Vt., apologized on Friday after high school students on a field trip to the Police Department were exposed to a staged armed robbery that included a mock shooting a training exercise that upset some students. The training, which occurred on Wednesday and, according to the police, had been approved by both school and police officials, was meant to have been a realistic armed robbery demonstration, according to a statement released Friday by the police and the Burlington School District. But officials acknowledged in their statement that the training, which Seven Days, an independent weekly newspaper in Vermont, said included a masked gunman bursting into a room and pretending to open fire, had been a mistake. This weeks events resulted from a breakdown in communication between two groups trying to work together to create a meaningful experience for students, the statement said. The school district said it had offered counseling services to the students, and on Friday officials and students met for a restorative circle to process and talk about the events of the day, according to the statement. The Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is seeking permission from a bankruptcy court to liquidate his personal assets and deliver the proceeds to the Sandy Hook families who are owed more than $1.4 billion in damages for his lies about the 2012 school shooting. Mr. Jones also filed a separate bankruptcy for his company, Free Speech Systems, and in a hearing next Friday a judge is to rule whether the company will also be liquidated, an outcome favored by a majority of the families. That would shutter Infowars, effective the day of the ruling. It would also place assets from Infowars studios and potentially Mr. Joness popular social media accounts in control of the families. Silencing Mr. Jones, who for years has broadcast lies ranging from denying the Sandy Hook shooting to denying the results of the 2020 election, would be a definitive win for the families. For too long, Alex Jones has profited from the lies and fear that he peddles every day on Infowars, his corrupt business platform, said Chris Mattei, a lawyer for the families who sued Mr. Jones in Connecticut. The Connecticut families, driven by the principle that Jones must not be allowed to hurt or profit from the pain of others, are now on the brink of stripping him of his ability to inflict mass harm. This week, in a courtroom in Delaware, federal prosecutors presented a sordid story of drug use and a fateful gun purchase by President Bidens son. The trial of Hunter Biden has laid bare some of the first familys deepest pain, as well as the strength of the ties at its core. On Friday, Hunters daughter Naomi testified in his defense as the first lady, Jill Biden, who had flown back from France to be there, looked on. The proceedings have also spurred a subtle shift in how Mr. Biden and his wife publicly approach the addiction that has shaped Hunters life, and as a result, their own. Its not something either of them brings up very often but thats changed as it has become a key element of their sons criminal defense. I spoke with Katie Rogers, a White House correspondent for The New York Times who has written extensively about the Biden family and how the president is approaching this difficult moment. Our conversation was edited for length and clarify. Mike Pence could not have asked for a more welcoming audience. For nearly 30 minutes, the man who served as Donald J. Trumps vice president was repeatedly applauded as he offered a vigorous affirmation of his support for Israel at a conference of mostly conservative Jewish leaders in midtown Manhattan. He barely paused when his questioner, Zvika Klein, the editor in chief of The Jerusalem Post, asked Mr. Pence, an evangelical Christian, to lead the room in prayer for the Israeli hostages captured by Hamas on Oct. 7. It would be my great honor: Let us pray, he said. His invocation drew applause and shouts of Amen. In the seven months since he dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, in the face of inevitable defeats in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, Mr. Pence has been seeking out friendly audiences like this one as he embarks on a mission to resuscitate his political career. But just as importantly, he is presenting himself as the guardian of the conservative traditions of a Republican Party that he grew up with and that have since been redefined by Mr. Trump. He has begun turning up on high-profile television interviews to criticize Mr. Trumps position on abortion, in one example. He announced that his political advocacy group would spend $20 million this year on appearances and advertisements that promote endangered conservative positions on issues including tariffs, government spending and Americas role in the world. " " A new study debunks the idea that the Spinosaurus dinosaur was an avid swimmer. Mariomassone, Used Under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 License Key Takeaways Recent research suggests that Spinosaurus, contrary to previous beliefs, was not an adept swimmer. Computer simulations indicate it struggled to stay afloat and was likely too buoyant to dive effectively. Spinosaurus probably caught fish by wading in shallow water or from the shoreline, similar to modern grizzly bears or herons. You may remember Spinosaurus aegyptiacus as the villain of "Jurassic Park III." In that 2001 movie, the sail-backed carnivore swims up to a barge and attacks the human passengers. It's a cool action scene, but did Spinosaurus really hunt that way? Since the 1980s, experts have been wondering if the strange creature was amphibious. The debate thickened in 2014. Spinosaurus has always been an elusive dinosaur; its fossils are rare and those that are found tend to be fragmented or incomplete. So when a load of fresh information was announced in 2014, natural history fans got pretty excited. Paleontologist Nizar Ibrahim and his colleagues wrote a now-famous paper describing the partial skeletons of at least two individual Spinosaurus that were found in Morocco. Advertisement Using these bones, Ibrahim's team reinterpreted the way Spinosaurus might've looked and behaved. Scientists used to assume that, like most meat-eating dinosaurs, the animal's rear legs were significantly longer than its arms. But upon reviewing the new specimens, Ibrahim and his team concluded that Spinosaurus was a short-legged giant a weird-looking beast with an estimated length of 50 feet (15.5 meters) and disproportionately small hindlimbs. Such a creature seemed ill-suited for walking around on two legs over dry land. Pointing to its weird body shape (along with some other features), Ibrahim and his co-authors said Spinosaurus was a semiaquatic predator who swam after fish in its marshy African habitat 97 million years ago. A new paper calls this into question. Our friend Spinosaurus may have had an affinity for waterways, but according to a series of recent computer simulations, it was a mediocre swimmer. Follow our live coverage of the verdict in Hunter Bidens gun trial. Hunter Bidens daughter Naomi Biden Neal took the stand on Friday in hopes of taking her fathers defense into her own hands. By the time she embraced him at the defendants table after an hour of emotionally raw testimony, it was unclear whether she helped or harmed his cause. Ms. Biden Neal, 30, told the court her father seemed hopeful and sober weeks before he claimed to be drug-free on a gun application at the heart of the governments case. But that upbeat assessment was quickly undercut by prosecutors, who introduced anguished texts from that period in which she told her father he had driven her to the breaking point. Im really sorry, dad, I cant take this, Ms. Biden Neal wrote in October 2018, after he had failed to respond to several of her messages when they were both in New York. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent presidential candidate, will be on the ballot in Florida this fall, his campaign said on Friday, after the minor party that nominated Mr. Kennedy as its presidential candidate had its ballot access reinstated this week. It is a significant victory for Mr. Kennedys sprawling effort to get on the ballot in all 50 states. Florida has the third-largest number of electoral votes in the country, behind California (where Mr. Kennedy is already on the ballot) and Texas (where Mr. Kennedy has submitted a ballot access petition). Florida is an increasingly Republican state Donald J. Trump won by a margin of about three percentage points in 2020 and it is unclear what effect Mr. Kennedys campaign could have on the race there. Mr. Kennedy is drawing support from both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, and both campaigns are concerned about the potential for him to swing the election in key states. Mr. Kennedy is now on the ballot in seven states California, Florida, Utah, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Michigan and Delaware and is currently eligible for a total of 119 votes in the Electoral College. That metric is important even five months ahead of the election because Mr. Kennedy must be on the ballot in enough states to be eligible for 270 electoral votes in order to qualify for CNNs presidential debate on June 27. With fewer than two weeks before the June 20 deadline to qualify, Mr. Kennedy has less than half of the total he needs. Donald J. Trump said he would announce his running mate next month at the Republican National Convention, a move that would add considerable suspense to a gathering that otherwise could lack for high drama. Mr. Trump has told aides for weeks that he would like to use the convention for the announcement, though he has been more noncommittal in public. In January, he told Fox News that he had decided on his running mate and suggested he would announce his decision on one of the networks programs. In later interviews, he said he would unveil his choice closer to the convention, scheduled to start July 15 in Milwaukee. A former reality TV star with a knack for building an audience, Mr. Trump waited until just days before the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland to announce then-Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana as his running mate. A senior Biden administration official warned on Friday that absent a change in nuclear strategy by China and Russia, the United States may be forced to expand its nuclear arsenal, after decades of cutting back through now largely abandoned arms control agreements. The comments on Friday from Pranay Vaddi, a senior director of the National Security Council, were the most explicit public warning yet that the United States was prepared to shift from simply modernizing its arsenal to expanding it. They were also a warning to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia about the likely U.S. reaction if the last major nuclear arms control agreement, called New START, expires in February 2026 with no replacement. Mr. Vaddi, speaking at the annual meeting of the Arms Control Association, a group that advocates limits on nuclear weapons, confirmed what officials have been saying in private conversations and closed congressional testimony for more than a year. It is the inevitable outgrowth, they have argued, of Chinas rapid nuclear expansion and Russias repeated threats to use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine. But it would be an epochal shift, and one fraught with dangers that many Americans thought they had left behind at the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the shadow of the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States rushed troops and military aid to a swath of West Africa to help French forces stop the spread of Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. More than a decade later, and with hundreds of millions of dollars in security assistance spent, that regional counterterrorism effort has largely failed. Groups that have declared allegiance to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State are on the march. Military coups have toppled civilian-led governments in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Niger. The new leaders have ordered American and French troops out, and in some cases invited Russian mercenaries in to take their place. As the United States withdraws 1,000 military personnel from Niger and shutters a $110 million air base there by September, American officials are scrambling to work with a new set of countries in coastal West Africa to battle a violent extremist insurgency that they perceive is steadily seeping south. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said on Friday that even the combined arsenals of Europe and the United States would be no match for Russias in a nuclear confrontation, but that I hope this is never going to happen. He reasoned that Moscows supremacy in the Ukraine war has made that grim scenario unlikely. The use is possible in an exceptional case in the event of a threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country, Mr. Putin told a large audience of the Russian elite and foreign dignitaries gathered for the main session of the four-day St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. I dont think that such a case has come. As Mr. Putin spoke, President Biden was in Europe to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, when Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, leading eventually to the defeat of Nazi Germany. The Russian assault on Ukraine meant the stakes were equally high today, Mr. Biden said, suggesting that the voices of the fallen are summoning us to defend Western values. At the annual gathering in St. Petersburg, Mr. Putin invariably presents a long, glowing assessment of Russias domestic and foreign affairs, and this year was no exception. The countrys economy was growing despite a battery of Western sanctions, he said, and Russia was fostering an alternative to the American-dominated global financial order as Moscows armed forces were prevailing on the battlefield. Justice Clarence Thomas acknowledged on Friday additional luxury travel he had accepted from a conservative billionaire, amending a previous financial disclosure to reflect trips he had taken to an Indonesian island and a secretive all-male club in the Northern California redwoods. The trips, taken in 2019, were earlier revealed by ProPublica, but it is the first time that Justice Thomas has included them on his financial disclosures. Other Supreme Court justices chronicled their gifts, travel and money earned from books and teaching. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson reported receiving four concert tickets valued at about $3,700 from Beyonce and $10,000 of artwork for her chambers from the Alabama artist and musician Lonnie Holley. The financial disclosures, released yearly, are one of the few public records available about the justices lives, providing select details of their activities outside the court. A steady drumbeat of revelations about ties between some of the justices and wealthy donors has only intensified interest in the reports, particularly after disclosures that Justice Thomas had accepted lavish gifts and travel from affluent friends over decades. Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, pleaded not guilty on Friday in an Arizona election interference case, the latest development in the criminal prosecutions playing out in five battleground states over efforts to keep former President Donald J. Trump in power in 2020. Arizona is the second state, after Georgia, to charge Mr. Meadows in connection with his conduct after the 2020 election. He is accused of taking part in an effort to reverse Mr. Trumps loss in Arizona, and, like other defendants, faces charges of conspiracy, fraud and forgery. Another former Trump aide, Michael Roman, was also arraigned on Friday in Arizona and pleaded not guilty. Mr. Roman worked for the 2020 Trump campaign and played a major role in the effort to deploy fake electors in swing states lost by Mr. Trump. He was also charged this week in Wisconsin over a fake electors plot there, along with two other former Trump advisers. Fifty-two people now face charges related to election interference in five states. They include Mr. Trump, who has been charged in Georgia, though that case is on hold after a ruling on Wednesday from the state Court of Appeals. None of the cases are expected to go to trial before the November election. Mr. Trump also faces federal charges over election interference. Nine months ago, John Steenhuisen, who leads South Africas second-largest political party, the Democratic Alliance, stood before news cameras and signed an agreement not to work with the long-governing party, the African National Congress. So help me God, Mr. Steenhuisen said, raising his right hand and chuckling. But when the African National Congress failed to secure a governing majority in last weeks election and on Thursday invited its political opponents to join forces in a government of national unity, Mr. Steenhuisen moved to the front of the pack of political leaders looking to work with the party he had sworn off. He and the Democratic Alliance are now plowing ahead with the most important political negotiations in South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994 and have drafted a document laying out their core principles for joining a government with the African National Congress, or A.N.C. The governing partys slide taking just 40 percent of the vote, ending three decades of dominance has left Mr. Steenhuisen, 48, standing at the brink of his political dreams. As head of the party that took second place, with nearly 22 percent of the vote, Mr. Steenhuisen seems likely to get a leading role in the next government, political analysts say. YEREVAN, 07 JUNE, ARMENPRESS. A contact group between the Education Ministry and the Council of Rectors will discuss changes to funding across various university specialties, said Education Minister Galin Tzokov. This transpired on Friday at the opening of a meeting of the heads of higher education institutions in Bulgaria in Varna. "At the moment there is a huge imbalance in the funding of the different fields and it must be overcome, not by reducing the subsidies for the desired specialties, but by increasing the funds for the rest," said Tzokov. "At the moment, for the training of a future teacher, universities receive 2 times less money than the subsidy of a school student," the Minister said. The meeting discussed the launch of a national programme to training of students from outside the EU, as well as the priorities concerning higher education institutions, as set out in the work of the Ministry of Innovation and Growth. Bulgaria is also among the countries in Europe with a high proportion of international students. "Currently, the share of foreign students in Bulgaria is around 8%, which ranks us among the top in the region," Minister Tzokov said. Minister Tzokov stressed that in recent years a number of positive changes have taken place in higher education and universities are constantly improving their quality. (This information is being published according to an agreement between Armenpress and BTA.) POINTE DU HOC President Biden used the backdrop of the beaches at Normandy on Friday to argue that the fight for democracy in Ukraine and elsewhere remains as vital as the day that American troops helped rescue Europe from Hitlers tyranny. On a clear and sunny afternoon overlooking Utah and Omaha beaches, the president evoked the ghosts of Pointe du Hoc, the Army Rangers who scaled cliffs in the face of withering German fire, to link the struggle for freedom during World War II with the fight for democracy now both in Ukraine and in the voting booths at home. As we gather here today, he said in a televised speech marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, its not just to honor those who showed such remarkable bravery that day, June 6, 1944. Its to listen to the echo of their voices. To hear them. Because they are summoning us. Theyre not asking us to scale these cliffs, Mr. Biden added, as he stood on top of a concrete German bunker overlooking the English Channel. Theyre asking us to stay true to what America stands for. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark was attacked on Friday evening in a busy square in Copenhagen in an assault that left her shaken, her office said, though she was able to walk away. The police said they had made an arrest. We have a suspect in custody, and we are now investigating the matter, the Copenhagen Police said on Friday. The motive for the attack is unclear. The suspect, whom the police on Saturday described as a 39-year-old man, is expected to appear in court on Saturday afternoon. The prime ministers office released a statement after the attack saying she had been beaten, several news outlets reported, but it was unclear what injuries she had sustained. On Saturday, her office said she had been taken to a hospital and had sustained minor whiplash, but was in otherwise good condition. Several Danish politicians expressed their concern over the episode. Mette is naturally shocked by the assault, Magnus Heunicke, Denmarks environment minister, wrote on X. I must say, it shakes all of us who are close to her. Its tempting to dismiss the European Parliament elections as the most important elections that dont actually matter. Hundreds of millions of voters across 27 nations will turn out this weekend to cast their ballots, but the European Parliament is the least powerful of the European Union institutions. It is often derided as a talking shop. Its 720 members have limited powers, and, while a few are ascendant stars, a few are retired politicians, or even criminals. But, the European Union has never been more important in delivering tangible benefits to its citizens, or to the world in being a force for stability and prosperity, since its inception as an economic alliance nearly seven decades ago. The Parliament that emerges from these elections, weak though it may be, will serve as a brake or accelerator for the crucial policies that will help shape Europes immediate future. In the five years since the last election, the bloc jointly bought Covid-19 vaccines and started a massive economic stimulus program to recover from the pandemic. It sanctioned Russia and paid to arm and reconstruct Ukraine. It ditched Russian energy imports and negotiated new sources of natural gas. It overhauled its migration system. It adopted ambitious climate policies. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain apologized on Friday for leaving early from a D-Day commemoration in France, admitting to a major public relations misstep in the heat of a general election campaign. After the conclusion of the British event in Normandy, I returned back to the UK, Mr. Sunak wrote on the social media platform X. On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer and I apologise. Mr. Sunak did not explain why he had decided to leave early. But once back in London, he recorded an interview with the British network ITV, in which he was quizzed about his claim during a televised debate this week that the opposition Labour Party would raise taxes on British households by 2,000 pounds, about $2,560. Mr. Sunaks apology came after a storm of criticism, with the election less than four weeks away. The Labour Party condemned his early departure as a dereliction of duty. The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey, accused Mr. Sunak of abandoning the aging veterans of the D-Day invasion on the beaches. Even some officials of Mr. Sunaks own Conservative Party expressed dismay. The Ukrainian borderland has long been a place where cultures merge and interchange. Now it is again a place of combat. Through relentless loss, it is being transformed, possibly forever, into a treacherous and abandoned gray zone. What was once a shared way of life, and faith, is dwindling. Getting even daily essentials to the few who remain is a dangerous struggle. With President Biden in France rallying support for Ukraines fight against Russia, ammunition and weaponry from an aid package approved by Congress this spring is arriving at the front in quantities sufficient to help stabilize defenses, soldiers and commanders said in interviews. Russia, though, still holds an artillery advantage, which has been key in the war in Ukraine. Lt. Denys Yaroslavsky, a commander in northeastern Ukraine, where Russian forces attacked across the border last month and threatened to advance toward Ukraines second-largest city, Kharkiv, said on Thursday that Ukrainian artillery crews could now fire more frequently at Russian forces. The Russian advance has largely stalled. But to the south of Kharkiv, in Ukraines Donbas region, Russia has renewed assaults on Ukrainian lines. Overall, the front line has not shifted significantly in more than two weeks, despite fierce and bloody fighting, according to soldiers on the front, military reports and satellite maps of the battlefield compiled by independent monitoring groups. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken plans to visit Israel and three Arab states next week, as the U.S. presses for a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas to end the war in Gaza. Mr. Blinken is scheduled to travel to Israel, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan from Monday through Wednesday, Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesman, said in a statement on Friday. The trip, which will be his eighth visit to the region since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks that set off the war, comes at a particularly tense moment. The Biden administration is trying hard to stop the fighting in Gaza in hopes of freeing Israeli and some Israeli-American hostages held by Hamas and ending a conflict that has exacted a grievous toll in lives, physically devastated most of Gaza and created political pressure on President Biden to restrict U.S. arms deliveries to Israel. Relations between the Biden administration and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel are particularly fraught in the wake of Mr. Bidens decision to hold up the delivery of American 2,000-pound bombs, a move meant to ensure that they are not used in the sort of full-scale invasion of the Gazan city of Rafah that Mr. Biden has said he opposes. Mr. Blinkens travels also come as worries are rising that fighting might escalate along Israels northern border with the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran. The exchanges of fire have prompted evacuations on both sides of the border. A cease-fire would unlock the possibility of achieving calm along Israels northern border so both displaced Israeli and Lebanese families can return to their homes, Mr. Millers statement said. Qatar and Egypt have each played roles as mediators between Hamas and Israel, which do not negotiate directly. Israel recently strained relations with Egypt by seizing tactical control of a buffer zone on the Egypt-Gaza border, known as the Philadelphi Corridor. In Jordan, Mr. Blinken is expected to attend a conference on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza co-hosted by Jordan, Egypt, and the United Nations. The U.S. military has repaired a temporary pier for humanitarian relief and on Friday reattached it to the Gaza shore, more than a week after it broke apart in high seas, the military said. Army Corps Of Engineers workers completed the work on Friday morning, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters in a briefing call. The $230-million floating pier, which American officials have lauded as part of a solution to getting more aid into hunger-stricken Gaza, has been troubled by logistical and security issues. Admiral Cooper said that aid would begin to flow through the pier again in the coming days. He said that military engineers provided all the necessary support to ensure the safe and placement of the pier to the beach, adding: The policy of no U.S. boots on the ground does remain in effect. White House policy does not allow U.S. troops on the ground in Gaza. Once the aid resumes, Admiral Cooper estimated, about one million pounds of goods would enter Gaza through the pier over each two-day period. In early March, President Biden surprised the Pentagon by announcing that the U.S. military would build a pier for Gaza. In the days after it became operational on May 17, trucks were looted as they made their way to a warehouse, forcing the U.N. World Food Program to suspend operations. After officials beefed up security, the weather turned bad. American officials had been hoping that the sea surges would not start until later in the summer. The situation in Gaza remains dire. Health officials say more than 36,000 people have been killed; many people have been displaced; and the United Nations has warned that famine is looming. The United Nations will add Israel, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to a list of countries and armed groups that harm children when it releases its annual report on children and armed conflict, citing the heavy toll the war in Gaza has taken on minors, including killing, maiming and starvation, U.N. officials said. Stephane Dujarric, the U.N. spokesman, said the bodys chief of staff called the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, on Friday to inform him that Israel would be listed this year. The call was a courtesy afforded to countries that are newly listed, Mr. Dujarric said, to give countries a heads-up and avoid leaks. Hamas, the armed group that led Gaza before the war, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second-largest armed group in the enclave, will be named in the report. Hamas is being cited because its fighters abducted and killed Israeli children when they attacked Israel on Oct. 7, a U.N. official said. Armed groups that harm children in conflicts, like the Taliban and Boko Haram, are routinely named in the annual report. The news of Israels listing further strained an already deteriorating relationship between it and the United Nations. Mr. Erdan called the move an immoral decision that aids terrorism and rewards terrorists. He made a video recording of the phone call and released parts of it on the social media site X. Featuring 20 ramps intertwined over five levels and connecting three major expressways, the Huangjuewan Overpass in Chongqing is considered to be the worlds most complicated overpass. When the first photos of Huangjuewan Overpass first hit the internet, a few years back, they cause a mix of shock, amazement and concern, especially among motorists. Many were wondering how on Earth less-experienced drivers were supposed to find their way with so many ramps and lanes to choose from. And, even if you consider yourself an experienced driver, Huangjuewan does look a little daunting, at least at first sight. Despite its designers claims that it looks much more complicated than it truly is, Huangjuewan has become known as the worlds most complicated overpass. Youll have to drive around the entire city if you take the wrong ramp, one motorist commented on a photo of Huangjuewan Overpass a while back, while others wondered whether their GPS systems would be of any help, considering the five vertical levels that the ramps are positioned on. Completed in 2017, after five years of planning and another seven years of actual construction work, Huangjuewan Overpass is considered somewhat of an architectural wonder, and its lead designer insists that any concerns about navigating the overpass are unfounded. Liu Bangjun told Peoples Daily that the 20 ramps of Huangjuewan Overpass were necessary to make it easier to navigate. Because it connects three expressways as well as other regional roadways, designers took into account human error and added extra ramps to help drivers turn around faster. According to Liu, in case of choosing the wrong lane, motorists have an exit option within 10 minutes, and road signs are very visible, so even though ramps from Huangjuewan Overpass go in eight different directions, drivers shouldnt be too worried. China has been creating some pretty crazy overpasses lately. Back in 2018, we featured Qianchun Interchange, another infrastructural wonder consisting of 18 different ramps, with the highest one standing 37 meters above the ground. CHANGSHA - Drawn by the rich opportunities in China's central region, various foreign-funded enterprises have cast their vote of confidence by settling there and expanding their investment or operations. Among them is the German chemical giant BASF, which has set up a branch in Changsha, capital of Central China's Hunan province. And earlier this year, Volkswagen Group China announced an investment of 2.5 billion euros ($2.73 billion) for the expansion of its innovation hub in Hefei in Anhui province. China's central region comprises six provinces: Shanxi, Henan, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi. The country has emphasized the need to accelerate the rise of its central region as part of its efforts to promote coordinated regional development. From May 31 to June 2, the 13th Central China Investment and Trade Exposition (Expo Central China 2024) was held in Changsha to facilitate trade and investment in this region. This year's expo attracted the participation of more than 200 multinationals. Vincenzo Raffa, general manager of Yita Business Affairs, a business affairs firm based in China, said that China's central region offers abundant opportunities for Italian companies. With China's growing consumer market and increasing demand for high-quality products and services, Italian companies can leverage their expertise in fields such as manufacturing, design and fashion, he noted. Cooperation and partnership between Italian and Chinese companies will yield win-win results. Italian companies have unique advantages in technology, design and quality, while central China offers a vast market and geographical benefits, so there is significant potential for collaboration between the two sides, according to Raffa. China's central region, known for its agriculture, energy and equipment manufacturing industries, is striving to build a modern industrial system at an accelerated pace. This year's exhibition, covering an area of approximately 40,000 square meters, featured exhibits from the aforementioned six provinces, including a 5G+ hydrogen-powered unmanned tractor and an intelligent self-driving bus. Raffa said he was very impressed by the industrial upgrading and innovation capabilities of the central region showcased at the expo, adding that the concentration of resources in the region provides opportunities for Italian companies specializing in advanced technologies and green solutions. China's faster-than-expected economic growth of 5.3 percent in the first quarter of this year reaffirms its attractiveness for foreign investment. The number of newly established foreign-invested firms in the country hit 12,000 during the period, up 20.7 percent year-on-year. An ever-improving industrial system, a vast consumer market and an increasingly optimized business environment have made China's central region a magnet for foreign-funded enterprises. According to Wang Xueli, CEO of Zurbruggen Business Management Co Ltd (China), which is the China headquarters with the German enterprise Zurbruggen Group, since their establishment in Changsha, the city has experienced an improved business environment, rapid infrastructure upgrades and significant economic development. Wang said that central China boasts abundant human and educational resources, extensive transport links and great potential for further economic development. "We hope that by participating in the expo, we can explore more investment and cooperation opportunities in a region worthy of long-term efforts." YEREVAN, JUNE 7, ARMENPRESS. The Geghard Scientific and Analytical Foundation welcomes the announcement by the Lemkin Institute calling on the UN to withdraw support for Azerbaijan's hosting of the COP29 climate conference. The statement by Geghard reads as follows: The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention called on the United Nations to withdraw support for Azerbaijan's hosting of the COP29 climate conference. The Lemkin Institute notes that Azerbaijan is a genocidal state, whose leader routinely expresses genocidal ideology towards Armenians, calling them "dogs", "jackals" and "terrorists". The Lemkin Institute calls on the international community to reject the genocidal ideology and withdraw support for Azerbaijan as host of the conference. The UN climate conference is scheduled to be held in November 2024 in Baku. Such a large-scale event, under the auspices of the United Nations, should be aimed at finding solutions to the global-level problem. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan exploits it to put pressure on Armenia. Azerbaijan has repeatedly manipulated 'environmental issues' in recent years. At the end of 2022, under the pretext of environmental concerns, the complete blockade of Artsakh began. Azerbaijan has also regularly opened fire on the factory under construction in Yeraskh, obstructing the construction work. This country continues to claim that it is allegedly developing green energy in Artsakh and that by 2050, it will make it a 'carbon-free zone.' International organizations, including the UN, as well as politicians from various countries who have publicly supported Azerbaijan in holding the climate conference and are involved in promoting Azerbaijan's 'green image,' should urge Baku not to use the climate event to exert pressure on other countries. Otherwise, they are also directly responsible for Azerbaijan's aggressive policy. The Geghard Foundation welcomes the Lemkin Institute's statement. The UN has an obligation to ensure that events held under its auspices are not used as opportunities to present accusation against Armenia. BMF is named agency of record for Spanx, which offers activewear, apparel, denim, shapewear, intimates, leggings and hosiery. The agency will partner with Spanx to help shape the companys narrative as well as boost media and consumer awareness. Prior to being named AOR for Spanx, BMF, whose other clients include Gucci, Lilly Pulitzer, Sunglass Hut and Estee Lauder, had already started working with the company, producing its first pop-up series in New York; Washington, DC; and Miami last December. The initiative resulted in more than 1.2 billion press impressions, including coverage from WWD, Marie Claire and Thrillist. Their track record of excellence and strategic prowess aligns perfectly with Spanx's vision, and we cant wait to see the innovative ways in which they elevate our brand narrative and drive awareness, said Spanx VP, brand & integrated marketing Andrea Port. SPM Communications signs on as agency of record for Philz Coffee, Skout Organic and DIG. For Philz Coffee, which has nearly 70 locations throughout California and Chicago, SPM will provide national, trade and local market media relations, as well as handling new store openings, brand partnerships, crisis management. Skout Organic, which makes certified organic, gluten-free, vegan and kosher protein bars, kids snack bars and soft-baked cookies, has engaged the agency for brand building, national and trade media relations, product introductions and crisis management. New York-based fast-casual restaurant DIG will rely on SPM for media relations and thought leadership. Nickerson takes on AOR duties for the Building Owners & Managers Association of Greater New York, the areas federation of BOMA International. Nickerson will provide comprehensive PR and communications services, as well as on-site event support and coordination, to enhance BOMA New York's outreach and engagement initiatives across New York. BOMA New York represents all commercial real estate professionals in the five boroughs the largest industry in the market area, contributing approximately $27 billion to the state economy. "Nickerson's results-driven approach and commitment to client success perfectly complement BOMA New York's collaborative work style, says BOMA New York executive director Lori Raphael. We are confident their expertise and dedication will help us expand our communications reach and showcase our industry-leading initiatives and advocacy." Antonio Guterres PR helps pave the highway to climate hell, according to United Nations secretary Antonio Guterres. In his notable Moment of Truth speech about the climate crisis made June 5 at the American Museum of Natural History, Guteeres accused PR firms and ad agencies of enabling the fossil fuels industry in planetary destruction. Many in the fossil fuel industry have shamelessly greenwashed, even as they sought to delay climate actionwith lobbying, legal threats and massive ad campaigns," he said. They have been aided and abetted by advertising and PR companiesMad Menremember the TV seriesfueling the madness. He called on PR firms and ad agencies to drop fossil fuels clients, and stop taking new ones. Fossil fuels are not only poisoning our planettheyre toxic for your brand, Guteeres added. The former prime minister of Portugal noted that some of the brightest and most creative minds in the communications business are mobilizing around the battle to combat climate change. They are gravitating towards companies that are fighting for our planetnot trashing it, he said. PR firms and ad agencies with fossil fuels clients have decisions to make. Do they want to be on the right side of history and work for a sustainable future, or do they remain on the payrolls of those responsible for climate chaos? Support Ukrainian refugees Volunteers Tbilisi, which provides food, medicine and temporary housing to the 160K Ukrainians who have fled to Georgia, is looking for pro-bono PR support. The promotional push is timed to buttress a fundraising program to benefit Ukrainian refugee women and their kids. VT is looking for firms to spread the word about its work and to generate awareness of the refugee crisis. Marina Belkina, who handles media, partnerships and fundraising activities, can be reached at [email protected]. Excellent Elon SpaceX chief Elon Musk, who is not exactly the classiest guy in the world, congratulated Boeing on the first successful manned launch of its Starliner capsule on June 5. SpaceX president/COO Gwynn Shotwell went a bit further. Shotwell wrote on the X platform: Congratulations to @NASA, @BoeingSpace and @ULAlaunch on this mornings launch to the @space-station and Godspeed to Butch [Wilmore] and Suni [Williams] and Starliner on your flight. SpaceX has been sending people into space for years. The launch last week was Boeings third attempt to send crews into space. Wilmore and Williams are expected to return for a landing in White Sands, NM, on June 14. Will Elon welcome them back to Earth? Judge Nicola Andrews accused an Offaly man of conducting his defence in a derogatory and offensive manner to inflict hurt. John McGhee (47) of Church Street, Clara, Co Offaly appeared before Portlaoise District Court to answer charges arising from the Laois Pride parade in 2023. He had denied the public order charges which arose from the incident. The defendant was accused of engaging in threatening or abusive behaviour, displaying a sign which was offensive and failing to comply with a member of An Garda Siochana at Fitzmaurice Place, Portlaoise on September 9, 2023. Garda Aran Grehan, who is a member of the Garda Community Policing team in Portlaoise, was liaising with organisers of Laois Pride on the date in question. She told the court the event had attracted a large crowd of people of all ages. She said the defendant was also at the location. He was holding up a placard with: LGBT tyranny, grooming your kids written on it, she said. The defendant acknowledged the sign which was brought to court and he told Judge Andrews that it was his sign. I own it, he said. There was a large crowd gathered with families and children, explained Garda Grehan. She said the defendant began shouting about LGBT and paedophiles. She said he was also taking photographs and filming the event. She said when she approached the man he was extremely intimidating and aggressive and was shouting into her face. Garda Grehan observed a woman approaching the man and telling him to stop taking pictures. She said he became abusive towards the woman. She then asked him to leave but he insisted he had a right to protest. I told him he had and he could stand on the footpath with his placard, said Garda Grehan. She said the man tried to get into the parade but she told him that he could instead follow the diversity car at the rear of the parade which she was driving. Garda Grehan said the defendant continued to shout abuse about the LGBT community. She said at this point the crowd began to shout have you no shame towards the defendant. Garda Grehan directed the defendant to leave the area and when he wouldnt she arrested him and took possession of the placard and his mobile phone as she believed he had been using it to record the events. Inspector Joe Culliton asked Garda Grehan about the arrest. I informed him he was being arrested under Section 6 and 7 of the Public Order Act, she replied. Mr McGhee, who was defending himself, claimed he was arrested by two colleagues of Garda Grehans and he said video footage would be available. However, she denied this version of events. You requested me to stay behind the ridiculously coloured car you were driving, he said. Garda Grehan agreed that she had told the defendant to stay behind the diversity car and remain quiet. He said he had remained behind the car and he asked how he could have been intimidating when he was outnumbered in his estimate by 300 to one. He said he was incapacitated as he had a placard in one hand and a mobile phone in the other. He put it to Garda Grehan that she had been in his face. Garda Grehan denied this and said I was not in his face at any time. Mr McGhee insisted that under the Irish constitution he was entitled to protest peacefully. I stayed behind the car as per your instructions, he insisted. Garda Grehan said when the parade reached Main Street the defendant continued to shout and act aggressively. Mr McGhee noted Garda Grehan had denied putting her hands on him prior to the arrest. He told Judge Andrews that it would be visible in video footage although he admitted he didnt have the footage to hand. Judge Andrews said if you dont have the video footage in court you cant refer to it. Manager of the Midlands LGBT Plus Project, Christina Fitzharris said the group had organised the pride parade. She said her five year old niece was with her on the day. Ms Fitzharris told the court she had witnessed the defendant holding a sign and shouting at adults and children on the day in question. He told me to get back in the kitchen and cook like a good woman, she said. She walked away to start the parade in the hope that the defendant would stay where he was. Mr McGhee asked the witness if she worked for a Non Government Organisation. She explained that she worked with a charity. Mr McGhee accused the witness of promoting a disgusting ideology. Maria Tyrell took to the stand. She recalled that it was a gorgeous sunny day and there were lots of people of all age groups present at the parade. She said there were volunteers assisting and the defendant had started really harassing this young steward so she told him to leave the young man alone. Ms Tyrell told the court the defendant was trying to provoke a reaction and was aggressive. I felt very sad for everybody there. I wouldnt have gone near that man, she said. Mr McGhee asked how she felt threatened if he had a phone in one hand and a placard in the other. He also said he was outnumbered 300 to one on the day. Another witness described the defendant as being vile, aggressive and intimidating on the day. She had requested that he not take pictures of children at the event. I was completely unnerved by him. I didnt feel safe, she said. Do you consider that an appropriate lifestyle to be promoting to your children? the defendant asked her in cross examination. The witness said the man could have just stayed where he was with his sign. You even came up and said to me, what sort of parent are you? she said. And I stand by that, replied Mr McGhee. READ NEXT: Gardai close in on eight vehicles linked to gang involved in Offaly burglaries Mr McGhee, who works as an embalmer, took to the stand. He said he found himself in Portlaoise on the day for work. He said in his view the event was detrimental to the children of Ireland and he told the court he had exercised his constitutional right to protest in what he considered a peaceful manner. He pointed out that there had been no violence on the date in question and he branded the diversity vehicle a waste of taxpayers money. No threat was posed by me, he insisted. Inspector Culliton asked Mr McGhee what he had planned to do with the footage he had taken. Mr McGhee said he was planning to blur out the faces of minors and put the footage online to expose the rot as he viewed it. He claimed he was unable to defend himself in the absence of his phone footage as the device had been taken from him by gardai. Judge Nicola Andrews said the defendant had strong views in relation to how people live their lives and love, which she said he was entitled to. Mr McGhee, under Bunreacht na hEireann which you have quoted several times, we are all equal under Article 40.1, she pointed out. I am noting a not guilty plea was entered before the court on all charges and the manner in which your defence was conducted with a view to delivering your personally held opinion in a most derogatory and offensive manner to inflict hurt on the members of the public and the witness present in court today, she said. Judge Andrews said the State had proven its case and she convicted him on the charges. She asked Inspector Culliton about any previous convictions and was told the defendant had none. Judge Andrews fined the man 500, imposed a three month sentence which was suspended for two years on condition the defendant keep the peace and be of good behaviour. She explained that if the defendant wished to appeal she would have to fix recognisance. I would prefer to bring it to the High Court on a constitutional matter, said Mr McGhee. I would like to obtain the DAR (Digital Audio Recording), he added. Judge Andrews told the man he would need to make an application for the DAR of the court hearing. She fixed recognisance and told him to contact the member in charge in Portlaoise Garda Station in relation to retrieving his phone. Mr McGhee then asked about the fine. I dont know would you be better off giving that money to charity, say for victims of child abuse, he suggested. Judge Andrews said no to the suggestion and told the man the court had imposed a fine. She issued a destruction order for the sign which had been brought to court for the hearing. Three hundred jobs will be created during the construction of a major development at Center Parcs Longford Forest, with 250 permanent jobs once operational. The 100 million new development will consist of 198 additional lodges, including four luxury treehouses, a new restaurant, an additional coffee house, an extension to existing restaurants, leisure and car park facilities, and the creation of additional treatment rooms and treetop sauna at the Aqua Sana spa and swimming pool. The expansion marks its fifth year operating in Ireland in July. Measures will also be put in place at all facilities to reduce energy consumption, including the use of high efficiency LED lighting. Low flow outlets will also be utilised throughout the development to reduce water consumption. Center Parcs UK and Ireland's CEO, Colin McKinlay, said, "We are delighted to announce that following several years of planning, we will commence work on our expansion of Longford Forest this autumn. Year on year, we have seen an increase in the number of guests we have welcomed to Longford Forest and many returning families, who have really taken Center Parcs into their hearts. "Speaking of hearts, at Center Parcs we feel so fortunate to be geographically located at the heart of Ireland and have the ongoing support of the local community. We are thrilled to be able to create even more opportunities for them and boost the local economy further." NUTSHED Limited, Promoters Evie & Eliza Ward, who are supported by Local Enterprise Office Tipperary, were winners at this years National Enterprise Awards. The awards, which took place at the Round Room in the Mansion House in Dublin on Thursday May 23rd, were in their 24th year and run annually by the Local Enterprise Offices. Tipperary duo Evie and Eliza Ward of Nutshed, makers of award-winning peanut butters, took home the South West Region Award on the night. Based in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, Nutshed led by sisters Evie & Eliza has grown their business from a humble market stall in 2014 to became Irelands first producer of award winning, single origin craft peanut butters, while introducing flavored peanut butter to the Irish market by creating an exciting and delicious range. Now available in 600+ shops around Ireland, in independent retailers, Dunnes Stores, Tesco and SuperValus . Their fanatical range has recently expanded to South Korea, where their peanut butters are gaining a loyal following from Korean customers through their listings in the super high-end Hyundai Department Stores, as well as the hugely popular online store Market Kurly. The sisters have grown up with food in their genes following in the footsteps of their parents Peter & Mary Ward who have championed local food produce and fresh ingredients over the years from their store Country Choice based in Nenagh. Peter & Mary themselves were awarded this year a Lifetime Achievement Award from Food writer and Irish Food Writers Guild President, Georgina Campbell Speaking after the awards, the sisters said, We are absolutely thrilled with this award and delighted to represent LEO Tipperary in the final of such a key annual competition, we are privileged to be among the 31 top businesses from all around the Country! We hope our story will inspire other women to pursue their own Enterprise. Anthony Fitzgerald said The National Enterprise Awards serve to highlight the very best businesses that the Local Enterprise Offices are working with across the country. The diversity of sectors and innovation shown again this year is outstanding and the winners will no doubt produce businesses destined for international success. These businesses have excelled in their areas and have the potential to follow in the footsteps of previous winners to become successful global companies. We would like to extend our congratulations to both Evie & Eliza on winning their award and we look forward to working with you into the future. Local Enterprise Office Tipperary have been represented in recent years by firms including Premier Utilities T/a TruePOS, Premier Fire Products Ltd, T/a Waxies, Pergamino T/a The Old Barracks Coffee Roasters, Clonmel Covers Ltd and Horizon Offsite Ltd. The overall winner at the National Enterprise Awards was Dreamdev Technologies who are supported by Local Enterprise Office Kildare. DreamDev was set up by Eoin Barry and Douglas Augiar in 2019 with the aim of utilising online tools and software to enable faster digitalisation for companies. Their flagship product, the dot-star enterprise software platform enables software engineering teams to create their own bespoke software programmes which deliver results with significantly reduced resourcing requirements. Announcing the award winners at the Mansion House and after earlier launching the new Local Enterprise Office Policy Statement, Minister Burke said; The National Enterprise Awards are the highlight of the small business and enterprise calendar. Year on year the diversity of businesses and the standard of companies that are coming through the process is getting stronger. We should not be surprised given the innovation and endurance that businesses have shown in recent years. We have some outstanding winners but the finalists on the whole have been excellent, and this is very much the start of their journey. The new Local Enterprise Office Policy Statement I announced today sets out the vital role that LEOs have in fostering entrepreneurship and helping small businesses thrive every day across the country. The Policy Statement charts a clear roadmap of how LEOs will align their work with the priorities of the White Paper on Enterprise and ensure that their high-calibre offering continues into the future. I pay tribute to the great work of the current and former staff of the LEOs who, over the last 10 years, have helped and guided small businesses in Ireland which are at the heart of every town, village and community and are vital to our economy. Several other companies won across a range of categories at the Awards, which were established by the Local Enterprise Offices to celebrate the impact and quality of small businesses across the country. YEREVAN, 7 JUNE, ARMENPRESS. The European Commission has recommended that European Union members start accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova, the commissions Spokesperson Ana Pisonero said at a press conference in Brussels. "The point on the accession process with Moldova and with Ukraine was today in the agenda of the Coreper (the Committee of Permanent Representatives in the European Union). We understand that this point has now been concluded. And we can indeed confirm that on the commissions side, weve provided obviously all updates to the member states and we consider all the steps have been met by the two countries. Now the decision is in the hands of the member states," Tass quoted her as saying. The spokesperson added that according to the European Commission, Kiev had fulfilled all conditions, including those set by Hungary, which concerned the protection of the rights of ethnic minorities. It is noted that at a Brussels meeting on December 14-15, 2023, EU leaders decided to start negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova on joining the union. The European Commission announced on 12 March that it had developed a framework guide for future accession talks with Kiev and Chisinau and would present it to the EU Council. According to the EC, the framework guide sets out guidelines for accession negotiations with each candidate country. After the European Commission presents the guidelines to the member states and the EU Council approves the guidelines, Brussels will actually start negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. With summer travel well underway, more and more eager flyers are booking trips to faraway destinations, planning for a long-awaited break. According to a report by the Transportation Security Administration, a record number of travelers are estimated to be flying this summer, with TSA expecting to screen three million passengers in one day. While travel numbers surge, the number of in-flight emergencies increases, too. Earlier last month, a 73-year-old British man tragically passed away from a heart attack after experiencing 19 seconds of severe turbulence on a Singapore Airlines flight from Londons Heathrow Airport. Now, safety protocols and best seat suggestions are being offered by pilots and aviation experts, urging travelers to keep their seat belts buckled. But what about the pets and service animals on board? What are they to do in an emergency? Deborah Mandell, a clinical emergency and critical care professor at the University of Pennsylvanias School of Veterinary Medicine, spoke to The Washington Post on the plan animal owners should have in case of bad turbulence, fires, or mechanical issues that may occur in the air. If a flight suddenly becomes dangerously bumpy, Mandell urges people to remove risky objects from an animals casing such as toys or food. According to Mandell, a layer of soft padding should be kept in their carrying case. The case should be stored under the passengers seat when the flight gets choppy. Liz Rozanski, a critical care veterinarian at Tufts Universitys Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, told the outlet that owners should opt for a hard-shell case. The stiffer ones are more like a childs seat, Rozanski noted, adding that the hard exterior helps to block rolling items. Because service dogs arent always required to be kept in a carrying case, some owners may not bring one on board. In this case, Mandell said the owner should place the animal between their legs on the floor. The owners arms should be wrapped around the animals chest, ensuring the position is comfortable for themselves and their animal. Next, Mandell says owners should try and grab one of the extra oxygen masks, if possible, and fit it on their animal. If there isnt an available air mask for the animal, Mandell suggests the owner shares, switching every 15 seconds. However, if there is an extra, owners should be aware that the mask may not be the right proportion depending on the animal. Pets should be kept in hard-shelled cases under their owners seats during rough turbulence (Getty Images) Because of all the different conformations of dog heads, it may or may not stay on with just the elastic. So you may just have to hold it, Mandell admitted. The mask should be placed over the animals snout so they can inhale the oxygen. For flights over large bodies of water, owners should bring the proper life vest for their pet in case an emergency landing in the water is necessary, according to Mandell. When its time to evacuate the plane, Rozanski says pets should be carried out in their carrying case. If the plane is burning up, I would take the carrier with me, Rozanski noted. If somebody says no, I would jump anyway. That said, several airlines instruct their passengers to leave all luggage and bags behind during emergency evacuations, including animal cases. So, if the owner does choose to ignore this rule, they may get in trouble. Pets that arent service animals wont be trained in evacuation protocol. For any regular pets, Mandell instructs owners to prop their animal on their lap with the animals bag against their chest going down the slide. The animals legs should be in the air as well. Polite parking allows people to mount kerbs and grass strips, which frees up vital space along narrow roads, advocates say. But one council doesn't want to hear about it. Locals fed up with the lack of available parking on inner-Brisbane streets say they're forced to park on nature strips. If they don't, they risk large vehicles not being able to fit through. Source: Brisbane Times/9News Inner-city residents copping "unfair" late-night fines for parking on nature strips are calling for the introduction of so-called "polite parking" to combat the "frustrating" lack of space. Queenslanders around Brisbane's inner-city suburbs say they're fed up with the lack of parking on suburban streets, which they say is a direct result of "an increase in the number of individuals per household" as the cost of living and housing crisis forces more Aussies into shared dwellings. To make matters worse, streets in the area are so narrow that locals say if they don't mount the kerb, they face restricting access to larger vehicles, such as emergency vehicles. 'Enormous pressure' on parking in Brisbane City LGA Locals claim street parking availability in the Brisbane City Council LGA does not cater to "the number of vehicles per household", with the "pressure on off-street parking enormous". A petition has since been launched by local woman Pamela Rose to allow polite parking, which simply means letting people park on nature strips and on kerbs, so long as they're not blocking access to pathways driveways, or vital infrastructure. Due to an increase in people per household, there are more people than ever sharing dwellings in the Brisbane Council area, Rose says, exacerbating the lack of public parking bays. Source: ABC Rose said that in the nearby council area of Logan, polite parking was introduced years ago and has seen success. She's calling on the City to allow its introduction in her LGA, where she said an entire street in Keperra was fined at 11.59 pm for parking on a kerb last week, which she labelled an "outrage". Rose stated that the "zigzag parking formation on both sides of the road hinders the smooth flow of traffic" and poses "a severe safety risk for emergency vehicles navigating narrow streets". The current parking restrictions on streets narrower than six meters severely limit access for emergency vehicles, potentially delaying essential responses, she said. "The whole thing is pretty outrageous," Rose told Yahoo News Australia. "It's not people parking somewhere, you know, to get to work or to get a bus. It's typically university students or young adults who are stuck living with mum and dad. And I can tell you, none of these kids are voluntarily staying at home. "Logan Council has got a fantastic model. It's successful and allows parking on nature strips in specific conditions, which prevents obstruction and ensures pedestrian access." Council stands firm on parking stance When Yahoo News Australia questioned Brisbane City over the petition, asking whether they'd consider allowing polite parking, a spokesperson simply said: "Council adheres to State Government legislation that prohibits parking on a nature strip." Though, a spokesperson for Queensland's Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) told Yahoo that "local governments are largely responsible for parking enforcement" and can set their own penalties under local laws. In this case, the City has lifted the state's set fine of $61 for parking on a nature strip to $116. Within the LGA, "narrow street signage" was erected in 2022 and council has since installed around 210 signs across 30 suburbs, the spokesperson explained, with signs in place to remind people of the parking rules, including not parking on both sides of narrow roads to ensure safe access, they said. In the Brisbane City LGA, you can be fined for stopping on a footpath, shared path, dividing strip or nature strip to the tune of $116, which Rose branded "unfair". "I would really like council to engage with the community and start a conversation about what they can do to help combat this," Rose said. Local woman Pamela Rose has launched a petition to allow so-called 'polite parking' - where residents can park on nature strips and kerbs so long as they aren't blocking footpaths, driveways or essential infrastructure. Source: 9News State's transport department weighs in "Under the road rules, drivers cannot park on footpaths or nature strips, unless specifically signed," a spokesperson for TMR told Yahoo News Australia. "At a state-wide level, this ensures these spaces are free from obstructions to support safe and efficient movement of pedestrians and other path users. "Under state law the fine for parking on a footpath or nature strip is $61. Local governments are largely responsible for parking enforcement and can set their own penalties under local laws, for example, the fine in Brisbane is $116." The spokesperson said that "specific enforcement matters" should be "raised with the local government that has issued the parking fines". "Local governments are also able to make local laws to enable parking on footpaths and nature strips in their area," they said. "This enables bespoke local solutions to parking, based on specific community needs. Where a local government permits parking on footpaths or nature strips, this applies despite the restriction in the road rules." In addition to Logan City Council, some other suburbs around the country allow parking on grass strips. Liverpool City Council in Sydney is one of them, they last year clashed with residents who complained that narrow suburban streets meant navigating them was becoming increasingly difficult. After first warning residents they would be slapped with $275 fines if they continued to park on the nature strip, the council eventually backflipped and lifted the ban. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. Overview Banco do Brasil is a leading provider of a wide range of financial services. This internationally respected bank offers anytime, anywhere banking with a full suite of online banking options. It offers competitive rates on multiple financial products, including Savings Accounts, Time Deposits, and Money Market accounts. Additionally, Banco do Brasil issues domestic and international credit cards. Additional lines of credit are available in the form of residential loans and commercial loans. Account Options Multiple account types are available, including the following: e-Gold Checking Accounts, e-CD Accounts (certificates of deposit), e-Money Market Accounts, and e-Classic Checking Accounts. Customer service professionals are standing by 24/7 to assist clients with their queries. The application process for online banking or mobile banking is geared towards ease of use and customer satisfaction. Tailored Banking Solutions Features include online bill pay, online banking, mobile check deposits, and mobile banking. Clients can receive money transfers directly from Brazil, and Banco do Brasil offers access to automatic teller machines nationwide. The minimum account deposit for the e-Classic account is $1,000, for the e-Money Market account is $10,000, the e-CD is $10,000 and the e-Gold Checking is $10,000 (BB SA customers) and $3,000 for CAPES/CNPq students. Banco do Brasil stipulates minimum account balance fees that are required to avoid maintenance fees. The mobile banking option is available via the App store. The maximum daily transfer amount to Brazil is $2,999.99 and the monthly maximum transfer amount is $50,000. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "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) #Trump en prison #streetart #rehab2 (Image by tangi_bertin) Details DMCA Seething?!? Of course he is. This is the first time in his life when he is in a situation that is totally out-of-his control. Which for him is the worst possible place he can be. And. One reason that Netanyahu is pursuing his Expulsionist policy in Gaza is that he wants to stay in power and stay out of prison. One reason that Trump wants to be President again is to get the two Federal sets of charges against him dropped and stay out of prison. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Before we get to Trump, his current trials, and the trials that he has announced he and his henchmen would put our nation through if he manages in one way or another to take over the Oval Office on Jan. 21, 2025 (notice that I did not use the word "win"), a few words about this day. As it happens, I was about 71/2 on that day and lived in a very "newsy" household. So, although I don't recall the words uttered on that day precisely, I do recall hearing of the events of the day on the radio that was constantly tuned to "the news" in mother's sitting room. (My Dad, at 34 a rather old draftee, was in the Service, already on his way to a job at OSS --- not dropping behind enemy lines --- but working as an editor of translations of captured German documents at the Office of Strategic Services [OSS, the predecessor to the CIA] in Washington.) And of course, as soon as there was film to show in the nearest "Newsreel Theater" (at Broadway and 72nd St. in New York City's Manhattan) my mother and I were off to see them. On June 6, 1944, D-Day itself was a spectacular event, from the bravery of the men who were landed on the beaches and, by parachute, in the farmlands of Normandy above the beaches, by the work of the U.S. and Royal Navies and their merchant marines, to the remarkable feats of organization by the U.S. and U.K. General Staffs and their respective intelligence services. And of course, the D-Day success did lead to the eventual rolling up of the Nazi forces on the Western and Italian Fronts over the next 10 months. At the same time, the significant victories of several other Allied and U.S. forces elsewhere in the African-European Theater which made the success that D-Day was should also be mentioned: The United States forces in Operation Torch, Western North Africa, Nov. 1942 and onwards; The combined forces of the United Kingdom in the Eastern North African desert in Nov.-Dec., 1942; The victories of the Soviet Red Army at the Gates of Moscow (with fresh Siberian troops), Dec. 1941, for the first time stopping the Eastward German advance; at Stalingrad in Nov.-Jan. 1943; in the largest tank battle in history, at Kursk, in the Summer of 1943; and the success of the Soviet Union in holding out and eventually breaking out from the Siege of Leningrad, Sept. 1941-Jan., 1944. And the rolling up of the Axis forces in Italy, from Sept., 1943, by the combined U.S. and British forces. This history is taught in few schools today. As for Trump, he was likely exposed to it but just as likely has forgotten it (that is, if he ever paid any attention to it). Below, I shall also touch on a, shall we say, peculiar, comment that Trump made just the other day that refers to the "other side" in all of these battles. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And now on to some brief comments on "Trump and his Trials" (not in any order of importance). + All governments have 3 basic functions: Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. In the forgone monarchies as well as modern dictatorship of one kind or another (think Russia, Hungary, North Korea) the functions are combined, to a greater or lesser extent, under the control of the Executive Branch. Historically, when a nation is governed by some form of parliamentary democracy and by one means or another is converted to some form of fascism,* the first branch to go is the Independent Judiciary. The independent judiciary would likely be the first to go under a Trump Presidency. E.g., see how he and his minions are attacking the entirety of the New York State Judicial system, both criminal and civil. (As is well-known, he has been held accountable by both.) + Although few Trump supporters have held that he is innocent (choosing rather to attack the New York Legal System), Trump himself on more than one occasion did proclaim himself innocent (actually "very innocent." He was not asked what that term means.) However, as is well-known, Trump did not testify at his trial. Let me say that again, did not testify. If he is/was innocent, why did he just not get up on the stand and say so? There are a variety of reasons why. Most likely, his lawyer told him "absolutely not," to prevent him from possibly committing perjury to having one of his patented rage/meltdowns, on the Stand. Further, he would/could inadvertently spill the beans about what really happened, under some really good cross-examination. But the point is he did not get up on the Stand to proclaim his innocence. + It should be noted that few if any of his defenders have proclaimed his innocence either. They are all attacking "the system," pledging retribution, raising campaign funds, trying to stir up Republican prosecutors around the country to start criminal trials again Democratic political and judicial figures (see Steve Miller and Steve Bannon). This brings to mind an old aphorism defending the best strategy/tactics for lawyers to engage in, in court: If you don't have the facts, argue the law; If you don't have the law, argue the facts; If you have neither the facts nor the law, yell, scream, and pound the table (or in the case of the Trumpublican Party, attack the whole legal system of the United States [or at least the Jewish/Black one in New York City]). + On Trump and a term that he apparently made up to refer to a United States under his (?realm, ?dictatorship, but surely not Presidency, for that word does not appear in the definition of "Presidency" in the Constitution) "Unified Reich." An odd choice. By itself, the German word Reich means "realm" or "Empire" (from the days of the Habsburgs). But of course, since Hitler became Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, the word, in English, is most associated with "Third Reich," the term by which the Nazis referred to Germany under their rule. Could one infer that Trump would attempt to set up something like it if he is re-elected? Couldn't be. Could it? + Although fascism has arrived by Royal Decree (Hungary, 1920, Italy, 1922-25), war (Spain, 1936), and military coup (Japan, 1936), it has also been voted in (through a gradual takeover by the fascist forces once voted in): Nazi Germany, present day Hungary, Argentina under Peron. So yes, (hardly an original saying these days), "It Can Happen Here" (also the title of a book by Sinclair Lewis published in 1936), and the subject of a 1996 book published by yours truly, and as many of you know, being serialized on these very pages, "The 15% Solution." (Article changed on Jun 06, 2024 at 5:08 PM EDT) (Article changed on Jun 06, 2024 at 10:48 PM EDT) (Article changed on Jun 06, 2024 at 10:51 PM EDT) (Article changed on Jun 07, 2024 at 9:17 AM EDT) (Article changed on Jun 07, 2024 at 9:24 AM EDT) The largest democracy in the world has had the largest election in the world (642 million voted). And Mr. Modi has won another term in office. So why the lack of jubilation in Mr. Modi's party, the BJP? After all, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has clearly beaten the opposition INDIA group, sporting a tortuous acronym designed to profit from the country name. Well, the BJP had hoped to win enough seats to form a government by itself. In that effort, it failed, and will have to rely on multiple minor parties and the horse-trading involved to form a government. The numbers speak for themselves. Five years ago, in 2019, the BJP won 303 seats. Of these, it lost 63 in this election leaving it with only 240 and necessitating a coalition. In contrast, Congress, the leading opposition party, won 47 more seats than in 2019, firmly establishing Rahul Gandhi's position as leader of the opposition. A common perception about coalition governments is their instability. Issues can easily arise causing disagreement among the parties and a few peel away; the government loses its majority and falls. Either a new government is formed or, depending on the country's constitution, new elections are held, all of which can be extremely disruptive if it occurs once too often. A prominent case with a major power was post-war France in the 1940s and 1950s with governments changing at the drop of a hat, or so it seemed, until they reformed the constitution jettisoning a purely parliamentary type. In India's case, we will have to wait and see how well Modi performs this coalition juggling act and keeps his partners happy. He could of course decide to goad arch rival Pakistan into some maneuver causing a confrontation where a common threat cements Modi's coalition again. There are all kinds of tried and tested ways and the Kashmir region with its disaffected population in the Indian areas is an all-too-willing scapegoat. Playing with a fire having nuclear embers is much too dangerous a game but the two countries have done it before, much to the consternation of the world. Nuclear-armed countries like India and Pakistan need to have more stable relationships than at present prevalent on the subcontinent. On the far eastern end is Bangladesh. Originally part of Pakistan, it broke away in the 1970s to chart its own course. Disaffected tribal populations in India use its convenience of a porous border to finesse Indian military threats. A subcontinent where there are many small rebel groups separated by languages and culture to which is added the repeated attacks on a 150 million Muslim minority labeled by a Hindu fundamentalist BJP leader as "infiltrators" who then turns around and claims in a TV interview that he did not mention Muslim or Hindu in that connection. This despite the fact that his opposition the Congress Party filed a hate speech complaint against him following his remarks. The election is over now. The fact that Modi's alliance performed far worse than anticipated should give him pause to reflect. Perhaps he has played the Muslim card once too often, and accomplished far less than he promised in providing jobs for the young who have a chronic employment problem. . Prague, June 6th, 2024 - The enchanting city of Prague is set to host a new cinematic gem as Bosnian writer/director Faris Sabanija announces the launch of his latest short film project, "Baklava." Known for social education and awareness in his films, Faris aims to captivate audiences with this ambitious new venture, which delves into the profound themes of acceptance, forgiveness, and love crossing religion with the main message to Hyderabad, Telangana - June 6, 2024 - Maple Leaf School, a beacon of innovation and excellence in early childhood education, welcomes young learners and their families to embark on a journey of discovery and growth. Founded by seasoned educationalists with over three decades of expertise, Maple Leaf School is more than just a preschool - it is a nurturing haven where young minds are shaped with passion, dedication, and a An unknown man has been shooting at city equipment in Portland, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage, police said. The Portland Police Bureau this week released surveillance-camera video from the morning of May 27 that shows a driver pull a car to the side of a road near Southeast 102nd Avenue and Washington Street, get out and apparently fire a gun at something high up. The car is a black or charcoal-colored 2008-2014 Subaru WRX sedan with no license plates, police said. It has a hood scoop, low-profile spoiler with red LED brake-light strip, black wheels and rain deflectors on the doors. In the video, the man is wearing glasses, a coat with a hood and black pants, and his handgun has a tactical light, police said. Police are trying to identify the suspect and ask anyone who might have information about this case to email crimetips@police.portlandoregon.gov. Officials have not said what city property the suspect has damaged, citing investigative reasons. In recent years the Pacific Northwest has seen a series of attacks on critical infrastructure, prompting the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to warn of domestic terrorists targeting electrical grids and other such equipment. In April, a Washington man pleaded not guilty to charges accusing him of damaging power stations in Clackamas County. -- The Oregonian/OregonLive; dperry@oregonian.com Firefighters rescued a man from a steep cliff in Southwest Portland Tuesday night in an hour-long operation that involved ropes, a basket and a chainsaw, Portland Fire and Rescue reported. Fire crews at about 9:20 p.m. responded to a call from a man who said he was stuck on a cliff between Southwest Terwilliger Boulevard and Barbur Boulevard near OHSU, according to a fire bureau statement. How he ended up there is unclear, Portland Fire spokesperson Rick Graves said. Tests have revealed "unsafe" levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in the water and an expert says it needs "urgent" attention. A sewage smell was documented in water flowing through Wingecarribee River last week. Source: Ian Wright A regional Australian council is discharging treated sewage into a river that feeds a capital citys main drinking water supply. And locals are reporting a terrible stench. Water expert Dr Ian Wright has been studying Wingecarribee River in the NSW Southern Highlands since the 1990s, and its current health is was the worst hes ever seen. It is a really sick river. And no one seems to be looking at its condition and how urgently it needs attention, he told Yahoo News. If it was a person wed be wanting to get them to the hospital. But its almost like were watching it die in front of us and no one is doing anything. Wingecarribee Council maintains it's unaware of any ongoing smell issues or complaints associated with the river, but Wright says it is a well-known issue that residents just put up with. For a drinking water catchment this is not appropriate, he said. Its clear that protecting the waterway is being forgotten And this is not consistent with looking after Sydneys long-term water quality and the EPA needs to step up. Call for EPA to rethink council effluent discharge license The NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) permits Wingecarribee Council to release the treated effluent into the river under what it says is a strict environment protection licence. "In addition to strict monitoring, we regularly review licence conditions, taking into account factors such as the surrounding environmental conditions, type of activity and available technology," it told Yahoo. The EPA said it is working with Wingecarribee Council to upgrade the sewage treatment plants it manages. It added it has not received any recent reports of major sewage pollution events in the [Wingecarribee] River. Despite the EPAs assurances, Wright isnt convinced all is well with the river. The Associate Professor of Environmental Science at Western Sydney University he has been preparing a research paper, after his testing detected unsafe levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in the water. He believes discharges from Bowral Sewage Treatment Plant are directly contributing to the problem. Council are within their licence, but its a very poor licence, he said. After Yahoo put Wrights concerns to the EPA, it engaged in internal discussions with Wright and he's now sharing his research findings with the agency. Why treated sewage is safe to drink While the idea of discharging treated sewage into rivers is controversial, the state government's water authority, Sydney Water, treats it effectively so what comes out of the tap is high quality and completely safe to drink. Raw water sources can contain impurities, whether from the natural environment (flora and fauna), agriculture, stormwater, or urban runoff, which are managed by our treatment processes, it told Yahoo in a statement As you may have gathered from Sydney Waters statement, its not just treated sewage that finds its way into rivers that feed Australia's largest concrete dam Warragamba Dam. Wright wants the EPA to rethink the conditions of its permit to Wingecarribee Council. Source: Ian Wright Sewage not only factor making river 'sick' Wingecarribee Council, which manages the Bowral Sewage Treatment Plant responded to Yahoo, saying; Many factors are known to affect water quality including development, urban stormwater, rural industries, carp, extreme weather, and industry, and the catchment audits take all of these factors into consideration. Wright agrees that there are many contributors to the river's current situation. And he notes it's in such poor health the discharge coming out of the Bowral treatment plant near Burradoo is actually clearer than the river water itself. The river has very high nutrients. It has almost constant blue green algal blooms, but it's got this extraordinary turbidity muddiness, cloudiness... Some of that is due to algae, and some of it is also due to sediment from overdevelopment," he said. But its not just the homeowners who live along its banks who are affected. Platypus are also being impacted, and researchers are studying how their food sources are potentially being harmed. Platypus eat around half their body weight in food every day, and having access to large amounts of food is particularly important to pregnant and lactating females. It's almost like no one is noticing, because this is a really beautiful area. And the river is a central feature. It supports platypus. Plus we drink [from it]. "It's just ... it's bizarre, Wright said. Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? Get our new newsletter showcasing the weeks best stories. Staff at the Oregon State Hospital neglected to conduct hourly checks to ensure patients were alive and breathing, a failure that in one case led to a patient being found dead 4 1/2 hours after the last verification, investigators found. Those findings, outlined in a notice provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive, led the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to place the state psychiatric hospital in Salem in immediate jeopardy status. Harvest Moon Sangria Bar in Tigard bills itself as Oregons first sangria bar. The bar offers sangria flights so diners can sample a variety of flavors, from a traditional red wine-based sangria with a fruity spice blend to lighter, seasonal flavors like strawberry, watermelon and honeydew. Owner Juliana Moseley calls the sangria bars approach to food bougie brunch-focused. The brunch menu includes breakfast sandwiches, avocado toast and a brunch dog that features eggs, bacon and sausage on a hoagie roll. The bar also serves shareable appetizers, like charcuterie boards, nachos topped with fondue and bruschetta loaded with smoked pork and chimichurri sauce. Harvest Moon opened at the end of May after Moseley participated in Tigards Launch Pod, the citys food-focused business incubator. If you go: Try the pork chimichurri bruschetta. Moseley says its the best thing on the menu, and on our visit, everyone agreed. Portions are on the large side, so bring friends to share with. Order a flight of sangrias to share, too theyre light on alcohol and the wide variety of flavors are fun to sample. Harvest Moon: 12553 SW Main Street, Tigard, open Wednesday-Saturday 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Julie Evensen covers trending topics and popular culture. She can be reached at jevensen@oregonian.com or @juliecevensen on Twitter and @julieevensen on Threads. Our journalism needs your support. Subscribe today to OregonLive.com. EUGENE Oregon is kicking off its month of official visits from 2025 recruits with a half dozen prospects, including three offensive linemen. Four-star offensive lineman Ziyare Addison and three-stars Demetri Manning and Austin Pay are all due to visit UO this weekend along with four-star linebacker Mason Posa and four-star receivers Chris Lawson and Cooper Perry, who committed to the Ducks in April. The No. 205 overall prospect and No. 25 receiver in the 247Sports Composite, Perry is one of seven commits, including three receivers, in Oregons 2025 recruiting class. He will get a chance to pitch other targets this weekend. Theres no shortage of surveys that purport to tell us bits of trivia about favorite foods, places, destinations, etc. The sources of these rankings vary wildly, with some seeming fairly legit, and others that sound on the iffy side. Given that, its not surprising that yet another press release, this one a list of the what it says are the most-Googled film locations, has landed in our email inbox. The source is EarthWeb, which the press release says helps you discover the best research guides and resources for tech and online privacy. Their mission is to help you simplify processes and make informed buying decisions. The press release goes on to describe the methodology behind this Top 10 roundup: The data was gathered with keyword analysis software on ahrefs.com using the keywords film location. Maybe youre wondering just what ahrefs.com is. Us, too. The website says its a multinational startup headquartered in Singapore, that creates online SEO tools and free educational materials for marketing professionals. So, what are these most-Googled film locations? And are there any Oregon ones in there? To answer the second question first, yes, Oregon locations do show up, and in the Top 10, no less. High up in the No. 2 slot, for example, is The Goonies film location, in Astoria. The 1985 movie, which filmed in and around Astoria, remains so popular, and such a tourist draw, that June 7 has been declared an Astoria holiday, known as Goonies Day. This Goondocks.org website link has a list of activities associated with the holiday. In the No. 8 spot is The Shining film location, with tips on where to find locations, including Timberline Lodge, on Mount Hood, which was used for exterior shots of the fictional, and very scary, Overlook Hotel. What else made the Top 10? Heres the list: No. 1: Its a Wonderful Life film location. Where to find the location? Seneca Falls, New York (the movies fictional Bedford Falls was apparently inspired by Seneca Falls). Its a Wonderful Life was originally released in 1946, and has gone on to become a holiday viewing staple. No. 2: The Goonies film location. Where to find the location? Astoria, Oregon. Related: Oregon film tourism trend brings visitors to communities where movies and TV shows filmed No. 3: Jurassic Park film location. Where to find the location? Hawaii (Kauai and Oahu), Costa Rica. The first Jurassic Park movie opened in 1993. No. 4: The Equalizer 3 film location. Where to find the location? Amalfi Coast, Italy. Bonus points if you knew that there were three The Equalizer movies, and that the third one came out in 2023. No. 5: Saltburn film location. Where to find the location? Oxfordshire, England, and other parts of the United Kingdom. Saltburn played in some theaters in late 2023, and streams on Amazon Prime Video. No. 6: Resident Alien film location. Where to find the location? Ladysmith, British Columbia, Canada. According to the press release, in the TV series, Resident Alien, Ladysmith doubles as the fictional town of Patience, Colorado. No. 7: Couples Retreat film location. Where to find the location? Bora Bora, French Polynesia. Couples Retreat was released in 2009. No. 8: The Shining film location. Where to find the location? Timberline Lodge, Mount Hood, Oregon (exterior shots); The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado (which inspired Stephen Kings novel, The Shining). The movie was released in 1980. Related: Popular Oregon Film Trail stops include locations associated with Grimm, Twilight, and more No. 9: Pale Rider film location. Where to find the location? Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Idaho. Pale Rider was released in 1985. No. 10: Dirty Dancing film location. Where to find the location? Lake Lure, North Carolina; Mountain Lake, Virginia. Dirty Dancing was released in 1987. 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 Weve still got about two weeks before the solstice, but weather in Portland is going to feel a lot like summer over the next several days. Thursday reached a high of 82 degrees and the National Weather Services is expecting highs in the 80s all the way through next Tuesday. Friday will be our warmest day with a high of about 86 degrees. The probability of the metro area hitting 90 degrees has fallen to around 15-30%. Onshore flow will keep temps at the coast in the upper 60s to low 70s. The high pressure ridge thats been keeping clouds at bay will move eastward overnight. This will allow some mid-to-upper-level clouds to move in on Saturday. Portland will see partly sunny skies during the Grand Floral Parade. The daytime high will cool a few degrees to about 84. If youre planning to head up into the mountains on Saturday, note that the higher Cascades have up to a 30% chance of thunderstorms. Plan now on how to seek shelter if youre in an area with thunderstorms. Some of those thunderstorms may move eastward into central Oregon. Sundays skies will be mostly sunny and calm winds will blow to about 6 mph by the afternoon. The high temp will drop a few more degrees to about 80. Extended forecasts are showing sunny days both Monday and Tuesday with highs in the lower 80s. A change is expected by Wednesday as a system moves southward out of the Gulf of Alaska and brings cooler air and more clouds. A frustrated resident has taken a neighbourhood dispute to new heights, vandalising a caravan with a two word message. A parking feud over a caravan has escalated with someone using spray paint to scribble 'move it' on the van. Source: Facebook Battling it out with neighbours over limited street parking can be a pain point, even in the best communities. But when boats, caravans or trailers take up valuable kerbside real estate, well that's another story all together. One furious resident has taken matters into their own hands by vandalising a caravan parked on a street in Sydney's Drummoynne, a wealthy waterfront suburb in the city's inner west. The words 'move it' were scrawled on the van in black spray paint a stunt some residents branded "evil". The neighbourhood dispute has been ongoing it appears, according to a shocked resident who spotted the act of vandalism earlier this week, with the latest stunt escalating the feud to new heights. "I know theres a bunch of people on here who take issue with caravans, boats and trailers parked on the street. But vandalising legally parked caravans?" the woman questioned online. "Im not making accusations, but I saw this when I went for a walk a few days ago and think its a bit much" she added. But it's not the first time parking disputes have escalated to this level. In November, the words f**k it off were sprayed in bright red paint over a tarp covering a boat in Freshwater, on Sydneys Northern Beaches. The boat and trailer are registered and we can thus park it legally in the street, the owner wrote in a response letter, which they taped to the boat. The neighbours' feud began when the boat trailer was regularly parked in the 'high density' area. Source: Reddit Caravans can be parked on residential streets In NSW, and most other states and territories, it is legal for boats, trailers and caravans to be stationed on the street in the same spot for up to 28 days. After this, it needs to be moved, and its new location needs to be "at least as far as a different block section of the same street", according to guidelines. Drummoyne locals weren't impressed with one branding the act "appalling". "So much ignorance today," another said after seeing the photos shared online. "Maybe put a nice note instead it will get you a lot further. Karma will get you and your spray can just wait and see," another wrote. Series of parking feuds across the city Previously, in the south Sydney suburb of Penshurst, a neighbour's complaint about a caravan parked in front of her home resulted in the local council stepping in. A 'no parking' zone was installed outside her house to stop her neighbour from parking his van next to her driveway a decision that cost tax payers $700. And earlier this year, a hooded figure was caught on CCTV vandalising a boat parked outside someone's home, prompting the owner to launch an appeal to help identify the culprit. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. Cairo, Egypt (PANA) - While geopolitical tensions and their impact on Egypt remain challenging, the countrys authorities have stayed the course to preserve macroeconomic stability through fiscal discipline, tight monetary policy, and a shift to a flexible exchange rate regime Senate Republicans prevented a bill on Wednesday that desired to build a federal right to access contraception, defeating the Democratic-led proposal. Senate Republicans Block Bill to Access Contraception The Right to Contraception Act vote concluded at 51-39, falling short of the 60 votes needed to overcome an obstruction. Republicans contended the bill wasn't necessary because contraception is already sheltered by Supreme Court precedent. Republican Representatives Lisa Murkowski of Gold Country and Susan Collins of Maine upheld the charge nearby Democrats. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y, changed his vote to "no " for procedural information, permitting him to revive the bill later. Democrats expected the GOP would prevent the measure and used it to highlight distinctions between the parties on reproductive rights, a strategy aimed at petitioning independents and swing voters in the forthcoming election. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, conveyed issues by saying, "We saw what the Supreme Court did on abortion, and now there's a real risk they may do the same thing on contraception." She critiqued Republicans for endeavoring to cater to both radical bunches and the common open with clashing messages The legislation, initiated by Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass, and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, looked to protect national rights to procure and utilize contraceptives and defend healthcare suppliers who permit them. It defined contraceptives broadly and aimed to prevent federal and state interference. The bill also empowered the Justice Department and private entities to enforce these protections through lawsuits. Top Republicans criticized the vote as a partisan gesture. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, dismissed it as a "show vote" and argued that contraception is not illegal, suggesting the bill's necessity was overstated. Read Also: More Young People Opting for Permanent Sterilization Procedures After Implementation of Stricter Abortion Regulations Democrats Argued That The Bill Was Crucial Democrats countered that the bill was essential, citing a lack of trust in the Supreme Court to uphold its precedent on contraception, especially after the 2022 decision that ended federal abortion rights. They pointed to Justice Clarence Thomas's suggestion to reconsider precedents like Griswold v. Connecticut and a survey indicating that 1 in 5 Americans believe the right to contraception is at risk. Sen. Schumer highlighted the ongoing threats to reproductive freedoms and criticized the impact of hard-right politics on these issues. Murkowski, who supports reproductive rights, reiterated her support for the bill, saying her message was clear: "I support a woman's access to contraception." The vote was one of several "messaging" bills as the 2024 election approaches. Other recent efforts include a bipartisan border security bill by Senate Democrats and a House bill by Republicans to prevent noncitizens from voting, addressing issues to appeal to their respective voter bases. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., argued the contraception bill was unnecessary and expressed concern it might establish rights for abortion medication like mifepristone, which he emphasized is not a contraceptive. During a lengthy lunch meeting on Tuesday, Senate Republicans debated their strategy. Some, like Collins, proposed amending the bill, but the consensus was to move on from the vote quickly. This internal disagreement highlighted the lack of coordinated leadership, as criticized by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., during the meeting. Ultimately, the decision was to filibuster the bill and prevent Democrats from advancing other messaging legislation, such as IVF protections, soon. A 9-year-old girl died from a collision in a motorcross track accident in Southern California's Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park. According to the press release by the Riverside County Sheriff, Brooke Carlton, 9, was riding her electric motorbike when she was accidentally struck by another juvenile that was also riding the same off-road motorbike. Both juveniles in the incident were seen to be riding in the proper designated track for off-road vehicles when the collision happened. 9-Year-Old Girl's Motorcross Track Accident On Sunday morning, June 2, at approximately 10:00 a.m., the California fire department and the Lake Elsinore Sheriff's Station officers quickly responded to a rescue call for a child needing medical attention. When officers arrived in the scene, they saw an unconscious 9-year-old child whom good samaritans are trying to rescue and performing life-saving measures. She was then rushed to the hospital nearby for further medical assistance, but was later pronounced dead when they arrived at the facility. Furthermore, the other child involved in the incident also sustained injuries from the collision and was treated at the scene. Police authorities have revealed that they are continuing to look into the motorcross accident, and investigations are still underway. No further or additional information regarding the incident was released to the public. Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park expressed its sorrow over the incident in a heartfelt Instagram post, stating that the whole community is truly saddened about the situation. The post also emphasized that this is not the time to bash the sport and the park but to remember the life that was lost in the little girl, encouraging support for their family. Community Support and Tribute In honor of Brooke, the motorsports park announced plans to organize a "tribute ride" to celebrate her life. Meanwhile, a GoFundMe page created by a family friend describes Brooke as the sweetheart of a child, saying she has the capability to brighten anyone's day with her warm smile and bright blonde halo of curls. The page also highlights Brooke's spirited personality and how she knows what she wants and gets it the way she wants it. Brooke's parents referred to the incident as a freak accident and expressed their devastation at the loss of their beloved daughter. The GoFundMe page organizer, Ally Giles, shared an update on Tuesday, emphasizing that all funds raised will be used to honor Brooke's memory. Remembering Brooke Carlton The community has come together to support Brooke's family during this difficult time, with many sharing memories and condolences online. The tragic loss of such a young and vibrant life has left a significant impact on those who knew her and even those who didn't. The upcoming tribute ride at the motorsports park aims to provide a space for friends, family, and community members to gather, remember Brooke, and celebrate her life. Brooke Carlton's untimely passing serves as a solemn reminder of the importance of safety in recreational activities. While the investigation continues, the community remains united in grief and support for the Carlton family. After two children died from tonsils and/or adenoid surgery at McMaster Children's Hospital, the Hamilton hospital has suspended these procedures and is conducting. Two Children Died After Tonsil and Adenoid Surgery In a Wednesday afternoon issue, Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS), which manages the hospital, reported that one child died the day after surgery and another nine days post-surgery. "We extend our deepest condolences to these families," the declaration read. As a preventative, the hospital has halted scheduled tonsil and adenoid surgeries for patients under 18. Although HHS declined an interview, they informed via email that the deaths occurred in May and this month. The suspension began on Tuesday, and HHS noted that there is no apparent link between the two cases. A thorough review by external experts of their pediatric tonsil and adenoid surgery program is underway. Emergency surgeries and all adult ENT operations will carry on, and the ENT Clinic will remain functional. Tonsils and adenoids are lymph nodes situated in the back of the throat and nose. According to the Canadian Society of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, adenoidectomy is a typical operation in pre-teen children, usually executed for concerns like longstanding nasal congestion, chronic infections, or obstructive sleep apnea. Dr. Hamdy El-Hakim, an ENT surgeon at the University of Alberta, described the demises as "incredibly sad and incredibly rare," noting that the surgery is generally safe. He emphasized the significance of identifying the precise cause of the demises and praised McMaster Children's Hospital for its discreet answers. "Caution is necessary, but there's no need for panic," he said, asserting the safety of the surgery. McMaster Children's Hospital has started contacting patients and families about the status of their scheduled surgeries and assisting those with questions to reach out to the HHS's Patient Experience department at patientexperience@hhsc.ca or 905-521-2100 ext. 75240. McMaster Children's Hospital Pauses Tonsil and Adenoid Surgeries McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton has paused scheduled tonsil and adenoid surgeries for patients under 18 after the current demises of two children after such operations. While there occurs to be no relation between the two cases, the hospital is administering a comprehensive review of its pediatric tonsil and adenoid surgery program with external experts. On this pause, only emergency tonsil and adenoid surgeries for those under 18 will be executed. The ENT Clinic procedures will continue alongside all adult ENT surgeries. NDP Leader Marit Stiles has called for a provincial inspection into the demises, conveying deep concern and recommending that the government should act on existing approvals to enhance hospital situations. Dr. Adil Shamji, Liberal Critic for Health, emphasized the strain on Ontario hospitals and possible staffing shortages as factors that could have added to the failure. He highlighted the need for the hospital to get support for its inspection and for the Ministry of Health to follow up with a clear report on the findings. A food company in Dearborn, Michigan, is recalling some of its ground black pepper due to probable salmonella infection. FDA Recalls 7-Ounce Containers of Baraka Ground Black Pepper UBC Food Distributors, situated in Dearborn, Michigan, is recalling 7-ounce containers of Baraka Ground Black Pepper that were circulated nationwide in retail stores, according to a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) alert issued on Monday. Michigan state officials advised the company about the possible salmonella infection after a routine state surveillance sample tested positive, reported by the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets, as declared by the FDA. Salmonella contamination can cause manifestations such as diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps. In serious cases, manifestations like aches, headaches, high fever, lethargy, rashes, and blood in the urine or stool may happen, possibly causing hospitalization and even demise, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). To date, no illnesses have been reported concerning this product, the FDA noted. UBC has stopped production of the product while the FDA and the company inspect the source of the infection. The Baraka brand black pepper is packaged in 7-ounce clear plastic containers with an expiration date of January 2026 on the back of the label, and a UPC of 8 22514 26626 6. Consumers who bought this product can return it to the place of purchase for a full reimbursement, the FDA suggested. For further questions, buyers can contact UBC Food Distributors at 313-846-8117, Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. What Is Salmonella, What Makes It Dangerous for Humans? Salmonella is a germ that can cause diarrhea in humans. There are over 2,500 subtypes, which include strains influencing both animals and humans. While many are discovered in animals, they can also contaminate humans. However, fewer than 100 strains commonly cause human contamination. In the United States, Salmonella is an important cause of bacterial illness, resulting in roughly 1.35 million infections, 26,500 hospitalizations, and 420 deaths each year, according to the CDC. Those at highest risk of infection include children, older adults, people with weakened immune systems, and pregnant women. Caregivers are suggested to avoid young children from handling reptiles, chicks, and young birds due to the infection risk. Pregnant women who contract Salmonella face additional risks, including dehydration and nutrient deficiencies that could harm both mother and baby. In roughly 4% of cases during pregnancy, Salmonella can spread to the bloodstream, possibly resulting in intrauterine sepsis, a serious condition. Symptoms of Salmonella-induced gastroenteritis typically resolve within 4-7 days without medication. Treatment choices may include fluids to avoid dehydration, antimotility drugs to lessen cramping and diarrhea, and antibiotics for severe manifestations or cases where the bacteria have entered the bloodstream. However, antibiotics are not always prescribed, as overuse can add to antibiotic resistance. Medical attention is suggested if manifestations continue for at least 2 days, signs of dehydration or fever above 102F (39C) occur, or if there is blood in the stool. Children should get medical care if diarrhea or vomiting lasts beyond a day, signs of dehydration appear, or if there's a fever above 102F (39C). Older adults, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems should immediately seek medical advice if they encounter any manifestations of Salmonella contamination. A 59-year-old man from Mexico becomes the first human death from the H5N2 bird flu case. The World Health Organization (WHO), announced the death of the man on April 24, which is now leaving other people grappling with the concern of the possible animal to human transmission of the virus. This first human death from H5N2 has now prompted a heightened level of alertness from community members, scientists, and health officials around the world. Mexico's Human Bird Flu Case The WHO stated that the strain of H5N2 has been reportedly present in Mexican poultry but has not released information about how the man contracted the specific strain of virus. The organization stated that the source of the virus remains unknown. Furthermore, the 59-year-old Mexican man reportedly felt numerous symptoms for the manifestation of the virus a couple of days before death. The symptoms experienced include high fever, shortness of breath, nausea, diarrhea, and general discomfort before he succumbed to the illness of the virus. Despite the alarming case, Mexico's health ministry confirmed there has been no evidence of human-to-human transmission. In March, an outbreak of A(H5N2) was reported in a small family unit in Michoacan State. Authorities assured that this outbreak did not pose a risk to commercial farms or public health. Following the man's death, Mexican authorities confirmed the virus's presence and reported the case to the WHO. Though there had been three poultry outbreaks of H5N2 in nearby areas in March, no direct link to the man's case was established. Global Concerns and Scientific Vigilance The case in Mexico is unrelated to the H5N1 bird flu strain outbreak in the United States, which has affected three dairy farm workers. Bird flu viruses have caused human fatalities worldwide, including 18 deaths in China during a 2021 H5N6 outbreak. Andrew Pekosz, an influenza expert at Johns Hopkins University, emphasized the need for vigilance, noting that H5 viruses have shown a propensity to infect mammals more frequently than other avian influenza strains. Pekosz explained that it continues to ring that warning bell that we should be very vigilant about monitoring for these infections because every spillover is an opportunity for that virus to try to accumulate those mutations that make it better able to infect humans. Bird flu cases have been identified in various mammals, such as seals, raccoons, bears, and cattle, primarily through contact with infected birds. Recently, Australia reported its first human case of A(H5N1), with no signs of transmission, but noted increased poultry infections with H7 bird flu. H5N2 Bird Flu and Its Impact on Human Health H5N2 is one of several avian influenza viruses. Dr. Troy Sutton, an assistant professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences at Penn State, noted that H5 viruses have been circulating among Mexican poultry and wild birds since the mid-1990s. However, unlike other avian influenza strains, H5 viruses rarely infect humans. H5N2 is part of a family of H5 bird flu viruses with nine known subtypes. The viruses are classified based on two surface proteins: hemagglutinin (H), which enables the virus to infect cells, and neuraminidase (N), which helps the virus spread. These proteins allow for various H and N combinations. The report also reveals that the Mexican patient had been bedridden for weeks before exhibiting symptoms and had compromised immune health. According to the WHO, he developed a fever, nausea, diarrhea, shortness of breath, and general malaise on April 17. A week later, he was hospitalized and died the same day. Sutton highlighted the man's underlying medical conditions, which likely worsened his infection. He added that the person who was the first human death from H5N2 may have already been sick which changes the narrative and calculation a little bit more than, say, a healthy farm worker getting infected. During the WHO's investigation, no additional cases were reported. Of the 17 contacts monitored at the hospital, only one reported a runny nose. Kallie Wright, mom of 3-year-old Levi Wright, who passed away after driving his toy tractor into a creek in southern Utah, shared details about the deadly circumstances. She elucidated on social media that it's difficult to grasp how it happened without seeing their property. Kallie Wright Encountered Severe Online Criticism Levi, son of rodeo star Spencer Wright, passed away after being on life support for 12 days following the May 21 accident. Kallie Wright has faced harsh criticism online, according to family spokesperson Mindy Sue Clark. In a recent post, Kallie described how a creek runs through their 24-acre property, separating their home from the grandparents' house. Normally dry, the creek can suddenly fill with water. She shared a video of the family crossing it on horseback, emphasizing that her children had safely traversed the creek many times. However, this time the water was unusually high and strong, sweeping Levi about a mile downstream. Kallie called 911 instantly, but Levi was found not awake. He was rushed to a local hospital and then flown to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City. Despite initial hope when Levi shortly woke from a coma, he never recuperated due to serious brain damage, resulting in the decision to remove him from life support. Clark defended Kallie, stressing that such an accident could happen to any parent. The Wright family has received widespread support, including young rodeo athletes wearing blue in Levi's honor and a benefit auction with hundreds of items. Throughout Levi's hospitalization, Kallie shared updates on social media, expressing her enduring grief and hoping no one else experiences such a tragedy. Two Weeks After the Incident, Levi Wright Passed Away Late last month, Levi was playing at the family's Beaver County, Utah, home when his mother, Kallie Wright, briefly went inside. When she returned, Levi was missing, and his overturned toy tractor was found. She immediately called 911, and Levi was later discovered unconscious in the water a mile away. Despite some hopeful signs over the past two weeks, Kallie announced on Facebook that they faced their worst fear. She wrote that Levi had given them time to find peace with letting him go. She found comfort in knowing he would be restored to his perfect self. Along with a video of her and Levi, Kallie stated that after consulting with top neurologists and conducting research, the family believed removing him from life support was the best decision. Mindy Clark, the family friend, expressed her heartbreak over the ordeal but chose to focus on the miracles they witnessed. The accident occurred on May 21, and emergency responders administered life-saving measures before Levi was airlifted to Primary Children's Hospital. In the days leading up to removing life support, doctors attempted to take Levi out of sedation, but he did not respond well. Tests showed severe brain damage, and Levi was kept comfortable under heavy sedation. Levi, one of three children of Kallie and Spencer Wright, who is ranked No. 40 in the world in saddle bronc riding, moved mountains in his short life, bringing people together and showing light in a dark time. Health experts disclosed on Wednesday the discovery of a new sexually transmitted fungal infection in the United States. First US Case of Sexually Transmitted Ringworm According to research circulated in the journal JAMA Dermatology, the first known U.S. case of this novel form of ringworm was identified in a New York City man in his thirties. Following trips to England, Greece, and California, the man returned to develop tinea, a skin rash, on his penis, buttocks, and limbs. Described as "highly contagious" in a press release from New York University's Langone Health, the new fungal infection may take months to clear even with treatment, as determined by experts from the medical center and beyond. Characterized by skin rashes, also known as tinea, which can spread to the face, limbs, groin, and feet, this new fungal infection presents challenges in diagnosis due to its resemblance to eczema lesions rather than the typical circular patterns of other ringworm forms. Health experts diagnosed the New York man with an infection caused by Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII (TMVII), a sexually transmitted variant of ringworm previously prevalent in Europe. Despite engaging in sexual activity with multiple male partners during his travels, none of them reported similar symptoms. Dr. Avrom Caplan, lead author of the study and assistant professor of dermatology at NYU's Grossman School of Medicine, highlighted this as "the latest in a group of severe skin infections" reaching the U.S. Dr. John Zampella, an associate professor of dermatology at the same institution and co-author of the study, urged physicians to inquire about rashes around the groin and buttocks, particularly among sexually active individuals with recent international travel and complaints of itching. Standard Treatments Effective Against Trichophyton Mentagrophytes Type VII Addressing potential stigma associated with the infection, Caplan emphasized its distinction from mpox, previously declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization. Unlike mpox, TMVII has only one reported case in the U.S., with no evidence of widespread occurrence. Although challenging to treat, TMVII appears to respond to standard treatments like terbinafine, an oral antifungal tablet, according to Zampella. Meanwhile, Caplan cautioned about another less responsive skin infection causing tinea, Trichophyton indotinea, which has been reported globally after originating in India. This variant, unlike TMVII, often resists terbinafine. Researchers urged clinicians to remain vigilant for symptoms of both infections, although current incidence rates remain low in the U.S. Caplan emphasized the importance of increased awareness among clinicians and encouraged individuals experiencing genital lesions or persistent discomfort to seek medical advice promptly. Caplan's team at NYU Langone Health has since identified 11 cases of Trichophyton indotineae ringworm in New York City, linked to travel to Asia. These cases have shown resistance to standard treatments, including first-line antifungals. The report emphasizes the developing public health threat posed by the fungus, as it causes ringworm infections that may be resistant to terbinafine, a main oral antifungal medication. According to the Mayo Clinic, terbinafine is prescribed for fungal infections of the scalp, body, fingernails, toenails, jock itch, and athlete's foot. Symptoms of Trichophyton Mentagrophytes Type VII Include: Intense itching Inflamed circular patterns on the skin Hair and nail issues Athlete's foot Intel is in a tough spot. Qualcomm is comparing its Snapdragon X Elite hardware to Intels current Meteor Lake chips, and lots of the numbers dont look great for Intel. But Intel says its still competitive and that its just-around-the-corner Lunar Lake platform will outshine Qualcomms Arm-based Snapdragon X Elite. Our mission with Lunar Lake is we wanted to build the most power-efficient x86 architecture there is period. And were feeling pretty confident, said Intels Dan Rogers in an interview with PCWorlds Mark Hachman at Computex. Thats great, but Lunar Lake isnt out today. Intel spent many months talking up the current Meteor Lake platform, promising that it would be more power-efficient and enable local AI experiences with its neural processing unit (NPU.) Intel even transformed its processor naming scheme starting with Meteor Lake these were the first Core Ultra chips. Now, Qualcomm is about to release the first wave of Snapdragon X Elite-powered laptops, ushering in Microsofts new Copilot+ PC era. But Intel wants you comparing it to the Lunar Lake hardware launching in the coming months not the Meteor Lake hardware you can buy today. Meteor Lakes battery life gains werent the big leap we expected Ive been reviewing a lot of laptops here at PCWorld, and many of them have Meteor Lake CPUs in them. As Meteor Lake was designed more for power efficiency than the previous-generation Raptor Lake hardware, I would expect to see big battery life gains generation-over-generation. That hasnt always panned out. Many Meteor Lake laptops have similar levels of battery life to their Raptor Lake ancestors. Some even have worse battery life the Meteor Lake-powered Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 12) actually had lower battery life than the previous-generation Raptor Lake-powered model. Now sure, lots of that battery drain is likely because Lenovo included a beautiful OLED screen that likely sucks a lot of power. But shouldnt Meteor Lake have big underlying efficiency gains that help counteract that? I dont mean to single out Lenovo here. Its not a Lenovo problem. Ive encountered a lot of Meteor Lake laptops that dont offer the big battery life improvements I would have expected from reading about all the architectural changes Intel made in Meteor Lake. If you listen to Intels employees talk about Lunar Lake, it sounds like this problem is resolved. Theres a lot of talk about how applications can now be constrained to run on those low-power E-cores, where on Meteor Lake they might have hit those higher-power P-cores, for example. We just dont believe you need to compromise, Intels Dan Rogers told us in a wide-ranging interview. Qualcomm is comparing its Snapdragon X Elite hardware to Meteor Lake when it talks up how much better it is than a Core Ultra CPU. Intel is saying that Lunar Lake will be able to go toe to toe with Snapdragon X Elite and surpass it. But if Meteor Lake had delivered the kind of battery life gains we expected, Qualcomm wouldnt have such a compelling argument to make. Qualcomm Qualcomm Qualcomm Meteor Lake CPU performance actually declined a bit One reality of Meteor Lake is that single-core CPU performance actually declined a bit, generation over generation. Its a small difference, but the same laptop with a previous-generation Raptor Lake chip might perform a bit better than a current-generation Meteor Lake chip. That Meteor Lake chip might be more power efficient, but its an unfortunate truth. Thats one reason why high-end gaming laptops are often going with those new Intel Core HX chips, which are in fact based on the Raptor Lake architecture. If you want top-end performance, Meteor Lake isnt the right choice. It seems like this may be resolved with Lunar Lake, too. Intel is insisting that Lunar Lake delivers both much higher performance and dramatically improved energy efficiency. Lunar Lake is kind of a rebasing of mobile architectures for us. Were trying to communicate to you and the world that this is how we want to do it going forward, said Intels Robert Hallock in an interview with PCWorld while discussing the architectural changes. Qualcomm Qualcomm Qualcomm A big part of Qualcomms push was that Snapdragon X Elite wouldnt force you to compromise on performance vs. battery life, illustrated in the chart above. Qualcomm argues that have you can have it all if you go with Arm-powered Qualcomm hardware, not x86-powered Intel hardware. Thats an easier argument to make when you look at Meteor Lake and you see Intel trading some of the last generations performance for improved energy efficiency. Compared to Lunar Lake, Qualcomms arguments may look a little less persuasive. Once again, Intel would prefer you compare Snapdragon X Elite to Lunar Lake not Raptor Lake. Microsoft is leaving Meteor Lakes NPU behind The neural processing unit (NPU) is probably the messiest part of the Meteor Lake story. Intels Meteor Lake platform heralded the start of the AI PC with its NPU that delivered 11.5 TOPS (trillion operations per second.) Microsoft dealt Intel a big blow when it revealed that Windows 11s new Copilot+ PC AI features will require at least 40 TOPS. That means they wont run on Meteor Lake hardware. Qualcomms Snapdragon X Elite offers an NPU with 45 TOPS, which has let Qualcomm run a victory lap, touting how far ahead of Intel and AMD it is. Qualcomm can shout Three times faster AI performance! from the rooftops. And the company can point out that Intels current Meteor Lake hardware cant even run these new AI features Microsoft just doesnt think theyre fast enough. Qualcomm Qualcomm Qualcomm Thats a bad look when AI PCs are being so hyped. A lot of us expected Microsoft would support Meteor Lake laptops when it added AI features to Windows, although no one ever promised us that. Now theyre left out in the cold. This reminds me a bit of that old Vista Capable situation. In that case, Microsoft stuck a Windows Vista Capable sticker on Intel-powered PCs that didnt support a variety of Windows Vista features. In this case, Intel Meteor Lake-powered systems were marketed as AI PCs, but they cant run the big AI features Microsoft is adding to Windows. All Im saying is that neither situation is ideal for PC buyers. But Intels Lunar Lake has a neural processing unit that can generate 48 TOPS, moving Intel and its PC-making partners away from this inconvenient conversation. This not only catches Intel up it surpasses Qualcomms Snapdragon X Elite AI performance. Meteor Lakes GPUs were great, but Lunar Lake looks much better Intels Meteor Lake platform had some great integrated GPUs. Now, youre still going to want a gaming PC with a dedicated Nvidia or AMD GPU for serious gaming performance dont get me wrong. But Meteor Lakes integrated Intel Arc graphics hardware was a big leap over the previous Raptor Lake generation, delivering up to twice the performance. Weve seen it over and over in our benchmarks its a huge leap. Intel says Lunar Lake will be another huge leap thanks to its architectural changes. Intel is promising 50 percent faster graphics performance compared to Meteor Lake. Based on the benchmarks going around, it seems like Lunar Lakes GPUs should beat what Qualcomm is offering with Snapdragon X Elite. Unfortunately, Intel has lagged on integrated graphics performance for so long that, when news of Snapdragon X Elite-powered PCs running current-generation PC games with acceptable performance leaked, people were amazed even if modern Intel laptops can do the same thing with their integrated Intel Arc graphics. Intel really needs to get the word out on how good its integrated graphics are becoming. Thunderbolt ports are becoming less confusing People dont really understand Intels Thunderbolt 4 standard. Thunderbolt 4 uses the USB-C connector shape you can think of Thunderbolt 4 ports as upgraded USB-C ports that are guaranteed to support fast speeds and features. But things have been messy. Many Meteor Lake laptops have both Thunderbolt 4 and traditional USB-C ports, mixing and matching them. Some Meteor Lake laptops dont have Thunderbolt 4 ports at all. And laptops dont always properly label which ports are Thunderbolt 4 ports and which arent, forcing you to dig into the spec sheet to see whats going on. Intel is fixing a lot of the confusion here. All Lunar Lake systems will have a minimum of two Thunderbolt 4 ports. Chris Hoffman/IDG Chris Hoffman/IDG Chris Hoffman/IDG Intel also says that it is strongly encouraging manufacturers to place Thunderbolt ports all on one side of the laptop, stop mixing and matching Thunderbolt ports, and label them clearly. Thats all good to hear but the words strongly encouraging suggests this is still optional for PC manufacturers, not required. Thunderbolt is something Intel holds up as a unique advantage of its platform. If it was less confusing, people would be able to understand what they have available and take better advantage of it. Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 will be everywhere Most Meteor Lake-powered computers have Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. Thats not the end of the world because Wi-Fi 7 routers arent widespread yet. And you can get Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 on some Meteor Lake laptops youll often just have to pay for an upgrade when configuring the laptop. Against that backdrop, Qualcomm arrived and advertised that all its computers supported future-proof Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. It was another great comparison to the stodgy-seeming old Intel x86 PCs and their charging extra for Wi-Fi 7 as an optional upgrade. Lunar Lake rights the ship once again, including Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 in a more fully integrated way. It sounds like we should be seeing it on all those upcoming Lunar Lake-powered laptops. Intel wants everyones eyes on Lunar Lake, not Meteor Lake Intels Lunar Lake CPU. Intels Lunar Lake CPU. Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry Intels Lunar Lake CPU. Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry Just a few months ago, it seemed like Meteor Lake with its new Core Ultra branding was the hot new architecture that was going to usher in a more power-efficient future alongside AI features in Windows. But, time moves quickly, and that story is already in the rearview mirror. Now, Intel wants you to focus on Lunar Lake and how it will beat Qualcomms Snapdragon X Elite hardware at its own game. Intel wants you to compare Snapdragon X Elite to Lunar Lake not Meteor Lake. (But Qualcomm would love to compare Snapdragon to Meteor Lake, since thats whats available in laptops shipping right now. Expect to see a lot more of those comparisons from Qualcomm.) The only problem is that Qualcomms Snapdragon X Elite-powered Copilot+ PCs will arrive in a few short weeks, on June 18. Theyll be sitting on the store shelves next to Intel Meteor Lake laptops. Lunar Lake wont arrive until sometime in the third quarter of 2024 in time for the holiday season. Unfortunately for Intel, its giving Qualcomm a head start. Bird flu is spreading across chicken farms, resulting in new biosecurity measures to stop the virus worsening. Restricted areas (red) are surrounded by buffer zones (purple) to try and restrict the spread of avian flu. Source: Agriculture Victoria/Google Maps Two restricted zones have been set up in Australia to stop the spread of a highly virulent strain of avian influenza thats spread across multiple chicken farms. On Friday, poultry at a fifth location were found to be infected, sparking a swift response from Victorian authorities. It will kill all birds in the farms sheds to try and contain the spread. Australia remains free of the H5N1 strain which has killed tens of millions of wild birds across the globe, and infected mammals, including humans. The virus affecting farms in Victoria is the closely related H7N3. Related: Meat linked to terrifying new virus sweeping the world Movement of birds, poultry products, feed and equipment on or off properties is restricted around Meredith and Lethbridge northwest of Geelong, and a separate infection zone at Terang in the states centre. More on avian influenza Which parts of Australia are restricted due to the virus? In March, a child returned from overseas carrying the H5N1 strain, but it is not connected to the current H7N3 outbreak. The latest discovery was a Meredith farm which Agriculture Victoria confirmed is within the Golden Plains Shire which is already a restricted area. At least 500,000 birds have been destroyed at three of the other infected sites at Meredith and Terang farms operated by Avgo and Surf Coast Eggs Farms. Farm Prides Lethbridge farm culled around 80,000 hens, constituting around eight per cent of its total production capacity. Eggs The states Chief Veterinary Officer Graeme Cooke said in a statement that the latest outbreak was not unexpected. Its a difficult time for our farmers and were making sure mental health support is available and eligible producers can access compensation, he said. Experts have warned industrialised agricultural methods are aiding the spread and mutation of the virus. Source: Getty (File Image) Are eggs still safe to eat? While the outbreak has been restricted to large farms, Dr Cooke issued a warning to all Victorians. All bird owners across Victoria are reminded to follow best biosecurity practices such as keeping poultry sheds, yards, aviaries and equipment clean, he said. Housing birds by keeping them in cages or sheds is an effective method of minimising direct contact between your poultry and wild birds. While the virus can remain in droppings, respiratory secretions, water, feathers, eggs and meat for long periods of time, supermarket-bought eggs are understood to be safe for consumption. Authorities are calling for unexplained bird deaths to be reported to the VicEmergency Hotline on 1800 226 226. With AAP Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? Get our new newsletter showcasing the weeks best stories. If youre anything like us here at PCWorld, your eyes have been glued to coverage of the Computex trade show in Taipeiand youve been green with envy for our coworkers who get to see it in person. In fact, there are enough of those lucky jerks on the trip that they managed to do a Full Nerd podcast right on the show floor. Not that Im jealous or anything. Not at all. Adam, Mark, and video producer Alex Esteves give a wrap-up of everything at Computex 2024 as Asus ROG hosts in the companys bombastic show booth. Check it out to learn about the highlights from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm, the latest floor trends, PCWorlds picks for the best Computex reveals, and yeah, a lot of talk about food. The gang cover the new handhelds like the ROG Ally X and Zotac Zone, Fractal Designs stylish new cases, 480Hz OLED gaming monitors, and get insights from some special guests including PCWorld pal Trisha Hershberger and Nicholas Cole of Gear Seekers. If you havent already be sure to subscribe to subscribe to PCWorld on YouTube, and if you never want to miss another podcast, subscribe to the new dedicated channel for The Full Nerd, too! Introduction: The baking industry has long been a cornerstone of the culinary landscape, serving as a vital component of the breakfast economy and a source of nutrition for people all over the world. Globally, the baking industry hit a total market value of USD 203.8 billion in 2018 and is expected to increase by 3.2% by 2025, according to research. In Africa and the Middle East, the industry is expected to grow at a rate of 4.9% between 2022 and 2030. The sheer size of the industry and its role in providing food security for huge sectors of the population make the issue of food safety and hygiene very critical. Food hygiene and safety are essential to prevent the spread of foodborne illnesses and ensure the safety of the food we consume. It is only through proper hygiene and safety practices in our food industries, that we can prevent the contamination of food by harmful bacteria, viruses, and pathogens that cause illnesses and dangerous diseases. Olam Agris Grain Business, operators of a multimillion wheat mill factory in Tema and a leading manufacturer of wheat flour, has, over the years, demonstrated ample commitment to the highest food quality and safety standards, and in 2021, achieved the Food Safety Standard Certification (FSSC)22000. It is on this score that we have Baibhav Biswas, Business Head of Olam Agris Grains Business in Ghana, to share with us some insights into the baking industry in Ghana and also highlight some of the key initiatives by Olam Agri in promoting food safety and hygiene in the country. Interviewer: How would you describe the baking industry in Ghana? Baibhav: Significantly, Ghana's baking industry occupies a distinct position, characterized by its rich tradition and culture, particularly, within the breakfast economy. According to a report by Statista, revenue in the bread and bakery product market will amount to 4.43 billion USD in 2024, and it is expected to grow annually by 7.65% between 2024 and 2028. The baking industry plays a crucial role in the breakfast economy, providing the population with staple foods like bread, which form the very foundation of many Ghanaian meals. Todays market is primarily driven by convenience, accessibility, and nutrition profile, as there has been a growing preference for healthy, organic, and all-natural baked food, produced under good quality. Interviewer: What would you identify as some of the pressing issues in the industry that you think need urgent attention? Baibhav: The industry operates in a system that is highly fragmented, constrained by limited capital, the use of outdated equipment, and critical issues relating to hygiene and safety. These factors contribute to operational inefficiencies and increased costs, ultimately impacting both producers and consumers. To ensure the growth and sustainability of Ghana's baking industry, it is imperative to address the existing challenges head-on. Without intervention, these issues threaten to stifle progress and hinder the industry's ability to meet the evolving needs of consumers. Interviewer: It has been reported that Olam Agri in Ghana has launched the Grains Hygiene Standard Management (GHSM) initiative to help improve the hygiene situation of bakers. Can you tell us more about the program? Baibhav: Recognizing the pivotal role of hygiene in ensuring food safety and consumer confidence, our Grains business, which is the leading producer of flour and wheat-based products in the country, initiated the Grains Hygiene Standard Management (GHSM) Program in collaboration with the Food and Drugs Authority and Twentyth Consult, a food and beverage consultancy firm in Ghana. This novel initiative aims to bring bakers across the nation together under a comprehensive framework, to promote cleanliness and hygiene practices to tackle the problem of fragmentation and safeguard both the integrity of the products and the health of consumers. The GHSM program encompasses a range of initiatives designed to elevate hygiene standards across the baking industry. This includes the provision of workshops and training sessions to enhance baking practices and improve hygiene conditions among bakers. Additionally, the GHSM program offers incentives, including reward schemes for bakeries that demonstrate exceptional adherence to hygiene protocols under the program. Interviewer: The GHSM program is indeed groundbreaking. We have not seen any company do something like this in the industry. Now, how do you ensure the sustainability of this initiative? Baibhav: Central to the initiative is the establishment of standardized parameters for evaluating hygiene practices. Dedicated third-party hygiene controllers work closely with bakeries to ensure compliance with these standards, providing guidance and support where they are needed. By fostering a culture of accountability, the program seeks to instill confidence in both industry stakeholders and consumers. We have over 800 bakers from Accra, Kumasi, and Takoradi who participated in the maiden edition of the programs annual award scheme. Some 141 bakeries from these centers received certification for improving hygiene standards in their operations, 35 bakeries stood out as the most compliant and were ranked as 4-Star Bakery Operators. So far, we are very impressed with the interest from bakers across the country. We are also working on expanding its coverage across the country over time. We are projecting over 1000 bakeries nationwide to participate in next years program. Interviewer: By way of conclusion, what do you think is the future of the Bakery Industry? What are your general observations about the growth of the industry in Ghana? Baibhav: As a community, we cannot rely solely on the government and its agencies to initiate productive change. I believe that stakeholders must take an active role in problem-solving. The GHSM program is an initiative we can hold on to, build upon, and improve the hygiene situation of our bakers while improving food security in the country. With this program, we can ensure that the countrys rich culinary heritage thrives. Source: Olam Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Reflecting on the success of the recent Personal Finance Workshop organized in collaboration with Bamboo at Quality Control Company (QCC) COCOBOD, Jacinth Consultancy Services expresses gratitude for the opportunity to empower individuals with essential financial knowledge and skills. The workshop, which took place from May 20th to 24th, 2024, brought together employees from QCC COCOBOD to participate in a series of engaging sessions focused on personal finance management. Led by industry experts and seasoned financial professionals, the workshop covered a wide range of topics, including budgeting, saving, investing, debt management, and retirement planning. "We are incredibly pleased with the positive feedback we've received from participants," said Akua Boatemah Danso, CEO of Jacinth Consultancy Services. "The workshop provided a valuable opportunity for individuals to enhance their financial literacy and make informed decisions about their financial futures." Throughout the week-long workshop, participants actively engaged in discussions, practical exercises, and hands-on activities designed to reinforce key concepts and strategies for financial success. Many expressed appreciation for the collaborative efforts of Jacinth Consultancy Services and Bamboo in organizing the workshop and providing valuable resources for their financial education. "We are proud to have been part of this initiative to promote financial literacy," remarked a spokesperson from Bamboo Investments. "At Bamboo, we recognize the importance of equipping individuals with the knowledge and skills to achieve financial wellness, and we are committed to supporting initiatives that advance this cause." As the workshop concludes, Jacinth Consultancy Services and Bamboo look forward to building on this success and continuing their efforts to promote financial literacy and empowerment across Ghana. Plans are already underway for future workshops and initiatives aimed at reaching even more individuals and communities with essential financial education. Stay tuned for updates on upcoming events and opportunities to join us in our mission to promote financial literacy and empowerment nationwide. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Kwabena Boateng, Divisional Director, Corporate and Institutional Banking at Fidelity Bank Ghana, emphasized the critical role of digital transformation and collaboration in shaping the future of banking and African business at the recently held Ishmael Yamson & Associates Business Roundtable 2024. Themed "African Businesses: Collaborating for Global Success," the event underscored the importance of leveraging technological advancements and strategic partnerships to drive growth and competitiveness. In his address, Kwabena highlighted the rapid digital transformation sweeping across Africa, fuelled by a growing population, increased mobile phone penetration, and significant internet user growth. He pointed to Ghana as an example. "Over the past decade, internet users in Ghana have grown from 5.3 million to approximately 24 million, indicating the deep integration of internet usage in society. The critical question now is how we utilize this data effectively to drive digital banking," Kwabena remarked. Highlighting the shift towards digital financial transactions, he noted that while 40% of Ghanaians have bank accounts, many remain dormant. Conversely, 60% of Ghanaians use mobile money, reflecting the impact of internet connectivity on financial transactions. "In the past year, 64% of Ghanaians initiated digital payments, signalling a significant shift from traditional banking to digitization. However, debit card usage remains low at around 18%, due to the prevalence of mobile money," He noted. Kwabena Boateng emphasized the necessity of collaboration among African companies. "No business can thrive in isolation, especially in a country where only 38% of people have bank accounts. To grow, we must consider the broader African market," he stated. He highlighted the success of Ghanaian company ZeePay, which recently acquired a 51% stake in a Zambian company, as an example of the importance of regional expansion and collaboration. ZeePay's operations across 20 African countries and over $3 billion in facilitated transactions demonstrate the global potential of African companies. Kwabena applauded the rise of African FinTech companies like M-Pesa, EcoCash, Flutterwave, Paystack, Leatherback, and Onafriq. These companies, along with Agritech solutions like Complete Farmer and Aerobotics, are revolutionizing financial services, cross-border payments, and agricultural productivity across the continent. Fidelity Bank itself embodies the collaborative spirit. The bank actively collaborates with FinTech companies like Insano, ExpressPay, ZeePay, and ITC. He emphasized, "This mutual dependency between banks and FinTechs will drive the agenda of business collaboration in Africa, leading to global success." Despite the optimistic outlook, he acknowledged challenges faced by African businesses, including limited access to finance, underdeveloped infrastructure, and regulatory limitations. Kwabena outlined a roadmap for greater success. He emphasized the importance of collaboration, both within the private sector and with governments. "Strategic partnerships can be a game-changer for African businesses," he stressed. "Imagine the possibilities if telecommunication companies join forces with local fintech startups, replicating the success of M-Pesa by Safaricom. This could lead to groundbreaking mobile banking solutions across the continent." He also highlighted the crucial role of governments in creating an enabling environment. "Collaboration on critical infrastructure projects, like transportation and energy, is essential," Kwabena said. "The Rwanda Innovation Fund serves as a shining example of how public-private partnerships can support innovation and technology hubs." Trade policies also came under his spotlight. "Supportive policies that promote openness and reduce barriers are key to facilitating cross-border trade and investment," he explained. "Regional trade agreements and initiatives like ECOWAS and AfCFTA represent significant steps toward economic integration and collaboration." Fidelity Bank's participation in the Ishmael Yamson & Associates Business Roundtable underscores its commitment to supporting the growth and success of African businesses. By embracing collaboration, innovation, and the opportunities presented by AfCFTA, African businesses can collectively achieve global success. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video CARISCA yesterday held its 2024 supply chain research summit at the Kempinski hotel in Accra to deliberate on transformation and the indispensable supply chain force. Speaking on the theme Africas Supply Chain Resilience for Economic Transformation, Mr. Atoapem Frimpong Barimah who delivered the keynote address set the tone by asking whether or not if economic transformation has ever been achieved without supply chain. He recounted that throughout history there have been countless examples of transformational changes reshaping societies, economies and industries with supply chain right in the thick of affairs. From the industrial revolution to the digital age, transformative moments have propelled humanity forward, unlocking new opportunities and reshaping the world as we know it now but behind every moment of the transformation lies a silent yet indispensable force - the supply chain, it is the unsung hero, the invisible backbone that supports and sustains the very fabric of change, he opined. Mr. Frimpong stated that considering the industrial revolution, a seismic shift that ushered in an era of unprecedented progress and prosperity was still hinged on the emergence of efficient supply chains connecting raw materials to factories and markets with unprecedented speed and scale. He cited that similarly, the rise of the digital age has been made possible by intricate networks of supply chains enabling the seamless flow of information, goods and services across the globe at the click of a button. However, Mr. Frimpong Barimah indicated that its not just in grand historical moments that supply chain played a transformative role but in the world over every industry uses as the lifeblood of economic activity, facilitating the creation, production, and distribution of goods and services that touch the lives of billions. He noted that in recent years, global supply chains have come under immense pressure because of unprecedented trade turbulence, economic uncertainty, geopolitical events and natural disasters. Mr. Frimpong stated that, although the integration of African economies into supply chains is relatively low compared with other regions, disruptions to supply chain operations have a more than proportionate adverse impact on our economies. This gives relevance to our theme for this years summit - Africas Supply Chain Resilience for Economic Transformation. We can only be resilient to drive the expected Economic Transformation through value addition. Again, he narrated that Africas export of few manufactured goods is an indication of our weak participation in supply chain trade. The 54 countries of Africa combined account for only 2.6 percent of global trade. This figure drops to 0.8 percent when only manufactured goods are considered (COMTRADE/UNSTAT 2023). "The share of manufactured goods in total exports is only 34 percent (66% of exports are without value addition) for African countries, which is relatively low compared with 83 percent for East Asia, 74 percent for low- and middle-income countries excluding African countries, 68 percent for South Asia, 45 percent for Latin America, and 70 percent for the world average (UN COMTRADE 2023). Half of the manufactured products exported by the continent come from only three countries: South Africa (27 percent), Egypt (10 percent), and Morocco (10 percent). Thirteen countries out of 54 produce 81 percent of the manufactured exports. "This concentration of export countries is even more pronounced when considering only fully transformed goods. Three countries (South Africa, 28 percent; Morocco, 15 percent; and Nigeria, 12 percent) sell 55 percent of fully transformed product exports. In sharp contrast with other regions of the world, especially the countries that comprise the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), African exports have so far not been connected to regional supply chains. "Regional value chains only accounted for 2.7 percent of Africas GVC participation in 2022, compared with 26.4 percent for Latin America and the Caribbean and 42.9 percent in developing Asia, often called factory Asia to emphasize that supply chain trade remains within the region. Among the five AU regions, the participation rate is lowest for North Africa and highest for East Africa, at around 5 percent. This is why the AfCFTA has declared the development of RVCs a priority objective. The GVC participation indicators show that among Asian and Pacific countries (excluding high-income countries), the degree of regional integration was almost six times higher than in Africa in 2022, and the trend hasnt change. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Ghanas Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, continues to garner support from leaders and representatives of Commonwealth member states as she intensifies her campaign for the position of Commonwealth Secretary General. For several months, Ayorkor Botchwey has been engaging tirelessly for this role to enable her deliver what she calls a new commonwealth. Her candidacy not only represents Ghanas aspirations but also the hope of continuing the legacy of female leadership in this vital international organization. Shes often taken advantage of multilateral forums to make her case for the Commonwealth in bilateral meetings with leaders. Her candidacy not only represents. Ayorkor Botchwey's campaign has been marked by extensive travels and personal engagement with leaders across the Commonwealth. Her efforts have included visits to key member states in the Pacific, Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. Currently, she is engaging with her colleagues in Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore, following earlier working visits to India and Bangladesh, where she sought to build strong alliances and gather support for her bid while on international assignments. In each country, she has met with high-ranking officials, diplomats, and influential civil society leaders, articulating her vision for a more united and inclusive Commonwealth. Initially, there were reservations about her suitability for the role of Foreign Affairs Minister. Some critics questioned whether she had the necessary experience and diplomatic acumen. However, Ayorkor Botchwey has consistently proven her capabilities through her tenure, effectively representing Ghana on the global stage and strengthening its international partnerships. Her campaign for Commonwealth Secretary General is centered on several key themes. Unity and inclusivity are at the forefront of her vision. Ayorkor Botchwey advocates for policies that bridge gaps between member states, regardless of their size or economic status. She envisions a Commonwealth where mutual respect and cooperation are paramount, ensuring that all voices are heard and valued. Youth empowerment and education are particularly close to her heart. With a significant youth population within the Commonwealth, Ayorkor Botchwey emphasizes the need for increased investment in education and skills training. She aims to equip young people with the tools they need to thrive in a globalized world, creating opportunities for them to participate actively in the political and economic spheres of their countries. One of the key highlights of her journey was her visit to Malaysia, where she met with Malaysias Foreign Affairs Minister, Mohamad Hassan. The meeting in Kuala Lumpur focused on strengthening diplomatic ties and fostering mutual cooperation. Discussions centered around enhancing bilateral relations between Ghana and Malaysia, with both ministers expressing a shared commitment to deepening economic, cultural, and educational exchanges. Ayorkor Botchwey outlined her vision for the Commonwealth, emphasizing the need for unity and inclusivity among member states. She highlighted the importance of policies that bridge gaps between nations, irrespective of their size or economic status. Her call for a more cohesive and collaborative Commonwealth resonated well with her Malaysian counterpart. Both ministers agreed on the potential for greater economic integration within the Commonwealth, which could be facilitated under Ayorkor Botchweys leadership. Following the official meeting, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey was honored at a dinner attended by high-ranking officials, diplomats, and members of the business community. This event provided a platform for further engagement and networking. In her speech at the dinner, Ayorkor Botchwey reiterated her commitment to the values of the Commonwealth. She spoke passionately about the devastating impact of climate change and the need for unity, economic development, and the empowerment of the younger generation. She emphasized the importance of making the world a better place for future generations. Ayorkor Botchweys diplomatic outreach in Asia has been extensive, and her efforts are expected to bear fruit. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The most pressing question in Public Relations (PR) practice is how to measure the effectiveness of PR efforts and the return on investment (ROI). Understanding how to quantify success and see a tangible return on investments in PR works is crucial for every practitioner. Measuring the impact of PR and its ROI helps demonstrate the value that it brings to a business. It also helps secure management buy-in for campaigns and allocation of funds. Through measurements, businesses can understand what is working well and what is not and allow the PR practitioner to make the needed adjustments to improve effectiveness and achieve better results. By measuring the outcomes of PR activities, businesses can determine PR's ROI and help practitioners justify their budget expenditure. During the second virtual session of the 2024 World PR Day Festival activitiesorganized by Global Media Alliance, panelists urged PR practitioners to shift their attention from the data, focus on understanding their audience, and factor in their sentiments when analyzing their data. They opined that analyzing sentiments will help in tracking issues and mitigate themwhen needed before they change into a crisis. It also helps to measure not only your brand but competitors as well. According to the Acting Director of Communications at Afrobarometer, Josephine Appiah-Nyamekye Sanny, sentiment analysis provides real-time feedback and allowspractitioners to act quickly and adjust even in the middle of a campaign. We need to analyze sentiments and not just datahow people feel about issues is important as these are usually pointers to the real issues and we can deal with it quickly before it turns into a crisis, she emphasized. Emeka Obia, Integrated Strategy Director, Central and West Africa at Publicis Groupe,also emphasized the importance of monitoring sentiments during PR Campaigns. There is real value in monitoring real-time engagement. This way you can constantly understand immediate reactions, sentiment, and how people are responding and then you can make necessary adjustments, said Emeka Obia. He advised PR practitioners to be clear on their objective setting and always research to have good outcomes for their PR efforts. Touching on metrics to measure PR campaigns, Senior Client Acquisition Consultant at Meltwater Africa, Michaela Van Der Merwe shared her thoughts on why the need for PR professionals to understand ones audience when it comes to measuring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Understanding your audience helps you to know the metrics to go in for, Michaela said, adding that the sentiments are also a key factor to consider when PR practitioners are developing their yearly strategies. Moderated by Bridget Gbesemete, Groupe Public Relations Manager for Publicis West Africa, the PR Measurement and ROI session was hosted on LinkedIn and recorded over 70 participants. The World PR Day Festival continues to highlight critical issues and industry trends relevant to the PR community. This year's festival will feature a series of events including slush events, masterclass programmes, virtual thought leadership sessions, an industry mixer, and the main summit. This years festival will touch on key areas such as Sustainability PR, Storytelling, Arts, Artificial Intelligence, Tourism, and Political Communication. With a special focus on AI and Sustainability PR, this years festival will explore the impact of AI and Sustainability in shaping communication strategies for brands, organizations, and individuals. Moreover, it will examine how PR professionals can ethically navigate the use of AI and how to communicate sustainability initiatives while avoiding greenwashing. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Bernard Mornah and four other well-meaning Ghanaians petitioned the Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), to carry out an in-depth investigation of the former Sanitation Minister, Madam Cecilia Dapaah over the assets she has acquired more than her income can afford as a public servant. The petitioners, Mensah Thompson, Al-Hassan Kwadwo Baidoo, Bernard Anbataayela Mornah, Ransford Antwi, and Joyce Atitso, have called for a thorough investigation into Dapaahs finances. More importantly, we are fortified in the need for this investigation because during interrogation by the office of the Special prosecutor (OSP) as to the source of here income, Madam Cecilia Dapaah could not give any proper explanation. "In the circumstances we humbly petition your high office to investigate Madam cecilia Dapaah for the acquiring more than her income," the statement read. The controversy surrounding Cecilia Dapaah began with a theft report at her home, leading to her resignation in July 2023. The stolen items included substantial amounts of money$1 million, 300,000, and GH350,000as well as luxury handbags valued at $35,000 and $95,000 worth of jewellery. Following her resignation, Madam Cecilia Dapaah was arrested by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), which discovered over GH48 million in her accounts. The investigation, which drew in the FBI, lasted nearly seven months before the OSP dropped the charges due to insufficient evidence and transferred the case to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO). EOCO, in turn, returned the docket to the OSP, citing a lack of evidence. Source: Kobina Darlington/Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video On April 3, 2015, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $918 million three-year Extended Credit Facility (ECF) for Ghana to support the Mahama governments medium-term economic reform programme. The government was facing a crisis with the economy, and the programme was aimed at restoring debt sustainability and macroeconomic stability to foster a return to high growth and job creation while protecting social spending. Former President John Dramani Mahama however revealed that, but for the intervention of the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, his government would have had difficulty in securing the IMF deal. Economic crisis Explaining, Mr Mahama said when his government faced crisis with the economy in 2013/2014, the Asantehene was at hand to rescue the situation. We had implemented the single spine salary policy from President Mills' time and somewhere in 2013, the arrears were kicking in. So we overshot in terms of revenue which became a burden on the budget. Wages and salaries shot up astronomically so we did the Senchi forum and after that, we came out with the Home-Grown Fiscal Consolidation Programme. We tried to implement it but international investors thought that without discipline we could not do that. We tried to convince them but they would not budge, he stated. IMF Mr Mahama continued that the government, therefore, decided that to get the credibility, it needed to go to the IMF to buy into the implementation of the home-grown fiscal programme. However, when his administration wanted to talk to the IMF they kept delaying. One day during a visit to Kumasi, I enquire from Otumfuo whether he could get his friend, the President of the World Bank at the time, James D. Wolfensohn, for him to work on the IMF programme for the government and the Asantehene readily accepted the request. Because of that programme, Otumfuo flew to Washington to have talks with Mr Wolfensohn, who together with Otumfuo went and spoke with the IMF Director, Madam Christine Lagarde and within a short period of time, we had the Extended Credit Facility. That was the programme that turned the economy around because under that programme, in 2016, almost for the first time in our history, we did not overspend the budget, Mr Mahama said. Receiving the Otumfuo Mr Mahama made the disclosure when he received the Otumfuo commemorative gold coin at his office in Accra on Tuesday, February 8, 2022. Dagbon conflict Mr Mahama stated that Otumfuo was the prime mover in the settlement of the Dagbon crisis. So we are proud of him and we are happy that this coin had been issued, he said. He added: Certainly If anybody was to be celebrated in this country, you couldn't go past Otumfuo. He has been a part of consolidating our democracy since the time of President Rawlings. Delegation The E ON 3 Group and its key partners presented the gold coin to Mr Mahama. Executive Chairman of the E ON 3 Group, Richard Adjei Mensah Ofori Atta, led the delegation. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video In a groundbreaking decision, High Court Judge Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe has advised Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Godfred Yeboah Dame to recuse himself from the ambulance case involving Dr Cassiel Ato Forson and Richard Jakpa, citing allegations of professional and prosecutorial misconduct. This decision follows numerous applications filed by the first accused, Dr. Forson, and the third, Richard Jakpa. The applications sought several orders, including an inquiry into the Attorney-General's conduct based on Jakpa's claims that the Attorney-General had been contacting him at odd hours. They also requested a mistrial to terminate the case, a stay of proceedings until the applications were determined, and a motion to strike out charges against Jakpa. Dr. Ato Forson, the Minority Leader and former Deputy Finance Minister, filed three motions, while Jakpa filed the last one. Both are on trial for allegedly causing a financial loss of 2.37 million to the state through a contract to purchase 200 ambulances for the Ministry of Health, among other charges. Despite the court declining jurisdiction to order an inquiry and declare a mistrial based on prosecutorial misconduct, it directed Dr Ato Forson to seek redress from the General Legal Council if he wished to pursue the matter further. Additionally, the court admitted a telephone recording between Jakpa and the Attorney-General as evidence, overruling the Attorney-General's objections regarding its admissibility. This ruling is unprecedented, marking the first time a Ghanaian court has directed an Attorney-General to recuse himself from a trial due to misconduct allegations. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video I like to think Im an experienced hobby fisherman; Ive been fishing since I was a kid. Growing up on Long Island, freshwater fishing isnt the best, so I spent my time almost exclusively fishing for carp. Since going to college in Syracuse, where I was on the fishing team, and then moving to Ohio, Ive become a more well-rounded fisherman. Since moving, I had opportunities to fish different waterbodies like creeks, rivers, lakes, ponds and even urban drainage basins. Challenging myself to fish in different locations, I have become more comfortable using different lures and techniques. However, as a result, I have found lures I like and typically dont stray away to a fault sometimes. Last weekend I got a lesson in keeping an open mind to new ideas, even if they stray from conventional thinking. Last weekend, two of my best friends from high school drove up from Long Island to spend the weekend fishing. Somehow their drive took seven hours, and Im not sure how that happened as my drive has never been longer than five and a half hours. Neither of them is an avid fisherman, with one of them having never caught a fish. Before their visit, I scouted out several spots so they could get a taste of what central New York has to offer and see some of the natural landscapes. I also prepped the lures wed use based on previous success, and conventionally what works for spring fishing. The last thing I wanted to happen was to host a fishing trip where no fish got caught. The morning came and we headed off to our first spot on the Oneida River. I rigged us up with tube jigs and small crankbaits, two baits Ive had success with and are also recommended by anglers online. Of course, those baits did not work, and I quietly began to panic. My friend suggested using a finesse worm bait, which I tied on for him thinking that would never work in a shallow, fast-moving river. I continued to not catch fish when he hooked into what ended up being an almost 5-pound smallmouth bass. After seeing that, I tied us all on the finesse worm and we caught a handful of fish. After catching some smallmouth bass we headed to our next spot, a creek, to fish for some trout. Once again, the lures I chose did not work. We at least got some bites, so we were committed to pulling one in. I tied on a small jerk bait for my friend and showed him how to fish it. I walked away to continue fishing at my spot and when I looked back, he was doing nearly the exact opposite of what I showed him. As I started walking back to show him the right way, he hooked into our first trout of the day. We didnt have the day I hoped for at the creek, but we still caught fish and had a great time. That weekend taught me a valuable lesson in fishing: Dont be afraid to go against the grain and try something new. No matter how much of an expert you think you are at something, there is always an opportunity to learn more. I also learned not to take for granted the beauty and opportunities that CNY and the Finger Lakes region has to offer. Having lived here for a while, Ive grown accustomed to the area, but to hear my friends talk about how nice our region is made me appreciate how lucky we are to live where we do. Ive been motivated to try new spots and use lures I would not have in the past. New York offers such a wide variety of fishing experiences to be had. There are so many public spaces on rivers, creeks, lakes and pond shores to be explored. Remember, if you want to go fishing make sure you have a fishing license through the New York Department of Environmental Conservation. They are very reasonably priced for residents and directly support conservation. For anyone interested in learning more about fishing, don't hesitate to get in touch with me at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cayuga County. I would be more than happy to chat. British-Canadian actor Alan Scarfe, known for his roles as bad guys in Double Impact and Lethal Weapon III, and as Dr. Bradley Talmadge on the UPN sci-fi series Seven Days, has died at the age of 77. Scarfe died on April 28 of colon cancer at his home in Longueuil, Quebec, according to an announcement made by his family. Originally born on June 8, 1946, in England, Scarfe was raised in Vancouver. He leaves behind several family members, including his son, actor Johnathan Scarfe, who is known for shows like Van Helsing and The 100. He also leaves behind a daughter, Tosia, a musician and composer, her husband Austin, and their children, Kai and Hunter. Scarfe was featured in multiple television shows, including the soap opera One Life to Live, Mysterious Island, Tour of Duty, Andromeda, Stargate: Atlantis, Earthsea, Kingdom Hospital, The Outer Limits, Due South, The Burning Zone Once a Thief, The Lazarus Man, Star Trek: Voyager, Highlander, Viper, NYPD Blue, SeaQuest 2032, Counterstrike, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Quantum Leap, Reasonable Doubts, MacGyver, and Columbo, alongside others. Science fiction on film and television, especially if you are playing some kind of alien character with fantastic make-up, is great for actors with a strong stage background, he said in a 2007 interview. The productions need that kind of size and intensity of performance. You cant really mumble if youre a Klingon. Scarfe also appeared in TV films such as A Gift to Last, Will There Really Be a Morning? Hide and Seek, As Is, Day One, Mimi & Me, Heart of Darkness, Jericho Forever, and Gunsmoke: One Mans Justice. On film, Scarfe was notable in movies like Double Impact, Lethal Weapon 3, The Bitter Ash, The Wars, Lock Up, The Bay Boy, Joshua Then and Now, Divided Loyalties, Back in Business, and The Wrong Guy. Scarfe was also an author, and his first novel, The Revelation of Jack the Ripper, was published in 2017, followed by The Carnivore Trilogy: The Vampires of Juarez, The Demons of 911 and The Mask of the Holy Spirit. He won a Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for his portrayal of Sgt. Tom Coldwell in The Bay Boy. Baby Reindeer is an original Netflix series that took the world by storm with its depiction of a female stalker, all while touting itself as a true story. Now the actual alleged stalker is suing the streaming company. Variety reports how Fiona Harvey a Scottish woman claiming to be the inspiration behind the character, Martha filed a lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against Netflix on the grounds of defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and violations of her right of publicity. This is a true story, reads the lawsuit. The above quote from the first episode of the Netflix series, Baby Reindeer, is the biggest lie in television history. For those unfamiliar, Baby Reindeer follows the story of Donny Dunn a comedian whos based upon and played by Richard Gadd who toys with the affection of a lonely woman named Martha (Jessica Gunning). Martha ends up being a violent stalker who derails Gadds life. CNN continues to report how Harvey is seeking a jury trial as well as $170 million in damages for mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life and los of business. The lawsuit goes on to claim the series which topped most-watched lists across the globe was born out of greed and lust, resulting in an innocent woman defamedat a magnitude and scale without precedent. A Netflix spokesperson in turn informed CNN via statement how they intend to defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Richard Gadds right to tell his story. According to Variety, a rep for Gadd cited the statement issued by Netflix when asked for comment. Gadd is also not listed as a defendant in Harveys lawsuit. A 6-year-old New Jersey girl has died days after the aluminum shaft of a badminton racquet pierced her skull while she was playing with her brothers and sister during a vacation at a lake cottage in Maine, authorities and the family said. The Morgan family, who live in Stockholm section of Hardyston in Sussex County, were enjoying their last full day of vacation in Limerick on Saturday afternoon when tragedy struck, according to the girls father Jesse Morgan, a pastor at Green Pond Bible Chapel in Rockaway Township. After the family finished eating lunch by the lake just before noon, the children went to the front yard to play badminton, Morgan said. Lucy was sitting on the sidelines when the racquet being used by her 10-year-old brother broke on a downward swing, dislodging the aluminum shaft from the wooden handle, Maine State Police said. The shaft then entered Lucys skull, causing a causing a traumatic brain injury, the family and authorities said. Lucy was brought by ambulance to an area hospital before being flown to a hospital in Portland, Maine. She died of her injuries four days later early Wednesday morning. This is such a sad, tragic situation, Maine State Police said. Our hearts break for the family. Jesse Morgan shared details about Lucys fight for survival this week on his blog, New Creation Living. Lucy is survived by her parents Jesse and Bethany Morgan as well as her 10-year-old brother, 8-year-old sister and 4-year-old brother. The family has since returned to New Jersey. Lucys funeral is planned for June 15. A GoFundMe.com established to support the Morgan family has raised more than $87,000 as of Friday morning. The Morgan family. Lucy, third, from, left, was killed earlier this week by a piece of a badminton racquet while the family vacationed in Maine.Jesse Morgan Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Hundreds of tiny jellyfish with an extremely painful sting have once again been found in New Jersey waters just in time for the summer season, experts say. Marine biologist Paul Bologna spotted the species, known as the clinging jellyfish, on Wednesday while sampling water from the Metedeconk River a river that flows into Barnegat Bay in Ocean County. The jellyfish were adults about the size of a quarter and there were over a hundred of them, said Bologna, a marine biologist at Montclair State University. Bologna closely tracks the invasive species in partnership with the state Department of Environmental Protection. Over 500 clinging jellyfish were collected this month by Bologna and state environmental officials while they were surveying and documenting the species. Clinging jellyfish are native to the Pacific Ocean and were first spotted in New Jersey in 2016, state officials said. All of the bayside sites surveyed Wednesday, from Windward Beach in Brick Township to the F-Cove area of the township, had clinging jellyfish, Bologna said. Though researchers have reported no deaths from the jellyfish, the species stings are potent and can cause severe pain, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection. A man who was stung by one at Island Beach State Park in 2018 reported feeling excruciating prickly pain from head to toe. Employees of The Skimmer, a boat in Cape May, collected clinging jellyfish spotted in the bay area during a Salt Marsh Safari Cruise in 2023.Courtesy of Travis Davis, The Skimmer Clinging jellyfish prefer shallow waters and are most often found in bay areas, where they attach themselves to algae. Beachgoers are generally safe from them because the jellyfish are extremely unlikely to be found in the ocean or on New Jerseys oceanside beaches, according to experts. But those swimming or wading in bays or rivers should keep an eye out. They call them clinging because they dont swim around like regular jellyfish do, they hold on to the algae or the seagrass in the shallow areas, Bologna said. But, you know, if youre on Island Beach State Park and you go wading out in the shallow water, there might be a chance that youre going to encounter them on the bayside, he said. Adult clinging jellyfish usually resurface in the state this time of year and until early August. Over the last few years, clinging jellyfish have been documented in various parts of the Jersey Shore, including the bayside of Island Beach State Park, the Shrewsbury River, in the Lower Township Thorofare area and in the Cape May National Wildlife Refuge, state officials reported. Nyah Marshall may be reached at Nmarshall@njadvancemedia.com. A judge upheld safety penalties against United Airlines over an accident in 2021 that resulted in an employee losing five toes when their foot was run over by an aircrafts tire. The ruling allows the Occupational Safety & Hazard Administration to levy $14,502 in fines against United Airlines for the accident that happened on Nov. 24, 2021, at Newark Liberty International Airport. A decision had been made in April by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, but the airline petitioned for an appeal late last month, OSHA officials said. United Airlines did not immediately respond to a request from NJ Advance Media for comment. The employee was part of the airlines towing staff, officials said. Investigators say United Airlines failed to follow company practices on towing airplanes. United Airlines could have prevented an employee from suffering a debilitating injury had the company followed its own safety procedures for towing a jet weighing as much as 50 tons, OSHA Area Director Joseph Czapik in Parsippany said in a statement. This operation is recognized by the airline industry as a dangerous and well-known hazard and proper procedures must be followed to prevent serious injuries or worse. The judge also ruled that United Airlines left technicians vulnerable to serious injuries, according to a news release. United Airlines position had been that the accident was the result of employee misconduct. While not specifically regulated by an OSHA standard, there can be no argument that towing an airplane is, in fact, hazardous work, Regional Solicitor Jeffrey S. Rogoff in New York said in a statement. As our case vigorously demonstrated and the judge agreed United Airlines was liable for not enforcing its own safety procedures for this dangerous operation. Eric Conklin may be reached at econklin@njadvancemedia.com. A judge has dismissed animal cruelty charges against a Pennsylvania state trooper who intentionally struck a runaway horse with his patrol car multiple times. Corporal Michael Perillo of Troop J responded to a report of a loose horse on a highway in Chester County highway in 2021, which had gotten loose and run into traffic. According to an internal affairs complaint, when Perillo found the animal, he rammed into the horse multiple times with his vehicle, pinning it to the pavement. The horse was then euthanized by another trooper. WILLIAMSPORT A three-year-old legal dispute between the Lycoming County commissioners and its elected controller over control of certain fiscal functions has ended with an agreement on legal fees. The commissioners on Thursday approved a negotiated settlement with Controller Krista B. Rogers that will pay her $80,539. She had sought $119,400. All that is left is for the dismissal of the lawsuit that was stayed in April to give the parties the opportunity to negotiate a settlement. The settlement amount is in addition to the $59,468 previously paid to another lawyer before his death, Rogers said. The commissioners contended she was not entitled to legal fees because there is no statutory authority to award them in this kind of case. Potter County Senior Judge John B. Leete who was assigned the case until recently, awarded Rogers in a Dec. 1, 2022, order the cost of her litigation. The county did not have a final fee but about a month ago said it had spent $78,631 to sue her and defend her legal actions. The lengthy feud was over which office had responsibility for the general ledger, payroll and accounts payable functions. Ultimately Rogers won out. It began in 2019 when commissioners then in office approved transferring at Rogers request those fiscal functions and four employees to her. The commissioners who followed, claiming dissatisfaction with the way the work was being done, transferred the functions and employees back to their Office of Budget and Finance. The legal battle began in 2021 when the commissioners obtained a restraining order after an upset Rogers threatened to withdraw authorization to use her electronic signature on payroll and vendor checks. That December Rogers sued the commissioners to force the return of the functions and employees. Leete three times ruled in favor of Rogers. After the third time, the commissioners last year by a 2-1 margin voted to appeal to the Commonwealth Court. That court in January affirmed Leete stating the commissioners relied on an erroneous interpretation of the County Code to claim it had authorization to remove the fiscal functions from the controller. Specific powers conferred upon the controller cannot be impaired or contravened by the general supervisory authority given the commissioners, its opinion stated. The commissioners who took office in January accepted the decision and transferred the functions back to the controller. The commissioners and Rogers said they are glad the dispute is behind them and everyone can move on. We appreciate the controller working with us to negotiate a deal, Commissioner Scott L. Metzger said. We have a good working relationship. While the transition has been smooth, Rogers said her office is still trying to finish the books for 2022. She attributes that to understaffing caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainty due to the litigation. She expects to be at full staff in another week and noted the commissioners have permitted her to obtain contracted help to address the backlog because there are deadlines looming. By Mary Carole McCauley, Baltimore Sun (TNS) About 90 minutes before sunset Friday, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra musicians will begin to tune their instruments on a stage set up on the Fort McHenry lawn. They will have an unobstructed view of what remains of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which ends abruptly at the point where six men were plunged to their deaths this spring after a container ship struck a pillar, collapsing the span and poking a sharp hole in the horizon and through Baltimores heart. As the opening note of The Star-Spangled Banner sounds, the first responders grouped around the stage will snap to attention. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scottwill say a few words. And an estimated audience of 1,500 will rise to their feet to join a collective rite of mourning. The time feels right for unifying people and bringing everyone together, said Allison Burr-Livingstone, the orchestras senior vice president and chief advancement officer. The bridge collapsed March 26 after a container ship struck a pillar and collapsed the span. Burr-Livingstone noted that the 700-foot-wide channel is expected to reopen fully a day or two after the concert, which is free and will be conducted by Jonathon Heyward. We began thinking about this right after the Key Bridge collapsed, she said. We wanted to do something in the most appropriate way, recognizing the tragedy and the first responders who stood up for the community, and also looking ahead to the future and to rebuilding. Audience members wont be required to pay admission to attend the concert, but donations are encouraged. Two days before the performance, organizers already had collected $10,500 for the Baltimore Community Foundations Maryland Tough Baltimore Strong Key Bridge Fund. Donations also will be accepted at the concert. This is the final of the BSOs three free Symphony in the City concerts that were scheduled for the 2023-24 season. Next month, the orchestra will embark on Music for Maryland, a similar program that brings eight pay-what-you-can concerts to five counties statewide before Labor Day. The two previous free concerts in Baltimore were tied to community celebrations: Dia de lose Muertos, or Mexicos Day of the Dead in late October, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day in mid-January. But the concert paying tribute to the Key Bridge victims will likely deliver an extra emotional wallop. Anthony Parker, the Baltimore songwriter, playwright and grassroots activist who goes by Wordsmith, didnt often cross the Key Bridge. But that doesnt mean he doesnt feel the loss. The collapse affected me a lot more than I thought it did, he said. I know that the immigrants and others working on that bridge didnt get the proper love and support they deserved. They are the ones who keep the city going. The BSO will perform Welcome Home, which was composed and arranged for orchestra by Wordsmith and his friend and touring partner, the Nashville-based pianist Kory Caudill. Though the song was written last year, Parker said it resonates with what Baltimoreans are experiencing today. " The Key Bridge symbolized home for so many people, Parker said, whether they were moving freight or returning home from their evening commute. When they crossed the bridge, they knew they were home, and that felt good in their hearts and souls. They could go on a picnic with their neighbors, or sit on their front porch and watch their children play. The concerts centerpiece will be Samuel Barbers Adagio for Strings, a long, slow lament of a song that ends with what feels like a prayer. The Adagio has been described by an NPR commentator as Americas semi-official music for mourning; it was performed in 1963 following the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy and in 2001 after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Heyward wrote in an email to The Sun from England, where he was on parental leave, that there are times when grief cant adequately be expressed in words. Only music comes close. I believe it is our duty to stand with our city in times of sorrow and healing, Heyward wrote. We know that music has a unique power to heal and to bring people together, so it is important to me that we use our art to offer comfort and to help in the collective recovery process. Related Articles Other musical selections, such as the finale of Antonin Dvoraks Symphony No. 9 and Wynton Marsalis Herald, Holler and Hallelujah! are intended to celebrate the tenacity and strength of the workers who stopped traffic from entering the bridge moments before it collapsed, rescued two people from the water, recovered six bodies, and have been clearing tons of twisted metal from the bay. Heyward added that Fort McHenry felt like the ideal place to hold the tribute concert; it is where Francis Scott Key, the bridges namesake, watched U.S. defenders win an improbable victory against British naval forces in 1814, and wrote The Star-Spangled Banner. Holding the concert at Fort McHenry embodies the themes of unity and strength that we aim to emphasize in our performance, Heyward wrote. The Fort is a symbol of resilience and perseverance, and it serves as a reminder of our collective ability to overcome adversity. The evening will include performances by the Fort McHenry Fife and Drum Corps, as well as the symphonys two youth ensembles, the BSO OrchKids and the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras. Audience members are invited to picnic on the lawn before the concert. Blankets and lawn chairs are permitted. Burr-Livingstone and Heyward said they hope that everyone who was affected by the bridge collapse survivors, family members, first responders, tugboat operators, truck drivers, longshoremen and business owners will attend. We want anyone who has been impacted by this tragedy to come out and be celebrated, Burr-Livingstone said. We want to focus on what Baltimore has been through, and to look forward to where we are going in the future. If you go The Key Bridge tribute concert begins at 7 p.m. on the East Lawn of the Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, 2400 E. Fort Ave. Reservations are encouraged but are not required, and can be made at bsomusic.org. 2024 Baltimore Sun. Visit baltimoresun.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. The View host Joy Behar has made it clear she is no fan of Donald Trump before, and on D-Day she made it clear once more. Behar told a story on the show about being seated next to a man from France. I said to him, We saved France, she said. And he said, You saved the world. You saved the world. That is what America used to do, Whoopi Goldberg chimed in. That is the most touching thing anybody has ever said to me about this country, and for us to be throwing it down the toilet to a convicted felon, to somebody who was liable for rate, who lies and cheats, liable for sexual harassment whatever it is. She wasnt done. John Kelly, his former Chief of Staff, said, Trump said U.S. Service members were suckers and losers for risking their lives. Theres nothing in it for them, she continued. He refused to visit the graves in France. He didnt want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because, It doesnt look good for me. He criticized Gold Star families. He went against John McCain, who was a hero. And this guy is neck-and-neck with Biden. Today is a day to reflect on what we have in this country, and what we could lose very easily if we dont watch it. Of course, as always seems to be the case with Behar Trump fans tend to hate The View in general she has been receiving plenty of blowback on social media from the MAGA crowd. Donald J Trump and the Republican Party are proof of our failing education system. Only stupid people believe their lies, conspiracy theories and propaganda. This is how dictators and tyrants throughout history have gained their destructive power. Our heritage and democracy was built by grassroots honest hard working patriots that overcame corrupt political opponents of criminal organizations like Trump and the RNC. The heart and soul of our country was built by people who were not tax dodgers and draft dodgers and believed in our constitution and the oath of office that government employees swore to when taking their jobs! All government workers including congressmen, senators and the president have job descriptions and are sworn to protect the Constitution of the United States. When they fail, they are committing treason, which is punishable by law. If we do not uphold the law, we are on the pathway to hell as demonstrated by history of people like Adolph Hitler and other tyrants like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and the terrorists committing crimes throughout the world. The final hand for Event #15: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better has been dealt here at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Caleb Furth started the day with the chip lead, and by the end of the night, he was the last player standing. Furth overcame a field of 1,277 entrants and last defeated Jiyang Gan to take home the top prize of $265,361 and his first World Series of Poker (WSOP) Gold Bracelet. Before today, Furth had just under $400,000 in career tournament earnings to his name and a previous best cash of $80,000, a score he has more than tripled with todays win. Final Table Results Place Player Country Prize 1 Caleb Furth United States $265,361 2 Jiyang Gan China $176,891 3 Walter Chambers United States $125,665 4 Andreas Frohli Austria $90,468 5 Michael Machugh Canada $66,014 6 Andrew Paterson Canada $48,833 7 Tom Koral United States $36,628 8 Mathias Bayer Austria $27,862 9 Jason Daly United States $21,498 Winner's Reaction "I feel good", Furth mentioned when asked about his thoughts on winning his first bracelet. "The win mostly means $265,000. I'm pretty happy about the money. I hope there's more to come. I'm going to be playing a bunch of PLO tournaments this summer". Furth was at the very top of the counts for nearly the entire day leading up to his win, but Gan did not make things easy for him. During heads-up play, Gan came close to closing the gap on several occasions. Furth commented on the respect he has for his heads-up opponent. "I have nothing but love for Jiyang. We've actually played a lot of cash together. When we were at the final two tables, he actually came up to me and said, "You number one, me number two", and that's how it worked out. With 14 left, he said that to me. And he wasn't second, he was probably eighth in chips (at that point)". Final Day Highlights Only 14 players managed to find a bag for Day 3, and the eliminations were fast and furious from the start. PokerNews podcast co-host Mike Holtz was first to fall today in a preflop confrontation against Furth. Daniel Lowery briefly slowed down Furths momentum after making a full house to double up. Furth got those chips right back by first eliminating Sean Troha in 11th place and then Lowery in tenth to set up the nine-handed final table which he entered with a massive chip lead over the other eight players. Daniel Lowery The Final Table Jason Daly began the day with the shortest stack but did an admirable job making a comeback. He found multiple double-ups and won several pots without showdown to keep himself in contention but was left with crumbs after being scooped by Andrew Paterson shortly after the final table began. This time, Daly couldnt come back from the brink, and he became the first to fall at the final table. Daly was followed out the door by Mathias Bayer and two-time bracelet winner Tom Koral in eighth and seventh place respectively. Paterson enjoyed one of the bigger chip stacks throughout the first half of the day until Gan flopped the nut-flush and held to send Paterson tumbling down the chip counts. Furth got the rest of Patersons chips a few hands later after making a straight and a low. Fellow Canadian Michael Machugh was next to fall after getting it in preflop against Andreas Frohli only for Frohli to river trip sixes. Gan, who was in the middle of the pack for most of the day began to pick up steam with the elimination of Frohli in fourth place. Although Furth had just over double the chips of both Gan and Walter Chambers heading into three-handed play, both of his opponents weren't going down without a fight and it would take nearly three hours of intense back and forth action before Chambers finally fell in third shortly after after a massive three-way all in that Furth and Gan chopped to leave Chambers with crumbs. Jiyang Gan Furth began heads-up play with roughly a 6:1 chip lead over Gan, but despite his victory seeming all but assured, Gan gave Furth a run for his money over their heads-up duel, which lasted nearly 90 minutes. Despite a ton of pressure from Furth, Gan would not go away and won several pots from Furth before finding a full double up to begin closing the gap. Furth eventually got the upper hand after making a full house on the river to leave Gan with just over five big blinds. This time, Gan could not rally back, and he was eliminated a few hands later after one last preflop race. That's a wrap for PokerNews coverage of Event #15: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better here at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Be sure to check out our live-reporting hub for continuing coverage of the 2024 World Series of Poker. Trump lost it and demanded that the 1/6 Committee be indicted after Steve Bannon was ordered to report to prison. The ex-president posted on Truth Social: It is a Total and Complete American Tragedy that the Crooked Joe Biden Department of Injustice is so desperate to jail Steve Bannon, and every other Republican, for that matter, for not SUBMITTING to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, made up of all Democrats, and two CRAZED FORMER REPUBLICAN LUNATICS, Cryin Adam Kinzinger, and Liz Out of Her Mind Cheney. It has been irrefutably proven that it was the Unselects who committed actual crimes when they deleted and destroyed all material evidence, in a pathetic attempt to protect Crazy Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats from the TRUTH THAT I DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG. The unAmerican Weaponization of our Law Enforcement has reached levels of Illegality never thought possible before. INDICT THE UNSELECT J6 COMMITTEE FOR ILLEGALLY DELETING AND DESTROYING ALL OF THEIR FINDINGS! MAGA2024 The claim that the 1/6 Committee destroyed evidence has been debunked many times over. Most recently the vice chair of the committee, former Rep. Liz Cheney, debunked Trumps claims of sabotage. What is really happening here is that Donald Trump is getting a look at his own possible future and it scares him. In a little more than a month, Judge Merchan could order him to jail or home confinement. It was less than 24 hours ago that Sean Hannity tried to get Trump to say that he would not seek retribution against his political enemies, so the ex-president responded by calling for the 1/6 Committee to be indicted. For the first time ever, Justice Clarence Thomas has admitted that he should have disclosed two trips from conservative billionaire Harlan Crow. ProPublica reported: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas acknowledged for the first time in a new financial disclosure filing that he should have publicly reported two free vacations he received from billionaire Harlan Crow. The pair of 2019 trips, one to Indonesia and the other to the Bohemian Grove, an all-male retreat in northern California, were first revealed by ProPublica. There are so many more issues involving Thomas than two trips. The Supreme Court justice has reportedly been on the take from rich donors for 20 years. The gifts involve things like real estate deals, private school tuition , and even a luxury motor home. Thomass admission that he should have disclosed the trips is another effort by the justice to mitigate a corruption scandal that is only growing with the passage of time. Justice Thomas thinks that he can defuse the scandal by admitting that he should have disclosed a tiny fraction of what he accepted. Democrats are investigating Thomass right wing pals in the Senate and oversight and investigation legislation has been introduced by House Democrats. The storm clouds are growing for the conservative court majority. If Democrats have a successful November election, Democrats will be looking to impose ethics and investigation rules along with reform onto what is looking like a lawless Supreme Court majority. Speaker Mike Johnson is under pressure to pass a bill that would support Trump and allow him to move stage charges to federal court, but Johnson cant get the votes to pass the bill. Axios reported: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is under pressure from GOP hardliners to schedule a vote on the measure as part of a full-court press to defend Trump, so any difficulty locking down votes could once again put him in their crosshairs. The bill would allow current or former presidents to move state-level charges against them into federal court. Its in direct response to Trumps conviction last week in New York. But the bill might be a bridge too far for moderate Republicans, who have told Axios they would struggle to support it. It would be career suicide for any of the moderate Republicans in districts that Biden won in 2020 to vote for a bill that would support convicted felon Trump. There is no good reason for any of these Republicans to throw their careers away when even if the bill passed the House, it would be dead before it arrived in the Senate. If Johnson cant get the votes to pass this bill, there will be even more calls for his head by the far-right of the Republican conference. The fastest way for Republicans to lose the House majority would be for Johnson to force the moderates to put it on the record that they support convicted felon Trump, but that seems to be what the burn-it-all-down House Republicans are pushing to do. Special Message From PoliticusUSA If you are in a position to donate purely to help us keep the doors open on PoliticusUSA during what is a critical election year, please do so here. We have been honored to be able to put your interests first for 14 years as we only answer to our readers and we will not compromise on that fundamental, core PoliticusUSA value. [wpedon id=344887 align=center] Oh, Kim Kardashian. How you make it so difficult to defend you at times. Look, I even understood why you wore the iconic Marilyn dress to the Met Gala. I called you a visionary. When it was announced that Kim Kardashian would star alongside Emma Roberts in Ryan Murphys American Horror Story: Delicate, the world was a bit confused. That Kim K? Reality TV star turned influencer and fashion mogul, who became famous not for her talent but for her incessant dramaon a RYAN MURPHY SHOW? But I kept my worries to myself, unlike the entire internet that was ripping her apart before we saw her acting debut. Anyways. I tuned in week after week to watch Murphys Rosemarys Baby-inspired showand you know what? Kim is not the worst part about it. Because the main thing you must remember is you can only enjoy this kind of production is to keep front and center of your mind that Kim is not an actress. She didnt come into the public eye hoping to be the next Marilyn Monroe in terms of blockbuster movie deals. Shes a hustler meaning she wont turn down an opportunity to level-up financially. If you werent already aware , Kims own reality show has been running for over 20 seasons between E!s Keeping Up With The Kardashians and Hulus The Kardashians. And every week on the show, we catch a glamorous glimpse into the life of Kim Kardashian and her famous family. This past week, Ryan Murphy sat down with Kim and asked how she felt about a scripted show where she was the main stellar event. Yes, you read that right. Ryan Murphy approached Kim Kardashian to continue her acting career. And if youre in shockyou must remember her iconic quote: Seems Like Nobody Wants To Work These Days via GIPHY I told you earlier that Kim is a hustlerbut maybe you dont believe me. Lets look at the facts: whether youre a Taylor Swift-supporter who vehemently despises the Kardashians or not, Kim has a similar work ethic to Taylor Swift they do not stop, darlin. Kim currently has two brands: SKKN , her skincare and beauty line, and Skims , the leading shapewear and loungewear brand in the industry. As previously mentioned, she stars on The Kardashians alongside her mother and sisters: Kris, Kylie, Kendall, Kourtney, and Khloe. Then theres her stint in the fashion industry an ambassador for controversial brand Balenciaga, constantly seen front row at Fashion Week sitting next to Vogue Editor-in-Chief, the highly-regarded and highly-feared Anna Wintour. And theres no doubt that were dealing with one of the most criticized families in America. Theyre the closest thing weve got to our own Royal Family, and thousands flock to social media to denounce their promotion of tatty products and unrealistic body expectations. It shouldnt surprise anyone when Kim Kardashian dips her toe into a new profession. Shes already checked reality TV star, lawyer, entrepreneur, mother, and model off her listwhy is acting so shocking? Youd Do It Too For A Check So here we are, in the acceptance phase of grief. Kim Kardashian will be starring in Ryan Murphys show (again) so you may as well get to know the plot. The show, which is currently untitled, will follow Kim as Los Angeles most successful divorce lawyer leading an all-female team. While the role seems perfect for Kardashian her father was a famous superpower litigant and shes in law school herselfMurphy has been drawing together something of a dream-team cast to support her. That includes a glam bevy of A-list actresses who will be Kims team of lawyers. And.theres even a love interest. And Im sure were all thinking the same thing: but she cant really act, can she? No. But neither can most nepo babies out thereand yet, we let them. Were living in a culture where the contrarian point of view is all that claims our attention. Being a hater is cool. And yet, I find myself empathizing with the Kar-Jenner clan. Wouldnt you also grasp at straws to continue your legacy of influence and riches? If you truly look deep inside, you may realize that wed do it too if it meant a big fat paycheckwe simple folk simply dont get those opportunities. Tents were set up on a large cut of cleared land off of Black Tom Road in Berkeley County on Wednesday, Oct. 9, where local leaders gathered for a ceremonial groundbreaking for the new Jedburg Elementary School. Read moreJedburg Elementary School coming soon Everyone talks about the weather, especially in the Lowcountry. Rain, wind, thunder and lightning, but also beautiful sunrises and gentle breezes are all part of life here. The Charleston Concert Band will take the listener through all the beauty and challenges of the weather in the Charlest Read more'In the Storm & Sunshine!' On most days, commerce on Charleston Harbor chugs along just fine. Container ships come and go out. Tugboats help to get the big vessels to and from docks. Harbor pilots assume their positions by the controls. Rarely is there any drama. At most, a ship will blow five horns to warn smaller boats skirting too close to move out of the way. The commercial vessels are restricted in their ability to maneuver, which means they cant leave the marked channel and they cant slow quickly. Once in a while, though, something bad happens. Something breaks, gets stuck or fails. Or someone does something wrong. The results can be disastrous. Charleston skirted disaster on June 5 when a runaway Mediterranean Shipping Company container ship, MSC Michigan VII, moved through the channel relatively fast, stuck in high gear. The helmsman kept the ship on course, steering it safely offshore. But it was a scary moment that prompted authorities to close the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge briefly and scramble to assist the vessel. The ship threw up a big wake, which rolled a small powerboat, injuring its occupants, and rocking boats and docks at Charleston Harbor Marina in Mount Pleasant. One gangway slipped off its concrete pier. The episode followed the March 26 crash that collapsed a portion of Baltimores Francis Scott Key Bridge and killed six people after a container ship lost power and struck one of the support pillars. Charleston's runaway ship once again raised concerns over harbor safety and protocols. What happens when something goes wrong? Old vs. new The MSC Michigan VII has sailed under three different flags and two names. Made in 2000 by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. in South Korea, the ship was christened the Sealand Michigan. Its first owner, a Norwegian shipping giant, in 2008 passed the vessel along to a U.S.-based logistics company. Since 2022, MSC Shipmanagement, a global logistics heavyweight, has managed operations of the container ship, which was taken over by a Cyprus-based company that same year. MSC Shipmanagement declined to comment on this week's mishap. AVOCA A 23-year-old woman wanted in the deaths of her three roommates in Virginia was taken into custody after a chase on an upstate New York highway, police said Friday. Police began searching for Alyssa Jane Venable after the bodies of her roommates, all in their 60s or 70s, were discovered Tuesday during a welfare check in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Police said she was wanted on three counts of second-degree murder and a firearms charge. Venable was taken into custody by New York State Police troopers Thursday evening, more than 260 miles north of Fredericksburg. She was driving a sedan on Interstate 86 when troopers tried to pull her over, but she refused. The car crashed after running over a tire deflation device, according to state police. Venable was taken to a hospital for injuries that were not life-threatening and was being held in the Steuben County jail on Friday. Troopers said they will proceed with extradition arrangements. A phone message was left Friday at the Steuben County Public Defenders office in New York. It was not immediately clear why Venable was in New York. Troopers were trying to piece together a timeline of the last several days and were seeking information from the public. The Spotsylvania Sheriffs Office in Virginia identified the victims as Robert John McGuire, 77; Gregory Scott Powell, 60; and Carol Anne Reese, 65. One of the most challenging aspects of preserving a run-down historic building isn't figuring out what needs replacing and what only needs repairing. It isn't pulling the permits or getting the needed approvals and design review. It's not even finding the necessary money, even though the amo Read moreEditorial: Sometimes, preservation requires finding a very creative new use The answers to the questions don't waver a lot among the five, which will leave voters to distinguish for themselves who stands out in the field. Some of the candidates have been co-workers, and, at least publicly, haven't displayed much animosity for each other. "All of us are friends," Blevins said at one of the candidate forums. "We all get along up here." The candidates have worked at either the Sheriff's Office or the Rock Hill Police Department. Thus, they're searching for ways to highlight what makes their experience unique. "I'm the only candidate who has gone above the rank of lieutenant," said Belk, second in command for the Rock Hill police. "That executive role has given me exposure to budgeting, hiring and all the ins and outs of government work at a higher level." Belk considers the fentanyl epidemic his top issue in the race. He and the rest of the candidates want more focused investigations on that part of the drug trade. Blevins said it will take stronger drug laws to trigger more arrests of drug users, which in turn, could get them plugged into treatment. "We have a law now that I just learned where a deputy goes out and (has to treat someone with Narcan) and if there's drugs laying there, nobody gets charged because they're a victim," Blevins said. "The officers will go out and may be dealing with this same person two weeks later. It's a fluctuating cycle. So we need to fix that, so we can get these people in front of some of these drug programs and get them some help." Hiring and retaining deputies for the office has also been an issue. The detention center is where leaders have been making efforts at recruitment, but Breeden understands that's a tough environment to work. He spent 2 years of his time at Rock Hill Police Department at its detention center. PR-Inside.com: 2024-06-07 23:00:36 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 443 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / American Technology Services (ATS) hosted a highly successful LoudSpot AI Networking Mixer at its NYC Corporate Headquarters during NY Tech Week. The event brought together tech professionals, enterprise executives, startup founders, investors, and AI enthusiasts for an evening of networking, knowledge sharing, and celebration of innovation.NYC LoudSpot AI Networking MixerThe downtown Manhattan AI mixer, an official event of NY Tech Week, provided a vibrant atmosphere where attendees connected with industry leaders, explored AI opportunities, and discussed the future of technology.ATS CEO Dov Horowitz spoke passionately about the company's commitment to innovation, highlighting the incubation and commercialization of LoudSpot's proprietary technology. Dov highlighted the extensive tech R&D conducted at the corporate headquarters, emphasizing ATS' commitment to turning technological advancements into practical solutions for real-world challenges.Upcoming Cybersecurity Event at ATS Atlanta Security Operations CenterBuilding on this Tech Week success, ATS is thrilled to announce a cybersecurity event at their Atlanta Security Operations Center during Atlanta Tech Week. This event will feature a fireside chat with DaMon Ross Sr., Senior Director of Cybersecurity at ATS, followed by a networking happy hour.Atlanta Cybersecurity Fireside Chat and Networking Happy HourDate: Tuesday, June 11 at 6:00 PMLocation: ATS Atlanta Security Operations CenterRSVP: https://lu.ma/extotban Event DetailsFireside Chat with DaMon Ross Sr. DaMon, a cybersecurity expert with over two decades of experience, will share critical steps to take if you've been hacked and provide insights into incident management, cyber intelligence, and operations.Networking Happy Hour Connect with peers and industry leaders in a relaxed setting, discussing the latest trends and solutions in cybersecurity over refreshments.Speaker BioDaMon Ross Sr. is a seasoned cybersecurity executive specializing in Incident Management and Response, Cyber Intelligence, and Operations. Currently serving as Senior Director of Cybersecurity at ATS, DaMon leads the Security Operations Center. His career includes leading roles at SunTrust, Capital One, Fannie Mae, GE, and the U.S. Marine Corps.Don't miss this opportunity to learn from a top cybersecurity expert and expand your professional network with ATS at Atlanta Tech Week.About American Technology Services ATS was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Fairfax, VA, and New York, NY. We deliver best-in-class managed IT services, including cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, compliance, software development, privacy, and IT consulting.ATS' deep expertise showcases versatility and adaptability to rapid technological advancement. We provide technology services to a range of esteemed clients, including startups, established financial institutions, professional firms, associations, and government contractors.Contact InformationCindy MallorySenior Manager of Marketing & Emerging Tech Strategycindy.mallory@networkats.com SOURCE: American Technology ServicesView the original press release on newswire.com PR-Inside.com: 2024-06-07 17:55:17 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 661 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 WESTMINSTER, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / BioLargo, Inc. (OTCQX:BLGO), a company that creates and commercializes sustainable technologies to solve tough environmental and cleantech challenges, announced that its engineering subsidiary has been awarded a contract to provide air quality services to three New Mexico U.S. Air Force (USAF) bases for up to five years, with a potential annual average revenue of $650,000.The new contract is in addition to ongoing environmental support work at six Air Force bases and is the company's largest dollar-value Air Force contract to date. These contracts provide regularly monthly flat fee revenue to the company over the life of the contract, which the Air Force may renew each year. BioLargo's work at the New Mexico bases includes air quality regulatory compliance. Bhate Environmental Associates is the prime contractor with the Air Force under the Fence-to-Fence (F2F) support contract.BioLargo Engineering, Science & Technologies President Randall Moore commented, "Our team has served Air Force bases with fence-to-fence air quality compliance services for years, but this is the largest such contract we've secured to-date. Larger, long-term contracts such as this one are crucial to our strategy of securing steady, reliable income from external clients. This empowers us to focus on commercializing BioLargo's innovative cleantech technologies, including advancements in water treatment, energy storage, and air quality solutions." About BioLargo, Inc.BioLargo, Inc. (OTCQB:BLGO) is a cleantech and life sciences innovator and engineering services solution provider. Our core products address PFAS contamination, achieve advanced water and wastewater treatment, control odor and VOCs, improve air quality, enable energy-efficiency and safe on-site energy storage, and control infections and infectious disease. Our approach is to invent or acquire novel technologies, develop them into product offerings, and extend their commercial reach through licensing and channel partnerships to maximize their impact. See our website at www.BioLargo.com About Bhate Environmental Associates, Inc.Bhate Environmental Associates, Inc. (Bhate) provides a diverse range of technical services in the environmental and infrastructure markets to the federal government and private industry. Headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, Bhate's reach is both national and global. At Bhate, we value high standards of safety, professionalism, ethics, and service to our clients. We foster a collaborative environment that encourages innovative ideas while providing challenges and rewards for our dedicated staff. Through our team's Responsiveness, Integrity, and Teamwork, Bhate delivers professional, quality, cost-effective, and on-time results to our clients. See their website at www.Bhate.com Contact InformationDennis P. CalvertPresident and CEO, BioLargo, Inc.888-400-2863 Safe Harbor ActThis press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include without limitation those about BioLargo's (the "Company") expectations regarding anticipated revenue; and plans for future operations. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties include without limitation: the effect of regional economic conditions on the Company's business, including effects on purchasing decisions by consumers and businesses; the ability of the Company to compete in markets that are highly competitive and subject to rapid technological change; the ability of the Company to manage frequent introductions and transitions of products and services, including delivering to the marketplace, and stimulating customer demand for, new products, services, and technological innovations on a timely basis; the dependency of the Company on the performance of distributors of the Company's products. More information on these risks and other potential factors that could affect the Company's business and financial results is included in the Company's filings with the SEC, including in the "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections of the Company's most recently filed periodic reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q and subsequent filings. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information, which speak as of their respective dates.SOURCE: BioLargo, Inc. PR-Inside.com: 2024-06-07 23:00:22 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 501 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 HOUSTON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / Camber Energy, Inc. (NYSE American:CEI) ("Camber" or the "Company") announces with great sadness that its Director, Lawrence (Larry) B. Fisher, has passed away after a brief illness. Mr. Fisher served as a director of the Company since December 2023, and served as a director of Viking Energy Group, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Camber, since August 2018.Commenting on Mr. Fisher's passing, the Company's CEO, James Doris, "Larry was an invaluable member of our organization and we will be forever grateful for his wisdom, wit and support. He will be greatly missed. We extend our deepest condolences to Larry's family".On behalf of its Board of Directors, management and employees, the Company extends its deepest sympathies to Mr. Fisher's family and thanks him for his dedication to the Company.About Camber Energy, Inc.For more information, please visit the company's website at www.camber.energy Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Any statements that are not historical facts contained in this press release are "forward-looking statements", which statements may be identified by words such as "expects," "plans," "projects," "will," "may," "anticipates," "believes," "should," "intends," "estimates," and other words of similar meaning. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, involve known and unknown risks, a reliance on third parties for information, transactions that may be cancelled, and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or developments in our industry, to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from anticipated results include risks and uncertainties related to the fluctuation of global economic conditions or economic conditions with respect to the oil and gas industry, the COVID-19 pandemic, the performance of management, actions of government regulators, vendors, and suppliers, our cash flows and ability to obtain financing, competition, general economic conditions and other factors that are detailed in Camber's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We intend that all forward-looking statements be subject to the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.Camber cautions that the foregoing list of important factors is not complete, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made, and Camber does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that it may make, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to Camber or any person acting its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements referenced above.Contact InformationInvestors and Media:Tel. 281.404.4387SOURCE: Camber Energy, Inc. PR-Inside.com: 2024-06-08 00:16:11 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 626 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 /Clean Energy Transition Inc. (formerly Rogue Resources Inc.) (TSXV:TRAN) (" transition.inc" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has completed the final steps in its previously announced pivot to a new focus, looking for opportunities broadly across the energy transition. Inline with that pivot the Company has developed a basic website- transition.inc , through which we will share information with investors and other stakeholders as our businesses develop.Management plans to post a Corporate Update to www.transition.inc at 5pm Eastern time on June 12th, 2024. Investors and/or other stakeholders are encouraged to send questions in advance, via the submission form on transition.inc In addition, the Company has completed two transactions. In May the Company returned the Bobcaygeon Quarry (not operating) to the original vendor from whom the asset was acquired in 2019. Related to this disposition, the Company's $700,000 Vendor Mortgage has been discharged. In combination with the sale of the Orillia Quarry (see News Release dated February 23, 2024) this marks the end of the Rogue Stone business. Today the Company closed on the acquisition of an Ontario mining lease for $150,000 in cash consideration and should a feasibility study compliant with National Instrument 43-101 Standard of Disclosure for Mineral Projects be filed, the Company will subsequently issue 1M shares and provide a 1% net smelter return royalty to the vendor. The Transaction constitutes an "Expedited Acquisition" in accordance with Policy 5.3 of the TSXV.About Clean Energy Transition Inc.Clean Energy Transition Inc., or transition.inc is focused on opportunities to generate positive cash flow, across the energy transition. The Company includes a Quartz division- focused on advancing its silica/quartz business with the Snow White Project in Ontario and the Silicon Ridge Project in Quebec. The silica in high-quality quartz can be used to make silicon metal, a key component in solar energy panels.Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking information. Such forward-looking statements or information are provided for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Any such forward-looking information may be identified by words such as "anticipate", "proposed", "estimates", "would", "expects", "intends", "plans", "may", "will", and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements or information are based on a number of factors and assumptions which have been used to develop such statements and information, but which may prove to be incorrect. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements or information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. The forward-looking information in this press release reflects the current expectations, assumptions and/or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company. Any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.Contact InformationFor further information, visit www.transition.inc Or contact: Sean Samson, President & CEO at:Clean Energy Transition Inc.200 - 150 King St. W.Toronto, ON M5H 1J9(647) 243-6581 info@ transition.inc Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of this release.SOURCE: Clean Energy Transition Inc. PR-Inside.com: 2024-06-07 08:00:35 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 568 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 PARIS, FRANCE and CAMBRIDGE, MA / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / Biophytis SA (Euronext Growth Paris:ALBPS), ("Biophytis" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage biotechnology company specialized in the development of therapeutics for age-related diseases, will hold its Combined General Meeting (CGM) on June 24, 2024 at 2pm at Sorbonne Universite - Amphi Herpin - 4 Place Jussieu, 75005 Paris.The notice of meeting, including the agenda, the draft resolutions and the terms and conditions of attendance, was published in Bulletin des Annonces Legales Obligatoires (BALO) no. 59 of May 15, 2024.Information and preparatory documents for this General Meeting, including the voting form and the access map, are available on the Company's website ( https://www.biophytis.com/en/action/assemblees-generales/biophytis-annual-general-meeting-2024/ ).Shareholders are strongly encouraged to vote in advance of the CGM, by (i) post, (ii) appointing the Chairman of the meeting as proxy, or (iii) via the secure online platform VOTACCESS.Votes must be submitted no later than three days before the general meeting (i.e. June 21, 2024) for proxy votes or postal votes and the day before for proxy votes or postal votes via VOTACCESS (i.e. June 23, 2024).****About BIOPHYTISBiophytis SA is a clinical-stage biotechnology company specializing in the development of drug candidates for age-related diseases. BIO101 (20-hydroxyecdysone), our lead drug candidate, is a small molecule in development for muscular (sarcopenia, phase 3 ready and Duchenne muscular dystrophy), respiratory (Covid-19 phase 2-3 completed) and metabolic diseases (obesity, phase 2 to be started). The Company is based in Paris, France, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Company's ordinary shares are listed on Euronext Growth (Ticker: ALBPS -ISIN: FR0012816825) and the ADSs (American Depositary Shares) are listed on OTC market (Ticker: BPTSY - ISIN: US09076G4010). For more information, visitwww.biophytis.com Forward-looking statementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts. In some cases, you can identify these forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "outlook," "believes," "expects," "potential," "continues," "may," "will," "should," "could," "seeks," "predicts," "intends," "trends," "plans," "estimates," "anticipates" or the negative version of these words or other comparable words. Such forward-looking statements are based on assumptions that Biophytis considers to be reasonable. However, there can be no assurance that the statements contained in such forward-looking statements will be verified, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties. The forward- looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to risks not yet known to Biophytis or not currently considered material by Biophytis. Accordingly, there are or will be important factors that could cause actual outcomes or results to differ materially from those indicated in these statements. Please also refer to the "Risk and uncertainties the Company is to face section from the Company's 2023 Financial Report available on BIOPHYTIS website ( www.biophytis.com) and as exposed in the "Risk Factors" section of form 20-F as well as other forms filed with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission, USA). We undertake no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as required by law.Biophytis contactsInvestor relationsNicolas Fellmann, CFO Investors@ biophytis.com MediaAntoine Denry: antoine.denry@taddeo.fr +33 6 18 07 83 27Nizar Berrada: nizar.berrada@taddeo.fr +33 6 38 31 90 50SOURCE: Biophytis PR-Inside.com: 2024-06-07 23:00:33 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 1025 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 Extension of Commercial Offtake Agreement through December 2028; Ocean Partners to extend a $4M Temporary Additional Credit Line and to increase Revolving Credit Line to $12.5M, following certain conditions; Major Shareholder Golden Post LLC to purchase $2.5M Shares of Common Stock of DynaResource Inc at $1.61 per share.IRVING, TX / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / DYNR-DynaResource, Inc. (OTCQX:DYNR) ("DynaResource", or "the Company") is pleased to report the following update regarding the Company and its 100%-owned San Jose de Gracia high grade gold project in Sinaloa, Mexico ("SJG"). All figures in United States Dollars ("USD").Ocean Partners UK Limited ("Ocean Partners"), through its 100% owned subsidiary in Mexico - MK Metals Trading Mexico S.A. de CV ("MK"), and the Company have formalized the extension of their commercial offtake agreement through December 31, 2028, and with revision of terms as per below: Ocean Partners agreed to provide a Temporary Additional Credit Line ("TACL") of $4M, payable November 30, 2024; Ocean Partners agreed to increase the Revolving Credit Line ("RCL) from $10M to $12.5M after November 30, 2024 and following the repayment of the TACL and RCL; Ocean Partners to provide the Company a Put Option to convert up to $9M of the Revolving Credit Line into Common Stock at a price expected to be approximately $1.61 per share, exercisable between November 1 and 30, 2024. The Company has agreed to issue 1,552,795 shares of Common Stock to Golden Post Rail LLC ("Golden Post") in exchange for $2.5M USD. The Company plans to utilize the funds received from Ocean Partners and Golden Post to further expand and increase mining and milling activities at SJG, to expand the tailings storage facility, to continue exploration drilling and related exploration activities, and for general corporate purposes. "We are pleased to receive this strong level of support from key stakeholders being Ocean Partners, our offtake partner, and Golden Post, our largest shareholder," stated Rohan Hazelton, President & CEO DynaResource. "These funds are an endorsement of our business plans to optimize operations and increase shareholder value." On behalf of Ocean Partners, Brent Omland, co-CEO of Ocean Partners commented: "We are very pleased to expand our strong relationship with DynaResource and are excited to be a part of the continuing development and expansion of the world class SJG Project." On behalf of the Board of Directors of DynaResource, Inc. Rohan Hazelton President & Chief Executive OfficerAbout DynaResource DynaResource is a junior gold mining producer trading on the OTCQX under the symbol "DYNR". DynaResource is actively mining and expanding the historic San Jose de Gracia gold mining district in Sinaloa, Mexico.IMPORTANT CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING CANADIAN DISCLOSURE STANDARDS The Company is an "OTC Reporting Issuer" as that term is defined in Multilateral Instrument 51-509, Issuers Quoted in the U.S. Over-the-Counter Markets, promulgated by various Canadian Provincial Securities Commissions. Accordingly, certain disclosure in this news release or other disclosure provided by the Company has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of securities laws in effect in Canada, which differ from the requirements of United States securities laws. In Canada, an issuer is required to provide technical information with respect to PL 4332389.2 mineralization, including reserves and resources, if any, on its mineral exploration properties in accordance with Canadian requirements, which differ significantly from the requirements of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") applicable to registration statements and reports filed by United States companies pursuant to the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. As such, information contained in this news release or other disclosure provided by the Company concerning descriptions of mineralization under Canadian standards may not be comparable to similar information made public by United States companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements of the SEC and not subject to Canadian securities legislation. This news release or other disclosure provided by the Company may use the terms "measured mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources" and "inferred mineral resources". While these terms are recognized and required by Canadian regulations (under National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects), the SEC does not recognize them. United States investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of the mineral deposits in these categories will ever be converted to reserves. In addition, "inferred mineral resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian securities legislation, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or pre-feasibility studies, although they may form, in certain circumstances, the basis of a "preliminary economic assessment" as that term is defined in National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that part or all of an inferred mineral resource exists, or is economically or legally mineable.CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27 A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Certain information contained in this news release, including any information relating to future financial or operating performance may be deemed "forward-looking". All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events or developments that DynaResource expects to occur, are "forward-looking information". These statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect the Company's expectations regarding the future growth, results of operations, business prospects and opportunities of DynaResource. These forward-looking statements reflect the Company's current internal projections, expectations or beliefs PL 4332389.2 and are based on information currently available to DynaResource. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by terminology such as "may", "will", "should", "expect", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "projects", "potential", "scheduled%2 PR-Inside.com: 2024-06-07 02:44:34 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 657 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 Edelson Lechtzin LLP has commenced a class action lawsuit against the University of the Arts in Philadelphia for alleged violations of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act ("WARN") for failure to provide notice 60 days in advance of the University's closing and mass layoffs.NEWTOWN, PA / ACCESSWIRE / June 6, 2024 / Edelson Lechtzin LLP, a national class action law firm, has commenced a class action lawsuit against the University of the Arts in Philadelphia for alleged violations of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act ("WARN") for failure to provide notice 60 days in advance of the University's closing and mass layoffs. The lawsuit also seeks an award of penalties for alleged violations of the Pennsylvania Wage Payment Collection Law ("PWPCL").About the University of the ArtsDating back to 1876, the University of the Arts was formed by the merger of two institutions: Philadelphia College of Art and Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts. After attaining university status in 1987, the University of the Arts became the largest institution of its kind in the nation, offering programs in design, fine arts, media arts, crafts, music, dance, theater and writing.What happened?On the evening of Friday, May 31, 2024, Kerry Walk, President of Philadelphia's University of the Arts, announced that the school would be closing its doors for good on June 7th. The University also revealed that the Middle States Commission on Higher Education was withdrawing its accreditation of the University. In the wake of the University's abrupt closure, President Kerry Walk resigned on June 4, 2024.There is no precedent for a nonprofit college closing so abruptly, and the sudden closure of the University has left faculty and staff reeling. Thus far, the administration has provided virtually no meaningful information to UArts employees about how they plan to wind down the University's operations. And faculty and staff have no answers to critical questions. Indeed, UArts employees don't know when they will receive their final paycheck, when their medical benefits will terminate, or how long they will have access to university facilities like artists' studios.What is the lawsuit seeking?UArts employees have asserted claims under the feral WARN Act, which requires employers to provide notice 60 days in advance of covered business closing or mass layoffs. Plaintiffs and other similarly situated employees of Defendant are entitled under the WARN Act to recover from Defendant their wages and ERISA benefits for 60 days, none of which has been paid. In addition, Plaintiffs seek penalties under the PWPCL.How can I enforce my rights under the WARN Act and the PWPCL?Edelson Lechtzin LLP has filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania seeking all available legal remedies on behalf of faculty and staff who have been harmed by the sudden closure of the University. The case is Schutts et al v. The University of the Arts, Case No. 2:24-cv-02420-CFK (E.D. Pa.).For more information, please contact EDELSON LECHTZIN LLP:Eric Lechtzin, Esq. Email: elechtzin@ edelson-law.com Marc H. Edelson, Esq. Email: medelson@ edelson-law.com EDELSON LECHTZIN LLP 411 S. State Street, Suite N-300Newtown, PA 18940Phone: 844-696-7492 or 215-867-2399 ext. 1Web: www.edelson-law.com About Edelson Lechtzin LLPEdelson Lechtzin LLP is a national class action law firm with offices in Pennsylvania and California. In addition to cases involving WARN Act violations, our lawyers focus on class and collective litigation in cases alleging securities and investment fraud, violations of the federal antitrust laws, employee benefit plans under ERISA, data breaches, wage theft and unpaid overtime, consumer fraud, and dangerous and defective drugs and medical devices.This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions. No class has been certified in this case, so you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point.SOURCE: Edelson Lechtzin LLP Beijing (Gasgoo)- Chinese automaker Changan Automobile reported a slight year-on-year growth in its May sales figures, according to the latest production and sales report released on June 7. In May 2024, Changan Automobile's sales reached 206,792 units, marking a 3.29% rise compared to the same period last year. From January to May, Changan's sales totaled 1,109,038 units, reflecting a 12.03% year-on-year growth. The company's own-brand vehicles showed strong performance, with 932,436 units sold in the first five months of 2024, up 11.64% from the previous year. Among which, 173,885 units were sold in overseas markets, representing an 80.81% hike year-on-year. DEEPAL lineup; photo credit: DEEPAL Notably, new energy vehicles (NEVs) under Changans wholly-owned brands saw a significant surge, with May sales hitting 54,991 units, which soared 87.76% from a year ago. In the first five months of this year, Changan sold 235,479 NEVs under its own brands, indicating a 72.74% leap year-over-year. As to Changan Automobile's joint ventures, Changan Ford's May sales stood at 17,905 units, while Changan Mazda sold 5,963 units in May, which dipped 8.26% and 13.6% from that of the previous year, respectively. PR-Inside.com: 2024-06-07 11:02:19 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 632 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC, a nationally recognized law firm, notifies investors that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Harbor Diversified, Inc. ("Harbor Diversified" or "the Company") (OTC:HRBR) 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 Harbor Diversified securities between May 10, 2022 and March 29, 2024, inclusive (the "Class Period"). Such investors are encouraged to join this case by visiting the firm's site: bgandg.com/HRBR Case Details:According to the Complaint, Harbor Diversified describes itself as "a non-operating holding company that is the parent of a consolidated group of subsidiaries, including AWAC Aviation, Inc. (AWAC'), which is the sole member of Air Wisconsin Airlines LLC (Air Wisconsin'), a regional air carrier. Harbor is also the direct parent of three other subsidiaries: (1) Lotus Aviation Leasing, LLC (Lotus'), which leases flight equipment to Air Wisconsin, (2) Air Wisconsin Funding LLC (AWF'), which provides flight equipment financing to Air Wisconsin, and (3) Harbor Therapeutics, Inc. (Therapeutics'), which is a non-operating entity with no material assets." The Complaint alleges that Harbor Diversified made materially false and/or misleading statements because the Company misrepresented and failed to disclose the following adverse facts pertaining to the Company's business, operations, and prospects, which were known to Defendants or recklessly disregarded by them. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that:(1) Harbor Diversified's financial statements from May 9, 2022 to the present were misstated due to improper revenue recognition;(2) Harbor Diversified lacked adequate internal controls; and(3) as a result, Harbor Diversified's statements about its business, operations, and prospects were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all times.The truth began to emerge, according to the Complaint, on March 29, 2024, when Harbor Diversified filed with the SEC a current report on Form 8-K in which it announced that certain of its previously-issued financial statements would need to be restated as a result of improper revenue recognition. Further, Harbor Diversified disclosed a material weakness in its internal controls that has the company's management evaluating "appropriate remediation actions." On this news, according to the Complaint, the price of Harbor Diversified stock fell by $0.28 per share, or14.25% , to close at $1.73 on April 1, 2024.Therefore, the Complaint further alleges that as a result of Defendants' wrongful acts and omissions, and the precipitous decline in the market value of the Harbor Diversified's common shares, investors have suffered significant losses and damages.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/HRBR 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 Harbor Diversified you have until July 8, 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: 2024-06-07 21:00:43 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 591 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 SINGAPORE / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / HTX, the world-leading crypto exchange, made a noteworthy appearance at GM Vietnam 2024 as a gold sponsor on June 7. This strategic move marks a significant step in HTX's global expansion efforts, as close connections and cooperations were formed with local blockchain startups, tech teams, and the crypto communities to drive technological innovation and contribute to the growth of the blockchain ecosystem, both in Vietnam and globally.At the event, HTX's booth G6 attracted widespread attention and active engagement from attendees. Additionally, Amelia Chan, head of strategic partnerships at HTX, was invited to participate in a roundtable discussion, themed "Importance of Liquidity in Digital Assets Markets". Chan dived into the measures exchange venues employ to ensure a constant stream of asset flows.Crypto markets are volatile and susceptible to large price swings and abnormal conditions. Chan stated that as a well-established large centralized exchange, HTX has mature experience and resources in dealing with such situations. "We ensure the safety of user assets on the platform, and we maintain a 100% reserve fund to cope with extreme situations. We have implemented powerful risk management systems that monitor market conditions in real-time and identify potential risks," she said. She also highlighted HTX's strict measures in response to extreme conditions, such as price fluctuations, to ensure user asset security. HTX is committed to providing a safe and reliable user experience and continuously monitors and adapts to changing market dynamics.In terms of using digital asset platforms, Chan provided several reminders including enabling two-factor authentication, awareness of phishing websites, staying informed about market dynamics, as well as cautious and diversified investments.Another highlight was the "Web3 Future Night" event held by HTX in Ho Chi Minh City on June 6, in collaboration with well-known media outlet ChainCatcher. The party, buzzing with energy and optimism, brought together Vietnam's most active crypto KOLs and community members, charting a promising future for Vietnamese Web3 enthusiasts and practitioners.Speakers from HTX, ChainCatcher, LBank, 4E, GoPlus, SOEX, and BTC Beta shared their insights and forward-thinking perspectives on the Web3 industry.GM Vietnam 2024, held from June 7 to 8 in Ho Chi Minh City, gathered globally renowned crypto projects, investors, entrepreneurs, and tech experts to discuss the latest trends and uncover new growth opportunities in the market.HTX has set its sights on the Vietnamese Web3 markets. The move comes amidst a surge of Web3 projects in Vietnam, sparked by wildly popular Axie Infinity in 2021 and subsequently influential startups like Yield Guild Games (YGG) and Ancient 8. That's why Vietnam is rapidly becoming a focal point for the Web3 ecosystem in Asia. HTX holds long-standing interest and support for cutting-edge sectors like meme coins, blockchain gaming, and social finance, and is well-positioned to capitalize on this trend with its efforts to increase user base in Vietnamese markets. The exchange anticipates collaborating with Vietnamese users to explore the crypto infinity.About HTXFounded in 2013, HTX has evolved over a decade from a simple cryptocurrency exchange to a comprehensive blockchain business ecosystem. This expansion covers a wide range of services including digital asset trading, financial derivatives, wallets, research, investments, incubation, and more. As a world-leading portal to Web 3.0, HTX is committed to a growth strategy focused on global expansion, ecological prosperity, wealth effect, and safety and compliance. This approach enables us to offer comprehensive, safe, and reliable services and value to virtual currency enthusiasts around the world, reinforcing our position as a global gateway to Web3.Contact DetailsMichael Wangglo-media@ htx-inc.com Company WebsiteSOURCE: HTX PR-Inside.com: 2024-06-07 12:50:20 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 438 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 SHANGHAI, CHINA / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / KUKA CABLE, a global leader in cable manufacturing, announces its unwavering commitment to delivering innovative, high-quality cable solutions that meet the demands of various industries worldwide. With a robust presence in over 120 countries, KUKA CABLE continues to empower customers by advancing renewable energy and promoting sustainable development.State-of-the-Art Manufacturing and R&DLocated in the Jinshan District of Shanghai, KUKA CABLE's manufacturing facility spans over 7,000 square meters, equipped with cutting-edge production facilities and laboratories. The company's core team, boasting over a decade of experience in cable manufacturing and international trade, ensures that each product meets the highest standards of quality and performance.Comprehensive Product PortfolioKUKA CABLE offers an extensive range of products designed to cater to diverse applications, including:Solar Cables: Certified by TUV, IEC, and CPR, these cables are optimized for photovoltaic power generation, ensuring efficiency and reliability in solar energy systems.Robot Cables: Customizable for use in underwater drones, UAVs, and industrial robots, providing robust and flexible solutions for automated technologies.Marine and Submersible Cables: Engineered to withstand harsh marine environments, these cables offer exceptional durability and reliability for underwater applications.Automotive Wires: Essential for modern automotive systems, these wires ensure seamless power and signal transmission in vehicles.Specialty Cables: Tailor-made solutions for unique requirements, accommodating extreme environmental conditions and specialized equipment.Commitment to Quality and Customer ServiceKUKA CABLE's dedication to quality is reflected in its extensive certification portfolio. The company's "One-stop Butler Service" ensures seamless customer experiences, with dedicated product consultants managing the entire process from inquiry to delivery and post-sale maintenance.Innovations in Renewable EnergyAs a key player in the renewable energy sector, KUKA CABLE has established itself as a preferred supplier for solar and storage applications. Recent collaborations, such as the partnership with Baywa r.e. for a new era in the PV industry, underscore KUKA CABLE's role in promoting sustainable energy solutions globally.Future OutlookKUKA CABLE remains committed to innovation, sustainability, and customer satisfaction. By continually investing in research and development, the company aims to introduce new products and technologies that drive the industry forward. As the world moves towards a greener future, KUKA CABLE stands at the forefront, providing the essential infrastructure needed for sustainable development.About KUKA CABLEKUKA CABLE is a leading manufacturer of high-performance cables, serving customers in over 120 countries. With a focus on quality, innovation, and sustainability, KUKA CABLE provides solutions that meet the evolving needs of various industries, including renewable energy, automotive, marine, and industrial applications.For more information, please visitKUKA CABLE's websiteor contact:Media Contact:Email: sales@ kukacable.com Person Name: ZhangYanHaiSOURCE: KUKA CABLE PR-Inside.com: 2024-06-07 04:30:51 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 421 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 NEW ORLEANS, LA / ACCESSWIRE / June 6, 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: 2024-06-07 14:08:05 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 954 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 The report also relates little progress in the gender wage gap and equal pay for racialized and disabled lawyers, good progress in work-life balance satisfaction, and evidenced different views between in-house counsel and employers regarding work arrangements.TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / June 6, 2024 / According to the report released today by The Counsel Network, now part of Caldwell, and The Canadian Corporate Counsel Association (CCCA), the national base salary in Canada for in-house counsel increased significantly, female in-house counsel continue to earn less than their male counterparts overall, pay for racialized and disabled lawyers is still a challenge, and retail/hospitality/food and beverage/consumer products is the highest paying industry. Satisfaction with work-life balance increased compared to 2022. The survey was conducted between January 15, 2024 to April 2, 2024.National average base salary increases are significantThe results show that national average base salary stands at $196,000, an 8.9% increase over $180,000 in 2022 and a 17% increase over $167,500 in 2020. Ontario respondents report average base salaries above the national average. British Columbia and Alberta are close to the national average, while Central Canada, Quebec, Atlantic Canada lag behind the national average.Consistent with the previous survey, the sector most represented by in-house counsel continues to be financial services, insurance, and banks, followed by government. This year the highest average base salaries are found in the retail/hospitality/food & beverage/consumer products ($230,000), real estate ($220,000), and information technology ($218,000) sectors.The largest gains in annual base salaries are in information technology (up $28,000), construction (up $25,000), financial services/insurance/banks (up $22,000), and real estate (up $24,000)."The increase in base salaries reflects the market shift since the last survey. Although the Great Resignation started in 2021, it peaked in 2022, increasing competition for lawyers in private practice and in-house. This compelled employers to raise compensation at rates not seen for years," said Dal Bhathal, Partner at Caldwell.Gender wage gap continues The results show that the total average base salary of female in-house counsel is lower than their male counterparts. In 2024, female in-house counsel report an average base salary $21,500 less than male in-house counsel. The gap was $24,000 in 2022 and $19,000 in 2020.The most substantial gaps continue to be seen at higher wage levels, with 34% of females receiving a mean salary of over $200,000, compared to 52% of males who earn the same amount. In 2024, for the first time, females report higher average salaries than males in two of five in-house counsel roles: Assistant/Associate GC and GC Executive Level. The gap in GC Director level, while still at $11,500, is lower than that seen in 2022 ($22,000) and 2020 ($20,000)."It is disappointing to see that the gender pay gap remains. Although we have seen a slight reduction in the last two years, there is still a long way to go before we can achieve equal pay for women and men," commented Bhathal.Diversity and compensationThis was the third year additional information was collected on compensation for racialized and non-racialized lawyers. Just over one-quarter (26%) of the group identify as racialized lawyers and report a mean salary $7,500 below that reported by non-racialized lawyers. The gap was $8,000 in 2022 and $12,000 in 2020.Results also showed persons with disabilities report a mean salary $34,500 less than non-disabled persons. This is a large increase from gaps seen in 2022 ($17,000) and 2020 ($18,500). Workplace appears to be a factor in this finding - most lawyers with disabilities work in government or not-for-profit sectors, which report lower mean base salaries. Additionally, looking at seniority level, persons with disabilities are less represented at the two most senior roles: GC Director Level and GC Executive Level."The legal profession continues to identify the need to build diversity, and the survey results back up that need with these statistics," notes Bhathal. "The slight reduction in the pay gap between racialized lawyers and non-racialized lawyers is not encouraging, and the large increase in the pay gap between lawyers with disabilities and those without is extremely disappointing. The results again highlight the need for continued efforts in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Reporting on the gaps regularly is necessary to achieving equal pay. We are proud to be assisting in these efforts." Factors for Career Moves Compensation remains by far the number one motivator for moving to a new employer. 47% mentioned this factor in 2024, up dramatically from 39% in 2022 and 37% in 2020.The next two strongest motivators are better work/life balance (10%) and promotions (9%). While work/life balance has remained at a steady 9-10% over the past three survey reports, promotions have become less of a motivator (2020: 15%, 2022: 12%, and 2024: 9%)."Compensation and promotions have consistently been the top two motivators for in-house counsel to move since our first study in 2009. It's interesting that work/life balance has surpassed promotions to take the number two spot this year, reflecting a shift in priorities since the pandemic and economic uncertainty," commented Bhathal.Future outlookThe majority of in-house counsel reported that their legal department has either stayed the same size (44%) or increased (44%) over the past two years. Those that have increased usually added one to three lawyers to the department (75%).63% of respondents remain optimistic about the future of their organization's legal department. However, a smaller proportion (56%) are optimistic about their own future within their current organization. This is a consistent proportion as in the three previous survey reports.In 2024, the office location questions were expanded to capture working location, location preference, and location policy. Although 21% work full-time at their employer's location, only 5% prefer that arrangement. Twice as many in-house counsel reported that they would prefer full-time remote (22%) versus 11% who are currently fully remote. 70% reported they preferred a hybrid (at home and office) arrangement.About the surveyThe 2024 In-House Counsel Compensation & Career Survey was commissioned by The Counsel Network, now part of Caldwell, in partnership with The Canadian Corporate Counsel Association (CCCA). The survey provides key information on compens PR-Inside.com: 2024-06-07 23:00:14 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 791 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / North Shore Uranium Ltd. (TSX-V:NSU) ("North Shore" or the "Company") is pleased to report that all resolutions put forward at the Annual General and Special Meeting (the "Meeting") of the Company's shareholders held on June 7, 2024, as further described in the Company's information circular dated April 30, 2024, were approved. The approved resolutions include the renewal of the Company's 10% "rolling" stock option plan (the "Option Plan") and approval of a fixed equity incentive plan (the "Equity Plan"). The Board of Directors approved the Equity Plan on April 8, 2024, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. The Company's current Option Plan and new Equity Plan follow the new security-based compensation policy adopted by the TSX Venture Exchange in November 2021.Stock Option PlanThe Company's current Option Plan is a 10% "rolling" stock option plan which governs the granting of stock options to directors, officers, employees and consultants of the Company or a subsidiary of the Company for the purchase of up to 10% of the issued and outstanding common shares in the capital of the Company (the "Common Shares") from time to time.Equity Incentive PlanThe Company's Equity Plan governs the granting of any restricted share unit (RSU), performance share unit (PSU) or deferred share unit (DSU) (collectively the "Awards") granted under the fixed Equity Plan, to directors, officers, employees and consultants of the Company or a subsidiary of the Company. The Company has reserved for issuance a fixed number of Common Shares of up to 3,683,096 Common Shares, being 10% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares at the record date of the Meeting.About North Shore UraniumThe near-term business objectives of North Shore Uranium are to become a major force in exploration for economic uranium deposits in Saskatchewan's Athabasca Basin, a tier-one jurisdiction for discovering new mineable high-grade uranium deposits. The Company will work to achieve those objectives by conducting exploration programs on its two properties, Falcon and West Bear , located 90 kilometres apart at the eastern margin of the Athabasca Basin, and by evaluating opportunities to increase its portfolio of properties in the region.ON BEHALF OF THE BOARDBrooke Clements,President, Chief Executive Officer and DirectorFor further information:Please contact: Brooke Clements, President, Chief Executive Officer and DirectorTelephone: 604.536.2711Email: b.clements@ northshoreuranium.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.Forward-Looking StatementsThis news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on the Company's current expectations and estimates. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "project", "appear", "interpret", "coincident", "potential", "confirm", "suggest", "evaluate", "encourage", "likely", "anomaly", "continuous" and variations of these words as well as other similar words or statements that certain events or conditions "could", "may", "should", "would" or "will" occur. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results implied or expressed in such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others: the actual results of current and planned exploration activities including the potential for the definition of a mineral deposit of potential economic value within Falcon; that drilling results, geophysical survey results and/or interpretations thereof are defining potentially mineralized corridors; results from future exploration programs including drilling; interpretation and meaning of completed and future geophysical surveys; conclusions of future economic evaluations; changes in project parameters as plans to continue to be refined; possible variations in grades of mineralization and/or future actual recovery rates; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; the availability of sufficient funding on terms acceptable to the Company to complete the planned work programs; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing; and fluctuations in metal prices. There may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated, or intended. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or results or otherwise. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein.SOURCE: North Shore Uranium Ltd. PR-Inside.com: 2024-06-07 17:00:49 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 1002 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / Net Savings Link, Inc. (OTC PINK:NSAV), a leading Web3, blockchain and digital asset technology company, announced today updates on the launch of our theAlley.io website https://www.thealley.io/ and key highlights from their June 6th AMA. TheAlley.io Update:As previously announced, TheAlley.io is designed to empower the crypto community by providing resources to make informed decisions about specific projects. NSAV has compiled a database of over 15,000 crypto projects across multiple networks, offering detailed information on their development teams, liquidity, exchanges, and usability. Additionally, the platform includes a database of over 28,000 companies globally that accept crypto as a payment method, representing more than 6 million physical locations. Users can connect directly with merchants via TheAlley.io search portal to shop and pay for goods and services.As of June 6th, the crypto merchant database is live and accessible to the public. On June 8th, the Token Forum and Groups will be live, and on June 10th, the Resource Center will be added to the site. https://nsavx.com/ has recently added an "Announcement" feature on the exchange, allowing the company to send direct messages to KYC account holders, SMS messages to 2FA participants, and emails to non-KYC accounts. Starting June 10th, the company will use this "Announcement" feature to market TheAlley.io , aiming to sign up a minimum of 1,000,000 crypto enthusiasts within the first 30 days.To join the whitelist or establish a free account, please visit www.thealley.io and sign up today.June 6th AMA Highlights:Speakers: New NSAV CEO Kevin Simon and HMLA CEO Ryan Nguyen.Kevin Simon's Updates:Web3 Industry Insights: Kevin shared his experience and discussions with industry leaders like Brock Pierce and the DNA Fund team, highlighting NSAV's efforts to promote widespread crypto adoption. User Base: NSAVx (CEX) now has over 6 million accounts, with more than 1,000,000 active users. Licensing: Progress continues on licensing applications in Puerto Rico, Colorado, Wyoming, Florida, Poland, Lithuania, Singapore, Brazil, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Dubai. Announcements will be made upon approval. Company Cleanup: Kevin emphasized the ongoing efforts to clean up the company's operations, acknowledging that it will take time. Clawbacks: NSAV is meeting with legal counsel next week to address clawbacks of shares for services not rendered. Updates will be announced publicly. Buyback: While not fully off the table, the focus is currently on achieving several quarters of revenue growth. The buyback strategy will be revisited quarterly. NSAVPAY: Working on the on/off ramp, with a projected launch in mid to late June. Merchants on the platform will be included in TheAlley.io . Token Launches: NSAVx, DIVPAY, GBUX, SWOP, and EVEREST have received their Dex-Trade agreements. Once the listing schedules are provided, the tokens will launch on NSAVx.com , Dex-Trade, and Uniswap. Legal Matters: Ongoing talks with Tilton and Grover under NDAs, aiming for an amicable settlement. Board Appointments: Any appointments or resignations will be announced via PR.Ryan Nguyen's Updates:Revenue Goals: Ryan emphasized the goal of rapid revenue recognition to retire debt and restore equity reserves. Partnership Synergies: Strong synergies and partnerships with HMLA and Everest LLP, focusing on technology, balance sheet cleanup, and aggressive revenue growth. Initial LP Partnership Launch: The EVEREST Token is the first LP partnership to launch and the DEX launch window is 6/6/2024 through 6/9/2024.Future Outlook:June is set to be a month full of activity, with numerous PR announcements and forward progress. NSAV is actively working on various projects, including staking, token launches, and improvements to their corporate and OTC websites.Kevin Simon, CEO of NSAV stated, "Last night's AMA was the fourth installment of what we plan to continue as a method of communication between the company and our valued shareholders. Having Ryan join the AMA really provided context to the partnership between our firms. We look forward to the explosive revenue growth this partnership provides while solidifying us a leaders in the Web3 industry." For real-time updates, join both companies' Discord channels: NSAVx: https://discord.gg/rnwszGvAjD HMLA: https://discord.gg/DZUUfrYGcT About Net Savings Link, Inc.: NSAV's vision is the establishment of a fully integrated technology company, which provides turnkey technological solutions to the Web3, blockchain and digital asset industries. The Company drives innovation in the digital currency space by developing advanced blockchain technologies, digital assets, and market solutions that bridge the gap between traditional business frameworks and the future of decentralized technology. Over time, the Company plans to provide a wide range of services such as software solutions, e-commerce, financial services, advisory services and information technology.For further information please contact NSAV at info@ nsavholdinginc.com For further information please contact NSAVx.com at hello@ nsavxmail.com The NSAV corporate website can be accessed at https://www.netsavingslinkinc.com The NSAV CEX website can be accessed at https://nsavx.com/ The AirdropX.co website can be accessed at https://www.airdropx.co/ The Swopx.io website can be accessed at https://www.swopx.io The NSAV Stock information website can be accessed at https://www.nsavstock.com The NSAVx Token website can be accessed at https://www.nsavxtoken.com/nsavx-token The NSAVx Discord Server can be accessed at https://discord.com/invite/7Q2Vv5NmKd The NSAV Twitter account can be accessed at https://twitter.com/nsav_tech This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which are intended to be covered by the safe harbors created thereby. Investors are cautioned that, all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, the ability of Net Savings Link, Inc. to accomplish its stated plan of business. Net Savings Link, Inc. believes that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements contained herein are reasonable, any of the assumptions could be inaccurate, and therefore, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements included in this press release will prove to be accurate. In light of the PR-Inside.com: 2024-06-07 18:55:12 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 942 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / At COMPUTEX 2024, Asia's most representative information industry event held from June 4 to 7, diversified AI technologies were on display. From NVIDIA's AI accelerators to AMD's high-performance processors and ARM's AI device predictions, tech giants unveiled their AI flagship products. In this tech extravaganza, Sixunited, a global provider of one-stop solutions for consumer electronics and smart IoT products, also stood out. Sixunited, focusing on the exhibition theme "Connecting AI", showcased its representative PC products and smart terminals such as AI PCs, glasses-free 3D series, gaming series, industrial control series, servers, and electronic whiteboards, and caught everyone's attention at the exhibition by cutting-edge products and top-notch technologies.AI PC and in-house AI assistant of Sixunited redefining intelligent livingIn the AI PC zone, Sixunited showcased a diverse range of AI products, including laptops, tablets, mini PCs, and all-in-one PCs. With a cooperative and heterogeneous design of "CPU+GPU+NPU", Sixunited's AI PCs provide users with powerful and efficient AI computing capabilities. What truly stands out is Sixunited's self-developed AI assistant application, offering users the flexibility to choose between localized or cloud-based AI models as per their needs, which ensures both the convenience of a versatile personal assistant and the security of their privacy data. The application also comes with built-in features such as text-to-image generation, intelligent screenshots, and real-time translation, significantly enhancing users' productivity in work and study and taking intelligent living to new heights.Privacy and security assured: Highly acclaimed high-performance AI laptopsThe 39 Series and 79 Series high-performance AI laptops introduced by Sixunited are equipped with robust Intel Meteor Lake processors, accompanied by remarkable storage configurations, capable of handling sophisticated tasks with ease. Moreover, these laptops have successfully passed the Intel vPro Enterprise and Microsoft Pluton security certifications, offering users comprehensive security protection from hardware to software, and ensuring the security of privacy data.AI ultrabooks weighing less than 1kg, making portability a breezeThe Sixunited's 25 Series AI ultrabooks have become the ultimate go-to for mobile productivity, thanks to their extremely lightweight design. It is reported that they are the first in the Intel CTE ecosystem to weigh less than 1kg, coupled with a super-slim magnesium alloy body measuring a mere 14.8mm, allowing for an unparalleled level of lightness and freedom in terms of portability. But their appeal goes beyond their weight - these ultrabooks also boast impressive performance. They not only sport a 14-inch 16:10 ultra-high screen-to-body ratio and exceptional display quality with OLED screens, but they can also be equipped with powerful Intel MTL-U/AMD Howk point-U processors, ensuring comprehensive excellence in both appearance and performance.One-Click Copilot: Unleashing the power of AI for enhanced productivity and lifestyleThe Sixunited AI laptops are equipped with a Copilot key, allowing users to easily access comprehensive AI assistant services with just a simple click, including recording meeting highlights, project management, task creation, work assignment, setting and tracking deadlines, and more. The Copilot also features robust Agents function, enabling it to automate long-term and repetitive tasks and continuously improve its performance through deep learning. The Copilot feature of Sixunited's AI laptops allows users to experience a higher level of intelligence and efficiency in both work and lifestyle empowered by AI.AI Electronic Whiteboard: Revolutionizing intelligent interaction in meetings and education settingsIn addition to the conventional features of writing and display, Sixunited's AI Electronic Whiteboard supports multi-user simultaneous writing, dual-color display, and a variety of gesture-based operations, as well as applications of free moving, minimizing, enlarging, and shrinking, efficiently managing multiple tasks. Furthermore, it also integrates cutting-edge AI technologies, allowing users to interact with the AI assistant through simple commands or text input to access the desired information and complete corresponding tasks. In meetings, the AI assistant can swiftly retrieve information, facilitating decision-making processes. In educational settings, the AI assistant can provide personalized learning support, making teaching more dynamic and engaging.Glasses-free 3D technology: Delivering an immersive visual experienceSixunited has also made significant strides in the glasses-free 3D technology. Incorporating advanced 3D display technology and AI algorithms, the Sixunited's glasses-free 3D laptops and all-in-one PCs enables seamless transitions between 2D and 3D visual effects. Whether users are watching movies, playing games, or giving work presentations, they can indulge in a captivating 3D world without wearing any additional equipment.Strong support from Intel executives, high expectations for AI acceleration programThe AI PC series products exhibited by Sixunited have garnered significant attention from the industry, thanks to their exceptional performance and intelligent user experiences. On June 6, top leaders from Intel, including Intel SMG CCG Category channel&Graphics sales GM Coday Ozlem, Intel GM of CCG Channel, Ecosystem and Sustainability Piper Marcus, Intel GM of ODM Business Department in China Zhao Hong, and Intel Technical Director of Client Technology in China Yan Tao, visited Sixunited's booth, highly applauding Sixunited's consistent innovative and R&D capabilities in the AI field, and expressing their eager anticipation for Sixunited's further advancements with the support of Intel's AI acceleration program to drive widespread adoption of AI technologies. With the formidable partnership between Intel and Sixunited, it is believed that AI technology will experience fresh development and innovation, injecting robust momentum into the entire industry.High-powered gaming series: Endorsed by NVIDIA founder Jensen HuangFor gaming fanatics, the gaming zone of Sixunited is a must-visit. The lineup of high-powered gaming products of Sixunited, including gaming handhelds, dedicated graphics docks, and gaming laptops, represents the pinnacle of performance and design. On the first day of the COMPUTEX 2024, Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of NVIDIA, paid a personal visit to Sixunited's gaming zone, signed and praised products like the graphics dock and game bo PR-Inside.com: 2024-06-07 16:00:46 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 327 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is investigating potential claims on behalf of purchasers of Toyota Motor Corp Ltd Ord ("Toyota" or "the Company") (NYSE:TM). Investors who purchased Toyota securities are encouraged to obtain additional information and assist the investigation by visiting the firm's site: bgandg.com/TM Investigation Details:On June 3, 2024, The New York Times published an article, "Toyota and Other Japanese Carmakers Say They Mishandled Safety Tests" which stated that "Toyota Motor [. . .] and other top Japanese automakers said on Monday that internal investigations found they had mishandled vehicle testing on dozens of models over the past decade." The article continued to state that "Toyota said it had failed to gather proper data when doing pedestrian and occupant safety tests for three models, including its popular Yaris Cross sport utility vehicle." Following this news, Toyota American Depositary Shares ("ADSs") fell by $5.34 per ADS, or 2.5%, to close at $212.17 on June 3, 2024.What's Next?If you are aware of any facts relating to this investigation or purchased Toyota securities, you can assist this investigation by visiting the firm's site: bgandg.com/TM . You can also contact Peretz Bronstein or his client relations manager, Nathan Miller, of Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC: 332-239-2660.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 and Grossman, LLC PR-Inside.com: 2024-06-07 20:00:35 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 337 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 /Monteverde & Associates PC (the "M&A Class Action Firm"), has recovered money for shareholders and is recognized as a Top 50 Firm in the 2018-2022 ISS Securities Class Action Services Report. We are headquartered at the Empire State Building in New York City and are investigating Quanex Building Products Corporation (NYSE:NX), relating to its proposed merger with Tyman plc. Under the terms of the agreement, Tyman shareholders will own between approximately 30% and 32% of Quanex, depending on shareholder elections.DON'T MISS YOUR CHANCE TO ACT. The shareholder vote is scheduled for July 12, 2024. Mr.Juan Monteverdeis available to personally discuss this case with you.Click here for more information: https://monteverdelaw.com/case/quanex-building-products-corporation/ . It is free and there is no cost or obligation to you.Before you hire a law firm, you should talk to a lawyer and ask:Do you file class actions and go to Court?When was the last time you recovered money for shareholders?What cases did you recover money in and how much?About Monteverde & Associates PCOur firm litigates and has recovered money for shareholdersand we do it from our offices in the Empire State Building. We are a national class action securities firm with a successful track record in trial and appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.No company, director or officer is above the law. If you own common stock in any of the above listed companies and have concerns or wish to obtain additional information free of charge, please visit ourwebsiteor contact Juan Monteverde, Esq. either via e-mail atjmonteverde@ monteverdelaw.comor by telephone at (212) 971-1341.Contact:Juan Monteverde, Esq.MONTEVERDE & ASSOCIATES PC The Empire State Building 350 Fifth Ave. Suite 4740New York, NY 10118United States of America jmonteverde@ monteverdelaw.com Tel: (212) 971-1341Attorney Advertising. (C) 2024 Monteverde & Associates PC. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Monteverde & Associates PC ( www.monteverdelaw.com) . Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.SOURCE: Monteverde & Associates PC Shanghai (Gasgoo)- NIO Inc. ("NIO"), a leading company in the premium smart electric vehicle market, has released its unaudited financial results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2024 (Q1 2024). NIO's total revenue for Q1 2024 stood at 9,908.6 million yuan (US$1,372.3 million), a 7.2% drop from the same period in 2023 and a sharp 42.1% decline from Q4 2023. This downturn is mirrored in vehicle sales, which amounted to 8,381.3 million yuan (US$1,160.8 million), reflecting a decrease of 9.1% year-over-year and 45.7% quarter-over-quarter. The primary factors behind these reductions include a lower average selling price due to user rights adjustments since June 2023 and a decreased delivery volume, affected by seasonal influences. Photo credit: NIO The company delivered 30,053 vehicles in Q1 2024, with 17,809 units being premium smart electric SUVs and 12,244 premium smart electric sedans. This marks a 3.2% decrease from Q1 2023 and a significant 39.9% drop from Q4 2023. Despite the revenue downturn, NIO achieved a gross profit of 487.7 million yuan (US$67.6 million) in Q1 2024, a substantial 200.5% increase from the same quarter last year, though down 61.9% from the previous quarter. The gross margin improved to 4.9% in Q1 2024, up from 1.5% in Q1 2023 but down from 7.5% in Q4 2023. The vehicle margin followed a similar trajectory, rising to 9.2% from 5.1% a year ago but dropping from 11.9% in the last quarter. The improvements in margins compared to last year are mainly due to decreased material costs per unit, whereas the quarter-over-quarter declines are attributed to lower average selling prices amid increased promotions amid product transitions. The company's loss from operations was 5,394.1 million yuan (US$747.1 million) in Q1 2024, a 5.5% increase year-over-year but an 18.6% decrease from Q4 2023. Excluding share-based compensation expenses, the adjusted operational loss (non-GAAP) was 5,112.7 million yuan (US$708.1 million) in the quarter, up 13.1% year-over-year but down 15.6% quarter-over-quarter. For the first three months of 2024, NIO's R&D expenses reached 2,864.2 million yuan (US$396.7 million), sliding 6.9% from Q1 2023 and also shrinking 27.9% from Q4 2023. The reduction is primarily due to lower design and development costs and decreased personnel expenses in R&D. As of March 31, 2024, NIO held 45.3 billion yuan (US$6.3 billion) in cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, short-term investments, and long-term time deposits. Looking ahead, NIO forecasts a strong rebound for Q2 2024, with expected vehicle deliveries between 54,000 and 56,000 vehicles, representing an increase of approximately 129.6% to 138.1% from Q2 2023. Revenue projections for Q2 this year are set between 16,587 million yuan (US$2,297 million) and 17,135 million yuan (US$2,373 million), reflecting an anticipated rise of 89.1% to 95.3% year-over-year. PR-Inside.com: 2024-06-07 08:00:30 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 988 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 Warpaint to present at the Small-Cap Growth Virtual Investor Conference on 13 June 2024Warpaint invites individual and institutional investors, as well as advisors and analysts, to attend online at VirtualInvestorConferences.com LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / Warpaint London plc (AIM:W7L)(OTCQX:WPNTF), the specialist supplier of colour cosmetics and owner of the W7 and Technic brands, announces that Sam Bazini, chief executive officer and co-founder, will present live at the Small-Cap Growth Virtual Investor Conference hosted by VirtualInvestorConferences.com on 13 June 2024 at 10.00am Eastern time (3.00pm BST).This will be a live, interactive online event where investors are invited to ask the Company questions in real-time. If attendees are not able to join the event live on the day of the conference, an archived webcast will also be made available after the event. The event may be accessed via the following link: https://bit.ly/44WdZwZ It is recommended that online investors pre-register and run the online system check to expedite participation and receive event updates.Learn more about the event at www.virtualinvestorconferences.com Warpaint Q1 2024 Highlights (as announced on 24 April 2024)Continued strong trading in Q1 2024, with unaudited Group sales for the three months to 31 March 2023 of 23.5 million an increase of 28% on the same period in 2023 Gross margin in Q1 was robust and better than that achieved for full year 2023 Maintained a strong balance sheet, with no debt. Cash balances as at 2 April 2024 totalled 7.5 million after investment in a significant increase in stock to satisfy expected demand later in the year (31 March 2023: 8.5 million) Continuing brand sales momentum being seen in 2024, both internationally and the UK, including:In the US:Q1 2024 expansion into CVS in the US already implemented, expanding the W7 range stocked and roll-out to a further 387 stores Significant Christmas order received from Walmart, for W7 and Chit Chat product and in discussions to stock the Group's all-year-round product Significant expansion planned with Five Below during H1 2024, including the stocking of an increased range of W7 product in all 1,544 of their stores, with a further 225+ Five Below stores expected to open in the next 12 months stocking W7 productsIn the UK:In March 2024, a full range of Technic products was launched in an initial 202 Morrisons stores Expansion to a further 100 Boots stores during April 2024 with additional W7 products stocked in existing and newly added stores Further rollout with Superdrug planned for July 2024, into a further 63 stores, taking the number of Superdrug stores served to 134, and an increase in the products stocked across all these stores Further range and store expansions planned with other existing customers including Etos, Normal, Tesco, The Range and Wibra, together with launches with a number of significant new customers Enquiries:Warpaint London plcc/o IFCSam Bazini - Chief Executive OfficerEoin Macleod - Managing DirectorNeil Rodol - Chief Financial OfficerAdam Kay - Investor Relations+1 310 868 6380Shore Capital (Nominated Adviser & Broker)+44 (0)20 7408 4090Patrick Castle, Daniel Bush - (Corporate Advisory)Fiona Conroy - Corporate BrokingIFC Advisory (Financial PR & IR) Tim Metcalfe, Graham Herring, Florence Chandler+44 (0)20 3934 6630Warpaint London plcWarpaint sells branded cosmetics under the lead brands of W7 and Technic. W7 is sold in the UK primarily to major retailers and internationally to local distributors or retail chains. The Technic brand is sold in the UK and continental Europe with a significant focus on the gifting market, principally for high street retailers and supermarkets. In addition, Warpaint also sells cosmetics under its other brand names of Man'stuff, Body Collection and Chit Chat, each targeting a different demographic.About Virtual Investor ConferencesVirtual Investor Conferences (VIC) is the leading proprietary investor conference series that provides an interactive forum for publicly traded companies to seamlessly present directly to investors.Providing a real-time investor engagement solution, VIC is specifically designed to offer companies more efficient investor access. Replicating the components of an on-site investor conference, VIC offers companies enhanced capabilities to connect with investors, schedule targeted one-on-one meetings and enhance their presentations with dynamic video content. Accelerating the next level of investor engagement, Virtual Investor Conferences delivers leading investor communications to a global network of retail and institutional investors.Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and legislation in the United Kingdom. These forward-looking statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and involve risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements contained herein. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the continuing brand sales momentum in 2024 and the expected expansion of the Company's customers.Reference should be made to those documents that Warpaint shall file from time to time or announcements that may be made by Warpaint in accordance with the London Stock Exchange AIM Rules for Companies ("AIM Rules") and the Disclosure and Transparency Rules ("DTRs") which contains and identifies other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any projections or forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of the original announcement, 24 April 2024. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements by or concerning Warpaint are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements above. Except as may be required under the AIM Rules or the DTRs or by relevant law in the United Kingdom, Warpaint does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements because of new information, future events or otherwise arising.This information is provided by Reach, the non-regulatory press release distribution service of RNS, part of the London Stock Exchange. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this informati PR-Inside.com: 2024-06-07 13:00:41 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 324 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 CROWN POINT, IN / ACCESSWIRE / June 7, 2024 / Zynergia, a leader in healthcare management solutions, is excited to announce a new strategic partnership with HomeSmiles, the leading provider of comprehensive home maintenance services. This partnership is set to enhance the Employers for Cheaper Healthcare (ECH) program, offering innovative healthcare solutions while managing costs effectively. This collaboration is set to enhance the Employers for Cheaper Healthcare (ECH) membership program, providing impactful healthcare solutions to members nationwide, particularly within franchisor brands working together to optimize cost management and employee well-being.Zynergia LogoPartnership Highlights:"The essence of our mission at ECH is to empower our members through leadership in cost-effective healthcare. By doing so, we are setting new standards for how employers can provide significant healthcare benefits while managing costs effectively," remarks Kirnjot Singh, MD, President of Zynergia."As America's premier home services provider, we are excited to be working with Zynergia. We know that their high standards align with ours and we are looking forward to being on the same team. We are excited about what the benefits that this partnership will bring to our Franchisees nationwide and look forward to working together," says Jesshill Love, President and founder of HomeSmiles.About Zynergia: Zynergia, recognized for its expertise in healthcare, is a prominent HR organization offering Enterprise Risk and Human Capital Management solutions designed to reduce healthcare costs and boost profitability for its client companies.About HomeSmiles: HomeSmiles provides all-encompassing home maintenance services, ensuring homes are well-maintained to avoid costly future repairs. We simplify the maintenance process, offering packages that cover a wide range of services in a single visit.For more information about Zynergia, the ECH Membership Program or our partnership with HomeSmiles, please contact:Zynergia Contact: Name: Elle Stallings Title: Marketing Manager Phone: (219) 247-8854 Email: press@ zynergiahr.com Website: [ https://zynergiahr.com/] Contact InformationElle StallingsMarketing Manager, Zynergiapress@ zynergiahr.com 219.247.8854SOURCE: ZynergiaView the original press release on newswire.com The Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal (CCPT) on Friday slammed N150 million fine against Multichoice Nig. Ltd. for disobeying its order on subscription rates hike for DStv and Gotv packages. The tribunal, sitting in Abuja, also ordered the pay television operator to give one-month free subscription to all its Nigerian subscribers on the DStv and Gotv platforms, for flouting its order. The three-member tribunal chaired by Thomas Okosun, in a ruling, found Multichoice culpable of contempt by flouting its earlier order restraining the pay television operator from implementing hike in its subscription rates for DStv and GOtv. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the CCPT had, on 29 April, restrained MultiChoice from increasing its tariffs and cost of products and services scheduled to begin on 1 May. The tribunal gave the interim order following an ex-parte motion moved by Ejiro Awaritoma, counsel for the applicant, Festus Onifade. Mr Onifade, a lawyer and subscriber, had approached the tribunal contending that the eight-day notice given by Multichoice for a price hike was insufficient. Respondents in the case were MultiChoice and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC). 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 He urged the tribunal to restrain Multichoice from implementing the tariff hike from 1 May as planned, pending the hearing determination of the petition. The tribunal granted the ex-parte motion of the applicant and stopped Multichoice from going ahead with the price increase in the interim. However, in defiance of the tribunals order, MultiChoice hiked its subscription rates for DStv and Gotv packages on the scheduled date 1 May. Following the price hike, Mr Onifade, on 7 May commenced contempt proceedings against Mohammed Sani, Manager of Abuja office of MultiChoice Nigeria Ltd, over alleged disobedience to the order made by the CCPT. The Notice of Consequence of Disobedience to Order of Court (Form 48) marked: CCPT/OP/02/2024 filed on 7 May by Mr Onifade warned Mr Sani against disregarding the tribunal order. MultiChoice, through its lawyer, Moyosore Onigbanjo, a Senior Advocate Nigeria, filed a preliminary objection praying the tribunal to decline jurisdiction in the suit. Mr Onigbanjo argued that such a price dispute case had been decided before in favour of his client. Mr Onifade, in his response, urged the tribunal to discountenance the companys objection and direct it to pay the sum of N10 billion or any amount the panel might deem fit in the circumstance for deliberately disobeying and failure to comply with the interim order. The lawyer argued that the issue he brought did not border on price regulation or increase. He explained that what he placed before the court was whether the company gave adequate notice in respect of the 1 May subscription price increase. It is our submission that the eight-day notice issued by Multichoice Nigeria Ltd is insufficient in law. A monthly subscriber should be given at least a month, he said, praying the tribunal to dismiss the preliminary objection for being a waste of time of the court. Delivering the ruling, the Thomas Okosun-led tribunal agreed with Mr Onifades submission, prompting the panel to affirm its jurisdiction and rule against the company. The tribunal subsequently fixed July 3 for hearing of the substantive suit of the claimant. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Famous businessman and celebrity barman Pascal Okechukwu, also known as Cubana Chief Priest, has lamented the decline of age-long traditional activities in South Eastern Nigeria due to insecurity. Restiveness and killings in Anambra and the Southeast geopolitical zone, in general, have been at an all-time high with growing concerns from residents and the state government. Recently, PREMIUM TIMES reported how gunmen attacked and killed four soldiers in Aba, Abia State. Given these challenges, however, President Bola Tinubu has vowed that his administration would come down heavily on those responsible for the unrest in the region. Addressing some of the growing concerns in a recent interview with BBC Igbo, Mr Okechukwu said the insecurity in the South-east, coupled with kidnappings, and the killing of wealthy men, has stalled social gatherings in the region. The Imo State-born socialite reminisced about how a once-vibrant age-long festival in his village, usually held every first of January, has been stalled. He said, My children are growing, and we have all been in Lagos; in their minds, they think they are from Lagos State, but they dont know where they come from. Things are getting bad. We have our own culture and heritage, and we cannot project it from afar. Before, in my village, there was this festival called Ofeke Day, every 1st January; there is nothing as sweet as it, but it is no longer there. 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 Imagine, we no longer celebrate traditional marriage in the village, burials are conducted in a hurry due to insecurity, and people now do traditional weddings in event centres in Lagos. This is not how we live. Before, when they are burying a big man, there are a lot of festivities and excitement, but all these have all died a natural death, and we are gradually losing our own. Lets go back to the root and make our land better. Those things that have been destroyed, we can rebuild them. Reacting to the recent insecurity, he said, Greed has caused all that is happening in the southeast. Why kill your brother just because you do not like the government? What you will do is wait for the election to vote out that person instead of beheading or killing your brother who is in the army or the police. Who will protect us if not the Army or the Police? Relocating During the interview, Cubana Chief Priest, who originally started his business in Owerri, Imo State, revealed that he moved to Lagos because of the lingering insecurity that kept wealthy patrons away. He said, I came to Lagos to do business because our brothers from the East stopped returning home for the Weekend or Christmas due to fear of being kidnapped or killed. People in Owerri, all they drink is a bottle of beer, a little hot and a little Champagne, but those in Lagos and Abuja, when they come for weekends, spend very well, and money enters into my system. Like during Christmas, when Christmas used to boom, after my Christmas sales, from the profit, I would buy a new car or buy a new business. But it is no longer the same. The lack of patronage started slowing down my business. I had to move to Lagos. He noted he decided to run for his life alleging his kinsmen stopped coming back home during festive seasons. The insecurity in the East dragged our region back. Rich Igbo men like Dr Ned Okokwu and E-Money built mansions back home; hence, we competed among ourselves; everyone wanted to go home and develop. We were an inspiration to ourselves, but now, everyone has run away because of insecurity, and these criminals dont want to see a big man. If they see a big man, they will want to kill him and call him all sorts of names. Because everyone is running away, there is hunger in the land, impoverished my region, and our people became hungry. It is our brothers at home that give criminals information. Our people started killing the rich, so the rich stopped coming back home during festivities. Thats why I ran to Lagos to do my business, Cubana emphasised. Appeal Despite the challenges, Cubana Chief Priest urged his relatives not to abandon their roots. He called for a collective effort to rebuild and protect their homeland from the grip of criminal elements. He stressed that the community must unite and resist being driven out by fear. I am appealing to my brothers not to forget their home; lets not all run away because of these evil people; the wrong people should run away from us. And those our brothers at home are supposed to look after the land because the rat in the house would invite the one outside that there is fish in the house. Some people at home are setting trouble for their brother all because of greed. We know it is not easy at home, neither is it easy abroad, but it is what we would use wisdom to deal with, not knives and guns. These unknown gunmen should drop their weapons. Unknown gunmen are destroying our region, he said. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print A month after their senior colleagues Taiwo Ogogo Hassan and Yinka Quadri squashed their beef at actor Yomi Fabiyis housewarming and birthday party, Iyabo Ojo and Liz Anjorin, have followed suit. The long-standing feud between Ojo and Anjorin took a new dimension in September 2023 when Anjorin accused celebrities of exploiting Mohbads death for clout. Although Anjorin didnt mention Ojos name, she ( Ojo) said she was convinced that the actress ( Anjorin) was referring to her. Since then, the actresses have been embroiled in a public spat, using their social media platforms to trade barbs. The feud intensified in February when Anjorin accused Ojo of setting her up in a fraudulent gold transaction and clothing deal at Idumota market in Lagos. The allegation led to actress Ojos Februarys cyberbullying and defamation legal action against Anjorin at a Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos State. PREMIUM TIMES reported in November 2023 that Ojo threatened legal action against Anjorin on the same allegations and demanded retraction in four national newspapers, a full apology posted on Anjorins verified social media for two weeks, and N500 million compensation for damages. 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 Anjorin, however, did not appear at the scheduled court hearing in February, but Ojo, through her Instagram page, announced the adjournment of the hearing to 10 April. But, the longstanding feud between the actresses ended on Thursday during a court hearing by Justice Olabisi Akinlade, who brokered a peace between the actresses. Viral footage obtained by this newspaper shows the actresses smiling as they left the courthouse, following Justice Akinlades intervention as a mediator to reconcile them. Speaking after the proceedings, Anjorins lawyer, Olabiyi Ademola, confirmed that both actresses are ready to move forward peacefully. He added that the judge offered both actresses motherly advice to cease their social media fighting and cursing and instead embrace peace. Mr Ademola said, The judge assumed a maternal role, admonishing her daughters, offering advice, and emphasising that court appearances arent perpetual. She encouraged them to resolve their differences, and I expressed confidence that justice would prevail, evidenced by their smiles as they left the courtroom. Motherly advice Reacting, the actresses Anjorin and Ojo hailed Mrs Akinlade as a maternal figure for her efforts in resolving the long-standing feud between them. The actresses (Anjorin and Ojo) stated that its uncommon to find a judge who offers such insightful and compassionate advice instead of simply pronouncing judgement. Ojo explained that Mrs Akinlade encouraged them to cease mudslinging on social media. The mother-of-two added that the judge also implored them to end their hostile altercations with each other. According to the judge, it is imperative that we refrain from negatively mentioning our names on social media and promote peace. This directive has been given to us as an order. Our relationship has always been peaceful, even before this, Ojo said. Anjorin, however, revealed she intended to have a judgement pronounced without them knowing they were coming to court to see their mother. She excelled as a mother. Were it any other judge, her verdict would be final, incontestable. However, she deviated from the norm and expressed concern for us, offering guidance on what actions to take and which to avoid. When I confided in her about my social media struggles, she brushed aside the online realm, emphasising her concern for us, expressing her desire to see harmony and unity among us rather than discord and strife. Anjorin clarified that she has always maintained a peaceful relationship with actress Ojo, even before the court case began. She stated that she moved on from the issue immediately, following Justice Akinlades advice. If peace is what you seek, peace shall be granted. If Gistlover comes after me, Ill confront the blog. Weve always maintained peace, but those media influencers rely on social media before they even eat to stir up trouble. Background Anjorin further alleged that Ojo owns the popular gossip blog Gistlover, which she claims has been spreading false information about her. Additionally, Anjorins social media posts hinted at accusations against a figure named Sepeteri, widely believed to be a pseudonym for Ojo. These insinuations included allegations of inappropriate behaviour, even involving Ojos daughter. Ojo responded to Anjorins tirade in an Instagram video, challenging her to mention her name if she meant the accusations directly. Iyabo also claimed Anjorin still owes her money from a previous film project. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, has accused the Bola Tinubu administration of diverting public funds through petrol subsidy, hence the refusal of the government to reveal how much is being spent on subsidy. Atiku said this in a statement on Thursday in reaction to a statement from the presidency. The former vice president said the clandestine subsidy regime was one of the reasons investments in the oil sector had refused to come in. He said, Tinubu has brought the shady nature of running Lagos to the federal level. He claims subsidy is gone but his Special Adviser on Energy, Olu Verheijen, says they are intervening from time to time while his Finance Minister, Wale Edun, described subsidy removal as an ongoing process. A document authored by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy revealing how much subsidy is being paid is now being disowned by the very authors of the document. Both the World Bank and the IMF have revealed in separate reports that Nigeria is still paying petrol subsidies, but the Tinubu government refuses to come clean. Even a senior member of the APC had revealed that subsidy was beyond paid. For a man who claims to be on a mission to attract foreign direct investment, it is ironic that he cannot see that his policy flip flops and lies are capable of dissuading investors. He must come clean on this subsidy issue since he doubles as petroleum minister. The Tinubu administration should be courageous enough to own their policies and outcome with their full chest and responsible enough to be accountable for their actions to Nigerians. This denial lends credence that money meant for the Federation Account, which ought to be shared to states and local governments, is being diverted without any form of accountability whatsoever. 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 There is a need for the National Assembly to get to the bottom of the matter rather than focusing on frivolous issues. The National Assembly needs to be alive to its responsibilities, especially in the area of oversight. Posterity will not be kind to members of the National Assembly if they continue to look the other way while daylight robbery is taking place, the former vice president said. Signed: Paul Ibe Media Adviser to Atiku Abubakar Vice President of Nigeria (1999-2007) and Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (2023) Abuja 6th June, 2024. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print A journalist in Abia State was on Monday allegedly attacked and assaulted by two security guards attached to the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) in Umuahia, the state capital. The journalist Emmanuel Nwazue, who works at Afia TV, was assaulted by the security guards while he was monitoring the indefinite strike declared by the labour unions. How it happened Mr Nwazue told PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday that he was interviewing ordinary Nigerians to get their thoughts on how the industrial action was affecting them when the guards accosted him. The journalist said he approached some bank customers in the area and requested to interview them a few miles away from bank premises after he observed that some of them appeared frustrated. The reason for asking them (the interviewees) to move miles away was to prevent my camera from capturing any bank building. Only the FCMB signpost and that of the Keystone bank were captured by my camera just to show that I was in a banking environment and they are bank customers, he said. He said mid-way into the interview, the security guards stormed the scene and disrupted the interview. When they disrupted the interview, I tried to leave, but they stood in my way and said I would not leave until I handed my camera over to them. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later But I resisted. I shoved one of them aside to leave, and they pushed me, and before I knew what was happening, they started beating me, Mr Nwazue narrated, recalling that he was hanging his microphone and camera on his neck while the beating was ongoing. They continued pushing me, beating me from side to side until I fell. I fell on the main road, and an on-coming vehicle nearly crushed me, he stated. The journalist said he was only rescued by some passers-by and other witnesses, including the resident he interviewed. Camera damaged, ankle dislocated Mr Nwazue said aside from his camera, which the guards damaged during the assault, he suffered ankle dislocation during the incident. When I was freed from their grip, I noticed that my camera battery chamber was no longer closing - they had damaged it. I had an ankle dislocation. In fact, that night, I could not get home unaided. It was another journalist who drove me home because I couldnt walk. Prior to that time, I had a medical condition lumbar spondylosis. I had spent over N1 million treating myself. So, I was just recuperating, and these people want to send me back to the wheelchair, he said. The journalist said he had reported to his media outfit and also to the police in Abia State. Bank silent When contacted on Thursday, the Group Head, Corporate Affairs of the FCMB, Diran Olojo, asked Adeola Aladejokun, another staff member of the Corporate Affairs Unit of the bank, to respond to enquiries from PREMIUM TIMES. Mr Aladejokun promised to comment on the incident at 4 p.m. He would call back an hour later and ask for more time to respond but failed to do so more than four hours later. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Friday inaugurated a Paediatric Sickle Cell Centre at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH). The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the centre was donated to LASUTH by the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (OSSAP-SDGs). Mr Sanwo-Olu said the centre would provide comprehensive care that includes early diagnosis, advanced treatment, and continued management to children suffering from the debilitating sickle cell condition. According to him, the centre will serve as a hub for research and education and foster a greater awareness and deeper understanding of sickle cell disease. This will not only transform our total healthcare landscape but will add to the number of childcare facilities that already exist in our state health institutions. It will raise the capacity of the states medical services and, very importantly, contribute to improving the states infant and maternal mortality index, he said. The governor noted that the centre would provide an environment where children could receive holistic care tailored to their needs, from medical treatment to psychological support. 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 We believe that this will ensure that every child that has an opportunity to come to this facility will come out healthier, better, and theyll be able to fulfil their life, he said. Earlier, the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Tunji Alausa, restated the Federal Governments commitment to combat non-communicable diseases and improve healthcare outcomes for Nigerians. Mr Alausa said that sickle cell disease, alongside malaria, cancer, hypertension, diabetes, and other non-communicable diseases, represents a substantial health burden for the country, worsening morbidity and mortality of citizens. At the federal level, we recognise the urgent need to address these challenges and are committed to building a robust infrastructure to manage and mitigate the impact in collaboration with our subnational government. The establishment of this state-of-the-art Sickle Cell Centre is a testament to the dedication of the SDG office to provide quality healthcare and infrastructure to our people. This centre is not merely a building, it is a beacon of hope for many and a cornerstone of our strategy to enhance healthcare services nationwide, he said. The minister stressed the importance of leveraging the resources to its fullest potential, ensuring that it delivers on its promise to improve lives. Mr Alausa advised subnational governments to form strategic partnerships for healthcare and human capital development, stressing that through collaboration, a resilient healthcare system capable of meeting the demand of the population would emerge. He commended the Lagos State government and OSSAP-SDGs on their partnership to provide top-tier cancer care to children and their commitment to innovative research. Also, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals, Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, said the centre would enhance the quality of care for children with Sickle Cell disease. Mrs Orelope-Adefulire noted that the centre was an intervention to reduce the number of under-five child mortality and strengthen the attainment of SDG targets in the country. Contributing, the Chief Medical Director LASUTH, Adetokunbo Fabamwo, said Nigeria had one of the highest rates of sickle cell disease globally, with up to three million people living with the condition. Mr Fabamwo noted that the condition contributes significantly to childhood morbidity and mortality. It is, therefore, apt to have a centre like this to offer preventive and therapeutic care to child sufferers. The establishment of this centre takes a huge chunk of load off the usually crowded therapeutic clinics and wards, he said. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Nnamdi Kanus legal team on Thursday called on President Bola Tinubu and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, to see to the release of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) from custody. The team, led by Nnaemeka Ejiofor, made the appeal after delivering a copy of an appeal letter seeking Mr Kanus freedom to the AGFs office at the Federal Ministry of Justice, Abuja, on Thursday. We are calling on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, who is a democrat, and the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, not to follow the steps laid down by General Muhammadu Buhari which tied Nigeria down. We believe that President Tinubu would do better and do the proper thing by releasing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, not only releasing him but by releasing every human being that is called an IPOB member whether justly or unjustly detained, he said. Mr Kanu, who faces charges of treasonable felony over his campaigns for secession of a Biafra Republic carved out of Nigerias South-east states and parts of some neigbouring states, has been in detention since June 2021 during the former President Muhammadu Buhari administration. He was first arrested in 2015 and held in detention until 2017 when he was granted bail by the trial judge, Binta Nyako, of the Federal High Court in Abuja. But he fled the country following the invasion of his home at Afara-Ukwu near Umuahia, the Abia State capital, in September 2017. 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 Since then, Mr Kanu stopped attending trial, prompting the judge to later revoke the bail granted him and ordered his arrest. The Nigeria government arrested Mr Kanu in Kenya in June 2021 and brought him back to Nigeria to continue with his trial. During his first court appearance after his return to Nigeria, the judge remanded him in the custody of the State Security Service (SSS), where he has since remaind. Why appeal for Kanus release Mr Ejiofor explained on Thursday that the letter of appeal for the IPOB leaders release was necessary following the AGFs comments suggesting that Mr Kanus case should be left to the courts to decide. The appeal letter referenced judgements from both the federal and state High Courts and the Supreme Court, all affirming that Mr Kanus rendition from Kenya and the invasion of his residence were unlawful acts. On 13 October 2022, the Court of Appeal in Abuja dismissed the terrorism and treasonable felony charges against Mr Kanu, citing the manner in which the Nigerian government forcibly brought back to Nigeria. But the Supreme Court would later overturn the judgement of the Court of Appeal, ordering that his trial should continue at the Federal High Court in Abuja. Mr Ejiofor argued that the AGF, who assumed office last year, might not have been fully briefed the whole truth regarding Mr Kanus case. He described his clients ordeal in custody as government persecution infringing on fundamental rights. Call for release of detained IPOB members Mr Ejiofor also called for the release of all detained IPOB members held in military custody in Abuja. Also, he accused the SSS of being the primary agent responsible for the arrests and detentions of IPOB members, noting that numerous courts have ruled in favour of their immediate release. Additionally, Mr Ejiofor said a judgement by the Enugu State High Court nullified the proscription of IPOB. He said the judgement should be respected and enforced. The High Court in Enugu ruled that the way and manner IPOB was proscribed as a terrorist organisation is wrong. That judgement is a subsisting one because it came after the proscription of the IPOB by the Federal High Court in Abuja. Under our law and jurisprudence, the ruling and judgement should be obeyed by everybody, which is the legal judgement of the High Court of Enugu State, he added. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print A traditional ruler in Enugu State has been remanded for alleged involvement in the murder of two police operatives and three Neighbourhood Watch Group members in the state. The traditional ruler, Herbert Ukuta, was arraigned on Thursday alongside four others allegedly involved in the murder of the operatives. Mr Ukuta is the traditional ruler of Igga Community in the Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of the state. The police spokesperson in Enugu State, Daniel Ndukwe, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday night. Mr Ndukwe, a deputy superintendent of police, identified four other suspects as Festus Okonkwo, Ofodile Titus Henry, Sunday Ugwu and Obinna Ayogu all males. Murder of the security operatives Mr Ndukwe said the victims were ambushed and murdered on 3 May by a large group of armed criminal elements harboured in the Igga Community. The spokesperson said the attack occurred when a combined security team comprising three police operatives and four members of the Neighbourhood Watch Group were providing security for a team of investors from Lagos State on a tour of a proposed agricultural investment site in the community. 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 He claimed that the bodies of the victims were later recovered following revelations by the traditional ruler and others earlier arrested and detained on court orders. Arraignment Mr Ndukwe said the suspects were arraigned on Thursday and remanded at the Nigeria Correctional Centre in Enugu. They were arraigned for the offences of conspiracy, terrorism, and murder upon being found culpable during investigations, he said. The police spokesperson did not mention the court where the suspects were arraigned. But PREMIUM TIMES gathered that they were arraigned at Enugu North Magistrate Court I by the police in Enugu State. Mr Ukuta, the traditional ruler, had been in detention at the police facility for over one month without trial. This newspaper gathered that the arraignment of Mr Ukuta and others came barely 24 hours after the Inspector-General of Police queried the Commissioner of Police in the state, Kanayo Uzuegbu, for detaining the monarch for over one month without trial. Assurance for justice Mr Uzuegbu reiterated the resolve of the police to prosecute those involved in the murder, Mr Ndukwe said. The police commissioner cautioned social media users allegedly publishing falsehoods about the case. He vowed that the police would not be distracted by such ugly campaigns. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print With Gasgoo Daily, we will offer daily important automotive news in China. For those we have reported, the title of the piece will include a hyperlink, which will provide detailed information. XPENG's new brand MONA releases first Weibo post On June 7th, the official Weibo account for XPENG's new brand, MONA, began updates. The first post introduced the meaning behind the name MONA, which stands for "Made Of New AI." Previously, XPENG revealed that the MONA brand is expected to be officially launched in June this year, with its first model set to hit the market in the third quarter of this year. Photo credit: MONA All-new Buick Envision Plus goes on sale SAIC-GM Buick announced today the new-generation Buick Envision Plus has already gone on sale. The new model is available in three trim levels, priced between 229,900 yuan and 259,900 yuan. Gotion High-tech, Spain's Phi4Tech form comprehensive partnership Recently, Gotion High-tech signed a cooperation agreement with Spain's Phi4Tech Technology Group and Unicorn RE Investment Group. The three parties will explore new cooperation models in Spain, focusing on energy storage and new material development. GAC Energy, NIO Energy forge partnership to share EV charging network On June 7, GAC Energy Technology Co., Ltd. ("GAC Energy") and Wuhan NIO Energy Co., Ltd. ("NIO Energy") officially established a partnership for the interconnection of their electric vehicle (EV) charging networks. NIO's Q1 2024 revenue drops YoY, but gross profit surges YoY NIO Inc. ("NIO"), a leading company in the premium smart electric vehicle market, has released its unaudited financial results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2024 (Q1 2024). Neusoft secures 2.1 billion-yuan deal from Chinese automaker for navigation solution Chinese software supplier Neusoft has been chosen by a leading domestic automaker to provide OneCoreGo 5.0 navigation products and EHP electronic horizon software for over ten vehicle models aimed at global markets, the company announced on June 6. GAC Group, Changan Automobile sign strategic cooperation framework agreement On June 6, GAC Group and Changan Automobile signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement in Chongqing, marking a pioneering collaboration between a central state-owned enterprise (SOE) and a local SOE in China's automotive industry. Hyper GT Global Edition hits market, featuring HD map-free smart driving system On June 6th, the Hyper GT Global Edition, a new model under GAC AION's premium brand Hyper, officially hit the market, introducing three models priced between 203,900 yuan and 259,900 yuan. Notably, the new vehicle features the innovative "HD Map-free Global Communication" intelligent driving system, which operates without the need for high-precision maps. Polestar announces interoperability with NIO's EV charging network On June 6, Polestar officially announced its comprehensive integration with NIO's electric vehicle (EV) charging network. The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) has threatened to disconnect government houses in the South-east over failure to pay their electricity bills. The EEDC also said it would disconnect offices of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigerian army, among others, for the same reason. The spokesperson of the EEDC, Emeka Ezeh, who disclosed this in a statement on Friday, said all the five state governments in the region were among the institutions owing the company. EEDC is the power distribution company in charge of electricity supply in south-east Nigeria. More institutions to be disconnected Mr Ezeh said apart from the mentioned institutions; the EEDC would also disconnect Innoson Technical Industries, the Enugu Campus of the University of Nigeria Nsukka and the Nigerian Bottling Company for failing to pay their electricity bills. The spokesperson said other institutions marked for disconnection include Nigeria Police Force, Nigerian Air Force, Nigerian Navy, Nigeria Railway Corporation, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency; University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Ituku-Ozalla; Ebonyi State University, Coal Corporation Quarters and Federal Secretariat and Establishments all in South-east. We are also disconnecting GMO Rubber Division; Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka; Ebonyi State Governments Ecumenical Centre l; Nigeria Prisons Training School; M/S Concorde Hotel, Owerri and Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki. 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 Others are Enugu State High Court; Reliable Steel and Plastic Industries Ltd; Jilnas Industries; Bengas Nigeria Ltd; CIFO Petroleum Ltd; Stanel Filling Station, Highlift Pumping Station; Finoc Industries Ltd; Aluminium Extrusion Industries Ltd and VIN VAL Limited. The rest are local government council offices; Saint Davids Porter Nigeria Ltd, Gees Denver Company Limited; the Federal Controller of Works, Hospitals Management Board, and Donlink Plastic Industries, he said. Mr Ezeh said the affected institutions and governments owe the EEDC over N180 billion in electricity bills. He said the electricity company would, from Monday, commence massive disconnection of electricity supply to these and other customers with outstanding electricity bills. This exercise has become necessary considering the huge (amount of) over N180 billion unpaid electricity bills and accrued arrears, which have consistently put the company (EEDC) in a precarious revenue deficit position, making it difficult to meet up with its power purchase obligations. For EEDC to continue providing services to its esteemed customers, it is pertinent that electricity bills, which are for energy already consumed, are paid in full, he said. If this is not done, it will be difficult for the company to keep up its operations to serve customers and enhance the quality of service, he said. Mr Ezeh, however, asked the affected customers to pay their arrears on or before Monday to avoid having their supply disconnected. He stressed that the notice of disconnection applies to all categories of customers (maximum demand and non-maximum demand) owing the EEDC. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The adoption of an indigenous midwives initiative across the country will significantly improve Nigerias maternal mortality according to John Sotunsa, a professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. He said this while speaking at Babcock Universitys 49th inaugural lecture in Ogun State on Thursday. The lecture was themed: Beyond Superficial Success: Holistic Approaches to Maternal Mortality. Mr Sotunsa, Provost of the Benjamin Carson Senior College of Health and Medical Sciences at the institution, said addressing Nigerias maternal mortality crisis required a proactive and indigenous approach that brings health care for pregnant women increasingly closer to the grassroots. To make strides towards reduction, Mr Sotunsa suggested the adoption of the Ondo State Government-driven Abiye Initiative which used traditional midwifery to access women in remote communities less inclined to visit a medical facility across the country. He said the Abiye programme addressed all the delays that affected maternal mortality and harmonised the efforts of primary and tertiary health care centres with the aid of government-recruited and trained health rangers. He said: It was high time all causes of maternal death were eliminated to change the negative narrative. He, therefore, called on government and private organisations to find ways of minimising the delays associated with high maternal mortality rate. 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 Statistics showed that the delays in areas such as seeking help for pregnancy and childbirth, reaching specific facilities as well as getting care and referral when needed were among major risk factors to Nigerias high maternal mortality. Improved health indices In the first year of the programme, the maternal mortality rate in Ondo fell to 100 per 100,000 live births, a far cry from the national MMR of 545 per 100,000 live births. This is a substantial decrease compared to the national rate of 545 per 100,000 live births. Years ago, the World Bank recommended the adoption of the Abiye Initiative as a model for achieving the targets of the Millennium Development Goals on maternal health within the African continent. The World Bank African Region Vice President at the time, Oby Ezekwesili, said Ondo State had provided a role model and benchmark for the African continent in tackling infant and maternal mortality rate. Speaking on this, Mr Sotunsa said the initiative was a success because it provided accessible and affordable health care in every corner of the state. He believes that improving accessibility, availability, affordability, and the quality of primary healthcare centres in the country would greatly improve the health indices. Mr Sotunsa also recommended social networks and support as well as social insurance schemes to stem maternal mortality. According to him, adequate social support would not only enhance a positive pregnancy experience but reduce the risk of premature deaths by 26 per cent as well as reduce depression, anxiety, stroke, heart disease and dementia. We can keep our women alive if we look inward and maximise our opportunities, he said. What we have, know, and do can prevent the majority of maternal deaths in Nigeria if we are available, consistent, ingenious, committed and sacrificing, he noted. Abiye Initiative The Abiye Initiatives is a home-grown initiative which seeks to tackle the challenges of maternal mortality and morbidity in Ondo State, Nigeria. The project is the brainchild of Olusegun Mimikos administration, a former governor of Ondo State. It was established in 2009, following the release of the 2008 Nigeria Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) which ranked Ondo as the state with the worst maternal and child health indices in the south-west of Nigeria. The Abiye Initiative aimed to improve maternal health care service delivery in the state and to ensure accessibility as well as a high level of efficacy will ensure a reduction in the rate of maternal and infant mortality. Maternal mortality in Nigeria In Nigeria, maternal mortality remains a key issue affecting women of reproductive age. Nigeria currently contributes 10 per cent of global deaths for pregnant mothers. A report by the United Nations Childrens Funds (UNICEF) showed that 40 million women of childbearing age, between 15 and 49 years of age, suffer a disproportionately high level of health issues surrounding birth and considering the poor birth registration which in some areas up to 62 per cent, known data about child health issues are likely to underestimate the true scale Despite the global decline in the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) to 34.2 per cent between 2000 and 2020, MMR is still a disaster in the country and the Africa region at large. An estimated 287,000 women die every year from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth and 70 per cent of these deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa. Across the continent, complications from pregnancy and childbirth are also a leading cause of death among young girls between the ages of 15 and 19. Neonatal mortality rates are also a major cause for concern with 48 deaths per 1,000 live births compared to four deaths per 1,000 live births in high-income countries. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print No fewer than 200 intending pilgrims from Kwara State on Friday protested at llorin International Airport over the inability of an aircraft to transport them to Saudi Arabia. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the pilgrims, officials of the State Pilgrims Welfare Board and the 2024 state Amirul Hajj had boarded the aircraft since Thursday. The aircraft was, however, said to have developed a technical fault. NAN also reports that some engineers with the Federal Airport Authority had been making frantic efforts to repair the faulty aircraft since Thursday without success. Consequently, some of the intending pilgrims staged a protest over the development. The intending pilgrims, alongside their relations, took the protest to the highway linking the airport with other communities to express their displeasure over the situation. Some of the protesters were seen singing solidarity songs condemning the situation, especially since they are the tenth and last batch from the state. 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 Ibrahim Oloriegbe, the states 2024 Amirul Hajj (head of Kwara State Hajj contingent) and former senator, while speaking with NAN, attributed the failure to transport the last batch of the pilgrims to faulty aircraft. Mr Oloriegbe said the intending pilgrims had boarded the aircraft since Thursday but were unable to be transported following the development. He said that they are expecting another aircraft from Medinah to transport the intending pilgrims and the officials. He appealed to them to exercise patience, as the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria was on top of the situation. He said that the board would continue to cater for the feeding of the intending pilgrims pending when they would be transported to the holy land. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) has said though a new minimum wage is due, the proposed N60,000 is not sustainable. NGF Acting Director on Media and Public Affairs, Halima Ahmed, in a statement on Friday in Abuja, sympathised with the labour unions in their push for higher wages. While labour is demanding N494,000 as minimum wage, the government, through a tripartite committee, is proposing N60,000. Ms Ahmed, however, urged all parties to consider the fact that the minimum wage negotiations also involved consequential adjustments across all cadres, including pensioners. The NGF cautions parties in this important discussion to look beyond just signing a document for the sake of it; any agreement to be signed should be sustainable and realistic. All things considered, the NGF holds that the N60,000 minimum wage proposal is not sustainable and cannot fly. ALSO READ: Reps ask FG to jettison minimum wage for living wage It will simply mean that many states will spend all their Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocations on just paying salaries, with nothing left for development purposes. 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 In fact, a few states will end up borrowing to pay workers every month. We do not think this will be in the collective interest of the country, including workers, she said. Ms Ahmed, on behalf of the governors, appealed to all parties involved, especially the labour unions, to consider all the socio-economic variables. She urged the concerned parties to settle for an agreement that is sustainable, durable, and fair to all other segments of the society, who have legitimate claim to public resources. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Federal High Court has reserved judgment in a suit filed by the dethroned Emir of Kano, Aminu Ado Bayero, on the protection of his fundamental human rights. The judge, Simon Amobeda, announced the decision after listening to the lawyers representing the parties in the case. Mr Ado Bayero filed the suit seeking the court to restrain the respondents from arresting or infringing on his rights. Respondents in the suit are the Attorney-General of the Federation, the Attorney General of Kano State, the Nigeria Police Force, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), the Commissioner of Police in Kano, the State Security Service (SSS), the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Air force, and the Nigerian Navy. On Friday, counsel to the second respondent, Mahmoud Magaji, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said he filed a preliminary objection on 31 May on four grounds around the applicants fundamental human rights and the repealed Kano emirate law. We filed our 12-paragraph counter affidavit deposed by Abdullahi Garko and written address dated May 31st on point of law, Mr Magaji said, urging the court to dismiss and strike out the originating summons. He told the court that being an emir is a privilege, not a right. The applicant filed his application five days after he was removed. At the time of filing, he is no longer an emir. And if that was established, he has no rights. We submit that the purported right does not exist. 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 The applicant has agreed that he was removed but without a fair hearing. I urge your lordship to refuse to hear their application. I urge the court to discountenance the originating summon, he added. Mr Magaji also filed a motion on notice to set aside the exparte order earlier granted by the court restraining the respondents from arresting, intimidating or harassing him. Earlier, the counsel to Mr Ado Bayero, Michael Numa, argued that the court has jurisdiction to entertain the matter as it is based on the fundamental rights of the applicant. He said he also filed an originating motion dated 27 May supported with an affidavit and a written address, urging the court to accept the fundamental rights suit in the interest of justice for the peace of Kano and Nigeria. The judge, Mr Amobeda, however, said a date will be communicated to the lawyers representing parties in the case for his ruling. The case is different from the one instituted by Aminu Danagundi at the Federal High Court 1 before Judge A M Liman. Mr Danagundi, in suit number FHC/KN/CS/182/2024, wants the court to stop the implementation of the states new emirate law that reinstated Lamido Sanusi as emir of Kano. PREMIUM TIMES reported how on 23 May, the state House of Assembly repealed the State Emirate Council Law 2019 under which former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje split Kano Emirate into five distinct units. The repeal of the law means the dissolution of the four emirates created in 2019 Bichi, Rano, Gaya, and Karaye and the sacking of their emirs. The development restored Kano as the only state in Nigeria with a single emirate council, aside from Sokoto which also has the Sultan as the only paramount ruler. After signing the repeal, Governor Abba Yusuf reinstated Mr Sanusi as emir of Kano. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Police Service Commission (PSC) has approved the appointment of Yahaya Abubakar as Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG), and the promotion of 122 senior police officers. The Head of Press and Public Relations of PSC, Ikechukwu Ani, said this in a statement on Friday in Abuja. Mr Ani said until his appointment as a DIG, Mr Abubakar was the AIG in charge of Zone 14 Katsina. He said the new DIG would represent the North-east geopolitical zone in the Police Management Team, replacing Habu Sani, who recently retired as the DIG Force Intelligence Bureau. Mr Ani said the 122 other senior police officers promoted were 10 Commissioners of Police (CP) to the next rank of AIG and 15 Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCP) to CP. The CPs promoted to AIG were Ahmed Ammani, Mohammed Adamu, Gumel Usaini, Hamzat Ayinde, Okuoma Basil, Achinyan Fera, Baba Ibrahim, Mohammed Isyaku, and Margaret Ochalla. The PSC spokesperson said 36 Assistant Commissioners of Police (ACP) to DCP and 61 Chief Superintendents of Police (CSP) to ACP were also elevated. 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 He said the decisions were taken at the extraordinary management meeting of the commission, presided over by the Chairperson, Solomon Arase. According to him, the 15 DCPs, 10 CPs and the newly appointed DIG appeared before the commission in session for the compulsory interactive promotion interview, a requirement for their promotion. Mr Ani said the PSC boss urged the officers to embrace the revolution in information and communication technology, in charting out pathways for effective policing and internal security management. He said Mr Arase enjoined officers to be genuinely committed to their sacred responsibility of securing the country by effectively protecting lives and property, preventing and containing crimes and criminality across the nation. Mr Ani also said the PSC boss pledged the readiness of the commission to ensure that the promotion of officers and men was regular and predictable. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print President Bola Tinubu on Friday commissioned the N21 billion official residence of the vice president, Kashim Shettima, amid economic hardship. PREMIUM TIMES in November reported that the National Assembly approved an additional N15 billion to construct the building, bringing the total cost of the project to N21 billion. The government faced backlash over the construction because of the economic situation in the country. Workers in the country are currently negotiating a new national minimum wage with the government. However, there seems to be an impasse as the unions have rejected the N60,000 offered by the government, a 100 per cent increase from the current N30,000. The two main unions in the country, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), on Monday shut down economic activities for 48 hours over the minimum wage. Explaining the high cost of the project at the commissioning on Friday, the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, said it was awarded at an initial cost of N7 billion in 2010. He said the building was constructed to a level and later abandoned. This project was awarded in 2010, 14 years ago, and was abandoned in 2015. It was not until January of this year that we had a revised budget for the project. Now, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has come and within a year, he has made this project a reality. This is the hope. 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 It was in January this year (2024), that we had to review the project to N21 billion, from N7 billion, that means an additional N14 billion. For a vice presidents residence to take 14 good years and then Mr President, within a year, made it a reality; this is what is called, renewed hope. I, therefore, went to the president and told him criminals had taken over the place and the president directed that I should make sure that the project is completed, he said. Were committed to completing all inherited projects Tinubu In his speech, Mr Tinubu, who was represented by the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, said the completion of the project is part of his administrations commitment to complete all inherited projects. As we commission this state-of-the-art edifice as the official residence of the vice president, we are fulfilling a longstanding commitment and reaffirming our unwavering dedication to accountability, transparency and efficient utilisation of resources for the betterment of our nation. I hold a very strong opinion that abandoning projects after substantial expenditure have been incurred is inherently wasteful, and it is in the best interest of the government and the public to see them through to completion. I therefore, once again, want to express my gratitude to the FCT Administration for taking up the responsibility and feel duty-bound to complete this project to avoid wastage of taxpayers money, he said. Underscoring the importance of the project, President Tinubu explained that the provision of a suitable residence for the vice president is not merely a matter of convenience, but also a symbol of respect for the office and the individual who occupies it. However, rather than dwell on past shortcomings, you have chosen to seize this opportunity to demonstrate our resolve to confront obstacles head-on and deliver on the promises made to the Nigerian people in line with our Renewed Hope Agenda, which has the completion of inherited projects as one of its cardinal objectives, the president added. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State, South-south Nigeria, has denied interfering with funds meant for local government areas in the state. He, however, said he was interested in knowing what local councils do with the money. I stand here to say I have not interfered with their businesses. As their money comes, it goes to them, but we also want to know what they do with the money, that is the only thing we do. Mr Eno stated this last week at Uyo Township Stadium while delivering his first-anniversary speech. The chairperson of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) is here. But theyve been doing their work. We just ensured we worked with them to ensure they deliver on their mandate, the governor said. The event was broadcast live on Facebook. States and local government joint accounts Funds meant for local government areas in the Federation Account are channelled to them via state and local government joint accounts, where governors have controlling powers over the amount of money that should be released to the local councils in their states. 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 The practice, which has existed for decades, has prevented local governments from functioning as an independent tier of government and has triggered calls for local government autonomy. But Governor Eno, who just marked his first year in office, claimed he allowed local governments to run on their own. Their money goes to them directly, Mr Eno said. We just ensure we work with them, to make sure they deliver on their mandate, he added, suggesting that the third tier of government is not completely independent of his control. Mr Eno made the statement a few days after the federal government filed a suit at the Supreme Court against the 36 state governments. The suit is seeking the enforcement of full autonomy for the 774 local government areas in the country. The plaintiff in the suit the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice is asking the court to issue an order preventing state governors from embarking on unilateral, arbitrary, and unlawful dissolution of democratically elected officials at the local government areas. It also prayed the court to make an order permitting funds standing in credits of local governments to be paid to them directly from the Federation Account in line with the provisions of the Constitution as against the unlawful joint accounts created by the governors. Some states in the country, including Akwa Ibom, at the expiration of the tenure of the elected council officials, set up a caretaker committee to oversee the affairs of the council pending when elections would be conducted. Governor Enos administration has just extended for six months the tenure of the caretaker administration in the local government areas in Akwa Ibom. In the suit, the Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, among other requests, is asking the Supreme Court to stop governors from further setting up caretaker committees at the local government levels in violation of the constitutionally recognised democratic system. Mr Fagbemi further prayed the court to issue an injunction restraining governors, their agents and privies from receiving, spending or tampering with funds released from the Federation Account for the benefit of local governments where no democratically elected officials exist in the areas, PREMIUM TIMES reported. The local government, as a third tier of government, is meant to cater for the people at the grassroots, but the performance of the local leaders is generally poor across the country because of the overbearing influence of state governors who tampers with funds meant for them, a development that has crippled governance at the grassroots. Former President Muhammadu Buhari, in December 2022, accused state governors of pilfering funds meant for local governments. The Nigerian Senate last December urged the federal government to stop the allocation of funds to local governments run by caretaker committees. PREMIUM TIMES has reported how state governors fought against a move by the Nigeria Financial Intelligent Unit to abolish joint accounts where governors exercise powers over funds meant for local governments. The Akwa Ibom case Because the Akwa Ibom governor, like his counterparts in other states, has great influence over the election or appointment of local political leaders, local council officials are always reluctant to publicly admit that the governor tampers with funds meant for local councils. People familiar with how the state and local government joint account in Akwa Ibom is being operated said the state government has been taking credits for many projects executed with the local government funds. The Akwa Ibom State Government, for instance, takes credit for free education at the primary school level even when local government funds are used to pay the salary of primary school teachers. The state government also takes credit for purchasing SUVs for paramount rulers in the various local government areas of the state, even when the money for such purchases is deducted from the local councils funds. Also, the state government appoints members of the Local Government Service Commission, whose salaries are paid with local government funds. The functions of the commission include the recruitment, promotion, and transfer of local government workers. PREMIUM TIMES gathered that these monies are deducted during the meeting of the joint account, after which whatever is left is then shared with the local government councils. Generally acceptable deductions A council official, who preferred to be anonymous, said that generally acceptable deductions are made during joint account meetings. The money they deducted centrally, (are) for payment of local government teachers salaries, pensions and gratuities. After all these payments, including traditional rulers and some other things, what is left is what they hand over to you. The official said the practice began during the administration of former Governor Godswill Akpabio (now Senate President), where Victor Antai (now Executive Director, Project NDDC) served as commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs. Members of ALGON moved a motion that because some local governments are insolvent for example, the number of primary schools in Uyo Local Government Area, the funds that come to Uyo will not be able to pay teachers entitlements. They moved a motion that all local governments be taken into consideration. For instance, a place like Esit Eket Local Government Area that has huge allocation but with very few bills to pay will have too much excess money, while Uyo and Ikot Ekpene local government areas will not have. So, they put (allocations of the 31 LGAs in the state) in a pool, use certain indices to make sure that every central payment is being handled at the state level, including salaries, pensions and gratuities of primary schools teachers, local governments staff members and traditional rulers as would have been paid by the local governments. They remove it at (the) source and pay directly to prevent a situation where some local governments would pay while others do not. It is after all these deductions that they now tell you that after these deductions, this is what is left, and they now handed it over to you to run your council, the official said. It is not given on an equal basis. There are certain indices because what also comes in is not equal, the official said when asked if what is left is shared equally by local governments. The sharing strategy, as explained by the council official, suggests that the practice of lumping the federal allocations accruing to the 31 local governments in a pool for central deductions places local government areas like Uyo and Ikot Ekpene in an advantageous position. The two local government areas, apparently non-oil producing, do not get as much money from the federation account as some local government areas in the oil-rich Akwa Ibom. However, these two cities are densely populated and enjoy more revenues from businesses than other local governments, particularly those in rural areas, which do not, a development that renders the practice of making general deductions from the pool a disadvantage to other local government areas. Also, as stated by the official, Uyo and Ikot Ekpene local government areas have the largest number of primary schools as well as teachers population, making payment of salaries a burden to them, particularly when the state government takes credit for free education at primary school level but uses local government funds to pay teachers entitlements. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Imo House of Assembly has summoned the publisher of an online newspaper, Nigerian Watchdog, over a report against a lawmaker in the state. The publisher, Precious Nwadike, was accused of publishing an allegedly defamatory story against Ikenna Ihezuo, the lawmaker representing Orlu State Constituency. The house summoned Mr Nwadike who is also the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, in response to a complaint by Mr Ihezuo at the plenary in Owerri on Thursday. A lawmaker in the House, who asked not to be named, told PREMIUM TIMES that Mr Ihezuo complained to the assembly because he believes the publisher colluded with his political opponent to write a defamatory article against him. Summon I wish to convey to you, the Imo State House of Assembly resolution No 55 passed during its sitting of Thursday 6th June 2024, a letter addressed to the publisher reads in part. The Clerk of the House, Chinelo Emeghara, signed the letter. During the said sitting, the House resolved to invite you to its Executive Session on Tuesday 11 June 2024 at 10 a.m. to brief the House on the publication of the Nigerian Watchdog Newspaper dated 4 June 2024 against the honourable member representing Orlu State Constituency, Hon. Barr. Ikenna Ihezuo, Ms Emeghara, a lawyer, said in the letter. 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 The report In the report published by the Nigerian Watchdog Newspaper, the Chairperson of the All Progressives Congress APC in Orlu Local Government Area, Stanley Nwosu, was quoted as saying that he prevented the lawmaker from diverting 65 bags of rice released by the state government as palliative for the Orlu State Constituency. The newspaper did not mention Mr Nwosus name in the report but only identified him by his titled name, Ochinanwata and his position as APC chairperson in the council area. The paper also added the reaction of the lawmaker, who described the APC chairpersons allegations as lies. Not the first time This is not the first time authorities have targeted a journalist over reports critical of politicians and high-placed individuals in Nigeria. In one of the recent cases, the police summoned a PREMIUM TIMES reporter, Emmanuel Agbo, over a yet-to-be-published report that he was working on. In another case, the police detained the Executive Director of the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), Dayo Aiyetan, and an investigative journalist with the platform, Nurudeen Akewushola, for over nine hours. Both journalists honoured the invitation of the police and arrived at the Nigeria Police Force -National Cyber Crime Centre office at noon on Tuesday but were held and only released after 9 p.m. ICIR had raised an alarm on the detention of the duo, which prompted journalists and activists to take to social media to berate the police and call for their immediate release. Mr Akewushola said the police claimed they had received a petition, in which he and the ICIR were accused of cyberstalking and defamation, a familiar accusation used by Nigerian authorities to clamp down on journalists and activists. The police, on 1 May, detained Daniel Ojukwu, a journalist with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism, for 10 days after he was abducted by officers in Lagos State, South-west Nigeria. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, has commended the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and Nedogas Development Company Limited for initiating and successfully executing the 300 million standard cubic feet (MMscf) Kwale Gas Gathering (KGG) Facility and Nedogas Plant in Umusam community, Delta State. Speaking at the formal commissioning of the two projects on Thursday, the Minister said the outcome of the strategic collaboration between the two companies represents a significant advancement in the countrys efforts to promote sustainability, energy efficiency, and economic expansion. According to him, The NCDMB and Nedogas Limited, of which Xenergy Limited is a part, deserve praise for their tireless work and steadfast dedication to this admirable cause. He stressed that the collaboration serves as evidence of the effectiveness of our local content policy, which seeks to increase the involvement of Nigerian businesses in the oil and gas industry while promoting local knowledge and capability. The Petroleum minister said the countrys capacity to extract and use natural gas resources has been significantly boosted with the completion of Nedogas Plant, which will increase domestic supply and export potential, while generating jobs, fostering industrial expansion, and ensuring energy security. The Kwale Gas Gathering Facility, he pointed out, solves a persistent environmental issue as it captures associated gas that would otherwise be vented and thus turn a potentially waste product into a useful resource. The Decade of Gas plan of the Federal Government, he observed, is being promoted in the two projects of Nedogas. In concluding, Mr Ekpo enjoined all to note that It is essential that we keep enhancing the collaborations amongst all parties involved as we progress, while assuring that The Ministry of Petroleum Resources (Gas) is still dedicated to helping programs that improve local content, promote investments, develop capacity, and give Nigerians opportunity. In his remark, the Executive Secretary, NCDMB, Felix Omatsola Ogbe, said the achievement recorded by the Board and Nedogas represents a triumph of partnership and shared vision and confirms that the Government, the private sector and local communities can collaborate effectively to bring value to the economy. 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 He assured that NCDMB remains committed to fostering such collaborations and creating an enabling environment for investments and that the Board is equally proud of strategic projects it is developing in partnership with other chain investors in the last 10 years. These, he noted, are geared towards actualising the Federal Governments policy direction. According to the Executive Secretary, the KGG Facility and Nedogas Plant are not only infrastructural achievements but also serve as catalysts for local content development and job creation, among other things. Looking ahead, Mr Ogbe reaffirmed, NCDMB will continue to support similar initiatives that promote local content, drive economic growth, and improve the quality of life of Nigerians. The Delta State Governor, Sheriff Francis Oborevwori, represented by his Deputy, Monday John Onyeme, expressed happiness that the state is playing host to such an important project which would address the energy needs of Nigerians. He said the economic importance of the KGG Facility and Nedogas Plant would be best appreciated if placed within the context of the energy crisis in the country. Citing World Bank statistics, he stated that power supply is so poor that companies spend as much as $29 billion yearly to remain in business, and that the country is ranked as the lowest in terms of access to electricity globally. For his part, the Commission Chief Executive (CCE), Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Gbenga Komolafe, said the inauguration of the cutting-edge facility and plant represents a pivotal milestone for NCDMB and Nedogas. According to Mr Komolafe, represented by Ogunnubi Olusegun, Regional Coordinator of the Commission, by pushing the boundaries of energy production capacity, you are setting a commendable standard for others to aspire to. Earlier in his welcome address, the Chairman of Nedogas, Emeka C Ene, expressed appreciation to partners in the two projects that had contributed to the success being celebrated at the commissioning ceremony. He was particularly impressed with NCDMBs strategic capacity development initiatives under successive management, from Simbi Wabote to Mr Ogbe. He said the KGG facility and Nedogas plant align perfectly with the Decade of Gas initiative which the Federal Government has continued to promote, noting that the location of the KGG hub, being close to the Delta State Industrial Park, would significantly enhance economic activities and development of the state. The location, he explained, is also strategic as the facility would serve as a home, a collection point, to gas from different operating fields. According to him, All the stranded gas in the area is to be harnessed for the benefit of the people. On the wider significance of the KGG facility, he noted that This is a modular plant; it can be replicated 10 times over, and that similar facilities need to be developed to deal with the 140 flare sites in the oil-producing areas. The key project drivers, as the company explains in its official brochure, are stranded gas, proximity to market, evacuation pipeline, gas development and socio-economic benefits. In regard to the first above the company states, Natural gas stranded in OML [oil mining lease] 56 (Kwale area) due to absence of evacuation pipeline, while noting under Gas Development that A unique gas development opportunity exists for cluster members using shared facilities to leverage on gas network. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Read the full story on The Auto Wire Camry Flees Arkansas Trooper And Crashes At A Chick-Fil-A It used to be the Toyota Camry was mocked by certain auto sites as being slow, boring, and a waste of metal. While we dont expect everyone gets all hot and bothered about the sedans, weve seen suspects use them to smoke Arkansas State Police before. That means this pursuit involving the legendary Trooper Byrd isnt guaranteed to end in his favor, even though its more likely. Toyota Camry driver mocks Arkansas State Police. Trooper Byrd spots the Camry speeding on the highway and so he tries a traffic stop, but this person gets off the highway, fakes stopping, then flees on surface streets. ADVERTISEMENT Were pretty sure its a four-banger Camry instead of one of the V6 models, so not sticking to long straightaways where top-end acceleration is going to be a factor is probably a wise move. Everything happens fast, thanks to a suspect who obviously doesnt know how to flee from police. While he gets a good gap between him and Trooper Byrd, the guy absolutely wastes it when he swerves into the oncoming traffic lanes to get around slower cars and clips another vehicle. Its an amateur move which costs him big, sending the Toyota spinning out off the road, coming to rest right in front of Chick-Fil-A. The only way that could get more Southern would be if the police chase ended at a Waffle House. The guy bails and runs away on foot, but Trooper Byrd is good and tracks the guy down, even after he snakes through a parking garage, making an arrest. Dont mess with Trooper Byrd. Its amazing how even with videos like this on the internet for everyone to see people still try running from ASP troopers. Sure, a few get away, but a lot of them end up like this suspect, crying like a baby as theyre put into handcuffs. Image via Police Pursuits/YouTube Follow The Auto Wire on Google News. Join our Newsletter, subscribe to our YouTube page, and follow us on Facebook. When he took office one year ago as the Governor of Kano State, Abba Yusuf published a 70-page document as the blueprint his administration would use to improve the lives of citizens in the state. He also repeated his campaign promise to correct the illegalities allegedly committed by his predecessor, Abdullahi Ganduje, of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Mr Yusuf was elected on the platform of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), the only governor of the party in Nigeria. The governors blueprint has 13 thematic areas and places emphasis on education, healthcare, agriculture, infrastructural development, security, environment and information technology amongst others. He promised to make the North-west state a commercial hub second to none in Sub-Saharan Africa and revive its numerous comatose industries. Mr Yusuf said his administration is an offshoot of that of his father-in-law and political godfather, Rabiu Kwankwaso, who concluded his non-consecutive two terms in 2015. He berated Mr Ganduje for abandoning the initiatives of that administration despite serving in it as the deputy governor. The new governor wasted no time in reversing some policies of his predecessor. His immediate focus was the revocation of land titles and demolition of properties said to have been illegally allocated by Mr Ganduje. On 3 June 2023, his fifth day in office, Mr Yusuf sent a demolition team to pull down a three-storey building with 90 shops located at the Race Course in the Nasarawa GRA of the capital city. In the days that followed, more properties went down in the Kano metropolis. They include the iconic Daula Hotel that was just rebuilt on public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement, a commercial building at Hajj Camp, and many shops at the annexe of the Kantin Kwari Textile Market owned by Incorporated Trustees of Masallacin Eid Shop Owners and Traders Association. The demolition frenzy was extended to buildings in Salanta Quarters, a residential neighbourhood in the Kano metropolis, amongst others. As he had promised, the governor was only retracing the footsteps of his godfather. A few weeks after returning to office for his second term following an eight-year break, Mr Kwankwakso in July 2011 ordered structures built on land allocated by the administration of his successor and now predecessor, Ibrahim Shekarau, to individuals including business mogul Aminu Dantata, at the highbrow Kofa Naisa area of the Kano metropolis, to be demolished. The new government has since slowed down in the exercise, since reaching an out-of-court settlement with some property owners after the Federal High Court ordered the government to pay the owners of Masallacin Eid Shop N30 billion as compensation for the illegal demolition of their property. On 14 December, the state government agreed to pay N3 billion to the group after the court froze 24 bank accounts of the government for failing to comply with its order of compensation. 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 While the owners of the demolished property have been compensated, their tenant shop-owners, whose goods were looted by a mob while the shops were being demolished, have not been lucky. The stream of customers from neighbouring states and countries to the market has also dried up. Controversial expenditures Mr Yusufs policy choices and priorities have also drawn criticism to his government. For instance, on 13 October, the administration organised mass weddings for over 1,800 couples at events held simultaneously across the 44 local government areas of the state. The government spent over N800 million on the weddings, but some commentators condemned the expenditure on the populist programme as wasted, citing the states many challenges requiring more urgent attention, such as its high number of out-of-school children. The government was also criticised for some allocations in its 2024 budget. These include N5.32 billion for meals and the renovation of the governors lodge and some other buildings at the Government House, and N4.6 billion on post-graduate scholarships for students in India, at a time the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) at the state-owned Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano said the institution was on the brink of a financial collapse due to years of inadequate funding by the state government. The unions complaint in November came just two weeks after Mr Yusuf and his political godfather bade farewell to a group of the students awarded foreign scholarships while handing them dollar notes as they boarded their flight. The foreign scholarship scheme has always been controversial and opaque as the state government engaged consultants to get the students into little-known Asian universities at high fees. In March, there was also intense criticism of a public feeding programme during the Islamic month of Ramadan. The governors spokesperson, Halilu Dantiye, said the governor approved N6 billion for the programme. But after a backlash, the governor countered Mr Dantiye, saying he only okayed N1.1 billion. The scheme came under more controversy after the governor was captured in a viral video describing the meals served at the feeding centres as nonsense. The governor, who was on an impromptu visit to a feeding centre, accused the managers of the programme of mismanagement of public funds. He immediately set up a committee to investigate the matter but the report of the committee has yet to be made public. Another project that set many tongues wagging is the proposed construction of two flyovers in the capital city at a cost of N27 billion. The governor had announced that the state and 44 local governments would jointly fund the project on a 30/70 ratio. But a former Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure in the state, Muaz Magaji, immediately described the projects as a misplaced priority. In a series of Facebook posts, Mr Magaji, who served in the administration of Mr Ganduje, queried the cost and said Kano no longer needs flyovers, anyway. What residents say Mixed reactions greeted the celebration of the first anniversary of the governor in office. Ibrahim Siraj, a senior lecturer of Mass Communication at Bayero University, Kano, praised the governor for the payment of school fees for less-privileged students in the state. The government has saved the studies of thousands of students of the state, especially those studying at Bayero University, Kano. Many of them couldnt have afforded the almost 300 per cent rise in registration fees, a situation that could have forced many of them to withdraw from school. Mr Siraj also commended the government on the foreign scholarship scheme under which many indigenes are in India for Masters degree programmes. This is in fulfilment of a key campaign promise that attracted many young people to vote for the governor, he said. The government has also largely redeemed its promise towards timely payment of salaries and pensions and stopping unnecessary unexplained deductions. However, the university lecturer does not see the point of the flyovers, describing them as a white elephant project. He said the money would have been better spent on water supply and developing the rural areas. Rural areas and local governments outside the metropolitan area are suffering serious neglect. Many residents are saying they have been completely abandoned by the administration, he added. Mr Siraj also said the governor spent too much time and resources on probing his predecessor and that he appointed more aides than needed. Not much has changed in the last year in terms of education, healthcare, agriculture, roads and infrastructure, economic development, citizens welfare, poverty and unemployment, insecurity and youth restiveness, business and commerce, he said. The governor has appointed more aides than needed or that he could cater for. As a result, there seems to be a lack of discipline and coordination within the government with complaints about the governor being inaccessible to some of his commissioners and appointees. Kwankwasos overbearing influence has effectively created another layer of authority above that of the governor, leading to inefficiency and a lack of clear direction for the government. He is often said not to be prompt in taking action without instructions from Kwankwaso. This is partly responsible for the governments slow response to some situations, Mr Siraj said. 25 litres of water selling at N150 The Campaign and Communication officer of the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) in Kano, Ali Sabo, queried the governments priorities and said its projects are not pro-poor. Mr Sabo said addressing water scarcity in the state should have been a priority, not building flyovers. Getting water to shower and cook food is now a difficult task in Kano. There is poor hygiene due to the lack of water and there is a high risk for disease outbreaks. When this government came on board, people thought that they would focus on such issues that directly impact lives but unfortunately, they focus on things that are not a priority to the people. What people complained about in the previous administration is what is repeating itself now. Only the elite are benefitting from the government. They have released over N2.6 billion to procure vehicles for lawmakers. Such an amount of money will address the problem of water supply in the state, Mr Sabo said. Government flaunts achievements in health sector However, the state Ministry of Health said in the last year they rehabilitated and re-equipped the Hasiya Bayero Paediatrics Hospital and gave free drugs/laboratory consumables to all patients attending the hospital from August to December 2023. The state government increased the health budget from N40 billion to N71 billion and restored salaries of health workers (CONHESS) removed by the last state administration for more than seven years. The ministry, in a statement, said the government employed over 70 nurses and midwives and deployed them to rural health facilities. It said the government, through the ministry, also did a review to ascertain the actual causes of maternal and child mortality. It also rehabilitated and re-equipped the Accident and Emergency Unit of Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital and recruited 36 house officers and 70 medical officers. It listed other achievements of the governor in the sector as: Redeployment of the newly employed medical doctors to serve at both the primary and secondary health facilities in the state. Rehabilitation of Yadakunya Leprosy Hospital. Drugs and consumables were supplied for free distribution to the patients. Establishment of the Diphtheria Treatment Centres at Murtala Muhammad Specialist and Infectious Disease Hospitals. Securing 467 cartons of consumables from the World Health Organisation (WHO) to support the fight against diphtheria in the state. Distribution of Free Maternal and Child Health Commodities (phases one and two) worth N63 million to both primary and secondary health facilities in the state. The Kano State Centre for Disease Control Bill was passed into law by the Kano State House of Assembly. Kano State is the only state with the sub-national centre for disease control in the country amongst other achievements. Emirate Crisis Aside from the demolition of properties in the opening week of the administration, one issue that has put Kano State in the spotlight concerns its traditional institution. On 23 May, the state House of Assembly repealed the State Emirate Council Law 2019 under which former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje split Kano Emirate into five distinct units. The repeal of the law means the dissolution of the four emirates created in 2019 Bichi, Rano, Gaya, and Karaye and the sacking of their emirs. The development restored Kano as the only state in Nigeria with a single emirate council, aside from Sokoto which also has the Sultan as the only paramount ruler. After signing the repeal, Governor Yusuf immediately reinstated as the Emir of Kano. Mr Sanusi was installed in 2014 by then-Governor Kwankwaso but was removed six years later by the then Governor Ganduje. But the dethroned emir, Aminu Ado-Bayero, returned to the state on 25 May and has occupied a mini emirate palace at the Nasarawa GRA as he continues to challenge his removal. The crisis highlights the division that some of the policies of Governor Yusuf have caused in Kano in the last year. Will he continue on that partisan route or take a conciliatory turn in his second year? Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Seven mobile police officers, one community protection guard and five civilians were killed when terrorists attacked Magarya, a community in Zurmi Local Government Area of Zamfara State. Residents told PREMIUM TIMES that the attack lasted for over three hours. Several houses, shops, a primary school and vehicles were also razed by the terrorists in the Wednesday night attack on the community. It was the most horrendous day of my life, said Muhammad Shariff, who said his oldest brothers house was one of those attacked by the terrorists. They didnt come with the intention of abducting anyone but to kill and scare us from living in the community. Mr Shariff said the fire in his brothers house affected his house burning down everything in my sitting room. Another resident, Abdullahi Mohammed, who is now seeking refuge in Zurmi town, said he has started making plans to relocate to the state capital due to the frequency of attacks on local communities. People are leaving the town (Magarya) in large numbers, he said PREMIUM TIMES over the phone. I was among those who left very early today (Friday). Last night is something Ill never forget; all you could hear were gunshots. Some of the terrorists, according to survivors, surrounded the village while the others went inside. The police officers and members of the states security outfit stationed in the community confronted the terrorists. 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 The firefight between the security agents and the terrorists lasted for some minutes before the security officials were overpowered. Its obvious the terrorists were ready and had more weapons. We appreciate the security men because they tried their best, one resident said, asking not to be named for security reasons. All seven mobile policemen and the protection guard were killed during the exchange of fire while the five residents were killed while trying to run out of the community. It was one of the most heartless attacks in this community, Hamisu Sulaiman, a resident said. Those (terrorists) stationed outside the community opened fire on our people running out of the town. Confirming the attack to journalists, the Zamfara State police commissioner, Muhammad Dalijan, said over 300 terrorists carried out the attack. They surrounded our men and opened fire on them, thereby killing seven of them and injuring several others. The bandits were not happy with our men who prevented them from carrying out their heinous act for over two years now. Since the deployment of police to the area, the bandits could not have a chance to attack the village, he said. In recent weeks, terrorists operating in the North-west have intensified their activities in the region. Many residents believe the intensified attacks are to prevent residents, mostly farmers, from accessing their farms for the ongoing planting season. Thousands of people have been killed by the terrorists, locally called bandits, in recent years despite the actions of security agencies. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The police in Akwa Ibom State, South-south Nigeria have arrested an ex-convict allegedly responsible for perpetrating crimes in the state. The ex-convict, Edidiong Mathew was arrested on Wednesday in Mkpat Enin Local Government Area of the state. Mr Mathew, 35, was half-dressed in military uniform with a warrant officer rank when he was arrested, the police spokesperson in the state, Timfon John said in a statement on Thursday. One walkie-talkie, phones suspected to have been stolen from his victims, a brown coverall, RCC ID Card were recovered, Ms John, an assistant superintendent of police, said. This is the second time in less than two weeks that suspects dressed in military uniforms have been arrested in the state. PREMIUM TIMES late last month reported how four suspected kidnappers dressed in military uniform were arrested in Uyo, with two of their victims rescued. The suspects were arrested while trying to kidnap a friend of one of their victims they earlier kidnapped but could not raise the N5 million ransom they demanded, the police said. 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 Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police in Akwa Ibom State, Waheed Ayilara, has reiterated the commands commitment to rid the state of criminals. Mr Ayilara, while thanking the public for their support, urged residents to furnish the police with information that is needed to track criminals in the state. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Aloy Ejimakor, special counsel to Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has warned President Bola Tinubu to stop referring to IPOB as a terrorist organisation. Mr Ejimakor, in a statement on Friday, also warned Nigerians, including the countrys security forces and media organisations to desist from tagging IPOB as a terrorist group. The lawyer said Mr Kanus legal team has the firm instruction of the IPOB leader to issue the final warning to all persons and institutions in Nigeria. Henceforth, any further reference to IPOB as a terrorist organisation will be met and countervailed with muscular litigation and other lawful measures, regardless of who the entity is, he said. Mr Ejimakor cited a judgement delivered by the High Court in Enugu in 2023 which de-proscribed IPOB as the reason for issuing the warning. This is because there is a subsisting judgement of a competent high court in Nigeria which ruled that IPOBs proscription/declaration as a terrorist group by (the then President Muhammadu) Buhari is illegal, discriminatory and unconstitutional, he said. Compliance with this judgement strictly demands that IPOB should no longer be referred to as a terrorist organisation. 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 No IPOB member has been convicted of terrorism Mr Ejimakor stressed that those calling IPOB a terrorist organisation were yet to adduce any evidence to show the group had engaged in any terrorist activity. The lawyer argued that since the proscription of IPOB in 2017, no IPOB member had been convicted of any terrorist act despite thousands of arrests, abductions, horrendous torture, false flags and allegations of extrajudicial killings against the group. Accordingly, we hereby demand that the general public, Presidency, Nigerian Army, Nigerian Police and any erring media houses should forthwith cease and desist from attaching such defamatory and prejudicial label to IPOB led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, he stated. Backstory Earlier in September 2017, the then-president, Mr Buhari, signed a presidential proclamation proscribing IPOB. In September 2017, a Federal High Court in Abuja formalised the IPOBs proscription and tagged the group a terrorist organisation. The then Acting Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Abdul Adamu Kafarati, granted the order proscribing IPOB, following an application filed and moved by the then Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. The South-east Governors Forum would later follow up with an announcement that they had proscribed the group in the region. IPOB, through their legal team, had challenged the proscription in courts for several years without success. But on 23 October 2023, a State High Court in Enugu, nullified the proscription of the IPOB, consequently destroying the basis upon which the separatist group was declared a terrorist organisation by the Nigerian government. The IPOB leader, Mr Kanu, filed the suit in January 2023 against the Nigerian government and the South-East Governors Forum. The judge, A.O. Onovo, in his judgment, declared that the reliance on the countrys Terrorism Prevention Act and the administrative action of the South-East Governors Forum and the federal government to proscribe IPOB contravened Section 42 of the Nigerian Constitution which prohibits discrimination on the basis of ethnicity. Justice Onovo held that the proscription of IPOB was also a violation of Mr Kanus fundamental rights as enshrined under Articles 2,3,19 and 20 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Enforcement and Ratification) Act. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print LONDON, June 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Three quarters (74%) of UK adults now experience inattentional blindness, a phenomenon that prevents people from seeing things right in front of their eyes due to their mind being distracted by other factors, according to a new study from the mobile network giffgaff , and backed by leading neuroscientist Professor Hana Burianova. giffgaff unveils the worlds biggest ever magic eye in London. The one-of-a-kind artwork contained the hidden message Seeing things more clearly? in a bid to get the nation to notice the great phone and monthly airtime deals that are passing them by, due to them not paying attention to whats around them. (PRNewsfoto/giffgaff) The research revealed that more than one in two (52%) UK drivers have experienced inattentional blindness. A quarter of drivers (22%) have arrived at a destination with no memory of how they even got there and 15% admitted to driving through a red light. To demonstrate just how many people are missing things right in front of them, giffgaff unveiled the world's biggest ever magic eye[1] in London. Located in Shoreditch, the one-of-a-kind artwork contained the hidden message 'Seeing things more clearly?' in a bid to get the nation to notice the great phone and monthly airtime deals that are passing them by, due to them not paying attention to what's around them. Currently on giffgaff, the mobile network that's up to good, the iPhone 15 is available for as little as 37.46 per month based on a 24-month contract with 25GB of data whereas the exact same phone and data plan is available on other networks for 58.32.[2] As a result of inattentional blindness, people continue to pay their bills without realising they could be missing out on a much more competitive deal elsewhere, like with giffgaff. The study showed this was a common occurrence, with one in four (24%) UK adults claiming to have not noticed their bills increasing due to paying them on autopilot. While less than half the nation (40%) were aware that many mobile phone network providers had increased their prices in April, and more than one in ten (12%) haven't checked their phone bill in the last 6 months. Furthermore, according to giffgaff's research, over half (60%) of the nation weren't even aware that many mobile phone networks had increased their prices this April. The latest data from Uswitch[3] showed that UK consumers face a collective 14.4 billion bill blow as broadband and mobile price rises kick in. Speaking about the research, Professor Hana Burianova, a neuroscientist, said, "This study illustrates that we can miss even the most obvious things unless we pay close attention. This phenomenon is particularly evident for unexpected objects, events, or people as without our direct attention, our brain filters out the information as irrelevant. As such, we see the direct impact of inattentional blindness on many parts of everyday life, including automatically paying a bill without noticing a mid-contract rise in price or not noticing a better deal around the corner." Ash Schofield, CEO of giffgaff, says: "As the network committed to giving its customers great deals on phones and mobile plans, we wanted to shine a light on just how many people are missing out on money saving opportunities that are right in front of their eyes. "We're all leading increasingly busy lives, and as our findings show, it can often result in us failing to see things that are literally right under our noses. Through this research and unveiling our magic eye installation, we hope that we can help people start to see things more clearly and save some money by switching their phone contract to giffgaff." Consumers looking for a better deal can find out more about the money they could save at giffgaff.com. NOTES TO EDITORS Research of 2,000 UK adults conducted by Opinium between 10 May 2024 - 14 May 2024 [1]The largest known magic eye to date was created in 2019, in Tampa, Florida that was 2.4m x 1.8m https://www.facebook.com/100057164781806/posts/2272106496159472/ . giffgaff's magic eye is 9m x 3m making it now the largest known magic eye in the world to date. [2]Calculated as of 24/05/2024 and reviewed weekly. iPhone 15 with 25GB of data over 24 months giffgaff = 37.46 a month over 24 months for phone, 18 months for 10 contract with 25GB of data. Upfront cost of 20 https://www.giffgaff.com/mobile-phones/apple/iphone-15/new EE = 58.32 a month over 24 months with 25GB of data. Upfront cost 30 https://ee.co.uk/mobile/pay-monthly-phones-gallery/iphone-15-details?selectedPlanCode=L23EPL53 [3] https://uk.news.yahoo.com/millions-uk-households-broadband-see-154114427.html details the monetary impact mid-contract price rises have placed on consumers since they came into effect last April. About giffgaff Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2432281/GiffGaff.jpg The forty-second re-enactment of the Red Arrow begins: five legs over 2,200 kilometres from Brescia to Rome and back BRESCIA, Italy, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Most Beautiful Race in the World returns from 11 to 15 June in 2200-kilometres that the magnificent cars built between 1927 and 1957 will cover in five legs, as per the format inaugurated last year. The unusual anti-clockwise route will add epic flavour to the tour de force of the classic gems, evoking the legend of the first 1000 Miglia speed race editions. From left, Ac Brescia President Aldo Bonomi, Councilor of the Municipality of Brescia with responsibility for productive activities, tourism, social and economic innovation and digital transition Andrea Poli e 1000 Miglia President Beatrice Saottini The first historic leg finish In Turin: after the 1947 and 1948 passages, the convoy will stop for the first time in the Savoy city and, greeted by the Red Arrow projected on the Mole Antonelliana, will parade through the city centre streets until the welcoming in Piazza San Carlo. Another novelty will be Genoa, where the first race lunch will be held. Viareggio, Rome and San Lazzaro di Savena the other city legs. From the morning of Sunday 9 June, the pre-race will start with the opening of the Technical and Administrative Checks at the Brixia Forum Paddock, followed at 4:30 p.m. by the inauguration of the 1000 Miglia Village in Piazza Vittoria. Here, two hours later, the engines will be switched on for the seventh edition of the Trofeo Gaburri, with cars competing between Corso Zanardelli and the Brescia Castle, with the finish line in Piazza Paolo VI. The city centre is also ready to welcome the 1000 Miglia: on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Saturday the cars will park in the centre's squares and streets, where restaurants, bars and shops will remain open until late at night. From 6.30 p.m. on Saturday, the White Night festival stage in Piazza Loggia will host the prize-giving ceremony. Preceding the classic car convoy will be the Ferraris of the Tribute 1000 Miglia and the 1000 Miglia Green Full-Electric cars, followed by the Supercars and Hypercars entered in the 1000 Miglia Experience. The 1000 Miglia Autonomous Drive project with the Politecnico University of Milan continues: the car with the robo-driver will be presented at the inauguration of the Village and, driven again this year by Matteo Marzotto, aims to complete a large part of the route in Autonomous Drive mode. The Pink Car of the 1000 Miglia Charity also returns in support of IEO WOMEN'S CANCER CENTER, in which various show business personalities will take turns. Full press kit: https://we.tl/t-u2teJrgrZ1 Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2433269/Mille_Miglia.jpg Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2433268/Mille_Miglia_Logo.jpg ABU DHABI, UAE , June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- During BIO International Convention 2024, The Department of Health Abu Dhabi (DoH), the regulator of the healthcare sector in the Emirate, and Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), Etihad Airways and AD Ports Group have signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen Abu Dhabi's position as a global pharmaceutical and life sciences distribution hub, leveraging its strategic location, lucrative investment opportunities and advanced logistics capabilities. Abu Dhabi is Underway to Become a Global Pharmaceutical and Life Science Distribution Hub In the presence of His Excellency Mansoor Ibrahim Al Mansouri, Chairman of the Department of Health Abu Dhabi (DoH), the MoU was signed by Dr. Asma Ibrahim Al Mannaei Executive Director of the Research and Innovation Centre at DoH, Khalifa Al Mahmoud, Acting Director of Investor Attraction at Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), Stanislas Brun, Vice President of Etihad Cargo, and Mansoor Al Marar, Vice President, Industrial Business Development at KEZAD Group, a subsidiary of AD Ports Group. In line with the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030, the MoU is a pivotal step in Abu Dhabi's ongoing efforts to become a leading healthcare destination in the global healthcare landscape. The strategic partnership aims to create attractive value propositions for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical technology companies to establish their operations in Abu Dhabi. By capitalising on DoH's world-class regulatory framework, ADIO's attractive investment platform, Etihad Cargo's expertise in air freight, and AD Port's robust logistics infrastructure, the collaboration is set to position Abu Dhabi as a global healthcare and life-science distribution hub. Dr. Asma Ibrahim Al Mannaei, Executive Director of the Research and Innovation Centre at DoH, was present at the signing and emphasised the importance of this initiative, stating, "Leveraging Abu Dhabi's strategic location at the gateway to the MENA region, we are pleased to partner with world-class leaders in investment and logistics, offering advanced infrastructure with easy access to regional and global markets. Our vision is to create a healthcare environment where patients have access to the latest treatments and medical technologies. By establishing a robust healthcare and life-science distribution hub, we are poised to enhance healthcare outcomes and improve lives across the region. The establishment of this distribution hub will not only solidify Abu Dhabi's position as a critical player in the global pharmaceutical industry, but also drive economic growth and job creation for Emirati citizens in the healthcare and logistics sectors." As part of the agreement, the entities will work together to ensure timely access to innovative healthcare products for patients across the region, enhancing Abu Dhabi's role in global pharmaceutical supply chains. Aligned with the Emirate's economic aspirations, the collaboration is expected to attract significant investment in healthcare and logistics, promoting sustainable economic growth and diversification within the healthcare and life sciences sectors. The MoU also includes plans to support local manufacturing and packaging of pharmaceutical and biotechnology products, in addition to local capability enhancement. Badr Al-Olama, Director General of ADIO, said: "Abu Dhabi has made supporting the healthcare and life sciences industry a strategic priority, benefiting our nation and the world. Today, Abu Dhabi stands as a leading hub in this field, with advanced infrastructure and supportive regulations enabling a vibrant community of health-tech companies." Stanislas Brun, Vice President of Etihad Cargo, said: "Etihad Cargo is committed to supporting Abu Dhabi's vision of becoming a global hub for healthcare and life sciences distribution. This MoU, in partnership with the Department of Health Abu Dhabi, ADIO and KEZAD is a major step towards enhancing the UAE's strategic importance in the global pharmaceutical supply chain and ensuring greater access to innovative healthcare products for patients in the region and beyond." Mansoor Al Marar, Vice President, Industrial Business Development, KEZAD Group said: "At KEZAD Group, we are thrilled to be part of this landmark agreement. The collaboration between the Department of Health Abu Dhabi, ADIO, Etihad, and AD Ports Group represents a significant step forward in establishing Abu Dhabi as a premier global hub for pharmaceutical and life sciences distribution. This partnership will enhance Abu Dhabi's regional and global competitiveness and ensure timely access to innovative healthcare products by leveraging KEZAD Group's strategic location, world-class logistics infrastructure, and robust investment environment." Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2433329/Department_of_Health_Abu_Dhabi.jpg SOURCE The Department of Health - Abu Dhabi Artsakh Union publishes ads highlighting the hypocrisy of Azerbaijan's "COP of Peace" amidst genocide against Armenians as government and civil society experts gather in Bonn, Germany, to set the COP agenda BONN, Germany, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Artsakh Union has launched an advertisement campaign challenging COP29 host Azerbaijan to fulfill its alleged vision of a "COP of Peace" by releasing its political prisoners. The campaign comes amid the opening week of the Bonn Climate Change Conference, where experts set the agenda for the prestigious COP meetings that will bring together world leaders in Baku later this year. Advertisement launched by the Artsakh Union during the Bonn Climate Change Conference. The challenging advertisements come after Hikmet Hajiyevforeign policy adviser to the Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliyevtold media in May that the country was eager to make "COP29 a COP of peace." That claim has been widely rebuked, with experts pointing to the government's genocidal actions taken against ethnic Armenians and long-standing record of human rights violations. "The Aliyev regime of Azerbaijan continues to detain Armenian political prisoners and hostages, destroy our cultural heritage and property under their occupation, systematically promote anti-Armenian ethnic hatred and block the return of the forcibly displaced Artsakh people to their homes. These actions, along with other international and domestic crimes, exemplify their ongoing genocidal policy against the Artsakh people. Our efforts aim to raise international awareness about the Aliyev regime's continuous violations and the urgent need to release our illegally detained leaders and compatriots. The international community must not allow the Aliyev regime to mislead and distract them with COP 29 and evade accountability for their perpetrated genocide and continuous violations," said Artak Beglaryan, president of the Artsakh Union and former state minister of Artsakh. The Artsakh Union is a grassroots organization created by citizens of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), an unrecognized state that was invaded by Azerbaijan in September 2023, causing the entire population of 120,000 indigenous Armenians to flee. Amid the aggression, Azerbaijani officials also arrested eight Armenian political leaders of Artsakh, a group that remains illegally detained and hostage in Baku and awaiting news on their trial date. The political prisoners include international philanthropist and humanitarian Ruben Vardanyan, who recently ended a 21-day hunger strike to protest their illegal detainment, increasingly worsening imprisonment conditions, and limited access to due process in an opaque legal system. Juan Mendez, the United Nations' first Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide reviewed these actions, solemnly confirming that "genocide has been committed against ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, but the danger of more suffering of this kind is by no means over. The international community still bears a responsibility to act to protect this population from further harm." The United Nations' International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Azerbaijan to uphold the right of return for ethnic Armenians, instructing the country to "take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration affecting Armenian cultural heritage, including but not limited to churches and other places of worship, monuments, landmarks, cemeteries and artifacts" following its invasion last year. Despite these orders, recent satellite images show destruction of Armenian cultural heritage sites and residential buildings, prompting widespread concerns. Pressure continues to grow on Azerbaijan from the international community in the lead up to COP29, otherwise known as the Conference of the Parties, which will be held this November in Baku. In a April resolution, the EU reaffirmed that "the ongoing human rights violations in Azerbaijan are incompatible with the country's preparations to host COP29." U.S. senators have also called for the release of Armenian political leaders held in Azerbaijan, with several members of congress sending a follow-up letter raising concerns in mid-May. French senators have also put forth resolutions proposing sanctions against Azerbaijan for its actions in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Bonn Climate Change Conference, which started on June 3, has driven additional backlash against the Azeri government, including from the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, which published a statement criticizing Azerbaijan for touting a "COP of Peace" while carrying out genocidal actions. Today, Azerbaijan sits below Saudi Arabia and Iran in Freedom House's annual Freedom of the World report, currently scoring just 7 out of 100 points. The country also ranks 164th out of 180 in Reporters Without Borders' 2024 Press Freedom Index, worse than Venezuela and Turkey. See the full-page advertisement on page 19 of POLITICO Europe's print edition published on June 6. Media Contact Artak Beglaryan, Artsakh Union Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2432696/Artsakh_Union_Politico_Ad.jpg LAS VEGASIn a recently-launched bid to represent Nevada's first congressional district in Washington, D.C., AVN Hall of Fame performer Evan Stone is one of several in a crowded Republican primary race. Next Tuesday, June 11, is Nevada's statewide primary election for both Democrats and Republicans. In an interview with AVN, Stone elaborated on his reasoning behind running for office and his wish to be the first member of Congress who is an active adult performer. Touting a libertarian-leaning platform, Stone wants to bring change and transparency to the halls of Congress. From supporting congressional term limits to breaking the mold of a typical Trump-era GOP candidate, Stone has a future in mind he thinks will resonate with voters. "It's nothing personal; I just happen to live in District 1," Stone told AVN. He was alluding to the fact that he's challenging the district's incumbent Democrat, U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, who has served in the role since 2013. "I am sure she's done a competent job. She's been in office for a long time, and no one has said anything bad about Rep. Titus," he said. "I just want to serve." Stone, 59, is one of the most recognizable faces in modern adult cinema. His many accolades as an adult star include his 2011 AVN Hall of Fame induction, numerous Male Performer of the Year and Best Actor wins, and scores of other awards. Some of Stone's highest-profile work includes his role as Captain Edward Reynolds in Pirates (2005) and Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge (2008), as The Riddler in Batman XXX: A Porn Parody (2010), as mogul Alexander Nash in last year's Seth Gamble-helmed saga Privilege, and many, many more marquee XXX movies. Now he wants to start a new chapter as a public servant. He touts a platform that focuses heavily on legalizing prostitution across the country and liberalizing marijuana. Not a typical position of a Republican politician, Stone said that he most likely identifies with right-leaning libertarians. He supports concepts like free markets and the easing of regulation and personal mandates on individuals. He said that he is in full support of the First Amendment and even characterized certain factions in the national Republican Party as "far-right." We asked him about his view of Project 2025, a network of think tanks and astroturfing organizations led by the conservative Heritage Foundation. As AVN has reported, Project 2025's leadership, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts, has called for the outright criminalization of pornography and pornographers. "It's not going to work," Stone said of this expressed agenda. Asked if he would characterize Project 2025 as "far-right," Stone replied, "Yes, they are far-right. They've put statements out there that there is no coming back from. It's, like, there is no middle ground. There's no, 'Let's talk about this.' I find it very offputting that this is their plan." Some have painted Project 2025 as an effort to institutionalize Trumpism in the federal government. Regardless of how much the two ideologies do or don't align, though, Stone said that he would welcome an endorsement from former President Donald Trump if it were offered to him. "Yes. I would accept that from the Republican Party and Trump," Stone said. "It doesn't mean that I agree with everything he's done or said. But, you're not going to point him in the right direction if you don't work with him. "The man has been convicted of several felonies," he continued. "It's funny that something that happened years ago came to fruition now, when it did. He's got his appeals going on, and we'll see how this goes. It doesn't seem like it has harmed him at all." Considering the details of the crimes Trump was found guilty of, AVN inquired whether Stone felt any sympathy for fellow AVN Hall of Famer Stormy Daniels. Per AVN's coverage of the trial against Trump in Manhattan, the former president was not criminalized for making hush money payments to an individual. Rather, he was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying bank statements and business records to cover up the payments to Daniels. "First of all, I love Stormy Daniels," Stone asserted. "And, I feel sick seeing all these stupid crazy people out there sending her threats and stuff. It's just ridiculous the stuff she had to go through. I am not surprised that she kept herself together because she is a very strong woman. That being said, I wasn't there so I don't know what is going on. It's a classic he-said-she-said ... I don't have a feeling one way or another. I wasn't there." In somewhat of an ironic outing, Stone appeared in a 2016 Hustler Video feature called The Donald. Stone played Donald Trump in a parodied escapade in which he selected his running mate for vice president. One sequence in the feature depicts Stone dressed up like Trump, watching a would-be VP pick pleasure herself in a bid to win the job. That's what makes Stone's bid for Congress considerably unique. He is still appearing in brand-new scenes for studios and brands across the adult industry. "I can't wait to have sex on the House floor," Stone joked as a segue toward the question of whether he would still be able to perform while serving in Congress. He said that an attorney will review that potential conflict if he wins the primary next Tuesday. Stone also voiced support for gun rights, a woman's right to choose, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and other political viewpoints that historically run counter to traditional Republican viewpoints. But he isn't deterred, even despite the fact that Nevada's first congressional district is regarded by the Cook Partisan Voting Index as Democratic-leaning. Since the 2012 election cycle, Rep. Titus has won in landslides over Republican challengers. That notwithstanding, if nominated and elected to Congress, Evan Stone would be the first-ever active porn star to serve in a federal-level political position. SHENZHEN, China, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- International financial institutions and global partners gathered at the HiFS Frontier Forum 2024. Together they discussed how to use cloud, network, storage, and computing coordinated infrastructures to increase the resilience of financial systems and support financial service innovation while achieving zero downtime, zero wait, zero touch, and zero trust. 1 Agility & Resilience, Leading Digital Infrastructure Innovation David Shi, Vice President of ICT Marketing and Solution Sales, Huawei Digital intelligence financial services solution launch David Shi, Vice President of ICT Marketing and Solution Sales, Huawei, believes that Huawei is committed to being the most trustworthy partner for finance industry. Moving forward, Huawei will continue to delve into the finance industry and build resilient infrastructures as a solid foundation for digital and intelligent transformation. We aim to support financial service innovation through groundbreaking products and provide superior professional services to ensure the stable development of the financial sector. 2 Resilient and Autonomous for Bank 4 Zeros King Tsui, CTO of Digital Finance Business Unit, Enterprise Sales Dept., Huawei, believes that building financial resilience is a huge systematic project that requires the most effective methodology and full lifecycle management of planning, construction, operation, and continuous optimization. He also showcased Huawei's "4 Zeros" solution for finance. With professional engineering service capabilities, the solution uses the iBASE (Insight-Blueprint-Architecture-Step-Evaluation) methodology and tools, integrates leading ICT products and technologies, and provides one-stop professional services to achieve smooth system upgrade. Steven Zhao, Vice President, Huawei Data Communication Product Line, believes that in the intelligence era, AI is revolutionizing financial services by accelerating innovation and driving the upgrade and transformation of financial networks. Huawei has unveiled the Xinghe Intelligent Financial Network Solution, a pioneering AI-powered solution that injects intelligence into financial networks to boost their resilience, user experience, and security, while building new connections for smarter finance. Michael Fan, Vice President, Huawei Data Storage Product Line, said that Huawei will remain focused on the challenges facing its financial sector customers in the AI era. We have introduced the new OceanStor A800 high-performance storage, OceanStor Pacific 9550 scale-out storage featuring high capacity and reliability, all-flash OceanProtect E8000 Appliance provides comprehensive protection for financial data assets, multilayer ransomware protection solution with network-storage collaboration, and Omni-Dataverse global file system. These solutions combine to build a solid AI data lake with performance, capacity, and data protection pools for higher agility and resilience of financial services. Huawei also released a digital intelligence financial services solution, covering the whole lifecycle of planning, construction, operation, and optimization. This solution provides target network planning based on Netlive, DR management based on iDRP, and Smart NOS to help build resilient financial data centers, ensuring service continuity. To date, Huawei has served over 3,600 financial customers in more than 60 countries and regions, including 53 of the world's top 100 banks. You can also click the link below to find out more. https://e.huawei.com/en/industries/finance Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2433085/image_986294_32846265.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2433098/image_986294_32846421.jpg Announces Results of Skin Aging Research Conducted in collaboration with The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine SEOUL, South Korea, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Amorepacific hosted the "New Beauty Research Initiative (NBRI) Symposium" at its R&I Center in Yongin, Korea, on Wednesday, June 5th. At this event, Amorepacific announced the findings of its skin aging research in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the United States. Amorepacific hosted the New Beauty Research Initiative Symposium on June 5th and announced the results of skin aging research conducted in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Professor Sewon Kang (M.D.) from the Department of Dermatology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine presented on "Research Trend in Skin Aging." He introduced the current trends in skin aging research and shared the progress and future direction of studies conducted through the NBRI program. He introduced the current trends in skin aging research and shared the progress and future direction of studies conducted through the NBRI program. Professor Anna Chien (M.D.) from the same department discussed "Evaluation of Epigenetic Changes Related to Skin Aging," presenting a case study from NBRI's epigenetics research. This study, which was shared at the Society for Investigative Dermatology (SID) in Texas last month, confirmed the effectiveness of BioGF1K and camellia extract in regulating photoaging epigenetic changes. presenting a case study from NBRI's epigenetics research. This study, which was shared at the Society for Investigative Dermatology (SID) in last month, confirmed the effectiveness of BioGF1K and camellia extract in regulating photoaging epigenetic changes. Dr. A-young Kim from Amorepacific R&I Center shared a case study on "Impact of Ginsenomics on Accelerated Skin Aging and Aging-Related Skin Regeneration," focusing on using ginsenomics to control skin inflammation and aging. focusing on using ginsenomics to control skin inflammation and aging. Professor Martin Alphonse(Ph.D.) from the Dermatology Department at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine presented on "'Effect of NBRI Reagents on Immune Cells and Their Role in Regulating Immunometabolic Responses to PM2.5 Exposure in PBMCs," highlighting research on the role of skin immune cells and the discovery of control substances. highlighting research on the role of skin immune cells and the discovery of control substances. Dr. Sunyoung Park from Amorepacific R&I Center presented a study on " A senotherapeutic ingredient, Senomune, ameliorates skin aging-associated phenotypes," using Amorepacific's proprietary 30-year-old green tea root extract to regulate cell breakdown activity in aged skin. Byung-fhy Suh, CTO at Amorepacific R&I Center, commented, "It has been truly gratifying to share our findings on skin aging with esteemed scholars worldwide via the NBRI program. Amorepacific is committed to leveraging these insights to develop superior products and enhance the health and beauty of customers around the globe." In December 2022, Amorepacific launched the New Beauty Research Initiative (NBRI), a collaborative research venture with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. This program has facilitated a multidisciplinary approach to studying skin aging, underscoring a commitment to advancing our understanding in this area. About Amorepacific As Korea's leading beauty company, Amorepacific is devoted to meeting the various lifestyles and needs of global consumers around the world: Asia, North America, Europe, Oceania, and the Middle East. Amorepacific's research hubs located around the world are dedicated to sustainable R&D that combines the best of natural Asian ingredients and advanced bio-technology. With its world-class products, Amorepacific is acclaimed for the innovative ways in which it is transforming global beauty trends. More Information https://www.apgroup.com/int/en/news/news.html SOURCE Amorepacific A leading InsurTech company slashes new insurance sales agent onboarding time with tailored AI assistants. IRVINE, Calif., June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Alltius, a leading conversational AI platform for sales and customer support announced that Assurance IQ used Alltius' AI sales assistants platform to reduce onboarding time for new insurance sales agents. Assurance IQ's new agents used AI sales assistants to reach mid-level experience & productivity within 1 month. Assurance IQ provided personalized insurance plan buying guidance to over 17 million customers in the North American region. Assurance IQ's sales agents needed to be knowledgeable across 6000+ insurance plans across 100+ plan providers which are subject to change periodically. This was an uphill battle especially for newer agents who often take more than 6 months just to be onboarded with low productivity as compared to a seasoned sales agent. Assurance IQ selected Alltius to develop AI assistants for agents to help them identify insurance plans based on customer requirements over call, convert the plan benefits into a personalized sales pitch and ultimately provide valuable customer insights. Within a month, the sales team started using AI assistants specifically trained on insurance plans and domain knowledge expertise catered towards Assurance IQ's requirements. "Alltius' AI assistants act as a force multiplier for Assurance IQ's sales team's expertise," said Vibs Abhishek, CEO of Alltius. "With the assistants handling deep product knowledge, their agents can focus on listening to customer needs and having more personalized conversations that drive conversions." Here's a short summary of key benefits that Assurance IQ achieved by using Alltius' AI sales assistants: 100% accuracy and 97% recall rate for Alltius' responses across all insurance plans 5-15% increase in call-to-sale conversion rates due to personalized and need-based sales pitches 20%+ improvement in overall sales agent productivity over an average of two-year tenure Assurance IQ sales agents mentioned, "This (Alltius' AI assistant) is excellent! It phrases things perfectly. It takes 6 months to get new agents up to mid-level of productivity. These tools would get them there in a third of the time." "One of the best [platforms] we have seen in the market. Also, they are one of the best teams we have worked with, that has been leveraging GenAI much before tools like ChatGPT arrived on the scene." said Nick Howard, CTO, Assurance IQ. For more information or to request a personalized demo, please visit Alltius . About Alltius Alltius is a conversational GenAI platform which effortlessly powers enterprise applications, websites and contact centers with skillful, secure and accurate AI assistants that can 2X sales & reduce support costs by 50% in weeks. Alltius' innovative no-code platform allows businesses to seamlessly create, train and deploy AI assistants, even within a day. Alltius' platform has military grade security with SOC2 Type 2 and ISO certifications, ability to handle enterprise scale volumes of more than 100K queries per day, no hallucinations with native AI technology & 1/10th operating costs with self hosted solutions. Alltius is a product created by experts who have taught AI and NLP at Carnegie Mellon and built large scale systems at places such as Amazon, Google and Meta and used by billions. SOURCE Alltius Inc. Extends Alliance with ORCA for Summer 2024 Arctic Season Imagery may be downloaded here. FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., June 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Atlas Ocean Voyages, the leader in yacht expedition cruising, is delighted to unveil a new collaboration with the Global Penguin Society, an internationally recognized organization dedicated to the conservation of the worlds penguin species and the coasts and oceans they inhabit. Available on select Antarctica expeditions beginning with the World Navigator, November 22, 2024 expedition, guests will gain insight into penguin rookeries and the Global Penguin Society's research through onboard lectures and guided shore landings. "During each Antarctica expedition, the continent's resident penguin population is the star of the show, and our guests always delight in observing penguin behavior and activities in their natural habitat," shares James Rodriguez, president and CEO of Atlas Ocean Voyages. "This partnership will deliver added expert knowledge from the conservationists of the Global Penguin Society, and we look forward to welcoming them onboard to educate all of us." The Global Penguin Society's mission is to protect all 18 species and their ecosystems in the Southern Hemisphere by generating sound science, protecting habitats, and providing education. Aboard World Navigator, guests will take in conversation talks with fellow explorers through the Global Penguin Society's research, including how they collect biological and ecological data to monitor populations, track migration patterns, and assess any threats to conservation efforts as the organization fulfills its mission. The Global Penguin Society is a Conservation Partner for the Wildlife Conservation Network, working collaboratively to protect penguin species and their habitats. As a Conservation Partner, the Global Penguin Society benefits from the Wildlife Conservation Network's expertise, resources, and global reach, enhancing its ability to conduct vital research, protect critical habitats, and engage in effective conservation efforts. Atlas Ocean Voyages is also extending its ongoing partnership with ORCA, a pioneering marine conservation charity dedicated to studying and protecting whales, dolphins, and porpoises, along with their ocean habitats globally. ORCA's mission is to engage individuals passionate about whale and dolphin conservation, encouraging them to actively contribute to preserving these extraordinary creatures. On board World Voyager's 2024 Arctic expeditions, dedicated ocean conservationists will focus on raising awareness, collecting vital scientific data, and actively contributing to safeguarding whales and dolphins. The initiative aims to involve Atlas Ocean Voyages guests in citizen science projects, allowing them to play an integral role in conservation efforts. The partnership will continue to empower Atlas Ocean Voyages guests to become citizen scientists, actively contributing to marine conservation efforts while enjoying unforgettable expedition experiences. Guests will participate in hands-on workshops and utilize ORCA's Oceanwatchers app. By recording environmental and sighting information, guests will contribute valuable data to understand the behavior and movements of these magnificent marine mammals. At Atlas Ocean Voyages, we proudly support the Global Penguin Society's and ORCA's efforts. Through our partnerships, we aim to raise awareness and contribute to conserving wildlife and their ecosystems, ensuring these remarkable species thrive for generations. For information and reservations, call a travel advisor or 1.844.44.ATLAS or visit www.AtlasOceanVoyages.com. You can also follow Atlas on Facebook and Instagram: www.facebook.com/AtlasOceanVoyages or www.instagram.com/AtlasOceanVoyages. About Atlas Ocean Voyages Atlas Ocean Voyages is the yacht expedition brand of Mystic Invest Holding. Stylish and intimate expedition yachts featuring less than 100 suites and staterooms offering five-star comfort, from luxurious accommodations and an all-inclusive onboard experience to in-depth excursions. Fares include a Cultural Immersion tour, open bars aboard the ship, including craft beers, specialty coffees, and smoothies, L'OCCITANE bath amenities, an in-room coffee bar, prepaid gratuities, and complimentary emergency medical evacuation insurance. World Navigator was launched in 2021, World Traveller in 2022, and World Voyager joined the fleet in 2023. About the Global Penguin Society The Global Penguin Society (GPS), founded in 2009 by Dr. Pablo Borboroglu, is the first and only international organization dedicated to protecting and studying all 18 penguin species and their natural habitats. GPS works closely with government, community officials and landowners to create effective conservation policies to benefit not only penguins, but their entire local ecosystems and nearby communities. It also works to improve scientific knowledge on critical aspects of the biology and ecology of penguin species to guide conservation efforts. For more information, please visit www.globalpenguinsociety.org. Connect with GPS on Facebook and Instagram. SOURCE Atlas Ocean Voyages As DEI faces a continuous wave of challenges, the event presents sessions on latest developments for CDOs and a special salute to leading champions of inclusion NEW YORK, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- BLACK ENTERPRISE, the No. 1 Black digital media brand, will host its second annual Chief Diversity Officer Summit & Honors Tuesday, June 11 at the stunning private event space Guastavino's in New York City. This groundbreaking event will recognize outstanding leaders who drive corporate DEI. It is also designed to offer a forum to spark robust conversations on the status of policies to expand diverse talent at a time when such practices have faced increased opposition on multiple fronts. The event is sponsored by Fidelity Investments, Merck and The Executive Leadership Council, the preeminent organization comprised of Black senior executives. "Our Chief Diversity Officer Summit & Honors represents an unprecedented gathering of men and women leading corporate DEI agenda and serves as the perfect venue to celebrate the achievements, leadership and advocacy of exceptional senior executives who have created unfettered access to opportunity for all within and outside their corporations," says BLACK ENTERPRISE CEO Earl "Butch" Graves, Jr. Among the event highlights, BLACK ENTERPRISE will salute top DEI professionals in the following categories: Black Enterprise CDO Changemaker Award Outstanding chief diversity officers who have demonstrated an unmatched record for the advancement of Diversity Best Practices across all corporate levels and applied their influence among top leadership to drive DEI as a business imperative, Reginald "Reggie" Willis, Chief Diversity Officer, Ally Financial Yolanda Friend, Managing Director, North America Inclusion and Diversity, Accenture Susan Reid, Managing Director, Global Head of Talent, Morgan Stanley Black Enterprise Lifetime Diversity Crusader Award Unwavering, vocal advocates and tireless change agents who have driven the progression of measurable workforce and supplier diversity across major companies and vigorous promotion of equal access to career, management and business opportunities for all. James H. Lowry, President & Founder, James H. Lowry & Associates and Senior Advisor, Boston Consulting Group Jacqueline Glenn, Former Chief Diversity Officer, DellEMC Ronald Parker, Retired Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Labor Relations and Global Diversity & Inclusion, PepsiCo Maurice Cox, Retired Vice President, Diversity & Inclusion Development In addition to the awards ceremony, the Summit will conduct a special CDO Town Hall to review the current challenges confronting corporate DEI as well as explore strategies to preserve the development and implementation of Diversity Best Practices throughout major corporations. Also, attendees will gain the opportunity to hear commentary on a range of DEI-related issues from Black Enterprise CEO Graves and ELC CEO Micheal Hyter in an exclusive fireside chat. "Our event will bring together corporate diversity leaders to assess the damage from forces that seek to totally dismantle DEI initiatives and have demonstrated outright opposition through the courts and by other means -- to deny access to opportunities for Black executives and entrepreneurs," says Derek T. Dingle, BLACK ENTERPRISE Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer. "Just as important, we will continue to focus on how CDOs can protect and preserve DEI as a viable means to address ongoing systemic discrimination and racial inequities against Black Americans." About BLACK ENTERPRISE Founded in 1970, BLACK ENTERPRISE is a mission-centric publication focused on providing relevant information for success-minded people at every stage of their financial journey. Designed to highlight Black leadership and entrepreneurial journeys, BLACK ENTERPRISE reaches its audience through its events and linear and digital channels. BLACK ENTERPRISE aims to be a fountain of knowledge on how to achieve financial success. To learn more about the company, please visit blackenterprise.com and follow us on social media across Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter ), and Facebook. SOURCE BLACK ENTERPRISE Leading book retailer strengthens leadership team with seasoned legal expert. BIRMINGHAM, Ala., June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Books-A-Million is excited to announce the appointment of Courtney Adair as General Counsel. In her new role, Courtney will report directly to Todd Noden, President and Chief Financial Officer. "We are thrilled to welcome Courtney Adair to the Books-A-Million family," said Todd Noden. "Her extensive experience in business law and her proven track record of leadership make her an invaluable addition to our team. We look forward to her contributions as we continue to grow and innovate." Courtney Adair brings a wealth of expertise to Books-A-Million. Before joining the company, she served as Assistant General Counsel at Exelon Corporation in Chicago, IL. Prior to her tenure at Exelon, Courtney was a partner in the Chicago office of the law firm Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale, P.C., now known as UB Greensfelder. With over a decade of experience in business law, Courtney is exceptionally well-equipped to lead the Books-A-Million legal team. Courtney holds a B.A. from Tufts University in Medford, MA, and a JD from the University of San Diego School of Law. ABOUT BOOKS-A-MILLION Books-A-Million operates more than 200 stores in 32 states as well as its e-commerce site, Booksamillion.com. A leading retailer of books, toys, games, and collectibles since 1917, the company has grown to be the nation's second largest bookstore chain. CONTACT Olivia Anderson McDaniel Vice President of Marketing, Omnichannel 205.909.3563 [email protected] SOURCE Books-A-Million, Inc. HAMILTON, Bermuda, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Borr Drilling Limited (the "Company") will be held on August 14, 2024, in Bermuda. A copy of the Notice of Annual General Meeting and Form of Proxy will be distributed to shareholders by normal distribution methods and is attached to this release. Associated information including the Company's Annual Report can be found on the Company's website www.borrdrilling.com. Hamilton, Bermuda June 7, 2024 This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5 -12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. Questions should be directed to: Magnus Vaaler, CFO, +44 1224 289208 This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com. https://news.cision.com/borr-drilling-limited/r/borr-drilling-limited---notice-of-annual-general-meeting-2024,c3996989 The following files are available for download: https://mb.cision.com/Public/16983/3996989/9a49b6e3140c42d7.pdf Borr Drilling AGM Notice 2024 - Norway https://mb.cision.com/Public/16983/3996989/860dc276af386f58.pdf Borr Drilling AGM Notice 2024 US SOURCE Borr Drilling Limited New translational data demonstrate that BRII-179-induced immune responses are associated with high HBsAg reduction in a subset of participants with chronic HBV infection BRII-179 as add-on therapy induces functional antibody responses and contributes to improved sustained HBsAg loss in PEG-IFNa-treated participants with chronic HBV infection DURHAM, N.C. and BEIJING, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Brii Biosciences Limited ("Brii Bio," "we," or the "Company", stock code: 2137.HK), a biotechnology company developing therapies to improve patient health and choice across diseases with high unmet needs, presented new data from two Phase 2 studies evaluating BRII-179 either as a combination therapy with BRII-835 (elebsiran) or as an add-on therapy to pegylated interferon-alpha (PEG-IFN) treatment for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection at the EASL (European Association for the Study of the Liver) Congress 2024. Data presented in an oral presentation from a Phase 2 clinical trial demonstrated BRII-179, a therapeutic vaccine, in combination with BRII-835 (elebsiran) induced substantial HBV-specific B and T cell responses that correlate with antiviral effect in a subset of participants with chronic HBV infection. The exploratory translational study evaluating the correlation of treatment-induced immune response with antiviral effects demonstrated: Pre-S1-specific T cell response targeting a region adjacent to sodium taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide (NTCP) was identified to be associated with high levels of HBsAg reduction in some participants receiving BRII-835 (elebsiran) and BRII-179. Ex vivo Pre-S1-specific Th1-type cytokines (IL-2) were detected in participants with high HBsAg reduction, while Th2-type responses were not associated with HBsAg reduction. BRII-179 induced robust anti-HBV neutralizing activity in participants with high levels of HBsAg reduction and HBsAb induction. "This study shows for the first time direct evidence that immune responses induced by an HBV therapeutic vaccine is associated with HBsAg reduction and viral control in some participants with chronic HBV infection," said Antonio Bertoletti, MD, Professor, Emerging Infectious Diseases Program at Duke-NUS Medical School. "The antiviral activity appears to be linked with a boosting of anti-HBs antibodies and Pre-S1-specific T cell responses induced by BRII-179, supporting that BRII-179 can break immune tolerance and have an impact on sustained control of the viral infection." Additionally, late-breaker poster presentation data from a Phase 2 clinical trial demonstrated that BRII-179, administrated on top of PEG-IFN, improved overall HBsAg loss rate from end-of-treatment (EOT) to at least 24 weeks post nucleos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI) discontinuation compared to the PEG-IFN group. Follow-up data from this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial in 114 virally-suppressed participants with chronic HBV infection showed: Among the participants who met NRTI discontinuation criteria and entered NRTI discontinuation monitoring period (NDMP), a higher percentage of participants in the BRII-179 + PEG-IFN group maintained HBsAg loss (19.3% vs 12.3% in full analysis set [FAS]) compared to the placebo + PEG-IFN group. The improvement in overall HBsAg loss rate was sustained from EOT (26.3% vs 19.3% in FAS) to at least 24-week post NRTI discontinuation (cut-off date) or 36-week post EOT in the BRII-179 + PEG-IFN group. No participant who discontinued NRTI required NRTI retreatment. A higher percentage of participants in the BRII-179 + PEG-IFN group maintaining HBsAg loss had HBsAb 100 IU/L compared to the placebo + PEG-IFN group (36.4% vs 14.3% in FAS) at 24-week post NRTI discontinuation. No participant with HBsAb titer 100 IU/L at EOT experienced HBsAg changed from < 0.05 IU/mL (LLOQ) to 0.05 IU/mL (i.e. HBsAg rebound) through the cut-off date, suggesting that robust antibody responses against HBV are necessary for sustained off-treatment HBsAg loss. Treatment with BRII-179 and PEG-IFN combination was generally safe and tolerated. No new risk was identified in the post EOT follow-up period and NDMP. The favorable benefit-risk profile and scientific insights from these studies support further clinical evaluation of BRII-179 in combination with other modalities such as siRNA and PEG-IFN as key components for the treatment of chronic HBV infection, with the goal of achieving functional cure. About BRII-179 BRII-179 is a novel recombinant protein-based HBV immunotherapeutic candidate that expresses the Pre-S1, Pre-S2, and S HBV surface antigens, and is designed to induce enhanced and broad B-cell and T-cell immunity. Brii Bio licensed BRII-179 from VBI Vaccines, Inc. ("VBI") in December 2018 and has extended the exclusive license to global rights since July 2023. About BRII-835 (Elebsiran) BRII-835 (elebsiran) is an investigational subcutaneously administered HBV-targeting siRNA that has the potential to stimulate an effective immune response and has direct antiviral activity against HBV and HDV. It is the first siRNA in the clinic to include Enhanced Stabilization Chemistry Plus (ESC+) technology to enhance stability and minimize off-target activity, which potentially can result in an increased therapeutic index. Brii Bio licensed exclusive rights to develop and commercialize BRII-835 (elebsiran) for the greater China territory from Vir Biotechnology, Inc. ("Vir") in 2020. About Hepatitis B Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is one of the world's most significant infectious disease threats with more than 254 million people infected globally.[1] Chronic HBV infection is the leading cause of liver disease and an estimated 820,000 people die of complications from chronic HBV infection each year.[1] HBV is of exceptional concern in China, where 87 million people are chronically infected.[2] About Brii Bio Brii Biosciences Limited ("Brii Bio", stock code: 2137.HK) is a biotechnology company developing therapies to address major public health challenges where patients experience high unmet medical needs, limited choice and significant social stigmas. With a focus on infectious and central nervous system diseases, the Company is advancing a broad pipeline of unique therapeutic candidates with lead programs against hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. The Company is led by a visionary and experienced leadership team and has operations in key biotech hubs, including Raleigh-Durham, the San Francisco Bay Area, Beijing and Shanghai. For more information, visit www.briibio.com. [1] World Health Organization. (April 2024). Global hepatitis report 2024: action for access in low- and middle-income countries. World Health Organization. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240091672 [2] World Health Organization. Hepatitis. World Health Organization. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/china/health-topics/hepatitis#:~:text=There%20are%2087%20million%20people,living%20with%20chronic%20hepatitis%20C. SOURCE Brii Biosciences Limited BEIJING, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Cheetah Mobile Inc. (NYSE: CMCM) ("Cheetah Mobile" or the "Company"), a China-based IT company, today announced its unaudited consolidated financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2024. Management Commentary Mr. Sheng Fu, Cheetah Mobile's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, remarked, "Cheetah Mobile is transforming from a consumer-facing company to an enterprise-facing company. Our acquisition of Beijing OrionStar Technology Co., Ltd. ("Beijing OrionStar") was an important step in our transformation, bringing us an experienced 2B sales team, strong connections with business customers, and comprehensive large language model (LLM) capabilities. We are strategically focused on developing customized LLM-based apps for enterprises and using these apps to further enhance our enterprise-facing service robots. Our robust AI capabilities and proven success in product development position us well to commercialize the once-in-a-generation opportunity presented by LLMs." Mr. Thomas Ren, Cheetah Mobile's Chief Financial Officer, commented, "We are pleased with our financial performance for the first quarter of 2024, which was largely driven by the successful integration of Beijing OrionStar and robust growth in the AI and others segment. Total revenues increased by 11.6% year over year, reaching RMB190.3 million, with a 62.1% increase in the AI and others segment. Our strategic investments in LLMs and enhancements in operational efficiencies position us well for continued revenue growth and improved margins in the coming quarters." First Quarter 2024 Consolidated Financial Results Total revenues increased by 11.6% year over year and 13.7% quarter over quarter to RMB190.3 million (US$26.4 million) in the first quarter of 2024. Revenues from the Company's internet business decreased by 9.4% year over year but increased by 1.2% quarter-over-quarter to RMB109.0 million ( US$15.1 million ) in the first quarter of 2024. The year-over-year decrease was mainly due to the Company's proactive approach to shifting its focus from the internet business to enterprise-facing large language-related business. As a result, the Company continued to review its consumer-facing product portfolio and removed products and product features that did not address user's pain points in the quarter. In the first quarter of 2024, revenues generated from the internet business accounted for 57.3% of total revenues, compared to 70.6% in the same period last year and 64.4% in the previous quarter. decreased by 9.4% year over year but increased by 1.2% quarter-over-quarter to ( ) in the first quarter of 2024. The year-over-year decrease was mainly due to the Company's proactive approach to shifting its focus from the internet business to enterprise-facing large language-related business. As a result, the Company continued to review its consumer-facing product portfolio and removed products and product features that did not address user's pain points in the quarter. In the first quarter of 2024, revenues generated from the internet business accounted for 57.3% of total revenues, compared to 70.6% in the same period last year and 64.4% in the previous quarter. Revenues from AI and others increased by 62.1% year over year and 36.3% quarter over quarter to RMB81.3 million ( US$11.3 million ) in the first quarter of 2024. The growth was primarily driven by an increase in the delivery of the Company's service robots, following the acquisition of a controlling stake in Beijing OrionStar. In the first quarter of 2024, revenues generated from AI and others accounted for 42.7% of total revenues, compared to 29.4% in the same period last year and 35.6% in the previous quarter. Cost of revenues increased by 37.0% year over year and 12.8% quarter over quarter to RMB77.0 million (US$10.7 million) in the first quarter of 2024. The increases were primarily attributable to the rise in the hardware-related costs for the Company's service robots. Non-GAAP cost of revenues increased by 37.1% year over year and 12.7% quarter over quarter to RMB76.9 million (US$10.6 million) in the first quarter of 2024. Total operating expenses increased by 23.9% year over year and 21.2% quarter over quarter to RMB193.9 million (US$26.9 million) in the first quarter of 2024. The increases primarily resulted from the acquisition of a controlling stake in Beijing OrionStar. Total non-GAAP operating expenses increased by 15.3% year over year and 21.3% quarter over quarter to RMB179.8 million (US$24.9 million) in the first quarter of 2024. Research and development expenses increased by 26.2% year over year and 44.8% quarter over quarter to RMB57.3 million ( US$7.9 million ) in the first quarter of 2024, primarily due to higher personnel-related expenses as the Company expanded its R&D team following the acquisition of a controlling stake in Beijing OrionStar. Non-GAAP research and development expenses increased by 11.8% year over year and 41.7% quarter over quarter to RMB50.9 million ( US$7.0 million ) in the first quarter of 2024. expenses increased by 26.2% year over year and 44.8% quarter over quarter to ( ) in the first quarter of 2024, primarily due to higher personnel-related expenses as the Company expanded its R&D team following the acquisition of a controlling stake in Beijing OrionStar. Non-GAAP research and development expenses increased by 11.8% year over year and 41.7% quarter over quarter to ( ) in the first quarter of 2024. Selling and marketing expenses decreased by 0.5% year over year but increased by 19.7% quarter over quarter to RMB67.9 million ( US$9.4 million ) in the first quarter of 2024. The quarter-over-quarter increase was primarily due to 1) increased marketing and promotion expenses related to our user acquisition for certain products of our internet business; and 2) increased personnel-related expenses as the Company increased its sales personnel following the acquisition of a controlling stake in Beijing OrionStar. Non-GAAP selling and marketing expenses decreased by 0.8% year over year but increased by 19.8% to RMB67.5 million ( US$9.4 million ) in the first quarter of 2024. expenses decreased by 0.5% year over year but increased by 19.7% quarter over quarter to ( ) in the first quarter of 2024. The quarter-over-quarter increase was primarily due to 1) increased marketing and promotion expenses related to our user acquisition for certain products of our internet business; and 2) increased personnel-related expenses as the Company increased its sales personnel following the acquisition of a controlling stake in Beijing OrionStar. Non-GAAP selling and marketing expenses decreased by 0.8% year over year but increased by 19.8% to ( ) in the first quarter of 2024. General and administrative expenses increased by 56.7% year over year and 8.9% quarter over quarter to RMB69.1 million ( US$9.6 million ) in the first quarter of 2024, primarily due to 1) increased personnel-related expenses as the Company increased the number of its G&A personnel following the acquisition of a controlling stake in Beijing OrionStar, 2) increased share-based compensation expenses for our key employees. Non-GAAP general and administrative expenses increased by 42.1% year over year and 11.0% quarter over quarter to RMB61.9 million ( US$8.6 million ) in the first quarter of 2024. Operating loss was RMB80.6 million (US$11.2 million) in the first quarter of 2024, compared to RMB42.3 million in the same period last year and RMB60.9 million in the previous quarter. Non-GAAP operating loss was RMB66.4 million (US$9.2 million) in the first quarter of 2024, compared to RMB41.5 million in the same period last year and RMB49.1 million in the previous quarter. The Company widened its operating loss in the quarter because of: 1) its increased personnel-related expenses, and 2) hardware-related costs, which in turn resulted from the acquisition of a controlling stake in Beijing OrionStar. Share-based compensation expenses were RMB7.6 million (US$1.1 million) in the first quarter of 2024, compared to RMB0.8 million in the same period last year and RMB7.4 million in the previous quarter. By segment, operating margin excluding share-based compensation expense for internet business was 7.9% in the first quarter of 2024, which improved from 3.1% in the same period last year, but slightly decreased from 8.8% in the previous quarter. Other expenses, net were RMB7.6 million (US$1.1 million) in the first quarter of 2024, primarily due to loss from the disposal of its subsidiary outside of China. Net loss attributable to Cheetah Mobile shareholders was RMB80.0 million (US$11.1 million) in the first quarter of 2024, compared to RMB18.6 million in the same period last year and RMB301.2 million in the previous quarter. Non-GAAP net loss attributable to Cheetah Mobile shareholders was RMB65.8 million (US$9.1 million) in the first quarter of 2024, compared to RMB17.8 million in the same period last year and RMB289.4 million in the previous quarter. Diluted loss per ADS was RMB2.8 (US$0.4) in the first quarter of 2024, compared to RMB0.6 in the same period last year and RMB 10.3 in the previous quarter. Non-GAAP diluted loss per ADS was RMB2.3 (US$0.3) in the first quarter of 2024, compared to RMB0.6 in the same period last year and RMB9.9 in the previous quarter. Balance Sheet As of March 31, 2024, the Company had cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments of RMB1,793.2 million (US$248.4 million). Conference Call Information The Company will hold a conference call on June 7th, 2024, at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time (or 7:00 p.m. Beijing Time) to discuss its financial results. Listeners may access the call by dialing the following numbers: Main Line: International: 1-412-317-6061 United States Toll Free: 1-888-317-6003 Mainland China Toll Free: 4001-206115 Hong Kong Toll Free: 800-963976 Conference ID: 8764416 English Translation: International: 1-412-317-6061 United States Toll Free: 1-888-317-6003 Mainland China Toll Free: 4001-206115 Hong Kong Toll Free: 800-963976 Conference ID: 0625357 A live and archived webcast of the conference call will also be available at the Company's investor relations website at http://ir.cmcm.com. Exchange Rate This press release contains translations of certain Renminbi amounts into U.S. dollars at specified rates solely for the convenience of readers. Unless otherwise noted, all translations from Renminbi to U.S. dollars in this press release were made at a rate of RMB7.2203 to US$1.00, the exchange rate in effect as of March 29, 2024, as set forth in the H.10 statistical release of the Federal Reserve Board. Such translations should not be construed as representations that RMB amounts could be converted into U.S. dollars at that rate or any other rate, or to be the amounts that would have been reported under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("U.S. GAAP"). About Cheetah Mobile Inc. Cheetah Mobile is a China-based IT company with a commitment to AI innovation. It has attracted hundreds of millions of users through an array of internet products and services on PCs and mobile devices. At the same time, it actively engages in the independent research and development of its AI technologies, including LLM technologies. Cheetah Mobile provides advertising services to advertisers worldwide, value-added services including the sale of premium membership to its users, multi-cloud management platform to companies globally, as well as service robots to international clients. Cheetah Mobile is also committed to leveraging its cutting-edge AI technologies, including LLM technologies, to empower its products and make the world smarter. It has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since May 2014. Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements, including management quotes and business outlook, constitute forward-looking statements under the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar statements. Such statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, including but are not limited to the following: Cheetah Mobile's growth strategies; Cheetah Mobile's ability to retain and increase its user base and expand its product and service offerings; Cheetah Mobile's ability to monetize its platform; Cheetah Mobile's future business development, financial condition and results of operations; competition with companies in a number of industries including internet companies that provide online marketing services and internet value-added services; expected changes in Cheetah Mobile's revenues and certain cost or expense items; and general economic and business condition globally and in China. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in Cheetah Mobile's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Cheetah Mobile does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law. Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures This release contains non-GAAP financial measures, including but not limited to: Non-GAAP cost of revenues excludes share-based compensation expenses Non-GAAP gross profit excludes share-based compensation expenses Non-GAAP gross margin excludes share-based compensation expenses. Total non-GAAP operating expenses exclude share-based compensation expenses and amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions. Non-GAAP research and development expenses exclude share-based compensation expenses and amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions. Non-GAAP selling and marketing expenses exclude share-based compensation expenses and amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions. Non-GAAP general and administrative expenses exclude share-based compensation expenses. Non-GAAP operating profit/loss excludes share-based compensation expenses and amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions. Non-GAAP net income/loss attributable to Cheetah Mobile shareholders excludes share-based compensation expenses and amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions. Non-GAAP diluted earnings/losses per ADS excludes share-based compensation expenses and amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions. Non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA represents net income/loss attributable to Cheetah Mobile shareholders excluding share-based compensation, amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions, interest income, depreciation and amortization, net income attributable to noncontrolling interests, other income, net and income tax expenses The Company reviews these non-GAAP financial measures together with GAAP financial measures to obtain a better understanding of its operating performance. It uses the non-GAAP financial measures for planning, forecasting and measuring results against the forecast. The Company believes that non-GAAP financial measures are useful supplemental information for investors and analysts to assess its operating performance without the effect of share-based compensation expenses and amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions, which have been and will continue to be significant recurring expenses in its business. However, the use of non-GAAP financial measures has material limitations as an analytical tool. One of the limitations of using non-GAAP financial measures is that they do not include all items that impact the Company's net income for the period. In addition, because non-GAAP financial measures are not measured in the same manner by all companies, they may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures used by other companies. In light of the foregoing limitations, you should not consider non-GAAP financial measure in isolation from or as an alternative to the financial measure prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. For more information on these non-GAAP financial measures, please see the tables captioned "Cheetah Mobile Inc. Reconciliation of GAAP and Non-GAAP Results". CHEETAH MOBILE INC. Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (Unaudited, amounts in thousands of Renminbi ("RMB") and US dollars ("US$")) As of December 31, 2023 March 31, 2024 RMB RMB USD ASSETS Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents 2,020,191 1,792,907 248,315 Short-term investments 1,023 328 45 Accounts receivable, net 401,064 438,596 60,745 Prepayments and other current assets, net 973,127 1,231,793 170,601 Due from related parties, net 71,505 77,408 10,721 Total current assets 3,466,910 3,541,032 490,427 Non-current assets: Property and equipment, net 53,884 49,531 6,860 Operating lease right-of-use assets 30,451 27,636 3,828 Intangible assets, net 218,559 211,376 29,275 Goodwill 576,989 576,989 79,912 Long-term investments 937,460 933,011 129,221 Deferred tax assets 188,503 189,775 26,284 Other non-current assets 160,428 89,950 12,458 Total non-current assets 2,166,274 2,078,268 287,838 Total assets 5,633,184 5,619,300 778,265 LIABILITIES, MEZZANINE EQUITY AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY Current liabilities: Bank loans 5,000 5,000 692 Accounts payable 170,185 172,150 23,842 Accrued expenses and other current liabilities 2,437,210 2,400,597 332,479 Due to related parties 84,147 84,508 11,704 Income tax payable 31,603 34,417 4,767 Total current liabilities 2,728,145 2,696,672 373,484 Non-current liabilities: Deferred tax liabilities 54,540 53,281 7,379 Other non-current liabilities 189,943 180,297 24,971 Total non-current liabilities 244,483 233,578 32,350 Total liabilities 2,972,628 2,930,250 405,834 Mezzanine equity: Redeemable noncontrolling interests 105,978 183,690 25,441 Shareholders' equity: Ordinary shares 244 244 34 Additional paid-in capital 2,711,875 2,716,181 376,187 Accumulated deficit (613,102) (693,137) (95,998) Accumulated other comprehensive income 356,854 380,940 52,760 Total Cheetah Mobile shareholders' equity 2,455,871 2,404,228 332,983 Noncontrolling interests 98,707 101,132 14,007 Total equity 2,554,578 2,505,360 346,990 Total liabilities, mezzanine equity and equity 5,633,184 5,619,300 778,265 CHEETAH MOBILE INC. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income (Loss) (Unaudited, amounts in thousands of Renminbi ("RMB") and US dollars ("US$"), except for number of shares and per share(or ADS) data) For The Three Months Ended March 31, 2023 December 31, 2023 March 31, 2024 March 31, 2024 RMB RMB RMB USD Revenues 170,434 167,314 190,288 26,354 Internet business 120,309 107,711 109,020 15,099 AI and others 50,125 59,603 81,268 11,255 Cost of revenues (a) (56,163) (68,243) (76,952) (10,658) Gross profit 114,271 99,071 113,336 15,696 Operating income and expenses: Research and development (a) (45,428) (39,583) (57,331) (7,940) Selling and marketing (a) (68,266) (56,746) (67,940) (9,410) General and administrative (a) (44,126) (63,502) (69,145) (9,576) Other operating income/(expense), net 1,271 (185) 508 70 Total operating income and expenses (156,549) (160,016) (193,908) (26,856) Operating loss (42,278) (60,945) (80,572) (11,160) Other income/(expenses): Interest income, net 12,342 15,829 15,316 2,121 Foreign exchange gains/ (losses) 14,463 17,407 (3,277) (454) Other expense, net (1,801) (321,244) (7,595) (1,052) Loss before taxes (17,274) (348,953) (76,128) (10,545) Income tax (expenses)/ benefits (178) 47,760 (198) (27) Net loss (17,452) (301,193) (76,326) (10,572) Less: net income attributable to noncontrolling interests 1,147 18 3,709 514 Net loss attributable to Cheetah Mobile shareholders (18,599) (301,211) (80,035) (11,086) Net loss per share Basic (0.0126) (0.2056) (0.0549) (0.0076) Diluted (0.0129) (0.2056) (0.0550) (0.0076) Net loss per ADS Basic (0.6300) (10.2800) (2.7450) (0.3800) Diluted (0.6450) (10.2800) (2.7500) (0.3800) Weighted average number of shares outstanding Basic 1,449,518,133 1,493,550,095 1,494,213,830 1,494,213,830 Diluted 1,449,518,133 1,493,550,095 1,494,213,830 1,494,213,830 Weighted average number of ADSs outstanding Basic 28,990,363 29,871,002 29,884,277 29,884,277 Diluted 28,990,363 29,871,002 29,884,277 29,884,277 Other comprehensive (loss)/income , net of tax of nil Foreign currency translation adjustments (40,018) (29,112) 21,031 2,913 Unrealized gains on available-for-sale securities, net - - 1,772 245 Other comprehensive (loss)/ income (40,018) (29,112) 22,803 3,158 Total comprehensive loss (57,470) (330,305) (53,523) (7,414) Less: Total comprehensive income attributable to noncontrolling interests 913 687 2,426 336 Total comprehensive loss attributable to Cheetah Mobile shareholders (58,383) (330,992) (55,949) (7,750) For The Three Months Ended March 31, 2023 December 31, 2023 March 31, 2024 March 31, 2024 (a) Share-based compensation expenses RMB RMB RMB USD Cost of revenues 119 70 92 13 Research and development (88) (426) 292 40 Selling and marketing 196 72 (44) (6) General and administrative 552 7,714 7,245 1,003 Total 779 7,430 7,585 1,050 CHEETAH MOBILE INC. Reconciliation of GAAP and Non-GAAP Results (Unaudited, amounts in thousands of Renminbi ("RMB") and US dollars ("US$"), except for per share data) For The Three Months Ended March 31, 2024 GAAP Share-based Amortization of Non-GAAP Result Compensation intangible assets* Result RMB RMB RMB RMB USD Revenues 190,288 - - 190,288 26,354 Cost of revenues (76,952) 92 - (76,860) (10,645) Gross profit 113,336 92 - 113,428 15,709 Research and development (57,331) 292 6,156 (50,883) (7,047) Selling and marketing (67,940) (44) 469 (67,515) (9,351) General and administrative (69,145) 7,245 - (61,900) (8,573) Other operating income, net 508 - - 508 70 Total operating income and expenses (193,908) 7,493 6,625 (179,790) (24,901) Operating loss (80,572) 7,585 6,625 (66,362) (9,192) Net loss attributable to Cheetah Mobile shareholders (80,035) 7,585 6,625 (65,825) (9,118) Diluted losses per ordinary share (RMB) (0.0550) 0.0052 0.0043 (0.0455) Diluted losses per ADS (RMB) (2.7500) 0.2600 0.2150 (2.2750) Diluted losses per ADS (USD) (0.3800) 0.0360 0.0289 (0.3151) For The Three Months Ended December 31, 2023 GAAP Share-based Amortization of Non-GAAP Result Compensation intangible assets* Result RMB RMB RMB RMB Revenues 167,314 - - 167,314 Cost of revenues (68,243) 70 - (68,173) Gross profit 99,071 70 - 99,141 Research and development (39,583) (426) 4,104 (35,905) Selling and marketing (56,746) 72 313 (56,361) General and administrative (63,502) 7,714 - (55,788) Other operating expense, net (185) - - (185) Total operating income and expenses (160,016) 7,360 4,417 (148,239) Operating loss (60,945) 7,430 4,417 (49,098) Net loss attributable to Cheetah Mobile shareholders (301,211) 7,430 4,417 (289,364) Diluted losses per ordinary share (RMB) (0.2056) 0.0051 0.0029 (0.1976) Diluted losses per ADS (RMB) (10.2800) 0.2550 0.1450 (9.8800) For The Three Months Ended March 31, 2023 GAAP Share-based Non-GAAP Result Compensation Result RMB RMB RMB Revenues 170,434 - 170,434 Cost of revenues (56,163) 119 (56,044) Gross profit 114,271 119 114,390 Research and development (45,428) (88) (45,516) Selling and marketing (68,266) 196 (68,070) General and administrative (44,126) 552 (43,574) Other operating income, net 1,271 - 1,271 Total operating income and expenses (156,549) 660 (155,889) Operating loss (42,278) 779 (41,499) Net loss attributable to Cheetah Mobile shareholders (18,599) 779 (17,820) Diluted losses per ordinary share (RMB) (0.0129) 0.0006 (0.0123) Diluted losses per ADS (RMB) (0.6450) 0.0300 (0.6150) * This represents amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions. CHEETAH MOBILE INC. Information about Segment (Unaudited, amounts in thousands of Renminbi ("RMB") and US dollars ("US$"), except for percentage) For The Three Months Ended March 31, 2024 Internet Business AI and others Unallocated* Consolidated RMB RMB RMB RMB USD Revenue 109,020 81,268 - 190,288 26,354 Operating profit/(loss) 8,662 (81,649) (7,585) (80,572) (11,160) Operating margin 7.9 % (100.5) % - (42.3) % (42.3) % For The Three Months Ended December 31, 2023 Internet Business AI and others Unallocated* Consolidated RMB RMB RMB RMB Revenue 107,711 59,603 - 167,314 Operating profit/(loss) 9,489 (63,004) (7,430) (60,945) Operating margin 8.8 % (105.7) % - (36.4) % For The Three Months Ended March 31, 2023 Internet Business AI and others Unallocated* Consolidated RMB RMB RMB RMB Revenue 120,309 50,125 - 170,434 Operating profit/(loss) 3,755 (45,254) (779) (42,278) Operating margin 3.1 % (90.3) % - (24.8) % *Unallocated expenses refer to SBC expenses that are not allocated to individual segments. CHEETAH MOBILE INC. Reconciliation from Net Income Attributable to Cheetah Mobile Shareholders to Adjusted EBITDA (Non-GAAP) (Unaudited, amounts in thousands of Renminbi ("RMB") and US dollars ("US$")) For The Three Months Ended March 31, 2023 December 31, 2023 March 31, 2024 March 31, 2024 RMB RMB RMB USD Net loss attributable to Cheetah Mobile shareholders (18,599) (301,211) (80,035) (11,086) Add: Income tax expenses/ (benefits) 178 (47,760) 198 27 Interest income, net (12,342) (15,829) (15,316) (2,121) Depreciation and other amortization(1) 8,833 11,275 12,312 1,705 Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests 1,147 18 3,709 514 Other (income)/ expense, net (12,662) 303,837 10,872 1,506 Share-based compensation 779 7,430 7,585 1,050 Amortization of intangible assets(2) - 4,417 6,625 918 Adjusted EBITDA (32,666) (37,823) (54,050) (7,487) (1) This represents depreciation and other amortization exclude amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions. (2) This represents amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions. SOURCE Cheetah Mobile SINGAPORE, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- China Yuchai International Limited (NYSE: CYD) ("China Yuchai" or the "Company") today announced its Board of Directors has approved two equity incentive plans, proposed to be implemented by its Chinese subsidiaries, Guangxi Yuchai Machinery Company Limited ("GYMCL") and Guangxi Yuchai Marine and Genset Power Co., Ltd. ("MGP"), in respect of equity interests in MGP (collectively, the "Equity Plans"). GYMCL is a 76.41%-subsidiary of China Yuchai and MGP is a wholly-owned subsidiary of GYMCL. Pursuant to the Equity Plans, the registered capital of MGP will be increased by RMB28.00 million (approximately US$3.94 million), representing approximately 6.54% of the enlarged equity interest of MGP (the "MGP Interest"). The participants of the Equity Plans (the "Participants"), who are selected directors, officers and other employees of GYMCL and its subsidiaries (including MGP) (the "GYMCL group"), will contribute an aggregate amount of RMB82.88 million (approximately US$11.66 million) for the subscription of the MGP Interest, at a price of RMB2.96 (approximately US$0.42) per RMB1.0 registered capital, by separate partnership vehicles through which the Participants will acquire indirectly their respective portions of the MGP Interest. The Participants in turn will hold direct interests in such partnership vehicles in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Equity Plans (including various lock-up restrictions as specified under the Equity Plans). The Equity Plans are subject to and will take effect upon the approval by GYMCL's shareholders at its shareholders' meeting to be held on June 20, 2024. With the implementation of the Equity Plans, GYMCL aims to achieve the objective of allowing the Participants whose contributions are important to the long-term growth of the GYMCL group to acquire an equity stake in a key entity of the GYMCL group so as to better align their interests to those of GYMCL and motivate and incentivize them for their continued contributions, dedication and loyalty to the GYMCL group. Under IFRS, there is expected to be a charge of share-based expense to the Company's profit and loss account in relation to the Equity Plans (the "Share-based Expense"), and such charge will be determined based on, among other things, a valuation of MGP. The Company currently expects to adopt a valuation of MGP in the amount of RMB2.48 billion (approximately US$349.14 million), representing a fair value of MGP as of December 31, 2023. After applying the Finnerty Model, the fair value of the MGP Interest is estimated at RMB131.69 million (approximately US$18.52 million). The Share-based Expense is estimated at RMB48.81 million (approximately US$6.87 million) which is to be amortized over six years in view of the relevant lock-up restrictions imposed on the Participants under the Equity Plans (including a 3-year moratorium on their interests in relevant partnership vehicles in the event of a public listing by MGP). Unless otherwise stated, all currency translations of United States dollars ("US$") and Chinese Renminbi ("RMB") used herein are based on the exchange rate of US$1.00 : RMB7.1088 as at May 31, 2024 as published by as published by People's Bank of China (PBOC). About China Yuchai International China Yuchai, through its subsidiary, Guangxi Yuchai Machinery Company Limited ("Yuchai"), engages in the manufacture, assembly, and sale of a wide variety of light-, medium- and heavy-duty engines for trucks, buses, passenger vehicles, construction equipment, marine and agriculture applications in China. Yuchai also produces diesel power generators. The engines produced by Yuchai range from diesel to natural gas and hybrid engines. Through its regional sales offices and authorized customer service centers, Yuchai distributes its engines directly to auto OEMs and retailers and provides maintenance and retrofitting services throughout China. Founded in 1951, Yuchai has established a reputable brand name, strong research and development team and significant market share in China with high-quality products and reliable after-sales support. In 2023, Yuchai sold 313,493 engines and is recognized as a leading manufacturer and distributor of engines in China. For more information, please visit http://www.cyilimited.com. Safe Harbor Statement: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words "expect", "estimate", "aim", "will", "would" or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, beliefs and assumptions which are subject to change at any time. China Yuchai cautions that these statements, particularly, those related to financial figures or matters, by their nature involve significant risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. All forward-looking statements are applicable only as of the date they are made and China Yuchai specifically disclaims any obligation to maintain or update the forward-looking information, whether of the nature contained in this Form 6-K or otherwise, in the future. For more information: Investor Relations Kevin Theiss Tel: +1-212-510-8922 Email: [email protected] SOURCE China Yuchai International Limited BEIJING, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report from China.org.cn on innovative lake wetlands restoration. Scientists from the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), published information related to an innovative lake wetlands restoration model involving native macrophytes, fishes, benthons, and birds that gives full play to the role of native creatures in ecological restoration and its implementation in the Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (BCAS, in Chinese), a think tank journal focused on strategic and decision-making research that is supervised and sponsored by the CAS, in 2023. The information below comes from their report. One of the three most productive ecosystems in the world, wetlands play an important role in maintaining the balance of natural ecosystems due to their water conservation, water purification, flood and drought prevention, climate regulation, and biodiversity maintenance functions. Lake wetlands account for 16.03% of China's total wetland area, according to its second national wetland resources survey, which was conducted from 2009 to 2013 and compiled early in 2014. Yunnan Province's lake wetlands are home to abundant and unique species, and several of them have been listed as internationally important wetlands. The wetlands in Yunnan cover 5,636 sq. km, accounting for 1.05% of China's wetland area, with lake wetlands comprising 1,185 sq. km of the total, or 21.03% of Yunnan's wetland area. The ecological systems associated with the province's lake wetlands have been experiencing many problems as human activities and resulting climate change have intensified, and economic and social development have led to environmental changes, and a decline in biodiversity, however. Located in Kunming, Yunnan's capital and largest city, Dianchi the largest inland lake on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau has experienced a sharp decline in biodiversity, for example. The number of indigenous fish species present in the lake decreased from 26 in the 1960s to just 11 in 2001, while aquatic plant coverage declined from 90% in the 1960s to 12.6% in the 1980s and has stood at only around 1.4% since 2000, and the number of aquatic plant species detected fell from 44 in 1957 to 30 in 1977 and just 22 in 1997. The Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment has developed a Roman numeral-based surface water grading system with six categories, with grade I representing the highest quality and water that falls in the grade-I to grade-III range being considered to be of at least "fairly good quality." Grade I refers to water that comes directly from natural sources; grade II refers to water that is suited to centralized drinking projects and can sustain aquatic life; grade III is also suited to centralized drinking projects, can sustain some aquatic life, and can be swam in; grade IV is suited to industrial use and recreation but should not make direct contact with people; grade V is only suited to irrigation and landscaping purposes; and water that does not fall into any of these categories is not suitable for any use. Dianchi Lake's water quality deteriorated from the grade-I level in the 1950s to the grade-III to grade-IV range in the 1970s and was even worse than grade V in the 1990s. Eventually water management measures were implemented and the situation began to improve, which resulted in its water quality rising to the grade-V level in 2016 and the grade-IV level in 2019, where it has remained. The lake's surface area has gradually decreased as well, falling from 510 sq. km as of the early Yuan Dynasty (1271 to 1368) to 410 sq. km by the end of it and then to 323 sq. km in 1938. Reclamation efforts began being implemented at this point, which brought the surface area to 361.8 sq. km by 1978, though it began to shrink again after the 1980s and stands at 309 sq. km at present. The "algae-fishes-birds/humans" and "macrophytes-fishes-birds/humans" paths are two of the main ways that eutrophic elements, such as phosphorus and nitrogen, are removed from wetlands. A decline in biodiversity damages them and thus causes eutrophication. Reconstructing and restoring lake wetlands' ecological food chains in order to rebuild the paths is thus an urgent aspect of ecological restoration. In the past, Yunnan mainly employed three models that were designed to reduce endogenous pollution by introducing alien species. The first entailed using silver and bighead carps to control algae, which is effective in controlling algae blooms in water that is worse than the grade-V level. The second entailed planting reeds and willows in order to improve lakeside zones' landscapes. The third entailed introducing water hyacinths, which play a positive role in reducing nitrogen and phosphorus but create a dark and anaerobic environment in the area that they cover, making it impossible for fish, shrimp, shellfish, and aquatic plants to survive. The Kunming Institute of Zoology research team that wrote the report created the macrophytes-fishes-benthons-birds restoration model as a means of reducing phosphorus and nitrogen after studying the theory of the paths by which they are ushered out of wetlands. The model connects native flagship aquatic plants, fish, and benthic animals in order to reconstruct broken ecological chains and create a path by which phosphorus and nitrogen can be removed from the water. It has been implemented at Dianchi Lake and Yunnan's second largest lake an alpine lake in Dali City known as Erhai Lake and good results have been achieved. The researchers suggest dividing plateau lake wetlands into three categories and conducting targeted ecological restoration and management measures in accordance with local conditions in order to promote the model. Implementing the macrophytes-fishes-benthons-birds restoration model is recommended for lake wetlands with good ecological environments where native species are well-preserved and water quality is in the grade-I to grade-III range, such as the Erhai Lake, Fuxian Lake, which is the third largest lake in Yunnan, and Lugu Lake, which is the highest lake in Yunnan, in order to engender the two main paths by which phosphorus and nitrogen are removed. Introducing silver and bighead carps in lakes where some native creatures have disappeared and the water quality is in the grade-IV to worse-than-grade-V range, such as Dianchi, a plateau lake that connects to karst caves known as Qilu, a plateau lake that connects to Fuxian Lake by river known as Xingyun, a mesotrophic plateau lake located in western Yunnan known as Chenghai, and a lake that is known for its colorful lotus flowers and other scenery known as Yilong, is suggested so that they can consume algae present in them. The "macrophytes-fishes-benthons-birds" restoration model can be used in a supplementary manner in this case. Reducing and removing heavy metals is the top priority for lake wetlands that have this problem, such as the Yangzonghai Lake area, which features underwater springs and is one of Yunnan's scenic regions. The best way of doing so is by increasing the population of benthic shellfish, such as the Chinese pond mussel (Anodonta woodiana), Chinese round snails, and river clams, since shellfish adsorb heavy metals and deposit them in their shells as they grow. Lakeside zones should also be restored and native fish species that consume filamentous algae should be released as appropriate. Chinese scientists: Model involving native macrophytes, fishes, benthons, and birds effective for lake wetlands restoration http://en.chinagate.cn/2024-06/05/content_117235850.htm SOURCE China.org.cn NEW YORK, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The global corporate learning management system market size is estimated to grow by USD 43.94 billion from 2024-2028, according to Technavio. The market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of over 31.87% during the forecast period. Implementation of cloud-based corporate lms is driving market growth, with a trend towards emergence of mobile learning However, threat from open-source lms poses a challenge. Key market players include Adobe Inc., Aptara Inc., Axonify Inc., Bigtincan Holdings Ltd., Blackboard Inc., City and Guilds Group, Cornerstone OnDemand Inc., D2L Inc, Docebo Inc., HealthStream Inc., Heuristix Digital Technologies Private Ltd., International Business Machines Corp., iSpring Solutions Inc., iTacit, Jzero Solutions Ltd., Oracle Corp., Paradiso Solutions, Pluralsight LLC, SAP SE, and Skillsoft Corp.. Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global corporate learning management system market 2024-2028 Get a detailed analysis on regions, market segments, customer landscape, and companies- View the snapshot of this report Corporate Learning Management System Market Scope Report Coverage Details Base year 2023 Historic period 2018 - 2022 Forecast period 2024-2028 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 31.87% Market growth 2024-2028 USD 43948.1 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth 2022-2023 (%) 25.46 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and Middle East and Africa Performing market contribution North America at 33% Key countries US, China, UK, Canada, and Germany Key companies profiled Adobe Inc., Aptara Inc., Axonify Inc., Bigtincan Holdings Ltd., Blackboard Inc., City and Guilds Group, Cornerstone OnDemand Inc., D2L Inc, Docebo Inc., HealthStream Inc., Heuristix Digital Technologies Private Ltd., International Business Machines Corp., iSpring Solutions Inc., iTacit, Jzero Solutions Ltd., Oracle Corp., Paradiso Solutions, Pluralsight LLC, SAP SE, and Skillsoft Corp. Market Driver The Corporate Learning Management System (LMS) market is experiencing significant growth due to the increasing popularity of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies. Vendors are focusing on mobile-compliant features to cater to learners accessing content through various devices. In the corporate sector, there is a shift towards corporate-owned personally-enabled (COPE) devices to ease IT management challenges. Education technology content and products are targeting a wider learner base with mobile-designed offerings. This trend is indicative of the rising demand for blended learning and the incorporation of new forms of learning, such as social learning and gamification. Vendors are prioritizing flexible, responsive web design for mobile-compatible learning portals. The Corporate Learning Management System (CLMS) market is experiencing significant growth due to the increasing need for remote work and digital training solutions. Companies are investing in advanced platforms that offer personalized learning experiences, such as microlearning and adaptive learning. These systems enable organizations to manage, deliver, and track employee training programs effectively. Additionally, integration with other business applications like HR systems and CRMs is becoming a key trend in the CLMS market. The use of video and interactive content is also on the rise, making learning more engaging and effective. Overall, the CLMS market is evolving to meet the changing needs of businesses and their workforces. Research report provides comprehensive data on impact of trend. For more details- Download a Sample Report Market Challenges Open-source Learning Management Systems (LMS) are increasingly preferred by corporations due to their cost-effective nature. Unlike proprietary LMS, open-source solutions do not require initial licensing fees and offer lower development and maintenance costs. These systems enable multiple users to access them for free. Troubleshooting is easier and quicker in open-source LMS due to their community-driven development. Open-source LMS also offer lower certification and training costs for employees compared to proprietary systems. With a larger global user base, open-source LMS solutions offer faster bug fixes and continuous upgrades. The future looks promising for open-source LMS in the corporate sector. The Corporate Learning Management System (CLMS) market faces several challenges in implementing and managing effective training programs. These include the need for customizable content to cater to diverse employee skill levels (training, technology, and regulations). Ensuring user-friendly design and easy access to learning materials is crucial for employee engagement (user experience, technology). Integration with other HR systems and data analytics for tracking progress and measuring ROI is essential for demonstrating the value of CLMS to organizations (integration, analytics, technology, value). Additionally, ensuring security and data privacy is a significant concern in the digital age (security, privacy, technology). Overall, addressing these challenges requires a comprehensive and adaptable approach to CLMS implementation and management. For more insights on driver and challenges - Request a sample report! Segment Overview Deployment 1.1 On-premises 1.2 Cloud End-user 2.1 Large enterprises 2.2 Small and medium enterprises Geography 3.1 North America 3.2 Europe 3.3 APAC 3.4 South America 3.5 Middle East and Africa 1.1 On-premises- Corporate Learning Management Systems (LMS) continue to be deployed on-premises due to the presence of in-house technical expertise and cost savings. Technical training is essential for industries like IT and manufacturing, and on-premises LMS enables customization and integration. On-premises LMS tools are preferred for security and ease of installation, especially for small-scale service providers. The focus on technical skills, such as coding and data mining, drives the demand for on-premises LMS solutions. For more information on market segmentation with geographical analysis including forecast (2024-2028) and historic data (2017-2021) - Download a Sample Report Research Analysis In the corporate world, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) increasingly adopt Cloud-based Learning Management Systems (LMS) for their corporate learning needs. On-premises LMS are being replaced by Software as a Service (SaaS) LMS solutions due to their flexibility and cost-effectiveness. Microlearning, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML) are transforming learning technology in various Technology and Retail verticals. Advanced elearning programs offer immersive, interactive learning environments with realistic simulations, ensuring safe and controlled virtual training for high-risk industries. Centralized systems enable managing and delivering learning content, including online courses and eLearning content, to a diverse workforce. Traditional methods are being supplemented with these advanced learning technologies to enhance skills development and research and development in multiple industries. LMS providers offer customized learning programs to corporate clients, focusing on retention rates and effective learning experiences. Market Research Overview The Corporate Learning Management System (CLMSS) market refers to a collection of software solutions and services designed to manage and deliver educational programs within organizations. These systems enable businesses to train their employees effectively and efficiently, using various features such as course authoring, delivery, tracking, reporting, and assessment. CLMSS can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud, and they cater to various industries and sectors, including healthcare, finance, retail, and technology. They help organizations streamline their training processes, improve employee performance, and ensure regulatory compliance. Additionally, they offer integrations with other HR systems and tools, enabling seamless data flow and streamlined workflows. Table of Contents: 1 Executive Summary 2 Market Landscape 3 Market Sizing 4 Historic Market Size 5 Five Forces Analysis 6 Market Segmentation Deployment On-premises Cloud End-user Large Enterprises Small And Medium Enterprises Geography North America Europe APAC South America Middle East And Africa 7 Customer Landscape 8 Geographic Landscape 9 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 10 Company Landscape 11 Company Analysis 12 Appendix About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. Contacts Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media & Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: [email protected] Website: www.technavio.com/ SOURCE Technavio HOUSTON, June 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Daiso, the renowned global retail chain offering a wide range of affordable and unique products, is thrilled to announce the grand opening at Eldridge Town Center in Houston, Texas on June 22nd. "We are thrilled to open our store at Eldridge Town Center," said Jack Williams, Chief Retail Operations Officer for Daiso USA. "This achievement reflects the dedication and support of our customers who have embraced Daiso's unique concept and diverse product range. We are excited to provide an exceptional shopping experience to the vibrant Houston community and look forward to serving our customers with the utmost care and dedication." The new Daiso store at Eldridge Town Center encompasses 6,300 square feet and promises to be a haven for shoppers seeking quality merchandise at affordable prices. With its extensive range of products spanning various categories, including Japanese inspired home decor, stationery, food, and more, Daiso has become synonymous with accessible and innovative offerings. John Clarke, Chief Development Officer for Daiso USA says, "Houston based Daiso customers have shown us through our online business and social media their desire for us to have more stores within the state, influencing our immediate growth strategy in this region. We currently operate 131 units in 7 states with more states opening in 2024." On both Saturday, June 22nd and Sunday, June 23rd, the first 100 customers to shop at the Eldridge Town Center location and make a minimum purchase of $30 will receive an exclusive goodie bag. These special offerings are Daiso's way of expressing gratitude to its loyal customers and welcoming new shoppers to the Daiso community. Daiso invites customers to join in the celebration. The Daiso, at 12246 FM 1960 Rd. W, is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m to 9 p.m and Sunday from 10 a.m to 8 p.m. About Daiso: Daiso is a global retail chain founded in Japan, known for its vast array of unique and affordable products across various categories such as household goods, stationery, beauty, and more. Daiso entered the US market in 2005 and continues to expand its global footprint while maintaining its commitment to quality, innovation, and customer satisfaction. The Daiso US headquarters is located in Anaheim, CA. SOURCE Daiso USA PHOENIX, June 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Daiso, the renowned global retail chain offering a wide range of affordable and unique products, is thrilled to announce the grand opening at Mountain Park Plaza in Phoenix, Arizona on June 22nd. "We are thrilled to open our store at Mountain Park Plaza," said Jack Williams, Chief Retail Operations Officer for Daiso USA. "This achievement reflects the dedication and support of our customers who have embraced Daiso's unique concept and diverse product range. We are excited to provide an exceptional shopping experience to the vibrant Phoenix community and look forward to serving our customers with the utmost care and dedication." The new Daiso store at Mountain Park Plaza encompasses 13,800 square feet and promises to be a haven for shoppers seeking quality merchandise at affordable prices. With its extensive range of products spanning various categories, including Japanese inspired home decor, stationery, food, and more, Daiso has become synonymous with accessible and innovative offerings. John Clarke, Chief Development Officer for Daiso USA says, "Phoenix based Daiso customers have shown us through our online business and social media their desire for us to have more stores within the state, influencing our immediate growth strategy in this region. We currently operate 131 units in 7 states with more states opening in 2024". On both Saturday, June 22nd and Sunday, June 23rd, the first 100 customers to shop at the Mountain Park Plaza location and make a minimum purchase of $30 will receive an exclusive goodie bag. These special offerings are Daiso's way of expressing gratitude to its loyal customers and welcoming new shoppers to the Daiso community. Daiso invites customers to join in the celebration. The Daiso, at 602 East Baseline Road, is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m to 9 p.m and Sunday from 10 a.m to 8 p.m. About Daiso: Daiso is a global retail chain founded in Japan, known for its vast array of unique and affordable products across various categories such as household goods, stationery, beauty, and more. Daiso entered the US market in 2005 and continues to expand its global footprint while maintaining its commitment to quality, innovation, and customer satisfaction. The Daiso US headquarters is located in Anaheim, CA. SOURCE Daiso USA SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif., June 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Daiso, the renowned global retail chain offering a wide range of affordable and unique products, is thrilled to announce the grand opening of another California location in San Juan Capistrano on June 15th. "We are thrilled to open our store in San Juan Capistrano," said Jack Williams, Chief Retail Operations Officer for Daiso USA. "This achievement reflects the dedication and support of our customers who have embraced Daiso's unique concept and diverse product range. We are excited to provide an exceptional shopping experience to this vibrant community and look forward to serving our customers with the utmost care and dedication." The new Daiso store in San Juan Capistrano encompasses 6,500 square feet and promises to be a haven for shoppers seeking quality merchandise at affordable prices. With its extensive range of products spanning various categories, including Japanese inspired home decor, stationery, food, and more, Daiso has become synonymous with accessible and innovative offerings. John Clarke, Chief Development Officer for Daiso USA says, "San Juan Capistrano based Daiso customers have shown us through our online business and social media their desire for us to have more stores within the state, influencing our immediate growth strategy in this region. We currently operate 131 units in 7 states with more states opening in 2024". On both Saturday, June 15th and Sunday, June 16th, the first 100 customers to shop at the San Juan Capistrano location and make a minimum purchase of $30 will receive an exclusive goodie bag. These special offerings are Daiso's way of expressing gratitude to its loyal customers and welcoming new shoppers to the Daiso community. Daiso invites customers to join in the celebration. The Daiso, at 32391-A Camino Capistrano, is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m to 9 p.m and Sunday from 10 a.m to 8 p.m. About Daiso: Daiso is a global retail chain founded in Japan, known for its vast array of unique and affordable products across various categories such as household goods, stationery, beauty, and more. Daiso entered the US market in 2005 and continues to expand its global footprint while maintaining its commitment to quality, innovation, and customer satisfaction. The Daiso US headquarters is located in Anaheim, CA. SOURCE Daiso USA BOGOTA, Colombia, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Ecopetrol (BVC: ECOPETROL; NYE: EC) ("Ecopetrol" or the "Company") informs that, in line with the 2040 strategy named "Energy that Transforms," which seeks the Company's positioning as a leader in energy diversification in the region and as part of its transformation process to have a more agile and efficient organization, Ecopetrol board of directors, in its extraordinary session of June 6, 2024, approved adjustments to its organizational structure. The changes were made to strengthen the management of its business lines, maintain competitive returns and segregate activities related to management from those related to execution. The changes are as follows: Change of name of the Legal Vice-Presidency to the Vice-Presidency of Corporate Legal Affairs. The Vice-Presidency of Corporate Affairs and General Secretariat divides its functions into two organizational units that are expected to report directly to the Chief Executive Officer's Office, the General Secretariat and the Corporate Directorate of Institutional Relations and Communications. Merger of the Health, Safety and Environmental Vice-Presidency and the Vice-Presidency of Territorial and Sustainable Development into a single Corporate Vice-Presidency of Territorial Transformation and Health, Safety and Environmental Matters. Change of name of the Vice-Presidency of Procurement and Services to Vice Presidency of Administration and Services. Change of name of the Corporate Vice-Presidency of Human Resources to Corporate Vice-Presidency of Organizational Talent. Change of name of the Operational Executive Vice-Presidency to Executive Vice-Presidency of Hydrocarbons. Change of name of the Vice-Presidency of Low Emission Solutions to Executive Vice-Presidency of Energy for Transition. Change of name of Corporate Division of Internal Audit Management to Corporate Directorate of Internal Audit, reporting directly to the board of directors and the Chief Executive Officer. Change of name of the Vice-Presidency of Compliance to the Division of Corporate Compliance, reporting directly to the board of directors and the Chief Executive Officer. These adjustments to the organizational structure will be effective as of July 1, 2024. Ecopetrol is the largest company in Colombia and one of the main integrated energy companies in the American continent, with more than 18,000 employees. In Colombia, it is responsible for more than 60% of the hydrocarbon production of most transportation, logistics, and hydrocarbon refining systems, and it holds leading positions in the petrochemicals and gas distribution segments. With the acquisition of 51.4% of ISA's shares, the company participates in energy transmission, the management of real-time systems (XM), and the Barranquilla - Cartagena coastal highway concession. At the international level, Ecopetrol has a stake in strategic basins in the American continent, with Drilling and Exploration operations in the United States (Permian basin and the Gulf of Mexico), Brazil, and Mexico, and, through ISA and its subsidiaries, Ecopetrol holds leading positions in the power transmission business in Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Bolivia, road concessions in Chile, and the telecommunications sector. This press release contains business prospect statements, operating and financial result estimates, and statements related to Ecopetrol's growth prospects. These are all projections and, as such, they are based solely on the expectations of the managers regarding the future of the company and their continued access to capital to finance the company's business plan. The realization of said estimates in the future depends on the behavior of market conditions, regulations, competition, and the performance of the Colombian economy and the industry, among other factors, and are consequently subject to change without prior notice. This release contains statements that may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All forward-looking statements, whether made in this release or in future filings or press releases, or orally, address matters that involve risks and uncertainties, including in respect of the Company's prospects for growth and its ongoing access to capital to fund the Company's business plan, among others. Consequently, changes in the following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those included in the forward-looking statements: market prices of oil & gas, our exploration, and production activities, market conditions, applicable regulations, the exchange rate, the Company's competitiveness and the performance of Colombia's economy and industry, to mention a few. We do not intend and do not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. For more information, please contact: Head of Capital Markets Carolina Tovar Aragon Email: [email protected] Head of Corporate Communications Marcela Ulloa Email: [email protected] SOURCE Ecopetrol S.A. Donation will help launch the Community Schools Model at Erie High School in Erie, Pa. and address barriers for students and families living in poverty ERIE, Pa., June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Erie Insurance (ERIE) today announced a $1 million donation to United Way of Erie County, a social impact organization focused on breaking the cycle of generational poverty through education in Erie, Pa. ERIE's donation will help launch the Community Schools Model at Erie High School, a proven strategy for improving academic growth, addressing students' and families' basic needs, increasing engagement, boosting attendance and enhancing school culture. In announcing ERIE's donation, President and CEO Tim NeCastro emphasized that United Way's Community Schools Model helps advance student success by meeting students' and families' basic needs and building trusted relationships. "What I've learned working closely with United Way and our local school leaders is that nonacademic barriers are holding students back. These barriers are a lack of basic needs that we take for granted: food, clothing, personal hygiene and safety," said NeCastro. "These are challenges children in our community face every day, and these are the challenges the Community Schools Model is helping to address." With funding from Erie Insurance and other community partners, United Way will hire community school directors for Erie High School and provide inside-the-school support that includes health, vision and dental care, clothing and personal hygiene items, family engagement opportunities and expanded learning time and enrichment programs. "Erie Insurance has long supported education in our region and the work of United Way," said Laurie Root, president of United Way of Erie County. "We are very grateful for Erie Insurance's support of the Community Schools Model, removing barriers for children and families in our community and helping us build a brighter future for students today and for generations to come." Launched in 2016, the United Way Community Schools Model today serves nearly 10,000 students and their families in 16 schools in northwest Pennsylvania. The expansion of Community Schools to Erie High School will also bring continuity to the Community Schools support students and families have already had in the city's elementary and middle schools. One of those schools is Pfeiffer-Burleigh Elementary School, a public school located in one the city's poorest zip codes and blocks from Erie Insurance's home office campus in downtown Erie. Erie Insurance has been the Pfeiffer-Burleigh 'Adopt-a-School' partner for more than 30 years. In 2016, Erie Insurance officially became the corporate partner for the school through United Way's Community Schools initiative. Erie Insurance is United Way of Erie County's largest workplace giving partner. Last year, Erie Insurance employee contributions and the company's matching gifts program totaled nearly $700,000 in support of United Way of Erie County and United Way organizations throughout the company's footprint. Beyond support for Community Schools, Erie Insurance gives annually to various education nonprofits to support learning and expand education programs in Northwest Pennsylvania and across the communities it serves. About Erie Insurance According to A.M. Best Company, Erie Insurance Group, based in Erie, Pennsylvania, is the 12th largest homeowners insurer, 13th largest automobile insurer and 13th largest commercial lines insurer in the United States based on direct premiums written. Founded in 1925, Erie Insurance is a Fortune 500 company and the 17th largest property/casualty insurer in the United States based on total lines net premium written. Rated A+ (Superior) by A.M. Best, ERIE has nearly 7 million policies in force and operates in 12 states and the District of Columbia. News releases and more information are available on ERIE's website at www.erieinsurance.com. SOURCE Erie Indemnity Company NEW YORK, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The global healthcare logistics market size is estimated to grow by USD 121.4 billion from 2024-2028, according to Technavio. The market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of over 13.87% during the forecast period. Growing global pharmaceutical sales is driving market growth, with a trend towards growing number of initiatives to promote cold chain logistics. However, increased complexities due to time-bound deliveries and customization of the supply chain poses a challenge. Key market players include Agility Public Warehousing Co. K.S.C.P, AGRO Merchants Group, Air Canada, AmerisourceBergen Corp., CEVA Logistics, Cold Chain Technologies, Continental Cargo OU, DB Schenker, Deutsche Post AG, DSV AS, Farmasoft, FedEx Corp., Kuehne Nagel Management AG, McKesson Corp., Oximio, SF Express Co. Ltd., Swisslog Holding AG, United Parcel Service Inc., and VersaCold Logistics Services. Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global healthcare logistics market 2024-2028 Get a detailed analysis on regions, market segments, customer landscape, and companies - View the snapshot of this report Forecast period 2024-2028 Base Year 2023 Historic Data 2018 - 2022 Segment Covered Product (Pharmaceutical products and Medical devices), Service (Transportation and Warehousing), and Geography (APAC, North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and South America) Region Covered APAC, North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and South America Key companies profiled Agility Public Warehousing Co. K.S.C.P, AGRO Merchants Group, Air Canada, AmerisourceBergen Corp., CEVA Logistics, Cold Chain Technologies, Continental Cargo OU, DB Schenker, Deutsche Post AG, DSV AS, Farmasoft, FedEx Corp., Kuehne Nagel Management AG, McKesson Corp., Oximio, SF Express Co. Ltd., Swisslog Holding AG, United Parcel Service Inc., and VersaCold Logistics Services Key Market Trends Fueling Growth The emerging cold chain markets in Brazil, China, India, and South Africa are being promoted through various regulations focusing on food and drug safety. Notable regulations include CFDA's rules for good pharmaceutical supply practices, the European Commission's guideline on medicinal product distribution, and IATA's CEIV Pharma certification. In 2019, a trading platform was launched for China-Singapore international cold chain products to facilitate trade and logistics between China and Southeast Asia. The healthcare logistics market is experiencing significant growth, driven by the increasing need for efficient and effective supply chain management in the healthcare sector. Occupational therapy, physical therapy, and chronic disease care are key areas of focus. The use of technology, such as cold chain solutions and delivery tracking systems, is crucial for ensuring the safe and timely delivery of medical supplies and pharmaceuticals. Digital transformation is also a trend, with many companies implementing electronic data interchange and other automation solutions to streamline processes and improve accuracy. Additionally, the rise of telehealth and remote patient monitoring is increasing the demand for logistics services that can support these new care delivery models. Overall, the healthcare logistics market is expected to continue growing as healthcare providers seek to optimize their supply chains and improve patient outcomes. Research report provides comprehensive data on impact of trend. For more details- Download a Sample Report Market Challenges The healthcare logistics market faces complexity due to the need for shorter lead times for customers and cost reduction for logistics companies. Healthcare supplies require special handling and customized supply chains to maintain product properties. Information sharing is essential for designing effective models, but confidential data concerns may hinder this. Urban and rural infrastructure differences also pose challenges. Manufacturers must consider order size for profitability and customize supply chains based on freight rate, volume, and delivery urgency. These factors make designing a healthcare logistics model a complex task. The healthcare logistics market faces several challenges in ensuring the timely and efficient delivery of medical supplies and equipment. These include the need for temperature-controlled transportation for certain products, the requirement for secure and compliant handling of pharmaceuticals, and the importance of on-time delivery to maintain the continuity of patient care. Additionally, the increasing complexity of supply chains, driven by factors such as globalization and the rise of e-commerce, adds to the challenges. The use of technology, such as real-time tracking and automation, can help mitigate some of these challenges, but also presents its own set of implementation and cost considerations. For more insights on driver and challenges - Download a Sample Report Segment Overview Product 1.1 Pharmaceutical products 1.2 Medical devices Service 2.1 Transportation 2.2 Warehousing Geography 3.1 APAC 3.2 North America 3.3 Europe 3.4 Middle East and Africa and 3.5 South America 1.1 Pharmaceutical products- The pharmaceutical segment dominated the global healthcare logistics market in 2023, driven by the approval and launch of new drugs. The US FDA approved 55 novel drugs, primarily small molecule drugs and biologics, leading to increased demand for pharmaceutical logistics. Notable approvals include Kisqali from Novartis AG, Ocrevus from F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., and Veklury from Gilead Science Ltd. This trend is expected to continue, enabling logistics players to adapt their facilities to meet pharmaceutical manufacturers' needs. For more information on market segmentation with geographical analysis including forecast (2024-2028) and historic data (2018 - 2022) - Download a Sample Report Research Analysis The healthcare logistics market is experiencing significant digital transformation, with the adoption of new technologies such as inventory forecasting and order fulfillment systems. Third-party logistics providers play a crucial role in this sector, offering freight forwarding services to ensure the timely delivery of healthcare products. Warehousing is an essential aspect of healthcare logistics, with facilities required to maintain specific temperatures for sensitive healthcare products. The mode of transportation used in healthcare logistics includes trucks, trains, boats, and airplanes, ensuring the safe and efficient movement of raw materials and finished goods. Healthcare logistics is critical in the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, correction, and transportation of various healthcare-related issues, including infections, injuries, diseases, and dental needs. The healthcare industry relies heavily on logistics to ensure the timely and efficient delivery of essential supplies and products, making it a vital component of the overall healthcare supply chain. Market Research Overview The Healthcare Logistics Market encompasses the transportation, storage, and distribution of healthcare products and supplies. This critical sector ensures the timely delivery of essential medicines, medical devices, and lab samples to healthcare facilities and patients. Technologies like RFID and IoT are revolutionizing healthcare logistics, enabling real-time tracking and monitoring of shipments. The market is driven by factors such as increasing healthcare expenditures, growing demand for specialized medical equipment, and the need for efficient supply chain management. Challenges include regulatory compliance, ensuring temperature-controlled transportation, and managing complex supply chains. Sustainability and digitalization are key trends shaping the future of healthcare logistics. Table of Contents: 1 Executive Summary 2 Market Landscape 3 Market Sizing 4 Historic Market Size 5 Five Forces Analysis 6 Market Segmentation Product Pharmaceutical Products Medical Devices Service Transportation Warehousing Geography APAC North America Europe Middle East And Africa South America 7 Customer Landscape 8 Geographic Landscape 9 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 10 Company Landscape 11 Company Analysis 12 Appendix About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. Contacts Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media & Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: [email protected] Website: www.technavio.com/ SOURCE Technavio The Companies Hosted a Joint Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on June 7 HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, N.J., June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- HRP Group (HRP) today announced the successful operations commencement of Dynamic Marketing Incorporated (DMI), now doing business as DMI Appliance Group, at HRP Mercer Logistics Park, a 132-acre, 1.23 million square foot sustainably-built logistics hub in Hamilton Township, NJ. DMI occupies Building 1 on the logistics campus, which measures 846,078 square feet. To celebrate the start of the partnership between the two companies, HRP and DMI were joined by Hamilton Township Mayor Jeff Martin and local officials and stakeholders for a ribbon cutting ceremony at the facility on June 7. Positioned just 35 miles from Philadelphia, 65 miles from Manhattan and in close proximity to the area's significant seaport and airport infrastructure, nearly 40 percent of the US population can be reached within a single day's drive from HRP Mercer. Access to 2.48 million workers, including more than 112,300 transportation and warehouse workers, enhances the site's value as an ideal location for both regional distribution and last mile logistics. "We are thrilled to have DMI begin its operations at HRP Mercer," said HRP Chief Investment Officer Andrew Chused. "DMI has been a fixture in the Hamilton Township community for a decade now, and we believe their track record as an industry leader makes them an ideal user for this state-of-the-art facility. We are also grateful to Mayor Martin and our partners in Hamilton Township for their ongoing support for our work to transform this former industrial site and create sustainable jobs and economic growth." DMI is a buying cooperative dedicated to serving the needs of independent consumer appliance dealers. Currently serving over 80 members with more than 90 showrooms across the Northeast, DMI enables independent dealers to remain competitive in major markets. DMI is strategically positioned to foster continued growth in the appliance industry by enhancing its range of services and operational efficiency. With a solid commitment to innovation and member success, DMI is dedicated to empowering its members to thrive and grow. "DMI is dedicated to optimizing operations and boosting efficiencies to elevate our organization for our members. Moving to a new state-of-the-art warehouse with cross-docking and room to grow is a significant step towards our continued growth," said DMI Executive Director, Alan Joskowicz. DMI's occupancy of the building will result in 81 jobs remaining in Hamilton Township, with the potential to add hundreds of additional jobs in the future. "We are thrilled DMI chose to stay in Hamilton and expand their operations here," said Mayor Jeff Martin. "I also want to thank HRP for seeing a diamond in the rough by repurposing a decommissioned coal plant, cleaning it up, and turning it into something clean and useful. A special thanks to HRP for doing all the work with all skilled union and local workers." At the event, DMI recognized their business partners, including those who supported the grand opening: Whirlpool, GE Appliances, Nationwide Marketing Group (NMG), Samsung, Middleby Residential, BSH Home Appliance, Summit Appliance, Milestone Distributors, LG Electronics, Element Electronics, Friedrich Air Conditioning, AM Home Delivery, Fisher & Paykel, and HRP. About HRP Group: HRP is a vertically integrated, multi-strategy real estate investment company specializing in the transformation of obsolete industrial sites into modern logistics infrastructure, mixed-use destinations, and pioneering innovation hubs. The firm takes a holistic approach to value creation that prioritizes community, environmental, and economic sustainability. About DMI Appliance Group: Since 1957, DMI Appliance Group has been a cooperative buying group dedicated to helping member, independent appliance retailers compete with big-box competitors. Over the past six decades, DMI has become the longest-running, continuously operating warehouse group in the U.S. The group provides members with access to appliances at competitive prices and offers comprehensive business support services, including marketing, floor planning, events, and more. SOURCE HRP Group India's leading retail full-service broking house is able to improve customer & product experience using Alltius. IRVINE, Calif., June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Alltius, an innovative Gen AI assistant platform , today announced that one of India's leading retail full-service broking houses, used Alltius' customer support AI assistants to enhance customer experiences. With Alltius, the leading financial services company has experienced reduction in support costs by $120,000 per month and over 45% ticket deflection within one month of implementation. The company is India's leading digital-first brokerage firm with 20Mn+ active users and over $400B daily turnover. Their customer support team handled over 30k+ queries on a daily basis which led to higher turnaround time. "We decided to opt for Alltius because of their AI expertise and ability to go live within weeks. We had our customer facing a self-serve AI assistant live and helping our customer in just a few weeks - as compared to months as promised by others", the team mentioned. Alltius' self service AI assistant has enabled the company to reduce their query user resolution time from hours to seconds. The AI assistant handles over 250k+ conversations every week and solves customer queries with over 99% accuracy by identifying intent and answering the query by using the knowledge base of 20k+ company documents, previous tickets, FAQ sections and more. Apart from solving customer queries, Alltius also streamlined knowledge curation, where it converted unique ticket conversations into structured FAQ sections in real-time. With Alltius, the company curated insights from conversations which were used by product managers to improve the product. The company also witnessed a dramatic 65% ticket deflection, and over 20% reduction in contact center queries thanks to Alltius' AI self-serve. The team also reduced time to insight from weeks to hours thus freeing the bandwidth of product manager and customer support teams for complex tasks. "Alltius' platform has been extremely promising. As a FinTech with a high bar on partner security, they meet our info-sec standards.", said their product manager. "Alltius is dedicated to revolutionizing the sales and customer support journeys with our advanced AI assistants", said Vibs Abhishek, CEO of Alltius, "Our partnership with the company provides the proof of transformative impact AI can have on customer support and across other teams". With Alltius, organizations can enhance customer support experience with AI assistants that can actually understand customer queries, identify the root cause and answer complex user queries within seconds with virtually zero hallucinations. Alltius is best fit for fintech, insurance and healthcare organizations with robust security features including SOC2 compliance and private cloud options. To learn more, visit alltius.ai About Alltius Alltius is a conversational AI platform which effortlessly powers enterprise applications, websites and contact centers with skillful, secure and accurate AI assistants that can 2X sales & reduce support costs by 50% in weeks. Alltius' innovative no-code platform allows businesses to seamlessly create, train and deploy AI assistants, even within a day. Alltius' platform has military grade security with SOC2 Type 2 and ISO certifications, ability to handle enterprise scale volumes of more than 100K queries per day, no hallucinations with native AI technology & 1/10th operating costs with self hosted solutions. Alltius is a product created by experts who have taught AI and NLP at Carnegie Mellon and built large scale systems at places such as Amazon, Google and Meta and used by billions. SOURCE Alltius Inc. NEW YORK, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The global liquid hand soap market size is estimated to grow by USD 2.43 billion from 2024-2028, according to Technavio. The market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of over 8.96% during the forecast period. Increasing cases of transmission of diseases is driving market growth, with a trend towards growth of private-label brands. However, stringent government regulations and standards poses a challenge. Key market players include 3M Co., Amway Corp., Cleenol Group Ltd., Colgate Palmolive Co., Godrej Consumer Products Ltd., GOJO Industries Inc., Henkel AG and Co. KGaA, Himalaya Global Holdings Ltd., ITC Ltd., Kao Corp., Lion Corp., Longrich Bio Science Co. Ltd., Medline Industries LP, Pental Ltd., Premier English Manufacturing Ltd., Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc, Shri Sahib Enterprises LLP, The Avon Co., Unilever PLC, and Vi Jon LLC. Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global liquid hand soap market 2024-2028 Get a detailed analysis on regions, market segments, customer landscape, and companies - View the snapshot of this report Forecast period 2024-2028 Base Year 2023 Historic Data 2018 - 2022 Segment Covered Type (Synthetic and Organic), Distribution Channel (Offline and Online), and Geography (APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and Middle East and Africa) Region Covered APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and Middle East and Africa Key companies profiled 3M Co., Amway Corp., Cleenol Group Ltd., Colgate Palmolive Co., Godrej Consumer Products Ltd., GOJO Industries Inc., Henkel AG and Co. KGaA, Himalaya Global Holdings Ltd., ITC Ltd., Kao Corp., Lion Corp., Longrich Bio Science Co. Ltd., Medline Industries LP, Pental Ltd., Premier English Manufacturing Ltd., Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc, Shri Sahib Enterprises LLP, The Avon Co., Unilever PLC, and Vi Jon LLC Key Market Trends Fueling Growth The private label segment in the global liquid hand soap market is experiencing significant growth. Major retailers, such as Max Hypermarket (SPAR) and Kroger Co. (Kroger), are introducing their own branded liquid hand wash products. These offerings are priced lower than branded products, making them attractive to price-sensitive consumers. Retailers like Kroger provide various variants under their labels, including Pear and Coconut, Almond Vanilla, Lemongrass and Basil, and Antibacterial Ripe Melon Hand Soap. Private label manufacturers, such as PBC, supply these products to retailers like Kroger, Tesco, and Walmart. The increasing preference for private label products among consumers will drive market growth during the forecast period. The Liquid Hand Soap market is experiencing significant growth due to increasing consumer preference for convenient and hygienic hand washing solutions. Key trends in this market include the use of natural and organic ingredients, fragrances, and antimicrobial properties. Companies are focusing on sustainable production methods and eco-friendly packaging to cater to environmentally conscious consumers. Additionally, the market is witnessing innovation in the form of touchless dispensers and automated systems to promote contactless hand hygiene. The future looks bright for the Liquid Hand Soap industry with continued demand for effective and convenient hand washing solutions. Research report provides comprehensive data on impact of trend. For more details- Download a Sample Report Market Challenges The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the use of chemical ingredients in liquid hand soap, enforcing compliance with regulations to ensure health safety. Manufacturers must disclose all ingredients on labels, adhering to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) and the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA). Strict regulations in various countries pose challenges for vendors entering new markets. False claims about product composition are prohibited, but BPC products are not pre-approved, potentially hindering market growth. The Liquid Hand Soap market faces several challenges. Unhygienic conditions and the increasing awareness about health and hygiene drive the demand for liquid hand soap. However, affordability and availability remain key challenges. The high cost of production and distribution, especially in rural areas, can limit market growth. Additionally, the presence of numerous competitors and the need for continuous innovation to stand out in the market add to the challenges. Regulations regarding the use of certain ingredients also pose a challenge for manufacturers. Overall, the Liquid Hand Soap market requires effective strategies to address these challenges and maintain a competitive edge. For more insights on driver and challenges - Download a Sample Report Segment Overview Type 1.1 Synthetic 1.2 Organic Distribution Channel 2.1 Offline 2.2 Online Geography 3.1 APAC 3.2 North America 3.3 Europe 3.4 South America 3.5 Middle East and Africa 1.1 Synthetic- The synthetic segment dominates the global liquid hand soap market in 2023 due to its effectiveness in eliminating bacteria and microbes. Made from synthetic chemicals like sodium lauryl sulfate, synthetic liquid hand soap has seen increased demand due to heightened hygiene concerns. Vendors are sourcing local raw materials to reduce costs and maintain competitive pricing. The COVID-19 pandemic further boosted demand, and this trend is expected to continue, driving growth in the synthetic segment. For more information on market segmentation with geographical analysis including forecast (2024-2028) and historic data (2018 - 2022) - Download a Sample Report Research Analysis The Liquid Hand Soap market encompasses a wide range of detergent products designed for effective hand hygiene. These soaps contain anionic surfactants such as cocoamide and coco betaine, which help in the removal of viral infections like norovirus. The market offers a variety of fragrances, ensuring consumer preference is catered to. Soap packaging includes opaque substances to maintain product quality, while dispenser units like Dial's ensure convenient usage. Guidelines for hand hygiene emphasize the importance of using Liquid Hand Soap regularly. The market also includes Liquid Hand Soap, Hand-liquid hand soap, Body washes, and Refillable packs, providing consumers with diverse options. Keywords: sanitation, hygiene products, workers, hand hygiene, factsheet, farm harvesters, viral infections, norovirus, Liquid soap, laundry bars, Refillable packs, Variety of fragrances, Liquid hand washes, Body washes, Guidelines, Soap packaging, Dispenser units, Dial, Liquid Hand Soap, Hand-liquid hand soap, detergent product category, anionic surfactant, cocamide, coco betaine, opaque substance, colour, fragrance, glycerine. Market Research Overview The Liquid Hand Soap Market encompasses a wide range of hygiene products used for washing hands in various settings. These soaps are known for their ease of use, effectiveness in removing dirt and grime, and ability to leave hands feeling clean and moisturized. The market for liquid hand soaps is driven by factors such as increasing awareness of personal hygiene, growing demand for convenient and portable hand washing solutions, and the availability of a diverse range of fragrances and formulations. The production process involves the use of raw materials like surfactants, preservatives, and fragrances, which are mixed and formulated to create the final product. The liquid hand soap market is segmented based on product type, application, and region. Some common product types include antibacterial, foaming, and fragranced soaps. Applications include residential, commercial, and industrial use. Regions covered include North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the rest of the world. Table of Contents: 1 Executive Summary 2 Market Landscape 3 Market Sizing 4 Historic Market Size 5 Five Forces Analysis 6 Market Segmentation Type Synthetic Organic Distribution Channel Offline Online Geography APAC North America Europe South America Middle East And Africa 7 Customer Landscape 8 Geographic Landscape 9 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 10 Company Landscape 11 Company Analysis 12 Appendix About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. Contacts Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media & Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: [email protected] Website: www.technavio.com/ SOURCE Technavio MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md., June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- LuminoCity Festival Inc. (LuminoCity), a women and minority-owned light sculpture festival, is excited to announce its return to Montgomery County, Maryland, with the highly anticipated Dino Safari Festival. This event will run from July 4 to August 4, 2024, at Westfield Montgomery Mall, located at 7101 Democracy Boulevard in Bethesda, MD. The festival will be open Monday through Thursday from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and Friday through Sunday from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Tickets are available for purchase online at luminocityfestival.com or onsite. Image courtesy of LuminoCity Festival "We are thrilled to return to Maryland for our Dino Safari Festival," said Xiaoyi Chen, founder of LuminoCity. "Those that missed it last November, can experience the mesmerizing journey of prehistoric wonders, and create one-of-a-kind memories for families, friends, and dinosaur lovers." Following the success of its Holiday Lights Festival in 2023, LuminoCity's Dino Safari Festival marks its second appearance in the area, featuring new themes and attractions. The Holiday Lights Festival will also return to Montgomery County this November. The Dino Safari Festival will transport attendees to an era long past, offering a captivating glimpse into the ancient world of dinosaurs, mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, and more. Using state-of-the-art animatronics with light art, visitors will experience these larger-than-life-size prehistoric giants come to life with jaw-dropping realism. Highlights include: Dino Safari and Ice Age Adventure: Explore 70+ life-sized animated dinosaurs and immersive ice age animal sculptures. Explore 70+ life-sized animated dinosaurs and immersive ice age animal sculptures. Interactive Recreation Zone: Enjoy attractions such as a Dino Bounce Castle, Dino Speedway, T-Rex Thrill, Jungle Explorer Playground, Dino Carousel, and Oviraptor Ride. Enjoy attractions such as a Dino Bounce Castle, Dino Speedway, T-Rex Thrill, Jungle Explorer Playground, Dino Carousel, and Oviraptor Ride. Educational Experiences: Participate in a Safari Dig and Dino Fossil Hunt to uncover hidden gems and excavate fossils from the prehistoric era. Participate in a Safari Dig and Dino Fossil Hunt to uncover hidden gems and excavate fossils from the prehistoric era. Lumi Giftshop: Shop for dino-themed toys, gifts, and Lumi souvenirs. Shop for dino-themed toys, gifts, and Lumi souvenirs. Food & Relaxation Zone: Food trucks and restroom facilities provide convenient options to grab a bite and unwind after the prehistoric adventure. Tickets are $16 to $20 per person; children 3 and under are free. ADA-compliant and stroller-friendly. For more information, visit luminocityfestival.com. About LuminoCity Festival LuminoCity was created to offer unforgettable experiences through light and imagination. They transform creative thoughts into illuminating works of light and color. Each year, they introduce new and unique pieces of art to their festivals, including LuminoCity, Holiday Lights, and Dino Safari. For more information, visit luminocityfestival.com. Media contact: [email protected] SOURCE LuminoCity Festival NEW YORK, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The global mobile power generation equipment rentals market size is estimated to grow by USD 525.8 million from 2024-2028, according to Technavio. The market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 4.9% during the forecast period. Increasing infrastructural activities is driving market growth, with a trend towards shift to gas generators. Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global mobile power generation equipment rentals market 2024-2028 However, increasing competition from microgrids poses a challenge. Key market players include Aggreko Plc, Alta Equipment Group Inc., Ashtead Group Plc, Atlas Copco AB, ATLAS Corp., BigRentz Inc., Caterpillar Inc., Cummins Inc., Generac Holdings Inc., Herc Holdings Inc., PowerPlus, RPC Inc., Siemens AG, The Taylor Group Inc., United Rentals Inc., and Wacker Neuson SE. Get a detailed analysis on regions, market segments, customer landscape, and companies - View the snapshot of this report Forecast period 2024-2028 Base Year 2023 Historic Data 2018 - 2022 Segment Covered Application (Enterprise and Personal), Product (Generator and Turbine), and Geography (North America, APAC, Middle East and Africa, Europe, and South America) Region Covered North America, APAC, Middle East and Africa, Europe, and South America Key companies profiled Aggreko Plc, Alta Equipment Group Inc., Ashtead Group Plc, Atlas Copco AB, ATLAS Corp., BigRentz Inc., Caterpillar Inc., Cummins Inc., Generac Holdings Inc., Herc Holdings Inc., PowerPlus, RPC Inc., Siemens AG, The Taylor Group Inc., United Rentals Inc., and Wacker Neuson SE Key Market Trends Fueling Growth In the mobile power generation equipment rentals market, gas generators are gaining popularity. Reasons include their lower emissions of pollutants like nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, and carbon dioxide, aligning with industry sustainability trends. Gas generators are cost-effective due to lower fuel costs and improved fuel efficiency. They meet strict environmental standards and noise restrictions, ensuring reliability and legal compliance. Advancements in technology enhance efficiency, reliability, and performance, making gas generators the preferred choice for sectors like events, construction, and emergency response. These factors are expected to fuel market growth during the forecast period. The Mobile Power Generation Equipment Rental market is experiencing significant growth due to the increasing demand for reliable power sources in various industries. Power generators, towable power, portable power, and solar power are popular rental options. The use of capacitive power and energy storage systems is trending, providing backup power and improving overall efficiency. Renewable energy solutions, such as generators and solar panels, are gaining popularity due to their environmental benefits. T he construction industry, oil and gas sector, and disaster relief efforts are major consumers of mobile power generation equipment rentals. The market is expected to continue growing, driven by technological advancements and the need for temporary or emergency power solutions. Research report provides comprehensive data on impact of trend. For more details- Download a Sample Report Market Challenges The mobile power generation equipment rentals market is experiencing a decline due to the increasing adoption of microgrids. These small-scale power systems offer continuous power and reduce the need for rental generators and mobile power plants. Telecom companies, in particular, are turning to microgrids to power their base transceiver stations in remote locations, reducing operating costs and emissions. The oil and gas industry is also exploring the use of renewable power systems for offshore rigs, further limiting the demand for rental generators. The Mobile Power Generation Equipment Rentals market faces several challenges. Capacity and availability are key concerns, as organizations require reliable power solutions for various projects and events. The cost of fuel and maintenance adds to the expenses, making affordability a significant challenge. Consistent technology upgrades and the need for eco-friendly solutions are also pressing issues. Additionally, logistics and transportation can pose challenges due to the size and weight of the equipment. Regulations and compliance with environmental and safety standards are also important considerations. Overall, the market requires innovative solutions to address these challenges and provide cost-effective, efficient, and sustainable power generation options. For more insights on driver and challenges - Download a Sample Report Segment Overview Application 1.1 Enterprise 1.2 Personal Product 2.1 Generator 2.2 Turbine Geography 3.1 North America 3.2 APAC 3.3 Middle East and Africa and 3.4 Europe 3.5 South America 1.1 Enterprise- The enterprise application market for mobile power generation equipment rentals has experienced significant growth in 2023. Businesses turn to renting equipment for their short-term or remote power needs, enhancing operational efficiency and ensuring uninterrupted operations. Applications include construction sites, large-scale events, and data centers during maintenance or emergencies. Renting offers flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and scalability, making it an attractive alternative for businesses seeking reliable power solutions without large upfront investments. As a result, the mobile power generation equipment rentals market is projected to expand during the forecast period. For more information on market segmentation with geographical analysis including forecast (2024-2028) and historic data (2018 - 2022) - Download a Sample Report Research Analysis The Mobile Power Generation Equipment Rentals Market encompasses a range of solutions designed to provide backup power and support outdoor activities, camping, and industrial projects. These equipment include portable power stations, generators with USB ports and solar panel inputs, and towable or skid-mounted models with varying power output. The market caters to diverse sectors such as natural disaster relief, rural areas with limited grid capacity, and energy transition initiatives. Solutions like wireless charging and gas generators are essential for construction companies, engineering and maintenance teams, event planners, mining industries, and data centers. Rapid urbanization and industrialization necessitate the expansion of public infrastructure, further driving market growth. Turbines and rural electrification projects are also significant applications for mobile power generation equipment. Market Research Overview The Mobile Power Generation Equipment Rentals market caters to the demand for temporary power solutions in various industries and applications. This market encompasses a wide range of equipment types, including diesel generators, natural gas generators, and solar power systems. These solutions are essential for powering construction sites, telecommunication networks, disaster relief efforts, and other temporary or remote locations. The market is driven by factors such as increasing infrastructure development, growing demand for renewable energy sources, and the need for reliable power backup systems. Companies offering mobile power generation equipment rentals provide a flexible and cost-effective alternative to traditional power solutions. The market is expected to grow significantly in the coming years due to these factors and the increasing adoption of mobile power solutions across various sectors. Table of Contents: 1 Executive Summary 2 Market Landscape 3 Market Sizing 4 Historic Market Size 5 Five Forces Analysis 6 Market Segmentation Application Enterprise Personal Product Generator Turbine Geography North America APAC Middle East And Africa Europe South America 7 Customer Landscape 8 Geographic Landscape 9 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 10 Company Landscape 11 Company Analysis 12 Appendix About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. Contacts Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media & Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: [email protected] Website: www.technavio.com/ SOURCE Technavio CLEARWATER, Fla., June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Morton Plant Hospital recently completed its first robotic-assisted, minimally invasive coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG), making it one of only two hospitals in the Tampa Bay area to offer robotic-assisted CABG. Morton Plant Hospital was ranked #1 in Florida for Cardiac Surgery in 2023 by Healthgrades. Cardiothoracic Surgeon Michael Kayatta, MD, and his partner, Cardiovascular Surgeon John Ofenloch, MD, performed the procedure earlier this week, with the assistance of their highly skilled surgical team. Cardiothoracic Surgeon Michael Kayatta, MD (center) works with his surgical team to prepare for Morton Plant Hospital's first robotic-assisted coronary artery bypass surgery. CABG surgery is needed when plaque has built up in arteries carrying blood to the heart causing the arteries to be severely narrowed. The surgeon creates a new path for blood to flow by using a healthy artery or vein from another part of the body and connects it past the blockage on the heart. In a traditional CABG, the surgeon cuts open the chest by dividing the breastbone and spreads the ribs to expose the heart. The heart is stilled, requiring the patient to be on a heart-lung machine during the surgery. Full recovery often takes about two months. The robotic-assisted CABG only requires four small incisions between the ribs. A small camera and surgical tools are attached to the robotic arms and guided through the incisions. The heart continues to beat through the procedure, with special tools stabilizing a part of the heart. Cardiothoracic Surgeon Michael Kayatta, MD (center) works with his surgical team to prepare for Morton Plant Hospital's first robotic-assisted coronary artery bypass surgery. The computer console, which shows images of the heart magnified up to 10 times normal vision, gives the surgeon the ability to guide the surgical instruments, attached to the robotic arms, with his fingers while watching the screen. The robotic arms that are controlled by the surgeon have greater range of motion and are more precise than human arms. A major potential benefit of a robotic-assisted CABG is a quicker recovery for the patient. The smaller incisions should also result in less scarring. "We are excited to bring this new technology to patients at Morton Plant Hospital," said Dr. Kayatta. "Many people hear robot and think a machine will be doing the surgery. We have a highly skilled, experienced team performing each surgery. The robot is simply a tool that helps us to treat more patients and get them back to their life in weeks rather than months." Drs. Kayatta and Ofenloch are both with BayCare Medical Group's Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery clinic in Clearwater. For more information on heart and vascular services at BayCare: Heart and Vascular Services. About BayCare BayCare is a leading not-for-profit health care system that connects individuals and families to a wide range of services at 16 hospitals and hundreds of other convenient locations throughout the Tampa Bay and central Florida regions. The system is West Central Florida's largest provider of behavioral health and pediatric services and its provider group, BayCare Medical Group, is one of the largest in the region. BayCare's diverse network of ambulatory services includes laboratories, imaging, surgical centers, BayCare Urgent Care locations, wellness centers and one of Florida's largest home care agencies, BayCare HomeCare. BayCare's mission is to improve the health of all it serves through community-owned, health care services that set the standard for high-quality, compassionate care. For more information visit BayCare.org. SOURCE Morton Plant Hospital WASHINGTON, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Following their safe arrival at the International Space Station, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will participate in a pair of Earth to space calls Monday, June 10, regarding their historic mission aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft: Known as NASA's Boeing Crew Flight Test, the duo will speak first at 1 p.m. EDT with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, Associate Administrator Jim Free, and Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche. NASA astronauts Suni Williams (pictured left) and Butch Wilmore (pictured right) launched at 10:52 a.m. EDT June 5 as the first crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Credits: NASA Coverage of the call will stream live on NASA+, NASA Television, and the agency's website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media. At 2:40 p.m., the astronauts will participate in a Q&A moderated by Chirag Parikh, deputy assistant to President Joe Biden and executive secretary for the White House's National Space Council. Coverage of the call will stream live on NASA+, NASA Television, and the agency's website. Wilmore and Williams launched at 10:52 a.m. June 5, on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida for NASA's Boeing Crew Flight Test mission. They docked to the orbiting laboratory at 1:34 p.m., June 6, and will remain for a week-long stay, testing Starliner and its subsystems as the next step in the spacecraft's certification for rotational missions as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program. NASA's Commercial Crew Program is delivering on its goal of safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station from the United States through a partnership with American private industry. This partnership is opening access to low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station to more people, science, and commercial opportunities. The space station remains the springboard to NASA's next great leap in space exploration, including future missions to the Moon under Artemis, and ultimately, to Mars. For more information about the mission, visit: www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew SOURCE NASA WASHINGTON, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA will roll the fully assembled core stage for the agency's SLS (Space Launch System) rocket that will launch the first crewed Artemis mission out of NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans in mid-July. The 212-foot-tall stage will be loaded on the agency's Pegasus barge for delivery to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The core stage is the backbone of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket that will help power NASAs Artemis II mission to send a crew of four astronauts around the Moon in 2025. Here, the core stage is currently behind scaffolding to allow work to continue at NASAs Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The stages two massive propellant tanks hold a collective 733,000 gallons of liquid propellant to power the four RS-25 engines at its base. Following hardware acceptance reviews and final checkouts, the stage will be readied for delivery via the agencys Pegasus barge to NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida for Artemis II launch preparations. (NASA/ Eric Bordelon) Media will have the opportunity to capture images and video, hear remarks from agency and industry leadership, and speak to subject matter experts with NASA and its Artemis industry partners as crews move the rocket stage to the Pegasus barge. NASA will provide additional information on specific timing later, along with interview opportunities. This event is open to U.S. and international media. International media must apply by June 14. U.S. media must apply by July 3. The agency's media credentialing policy is available online. Interested media must contact Corinne Beckinger at [email protected] and Craig Betbeze at [email protected]. Registered media will receive a confirmation by email. The rocket stage with its four RS-25 engines will provide more than 2 million pounds of thrust to send astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II mission. Once at Kennedy, teams with NASA's Exploration Ground Systems Program will finish outfitting the stage and prepare it for stacking and launch. Artemis II is currently scheduled for launch in September 2025. Building, assembling, and transporting the core stage is a collaborative process for NASA, Boeing, the core stage lead contractor, and lead RS-25 engines contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3 Harris Technologies company. NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon under the agency's Artemis campaign. The SLS rocket is part of NASA's backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft, supporting ground systems, advanced spacesuits and rovers, the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, and commercial human landing systems. The SLS rocket is the only rocket designed to send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch. Learn more about NASA's Artemis campaign: https://www.nasa.gov/artemis/ SOURCE NASA JUNO BEACH, Fla., June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE) will host an investor conference from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, June 11 in New York City. Members of NextEra Energy's senior executive management team plan to discuss, among other topics, long-term growth rate expectations for NextEra Energy. Beginning at 8:15 a.m. ET, investors and other interested parties will be able to access the presentation materials at www.NextEraEnergy.com. A live audio webcast will be available at www.NextEraEnergy.com, beginning at 8:30 a.m. ET. For those unable to listen to the live webcast, a replay will be available for 30 days by accessing the same link as listed above. NextEra Energy, Inc. NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE) is a leading clean energy company headquartered in Juno Beach, Florida. NextEra Energy owns Florida Power & Light Company, which is America's largest electric utility that sells more power than any other utility, providing clean, affordable, reliable electricity to approximately 5.9 million customer accounts, or more than 12 million people across Florida. NextEra Energy also owns a competitive clean energy business, NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, which, together with its affiliated entities, is the world's largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun and a world leader in battery storage. Through its subsidiaries, NextEra Energy generates clean, emissions-free electricity from seven commercial nuclear power units in Florida, New Hampshire and Wisconsin. A Fortune 200 company, NextEra Energy has been recognized often by third parties for its efforts in sustainability, corporate responsibility, ethics and compliance, and diversity. For more information about NextEra Energy companies, visit these websites: www.NextEraEnergy.com, www.FPL.com, www.NextEraEnergyResources.com. Cautionary Statements and Risk Factors That May Affect Future Results This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are not statements of historical facts, but instead represent the current expectations of NextEra Energy, Inc. (together with its subsidiaries, NextEra Energy) regarding future operating results and other future events, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of NextEra Energy's control. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, among others, statements concerning long-term growth rate expectations. In some cases, you can identify the forward-looking statements by words or phrases such as "will," "may result," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "intend," "plan," "seek," "potential," "projection," "forecast," "predict," "goals," "target," "outlook," "should," "would" or similar words or expressions. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are not a guarantee of future performance. The future results of NextEra Energy and its business and financial condition are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements, or may require it to limit or eliminate certain operations. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those discussed in this news release and the following: effects of extensive regulation of NextEra Energy's business operations; inability of NextEra Energy to recover in a timely manner any significant amount of costs, a return on certain assets or a reasonable return on invested capital through base rates, cost recovery clauses, other regulatory mechanisms or otherwise; impact of political, regulatory, operational and economic factors on regulatory decisions important to NextEra Energy; effect of any reductions or modifications to, or elimination of, governmental incentives or policies that support utility scale renewable energy projects or the imposition of additional tax laws, tariffs, duties, policies or assessments on renewable energy or equipment necessary to generate it or deliver it; impact of new or revised laws, regulations, interpretations or constitutional ballot and regulatory initiatives on NextEra Energy; capital expenditures, increased operating costs and various liabilities attributable to environmental laws, regulations and other standards applicable to NextEra Energy; effects on NextEra Energy of federal or state laws or regulations mandating new or additional limits on the production of greenhouse gas emissions; exposure of NextEra Energy to significant and increasing compliance costs and substantial monetary penalties and other sanctions as a result of extensive federal regulation of its operations and businesses; effect on NextEra Energy of changes in tax laws, guidance or policies as well as in judgments and estimates used to determine tax-related asset and liability amounts; impact on NextEra Energy of adverse results of litigation; impacts of NextEra Energy of allegations of violations of law; effect on NextEra Energy of failure to proceed with projects under development or inability to complete the construction of (or capital improvements to) electric generation, transmission and distribution facilities, gas infrastructure facilities or other facilities on schedule or within budget; impact on development and operating activities of NextEra Energy resulting from risks related to project siting, planning, financing, construction, permitting, governmental approvals and the negotiation of project development agreements, as well as supply chain disruptions; risks involved in the operation and maintenance of electric generation, storage, transmission and distribution facilities, gas infrastructure facilities, and other facilities; effect on NextEra Energy of a lack of growth, slower growth or a decline in the number of customers or in customer usage; impact on NextEra Energy of severe weather and other weather conditions; threats of terrorism and catastrophic events that could result from geopolitical factors, terrorism, cyberattacks or other attempts to disrupt NextEra Energy's business or the businesses of third parties; inability to obtain adequate insurance coverage for protection of NextEra Energy against significant losses and risk that insurance coverage does not provide protection against all significant losses; a prolonged period of low gas and oil prices could impact NextEra Energy's gas infrastructure business and cause NextEra Energy to delay or cancel certain gas infrastructure projects and could result in certain projects becoming impaired; risk of increased operating costs resulting from unfavorable supply costs necessary to provide full energy and capacity requirement services; inability or failure to manage properly or hedge effectively the commodity risk within its portfolio; effect of reductions in the liquidity of energy markets on NextEra Energy's ability to manage operational risks; effectiveness of NextEra Energy's risk management tools associated with its hedging and trading procedures to protect against significant losses, including the effect of unforeseen price variances from historical behavior; impact of unavailability or disruption of power transmission or commodity transportation facilities on sale and delivery of power or natural gas; exposure of NextEra Energy to credit and performance risk from customers, hedging counterparties and vendors; failure of counterparties to perform under derivative contracts or of requirement for NextEra Energy to post margin cash collateral under derivative contracts; failure or breach of NextEra Energy's information technology systems; risks to NextEra Energy's retail businesses from compromise of sensitive customer data; losses from volatility in the market values of derivative instruments and limited liquidity in over-the-counter markets; impact of negative publicity; inability to maintain, negotiate or renegotiate acceptable franchise agreements; occurrence of work strikes or stoppages and increasing personnel costs; NextEra Energy's ability to successfully identify, complete and integrate acquisitions, including the effect of increased competition for acquisitions; environmental, health and financial risks associated with ownership and operation of nuclear generation facilities; liability of NextEra Energy for significant retrospective assessments and/or retrospective insurance premiums in the event of an incident at certain nuclear generation facilities; increased operating and capital expenditures and/or reduced revenues at nuclear generation facilities resulting from orders or new regulations of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; inability to operate any of NextEra Energy's owned nuclear generation units through the end of their respective operating licenses or planned license extensions; effect of disruptions, uncertainty or volatility in the credit and capital markets or actions by third parties in connection with project-specific or other financing arrangements on NextEra Energy's ability to fund its liquidity and capital needs and meet its growth objectives; inability to maintain current credit ratings; impairment of liquidity from inability of credit providers to fund their credit commitments or to maintain their current credit ratings; poor market performance and other economic factors that could affect NextEra Energy's defined benefit pension plan's funded status; poor market performance and other risks to the asset values of nuclear decommissioning funds; changes in market value and other risks to certain of NextEra Energy's investments; effect of inability of NextEra Energy subsidiaries to pay upstream dividends or repay funds to NextEra Energy or of NextEra Energy's performance under guarantees of subsidiary obligations on NextEra Energy's ability to meet its financial obligations and to pay dividends on its common stock; the fact that the amount and timing of dividends payable on NextEra Energy's common stock, as well as the dividend policy approved by NextEra Energy's board of directors from time to time, and changes to that policy, are within the sole discretion of NextEra Energy's board of directors and, if declared and paid, dividends may be in amounts that are less than might be expected by shareholders; NextEra Energy Partners, LP's inability to access sources of capital on commercially reasonable terms could have an effect on its ability to consummate future acquisitions and on the value of NextEra Energy's limited partner interest in NextEra Energy Operating Partners, LP; effects of disruptions, uncertainty or volatility in the credit and capital markets on the market price of NextEra Energy's common stock; and the ultimate severity and duration of public health crises, epidemics and pandemics, and its effects on NextEra Energy's business. NextEra Energy discusses these and other risks and uncertainties in its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 and other Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, and this news release should be read in conjunction with such SEC filings. The forward-looking statements made in this news release are made only as of the date of this news release and NextEra Energy undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. SOURCE NextEra Energy, Inc. LONDON, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Across the UK thousands of teenagers will mark the end of their GCSEs and A' Levels with their much anticipated school prom. This year many families are feeling the squeeze with higher living costs. Findings from a recent parent survey by nimbl, the leading pocket money card and app for 6 to 18 year olds, showed 1 in 2 parents will have spent from 200 to 500 plus to cover costs of prom tickets, outfits, make-overs, and luxury cars and photographers. 3 in 4 parents did not set a budget, whilst 1 in 4 felt the pressure to meet the surmounting costs. The nimbl free guide "Prom on a Budget" gives some great tips to help you plan and economise for this coming-of-age milestone. You don't have to break the bank to create the magic of prom. 1 in 4 parents surveyed spent less than 200, and some as little as 50 without taking the glitz and glamour away. Here are six top tips and lessons learnt from the parents to help release some of the financial strain: Set a budget: Whether you decide on a strict budget or something more flexible, it's important to sit down with your teen and agree a budget from the outset. This avoids misunderstandings, manages expectations and peer pressure. Never too early to plan : Start planning 9 months to a year in advance. This way you can pick up a bargain at end of season prom sales, enter competitions to win an outfit or makeover, save monthly, and set up a prom fund so family/friends can top up on their birthday and at Christmas. Thrift, charity purchases and rentals : 1 in 5 parents bought outfits and accessories through online thrifting sites and charities such as Vinted. Oxfam and Prom Ally. Cheryl, from Leeds , explained, "My daughter wanted a 600 designer dress. I managed to find one at 200 and paid for it via a small payment plan." Something old, something borrowed : Family and friends are a fantastic resource to tap into. Grandparents, aunts and uncles may have accessories that are unique and precious which they could lend for the day. Enterprising teens : Some teens sold their own pre-loved items, washed cars, cleaned windows and mowed lawns for people to help pay for prom. Rebecca, from Market Rasen explained : "My daughter makes her own jewellery which she sells in our local markets and on the free online platform, The Teenage Market to help fund her prom." DIY or skills share : There are number of free online masterclass tutorials to get the look you want, embellish accessories for your own custom design or create your own corsage. 2 in 3 parents said their teens did their own make-up and hair, or asked friends or family for help. Alana Parsons, nimbl, Chief Executive, said: "Prom marks the end of an era and the beginning of the next. However, the associated costs are increasingly becoming a strain for many families. Our guide "Prom on a Budget" gives more tips and links to resources that minimise costs and the impact on the environment. Our 'fund feature' on our pocket-money app makes it easy for family and friends to top-up the 'prom fund' when they wish." Notes to Editor nimbl surveyed 353 parents of children aged under 11 18 years old. Full release here. About nimbl nimbl is an award-winning pocket money card and app, designed with parents, carers and young people in mind. https://www.nimbl.com/ Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2387046/nimbl_Logo.jpg SOURCE nimbl VANCOUVER, BC, June 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - OceanaGold Corporation (TSX: OGC) (OTCQX: OCANF) ("OceanaGold" or the "Company") is pleased to report the voting results from the Company's 2024 Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders ("Annual Meeting") held virtually today. A total of 448,417,017 common shares were voted at the meeting, representing 63.05% of the votes attached to all the outstanding common shares. Shareholders voted by ballot in favour of each of the items of business at the Annual Meeting as follows: 1 Election of Directors Resolutions re-electing each of Paul Benson, Ian M Reid, Craig J Nelsen, Sandra M Dodds, Alan N Pangbourne, Linda M Broughton and Gerard M Bond as directors of the Company were passed by ordinary resolution. The votes submitted for each director were as follows: Directors Votes For % Votes Withheld / Abstain % Paul Benson 358,127,765 81.07 % 83,633,455 18.93 % Ian M Reid 310,523,652 70.29 % 131,237,566 29.71 % Craig J Nelsen 426,994,017 96.66 % 14,767,202 3.34 % Sandra M Dodds 371,526,717 84.10 % 70,234,503 15.90 % Alan N Pangbourne 426,890,960 96.63 % 14,870,259 3.37 % Linda M Broughton 427,036,197 96.67 % 14,725,023 3.33 % Gerard M Bond 440,923,483 99.81 % 837,737 0.19 % 2 Appointment of Auditors A resolution appointing PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Chartered Accountants, as the auditor of the Company until the close of the Company's next annual meeting of shareholders and authorizing the board of the Company to fix their remuneration was approved by ordinary resolution. Votes For % Votes Withheld % 420,421,243 93.80 % 27,806,361 6.20 % Non-Binding Advisory Vote on Executive Compensation A non-binding resolution on the Company's approach to Executive compensation was passed by ordinary resolution. Votes For % Votes Against % 436,308,214 98.77 % 6,655,799 1.23 % 3 Performance Share Rights Plan A resolution on the Company's adoption of Performance Rights Share Plan was passed by ordinary resolution. Votes For % Votes Against % 412,796,632 93.44 % 28,964,587 6.56 % About OceanaGold OceanaGold is a growing intermediate gold and copper producer committed to safely and responsibly maximizing the generation of Free Cash Flow from our operations and delivering strong returns for our shareholders. We have a portfolio of four operating mines: the Haile Gold Mine in the United States of America; Didipio Mine in the Philippines; and the Macraes and Waihi operations in New Zealand. www.oceanagold.com SOURCE OceanaGold Corporation AUBURN HILLS, Mich., June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- 2024 Grand Wagoneer Jeep brand retains the No. 1 spot as America's most patriotic brand in annual Brand Keys survey survey Jeep and the USO partnership, offering assistance to America military members, marks 16 years years As another means of support, the Jeep brand also offers a Military Incentive Program American flags are prominently positioned on doors of the all-new, all-electric 2024 Jeep Wagoneer S, in addition to the Grand Cherokee, Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer in a proud nod to the brand's 80-plus-year history celebrating freedom and adventure The all-new 2024 Jeep Wagoneer S is available to reserve now at jeep.com The Jeep brand, celebrating more than eight decades of freedom, adventure, passion and authenticity, has again been named as America's most patriotic brand. For the 23rd year in a row, the Jeep brand is America's most patriotic*, according to Brand Keys Most Patriotic Brands survey. Consumers who were surveyed assessed brands that best embody the value of patriotism in 2024. "Being recognized as America's most patriotic brand for the 23rd consecutive year is a testament to our passionate owners and enthusiasts who whole-heartedly embrace the outdoor adventure and freedom that our Jeep 4x4s offer, which is second to no other," said Bill Peffer, senior vice president and head of Jeep brand North America. To determine the 2024 rankings, Brand Keys surveyed more than 7,460 consumers, 18 to 65 years of age, balanced for gender and political affiliation, assessed 1,381 brands in 143 B2C and B2B categories, using Brand Keys emotional engagement measures. The assessments evaluated brand resonance for the single value of patriotism, and the Jeep brand was identified as the best for meeting today's patriotism challenges. "Patriotism is one of the most powerful values a brand can own. Jeep has primary ownership of that value, with a real emotional underpinning. Jeep has a history forged in the past and the present," said Robert Passikoff, president and founder of Brand Keys. "And if there's such a thing as 'patriotic DNA,' it shows up in our Most Patriotic Brands emotional engagement assessments. In a more political and partisan marketplace, Jeep has been able to create a bond with all consumers, which is why Jeep shows up at the top of the list every year." The Jeep brand and the USO are also marking 16 years together to help support and keep the members of the nation's military connected to everything that gives meaning to their service. More information can be found at USO.org. Additionally, through the Jeep brand's Military Incentive Program, select military personnel are eligible for military bonus cash to use toward select Jeep brand vehicles. Active, active reserve, retired military, retired military reserve, 100% disabled veteran and honorably discharged veterans, within 12 months of discharge date, are eligible under the program. The offer applies to purchases and leases on select 2024 and 2023 Jeep brand vehicles. Another reward for being a Jeep 4x4 owner is the Jeep Wave, a premium owner loyalty and customer care program that is available to the entire Jeep 4x4 lineup, which is filled with exclusive benefits to deliver Jeep vehicle owners the utmost care and dedicated 24/7 support. Jeep brand delivers an open invitation to live life to the fullest by offering a broad portfolio of vehicles, including Jeep Cherokee, Compass, Gladiator, Grand Cherokee, three-row Grand Cherokee L, Grand Cherokee 4xe, Renegade, Wrangler, Wrangler 4xe, Wagoneer, Grand Wagoneer and now, the introduction of its first all-electric Jeep in the U.S., the Jeep Wagoneer S. The Wagoneer S, revealed last week in New York City, is available to reserve now at Jeep.com. Fans can visit the Jeep Store by Amazon for Jeep merchandise. *Based on Brand Keys 2002-2024 Most Patriotic Brands Survey Jeep Brand Built on more than 80 years of legendary heritage, Jeep is the authentic SUV brand that delivers legendary off-road capability, interior refinement, high-tech features and versatility to people who seek extraordinary journeys. The Jeep brand delivers an open invitation to live life to the fullest by offering a broad portfolio of vehicles that continues to provide owners with a sense of safety and security to handle any journey with confidence. Jeep Wave, a premium owner loyalty and customer care program that is available to the entire Jeep 4x4 lineup, is filled with benefits and exclusive perks to deliver Jeep brand owners the utmost care and dedicated 24/7 support. The legendary Jeep brand's off-road capability is enhanced by a global electrification initiative that is transforming 4xe into the new 4x4. All Jeep brand vehicles in North America will offer an electrified variant by 2025. Follow Jeep and company news and video on: Company blog: http://blog.stellantisnorthamerica.com Media website: http://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com Jeep brand: www.jeep.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/jeep Instagram: www.instagram.com/jeep Twitter: www.twitter.com/jeep LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/jeep YouTube: www.youtube.com/thejeepchannel or https://www.youtube.com/StellantisNA SOURCE Stellantis JINAN, China, June 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting convened from May 31 to June 4, 2024 in Chicago, USA, adopting a hybrid format. Among the presented works, three clinical studies from Qilu Pharmaceutical were selected for poster sessions. These studies introduced novel immunotherapeutic agents, specifically QLF31907, a bispecific antibody targeting PD-L1/4-1BB; iparomlimab and tuvonralimab, a MabPair product targeting PD-1/CTLA-4; and iparomlimab, a monoclonal antibody targeting PD-1. The research involved treatments for advanced solid tumors and lymphoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, as well as solid tumors characterized by either DNA mismatch repair (dMMR) deficiency or high microsatellite instability (MSI-H). QLF31907, developed by Qilu Pharmaceutical, combines two mechanisms: blockade of PD-L1 to restore T-cell receptor (TCR) signaling, while binding to 4-1BB to provide costimulatory signals essential for T-cell activation. This dual-action mechanism fosters T-cell proliferation and activation, enhancing the anti-tumor immune response. The study, led by Professor Tongyu Lin from Sichuan Cancer Hospital, is a phase I dose-escalation/expansion trial focusing on QLF31907 (PD-1/4-1BB dual antibody) in patients with advanced solid tumors and lymphoma (Abstract No. 2534). Iparomlimab and tuvonralimab, representing an innovative immunotherapeutic approach, comprises a unique combination of PD-1 antibody IgG4 and CTLA-4 antibody IgG1 in a predetermined ratio, with the latter engineered to have a reduced half-life. This allows sustaining normal PD-1 antibody levels in vivo while minimizing CTLA-4 antibody exposure and is a potential therapy with lower toxicity and improved tolerability. In the phase 1 study, iparomlimab and tuvonralimab exhibited encouraging anti-tumor activity in patients with advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma. The ongoing multicenter, single-arm, phase II trial (DUBHE-N-302, Abstract No. 6026) led by Professor Yan Huang from Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, explores iparomlimab and tuvonralimab in combination with gemcitabine and cisplatin for the first-line treatment of recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma. In this study, 29 patients were enrolled, with 7 (24%) having a baseline ECOG PS score of 1. After a median follow-up duration of 15.5 months, 18 (62%) patients reported grade 3-4 treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs), and the most common TRAE was neutrophil count decreased (41%). A total of 28 patients had at least 1 post-baseline tumor assessment. The objective response rate (ORR) was 82.1% (95% CI: 63.1%-93.9%). Median progression-free survival (mPFS) was 12.5 months (95% CI: 5.7-NE), and in 13 patients with high PD-L1 expression (CPS50), mPFS reached 16.2 months (95% CI: 9.9-NE). Median overall survival was not reached. The findings suggested that iparomlimab and tuvonralimab plus chemotherapy was well-tolerated and demonstrated promising anti-tumor activity in the first-line treatment of recurrent/metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Iparomlimab is a highly selective humanized monoclonal antibody targeting PD-1. Updated results from a pivotal single-arm, phase II clinical study (Abstract No. 3578), led by Professor Weijian Guo of Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center and Professor Feng Bi of West China Hospital of Sichuan University, were presented at ASCO 2024. The updated results with 1-year follow-up after enrollment of last patient revealed that iparomlimab monotherapy showed promising efficacy in this patient population. Among those with solid tumors who had failed standard treatment, the ORR, assessed by the Independent Radiology Review Committee (IRRC), reached 50.0%, higher than the prespecified primary endpoint. The ORR was 57.9% in patients with colorectal cancer. At the time of data cutoff, the median duration of response (DOR), median progression-free survival (mPFS), and median overall survival had not yet been reached. These findings underscore the robust and durable efficacy of iparomlimab in patients with advanced dMMR/MSI-H solid tumors who have failed in standard treatment. Notably, prolonged treatment with iparomlimab remained safe and well-tolerated, without any new safety concerns emerging. Graphical Abstract QLF31907: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2432113/Graphical_Abstract_QLF31907_FINAL_EN.pdf QL1706 Graph: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2432114/QL1706_graph.pdf SOURCE Qilu Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING RULE 15 PROPOSAL NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION (IN WHOLE OR IN PART) IN, INTO OR FROM ANY JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OF SUCH JURISDICTION. MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif., June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- On 24 May 2024, Bidco and K1 announced that the offer document (the "Offer Document") in relation to Bidco's offer to acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of MariaDB plc (the "Offer") had been published and posted to shareholders of MariaDB plc. In accordance with Rule 15(c) of the Irish Takeover Panel Act, 1997, Takeover Rules 2022 (the "Irish Takeover Rules"), Bidco today announces that a letter dated 7 June 2024 containing details of its proposal (the "Proposal") to MariaDB Warrantholders had been sent to such holders. The Proposal will be made available free of charge, subject to certain restrictions relating to persons resident in Restricted Jurisdictions, on K1's website at https://k1.com/meridian-offer-update/. Capitalised terms used but not defined in this announcement have the same meaning given to them in the Proposal and the Offer Document. Enquiries Lazard (Financial Advisor to K1 and Bidco) Adrian Duchini, Keiran Wilson, Charles White Tel: +44 20 7187 2000 Haven Tower Group (Public Relations Advisor to K1) Donald Cutler, Brandon Blackwell Tel: +1 424 317 4850 Important Notices The K1 Responsible Persons (being the investment committee of K1), the Bidco Officers and the Topco Officers accept responsibility for the information contained in this Announcement. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the K1 Responsible Persons, the Bidco Officers, the Topco Officers, (who have taken all reasonable care to ensure that such is the case) the information contained in this Announcement for which they have accepted responsibility is in accordance with the facts and does not omit anything likely to affect the import of such information. Lazard Freres & Co. LLC, together with its affiliate Lazard & Co., Limited (which is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority) ("Lazard"), is acting exclusively as financial adviser to K1 and Bidco and no one else in connection with the Offer and will not be responsible to anyone other than K1 and Bidco for providing the protections afforded to clients of Lazard nor for providing advice in relation to the Offer or any other matters referred to in this Announcement. Neither Lazard nor any of its affiliates owes or accepts any duty, liability or responsibility whatsoever (whether direct or indirect, whether in contract, in tort, under statute or otherwise) to any person who is not a client of Lazard in connection with this Announcement, any statement contained herein or otherwise. Disclosure requirements of the Irish Takeover Rules Under Rule 8.3(b) of the Irish Takeover Rules, if any person is, or becomes, 'interested' (directly or indirectly) in 1% or more of any class of 'relevant securities' of MariaDB, all 'dealings' in any 'relevant securities' of MariaDB or any securities exchange offeror (including by means of an option in respect of, or a derivative referenced to, any such 'relevant securities') must be publicly disclosed by not later than 3:30 pm (U.S. Eastern Time) on the 'business day' following the date of the relevant transaction. This requirement will continue until the 'offer period' ends. If two or more persons cooperate on the basis of any agreement either express or tacit, either oral or written, to acquire an 'interest' in 'relevant securities' of MariaDB, they will be deemed to be a single person for the purpose of Rule 8.3 of the Irish Takeover Rules. Dealing Disclosures must also be made by any offeror and by any persons acting in concert with them in accordance with Rule 8.2 of the Irish Takeover Rules. In general, interests in securities arise when a person has long economic exposure, whether conditional or absolute, to changes in the price of the securities. In particular, a person will be treated as having an 'interest' by virtue of the ownership or control of securities, or by virtue of any option in respect of, or derivative referenced to, securities. Terms in quotation marks are defined in the Irish Takeover Rules, which can be found on the Irish Takeover Panel's website. Details of the offeree company in respect of whose relevant securities Dealing Disclosures must be made can be found in the Disclosure Table on the Irish Takeover Panel's website at www.irishtakeoverpanel.ie, including details of the number of relevant securities in issue, when the offer period commenced and when any offeror was first identified. If you are in any doubt as to whether or not you are required to disclose a 'dealing' under Rule 8, please consult the Irish Takeover Panel's website at www.irishtakeoverpanel.ie or contact the Irish Takeover Panel at telephone number +353 1 678 9020. Further Information This Announcement is for information purposes only and is not intended to, and does not, constitute an offer to sell or invitation to purchase any securities, or the solicitation of any vote or approval in any jurisdiction pursuant to the Offer or otherwise, nor shall there be any sale, issuance or transfer of securities in any jurisdiction in contravention of applicable law. In particular, this Announcement is not an offer of securities for sale into the United States. No offer of securities shall be made in the United States absent registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, such registration requirements. The release, publication or distribution of this Announcement in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law and therefore persons in such jurisdictions into which this Announcement is released, published or distributed should inform themselves about and observe such restrictions. This Announcement has been prepared for the purpose of complying with the laws of Ireland and the Irish Takeover Rules and the information disclosed may not be the same as that which would have been disclosed if this Announcement had been prepared in accordance with the laws of jurisdictions outside of Ireland. Overseas Shareholders The laws of certain jurisdictions may affect the availability of the Offer (including the Unlisted Unit Alternative) to persons who are not resident in Ireland. Persons who are not resident in Ireland, or who are subject to laws of any jurisdiction other than Ireland, should inform themselves about, and observe, any applicable legal or regulatory requirements. Any failure to comply with any applicable legal or regulatory requirements may constitute a violation of the laws and/or regulations of any such jurisdiction. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable Law, the companies and persons involved in the Offer (including the Unlisted Unit Alternative) disclaim any responsibility and liability for the violation of such restrictions by any person. Unless otherwise determined by Bidco or K1 or required by the Irish Takeover Rules, and permitted by applicable law and regulation, the Offer (including the Unlisted Unit Alternative) will not be made available, directly or indirectly, in any Restricted Jurisdiction, and the Offer will not be capable of acceptance from within a Restricted Jurisdiction where to do so would violate the laws in that jurisdiction. The release, publication or distribution of this Announcement in or into certain jurisdictions may be restricted by the laws of those jurisdictions. Accordingly, copies of this Announcement and all other documents relating to the Offer (including the Unlisted Unit Alternative) are not being, and must not be, released, published, mailed or otherwise forwarded, distributed or sent in, into or from any Restricted Jurisdiction. Persons receiving such documents (including, without limitation, nominees, trustees and custodians) should observe these restrictions. Failure to do so may constitute a violation of the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable Law, K1, the K1 Group and Bidco disclaims any responsibility or liability for the violations of any such restrictions by any person. MariaDB Shareholders who are in any doubt regarding such matters should consult an appropriate independent professional adviser in the relevant jurisdiction without delay. Further details in relation to overseas shareholders are contained in the Offer Document. If you are a resident of the United States, please read the following: This Announcement is not intended to, and does not, constitute or form part of any offer (including the Offer), invitation or the solicitation of an offer to purchase, otherwise acquire, subscribe for, tender, exchange, sell or otherwise dispose of, any securities, or the solicitation of any vote or approval in any jurisdiction, nor will there be any acquisition or disposition of the securities referred to in this Announcement in any jurisdiction in contravention of applicable Law or regulation. This Announcement is not a substitute for the Offer Document and the Form of Acceptance or any other document that Bidco may file with the SEC in connection with the Offer. An offer to buy MariaDB Shares has been made pursuant to a Tender Offer Statement and Rule 13e-3 Transaction Statement on Schedule TO that Bidco has filed with the SEC. MariaDB has filed a Solicitation/Recommendation Statement on Schedule 14D-9 with the SEC with respect to the tender offer. MARIADB SHAREHOLDERS ARE URGED TO READ ANY SUCH DOCUMENTS FILED WITH THE SEC CAREFULLY IN THEIR ENTIRETY IF AND WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE OFFER. SUCH DOCUMENTS SHOULD BE READ CAREFULLY BEFORE ANY DECISION IS MADE WITH RESPECT TO THE OFFER. Investors and MariaDB Shareholders are able to obtain free copies of these materials (if and when available) and other documents containing important information about MariaDB and the Offer once such documents are filed with the SEC through the website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov. The Offer has been made in the United States pursuant to the Exchange Act and otherwise in accordance with the requirements of the Irish Takeover Rules. Accordingly, the Offer is subject to disclosure and other procedural requirements, including with respect to withdrawal rights, offer timetable, settlement procedures and timing of payments that may be different from those typically applicable under US domestic tender offer procedures and law. In addition, the Offer Document and any other documents relating to the Offer have been or will be prepared in accordance with the Irish Takeover Rules and Irish disclosure requirements, format and style, all of which may differ from those in the United States. MariaDB is incorporated under the laws of Ireland. Some of the directors on the MariaDB Board at the date of this Announcement are resident in a country other than the United States. As a result, it may not be possible for United States holders of MariaDB Shares to effect service of process within the United States upon MariaDB or some of the directors of MariaDB or to enforce against any of them judgements of the United States predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the federal securities laws of the United States. It may not be possible to sue MariaDB or its officers or director(s) in a non-US court for violations of US securities laws. In addition, US holders of MariaDB Shares should be aware that, if K1 and Bidco elect to proceed pursuant to a scheme of arrangement (as described herein), the federal securities laws of the United States may not be applicable. Publication on website A copy of this announcement and the documents required to be published pursuant to Rule 26 of the Irish Takeover Rules will be made available, subject to certain restrictions relating to persons resident in Restricted Jurisdictions, will be made available on K1's website (https://k1.com/meridian-offer-update/). Neither the content of any such website nor the content of any other website accessible from hyperlinks on such website is incorporated into, or forms part of, this Announcement. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/882948/K1_Logo.jpg READING, England, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report from chinadaily.com.cn: The World Internet Conference (WIC) is planning to collaborate with top global think tanks in the internet field to launch a cooperative initiative and establish a platform for academic exchange and intellectual dialogue, said Ren Xianliang, secretary-general of the WIC. Ren Xianliang, secretary-general of the World Internet Conference, meets with Jean-Pierre Choulet (L3) and Tang Yinshan (L1), vice deans of Henley Business School, and Chris Brown (R), director of the UK-China Business Environment Programme at British Standards Institution, at the University of Reading's Henley Business School in the UK, on June 3. [Photo/wicinternet.org] Ren made the remarks during a visit to the University of Reading's Henley Business School in the UK on June 3, during which he discussed plans for think tank cooperation under the WIC. The initiative aims to foster joint research, exchange, and cooperation on key issues such as internet innovation and inclusivity, industry and development, as well as security and governance, according to Ren. He said that this collaboration will contribute to the advancement of the internet industry and help bridge the digital divide. Jean-Pierre Choulet and Tang Yinshan, vice deans of Henley Business School, affirmed their willingness to partner with the WIC to implement the think tank cooperative initiative. They said they are ready to engage in diverse collaborations in the internet field, share their resources and outcomes with the WIC, and jointly conduct research, seminars, and training activities, to promote academic exchange and cooperation. From June 1 to 4, the WIC delegation headed by Ren visited the University of Cambridge and the China-Britain Business Council. They also met with experts from the University of Munster in Germany to further discuss the think tank cooperation plan. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2432885/Ren_Xianliang_secretary_general_World_Internet_Conference_meets_Jean_Pierre_Choulet__L3.jpg NEW YORK,, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against UnitedHealth Group Inc. ("UnitedHealth" or the "Company") (NYSE: UNH). Such investors are advised to contact Danielle Peyton at [email protected] or 646-581-9980, (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 7980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased. The class action concerns whether UnitedHealth and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices. You have until July 15, 2024 , to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class if you are a shareholder who purchased or otherwise acquired UnitedHealth securities during the Class Period. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. [Click here for information about joining the class action] On February 27, 2024, The Wall Street Journal ("WSJ") reported that the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") has launched an antitrust investigation into UnitedHealth Specifically, the WSJ reported that DOJ investigators have been interviewing healthcare industry representatives in sectors where UnitedHealth competes to determine the possible impacts of acquisitions made through its health services arm, Optum. On this news, UnitedHealth's stock price fell $27.04 per share, or 5.15%, over the following two trading sessions, to close at $498.28 per share on February 28, 2024. Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered billions of dollars in damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. CONTACT: Danielle Peyton Pomerantz LLP [email protected] 646-581-9980 ext. 7980 SOURCE Pomerantz LLP NEW YORK, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Primerica, Inc. ("Primerica" or the "Company") (NYSE: PRI). Such investors are advised to contact Danielle Peyton at [email protected] or 646-581-9980, ext. 7980. The investigation concerns whether Primerica and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices. [Click here for information about joining the class action] On April 18, 2024, The Bear Cave published a short report on Primerica, which described the Company as "a pyramid scheme". The Bear Cave cited "extensive evidence suggesting that Primerica's highest producing agents are engaged in misleading, false, or deceptive conduct including 1) a recorded Zoom presentation from a Senior National Sales Director that alleges crooked conduct, 'fake numbers,' and appears to suggest an ongoing internal investigation, 2) a text message recruiting script for new agents that appears to deliberately obfuscate their association with Primerica, 3) agent presentations that emphasize recruiting over serving independent customers and 4) a presentation by a high-producing agent saying 'it's normal to be a millionaire.'" The Bear Cave also cited "complaints obtained through public records requests", which "allege forged signatures on six-figure investment contracts" and "'institutionalized theft[.]'" Following publication of the Bear Cave report, Primerica's stock price fell $1.55 per share, or 0.73%, to close at $210.09 per share on April 18, 2024. Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered billions of dollars in damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. CONTACT: Danielle Peyton Pomerantz LLP [email protected] 646-581-9980 ext. 7980 SOURCE Pomerantz LLP HOBOKEN, N.J., June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Taxes Served Corp., a premier tax services firm based in Hoboken, NJ, proudly announces its acquisition of Virginia-based Blue Mountain Bookkeeping LLC. This strategic move, set to be finalized at the beginning of June, aims to strengthen and deepen Taxes Served Corp.'s capabilities in delivering comprehensive tax and bookkeeping services. Andre Ellis Jr., owner of Taxes Served Corp. , expressed his enthusiasm for the acquisition. "Acquiring Blue Mountain Bookkeeping LLC is an exciting step in our ongoing efforts to expand and enhance our service offerings," Ellis said. "We are committed to providing our clients with the highest level of expertise and support, and this acquisition allows us to do just that." Blue Mountain Bookkeeping LLC will continue to operate as a separate entity, maintaining its location in Virginia. This approach ensures that clients will continue to receive the same personalized service they have come to expect, while also benefiting from the enhanced capabilities and resources that Taxes Served Corp. brings. This acquisition is one of many in recent years, reflecting Taxes Served Corp.'s strategic growth and dedication to broadening its scope. By integrating Blue Mountain Bookkeeping LLC into its operations, Taxes Served Corp. is poised to offer a more robust suite of bookkeeping services to its expanding client base. For more information, please contact: [email protected] www.taxesserved.com About Taxes Served Corp.: Taxes Served Corp., based in Hoboken, NJ, is a leading provider of tax services committed to helping individuals and businesses navigate the complexities of tax preparation and planning. With a focus on accuracy, efficiency, and client satisfaction, Taxes Served Corp. continues to grow and adapt to meet the evolving needs of its clients. About Blue Mountain Bookkeeping LLC: Blue Mountain Bookkeeping LLC, located in Virginia, offers a wide range of bookkeeping services tailored to meet the unique needs of businesses. Known for its personalized approach and commitment to excellence, Blue Mountain Bookkeeping LLC has established itself as a trusted partner for its clients. SOURCE Taxes Served Corp. The community will house 80 patients each year as they receive treatment for cancer GILBERT, Ariz., June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Taylor Morrison, Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Banner Health Foundation began moving the very first patients into a new community of homes that will house patients and their care partners while they undergo treatment at Banner MD Anderson in Gilbert, Ariz. Built and donated by Taylor Morrison, the homes are within walking distance of the Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center, eliminating the financial burden of travel and hotel stays for approximately 80 patients and their families each year so they can focus on recovery in a comfortable environment. "As a homebuilder, there's no greater gift we could give than to build a community of homes that will eliminate undue stressors like hotel costs alongside rent or mortgage payments, and allow patients to simply heal," said Taylor Morrison Chairman and CEO Sheryl Palmer. "It was deeply important to us that what we were building was a true communitya place for patients to share experiences and support one another. It will be something quite unique and we hope incredibly healing." While many patients can afford a short hotel stay, few are prepared to pay for long-term lodging, especially those whose treatment protocol requires weeks to months of daily therapy or close post-surgical monitoring. For many, affording a place to stay during treatment can mean the difference between receiving care or not. That spurred the creation of Banner MD Anderson's Home Away from Home program, which covers the cost of local stays at partner hotels for qualifying patients. Patients who have the longest length of stay will be prioritized to stay in the new homes, while others will receive lodging support through the ongoing hotel program. The design of the homes draws upon Taylor Morrison's build-to-rent brand Yardly, featuring 1,000-square-foot fully furnished homes, complete with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, laundry, gathering room and private backyards. Additional space is available within the community for future development, depending on patient demand in the coming years. "Despite advancements in cancer technology, true healing occurs at home," said Dr. Matthew Callister, senior physician executive for Banner MD Anderson Cancer Centers. "These homes provide comfort, safety and hope for vulnerable patients on their cancer journey, serving as a sanctuary away from their home communities." The Home Away from Home program began to support cancer patients whose treatment protocol spans 30 or more days and who lack local housing. This patient population includes those undergoing a stem-cell transplant who need to be within 30 minutes of the facility to qualify for their transplant and for post-operative monitoring, and blood cancer patients who receive daily treatment for weeks or months. The program now assists qualifying patients with all types of cancer, where proximity to their care team is vitally important. Without this assistance, a patient can spend, on average, $5,500 in hotel stayseven with discounted rates offered by hotel partners. Today's grand opening allowed local dignitaries, donors and stakeholders to tour the homes and hear from two of the first patients who moved in as they continue their treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. With Taylor Morrison's relationship with The Home Edit and Clea Shearer's personal and public cancer journey, it was a natural fit to have the celebrity organizers involved in making these houses feel like homes. Founders Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin surprised the patients by moving them into their new homes while organizing their belongings. For a press kit, including photos and video from the event, click here. About Taylor Morrison Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, Taylor Morrison is one of the nation's leading homebuilders and developers. We serve a wide array of consumers from coast to coast, including first-time, move-up, luxury and resort lifestyle homebuyers and renters under our family of brandsincluding Taylor Morrison, Esplanade, Darling Homes Collection by Taylor Morrison and Yardly. From 2016-2024, Taylor Morrison has been recognized as America's Most Trusted Builder by Lifestory Research. Our strong commitment to sustainability, our communities and our team is highlighted in our latest annual Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report. For more information about Taylor Morrison, please visit www.taylormorrison.com. About Banner Health Foundation Established in 2001, the Banner Health Foundation engages the community and stewards charitable gifts to advance Banner Health's nonprofit mission of making health care easier so life can be better. Contributions are invested locally to support patient care programs and services operated by Banner's many hospitals and health care facilities in Arizona and Wyoming. For more information, please visit www.bannerhealthfoundation.org. About Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center delivers cancer care to patients through the partnership of Banner Health and MD Anderson Cancer Center. Banner MD Anderson offers focused disease-specific expertise in the medical, radiation and surgical management of the cancer patient; an evidence-based, multidisciplinary approach to patient care; access to clinical trials and new investigative therapies; state-of-the-art technology for the diagnosis, staging and treatment of all types of cancer; oncology expertise in supportive care services. For more information, visit www.BannerMDAnderson.com. About The Home Edit The Home Edit was founded in 2015 by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin with the goal of reinventing traditional organizing and merging it with design. Since then, it has grown into a global media and organization company with a social following of over 9 million people and organizing teams in 7 cities across the country. The Home Edit has become a household name with three New York Times' bestselling books, an Emmy-nominated Netflix show, "Get Organized with the Home Edit," and a successful line of organizational products sold in stores in over 31 countries. In 2022, Hello Sunshine, a division of Candle Media, acquired The Home Edit. CONTACT: Tara Shultz (480) 466-3339 [email protected] SOURCE Taylor Morrison MUNICH, June 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 80 million people (or 1% of the world's population) are likely to require a wheelchair to assist their mobility. However, many users do not have full control of their upper body and have to rely on caregivers for mobility. A team of young Tunisian female engineers, aged between 27 and 28, is addressing this issue. Khaoula Ben Ahmed (28), Ghofrane Ayari (27), Souleima Ben Temime (28) and Sirine Ayari (28) have developed the MOOVOBRAIN smart wheelchair control system, a technology that allows users to operate their wheelchairs using voice, brain signals, facial expressions or a touchpad. This innovation offers newfound autonomy to those often sidelined by conventional assistive technologies. Nominated for the Young Inventors Prize at the European Inventor Award 2024, the team's MOOVOBRAIN system addresses two of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The MOOVOBRAIN system introduces a new method for wheelchair control, tailored to meet the diverse needs of its users. It features four intuitive driving modes: Voice Driving Mode enables operation through voice commands; Brain Driving Mode uses a specialised headset that detects brain signals; Grimace Driving Mode allows control through facial expressions; and Manual Driving Mode provides a touchpad or smartphone app interface for those with some manual capabilities. This system, made by the team's startup, GEWINNER, is designed to enhance the quality of life for individuals with mobility impairments across the globe, ensuring accessibility and independence. The four driving modes accommodate different needs, disabilities and health conditions. Available for people who can speak and those who cannot, this system is a four-in-one solution with a multiplied potential impact. While studying at the Higher Institute of Medical Technologies of Tunis, the young team developed the MOOVOBRAIN system after one of the team had a family member struck with a sudden disability. This highlighted the urgent need for more adaptable assistive technologies. Since its founding in 2019, GEWINNER has been recognised under Tunisia's Startup Act Label for its innovative contributions, has featured prominently at international tech events like VivaTech Paris, and has garnered several awards for technological excellence. The team also benefitted from mentorship through a programme from the European Investment Bank, which provided expertise in finance and business planning. Web: https://www.epo.org/en SOURCE European Patent Office BOSTON, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- On October 28, 2012, a tragic incident occurred in Roxbury, Massachusetts, where a young man, DeAndre Russ, was fatally shot after a party. David Yarde, who was just 21 years old at the time and had a 2-year-old disabled son, was quickly charged and subsequently convicted in 2014 as the assailant, despite a minimal investigation. Final milisecond (2:18:02) in which the shots went off and David Yarde is seen ducking behind the column, not shooting or even holding a gun. For the past decade, David Yarde has steadfastly maintained his innocence. Over this period, he has acquired four scientific expert reports supporting his claims; and most recently, a critical one-millisecond video clip from surveillance footage provided by DA Conley's office has been generated. This clip, timestamped at 2:18:02, captures the exact moment the first shot was fired, showing David ducking for safety and not holding a gun, as confirmed by two neutral eyewitnesses. The video clip (still photo of it attached) unequivocally demonstrates David's innocence. However, despite months of reviewing this and other scientific evidence, District Attorney Hayden has refused to meet with our team to acknowledge David's innocence, let alone file a motion to vacate his conviction. Given David and his family's continued suffering, the National David Yarde Freedom Coalition is holding a press conference on June 7th at 11:00 a.m. in front of the Massachusetts State House. During this event, we will present all evidence in detail, along with supporting documentation. Speaking will be Lynn Currier, Director of Skweda Solutions (who brought wrongfully convicted Corey Glover home on 5-4-2022), Osagie Okoruwa, Director of Innocent Convicts, Michael Washington, Director of Oklahoma Coalition Against People Abuse, and Mrs. Yarde, David's 86 year-old grandmother. The National David Yarde Freedom Coalition urges members of the press, legal community, and the public to attend this press conference to hear the full story and join us in our fight for justice. Event Details: Date: June 7 , 2024 , 2024 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: Massachusetts State House, Boston , MA Contact: National David Yarde Freedom Coalition Boston, MA Ann, 781-492-3552 [email protected] SOURCE National David Yarde Freedom Coalition The global campaign, Fertility Care for Everyone, continues its second year and includes LGBTQ+ family building virtual events hosted by a panel of esteemed Prelude physicians HOUSTON, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Prelude Network (Prelude), the largest and fastest-growing network of fertility clinics in North America, celebrates American and Canadian PRIDE Month (June) with Fertility Care for Everyone, an educational campaign that highlights the reproductive care available to the LGBTQ+ community and reinforces Prelude's commitment to inclusive and compassionate care for everyone, regardless of sexual orientation and gender. To support the community on their family-building journeys, Fertility Care for Everyone is hosting two free webinars throughout June. LGBTQ+ Family Planning, scheduled for Tuesday, June 18th at 7:00 pm ET | 6:00 pm CT, will navigate family-building options to LGBTQ+ individuals and couples who are considering or currently navigating their fertility journey. The event, which will also include a Q&A session for attendees, will be led by an esteemed team of Prelude physicians, including Dr. Allison Bloom, reproductive specialist at Main Line Fertility and Global LGBTQ+ Ambassador for Prelude. Supporting LGBTQ+ Individuals & Couples Through Fertility Challenges, will be hosted by Dr. Alice Domar, Chief Compassion Officer at Inception Fertility, the parent company to Prelude, on Thursday, June 20th at 8:00 pm ET | 7:00 pm CT. This webinar will provide valuable insights into the specific challenges faced by LGBTQ+ individuals and couples seeking fertility treatments. "In today's dynamic fertility landscape, the possibilities for creating a family are more diverse and accessible than ever before. The Prelude Network champions the belief that love knows no boundaries, and neither should your family," says Dr. Allison Bloom, Prelude's Global LGBTQ+ Ambassador. "By leveraging advanced reproductive technologies and a compassionate approach to fertility care, we are committed to helping everyone realize their dreams of parenthood, regardless of the paths they take to get there." To learn more about Fertility Care for Everyone and register for these webinars please visit https://pride.preludefertility.com/ About Inception Fertility Inception Fertility (Inception) is a family of fertility brands committed to helping patients build their own families. Built by patients for patients, Inception's purpose is to achieve the highest bar in experience, science and medicine in an effort to enhance each patient's experience and achieve better outcomes. Inception's medical experts are leading pioneers in fertility care. Our doctors are some of the first to use breakthrough assisted reproductive technologies (ART) including in vitro fertilization (IVF), preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) and fertility preservation services and they continue to lead the industry by building on these technologies by through development, research and thought leadership. Through its growing family of national organizations which includes The Prelude Network, the fastest-growing network of fertility clinics and largest provider of comprehensive fertility services in North America; Pathways Fertility, clinics that provide affordable, individualized and high quality care; MyEggBank, one of the largest frozen donor egg banks in North America; BUNDL Fertility, a multi-cycle fertility service bundling program; HavenCryo, a long-term reproductive preservation and storage solution provider and NutraBloom, a premium lifestyle brand with expertly formulated supplements to support individuals' health and wellness goals for preconception Inception is working to deliver on its promise to push the envelope of what is possible for exceeding patient expectations. About The Prelude Network The Prelude Network (Prelude), the fastest-growing network of fertility clinics and largest provider of comprehensive fertility services in North America, is the clinic network of Inception Fertility a family of fertility brands that touches every part of the fertility journey, including diagnostics and treatment to financial accessibility. Each clinic, as part of Prelude, is committed to delivering the highest level of personalized fertility care by the nation's leading reproductive endocrinologists, embryologists and practitioners by focusing on an excellence in science, medicine and the patient experience. The growing Prelude Network has more than 90 total locations nationwide, offering a wide range of fertility services including egg freezing, IVF, genetic testing, LGBTQ+ fertility options, and egg/embryo storage, among others. Those clinics within Prelude include Aspire Fertility Austin (Texas); Aspire Fertility Dallas (Texas); Aspire Fertility McAllen (Texas); Aspire Fertility San Antonio (Texas); Aspire Houston Fertility Institute (Texas); Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago (Illinois); Center for Reproductive Medicine (Florida); Indiana Fertility Institute (Indiana); IVFMD (Florida); Main Line Fertility (Pennsylvania); NYU Langone Fertility Center (New York); NYU Langone RSNY (New York); Pacific Centre for Reproductive Medicine (Canada); Pacific Fertility Center (California); Regional Fertility Program (Canada); Reproductive Biology Associates (Georgia); Tennessee Fertility Institute (Tennessee), and The Reproductive Medicine Group (Florida). MEDIA CONTACT: Anna Lonsway Krupp 216-905-0275 [email protected] SOURCE The Prelude Network BEIJING and PARIS, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Tsingke successfully wrapped up its debut at TIDES USA 2024, the premier event for oligonucleotides, peptides, mRNA, and genome editing. Held from May 14-17 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, the conference brought together over 150 leading scientists and more than 150 exhibitors, fostering vibrant exchanges and cutting-edge research. (Tsingke at TIDES USA 2024) At booth 832, Tsingke showcased its advanced biotechnological solutions featuring a comprehensive synthetic industrial chain. Key highlights included high-quality oligo synthesis, peptide synthesis, synthesis equipment, synthetic reagents, consumables, tailored to meet the needs of both research and preclinical. Engagement and Feedback: During the four-day event, Tsingke engaged with numerous experts and companies, discussing advancements in oligo synthesis and related fields. Many attendees expressed high praise for Tsingke's innovative solutions and the practical benefits they offer. Additionally, many participants showed interest and intention to collaborate on Tsingke's oligo synthesizer and raw materials. Innovation and Future Prospects: Tsingke highlighted its recent breakthroughs, such as advanced oligo modification techniques and rapid gene synthesis processes. Tsingke's infrastructure, including a 12,000-square-meter R&D site and a 100,000-grade clean production workshop, supports its efficient and high-quality DNA/RNA synthesis services. Industry Impact: Tsingke's dedication to innovation and quality is reflected in its portfolio of over 300 intellectual property rights, earning the trust of more than 200,000 customers worldwide. By driving innovations in oligo synthesis, peptide, and gene technologies, Tsingke contributes significantly to clinical therapeutics and drug development, enhancing human health and well-being. Market and Industry Trends The TIDES USA 2024 conference highlighted the growing demand for advanced biotechnological solutions, focusing on expediting R&D and improving CMC efficiency. Tsingke's offerings are well-aligned with these industry trends, positioning the company for continued growth and impact. About Tsingke Beijing Tsingke Biotech Co., Ltd. is a global leader in DNA/RNA synthesis, driven by the mission of advancing "Biotech for a better world." Committed to innovation, Tsingke provides comprehensive services to researchers and enterprises worldwide, fostering progress in biotechnology. SOURCE Beijing Tsingke Biotech Co., Ltd. NEW YORK, June 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Jam Galaxy , a web3 music studio and collaborative audio protocol, and Tune.FM , a groundbreaking decentralized music streaming platform and unique music NFT marketplace, today announced a strategic partnership to combine efforts to provide Galaxy web3 creators and jammers with collaboration tools for song creation, artist monetization and the creation of super fan experiences on the Tune.FM platform. At the heart of Jam Galaxy's model is a commitment to transforming the music industry through advanced technologies that empower both artists and fans. The Jam Galaxy platform provides avenues for real-time collaboration with extremely low latency through DePIN infrastructure while providing access to advanced AI music production tools for seamless creation music creation, real-time co-production, song collaboration and fan engagement. Tune.FM is transforming artist compensation and monetization, positioning itself as a major, transformational startup technology company. By seamlessly integrating Hedera Hashgraph blockchain technology, with features including elaborate multimedia NFTs, exclusive super fan experiences and streaming royalty payments, Tune.FM is reshaping the music industry landscape. When the Music Gets Played, The Artist Gets Paid Breaking away from the traditional subscription-based and ad-supported models of mainstream streaming services today, Tune.FM is creating a more sustainable ecosystem through decentralization and tokenization (JAM), allowing artists to be compensated significantly and more fairly. In fact, Tune.FM compensates artists by up to 100X compared to other streaming platforms. In addition, artists can sell music, release exclusive NFT drops and multimedia elements directly to fans, and can take advantage of exclusive, immersive super fan experiences including merch bundles, meet and greets, VIP events, backstage passes, FaceTime opportunities with artists, and more. Offering a pay-as-you-go model, Tune.FM gives users the ability to choose what they listen to and pay for only what they consume, and to get compensated for listening to promoted music streams, representing a seismic shift in the music fan experience. "We are incredibly excited to partner with Tune.FM," said Jam Galaxy co-founder and CEO Patrik Gudev. "Tune.FM's pioneering approach to music streaming and NFTs aligns perfectly with our mission to empower artists and enhance their creative journeys. This partnership will provide our users with unparalleled opportunities to monetize their music and engage with their fans in innovative ways." "This is a perfect combination of our joint goals of empowering and giving control back to artists and helping unlock the value of music," said Tune.FM Co-Founder and CEO Andrew Antar. "By joining forces with Tune.FM, Jam Galaxy's web3 creators and jammers gain access to our cutting-edge platform for monetizing their music. Tune.FM's decentralized streaming service and music NFT marketplace allow our artists to earn JAM tokens, promote their songs to new listeners, and create collectible music NFTs. Fans can directly support our artists, earn rewards and enjoy unique experiences." If you are an artist and would like to join us on this journey, check out https://linktr.ee/thejamgalaxy . For more about Jam Galaxy, go to https://jamgalaxy.com/. For more about Tune.FM, go to https://tune.fm/ . About Tune.FM Tune.FM is a web3 decentralized music streaming platform with an integrated music NFT marketplace, which enables artists to monetize their fan base directly through streaming royalty micropayments and digital music collectibles with exclusive unlockable experiences, powered by the JAM token built on Hedera Hashgraph. The company was cofounded by lifelong musicians and brothers Andrew Antar and Brian Antar, who attended Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania, respectively. Andrew, a classically-trained violinist, won concerto competitions, toured the world with several orchestras, joined several bands, taught himself to code, founded the first startup accelerator and incubator fund at Brown University, and built large enterprise applications for clients like Bank of America, EY, and Comcast where he was awarded a blockchain patent. Brian, also a classically trained violinist, was the concertmaster for the Philadelphia Young Artists Orchestra, produced music with local artists at Penn Studios, earned his Master's degree in creative writing at Penn, and ran a successful e-commerce and 3PL fulfillment business generating millions in sales. About Jam Galaxy Jam Galaxy is not merely a platform; it is a comprehensive ecosystem and DePIN protocol that leverages cutting-edge AI, low latency audio streaming, and blockchain technology to address the music industry's most pressing challenges. It's solution offers unprecedented opportunities for real-time collaboration across the globe, breaking down geographical and economic barriers that have traditionally hindered artist connectivity and creativity. By integrating advanced AI-driven music tools with a blockchain-based monetization system, Jam Galaxy redefines the creative process. Artists can now enjoy seamless collaboration, enhanced by AI that augments and streamlines music production. Simultaneously, their blockchain framework ensures transparent and fair compensation, empowering artists like never before. Developed by a team of visionary entrepreneurs, a spin-off of SingularityNET, Jam Galaxy is a melting pot for all music lovershobbyists, professionals, fans, and industry insiders. Media Contacts: Tune.FM Howard Waterman 917-359-5505 [email protected] Jam Galaxy Karel Nemecek +32472726318 [email protected] SOURCE Tune.FM "This project illustrates how slight changes in a home builder's normal construction process can significantly impact construction cycle times and allow limited jobsite labor to build more homes more efficiently," said Jess Lohse, executive director at the SBCA. "The Innovative Housing Showcase is a great opportunity to provide information, knowledge, and a real-time example of all the benefits and efficiencies components, such as trusses and wall panels, bring to the housing industry," continued Lohse. As one of the SBCA's largest national members, 84 Lumber provided all the structural framing elements for the build, including windows, doors, and framing crews. The company continues to be at the forefront of innovation. "This eight-hour build isn't just some race to the finish or attention-grabbing gimmick," said Ken Kucera, VP of installed sales and manufacturing at 84 Lumber. "The build represents the efficiencies of current component manufacturing and installation methods. This makes installation at the job site so much faster and helps the builder's bottom line and ability to provide quality housing solutions," said Kucera. Being able to assemble a home in this time frame has huge benefits to both builders and homebuyers across the nation, added Lohse. "Jobsite labor is severely constrained across the country and this approach allows existing framing crews to complete more homes more quickly and to provide more homes to ease current demand. Both factors contribute to bringing down the cost of housing, making the dream of owning a home possible for more Americans," said Sean Shields, director of marketing at the SBCA. 84 Lumber component plants service single-family, multifamily, townhomes, and custom home builders one single plant can do about four-to-five houses daily. "The plants are all about efficiency, from the types of lumber cut to the design optimization," said Kucera. "We've made significant investments to expand and modernize our manufacturing capabilities to supply framing elements to home builders across the country. By utilizing roof trusses, wall panels, and open-web floor truss panels manufactured in 84 Lumber's offsite facilities, jobsite labor crews can fully frame a house in a fraction of the time it would take using traditional stick-framing methods." Each individual wall and truss is labeled as to the exact location, so the crew knows exactly where it goes, saving time and money. "This gives the builder a lot of flexibility and makes the jobsite so much faster," said Kucera. The materials for the SBCA build come from the company's Winchester, Virginia location where 84 Lumber associates are trained in production, quality control, logistics, and safety. "84 Lumber's expertise and resources make them an ideal partner in capturing the efficiencies inherent in this construction methodology," Shields emphasized. In addition to the offsite components, this year's event highlighted several new developments. The crew installed HVAC mechanicals, electrical, and plumbing in open-web floor trusses, which speeds up installation, reduces field errors, and lowers costs. Incorporation of new products like insulated wall studs in wall panels to enhance the energy efficiency of the home was also used. The use of both floor panels and roof panels will move even more construction tasks offsite, thus reducing build time further compared to last year. Last year's build was completed in 12 hours -- the new methods employed this year shaved four hours off the build time. The IHS is an annual public event aimed at highlighting innovative and affordable housing designs and technologies. It's imperative that the general public and others in the industry be given all the information necessary to continue building the country's most important product: housing. "The affordability of today's homes is a significant challenge for many families, and HUD is at the forefront of seeking solutions. Events like the Innovative Housing Showcase provide a platform for innovators to demonstrate what is possible today and tomorrow to reduce the cost of home construction," noted Lohse. Innovation is always happening in the construction industry. It should also be noted that these techniques will be fully put to the test as they will be used in the real world. At the end of the event, the 84 Lumber-provided framing crew will return to the National Mall to disassemble the structure, load it onto trucks, and transport it to a prepared jobsite in Waynesboro, Virginia. Donated to Habitat for Humanity, the structure will become two single-family houses. "In our area, 40 percent of all households are below the local household survival budget," said Charlie Frankfort, board chairman of Habitat for Humanity-Waynesboro. "Finding affordable housing is a huge challenge," said Frankfort. "We are thrilled to be working with the SBCA and NFC again this year to provide two more homes for families in need." The designs showcased at IHS have the potential to increase housing supply, reduce construction costs, enhance energy efficiency and resilience, and lower housing expenses for owners and renters. "The biggest takeaway is that the methodology we use to build our house on the National Mall is available to every builder across the country and can be applied to any building style. This approach is not only efficient but also adaptable, offering significant benefits to both builders and consumers," said Lohse. According to the SBCA, nearly 70 percent of homes constructed in America leverage offsite construction technology, particularly in roof trusses, which dates to the 1950s. This method not only decreases construction costs compared to traditional stick-framing, but also significantly enhances a home's resilience against severe weather conditions, thus drastically underscoring its efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and durability in the construction industry. The Innovative Housing Showcase aims to raise awareness about innovative and affordable housing designs and technologies to demonstrate how these advancements can boost housing supply, decrease construction costs, increase energy efficiency and resilience, and make housing more affordable for both homeowners and renters. View a timelapse of the build here. ABOUT 84 LUMBER Founded in 1956 and headquartered in Eighty Four, Pennsylvania, 84 Lumber Co. is the nation's largest privately held supplier of building materials, manufactured components, and industry-leading services for single and multifamily residences and commercial buildings. The company operates 320 facilities which include stores, component manufacturing plants, custom door shops, and engineered wood product centers in 33 states. 84 Lumber also offers turnkey installation services for a variety of products, including framing, insulation, siding, windows, roofing, decking, and drywall. A certified national women's business enterprise owned by Maggie Hardy, 84 Lumber was named as one of the Most Trustworthy Companies in America 2024 by Newsweek, and one of America's Largest Private Companies in 2023 by Forbes. The company also made the Inc. 5000 list of America's Fastest-Growing Companies in 2023. For more information, visit 84lumber.com or join us on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn . About SBCA The Structural Building Components Association (SBCA) is a trade association representing manufacturers of structural building components. Its membership also includes truss plate suppliers, original equipment manufacturers and resellers, computer software companies, lumber suppliers, builders, and professional individuals in various fields, including engineering, marketing, and management. SBCA provides services its membership needs to continue expanding the market share of all structural building components by promoting the common interests of those engaged in manufacturing trusses, wall panels, and related structural components; to ensure growth, continuity, and increased professionalism, which will strengthen the structural building component manufacturing industry's influence. For more information, please visit: www.sbcacomponents.com. About IHS IHS is a public event to raise awareness of innovative and affordable housing designs and technologies that have the potential to increase housing supply, lower the cost of construction, increase energy efficiency and resilience, and reduce housing expenses for owners and renters. This is the fourth year of the Innovative Housing Showcase. Now in its fourth year, the showcase invites attendees to explore past events, learn about exhibitors, and discover details on the 2024 programming. SOURCE 84 Lumber DUSSELDORF, Germany, June 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- "Ushering in a New Era of Packaging - WEPACK 2025 Press Conference - Germany" was held on June 2nd at the Tulip Inn Hotel Dusseldorf Arena, Germany. The organizer RX, its strategic partner WPO, representatives from key exhibitors Kento Digital Printing as well as other industry associations all attended the press conference. The event disseminated information on the exhibition's focus and offered updates on event preparation to industry media groups such as Specialist Printing Worldwide (UK), Cartiflex (Spain), Printpack Indonesia (Indonesia), ME PRINTER (Middle East) and other industry organizations. Boosting cooperation between upstream and downstream enterprises in the global packaging industry Mr. Alex Wang, Vice President of RX Greater China, welcomed guests attending the press conference at its beginningintroducing WEPACK 2025's purpose while highlighting its significance. Mr. Wang, in his address, noted the profound changes of the world we live in over the last few years. At the crossroads of this historical evolution, he expressed the belief that mutually beneficial cooperation should be the industry's highest aspiration. Win-win partnerships are more indispensable than ever in enhancing exchange and cooperation among packaging industries worldwide. WEPACK 2025, as a global packaging industry banquet, sits at a strategic location generating synergy between seven exhibitions in raw packaging materials, packaging processing and finished products. The event will welcome more than 1,500 exhibitors, bringing together packaging industry peers from roughly 110 countries around the world to bear witness to the event and seek business opportunities. WEPACK has always spotlighted the industry's innovative changes, as well as its intelligent, digital, efficient, and sustainable trends. WEPACK 2025 convenes to boost cooperation between upstream and downstream companies in the global packaging industry, creating more possibilities for exchange and trade. RX continuously upholds its global vision and corporate responsibility, joining hands with global forces, strengthening global trade and commerce in the packaging industry, and working together to promote resilient, green, sustainable, and high-quality development. Tightknit cooperation with authoritative overseas institutions and trade associations Mr. Kishan Singh, an ambassador of RX's strategic partner WPO overviewed the shared history between WPO and WEPACK as well as changes in the packaging industry over the past 20 years. Mr. Kishan Singh noted that WPO, the "United Nations" of the sector and a non-profit international organization focused on the development of the world packaging industry, has long contributed to sustainable packaging. Over the past 20 years, RX has also implemented strategic deployment throughout the industrial and ecological chain, integrating raw packaging materials, packaging processing equipment, as well as packaging products and processes. WPO has always worked hand in hand with RX to bolster the packaging industry's development, looking to map out a new landscape in the global sector. Mr. Winfried Muehling, General Manager of European Packaging Consulting talked about WEPACK's exhibition scale, brand value, internationalization level and market influence at the press conference. He expressed his full support of WEPACK 2025, promoting the event to both European and global packaging industries. Curated visitor organization also galvanizes stable supply and demand relationships in the upstream and downstream of the global packaging industrial chain. Scaling up and new breakthroughs throughout numerous sectors Mr. Dai, RX representative, shared his take on the brand-new upgrade of WEPACK 2025. WEPACK 2025 will see new breakthroughs in exhibition area, exhibitor numbers, total visitors, industry organizations and media groups. Spanning an area of 140,000 m2, the exhibition will bring together more than 1,500 exhibitors, roughly 100,000 global trade visitors and over 200 industry organizations and media groups. Based on the original exhibition sectors and with the intention to stay abreast of market trends and demands, WEPACK 2025 will add label technology as a new sector, while also concurrently holding seven series exhibitions: SinoCorrugated 2025 SinoFoldingCarton 2025 PACKCON 2025 SinoPaper 2025 DPrint 2025 Food Pack & Tech 2025 NEW Label Industry Expo 2025 (newly added) Exhibitors join hands to reflect on global packaging industry highlights Representatives from exhibitors, including Kento Digital Printing delivered speeches. They reported on their experiences with WEPACK, the preparatory work made by WEPACK 2025 in showcasing brand strategy, the expansion of the exhibition scale, increased exhibition content, the organization of abundant activities, and the invitation of more customers to the exhibition. They also expressed their anticipation for WEPACK 2025. We'd like to express our special thanks to Jiayou, King Tau and Rocky Adhesives. Thank you for your strong support of WEPACK 2025 Global Roadshow - Germany! WEPACK has received widespread attention and praise from global packaging industry practitioners. WEPACK 2025 will open at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre in April 2025, welcoming more than 100,000 industry professionals from China, Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and South Asia to jointly discuss the packaging industry's latest technologies and development trends. Stay tuned for a new era of global packaging! WEPACK Official Website: HOME-WEPACK 2024 (wepack-expo.com) SOURCE RX (China) Investment Co.,Ltd ("Reed Exhibitions") ANN ARBOR, Mich. and EDDYVILLE, Iowa, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Wacker Chemical Corporation (WCC) established its Eddyville bioprocessing plant in 1999 and today celebrates its 25th anniversary. The facility manufactures three different high-quality cyclodextrins: Alpha, Beta and Gamma. It is also the world's sole commercial-scale manufacturer of Alpha and Gamma cyclodextrins. Cyclodextrins are ring-shaped sugar molecules used to encapsulate other molecules and are commonly used as stabilizers, flavor maskers and carriers for industrial, food and pharmaceutical industries. Located in the heart of Americas corn belt, WACKERs Eddyville site in Iowa is a 1.5 million-square-foot facility celebrating its 25th anniversary. Since 1999, WACKER has manufactured cyclodextrins. These ring-shaped sugar molecules have the ability to encapsulate other molecules and are used as stabilizers and carriers in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Eddyville is central to WACKER's global Biotech and Biopharma network, supplying all global cyclodextrin customers. Guided by WACKER's global leadership, the Eddyville biotech facility has been at the forefront of cyclodextrin production since it was first built. The cyclodextrin products manufactured by WACKER became known worldwide under the trade names CAVASOL and CAVAMAX. Susanne Leonhartsberger, president of WACKER BIOSOLUTIONS, WACKER's life sciences division, said: "Eddyville plays a central role within our global network of Biotech and Biopharma sites. From Iowa we supply all our global cyclodextrin customers. It is an important pillar of the BIOSOLUTIONS portfolio and our growth strategy. Our goal is to reach one billion Euros in sales by the year 2030. This site is essential to help us accomplish this ambition." In recognition of the 25th anniversary of WACKER's production facility in Eddyville, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, and Iowa Lt. Governor Adam Gregg, extended their well-wishes: "We congratulate WACKER on 25 years of business in Iowa. We thank the corporation for their dedication in manufacturing cyclodextrin for Iowans and those across the global market. We honor this business and its contribution to the community." "WACKER is a valuable member of our innovative industry and the local communities in which it operates," said Chris Jahn, President & CEO, American Chemistry Council. "This milestone is also a celebration of our industry's signature performance initiative under Responsible Care, demonstrating WACKER's commitment to safeguarding human and environmental health as it develops solutions to improve quality of life around the globe." Cyclodextrins are naturally occurring carbohydrates made from corn. Hydrolyzed corn starch, the main processing raw material, is transported several times a day, directly from a nearby corn milling facility. This direct availability offers WACKER ideal conditions for production and gives it a high degree of supply security. Cyclodextrins have a variety of uses, specifically neutralizing unpleasant odors, masking the bitter taste in food products, or ensuring that the active ingredients of certain foods are more effectively absorbed by the body. For the food industry, Alpha cyclodextrin is attractive as a fat-free emulsifier or whipping aid. Consumer products include textiles, additives in face and body care products, and carriers for pharmaceuticals. "Successfully reaching our 25-year milestone is the result of hard work and dedication by our team members," said Steven Hughes, Director of the Eddyville site. "Their tenacity, unwavering commitment to safety, and strong work ethic advances WACKER's mission of Creating Tomorrow's Solutions and positively impacts our customers, community, and millions of people who depend on WACKER to deliver sustainable products people use every day without even realizing it." Notable site distinctions include ISO 9001 quality certification, ISO 14001 environmental certification, FSSC 22000 food safety certification, and EXCiPACT GMP pharmaceutical excipient certification. WACKER Eddyville also observes the environmental protection guidelines set out by the global chemical industry's Responsible Care initiative. For more information about WACKER's operations in Eddyville, Iowa, click here to visit the company's webpage. For further information, please contact: Wacker Chemical Corporation Media Relations & Information James Barnes Phone +01 734-546-4951 [email protected] www.wacker.com follow us on: The Company in Brief: WACKER is a global company with state-of-the-art specialty chemical products found in countless everyday items, with applications ranging from tile adhesives to computer chips. It has a worldwide network of 27 production sites, 22 technical competence centers and 48 sales offices with some 16,400 employees and annual sales of around 6.4 billion (2023). WACKER operates through four business divisions. The chemical divisions WACKER SILICONES and WACKER POLYMERS supply products (silicones, polymeric binders) for the automotive, construction, chemical, consumer goods and medical technology industries. WACKER BIOSOLUTIONS, the life sciences division, specializes in bioengineered products such as biopharmaceuticals and food additives. WACKER POLYSILICON produces hyperpure polysilicon for the semiconductor and photovoltaic industries. SOURCE Wacker Chemical Corporation Art Staff Overcomes Union Busting to Join Local 639, Prepares for Negotiations POTOMAC, Md., June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Workers at the Glenstone Museum, a private contemporary art museum in Potomac, Maryland, have joined Teamsters Local 639. The group of 89 workers includes all hourly guides, cafe workers, registration, grounds, engineering and maintenance, community engagement, and housekeeping staff. "I was proud to vote yes in this election because I believe that everyone who works at Glenstone deserves a happy, healthy, and fulfilling work environment," said Lynx Merchant, a guide at Glenstone and new member of Local 639. "We are the face of Glenstone. From interacting with visitors in the galleries and dining locations to the spotless windows and maintenance of lush landscape, we keep Glenstone running through our daily labor," said Elizabeth Shaw, a grounds and visitor liaison and new member of Local 639. "I am excited about the opportunity to bring the realities of our work to the bargaining table and negotiate a contract that will ensure the sustainability of our employment." Glenstone workers organized with the Teamsters to secure livable wages, improved benefits, and safer working conditions. Many at Glenstone are forced to work second jobs, and part-time employees are not provided health care benefits. Weather safety is also a major concern, with staff being forced to work outdoors during extreme heat and cold. "We organized with the Teamsters because we need a livable wage and better working conditions," said Mohannad Shoair, a cafe attendant at Glenstone and a new member of Local 639. "There is absolutely no justifiable reason any of us should be required to work two jobs to pay rent or work in unsafe conditions. We can't wait to negotiate a strong first contract that addresses our collective concerns and provides the wages, benefits, and working conditions that we deserve." During the organizing campaign, workers faced an intense union-busting campaign orchestrated by the museum's multi-billionaire owners, Mitchell and Emily Rales. The Glenstone Foundation, which reported net assets of $4.4 billion in 2022, spent tens of thousands of dollars on union avoidance consultants from known union-busting firms Proskauer Rose and the American Labor Group. "These workers defeated a sophisticated union-busting assault personally waged by some of the wealthiest people in America," said Bill Davis, President of Local 639. "I want to welcome them to our local union, and I look forward to helping them negotiate a first Teamsters contract." 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: Kara Deniz, (202) 497-6610 [email protected] SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters June 11 event will feature a new bus equipped with Zum's tech and safety features REDWOOD CITY, Calif., June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Zum , which was recently awarded a five-year transportation contract from Santa Barbara Unified School District (SBUSD), will host a fifth hiring event for school bus drivers on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Courtyard Oxnard Ventura (600 East Esplanade Drive, Oxnard, CA). Zum, which was recently awarded a five-year transportation contract from Santa Barbara Unified School District (SBUSD), will host a fifth hiring event for school bus drivers on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Courtyard Oxnard Ventura (600 East Esplanade Drive, Oxnard, CA). Existing drivers and new candidates are encouraged to apply. Zum also welcomes candidates from Ventura, Oxnard and other neighboring communities to join its team of drivers. Drivers from neighboring communities will be provided complimentary daily shuttle service to and from work. For the first time, a brand new Zum school bus fully equipped with all of Zum's new technology and safety features will be on the ground and available for a tour at this event. Zum is hiring 46 school bus drivers to serve the SBUSD community beginning in the 2024-25 school year. "Drivers are at the center of what we do at Zum, and we're excited to build our team as we prepare for the upcoming school year," said Ritu Narayan, Founder and CEO at Zum. "We look forward to meeting existing drivers as well as anyone considering a new career serving this welcoming school community." Zum offers higher wages, guaranteed hours and modern benefits for all drivers and staff and provides training and certification for those who are not yet certified. Additionally, Zum provides top-of-the-line buses, equipment and technology to enhance safety and comfort for students and drivers. Advanced training and certification programs include extensive ongoing training in transporting students with diverse needs and disabilities. "As someone new to the field, Zum's training program to become a certified school bus driver was a wonderful and comprehensive experience," said Jennifer Sanders, a new bus driver for Zum in Santa Barbara. "The team showed great care and dedication in welcoming me and helping me transition into a job that will be rewarding on so many levels. I'm proud to soon be able to drive our students to and from school each day." Zum is a "Great Places to Work" certified company and takes pride in being a choice employer in districts where it has partnerships. Anyone interested in driving or who knows someone interested that cannot attend one of Zum's hiring events can apply here . Zum manages and operates student transportation in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Utah, and Virginia, and is expanding rapidly nationwide. To learn more about how Zum is working with thousands of schools across the nation to deliver safe, reliable and modern student transportation, please visit Zum's website . About Zum: Zum has modernized student transportation, the nation's largest mass transit system, and developed sustainable ways to charge the grid. Zum's robust operations and integrated end-to-end cloud-based platform provides a modern student transportation service for school districts purpose-built around the needs of kids and the expectations of modern families. Zum provides one seamless, real-time interface for parents, drivers, schools, districts, administrators, and operators to transport children safely and with increased visibility and personalized care. Always investing in the wellbeing of communities, Zum is also the only carbon neutral student transportation provider in the nation with plans to go Net Zero with its transition to EV electric buses. Zum is available nationwide, serving more than 4,000 schools across the U.S. Learn more at www.ridezum.com . CONTACT: Jenny Mayfield, Vice President of Communications - [email protected] SOURCE Zum Sanaa/Jerusalem, June 7 : Yemen's Houthi group on Thursday said that they had launched joint aerial attacks with an Iraqi group, targeting ships in Israel's port of Haifa, though the Israeli military denied the claim. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a statement aired by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV that "the precise operations" were carried out with drones in retaliation for the "massacres committed by the Israeli enemy in the (Palestinian) area of Rafah" in Gaza. Meanwhile, Israeli military sources told Xinhua news agency that they were "unfamiliar with such an incident". Witnesses from companies operating in Haifa said that the port was operating normally. Sarea claimed that one operation targeted two ships carrying military equipment, and another targeted a ship that "violated the Houthi's entry ban on the port of Haifa in occupied Palestine (Israel)." The Israeli enemy should expect more operations, said the spokesman. The Houthi rebel group, which controls several cities in northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, began last November to launch anti-ship ballistic missiles and drones targeting what they said were Israeli-linked ships transiting the Red Sea, to show solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Helsinki, June 7 : The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said that NATO has no plans to deploy forces to Ukraine. At a joint press conference with Finnish President Alexander Stubb on the second day of his two-day visit to Finland, Stoltenberg on Thursday said that "we are focusing on how we can establish a stronger framework for our support" to Ukraine. Echoing Stoltenberg's position, Stubb also said that Finland has no plans to send troops to Ukraine, adding that Finland is in discussions with allies about options for supporting Ukraine, Xinhua news agency reported. At the press conference, Stoltenberg also noted that he saw no imminent military threat against any NATO ally from Russia, and not even after the end of the conflict. "This idea that there is a kind of a countdown to the next war is wrong," he said. Stubb also believes the idea of a Russian attack is implausible. The US Capitol building is seen in Washington, DC, on Nov 8,2022. [Photo/Xinhua] Global Times-Washington's decision to increase tariffs on Chinese new-energy products has clearly hindered global efforts to reduce emissions. The policy not only goes against the trend of international cooperation in combating climate change but also exposes the shortsighted and self-serving nature of US politicians in addressing global issues. US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Tuesday that the quadrupling of import duties on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) to more than 100 percent in August as planned is crucial to the health of the US auto sector, Reuters reported. The remarks by Granholm came as a surprise, as Energy Department officials are usually expected to promote the adoption of clean energy in the most efficient manner, and history has repeatedly proven that protectionism cannot make an industry strong. Perhaps in the eyes of American officials like Granholm, raising tariffs on Chinese EVs is intended to protect the country's auto industry, and they choose to ignore the likely consequence that this move can backfire. But can high tariffs and trade barriers really be helpful in protecting the US auto industry? The answer is no. The US steel industry is a case in point. In recent years, it has become increasingly common for the US government to impose tariffs on steel products from China, Canada, Mexico and the EU in an effort to protect the American steel industry. However, this protectionism has not strengthened the US steel industry; instead, it has reduced the motivation for technological advances and production efficiency. Consequently, the industry has experienced a decline in jobs, competitiveness and market share. Late last year, Japan's Nippon Steel proposed a nearly $15 billion takeover of the iconic firm US Steel, sparking opposition from labor unions and politicians. Despite this resistance, it does not change the fact that the US steel industry lacks competitiveness. If Washington chooses to emulate the "protectionist" approach in the EV sector, the US auto industry could potentially mirror the fate of the steel industry. In comparison with other countries like China, the production volume and consumer acceptance of EVs in the US are relatively modest. While imposing tariffs may offer temporary protection to American automakers, in the long term, such measures could impede competition, limit market diversity and obstruct advances in technology and cost-efficiency within the industry. Furthermore, trade protectionism may exacerbate domestic opposition to EVs by increasing tariffs, resulting in higher costs for EVs. This could potentially lead to consumer discontent and a more negative perception of clean-energy products, ultimately affecting their popularity. Some in the US have already argued that the Biden administration's push to accelerate the transition away from internal combustion vehicles could backfire, as Americans are not voluntarily embracing EVs quickly enough. Given this context, it is possible that trade protectionism could impede America's shift toward clean energy even further. More importantly, in light of the escalating frequency of extreme weather events, there is a pressing need to address climate change through collaborative global initiatives. In the US alone, an unprecedented number of billion-dollar disasters - 28 in total - struck the country in 2023, according to US media reports. This is why there is a growing global consensus on the need to achieve effective emissions reduction and foster sustainable economic development by making significant adjustments to the energy structure, particularly through the widespread adoption of new-energy products to achieve a low level of carbon emissions. This situation also explains why China's "new three" products have been warmly received in markets worldwide. In light of these circumstances, the decision by the US to impose tariffs on Chinese new-energy products in order to protect its own industry reveals a concerning indifference among US politicians toward global emissions reduction. Washington's lag in global climate change efforts is not only detrimental to its own industrial development, but also hinders the progress of the global energy transition. Cairo, June 7 : White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk has held separate meetings with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and Defence Minister Mohamed Zaki here to discuss the latest developments of the crisis in the Gaza Strip. During McGurk's meeting with Shoukry on Thursday, they discussed the recent US proposal for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal, including an exchange of Palestinian prisoners and Israeli hostages, highlighting the joint mediation efforts made by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States in this regard, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The ceasefire deal was proposed in late May by US President Joe Biden to end the conflict between Israel and Gaza-ruling Hamas, which has been going on over the past eight months. Shoukry and McGurk stressed the importance for the two sides to reach a deal "as soon as possible" and take "serious and real steps" to ensure a ceasefire in the entire Gaza Strip, Xinhua news agency reported. McGurk's meeting with the Egyptian Defense Minister touched on "the current regional developments in light of the continuation of (Israeli) military operations inside the Gaza Strip and their extremely difficult humanitarian repercussions", said a statement by the Egyptian military. The Israeli army launched a military operation on Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah in early May and took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, a lifeline for delivering humanitarian aid from Egypt to Gaza. The move led to the closure of the vital crossing, with Egypt demanding Israeli withdrawal from its Palestinian side. McGurk and Zaki discussed "the efforts made in light of the current initiatives to cease fire, open the crossings, and intensify the entry of humanitarian aid to the residents of the strip," according to the Egyptian army's statement. The US, Egypt, and Qatar managed to mediate a week-long Israel-Hamas truce in late November 2023. Israel and Hamas failed to reach another ceasefire agreement after talks in Cairo last month. Gaza/Jerusalem, June 7 : At least 13 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli bombing of a house and a youth gathering in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources have said. Israeli warplanes on Thursday bombed a house east of Khan Younis city in southern Gaza with at least one missile, Xinhua news agency reported, citing Palestinian security sources. Medical sources said the airstrike killed eight people, including children and women, and injured several others, all of whom had been taken to hospital. On the same day, a drone targeted a gathering of youths in the Al-Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza, according to local sources and eyewitnesses. The drone attack had resulted in five deaths, medical sources said. Meanwhile, the Israeli army claimed that its soldiers encountered Palestinian militants who emerged from a tunnel shaft in southern Gaza, about 200 meters away from the Israeli border. It confirmed one of its soldiers, identified as 34-year-old Zeed Mazarib from Zarzir in northern Israel, was killed. Earlier in the day, Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades said it blew up a tunnel entrance set by Israeli forces near Rafah as a trap, killing five Israeli soldiers inside. Israel has been conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas in Gaza to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on October 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage. The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks in the enclave has risen to 36,654, with 83,309 people injured, updated the Gaza health authorities on Thursday. Paris, June 7 : France will supply Mirage warplanes to Ukraine and train their soldiers, French President Emmanuel Macron has said in an interview with French media. "We will launch a new cooperation and transfer Mirage 2000-5s," Macron said on Thursday evening. The French leader also promised to train a whole Ukrainian battalion of 4,500 troops, to be deployed on the battlefield, Xinhua news agency reported. He said the delivery of French fighter jets "is not a factor of escalation" and promised "these weapons will not be used to bomb civilians". Additionally, Macron didn't exclude the possibility of sending military instructors to Ukraine. "There should be no taboo on this subject," he said in the interview. Mirage 2000 is a French multi-role, single-engine, fourth-generation jet fighter, manufactured by Dassault Aviation. At the end of February, Macron suggested European nations should send troops to Ukraine during a meeting in Paris but many other European countries, including Germany, Britain, Spain, and Italy, voiced their disagreement. Following Macron's remarks in February, Russia warned a direct conflict between NATO and Russia would be inevitable if the alliance sends troops to Ukraine. Earlier on Thursday, Marcon led a ceremony held at Omaha Beach in Normandy, northern France, to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. According to a live broadcast by French media BFMTV, some 20 heads of state and government, including US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, participated in the event. En route to France for the ceremony, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday that the US will maintain its policy of not sending military advisors to Ukraine. The Normandy landings along the French coast on June 6, 1944, marked an important turning point in World War II, paving the way to the Allied's victory against Nazi Germany. Gaza, June 7 : The Palestinian Mayor of central Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp, Iyad al-Mughari, was killed in an Israeli airstrike, Palestinian medical and security sources have said. The mayor was killed, along with a number of his family members, as an Israeli attack targeted a building in the camp on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported, citing Palestinian security sources. Medical sources said al-Mughari's body was transferred to al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah city in central Gaza. Al-Mughari, one of the cadres of the Hamas movement, was appointed mayor by acclamation, the sources noted. The killing of al-Mughari came hours after the killing of about 35 Palestinians in an Israeli attack on a school affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which was housing displaced people in the Nuseirat camp. Israel said Hamas and Islamic Jihad "terrorists" were embedded themselves inside the school, and a number of steps had been taken to reduce the risk of harming uninvolved civilians. The Israeli army has been conducting a large-scale offensive on Gaza since October 7, 2023, after Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on the Israeli towns adjacent to the strip, during which approximately 1,200 people were killed and about 250 others were taken hostage. The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks in the enclave has risen to 36,654, with 83,309 people injured, updated the Gaza health authorities on Thursday. Washington, June 7 : US President Joe Biden has said he would not pardon his son Hunter in the event of a conviction in his ongoing criminal trial for unauthorized gun possession. In a TV interview, Biden was asked whether he was prepared to accept the outcome of his son's trial in the state of Delaware. He answered with a curt "yes." News anchor David Muir asked whether Biden would also rule out a pardon, to which the US president replied in the affirmative, according to a pre-released statement from ABC News. Hunter Biden is accused of making false statements when purchasing weapons in October 2018 and concealing his drug addiction at the time. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison. However, it is unclear how severe a sentence the judge responsible would hand down, as Hunter Biden has no criminal record. The US president's statements are in contrast to the behaviour of his predecessor Donald Trump, who is facing several criminal trials and has already indicated that he would reverse their sentences if he wins the election. --IANS/DPA int/sha Dakar, June 7 : South Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC) party has announced it will seek a national unity government after the historic loss of its absolute majority. "We agreed to invite political parties to form a government of national unity as the best option to move our country forward," South Africa's President and ANC party leader Cyril Ramaphosa told reporters, following a meeting of the party's leadership on Thursday evening. The ANC, the party of former anti-apartheid fighter Nelson Mandela, won 159 of the 400 seats in the parliamentary elections on May 29 and failed to secure an absolute majority for the first time in 30 years. The proposed government of national unity would be a type of coalition government that included all parties that had won seats in the parliament during the election. According to an ANC spokesperson, it would represent the interests of all voters. However, some analysts are concerned that a government of national unity could struggle to maintain stability and reach agreements. The proposed approach would help the ANC avoid partnering with just one party, like the liberal Democratic Alliance (DA). The potential collaboration between the ANC and DA poses the risk of causing dissatisfaction among many ANC supporters. The newly elected members of parliament must form a government and elect a president by the end of next week. --IANS/DPA int/sha Seoul, June 7 : SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won had held a meeting with CC Wei, Chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), in Taiwan and they discussed bolstering cooperation on artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies, SK Group said on Friday. SK Group has SK hynix, the world's second-largest maker of memory chips, under its wing. Chey and Wei agreed to enhance the two companies' collaboration on the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, group officials said, reports Yonhap news agency. "Let's lay the foundation of the AI era together to benefit the humankind," Chey told Wei, according to a statement released by SK Group. The meeting came about a month and a half after SK hynix signed a strategic partnership with TSMC as part of efforts to bolster its capabilities in producing premium HBM chips and advanced packaging technologies. Under the partnership, SK hynix plans to utilise TSMC's technologies in developing its sixth-generation HBM4 chips, set for mass production in 2025. The two companies also plan to join hands to optimise the integration of their packaging process, CoWoS technology. HBM chips, integral components used for AI computing, have garnered increasing attention with the rise of applications such as generative AI, exemplified by models like ChatGPT. SK hynix supplies its fourth-generation HBM3 chips to global AI chip giant Nvidia, which has a monopolistic status in the market. SK hynix is a key customer of Nvidia Corp., a major player in the AI semiconductor market, supplying its fourth-generation HBM3 chips almost exclusively. Mumbai, June 7 : Indian actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas has started shooting for her next 'The Bluff' alongside Karl Urban in Australia, going by her post on social media. Priyanka took to her Instagram stories, where she shared a picture of the film's clapboard. She captioned the image: "Let's gooooo! Day 1" along with an 'Om' sign. Recently, Priyanka had shared some heart-melting pictures of her daughter Malti Marie from her make-up session. The images showed her daughter doodling over a mannequin's face kept on the table, which the actress captioned: "When MM is in the HMU trailer." Another image showed Malti brushing the mannequin's hair. The last photograph had her toddler holding the head of the mannequin, which Priyanka captioned as: "I think 'Diane' is coming home with us." Ahead of shooting for 'The Bluff', Priyanka had shared a reel with the cast and crew of the film on a yacht. She had mentioned that for her, it is important to know people coming together for a project are top-notch. She had written: "When I start a new project, it's really important for me to know that the people who come together to make it are top-notch. We spend so much time together, away from our families and homes, thinking, eating, and breathing the art we're contributing to." Directed by Frank E. Flowers, 'The Bluff', tells the story of an ex-female pirate, played by Priyanka, who embarks on a journey to protect her family. She also has 'Heads of State' set to release, starring John Cena and Idris Elba. Washington, June 7 : The United States has called for an investigation into the deadly Israeli airstrike on a school building run by the UN agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees in central Gaza and told Israel it must be "fully transparent." US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Thursday that even if Israel's army intended to target Hamas militants, the claims of children killed in the strike "show that something went wrong." Miller said it was Israel's right to target Hamas militants while also stressing the obligation to minimise civilian harm and take every possible step to do so. He said the US had seen reports that 14 children were killed in the strike. "If that is accurate that 14 children were killed, those aren't terrorists," Miller said. "These are all facts that need to be verified, and that's what we want to see happen." According to the UNRWA, the school building in the refugee district of Nuseirat was being used as an emergency shelter. The Hamas-controlled health authority in Gaza said that at least 30 people were killed in the attack on Wednesday night and that most of the victims were women and children. Hamas said 40 people died. It was initially not possible to independently verify the information. Twenty to 30 members of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) were believed to have been in three classrooms of the school building in the Nuseirat refugee neighbourhood, according to the Israeli army. --IANS/DPA int/sd/arm Brussels, June 7 : Polls open in the Czech Republic and Ireland on Friday for the second day of voting in the continent-wide European Parliament elections, in which around 360 million people can cast their ballot over four days. In Ireland, opposition party Sinn Fein wants to use the elections to galvanise support ahead of national polls anticipated in the coming year. "Vote Sinn Fein on Friday as the first step towards a change of government," party leader Mary Lou McDonald posted during the campaign trail on social media platform X. "It's time for new people with new solutions and new ideas at local government and European level. Change starts here," McDonald added, aiming to tap into public dissatisfaction with public services and housing shortages. There are 14 seats up for grabs for Ireland in the European Parliament elections, which are happening at the same time as elections for local office. Public concern about increased numbers of asylum seekers in Ireland has seen a swell of independent candidates emerge, promising tougher immigration policies. The Czech Republic is holding elections across Friday and Saturday, with 21 seats to be won. Opposition party ANO is polling at 23.1 per cent, narrowly ahead of the coalition government parties, and may win up to six seats, according to STEM, a Czech polling agency. However, "the ANO movement is nowhere near the gains we are used to," STEM analyst Martin KratochvAl said, attributing this to the typically low Czech turnout - especially among the more eurosceptic opposition - in European Parliament elections. Emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic with economic growth subdued, shocked by the war in Ukraine, struggling to cope with rising immigration and attempting to face the dangers posed by climate change, these elections are rife with uncertainty about the European Union's future path. It is also the first EU election since Britain became the only country ever to formally leave the bloc in 2020. Netherlands was the first country to vote on Thursday, with Geert Wilders' far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) in the spotlight, aiming to capitalise on a surge in support. While Wilders' party made strong gains and was on track to have secured seven of the 31 Dutch seats in the European Parliament, up from just one, it was edged out by a centre-left Dutch political alliance which won eight seats, according to an exit poll from Thursday evening. If forecasters' predictions are correct, far-right parties will do better this time around than ever before, potentially affecting everything from EU migration and climate policy to the choice of the next European Commission president. Italy, Latvia, Malta, and Slovakia are next to start voting on Saturday, with Italians voting across two days. In the rest of the EU, elections will be held on Sunday, June 9. Once the votes are counted and politicians are elected to their seats in the European Parliament, the political parties will form into different pan-European groups. The centre-right European People's Party (EPP) has been the largest such group for the last 25 years, though no group has ever had a parliamentary majority. The other current blocs are the centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the liberal-centrist Renew, the environmentalist Greens, the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID), the less radical but nationalist right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and the radical socialist group, The Left. There are also non-aligned parties and independents. Once the results are in and the new parliament begins to take shape, EU leaders will gather for an informal summit to start the process of selecting the new commission president, the most powerful executive position in the EU. Incumbent President Ursula von der Leyen is seeking a second term. To succeed, the German conservative politician first needs the backing of a qualified majority of EU leaders. Then, the European Parliament must approve her nomination by a majority vote. In 2019, von der Leyen was approved by a margin of just nine votes. With the expected growth of far-right parties in parliament, she may face an even harder challenge holding on to her job this time. --IANS/DPA int/sd/arm New Delhi, June 7 : As preparations are in full swing for the oath-taking ceremony of the new government on June 9, sanitation workers, transgenders, and labourers who worked on the Central Vista Project will be among the special guests, sources said on Friday. The special invitees will also include the beneficiaries of Central government schemes and Viksit Bharat ambassadors, the sources added. Railway employees working on Vande Bharat and Metro trains will be invited to attend PM Modi's third oath ceremony. The oath-taking ceremony will be held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday evening. The sources have also said that arrangements are being made for over 8,000 guests at Rashtrapati Bhavan. South Asian leaders have been invited to the ceremony. Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina and Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe have already confirmed their presence, sources said. Invites have also been reportedly sent to Nepal PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda', Bhutan PM Tshering Tobgay, and Mauritius PM Pravind Jugnauth. the sources added. Narendra Modi is the second PM to win a third straight term in power after the country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Ahmedabad, June 7 : Adani Solar, the solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing arm of the Adani Group, on Friday, said it has been recognised as a 'Top Performer' in the 10th Edition of Kiwa PVEL's PV Module Reliability Scorecard. Adani Solar is the only Indian manufacturer to have maintained Top Performer status for seven consecutive years. Kiwa PVEL is a leading independent laboratory serving the downstream solar industry. Their annual Scorecard highlights manufacturers that have produced PV modules demonstrating noteworthy results in independent testing, the company said in a statement. "We are honoured to win the 'Top Performer' position again. This consistent recognition reinforces our commitment to excellence," said Anil Gupta, CEO of Adani Solar. "Our Indian-made solar PV modules embody advanced technology, premium components, and superior design for unmatched reliability and performance," he added. Gupta thanked the stakeholders for their continued support as "we uphold the industry's highest standards and strongest quality controls to foster continual advancement and distinguish Adani Solar in the sector." Kiwa PVEL's Product Qualification Program (PQP) is the most comprehensive testing scheme to evaluate PV module reliability and quality through rigorous testing procedures. Adani Solar's PV modules successfully completed the PQP testing, demonstrating industry-leading reliability and performance metrics. "Congratulations to the Adani Solar team for achieving the Top Performer recognition in the PV Module Reliability Scorecard for the seventh year," said Tristan Erion-Lorico, VP of Sales and Marketing at Kiwa PVEL. "We are pleased to see Adani Solar appear in our report once again, and we hope to see the company's continued growth in the near future," Erion-Lorico added. Adani Solar is the first and only vertically integrated solar PV manufacturer with existing 4 GW cell and module, and 2 GW ingot and wafer manufacturing units in India. The company is building the nation's first fully integrated and comprehensive solar ecosystem manufacturing facility of 10 GW capacity in Mundra, Gujarat. Bengaluru, June 7 : The Congress government in Karnataka has banned the release of the Bollywood movie 'Hamare Baarah' in the state, alleging that it may disturb communal harmony. The order, signed by B.K. Bhuvanendra Kumar, the Under Secretary of the government, also issues a directive not to broadcast the trailer of the movie for two weeks or until further orders. The order is given under Sections 15 (1) and 15 (5) of the Karnataka Cinema (Regulation) Act 1964. It said Muslim organisations across various districts and taluks in the state have sought a ban on the movie. The organisations claimed that Zee Media recently released a trailer of 'Hamare Baarah' in which the Muslim religion is portrayed in a "humiliating manner" and the trailer is "provocative". "If permission is granted for the movie, it will create rifts between religions and castes. Targeting one religion intentionally, harming communal harmony, creating rifts in the nation, and hurting the sentiments of Muslims is part of a conspiracy," the order said. Films should play an instrumental role in guiding society and not foment hatred between religions, it said. In this context, a request has been made to prevent the release of the controversial movie 'Hamare Baarah', scheduled for countrywide release on June 7 including in Karnataka, the order said. When the trailer of the movie was reviewed, it was found that the producer and director of the film had misinterpreted the Holy Quran and its messages. Provocative and humiliating statements are made, seemingly intended to enrage people belonging to certain religions. It also appears that the creators have tried to portray one community in a humiliating manner. Analysing one community based on religion is an issue that will affect the well-being of society, the order said. "If the release of 'Hamare Baarah' is allowed, it will encourage breaches of peace, create rifts between communities, and intentionally humiliate a particular religion. The scenes are also found to be insulting to women," the order stated. Before banning the film, it is required to get clarification as per the law. However, director Kamal Chandra and the producers are located in another state. "Since there was no time to issue a notice and get clarification before the movie's scheduled release, and considering the potential for communal clashes in the state, it was banned," the order said. Mumbai, June 7 : Actress Saloni Batra, who plays a pivotal role of a cop in the upcoming murder mystery series 'Gaanth Chapter 1: Jamnaa Paar', spoke about her seamless coordination with the production team, highlighting their dedication and expertise that made the filming process smooth and enjoyable. Sharing her experience with the team, Saloni said, "I felt truly blessed to have such an amazing team to work with. Each person was an expert in their craft, which made working behind the camera an absolute breeze." "Our team shared a wonderful camaraderie; we would often joke around, talk about various topics, and play pranks on each other. The joy of our work was complemented by the simple pleasures we shared, like relishing delicious Delhi food together and unwinding after pack-ups," shared Saloni, who featured in the Ranbir Kapoor-starrer 'Animal'. She added: "These moments of laughter and relaxation created a warm, familial atmosphere, making every project we worked on a delightful and memorable experience." The show stars Manav Vij and Monika Panwar. 'Gaanth' features a bizarre mass suicide case in the eerie streets of East Delhi. It will premiere on June 11 on JioCinema Premium. Mumbai, June 7 : Television actress Kajal Pisal, who is currently playing Tanuja Basu in 'Jhanak', has resumed shooting a day after she underwent surgery for cystic hyperplasia. She said that she found staying at home very discouraging and hence she went back to the sets. She said, "I'm doing well. I'm happy to be back to my work. I feel positive and happy on my sets. And the energy will help me recover faster. The thought of resting at home was more discouraging. On the show's set, my team is very supportive." Kajal said that she did not want the show to suffer. "Everyone keeps checking about my well-being. And I never want the show to suffer due to my absence," she said. Cystic hyperplasia is a medical condition in which the lining of the uterus becomes too thick. She had been experiencing symptoms for some time and decided to undergo surgery after consulting with her medical team. The actress also urged her fans to be mindful of the HPV vaccine. She stated, "I want to take this opportunity to remind boys and girls to consult your doctor for HPV Vaccine. A healthy outside starts from the inside." Kajal has previously worked in shows such as 'Saath Nibhaana Saathiya', 'Bade Achhe Lagte Hain' and 'Sasural Simar Ka 2', among many others. New Delhi, June 7 : At the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meet, the alliance partners hailed the victory for the third straight term under the leadership of Narendra Modi and pledged to extend unwavering support to Modi 3.0. JD(U) chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that his party fully backs the proposal of Narendra Modi as the leader of the NDA Parliamentary party and vowed to support the government in all its endeavours. "For 10 years, Narendra Modi has been serving the country with full dedication and integrity. We are happy to see that he will serve the nation again," Nitish said. He also took potshots at the Congress-led INDIA bloc and said that they were made to bite the dust despite befooling the public with false and fake promises. "This time, they got some seats. Next time, they will be fully vanquished," Nitish said, in a caustic jibe at the Opposition. Nitish further said that the JD(U) chief and other allies will stand as firm and united constituents of NDA, in working towards the nation's progress. "I congratulate you and assure you that all constituents will stay committed and focused towards a common goal," Nitish said. Eknath Shinde, Maharashtra CM and Shiv Sena chief, endorsing Narendra Modi for Prime Minister for a record third term, said that this was a historic day and his party remains fully committed to NDA's goals. Taking a dig at INDIA block, he said that Opposition resorted to many canards and hearsay but the countrymen reposed unwavering faith in Narendra Modi's leadership. New Delhi, June 7 : Delhi Police's Special Cell on Friday filed its first charge sheet before a court here in its probe into the December 13, 2023 Parliament security breach case. New Delhi, June 7 (IANS) Delhi Policeas Special Cell on Friday filed its first charge sheet before a court here in its probe into the December 13, 2023 Parliament security breach case. On May 24, the court granted the police 13 days more to complete the investigation. Over 900-page charge sheet has been filed in the Patiala House Courts, and the matter will be next taken up to decide whether to take its cognisance. Additional Sessions Judge Hardeep Kaur has been overseeing the case and had granted the extension last time after police claimed that certain reports were awaited and digital data was voluminous. The charge sheet has been filed against all six accused -- Neelam Azad, Manoranjan D., Sagar Sharma, Lalit Jha, Amol Shinde, and Mahesh Kumawat. They are currently in judicial custody. Manoranjan D. and Sharma had burst yellow smoke canisters inside the Lok Sabha chamber on December 13, the 22nd anniversary of the 2001 Parliament attack, after jumping down from the visitorsa gallery before they were overpowered by the MPs present in the House. Azad and Shinde also burst smoke canisters and raised slogans outside Parliament. Jha is believed to be the mastermind of the entire plan and had reportedly fled with the mobile phones of the four other accused persons. Kumawat was also linked to the accused. Recently, Delhi Lt. Governor V.K. Saxena accorded prosecution sanction against the six accused under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). According to Raj Niwas officials, Delhi Police had requested their prosecution under sections 16 and 18 of UAPA from the competent authority, i.e. the L-G, who, having found sufficient material on record, granted prosecution sanction. On December 14, 2023, the Delhi Police registered a case under sections 186, 353, 452, 153, 34, and 120B of the IPC and 13, 16, 18 UA (P) Act, at the Parliament Street Police Station on a complaint made by the security officer in the Lok Sabha. The investigation of the case was later transferred from the Parliament Street Police Station to the Counter Intelligence Unit of the Special Cell. Gurugram, June 7 : In an unprecedented move, seven Assistant Engineers (AE) of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) have been fined Rs 35,000 each for dereliction of duties. According to the order issued by the Additional commissioner of the MCG, Balpreet Singh, on May 6, wherein it was directed to perform duties as per the roaster at Bandhwari Landfill Site to enhance monitoring and response mechanism to ensure the safety and environmental integrity of the area round the clock. It has been brought to the notice of the undersigned by Executive Engineer-SBM, MCG that you have not attended to your duties on the day and time assigned as per office order which has resulted in a serious fire incident on May 31. The non-attendance of assigned duty reflects an irresponsible attitude towards important and specifically assigned duties, the orders said. "Considering the non-compliance of orders and dereliction of duties, I hereby imposed a penalty of Rs.5000/- upon each assistant engineer RK Mongia, Hari Prakash, Mohammad Naim Hussain, Ashish Hooda, Krishan Kumar, Yatinder and Waseem Akram which is to be deducted from your salary for the subsequent month," the orders added. You are also directed to show cause and explain to the undersigned why disciplinary action should not be initiated against you for the aforementioned act within 2 days, read the orders. It is pertinent to here mention that on May 31, a massive fire broke out at the Bandhwadi landfill site. Around 20 fire tenders were pressed to douse the fire in 34 hours. In April also, a massive fire broke out at the landfill site. This fire was also controlled within 24 hours. After the April fire incident, the corporation had put seven assistant engineers on duty to monitor the landfill site. In this, all the landfill sites were to be monitored so that no fire incident occurs in future. In the orders issued by the Additional Municipal Commissioner, it has been said that a massive fire broke out in Bandhwadi on 31 May. It has been learned through the Executive Engineer that all the assistant engineers were not on duty at the Bandhwadi landfill in the stipulated time. "To control the repeated fire in the garbage mountain in Bandhwadi, the MCG will install heat sensor cameras and drip systems. Apart from this, methane gas detectors will also be installed. The civic body has made preparations for this," Singh said. New Delhi, June 7 : Narendra Modi was elected as the leader of the NDA Parliamentary party on Friday, setting the stage for his third term as Prime Minister. The NDA allies, under his leadership, are set to stake claim before the President later in the day for the next government formation. Soon after being chosen as the Leader of Lok Sabha and the leader of the NDA Parliamentary party, Narendra Modi was felicitated and garlanded by allies at the Central Hall of Parliament. Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi touched the Constitution with his forehead and also bowed down as a mark of respect. "I congratulate all the leaders for their win and also salute their efforts for working tirelessly to ensure victory for the alliance," the PM-designate said. Earlier, during his arrival at the Central Hall of Parliament, he was greeted with 'Modi, Modi' chants. Rajnath Singh proposed Narendra Modi's name as the leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party and credited him for the resounding victory for the third consecutive term. Rajnath said that the alliance was not a compulsion but a commitment for the BJP. Amit Shah backed the proposal to elect Narendra Modi as the leader of the BJP Parliamentary party. Party president JP Nadda extended congratulations to NDA allies on the imminent third term of government and credited Narendra Modi for turning this into reality. "History is in the making as the NDA will form a government for the third consecutive time with a clear majority," he said. Two men killed last month in a plane crash were hunting coyotes while flying over a Rosebud County ranch. David Ross Hartman and Haiden Paul Oakland died May 14 when their aircraft struck the ground outside of Forsyth, according to a preliminary report from federal investigators. Hartman, 65, and Oakland, 19, were the only people aboard a Piper PA-18, a two-seat single-engine plane. The wreck occurred during the day, and the wind was blowing at about 10 mph. The two were searching for coyotes on the Cross Four ranch, per the National Transportation Safety Board, with the pilot speaking with the county trapper on the ground via a cell phone during the flight. Hartman and Oakland were both licensed pilots, according to Federal Aviation Administration records, with Hartman having a certificate to fly private planes and Oakland having a commercial pilots certificate. The NTSB did not identify who was flying the plane at the time of the crash, but the aircraft was registered to Hartman. By around 7:20 that morning, the pilot of the plane told the county trapper that two coyotes had been shot and hed seen a third before ending the call. The county trapper heard gunfire, then left the area. He called and texted the pilot several times, according to NTSB, and received no answer. A cattle foreman working on the ranch eventually spotted the crash site, and called authorities. The plane had hit a hill at a nose-low attitude, according to NTSB, with the nose of the plane pointing toward the ground. The aircraft came to a stop nearly completely vertical. There was no scarring on the ground surrounding the wreckage, according to NTSB, while there was heavy damage plane's engine mounts, forward fuselage and wings. Emergency crews pronounced Hartman and Oakland dead at the scene. Oakland received his pilots license in August 2022, when he was 18 years old. Hartman had been flying since the 1980s. The investigation is still ongoing, with complete reports from NTSB regarding fatal crashes sometimes taking years to complete. Investigations into plane crashes in the United States are under authority of the FAA and NTSB. In the past 10 years, NTSB has opened 26 investigations into aircraft crashes in Montana, according to data from the organizations website. Most of those wrecks involved single-engine, light aircraft. In April of this year, a helicopter crashed near Anaconda, according to reporting from the Montana Standard, killing its pilot. Berlin, June 7 : The German refugee advocacy group Pro Asyl has condemned German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's initiative to allow deportations of serious criminals to Afghanistan and Syria. "International law clearly prohibits any deportations to Afghanistan and Syria," Pro Asyl's managing director Karl Kopp told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper in remarks published on Friday. Kopp described Scholz's proposed plans as unlawful because "both countries are known for their use of torture and inhuman punishments." On Thursday, Scholz proposed to allow the deportation of serious criminals to Afghanistan and Syria again following the recent death of a police officer who was stabbed at an anti-Islamic rally in Mannheim. "Such criminals should be deported - even if they come from Syria and Afghanistan," Scholz told the Bundestag or lower house of parliament. "Serious criminals and [people posing] terrorist threats have no place here." The chancellor did not explain exactly how he intended to make this possible but said the Interior Ministry was working on the practical implementation and was already in talks with Afghanistan's neighbouring countries. An Afghan national stabbed several people last week in the southwestern city of Mannheim during a rally by the anti-Islam movement Pax Europa. A policeman who tried to intervene later died of his injuries. "The attack in Mannheim has shocked us all, but the German government must not undermine international law. Instead, it must rely on the resources of the German constitutional state," Kopp said. "The prohibition on torture applies to everyone, including criminals. This important principle must not be undermined," he added. Germany has not sent anyone back to Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in August 2021. Even before that, the agreement was that only men - especially criminals and those deemed terrorist threats - would be forcibly returned due to the difficult security situation. --IANS/DPA sd/svn June 07 : As anticipation builds for the trailer launch of "Kalki 2898 AD," the makers of the epic sci-fi action drama have treated fans to a stunning new poster featuring none other than the legendary Amitabh Bachchan in the role of Ashwatthama. With its grandeur and mystique, the poster sets the stage for what promises to be an exhilarating cinematic experience. Written and directed by Nag Ashwin, "Kalki 2898 AD" takes inspiration from Hindu scriptures and transports audiences to a post-apocalyptic world set in the year 2898 AD. As the first installment of the planned Kalki Cinematic Universe, the film offers a captivating blend of mythology and futuristic storytelling, promising a visual spectacle unlike any other. Joining Amitabh Bachchan in this ambitious project are Prabhas, Kamal Haasan, Deepika Padukone, and Disha Patani, each bringing their own star power and talent to the ensemble cast. With such a stellar lineup, "Kalki 2898 AD" is poised to captivate audiences across the globe. The unveiling of the poster on social media has sent waves of excitement among fans, with the official handle of "Kalki 2898 AD" teasing the trailer release on June 10th in both Telugu and Hindi. The anticipation is palpable as viewers eagerly await a glimpse into the world of "Kalki." With a production budget of a staggering 600 crores, "Kalki" stands as the most expensive Indian film to date, a testament to the ambitious vision and scale of the project. With acclaimed talents such as Santhosh Narayanan handling the music, Djordje Stojiljkovic behind the camera, and Nitin Zihani Choudhary overseeing production design, "Kalki" promises to deliver a cinematic experience of unparalleled magnitude. Mark your calendars for June 27th, as "Kalki 2898 AD" is set to take audiences on an unforgettable journey into a world where mythology meets the future, in theaters worldwide. Get ready to witness cinema history in the making. Kyiv, June 7 : Major Russian drone attacks overnight caused damage in Kyiv, Odesa and other Ukrainian cities, according to Ukrainian officials on Friday. Moscow's forces dispatched 53 combat drones and five cruise missiles, although Ukrainian air defences shot down all but five drones, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Telegram. However, a fire broke out in an industrial plant near the capital, and firefighters were still continuing their efforts to contain it in the morning, the civil defence said. No information was available about possible casualties. Alongside Kyiv, the Russian attacks focused on Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson. Ukraine has been fending off a full-scale Russian invasion for more than 27 months. Russia occupies almost a fifth of Ukraine's territory, including the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which it illegally annexed in 2014. --IANS/DPA sd/svn Mumbai, June 7 : Subha Rajput, who is starring as Devi Shakti in the show 'Shiv Shakti - Tap Tyaag Tandav', does not agree that actors starring in mythological shows face the risk of being pigeonholed. On her view about actors in mythological shows often facing the risk of being typecast, Subha said: "No, I don't think so. Breaking free from typecasting is all about displaying one's versatility. I'm happy that with this character I'm getting to showcase a range of emotions. I have received recognition for my role and it is gratifying that all our efforts are getting appreciated." 'Shiv Shakti - Tap Tyag Tandav' delves into the upcoming dramatic sequence involving Ganesh. Subha said that the upcoming sequence explores themes of duty, misunderstanding, forgiveness and the consequences of actions in the divine realm. She added, "Ganesh, while guarding his mother Parvati during the bath, denies entry to Mahadev, leading to a fierce conflict. Mahadev, angered by Ganesh's defiance, storms away and later returns with Nandi and the Ganas, resulting in a battle where Ganesh defeats many of them." "Eventually, Mahadev, enraged, severs Ganesh's head. That's when Parvati, horrified and heartbroken, transforms into Kali, threatening to destroy the world," she said. Did she prep to play a mother? Subha said, "Yes, I have played the role of a mother on the show before, being the mother to Kartikeya, so it is not entirely new to me. However, when it comes to preparing for this upcoming sequence and finding inspiration, I draw a lot from my own mother. "Her strength and nurturing nature guide me in portraying Parvati's emotions authentically." She said that working with Riyansh Dabhi, who plays Ganesh, naturally brings out maternal instincts in her. When asked about the favourite shade of her character, Subha said: "It has been amazing playing all the shades of this character, whether it is Kali Roop, Raudra Roop, Sati, or Parvati. Each shade has a special message and story behind it, and being part of this show has taught me many things. I truly believe all the shades are integral to the story." "For instance, playing Kali allowed me to showcase the goddess' rage and power on screen. Meanwhile, portraying Parvati, especially in the upcoming track, gives me a chance to experience motherhood." 'Shiv Shakti - Tap Tyag Tandav' airs on Colors. (Bhupi) 'We stand against corruption and abuse of power', says professor who defeated 2 heavyweights in Shillong. Image Source: IANS News Shillong, June 7 : Ricky Andrew J. Syngkon, a member of a new regional outfit in Meghalaya, the Voice of People's Party (VPP), has stunned two political heavyweights in the hill state by defeating them by a formidable margin in the Lok Sabha polls. Syngkon, a professor of commerce at North Eastern Hill University in Shillong, defeated three-time MP from Shillong Lok Sabha seat Vincent Pala. Moreover, the ruling party's candidate and health minister, Ampareen Lyngdoh, also could not hold ground before Syngkon, who contested the polls for the first time. In an interview with IANS, Syngkon said, "As a new party, we worked very hard in the last few months. We traversed the length and breadth of the Shillong parliamentary constituency and made people aware of their rights, which has worked in the elections." He said, "We stood against corruption and abuse of power in Meghalaya. The VPP was established with the motto to provide a good and viable alternative to the people of the state who are tired of seeing misrule by different parties." Syngkon mentioned that they began their poll campaign much earlier than other candidates. "We started campaigning in July last year. As a new outfit, we do not have money or muscle power, and we do not believe in either of these two things. The VPP stands firm on its ideology, and we tried to make people understand our points," he said. According to Syngkon, their party has a 24-point manifesto for the overall development of Meghalaya, and they went to the voters with a clear vision. The VPP candidate got 5,71,078 votes, defeating Congress candidate Vincent Pala by a margin of 3,71,910. Health Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh received 1,86,488 votes, far less than the winner. Syngkon heaped praise on VPP president Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit and said that Miller worked very hard to bring the party to this position. He said, "This is a victory of people that was possible due to the blessings of the Almighty." The VPP was formed In November 2021. The president of the party is Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit, who is the MLA from Nongkrem constituency in the state. Syngkon is the general secretary of the party. The party contested the elections in 18 assembly segments in the Meghalaya legislative polls last year and won four seats. Syngkon asserted that despite the fact that 50 years have passed since Meghalaya was formed, the state still performs poorly on the development index. "In education, health, and other parameters, Meghalaya stands far behind other states. As a state, Meghalaya does not have any vision for development, which is very unfortunate. That is where people look to us to take the state on a new path with a perfect vision," he said. On being asked whether the VPP will support the NDA bloc or sit in the opposition, Syngkon said, "We may be a party of just one MP but I am making it clear that we will not compromise on our ideology." Paris, June 7 : Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday told the French parliament that Europe was a continent at war and that Russia would not stop its aggression at the borders of his country. "We live in a time when Europe is no longer a continent of peace, unfortunately," Zelensky said in an address to French lawmakers. "Again, Europe's cities are being destroyed, and villages are burned," he said of Russia's bombing of Ukraine. He also decried the abduction of Ukrainian children in occupied territories. "This is against Ukraine now. But this can be aimed at other countries tomorrow, and we already see clearly the direction of the aggression - the Baltic countries, Poland, the Balkans," he said. "The Russian regime does not see any limits, and even Europe is no longer enough," Zelensky said, pointing to Russian military actions in Syria and Moscow's growing footprint in the Sahel region of Africa. Zelensky said Russian President Vladimir Putin was also trying to "weaken" countries through food and energy insecurity. He said the world has been too "afraid" to forcefully respond to Putin. --IANS/DPA sd/svn Chennai, June 7 : Two chess players Karun Duggal and Gurpreet Pal Singh will file a case against the All India Chess Federation (AICF), demanding a compensation for a ban during their career peak. "Couple of days back the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) had dismissed AICF's petition for restoration of appeal for non-appearance of its lawyers. Now the AICF has to approach the Supreme Court," Duggal told IANS. He also said the two players will be filing a case for compensation of Rs.1 crore each against AICF for spoiling their career by banning them and several others while they were at their playing peak. Recapping the issue Duggal said: "On July 12, 2018, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) passed an order under Section 27 of the Competition Act imposing a penalty of about Rs.6.92 lakh on AICF for contravention of provisions of Section 3 and 4 of the Competition Act." The penalty of Rs. 6.92 lakh was also imposed on AICF for indulging into the anti-competitive conduct. The CCI had received information from four chess players who were subjected to disciplinary action by AICF for participation in a chess event not authorised by it. The case concerned several stipulations of AICF on chess players, organisation of chess tournaments, discretionary nomination of players and others. In its order the CCI observed that AICFas restriction on chess players to participate in unauthorised events and attendant punitive consequences restricted the movement of chess players and placed them and potential organisers of chess tournaments in a disproportional disadvantage. Hence, such stipulation was held as an unreasonable restriction on chess players and denial of market access to organisers of chess events/ tournaments, in contravention of the provisions of Section 4(1) read with 4(2)(b)(1) and Section 4(2)(c) of the Act. The restrictions on chess players were further held to be in the nature of exclusive distribution and refusal to deal, in contravention of Section 3(4)(c) and Section 3(4)(d) of the Act, the CCI said. "Subsequently, the AICF filed an appeal against the CCI order in the National Company Law Tribunal, AICF lawyers kept on delaying the matters by seeking adjournments every time. Finally the appeal was dismissed due to non prosecution on 11-07-23. After the dismissal AICF lawyers requested to restore the appeal at NCLAT," Duggal said. Again the AICF lawyers did not appear. The NCLAT on May 30, 2024 dismissing the appeal said: "None appears on behalf of the Appellant. Even on the last date i.e., on 04.04.2024 none appeared for the Appellant. It seems that Appellant is not interested in the matter. This Restoration Application is, therefore, dismissed for non-prosecution. Pending applications are also dismissed." Now the AICF has to approach the Supreme Court or pay up the penalty to CCI if not already paid. "The AICF does not have any argument against the CCI order. They had been delaying the issue without any reason. Apart from filing a case for compensation against AICF, we will also file a Caveat petition with the apex court," Duggal said. The Caveat petition will be filed so that the two players are informed if the AICF approaches the Supreme Court against the NCLAT order. So, the fight between the chess players and AICF seems to have reached its end game stage with the formers having an advantage. When contacted for his comments on the latest development Gurpreet declined to comment on the case. AICF would have spent several times over and above the fine of Rs 6.92 lakh levied by the CCI. For arguing the case in the CCI, the AICF lawyers came from Chennai, Singh had told IANS earlier. Be that as it may, even after the CCIas landmark order against AICF banning chess players a" irrespective of their age- for playing in private tournaments, the practice still continues particularly in Tamil Nadu. Organisers of chess tournaments are also put to immense difficulty by vested interests that contact even the payment gateways and urge them to stop accepting the entry fee saying that the event is an unauthorised one. "After accepting the entry fees online for a tournament, the payment gateway abruptly stopped it. An official of the payment gateway said they had received several phone calls saying that our tournament was not authorised and their future business would be affected if they continue to receive entry fee," retired army official J.Jeevan Kumar, Secretary, Evans Chess Club told IANS over phone from Nagercoil. According to him, such an incident has happened to him earlier as well. Last year three players - M.Karunakaran, 68, V.Palanikumar, 58, and Merryston David Scanny, 48- were not allowed to play in the Tirunelveli District Selection tournament at the last moment. According to Scanny, the Tirunelveli District Chess Development Association Secretary B.Paulkumar did not allow them to play as they had played in a private tournament in Tenkasi district earlier. In 2019, Paulkumar had barred then 11-year-old Karthik Rahul from playing in a tournament midway on the grounds that he had played in a private tournament. However no action has been taken by AICF on these issues despite complaints being lodged with it. (Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at v.jagannathan@ians.in) Srinagar, June 7 : The J&K Police on Friday fixed a GPS tracking anklet on a bailed-out drug peddler in Kulgam district. In a statement issued on Friday, police in Kulgam district said, "In compliance with an order received from Hon'ble Court, Kulgam police today installed a GPS tracking device on a bailed out drug peddler in NDPS cases of Police Station Kulgam. The accused was arrested along with recovery of contraband and has been bailed out recently." "The GPS anklet will be used to monitor the movement of the drug peddler and ensure that he doesn't violate the bail conditions," the officials further said. The GPS tracking device is fixed as an anklet on the bailed-out person and this ensures that the concerned police station can keep 24/7 watch on the person without direct human surveillance. The GPS tracking device was first fixed on a bailed-out terror associate in Baramulla district in May after obtaining court orders to install the device to ensure that the bailed-out person did not violate the bail conditions. Bhubaneswar, June 7 : The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is going through a churning for the first time in its 27-year-long history following the unexpected defeat in the recently concluded Assembly polls in the state. The party witnessed a major dent in the popularity of BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik who himself faced a humiliating defeat in Kantabanji in Balangir district. The 77-year-old Patnaik won from his home turf Hinjili constituency in Ganjam district by a very narrow margin. The writer-turned-politician had never tasted defeat since he joined politics in 1997 by winning the by-election from Aska Lok Sabha constituency after the death of his father and former Janata Dal stalwart, Bijayananda Patnaik. Naveen Patnaik, a political novice, founded the Biju Janata Dal, on December 26, 1997 after splitting from the erstwhile Janata Dal. The BJD along with alliance partner Bharatiya Janata Party formed the government in Odisha winning the 2000 and 2004 assembly elections. Though Patnaik ditched his alliance partner BJP, yet he registered an emphatic win in the 2009 assembly elections due to his simplicity, anti-corruption crusader image and pro-poor welfare policies. He maintained this success in the future elections too. He continued to retain his pre-eminence and invincibility in Odisha politics with a constant rise in the BJD's vote share and seats tally during the 2014 and 2019 elections too. Meanwhile, the local units of the opposition BJP and the Indian National Congress were busy in their internal party squabbles over the question of leadership. The BJP finally breached the BJD citadel wresting power from the once-invincible Patnaik after 24 years of his rule. The BJP through an aggressive campaign managed to convey the message to the voters that the Odia self-identity, culture, language and literature would be under threat in the face of the taking over of the reins by Tamil Nadu born Pandian. The party also cornered the BJD over the alleged poor health of Patnaik forcing the BJD supremo to issue clarifications about his health multiple times. As per the political observers, this is a watershed moment for the regional party and the over two decadesa long political career of Patnaik. Everyoneas eyes are now on Patnaik who has the daunting task before him to revitalize the party bringing together all the workers and leaders. Experts opined that Patnaik has to build a second rung of leadership in the party who can lead the party in the future. The veteran leader neglected to nurture a second rung leadership that also cost the party dearly in this election. Speculation is also rife that the political career of bureaucrat-turned-politician Pandian has also come to an end with the results clearly indicating this rejection by the voters as the reported successor to Patnaik. Pandian had emerged as the most powerful leader in the BJD after Naveen Patnaik. He took the leading role in the selection of candidates, poll campaigning, election management, etc. Amidst the speculation over his political future, the former bureaucrat who used to lead the poll campaign left for the national capital immediately after the declaration of results on June 4. He is yet to face the media after the partyas humiliating poll defeat. Following the defeat, the BJD president had held two meetings with both the winning and losing candidates at his residence. Interestingly, Pandian was not present during the meetings further fanning the rumour about the end of his political career. This raised the question about who will replace Pandian as the close confidant and trusted lieutenant of Patnaik. The BJD supremo has also been known to give carte blanche to someone, be it Pyarimohan Mohapatra, former principal secretary who served under his father Biju Patnaik, or VK Pandian, who greatly helped Patnaik in running the government and party throughout his political career. Kabul, June 7 : More than 800 Afghan refugees returned home from Pakistan, Afghanistan's Ministry for Refugees and Repatriation Affairs said on Friday. In a social media post, the ministry said in a statement that over 800 refugees returned from Pakistan via the Torkhan and Spin Boldak crossing points on Thursday, reports Xinhua news agency. The ministry reported Tuesday on the return of more than 300 Afghan refugee families to Afghanistan from neighbouring countries. More than one million Afghan refugees, most of them undocumented migrants, have reportedly returned home from the neighbouring countries of Pakistan and Iran since last November. The Afghan caretaker government has been repeatedly calling upon Afghan migrants living abroad to return home and contribute to the rebuilding process of their war-torn country. New Delhi, June 7 : Praising the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for making markets safer and more investor-friendly, Zerodha's Co-founder and CEO Nithin Kamath on Friday said that the new regulation will ease operations at a broker's end. New Delhi, June 7 (IANS) Praising the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for making markets safer and more investor-friendly, Zerodhaas Co-founder and CEO Nithin Kamath on Friday said that the new regulation will ease operations at a broker's end. SEBI's latest regulation is around the direct payout of securities to investor demat accounts upon purchase. At present, when investors buy securities, they're credited by the clearing corporation (CC) to the stock broker's pool account, who in turn transfers them to the clients. "With the introduction of new regulation, CCs will directly transfer securities to the client's account, bypassing the broker's pool. This also eases operations at a broker's end," Kamath wrote in a post on X. Kamath also mentioned that since 2019, SEBI has brought in several changes to the market. "It started with the segregation of client funds, compulsory quarterly bank runs on brokers (quarterly settlement), removing pooling of funds for MF transactions, and more". The CEO, in his post, mentioned another SEBI move which will most likely be introduced is around increasing the limit for a Basic Services Demat Account (BSDA) from the current Rs 4 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. "So, investors will pay zero or reduced AMC on their demat accounts with holdings up to Rs 10 lakh," Kamath said. Meanwhile, Zerodha has said that it will now let investors instantly withdraw up to Rs 1 lakh daily between 9 A.M. and 4 P.M., at no additional cost. Berlin/Islamabad, June 7 : Afghanistan's Taliban rulers said on Friday that they are open to cooperating with the German government on the deportation of Afghan criminals back to the country. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Thursday that he wanted to see the swift deportation of criminals back to countries deemed unsafe by the government in Berlin, including Afghanistan and Syria. The initiative comes after outrage was triggered by the recent killing of a police officer by an Afghan national in Germany. The attack took place at a rally held by an anti-Islam group in the western city of Mannheim. "Such criminals should be deported - even if they come from Syria and Afghanistan," Scholz told the Bundestag or the lower house of the Parliament. Kabul responded on Friday to the German leader's remarks. "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan calls upon the German authorities to address through normal consular engagement and an appropriate mechanism based on bilateral agreement," Taliban Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Kahar Balchi posted on X. Germany has not sent anyone back to Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in August 2021. Even before that, the agreement was that only men - especially criminals and those deemed terrorist threats - would be forcibly returned due to the difficult security situation. Critics warn against talks with the Taliban, who are currently internationally isolated. According to Thomas Ruttig, the co-founder of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, the Taliban could benefit from deportations by using them as an opportunity to cooperate with a Western state, which could be seen as a boost to their reputation. The German refugee advocacy group Pro Asyl has condemned Scholz's initiative. "International law clearly prohibits any deportations to Afghanistan and Syria," Pro Asyl's managing director Karl Kopp told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper in remarks published on Friday. Kopp described Scholz's proposed plans as unlawful because "both countries are known for their use of torture and inhuman punishments." A diversion via Afghanistan's neighbouring countries, such as Pakistan, is also currently being considered by the German government. However, the Taliban reject this possibility. Extraditions to third countries would be a violation of current conventions, the Foreign Ministry spokesman emphasised in his statement. So far, no country has officially recognised the Taliban government. Western states demand that human rights, and especially women's rights, be respected in the country before recognition is granted. --IANS/DPA int/sd/arm Jakarta, June 7 : Four members of a family, including a woman and two children, were killed after a landslide hit their house in the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara on Friday, an official said. According to preliminary reports, the disaster occurred at South Rewarangga village in the Ende region at around 5:30 a.m. local time when the family was asleep. Head of Ende Police, Sudarmin Syafrudin, told local media that the family lived in a 12 sq mt single-storey house near a 10-metre cliff, Xinhua news agency reported. "Heavy rain lashed the area when the landslide occurred. The disaster came at dawn while they were still asleep," Syafrudin said. Guwahati, June 7 : A 60-year-old man was arrested from Assam's Chirang district on charges of killing and burying the body of his wife, the police said on Friday. The accused has been identified as Gaurau Narzary, a resident of Janata Bazaar near the Assam-Bhutan border in Chirang district. Chirang district SP Pranjit Bora told IANS, "The incident happened at least 13 days ago; however, we found the body of the victim on Thursday after a complaint was lodged. The accused has been arrested." The deceased has been identified as Haitu Narzary (50). Her brother had filed a missing report with the local police station. "As per the preliminary investigation, the accused might have hit his wife in a fit of rage. Later he buried the body to hide the crime," the officer said. The body has been sent to the Barpeta Medical College and Hospital for post-mortem. "As the body decomposed, the autopsy was not possible at the civil hospital and hence it has been sent to Barpeta. Once we receive the post-mortem report, further conclusions can be drawn," Bora said. New Delhi, June 7 : The newly-elected MPs of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Friday elected Narendra Modi as their leader, paving the way for his swearing-in as the Prime Minister for a record third term. PM-elect Narendra Modi, amid felicitation by the NDA lawmakers, showed his high regards for the Constitution by touching the sacred book to his forehead and then bowing down before it. His touching gesture at the Central Hall of Parliament has brought back memories of 2014 and 2019, when he knelt down before entering the Temple of Democracy, while making his debut as a Parliamentarian. Modi Archive, a popular X handle, has shared the then pictures of PM Modi paying his heart-felt gratitude to the Parliament on being elected as MP for the first time. The pictures pertaining to the BJP Parliamentary meet, both in 2014 and 2019, have gone viral on social media. In 2014, after arriving for the BJP parliamentary party meeting at the main gate of the Parliament building, PM Modi touched the ground at the entrance with folded hands. Upon entering Parliament for the first time after leading the BJP to victory, he knelt down, folded his hands and touched his forehead to the stairs to show his deep respect for the Temple of Democracy. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won 282 seats on its own and the NDA alliance secured 336 seats. In 2019, after winning a bigger mandate for the BJP for the second time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi bowed and respectfully touched the Constitution with his forehead. This happened after he was elected as the leader of the NDA and BJP parliamentary party. In 2019 elections, the BJP won 303 seats on its own and, along with NDA allies, it posted its best ever tally of 353 seats. New Delhi, June 7 : The Delhi High Court has expressed strong disapproval of the persistent violation of laws by dairy owners in the nine dairy colonies of the national Capital. The court noted a significant lack of will among state functionaries to address these violations, which not only affect public health but also involve extreme cruelty to animals. A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet PS Arora made these observations while dealing with a plea alleging violations of various laws in Delhi's dairy colonies, filed by Sunayana Sibal, Asher Jessudoss, and Akshita Kukreja. "These violations not only affect the health of the citizens and residents who are consuming the milk being produced in these dairies but are also wrapped in extreme cruelty to the animals housed in these dairies," the Bench remarked. The court noted "abject dereliction of duties" by the Delhi Government's Animal Husbandry Unit, stating that this unit has failed in its primary function of granting and regulating licences for these dairies under the 1978 Rules. Moreover, the court noted the absence of functional and stocked veterinary hospitals in these nine dairy colonies. The court criticised the state's reluctance to relocate the Ghazipur and Bhalswa dairy colonies despite their proximity to landfills and the adverse impact on public health. "It also appears to this Court that alternate land within Delhi or outside would be required for shifting the Ghazipur and Bhalswa dairies, and therefore, it may be necessary to have the presence of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India through its Secretary," the court stated. Consequently, the court impleaded the Drugs Controller General of India, Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Fisheries, and Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in the matter. Last month, the court had 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. The court had 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. The Intelligence Department of the Delhi Police had 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 had stressed the urgency of relocating such facilities due to potential health hazards posed by contaminated feed and milk. Officials were tasked with exploring suitable relocation sites and coordinating efforts to address the complex issues surrounding dairy operations in Delhi. New Delhi, June 7 : Muthoot FinCorp Limited (MFL), the flagship company of the 137-year-old Muthoot Pappachan Group (Muthoot Blue), on Friday launched its 'Book My Gold Loan' campaign featuring Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan. The campaign introduces a first-of-its-kind service in India: 'Book a Gold Loan instantly, anytime, from anywhere'. The newly-launched feature allows customers to initiate loans with a simple missed call, integrating advanced technology with exceptional customer service. "Partnering with Shah Rukh Khan, the aBook My Gold Loana campaign represents a major leap for us. With the aBook My Gold Loana service, we aim to make life easier for all our consumers with gold loans that can be taken at any of our branches or from their homes. Our loans empower our customers to fulfil their aspirations daily," said Shaji Varghese, CEO, Muthoot FinCorp. This unique service makes gold loans more accessible and convenient for consumers and is powered by the robust 'phygital' presence of Muthoot FinCorp across the country with over 3,700 branches and Gold Loan from Home in more than 50 cities. Muthoot FinCorpas aBook My Gold Loana campaign has been conceptualised and created by Havas Worldwide India (creative) and executed by Havas Media India (media) and features a captivating television commercial (TVC) starring Shah Rukh Khan. "We came up with a signature gesture for our unique feature of Book Your Gold Loan with a missed call and got Shah Rukh Khan to tell the world about it. And as always, he gave it a unique twist," said Anupama Ramaswamy, Joint MD and Chief Creative Officer, Havas Worldwide India. The TVC whisks viewers through a sequence of aspirations -- starting businesses, studying abroad, and buying a new car. As each scene unfolds, Shah Rukh Khan subtly incorporates the 'call mea gesture, hinting at a simple solution. In the end, Khan reveals the answer behind his acall mea gesture -- Muthoot FinCorp's aBook My Gold Loana service. This first-in-India service makes getting a gold loan as easy as a missed call to 80869 80869 to turn 'your dreams into reality'. Additionally, Muthoot FinCorp has also released a musical video promoting the new initiative with SRK. "Muthoot FinCorp's constant innovation to make financial access easier for people is commendable and we are sure the multilingual campaign will meaningfully connect with the larger audience across the country," said Mohit Joshi, CEO, Havas Media Network. This campaign will be broadcast in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, and Gujarati. It will encompass OOH, digital platforms, television, print, and on-ground activations, ensuring a widespread reach and pan-India impact. Muthoot FinCorp recently achieved record-breaking consolidated loan disbursements in FY24 at Rs 61,703.26 crore. With the launch of 'Book My Gold Loan', the company is poised to make a significant leap forward in simplifying the lending landscape. Kolkata, June 7 : The West Bengal government will soon reinstate the administrative and police officers who were transferred by the Election Commission of India (ECI) during or before the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections. Sources in the state Cabinet said that at the administrative level, several officials ranging from block development officers to district magistrates were transferred by the poll panel, who will now be reinstated in their original positions. Similarly, police officers ranging from inspectors to DIGs who were transferred during the elections will also be reinstated. "However, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will take a call on whether the earlier acting DGP, Rajeev Kumar, will be reinstated in his position. An administrative review meeting will be held on June 11 which will be chaired by the Chief Minister and attended by all state ministers, department secretaries, district magistrates, police commissioners, and district police superintendents. "The formal Cabinet decision for reinstating the officers will announced after the meeting," said a senior member of the state Cabinet who did not wish to be named. He added that at the review meeting, Chief Minister Banerjee will also take stock of the pending government projects whose progress was halted because of the administrative engagements related to the Lok Sabha elections. New Delhi, June 7 : Common Services Centers Special Purpose Vehicle (CSC SPV) and the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare on Friday signed an MoU to convert Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) registered under 'Formation & Promotion of 10,000 FPOs scheme' into CSCs and help them to deliver citizen-centric services. As per the MoU, 10,000 FPOs will be converted into CSCs. CSC SPV will enable them to provide the services that are available on the Digital Seva Portal. Training and Capacity Building of FPOs will also be done by CSCs, the Ministry of Electronics & IT said. "With this initiative, more farmers who are associated with FPOs will be able to avail the benefits of CSC services. This will enable FPOs to provide citizens with all the services that are available on CSC Scheme's Digital Seva Portal," said Sanjay Rakesh, MD-CEO, CSC SPV. The government launched the Central Sector Scheme for "Formation and Promotion of 10,000 FPOs" in 2020 to enable farmers to enhance their bargaining power, leverage economies of scale, reduce in cost of production and enhance farmers' incomes through aggregation of their agricultural produce. According to the IT ministry, after this initiative, the delivery of CSC services through FPOs will boost employment opportunities in rural areas. In addition, this initiative will help FPOs to become a nodal centre for providing various services like Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), Interest Subsidy Scheme (ISS), Crop Insurance Scheme (PMFBY) and fertiliser and seed inputs. New Delhi, June 7 : On Friday noon, Prime Minister Narendra Modi walked inside the Central Hall of the old Parliament House, amid cheers, clapping and thumping of desks, straight to a decorated corner near the podium to bow before the original copy of India's Constitution and lift it for a few moments to touch it to his forehead. New Delhi, June 7 (IANS) On Friday noon, Prime Minister Narendra Modi walked inside the Central Hall of the old Parliament House, amid cheers, clapping and thumping of desks, straight to a decorated corner near the podium to bow before the original copy of Indiaas Constitution and lift it for a few moments to touch it to his forehead. The symbolism or the messaging of it couldnat have been missed a" for PM Modi, it was "Samvidhan Sarvopari (Constitution supreme)", particularly when his political rivals in the run-up to the elections tried to weave a rather fictional narrative that if re-elected, the Modi government would change the constitution and scrap reservation for marginalised classes. The significance of the venue, chosen for the special occasion a" for the election of PM Modi as leader of the 293-member strong pre-poll alliance NDA, their unanimous choice to be the Prime Minister for the third consecutive time a" as mentioned by Home Minister Amit Shah was noteworthy. The Constituent Assembly sat here to draft the Constitution. Also, it sent another message that the old Parliament House was not abandoned by the ruling dispensation, and its historicity and dignity shall be maintained. The nation, which was hooked to the live proceedings of the occasion, was keenly watching to see whether there was a sense of unity and purpose among the PM Modi-led NDA. It was all positive a" their body language, the cordiality, the bonhomie, the speeches made by the top leaders of the ruling alliance on how they worked together to reach this momentous occasion, creating history after 62 years when an incumbent Prime Minister for two terms is all set to take the oath of office for the third straight term and what the road ahead is. It should be noted that the friendliness, the connect seen on the podium between Prime Minister Modi and two NDA partners, N. Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister-designate of Andhra Pradesh and TDP chief, and Nitish Kumar, the Bihar Chief Minister and JD-U chief, was not new-found and certainly not for the camera. They share a long-standing relationship, over two and a half decades old. There had been some hiccups but now they are back in one fold, back as colleagues, friends and peers, as they say, all's well that ends well. The mutual appreciation and vision for the future, not just for the next five years but as both Naidu and Nitish said, beyond 2029 flowed freely. PM Modi asserted that in the next 10 years, the NDA government will write fresh chapters of good governance. PM Modi made particular mention of how NDA had remained intact for the last two and half decades. It had seen many seasons including three full terms in power at the centre and was now poised to take yet another historic leap forward. Nitish Kumar, then as leader of the Samata Party, was part of the original NDA coalition that was built by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani, George Fernandes of Samata Party, Parkash Singh Badal of Akali Dal, and Balasaheb Thackeray of Shiv Sena in 1998. Modi was then the youngest national General Secretary of the BJP and had a backroom role to play in stitching the alliance. Chandrababu Naidu became part of the NDA in 1999. He remained Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and his party nominee G.M.C. Balayogi was named as Speaker of Lok Sabha and the TDP extended outside support to the Vajpayee government. In 2001 when Modi became Chief Minister of Gujarat, Nitish Kumar was Railway Minister and they worked closely on various projects. As chief ministers of two NDA-ruled states, Modi and Naidu shared another kind of equation. Over two decades later, they have come to share yet another kind of close equation. PM Modi said: "NDA stands stronger and more united than ever before." The NDA, according to him, was an alliance committed to the 'Nation First' philosophy. This weekend marks the inaugural Primitive Rendezvous in Joliet, which features a muzzleloader shooting competition, pelts and other hunting spoils for sale, and music played on instruments made of rawhide. And, while poring over boxes of deer legs or hammering a bullet into your muzzleloader, theres plenty of time to shoot the breeze. Ive been here since 7 a.m., and I havent done anything but talk, said the booshway, or organizer, Micah Snodgrass, who goes by Smoothgrass when rendezvousing. Two miles down Joliet-Fromberg Road, Rangemaster Brian Buck, a former Green Beret, was at the range teaching rookies how to load and shoot muzzleloaders. I got hornswoggled into this, he said. Soon after, a first-timer hit the target not too far from the center. Thats pretty good for your first time shooting black powder, Buck said. The muzzleloader contest costs $20 to enter and has three divisions, with prizes that Buck refused to reveal. Novices are not only welcome but encouraged. Were spreading the knowledge around cause if you dont, its a lost art, Buck said. He has been shooting and building muzzleloaders since he was 15. Participants without muzzleloaders of their own can use one of his. Ive got plenty of powder, patches and bullets, he said. Ill tire your shoulder out. Back in town, Snodgrass, 73, has two teepees and his trading tent set up, all supported by poles of lodgepole pine he has harvested from the mountains. He has attended period events since the 80s and participates in the local Ren Fair every year, playing a tanner. He has attended many rendezvous in Montana, though many local ones have ceased to exist: the Red Lodge rendezvous lost its site due to friction between the landowner and the booshway; the organizers of the Lewistown rendezvous got too old. Snodgrass has been wanting to put on his own for about 15 years. It was deciding on the location, right off U.S. Highway 212, that gave him the final push to make it happen. I came up with the idea of having it right here, because of all those cars going by. My vision was that when we set up, all those cars are gonna be stopped and trying to figure out whats going on here, he said. This is different from other rendezvous, like the one that used to be in Red Lodge, which can be isolated. Its just fun to get out. This is not like being out in the country and some forest or field or something, but if you got some wares to sell, thats the idea. Sell your wares. And the camaraderie and talking to people, he said. Snodgrass wares include deer legs, hides, rawhides, sage, bags of elk hair, feathers, bones and wood blocks. To Snodgrass, these serve as materials for creating clothes, hats, plumes, instruments and homewares. Deer legs can be turned into a gun or fishing pole racks, for example. There are numerous purposes for rawhide. When people look at rawhide, they dont think canteen, nor do they think banjo top, he said. People look at it and say thats junk, but theres all kinds of things you can make with that. Making a canteen out of rawhide requires artificial sinew for sewing, sand for filling and stretching the hide and beeswax to make it watertight. Oh, and patience. Well, then I set it aside for about three months, three to six months, and it started to dry, he said, describing his process. Using rawhides to make what he calls Unique Smoothgrass Instruments takes even longer. Snodgrass Guitalyn, a mix between a guitar and a mandolin, took five years to build. His Tibetan Gooseneck Guiviol took two and a half years of consistent weekly work. Most of these instruments involve salvaging parts of old guitars. Another common ingredient is bed pans, which are used in the Pantar (a bedpan guitar), the Bantapanute (a mix of a banjo, a bed pan and a lute) and the Pandiggery (a bed pan with a four foot piece of bamboo drilled into it, a play on the didgeridoo, an Australian wind instrument). The first repurposed bedpan was recovered in a dirty, dingy basement in Silesia, a hermits home that Snodgrass was helping clean up. They said I could have it, so I took it home, he said. With the neck of an electric guitar bolted onto it, it became the pantar. Snodgrass bought the next bedpan, which became the bantapanute, at a rescue mission bargain center, just for the heck of it. Then the bedpans started coming to him: after hearing Snodgrass in concert, his sister gave him an antique, solid porcelain bedpan, which became the pandiggery. Fundamental to dreaming up instruments, costumes and this event is the time Snodgrass has spent out in the mountains. One thing led to another, growing up and being outdoors, he said. New Delhi : Kerala CM and CPI(M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan during a demonstration over Israel-Palestine conflict at party office. Image Source: IANS News Thiruvananthapuram, June 7 : A day after a senior Metropolitan Bishop slammed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his style of functioning which was largely instrumental in the poll debacle suffered by the Left, the latter hit back on Friday and insulted the priest by calling him an "ignoramus." Thiruvananthapuram, June 7 (IANS) A day after a senior Metropolitan Bishop slammed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his style of functioning which was largely instrumental in the poll debacle suffered by the Left, the latter hit back on Friday and insulted the priest by calling him an "ignoramus." Metropolitan Bishop Geevarghese Mar Coorilose of the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church had on Thursday blamed the arrogance and extravagance of the Kerala government for the poor show in the Lok Sabha polls. He added that floods and pandemics will not always come and pointed out that 'food kits' given free to people during such disasters will not help all the time. The Metropolitan Bishop also pointed out that the second Pinarayi Vijayan government had failed to impress. Irked by this remark, CM Vijayan after releasing the progress report of his government's third year in office slammed the priest. "I read about a statement made by a priest who expects that a flood should come again. As, according to him this government retained office because of the floods (2018). Through this statement it's proved that there are ignoramus people among the priests also," said Vijayan. His displeasure came an hour after top CPI(M) leaders met for the first time to take stock of the poll debacle. CM Vijayan's style of functioning has already come under the scanner, after top leaders of the CPI and RJD expressed their displeasure. New Delhi, June 7 : The Congress, buoyed over its performance in the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls, launched a bitter attack on the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Friday and described it as 'Naidu Dependent Alliance or Nitish dependent Alliance'. Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera, addressing the media, said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is so rattled by the election results that it has started abusing the Ayodhya residents over the poll defeat in the constituency. "The people of Maharashtra gave the BJP a drubbing and so was the case in Ayodhya. It couldn't win a single seat in Ayodhya and the adjoining areas and hence it is abusing the people of Ayodhya out of vengeance," Khera said. "NDA means Naidu dependent alliance, NDA means Nitish dependent alliance," said Khera, taunting the BJP as well as Modi 3.0. Congress' vociferous attack on the BJP comes on the back of PM-elect Narendra Modi's new slogan for the NDA, which he described as 'New India, Developed India and Aspirational India'. Khera further accused the Modi dispensation of insulting and denigrating the historical and iconic figures of Mahatma Gandhi, Bhim Rao Ambedkar. Khera also sought to draw an analogy between PM-elect bowing down before the Constitution and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassination. "When Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated, the killer woman first went down and bowed down before him. Same was the case with Mahatma Gandhi, as his killer first went down and then assassinated him. Today, when Prime Minister bowed before the Constitution, we got scared," he said, indirectly hinting at a "threat to the Constitution" under the current regime. He said that it was Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who put up a consistent fight against the 'suppression' of the Constitution and asserted that he along with party president Mallikarjun Kharge and leaders worked hard to save the sacred book during the poll campaign. Notably, Narendra Modi was chosen as the leader of the BJP and NDA Parliamentary party at an alliance partners meeting on Friday, paving the way for his oath ceremony as Prime Minister, for a record third term. New Delhi, June 7 : Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi, who was elected the leader of the NDA Parliamentary Party on Friday, has revealed how the NDA won a third term in office. "The NDA partners worked as a team. Our mantra was simple -- 'Jahan kam, wahan hum'. We hugged everyone and left no one behind. We worked at the grassroots and became an organic alliance," he said while delivering a speech in the Central Hall of the Parliament after the NDA partners unanimously chose him to be the Prime Minister for the next five years. Wherever the alliance partners needed help, the NDA leaders and workers helped each other to make the alliance stronger, he said. "No alliance has been this strong in India's electoral history. This victory belongs to the alliance. I want to assure the people that the NDA will leave no stone unturned to fulfil people's dreams," said PM-elect Modi, adding that the NDA has been around for over 30 years and has run three successful governments and it will fulfil the citizens' dreams for the fourth time as well. "I have also worked for the alliance for the last 30 years. Today, I am proud that we have been elected to run the government for a fourth time. The NDA is the most successful alliance that the country has got. Our alliance is not for power or to run the government... The NDA believes in 'Nation First' policy," Narendra Modi said. Recalling that the alliance was founded by veteran leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Parkash Singh Badal, George Fernandes, Balasaheb Thackeray, and Sharad Yadav, Narendra Modi said, "It is because of the seeds these leaders sowed that people trust this alliance. We have their legacy and we are proud of them. In the last 10 years, we have kept their ideology alive in the alliance, and we are moving ahead with what they believed in." He also said that in all the NDA-ruled states, the leaders have delivered good governance to the common people and fulfilled their dreams. "Giving us another opportunity shows that the people trust NDA. A relationship based on trust always lasts long. That is why this is an emotional moment for me. I can't thank you enough," he said. Stating that the people have chosen the NDA in 22 states which depicts India's vibrant democracy, Narendra Modi said, "In about 10 states in the country, there is a large population of Adivasis. Out of these 10 states, the NDA is ruling in seven. Be it Goa or the Northeast, where Christians are in the majority, people have opted for the NDA as their preferred choice. He also said that be it NDA leaders Chandrababu Naidu or Nitish Kumar, the alliance partners have always worked for the poor people and emphasised good governance, which is why people are repeatedly choosing the NDA. Stating that the people rejected the INDIA bloc in Karnataka and Telangana even after the formation of Congress governments there, Narendra Modi said, "People could see in these few months how the Congress betrayed them. So they came out and hugged the NDA." The Prime Minister-designate also congratulated the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP, saying they did everything to give a tough fight to the rivals. "Despite not having candidates at many places, our team in Tamil Nadu did exceptionally well. They worked together to put up a good fight. Our vote share has also increased there which indicates what is coming in the days ahead," he said. Likewise, the BJP did exceptionally well in Puducherry and Kerala as well, he said. "Our workers were killed in Kerala. Be it the UDF or the LDF, both have repressed our workers. But despite this, the BJP workers never gave up. It is because of their sacrifice that we will now see an MP from Kerala in the Parliament," he said. "I also asked Chandrababu Naidu about Andhra Pradesh, and he informed me that the latest victory was the highest electoral win for the alliance in the state. Pawan (Kalyan) is not just Pawan, he is an 'Aandhi' (storm)," he remarked. Talking about Odisha, he said that due to the blessings of Lord Jagannath, there has been a revolution in the state. "My experience is that God has various forms. But I have always believed that Mahaprabhu Jagannath is the God of the poor. Odisha has witnessed a revolution this time," the Prime Minister-elect said. Taking a jibe at the INDIA bloc, he asked if the EVMs are 'alive' or 'dead' as the opposition had blamed EVM 'manipulation' for the BJP's victories. "On June 4, I was busy with some work. My phone rang and I asked the person on the other side to leave the results and first tell me if the EVMs are dead or alive," he said. Claiming that Congress has made it a point to make people suspect the outcomes of every election, Narendra Modi said, "For the next five years, we will not hear about EVM manipulations. But it will start all over again in the 2029 elections. They even did not let the ECI function properly. Most of the time, the ECI was answering questions in the Supreme Court as the Congress falsely blamed the poll panel for not taking action." He also said that from June 1 to June 4, the INDIA bloc leaders gave inflammatory speeches which could have led to anarchy in the country. "This is a very serious issue. The INDIA bloc tried everything to create a serious situation in the country before the results. The elections united people, but the INDIA bloc tried to divide the country," he said. Addressing the gathering, Narendra Modi also congratulated the opposition candidates, saying that he looks towards healthy discussions in the Parliament. The Prime Minister-elect also promised that three crore new houses will be built for the poor in the next 10 years, while loans worth Rs 20 lakh will also be given to the youth under the Mudra Yojna. Stating that the NDA government will work for the middle class who are the "strength of the country", he said, "We will provide all the facilities to the middle class. They should also be able to save money. We will strengthen them." Narendra Modi also coined a new slogan for aforestation on the occasion -- 'Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam'. "Plant a tree in the name of your mother. Celebrate her birthday by planting a tree," he said. Mumbai, June 7 : Megastars Amitabh Bachchan on Friday unveiled his intense Ashwatthama look from the upcoming science fiction action film 'Kalki 2898 AD'. Taking to social media, Big B shared his character poster from the film, wherein we can see him with white long hair and a beard look. He has wrapped around a brown cloth on his upper half and is wearing matching loose pyjamas. His hands are covered with bandages. On one hand, Big B is holding a long stick, while on the other hand, he is holding an astra. There is a white gem on his forehead, and the actor looks battle-ready with a massive tank in the backdrop, and some men lying on the ground. Amitabh captioned the post as: "T5034 (i)-Waiting yes for this great honour of being in the company of GREATS!! His wait is ending... 3 days to go for #Kalki2898 AD trailer, out on June 10th". His son and actor Abhishek Bachchan took to his social media and shared Big B's poster. In the caption, he dropped a fire emoji. The film is directed by Nag Ashwin, and produced by C. Aswani Dutt under Vyjayanthi Movies. It stars Prabhas as Bhairava, alongside Kamal Haasan, Deepika Padukone and Disha Patani. The film is set to release on June 27. Bengaluru, June 7 : Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday demanded a probe by the authorities into the alleged irregularities in the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET). In a media release, CM Siddaramaiah slammed the central government, stating that the entire country suspects huge illegalities in connection with the NEET results. Without bothering to answer the 24 lakh youths who took the exam and their parents, the central government and the National Testing Agency (NTA) are all set to destroy their future. "Sixty seven candidates scored 720 marks out of 720 in the NEET exam, achieving 100 percent marks. Compared to the number of toppers in earlier years, this year's result raises doubts. In 2019 and 2020, only one candidate each scored full marks; in 2021, three; in 2022, one; and in 2023, two. "This year, 67 toppers have emerged. In the backdrop of negative marking, it is doubtful that such a number of students could score 100 percent marks. The Narendra Modi government must clarify whether this development is coincidental or a new experiment," CM Siddaramaiah questioned. He maintained that among the 67 toppers, 44 candidates achieved top scores due to grace marks. When such a number of students become toppers, questions are raised about the marking process and the credibility of the examination system. What is surprising is that the toppers with registration numbers from 62 to 69 are from the same examination centre in Faridabad, Haryana. Among them, six scored 720 out of 720 marks, and the other two candidates obtained 718 and 719 marks. The irregularities are strikingly visible, and the authorities have turned a blind eye, the CM stated. From 2019 to 2023, those who scored 600 marks in NEET exams got seats under the government quota with an affordable fee structure. This year, students scoring 660 marks will get seats. Among the 24 lakh youths who wrote the NEET exams, most come from poor backgrounds and aspire to become doctors. This controversy has shattered their dreams, he said. The NEET exams were held on May 5, 2024, as per the timetable. The results were supposed to be announced on June 14. However, the results were announced hastily on June 4, coinciding with the Lok Sabha election results. Was the decision to declare results on the election result day a ploy to hush up the irregularities? Why was there such urgency? the CM questioned. The confusion has resulted in the suicide of Ajit, a student from Dausa. In Madhya Pradesh. Another student Bageesha Tiwari jumped from a building and ended her life. Questions are asked about the controversial NEET and NTA. Before more young men and women end their lives, the authorities need to probe and resolve these issues, he stated. Srinagar, June 7 : Senior separatist leader and Chief cleric, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was placed under house arrest on Friday, Anjuman-e-Auqaf Jamia Masjid Srinagar said in a statement. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq traditionally offers Friday prayers at the Jamia Masjid in the old city Nowhatta area of Srinagar where he also delivers the Friday sermon. Anjuman-e-Auqaf Jamia Masjid which manages the affairs of the grand mosque said that authorities placed Mirwaiz Umar under house arrest at his city outskirts Nigeen residence. The management of the grand mosque said the authorities informed them on Friday that the Mirwaiz would not offer the Friday prayers at the mosque as he had been put under house arrest. The management said that the arrest of the Mirwaiz appears to be a consequence of the blasphemous social media post put up by a student of the government medical college Srinagar that had hurt the sentiments of the local Muslims. College authorities have already suspended the student from attending classes while the police also registered an FIR against him for posting sensitive content on social media that can hurt the religious sentiments of a particular community. --IANS sq/dan New Delhi, June 7 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was elected the leader of the NDA Parliamentary Party on Friday, has revealed how the NDA won a third term in office. "The NDA partners worked as a team. Our mantra was simple -- 'Jahan kam, wahan hum'. We hugged everyone and left no one behind. We worked at the grassroots and became an organic alliance," he said while delivering a speech in the Central Hall of the Parliament after the NDA partners unanimously chose him to be the Prime Minister for the next five years. Wherever the alliance partners needed help, the NDA leaders and workers helped each other to make the alliance stronger, he said. "No alliance has been this strong in India's electoral history. This victory belongs to the alliance. I want to assure the people that the NDA will leave no stone unturned to fulfil people's dreams," said PM Modi, adding that the NDA has been around for over 30 years and has run three successful governments and it will fulfil the citizens' dreams for the fourth time as well. "I have also worked for the alliance for the last 30 years. Today, I am proud that we have been elected to run the government for a fourth time. The NDA is the most successful alliance that the country has got. Our alliance is not for power or to run the government... The NDA believes in 'Nation First' policy," he said. Recalling that the alliance was founded by veteran leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Parkash Singh Badal, George Fernandes, Balasaheb Thackeray, and Sharad Yadav, PM Modi said, "It is because of the seeds these leaders sowed that people trust this alliance. We have their legacy and we are proud of them. In the last 10 years, we have kept their ideology alive in the alliance, and we are moving ahead with what they believed in." He also said that in all the NDA-ruled states, the leaders have delivered good governance to the common people and fulfilled their dreams. "Giving us another opportunity shows that the people trust NDA. A relationship based on trust always lasts long. That is why this is an emotional moment for me. I can't thank you enough," he said. Stating that the people have chosen the NDA in 22 states which depicts India's vibrant democracy, the PM said, "In about 10 states in the country, there is a large population of Adivasis. Out of these 10 states, the NDA is ruling in seven. Be it Goa or the Northeast, where Christians are in the majority, people have opted for the NDA as their preferred choice. He also said that be it NDA leaders Chandrababu Naidu or Nitish Kumar, the alliance partners have always worked for the poor people and emphasised good governance, which is why people are repeatedly choosing the NDA. Stating that the people rejected the INDIA bloc in Karnataka and Telangana even after the formation of Congress governments there, PM Modi said, "People could see in these few months how the Congress betrayed them. So they came out and hugged the NDA." The Prime Minister also congratulated the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP, saying they did everything to give a tough fight to the rivals. "Despite not having candidates at many places, our team in Tamil Nadu did exceptionally well. They worked together to put up a good fight. Our vote share has also increased there which indicates what is coming in the days ahead," he said. Likewise, the BJP did exceptionally well in Puducherry and Kerala as well, he said. "Our workers were killed in Kerala. Be it the UDF or the LDF, both have repressed our workers. But despite this, the BJP workers never gave up. It is because of their sacrifice that we will now see an MP from Kerala in the Parliament," he said. "I also asked Chandrababu Naidu about Andhra Pradesh, and he informed me that the latest victory was the highest electoral win for the alliance in the state. Pawan (Kalyan) is not just Pawan, he is an 'Aandhi' (storm)," he remarked. Talking about Odisha, he said that due to the blessings of Lord Jagannath, there has been a revolution in the state. "My experience is that God has various forms. But I have always believed that Mahaprabhu Jagannath is the God of the poor. Odisha has witnessed a revolution this time," the Prime Minister said. Taking a jibe at the INDIA bloc, he asked if the EVMs are 'alive' or 'dead' as the opposition had blamed EVM 'manipulation' for the BJP's victories. "On June 4, I was busy with some work. My phone rang and I asked the person on the other side to leave the results and first tell me if the EVMs are dead or alive," he said. Claiming that Congress has made it a point to make people suspect the outcomes of every election, PM Modi said, "For the next five years, we will not hear about EVM manipulations. But it will start all over again in the 2029 elections. They even did not let the ECI function properly. Most of the time, the ECI was answering questions in the Supreme Court as the Congress falsely blamed the poll panel for not taking action." He also said that from June 1 to June 4, the INDIA bloc leaders gave inflammatory speeches which could have led to anarchy in the country. "This is a very serious issue. The INDIA bloc tried everything to create a serious situation in the country before the results. The elections united people, but the INDIA bloc tried to divide the country," he said. Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister also congratulated the opposition candidates, saying that he looks towards healthy discussions in the Parliament. The Prime Minister also promised that three crore new houses will be built for the poor in the next 10 years, while loans worth Rs 20 lakh will also be given to the youth under the Mudra Yojna. Stating that the NDA government will work for the middle class who are the "strength of the country", he said, "We will provide all the facilities to the middle class. They should also be able to save money. We will strengthen them." Narendra Modi also coined a new slogan for aforestation on the occasion -- 'Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam'. "Plant a tree in the name of your mother. Celebrate her birthday by planting a tree," he said. New Delhi/Srinagar, June 7 : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday sought more time from a Delhi court to file objections to an interim bail application moved by Engineer Rashid, who was elected from J&K's Baramulla seat in the Lok Sabha elections. The Patiala House Courts had on Thursday sought the response of the NIA in the interim bail plea moved by Engineer Rashid so that he could take oath as a member of the 18th Lok Sabha. While the court allowed the application of the NIA and deferred the next hearing to June 18, the counsel for Engineer Rashid was given the relaxation to move an urgent application if the oath notification is issued by or before June 18, as per leaders of Rashid's party. Rashid is presently lodged in Delhias Tihar jail for his alleged involvement in a money laundering case. In the recent Lok Sabha elections, he defeated National Conference Vice President and former Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah by a margin of more than 2.30 lakh votes in Baramulla. New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the media after meeting with President Droupadi Murmu and staking claim to form the government as leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Parliamentary Party. Image Source: IANS News New Delhi, June 7 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that India will continue to develop in every sector at an even faster pace than during the previous two terms of the BJP-led NDA government. All set to take oath as the Prime Minister for the third consecutive time on Sunday, he also assured that NDA 3.0 will put in even more efforts for the country's development and to realise the aspirations of its citizens. "The NDA government has been given a chance to serve the country for the third time. I am grateful to my countrymen, and I assure you that India will continue to develop in every sector at an even faster pace than during our previous two terms," said PM Modi after meeting President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday. He also asserted that the 18th Lok Sabha will be full of energy and have the resolve to conquer new frontiers. "This is the first election after Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. It is an important juncture as we move ahead at a great speed to fulfil the goals en route 2047 when we celebrate 100 years of the country's Independence," said PM Modi. The Prime Minister also said that the NDA 3.0 will work with fresh energy and a wider vision towards finishing the tasks and achieving the goals in a fixed time period. Earlier in the day, a delegation of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by BJP President J.P. Nadda called on President Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan and handed over a letter stating that PM Narendra Modi has been elected as Leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party. Letters of support from the NDA constituent parties were also handed over to the President. "The President, having satisfied herself on the basis of the various letters of support that the BJP-led NDA alliance, which is also the largest pre-election alliance, is in a position to command majority support of the newly constituted 18th Lok Sabha and to form a stable government, appointed Shri Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of India exercising powers vested in her under Article 75(1) of the Constitution of India," the President's Secretariat said in a statement. The swearing-in ceremony will take place at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday evening. Bengaluru, June 7 : Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister and state Congress president D.K. Shivakumar said on Friday that they are hoping that Rahul Gandhi will become the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. He made the statement after being asked if Rahul Gandhi will become the Leader of the Opposition. Shivakumar said, "The whole country is hoping to see Rahul Gandhi become the PM." "Rahul Gandhi has instructed the Chief Minister and me to prepare a report on election performance after deliberations with various leaders. The Chief Minister and I have been invited for the AICC Working Committee meeting on June 8. We will hold a review meeting once we come back from Delhi," he added. Asked about the functioning of the EVMs, he said, "I have a few doubts about EVMs. I am collecting some data regarding that and I will talk to you about it then." Replying to a query on the growing demands of the NDA partners, he said, "There is nothing wrong in their expectations. People with a much lower number of seats are demanding a lot nowadays." Asked if the issue of the party not getting leads in the constituencies of many ministers was discussed in the meeting with Rahul Gandhi, he said, "Rahul Gandhi has discussed it with all the ministers. The High Command has asked for a report and we will submit a report post our discussions with the party leaders." "All India Congress Committee president Mallikarjun Kharge ji and Article 371J have helped the party in Kalyana Karnataka and the party has won all the five seats in the region. We will work out the future course of action keeping all this in mind," he stated. "Rahul Gandhi held a meeting with the newly elected Congress MPs and defeated candidates in Bengaluru. He advised the newly elected MPs to be in touch with their constituency as often as possible and do good work with the support of the state government," Shivakumar added. "Stating that only one MP from Karnataka spoke for the state in the previous Parliament, Rahul Gandhi advised the new MPs to raise their voice against the injustice meted out to the state with regard to tax devolution, Kalasa Bhanduri, Mekedatu, Upper Bhadra, Finance Commission, Peripheral Ring Road, etc," Shivakumar informed. "Rahul Gandhi also spoke to the defeated candidates and advised them to continue their work in the constituency and win the hearts of the people. He later met some of the ministers and discussed the party's performance in their respective constituencies," he noted. Mumbai, June 7 : In a momentous occasion, Kartik Aaryan was awarded the Best Actor award at the Movified Screen Awards for his performance in the popular film 'Satyaprem Ki Katha'. Aaryan's victory highlights his remarkable talent and the appreciation he has garnered from both critics and audiences alike. The Movified Awards, known for their authenticity and genuine recognition of talent, have once again set a high standard in the industry. Established in 2012 and acquired by Neekeeta Singh, Movified has been a dedicated platform providing in-depth coverage of international films and digital content. It celebrates not only traditional cinema, but also the innovative intersection of cinema and digital content, focusing on how new media formats are revolutionising storytelling and audience engagement. Kartik Aaryan expressed his heartfelt gratitude upon receiving the award, acknowledging the support of his fans and the Movified platform. "Thank you Movified and to all the people who voted for me. Winning the Best Actor award for 'Satyaprem Ki Katha' is a true honour, especially from a platform that values genuine talent and contributions to the industry," Aaryan said. Directed by Sameer Sanjay Vidwans, 'Satyaprem Ki Katha', a film that has resonated with many, showcases Aaryan's versatility and depth as an actor. His portrayal of the character 'Satyaprem' has been widely praised for its authenticity and emotional depth, making this win a well-deserved recognition of his hard work and dedication. He extended his thanks to the director, writer, and co-actors who played significant roles in bringing the movie to life. "I would like to thank the director, the writer, and my co-actors for their incredible support and collaboration. This award is as much theirs as it is mine," Aaryan said. The Movified Awards continue to be a beacon of genuine recognition in an industry often flooded with accolades, ensuring that the hard work and dedication of artistes like Aaryan do not go unnoticed. This award not only celebrates Aaryan's talent but also highlights the evolving landscape of cinema and digital content, where platforms like Movified play a crucial role in shaping the future of storytelling. As the film industry continues to evolve, the Movified Awards remain a significant marker of true excellence, celebrating artistes who push the boundaries of creativity and performance. Kartik Aaryan's win for 'Satyaprem Ki Katha' is a shining example of the enduring impact of authentic recognition in the world of cinema. Agartala, June 7 : Once a dominating force in the political landscape of Tripura, the organisational base of CPI-M-led Left parties, which governed the state for 35 years in two phases, has been constantly declining both in the tribal and non-tribal bases, enabling the BJP to latch on to it and derive electoral mileage. The Congress, which last ruled Tripura from 1988 to 1993, also lost its base in Tripura, though the grand old party governed the erstwhile princely-ruled state for many years in different phases after it joined the Indian union in October 1949. In the recent elections in Tripura's two Lok Sabha seats -- Tripura West and Tripura East, both won by the ruling BJP, the Left parties and the Congress, which jointly fought the polls as INDIA bloc -- got 23.93 per cent votes while the BJP secured 70.72 per cent votes. Of the total of 60 Assembly constituencies, 30 segments fall in each Parliamentary constituency and except in one Assembly segment (Kailashahar) in all other 59 Assembly seats, the ruling BJP secured much more votes than the Left-Congress combine. Of the 60 Assembly segments, 20 reserved seats are for the tribals and 10 for the Scheduled Castes. These 30 reserved seats were the strongholds of the Left parties since 1978, when they first came to power in Tripura. Since 2018, when the BJP led by former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb (2018-2022) came to power for the first time defeating the Left parties, their bases in tribal and Scheduled Caste dominated regions began weakening. After 2018, the Left parties in the successive elections either won two or three reserved Assembly seats or drew a blank. On the other hand, the BJP gained the support of the tribal communities on its own, also through its allies -- Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) and Tipra Motha Party (TMP) -- both tribal-based parties. Scripting an electoral history, Deb, who secured a record 8,81,341 votes, won the Tripura West Lok Sabha seat, defeating state Congress President and party nominee Ashish Kumar Saha by a margin of 6,11,578 votes. Political pundits said that Deb, currently a Rajya Sabha member, despite quitting the Chief Ministerial post two years ago following the direction of the central leaders, still enjoys overwhelming support from the people of Tripura. BJP nominee Kriti Devi Debbarman, who bagged 7,77,447 votes, won the Tripura East parliamentary seat defeating CPI-M nominee Rajendra Reang by a margin of 4,86,819 votes. Kriti Devi Debbarman is the elder sister of TMP supremo Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma. The 53-year-old Deb became president of the BJP's Tripura unit in January 2016, and two years later, he led the party to oust the CPI-M-led Left Front after 25 consecutive years (1993-2018) in power and became the Chief Minister of the state's first BJP-led government, the fourth in the northeast after Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. He claimed that there was no strong opposition party in Tripura, and hence there was no major challenge in the Lok Sabha election from the opposition. "My only challenge was to turn the opposition Communists and Congress leaders from negativity to positivity. What have they done after several decades in politics ? They only befooled the people and always engaged them in various so-called agitations," Deb told IANS. "People of Tripura trusted me when I worked as CM, and that role also gave me the opportunity to serve the state and its people." He further said: "I had started many things (projects and schemes), but I couldn't do everything. Naturally, when I was nominated as candidate for Lok Sabha polls, public aspirations, trust in BJP and 'Modi guarantee', all came together to prompt people to vote, rising above party, identity and religion." Deb said that a huge medical tourism potential is lying here and Rs 400-500 crore economy can be achieved. The BJP leader further said he would work in close coordination with the Central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the state government led by Chief Minister Manik Saha. After being elected to Rajya Sabha in 2022, the central BJP leaders appointed him as the party's observer for Haryana as well. (Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujit.c@ians.in) Mumbai, June 7 : Buoyed by its performance in the recent Lok Sabha elections, the Maharashtra Congress on Friday exhorted all its workers to now focus on the Assembly polls due in October. Party General Secretary Ramesh Chennithala, state Congress President Nana Patole, Working President M. Arif Naseem Khan and other top central and state leaders felicitated all the 14 LS winners at a function in the party headquarters. "The party activists worked hard and unitedly for the LS, took the organisation and its ideals to every corner in the state that enabled Congress to win 14 of the 17 seats it contested. We have to continue this momentum and fight the Assembly elections with the same vigour," Chennithala said. He expressed confidence that the Maha Vikas Aghadi allies - the Congress, the Shiv Sena-UBT, and the Nationalist Congress Party-SP will fight the Assembly elections unitedly and return to power in Maharashtra this year. Chennithala admitted that coalition politics is not easy but the MVA became strong with constant dialogue among the allies that helped them perform with flying colours, bagging 31 of the 48 LS seats, compared with 17 to the ruling MahaYuti alliance. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed 18 rallies in Maharashtra, indulged in divisive politics and propaganda, but the people have rejected it and bestowed overwhelming confidence in the MVA," he said. Patole said that Rahul Gandhias Bharat Jodo Yatra and Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra proved to be game-changer in the LS polls in the country in the battle to save the countryas constitution and democracy, besides the Congressa Five Guarantees that earned the peopleas confidence. "With the guidance of the top leadership like Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, the Congress earned the support of people across the board, from all castes and religions. The Congress will not betray the faith reposed by the people and continue to work for the welfare of the masses," he said. Khan said that the state is currently in the grip of a severe drought with people having no drinking water or fodder for their cattle, but the state government has arun awaya from the scene. The party has suggested that all the newly-elected MPs should tour the drought-hit regions in their constituencies, interact with the people and farmers, question the government and push for remedial measures. Kolkata, June 7 : In wake of reports of post-poll violence surfacing from different pockets in West Bengal since the counting for Lok Sabha polls on June 4, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided to engage a total of 700 companies of both the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and State Armed Police (SAP) for the time being. Insiders from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer said that of the 700 companies, 400 will be of the CAPF which are scheduled to stay back in the state till June 19, as per the earlier decision of the Commission. The remaining 300 companies will be from the SAP. The decision comes a day after a vacation bench of the Calcutta High Court called for greater Centre-state cooperation in West Bengal to prevent events of post-poll violence this time. CEO office sources said that the maximum number of companies, at 40 each, will be in areas under Murshidabad and Barasat police districts and the Barrackpore Police Commissionerate. "In all these places, there will be a combination of the CAPF and SAP," said a CEO office insider. As per the direction of the vacation bench on Thursday, the state police chief has been directed to make arrangements so that the victims of post-poll violence can file their complaints through email so that the police stations concerned can take necessary action. "The Commission is especially vigilant this time about the surfacing of events of post-poll violence keeping in mind the fact the entire state was rocked by several such incidents after the 2021 Assembly polls," said the source. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is still investigating the 2021 post-poll violence. Patna June 7 : A man was admitted to the hospital in a critical condition after he was shot at outside the district court premises in Gaya on Friday. Mohammad Parvez, the son of former councilor Rabia Khatoon, sustained two gunshot injuries on his arm and rib cage. He has been admitted to the Magadh Medical College in Gaya where his condition is stated to be critical. Gaya City SP Prerna Kumar, who reached the spot soon after the firing, said that raids are being conducted to nab the criminals. The incident took place in the jurisdiction of the Civil Lines police station. Parvez, a resident of the Sahmir Takya Mohalla, had gone to the court in connection with a case. When he was returning home after recording his statement, around three to four unidentified criminals fired at him near the court premises. The police are scanning the CCTV footage from the crime spot to identify the criminals. Preliminary investigation has revealed that an old enmity might have led to the attack on Parvez. Vijayawada, June 7 : The houses of two YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) leaders were attacked by alleged supporters of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on Friday even as outgoing Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy urged the Governor to intervene to stop post-counting violence against his party members. Groups of youth attacked the houses of former minister Kodali Sri Venkateswara Rao (Nani) and former MLA Vallabhaneni Vamsi in Krishna district. The assailants pelted stones on the house of Vamsi in Vijayawada. They damaged two cars parked in front of the house and tried to barge into the house. Some of the attackers climbed onto the car and dared Vamsi to come out. Police intervened to prevent the situation from slipping out of hand. The TDP men were raising slogans against Vamsi and warned that they would not spare him. They were protesting against some remarks made by Vamsi in the past against TDP President N. Chandrababu Naiduas wife Bhuvaneswari. Vamsi suffered a defeat in the Gannavaram Assembly constituency. He was elected from the same seat in 2019 as a TDP candidate but later defected to the YSRCP. The alleged TDP supporters also tried to attack the house of Nani in Gudivada town. Visuals circulated on social media show miscreants throwing eggs towards the house of Nani in the presence of police personnel. Some of them also tried to barge into the house. Nani too lost the recent election from the Gudivada Assembly constituency. Following the attacks, police stepped up security at the houses of YSRCP leaders and intensified patrolling. The YSRCP alleged that its leaders and cadres were attacked by TDP men ever since the TDP-Jana Sena-BJP alliance won the polls. Meanwhile, Jagan Mohan Reddy has alleged that the Constitutional system has collapsed in the state and appealed to the Governor to intervene to stop attacks on his YSRCP leaders and supporters. He alleged that democracy was under threat due to Naidu's "political vendetta". He alleged that YSRCP leaders and workers were being attacked by TDP men. He said there was no protection for those who contested elections as YSRCP candidates. Meanwhile, Chandrababu Naidu, who is scheduled to take oath as the Chief Minister on June 12, asked TDP cadres to be cautious about YSRCPas provocations and attacks after the election results. He said the TDP workers should exercise complete restraint even if YSRCP men resort to provocation. He requested police officers to take measures to maintain peace and law and order. New Delhi, June 7 : Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena supremo Eknath Shinde said on Friday that the opposition failed to prevent Prime Minister Narendra Modi from retaining power and assuming office for a record third term despite spreading rumours and peddling false narratives relentlessly. In an interaction with IANS, the Maharashtra Chief Minister described June 7 as an important, happy and historical day for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as all parties of the BJP-led coalition extended support to PM Modi on being named as the leader of the NDA Parliamentary party, clearing the decks for his return as the Prime Minister for the third consecutive term -- only the second PM in the country's history to achieve the feat after its first premier Jawaharlal Nehru. "Our Shiv Sena, which follows the ideology of late Balasaheb Thackeray, also extended support to PM Modi, and he will become the Prime Minister for a record third term, which is going to be a historic moment... It's a matter of happiness for every one of us," Shinde told IANS. "On one hand, PM Modi has worked in the last 10 years for the development of the country. He went among the people with an agenda of development while the Opposition spread rumours such as changing the Constitution besides peddling false narratives.... Despite that, the people of the country rejected the Opposition and supported PM Modi by giving him majority (vote share)," the Maharashtra CM said. On MahaYuti's below-par performance in Maharashtra, Eknath Shinde said: "Rumours and false narratives have been spread among the people on a large scale. Vote bank politics has been done. Confusions were deliberately created. There were talks of changing the Constitution and decreasing the reservation quota. But those who indulged in vote-bank politics will be exposed before the people soon. The late Bal Thackeray never liked such vote-bank politics." Analysing the performance of the Shiv Sena faction led by him, Shinde said: "Our strike rate in this election has improved... We got 2 lakh more votes in Mumbai than our rival faction... We have 14 per cent of the total 19 per cent vote share for the Shiv Sena,.. We contested 15 seats and won seven... The UBT camp contested 22 and won nine, which proves that our strike rate is better and the people are with us." On why the opposition failed to stop PM Modi from storming back to power, Shinde told IANS: "They (opposition) had only one narrative - 'Modi Hatao' - and nothing else. They did not have any agenda. But PM Modi had the agenda of development, the development of the country. "Even as the opposition kept on spreading lies and rumours, they could not stop PM Modi from assuming office for a third term. That happened due to the support the Prime Minister received from the people on the basis of his work and services rendered to the people in the last 10 years." Kohima, June 7 : After the state government and various other authorities, Nagaland Governor La Ganesan on Friday appealed to the Eastern Nagaland Peoples' Organisation (ENPO) and the people of eastern Nagaland to participate in urban local body polls scheduled on June 26. The Governor in his appeal said that while the concerns raised by the ENPO are acknowledged with utmost respect, it is imperative to address the essence of democratic participation. "Voting in any election is not merely a right, but a significant opportunity that ensures the representation of the people's voice in governance and the sustenance of democratic principles," Ganesan said. He added: "I also reassure the ENPO and the people of Eastern Nagaland that the concerns related to the creation of the Frontier Nagaland Territory are being diligently addressed by the Central Government." Constructive dialogue and continued participation in the democratic process should be encouraged by all the concerned stakeholders, the Governor said. He also requested the ENPO and the people of eastern Nagaland to exercise their constitutional right, and participate in the forthcoming ULB elections, thereby strengthening the democratic fabric of the state. The State Election Commission (SEC) last month announced the much-anticipated elections for the three municipal councils and 36 town councils in the state. The elections to the urban bodies in Nagaland would be held after a gap of 20 years following the intervention of the Supreme Court. The municipal elections in Nagaland were last held in 2004, and the terms of the civic bodies ended in 2009-10. The polls could not be held due to the controversy over 33 per cent reservation for women. Since 2010, the ENPO has been demanding a separate 'Frontier Nagaland Territory', or a separate state, comprising six eastern Nagaland districts -- Kiphire, Longleng, Mon, Noklak, Shamator, and Tuensang, inhabited by seven backward tribes -- Chang, Khiamniungan, Konyak, Phom, Tikhir, Sangtam, and Yimkhiung. New Delhi, June 8 : The chief of BJP ally in Assam, United People's Party Liberal (UPPL), Pramod Boro, on Friday criticised Sivasagar MLA and opposition leader Akhil Gogoi for demanding special status for Assam. Boro was in the national capital on Friday to attend the NDA meeting after UPPL candidate Jayanta Basumatary won the Lok Sabha elections from Kokrajhar. "Assam has seen unprecedented development in the last few years. Be it infrastructure development, providing education to the marginalised society, upgradation of schools and colleges -- work has been going on in every sector. The state now has AIIMS while a new IIM has also been sanctioned," Boro said, adding that Assam has been enjoying the 90:10 fund ratio for the developmental schemes. "For government projects, the Central government provides 90 per cent of the funds while the rest 10 per cent are provided by the state government. In this scenario, why should a special status be needed for Assam? Akhil Gogoi must explain this," he said. The UPPL leader also heaped praise on Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for increasing NDA's tally in the state in the Lok Sabha polls. "We have performed well and our seat share has increased. The credit goes to CM Sarma who has worked hard for the development of Assam," he said. The Assam Chief Minister also attended the NDA meeting in the Parliament premises on Friday. Bhopal, June 8 : Days after Congress suffered a humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh, former Chief Minister Kamal Nath met Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi at her residence in New Delhi on Friday. Kamal Nath's office said it was a courtesy meeting following the party's defeat in Madhya Pradesh. Sources privy to the development told IANS that at the meeting, the former Madhya Pradesh Congress President discussed about his future role in the party as he currently holds no official position in the party. He was replaced by Jitu Patwari as the party's Madhya Pradesh unit chief following the defeat in the Assembly elections held in November last year. Kamal Nath's son Nakul Nath's defeat from Chhindwara came as a major setback for his political career as this particular seat was retained by him for over 40 years and he alone represented the Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat nine times. Kamal Nath's meeting with Sonia Gandhi is also being seen as an attempt to appease the party's top brass, especially Rahul Gandhi, who is said to be upset with him and has maintained distance from him following the Assembly elections. Bhopal, June 7 : Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who won the Lok Sabha election for the sixth time -- including one bypoll, has said that having a Prime Minister like Narendra Modi is a matter of pride for everyone in the country. In a video message late on Friday, Chouhan said that Prime Minister Modi has taken India to new heights in the past 10 years and his third term will shape the country's future growth. "The country has witnessed inclusive growth under his (PM Modi's) leadership in the past 10 years, and the next tenure will shape up the country's further growth," he said. On BJP's clean sweep in Madhya Pradesh, Chouhan said winning all 29 Lok Sabha seats was a commitment by the party workers in the state. Chouhan also claimed that factionalism and internal conflict in the state Congress unit led to its embarrassing defeat in Madhya Pradesh. The former Chief Minister won the Lok Sabha election from Vidisha against Congress' Pratap Bhanu Sharma with a margin of over 8 lakh votes -- the second-highest victory margin in Madhya Pradesh after BJP's Shankar Lalwani who won the Indore seat with a margin of more than 11 lakh votes. New Delhi: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma attends a Meet and Greet programme of People of North East and West Bengal at BJP headquarters. Image Source: IANS News Guwahati, June 8 : Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday said that peace and stability have become permanent features of the state in the last few years as major militant groups have joined the mainstream shedding the path of violence. Chief Minister Sarma mentioned that since 2021, the Assam government and the Centre have signed four peace accords with insurgent groups that include Karbi insurgent groups, Adivasi outfits, Dimasa militant outfit and ULFA. He further said that the peace agreement signed in 2020 with Bodo militant outfit NDFB led to the surrender of at least 9,583 cadres. "Moreover, areas under AFSPA were reduced in Assam and only four districts in the state are currently under AFSPA," the Chief Minister added. "In the last 3 years, due to the sustained efforts of our Govt and with active support from Govt of India, peace and stability have become permanent features in the State," he posted on social media platform X. "Almost all major militant groups have surrendered and joined the mainstream to create a Viksit Assam," Chief Minister Sarma added. In her speculative YA novel There Is a Door in This Darkness, Kristin Cashorethe author of the Graceling Realm novels and Jane, Unlimiteddraws from personal experience to chronicle a teen dealing with chronic pain and processing grief amid the Covid crisis and the 2020 presidential election. Following the death of Wilhelminas aunt Frankie and the start of the pandemic, her aunts Margaret and Esther move into her familys Boston apartment. Wilhelmina also begins having bizarre visions and soon realizes that shes not the only oneher friend James is contending with these otherworldly events, too. Via alternating chapters that move back and forth in time, readers follow Wilhelmina as she struggles to make sense of this strange new magic. Cashore spoke with PW about her experience crafting her second contemporary novel and how she uses her writing to cultivate peace among the chaos. On top of navigating grief and chronic pain, Wilhelmina experiences challenges stemming from global events. How did these factors help you shape There Is a Door in This Darkness? When I was brainstorming this book, I knew I wanted to write something that had magical interconnections between people that extended back in time. As the election approached, I wondered, What if this actually took place now, during this week? The book was never going to be about the election. But what if it was happening in the background while the main story is taking place? I think this was just my writerly approach to dealing with a really stressful time in my life. How was I going to get through this election? One way was for me to treat it like a writing project: Im just jotting down everything thats happening because I need to write a book. Thinking like that gave me a bit of distance from everything and made that week a little easier for me to get through. In a way, the book became a lens through which I watched everything, and a comforting way for me to process everything. So many other interesting things happened around that time for me. The Friday before the electionthe day before Halloween, ratherthere was this beautiful snowstorm. I went to Harvard Square to pick up a pair of glasses and then I went for a walk in Mount Auburn Cemetery. Nothing special happened, but the snowstorm itself was completely magical. It was an early snowstormone of those wet, fluffy snowfalls. I thought to myself, This is how the book begins. It was really cool to plan the book this way: I dont know whats going to happen tomorrow. Ill just wait and see. In an afterword, you discuss how Wilhelminas experience managing chronic pain relates to your own. How did your own understanding of your diagnosis inform how you approached Wilhelminas story? I think if I had written this a year or two laterafter I had gotten my new diagnosis and discovered I needed brain surgeryI might have written disability out of the book entirely. I think it would have been too soon for me to process my own situation to then weave it into Wilhelminas experience. It wouldve also made her disability a much bigger and more complicated element than this book could withstand as it was. I feel like that wouldve been a different book. But I would also have been sorry to lose that aspect of Wilhemina, so Im not entirely sure what I would have done. How did you go about layering all the varying points of conflict that Wilhelmina encounters? From the beginning, I wanted there to be a little bit of magic. I didnt worry too much about how these major events fit in; I just wrote them how they were because they were happening in the background. But because it was taking place during those events, I was able to connect the experiences shes havingof being a person who doesnt want to look at something because its too painful and of being a person who isnt necessarily seeing everything thats happening in front of themwith the realities of living through the pandemic and witnessing certain behavior during the election that was so hard to understand. I let Covid and the election become the backdrop and found places to weave them in with Wilhelminas story because I didnt want to write a book about the election or the pandemic. I wanted to write a book about Wilhelmina. Your Graceling Realm books take place in an entirely fictional fantasy world. Have you encountered any challenges in writing outside of the fantasy genre? One of the challenges that springs to mind right away is technology. There are a lot of annoying things you have to write about if youre writing about the modern day, like cellphones and the internet. I think Im more comfortable writing about young people who arent of this place in time, because then I have more room to make them however I want to make them. If Im writing about a young person today, I feel this pressure for them to seem like a young person today, and I am not a young person. Im almost 50. When Im writing my fantasy novels, its not exactly easy. But a funny thing happened while I was writing Jane, Unlimited. The book is written in five different genres. I wrote a mystery and a spy story and a horror story and a science fiction story and I found each of them quite challenging. Then I got to the fantasy story, and something about finally getting back to familiar ground made it come together so much quicker and so much more easily than the others. What made you want to write a contemporary speculative novel rather than a realistic one? From the beginning, I wanted there to be a little bit of magic. The reader gradually comes to realize that Wilhelmina has been crossing paths with James for her entire life. Sure, that could happen realistically, but I think themes of change can lend themselves to a more magical type of story. I also love the idea that Wilhelmina thinks that her aunts are just regular people who are a little bit weird and a little bit odd and, at the moment, intentionally irritating because theyre two more people now living in her too small space, making her feel trapped. But theres something really special about these women. I liked the idea of raising the plot just a notch to a place where theres this intentional perception of magic and the unreal. I did a lot of research into the meanings of different tarot cards, and I found the meaning of temperance [balance, patience, and moderation] to be so, so lovely. To me, it was this idea of, Lets live a life where were thinking about what is actually real and what is actually happening, but also what could be and what could happen. Whats next for you? Theres more Graceling Realm coming. There Is a Door in This Darkness by Kristin Cashore. Dutton, $19.99 June 11 ISBN 978-0-8037-3999-4 Childrens book author, illustrator, and designer Nonny Hogrogian, acclaimed for her vibrant woodcut and mixed-media artwork and twice awarded the Caldecott Medal, died May 9 in Holyoke, Mass., of cancer. She was 92. May Nonny Hogrogian was born May 7, 1932, in the Bronx, N.Y., to Mugerdich Hogrogian, a photoengraver and Rachel (Ansoorian) Hogrogian, who did needlework, both Armenian immigrants. She grew up in a multigenerational household with her parents, sister, and grandparents, and it was there that an uncle first nicknamed her Nonnythe moniker she went by all her life. Hogrogian wrote in her autobiography for Something About the Author that artistic talent ran in the family. Both of her parents sketched, while her father was also a painter, and her mother could do almost anything with her hands and do it well, including sewing and crocheting. As a result, Hogrogian said, when I was about three or four years old, I began to putter with my fathers paints and brushes. She also enjoyed poring over illustrated fairy tale and poetry books in her grandfathers basement study. As a shy child, Hogrogian spent lots of time drawing and realized her abilities when she could create imitations of the expressive faces and figures in Walt Disney comic books. During elementary and middle school, she used art to please the teachers, to attract friends, to have adults exclaim over me, and for my own amusement when I was alone. At Walton High School, Hogrogrian took painting and charcoal drawing lessons from an artist aunt and honed her skills in a Saturday illustration class for young people at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She also did illustrations for her school magazine and hand-painted greeting cards. Hogrogrian enrolled at Hunter College where she majored in art with an art history minor, earning a B.A. in 1953. After graduation, I didnt know what I wanted to do but I knew I needed to do artwork, she wrote. While casting about for a job, an employment agency sent her on an interview for an open girl Friday position in the advertising department at William Morrow, and she brought her art portfolio. Even though she couldnt type and lacked other secretarial skills, she interviewed well and landed a job. She soon learned how to do book jacket mechanicals, select type, and produce small ads, and occasionally was volunteering to do some jacket art. After three years, at age 24, Hogrogian left Morrow and began graduate art studies at the New School for Social Research in 1957 where she studied with artist Antonio Frasconi, taking his course in woodcutting, a medium she quickly embraced. That summer, Hogrogian received a scholarship to attend the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine. Once back in New York, Hogrogian landed a job as a production assistant and designer in the childrens book department at Thomas Y. Crowell Company. She was working there when Elizabeth Riley, head of the companys juvenile division, offered her a contract to illustrate her first childrens book, King of the Kerry Fair by Nicolete Meredith (Crowell, 1960). More book projects followed as Hogrogian joined Holt, Rinehart and Winston in 1961 as art director of the childrens book department. Editor Ann Durell paired Hogrogian with author Sorche Nic Leodhas for Gaelic Ghosts (Holt, 1963), a collection of supernatural stories, and the creative duo liked working together so much that they teamed up again for Always Room for One More (Holt, 1965), based on an old Scottish folk song. Hogrogians blend of woodcuts, watercolor, chalk, and pen-and-ink crosshatching for that title won her the first of her two Caldecott Medals, in 1966. Hogrogian had frequently considered retiring from illustrating and publishing altogether, preferring to create art for pleasure. But winning the Caldecott changed her career dynamic, enabling her to illustrate fulltime. Among her many projects going forward was a book jacket for Homage to Adana (Gilligia Press, 1971), a collection by poet David Kherdian. When the two met at a reception, they hit it off and were married in 1971. That same year, Hogrogrian published the first book she both wrote and illustrated, One Fine Day (Macmillan). Her version of this Armenian barnyard cumulative tale received the 1972 Caldecott Medal. She additionally received a Caldecott Honor in 1977 for retelling The Contest: An Armenian Folktale (Greenwillow, 1976). Hogrogrians body of work comprised more than 70 books including numerous collaborations with her husband. She said in her SATA autobiography postscript in 2001 that she really retired from illustrating childrens books in 1997, though she once again got the creative bug and wrote and illustrated The Tiger of Turkestan (Hampton Roads) in 2002. As explanation, she said, [Retirement] indicates more a time in my life when I need to live as I really wish to live, and work is a large part of what I take joy in doing. After a 12-year tenure at Random House Childrens Books, most recently as VP and executive director of Random House Studio, Maria Modugno retired on June 4. Since beginning her publishing career in 1979, she has held positions at four leading childrens book companies in three cities and launched numerous popular picture book characters and series. Having grown up outside of New York City, Modugno remained close to home for her first job, at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, but four years after arriving at the house, she crossed the country to San Diego, where she established the West Coast office of Harcourt Childrens Books. At that imprint, she edited The Napping House by Audrey Wood and Don Wood and worked with other celebrated authors and illustrators, including Tomie dePaola and Nancy Willard. The editors next stop was Boston where, as VP and editorial director at Little, Brown, she acquired and edited Holly Hobbies Toot and Puddle and worked with such literary luminaries as Barbara Cooney, Jane Dyer, and David McPhail. After 12 years, Modugno returned to Manhattan to serve as VP, editorial director at HarperCollins, acquiring and editing a robust roster of successful titles, including Victoria Kanns Pinkalicious, Rob Scottons Splat the Cat, and the Marley series by John Grogan. In 2012, Modugno moved to RHCB and, Lee Wade, VP and publisher of Random House Studio, said in a statement, Maria became a driving force behind the success of our picture book program. The editors skill at recognizing picture book characters that resonate with young readers led to the acquisition of such bestsellers as Uni the Unicorn by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by Brigette Barrager, which spawned three additional picture books and numerous other Uni books across multiple formats that have accumulated sales of more than one million copies worldwide. Modugno also worked with creators Suzanne and Max Lang to develop the Grumpy Monkey series, which includes seven picture books, five board books, four Step into Reading titles, and two graphic novels. Recent notable additions to the editors stable are Lane Smiths Stickler Loves the World and Buffalo Fluffalo, written by Bess Kalb and illustrated by Erin Kraan. Walking a Steady Editorial Line Over the years, Modugno has demonstrated a talent for calibrating her acquisitions, publishing books that land on award lists as well as bestseller lists. Maria somehow balances hugely commercial titles with books that sell well and receive critical acclaim, Wade added, citing as examples Penguin Problems and its sequels by Jory John, illustrated by Smith; the Underwear Dragon books by Scott Rothman, illustrated by Pete Oswald; and The Paper Kingdom by Helena Ku Rhee, with illustrations by Pascal Campion. Modugnos knack for striking that balance is well attuned, but she acknowledges that it can be tricky to achieve. My goal was always to acquire and edit high-quality books that appealed to kids and sold well commerciallyand those things can be difficult to find in the same book, she noted. Yet distinct priorities have prevailed throughout Modugnos career. Wherever I have worked, Ive had the chance to publish characters that make kids laughwhich has always been a priority for me as an editor, she explained. And whenever I found a character that I wanted to publish, I never saw beyond that first bookI never envisioned the character becoming a big franchise. My goal has always been to make the first book as good as it could be. Modugnos editorial instincts may well be rooted in her own childhood, which is still very much alive for her. I have total recall of my childhoodI really loved being a kid, she said. My house was filled with books, and I practically lived in the library. I read all the time and spent a lot of time in my own worldand I love going back there. The grownup in me wants to find quality books for kids to help them shape their tastesbut I can also read a book as a kid and imagine how a young reader would react to it. Connecting with Colleagues Beyond her list of publishing accomplishments, Modugno has profoundly influenced those she has worked with, a fact underscored by Mallory Loehr, EVP and publisher of Random House Books for Young Readers Group. From the moment Maria arrived, she made an impact, Loehr said in a statement. Her passion and knowledge about picture books go far beyond editorial, and she connected with people in every department. I truly believe that she has mentored us all, both overtly and surreptitiously, and I am extraordinarily grateful for the years she has been a part of our team. From her perspective, supporting her colleagues has never been a specific item on Modugnos agenda. I think that has happened naturallythat is how I learned when I started in the business, she said. It was through internships and talking to people rather than through any formal mentoring programs. When I talk to those new to publishing, I mostly want to let them know its important to trust your authors and artistsand to trust your instincts. A Look Back, A Look Ahead As she closed the most recent chapter of her career, Modungo reflected on its span, concluding, I can say that my experience with Random House Studio has really been the best. I got a lot of support and had great colleagues. Its a small imprint in a big corporation, and we are nimbleand I think that helped us to move fast. The three main editorsLee Wade, Annie Kelley, and myselfwere looking for different kinds of books, but we were all in the same mindset, and had mutual respect for each other. We were all allowed to play to our strengths. In retirement, Modugno looks forward to a very different kind of play. She currently lives in Evanston, Ill. (which she called The Brooklyn of Chicago), where she moved from New York City during the pandemic to be closer to family. Now Ill have more freedom and time to spend time with them, she said. I decided to retire while I still loved my joband, as Buffalo Fluffalo says, Ive had enuffalo. At the top of Modugnos retirement to-do list? I live three blocks from Lake Michigan, and I plan to spend the summer at the shore, reading grownup books. I also want to travelI have a long list of places Id like to go. Oh, and I might finally make good on my plan to go to the gym. Porterville, CA (93257) Today Sunshine and clouds mixed. Very warm. High 88F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Mainly clear. Low around 55F. Winds light and variable. Porterville, CA (93257) Today Sunshine and clouds mixed. Very warm. High 89F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Mostly clear. Low near 55F. Winds light and variable. 'The victory is an expression of agrarian distress and social turmoil.' IMAGE: Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh speaks to the media after his supporters broke barricades and entered the Ajnala police station in February 2023 mdemanding the release of Amritpal Singh's aide. Photograph: ANI Photo "State authorities have to take cognisance of the stress in society -- agrarian, religious, social issues like drugs, alcoholism and economic stress," says former Punjab chief secretary Ramesh Inder Singh and a rare civil servant to receive a Padma Shri while in service. "If these problems are not addressed, then such kind of individuals will keep coming up through the electoral process... What happens very often is that when such a victory takes place, we concentrate on the individuals and ignore the causes that have led to their win," Mr Singh says in a phone interview with Rediff.com's Archana Masih. Amritpal Singh has won as an Independent candidate with nearly a 200,000 margin. He contested from prison in Assam, did not set foot in the constituency and yet won handsomely. The victory is an expression of agrarian distress and social turmoil. As a candidate [while filing his nomination], he has taken an oath of allegiance to the Constitution, and his election agenda did not include any separatist declarations, so to that extent, he has joined the mainstream. Once he enters Parliament, he will again have to take an oath of allegiance to the Constitution. Similarly, there are examples of Sikh radicals joining mainstream politics in the past. In 1989, seven of them had won the election, including Simranjit Singh Mann, and the wife and father of Beant Singh, one of the assassins of Indira Gandhi, but within five years, their radical stream got dissipated. Simranjit Singh Mann has continued his ideological utterances, but is totally marginalised. He has lost this election and has come third in the Sangrur parliamentary constituency. What is the reason for Amritpal's victory? All radicals take up a reformist agenda when they join the mainstream. His agenda speaks of drug abuse, alcoholism and renouncing religious faith. These are the social issues prevailing in Punjab. Economic stress is the reason why people are migrating abroad. Therefore, it is a wake-up call for the moderates and for the state to address these issues. What happens very often is that when such a victory takes place, we concentrate on the individuals and ignore the causes that have led to their win. IMAGE: A view of the decorated Golden Temple. Photograph: ANI Photo What are those causes? Socio-economic turmoil in the agrarian society of Punjab has to be addressed and moderates must be given space to address the religious issues. The religious issues were also part of Amritpal's campaign. Isn't it worrying that a pro-Khalistan preacher is now an MP? That is why he is under detention under the National Security Act, but during the election process there has been no mention of Khalistan. There is a Supreme Court ruling which says that merely asking for Khalistan is part of freedom of speech. Simranjit Singh Mann who has been MP thrice still talks about Khalistan and separatism. That is just noise and maybe there are certain elements behind them which keep making such noise. Especially in context of the 40th anniversary of Operation Blue Star undertaken to flush out Khalistani militants from the Golden Temple. The political party (Congress) responsible for Blue Star has won 7/13 seats in Punjab, so what this means is that the public reacts to the present and immediate causes. Amritpal Singh has defeated Virsa Singh Valtoha of the Akali Dal who is a former militant and was part of the militancy movement in Punjab. Valtoha has come fourth in the constituency. Therefore, individuals don't matter, but the causes that throw up these individuals are important. If you see the history of Punjab, you will see that from time to time such individuals are thrown up and subsequently get marginalised in the electoral process over a period of time. But the warning for the state is to address the social and economic distress. If this is not addressed it will keep simmering and God knows where will it lead to. IMAGE: General Arun Sridhar Vaidya, then chief of the army staff, flanked by then Lieutenant General Krishnaswamy Sundarji, left, and then Major General Kuldip Singh Brar, outside the Shri Harmandir Sahib at the Golden Temple on June 19, 1984, after Operation Blue Star. What accounts for the victory of Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, son of Beant Singh, one of Indira Gandhi's assassins? His grandfather and mother both won as MPs and got merged into the electoral process. Sarabjeet's success is partly because of social-economic distress and the burning issue of sacrilege. He is from Faridkot district where the sacrilege incidents took place. The state has failed to address and close the issues which took place around 10 years ago. Each party has exploited it over a period of time. They have ordered and reordered investigations; constituted and re-constituted SITs, but there is no closure. If they had closed this issue through the judicial process and those responsible had been convicted, the issue would have died down. But the pot is kept churning because political parties draw benefit out of keeping it alive. Part of his success is because of the discontent that prevails on these accounts. What larger message does the win of these two radical Independent candidates send to political parties? Political parties will not learn any lesson because they want to maximise their vote bank. They keep these issues alive because somebody benefits out of it. The state authorities have to take cognisance of the stress in society, agrarian, religious, social issues like drugs. If these problems are not addressed, then such kind of individuals will keep coming up through the electoral process and over a period of time get absorbed and phased out as it has happened since 1989. IMAGE: Amritpal Singh speaks to the media, February 23, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo What are your takeaways from the verdict of the multi-cornered contest in Punjab? One aspect is that Punjab is not a polarised society. There is social cohesion among the Sikhs, Hindus, Christians and Muslims which is reflected in the results. State authorities have to bring political parties on board to address the simmering youth discontent because it is a national issue. Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com Weeks after Gov. Doug Burgum bashed electric vehicles, the North Dakota Industrial Commission has approved funding to study EV infrastructure. The commission in April asked for more information from the Energy and Environmental Resource Center in Grand Forks after it requested $375,000 for a multistate plan. Charlie Gorecki, CEO of the EERC, returned to the commission last week for its May meeting, the North Dakota Monitor reported. Burgum continued to criticize federal policy on EVs but did vote in favor of the funding along with the commissions other members, Attorney General Drew Wrigley and Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring. The $375,000 is a 20% match to a $1.5 million federal grant from the Department of Energy for the Regional Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Resilience Plan. The states share comes from its Renewable Energy Fund. Federal funding also is helping pay for electric school buses for some North Dakota schools. Gorecki said EERC, which is based at the University of North Dakota, is leading the project, which also includes Minnesota, Montana and South Dakota. All the money would be spent in North Dakota, Gorecki said. He said the regional plan would be a way to assess Burgums concerns about EVs not working in the cold, and the resilience of the regions electric grid. Weather is absolutely one of the aspects of the plan, Gorecki said. He said information is needed to plan for extreme cold and storms that can hinder EV travel. We cant have cars stalled out all over across our state, Gorecki said. The plan will also look at how EVs affect energy demand, especially at peak times. It would look at the possibility of needing to curtail energy output at charging stations during high-demand times. Burgum said We need to protect ourselves from really bad policy ideas. 'The Opposition parties will continue to woo Chandrababu Naidu even though he has said he will support the BJP.' IMAGE: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra D Modi and Telugu Desam Party President Nara Chandrababu Naidu during the National Democratic Alliance leaders meeting after the Lok Sabha election results in New Delhi, June 5, 2024. Photograph: ANI Photo '400 Plus' was the slogan of Narendra D Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The reality is the BJP is nowhere near the ambitious numbers it had set. In fact, Modi doesn't have the majority to implement some of his party's not so popular plans. There is also another reality; that is, Narendra Modi is going to be prime minister of India for a third time. "Indian voters have demonstrated as they did in the past that when they see democracy being threatened, they tend to place limits on leaders with autocratic tendencies. Voters have spoken loud and clear that they do not like autocratic, centralised political rule," Zoya Hasan, the eminent political scientist, tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier. When you spoke to me before the elections, you had said that if Modi were to be re-elected as prime minister, it would change the character of India and would pose a risk to democracy and the Constitution. Even though his party has no majority on its own, he is going to form the government. Do you think what you feared will not happen? The BJP fell short of an absolute majority which is a far cry from its claims made during the campaign. The party won only 240 seats and needs coalition partners to secure a majority of 272. The verdict shows two things clearly. It indicates a disapproval of the prime minister's hubris and his centralised authoritarian rule. The verdict also shows the limits of communal polarisation as a mobilisation strategy, which was the mainstay of its (Modi and the BJP) campaign in this election. It's a partial repudiation of Modi's Islamophobic campaign, if not a complete rejection of it. It could be interpreted as a disapproval of Hindu nationalism. This election was centred on Narendra Modi, even the BJP manifesto was called 'Modi ki guarantee'. The BJP fought the election in his name. But people did not vote overwhelmingly for him. The electorate has given a balanced verdict. It wants the BJP to be more accountable, less confrontational and more constructive in its approach towards development, democracy and the rights of communities. Will the BJP and Modi accept that? In his first post-election speech at the party headquarters, Mr Modi called it a historic verdict. There was no mention or acknowledgement of the setback that the BJP has suffered losing 63 seats compared to the 2019 elections. There is nothing in his track record of the last ten years to suggest that consensus and consultation are part of the prime minister's style of functioning. Political centralisation has been the core of the prime minister's model of governance from his days as the chief minister of Gujarat. We must remember that decisions on demonetisation in 2016 and the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020 were taken without consulting the chief ministers. Coalition politics requires consensus building. It remains to be seen the whether there will be greater recognition of chief ministers and whether influential leaders in the BJP and the RSS will exert pressure on the BJP to be more accommodative towards its allies and also to not ride roughshod over political opponents and the opposition. IMAGE: Modi poses for a group picture with others leaders of NDA constituent parties. Photograph: ANI Photo Chandrababu Naidu speaks about a 4% reservation for backward Muslims while Modi's speeches are loaded with animius against the minorities. How long do you think these two ideologically different partners can remain together? Chandrababu Naidu and the TDP practice secular politics, as indeed Nitish Kumar's JD-U, and one indication is their willingness to extend affirmative action benefits to Muslims. There are significant differences in the approach of the TDP and BJP. But Naidu has done business with the BJP in the past. He entered into an alliance with the BJP knowing what the prime minister and his party stand for. He was fully aware of thw BJP's communal politics in the last few years. At the same time, it must be noted that Naidu has friends across political parties, including good relations with the Left parties. There will be some hard bargaining, he is likely to give the BJP a run for its money. What is already evident is that the Opposition parties will continue to woo Naidu even though he has said he will support the BJP which was it's a pre-poll alliance partner. Nonetheless, he will be pulled in two directions by the ruling party and the Opposition camp. Coming back to my first question about what you said before the results were out, that a victory of Modi would pose a risk to democracy and the Constitution... It was a non-level playing field with the BJP's complete stranglehold over money, media and institutions, notably the Election Commission of India, bureaucracy and the judiciary, notwithstanding the electoral bonds verdict on the Supreme Court. The Opposition mounted a spirited campaign. They did not give up till the last moment. The BJP's opponents led by the Congress have done quite well focusing on caste discrimination, social welfare, democratic backsliding, income inequality, etc. They raised economic issues, livelihood issues, social justice and the result underlines the importance of all these issues. Overall, this was very much an election about democratic erosion and a concern that Indian politics had become very one-sided where the Opposition did not have any space. The initial BJP slogan of 400 seats was immediately read as a threat to alter the Constitution and take away what's non-negotiable for many sections of voters: Political and individual freedoms for some, religious freedoms for some, and most significantly, for a much larger demographic, the fear of losing reservations. These fears were dismissed as absurd, but it resonated with voters, especially Dalits who wanted to preserve the sanctity of the Constitution which is the basis of their rights and reservations. The voters resolutely said no to still more power for the BJP. IMAGE: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addresses a 'Nyay Sankalp Sabha' in support of party candidate Dr Dharamvira Gandhi at the Polo Ground in Patiala, May 29, 2024. Photograph: ANI Photo Do you think Rahul Gandhi talking about inequality in India struck a chord with voters? Inequality, economic concentration and crony capitalism were very much a matter of debate in this election. It is to the credit of Rahul Gandhi that the issue of inequality was brought to centre stage. It was extensively discussed after the publication of the Congress manifesto. The Congress manifesto was the high point of the campaign which the BJP used to discredit the politics and policies of equity and distribution. From the moment the Congress released its manifesto, the prime ,inister attacked it in almost every speech. The ruling party's campaign linked the Congress manifesto entirely to Muslims although the word Muslim did not figure in the manifesto. Meanwhile, the BJP manifesto was forgotten by the BJP itself, the entire discussion was on the Congress manifesto with the Prime Minister himself constantly criticising it. That way, he did bring the Congress manifesto right to the centre. Interestingly, after the results were out, Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi said that it was a victory of democracy and the Constitution. Narendra Modi also said exactly the same thing later... Anxieties about democratic erosion and dilution of Constitutional values, especially affirmative action and reservations was visible in the campaign. For the first time, voters expressed concern about the Constitution and expressed the fear that it might be changed by the BJP if its gets 400 seats. That possibility had to be averted. Narendra Modi spoke about democracy in his post-election speech because he knew that there was a lot of concern about democratic erosion under his rule, and the decline of institutions, notably the partisanship of the Election Commission of India. To counter this criticism, he praised the Election Commission and its successful conduct of the humongous election exercise. So far, the BJP's recognition of democracy has been limited to winning elections. For them the sum and substance of democracy is elections. Elections are important, but democracy and politics between elections is no less important than elections. Election results have shown that people were not convinced about the BJP's record on democracy. They were concerned that India was moving in an authoritarian direction. IMAGE: Modi during an election roadshow in Odisha. Photograph: Reuters What was the biggest surprise for you in this election results? UP cutting the BJP to size? UP is the biggest story of this election. Ayodhya voted against the BJP. The BJP lost Faizabad, the parliamentary constituency where the Ayodhya temple is located. The fanfare around the new temple may have appealed to people but not at the expense of livelihood issues. The BJP has been routed in UP which was its greatest stronghold after Gujarat. The BJP's vote in UP has declined by eight percentage points. This is a big setback for the BJP because its overall electoral reverses are driven by its huge losses in UP. In UP, the BJP failed to take into account how its policies were playing out among the poorer and marginalised segments of the state's population, mainly Muslims and those at the bottom of India's caste hierarchy. Clearly, the OBCs, especially lower OBCs, Dalits and Muslims brought about its defeat. The second story of this election is the revival of the Congress which requires a separate discussion. The party that was declared dead and gone has risen from the ashes winning almost a double of the seats it got in 2019. IMAGE: Congress supporters during a Rahul Gandhi roadshow in Wayanad. Photograph: ANI Photo How much credit will you give Rahul Gandhi and his Bharat Jodo Yatra for the revival of the Congress? Rahul Gandhi must be given considerable credit for the revival of the Congress. He was one leader who stood up against the BJP/RSS in the last few years and charted out an ideological stand for his party in opposition to the BJP. The two Bharat Jodo Yatras made him a popular leader. The yatras articulated the ideological position of the party with its focus on social issues of justice and equity. It is not only the yatras but also the way he defended the Constitution throughout the election campaign and helped to build a coalition of parties which form the INDIA bloc. What are your final thoughts on the 2024 election results? The election results provide a useful corrective; the Indian voter has placed limits on the BJP. Indian voters have demonstrated as they did in the past that when they see democracy being threatened, they tend to place limits on leaders with autocratic tendencies. Voters have spoken loud and clear that they do not like autocratic, centralised, political rule. The result is a vindication of India's democracy, and the importance of plurality for democracy. The idea of India will raise its head again. Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com Four Indian medical students drowned when they entered a fast-flowing river near St Petersburg in Russia, authorities said on Friday, prompting the Indian embassy in Moscow to issue an advisory to the students to be 'extremely careful' while going to the beaches, rivers, lakes, ponds and other water bodies. In the worst tragedy to hit the Indian student community in Russia, four students from Maharashtra -- Harshal Anantrao Desale, Jishan Ashpak Pinjari, Jia Firoj Pinjari and Malik Gulamgous Mohammad Yakub -- drowned in the Volkhov River. They were studying at the Novgorod State University in Veliky Novgorod city. A fifth student, Nisha Bhupesh Sonawane, was rescued. The Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi termed it as an unfortunate incident. 'Four Indian students who were studying at the Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University located in Veliky Novgorod, Russia, drowned in an unfortunate incident in the Volkhov river. In the incident, a fifth Indian student was saved from drowning and is presently receiving medical attention,' it said. Local emergency services have so far recovered two dead bodies from the Volkhov River. The search for the remaining two missing students continues. Local media reports said that the students drowned as they tried to save one of their female friends. They all were aged 18-20. The tragedy has prompted the Indian embassy here to issue an advisory to the students. 'Unfortunate incidents of drowning of Indian students in Russia are taking place from time to time. In such incidents this year so far, four Indian students have lost their lives. In the year 2023 there were two incidents and in 2022, there were six cases of death of Indian students by drowning,' the embassy said on Friday. 'The Embassy, therefore, urges Indian students in Russia to be extremely careful while going to beaches, rivers, lakes, ponds and other water bodies. Students are advised to take all necessary precautions and safety measures in this regard,' it added. Two of the four students, Jishan and Jia, were siblings. They hailed from Amalner in the Jalgaon district. Harshal Desale belonged to Bhadgaon, also in the Jalgaon district. Jalgaon district collector Ayush Prasad said arrangements are being made to bring the bodies to India. 'We are working to send the bodies to the relatives as soon as possible. Proper treatment is also being provided to the student whose life has been saved,' the Embassy of India in Moscow said on X. The Consulate General of India in St Petersburg said these students were pursuing medical education at Veliky Novgorod State University. 'Sincere condolences to the bereaved families,' it posted on X. The Consulate General said it was working together with the local authorities of Veliky Novgorod to send the mortal remains to the relatives as soon as possible. 'The bereaved families have been contacted and assured of all the possible help,' it said. A family member told local media: 'When they entered the Volkhov River, Jishan made a video call to his family. His father and other family members were pleading with Jishan and others to come out of the river waters when a strong wave swept them away.' In a message to the Indian envoy to Russia, the administration of Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University has expressed condolences over the tragedy. "The students were taking a walk near the city's beach along the Volkhov River, in the evening, during their study-free time. The tragedy was accidental and unexpected. Nisha Bhupesh Sonawane survived. Now she is under the care of medical staff," a university official said. The university's representatives are monitoring her state closely and doing everything possible to help her, he added. "The university informed the parents immediately and is currently working closely with all respective agencies in the Russian Federation," he said. The university has requested the Indian envoy for assistance in repatriation of the students' bodies to India, he added. In June last year, two final-year MBBS students from Kerala drowned in a lake in Russia. They were studying at Smolensk State Medical University. Indian students study medicine across Russia. There are around 25,000 Indian nationals of which a majority are Indian students studying medicine, the Indian embassy said, quoting the latest data. There are also Indian students studying engineering, economics, sciences and other subjects in other universities. The Congress on Friday alleged that statues of Mahatma Gandhi, B R Ambedkar and Chhatrapati Shivaji among others have been relocated within Parliament premises to ensure that Opposition parties cannot hold democratic protests, and said such "stunts" cannot save Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "unstable government" from falling. IMAGE: The Lok Sabha Secretariat said that visitors were not able to see these statues conveniently. Photograph: @Jairam_Ramesh/X Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh termed the Lok Sabha secretariat's explanation for relocating the statues as "wholly bogus", and said there has been no discussion with any political party on the matter. In a statement, the Lok Sabha Secretariat said Thursday that due to their location at different places in the Parliament premises, visitors were not able to see these statues conveniently. "For this reason, all these statues are being respectfully installed in a grand 'Prerna Sthal' in Parliament House premises. This 'Prerna Sthal' is being developed in such a way that the visitors coming to visit the Parliament complex view the statues of these great persons conveniently and get inspired by their life experiences," the statement said. The Lok Sabha Secretariat had asserted that the Parliament House complex comes under the jurisdiction of the Lok Sabha Speaker and earlier also, statues were shifted inside the complex with the permission of the Speaker. Slamming the shift of statues, Ramesh said, "Yesterday at 2:30 PM, I had highlighted how the Modi regime was shifting the statues of Chhatrapati Maharaj, Mahatma Gandhi, and Dr. Ambedkar away from prominent places they now occupy in front of Parliament House." "Rattled by photographs of these shifts that were also put out, late last night, well after 8PM, the Lok Sabha Secretariat was forced to issue a wholly bogus and clearly manufactured explanation for the shift. There has been NO discussion with any political party on these shifts," he said in a post on X. The real reason for the shifts can now be revealed, Ramesh said, adding that these statues were places where for the past 10 years Opposition parties -- including the TDP and JDU -- would stage peaceful and democratic protests against the Modi Government. "Clearly the incoming one-third PM wants no place next to where Parliament meets where protests, even in a Constitutional manner, against him and his government can take place. Such stunts can no longer save him and his unstable Government from falling," Ramesh said. In its statement, the Lok Sabha secretariat said the arrangements are also being made to provide visitors with detailed information about the life and contribution of these great persons and freedom fighters through modern technology at this 'prerna sthal' so that the people visiting can get inspired by their life and thoughts. The Parliament premises will sport a new look when the 18th Lok Sabha convenes for its maiden session in June as work is underway to integrate the entire complex, comprising four different buildings. As part of the redevelopment of external areas, the statues of national icons, including those of Gandhi, Shivaji and Jyotiba Phule, were to be moved to a lawn near Gate No 5 of the old Parliament building, which has been named as Samvidhan Sadan. This would pave the way for the creation of a vast lawn in front of the Gaja Dwar, which is used by the President and the prime minister to enter into the new Parliament building. The lawn can also be used for official ceremonies such as the President's address to the joint sitting of Parliament, usually during the Budget Session. Communist Party of India general secretary D Raja has called the move to remove the statues from their original place a contempt of the ideals of freedom, liberty and equality. "The arbitrary and unilateral decision to shift the statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Ambedkar and Chhatrapati Shivaji in the Parliament House premise is condemnable. All statues in the Parliament House are erected in the honour of individuals who significantly contributed to our national life," Raja said in a post on X. Trinamool Congress MP Jawhar Sircar has said the government must explain why this was done. "Who dared to remove statues of Mahatma Gandhi (our traditional protest site) and Babasaheb Ambedkar - from their hallowed sites in our Parliament compound? Has the statue of Shivaji also been removed? Are statues of (Nathuram) Godse & (Narendra) Modi coming up? The Government must explain," he said in a post on X on Thursday. Working president of NCP-SCP Supriya Sule said this is very "infuriating". "All these statues were erected by Indian citizens out of love for national heroes in the Parliament building area. The government has insulted all the countrymen by removing these statues. What is special is that today is the 350th anniversary of the coronation day of Shivaji," she had said. Jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan has invoked the case of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal getting bail to campaign ahead of India's general elections, as he complained before the Supreme Court about the mistreatment meted to him in jail. IMAGE: Supporters of former prime minister Imran Khan's party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), chant slogans to celebrate after a high court in Pakistan overturned his conviction on charges of leaking state secrets, in Karachi, on June 3, 2024. Photograph: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters During his appearance on Thursday before a five-member Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa in a case related to amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman complained of the 'victimisation' that he faced since his ouster from power in April 2022. Justices Aminuddin Khan, Jamal Khan Mandokhel, Athar Minallah, and Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi also sat on the bench. Justice Minallah remarked that it was unfortunate that Khan was in jail as he was the head of a large party with millions of followers. Khan, complaining of oppression against him, pointed out that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was released on bail by the apex court ahead of the Indian general elections for campaigning for his party but he was facing oppression in Pakistan which was under undeclared 'martial law'. Khan,71, complained that he was convicted within five days to keep him away from the general elections which were held on February 8. Khan also expressed dismay over the Supreme Court's judgment rejecting Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's government plea requesting the live streaming of the case. "You wrote [in the judgment] that I did political point scoring during the last hearing. I did not get it, what political scoring did I resort to," the PTI founder asked the CJP Isa. At this, Chief Justice Isa said a judge does not owe an explanation to anyone over the verdict. "You can file a review petition," the top judge said. He also asked the former premier to speak only about the pending matter before the court. Lamenting political victimisation, the PTI founder said the Supreme Court should appoint a chairman for the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the anti-corruption watchdog. "When the Opposition and government fail to evolve consensus on the name of NAB chairman appointment then a 'third umpire' makes the decision," he said, adding that the anti-graft body is working under the 'third umpire'. Addressing the PTI founder, Justice Minallah said: "Khan sahib, there was no reason to declare the NAB amendments invalid." Khan said he was currently facing NAB inquiries and called for improvement in the anti-corruption body. After Justice Minallah reminded Khan about the issue of the appointment of Chief Election Commissioner, he said restoring the amendment would help him in the NAB cases, however, the country 'will become bankrupt'. CJP Isa also barred the PTI founder from citing Islamabad High Court (IHC) verdict in the cipher cases and said the appeal in the case might be filed in the apex court. "Why did not you oppose the NAB amendments in Parliament," asked Justice Rizvi. Khan cited the circumstances and said his government was toppled via conspiracy and that he did not want to respond to the 'conspiratorial government' in Parliament. Khan also asked the court to compare the facilities given to him in jail with the facilities given to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. However, in a lighter vein, Justice Mandokhel said the elder Sharif was not in jail at the moment, "Do you want us to send him to jail?" The chief justice remarked the court would arrange a surprise visit by the judicial officer. 'Akhilesh Yadav made voters think why is the BJP asking for 400 paar.' 'They understood his words and believed the BJP wanted 400 paar only to demolish the Constitution and end reservations.' IMAGE: Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Narendra D Modi and Yogi Adityanath during an election meeting in Barabanki, May 17, 2024. Photographs: ANI Photo Among all the election results from states that came on June 4 the most shocking was from Uttar Pradesh. The Samajwadi Party and Indian National Congress alliance shocked the Bharatiya Janata Party by winning 43 seats out of 80, effectively halting Narendra Modi's victory march. The BJP fell short of a simple majority by 32 seats and was forced to depend on its allies to get past the 273 seat mark. The SP-Congress gained 37 more seats from their 2019 count. Modi's victory margin in Varanasi was reduced to 152,513 votes. In 2019, he had won by a margin of 479,505 votes and in 2014 he won by a margin of 371,784 votes. Why did the UP voters reject the BJP this time? Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com spoke to Dr A K Verma, director, Centre for the Study of Society and Politics, Kanpur, to know more. How do you look at the outcome of the elections where the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance outsmarted the BJP in UP to win 43 seats? It was unexpected. The elections were contested closely and this reflected in the empirical study that we conducted. The expectation was that the BJP would not do so badly, but they did. What worked for the Samajwadi Party and Congress? There was a massive shift of votes of two social denominations from the BJP to the Opposition. Firstly, the Muslim-Yadav combination votes shifted to the Opposition. Our study shows that 90 percent of Yadavs and 80 percent of Muslims voted for the Samajwadi Party in this election. In addition to that, the Other Backward Castes, Most Backward Castes and Dalits, especially Jatavs, too shifted in big numbers to the SP. This did not happen in the 2022 assembly election so why this change of heart in these communities to shift from the BJP to SP-Congress in just two years? SP capitalised on the fundamental mistake made by the BJP. Modi had set a target of winning 400 paar seats in the 2024 general elections. The SP and Congress caught this slogan of the BJP and convinced the Dalits and OBCs about the purpose (of this slogan). They convinced the voters that the BJP wanted 400 paar because they want to demolish the Constitution. They successfully created a fear psychosis in the minds of Dalits that the BJP wants to demolish the Constitution written by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. They convinced the voters that this will lead to the end of reservations in India, which panicked OBC voters too. And when fear starts working in the minds of people, nothing works against it. No matter what you do to give rational answers against a fear narrative, people will not believe you. And the most surprising thing on the BJP's part was that they could never explain to the people why they were targeting 400 paar seats out of 543. Was it just a joke statement? Was it to motivate their party workers? They did not build a counter narrative among voters suggesting why they need 400 paar when it was very clear they will win the elections on their own strength and easily get 300 paar. IMAGE: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav at an election meeting in Phulpur, May 19, 2024. '400 paar' changed the BJP's fortunes in UP. Can we say it was like the Vajpayee government's 'India Shining' slogan in 2004 which backfired and the NDA lost power? India Shining was a positive statement which did not create fear. Here the successive narrative was from the Opposition side as they created fear in the minds of two major communities: The Dalits, 20 percent of the population, and OBCs who are around 50 percent plus of the population. But weren't Dalits and OBCs solidly behind Modi in the 2014 and 2019 elections? Yes, they were, and if I recall correctly the BJP got more than 50 percent votes in successive general elections from Uttar Pradesh. But the trouble this time was that the BJP was not clear why they wanted 400 paar. They took it for granted that they were coming to power. In our studies we do ask voters why they voted, for which they will give you 100s of answers, but then they give a fundamental or what we call a prime answer. And whether this prime answer of voting has been able to create some kind of optimism, assurance, met aspirational needs or conversely created a panic or fear situation. Akhilesh Yadav was not in power and he could not do anything but what he did was to provoke and create a fear in the minds of people. He made the voters think why is the BJP asking for 400 paar? They understood his words and believed the BJP wanted 400 paar only to demolish the Constitution and end reservations. Why didn't we see that fear working in Madhya Pradesh or even Bihar which is more of a caste-based society? Because there was no Akhilesh Yadav or Rahul Gandhi who played this kind of politics in the other states. And therefore the results which you see in UP was not pan-India. State after state, the BJP swept the general elections if you look at Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand or Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand or even Assam. This fear factor phenomenon of 400 paar was only seen in UP for which Akhilesh needs to be given credit. And. of course, constituency to constituency selection of candidates in UP also mattered as caste calculations were kept in mind. IMAGE: Samajwadi Party supporters celebrate as SP candidate R K Choudhary leads from Mohanlalganj, June 4, 2024. What about other issues? There must be something more to the SP-Congress victory. Yes, unemployment was also a factor that worked against the BJP in UP. They were able to capture the imagination of youth which is from 18 TO 25 years of age. Our study shows they sided with the SP and Congress. What about Modi's last mile delivery? Didn't people feel they would lose the freebies if Modi did not win? Freebies and all are fine, but people do not want panic in their lives. The BJP did hit wicket with 400 paar slogan. Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu has accepted the invitation to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi's swearing-in ceremony in New Delhi over the weekend, according to a media report on Friday. IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu on the sidelines of the COP28 Summit, in Dubai on December 2, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo News portal Edition.mv quoted its sister-publication in Dhivehi, Mihaaru News, as saying that President Muizzu will leave for New Delhi on Saturday for the ceremony accompanied by several other senior government officials. There was no official confirmation yet from the Maldives President's Office about Muizzu's first official visit to India. Earlier on Wednesday, Muizzu had congratulated Modi and voiced his desire to work with the Indian prime minister to advance the bilateral ties. 'Congratulations to Prime Minister @narendramodi and the BJP and BJP-led NDA, on the success in the 2024 Indian General Election, for the third consecutive term. 'I look forward to working together to advance our shared interests in pursuit of shared prosperity and stability for our two countries,' Muizzu posted on X. This marks the pro-China president's first official visit to India since assuming office on November 17 last year. Unlike his predecessors, who made the first port of call to New Delhi after assuming office, Muizzu had travelled to Turkiye first and to China for his first state visit in January. Within hours of his oath, Muizzu had demanded the removal of 88-odd Indian military personnel from his country, straining bilateral ties. The military personnel were repatriated from three aviation platforms and replaced by civilians from India by the May 10 deadline set by Muizzu. The swearing-in ceremony is expected to witness the presence of leaders from neighbouring countries, including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal, Mauritius, and Seychelles, in addition to the Maldives, as part of India's 'Neighbourhood First' policy. Key Bharatiya Janata Party allies -- Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu and Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United supremo Nitish Kumar -- on Friday endorsed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance with a message to balance regional aspirations and national interests. IMAGE: Prime Minister Narednra Modi with his allies TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu and JD-U supremo Nitish Kumar at the NDA Parliamentary Party meeting in New Delhi. Photograph: @BJP4India/X Speaking at the NDA Parliamentary Party meeting in New Delhi, Bharatiya Janata Party allies Janata Dal-Secular leader H D Kumarswamy, Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde, Nationalist Congress Party chief Ajit Pawar, Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular chief Jitan Ram Manjhi among others supported the proposal moved by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to elect Modi as the leader of the NDA. "Balancing regional aspirations and national interests must run parallelly while ensuring holistic development for all strata of society," Naidu said. Naidu said Modi's rallies in Andhra Pradesh helped the TDP win 16 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. "Today, India is having the right leader at the right time, that is Narendra Modi. This is a very good opportunity for India. If you miss now, you will miss forever. That is why we are having a wonderful opportunity today," Naidu said. Kumar expressed confidence that Modi will develop India in a big way and also pay attention to Bihar. "We are confident that Modi will develop India and we will wholeheartedly support him every passing day," Kumar said. "All the pending works of Bihar will be done. It is a very good thing that all of us have come together and we will all work together with you. ... we will all work under your leadership," he said. The Bihar chief minister slammed the opposition and expressed confidence that they will be defeated in the next Lok Sabha elections. "I have noticed that a few people have won (Lok Sabha elections) here and there by saying useless things. They haven't done any work, never served the country. Next time when you win, they all will be defeated," Kumar said. Senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh on Friday proposed Narendra Modi's name as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance Parliamentary Party and the proposal was seconded by his party colleagues Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari as well as top NDA leaders. IMAGE: Narendra Modi was unanimously elected as NDA leader at the NDA parliamentary party in New Delhi. Photograph: @BJP4India/X At a meeting of the NDA parliamentary party in New Delhi at the central hall of old Parliament house, Singh also credited Modi for expanding the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and said this grouping is not a compulsion but a commitment for the BJP. After Shah, Gadkari also seconded the three proposals made by Singh to make Modi the leader of the BJP in Lok Sabha, of the NDA parliamentary party and the BJP parliamentary party. Senior NDA leaders, including H D Kumaraswamy, Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar, also supported the resolutions, paving the way for Modi to become prime minister for the third time. Israeli Air Force fighter jets conducted a strike directed at a Hamas compound inside a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) school in the area of Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip overnight, the IDF confirmed on Thursday. IMAGE: Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a UNRWA school sheltering displaced people, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, June 6, 2024. Photograph: Abed Khaled/Reuters The Israeli strike reportedly killed at least 40 people in the early hours of this morning, Al Jazeera reported, citing Gaza's government statement. Israeli armed forces said that the airstrike was directed by IDF intelligence and the Israel Security Agency and it eliminated terrorists who took part in the attack in southern Israel on October 7. According to IDF, "Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists who belonged to the Nukhba Forces were operating in the compound." As per IDF, the terrorists used thr UNRWA school it as a shelter. Several terrorists who planned to carry out terror attacks and promote terrorist activities against IDF troops in the immediate time frame were eliminated in the strike. Before the strike, several steps were taken to reduce the risk of harming uninvolved civilians during the strike, including conducting aerial surveillance and providing additional intelligence information. Hamas has condemned the "massacre" committed by Israeli forces against civilians at an UNRWA school in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, and said that it was a premeditated crime. IMAGE: Hamas has condemned the "massacre" and said that it was a premeditated crime. Photograph: Emad Abu Shawiesh/Reuters Al Jazeera reported, citing Gaza's government reports, that it has released a statement with more details on the victims of the Israeli air attack on Nuseirat. According to their statement, out of the 40 people confirmed killed in the attack on a UN-run school there, fourteen were children and nine were women. Out of 74 wounded from the attack, 23 are children and 18 are women, Al Jazeera reported. More than 36,654 people have been killed and 83,309 have been wounded in Israeli military attacks on Gaza since October 7, the enclave's Health Ministry says. IMAGE: Wounded Palestinians injured in an Israeli strike on a UNRWA school shelter at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Photograph: Doaa Rouqa/Reuters Some 68 Palestinians were killed and 235 wounded in the past 24 hours, the ministry added. The ministry said in a statement that the number of sick and wounded Palestinians who need to leave the Gaza Strip for treatment has reached 25,000 but since May 12, about the time Israel seized the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and it closed, "no sick or wounded person has been able to leave the Gaza Strip," as per Al Jazeera. Only 4,895 people were able to leave when the Rafah crossing was open, the ministry added. "This exposes the lives of thousands to avoidable complications and death, and these are cases that can be treated and saved if they were allowed to go to specialised centres outside the Gaza Strip," the statement said. Narendra Modi will take oath as the prime minister for a third consecutive term on Sunday evening as President Droupadi Murmu has invited him to form the government. IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the media after meeting with President Droupadi Murmu and staking claim to form the government as leader of the NDA Parliamentary Party, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on Friday. Photograph: Shrikant Singh/ANI Photo Murmu appointed Modi as the prime minister-designate on Friday after Bharatiya Janata Party chief J P Nadda handed her a letter on Modi's election as the leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party and National Democratic Alliance leaders submitted their letters of support. The BJP won 240 seats in the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls, falling short of the halfway mark in the 543-member House, but the NDA together won 293 seats, which is a comfortable majority. 'The President, having satisfied herself on the basis of the various letters of support received, that the BJP-led NDA alliance, which is also the largest pre-election alliance, is in a position to command majority support of the newly-constituted 18th Lok Sabha and to form a stable government, appointed Shri Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of India, exercising powers vested in her under Article 75(1) of the Constitution of India,' according to a communique from the Rashtrapati Bhawan. The President will administer the oath of office and secrecy to the prime minister and other members of the Union Council of Ministers at 7.15 pm on Sunday at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the communique said. Murmu handed over the letter of appointment to Modi, who called on her at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here on Friday evening. 'Hon'ble President Smt Droupadi Murmu offered curd to leader of NDA and PM designate Shri @narendramodi whilst inviting him to form the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre,' the saffron party said in a post on X along with a photo of Murmu and Modi. Sources said all major allies of the BJP, such as the Telugu Desam Party, the Janata Dal-United, the Shiv Sena and the Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas, will be given representation in the government during its swearing-in ceremony. "There will be at least one Cabinet berth for each of them and more representation can be given to them in the future reshuffle and expansion of the council of ministers," a source said, adding that talks are still on and nothing is finalised yet. Earlier, leaders of the BJP-led NDA called on Murmu and handed their letters of support for Modi to her. Addressing reporters in the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Modi said he has been appointed as the prime minister-designate by the president. "The President has asked me to work as the prime minister-designate and informed me about the oath ceremony," he said and added that he has informed Murmu that they will be comfortable if the event is held on Sunday evening. Modi said the Rashtrapati Bhavan will work out the details of the oath-taking ceremony on Sunday, by when he would hand over the list of the Council of Ministers to the President. "This 18th Lok Sabha is an important milestone towards fulfilling those dreams when the country will celebrate 100 years of independence in 2047," he said. The 18th Lok Sabha will be a House of new energy, youthful energy, and people have given the NDA government one more chance, Modi added. The NDA delegation that called on Murmu was led by Nadda and included Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Ashwini Vaishnaw and C N Manjunath (all from the BJP), TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, JD-U leaders Nitish Kumar, Rajiv Ranjan Singh and Sanjay Jha, Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde, Janata Dal-Secular leader H D Kumaraswamy, LJP-RV leader Chirag Paswan, Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular leader Jitan Ram Manjhi, Jana Sena leader Pawan Kalyan, Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar, Apna Dal-Sonelal leader Anupriya Patel, Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Jayant Chaudhary, United People's Party Liberal leader Joyanta Basumatary, Asom Gana Parishad leader Atul Bora, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha leader Indra Hang Subba, All Jharkhand Students' Union leaders Sudesh Mahto and Chandra Prakash Choudhary and Ramdas Athawale from the Republican Party of India-Athawale. Nadda handed over a letter to the president, stating that Modi has been elected as the leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party. The NDA leaders also handed over their letters in support of the BJP to Murmu. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday was granted bail by a special court in Bengaluru in connection with a case filed by the Bharatiya Janata Party's Karnataka unit for issuing "defamatory" advertisements in mainstream newspapers. IMAGE: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi leaves after addressing a press conference at AICC HQ in New Delhi on June 6, 2024. Photograph: Rahul Singh/ANI Photo The advertisement ahead of the Assembly polls last year accused the then BJP government in the state of indulging in large-scale corruption during its 2019-2023 rule. The court had on June one granted bail to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who is also the State Congress chief, after they appeared before it in connection with the defamation case. Judge K N Shivakumar had directed Gandhi to appear before the court on June seven without fail. Gandhi apologised to the court on Friday for seeking exemption from personal appearance in the last two hearings. The court accepted his apology and granted him bail on a surety of Rs 75 lakh. Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar were also present in the court along with Gandhi. The BJP had in its complaint filed in June 2023 alleged that false and reckless allegations were made in the advertisements issued by the accused persons on May 5, 2023 in all the mainstream newspapers in Karnataka during campaigning for the Assembly polls, under the title "Corruption rate card", and "40 per cent Commission Sarkara (government)". It was alleged in the complaint that the advertisements were issued by the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee through Shivakumar, in his capacity as its president and by Siddaramaiah, as the then Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly. Gandhi had put up a post of this "defamatory advertisement" on his social media 'X' account, it pointed out. In a post on 'X' after Gandhi personally appeared before the court, the BJP said: "Accused out on bail in the National Herald case, Mr. @RahulGandhi, you are welcome to Namma Bengaluru. We also invite you to experience the consequences of Indian laws for all the misleading and defamatory advertisements you used against our leaders here in Karnataka, which you have failed to prove till today." Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will have to resign within two weeks from one of the two seats he won in the just-held Lok Sabha elections, a constitutional expert said citing provisions in the law as well as the Constitution. IMAGE: Congress' newly elected MP from Wayanad and Rae Bareli Rahul Gandhi holds a meeting with party leaders at the Congress Bhavan in Bengaluru on Friday, June 7, 2024. Photograph: ANI Photo Former Lok Sabha secretary general and constitutional expert P D T Achari told PTI that any candidate who wins from two seats will have to forego one within 14 days of the election results. Even after the dissolution of the 17th Lok Sabha, Gandhi can send his resignation to the current Speaker Om Birla as he will continue to hold office till a pro-tem speaker is appointed for the 18th Lok Sabha. The 17th Lok Sabha stood dissolved on June 5 after President Droupadi Murmu accepted the advice of the Union Cabinet to dissolve the House to make way for the formation of the new Lok Sabha. Achari said in case the posts of speaker and deputy speaker are vacant, the member can send the resignation to the Election Commission. If a member fails to resign from one of the two seats, he faces the danger of losing both seats. The Congress' tally in the new Lok Sabha stands at 99, with Gandhi winning from Wayanad in Kerala and Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh. The Election Commission has been pressing the government to amend laws to bar people from contesting from two seats or, at least as a deterrent, ask a candidate who vacates a seat necessitating a bypoll to deposit an 'appropriate' amount in the state coffers. The Representation of the People Act, 1951, allows a person to contest a general election or by-elections or biennial elections from a maximum of two constituencies but the candidate can retain only one. Before a 1996 amendment in the electoral laws, there was no bar on the number of seats a person could contest. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday accused the opposition of seeking to erode people's trust in democracy and casting a shadow of defeat over the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance's poll win, asserting that the ruling bloc scored a grand victory in the Lok Sabha elections. IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi being garlanded by TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Parliamentary Party meeting, at the Samvidhan Sadan, in New Delhi on Friday. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president J P Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan and others also present. Photograph: ANI Photo "If you see in the context of alliances and statistics, then this is the strongest alliance government," Modi said while addressing newly-elected MPs and leaders of the NDA from across the country following his election as leader of the ruling bloc ahead of his government's swearing-in on Sunday. He flayed opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) leaders for casting suspicions on electronic voting machines (EVMs) and the Election Commission throughout the poll process, alleging that they wanted to stoke fire across the country if the results did not suit them. However, the EVMs silenced them by June 4 evening, he said in an apparent reference to the opposition's better-than-expected showing. Modi said the world will also be drawn towards appreciating the diversity and expansiveness of Indian democracy following these results. The prime minister projected the results as a nationwide popular endorsement of his government's agenda, moving to quell any sense of pessimism among his own party members after the BJP fell short of a majority. He cited people's increased support to the alliance in south India and Odisha, where the BJP is also set to form its maiden government, to laud its performance. "The Congress has not got as many seats in three Lok Sabha polls since 2014 as we have got in these elections. It has not been able to touch even the 100 mark this time," he said. "People know that we had not lost and have not lost," he said, adding that even a child would tell that it is the NDA that was in power before the polls and which is in power after the polls. "Where did we lose? The NDA was there yesterday, is there today and will be there tomorrow." By every parameter, the world recognises that the results reflect the NDA's grand victory, he said. At the ceremony held in the Central Hall of the Parliament complex, it was NDA all the way in optics as well as substance as nine leaders of as many allies flanked Modi, besides three BJP leaders on the dais. It was the NDA that Modi repeatedly mentioned while highlighting his government's policies and programmes, and how its different members, including the Telugu Desam Party's N Chandrababu Naidu and Janata Dal-United's Nitish Kumar, have ushered in development in their respective states. After Modi's election, leaders of different parties met President Droupadi Murmu to submit to her their letters of support to him. In his speech, the prime minister claimed that attempts were made to not accept the NDA's win and overshadow it with a sense of defeat. Buoyed with its tally of 234 seats, the opposition alliance has projected the results as a defeat for Modi. The NDA tally stands at 293, comfortably above the majority mark of 272. "I can see clearly, though the INDI Alliance does not know. They were earlier sinking slowly but are now hurtling down the abyss," he claimed. Modi said he asked someone on June 4 when the results were being announced if the EVM is 'still alive or dead'. These people (opposition) had made up their minds to ensure that people's trust in Indian democracy is broken, he claimed. "I thought they would take out a funeral procession for EVMs. However, as the results were declared by June 4 evening, they were silenced. This is the strength of Indian democracy, its objectivity, and the election system. I hope questions will not be raised on EVMs for five years. Probably, they may make a fuss again in 2029," Modi said. Opposition parties tried to obstruct the Election Commission's work by filing many petitions in the Supreme Court, he said, adding that it showed how despondent they were in the electoral field. They conspired to defame India globally, he said. "The country will never forgive them." Modi said the opposition parties belong to the last century in their mindset as they are opposed to any technological intervention, be it UPI or Aadhaar. "The INDI Alliance is fundamentally opposed to progress, modernity and technology." While he is beating the drum about India being the 'mother of democracy', the opposition is telling the world that there is no democracy in India, Modi added. He accused his rivals of making comments between the last day of polling on June 1 and the counting day on June 4 as part of a conspiracy to stoke violence. Attempts were made to mislead and divide people, he claimed. The Congress' top leadership will deliberate on the Lok Sabha election results and chalk out its future strategy at a crucial meeting of the party's working committee on Saturday. IMAGE: Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi with party president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi during a press conference, in New Delhi on Tuesday. Photograph: Shrikant Singh/ANI Photo An extended meeting of the party's top decision-making body -- the Congress Working Committee (CWC) -- will be held at Hotel Ashok at 11 am where Congress Legislature Party leaders and Pradesh Congress Committee presidents from various states will analyse its performance and suggest measures to strengthen the organisation. The party's top brass, including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, besides other leaders will participate in the deliberations. Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, who has convened the meeting, will also host a dinner for all extended CWC members and party MPs at Hotel Ashok. A meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party comprising all newly-elected MPs of the Lok Sabha and those of the Rajya Sabha will be held in the Central Hall of Parliament at 5.30 pm, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X. The Congress has emerged as the second-largest party in the Lok Sabha, improving its tally to 99 from 52 in the 2019 elections. This will be the first time that the Congress, since its ouster from power in 2014, will get the post of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. It failed to get the position in the past 10 years as its tally was below the requisite 10 per cent of total seats in the House, both in 2014 and 2019. A section within the party strongly feels that former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi should take over as leader of the party and opposition in the Lok Sabha. The issue is likely to be raised in the meetings of the CWC and the Parliamentary Party. Gandhi won both the Wayanad and Rae Bareli seats in the elections and will have to decide within 14 days which seat he will hold and which he will vacate. He will have to make a decision before the oath-taking ceremony, likely to take place next week. The Congress has emerged as a strong force in Parliament after the elections and the party is looking forward to cornering the government on issues concerning the common people, including price rise and unemployment, in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. BRATTLEBORO If you're coming by the Royal Diner on a Friday evening for ice cream or a smash burger and fries, you might find yourself walki FARGO U.S. Attorney for the District of North Dakota Mac Schneider was born and raised in Fargo and has witnessed the city's transformation and growth into a thriving mid-sized city over the last few decades. For the most part, Schneider said Fargo's growth has been positive and has led to vibrant opportunities for the community. But, as any city grows, he said, so grows the opportunity for violent crime to take root. A new federal initiative announced by Schneider's office Tuesday aims to help Fargo avoid such a situation. He announced a three-part focus for the "Strategic Assistance for Fargo through Federal Enforcement and Resources" initiative during a press conference at the Quentin N. Burdick Courthouse in downtown Fargo, flanked by state, county, and local law enforcement as well as leaders from several federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Justice, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. According to a press release, statistics show that violent crime has risen 45% in Fargo since 2019, though those numbers appear to have leveled off in recent years. "Thanks to the hard work of our law enforcement partners, there's no reason to believe that number is any longer on an upswing, so that's tremendously positive and it's no time to be discouraged. But it's certainly no time to let up," Schneider said. "As the Fargo area continues to grow within the coming decades, we have an opportunity perhaps a time-limited opportunity to really keep the genie in the bottle when it comes to violent crime. It's much easier to get a hold on violent crime before violent crime gets a hold of our community." As part of the initiative's first area of focus, the Fargo Police Department will receive new equipment and technology from ATF which will allow for on-site analysis of spent shell casings from shootings. This ballistic evidence analysis has been shown to aid in investigations and solve crimes by allowing law enforcement to search against evidence in other jurisdictions that may help identify the individuals behind the shootings, the press release stated. The placement of National Integrated Ballistic Information Network equipment in Fargo is nearly finished and is slated to be implemented starting later this month. The second element of the initiative is a renewed focus on the prosecuting individuals in possession of illegal weapons like machine guns, felons in possession of guns and people who purchase guns for criminals, known as straw purchasers. The Department of Justice allocated a violent crime-specific Assistant U.S. Attorney position to the District of North Dakota in 2023, and Schneider said veteran prosecutor Jake Rodenbiker has been named to fill that post. Schneider said that while the U.S. Attorney's office has long pursued these cases, a new federal law, the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, along with new resources allocated to his office mean the office will be "absolutely unsparing" in prosecuting these cases going forward. The initiative's final focus is an effort to utilize new resources to disrupt gang and other criminal group activity. The DOJ's Violent Crime and Racketeering Section has assigned a trial attorney to the Fargo U.S. Attorney's office for these purposes, and the office is getting additional training on the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act in order to help bring cases against organized criminal groups operating in the community. Schneider said this effort will build on the "tenacious" work already being done by the Metro Street Crimes Unit, which includes members from the Fargo and West Fargo police departments, and the Cass County Sheriff's Office. "Right now Fargo is not known as a community with a gang problem, and that is the whole point. We want to keep it that way. We do know there are gang members here in the community it's probably best to think of them as illicit startup businesses," Schneider said. "We want to make it as difficult as possible for the gangs to grow, to expand, and to take root because we know when that happens, violence follows. So what gang members should take to heart before they set up shop in Fargo is that our law enforcement partners are watching, and our federal prosecutors are not waiting. We will forcibly prosecute gang members when they commit illegal activities as a group or one-by-one if need be, because that's critical to keeping the Fargo area safe as the community continues to grow." Schneider said the S.A.F.F.E.R. initiative is already "well underway" in Fargo, and that it isn't just going to benefit Fargo but also the surrounding area and beyond. As an example, he said the use of the NIBIN technology in Fargo could lead to a case being solved somewhere else in the country. Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook. Gordon Hayward of Westminster writes about individual men and women who contribute day in and day out to the life of our community here in Southeastern Vermont. BENNINGTON Construction workers digging around the foundation of a century-old abandoned structure in Old Bennington unearthed what authorities believe to be human remains buried in the dirt. The remains, believed to be human bones, a femur, a piece of vertebrae, and several other bones, were found early Thursday morning when workers digging around a fieldstone foundation were moving dirt under the home to help reinforce the structure. The house, which had been unoccupied since sometime in the 1980s, was recently tapped as a project by the new owners, who decided to try to save the century-old structure. I just happened to dig down about a foot and a half, and the bone was just sticking up there, said Ben Britch of Clayton Construction, the company working on saving the old structure. I just pulled it up out of the dirt right next to me. When another worker spotted the bones, he told Britch they looked like human bones. Thats when the men called the Bennington Police. The house is at least a hundred years old and under some major renovations, as you can see, said Bennington Police Chief Paul Doucette, alerted early Thursday morning about the find. While digging underneath, workers found several old bones that appear to be human bones. Bennington Police immediately called in detectives and an assistant medical examiner soon after. The assistant ME told police he believed the bones to be human. A state archeologist was also called to examine the bones and the surrounding dirt. The remains were then transported to the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington to confirm through DNA testing if they were in fact, human bones, as believed. Some of the surrounding dirt where the bones were found will also be analyzed. These remains were under this old home, which is in one of the oldest parts of Bennington, Doucette said, It is concerning finding human remains, but this could well have been a former burial site or possibly not human at all. There were battles throughout this whole area during the Revolutionary War. Who knows where these came from at this point? Workers found old bottles and old pottery as well. Some metal bands from an old barrel or keg were also found nearby. Theres a lot of possibilities. When asked whether police have initiated an investigation into the old property or if there were historically any missing persons associated with the area, Doucette confirmed that the investigation is currently underway. We have a call into the Town Clerks office to learn more about the property and the previous owners. We are currently not aware of any missing persons here or any unsolved cases in this area. Again, who knows? This could be a burial site from years ago. Owner Mo Kafka has owned the property where the bones were found since 2022. He recently hired Clayton Construction to help secure the fieldstone foundation with the hopes of occupying the structure sometime in the near future. The property includes a primary home, a Greek revival-style classic, post-colonial-era structure built sometime around 1830. It also includes the small cottage structure under renovation, and an old red barn. The property is on West Street/ Route 9, directly opposite the Four Chimneys Inn. The area surrounding the property is significant in Vermont's history and the colonial era leading up to the Revolutionary War. Phnom Penh is open to modest cooperation with Washington , but Chinese money keeps local elite networks in line. Before U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Cambodia this week, the Pentagon had indicated that the talks wouldn't yield "significant deliverables." Despite some media predictions of a U.S.-Cambodia rapprochement after years of testy ties, Cambodias elite politics impose limits to how far relations can recover. Austin's visit to Phnom Penh came during a trip to Southeast Asia for the annual Shangri-La Dialogue defense summit in Singapore the previous weekend, and Cambodia was one of the few regional countries he had yet to visit. In July, Cambodia will take over the coordinating role for U.S.-ASEAN Dialogue Relations for the next three years, charged with facilitating talks between the Southeast Asian bloc and Washington. Thus, there are incentives for the U.S. to engage a little more with Phnom Penh. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, left, shakes hands with Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Manet in Phnom Penh, June 4, 2024. (AKP via AP) Ahead of Austins arrival, Sun Chanthol, one of Cambodias deputy prime ministers, mentioned that Phnom Penh might allow the resumption of "military-to-military" relations in the form of joint exercises on humanitarian and disaster relief. According to a Pentagon readout, Austin discussed the "resumption of military training exchanges on disaster assistance." However, this is relatively low-level stuff. In 2017, amid an authoritarian consolidation of power and crushing of the opposition by the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) that drew U.S. criticism, Phnom Penh canceled the annual joint military drill "Angkor Sentinel" with the U.S., claiming Cambodian troops were needed to manage local elections. Superficial rapprochement Since then, Cambodia has conducted military drills with China instead. It is unlikely that Angkor Sentinel will return anytime soon. Recent U.S.-Cambodia rapprochement has been superficial at best. President Joe Biden voiced appreciation that Cambodia condemned Russias invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a move orchestrated by then-premier Hun Sen, which cost Cambodia little but gained international favor. Because Cambodia held the ASEAN chairmanship that year, Western leaders were forced to parley with Phnom Penh and some presumably liked what they were told. Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen speaks during the opening ceremony of the ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh, Nov. 11, 2022. (Vincent Thian/AP) And in a case of judging someones action by their reputation, not the other way around, almost every Western capital leapt onto the narrative that the change of leadership in Cambodia last year when Hun Sen, the prime minister since 1985, handed over power to his West-Point educated son, Hun Manet was a convenient moment to change tack. Indeed, since then, France and Australia have taken the approach long favored by Japan and now wont say anything bad about Phnom Penh. The European Union got a taste of some environmental policies in Cambodia and now thinks its a green partner. Elusive balance In Washington, many of the American politicians who were most interested in Cambodias domestic politics, as opposed to its role in world politics, have either passed away or left office. Among them, Dana Rohrabacher left in 2019 and Steve Chabot in 2023. The question now is whether the U.S. can improve relations with Cambodia which means Cambodia making its relations with the U.S. and China more balanced. The answer requires a better understanding of why Cambodia aligned with China in the first place. Chinese and Cambodian military personnel participate in the Golden Dragon military exercise in Svay Chok village, north of Phnom Penh May 30, 2024. (Heng Sinith/AP) There are two common explanations. One holds that American interference in domestic affairs, particularly democracy-building, pushed Phnom Penh towards Chinas no strings attached engagement. The second is economic necessity: China has provided capital that others could not. By one estimate, China invested around $12 billion between 2011 and 2021, building motorways, ports, railways and other critical infrastructure. Without this money, Cambodia would have struggled to develop such infrastructure or would have had to borrow extensively. While Chinese investment was a no-brainer for Phnom Penh, losing it wouldn't be catastrophic; the CPP government won't collapse if a Chinese state-run company doesn't build another motorway, However, both explanations are too simplistic, too focused on conventional governance. Delicate balancing act Cambodia remains effectively a feudal system with a complex balance of power among the political nobility and economic barons. The Hun family is at the top, but other elite families have their own power bases, while the tycoons who finance the political system wield considerable influence. The entire state system is held together by an intricate and delicate balancing act. For all of Hun Sens strength, he had to plan his sons succession for more than a decade and other political nobles only agreed to it after he doled out thousands of patronage positions and agreed to everyone handing over power to their own children or proteges. Cambodias Prime Minister Hun Manet, center left, and China's Yunnan Province Governor Wang Yubo walk during the inauguration of the Chinese-funded Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport in Siem Reap province on Nov. 16, 2023. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP) These moves meant that the financial interests and the patronage networks of everyone remained untouched by the reshuffle. There was no consolidation of power by the Hun family. This has been the system for decades. Since 2010, however, Chinese capital has raised the stakes. Now were talking about billions, not millions, of dollars flowing at the top of the political system, which has made the dominant clans more powerful yet has made any potential dispute between them far more perilous. Each clan and network has its own Chinese patron. The clan of Tea Banh, the former defense minister, which controls the defense ministry and some of the southern provinces, including Sihanoukville, is perhaps the closest of the clans to the Chinese military, for instance. Sihanoukville has long been a hotbed for Chinese organized crime. Thread of Chinese money The challenge for the U.S. is how to alter a situation where the entire state fabric of Cambodia is intertwined with Chinese money. Its not the case that a few cabinet ministers can sit around a table, decide that maybe Cambodia has become a little too dependent on China and come up with a few balancing policies. If Prime Minister Hun Manet even considers resetting foreign relations, that would step on the toes of other political nobles and economic barrons. That in turn would upset the intricate balance that stops all of the elites from going after each other. If a certain powerful family has a vested interest in China having exclusive access to the Ream Naval Base, for instance, does another powerful family risk fratricide by too forcefully opposing this? Cambodias former Defense Minister Tea Banh salutes Chinese sailors during his visit to two Chinese warships docked at the Ream naval base in Cambodia, Dec. 3, 2023. (Tea Seiha via Facebook) Consider also the illegal cyber-scam industry, a major issue for Cambodia and which will likely soon become a new front in U.S.-China tensions. A report by the United States Institute for Peace (USIP) estimates this industry in Cambodia is worth at least $12.5 billion annually, nearly half the country's formal GDP. Almost certainly some of Cambodia's most important families are connected. After all, you dont build an industry worth that much without political support, and no self-respecting Cambodian elite would pass up the opportunity of making billions of dollars from it. The USIP report notes:: Beijing has found in countries such as Cambodia and Laos that leaders will align closely with China politically in exchange for Beijing ignoring lucrative criminal activity. Indeed, its a case of the tail wagging the dog. The Chinese government is permitting the industry, which scams Chinese citizens of tens of billions of dollars each year, for geopolitical reasons. How does America suppose it can wean Cambodia off its dependency with China when a key cause of this situation is not normal government activity, such as investment and trade, but criminality? How does it convince the powerful in Phnom Penh to end this dependency when Cambodias rulers know that doing so would spark major tensions between elites? David Hutt is a research fellow at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS) and the Southeast Asia Columnist at the Diplomat. He writes the Watching Europe In Southeast Asia newsletter. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of RFA. The construction of Funan Techo canal is set to start on Aug. 5 but questions remain over its feasibility. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet has announced that work on the Funan Techo canal project will begin on Aug. 5, his father Hun Sens birthday, with an official breaking of ground for the project, media reported. The canal, proposed and approved when Hun Sen was head of the government, is increasingly portrayed in Cambodia as one of the veteran leaders great legacies. Hun Manet was quoted by the pro-government Fresh News as saying that the canal was no longer a foreign invested project but was now primarily owned by Cambodian companies, with a 51% stake. The main stakeholders are the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port and the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port, he said at an event at the Kampot port, adding that the canal would still be developed as a build-operate-transfer (BOT) project. The prime minister did not mention China or a Chinese company in his speech, though the Cambodian government last October signed an agreement with the China Bridge and Road Corporation (CBRC) allowing it to develop the canal. The 180-km (112 mile) 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 Phnom Penh via a tributary of the Mekong River. Map of the proposed Funan Techo canal. (Cambodia National Mekong Committee) It has caused a rift with neighboring Vietnam, which is worried about the ecological impact on its rice-growing Mekong delta, as well as the overall influence of China in the region. The delta is already at risk of encroaching seawater, partly due to lower flows of fresh water down the Mekong. Questionable viability? Hun Manet was quoted as saying that the canal would benefit the Cambodian people and not foreign interests. He called for unity and support for the project that would take four to six years to complete at a cost of US$1.7 billion. An analyst told RFA that the project appears to be on shaky financial grounds. The ownership and financing details change on this project from month to month it seems, said Brian Eyler, Southeast Asia program director at the Washington-based Stimson Center. First the project was to be financed by a Chinese entity and then built and owned for 40-50 years by CBRC. Now Khmer investors will pay for 51% and no construction company has been named by the prime minister, Eyler said. Its common though for projects to have a groundbreaking ceremony and then there is no further progress on the project for a long period, the analyst said. Im willing to bet the Funan Techo canal will be one of them. Experts also question the timing of the launch of construction as the project area sits in an active floodplain that is inundated during the monsoon season which generally runs from June to October, making it expensive and risky to dig a canal. Edited by Mike Firn. Lawyers for Australian television network, the Seven Network Ltd., British QC Jonathan Sumption, left, and John Halley move a box containing documents into the Federal Court in Sydney, Australia, Monday, Sept. 12, 2005. (Lindsay Moller/AP) Two senior British judges have resigned from Hong Kongs highest court, with one citing the "political situation" in the city weeks after the authorities passed a second security law adopting China's vague and sweeping definition of a 'state secret.' Jonathan Sumption and Lawrence Collins, who had both been serving as non-permanent overseas judges in Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal -- a post that is often seen as a bellwether of confidence in post-handover judicial independence -- tendered their resignations, the Hong Kong government said in a statement on Thursday. The announcement has sparked fresh concerns over Hong Kong's ability to maintain itself as a separate, common law jurisdiction in the face of huge political pressure from the ruling Chinese Communist Party to implement a similar national security regime to that already under way in the rest of China. The resignations come just a few weeks after Hong Kong passed a second security law, known as Article 23, that analysts say effectively imports the mainland Chinese concept of "national security," which includes cracking down on political dissent and criticism of the authorities, into the city's judicial system, which was once famed for its impartiality. The recent conviction of 14 former democratic lawmakers and pro-democracy activists for "subversion" for organizing a democratic primary in a bid to secure a majority in the Legislative Council has also highlighted how definitions of "national security" offenses have largely shifted to Beijing's interpretation. Collins told The Associated Press that his resignation was because of the political situation in Hong Kong," adding that he continues "to have the fullest confidence in the court and the total independence of its members," while Sumption said he would make a statement next week. Court of Final Appeal There are currently eight judges from the U.K., Australia and Canada still sitting on the Court of Final Appeal, which replaced Britains Privy Council as the citys highest judicial authority after the 1997 handover to Chinese rule. Usually, an appeal panel would include the chief justice, three Hong Kong judges and a non-permanent judge who could be a foreign national. A pedestrian passes the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong, on March 30, 2022. Two British judges have resigned from Hong Kongs top court, the citys judiciary said, deepening worries over the city's rule of law under a Beijing-imposed national security law. The judiciary said in a statement Thursday June 6, 2024 that Jonathan Sumption and Lawrence Collins, who both serve as non-permanent overseas judges of Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal, have tendered their resignations to the city leader. (Kin Cheung/AP) Sumption and Collins aren't the first overseas judges to step down following the imposition of the National Security Law by Beijing in 2020. Non-permanent Court of Final Appeal judges Robert Reed and Patrick Hodge stepped down in March 2022 citing the crackdown on dissent under that law. Australia-based lawyer and rights activist Kevin Yam said the resignations show that the judges "have lost confidence in the city's executive and legislative arms. He said the city's judicial independence has been undermined by "bad lawmaking." "It doesn't matter how independent a judge is; they must ultimately judge cases according to the law," Yam said. "If the laws are very bad, then [independence] is of no use." Exiled former pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui, also a lawyer, said he believes the conviction of the 14 pro-democracy activists was a turning point for confidence in Hong Kong's judiciary. "The case of the 47 activists was a key turning point, because ... international criticism was unprecedented, and the verdict was highly political," Hui said. "I also think the two judges would have faced great criticism if they had stayed on at the Court of Final Appeal." "They may have said that they have faith in the independence of Hong Kong judiciary to be polite, but if they really had that confidence, they wouldn't be leaving," he said. "This is a vote of no confidence, but with their feet." Regrets Hong Kong's Department of Justice expressed regret at the resignations, but said it was grateful for the judges contribution. "This incident will not shake or impair DoJ's determination and confidence in upholding the rule of law, including the independent judicial power exercised by the courts," the department said in a statement. Lord Lawrence Collins. (Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal) The city's Chief Executive John Lee also expressed "regret" about the resignations on Friday, but repeated government assurances that Hong Kong's promised rights and freedoms had been unaffected by the crackdown launched in the wake of the 2019 pro-democracy movement. "Hong Kong has transitioned from chaos to order," Lee said in a reference to the 2019 pro-democracy protests. "The only difference is that national security is now better safeguarded, [while] the safety and stability of Hong Kong is now better upheld." Chief Justice Andrew Cheung said the judiciary would continue to uphold the rule of law and judicial independence in Hong Kong. "Suitable candidates from overseas common law jurisdictions will continue to be appointed to the Court as Non-Permanent Judges," Cheung said in a statement on Friday. "All judges and judicial officers will continue to abide by the Judicial Oath and administer justice in full accordance with the law, without fear or favor, self-interest or deceit," he said. Lord Jonathan Sumption. (Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal) Both Sumption and Collins were listed as former judges on the top court's website on Friday. Their resignation came as legal experts warned that the Article 23 legislation has brought with it a "multitude" of business and legal risks, including to political activists, international NGOs and lawyers. Remain a fantasy The London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch quoted legal experts as saying that the principle of national security is now "supreme" in Hong Kong's legal and political systems. "Any notion that Hong Kong can simply switch its focus from security to the economywill remain a fantasy as the world loses confidence in Hong Kongs ability to serve as Asia Pacifics top financial center," the group said in a 40-page report on the impact of the new law published on June 6. "As with the People's Republic of China, national security will take precedence over everything else," the report said. This is in line with similar moves in China, where foreign businesses are now limiting their exposure to such risks, it said. It warned that "a wide barrage of new offenses ... have unreasonably low bars for conviction," and that many offenses don't require even incitement of violence to achieve a conviction. "In some cases, mere recklessness suffices to complete the offense, lowering the bar of conviction to dangerously low levels," the report said. It warned that the Article 23 legislation makes ample provision for authorities in Hong Kong to pursue their opponents in exile, as well as for the targeting of normal advocacy, lobbying, academic research and reporting activities by businesses or NGOs under clauses relating to "foreign collusion" and "foreign interference." "Institutional convergence between Hong Kong and mainland China will continue to erode Hong Kongs strength and attractiveness as a vibrant business hub as we once knew it," the report concluded. Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster. The Australian diplomat said Beijing wants Taipei to capitulate to a One Country, Two Systems' deal. Ambassador of Australia to the U.S. Kevin Rudd attends the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 17, 2024. Taiwan and the United States must counter Chinas growing use of gray zone tactics meant to force the island to give-in to a takeover, Australias ambassador to Washington, Kevin Rudd, said Thursday. Speaking at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, Hawaii, Rudd called the current era the decade of living dangerously and said Chinese President Xi Jinping was tiring of what he saw as Taiwans incrementally growing autonomy. In reaction to the Taiwanese governments claims the democratic island is already independent from China, he said, there is dwindling support in Beijing for the U.S.-backed status quo in the Taiwan Strait and a renewed urgency about resolving the Taiwan problem. Beijing is signaling loud and clear that its political objective remains to force Taiwan into negotiations on its preferred One Country, Two Systems formula, Rudd said, referring to the split system that was applied in Hong Kong after the British handover in July 1997. But with little appetite among Taiwans people for unification, according to opinion polls, Beijing is employing gray zone tactics aimed at chipping away at the publics willingness to resist, he said. Gray zone tactics Rudd described Chinas gray zone tactics as hyper-aggressive statecraft that is short of war and therefore difficult to respond to, and said they have included military intrusions on Taiwans outlying maritime territory to incrementally assert its sovereignty claims. A Taiwanese sailor aboard a Taiwan Navy vessel looks towards a Chinese warship while navigating on waters off Taiwan's western coast, in this handout image released May 23, 2024. (Taiwan Defence Ministry/Handout via Reuters) Coupled with threats of a blockade of the island, he said, the tactics aim to demonstrate that the Taiwanese administration, in the eyes of its people, is increasingly incapable of sustaining and managing Taiwan's claim to sovereignty and that giving up may be easier. To avoid Taiwans capitulation amid intensifying gray zone bullying, Rudd said, Taiwan and the United States must develop calibrated policy responses, instead of continuing to offer no responses at all, which presumably is Beijing's current expectation. Even then, he said, Beijing may resort to force, with the 70-year-old Xi likely mulling his personal and political mortality and seeking control of Taiwan before he finds himself in his 80s. Any war over Taiwan, he added, could be as globally transformative as World War II and lead to unknowable geostrategic consequences. A two-time former prime minister of Australia and a fluent Mandarin speaker who was appointed ambassador last year, Rudd told the audience that he was speaking in my capacity as a China scholar, and not as an official representative of the Australian Government. Arms sale Rudds speech came as Washington and Beijing sparred over U.S. military support for Taiwan amid Chinas recent maritime intrusions. The U.S. State Department on Thursday approved the sale to Taiwan of US$80 million in spare parts for American-made F-16 fighter jets, according to a press release from the Pentagon, which said it was meant to help Taiwan maintain a credible defensive capability. A phone and watch that received an air raid alert is placed together for a photo in New Taipei City, Taiwan Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024. (Ng Han Guan/AP) The Pentagon said the sale will not alter the basic military balance in the region but will improve the security of the recipient and assist in maintaining political stability [and] military balance. At a daily press briefing in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said it was clear Taiwans government was seeking formal independence and added that the U.S. is hellbent on helping advance that agenda by arming Taiwan. Mao said Washington should stop selling arms to Taiwan and having military contact with Taiwan, stop creating factors that fuel tensions in the Taiwan Strait, stop endangering cross-strait peace and stability and stop going further down this wrong and dangerous path. Edited by Malcolm Foster. Most North Koreans dont know Ko Yong Huis name or that she was born in Japan. North Korea has recalled a 2011 documentary that sang the praises of Kim Jong Uns mother, two sources inside the country told Radio Free Asia, but the move is prompting people to wonder why the country has always maintained a level of secrecy about her identity and background. Since her biographical information has never been officially stated, the recall on the film is actually raising suspicions, a resident of the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA Korean on condition of anonymity for security reasons. Most North Koreans dont know her name Ko Yong Hui or that she was born in Osaka, Japan, or that her father, Ko Gyon Taek, managed a military factory in the city prior to the end of World War II. The documentary, titled Mother of Great Songun Korea, leaves out all those facts, the sources said. In lieu of her name, the film referred to her as respected mother and showed many scenes of her at Kim Jong Ils side during his official appearances. Screenshot of the North Korea-produced documentary Mother of Great Songun Korea. (lovepink4200 via Youtube) It was distributed internally to high-ranking officials, government agencies, and the military on VCD, or video compact disc, in 2011, the same year that Kim Jong Il died. Recently, judicial agencies such as the Provincial State Security Department and the Social Security Department have begun rounding up copies of propaganda materials, the resident said. Instructions were given to retrieve and delete documentary films related to the general secretarys biological mother, he said, explaining that Mother of Great Songun Korea was on the undisclosed list of now-banned materials. The recall was also confirmed by a resident of the northern province of Ryanggang, who told RFA in the now-banned documentary that Ko Yong Hui, is touted as having accumulated great achievements that brought about a bright future for North Korea. Made in Japan Ko was raised in Japan as part of the Korean minority in the country, and in 1962, the family moved to North Korea as part of a repatriation program. In the early 1970s, Ko appeared as a dancer in the Mansudae Art Troupe a popular group of musicians known for propaganda performances that glorify the state and its leaders. It is not known when she got together with Kim Jong Il, but she is believed to have met him in the early 1970s, and she bore him three children in the 1980s, including Kim Jong Un. Though most sources describe her as having been his mistress, some suggest she may have been his third wife. The government has never acknowledged any marriage between them, however. Screenshot of the North Korea-produced documentary Mother of Great Songun Korea. (lovepink4200 via Youtube) According to North Koreas songbun caste system, Ko would be of the lowest caste because she was born in Japan, her fathers job supported the Japanese war effort, and her occupation as a dancer which would tarnish Kim Jong Uns image. Kos background does not neatly fit the nations founding myth that its leaders are descended from the so-called Paektu Line, named after the Korean peninsulas tallest mountain, which is the setting of many of the Korean nations founding myths, including the lore of the Kim Dynasty. Kims grandfather, national founder Kim Il Sung is the progenitor of the line, and his first wife Kim Jong Suk Kim Jong Ils mother fought alongside her husband in his guerilla army against Japanese rule prior to and during World War II, giving Kim Jong Il near mythical status as the legitimate son of two popular national heroes. In the past, previous leaders inherited power based on the purity of the Paektu bloodline and the legitimacy of revolutionary traditions, the North Hamgyong resident said. Details about the birth and lives of the leaders as well as their siblings, parents, grandparents and great-grandparents, were made public and promoted as patriotic examples. Erasing sensitive information? In contrast, Kim Jong Un, due to his mothers background, could be seen not as a third-generation revolutionary leader, but the illegitimate son of Kim Jong Ils Japan-born mistress whose father supported the imperialist war effort. Screenshot of the North Korea-produced documentary Mother of Great Songun Korea. (lovepink4200 via Youtube) If it becomes widely known, that support of imperial Japan could cause problems for Kim Jong Un, Bruce Bennett, a senior researcher at the California-based RAND Corporation, told RFA. "Kim is trying to wipe out anything that would potentially challenge his control of the country, said Bennett. So the issue of his maternal grandfather having supported the Japanese I mean that's something that could really hurt him potentially. And so that's part of the history he wants to get rid of, he said. Bennett said erasing facts about his mother might marginally help his case to stay in power, but it would be more helpful were he to improve the economy and his peoples lives. Screenshot of the North Korea-produced documentary Mother of Great Songun Korea. (lovepink4200 via Youtube) The lack of available information about Ko is causing residents to question what they have been told about their leader, Kim Jong Un, the Ryanggang resident said. As the biography of the leader has not been made public even after him having been in power for 12 years, some are raising doubts about the identity of his mysterious birth mother, he said. The argument is that if there is no dishonorable family history in the pure Paektu bloodline, there is no reason not to disclose details about her. Kim Jong Il was able to claim that his hereditary succession was legitimate because of the purity of his lineage to the Paektu bloodline, the second resident said. Kim Jong Un claims the same lineage, but the secrecy appears to be giving people doubts. Given the actions of the authorities, who are ordering the recall and destruction of copies of the already released documentary film about his mother, people are questioning whether his is a half-lineage, the second resident said. Translated by Claire S. Lee and Leejin J. Chung. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster. Volker Turk says failure to do so will undermine development, increase inequality in the impoverished nation. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Friday called on the government of Laos to ensure protections for human rights in the countrys budget allocations, saying that failure to do so will undermine development and increase inequality. Turk made the comments following a brief visit to the Lao capital Vientiane the first by a U.N. rights czar where he met with Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone and other senior officials to discuss the state of human rights in the impoverished nation, which is also this years chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. Public debt is a key challenge facing Laos, he said, but cautioned that debt repayment should not interfere with States human rights obligations to allocate the maximum available resources to the realization of economic and social rights. Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights HC, center, speaks June 7, 2024 in Vientiane, Laos. (OHCHR) It is against this background that I regret the declining public spending on social services, including social protection, health and education, he said. Human rights need to be reflected in budget allocations. If a country does not invest sufficiently in education, health, equality and other essentials, this will result in a cascade of problems in society scuppering development and increasing inequalities. Turk applauded the Lao governments emphasis on developing the country, but urged leaders to integrate human rights to ensure it is sustainable. Human rights are not an a la carte menu to select from, he said. Sustainable development is intertwined with economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights, as well as the right to a healthy environment. Civil society key to addressing issues Among the issues he called on Laos to address were child marriage, gender inequality and the impact of infrastructure projects on local communities, adding that the governments ability to tackles such issues depends profoundly on the meaningful participation of those most affected, and of civil society in all its diversity. Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights HC, left, meets with Saleumxay Kommasith, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Laos, June 7, 2024 in Vientiane, Laos. (OHCHR) In the absence of a vibrant civic space, stagnation sets in, and corruption remains hidden, he said. Policies to address environmental concerns, development goals, human rights violations resulting from business and land projects indeed, any issue are intrinsically weakened. To that end, Turk highlighted the need for those who express their views on issues of public interest to do so without fear. He said the government must do more to protect those in civil society from intimidation, violence or judicial harassment. He urged authorities to continue investigations into cases of forced disappearance, including that of Lao rural development expert and activist Sombath Somphone. Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights HC answers questions from university students and teachers following his lecture at the Faculty of Law and Political Science, National University of Lao PDR, June 7, 2024 in Vientiane, Laos. (OHCHR) Sombath has not been seen or heard from since he was stopped in his jeep at a police checkpoint outside Vientiane on Dec. 15, 2012, forced into a white truck and driven away. The Lao government has remained silent about the fate of the then 60-year-old Sombath, who had challenged massive land deals negotiated by the state that had left thousands of rural Lao villagers homeless with little compensation. Among the improvements on human rights Turk observed during his visit were legislative reforms, including a ban on corporal punishment of children, and progress in addressing poverty, which he said had led to improvements in the living conditions of some segments of the population. Edited by Malcolm Foster. Oil fields run by the state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise are the militarys top sources of foreign cash. Workers operate machines to extract crude oil from a well at an informal oil field, March 10, 2019 in Minhla township, central Myanmar. Junta forces have given up control of two oil fields managed by Myanmars state energy company after rebel guerillas cut off food supply routes to nearby military camps. Production at the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprises oil fields is the military juntas main source of foreign revenue. The company is estimated to generate US$1.5 billion in annual revenues or half the countrys foreign currency reserves. Junta troops abandoned an oil field in Kyauk Khwet village in Myaing township on March 2 and another one in Let Pan To village in Pauk township on April 19, two residents told Radio Free Asia. The oil fields are about 12 km (20 miles) from each other. They finally ran out of food and left their camps, said a Myaing township resident, who like others quoted in this report asked not to be identified for fear of retribution. We did not need to fight them. We didnt do anything with them. Before leaving, the troops burned down the buildings in both camps and also set fire to the oil field in Let Pan To village to keep equipment out of the hands of residents. A military jet also dropped several bombs on the Let Pan To oil field, the Myaing township resident said. Storage facilities at a Chinese-owned oil refinery plant are shown, Oct. 2, 2019, on Made Island off Kyaukphyu, Rakhine State. (Ye Aung Thu/AFP) No one has been seen working at either of the oil fields since the junta troops left, although nearby residents are still able to carry out some small-scale extraction, according to a resident from nearby Pauk township. This is a blow to their mechanism. The junta has lost a lot of natural gas, said a former employee of Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise who left after the 2021 military coup to join the Civil Disobedience Movement. We are cutting them off More than 200 wells have been drilled in the two fields since around 1996, oil field staff members told RFA. The two oil fields produced the maximum amount of oil in 2018 and 2019, with about 1,080 barrels each day. The wells in Kyauk Khwet have also produced 1 million cubic feet (28 million liters) of natural gas each day, the staff members said. Other oil fields in Magway region are still under the control of the junta troops, said Yan Gyi Aung, a member of a rebel Peoples Defense Force, or PDF, group in Magways upper Minhla township. PDF fighters are aware of the strategic importance of halting junta operations at the oil fields, he said. The junta is getting funds from this. If they get more funds, they will buy more bullets and weapons to kill people, he said. We are blocking the lifeblood of their revenue and financial resources. Currently, we are cutting them off. Sanctions were directed at Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise following the February 2021 military coup. Another round of sanctions was announced last year by the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. RFA attempted to contact junta spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun and the juntas spokesman for Magway region, Myo Myint, about the loss of the two oil fields, but they did not immediately respond. Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster. Only five junta-occupied border posts remain in the township, residents said. An ethnic minority insurgent group has captured a junta base on Myanmars border with Bangladesh, sources close to the rebel group told Radio Free Asia on Friday. The Arakan Army, or AA, which resumed its battle against the junta for territory in Myanmars west in November, controls nine townships in Rakhine state and one in Chin state. In January, the AA turned its focus to Maungdaw, a strategic township for border relations with Bangladesh. On Thursday, AA troops captured junta Border Guard Station No. 6 in Inn Din village. Nearly 600 soldiers were stationed at the guard post, said one resident who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons. The border guards, combined with forces from other outposts, were stationed in that camp, he said. A junta division commander was also posted there. There are many casualties from the junta side and some soldiers ran away. In late May, junta airstrikes killed one civilian and wounded nearly a dozen in Maungdaw township. The AA launched an unsuccessful offensive against the same border post on Jan. 5, but were held back by the juntas combined navy, air force and army. RFA tried to contact AA spokesperson Khaing Thukha and Rakhine states junta spokesperson Hla Thein, but neither responded by the time of publication. Junta troops built the post in 2017 after destroying a predominantly ethnic minority Rohingya village that was located there, residents told RFA. The AA is also attacking Maungdaws Myin Hlut-based Border Guard Station No. 9. The insurgent group captured Maungdaws Border Police Command Office No. 1, which is the largest junta camp in Maungdaw township, residents said, adding that only five junta-occupied border guard posts remain in the township. Rebels are maintaining attacks on Ann, Thandwe and Maungdaw townships, where the juntas Western Regional Military Headquarters for Rakhine state is based. A ceasefire between the AA and the military broke down in November, at the same time that other ethnic minority and pro-democracy insurgents launched attacks that have put forces of the junta that seized power in 2021 under unprecedented pressure. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn. Some 500 junta troops are now stationed in 3 of the citys wards and ethnic rebels are digging in. Myanmars military is halfway to recapturing the Kayah state capital Loikaw since launching an offensive against the city at the end of May, residents said Friday. Since November, the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force, or KNDF, and its ethnic allies have seized 65 junta bases and eight towns, including 12 outposts, from the military in Kayah and, as recently as the end of April, had claimed to control 80% of Loikaw. But in March, the military began an offensive along the highway to Loikaw from Hsihseng township about 65 kilometers (40 miles) to the north and, by the end of last month, some 500 junta troops had regained positions in the citys Shan Pine, Mingalar and Dawtama Gyi wards, a resident told RFA Burmese. The junta forces have regained control of about 50% of the city, but not the entire area, said the resident who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. They have retaken their positions at their former regional command headquarters and No. 55 Division [outpost] Their drones use advanced technology, and rebel forces could not defend against them effectively. A March 23, 2024 image posted to the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force B - 05 Facebook page. (Karenni Nationalities Defense Force B - 05 via Facebook) RFA reported in May that the military is adding advanced Chinese drones to its arsenal and using them to attack its enemies with increasingly devastating effect. Rebel forces retain control of southern Loikaws Mong Lon ward, residents said, and battles are occurring there frequently. Some residents who returned to Loikaw after seeking shelter during the heaviest fighting told RFA that their shops and homes had been burglarized, although it was not immediately clear by whom. Preparing to defend Loikaw Banya, a secretary of the anti-junta Karenni State Interim Executive Council, said that the military has been attacking Loikaw with excessive force. Fighting is taking place almost every day, he said. They [junta troops] seem to be trying to regain control of Loikaw city. According to the KNDF, military columns headed to Loikaw from southern Shan State include junta forces who surrendered the No. 55 Division outpost and new soldiers recruited as part of the Peoples Military Service Law a conscription drive enacted by the junta in February that has driven thousands of draft-dodgers into rebel-controlled territory and abroad. A January 18, 2024 image posted to the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force B - 05 Facebook page. (Karenni Nationalities Defense Force B - 05 via Facebook) KNDF Vice-Commander Marwi told RFA his forces are digging in and preparing to defend the city. If they enter our control area, we will launch an all-out attack, he said. Attempts by RFA to contact Zarni Maung, the juntas spokesperson for Kayah state, for comment on the militarys push into Loikaw went unanswered Friday. City of strategic importance A former military officer, who now works as a political commentator, said the junta wants to retake Loikaw due to its strategic importance. "The population density is the highest in Loikaw, so controlling Loikaw means controlling Kayah state, he said the former officer, who also declined to be named. A March 23, 2024 image posted to the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force B - 05 Facebook page. (Karenni Nationalities Defense Force B - 05 via Facebook) The former officer said that the assistance of the pro-junta Pa-O militia had proved very effective for the military in its Kayah state offensive. According to the anti-junta Progressive Karenni People Force, nearly 200 battles occurred between junta forces and the KNDF in Kayah state and neighboring Shan state during the five months from Jan. 1 to June 1. During the battles, the junta deployed airstrikes and heavy artillery, killing at least 51 people displaced by conflict, it said. Karenni joint forces claim to have lost 139 soldiers and killed 562 junta troops in the fighting. Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster. The junta has halted applications for passport conversions, part of its effort to keep people from fleeing the draft in Myanmar, according to a passport broker. The move comes as neighboring Thailand considers reforms that could allow millions of Myanmar migrant workers to remain legally employed in the country and out of reach of the conscription drive. Many Myanmar nationals have been scrambling to leave the country since February, when the military announced it would begin enacting a conscription law following months of battlefield defeats. And since early May, men between 23 and 31 have been banned from working abroad reportedly another way to make men available for the draft. The Myanmar government currently issues several types of passports, including one for overseas workers, known as a PJ, and one for tourists, known as PV. Previously, holders of one type of passport could convert it to the other, but with a ban on men working overseas, those seeking to have their job passport converted to a visitors passport have been rebuffed. "With the age limit imposed on the PJ passport for working abroad, those who still want to go can no longer do so. Therefore, they have turned to PV passports, an unofficial passport broker who asked not to be named for security reasons told Radio Free Asia. It appears that the military council suspected they are working abroad with PV passports, which is why the transfer process has been halted, the person said. The law requires men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 to serve in the armed forces for two years. Since it was enacted, more than 100,000 people have fled abroad to avoid war, according to the Burmese Affairs and Conflict Study. Related Stories Myanmar now requires biometric smart card to exit country by border Burmese workers in Thailand fear getting drafted under new visa restrictions Myanmars ban on overseas male workers worsens Thai labor shortage Thailand mulls a response An unknown number have illegally crossed into Thailand, where they have joined a vast workforce of Myanmar migrants. According to the UNDP, there are an estimated 2 million registered Myanmar migrants, with perhaps as many undocumented workers. Immigration advocates as well as Thai labor officials have raised concern that the law could lead to a labor shortage, with would-be workers banned and those whose permits are set to expire facing legal limbo. On Thursday, Thailands Department of Employment announced a proposed slate of new immigration rules that would allow undocumented workers to stay and extend work permits for those set to expire. If approved by the cabinet, the rules would mean millions of unregistered but working migrants from Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos could qualify for so-called pink cards, or legal working papers. An estimated 2 million registered workers whose permits will soon expire would also see them extended. The announcement specified that applicants must already be in Thailand and employed by an employer, but it did not detail what the registration would entail or what the next steps would be. Pho Thingyan, from the Mae Sot-based Overseas Irrawaddy Association, a small nonprofit organization assisting migrant workers, said legal registration would help on several fronts. "Many people have migrated due to the country's situation. Issuing pink cards is helpful for them in matters of security. Additionally, having a certificate in hand opens up many job opportunities for them." Over the past three months, about 3,600 undocumented Myanmar nationals who have arrived in Thailand have been arrested, according to migrant workers. Translated by Kalyar Lwin. Edited by Abby Seiff and Malcolm Foster. Chinese authorities claimed he tried to recruit them to join a Uyghur advocacy group, he learned. Kasim Kashgar (center front) is photographed with, from right, Semet Ababekri, Abdukadir Rozi, Akber Osman, Mirkamil Ahmed and Mehmut Abdukeyum, during a school party in Urumqi in August 2015. Authorities in Xinjiang have sentenced five Uyghur former colleagues of a Voice of America journalist to at least seven years in prison because of their links to him, said Kasim Kashgar, who has worked for the government-funded news organization since 2019. The jailed men include Mirkamil Ahmed, Semet Ababekri, Abdukadir Rozi, Mehmut Abdukeyum and Akber Osman, he told Radio Free Asia, a sister organization of VOA, which reported their imprisonment on Wednesday. Kashgar said he found out about their imprisonment in May from people who traveled overseas and who knew details and had proof about his friends arrests. They told him that the men had been accused of being members of terrorist and separatist organizations. The men had worked with him at a language school Kashgar established in Xinjiangs capital Urumqi, he said. The five were all arrested around April and May 2021, said Kashgar, who fled from Xinjiang in May 2017 and arrived in the United States that October. Their arrest was not a random occurrence, Kashgar said. These individuals have committed no crimes. Accused of recruiting for WUC Through his contacts, Kashgar learned that Chinese authorities claimed that he had secretly tried to recruit the five men to join the World Uyghur Congress, or WUC, a Germany-based organization that advocates for the rights of the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs. About 11 million live in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which Uyghurs prefer to call East Turkestan. Kashgar, who reports on Uyghur human rights for VOA, sometimes interviews members of the organization. But the accusation that he tried to get the five men to become members of the WUC, is a blatant lie and slander, said Zumretay Arkin, the groups spokesperson and global advocacy director. WUC doesnt know the individuals or have connections to them, she said. Uyghur doctoral student Abduqadirjan Rozi (2nd from L) receives an award from officials at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, southern China's Guangdong province, in 2018. (Sun Yat-sen University) It is widely known within the Uyghur diaspora that people are often arrested based on false accusations of being linked to the WUC, with some even being forced to become spies, Arkin said. This recent arrest is yet another instance of the CCPs transnational repression policies, she said referring to the Chinese Communist Party. VOA spokeswoman Bridget Serchak declined RFAs request for an interview. Arbitrary arrests The arrests of Kashgars former colleagues in 2021 came at a time when Chinese government authorities were arbitrarily arresting and detaining numerous Uyghur intellectuals, businessmen and cultural and religious figures, purportedly to prevent religious extremism and terrorist activities. The Chinese government continues to call for the normalization of counterterrorism policies in the Uyghur region, Kashgar said. The unlawful arrests and torture persist to this day. RFA previously reported that authorities arrested one of the men, Abdukadir Rozi in 2021 while attending Sun Yat-sen University in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. The graduate management student, 35 years old at the time, had been praised in the Chinese media and known for his academic accomplishments. After Kashgar fled from Xinjiang in 2017 and posted on social media that he was living in the United States, his colleagues back home, including the five men, cut ties with him. The Chinese government demanded his immediate return to manage the language school because he was still its legal representative. They demanded that I return within a few weeks or the school would be shut down, he said. When Kashgar informed them that he would not return, they closed the school at the end of 2017. Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster. A spokesperson said a Chinese naval survey ship has been operating without permission in Vietnams waters. The Chinese navy survey vessel Hai Yang 26 in Vietnams waters on an unspecified date. Vietnam has expressed concern and demanded that China end illegal survey activities in Vietnams waters in the Gulf of Tonkin, a Vietnamese foreign ministry spokeswoman said. A Chinese navy Type 636A hydrographic survey vessel, the Hai Yang 26, has been operating in Vietnams exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, said the spokeswoman, Pham Thu Hang, on Thursday without giving details. Hang told reporters in Hanoi that the Vietnamese government has engaged in multiple diplomatic exchanges with the Chinese to demand the ending of the Hai Yang 26s illegal activities. Radio Free Asia is not able to verify whether the vessel is still inside Vietnams waters as it has not turned on its AIS (automatic identification system) for tracking. In 2000, Vietnam and China signed an agreement on the demarcation of the Gulf of Tonkin, which is shared by both countries. An exclusive economic zone gives a coastal country exclusive access to natural resources in the waters and seabed so the Chinese vessels activities are deemed unlawful, according to Vietnams foreign ministry. Vietnam also demands that China not repeat such illegal activities, fully respect Vietnams sovereign rights and jurisdiction, respect international law, the spokeswoman said. In March, China released a new excessive baseline for its claims of sovereignty in the Gulf of Tonkin, known in China as Beibu Gulf. Vietnam responded with a request that China respect international law and bilateral agreements. Edited by Mike Firn. Luong Tam Quang was the only person put forward by the prime minister Updated June 7, 2024, 05:12 a.m. ET. Vietnams National Assembly has approved a resolution to appoint Senior Lt. Gen. Luong Tam Quang as Minister of Public Security for the 2021-2026 tenure. Quangs was the only name put forward by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Thursday ahead of a closed vote later that day. Quang, 58, is a member of the Communist Party Central Committee and was serving as deputy minister of public security. On May 21, the National Assembly relieved then-public security minister To Lam from the position after his election as state president. Hanoi-based political observer Dr. Nguyen Quang A told Radio Free Asia Quangs appointment puts To Lam in a very strong position and it had clearly been the new presidents plan all along. There was unofficial information about a meeting on strengthening key leadership positions at the Ministry of Public Security, he said. The information, which went viral on social media, originated from a photo of the meeting panel in which participants were said to be the ministrys key personnel and police heads from cities and provinces. If the MPS Party Committee held such a meeting, To Lam must have been the mastermind because hes still the committee's secretary, although hes no longer the MPS minister. The minister of public security is in charge of police and security forces. They are responsible for the internal security of Vietnam, law enforcement, managing immigration and protecting citizens against external threats. Quang was born in the northern province of Hung Yen. He is a graduate of Vietnam's Public Security Academy. He served as assistant to the deputy minister of public security, then chief of staff and spokesperson of the ministry. In 2019, he became deputy minister of public security and also headed up its Security Investigation Agency. Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the Australian Defence Force Academy, advised against reading too much into To Lams choice of successor. It is normal procedure to include someone from the public security bloc on the Central Committee to fill the vacancy of Minister of Public Security, he said. As the head of the Ministrys Investigative Security Agency Quang is expected to maintain continuity in the anti-corruption campaign pursued by his former boss. Minister Quang has wide recent experience in dealing with counterparts in ASEAN. Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Mike Firn. Updated with comments by Carl Thayer. 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 Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, a U.S.-designated terrorist who has a $10 million bounty on his head, visited the United Arab Emirates on June 4. Haqqani, accompanied by the Taliban's intelligence chief, met the U.A.E. president in Abu Dhabi. The foreign visit, Haqqani's first since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, sparked widespread outrage among Afghans. U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that "hosting UN-sanctioned Taliban members must seek permission for travel through an exemption process as outlined by the UN 1988 sanctions committee, and it's important that member states follow these procedures." "We understand the complex relationship countries have with the Taliban, particularly those in the region," said a State Department statement later sent to the Associated Press. It is unclear whether Haqqani or the U.A.E. government had obtained such permission. But on June 5, the UN Security Council allowed Haqqani and several other Taliban officials to travel to Saudi Arabia later this month to perform the Hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage. Why It's Important: Haqqani's trip is a public relations win for the Taliban, whose government is not recognized by any country. Despite its lack of international recognition and limited engagement with the West, the Taliban has established diplomatic ties with around a dozen countries in the region. Ishaq Atmar, an Afghan political analyst, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi that Haqqani's trip can "open a new door" for greater international engagement with the Taliban. Ghous Janbaz, an Afghan political analyst, told Radio Azadi that Haqqani's trip came weeks before a key UN meeting on Afghanistan in Qatar during which the group will look to allay international fears over the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan. But Haqqani's trip has triggered online condemnation, with some Afghans asking how one of the FBI's most-wanted men was able to visit the U.A.E., a U.S. ally. What's Next: International engagement with the Taliban has not moderated its extremist policies. The militant group has refused to budge on key issues, including establishing an inclusive government, ensuring women's rights, and breaking ties with extremist groups. The Taliban is likely to use its engagement with the international community to win concessions and present itself as the legitimate ruler of Afghanistan. What To Keep An Eye On A new survey by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has identified "widespread shocks" in Afghanistan, where many live in severe food poverty. "Much higher food prices and drought are affecting 60 and 58 percent of Afghan households, respectively," the organization said in a briefing on June 3. The survey found that despite the decrease in the prices of some food items, poor "households remained vulnerable to intrahousehold and economic shocks," which reflected "broader macroeconomic vulnerabilities in Afghanistan." More than two-thirds of households reported a decrease in their primary source of income, the survey said, while another 10 percent lived on savings and debt. Why It's Important: The survey highlights the effects of the devastating humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the world's largest. Shortfalls in international funding, the Taliban's inability to address the crisis, and a series of deadly natural disasters have exacerbated the humanitarian situation. That's all from me for now. 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. At least 22 people were killed and 117 others injured in Israeli strikes on Beirut, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported on October 10 after an Israeli strike on a school sheltering Palestinians in Gaza killed dozens of people. Lebanon's state news agency NNA reported two evening air raids in central Beirut. The first targeted an eight-story building and the second a four-story building that completely collapsed as a result of the strike, NNA said. A Lebanese security source quoted by Reuters said at least one senior Hezbollah figure was targeted in the attacks, which were the third on Beirut since Israel started a military campaign in southern Lebanon last month targeting the Iran-allied Hezbollah militia and sparking fears of an all-out regional war. Hezbollahs Al Manar TV reported after the strikes that an attempt to kill Wafiq Safa, a top security official with the group, had failed. It said that Safa had not been inside of either of the targeted buildings. Hezbollah kept up rocket fire into Israel on October 10. The military said several drones heading toward Israel were intercepted. Earlier on October 10 an Israeli strike on a school in the Gaza Strip killed at least 27 people, Palestinian medical officials said, while a separate Israeli strike hit UN peacekeeper headquarters in southern Lebanon, prompting Italy to summon the Israeli ambassador. The Israeli military said it carried out a "precise strike on terrorists" who had a command and control center embedded in the school. "This is a further example of the Hamas terrorist organization's systematic abuse of civilian infrastructure in violation of international law," a military statement said. The Palestinian militant group Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and the EU, has denied such accusations. People who had been sheltering at the school said the strike hit a meeting of aid workers and injured 54 other people. Israel has continued to strike at what it says are militant targets across Gaza as it battles Hamas militants even as the war broadened to include Hezbollah in Lebanon amid rising tensions with Iran. In a separate incident on October 10 the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said an Israeli tank fired on its headquarters in the town of Naqoura, hitting an observation tower and wounding two peacekeepers. The nationality of the injured peacekeepers was not released. The UN peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL said in a statement that Israeli forces also fired on a nearby bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, damaging vehicles and a communication system. The Italian Defense Ministry summoned Israel's ambassador in protest, and Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told a press conference that "hostile acts committed and repeated by Israeli forces against the base...could constitute war crimes." Crosetto added that Italy has asked for an official explanation "because it was not a mistake." The French Foreign Ministry said that while no French solider was injured in the incident, it also demanded an explanation. The Israeli military announced earlier on October 10 that it had eliminated another important Hezbollah member as it kept up its attacks against the Iran-backed group. Adham Jahout, a member of Hezbollah's Golan Terrorist Network was killed in an air strike in the area of Quneitra in Syria, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said. Jahout was relaying intelligence from Syrian regime sources to Hezbollah and facilitating operations against Israel in the Golan Heights, the IDF said. Israel annexed the Golan Heights after capturing them from Syria during the 1967 Middle East war. The annexation has not been recognized by most countries. Separately, the Israeli military said on October 10 that it had eliminated two Hezbollah commanders in southern Lebanon and its warplanes attacked munitions depots in the Beirut area and in southern Lebanon. It did not immediately reveal the identities of the two commanders. Hezbollah, a militant group and political party that controls much of southern Lebanon, is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, while the European Union blacklists its armed wing but not its party, which has seats in the Lebanese parliament. The latest strikes came as the United States, Israel's main ally, warned against bombardments in Lebanon similar to those that caused large-scale destruction in Gaza as Israel retaliated against Hamas following the U.S.- and EU-designated terrorist group's deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, that left more than 1,100 people dead. Israel's bombardment of central and northern Gaza in recent days has killed dozens of people and trapped thousands in their homes, Palestinian officials say. "There should be no kind of military action in Lebanon that looks anything like Gaza and leaves a result anything like Gaza," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told journalists on October 9. The warning came after U.S. President Joe Biden emphasized in a call on October 9 with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the need for a diplomatic arrangement for the return of both Lebanese and Israeli civilians to their homes on both sides of the border. The United States warned Israel on October 9 against launching a military action in Lebanon like the one it has conducted in Gaza, and U.S. President Joe Biden emphasized in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the need for a diplomatic arrangement for the return of both Lebanese and Israeli civilians to their homes on both sides of the border. Biden also condemned Iran's ballistic-missile attack on Israel on October 1, a White House statement said. Biden "affirmed Israel's right to protect its citizens from Hezbollah, which has fired thousands of missiles and rockets into Israel over the past year alone, while emphasizing the need to minimize harm to civilians, in particular in the densely populated areas of Beirut," the statement said. The United States has imposed visa restrictions against dozens of Georgian officials over the adoption of a "foreign agent law," which sparked weeks of mass protests and criticism that it mirrors similar repressive legislation used by the Kremlin to stifle dissent and derails Georgia's Euro-Atlantic path. The move, announced by State Department spokesman Matthew Miller on June 6, comes following the promulgation of the bill by Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on June 3 after lawmakers from the ruling Georgian Dream party had overridden a veto of the legislation by President Salome Zurabishvili. Hundreds of people have been arrested during weeks of protests against the piece of legislation. Some of the protesters who were detained during demonstrations, which were met with tear gas, water cannons, and allegedly rubber bullets that injured opponents and journalists, could face years in prison on criminal charges. "This first tranche of visa restrictions comprises members of the Georgian Dream party, members of parliament, law enforcement, and private citizens," Miller told journalists. "This includes individuals responsible for or complicit in, and immediate family members of those responsible for or complicit in undermining democracy in Georgia, such as by undermining freedoms of peaceful assembly and association, violently attacking peaceful protesters, intimidating civil society representatives, and deliberately spreading disinformation at the direction of the Georgian government," Miller said. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken first warned that sanctions would be imposed after the lawmakers' initial approval of the bill last month, and announced a review of all U.S. assistance to Georgia. Washington, which has been one of the main backers of Georgia's integration into Western institutions, gave Tbilisi $390 million in aid over the past several years. These actions risk derailing Georgia's European future and run counter to the Georgian Constitution and the wishes of its people, said Miller, without identifying those targeted, due to visa confidentiality laws. He said a few dozen people were sanctioned for their role in the pushing the law and the crackdown on protesters. "It remains our hope that Georgia's leaders will reconsider their actions and take steps to move forward with their nation's long-stated democratic and Euro-Atlantic aspirations," Miller told reporters. "But if they do not, the United States is prepared to take additional actions." Opposition lawmaker Levan Khabeishvili, the head of the leading opposition United National Movement (UNM) party, hailed the U.S. move and said the adoption of the law will also be followed by economic repercussions. Lawmakers who voted for the 'Russian Law' and police officers who dispersed peaceful demonstrators came under sanctions, and this is just the beginning. What kind of investor will enter or stay in such a country?! Under [Georgian Dream founder Bidzina] Ivanishvili, economic collapse is inevitable! The destructiveness of Ivanishvilis team is hitting the pockets of Georgian citizens. Thank you to the United States of America for supporting the Georgian people! Politician and entrepreneur Mamuka Khazaradze, the leader of Lelo for Georgia, a centrist political party, said that, by sanctioning the "treacherous" Georgian Dream politicians, the United States was backing the Georgians' Western aspirations. America has once again reaffirmed its unwavering support for the Georgian people," Khakaradze wrote on social media, urging his compatriots to use their vote at upcoming parliamentary elections in October to bring in change. "The United States of America has taken action. The first wave of sanctions against the treacherous government is approaching. However, we must remember that the more the [Georgian] Dream government moves away from democracy and closer to Russia, the more it will damage the country and our international interests. This is not allowed! This is a betrayal of the future! So now its our turn again -- we need to put in even more effort to finally secure the victory in October! In a first government reaction to the sanctions, Culture Minister Thea Tsulukiani called Washington's move a "mistake" and called for it to rescind it. We can say with confidence that this is another mistake that, unfortunately for them and for us, the United States is making in relations with its strategic partner...the U.S. desperately needs to reset this relationship, Tsulukiani said. Papuashvili said on June 3 that the Justice Ministry will work out the tools for the implementation of the law in 60 days after which all NGOs and media groups that receive financial support from abroad will be obliged to register and report their finances for 2023. Adina returned to Kyrgyzstan from a Syrian camp last autumn on a flight organized by Bishkek to repatriate dozens of wives and children of Kyrgyz Islamic State (IS) fighters. Adina says she is happy to be home but adds that her "heart bleeds" because her 20-year-old son, Nurmuhamed -- the eldest of her four children -- was left behind in Syria. The last time Adina, who didn't want her last name published for privacy reasons, heard from her son was a letter he sent from a Syrian jail in 2022, three years after he was arrested by Kurdish forces aged 15. Adina and other Kyrgyz women in the Kurdish-controlled Al-Hawl and Al-Roj camps in northern Syria say Kurdish guards routinely check their tents and take away boys as young as 8 to place them in juvenile prisons. "I don't know why they do it, but they would come both during the day and at night to detain boys. Mothers would put hijabs and dresses on their sons to save them," she told RFE/RL. "Every woman who was raising a son had a bag [packed with the necessary stuff] ready for her son to take and ran away if there is a risk of being caught." Nurmuhamed was 13 years old when his parents, residents of the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh, took their five children to the Syrian city of Raqqa, the so-called capital of the self-proclaimed Islamic State caliphate. Her husband and youngest child died in air strikes several days apart in March 2019 when IS was being ousted from its last strongholds. "On March 14, the same day my husband died, Nurmuhamed went to look for food and never returned. I was hiding in a trench with my other three children, where we were arrested and taken to Al-Hawl." Adina later found out that Nurmuhamed was detained by Kurdish forces and was placed in a prison, but she doesn't know any other details. She only has one last photo of her son, a video grab showing Nurmuhamed behind bars. "In autumn 2019, women in Al-Hawl were searching for their husbands and sons on videos recorded in prisons," Adina said. "I saw my son in one of the videos and made a screenshot. Before that, for five months, I didn't know if my son was dead or alive." Once again, Adina doesn't know if Nurmuhamed is alive or in which prison he is being held. She and her relatives have repeatedly asked the Kyrgyz government to help find her son. "Kyrgyz authorities told us that they didn't find him in any prisons," Adina said. State Responsibility' Also left behind in Syria was the Kyrgyz teenager "Aitbek," who was allegedly taken to a juvenile detention from Al-Hawl at the age of just 10 in 2019. Aitbek's real name is not used for security reasons. "Aitbek's mother and four siblings returned to Kyrgyzstan in 2023. The mother had asked the authorities to return her son, too, and she waited for him, but she died without ever seeing him again," says Hamida Yakubova, the head of a parents group campaigning for the repatriation of their children from Syria and Iraq. The whereabouts of Aitbek are unknown. Yakubova has obtained a video that purportedly shows Aitbek and several other boys looking out of a window at a detention facility. Meanwhile, in the Al-Roj camp a Kyrgyz mother says she is desperately trying to save her two sons from detention as the family awaits the next repatriation flight. Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, the woman said her eldest son is 20 and the younger one -- who was born in Syria -- is 7 years old. "We heard that [Kurdish forces] send boys under 18 to juvenile prisons and once they reach 18 they will be placed in regular prisons," she said. "We think the reason the guards take the boys away upon reaching puberty is that they want to prevent them from having sex with women. Mothers put hijabs and dresses on their sons, but the [Kurdish guards] often determine by the way they walk whether it's a boy or a girl." The woman said she never allows her sons to leave the tent. "The children here don't develop properly because they don't get educated. My eldest son still behaves like a small child," the woman said. "These children have never lived a normal life. All they know is camps in Syria. I would love to go back to Kyrgyzstan with my sons." Kyrgyz authorities say at least 850 of their citizens left for Syria to join IS. Dozens died there. In 2021, the government launched the Meerim operation to repatriate its citizens, most of them women and children, and rehabilitate and reintegrate them into society. This year, 432 Kyrgyz -- including 303 children -- were brought to Kyrgyzstan from Syrian camps. "They are our citizensand their repatriation is the direct responsibility of our state," Marat Imankulov, the head of Kyrgyzstan's Security Council, told RFE/RL. Written by Farangis Najibullah in Prague with reporting by RFE/RL Kyrgyz Service correspondent Aigerim Akylbekova U.S. President Joe Biden drew on the heroism of U.S. soldiers who scaled the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc in the D-Day invasion 80 years ago to rally for the defense of democracy at home and abroad and "stay true to what America stands for." Biden spoke on June 7 at a monument honoring the U.S. Army Rangers who scaled the cliffs using ropes, ladders, and their bare hands while under fire after coming ashore in the invasion that began on June 6, 1944, and ultimately freed Europe from Nazi Germany's subjugation in World War II. 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. As we gather here today, its not just to honor those who showed such remarkable bravery that day June 6, 1944, Biden said. Its to listen to the echo of their voices. To hear them. Because they are summoning us. Theyre asking us what will we do. Theyre not asking us to scale these cliffs. Theyre asking us to stay true to what America stands for. Earlier on June 7, Biden met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Paris, where he stressed the U.S. commitment to Ukraine in the face of Russia's invasion. He also announced a new $225 million package of ammunition shipments, including rockets, mortars, artillery rounds, and air-defense missiles. It was their first meeting since Biden signed legislation authorizing $61 billion in military aid for Ukraine after months of delay prompted by Republican infighting. Biden publicly apologized to the Ukrainian people for the delay in American military assistance. I apologize for...those weeks of not knowing whats going to happen in terms of funding, Biden said, but insisted that the American people were standing by Ukraine for the long haul. "I assure you the United States is going to stand with you," Biden said. "You are the bulwark against the aggression thats taken place. We have an obligation to be there. Were still in. Completely. Thoroughly. Zelenskiy said he and Biden discussed Ukraine's defense capabilities, the situation on the battlefield, and preparations for signing a bilateral security agreement. He said Ukraine must gain the ability to strike military targets on Russian territory to effectively defend itself. "It is also important to strengthen the defense of our Kharkiv region and speed up the delivery of American weapons," he said on Telegram. The White House said Zelenskiy and Biden discussed the state of the war, Ukraine's urgent need for aid, and the upcoming peace summit in Switzerland. Zelenskiy, speaking earlier to the French parliament, said the peace Europe has enjoyed since the end of World War II has been erased by the aggression of Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, and is a threat to the entire continent. "We live in times when Europe again stopped being a continent of peace," Zelenskiy said. "We live in times when Nazism is returning again, unfortunately. Now in Europe again cities are being destroyed and villages are being burned to ashes. In Europe again we have filtration camps, deportations, and hatred that became a new cult in Russia." Neither Russian President Vladimir Putin nor any other officials from Russia were invited to the commemoration. While Biden and other Western leaders were in France, Putin spoke at an economic forum in St. Petersburg, telling business leaders that Russia remains one of the key participants in world trade despite sweeping sanctions imposed for sending its troops into Ukraine. Putin said that he did not see that conditions for the use of nuclear weapons as set out in Russia's nuclear doctrine had been met, but he added that he could not rule out a change to the doctrine. "We have a nuclear doctrine, which states that the use of nuclear arms is possible in an exceptional case: when the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country is threatened," he said. "But the doctrine can be changed. The same applies to nuclear tests. We will carry out tests if needed, but so far there is no such need." He reiterated that Russia is ready for peace talks but only on the same conditions discussed first in Minsk and then in Istanbul. But he said the basis for any talks "must take into account the realities of today." He also again warned that Russia could provide long-range weapons to others to strike Western targets in response to NATO allies allowing Ukraine to use their arms to attack Russian territory. Following pleas from Ukraine to allow its forces to defend itself against attacks originating from Russian territory, and after pressure from some European leaders, Biden last week reversed Washington's position and gave Ukraine the go-ahead to use U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia for the limited purpose of defending the eastern city of Kharkiv. Germany, where Zelenskiy is scheduled to address lawmakers next week, announced a similar change in policy shortly afterward. Ahead of Biden's meeting with Zelenskiy, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg reiterated NATO's position that Ukraine has the right to strike inside Russia in self-defense. "This is a war of attack that Russia has begun against a peaceful, democratic neighboring country, Ukraine, that at no point has been a threat to Russia," Stoltenberg said after a meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Stockholm on June 7. "There is no question that Ukraine has the right to hit targets on Russian territory," Stoltenberg said. As observers await the appearance of F-16s in the skies over Ukraine, Keith Rosenkranz, a pilot who flew 30 missions in the jet during the Gulf War, sounds a note of caution to the Ukrainian airmen who will fly them. "It's one thing to go out on a training mission to drop bombs on a dummy target or engage dissimilar aircraft in an air-to-air scenario," he told RFE/RL. "It's another thing to do either of these when an enemy is trying to kill you." After years of requests from Kyiv, Ukraine is due to receive its first F-16s from Western allies in June or July, according to recent reports. The F-16 was created in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. In the dogfights of that conflict, bulky, slow-turning American jets were picked off in alarming numbers by more nimble Soviet-supplied aircraft. To create the F-16, a team of designers who became known as the "fighter mafia" upended the philosophy of the time, which was resulting in large and complex American jets. Instead of making a bigger engine to increase power, the designers of what would become the F-16 slashed the weight of the airframe. Rather than fitting the aircraft prototype with bigger fuel tanks to increase range, the design team shrunk the jet and cut down on drag. Worried that the avionics department would stuff their jet with heavy, complex equipment, one member of the design team later recalled, "We made the airplane so dense there wasn't room for all that crap." The result has been called the most successful fighter jet ever made. Since its prototype's first shaky flight 50 years ago, more than 4,600 F-16s have been built for the militaries of dozens of countries around the world. Ukraine will be the latest country to field the jet, which is officially called the Fighting Falcon but generally referred to by its snappier nickname: "Viper." Rosenkranz, who wrote a book about his combat experiences as a pilot of the F-16, says Ukrainian airmen will, at least initially, be at a disadvantage over their Russian counterparts flying advanced fighters. As his country was being pushed to provide F-16s to Ukraine, Rosenkranz says he felt "it would be extremely difficult for Ukrainian pilots to fly combat missions in defense of their nation without a long work up in the jet." The American pilot's own combat sorties came only after he underwent more than 1,200 hours of flight time in a training aircraft, then more than a year of noncombat service flying in the F-16. Even with this lengthy lead time, his first warfighting missions were "terrifying," he says. "Russia has capable air-defense systems, such as the [S-400 anti-aircraft missile]. Their experienced fighter pilots would have an advantage over [Ukrainian] F-16 pilots with little time in their jets. As I said, there's a stark difference between training missions and actual combat missions." Rosenkranz says it would take around a year of flying the F-16s before Ukrainian pilots would feel comfortable in the jet. "Even with that, I wouldn't necessarily believe they would dominate the Russian military," he says. The F-16 was initially designed to outmaneuver and shoot down other jets, including with a rotary cannon capable of firing 100 20mm rounds per second. But with the powerful radars and missile systems in use by fourth-generation fighter aircraft today, it is unlikely the Ukrainian-piloted F-16s will face the kinds of nose-to-tail dogfights seen in previous conflicts. David Kern is a former F-16 pilot with thousands of hours of experience flying all fourth-generation fighter jets operated by the U.S. Air Force. Kern told RFE/RL that he believes the role for the F-16s in Ukraine will be as a kind of "very flexible and long-range artillery system." Kern, who today trains pilots in the same "fly-by-wire" flight control system used in the F-16, says the American jets will likely be used to strike airborne targets such as large Russian drones and cruise missiles, as well as ground targets such as "supply routes, logistics staging, and any Russian concentrations of force." The pilot adds, "I would not be surprised if the Ukrainians use the F-16 to bring the fight to Russia, by making some very deep strikes into Russia to attack strategic targets." By Grainne Ni Aodha and Cillian Sherlock, PA The importance of using your vote was the big theme from early on Friday as political leaders and punters headed to the ballot boxes. Politicians emphasised the value of democracy and of the possible risk to it across Europe and one Minister said polling day was like crowning voters as king or queen for the day. Taoiseach Simon Harris turned up to vote just minutes after polls opened in his locale in Co Wicklow to a gaggle of media and beaming polling station workers. Taoiseach Simon Harris headed out for 14 hours of canvassing shortly after voting. Photo: Grainne Ni Aodha/PA Arriving just after 7am, the Taoiseach cast his vote in the local and European elections, the first nationwide poll in four years. An early start, he said to a worker at the polling station in Delgany National School. Referencing former British prime minister Boris Johnson being turned away from a polling station in May because he did not have photo ID, Mr Harris added: And I brought my ID just so we dont have a Boris moment. He then shook hands with all the polling station workers and spoke to the media about the importance of voting before heading off on what is being touted as a 14-hour canvass across the country. Right, Cork! he said as he marched towards the school car park. The elections are being viewed as a test of Mr Harris popularity, who became leader of Fine Gael and of the Coalition Government just eight weeks ago. Green party leader Eamon Ryan voted as polls opened for the local and European elections. Photo: Cillian Sherlock/PA Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, who has been in Government with Fine Gael and Fianna Fail since 2020, would not divulge whether he gave his Coalition partners a preference on the ballot paper. The privacy of the ballot box will be retained, he cautioned a reporter who asked. Mr Ryan said he was hopeful of a high turnout and had been told there was a queue outside his local polling stations door at 7am. We dont have a king or queen, we decide who governs and the expression of that sovereignty is in the vote. That is not a small act, he said. When you vote, youre king, youre queen for the day. So I hope theres a big turnout, thats the most important thing. Sinn Fein Leader Mary Lou McDonald, with local election candidates Amy Farrell and Seamus McGrattan, casting her vote. Photo: Niall Carson/PA Meanwhile, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said today is the big day as she denied running too many candidates in the European and local elections. I want to encourage people to come out and use their vote, Ms McDonald said, speaking after casting her ballot at the polling station on Navan Road in Cabra, Dublin. This is a moment where change can start, the first step in getting a change of government. So the elections are significant and it is very, very important that each and every person exercises their democratic right to vote. She described it as a great, very interesting and very engaged campaign and encouraged people to be part of a big change. Asked whether her party ran to many candidates, she said: No, we ran a great slate of candidates and they have all thoroughly enjoyed the campaign and [being] out and about meeting people. So today is the peoples day, please come out and vote. President Michael D Higgins casts his voteat St Mary's Hospital in Phoenix Park, Dublin. Photo: Niall Carson/PA President Michael D Higgins and his wife, Sabina, also cast their votes in the local and European elections. The couple were greeted by staff at the polling station in Phoenix Park in Dublin on Friday morning. As he placed his ballot papers inside the box, Mr Higgins said: Sin e. [Thats it.] A fantastic night of music will be held at the Trinity Arts Centre, Castlerea on Saturday, June 8th. Tricia Collins will be gracing the stage, along with the enchanting harmonies of The Sirens and the foot stomping tunes of Yonder Boys. These are three fantastic acts, boasting eight captivating voices from Berlin to Ireland delivering an enchanting blend of folk, Americana and bluegrass. Castlerea native Tricia Collins travels from her current base in Berlin to take to the stage in her hometown. With tender, evocative vocals, irresistible hooks, and lyrics that resonate deeply, Tricia masterfully weaves a musical tapestry that speaks to the hearts of her listeners. She is known for her unique and compelling musical experience, expertly blending elements of originality and quirkiness that define her artistic identity. The Sirens - Mone, Lena Minder, Olivia Void and Lotta St. Joan are four women, four voices. Sometimes alone, sometimes together, they enchant with songs about longing, passion, pain and love. On this night, many a heart will be broken, only to be soothed again in the same moment. Yonder Boys are a band who stand brazenly on the edge of Americana/bluegrass/ newgrass and folk. While performing on traditional bluegrass instruments (banjo, dobro, mandolin, guitar, double bass), their songwriting and performances are focused on space for experimentation and their love for creating and singing beautiful three-part vocal harmonies. The band features Jason Serious (USA - vocals, guitar), David Stewart Ingleton (Australia - vocals, banjo) TomAs Peralta (Chile -vocals, mandolin, banjo, bass). Book your tickets for Saturday, June 8th at 8 p.m. on Eventbrite or trinityartscastlerea@hotmail.com. Report of the Day The end of May and first days of June brought to Bucharest a stellar event: Poli SpaceFest, with projects devoted to the space industry, organised by the Polytechnic University of Bucharest. NASA astronaut Susan Kilrain Radio Romania International, 07.06.2024, 14:30 School children were able to take part in competitions, workshops, VR and AR experiences, flight simulator exercises and much more. For students and professors alike, the festival introduced amazing airspace engineering projects, looking ahead at the professions of the future, both in space and on Earth. Representatives of the Romanian airspace industry showcased their latest technologies, solutions and products, and presented future investment opportunities. The special guests of the festival were the NASA astronaut Susan Kilrain, the Axiom Space chief astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, the retired NASA astronaut Dominic Antonelli and the ESA astronaut Sawosz Uznanski. An engineer of Polish descent, Sawosz has been working for the European Space Agency (ESA) since 2023, as a project astronaut. Between 2018 and 2020, he was an Engineer in Charge of the Large Hadron Collider LHC, being responsible for the day-to-day 24/7 operations of CERNs largest accelerator and assuring its optimum exploitation. An MIT graduate and retired NASA astronaut, Dominic Anthony Antonelli served as pilot on 2 Space Shuttle missions: the STS-119 which launched in 2009 and delivered the final pair of power-generating solar array wings and truss element to the International Space Station, and the STS-132, launched in May 2010, which saw the delivery of the Russian Mini-Research Module 1 (MRM-1) to the International Space Station. Michael Lopez-Alegria is a veteran of 3 Space Shuttle missions and one International Space Station mission. He is known for having performed ten spacewalks so far in his career, presently holding the second longest all-time EVA (extra-vehicular activity) duration record (first among NASA astronauts) and having the fifth-longest spaceflight of any American at the length of 215 days. Lopez-Alegria commanded Axiom-1, the first ever all-private team of commercial astronaut mission to the International Space Station, and in 2024 he was the commander of the Axiom 3 mission. Commander Susan Kilrain is a renowned astronaut, a distinguished navy test pilot, and author. She is the youngest person, and one of only three women, to pilot the space shuttle. She served 20 years in the navy, paving the way for women. She has flown more than 3,000 flight hours in over 30 different aircraft, and she was awarded the Defense Superior Service Medal. She is currently a motivational speaker and encourages young people to pursue a STEM career. RRIs Eugen Cojocariu had a short talk with Susan Kilrain at Poli SpaceFest in Bucharest, discussing how Earth is seen from space, the difficulties of becoming an astronaut, and why we need astronauts. June 7, 2024 UPDATE A roundup of the latest local and international news Newsflash Newsroom, 07.06.2024, 20:11 EU Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova have met the conditions for starting EU accession negotiations. A spokeswoman for the European Commission said in Brussels on Friday that the decision now is in the hands of the member countries. The Commission has informed the Council that Ukraine has done the latest legislative amendments in its legal system, to regulate lobbying activities and in the fields of minorities and the Republic of Moldova has operated changes in its judiciary. In the case of both countries, the Commission will be monitoring the implementation of the new amendments, but the steps taken so far allow for kicking off accession negotiations. In a first stage, the member states are expected to endorse the Commission recommendation and there is one question mark concerning the position of Hungary. A second stage will be the setting up of an inter-governmental conference with Moldova and Ukraine a moment which coincides with the start of negotiations for bringing the entire legislation in line with the blocs laws. The councils presidency is presently being held by Belgium, a country, which wants the setting up of the first inter-government conference during its mandate, by the end of July. GROWTH The Gross Domestic Product of the eurozone and of the EU registered an increase of 0.3% in the first quarter of 2024 as compared to the last quarter of 2023, says data published on Friday by the EU statistical office Eurostat. According to the same data, Romanias economy registered a slight growth above the European average with a GDP growth of 0.4% in the years first three months after a contraction of 0.6% in the last three months of 2023. Eurostat data are similar to those provided by the National Institute for Statistics, which revised down Romanias economic growth in the first quarter from a previous forecast of 0.5% to 0.4%. ELECTION In Romania, Friday was the last day of the first electoral campaign in 2024. Citizens with the right to vote are expected, on Sunday, to go to the polls to choose both their representatives in the future European Parliament and in the local authorities. According to the data of the Permanent Electoral Authority, over 200,000 candidates have tried, starting from May 10, to convince voters to vote them. The oldest candidate is 100 years old, and the youngest is just over 23 years old. 11,386 people are running for mayoral positions. All in all, 207,389 candidates have registered for all the positions of local, county and municipal councilors, mayors and presidents of county councils. For the European Parliament elections, 12 political parties and electoral alliances and four independent candidates have registered, i.e. a total of 494 candidates, of whom the Romanians with the right to vote must choose 33 that will represent Romania in the European Parliament. The electoral campaign will end on Saturday morning, at 7:00 a.m. WAGES Almost 1,900,000 employees in Romania will receive increased salaries by 284 lei (57 Euros) net value, from July 1, after the Romanian Government approved the increase of the gross minimum wage from 3,300 lei (about 660 Euros) to 3,700 lei (approximately 740 Euros) and raised from 200 lei (approximately 40 Euros) to 300 lei (almost 60 Euros) the monthly amount exempted from the payment of the income tax. The executive believes that this approach will have positive effects on economic growth, the purchasing power of employees and will contribute to the reduction of undeclared work. However, the decision does not apply to employees in agriculture and the food industry, as legal provisions in force apply to these categories. The government representatives said that this increase is a step towards the adoption, from November, of the minimum wage at the European level. (bill) Japan will on Friday release April figures for household spending, highlighting a light day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. Spending is tipped to rise 0.2 percent on month and 0.6 percent on year after rising 1.2 percent on month and falling 1.2 percent on year in March. Japan also will see April results for its leading and coincident indexes; in March, they were up 0.1 percent and 2.1 percent on month, respectively. New Zealand will provide Q1 data for manufacturing sales volume; in the previous three months, sales volume slumped 0.6 percent on quarter. Taiwan will release May numbers for imports, exports and trade balance; in April, imports were up 6.6 percent on year and exports rose 4.3 percent for a trade surplus of $6.46 billion. 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. Health experts have expressed concerns about the emergence of new and highly contagious fungal strains, particularly after a case came to light involving a man in his 30s in New York City who contracted a sexually transmitted form of ringworm. This marked the first documented instance of such a case in the United States. The case study, which was conducted by specialists at NYU Langone Health focusing on contagious rashes, provided an in-depth account of the man's infection with trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII. It was determined that he had acquired this sexually transmitted fungus after engaging in sexual activities with multiple partners during trips to England, Greece, and California. Confirmatory tests verified the presence of the fungus, and the individual developed a persistent rash on his legs, groin, and buttocks, which was later diagnosed as a sexually transmitted fungus. Although the infection was successfully treated with standard anti-fungal medications, the healing process took over four months to complete. In a separate incident the previous year, doctors in France reported 13 similar cases, with twelve of the patients being men who have sex with men. The lead author of the study, dermatologist Avrom S. Caplan, stressed the significance of ensuring that healthcare providers are well-informed about the emergence of Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII as a severe skin infection in the United States. "Since patients often hesitate to discuss genital problems, it is crucial for physicians to proactively inquire about rashes around the groin and buttocks, especially in individuals who are sexually active, have recently traveled abroad, and report itchy areas elsewhere on the body," emphasized study senior author John G. Zampella, MD. Caplan also encouraged individuals to promptly seek treatment if they suspect they have ringworm or any persistent skin issues. Additionally, he mentioned plans for collaboration with fungi experts nationally and internationally to enhance research and monitoring efforts in the coming months. While experts have advised dermatologists to be vigilant for signs of TMVII in patients, the prevalence of these infections in the U.S. currently remains relatively low. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News China's exports growth accelerated markedly in May despite escalating trade tensions, official data revealed on Friday. Exports posted an annual growth of 7.6 percent following a 1.5 percent rise in April, the Customs Administration reported today. Shipments were forecast to grow 6.0 percent. Meanwhile, growth in imports decelerated to 1.8 percent from 8.4 percent in the previous month. Despite the slowdown, the annual growth far exceeded forecast of 4.2 percent. Consequently, the trade surplus increased significantly to $82.62 billion from $72.35 billion a month ago. The surplus was seen rising moderately to $73 billion. The latest Purchasing Managers' survey results showed that new orders from foreign increased in May. The manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 51.7, signaling the fastest growth in nearly two years. Capital Economics' economist Zichun Huang said exports are set to stay strong in coming months driven by weaker real exchange rate. The economist anticipates double-digit growth in export volumes in 2024, which will help the to expand 5.5 percent. Imports are also forecast to rise in the coming months, Huang said. "A fresh wave of fiscal support is likely to bolster construction activity, driving up demand for industrial commodities," the economist added. Uncover key Economic Data this week with RTTNews Macroeconomic Calendar For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News German stocks traded lower on Friday as investors digested mixed economic data and awaited the release of U.S. jobs report later in the day for additional clues on the Fed's monetary policy path. Germany's exports and imports growth accelerated in April, while industrial production dropped at a slower pace in the month, according to separate set of figures from Destatis. German exports grew at a faster pace of 1.6 percent on a monthly basis, following March's revised 1.1 percent increase. Shipments were forecast to grow 1.1 percent. Imports growth advanced to 2.0 percent from 0.5 percent in March- exceeding economists' forecast of 0.6 percent. Germany's industrial output edged down 0.1 percent on a monthly basis in April following a 0.4 percent drop in March. Although the pace of decrease softened from March, this was in contrast to economists' forecast of 0.3 percent gain. The benchmark DAX was down 78 points, or 0.4 percent, at 18,575 after rising 0.4 percent in the previous session. In corporate news, Vonovia shares tumbled 3.2 percent after a rating downgrade by Morgan Stanley. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says the deadly Israeli airstrike on a UN-run refugee camp in Gaza was carried out without prior warning to the hundreds of displaced inmates or UNRWA. At least 45 people were killed and dozens of others were injured when missiles fired by an Israeli warplane fell on a UN-run school-turned refugee camp in Nuseirat, accommodating 6000 displaced people in central Gaza. According to IDF, the airstrike was targeting a Hamas compound operating inside the school. Reports quoting the Israeli military said that the strike was only given the go-ahead after aerial surveillance, with additional measures taken to reduce the risk to civilians. At a news conference, an Israeli army spokesperson published the names of nine Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants who he said had been killed in the attack. Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, said claims that armed groups may have been inside the shelter are shocking, and that the agency is unable to verify these claims. He said UNRWA shares the coordinates of all its facilities, including the school that was attacked Wednesday night, with the Israeli Army and other parties to the conflict. "Attacking, targeting or using UN buildings for military purposes are a blatant disregard of International Humanitarian law," he said in a statement posted on X. He demanded that targeting UN premises or using them for military purposes must stop, and all those responsible must be held accountable. Since the war in Gaza began, more than 180 UNRWA buildings were hit and more than 450 displaced people were killed as a result, according to the UN agency. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News NASA's test flight to send two astronauts aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station has successfully completed its first stage. The capsule, carrying Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, reached the orbiting laboratory at 1:34 p.m. ET, Thursday, more than an hour behind schedule. They entered the International Space Station at 3:45 p.m. ET, according to NASA. During the 26-hour flight, Wilmore and Williams successfully performed manual piloting demonstrations of Starliner and completed a sleep period. They encountered new issues in the meantime; three helium leaks in the spacecraft. As Starliner began its approach to the space station, five reaction control system thrusters failed off during flight. The mission team resolved the issues in time, NASA said. Butch Wilmore is the mission's commander and Sunita Williams its pilot. If everything works out as planned, the Starliner and its crew will return to Earth for a landing in White Sands, New Mexico, on June 14 from the International Space Station after spending more than a week aboard the microgravity laboratory. The former Navy test pilots are the first to launch aboard Starliner to the space station as part of the U.S space agency's Commercial Crew Program. The crew flight test mission makes history in many ways. As the first crewed launch of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, Williams is the first female astronaut to fly on the first flight of a crewed spacecraft. The launch also marks the first crewed launch on the ULA Atlas V rocket and the first crewed launch on an Atlas-family class rocket since Gordon Cooper on the last Mercury program flight aboard "Faith 7" in May 1963. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News The UN General Assembly has elected Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama and Somalia to serve as non-permanent members on the Security Council for two-year terms beginning next year. They will replace Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland, whose terms end on December 31. In a secret ballot, the elected countries secured the required two-thirds majority of Member States present and voting in the 193-member General Assembly. The new members will join existing non-permanent members Algeria, Guyana, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia, whose terms started on January 1. China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States are the five permanent Council members, each wielding veto power. Under the UN Charter, the 15-member Security Council holds primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security, and all Member States are obligated to comply with its decisions. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News When compared to Indian models, both Dominar 160 (Pulsar NS160) and Dominar 200 (Pulsar NS200) miss out the new fascia and fully digital instrumentation The Pune-based 2W and 3W manufacturing stalwart, Bajaj Auto, has been very active in both the Indian market and in international markets. Late last month, Bajajs international ambitions gains more prominence as the companys Manaus plant in Brazil commenced production. At the same time, 2025 Puslar NS160 and Pulsar NS200 were launched in Brazil with subtle updates. Bajaj Brazil Plant Production Commenced In the Indian market, Bajajs manufacturing presence is spread across a wide variety of vehicle types ranging from ICE and electric 2W vehicles, ICE and electric 3W vehicles along with commercial 4W vehicles (Qute). Nameplates like Pulsar and Chetak hold some of the most brand recall and cult following. Most of Bajajs international business operated with a manufacturing setup in India. Soon, Bajaj commenced operations in Colombia plant so that they could better cater to more than 75 countries. Bajaj is expanding its manufacturing operations and has eyed Brazil for a long time. Almost a year ago, Bajaj Auto announced its Manaus manufacturing facility in Brazil. This facility will be set up under its wholly-owned subsidiary, Bajaj Do Brazil. Where location is concerned, Bajaj has chosen Manaus as its new production base, which is a special economic zone in Northern Brazil. Currently, Bajaj only sell Dominar 400, Dominar 200 (Pulsar NS200) and Dominar 160 (Pulsar NS160) in Brazil. All of these vehicles will now be manufactured in Brazil instead of assembling them in association with Dafra in the capital city of Amazonas state in Brazil. Plant capacity is touted to be 20,000 units per annum with scope for expansion. The company is highly likely to manufacture alliance vehicles from KTM, Husqvarna and Triumph as well. This way, marketing and logistics in both Americas and Europe are more cost-effective and establish better relevancy. The new Manaus plant in Brazil is said to reach full capacity by the end of this month and manufactured units will reach dealerships soon. 2025 Pulsar NS200 and Pulsar NS160 Along with commencing production of its first overseas manufacturing facility, Bajaj has also launched 2025 Pulsar NS200 and Pulsar NS160 in Brazil. However, these are called Dominar 200 and Dominar 160 over there. The main update has to be the inclusion of dual-channel ABS with both Dominar 160 and Dominar 200. Also, smaller Dominar now gets the same set of fat tyres from Dominar 200. Which are 100/80-17 at the front and 130/70-17 at the rear. Other than that, there are new colours on offer with wheels and USD front forks painted in Grey. Powertrains remain the same and Dominar 160 continues to get a 17 bhp 160cc engine and Dominar 200 continues to get a 24.5 bhp 199cc engine as before. Apart from the changes mentioned above, cycle parts and other components remain the same. Notably, Brazilian models miss out on the new fascia and fully digital instrument cluster we get in India. Also read Bajaj trademarked Fighter name Source The Negative Ions at the Lunar Surface (NILS) instrument onboard Chinas Change-6 probe has detected negative ions on the surface of the Moon. These ions are produced on the lunar surface through interactions with the solar wind. The solar wind is a constant flow of radiation and particles from the Sun. Earths magnetic field acts as a shield. In contrast, the Moon has no magnetic field and a very tenuous atmosphere, called the exosphere. When the solar wind hits the Moon, the surface reacts, kicking up secondary particles. These particles may be positively or negatively charged or have no charge at all. While the positively charged particles have been measured from orbit before, measuring negative particles was a challenge. Negative ions are short-lived and cannot make it to orbit. This is why ESA scientists needed to operate their instrument close to the lunar surface. This was ESAs first activity on the surface of the Moon, a world-first scientifically, and a first lunar cooperation with China, said Neil Melville, ESAs technical officer for the NILS experiment. We have collected an amount and quality of data far beyond our expectations. These observations on the Moon will help us better understand the surface environment and act as a pathfinder to explore negative ion populations in other airless bodies in the Solar System, from planets to asteroids and other moons, said Dr. Martin Wieser, NILS principal investigator. Change-6 landed successfully in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the Moon known on June 1, 2024. NILS started to collect science data 280 min after landing. The first data collection period lasted for 23 min, until the instrument reverted to low voltage. A few more rounds of data collection followed between communications blackouts and reboots. We were alternating between short bursts of full-power and long cooling-off periods because the instrument was heating up, Melville said. The fact that it stayed within its thermal design limits and managed to recover under extremely hot conditions is a testament to the quality of the work done by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics. Okaterra launched fully biodegradable chairs using waste wool, hemp, and plant-based leather materials. "Regenerative design is about creating a system or a product that gives back more than it takes," says Justin Beitzel. Beitzel is co-founder of Common Object , a design studio that helps organizations take steps toward sustainability. The studio operates out of both Baltimore and Grand Rapids.Fernando Ramirez is the studio's other co-founder. The two graduated from Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University (KCAD ). After working for several years as industrial designers, they became partners in forming a regenerative design studio, born out of their mutual passion for design that benefits local people and the environment.Ramirez emphasizes caution in using the term "regenerative." Both partners want to avoid transforming regenerative design into an overused buzzword."We're seeing that shift of buying with your values a little more," says Ramirez. "And yeah, we just want to make sure we can be as transparent as possible and rather than say "regenerative," say "the journey to regenerative."To give clients a tangible example of what regenerative design is and how it works, Beitzel and Ramirez created a "farm-to-furniture" brand, Okaterra . The brand launched fully biodegradable chairs using waste wool, hemp, and plant-based leather materials."Over 200,000 tons of wool is thrown away every year. Or burned. Because there's no market for it. So we're using it as stuffing for the cushions," says Beitzel.But regenerative design is about more than the materials. It's about supply chain transparency. For example, how do you find and source waste wool? How do you know if your other materials are truly sustainable?"It's not just about saying, 'We use materials that are grown from the earth', right?" says Beitzel. "Because you can grow things from the earth in a really awful way. Or you can spread fertilizer everywhere and make a mess of a space. So the first thing we did was seek out people at the root of what we were looking for and who carried our same values."After six months of searching, the pair found Melissa Smith, who runs Willow Creek Farm in the Philadelphia area. When Common Object started working with Smith, she had 200 sheep. Smith also uses regenerative practices of rotational grazing."So it's literally going to somebody who we can trust and fully see that they're committed to a regenerative soil and regenerative ecosystem, and then seeing how closely we can get to that material" says Beitzel.The pair also exercises the same diligence in finding other suppliers. For example, they use salvaged wood from Fallen Lumber in Baltimore. Cambium Carbon certifies the wood and assigns it a carbon value."So it's really about partnering with people who we can see," says Beitzel. "I can literally drive down the street and see where they're getting their wood.""One of the principles that's really guiding us is thinking through regional supply chains and supporting local," Ramirez says. "It's working with the farmer to grow the raw material. It's the person who's touching the process. And it's the person who's going to make it at the end. So we're really thinking about it as a whole system, right? It's a product, but we have to think through the whole system in order to make it."Beitzel and Ramirez are taking what they've learned about regenerative design principles and supply chain transparency to larger companies. They also apply a regenerative process to community projects."About a year and a half ago, we would get a pat on the head," says Ramirez.But now that they have tangible products and processes, their work is getting more serious interest and attention. Some companies and organizations hope to bring small pieces of a regenerative design ethos into their production."Maybe it's not the whole chair, maybe it's just one element," says Beitzel. "What we preach is, we need to create products that can scale with the farmers that we're working with."Beitzel and Ramirez understand that they're not going to be able to support an entire industry with the small handful of regenerative farmers that they've found."But if we start with small wins," says Beitzel. "Maybe it is using wastewater or supporting this one farm that can have a big impact."Since transparency is at the heart of regenerative design, Beitzel and Ramirez make a point of sharing what they've learned with the public. For example, Ramirez led a training session at the Cook Arts Center in Grand Rapids."We'll actually build a class out," says Ramirez. "We take input from the community, but we'll build classes out for the kids as well. To kind of design a product that goes right back into their community. So they have like these little monuments in there that kind of create pride around that."The pair also plans to speak at NeoCon this year, an annual interior design conference held in Chicago in June. They plan to attend as part of the Haworth DesignLab "One thing we want to make sure people know is that what we're doing isn't conceptual, right?" says Ramirez. "It may be an experiment, but it's not a concept. We can actually make everything we've done with the materials we use; we could actually produce products out of the processes we use."Beitzel and Ramirez see the future and potential of regenerative design. They envision a world where there's transparency in the supply chain. And they want to see regenerative design processes get to scale."That's what we're kind of working on now," says Beitzel. "What are the next steps for this?"The pair continues to look for partners to build with. They're also working on finding the funding to scale their work."We really believe in it," says Beitzel. "We're doing that work to find the connections."Laura Bergells is an executive business communications coach from Grand Rapids, Michigan. You can connect with her at LinkedIn From furniture to shoes, from arts to education to even policy creation, design is everywhere you look. Designed in Michigan , a story series coming out of West Michigan, is devoted to sharing the expansive role design plays in Michigan's past, present and future. It is made possible through the support of Kendall College of Art and Design and Landscape Forms Courtesy KCAD Professor Gayle DeBruyn is the program chair of collaborative design at KCAD. Courtesy KCAD The Wege High School Collaborative Studio introduces students to a range of complex problems like river restoration, food insecurity, and fast fashion. Courtesy KCAD The Wege High School Collaborative Studio includes lectures and group work at KCADs 17 Fountain Building in downtown Grand Rapids. The program also involves fieldwork. Courtesy KCAD The Wege High School Collaborative Studio is back for its fourth year. A group of investors in Boohoo are seeking more than 100m in compensation from the online fashion specialist after reports in 2020 alleging its suppliers in Leicester were mistreating workers caused its share price to plummet. Shares in Boohoo dived more than 40% over several days, wiping more than 1.5bn off its valuation, after a 2020 Sunday Times report of labour rights violations at the groups suppliers factories in Leicester suggested some workers were paid as little as 3.50 an hour, well below the legal minimum wage. Guardian UK government officials expressed serious doubts about Paula Vennells suitability as the chief executive of the Post Office and considered sacking her in 2014, five years before she resigned, the inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal has heard. According to internal government documents shown at the inquiry on Thursday, officials and other Post Office board members had concerns about Vennells leadership a decade ago. Guardian Mike Lynch, the British technology tycoon, has been cleared of fraud over the multibillion-dollar sale of his software company Autonomy. A San Francisco jury acquitted Mr Lynch on Thursday in a remarkable redemption for the entrepreneur, who has been plagued by legal problems since the companys sale 13 years ago. Telegraph Weak economic growth could send the national debt climbing by 28bn and blow both Labour and the Tories fiscal targets, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned. Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer have been urged to set out plans for how they would deal with a downturn in the economy, amid warnings that public finances are on a knife edge. Both Labour and the Conservatives have made it their target to have the UKs mountain of debt shrinking within five years, a key fiscal rule. Telegraph Labour will promise to get more young people on the housing ladder as it announces its "freedom to buy" scheme on Friday. The party will pledge to make the existing mortgage guarantee scheme - which sees the government act as a guarantor for people unable to save big deposits - into a permanent fixture if it wins the election on 4 July. Sky News Chris Colfer (photo: Andrew Scott) Chris Colfer is a bestselling author and Golden Globe-winning actor. He was honored as a member of the TIME 100, Time magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and his The Land of Stories series recently celebrated its 10th anniversary. Roswell Johnson Saves the World! (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), an adventurous romp around the universe for middle-grade readers is Colfer's first work of science fiction. Here, he chats with Shelf about the fun of writing speculative books that take place in our world, the truth in his fiction, and just how autobiographical a book about alien adventures may be. Would you kindly tell our readers what Roswell Johnson Saves the World! is about? In a nutshell, Roswell Johnson is a story about a brilliant young boy who accidently gets abducted by aliens and has a wild adventure in space while trying to save Earth from an evil alien species. This is your first work of science fiction, correct? I have always been a huge fan of science fiction and thought I could add a funny, adventurous, and heartfelt story to the genre. I'm also hoping the story will make my young readers excited about science and curious about all the wonders our galaxy has to offer. You note at the beginning of the book that, "while some elements in this book are exaggerated for dramatic effect, all science described is based on actual" science. How much of the content of the book is based on alien lore and how much is pure Colfer imagination? I would say 10% is Colfer imagination but 90% of the book is inspired by real-life events and eyewitness accounts. I took liberty with the names and personalities, but almost every spaceship and alien I describe comes from a real report. On that note, was it a ton of fun to come up with names, places, features of aliens, and alien planets? I have never had so much fun writing something! Surprisingly, everything felt very natural and organic as I wrote it. I rarely had a moment when something didn't feel authentic. Many times, I would say to myself, "Yeah, that sounds right. What else would it be called? What else would those aliens do?" Maybe real aliens planted the information into my brain? I loved that it's against intergalactic law for species in the Galactic Alliance to "disturb, disrupt, or displace" life-forms or ecosystems on other planets and that species need approval before "interaction, interference, or indoctrination." Did it take a long time to get this alliteration, or did it pop into your head fully formed? For the most part, the story came to me fully formed. The Galactic Alliance and the Intergalactic Laws are based on the United Nations and the International Laws human beings are expected to follow. If I ever came to a roadblock, I would ask myself, "If this were all real, what's the most practical way aliens would deal with this situation?" That trick helped me a lot while building the story. Music is really important in this novel. What drove you to include so many musical references? Personally, I'm just a big fan of the Fugees, Whitney Houston, and David Bowie, so it was fun to give them a shoutout. While writing the A Tale of Magic series, I couldn't include any pop culture references because the story took place in a different dimension. It was so nice to finally include as many references as I wanted--almost like a pair of handcuffs had been unlocked. I hope the references will expand my readers' musical and cultural tastes. Roswell Johnson is "one of the only Black students in his class" and he lives with his grandmother and grandfather on "one of the first Black-owned farms in the state of Oklahoma." What inspired you to write from this character's point of view? I wanted to tell a story about a child who must save a world that isn't very kind to him. For me, the best protagonist for the task was a young man of color. I hope reading about Roswell's journey through the cosmos and his interactions with alien species of all different colors, shapes, sizes, and belief systems will show my young readers how pointless and damaging prejudice is. Every planet is stronger when it works together. In 2021, you received a Free Speech Defender award from the National Coalition Against Censorship. At the beginning of a new series, how are you feeling about the increasing rate of book bans nationwide? Are you still dealing with your own books being banned? I believe so. I find out watching the news just like everyone else. I'm not sure what infuriates me more about these book bans: the fact that the bans are happening, or that politicians aren't even being subtle about the type of books they're targeting. There is absolutely no reason why my books and countless others should be taken out of schools and libraries. These bans are purely meant to erase all compassion, understanding, and reference for the people these backwards laws are hurting. It's tyranny 101. A few years ago, I attended a bookstore event you did in Boston, Mass. What has your relationship with indie bookstores been like? Are there particular stores you're always excited to visit? I've always thought indie bookstores have better relationships with their customers. And vicariously, I get to have better relationships with my readers. I also love visiting indie bookshops on tour because I get a real sense of their community when I'm there. And I could never pick a favorite stop! They're all doing the lord's work. Is there anything else you'd like to tell Shelf Awareness readers? Roswell Johnson Saves the World! is much more autobiographical than you might believe, but I've been sworn to secrecy.... --Sian Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness In a significant political development, Narendra Modi was unanimously elected as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Parliamentary party on Friday, paving the way for his third consecutive term as Prime Minister of India. The NDA, under his leadership, will soon stake its claim to form the next government before the President. The election took place at the Central Hall of Parliament, where Modi was warmly felicitated and garlanded by his allies. Marking the solemn occasion, Modi touched the Constitution with his forehead and bowed, demonstrating his respect and commitment. In his address, Prime Minister-designate Modi expressed gratitude to the leaders for their relentless efforts and congratulated them on their electoral success. "I congratulate all the leaders for their win and also salute their efforts for working tirelessly to ensure victory for the alliance", Modi stated, reinforcing his vision for continued governance. Upon his arrival, Modi was greeted enthusiastically with chants of Modi, Modi from supporters, reflecting his widespread popularity and the momentum behind his leadership. Defense Minister Rajnath Singh proposed Modi's name for the leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party, highlighting Modis pivotal role in securing a decisive victory for a third term. Singh emphasized that the NDA alliance signifies a steadfast commitment rather than a mere political arrangement. Home Minister Amit Shah seconded the proposal, underscoring the party's united stance. BJP President JP Nadda also lauded the allies and attributed the historic achievement to Modis leadership. History is in the making as the NDA will form a government for the third consecutive time with a clear majority, Nadda said, celebrating the alliances strong position. In a milestone for space exploration, Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams danced her way to the International Space Station (ISS) as Boeings Starliner spacecraft successfully docked at the orbital laboratory. Accompanied by NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, Williams will spend approximately a week aboard the ISS. The successful docking was confirmed by NASA in a post on X (formerly Twitter): "Docking confirmed! @BoeingSpace's Starliner docked to the forward-facing port of the @Space_Station's Harmony module. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will spend about a week. That feeling when you're back on the station! Williams and Wilmore's arrival marks the first crewed flight for the Starliner spacecraft, launched as part of NASAs Commercial Crew Program. The spacecraft was lifted into space on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. NASA missions to low Earth orbit and beyond, contributing to routine space travel to and from the space station. The mission represents a significant step in NASA's efforts to expand its crewed spaceflight capabilities. The Starliner mission aims to carry astronauts and cargo for futureto low Earth orbit and beyond, contributing to routine space travel to and from the space station. As part of the missions objectives, the crew flight test seeks to certify the Starliner for regular operations, enhancing NASA's ability to conduct scientific research and logistical operations in space. After docking, the seven Expedition 71 crew members joined Williams and Wilmore for a team portrait, celebrating the successful integration of the new crew members aboard the ISS. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Soon-to-open Blue Pearl is the latest Staten Island endeavor for serial restaurant opener Peter Botros and his business partners. Indeed, this new Stapleton spot at 47 Navy Pier Court might be the mother of pearl in his collection of eateries, courtesy of sweeping harbor views and the promise of a premium seafood experience. Boiling it down, heres the trendy, modern Blue Pearl world, according to Botros: It has a beautiful bar, lounge and dining room as well as several small private dining areas, a raw bar and a skyline view event space. Botros said, The name Blue Pearl comes from the seafood concept. When we were thinking of names, we were thinking sexy and modern. It was a great way to segue into the decor of the place blue tile, pearl accents, glass pearls, mother of pearl tile as well. Its a combination of the kind of food we were going to do, the vibe and decor. The owner added, The restaurant is not open yet. But the event space has been open for about two months, booked for weddings, engagements and bridal parties. Between outdoor, indoor dining and the bar, its about 200 seats. The event space holds up to 160. WHEN IS THE RESTAURANT OPENING? Botros and his fellow proprietors, Philip Farinacci and Ignacio Garcia, plan to open Blue Pearl this month. In the next two to three weeks, sneak peeks and inaugural days will be announced on the venues social media. One aspect Botros says he cant verbalize properly is the stunning view just beyond Blue Pearls wraparound windows. The original layout of this two-level construction proved a fun starting point to design, Botros admitted. Prior restaurants in the handsome space were Surf and Navy Pier. Both well-planned, upscale projects, alas, were caught in riptides of COVID-19s early dining landscape. Botros said of the buildings minor tweaks: We did a great job with sight lines. So now its a clearer view of the bridge, Statue of Liberty and the city. Even the chairs are not so plush and there are no linens so your entire decor is the skyline. Sauces are made from lobster shells for reductions and soups. (Courtesy of Giulia Rivera)Pamela Silvestri THE MENU AND DRINKS On the menu for Blue Pearl, as the name suggests, are oysters Malpeque, Blut points, Kumamotos and Pacific, to start plus raw bar fare. A Caviar Carousel can have ikura, sturgeon, Osetra or Kaluga egg varietals or all of those for a Royal Sampling. Sushi flights (Courtesy of Giulia Rivera)Pamela Silvestri For landlubber options, there are lamb, chicken, pastas, vegan and vegetarian dishes. The menu features a heavy sushi component, craft cocktails, unique Japanese whiskeys that range from about $20 to $60 a pour, sipping tequilas and house made desserts taro crepe cake, blueberry-lychee cheesecake and a creme brulee trio, to name a few. An idea of pricing and options coming to Blue Pearl patrons. (Courtesy of Giulia Rivera)Pamela Silvestri Botros is principal in about a dozen restaurants between New York and New Jersey. Opening date is set for sometime in June. (Courtesy of Giulia Rivera)Pamela Silvestri He owns Violettes (not named Violettes Cellar anymore); Rustic Pizza and Pasteria (currently at 97 Lincoln Ave., but moving to 1789 Richmond Road, to the former Hillside Market); Sallys Southern and BBQ of West Brighton; Sallys Smokehouse at Urby in Stapleton; Stone House at Clove Lakes with the Chefs Loft; Sofias Taqueria of Rosebank; Sofias Guac Bar in the Staten Island Mall and at West Brighton (the latter is known now as Sofias Taqueria). In New Jersey, Botros fans can find Sofias Taqueria in Old Bridge, plus soon a Violettes in Woodbridge, Carolines Tavern in Avenelle, Sofias in Wedgewood and another in Toms River. Botros also owns Tito Banditos in Pine Hills, N.Y., and Binnekill Tavern in Margaretville, N.Y. Is there anything else in the work? Staten Islanders wonder. Probably, answered Botros with a chuckle. Blue Pearl will open in the Urby residential and retail complex at 37 Navy Pier Ct., Stapleton, 718-727-0303. For job inquiries, email info@bluepearlnyc.com. Heres an informative look at Blue Pearl in pictures: Mixed fresh seafood in saffron cream sauce. (Courtesy of Giulia Rivera)Pamela Silvestri Testing dumplings and other house made fare before opening. (Courtesy of Giulia Rivera)Pamela Silvestri Nigiri sushi is a hand-formed, oblong bunch of rice topped with fresh, raw fish. (Courtesy of Giulia Rivera)Pamela Silvestri Grilled octopus (Courtesy of Giulia Rivera)Pamela Silvestri Seared sea scallops (Courtesy of Giulia Rivera)Pamela Silvestri Oven-roasted cauliflower (Courtesy of Giulia Rivera)Pamela Silvestri Everything at Blue Pearl is made from scratch including pasta. (Courtesy of Giulia Rivera)Pamela Silvestri Fresh fish, ripe avocado and mango are among the components of some sushi combos. (Courtesy of Giulia Rivera)Pamela Silvestri Blue Pearl takes a tangy spin on the traditional lobster roll. (Courtesy of Giulia Rivera)Pamela Silvestri A look down from upstairs at the front reception station. (Courtesy of Giulia Rivera)Pamela Silvestri Decadent riffs on dishes can include fresh truffle shaves, edible flowers and razor-thin shaves of fresh veggies. (Courtesy of Giulia Rivera)Pamela Silvestri Crispy calamari over roasted pepper aioli (Courtesy of Giulia Rivera)Pamela Silvestri Pamela Silvestri is Advance/SILive.com food editor. She can be reached at silvestri@siadvance.com. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Two Staten Island porcupines got some good news from students of Markham Intermediate School last week. The Graniteville students raised a whopping $2,000 for the care of Juniper and Jaboli, the Staten Island Zoos two North American porcupines, by hosting two bake sales and posting artwork featuring the porcupines around the school. Faculty, parents and friends contributed to help raise funds. Whats more, this is the ninth year that students have generously contributed to the cause. The money will support the care, food, veterinary and enrichment program for the porcupines, which are on-exhibit at the Zoo all-year round. We are grateful to the students of I.S. 51 for their fundraising support for our porcupines, said Ken Mitchell, Staten Island Zoo executive director. It is very clear that these students care about the well-being of our animals and love our Zoo. We will be sure that these funds are put to invaluable good use supporting the daily care of the porcupines. The students visited the Zoo on May 28 to present a check to Mitchell. I promptly showed the check to our porcupines and they were very happy, Mitchell quipped. Students at Markham Intermediate School present a check in the amount of $2,000 from their efforts at the Graniteville school to Ken Mitchell, executive director of the Graniteville school. (Courtesy/Staten Island Zoo)Staten Island Advance FACTS ABOUT NORTH AMERICAN PORCUPINES The Staten Island Zoo has exhibited North American Porcupines for a number of decades. The porcupines are native to New York (and most of our continents temperate forests). Porcupines are North Americas second largest rodent, surpassed in size only by beavers. The Staten Island Zoos current porcupine pair gave birth to a baby last year. They live as a family group in their exhibit near the otter exhibit. For additional information, contact Tiffany Feo, director of external affairs, at tfeo@statenislandzoo.org. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. A historic cemetery that has seen controversy is now the property of the New York City Parks Department. The Trustees of Sailors Snug Harbor announced that they had transferred ownership of the 7-acre Sailors Snug Harbor Cemetery to Parks. The transfer became official on May 30. The trustees said that the contribution aims to preserve and ensure accessibility to the site for future generations. The cemetery in Livingston, bordering Allison Pond and Goodhue Park and surrounded by a brick wall, is the final resting place for more than 6,000 merchant mariners who lived at the old Sailors Snug Harbor Home, which was in operation from 1833 to 1976. We are thrilled to donate the cemetery to the City of New York for the benefit of all residents and visitors, said Capt. Timothy Ferrie, the trustees president. This historic cemetery is a treasure trove of local and national history, and we believe that its preservation and accessibility are paramount. He said, By entrusting its care to the city, we are confident that the cemetery will continue to be a cherished community asset for generations to come. Sailors' Snug Harbor Cemetery in Livingston holds the remains of more than 6,000 merchant mariners.Tom Wrobleski/Staten Island Advance Twenty-three headstones remain in the cemetery, with others having been removed for safekeeping over the years. Some headstones are stored in the basement of the Noble Maritime Collection at Snug Harbor and are in frail condition, according to Jay Brooks, executive director/governor of the trustees group. Some of the remaining headstones at Sailors' Snug Harbor Cemetery in Livingston. The 7-acre property has been turned over the New York City Parks Department.Tom Wrobleski/Staten Island Advance Numbering plaques that were used at one point to mark graves have disintegrated over time. The earliest burial at the cemetery dates to 1834, according to the Parks Department. Were grateful to the Trustees of the Sailors Snug Harbor in the City of New York for generously donating this land parcel, which is an important part of Staten Islands rich history, said NYC Parks Staten Island Borough Commissioner Lynda Ricciardone. She said the cemetery will be a welcome addition to Parks greenspaces on the North Shore. Headstone of merchant mariner William H. Riordon is one of the few that remains at Sailors' Snug Harbor Cemetery in Livingston.Tom Wrobleski/Staten Island Advance Parks said that newly acquired land parcel will be added to the Parks property list and will receive regular maintenance from district crews. The agency said the property will be maintained as a cemetery. Neighborhood residents whose homes border the park have frequently complained about teenagers drinking alcohol and leaving a mess in the cemetery. While a main entrance to the cemetery has been chained and locked, revelers and others have gained access to the grounds by climbing over the surrounding brick wall or by entering through breaches in the wall. Locked entrance gate at Sailors' Snug Harbor Cemetery in Livingston.Tom Wrobleski/Staten Island Advance NYPD officers and city Parks Enforcement Police officers responded to reports of a large alcohol-fueled bacchanal taking place in the cemetery during St. Patricks Parade celebrations earlier this year. During a visit this week, the Advance noted beer cans and other debris scattered among some of the remaining headstones, including a broken bottle placed on top of one of the grave markers. Broken beverage bottle sits atop one of the remaining headstones at Sailors' Snug Harbor Cemetery in Livingston.Tom Wrobleski/Staten Island Advance Parks said that there are no plans at this time to add additional security measures to the site. In 2018, the New York Post reported that the trustees had rejected a call by mariner family members to build a monument in the cemetery in honor of the old salts. Family members also told the paper that they were disappointed that they couldnt access the cemetery in order to pay their respects to departed loved ones. There was also consternation that the lack of headstones made it difficult to easily locate the remains of their relatives. Lost in the hoopla this week around Gerrit Coles dominant rehab outing, Ben Rices home run in his Triple-A debut and Jasson Dominguezs progress from Tommy John surgery is another New York Yankees organizational move that received a lot less attention. On Tuesday, the Yankees released slugger Jose Rojas after he played 43 games with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, according to the transaction log on his MiLB player page. The 31-year-old signed a minor-league deal with a major-league invite in January; it had $750,000 tied to it if he made the majors, per The New York Posts Joel Sherman. Want to bet on the MLB? See the best NYC Sports Betting sites Rojas sported a .236/.372/.528 line with 10 home runs (tied for most on the team) and 34 RBIs across 180 plate appearances. His offensive production was worth a 129 wRC+. Rojas played all over in Triple-A designated hitter (17 games), right field (11 games), first base (eight games), left field (seven games) and third base (one game). He even pitched for two innings. Rojas likely had an opt out in his contract that enabled his release if he wasnt in the majors by June 1; he hadnt played since May 31 when he batted cleanup. Even with the versatility or, more likely, he doesnt have a true defensive home Rojas was low on the pecking order for the Yankees, especially with respect to development. Rice, who plays catcher and first base, was promoted to Triple-A on Wednesday, along with right fielder Elijah Durham. On Wednesday, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre used a lineup of Dominguez (DH), Jorbit Vivas (second base), Oswald Peraza (shortstop), Rice (first base), Carlos Narvaez (catcher), Taylor Trammell (left field), Jeter Downs (third base), Greg Allen (center field) and Durham (right field). Rojas has 83 games of major-league experience, all with the Angels in 2021-22. After lackluster production with the Angels (59 OPS+), Rojas went to the KBO League and Mexican League to revive his MLB chances in 2023. In the KBO, he batted .253 with an .819 OPS and 19 home runs in 464 plate appearances. Now, he hopes to find another organization to give him another MLB opportunity. 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 At 8.41am on Monday, online bookseller Booktopias board of directors released an update to the stock exchange that gave away just how acutely the business was struggling. Its new boss, barely one year into the job, had suddenly and inexplicably resigned; 50 jobs were on the line (adding to the 40 already cut last January); and it had scrambled together emergency funding of $1 million. The raft of changes announced by Australias biggest online bookstore are the latest of many as it battles three straight years of unprofitability, a rock-bottom share price that has plummeted 98 per cent to 4.5, and a haemorrhaging of key senior executives including their most recent chief executive, chief financial officer, and last year chief marketing officer. Booktopias former CEO Tony Nash has been brought back into the business to keep it ticking while it contends with problems from every direction. Credit: Julian Andrews Tony Nash, the co-founder who was ousted from the business he helmed for 18 years, has been brought back temporarily as an executive director and sales director. Booktopias woes have left many in the industry asking questions about whether it has a future. But Booktopias struggle for survival is not reflective of other parts of the book-selling industry, with many sellers continuing to trade steadily and optimistically. Were always portrayed as almost redundant and going out of business and bookshops are closing. Its always a very negative approach. But the numbers dont say that, said Australian booksellers association BookPeople CEO Robbie Egan. Its not that bookshops arent viable businesses, its that Booktopia appears not to be. Advertisement The COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, catastrophic for many parts of the retail industry, were a major boost for Booktopia. Reading surged and so did the companys sales, turning over $223.9 million in the 2021 financial year and $240.8 million in the 2022 financial year. Loading Despite the revenue surge, Booktopia recorded losses, not profits, of $18.1 million and $15.1 million for those respective years. Emboldened by the demand for books, Booktopia poured $12 million into a new highly automated warehouse, a move that has turned out to be miscalculated as people bought fewer books amid cost of living pressures. If you cant take [nearly $250 million in annual sales] and set yourself up, somethings not quite right, said Egan. Booktopia is a business that hasnt been run properly. Booktopia declined requests to be interviewed. The local bookstore is not dead Booktopia and its much larger US competitor Amazon, arguably the worlds most successful online bookstore have been a threat to bricks-and-mortar bookshops. Advertisement But they also forced the traditional bookshops to adapt and sharpen their point of difference as a physical space. Those that have deeply embedded themselves in their communities, in literary circles and writer groups, host regular events and workshops and have relationships with nearby schools are those that have found success. Readings, Victorias biggest independent bookstore chain, holds more than 400 events a year across its eight stores, partners with the Melbourne Writers Festival, and donates 10 per cent of its profits to non-profits that support literacy and the arts. In 2016, Readings was named international bookshop of the year by the London Book Fair. Readings managing director Joe Rubbo (son of former Readings boss Mark Rubbo). Credit: Joe Armao We try to make sure that all of our stores are sort of a hub for the local community, said Readings managing director Joe Rubbo, who took the reins of the bookstore chain from his father in August last year. We have a lot of launches in store, book readings. Our priority is on really good customer service. To encourage foot traffic and create a welcoming space, interior design and the in-store experience have been carefully considered. Readings flagship Carlton store was redesigned by Nest Architects, while its Hawthorn and Emporium stores were crafted by Kerstin Thompson Architects. The way that you can come in look and browse and find something that you didnt expect to find an algorithm cant compete with that experience. Advertisement Nest Architects designed the renovated Readings Carlton store. Credit: Nest Architects The reality of running a small business is that its tough, said Egan, so if the bookstore around the corner has been a fixture for some time, its probably doing better than just staying afloat. An independent brick-and-mortar bookshop on a high street in Australia could be turning over anything from $500,000 to $20 million, he said. Weve always been here, were not going to go broke. The business of books While there are success stories to be found, the size of the book store industry has shrunk from $5 billion in 2011 to $1.6 billion in 2024, according to IBISWorld figures. Advertisement Some 1670 book stores currently are in operation, a number that 13 years ago was nearly double at around 3000. The collapse of Borders and Angus & Robertson in early 2011 also wiped out about 181 physical bookstores that year. E-readers such as Kindle and the growing popularity of audiobooks have also broadened the ways people consume books and are capturing more sale dollars, making up 11 per cent, or $173.8 million, of industry revenue. Like every other business, bookshop operators are watching their rent, electricity and insurance bills go up, while the price of books has stayed fairly stable over the years. At the same time, pricing competition is coming from not only online players, but a surprising retail segment: discount department stores. Our members are saying, Were sick of seeing Big W selling books for half price, said Egan. It undermines and undervalues what is a really important cultural product. The last thing we want is a landscape where you can only buy a book at a discount department store or an online giant. That would be unhealthy, I think, and terrible for new Australian writing and small publishers. Advertisement Advertisement Exclusive Eating outBrisbane First look: Happy Boy team unveils Petite, its long-awaited French eatery This striking two-level restaurant, with its enormous windows, slick fit-out, approachable food and killer collection of Gallic wine, might be the Votan brothers best yet. Take a peek inside. Matt Shea June 7, 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 Cameron Votan likens looking into Petite to peering inside a dollhouse. Standing on the corner of East and Ann Streets, you see what he means. Votans strikingly minimal, French-inspired restaurant is blessed with generous, two-storey floor-to-ceiling windows that allow passers-by to take in everything at a glance: Aubrey Courtel and his chef brigade working at their low-set benches; diners lined at its counter illuminated by the light of the wine fridges, and up top on its expansive mezzanine; the enormous vintage, modernist chandeliers imported from Como in Italy. Owner Cameron Votan likens looking into Petite to peering inside a dollhouse. Markus Ravik Its a restaurant that communes with the street outside the lights of the traffic reflecting off its concrete pillars and ribbed leather banquettes despite it lacking the al fresco dining elements of neighbouring Happy Boy and Snack Man, also owned by Votan and his brother Jordan Votan. Its an amalgam of the best parts of Happy Boy and Snack Man, in a way, Cameron says. As you walk up James Street and look back, theres just this amazing theatre to it. Advertisement Heartlands Is this Brisbanes most iconic banh mi shop? Petite, the Votans fifth venue (or sixth if you count Mini, the next-door French pop-up that acted as a testbed for its food), has been a long time coming. Its build was complicated by having to tear out a false ceiling and knock down a wall between what was originally two separate tenancies, and then the kind of construction and installation delays that have become a common story post-pandemic. But the result is worth the wait. Petite matches design touches of a French bistro with a chic industrial fit-out. Markus Ravik Petite retains the open feel of Happy Boy and Snack Man, but with a more precise design. It references a French bistro with the banquette and chandeliers and its bentwood chairs, but crosses it with an industrial touch that means it never feels like pastiche. Advertisement Our philosophy has always been that we let the design lead it and then try and bring one or two elements of the cuisine or the cultures aesthetic in, Cameron says. But this is a little more playful, a little prettier. The restaurant features vintage glass chandeliers imported from Como in Italy. Markus Ravik We were looking down the barrel of it being 100 per cent Asian concepts down [on East Street]. But when we started to look at this corner, and considered our interest in French, and we had this amazing young chef with Aubrey [who, before Mini, led the kitchen at Greenglass in the CBD, which the Votans closed in July last year], it was too good an opportunity to pass up. The approach to dining is unorthodox too. Leading Petites kitchen is Aubrey Courtel, who previously worked with the Votans at Greenglass and Mini. Markus Ravik Advertisement Petites menu has 20 plates down one side of the page and matching wines listed down the other. But Cameron says its not intended to be dogmatic a wine either side of the match will work just as well. Theres also a longer bottle list for those wanting to explore the restaurants collection of small-grower French drops, with Snack Mans enormous cellar acting as a fallback. It looks simple on the page, but it took me a long time to work out how to actually bring those these two things together. It does mean there are some peculiarities with the menu. Its not entree, main and dessert, or big, small or whatever the other sets of parameters that are usually used with menus its just those 20 plates and 20 glasses. Petites pork terrine, and steak tartare with pommes gaufrettes. Markus Ravik Courtels food is a continuation of what worked best at the Mini pop-up that ran next door in the old Kid Curry space for the past eight months. For smaller dishes, you can order goats cheese croquettes, steak tartare with confit yolk and pommes gaufrettes, or a pork terrine with onion jam, cornichons and bread. Advertisement Confit duck with potato mash and a duck jus, and grass-fed eye fillet with pepper cognac sauce and French fries. Markus Ravik Larger plates include pan-fried gnocchi with a comte cream, panfried fish finished with a beurre blanc, confit duck with potato mash and a duck jus, and a char-grilled grass-fed eye fillet with pepper cognac sauce and French fries. Theres also a clutch of desserts including a shallow creme brulee, a chocolate souffle and a burnt Basque cheesecake and a selection of cheese, with charcuterie soon to follow. Exclusive Paddington restaurant NOTA announces closure Theres no cutting-edge gastronomy here; thats not what Petite is about. Rather, this is a love letter to the small neighbourhood bistros the Votans have discovered in Paris over the years, where humble ingredients are turned into killer food and served with wine, always. Advertisement As for the bottle list, its entirely French and encourages exploration, from Loire Valley whites and Rhone Valley reds to the distinctive drops of the Jura, and whites and reds from the wider Burgundy region. Theres also a chunky selection of cremant and champagne. Petite retains the open feel of Happy Boy and Snack Man, but with a more precise design. Markus Ravik The Votans are excellent wine communicators and these lists express their own curiosities. And you can do some damage, if you like, with prices ranging up to a $3000 2002 vintage of Salon blanc de blancs. But the vast majority are approachable, priced so you can spend a long graze working through different drops with different dishes. Beyond the wine, theres a list of classic cocktails and a selection of beers. Petite opens for bookings this Tuesday, June 11. Markus Ravik Advertisement The French just have such an intuitive way about their wine and food, and how they match and how they go together, Cameron says. What we really wanted to show off here was everyday cuisine and everyday wine, and how they so beautifully come together. Petite opens for bookings this Tuesday, June 11. Open Tue-Thu, 5.30pm-late; Fri 12pm-late; Sat 5.30pm-late. Corner East and Ann Streets, Fortitude Valley. petiterestaurant.com.au Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox. Sign up Advertisement Eating outFood shops and specialty grocers From kimchi to charcuterie: 10 delis taking things in new and delicious directions Who said delicatessens must be Mediterranean? These diverse designer delis are mixing things up, with exciting results. Bianca Hrovat June 7, 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 Yangga calls itself a deli, but you wont find any cheese wheels, cold cuts or cornichons on the shelves of its new Chatswood store. Instead, the Yang family has stocked the refrigerator with prepackaged Korean banchan (side dishes) such as kimchi and soy-marinated eggs, and the counters with grab-and-go meals like japchae (stir-fried noodles) and grilled eel. Yangga Korean Deli in Chatswood is part of a new breed of delicatessens in Sydney. James Brickwood Historically, [the word deli isnt] associated with Korean cuisine, but we loved the quintessential notion of a deli and wanted to provide a Korean version of this concept, says Jenny Kim, who co-owns Yangga with her husband, Joon-Kyoo (Chris) Yang, his parents Heejong Yang and Jihye Yang, and his sister Yoolee Yang. Colourful banchan display at Yangga. James Brickwood Its one of a growing number of Sydney businesses breaking the traditional European deli mould. Some, like Yangga, have familiar hallmarks (pickles, sliced meats, takeaway food) in different flavours. Others, like Marani Deli in Newtown, diverge only with late-night add-ons like wine tastings and group drawing classes. And then there are the head-scratchers, like Uncut Seafood Delicatessen in Bondi or Kerbside Eatery in Edmondson Park, which prompt the question, what is a deli, anyway? Advertisement Kim keeps it simple: The word deli is derived from the French word delicatesse which means [delicacy, or in other words] delicious things, which is essentially what we endeavour to offer our customers. Here are 10 new or underrated Sydney delis to try, from an Uzbek-style sandwich bar to a cosy prosciutteria. Marani Deli in Newtown. Dexter Kim Marani Deli, Newtown Chef-owner Alexandre Grenouiller took inspiration from his French grandparents cellar in conceptualising Marani Deli. Stocked with homemade preserves and home-grown supplies, these cellars serve as giant pantries for all the family, but also as a place to gather and chew the (perfectly cured) fat, he says. The charming interiors belie a modern approach: Grenouiller offers a tightly curated selection of French, Italian and Georgian products and a series of community-focused events, like group wine tastings and guided illustration nights. Advertisement Must-try: The raclette party pack ($35 per person), inclusive of three types of raclette cheeses, sliced charcuterie and cornichons. Available for takeaway, with raclette machines available for hire. Shop 7-8, 80 Wilson Street, Newtown, maranideli.com.au Deli sandwiches at Kerbside Eatery, Edmondson Park. Supplied Kerbside Eatery, Edmondson Park Advertisement Kerbside Eatery is a modern mash-up of American diner, deli and dessert bar a place where you can pick up Chicago-style bread rolls and cold cuts to go or settle in for a full meal. Stacked subs, fried chicken tenders (dipped in house-made special sauce), and cheesecakes on sticks are the speciality the kind of saucy, rich and fried foods that look dangerously delicious on social media. Treat yourself at the Edmondson Park store, which brother-and-sister team Jonathan and Gabrielle Israfil opened in November. Must-try: The hot honey chicken sub ($17.50), with fried chicken, bread-and-butter pickles, lettuce and herbed buttermilk sauce in a soft bread bun. 52 Soldiers Parade, Edmondson Park, kerbsideeatery.com.au Bar Mammoni has transitioned into a pasta bar and deli. Yusuke Oba Bar Mammoni, Circular Quay Advertisement In May, Bar Mammoni made the transition from all-day Italian eatery to pasta bar and deli. Its now a casual extension of popular sister restaurant Grana - selling hand-rolled pasta and lasagne to take home (from $4.50), or bowls of cooked pasta with simple sauces (like rigatoni a la vodka or cacio e pepe) for a fraction of the restaurant price. Between 11.30am and 3pm, June 3 - 7, pasta bowls will be available for half price, starting at $9. Keep an eye out for house-made pasta sauces, set to hit shelves in coming weeks. Must-try: Mapo lasagne ($19 for 500g or $34 for 1kg), with chicken, fennel and Szechuan pepper. Shop 3 Loftus Lane, Sydney, barmammoni.sydney The risky brisket sandwich at MLK Deli. Supplied MLK Deli, Surry Hills Advertisement On a street of grey facades, MLK Deli is the bright, azure blue of Uzbekistan, a central Asian country renowned for its magnificent blue mosaic monuments. Deli founder Myra Karakelle learned to cook the Uzbek dishes of her childhood to combat homesickness during COVID, and found joy in the act of feeding others. A couple of years and a career change later, shes serving sandwiches with her mums Uzbek-style chicken, her husbands home-cooked brisket, and her best friends twice-baked brown butter choc chip cookies. Food is an extension of loving and caring about others, thats what inspired me to open MLK, Karakelle says. Must-try: The Risky Brisket sandwich ($22.90), with slow-cooked brisket, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and MLK house sauce on organic rye ciabatta. 168 Campbell Street, Surry Hills, instagram.com/mlk.deli Uncut Seafood Delicatessen, Bondi Advertisement Siblings Nic, Jack and Kaitlin Lucas are the fourth generation of fishmongers behind Uncut Seafood Delicatessen. It opened in late April with a combination of retail, takeaway and dine-in food, including an oyster shucking station, sashimi bench, and dozens of house-made products like cured salmon gravlax, pickled octopus and taramasalata (the latter of which was passed down from their Greek grandmother). The eat-in fare is simple and fresh, with options like cold prawn focaccia, cured salmon bagels, and grilled fish with pita bread and seasonal greens. Must-try: Pickled octopus with potato salad ($19). 135 Bondi Road, Bondi, instagram.com/uncutseafooddelicatessen Focaccia sandwiches at Deli/sia, Forest Lodge. Supplied Deli/sia, Forest Lodge Advertisement Made-to-order panini bread sandwiches are the focus at Delisia, a small deli-inspired sandwich shop that opened in January inside a sunny corner terrace. Owner Lena Alame stacks her Italian-style sandwiches with ingredients like pistachio pesto, whipped ricotta, pecorino spread, figs and prosciutto, serving them on thick slices of fluffy, house-baked bread. Keep an eye out for Alames retail products, set to go on shelves later this year. Must-try: The signature Da Vinci sandwich ($16.90) with prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella, basil pesto, tomato, rocket and balsamic glaze. Chicken liver parfait, terrine, rillettes and pate en croute from Loulou in North Sydney will be supplied to Una. Supplied Una, North Sydney Okay, so youll have to wait a couple of weeks before checking out Sol and Una (Soluna), the new North Sydney venues from the hospitality group behind hatted restaurants Loulou Bistro and Poetica. Theyre adjoining venues that, together, create the ultimate deli experience: on the one hand, there are take-home cheeses, house-made pasta, cured meats and parfaits for sale at Una; and on the other, eat-in deli-style sandwiches, tinned fish, and glasses of wine at Sol. Una is set to open June 18, with Sol following towards the end of the month. Advertisement Must-try: The EBLT ($16) with crumbed eggplant, bacon, lettuce, and tomato sugo on house-baked spelt bread. 168 Walker Street, North Sydney, soluna.sydney The untoasted Reuben sandwich at Deli Republic in Rosebery. Supplied Deli Republic, Rosebery This Rosebery deli and grocer has flown under the radar since opening in 2022, but its worth a mention for its house-made deli meats (like nduja mortadella), its range of locally made cheeses (like Goldstreet Dairy from ex-Poly chef and cookbook author Colin Woods) and for being one of the few places in Sydney to try poutine (the famous Canadian snack with hot chips, house-made gravy and buffalo curds from Vanella Cheese). Owners Nenad Djuric and Adele Di Bella are former pastry chefs, having worked at Est. and Messina respectively, so youve got to pick up a slice of Russian honey cake while youre there. Advertisement Must-try: Nduja mortadella in a custom-made panini sandwich. 10/61-71 Mentmore Avenue, Rosebery, delirepublic.au The Yang family behind Yangga Korean Deli: Jenny Kim, Joon-Kyoo (Chris) Yang, his parents Heejong (Jane) Yang and Jihye (John) Yang. Sister Yoolee Yang not pictured. James Brickwood Yangga Korean Deli, Chatswood Five members of the Yang family banded together to open Sydneys first Korean delicatessen in Rhodes, then followed it up with a second store in Chatswood in December. Its a small, sleek store with familiar refrigerated and dry-goods sections and grab-and-go meals made fresh daily. The difference lies in the food - theyve swapped the typical European sandwiches, cold cuts and cheese with Korean soups, rice dishes and pickled vegetables. A traditional Korean meal pairs the main dish with several side dishes (known as banchan), and Yangga offers pick-and-mix options like kimchi, eomuk bokkeum (sauteed fishcake) and soy eggs. Advertisement Must-try: Egg omelette kimbap ($12), a Korean-style sushi roll with omelette, fishcake and pickled radish. B002/365 Victoria Avenue, Chatswood, instagram.com/yanggafoods PorkaTroya founders Filippo LEpiscopo and Gabriele Barbanti. Supplied Porkatroya, Newtown Hospitality veterans Filippo LEpiscopo (former head sommelier at Rockpool Bar & Grill) and Gabriele Barbanti (ex-Ventuno and Seta) quietly opened Porkatroya on King Street in mid-April. Its more deli-adjacent Theyve taken inspiration from the small prosciutterias of regional Italy to create a cosy space to catch up with friends over freshly sliced charcuterie, roast porchetta rolls and hearty bottles of red. As for the name? Well, its a play on words, a variation of a slang Italian phrase meaning something like, Bloody hell! Advertisement Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox. Sign up The federal police declined to say why the officers home was raided, stressing that the AFP does not comment on internal processes relating to individual members. Official sources, speaking anonymously to discuss confidential information, said the raid was prompted by allegations linked to a conflict of interest involving procurement decisions. The respected federal police veteran was suspended on Thursday after internal affairs officers searched his Canberra home. Natural justice applies to AFP members. No further comment will be made at this time, an AFP spokesperson said. Loading Word of the search of the officers home and his standing down spread rapidly across the Canberra law enforcement and national security community on Friday, but the AFPs professional standards division also refused to divulge details of the allegations. Since its inception last July, the National Anti-Corruption Commission has prioritised investigations targeting conflicts of interest involving government procurement. There is no indication the NACC is involved directly in the raids, suggesting that the alleged misconduct of the commander does not rise to the level of serious corruption. 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 This story is part of the June 8 edition of Good Weekend. See all 20 stories . It took a lot to get me to Antarctica the first time. I realise its on countless bucket lists, but as a lover of heat and light, sun and beach, the prospect of weeks at sea to reach what I envisaged as a white and empty refrigerator lacked appeal. But my husband Andrew had made a TV program there and returned in a state of dazzle and elation. We must go. I must go. After a great deal of debate and shrewd deployment of wildlife photos I got my thermals and waterproofs in order and agreed to spend the best part of the Australian summer journeying to the white continent with him. It was, of course and perversely, the longest, most weather-beaten route we were taking: due south from Hobart into the tumult of the Southern Ocean, via Macquarie Island, heading for Australias Casey Base more than 3000 kilometres away. After some five to six weeks at sea revelation. Far from empty, the continent pulses with life in sea, air, and especially on land, where the penguins nest in massive colonies stretching from beach to mountain-tops, as far as the eye can see. Millions of them. And as in a Disney movie, they know no fear; theyre so intensely curious, we had to back away from their advances rather than the other way round. In the sky, predator birds waited for their chance to snatch a chick, while the frigid water teemed with seals of all sizes. Whales cruised by, puffing loudly. As for the blank, white landscape Id expected, Antarctic ice turned out to be shafted with blue and jade, carved by wind and ocean into strange and wondrous shapes. It felt like wed landed on a faraway but benign planet, utterly unlike anywhere wed been before. Kayakers paddle in for a closer view of the abundant sea life. A Zodiac waits nearby should anyone capsize in the freezing water. Credit: Courtesy of Chimu This was back in the mid-1990s, and it marked the start of a long love affair. Ive just returned from my seventh journey a quicker one this time, just short of three weeks, taking in the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula the (relatively) warm bit that protrudes some 1300 kilometres north from the continent towards South America, and is the richest breeding ground for Antarcticas penguins, seals and seabirds. With so much of our glorious world still to see, we planned it as our last trip to the Great White and unusually, a group of close friends came along with us. To see a place we knew and loved so deeply through their eyes was exhilarating. The 200 or so passengers for the voyage on the Ocean Endeavour gathered at the port of Ushuaia, at the southernmost tip of Argentina, surrounded by the vast and spiky Andes so towering and perfectly pyramid in shape, they remind you of a young childs drawing: these be mountains. Ushuaia has grown rapidly since I first came here 30 years ago; it now bursts with cafes and trekking gear shops and a fine, newish museum focusing on Antarcticas early explorers. But really, its all just a happy preamble to the journey south, summed up by the sign on the waterfront: El Fin del Mundo (The End of the World). Some were eating, others dancing when the call went up: Whales! Advertisement I was as excited to watch our ship come in, see the bags loaded, and file on board, as Id been the first time. But wed scarcely left the dock when news came through that the first cases of avian flu had been detected at South Georgia, so the whole itinerary was reversed. The unexpected happens constantly in Antarctica it always has, and more so now that our world is warming. Of course, everyones conscious of it. Companies like the one I travelled with, Chimu, are working on ways to minimise their environmental impact, such as alternative fuels and differently designed ships. But the changing climate is the key issue and the argument for being there has always been that every traveller to Antarctica becomes its advocate. The ships team of zoologists, geologists and historians give daily lectures, which are well attended except when the swell and winds rise and the tender-stomached retreat to their cabin. Passengers on the Ocean Endeavour. Credit: Courtesy of Chimu My good fortune is that my dad, a British Navy man, reared me on tales of Scuppers the Sailor Dog born at sea in the teeth of a gale which somehow by osmosis meant that I, too, love the spray and swell of the wild water. But it calms abruptly once we reach the ice; its always a bit of a surprise when passengers not seen before appear for their first breakfast. So the itinerary must respond to conditions. Weve never travelled on the big cruise ships, only smaller and more adaptable craft; it makes for bouncier voyages when the weather turns, but given strict rules governing numbers going ashore a maximum of 100 passengers at a time you do get more time with your boots on the ground. On the last two trips, we found a new and special joy: kayaking. The sturdy Ocean Endeavour carries about 10 kayaks, both singles and doubles, which come out only when conditions allow but when they do, its a life high. To paddle gently through that still, chill water and to enjoy penguins and seals porpoising around you, to hear barnacle-snouted whales come up for air with a loud whoosh just metres away, to see two different species of birds sharing their nesting grounds, their young chicks peeping for more food, well, these are all such magic moments. Yes, a little nerve-wracking knowing that should you capsize, your blood would freeze within minutes, but theres always a Zodiac nearby ready to haul you out. Antarctica teems with wildlife, including emperor penguins. Credit: Getty Images These Zodiacs are the ice equivalent of desert camels. Sturdy, a little tricky to get on and off, but essential. They ferry travellers to and from the shore in relays, and as the hours of light lengthen, we land more often. We visit the hulking, rusty remnants of old whaling stations, where slaughtered whales and penguins were boiled in vats known, ugh, as digesters, their oil used to light lamps and lubricate machines. Advertisement I dont at all mean to minimise the challenges experienced by First Australians and people from other ethnic minorities. According to the Scanlon Foundations 2023 Mapping Social Cohesion survey, one in three respondents of non-English background reported personal experiences of discrimination based on skin colour, ethnicity or religion. Loading But its one thing to acknowledge racist elements within our society, and quite another to cast us as a racist country. Tingle is one of the finest political journalists in the country and doesnt deserve the vitriol shes endured for her off-the-cuff remark. But the accusation that were a racist country is levelled too often by too many, when there is little evidence to support such an absolute claim. Eighty-four per cent of respondents to a 2021 Amnesty International survey said they believed in the importance of freedom from discrimination. The Scanlon survey also found the proportion of people who agreed that multiculturalism has been good for Australia increased from 77 per cent in 2018 to 86 per cent in 2023. And 85 per cent agreed that it is important for Indigenous histories and cultures to be included in the school curriculum. Racism is embedded in our history, with the Indigenous massacres and the White Australia Policy two particularly egregious stains. Yet, one struggles to think of many countries that arent without similar shame in their past. While progress towards greater racial harmony hasnt been as rapid as we would like, theres little doubt this multicultural nation has been on a positive trajectory for the best part of a century. Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of Australias Racial Discrimination Act and its inconceivable that we would repeal it. Australians did not vote in support of the Voice. Credit: AFR When the Voice to parliament was voted down last year, I encountered many people who described it as evidence of our countrys racist character. Such claims gloss over the fact that aggregated polling showed we overwhelmingly supported the Voice shortly after the referendum was announced. Our instinct was to say Yes. The referendums ultimate failure wasnt caused by our inherent racism. The No campaign was devastatingly effective at seeding doubt and fear within the community. Politicians are good at that. In my experience, the far right doesnt have a monopoly on racial insensitivity. The relative darkness of ones skin can be used as a justification for shutting down opinion, sometimes by people with no real experience of racism. At a Christmas Party last year, I had the temerity to suggest Australia may not be as racist as some think it is. My words were overheard by a Caucasian who rose from their seat to take issue, implying that my skin was too pale for me to take this view with any credibility. This hurt infinitely more than being called a golliwog or a black gimp. Of course, its important to note that Tingle made her comments about Australia in the context of the recent proposal by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to dramatically reduce immigration. He has used broad brush comments to suggest that the number of foreigners arriving here is to blame for pretty much everything. On face value, Duttons proposal to curb migration until housing, infrastructure and services catch up is all too simple and convenient. It may appeal to racists. But it isnt inherently racist. Loading Its true that many politicians will seek to appeal to our worst tendencies in times of economic hardship. This populist tactic is, sadly, effective in Australia and elsewhere around the world. The current discontent around housing and the cost of living is a gift to politicians who want to offer simple solutions to complicated problems. Throughout its history, rhetoric that plays on fears about immigration has been politically successful in Australia. While it may be tempting to conclude that this means the electorate is racist, its far more complex than that because humans are complex creatures. Police are investigating after a driveway outside a womans home in Melbournes north-east was sprayed with Islamophobic messages, an incident she believes was in response to her public support for Palestine. The pavement and driveway outside of Rita Manessis home was sprayed with the words Get out Muslim c--- and death to Palestine alongside several Hakenkreuz symbols or swastikas according to the Islamophobic Register. Anti-Palestine graffiti outside the home of Rita Manessis in Melbournes north-east. Credit: Islamophobia register Manessis, 53, said she could smell the fresh paint while taking the bins out at her Templestowe home late on Thursday night. The non-Muslim woman said she believes she was targeted because she has shown support for Palestinians amid heightened political tensions in Australia as Israeli forces press further into the city of Rafah, located on the southern tip of the Gaza Strip. 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 Geoffrey Ferguson doesnt know Robert Farquharson. They never met in the Victorian prison system. Nor does Ferguson, a former truck driver, have a firm view of the guilt or innocence of Farquharson, the man convicted for triple murder after driving his three sons into a dam on Fathers Day in 2005. He does, however, identify with key aspects of Farquharsons case that many people cant get over his claim to have had a coughing fit and his strange, self-centred behaviour immediately after his three sons, Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, and Bailey, 2, had died. In October 2015, Ferguson himself had an episode of cough syncope a rare condition thats well known in the medical literature which caused him to pass out while driving his truck in northern Victoria. As he was unconscious, his semi-trailer veered to the wrong side of the road and killed a man in an oncoming car. Its the same condition that Robert Farquharson said caused him to run off the road into the dam. The crash scene where a man died after Ferguson, the truck driver, coughed, passed out and ran into an oncoming car in a case of cough syncope. In both cases, juries rejected their stories and found them guilty. Ferguson was sentenced to seven years and nine months in jail for culpable driving causing death and a range of lesser charges. Advertisement In episode two of investigative podcast, Trial By Water, released to this mastheads subscribers today, Ferguson tells his full story. Listen to episode two here, right now. He relates how his brother witnessed his coughing fit during a phone call on a bluetooth headset, and how he woke up in time to see an oncoming vehicle but too late to avoid it. He tells how police disbelieved the coughing story from the beginning and how his stint in prison changed his life forever. In both the truck drivers case, and that of Farquharson 10 years earlier, police and prosecutors discounted the cough syncope story and used their apparently odd and cold behaviour in the immediate aftermath of the crash to suggest in court that they were guilty. Neither man dialled triple zero. Ferguson instead called a lawyer after being advised by a truck driving friend that when someone dies, someones going to jail. This was held against him in court. I had already accepted that he was dead and my mind analytically moved on to what happens next. Geoffrey Ferguson on his behaviour at the scene of the fatal crash In Farquharsons case, in an interview at the Geelong hospital hours after the crash, police became suspicious when he shed no tears for the deaths of his children, but did inquire whats the scenario for me? and whats going to happen to me? A day after he had asked those questions of senior sergeant Jeffery Smith, Farquharsons case was in the hands of the homicide squad. Advertisement His behaviour also counted against him in the public mind, where people could not understand the way he stood by at the side of the dam on the night of the crash and smoked cigarettes while others dived in to search for his children. Ferguson told this masthead that, having lived through a similar incident, he could understand Farquharsons demeanour. Although most people wouldnt understand it because they havent been in that situation, I concur that Roberts calm demeanour at the scene and asking the police about what would happen to him were not necessarily signs of guilt, Ferguson says. In my case I can say that at the time, I felt more than a little detached from the situation it felt totally surreal. Even though I didnt feel guilty and somehow knew that I hadnt done anything wrong, I also couldnt explain what had happened either. I remember wondering in a clinical kind of way, what would happen to me moving forward. This was not that he was insensitive to the fact that the other man was dead. Advertisement But because I had already accepted that he was dead and my mind analytically moved on to what happens next. Its hard to explain it properly to anyone who hasnt been in a similar situation Maybe its a survival mechanism. I dont know. Loading It also struck the truck driver that Farquharson had not asked for a lawyer or declined to talk to the police. A guy whos never been in trouble before probably wouldnt be aware that he shouldve done both, Ferguson said. Fergusons lawyer recommended he co-operate with police so he did his first interview without a lawyer present something he described as the worst advice I ever got. Records from Farquharsons court cases suggest that, in the days after the crash that killed his children, he was offered the opportunity to speak to a lawyer, but declined to do so, saying he had nothing to hide. There are other similarities between the two cases. The prosecution expert who downplayed the likelihood that each man could have suffered cough syncope was the same Monash University adjunct professor Matthew Naughton. A storied respiratory physician, who openly admitted he had little experience with or knowledge of cough syncope, gave evidence that apparently helped convince the juries in both cases that it was a vanishingly rare condition that was unlikely to have explained either crash. Advertisement The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald are not suggesting Naughton in any way acted inappropriately. He was honest with the court about his areas of expertise and experience. The global expert in cough syncope, Dr Peter Dicpinigaitis, a professor of medicine at New Yorks Albert Einstein College of Medicine, told the podcast that the archetype of the person who suffers from cough syncope over the past 150 years fitted Farquharsons description: a short and stocky man with lung disease. And your first episode can happen ... while youre driving a car, it can happen while youre waiting for the train sitting next to the tracks. Or hopefully youd have it at home where theres a sofa nearby, Dicpinigaitis said. Police traffic reconstruction experts also argued in both the Ferguson and Farquharson cases that their vehicles had been directed by steering inputs which proved the driver had been conscious. Ferguson said in his case police had not taken account of a stiff cross-wind that had been pushing his truck to the right all day. In Farquharsons case the police had argued three distinct steering inputs to get his old Commodore from the road to the dam proved he was conscious at the time. But as revealed in Trial By Water, engineer Dr Shane Richardson, who has been doing forensic crash investigations for more than 20 years, surveyed the scene of Farquharsons crash and scrutinised the police evidence and found it wanting. Advertisement 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 Over the past decade, Daniel Coleman tried to address what he and other members of the Greens had identified as a growing problem: antisemitism within the party. He helped found the Jewish Greens Working Group in Victoria and along with the late David Zyngier, a local government councillor and respected party figure, worked to develop policies and educate party members about the ancient hatred. In the days and weeks after Hamas atrocities in southern Israel, the muted response from the partys elected officials convinced him the project had failed. The Greens had not adopted a policy on antisemitism proposed by the working group and, more distressingly, he says the party appeared to give little thought to the Jews murdered, raped and taken hostage by terrorists. It was brought home to me after October 7 that Jewish lives were just not a concern to the Australian Greens party, Coleman says from his Melbourne home. It really became untenable for me to continue as a member. I believe that had it been any community other than a Jewish community subject to that sort of attack, the Greens would have spoken out. Daniel Coleman, a founder for the Jewish Greens Working Group, has cancelled his party membership. Credit: Wayne Taylor In November last year, Zyngier died of cancer. Coleman mourned his friend. Then he cancelled his membership with the Greens, ending a 40-year association which began before he immigrated to this country from the United States. When Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton rose this week in federal parliament, one after the other, to condemn the Greens for seeking to exploit for political ends social divisions created by the war in Gaza, there were party politics in play. But what Albanese and Dutton said went beyond electoral calculus. The raw anger in the PMs voice sliced through the usual cant and theatrics of question time. Advertisement Greens leader Adam Bandt described the politicians attacks as outrageous, saying his party had drawn a clear line between peaceful protests and any actions which escalate into violence or destruction of property. He reiterated what has become his partys three-point mantra. The Greens condemn antisemitism. The Greens condemn Islamophobia. And the Greens condemn the invasion of Gaza. A moment: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton this week turned on the Greens over Gaza. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen Coleman believes it is an empty slogan. The Greens abhorrence of the catastrophic loss of life in Gaza, eight months into a conflict that continues to frustrate the diplomatic efforts of neighbouring Arab states and the Biden administration to broker a ceasefire, is genuine and heartfelt. So far, more than 36,000 Palestinians are estimated to have been killed in Gaza and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is accused of using starvation as a war tactic. Less than a month after October 7, Coleman was dismayed when Bandt posted promotional material for a stand with Gaza rally in Melbourne. In the accompanying image, Israel is wiped from the map and replaced by a Free Palestine taking in all of Gaza, Israel and the West Bank. A graphic rendering of what a free Palestine would look like, posted by Greens leader Adam Bandt. Coleman says this is contrary to Greens policy, which supports a two-state solution. Advertisement They have done nothing to combat antisemitism or to acknowledge it within the party or to call out and oppose the terrorism of Hamas, Coleman says. It is really all about winning elections. They are looking for votes and they want to shore up the far left as their base. If you like Hamas, your party of choice is going to be the Greens. Greens members are precluded from publicly discussing internal party matters. Bandt and former Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam did not respond to interview requests. Melbourne Universitys Baillieu Library was closed after the windows were sprayed with red paint in a pro-Palestine rally on Friday. Credit: Penny Stephens How did the Greens arrive at such a juncture? To understand the transformation going on inside the party, the best place to look is the Australian Greens Victoria. The Victorian Greens is administratively controlled by a 15-person state council. A month ago, elections were held to decide half the positions. Shortly before nominations were opened, the constitution was changed to remove a requirement to be a party member for at least two years before serving on state council, and a further requirement to be a member for a year to vote in state council elections. The change removed a perceived anomaly within the constitution. The result was the elevation of a group of predominantly young, inexperienced political activists into positions of responsibility within the party. One has just started work as a school teacher. In a campaign statement, she said she wanted to convince the public that its possible to live in a socialist utopia. Another is a young ACTU campaigner who said the party needed to do more to provide a home for politically active socialists. Advertisement Greens leader Adam Bandt cuts a lonely figure in parliament this week. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen Another is a university student who described themselves in their campaign statement as a secular Jewish person and is now in charge of the Jewish Greens in the state party. Last month, the student formally endorsed the regular pro-Palestine protests outside the State Library of Victoria. There is also a new state councillor, AJ Judd, who tweets under the handle Non-binary terrorist. Two years ago, Judd advocated wreaking some destruction within the party to reconstruct it in a new, hard left image. Judds first attempt was directed against one of the Greens own candidates. In a letter to all state councillors on 20 May, Judd accused the partys candidate for the federal seat of Higgins, Angelica Di Camillo, of indirectly profiting from Israels genocide of Palestinians because her partner, an aerospace engineer, works for BAE Systems, a multinational defence company that has contracts with the Australian, US and Israeli armed forces. Greens candidate Angelica Di Camillo. Credit: Elke Meitzel Di Camillos candidacy is unclear, as the AEC has announced its intention to abolish the seat of Higgins. She said that when the election is held, all Greens would be united in favour of peaceful protests for Palestine. The next federal election represents a historic opportunity to elect more Greens who will advocate to end the invasion of Palestine, and for real action on the cost of living, housing and climate crises, she said. Judd did not respond to questions. Advertisement At the time of the state council elections, there were 125 active misconduct complaints by Greens party members against each other. This is not healthy, and as a result many members have quit, another newly elected state councillor warned. The elected state councillors will take their seats on July 1. When they do, the party will see an exodus from the council of long-serving Greens members, each with decades of organisational and life experience. The new guard doesnt have any experience or wisdom, they dont understand the importance of playing the longer game, a Greens member lamented. Another Greens member said the changing face of the partys organisation was crushing internal debate. In the Greens, as in society more broadly, there is a strong element of young radicals who are quite absolutist in their view of the world, they said. There has always been radical young people but that tendency has seized dominance in the Greens. The influence of this shift in the Greens is evidenced by the partys embrace of a pro-Palestinian protest movement that, in the eight months since October 7, has progressively adopted slogans, chants, dress and symbols favoured by Hamas and other militant Palestinian organisations. A graphic example was left outside the electoral office of Labor MP and former ACTU president Ged Kearney last Friday by keffiyeh-wrapped members of Darebin4Palestine, a protest group centred in Melbournes deep-Green local government area. Amid Palestinian flags, an invitation for Kearney to resign, genocide and F--- the ALP graffiti on the walls of her office, a placard made a play on the well-known Palestinian liberation chant: From the River to the Sea, Death to the ALP. The placard also carried an upside down red triangle; iconography used by the Al-Qassam Brigades, the militant wing of Hamas which carried out the 7 October attacks. The vandalism outside Kearneys office was part of a Day of Action Against the ALP co-ordinated between pro-Palestinian groups and promoted by one of the Greens Victorian State MPs, Gabrielle de Vietri, to her Instagram followers. On the same day, Labor MP for Wills Peter Khalil needed a police escort for staff to safely exit through protesters who had blockaded the front and rear entry to his electoral office in Coburg. Advertisement A young boy just shy of his second birthday died at Joondalup Health Campus, after his parents claim both the hospital and GPs refused to run blood tests to diagnose the cause of a fever. Sandipan Dhars parents rushed their 21-month-old to Joondalup Health Campus in March with a high fever that would not settle. Sandipan Dhar died aged 21 months. They had initially taken him to get his routine 18-month injections at a local medical centre after which the fever had started. They took him back to that clinic three times requesting tests to find the cause of the fever, but claim their requests were repeatedly refused. Over the phone, they said its all good. We just continue with the Panadol. But a continuing fever saw them consult a GP. Sandipan Dhar died aged 21 months. He literally spent less than five minutes and he said that he checked his temperature and he said that he is all right, we should not be worried we came back home again, Dhar said. The temperature was still there but he was literally in good health and he was full of energy. His father said this was normal for Sandipan, a precocious boy who had walked and run well before his first birthday. His temperature continued and they saw another GP, requesting a blood test. They said the doctor decided Sandipan was OK and did not need a blood test. They went back three or four days later and asked for a blood test, and said they were told that it was not necessary, but prescribed an antibiotic. During the course of antibiotics, they went back to the same clinic, on March 22, by which time their son seemed unwell and pale. They said the GP reassured them that the antibiotic needed time to work. Again they said they requested a blood test or any other kind of test that was possible, and that the doctor had said it was not required. They asked for a referral to a hospital or other clinic but did not receive one, and they went straight to the emergency room at Joondalup Health Campus. Saraswati and Sanjoy Dhar. Credit: 9 News Perth Over the course of about six hours, from around midday to around 6pm, they said, nurses told them they could leave because their child would be fine. A junior doctor also came and checked Sandipan. Dhar said he came from a medical family, with his mother, brother and sisters all doctors. We do have some sort of background we felt to some extent that we were not treated properly [in accordance with] our expectation of the government of Australia and the medical system. Those who have treated my son so badly they have destroyed my family. We lost our son we will never get him back but we do not want these same mistakes to be repeated for someone else. Finally, the staff asked Sandipans parents to gather a urine sample, and they struggled to get one as their little boy did not have any urine to pass. They claimed they asked for a drink for Sandipan, but it did not arrive; and finally, it was said that the sample was not necessary. They eventually agreed to go home and continue the antibiotics and were told they should return on March 27 if their son had not recovered. So we came back home on Friday with the hope we had seen a GP, we had seen a junior doctor, we had seen several so-called professional nurses, and we had seen a senior doctor who identified himself as a child specialist, Dhar said. Weve been full of our mental peace that we had gone through with the proper investigation. On the way, he asked us to play his favourite song that was the last good memory we had. He enjoyed his last journey with us. On Saturday he was not very well, but hed been continuing his eating, playing, all those things on Sunday morning he started refusing to eat and refusing to play. He started deteriorating. On Sunday evening we went to the hospital. Dhar struggled to stay composed as he went on. Before we went our son brought his favourite T-shirt to wear, he said. On the way, he asked us to play his favourite song that was the last good memory we had. He enjoyed his last journey with us. I did make a white lie to the reception. I told them that my son is having a bleeding issue, hoping that they will take us seriously. And rather than keeping working over there, they will take us immediately. Yes, they did after reaching inside the doctor went through with his chest X-ray and told us his lung was highly affected. Sandipan began to have trouble breathing. Loading He was given an oxygen mask and his mother, trying to convince the tiny child to keep it on, saw that he was bleeding from the nose or mouth. Shortly afterward, doctors carried the little boys motionless body away. His father believed that was when he died, but this still has not been confirmed for them. I still dont know what time my son passed away, he said. We know that we have given the honest statement I am 100 per cent confident [in my account. Dhar reiterated that he had asked a minimum of three times at the hospital for Sandipans treatment to be escalated. The doctor had had to come three times to convince my wife that everything was fine with a big smile on his face he said your son is completely fine, Dhar said. Ive been considering until today that Im a proud Australian ... I have been here 24 years, but this is the first time its come to my mind that I am unfortunate. We were considering ourselves within a first-world nation. My son didnt get his proper treatment, when he deserved that. What could we have done? Could someone please tell us? Every night, my other son, four years old, goes to the bed looking for his brother. He asks us to bring his brother back, every time I go out; he stands in front of the door If you can reply me that question I can satisfy my son. Ramsay Health Care state manager Dr Shane Kelly spoke earlier on Friday. He extended his sympathies to the family, saying no family should have to go through the death of a child. An investigation into the childs treatment continues. Kelly said a panel had reviewed the care and treatment given on the first presentation, with two independent specialists involved. They concluded the care was appropriate, and that there wasnt an indication at the time that a blood test was needed. He is expected to visit the family on Monday. During a press conference on Friday, Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson extended her condolences to the family. She said it was a major concern to hear that Sandipans parents felt they were not listened to. Victoria has quietly shelved a plan to axe the states disability commissioner on July 1, representing the Allan governments sixth major policy walk-back in six months. The about-face is the result of outrage from disability groups who had complained about a lack of proper consultation after the plan to replace the role with an overarching position was suddenly revealed in February. Disability Minister Lizzie Blandthorn (left) with Premier Jacinta Allan in March. Credit: Justin McManus The state opposition says the allegations show Labor has ignored a guiding principle from Victorias disability plan: Nothing about us without us. But government insiders say retaining the disability commissioner into the new financial year is a sign Labor ministers are actively listening to stakeholders. In San Antonio, my pilgrims progress has been impeded by summers melancholic glow: milk thistles lilac filaments, mustang grapes blue-black remnants, mountain laurels mourning blooms long spent. Their flowers look like bunches of grapes theyre a deep purple and they smell like grape Kool-Aid, says Sarah Neal, founder of Mission Adventure Tours. The Alamo part of the only UNESCO World Heritage site in Texas. Credit: iStock Purple the Catholic colour of penance and preparation is an apt hue for this languid, sun-blanched city. Here stands The Alamo, built by Franciscan missionaries in 1718 and famed for the Battle of the Alamo, a critical moment in the fight for Texan independence. But this mission is merely the tip of a largely concealed iceberg: North Americas largest collection of Spanish Colonial architecture. Strung out along a 17-kilometre stretch of the San Antonio River, and contained within San Antonio National Historical Park, are another four missions: Concepcion, San Jose, San Juan and Espada. Along with The Alamo, an outlying ranch and a system of acequia (irrigation channels), they comprise the only UNESCO World Heritage site in Texas. Climbing aboard the Sol Ana, skippered by amiable Gianis Papadogeorgos, I am shown to my room. The 15-metre yacht, named after the skippers two daughters, has eight cabins, four double berths and two windowless singles (ideal for teenagers). A huge soft bed fills my room, which is lined with shelves, built-in USB sockets and (European) power points on both sides. Storage consists of a cupboard with a hanging rail and two shelves, plus another open set of three shelves and a huge drawer under the bed if you need it (I didnt). Small boats can reach parts of Zakynthos others cant. Ive packed a roll-ons worth of clothes and it all fits beautifully. I could have fit twice the amount of toiletries Id brought on the bathrooms five shelves. The shower pressure is firm, the water blissfully hot, and the ensuite is larger than some bathrooms in Airbnbs Ive stayed in. Two waterproof jackets with hoods for the cooler nights and faster pace at sea hang in the cupboard. Im delighted and grateful to discover them as it was the only item of clothing Id been advised to bring that I didnt have. Bright light pours through the hatch above the pillows and to the side is a long horizontal window, from which I watch the sky turn various shades of pink one morning when I wake early and the rest of the boat sleeps. With its neutral colour scheme, theres a laid-back luxury feel to the entire boat. But it also feels lived-in, thanks to a kitchen equipped with proper cooking gear including smoothie-makers and two types of coffee machines (along with the traditional pot required to concoct Greek coffee). Australian-Greek chef Noah interrupted his year-long backpacking tour around Greece with his girlfriend Eve and their friend Tyanna (both also Australian Greeks) to crew our voyage. He loves the set-up, which shows in the delectable but simple food he whips up. Relaxing on deck on Luxe Sailings luxury yacht. Sol Anas top and front decks provide plenty of lounging options and even space for some modified yoga and pilates. Setting sail is a journey into simplicity and a reminder that the best things in life are nature, food and rest and perhaps we should add, being afloat. The Ionian Sea, a gentle body of water, hosts many remote and uninhabited islands. This not only makes it ideal for novice sailors wanting to try their hand (something guests are encouraged to try if they feel like it I most certainly do not) but also for close encounters with nature. This happens one day as we sail towards our next island for lunch when the cry of dolphins rings out. We scramble to the front deck, part of which is covered in netting only, making for an over-water hammock. A pod of dolphins joyfully curves in and out of the water, by the side and underneath the boat. The cetaceans play for a good 30 minutes and come right below the netted deck, seemingly within touching distance. Its a magical experience and, I remind myself, the kind that only comes with travelling this way. The close encounter with the silver mammals is just one, albeit a blockbuster, of the many joys travelling on water brings. Sol Ana comes equipped with a runabout, paddleboards, snorkels and an underwater scooter. The toys make for much fun when we anchor off the remote coastlines of the islands that can be reached only by water. The beaches, set against stunning backdrops of sheer rock cliffs, might be pebbles, not sand, but they are pristine and wonderfully desolate. Some dont even have names; Papadogeorgos just knows them in his mental map. Their isolation can only be broken by those able to swim onshore. Its not much of a surprise, at one beach, to come across nudists who exploit the open-air privacy. This is a trip to practise your technique before you set sail. No sooner am I standing on a paddleboard than skipper Gianis lets loose his latest acquisition a 4K drone that busily buzzes overhead while we swim and land on deserted beaches. Loading Many of the Ionian islands began forming during the Triassic-Jurassic age and the limestone cliffs that rise from the sparkling aquamarine waters were, millions of years ago, underwater. Many of the beaches that embellish the coastline are inaccessible, or damned hard to reach. This also applies for the natural and breathtaking formations that form where land meets sea. Then there are the caves natures cathedrals. To swim out to them is a spiritual experience in itself. Floating, Im joined only by a seagull whose belly is lit up a brilliant blue, reflecting the turquoise water below. Papadogeorgos ferries us to and from the famous blue caves, reflecting the colour of the water below. Mesmerising, spectacular and unforgettable. These are very much the images that return when I close my eyes and recall the trip. No day is spent entirely on the water. This is, after all, a journey to the Ionian islands. From Paleros, we headed to Vathy on the largest of the Ionian islands, Ithaca. The bulk of our sailing was to Ithaca, Lefkada and Kefalonia and Zakynthos. The smaller and more humble the island, the cheaper and usually better the food, the views and the greater the peacefulness. Picture perfect Assos village in Kefalonia. Credit: iStock Theres nothing quite like the narrow gangway being lowered onto a promenade between tables of diners to make you feel instantly connected to a new island. Each island has its own distinctive charms. Fuchsia-coloured bougainvillea spills from balconies and rooftops, cats roam streets and seem to pose in front of buildings painted in glowing, warm colours. Its an Instagrammers delight. But happily, there is nothing pretentious. Just like the food, its local, bursting with local personality and at many points, the rustic merges into downright dilapidated. I sip an espresso sitting on the edge of a dock, feet in glistening water, viewing an old stone lighthouse atop the cliff. It feels as if these places have another decade left before they are full-blown tourist hot-spots or the next party destination. Its well worth stopping in at the tiny boutiques filled with local fashions, jewellery, art, homewares, natural cosmetics and speciality foods (think oils, spices, salts and olives). Detour to the mainland for a day trip to Ancient Olympia. It was a joy to see the tags of beautifully knitted dresses and clothes proudly claiming Made in Greece (although theres plenty of cheap polyester Made in China garb available as well). There is no chance Ill go stir-crazy. We abandon Sol Ana for a day and head to the mainland to tour Ancient Olympia. (Did you know the ancient Greek Olympians mixed dust with olive oil for sunscreen?) As I discover over the course of the week, all the islands have beautiful hiking trails that twist between ports several times, we drop off at one port and arrange to be picked up at another. This is not just a trip to bring your swimsuits and sunscreen but also your activewear. One morning, after traversing Ithaca, Im delighted to find Filiatro Beach completely empty and the shaded yoga deck unoccupied. I can safely say Ive never planked in a more beautiful spot. Filiatro Beach on Ithaca Island is a beautiful spot. Credit: iStock This is when Kokkinos arrives in the runabout to pick me up. If I die having only ever come back to Greece, thats fine with me, he tells me. As I grudgingly extract my feet from water so clear that glass is an inadequate comparison, it is hard to disagree. Gaia, spirit of the Earth, must surely have been Ionian. THE DETAILS Visa Australians can travel to Greece visa-free for 90 days but your passport must have six months validity and one blank page. On a recent morning, a resident named Lyubov, 71, was having new windows put in at her apartment after they were blown out by a drone strike just a week earlier. She missed being injured because she went to stand in the stairwell when she heard an air raid siren, she said. Like Artem, she provided only her first name for security reasons. With its tree-lined avenues and lush, riverside parks, Sumy has the feel of a quiet, provincial town. Shoppers wait at bus stops and young women push infants in strollers in the parks. A worker installs new windows after a drone strike blew out old ones months earlier in an apartment building in Sumy Credit: NYT Yet the city has lived through heavy assault before and its inhabitants put up a ferocious resistance. When Russia began its full-scale invasion in 2022, tanks rolled into Sumy the very first day, February 24. The Ukrainian army and security services had been ordered to withdraw, leaving behind just a small number of people in the territorial defence force, along with members of the emergency services and medical personnel in the hospitals. Artem was among the first to come across the Russians when he was driving back to his base around five that afternoon. He saw four tanks approaching along the main avenue. I stopped at a traffic light, he said, and they stopped at the light too. He laughed at the memory of the surreal moment. The Russian soldiers seemed relaxed, he said. One had his rifle slung across his back and his legs crossed over the barrel of the tank, he recalled. The Russians began setting up checkpoints on the edge of town, he said. But that evening, members of the Ukrainian territorial defence forces attacked the Russian forces and burned some of their vehicles. Ukrainian soldiers bury a comrade in Sumy. Everyone is the town knows someone who has enlisted and is fighting. Credit: Getty Townspeople rallied to the defence of the city, said Lantushenko, who volunteered for the territorial defence forces shortly before the invasion. There was an incredible unity, he said. We realised we had to defend our homes on our own. And thousands of people like me went and took weapons. Facing such heavy resistance, the Russian troops abandoned their plans to occupy the city as they had elsewhere. In those other areas, the occupations led to brutal consequences for residents. We had guys on bicycles with rifles on their backs, Artem recalled. Two of his friends who ran a cafe had scores of people making Molotov cocktails in their courtyard, he said. From the first days it was like: Just you dare try and come here. The Ukrainians hit and burned Russian vehicles at two entry points to the city on the first days. The Russian troops pulled back, choosing instead to blockade the city, setting up positions on the perimeter and firing artillery from afar. Sumy is a quiet provincial town with a war on its doorstep. Credit: NYT They shelled and shelled, Lyubov recalled. She gave only her first name for security reasons to avoid repercussions for herself or her family. She moved in with her daughter and grandchildren for two months during that time so the family could be together. There were often air raid alarms, she said. We all sat in the corridor. Within a month, the Russian army abandoned its northern incursion, retreating from a whole stretch of territory around the capital, Kyiv, and the northeastern cities of Chernihiv and Sumy, to focus on seizing the eastern region of the Donbas. Later in 2022, Ukraine won further successes, forcing Russian troops into retreat from another part of northeastern Ukraine, around the city of Kharkiv, as well as from the Kherson region in southern Ukraine. Loading But since then, the momentum has swung in favour of the invading Russian forces. Ukraine failed to advance far in a counteroffensive in the summer of 2023 and has suffered a shortage of troops and ammunition as US support became delayed by hardliners in Congress. In early May, Russia began a new incursion toward Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, after Kyiv. Troops seized a dozen villages and approached within artillery range of the city. More forces are mustering near the border to attack Sumy, Ukrainian officials have said. There is a weariness and a sense of dread among residents as they face the ordeal of another Russian attack. People who had cars and the means were leaving, Artem said. But those who had jobs or family commitments were staying, hoping for the best. I dont believe they will come to Sumy, Lyubov, whose windows were shattered by the drone strike, said of the Russian forces. But Im afraid. Lantushenko expressed confidence that the armys preparations and fortifications would be sufficient to hold out against a renewed Russian assault. Unlike the first days of the war, Ukraines defence forces are now trained and organised, he said. But people were exhausted, he said, even if the sense of unity was still there. No one knows when the war will end, he said. I dont know a single person who doesnt have a friend or family member or neighbour in the army, and more and more people are in the army every day. Its incredibly hard to keep holding on. PHILIPSBURG:--- The Government of Canada has advised its citizens traveling to St. Maarten to expect nationwide power outages. However, in its color-coded risk level travel advisory, it still gave St. Maarten a Green status, which means that travelers should Exercise normal security precautions. Commenting on the advisory, Grisha Heyliger-Marten, Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Traffic and Telecommunication (TEATT), noted that Green is the lowest risk level and indicates that the country is still safe for travel. There is no cause to panic, Heyliger-Marten said. As a matter of fact, St. Maarten has the same risk level as Aruba and Curacao. This indicates that the destination is still considered safe and there are no significant threats to travelers safety. In fact, she continued, The Netherlands and France are classified as Yellow, meaning that Canadian travelers visiting those European countries should exercise a high degree of caution particularly due to threats of terrorism in Europe. The other two risk levels are: Orange, which means Canadians should avoid non-essential travel to such an area and Red, which means travelers should avoid all travel to places so designated. While it is true that we are facing a crisis situation with regard to our power supply, the fact is that the government is doing everything it can, in close collaboration with GEBE, to restore the normal electricity supply, the minister stated. Heyliger-Marten said she believes that the Government of Canada has probably taken this into account in its updated travel advisory, and that is why we are still classified as Green. This status means that travelers should take the same precautions as they would at home in Canada, such as being aware of their surroundings and safeguarding personal belongings, but there are no significant safety or security concerns that warrant heightened caution or avoidance of travel to the island. We are monitoring how other source countries for our tourism industry are responding to the current power challenges we are facing, but as of now, there is no need for alarm, Minister Heyliger-Marten stressed. HNLMS Groningen intercepted a drug shipment of over two tons of cocaine in the Caribbean Sea on May 16. Two go-fasts were discovered by a maritime patrol aircraft of the Dutch Caribbean Coastguard, after which HNLMS Groningen was called into action. HNLMS Groningen set course for the go-fasts and then launched her American helicopter and fast interceptor boats with the Fleet Marine Squadron and Law Enforcement Detachment of the U.S. Coast Guard on board. The suspects did not simply surrender. That happened only after shots on the engine. The four suspects and a total of 2177 kilograms of cocaine were turned over to the U.S. Coast Guard. The drugs have been destroyed, and the suspects will be prosecuted in America. HNLMS Groningen has been active in the Caribbean again since early April 2024. This intercept is the third in row. Among other things, the Dutch naval vessel is deployed for counterdrug operations in alternating cooperation with the U.S. Coast Guard and Caribbean Coast Guard. News / National by Staff reporter The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) announced this week that a feasibility study on a potential investment deal with a Chinese company has been completed.NRZ recently signed an investment agreement with TransTech, a subsidiary of China Railway International Group (Crig), to potentially modernize its rail system and infrastructure to world-class standards.The proposed $533 million investment deal, if finalized, would include the provision of locomotives and other rail equipment, the construction of a new Beitbridge-Harare railway line, and increased transportation of minerals.Crig Chairperson Yen Chen Yun visited Zimbabwe recently to discuss the investment proposal with government and NRZ officials.The Chinese company has also conducted an extensive examination of NRZ infrastructure, including rail lines, marshalling yards, and workshops.NRZ Public Relations and Stakeholder Manager Andrew Kunambura confirmed that the feasibility study has been completed and a report will be presented to both parties for analysis."They have concluded the feasibility study and will present the report to their principals and to us for analysis, which will then inform the decision both parties will make," he said.Kunambura also noted that the feasibility study included aspects of NRZ's strategic turnaround plan, although he did not specify when the report would be available.Finance and Investment Promotion Minister Mthuli Ncube recently highlighted the need to leverage Crig's expertise and financial resources to improve NRZ. DR Congo trial over thwarted 'coup' bid due to open Kinshasa, June 7 (AFP) Jun 07, 2024 Around 50 people including several Americans are due to go on trial on Friday in the Democratic Republic of Congo over what the army said was an attempted coup, military justice official said. The hearing, which is due to begin during the morning, is taking place in a military court inside the Ndolo military prison in the capital Kinshasa. Armed men attacked the home of Economy Minister Vital Kamerhe in the early hours of May 19 before moving onto the nearby Palais de la Nation that houses President Felix Tshisekedi's offices. The army later announced on national TV that security forces had stopped "an attempted coup d'etat". The plot was led by Christian Malanga, a Congolese man who was a "naturalised American" and who was killed by security forces, army spokesman General Sylvain Ekenge said. Ekenge said the attackers were made up of "several nationalities" and that around 40 were arrested, with another four -- including Malanga -- killed. Malanga's son, Marcel Malanga, was also among the assailants. The motive behind the coup bid remains unclear, but the government condemned it as an "attempted destabilisation of the institutions". A court document shows that 53 defendants will be tried, including Christian Malanga, even though he is dead. His son, who is American, as well as two other US citizens will also be tried. At least one Congolese man who is a naturalised Belgian is also among the defendants. The charges in the case are "attack, terrorism, illegal possession of weapons and munitions of war, attempted assassination, criminal association, murder (and) financing of terrorism", according to the document. A separate investigation is being carried out into extrajudicial executions allegedly committed by soldiers after the operation. NATO chief says 'no immediate military threat' against alliance Stockholm, June 7 (AFP) Jun 07, 2024 NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday that there were "no immediate military threat" against any member of the alliance, after the Kremlin has accused the West of potentially escalating the war in Ukraine. Stoltenberg's statements follows heightened tensions between Russia and NATO members. The Kremlin accused the West last week of "entering a new round of escalations in tensions," after US President Joe Biden lifted restrictions on Ukraine using weapons supplied by the United States against targets on Russian territory, but only to defend Kharkiv. "As long as we don't give any room for misunderstandings or faulty assessment in Moscow or other potential capitals in countries that could potentially attack us, there is no military threat against NATO countries," Stoltenberg said while on a visit to the alliance's newest member Sweden. Asked about whether Russia might seek to test the alliance's Article 5 commitment to defend each other, Stoltenberg said "we see no immediate military threat against any NATO country." "Therefore it is not the case that we now believe that our Article 5 will actually be tested," he told a joint press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. Kristersson also announced that Sweden's air force would be joining NATO's Air Policing force, with Swedish Gripen fighter jets mainly patrolling the air space of the Baltic states. Also on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the West to do more to achieve a fair peace as Ukraine battles the Russian invasion. Kyiv has been pushing Europe to increase military support, with Russia gaining the upper hand on the battlefield in recent months. News / National by Staff reporter The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by former Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko, who was challenging the rejection of his discharge application by both the magistrate and the High Court. Mphoko faces charges of criminal abuse of office for allegedly ordering the release of two former Zinara bosses held on fraud allegations at Avondale Police Station in 2016.With the appeal dismissed, Mphoko is set to return to court for the continuation of his trial."The Supreme Court of Zimbabwe today dismissed an appeal by the former Vice President of Zimbabwe, Phelekezela Mphoko," stated the prosecution."He was challenging the decision by the lower court, which upheld a Harare Magistrate's ruling to dismiss his application for discharge at the close of the State's case."The Supreme Court found that the appeal lacked merit.It is alleged that while serving as Vice President, Mphoko unlawfully ordered the release of Moses Julius Juma and Davison Norupiri, ZINARA executives, from police custody. He even drove them in his car, despite their scheduled court appearance the next day. Attempts by the station's officer in charge to prevent this were unsuccessful. French Mirage jets to join US F-16 in patchwork Ukraine air force Paris, June 7 (AFP) Jun 07, 2024 As Ukrainian pilots train on American-built F-16 fighters, France's announcement Thursday that it will supply Mirage jets will bring Kyiv a mix-and-match air fleet in line with its existing jumble of Western-supplied weapons. President Emmanuel Macron said that France would supply Mirage 2000-5 fighters, which will join the F-16 and Russian-made MIG-29 and Sukhoi models already in service. "The F-16 and Mirage integration dilemma is part of a longer trend for Ukraine's armed forces since 2022... Ukraine has been struggling with integrating and adapting its newly received defence systems," said Ivan Klyszcz of the Estonia-based International Centre for Defence and Security. There are many militaries around the world that operate different models of fighter plane. But Kyiv's challenge is all the greater as it takes on new systems in the heat of Russia's two-year invasion, as well as combining modern Western kit with Soviet-era equipment. "Ukraine's military engineers have been agile and highly skilled at adapting and integrating new systems," Klyszcz said. President Volodymyr Zelensky has for months placed his country's need for improved air defences front and centre in conversations with allies. He hopes an upgraded air force will be able to push back enemy artillery from the front lines and intercept more of the missiles and drones Russia uses to bombard Ukrainian territory. "Most Russian airstrikes are launched from Russian territory," said Pierre Razoux of the Mediterranean Foundation for Strategic Studies. "With (Western) authorisation to fire into Russia, the Ukrainians may be able to push back the safe distance at which Russian aircraft can safely fire" their weapons, he added. - 'Few restrictions' - A "coalition" of 11 countries was formed in July last year to train Ukrainian pilots on the F-16, with Britain, Canada and European countries including France joining in. Denmark and the Netherlands have committed to delivering 61 planes after getting the go-ahead from Washington. Norway and Belgium have since also pledged fighters. Zelensky told AFP last month that Ukraine needs up to 130 F-16s to achieve parity with Russian aviation. With some countries in Kyiv's coalition of backers more or less reluctant to allow their weapons to be used against Russian soil, having varied suppliers could be beneficial for Ukraine, said James Rands of British private intelligence firm Janes. "France has been and is increasingly bullish about how weapons it donates should be employed," he told AFP. "Therefore, Mirage is likely to arrive with few limitations on its employment." Questions remain about the timing of the French support, after Macron set an ambition of five to six months. In the case of the F-16, Ukraine's first pilot "probably" began training on the jets in August, Rands said. "We think the first F-16s will be arriving in the next month or two," he added -- some ten months later. - 'Out of step' - Macron and Paris's defence ministry have yet to say how many aircraft France will provide. Greece has a number of Mirage 2000-5 jets and could give some of them up. But "for them to have an operational effect, you'd need at least 30 to 40, or two squadrons," Razoux said. Leo Peria-Peigne of France's Institute for International Relations suggested that Ukraine should be given 20 Mirage at most. "F-16s do air-to-ground (attack), the Mirages only do air-to-air, so they're quite complementary," he pointed out. Nevertheless, France is "a bit out of step. There was a desire among NATO countries to combine their efforts around the F-16. I'm struggling to understand the logic" of Macron's announcement, he added. In a similar case, Sweden decided against delivering its Gripen fighter jets as allies pushed to prioritise the F-16. That leaves Paris out on a limb compared with its partners. "The timing is questionable," said Justin Bronk of British defence think-tank RUSI. "Gripen is more applicable to Ukraine operational requirements than Mirage 2000 and a lot more work has been done to train Ukrainian pilots on Gripen," he added. Even if the French-built fighters are "probably an unhelpful distraction of resources at this stage," Zelensky "is not politically in a position to say no," Brink said. Israeli envoy 'disgusted' at army's inclusion on upcoming UN blacklist for harming children United Nations, United States, June 7 (AFP) Jun 07, 2024 Israel's UN envoy on Friday said he was "disgusted" that the Israeli army is to be included on an upcoming United Nations list of countries and armed forces that fail to protect children during war. "I am utterly shocked and disgusted by this shameful decision," UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan said in a statement. "Israel's army is the most moral army in the world and you know it. This is an immoral decision that only aids terrorism and rewards Hamas." The annual "Children and Armed Conflict" report from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has not yet been published, but Erdan was responding after receiving notification of Israel's inclusion on the list of countries that do not take adequate measures to shield children from conflict. "The only one who is blacklisted today is the secretary-general," Erdan said. "Now Hamas will continue even more to use schools and hospitals because this shameful decision of the secretary-general will only give Hamas hope." Gaza is suffering through a war which broke out after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 36,731 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. Israel has also delayed the entry of aid into Gaza, depriving the territory's 2.4 million people of clean water, food, medicines and fuel. Last week, the World Health Organization said that more than four in five children had gone a whole day without eating at least once in 72 hours. According to the Hamas government media office, at least 32 people, many of them children, have died of malnutrition in Gaza since the war began. Guterres' report is expected to be published by the end of June. The report highlights human rights violations against children in around 20 conflict zones. Last year, Russia's military and armed entities linked to Russia were included on the list. Rights groups have long pushed for Israel's inclusion and in 2022, the United Nations issued a warning that Israel would need to show improvements in order not to be added. Israel says strike on UN Gaza school killed 17 militants Jerusalem, June 7 (AFP) Jun 07, 2024 Israel's army said on Friday it had killed 17 militants the day before in an air strike on a UN school in central Gaza, raising its previous toll from nine. Thursday's Israeli strike hit a school operated by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in the Nuseirat area of central Gaza where thousands of displaced people were sheltering. The nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said that at least 37 people were killed in the strike. "Since the targeted strike the (Israeli army) has confirmed the identity of 17 terrorists that were operating from the school," the military said in a statement. Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari had said Thursday nine militants were killed when fighter jets attacked three classrooms in the school. About 30 militants from Islamic Jihad and Hamas were hiding there, he said. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said the strike had been carried out "without prior warning". He added that UNRWA "shares the coordinates of all its facilities (including this school) with the Israeli army and other parties in the conflict". "Attacking, targeting or using UN buildings for military purposes are a blatant disregard of International Humanitarian law," Lazzarini said. The bloodiest-ever Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 36,731 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. Judge tells DRC 'coup' trial acts 'punishable by death' Kinshasa, June 7 (AFP) Jun 07, 2024 Three American suspects in what the Congolese army called an attempted coup in Kinshasa last month committed acts "punishable by death", a court heard on Friday as their trial opened. Marcel Malanga and Taylor Christian Thomson, both 21, and 36-year-old Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun are among 50 defendants in the case and were the first to stand before the judge to hear the charges against them. "These acts are punishable by death," the presiding judge of the Kinshasa-Gombe military court, Freddy Ehume, told the three in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital. Defendants wearing blue and yellow prison uniforms took the stand one by one under a large tent in the grounds of the Ndolo military prison to hear the charges. Around 10 assault rifles and various other pieces of evidence were placed in front of the judges. Western diplomats, journalists and lawyers were present for the trial, which is set to resume on June 14. The alleged coup bid occurred on May 19 when armed men attacked the home of Economy Minister Vital Kamerhe in the early hours before moving onto the nearby Palais de la Nation that houses President Felix Tshisekedi's offices. They were seemingly filmed brandishing the flag of Zaire -- the name of the Central African country during the rule of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko -- and chanting that Tshisekedi's government was over. The army later announced on national television that security forces had stopped "an attempted coup d'etat". - Suspected accomplice- The alleged plot was led by Christian Malanga, a Congolese man who was a "naturalised American" and who was killed by security forces, army spokesman General Sylvain Ekenge has said. His son, who is a US citizen, was one of the three Americans to face trial on Friday. Ekenge said around 40 of the assailants, of "various nationalities", had been arrested and a further four killed, including Malanga. The motive behind the alleged incident remains unclear but the government condemned it as an attempt to "destabilise" the vast country's "institutions". Four women are among the accused, as well as a Canadian, a Briton and a Belgian, Jean-Jacques Wondo, who are all naturalised Congolese. Wondo, a military expert of Congolese origin, was arrested two days after the events, on May 21. He is accused of being an "accomplice of Christian Malanga" by "providing transport" for the alleged putschists, his lawyer said. Wondo refuted the charges against him and would defend himself, lawyer Masingo Shela added. Also among those being tried was a teacher, farmer and journalist. A judge read the defendants their charges, but at this stage they have not presented their defence. According to a court document, a total of 53 defendants are on trial, including Christian Malanga, even though he is dead. The charges include "attack, terrorism, illegal possession of weapons and munitions of war, attempted assassination, criminal association, murder (and) financing of terrorism", according to the document. A separate investigation is being carried out into extrajudicial executions which allegedly took place after the operation, when soldiers were filmed shooting at two suspected unarmed putschists, including one who had jumped into the Congo river to try to escape. Last March, the Congolese government lifted the moratorium on the death penalty which had been in force since 2003 in the country. The measure targeted in particular soldiers accused of treason, at a time when the east of the country is in the grip of an armed rebellion. News / National by Staff reporter CITIZENS Coalition for Change (CCC) legislator Chalton Hwende has expressed skepticism about the Southern African Development Community's (SADC) intervention in Zimbabwe's disputed 2023 elections. This stance contradicts CCC's former leader Nelson Chamisa, who is urging SADC to address the political deadlock resulting from the contested elections that extended President Emmerson Mnangagwa's mandate.Chamisa has been actively writing to SADC for intervention, but Hwende, speaking in a public forum, stated that SADC considers the matter closed and is unlikely to take action. He recounted a meeting with SADC's executive secretary, where the issue of Zimbabwe was dismissed, indicating no forthcoming assistance.Hwende emphasized that Zimbabweans must pressure their government to implement political and electoral reforms, as SADC has no history of enforcing new elections. With SADC preparing for its 44th Head of State summit in Zimbabwe and President Mnangagwa set to assume chairmanship, Hwende believes there is no appetite within SADC to go beyond their report on the elections.He urged citizens to organize and demand their rights, noting that relying on SADC is futile. He firmly stated that SADC will not force an election in Zimbabwe and that the responsibility lies with the Zimbabwean people. David meets with Victors replacement and is tested again. He is shown coordinates and asked to close his eyes and step over the line then proceed to draw what he sees. The test is called stepping into the target. David begrudgingly does what he is asked but sees nothing. Ben is still trying to explain away seeing the Jinn. He tests the amount of medicine he needs to take before he starts to see any changes. The Jinn may disappear from his vision but that does not stop the voice. Kristen is visiting Kurt who apologizes for his recent behavior. Kristen accepts but wants him to help Andy. He agrees and also advises he is throwing away the toy that helps him write. Kristen is called away on assignment and Kurt does just that. His receptionist notices and calls Leland to let him know. That man has spies everywhere. "How to Slaughter a Pig EVIL, Pictured: Kurt Fuller as Dr. Kurt Boggs. Photo: Elizabeth Fisher/Paramount+ 2024 Paramount+ . All Rights Reserved David, Ben and Kristens new assignment brings them to a pig farm due to people uploading videos claiming that pork is making them possessed. They meet a representative from the company that produces the pork and the pig farmers: Chet and his son Anthony. As they look around Kristen cuts herself on a gate and the pigs have an aggressive reaction to the smell of blood. David patches her up but his touch does something to Kristen and Ben visits the neighbor who is also a farmer. He uses drones to spy on Chet and Anthony. He shows Ben footage of Anthony walking on all fours and acting very strangely. If that was not bad enough, later that night, we see Kristen at home and Andy is still sleeping under the bed, Ben cannot shake the Jinn and while David is saying his prayers he is visited by the Angel and has a vision of dead villagers at the coordinates he was shown earlier. When he explains this to his new handler, he explains that David has PSI (Perfect Sight Immersion) and he actually stepped into a General they are looking for. The General committed these murders and is holding eight missing Priests in Ethiopia. The Vatican will need Davids help. It is a mystery how this all ties in with the end of the world as this storyline is abandoned the rest of the episode; except for the fact that David not only sees what the General sees but feels his emotions (hatred and anger) for a chunk of the episode. "How to Slaughter a Pig EVIL, Pictured: Mike Colter as David Acosta and Chukwudi Iwuji as Father Dominic. Photo: Elizabeth Fisher/Paramount+ 2024 Paramount+ . All Rights Reserved When the team returns to the farm for answers, Chet explains that his son returned from school changed. So he reached out to the Trio of God (online amateur Exorcists that look like a girl group) for help. The Trio of God explain they removed the demon from Anthony and placed it in the pigs like in the Bible, naturally. David points out that those pigs drown themselves after essentially killing the demon. They told Chet to kill the pigs but apparently that did not happen. Back in the car, Kristen explains all this work with demons has her broken. David admits to working with the Entity and his visions and Ben finally tells his besties about the Jinn. The friendship between these three characters are the heart of the show and bring some sense of normalcy in a world full of angels and demons. As Ben returns to the farm to prove his theory about the pigs correct, he is attacked by an oversized demon pig. The scene was scary enough to make me not want to touch bacon ever again. At the church, Ben and David explain to Chet, Anthony and the company representative that Chet used feed back to feed his living livestock which is a common practice. The only issue is he fed the demon pigs to his living livestock. However even if these pigs were not possessed (we know David doesnt believe it) feed back causes aggression in the pigs. So we have explained another supernatural issue with science. The reason Kristen was not there is because she has been dealing with her own issues that she has not told her friends about. Earlier in the episode, Sheryl had a meeting with a group of women in her tiny office and she plans to take down Leland because he is trying to hurt her family. Color me surprised if it turns out she has been trying to stop him this whole time; a great plot twist as I thought she was just a bad mother. At this meeting is Leslie, the woman carrying Kristens baby and she goes into labor - this baby is early! Sheryl and Leslie are at the hospital and never see a doctor; only a nurse - Nurse Block. I would not trust her to treat a paper cut. She gives Leslie drugs and while Sheryl is in the restroom and she wakes up, she hears Leslie and Nurse Block talking about feeding the mother to the baby. When she alerts Sheryl and Sheryl confronts Nurse Block, she creepily explains it away. Leland visits Leslie and tells her that she heard correctly but they were talking about Kristen. Later in the episode, Leslie has left the hospital and calls Kristen for help. Kristen is quick to dismiss her as she wants nothing to do with the baby but once Leslie mentions Nurse Block and Kristen has a memory of her she decides to help. Kristen takes her to another hospital and is left with no choice but to help her through labor. The baby is born and appears to be a normal looking boy. Leslie cannot stop him crying and when Kristen nervously agrees to show her how to rock him, he immediately stops crying. Later that night, it's time to feed the baby and Leslie is asleep so the nurse has Kristen do it. She is being forced into helping this child a lot. As she is feeding the baby its bottle she begins to cry as she bonds with him. Not good. "How to Slaughter a Pig EVIL, Pictured: Katja Herbers as Kristen Bouchard. Photo: Elizabeth Fisher/Paramount+ 2024 Paramount+. All Rights Reserved Final thoughts: I enjoyed this episode a lot. Aside from the creepy pigs, the team opening up to each other and hugging it out was very sweet. If that friendship falls apart, the world is in trouble. I am surprised that Sheryl remembers Leland is after her family, so if she is behaving this way as a part of some master plan to stop him, I am all for it. I am a little bit confused about the date because I thought we had 30 days until the baby was born but if Kristen starts bonding with him, if it comes time to end him to save the world, we have some great conflict there. Poor Ben and his Jinn; I think when this is all said and done, he will be a believer. Lastly, I am enjoying Davids journey so far. I believe David is like some archangel that will be the key to saving the world. What did you think Evil fans? Leave a comment and remember to connect with me on X @jereereviews. Tonights episode of Evil was another banger full of creepy, scary, drama filled goodness. The move to Paramount+ a few seasons ago was a great move by CBS. It allows for the show to push the envelope as well as give us real dialogue that the writers would not be able to get away with on network television. Spy noticed that another ultra-rich American has docked a gigantic superyacht in Butlers Wharf this week. This time its James Berwind, a noted yacht enthusiast and heir to the Berwind Corporation, the American conglomerate founded by Edward Julius Berwind, a White Star Line director through the 1910s. His $86 million vessel called Scout, named after one of his dogs, includes a dog yard, a greenhouse and an LCD Skylight. So is he in London for business reasons? Given Berwinds family ties and enthusiasm for all things nautical, Spy wondered if hed thought about snapping up the firm that built the Titanic: Harland & Wolff. Its office is a ten-minute walk from where he docked up and Berwinds existing UK business ties are mostly in Belfast, in the shadow of H&Ws famous cranes. It could be bought on the cheap at the moment, after shares plunged last month following a Times report claiming the business was close to collapse. The shipbuilder says the article is misleading and inaccurate, but the stock remains cut-priced. A deal doesnt seem likely, however. The line from H&W on Berwind? A spokesperson said she had no knowledge of him but added that even if she did, we wouldnt discuss financial discussions while they were ongoing. And it seems most of his excursions have been for pleasure, not business. He once docked Scout in the Irish town of Kinsale just to get a pint of beer. The Standard revealed this week you can get a Greene King IPA for as little as 1.76 at Old Streets the Masque Haunt. Maybe hes here to snap up a bargain after all. A clearer police deterrence, particularly in high-risk areas, is essential. But law enforcement alone will not be sufficient. So-called kill switches, which can disable mobile phones as soon as muggings are reported, would cut the incentive to steal the devices in the first place. Tech companies would surely want to shut down any suggestion that their business model relies not on developing better products, but on users having to buy a new phone every few months because they are stolen. * FIRST NAME * LAST NAME * EMAIL Your email address * PASSWORD Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number Show * YEAR OF BIRTH You must be at least 18 years old to create an account 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979 1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970 1969 1968 1967 1966 1965 1964 1963 1962 1961 1960 1959 1958 1957 1956 1955 1954 1953 1952 1951 1950 1949 1948 1947 1946 1945 1944 1943 1942 1941 1940 1939 1938 1937 1936 1935 1934 1933 1932 1931 1930 1929 1928 1927 1926 1925 1924 1923 1922 1921 1920 1919 1918 1917 1916 1915 1914 1913 1912 1911 1910 1909 1908 1907 1906 * Required fields I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice CREATE ACCOUNT I'LL TRY LATER Already have an account? SIGN IN By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. News / National by Staff reporter The government of Zimbabwe plans to double the health workforce by 2030 to address the critical shortage of midwives and improve maternal healthcare amidst a mass exodus of health workers. This was revealed by Health and Child Care Deputy Minister Sleiman Timios Kwidini in the Senate, in response to concerns about the skills gap in the healthcare sector.Kwidini highlighted the current shortage of midwives and emphasized the government's target to double the health workforce by 2030 to alleviate challenges faced by pregnant women. He noted the role of village health workers in providing health education to expectant mothers and encouraging antenatal care visits. For pregnancies requiring special attention, women are advised to visit nearby hospitals for specialized treatment.The healthcare sector in Zimbabwe has been severely affected by the migration of health workers, particularly to the United Kingdom, due to poor salaries, inadequate working conditions, and underfunding leading to shortages of drugs and medical equipment.Kwidini acknowledged these poor working conditions and mentioned government efforts to improve remuneration for health workers, aiming for a more collaborative approach within the civil service.Midwives have also been crucial in responding to the recent cholera outbreak, working tirelessly to provide essential care to pregnant women and new mothers. The United Nations Population Fund has supported these efforts through its Emergency Fund, supplying midwives with necessary resources to continue their life-saving work. He had appeared in Normandy earlier in the day to pay tribute to veterans but returned to Britain before the ceremony was over, while his rival Sir Keir remained alongside Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron and the Prince of Wales. He grew up in Tottenham and went on to study at Harvard University, where he became the first black Briton to attend Harvard Law School. He studied for a master of laws degree and graduated in 1997 before going on to work as a lawyer and professor. News / National by Staff reporter A recent report by The Sentry sheds light on the Central Intelligence Organisation's (CIO) secret revenue streams, which fund activities like Forever Associates Zimbabwe (FAZ), alleged to have influenced Zimbabwe's 2023 elections in favor of Zanu-PF through intimidation and other malpractices. The report suggests that the CIO controls several companies involved in various industries, potentially serving as off-budget financing sources. These ventures have reportedly included activities like coal mining, tourism, and diamond mining.The Sentry calls for increased oversight and transparency in the CIO's financial operations, recommending dissolution of its businesses and winding up its investment branch. The report advocates for legislation ensuring parliamentary regulation of CIO funding sources. Additionally, it urges the introduction of an online corporate registry for directors and beneficiary owners to enhance transparency.Zanu-PF refutes allegations of irregular funding sources, arguing that similar practices exist among NGOs with regime change agendas. However, key figures associated with FAZ and the Information Ministry declined to comment or provide clarity when approached.FAZ allegedly financed Zanu-PF's procurement of Toyota Hilux pick-up trucks for its candidates, highlighting the potential impact of such secret funding on Zimbabwean politics. The injured toll of a gas blast and fire at a Dedeman DIY store in northeastern Botosani is 15, one of whom is a minor, the medical director of the Botosani County Emergency Hospital Stefan Bercea said. Three of the casualties were transferred to university centers in Iasi (one) and Bucharest (two), and four remained hospitalized at the Botosani emergency facility - two at the Intensive Care Unit, and two at the Plastic Surgery Ward, told Agerpres. A 41-year-old man with burns on 12 percent of his body was taken to the "St. Spiridon" Plastic Surgery and Burns Clinic in Iasi, and another intubated and ventilated casualty who suffered 25 percent body burns was to be flown to Bucharest later in the day, after an urgent care stopover in Suceava, said the coordinator of the Mobile Emergency Resuscitation and Extrication Service of the "St. Spiridon" Emergency Hospital in Iasi, Professor Diana Cimpoesu. According to Dedeman representatives, the explosion occurred during gas network works which were carried out by a licensed external company. The shopping center has a fire safety permit, officials with the fire safety authority said. Eight of the blast and fire casualties are store customers, the Botosani Public Health Directorate said in a Friday statement. A Caring Plus is building 31 affordable single-family homes in the 4th Ward of Jennings. The non-profit started phase one in 2012 building homes in support of seniors in the St. Louis region. The non-profit promotes services that enhance the quality of life for seniors. Their programs focus on the overall health and wellness of seniors in Jennings and surrounding communities, while also serving underserved families. This is a commitment we have for seniors and families in need, said A Caring Plus Executive Director Alice Logan. The 4th Ward has been neglected and blighted. Adding the 31 single-family homes will revitalize that area of Jennings. In December 2016, the development project opened a new 44-unit senior citizen housing center in the citys disenfranchised 4th Ward. Lewis McKinney, a certified minority-owned business enterprise developer and founder of A Caring Plus told the St. Louis American in an interview in 2016. We built the building because we wanted to provide support for the need in the community, which is residential housing safe, affordable, and decent housing for seniors in this community, he said. The three-story living space includes rooms for recreation, and wellness activities, a library, a fitness center, computer facilities, a coffee room, and a community lounge. Back then McKinney knew he wanted to revitalize the communities of Jennings for all families. He foreshadowed the Alexandria Place housing development before it came to fruition. We saw a need to provide something that was very much needed, which was economic development in this area, as well as providing housing for the underserved population, he said. This housing project was a part of Phase Two. The neighborhood revitalization project is a part of low-income housing tax credit properties. A Caring Plus has partnered with Missouri Housing Development Corporation (MHDC,) St. Louis Equity Funds, and Castle Law Housing Authority of St. Louis County. Area Property Manager Jacquline Roberson hopes the project will bring more diversity to the community of Jennings. This development project will help bring more momentum to the county, she said. As a resident of Jennings Ive seen the good, bad, and the ugly. A Caring Plus has an agreement with MHDC to lease the new homes for 15 years, after the 15 years the current renter has the option to purchase the property at a low-cost price. Roberson said the family would receive a credit to buy the house. Qualifications to apply: Applications are accepted by non-Jennings residents Income must be 2 times the rentrent is $765 Section 8 vouchers are acceptable The organization plans to partner with the International Institute bringing in newer immigrants to Jennings. The 1,350 square foot homes have three bedrooms and two bathrooms. They are furnished with a refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, and washer/dryer hookups. Five houses have been completed and eight more will be finished by the end of June. Thirteen houses will be available by July, and five more will be ready by August. By the end of September the whole project will be done, said Logan. The organization plans to partner with the International Institute to bring immigrants to Jennings. Two years ago the non-profit opened the Webster Senior Apartments located on the north end of downtown on North 11th Street. To learn more call [NEED FULL NUMBER] 314-2234 Ashley Winters is a Report for America reporter for the St. Louis American. News / National by Staff reporter The Democratic Alliance (DA) says it will only agree to be part of the African National Congress' (ANC) proposed government of national unity (GNU) if the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), and Patriotic Alliance (PA) are excluded.Yesterday, ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the party was seeking to form a government of national unity with a broad group of opposition parties.The party has laid down stringent conditions under which parties would be included in the pact.The DA says it hopes to receive details on how the government of national unity will operate in its next meeting with the ANC.DA national spokesperson Werner Horn says, "The President was not very specific in terms of the characteristics of such a government of national unity. We will hopefully get some more detail from them, and then the duty of that negotiating team will be to bring the specifics back to the federal executive.""And on Monday, the Federal Council will have to decide; but even the smallest inclusion of those three parties, well, in terms of the current resolution of the federal executive, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for us to be included." ST. LOUIS COUNTY A developer has plans to build a new apartment complex just south of a MetroLink station in north St. Louis County. Kittle Property Group of Indiana is proposing a 192-unit development, with a pool, playground and dog park, called Triton Pointe on University Place Drive behind the North Hanley MetroLink station in unincorporated north St. Louis County. The apartments would range from one- to four-bedrooms across five buildings, according to a preliminary development plan. No other details about the project, located at 8724 University Place Drive, were disclosed. The company said in a statement that the site is currently occupied by houses, most of which are boarded up and in need of demolition. We look forward to continuing our work with the leaders of St. Louis County to provide a quality product for the families of the community, Brenda Haddad, development director, said in a statement. The St. Louis County Planning Commission is expected to hold a public hearing for the proposal at 7 p.m. Monday. Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly described the site. Joe Holleman Political correspondent/columnist Follow Joe Holleman Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today CLAYTON Sam Alton, a lawyer who has drawn fire for moonlighting as a municipal attorney while holding a high-paying job with St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, will be leaving the countys payroll next month. In a press release Friday, Bells office said Alton will be leaving his post as Bells chief of staff on July 22 to take a position with Dowd & Dowd, a St. Louis law firm. Dowd & Dowd was established in 1957 and has offices in downtown St. Louis. It bills itself as a personal injury law firm. Alton, in a prepared statement, said, the time has come for me to step back, get out of the line of fire in what has become an increasingly polarizing political world, and try to focus on my family and my civil practice. Alton began working for Bells transition team shortly after Bell was elected in November 2018, and then joined the office as chief of staff when Bell was began in January 2019. Calling Bell a leader and visionary, Alton also complimented the offices staff for its dedication. Bell, who calls Alton a friend in a prepared statement, went on to describe Alton as a public servant who deeply cares about justice, equity and everyone in this community. During his five years working for Bell, complaints bubbled up about the extent of Altons work as a municipal judge and lawyer while he was being paid by St. Louis County. In his first five years on the county payroll January 2019 through December 2023 Alton was paid $674,012 in salary by the county. In that same time, he earned more than $776,000 from the side gigs. But the criticism of Altons moonlighting became more pointed in November, when Alton told the County Council that he worked less than three hours a week at his side jobs. County Councilman Dennis Hancock, R-3rd District, said he did not believe Altons claims of working minimal hours at his side jobs and eventually called two meetings of the council to question Bells office about its outside-employment policies. When told Friday of Altons pending departure from Bells office, Hancock said, Well that makes sense. If youre going to quit a job, its best to quit the one where youre making less money. A subsequent check of invoices from the municipalities for which Alton had been working indicated that he worked more than seven hours a week and was making more money from his side jobs than from his work as Bells top legal assistant. And instead of decreasing, Altons workload for the municipalities had increased by almost 80%. Hancock had planned to call another meeting, one in which records from at least one municipality might have been presented which showed that Alton had conducted municipal business during his normal hours in Bells office. Hancock said his initial hearings uncovered outside-employment practices in the prosecutors office that require more attention. If holding multiple jobs is the norm, then we need to look at the countys regulations regarding the outside employment, he said. The invoices used to compile Altons work and pay history were obtained by the Post-Dispatch after roughly a three-month effort an effort initially slowed by Altons opinion, as attorney for the municipalities, that the invoices were protected by attorney-client privilege. Alton eventually agreed with the newspapers contention that the amount of hours billed and money paid to Alton were indeed public records. In a short telephone interview Friday, Alton said he would continue to represent his municipal clients after he joins Dowd & Dowd. At this time, those clients are Pagedale, Breckenridge Hills and Bellerive Acres. Altons departure removes a possible distraction for Bell, who is running in a heated U.S. congressional race against incumbent U.S. Rep. Cori Bush in the Aug. 6 Democratic primary. Bell is the chief challenger to Bush, who has come under fire for her campaign spending on security, including employing her husband, and for positions that have been described by critics as anti-Israeli and antisemitic. Another candidate in the 1st Congressional District Democratic primary, former state legislator Maria Chappelle-Nadal, said, Im glad Sam Altons gone; he should have been gone a long time ago. Missouri Sens' Trump defense is disgusting and dangerous The outrageous spewing from Donald Trump's lackey senators from Missouri, Eric Schmitt and Josh Hawley, protesting Trumps convictions on 34 felonies ("Editorial: Now Sen. Schmitt is warning about lawfare? He practically invented it." June 4) is disgusting as well as highly dangerous. Their law degrees seem to have taught them that people like Trump should be treated like Russian oligarchs rather than have a jury of 12 peers make the decision of guilt or innocence. Army Institute of Technology (AIT), Pune : Admission 2024 https://career.webindia123.com/career/dates_and_events/entrance/eng/army-institute-of-technology-b.tech.htm Details of Army Institute of Technology (AIT), Pune : Admission 2024 2024-3-15 2023-11-30 https://career.webindia123.com/career/images/exams.png India India Army Institute of Technology (AIT), Pune : Admission 2024 Engineering Army Institute of Technology, Pune : Admission 2024 - Based on JEE (Main) Army Institute of Technology (AIT), Pune : Admission 2024 Category : Engineering Admissions 2024 Published : On March 15, 2024 By Webindia123 Editor Important Dates Online submission of JEE (Main) 2024 application on website www.jeemain.nic.in Session 1: 01.11.2023 to 30.11.2023 Session 2: 02.02.2024 to 02.03.2024 Date of JEE (Main) Entrance Exam-2022 Session 1 : 24 Jan to 01 Feb 2024 Session 2 : 01 to 15 Apr 2024 AIT is affiliated to Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) and is recognised by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). AIT is re-accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) in 2019 with A Grade. All undergraduate courses run by AIT are accredited by NBA. Admission to AIT is on the basis of All India Rank obtained in the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) Main - 2024. The AIT Application Form must be accompanied with soft copy of JEE Main Admit Card/Hall Ticket. For application forms and the information bulletin candidates are advised to visit JEE (Main) website www.jeemain@nic.in. AIT does not deal with distribution of JEE Main forms and queries if any. Details may be obtained from http://www.jeemain@nic.in Seats Offered Computer Engineering 120 Seats Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering 120 Seats Information Technology 120 Seats Mechanical Engineering 60 Seats Automation & Robotics Engineering 60 Seats Eligibility Age Criteria (a) The candidate must fulfil the age criteria requirements as per JEE Main 2024. (b) Proof of Age. The date of birth recorded in the matriculation or equivalent (Class X) certificate or in the Secondary Education Board/ University Certificate only will be accepted as proof of age. (c) Relation Certificate. The date of birth must be same in both matriculation or equivalent (Class X) as well as parents Relation Certificate also. Mandatory Eligibility Requirement The applicant must be a citizen of India or a person of Indian origin from any foreign country but who intends to settle permanently in India and obtains Indian citizenship before admission to AIT. Eligibility for Admission to AIT. Admission to Army Institute of Technology is for the children of eligible serving/Retired Indian Armed Forces (Army, Navy and Air Force) personnel, and war widows of the Army/Navy/Air Force. The children of following categories of Army/Navy/Air Force personnel are eligible and they are required to submit the relevant certificate as given against the category applicable to them as proof of their eligibility for admission to AWES Professional Colleges along with the Application Form :- (a) The applicants must fall into one of the following categories:- Children of serving Army/Navy/Air Force personnel with minimum 10 years continuous service in the Army/Navy/Air Force. Children of ex Army/Navy/Air Force personnel granted/ awarded regular pension, liberalized family pension, family pension or disability pension at the time of their superannuation, demise, discharge, release medical board/invalid medical board. This includes wards of recruits medically boarded out and granted disability pension. Children of ex Army/Navy/Air Force personnel who have taken discharge or released after ten years of service. (b)Adopted /Step Children and Children of Remarried Widows Adopted Child of Army/Navy/Air Force personnel if adopted at least five years prior to seeking admission. Step Children are eligible provided they are born from a wedding whereat least one parent belonged to the Army/Navy/Air Force who is otherwise eligible. (c)Eligibility Criteria in Special Cases. Eligibility Criteria for Wards of Ex Army Medical Corps Officers/Army Dental Corps Officers Presently Serving With Indian Navy or Indian Air Force(IN/IAF). (d)Eligibility Criteria for Children of APS/ MNS/TA Personnel Children of APS personnel classified as ex- servicemen as per Govt of India, Ministry of Defence letter No 9 (52)/88/D(Res) dated 19 Jul 89. Children of those APS personnel who are on deputation and who have put in 10 years of service in the Army. Children of APS personnel, who are directly recruited into APS who have competed 10 years of service and of those who as per their terms and conditions of service, retired from APS without reversion to P&T Department after completing their minimum pensionable service of which 10 years was in the Army. Children of only those members of MNS who have 10 years service as regular members of MNS or are in receipt of pension from the Army. Children of only those TA personnel who have completed 10 years of embodied service. Application Form and JEE Main 2024 Information Bulletin are available on the website jeemain.nic.in. AIT Application Form AIT Online Application Form begins on website www.aitpune.com 15 Feb 2024 Cost of AIT Application Rs 750/- online payment through AIT website Last date for receipt of completed AIT Online Application: 15 Apr 2024 (w/o late fee) 11 May 2024 (with late fee of Rs 500/-) Note : - Details of JEE (Main) Application Number (compulsory), Roll Number etc are required to be filled in AIT Application form. Failing to fill up correct JEE (Main) Application Number or Date of Birth (as filled in JEE application form) will lead to rejection of admission to AIT. For more details refer official website Contact Details Address : Army Institute of Technology, Dighi Hills,Alandi Road,Pune-411015 Phone : Fax : 020-27157534 Mobile : 7249250184 / 7249250185 E-mail : Contact I Website : www.aitpune.com/ Find it Useful ? Help Others by Sharing Online Comments and Discussions A Dutch air force F-35 flies low over the Ramstein Air Base flight line on June 6, 2024. The "Ramstein 1v1" exercise saw pilots engaging in one-on-one basic fighting maneuvers. (Alexander Riedel/Stars and Stripes) RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany The rumbling of dogfighting filled the skies as the U.S. Air Force took a page from the Navys Top Gun school with the first U.S.-led fighter jet exercise of its kind at Ramstein. In the inaugural Ramstein 1v1, more than 30 pilots from nine NATO countries on Thursday tested their skills against one another more than 10,000 feet above the Rheinland-Pfalz countryside. A total of 37 fighter jets took turns squaring off in pairs during the seven-hour exercise, taking off and landing in waves on the Ramstein flight line, which is typically a hub for military cargo and transport aircraft. Pilots from the United States, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Poland and Finland flew here in seven different types of fourth- and fifth-generation jets, from U.S. and Norwegian F-35s to the French Dassault Rafale and the Italian Alenia Aermacchi M-346. Hosted by U.S. Air Forces in Europe Air Forces Africa, the exercise was the first of its kind in Europe and may have been the first time dissimilar NATO jets engaged in one-on-one basic fighting maneuvers, or dogfighting, since the end of the Cold War, Air Force officials said Thursday. It really comes from our commander, Gen. (James) Hecker, said Lt. Col. Michael Loringer, referring to the U.S. Air Forces in Europe- Air Forces Africa boss. An F-35 Lightning II banks over Ramstein Air Base, Germany, on June 6, 2024, during the "Ramstein 1v1" exercise. It was inspired by the Navy's Top Gun tactics and involved pilots from nine NATO countries. (Alexander Riedel/Stars and Stripes) A German Eurofighter Typhoon takes off from Ramstein Air Base on June 6, 2024 for a dogfighting exercise hosted by U.S. Air Forces in Europe Air Forces Africa. (Alexander Riedel/Stars and Stripes) An F-35 Lightning II of the Dutch air force taxis after landing at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on June 6, 2024, accompanied by a Dutch F-16 Fighting Falcon. The base hosted a seven-hour exercise involving 37 fighter jets flying in waves to test their combat skills. (Alexander Riedel/Stars and Stripes) Hes flown out here in Europe for years, said Loringer, the USAFE-AFAFRICA chief of weapons and tactics. When he was a younger officer, he remembers being able to go and fly with every NATO nation and it was commonplace. He said we kind of moved away from that. He said, How do we solve that? So that was our objective, to normalize us being able to go and fly with one another and build that trust between the pilots. German Col. Michael Trautermann, who works at NATOs Allied Air Command at Ramstein, added that years ago, such exercises were so frequent that you didnt even think about meeting Dutch F-16s in the airspace and going for a common goal. That needs to be practiced again because some of that has not been executed to that level in the past 20, 30 years, he said. The exercise took nine months to plan, Loringer said. A former staffer at Top Gun, formally known these days as the Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program, helped run it, since the premise is based on the Navys fighter-vs.-fighter tactics. The pilots Thursday were given a customized envelope with a call sign and frequency for air traffic control, a time and coordinate, Loringer said. Their only objective was to make it to that coordinate at that time and come up on that frequency on their call sign, he said. They dont know who theyre fighting until they see each other. An F-35 Lightning II banks through the clouds over Ramstein Air Base in Germany on June 6, 2024. The exercise, known as "Ramstein 1v1," featured pilots from nine NATO countries engaging in friendly competition to hone their dogfighting skills. (Alexander Riedel/Stars and Stripes) A British Eurofighter Typhoon taxis after landing at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, on June 6, 2024, followed by a Dutch air force Fighting Falcon. The "Ramstein 1v1" exercise aimed to practice joint flying and build trust between NATO pilots. (Alexander Riedel/Stars and Stripes) A Norwegian F-16 Fighting Falcon waits to take off for a dogfighting exercise at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on June 6, 2024. Dozens of NATO country pilots tested their skills in what organizers said was the first-ever large-scale fighter jet exercise at the base. (Alexander Riedel/Stars and Stripes) RAF Lakenheath F-35 pilots Capts. Moritz Wienke and Patrick Pearce each flew twice Thursday, Wienke against a British Eurofighter Typhoon and a Finnish F-18 Hornet, and Pearce against a French Rafale and a German Eurofighter Typhoon. For each, it was their first time flying against those airframes. Youre working with jets that you normally dont get to, which is pretty awesome, invaluable training, Pearce said. They said it was a friendly competition but competitive nonetheless. We all get along; were all friends, Wienke said, adding that the competition aspect comes with the spirit of the job. The pilots had to adjust their tactics based on the aircraft they faced. You see what they do, you react, you maneuver your jet in relation to them, Wienke said. Its a constant assessment. The moment you lose sight of them, you lose the fight. Its game over. Col. Peter Kasarskis gives his inaugural speech as 8th Fighter Wing commander alongside the wings wolf mascot during a change-of-command ceremony at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, June 7, 2024. (Luis Garcia/Stars and Stripes) KUNSAN AIR BASE, South Korea The new leader of a fighter wing based 220 miles from Pyongyang said deterring North Korea will remain the main mission under his tenure. Col. Peter Kasarskis took command of the 8th Fighter Wing from Col. Matthew Gaetke during a Friday ceremony attended by about 300 people inside an aircraft hangar. Rest assured, I am absolutely not changing the mission here, Kasarskis said in his inaugural speech as commander. The wings importance today is much greater than when he was stationed at the base as an F-16 instructor in 2005, he added. The wing consists of around 2,800 airmen and 40 F-16 Fighting Falcons and hosts numerous exercises with the South Korean air force throughout the year. A role in any potential Korean conflict here in our backyard is much more critical as the Air Force receives more missions across the globe, Kasarskis said. Simply put the Wolf Packs daily performance is more important than ever both in competition, and should deterrence fail, in combat. Kasarskis returns to Kunsan after a stint as deputy commander of the 354th Fighter Wing at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. His previous duties include advanced systems division chief in 2021 for the Air Combat Command at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., and operations director in Afghanistan in 2015 for the 455th Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron. Kasarskis was commissioned in 2000 by the U.S. Air Force Academy with a bachelors degree in behavioral science. He has over 2,500 flight hours in the F-16 and served over 600 hours as a mission systems operator for the RC-26B Condor reconnaissance aircraft. Col. Matthew Gaetke, outgoing 8th Fighter Wing commander, salutes his arimen during a change-of-command ceremony at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, June 7, 2024. (Luis Garcia/Stars and Stripes) Lt. Gen. David Iverson, left to right, commander of 7th Air Force; Col. Matthew Gaetke, outgoing 8th Fighter Wing commander; and Col. Peter Kasarskis, incoming wing commander, salute the colors during a change-of-command ceremony at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, June 7, 2024. (Luis Garcia/Stars and Stripes) Gaetke took command of the wing on Nov. 8 after his predecessor, Col. Timothy Murphy, retired from the Air Force five months into the job due to unexplained family reasons. Gaetkes tenure saw two F-16s crash into the Yellow Sea, one on Dec. 11 and another on Jan. 31; neither pilot was seriously injured. Gaetke was instrumental in increasing our combat capability and helping deter North Korea, said the head of 7th Air Force, Lt. Gen. David Iverson, while presiding over Fridays ceremony. Gaetke, as he relinquished command, called Kunsan an amazing place and said his seven-month stint as wing commander was an absolute honor. He will start his new role as a U.S. Forces Korea operations division chief next month at Camp Humphreys, 8th Fighter Wing spokesman 1st Lt. Brandon DeBlanc told Stars and Stripes on Friday. Coast guard patrol ships from the United States, Japan and South Korea train together for the first time on June 7, 2024, in the Sea of Japan. (Japan coast guard) Coast guard vessels from the United States, Japan and South Korea practiced an emergency rescue a first between the three countries Thursday in the Sea of Japan. One patrol ship from each country met off Maizuru city, about 60 miles from Kyoto, according to a Friday news release from the South Korean coast guard. They were joined by a U.S. helicopter and drone and a Japanese fixed-wing aircraft. The scenario included a fictional collision between two cargo ships and a subsequent fire, which required the three coast guards to share information, plan and then execute a rescue, said U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Helen Shaye. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Waesche, homeported in Alameda, Calif., the Japanese patrol ship Wakasa and the South Korean patrol ship Taepyongyang 16 took part in the drill, the Japan coast guard said in a June 7 news release. The training is a follow-up to a trilateral agreement reached in August at Camp David, Md., according to the South Koran coast guards release. It pledged a new era of trilateral partnership, along with increased levels of economic and military cooperation. The three coast guards signed a letter of intent on May 9 committing to work more closely on law enforcement, search and rescue efforts and preserving maritime resources. Thursdays training built on that letter and highlighted the strong partnerships between the three nations, Shaye told Stars and Stripes. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Waesche patrols the Pacific Ocean in 2015. (Luke Pinneo/U.S. Coast Guard) Thursdays training occurred as tensions continue to simmer in the South China and Philippine seas, where Chinese and Philippine coast guard vessels regularly come into conflict. Beijing claims vast swaths of the region, and Chinese vessels routinely target Philippine supply ships en route to Second Thomas Shoal, site of a small Philippine military outpost. Last week, the U.S., Japan and South Korea announced another exercise, Freedom Edge, to take place sometime this summer. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin made the announcement alongside his counterparts, defense ministers Minoru Kihara and Won-sik Shin, following a meeting in Singapore. They reiterated opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the waters of the Indo-Pacific and recalled their respective positions regarding the dangerous and aggressive behavior by China, the Pentagon said in a news release June 2. Marine Corps Installations Pacific has pushed back at critics of its recent social media post recognizing Pride Month with the headline, Pride In All Who Serve. This #PrideMonth, we recognized the LBGTQ+ #Marines that raised their right hand and earned the title Marine, the Okinawa-based command wrote Thursday on its official Facebook page. The business of fighting and winning battles requires diverse and inclusive teams, and the #USMC takes #pride in building strength through #diversity. The command has oversight and control of Marine bases across the Indo-Pacific. The post endorsing Pride Month didnt go over well in some of the 63 comments and 108 emojis attached to it as of Friday afternoon in Japan. The USMC does not take pride in a sexual agenda that continues to be shoved down our throats, Eduardo Flores wrote Friday morning. Servicemembers do not wish to continue being associated with a sexual movement that has nothing to do with the military and what we do. The command posted a response to Flores starting with, Once a Marine, always a Marine, before citing the Corps regulation addressing policies and procedures regarding sexual harassment, discrimination, bullying and other activities. All Marines and Sailors will treat one another with dignity, care, and concern, the command wrote, quoting from the regulation. Marine Corps Installations Pacific has pushed back at critics of a recent social media post recognizing Pride Month. (U.S. Marine Corps) It then cited the regulation on prohibited discrimination: Any conduct whereby a Service member knowingly, recklessly, or intentionally and with a nexus to military service discriminates, including disparate treatment, of an individual or group on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including pregnancy), gender identity, or sexual orientation that is not otherwise authorized by law or regulation and detracts from military readiness. Minutes later, the command wrote and pinned another comment that further addressed the criticism. We understand that this is an issue that many people feel strongly about, and we appreciate you sharing your perspective. However, supporting Pride aligns with the Marine Corps values of honor, courage, and commitment, the command wrote. It takes courage to stand up for what is right and to support all members of the military community. Flores did not immediately respond Friday to a Facebook message seeking comment. His post drew a series of other responses, including one from Heather Raquel, who wrote: (S)peak for yourself. Being supportive of all of the Marines to my left and right IS important. So please dont attempt to speak for us all. Another commenter said Flores is free to speak his opinion a point agreed upon by a command spokeswoman. Marine Corps Installations Pacific acknowledges and supports everyones right to freedom of speech, 2nd Lt. Kelsey Enlow told Stars and Stripes by email Friday. MCIPAC finds strength in diversity and inclusivity. Other commenters took a neutral or positive view of Pride Month. Im living for these comments, Haili Shimko wrote. Happy pride to all my brothers and sisters in arms! 2nd Lt. Suella Bernard smiles and shakes hands with Lt. Foster, head nurse, while 2nd Lt. Marijean Brown of Columbus, Ohio, looks on. Nurses Brown and Bernard were two of the five nurses who brought poppies together with wounded from a beach head in Normandy. The five were first to go on this Ninth Air Force Evacuation mission, and first to return with wounded to England. (U.S. Air Force, National Archives) This month of the 80th Anniversary of D-Day, Stars and Stripes is 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 12, 1944. It is republished unedited in its original form. A NINTH TROOP CARRIED COMMAND BASE, Britain, June 11 Five U.S. Army nurses Saturday [June 10, 1944] became the first Allied women to land in France when they assisted in evacuating by air 14 stretcher cases, including seven Nazis and a Jap, from the Cherbourg peninsula. While shells bursts near the landing strip and P51 Mustangs circled overhead to war off enemy aircraft, the nurses, a doctor and six enlisted medical technicians formed the first Ninth Air Force evacuation unit to land in France. The nurses were 2/Lts. Marijean Brown, of Columbus, Ohio; Suella Bernard, of Waynesville, Ohio; Eleanor A. Geovanelle, of Kersey, Pa.; Mary E. Young, of St. Petersburg, Fla.; and Helen Melissa Clark, of Cornwall, Conn. The first group of casualties to be flown to Britan were the seven prisoners, one a Luftwaffe officers and a Japanese in a German Army uniform, six American soldiers ranking from lieutenant colonel to private, and a Frenchmen who fought with the underground. The C47 skytrains first Allied aircraft to make scheduled landings on the Continent took off at 8:49 AM Saturday [June 10, 1944], landed on hard dirt strips in a Cherbourg peninsula beachhead, and were back in Britain at 1:10 PM with their cargoes of wounded. Roses lie in sand at Omaha Beach in Ste-Laurent-sur-Mer, France, to remember the women who served during the D-Day invasions during the 70th D-Day anniversary commemorations June 7, 2014. (Joshua L. DeMotts/Stars and Stripes) The aircraft were on French soil for about an hour and a half while medical personnel rushed stretcher cases an eight of a mile from the field hospital to the landing strip. The landing field, 3,600 feet by 200 feet, had been hurriedly constructed by Ninth Air Force engineer units, which arrived on the beachhead Wednesday [June 7, 1944]. Bulldozers already were at work on new strips when the hospital planes arrived Saturday. The flight nurses were under the command of Capt. Thomas L. Phillips Jr., of Kuttawa, Ky., only medical officer to make the trip. That heavy fighter escort certainly looked good, S/Sgt. Wilfred C. Brand, of Chicago, one of the technicians, said upon his return. The other technicians were S/Sgts George L. Snook, of Los Angeles; James M. Gillespie, of Elizabeth, N.J.; Clarence Tracy, of Drumont, N.J.; Louis Bergantino, of Chicago, and Eugene Boyles, of Bluefield, W.Va. 2/lt. Glenn E. Linder, of Ft. Lupton, Colo., piloted the plane. Find Stars and Stripes reports on the 80th Anniversary of D-Day here: https://www.stripes.com/special-reports/featured/d-day/ https://europe.stripes.com/d-day/ Looking for more of Stars and Stripes historic D-Day and World War II coverage? Subscribe to Stars and Stripes historic newspaper archive! We have digitized our 1948-1999 European and Pacific editions, as well as several of our WWII editions and made them available online through https://starsandstripes.newspaperarchive.com/ Members of Taiwans 564th Armored Brigade hold a flag after demonstrating their ability to repel an airborne attack near Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in January 2023. (Seth Robson/Stars and Stripes) The State Department has approved an $80 million sale of parts for F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan, the Pentagons Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced Wednesday. The agency notified Congress of the possible sale on the same day, the agency said in a news release. The purchase request had been made by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States, according to the release. Taiwan, which lies about 100 miles southeast of Chinas mainland, has faced an increasingly assertive Beijing in recent years. Taiwans Ministry of Foreign Affairs hailed the approval Wednesday in a post on X, formerly Twitter. Our dedication to maintaining peace & stability persists amid #Chinas escalating aggression, the post read in part. The sale would include non-standard spare and repair parts, components, consumables, and accessories for F-16 aircraft, according to the news release. It would also include engineering, technical and logistics support services by U.S. government personnel and contractors. The equipment would be transferred from stock maintained by the U.S. Air Force and have no adverse effect on American military readiness, according to the release. The sale would improve Taiwans ability to meet current and future threats by maintaining the operational readiness of the recipients fleet of F-16 aircraft, the release states. Taiwans F-16 fleet is a cornerstone capability in the Taiwan militarys force posture, ensuring that [Chinese army] grey zone harassment is properly challenged in peacetime and that a modern air force could be fielded during war, the US-Taiwan Business Council said in a statement Wednesday. China regards the democratically governed island as a renegade province that must, at some point, accede to Beijings control. During the past few years, Chinas military has increasingly encroached on Taiwans airspace. Late last month, China conducted two days of military exercises around Taiwan that included simulated bomber attacks and ship-boardings. The U.S. Navy routinely sends warships through the Taiwan Strait to demonstrate Americas commitment to freedom of navigation in the region and as a show of support for Taiwan. Early last month, the guided-missile destroyer USS Halsey transited the channel. As the recent military exercises conducted by the [Chinese army] demonstrate, Taiwan needs platforms and systems that can deal with blockade and grey zone threats, the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council statement said. When Taiwans new tranche of F-16s is fully delivered by the end of 2026, Taiwan will have the largest fleet of F-16s in the region, the statement said. 1st Lt. Regina Bean, of the 18th Operational Medical Readiness Squadron, poses with Kin Mayor Hajime Nakama and Col. Josh Lundeby, deputy commander of the 18th Wing, at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Jun. 6, 2024. Bean was honored for saving a motorcyclist's life in February. (Keishi Koja/Stars and Stripes) KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa A local mayor has recognized an Air Force public health operations chief for saving a motorcyclist who suffered severe injuries during a traffic accident in northern Okinawa. 1st Lt. Regina Bean, of the 18th Operational Medical Readiness Squadron, received a certificate of appreciation Thursday from Kin Mayor Hajime Nakama, during a morning ceremony at 18th Wing headquarters. Bean, of Bardstown, Ky., was off duty Feb. 3 and traveling to Nago with her husband, Capt. Benjamin Bean, and two friends, 1st Lt. Gabriel Silva and his wife, Samantha Silva, to see the cherry blossoms, she told Stars and Stripes after the ceremony. They noticed traffic backing up and that someone was on the ground. A motorcycle had collided head-on with another vehicle on Route 58, Okinawas central highway, in the Tancha district of Onna town. The motorcyclist, a man in his 50s, suffered a leg injury, an Okinawa Prefectural Police spokesman said by phone May 22. Once I got closer, I noticed that there was a man lying on the ground who had his right foot mostly amputated and was only being held on by a small piece of skin, Bean said. Bean, relying on her 13 years of experience as an air medical technician in the Air National Guard, placed a torniquet on the mans upper thigh, she said. Seeing that was not enough, she requested another belt. The second torniquet was more difficult, because her and her friends hands were covered in blood. With her husbands help they used an umbrella to tighten the belt. Subsequently, her husband brought a first aid kit from their car and handed her a towel to stop the bleeding from a large gash on the mans leg, Bean said. Lacking a pen, Bean daubed her finger in the mans blood to write on his forehead the time she applied the tourniquets, she said. 1st Lt. Regina Bean, center, of the 18th Operational Medical Readiness Squadron, receives a certificate of appreciation at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Jun. 6, 2024. Bean was honored for saving a motorcyclist's life in February. (Keishi Koja/Stars and Stripes) The paramedics found the man in dangerous condition; he was pale and in shock, Nakama, also director of the Kin District Fire Department, said after handing Bean the award. The first aid provided before the paramedics arrived significantly improved the injured persons prognosis. It is not easy to administer first aid when someone unexpectedly encounters such situations, he said. Our society is supported by courageous individuals like First Lieutenant Bean. Bean also received a certificate of appreciation from Ishikawa police on May 21, the police spokesman said. Some government officials in Japan may speak to the media only on condition of anonymity. I am humbled and proud to receive the recognition, Bean said, adding that her husband and the Silvas deserve credit, too. Without them I may not have been able to save the mans life, she said. Beans unit commander, Maj. Melissa Peters of the 18th Operational Medical Readiness Squadrons public health flight, said Bean just a day before the accident had completed a three-day course on tactical combat casualty care that included lifesaving skills. I am very proud of Lieutenant Bean, yet not at all surprised that she was willing and able to step in to save a local mans life, Peters told Stars and Stripes after the ceremony. Her skillset was essential, but it was really her keen sense of urgency, compassion for others in need and her personal drive to succeed that led her to help. Japanese authorities detonated three World War II-era shells on Tsuken Island, Okinawa prefecture, June 6, 2024. (Uruma City) CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa Japanese authorities recently detonated three explosive shells believed to be left over from World War II on an island just southeast of Naval Base White Beach. The ordnance was discovered April 27 by a landowner on Tsuken Island, a spokesman for Uruma citys Disaster Prevention and Crisis Management Division told Stars and Stripes by email Friday. He had been driving a tractor in an area where rainfall washed away the soil. Tsuken, in the Philippine Sea, came under heavy bombardment during the Battle of Okinawa in April 1945, according to the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museums website. The recently discovered 3-inch shells were moved out of a residential area to a safer place in the northern part of the island on May 1, the spokesman said. Officials found that removing the fuses and transporting the shells was too dangerous. They decided instead to detonate them on the island, a Japan Ground Self-Defense Force spokesman told Stars and Stripes by phone Friday. Seven members of the 101st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit arrived Thursday morning, the Self-Defense spokesman said. An area within an 820-foot radius was temporarily restricted during the operation, which started at 9 a.m. The shells were buried before the detonation, the spokesman said. The detonation was done without any trouble, the city spokesman said; it concluded at 3:31 p.m. and restrictions were lifted by 4:11 p.m. Some government officials in Japan may speak to the media only on condition of anonymity. Approximately 10,000 tons of ordnance were dropped on Okinawa during the Battle of Okinawa and nearly 2,000 tons remain undiscovered, according to the prefectures General Bureau website. Crews disposed of nearly 15 tons between April 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron stand for their official arrival during the D-Day 80th anniversary commemoration at Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, June 6, 2024. (Bradley Latham/Stars and Stripes) PARIS - French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday that a coalition of countries has agreed to send military trainers to Ukraine, suggesting that plans could come together in the coming days but not offering concrete details. The comment, made in a news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, is the latest sign that France and other allies may now be willing to put NATO country troops on Ukrainian soil - an idea that some allies, including the United States, have long considered potentially escalatory. Macron on Friday called Ukraines request for in-country training legitimate and said several partners have already given their agreement. We are going to use the coming days to finalize a coalition, as broad as possible, he said. The news comes roughly a week after the Biden administration announced that the United States will allow Ukraine to use U.S.-provided weapons for limited military targets inside Russia - another former red line. Since the early days of the war, some allies, notably the United States and Germany, have been focused on laying out red lines to avoid getting drawn deeper into conflict with Russia. But more than two years into the war, the lines seem to be shifting. On Friday, Macron downplayed the risk of escalation. This is not deploying European soldiers on the front line. It is recognizing the sovereignty of Ukraine over its territory, he said. Who would we be to give in to the invocations or threats of Russia? Russia has warned France and allies against the plan saying foreign soldiers on the ground in Ukraine could be hit. Regardless of their status, military officials or mercenaries represent a legitimate target for our armed forces, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned this week. Macron on Thursday also announced a new commitment to transfer fighter jets to Ukraine and train Ukrainian soldiers and pilots. Truck transports humanitarian aid onto U.S. Army vessel on May 20, 2024. (Riley Anfinson/Army) WASHINGTON The U.S. military has reattached the temporary pier off the coast of Gaza and the delivery of humanitarian aid will begin in the coming days, U.S. Central Command said Friday. The Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS, pier is meant to provide another way to deliver aid into Gaza. Health officials have warned millions of Gazans face hunger as Israel wages its war against Hamas militants who launched a surprise assault from the enclave. The pier became operational May 17, but the Pentagon announced less than two weeks later it would be removed to undergo repairs after suffering damage from rough seas and bad weather. More than 1,000 metric tons of aid was delivered before the pier operations were suspended. Pentagon officials assessed the temporary pier suffered at least $22 million in damages, The Washington Post reported. The Pentagon originally determined the pier would cost $320 million but defense officials have dropped the estimate to about $230 million. Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said lower-than-expected costs for contracted trucks, drivers and commercial vessels, and the United Kingdoms contribution of a vessel have lowered the U.S. price tag by about $90 million. Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy commander of CENTCOM, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, told reporters Friday that the issue with the pier was solely from unanticipated weather. Columbus Community Hospital congratulates Lakeview Junior-Senior High School for recently being named the 2024 Nebraska Career and Technical Education Outstanding Secondary Program Award winner by the Nebraska Department of Education. This award recognizes the outstanding achievements of career education programs in high schools. The award-winning program initiatives demonstrate the following: Student achievement in both career and academic arenas. Innovative instruction based on a state model program of study. Leadership and personal development through career technical student organizations. Effective implementation of career guidance and work-based learning. Alignment to Nebraska's workforce needs and economic priorities. Community engagement. The hospitals Health Science Pathway program is proud to be part of Lakeviews Career and Technical Education program. This award is a testament to the dedication of Lakeview CTE educators to their programs and their students, said Tracy Long, Health Science Pathway instructor. The Health Science Pathway program at Lakeview is only in its second year, but shows enormous growth. I feel extremely fortunate to be a part of the unique partnership between CCH and Lakeview, and I am so excited for the future of our program." The educational program is a collaboration between area high schools, Central Community College and the hospital, allowing students to learn about careers in the medical field. It includes a series of classes that meet requirements from the state of Nebraska and explore various areas of health care. Students participating in the program receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation and first aid training and learn Stop the Bleed techniques as part of their course curriculum. Additionally, those who complete the program can become certified nursing assistants through the college. The Health Science Pathway program has really taken off in a short amount of time, said Steve Borer, principal at Lakeview Junior-Senior High School. Our Health Science Pathway offers courses such as Health Science I, Health Science II, CNA Skills and Health Science III. It has been an amazing community partnership that has provided our students with early health care experiences that we could not provide before this partnership. We are extremely happy with where the program is headed." Lakeview Junior-Senior High School will accept the award at the NCE Conference this summer. To learn more about Columbus Community Hospitals Health Science Pathway program, visit columbushosp.org. Mark Meadows, the former chief of staff, and Mike Roman, the former campaign staffer, entered their pleas separately during video appearances before a Maricopa County court commissioner in downtown Phoenix. (US Senate/Wikimedia Commons) PHOENIX - Donald Trumps former White House chief of staff and a campaign aide who ran the former presidents Election Day operations in 2020 pleaded not guilty Friday to charges stemming from their alleged roles to subvert Joe Bidens win in Arizona nearly four years ago. Mark Meadows, the former chief of staff, and Mike Roman, the former campaign staffer, entered their pleas separately during video appearances before a Maricopa County court commissioner in downtown Phoenix. Along with 16 others, Meadows and Roman are each charged with nine criminal counts, including conspiracy, forgery and fraud in a case brought by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D). Their faces appeared on video monitors in the tiny courtroom. Defendants in other unrelated cases waited their turns behind a window, wearing jail-issued orange scrubs. Most of the 18 defendants in the 2020 election case have already entered not guilty pleas, including former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, former state party GOP chair Kelli Ward and the pro-Trump electors who participated in a strategy that prosecutors say sought to deny Biden his rightful electoral victory. On Thursday, state Sen. Jake Hoffman (R) also pleaded not guilty. He, too, appeared by video with artwork of Ronald Reagan donning a cowboy hat displayed behind him. Later in the day, Hoffman and another co-defendant, state Sen. Anthony Kern (R), were in the crowd when Trump made his first appearance in the battleground state since his criminal conviction in New York. To cheers, the former president called his trial rigged and said that there was no crime. Trump was not charged in Arizona but was described in the indictment as an unindicted co-conspirator. After Trumps defeat in 2020, his allies worked with attorneys, campaign aides and Republican activists in seven states to employ a strategy to try to award the states electoral votes to Trump instead of Biden, according to state and federal prosecutors and previously released records. Most of the Arizona defendants or their attorneys have long maintained they have done nothing wrong, but state prosecutors contend that they illegally attempted to facilitate obstruction of the certification of Bidens victory in Congress on Jan. 6, 2021. Attorneys and several of the defendants have cast the indictment as politically motivated. Meadows appeared via streaming video in the basement courtroom, wearing a dark suit and royal blue tie. His attorney told the commissioner that Meadows had already completed his booking requirements, which include a mug shot and fingerprints. It is unclear if the sheriffs office has received the material; a spokesperson from the office said Friday that there are no updates about the availability of Meadows mug shot. As Trumps last White House chief of staff, Meadows was among those close to the president who allegedly evaluated a plan for how legislatures could overturn the will of voters through appointing alternate slates of Trump electors. Rep. Andy Biggs (Ariz.) was among the GOP members of Congress who communicated with Meadows about a version of such a strategy, according to text messages obtained by a House committee that investigated the origins of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Meadows was charged in Georgia last year with criminally conspiring to try to overturn Trumps 2020 loss in that state and solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer for his involvement in Trumps January 2021 phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) during which Trump tried to pressure the official to reverse Bidens victory. The latter charge was dismissed this year, with the judge overseeing the case saying the indictment lacked sufficient detail. Meanwhile, Meadows has played down his role in the elector plan, testifying in federal court that he played no role in the effort. Prosecutors, however, have introduced evidence that showed Meadows in December 2020 emailing about the elector plan with a longtime Trump campaign aide. After technical difficulties, Roman took his turn, appearing in front of a blank wall and wearing a suit and tie. Afterward, his attorney in Arizona, Kurt Altman, said that the charges against Roman are excessive and unwarranted. We dont understand why the charges were brought in the first place, Altman said. After Trumps defeat, records show that Roman helped coordinate the alternate elector plan with Trump lawyers. He played a key role in helping organize the strategy and communicated about the Arizona plan with key Republicans in the state, including the state party chair and others, according to documents. He was charged with seven counts in the Atlanta area last year, all of which were related to his alleged involvement with the alternate electors in that state. On Tuesday, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul (D) charged Roman and two others with one felony count each of conspiracy to commit forgery, according to the criminal complaints. The charges are tied to the elector plan. It looks like there may be a concerted effort to get people to give up, Altman said, standing outside the courthouse in Phoenix. Mr. Roman does not plan to give up. Three other defendants in the case are scheduled to plead not guilty on June 18. They include Boris Epshteyn, who remains close to the former president and is a top adviser for his 2024 campaign. Holly Bailey in Atlanta contributed to this report. A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System fires during a military exercise in Latvia in September 2022. (Ellison Schuman/U.S. Army) WASHINGTON The United States is providing another $225 million in munitions to Ukraine that its forces could use to strike targets inside Russia in an effort to defend the city of Kharkiv, the Pentagon announced Friday. The new military aid includes ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, 155 mm howitzers, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and mortar systems. The equipment will be provided through presidential drawdown authorities, which means equipment is pulled from existing U.S. military stocks and sent to Ukraine on an emergency basis. The announcement comes after a new U.S. directive allowing Ukraine to use American weapons to strike targets inside Russia for the limited purpose of defending Kharkiv. The change, however, does not alter U.S. policy that directs Ukraine not to use American-provided Army Tactical Missile Systems, known as ATACMS, which are long-range missiles, and other munitions to strike offensively inside Russia, The Associated Press reported. Russian forces, which had made moderate advances in recent months, launched a surprise assault in the northeast region of Ukraine on May 10 that resulted in their biggest territorial gains in nearly 18 months. Kharkiv is the northeast. President Joe Biden during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris on Friday for the first time publicly apologized for a monthslong congressional holdup in American military assistance that helped allow Russian forces to make gains on the battlefield. I apologize for those weeks of not knowing whats going to happen in terms of funding, Biden said, referring to the $95 billion foreign aid bill held up by Republicans in Congress, which included $60 billion for Ukraine. The bill eventually passed in April. Biden insisted the American people were standing by Ukraine for the long haul. You are the bulwark against the aggression that is taking place, he said. Were still in. Completely. Thoroughly. The U.S. has now provided more than $51.2 billion in military assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022. The items in the military aid announced Friday include: Missiles for HAWK air defense systems. Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. Ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems. 155mm Howitzers. 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds. 81mm mortar systems. M113 armored personnel carriers. Trailers to transport heavy equipment. Coastal and riverine patrol boats. Tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided missiles. Javelin and AT-4 anti-armor systems. Small arms ammunition and grenades. Demolitions munitions. Night vision devices. Spare parts, maintenance, and other ancillary equipment. Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., warned a major legislative package for improving access to community-based medical services for veterans would drain health care dollars from hospitals and clinics run by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Takano is shown speaking at a VA health care event in this 2017 photo. (Joe Gromelski/Special to Stars and Stripes) WASHINGTON An omnibus bill to increase community services for disabled and aging veterans and their caretakers was attacked by the top Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee as a thinly veiled attempt to privatize health services and drain dollars from the Department of Veterans Affairs. House Republicans have hijacked a historically bipartisan, bicameral process for veterans packages, to push their main priority of privatizing VA health care, Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., said about the Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act. Sponsored by Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, the bill has 21 Republican co-sponsors. No Democrats have signed onto the bill. But Takano said the scope of the new legislation needs to be scaled back or it will lead to further erosion of support for traditional VA programs. The bill, which was introduced May 14 in the House, is sweeping legislation that contains provisions from 22 bills that support veterans health benefits and services in community settings and at home. Takano described the bill as a harmful privatization package that is expensive and not fiscally responsible. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the cost of the bill will be $942 million through fiscal 2026. But Meredith Beck, national policy director at the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, said the bill is a priority of her organization that has fallen victim to politics and is plagued by mischaracterization of its provisions. Meredith Beck, national policy director of the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, listens June 5, 2024, during a joint hearing on Capitol Hill of the Senate Aging and Veterans Affairs committees. The hearing discussed improving services for veterans and their caregivers. (Joe Gromelski/Special to Stars and Stripes) The bill has received support from veterans organizations, including the Disabled American Veterans and Veterans of Foreign Wars. The bill contains language from the Elizabeth Dole Home Care Act, introduced in 2023, that would increase coverage to 100% from 65% for in-home and end-of-life care for veterans who otherwise would be sent to nursing homes. The legislation also would cover home health aides and increase support for family caregivers of disabled veterans living at home. The bill has measures from the CARE Act, which provides training and certifies navigators to help veterans and their families access community services, and the COPE Act, which supports mental health counseling for caregivers. The bill also stops the Veterans Health Administration from overriding a physicians recommendation for non-VA care when it is in the best medical interest of the veteran. Not all Democrats align with Takano in opposing the bill. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, indicated his support for the legislation at a joint hearing Wednesday of the Senate Aging Committee and Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., speaks June 5, 2024, during a joint hearing on Capitol Hill of the Senate Aging and Veterans Affairs committees on improving services for veterans and their caregivers. (Joe Gromelski/Special to Stars and Stripes) I want to note that the House is currently deliberating the path forward on a package of bills negotiated by the Senate and House Veterans Affairs committees named the Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act. This is comprehensive legislation that would expand access to home and community-based care programs for our veterans and bolster home health care staffing attempts to strengthen the VA caregiver and long-term care programs, Tester said. I look forward to working with the veterans service organizations to finally get this over the finish line on behalf of our nations caregivers. Tester in 2018 was one of three Democrats who co-sponsored the Mission Act a Republican-led initiative that enabled veterans to seek private medical care when a particular service or treatment was not readily available at a VA hospital or clinic. Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Doug Jones of Alabama were the other Democrats. Demand for community care has been rising 15% yearly since passage of the Mission Act, the VA said. The Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization, said the omnibus bill contains Trojan horses that shift dollars from the VA health system to private health care. The institute said greater emphasis on non-VA community care will lead to delays for modernizing VA hospitals, clinics and other facilities. Upgrading VA medical buildings with repairs and equipment was projected to cost $76 billion, according to a March 2023 report by the Government Accountability Office, a federal watchdog organization. The relentless outsourcing of care from the Veterans Health Administration to private sector providers and the resulting drain on the VHA budget has reached a tipping point, one that threatens the future of the nations largest and only veteran-centric health care system, according to the institute. VA Secretary Denis McDonough in April touched on the fiscal challenge of supporting VA health as the demand for private care accelerates. Either [the VA] purchases the care for the veteran in the community, or we ensure that the VA has all the capacity in-house to provide that care. That gets more difficult as more veterans are referred to private doctors for their care, he said. Takano said private care has less oversight than VA care and lacks the quality-of-care standard that veterans receive inside VA. This moves us farther from our goal of bringing more veterans back into VA care, he said. Takano said he has urged Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., who is chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, to bring to the House floor a bill that will not undercut VAs mission. Congress must craft veterans legislation with an honest accounting of the cost in a way that doesnt sacrifice current health care and benefits, he said. Jonathan Kenny (40) pointed to his eyes, then gestured towards a witness who gave evidence An ordinary decent citizen who gave evidence at a Dublin District Criminal Court hearing was left in fear after the accused man made a threatening gesture towards them in a courtroom. After his conviction for an offence of trespass, Jonathan Kenny (40) pointed to his eyes, then gestured towards a witness who gave evidence at the sentence hearing on September 8, 2022 in Courtroom 4 at the Criminal Courts of Justice. Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard today that the injured party told the investigating garda about the incident. Other members of An Garda Siochana also saw what had happened, including Kenny showing his biceps in a gesture of strength. The investigating garda told the court that the injured party was distressed and afraid in the wake of Kenny's gesture. Kenny was acquitted of the offence of trespass following an appeal in which the injured party gave evidence without issue, the court was told. There has been no further contact between Kenny and the injured party. Kenny, of Monasterboice Road, Crumlin, Dublin, was originally charged with witness intimidation, but pleaded guilty to assault, which was acceptable to the Director of Public Prosecutions. He has 108 previous convictions, including for robbery, assault and theft. He is currently serving a custodial sentence on separate matters and has an earliest release date in February 2027. Imposing sentence today, Judge Pauline Codd noted that a gesture made by someone with Kenny's previous convictions can be more threatening than any physical assault. She said the injured party was an ordinary decent citizen who was subjected to outrageous behaviour. Jonathan Kenny The judge said this assault offence can refer to psychological fear caused, rather than a physical injury. She described it as a psychic assault, which had been successful in terms of its target who was left in fear for their safety. Judge Codd noted the injured party states in their victim impact statement that the experience has made them re-consider coming to court again, and that they have understandable concerns for their safety. She said Kenny's substantial number of previous convictions along with the context in which the offence occurred are aggravating factors. Having considered the mitigation, she imposed a sentence of four months, suspended in full for two years on strict conditions. Judge Codd directed that this suspended sentence start on the expiry of the custodial sentence Kenny is currently serving. She also ordered him to stay away from the injured party, their home and their family for the period of suspension. A victim impact statement was handed to the court, but not read aloud. The investigating garda agreed with defence counsel that the guilty plea was valuable. It was further accepted that Kenny has a history of substance abuse and has been in custody since December 2021 on separate matters. Defence counsel asked the court not to extend his client's time in custody. His client wished to apologise to the injured party. Counsel said it was an emotional time for Kenny who had a burst of energy, but accepts he shouldn't have behaved as he did. Kenny has addiction issues, but has been clean since going into custody. He has completed a number of courses and intends to study for a degree. The court was asked to take into account that Kenny was subsequently acquitted of the trespass offence, and that the assault was at the lower end of the scale. The Shipwright Pub on Thorncastle Street in Ringsend went on fire in the early hours of New Year's Eve A crane driver has been sent forward for trial accused of causing 2m worth of damage during an arson attack at a former pub earmarked for homeless accommodation in Dublin 4. The Shipwright Pub on Thorncastle Street in Ringsend went on fire in the early hours of New Year's Eve. Gardai and six units of Dublin Fire Brigade rushed to the scene and brought the blaze under control. Steven McDonnell, 49, of Cambridge Park, Ringsend, was charged in March with causing damage to the former pub by fire. The father of four was granted 2,750 bail with strict terms and faced his third hearing at Dublin District Court today. The State served him with a book of evidence, and Judge Treasa Kelly noted that the Director of Public Prosecutions had directed that Mr McDonnell would face trial on indictment. Judge Kelly granted a return-for-trial order, sending Mr McDonnell to the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, where the case will be listed for mention on July 4. She noted that there was consent to reduce his Garda station sign-on condition from three days to once a week and that he could get his passport back for a four-day holiday in Spain. The judge warned Mr McDonnell that he must inform the prosecution if he intended to use an alibi and ordered gardai to hand over interview videos to the defence. The accused, who did not address the court, was granted legal aid to include senior counsel representation. Defence solicitor Tony Collier said, "The alleged damage is 2m", and he had also told the court Mr McDonnell "asserted his innocence in relation to this case". During an earlier hearing, Detective Sergeant Jonathan Kelly said that the accused "made no reply" when charged with arson of the premises. The officer had said, "In excess of 2m worth of damage was done as a result of the fire, and there was also potential for the fire to spread to the adjoining building where people were residents". Mr McDonnell has surrendered his passport and must stay away from Thorncastle Street and Fitzwilliam Street, not apply for new travel documents, and have no contact with the pub owner. He has agreed to the bail terms. At the time of the fire, the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive wanted to prepare the property for homeless families, including some from the local area. After the attack I couldn't eat or sleep. I used to stay awake at night listening for fear of him returning Denis ODonovan of Ballyryan, Donohill, Co Tipperary, has been jailed for six and a half years A man described as a dangerous sexual predator has been jailed for six and a half years for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman. Denis ODonovan (38), a father of one, from Ballyryan, Donohill, Co Tipperary, had pleaded not guilty to five criminal offences at his trial last April. However, a jury found him guilty of four offences, including one count of false imprisonment, two counts of sexual assault and one count of assault causing harm. The jury failed to reach a verdict on one alleged sexual assault. ODonovan was sentenced to seven years in prison, with the last six months suspended. Limerick Circuit Criminal Court heard he drove to the womans house, situated in an isolated rural area of Co Limerick, on the night of January 17, 2020, and knocked on the front door of her property. When the woman opened the door. there was nobody there. However, when she went to investigate the presence of a car with its engine running and its headlights on in the front yard, ODonovan pulled her into the car. At speed, he drove the woman to an isolated lay-by where he sexually assaulted her while choking her in his car. Judge Dermot Sheehan said ODonovan put his arm around her (the womans) throat and flung her between two seats. She was terrified. He added: She was crying and shouting and praying to God that he (ODonovan) would stop. She said she thought she was going to die. Judge Sheehan said ODonovan used significant violence during the sexual attack on the woman. He clearly impeded the victim during the sexual assaults, which occurred while he was choking the victim. The victim was terrified and that trauma has stayed with her. The judge said ODonovan restrained and choked the victim while sexually assaulting her. The attacks were degrading and humiliating for the victim, as ODonovan used force to restrain her as he choked her and manhandled her. The woman eventually made her escape when ODonovan was repositioning himself in the car during the attack. She suffered bruising to her throat and private parts in the attacks as well as cuts and scars when she jumped into a ditch and hid from ODonovan. The woman eventually made her way home and alerted the emergency services, who quickly responded. Prosecuting barrister Lily Buckley BL said ODonovan kept the victim in his car against her will, pulled down her underwear and repeatedly sexually assaulted her. After his arrest, during Garda questioning, ODonovan immediately placed himself at the womans house but wrongly claimed he was there to drop off cannabis. He was eventually charged after forensic tests resulted in his DNA being found in saliva on the womans clothes from the night of the attack. DNA results provided in court from tests conducted by Forensic Science Ireland had strongly supported the prosecutions case. ODonovan, who has an addiction to alcohol, had consumed five pints of stout and four cans of cider prior to calling to the womans home. Reading a victim-impact statement to the court, the woman said it had been an absolutely terrifying, traumatising, degrading and disgusting ordeal. I was dragged into his car, driven at speed down the road, and had to try to escape by jumping out of a moving car, only for him to grab me with both hands, choking me violently, pinning me down with one hand on my throat while he sexually assaulted me in a disgusting, degrading way, she said. No words can ever fully describe the absolute terror of being choked, and believing I was going to die. After the attack I couldn't eat or sleep. I used to stay awake at night listening for fear of him returning. A year after the attack, I couldn't cope with the trauma anymore. I was suicidal and was going to kill myself. I had it all planned. "I had a breakdown and ended up in hospital, spending weeks in a secure mental health unit. I have suffered panic attacks, flashbacks and nightmares since the attack on an almost daily basis, and I became confined to home because the fear and panic was overwhelming. I changed from being a happy, confident person who loved the outdoors, hiking and walking to not being able to leave my house for years. It has taken everything I enjoyed about life away from me. After all of this, for him to put me through a trial which was so daunting, as I had never been to court in my life before all of this, to have to sit and listen to his outrageous and disgusting lies, felt like another attack. He has taken years of my life that I will never get back. He may be going to jail, but I feel like I've been in jail the last four years. The physical injuries from that night have healed, but the trauma will stay with me for the rest of my life. It has been an incredibly difficult and dark time in my life, but today I am a stronger person for surviving everything he has done to me and I refuse to let him destroy the rest of my life. The judge lifted reporting restrictions in respect of ODonovan on May 17, after the woman said she wanted people to know his name and what he had done. He is a dangerous sexual predator and everyone should know his name, she told the judge. ODonovan, who had 39 previous convictions, was on bail at the time for aggravated burglary and criminal damage in which he smashed his way into another womans house using an axe, and chased her upstairs. He left the house without harming the woman as she was not the intended target. He later received a three-year suspended sentence for the incident. Judge Sheehan said ODonovan had been affected by the death of his mother when he was four years old, and his family were still prepared to support him when he gets out of prison. After passing sentence today on ODonovan, Judge Sheehan said he must attend an alcohol rehab course to deal with an addiction to alcohol. The judge said he was not imposing a post release supervision order. He placed ODonovan on a sex offenders register for an indefinite period. If you have been affected by issues raised in this article, please visit our helplines page to see what support services that are available by clicking here. Eoin Claxton (37) texted his partner five minutes before the parcel arrived to his address in Rathgar, Dublin, saying: I have to meet this f**king delivery, a lot of money is riding on it Eoin Claxton (37), of Brighton Road, Rathgar, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing drugs for sale or supply Photo: Collins Courts A hotel manager was caught with just under 80,000 of cannabis herb after a garda posing as a delivery driver delivered the package to his home address. Eoin Claxton (37) texted his partner five minutes before the parcel arrived to his address in Rathgar, Dublin, saying: I have to meet this f**king delivery, a lot of money is riding on it, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard today. The court heard the package contained 4.8kg of cannabis herb with a street value of 79,824. Claxton, of Brighton Road, Rathgar, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing drugs for sale or supply at his home address on December 14, 2020. He was today, jailed for 18 months. Claxton took the stand and told his sentence hearing that he was laid off during the pandemic, was isolated from family and friends and started gambling recklessly. He said he built up a debt of between 8,000 to 9,500 and was offered a deal whereby he would take in the drugs package to pay off this debt. Sentencing Claxton today, Judge Elma Sheahan took into account the fact that Claxton is in employment and is caring for two stepchildren. She accepted he got involved in this offending because of a gambling debt and that he is now remorseful. However, the judge said she could not overlook the seriousness of the offence and said a custodial sentence was inevitable. She handed down a sentence of three years and suspended the final 18 months on a number of conditions. She said she was conscious of the family difficulties Claxton was facing and as a result, she adjourned the sentence for four weeks to allow him to put arrangements in place. She remanded him on bail until July. Detective Garda DJ O'Connor told Lisa Dempsey BL, prosecuting, that customs officials intercepted the package, which was then discovered to contain the drugs. It had arrived from a Spanish address and was addressed to a Jackie O'Shaughnessy from a Molly Maguire. A staged delivery was organised between customs and the gardai, with a garda phoning the number on the package shortly before delivering it. Claxton answered the phone number listed on the package and claimed he was Alan O'Shaughnessy Jackie's brother. The package was delivered to his door, where he signed for it under this name. He was then immediately arrested at the scene. Claxton's home was searched, with no evidence of drug paraphernalia found, the court heard. His phone was also seized and a number of messages were retrieved. The court heard that in the days before the delivery, Claxton had been messaging an individual expressing his irritation at the delay in the package arriving. At the end of the day, this is not my s**t, Claxton wrote to this person, the court heard. I don't give a bollox if it arrives or not. I'm the spa sitting here waiting two days for it. The other person responded with a package delivery number and assuring Claxton it was on its way. Claxton told the court he was not surprised he was arrested, as the delays had aroused his suspicions the package had been intercepted. He told the court he was very sorry for his actions that day. He has 36 previous convictions, mostly for road traffic offences, but also for theft and fraud, criminal damage, assault and public order offences. Alexander White SC, defending, said his client has been working as a service manager at a hotel for over two years now. His employer is aware of his court case and the HR manager was in court to support Claxton, defence counsel said. Claxton has been promoted twice since joining the hotel and is a good employee, the court heard. A number of testimonials were handed into court. He has a teenage child with a previous partner and currently lives with his fiancee and her two children, Mr White said. His partner has been in hospital since last month and Claxton is caring for the two children during this period. Gardai posted images of the concealed drugs online, which were well hidden in brown Hermes packaging Dublin gardai have uncovered 300k worth of heroin disguised as a luxury French brand. One man was arrested and remains detained on Friday for questioning in relation to the investigation. Seized narcotics Gardai attached to the Dublin Crime Response Team (DCRT) seized the 2kg of suspected heroin and smaller quantities of cannabis and cocaine during the search operation in Saggart yesterday evening. Gardai posted images of the concealed drugs online, which were well hidden in brown Hermes packaging. The total value of the drugs seized is 300,000. All drugs are now subject to analysis by Forensic Science Ireland (FSI). "One man, aged in his 40s, was arrested at the scene and is currently detained under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act, 1996 at a Garda station in Dublin, gardai said. Investigations are ongoing. Gardai found signed Oasis memorabilia, expensive whiskey and various pairs of designer runners in Farrells home, the court heard. Edward Farrell of Castlefield Way, Knocklyon, Dublin pictured arriving at the Criminal Courts of Justice (CCJ) on Parkgate Street A Dublin man charged in connection with a multi-million-euro cannabis operation had expensive items in his home that would not normally be seen in the house of someone on the dole, a court had heard. Edward Farrell (49) will be sentenced next month after he admitted possessing 2.17 million worth of cannabis for sale or supply in a van outside his home at Castlefield Way, Knocklyon and at another address in Mountain Park, Tallaght, on February 20 last year. Giving evidence today at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Detective Garda Brian Foran said there were items on display at Farrells home that would not normally be on display in the house of someone in receipt of social welfare and HAP assistance. Gardai found signed Oasis memorabilia, expensive whiskey and various pairs of designer runners in Farrells home, the court heard. They also found 105 kg of cannabis in a white Ford Transit van outside his house and a further 15kg of cannabis in three black bin bags transported by Farrell to another address at Mountain Park in Tallaght on the same day. In total, Farrell pleaded guilty to possessing 2,173,920 worth of cannabis for sale or supply. Edward Farrell of Castlefield Way, Knocklyon, Dublin pictured arriving at the Criminal Courts of Justice (CCJ) on Parkgate Street He also admitted possessing a small stun gun, disguised as a pen, in his bedroom wardrobe on the same occasion. Farrell further pleaded guilty to having various drug paraphernalia including a vacuum-packing machine, vacuum-packed bagging material, several weighing scales and a mobile referred to by gardai as a job phone on which he got encrypted messages with instructions for drug dealing. Gda Foran said members of the National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau had been tipped off that Farrell had a large amount of drugs and was driving a white Ford Transit. Surveillance was set up outside Farrells home, where the transit van was parked outside along with a BMW x 5 and a third car. Farrell was observed moving three large black bin bags from the van into the BMW and then driving the BMW to Mountain Park, where he was met by co-accused Kevin Murphy. The two men then moved the three black bin bags into a different BMW 3 series before gardai arrested them both. Murphy (41) of Allenton Drive in Tallaght later told gardai he had been expecting a much smaller package and had been shocked when the three bags containing just under 300,000 of cannabis were delivered to him. Murphy pleaded guilty to possessing 15kg of cannabis for sale or supply and was sentenced to four years in prison earlier this year. Passing sentence last month, Judge Martin Nolan accepted that Murphy had been a mere transporter and holder of the drugs on the day, that he was not the owner of the cannabis and that his culpability was at the lower end. Det Foran agreed with Hugh Hartnett SC, defending, that Farrell put his hands up immediately when gardai arrived and made full and frank admissions during his interview. I was doing something I shouldnt have been doing. I was working off a debt not my debt someone elses debt, Farrell told gardai. Mr Hartnett said Farrell claimed he had inherited the debt from his brother, who had died in tragic circumstances. Det Foran said while it was true that Farrells brother had died, he could not verify whether this accused had inherited his brothers debt. Farrell gave gardai two phones and their PIN codes, including what was referred to as a job phone, where he was sent instructions for drug distribution on Signal, an encrypted messaging app. The court heard that gardai found a photo on the phone of a handwritten note with a list of customers with the amount of drugs each was to receive. Farrell told gardai he was on social welfare and also getting HAP assistance. Farrell has 32 previous convictions, including three for drug offences and one for possessing ammunition. He is the father of two children, the court heard. Mr Hartnett said Farrell had instructed that he was a little bit under threat and had been sent a threatening text message on his personal phone, but Det Foran said he was not aware of this message. Judge Pauline Codd decided to adjourn the case to allow the defence team time to retrieve Farrells phone and verify whether he had received a threatening text. Farrell will be sentenced on July 22. The suspect, a man in his 20s, from the west of Ireland, is a member of a main political party A man has been charged in connection with the alleged stalking and making murderous threats to a prominent female politician. The suspect, a man in his 20s, from the west of Ireland, is a member of a main political party. He is currently in custody in a Galway garda station and will appear in court in Galway this morning. The suspect, described as highly intelligent and academically qualified was arrested this morning on foot of a complaint by a prominent female politician. It is understood the complaint involves murderous threats received via email and an instance where the suspect turned up in person. A Garda spokesman said a man was arrested today for an alleged offence contrary to Section 10(1) of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 as amended by Section 23 of the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2023, Stalking. The man is currently detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984. "Gardai have charged the man (20s) arrested earlier today in connection with a complaint made by a female public representative in the west of the country. He remains in custody and is due to appear before Galway District Court tomorrow morning Friday, 7th of June 2024, a spokesperson said. An Garda Siochana said that as this is an ongoing criminal investigation, it has no further comment at this time. Both male juveniles were later charged with a total of 19 charges arising from several incidents in the Maynooth and Celbridge areas of Co Kildare Two teens have appeared at the Childrens Court after they were arrested following a number of thefts from vehicles, unauthorised taking of vehicles and deception offences. Both male juveniles were later charged with a total of 19 charges arising from several incidents in the Maynooth and Celbridge areas of Co Kildare. Gardai attached to Leixlip and assisted by Garda members attached to Kildare and Dublin Metropolitan Region carried out a number of searches on Wednesday, June 5. During the course of the search two males juveniles, both aged in their teens, were arrested in relation to the further investigation of a number of thefts from vehicles, unauthorised taking of vehicles and deception offences that occurred in recent weeks in the Maynooth and Celbridge areas of Kildare, gardai said. Both juveniles were detained at Garda stations within the Kildare Division under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984. They were later charged with a total of 19 charges and appeared before the Children's Court on Thursday morning, Mark Lee (43) appeared in Dublin District Court this evening accused of killing Josip Strok (31) Gardai arrested Mark Lee, 43, on Thursday and held him at a west Dublin Garda station where he was charged with the murder of Mr Strok. Pic Collins Courts AN unemployed man has been charged with murdering a carpenter who died after suffering serious head injuries in an alleged assault in west Dublin. Mark Lee (43) appeared in Dublin District Court this evening accused of killing Josip Strok (31). He is the third man to be charged in the case and was remanded in custody to appear in court again next week, for the directions of the DPP. Mr Strok and his friend David Druzinec (28) were allegedly attacked at Grange View Way, Clondalkin, on 30 March. Mr Strok was taken to Tallaght Hospital, where he died from his injuries four days later, on April 3. Mr Lee, of no fixed address, is charged with murdering Mr Strok and assault causing harm to Mr Druzinec. Today, Detective Garda Linda Ryan gave evidence of the accuseds arrest, charge and caution. Josip Strok She told Judge Michael Connellan she arrested Mr Lee at Clondalkin garda station this afternoon and he made no reply after caution at 2.18pm. The accused was handed copies of the charge sheets. Mr Lees solicitor Philip Denieffe made no bail application on his behalf on the assault charge, which he said could travel with the murder count to the next date. There was also no bail application on the murder charge as this only be considered in the High Court. Judge Connellan remanded the accused in custody to appear in Cloverhill District Court by video link on June 13. The judge granted free legal aid after Mr Denieffe made an application and submitted a statement of Mr Lees financial means, saying his client was not currently working. Mr Lee, dressed in a pink and white striped shirt and blue jeans and carrying an anorak, was not required to speak during the brief hearing and has not yet indicated how he intends to plead to either count. Mr Strok was from the Krapina region in northern Croatia and had been living and working in Ireland in recent years. Last month, two Clondalkin teenagers were also charged with murdering him and assaulting Mr Druzinec. Connor Rafferty (19) of Castlegrange Close and Anthony Delappe (18) from Melrose Avenue appeared in Blanchardstown District Court and their cases were adjourned. That court heard they also made no reply to the charges when they were put to them. Nicoles funeral takes place on Monday The funeral details for tragic Limerick dog attack victim Nicole have been announced. Nicole was killed after being attacked by pet dogs on Tuesday night. The young womans body will be reposing at Cross's Funeral Home, Gerald Griffin Street this Saturday June 8 from 2pm to 4pm. Her funeral cortege will arrive then on Monday, June 10, at the Holy Family Church, Southill, for Requiem Mass at 11am. The funeral cortege takes place afterwards to Mount St. Oliver Cemetery. House private, please, read a note on rip.ie which further states: Bawnmore View, Crossgalla, Limerick Recently pre-deceased by her grandparents Patrick ODonnell (Senior) and Marie Morey. The post details how Nicole died unexpectedly, on her 23rd Birthday. Very deeply regretted by her mother Lisa, father Patrick, stepparents Joseph and Nicola, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents Gerry Morey and Teresa ODonnell, cousins, other relatives and her many friends. May her gentle soul Rest in Peace. Nicole Morey Ms Morey, a native of Limerick City, had returned to a home she was renting in Ballyneety, Co Limerick, around 11.30pm, last Tuesday night after celebrating her 23rd birthday. When she turned the keys in the door, she was attacked by the animals. Meanwhile, a man who alerted emergency services about the fatal dog attack in which Nicole died did all he possibly could to help her, sources have said. The male had access to a security camera video feed of the scene of the attack, but was not at the scene, and was not physically able to assist Ms Morey who was attacked by her dogs and killed. A source confirmed that all four dogs were dogs that are included on a restricted dog breeding list and are all banned in the UK, however no such ban exists in the Republic of Ireland. They also confirmed that all four dogs had been destroyed by the authorities today. A memorial was held for Ms Morey in Limerick city on Thursday evening which was attended by hundreds of people, included a balloon release in her memory. The vigil held Thursday evening in memory of Ms Morey at Bawnmore View, Crossagalla, Limerick, was attended by over 200 people. Ms Moreys sister, Jolene, led a countdown at the vigil before hundreds of coloured balloons were released into the sky as a selection of Ms Moreys favourite songs were played on a loud speaker. Members of Ms Moreys family wept and comforted one another as neighbours and friends embraced them and each other under a canopy of multi-coloured balloons. One friend wrote: Feels like a dream Im seeing everyones posts of you but its not registering in my brain, telling you yesterday happy birthday hope you have the best day but little did anyone know Im going to miss you so much. "Nicole you had a heart of pure gold, there for everyone, you were the kindest soul, I just dont have words only that its a cruel cruel world love you always Nicole Morey. Nicole's sister Jolene at the memorial "Deeply saddened and shocked beyond words that this could happen to a beautiful girl Nicole, such a kind countenance, in the prime of her precious life, now lost forever. "Condolences to all her family. Appalling tragedy and such grief descending on them and her dear sister. God grant her family and friends solace to cope. May swift and instant action now be brought forward and passed expediently, before this is allowed repeat yet again." "So sad for Nicoles loss, bless her soul, she deserved to live her life, wrote another. Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster has conducted a post mortem on the body of Ms Morey today and the autopsy results were not being released for operational reasons, although Gardai did not suspect any foul play in respect of Ms Moreys death. The man who was alerted to the attack via a CCTV video feed had initially contacted the emergency services after being alerted to the attack. After alerting 999, which in turn alerted Gardai and paramedics, the male then shared the CCTV footage with the victims family - in order to alert them to the incident. The individual that had access to the (footage), and that saw the incident occur, was not in the vicinity of the house, and was largely helpless, so they contacted the emergency services first, a source said. The man shared the footage with the womans family only after contacting the emergency services. The footage was widely shared thereafter by unknown parties, sparking a Garda appeal on Wednesday which requesting the public not to share these videos, out of respect for the deceased. Gardai reiterated the appeal for people not to share the video footage. Gardai attached to the Regional Armed Support Unit (ASU) made the scene of Ms Moreys death safe after they encountered four aggressive dogs there. Gardai shot one dog at this scene and restrained the other three which were taken into the custody of a dog warden, but were all later destroyed. Despite valiant efforts by the emergency services to save Ms Morey, she was pronounced dead at the scene. Gardai are aware of speculation being spread around the circumstances of the fatal dog attack. This speculation has not been helpful to the investigation and there was no evidence to suggest any foul play was involved, they said. The investigation into Ms Moreys death was continuing, led by Roxboro Road Garda Station (061214340). Ms Moreys death has sparked fresh debate about whether dogs such as the XL Bully, which was suspected of being involved in her awful death, should be banned in Ireland. When I saw that far too many people were dying, I said to myself: 'Now I have to be careful not to get caught in this war One of Daniel Kinahans allies in Europes super-cartel, Raffaele Imperiale, has started to spill the beans on his gangster pals, telling investigators how one of them gave me 300 kilos of cocaine. Since he was extradited from his desert bolthole in Dubai to his native Italy in March 2022, the notorious mob boss, known as the King of the Narcos, has turned pentito (supergrass). He has now become State witness against the Camorra, the drug mafia he was a high-ranking member of for over two decades. However, new leaked memos, published in Dutch media, show how Imperiale has also made statements to Dutch police about international traffickers. Imperiale is also believed to have been at the top of the drug cartel that included Kinahan, the Dutch criminal Ridouan Taghi and Bosnian drug trafficker Edin Gacanin among its leaders. The documents show how the Italian gangster gave a detailed statement about his involvement with Dutch-Chilean criminal, Richard "El Rico" Riquelme Vega. El Rico was also one of Daniel Kinahans closet criminal contacts. The Dutch new site Het Parool revealed two months ago that Imperiale was interrogated in September 2023 in the Orinus investigation into El Ricos criminal organisation. I met Rico in 2008, Imperiale told investigators, according to Het Parool. When he came out of prison he was well known in the criminal world because he had served his time in Germany without mentioning the names of others. "When he came out of prison he was abandoned by his own people, with whom he worked. "He had no money then, he was completely broke, as we say in Italy. However, Imperiale claims that by the time El Rico moved to Dubai, he was a wealthy man from the drugs trade. When Rico moved to Dubai, he had a large, significant capital, 80 or 100 million which he had amassed from entering into joint ventures with the Colombian cartels. Asked by investigating officers if Rico and Imperiale had acted together in the cocaine trade, the Italian replied: No, not directly, but in 2016 he facilitated me, he gave me 300 kilos of cocaine to help me. I didn't work with him, he is South American, they need entrances in the Dutch ports, and they have their own channels. I used my own contacts. "I mean, there was no connection in the true sense of the word, but there was mutual respect between the two of us, also a friendly contact, not just work related. Well, it was more friendly. Imperiale was one of a number of European criminals who agreed to work together to import cocaine from their base in Dubai. The group was observed having meetings in the Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai in 2017 and attended Daniel Kinahans wedding there. It is alleged that Imperiale alongside Kinahan, Richard "El Rico" Riquelme Vega, Taghi and another imprisoned Dutch drug lord Naoufal Belly Fassih were part of the cartel which dominated Europes drug trade. Raffaele Imperiale and Daniel Kinahan El Rico, whose nickname means The Rich One, was sentenced in 2021 to eleven years in prison for leading a criminal organisation that carried out assassinations and engaged in money laundering. He was later acquitted of drug trafficking charges but he is said to have ties with Colombian drug cartels, having spent a lot of time in Chile, and provided the Italian with a large shipment of drugs. According to Imperiale, Rico then went to work for a man known as British Billy and the Amsterdam criminal Mink Kok in a collaboration that was regarded as a kind of joint venture. Kok is a long term associate of Christy Kinahan Snr and the pair have worked together since the 90s in Amsterdam. When Mink Kok was arrested in Lebanon in 2011, Imperiale informed Rico that he still owed 52 million to Kok's organisation. However, El Rico appeared to know nothing about this and, according to Imperiale, this was one of the main reasons why Rico distanced himself from Billy and Mink, and that's how the friction between them started. The Dutch-Chilean drug trafficker Ricardo Riquelme Vega, whose nickname means The Rich One Imperiale then says: From what I understood, Billy and Mink wanted to get rid of Rico. The Amsterdam criminal Samir 'Scarface' Bouyakrichan, who was assinated in 2014, was also allegedly involved in the plans to murder Rico. Scarface was one of those people who facilitated Mink and Billy to kill Rico, because Ziggy was one of Scarface's men, he should have been the man who arranged Rico's murder. Ziggy is Najib Himmich who disappeared without a trace in the autumn of 2014. His wife Luana Luz Xavier was shot dead in front of her young children in Amstelveen on December 8, 2014 When I saw that far too many people were dying, I said to myself: 'Now I have to be careful not to get caught in this war, Imperiale says. I played doubles, I hung out with Billy and Rico and I kept them both as friends, and then later I would decide who to continue with, and in the end I continued with Rico, and I left Billy. Raffaele Imperiale during his arrest According to the Italian, this was a one-off deal. The Dutch prosecutors are very interested in the question of whether Rico had planned to kill Karim Bouyakrichan, the older brother of the murdered Samir, in Dubai, Het Parool reports. The Public Prosecution Service had access to chats in which Rico and Raffaele Imperiale discuss having Karim murdered by 'Ninjas' with knives. According to Imperiale, the word "Ninjas" is slang that Colombian drug traffickers use to describe hitmen. However, according to Imperiale, the plan should be taken with a grain of salt. I don't think it was serious, Imperiale says. Rico would only have wanted to demonstrate his power with the plan. I was in complete control, I knew this would never happen. So it was just a game, a psychological power game, a strategic game between groups. "But, I'll say it again, and that's not to defend the people, because outside of the United Emirates, anywhere else in the world where the opportunity had arisen, if it had been necessary, those guys would have been killed. It has further emerged that 'Lello', as Raffaele Imperiale is known, has been talking about other criminal pals to Dutch officials. For the time being, it seems that 'Lello' tells a lot, but says little really incriminating. Leon van Kleef, a lawyer for El Rico dismissed Imperiale's statements. "The criterion is whether he is a member of a criminal organisation. My client doesn't think so, van Kleef said. Imperiale stated that he received 300 kilos from my client. If I buy a loaf of bread from the bakery, I am not a member of his organisation. The group has ties to violence across Ecuador as well as drug trafficking in the surrounding region File photo of the arrest of a Los Lobos gang member The US has sanctioned the powerful Ecuadorian crime gang Los Lobos and its leader Pipo. The group has ties to violence across Ecuador as well as drug trafficking in the surrounding region. The US Treasury Department announced the sanctions on Thursday. Sanctions were imposed on the narco crew and its leader, Wilmer Geovanny Chavarria Barre, who has the nickname Pipo. US officials have deemed Los Lobos the largest drug trafficking ring in Ecuador and said the gang "contributes significantly to the violence gripping the country." They are known for involvement in cocaine exportation, according to media reports from south America. Los Lobos graffiti (US Treasury) Its network includes thousands of members backed by Mexico's Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion New Generation and also the notorious Sinaloa Cartel. "Drug trafficking groups with ties to powerful drug cartels threaten the lives and livelihoods of communities in Ecuador and throughout South and Central America," said Brian Nelson, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. "As today's actions demonstrate, we steadfastly support Ecuador in its efforts to combat drug trafficking and counter the threat of drug-related violence." The US in February imposed similar sanctions on another gang based in Ecuador Los Choneros, in the wake of the disappearance of its leader Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, from his prison cell in early January. Los Lobos and Los Choneros have become rival forces. Los Lobos began as a splinter group of the Los Choneros, but broke away in 2020 after the death of Jorge Luis Zambrano, along with Los Chone Killers and Los Tiguerones. The group has over 8,000 members and mainly operates in cities of Latacunga, Cuenca, and Machala, and also in the province of Pastaza. 'Los Lobos' - which means 'The Wolves' in Spanish -- claimed responsibility for the assassination of popular presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio last August. He was killed after leaving a campaign rally in the nation's capital, Quito. Los Lobos (Youtube) In April, Ecuadorian cops said they captured another fugitive leader of a powerful criminal gang. Fabricio Colon Pico had been on the run since escaping from jail on 8 January. Officials said they had traced Colon Pico, who had dyed his hair blonde in an effort to change his appearance, to the town of Puerto Quito. Ecuador's attorney-general, Diana Salazar, has accused Colon Pico of plotting to kill her. The 44-year-old was one of the most wanted people in the country. The joint operation between the gardai and the Irish Coast Guard began following reports of an individual entering the water from a boat A major rescue operation is underway to locate a missing man believed to have entered the water from a boat in Connemara, Co Galway, today. The joint operation between the gardai and the Irish Coast Guard began following reports of an individual entering the water from a boat off the coast of Carna, Co Galway. Authorities have responded to the reports shortly after 6.15pm this evening once the alarm was raised. The search area is to the east of Skerd Rocks and to the north of the Aran Islands. The alert was received shortly before 6pm to a person in the water off Mweenish Island. "The Irish Coast Guard can confirm that a search and rescue operation is currently underway to the west of Galway Bay, a Department of Transport spokesperson said. The Irish Coast Guard helicopters from Sligo and Shannon are in operation. Boats from the Costelloe Bay Coast Guard Unit, RNLI Aran Island and RNLI Clifden lifeboats, and other local vessels are also involved in the extensive search. Gardai confirmed the individual is believed to be a male. "A coast guard-led operation is currently underway," a Garda spokesperson has told the Sunday World. "No further details are available at this time. The violence is reportedly linked to an ongoing local feud Blood stains on the pavement following a stabbing in King Street, Wexford town on Thursday night. Pic: Jim Campbell A man aged in his 30s is receiving treatment in Wexford General Hospital this morning after suffering numerous stab wounds in a violent altercation which broke out in Wexford town late last night. Gardai were called to King Street shortly after 11 p.m. amid reports of males fighting in the street and smashing up a house. When they arrived, they found a man bleeding heavily with several stab wounds, while a house had been smashed up and had several windows broken. A man aged in his 20s was arrested at the scene and brought to Wexford Garda Station. He required some medical treatment himself and is due to be interviewed in relation to the violence this morning. Council workers cleaning up in King Street following a street disturbance the previous night. Pic: Jim Campbell Gardai confirmed that no weapon was recovered at the scene, but a shard of glass from one of the broken windows may have been used to inflict some of the injuries. Despite having lost a significant amount of blood, some of which was still visible on the street this morning as gardai conducted their technical examination, the injured party is expected to make a full recovery. According to locals, tensions had been bubbling away just beneath the surface on King Street from early afternoon before things erupted into violence late Thursday night. The incident is reportedly related to an ongoing feud which has developed between factions in recent weeks and both parties are known to gardai. The man aged in his 20s is due to be questioned this morning and it is expected that charges will follow from the incident. The serious accident happened on Thursday night just after 6pm A teenager was rushed to hospital last night in Kilkenny after a crash between a motorcycle and a car. The accident occurred in Mooncoin, south Kilkenny just after 6pm. The motorcyclist, a male in his late teens, was taken to Waterford Hospital for medical assessment. A garda spokesperson said today: Gardai and emergency services attended the scene of a collision between a car and a motorcycle at Carrigeen Road, Mooncoin, Co. Kilkenny, shortly after 6pm yesterday evening, Thursday, June 6th, 2024. The motorcyclist, a male in his late teens, was taken to Waterford Hospital for medical assessment. The teens injuries are not life-threatening. Enquiries are continuing into the crash. His daughter, Irish-Israeli girl Emily Hand, was kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7 attack Irish-Israeli girl Emily Hand, who was abducted by Hamas gunmen, is reunited with her father Thomas Hand after she was released in November. Thomas Hand has said he is ashamed to call himself Irish following the Governments decision to recognise the State of Palestine. His daughter, Irish-Israeli girl Emily Hand, was kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7 attack. She was released in November after spending 50 days, including her ninth birthday, as a hostage in Gaza. Mr Hand, who is originally from Dublin, told Reuters that Ireland has been instrumental in Emilys release but strongly criticised recognition of Palestine. "Ive been a very proud Irishman all my life. I advertise the fact, I tell people yes Im Irish, he said. "Im not so proud anymore. Im actually embarrassed, ashamed to call myself Irish now. After whats happened to Emily, and they [Irish authorities] were integral in the whole process of it Okay, shes only an individual but she is an Irish citizen. "Knowing everything Hamas has done, Im sure theyve seen the videos of their GoPros, theyve seen all the evidence. He said recognising a Palestinian state served as a reward for Hamas. "Okay, here is your reward then for absolute violence. Heres your reward, we recognise you as a state. Nice one, he told Reuters. Ireland recognised the state of Palestine alongside Spain and Norway from May 28. Taoiseach Simon Harris said it was an act of powerful, political and symbolic value. "Irelands dream is that the Israeli and Palestinian children of May 28th 2024 will grow up to be neighbours at peace, Mr Harris said at the time of the announcement. Both the Palestinian and Israeli people are inherently kind and decent." Mr Hand said the decision taken by the three countries was wrong. "I don't mind pro-Palestine, but when you're pro-Hamas, that's a different ballgame. Really? You're supporting that? Those three countries, they're basically showing support for that. It's wrong. "We're praying for it [a peaceful resolution] to happen and for all of this to end. All they [Hamas] have to do is hand over the hostages and the war is over. Emilys release in November came during a temporary cessation of hostilities as part of an agreement between Israel and Hamas. More than 100 Israeli and foreign national hostages were released. Nearly half of the hostages kidnapped on October 7 remain in captivity. Since being reunited, Mr Hand and Emily have been moving from one place of temporary accommodation to another with just a few belongings and their family dog Johnsie. He said he is trying to provide a sense of normality for his daughter and she is making her way towards a full recovery despite one or two triggers. A Go Fund Me page has been set up to cover Toms medical expenses and to help get him back home to Ireland Tom Eustace was involved in a tragic accident in Rome that has left him fighting for his life. Photo: Go Fund Me A young man from Co Carlow has been left fighting for his life following an accident in Italy. Tom Eustace from Tullow in Co Carlow was in Rome, Italy attending a friends wedding with his girlfriend and other friends when a tragic accident occurred. This accident has left Tom in a coma with life-threatening injuries. The Eustace family say that Tom is currently fighting for his life. Toms family are now faced with a long road to recovery that will be both physically and financially demanding. A Go Fund Me page has been set up by the Eustace family to help with Toms medical expenses, rehabilitation costs and travel expenses to get him home to Ireland. My amazing boyfriend is facing some unexpected challenges right now after being involved in an extremely serious accident in Italy and weve set up a GoFundMe campaign to help cover the costs, explained Toms girlfriend Miriam Holden on social media. "If you can, please consider donating to support him during this tough time. Every little bit helps and your support means more than words can express, she concluded. Tom is an amazing person who has always been there for his friends and family, added Toms family on the Go Fund Me page. Now he needs our help more than ever. "The road to recovery will be long and demanding, both physically and financially. Medical expenses, rehabilitation costs and travel expenses to get him back to Ireland are just some of the challenges we are facing. In less than 24 hours, the Go Fund Me page has reached over 67,000 as the local Carlow community and beyond come together in support of a young man and a family who have been integral members of the Tullow community. The money raised will go directly towards medical expenses including surgeries, treatments, transport and hospital stays. Funds will also be needed for rehabilitation and therapy sessions to aid Tom's recovery and for any unforeseen expenses related to his care and recovery. "The outpouring of support, messages and calls has been a tremendous source of strength for Toms family and girlfriend, said Toms family. We deeply appreciate every gesture of kindness and support during this difficult time. Tom was a member of Tullow Rugby Club until a few years ago and is currently a member of Fighting Cocks GFC club in Co Carlow. "We are shocked and saddened to hear of Toms accident during the week. As many of you know, the Eustace family are one of our neighbours and have many family links within the club, along with Tom playing rugby himself, said a spokesperson from Tullow RFC on Facebook. "Please donate what you can towards Toms recovery fund. As a club, we send our support to Miriam Holden, the Eustace family, wider family members and many friends at this worrying time. "Sending all our support and strength to Tom. To donate to the GoFundMe please click here On the same day that nominations for the Tauranga City Council election closed, unelected commissioners sent a letter to the government asking it to overrule independent planning recommendations for the city. The move has stirred debate amongst Tauranga mayoral hopefuls, with one candidate writing his own letter to the government, asking it to not make any decision until the council is elected. Proposed Plan Change 33 (PC33) would allow more Mount Maunganui buildings to reach a height of 22 metres before needing resource consent. In a letter to Minister for the Environment Penny Simmonds and Minister for Resource Management Act Reform Chris Bishop, Tauranga City Council Commissioner Anne Tolley asked that they overrule part of the recommendations from an Independent Housing Panel which would have left the permitted height for a building in Mount Maunganui at 12 metres. The letter was sent on May 24, the same day that nominations for the Tauranga City Council election closed. Mayoral candidate Mahe Drysdale has now sent his own letter to the two government ministers, requesting that they defer the decision until the new council is elected. He says if he becomes mayor, he will ask the council to withdraw the request completely. "The Mount is one of the most important and iconic suburbs in New Zealand. The decision should be made in our city - not Wellington." Tolley says there is no legal ability under the Resource Management Act for PC33 to be withdrawn by the incoming council, now that the commissioners have made a decision on it. "However, the incoming council could initiate a further plan change, if that was the wish of a majority of its members," she says. Former Tauranga mayor Greg Brownless, who is running again, says the move from the commissioners to override the independent panel so close to new elections is exactly why he asked Local Government Minister Simeon Brown to rein in the power of the commissioners months ago. They are making decisions that are "undemocratic and that didn't reflect the will of the people", he says. "Most Tauranga residents don't want the Mount turned into a Gold Coast-style over-height over-shadowed wind tunnel." Tolley says she doesn't see it that way. She says the council is statutorily required to notify decisions on the Independent Hearings Panel recommendations by June 30. "This meant that the Commission had to make decisions prior to the forthcoming Council election," she says. Mayoral candidate Ria Hall, meanwhile, says Plan Change 33 is a housing lifeline for Tauranga City and that opposition to it is regressive and irresponsible. She says it will enable the city to grow upwards. "Implementing PC33 to allow for increased density is crucial to addressing both our immediate and long-term housing needs," Hall says. Tolley agrees, and says Tauranga has a significant housing deficit, which means there is both little choice in the type and size of homes available for people to live in, and the city's housing costs are the most unaffordable of any New Zealand city. "To help address these issues, Tauranga needs to grow up as well as out, and we have been given strict direction by the Government to enable this." John Robson, another mayoral candidate, disagrees that the plan change will address the issue of housing affordability. "The market can't intensify and deliver affordable housing, only more expensive housing." Fellow candidate Tim Maltby agrees that it might not result in cheaper housing as intended, saying high rises will likely be used as "expensive holiday apartments". And current deputy mayor and mayoral hopeful Tina Salisbury says she wants to engage communities to understand the best locations for intensifying. "Intensification and building high-rise apartments cannot come at the expense of quality, resilience, sustainability, and preserving the character of a neighbourhood." -RNZ. Dairy farmers can pick up practical tools and actions to enhance farm waterways at DairyNZs Fieldays site this year. The Healthy Waterways exhibit will give farmers a behind-the-scenes look at how healthy farm waterways support biodiversity and farm businesses, says DairyNZ GM farm solutions and policy Dr David Burger. Interactive resources cover the science behind riparian planting and what farmers can do to improve water quality and habitat for wildlife including native birds, eels (tuna), freshwater crayfish (koura) and other species. Water is so valuable to all of us and plays a vital role in ensuring farmers can continue running profitable and sustainable businesses, says David. Dairy farmers have made significant progress over the past 20 years to support healthy waterways, and DairyNZ wants to support other farmers to get involved too. Thats why we have tested the best ways to enhance water health on-farm to ensure as a sector we continue to progress a positive future for New Zealand dairy farming. Science first: DairyNZ principal scientist Dr Craig Depree contributes to DairyNZs evidence-based approach developing tools and practical solutions that deliver results for farmers. Photo supplied. DairyNZ water quality specialists will be at Fieldays, sharing technical knowledge and answering questions. Were looking forward to sharing our science and farm systems expertise with farmers, says David. At Fieldays, farmers can learn more about the benefits of creating shade through riparian planting, which is one of the most effective on-farm actions to create healthy waterways. Riparian planting helps reduce runoff of nitrogen and phosphate. It also reduces the amount of sediment reaching streams and creates a great habitat for our native species to thrive including fish and insects. On DairyNZs Fieldays site, levy payers can go in the draw to win one of two eDNA kits a simple way to find out whats living in a waterway and gain an indication of its overall health. Pokaiwhenua Stream (pictured) is one of the waterways in the Sustainable Catchments programme, which is designed to improve biodiversity and water quality. Photo supplied. After taking a water sample in a farm stream, farmers can check their online eDNA report to see data on the health of the waterway, including the wildlife it is supporting such as plants, insects, fish, seafood and birds. Getting a picture of what wildlife is thriving and which species need more support paints a reliable picture of how healthy a waterway is and helps motivate more work to continue improving water quality, says David. Visit DairyNZs Fieldays site: PC44 in the Pavilion. Go in the draw to win one of two eDNA kits, plus the support of a DairyNZ specialist to help you collect the sample and interpret the results. The success of DairyNZs Sustainable Catchments programme At Fieldays, farmers can learn more about a community-based Sustainable Catchments programme DairyNZ is co-leading, which brings farmers, iwi and partners together to improve biodiversity and water quality in three priority catchments. Catchment work is widely recognised as the way forward in improving the environment, as it achieves better results than a national one-size-fits-all approach, David says. Developing catchment science: DairyNZ freshwater ecologist Dr Belinda Margetts carries out a stream ecology assessment to help inform the Sustainable Catchments programme work. Photo supplied. The work underway covers the Pokaiwhenua catchment (Waikato), Waimea (Southland) catchment and the South Canterbury region. DairyNZ is working closely to support local landowners and catchment groups, including those who already have water quality improvement initiatives in place. A key outcome from work by catchment communities is practical tools and activities farmers and others can use to improve water quality. Sustainable Catchments programme funding comes from DairyNZ and the Ministry for the Environments Essential Freshwater Fund. All hands on deck: DairyNZ scientist Dr Rhiannon Handcock digs in to support healthy waterways. Photo supplied. Were encouraging farmers to join their local catchment groups or create one. Its extremely rewarding to get involved in your local community and be part of the solution, says David. Drunk driving crashes leave a trail of hurt, loss and carnage in their wake, yet the number of people caught over the limit on Bay of Plenty roads is rising. For this story, the third in our Traumatic Toll series examining drink-driving harm, Sonya Bateson sat down with a team of firefighters at Rotorua Fire Station to find out how they cope with a regular onslaught of trauma. I walk into the Rotorua Fire Station break room. Picture a stock-standard smoko room in any medium-sized workplace and thats pretty much where we are, complete with comfortably worn, slightly mismatched chairs. The men of Blue Watch (and a few over-timers from other shifts) file into the room and introduce themselves, telling me their names and how long theyve been firefighters. Some are young men, most have been around a while, and a few can count their service by decades. The station has female firefighters in the ranks too, they assure me, but Ive picked a day with none on duty. They seat themselves in chairs arrayed in a half-circle facing me, all in some variation of the crossed arms and leaned-back posture that suggests wariness and perhaps a touch of discomfort. I dont blame them. Theyre here willingly, but theyre being cautious. Opening up to a stranger is daunting - and its even harder when it comes to talking about a part of yourself that youre used to hiding from others. The room feels tense. I take out my notepad and give them my spiel - Ive been researching drink driving and the data Ive found is indicative of a serious problem here in the Bay of Plenty. But data only goes so far in conveying the enormity of the issue - I want to show our readers exactly how drink driving impacts real people. And, as first responders to car crashes, firefighters are the ones dealing with the very real repercussions of drink driving, day in and day out. They stare at me silently, and I bumble on. The numbers are shocking, but numbers wont stop drunk people from climbing into the drivers seat. Perhaps, just maybe, if the people sitting in front of me share a snapshot of their daily reality, it might sink in just how serious - and wide-reaching - the consequences of drink driving can be. That its someones literal day job to give CPR through clouds of boozy fumes; to cut a bleeding and angry person out of a mangled wreck; to cradle a limp body covered in glass cuts; to pick up limbs strewn across the gravel. Its a job. And its something many - most - of us couldnt be paid to do. But they do it every day, alongside putting out fires, responding to medical call-outs, and aiding in disaster relief. I cant imagine the toll that must have on ones mental fortitude. And thats what I ask them, this group of people who stare intently at me across the room: How, exactly, do you cope? What coping mechanisms do you use to deal with all that trauma? Its a confronting, uncomfortable question. But they think for a moment, then start to respond. Coping mechanisms Dean begins. He tells me in a matter-of-fact way that he concerns himself first and foremost with getting the person out of the car. He wont let himself think about who the person is or what theyre doing. I try not to take anything home. Timothy picks up where Dean left off and his candour surprises me. His coping mechanism is similar to Deans, but he elaborates: I try not to look at their face right from the start. That way, when I get home, Ive got nothing to associate it with apart from the memory. Once I walk out the door, I just dont think about it. It is hard not to but when it pops up, I just push it down. A few nods around the room. That resonates. Faces are harder to forget. JF, like Timothy and Dean, tries to remove himself as much as possible at the scene. The hardest part of it is if they need medical attention straight away. If you deal to their injuries and they pass away afterwards, that makes it hard to get out of your memory. If its a drink driving case and it goes to court, youve tried to get it out of your memory and then youve got to get it out and deal with it again. And Timothy agrees with JF. The worst part of the court side is having all the family around. Rotorua Firefighters Reece Jordan (left) and Des Chan. Photo / Andrew Warner. JD tells me he likes to listen to podcasts and audiobooks, especially if hes getting home in the middle of the night. Its a reset, a way to get his mind on something completely different. Others mention eating, the odd drink, and exercise. But for HN, its a little different. Maoritanga outlays specific ways to deal with death and trauma and HN takes comfort in those familiar practices. Always in these situations, especially with fatalities, Im going to stop and say a little prayer, a little karakia. I may even do a wider karakia depending on the people at the scene. I dont have a history of switching off from it. I think thats because Im at the marae at a lot of tangihanga. I always do a practice of using water and karakia to make sure nothing goes home with me as far as those things are concerned. And I like to have a good feed, or go to the hot pools and let it all go away. When the coping mechanisms dont work Hearing their colleagues share their experiences is helping the team loosen up. Their postures relax slightly, some are leaning elbows on knees, some are leaned back with their ankles crossed in front. I ask them whether their stance on drinking alcohol before driving has changed since they became firefighters. Gary, who has been silent until now, quickly and sternly responds that he will never touch even a drop of alcohol before he drives. Not in 28 years. After I started this job... it changes your perspective. Seeing the effects and consequences of peoples actions. Nods go around the room. Its not just drink driving, Timothy adds. Its people using their phones. Its something they see constantly, the high vantage of a fire truck leaves no secrets. Dean is strict on what vehicles he buys. Being exposed to a lot of crashes has altered what vehicles I drive, seeing how a new car with better safety ratings performs. And put your bloody kids in car seats, senior station officer Des Chan chimes in. I ask if its harder for them to deal with the victims of a crash when drink driving has been involved, knowing that the crash was preventable. But Des points out they often have no idea if drink driving is involved. Sometimes there are clues - boozy breath or empty bottles - but its drummed into them that suspicions arent always correct and, regardless of what caused the accident, their job is to save people, not to judge them. Whats hard, they say, is when a child is involved. Each of the men sitting around me has dearly loved children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews in their lives. Seeing a child in a wreck sorely tests even the most effective coping mechanisms and it is something they all struggle with. Thats the worst, I feel, JF says. If its something avoidable, drink driving, whatever, if theyve hit a child or a child is involved, he pauses, then continues. Thats harder. Dean agrees. If a child is involved, my coping mechanism goes out the window. Children, and people they know. Living in a smaller city like Rotorua, attending crashes and rescuing people they know is a common occurrence - and one of their biggest fears. Timothy started his career in Auckland, a big city with a much, much smaller chance of having to rescue, or worse, someone you know. Now Im in Rotorua and its uh oh. When you know the person, its a lot more difficult, you cant do your normal process of removing it from your brain, JF says. And youve got to go to the tangi later on, see the family. That makes it a lot more real. HN described a crash he went to where he was friends with someone involved. He stayed with the man, offering comfort until the ambulance arrived to take over. Knowing the people involved gives a heightened sense of responsibility towards them, he says. White crosses dotted around the countryside mark the sites where people have died in crashes. But, Des says, there arent many streets we drive by and dont remember what happened there. JF says even if they forget the faces, they remember when theyre driving past. Hug your family when you get home. Were a bit like Humpty Dumpty There are hard times - and plenty of those. But theres a job to do, so they pick themselves up and keep going. Were all a bit like Humpty Dumpty, Des says. We fall off that wall and we put each other back together again. Fire and Emergency NZ (Fenz) has been changing, Des says. There are wellness initiatives and, on shift, the crew members will do something together thats just for them, like having a laugh, or playing a board game, or playing petanque, playing cards, anything. We can just relax with each other. A tough day for a firefighter usually means dealing with tragedy and as Reece, the newest member of the crew (and therefore the one designated to be the photographers model for the afternoon) says, they want to limit their familys exposure to the emotional burdens of the job. Rotorua firefighter Reece Jordan. Photo / Andrew Warner. Its their load to bear. But they know, especially in recent years, that they can open up to their work family. Des says its always obvious when the burden is feeling especially heavy. He is proud of how much more open the firefighters have become with each other. We have a family here, and we have a family at home, Des says. We know when its affected us. We can see it. We can feel it. Were a small group of people who do incredible feats that, for our number, we shouldnt be able to achieve. Thats why we have a brotherhood, the women included. Thats what gets us through it, because were always with each other. And, of course, theres the dark humour they all share. Des says dark humour builds resilience. Its always been a part of working with the emergency services and its necessary to reduce stress. Thats quite an important part, JF agrees. We give each other shit and receive it. As Des says, Out that door we become individuals but when we walk in here we become a team. What makes you stay? Its the question thats been in the back of my mind throughout our discussion. Given everything theyve shared, everything they deal with, what makes them stay? Camaraderie, says JF, to nods around the room. That, and a drive to make a difference in their community. We have that thing inside of us where we all just want to help, HN says. Gary agrees. Its a sense of duty, to serve. Im really proud of that. I serve my community. Its the feeling of helping someone and making a difference. Des says firefighting is a hard job, but one to be proud of. We have smiles on our faces because we havent just talked the talk, weve walked the walk. I couldnt be any more proud. It does take its toll on the guys, but its a passion. Each firefighter had been in a situation when they realised this isnt going to get better, Des says. But we made that choice right from the beginning. It has shit moments but its a brilliant job. -Rotorua Daily Post Smart Photovoltaic Systems SL Malaga Friday, 7 June 2024, 14:13 Opciones para compartir Copiar enlace WhatsApp Facebook X (antes Twitter) LinkedIn Telegram Threads Before deciding to install a photovoltaic system, many people ask themselves what actually happens to the electricity produced by a PV system when the sun is not shining. After all, there are around 320 days of sunshine a year in southern Spain. Nevertheless, the sun doesn't shine at night, therefore, no electricity can be generated by a PV system. One solution to the problem is to install a battery to store surplus electricity generated so that it can be released when the solar system is unable to produce. When installing a physical battery, the purchase price should be taken into account as the expense must be included in the PV system cost-benefit calculation. Nevertheless, the prices for solar modules, inverters and physical batteries have fallen in recent months. And with a physical storage unit, you are always safe, even in the event of a power cut. In addition to the physical battery, there is now another solution: the virtual battery. The surplus electricity generated is decentralised as credit in a cloud. One advantage of the cloud solution is that the surplus electricity generated is no longer fed into the electricity grid for a fee, which is still low, but is converted into a credit balance that can be used when your own system is not producing electricity. Additionally, with the virtual battery, the credit for the surplus electricity can be used from one month to the next or from one year to the next. The surplus from a powerful PV system can also be used for a second home. This also makes a PV system interesting for clients who are only in Spain for three to six months of the year. When the property is empty, the electricity generated is converted into credit, which can be accessed and consumed when the property is actually being used. Another advantage of the virtual battery is that, unlike the physical battery, it does not require any investment. One disadvantage, however, is that with a virtual battery there is no power in the event of a night-time power cut. The company Smart Photovoltaic Systems S.L, from Alhaurin de la Torre, has been synonymous for many years with high-quality German-made photovoltaic systems and can advise you on all matters relating to the installation of a PV system. Company owner Frank Weiss will be happy to discuss the storage options and will provide you with a non-binding quote for a suitable solar-energy system for your home or commercial premises. Tony Bryant Torremolinos Friday, 7 June 2024, 14:09 Opciones para compartir Copiar enlace WhatsApp Facebook X (antes Twitter) LinkedIn Telegram Threads The name and image of John Lennon has a special connection to Torremolinos; the Beatle visited the town twice during the 1960s and even mentioned it in his memoirs. It is for this reason that in 2013 the town hall recognised the musician with a street name, Calle John Lennon, which is located in the Los Alamos district. Since then, Lennon has been honoured with two murals to highlight his apparent liking for the town, one of which looks over the Plaza Costa del Sol; the other is in Pasaje Begona and depicts Lennon from the psychedelic era of the late 1960s. Sadly, little documented evidence exists of his time in Torremolinos, yet he was there. The first time was in 1963, when he was taken as a birthday treat by Beatles' manager Brian Epstein. Some authors suggest that Lennon had some kind of sexual relationship with Epstein (who was homosexual), or that the latter certainly had feelings for the young musician. Lennon would later write in his memoirs that he would accompany Epstein to a cafe, believed to have been the Bar Central (which no longer exists), where they would sit and watch the handsome Spanish guys passing through Plaza Costa del Sol. "I asked him which of them he liked and I enjoyed his answers like a writer who is experiencing a reality that is not his own," Lennon wrote. Zoom Street named after the musician. Tony Bryant It was during this visit that the pair are said to have enjoyed drinks in Shelagh's Bar, one of the liveliest venues in Torremolinos during the 1960s. The bar's owner, Shelagh Tennant, was an acquaintance of Epstein during the early 1960s, as she was one of the team involved in bringing The Beatles to Spain for the first time. The second time Lennon headed to Torremolinos was while filming Richard Lester's satirical movie, How I Won the War, which was partly shot in Almeria in 1966. Almeria city hall erected a bronze statue of Lennon in Avenida Federico Garcia Lorca in 2007, although it is now in Plaza de las Flores. Eugenio Cabezas y Jennie Rhodes Riogordo Friday, 7 June 2024, 19:07 | Updated 20:12h. Opciones para compartir Copiar enlace WhatsApp Facebook X (antes Twitter) LinkedIn Telegram Threads Fabiola Gavilan was a young resident of Riogordo in the Axarquia area east of Malaga province. She was only 19 years old when she died of leukaemia on 19 May 1994. She was in the first year of her nursing degree and a great fan of writing poems and reading literature. Since her death her two older siblings, Juan and Victoria, have made sure that her name and memory live on. Now the town hall is to name a street after her. Calle Cabo Puente is to be changed to Calle Poetisa Fabiola Gavilan, where the family's home is located. In addition, a plaque will be placed there in her memory, as Fabiola's brother, Juan Gavilan, told SUR. "For us it is a great source of pride and emotion that on the 30th anniversary of her death, the town hall has unanimously approved this recognition, which has been supported by 16 associations and entities in the area," said Gavilan, who invited residents, friends and family to attend the ceremony which will take place on 15 June at 11.30am. Fabiola will also be posthumously named a 'favourite daughter' of Riogordo later in the year. "She was a brilliant writer, she loved the poetry of Miguel Hernandez, Federico Garcia Lorca and Gustavo Adolfo Becquer", recalled Gavilan, who pointed out that a few years after her death an anthology of her work, entitled Tu Memoria, was published, with 40 of her poems about love and silence. The work is now to be republished according to Juan. Since 1996 a literary competition has been held at the Alta Axarquia secondary school in Periana, where Fabiola was a student and in 2016 the school library was named after her. Much-loved and remembered by all the residents of Riogordo, Fabiola took part in Riogordo's Passion Play every Easter for 12 years. Juan, who works in the social services department of Riogordo town hall, said he was "delighted" with the literary competition, which aims to promote values such as solidarity, and with the "involvement" that, after almost 30 years, the teachers and pupils of the Periana secondary school continue to show. "They all know her verses," he pointed out. Zoom Fabiola on a trip to London in the 1990s. SUR During her lifetime Fabiola won first prize in the Youth Literary Anthology competition, held in Velez-Malaga, with the poem Porque No Son Misos (Because they are not mine). Juan told SUR in English that Fabiola was also an excellent language student and was awarded two grants to study English in London in 1992 and again in 1993. "The grants were awarded to students who had excellent grades," Juan recalled, adding that his sister, "always got top marks". He concluded that she went during the summer holidays and "always came back delighted" with her experience in the city. The St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Church hosts its 51st annual Greek Cultural Festival this weekend in Syracuse, continuing the lively celebrations each day through Sunday, June 9. Hundreds of families and church volunteers welcome the greater Central New York community to the East Side church to share traditional Greek cuisine, dancing and culture at the festival. The extensive Greek menu includes lamb, moussaka and chicken dinners, souvlaki, gyro, Greek salad, dolmades, pastichio, spanakopita, baklava, thousands of loukoumathes (fried Greek honey puffs), and more. (See a glossary below if youre unfamiliar with some of these Greek names.) One new specialty item this year was a booth just for the $9 saganaki (pan-seared fried cheese). The chefs flambee the cheese right before serving, yelling Opa! as the high flames turn heads. People lined up for piping hot orders of Loukoumathes (fried Greek honey puffs) at the St. Sophia's Greek Cultural Festival in Syracuse on Thursday, June 6, 2024. (Katrina Tulloch | ktulloch@syracuse.com)This is CNY Under another tent, John Potamianos of Jamesville grilled up hundreds of meat skewers with a group of Greek gentlemen, laughing and chatting with customers and each other. Its the hottest job at the festival, handling sizzling grills on a warm day, but they didnt mind one bit. We have a lot of fun with it, said Potamianos, whos been active in the church since childhood. The camaraderie is important. We talk family updates, we drink beer, were all really close. Its well worth it to see the smiles on everyones faces. Then we hang out after and eat. Nearby, a new generation of Greek grill masters emerged. Thomas Anthis flipped gyro slices on a griddle with his 6-year-old son, James. Ive been doing this since I was a kid, said Thomas. Now its his turn. At the St. Sophia's Greek Cultural Festival, Thomas Anthis flips gyro slices on a grill with his 6-year-old son, James. Oh, Ive been doing this since I was a kid, said Thomas. Now its his turn. Thursday, June 6, 2024. (Katrina Tulloch)This is CNY Live Greek music and dance performances take place under the outdoor tent. Attendees can also tour the churchs iconography project and shop for clothing, jewelry, and books in the Greek marketplace. The festival continues on Friday, June 7, 5-10 p.m.; Saturday, June 8, 12-10 p.m.; and Sunday, June 9, 12-4 p.m. at the church at 325 Waring Rd. in DeWitt. The event has free admission and free parking. (Youll want to get there early for a spot in the main lot.) Complimentary shuttles are available from neighboring parking lots. More information is available by phone: 315-446-5222 or at syracusegreekfest.com. If you go: Heres a sampling of some of the delicious Greek foods and pastries youll find at the Greek Cultural Festival:. Souvlaki: Skewered meat (lamb or chicken) Moussaka: Layered vegetables (eggplant & potatoes, ground beef with bechamel sauce Pastichio: Layered macaroni, ground beef with bechamel sauce Loukaniko: Greek sausages, ground pork and beef with orange zest and seasonings Gyro: (pronounced year-owe) Gyro means circling or going round in Greek. This is beef and lamb cooked in a rotating manner, served with tomatoes, onions, and tzatziki (yogurt sauce) in pita bread. Vegetarian Platter: Fasolia (Gigante or butter beans in tomato sauce), feta, eggplant dip, dolmades, Kalamata olives, tzatziki (yogurt-based) sauce, and flat bread. Pitas: Phyllo dough filled with either cheese or cheese and spinach stuffing. Dolmades: Stuffed grape leaves. Veggie Wraps: Tomatoes, onion and tzatziki sauce in pita bread. Baklava: The ultimate Greek pastry! Layer upon layer of buttered pastry leaves with ground walnuts, cinnamon and sugar topped with syrup. Kourambiethes: Butter cookies sprinkled with powered sugar. Bougatsa: Layers of pastry leaves, with custard centers, topped with pastry leaves and syrup. Koulourakia: Braided butter cookie. More Central New York events in June: Whats new at Taste of Syracuse? Kimbap, agua fresca, spooky lemonade and more Syracuse Juneteenth returns to Clinton Square with food, music and cultural events Downtown Syracuse Farmers Market sets dates for 2024 Everything you need to know about Taste of Syracuse 2024: food samples, music, map By Watertown Daily Times Sackets Harbor, N.Y. A program on the rich cultural Haudenosaunee art traditions of raised beadwork, corn husk doll-making and storytelling will be hosted by the Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Sites Battlefield Alliance. The workshops, a display and presentations are June 14 and 15. Internationally recognized presenters Dolores Elliott and Seneca Nation member Ronnie Reitter will share Haudenosaunee traditions, bringing a wealth of knowledge, experience, and creativity to the workshops. Reitter is a world-renowned specialist who will lead two workshops teaching how to make a traditional cornhusk doll. Cornhusk doll making today connects to Native American culture and the arts. Creating a cornhusk doll is enriched by the No Face Doll legend explaining the dolls use and purpose. Reitter is a sought after presenter with programs she does at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Elliott, who also will lead two workshops: making a traditional velvet beaded strawberry ornament. She draws upon the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora Nation traditional craft of raised beadwork. Her career spans over 50 years in archaeology, publishing, and work with Native American artists. She directs the Iroquois Studies Association Inc., and for 25 years coordinated the Otsiningo Pow-Wow, organized the first International Iroquois Beadwork Conference now held annually, published 20 books on beadwork and owns over 2,700 beadwork examples, making her a very knowledgeable presenter. Her background in archaeology and beadwork research will broaden the workshop participants experience, as well as those at the concluding open house on Saturday morning. Elliotts Power Point on 225 years of Iroquois beadwork will continuously show at the workshops and open house. According to the New York State Museum, historically, Haudenosaunee sold their elaborate creations at popular tourist destinations, such as Saratoga Springs, the New York State Fair and Niagara Falls. Their work features intricately beaded ornaments, pincushions, card holders, wall pockets, picture frames, and other keepsakes that reflect Haudenosaunee ingenuity and aesthetic. At 7 p.m. June 14, the free The Origin of Stories also known as The Storytelling Stone will be hosted. Reitter will tell the tale of an orphan boy who goes out hunting and discovers a stone that tells stories. The Haudenosaunee traditionally told such tales in winter around fires in longhouses, mixing mythic with the everyday. The session is at the historic sites pavilion off Hill Street. Guets are invited to bring a lawn chair. In case of rain, the session will be at the Old Union Hotel building. From 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, June 15 Discovering Traditional Raised Beadwork and Cornhusk Arts: The collections of Dolores Elliott and Ronnie This session will be hosted at the Union Hotel, free admission. Concluding this rare opportunity to experience Haudenosaunee art traditions Elliott and Reitter will display selections from their extensive collections of traditional raised beadwork and cornhusk objects. The battlefield site is also hosting the Smithsonians Voices and Votes: Democracy in America traveling exhibit and the locally produced Sackets Harbor in the North Country exhibit that includes Haudenosaunee womens influence on Suffragists. ___ (c)2024 Watertown Daily Times (Watertown, N.Y.) Visit Watertown Daily Times (Watertown, N.Y.) at www.watertowndailytimes.com By Jessica Schladebeck | New York Daily News (TNS) Robert Persichitti, a World War II veteran from New York who witnessed the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima, died as he traveled to France for an event marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day, a veterans organization confirmed. He was 102. Perischitti, a decorated Navy vet, served as a radioman aboard the USS Eldorado in the Pacific during WWII, according to his bio on the New York State Senate Veterans Hall of Fame website. His tours of duty included the Pacific theater, Okinawa, Guam and Iwo Jima, where he bore witness to one of the global conflicts most poignant moments. Perishcitti, whod been living in Fairport, New York, was traveling with a group linked to the National World War II Museum and companion Al DeCarlo, WHEC 10 reported. They were headed to France to commemorate D-Day, the turning point of WWII, but he suffered a medical emergency on May 30 as they sailed toward Normandy. He was airlifted to a hospital in Germany, where he died the next day. Honor Flight a nonprofit established to help veterans attend war memorials and events confirmed his death, saying he had served his country bravely without hesitation. While his cause of death was not clear, Persichitti did have a history of heart problems. Prior to his travels, he told WROC-TV his cardiologist encouraged him to make the journey. Im really excited to be going, he said. DeCarlo said Perishcitti died peacefully while doctors played some of his favorite Frank Sinatra tunes. He was not alone, he was at peace and he was comfortable, DeCarlo told the news outlet. Perishcitti was among the U.S. troops who witnessed the raising of the American flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima on Feb. 19, 1945. I was on the deck, he told Stars and Stripes in a 2019 interview upon his return to region. When I got on the island today, I just broke down. Following the war, Persichitti became a public school teacher in Rochester. When he retired, he visited schools to speak with students about the war. _____ 2024 New York Daily News Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Update at 9:25 a.m. Friday: The Fulton City School District has announced it will allow empty chairs to be placed at graduation this year in honor of three students who lost their lives. Superintendent Brian Pulvino sent a letter to the Fulton school community this morning walking back its earlier decision to exclude the empty chairs from the graduation ceremony. It is evident that, while not a part of our policy, many members of our school community also wish to have the students remembered by placing a chair for them at the ceremony, Pulvino wrote this morning. The original story is below: Fulton, N.Y. Riley Niver thought leaving a seat empty in memory of her triplet brother at graduation was a given. She said shes been thinking about it ever since a horrific crash killed her brother, Brady Niver and his girlfriend Rylee Bartlett, juniors at G. Ray Bodley High School, just days from their first prom together in May 2023. Saving seats for classmates who have died has been done at other schools and its been done at the Fulton high school, Riley said. School officials had told the family last summer an empty seat would be left at graduation, her mom said. But the family said they learned this week there will be no empty chair memorials. Instead, school officials say theyll honor Brady and Rylee in other ways at the graduation ceremony on June 14. Fulton school Superintendent Brian Pulvino told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard Thursday night that the students would be recognized with flowers, a moment of silence and diploma covers presented during the ceremony acts allowed under new school policy adopted since the crash in which the district limits what students can do in memory of students who died. Were taking a look at other things that we may put in place, Pulvino said. We want to make sure were creating an environment where all of our kids feel safe, secure. Some kids may react differently to those kind of things. Were trying to create a policy thats very consistent. The new policy reads memorials established should aid in the healing process and should not glamorize the death, nor be an ongoing visual reminder of the death. During an honors ceremony Wednesday night, the family was told by Principal Nathan Murray that thered be no empty chair memorials at graduation in memory of Brady, Rylee or Isaac Bartleman, a classmate who died in 2020. Heather Niver, Bradys mother, said Thursday night she was told last summer by school officials that the students would be honored at graduation and that would include empty seats in their memory. I took them at their word at the beginning of the year when they said we could have the empty chairs, she said. Instead, she said, she was told they would call her sons name and she could go walk up and get his diploma and cap and gown. Thats not enough, she said. For Brady, his family wanted to place on his seat his picture, flowers, wrestling shoes and his favorite wrestling snacks Nerds Gummy Clusters and Jolly Rancher gummies. Brady, who wrestled for the school, used to practice new wrestling moves on his unsuspecting parents and sisters. For Rylee, the plan was to leave her favorite books, flowers and something Harry Styles-themed on chair. But on Wednesday, Heather Niver said she was told that school officials think the seats could be too triggering for some students. The Nivers said theyve heard that before. On the first day of school this year, Riley and her sister Reese hung posters with Bradys message: Be Kind. Be Strong. Be Determined. Be a Champion. #BradyStrong. But they were taken down because students could get emotional seeing them, Riley and Reese said the school principal told them. The posters violated the policy adopted by the school board in January. The policy allows temporary memorials to stay up until the day of the funeral, but no longer than a week after the death, prohibits memorial acknowledgements from yearbooks and does not allow school-wide recognition of anniversaries. For graduations, the policy allows a flower display to represent all members of a class who died, a moment of silence and the presentation of students diploma covers to parents. Other memorial activities, outside of ones expressed individually, are not allowed, according to the policy. A poster Riley and Reese Niver hung for their late brother Brady in G. Ray Bodley High School. The posters were taken down because the school felt they could be too triggering for students, Riley and Reese said.Reese Niver The school and entire community rallied in support of both families after the crash just before the prom in 2023. Vigils were held. A photo taken from the air shows the students at the school forming a big heart. This school year, sisters of Brady and Rylee joined the school wrestling team in memory of their siblings. Related 2 Fulton girls, linked by tragedy and sport, fight through the grief: I am closest to him when Im wrestling Memorials for Brady and Rylee were placed in school display cases. They were removed at the end of the school year and havent been allowed back up, despite requests from the Nivers, Heather said. Those decisions aimed at protecting students have done more harm than good, Riley said. Theres nothing of our brother and one of our best friends at our school, and we cant do anything about it, she said. It just hurts us. It feels like theyre trying to ignore them and erase them. Zoey Kerr, a senior, said she and her classmates dont understand why their friends cant be honored with empty chairs, as originally promised. We were deeply affected by their deaths, and they should be honored at graduation, she told syracuse.com Friday morning. They should all be here at graduation, and our class wants this for them. Some teachers and many seniors have expressed their support that seats be saved for Brady, Rylee and Isaac at graduation, Riley said. A Facebook post in which Reese said she would not walk at graduation unless the school reconsiders its decision has been shared more than 5,200 times. Were hoping they take a step back... and see that this can be a good thing, a teachable moment and a life lesson, Heather said. Its not an empty chair. Were representing and honoring young lives that were lost too soon. Staff writer Fernando Alba covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, story idea, question or comment? Reach him at falba@syracuse.com. The future of the historic Peace Church in Hampden Township may hinge on a vote that could be taken later this month by the state General Assembly. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has approved the transfer of ownership of Peace Church from the state to the congregation of the Good Shepherd Anglican Church in Harrisburg, said Janice Lynx, executive director of the West Shore Historical Society. PHMC has also approved draft language for the act of the Legislature required to transfer state owned property, Lynx said. This means that the bill can come before the legislature at any time. The only thing stopping the transfer now is if our elected officials vote against the act, she said. We have been in contact with all of them. State position The West Shore Historical Society is part of a coalition of local historical societies and historians who are trying to lobby state lawmakers to pressure museum commission to reconsider its position on the building at 200 St. Johns Church Road. Recently, coalition members launched a campaign to alert the public to the commissions plan and to collect signatures on petitions to forward to legislators in Harrisburg, Lynx said. In February 2020, The Sentinel reported that the commission wanted to transfer ownership to a local government or nonprofit organization with the goal of keeping the property in the public domain as a museum or historic site. At the time, the state agency decided to move Peace Church off its property rolls because it was determined the building has no statewide historical significance. Coalition members are challenging that assessment. We believe that initial decision was a mistake, Lynx said last week. There is plenty of history to suggest that Peace Church not only has statewide, but national significance, she said. Built in 1798, the church played a role during the 1863 invasion of Pennsylvania by the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. In March 1972, the building was designated a national historic landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Wear and tear We have nothing against the congregation from Harrisburg, Lynx said. I just feel they got caught up in this. I dont blame them for wanting to own the church. But we believe the best interest of the church is to keep it in state hands. We have concerns about the future not directed specifically at this congregation, she said. With anybody who is going to come in and start to use the church on a regular basis, there is going to be considerable wear and tear on the various historic features. Its like using a museum for other purposes. Right now, the church is only open on limited occasions that are curated by a Friends group to minimize the buildings exposure to damage, Lynx said. Good Shepherd plans to use it for services as their house of worship. I think they have great intentions, but theyre not an historical group. Lynx said Peace Church was donated to the state in 1969 by a religious congregation that could not afford to maintain the building. The Friends group has maintained the building since 1975. As the coalition sees it, turning over ownership to another congregation is taking a step backward, Lynx said. We have offered to work with the Friends to make them a more robust organization by taking some of the financial strain off them. If given time, we will try to form a consortium of owners, so its not on any one organization. Congregation concept On May 25, Father Ricky McCarl, vicar of Good Shepherd, posted a message on the Peace Church Preservation Facebook page. He said that his congregation is a parish of the Reformed Episcopal Church which meets at the chapel of the Zion Lutheran Church in Harrisburg. During my tenure at the parish, we have grown significantly and are now at the point that we need to seek a building of our own, McCarl said. Two years ago, I reached out to the PHMC about the possibility of using the Peace Church. Given that we worship in much the same way as the original inhabitants of the building it became apparent that the Peace Church was the perfect location for our parish. Since then, parish leaders have met with Hampden Township officials, the Cumberland County commissioners, state Sen. Greg Rothman and state Rep. Sheryl Delozier. We have spent thousands of dollars on planning a much-needed parking lot so that all people using the Peace Church can do so safely as well as update an existing heating system that does not work efficiently, McCarl said. He described it as a green parking lot that would provide spaces but would not be constructed of asphalt or concrete. The heating system will have minimal impact on the historical nature of the building, he said. Our goal, along with that of the PHMC, is to preserve the building and keep it available as a community resource, McCarl said. We hope to have the building open to the community as much as possible, which will be good for the building and for the church. It is my understanding that it is an unused building, not the used ones, which deteriorate faster. Keeping the church open as a community resource is a stipulation of the covenants attached to the deed, he said. These covenants are very restrictive and exist to make sure that the building is maintained in perpetuity. We will not be able to make any changes without the commonwealths permission nor will we be able to sell the property in the future. Our worship is ancient, McCarl said. Much more so than the building itself. We dont use light shows, fog machines or overhead projectors. Like the Lutherans and German Reformed Church before us. Word and sacrament are the focal point. We believe firmly that the future of the Historic Peace Church is bright and that it will stand as a testimony to the past for decades to come. Syracuse, N.Y. Shawn Cathcart was approached by a security guard in a Syracuse parking lot Thursday morning about a strange noise coming from his truck. Your truck is meowing, the person said. I think there is a cat under your hood. Syracuse, N.Y. Syracuse University wants to knock down a vacant former fraternity house that was part of its recent $143 million real estate buying spree, but a city board wants to take a harder look at the propertys long history. The Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board last week decided theres enough historical integrity left at 727 Comstock Ave. to determine if it should be a protected site, a status that would stymie the universitys demolition plan. By David Matthews | New York Daily News The Burlington, Vermont, Police Department issued an apology on Thursday after staging a mock mass shooting during a high school field trip. The ordeal terrorized the students and even left some injured, according to local outlet Seven Days. The incident took place Wednesday at the Burlington police station as roughly 20 students were watching a presentation on how detectives solve crimes, when suddenly they heard screams from behind them. A masked gunman then burst into the room and started firing fake rounds, leading the teens to duck for cover as loud gunshot noises filled the room. The students said they were not told about drill beforehand. Im shaking and crying because Im like, Oh my god, Im gonna get shot. It felt so real, one Burlington High School student told Seven Days, adding that she texted her mother, believing she was on the verge of being killed. Another student scraped her knee while diving for cover. The students said they eventually realized the incident was fake when they noticed the cops in the room werent trying to stop the shooter. In an email sent to parents, teachers said they didnt know the drill would happen abruptly without warning. They added the officers had assured them theyd performed the drill which they wanted to be as realistic as possible before with college students and adults. The detectives did apologize after they realized that the reenactment did not translate well to high school students, the teachers wrote. On Thursday, the police department told Seven Days the realistic demonstration was meant to depict a robbery scenario and be part of a lesson on witness fallibility. They added the school district had approved the drill ahead of time. However, the department apologized to any students who were upset by the specific scenario and crime scene portion of the presentation. Im baffled, one outraged mother told the outlet. It is a very real threat to kids these days to have a school shooting. 2024 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years.TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust Forward-looking: DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0 storage solutions have pushed consumer hardware to unprecedented speeds since their introduction with the latest motherboards. At Computex 2024, Patriot demonstrated how it leveraged this technology for bleeding-edge products, including a partnership with MSI to achieve a record-breaking RAM overclock. Patriot's booth at Computex showcased the company's new ultra-fast RAM and SSD, both reaching the highest speed tiers of their respective categories. The memory modules set new records for consumer RAM. Patriot collaborated with MSI to unveil the Viper Xtreme 5 RGB DDR5 MPower series. Under normal operation, the RAM modules can reach up to 8,000 MT/s typical of DDR5. However, overclocking pushes the ECC RDIMM modules to an unprecedented 11,500 MT/s. MSI supplied an all-silver aluminum heat spreader to control thermals at those speeds, and the EZ Dashboard overclocking utility for timing and voltage management. For comparison, G.Skill and Asus worked together to overclock a DDR5 kit to 10,000 MT/s in 2022 but could only achieve the feat through settings unlikely to see real-world use. Patriot claims the new precedent in RAM speed will help with video editing, AI, workloads, and gaming. However, most high-end games can still run optimally on DDR4 memory, which remains much cheaper and supports a wider range of motherboards. Still, JEDEC is pushing further with DDR6, which is still deep in development. The upcoming standard won't reach consumers for a while but might enable speeds up to 21,000 MT/s. Meanwhile, Patriot also showcased the Viper PV573 PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD at Computex. It supports read speeds of up to 14 GB/s and write speeds of up to 12 GB/s. While other PCIe 5.0 drives have hit similar speeds, 14 GB/s remains at the absolute cutting edge. Notably, Patriot didn't display a gargantuan cooler, which other SSDs exceeding 10 GB/s have needed to avoid severe throttling. At last year's Computex, Adata showed a 14 GB/s SSD that required a liquid cooling solution which dwarfed the main unit. Patriot's real achievement might be maintaining top-end speeds with a more reasonably sized heatsink. The company has yet to disclose pricing and release details, but the PV573 will be available in capacities up to 4TB. A DRAMless model for mobile devices the PD573 reaches the same speeds with sizes up to 16TB. The Viper Xtreme 5 RAM will support configurations of up to 48 GB. In brief: Taiwanese power management company Delta unveiled some fascinating R&D work that shows Wi-Fi networks may soon be able to monitor our vital signs. At the Computex trade show in Taipei this week, Dr. Tzi-cker Chiueh from Delta's research center demonstrated how their algorithms can detect breathing rates and even heartbeats just by analyzing disruptions in Wi-Fi signals. It turns out that the channel state in modern Wi-Fi is quite sensitive to tiny movements and environmental changes. By precisely measuring the time of flight and angle of arrival of Wi-Fi signals bouncing around a room, Delta has crafted algorithms that can track breathing with great precision. As reported by The Register, Chiueh claims their breathing rate estimation algorithm achieves 95% accuracy in measuring breathing rates over 5 meters. Even the tiny movements from a heartbeat can be spotted, with 83% accuracy in calculating pulse rates from up to one meter away. He showed a video of an experiment where the tech could distinguish sleep states for two people by their breathing patterns and body movements using nothing but Wi-Fi waves fired from a pair of smartphones. It'd be revolutionary if this sort of tech arrived on smartphones to possibly do away with the need for wearables for basic health tracking. Google took a stab at 'contactless' health tracking with its Pixel smartphones, but it was a tad clunky, requiring the user to record a small clip of themselves to measure breathing and heartbeat. Perhaps Wi-Fi may help streamline this process. However, Dr. Chiueh seems to be casting a wider net with the technology. He suggested Wi-Fi access points could be used to monitor patients in hospitals or elderly residents in care homes, without needing dedicated biomedical sensors or ECG equipment. Kids and pets being left in cars during sweltering heat is another widespread problem that this technology can potentially detect. Beyond healthcare and safety, Delta believes their Wi-Fi analysis could optimize network performance in challenging environments like warehouses by detecting physical changes that may be degrading signals. By automatically adjusting access point configurations, they aim to achieve throughput rivaling private 5G deployments. The keynote also touched on Delta's other forward-looking projects enabled by advances in AI and machine learning. These include automated 3D modeling to help drones inspect infrastructure like bridges without GPS, generating an expanded set of test scenarios for self-driving cars beyond what can be reasonably simulated by hand, and even training robots to navigate environments like using elevators. As of now, no solid timelines have been provided on when or if these nascent projects might turn into real products, but the demo alone deserves credit. Google's newest feature can now help users contact 911 more efficiently and conveniently, as it can directly share important details with responders, such as pictures, location, and videos. Google stated that the service is especially valuable when victims cannot contact the police, fire department, or paramedics by phone. It has partnered with emergency technology startup RapidSOS to launch the critical service. RapidSOS announced that RCS-based text-to-911 will be made free of charge to all 911 agencies across the United States. In a joint statement made on Thursday, the duo also announced that the option to text 911 with RCS (rich communication services) will be available to US emergency call centers this winter. Using RCS to reach first responders directly confirms the delivery of the user's emergency request and shows users whether emergency personnel are actively responding to their communications. Furthermore, the ability to communicate high-resolution photographs and videos will help first responders better understand the emergency scenario. People may also share their exact position automatically via the Android emergency location service, which can help shorten emergency response time. Read Also : Experts Call for 911 Systems Modernization After Multistate Outage Apple's 911 Contacting Features According to sources, the disclosure comes only days before Apple anticipates introducing RCS support for iOS 18. It is expected to be the "biggest" iPhone upgrade in the company's history. Apple surprised everyone in October last year by announcing that RCS functionality would arrive on iPhones this year. These new 911 features are not the first of their kind, as new and better options to contact emergency services have long been a significant feature in most devices. Apple Watch Fall Detection Most notably, Apple Watch's fall detection automatically contacts 911 if certain conditions are met. One user was particularly thankful after the watch saved his life by calling 911 during an accident. A Midtown West real estate broker, Eric Zollinger recalled his harrowing encounter while riding a Citi Bike home from work amid a heavy rainstorm. His bike became wedged in a water-filled pothole, causing him to collapse onto the pavement. Despite his face and knee injuries, Zollinger took his bike home to check the damage. His nose began bleeding a lot as he was showering, causing dizziness, collapsing, and hitting the tub. To his surprise, Zollinger awoke to a 911 operator speaking to him via his Apple Watch, which had automatically called 911 and alerted his emergency contacts to his location. When Zollinger fell in the shower, the Apple Watch's fall detection function alerted him to help. Despite being hospitalized, scans found no shattered bones, thus he was discharged. Zollinger appreciates his Apple Watch's fall detection feature for preventing more injury despite bruising and swelling. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, falls are the leading cause of injury-related fatalities among those 65 and older. Because of this risk, fall detection systems, such as the one on the Apple Watch, are popular. These technologies can assist older people in seeking emergency medical treatment, but they cannot prevent or detect all falls. Germany's electricity was reportedly generated by renewable sources in the first quarter of 2024, with 58.4% being contributed by sustainable options, setting a new record. Germany generated a staggering 121.5 billion kilowatt hours from renewables, representing an 11.6% rise over the previous year. Meanwhile, fossil-fuel power generation fell by 25.4%, accounting for only 41.6% of Germany's total energy production. Wind power made a significant contribution, providing an additional 5 billion kilowatt-hours, a 12% increase over last year. It currently accounts for 38.5% of the country's electricity. Solar power also had a tremendous increase, growing by 1.4 billion kilowatt hours, or 21%. It currently accounts for 6.6% of Germany's electricity. The country aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2023 by a minimum of 65% compared to 1990 levels. It has set intermediate goals of reducing emissions by 88% by 2040 and achieving net zero by 2045. However, sources suggest that more actions must be taken to reduce greenhouse gases in the transport and infrastructure sectors, which failed to meet their emissions targets in 2023. Renewable energy sources continue to be promoted worldwide, including one of the most recent advances coming from China. China's Development of Green Energy A solar project in the republic situated in the barren landscape of Xinjiang, the 5GW complex boasts 200,000 acres of coverage and is connected to China's grid. It is purportedly capable of supplying power to a small country like Luxembourg or Papua Guinea. China already views itself as a leader in solar power adoption, with a goal to increase capacity by more than 50% by 2023. The new solar farm outperforms the preceding Ningxia Teneggeli and Golmud Wutumeiren solar projects. Surprisingly, both of these areas are also in China. With many countries adopting solar power, China is committed to achieving an "extraordinary" achievement in renewable energy. According to sources, China's new renewable capacity accounts for over 60% of the total. The nation intends to have it operational by 2028. Meanwhile, Longi Green Energy Technology, a major participant, estimated that solar panels in Chinese residences are sufficient to power the whole country and Southeast Asia. Specialists are only concerned about the fabrication of solar panels in China. According to them, such large numbers may result in trade conflicts caused by overcapacity. US Lags on Renewable Energy Adoption While both Germany and China are setting new records in terms of renewable energy sources, the United States is reportedly falling behind, primarily due to its preference for gas over cleaner alternatives. According to Ember's annual global electricity assessment, the United States is seeing a drop in the usage of fossil fuel-fired power facilities, implying that electricity output and greenhouse gas emissions may peak in 2023. In an email, Ember's insights director, Dave Jones, stated that decreasing power sector emissions is now unavoidable. He cited 2023 as a watershed period in energy history, signaling a crucial turning point. Jones did, however, underline that the improvement rate depends on the continuous momentum of the renewable revolution. SpaceX is marking June 6 as a historic day in its calendar. The Starship's fourth test flight saw massive successes, which made the Stainless Steel rocket a step closer to its goals. The frequent updates from SpaceX and Elon Musk showed massive glee over this recent feat of the Starship, with both the booster and the rocket making successful landing splashdowns. The only difference between its other rockets and this test flight is that it did not attempt a landing on its autonomous drone ships, but Musk and SpaceX have different plans for a future venture. SpaceX Starship Finds Success in 4th Test Flight SpaceX shared a milestone in its fourth test flight of the Starship, with the company sharing that the Stainless Steel rocket delivered on its latest launch. Its early June plans to launch the Starship commenced earlier today at the Starbase launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas. This mission was the farthest the rocket went, demonstrating its capabilities to return to the planet. According to SpaceX's official release, the Super Heavy achieved a full-duration ascent burn to propel the booster rocket and Starship to the skies. Additionally, it saw a successful hot-stage separation. The Super Heavy also successfully performed a flip maneuver as it prepared to return to the planet. It ended with a landing burn before splashing down into the Gulf of Mexico. Reusable Rocket, Booster Lands Triumphantly Starship reached its target in space before positioning itself for re-entry. The stainless Steel rocket also saw a controlled re-entry faced with peak heating and max aerodynamic pressure phases. The rocket also demonstrated control in its re-entry using its flaps, performing its flip maneuver, and Starship reigniting its three Raptor engines before a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean after one hour and six minutes from its launch. Starship made a controlled reentry, successfully making it through the phases of peak heating and max aerodynamic pressure and demonstrating the ability to control the vehicle using its flaps while descending through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds pic.twitter.com/p8bC9UweLx SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 6, 2024 SpaceX Starship's Challenges in Tests The Starship was allowed to fly for the first time for its tests last April 2023, with the FAA giving it the license to proceed with its testing. However, it was not an entirely successful launch for SpaceX as Starship had not yet been flying for a long time before a massive explosion was seen, reducing both the Super Heavy and Starship to debris. Its second Starship test was done in November and ended abruptly for the company. SpaceX conducted Starship's third launch last March only. While it also ended with Starship getting lost in the process, it was considered a massive development for the rocket. The spacecraft was said to have a successful liftoff from Starbase, but it did not return as intended, losing Ship 28 in the Indian Ocean. After the many trials and tribulations, SpaceX faced with the Starship, especially with its prolonged development time during the early 2020s decade, which saw several successes and failures along the way. However, this June 6th launch for SpaceX broke the failure streak, seeing a successful test launch from start to end, with the Starship soon to be ready for bigger responsibilities. Meta, the owner of Facebook, allegedly failed to disclose crucial information to federal regulators during the original assessments of its Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions, according to a recent court filing by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Bloomberg reported that the tech giant acquired the photo-sharing app Instagram in 2012 and the WhatsApp messaging platform in 2014. The FTC scrutinized both transactions, with Instagram undergoing a more in-depth review and WhatsApp undergoing a shorter 30-day assessment. FTC Sues Meta Over Instagram and WhatsApp Acquisitions Over the years, the FTC has been criticized for its handling of these acquisitions. In 2020, the agency filed a lawsuit against Meta, accusing it of monopolizing the personal social networking sector by purchasing potential competitors. Meta, in response, has asked to dismiss the case, arguing that it has already made substantial investments in the apps and that the FTC should not be allowed to revoke its prior approval of the mergers. However, in its recent court filing, the FTC alleged that Meta withheld critical information during the original reviews, asserting that the case revolves around undisclosed documents possessed by Meta at the time. According to the FTC, Meta requested a limited review of the acquisitions, thus restricting the information available to regulators. The agency now claims to have access to a wealth of evidence, including documents predating the acquisitions that Meta did not provide in 2012 and 2014. Response of Meta to FTC's Claims Meta had maintained that it fulfilled all legal responsibilities during the merger reviews of Instagram and WhatsApp. A company spokesperson refuted the FTC's allegations, saying the agency failed to provide substantial evidence to support its claims. The spokesperson cited Meta's competitive landscape and the significant investments made in Instagram and WhatsApp, which, according to Meta, have ultimately benefited consumers by enhancing the functionality of these platforms. The most recent submission to the court reflects earlier accusations leveled against Meta. In 2017, European antitrust authorities levied a substantial penalty against Meta for providing inaccurate information concerning the WhatsApp acquisition. The FTC asserted that Meta has compromised the user experience across its platforms by intensifying the frequency of advertisements, especially on Instagram and Facebook. Additionally, the agency argued that Meta has not allocated adequate resources to foster innovation and improve features on Instagram. The legal proceedings are overseen by US District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, and as of now, there is no indication of when a ruling might be issued on Meta's motion to dismiss or when a trial date will be set. NASA and astronomers worldwide are eagerly awaiting a rare celestial event this summer as a nova explosion in the constellation Corona Borealis is expected to be visible from Earth. This event, which involves the "Blaze Star" or T Coronae Borealis (T CrB), has captured the attention of both professional and amateur stargazers. NASA, Astronomers Worldwide Waiting on Rare Nova Explosion According to NASA, T Coronae Borealis is a binary star system situated approximately 3,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Corona Borealis, also known as the Northern Crown. This system features a white dwarf, an Earth-sized stellar remnant with a mass similar to that of the sun, and a red giant star. The white dwarf siphons hydrogen from the red giant, causing an accumulation of pressure and heat on its surface. This buildup eventually triggers a thermonuclear explosion, leading to a nova. Unlike a supernova, which obliterates the star, a nova expels only the accumulated material, leaving the white dwarf intact and capable of repeating the cycle, according to Dr. Rebekah Hounsell, an assistant research scientist in NASA. The earliest recorded nova event of T CrB was in 1217, when Burchard of Ursberg, a German abbot, observed a dim star suddenly shining brightly. The most recent recorded eruption occurred in 1946. Based on historical patterns and recent observations that mirror those before the 1946 event, scientists anticipate the next explosion might happen by September 2024. Hounsell believed this event would spark a renewed interest in astronomy, particularly among young enthusiasts. She hoped it would motivate them to delve deeper into the cosmos and contribute to scientific research. Dr. Elizabeth Hays, the head of NASA Goddard's Astroparticle Physics Laboratory, was also excited. Hays is particularly enthusiastic about the collaboration between citizen scientists and NASA in observing the predicted explosion of T CrB. She emphasized the critical role of amateur astronomers in spotting and tracking celestial events. She said their contributions, often disseminated through social media and instant alerts, are invaluable to the professional scientific community. Read Also : NASA's 3D Instagram Project Features Breathtaking Nebulas Captured by Chandra Space Telescopes Set to Capture the Nova Explosion NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, along with other space-based missions like the James Webb Space Telescope and the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, will be engaged in monitoring the nova event. Ground-based instruments such as the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array in New Mexico will also participate. This coordinated approach aims to gather data across the entire light spectrum, from visible to non-visible wavelengths, providing a comprehensive understanding of the nova's dynamics. The upcoming nova event is a rare observational opportunity to advance the understanding of stellar processes. Gamma-ray imagers and X-ray polarization capabilities were unavailable during the last eruption in 1946. Now, astronomers can use these technologies to provide new data and insights. While there is no guarantee that T CrB will erupt as predicted, the possibility has excited both seasoned and aspiring astronomers. "This one will be really close, with a lot of eyes on it, studying the various wavelengths and hopefully giving us data to start unlocking the structure and specific processes involved. We can't wait to get the full picture of what's going on," Hays said in an official statement. Related Article : NASA Magellan Discovers Ongoing Volcanic Activity in Venus Two top Bangladeshi anti-terror police personnel are accused of selling classified and confidential citizen data to criminals using Telegram, according to a report. TechCrunch reported that the head of Bangladesh's National Telecommunications Monitoring Center, Brigadier General Mohammad Baker, wrote that the two police personnel sold national identifying details, mobile phone call logs, and other secret information. Bake noted that their department is investigating the cases and stressed that the Ministry of Home Affairs ordered penalizing the two violating police personnel. Suspects Sold Private Data for Profit According to the Bengali letter, dated April 28, to the senior secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs Public Security Division, the two police agents obtained and sold private individuals' Telegram data for profit. Investigators identified the agents by examining the NTMC's system records and noticing their frequent data access. One accused is a police superintendent with the Anti-Terrorism Unit (ATU), while the other is an assistant police superintendent deputy with the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB 6), which the U.S. sanctioned in 2021 for unlawful deaths and disappearances. The report has hid the accused's identities due to potential charges. The NTMC, under the Ministry of Home Affairs, monitors and intercepts communications to protect national security. Human Rights Watch and Freedom House have criticized it for missing privacy and free expression protections. The National Intelligence Platform (NIP) of the NTMC stores classified citizen data such as national IDs, mobile phone numbers, and criminal profiles. Several law enforcement agencies use this platform. The investigation determined that the implicated agents were more likely to access and gather useless data. The letter requests a comprehensive investigation to identify individuals involved and take necessary action. Baker said one Telegram group administrator tried to sell the data. While the investigation continues, ATU and RAB 6 users are prohibited from using NIP until the authorities are found and punished. Telegram: Scammers Paradise? Security company Guardio found that online criminals use Telegram, an encrypted messaging platform with over a billion downloads and 700 million monthly active users, to promote and sell third-party phishing kits. The cybersecurity platform said bad actors use Telegram to market phishing kits to steal Netflix, Spotify, Facebook, Citi, Capital One, and Bank of America logins. Telegram's affordable and accessible kits make it a "scammer's paradise," according to the research, PC Mag reported. Guardio observed that the phishing tools may deliver stolen data to the fraudster via Telegram and include phishing support groups. Hacker News first reported this. Moreover, the most complex Telegram phishing kits may construct bogus proxy pages that link to real websites, allowing fraudsters to overcome two-factor authentication and harvest victims' data. The popular messaging app is also being utilized by fraudsters to sell social media accounts, credit cards, and bank account logins, Guardio found. In light of these threats, Google offers some important tips to protect users' online data. the tech giant advises to install the most recent OS and updates, per Unbox. Updating devices protects against attacks by adding new security features. Moreover, Android users should enable Google Play Protect to protect their devices and data against fraudulent applications and behavior. Every Google account comes with a free password manager that helps generate, save, and manage safe passwords. Password Manager checks stored passwords for vulnerabilities and data breaches. Google also recommends running regular security checks with the Security Checkup tool to identify vulnerabilities across linked devices and third-party app access to improve online security. To avoid sharing unwanted data, users are advised to routinely check their data settings across all applications and accounts. Furthermore, Google suggests avoiding clicking questionable links. Yext, a New York-based software company specializing in online presence management, is reportedly exploring a potential sale following significant takeover interest (via Reuters). The company, which helps businesses manage their information across various online platforms, has faced mounting challenges in recent times, including declining revenue and increased competition. Yext Explores Sale Amidst Takeover Interest and Restructuring Efforts Yext's market value currently stands at approximately $600 million. However, the company's shares have lost more than half their value in the last year, reflecting a significant decline in revenue. This financial downturn has prompted the company to consider strategic alternatives, including a possible sale. In an effort to improve its financial standing and streamline operations, Yext recently announced a restructuring plan aimed at reducing its workforce by about 12% from its Jan 2024 headcount. The company expects to incur a cash charge of around $5 million, primarily for severance and related benefits, with most of the expenses expected in the second quarter of fiscal year 2025. CEO Michael Walrath communicated these changes to employees, emphasizing the company's efforts to align its operations with top software firms, enhance the customer experience, and drive innovation. In conjunction with the workforce reduction, Yext also announced significant changes to its executive team. Yvette Martinez-Rea has been appointed as the new Chief Operating Officer, while Chris Brownlee will now lead the Product team following the departure of Chief Product Officer Tzi-Kei Wong. Despite the challenging macroeconomic environment affecting many technology firms, Walrath expressed confidence in Yext's financial health, citing the company's solid cash balance, profitable operations, and lack of debt. In recent developments, Yext has launched a new Customer Success Program and introduced innovative updates to its product suite, improving efficiency and adapting to market conditions. Upcoming Earnings Report Yext is scheduled to report its quarterly earnings on Monday, a key event that investors and market analysts will closely watch. The outcome of this report could provide further insights into the company's financial health and future prospects, potentially influencing the deliberations on the possible sale. Founded in 2006, Yext has achieved several milestones over the years, including being ranked #60 on the Deloitte Fast 500 North America list in 2016 and being listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2017. In March 2022, founder Howard Lerman stepped down as CEO, succeeded by Michael Walrath. In Other News Cybercriminals are increasingly targeting cloud storage platform Snowflake to steal data from its corporate customers, potentially including Ticketmaster. Snowflake, a Boston-based company providing cloud data storage and analytics to numerous major brands, confirmed it is investigating a surge in cyberattacks targeting customer accounts. Stay posted here at Tech Times. Gaza town says mayor killed in Israeli strike on water station Deir el-Balah, Palestinian Territories, June 7 (AFP) Jun 07, 2024 A spokesman for the Nuseirat municipality in central Gaza said Friday that the town's mayor, Iyad al-Maghari, had been killed in an Israeli strike while visiting a water pumping station. Maghari had been at the water management facility that serves Nuseirat when an air strike hit it at around 10:30 pm (1930 GMT) on Thursday, spokesman Muhammad al-Salhi told AFP at the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, where mourners gathered ahead of the funeral. "We were surprised by a treacherous and cowardly attack on the mayor inside the plant, which led to the martyrdom of the mayor, Dr Iyad Al-Maghari, and four members of his family," Salhi said. The Israeli army told AFP on Friday that they plan to publish shortly a statement about the incident. AFP journalists at the water station on Friday said the facility was in tatters, with concrete strewn about in piles, electrical equipment torn apart and blood stains on the ground. Workers were there to assess the damage to the large pipes that transport water to Nuseirat's residents. One of the residents, Ibrahim al-Hur, told AFP: "We heard several explosions, and we were surprised that the explosions were right next to us, in the nearby water station." "With just one missile, look what happened," he said, pointing to the demolished wall of the station behind him. At the hospital, the mayor's body was wrapped in a white sheet adorned with a high-visibility vest, before it was loaded onto an ambulance on a stretcher. The Nuseirat municipality said it mourned "its mayor, who chose to fulfil his duty with dedication and devotion to serve our people in Nuseirat until his last moments". The Hamas-run government media office said in a statement that Maghari was "sincere and devoted to his work, serving his people and homeland". The war broke out after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 36,731 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The violence has left much of Gaza in ruins, and an Israeli siege on the territory has led to dire shortages of clean water and other basic needs. Environmental activist 'detained' in Uganda, NGOs say Kampala, June 7 (AFP) Jun 07, 2024 An environmental activist in Uganda opposed to a huge oil drilling project headed by French giant TotalEnergies has been detained by soldiers, two NGOs said Friday. Stephen Kwikiriza has not been heard from for three days, according to the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). "In a particularly worrying escalation of repression, Stephen Kwikiriza, from the Environmental Governance Institute (EGI), was apparently taken away by officers from the Ugandan army in civilian clothes, on June 4," FIDH said in a statement sent to AFP. TotalEnergies signed an agreement with the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) in 2022 to develop Ugandan oil fields and ship the crude via a 1,445-kilometre (900-mile) pipeline to Tanzania's Indian Ocean port of Tanga. Environmental groups say the project is having dire consequences for local communities and the environment and have accused TotalEnergies of greenwashing. Asked by AFP, Julius Hakiza, the police spokesman for the area where Kwikiriza lives, said he was unaware of any arrest. Contacted by AFP, the army has yet to respond. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said it was "deeply concerned" by Kwikiriza's disappearance. "The Ugandan authorities should urgently and impartially investigate Kwikiriza's detention and secure his immediate release," Myrto Tilianaki, senior environmental rights advocate at HRW, said in a statement. "The Ugandan government needs to end its harassment of opponents of oil development in the country, such as the East African Crude Oil Pipeline Project, which has already devastated thousands of people's livelihoods in Uganda and, if completed, will displace thousands of people and contribute to the global climate crisis," she said. HRW said Kwikiriza had not been heard of since sending an SMS message to an EGI colleague in which he said he "had been arrested by plainclothes Ugandan military officers". FIDH said that 11 environmental activists "were kidnapped, arbitrarily arrested, detained or subjected to different forms of harassment by the Ugandan authorities between May 27 and June 5, 2024." Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the East African country with an iron fist since 1986, has regularly praised the oil project as an economic boon. str-dyg/sba/bc/js TotalEnergies President Joe Bidens reelection campaign has chosen a Fauquier County man to lead its national initiative to reach out to Republican voters who are disenchanted with former President Donald Trump for the coming presidential election rematch in November. Austin Weatherford, a veteran of Republican congressional politics, will serve as national Republican engagement director for the reelection campaign of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Weatherford worked for 10 years as chief of staff to Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and worked for two other Republican members of Congress. Kinzinger declined to seek reelection in 2022 after challenging Trumps claim of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election. He voted to impeach him over his alleged role in inciting supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol to prevent Congress from certifying the election results on Jan. 6, 2021. Donald Trump has made it clear that there is no place for reasonable Republicans or anyone who rejects his extreme and dangerous agenda in his campaign for revenge and retribution, campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said on Thursday. Joe Biden has made it clear that there is a home for anyone in this campaign who believes in preserving our democracy, supporting our allies around the world, and finding common ground to deliver real results for the American people. Were going to continue reaching out to Democrats, Republicans and Independents and work to earn every vote, just like we did in 2020, Rodriguez said in a statement. The campaign cited Weatherfords 25 years of experience in Republican politics, including 18 years working for Republican members of Congress on Capitol Hill. He also helped Kinzinger found Country First, a grassroots advocacy organization that describes itself as a national non-partisan movement aiming to activate the Reasonable Majority, defend democracy, solve problems, and mend divisions to renew the promise of the American Dream and real opportunity for all. Biden, faced with low poll numbers and division among Democrats over his policies on the war in Gaza and the U.S. border with Mexico, is trying to attract independent and moderate Republican voters, especially those who supported former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in her campaign against Trump this year for the Republican presidential nomination. Subsequently, she announced she would vote for Trump in the general election. Weatherford is co-founder of the Spillway Group, which helps nonprofit and advocacy organizations. He also previously served as interim executive director of America250, which is leading the national effort to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. Luckily, they appear to have a pretty good solution to any additional anxiety caused by the increased workload revenue! Taking out second place on this weeks Bulls N Bears Runners list is Firetail Resources. Its stock jumped more than 177 per cent from a previous close of 4.5c to touch 12.5c on the back of picking up an 80 per cent share of the York Harbour copper project in the Canadian province of Newfoundland. The company signed a binding option agreement with York Harbour Metals through a staged earn-in for the project. It contains small-scale historical underground workings that produced 100,000 tonnes at between 3 per cent and 12 per cent copper, 7 per cent zinc and pretty solid silver figures from 1898 to 1913. Shallow previous exploration at York Harbour delivered some impressive intercepts, with a 29m hit at 5.25 per cent copper and 9 grams per tonne silver from 147m including 3.24m grading a whopping 9.54 per cent copper, 3.5 per cent zinc and 10g/t silver from 167.8m. Another hole recorded 7.17m at 6.56 per cent copper from 42.21m including 2.29m going a hefty 15.88 per cent copper from 42.21m. In addition to the impressive historic drill hits, Firetail says no property-wide airborne electromagnetic survey has been flown across the operation, meaning there is significant potential to identify further volcanic massive sulphide systems at the 47.25-square-kilometre site. York Harbour is 180km west/south-west of the high-profile, high-grade Green Bay copper project that is currently under development by ASX-listed Firefly Metals. The historic York Harbour underground mine. Oh, the company also increased its ownership in the Picha and Charaque copper projects in Peru up to 70 per cent, just in case you werent sure that Firetail is showing faith in the recent return of interest in the reddish metal. This weeks bronze medal goes to ASX-listed Osteopore making a welcome return to this column after two appearances earlier this year after its shares leapt by more than 88 per cent from a previous close of 5.3c to touch 10c. The price hike coincides with the company revealing it had hit some key milestones in its $18.7 million partnership with Singapores NDCS and A*STAR to develop next-generation dental implants. Originally signed back in 2021, the project has developed 3D printing technology that can combine patented biological additives and polymer compounds, which can speed up bone regeneration. The major milestones included demonstrating that the successful combination of patented biological additives and polymer compounds was non-cytotoxic, showing no adverse reactions and good biocompatibility which is obviously a good thing! The global dental bone graft and membrane substitutes market was valued at USD$11.47 billion (AU$17.19 billion) last year, with a projected value of USD$27.55 billion (AU$41.3 billion) by 2030. Osteopore says the next-generation dental implant project is now set to progress towards in vivo studies in biological models. While the companys latest share price surge did not reach the dizzying heights of earlier this year including an incredible 1060 per cent increase back in late March almost 51 million of its shares changed hands following yesterdays announcement. The run continued today with a further 5.6 million shares bought and sold. Just missing out on a podium finish this week is INOVIQ which should feel pretty hard done-by after confirming it has successfully produced and isolated engineered exosomes that target and kill breast cancer cells in vitro. The announcement prompted a share price hike of more than 72 per cent from a previous close of 46.5c to touch 80c before it announced a trading halt. The company is developing and commercialising a portfolio of diagnostic and exosome-based products for the earlier detection, diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring of cancer and other diseases. According to its latest news from a proof-of-concept study, a breast cancer-targeting protein was expressed in exosomes released by immune cells. The modified exosomes were isolated and concentrated from immune cell-conditioned media using INOVIQs EXO-ACE technology, which recovered more than 80 per cent of exosomes from cell-conditioned media with more than 95 per cent purity. When treated with these exosomes, 75 per cent of breast cancer cells died within 72 hours. The result has encouraged INOVIQ to progress its exosome therapeutics program, initially focusing its therapeutics on metastatic breast and ovarian cancers. Nearly 4.9 million of the companys shares changed hands following the release of the study results, which eclipsed its previous highest volume of more than 1 million back in June last year. Cancer is a global scourge and breast cancer is a major health concern for thousands of Australians every year. Any progress made in addressing and potentially providing a cure for this horrendous disease deserves any success that comes its way. While this is only the early result of a proof-of-concept study for INOVIQs exosome treatment, we wish them all the best for its follow-up program. Good luck, INOVIQ, from us and all families being confronted with the insidious disease. Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au Rupert Murdoch has cancelled his planned visit to celebrate the 60th anniversary of The Australian newspaper in July. Days after the 93-year-old was married for the fifth time, he has cancelled his visit, according to a source with direct knowledge of the decision, speaking on condition of anonymity. The source said the celebrations were scheduled to go ahead as planned without him. The media companys board members are still expected to attend celebrations for the national broadsheet Murdoch launched in 1964, set to be held in Sydney on July 25 at the Australian Museum. The celebrations were originally scheduled to take place in February but were rescheduled. The former Fox and News Corp chairman married 67-year-old Elena Zhukova in Bel Air over the weekend following a brief engagement. The pair started dating in 2023 and confirmed their plans to wed to The New York Times in March this year. Residents in flood-soaked parts of Sydney have been urged to stay vigilant despite a reprieve in wet conditions, as authorities warned of damage to roads and infrastructure from days of heavy rain. About 600 people in low-lying areas of the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley were issued emergency warnings to flee as the river in north-west Sydney rose above moderate levels overnight on Friday. The NSW State Emergency Service said the Hawkesbury River peaked at a moderate level slightly below the major flooding level of 10.5 metres at North Richmond shortly after 8am on Saturday. The flood peak was yet to arrive at Windsor at 4pm on Saturday; however, the Windsor Bridge has remained open. Floodwaters are expected to peak at moderate levels in that area later on Saturday. Advertisement Eating outDrink trends The classic cocktail Melburnians cant get enough of right now and where to find the best ones You can order them frozen, filthy or with a deli cabinets worth of garnishes. But dont mess with the fundamentals, say bartenders. Emma Breheny June 7, 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 Martinis containing tomato, dill, olive oil and other ingredients you might find in a salad are just some of the new-wave interpretations powering the classic cocktails Melbourne renaissance. The martini, traditionally an ice-cold blend of gin, vermouth and perhaps a dash of bitters, is nearly 150 years old. It has long been associated with the seriousness of British wartime prime minister Winston Churchill and the old-school glamour of James Bond. But you wouldnt know it from the throngs of young people at Melbourne bars, clutching V-shaped glasses containing the bartenders latest signature interpretation. Martinis are a specialty at stalwart Melbourne bar Gin Palace. Supplied Top-rated bar Caretakers Cottage sells between 100 and 200 martinis a day in Melbourne CBD. Advertisement Meanwhile, martini orders have jumped 20 per cent in the past year at Nomad Groups venues, which include swanky Collins Street restaurant Reine & La Rue and subterranean Nomad in Melbourne. The drink is shrinking sales of other classic cocktails, such as the margarita and the negroni. Leading bottled cocktail maker Everleigh Bottling Co saw a 35 per cent increase in martini-related search queries on its website and 30 cent more martini sales in 2023, prompting the launch of three new martini products. Premium vodka distillery Grey Goose has even opened a dedicated martini bar at Melbournes Crown casino (serving vodkatinis, naturally) and invited legendary bartenders including American Dale DeGroff to create martinis especially for the list. Bartender Dale DeGroff says martinis come with their own culture. Simon Schluter Could the thirst for this notoriously potent drink have something to do with the stresses of the past four years? Or is it a sign of the evolving tastebuds of Australians, who have recently embraced the bitter negroni and the wide world of craft gin? Advertisement I think its thanks to the internet, says bartender Kayla Saito, of The Mulberry Group. Because of bartending videos, she says even those who have never sipped a martini are now familiar with the drink. For DeGroff, its a throwback. The manhattan and the martini are described in so many different ways in literature and lore. Those two drinks especially the martini are almost a culture of their own. Whatever the reason, the martini has become a must-order and a must-have menu item, preferably with a unique twist that can become a bars calling card. The Greek salad martini at Capers in Thornbury. Darrian Traynor City bar Pearl Diver created its own gin flavoured with oyster shells for its house martini, to remind drinkers to pair oysters with the cocktail. Capers, a Greek bar-restaurant in Thornbury, serves a Greek salad martini with cucumber, tomato, olive and a concentrate made from vinegar. It riffs on the widely popular dirty martini, which includes a splash of olive brine. And at Saint George in St Kilda, the house martini comes with pickled onion, an olive and a hunk of parmesan. Advertisement Savoury martinis that build on the dirty flavour profile are a big trend, says Kayla Saito. Shes also seeing a preference for less boozy martinis (more vermouth, less gin), as well as bars pre-making and freezing martinis so they can serve a perfectly measured, icy drink every time. Its less theatrical, but much more convenient. You dont have to wait 20 minutes for a martini, says Saito. A mini martini at Bar Margaux in the CBD is a good first-time order. Chris Hopkins Mini-tinis or mar-tinys half serves of the boozy drink are also increasingly common, providing a gateway for younger drinkers unsure whether theyll like the cocktail. All that experimentation, plus an explosion in craft gins and vermouths, make ordering a martini a daunting prospect for first-timers. Wet? Dry? With a twist? Perfect (equal parts dry and sweet vermouth)? Advertisement The job of a good bartender, says Gin Palaces Ben Luzz, is to walk you through the process so you can build your ideal martini. Pearl Diver gives customers a head start with an illustrated menu featuring headings such as Choose your modifiers: vermouth, liqueur, dots & dashes and a sliding scale of flavour profiles, from bone dry to half-half to filthy. Pearl Diver has created an illustrated martini menu to guide customers on ordering. Jake Roden Since introducing the menu eight months ago, co-owner Pez Collier says martini sales have increased to 90 weekly. That menu opens it up to people who might be less confident ordering a martini, he says. How to order a martini Style? Wet: more vermouth than usual Dry: more gin than usual A standard ratio today, says Gin Palaces Ben Luzz, is 8 parts gin to 1 part vermouth. Wet would be more like 2 parts gin to 1 part vermouth. First-timers should go with a wetter martini. Vodka or gin? If you normally like gin and its herbal, spicy, botanical notes, go for gin. If you prefer a more neutral base spirit, choose vodka. Shaken or stirred? While James Bond ordered his martini shaken, many bartenders prefer to stir, because they can control how diluted the drink becomes. But its really up to you. Olive or twist? Theres now a wide world of garnishes beyond an olive or a twist of lemon zest. Some bartenders use orange, grapefruit, lime or other citrus. Pickled ingredients such as cornichons are common. Bartenders might match the garnish to the style of gin and vermouth used. Its the drinkers choice. Tips for first-timers Start with a wet martini: itll be less boozy, more aromatic Tell the bartender you havent drunk many martinis and find them a bit overpowering. Ask if they do half-martinis, in case you dont like it Ask for your olives on the side, in case theyre warm Advertisement Collier has seen drinkers gravitate to dirty martinis, which they offer with three levels of olive brine: dusty, dirty and filthy. Even those ordering a dry martini (more gin, less vermouth) will ask for olives on the side, he says. Variations are a key part of the martinis appeal. Its evolved from a pale amber drink made with orange curacao and sweet vermouth to a family tree of drinks including the Gibson (served with a pickled onion) and the Vesper (half vodka, half gin), made famous by James Bond. Martini variations were in the top three of all cocktails ordered through the me&u QR code platform in both 2022 and 2023. The house martini at Melbournes Caretakers Cottage comes straight from the freezer. Supplied Back in the old days, youd have one bottle of Noilly Pratt [vermouth] that would sit on the shelf, says Luzz. Now theres a plethora and theyre so specific to certain martinis Our staff are able to curate a martini for someone that suits their palate. Advertisement But veteran bartenders have a note of caution to the next generation. Your choice of ingredients needs to be curated carefully, says Dale DeGroff, who worked in leading New York bars in the 1970s and 80s. The degree of deliciousness cant be f---ed with. Duly noted. Five signature martinis to try around Melbourne Big Esso, CBD: Try a Green Ant-tini, showcasing vibrant citrus notes of green ants, a First Nations food that flavours this drinks gin base ($27). Caretakers Cottage, CBD: By making its own gin blend and vermouth, this bar has a truly individual drink and its poured straight from the freezer ($25). Pearl Diver pairs Sydney rock oysters with a two-sip martini made with Never Nevers Oyster Shell Gin. Arianna Leggiero Advertisement Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox. Sign up It is an act of radical social disobedience to criticise the cult of Marie Kondo. The Japanese professional organiser has a totalitarian hold on the global middle-class mind. More than 13 million copies of her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up are at large in at least 44 countries, with 150,000 sold in Australia alone. Kondo has Netflix shows and was one of Times most influential people in 2015 (alongside Kanye West, Elizabeth Holmes and Vladimir Putin not Times most glorious year). Like Marcus Aurelius, Dale Carnegie and Mrs Beeton before her, Marie Kondo gives people a list telling them how to live. If the KonMari method has one unifying principle, it is to rid your life of anything that does not spark joy. Illustration: Dionne Gain. Credit: This is not the only rule. There is Rule 2: Imagine Your Ideal Lifestyle. Rule 5: Follow The Right Order. Rule 7: Who Controls the Past Controls the Future. (Actually, that last one is from George Orwells 1984. KonMari has only six rules.) To make room for neo-Kondo franchises such as The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning to Lighten Up!, bookstores and streaming services dedicate whole sections (tastefully spread out) to the moral benefits of purging your life of any excess baggage. 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 This story is part of the June 8 edition of Good Weekend. See all 20 stories . Whenever I travel, if Im lucky, I experience what I call the moment. It happened while hitchhiking as a backpacker near Loch Ness in 1986; while pounding the pavements of New Yorks East Village, slightly drunk and entirely besotted, in 1991; while getting hopelessly and wonderfully lost in the labyrinthine alleyways of Marrakesh in 2010; and, less than a year ago, while navigating the back streets of Harajuku at night, as jetlagged as Bill Murray in Lost In Translation, a full moon casting an otherworldly glow and prompting a strange sense of deja vu that gave me a warm feeling in my chest. And when I have those moments, I stop in my tracks, smile to myself and say under my breath: Remember this. Last year I spent the entire month of April in Rome with my wife and two young daughters, and those moments just kept on coming. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact we decided to stay in one place for four weeks, rather than cramming in as many cities as we possibly could, packing up every three or four days to catch another train, another plane, another chance to stress out and risk meltdowns, arguments or divorce. By our second week, wed hit that sweet spot where we knew we had plenty of time to immerse ourselves in everything Rome had to offer without worrying about time constraints we were truly living la dolce vita. Local haunt Bar San Calisto, which has been around since 1969. Credit: Alamy We rented an old two-bedroom apartment in Trastevere, a neighbourhood across the Tiber river from the bustling Centro Storico, which is so Roman its almost like a film set narrow cobblestone streets that spill into piazzas with fountains in the centre, ochre-coloured apartment buildings with ivy crawling the walls and washing hanging on lines from the windows, while Vespas cruise past and people laze over tiny cups of coffee or Aperol Spritzes at streetside cafe tables. Advertisement We learnt the joy of la passeggiata, strolling for sheer pleasure. My mornings began with the sound of metal shutters being rolled up as the fruit and vegetable vendors started setting up their stalls for the day on our square, Piazza di san Cosimato. I grew to love that sound as much as birdsong. We would walk to nearby Bar San Calisto, a cafe/bar that seemed frozen in time from 1969, when it opened. We came to know the regulars and we nicknamed them Flat Cap was an old guy who took up residence at a table by the window each morning and systematically read every page of the daily paper; The Artist was a birdlike woman who sat in a corner, opened a wooden box and sorted through her water-colours and brushes for the day; Top-Knot was a man-bunned dude in leather jacket and wraparound sunglasses, who was there at seven in the morning and still there at midnight. Then there was The Silver Fox, a trim, well-preserved gent who jovially greeted the staff each morning in chirpy Italian and downed a few cups of espresso on the terrace. Loading One morning my wife came back to our table after ordering and said, The Silver Fox is Australian! I heard him talking to a young couple outside. The following day I said hello. He was a retired chartered accountant from Sydney, spending three months living in Rome. It turned out we used to live on the same block in Kings Cross. We learnt the joy of la passeggiata, strolling for sheer pleasure without a definite destination in mind. We lost ourselves in the charming vicoli (little streets), climbed Janiculum Hill past a carousel and a puppet theatre for the most stunning view of the city, wandered the sprawling Porta Portese market each Sunday morning, and ate gelato every single day. The sprawling Porta Portese market is a Sunday ritual for Romes locals and tourists. Credit: Alamy Wherever you go around the world, there are plenty of people to tell you that everything has changed and you should have been there 10 or 20 years ago. Trastevere is no exception. Yes, its now much more heavily touristed. Yes, restaurants have taken over many of the shopfronts. Yes, there are a couple of American universities here and the place has a lot of expats. But so what? I like the attitude of Leo, who owns a vintage guitar store on our block and has been there for a quarter-century. Advertisement Lynn is accused of killing Hill and Clay at the campsite, in a valley so remote theres no phone reception for kilometres, on March 20, 2020 an accusation he denies. On Thursday, after 16 days of evidence from more than 40 witnesses, that very man, Lynn, took to the witness box in his own murder trial. He told a jury that while his actions after the deaths including burning human remains were despicable, he maintained Hill and Clay died accidental deaths. During questioning from his defence barrister, Dermot Dann, KC, who had called his client as the defence teams only witness, Lynn took the jury step by step through what he says happened. Lynn said Hill had accused him of hunting too close to camp, so Lynn had left the doors of his Nissan Patrol open with music blasting to annoy the older man. Loading I wasnt trying to provoke a response. I just thought if he could be rude, I could be rude, too, he told the jury. After Hill took a Barathrum Arms shotgun from Lynns car, there was a struggle. The accused man told the jury he got up from his campfire and followed Hill back to his campsite in the dark, as the 74-year-old fired warning shots into the air. Lynn said the pair had struggled for control of the shotgun at the front of Hills Toyota ute, pushed up against the black bullbar, when the gun accidentally fired and fatally struck Clay as she crouched nearby. Lynn then recounted how he went to return the loaded shotgun to the safety of his own car, when Hill ran at him with a knife. He said he then donned his Jetstar-branded gloves and used a torch to find and remove blood and spatter from the horrendous scene, including nearby solar panels and camp furniture. Lynn explained that at the time of the two accidental deaths, it was dark, between 9pm and 10pm. He said he put the bodies into the trailer attached to his Nissan before driving through the night and dumping them alongside the unsealed Union Spur Track, near Dargo. During his almost four hours on the witness stand, the 57-year-old pointed out drawings he made for police during his questioning at Sale police station before he was charged. He relayed to the jury that he had told police everything he could remember at the time to assist them with their investigation, including finding what remained of Hill and Clay in a bush grave. He said he continued through with a plan to distance himself from what had occurred for more than 18 months, maintaining he had never told anyone else what hed done. An aerial picture of Bucks Camp with Lynns drawings. Lynn said his camp was at the top of the image, and Hill and Clays at the bottom. He said the alleged knife incident occurred in the middle. Credit: Supreme Court of Victoria The whole plan, ill-conceived as it was, was for me to disappear, he said. While Lynn maintains both were accidental deaths, the prosecution alleges the airline pilot killed Hill and Clay with murderous intent. During cross-examination by Porceddu, Lynn was asked if he murdered Hill following a dispute over a drone, and then took aim and killed Clay after she saw what happened something the accused denied. Loading He told the jury that in the aftermath of watching Clay die from a gunshot wound to the head while struggling for control of a gun with Hill and then watching Hill fatally fall on his own kitchen knife, he feared he would be blamed and devised a plan to protect his future. He agreed that while he was trained to be calm as an airline pilot, he had panicked and made a series of bad decisions. These, he said, included burning the campsite, pulling a knife from Hills chest, moving the bodies some distance away, stealing money from the pair to pay for petrol, painting his car, and returning eight months later to the bush to burn the remains, among other things. Lynn told the court that by the time police visited his family home in Caroline Springs in July 2020 to ask about his car passing through the Mount Hotham area the day after the deaths, he believed he was on the polices radar and his plan to distance himself from Hill and Clay was fast failing. Once the hastily devised plan was under way, Lynn said, it was too late to turn back and report what had happened to police. He risked losing everything that meant anything to him family, career and membership to exclusive clubs. Porceddu put to Lynn that when he returned to Union Spur Track in November 2020, he had with him a plan to burn the bodies and went on to spend the night there, stoking the fire hed lit until the sun rose. Despite feeling sick, you remained there until the job was done? Porceddu asked. Yes, Lynn replied. Greens as opposition David Crowe (Comment, 7/6) suggests the Greens support of pro-Palestine protests makes it complicit if a protester behaves violently or damages property. This is drawing a very long bow. There is a genuine debate occurring within and outside parliament regarding what actions Australia could, or should take in response to the Gaza catastrophe. The government has not moved to formally recognise Palestinian statehood (unlike 144 UN member states); the Greens have used parliament to make this fact clear; over 100,000 Australians have so far signed a petition urging the government to do so. Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons manufacturer, was recently awarded a contract to work with a South Korean company in the building of Redback infantry fighting vehicles for the Australian Army. The Greens have urged the government to overturn this decision. A case can be made that it is acting as the effective opposition. One can debate whether the Greens claims are falsehoods but to suggest they are dangerous is hyperbole. Richard Barnes, Canterbury Enough of Woolworths Local growers devastated as Woolworths swaps to Chinese, South African fruit, blaming consumers, (7/6). Enough, Woolworths for its lack of honesty, integrity, transparency, and support of the country made up of the consumers that make its profits possible. Enough is enough Woolworths, Im walking. Sharon Hendon, Glen Iris Keep fruit local I am often puzzled at how the home brands of the large supermarkets could be produced and sold more cheaply. Now I know canned and bottled will be cheaper if imported. I check labels on fresh fruit and avoided the overseas products. Now, Ill do the same with home brands. Genuine Aussie farm-grown SPC for me. Julie Broomhall, Timboon Not home grown The Albanese produced in Australia campaign is being ignored by the major supermarkets (Canned peaches from China, canned pears from South Africa, 7/6). This is at the expense of our growers and canneries which employ hundreds of thousands. As usual, both federal and state governments are all rhetoric without action. I do not believe the spin is espoused by the supermarket. Consumers must boycott these foreign products and send a firm message. Gerard van de Ven, Mount Martha A tariff on fruit imports Shame on Woolworths for cancelling orders by 60 per cent for Australian fruit grown and processed in the fruit bowl of the Goulburn Valley in Victoria, in favour of fruit imported from South Africa, and of all places China where few restrictions on chemicals etc. exist. Fruit is not a commodity which can be turned on and off it is a long-term investment. Surely, a tariff on overseas produce which is plentiful in Australia should be mandatory. We must protect all our agriculture for the future generations, not for short-term profits for greedy supermarkets. Christina Foo, North Wahroonga Wake up Australia Why do Australians just accept what is being sold and or pushed onto us? Woolworths is now prioritising overseas-produced products, and turning its back on Australian companies and growers who work hard to produce excellent produce, and work under our standards. We have no idea what standards are used overseas or we do, and do not care. When are Australians going to stop accepting this? We must push for Australian products. Consumers may think getting cheap is good. When we lose all our primary producers and are flooded with imports, we will then continue to be beholden to the rest of the world. Joe Gagliano, Brunswick Robodebt scandal The decision by the National Anti-Corruption Commission not to pursue the public service mandarins involved in the deplorable Robodebt scandal is both as disappointing as it is unsurprising. The probability that a body like the NACC would have sufficient teeth to investigate those who set it up was always going to be problematic. This decision proves it. No doubt there are a few scandal-plagued Coalition politicians who will sleep a little more easily. Once again, those in power, be it private (PwC or government), think Robodebt is immune to accountability. One hoped more of a Labor government, and again voters are left lamenting. Ross Hudson, Mount Martha One myki fits all Victoria is spending $1.7 billion on a contract with a US company to run myki here. Australian states each have their own travel payment cards, but Australia should have one card that works in all states. Sandra Dickson, Mentone Make it free Your correspondents letter (7/6) citing her research, reflects my assessment of those not paying to use public transport. No university appears to be undertaking a rigorous assessment to enable serious consideration of free metro public transport by government. The Queensland governments 50 cents per day cost of public transport trial will provide evidence on the reduction in vehicle usage and emissions. The cost of living will be reduced for many, along with a CPI reduction. State labour shortages would be reduced if metro public transport was free seven days a week for all. While many retrenched staff would need retraining, the resulting reduction in emissions from road congestion would assist in achieving the current inadequate 43 per cent emissions reduction target to enable our grandchildren the quality of life we currently have. Howard Brownscombe, Brighton Cruising chaos A recent cruise to Port Douglas went well until my husband caught COVID. We were both fully vaccinated and took care onboard, but he was very ill and ended up in the ships hospital overnight. This cost $2200, which the insurance company refused to pay. He requested antivirals and the ship quoted $750 for one course. The next day, I found a pharmacy in Circular Quay and was back onboard by 9am. The cost? $7.50. My husband had to be isolated in our cabin for six days, so I caught COVID as well. It went from bad to worse until we finally left the ship in Melbourne. Compensation? Six future cruise credit days on our next booking. They must be joking. Margaret Ward, Sorrento Indian election In the surprising results of the recent Indian elections, voters elected a variety of political parties and candidates, reflecting the diversity of the country and the range of its political opinions. This marks a significant departure from the last two lower house elections, where one partys decade-long majority fostered a belief that its political opinions were paramount. Regardless of individual sentiments about the election outcome, these elections are a resounding victory for the Indian tradition of public debate and plurality of opinions. It is a triumph of the democratic processes in the worlds largest democracy. I hope we Indians can now shift our perspective to see our differing opinions not as a problem, but as a strength and a valuable resource. Shirin Tejani, Oakleigh AND ANOTHER THING Credit: Illustration: Matt Golding Woolworths fruit If Woolworths has its way, Shepparton, the fruit bowl of Australia will become the dust bowl. Paul Custance, Highett There you go Albo, another chance for you with local manufacturing. This time, just slap an import duty on Chinese and South African pears and peaches, then the supermarkets would have to buy our produce. Joel Matthews, Bright Costello kerfuffle Could The Age please provide some balance in its reporting of the Costello kerfuffle (7/6)? I want to hear from the placard. Jenny Bone, Surrey Hills A Costello bump is an Age headline? Come on, a Maynard bump warrants more attention! Arthur Poole, Frankston South Looks like we might have to call for the video umpire before we find out whether we finally have a Liberal who can deliver a decent shirtfront. Peter Bear, Mitcham Bandt What Adam Bandt meant to say to your correspondent (Letters, 7/6), was I will not be lectured to because Im the one who does the lecturing. And dont we all know it. Judy Loney, Drumcondra Tony Abbott once observed that the the point of being prime minister is that youve got to be a national leader, not just a tribal chief. Abbott himself never quite made the transition. Loading But Albanese is trying hard. He likes to boast that he runs an orderly, methodical government. He models his cabinet on Bob Hawkes style, presiding as chairman of the board and delegating to his ministers, rather than Paul Keatings emperor system or Kevin Rudds command-and-control method. He stays calm, speaks carefully and suppresses public outbursts. Hes succeeded on the hate index. No one hates Albanese. Hes not well defined in the public mind. Most people cant say what he represents and few can name an achievement of his. But they dont hate him. This is a valuable accomplishment for a leader heading towards an election; just ask Scott Morrison. But sometimes the fierce competitor surfaces, as he did this week. On Wednesday, asked about the governments view on the Gaza war, Albanese took the opportunity to tear into the Greens, a party he loathes at least as much as he loathes the Liberals, and possibly even more. Remember that, in his inner-west Sydney seat of Grayndler, the longstanding threat to Labor is the Greens, not the Liberals. Albanese has been fighting the Greens for his seat for 28 years. Loading Our social cohesion is a national asset that all of us have built and all of us have a responsibility to uphold and defend, Albanese told the House. Right now, our communities are distressed ... We have a responsibility to not add to that distress through misinformation. Before turning his ire on the Greens: It is unacceptable that misinformation is being consciously and deliberately spread by some Greens senators and MPs, who have engaged in this in demonstrations outside offices and online. That includes knowingly misrepresenting motions that are moved in this parliament. Protesters have camped outside Albaneses electoral office in Marrickville for months. Two weeks ago they became so unpleasant that he closed the office. So it can no longer service the needs of local people who want his help. Our staff do work to provide assistance to people dealing with Medicare, social security, migration and other issues, Albanese pointed out. They deserve respect, not abuse, not assault, not attacks on the office. Loading Its the same or worse outside another half-dozen Labor MPs offices. Harassment, abuse, vandalism. One MP, Daniel Mulino, was jostled by abusive protesters. Bricks through windows, graffiti accusing MPs of supporting genocide, the symbol for Hamas painted on offices. The protesters claim to be pro-Palestinian but often cross the line into antisemitism. Greens leader Adam Bandt says the party has nothing to do with any of the violence or antisemitism. But heres how one Labor MP, former doctor Michelle Ananda-Rajah, representing the Melbourne seat of Higgins, drew the connection this week: I sat in this chamber when the leader of the Greens political party ... accused Labor MPs of being complicit in genocide. Within hours, an online campaign was launched calling for a national day of action against Labor MPs complicit in genocide. Those were the exact words. The next day, offices were vandalised and rendered unusable. Staff were scared. Scarce resources like police, the AFP, cleaners and tradies were diverted. The words spoken in this chamber ricochet around this country, tearing at our social fabric, and the gun gets fired here. Albanese holds the Greens responsible for dog-whistling, cheerleading the antisemitic agitation that has been whipped up in Australia. Many other Labor, Coalition and independent MPs share his anger. So when the prime minister deplored the Greens in the House, he was roundly supported on all sides. Cries of shame rang out, aimed at the Greens. Loading Peter Dutton got to his feet to add his own spirited denunciation of the Greens for antisemitism, concluding with: The Greens political party today is properly and rightly condemned. This was a threshold moment in Australian politics. It was a bipartisan branding of an important minor party as an illegitimate force, for violating the foundational tenet of liberal democracy to uphold equality, freedom and human dignity, to advance no ones rights to the point where they diminish anothers. The major parties put the Greens in the same category as Pauline Hansons One Nation. Where One Nation has a history of discriminating against Indigenous people and Asians, the Greens now are condemned as antisemitic. The Greens reject the accusation. The Greens under Bandt had made serious progress in the transition from being a party of protest to a party of problem-solving; the rabidity of their campaigning on this matter has set them back enormously in mainstream Australia. Loading Dutton has gone the logical next step hes calling on Albanese to refuse to accept Greens preferences at the next election. The Liberals, of course, get none. But the prime ministers distaste for the Greens doesnt extend to self-harming Labors share of the two-party preferred vote. He sidestepped, saying it was a matter for the partys organisational wing. In this, his principles extend only so far as his politics will allow. Albaneses competitive mongrel has asserted itself in two other forms in recent weeks. Immigration Minister Andrew Giles has fumbled the detainees question for half a year, and only on Friday sought to bring it decisively to an end with a new ruling on visa cancellations. But Albanese has defended Giles with a fierce determination against pressure from outside and inside the government. Yes, hes the same Giles who allied with Albanese in purging the Kim Carr faction. And the prime minister is showing defiant tribal loyalty to him, protecting a minister who would have been sacked months ago on any reasonable assessment of competence and skill in crisis management. An employee at Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation warned board members last July over defects and disconnects in a monitoring program key to the bid for world heritage listing for the worlds largest and oldest rock art gallery. The dire warnings were contained in letter authored by an employee involved in the Murujuga rock art monitoring program to the corporations board. A whistleblower leaked the letter, and Canberra Senator David Pocock then tabled it during an estimates committee session recently. Aboriginal rock art, or petroglyph of a sea turtle on the Burrup Peninsula. The WA government started monitoring emissions from nearby industrial plants, and their potential impact on the Murujuga rock art, in 2022 after years of disagreement in the scientific community. The Aboriginal corporations employee said the project was not being carried out with sufficient integrity, diligence or governance and that the traditional owners were being frozen out by having no input in things like audits and heritage surveys. Heuermann has not been charged in the death of Mack. But asked during a news conference after Thursdays hearing if he was a suspect, District Attorney Ray Tierney replied: Thats fair to say. Tierney also acknowledged that the blueprint document, which Heuermann had attempted to delete, was a significant impetus for the renewed search across Long Island in recent weeks. It was recovered in March from the more than 350 electronic devices seized from the suspects home. Heuermann pleaded not guilty to killing Taylor and Costilla during the hearing and was ordered to be held without bail. His lawyer, Michael Brown, said outside court that Heuermann was obviously in a bad place in terms of the new charges. Afterwards, Tierney said the additional charges provided some small measure of closure for the victims families. Not the same killer Since late 2010, police have been investigating the deaths of at least 10 people mostly female sex workers whose remains were discovered along an isolated highway not far from Gilgo Beach on Long Islands south shore. Those victims disappeared over a span of at least 14 years. Vexed detectives made only halting progress in identifying possible suspects. Investigators have long said it was likely that not all of the deaths were the work of the same killer. Some of the victims vanished in the mid-1990s. Investigators concluded that an 11th person who disappeared in 2010 from the barrier island community of Oak Beach had accidentally drowned. Loading Heuermann, who lived across a bay from where the bodies were found, was arrested last July. Prosecutors said a new investigative taskforce used mobile phone location data and DNA samples to link the architect to some of the victims. He was charged with killing four of the women: Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello and Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Investigators who extensively searched Heuermanns home and dug up his yard last summer returned to the house last month and spent nearly a week searching it again. According to a lawyer for Heuermanns wife, they focused their efforts mostly in the basement. That followed a search in April of a wooded area in Manorville, about 65 kilometres east of Heuermanns home, and in the Southampton hamlet of North Sea, where Costillas remains were discovered decades ago. Tierney said the planning document was recovered in March, providing the impetus for the recent searches. Investigators comb through the home of Rex Heuermann. Credit: AP Prosecutors said they found a book in Heuermanns possession by retired FBI agent John Douglas, The Cases That Haunt Us. They say the planning document referenced specific pages in another work by Douglas, Mind Hunter, that allude to the personality types of serial killers and profiles of those who use mutilation and sexual violence. Jessica Taylor, 20, vanished in 2003 while working as an escort in New York City. Some of her remains were discovered in Manorville that year. Other remains were found during a 2011 search of the beach scrub by the side of Ocean Parkway, the road where the other Gilgo Beach victims were found. Taylors mother, Elizabeth Baczkiel, was at the courthouse for Thursdays hearing. She held up childhood photos of her daughter but didnt speak to reporters. Her lawyer, Gloria Allred, read a statement from Baczkiel in which she described her daughter as loving, compassionate and so funny, and said she would have made a great mother. Loading My darling daughter, you will never be forgotten, the statement said. You will forever be in our hearts. Valerie Mack, 24, who had been working as an escort in Philadelphia, disappeared in 2000 and was last seen by her family in Port Republic, New Jersey, near Atlantic City. Some of her skeletal remains were discovered that year in the Manorville woods. More of her remains were found in 2011 during the search around Gilgo Beach. Initially known as Jane Doe No. 6, Macks remains went unidentified until 2020 when genetic testing revealed her identity. Costilla was 28 when she was killed and had lived in New York City. Meaningful investigation A decade ago, Suffolk County prosecutors said publicly that they believed Costilla had been killed by John Bittrolff, an area carpenter who was convicted of murdering two other women whose bodies were found in the same part of Long Island. Honda Advances Hydrogen Strategy with Production Launch of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle in Ohio Production of all-new 2025 CR-V e:FCEV fuel cell electric vehicle begins at Performance Manufacturing Center in Marysville, OH the only FCEV made in America Honda experience with fuel cell vehicles spans over 20 years starting with the 2003 Honda FCX, the world's first zero-emission fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) to receive government certification Honda today celebrated the start of production of the all-new 2025 Honda CR-V e:FCEV fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) at the Performance Manufacturing Center (PMC) in Ohio. The all-new CR-V e:FCEV is the only FCEV made in America, as well as the first production1 hydrogen FCEV in the United States to combine an all-new U.S.-made fuel cell system with plug-in EV charging capability. A fun-to-drive compact CUV, the CR-V e:FCEV received a 270-mile EPA driving range rating, combining the fuel cell system with plug-in charging to provide up to 29 miles2 of EV driving around town with the flexibility of fast hydrogen refueling for longer trips. The Performance Manufacturing Center was conceived as a small volume manufacturing facility with a focus on craftsmanship, and Im proud of how our production technicians leveraged their experience building the Acura NSX to take on the challenge of making this all-new Honda CR-V e:FCEV, said Patrick McIntyre, lead of PMC. Producing a zero-emission fuel cell electric vehicle is one more step toward Hondas global goal of achieving carbon neutrality for our products and operations. In addition to producing the Honda CR-V e:FCEV in America, the next gen fuel cell system that powers it is also made in the U.S. at Fuel Cell System Manufacturing LLC, in Brownstown, Michigan the joint venture production facility established by Honda and General Motors (GM). The new fuel cell system was co-developed by Honda and GM, achieving higher efficiency and increased refinement, with durability performance doubled and cost reduced by two-thirds compared to the previous fuel cell system in the Honda Clarity Fuel Cell. PMC Innovations for CR-V e:FCEV Production Production technicians at PMC navigated several challenges related to new production equipment and processes to effectively transition from building the Acura NSX supercar to the Honda CR-V e:FCEV. Following is a look at several of these key initiatives. New components: PMC technicians are taking on multiple new assembly processes specific to producing a vehicle powered by both a fuel cell system and a plug-in EV battery, requiring multiple connections for the vehicles two power sources and the Power Supply Connector that can provide electrical power for various external devices. These include: PMC technicians are taking on multiple new assembly processes specific to producing a vehicle powered by both a fuel cell system and a plug-in EV battery, requiring multiple connections for the vehicles two power sources and the Power Supply Connector that can provide electrical power for various external devices. These include: Sub-assembly of two hydrogen tanks, attaching high pressure piping and other parts and then installing the tanks in the vehicle Compressing hydrogen to 10,000 PSI via a new onsite station used to fill the CR-V e:FCEV hydrogen fuel tanks Installation of the fuel-cell system along with connecting high pressure piping and wiring Sub-assembly and installation of the under-floor battery New Weld System: Transitioning to the CR-V e:FCEV required a complete transformation of the Weld Department, from a highly-automated welding system created for an aluminium spaceframe to a multi-material unibody construction. Transitioning to the CR-V e:FCEV required a complete transformation of the Weld Department, from a highly-automated welding system created for an aluminium spaceframe to a multi-material unibody construction. The previous robotic weld system was removed and replaced with new steel welding robots which were installed with characteristics of a traditional weld system but are unique from mass production plants with a flexible fixture system that rolls around on a track. PMC technicians also now perform some manual MIG welding to apply welds that are difficult for robots to reach to attach closure parts for the doors, hood and tailgate. Paint System Modifications: The larger and heavier all-steel body of the CR-V e:FCEV requires a different corrosion protection application process than the smaller, all-aluminium Acura NSX. The larger and heavier all-steel body of the CR-V e:FCEV requires a different corrosion protection application process than the smaller, all-aluminium Acura NSX. The CR-V e:FCEV marks the first application in Honda North America of zirconium to a mixed metal, uni-body, and utilizes the same high-appearance paint coating as the NSX. The E-coat dip tank was designed for the smaller surface area of the NSX spaceframe, not a full frame vehicle like CR-V with more surface area inside. So, engineers had to modify the dip tank to enable the CUV body shape to enter at a 38-degree angle, steeper than the 15-degree angle for NSX. More precise control of the E-coat pumps also was required for CR-V, to create higher circulation of the E-coat to cover the surface area inside the frame. Following e-coating, but prior to application of the final paint finish, sealer is applied to prevent water leaks. The CR-V body is mounted on a rotisserie, but unlike the previous equipment arm used to turn the lighter NSX spaceframe, a more robust arm that can maintain stability of the heavier CR-V steel frame is used to turn the frame on its side. This enables associates to manually apply sealer similar to the application for the NSX. Production of the FCEV at the PMC also is laying the groundwork for production of battery-electric vehicles at the Honda EV Hub in Ohio from the standpoint of software for the Integrated Power Unit (IPU). Video of these manufacturing innovations can be found here. CR-V e:FCEV Product Highlights The Honda CR-V is Americas best-selling CUV of the past quarter century, and the CR-V e:FCEV builds on that foundation to deliver top class cabin space, cargo capacity and power. Honda engineers optimized CR-V e:FCEVs steering and suspension tuning to deliver the same sporty driving experience and class-leading refinement as turbo and hybrid-powered CR-V models. Moreover, the driver can customize the driving experience of the CR-V e:FCEV with selectable drive modes, including EV modes to maximize efficiency and a Sport mode to prioritize acceleration and responsiveness. Refueling with hydrogen takes about the same time as filling a tank with gasoline. Recharging the Honda CR-V e:FCEV takes just 1.8-hours using a level 2 charger and adds up to 29 miles of battery-powered range for short trips around town. The Honda CR-V e:FCEV also features the Honda Power Supply Connector, turning the CUV into a clean power source capable of running small home appliances, power tools or camping equipment, as well as charging the new Honda Motocompacto e-scooter. For additional product information, click here. Honda Hydrogen Business Honda has identified four core domains for the utilization of its fuel cell system. In addition to fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV), the Honda hydrogen business strategy includes commercial vehicles, stationary power stations and construction machinery. Honda is engaged in collaboration with other companies in pursuit of these business opportunities. Honda recently debuted a Class 8 Hydrogen Fuel Cell Truck Concept powered by three Honda fuel cell systems to showcase the start of a new demonstration project aimed at future production of fuel cell-powered products for the North American market. Honda also began demonstration testing of a stationary fuel cell power station on its Torrance, Calif. campus in March 2023, marking the companys first step toward future commercialization of zero-emission backup power generation. Honda also is looking at the application of its fuel cell system to equipment such as excavators and wheel loaders, which account for a large segment of the construction machinery market. Honda Electrification Strategy Honda has a vision to make battery-electric and fuel cell electric vehicles represent 100% of its new vehicle sales by 2040. Toward this goal, Honda is establishing its Honda EV Hub in Ohio where the company will begin production of EVs in North America. Honda also recently announced plans to build a comprehensive EV value chain in Canada with an approximate investment of USD$11 billion, to strengthen its EV supply system and capability to prepare for a future increase in EV demand in North America. It is the role of the Honda EV Hub in Ohio to establish the expertise and experience for EV production that will be shared across the Honda production network in North America, including the EV value chain initiative in Canada. Moreover, each Honda auto production facility in North America has a critical role to play in Hondas electrified future. Even as Honda accelerates preparation for EV production, the company plans to sustain current ICE and hybrid-electric vehicle production to meet continued strong customer demand. The sales growth of ICE and hybrid-electric vehicles also will support the required investment in the electrified future. Importantly, Honda expects to maintain employment stability across all locations during these key next steps in the transition to the electrified future. Using domestic and globally sourced parts EPA-estimated 29-mile all-electric driving range when fully charged. Use for comparison purposes only. Actual range will vary based on several factors, including temperature, terrain, battery age & condition, loading, use and maintenance. # # # Honda Manufacturing in America Honda has been producing automobiles in America for over 40 years, beginning in November 1982 with the start of automobile production at the Marysville Auto Plant. In 2022, more than two-thirds of all Honda and Acura automobiles sold in the U.S. were made in America, using domestic and globally sourced parts. Hondas cumulative auto production in America now exceeds 30 million vehicles. Honda established manufacturing operations in America in 1979 with the start of motorcycle production in Marysville, Ohio, and today has one of the largest and most diverse U.S. manufacturing footprints of any international company. More than 23,000 U.S. associates support the companys 12 manufacturing plants in America, supporting operations that have an annual capacity of more than 1.27 million automobiles, 1.52 million engines, 500,000 power equipment products and 300,000 powersports products, as well as the HondaJet advanced light jet and GE Honda HF120 turbofan engines. Cumulatively, Honda has invested $19 billion in its U.S. manufacturing operations, including more than $3.6 billion over the past five years alone. The company also works with 600 U.S. original equipment suppliers, with U.S.-sourced parts purchases of approximately $492 billion since 1979. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Desi Daru Vodka selects UK distributor Desi Daru, the British vodka brand inspired by the flavours of India, has announced a new partnership with UK distributor and sales agency Nightcap Brands. Through the partnership, Desi Daru and Nightcap will focus on growing the brands on-trade presence in the UK. Mohit Singh, Co-Founder of Desi Daru, shared, Im really excited for Desi Daru to join Nightcap brands. Having seen the work Ciaran and James have done over the last few years gives me confidence that they are the right fit in our ambitions for further expansion in the UK market. Ciaran McNicholas, founder of Nightcap Brands, added, Were delighted to welcome Desi Daru into the Nightcap portfolio. As a team, we were blown away by the quality of the vodka and the purity of flavour in the Alphonso Mango. Desi Daru provides an engaging point of difference for our portfolio and products we think our customers will be excited to try. 7 June 2024 - Lucy Schofield Share this story CEC Rajiv Kumar, 2 ECs meet President; present details of new LS members NEW DELHI, CHIEF Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar along with two election commissioners on Thursday presented details of newly elected Lok Sabha members to President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhawan here. The meeting is part of the process for the formation of the next or the 18th Lok Sabha. CEC Rajiv Kumar, accompanied by Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, met the President at 4.30 pm, a statement issued by the Rashtrapati Bhawan said. A copy of the notification issued by the Election Commission of India, in terms of Section 73 of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951, containing the names of the members elected to the House of the People following the General Elections to the 18th Lok Sabha, was submitted by them to the President, it said. The section mandates publication of results of general elections to the House of the People and the State Legislative Assemblies and of names of persons nominated thereto. President Murmu congratulated the CEC and the election commissioners on the successful completion of the electoral process, the largest democratic exercise in human history, the statement said. On behalf of the entire country, she appreciated the efforts of the Election Commission, its officials and members of staff, other public officials who were involved in management and superintendence of the campaign and polling, and police and security personnel, Central and State, for working tirelessly and diligently to uphold the sanctity of the peoples ballot and successfully completing a free and fair election, it said. President Murmu also commended hundreds of millions of voters, who participated in the election process in such large numbers, the statement said. This, the President noted, was entirely in keeping with our Constitution and Indias deep and unshakeable democratic traditions, it said. President Murmu had on Wednesday dissolved the 17th Lok Sabha on the advice of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Cabinet. The term of the current Lok Sabha ends on June 16 and before that, a new Government has to be established. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won a majority in the recently concluded general elections. While the NDA is comfortably above the majority mark of 272 by winning 293 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha, the BJP, which won 240 seats, has fallen short of the magic number for the first time since 2014. The Opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc has won 234 seats. Meanwhile, Modi was unanimously elected as the NDA leader during a meeting of the alliance here on Wednesday -- paving the way for him to take oath for a third straight term as the head of the coalition government. Elected Lok Sabha members belonging to the NDA are expected to meet on Friday to formally elect Modi as their leader. The alliance leaders will then meet the President to submit their letters of support, former Bihar chief minister and founder of the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) Jitan Ram Manjhi had said. Modi had on Wednesday tendered resignation along with his council of ministers to Murmu, who accepted it and asked him to continue till the new government assumes office. ZTE Corporation, a global leading provider of integrated information and communication technology solutions, recently released the company's Sustainability Report 2023, detailing its strategies, actions and progress in green innovations, social contributions and corporate governance. As a Driver of Digital Economy, ZTE has been releasing sustainability reports for 16 consecutive years, highlighting its unwavering commitment to sustainable business. Xu Ziyang, CEO at ZTE, stated in the report: "We uphold the Human-Centric and Tech for Good philosophy, and constantly explore new fields, applications, and value of digital and intelligent transformation. Together with global customers, partners, investors, and people from all walks of life, we will build a digital and intelligent ecosystem, making efforts and contributions to promote industrial revolution, accelerate social development, and enhance the well-being of all humanity." The report highlights ZTE's dedicated efforts in building its digital intelligence capabilities and continuous innovation in underlying technologies. The company has been enhancing its investments in main business fields, including chipset, algorithm, architecture, database and operating system. As of 2023, ZTE has filed over 89,500 patent applications and obtained over 45,000 granted patents globally. Additionally, ZTE has been advancing phygital innovation, successfully implementing benchmark projects in multiple industries to promote high-quality development across diverse sectors. Driving green innovations to shape an eco-friendly ecosystem ZTE is committed to green development, driving green innovation to shape an eco-friendly ecosystem. This commitment is underpinned by four dimensions: green operations, green supply chain, green digital infrastructure and green empowerment, contributing to net zero emission. In green operations, ZTE achieved a 9.7% YoY decrease of absolute GHG emissions (scope 1&2&3) throughout the value chain, a 14.58% YoY decrease in the physical intensity of GHG emissions during the use and maintenance phases of the company's sold telecom products, and over 700% YoY growth of PV power generation installed capacity in 2023. In terms of green supply chain, the company has completed carbon reduction audit for more than 150 suppliers, and achieved a 3.26% reduction in carbon emissions intensity through its green logistics efforts. Moreover, ZTE was rewarded "National Level Green Supply Chain Management Enterprise" and ZTE Heyuan Base was recognized as a "National Green Factory" in 2023. For green digital infrastructure, ZTE currently holds over 650 green patents, has conducted carbon footprint assessments for 101 products, encompassing all product categories. The company has helped global operators save more than 10 billion kilowatt-hours in electricity consumption annually. In the realm of green empowerment, ZTE has introduced a green precision cloud-network solution based on its "Digital Nebula" architecture. Collaborating with over 1000 global top industry partners across diverse sectors, the company has launched more than 100 application scenarios for 5G+ innovative green initiatives. Through these efforts, the company continues to support various industries in their digital transformation and sustainability goals, promoting cost reduction, efficiency improvement, and quality enhancement to drive energy conservation and emission reduction. Thanks to its sustained efforts in green development, ZTE's science-based targets, achieving greenhouse gas emissions reduction in line with the 1.5C temperature rise limitation pathway and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 at the latest, have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in April 2024. This makes ZTE the first large-scale ICT tech company in China to receive official approval for both near-term and long-term GHG emission reduction targets and to make CDP A List for leading climate action, the highest level of recognition for corporate environmental transparency and performance. Additionally, the company recently unveiled "ZTE Zero-Carbon Strategy" white paper at ZTE Sustainable Development Forum, outlining the implementation roadmap of its zero-carbon strategy, demonstrating the company's commitment to collaborating with various sectors to advance global zero-carbon endeavors. Embracing Tech for Good to bridge global digital divide Xie Junshi, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at ZTE, said: " ZTE incorporates sustainability and ESG into corporate operations and governance, sticks to the philosophy of Tech for Good, and takes on the responsibility and role of a leading ICT player, to bridge the digital divide and enable connectivity and trust everywhere." As a global enterprise, ZTE has been engaging in building high-performance "superb networks" across over 100 countries and regions, facilitating the bridging of global digital divide. ZTE has been actively responding to the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) call for support in global digital transformation efforts through its Partner2Connect (P2C) Digital Coalition and was recognized as one of the first P2C Champions by ITU. Specifically, ZTE pledged to construct ICT infrastructure annually for Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs), and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) by 2025, and to dedicate 50,000 hours of ICT lectures globally for the benefits of local workforces in need, as part of its efforts to drive global meaningful connectivity. Supplier capability building is key for ZTE to ensure supply chain resilience and product quality. In 2023, the company released the SPIRE 2.0 strategy to boost resilience of its supply chain, and carried out diverse training programs to promote capability enhancement of suppliers, jointly contributing to sustainable development. ZTE puts people first and front, prioritizing the welfare and development of its employees and fostering a nurturing and inclusive workplace environment. In 2023, the average training hours per employee reached 144.7. ZTE was honored with LinkedIn MostIn Awards - Global Talent Magnet Employer in 2023, recognizing its global talent attraction efforts. ZTE actively fulfills its corporate social responsibility by engaging in public welfare initiatives worldwide, including educational support, medical aid, and care for vulnerable groups. As of 2023, the company has registered 10,754 employee volunteers, accumulating a total of 29,024 volunteer hours. The company's influence on green development was further extended through welfare activities. For example, the pilot project of forest management and carbon sequestration, which marked milestone progress of the "ZTE Ecosystem Conservation Fund," was successfully implemented. Strengthening corporate governance to build a highly resilient organization ZTE places significant emphasis on internal controls, compliance, social credibility, and business continuity management (BCM). The company continually enhances its corporate governance system, standardizes operations, and ensures continuous and robust business performance. In 2023, ZTE successfully passed the re-certification audit of the company's anti-bribery management system and maintained the ISO 37001 Anti-Bribery Management System certification. It conducted 214 joint Business Continuity Plan (BCP) drills in high risk fields. Additionally, the company continuously improves its quality management system. In 2023, ZTE Global Certification and Testing Center conducted 1,372 safety tests throughout the year with a test pass rate of 100%. As a member of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and the Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), ZTE's achievements in sustainable development and ESG have gained widespread recognition. For instance, ZTE was selected in UNGC Private Sector Case Studies for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2023, and has been included in the FTSE4Good Index Series for eight years and Fortune China ESG Impact List for three consecutive years. Additionally, ZTE was honored among Top 30 ESG Excellence Practices in China and recognized as 2023 IDC China Sustainable Development Pioneer Case. Moving forward, ZTE will remain committed to its vision "To Enable Connectivity and Trust Everywhere," leading the way in digital innovation to ensure that the benefits of innovations reach all industries and sectors, contributing new momentum to sustainable development. For more details of ZTE Sustainability Report 2023, please download: https://www.zte.com.cn/content/dam/zte-site/investorrelations/en_announcement/ZTE_Sustainability_Report_2023_EN_0603.pdf To discover more updates about our commitment to the sustainability, please visit ZTE Sustainability website: https://www.zte.com.cn/global/about/sustainability.html Centre tells States to be prepared to meet challenges of heat wave, forest fires NEW DELHI, THE Centre on Thursday stressed the need for States to be better prepared to meet challenges related to heat wave and forest fires, ensure no loss of life and to minimise damage. At a meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC), Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba also gave an assurance to the states and Union territories that the central ministries and departments are closely engaging with them to ensure optimum preparedness and for implementing timely mitigation and response measures, according to an official statement. The issue of heat wave and forest fires was discussed at a meeting of the NCMC, chaired by the Cabinet Secretary who took stock of the preparedness of the Central and State Governments. Chief Secretaries of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Delhi, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand, and senior officials from Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh also attended the meeting through video conferencing. Top officials of the Central Government also attended the meeting. The Cabinet Secretary observed that States and UNION Territories need to be better prepared to meet the associated challenges related to heat wave and forest fires to ensure no loss of life and to minimise damage. He stressed the importance of preparatory measures as outlined by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), statement said. Hectic talkson in NDA for Govt formation WISHLIST, DEMANDS, PARLEYS NEW DELHI : SENIOR BJP leaders, including Union Ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, held deliberations through the day on Thursday as the party set in motion for Government formation. They met at BJP President J P Naddas residence in what was seen as part of the partys exercise to reach out to allies over issues like their share of ministerial berths and pick the probables from within their party for the coalition Government. Newly-elected MPs of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) are expected to meet Narendra Modi on Friday and senior members of the alliance like TDPs N Chandrababu Naidu and JD(U)s Nitish Kumar will join the Prime Minister for a meeting with President Droupadi Murmu to present her the list of parliamentarians supporting him. He may be sworn in over the weekend, possibly on Sunday, they added. The NDA has 293 MPs, comfortably above the majority mark of 272 in the 543-member Lok Sabha. Preparing to take oath for a third straight term as the head of a coalition Government, Modi had on Wednesday chaired a meeting of the ruling alliances members who unanimously elected him as its leader. Leaders of the BJPs allyJanata Dal (United) also helddeliberations with partyPresident and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Though the regional partyhas not said anything officially on the issue, sources said itis looking to get some key ministerial berths to reclaim someof the lost ground in Biharwhere it has performed well after being seen to have fallen way behind the BJP and theRJD over the last few years inpolitical strength.With 12 MPs, the JD(U) is the second biggest BJP ally after theTelugu DesamPartys 16. The new BJP-ledGovernment will depend critically on these two parties forsurvival. BJP leaders are intouch with allies over ministerial berths and other issues. Naidu is keen that the Centreprovide Andhra Pradesh financialassistanceinbuilding its capital in Amaravati. He also wants the new Government to take steps to fulfill the Centres commitment to the State when Telangana was carved out of it, sources said. The backing of allies like the JD(U) is crucial for the BJP, as it could not reach the majority mark on its own in the Lok Sabha election. TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday directed all party MPs to attend NDAs Friday meeting in New Delhi. The Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari has been specially invited to the BJP meeting in Delhi on Friday. Themeetingwillbeattended by 12 newly elected BJP Lok Sabha members from West Bengal as well. These includeStatepartyPresident SukantaMajumdar, whohas been re-elected from the Balurghat constituency in South Dinajpur district. Meanwhile, insiders from the State unit of the BJP said that despite falling much short of expectationsofelectoral achievements in West Bengal, the Central leadershipofthepartyhasacknowledgedthe effortsof Suvendu Adhikari in the just concluded Lok Sabha polls. The BJP bagged 240 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha,32shortofanabsolute majority, while the NDA secured 293 seats. Jumbo patrolling in Pench Staff Reporter Almost six months after they arrived at Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR), the two elephants from Karnatakas Borban Elephant Camp have been engaged in PTRs rescue and patrolling activities. The elephants -- Bhima and Subhramaniyam -- now adapted to Nagpurs climate, have also got familiar with the new mahout and other staff, PTR Deputy Director Dr Prabhunath Shukla told The Hitavada. To promote eco-tourism in Chorbaoli forest range, we are allowing tourists to feed the jumbos in their camp and also click selfies with them, said Dr Shukla. Elephants are helpful in tiger rescue and patrolling deep inside the forest. There are many spots within PTR where we have no approach roads. These two elephants are used to patrol such spots. After some time, we will also start elephant safari also on some routes of the jungle, Shukla added. Manipur violence: NIA arrests key accused in transnational conspiracy NEW DELHI, THE National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday arrested a key accused from Imphal airport in a case relating to a transnational conspiracy by insurgents and terrorist outfits to exacerbate violence in Manipur and spread terror in the northeastern State. Thongminthang Haokip alias Thangboi Haokip alias Roger, a member of Kuki National Front-Military Council (KNF-MC), has been arrested under various sections of Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in a case registered suo motu by the NIA on July 19 last year, the NIA said in a statement. The conspiracy had been hatched by Kuki and Zomi insurgents backed by terrorist organisations based in the northeastern States and in neighbouring Myanmar with the aim to exploit the current ethnic unrest in the region and wage war against the Government of India through violent attacks, as per NIA investigations, it said. The accused was found to have been involved in attacks on security forces at various places during the ongoing insurgency and violence, said the statement. Roger was in touch with the insurgent group, Kuki National Front-Burma (KNF-B) of Myanmar, for logistics support to aggravate the volatile situation in the state of Manipur and create terror in the minds of the people, it said. NIA investigations have revealed the accused had met the leaders of PDF/KNF-B (Myanmar) for supply of arms, ammunition and explosives for use in the current phase of violence in Manipur, the statement said. MLA Rohani discusses public issues with Cantt Board officials Staff Reporter MLA Ashok Rohani conducted a meeting with the Chief Executive Officer of Cantonment Board, public representatives and officials of the Board to address prevailing public issues in the areas falling under the jurisdiction of the Cantonment Board. During the meeting, Rohani apprised the senior officials with the major issues and urged for their timely resolution. During the meeting he said that the categorisation of Gorabazar to Bhongadwar Road is of Type A1, which needs to be converted into Type A1-C land. The military administration has also agreed to this for the aforementioned road so that it can be developed into a road with the assistance of the Madhya Pradesh government. Similarly, there is a water problem in Sadar Bazaar and other areas, which should be resolved quickly by laying new pipelines. He also emphasised the need of large-scale tree plantation during ensuring monsoon season. MLA Ashok Rohani also asked for simplification of license process for traders and camps should be organized to address the issues. The BJP MLA said the area near Bharatmata Chowk in Sadar becomes prone to excessive waterlogging due to the main nullah get chocked with filth. Hence, to resolve the programme, the nullah must be cleaned and widen. Under the Armit Yojana 2.0, high capacity overhead tank should be constructed in the area. He also stressed needed improvement in medical facilities for women at Motilal Nehru Hospital. MLA Rohani also drew the attention of Cantonment Board officials towards cleanliness and cleaning of drains and nullahs under its jurisdiction. Those present on the occasion were Sundar Agarwal, Ajay Padam, Govind Yadav, Ashish Rao, Ved Mahavar, Sanjay Kapoor, Dr. Rishi Bavaria, Vijay Patel, Rahul Pille, Chaman Rajak, Ravi Barman and others. Municipal Commissioner inspects Naik Talao rejuvenation work Staff Reporter Municipal Commissioner Dr Abhijeet Chaudhari visited Naik Talao to inspect the rejuvenation work. The lake is located at Lalaganj, Bangladesh, locality and had almost vanished due to encroachment and draining of inlet. During the visit, Dr Chaudhari was briefed by officials about the status of the ongoing work. He directed the officials to expedite the work and ensure that they are completed before onset of monsoon. The rejuvenation work of Naik Talao is sanctioned under Amrut 2.0 Scheme of Central Government. While starting the work, the first portion that was given preference was construction of parapet wall around the lake. Now, the work to remove silt is on, said Sandip Lokhande, Executive Engineer, Public Health Department. With monsoon likely to start soon, Dr Chaudhari directed the officials to press additional machinery so that desilting is completed early. Once rains start the ferrying of excavated soil might led to inconvenience to people in the surrounding localities. The Municipal Commissioner interacted with Deepraj Pardikar, former Deputy Mayor, and Ramesh Punekar, ex-corporator, who pointed out difficulties being faced by the citizens in the area due to ongoing work. The duo said there is problem of draining of rain water during the monsoon and for the same funds be allocated for construction of storm water drains. Dr Chaudhari inspected the nullah near Naik Talao and reviewed its status. Chief Engineer, PWD, NMC, Rajiv Gaikwad, Assistant Commissioner Ghanshyam Pandhre, Executive Engineer Ajay Gedam, and others also were present. Sai plays catalyst in BJPs winning streak Staff Reporter RAIPUR, The Bharatiya Janata Partys senior tribal leader and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, Vishnu Deo Sai, has proven to be a lucky charm for the BJP. Wherever Sai campaigned in Chhattisgarh and neighboring states during the Lok Sabha elections, the party has emerged victorious. Nationally, a significant portion of the BJPs seats were secured in areas where Sai campaigned extensively. The party appears to have benefited from Sais status as a senior tribal leader in Central India. The BJP conducted an intense three-month campaign across tribal regions in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, and Telangana. Focusing on common regional issues, Sai effectively convinced voters that the BJP was best equipped to address tribal concerns. During the campaign, Sai emphasized Prime Minister Narendra Modis commitment to tribal interests, epitomized by the appointment of a tribal Chief Minister in Chhattisgarh, thereby reinforcing trust in the BJPs promises for tribal welfare. The BJP secured a total of 240 seats nationally, with 75 of those seats coming from tribal areas in central India. Sai began his campaign well before the election announcement, holding 109 public meetings and 17 road shows. Following the completion of the first three election phases in Chhattisgarh, he devoted himself entirely to campaigning in neighbouring states. Despite the intense summer heat, his helicopter was a constant presence in the election campaign. In the states where Sai led the campaign, the BJP achieved remarkable success. In Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, the party achieved a near-total sweep, winning 10 out of 11 seats in Chhattisgarh and all 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh. In Odisha, the BJP unseated the long-standing government of Naveen Patnaik, gaining power in the state assembly for the first time and securing 20 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP also performed strongly in Jharkhand, winning 8 seats, and doubled its seats in Telangana, winning 8 seats. Sai campaigned in both border and interior regions of these states. In Madhya Pradesh, Sai campaigned in areas such as Singrauli, Sidhi, Shahdol, Mandla, Dindori, Katni, and Panna. Similarly, his campaigning extended to several districts in Odisha, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh. During the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP effectively projected Sai not only as the first tribal Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh but also capitalised on his extensive organisational experience as the former state BJP President. With a political career spanning from local Panchayat to Union Minister of State and four consecutive terms as a Member of Parliament from Raigarh, Sai brought substantial political acumen to the campaign. Sai hails from the Jashpur region of Chhattisgarh, which borders Odisha and Jharkhand, and is near Madhya Pradesh. His deep understanding of the culture and political dynamics of this region has been invaluable. The Bhadrachalam region of Telangana, adjacent to Chhattisgarhs Konta and Sukma districts, shares similar tribal cultures and issues. This entire region is afflicted by Naxalism and has long demanded improved road and communication connectivity between the states. State may get major chunk in new NDA Govts Cabinet By Bhavana Aparajita Shukla As the deliberations for the distribution of Union Cabinet portfolios are reportedly underway in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at New Delhi, State is ready to claim its major share in Cabinet berths. BJP top brass from the State, including Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav and BJP State President V D Sharma and some other MPs, have proceeded for the national capital. After a clean sweep of (29/29) seats for the BJP in the State, several names are doing rounds for the key portfolios. Former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union Ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia and Faggan Singh Kulaste and State BJP chief VD Sharma are among the front-runners. Political observers say that there may be three-four berths in PMs new team. Since the annointment of Dr Mohan Yadav as Chief Minister, there were talks that longest serving CM of the State Shivraj Singh Chouhan may be sent to the Center. With a victory margin of around 8 lakh votes from Vidisha, Shivrajs key role in the Government or at the organisation cant be denied. Given his good bonding with both PM Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Minister Jyotiradiya Scindia, who had joined BJP with around 22 MLAs in 2020, consolidated his position in the party and his victory has endorsed his nomination in the new team of Council of Ministers. Besides, Scindia won his Guna seat by a margin of around 5 lakh votes. Another name in this list from the state is State President V D Sharma, who retained his Khajuraho seat by a margin of more than 5 lakh votes. During his tenure in the State, party has registered thumping victory in Assembly as well as Lok Sabha elections. In view of tribal background, name of Faggan Singh Kulaste from Mandla is among the contenders for the Cabinet berth. Weathersurprises: MSEDCLs power plans for summer go for a toss By Sagar Mohod Climate resilience is the buzzword in planning, but the State-run Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) is waking up at the fag end of summer, which has proved to be unpredictable, especially in terms of power demand in the Nagpur Circle, leading to a cascading effect on the system. Talking of Nagpur, the sudden jump in consumption by 100 MW left the system gasping for air. This resulted into power failure becoming a daily feature. Not that planners don't foresee the rise, but it is taken at industrial load which, as per officers, is generally 10 per cent on annual basis. This time, however, the warming of the planet and erratic weather patterns throughout the world also had an effect on the second capital of the State. The month of May was horrible in every single locality of the city. Those in adjoining periphery faced prolonged hours of power cuts. Intense humidity, rather than heat, led to massive surge in power demand and with that the MSEDCLs planning went for a toss. For example during the month of June 2023 the total power demand in second capital of State and its periphery was 712 MW. This year during May end itself the load shot-up to 815 MW putting officials in a tight spot. This huge gap in demand and supply is directly attributed to global warming that has thrown spanner in smooth working of weather pattern as now it changes at the drop of a hat. MSEDCL officials said they have learnt a lesson and now Headquarters would surely draw-up measures for streamlining the distribution system. But it still quite early as DPR would needed to be prepared and funds lined-up to upgrade the system. Apart from that the country's industry is struggling to meet the demand from all Discom where RDSS are being implemented. So even if MSEDCL decides to take extra measures, it will still require quite some time to execute the works on ground level. In first place, there was no planning to manage such a huge swing in power demand as for the same the entire system would now need massive upgradtion, new transformers would be needed to distribute the load effectively. Also in last few years with people finances improving each household is now opting for air conditioners. So while the system continues to lag behind, the consumers are increasingly opting for power guzzling equipments. Not that officials were sitting in one place, they tweaked the frequency of transformers to manage the increased load. However these measures proved temporary and power outages started increasing day after day. With the extra demand, MSEDCL officials have to went for emergency measures to avoid bursting of transformers, explained another officer. For the same rotational power cuts were undertaken as transformers could not handled such huge load. So at some places power cuts of few minutes would occurred every now and then as field units went for change over from one transformer to another. This happened on real time basis but sometimes situation went out of hand leading to breakdowns that only added to discomfort of citizens. And most of the time the power cuts occurred during night hours and the pattern was fixed. Mostly in dense residential localities of South Nagpur, the power cuts have now become a part and parcel of their daily life, sometimes people lived in darkness entire night. The reason most of the transformers in this region are working at 115 per cent of their capacity which is bound to resulted in breakdown. As per norms, a transformer has to work at 80 per cent of its capacity and then only it would transmit power efficiently. Another issue that is complicating upgrading the system is lack of co-ordination between different agencies. The biggest hurdle is vacant land to erect new sub-station, both for MAHATRANSCO and also MSEDCL. Similarly difficulties are faced by power utilities whenever they need to dig-up road to lay the underground cables. This issue is most prominent in South Nagpur area of city where new colonies are expanding at rapid pace, particularly on the outskirts. Further a problem with rapid expansion of power infrastructure is need to balance the power demand. In case new transformers are put-in and they do not have adequate load then also the system could trip. This is due to balancing factor and each of the transformer must have minimum load to ensure it proper working. All the sub-stations are now inter-connected and the ring to work properly, the demand must be equitable. So now a long term policy keeping in mind the climate challenges needs to be formulated to ensure round the clock availability of power. Though there is now no issue on generation front, the transmission and distribution areas remains critical to efficient delivery mechanism, felt the officials. Analysis A nonbinding deadline came and went quietly last week with the University of Idahos $685 million plan to snap up the University of Phoenix still in play, but very much in jeopardy. There are two big reasons the parties couldnt close a deal by the May 31 voluntary opt-out date: resistance at the Statehouse, and a slow-walking lawsuit. That lawsuit will take center stage again next Thursday, when Attorney General Raul Labrador takes his case against the State Board of Education to the Idaho Supreme Court. The oral arguments will come 359 days after Labrador first filed his lawsuit, alleging the State Boards closed-door discussions of a Phoenix purchase violated Idahos open meetings law. No matter what happens in court next week and how and when the Supreme Courts five justices decide the lawsuit has already delayed a purchase that Labrador has openly questioned in some of his previous legal filings. It will now be tougher, if not outright impossible, for UI to acquire a for-profit university with 85,000 students, a half centurys experience in the online arena, and a litany of reputational problems. The legal arguments havent changed much since last year back when UI and Phoenix officials expected to close their blockbuster deal by early 2024. The lawsuit centers on the State Boards closed executive sessions that preceded its May 18, 2023, approval of the Phoenix deal. The Supreme Court briefs provide a refresher course of sorts. Labrador challenges the rationale for the closed meetings: the State Boards claim that it was navigating a bidding war between UI and other suitors. Those closed-door meetings cut the public out of the process, giving birth to the controversy that plagues the deal now. The need for public awareness may never have been higher than with the massive University of Phoenix transaction, Joshua Turner, Labradors chief of constitutional litigation and policy, wrote on May 20. The State Boards hired attorneys argue that Ada County District Judge Jason Scott got it right in late January, when he deemed the closed meetings justified. The boards legal team says the closed meetings served the taxpayers, allowing Idaho to cut its best deal. If it was public knowledge that the University of Idaho was negotiating with the University of Phoenix for a purchase price of $685 million (another entity) could have swooped in and offered $690 million, Eric Stokes wrote in a May 13 brief. At its heart, this is a long legal process over government transparency, and obviously Im not going to downplay the importance of that principle. But the lawsuit has already tangibly affected the Phoenix purchase, bringing financing to a standstill. Never mind that Labradors team resoundingly lost in Scotts courtroom. Never mind the plodding trial that was marked by hours of repetitive questioning of State Board members and a bizarre delay caused when Labradors lead attorney simply failed to show up one morning, citing an illness. And never mind that Scott said Labradors office is responsible for $240,000 of State Board legal fees. The limited edition Honda SH 125i Vetro sold at a dealership in HCMC's District 5. Photo by VnExpress/Pham Trung The limited Vetro edition of the Honda SH 125i scooter, made for the European market, is being sold in Vietnam by a private dealership at VND140-170 million (US$5,500-6,700). The model, manufactured in Italy, was imported by a dealership in HCMCs District 5 and sold at twice the price of the basic SH 125i of VND74-83.4 million. Imports of Honda SH used to be common until 2016 when the Japanese company began assembling it at its plant in Vinh Phuc Province. Nonetheless, limited edition models are still imported from Thailand, Indonesia and Europe by private dealerships, who sell them at high prices to wealthy buyers. In late 2023 the limited Vespa 946 10 Anniversarios model was sold by private dealerships at nearly VND700 million before being officially launched at VND425 million. Since the SH 125i Vetro will not be officially sold in Vietnam, its price can shoot up later on the secondary market. There is no clear political path toward a ceasefire and political settlement in Syria, according to the United Nations, and the lack of a political resolution to its civil war leaves the country in a protection crisis. Some 7 million people have been internally displaced within Syria, while millions live as refugees in neighboring countries. The one positive development is the recent extension to keep open until August 13 the Bab al-Salam and Al Raee border crossings, currently the only conduits for humanitarian deliveries to 4.1 million people in Northwestern Syria. There is also the possibility that the use of the Bab al-Hawa crossing will also be extended. But these crossings must be re-authorized on a regular basis, which creates uncertainty and prevents long-term planning on the part of humanitarian agencies. The United States remains committed to the UNs provision of humanitarian assistance, including through cross-border and crossline modalities in Syria. We pledged $593 million dollars to that end, said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, United States Permanent Representative to the UN. At the same time, weve made clear that reauthorizing the crossings at Bab al-Salam and al-Raee in 90-day increments is not a sustainable approach to addressing the scale of humanitarian needs in Syria, she said. We reiterate our call for the Syrian regime to allow long-term UN access through Bab al-Hawa crossing, well before the six-month authorization expires in July. Syrians cannot be left hanging on the edge every few months. [Given] Syrias dire humanitarian situation, human rights violations, and lack of accountability for regime crimes and abuses, it is no wonder that Syrian refugees overwhelmingly believe they cannot return to their country, said Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield. It is clear that the Syrian regime has not created the conditions for safe, voluntary, and dignified returns. It has yet to guarantee humanitarian access or end its practices of disappearances, unjust detentions, torture, and death. It has yet to clarify the status of missing individuals or put a stop to mandatory conscription. And it has yet to respect rights related to housing, land, and property. It is long past time that the regime end its intransigence, and genuinely work with the opposition to reach agreement on a path forward for all of Syria, said Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield. The United States will continue to support efforts to hold the Assad regime accountable for its atrocities and will continue to lead the way in providing assistance to the Syrian people. On May 27, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, or North Korea, launched a new type of satellite carrier rocket with a spy satellite aboard. Two days later, North Korea fired off ten short-range ballistic missiles. The May 27 launch failed. Nonetheless, it was still a success in that it served as a test of North Koreas latest long-range missile technology. This is yet another instance of violation of United Nations resolutions, and a grave threat to peace and denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula. The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the Democratic Peoples Republic of Koreas May 27 and May 29 launches, said Robert Wood, United States Alternative Representative for Special Political Affairs at the United Nations. The UN Security Council has repeatedly called on the DPRK to cease its unlawful weapons program and engage in diplomacy, he said. Yet the DPRK has continued to advance its unlawful weapons program at an alarming rate, having launched well over 100 ballistic missiles since the beginning of 2022, said Ambassador Wood. Each of these launches successful or not is a flagrant violation of UN Security Council resolutions. Each launch informs the DPRK of its capability gaps and allows Pyongyang to further advance its weapons programs. Attempts by the UN Security Council to condemn North Korea and hold it accountable for these violations are being blocked by Russia and China. Russia has also vetoed the re-authorization of a panel of UN experts on sanctions against the DPRK. Coincidentally, North Korea has unlawfully transferred dozens of ballistic missiles and over 11,000 containers of munitions to aid Russias war against Ukraine, said Ambassador Wood. No wonder, Russia vetoed the 1718 committee Panel of Experts mandate renewal in March. Moscow didnt want further scrutiny on its sanctions violating activities with the DPRK. Russias veto denies all UN Member States of objective, comprehensive reporting and analysis on the compliance of UN sanctions on the DPRK, all of which remain in effect. The overwhelming majority of this Council has consistently condemned the DPRKs intensifying threat to international peace and security; is fully committed to upholding the Security Council resolutions; and has recommitted to our shared goal of denuclearization as fundamental to this effort, said Ambassador Wood. It is time to voice a united and clear denunciation of the DPRKs behavior, and work together to prevent the DPRKs procurement activities and revenue flows which support its unlawful [Weapons of Mass Destruction] and ballistic missile programs. Spokeswoman of the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pham Thu Hang. (Photo: VNA) While answering a reporter's question about the US's policy towards Cuba at the ministrys regular press conference, Hang said Vietnam acknowledged that the US has removed Cuba from the list of countries not fully cooperating in counterterrorism, but still kept it in the list of state sponsors of terrorism. She reiterated Vietnams consistent stance on strongly supporting the UN General Assembly's resolutions and requesting the US to end its blockage and embargo against Cuba. "We wish that the US will make necessary steps to reach a full normalisation of relations with Cuba and contribute to peace, cooperation, stability and development in the Americas and the world," the diplomat noted. Responding to a reporters query on the Russia - Ukraine conflict, Hang said Vietnams stance on this issue has been stated on many occasions, reaffirming the countrys support for the settlement of disputes and disagreements through peaceful means, in accordance with international law and the United Nations Charter, taking into account the legitimate interests of all relevant parties, for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world at large. "We welcome and stand ready to join international intermediary efforts to seek peaceful and sustainable solutions to the Russia - Ukraine conflict in line with international law and the UN Charter with the participation of concerned parties," she stressed./. BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) -- China's Chang'e-6 probe, carrying expectations from scientists worldwide, is currently in orbit around the moon, awaiting the optimal moment for its return journey. If everything goes well, Chang'e-6 will enable China to retrieve the first-ever samples from the far side of the moon in human history. Prior to its return, China has pledged to make the samples available to international researchers, a commitment underscored by its consistent actions and promises. With the precious samples, Chang'e-6 will offer scientists a unique window into the moon's evolutionary history and potentially even the origins of our solar system. Given the rarity of the opportunity, China feels an even greater obligation to share it, as Chinese people believe that if we present roses to others' hands, the fragrance will also linger on ours. Chang'e-6 stands as evidence of the country's consistent promotion of international cooperation in the field of space exploration. The spacecraft carried four international payloads, and foreign scientists invited to witness the launch and lunar landing of their instruments aboard Chang'e-6 expressed profound gratitude to China. Josef Aschbacher, Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), also tweeted his thanks, noting that the ESA is proud to have a part in the mission. China has been a steadfast supporter of space cooperation with Europe, encompassing projects from lunar missions to the joint development of scientific satellites and astronaut training. However, European officials and scientists are increasingly concerned that such cooperation will be dampened by escalating geopolitical tensions. According to Karl Bergquist, the administrator of European and external relations of ESA, the ESA is facing more and more restrictions in its space cooperation with China, as it uses a lot of U.S. components but cannot export them due to the U.S. ban. It's clearly impossible for European countries to entirely avoid using U.S. components. Actually, the essence of cooperation lies in pooling the wisdom of diverse countries to jointly explore space. Regrettably, the United States, once embroiled in a fierce space race with the Soviet Union, continues to regard outer space as a stage for flexing its muscles. It has imposed restrictions on cooperation with China in space technologies and exploration, extending the prohibitions to its allies as well. As a result, China pursues a self-reliant and self-developed approach in its space endeavors, and has achieved tremendous progress on this front. Yet, even under the toughest challenges, China always believes that space exploration is not a zero-sum competition and needs collective wisdom and efforts that transcend boundaries on Earth. Now deemed one of the most reliable partners by European scientists participating in the Chang'e-6 mission, China will continue to forge bridges for cooperation and enable more nations to embrace the new frontier of the moon and space. China has repeatedly stated that it remains open to space cooperation with the United States. The question remains whether U.S. authorities will heed the calls from their own scientists and the global scientific community to stop hindering the noble pursuit of collective advancement in science and knowledge. As Neil Melville-Kenney, the technical officer of the ESA instrument on Chang'e-6, has said, space exploration encourages us to consider our planet as one and our people as one. The closer we work together, the greater things we can achieve. Editor: WXL The Nigeria Police Force has warned traffic violators against abducting security operatives who are legally on duty to enforce traffic laws while ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, Force Public Relations Officer, issued the warning on Friday in a video posted on the Forces official X account. Dont abduct our officers. Dont take them away. Follow them wherever they are taking youmost especially their bases, units, and offices, he said, adding that under no circumstances should such be the norm. He decried a trending situation whereby drivers would rather fight, or drive off law enforcement agents who contravene their vehicles, stressing that they are in great violation and risk severe sanctions. Adejobi also emphasised that whatever the case may be, drivers are obliged to obey the officers, whether they want to take them to their stations or take over their vehicles. We have seen cases where Federal Road Safety Corps officers contravene vehicles and drivers manhandle them. Weve seen evident cases where state-owned traffic and road agencies contravene vehicles, and drivers beat them and/or take them away. This is not too good. Once you have violated traffic law and your vehicle has been contravened, you are to follow them. You are to comply. You are obliged to obey the instructions of these law enforcement officers, he stated. The police image maker also weighed in on the danger and possible accidents such an act could portend, which he advised should be avoided. He stated that making complaints to appropriate quarters and channels is also important rather than taking laws into ones own hands. And of course, if you notice you are not so comfortable with thatprobably because they have gone beyond their boundaries and they have violated the standard operating procedures of their organisationsparticularly operatives of the Nigeria Police Forceyou have the number of all our (states) PROs. You have our social media platforms and handles at your fingertips. Reach out to us to complain, whatever the case may be, he added. Beginning of a new vote culture ? The hopes and expectations | It is a massive mandate and what makes the victory margin all that more remarkable lies in the fact that it came against all odds. A strong message that elections can be won without buying votes and without resorting to strong arm tactics has been delivered. Simply put, the people were taken in by the points delivered, the story that was put on offer, a story that talked about Manipur and the idea that goes along with the understanding of Manipur as a geo-political reality. As the result of the Lok Sabha elections has demonstrated, especially in the Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency, the story of Manipur needs to be seen and understood in the backdrop of so many realities. To get a better feel of the story of Manipur, one has to scratch the surface and understand why the demand that the Meitei folks be included in the Scheduled Tribe list of the Constitution of India needs to be understood in the proper perspective. As MP elect Professor Angomcha Bimol Akoijam argued many times, the rationale behind creating an Assembly within the Assembly in the form and reality of the Hill Areas Committee needs to be questioned. And this question may well be raised in the context of the fact that the Imphal valley is just a few metres lower than Churachandpur, a place which has been designated as a hill district and hence comes under the ambit of the HAC. A line of argument which the Professor has put to good use in his articulation on the ethnic clash when the confrontation was at its peak and the Left leaning, so called liberal media in the rest of the country were championing and even helping in telling the false narratives that were spread across the country and the world. It is the clear cut articulation, the no mincing words style of approach to the many burning issues of the place and the people that the Professor managed to win the trust, confidence and hope of the people at the hustings. A point which should not be forgotten. Again it is for this very reason, why so many, including those who always kept a safe and respectable distance from any election in the past, chose to volunteer and canvass for the Professor. These were some of the pull factors that worked and worked they did for remember the BJP has an overwhelming majority in the House of 60. It was also more or less the same thing in the Outer Parliamentary Constituency from where the young and promising Alfred Kanggam Arthur emerged victorious with a comfortable margin of over 80 thousand. Now pitch the victory margin against the threats, the diktats issued against the Congress candidate, the presence of 5 NPF MLAs, the support extended by the BJP which is in power in Imphal and one can work out the difficult circumstances under which the vote was fought and won. Coming to the Inner Parliamentary Constituency, it should not be forgotten that the election was held during extraordinary times and it is in line with this that the people also responded to the situation in an extraordinary manner and voted accordingly. No votes were bought by the Congress candidate or the party and it was only the prospect, the idea that convinced the people to vote for the Professor. The question that is important now is whether this voting behaviour would turn out to be a flash in the pan or will leave a mark on the electoral norms of Manipur or not. Will it be a case of going back to the earlier times when money and muscle power played a big and at time decisive role, once Manipur returns to a semblance of normalcy ? Or will the vote of 2024 leave such a mark it will leave behind a legacy which will be nurtured and promoted ? Only the people can decide this, but remember a lot will also depend on how the MP elect conducts himself inside and outside Parliament. One also hopes that the MP elects do not forget that they are in a way ambassadors of Manipur to the rest of the country and how they conduct themselves once they are in Delhi will go a long way in carrying forward the story of Manipur, particularly how erroneously the Meiteis have been portrayed in the past and not so recent past. The mettle of the Meitei folks lie not only in the sportsfield but also in politics where only the best are chosen to represent them is a line that should now ideally stick with the understanding of Manipur. The Calcutta High Court on Thursday called for greater Centre-state cooperation in West Bengal to prevent events of post-poll violence. A Vacation Bench of Justices Kausik Chanda and Apurba Sinha Ray made the observation while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) on the issue. The PIL, filed by an organisation named Rashtravadi Ainjivi, alleged incidents of post-poll violence have started surfacing since the evening of 4 June after the trend of Lok Sabha elections in the state became clear. The petitioner also alleged that in most cases, the state police were refusing to accept complaints from the victims of post-poll violence. Advertisement After a detailed hearing in the matter, the Vacation Bench observed that the Union and state governments have equal responsibility in preventing such events of post-poll violence and both should work in close coordination to prevent such events. It also observed that the central armed police forces (CAPF) would have the authority to act if the state police were unable to bring the situation under control in such cases of post-poll violence. The Vacation Bench also directed the state director general of police (DGP) to make arrangements so that the victims could register their complaints through email at his office. As per the court directive, the DGPs office should forward those complaints to the police station concerned and also ensure that they act on them. The office of the DGP was also directed to submit an affidavit on the number of FIRs registered on the basis of the complaints on post-poll violence and also publish these figures on the website of the state police. After just one month, the miscreants gang further looted two more houses located a few yards away from the local police investigation centre in the same City Centre locality in the heart of Durgapur town today. The gang swept away a meagre cash, brass utensils, watches worth Rs 25,000 from the houses of Namita Chakraborty and Indrani Dey today. The value of looted articles though wasnt much but its more astonishing that the miscreants braved to continue looting further close to the police station, which exposed the fragility of policing in the city and their poor surveillance system, exclaimed Parimal Agasty, a social worker of City Centre area. On 5 May, the houses of next door neighbours Adhir Ghosh and Rita Das on Street 23, near the Police Investigation Centre were robbed. City Centre was under high security surveillance cover as the Chief Minister and one Union minister were staying for several days for their election campaigns. The houses of Ghosh and Das were within a kilometre from the CMs camping lodge. Advertisement After Lok Sabha election results declaration, Moslem Sheikh, a Trinamul Congress worker, was found dead near Daierbazar in Chapra of Nadia on Wednesday evening. The 52-year-old resident of Hatra was found lying on the barren land near Bhagwanpur leading to Ichapur ghat under the jurisdiction of Chapra police station. Police officials revealed that Sheikhs body has been sent for an autopsy to determine the cause of death. Preliminary investigations suggest he may have been shot, but confirmation awaits the post-mortem report. Authorities also noted that Sheikh was wanted in connection with several cases. Advertisement Jeber Sheikh, a prominent Trinamul Congress leader in Chapra, expressed shock upon hearing the news. I heard the information last evening when I was busy celebrating the victory of our party leader Mahua Moitra in the Lok Sabha polls. The motive behind the murder remained unclear as the victims family was primarily unable to provide any details. But, later, we came to know that two criminals shot him dead near Bhagwanpur liquor shop around 3 pm. The family members have lodged a complaint with the Chapra police and demanded immediate arrests of the culprits. Insiders within the party speculate that the incident may be linked to internal conflicts. The deceased was reportedly close to Jeber Sheikh, and there are suspicions that a rival faction led by party MLA Rukbanur Rahman could be involved in the murder. The family members of the deceased have also lodged complaints against eight other persons, including one Maidul Islam Dafadar alias Jhantu who reportedly belongs to the MLA group. The police have launched a thorough investigation into the case, aiming to uncover the circumstances leading to Sheikhs death. B. Shanker Jaiswal, Joint Commissioner (Tech, Cyber and Licensing), Delhi Police, said on Thursday that counterfeiting must not be permitted to become an activity of low risk and high gain for the counterfeiters. The most effective strategy to combat this menace is to invert this dynamic, making counterfeiting a high-risk, low-reward venture, he said. Achieving this entails increasing the volume of heavily counterfeited goods in the market and imposing reduced taxes on such products. By doing this, we can deter counterfeiters and safeguard both consumers and legitimate businesses and the overall economy, Jaiswal said. Advertisement Addressing the FICCI CASCADE (Committee Against Smuggling and Counterfeiting Destroying the Economy) stakeholder consultation Securing the Digital Frontier: Cooperation, Collaboration, and Best Practices, Jaiswal said, Counterfeiting in the physical and the digital space has become pervasive and it affects consumers, government revenues, companies and even researchers alike who spend time and effort in creating new products. The digital space has become complicated and complex with counterfeit activities proliferating from fake profiles to fraudulent domain names. To effectively combat this trend, advancements in technology, such as blockchain, are crucial. G.R. Raghavender, Senior Consultant, CIPAM (Cell for IPR Promotion and Management) and former Joint Secretary, DPIIT, said, To safeguard the Make in India initiative against digital counterfeiting, strengthening enforcement measures and implementing robust civil and criminal remedies are also essential steps to dissuade the counterfeiters. Additionally, to shield our growing startup ecosystem, similar initiatives must be extended. This includes the establishment of a modernised and comprehensive framework to safeguard the innovations and creations of startups from counterfeit infringement. Amit Goyal, DCP (Crime), Delhi Police, said, Counterfeiting, one of the oldest known crimes, has been affecting virtually every sector, from life-saving drugs to consumer goods. In the digital world, counterfeiters have grown increasingly organised, posing formidable challenges in identifying counterfeit products. This not only jeopardises lives, but also undermines the economy at large. To combat this threat effectively, prioritizing technology training for law enforcement is crucial. Anil Rajput, Chairman, FICCI CASCADE, said, FICCI CASCADE is honoured to host this crucial discussion on the occasion of World Anti-Counterfeiting Day. Counterfeiting poses a significant threat not only to consumers but also to the health, progress, and development of nations worldwide. Addressing counterfeiting requires a multifaceted approach including legal actions, robust enforcement measures, consumer awareness and industry collaboration. It is heartening to note that the government is bolstering its capabilities to combat counterfeiting through collaborative efforts, technological advancements and proactive measures. During the event, an open house discussion on Technological Innovations & Best Practices in Combating Counterfeiting Online was held to foster cooperation and collaboration among the stakeholders to strengthen anti-counterfeiting efforts and protect consumers from the risks associated with counterfeit goods in the digital era. The session was attended by different stakeholders such as cyber-law experts and representatives from USPTO, JETRO, British High Commission India, Embassy of Denmark in India, Procter & Gamble, Amazon, HUL, Diageo India, Marico, Pernod Richard, Asian Paints, and Western Digital. The Political Affairs Committee( PAC) of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee on Friday adopted nine resolutions, which would be pressed for implementation in the state. The PAC meeting chaired by convenor and partys General Secretary Avinash Pandey and state president Ajay Rai along with other members also congratulated the workers of the party as well as the alliance Samajwadi Party for the victory of INDIA bloc in the Lok Sabha polls. The Congress has won six seats after contesting 17 seats while the SP won 37 seats. Advertisement The nine resolutions passed in the PAC meeting are: -Expressed gratitude to the workers and leaders of the alliance -Reiterated the resolve to fight to protect the Constitution -Caste census should be conducted and participation of OBC castes should be in proportion to their population. -Participation of youth, women and marginalized communities should be ensured in the organization. -Exit poll scam should be investigated. -Five resolutions passed committing to fight for justice -UP law and order has collapsed, demand for resignation from Chief Minister. -Agniveer scheme should be scrapped. -Farmers subsidy should be restored. :The Central Governments financial schemes have significantly outperformed targets in Uttar Pradeshs eight aspirational districts. As per the quarterly report of the State Level Bankers Committee, recently presented to Chief Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra, schemes like Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJY), Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), and Atal Pension Yojana (APY) have collectively exceeded their target by 332 percent, officials here on Friday said. Notably, the State Level Bankers Committee is a forum that acts as a bridge between various banks, other financial institutions, and the Central and State governments. Advertisement This forum reviews the progress of various development programs through quarterly meetings and prepares strategies to meet set targets. In Uttar Pradesh, the forum is coordinated by the Bank of Baroda. The state has eight aspirational districts where Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath personally monitors development schemes. These districts are Bahraich, Balrampur, Chandauli, Chitrakoot, Fatehpur, Shravasti, Siddharthnagar, and Sonbhadra. To implement development schemes effectively and transparently, the State government and the State Level Bankers Committee provide several financial services in these districts. These districts have performed excellently in schemes like PMJJY, PMSBY, and APY. Notably, Fatehpur exceeded the national benchmark for APY (2886 beneficiaries per lakh population) by achieving 9578 beneficiaries, which is 332 percent more than the target. In Atal Pension Yojana (APY), against the target of 2886 beneficiaries per lakh population, Bahraich achieved 4399 beneficiaries (152 percent), Balrampur 4559 (158 percent), Chandauli 5013 (174 percent), Chitrakoot 6717 (233 percent), Fatehpur 9578 (332 percent), Shravasti 3182 (110 percent), Siddharthnagar 4563 (158 percent), and Sonbhadra 4251 (147 percent). Looking at the performance of the aspirational districts, Bahraich achieved 13977 beneficiaries in the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJY) against a target of 9772 per lakh population, which is 143 percent. Similarly, Balrampur achieved 8183 (84 percent), Chandauli 7980 (82 percent), Chitrakoot 14681 (150 percent), Fatehpur 13537 (130 percent), Shravasti 11955 (122 percent), Siddharthnagar 8854 (91 percent), and Sonbhadra achieved 12663 beneficiaries per lakh population, which is 130 percent. Similarly, in the case of Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), Bahraich achieved 25866 beneficiaries (85 percent) against the target of 30303 beneficiaries per lakh population, Balrampur 23611 (78 percent), Chandauli 32521 (107 percent), Chitrakoot 38037 (126 percent), Fatehpur 35664 (118 percent), Shravasti 20318 (67 percent), Siddharthnagar 29411 (97 percent), and Sonbhadra achieved 26692 (88 percent). According to Sameer Ranjan Panda, the convener of the Uttar Pradesh State Level Bankers Committee and General Manager of Bank of Baroda, the performance is expected to improve further under the saturation of eligible accounts under the Jan Suraksha Yojana in the Jan Suraksha Saturation Campaign launched by the government. Annu Kapoors film Hamare Baarah has been embroiled in controversy for some time now, as it has emerged that the Karnataka government has banned its release for at least two weeks or until further notice. This decision comes after the Bombay High Court lifted the injunction on the films release. According to ANI, the Karnataka governments move aims to prevent potential communal tensions with the release of Hamare Baarah. The states Congress government made this decision under the provisions of the Karnataka Cinemas (Regulation) Act, 1964, after considering requests from various minority organizations and delegations who had viewed the films trailer. This decision comes in the wake of the Bombay High Courts approval for the films release, following the filmmakers agreement to remove two controversial dialogues. Additionally, the High Court has ordered the formation of a committee, including at least one Muslim member, to screen the movie and report on its content. The committee is tasked with scrutinizing the movies themes and the claims made in the petition. Advertisement Earlier, the High Court had halted the films release in response to a petition alleging its derogatory portrayal of Islamic faith and married Muslim women. Filed by Azhar Basha Tamboli, the petition contends that the film violates the Cinematograph Act of 1952 and would infringe upon constitutional articles 19(2) and 25. According to the petitioners Advocate, Mayur Khandeparkar, the trailer of Hamare Baarah depicts married Muslim women as lacking individual rights in society, allegedly misinterpreting Aayat 223, a verse in the Quran. Khandeparkar also noted the absence of any disclaimer or reference to the CBFC certification in the trailer, despite prior instructions for modifications. Since the trailers release and the High Courts injunction, the film has sparked intense debates regarding its themes and interpretation of religious verses. Originally titled Hum Do, Hamare Baarah, the film is directed by Kamal Chandra. Actor Manoj Joshi, commenting on the controversy, stated that the film does not target any specific religion. The reception of the film by audiences and critics, as well as the outcome of future legal proceedings, will only become clear after its release. BJP leaders of Kashi on Friday handed over the Lok Sabha winning certificate to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. After the counting of votes on June 4, Varanasi District Magistrate handed over the certificate to BJP leaders. BJP Divisional President Dilip Patel along with public representatives and prominent officials of Kashi handed over the certificate of Prime Minister Modi at his residence. Advertisement BJP sources here said that PM Modi interacted with the people and gave blessings. He also had a detailed discussion with them on their upcoming plans and works. PM Modi won the Varanasi seat by a margin of over 1.52 lakh votes. He defeated Ajay Rai of the Congress. The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Delhi High Court to decide within three months the bail plea of Sukanya Monda daughter of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Anubrata Mondal who was arrested in an alleged money laundering case related to cattle smuggling in West Bengal. Anubrata Mondal TMCs Birbhum district president too is in judicial custody in the same case. A vacation bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Sandeep Mehta in its order said, We request the High Court of Delhi to dispose of the bail application filed by the petitioner expeditiously and preferably within three months from the date of re-opening (of the High Court). Advertisement The bench asked the high court to decide the bail plea within three months of its reopening taking note of Sukanya Mondals advocate telling the court that the bail proceedings before the High Court are being repeatedly deferred. Sukanya Mondal was arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on April 26, 2023. In High Court, she has challenged a trial courts June 1, 2023 order rejecting her bail plea. The High Court had adjourned her bail plea till July 12. The case involves allegations that cattle were being illegally smuggled to Bangladesh by bribing Border Security Force (BSF) personnel. Anubrata Mondal was arrested by the CBI in connection with the case on August 11, 2022, and later ED arrested him on November 17, 2022, in the alleged multi-crore rupees cattle smuggling scam. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected as the Leader of Lok Sabha, Leader of the BJP and Leader of National Democratic Alliance Parliamentary Party during a meeting of newly elected MPs of the alliance on Friday, thus paving the way for the coalition to stake claim to form the government. Senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh proposed Modis name as the leader of Lok Sabha, leader of the BJP and the leader of the NDA Parliamentary Party. BJP leaders Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari seconded the three proposals. Advertisement Shah said I congratulate everyone for winning the Lok Sabha Elections again. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has proposed the name of Narendra Modi as the leader of Lok Sabha, leader of the BJP and NDA Parliamentary Party. I wholeheartedly support this This proposal is not only the desire of the people sitting here. This is the proposal of 140 crore people in the countryThis is the voice of the country that PM Modi leads the country for the next 5 years.., he added. BJP president J P Nadda welcomed all the NDA partners at the meeting held at the Samvidhan Sadan at the Old Parliament premises. Earlier, Modi was greeted and welcomed by the NDA leaders at the NDA Parliamentary Party. PM Modi respectfully touched the Constitution of India with his forehead as he arrived for the NDA Parliamentary Party meeting. Top leaders of NDA partners, including JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy, Jana Sena Party founder Pawan Kalyan, NCP chief Ajit Pawar and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan extended their full-hearted support and pledged to work under PM Modis guidance. The NDA partners supported the proposal of naming Narendra Modi as the leader of Lok Sabha, Leader of the BJP and NDA Parliamentary Party. Praising PM Modi, Naidu said he was He is the right leader at the right time he is an asset. Newly elected MPs, Chief Ministers and other leaders of the NDA chanted Modi-Modi during the meeting Addressing the newly elected lawmakers, Nadda said I want to inform that NDA got a majority in the Lok Sabha Elections and we also formed out government in Odisha. He expressed his happiness that the NDA government was also formed in Andhra Pradesh. In Arunachal Pradesh too, we formed our government for the third time. In Sikkim, NDA formed its government too He remembered that 10 years ago, there was an indifferent India and averred that it was said about India that nothing was going to change here and today, 10 years later, under the leadership of PM Modi, the same India has become an aspiring India and has set out with the resolution of a developed India Jubilant people were seen celebrating outside the Parliament building. Samajwadi Party MLA Irfan Solanki, his brother Rizwan Solanki, and three others were on Friday convicted in the Jajmau arson case in Kanpur and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment. With a jail term of 7 years, Irfan Solanki could face disqualification from the UP Assembly. Solanki, a four-time MLA from the Sisamau assembly segment in Kanpur, was found guilty along with his brother and three others in the case. Special judge Satyendra Nath Tripathi of the MP-MLA Court pronounced the judgment on June 3 last. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 30,500 on the convicts. Advertisement The other three accused who were awarded the 7-year jail term are Mohammad Sharif, Israel Aatewala, and Shaukat Ali. The incident dates back to November 7, 2022, when the house of Nazir Fatima, located in Defence Colony of Jajmau, caught fire. Fatima had accused SP MLA Irfan Solanki, his brother Rizwan Solanki, and their associates of setting the house on fire. The court convicted all five accused Irfan, Rizwan, Mohd Sharif, Shaukat Ali, and Israel Aatewala on June 3 on charges of arson, causing harm, assault, and threatening to kill. Irfan attended the court hearing through video conferencing from Maharajganj jail when the punishment was pronounced. The remaining four accused were present in the court in person. During the sentencing hearing, the prosecution argued that as a public servant, Irfan Solanki bore more responsibility and should receive maximum punishment and fine. The lawyers of the plaintiff argued that the victim, being poor and homeless, should receive the maximum amount of fine from the accused. On behalf of the defence side, Irfan Rizwans advocates Saeed Naqvi, Shivakant Dixit, and Karim Ahmed Siddiqui argued that Solankis position as an MLA and the jeopardy to his legislative powers necessitated a more lenient sentence. Delhi Police have launched a probe after three men, also labourers were nabbed for entering a highly secure Parliament on forged Aadhaar cards, an official said on Friday. The incident occurred on June 4 and the three were identified as Kasim, Monis and Soyeb. The three have been booked under Sections 465 (forgery), Section 419 (cheating by personation), Section 120B (criminal conspiracy), Section 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and Section 468 (forgery for cheating) at Parliament Street police station. Advertisement According to FIR, the CISF official deployed at Parliament House, Iron Gate No. 03 for checking photo IDs, on June 4 at 1.30 p.m. detected three workers Kasim, Monis and Soyeb, all residents of Uttar Pradesh, while they were trying to get entry on Casual entry pass. Monis and Kasim displayed the same Aadhaar card number with the individuals photo. They made these forged documents under a conspiracy and used them as genuine and Kasim also impersonated Monis, read the FIR. The FIR further said that all three workers are working under the contractor Sahnawaj Alam who hired them. Furthermore, it seems to be either one or both Aadhaar cards of Monis and Kasim were forged, it said. They were hired for construction work in the MP lounge. Rising temperatures are increasing the risk of heart health, contributing to a surge in chances of death from cardiovascular diseases, said experts on World Environment Day on Wednesday. World Environment Day is observed every year on June 5 to raise awareness about climate change and its effects, both on the flora and fauna, as well as human health. The theme this year is Land restoration, desertification, and drought resilience. The risk of death due to cardiovascular diseases rises with every 1-degree Celsius increase in temperature. Studies indicate that approximately 489,000 heat-related deaths occurred annually between 2000 and 2019, with 45 per cent of these deaths taking place in Asia. Advertisement Recent data from the Health Ministry on heat-related illnesses and deaths in India, reported 605 deaths due to different cardiovascular diseases in May this year. There were at least 80 deaths due to heat strokes, including both confirmed and suspected cases, in May. In addition, 56 confirmed deaths occurred due to heat strokes between March and May, of which 46 occurred in May alone. The human body is adept at regulating its internal temperature through mechanisms such as sweating and increased blood flow to the skin. However, during extreme heat, this thermoregulatory system can become overwhelmed. As the body struggles to cool itself, the heart has to work harder to pump blood, which increases strain and elevates blood pressure, Dr RR Dutta, HOPD, Internal Medicine, Paras Health, Gurugram. This stress can trigger a cascade of adverse events, ranging from dizziness and nausea to severe complications including heart attack, stroke, and even sudden death, he added. The expert noted that the burden of these heat-related cardiovascular risks falls disproportionately on vulnerable communities. Elderly people, those with pre-existing heart conditions, and low-income populations are at high risk. Limited access to air conditioning, inadequate hydration due to economic constraints, and social isolation can exacerbate the dangers of heat waves for these groups, leading to a higher incidence of heat-related illnesses and deaths. Dr Dutta stressed the need for building more sustainable and heat-resistant infrastructure is also essential for long-term protection. A recent study by researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology-Bhubaneswar showed that urbanisation alone is responsible for 60 per cent of the warming trend in Indian cities. Despite accounting for only about 1 per cent of the land, cities house more than half of the worlds inhabitants, revealed the findings, published in Nature journal. Heat waves are caused mostly by climate change and weather patterns disruptions, Hisham Mundol, Chief Advisor, Environmental Defense Fund, India, told IANS. Moreover, the urban heat island effect where reduced vegetation, increased concretisation, and concentrations raise temperatures, increases the risk. Hisham noted that mitigation is both possible and is urgently required. It requires both reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing forest cover. Dr Dutta emphasised the need for proper hydration, staying indoors during peak heat hours, and wearing loose, breathable clothing. Ahead of her crucial scheduled official visit to India from June 21-22, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to visit India from June 7-8 to attend her Indian counterpart Narendra Modis swearing-in ceremony after he won a third term. Earlier, Sheikh Hasina congratulated Narendra Modi on the NDAs win in the 18th Lok Sabha elections. Mr Modi had expressed gratitude to Sheikh Hasina for her kind wishes about his reelection to a third term. He tweeted, I look forward to working together to further strengthen our people-centric partnership, citing the historical ties that have grown significantly over the last ten years between Bangladesh and India. Hasinas visit demonstrates not only how important it is for Bangladesh to plan its ties with India, but also how India really views Bangladesh as a good neighbor and has shown excellent neighborhood diplomacy. Bangladesh is similarly prepared to collaborate with India in order to advance the sensible and steady growth of bilateral ties, which is in the best interests of both nations citizens. This further demonstrates the commitment of both governments to strengthening their relationship. Given how Bangladesh stresses its positive connections with India and how the two leaders have a cordial and personal relationship, Prime Minister Hasina was among the first international leaders to congratulate Mr. Modi. As the relationship between Bangladesh and India approaches its 53rd anniversary in December 2024, this year marks a significant turning point as both Bangladesh and India have just held their national elections. The leadership in both nations thus has a reflective moment to evaluate progress and map out potential avenues for collaboration. The conversations, meetings and engagements during Hasinas trip may demonstrate how eager the Indian government and people are to work with Bangladesh by increasing cooperation and reciprocal growth. Advertisement This has grown significantly, especially when it comes to commerce, trans-shipment, transit, tourism, and important government-to-government ties. On May 9, during the pivotal national election, Indias Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra travelled to Dhaka to demonstrate the breadth of ties between Bangladesh and India. In addition, he invited Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to visit India on June 21- 22 and they spoke about significant bilateral concerns. Important topics including Teesta, visas and border killings were also addressed by the Foreign Secretary when he was in Dhaka. However, in addition to highlighting the strong relationship between the two countries, Sheikh Hasinas swift and receptive visit to Delhi after Mr Modis inauguration for a third term revitalized the idea of an IndiaBangladesh community shared by common development and standing. Delhi and Dhakas relationship has long been described as an unshakable, unwavering friendship that is based on respect, trust, and a dedication to real, people-centered collaboration. With PM Modi and PM Hasina promising to keep cooperating to further strengthen the long-standing and close ties under the renewed mandate towards realizing the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047 and Smart Bangladesh 2041, there are many opportunities for both India and Bangladesh to deepen their relationship. In order to create a favorable environment for Bangladeshs national development, the new Indian government is expected to uphold the nations consistent and stable foreign and domestic policies, and continue to forge stronger ties with its neighbors, including Bangladesh, while acknowledging the significant improvements the lives of their people in the past ten years. Additionally, both leaders have expressed their desire to further strengthen the transformative relationship in all areas, including people-to-people contacts, energy security, connectivity, including digital linkages, and economic and development partnerships. Under their leadership, ties between Bangladesh and India have significantly strengthened. During the last ten years, friendship has grown. The issue of security in Indias north-eastern states has been resolved by Bangladesh. Both countries may now work to strengthen their bonds in the days ahead. The attempts to execute the Teesta deal and renew the Ganga pact, as well as put an end to border murders, would continue if the two administrations work closely. Several agreements, such as the exchange of enclaves, the land border agreement, road transit, and permission to utilize the sea ports of Chittagong and Mongla, were inked between the two nations under the Modi-Hasina administration. The partnership between India and Bangladesh will thus get a lot of attention since it demonstrates a dynamic and evolving collaboration that goes beyond basic infrastructural assistance. The healthy and stable relationship between India and Bangladesh serves both countries interests and promotes peace and prosperity both locally and globally. The multifaceted connection between Bangladesh and India should continue to flourish. Both administrations should continue to have cordial ties as long as they achieve their common interests as it is necessary to preserve regional peace and stability. (The writer is a Dhaka-based columnist.) As kingmakers Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar commit their respective parties, Telugu Desam Party and Janata Dal (United), to support a third term for the National Democratic Alliance under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the political landscape in India is once again at a crucial juncture. Both leaders have emerged as pivotal figures, ensuring the continuation of the NDA government after the BJP fell short of an absolute majority. The political buzz is rife with speculation about the conditions and concessions the duo might demand in exchange for their support. Historically, the BJPs approach towards its NDA allies has been characterised by a strategic manoeuvring that often leaves its partners weakened. This use, weaken, and throw strategy involves leveraging the electoral strength of regional allies to establish a foothold, only to gradually undermine and out-compete them. This tactic has been witnessed across various states and with multiple regional parties, making the stance of Mr Naidu and Mr Kumar fraught with risk. Take the example of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) in Assam. Initially, the BJP piggybacked on AGP to topple the Congress-led government. However, over time, the AGPs influence waned as the BJP absorbed its voter base and expanded its own. Similarly, in Nagaland, the Naga Peoples Front (NPF) was instrumental in giving the BJP a foothold, only to see its power erode as the BJP-supported Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) gained prominence. The Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, a long-standing ally, faced a significant split as the BJP appropriated its core identity and voter base, resulting in a weakened faction. Mr Naidu and Mr Kumar must navigate these waters with caution. Both leaders have previously experienced the ramifications of aligning too closely with the BJP. Mr Naidus earlier fallout with the NDA was marked by unfulfilled promises and subsequent political marginalisation, while Mr Kumars periodic exits and re-entries into the NDA fold highlight his struggle to balance regional ambitions with the alliances overarching goals. The TDP and JD (U) leaders are likely to extract significant concessions for their support, ranging from key ministerial portfolios to specific policy commitments. However, the long-term sustainability of their political relevance under an NDA government remains uncertain. Advertisement The BJPs track record suggests that once the need for these allies diminishes, efforts by the party to consolidate and expand its own base at their expense could resume. Moreover, the BJPs strategy of divide and rule poses an additional threat. By fostering internal dissent and encouraging splits within allied parties, the BJP has managed to weaken its partners further. The cases of the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra exemplify how internal divisions, often fanned by external pressures, can significantly diminish a partys influence and cohesion. As Mr Naidu and Mr Kumar embark on this political alliance, they must be acutely aware of these historical precedents. They will be aware, astute politicians that they are, that immediate political gains should not overshadow the long-term implications for their partie Despite some distractions brought about by the ongoing hostilities in Ukraine and Gaza, recent developments indicate that the global geopolitical spotlight on the Indo-Pacific remains solid. Escalating tensions in the South China Sea, compounded by intensifying US-China geostrategic competition, are bound to have a profound effect on security and stability in the IndoPacific, which has emerged as a new, expanded theatre of power competition in the recent past, highlighting the remarkable shifts in the worlds centre of gravity from west to east. The Indo-Pacific is a contested geo-strategic construct, imagining the Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean Region as one contiguous area. This comparatively new terminology for a historically thriving region is in fact quite symptomatic of the changing geopolitical architecture and shifting global power politics, recognising the growing importance of India and the Indian Ocean. Amid rising maritime tensions with China, the Philippines challenged China on May 20 to open Scarborough Shoal to international scrutiny, alleging that China is destroying the marine environment around the shoal. The Scarborough Shoal is a triangular reef encircling a resource-rich lagoon. The Philippines has been repeatedly accusing China of blocking its shipping vessels in and around the Scarborough Shoal. Chinas Coast Guard had set up a barrier near the Scarborough Shoal, blocking Filipino fishermen from getting closer to the reef, which was fully accessible until China effectively seized it in 2012. However, the Philippine Coast Guards later dismantled this, causing heightened tension between the two. The most recent incident occurred on April 30, when the Chinese Coast Guard water-cannoned two Philippine patrol vessels as they tried to approach the waters near the Scarborough Shoal, locally known as Bajo De Masinloc, in the South China Sea. Advertisement Previously, on March 23, the Chinese coast guards reportedly fired water cannons at a Filipino supply ship, leaving three troops injured. Over the past few years, the behaviour of Chinese coast guards has become increasingly confrontational in the South China Sea. The Philippine President, though, sought to avoid direct military confrontation but insisted on continuing with its non-violent resistance to Chinese pressure by maintaining a presence in Philippine waters. It is worth noting that despite the Permanent Court of Arbitrations (PCA) sweeping ruling in favour of the Philippines in 2016, China continues to claim sovereignty over the vast majority of the South China Sea, including land parcels, using its so-called ninedash line, a Ushaped nine-dash line etched on the Chinese map in the 1940s by a Chinese geographer named Yang Huairen to assert control over the regions waterways, islands, and resources based on perceived historic rights, which conflicts with the claims of neighbouring countries, including the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, and Taiwan. They have recently experienced aggressive encroachment into portions of their exclusive economic zones (EEZ) by Chinese fishing and maritime lawenforcement vessels, resulting in frequent run-ins and deteriorating relations between China and the countries surrounding the contentious sea. In its ruling the PCA rejected Beijings claim of sovereignty over 90 per cent of the South China Sea, saying such claims had no basis under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The PCA also ruled that Beijings activities within the Philippines EEZ, such as illegal fishing and artificial island construction, not only infringed on Manilas sovereign rights but also caused irreparable harm to the marine environment of the South China Sea. There are several submerged features in the South China Sea that fall within the Philippines EEZ that have been occupied by China, and which have been converted into military bases by heaping upon them thousands of tons of sand and concrete. Amid Beijings increasingly aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea, especially harassment of Philippine patrols and resupply missions, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin hosted a meeting of the Defence Ministers of the Squad, which include Japan, the United States, Australia, and the Philippines, on May 2, in Hawaii, also home to the headquarters of the US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM). They had met for the first time in June 2023 on the side-lines of the Shangri-La security dialogue in Singapore. The Squad members share similar threats and concerns over Chinas increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea. The Hawaii meeting underlined their commitment to advance a shared vision for a free, open, secure, and prosperous Indo-Pacific. It must be noted that states like the United States, Japan, India, and Australia have crafted their IndoPacific strategies under the banner of Free and Open IndoPacific (FOIP) as a counter narrative directed against a potential Sino-centric reorganisation or restructuring of the region. Initially, the Philippines tried to play down its tensions with China despite having got a favourable ruling from the PCA. However, under Marcos Jr, who assumed power in June 2022 as President, Manila has not only started asserting its rights over the disputed waters, but has also started publicly denouncing and publicising Chinas actions, along with strengthening defence and strategic ties with Washington, which has always been looking for credible allies to counter rising China in the region. In February, Marcos Jr. provided four new locations for American military sites in the Philippines under the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). In April, the Philippines held a joint maritime exercise with the US, Japan, and Australia within its EEZ, demonstrating their commitment to strengthen regional and international cooperation in support of a FOIP. The increasing defence cooperation with the US and joining security groupings like the Squad have emboldened the Philippines in its disputes with China. The significant rise in Chinas economic and military prowess for over a decade has changed the geopolitical architecture and global power politics of the Indo-Pacific. Chinas assertive tone on Taiwan, maritime disputes with the Philippines, efforts to reclaim land in the South China Sea by physically increasing the size of islands or creating new artificial islands altogether in disputed waters, and their unprecedented militarization have caused immense unease and concern not only in the countries of the region, but also in other stakeholders and important strategic players, including the US. While China considers the Indo-Pacific to be its strategic backyard, other players like the United States, Japan, India, and Australia contest this and promote the idea of the region being open for all. The great power contestation in the Indo-Pacific can best be explained as Chinas quest to dominate global trade and reshape the global order; the US bid to contain assertive China; Indias aspiration for a greater role as an emerging power; Japans plan to regain lost influence; and Australia capitalising on its role as a balancing power. However, all the major players in the Indo-Pacific must be mindful of the risks that their actions pose to the region and the world. They must be ready for negotiated solutions without compromising their interests or undermining their security, as any miscalculation or coercion could deteriorate the situation further, adversely affecting international peace and security. (The writer is Professor and Head, Department of Strategic and Security Studies, Aligarh Muslim University) The Statesman talks to people in different professions about why they chose their particular field and what advice they have for youngsters who want to pursue it as a career. This week, The Statesman interviews professor Urbi Chatterjee, who is an assistant professor at IIT Kanpur and is a virtuoso in the field of computer science engineering. 1.Walk us through your journey towards becoming a professor of computer science and engineering. To begin with, I did my schooling at a Bengali-medium school in a very small town, and from there, I joined an engineering college. After completing my graduation, I sat for GATE and then got admission to IIT Dhanbad, from where I did my Masters and then took a gap of 1.5 years, working at a corporate firm before opting for a PhD and doing my research on hardware security, which is a specific area that falls under cyber security. I then joined as an assistant professor at IIT Kanpur in March 2021. Advertisement 2. Was becoming a professor a career choice for you from the very beginning, or did the choice evolve over time? Even during my Masters, I knew I wanted to pursue my education further and go for a PhD. I never really was fond of being a part of the corporate industry niche, so while doing my PhD, I came across academicians both on national and international levels, and I would say that played a crucial role in inspiring me to proceed with a career in academics. My mentor, too, had a great influence on me. 3. Being a professor requires a commitment to lifelong learning. What ultimately made you choose to be a professor? My father was a school teacher, and throughout my life, I have had the opportunity to meet and interact with great educators. Seeing how they influenced their students to become a better version of themselves, I think that was a huge drive for me towards choosing this profession because I wanted to have a similar impact on my students. I wanted to reach out to people who have had fewer opportunities and be able to share my journey with them and influence them on how one can achieve and overcome any difficulty if one aspires to. 4. Whats your inspiration for choosing the subject you did? Why did I take computer science during my engineering years? Well, I have always been fascinated with those devices and nothing else. Coming from Kulti, there was not much exposure back then to digital devices; I am talking about, say, 20052006. It was during my B.Tech years that I got exposed to a proper computer device. However, usually, during your undergraduate years, you are not really exposed to research work. These are usually the years when you prepare to be exposed to the corporate world. I got exposed to research during my Masters at IIT Dhanbad, and the cyber security domain was something that interested me a lot. 5. Whats the best thing about being a professor? For me, its the interaction that I get to indulge in with my students every day. Throughout the years, I have met diverse students. They take admission, go through rigorous studying, and ultimately get placed, and that unadulterated joy that I get to see in their faces makes everything worthwhile. For PhD students, knowing that I am able to help them, guide them, and motivate them while they are giving their best towards making their research a success gives me a lot of satisfaction. I think there is a lot of scope for hardware security to grow in India, and our future students can do a lot to take this domain forward. 6. Do students realise how challenging it can sometimes be to stay sincere and credible in your profession? Yes, those who take their PhD seriously and know what is at stake. A PhD is not an easy ride, and students who understand the gravity of it, the sacrifices they must make, and the challenges truly understand the credibility of this profession. 7. What are some of the biggest challenges that you have faced in your profession? The challenge I would be talking about is not only something that I face; rather, it is something that most individuals who are in my domain or work from inside a laboratory setup face. Funds are the biggest constraints when it comes to research work. Limited funds often, at times, result in a limited scope of research. So, I think if the flow of funds becomes more flexible, that could result in more advanced labs and more students taking up these career paths, resulting in a more flourishing Indian academia. 8. Is there a memory that has made becoming a professor worthwhile? The joy that I see on my students faces when they get their experiments and research right after extreme hard work and when their work gets acknowledged under the different constraints that we worked on makes being a professor rewarding. 9. What is an important skill you have learned while being a professor? Patience. A diverse range of students means that patience is one skill that you must have. I always focus on the overall well-being of my students while they are under my supervision, making them understand how every opportunity can be used as a pathway towards growth and learning. 10. What are some of the traits an individual should have if they wish to excel in this role? To my students, I always say that if you are entering this profession or wish to choose this career path, remember that it is a lifelong commitment. Your progress in the field of academia will never be similar to someone elses; hence, never give up. If you are working hard, you will be rewarded. Having knowledge about your core subject is an integral factor; being honest with your research work is the second, while the last one would be to practice patience! 11. For students who are at the forefront of pursuing higher education and wish to choose this career as theirs, what would be your advice to them? Do not lose hope. More so for the female students. When you enter this profession, you will notice gender biases in various parts of academia, but do not lose hope. More than the students, I would request that the families let their children be the best version of themselves, whether its entering the corporate world right after graduation or wanting to pursue further education and enter the world of academia. Take the leap of faith and go for what you want. Billionaire Elon Musks SpaceX has received approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to launch the fourth test flight of the Starship vehicle. With the licence issued on Tuesday, the 400-foot-tall Starship rocket along with the Heavy booster is expected to fly from SpaceXs Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas on June 6. SpaceX met all safety and other licensing requirements for this test flight, stated FAA officials. Advertisement The @SpaceX Starship launch tomorrow morning will be live-streamed exclusively on X! SpaceX CEO Musk announced on Wednesday. The fourth flight test looks to achieve orbit to demonstrate the ability to return and reuse Starship and Super Heavy, the company said in a blog post. Earlier on Wednesday, Musk also congratulated Boeing-NASAs first human flight to space carrying Indian-origin Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, both NASA astronauts. Congratulations on a successful launch! he posted on X. It may be noted that both Boeing and SpaceX signed a contract with NASAs Commercial Crew Programme to fly operational missions to and from the space station with Starliner in 2014. While Boeing launched its maiden flight on Wednesday, SpaceXs Dragon capsules have been launching astronauts to space on its Falcon 9 rockets since 2020. Both Boeings Starliner and SpaceXs Dragon will be used to carry astronauts and cargo for NASA missions to the low Earth orbit, Moon, Mars, and beyond. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has praised the education sector for the improved performance of Indian universities as reflected in the QS World University Rankings 2025 and said that in the new term, a boost will be given to research and innovation. Over the last decade, we have focused on qualitative changes in the education sector. This is reflected in the QS World University Rankings. Compliments to the students, faculty and institutions for their hard work and dedication. In this term, we want to do even more to boost research and innovation, said PM Modi. The Prime Minister said this while reposting a post by the CEO and Managing Director of QS Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd, Nunzio Quacquarelli. Advertisement In his post on X, Quacquarelli said, Under Narendra Modis leadership, the last 10 years have seen continued improvement in the performance of Indian universities in QS World University Rankings. 46 institutions compared to 11 in 2015, a 318% increase in 10 years, the best amongst the G20. @PMOIndia The report said that over the past decade, India has increased its representation in the rankings by 318 per cent, the highest among the G20 nations. In 2015, there were only 11 institutions in the Rankings while in 2024 the number has risen to 46. May 31, Mumbai - IMT Ghaziabad is proud to announce its strategic partnership with the National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) to unveil a first of its kind Student Immersion Program. This initiative is meticulously crafted to provide hands-on experience to students enrolled in the Post Graduate Diploma in Management Banking and Financial Services (PGDM-BFS). It offers them unparalleled exposure to the dynamic and rapidly evolving Indian securities markets. Spanning around six weeks, this comprehensive program is designed for approximately 120 students, encompassing around 100 contact hours. The curriculum includes courses and an industry project, ensuring a robust blend of academic rigour and practical experience. Students can leverage NISMs state-of-the-art simulated trading facilities and gain first-hand exposure through visits to prominent institutions such as SEBI, NSE, BSE, CDSL, and NSDL. Additionally, students will benefit from networking opportunities with industry practitioners and regulators during institutional visits, fostering valuable connections. Dr Vishal Talwar, Director at IMT Ghaziabad, expressed enthusiasm about the collaboration, stating, "This initiative serves as a clear demonstration of our unwavering commitment to delivering a comprehensive and industry-specific education experience for our students. By bridging the gap between academic learning and the dynamic landscape of financial markets, we aim to provide our students with invaluable hands-on experience and real-world insights right from within Mumbai Indias financial capital. We are confident that this immersive experience will not only equip our students with the necessary skills but also enable them to build robust professional networks, thus empowering them to excel in their future careers." Dr. Rachana Baid, a distinguished Professor and Dean of Academics NISM, shared valuable insights regarding the collaborationNISM is delighted to collaborate with IMT Ghaziabad for the PGDM-BFS Students Immersion Program. Our advanced facilities and experienced faculty are well-equipped to offer students a comprehensive understanding of the securities markets. We look forward to nurturing the next generation of financial professionals through this partnership. This collaboration promises to deliver exceptional exposure to the Indian securities markets, industry visits, and practical learning experiences for IMT Ghaziabads PGDM-BFS students. It aims to significantly enhance their career prospects, preparing them to become future leaders and innovators in the financial sector. IMT Ghaziabad and NISM are dedicated to shaping the future of financial education and professional excellence. About IMT Ghaziabad: Established in 1980, IMT Ghaziabad is Indias premier AACSB-accredited management school with a distinct focus on grooming leadership through Innovation, Execution, and Social Responsibility. IMT Ghaziabad is an autonomous non-profit institute offering highly sought-after postgraduate programs for over four decades. The programs offered by IMT Ghaziabad include PGDM Full Time, PGDM Marketing, PGDM Financial Management, PGDM Banking & Financial Services (BFS), PGDM Dual Country Program (DCP), PGDM ExP, and Fellow Program in Management (FPM). IMT Ghaziabad has been set up under the aegis of Lajpat Rai Educational Society (LES), a society duly registered under the Societies Act 1860 by the Government of India. IMT Ghaziabad has been consistently ranked among the top management institutes in the country for its leadership, faculty, research, student selection process, curriculum, pedagogy, industry interface, internationalism, placements, and infrastructure. Malayalam actor Nimisha Sajayan, best known for her roles in "The Great Indian Kitchen" and "Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum", is facing a condemnable cyber attack from pro-BJP handles following the Lok Sabha election results were declared on Tuesday. Veteran Malayalam actor and former Rajya Sabha MP Suresh Gopi had registered a historic win from the Thrissur constituency of Kerala, becoming the first from the saffron party to win from the southern state. Nimisha Sajayan's Facebook page has been flooded with countless comments from BJP cyber handles since the results came out. From morphed trolls to sexist remarks and abuses, the organised cyber attack is being led by fake accounts favouring the BJP politically. ALSO READ | Not just in Thrissur, BJP makes big inroads in several Kerala seats Nimisha, one of the few politically vocal cinema artists, had earlier commented on Suresh Gopi's defeat from Thrissur seat in 2019. It was during an anti-Citizenship Amemndment Act (CAA) rally in Kochi that the "Poacher" actor cocked a snook at the BJP's defeat in Thrissur. Ahead of the general elections, Suresh Gopi in a campaign had famously said, "I want Thrissur, you (the voters) should give me Thrissur..." Nimisha, hinting at this remark said, "We didn't give them even Thrissur. Then will we give thm the whole of India? We won't!" This remark is said to have triggered the BJP cyberwing to launch a vengeful attack on her following a favourable results in the just-declared Lok Sabha results. Nimisha Sajayan was forced to turn off the comment section of her Facebook page following the relentless cyber attack. ALSO READ | Will Suresh Gopi become Union minister? Suresh Gopi polled 4,12,338 votes in Thrissur while runner-up VS Sunil Kumar of CPI got 3,37,652. K Muraleedharan of the Congress finished third polling 3,28,124. TN Prathapan of Congress had won from Thrissur in 2019 beating Rajaji Mathew Thomas of CPI by a margin of 93,633 votes. Prathapan, who didn't contest this time, polled 415,089 votes while third-placed Suresh Gopi managed only 2,93,822. The Congress-led UDF won 18 of Kerala's 20 seats while the LDF and NDA got one seat each. The highly anticpated sequel to Robert Pattinson's 'The Batman', 'The Penguin', created by Lauren LeFranc and season two of 'The Great Indian Kapil Show' are ready to grace the OTT platforms this week. Telugu Desam Party leader Chandrababu Naidu, who has emerged as kingmaker after the Lok Sabha polls, highlighted the need to address regional aspirations during the National Democratic Alliances meeting at Delhi on Friday. Addressing leaders and newly elected MPs of the alliance at the Central Hall of the Parliament, the Andhra Pradesh CM-elect endorsed Narendra Modi as leader of the NDA parliamentary party. Naidu said, Balancing regional aspirations and national interests must run parallelly while ensuring holistic development for all strata of society. Praising Modi, Naidu said, Narendra Modi is the right leader at the right time. The TDP won 16 Lok Sabha seats and the party-led alliance won 21 of 25 seats in the state. The TDP-led alliance also won in the state assembly elections. Naidus comments come amidst cabinet formation talks where TDP is rumoured to have demanded key cabinet berths, special status for Andhra Pradesh and support to develop Naidus plan to develop Amaravati as the states capital. Naidu has reportedly asked for a Minister of State under the finance department, three other cabinet portfolios and Lok Sabha speaker post. The TDP leader had earlier walked out of the NDA bloc, in 2018, accusing the Modi-led government of not delivering on special status and financial assistance for the state. Naidu, then CM of Andhra Pradesh, pulled out two ministers of the party from Modis cabinet and also moved a no-confidence motion against then union government in Lok Sabha. The motion was comfortably defeated by the BJP-led government. As a poor election performance puts Maharashtra's ruling Mahayuti alliance in the dock, Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis met Union Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on Thursday. He is said to have reiterated his willingness to quit, after taking moral responsibility for the alliance's dismal performance. The ruling Mahayuti includes the BJP, Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the NCP headed by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar. Mahayuti won just 17 seats as opposed to the MVA, comprising the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT)-led by former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and the Sharad Pawar-headed NCP (SP), which won 30 out of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. Taking responsibility for the results, Fadnavis said he was requesting the BJP high command to relieve him from the responsibility of the government so that he can work hard for the party in the upcoming elections. "I will, however, try to fulfil whatever is lacking and won't run away from my responsibilities," he added. On meeting Shah, Fadnavis reportedly insisted on quitting as there was a need to work at the organisational level ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in the state. The Deputy Chief Minister is also said to have told the senior leadership that fielding the sitting MPs had resulted in the disaster. He also pointed fingers at the lack of coordination between the three Mahayuti partners, and the delayed process of finalising the alliances seat sharing as causes. Fadnavis also aired his disappointment and anger over the decision taken by BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde, who played a key role in changes in the candidature, Hindustan Times quoted a BJP leader. However, the leadership is said to have asked him to continue, and may also give him more freedom to operate at the state level. There are also reports that the RSS leadership, which met Fadnavis at his residence on Thursday, wants him to continue, at least till the Maharashtra state elections scheduled later this year. Sangh leadership too believes that Fadnavis quitting at this juncture would have a negative impact. Meanwhile, NCP leader Ajit Pawar too has taken responsibility for the party's poor performance. He also dismissed speculations that his party MLAs might ditch his faction to join Sharad Pawar's. The opposition can say anything. I have always had the support of the people. My MLAs, and MLCs have assured me they will always stand by me," he said. He also addressed the Baramati failure where sitting MP Supriya Sule defeated his wife Sunetra Pawar by a huge margin. "The result is surprising since I always had the support of the people there." Pawar said reasons for his faction's poor show included Muslims moving away from the ruling alliance, the Opposition's allegations of change in the Constitution, which alienated the Dalits and backward classes, as well as ongoing Maratha quota stir in Marathwada. On Fadnavis's statement about quitting his post following the poll debacle, Pawar said he will talk to Fadnavis in Delhi on Friday. I am going to Delhi tomorrow for the NDA meeting," Pawar added. Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)took a jibe at Bharatiya Janata Party MP and actor Kangana Ranaut after she was assaulted by CISF personnel at Chandigarh Airport on Thursday. Historically, the erstwhile Shiv Sena was at loggerheads with Ranaut for her comments against the party. Addressing presspersons, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said, Some people give votes and some give slaps. Adding he is not aware of what actually happened at the airport, Raut said, If the constable has said that her mother was also sitting, then it is true. If her mother was there in the farmer's agitation and someone said anything against it, then it would create anger. However, the Sena leader said the law should not be taken into hands and an MP should not have been attacked. The people in the farmer's agitation were sons and daughters of India. If someone insults Bharat Mata and someone is offended by it, then it is something to think about. I have sympathy for Kangana. She is an MP now. An MP should not be attacked but the farmers should also be respected, he said. In the past, when the Sena-led government was in power in Maharashtra, the party was at loggerheads with the actor after Kangana commented she was feeling unsafe in Mumbai following the death of actor Sushanth Singh Rajput. However, the issue snowballed, leading to the Sena-led BMC demolishing a part of her production office alleging illegal construction. The new-elected BJP MP was allegedly assaulted by a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) woman constable during a security check at the Chandigarh airport on Thursday. A scuffle had occurred at the security check between the actor-turned-politician and the CISF personnel when the former, reportedly, refused to put her phone in the tray. An inquiry committee comprising senior CISF officials has been set up to conduct a further investigation. According to officials, the constable has been suspended and an FIR has been lodged against her. -with inputs from ANI. The CBI on Friday filed its final charge sheet against former railway minister Lalu Prasad in connection with the land for jobs scam in which his family allegedly received land parcels from ineligible candidates appointed in various Railways zones as 'substitutes', the officials said. Upon conclusion of the investigation, the CBI submitted its third and final charge sheet before special judge (MP/MLA Cases) here against 78 accused, including Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tej Pratap Yadav who has been charge sheeted for the first time, daughter Hema Yadav, former OSD Bhola Yadav and one former staff member of the RJD chief, they said. Tej Pratap Yadav has been charge sheeted for the first time. The CBI has invoked IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy along with cheating and forgery among others, and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act against the accused. The list of accused included 29 Railways officials, 37 candidates and six other private persons, they said. During the investigation, the CBI found that Lalu Prasad, in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy along with officers of Railways, his family members and others, engaged candidates as Group D substitutes in 11 zones of Indian Railways in complete violation of the extant guidelines, the CBI spokesperson said. He said this was done in return for the transfer of land by the candidate himself or his family members. The candidates also submitted fake educational certificates to become eligible for these positions, they said. "Candidates who were engaged as substitutes in different zones of Railways were mainly from the districts which were the constituencies of then Union railway minister and his family members since long," the spokesperson said in a statement. On July 3 last year, the CBI had charge sheeted the then deputy chief minister of Bihar and Lalu Prasad's son Tejashwi Yadav in the case. The agency had registered the case on May 18, 2022 against Lalu Prasad and 15 others including his wife, two daughters and unidentified public servants and private persons. The CBI had filed the first charge sheet in the case in October, 2022. During the probe, the agency had found a hard disk at 10 Circular Road, Patna, which was used by Lalu Prasad as his camp office. The hard disk contained a list of 1,458 candidates who were engaged in the Railways during his tenure, the agency had claimed. "During investigation, it was found that then Union Minister of Railways (Lalu Prasad Yadav), with an intent to acquire the land parcels situated at the places where his family was already owning land parcels or the places which were already connected to him, entered into a conspiracy with associates and family members and allegedly devised a design to grab the land of various land owners by offering/providing Group D employment in Railways," a CBI spokesperson said. He said the accused had allegedly collected applications and documents of such candidates through associates and then sent those to the Railways for processing and providing them jobs. The candidates were allegedly appointed as 'substitutes' in Group D positions within three days of applying in "undue haste" by the Railways officials and were later regularised when the "individuals themselves or their family members transferred their land", according to the CBI. In its second charge sheet, the agency had alleged that in order to hide any links between the jobs provided and land purchased, some land parcels were bought in the name of A K Infosystems. A land parcel was purchased in the name of A K Infosystems for Rs 10.83 lakh in 2007. Subsequently, this land along with some other land parcels purchased by the company were brought under the ownership of Tejashwi Yadav and his mother through transfer of shares at Rs 1 lakh only, the agency had alleged last year. "At the time of transfer, the company was allegedly owning land parcels purchased at a total cost of Rs 1.77 crore (approx) and it was transferred for a meagre Rs 1 lakh (approx) only. However, the market value of the lands were much more," the spokesperson had said after the filing of second charge sheet last year. The payments for the land parcels were mostly shown to be made in cash, while there were also instances of transfer of land through gift deeds, the agency had alleged. The CBI had also alleged that a 1.05 lakh square feet plot in Patna was acquired by Lalu Prasad's family members by making payments to the sellers in cash. Shiv Sena chief and Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde may choose senior party MPs for ministerial berth in the third NDA Cabinet instead of his son Shrikant Shinde, said reports. Shinde-led Shiv Sena won seven out of 15 seats it contested in Maharashtra, making the party the third coalition partner in the NDA government. Shrikanth won from Kalyan constituency with a vote margin of 209,144. Shiv Sena sources told ANI that Shinde may pick other senior leaders and not his son as he believes in meritocracy rather than family connections. Shiv Sena might ask for one Cabinet berth in the new government. The party, however, may not insist on any particular portfolio. The names of Srirang Barne (Maval) and Prataprao Jadhav (Buldhana) are doing the rounds. Shinde, during a party convention held in Kohlapur, had spoken about how" the son of a king won't necessarily be a king". "Anyone who works should be a king," Shinde had said. "Following the ethos of the late Balasaheb Thackeray, who treated his colleagues as equals, the Shiv Sena party continues to uphold these ideals. The Chief Minister's preference for meritocracy over nepotism underscores the party's commitment to rewarding hardworking leaders within its ranks," a senior leader told ANI. Meanwhile, Srirang Barne emphasised his seniority and eligibility for the post as the race got hotter. "I was first or second rank among all 543 MPs based on my performance in the last two terms. CM Eknath Shinde will take a final decision based on how many ministries our party get," Barne told The Times of India. He added that he was the senior-most MP from Western Maharashtra in the Parliament. "I worked for committees of defence, finance and urban development ministries in the standing committee meetings and I was also part of the parliament committee," he said. Meanwhile, the Maharashtra NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) president Jayant Patil on Thursday dismissed speculations that Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray will not switch to the ruling BJP-led NDA. Patil's statement comes as Uddhav Thackeray chose to skip the INDIA bloc meeting held in Delhi on Wednesday. Sanjay Raut MP represented the party at the meeting. "There is no chance that he will switch sides," Patil added. Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said the swearing-in ceremony of the new NDA government will happen on Sunday, at 6pm. Addressing leaders of the National Democratic Alliance and newly elected MPs of the Front at the Central Hall of the old Parliament Building, Joshi said Narendra Modi will take oath as Prime Minister for the third time on June 9 at 6pm. Besides NDA MPs, senior leaders of the alliance, including chief ministers, were present for the meeting where BJP president J.P. Nadda congratulated the party leaders and MPs on their victory. Former Defence Minister Rajnath Singh proposed a resolution in support of Modi's leadership, and party leaders Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari and alliance leaders endorsed it. Shortly, senior members of the alliance like TDP's N. Chandrababu Naidu, JD(U)'s Nitish Kumar and Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde will join the prime minister for a meeting with President Droupadi Murmu to present her the list of parliamentarians supporting him, some alliance members said. Besides Naidu, Kumar and Shinde, Chirag Paswan, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Anupriya Patel and Pawan Kalyan were among the NDA leaders present on the main dais, alongside senior BJP leaders. The NDA has 293 MPs, comfortably above the majority mark of 272 in the 543-member Lok Sabha. Senior BJP leaders, including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Nadda, have also been holding deliberations with allies to work out an amicable formula for their share of representation in the new government, which will critically depend on them for survival. The BJP leadership has moved swiftly since the June 4 results for government formation to end any sense of uncertainty after the verdict, which was a setback to the ruling party as it lost majority for the first time since 2014 and needs allies' support to maintain its hold on power. -with inputs from agencies. The newly-elected MPs of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will meet at Parliament's Central Hall on Friday where they will elect Narendra Modi as their leader. After the crucial meeting, Modi, along with senior members of the alliance, including TDP's N Chandrababu Naidu and JD(U)'s Nitish Kumar, will meet President Droupadi Murmu to present her the list of parliamentarians supporting him. This will pave the way for Modi to become the Prime Minister again. He is likely to swear in on Sunday, according to reports. The NDA has 293 MPs, above the majority mark of 272 in the 543-member Lok Sabha. While BJP won 240 seats and along with its allies, Chandrababu Naidu's TDP and Nitish Kumar's JDU, having won 16 and 12 seats respectively in their respective states, have extended support to the NDA. The TDP MLAs have also arrived in Delhi along with Naidu for the meeting. The party's Ongole MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy said the newly-elected TDP MPs will attend the NDA meeting. "We are going to attend the meeting in Delhi. The TDP Parliamentary Party meeting is also scheduled for Friday," Reddy said, adding that they were clueless about TDP making any demands on Cabinet formation. Reddy was among the MPs who attended a meeting called by Naidu at his Andhra Pradesh residence in Undavalli on Thursday morning. Many MPs who were not in the city had joined virtually. Meanwhile, senior BJP senior leaders, including Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, were in a huddle on Thursday as talks regarding the government formation picked up pace. This comes amid reports regarding the demands of the JD(U) and TDP seeking respectable representation in the Union Council of Ministers. "The matter of cabinet berths will be decided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and our party chief Nitish Kumar ji. But, it should be respectable," Shrawan Kumar, JD(U) leader and Bihar Rural Development Minister, told PTI in Patna. There should be three ministerial berths for his party, another JD(U) leader demanded. Naidu is keen for the Centre to provide Andhra Pradesh with financial assistance in building its capital in Amravati. He also wants the new government to take steps to fulfil the Centre's commitment to the state when Telangana was carved out of it, sources said. Another BJP ally and LJP(R) leader Chirag Paswan, who is seen as a contender for a Cabinet berth, said his party's support to Modi is unconditional, stressing that it was under his leadership that the NDA won a majority. After ousting Naveen Patnaik-led BJD, which has been in power for 24 years in Odisha, the BJP is expected to form the government in the state on Friday. According to media reports, the new government is expected to be selected during the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting, scheduled in New Delhi later in the day. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah are likely to attend the meeting. The BJP had secured 78 seats in the 147-member assembly while the BJD managed to secure only 51. The saffron party may choose a chief minister from among the new assembly members. One of the frontrunners for the post is Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan although he won from Sambalpur Lok Sabha constituency in the just-concluded Parliamenty polls. ALSO READ: Who is Girish Murmu? Former CAG joins race for CM post in Odisha Other names doing the rounds for the new Odisha chief minister's post include senior MLAs Suresh Pujari, Jayanarayan Mishra, K.V. Singh Deo, Puri MP Sambit Patra, former Union minister Jual Oram and Mohan Majhi. During the assembly election campaign in the state, Modi had promised that the new Odisha chief minister would be a 'Bhoomiputra'which was an apparent dig at Naveen Patnaik's close aide V.K. Pandian who hails from Tamil Nadu. "Odisha's fate is about to change. The government is changing. I have said that the expiry date of the current government of Odisha is June 4," Modi had said in a social media post after the results. READ MORE: Meet Sofia Firdous of Congress, Odisha's first woman Muslim MLA It is also likely that the saffron party leadership may spring a surprise and announce a name that hasn't been anticipated by the political analysts, according to a senior party leader. Meanwhile, preparations are underway at Janata Maidan in Bhubaneswar for the oath-taking ceremony of the new government. The event is expected to be attended by Modi, Shah, and chief minister of several BJP-ruled states who campaigned in Odisha. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday was granted bail by a special court here in connection with a case filed by the BJP's Karnataka unit for issuing "defamatory" advertisements in mainstream newspapers. The advertisement ahead of Assembly polls last year accused the then BJP government in the state of indulging in large-scale corruption during its 2019-2023 rule. The court had on June one granted bail to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who is also the State Congress chief, after they appeared before it in connection with the defamation case. Judge K N Shivakumar had directed Gandhi to appear before the court on June seven without fail. #WATCH | Karnataka: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi reaches Congress Bhavan in Bengaluru. He will address all the candidates of the party who contested in the Lok Sabha elections in the state. pic.twitter.com/kty567iP14 ANI (@ANI) June 7, 2024 Special Court in Bengaluru grants bail to Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case filed by the BJP. The case stemmed from allegations of false advertisements against BJP leaders. On the security of DK Suresh, bail has been granted to Rahul Gandhi. The matter was posted to 30th July for the next hearing. Amid reports of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's decision to resign, taking responsibility for NDA's poor performance in the state, Home Minister Amit Shah has intervened and asked him to continue. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar said that Fadnavis's resignation was not discussed at the NDA meeting held in Delhi. Also Read | Fadnavis meets Amit Shah to discuss resignation but RSS wants him to continue: Report BJP's ally Shiv Sena led by CM Eknath Shinde has won seven of the 15 seats it contested, while the Ajit Pawar-led NCP could manage just one of the four it contested of the 48 seats in the state. Altogether, only 17 seats were won in the state. However, the Maha Vikas Aghadi, consisting of the Congress, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasahb Thackeray) and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) won in 30 constituencies. A day after the counting of votes, Fadnavis had offered to resign. According to NDTV sources, the deputy CM met with Shah at his residence on Thursday and discussed the issues that led to the party's poor performance in the Maharashtra LS polls. Reportedly, Fadnavis was asked to continue working for the Maharashtra government and also taking steps to revitalise the BJP in the state. If you resign, the morale of BJP workers will be affected, said Shah. Now it is yet to see if Fadnavis would continue to remain in the deputy CM post or would stay on with his decision to step down. During his meeting with Shah, the deputy CM had reportedly expressed his unhappiness over the central leadership picking the candidates in Maharashtra. The lack of coordination between the three Mahayuti partners, and the delayed process of finalising the alliance's seat sharing were also pointed out. Shiva Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut hit out at Fadnavis on Thursday, calling him the "villain" in Maharashtra politics. "If there is any villain in Maharashtra politics, then it is Devendra Fadnavis. The BJP's drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls is due to Devendra Fadnavis," he said. "Fadnavis has destroyed many families and resorted to political vengeance," he alleged. One of the leaders who congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his re-election was Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, who took to X to state how he was looking forward to "enhancing the fast-growing Taiwan-India partnership." In his reply, Modi thanked Ching-te for "his warm message". However, the exchange angered China, which reacted sharply to the interaction between Modi and Lai. In a terse statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China had diplomatic relations with India and opposes all forms of official interactions between the Taiwan authorities and countries having diplomatic relations with China. "First of all, there is no such thing as president of the Taiwan region. As for your question, China opposes all forms of official interactions between the Taiwan authorities and countries having diplomatic relations with China. There is but one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of the territory of the Peoples Republic of China," Ning said when asked about the Modi-Lei exchange. "The one-China principle is a universally recognised norm in international relations and a prevailing consensus in the international community," Mao said, adding, "India has made serious political commitments on this and is supposed to recognise, be alarmed about and resist the Taiwan authorities political calculations. China has protested to India about this." The US on Thursday responded to the issue calling such congratulatory messages between two foreign leaders "part of diplomatic business." "I haven't seen those specific reports, so I don't want to comment on them in detail, but I would say that such congratulatory messages are the normal course of diplomatic business..." India and Taiwan have been forging closer economic ties under Modi, with the two sides planning a labour-supply pact that could see Taiwan hire as many as 100,000 Indian workers. China views Taiwan as a rebel province that must be reunified with the mainland, even by force. Hunter Biden's ex-girlfriend testified before a US court on Thursday about the day she found a gun inside his vehicle, thereby revealing intimate details about the President's son's alleged drug use. As a witness in the criminal federal gun case against Hunter, Hallie lifted the lid off the pair's "volatile" and "off-on" relationship that led her to use crack cocaine. Her testimony bolstered the prosecution's case that Hunter broke the law barring illegal drug users from owning firearms. Hallie Biden, who is also the widow of the defendant's late brother Beau, said she found the revolver amid piles of clothes and litter in the glove compartment of Hunter Biden's truck. She said she threw the gun away out of fear of his spiralling addiction. The jurors in the first criminal trial of Hunter also saw the surveillance camera footage of Hallie Biden tossing Hunter Biden's gun in a supermarket trash can. "I didn't want him to hurt himself, and I didn't want my kids to find it and hurt themselves," Hallie said. "I was afraid to kind of touch it. I didn't know it was loaded," she added. She wrapped the .38 calibre Colt Cobra revolver into a leather pouch, stuffed it into a purple "little gift shopping bag" and drove to a nearby grocery store, where she threw it in a rubbish bin. "I realise it was a stupid idea now," she said. "But I was panicking." The weapon was reportedly discovered by a man who often rummaged through the grocery stores refuse to gather recyclable items. Though she did not plan on telling Hunter about this, the President's son realised it next morning. "Did you take that from me Hallie," read one angry text shown to jurors. "You really need to help me think right now, Hallie. This is very serious." She returned to the store to find the gun but was unable to. She then filed a police report. "I'll take the blame," she texted him from the scene. "I don't want to live like this." Hallie also told the court that she realised about Hunter's drug use only after their relationship began. She found crack cocaine at her house - where he would frequently stay and later repeatedly saw him use the drug. She also testified that she began using crack cocaine herself after he introduced her to the drug. "It was a terrible experience that I went through, and I'm embarrassed and ashamed, and I regret that period of my life," she said, adding that she stopped using the drug in August 2018. But, Hunter continued to use it. In the case that could land him in prison for 25 years, Hunter has pleaded not guilty. He is accused of knowingly lying on federal paperwork when he purchased the revolver and ammunition from a gun shop in Wilmington, Delaware, on 12 October 2018. However, his lawyers claim Hunter was in recovery at the time, so was truthful when he indicated on the paperwork that he was not a drug user. Meanwhile, Joe Biden said on Thursday he would not pardon his son Hunter if he was found guilty..In an interview with ABC News, Biden replied "yes" when asked if he would rule out pardoning Hunter. He also replied "yes" when asked if he would accept the outcome of the trial, which started this week. United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Friday apologised for skipping the D-Day event in France, Normandy. Ahead of the elections, Sunak had left the event early for an election campaign television interview. Sunak apologised for flying back early after it raised many eyebrows among the global leaders. He was criticised and judged by some leaders for not supporting the Armed Forces and veterans. Scottish First Minister John Swinney while speaking to the reporters in Glasgow said that Sunak's decision to leave early during the D-Day commemorations was "a truly, breathtaking terrible decision." It was "disrespectful" to veterans. Sunak "should have been there to represent the international interests of the United Kingdom, Swinney added. Sunak said that he had attended various D-Day events, both in Portsmouth and France and he "deeply care for the war veterans". Around 25 world leaders attended the D-Day event hosted in France on Thursday. US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, King Charles III and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy were among the leaders present for the event at Omaha Beach in Normandy. Sunak had attended a ceremony at the British memorial in Normandy alongside King Charles III earlier in the day of the event. "The 80th anniversary of D-Day has been a profound moment to honour the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to protect our values, our freedom and our democracy...This anniversary should be about those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. The last thing I want is for the commemorations to be overshadowed by politics," Sunak wrote on X. He further said that he deeply cares about veterans and has been honoured to represent the UK at a number of events in Portsmouth and France over the past two days. "After the conclusion of the British event in Normandy, I returned back to the UK. On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer and I apologise," said Sunak. The UK elections are slated to be held on July 4. The first campaign with the newest brand ambassador aims at spreading word on how the new initiative helps make Gold Loans more accessible and convenient for the customers India, June 7, 2024 - Muthoot FinCorp Limited (MFL), the flagship company of the 137-year-old Muthoot Pappachan Group (Muthoot Blue), has launched its 'Book My Gold Loan' campaign featuring Shah Rukh Khan. This groundbreaking campaign introduces a first-of-its-kind service in India: book a Gold Loan instantly, anytime, from anywhere. The newly launched feature allows customers to initiate loans with a simple missed call, integrating advanced technology with exceptional customer service. This unique service makes Gold Loans more accessible and convenient for consumers and is powered by the robust phygital presence of Muthoot FinCorp across the country with 3700+ branches and Gold Loan from Home in 50+ cities. Shaji Varghese, CEO of Muthoot FinCorp Limited said, Through our campaign we aim to transform financial accessibility for every Indian. Partnering with Shah Rukh Khan, the Book My Gold Loan campaign represents a major leap for us. With the Book My Gold Loan service we aim to make life easier for all our consumers with gold loans that can be taken at any of our branches or from their homes. Our loans empower our customers to fulfill their aspirations daily. Muthoot FinCorps Book My Gold Loan campaign has been conceptualized and created by Havas Worldwide India (creative) and executed by Havas Media India (media) and features a captivating television commercial (TVC) starring Shah Rukh Khan. The TVC whisks viewers through a sequence of aspirations starting businesses, studying abroad, and buying a new car. As each scene unfolds, Shah Rukh Khan subtly incorporates the 'call me gesture, hinting at a simple solution. In the end, Khan reveals the answer behind his call me gesture Muthoot FinCorp's Book My Gold Loan service. This first-in-India service makes getting a Gold Loan as easy as a missed call to 80869 80869 to turn your dreams into reality. Additionally, Muthoot FinCorp has also released a musical video promoting the new initiative with SRK. Anupama Ramaswamy, Joint MD & Chief Creative Officer, Havas Worldwide India said, We came up with a signature gesture for our unique feature of Book Your Gold Loan with a missed call and got Shah Rukh Khan to tell the world about it. And as always, he gave it a unique twist. Mohit Joshi, CEO Havas Media Network said, We are excited to be part of this campaign with Muthoot FinCorp and their newest brand ambassador Shah Rukh Khan. Muthoot FinCorp's constant innovation to make financial access easier for people is commendable and we are sure the multilingual campaign will meaningfully connect with the larger audience across the country. This campaign will be broadcasted in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, and Gujarati. It will encompass OOH, digital platforms, television, print, and on-ground activations, ensuring a widespread reach and pan-India impact. Muthoot FinCorp recently achieved record-breaking consolidated loan disbursements in FY24, at Rs. 61,703.26 crore. With the launch of 'Book My Gold Loan,' the company is poised to make a significant leap forward in simplifying the lending landscape. The campaign promises to resonate deeply with audiences of all demographics, paving the way for a more accessible and convenient lending experience. Watch the TVC here: https://youtu.be/7AVoR2oyK-w About Muthoot FinCorp Muthoot Fincorp Limited, the flagship company of 137-year-old business conglomerate Muthoot Pappachan Group, is Indias leading Non-Banking Financial Institution (NBFC) with an aim to transform the lives of common man by ensuring their financial wellbeing through an array of varied products and services. With over 3700 branches across the country, we aspire to serve the underbanked, to be their most trusted financial partner, and ensure financial inclusion of every household in India. Muthoot Fincorps long-standing experience, expertise and stronghold in the semi urban and rural areas has enabled the company to provide quick & customized finance options to the masses. About Muthoot Pappachan Group Founded in 1887, Muthoot Pappachan Group (MPG) is a significant entity in the Indian business landscape with nationwide presence and tailor-made products and services for its customers. The group which planted its roots in retail trading, later diversified into various sectors including Financial Services, Hospitality, Automotive, Realty, IT Services, Healthcare, Precious Metals, Global Services and Alternate Energy. Currently MPG has over 40,000 employees, serving customers through its over 5200 branches across the country. Muthoot Pappachan Foundation, the CSR arm of the group facilitates the CSR activities for the entire group companies focusing on Health, Education, Environment and Livelihood (HEEL). (Disclaimer: The above content is a press release and PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same.). PTI PWR PWR MUMBAI, India, June 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Highlighting India's crucial role in its global growth strategy, Canon today announced its outlined plans for strengthening its core business segments of imaging, printing, and surveillance, along with growing presence in the Semiconductor, Flat Panel Display business and the medical industry. Reaffirming the brand's commitment to India, these announcements were made during Canon's strategy meet in Mumbai, attended by key global leadership. In the industrial equipment business, Canon has a wide range of Semiconductor Lithography Equipment and Flat Panel Display Lithography Equipment. Canon aims to introduce state-of-the-art lithography solutions and emphasize eco-friendly practices, backed by superior customer service to India. Additionally, beyond equipment provision, Canon's commitment to India's industry extends to talent development as well. On the other hand, with respect to healthcare, Canon has a comprehensive portfolio of advanced medical products and solutions from diagnostic imaging systems and healthcare IT solutions. With India as a key market, Canon further focuses on bolstering the rapidly growing medical business. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Howard Ozawa, Executive Vice President of Canon Inc., Chief Representative of Canon Asia Group, Chairman & CEO of Canon Marketing Asia, said, "As Canon continues to etch its global legacy across diverse domains, we recognize that India stands at the heart of our strategic ambitions. With a rich heritage of innovation and a commitment to excellence, Canon has become synonymous with cutting-edge imaging technology. India's dynamic economy, vibrant culture, and tech-savvy population make it a critical market for Canon. And our existing segments (managed by Canon India Pvt. Ltd.), be it cameras, printers, or office solutions have thrived here, driven by the trust and loyalty of Indian consumers. India remains a beacon of opportunity for us and recognizing the immense potential that the market holds, we are aiming to strengthen the semiconductor and medical business. At Canon, we are committed to empowering customers through high quality and performance-based technology that meets their specific needs. As Canon's legacy meets India's boundless potential, we hold an optimistic vision for Canon India to emerge as the leading company in the region by 2035, thereby propelling Canon Asia to secure its position as the top sales region globally." Commenting on the Semiconductor and Flat Panel Display industry, Mr. Kazunori Iwamoto, Advisory Director, Deputy Chief Executive of Optical Products Operations, Unit Executive of Semiconductor Production Equipment Unit of Canon Inc. said, "In the semiconductor business in India, we aim to introduce our advanced skillsets and knowledge to India, taking advantage of our over 50 years history in the exposure equipment business. Canon provides a variety of manufacturing solutions for the cutting-edge electronics industry. Our latest technology, called Nanoimprint lithography equipment, imprints a pattern on a mask onto a wafer to form a fine pattern. Compared to the conventional optical exposure tool, it has a simple configuration without complex optics and high power EUV, and the electric power consumption is only 1/10. In addition, not only by our cutting-edge technology and wide range of products, but also by developing talents through our global training curriculum, we will contribute to India's semiconductor industrial growth." Sharing insights on the expansion of medical business, Mr. Koh Yamada, President, Canon Medical Systems India Pvt. Ltd. said, "Canon Medical Systems India Pvt. Ltd. is a subsidiary of Canon Medical Systems Corporation in Japan. Canon Medical Systems has a comprehensive portfolio of advanced medical imaging from diagnostic and interventional imaging systems to healthcare IT solutions for the wider healthcare enterprise. Recognized as a world leader in innovation, Canon Medical Systems continues to develop breakthrough technology and applications including using AI, to support diagnostic imaging and therapeutic needs, all while optimizing patient outcomes.We understand that more and more people are suffering from non-communicable, life-style diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and diabetes, and hope that our unique technologies can contribute and help medical professionals better deal with them. In India, Canon Medical Systems aim to provide our customers with higher quality services as a priority." The brand has established a strong footprint in the digital imaging industry, as an end-to-end solutions provider, having diversified into new markets, broadening its product range and asserting its leadership across customer segments. In the camera segment, Canon has retained its No.1 share in the Digital Interchangeable Lens Camera (DILC) global market for 21 consecutive years. Canon further endeavors to expand its imaging business by broadening the conventional camera industry to include comprehensive offerings like video management and video analytics. Similarly, in the printing business, Canon aims to become the global leader in office and home printing by aligning with modern remote working lifestyles and leading digital transformation in the office, through its innovative modern solutions. The surveillance and broadcast range of solutions from Canon has been receiving positive response from customers, and Canon further aims to strengthen their positioning as the one-stop surveillance solution provider. About Canon Inc. Canon Inc., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leader in the fields of professional and consumer imaging equipment, industrial equipment, and information systems. Canon's extensive range of products includes production printers, multifunction office systems, inkjet and laser printers, cameras, video and cinematography equipment, network cameras, medical systems and semiconductor-manufacturing equipment. Originally established in 1937 as Precision Optical Industry, Co., Ltd., a camera manufacturer, Canon has successfully diversified and globalized to become a worldwide industry leader in professional and consumer imaging systems and solutions. With about 169,000 employees worldwide, the Canon Group includes manufacturing and marketing subsidiaries in Japan, the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania; and a global R&D network with companies based in the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia. Canon's consolidated net sales for fiscal 2023 (ended December 31, 2023) totaled $29.44 billion (at an exchange rate of 142=U.S. $1). Visit the Canon Inc. website at: global.canon About Canon India Canon India Pvt. Ltd. is the sales and marketing subsidiary of Canon Inc., a world leader in imaging technologies. Having started its operations in 1997, Canon India markets a comprehensive range of sophisticated contemporary digital imaging products and solutions in India. The company today has offices in 10 cities across India with merchandise warehousing facilities at 4 location and employs 1000 staff and over 850 channel partners. Canon India enjoys a vast retail presence across the country through Canon Image Square (CIS) stores, PIXMA Zones, and BIS Lounges. Canon India's service reach extends to over 632 towns covering 19,118 PIN codes across India which comprises of 349+ Camera collection points, 15 Camera repair centers, 320+ Printer repair centers, 183 Copier, Scanner and 120 Large Format Printer Sales & Service dealers. (Updated as of April 2024) In sync with its corporate tagline- 'Delighting You Always', reinforced by World-class technology, Canon offers an extended product portfolio, including Digital Production Printers, Large Format Printers, Commercial Printers, Multi-Functional Devices, Managed Document Services, Inkjet & Laser Printers, Document and Cheque Scanners, Digital Cameras, DSLRs, Mirrorless cameras, Cinematic Imaging Products, Surveillance cameras and Medical Imaging products catering to the multiple market segments of consumer, SME, B2B, Commercial, Government & PSUs. Photo : https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2432906/Canon_Leaders.jpg (Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with PRNewswire and PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same.). PTI PWR PWR Bengaluru, Jun 7 (PTI) Karnataka government has banned the screening of the Hindi movie Hamare Baarah for at least two weeks after some Muslim organisations raised concerns. In an order, the government stalled the release of the film and its trailer in electronic media, social media, film theatres, private television channels or other media. The order said several Muslim organisations had appealed to the government not to allow the screening of the movie which portrays Islam in an "instigative and derogatory manner", and giving permission to such a film would lead to hatred between faiths and communities. The organisations said a conspiracy has been going on to target a particular faith, disturb peace and hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims. Kathmandu, Jun 7 (PTI) The Indian Embassy in Nepal organised a yoga demonstration at the premises of the revered Pashupatinath Temple here on Friday ahead of the 10th anniversary of the International Day of Yoga on June 21. The X account of the embassy posted photos of the participants engaging in various asanas on their yoga mats. The event was organised to create greater awareness about yoga and to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the upcoming International Day of Yoga, the embassy wrote on X. The Pashupatinath Temple, situated on the banks of the holy River Bagmati, is the most revered Hindu temple in Nepal. The embassy said that in keeping with this years theme of yoga for women empowerment, a lecture-cum-demonstration on the health benefits of yoga was also organised for the girls and women of Maiti Nepal, an NGO that works for the welfare of women and fights against human trafficking. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a UN address in 2014 suggested a day for yoga on June 21 as it is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and shares a special significance in many parts of the world. Subsequently, it was adopted by the United Nations and the first International Day of Yoga was observed around the world on June 21, 2015. Dubai, Jun 7 (AP) Yemen's Houthi rebels have unveiled a new, solid-fuel missile in their arsenal that resembles aspects of one earlier displayed by Iran that Tehran described as flying at hypersonic speeds. The rebels fired its new Palestine missile, complete with a warhead painted like a Palestinian keffiyeh checkered scarf, at the southern Gulf of Aqaba port of Eilat in Israel on Monday. The attack set off air raid sirens but caused no reported damage or injuries. Footage released by the Houthis late Wednesday showed the Palestine being raised on what appeared to be a mobile launcher and rising quickly into the air with plumes of white smoke coming from its engine. White smoke is common with solid-fuel missiles. Solid-fuel missiles can be set up and fired faster than those containing liquid fuel. That's a key concern for the Houthis as their missile launch sites have been repeatedly targeted by US and allied forces in recent months over the rebels' attacks on shipping through the Red Sea corridor. One such strike hit the Houthis even before they were able to launch their missile. For their part, the Houthis described the Palestine as a locally made missile. However, the Houthis are not known to possess the ability to manufacture complicated missile and guidance systems locally in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, which been gripped by war since the rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, nearly a decade ago. The Houthis have, however, been repeatedly armed by Iran during the war despite a United Nations arms embargo. While Iran claims it doesn't arm the Houthis, ships seized by the US and its allies have found Iranian weaponry, missile fuel and components on board. Iranian media reported the launch of the Palestine and described it as locally manufactured, citing the Houthis. However, design elements on the missile resemble other missiles developed by Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. That includes one called the Fattah, or Conqueror in Farsi. Iran unveiled the missile last year and claimed it could reach Mach 15 or 15 times the speed of sound. It also described the missile's range as up to 1,400 kilometers (870 miles). That's a little short of Eilat from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, but missile can be reconfigured to boost their range. In March, Russia's state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted an anonymous source claiming the Houthis had a hypersonic missile. While we cannot say for sure what exact version the Palestine' corresponds to, we can say with high certainty that is is an advanced and precision-guided (Guard)-developed solid propellant missile provided by Iran, wrote Fabian Hinz, a missile expert and research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Asked about the similarity between the Palestine and its missiles, Iran's mission to the United Nations told The Associated Press that Tehran has not engaged in any activities in contravention of UN resolutions. "Yemen's military power has grown since the war began ... a fact rooted in the internal capacity and prowess of Ansar Allah, the mission said, using another name for the Houthis. Hypersonic weapons, which fly at speeds higher than Mach 5, could pose crucial challenges to missile defense systems because of their speed and maneuverability. Ballistic missiles fly on a trajectory in which anti-missile systems like the US-made Patriot can anticipate their path and intercept them. The more irregular the missile's flight path, such as a hypersonic missile with the ability to change directions, the more difficult it becomes to intercept. China is believed to be pursuing the weapons, as is America. Russia claims it has already used them. It remains unclear how well the Palestine maneuvers and at what speed it travels. Meanwhile Thursday, a commercial ship in the southern Red Sea near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait reported seeing explosions nearby, though no one was hurt, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. The private security firm Ambrey also reported the blasts. Though no one immediately claimed the attack, suspicion immediately fell on the Houthis. The US military's Central Command said the Houthis fired one ballistic missile into the Red Sea, while America and its allies destroyed nine drones and two drone boats over the last day. "There were no injuries or damage reported by US, coalition or commercial ships," it said. (AP) RUP RUP Reno, Jun 7 (AP) Records tumbled across the Southwest United States as temperatures soared past 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) from southeast California to Arizona, where the region's first heat wave of the year was expected to maintain its grip for at least another day. Although the official start of summer is still two weeks away, roughly half of Arizona and Nevada were under an excessive heat alert, which the National Weather Service said it was extending until Friday evening. The heat alert for Las Vegas was extended through Saturday. It's so hot, said Eleanor Wallace, 9, who was visiting Phoenix from northern Utah Thursday on a hike celebrating her birthday with her mother, Megan Wallace. The National Weather Service in Phoenix, where the new record high of 113 F (45 C) on Thursday leap-frogged the old mark of 111 F (44 C) set in 2016, called the conditions dangerously hot. There were no immediate reports of any heat-related deaths or serious injuries. But at a campaign rally for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in Phoenix, 11 people fell ill from heat exhaustion by late afternoon and were taken to the hospital, where they were treated and released, fire officials said. And in Las Vegas, with a new record of 111 (43.8 C) Thursday that also equaled the earliest time of year the high reached at least 110 (43.3 C), the Clark County Fire Department said it had responded to at least 12 calls for heat exposure since midnight Wednesday. Nine of those calls resulted in a patient needing hospital treatment. Several other areas of Arizona, California and Nevada also broke records by a degree or two, including Death Valley National Park with a record high for the date of 122 (50 C) topping the 121 (49.4 C) dating to 1996 in the desert that sits 194 feet (59 meters) below sea level near the California-Nevada line. Records there date to 1911. The heat has arrived weeks earlier than usual even in places farther to the north at higher elevations areas typically a dozen degrees cooler. That includes Reno, where the normal high of 81 F (27 C) for this time of year soared to a record 98 F (37 C) on Thursday. Records there date to 1888. The National Weather Service forecast mild cooling regionwide this weekend, but only by a few degrees. In central and southern Arizona, that will still means triple-digit highs, even up to 110 F (43 C). On Thursday in Phoenix, the unseasonably hot weather did not prevent Oscar Tomasio of Cleveland, Ohio, from proposing to his girlfriend, Megan McCracken, as they sweltered to the peak of a trail on Camelback Mountain with 3 liters of water each in tow. It was a grueling hike, Tomasio told The Associated Press. It was extra hot, so we started extra early. The views were beautiful. We didn't make it quite to the top because she was a little nervous with the heat," he said. "So, I proposed to her when the sun rose. McCracken confirmed they'd planned a sunrise hike and awoke about 5 a.m. in an effort to beat the heat and an impending closure of the trail. Probably not early enough, she said. Megan Wallace, mother of the birthday girl from Utah who also came packing water bottles, said: "We started just a few minutes after 6 and it's like we came prepared, but we got through all of our water and it was hot was hotter than we're used to. (AP) RUP RUP Paris, Jun 7 (AP) US President Joe Biden was due to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris on Friday as Kyiv's army endures its hardest days of fighting since the early weeks of the war with Russia and prepares for what officials say could be a tough summer ahead. The United States is by far Kyiv's biggest supplier of wartime support, and Ukraine is trying to fend off an intense Russian offensive in eastern areas of the country. The push is focused on the Ukrainian border regions of Kharkiv and Donetsk but Ukrainian officials say it could spread wider as Russia's bigger army seeks to make its advantage tell. The offensive is seeking to exploit Kyiv's shortages of ammunition and troops along the roughly 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) front line. That shortfall in weaponry came after US military aid was held up in Congress for six months before Biden in April signed into law a USD 61 billion military aid package for Ukraine. Amid Russia's most recent onslaught and with Ukraine's army reeling, some NATO allies including the US said last week they would allow Ukraine to use weapons they deliver to Kyiv to carry out limited attacks inside Russia. That step brought a furious response from the Kremlin, which warned that Europe's biggest conflict since World War II could spin out of control. Biden and Zelenskyy attended the 80th anniversary events of D-Day in Normandy, northern France, on Thursday, along with European leaders who have supported Kyiv's efforts in the war. Biden pledged we will not walk away from Ukraine, drawing a direct line from the fight to liberate Europe from Nazi domination to today's war against Russian aggression. Ukraine depicts its fight against the Kremlin's forces as a clash between Western democratic freedom and Russian tyranny. Russia says it is defending itself against a menacing eastward expansion of the NATO military alliance. The US will send about USD 225 million in military aid to Ukraine, US officials said Thursday. The new package includes munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, as well as mortar systems and an array of artillery rounds., officials said French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will provide Ukraine with its Mirage combat aircraft. Macron has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine. He said in February that putting Western troops on the ground in Ukraine is not ruled out. Zelenskyy began a day of meetings in Paris on Friday with an official welcome ceremony at the golden-domed Invalides monument, site of Napoleon's tomb. During the day, Zelenskyy was due to visit the Nexter arms manufacturer in Versailles, which makes the Caesar self-propelled howitzers that France, among other weapons, is providing to Kyiv's forces. He was also to make a speech to the National Assembly, which is the lower house of France's parliament, and meet with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace. Zelenskyy's foreign trips aim to keep Ukraine's plight in the public eye, secure more military help for its fight against Russia's invasion and lock in long-term Western support through bilateral alliances. France and Ukraine in February signed a 10-year bilateral security agreement. Zelenskyy has since signed similar bilateral agreements with many European countries. (AP) GSP Kathmandu, Jun 7 (PTI) Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' will undertake a three-day visit to India from Sunday during which he is scheduled to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an official said. The meeting of the Council of Ministers chaired by Prime Minister Prachanda endorsed Prachanda's India visit. The Prime Minister will leave for New Delhi on Sunday to attend Prime Minister Modis swearing-in ceremony in Delhi, Government Spokesperson and Minister for Communication and Information Technology Rekha Sharma informed the media on Thursday after the Cabinet meeting. Modi will take oath as Prime Minister for the third time on Sunday. India has also invited Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu, Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Jugnauth and President of Seychelles Wavel Ramkalawan are among the leaders being invited to Modi's swearing-in ceremony. Prachanda will return home on Tuesday. Earlier, Prachanda had paid an official visit to India from October 4 to 7, 2023 after assuming the post of the Prime Minister for the third time. Jerusalem, Jun 7 (AP) Overnight Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza killed at least 18 people, including children, a day after 33 were killed at a United Nations-run school sheltering displaced Palestinian families, health officials said Friday. Strikes hit the Nuseirat and Maghazi refugee camps and Deir al-Balah and Zawaiyda towns, they said. Four children and one woman were among those killed as well as the mayor of the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to hospital records. Israel's army said Friday it was continuing operations in parts of Central Gaza. It said its troops had killed dozens of militants, located tunnel shafts and destroyed infrastructure in the area. The strikes came a day after at least 33 people were killed at a UN-run school in the Nuseirat refugee camp which Israel said was being used as a Hamas compound, without providing evidence. International pressure has been mounting on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in its war against Hamas. Spain's foreign minister has announced it would ask a United Nations court for permission to join South Africa's case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. Israel strongly denies the accusation. More than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed by eight months of Israeli bombardments and ground offensives in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. The war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians who are facing widespread hunger. United Nations agencies say over 1 million in Gaza could experience the highest level of starvation by mid-July. Israel launched the war after Hamas' October 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people mostly civilians and abducted about 250. Around 80 hostages captured on October 7 are believed to still be alive in Gaza, alongside the remains of 43 others. Currently: Women and children of Gaza are killed less frequently as war's toll rises, AP data analysis finds How AP analyzed Gaza Health Ministry 's death toll data. Israeli strike kills at least 33 people at a Gaza school the military claims was being used by Hamas. Spain applies to join South Africa's case at top the UN court accusing Israel of genocide. A social media effort to draw attention to Rafah surges. Israeli settlers in the West Bank were hit with international sanctions. It only emboldened them. Yemen's Houthi rebels unveil solid-fuel Palestine' missile that resembles Iranian hypersonic. Here's the latest: GAZA HEALTH OFFICIALS SAY AT LEAST 18 KILLED IN OVERNIGHT ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Palestinian health officials say at least 18 people were killed, including children, in Israeli airstrikes overnight across Central Gaza. Strikes hit the Nuseirat and Maghazi refugee camps and Deir al-Balah and Zawaiyda towns, they said Friday. The bodies were taken to the al-Aqsa hospital where an Associated Press journalist counted them. Four children and one woman were among those killed as well as the mayor of the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to hospital records. Israel's army said Friday it was continuing operations in parts of Central Gaza including eastern Bureji and Deir al-Balah. It said its troops had killed dozens of militants, located tunnel shafts and destroyed infrastructure in the area. The strikes come a day after at least 33 people were killed at a United Nations-run school sheltering displaced Palestinian families. Israel said the school was being used as a Hamas compound, without providing evidence. Israel's military said it was not aware of any civilian casualties in the strike on the school in Nuseirat refugee camp, and later said it had confirmed killing nine militants. CIVIL RIGHTS GROUP URGES US TO STOP SENDING WEAPONS FOR USE IN GAZA WASHINGTON - The US civil rights group NAACP has called on the Biden administration to end the shipment of weapons to Israel for use in attacks on Gaza. It said Thursday that President Joe Biden's three-stage proposal for a cease-fire and the return of Israeli hostages held by Hamas does not go far enough. Over the past months, we have been forced to bear witness to unspeakable violence, affecting innocent civilians, which is unacceptable, President and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement. It is one thing to call for a cease-fire, it is another to take the measures necessary to work towards liberation for all. The group also urged an end of artillery shipments to states that supply weapons to Hamas. The NAACP appears to be the first legacy US civil rights organization to call for a cease-fire. However, racial justice activists and the Black Lives Matter movement have been calling for a cease-fire since shortly after the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza. Militants killed about 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage in the attack. Since Israel's offensive in response to that attack, over 36,000 Palestinians have died according to Gaza's Health Ministry. US IS CIRCULATING A GAZA CEASE-FIRE RESOLUTION AT THE UN, BUT ISRAEL PRIVATELY OBJECTS UNITED NATIONS The United States has circulated a revised Security Council draft resolution that says a permanent cease-fire in the Gaza must be agreed to by Israel and Hamas. It also spells out a three-phase plan to end the eight-month war and start the reconstruction of the devastated Gaza Strip that it says Israel has accepted and calls on Hamas to accept. In exchange for the agreement by both parties to a permanent cease-fire, the plan says all Israeli hostages in Gaza will be released and all Israeli forces will withdraw from Gaza. But Israel is privately objecting to its close ally's latest attempt to stop the war. An Israeli official told The Associated Press that the language overlooks Israel's stated aim of destroying Hamas as a military force. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussion. Because Israel believes that Hamas will engage in future military attacks, it is wary of signing a document that specifically stipulates a cease-fire, the official said. That language has a more permanent implication than a cessation of hostilities, which has also been mentioned in draft discussions. Israel also objects to proposed language that rejects any attempt at demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip. That includes actions that reduce the territory of Gaza, such as through the permanent establishment officially or unofficially of so-called buffer zones, which Israel has already said it plans. Far-right members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government have threatened to bring down the coalition if he signs onto a cease-fire deal. Egyptian and Qatari mediators have told top Biden administration officials in the Middle East that they expect Hamas will submit its formal response to the latest hostage and cease-fire offer in the coming days, according to a US official. The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said ongoing talks in Doha and Cairo have been constructive, but that Hamas has still not delivered its formal response to the three-phase deal that President Joe Biden outlined last week. Hamas has said it viewed the offer positively and called on Israel to declare an explicit commitment to the agreement. More than a dozen countries joined the US in a statement Thursday to show support for the proposed deal. The statement was signed by the leaders of Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Thailand and the United Kingdom as well as the United States. GAZA HOSPITAL SAYS FEWER WOMEN AND CHILDREN WERE KILLED IN ISRAELI STRIKE ON SCHOOL DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip The hospital where bodies were brought after an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in the Gaza Strip has amended its records to show that fewer women and children were among those killed. The Israeli military says it carried out a precise strike Thursday on three classrooms in the UN-run school where it says around 30 Palestinian militants were planning and orchestrating attacks. It said it has confirmed killing nine militants. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital initially reported that nine women and 14 children were among 33 people killed in the strike on the school. The hospital morgue later amended those records to show that the dead included three women, nine children and 21 men. It was not immediately clear what caused the discrepancy. SPAIN APPLIES TO JOIN SOUTH AFRICA'S CASE ACCUSING ISRAEL OF GENOCIDE MADRID Spain will ask a United Nations court for permission to join South Africa's case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, its foreign minister announced. Spain is the first European country to take the step after South Africa filed its case with the International Court of Justice in late 2023. It alleged that Israel was breaching the genocide convention in its military assault that has laid waste to large swaths of Gaza. Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua, Libya and the Palestinians have already requested to join the case currently being heard at the court in The Hague, Netherlands. The court has ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah but stopped short of ordering a cease-fire for the enclave. Israel has not complied. Spain's request on Thursday to join the case is the latest move by the government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to support peacemaking efforts in Gaza. Israel denies it is committing genocide in its military operation to crush Hamas triggered by its deadly October 7 attacks in southern Israel. Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 250 more hostage in the surprise attacks. Israel's air and land attacks have killed 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between combatants and civilians. (AP) NPK NPK Islamabad, Jun 7 (PTI) Jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan has invoked the case of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal getting bail to campaign ahead of India's general elections, as he complained before the Supreme Court about the mistreatment meted to him in jail. During his appearance on Thursday before a five-member Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa in a case related to amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman complained of the victimisation that he faced since his ouster from power in April 2022. Justices Aminuddin Khan, Jamal Khan Mandokhel, Athar Minallah, and Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi also sat on the bench. Justice Minallah remarked that it was unfortunate that Khan was in jail as he was the head of a large party with millions of followers. Khan, complaining of oppression against him, pointed out that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was released on bail by the apex court ahead of the Indian general elections for campaigning for his party but he was facing oppression in Pakistan which was under undeclared "martial law". Khan,71, complained that he was convicted within five days to keep him away from the general elections which were held on February 8. Khan also expressed dismay over the Supreme Courts judgment rejecting Khyber Pakhtunkhwas government plea requesting the live streaming of the case. You wrote [in the judgment] that I did political point scoring during the last hearing. I did not get it, what political scoring did I resort to, the PTI founder asked the CJP Isa. At this, Chief Justice Isa said a judge does not owe an explanation to anyone over the verdict. You can file a review petition, the top judge said. He also asked the former premier to speak only about the pending matter before the court. Lamenting political victimisation, the PTI founder said the Supreme Court should appoint a chairman for the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the anti-corruption watchdog. When the Opposition and government fail to evolve consensus on the name of NAB chairman appointment then a third umpire makes the decision, he said, adding that the anti-graft body is working under the third umpire. Addressing the PTI founder, Justice Minallah said: "Khan sahib, there was no reason to declare the NAB amendments invalid. Khan said he was currently facing NAB inquiries and called for improvement in the anti-corruption body. After Justice Minallah reminded Khan about the issue of the appointment of Chief Election Commissioner, he said restoring the amendment would help him in the NAB cases, however, the country will become bankrupt. CJP Isa also barred the PTI founder from citing Islamabad High Court (IHC) verdict in the cipher cases and said the appeal in the case might be filed in the apex court. Why did not you oppose the NAB amendments in Parliament, asked Justice Rizvi. Khan cited the circumstances and said his government was toppled via conspiracy and that he did not want to respond to the conspiratorial government in Parliament. Khan also asked the court to compare the facilities given to him in jail with the facilities given to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. However, in a lighter vein, Justice Mandokhel said the elder Sharif was not in jail at the moment, Do you want us to send him to jail? The chief justice remarked the court would arrange a surprise visit by the judicial officer. Male, Jun 7 (PTI) Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu has accepted the invitation to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modis swearing-in ceremony in New Delhi over the weekend, according to a media report on Friday. News portal Edition.mv quoted its sister-publication in Dhivehi, Mihaaru News, as saying that President Muizzu will leave for New Delhi on Saturday for the ceremony accompanied by several other senior government officials. There was no official confirmation yet from the Maldives President's Office about Muizzu's first official visit to India. Earlier on Wednesday, Muizzu had congratulated Modi and voiced his desire to work with the Indian prime minister to advance the bilateral ties. Congratulations to Prime Minister @narendramodi and the BJP and BJP-led NDA, on the success in the 2024 Indian General Election, for the third consecutive term. I look forward to working together to advance our shared interests in pursuit of shared prosperity and stability for our two countries, Muizzu posted on X. This marks the pro-China president's first official visit to India since assuming office on November 17 last year. Unlike his predecessors, who made the first port of call to New Delhi after assuming office, Muizzu had travelled to Turkiye first and to China for his first state visit in January. Within hours of his oath, Muizzu had demanded the removal of 88-odd Indian military personnel from his country, straining bilateral ties. The military personnel were repatriated from three aviation platforms and replaced by civilians from India by the May 10 deadline set by Muizzu. The swearing-in ceremony is expected to witness the presence of leaders from neighbouring countries, including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal, Mauritius, and Seychelles, in addition to the Maldives, as part of Indias Neighbourhood First policy. St. Petersburg (Russia), Jun 7 (AP) President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the Russian economy is growing despite heavy international sanctions and the country has expanded economic ties with countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, as he sought to court investors. Addressing the leaders of Bolivia and Zimbabwe and business leaders at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin said Russia remains one of the key participants in world trade, despite the fact that the country is under sweeping sanctions for sending troops in Ukraine. The forum has been used by Russia for decades as a showcase for touting the country's development, though Western officials and investors have steered clear of the session since sanctions cut off much of Russia's trade with Western Europe, the US and their allies. The main driver of Russia's economic growth is the fighting in Ukraine now as important to the Kremlin economically as it is politically. Russians are finding a few imported staples, and most global brands have disappeared or been reincarnated as Russian equivalents. But not much else has changed economically for most Russians, with massive state spending for military equipment and hefty payments to volunteer soldiers giving a strong boost to the economy. Putin has heavily controlled his media appearances since sending his forces into Ukraine but he took questions Wednesday from international journalists, including some from Western countries he has criticized, on the sidelines of the forum. At that meeting, Putin warned that Russia could provide long-range weapons to others to strike Western targets in response to NATO allies allowing Ukraine to use their arms to attack Russian territory. He also reaffirmed Moscow's readiness to use nuclear weapons if it sees a threat to its sovereignty. Last year, journalists from countries that Russia regards as unfriendly including the US, the UK and the European Union were not invited to the forum. (AP) PY PY Copenhagen, Jun 7 (AP) Swedish police detained 19 pro-Palestinian activists who barricaded themselves in the country's main technical education and research university on Friday. After two hours, police carried out the masked activists from the third floor of a Royal Institute of Technology building in Stockholm. They are likely to be prosecuted for trespassing and disobeying the police, according to police. International pressure has been mounting on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in its war against Hamas in Gaza. On Thursday, an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza killed at least 33 people, including 12 women and children, according to local health officials. The Israeli military said that Hamas militants were operating from within the school. At around noon, the activists blocked the entrance of a student building at the institute, known by its Swedish acronym KTH, with chairs and tables. Some shouted Free Palestine and hung Palestinian flags in the windows. People supporting the activists and a large contingent of law enforcement personnel, including officers with dogs and mounted police, quickly gathered outside KTH, which is located north of downtown Stockholm. On Instagram, the activists said they occupied the building to pressure KTH to stop collaborating with Israeli universities. The school describes itself as the largest institution in Sweden for technical education and research and is a leading technical university internationally. Last week, a handful of pro-Palestinian activists were briefly detained in connection with an unauthorized demonstration outside KTH. In the past months, law enforcement in the United States and in Europe have forcefully removed encampments and barricades where pro-Palestinian demonstrations have blocked the main entrances and other access points on campuses. In the Danish capital, activists who had set up tents at a University of Copenhagen campus have taken them down and some moved Wednesday to the City Hall Square where they set up a tent camp, demanding that Denmark boycott Israeli arms sales. (AP) SCY SCY Jerusalem, Jun 7 (AP) The proportion of Palestinian women and children being killed in the Israel-Hamas war appears to have declined sharply, an Associated Press analysis of Gaza Health Ministry data has found, a trend that both coincides with Israel's changing battlefield tactics and contradicts the ministry's own public statements. The trend is significant because the death rate for women and children is the best available proxy for civilian casualties in one of the 21st century's most destructive conflicts. In October, when the war began, it was above 60%. For the month of April, it was below 40%. Yet the shift went unnoticed for months by the UN and much of the media, and the Hamas-linked Health Ministry has made no effort to set the record straight. Israel faces heavy international criticism over unprecedented levels of civilian casualties in Gaza and questions about whether it has done enough to prevent them in an 8-month-old war that shows no sign of ending. Two recent airstrikes in Gaza killed dozens of civilians. The AP analysis highlights facts that have been overlooked and could help inform the public debate, said Gabriel Epstein, a research assistant at the Washington Institute for Near East policy who has also studied the Health Ministry data. The declining impact on women and children -- as well as a drop in the overall death rate -- are definitely due to a change in the way the IDF is acting right now, Epstein said, using an acronym for the Israeli army. That's an easy conclusion, but I don't think it's been made enough. Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director for Human Rights Watch, said his group has always found the Health Ministry's numbers to be generally reliable because it has direct access to hospitals and morgues. Whatever the reason for fewer women and child being killed, Shakir said, in the grand scheme, the trend pales when compared with the war's overall devastation. The death toll may be an undercount, he added, because many bodies are still under rubble and the war has made it difficult for the Health Ministry to comprehensively gather data. AS THE WAR EVOLVES, A SHIFT OCCURS When Israel first responded to Hamas' Oct 7 attack, which killed some 1,200 people, it launched an intense aerial bombardment on the densely populated Gaza Strip. Israel said its goal was to destroy Hamas positions, and the barrage cleared the way for tens of thousands of ground troops, backed by tanks and artillery. The Gaza death toll rose quickly and by the end of October women and people 17 and younger accounted for 64% of the 6,745 killed who were fully identified by the Health Ministry. After marching across most of Gaza and saying it had achieved many key objectives, Israel then began withdrawing most of its ground forces. It reduced the frequency of aerial bombings and has focused in recent months on smaller drone strikes and limited ground operations. As the intensity of fighting has scaled back, the death toll has continued to rise, but at a slower rate and with seemingly fewer civilians caught in the crossfire. In April, women and children made up 38% of the newly and fully identified deaths, the Health Ministry's most recent data shows. Historically, airstrikes (kill) a higher ratio of women and children compared to ground operations, said Larry Lewis, an expert on the civilian impacts of war at CNA, a nonprofit research group in Washington. The findings of the AP analysis make sense, he said. Another sign that Israel softened its bombing campaign: Beginning in January, there was a sharp slowdown in new damage to buildings in Gaza, according to Corey Scher, a satellite mapping expert at City University of New York who has monitored buildings damaged or destroyed since the war began. DAILY DEATH TOLLS AT ODDS WITH UNDERLYING DATA The Health Ministry announces a new death toll for the war nearly every day. It also has periodically released the underlying data behind this figure, including detailed lists of the dead. The AP's analysis looked at these lists, which were shared on social media in late October, early January, late March, and the end of April. Each list includes the names of people whose deaths were attributable to the war, along with other identifying details. The daily death tolls, however, are provided without supporting data. In February, ministry officials said 75% of the dead were women and children a level that was never confirmed in the detailed reports. And as recently as March, the ministry's daily reports claimed that 72% of the dead were women and children, even as underlying data clearly showed the percentage was well below that. Israeli leaders have pointed to such inconsistencies as evidence that the ministry, which is led by medical professionals but reports to Gaza's Hamas government, is inflating the figures for political gain. Experts say the reality is more complicated, given the scale of devastation that has overwhelmed and badly damaged Gaza's hospital system. Lewis said while the beleaguered Health Ministry has come under heavy scrutiny, Israel has yet to provide credible alternative data. He called on Israel to put out your numbers. HIGH CIVILIAN DEATH TOLL IS A LIABILITY FOR ISRAEL The true toll in Gaza could have serious repercussions. Two international courts in the Hague are examining accusations that Israel has committed war crimes and genocide against Palestinians allegations it adamantly denies. Israel has opened a potentially devastating new phase of the war in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where an estimated 100,000 civilians remain even after mass evacuations. How Israel mitigates civilian deaths there will be closely watched. Israeli airstrikes in Rafah last month set off a fire that killed dozens of people, and on Thursday an airstrike on a school-turned-shelter in central Gaza killed at least 33 people, including 12 women and children, local health officials said. Israel says it has tried to avoid civilian casualties throughout the war, including by issuing mass evacuation orders ahead of intense military operations that have displaced some 80% of Gaza's population. It also accuses Hamas of intentionally putting civilians in harm's way as human shields. The fate of women and children is an important indicator of civilian casualties because the Health Ministry does not break out combatant deaths. But it's not a perfect indicator: Many civilian men have died, and some older teenagers may be involved in the fighting. PARSING GAZA HEALTH MINISTRY DATA The ministry said publicly on April 30 that 34,622 had died in the war. The AP analysis was based on the 22,961 individuals fully identified at the time by the Health Ministry with names, genders, ages, and Israeli-issued identification numbers. The ministry says 9,940 of the dead 29% of its April 30 total were not listed in the data because they remain unidentified. These include bodies not claimed by families, decomposed beyond recognition or whose records were lost in Israeli raids on hospitals. An additional 1,699 records in the ministry's April data were incomplete and 22 were duplicates; they were excluded from AP's analysis. Among those fully identified, the records show a steady decline in the overall proportion of women and children who have been killed: from 64% in late October, to 62% as of early January, to 57% by the end of March, to 54% by the end of April. Yet throughout the war, the ministry has claimed that roughly two-thirds of the dead were women and children. This figure has been repeated by international organizations and many in the foreign media, including the AP. The Health Ministry says it has gone to great lengths to accurately compile information but that its ability to count and identify the dead has been greatly hampered by the war. The fighting has crippled the Gaza health system, knocking out two-thirds of the territory's 36 hospitals, closing morgues and hampering the work of facilities still functioning. Dr Moatasem Salah, director of the ministry's emergency centre, rejected Israeli assertions that his ministry has intentionally inflated or manipulated the death toll. This shows disrespect to the humanity for any person who exists here, he said. We are not numbers...These are all human souls. He insisted that 70% of those killed have been women and children and said the overall death toll is much higher than what has been reported because thousands of people remain missing, are believed to be buried in rubble, or their deaths were not reported by their families. AS DEATH TOLL RISES, THE DETAILS ARE DEBATED To be sure, this war's death toll is the highest of any previous Israel-Palestinian conflict. But Israeli leaders say the international media and United Nations have cited Palestinian figures without a critical eye. Israel last month angrily criticized the UN's use of data from Hamas' media office a propaganda arm of the militant group that reported a larger number of women and children killed. The UN later lowered its number in line with Health Ministry figures. Israel's foreign minister, Israel Katz, lashed out on the social platform X: Anyone who relies on fake data from a terrorist organisation in order to promote blood libels against Israel is antisemitic and supports terrorism. AP's examination of the reports found flaws in the Palestinian record keeping. As Gaza's hospital system collapsed in December and January, the ministry began relying on hard-to-verify media reports to register new deaths. Its March report included 531 individuals who were counted twice, and many deaths were self-reported by families, instead of health officials. Epstein, the Washington Institute researcher, said using different data-collection methodologies and then combining all the numbers gives an inaccurate picture. That's probably the biggest problem, he said, adding that he was surprised there hadn't been more scrutiny. The number of Hamas militants killed in the fighting is also unclear. Hamas has closely guarded this information, though Khalil al-Hayya, a top Hamas official, told the AP in late April that the group had lost no more than 20% of its fighters. That would amount to roughly 6,000 fighters based on Israeli pre-war estimates. The Israeli military has not challenged the overall death toll released by the Palestinian ministry. But it says the number of dead militants is much higher at roughly 15,000 or over 40% of all the dead. It has provided no evidence to support the claim, and declined to comment for this story. Shlomo Mofaz, director of Israel's Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Centre, said such estimates are typically based on body counts, battlefield intelligence and the interrogations of captured Hamas commanders. Mofaz, a former Israeli intelligence officer, said his researchers are sceptical of the Palestinian data. In previous conflicts, he said his researchers found numerous inconsistencies, such as including natural deaths from disease or car accidents among the war casualties. He expects that to be the case this time as well. The large number of unidentified dead raises further questions, he said. Michael Spagat, a London-based economics professor who chairs the board of Every Casualty Counts, a nonprofit that tracks armed conflicts, said he continues to trust the Health Ministry and believes it is doing its best in difficult circumstances. I think (the data) becomes increasingly flawed, he said. But, he added, the flaws don't necessarily change the overall picture. SCY SCY Pointe Du Hoc (France), Jun 7 (AP) President Joe Biden on Friday looked to summon Americans to defend democracy from threats at home and abroad and cast an implicit contrast with Donald Trump by drawing on the heroism of Army Rangers who scaled the seaside cliffs of Pointe du Hoc in the D-Day invasion 80 years ago. The same spot was etched in the nation's political memory in 1984, when President Ronald Reagan, honoured the boys of Pointe du Hoc and drew common cause between their almost unthinkable feat in the face of Nazi Germany's tyranny to the then-Cold War struggle against the Soviet Union. Now, Biden sought to channel both historic moments to advance his own vision for the country's global role amid two gruelling wars and the persistence of former President Trump, who has continued to lie about his 2020 election loss and threatened to dismantle US commitments overseas. As we gather here today, it's not just to honour those who showed such remarkable bravery that day June 6, 1944, Biden said. It's to listen to the echo of their voices. To hear them. Because they are summoning us. They're asking us what will we do. They're not asking us to scale these cliffs. They're asking us to stay true to what America stands for. While ostensibly an official speech, coming a day after Biden marked the anniversary of the Normandy landings with solemn ceremonies alongside allies, Biden's remarks were steeped in political overtones, as his campaign makes a renewed play for national security-minded Republican voters who lionised Reagan and have never warmed to Trump's America First foreign policy. They're not asking us to do their job, Biden said of the ghosts of Pointe Du Hoc." "They're asking us to do our job: to protect freedom in our time, to defend democracy, to stand up aggression abroad and at home, to be part of something bigger than ourselves. A day earlier, Biden paid his respects to the D-Day force in an emotional ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery that was also attended by dozens of veterans in their late 90s and older. As Navy officer recited The Watch, affirming that a new generation was taking up their post in defense of freedom, and a twenty-one gun salute cast eerie smoke over 9,388 white marble headstones, the president grew heavy-eyed and pumped his fist as as an F-35 flypast performed a missing-man salute. Biden, at 81 not even a generation removed from the Normandy fighters, cast himself and the nation as their inheritors in the timeless struggle between freedom and tyranny. But the country's willingness to take up their mantle has in many ways never been more uncertain amid the possibility of Trump's return to the White House. We're the fortunate heirs of the legacy of these heroes those who scaled the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc," Biden said. "We must also be the keepers of their mission...the bearers of the flame of freedom they kept burning bright." It comes as Biden is also seeking to end fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza to free hostages held by the militant group and surge humanitarian assistance to civilians while also trying to reorient US foreign policy to confront China's rising power in Asia. Does anyone doubt they would move heaven and earth to vanquish hateful ideologies of today? Biden said. Before flying to Normandy, Biden sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday in Paris, where he stressed the US. commitment to Ukraine in the face of Russia's invasion and for the first time publicly apologised to the Ukrainian people for a monthslong congressional holdup in American military assistance that let Moscow make battlefield gains. It was their first meeting since Biden signed the legislation authorizing the additional military assistance. He also announce a new $225 million in ammunition shipments, including rockets, mortars, artillery rounds and air-defence missiles. I apologise for those weeks of not knowing what's going to happen in terms of funding, Biden said, but insisted that the American people were standing by Ukraine for the long haul. We're still in. Completely. Thoroughly, he said. Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser, told reporters that Biden's speech would focus on sacrifices made by US soldiers during an existential fight between a dictatorship and freedom. He'll talk about the dangers of isolationism and how if we bow to dictators and fail to stand up to them, they keep going and ultimately America and the world pays a greater price, Sullivan added. Pointe du Hoc is located on the sheer cliffs between Omaha and Utah beaches. Before D-Day, the Nazis were believed to have stationed artillery there, which would have allowed them to shell critical landing zones for Allied troops. Army Rangers used ropes, ladders and their hands to scale Pointe du Hoc while under fire. When they reached the top, they realised that the artillery had already been moved elsewhere and only decoys remained. The weapons were tracked down nearby and disabled, and the Americans spent two days repelling Nazi counterattacks. The mission was memorialised by Reagan on the 40th anniversary of D-Day in 1984. These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc," he said. "These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war. Reagan's speech, coming as the Cold War with the Soviet Union remained underway, was also a call for the US to not turn its back on Europe. We in America have learned bitter lessons from two World Wars," he said. "It is better to be here ready to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We've learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent. It's a view that would likely put him out of step with the modern Republican Party, which under Trump's leadership has become increasingly sceptical of foreign entanglements. Biden highlighted the contrast during his State of the Union this year. It wasn't that long ago when a Republican president, Ronald Reagan, thundered, 'Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall,' a reference to another famous speech in Berlin. Now, my predecessor, a former Republican president, tells Putin, Do whatever the hell you want.' Trump made that comment at a February rally in South Carolina, warning European allies not to be delinquent in their military spending or he would refuse to help them as president. (AP) SCY SCY Jerusalem, Jun 7 (AP) Israel's military struck what it says was a Hamas position inside a UN-run school in northern Gaza. Palestinian emergency officials said three people were killed. The attack Friday came a day after an Israeli strike on a UN school in central Gaza killed at least 33 people, including 12 women and children, according to local health officials. The Israeli military said in that case as well that Hamas militants were operating from within the school, which the UN said was sheltering displaced Palestinian families. International pressure is mounting on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in its war against Hamas. The top United Nations court has concluded there is a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza a charge Israel strongly denies. As the war completed its eighth month on Friday, Gaza's Health Ministry said Israel's campaign has killed more than 36,730 people. The Health Ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. The war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians who are facing widespread hunger. United Nations agencies say over 1 million in Gaza could experience the highest level of starvation by mid-July. Israel launched the war after Hamas' October 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people mostly civilians and abducted about 250. Around 80 hostages captured on October 7 are believed to still be alive in Gaza, alongside the remains of 43 others. Currently: Women and children of Gaza are killed less frequently as war's toll rises, AP data analysis finds How AP analyzed Gaza Health Ministry 's death toll data. Israeli strike kills at least 33 people at a Gaza school-turned shelter. The military claims it was being used by Hamas. Attacks on businesses linked to US brands rattle Baghdad as anger over the war in Gaza rises. Yemen's Houthi rebels detain at least nine UN staffers and others in a sudden crackdown, officials say One image, seen by millions: A social media effort to draw attention to Rafah surges. Israeli settlers in the West Bank were hit with international sanctions. It only emboldened them. Here's the latest: ISRAEL STRIKES A UN SCHOOL IN NORTHERN GAZA. PALESTINIAN OFFICIALS SAY 3 PEOPLE KILLED JERUSALEM The Israeli military says it struck a Hamas position inside a UN-run school in northern Gaza. Palestinian emergency officials said three people were killed. The attack Friday came a day after an Israeli strike on a UN school in central Gaza killed at least 33 people, including 12 women and children, according to local health officials. The Israeli military said in that case as well that Hamas militants were operating from within the school. Friday's airstrike targeted the Asmaa School in the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza, a facility run by the UN agency, known as UNRWA, that cares for Palestinian refugees. The Israeli military said it hit a shipping container on the grounds of the school that Hamas was using as a meeting point to plan attacks. It said one militant was killed. Israel's claims could not be independently confirmed. The Palestinian Civil Defense said three people were killed in the strike, without giving details on their identity. More than 180 United Nations facilities have been damaged during Israel's campaign of bombardment and ground offensives across Gaza, according to UNRWA. Most of them have been schools, which have turned into shelters for tens of thousands of people fleeing the violence. Israel accuses Hamas of using schools and other civilian infrastructure to position its fighters, weapons and command posts. As the war completed its eighth month on Friday, Gaza's Health Ministry said Israel's campaign has killed more than 36,730 people. Its count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. The Israeli army says it follows international law and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, saying militants operate among the population. The Geneva Conventions say civilians must not be targeted deliberately or indiscriminately, and military operations must be proportionate. AMERICAN-BUILT PIER IN GAZA IS RECONNECTED TO BEACH AND AID WILL FLOW SOON, US MILITARY SAYS WASHINGTON The US military-built pier designed to carry badly needed aid into Gaza by boat has been reconnected to the beach after a section broke apart in storms and rough seas, US Central Command announced Friday, saying food and other supplies will begin to flow soon. The section that connects to the beach in Gaza, the causeway, was rebuilt nearly two weeks after heavy storms damaged it and abruptly halted what had already been a troubled delivery route. Central Command Vice Admiral Brad Cooper said operations at the reconnected pier will be ramped up soon with a goal to get a million pounds of food and other supplies moving through the pier into Gaza every two days. The pier was only operational for a week before a storm broke it apart, and had initially struggled to reach delivery goals. The maritime route for a limited time had been an additional way to help get more aid into Gaza because the Israeli offensive in the southern city of Rafah has made it difficult, if not impossible at times, to get anything through land routes that are far more productive. Israel's Rafah invasion and strikes in northern Gaza had also temporarily halted US airdrops of food. Cooper said Friday the US also expects to resume those airdrops in the coming days. ISRAELI SETTLERS SET FIRE TO PALESTINIAN VILLAGE IN WEST BANK AND SEVERAL PEOPLE ARE WOUNDED, OFFICIALS SAY RAMALLAH Several people were wounded when settlers set fire to a northern West Bank village, a local official said Friday. Hani Odeh, head of Qusra's municipality council, told The Associated Press that settlers set fire in the area Thursday night, attacking houses, burning warehouses and destroying trees. Videos seen by the AP show several fires blazing with plumes of smoke in the air. Three people were injured, one by live ammunition and the others by live bullets, said Odeh. The army told the AP that Israeli civilians lit Palestinian property on fire Thursday evening. It said there was a violent confrontation between Israeli civilians and Palestinians with mutual rock throwing and the army dispersed them by firing shots in the air. Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has surged throughout the war in Gaza. Israel has been conducting raids into Palestinian cities and towns in the territory to crack down on militancy and the incursions have led to the deaths of around 530 Palestinians. Most of those killed have been in clashes with the military. But people throwing stones as well as others not involved in the confrontations have also been killed. Palestinian attacks against Israelis have also been on the rise in the territory. Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state. The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, while the more than 5,00,000 Jewish settlers in the territory have Israeli citizenship. GAZA HEALTH OFFICIALS SAY AT LEAST 18 KILLED IN OVERNIGHT ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Palestinian health officials say at least 18 people were killed, including children, in Israeli airstrikes overnight across Central Gaza. Strikes hit the Nuseirat and Maghazi refugee camps and Deir al-Balah and Zawaiyda towns, they said Friday. The bodies were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where they were tallied by an Associated Press journalist. Four children and one woman were among those killed as well as the mayor of the Nuseirat municipality, according to hospital records. Israel's army said Friday it was still carrying out operations in parts of Central Gaza including eastern Bureji and Deir al-Balah. It said its troops had killed dozens of militants, located tunnel shafts and destroyed infrastructure in the area. The strikes come a day after an Israeli strike killed at least 33 people at a United Nations-run school sheltering displaced Palestinian families. Israel said the school was being used as a Hamas compound, without providing evidence. Israel's military said it was not aware of any civilian casualties in the strike on the school in Nuseirat refugee camp, and later said it had confirmed killing nine militants. UNEMPLOYMENT IN GAZA REACHES NEARLY 80 per cent, UN REPORT SAYS JERUSALEM Unemployment in Gaza has reached nearly 80 per cent since the war erupted eight months ago, a new United Nations report said Friday. The United Nations International Labour Organization and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said the war has plunged Gaza as well as the West Bank into economic crisis. In Gaza, virtually the entire private sector ground to a halt or significantly reduced, losing more than 85 per cent of its production value -- the equivalent of more than USD 810 million-- during the first half of the war, said the report. In the West Bank, unemployment reached 32 per cent bringing the average rate across both areas to more than 50 per cent. The findings don't include people who left the workforce because they couldn't find jobs. This is the fourth report since the war began on October 7 when Hamas militants stormed southern Israel killing some 1,200 people. A separate report last month by the UN said the unprecedented destruction from the war in Gaza would take at least until 2040 to restore. CIVIL RIGHTS GROUP URGES US TO STOP SENDING WEAPONS FOR USE IN GAZA WASHINGTON - The US civil rights group NAACP has called on the Biden administration to end the shipment of weapons to Israel for use in attacks on Gaza. It said Thursday that President Joe Biden's three-stage proposal for a cease-fire and the return of Israeli hostages held by Hamas does not go far enough. Over the past months, we have been forced to bear witness to unspeakable violence, affecting innocent civilians, which is unacceptable, President and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement. It is one thing to call for a cease-fire, it is another to take the measures necessary to work towards liberation for all. The group also urged an end of artillery shipments to states that supply weapons to Hamas. The NAACP appears to be the first legacy US civil rights organization to call for a cease-fire. However, racial justice activists and the Black Lives Matter movement have been calling for a cease-fire since shortly after the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza. Militants killed about 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage in the attack. Since Israel's offensive in response to that attack, over 36,000 Palestinians have died according to Gaza's Health Ministry. US IS CIRCULATING A GAZA CEASE-FIRE RESOLUTION AT THE UN, BUT ISRAEL PRIVATELY OBJECTS UNITED NATIONS The United States has circulated a revised Security Council draft resolution that says a permanent cease-fire in the Gaza must be agreed to by Israel and Hamas. It also spells out a three-phase plan to end the eight-month war and start the reconstruction of the devastated Gaza Strip that it says Israel has accepted and calls on Hamas to accept. In exchange for the agreement by both parties to a permanent cease-fire, the plan says all Israeli hostages in Gaza will be released and all Israeli forces will withdraw from Gaza. But Israel is privately objecting to its close ally's latest attempt to stop the war. An Israeli official told The Associated Press that the language overlooks Israel's stated aim of destroying Hamas as a military force. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussion. Because Israel believes that Hamas will engage in future military attacks, it is wary of signing a document that specifically stipulates a cease-fire, the official said. That language has a more permanent implication than a cessation of hostilities, which has also been mentioned in draft discussions. Israel also objects to proposed language that rejects any attempt at demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip. That includes actions that reduce the territory of Gaza, such as through the permanent establishment officially or unofficially of so-called buffer zones, which Israel has already said it plans. Far-right members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government have threatened to bring down the coalition if he signs onto a cease-fire deal. Egyptian and Qatari mediators have told top Biden administration officials in the Middle East that they expect Hamas will submit its formal response to the latest hostage and cease-fire offer in the coming days, according to a US official. The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said ongoing talks in Doha and Cairo have been constructive, but that Hamas has still not delivered its formal response to the three-phase deal that President Joe Biden outlined last week. Hamas has said it viewed the offer positively and called on Israel to declare an explicit commitment to the agreement. More than a dozen countries joined the US in a statement Thursday to show support for the proposed deal. GAZA HOSPITAL SAYS FEWER WOMEN AND CHILDREN WERE KILLED IN ISRAELI STRIKE ON SCHOOL DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip The hospital where bodies were brought after an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in the Gaza Strip has amended its records to show that fewer women and children were among those killed. The Israeli military says it carried out a precise strike Thursday on three classrooms in the UN-run school where it says around 30 Palestinian militants were planning and orchestrating attacks. It said it has confirmed killing nine militants. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital initially reported that nine women and 14 children were among 33 people killed in the strike on the school. The hospital morgue later amended those records to show that the dead included three women, nine children and 21 men. It was not immediately clear what caused the discrepancy. SPAIN APPLIES TO JOIN SOUTH AFRICA'S CASE ACCUSING ISRAEL OF GENOCIDE MADRID Spain will ask a United Nations court for permission to join South Africa's case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, its foreign minister announced. Spain is the first European country to take the step after South Africa filed its case with the International Court of Justice in late 2023. It alleged that Israel was breaching the genocide convention in its military assault that has laid waste to large swaths of Gaza. Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua, Libya and the Palestinians have already requested to join the case currently being heard at the court in The Hague, Netherlands. The court has ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah but stopped short of ordering a cease-fire for the enclave. Israel has not complied. Spain's request on Thursday to join the case is the latest move by the government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to support peacemaking efforts in Gaza. (AP) NPK NPK Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, June 7 (PTI) Two officials of Dnyanradha Cooperative Multi-State Credit Society at Beed in Maharashtra have been arrested for allegedly cheating depositors, police said on Friday. Chairman Suresh Kute and joint director Ashish Patodekar were arrested by Beed police from Hinjawadi near Pune on Friday morning, an official said. A farmer had lodged a complaint with Mahjalgaon police in Beed district claiming that he had a fixed deposit of around Rs 3.5 lakh with the society but did not get his money back on maturity. Further probe is underway, the official said. Bhopal, Jun 7 (PTI) With the BJP sweeping the Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh by winning all 29 seats in the state, including the Congress citadel of Chhindwara, as many as 311 out of the total 369 candidates in the fray lost their security deposits, officials said on Friday. This comes to more than 84 per cent of the candidates losing their deposit that ranged from Rs 12,500 to Rs 25,000 each, an official said. With all 29 seats under its belt, the BJP became the first political party to achieve such a feat after 40 years in Madhya Pradesh. The victory margin of the BJP ranged between 1 lakh to 5 lakh votes in 26 constituencies, while it stood under 1 lakh in Bhind, Gwalior, and Morena constituencies. The BJP received 59.3 per cent vote share, up by around 1.3 per cent as compared to the 2019 poll results. Fifty-eight of the total 369 candidates, including all 29 nominees of the BJP, 27 of the Congress and two of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) did not lose their deposit, Madhya Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Anupam Rajan told PTI over phone. Though the Congress' vote share dipped by 2.1 per cent this time, none of its candidates lost their deposit. Its vote share came down to 32.4 per cent from 34.5 per cent in 2019. According to another EC official, a candidate has to secure one-sixth of the total valid votes cast in the constituency. The most spectacular victory was registered by BJP's sitting MP from Indore, Shankar Lalwani, who bagged the seat by the potentially highest-ever margin of 11,75,092 votes. Congress did not contest the Indore seat after its candidate Akshay Kanti Bam crossed over to the BJP. All other 13 candidates lost their deposit in Indore. BSP candidate Lakshman Solanki pocketed 51,659 votes and ranked second in Indore, but he lost his deposit. Candidates from Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes have to keep Rs 12,500 as security deposit, while those belonging to the general category have to pay Rs 25,000, the EC official said. It is hard to work out the total amount of the forfeited security deposit, he said. Two BSP candidates - Narayan Tripathi from Satna and Ramesh Garg from Morena - were able to save their deposits. Tripathi polled more than 1.85 lakh votes, while Garg garnered more than 1.79 lakh votes. Anand, Jun 7 (PTI) Four members of a family, including two women, drowned in Mahisagar river in Gujarat's Anand district during an outing, police said on Friday. The incident took place on Thursday evening on the outskirts of Khanpur village, a popular tourist spot during the summer season as people gather to take a dip in the waters of Mahisagar river that flows from there, Khambholaj police in Anand district said in a statement. "Four members of a family from Gamdi village were among the tourists who came there to take a dip in the river. When one of them started drowning, three others ventured deep into the water to save that person. However, all of them eventually drowned in deep water," it said. Though villagers rushed to the spot after learning about the incident, it was too late as they could only recover the bodies of the victims, the police said. The bodies were then sent for post-mortem and a case of accidental death was registered, they said. The deceased were identified as Suresh Vaghela, Prakash Vaghela, Vesuben Solanki and Jyoti Vaghela. On June 2, two men from Anand town and Lambhvel village died in a similar manner at the same spot as they could not judge the depth of water, the police said. Mumbai, Jun 7 (PTI) Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar has expressed unhappiness over state BJP minister Chandrakant Patils comment on Sharad Pawar during the recent Lok Sabha election campaign. Seeking to blame the BJP minister for negative impact in voting, Ajit Pawar, whose wife lost in Baramati to Supriya Sule by more than 1.5 lakh votes, said Patil should not have made the statement against his uncle. Patil, while addressing reporters in Baramati, had made clear his intentions to defeat Sharad Pawar in his stronghold. He had accused the NCP patriarch of undermining the 2019 election mandate that favoured the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance by taking away the Shiv Sena, despite the alliance securing 161 MLA seats. "I and my party workers want defeat of Sharad Pawar in Baramati and that is enough for us," Patil had said during electioneering. Ajit Pawar had then responded to Patils remarks, saying, Sharad Pawar was not a contestant for Baramati Lok Sabha seat. It was a wrong statement made by Patil, and after he said it, we asked him not to campaign in Baramati. I had said it then and I am saying it now. People didnt like his (Patils) statement that he had come to Baramati to defeat (Sharad) Pawar, Ajit Pawar told reporters on Thursday. His latest statement, coming after his wife lost to Sule, is being seen as an attempt to put the onus for the poll debacle to the negative impact Patils remarks had in the constituency. Sule, daughter of NCP founder and Ajit Pawar's uncle Sharad Pawar, bagged 7,32,312 votes as against 5,73,979 votes polled by Sunetra and won by a margin of 1,58,333 votes. Mumbai, Jun 7 (PTI) The Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation on Friday said it had achieved successful breakthrough of the longest tunnel on the under-construction Panvel-Karjat suburban railway line. Breakthrough of the 2,265 meter long Wavarle tunnel, excavation of which began on February 22 last year, was achieved in the afternoon in the presence of MRVC CMD Subhash Chand Gupta and other senior personnel, said chief public relations officer Sunil Udasi. "The successful breakthrough of the tunnel represents a major milestone in the Panvel-Karjat railway project, paving the way for enhanced connectivity and transportation efficiency in the Mumbai suburban region," Udasi said. The Panvel-Karjat line, being built as part of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project Phase 3, has three tunnels, the other two being 219 metres and 320 metres long, he informed. "The Wavarle tunnel, measuring 7.323 metres in height and 13.282 metres in width, was excavated using the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM). It will be the first ballastless track of the Mumbai suburban network and has features like public refuge areas, a tunnel control system (SCADA), lighting, firefighting and ventilation mechanisms meeting contemporary international standards," Udasi informed. "Significant challenges were encountered, including fractured rock masses with water seepage and minimal cover during the excavation as well as two water streams crossing the tunnel alignment. Despite these challenges, an average underground excavation output of 175 metres per month was achieved through meticulous planning, with two rounds of blasting per day during the day as night time blasting is not allowed," Udasi pointed out. Under MUTP-3 initiative, MRVC has undertaken various projects like the quadrupling of tracks between Virar and Dahanu Road on Western Railway, the elevated suburban link between Airoli and Kalawa stations on Central Railway, the procurement of 565 suburban locals, and trespass control on the mid-section on Central and Western Railway, besides the Panvel-Karjat double line project worth Rs 476 crore, as per the rail PSU's website. Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) is a joint venture of the Union and Maharashtra governments and is dedicated to improving suburban rail infrastructure to provide commuters enhanced travelling experience, said officials. Muzaffarpur (Bihar), Jun 7 (PTI) A Chinese was arrested in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district for allegedly not carrying valid travel documents, police said on Friday. The Chinese man was apprehended on Thursday near Laxmi Chowk under the jurisdiction of the Brahmapura Police Station, Muzaffarpur Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rakesh Kumar said. A map of China, one mobile phone and three small stone statues were recovered from his possession, the SSP said. The Chinese, identified as Li Jiaqi, is a resident of the Shandong province of the neighbouring country. "The Chinese man was arrested for not carrying valid travel documents, including visa. A case has been registered against him under the relevant sections of the Foreigners Act," the officer said. The SSP said senior police officers were interrogating him to ascertain the purpose of his visit to India. Jaipur, Jun 7 (PTI) Congress leader Sachin Pilot said on Friday that the politics observed in the last 10 years during the BJP government was characterised by propaganda, speeches, campaigns and religion. Talking to reporters in Ajmer, the former deputy chief minister said, "Politics is about principles, Constitution, progress, development, planning, industry and investment. But the politics you (BJP) are doing about mangalsutra, Hindu, Muslim, temple-mosque... the young generation and most people do not like it... I think the BJP must have understood this." He said the politics that the people saw in the BJP rule for the last 10 years was only the politics of speeches, publicity, propaganda, flags, banners, television and advertisements. Pilot said the vote has been cast against the BJP government. He said the BJP, with a strength of 303 in the last Lok Sabha, got 60-70 less MPs this time. "This mandate is fragmented. No party got a clear majority to form the government. Those who were in power should assess where they fell short," he said. Pilot, the Rajasthan Congress president, said the Congress and the INDIA bloc have got immense public support and the party's performance in the state is very good. "In the previous (two) Lok Sabha elections, we could not win even a single seat. This time we have been able to defeat the BJP on 11 seats. This is the result of our collective hard work," he said. It may be noted that out of total 25 seats in Rajasthan, the BJP won 14, the Congress eight and the INDIA bloc partners CPI (M), RLP and BAP won one seat each. The Congress could not win even a single seat in 2014 and 2019 parliamentary elections. Pilot said the Congress party is standing with the people and will keep raising their issues on every occasion. On the defeat of former chief minister Ashok Gehlot's son Vaibhav Gehlot for the second time, Pilot said, "We have defeated BJP on 11 seats and wherever we could not defeat the BJP, next time we will defeat them by working hard." New Delhi, Jun 7 (PTI) In an indication that assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir are imminent, the Election Commission on Friday said it has decided to accept applications seeking allotment of 'common symbols' from registered unrecognised parties in the Union Territory with immediate effect. An official explained that under Para 10 B of the Election Symbols (Reservation & Allotment) Order, 1968, any registered unrecognised political party can apply for a 'common symbol' six months prior to the end of the term of a House. But since no assembly is functional in Jammu and Kashmir, the Election Commission (EC) has issued a press statement inviting applications for symbols. While recognised national and state parties have their 'reserved symbols', registered unrecognised parties have to apply for one to field candidates. When free symbols are allocated to unrecognised parties, the returning officer allocates the remaining unclaimed symbols to Independents "on the spot". "The Commission has decided to accept applications seeking allotment of common symbols under Para 10B of the Election Symbols (Reservation & Allotment) Order, 1968, for the General Election to the Legislative Assembly of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir with immediate effect," the EC statement read. Enthused by the voter participation in Jammu and Kashmir in the just-held Lok Sabha polls, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar had recently told PTI Video that the poll panel will "very soon" initiate the process of holding assembly polls in the Union Territory. While announcing the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections in March, Kumar said holding assembly and parliamentary elections simultaneously was not practical due to logistical and security reasons. Whenever assembly elections are held in Jammu and Kashmir, they will be the first since the August 2019 abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution and the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories. The electoral exercise in Jammu and Kashmir is usually spread over a month. Following a delimitation exercise, the number of assembly seats has gone up from 83 to 90, excluding those allocated to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. In December, the Supreme Court directed the poll panel to hold assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir by September 30. Chandigarh, Jun 7 (PTI) Some farmer outfits on Friday threw their weight behind the CISF woman constable who allegedly slapped actor and BJP MP-elect Kangana Ranaut, saying the entire sequence leading to the incident needs to be properly investigated. Ranaut, in a video message, had on Thursday said she was hit in the face and abused by the constable during security check at the Chandigarh airport, the ugly fracas breaking out two days after she was elected to the Lok Sabha from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha were among the prominent outfits which said they stand in support of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) woman constable. The constable, who appeared to be upset with Ranaut over her stance on the farmers' protests, has been suspended and an investigation has been launched. The CISF, tasked with providing security at airports, had also ordered a court of inquiry into the incident. SKM (Non-Political) leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher said they will meet Punjab's Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav for a proper investigation into the matter. "We will demand a proper investigation and we will tell him that there should be no injustice with the woman constable," Dallewal said addressing a press conference here with Pandher and some other farmer leaders. On June 9 in Mohali, an "Insaaf march" to Mohali the senior superintendent of police's office will be taken out "to demand that no injustice be done in this case with the constable", he said. In a video statement titled "Shocking rise in terror and violence in Punjab" posted on X after she landed in Delhi after the incident on Thursday, Ranaut said she was safe and fine. The constable, Ranaut had said, came towards her from the side. "She hit me in the face and started abusing me. I asked her why she did it and she said she supports the farmer protests." "I am safe but my concern is that terrorism and extremism are increasing in Punjab... How do we handle that?", Ranaut had said. Another video doing the rounds of social media had shown the agitated constable talking to people presumably after the incident. "Kangana made a statement (earlier) that farmers were protesting in Delhi because they were paid Rs 100 or Rs 200. At the time, my mother was one of the protesters," she said in the purported video. The brother of the constable on Thursday said they learnt about the incident through the media. The constable's brother, who is based in Kapurthala, had said his sister has been in service for the past 15 years and had served at many places including Kerala, Chennai and Amritsar. Dallewal and Pandher said the constable's brother was active in farmer movements and was part of their organisation. Farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher alleged that Ranaut had hurt sentiments with her comments against farmers, elderly women and Punjabis in the past. Both Dallewal and Pandher lashed out at the actor for stating that terrorism was increasing in Punjab. Dallewal said from various reports what they have come to know is that there was some argument from Ranaut's side during security check when her purse and mobile-phone was being put for checking. If this is so, then the constable is not to be blamed, she was doing her duty, he said. "And everyone knows the previous track record of Ranaut and the kind of language she has used towards farmers. There must have been an argument and the result of which must have led to the incident. All these things need proper investigation," he said. Taking on Ranaut over her "terrorism" and "extremism" remark, Dallewal said, "In Punjab, communities of all faiths are peacefully co-existing. We demand that a case should be filed and courts should take suo motu cognisance of the wordings used by the BJP MP." "Ranaut is an actor and now even a MP, she should not speak such language. This is condemnable. We demand that action be taken against her," he said. The two farmer leaders claimed that people including farmers have taught BJP a lesson in the recently held Lok Sabha polls. "From rural areas, 73 of their candidates lost this time," he claimed. In Haryana, they could win only five seats, in Uttar Pradesh, they had to face heavy defeat while they also lost heavily in Rajasthan. During farmers agitation, they used tear gas, bullets and people of the country have expressed their anger through the ballot, Dallewal claimed. Jodhpur, Jun 7 (PTI) IIT-Jodhpur has developed a special adaptor that will allow users to charge their electric vehicles using solar power. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February said his government was aiming to create a system in which people can recharge their electric vehicles from the power they generate from rooftop solar systems. The adaptor, likely to be priced below Rs 1,000, could prove to be very effective if the solar panel initiative is a success, Nishant Kumar, Assistant Professor at the Electrical Engineering Department at IIT Jodhpur said. People are increasingly looking towards buying EVs and currently, the government is also providing subsidies for them, Kumar said. "On one side, our charging adaptor will be connected to the solar panel and on the other, to the charger provided by the company. It includes two points that will supply power according to the requirement," Kumar said. Currently, extracting maximum power from a solar panel without a power converter is challenging and a charging adaptor is needed for this. The charger provided by the company cannot draw power from a solar panel and operate it, Kumar said. To address this issue, several countries, including India, are working on solutions, Kumar said, adding developing charging infrastructure in the next five years would be challenging. Therefore, countries such as the US, Canada, China, Russia, India, and Australia, are planning to install rooftop solar panels, he said. This plan involves placing a solar panel on a pole with an attached solar socket. The responsibility of operating these will lie with the EV companies, he added. The lack of sufficient charging stations and resources for EVs is a major concern for potential buyers as the batteries discharge quickly. During travel, especially in hilly and remote areas, this problem becomes more pronounced, Kumar said. This adaptor will work with all types of vehicles and a prototype has been created and tested successfully, Kumar said, adding it will be launched in the market soon. Lucknow, Jun 7 (PTI) The Congress-Samajwadi Party coalition is a "natural alliance" and it would continue in the next assembly polls as well to "uproot" the BJP from power in Uttar Pradesh, state Congress chief Ajay Rai said on Friday. The two parties fought the Lok Sabha polls together and performed well in Uttar Pradesh, with the SP emerging as the largest party in the state by wining 37 seats. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi won from the Rae Bareli seat in Uttar Pradesh, apart from Kerala's Wayanad. "Our alliance with the Samajwadi Party is natural and this will also continue in the next assembly elections in UP," Rai told PTI. The PCC chief said he will be going to Delhi on Saturday and "make a strong request that Rahulji retains the Rae Bareli seat in Parliament". Rai, who lost the Lok Sabha election to Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi, said the victory margin for the BJP stalwart has come down substantially and "this is a moral loss for him". Modi won from Varanasi by a margin of 1,52,513 votes this time. He had won the 2019 polls by a margin of 4,79,505 votes. SP's Shalini Yadav had come second in Varanasi last time while Rai had secured the third position then. Shalini Yadav later left the party and joined the BJP. The Congress leader alleged that Modi's "development work" in Varanasi is "hyped", and the fact is that "precious little is visible on the ground". Rai thanked the workers of his party as well as those from the SP and the Aam Aadmi Party for reaching out to people at the grassroots in Varanasi to bring a good result for the opposition in the seat. Rai started his political journey with the BJP but later shifted to the Congress. He served as an MLA five times since 1996. He left the BJP after being denied a ticket in 2009 LS elections. He was fielded by the Congress in 2014, 2019 and 2024. Jaipur, Jun 7 (PTI) Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) leader and Nagaur MP-elect Hanuman Beniwal on Friday expressed resentment over not being called to INDIA bloc meetings before and after the Lok Sabha poll result, and asked when small parties from the south could be invited, why not him. Hanuman Beniwal, who won the Nagaur seat in Rajasthan by defeating BJP candidate and former Congress MP Jyoti Mirdha by 42,225 votes, said he would remain in the INDIA bloc. He claimed that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge spoke to him over phone on Thursday and said a mistake was made. If such a mistake was made, then it was a blunder, Hanuman Beniwal told reporters in Nagaur. "Meetings (of the INDIA bloc) were held twice, on June 1 and June 5 (after results were announced on June 4). I was not invited to these. Why was I not invited? When small parties from the south were invited, why was Hanuman Beniwal not invited?" he asked. Out of the 25 parliamentary seats in the state, the BJP won 14 and INDIA bloc parties 11 -- Congress eight and CPI (M), RLP and BAP one each. "Every single MP is needed in the country and people like Hanuman Beniwal are forgotten. The Congress should celebrate that the INDIA bloc has got 11 seats in Rajasthan but did we (the RLP) have no role in bringing the 11 (seats)? I got three lakh votes of the Congress but 20 lakh votes of the RLP went to the Congress, due to which they got so many seats," he claimed. Hanuman Beniwal also alleged that the Congress got RLP leader Ummedaram Beniwal to quit the party in Barmer and made him its candidate. "On one hand they were talking of alliance with me and on the other hand they were breaking my party. They were doing two things simultaneously," he said. Ummedaram Beniwal was the Congress' candidate from the Barmer Lok Sabha seat. He defeated Union Minister and BJP candidate Kailash Chaudhary. When asked about his further course of action, Hanuman Beniwal said he will not join the BJP-led NDA -- which is set to form government at the Center with Narendra Modi as prime minister -- and would stay in the INDIA bloc. He also said he will launch an agitation against the short-term army recruitment Agnipath scheme. Congress leader and former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot said those part of the INDIA bloc, will continue to be in the alliance, and expressed confidence in the bloc's potential to attract more parties in the future into the coalition. "Everyone who was in the alliance is still in the alliance. I think that in the coming time, more parties will join our alliance," he told reporters in Ajmer when asked about the resentment of the Hanuman Beniwal. Hanuman Beniwal won the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Nagaur as an RLP candidate in an alliance with the BJP but he left the NDA in December 2020 over the farm laws issue. New Delhi, Jun 6 (PTI) Delhi Water Minister Atishi on Friday accused the Haryana government of reducing water flow to the national capital in the last three days. Her remarks come a day after the Supreme Court directed the Himachal Pradesh government to release 137 cusecs of surplus water to the national capital, and asked Haryana to facilitate its flow. The apex court also said there should be no politics over water. Delhi has been grappling with water crisis this summer. "....Hon'ble Supreme Court is trying to resolve Delhi's water crisis, but Haryana is conspiring against the people of Delhi.While the case was being heard in Supreme Court, Haryana has been steadily reducing the water being released to Delhi in the last 3 days...." Atishi said on X. The minister will visit the Wazirabad barrage at 11 am to assess the water situation. New Delhi, Jun 7 (PTI) The MCD will be installing blue plaques at 1,300 heritage sites, including schools, hospitals, police stations, across the national capital to increase awareness about the heritage sites, the officials said. The initiative is similar to the blue plaque programme of London, they said. "Our target is to complete the work in the next 15-20 days. The work has already started. These plagues will basically serve as sign boards to attract the attention of the heritage lovers. "They will increase awareness about the heritage sites which otherwise go unnoticed due to unkept or no sign boards," an official told PTI. London's blue plaque programme, which began in 1866 and is believed to be the first of its kind, provides an informal historical walking tour of the city that commemorates notable people and their accomplishments by highlighting the places where they lived and worked. In the first phase of the programme, 55 notified heritage sites have been identified where these plaques have been installed. The civic body has over 1,300 sites under its jurisdiction. "These monuments are located in the walled city area. There are a total of 1,300 notified sites where these plaques will be installed. A number of places including maqbara of important figures, schools, hospitals and police station will be covered under this initiative," the official told PTI. The plaques are ready for most of the sites and they will be installed by the works or maintenance department of the MCD, he added. The honourees under the Blue Plaque programme in London include famous figures from wartime prime minister Winston Churchill to communist pioneer Karl Marx, as well as lesser known figures like theatrical wigmaker Willy Clarkson and civil engineer William Lindley, who built water and sewage systems around the world. There are also plaques honouring foreigners like India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru and American rock star Jimi Hendrix, who lived in London only briefly. Bengaluru, Jun 7 (PTI) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi arrived at a special court here on Friday to appear personally before it in connection with a case filed by the BJP's Karnataka unit for issuing "defamatory" advertisements in mainstream newspapers. The advertisement ahead of the Assembly polls last year accused the then BJP government in the state of indulging in large-scale corruption during its 2019-2023 rule. The court had on June 1 granted bail to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who is also the State Congress chief, after they appeared before it in connection with the defamation case. Judge K N Shivakumar had directed Gandhi to appear before the court on June 7 without fail. Chennai, Jun 7 (PTI) Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Friday said his party did not reject EVMs and the party is for improvement of VVPAT. Answering a question at a press conference here, Chidambaram said that in the Congress party's manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls, 'we did not reject EVMs.' "Please read the manifesto, what we say is, the VVPAT slip, in order for us to read, displays for about 4-5 seconds and then the slip falls inside the box. What we say in the manifesto is that there should be one more improvement," he said. Rather than the slip automatically falling inside the VVPAT box, the voter should be able to receive it, see that and then deposit it into the box and with this improvement, there will be no doubt for anyone as regards the EVM-VVPAT system. President Joe Biden marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday by pledging we will not walk away from Ukraine, drawing a direct line from the fight to liberate Europe from Nazi domination to todays war against Russian aggression. To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators, is simply unthinkable, he said during a ceremony at the American cemetery in Normandy. If we were to do that, it means wed be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches. D-Day was the largest amphibious assault in history, and Biden called it a powerful illustration of how alliances, real alliances make us stronger. He said that was a lesson that I pray we Americans never forget. The comment by the Democratic president was a reminder that American commitments around the globe hang in the balance during this years U.S. election. Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has said he would not defend European allies that are delinquent in their own security spending. The possibility of Trumps return to the White House has left many of the continents leaders fearful that transatlantic unity, which was sealed in blood on D-Day and strengthened in response to Russias invasion of Ukraine, could fray or even rupture. Trump has expressed little enthusiasm for Ukraines defense, criticizing the endless flow of American treasure and calling for Europe to shoulder more of the burden. He has also voiced admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump shared his own D-Day anniversary message on social media, praising U.S. soldiers as immortal heroes. He was silent on the countrys alliances. Concerns about American reliability extend beyond Trump. Biden struggled to secure bipartisan congressional approval for U.S. military assistance for Ukraine, and months of delay contributed to Russian advances on the battlefield. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenkyy was in Normandy for anniversary events on Thursday and is expected to sit down with Biden in Paris on Friday. It will be their first meeting since Biden signed legislation with new money for Ukraines defense, and Zelenskyy has continued to push for faster and more aggressive U.S. support. One such step took place recently, when Biden eased limitations on how Ukraine can use American weapons, allowing for some strikes into Russia in order to defend Kharkiv, a city near the border between the two countries. Putin reacted angrily, saying he is prepared to use nuclear weapons to protect Russian sovereignty and suggesting that he could provide Russian weapons to those willing to strike Western targets. The war and persistent threats of escalation were an ominous backdrop to the D-Day ceremony, and Biden warned that democracy is more at risk across the world than any point since the end of World War II. While paying tribute to the American troops that stormed Normandys beaches on June 6, 1944, Biden said let us be worthy of their sacrifice. We must remember that the fact that they were heroes here that day does not absolve us of what we have to do today, he said. Democracy is never guaranteed. Every generation must preserve it, defend it and fight for it. Thats the test of the ages. Biden also highlighted hundreds of thousands of people of color and women who courageously served despite unjust limitation on what they could do for their nation. Before the ceremony, Biden and first lady Jill Biden met with more than two dozen American veterans near Omaha Beach, where the fiercest D-Day fighting took place. Those who could stand were helped out of wheelchairs to pose for photos. Most shook hands with Biden or saluted; one hugged him. Biden told a veteran that you saved the world. The president led the audience in singing happy birthday to another. Steve Spielberg and Tom Hanks, the Hollywood heavyweights behind movies and television shows about World War II, were nearby. When Army veteran Robert Gibson approached, the first lady clutched his arm to help him stand next to the president as they shook hands. Dont get old, the 100-year-old man from New Jersey joked to the 81-year-old president, who was a toddler on D-Day. This anniversary of the invasion is a particularly somber one because it will be among the last with living veterans. The youngest survivors are in their late 90s. Biden met one veteran who is 104. In an interview with The Associated Press a few days ago, Gibson described himself as living on borrowed time. He was part of the second wave of troops that landed on Utah Beach. Gibson said he expected this year would be the last anniversary ceremony that he could attend, but he was pleased to be back one more time. I want to see the beach again, he said. At the end of his visit to the American cemetery, Biden paused in front of the grave of John S. Greenfield, an Army private first class from Delaware. Greenfield landed at Omaha Beach with the 115th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division. As his regiment fought inland, Greenfield was killed during a German ambush, 10 days after D-Day. Greenfields family learned of his death when a package of cigarettes that has been mailed to him as a gift was returned undelivered, according to the Wilmington Morning News. The word deceased had been written over his name. Standing at Greenfields grave, Biden made the sign of the cross and touched the letters engraved on the white marble headstone. (AP) Yemens Houthi rebels have unveiled a new, solid-fuel missile in their arsenal that resembles aspects of one earlier displayed by Iran that Tehran described as flying at hypersonic speeds. The rebels fired its new Palestine missile, complete with a warhead painted like a Palestinian keffiyeh checkered scarf, at the southern Gulf of Aqaba port of Eilat in Israel on Monday. The attack set off air raid sirens but caused no reported damage or injuries. Footage released by the Houthis late Wednesday showed the Palestine being raised on what appeared to be a mobile launcher and rising quickly into the air with plumes of white smoke coming from its engine. White smoke is common with solid-fuel missiles. Solid-fuel missiles can be set up and fired faster than those containing liquid fuel. Thats a key concern for the Houthis as their missile launch sites have been repeatedly targeted by U.S. and allied forces in recent months over the rebels attacks on shipping through the Red Sea corridor. One such strike hit the Houthis even before they were able to launch their missile. For their part, the Houthis described the Palestine as a locally made missile. However, the Houthis are not known to possess the ability to manufacture complicated missile and guidance systems locally in Yemen, the Arab worlds poorest country, which been gripped by war since the rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, nearly a decade ago. The Houthis have, however, been repeatedly armed by Iran during the war despite a United Nations arms embargo. While Iran claims it doesnt arm the Houthis, ships seized by the U.S. and its allies have found Iranian weaponry, missile fuel and components on board. Iranian media reported the launch of the Palestine and described it as locally manufactured, citing the Houthis. However, design elements on the missile resemble other missiles developed by Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. That includes one called the Fattah, or Conqueror in Farsi. Iran unveiled the missile last year and claimed it could reach Mach 15 or 15 times the speed of sound. It also described the missiles range as up to 1,400 kilometers (870 miles). Thats a little short of Eilat from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, but missiles can be reconfigured to boost their range. In March, Russias state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted an anonymous source claiming the Houthis had a hypersonic missile. While we cannot say for sure what exact version the Palestine corresponds to, we can say with high certainty that is is an advanced and precision-guided (Guard)-developed solid propellant missile provided by Iran, wrote Fabian Hinz, a missile expert and research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Asked about the similarity between the Palestine and its missiles, Irans mission to the United Nations told The Associated Press that Tehran has not engaged in any activities in contravention of U.N. resolutions. Yemens military power has grown since the war began a fact rooted in the internal capacity and prowess of Ansar Allah, the mission said, using another name for the Houthis. Hypersonic weapons, which fly at speeds higher than Mach 5, could pose crucial challenges to missile defense systems because of their speed and maneuverability. Ballistic missiles fly on a trajectory in which anti-missile systems like the U.S.-made Patriot can anticipate their path and intercept them. The more irregular the missiles flight path, such as a hypersonic missile with the ability to change directions, the more difficult it becomes to intercept. China is believed to be pursuing the weapons, as is America. Russia claims it has already used them. It remains unclear how well the Palestine maneuvers and at what speed it travels. Meanwhile Thursday, a commercial ship in the southern Red Sea near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait reported seeing explosions nearby, though no one was hurt, the British militarys United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. The private security firm Ambrey also reported the blasts. Though no one immediately claimed the attack, suspicion immediately fell on the Houthis. The U.S. militarys Central Command said the Houthis fired one ballistic missile into the Red Sea, while America and its allies destroyed nine drones and two drone boats over the last day. There were no injuries or damage reported by U.S., coalition or commercial ships, it said. (AP) The search for 65-year-old Daniel Denan, who has been missing since June 2nd, took an unexpected turn Wednesday night when volunteers from the Israel Dog Unit stumbled upon an abandoned Sefer Torah in an abandoned building. As part of the search efforts, the volunteers from the nonprofit organization, which specializes in working dogs, entered the building and found the Torah among the litter. In coordination with the Israel Police, the Sefer Torah was taken to a suitable location for further investigation to determine its origins and whether it had been stolen. The search for Daniel Denan, who is considered to be in mortal danger due to the extreme heat prevailing in Israel, resumed after the unexpected discovery. The 65-year-old has been missing for over a week, and authorities are urging anyone with information to come forward. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) After eight months of war, about half of Hamass forces are dead compared to about 300 IDF troops who lost their lives, Reuters reported on Thursday. According to US estimates, the terror group had about 20,000-25,000 terrorists before October 7th and now has between 9,000 and 12,000 terrorists. The terror group has changed its tactics and instead of engaging in outright confrontations with IDF forces in Gaza, is relying on ambushes and improvised bombs. Gazan resident Wissam Ibraham told Reuters: In earlier months, Hamas fighters would intercept, engage and fire at Israeli troops as soon as they pushed into their territory. But now, there is a notable shift in their mode of operations, they wait for them to deploy and then they start their ambushes and attacks. The US officials said that the new Hamas tactics could sustain a Hamas insurgency for months, confirming what Israels National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said last week that the war in Gaza will last for at least another seven months. Peter Lerner, an IDF spokesperson, acknowledged to Reuters that the IDF cant eliminate every Hamas terrorist or destroy every Hamas tunnel. There is never a goal to kill each and every last terrorist on the ground. Thats not a realistic goal. Destroying Hamas as a governing authority is an achievable and attainable military objective, he added. A Biden administration official said that Hamas has shown the ability to withdraw rapidly after attacks, take cover, regroup, and pop up again in areas that Israel already cleared. Lerner agreed that Israel faced a protracted battle to defeat Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2006. There is no quick fix after 17 years of them building their capabilities, he said. (YWN Israel Desk Jerusalem) IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari revealed the identities of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists killed in an IAF airstrike on a UNRWA school in Nuseirat last night. Overnight, the IDF conducted a precise, intelligence-based strike targeting dozens of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists hiding inside a UN school in Gaza, Hagari said. Some of these terrorists participated in the Hamas Massacre of October 7th. I will soon reveal the identities of some of the terrorists we eliminated. Hagari explained that the terrorists were operating from inside the school, planning and conducting attacks from classrooms. Our precise strike was based on concrete intelligence, from multiple sources. The terrorists inside this school were planning more attacks against Israelis, some of them imminent. We stopped a ticking time-bomb. This is what it was, he declared. The IDF spokesman presented a graphic showing the faces and names of the eliminated terrorists, including members of the Nukhba force with blood on their hands. Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists These are only a few of the terrorists we eliminated. There are more. Some of them took part in the brutal massacre of October 7th. We are working to verify the information before we will share it. Hagari noted that this was the fifth time the IDF had to target terrorists operating from inside UNRWA facilities in the last month alone. Hamas wages war from schools and hospitals. Hamas hopes that international law and public sympathy will provide a shield for their military activities, which is why they systematically operate from schools, U.N. facilities, hospitals, and mosques. The IDF spokesman criticized some media outlets for falling for Hamas tactics and spreading misinformation before verifying the facts. While Hamas abuses international law, the IDF will continue operating according to international law. The systematic abuse of U.N. facilities is a war crime and it must be stopped by the world. Hagari concluded, We will continue to do everything in our power to bring our hostages back home and defeat Hamas. As we fulfill this mission, we will continue exposing the true face of Hamas to the world. Thank you. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) American government officials have reached out to Israeli Minister Benny Gantz in recent days, urging him to reconsider his decision to withdraw from the government, Kan News reported. The request comes amid ongoing negotiations for a new hostage deal and concerns about the potential impact of Gantzs departure on the political landscape. According to Kan sources, the US views Gantz as a key partner and a moderating influence within the Israeli government, particularly in relation to right-wing parties. His potential withdrawal at this critical juncture has raised concerns about the potential consequences for regional stability and the hostage negotiations. Despite the American overture, Gantzs office has stated that he remains committed to his original ultimatum, intending to withdraw from the government on the night of June 8 unless his conditions are met. These conditions include a strategic plan for the war against Hamas, the return of Israeli hostages, and a framework for ensuring Israeli security control. Families of the hostages have also appealed to Gantz, asking him to stay on until the fate of the deal is decided. While Gantz considered extending his tenure last week, he has thus far refused to budge. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has rejected the Biden administrations ceasefire proposal, vowing that the terrorist organization will not surrender its weapons or sign a proposal that asks for that. The bloodthirst terrorist leader further stated that the only ceasefire Hamas would accept is a permanent one that ends Israels military operations in Gaza for good. The rejection comes despite a joint statement from the leaders of 17 nations, including the United States, calling on Hamas to accept the ceasefire deal outlined by President Joe Biden last week and to release the hostages. The statement reads, As leaders of countries deeply concerned for the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, including many of our own citizens, we fully support the movement towards a ceasefire and hostage release deal now on the table and as outlined by President Biden on May 31, 2024. There is no time to lose. We call on Hamas to close this agreement, that Israel is ready to move forward with, and begin the process of releasing our citizens. The proposed ceasefire deal includes three phases, with the first phase lasting six weeks and including a full and complete ceasefire, withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas of Gaza, and release of some hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Phase two would see the release of all remaining living hostages, and phase three would encompass a major reconstruction plan for Gaza and the repatriation of the remains of deceased hostages to their families. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) In a move that could potentially shake up Israels political landscape, War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz is set to announce his partys withdrawal from the government on . Motzei Shabbos. The National Unity leaders decision comes after he issued an ultimatum to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month, demanding a clear plan for the Gaza Strip after the war with Hamas. According to Gantzs office, the press statement is scheduled for 8:40 p.m. tomorrow night, and is expected to confirm his partys exit from the coalition. This would fulfill his ultimatum to Netanyahu, which called for a commitment to an agreed-upon vision for the Gaza conflict, including stipulating who would rule the territory once Hamas has been defeated. Hebrew media reports indicate that there have been no ongoing negotiations or efforts by coalition parties to address Gantzs demands, and that the government has not accepted or seriously discussed his proposals. In a twist, the Kan public broadcaster reported on Thursday that the US government has tried to convince Gantz to delay his planned departure amid ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas in Gaza. However, it remains to be seen whether any last-minute surprises could change the course of events. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) In a precision airstrike Thursday night, Israeli Air Force fighter jets eliminated two senior Hamas terrorists in the Rafah area of the Gaza Strip. The operation, guided by IDF intelligence, targeted Salame Muhammad Abu Ajaj, a leading figure in the Hamas General Security Forces, and Eiad Almaghari, the mayor of North Nuseirat and a seasoned terrorist operative. Abu Ajaj played a crucial role in supporting the Hamas Military Wing, ensuring the organizations survival, and disrupting IDF operations in Gaza. His efforts focused on strengthening Hamass presence in the Rafah area. Almaghari, a veteran Hamas terrorist, had a history of involvement in planning terror attacks in the Judea and Samaria region. He previously served in the Hamas West Bank Headquarters and was known for his extensive experience in terrorist activities. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) One of the world's biggest trading houses has posted a slump in profits in yet another sign that the boom in the commodity markets is fading. Trafigura, whose traders make billions of pounds buying and selling everything from oil to zinc, revealed profits hit 1.2bn in the six months to the end of March, down from 4.3bn in the first half of 2023 and 2.1bn the year earlier. The tumble follows the company's most profitable period ever, which begun with the pandemic and was supercharged by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in Trafigura profits hit 1.2bn in the six months to the end of March, down from 4.3bn during the same period last year February 2022. The war in Ukraine dealt a major shock to commodity markets and put major pressure on food, fuel and fertiliser prices. But traders benefited from this volatility, allowing companies like Trafigura to rake in billions. However, the era of blockbuster earnings seems to have faded, with Trafigura's chief financial officer Christophe Salmon explaining that business was now facing 'more normal market conditions'. This echoes a similar message from rivals, which have said investors should not expect bumper figures to continue. In February, Glencore reported a steep fall in annual profits and lowered its dividend. The FTSE 100 group's commodity trading business was hit as the volatility that traders thrive on began to peter out. Last month BP revealed profits had nearly halved in the first quarter of the year as the oil giant suffered from lower energy prices. It said profits reached 2.2bn in the opening three months of 2024, compared to 4bn for the same period last year. Shell profits also fell sharply after lower oil and gas prices knocked its bottom line. Oil prices dipped last year after hefty increases in 2022 in the aftermath of Russia's invasion, with oil trading at about $82 a barrel on average, against $100 in 2022. And in a further sign of the times, Trafigura, which is owned by 1,400 employee shareholders, also declared 517m in annual dividends - down from a record 2.4bn a year earlier. Analysts have said that companies are still banking on instability, especially with the conflict in the Middle East and faltering state of the Chinese economy. Richard Hunter, head of markets at trading platform Interactive Investor, said: 'To call the end of the cycle seems premature, with the oil majors, for example, scaling back more recently on their eventual switch to renewable energy. 'This could be many years - if not decades - away, suggesting that underlying demand for hard commodities will be here for some time to come.' Trafigura chief executive Jeremy Weir warned we might not be out of the woods. 'In the near term, supply chain disruptions continue to persist, including due to threats in the Red Sea, and commodity markets remain vulnerable to sudden shocks and price spikes,' he said. He added that some clients were having payment problems due to high prices. Invoices more than 60 days overdue were at 16pc at the end of March, up from 5pc last year. SRT Marine Systems plc woke up to a rollercoaster trading session on Friday. Shares in the onboard electronics systems group dropped over 40 per cent before rebounding sharply on what was, consequently, a bit of a 'curate's egg' of a trading update. Market makers initially marked down the stock after SRT provided lower-than-expected full-year guidance. The company announced that project revenue milestones anticipated for the current financial period have been delayed, pushing expected revenues into the next financial year. These delays, stemming from extended customer contract completion processes, will result in significantly lower revenues, leading SRT to a loss for the period. Sailing away: SRT Marine Systems manufactures onboard electronics systems for ships However, the following paragraphs in the statement showed the group is making progress with a flurry of potential orders worth over 400million. From the 40 per cent nadir, shares shot up into the green to the tune of 4.4 per cent, all within the space of 45 minutes. Nobody ever said market makers weren't a reactionary bunch. The AIM All-Share Index moved 1.5 per cent lower throughout the week, underperforming against the FTSE 100's 0.4 per cent fall. It was a poor week for global equities as a whole, with US and Asian markets also posting losses. A sizable dip in oil prices didn't help matters - a mid-week sell-off saw Brent crude down to $77.64 per barrel, close to four-month lows, which impacted London's energy-weighted capital markets. Kibo Energy plc's shares flopped 50 per cent following the announcement of a wholesale corporate restructuring that includes a new board, an equity fundraiser and financial re-engineering. The 500,000 equity round at 0.015p was likely the key factor at play (no surprises then that the stock sank to....0.015p). As part of the overhaul, Kibo is bringing in micro-cap natural resources veteran James Parsons as a non-exec along with shareholder Clive Roberts and City spinner Stefania Barbaglio, who will become Kibo's new chairperson. Tasty plc was AIM's biggest mover for the week after the operator of Dim T and Wildwood restaurants emerged from a court-sanctioned restructuring plan. Announced on Tuesday, the plan will see Tasty shed 20 lossmakers out of its 53 outlets. This, according to Tasty, will enable a 'significant EBITDA improvement' of up to 2.1million between financial 2023 and financial 2025. Shares in the slimmed-down operation rallied 64 per cent. From adjectives to adverbs, Totally plc shares flew over 30 per cent. There was no immediately obvious catalyst for the rally, though as a frontline healthcare services provider to the NHS, the likelihood of a Labour election victory may be breathing optimism into the healthcare services sector. Insig AI added 37 per cent after the data solutions company announced an 813,000 equity round. A small sum, no doubt, but at just a 2 per cent discount primarily bought into by an entirely new investor, a tidy one. Shares in Jacamo and SimplyBe owner N Brown Group plc swung 40 per cent higher after its final results showed a swing back into the black. Statutory profit before tax came in at 5.3million, a big reversal from the 71.1million loss the year before. The retailer 'kept to our transformation plans, despite the macroeconomic backdrop, whilst building resilience through our strong balance sheet, and achieving adjusted EBITDA above market expectations', said chief executive Steve Johnson. Shares in Strip Tinning Holdings plc, a maker of components for electric vehicles, revved up 46 per cent to 72p after winning a major high-volume contract from an unnamed US carmaker to make battery connectors for autonomous vehicles. Mosman Oil & Gas Ltd was a top mover in the energy sector. The junior added 60 per cent throughout the week after announcing a significant move towards building a global helium-focused portfolio. Inspecs Group plc was among the junior market's biggest fallers, with shares dropping 12 per cent following a cautious statement about current trading conditions. The group said it anticipates that revenues and earnings for the first half of the financial year 'will be lower than the prior year, more in line with historic trading'. Clontarf Energy plc topped the AIM fallers list though. In an unfortunate turn of events in its Bolivian operations, state-owned producer the Bolivian State Lithium Company (YLB) rejected Clontarf's bid for seven priority salares (salt pans) in Southern Bolivia. Clontarf did not have the requisite credit rating, according to YLB. In fact, as an exploration company that doesn't issue bonds, Clontarf has no credit rating at all. Clontarf identified an offtake partner to pursue the bids, but even this was rejected due to the partner's BBB+ long-term credit rating. Shares crashed 56 per cent. In the biotech sector, Faron Pharmaceuticals moved 47 per cent lower in a technical markdown following the announcement of a 30.7million (26million) financing round. Proceeds from the latest financing round will underwrite ongoing work on its key asset, bexmarilimab, while negotiations continue to secure a licensing deal for this highly promising cancer treatment. British entrepreneur Mike Lynch British entrepreneur Mike Lynch was last night cleared of fraud by a US court relating to the multi-billion dollar sale of his software firm. The 58-year-old, who was extradited to the United States last year to face trial, was acquitted alongside former finance executive Stephen Chamberlain. The verdict by the San Francisco jury marks a major victory for Dr Lynch, who has been dogged by legal problems since the disastrous sale of his company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard (HP) for $11.7bn (8.3bn). Dr Lynch was accused of deliberately overstating the value of Autonomy, a business he founded in Cambridge in 1996, before it was acquired by the US technology firm in 2011. His team had always denied any wrongdoing, arguing that HP had not completed its due diligence sufficiently and failed to understand what it was purchasing. Representatives for Lynch and prosecutors said Dr Lynch was cleared on all 15 charges one count of conspiracy, and 14 counts of wire fraud, each connected to specific transactions or communications. Mr Chamberlain, who faced the same charges at trial alongside Mr Lynch, was also acquitted on all counts, the Lynch representative said. A spokesman for the US attorneys office in San Francisco said: We acknowledge and respect the verdict. We would like to thank the jury for its attentiveness to the evidence the government presented in this case. Dr Lynch previously served on a science group that advised the prime minister and was awarded an OBE for services to enterprise in 2006. US regulators are set to launch a competition probe into Microsoft, Open AI and Nvidia in a crackdown against the tech giants dominating artificial intelligence (AI). The US Justice Department (DoJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are nearing an agreement which will mean they can investigate the companies. The DOJ will look at whether Nvidia violated competition laws, while the FTC will examine whether Microsoft and its partner Open AI have unfair advantages with the rapidly evolving technology. The US Justice Department (DoJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are nearing an agreement which will mean they can investigate the companies. The trio have been at the forefront of AI development, which exploded onto the scene at the end of 2022 following the release of ChatGPT. Since then firms have piled millions of pounds into getting ahead. But concerns have mounted that some of the biggest have too much control over the market, making it hard for smaller firms to get involved. Nvidia is the front-runner, with its graphics-processing unit playing an integral role in AI chips. It became the world's third $3trillion (2.3trillion) company yesterday as its shares continue to rocket. Microsoft owns around 49pc of Open AI, a leading research lab developer, programming chat bots to churn out content with simple prompts. But it is not just the US regulators that are concerned. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the UK has found an 'interconnected web' of AI partnerships involving the same firms: Google, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and Nvidia. 'When we started this work, we were curious. Now, with a deeper understanding and having watched developments very closely, we have real concerns,' Sarah Cardell, the chief executive of the CMA said. It is already reviewing Microsoft's multi-billion dollar partnership with Open AI. But analysts point out that this could spell danger for advances. 'This will stop the 100mph AI freight train from accelerating ahead for the rest of tech,' Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush, said. Acquitted: Founder of Autonomy Mike Lynch Mike Lynch plans to convince ministers to reform Britain's extradition treaty with the US after he was cleared of fraud. The founder of software firm Autonomy was acquitted this week of charges related to the 9billion sale of his company to US giant Hewlett Packard in 2011. Tory former shadow home secretary David Davis wants to team up with Lynch to call for changes to the system. The politician has previously lambasted what he says is a one-sided treaty with the US, agreed by Tony Blair's Labour government in 2003. Under the rules, it is far easier for the US to extradite British citizens than it is for Britain to extradite Americans. Critics of the extradition treaty, signed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks with the apparent intention of snaring terrorists and other serious criminals, say it has instead disproportionately affected British white collar suspects. Davis, who spoke with Lynch after his acquittal on Thursday night, told The Telegraph: 'He said: 'David, we've got work to do to put this extradition treaty right'. It highlights a massively dysfunctional arrangement we have with this extradition treaty.' A jury in San Francisco acquitted Lynch, 58, on all 15 charges one count of conspiracy, and 14 counts of wire fraud, each connected to specific transactions or communications. He had been facing up to 25 years in prison. Lynch said he was 'elated' with the verdict. Speaking out: Stock Exchange boss Julia Hoggett has described the tax as 'pernicious' An influential City group has called on the next government to review stamp duty on shares within 100 days of taking power. TheCityUK said the tax 'places the UK at a competitive disadvantage' as it listed its demands ahead of next month's election. Reform of the duty could boost investment in London-listed stocks at a crucial time for the exchange, the financial services body said. The group joins a chorus of City heavyweights who have called for the levy to be ditched. The tax charges investors 0.5 per cent when buying British shares but nothing if they put money into foreign firms. Earlier this week, the head of the Investment Association said scrapping stamp duty on shares was an 'obvious' way to boost UK equities. 'It's one of the highest in the world and reform would bring greater market attractiveness,' Chris Cummings, chief executive of the management trade body, said. Meanwhile, London Stock Exchange boss Julia Hoggett has described the tax as 'pernicious' and former Abrdn chief Stephen Bird has said it is 'as unpatriotic as it is economically destructive'. The tax has been blamed for contributing to the decline of London's ailing stock market, which has suffered a flurry of takeover offers and firms leaving to list in the US. A TheCityUK spokesman said the next government should 'review the future of stamp duty on trading to incentivise greater UK institutional and retail investment into UK equities'. The spokesman said: 'As a direct tax on liquidity, it places the UK at a competitive disadvantage.' Other recommendations for the first 100 days include incentivising greater UK investment in shares in UK companies and developing a strategic plan to drive economic growth. TheCityUK chief executive Miles Celic said: 'Financial and related professional services are the pulse of the UK economy. 'The industry is a major national employer, supports people at every stage of their life, and is an enabler of cross-economy growth. 'We want to see a new era of policy certainty and collaboration between government and industry to ensure it can make an even greater contribution to driving investment, innovation and growth across the country.' Early summer is normally when cider sales start to spike as drinkers try to quench their thirsts. But for the seller of Bulmers and Magners this season could be one to forget. C&C Group's shares plunged after its chief executive quit following the revelations of a string of accounting errors. Bad taste: For the seller of Bulmers and Magners this season could be one to forget Dublin-based FTSE 250-listed drinks company C&C, which also makes Scottish lager Tennent's, revealed it had recorded a 14.5million charge on its balance sheet linked to 'discrepancies' over the past three years. Chief executive Patrick McMahon was finance boss at the time of the 'discrepancies', before stepping up to become chief executive in May last year. McMahon has accepted responsibility for what the firm described as 'accounting mistakes and errors of judgement'. Shares sank 7.6 per cent, or 12.8p, to 156.4p. The update came alongside the group publishing its unaudited annual results that showed revenues fell 2 per cent to 1.4billion. The company also swung to a loss of 94million, having made a 44million profit the year before. The FTSE 100 fell 0.5 per cent, or 39.97 points, to 8245.37 and the FTSE 250 lost 0.8 per cent, or 160.51, points, to 20,555.37. London's blue-chip index clocked a fourth straight week of losses for the first time since the end of 2020. In the Middle East oil giant Saudi Aramco sold shares at the lower end of its expectations. The state-owned firm offloaded 8.8billion worth of stock at 570p. Such funds will help Saudi Arabia which remains Aramco's largest shareholder with over 90 per cent of the stock in its quest to transform its economy. Back in London computer maker Raspberry Pi is to float its shares at the top end of its price range when it lists next week. Shares are expected to be priced between 260p and 280p that would see it valued at 540million. Housebuilder Bellway is optimistic over Britain's housing market after it reported stronger trading during spring. The firm's private reservation rate rose 6.9 per cent between February 1 and June 2 due to customers benefiting from improved affordability as mortgage rates ease and wages rise. Bellway added it is 'on track' to build 7,500 homes across its financial year. Bellway shares edged down 0.7 per cent, or 18p, to 2764p. Time is running out for the bidders hoping to buy two London-listed firms. Ad agency Brave Bison has until Monday to announce whether it wants to make a firm offer to buy its rival The Mission Group or walk away. The suitor saw its sweetened offer rejected earlier this week, leaving the deal hanging in the balance. Shares in The Mission Group slid 3.6 per cent, or 1p, to 27p. Brave Bison shares were unmoved at 2.45p. IT services provider Redcentric is to stay listed in London for now at least after its Italian rival Wiit walked away from making an offer on Thursday. Shares fell 2.6 per cent, or 3.75p, to 142p. Tesco shares have climbed over the past year Tesco will be in the spotlight next week and there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic. The supermarket giant's performance means Tesco shares have jumped 18 per cent over the past year, although they remain well below their mid 2000s highs. Britain's biggest grocer increased its market share to 27.6 per cent last month up from 27.1 per cent a year ago while its nearest rival Sainsbury's trails behind on 15 per cent. So investors will be hoping Tesco's first quarter update on Friday puts even more clear water between it and the rest of the chasing pack. Analysts at Jefferies expect the supermarket's UK and Ireland retail business to grow by 4.3 per cent in the three months to May. That would reflect a slightly weaker performance, having reported an 8.8 per cent rise the year before. Last time round, Tesco's overall sales hit 14.8billion in the first quarter a year ago. Tesco shares have jumped but remain well below their mid 2000s highs Analysts said another key number to note is whether Tesco still thinks it will have 2billion of free cash flow pumping around the business this year. They wonder whether some of this cash pile could be handed back to investors in the shape of a special dividend. Tesco recently revealed that boss Ken Murphy took home record-breaking pay of nearly 10million in 2023 more than double the 4.4million he collected the year before. A positive update on Friday could provide a much-needed boost to Tesco's share price which has gained 6 per cent so far this year. I hold shares in a company that has become the target of a takeover bid. The shares have since jumped as the bid was at a premium. What happens next and how can I have my say on whether the takeover should go ahead? Buyout bonanza: London's stock market is in the grip of a takeover 'feeding frenzy' with new bids coming thick and fast Jessica Clark, of the Daily Mail City and Finance team, says: London's stock market is in the grip of a takeover 'feeding frenzy' with new bids coming thick and fast. As City experts predict that the buyout bonanza will continue, it is important to know what to do if a business you own shares in becomes a takeover target. What to shares when there's a takeover offer? The share price of a target company usually spikes on news of a takeover bid. If the stock reaches the offer price, it is a good sign that investors are keen on the deal. But if the target firm's shares exceed that amount it indicates that the market expects a higher offer and even a bidding war. And if the price languishes below the offer value, shareholders are likely unimpressed by the bid or believe it will fail. What should I do next? Shareholders have several options following a takeover bid. You could sell your shares at a premium following an offer. For example, shares in Royal Mail owner International Distribution Services were worth 214p each before a bid by the Czech Sphinx, Daniel Kretinsky. After the board agreed a deal with the billionaire last week, the price rose to 335p. An IDS investor with 1,000 shares would get 3,350 at that price some 1,210 more than they were worth before the bid. If you do nothing and the deal goes ahead, your shares will be replaced by cash or stock in the new company depending on the terms of the offer. But bear in mind that if a deal collapses, the value of the company's stock could plummet. How can I have my say? All takeover deals must be voted on by shareholders so investors can have their say. You will typically get one vote per common share held. Many retail investors buy stocks through an investment platform such as AJ Bell, Hargreaves Lansdown and Interactive Investor. You will have to contact the platform that you used to buy your shares to find out how to vote. Investors who indirectly hold shares through funds or pensions do not get a vote. Could it be a cheaper way to travel for those with young families? It now operates in 145 countries and has over 150,000 active members Christmas film The Holiday might not be the first thing you'd have in mind when planning a summer break. The 2006 release, starring Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet, is about two women who arrange to a home exchange to escape heartbreak, and eventually both find love. Home swapping enquiries rocketed after the film came out. The website used in the film, Home Exchange, is still very much around - although there have been no home swapping marriages, according to its boss. Big screen: The Holiday film catapulted home swapping into the mainstream Romance aside, CEO Emmanuel Arnaud says his website has helped forge lifelong relationships between home swappers, and facilitated millions of fun holidays. Since the pandemic, appetite for home swapping has soared as people turn to lower-budget and more eco-conscious trips. With over 80 per cent of the market share, Home Exchange is well placed to capitalise on the demand. But how does it work, and is it really the future of travel? While The Holiday catapulted home swapping into the mainstream, its origins go back much further to the 1950s. It started off as a trend among European teachers, who wanted to travel on a budget. There are now plenty of home swapping platforms, but Home Exchange was one of the first, set up in the 1990s. Arnaud's first experience with the website was in 2011. At this point a marketing manager, he tried to organise an exchange on the platform for New Year's Eve between his native Paris and Florence. Despite a 'decent flat' in Paris and most people away for the holidays, he could not find anyone to swap with him on the Home Exchange website. As a result, he set up his own home swapping website, Guest To Guest, which introduced a point system to make non-reciprocal exchanges possible. The website grew in France and acquired competitors, including the original Home Exchange, in 2017 before rebranding a year later. Now the company boasts over 150,000 active members across 145 countries. Emmanuel Arnaud launched Guest To Guest before acquiring Home Exchange in 2017 How does Home Exchange work? Home Exchange is a relatively simple proposition. You can create a listing for your home for free, and then look for homes in destinations that pique your interest. You can only finalise an exchange once you've paid the $220 (180) subscription fee, which grants unlimited exchanges for a year. No money is paid for the swaps themselves, which instead operate on a points system. Members can do a 'classic', or reciprocal, swap with another family, either simultaneously or on different dates. They build up points by renting out their own home, and then use those points to spend on trips. Arnaud also introduced 'guest points' to make it easier for members who don't want to reciprocate. The idea is that you can offer a member guest points to stay in their house, and they don't have any obligation to stay in yours. Are home swaps safe? Although no cash is involved, it still requires a leap of faith to allow a stranger into your home. Home Exchange says it has vetting procedures in place, namely the compulsory verification of an ID and a utility bill. It has also employed AI tools to monitor the behaviour of new members, including their IP addresses. 'There's always fraudsters out there who are trying to be more creative By and large, that's not a problem we have, but we do have a [dedicated] team.' Where Home Exchange's oversight ends is the quality of the houses, but Arnaud says members should not expect luxury hospitality. 'The fact it's free hospitality means it is a very different type of relationship than you would have with a rental. 'When you're renting, you're going to say there's a view, the flat is this big you're going to try and sell that flat, oversell it so you can charge more. 'On Home Exchange, since it's free, it's like when you're having friends over. You're going to put forward the things that might make it a disappointing service. 'You're going to say, it's a really nice flat but sometimes it takes a bit of time to get hot water, the flat doesn't have enough light.' A quick scan of the listings shows very few members are quite so forthright, but if they are disappointed, or the exchange is cancelled, the Home Exchange membership includes protection and compensation. Why do people home swap - and who does it? 'I wasn't an avid user but I just loved the concept,' says Arnaud. 'The vision I had was that it was such a cool concept, it's just that people have to get used to the idea of letting people stay in their house.' The prospect of swapping homes with a stranger is alien to most, which is probably why Airbnb has 150 million customers worldwide, while Home Exchange has 150,000 active members. 'I think rental websites like Airbnb have paved the way to some extent for people to be comfortable hosting in their home. The fact that the industry has become really mature and it's more accepted that you would' Top 10 most popular countries to home swap The most popular countries for Home Exchange members across the world are: France Spain US Italy Canada Germany UK Netherlands Australia Belgium Its reach is likely limited. The customer base is small and skews towards middle-class families looking to save on their holiday accommodation. Home swapping is also popular among empty nesters, parents whose children have grown up, and the retired. 'They have a lot of time on their hands they want to stay for free around the world,' says Arnaud. 'We have some people for whom it's a lifestyle. We have people exchanging about 100 nights a year. We've also seen an interesting growth of solo travellers recently, especially women.' Cost is the primary driver, particularly in the current economic climate, and is why families wanting short-term trips make up most of Home Exchange's customer base. Longer stays, such as working holidays, can be harder to set up, Arnaud admits. 'If you want to organise an exchange for three months, you have to find someone else who also wants to exchange for three months. It's just more complicated to organise.' In the UK, international trips make up 68 per cent of all bookings. However, the UK remains the most popular country to visit, followed by France, Spain, the US and Australia. The average trip duration is around 10 days during the summer and closer to four the rest of the year. That said, while Home Exchange might target a small group of would-be travellers, it expects to facilitate between 400,000 and 450,000 trips this year. 'Ever since Covid, we've been growing very fast. I think part of that is because people really value being able to get out of their home even if it's not very far,' says Arnaud. 'Home Exchange is a great way to do that because you don't have to pay for your accommodation and you can save a lot of money.' 'I much prefer a home exchange to a luxury hotel' Cian Caroll, 30, and his wife live in Cork, Ireland bought their house in 2019 and had considered Airbnb for times when they were away. 'We bought our own home in 2019 and my parents also have a holiday home near the coast in Ireland that they go to in the summer. I thought we could move into there and do Airbnb on our place. 'When we looked into the taxes it was a big turn off. We travelled anyway, maybe two or three times a year, and I was thinking we could save on accommodation.' He had heard about home swapping from a friend of a friend, who 'was a bit older and had kids'. He says it didn't immediately appeal and 'was a bit strange,' but after turning their back on Airbnb, Cian and his wife made the decision to try out Home Exchange. Their first trip in County Wicklow in 2021 was for a weekend and the pair were 'super impressed'. 'My wife was a little bit apprehensive first about having strangers in our home, which I think most people are. But it's definitely a community. People understand the mutual respect there. 'I actually much prefer home exchange now, even to a luxury hotel, it feels way more comfortable. We did parts of Fuji as a home swap and then the last three nights we stayed in a seaside luxury resort. It was obviously very expensive but it wasn't half as enjoyable.' The couple have now been on 18 trips and hosted around 15, with plans to spend two weeks in Californian home stays this summer. Why not just rent your home? For Cian, the savings made on Home Exchange compared to other platforms were the deciding factor. He says the taxes and administration involved with listing his home with Airbnb weren't worth it and opted for Home Exchange instead. Airbnb has had its fair share of issues with its perceived impact on the short-term rental market, with a growing number of cities clamping down on short stays. Vienna, Paris and Berlin are all imposing rules on the number of days Airbnb users can rent out their homes. Home swapping doesn't fall under these rules, but Home Exchange has still come up against hurdles. In Scotland, home swaps were made exempt from short-term letting rules but not until after some lobbying. 'We have very good arguments to give, showing Home Exchange does not have an impact on the price of rents. We don't contribute to taking a unit off the market so that you can rent it out short-term. I think we're great solution to have tourists in locals living seamlessly in the same places.' Locals might disagree. The recent clampdown in Magaluf shows that it is as much about the behaviour of tourists than it is units being taken off the market. Arnaud acknowledges the platform needs to be mindful of it. 'I think as an industry we're going to be confronted with this idea that there's over-tourism in too many places. We need to spread out the number of tourists. 'For us, if there are quotas on how many people can go on an island in a season, okay well we have tonnes of other people exchanging homes in other places.' He is keen to explain how Home Exchange can be a voice in 'responsible tourism' and speaks at length about sustainability. 'This idea that you're doing something that is not a necessity but pleasure, and you're emitting Co2 while doing it. It becomes more a question of whether you should be doing it or not.' 'One of the things we've started doing is we've stopped proactively marketing destinations to customers which are very far away - though they can still search for them.' Do customers care about sustainability, though? Not so much. 'I think there's a gap between what people say and what they do,' says Arnaud. We do see a lot of people who are considering Home Exchange because they believe the way we are consuming is reaching its limits. 'But that being said, the primary driver by far for any of our members is the cost.' If cost is the primary driver, home swapping can be a great way to see the world all from the comfort of another person's home. Its customers might be devout, but for those who prefer to get away without worrying about the state of their own home when they get back, it might be a step too far. Polls have opened in Ireland as voting has begun in three highly-anticipated elections. Irish people will be electing a swathe of new councillors as well as picking candidates to send to the European Parliament and, for the first time, voters in Limerick will be directly electing a mayor to represent them locally. The separate elections come at a febrile time in Irish politics dominated by discussion on a housing crisis, the cost of living and migration. The coalition partnership of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Green Party has been battling criticism domestically and on the continent over other issues including climate action, agriculture policy and defence co-operation in the EU. The eagerly-awaited polls will provide political parties with concrete evidence of voter sentiment, having had to wait more than four years since the last nationwide elections. In the intervening years since the last general election, politicians have had to rely on newspaper opinion polls to gauge the mood of the nation. The main takeaway of the 2020 campaign was a massive upswing in support for Sinn Fein, which took away almost a quarter of the popular vote. To leader Mary Lou McDonalds regret, this was unrealised potential as the party was still left in opposition after failing to run a sufficient number of candidates in the parliamentary constituencies. Since then, estimated support for Sinn Fein hovered above 30% for a long time even temporarily reaching highs of around 35%. However, opinion polls over the last eight months suggest that support for the party is on a dramatic slide as independents eat up more of the expected vote share. Many of the ballot papers across the elections contain a large number of independents with a variety of political leanings, several of whom have been described as anti-immigrant. For a protracted period of time, Ireland has continued to fail to provide accommodation for all asylum seekers. There have been several anti-migrant protests across the State and buildings earmarked to accommodate refugees have been damaged in suspected arson attacks. Also of note, Fine Gael appears to have had somewhat of a Harris hop in the polls following the shock resignation of Leo Varadkar as leader of the party earlier this year, leading to Simon Harris taking over that position as well as the role of Irish premier. The results of the three campaigns being decided on Friday may be instructive for the overall state of the parties and could potentially direct Mr Harris decision on when to call the next general election, which must be held by March next year. The Taoiseach cast his votes early at Delgany National School in Co Wicklow ahead of a day of campaigning across the country. It is so important that people get out and vote, that they have their say, that they cast their ballots because of course if you dont turn up youre allowing someone else to speak on your behalf, Mr Harris told reporters at the voting centre in his home constituency. So polls are open to 10pm tonight, Id urge everybody to get out and have their say in what is a great exercise in democracy. We live in a healthy democracy and today is working proof of it. Across the island, millions of residents are eligible to vote in local elections. There are 31 local government bodies in Ireland. Each county and city council is divided into local electoral areas with a specified number of council seats to be filled in the election. In total, there are 166 electoral areas in Ireland and each of them elects a number of councillors. The number of councillors to be elected nationally is 949. These representatives are tasked with making policy decisions at local level including on planning and community development. At the same time, EU citizens registered in Ireland are eligible to vote for 14 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) across three varied constituencies: Dublin, South, and Midlands-North-West. The MEPs are responsible for debating EU-wide legislation and working on the budget for the bloc. The local and European elections are held every five years. In the south west of the country, voters in Limerick city and county have the opportunity to directly elect a mayor. From now on, this vote will also take place every five years. The successful candidate will be considered the regions first citizen and will have unique executive powers around long-term strategic planning, including measures on housing delivery, road infrastructure and environmental measures. They can serve a maximum of two terms, each lasting five years. There are 15 candidates vying for the new job which carries a salary of approximately 150,000. Voting will come to an end at 10pm on Friday, but the results will take days to be finalised. Ballots in the local elections can begin to be sorted straight away on Saturday but results in the European election cannot be declared until after all EU states have finished polling which will not happen until late on Sunday night. Counting in the mayoral election is expected to begin on Monday. Even then, Ireland uses a system of proportional representation which allows voters to rank every candidate in each race by order of preference. Candidates must reach a certain quota of votes in order to be deemed elected. In the likely event that not enough candidates are above this threshold following the first count, hopefuls with the least amount of votes are eliminated and their votes are redistributed based on the further preferences on the ballot papers. The same occurs when a candidate is elected with a surplus of votes. It means the paper ballots in each election, which are filled out with pencil or pens, are sorted and counted multiple times by hand. The entire process can take days to complete. A fundraiser has been set up for a young man who is in a coma in Italy, after a tragic accident. Tom Eustace was in Rome with his girlfriend to attend a friends wedding when a tragic accident occurred. With life-threatening injuries, the Carlow man is currently fighting for his life. To help cover the medical costs, his family and girlfriend, Miriam, have set up a GoFundMe campaign. Im reaching out to you all on behalf of Tom Eustace, who means the world to me. My amazing boyfriend is facing some unexpected challenges right now after being involved in an extremely serious accident in Italy and weve set up a GoFundMe campaign to help cover the costs, said Miriam on social media. If you can, please consider donating to support him during this tough time. Every little bit helps, and your support means more than words can express. If you can't donate please share with all your network and pray for his full recovery. He is fighting for his life, she added. The young man has a long road to recovery ahead of him. Tom is an amazing person who has always been there for his friends and family. Now, he needs our help more than ever. The road to recovery will be long and demanding, both physically and financially. Medical expenses, rehabilitation costs, and travel expenses to get him back to Ireland are just some of the challenges we are facing, said the family on GoFundMe. The family also thanked everyone who sent them messages of support. The outpouring of support, messages, and calls has been a tremendous source of strength for Tom's family and girlfriend. We deeply appreciate every gesture of kindness and support during this difficult time, they added. On Wednesday, I made my way from Limerick to Dublin to vote in Belgiums federal elections. I told my coworkers I was taking a day off to vote and they looked at me quizzically. A friend even suggested I could simply not go. Not go? I had missed the deadline to cast my vote by post, so I had to do it in person. Prior to that conversation, I didnt even realise not going was a possibility for some. Where Im from, voting is mandatory. Even though European countries share common principles, the member states have diverse voting procedures. Voting is mandatory in five member states - Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Greece - and Belgium. In Belgium, if youre not available on election day, you have two options. You either vote by proxy and mandate someone else to cast your vote, or you give justification for your absence to a judge. There are sanctions for those who dont vote, however they dont systematically apply. If someones motive for not voting is deemed not justified, they can be summoned in front of a judge, who will decide if they had a valid reason not to. First offence? Between 40 and 80. Second offence? The fine can go up to 200. My younger self would have been annoyed at the Belgian voting system. But now, I do believe there is a case to be made for mandatory voting. In most democratic countries, voting is not mandatory and is considered a right of citizenship. However, these countries have high abstention rates. Ireland is no stranger to low voters' turnout. According to Election Guide, the international foundation for electoral systems, Ireland has an average turnout of 54.30% - with 22 elections registered in their database. In comparison, Belgium has an average turnout of 90.16% - for 11 elections registered in the database. In March, Ireland overwhelmingly rejected the proposed changes to its constitution, regarding the definition of family and women. But the turnout for that referendum was 44.4%, which is about 20% less in previous referendums. As someone who has to vote, I believe mandatory voting would be more representative of the changes people want to see in society. After all, can you really say the population overwhelmingly voted against a change in the constitution, if not even half the citizens turned up to cast their ballot? If governments were elected by a higher proportion of the population, then it could be argued that the outcome would be more representative of said population. While it can be a chore to take time off your day to cast a vote, ultimately, I cant help but remember how much we fought through the decades to have a voice. For example, Belgium was one of the last European countries to allow women to vote, in 1949. My question is the following - Can you really give out about the stance of a Government if you dont bother to show up to voice your opinion at the ballot box? Ive heard so many people point out that there is no point in voting, because it wont change a thing. Can you expect change if you havent done your part? Can you complain about the outcome of an election if you havent cast your ballot? On Wednesday, I queued to vote at the Belgian Embassy in Dublin. When I left, I thought, Whatever the outcome, Ive done my part. Irish unity is the best way of restoring Northern Irelands position within the European Union, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has said. Mr Eastwood said that while he did not consider the unity debate to be an election issue, he did believe it was important as an aspiration while dealing with immediate challenges. The SDLP leader addressed a New Ireland Commission event in Belfast on Friday as elections were taking place to the European Parliament. The commission was set up by the SDLP to facilitate discussions on the possibilities of a united Ireland. A majority of people in Northern Ireland voted remain in the Brexit referendum in 2016, which saw the UK vote to leave the European Union. Mr Eastwood said: It is the same day the European elections are happening right across the European continent and on another part of this island. We are making the point that we have been dragged out of the European Union against our will and we would like to get back there as soon as possible. We have a prescription for that which, in the long term, is to build a new Ireland where we are part of the European Union. It has been a real tragedy and travesty that we have been dragged out of it. We hope that a new Labour government will bring us closer to Europe but we are very aware that the best way to get properly back into the European Union, to get all those benefits, is by developing and creating a new Ireland over time. Mr Eastwood said that a united Ireland also had to be a reconciled Ireland. He said: The process of building that is a process of reconciliation. It is about setting out a plan to have better economic outcomes, for lifting people out of poverty, for having a health service that actually works. This place is in a very bad state and we think there is a better way. With the General Election looming, Mr Eastwood said the united Ireland discussion was one for the long term and the medium term. He said: We cant let today pass where we know that electors all across Europe are electing to the European Parliament and our voice is not going to be heard. A new Labour government will bring us closer hopefully to Europe but there is no British government that will bring us as close to Europe as actually being part of Europe, part of the European Union. That inevitably means building towards a new Ireland, that is a long-term conversation but it is one that we should have. Is it an election issue? Probably not. But it doesnt mean just because we have immediate priorities that we cant also have a vision for the future. Mr Eastwood told the event that his party was having discussions with unionists over the future of Northern Ireland. He said: Those people who tell me that unionists arent involved in this conversation about the future, I can tell you, they are wrong because they are talking to us and we are listening to them. The opportunity that this place has is massive and I dont believe that people from a unionist background arent interested in the future. I dont believe they are not interested in trying to make our health outcomes better or our economy better. Look at the economic stats in the north compared to the economic stats in the south. Is it a panacea? Absolutely not, but for us the opportunity that exists and the conversation and the build-up to creating a new Ireland is actually about ending division on this island. The event was also addressed by Claire Hanna, the partys candidate in Belfast South and Mid Down at the election. She said: We know that it isnt a quick route back into Europe, but it is there for the taking and we are the party and the movement to get that in place. A favorite fun fact shared to us by a local tax fighter . . . SUBSIDY FOR KANSAS CITY'S 18TH & VINE JAZZ DISTRICT HAS ENDURED LONGER THAN THE JAZZ AGE!!! Credit where it's due . . . This is an excellent report comes by way of the former editor of a FAILED alt. mag who (for years) kept talking about handing out a beat down to your 2nd favorite blogger DESPITE the fact that she probably weighs about 95lbs when her mullet is in full glory and a quart low on her favorite beverage. Therefore, she never seemed to understand that TKC might sometimes look soft and fluffy but the reality is that this local scribe can still bench press a small truck. However . . . Despite it all I'm a very nice guy with a backpack full of "rizz" and I'm far more interested in great local reporting than bickering: "It's been more than 25 years (now 33) since the council committed $20 million in sales taxes to begin redevelopment of an iconic Kansas City neighborhood that had crumbled." Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . . Let's start with a truism . . . Brash decisions mostly based on emotion ALWAYS spark regret. Accordingly, and contradicting Internets trolling and fake economic data . . . KANSAS CITY CROSSROADS SUFFERS REGRET AS LOSING CHIEFS & ROYALS BECOMES A REALITY!!! Don't worry . . . We have a counterpoint to this idea that we plan to post later. However . . . For not let's consider . . . - Crime is rising in the Crossroads and there's a realization that the "downtown renaissance" that boosted the district is quickly fading. - C'mon man . . . A tattoo shop, an LGBT bar and more than a half dozen empty coffee shops can't sustain this district for long. - The Chiefs & Royals moving means FEWER visitors for Downtown Kansas City. Chasing economic activity away to the edges of the metro simply isn't a good idea for the Crossroads no matter what phony economic study Facebook denizens can pull out of their bum. - 3/8th of a cent THAT YOU'RE ALREADY GOING TO PAY isn't a bad price for INTERNATIONAL PUBLICITY that will now be focused elsewhere. - To be fair, TKC arguments are more clearly laid out and open to public comment whilst that billionaire jerk John Sherman mistakenly believed he was entitled to BILLIONS without a peep or a solid plan. Accordingly . . . Let's take a look at "progress" as Kansas City, MO quickly turns into Detroit . . Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson and House Speaker Dan Hawkins say a bill to bring the Chiefs to Kansas and finance a new stadium with STAR bonds is in the works and will be "ready to go" for the start of the special session on June 18. If there's enough interest from rank-and-file members, the bill could be brought to the floor during the session called by Gov. Laura Kelly to pass tax relief. More context from The Courthouse . . . While news from Kansas seems to ramp up the urgency of inking a deal, White doesnt believe that is the case. At least not yet. I think you always pay attention to whats going on. I wouldnt say youre overly concerned about whats going on at this point, White said. White also mentioned talks between the county and the two teams hasnt moved much since a failed sales tax vote in April. The tax would have paid for to build a new Kauffman Stadium and funded renovations at Arrowhead. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . . A plan to recruit the Chiefs to Kansas will be 'ready to go' in time for special legislative session Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson and House Speaker Dan Hawkins say a bill for STAR bonds to lure the Chiefs to Kansas is in the works. The bill could be brought to the floor during the special session called by Gov. Laura Kelly to address tax cuts later this month, if there's support from rank-and-file members. Jackson Co. Executive Frank White 'not overly concerned' about Chiefs leaving Jackson County Executive Frank White said leaders want to keep the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals in Missouri. Developing . . . For our closest and most loyal readers we offer one more update for late night and early morning denizens of the cowtown discourse. These are always our favorite updates because they offer a quick review long with a look forward. Kinda like those old sitcom double episodes that once brought TV watchers up-to-date. Check TKC news gathering . . . Inferno Sparks Suspicions Overnight fire engulfs Kansas City auto body shop, owner suspects foul play While fire investigators have not yet determined the cause of the fire at H and L Auto, the shop's owner believes it was set intentionally Local Life Lessons Avila University expands student housing on, off campus amid record student enrollment Avila University in south Kansas City, Missouri, is adjusting to its new normal after continued record student enrollment year after year. Home Team Over/Under Royals bullpen hitless over five innings in 4-3 win in Cleveland A series split against first place Cleveland. Commendable Cowtown Commandeering How Kansas City soldier 'liberated' Hitler's personal stationery A few months after 160,000 Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, Charles Staubus would arrive in France himself Baller Counts Blessings Travis Kelce talks private life with ABC, says he's grateful for everything that's come his way If you ask Travis Kelce, on a scale of one to 10, how good is life right now? His answer is off the charts. Injury Update Tonight Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo offers comment on BJ Thompson When reporters spoke to DC Steve Spagnuolo at a charity softball game, he volunteered to speak about Thompson before taking any questions. Zoom Into Community Creativity Juneteenth Film Festival returns to Kansas City with a focus on Black filmmakers from Missouri The festival's second year kicked off this week at the Screenland Armour theater in North Kansas City. This year's mission is to celebrate Black filmmakers from Missouri whose work explores contemporary and historical social issues. Locks Look Back & Forth Drew Barrymore goes back to blond as she re-creates her 2003 look Drew Barrymore turned back the hands of time this week as she recreated a beauty and fashion look of hers from over 20 years ago, referencing her Charlie's Angel movie premiere look. Campaign 2024 Already Turns To Sh*t This Video Shows Biden Did Not-in Fact-Poop Himself in France Influenced by the RNC's rapid response team, MAGA world ran wild with the claim that Biden defecated on stage ahead of his D-Day speech in Normandy. MAGA Earns Tech Bro Love Big Tech CEOs are lining up to back Trump. Don't be surprised. Donald Trump's campaign is courting tech executives and investors - many of them white men - in a move that's only surprising because of a widespread misconception of Silicon Valley as a bastion of liberalism. Hip-Hop Favors Former Prez 50 Cent says he sees Black men 'identifying' with Trump in upcoming election Rapper 50 Cent said he sees Black men "identifying" with former President Trump in November's presidential election. 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, visited Capitol Hill on Wednesday al... Talker Lockdown Awaits Steve Bannon: Ex-Trump aide ordered to prison A US court has ordered ex-Trump campaign strategist Steve Bannon to turn himself in by 1 July. EPIC Cash For European War US to send new $225 million military aid package to Ukraine, officials say. Officials say the U.S. will send about $225 million in military aid to Ukraine, in an new package that includes ammunition that Kyiv's forces could use to strike threats inside Russia to defend the city of Kharkiv from a heavy Russian assault Accounting For More Tragedy US says Israel must be open over Gaza school strike At least 35 people were reportedly killed in an Israeli strike on a UN school housing displaced people. South Of Border Fights Far East Future Latin America's anger grows over China's economic clout - DW - 06/05/2024 China's growing influence appears to have some drawbacks in Latin America. Beijing has targeted countries such as Guatemala and outraged retailers in Brazil. Old School Dood Scavenger Hunt 'Where Have My Orgasms Gone?' Sex Medicine and Older Women Satisfying sexual engagement can be important for the general well-being and overall health of older women. Marching Orders Remembered 'I decided we needed it': Organizer of KC's first Pride Parade looks back decades later 'I decided we needed it': Lea Hopkins and a few friends worked to organize Kansas City's first Pride Parade in 1977. Taste Of Local Equity KC Sipps: Three restaurant openings, plus a weekend full of Pride and First Friday food events Food Editor Sarah Sipple shares timely restaurant news and events for Kansas City. Half Century Sounds Sweet baby James Taylor brought over 50 years' worth of soul and blues to Starlight James Taylor and His All-Star Band took the Starlight Theatre crowd on a journey of soul and blues through each hit on Wednesday, June 5. Another Local Serving Historic Waldo ballroom opens this weekend as a dinner theater Showtimes for A Sondheim Tribute are Friday, June 7 from 7 to 9 pm, Saturday, June 8 from 7 to 9 pm and Sunday, June 9 from 1 to 3pm. Forecast For Now . . . Summer vibes will continue into Friday Clear skies and cool mornings are sticking around through the weekend in Kansas City And this is the OPEN THREAD for right now. Read this one closely . . . The legal opinion is focused more on policy and court procedure and SHOULD NOT give locals the idea that they can ignore any rule they don't like . . . Still, here's the report so readers can decide for themselves . . . Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach tells The Sentinel that it would be foolish for school districts to waste money rushing to comply with the Biden administrations position. The Biden Title IX regulations are unlawful, and I am confident that they will struck down in court. That is why the state of Kansas is leading a legal challenge against them. It would be foolish and a waste of money for school districts to spend money implementing the regulations before any court has spoken. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . . A clarification from VERY SERIOUS PEOPLE who want to offer more context to a bit of Internets chatter . . . Check-it: However, the government agency clarified that the officers were just bantering with the Chiefs tight end when they threatened to 'tase' him if he approached the president's podium. 'Our agents and officers were happy to support Travis and the Chiefs' official visit to the White House, even presenting him with a Secret Service pin,' Secret Service spokesperson Nathan Herring told People on Wednesday. 'As for the taser comment, Travis and our personnel were having some friendly banter as we have passionate football fans throughout our organization.' Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . . I was searching the internet for tales of 1920s swindlers when I spotted a Life magazine profile of a gentleman thief who swiped millions of dollars in diamonds, pearls and other gems from New York Citys rich and famous. Arthur Barry, the magazine proclaimed, was the greatest jewel thief who ever lived. He was movie-star handsome and donned a tuxedo to crash parties and case mansions. Victims who were awakened as he looted their homes found him to be polite and well-mannered. I know hes terrible, said one of the socialites he robbed. But isnt he charming? Here was a real-life John Robie, the suave cat burglar Cary Grant portrayed in the Hitchcock classic To Catch a Thief. Barry was a clever, likeable anti-hero that readers were sure to root for as he brazenly stole from the rich and gave to himself. His stranger-than-fiction exploits and outrageous crimes would keep pages turning. But was there enough here for a book? Im drawn to overlooked and forgotten stories of crime and detection, and for me and I think for readers as well there has to be more to a story than heists, grisly murders, or cops-and-robbers shootouts. I want to discover what crimes and the people who commit them say about their time and place, as well as what they might tell us about the here and now. Barrys life and crimes offer this wow factor. They capture the glamour and decadence of the Roaring Twenties, an era of flaunted wealth, entrenched privilege, celebrity worship and political corruption that echoes our own times. And theres a love story; when he was caught in 1927, Barry confessed to prevent his wife Anna Blake from being charged as an accessory, then broke out of prison to be with her when she became seriously ill. They lived together on the lam for three years. As the excesses of the Roaring Twenties faded into the lean years of the Great Depression, Barrys image morphed from genteel crook to dangerous outlaw. When the Lindbergh baby was kidnapped and murdered in 1932, the fugitive burglar was fingered as a possible suspect in the heinous crime. He became indistinguishable from the new generation of trigger-happy public enemies like Bonnie and Clyde. Barrys story encapsulates two decades of American history, from the frenzy of the Jazz Age to the grimness of the Dirty Thirties. Revisiting crimes from the past is like prying open a time capsule to expose the world as it was, filled with cruelty and greed, vice and debauchery, injustice and prejudice. Crimes strip the good old days veneer from history, offering insights into what life was really like for our ancestors and often, how little has changed. My previous book, The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer, unravels the crimes of Thomas Neill Cream, a Canadian doctor who killed at least ten people most of them poisoned in Canada, the United States and England. Cream was a cruel and sadistic monster but his crimes are only part of the story. I wanted to know how he got away with killing so many people over a span of 15 years, until Scotland Yard detectives put an end to his rampage in 1892. Cream performed illegal abortions and, in an era when the stigma of being a single mother was considered a living death, many of his victims were desperate young women who turned to him for help. Others were sex workers who dutifully took medicine he had laced with strychnine. Cream not only betrayed their trust, but his status as a doctor usually shielded him from suspicion, even when he was the prime suspect in a death. A jury acquitted him of one murder, judging him to be too skilled to have performed a botched operation. The powerlessness of women in Victorian society, flawed homicide investigations and the rudimentary forensics of the time all these factors explain how he was able to prey on victims in three countries, often with impunity. Other writers have transformed accounts of historical crimes into deeper explorations of the past. Bestselling author Charlotte Grays book The Massey Murder: A Maid, Her Master and the Trial That Shocked a Nation recreates the 1915 shooting of businessman Bert Massey and the ordeal of Carrie Davies, the teenage servant who stood trial for killing him. The tragedy played out against the backdrop of the carnage of the First World War a single death in the midst of so many and reveals the chasm between rich and poor, powerful and powerless, newcomers and the establishment. Her book is as much a snapshot of life in Toronto more than a century ago as it is an exhumation of a sensational homicide. British author Hallie Rubenhold set out to unearth the stories of the voiceless victims of historys most notorious serial killer in The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper. She accomplishes this and so much more, transporting readers to the grim, squalid slums of Victorian London a circle of hell, as she puts it with vivid storytelling and the discipline of a social historian. And in his latest book, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, bestselling author and staff writer for The New Yorker, uses the ordeal of a Royal Navy crew marooned on a remote island to examine how people and nations twist the truth to serve their own ends. The narrative power of true crime also has been harnessed to explore wider issues of more recent vintage. Michael Finkels The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession is not only an expose of the 1990s crimes of one of the most successful looters of European museums and galleries. Its an homage to the soul-stirring, inspirational and enduring power of fine art. And Gator Country: Deception, Danger, and Alligators in the Everglades, journalist Rebecca Renners insider account of an undercover operation that broke up a Florida poaching ring in 2017, offers poignant and timely reflections on our relationship with the natural world and the existential threats facing all wild places and us. Tales of real-life crimes offer all the elements of the most gripping fiction shocking acts, dramatic scenes, compelling characters, mysteries to be solved. They can inject life into the dusty pages of the past or invite readers to tag along as writers investigate complex, topical issues. Come for the true crime. Stay for the history lessons and a glimpse of the bigger picture. Such a shame if you miss out on the world's sauciest battle! Ever felt the urge to let loose and throw something without any repercussions? In the small town of Bunol, Spain, you can join a crowd where tossing tomatoes is the main event. Yes, you read that right. This tiny place transforms into a tomato war zone every August, and you're invited! La Tomatina is not your average festival. Thousands of people from across the globe, all gathered in one square, armed with over 100 tons of ripe tomatoes ready for throwing. The rule? Grab as many tomatoes as you can and launch them at anyone in sight. But remember, safety first-squash those tomatoes before letting them fly to keep the fun painless. Getting to the Heart of La Tomatina in Spain When you arrive in Bunol, Spain, you quickly understand this is no ordinary place. Located just a stone's throw from Valencia, this small town bursts into the limelight every August. It hosts La Tomatina, where the streets turn red-not from paint, but from tomatoes! To join in, you simply need a ticket, which you should buy early to avoid missing out. Many travelers stay in Valencia and take a short train or bus ride to Bunol, soaking in the scenic beauty of Spain on their way. The Rules of Tomato Warfare Before diving into the tomato-tossing chaos, knowing the rules to keep everyone safe is important. Everyone must squash the tomatoes before throwing to avoid injuries. It is all about fun and safety, ensuring that the thrill of the fight remains everyone's focus. Only tomatoes are allowed-no other projectiles can enter the fray. Listening to the officials and following their directions will help you navigate the event smoothly. The Epic Battle Begins The festival kicks off at 11 a.m. with a bang, marked by a single firework. Trucks loaded with over 100 tons of ripe tomatoes roll in, setting the stage for the epic battle. For the next hour, the air is filled with flying tomatoes as everyone rushes to sling as many as they can. The energy is electric, with laughter and shouts echoing through the square. When the second firework sounds, the tomato tossing comes to an end, but the excitement in the town does not. Beyond the Tomato Fight There is more to La Tomatina than just throwing tomatoes. The week is packed with activities, including music, dancing, and more parades. It is a perfect way to immerse yourself in local Spanish culture and enjoy the festive atmosphere. Bunol also offers beautiful sights like El Salvador Church and the medieval castle, ideal for exploring once you have washed off the tomato residue. Spain shines here, in this small town, where tradition and fun meet. Plan Like a Pro To make the most of your trip to Spain for La Tomatina, planning is key. Wear clothes you do not mind discarding afterwards because they will get ruined. Secure a locker to store your belongings and bring a change of clothes for comfort after the fight. Staying hydrated is important, as the summer heat in Spain can be intense. Arriving early gives you a better spot for the tomato fight and offers a chance to wander through Bunol and meet the locals. In Sambuca di Sicilia, a charming town in Italy, officials are preparing to auction a new batch of abandoned homes with starting bids as low as 3 euros. This sale, aiming to attract international buyers, is set to boost the local economy and repopulate the historic area. The homes are available for viewing this spring and summer, appealing to tourists and potential buyers visiting Italy. Italy's Sambuca Offers Homes, Dreams Renewed The homes for sale are located in the old Saracen district and require renovations. They range in size from 50 to 80 square meters, featuring architectural elements like iron-wrought balconies and old wooden doors with traditional decorations. Buyers must renovate these homes within three years, with costs varying based on the property's condition. According to CNN, Sambuca's authorities, who acquired the properties following a devastating earthquake in 1969, have facilitated these sales by owning the abandoned buildings, thereby simplifying the purchasing process. The upcoming auction will be conducted with sealed bids, reviewed by a judge, and participants must place a 5,000 euro deposit, which is refundable if they do not win. This initiative follows successful past sales in 2019 and 2021, where homes were sold for as little as one euro. These efforts have revitalized the town's economy, leading to new businesses and a vibrant expat community, now nicknamed "Little America" due to the significant number of U.S. buyers. The town has also adapted to modern needs by establishing remote-working facilities to attract global digital nomads. With these low prices and the promise of a rejuvenated lifestyle, Italy's Sambuca continues to draw interest from around the world, making it an attractive destination for those dreaming of owning a piece of Italian history. Interested buyers can find more details and apply through the town hall's official website. Italy's Tourism Thrives, Boosts Economy Significantly Italy's Travel & Tourism sector significantly bolstered the national economy in 2023, contributing 215 billion, which accounts for 10.5% of the country's total economic output. This performance underscores the sector's critical role in Italy's financial system. As per Breaking Travel News, the industry also set a new record by creating nearly 185,000 jobs, increasing the total tourism-related employment to 2.97 million. This means one in every eight jobs in Italy is in this sector. The number of international tourists visiting Italy surged, with spending by these visitors increasing by 19% from the previous year to 51.4 billion. This growth highlights Italy's status as a top global destination. For 2024, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) forecasts that the sector will contribute 223.1 billion to the economy and support an additional 100,000 jobs, pushing the total to almost 3.1 million. The recent introduction of the nomad visa by the Italian government is expected to extend visitor stays and boost spending further. Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO, praised Italy's dedication to enhancing its Travel & Tourism sector during a visit to Milan, highlighting its substantial impact on job creation and economic growth. When life gives you lemons, head to Rishikesh and turn them into lemon chai! Located on the banks of the Ganges River and surrounded by the majestic Himalayas, Rishikesh is your go-to destination for peace, meditation, and a touch of adventure. This sacred town in Uttarakhand, India, offers a mix of spiritual awakening and natural beauty, making it a top pick for travelers looking to recharge their spiritual and physical batteries. In Rishikesh, you can kickstart your mornings with yoga by the river, spend your afternoons exploring trails, and wrap up your day with the mesmerizing Ganga Aarti, an experience that lights up the riverside with spiritual fervor. It is the place where the Beatles tuned into their inner peace and creativity, and you can too, right at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ashram. Here's what you need to know when you're visiting Rishikesh in India. How to Get There Traveling to Rishikesh is easier than you might think. If you are flying, the nearest airport is Dehradun's Jolly Grant Airport, just 22 miles away from the heart of Rishikesh. From there, you can hop into a taxi and find yourself in the city for about $19. If you are looking to save some cash, consider taking a road trip from Haridwar. It is cheaper and lets you soak in the scenic beauty en route to Rishikesh. Best Time to Visit Timing your visit right can make your trip to Rishikesh even more spectacular. The best months to visit are between March and April or from September to October when the weather is just perfect for outdoor activities. Summers here can get a bit toasty, and the monsoon months from July to August see heavy rainfall which can dampen outdoor plans. Winter, from November to February, offers cool and pleasant weather, so do not forget your woolens. Related Article : This India's Pink City is Your Next Asian Dream Destination Things to Do You will never run out of things to do in Rishikesh. If you are into yoga or looking for some adventure, this town has you covered. Rishikesh is famous for its yoga ashrams and spiritual classes that attract visitors from all over the world. For those who crave some thrills, white-water rafting on the Ganges is a must-do. Also, do not miss walking across the Ram Jhula and exploring the bustling markets nearby. Where to Eat and Drink Rishikesh offers a lot of dining options that cater to its international visitors. You can find everything from cozy cafes to fine dining experiences overlooking the Ganges. For a taste of the local cuisine, head to Chotiwala Restaurant, a legendary spot known for its vegetarian dishes. If you are craving something international, Little Buddha Cafe offers a laid-back vibe with a diverse menu. Remember, since Rishikesh is a sacred city, finding meat and alcohol might be tricky. Where to Stay Accommodations in Rishikesh range from budget-friendly hostels to luxurious hotels. For travelers on a budget, Zostel Rishikesh offers a comfy yet affordable stay. If you prefer a bit more comfort, check into the Divine Resort & Spa for its excellent facilities and views of the Ganges. Booking during non-peak times might even snag you a significant discount, so keep an eye out for deals. Over six hundred people have died as a result of poor air quality in this country, in one ye The Global Peace Summit in Switzerland is just the beginning of negotiations and would likely be followed by talks with Russia. Swiss President Viola Amherd said this in comments published by Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper on Friday, Ukrinform reports, citing dpa. "It is clear to us that we will not sign a peace agreement at the end of the conference," Amgerd said. Both parties need to be at the table for peace, she said, referring to the fact that Russia has not been invited to attend the Swiss summit. "Russia could then be present at a possible follow-up conference," she said. Amherd noted that the conference was intended to create a platform for dialogue at which the first step would be to discuss how peace could be achieved in Ukraine. It would not be about peace in Ukraine in the narrow sense, but "only" about humanitarian issues, nuclear safety, freedom of navigation and food security, she said. "We want to build trust and seek solutions to these issues, which are important for the civilian population and then also for peace later on," she said. The Global Peace Summit will be held in Switzerland on June 15-16, with heads of state and government from all continents expected to attend. The participating countries will develop a joint negotiating position and submit it to Russia. More than 100 countries and international organizations have confirmed their participation in the summit. The Ukrainian Peace Formula is a diplomatic mechanism offered by Ukraine to achieve a just end to the war started by Russia. Photo: Kay Nietfeld/dpa On a quiet Wednesday morning, Stanford University witnessed a significant escalation in the ongoing tensions between pro-Palestinian activists and the university administration. Thirteen students were arrested after staging a protest in the office of interim president Richard Saller. The protesters, demanding divestment from companies that do business in Israel, took drastic measures to make their voices heard. The Morning of the Protest The demonstration began around 5:30 a.m., when about ten students stormed the interim president's office. The protesters quickly barricaded the doors with bike locks, chains, ladders, and chairs, effectively sealing themselves inside. They also covered the security cameras with tin foil to avoid being monitored. Outside the office, an additional fifty students linked arms to form a human shield around the building, chanting slogans such as "Palestine will be free. We will free Palestine." Some demonstrators even spray-painted "Our office now" on the office windows, asserting their presence and their demands. The protest was a strategic and highly coordinated effort by the students, who had specific demands they wanted the university administration to address. The demands included presenting a divestment bill at the upcoming Board of Trustees meeting, obtaining a supportive letter from Saller, revealing all endowment investments for fiscal year 2022, and granting amnesty to all pro-Palestinian students who have protested recently. The protesters planned to occupy the office until their demands were met, signaling their determination and the depth of their commitment to their cause. READ MORE : College Leaders Impose Stricter Measures On Student Protests University Response and Immediate Suspension The university's response to the protest was swift and decisive. Campus security was quickly on the scene, soon joined by county sheriff's officers. The arrested students were escorted away in vans, facing immediate suspension as per a statement from university officials. This response highlights the administration's zero-tolerance policy towards such disruptive demonstrations. Among those detained was a student journalist from The Stanford Daily who was present to cover the demonstration. This arrest has raised concerns about press freedom and the rights of journalists, even in protest situations. The university administration sent a series of messages to the campus community throughout the morning, initially advising people to stay away from the area and later announcing the arrests. Due to the extensive damage caused by the protest both inside and outside the building, the office was closed for the remainder of the day. The damages included graffiti vandalism on the sandstone buildings and columns of the Main Quad, which the administration condemned in their joint statement later that day. The Aftermath and Community Reaction The arrests and subsequent suspension of the protesters have elicited varied responses within the Stanford community. Interim President Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez voiced their shock and sorrow over the day's events, emphasizing that they believe most of the community stands with them in denouncing such actions on campus. This firm stance underscores the administration's commitment to maintaining order and safeguarding university property. The protest occurred on the last day of classes for the spring quarter, with graduation ceremonies scheduled for June 15 and 16. The suspension of the students, particularly any seniors among them, means they will not be allowed to graduate, adding a personal and immediate consequence to their participation in the protest. This incident is not an isolated event but part of a series of demonstrations by pro-Palestinian activists at Stanford. It follows the termination of a 120-day sit-in on a campus plaza in February and the dismantling of an encampment in White Plaza in April. These ongoing protests indicate a sustained and organized effort by the students to push the university towards divestment from companies doing business in Israel. The arrests have prompted discussions about the balance between freedom of speech and the need for order on campus. Some community members support the protesters' cause but disagree with their methods, while others believe the university's response was too harsh. As the debate continues, the incident at Stanford serves as a reminder of the complex and often contentious nature of activism and administration in academic settings. In late April, Columbia University settled a lawsuit filed by a Jewish student who alleged that the institution failed to provide a safe environment during intense pro-Palestinian protests on campus. The settlement underscores the university's commitment to student safety, highlighting measures to protect students and promote respectful discourse amidst divisive issues. The Lawsuit and Allegations The lawsuit, filed on behalf of all students who felt pressured to switch to online learning due to the protests, claimed that Columbia University did not ensure a safe environment as promised. The plaintiff, represented by attorney Jay Edelson, argued that the protests created a threatening atmosphere, particularly for Jewish students who felt targeted by antisemitic actions and rhetoric. These students, according to the lawsuit, experienced fear and discomfort, which disrupted their ability to participate fully in campus life and academic activities. Edelson emphasized that while peaceful protest is a legitimate and constructive form of expression, the situation at Columbia escalated beyond acceptable bounds. He stated that protesters attempted to marginalize those they disagreed with, creating a hostile environment. This, the lawsuit contended, was a violation of the students' rights to safety and an undisturbed educational experience. READ MORE : Columbia University Joins Others In Cancelling Main Commencement Amidst Campus Protests The Settlement: Ensuring Safety and Security The settlement reached on Tuesday includes several significant measures aimed at enhancing student safety and addressing the concerns raised by the lawsuit. Central to this agreement is the introduction of a "Safe Passage Liaison" at Columbia University. This liaison will have the authority to open alternative entrances and exits for students, ensuring they can navigate the campus without encountering potentially hostile situations. Additionally, the liaison will coordinate 24-hour security escorts for students upon request, providing an extra layer of protection and reassurance. This focused security monitor will act as the eyes, ears, and voice for any student feeling unsafe, a role that Edelson describes as a "major win." The presence of a dedicated security liaison aims to prevent situations where students feel compelled to avoid campus due to fear for their safety. This measure reflects Columbia's acknowledgment of the need for proactive steps to maintain a secure and welcoming environment for all students. Promoting Dialogue and Academic Accommodations Beyond immediate security measures, the settlement also includes provisions to foster a more respectful and inclusive campus atmosphere. Columbia University has committed to promoting discussions that encourage peaceful and constructive alternatives to extreme forms of protest. This initiative aims to create a platform where diverse viewpoints can be expressed and debated without resorting to actions that intimidate or threaten others. Furthermore, the university has agreed to consider academic accommodations for students who missed end-of-term deadlines due to protest-related campus closures. This recognition of the academic impact of such disruptions is a crucial aspect of the settlement, ensuring that students' educational progress is not unduly hindered by external events. University spokesman Ben Chang expressed satisfaction with the settlement, reiterating the institution's commitment to student safety as a top priority. He emphasized their top priority: ensuring campus safety for students' academic success. Implications for Other Institutions The resolution of this lawsuit at Columbia University is likely the first of many as institutions across the country grapple with similar challenges. The Israel-Gaza conflict, which intensified last October, has sparked protests and counter-protests on numerous campuses, leading to lawsuits and investigations from both sides. The recent Capitol Hill hearing involving Columbia President Minouche Shafik further heightened tensions, emphasizing the need for universities to balance the rights to free speech and protest with the imperative to maintain a safe and inclusive campus environment. As more institutions face scrutiny for their handling of campus protests and the safety of their students, the measures implemented at Columbia may serve as a model for others. The introduction of security liaisons, the promotion of respectful dialogue, and the provision of academic accommodations are steps that could help universities navigate the complex landscape of campus activism while ensuring the well-being of their student communities. California State University (CSU) officials have recommended the integration of California State University Maritime Academy (Cal Maritime) and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). This strategic move aims to address fiscal challenges and better align with workforce needs. The proposed merger, though not explicitly termed as such by CSU officials, is set to combine the operations, resources, and governance of the two institutions. If approved by the CSU Board of Trustees, the integration is expected to be completed by the start of the 2026-27 academic year. Addressing Fiscal Challenges and Enrollment Declines Cal Maritime has faced significant financial difficulties in recent years, primarily due to a sharp decline in enrollment and increasing operational costs. Enrollment at Cal Maritime has dropped by 31 percent, from around 1,100 students in the 2016-17 academic year to just over 750 in the most recent academic year. This decline, coupled with rising employment and operational expenses, has placed Cal Maritime in a precarious fiscal position. Chancellor Mildred Garcia highlighted the urgency of the situation, stating that the integration would provide a long-term solution to Cal Maritime's untenable fiscal circumstances. By merging with Cal Poly, Cal Maritime can leverage academic and operational synergies, creating a more sustainable financial model. This approach aims to stabilize Cal Maritime's financial health while enhancing the educational offerings and opportunities for students at both institutions. READ MORE : California State University System Holds Minimal Indirect Investments In Israel, Plans No Changes Despite Calls For Divestment Leveraging Academic and Operational Synergies The integration of Cal Maritime and Cal Poly is expected to yield numerous benefits by combining their strengths and resources. Cal Poly, known for its strong engineering and technical programs, can provide enhanced support and expanded opportunities for Cal Maritime's specialized maritime programs. This collaboration is anticipated to create a more robust academic environment, offering students a broader range of courses and expertise. Moreover, the merger will enable the two institutions to share administrative and operational resources, leading to increased efficiency and cost savings. This includes combining administrative functions, streamlining services, and optimizing the use of facilities. The integration is also likely to foster greater collaboration between faculty and students from both campuses, promoting interdisciplinary learning and research opportunities. Chancellor Garcia emphasized that this integration is not only a necessary strategy for financial sustainability but also an innovative approach that will benefit the entire CSU system, the state of California, and the nation. By leveraging the strengths of both institutions, the merger aims to create a more dynamic and responsive educational system that can better meet the evolving needs of students and the workforce. Enhancing Workforce Alignment and Student Opportunities One of the primary motivations behind the proposed integration is to better align educational programs with workforce needs. Both Cal Maritime and Cal Poly have strong industry connections and a track record of producing graduates who are highly sought after in their respective fields. By combining their resources and expertise, the integrated institution can offer more comprehensive and relevant programs that are closely aligned with industry demands. This alignment is particularly important in the maritime and technical sectors, where there is a growing demand for skilled professionals. The integrated institution will be better positioned to develop and deliver cutting-edge programs that address the latest industry trends and technologies. This will not only enhance the employability of graduates but also contribute to the economic development of the region and the state. Cal Maritime will continue to offer its specialized programs at its Vallejo campus, ensuring that students have access to the unique maritime education and training that the institution is known for. At the same time, the integration with Cal Poly will provide students with additional resources, expertise, and opportunities, creating a more enriched educational experience. The recommended integration of Cal Maritime and Cal Poly is a strategic and necessary move to address fiscal challenges and better fulfill workforce needs. By combining operations, resources, and governance, the integrated institution aims to create a more sustainable and dynamic educational environment. This innovative approach promises to benefit students, the CSU system, and the broader community, ensuring that both institutions can continue to provide high-quality education and contribute to the economic and social well-being of the state. (@Abdulla99267510) The federal minister for information and Broadcasting says Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif considers Pak-China friendship as an iron clad friendship. BEIJING: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-June 7th, 2024) Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar said the second phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) marks a new chapter in the enduring friendship between Pakistan and China, and usher in a new era of progress and prosperity in Pakistan. Ataullah Tarar said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif considers Pak-China friendship as an iron clad friendship. He expressed these words in a interview on Friday. He said that phase two of CPEC will open new avenues for investment and collaboration across multiple sectors between the two countries. The Minister further said that the second phase will further strengthen people-to-people, business-to-business, and government-to-government contacts between the two nations. During a visit to Huawei, it was decided that IT education would be provided to 200,000 young Pakistanis. Attaullah Tarar also underscored the Prime Ministers commitment to the security of Chinese nationals in Pakistan, deeming it more important than even the security of Pakistani citizens. He praised Chinas valuable role in Pakistans development and reiterated the Prime Ministers commendation of President Xi Jinpings One Belt One Road initiative. The Prime Ministers vision includes making Gwadar more functional. Describing the Pak-China friendship as sweeter than honey, deeper than the ocean, and higher than the Himalayas, the Informed Minister pledged to realize the vision of prosperity set forth by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Xi Jinping. He said that now Punjab speed has been transformed into the Pakistan Speed. ASTORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Jun, 2024) Assistant Director Trade Development Authority Gilgit-Baltistan, Nazir Ali on Friday said that Gilgit-Baltistan's first cherry shipment has reached China, marking a significant milestone in the region's fruit export industry. According to Assistant Director Trade Development Authority Gilgit-Baltistan, This achievement has brought joy to local farmers who are expected to earn millions of rupees from the export. He said that this year 500 tons of cherries will be exported to China, generating substantial revenue for the country. The provincial government has been working hard to promote the export of cherries and other fruits from the region, he said, adding that the export of cherries will not only benefit local farmers but also highlight the importance of this fruit in the region. He expressed hope that the region will become economically stable through such initiatives. This achievement is a result of the government's efforts to provide market access to local farmers and promote the region's fruit industry, he added. The successful export of cherries is expected to open up new opportunities for the region's farmers and contribute to the country's economy. APP/saf/378 Chairperson Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), Rubina Khalid Friday said that BISP was playing crucial role in the economic empowerment of women ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Jun, 2024) Chairperson Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), Rubina Khalid Friday said that BISP was playing crucial role in the economic empowerment of women. Speaking during a meeting with the Speaker National Assembly, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, the chairperson reiterated her commitment to serve the marginalized segments of society through the programme. Ayaz Sadiq extended his heartfelt congratulations to Rubina Khalid on assuming her new role as Chairperson of BISP. BISP is dedicated to provide essential support to the most vulnerable communities, particularly focusing on the economic empowerment of women, she said. She said that steps were being taken to enhance the programme's outreach and impact to ensure that no one was left behind. Rubina Khalid briefed the speaker about the ongoing and recently launched initiatives of BISP. The speaker expressed his support for the programme and wished Rubina Khalid success in her endeavors. "The BISP is vital for the socio-economic uplift of marginalized communities and I wish for its continued success under the leadership of Rubina Khalid" he stated. Later, Central Additional General Secretary of Pakistan Peoples Party, Engineer Mohammad Humayun Khan met Rubina Khalid at the BISP headquarters. The discussion was held with focus on the issues faced by women beneficiaries of BISP in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa related to the stipend disbursement and the provision of necessary facilities. Rubina Khalid assured General Secretary PPP that all problems faced by the beneficiaries would be promptly addressed. Our priority is to ensure that every woman in need receives the support she deserves without any delays," she added. A three-member delegation of UNFPA called on the Sindh Governor Mohammed Kamran Khan Tessori at Governor House here on Friday KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Jun, 2024) A three-member delegation of UNFPA called on the Sindh Governor Mohammed Kamran Khan Tessori at Governor House here on Friday. The delegation was led by UNFPA Country Representative Dr. Luay Shabaneh. They discussed the ongoing steps for the betterment of facilities for the mother and child in the Sindh province. The governor said that the measures to reduce the mortality rate of mother and child during the pregnancy were inevitable. He said that the cooperation of UNFPA was commendable in that regard. The governor said that it was important to encourage women at every level. He said that the present government was committed to working with UNFPA on the health challenges. (@FahadShabbir) Pakistan and China on Friday expressed their firm commitment to protect the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) from its detractors and adversaries, ensure the timely completion of all ongoing projects, and support the high-quality CPEC development BEIJING, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Jun, 2024) Pakistan and China on Friday expressed their firm commitment to protect the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) from its detractors and adversaries, ensure the timely completion of all ongoing projects, and support the high-quality CPEC development. The bilateral ties and cooperation were discussed in the delegation-level talks between Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the Great Hall of the People, here. The prime minister was accompanied by key members of his cabinet. A welcome ceremony was arranged in honour of the prime minister on his arrival at the Great Hall of the People. During the talks, the two leaders discussed the entire spectrum of bilateral relations, regional and global developments of mutual interest. They noted that the Pakistan-China All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership was characterized by mutual trust, shared principles and strategic convergence. Premier Li congratulated Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Pakistan's election as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. The two leaders reaffirmed unwavering support for each other on core issues and expressed continued commitment and support for the high-quality development of CPEC. They also emphasized the timely completion of all ongoing projects with a special focus on industrial development, agriculture modernization, science and technology, and development of Special Economic Zones for mutually beneficial and socio-economic development of Pakistan. The two sides discussed the significance of Gwadar as an important pillar of CPEC and agreed to expedite the timely completion of all related infrastructure projects to transform Gwadar into a regional economic hub. They also expressed their firm commitment to protect CPEC from its detractors and adversaries and to upgrade CPEC in the form of enhanced cooperation. Prime Minister Shehbaz reaffirmed Pakistan's unflinching resolve to ensure the safety and security of Chinese personnel and projects in Pakistan. The two sides agreed to maintain high-level exchanges including strengthening institutional linkages at all tiers and in all spheres of bilateral cooperation. Pakistan and China will also continue to consult closely on issues of regional and global significance and multilateral fora, especially during the two-year tenure of Pakistan as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. The delegation-level talks were followed by an MoU signing ceremony, witnessed by Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and Premier Li Qiang, where both signed 23 MoUs and agreements deepening cooperation in transport infrastructure, industry, energy, agriculture, media, health, water, socio-economic development and others of mutual interest. The meeting was followed by an official banquet hosted by Premier Li Qiang in honour of the prime minister. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Prince Rahim Aga Khan's visionary leadership in transformative initiatives in various sectors of Pakistan ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Jun, 2024) Prince Rahim Aga Khan's visionary leadership in transformative initiatives in various sectors of Pakistan helped him achieving the highest civil award here Friday. The prestigious accolade was presented during a formal ceremony held at the President House, attended by numerous prominent figures and dignitaries. President Asif Ali Zardari had conferred the award of Nishan-i-Pakistan upon Prince Rahim Aga Khan in recognition of his services for Pakistan, a news release said. Through the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), he has played a crucial role in enhancing commercial banking, micro-finance, insurance, sustainable tourism, and renewable energy landscapes. His efforts have advanced economic development and promoted environmental stewardship by establishing policies and practices to combat climate change. The Aga Khan family has played a critical role in shaping the destiny of the Muslims of India. It was with the untiring efforts of Aga Khan III, that the Muslims of India gained a voice in 1906, with the founding of All India Muslim League, of which Aga Khan, was the first president. The part played by the Aga Khan family, the struggle and creation of Pakistan as a great friend of the Quaid-e- Azam and the Muslims of the sub-continent has been honored by history. Today, the Aga Khan family continues to work for the welfare of the people of Pakistan in the same selfless and altruistic spirit. Following the footsteps of his father and grandfather, Prince Rahim Aga Khan, through his many leadership roles within the Aga Khan development network has for more than a quarter of a century dedicated his untiring efforts to improving the quality of life of people of the resource constrained regions of Asia and Africa. His personal contributions in the initiatives being undertaken in the fields of the economic, health, education and cultural well being of the poor and marginalized communities responding to the evolving and contemporary needs. He upholds a multi generational legacy that traces its origins to the founding of the nation. Under Prince Rahim Aga Khan's leadership, the Aga Khan fund for economic development has advanced path breaking initiatives in Pakistan in commercial banking, micro-finance, insurance, sustainable tourism, and the renewable energy sector. Pursuant to his emphasis on financial inclusion, the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development has enabled access to financial services for nearly 50 million people in Pakistan. As founding chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network's Climate and Environment Committee, Prince Rahim Aga Khan has spearheaded the establishment of environmental stewardship policies and best practices to address climate change as central and cross cutting themes across the network's activity. The overarching concern for habitat and vulnerability to natural disasters was evident in the Aga Khan's development's network, generous support for the people of Pakistan in the wake of devastating floods of 2022, in recognition of his meritorious services. And the role for the development, continued progress, uplift, prosperity, and betterment of Pakistan and its people. This award recognizes Prince Rahim Aga Khans enduring impact on Pakistans socio-economic fabric. Kinshasa, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Jun, 2024) A trial opened in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday of around 50 people including several Americans over what the army said was a thwarted coup attempt last month. Armed men attacked the home of Economy Minister Vital Kamerhe in the early hours of May 19 before moving onto the nearby Palais de la Nation that houses President Felix Tshisekedi's offices. The army later announced on national tv that security forces had stopped "an attempted coup d'etat". The trial began at around 11:40 am local time (1040 GMT) before a military court held inside the Ndolo military prison in the capital Kinshasa, AFP reporters saw. The accused, who also include four women, were dressed in blue and yellow prison uniforms. They took their place in a large tent in the prison courtyard where hearings take place. Western diplomats were present in addition to journalists and lawyers. The alleged plot was led by Christian Malanga, a Congolese man who was a "naturalised American" and who was killed by security forces, army spokesman General Sylvain Ekenge has said. Ekenge said the attackers were made up of "several nationalities" and that around 40 were arrested, with another four -- including Malanga -- killed. The motive behind the incident remains unclear, but the government condemned it as an "attempted destabilisation of the institutions". A court document shows that 53 defendants are being tried, including Christian Malanga, even though he is dead. His son, who is American, as well as two other US citizens are also being tried. At least one Congolese man who is a naturalised Belgian is also among the defendants. The charges in the case are "attack, terrorism, illegal possession of weapons and munitions of war, attempted assassination, criminal association, murder (and) financing of terrorism", according to the document. A separate investigation is being carried out into extrajudicial executions allegedly committed by soldiers after the operation. President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday urged the West to do more to achieve a fair peace as Ukraine battles the Russian invasion, telling US leader Joe Biden that Kyiv is counting on "shoulder-to-shoulder" support Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Jun, 2024) President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday urged the West to do more to achieve a fair peace as Ukraine battles the Russian invasion, telling US leader Joe Biden that Kyiv is counting on "shoulder-to-shoulder" support. One day after Western leaders descended on northern France to mark the 80 year anniversary of the D-Day landings in World War II, Zelensky addressed the French parliament while Biden was also to deliver a keynote speech in Normandy on democracy. Zelensky told France's National Assembly he hoped a summit hosted by Switzerland later this month on bringing peace to Ukraine could hasten a fair end to the conflict. "The inaugural peace summit could become a format that would bring closer a just end to this war," Zelensky said. "I am grateful for all you are already doing and it is a lot. But for a fair peace, more must be done," he said. Meeting Zelensky in Paris after the speech, Biden pledged his support for Ukraine and announced another $225 million in aid to Kyiv. "The United States will stand with you," Biden told Zelensky. Biden hailed Ukraine's "remarkable" resistance against the Russian invasion, saying: "You haven't bowed down. You haven't yielded at all... We're not going to walk away from you." Zelensky thanked him for the "tremendous support" and compared it to the United States coming to Europe's aid during World War II. "We count on your continuing support to stand with us shoulder-to-shoulder," the Ukrainian leader said. Kyiv has been pushing Europe to increase military support, with Russia gaining the upper hand on the battlefield in recent months, in particular in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region. The Ukrainian president warned the French parliament that 80 years after the D-Day landings of World War II, Europe was "unfortunately no longer a continent of peace" owing to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. "Can (Russian President Vladimir) Putin win this battle?" Zelensky asked parliament. "No. Because you and I have no right to lose," he added. Zelensky dismissed there could be peace in Ukraine based on current front lines, with Russia sometimes deep inside Ukrainian territory. "Can this war end on the lines that exist now? No. Because there are no lines for evil: not 80 years ago, not now." "And if someone tries to draw temporary lines, it will only give a pause before a new war." Speaking to French television, President Emmanuel Macron said late Thursday Paris would transfer Mirage 2000 fighter jets to Ukraine and train Ukrainian pilots as part of a new military cooperation. Macron said he would offer to Zelensky that the pilots be trained starting this summer. "You need normally between five-six months. So by the end of the year there will be pilots. The pilots will be trained in France," he said. He further said Western allies would consider a request from Ukraine to send military instructors to train its forces on its soil to meet the growing challenge of building up troop numbers. During Zelensky's visit Franco-German battle tank maker KNDS announced the creation of a Ukrainian subsidiary. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Macron's comments indicated he was ready for France to take a "direct" role in the Ukraine conflict. Later Friday, Biden will return to Normandy to give a speech on defending freedom and democracy at the Pointe du Hoc, a clifftop promontory where German bunkers were attacked by US troops in a daring assault during the landings. The speech to be delivered from 1400 GMT is likely to be seen as a warning against the risk posed by his Republican rival Donald Trump in the US election later this year. Biden, a Democrat, will unmistakably be invoking the memory of a famous speech given by late Republican president Ronald Reagan at the Normandy clifftop in 1984 where he saluted the American "boys" of the Pointe du Hoc. Biden vowed Thursday in Normandy never to abandon international alliances or Ukraine in its fight against Russia, a swipe at Trump, who has questioned the importance of bodies like NATO. "We're living in a time when democracy is more at risk across the world than at any point since the end of World War II," Biden said. "Isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago and is not the answer today," he said. bur-sjw/as/jm/ USM School of Criminal Justice, Forensic Science and Security Preparing Students for Future as New Home Awaits Fri, 06/07/2024 - 08:45am | By: Van Arnold In a world where criminals constantly scramble to elude detection and prosecution, The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) is preparing students for substantive careers in the law enforcement/judicial community. USMs School of Criminal Justice, Forensics Science and Security (CJFSS) offers distinctive programs in criminal justice and forensic science designed to equip students with the foundation necessary to excel within the modern justice system, while utilizing the latest technology in forensic science. Dr. Brenda Rowe, Director of the School of Criminal Justice, Forensic Science and Security, stands in front of what will become the schools new home next year. As CJFSS Director Dr. Brenda Rowe points out, several required courses are focused on a real world application of knowledge. Our capstone courses (for both criminal justice and forensic science majors) are designed to prepare students for tasks and challenges associated with employment in their respective areas, said Rowe. Additionally, criminal justice majors must complete CJ 201, which is designed to enhance professionalism and success in both academics and employment. The school offers undergraduate degree programs in criminal justice and forensics. Students can also pursue a masters degree in criminal justice. Recently, the school added a minor in security studies. Forensic science majors are required to complete an internship or field study. Students majoring in criminal justice are strongly encouraged to complete an internship. Approximately 450 students currently are enrolled in CJFSS degree programs. The school employs 14 full-time faculty members, with customarily up to five adjunct faculty employed over the course of an academic year. Rowe notes that criminal justice majors tend to seek careers in law enforcement (federal, state, and local), corrections, court systems, or case management. Some go on to work in behavioral health or other social service, said Rowe. Many of our criminal justice majors plan to further their education in law school or graduate school. She explains that forensic science majors pursue jobs in crime scene investigation, toxicology, fingerprint analysis, serology, DNA analysis, firearms/ballistic analysis, and forensic anthropology. They too often seek secondary degrees. The U.S. has experienced a shortage in law enforcement professionals over the past several years, and a recent Thomson Reuters White Paper scrutinizing the future of law enforcement agencies and their practical use of data and technology revealed some alarming numbers: 48 percent of respondents said that understaffing was seen as the biggest problem law enforcement faces today. 92 percent reported that their agencies suffered from understaffing to some degree. 31 percent said budgeting issues were a top challenge. 33 percent said finding and adopting new and up-to-date technologies was a top challenge. Local law enforcement agencies have been experiencing shortages for the last five-plus years, if not longer, said Rowe. Mississippi LEAs have been particularly vulnerable due to budgeting issues. There have been noticeable staffing shortages in case management, behavioral health, and corrections. Local jails and prisons are struggling with recruitment and retention. Added Rowe, Forensic science has not been immune to shortages. Crime labs are battling backlogs across the U.S. Abigayle Benz, a senior from Sylacauga, Ala., completed an internship last summer with INTEGRA Forensics, an Alabama-based accident reconstruction firm. She continues to work for the company. Benz explained that most of her internship consisted of summarizing depositions. However, she did have an opportunity to help conduct field work in a couple of instances. We inspected the brakes on a semi-trailer that had been in an accident, collected data from cars that had been totaled in wrecks to see speed and braking reaction times, and we took photos of a wrecker truck that had been overturned that could be put into a program to simulate the wreck, said Benz. From the experience, I gained a better understanding of how forensics work, and I was able to apply the things Ive been learning in class. The schools mission to prepare students for opportunities in law enforcement is being substantially enhanced with the transition to a new, permanent home. Located in the tight quarters of Arthell Kelley Hall since the mid-1970s, the school is slated for a move into the Human Performance and Recreation Building, which formerly housed the School of Kinesiology and Nutrition. Renovation and construction are already underway on the $16.6 million project that has an anticipated completion date of June 2025. Plans also call for construction of a 5,000-square-foot annex to the current building for use as an academic courtroom, which will enable students to engage in experiential learning activities. Other features include a computer lab, conference rooms, a faculty workroom and a student lounge that will provide a space for students to collaborate and socialize. CJFSS faculty, staff, and students are very excited about the school getting a new home in about a year, said Rowe. The new building will allow all CJFSS faculty to have offices in the same building, which will facilitate easier student access to faculty office hours and enhance collaboration among CJFSS faculty and staff. Additionally, we will have more lab space, which will allow for improvements in lab scheduling and will provide space for new equipment to be used as it is acquired. Dr. Chris Winstead, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, expresses profound pride in the work produced by everyone connected with the school. In addition to being experts in their own academic areas, the faculty are well-connected with numerous agencies across the state and nation, said Winstead. Our students are engaging in internships in locations ranging from our local area to some of the largest departments in the nation. Many of our graduates will use their Southern Miss education to benefit us right here at home, while others will choose to pursue careers in other areas. It is really up to the student, but the possibilities are endless. Rowe stresses that faculty are working hard to implement changes to the forensic science curriculum that will lay the foundation for the school to pursue Forensic Science Education Programs Accreditation Commission (FEPAC) accreditation. Expectations are high for continued growth in forensic science and criminal justice enrollment. We expect to see growth in enrollment in the Security Studies stand-alone minor, as word is spreading about this exciting new minor, said Rowe. Criminal justice majors will find they have increased flexibility for course scheduling with the implementation of criminal justice curriculum changes that allow for more electives. Our faculty will continue to provide opportunities for students to interact with professionals in the students chosen field by inviting guest speakers and facilitating connections with potential internship partners. Rowe continued, CJFSS faculty and staff are looking forward to all the good things that will come with our move into a new building. We cant wait to see students take advantage of all the great opportunities they will have in our new home and with the implementation of our curricular changes. To learn more about the School of Criminal Justice, Forensic Science and Security, call 601.266.4509. Four University of Wyoming faculty members have been selected by President Ed Seidel for the third Presidential Fellows Program cohort, which will run from Aug. 26 through May 29, 2026. In alignment with UWs 2023+ strategic plan, the Presidential Fellows Program elevates and facilitates faculty-led projects that advance the university. Celebration and promotion of teaching, research, extension, engagement, innovation, inclusion and service contributions to UWs mission are a key execution strategy of the strategic plan. The Presidential Fellows Program contributes to this work. Faculty members selected by Seidel as Fellows will collaborate closely with the Office of the President and other units to develop projects that enhance the academic, research, economic development and civic engagement missions of the university. We had an outstanding pool of applicants for the Presidential Fellows Program this year, and I believe this cohort will achieve remarkable results in their projects, Seidel says. Each participant will play a significant role in advancing the success and excellence of UW and the state of Wyoming through their initiatives. I am confident that their contributions will have a lasting impact on our institution for years to come. Members of the third cohort of Fellows are: -- Matt Burgess, an incoming faculty member in the College of Business, will work with Chief of Staff Kelsey Kyne to establish the Getting Things Done podcast -- a rapid-response dialogue series for major news cycles. -- Lars Kotthoff, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and an adjunct faculty member in the School of Computing, will work with Seidel to further the use of artificial intelligence (AI) at UW and increase awareness of AI uses across the state. -- Jason Shogren, the Stroock Chair of Natural Resource Conservation and Management and a professor in the Department of Economics, will work with Beth Venn, executive director of UWs Neltje Center for Excellence in Creativity and the Arts, to advance economic development opportunities in the key area of the creative economy. -- Chase Thiel, the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program Professor of Business Ethics and an associate professor in the Department of Management and Marketing, will work with Senior Vice Provost Tami Benham-Deal to establish the UW Faculty Leadership Institute. Barbara Hickman, an assistant professor in the School of Counseling, Leadership, Advocacy and Design, and Gabel Taggart, an assistant professor in the School of Politics, Public Affairs and International Studies, will join Thiel as Presidential Fellows collaborators on the project. For more information about the Presidential Fellows Program, click here. Riley Coburn Even though she comes from a small Wyoming community with about 900 residents, University of Wyoming graduate Riley Coburn wants to make a difference in a big way. She hopes that a postgraduation exchange program will lead to achieving her lifelong goals. Coburn, a 2022 UW international studies graduate from Upton, is among recipients of a prestigious Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals (CBYX) Fellowship. The program annually provides 75 American and 75 German young professionals the opportunity to spend one year in one anothers countries, studying, interning and living with hosts in a cultural immersion program. Her UW undergraduate studies centered on global studies that focused on Europe and the former Soviet Union, with concentration in social and cultural issues. She says selection for the CBYX program aligns with her own beliefs regarding the power of education as a catalyst for positive change. I hope to contribute to the strengthening of German-American connections by laying the foundations for mutual understanding, contact across cultural borders and a commitment to peaceful coexistence, says Coburn, a 2018 Upton High School graduate. These connections are increasingly becoming more pivotal, as Germany is not only an important ally to the U.S., but it is the backbone of European integration. She adds that, with its history of successful conflict resolution and more recent struggles with nationalist ideologies, Germany is the perfect breeding ground for her academic and professional interests. Exchange programs offered through UW, in part, drove her passion of focusing on world events. In spring 2022, she studied abroad in Strasbourg, France, completing the Certificate in European Studies Program at the Institute of Political Studies. When I started applying for awards like the CBYX, I didnt believe that a selection panel would ever choose someone from a remote town of less than 1,000 people. However, I realized that my experience of growing up in rural Wyoming is not a limitation. Rather, it is exactly what gave me the edge over other competitors. No other candidate had a background like I did, thus making my skill set and perspective unique, Coburn says. I would argue that living in Wyoming has opened more doors than if I had lived somewhere else because the state is such a tight-knit community that cares about its people. Growing up in one of the smallest towns of the least-populated state is something that I will forever be grateful for and would not change. The CBYX program for young professionals consists of three phases: two months of intensive German language training; one semester of classes in the participants academic or career field at a university, technical or professional school; and a three- to five-month internship in the participants career field. Coburn has not yet received her exchange program placements, but she plans to take classes that focus on European history, integration, identities and international development. Even though she does not speak German, Coburn is looking forward to the challenge. During the internship phase of the CBYX program, Coburn hopes to work with a nongovernmental organization (NGO) or a think tank that analyzes the current disconnect between German policymaking institutions and rural populations. She says that, due to this disconnect, farming communities across the country are frustrated with the decisions being made at both the national and supranational levels -- consequently, giving rise to mass protests and the growing sense of nationalism. While interning, I would like to conduct interviews with German farmers and research the social, developmental, political, ideological effects of various German and European Union policies on rural communities, she says. I also would like to volunteer with NGOs or other nonprofits that help Ukrainian refugees assimilate into German communities. Germany is taking the bulk of the refugees, and I want to help make their transition toward a new life a little easier. As for her career goals after completing the CBYX program, Coburn intends to enroll in the Master of Arts in German and European Studies Program at Georgetown Universitys Walsh School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C. Living in Germany will greatly prepare me for both this endeavor and get me one step closer to one day becoming a Foreign Service officer with the U.S. State Department, she adds. Simply put, if it wasnt for UW, I wouldnt be where I am today. From the class curriculums to the amazing professors, I had a supportive network that fostered critical thinking and a space to be successful in. About the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals CBYX is open to candidates in all career fields, and applicants from a broad range of backgrounds are selected for the program each year. The U.S. Department of States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs sponsors CBYX, under the authority of the Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961. Cultural Vistas has administered CBYX for 40 years. For more information about CBYX, click here. An estimated 70 percent of Africa's urban households buy food from informal sources, such as street vendors, kiosks, and traditional market sellers, recent studies have found. Now, the African Union and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), are joining forces to design the first-ever guidelines to help African governments improve food safety in informal food markets. Starting Friday, these new guidelines will aim to help African governments engage with and improve regulatory oversight of informal food markets, which are vital sources of affordable food and income for millions in Africa. Silvia Alonso, an epidemiologist at the institute, said improving food safety in the informal markets will help improve the health of the people and the countries' economies. "A large portion of those informal markets have been rather neglected," said Alonso. "So, we felt that is a gap area that we need to start paying attention to. If we address food safety in informal markets, we are not only contributing to improving food safety across the continent, but also, indirectly, we will help with other outcomes and objectives, such as nutrition security, access to jobs, decent work, and equitable food systems." The World Bank has reported that unhealthy practices in the informal markets cost African governments an estimated $16 billion in productivity losses annually. Contaminated foods cause at least 91 million illnesses and 137,000 deaths each year, according to the World Health Organization. The ILRI has embarked on training informal market food handlers and producers in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania. Cecilia Chepkemoi, a milk vendor in Eldoret in the Rift Valley region, is one of hundreds of people trained in her area. Chepkemoi said she had very little knowledge of how to keep milk safe for consumption. "I only knew how it was about boiling the milk, not about the hygiene of the milk," said Chepkemoi. "So after I went to the training with the ILRI, I now wash the cans with warm water, and I put the can outside to dry in the sun. After that, I pour the milk inside." Alonso said working with governments and food handlers and producers is critical in keeping consumers healthy. "Our expectation is the guidelines will enable governments to support the informal sector within the expected parameters and requirements," said Alonso. " ... So this can go from ensuring it's not contaminated with biological substances, with bacteria, with viruses, but also that it is wholesome in the sense of not carrying chemicals." African governments have destroyed and confiscated food items in the markets to deal with outbreaks of diseases such as typhoid and cholera. Experts say such forcible shutdowns are counterproductive. The three-month ILRI training has made Chepkemoi increase her sales and build good customer relationships. "It has given me confidence and increased sales because the rate at which the customers are buying milk from me has gone high," Chepkemoi said. "And they have been confident in me because you find I even get orders from Nairobi. Even if I tell them, I don't have the milk right now, you just wait until tomorrow. They'll not go to another person. They will wait." The consultation process on food safety in informal settings with member states will continue throughout 2024 and 2025. The document will be presented to African Union policy making bodies for approval next year. U.S. President Joe Biden is aiming to persuade leaders of the worlds seven richest economies on a plan that could potentially provide up to $50 billion in loans for Ukraines war effort by using interest from frozen Russian assets held in Western financial institutions. The U.S. leader wants his G7 counterparts to endorse the plan at their upcoming summit in Apulia, Italy, set to kick off June 13. But before G7 partners can get on board, much of the schemes details must first be ironed out, a source familiar with Bidens plan told VOA. If agreed upon, the loan could be disbursed as early as during the next few months. Most of the approximately $280 billion Russian assets frozen by Western financial institutions following Moscows 2022 invasion are in Europe, the bulk of which are in Belgium, France and Germany. In April, Biden signed legislation allowing Washington to seize the roughly $5 billion in Russian assets that had been immobilized in U.S. financial institutions. Resisting pressure from the U.S. and Ukraine to seize the assets directly, EU officials in May agreed on a more restrained plan of using only the interest generated by these assets, an estimated $3 billion a year or more. But the Biden administration is pushing for a more aggressive scheme. In simple terms, a loan of up to $50 billion will be issued up front to Ukraine by Western allies, which will be paid back using the assets interest income in the years to come. If not the G7, the U.S. possibly with other allies including Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and the EU would issue the loan jointly and be entitled to a share of interest generated by the assets, the source said. Details of the plan are unclear as intensive diplomacy continues to work out the legal and technical requirements. But G7 finance ministers broadly agreed to support the principles of the plan during their meeting in May. The groups discussions have focused on what can be done to unlock the value of Russians frozen assets for the benefit of the Ukrainian people, said U.S. Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo. They talked through a number of options that will allow us to make sure that Ukraine has access to the money you need to not only invest in the economy but to invest in defense, Adeyemo told VOA. And my expectation is that as we get to the leaders meeting, those leaders are going to endorse some of those options. The push is driven in part by the situation in the battlefield, where Moscow's forces have made strategic advances north and north-east of Kharkiv, the second biggest city in Ukraine. Russia has also intensified attacks along the eastern front. American taxpayers reluctance to fund the war is another driving factor. Although the U.S. Congress in April agreed on a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine, Republican opposition had stalled its passage. In his Friday meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris on the sidelines of D-Day celebrations in France, Biden apologized to the Ukrainian president for those weeks of not knowing what was going to pan in terms of funding, blaming very conservative members who were holding it up. He pledged to continue to support Zelenskyys war efforts. But as other G7 countries face the same war funding fatigue among their constituents, Biden began working with allies and partners to make Russia pay instead of burdening taxpayers, in a way that maintains unity without crossing any countrys red lines, the source said. While there is an overall agreement to give Ukraine as much as possible, as early as possible, there are challenging legal and regulatory implications of lending based upon the anticipated returns on frozen assets, said Kristine Berzina, managing director of Geostrategy North at the German Marshall Fund think tank. How do you lend against the anticipated profits of the assets, how does that fit into the existing sanctions regime, and how long will those assets truly be frozen? she pointed out to VOA as the key issues at stake. How can you guarantee that the sanctions which freeze these assets do not get changed by the Europeans before that 50 billion is provided? Moscow has threatened retaliation. In May, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that Russia will identify U.S. property, including securities, that could be used as compensation for losses sustained as a result of any seizure of frozen Russian assets in the U.S. While some Western countries may be concerned by the threat, others are worried about the precedent of using frozen assets under international law. Biden will seek to allay those fears when he meets with G7 leaders next week. He faces many challenges, including the European Parliament this weekend, where hundreds of millions of voters from 27 nations could help decide on the continents struggle between unity and nationalism, as well as determine the fate of European support for Ukraine. VOAs Oksana Bedratenko contributed to this report. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in France, following the 80th commemoration of the allied landing in Normandy on D-Day. He met with Frances defense minister, addressed the lower house of its National Assembly, and U.S. President Joe Biden. Anna Chernikova joins from Kyiv. The war in Ukraine has left much of the population traumatized in some way. Children can have a rough time. Thats why US pediatrician and activist Irwin Redlener founded the Ukraine Childrens Action Project designed to give Ukrainian children health care access. Chinas military intensifies its efforts to recruit current and former Western fighter pilots. A new warning says Beijing is employing new and more intricate tactics to snare Western expertise. VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin has the details. Cyber experts warn the US and other countries holding elections this year have failed to set up guardrails to counter Russian disinformation campaigns using vastly improved Artificial Intelligence, or AI. Top security experts recently warned a US Senate panel that Russia is already trying to influence the US election by employing the latest innovations in AI. VOAs Carol Van Dam looks at what Congress, AI companies, and ordinary people can do to reduce the amount of disinformation circulating in social media this election year. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading back to the Middle East on Sunday in hopes of persuading Israel and Hamas militants to accept a cease-fire agreement designed to halt the fighting, release hostages and get more humanitarian aid into the war-torn Gaza Strip. A State Department release on Friday said the top U.S. diplomat would emphasize the importance of Hamas' acceptance of the cease-fire proposal on the table one outlined in a speech by President Joe Biden a week ago that is nearly identical to one Hamas endorsed last month. Blinkens three-day trip will include stops in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Qatar. Blinkens latest visit to the region comes as Israels offensive in Gaza continues at full speed. Israeli tanks and warplanes blasted central and southern areas of the enclave overnight and into Friday. Reuters, citing local medical officials, reported at least 28 Palestinians were killed. In northern Gaza, Palestinian emergency workers said three people were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a U.N.-run school. The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas gunmen operating from inside the school. Israel used the same explanation Thursday after an airstrike on a school operated by the U.N. relief agency UNRWA in the central Gaza Nuseirat refugee camp. The Gaza Ministry of Health said the strike killed 40 people. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that he found the claim that Hamas was operating out of the school shocking and that his agency was unable to verify it. In a report issued Friday, the U.N. Human Rights Office said the airstrike on the Nuseirat camp school suggested a failure of the Israeli military to ensure strict compliance with international humanitarian law. Tensions between the U.N. and Israel escalated further Friday when Israeli U.N. envoy Gilad Erdan said he had been notified that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was adding Israel's military to a global list of offenders who have committed violations against children. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a post on his X social media account, fired back, writing, "Today, the U.N. added itself to the blacklist of history when it joined those who support the Hamas murderers. The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] is the most moral army in the world; no delusional U.N. decision will change that." The report is compiled annually by the secretary-general, documenting the killing, maiming, sexual abuse, abduction or recruitment of children, denial of aid access, and targeting of schools and hospitals. It will formally be published and presented to the 15-member Security Council on June 18. Meanwhile, the U.S. military said a temporary pier for delivering aid into Gaza by sea, which broke apart in stormy weather in late May, has been reconnected to the beach. Food and other supplies will begin to flow into Gaza as soon as possible in the coming days, U.S. Central Commands deputy chief, Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, told reporters Friday. Hamas on October 7 launched a terror attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, and capturing about 250 hostages. Hamas is holding about 120 of the hostages in Gaza, although the Israeli military says at least 37 of them are dead. Israel's retaliatory bombardments and ground offensive have killed at least 36,600 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. China is pushing back against criticism by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week, denying claims it is pressuring countries not to attend next weekends peace conference in Switzerland and putting forward its own peace plan for the Ukraine war. After Zelenskyy accused China of working hard to prevent countries from participating in the summit at the Shangri-La Dialogue on June 2, Beijing denied the Ukrainian presidents allegation Monday, saying Beijing remains firmly committed to promoting talks for peace and hopes the summit would not be used to create bloc confrontation. Not attending it does not mean not supporting peace, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters Monday. China has never sat idly by or fueled the flames, still less profiteered from the conflict. Instead, we have worked relentlessly for a cease-fire, and this has been highly commended by various parties, including Russia and Ukraine, she added. Apart from pushing back against Zelenskyys criticism, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also put forward a Chinese peace plan Tuesday. China believes that the world now needs to make more objective, balanced, positive, and constructive voices on the Ukraine crisis, he told a joint press conference Tuesday with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. Wang pointed to the six common understandings on political settlement of the Ukraine Crisis, a document jointly issued by China and Brazil last month, as Beijings plan to facilitate the peace process for the Ukraine war. In just one week, 45 countries from five continents have responded positively to the 'six common understandings' in different ways, Wang said, noting that China will decide whether to join the many summits around the world independently. Some analysts say Beijings reluctance to join the Switzerland session, which Zelenskyy said during a press conference in Singapore will be attended by 106 countries and at least 70 heads of state, is an attempt to avoid being attacked during the conference for supporting Russia. Beijing prefers to avoid this conference and instead, proposes its own vision to demonstrate that it is still committed to promoting peace, Zhiqun Zhu, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at Bucknell University, told VOA in a written response. Other experts say Beijing also sees many Western countries that plan to attend the conference in Switzerland, including the United States, as lacking the sincerity to resolve the Ukraine war peacefully. Beijing thinks Western countries that are attending the summit are not sincerely pro-peace, said Temur Umarov, a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, adding that China says its vision for resolving the Ukraine conflict, which is through a peace process that should involve both Ukraine and Russia, is not compatible with that put forward by the West. Beijing claims that the West is not sincere [about resolving the Ukraine War] and that there is a dual agenda in the Wests peace conference, he told VOA by phone. Shift in Ukraines view of China While Beijing continues to portray itself as a neutral actor in the Ukraine war, Zelenskyys rare public criticism of China reflects a shift in Ukraines view of China. During a press conference at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Zelenskyy said it is unfortunate that China is an instrument in the hands of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. Some analysts say Zelenskyys comments in Singapore show that Ukraines initial hope that China would be neutral in the war is diminishing. One might say that there were some hopes in Kyivs leadership that Beijing would be neutral with regard to the war, [but] these hopes are now gone, said Volodymyr Dubovyk, director of the Center for International Studies at the Odesa Mechnikov National University in Ukraine. While the shift in Zelenskyys tone toward China is notable, Dubovyk told VOA it is unclear whether this will have a lasting impact on Ukraine-China relations. One might safely forecast that Beijings entanglement with Russia is only going to deepen, thus antagonizing Ukraine, yet China may still come [up] with a certain peace plan that would be less pro-Russian and more balanced, he said. Following the spat between Beijing and Kyiv, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong and Ukrainian First Deputy Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha held political consultations in Beijing on Wednesday regarding the war and bilateral relations. While Sun reiterated Beijings commitment to advance exchanges with Kyiv, Sybiha urged China to take part in the summit, arguing that Beijing could make a practical contribution to achieving a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. Umarov said Ukraine hopes to secure Chinas participation in the summit because of Beijings influence in the world and over Russia. The way to legitimize the summit is to have as many participants as possible, [but] I doubt Beijing will change its position on the war in Ukraine, he told VOA. As Zelenskyy keeps urging countries to join the session, Zhu said he thinks Chinas absence would reduce the importance of the conference. With the absence of Russia and China, the summits significance will be reduced, he told VOA. Three European powers have written to the U.N. Security Council detailing Iran's violations of its 2015 nuclear deal, a step diplomats said Thursday aimed to pressure Tehran to resolve the issue diplomatically and to avoid reimposing U.N. sanctions. The British, French and German letter did not explicitly threaten to "snap back" U.N. sanctions, but it noted that Security Council Resolution 2231, which enshrined the nuclear deal and provided that power, expires on October 18, 2025. In its own letter, Iran rejected the European stance, noting that then-U.S. President Donald Trump reneged on the nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed U.S. economic sanctions on Iran, arguing they were within their rights to expand their nuclear work. The effort by Britain, France and Germany, known informally as the E3, to ramp up pressure was also visible this week at the International Atomic Energy Agency, where they successfully pushed a resolution critical of Iran despite U.S. reservations. The E3 letter, dated June 3, referred to a report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog last month that cited Iran's nuclear advances violating the 2015 deal, including by expanding its stockpile and production rates of highly enriched uranium. That deal, struck with the E3, China, Russia and the United States, limited Iran's ability to enrich uranium, a process that can yield fissile material for nuclear weapons. In return, the U.S., U.N. and European Union eased sanctions on Iran. Tensions with Iran have increased since the Iranian-backed Hamas militant group attacked southern Israel on October 7. Other Iranian proxies have attacked U.S., Israeli and other Western targets, and Tehran has accelerated its nuclear program while limiting the U.N. nuclear watchdog's ability to monitor it. "Iran's nuclear escalation has hollowed out the JCPOA, reducing its nonproliferation value," said the E3 letter seen by Reuters, referring to the 2015 deal formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. "Iran's decision to take remedial measures was in full accordance with its inherent right ... in reaction to the United States' unlawful unilateral withdrawal," Iran's U.N. ambassador said in a June 5 letter seen by Reuters. Western diplomats and other sources familiar with the E3 letter said its purpose was to try to raise pressure on Iran within the Security Council and to buy time for a diplomatic solution before next year's expiration of their "snap back" power to reimpose U.N. sanctions on Iran. The aim is to "take stock of Iran's nuclear advances, which have become unacceptable and are getting worse, and to increase pressure within the Security Council," said a source familiar with the letter. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reports twice a year to the council traditionally in June and December on the implementation of the 2015 resolution. The Security Council is due to discuss his next report on June 24. North Koreas deployment of hundreds of trash balloons over South Korea has underscored fears that rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula could boil over. The purported cause of North Koreas trash balloon campaign retaliation for South Korean citizens deployment of balloons with leaflets critical of the regime of Kim Jong Un is well-documented. But Russian state media attempted to leverage media skepticism to mislead its viewers over Pyongyangs actions, and Western reporting on them. That is exemplified in an article from Sputnik Globes Moscow-based correspondent Ilya Tsukanov, titled What Western Media Isnt Telling You About North Koreas Trash Balloon Campaign. Slammed by Washingtons South Korean allies as a nonsensical, irrational and low-class provocation, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Koreas declaration of a trash balloon war is really a response to South Korean propaganda balloon incitements that go back decades, Tsukanov wrote. That is misleading. The Western media has broadly reported on South Korean activists deployment of balloons carrying bibles, medicine, thumb drives containing K-pop and K-dramas, and leaflets insulting North Koreas leader. The BBC, Associated Press, Vox, Bloomberg, New York Times, and many other mainstream outlets have provided explainers on the decades-long balloon drama. Analysts speaking to media in South Korea have also questioned the effectiveness and motivations of the anti-Pyongyang campaign. Tsukanov amplified North Korean allegations that the balloons from the South can be utilized for a specific military purpose, and repeated Pyongyangs baseless allegation that Seoul could use them to spread viruses. Sputnik said the South Korean propaganda balloon incitements go back decades, and that North Koreas trash balloon warfare campaign is apparently a signal that Pyongyang has had enough and is no longer prepared to tolerate Seouls continued provocations without a response. That framing omits the fact that both sides have periodically engaged in this practice since the Korean War and that North Korea dispatched balloons filled with cigarette butts and messages insulting former South Korean President Park Geun-hye in 2016. At that time, South Korea responded by resuming loudspeaker broadcasts near the border that included pop songs and criticism of the North Korean regime. Seoul has similarly considered resuming those broadcasts in response to the latest trash balloon campaign. But unlike Pyongyangs government-sponsored efforts to send trash-laden balloons southward, the South Korean government has not sent balloons for decades, although South Korean activists have. Seouls tolerance of these activists has varied over time depending on North Korean actions. The balloon drama seemed to intensify following major escalations, like the sinking of the South Korean Navy ship ROKS Cheonan in March 2010, which an international investigation pinned on a North Korean missile. In 2020, South Korea made the deployment of anti-Pyongyang leaflets a criminal offense punishable by imprisonment, but the countrys Supreme Court struck the law down on free speech grounds in December 2023. Sputniks Tsukanov also repeats Pyongyangs claim that its trash balloon offensive is a tit-for-tat reaction to South Koreas provocative encroachment on the North's sovereignty, using everything from drills and spy drones to propaganda leafleting campaigns. While accusing the Western media of misreporting, Tsukanov omitted North Koreas frequent saber-rattling. The Sputnik piece fails to mention Pyongyangs repeated launch of ballistic missiles near the South Korean borders; efforts to launch military reconnaissance satellites in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions; illegal nuclear weapons tests and simulated nuclear weapons strikes on South Korea; repeated GPS jamming campaigns that stretch back over a decade; and Pyongyangs drone infiltrations. Sputnik Globes report includes the fact that Kim Jong Un ordered the destruction of a South Korea-funded liaison office with Seoul in Kaesong in 2020 in response to southern activists sending lewd images over the border. At that time, the BBCs Seoul correspondent Laura Bicker said Pyongyang likely used the propaganda leaflet campaign as an excuse to blow up the building. Bicker said Pyongyang's portrayal of the defectors participating in the balloon campaign as "scum" in state media reports after the building's destruction was intended to give North Koreans a cause to rally around amid strict international sanctions and lack of economic prosperity." The vast disparity between the life qualities in the two states also fuels Pyongyangs growing belligerence, as traditional domestic propaganda has reportedly become ineffective. By the 1990s, it was clear that the Norths propaganda was losing its relevance as the Souths economy pulled ahead, the New York Times reported on June 2. The South had become a vibrant democracy and a global export powerhouse, while the North suffered chronic food shortages and relied on a personality cult and a total information blackout to control its people, the Times reported. Having fallen so far behind its Southern neighbor, North Korea has renounced reunification efforts, analysts at the United States Institute of Peace, an American federal institution funded by the U.S. Congress, argued. This signals that Pyongyang now believes a complete political and legal break from South Korea is its best survival strategy, the report said. Kim Jong Un called the K-pop and K-dramas South Koreans sent over the border on USB sticks a vicious cancer, underscoring the threat Seouls soft power posed to the isolationist hermit kingdom. K-pop and K-dramas have grown into a global cultural phenomena, demonstrating Seouls democratic and economic advances and expanding the outside worlds knowledge about South Korea. As many as 18 international aid workers, including 11 Yemeni employees of the United Nations, were taken into custody in a series of raids late Thursday, according to Yemen government officials and an aid group. In a report on its website, the Mayyun Organization for Human Rights, citing its own sources, reported armed Houthi security and intelligence officers carried out simultaneous armed raids in the Yemen capital, Sanaa, as well as the cities of Hodeida, Saada and Amran. The group said the raids targeted Yemeni employees working for the United Nations and other international aid organizations. The armed officers raided their homes, interrogated them and confiscated mobile phones and computers before taking them away in military vehicles. The group said the detained workers included Yemen employees of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, the U.N. Development Program, the World Food Program and the office of the Secretary-Generals Special Envoy to Yemen. Workers also were detained from the aid groups Save the Children, the Yemeni civil society organization Relief and Development Response, Oxfam, CARE America and the Yemeni governmental institution, the Social Fund for Development. Government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the groups report to news organizations. During a briefing Friday at U.N. headquarters in New York, spokesperson Stephane Dujarric confirmed the number of U.N. personnel working in Yemen who were taken and said the U.N. was seeking clarification from de facto Houthi authorities about circumstances of the detentions. I can further tell you that we are pursuing all available channels to secure the safe and unconditional release of all of them, as rapidly as possible, he said. The advocacy group Human Rights Watch also issued a statement calling on the Houthis to immediately release any U.N. employees and workers for other independent groups they have detained because of their human rights and humanitarian work and stop arbitrarily detaining and forcibly disappearing people. The Mayyun organization condemned in the strongest terms the raids and detentions, calling the actions a dangerous escalation that violates the privileges and immunities aid workers are granted under international law. The group demanded the Houthis reveal the fate of the abductees and called for their immediate release. Yemens Houthi rebels and their affiliated media organizations did not immediately acknowledge the detentions. The Iranian-supported Houthis have attacked shipping in the Red Sea, drawing air strikes from the United States and Britain, and they have held about 20 Yemeni employees of the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa for the past three years. Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. Presidents and finance ministers from eleven central African countries have failed to agree on merging three economic blocs. Analysts say breaking down economic barriers among member countries of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, CEMAC, the Economic Community of Central African States, ECCAS, and the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries CEPGL will boost trade and growth in a region that is said to be among the poorest and most conflict-ridden in the world. But after a meeting in Cameroons capital, officials say combining the three economic blocs will take longer than the leaders of the regions expect. Gilberto Da Piedade Verissimo is the president of ECCAS. He says the process of merging the economic blocs is taking longer than planned because of a lack of political will, conflicting interests and bureaucratic duplication among 3 rival economic groups. He says each time there is a leadership change, ECCAS officials start explaining the importance of fusing the economic blocs for the general interest of the eleven central African states to new governments all over again because different leaders have different understandings of the combination. Verissimo said merging economic blocs will stop the duplication of regional projects such as airlines, roads, electricity, agriculture and aquaculture, making it easier for funding agencies to invest in such projects. ECCAS consists of Cameroon, Chad, the Central African Republic, Gabon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe and was created in 1983. It is officially recognized by the African Union as central Africa's regional economic community. In 1999 Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Gabon, Congo and Equatorial Guinea launched CEMAC, but remained members of ECCAS. In 2003 Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda created CEPGL but also remained in ECCAS. The three economic blocs claim that their mission is to facilitate the free movement of goods and persons across borders and promote regional integration, reduce inequality and poverty. But the African Union, or AU, says the central African states remain among the poorest countries, although their economic and social potential is very strong. In 2006, the AU asked central African leaders to merge the three economic blocs. Edouard Normand Bigendaka is the governor of the Bank of the Republic of Burundi. He says the participants in the Yaounde meeting created an organization to examine a new currency to replace the West African CFA Franc and the Central African CFA Franc. "This high monetary authority will be in charge of preparing the different steps towards a free trade zone and then a common market, so that's the rationale of having a common currency," Bigendaka said. "There are a number of steps that have to be put in place by member countries before we attain this particular objective." Cameroons Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute represented President Paul Biya at the meeting. Ngute says despite the challenges, committed leaders of the region will continue advocating for a strong regional economic community that will improve business, encourage the free movement of people and reduce poverty. He says central African states cannot continue to think that they can single handedly solve their problems while other countries, including developed nations, are counting on economic blocs to tackle their problems. The AU says fusing the economic blocs will facilitate trade and growth among central Africa's 240 million inhabitants and allow member states to concentrate on infrastructure development and jointly combating climate shocks, terrorism and armed groups that are destabilizing the eleven countries. Looking out over a sea of graduates at Penn State Law school's recent commencement, one could be forgiven for thinking it was in Central Asia. One after another, 47 Uzbek men and women were called up on stage to be conferred an LLM (Master of Laws) degree by this American institution founded some 200 years ago. Nearly a third of the Class of 2024 hails from Uzbekistan, a country of 37 million people that has sent scores of students to this university in recent years. But this year's size is unprecedented: No American university has ever admitted and bestowed this many degrees to Uzbeks at the same time. "They are the true ambassadors of their country," Associate Dean Stephen Barnes told VOA. "We are a better community, better university, and a better country because of their contributions." Barnes sees in these Uzbeks an "insatiable desire" to engage with the wider world. As he explains, since 2021, Penn State has been forging ties with Tashkent State University of Law, Uzbekistan's premier legal education provider, and the University of World Economy and Diplomacy based in Tashkent, which has an international law program. An undergraduate diploma from these schools qualifies one for an LLM, bypassing the JD (Juris Doctor), America's most common initial law degree. Temurbek Polatov, 23, who spoke at the commencement, believes his cohort carries a unique responsibility to serve their homeland. He and others aspire to shape U.S.-type law firms and an independent bar association in Uzbekistan, which still largely retains a Soviet-style legal profession and judiciary. Experts often mention corrupt courts and the lack of the rule of law as systemic problems hindering investment. Most Uzbeks studying at Penn State were awarded grants, while three received full scholarships from their government. Law grad priorities Doniyorbek Davronov, 26, who served in two ministries before coming to the United States, wants to launch a legal clinic assisting Uzbek migrants worldwide. "With millions working abroad," Davronov said, "the state and civil society must work together to defend their interests." He observed the U.S. immigration system up close while doing clinical training, attending court hearings and visiting detention centers. Davronov said thousands of Uzbeks are constantly stranded on the U.S.-Mexico border, and many are behind bars. "We can help them from Uzbekistan, collaborating with our American colleagues, providing necessary facts." Classmate Shahboz Murodullayev, 23, shares his passion, proposing to create a network of services for migrants. Jamshidbek Ibrohimov, 27, who earned an LLM from Penn State last year, is now working at Rogers & Rogers, a Pittsburgh-based immigration law firm that often represents Central Asians. "We should never underestimate the role of community organizations, which are crucial in fighting for the interests of their own people. They can provide the first line of assistance to migrants," he said. Ibrohimov sees value in gaining practical experience in the U.S. before returning to Uzbekistan, where he worked at the Justice Ministry. "I want to be part of positive change, something I already feel I'm doing from here," Ibrohimov told VOA. Shakhrizoda Mamasolieva, 23, plans to train at U.S. firms while translating legal literature into Uzbek and helping youth get into American schools. "We are supporting Uzbekistan's development. I'm more capable of contributing from here because of my network and opportunities available," she says. She, too, received a scholarship from the university and worked on campus to earn extra money. Farzin Vahidov, 25, from the Class of 2023, is Penn State Law's student adviser, connecting it with Central Asia. "We have the most open-minded and enthusiastic youth coming here. This is why Penn State accepts them and cherishes their presence on campus," Vahidov said. "As for the alumni, some already work in high levels back at home, but I think the greatest achievements are yet to come." Rejoining legal community at home Azizjon Jamolov, 32, will return to a new job in Uzbekistan's Supreme Court. He will head the human resources department and hopes to introduce new ethics norms and best practices. "I'm inspired by what I learned here, especially the way the judiciary functions and the level of professional integrity," Jamolov said. He acknowledges that it will be extremely difficult to change people's mentality, especially in the fight against corruption, but he is optimistic that the administration will back his initiatives. Jamolov studied through the El-Yurt Umidi Foundation, a state program aiming to curb Uzbekistan's "brain drain" and create a cadre for the government and other sectors. Since 2018, the foundation has sponsored roughly 2,000 degrees and trainings abroad, with some 550 currently underwritten. Applicants must be admitted to one of the top 300 schools in the world and convince authorities that they will come back to Uzbekistan to lead in their field. This is quite a small contingent among the over 110,000 Uzbeks studying internationally, according to UNESCO, mostly in neighboring countries and Russia, and only about 1,500 in America. Uzbekistan is one of the top five countries with students abroad, along with China, India, Vietnam and Germany. But El-Yurt Umidi and state educators urge quality over quantity. Penn State graduates agree and point to individual freedom and ambition as driving factors. Along with Davronov and Jamolov, Behruz Shamsuddinov, 28, is an El-Yurt Umidi fellow, ready for any position the government has in store for him "as long as there is enough space to push for the rule of law." Shamsuddinov has a background in criminal justice and wants to see the system reform. Professor Stephen Ross, whose contract law classes many Uzbeks have taken at Penn State, believes his students have gained vast comparative knowledge. "I would hope that the president and the ministers would have the confidence to know that they are trying to shape Uzbekistan in the best way for Uzbeks, and they can borrow the things that work from the U.S. for Uzbekistan," Ross told VOA. Professor Lara Fowler, who teaches environmental, energy and natural resources law, says these graduates have a better understanding of issues because of deep exchanges with classmates from around the globe. Associate Dean Barnes and the faculty argue that legal skills, critical thinking and mastering professional English, in particular, are universally applicable. Penn State Law is expecting another batch of some 50 students from Uzbekistan this year. President Joe Biden has marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day by pledging during a ceremony at the American cemetery in Normandy that we will not walk away from Ukraine. He's drawing a direct line from the fight to liberate Europe from Nazi domination to todays war against Russian aggression. We talk to Jesse Driscoll, a professor of political science and chair of the Global Leadership Institute at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego. Hamas rejects cease-fire deal. A teacher changing lives in the Northern Mariana Islands. And soy sauce flavored ice cream! Videos on YouTube offering advice on evading conscription or on the safe use of VPNs (virtual private networks) to audiences in Russia have been disappearing. Several videos have been blocked by YouTube since February, according to a group of media and digital rights groups. While some of the videos were later reinstated, they no longer appeared in search results. Last month independent Russian news website OVD-Info said it received a notice from YouTube informing it that the Russian media regulator had found their content in violation of a law. If you do not remove the content, Google may be required to block it, said YouTubes parent company in an email seen by the Reuters news agency. The email didnt specify what part of the law on information technology was allegedly violated on OVD-Infos YouTube channel. OVD-Info is a protest monitoring network, and its channel has 100,000 subscribers. The group interviews Russian opposition figures and features news that regularly focuses on Moscows war in Ukraine. Dmitry Anisimov of OVD-Info told VOA that the Ministry of Justice had earlier added the group and its YouTube channels to its list of foreign agents. We are in consultation with YouTube and Google, trying to explain that the request to block our channel is a manifestation of political censorship, Anisimov said. If YouTube satisfies this demand, the channel will be deleted permanently, which will be very sad. Anisimov said that OVD-Info and digital rights group Access Now believe the action is the first time Russias regulator has required a Russian site to block an entire channel rather than a specific video. YouTube did not respond to VOAs request for comment. Neither Russia's embassy in Washington nor its media regulator replied to VOA's email requesting comment. Requests by Russias media regulator to block access to content on YouTube have been protested by rights groups in a letter to YouTube and Google. The letter refers to the European Court of Human Rights, which, it says, has repeatedly established the vagueness of Russian legal norms in terms of restricting access to information and their obvious contradiction with the European Convention on Human Rights. Additionally, the letter said, the U.N. Human Rights Committee in December 2022 called on Russia to repeal content-blocking laws that restrict freedom of speech. The U.N. recommended that privately owned companies not participate in such blockings. Alexey Sidorenko is head of the independent group Teplitsa, which uses technology to strengthen civil society in Russia. He told VOA that YouTube has a large audience in Russia, but that the platforms position is unstable. For many years now there have been discussions that YouTube could be blocked or slowed down, Sidorenko said. For several years now, Russian big tech has been creating an infrastructure that is designed to replace YouTube, but this is not so easy. A Russian court has twice fined Google for violations of its laws, with the fines amounting to a combined $370 million, Reuters reported. In 2022, the Russian branch of Google declared bankruptcy after $15 million was seized from the company's account and its office searched. The Russian branch later closed advertising and monetization opportunities for Russians. This article originated in VOAs Russia Service. The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday elected Somalia to the 15-member U.N. Security Council for a two-year term starting in 2025. The tiny Horn of Africa nation was among five countries that received the winning votes, alongside Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, and Panama. "It is both symbolic and strong diplomatic status for Somalia to appear among the Security Council members and this will help Somalia to have a better access for member nations," said Somalia analyst Abdiqafar Abdi Wardhere, who is based in Virginia. For the first time in more than 50 years, he said, Somalia will have a vote on decisions regarding world conflicts. "The Security Council is the only U.N. body that can make legally binding decisions such as imposing sanctions and authorizing use of force. Therefore, Somalia would get a vote that determines the world issues and resolutions," Wardhere said. Announcing the elections results, the U.N. General Assembly President Dennis Francis, said, "In a secret ballot, the elected countries secured the required two-thirds majority of Member States present and voting in the 193-member General Assembly." Following the news, the United Nations in Somalia congratulated the Somali government and its people "on their country's election today to a seat on the UN Security Council for 2025-2026." "Somalia has come a long way over the past three decades on its path to peace, prosperity, and security," said the UN Secretary-Generals Acting Special Representative for Somalia James Swan. "Election to a seat on the Security Council is recognition of that commendable progress." "Somalias experiences place it in a unique position to contribute to Council deliberations on international peace and security," Swan added. The Security Councils five permanent veto-wielding members are Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. The five countries that got elected Thursday will replace Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland, whose terms end December 31. Somali and the other elected new members will join existing non-permanent members Algeria, Guyana, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia, whose terms started in January. According to United Nations, the 10 non-permanent seats on the Security Council are distributed according to four regional groupings: Africa and Asia; Eastern Europe; Latin America and the Caribbean; and the Western European and other States group. The newly elected members were endorsed by their respective regional groups and ran largely uncontested. Margaret Besheer contributed this report from New York. Pollution from wildfires led to the deaths of more than 52,000 people in a decade in California, according to a new study Friday that analyzed the health effects of long-term exposure to smoke. Looking at data from 2008 to 2018, researchers at the University of California- Los Angeles analyzed PM2.5 airborne pollutants named for their size of less than 2.5 micrometers that were released from wildfires and found a lethal impact on local populations that far outnumbers the deaths directly attributable to physical damage from wildfires. Rachel Connolly, the lead author of the study, said in a news release that the numbers are higher than previous estimates because prior research primarily focused on the short-term health impacts of pollution. A growing body of research suggests that particulate matter from wildfire smoke is more harmful to human health than particulate matter from other pollution sources, she added. Society needs to invest in forest management and climate mitigation, both of which could yield significant health benefits. The study said the severity and risk of wildfires in California have increased in the last several decades. The researchers estimated the economic impact of the wildfire pollutants, including treating those who have been sickened, at $432 billion to $456 billion. A previous study analyzing the impacts of the 2018 wildfires in California estimated 3,652 premature deaths from exposure to wildfire smoke, but the UCLA study estimated over 12,000 deaths during the same time frame. The UCLA researchers said the difference can be attributed to using more specific health data. A record-breaking heat wave that moved through California this week has raised concerns that its wildfire season could be worse this year. The last two wildfire seasons have been mild, largely because of wet winters. The fires in the state this year have mostly been grass fires, which do not reach the scorching temperatures of wildfires and are easier to extinguish. Though wildfires are a natural and necessary component of the wilderness, climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels has made them larger and hotter. The importance of wildfire management will only grow in the coming decades as aridification intensifies with climate change and more regions are susceptible to fires, the researchers said in the paper. Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse. On Wednesday, wrapping up his three-day official visit to China, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan tweeted about fulfilling his long-held dream of visiting Urumqi and Kashgar in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in western China. "For many years, I have had the opportunity to visit many historical cities that contributed to the establishment of the Turkic and Islamic civilization," Fidan said in his tweet. "However, Urumqi and Kashgar always remained in my heart as a regret. Thanks to my contacts in China, I finally visited these two ancient cities." Xinjiang, often referred to as East Turkestan by Uyghurs and the Turkish diaspora, is home to nearly 12 million ethnically Turkic and Muslim Uyghurs. Experts highlight the Uyghurs' significance in Ankara's ties with Beijing because of shared ethnic and religious bonds. "Turkish people have long held concern for the well-being of the Uyghurs, which influences decision-makers in the government," Erkin Ekrem, director of the Ankara-based Uyghur Research Institute, told VOA. "Actions or inactions concerning Uyghurs can impact the outcomes of local or national elections each term." Turkey hosts nearly 50,000 Uyghurs, many of whom fled escalating repression in Xinjiang, establishing one of the largest Uyghur communities outside China. Detention, imprisonment Since 2017, following reports of China's arbitrary mass detention and imprisonment of more than 1 million Uyghurs and other human rights violations against the Turkic Muslim population, the U.S. and several parliaments have designated China's actions in Xinjiang as genocide. In 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Office concluded in a report that Beijing's actions toward Uyghurs might constitute crimes against humanity. China denies these accusations, asserting that the measures in Xinjiang are acts of counterterrorism. Historically, Turkey has allowed Uyghurs in the country some freedom to protest China's treatment of Uyghurs. However, since urging China in 2019 to close the internment facilities and respect Uyghurs' human rights, the Turkish government has not publicly criticized China, according to experts. Turkey has long been pressured by China, one of its largest trade partners, to stop Uyghur advocates and organizations from calling out China's repression, Ekrem said. "Turkey has made efforts to limit Uyghur activism within its borders," he said, "but many Uyghur and East Turkestan groups and individuals operate within Turkish law, making it impossible for the government to completely comply with Chinese demands." During the trip, Fidan met with several high-ranking Chinese officials, including his counterpart, Wang Yi, Chinese Vice President Han Zheng and Chinese security chief Chen Wenqing. He also held talks with officials in Xinjiang. In a statement following his meeting with Wang Yi in Beijing, Fidan described Urumqi and Kashgar as "ancient Turkic and Islamic" cities that serve as bridges between China, the Turkic world and the Islamic world. "They are symbols of our historical friendship and neighborliness," Fidan said. However, since 2017, China's official messaging to Uyghurs in Xinjiang is that they are a non-Turkic group with deep roots in the Chinese nation. According to Abdurresit Celil Karluk, professor at Haci Bayram Veli University in Ankara, Fidan's emphasis on the Turkic and Islamic identity of Urumqi and Kashgar, along with his decision to visit these cities, was a diplomatic signal to his Chinese counterparts and the international community that Turkey remains concerned about the fate of the Uyghurs. "To the best of my knowledge, previous high-level Turkish officials have not previously highlighted the Turko-Islamic identity of this region or Turkiye's geocultural presence in the region during their visits to Beijing," Karluk said in an email to VOA. "It seems that the message was intended for both China and Turkish domestic politics and the Uyghur diaspora." Repression rose In the past, however, repression against the Uyghurs has steadily increased after each visit of high-level Turkish officials to "East Turkestan," according to Karluk. "Since the early 2000s until 2012, at least four top Turkish government officials, including [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, visited East Turkestan," Karluk said. "Consequently, Uyghurs faced increasing repression, and since Erdogan's visit in 2012, Uyghurs have endured ongoing genocide." While in China, Fidan prioritized trade talks between the two countries, seeking to boost Chinese investment in Turkey and attract more Chinese tourism to help balance the trade deficit. "As you know, China is Turkey's second-largest trading partner, and currently, there's almost a $50 billion trade volume between the two countries," Fidan told China Media Group. "However, it's currently in favor of China, and during this trip, we are focusing on how to balance this trade deficit." According to Karluk, Turkey, as a developing country currently struggling with economic problems, seeks to benefit from China's Belt and Road Initiative. Conversely, China aims to utilize foreign diplomats' "visits to the East Turkestan to counter accusations" of genocide by portraying these visits as evidence of normalcy. "Fidan's visit to East Turkestan may serve several purposes: While Turkiye seeks to demonstrate [to] the world its concern for the Uyghurs, it also reminds China of Turkiye's deep ties to the region and thus Turkiye's geopolitical presence in the region. China is trying to put a positive spin on its treatment of the Uyghurs," he told VOA in an email. Chinese media reported that Fidan stated Turkey is committed to the "One China" principle, opposes any actions undermining China's territorial integrity, and agreed to "strengthen anti-terrorism" cooperation between the two countries. Some advocates of Uyghur independence believe that by inviting the Turkish foreign minister to Xinjiang and securing support from Turkey, a prominent Turkic Muslim-majority country, China aims to diminish the impact of international condemnations of its actions against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities. "[T]his maneuver will be perceived by the international community, particularly Western nations, as an endorsement of China's genocidal regime," Salih Hudayar, a member of the Washington-based Uyghur group East Turkestan Government in Exile, said in an email to VOA. Ukrainian air force shot down all five missiles and 48 out of 53 drones over nine regions during Russia's overnight attack, Ukrainian military said on Friday. The Russian forces attacked Kyiv region with drones and Kh-101/Kh-555 missiles, causing a fire at one of the industrial facilities, according to the governor. Emergency services worked to put out the fire on Friday morning with no casualties reported. Kharkiv region governor Oleh Syniehubov said the drone attack knocked out windows in at least three residential buildings, damaging a store and a post office, among other local infrastructure. Three drones were destroyed over Dnipropetrovsk region, the governor said. Kirovohrad governor said the attack caused no damage in his region after military reported shooting down one drone. Khmelnytskyi governor also reported no damage, saying the air force shot down 11 targets over his region. Ukrainian military said seven drones were shot down over the southern Odesa region with three more downed in Kherson region and two more in Mykolaiv region. The attack did not damage any energy infrastructure, Ukraine's Deputy Energy Minister Mykola Kolisnyk said on national television. Russia has increasingly targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure this spring in combined attacks which dealt damage to its generation capacity, causing power cuts across the country. A senior U.N. humanitarian official expressed concern Friday about rising casualties in Ukraine, saying the toll in May was the highest in nearly a year, and that more than half of the casualties could be attributed to Russias recent offensive in the Kharkiv region. Shopping centers, homes, educational establishments, shops, office buildings, parks and public transport have all been struck in recent weeks, said Joyce Msuya, assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. The U.N. human rights office, which verifies casualties, said at least 174 civilians were killed and 690 injured in May, with more than half attributed to the fighting in Kharkiv. At least 18,100 people in the Kharkiv region have been newly displaced, according to estimates by the International Organization for Migration, Msuya noted. On May 10, Russia began an offensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region, resulting in some of its largest territorial gains in the past 18 months. Msuya said the United Nations and its humanitarian partners have provided assistance, including food, clothes and cash, to more than 12,000 people at a transit center in Kharkiv city. She said civilians who remain in the frontline areas face dire conditions. Many are cut off from access to food, medical care, electricity and gas, Msuya said. In May, Russian forces carried out 76 airstrikes against Kharkiv, three times more than in April, Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told the Security Council. The air raid alerts in the city in May lasted for 474 hours and 55 minutes. That is 15 hours per day. Just imagine 15 hours out of 24. Every day and every night. That is what Russia is doing to Kharkiv. Peace conference The Security Council discussed the situation one week before the start of a two-day peace conference hosted by Switzerland to address the war in Ukraine. This summit aims to increase the understanding for peace and to form a platform for high-level discussions to initiate a peace process, Swiss Ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl told the council. Ukrainian envoy Kyslytsya said a successful summit would be a clear signal that the world does not support the war and wants peace. Ukraine needs a strong voice from all countries in favor of a just peace, he said. Russia was not invited to the conference and has dismissed the talks as an anti-Russian gathering that will not lead to peace. At the heart of this is a primitive attempt to advance an ultimatum to the Russian Federation, and the advancement of this as a conference the conference in the Swiss city of Burgenstock is nothing other than a propagandistic hangout among friends with zero-added value, Russian Deputy Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva told the council of the meeting planned for June 15-16 in the Swiss resort town. It is increasingly clear to more and more members of the international community that any discussions related to Russias sovereignty and security are futile if they are carried out without Russias representation, without taking into account its interests, she added. The Swiss ambassador said the conference is not directed against Russia. This is about offering a platform to a broad range of countries so that they can express their points of view and make proposals, Baeriswyl said. So as to move forward and contribute to preparing future possible talks on peace between the parties. Russias close ally China has said it wants a peaceful political solution to the crisis but has turned down an invitation to the conference because Russia is not invited. The United States has voiced strong support for the Swiss conference. Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to attend. We regret Russia has shown no support or readiness for good-faith negotiations or engagement on a durable peace, U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Robert Wood said. We hope this will change and allow for a successful second summit with Russias participation. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has added Israel's military to a global list of offenders for committing violations against children in 2023, said Israel's U.N. envoy Gilad Erdan, describing the decision as "shameful." Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad will also be listed, according to a diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity. Erdan said he was officially notified of the decision on Friday. The global list is included in a report on children and armed conflict that Guterres is due to submit to the U.N. Security Council on June 14. It covers six violations killing and maiming, sexual violence, abduction, recruitment and use of children, denial of aid access, and attacks of schools and hospitals. It was not immediately clear what violations Israel, Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad had been listed for. Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the decision "will have consequences for Israel's relations with the U.N." Israel has long had a contentious relationship with the U.N. that has only worsened during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The U.N. said last month that at least 7,797 children have been killed in Hamas-ruled Gaza during the eight-month-long war, citing data on identified bodies from Gaza's Ministry of Health, which the U.N. considers reliable. The Gaza government media office says in total some 15,500 children have been killed. According to Israel's National Council for the Child, 38 children were killed in the October 7 Hamas-led terror attack that sparked the war and 42 of some 250 people taken hostage into Gaza on October 7 were children. All but two children have been released. 'Shocking' U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Guterres' chief of staff called Erdan on Friday as "courtesy afforded to countries that are newly listed on the annex of the report." Erdan posted a video on social media of him responding during the phone call. "I am utterly shocked and disgusted by this shameful decision of the Secretary-General," said Erdan. "Israel's army is the most moral army in the world, so this immoral decision will only aid the terrorists and reward Hamas." Dujarric described the video and its partial release as "shocking and unacceptable and frankly something I've never seen in my 24 years serving this organization." The report is compiled by Virginia Gamba, Guterres' special representative for children and armed conflict. The list attached to the report aims to shame parties to conflicts in the hope of pushing them to implement measures to protect children. The list is split into two: parties that have put in place measures to protect children and parties that have not. Erdan said he was told Israel had been included on the list of parties that had not put in place adequate measures to protect children. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that the U.N. had "added itself to the blacklist of history when it joined those who support the Hamas murderers." Accountability Israel is retaliating against Hamas over an October 7 attack by its militants. More than 1,200 people were killed and over 250 taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, according to Israeli tallies. More than 100 hostages are believed to remain captive in Gaza. Israel's invasion and bombardment of Gaza since then has killed at least 36,731 people, including 77 in the past 24 hours, Gaza's health ministry said in an update on Friday. Thousands more are feared buried dead under rubble, with most of the 2.3 million population displaced. A spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the U.N. decision was "a step in the right direction towards holding Israel accountable for its crimes" and that Israel should have been added long ago. The move comes nine years after the U.N. special envoy for children and armed conflict recommended Israel and Hamas be added to the list for violations during a 2014 war in Gaza, when 540 children were among more than 2,100 Palestinians killed. Israel lobbied then-U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to stay off the list, though it denied pressuring him. Ultimately, Ban did not add Israel or Hamas to the list of offenders, though the report did strongly criticize Israel over the 50-day conflict. Russia's armed forces were added to the list last year for killing and maiming children in Ukraine, attacks on schools and hospitals, and using children as human shields. Russia has denied targeting civilians since it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. A Saudi-led military coalition listed for killing and injuring children in Yemen was removed from the list in 2020, several years after it was first named for killing and injuring children in Yemen. The United Nations informed Taliban leaders Friday that it is working to finalize the agenda for a crucial two-day international conference on Afghanistan, and it is aiming for it to be accepted by all sides. Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, met with Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Kabul and discussed the matter, Muttaqis office said in a post-meeting statement. The two sides exchanged views on the detailed outlook and necessary coordination for the June 30 U.N.-convened conference, which Doha, Qatar, will host. The gathering, referred to as "Doha III, will be the third in Qatars capital on the subject since U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres initiated the process with special envoys on Afghanistan to promote an effective world approach to the Taliban-governed country, which is facing dire humanitarian, economic, and human rights crises. At the outset, Mrs. Roza Otunbayeva said that her team is working on the agenda of the 3rd Doha meeting and trying to arrange an agenda that could be recognized by all sides, the Taliban foreign ministry stated. While emphasizing the importance of a conference agenda that may be acceptable to all sides, Muttaqi was quoted as pledging "to work closely with the concerned sides regarding the matter. The U.N. did not immediately comment on its envoys meeting with the chief Taliban diplomat. Otunbayevas contact with de facto authorities came amid growing calls for the U.N. to ensure Afghan womens representation at the table in the Doha meeting, with the rights of women and girls at the center of discussions. Rights activists have criticized the U.N. for inviting the Taliban to the Doha meeting and allegedly working hard to persuade them to attend the event. De facto Afghan authorities did not participate in the first two Doha gatherings, saying the U.N. had failed to meet their conditions for doing so. The Taliban informally stated late last month their intention to join the June 30 discussions in Doha, however, promising to make a formal announcement after receiving from the U.N. the final agenda of the event. On Thursday, about a dozen rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, jointly sent a letter to the U.N., the Security Council and member states, sharing concerns the Talibans participation in Doha is being sought at the cost of the rights of Afghan women and girls. While members of the international community are moving perilously close to accepting the legitimacy of Taliban rule, Afghanistans women, who are bravely fighting back and paying a devastating price as a result, are not, the letter reads. Heather Barr, womens rights associate director at Human Rights Watch, told VOA the letter highlighted several concerns, including reports that womens rights would neither be on the agenda nor fully represented at the conference. The situation in Afghanistan right now is already the most serious womens rights crisis on the planet, and it is steadily worsening, Barr stated. She criticized stepped-up U.N. contacts with the Taliban ahead of the Doha meeting. The context for this seems to be the U.N. twisting themselves into a pretzel to try to placate the Taliban and convince them to attend. That effort is in direct conflict with the U.N.s core obligation to uphold human rights, including the rights of Afghan women and girls. U.N. officials have defended their invitation and engagement with the Taliban, saying that they are the de facto authorities in Afghanistan and underscoring that the world body is persistently urging Kabul to uphold the rights of women and girls. The Taliban had asked the U.N. in the run-up to the second Doha meeting, in February, that their delegates would be accepted as the sole official representatives of the country, meaning that Afghan civil society representatives, womens rights activists and members of opposition groups would not be present. De facto Afghan authorities also sought a meeting between their delegation and the U.N. at a very senior level, saying it would be beneficial for both sides. The Taliban also opposed the planned appointment of a U.N. special envoy to coordinate international engagement with Kabul in line with the latest U.N. Security Council resolution on Afghanistan. However, Guterres rejected the Taliban conditions, saying they would have denied us the right to talk to other representatives of the Afghan society and demanded a treatment that would to a large extent be similar to recognition. No foreign country has recognized the Taliban as legitimate rulers of Afghanistan since they stormed back to power in August 2021 as all the U.S.-led NATO troops withdrew from the country after their two-decade-long presence. The Taliban have imposed sweeping curbs on womens right to education and public life at large in line with their strict interpretation of Islam. Afghan girls ages 12 and older are banned from attending secondary school, while women are prohibited from public and private workplaces, barring health care and a few other sectors. Women are not allowed to undertake road trips unless accompanied by a close male relative and are banned from visiting parks, gyms and other public places. The elusive Taliban supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, insists he is governing the country in line with local culture and Islamic teachings, rejecting international criticism of his policies as an interference in Afghanistans internal affairs. The Taliban, who are ethnically Pashtun, have also dismissed international calls for giving representation to other Afghan ethnicities in the government, saying all groups are represented in it. One in four children under age 5 around the world is experiencing severe food poverty and is vulnerable to life-threatening malnutrition, according to a UNICEF report released Thursday. Some 27% of children under age 5 or 181 million are fed no more than two of the eight food groups per day that UNICEF recognizes, which the agency classifies as severe food poverty. When children arent consuming vital nutrients, they are more likely to experience wasting, the most severe form of malnutrition. "When wasting becomes very severe, they are 12 times more likely to die," Harriet Torlesse, one of the report's authors, told The Associated Press. Over two-thirds of the 181 million young children living in severe food poverty live in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, with 20 countries accounting for 65% of the children living in severe food poverty. UNICEF said in the report that progress is not being made quickly enough, though the agency noted that severe food poverty among young children in West and Central Africa fell from 42% in 2012 to 32% in 2022. The report said robust actions, including government investments in child nutrition and child feeding counseling, have contributed to lower severe food poverty in children. Severe child food poverty in Gaza has been widespread since the start of Israels war against Hamas. Between December 2023 and April 2024, nine out of 10 children have been living in severe food poverty, which the report said is one of the highest percentages it has recorded. The report also found that children in both poor and non-poor households face severe food poverty. About half (97 million) of the children in severe food poverty live in middle- and upper-income households, according to the report. The report encourages a broad range of stakeholders, including governments, humanitarian organizations, the food industry and the media, to commit to a bold and broad response to severe food poverty. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press. U.S. President Joe Biden has signed an additional $225 million military package for Ukraine to support its forces as they fight Russias assault near Kharkiv, said a statement Friday. This is the sixth tranche Biden has authorized for Ukraine since he signed the national security supplemental measure. The package includes air defense interceptors, artillery systems and munitions, armored vehicles, anti-tank weapons, and other capabilities. It also will help to strengthen Ukraines air defenses that would protect Ukraine's electric grid from Russian attacks and reinforce Ukrainian capabilities across the front lines, the statement said. Earlier Friday, during his visit in France for the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, Biden met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and he apologized for the delay in approving $61 billion in military assistance for Ukraine. I apologize for those weeks of not knowing whats going to happen in terms of funding, the U.S. president said, referring to the six-month holdup of the package by conservative Republicans in Congress. Biden underscored that the American people were standing by Ukraine for the long haul. Were still in. Completely. Thoroughly, he said, stressing Ukraine's tenacity and bravery against Russian aggression. The way youve stood in holding onto Kharkiv, youve proven once again that the people of Ukraine cannot and will never be overtaken. And I assure you the United States is going to stand with you. Ive said that all during this debate. I will continue to say it. The United States is standing with you. You are the bulwark against the aggression thats taking place. We have an obligation to be there. Zelenskyy hailed Bidens comments. This meeting is symbolic. It is important that all the American people stay with Ukraine. Like it was in World War II when the U.S. stayed with Europe. This big package is very important. It is necessary that we understand that we arent alone, he said. The U.S. support for Ukraine is being promised as its outgunned and outmanned troops are struggling to fend off a renewed Russian offensive along the roughly 1,000-kilometer frontline in Ukraines eastern border regions of Kharkiv and Donetsk. Additionally, Washington and some NATO allies have softened their position to allow Ukraine to use some western weapons for attacks inside Russia, along the border in the Kharkiv region. French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that France is providing Ukraine with Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets. The Ukrainian pilots will be trained in France, he added in an interview on French TV. Macron said the fighter jets will "allow Ukraine to protect its soil, its airspace" against Russian attacks. Germany's defense ministry said it will need at least 75,000 additional troops to fulfill its NATO commitments, as the alliance adapts to face what it sees as an increasingly hostile Russia, Der Spiegel magazine reported Friday. Germany joined the United States last week in authorizing Ukraine to hit targets on Russian soil along Ukraine's Kharkiv regional border using long-range weapons it supplied. Russian threats The Kremlin has warned that the decision could lead to a widening of the conflict in Europe that could entangle western allies against Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin also warned the United States and NATO allies that allowing Ukraine to fire long-range, Western-made weapons into Russia could prompt him to place similar Russian weapons in countries within range of the U.S. or its European allies. The Russian leader said Friday that he did not see the conditions for the use of nuclear weapons as set out in Russia's nuclear doctrine, but he added that he could not rule out a change to the doctrine. Putin was responding to a question by Sergei Karaganov, an influential Russian analyst, who asked if Putin should hold a nuclear pistol to the temple of the West over Ukraine. Speaking on the sidelines of the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin said Wednesday that Russia could use nuclear weapons if its sovereignty is threatened. "If somebody's actions threaten our sovereignty and territorial integrity, we consider it possible to use all means at our disposal," Putin said, citing what he described as his country's security policy. Fighting grinds on The Russian military said Friday that its forces had seized one more village in Ukraine's eastern region of Donetsk. "During the past week, units of the Southern group of troops improved their positions along the front line and liberated the settlement of Paraskoviivka," Russia's defense ministry said in a daily briefing. Since the beginning of 2024 Russia has captured 47 Ukrainian towns and villages, Putin said Friday. "Since the beginning of this year alone, 47, I think, settlements have been liberated," Putin told attendees of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. The Ukrainian air force shot down all five missiles and 48 out of 53 drones over nine regions during Russia's overnight attack, among them, in Kyiv, Kharkiv, the Dnipropetrovsk and Mikholaiv regions, according to the Ukrainian military on Friday. Four people were killed and more than 40 were injured in a Ukrainian strike on the Russian-controlled city of Lugansk on Friday, Russia-appointed officials said. The city of Lugansk came under a "massive" missile attack Friday morning, according to its Russia-appointed head, Leonid Pasechnik. A section of an apartment complex collapsed and the "bodies of four peaceful civilians killed were removed from the rubble," the Moscow-backed region's government said on Telegram, raising the toll from three. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. VOAs Kim Lewis contributed to this story. The U.S. military says a temporary pier to deliver aid into the Gaza Strip by sea has been reconnected to the beach after it broke apart in a storm in late May. Food and other supplies will begin to flow into Gaza as soon as possible in the coming days, U.S. Central Commands deputy chief, Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, told reporters on Friday. Earlier this morning in Gaza, U.S. forces successfully attached the temporary pier to the Gaza beach, he said, adding that the military continued its no U.S. boots on the ground policy through support from Israel Defense Force engineers. In response to a question from VOA, Cooper said that the aid was already on scene, but that security measures were still being checked before the flow of aid could restart. There's a whole series of measures on force protection that we want to validate to make sure we have all the communications in place so that we can move successfully. We're validating all those with a strong sense of urgency, he said. Cooper said operations at the reconnected pier will ramp up with a goal to get about 227,000 kilograms (500,000 pounds) of food and other supplies into Gaza via the pier each day. The U.S. military also intends to simultaneously deliver aid into Gaza via air drops, according to CENTCOMs deputy chief. A large section of the causeway was broken by heavy winds and rough seas on May 25, which Cooper said was unanticipated. Four U.S. military vessels helping with the mission went aground, injuring three service members, including one who remains in critical condition. Large sections of the pier were disconnected and moved to an Israeli port for repairs. U.S. Senator Richard Wicker, the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, It is astonishing that President [Joe] Biden is doubling down on this bad idea. It continues to put U.S. troops in harms way without any plan for ensuring that aid is delivered successfully to Gazans in need. This needs to end immediately. The United Nations oversees receiving shipments and coordinating distribution on the ground. The arrangement is part of an effort to boost what humanitarian organizations say is a vastly insufficient amount of aid for Palestinian civilians. Aid has been slow to get into Gaza due to long backups of vehicles at Israeli inspection points and ongoing Israeli military operations against Hamas. The United States and other nations have air dropped food into Gaza dozens of times in recent months, but air drops are much less efficient and provide vastly smaller quantities of aid than distribution via sea or land. The Biden administration this week warned North Korea against providing Russian President Vladimir Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression against Ukraine ahead of his possible trip to Pyongyang. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited Putin to Pyongyang when he visited Russia in September, and preparations are being made for his trip, the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry said without providing a specific date, Russian news agency Tass reported May 30. Tass quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko as saying preparations for Putin's visit to North Korea as well as to Vietnam are at an advanced stage." VOA contacted the Russian Embassy in Seoul, asking if dates are set for Putin's visit to Pyongyang, but did not receive a reply. There was speculation that Putin would visit North Korea after he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in May. In response to Rudenko's remarks about Putin's trip to Pyongyang, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said in an email to VOAs Korean Service Tuesday, As Russia continues to seek international support to sustain its illegal and brutal war against Ukraine, we reiterate that no country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalize his atrocities. The spokesperson continued, using the abbreviation for North Koreas official name, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, that deepening cooperation between Russia and the DPRK should be of great concern to anyone interested in maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. The spokesperson added, The DPRK has and continues to provide material support to the Russian Federation for their aggression in Ukraine. Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Uns powerful sister, denied on May 17 that North Korea was engaged in arms dealings with Russia. North Korean missiles have been turning up in Ukraine, indicating growing cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow, according to a report released by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency on May 29. The report shows the pictures of what it says is debris from a North Korean short-range ballistic missile found in Kharkiv in January that Russia used against Ukraine. Pyongyang has been providing ballistic missiles to Moscow since November in addition to shipping hundreds of containers full of ammunition to Russia in August, the report said. About seven months after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia sought to purchase millions of artillery shells and rockets from North Korea, the report said. Experts said Putins trip to Pyongyang will allow him to boost military cooperation with North Korea that began when Kim visited Russia in September. Putin, who in the past has openly broached the prospect of bolstering military collaboration with Pyongyang, could use his time in the North to move or at least discuss moving arms and military technology agreements toward the finish line, Daniel DePetris, a fellow at Washington-based think tank Defense Priorities, said in an email. North Korean munitions have given him critical time to reconstitute Russias own domestic military production so Putin will attempt to keep the North Korean arms spigot flowing, he continued. Putin reportedly said Russia will continue to develop its relations with North Korea regardless of what others think when he met with the heads of international news agencies on the sidelines of theInternational Economic Forum held in St. Petersburg on Wednesday. He also said North Koreas nuclear issue will gradually be resolved if Pyongyang does not feel threatened and thanked South Korea for not directly providing weapons to Ukraine, according to Tass. The same day, Putin warned that Moscow could provide long-range weapons to the Wests adversaries so they could strike Western countries in response to NATO allies, including the United States, allowing Ukraine to use their arms to attack inside Russia. David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy, said during a phone interview that Pyongyang is more likely to act on its own interest than to heed Moscow if asked to cause provocations on the Korean Peninsula or elsewhere. Maxwell also said Putins possible visit to North Korea could be used as a propaganda vehicle for Moscow and Pyongyang. They will try to reinforce the reputation of both, especially in terms of alliances and portray their causes Russias war in Ukraine and North Koreas threats against South Korea as somewhat legitimate despite causing massive human rights abuses, Maxwell said. Pyongyang described Putins war in Ukraine as the sacred war of justice by the valiant Russian army engaged in the special military operation to annihilate neo-Nazis in a statement released on May 16 by its state-run KCNA. The World Health Organization said Friday the first confirmed human infection with H5N2 bird flu, a man who died in April, suffered from multiple ailments and his death was not directly attributable to bird flu. At a Geneva news conference Friday, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told reporters an investigation is ongoing, including blood testing of the mans contacts to determine if there was any possible earlier infection. But he confirmed, "The death is a multi-factorial death, not a death attributable to H5N2." The WHO announced Wednesday the 59-year-old Mexican man was the first laboratory-confirmed human case of infection with H5N2 avian influenza virus. In a statement, the agency said Mexican health officials first reported the case to the WHO May 23 when it was detected in the man after he was hospitalized in Mexico City. He had multiple underlying medical conditions and his relatives reported that the man had already been bedridden for three weeks for other reasons, and had no history of exposure to poultry or other animals. On April 24, the man was once again hospitalized with multiple symptoms and died the same day due to complications of his condition. Tests confirmed the man had contracted H5N2 influenza, the WHO said in May, stating that the risk to people in Mexico is low, and that no further human cases have been discovered. Of the mans 17 contacts identified and monitored at the hospital where he died, none contracted the illness. Scientists said the case is unrelated to the outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in the United States that has infected three dairy farm workers. Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. Yemen's Houthi rebels have unveiled a new, solid-fuel missile in their arsenal that resembles aspects of one earlier displayed by Iran that Tehran described as flying at hypersonic speeds. The rebels fired their new "Palestine" missile, complete with a warhead painted like a Palestinian keffiyeh checkered scarf, at the southern Gulf of Aqaba port of Eilat in Israel on Monday. The attack set off air raid sirens but caused no reported damage or injuries. Footage released by the Houthis late Wednesday showed the Palestine being raised on what appeared to be a mobile launcher and rising quickly into the air with plumes of white smoke coming from its engine. White smoke is common with solid-fuel missiles. Solid-fuel missiles can be set up and fired faster than those containing liquid fuel. That's a key concern for the Houthis as their missile launch sites have been repeatedly targeted by U.S. and allied forces in recent months over the rebels' attacks on shipping through the Red Sea corridor. One such strike hit the Houthis even before they were able to launch their missile. For their part, the Houthis described the Palestine as a "locally made" missile. However, the Houthis are not known to possess the ability to manufacture complicated missile and guidance systems locally in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, which has been gripped by war since the rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, nearly a decade ago. The Houthis have, however, been repeatedly armed by Iran during the war despite a United Nations arms embargo. While Iran claims it doesn't arm the Houthis, ships seized by the U.S. and its allies have found Iranian weaponry, missile fuel and components on board. Iranian media reported the launch of the Palestine and described it as locally manufactured, citing the Houthis. However, design elements on the missile resemble other missiles developed by Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. That includes one called the Fattah, or "Conqueror" in Farsi. Iran unveiled the missile last year and claimed it could reach Mach 15 or 15 times the speed of sound. It also described the missile's range as up to 1,400 kilometers. That's a little short of Eilat from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, but missiles can be reconfigured to boost their range. In March, Russia's state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted an anonymous source claiming the Houthis had a hypersonic missile. "While we cannot say for sure what exact version the 'Palestine' corresponds to, we can say with high certainty that it is an advanced and precision-guided (Guard)-developed solid propellant missile provided by Iran," wrote Fabian Hinz, a missile expert and research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Asked about the similarity between the Palestine and its missiles, Iran's mission to the United Nations told The Associated Press that Tehran "has not engaged in any activities in contravention" of U.N. resolutions. "Yemen's military power has grown since the war began ... a fact rooted in the internal capacity and prowess of Ansar Allah," the mission said, using another name for the Houthis. Hypersonic weapons, which fly at speeds higher than Mach 5, could pose crucial challenges to missile defense systems because of their speed and maneuverability. Ballistic missiles fly on a trajectory in which anti-missile systems like the U.S.-made Patriot can anticipate their path and intercept them. The more irregular the missile's flight path, such as a hypersonic missile with the ability to change directions, the more difficult it becomes to intercept. China is believed to be pursuing the weapons, as is America. Russia claims it has already used them. It remains unclear how well the Palestine maneuvers and at what speed it travels. HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) Leaders of the United Methodist Church expressed regret over last week's decision by the branch in Ivory Coast to leave the union following the church's decision to repeal a long-standing ban on LGBTQ+ clergy but pledged to accept it. The developments were the latest in a series of ripple effects in conservative Africa, which is home to the vast majority of United Methodists outside the United States, amid disputes on sexuality and theology that have shaken the Methodist churches. In early May, delegates at the churchs first legislative gathering in five years voted overwhelmingly to remove a rule forbidding self-avowed practicing homosexuals from being ordained or appointed as ministers. It was a sharp contrast to past General Conferences of the United Methodist Church, which had steadily reinforced the ban and related penalties amid debate and protests. The change doesnt mandate or even explicitly affirm LGBTQ+ clergy, but it means the church no longer forbids them. But each member church was free to decide for itself and while some bishops favored staying on, others pushed to disaffiliate. On May 28, Ivory Coast's church voted to split from the United Methodists. With over 1.2 million members, the West African country's church has one of the denominations largest overseas followers. The United Methodist Church has about 5.4 million members in the United States, and about 4.6 million in Africa, Europe and the Philippines, according to church figures. In its first reaction following last week's vote, the churchs Council of Bishops said on Wednesday that while we grieve Ivory Coast's decision, "we commit to work with them through the process of becoming an Autonomous Methodist Church. While we are not all of one mind in all things, the strength of our connection is love, respect, compassion and a shared commitment to faith in Jesus Christ, the council said in a statement. Elsewhere in Africa, hundreds of United Methodist Church members gathered at the churchs local headquarters in Zimbabwes capital, Harare, last Thursday to protests the church's move to welcome LGBTQ+ members. They sang religious songs, held placards with messages saying homosexuality is a sin and an abomination. Africa is not for sale. No to homosexuality, read one placard held by an elderly woman. Church member James Kawaza reminded the gathering that homosexuality is unlawful in Zimbabwe." "The church has aligned with the Rainbow Movement, and this is also a threat to our African traditions and human existence at large, read a petition by church members, calling on their Bishop Eben Nhiwatiwa to act. Nhiwatiwa was not available for comment. Zimbabwes Christian denominations and others in Africa have been vocal against any moves to welcome gays into the church. In January, Catholic bishops in Africa and Madagascar issued a unified statement refusing to follow a declaration by Pope Francis allowing priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples, asserting that such unions are contrary to the will of God. Chester Samba, Director of GALZ, which represents the LGBTQ+ community in Zimbabwe, said he was not so hopeful for Zimbabwe and much of the continent to change their conservative stand. It is my hope that platforms for dialogue are created and supported to enhance understanding so that all may be welcome in the house of worship regardless of sexual orientation, said Samba, whose members have over the years been targets of harassment and stigmatization. ___ Associated Press writer Farai Mutsaka in Harare, Zimbabwe, contributed to this report. The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. President Biden participated in somber ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy. Biden also urged the need for unity against Russian aggression, during the memorial marking one of the largest battles of World War II. VOAs Anita Powell reports PORT HUENEME, Calif. (June 4, 2021) Cmdr. Ryan Carey (left) passes the battalion flag to Cmdr. Andrew Olsen during NMCB-5s change of command ceremony at Naval Base Ventura County Port Hueneme, California, June 4. During the ceremony, Cmdr. Andrew Olsen relieved Cmdr. Ryan Carey as Commanding Officer of NMCB-5. The U.S. Navy Seabees assigned to NMCB-5 support worldwide combat and contingency operations, building advanced bases and conducting humanitarian recovery missions. (U.S. Navy photo by Construction Mechanic 2nd Class Michael Schutt/Released) President Joe Biden solemnly presented an Israeli peace offer on television: "This new proposal has three phases (...) The first phase will last six weeks. Heres what it would include: a complete ceasefire; a withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza; a release of a number of hostages including women, the elderly, the wounded in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners (...) Palestinians civilians would return to their homes and neighborhoods in all parts of Gaza, including the north. Humanitarian aid would increase with 600 trucks carrying aid to Gaza every day... During the six weeks of Phase 1, Israel and Hamas would negotiate the necessary arrangements to get to Phase Two, which is a permanent end to hostilities. Then, the second phase: there would be an exchange for the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers; Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza; and as long as Hamas lives up to its commitments, a temporary ceasefire would become, in the words of the Israeli proposal, "the permanent cessation of hostilities," end of quote. Finally, in the third phase, a vast plan to rebuild Gaza will begin. And all the last remains of hostages who were killed would be returned to their families." The State Department drafted a resolution and submitted it to members of the United Nations Security Council in order to support the "Israeli" proposal for a ceasefire. Former US President Barack Obama said: "As the tragedy in Gaza has unfolded over the past eight months, we have seen an often-fierce public debate here at home and around the world about how the United States should respond. But wherever each of us stands in these broader debates, a lasting ceasefire is something we should all support for the sake of Israelis, Palestinians, and the world at large. I am deeply encouraged by the consistent and tireless efforts of President Biden, Secretary of State Tony Blinken, and our diplomatic team to end this terrible war." The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) communicated: "President Biden has firmly accepted the Israeli offer and has made clear Hamas responsibility to accept the framework agreement that would bring back all hostages and end the war that the terror group backed by Iran launched when it broke a ceasefire on October 7. All members of Congress should strongly support the Israeli governments latest efforts to guarantee the freedom of its citizens, and the United States should insist that the international community unequivocally increase pressure on Hamas to accept the terms." Ophir Falk, a foreign policy adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu, gave an interview to The Sunday Times. According to him, by referring to the "Israeli" peace proposal, President Joe Biden made "a political speech". " There are many details to be worked out, including that there will be no permanent ceasefire until all our objectives have been met" he continued. It is "an agreement that we have agreed to. Its not a good deal, but we sincerely want to release all hostages." Israels security minister Itamar Ben Gvir asked the prime minister to consult the document. However, a first meeting was cancelled, and Benjamin Netanyahu refused to show him any documents during the second interview, while one of his assistants exclaimed: "What plan? There is no plan." Gen. Benny Gantz has threatened to resign if the massacre continues, while Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have said they will do so if the war stops. Benjamin Netanyahu therefore tries to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. Gideon Saar, who has already resigned from the government, supports the same position as Jewish supremacists. Israels minister of diaspora affairs Amichai Chikli said at a meeting organized at the initiative of the Besheva settlers in Manhattan: "No one will give in to the pressure [of the Biden administration] (...) We have no choice but to continue the war and annihilate Hamas. There is no option to accept a ceasefire while Hamas is still in power." Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Everett Collection (Jasin Boland/Warner Bros., MCA Universal, Walt Disney Studios, MGM) This list was originally published on June 7, 2024. It has been updated to include new movies including Netflixs Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. Theres something really comforting about a movie trilogy, the idea that theres a natural beginning, middle, and end to an epic story that you can rewatch in just an afternoon. The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and The Godfather all thrive on this formula, but for many franchises including two of the ones we just mentioned three movies was never going to be enough. For some franchises, tacking a fourth film onto a trilogy is the final card that topples the whole house, but for others, its the beginning of a new era, a jump-start that reminds us all why we loved these movies in the first place. So, as summer franchises keep adding more part fours to their sagas, were looking back at the best fourth films (including prequels, legacy sequels, and more) in movie franchise history. Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) Godzilla had fought other monsters before, and Mothra had already appeared in her own self-titled feature film in 1961, but none of that precedent held Mothra vs. Godzilla back. The first of many, many movies in which Japans Toho Co. set its various homegrown kaiju on a collision, Mothra vs. Godzilla retains an epic scope that makes it a stunner even 60 years and countless sequels later. Perhaps more than any other film on this list, it catapulted its characters into a new, larger world, and there was no looking back. Thunderball (1965) Goldfinger may have set the standard for what makes a good James Bond film, but its successor, Thunderball, is the film that blew every other Bond of its era out of the water. The fourth film in the long-running Eon Productions Bond series, the film pits Sean Connerys 007 against everything weve come to expect from these movies. He faces international supercriminals, hijacked nuclear weapons, sexy ladies with rocket launchers mounted to their motorcycles, killer sharks, harpoon guns, and even a guy in pretty convincing drag, and Connery looks great doing it all. Throw in some especially over-the-top explosions, a jetpack, and a killer title song belted out by Tom Jones, and Thunderball proved Bond was unstoppable. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) Honestly, more horror franchises should name sequels The Final Chapter and then just keep right on trucking with sequels, because it worked out really well for Jason Voorhees and his victims. Starring Corey Feldman as a strange child with an unlikely connection to Jason, the fourth Friday film pulls off the astonishing trick of truly feeling like a final chapter in a never ending saga, right down to Jasons gruesome death scene. Its a movie that absolutely goes for broke in a landscape where more slasher sequels were inevitable, and even with seven more Jason movies piled on top of it, it hasnt lost that power. Rocky IV (1985) You know we absolutely could not do this list without mentioning the time Sylvester Stallone defeated Communism with the power of Punching. There are those who see Rocky IV as a camp classic full of arch villain and hero moments, and there are those who see it as a masterpiece of 1980s filmmaking that wields pop culture archetypes to craft a contemporary fable about perseverance and righteousness. And honestly, why not both? This is a movie so bombastic, so crammed with every possible story device from training montages to revenge journeys, that its able to contain multitudes and still have space left over for a friendly robot encounter. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) Whales! Time travel! Nuclear wessels! In a franchise thats followed just about every sci-fi plot device under the sun at some point, The Voyage Home still feels like the biggest conceptual swing in any Star Trek movie. Its a film thats trying very hard to deliver a certain ecological message while also pushing a fish-out-of-water comedy through every corner of 1980s San Francisco and serving an ensemble cast who may or may not have been sick of the grind at this point. Against all odds, just like the mission at its core, it all works out. And even if it didnt, youve got Shatner yelling Double dumbass on you! Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) Some horror fans will tell you that the Halloween franchise is just bad sequel after bad sequel up until H20. Those people are wrong. The first Michael Myers story told outside the confines of that one horrific night in 1978, Halloween 4 follows the slasher as he wakes up from an explosion-induced coma and goes after his niece Jamie (Danielle Harris), while mad Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) resumes his endless pursuit. Thats a pretty straightforward echo of the original Halloween, but then Halloween 4 just plain goes for it with everything else, from expanding the already twisted lore of the Strode/Myers family to giving us Pleasence in full Youre all doomed mad doctor mode. This is a movie in which the Haddonfield locals assemble a posse and fight Michael on the back of a moving truck and a movie in which Michael stabs a man with a shotgun. If you dont think thats cool, youre not having enough fun with your slashers. Bride of Chucky (1998) Some franchises use Part Four as a chance to play the hits. Others use it for a full-on rebrand, and in that latter category, Bride of Chucky remains the belle of the ball. Creator Don Mancinis unabashed, fierce effort to take his murderous doll into full-on black comedy territory, the film thrives on the chemistry between Jennifer Tilly and Brad Dourif, and Mancinis wicked sense of humor ensures that theres no going back. This is not just a new direction, but an absolute glow-up, and Chucky is still thriving today because of it. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) OK, so technically, chronologically this is Part 1 of a nine-part saga, but because it was the fourth in release order, and because it cant work its full magic without our knowledge of the previous three films, were counting it. Yes, the plot starts here, but who cares? Its the fourth Star Wars movie. The Phantom Menace turns 25 this year, and its clear that time has been very kind to it. Admittedly were looking back with a certain nostalgia for those days in the late 90s when Star Wars truly exploded as a cultural force again, but thats not the only trick this film pulls. For all its unevenness, this is a movie that deepens and widens the entire Star Wars sandbox in ways the franchise has never looked back from. Theres a gleeful sense that George Lucas is playing with every toy he can get his hands on here, and while hes sometimes hammering at those toys until they break, the fun hes having is absolutely infectious, even after a quarter-century. Scream 4 (2011) Haters be damned, Scream 4 still rules. The final film in the franchise to be directed by Wes Craven and (so far) written by Kevin Williamson can certainly feel forced at times, like an unnecessary coda tacked on to the end of an aging trilogy. But the more time passes, the more this film feels positively prescient in its skewering of reboots, endless sequels, and devotees looking to capitalize on a franchises staying power at all costs. That the film is essentially part of the very problem its mocking only makes the humor more wicked. Throw in some all-time great Wes Craven kill scenes including an opening sequence for the ages and a wonderfully arch performance from Emma Roberts, and youve got a Part Four thats not just worthwhile, but flat-out vital. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) Its not that the Mission: Impossible movies were small before this Part Four. After all, Brian De Palma gave us that awesome wire setpiece in the first film, John Woo poured all of his action bombast into the second, and J.J. Abrams gave everything an Alias edge in the third. But with Ghost Protocol, something shifted, and it wasnt just a question of budgets. Something in Tom Cruise, who serves as producer and star of these films, seemed to hit a higher gear around the time of this film, something that dared him to scale the worlds tallest building, and more, in an effort to drop as many theatergoing jaws as possible. If youre looking for Part Fours that launch new eras of franchises, this is an all-timer. Like Ghost Protocol, Fury Road is the beginning of a new era for Mad Max, marking the first film in George Millers apocalyptic saga in 30 years. But to simply call Fury Road a new era is a disservice to the films impact. That this film is the fourth part in a storied action franchise which helped Miller become one of the most respected directors of his era is almost beside the point. Its not continuity Millers after here, its mythmaking. Its action cinema on a gargantuan scale, and its all done so well that Fury Road now stands as not just a great Part Four in a franchise, but arguably the best Part Four in any franchise ever. The spring of 2019 was all about Avengers: Endgame. The world seemed to change its orbit around this film until it revolved solely to allow everyone to see what would become of the Avengers in their final battle with Thanos. The hype was off the charts, and somehow the final product managed to live up to it, delivering a bombastic, overstuffed ride for the ages that left audiences cheering and fans poring over its every detail. It remains the high water mark of the MCU in terms of sheer cultural saturation, and on a pure gut level, Captain America picking up Mjolnir still gives us chills. If ever there was a franchise that absolutely, under no circumstances needed a fourth installment, it was Toy Story. The original trilogy ended on such a high note with the sublime and moving Toy Story 3 that attempting to stack something else on top of it felt like a cash grab at best and a profanity at worst. ThenToy Story 4 actually worked? Im not here to argue that its better than Toy Story 3, but this unlikely saga of Woody finding a new purpose after years of being a shadow parent figure to children still managed to wring emotion, fun, and even new ideas out of a lingering animated franchise. Plus, it gave us Forky and his unforgettable battle cry for weary, terminally online souls everywhere: Im Trash! Yes, Nia DaCostas Candyman is the fourth part in a franchise, even if you dont remember any of the previous sequels. Unlike a lot of other Part Fours in slasher movie history, though, this film is not content to pick up with another set of victims falling prey to the same old lore. Instead, the film reinvigorates everything about the Candyman legend, building on Tony Todds mythic performance to create something new that also never loses touch with the chilling saga that came before. Its one of the best horror films of the 2020s so far, and itll make you afraid of saying certain words into bathroom mirrors all over again. Time will tell whether or not Chapter 4 is the swan song of the main John Wick series (there are still spinoffs on the way), but if this is the end, its a hell of a way to go. In a franchise that had to keep finding ways to top itself with action setpieces, Chapter 4 went for broke with just about every fight scene, and thats after the third film gave us a full-on siege in a hotel. This ones got everything. Donnie Yen as a blind swordsman, Hiroyuki Sanada stealing the movie for a few minutes, Scott Adkins somehow making a fat suit look (mostly) cool, and of course, Keanu Reeves doing Strong and Silent like hes never done it before. You wouldnt think John Wick falling down stairs for 20 minutes would be badass, but this movie makes it badass. Ride or Die is the second Bad Boys movie in the past five years, and both come nearly two decades after the series seemingly ended with Bad Boys II. Youd think that might be at least one movie too many to try to keep the legacy alive, but arguably even more than its predecessor, Bad Boys for Life, the fourth film in the franchise feels like a worthy latter-day sequel. Martin Lawrence and Will Smith retain their unstoppable chemistry, directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah keep the action at a kinetic frenzy, and the inherently over-the-top nature of the story keeps us hooked. Its the Bad Boys staring down both their own mortality and what justice really means in a world thats twisted around them, and thats exactly what you want from a buddy cop movie this far removed from the original. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024) It might seem a long shot after both a three-decade wait and the disappointment of Beverly Hills Cop III back in the 90s, but Axel F brings the fun back to one of Eddie Murphys star-making roles. By playing Axel at a time when the detective is both still addicted to being an action hero and trying to repair his relationship with his daughter (Taylour Pagie), Murphy feels like the most charismatic and watchable version of himself in a film that brings the familiar and the new together in some very compelling ways. Throw in all the cameos youd want and expect (hello, Bronson Pinchot!) and its a blast. Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Marcus Price/Netflix, Vitalii Nosach/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images, Matt Crockett/Netflix In September 2019, when climate-justice activist Greta Thunberg attended the U.N. Climate Action Summit and made international headlines by delivering a fiery address, comedians took the opportunity to make topical jokes. That week, I saw Michelle Wolf perform at the Just for Laughs festival in Toronto, where she enlivened her set with material about the then-16-year-old Swede. Climate scientists everywhere, she imagined, must have been livid that the world was listening to an unqualified teenager after ignoring them for years. Had Thunberg been any other viral sensation, the shelf life of jokes like this would have been short. If theyre not in the news, its only appropriate to make fun of a well-meaning kid who happens to have Aspergers syndrome for so long. But then the story took a couple of hard turns: Days after her U.N. address, Donald Trump started a feud with Thunberg on Twitter, and in December, Time named her its 2019 Person of the Year. Soon, Thunberg went from being a teenager with a righteous cause to a divisive figure in the ongoing culture war and possibly the most prolific individual stand-up muse since O.J. Simpson. Since the start of 2024, Ive seen five jokes referencing Thunberg in filmed stand-up sets; going back to December 2019, that number is nearly 20. That comedians cant seem to stop pulling from the Thunberg well says as much about Thunberg as it does the comedians who reference her. Watch enough of their jokes back-to-back and identifiable patterns start to emerge. Below, in chronological order, a collection of comedys most prominent Thunberg skeptics, evangelists, agnostics, and everyone in between. Dave Chappelle (December 2019) By the time Thunberg was named Person of the Year at the end of 2019, all bets against anti-Thunberg bashing were off. On the day of the Time announcement, Chappelle was mocking the news on tour in Asheville, North Carolina. How dare they import an angry white woman from Sweden? he told an audience in a clip posted to YouTube by an attendee. We got plenty of angry white bitches here Every time she talks, I roll my eyes like Jeopardy: Ill take Things Black people dont give a fuck about for $1,000, Alex. In a characteristically Chappelle move, he escalates the joke into shock territory: How old are you, Greta Thunberg? 16? Get out of here. This is America! Were going to let R. Kelly out of jail, and hes going to pee on you. Jack Whitehall (July 2020) @jackwhitehall What a boss she is! Calling America and Canada! Im going on tour in February and March this year! See all dates and info via my website. Tickets are on sale now! original sound - Jack Whitehall For the contrarian take to Chappelles perspective theres Whitehall, who, in his Netflix special Im Only Joking, calls Thunberg a boss who riles dickheads up by living her best life. She is a child, and shes raised a global climate-change revolution, he says. When I was a child, I couldnt raise a Tamagotchi. Sam Jay (August 2020) Photo: Marcus Price/Netflix A common thread in jokes about Thunberg is that, irrespective of whether her message about the climate is correct, she is annoying, which is the angle Jay takes in her Netflix special 3 in the Morning. I hate that little fucking girl, she begins. And I hate that you cant say you hate the little fucking girl because she autistic or whatever. Thats so stupid. I dont hate the girl because shes autistic. Im not a fucking savage. I hate her because shes annoying! Jays biggest beef? The fact that Thunberg points the blame for the climate crisis toward adults like Jay. Bitch, the shit was fucked up for me too! she rants in her signature style. What the fuck are you talking about? I didnt walk onto a pristine Earth, bitch! Fin Taylor (February 2022) Like Jay, impish comic Taylor stresses that he isnt irritated by Thunberg because she has autism, but hes irritated by her nonetheless. In his YouTube special So My Wife , the Brit says he resents being told what to do by a 17-year-old, who should be spending her time getting drunk and fingered rather than lecturing the world on sustainability practices. Shes telling people to make these huge lifestyle changes: Stop driving. Start taking a train, he says before turning his attention to Thunberg directly. Of course you think that. Youre Swedish. Your trains probably work! Plus, he does care about the environment: He flatly refuses to wear condoms because they are a single-use plastic, and when hookups protest, he replies with a rallying cry: Im raw dogging for Greta! Jen Kirkman (March 2022) Kirkman can relate to Thunberg, she says, because she was once a young person who cared passionately about causes herself. But having been hardened by life experiences, she wants to save Thunberg the agony that comes with the slow embrace of fatalism. I just want to take her and go, Sweetie, were done here, she jokes on her album OK, Gen-X. Girl, lets just get a beer, and Ill teach you how to smoke a cigarette. Kirkman zooms out and offers a larger point about a generational divide: Gen X tried to save the world, knowing we probably couldnt, but its the right thing to do. Young people are trying to change the world, thinking they can in their lifetime, and were like, Oh my God! No one told them! Mark Normand (April 2022) Not every comedian who jokes about Thunberg has a hot take. Sometimes, they just need a specific name they can drop into a joke that doesnt require further explanation. When it comes to the topics of climate change, youth activism, or even autism, who better than Thunberg? Such is the case in this Normand joke about Joe Bidens alleged habit of sniffing young girls hair. One can almost imagine Normand asking himself Whos a young girl the audience will know? midway through writing this joke. I was always hoping Joe Biden would meet Greta Thunberg, he says, sketching out a hypothetical. He sniffs her hair; hes like, Is it hot in here, or is it global warming? Andrew Santino (January 2023) Add one more to the list of comedians who are vexed by Thunberg. Santino agrees with her he even commends her for having the bravery and confidence to stand up for what she believes in but, like Taylor, he cant abide being lectured by a teen without adult life experience. Youve never paid a mortgage, you dick, he says in his Netflix special Cheeseburger. You dont know how hard this is. Youve never got a parking ticket when you got 19 bucks left to your name. Shut up! Marc Maron (February 2023) As if to prove how recognizable of a reference Thunberg is, Maron gets big laughs in his HBO special From Bleak to Dark with a Thunberg joke that doesnt initially name her directly. What are you going to do about the climate? he asks the audience. Nothing! In the back of our heads, were like, You know, I dont want to get in the way of anything that Swedish teenagers doing Jim Jefferies (February 2023) Youre not going to believe this, but Jefferies is also of the opinion that Thunberg is right but annoying. He even acknowledges how common of a stance this is for men his age at the top of this joke from his Netflix special High N Dry. He waited three long years for Thunberg to come of age so he could do this bit, he says, in deference to women who might be triggered by it. Unfortunately, all that extra time didnt pay dividends in the form of revolutionary new premises. He defends his right to make fun of Thunberg, then 19, by saying he could legally have sex with her, before making a joke similar to Taylors (I wouldnt use a condom, either out of respect for her and the environment!). Then, like Jay, he balks at the idea that its his generation who ruined the planet. Not my generation, Greta! he clarifies. Youre thinking of the cunts before me. The generation before me did fucking nothing. My generation invented the different-colored bins! Kyle Kinane (March 2023) In true Kinane fashion, his bit defending Thunberg in his YouTube special Shocks and Struts arrives nested within a defense of people with autism, itself nested within a defense of vaccine adoption. To his point about the world needing more autistic kids, Kinane cites Thunberg as a positive example, then illustrates the shallowness of her detractors arguments. Shes trying to save the Earth from ourselves! he says. The best we can come up with is, Ah, shes, like, a girl, and she looks weird. Shes a kid. So nah. Heather McMahan (October 2023) The worsening climate is a determining factor in many peoples choices whether to have children, including McMahan, who talks about hesitating to implant an embryo she has on ice because she saw Thunberg on the news freaking the fuck out about the polar ice caps melting in her Netflix special Son I Never Had. She gets big laughs with an act-out of Thunbergs histrionic speaking style. It dawned on me, she continues. I was like, Oh my God. What if, right now, my baby girl is defrosting, and I dont even know it? Gavin Matts (October 2023) The planet is facing an overpopulation crisis, and if there is one demographic of people we could successfully kill off without large-scale consequences, Matts would like to cast his vote for leashed children. No kid thats ever been leashed has gone on to do great things, he says in his YouTube special Progression. Greta Thunberg? Definitely not. She sailed across the Atlantic. They dont have leashes that long. Ricky Gervais (December 2023) Where some comedians on this list push back on the idea that the current generation is responsible for ruining the Earth, Gervais takes perverse pleasure in being part of the generation that will push the planet over its tipping point. Such is the premise of this joke from his most recent Netflix special Armageddon. Were going to be the first generation that future generations are jealous of, he says with excitement. Ive got nine toilets in my house, and sometimes, I just run around flushing them for a laugh just so that, in 40 years time, Greta Thunberg has to shit out of a window. Ethan Simmons-Patterson (February 2024) Simmons-Patterson is neither for or against Thunberg so much as he is concerned about the moisturization of her skin. If youve never seen her, she just looks like shes always walking against wind, he jokes in a Comedy Central set. Every time I see Greta, I just want to put cocoa butter all over her. He notes that Thunberg inspired him to stop using disposable grocery bags, but that his experience of leaving the grocery store with loose items in his hand, as a Black man, likely differs from hers: Theres just a cop out there like, Yo, what the fuck are you doing? Im just like, This is for Greta! This is for the environment! Nathan Macintosh (April 2024) Similar to Kinane, Macintoshs pro-Thunberg bit in his YouTube special Down With Tech sees him doing a mocking impression of the ire she provokes: Shes like, Hey everybody, the Earths heating up. Maybe we should do something. Everybodys like, Shut up you Swedish witch! Are you even old enough to remember Family Matters? Go die! Why dont you go back up the Alps and yodel, whore! Im not listening to you. Fern Brady (April 2024) When Brady references Thunberg in her recent Netflix special Autistic Beauty Queen, she also happens to make a case for why shes referencing her in the same breath. Theres not a lot of representation of hot women within the autistic community, she says in a bit about her recent autism diagnosis. I figured, Be the change you want to see in the world. Its just me and Greta Thunberg, representing. She solves the climate crisis, I continue to do meaningless jokes about cum. We cant all be heroes. Nikki Glaser (May 2024) Photo: Jennifer Clasen/HBO Glaser believes we need kids to save us from the state the world is in right now. She just doesnt know if itll be her audiences kids wholl be best suited for this task. Her specific audience, she jokes in her HBO special Someday Youll Die, consists of people who paid money to see a comedian who mostly talks about her pussy. To prove her point, Glaser offers an example: Greta Thunbergs parents arent here tonight. Emil Wakim (May 2024) No matter how Thunberg has been positioned in the popular discourse, Wakim does not see her as a positive beacon for the future. Thats just older generations not wanting to change shit, so they pass it off on us and then they frame it as hope, he says in a recent Dont Tell Comedy set. Every time Wakim sees Thunberg getting arrested at a protest, he laments what it foretells about her future. Weve ruined her Shes not going to have a normal life. No one is going to finger Greta Thunberg, okay? You cant penetrate the voice of a generation. Its wrong, he says. But thats what I want for the world. Im optimistic, you know? I want Greta to squirt. Thats progressive! If youre liberal, you should want that for the world. Thats how youll know we have world peace: When she can relax enough to get there. Recipes What do you want to cook today? Network Irelands Waterford branch hosted its prestigious Businesswoman of the Year Awards at Waterford Castle on Friday, May. The evening was filled with celebration and empowerment, as award nominees were honoured by supporters, fellow members and special guest Linda Codoul, Network Irelands National President. The awards recognised the resilience, innovation, and leadership of exceptional women in business and showcased their remarkable achievements and contributions to the local community across a variety of businesses and trades. Network Ireland Waterford Branch hosted their prestigious Businesswoman of the Year Awards at Waterford Castle. Pictured are Mailo Power, Sinead ONeill, Network Ireland Waterford Branch president and Linda Codoul, Network Ireland National President. Photograph: Patrick Browne Twenty-seven women from across Waterford County were shortlisted for the awards across eight different categories, based on the calibre of their professional achievement. The winners in each category were determined by a judging panel composed of business experts including: Theresa Smyth AIB Waterford; Rosemary Ward, Deputy CEO at Southeast BIC and Gareth Evans, Head of Enterprise at LEO Waterford. The winners in the eight categories were: Networker of the Year Mailo Power, Monkey Reusable Products Ltd; Solo Businesswoman Sharon Ginnetty, Optimise Marketing; Emerging Businesswoman Claire Mooney, ReduceCosts; Employee Rising Star Dawn Roberts, Officemaster; Employee Shining Star Lisa OBrien, Focus Ireland; Stem Professional Jane Russell OConnor, Russell Environmental; Creative Professional Christine Murphy, Urban Aran; Established Businesswoman Mailo Power, Monkey Reusable Products Ltd and Lisa Curtis, SETU Arena Waterford was highly commended in the Employee Rising Star category. Network Ireland Waterford Branch hosted their prestigious Businesswoman of the Year Awards at Waterford Castle. Pictured are Aisling ONeill and Lisa OBrien Photograph: Patrick Browne The winner of each category will advance to represent the Waterford branch at the National Businesswoman of the Year Awards in Kilkenny in September. In her speech on the night, Network Ireland Waterford Branch President Sinead ONeill, founder of Sinead ONeill Consulting, said: Entering the Businesswoman of the Year Awards takes immense courage. Stepping out of your comfort zone and putting yourself forward to recognise your accomplishments and achievements is a brave move. It highlights your business and the journey you embarked upon to get to where you are today, both as entrepreneurs and employees, said Sinead. This undertaking is something you will never regret, she added, before commenting: We celebrate each of you here tonight for your dedication, innovation, and leadership. Your remarkable journeys inspire us all, embodying the spirit of enterprise that Network Ireland champions. Tonight is about recognition, celebration, and looking forward to a bright future for one and all. Network Ireland Waterford Branch hosted their prestigious Businesswoman of the Year Awards at Waterford Castle. Pictured are Margaret Julian and Ann Marie Shannon. Photograph: Patrick Browne This year's awards were co-ordinated by Ann Marie Shannon, Director of Veritas Chartered Accountants. Commenting on the initiative, she said: This years awards campaign was a resounding success, reflecting the growing interest among female business owners and employees in the region who are eager to compete for a highly recognized national award. Notably, this year's event saw increased engagement from employers, who actively put forward their female employees for awards, said Ann Marie. Network Ireland Waterford Branch hosted their prestigious Businesswoman of the Year Awards at Waterford Castle. Pictured with the finalists are Linda Codoul, Network Ireland National President, Sinead ONeill, Network Ireland Waterford Branch president and Ann Marie Shannon, Network Ireland Waterford Branch vice president. Photograph: Patrick Browne Network Ireland is a non-profit, voluntary organisation, with over 1,200 members and 17 branches. Established in 1983, its a progressive, dynamic organisation supporting the professional and personal development of women. Network Ireland Waterford Branch hosted their prestigious Businesswoman of the Year Awards at Waterford Castle. Pictured are Natalie Garland Cooke and Karen Murphy. Photograph: Patrick Browne The organisations membership is made up of a diverse group of women, from budding entrepreneurs, SME owners, professionals and leaders in indigenous and multinational organisations to non-profits, charities, arts and the public sector. An aim of the organisation is to have a strong voice for its members and to promote diversity and equality, entrepreneurship and leadership development. Network Ireland Waterford Branch hosted their prestigious Businesswoman of the Year Awards at Waterford Castle. Pictured are Carmel Grant, Mark Bolger and Aideen Glynn. Photograph: Patrick Browne To find out more about Network Ireland Waterford branch contact Sinead ONeill at networkwaterford@gmail.com ASTANA, Kazakhstan, June 7. The Mangystau region of Kazakhstan has suggested to Azerbaijan to boost the supply of consumer food products, Trend reports. The proposal was put forward by Nurdaulet Kilybay, the head of the region, during a meeting with the Consul General of Azerbaijan in Aktau Elchin Mammadov. "I'd like to propose some collaboration options. Instead of waiting for high-level official meetings, let's initiate joint projects and foster bilateral relations through mutual agreement. As you know, the Mangystau region lacks a variety of fruit and vegetable products, mostly relying on imports. Hence, I suggest that companies in Azerbaijan explore the opportunity to enhance the supply of food and consumer goods, particularly fruits and construction materials, to our region. Additionally, we should bolster tourism ties between Azerbaijan and the Mangystau region," he said. Mammadov highlighted the robust relationship between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, expressing the Consulate General's keen interest in fostering joint projects to reinforce the fraternal ties between the two peoples. "The Mangystau region holds significant importance for our nation. Collaboratively, the state maritime companies of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have augmented the fleet of vessels for cargo transportation. We believe that construction materials, textiles, and agricultural products from both countries, as well as the exchange of food items, mutual investments, and joint productions, can substantially boost trade volume. There are promising prospects for enhancing tourism cooperation between our nations. It's worth noting that in 2025, the city of Aktau will be designated as the capital of the Turkic world. Numerous events and official visits from delegations from Turkic-speaking countries are anticipated. This presents an opportunity for us to further strengthen our close cooperation," he elaborated. To note, in 2023, the trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan surged to $529.4 million, marking a 14.2 percent increase compared to the previous year's figure of $463.3 million. Within the trade turnover structure, exports to Azerbaijan during this period totaled $456.3 million, representing a notable 21.6 percent increase compared to the same period in 2022. Imports from Azerbaijan from January through December 2023 experienced a decline of 17.3 percent, amounting to $73 million. In contrast, imports in 2022 stood at $88.3 million. Stay up-to-date with more news at Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel Earlier this year, Gilbert O'Sullivan announced to the Waterford News & Star that a show in Waterford was on the agenda for 2024. He said: Thats the plan, it has to be. We are going to be doing two shows in Cork, two nights in Dublin in September and the plan is to come to Waterford, so that will happen. An initial two gig return was subsequently announced last week by Theatre Royal, for December 9 and 10. Tickets went on sale on Thursday May 30 with high demand expected. Theatre Royal urged those interested to buy early to avoid disappointment. On Thursday morning, fans eagerly joined an online queue to secure tickets, excited to see the Waterford native perform in his hometown. Tickets sold out in under 20 minutes. With countless disappointed fans missing out, calls for a further date began to circulate online. An additional gig was subsequently announced for November 28. Once again sales rocketed and Theatre Royal revealed that additional gigs were agreed with Gilbert for November 26 and 29. Tickets for all five shows are now sold out. OSullivan was recently granted the Freedom of Waterford, in recognition of his contribution to global popular culture through his music. During the acceptance ceremony, he was described as a signal composer and performer from Waterford roots who has made an indelible mark on the world of modern music. The Cork Road natives career has spanned 50 years. His first single success, Nothing Rhymed, was released in 1970 and almost overnight it achieved Top 10 status in the UK and Europe. He has achieved Top 10 singles and Number 1s around the world, including the classic Alone Again (Naturally), which topped the US charts and earned him three Grammy nominations. The ABC and its news boss Justin Stevens walked into a News Corp culture wars trap by publicly admonishing Laura Tingle over her racist country remarks, says former 7.30 host Quentin Dempster. Media Watch host Paul Barry then joined the Murdoch pile-on this week in describing Tingles comments as not a good look, according to Dempster. Quentin Dempster is the former presenter of the ABCs 7.30. Credit: Wolter Peeters If you followed his [Barrys] logic, no ABC political editor would be able to conversationally critique on a panel show any opposition leaders policies or shameless dog-whistling for fear of creating a perception of partisanship, Dempster says. Youll put your career and reputation at risk when the Murdoch attack dogs circle you. Youll have to abandon editorial judgment. That equals self-censorship. Directed by Xavier Gens (best known for the French Netflix series Lupin), Under Paris follows a mako shark (known in the film as Lilith) who has sought refuge from the polluted Pacific Ocean in Frances Seine river. This will ring alarm bells for shark enthusiasts, who know makos cant survive in freshwater. Therein lies the environmental crux of the film: human-driven climate change has caused Lilith to evolve into a much larger, self-reproducing killing machine that can thrive in any environment, even a murky Parisian waterway. So, when Netflix announced its latest creature feature, Under Paris, which sees a shark wreak havoc in Paris Seine river, it seemed inevitable it would join the long list of ridiculously schlocky how did that get there? shark movies. Weve seen sharks in lakes, in tornadoes and on the moon (yes, someone actually made a movie called Shark Side of the Moon). Since Steven Spielbergs great white in Jaws set the tone nearly 50 years ago, the killer fish genre has gone downhill, becoming increasingly wacky and essentially bled dry of critical appeal. The hero of the story is Sophia (played by The Artists Berenice Bejo), whose husband was killed by Lilith during a research expedition at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Three years later, she, alongside the river police and a group of shark-hugging environmental activists, is pulled into a mission to remove the super-charged mako from the Seine. As is the case in most shark movies, the stakes are heightened by the fact that the mayor is adamant the citys triathlon, part of which is set to take place in the river, must go on, shark be damned. You can probably guess the rest. It may seem like the films creators chucked a shark in the first river they could think of, but it was likely to have been far more intentional. The Seine has been a hot topic recently, as Olympic organisers debate whether the triathlon event, which partly takes place in the river, should go ahead in July. Despite having invested over a billion euros into making safe swimming possible, heavy rain could lead to increased parasite levels in the river. Exchange harmful bacteria for a practically mutagenic shark and you have Under Paris. Theres plenty of gore, but shots of the apex predator remain few and far between. Credit: Sofie Gheysens/Netflix Whether it was done deliberately or inadvertently, Jaws also ended up reflecting its social climate, with some critics arguing Spielbergs bull-headed mayor was a stand-in for Richard Nixon post-Watergate. The disgraced former president tore through democracy the way Amity Islands mayor allowed the shark tear through holidaymakers. Under Paris has its own stubborn mayor who is intent on a large-scale publicity event going ahead, afraid of what those above them (the president and the rest of the world) would otherwise think. Both films essentially ask the same question: can we trust politicians to make the right decisions? Under Paris masters another element that made Jaws the genre-defining production it was: it leaves much to the imagination. Instead of inundating viewers with shots of poorly CGI-generated sharks (looking at you, Sharknado), it offers a quick glimpse of the marine beast, or even better, a mere shadow in the murky depths. Granted, its score pales in comparison to its iconic predecessor, but it still allows suspenseful notes to do the heavy lifting. Its about time more horror creators made use of the unknown and out of sight. Guzman y Gomez has expanded its float offer from $242.5 million to $335.1 million as a major investor takes a bite of the burrito chain bound for the Australian stock exchange. The fast-growing Mexican chain, which last week announced it was preparing to list on the ASX on June 20 with a valuation of $2.2 billion, has increased the float offer after Capital Research Global Investors, a major investor of Chipotle and Yum Brands, has purchased a stake in the company in the realm of $90 million. Guzman y Gomez had announced plans to list on the ASX with a valuation of $2.2 billion. Credit: Richard Walker This will see Guzman y Gomez current major shareholder, TDM Growth Partners, sell down part of their stake, which will now be 26.2 per cent. Guzman y Gomez founder and boss Steven Marks said he was pleased to announce the upsizing of the IPO. This strong interest and appetite for our offer is a testament to the confidence in our business model, our team, and our vision for the future of fast food, Marks said in a statement. Like most young female retail workers, Rebecca Donaldson is harassed by male customers. Its nice watching you; I like seeing you bend down, the 23-year-old has been told as she pulls products from shelves. Donaldson feels powerless in the face of revolting comments from nameless men, who leer and disappear. Theyre the customers upon whom her job depends and who are, as the adage goes, always right. I thought, thats just part of the job, she said. Retail worker Rebecca Donaldson, who says she has been the victim of revolting comments at work. Credit: Jason South New research has exposed the extent of sexual harassment in the retail industry, in which vulnerable, young workers are routinely subjected to gendered and sexualised comments from strangers, co-workers and bosses. Its every day; its constantly there, said co-author Rae Cooper, from Sydney Universitys Australian Centre for Gender Equity and Inclusion, who analysed data and did in-depth interviews with workers, managers and employers. Jeans ran an experienced eye over the young Rovis, who was fresh from a couple of night shifts, and didnt like what he saw. At parade he said my hair was too long, and my pants werent creased properly. Jeans had him shipped off to the transport branch to work as a glorified valet, ferrying police cars between depots. Rovis was on night shift and bored when another young cop came in. Rovis encouraged the young officer to grab a police motorbike and take it for a joyride inside the large vehicle building. He crashed and broke his leg. The injured cop immediately blamed Rovis, who was sacked from transport duties and sent back to Russell Street. It was then that he started real policing, working at Collingwood, Prahran crime cars and then the major crime squad. At Collingwood, Rovis formed an unlikely alliance with the radical-left, draft-dodging doctor (later professor) Nick Crofts from the local Community Health Centre. They became a team when neighbours called emergency services after they became aware of an elderly woman who needed help. She had been lying motionless on her couch for days. Detective Senior Sergeant Lucio Rovis holds a backpack found at a murder scene. Credit: John Woodstra She had scurvy and needed to go to hospital, Crofts recalled. While she was recovering, Crofts and Rovis (always handy on the tools), took it upon themselves to fix her house. Rovis says the woman may have been frail, but she was far from helpless. She was shrewd as, he says. She was always ringing saying something needed to be fixed. I ended up nearly renovating her whole house. She played me on a break. During his stint with major crime he was encouraged to apply for the homicide squad, where he worked hundreds of cases, first as a senior detective, then a detective sergeant and finally as the head of a crew as a detective senior sergeant. Murder investigations need a special type of cop: one prepared to work long stints; sacrifice segments of their personal life; deal with horrific sites while showing compassion for the families of victims and, at times, empathy for the offenders. Rovis was one of a series of crew leaders who became the spine of the squad. They included Jeff Maher, Ron Iddles, Rowland Legg and Charlie Bezzina. The five stayed for years, refused to seek promotion, and became mentors to dozens of detectives. Because they were the ones who held the press conferences at murder scenes, they had higher profiles than many of their bosses. Eventually, for a number of reasons, these high profiles would work against them. Rovis was thrown in the deep end. His first investigation was the December 1985 mafia contract hit on Geelong pizza shop owner John Francis Di Quinzio. His body was found in sand dunes at Barwon Heads the following January, and the shotgun used to kill him was recovered from nearby Lake Connewarre. He went out and just didnt come home, says Rovis. Back then there were no CCTV, DNA or detailed credit card checks, and so homicide detectives had to gather information in different ways. The Big Five: Rowland Legg, Lucio Rovis, Charlie Bezzina, Ron Iddles and Jeff Maher. Police believed another man was present when Di Quinzio was abducted, but he was saying nothing. While he would not tell police what happened, detectives believed the man had confided in his wife, and so they hypnotised her. She was able to tell us what happened. But without the testimony of the witness, the case remains unsolved. Sometimes it is the cases that dont make headlines that have the greatest impact. Such as the mentally disturbed 19-year-old boy who killed and dismembered a friend. He had drawn a stick figure on a piece of paper with 30 cuts. It was his blueprint of what he was going to do. When we got there, the carpet squelched with blood. The crime scene was compromised, because 30 people, mostly police having a sticky beak, went in to look around. I asked them why, and just about every one of them said, I wanted to confirm he was dead. Well, the fact the victims head was in the bath was a pretty good clue, says Rovis. The offender did not stand trial because he was mentally unfit. The poor bugger was delusional. The case that brings Rovis to tears is the mother who drowned her children, aged two and five, and then killed herself. That sort of stuff knocks you around, he says. He asked for a police psychologist to come to the station to assist all the police involved. When I walked in, she said, Youre from homicide, you dont need a debrief, so I walked out. It was his homicide colleagues, he says, who provided the support. You might work 40 hours straight and then have a crew lunch to talk it through. Honestly, you were so tired you would just have a couple of beers and go home. Loading Rovis says the image of homicide detectives as big drinkers was a macho myth. There were a couple who might have had a problem with alcohol, but work always came first. One of the reasons Rovis is speaking publicly is he feels some want to paint the homicide detectives of his era as less than professional. There were so many great detectives who went through the squad, just champion blokes. The Big Five senior sergeants were able to interview and select new members of the squad, and Rovis is proud that he recruited women to break the all-male structure. After more than 20 years in homicide, the whispers started that the Big Five senior sergeants were in trouble, and for Rovis, the criticism was not that he was no longer performing ,but that he was working too hard. A man had attended a police station to report a murder, but the details were so sketchy he was fobbed off. When he returned with more details, Rovis and his crew took on the case. A Gippsland man had been murdered, and his body dumped in forests near Mirboo North. They started a search at a time when the police department was cracking down on excessive overtime. Rovis team had worked long hours, but if they knocked off they would have driven home, only to return the next day. We decided to push on and continue the search even though we werent going to be paid. Loading In the darkness, one of the crew asked Rovis, If we find the body, will you shout us a slab? I said, sure but what I didnt know is that the bastard had already found it. Three men were charged and convicted of the murder. Called into the bosses, he was expecting a pat on the back. Instead, he was criticised over the excessive hours. In May 2008, he was called in with Charlie Bezzina and the pair were told they were to be transferred. I was enjoying the work and thought I could perform at the top of my game for another five years. Instead, he was transferred to a taskforce. I would sign a few papers, go for a run, go to a movie in the afternoon and then go home. Eventually, the remaining three senior sergeants were moved. Rovis was on sick leave when then chief commissioner Christine Nixon turned up at his house. She offered my job back, but it was too late. Rovis did not return to work and retired. The onset of dementia could be predicted almost a decade before symptoms appear using a new test that researchers hope could lead to earlier support and improved treatments. The test, developed by an international research team including a neuroscientist from Monash University, was created by analysing MRI scans to detect changes in some parts of the brain. Associate Professor Adeel Razi was part of the international research team that developed a test that could predict the onset of dementia earlier. Credit: Penny Stephens The research team says the test can predict dementia with more than 80 per cent accuracy and up to nine years before a diagnosis. Dementia, which can cause memory loss and affect thinking, behaviour and mood, is the second leading cause of death in Australia after heart disease. It affects more than 55 million people worldwide, including more than 400,000 Australians. Hundreds of children with ultra-aggressive cancers have had their tumours shrunk or eradicated completely in a world-first program giving hope to every family with a child diagnosed with cancer in Australia. The Childrens Cancer Institute and the Kids Cancer Centre at Sydney Childrens Hospital launched the zero childhood cancer program in 2017 to provide personalised treatments to children whose cancer had relapsed or did not respond to standard therapies. Sean and Edwina Bradstreet say their daughter Scout is unrecognisable from the girl born with a brain tumour less than two years ago. Credit: Janie Barrett Now, the program is open to every child diagnosed with cancer in Australia, and the first study analysing its success published in the international journal Nature Medicine on Thursday. Of 256 children given a targeted treatment based on a molecular analysis of their cancer, 55 per cent had their tumour either disappear completely or shrink by at least half over six months. After two years, 26 per cent of children who received personalised therapies survived, more than double the rate of children on the standard treatment. The Baku Artificial Intelligence Forum brought together opinion leaders and industry experts to discuss the transformative potential of new technologies. Participants explored the latest trends in artificial intelligence, its real-world application and development perspectives. The forum also featured interactive panel discussions and seminars where attendees had a chance to participate in interesting discussions. Sabina Zamanova, Director of the Customer Services and Omni-Channel Management Department in Azercell highlighted the AI use-cases in the telecommunications sector and specifically its application in direct customer communication. S. Zamanova presented the audience Aicell, - the first Azerbaijani-speaking virtual assistant service in the country. The forum participants were especially impressed with Aicells ability to immediately address a wide range of customer inquiries in the native language eliminating the need for human intervention in many cases. Ms. Zamanova also stated that the virtual assistant's swift processing of inquiries allows Azercell to handle more requests faster, while significantly reducing customer wait times. This initiative aligns with Azercell's strategic goal of "Easing connectivity, empowering lives." By leveraging innovative technologies, the leading mobile operator is committed to continuously improving the customer experience and providing superior service. Universities assured Education Minister Jason Clare they had measures in place to deal with antisemitism on campuses within days of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, months before a wave of pro-Palestine student protests fuelled scrutiny of the sectors ability to balance free speech and student safety. But it took seven months for the tertiary regulator to make its first intervention and tell universities what they needed to do to quell tensions, despite vice chancellors having faced weeks of political pressure over their handling of student camps. Education Minister Jason Clare wrote to vice chancellors on October 11 seeking an urgent briefing on how they were protecting students from antisemitism and Islamophobia as hostilities escalated in the Middle East. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen Correspondence tabled in Senate estimates this week calls universities preparedness to deal with domestic fallout from the Israel-Hamas war into question, despite Clare and university heads discussing the risk of antisemitism just days after October 7. The fresh revelations came as the Coalition sharpened its critique of the tertiary sector, with Coalition MP Julian Leeser presenting a private members bill that would introduce a judicial inquiry with royal commission powers to investigate antisemitism on campuses. At Omaha Beach on Thursday the worlds leaders gathered to pay homage to those remarkable men who took the beaches that morning. They were joined by a dwindling number of veterans in a parade of wheelchairs to honour the dead, the living, and the fight for democracy in moving commemorations on and around those same beaches where they landed exactly 80 years ago. Shortly after midnight on June 6, 1944, Allied forces commenced landing airborne troops. (Audio from June 6, 1944 is embedded below; the first reports of the invasion on American radio, a recording from a US ship off the coast of Normandy as it comes under attack from a Nazi plane). American assault troops of the 16th Infantry Regiment, injured while storming Omaha Beach, wait for evacuation to a field hospital in this photo taken at Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944. At dawn, naval vessels would begin landing troops on beaches codenamed Utah and Omaha for the American forces, and Gold, Juno and Sword for the British and Canadians. About 156,000 soldiers landed on the Normandy beaches: 195,700 naval personnel on almost 7000 vessels. Although the bulk of the forces in the landings were British, American and Canadian, more than a dozen Allied nations participated in the operation. It remains the biggest seaborne invasion in history. Of the 4414 Allied troops killed on D-Day, 13 were Australians. In the ensuing Battle of Normandy, 73,000 Allied forces were killed and 153,000 wounded. The battle and especially Allied bombings of French villages and cities killed about 20,000 French civilians. Some call D-Day the successful beginning of the end of Hitlers tyrannical regime. Others refer to it as the most significant victory of the Western Allies in the Second World War. Among those at Thursdays commemorations was Ukraines President Volodomyr Zelensky, whose presence was met with loud applause, fusing World War IIs awful past with the fraught present. More applause followed when a giant screen showed the Ukrainian leader speaking and embracing US veterans. It was as if Reagans words of 40 years ago could have been repeated with as much relevance. And after two years of grinding combat in Ukraine, the US and Europe are still scrambling to increase weapons deliveries to Kyiv to counter Russian advances. The rise of China as a military power, meanwhile, is also driving a years-long pivot of US forces toward the Pacific and away from Europe and the Middle East. With US elections later this year, Trump the presumptive Republican presidential candidate has cast doubt over Washingtons long-term commitment to European allies that cut corners on military spending, raising questions about the willingness of the US to defend them against Russian aggression. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky embraces a veteran of D-Day at the 80th anniversary of the invasion, as his wife Olena and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau look on. Mindful of the war in Europe raging 80 years later following Russias invasion of Ukraine, US President Joe Biden, King Charles, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron all paid tribute to the tens of thousands of Allied troops who took part. Biden, at a cliff-top memorial commemorating the capture by American troops of a German gun battery, said D-Day showed the need for international alliances, in a pointed swipe at his election rival ex-president Donald Trump, who has publicly questioned the importance of organisations such as NATO. Were living in a time when democracy is more at risk across the world than at any point since the end of World War II, Biden said. Make no mistake, the autocrats of the world are watching closely to see what happens in Ukraine; to see if we let this illegal aggression go unchecked, he said. We cannot let that happen. To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators, is simply unthinkable. He was unequivocal on ongoing American support for Ukraine: Ukrainians are fighting with extraordinary courage, suffering great losses, but never backing down. They have inflicted on the Russian aggression tremendous losses. We will not walk away. Because if we do, Ukraine will be subjugated. War again has come to Europe. This image shows a drone view of a building damaged by Russia in the centre of Kyiv. Credit: Getty He then echoed Reagans message: Isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago and is not the answer today, and added that real alliances make us stronger a lesson that I pray we Americans never forget. In his address earlier in the morning, the King who has made only a few public appearances since his cancer diagnosis in February told the crowd that the world was fortunate that a generation did not flinch when they were called upon. Our obligation to remember what they stood for and what they achieved for us all can never diminish, he said, wearing his Field Marshal No 4 Tropical Service dress uniform with medals and decorations. Speaking in French, he paid tribute to those who faced what he said his grandfather George VI had described as the supreme test, honouring the unimaginable number of French civilians killed in the battle for Normandy, and the bravery and sacrifice of the French Resistance. D-Day veterans are applauded by the crowd after a parade with a Royal Guard Of Honour in Arromanches-les-Bains, France. Credit: Getty He also spoke of the war against tyranny, leaving those in attendance with no doubt he was referring to current-day events. We recall the lesson that comes to us, again and again, across the decades: free nations must stand together to oppose tyranny, he said. In February this year, to mark the second anniversary of the countrys invasion, the King released a statement railing against the indescribable aggression Ukraine faced from Russia. Unlike the late Queen, whose thoughts were seldom heard, Charles view on Russia is well known. In 2014, when he was still Prince of Wales, Charles spoke of Russias annexation of Crimea. In a conversation he assumed had been private, Charles said: Now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler. US Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who directed the invasion, gives the order of Full victory, nothing else to paratroopers in England on June 6, 1944, just before they boarded their planes for the first assault. Credit: AP In the build-up to this years commemorations, a survey undertaken by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission found that nearly half of young adults in Britain do not know what D-Day is. Only 48 per cent of people aged 18 to 34 recognised D-Day as the date that Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy, while it rose to 59 per cent when surveyed across all age groups. One in five (21 per cent) young people said they did not know what D-Day was at all, while 12 per cent believed it was the day that Germany surrendered to the Allied Forces unconditionally. The figures were hijacked this week in Britain by right-populist Nigel Farage. But the significance of the day is not, however, lost across the channel. In the villages of Normandy, homes and main street stores flew the US, UK and Canadian flags as well as their own to mark the occasions. At the top of those infamously steep cliffs where Nazi guns and cannons sat 80 years ago they flocked to catch a glimpse of commemorations. Macron said France would not forget how they left their homes and risked their lives to bring freedom. He told those gathered that such ceremonies in Normandy were important as they spoke of his nations debt towards those who fell, and those who survived. Loading In Saint-Lo, a town near the D-Day beaches that writer Samuel Beckett described as the capital of ruins, Macron had paid tribute to the civilian victims of Allied bombings. He hailed the inhabitants of this martyred city, sacrificed to liberate France, more than 90 per cent of which was destroyed after the D-Day landings. Macron sees the D-Day commemorations as a moment to rally members of NATO; shore up support for Ukraine; and remind the public of the human toll that preceded decades of relative peace on the continent. Unlike the 70th anniversary festivities, where Russias leader Vladimir Putin had been welcomed just a few months after illegally annexing Ukraines Crimea peninsula, neither the Russian president nor his countrys officials were, precisely because of the protracted war. In recent months Macron has not ruled out the possibility of sending French troops to Ukraine a suggestion that has sparked controversy among his allies and angered Russia. French officials have been considering sending French and European military instructors to Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska arrive at the international ceremony at Omaha Beach. Credit: AP The French leader pinned medals on 11 US veterans who struggled to get to their feet, inducting them into the Legion of Honour, Frances highest order of merit. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. The work carried out within the framework of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) further strengthens the unity of the Turkic world, Azerbaijani political expert Azer Garayev told Trend. "On June 6, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev received the Secretary General of TurkPA (Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic States) Mehmet Sureyya Er, the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkiye Numan Kurtulmus, the Speaker of the Kazakhstan Parliament's Low Chamber Yerlan Koshanov, the Speaker of Kyrgyzstan's Supreme Council Nurlanbek Shakiev, the Chairwoman of the Senate of Uzbekistan's Parliament Tanzila Narbaeva, the Speaker of the Assembly of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Zorlu Tore, and the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary Marta Matrai. During the meeting, the head of state noted that strengthening the Turkic world and relations with Turkic states have been defined as priority directions of Azerbaijan's foreign policy," he said. Garayev emphasized that the head of state also touched upon the work done by Azerbaijan to unite the Turkic world. "The work conducted within the framework of the Organization of Turkic States enhances our unity even more. Azerbaijan, being part of the Turkic world, is actively working towards enhancing the unity of this community. The steps taken to enhance connections and broaden collaboration among Turkic states are crucial in attaining shared objectives. The upcoming informal high-level summit of the Organization of Turkic States, scheduled to be held in Shusha in a month, holds great importance for the growth and progress of the OTS. Nevertheless, it is insufficient to only hold a high-level meeting once a year; ongoing communication is essential. The summit will focus on discussing transport and climate issues. Establishing and expanding connections are crucial for uniting the Turkic world, and the Middle Corridor plays a significant role in this endeavor.," he said. The expert emphasized that the President of Azerbaijan also noted the special importance of Turkic states in the restoration and construction work being carried out on the liberated lands, and the active participation of companies from Turkiye in the implementation of large-scale projects on these territories was pointed out. "In general, the meeting of the head of state with the speakers of the parliaments of the TurkPA member countries reflects important steps taken towards strengthening the unity of the Turkic world. The ideas emphasized in the head of state's speech and the implemented activities play an important role in protecting Azerbaijan's national interests and strengthening ties between Turkic states. This policy not only strengthens Azerbaijan's independence but also contributes to the unity of the Turkic world," Garayev concluded. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. The Baku Network expert platform has aired the next episode of the 'Dialogue with Tofig Abbasov' analytical video project, Trend reports. The program welcomed Rasim Musabayov, Azerbaijani MP, as an invited guest. He brought up the topic of normalization between the two countries and said that a window of opportunity for peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia has opened up. By working and negotiating with Armenia, Azerbaijan shows its support for peace. Now the opportunity for peace has ripened up, he said. Musabayov observed that Moscow, Brussels, Washington, and Tehran have expressed satisfaction with the progress of Azerbaijan and Armenia toward peace, despite the international arena's conflicts and contradictions. Stay up-to-date with more news at Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. The delegation led by the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Colonel General Ruslan Zhaksylykov paid an official visit to Azerbaijan on June 7, Trend reports via the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan. The Kazakh delegation first visited the graves of the National Leader of the Azerbaijani people Heydar Aliyev and prominent ophthalmologist, academician Zarifa Aliyeva in the Alley of Honor and laid flowers. In the Alley of Shehids (Martyrs) the visitors laid flowers at the graves of Shehids, who sacrificed their lives for the independence and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. They laid a wreath at the Eternal Flame monument. Then, the Azerbaijan Defense Ministry hosted a solemn welcoming ceremony, both Defense Ministers passed along the guard of honor. The national anthems of both countries accompanied by the military orchestra were performed. In accordance with the protocol, Colonel General R.Zhaksylykov signed the Book of Honor. Colonel General Z.Hasanov greeted his Kazakh colleague and expressed satisfaction with seeing him in Azerbaijan. Noting that bilateral military cooperation between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan is based on friendly and fraternal relations, the Minister emphasized the importance of developing cooperation in military-technical, military education and other fields. Colonel General R.Zhaksylykov expressed gratitude to his Azerbaijani colleague for warm reception. Noting that such visits are of particular importance and serve to further strengthen the defense cooperation between both armies, the Kazakh Minister invited Colonel General Z.Hasanov to the Distinguished Visitors Day of (Unity) - 2024 operational-tactical command-staff exercise to be held in Aktau in July, 2024. The meeting mentioned the importance of conducting joint exercises in order to further raise the professional levels of the servicemen from both countries. At the meeting, which was attended by the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan Mr. Alim Bayel, a wide range of views were exchanged on a number of issues of common interest. The meeting ended with signing a document on cooperation in the military field between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Stay up-to-date with more news at Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree on changes to the list of officials provided with special state communication, Trend reports. According to the decree, the chairman of the Center for Military Patriotism and Specialist Training LLC was excluded from the list of officials provided with special state communication. Stay up-to-date with more news at Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel Ballina Chamber has been named as Chamber of the Year at the 2024 Chamber Awards. The annual awards, hosted by Chambers Ireland and sponsored by Zurich, recognise the hard work and dedication of Chambers across the country in representing their members, engaging stakeholders, and fostering vibrant and thriving local communities. This year there were 44 projects shortlisted across eight award categories, showcasing innovative communications campaigns, successful events, sustainable development initiatives, and creative collaborations between companies, local authorities and wider communities. As well as the eight categories, there was a Special Recognition for Excellence Award for Letterkenny Chamber, commending their exceptional achievements and dedicated activity over the past year. The evening then culminated in the final award of the evening for Chamber of the Year, which was presented to Mags Downey Martin, CEO of Ballina Chamber. Ballina Chamber was recognised for its consistent activity, innovative ideas and positive engagement with both its membership and the wider community in Ballina over the past year. Fiona Candon, President of Chambers Ireland, said: Congratulations to Ballina Chamber worthy winners of the 2024 Chamber of the Year Award. The quality of applications this year has been exceptionally high and competition for this coveted award was significant. It is no small feat to be recognised at a national level for exceptional diligence and dedication to the business community when the standard is so high across the Chamber network. Over the past year, Ballina Chamber stood out for how impressively they have communicated with their members, engaged with their local community in Ballina and the surrounding regions, and built effective working relationships with local and national representatives and organisations." A North Mayo woman did not receive abusive messages about her role in the provision of accommodation for asylum seekers in the days before her sudden death, an inquest has determined. The body of Elizabeth Liz Keane, aged 50, of the Old Deanery Cottages, Killala was found in the water near Killala Pier on April 6, 2023, by a local angler. An inquest into her death was heard at Ballina Courthouse last Thursday. The inquest heard that Ms Keane had been the owner of the Old Deanery Cottages, a self-catering accommodation provider in Killala, until its sale to Mark Devaney, a hotelier, in March 2023. Mr Devaney was not present at the inquest but provided a statement. He told the inquest that he had met with Ms Keane on several occasions and she was aware that the Cottages were to be used to house families who arrived in Ireland as International Protection Applicants (IPAS). It was agreed that Ms Keane would remain involved with the Cottages and help to run the IPAS facility. Mr Devaney said he received a call from Ms Keane on April 1, 2023, in which she expressed anxiety over her role. Some 50 IPAS applicants had arrived at the Cottages in the previous days. Mr Devaney told her his colleague, Shane Scott - whom he described as "a hospitality consultant" - would be there to help her run the facility. Witness said Ms Keane was "reassured" by this. Mr Scott, who attended the inquest, said Ms Keane told him there had been an incident on April 4 where four individuals walked through the Cottages site. She asked them to leave and they left, but only went as far as across the road from the Cottages. Mr Scott said there had been no direct hostility regarding the IPAS residents at the Old Deanery Cottages but reports appeared in the local media about the change of use of the facility. Mr Scott said he last spoke with Ms Keane on Wednesday, April 5, over the phone and was "incredibly shocked and upset" to hear of her death. Her body was recovered from the water in Killala on Thursday, April 6, after it was discovered by a local fisherman. Ms Keanes GP Dr Joe Gilvarry pronounced her death. Dr Gilvarry told the inquest that Ms Keane was not only a patient, but a close friend. He said she had never presented with any signs of self-harm or suicidal inclinations. Her death came "totally out of the blue". Sgt Jonathan Petrie carried out an analysis of Ms Keanes phone. There were no phone calls, messages, images or videos that intimated a threat towards Ms Keane on the device. CCTV footage from the area showed Ms Keane walking past the Killala Coastguard building and towards the pier on the morning of April 6. Dr Fedal Bennani, consultant pathologist, said his colleague Dr Tamas Nemeth carried out a post-mortem which found that the deceased's lungs were heavier than normal due to an influx of water. A blood analysis found no trace of alcohol and there were normal amounts of a prescribed medication. Dr Bennani said Ms Keane had died of asphyxiation due to drowning. Coronor Dr Eleanor Fitzgerald said this was a complex case of a young woman who had recently gone through a change in life from owning the Cottages to having sold them and beginning work as a facility manager. Dr Fitzgerald said there had been rumours circulating that Ms Keane had received abusive messages regarding the sale of the Cottages for use by IPAS families but the evidence showed there were no such messages. Giving a narrative verdict, she said there was no evidence that Ms Keane had been pushed in, nor was there evidence to suggest she had ended her own life and it was possible that she had slipped into the water. She said the facts of what had happened is that Ms Keane had walked down by the pier at around 8am and her body was recovered at around 11am. Dr Fitzgerald offered her sympathies to Ms Keanes family and friends on her sudden passing. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. A Practical Action Plan (Roadmap) for the Development of Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation for 20242025 has been signed between Azerbaijan's Parliament and the Senate of the Parliament of Uzbekistan, a source in the Azerbaijani parliament told Trend. According to the source, the document was signed by the Chair of the Azerbaijani Parliament, Sahiba Gafarova, and by the Chair of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan, Tanzila Narbayeva. During the signing ceremony, it was pointed out that the high level of relations between the leaders of the two friendly and brotherly states stimulates further expansion of ties between the legislative bodies as well. The importance of the signed roadmap for further deepening cooperation between the parliaments of the two countries was also emphasized. To note, the document includes provisions related to the organization of mutual visits, the exchange of experience in legislative activities, interaction in international parliamentary organizations, and other issues. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel For political egg-heads the prospect of three elections local, EU and general is manna from heaven but for those who at best tolerate elections, not so much! And not too far ahead, for the really smitten election enthusiast, theres the added bonus of the American presidential contest on November 5, a prospect that, in the crazy world of American politics, has now moved beyond expectation and reason. Indeed its a measure of how skewed American politics has become that, in the weeks before Donald Trump was deemed a convicted felon by a New York court, the New York Times ran a feature article headed: Trump could soon be a felon. Does it matter? The gist of the answer was: probably not that much. Despite that, last Thursdays conviction, a red-letter day in American political history, brought a collective intake of breath and a slow release of air. In Friday mornings Irish Times, the American correspondent, Keith Duggan, in computing how polarising the effect of the conviction in a divided America might be, compared it to pouring gasoline on a fire thats already burning. Trumps son-in-law, Jared, predicted that the day Trump was convicted would go down in history as the day Trump won the forthcoming election in November. Yet strangely the trial itself even with the truly extraordinary prospect of a presumptive Republican nominee being convicted as a felon and with the added prospect of him actually going to jail hadnt generated the expected publicity. A recent Yahoo News/YouGov poll indicated that only 16% were following the trial very closely and an additional 32% following it somewhat closely. Another poll indicated that over half of the respondents, which included two-thirds of Republicans and two-fifths of Democrats, believed that it was somewhat or very unlikely that Trump would be found guilty. Compare the huge statistics watching the OJ Simpson trial for murder in the 1990s and it shows how the Trump trial passed under the radar for many Americans. The fact that it didnt receive blanket coverage on television may have contributed to this, as in America if something is not on television, it doesnt exist, even a block away. On this side of the Atlantic, this presidential campaign (and those of 2016 and 2020) have served to convince most people that America, when it comes to elections, is on a different planet from us. In Ireland we have, to say the least, a more adult approach to politics and politicians. Thats not to say that we havent had our share of gluggers who havent brought much honour on themselves or on their parties. But, in comparison, with the Donald Trump era, theres no contest as we stand head and shoulders over the standards and values that underpin American politics. Heres a profile of Trump who is at present leading Biden in national polling averages since March by 41.2% to 39.5%: An unapologetic womaniser (by common consent); a sexual abuser (as a jury in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case concluded); a conspiracy theorist and a conspirer (for whom truth is what he says it is and anything else is fake news'); a politician who, if elected, has laid out the following strategy for ruling America: (i) promising a scorched earth campaign against his enemies; (ii) indicating that he would withdraw American economic and military support from Ukraine (and thereby effectively facilitate a Russian victory); (iii) threatening to emasculate NATO (and thereby place the security of Eastern Europe and the EU at risk); and (iv) planning a vast repatriation of immigrants from America regardless of the consequences for them or for America. And now since Thursday last outed as a criminal who is currently the favourite in an election not just for the presidency of the USA but as the uncontested leader of the free world. If an Irish politician shared the above profile, not only would every party spurn him but he would be dismissed as a pariah and humiliated at the polls a hopeless case, as at best a figure of fun but clearly never to be given any responsibility. Least of all, for the nuclear button! Between ourselves and America there is an Atlantic-size ocean that somehow precludes understanding. Irish people are mesmerised by the value system or lack of a moral sense that underpins American politics and sometimes American society. This is a country that imagines that safety and security is assured rather than compromised by allowing everyone and anyone to buy guns simply by walking into a shop on practically any high street in America. The fact that this insane policy has the opposite effect is somehow lost on the American public even though its blatant insanity is consistently highlighted by an endless series of outrages committed by individuals with mental health problems using lethal weapons to attack and kill children in schools. While both Ireland and America have had difficult histories with more than enough guns, in Ireland it would be unconscionable to have a gun in a school while in America theres a campaign to place armed police around schools to defend (with good reason) the children from the American romance with the six-gun and its modern and lethal equivalents. It is instructive that Trump himself once boasted he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue in New York and shoot someone without it affecting his popularity. Trumps conviction as a felon for a former American president and a possible future American president is a first in American political history. If the American electorate cannot join the dots and learn the obvious lesson of what his conviction represents, the future looks grim for America and the world. Voting for Trump is like turkeys voting for Christmas. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. France transferred about two million euros to the account of Rashid Beglaryan, accused of participation in the Khojaly genocide, Trend reports. The fact was revealed during the investigation. The trial over Beglaryan, under the chairmanship of Fuzuli Military Court's Judge Ali Suleymanov, is being held in the Sabunchu district court. Beglaryan was provided with a lawyer and translator in court at the expense of the state. According to him, French citizens "donated" the above funds "as aid". As for Beglaryans crimes committed during the Khojaly tragedy, of which he was a participant and witness, he spoke about this in detail in his document entitled Beglaryans combat path. He wrote that he began his combat path in the third detachment, led by Murad Petrasyan. Beglaryan fought as part of this detachment and carried out the instructions of the commander. He admitted that this detachment blew up a bridge on Azerbaijan's Aghdam-Shusha road, destroying columns of Turks. Subsequently, he himself became the commander of the detachment. During the battles in Khojaly and Khojavand, Beglaryan was wounded eight times; during that period, he was awarded a medal for the defense of the homeland. To note, Beglaryan was detained in August 2023. Beglaryan, suspected of torturing Azerbaijani prisoners of war and individuals safeguarded by international humanitarian law, previously held in Khankendi city's Children's Hospital No. 3 under restraint, engaging in other serious offenses against peace and humanity, war crimes, and involvement in Armenian illegal armed groups, has been arrested on charges under Articles 112, 113, 115.2, 279.1, and 318.1 of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan. The individuals subjected to the mentioned torture have been identified and acknowledged as victims in the criminal case. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel Seminar: Older Persons, Care Needs and Social Grants When: Tuesday, 11 June 2024 - Tuesday, 11 June 2024 Where: Hybrid Event Parktown Management Campus 2 St David's Place, Parktown, Johannesburg, 2193 Start time: 14:00 Enquiries: kitso.kgaboesele@wits.ac.za RSVP: Register here Cost: Free but registration is required SCIS warmly invites you to a seminar with Prof Elana Moore titled Older Persons, Care Needs and Social Grants on 11 June 2024, 14:00 - 15:00 (SAST) The Southern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS) is pleased to welcome Professor Elena Moore who will discuss her latest research on Older Persons, Care Needs, and Social Grants. Older persons in South Africa are aided by government-funded non-contributory pensions. The seminar will draw on a recent report that tells the story of the financial lives of older person grant beneficiaries and raises questions for reviewing ageing policy and better meeting the needs of older persons. A lot of the research on the Older Persons Grant focuses on the poverty-alleviating aspects of the grant, especially at a household level. There has been little attention paid to the outcomes for older persons at an individual level, particularly in relation to their needs such as their care needs, access to health, nutrition, assistive devices etc. Policy makes the assumptions that older persons get the grant, therefore they dont invest more on funding services, even though it is widely known that the grant is used for households not older persons alone. The report therefore examines how the older persons needs are being met especially in relation to the actual outcomes that are possible given the amount of money that is available. For a more detailed understanding of state financing of elder care, please read the Funding Elder Care in South Africa report alongside this report. About the speaker: Professor Elena Moore is with the Department of Sociology at the University of Cape Town. She is author of Generation, Gender and Negotiating Custom in South Africa (Routledge, 2022), Divorce, Families and Emotion Work (Palgrave, 2017) and (with Chuma Himonga) Reform of Customary Marriage, Divorce and Succession in South Africa (Juta & Co. 2015), as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters. She is also a recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award 2021, University of Cape Town. Moore obtained a Wellcome Career Award, 2023-2028 to develop and grow a research programme in Family Caregiving of Older Persons In Southern Africa (www.familycaregiving.org.za) Model law for protection against SLAPP suits CALS and the Right2Protest project launch a model law for protection from strategic litigation against public participation On Tuesday, 11 June 2024, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) and the Right2Protest Project (R2P) launch a model law for protection from strategic litigation against public participation otherwise known as SLAPP suits. We believe this can serve as an example of legislation that needs to be adopted by Parliament in order to protect activists and journalists whose rights to freedom of expression are threatened by malicious litigation. To mark 48 years since the 1976 Soweto Uprising, the Right2Protest Project (R2P) will be hosting a series of events under the theme The Future of Freedom of Expression in Africa. The first event in this series will see R2P coalition member organisation the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) launching a model law for protection from strategic litigation against public participation otherwise known as SLAPP suits. The launch will include a panel discussion featuring journalist Anton Harber, lecturer Dr Keneilwe Radebe and activist Davine Witbooi. SLAPP suits are a tactic used around the world by powerful entities to threaten, silence and intimidate their critics and take up their already limited resources defending against meritless litigation. These kinds of cases can have potentially devastating consequences for activists and journalists acting in the public interest and threatens the right to freedom of expression. In 2022, SLAPP suits were recognised by the Constitutional Court as a form of abuse of court process. We argue, however, that South Africa needs comprehensive legislation to protect against SLAPP suits, define a test for this kind of litigation, and to provide remedies for victims of SLAPP suits. CALS has therefore developed a model law which offers an example of what this legislation could look like. We aim to align South Africa with international standards for the protection of human rights defenders and promote the protection of members of the public who exercise and uphold constitutional rights in the public interest. South Africas constitutional democracy is built on the principles of transparency, accountability and public participation, says Sithuthukile Mkhize, head of Civil and Political Justice at CALS. The state is obligated to promote and protect constitutional rights such as the right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. SLAPP suits threaten these constitutionally protected rights, undermine public participation and negatively affect the constitutional principles of a free and open society. The right to freedom of assembly continues to be youth-led across the continent, with many youth protesters becoming targets of repressive tactics in their fight for the individual and collective freedom of expression, says Omhle Ntshingila, project co-ordinator at R2P. As South Africa commemorates 48 years since the 16 June 1976 massacre, R2P and CALS seek to reflect on the progress and current challenges in the promotion and protection of the freedom of assembly and freedom of expression. Event : Launch of model law for the protection against SLAPP suits : Launch of model law for the protection against SLAPP suits Date : 11 June 2024 : 11 June 2024 Time : 17:00 : 17:00 Venue: Origins Centre, Wits University Find a copy of the model law here. For inquiries, please contact: From the Centre for Applied Legal Studies: Busisiwe Kamolane-Kgadima (Acting Director) at kamolane@wits.ac.za Sithuthukile Mkhize (Head: Civil and Political Justice) at mkhize@wits.ac.za From the Right2Protest Project: Photo: Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov has met with Speaker of the Assembly of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Zorlu Tore, the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers told Trend. During the meeting, the significance of the 13th plenary session of TURKPA, hosted in Baku, was underscored. The parties emphasized the pivotal role of the Organization of Turkic States in fortifying and broadening relations among Turkic peoples, grounded in historical connections. Additionally, discussions encompassed cooperation across various domains between Azerbaijan and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Stay up-to-date with more news at Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. Assistant to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Executive Director of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Anar Alakbarov, who is on a visit to Ankara, met with First Lady of the Republic of Turkiye Emine Erdogan, Trend reports. Turkish First Lady Emine Erdogan shared a post regarding the meeting on her official account on X. The sides exchanged views on the preparations for the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is scheduled to be held in Baku, as well as cooperation regarding the event. Turkish First Lady once again expressed her joy that Azerbaijan will host the important climate-related event, which will bring together all the worlds leaders. "As Turkiye, we always stand by our brotherly Azerbaijan," Emine Erdogan said. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. The final declaration of the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue: Dialogue for Peace and Global Security: Cooperation and Interconnectivity, which was held in Baku from May 1 to 3, has been published as a document of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 78), the Azerbaijan's Permanent Mission to UN said, Trend reports. It was highlighted that the Baku Process initiative, introduced by President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in 2008, received commendation in the speeches of the UN Secretary-General and official documents of the organization as a significant global effort for intercultural dialogue. This underscores the international acknowledgment of Azerbaijan's contribution, under President Ilham Aliyev's leadership, to global peace, security, and intercultural dialogue. The 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, convened by the Government of Azerbaijan in collaboration with UNESCO, the UN Alliance of Civilizations, the World Tourism Organization, and the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), saw the participation of distinguished guests and experts from over 100 countries. The forum featured four plenary sessions and 12 panel discussions on pertinent topics. Additionally, several sessions of the forum took place in Shusha and Aghdam. Stay up-to-date with more news at Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. On June 7th, Azerbaijan's national air carrier, AZAL, completed its inaugural flight to the capital of Bulgaria Sofia, Trend reports viaAzerbaijan Airlines CJSC. An official event was held at Sofia International Airport to mark the arrival of Azerbaijan Airlines' first flight. The event was attended by Huseyn Huseynov, the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Bulgaria; Jesus Caballero, CEO of SOF Connect; Kamran Gajar, Representative for the European region of the Sales and Partnership Department of Azerbaijan Airlines, as well as official guests and media representatives. The significance of launching direct flights between Azerbaijan and Bulgaria was emphasized at the event, highlighting the importance of strengthening interstate relations. The launch of this route will create new opportunities for tourism development and cultural exchange between the two historically rich countries. Flights en route Baku-Sofia-Baku will be operated on Tuesdays and Fridays. Sofia, the capital and largest city of Bulgaria, attracts tourists with its rich history and cultural landmarks. To purchase air tickets, please visit the official website www.azal.az, use the renewed mobile app of the airline, or approach to the ticket offices or accredited agencies of Azerbaijan Airlines. Press Service of Azerbaijan Airlines CJSC BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. Austrian companies are eager to benefit Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, a source in the CJSC told Trend. The issue was discussed during the meeting of Chairman of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC (ADY) Rovshan Rustamov with Chairman of the Board of the Austrian Federal Railways Company Andreas Mattha, leaders of Rail Cargo, and other leading transport and logistics companies in Austria during Rustamov's visit to Vienna. The meeting thoroughly examined the current state of cooperation, along with the potential for joint collaboration to efficiently coordinate freight transportation between China and Europe and establish return freight within the framework of the Middle Corridor. Furthermore, there was talk about the ins and outs of transporting goods from Black Sea ports to various European countries. Simultaneously, details were shared regarding the enhanced capabilities of the modernized BTK railway line, aimed at boosting the competitiveness of the Middle Corridor. It has now begun its freight operations. The leaders of the Austrian companies have shown a keen interest in tapping into the potential of the Middle Corridor, especially the BTK railway line. It is worth mentioning that the BTK, which spans a total length of 846 km, was inaugurated towards the end of 2017. The railway spans 504 km in Azerbaijan, 263 km in Georgia, and 79 km in Turkiye. As of May 20, 2024, the BTK's capacity has been expanded to accommodate five million tons of cargo transportation annually. The BTK forms an integral part of the Middle Corridor system. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel Sophie Poirier (L) talks with Zeng Ming, general manager of Wanzai Kaleidoscope Culture and Tourism Company, about a fireworks drama in Wanzai ancient town, east China's Jiangxi Province, Dec. 9, 2022. Sophie Poirier, a French artistic director of Wanzai Kaleidoscope Culture and Tourism Company, has been obsessed with Chinese culture since she was a child. In her childhood, she often fantasized that she was a Chinese princess. In 1991, as a designer of ECA2, a well-known French large-scale event maker, Poirier went to the Beijing Amusement Park and brought her very first dreamlike laser water curtain film to the Chinese audience. She has also designed performances for many well-known tourist destinations. Though Poirier has extensive experience in performance design, she fell in love with the small stage of Wanzai, an ancient town with nearly a 1,400-year history of producing fireworks, following a collaboration invitation of Zeng Ming, general manager of Wanzai Kaleidoscope Culture and Tourism Company. Poirier teamed up with Zeng's company to develop fireworks drama shows, which integrate fireworks, local characteristic culture and new media application into a distinctive cultural mark for the Wanzai scenic spot. She even adopted modern lighting settings and special effects equipment to create an immersive art experience for the audience. Her innovation once attracted up to over 50,000 tourists to enjoy the firework feast in Wanzai. Poirier's fireworks drama "Love of Fireworks" has become Wanzai's major magnet for its visitors. Chinese firework brands were once rare to see in Europe, but now they can be spotted in many large-scale competitions and events there, Poirier recalled. She hopes to create more splendid firework shows with Chinese characteristics and let more people know about Wanzai fireworks. [Xinhua/Zhu Yunuo] Tourists visit the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, capital of China, May 2, 2024. [Xinhua/Ju Huanzong] When Josie from Australia first came to Shanghai, she captured many heartwarming moments she came across through lens. When the Wynns from the United States toured southwest China's Yunnan Province, they marveled that it might be the most beautiful place they had ever beheld. Recently, more and more foreign tourists are flocking to China. Popular tourist attractions in the country such as Shanghai Disneyland Resort and Oriental Pearl Tower are swarming with international tourists. A series of data highlighted the growing popularity of China as a tourist destination among international travelers. During the first quarter of 2024, inbound trips by foreign nationals reached 13.1 million, a year-on-year increase of 305.2 percent, said the National Immigration Administration of China. Some travel platforms reported that inbound tourism bookings during the May Day holiday soared by over 100 percent year-on-year. Behind the increasing number of inbound tourists are China's efforts in expanding its visa-free "circle of friends" and creating more favorable conditions to cater to the needs of international travelers. An increasing number of countries have been added to China's visa exemption list. In November 2023, China initiated a unilateral visa-free policy for ordinary passport holders from six countries; In March this year, six additional European countries were included. In late January, China and Thailand signed an agreement on mutual visa exemption which came effect on March 1. More recently in May, China decided to extend visa exemption entry for citizens from 12 countries on short-term visits to China until the end of 2025. The visa-free policy has encouraged a greater flow of people between China and the world. For example, according to the Geneva office of Air China, a total of 6,364 passengers traveled between Geneva and Beijing in March 2024 following the visa exemption, up 374.9 percent from a year earlier. Meanwhile, China is making continuous efforts to enhance convenience for foreign friends. In January, China implemented a set of measures to facilitate the entry of foreign nationals into China for business, education and tourism, including a relaxation of port visa application requirements. China has also taken intensive steps to smooth payments for foreign travelers. In March, China released a guideline to optimize payment services of bank cards, promoting cash use and facilitating mobile payment. In major payment service providers such as Alipay and WeChat Pay, foreign users can link their international credit cards, including Visa and Mastercard, to these platforms. More payment facilities, together with guides and instructions, have been added in scenic spots, shops, metro stations and hotels, greatly assisting foreigners with payment issues. The visa-free policy and preferential measures serve as an impetus for foreign travelers to embark on exploratory journeys throughout China and experience the land at first hand. Many of them share their travel Vlogs in China on social media platforms such as TikTok and YouTube, offering fresh perspectives for the world to discover a hospitable China. Steve and Ivana, Canadian travel bloggers, were quite nervous about their trip to China at first, as they had been exposed to some negative information about China. However, the couple completely let go of their concerns after a six-day visit to Shanghai. They continued their trip in more cities in China, and posted their travel Vlogs on YouTube, capturing nearly 6 million views. Having been informed of some stereotypes about China before, Stefano Mirabella from Italy also derived new perceptions of the country from the latest trip. "Everyone greeted me with smiles and was willing to help me whenever I faced difficulties. I am looking forward to visiting China again," said Mirabella. (Source: Xinhua) Editor: Wang Shasha Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulates via video link the signing of an intergovernmental agreement in Beijing, capital of China on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project, June 6, 2024. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) Chinese President Xi Jinping, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on Thursday congratulated via video link the signing of an intergovernmental agreement in Beijing on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project. Xi pointed out that the railway is a strategic project of connectivity between China and the Central Asia and a landmark project of the three countries' cooperation efforts under the Belt and Road Initiative. He said the signing of the intergovernmental agreement will provide a solid legal basis for the construction of the project, marking the transition of the railway from a vision into a reality, and demonstrating to the world the firm determination of the three countries to promote cooperation and seek development together. China is ready to work with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to prepare for the launch of the project and build this strategic corridor at an early date to benefit the three countries and their peoples and boost the economic and social development of the region, Xi said. Japarov said the railway is a flagship project of the three countries in jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative. Once completed, it will become a new transport route linking Asia to Europe and the Persian Gulf countries, which is of great significance to promoting connectivity and strengthening economic and trade exchanges among the countries along the route and in the region as a whole, he said. It is hoped that the railway will be completed and put into operation at an early date to provide new impetus for the common development of the region and the well-being of people in all countries, Japarov added. Mirziyoyev said the signing ceremony is of historic significance and a substantial step forward in building regional connectivity. He said the railway will become the shortest land channel between China and the Central Asian countries, and open up the big markets of the South Asian and Middle East countries. This will help further expand cooperation with China and deepen friendly relations between countries in the region, and serve the long-term interests of all countries, Mirziyoyev added. Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov congratulates via video link the signing of an intergovernmental agreement in Beijing, capital of China on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project, June 6, 2024. [Xinhua/Xing Guangli] Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev congratulates via video link the signing of an intergovernmental agreement in Beijing, capital of China on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project, June 6, 2024. [Xinhua/Xing Guangli] A signing ceremony of an intergovernmental agreement on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project is held in Beijing, capital of China, June 6, 2024. [Xinhua/Xing Guangli] (Source: Xinhua) Editor: Wang Shasha BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. Six charging points run on green energy have been installed in Azerbaijan's Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur, a source in Azerishig OJSC told Trend. According to the source, the points are located in the digital control centers of the electrical network in Zangilan and Jabrayil, at the Khojaly and Shusha-1 substations, the Fuzuli digital substation, as well as the Hadrut hub substation. The source said that in accordance with the order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on promotion of the use of electric vehicles, the OJSC continues to work in this direction. Ahead of the upcoming COP29 in the country, the necessary infrastructure of charging points is built in the capital and regions, which are provided with stable electricity, the source explained. Moreover, the source said that the provision of the points with green energy serves to protect the environment. Meanwhile, according to the source, the points installed by Azerishig OJSC with high power and fast, stable current charge electric vehicles in a short time with high-quality electricity. The source also said that from March through May of this year, installation work was completed in Baku at the Training and Innovation Center of Azerishig OJSC, at the Icherisheher substation, at the Sea Breeze-1 substation with a capacity of 110/35 kV, located in Nardaran village of the Sabunchu district, on the territory of a trading enterprise located on the Gala-Mardakan highway. Besides, the charging points have been installed at the Hajialili substation with a capacity of 110/35/10 kV in Gabala and on the 71st kilometer of the Alat-Astara road in Salyan. The installation process for the charging points will be continued both in the capital and in the regions. The country where 2024 has been declared the Year of Solidarity for a Green World is taking serious steps in the development of alternative energy sources. The installation of charging points in Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur, which will become a green energy zone in the future, is a continuation of these projects. The use of alternative energy sources in areas and the daily increase in interest in electric vehicles will have a positive impact on the ecosystem of Azerbaijan, especially Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur. To note, 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. The 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 on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel Senedd calls for Wales fair share of HS2 funding This article is old - Published: Friday, Jun 7th, 2024 Labour and the Conservatives have been urged to commit to reclassifying HS2 as an England-only project to right a 4bn wrong. Delyth Jewell accused Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak of ignoring Wales as the Senedd unanimously reiterated calls for a fair share of funding from the rail project. Plaid Cymrus shadow transport secretary said committing to HS2 consequential funding is a litmus test for the UK Labour and Tory leaders a test they are failing. The partys deputy leader told the chamber: This is not just a debate about a railway line; it is about how Westminster disregards the needs and the voice of Wales. HS2 is a railway line in another country that we are nonetheless funding a track that does not break our border but that is costing us billions to run. Reckless Natasha Asghar said the Welsh Conservatives have long called for Wales to receive its share of HS2 consequential funding, pledging to continue to make the case. The Tory shadow transport secretary argued any extra funding should go directly to Network Rail to invest in infrastructure rather than to the Welsh Government. We all know how reckless they are when it comes to spending taxpayers money, she said, warning Welsh ministers could fritter the cash away on vanity projects. Ms Asghar highlighted the UK Governments announcement of a 1bn investment in electrifying the north Wales main line. She said: Regardless of what happens on July 4, we must all keep the pressure on to ensure that it happens and the Welsh public gets what is due to them. Scandal Rhun ap Iorwerth told the Senedd that Wales is home to about 12% of the UKs rail infrastructure but receives 2% of rail investment. He said: The greatest scandal is that even in a general election campaign traditionally the time of big giveaways and pledges and promises weve heard nothing from either the Conservatives or Labour on righting the HS2 wrong. The Plaid Cymru leader said the estimated 4bn could transform public transport in Wales, making up for decades of chronic underfunding by successive UK Governments. Cefin Campbell, the Plaid Cymru MS for Mid and West Wales, warned a lack of access to public transport is a driver of rural poverty and social exclusion. It is a matter of gross injustice that Wales has yet to receive what it is owed from the investment in HS2, he said. Threadbare Peredur Owen Griffiths, who chairs the Senedds finance committee, criticised the UK Governments absurd claim that HS2 benefits Wales and England. It is not right that UK Government is able to make these unjust decisions arbitrarily, he said, highlighting that Scotland and Northern Ireland will receive extra money Giving evidence to the finance committee on May 22, Sir Paul Silk, a constitutional expert, described the justifications that HS2 benefits Wales as rather threadbare. Mr Owen Griffiths pointed out that the Northern Powerhouse rail project has similarly been classified as a Wales-and-England project, despite being entirely across the border. The Plaid Cymru MS, who represents South Wales East, said: This means Wales will miss out again, this time on more than 1 billion-worth of funding for transport. Flawed Rhianon Passmore, who represents Islwyn, said a fair share of funding would make a big difference, with public services in Wales facing tough financial decisions. The reality is that the current funding system is flawed, she warned. Carolyn Thomas, a fellow Labour backbencher, said HS2 has been a disaster, ripping up countryside, destroying homes and costing the taxpayer billions. Criticising the expensive white elephant, she highlighted that costs have ballooned from 32bn in 2011 to a projected 106bn by 2020. Ms Thomas described the decision to label HS2 as an England-and-Wales project as a ridiculous, cynical move to cheat Wales out of much-needed investment. Managed decline Rebecca Evans said not an inch of track will be built on Welsh soil and HS2 should be reclassified as an England-only project. The finance secretary said Wales will have missed out on 350m by the end of 2024-25, and the Welsh Government should be due as much as 70m each year in future. Ms Evans accused the UK Government of mismanaging the economy and presiding over a managed decline of Welsh rail infrastructure. Calling for full devolution of powers over the railways, she pointed to the Welsh Governments 1bn investment in the south Wales valleys lines. The Plaid Cymru motion was agreed without objection following the debate on June 5. By Chris Haines, ICNN Senedd reporter Hit BBC series Paranormal returns with The Village That Saw Aliens This article is old - Published: Friday, Jun 7th, 2024 The BBC has announced the second series of its hit box-set series Paranormal with a focus on whats claimed to be Britains biggest ever mass sighting of extra-terrestrial activity. Following on from the success of the first series, which has been streamed over 2.7 million times on BBC iPlayer, Radio 1s Sian Eleri will dive into a new realm in the world of the paranormal UFOs. Hot on the heels of the first series, Paranormal: The Girl, The Ghost and the Gravestone, in which Sian investigated an apparently haunted farmhouse in north Wales, Sians natural scepticism will once again be tested. Sian will investigate a series of strange events regarded as one of the largest reports of UFO and extra-terrestrial activity in history. Along the south and west coast of Wales in the 1970s and 1980s, dozens of ordinary and unconnected people in cities, seaside resorts and rural villages reported a spate of unexplained and terrifying sightings. Sian Eleri said: A second series is upon us! Its been so eye-opening to investigate such open-ended issues, with series one raising questions challenging my own beliefs, so I cant wait to get started on the next celestial adventure. The world of UFOs, extra-terrestrial activity and other theories around what exists in our skies is vast, so who knows what we might discover? Im intrigued to find out. From tracking down eyewitnesses and researchers who have made it their lifes work to find answers, to those who suspect a hoax or psychological phenomena, Sian will delve into every theory in search of the truth. Clare Sillery, Head of Documentary Commissioning for the BBC, says: Its been great to see how our audience enjoyed the first series of Paranormal. Im delighted Sian Eleri will be returning this time for a dive into the weird world of Ufology. Nick Andrews, Head of Commissioning at BBC Wales said: Our nations obsession with all things paranormal is confirmed with our smash hit first series. Why wouldnt we go again? This time to outer space and if some of the rumours are to be confirmed and the archive believed, Sians about to uncover an extraordinary true storyor is she? This is what we love about this series and BBC Cymru Wales is right behind (the sofa) as Sian and her team take us on another terrific adventure. You couldnt make it up. The Paranormal series 4 x 30 from Twenty Twenty Television for BBC Three, BBC One and iPlayer was commissioned by Fiona Campbell, Controller Youth Audience (BBC Three and BBC iPlayer), Clare Sillery, Head of Commissioning, Documentaries and Nick Andrews, Head of Commissioning for BBC Wales. From Twenty Twenty, Director of Programmes is Ruth Kelly and the Executive Producer is Jo Hughes. Series Director is Rory Jackson and Series Producer is Hannah Horan. All episodes will be available as a box set on iPlayer from June 14. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. The Milli Majlis (Parliament) of Azerbaijan has discussed the draft law on amendments to the On the State Budget of the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2024 law, Trend reports. Chairman of the Committee on Economic Policy, Industry and Entrepreneurship Tahir Mirkishili and Finance Minister Samir Sharifov briefed on the changes. To note, following the revision of the 2024 state budget, projected revenues stand at 36.353 million manat, or $21.38 million, marking an increase of 2.180 million manat ($1.28 million) or 6.4 percent compared to the previously approved amount. Following the round of discussion, the proposed changes were voted upon and approved during the initial reading. Stay up-to-date with more news at Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel Over the past week two issues have come to the fore in the 3.5 billion takeover bid by billionaire Daniel Kretinsky of Royal Mail and parent company International Distribution Services (IDS). First of all, Kretinsky has wasted no time in spelling out a major overhaul from day one of his EP Group taking control. He has outlined plans to gut the mail service and speed-up Royal Mails transformation into a dedicated parcel network based on massive profit gouging. In media interviews, Kretinsky has denounced the USO as the most strict in Europe, describing its statutory obligation to deliver letters six-days-a-week to every UK household as a death grip. He has announced plans for a 400 million network of parcel drop boxes and delivery lockers based on the Amazon model threatening thousands of jobs, and has defended further price hikes for first-class stamps, which have more than doubled already since 2018 from 67 pence to 1.35. Secondly, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) postal executive, led by Dave Ward and Martin Walsh, has deepened their policy of engagement with the take-over, meeting with EP Group on Tuesday. Caption: CWU General Secretary Dave Ward [Photo: Facebook] In a CWU letter to branches, Ward and Walsh described their meeting as useful and constructive and boasted that further meetings will take place including the direct involvement of Daniel Kretinsky. The CWU has declared it wants to work with Kretinsky to establish a completely new ownership/business model for Royal Mail and one that gives all employees a stake in the future of the business. Wards call for a joint stake in the business should spell W-A-R-N-I-N-G in flashing neon lights. The CWUs most recent partnership with Royal Mail was last Aprils Business Recovery, Transformation and Growth Agreement. It began with the words: Royal Mail and CWU will jointly rebuild and transform the business to protect and grow good quality jobs and make the company successful again. That agreement was a bonfire of workers rights that introduced later start and finish times, a two-tier workforce with new entrants on inferior terms, the use of PDAs for performance management, extended seasonal hours and reduced sickness benefitsall aimed at driving out the legacy workforce. More than 400 reps and members sacked or suspended during the 2022-23 dispute were left behind with around half subjected to the Falconer Review stitch-up, allowing Royal Mail to walk away scot-free from its industrial-scale frame-ups and leaving victimised workers forced to accept lesser disciplinary charges. Ward functioned as the Royal Mails attack dog, threatening postal workers that if they refused to endorse the deal, the company would go into administration. Twelve months later he declares we have absolutely no confidence in the current Board of the company as he pursues a partnership with Kretinsky and his EP Group of asset strippers! Alongside their engagement with Kretinsky, the CWU announced: we are increasing our plans to engage the government and Labour Party on the takeover bid. This bid needs to be heavily scrutinised and debated, particularly in the run in to a general election. But Labour has already given in-principle approval to Kretinskys takeover and has confirmed it will not bring Royal Mail back into public ownership. Last Wednesday, Kretinskys takeover moved a step closer, with EP Group and the IDS board agreeing the terms of an acquisition based on a series of undertakings. These are limited to five years and include retention of the USO (unspecified) and that IDS-Royal Mail will retain their UK headquarters and tax residency. EP Group will maintain current salaries and wages for Royal Mails workforce for only two years. Kretinskys USO pledge is meaningless under conditions where Ofcom has already signalled its agreement with Royal Mail plans announced in April to reduce letter deliveries to a three-day-a-week service for all but first-class mail from April 2025, slashing thousands of jobs. The deciding vote on EP Groups takeover will be taken at the IDS shareholders AGM in September. It needs a 75 percent majority but is likely to succeed given the huge pay-outs up for grabs. IDS chair Keith Williams is expected to net 1 million from the buyout. Kretinskys takeover will then be reviewed under the National Security and Investment Act. But with Labour having already welcomed Kretinskys worthless assurances that he will protect Royal Mails UK brand name and workforce, the takeover will likely be approved. EP Group is one of Europes largest private industrial groups with major assets in energy, logistics and retail. It specialises in buying up undervalued state assets with a view to delivering long-term returns for investors. Kretinsky has the capital required to drive through corporate restructuring with his stated aim of making IDS one of the main postal logistics groups in Europe. The takeover has been leveraged through borrowings of 2.3 billion from major investors who, along with Kretinsky, will demand immediate returns wrung from the workforce. Kretinsky plans to break-up Royal Mail, building on ground already laid by the CWU. He has announced immediate plans for a network of 20,000 delivery boxes as an out-of-home delivery service to bring Royal Mail into line with GLS, the international parcels-based division of IDS which operates in 40 countries in Europe and North America on a gig-economy and franchise model. In April, Royal Mail opened Amazon-style lockers in Coventry, the first of 1,500 by the end of the year. The CWU has colluded with this through the phased reduction in opening hours at Royal Mail Customer Service Points, a staging post for their closure with the loss of hundreds of jobs. Ward is seeking a new partnership with Kretinsky to help implement these plans. During an interview with the Guardian newspaper last week Ward extolled his plans for a new business model for Royal Mail, calling for a public benefit company with union representation on remuneration boards, whereby rewards would be given on growing the company, growing revenue, growing jobs and services, and elements based on delivering quality. This model would bring the CWU apparatus into direct partnership with EP Groups boardroom, overseeing the drive for greater productivity and competitiveness. This is precisely the agenda of an incoming Labour government, whose leader Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to be the most pro-business in history, with the establishment of an Industrial Strategy Council between the government, business and trade unions. Body language at CWU gate meeting says it all [Photo: Facebook] It is no surprise that the CWUs handful of token gate meetings at Royal Mail delivery units, with officials and reps updating members on the takeover bid, have been viewed as a farce. The CWU leadership has lost the trust and confidence of postal workers. As one commented on the CWUs Facebook page: What is there to discuss?? RM [Royal Mail] will do as they please as will the prospective new buyer. The union has lost all credibility after the last strikes shambles. Postal workers cannot allow the CWU bureaucracy to relegate them as passive bystanders, while competing groups of corporate parasites fight for control. An independent path of struggle must be opened to defend jobs, terms and conditions against the continued race to the bottom. If Kretinsky or IDS succeed in their plans to create a gig economy workforce it will have ramifications beyond Royal Mail, setting a new benchmark for rampant profiteering and exploitation for workers in every sector and industry under an incoming Labour government. The domination of the corporate oligarchy over society must be challenged. The Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee is calling for the convening of gate meetings to map out a fightback strategy to oppose the joint conspiracy of the CWU, IDS board and Kretinsky aimed at transforming Royal Mail into an even bigger cash-cow for investors than the 2 billion plundered since privatisation a decade ago. The demand must be raised for the nationalisation of Royal Mail under workers control with company profits used to protect the mail service and safeguard the jobs, wages and working conditions of postal workers. The Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee is holding a Zoom meeting this Sunday night, June 9, at 7pm to discuss a strategy to fight the takeover bid. Please register here. A recent report in the Guardian reveals that managers and executives at Boeing responsible for operating the companys plant in Everett, Washington, are in panic mode as quality and safety concerns continue to emerge about the planes produced by the aerospace giant. One of the main issues revealed is that the facility is full of 787 Dreamliner aircraft that are faulty, according to a mechanic with more than 30 years at Boeing. The jetliners fuselage is produced by Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems and assembled at Boeings factory in South Carolina. There is no way in Gods green earth I would want to be a pilot in South Carolina flying those from South Carolina to here, continued the mechanic. Because when they get in here, were stripping them apart. Boeing employees walk a Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner down towards the delivery ramp area at the companys facility after conducting its first test flight at Charleston International Airport, Friday, March 31, 2017, in North Charleston, South Carolina. [AP Photo/Mic Smith] The Guardian also reported that managers will hound mechanics not to report safety and quality concerns, demanding that planes are put into service to ensure corporate profits rise. Once considered among the safest aircraft manufacturers, Boeing is now facing an essentially continuous deluge of whistleblowers and leaks making clear that the primary concern of the companys managers and corporate heads is not the safety of the flying public but the bottom line for their shareholders and themselves. The dangers of such an attitude were dramatically exposed this past January, when a door plug blew out of a 737 MAX 9 jetliner shortly after takeoff, injuring dozens on the flight. It was only luck that the incident occurred at a relatively low altitude, that no passengers were killed by being sucked out of the plane. Since then, dozens of incidents have been reported on Boeing planes, from panels coming off, landing gear not deploying correctly and fires on board aircraft. Even the companys new manned spaceship, the Starliner, had been delayed for months for various critical problems discovered by NASA before it finally launched on Wednesday. The January door blowout also brings to mind the two 737 MAX 8 crashes in October 2018 and March 2019, when 346 passengers and crew were killed. Subsequent reports found that Boeing deliberately hid internal software issues from pilots, regulators and all those on board their planes, problems that Boeing knew were incredibly dangerous. None of Boeings senior executives were ever tried for murder for knowingly encouraging the deadly planes to be developed and produced. The most Boeing suffered was a $2.5 billion plea deal to avoid criminal liability for fraud and for the 346 deaths. The ongoing issues with the 787 Dreamliner are especially significant because of the fate of Boeing whistleblower John Mitch Barnett. On March 9, Barnett was about to give a third day of a deposition about his time as a quality manager for Boeing and his criticisms of the companys attitude toward safety on the 787 project and the factory in South Carolina, when he was found dead by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head in his rental car in his hotel parking lot. Barnett had been let go by Boeing in 2017, which he alleged was retaliation for concerns he had raised internally about quality problems of the production of the Dreamliner aircraft. Since then, he had been interviewed many times about the dangers he saw for anyone flying on a 787 jet. A family friend quoted Barnett as telling her, If anything happens to me, its not suicide. Among the many problems Boeing currently faces is the fallout of an audit done in March by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which found numerous instances where manufacturing and quality control were well below federally mandated requirements. One of the FAAs auditors, Najmedin Meshkati, especially called out the 1997 merger of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas, which under the direct watch of its leaders and board of directors, are complicit in and ultimately responsible for its present problems. McDonnell Douglas gained infamy in the 1970s for the production of the DC-10, which remains to this day one of the deadliest aircraft ever produced. In its original design, the rear cargo door did not always lock properly, inducing explosive decompression that collapsed the floor of the planes main cabin. The DC-10 suffered 55 accidents over its lifetime, which have caused a total of 1,261 fatalities. Boeings contempt for safety is also highlighted the ongoing contract talks with 32,000 machinists, part of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), at the Everett plant. One of the main demands of the workers is the restoration of the many hundreds of positions dedicated to maintaining safety and quality that Boeing has eliminated over the past decade. Boeing has so far refused this demand. The contract for the machinists expires on September 12, and a strike authorization vote is scheduled for July 17. The elimination of so many safety and quality positions speaks to the underlying class nature of Boeings position. While the merger with McDonnell Douglas certainly accelerated the process, the decline of American capitalism ultimately underscores the degeneration of Boeing. The drive by every corporation is for profitsin Boeings case, market share against European rival Airbusand human lives are just the cost of doing business. President Joe Biden, center, is greeted by UAW President Shawn Fain, left, and Darren Riley, a local entrepreneur, as he arrives at Selfridge Air National Guard Base to attend a campaign event. [AP Photo/Evan Vucci] Last week, President Biden appointed United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain to the Presidents Export Council, a sign of the critical role of the union apparatus in preparations for total war with Russia and China. The Export Council is a key advisory body on trade related issues. However, its deliberations are increasingly now focused on the question of preparing the defense industrial base for global war by strengthening supply chains, securing access to strategically critical minerals and limiting exports to geostrategic rivals of critical technology and components, such as semiconductors. The move takes place as the UAW faces a growing threat from below. Rank-and-file autoworkers are furious over the bureaucracys role in enforcing thousands of layoffs after last years stage-managed standup strike produced a sellout contract. Tens of thousands of academic workers across the University of California system have also challenged the UAWs limit to their political strike against police crackdowns on Gaza protests. Clearly in deep crisis, Fain announced the removal of Rich Boyer last week as the head of the unions Stellantis department. This was an attempt to deflect worker anger over job cuts and attacks on working conditions the UAW has abetted. The nightmare that keeps both Fain and Biden awake at night is the potential fusion of mounting anger over the Gaza genocide and war with Russia and China, with opposition to the layoffs and cost cutting. To meet this danger, and to prepare American society for war, the Biden administration is drawing together even more closely with the union bureaucracy. Fain as a leading representative of this bureaucracy has the closest ties to the White House. He was an invited guest to Bidens State of the Union speech this year and to a state dinner for the Prime Minister of Japan. He appeared alongside Biden when the UAW endorsed him for president, while bureaucrats threw out people protesting Bidens role in the Gaza genocide. President Joe Biden stands with Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, at the United Auto Workers' political convention, Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, in Washington. [AP Photo/Alex Brandon] Fain is playing a leading role in stumping for war. In a recent speech at the Labor Notes conference, he wore a jacket with a picture of a bomber and declared that the Arsenal of Democracy, a propaganda term for the war economy during World War II, was the model for autoworkers to follow today. This theme was ripped out of Bidens own speeches, including his speech accepting the UAWs endorsement where he declared that workers had to make aircraft carriers and tanks. On the Export Council, Fain joins International Association of Machinists President Brian Bryant. They sit at the table alongside high level corporate executives and top Biden administration officials. Both unions have a significant presence in the important defense and aerospace industries, including Boeing, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin. At the councils last meeting November 29, the discussion focused on military readiness and the measures needed to convert to a wartime economy. This included bans on the export of important technology and measures to secure supply chains. Council members discussed the importance of maintaining and expanding access to strategic materials and critical minerals as well as the insourcing of critical components such as semiconductors. Emphasizing this point, Assistant Secretary of Energy Andrew Light said, Demand growth for critical minerals is going to increase 400-600 percent over the next 3 decades ... no one in their right mind ... should not be concerned about the market concentration in critical minerals in the world today and I think we all know what we are talking about [a reference to Russia and China]. I think no one would rightly wants to see the US ... to be in the same position the Europeans were in respect to Russia on gas before the war started in Ukraine. Another concern for the Council was an adequate supply of labor, particularly skilled labor, to strategically critical industries such as semi- conductors. The role of the bureaucracy in securing the supply of labor for war production is to suppress strikes and other forms of opposition, as well as to try to whip up a pro-war atmosphere by presenting war as good for American jobs. The appointment of Fain follows the announcement by Biden in May of a new wave of anti-Chinese tariffs including a signature 100 percent tariff on imported Chinese electric vehicles. The trade moves are part of a broader drive to both suppress Chinese economic development and prepare the US economy for war. The move was immediately hailed in an official statement by the UAW, which, along with a host of other unions, cynically claimed that the trade measures were pro-worker and aimed at defending jobs. The UAW declared, Making sure that major corporations have to pay a price for pitting worker against worker, pushing wages lower and lower, is a key part of a pro-worker trade policy, read an official Solidarity House statement. Americas autoworkers, our families, and working-class communities across this country want a trade policy that puts workers first, the UAW asserting the anti-Chinese tariffs were a major step in the right direction. A policy based on the interests of the working class, rather than US capitalism, would start with the rejection of war in defense of the profits of ones own national section of the ruling class, and to unite workers in all countries in a common fight against the world capitalist system. What the UAW falsely calls a pro-worker policy, is in fact the unity of the labor bureaucracy with the US government and American ruling class it serves to dragoon workers into World War III. For decades, the UAW has promoted American nationalism and reactionary Buy American campaigns as the answer to save US jobs. Far from saving a single job, this served as cover for the UAWs own role in helping enforce hundreds of thousands of job cuts. Its support for American nationalism also expressed the UAWs integration with management at the US auto companies in competition with foreign-owned rivals. The poisonous anti-Japanese nationalism promoted by the UAW directly inspired the brutal murder of Chinese American draftsman Vincent Chin in 1982 by a Chrysler supervisor and his unemployed son. A worker at the General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, Inc. in Garland, Texas, works on the MK-80 series of bombs. [Photo: US Army] Support for national chauvinism went hand in hand with the corporatist integration of the unions with the structure of management in order to help US auto companies compete. The result has been devastating for workers, but highly lucrative for bureaucrats like Fain, who live an upper-middle-class lifestyle in gated communities, a world totally different from shop floor workers. To oppose the ruling class program of war and austerity workers must reject the nationalist and pro-capitalist program of the UAW and adopt a socialist and internationalist strategy. Workers around the world are linked in a global network of production and share common interests no matter where they live or what language they speak. Many are employed by the same transnational corporations. The rational use of existing technology could provide a decent standard of living for workers around the world. What prevents that is capitalist private ownership and its nation-state system. To preserve that system the ruling classes and their trade union agents use nationalism to keep workers divided in order to weaken and undermine their struggles. In the US this is taking the extreme form of the fascistic anti-immigrant policies of both the Democrats and Republicans and the whipping up of anti-Chinese hysteria. The most urgent task is the unification of workers in the US, China and globally in the building of an anti-war movement that is both international and guided by a socialist strategy. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. Russian St. Petersburg and Azerbaijan continue active joint work within the new roadmap for 20242028, Governor of the city Alexander Beglov said during a working meeting at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Trend reports via the website of the city's administration. Governor Alexander Beglov and Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Shahin Mustafayev convened at SPIEF-2024 to discuss the advancement of cooperative ventures, joint projects, and the outcomes of St. Petersburg's cultural and business delegation to Baku in April 2024. "Development in Azerbaijan is rapid. Amazing progress has been achieved in a very short amount of time. The international community respects Azerbaijan's position on defending state interests, hears its voice, and sees its prudent acts," emphasized the governor. St. Petersburg expresses keen interest in broadening the import of agricultural goods from Azerbaijan. Notably, the city is involved in the construction of a wholesale and distribution hub named Agropark Nart, with the active involvement of Azerbaijani investors. According to the information, there are ongoing efforts to finalize the signing of new cooperation agreements between medical institutions, and architectural and construction colleges. Additionally, work is progressing on the installation of a monument dedicated to the renowned Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibayov, with the grand unveiling scheduled for September 2025, coinciding with the celebration of the composer's 140th birth anniversary. To note, the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) is held from June 5 to 8. Officials attending the forum include Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Shahin Mustafayev, First Deputy Minister of Economy Elnur Aliyev, Chairman of the Management Board of the Small and Medium Business Development Agency (KOBIA) of Azerbaijan Orkhan Mammadov, and others. During the event, a panel session titled Dubai-Baku: From Energy to Finance is held, with discussions on the agenda also including the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29). Stay up-to-date with more news at Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel President Joe Biden meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, September 21, 2023, in Washington. [AP Photo/Evan Vucci] On Monday, June 3, the Ukrainian government banned the World Socialist Web Site across the country, issuing an order commanding all internet service providers to block access to the WSWS indefinitely. The order was issued by the Ukrainian State Special Communications Service (SSSCIP), a wing of the countrys military-intelligence apparatus. It instructs providers of electronic communication networks and/or services to implement access restriction (block access) on own recursive DNS servers to domain name (as well as its subdomains) wsws.org. The order has no end date and will last until the termination or abolition of martial law in Ukraine. The SSSCIP claims the ban is justified under President Volodymyr Zelenskys February 24, 2022 declaration of martial law, which suspended democratic rights across the country. The order banning access to the World Socialist Web Site exposes as lies all claims that the US-led war in Ukraine is being waged in the name of democracy. Yesterday, US President Joe Biden spoke at a commemoration of D-Day in Normandy and presented the war as a struggle between dictatorship and freedom. The reality is Ukraine is a dictatorship where the government is politically dependent on fascists who idolize the Holocaust. The government brutally persecutes opponents of its war and blatantly suppresses free speech. The decision to ban the WSWS is a response to the outpouring of support within Ukraine and internationally for Bogdan Syrotiuk, a 25-year-old socialist internationalist who was arrested by the Zelensky regime on April 25 on trumped up charges of high treason for writing articles for the WSWS, which SBU prosecutors (Ukraines domestic intelligence agency) deceitfully claim is Russian propaganda. Syrotiuk and the organization to which he belongs, the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists (YGBL), are Trotskyists and irreconcilable opponents of the US-NATO war against Russia as well as the capitalist government of Vladimir Putin. Order by the Ukrainian State Special Communications Service banning the WSWS. There is compelling evidence that the Ukrainian governments decision to ban the WSWS was made in consultation with the Biden administration. The Ukrainian State Special Communications Servicethe institution from which the order to ban the WSWS derivedis a long-term partner of the United States government. In July 2022, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA, a component of the Department of Homeland Security) signed an agreement with SSSCIP to strengthen collaboration on shared cybersecurity priorities, which expands upon CISAs existing relationship with the government of Ukraine. CISA Director Jen Easterly said the agreement allowed us to really focus on how do we effectively share information, best practices, exercise together, train together, figure out how to hunt for adversary activity. In documents outlining the bogus charges against Syrotiuk, the Ukrainian government references an investigation of the WSWS conducted by the Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD), a wing of the Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. According to the prosecuting documents, the CCD conducted an analysis of publications posted on the WSWS.org resource according to which the essence of the damage caused by [Syrotiuk] to the information security of Ukraine was established. There is not a shred of evidence to support the claim that Syrotiuk or the WSWS are supporters of the Russian government. On the contrary, the prosecuting documents rely entirely on articles by Syrotiuk and the WSWS denouncing the US-NATO war, exposing the role of fascists in the Ukrainian government, warning of the danger of nuclear escalation and calling for the unity of the Russian and Ukrainian working class against both governments. Included among the evidence cited by the Ukrainian authorities as proof of Syrotiuks guilt is literature found in his apartment authored by Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky and WSWS International Editorial Board Chairperson David North. The Center for Countering Disinformation also has the closest ties to American and British imperialism. According to an October 2022 article by Global Risk Insights: Ukraines Center for Countering Disinformation grew out of initiatives spearheaded by the State Departments Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI). The OTIs Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative II partnered with a broad-based coalition, including the [US State Departments Global Engagement Centers] sister organization, the USAGM [US Agency for Global Media], as well as the UKs Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. This effort allowed Ukraine to stand-up its counter-disinformation departments nearly a full year prior to the Russian invasion. Notably, the Pentagons Central Command issued a report earlier this year referring to upcoming efforts by the US Agency for Global Media to conduct market research and national surveys and determine the power of disinformation in Ukraine and internationally. According to the Pentagon, the projects research methods include focus groups, media monitoring panels, and national surveys to examine the impact of anti-war sentiments in Ukraine, which they label as the product of disinformation. This research was conducted from March to May 2024, the period including Syrotiuks arrest and immediately leading up to the decision to ban the WSWS. This period has seen a substantial growth of opposition to the war against Russia within Ukraine, which authorities fear is coinciding with a growth in the readership of the WSWS and growing awareness of and opposition to the prosecution of Syrotiuk. In an April 30 statement issued following Syrotiuks arrest, WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North explained: The arrest of Bogdan is the latest example of the Zelensky regimes brutal repression of left-wing movements, whose opposition to the war is finding a growing response within the Ukrainian working class. Efforts by the Ukrainian government to portray Syrotiuk and the WSWS as pro-Putin are politically preposterous, North wrote. In political solidarity with the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), the YGBL opposes the oligarchic capitalist governments in both Ukraine and Russia. In numerous articles posted on the World Socialist Web Site and in speeches delivered at events sponsored by the ICFI, Bogdan has unequivocally condemned the war and called for the unity of the Ukrainian and Russian working class against the reactionary national-chauvinist regimes headquartered in Kiev and Moscow. His comrades in Russia unequivocally oppose the capitalist restorationist regime of Putin and its delusional glorification of neo-tsarist Russian nationalism. The campaign to free Syrotiuk has garnered widespread international attention, and the International Committee has established a defense committee to coordinate the global campaign demanding his freedom. A video published on Twitter/X by North has been viewed well over 150,000 times, and thousands of people from across the world have signed the petition demanding Syrotiuks release. Prominent artists, political groups, journalists and public figures have called on the Ukrainian government to liberate Syrotiuk and drop all charges against him. The WSWS urges all readers to sign and circulate the petition demanding Syrotiuks liberation (at wsws.org/freebogdan), to contact the WSWS and become active in the campaign to oppose the widening assault on freedom of speech, and to issue statements condemning the prosecution and the decision to ban the WSWS. The Socialist Equality Party in Sri Lanka is receiving statements calling for the immediate release of socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk who is imprisoned by the Security Service of Ukraine on bogus charges of treason. The statements are in response to the global campaign to free Bogdan launched by the International Committee of the Fourth International and the World Socialist Web Site. Bogdan Syrotiuk, founder and leader of the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists The accusations are a frame-up. Bogdan is an intransigent opponent of the capitalist Putin regime and its invasion of Ukraine. He has fought for an anti-war socialist program based on the unity of the working class in Ukraine, Russia and throughout the former Soviet Union, against the US-NATO proxy war and all the governments. His arrest is the latest example of the Zelenskys regimes brutal repression of left-wing movements, whose opposition to the war is finding a growing response within the Ukrainian working class. To support and get involved in the campaign to Free Bogdan Syrotiuk, visit wsws.org/freebogdan to submit a statement, sign the petition and make a financial contribution. Tisera, a Sri Lankan migrant worker in Italy: I express my strong opposition to the Zelensky governments arrest of socialist Comrade Bogdan on bogus charges, and appeal to all workers to unite for the release of this brave and young anti-war protester. The fascist regime in Ukraine must be opposed by the Ukrainian working class with the support of the international working class. The Zelensky government is sacrificing workers to this war. Half a million Ukrainian soldiers, civilians and children have died. The imperialist countries supporting this war are providing billions of taxpayers money and putting the burden of this war on the backs of their own workers. The burden of war on the working class is not limited to the imperialist countries. In Sri Lanka the VAT tax has been expanded, even though the civil war in Sri Lanka has been over for a long time, and the Nation Building Tax is still being levied. I only visit the nearby Italian city where I live on Sundays, which is the factory holiday. The police are everywhere. There are many signs that the repression of the working class in Italy is getting worse and worse. Comrade Bogdans arrest came at a peak time in the Zelensky governments fascist crackdown on opposition to the war. Bogdan worked to mobilise the working class against the war. Lenin and Trotsky, who built the Soviet Union by leading the Russian Revolution more than a century ago, spoke the same language: The working class must not give one cent, one drop of blood to the imperialist war. Salitha, a Colombo Port worker: I strongly condemn the arrest of Comrade Bogdan Syrotiuk, the 25-year-old leader of the Young Guard of Bolshevik Leninists (YGBL), which is active in Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet Union. Salitha Working according to the basic principles of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), Bogdan has fought to mobilise the working class in Ukraine and Russia in unison with the international working class. There is no doubt that his arrest is an attack against the ICFI and its Socialist Equality Parties. I denounce the bogus charge sheet presented by the Zelensky regime against Comrade Bogdan. The working class all over the world is now facing huge economic pressures because of the war being waged by NATO and led by the US in Ukraine to subjugate Russia. This is paving the way for a third world war. The ICFI is engaged in an international effort to mobilise the working class to prevent that catastrophe. Comrade Bogdan has called for the unification of the Russian and Ukrainian workers, with the support of the international working class, against a third world war. I extend my complete support to Comrade Bogdan in his efforts. Sri Lankan workers, like the working class internationally, are suffering from the attacks of the government of President Ranil Wickremesinghe, which is implementing an International Monetary Fund austerity program. The harbour workers in Sri Lanka, have been subjected to the same attacks and I believe that workers action committees need to be built at every factory, workplace, educational institute and in local areas to fight against these injustices and to unite under the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees as proposed by the ICFI. Sajith, a Ratmalana Railway Workshop office employee: I am protesting the detention of Comrade Bogdan Syrotiuk, a leader of the socialist movement in Ukraine, who was arrested by the Zelensky regime. I demand his immediate release and restoration of his democratic rights. He should be allowed to engage in the politics of his choice. Sajith Hundreds of thousands have died in both countries and lost their homes during more than two years of this bloody war. The damage done to society is limitless. We must protect Bogdan because he fights as an opponent of this destruction and as a protector of the people. As a result of protracted imperialist war, a powerful anti-war sentiment has been awakened in the US, in particular, and all over the world. As the WSWS has explained, the imperialist powers are very nervous about this growing opposition. I see the arrest of Bogdan as an attempt to destroy the anti-war movement in Russia and Ukraine in advance. Everything in the world is produced by workers. We are an international class, the most powerful class in the world, and the only class that can build an anti-war movement and stop this war. Freedom for Bogdan and the courageous journalist Julian Assange can only be secured through the building of such a movement. Harsha, from the Ratmalana Railway Workshop: The loss of lives and destruction of property caused by this war in Ukraine over the past two years is colossal. War is brutal wherever it happens. I condemn the arrest of Comrade Bogdan, who opposes this brutality, and demand his immediate and unconditional release from prison. The ruling elites in Ukraine and Russia are fully aware that the majority of people in both countries vehemently oppose this bloody war and they know this opposition is reaching towards a tipping point. The intensification of anti-democratic attacks by the fascistic Zelensky regime is directly bound up with this situation. In the media we see thousands of students protesting [against the Israeli genocide of Palestinians] and the police attacking them. The rulers fear that this situation will spread to the countries where war has already been launched. Bogdan may have been arrested to prevent this scenario in advance. Parties and organisations appeal to the rulers of their own countries but as the WSWS has pointed out it is only the working class which produces everything that can stop this war. It is the most powerful class. Therefore, if the workers come forward, this war can be stopped and Bogdan freed. It is also through this campaign that there will be opportunities to unite the workers and masses of the world against world war. S. Sivaseelan, a fisherman from northern Jaffna: Jaffna was destroyed by the almost three-decade anti-Tamil communal war in Sri Lanka. At least 100,000 people, mostly Tamils, were killed in this war which ended 15 years ago with the military defeat of the separatist LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam]. S. Sivaseelan I oppose the arrest of Comrade Bogdan and demand that he be freed immediately. There are chances that he could be tortured under the existing martial law in Ukraine. We underwent a 26-year civil war and confronted the horrors of that war. During that war the Sri Lankan rulers arrested their political dissidents and opponents, holding them for long periods. Many of them were disappeared. We must ensure the safety of Comrade Bogdan. I urge workers, youth and all those who value democratic rights to support the campaign, denounce his arrest and demand his freedom from the notorious fascistic regime in Ukraine. Emily the Criminal, featuring Aubrey Plaza, is a 2022 film about a woman in Los Angeles, saddled with debt, who becomes involved in a credit card fraud scheme, with serious consequences. Written and directed by John Patton Ford, it is available on Netflix. In an opening scene, Emily Benetto (Plaza), a would-be artist, who works delivering food for low pay, undergoes an interview for a better position. The office manager-interviewer, after first falsely claiming the company has not done a background check, proceeds to confront Emily with a conviction for aggravated assault some years earlier. She loses her temper, Why would you trick somebody like that? And you asked me why I want this job, because I got $70,000 of student debt. Theres your f answer right there. Aubrey Plaza Effectively prevented from obtaining a better position, Emily is tipped off by a fellow employee about a means of earning $200 in an hour as a dummy shopper. After work that same day, she makes a phone call in regard to a $400 payment she made on her loans: It was applied to my interest? Sorry. How much interest is being added a month? The following afternoon, along with a dozen or so others, mostly young people, Emily listens to Youcef (Theo Rossi) explain the nature of the illegal operation. As dummy shoppers, Emily and the rest, using fake credit cards and false identification, will purchase relatively expensive items, such as flat-screen televisions, and hand them over to the organizers. After certain successes, Emily graduates to attempting to obtain a car in the same manner (for which she is to be paid $2,000). The ruse is seen through at the last minute, and she is injured in a physical confrontation, although she manages to get away with the vehicle. Emily and Youcef become closer. He gives her the equipment to make her own cards, and she enthusiastically plunges into the fraudulent activity, which sometimes puts her at risk. Emily demonstrates, however, taser in hand, that she is no pushover. She and Youcef exchange confidences. Youcefs ambition is to buy and renovate a small apartment building. What would Emily do, he wonders, if she had some moneypay her loan back? -Yeah, I would definitely do that first. -What about your art? Would you do your art? -Yeah, I would make art for sure. I would paint. I love painting. It makes me happy. -What else? -I mean, I dont know. I just want to be free, you know? I just want to be able to experience things. I want to travel. I want to live in another country for a while. Youcef introduces Emily to his Lebanese-born mother. The latter asks the younger woman what she wants to do in life. Im not sure yet. You will figure out your gift Maybe, Emily the teacher. Emily the mother. Emily the something. Perhaps Emily the criminal? In fact, Emilys over-eagerness helps precipitate her and Youcefs downfall. Youcef's cousin and partner in crime Khalili (Jonathan Avigori) informs the pair that Emily has broken a cardinal rule: shopping at the same store twice in one week, prompting the retailer to post security footage of her online. Theo Rossi and Aubrey Plaza At the same time, economic imperatives keep her locked into the increasingly dangerous activities. In a telling scene, the head of an ad agency (Gina Gershon) interviews Emily for an internship at her firm. Is that a paid position? Emily asks. Not at first, she is told. The way it works is the first five or six months, you get to know the business and if you do a great job, then Id love to discuss it with you. That ultimately prompts this exchange between Emily and her prospective boss: -What I dont understand is how you feel so comfortable asking someone to work without pay. -You know, when I was your age, they told me all I could be was a secretary. -Okay. But secretaries get paid. -Thats not the point. -Well, when you were my age, did you have $60,000 in debt? -How about this? When I was your age, I was the only woman in a room full of men. -But you had a job. -Okay. You know- -You were getting paid. Am I wrong? Inevitably, in any case, the criminals fall out, violence ensues and Emily barely escapes with her life. There are sharply observed elements to Emily the Criminal. The emphasis on Emilys crushing debt-load and the apparently widespread economic desperation, which channels a steady stream of willing humanity toward the crime ring, is healthy and welcome. Emily is hemmed in on every side. When her supervisor at the food delivery service cuts her hours as punishment for an unexplained absence, and Emily complains, he taunts her: Im sorry, are you an employee? No, youre an independent contractor. So quit talking like youve got rights and go back to work. Call your shop steward then. All right? You got a union shop steward, call them, if not go back to work. At the same time, the film possesses murky, ambiguous aspects, which weaken it. Plaza and Rossi are both very effective and convincing performers, and the intensity and tension are palpable, but Plaza seems determined to prove Emilys toughness and hardness at every point, for reasons that remain unclear. In a brief scene prior to the violent denouement, we learn that her assault conviction came from an attack on a guy I was dating we fought all the time. Her mistake, she goes on to explain, was that I didnt go far enough. I didnt really scare him. You know, cause if I had, he wouldve never called the police. So, is Emily psychologically unstable, damaged to the extent that she happily embraces the excitement and aggression of her criminal life? Whats the point of this? Is Emily the Criminal an ironic title, as one first expects (and hopes) it to be, or not? Writer-director Ford, who introduces intriguing social facts into his work, seems unclear himself about the driving forces in the drama. Emily the Criminal In one interview, he foolishly suggests that Emily the Criminal is ultimately a character study; its about someone figuring out what theyre good at, and what they like to do and what theyll probably continue doing. Its a coming-of-age story less than a thriller. Again, the criminality here has to be seen in perspective. America is a country governed by warmongers and murderers, representing a corporate financial oligarchy that has looted trillions from the economy and the working class. The ruling elite has allowed vast numbers to die in a preventable pandemic, intervened directly in the Middle East and Central Asia, leading to more than 1 million deaths, and financed and incited proxy wars in Ukraine and Gaza with incalculable human suffering. A filmmaker neednt introduce those harsh truths directly into his or her work, but an artist with social understanding farther forward in his or her consciousness, more closely at one with his or her epoch, would proceed in a more urgent and concentrated manner. Ford seems to have arrived at the strongest points partially by accident, somewhat to his own surprise. He possesses a sufficiently sensitive antenna to be aware of pressing social circumstances, but only half-registers or half-understands them. In a revealing comment, Ford explained to an interviewer from awardsdaily.com that issues like the gig economy and student loan debt were never top priority. Those were things I just took from my own life and that I understood and felt true, you know? It was only after making the movie, he added, did I realize how important those social issues are to many audiences. People latched onto that and focused on that in a way that I did not fully expect. He continued: If you go online and read audience reviews, like every single review is about student loans or internships, and the economy. Its very clear that people were ready to talk about those things. Indeed! In part because the filmmakers have not made up their minds to produce sharp social criticism, they end up taking the line of least resistance, and Emily the Criminal, somewhat predictably, becomes a fairly ordinary crime thriller in its final half hour. American filmmakers can do that sort of thing blindfolded; they find it more difficult to achieve genuine psychological and social richness. The film doesnt go off the rails as disastrously as Breaking Bad, which had a similarly promising premise, it simply runs out of steam and ideas. In May 2024, the media reported that Legendary Television had acquired the rights to adapt Emily the Criminal as a television series, although without Plaza. One fears that the weakest sides of the film will be taken over and made the center of such a series. This week, the leaders of the imperialist powers used the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings to pledge a major escalation of the US-NATO war against Russia, threatening to once again plunge humanity into world war. The ceremony took place as NATO moved to lift remaining limits on its direct involvement in the war, including the decision to allow Ukraine to use NATO weapons to strike inside Russia, and calls from NATO members, led by France, to deploy NATO troops directly inside Ukraine. President Joe Biden speaks during ceremonies to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, Thursday, June 6, 2024, in Normandy. [AP Photo/Evan Vucci] While Biden was in Normandy, he gave an interview to ABC News in which he publicly declared that American weapons are authorized to be used in strikes against Russia. Interviewer David Muir asked Biden, Does this at all concern you that it could... draw the US into [war with Russia] in a much larger way? Biden replied, It theoretically could, but its not likely, claiming that the US weapons would only be used to strike Russia in proximity to the border. These are statements of staggering recklessness. Biden declared that his policies could theoretically draw the United States into a full-scale war with a nuclear-armed state, potentially leading to the destruction of human civilization, but he is willing to accept those odds. When asked to reply to Russian President Vladimir Putins threats to respond to NATO-backed strikes on Russia with the use of nuclear weapons, an obviously confused Biden declared that he has known the Russian president for forty years, an obvious absurdity given that in 1984 Putin was an unknown KGB agent in the USSR. As WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North remarked, Life and death decisions are being made by a man with a diminished grasp of reality. Addressing the main commemoration ceremony at the beaches at Normandy, Biden delivered a militaristic tirade, pledging unlimited lives and money to NATOs goal of subjugating and conquering Russia. Biden gloated over the deaths of what he said were hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers in the war in Ukraine. Theyve suffered tremendous losses in Russia, the numbers are staggering 350,000 Russian troops dead or wounded. Despite inflating the Russian casualty figures, and ignoring the undoubtedly much higher Ukrainian death toll, Biden made clear that the war now underway would lead to even more deaths. There are things that are worth fighting and dying for, Biden said. America is worth it then, now and always. The clear implication is that the time is coming when large numbers of American troops will have to be prepared to die in the global war that is now spiraling out of control. Among the things worth dying for, Biden said, is democracy. But Ukraine, like dozens of other dictatorships propped up by the United States, is not a democracy. Ukraine is a country under martial law, in which opponents of the war are threatened and imprisoned, including socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk, and in which fascists hold high positions in the state and military. President Zelensky has exceeded his term in office and has made it clear that he does not intend to hold elections for fear that the mounting popular opposition to the war will find any expression at the polls. Meanwhile, Israel, the United States leading ally in the Middle East, is carrying out a genocide, declaring that the Palestinian population are, in the words of defense minister Yoav Gallant, human animals. As the American leaders were thumping their chests at Russia, Israelarmed, funded and defended by the imperialist powersmarked the occasion of D-Day by attacking a school operated by the United Nations, killing 40 people, including children. Responding to Israels massacre, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller openly embraced and defended the strike, declaring, You have this site where Hamas is hiding inside a school... those individuals are legitimate targets, but at the same time, theyre embedded near civilians, Israel has a right to try and target those civilians. The State Department later claimed that Miller meant that Israel has the right to target Hamas fighters, not civilians. But if Miller accidentally misspoke, it was only by stating openly what is implicit: that the United States defends the systematic massacre of civilians, including children, in pursuit of its military aims. In other words, the commemoration at Normandy was the backdrop of the ever more direct adoption by the imperialist powers of the most distinguishing aspects of Nazi war policy: the deliberate targeting of civilians for extermination and the willingness to drag the whole world into a global war. Eighty years after World War II, the world is teetering once again on the verge of full-scale war, this time between nuclear-armed states. All claims that the first two world wars represent a historical exception, never to be repeated, should be put to rest by the statements of Biden and the other imperialist leaders. The response of the Russian government to the NATO powers escalation of the war is completely bankrupt. Putin alternates between appeals to his Western partners to come to their senses and threats of military retaliation and full-scale nuclear war. In fact, Putin has no answer to the drive by the imperialist powers to conquer and subjugate Russia. Stopping the escalating global war is only possible through the intervention of the working classes of the world, armed with a socialist program of ending the capitalist system that is the root cause of imperialist war. A meeting of Western Sydney University (WSU) staff and students will be held on Wednesday, June 12 to form a rank-and-file committee to fight the job destruction and restructuring at WSU College. To join the meeting, contact: cfpe.aus@gmail.com The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has done a deal with Western Sydney University (WSU) management to help destroy scores of jobs at WSU College, the universitys wholly-owned feeder college. This has been done behind the backs of staff and students at WSU College and across the university as a whole. Virtually nobody at WSU even knows about the pro-business restructuring of the college. Western Sydney University [Photo: eminentedu.com] The unions WSU branch president David Burchell sent emails this week to NTEU members at WSU College welcoming managements agreement to the unions request for staff members to be offered the chance to apply for a so-called voluntary redundancy. This request was the central focus of a formal dispute notice issued by the NTEU, which will now result in a yet-to-be-seen modified management change proposal. This deal means the union will assist management to get selected people out the door via expressions of interest (EOIs) in redundancies. The clear purpose is to prevent a unified struggle, across WSU as a whole, to defeat the restructuring. This is a time-honoured method by which the trade unions strangle opposition to the slashing of jobs and conditions. Burchell said the union was now reassured that its concerns would be addressed in managements final change proposal, even though jobs will be lost in the shift to the new structure. WSU management is demanding the elimination of the equivalent of 17 full-time positionsor more than 10 percentand a spill and fill regime to force staff members to compete against each other for the remaining posts. Those targeted by WSU include 15 teachers, around 6 First Year Experience Coordinators, 10 Learning and Teaching Coordinators, 7 managers and 6 technical officers. The heaviest cuts are to arts, literature and humanities. In effect, the NTEU has signed off on the cuts and restructuring. Burchell wrote: Following a dispute meeting with [WSU College CEO] Glenn Campbell and WSU HR director Matt Bond yesterday, we are reassured that, so far as we can tell, most if not all of the major procedural concerns raised by the NTEU around the initial change proposal appear to have been addressed in the final change plan. According to Burchell, the processes laid out in the final change plan should represent a major improvement on those in the change proposal, even though jobs will be lost. Cynically, Burchell claimed that the union would continue to campaign to preserve and secure members employment. In reality, there has been no campaign whatsoever! In fact, the union has kept staff and students throughout the university in the dark about the attack at WSU College, which will set a dangerous precedent for use across WSU and the university sector if not defeated. The truth is that the union opposes any campaign to preserve employment. It is helping to eliminate jobs. What has been formed is essentially a partnership between the NTEU and management to stifle opposition by pressuring or encouraging staff members to apply for redundancies. The union is insisting that this is the only alternative to colleagues being compelled to compete against each other for the remaining jobs, often on lower pay grades and less hours of employment. A number of WSU and WSU College educators met this week and decided to convene a meeting this coming Wednesday June 12 to form a rank-and-file committee, independent of the NTEU, to organise the necessary campaign across WSU and the university sector more broadly against the job destruction and restructuring. Members of the Committee for Public Education (CFPE), the rank-and-file educators network supported by the Socialist Equality Party, have initiated this move and are calling for staff and students to join it across all WSU campuses. WSU College staff cannot be left to fight this attack alone. A stand must be taken for the defence of all jobs and conditions. The NTEU is fully committed to facilitating the pro-business restructuring demanded by WSU management. The WSU NTEU branchs earlier written response to managements initial change proposal falsely claimed that its members support moves to position the College better in the industry. That document called for an EOI in redundancy process under the NTEUs 2022 WSU College enterprise agreement with management. In the 2022 agreement, which the NTEU rammed through small members meetings, the NTEU agreed to assist the College to remain competitive in the market, which meant it may need to change its structure, operations, and priorities to meet business requirements. Along with a redundancy process, all the other concerns mentioned in Burchells email this week, such as the availability of redeployment and retention of staff through the teachout of the old diplomas, are also about assisting management to implement its job-cutting. There can and must be a unified fight across WSU against this management assault. What is happening at WSU College is a warning of what is to come throughout the university sector. Universities Australia, the peak management body, declared this week that 4,500 jobs could be eliminated as a result of the cuts to overseas student enrolments being demanded by both the Labor government and the Liberal-National Coalition. Universities Australia chief executive Luke Sheehy said universities are forecasting a collective shortfall of at least half a billion dollars this year due to the measures being taken against overseas students, which would inevitably lead to cuts to campus infrastructure, research and jobs. The move against overseas students is part of a wider turn by the corporate and political establishment to blame migrants and foreigners for the deepening cost-of-living, housing and social crisis hitting the working class in Australia, as it is internationally. It is also in line with the Albanese Labor governments agenda of continuing to starve the public universities of fundingwhich has driven them to rely heavily on full fee-paying overseas studentsand demanding further pro-business restructuring. WSU College enrolments have dropped, essentially because its business model has been to offer students preparatory courses that lead straight into the second year of university degrees. That market has been undercut by all the countrys chronically-underfunded public universities scrambling for enrolments, including by offering students vocational micro courses and alternative pathways into degree programs. This financial squeeze is being intensified by the Labor governments Universities Accord. It demands the wholesale reshaping of tertiary education to satisfy the specific employment and research demands of big business and the preparations for war, such as the AUKUS military pact against China. To fight this union-backed agenda and organise a university-wide and broader campaign to defeat the restructuring and job cuts, WSU staff and studentswhether union members or notneed to form a rank-and-file committee, completely independent of the NTEU. If you agree, contact the CFPE to join this Wednesdays meeting to discuss forming a WSU Rank-and-File Committee: Email: cfpe.aus@gmail.com Facebook: facebook.com/commforpubliceducation Twitter: @CFPE_Australia The release of a critical report by The Commonwealth Funds this week only further underscores the decrepit state of healthcare in the United States, the center of world capitalism. The study, titled Insight into the US Maternal Mortality Crisis: An International Comparison, found that in 2022 maternal mortality for the US at 22.3 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births continues to be the highest among high-income nations. And as the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has previously noted, more than four in five of these deaths could have been prevented. The US has by far the highest maternal mortality rate among high-income countries. [Photo: Commonwealth Fund] By comparison, Chile and New Zealand, the next closest countries in this category, are substantially lower at 14.3 and 13.6 deaths per 100,000, respectively. For many European Union nations, the rates are three-fold lower. In Norway, the maternal mortality rate in 2022 reached zero deaths per 100,000. Although the US figures are down considerably from their 2021 highs at 32.9 deaths per 100,000 (a 33 percent decline), this has more to do with the decline in rates of COVID deaths among pregnant women. Numerous studies indicated that COVID significantly contributed to preeclampsia, preterm births, stillbirths and other adverse outcomes. Still, when compared to 2020, when the rate was 23.8 maternal deaths, the figures have remained essentially unchanged since the pre-pandemic period. Perhaps what is most remarkable is that 65 percent of these deaths occur after delivery. Twelve percent occur in the first week after birth. Contributing factors during this early period include severe bleeding, elevated blood pressures and infections. Another 23 percent of deaths take place between days seven and 42, while 30 percent are in the late postpartum period, between days 43 and 365. Causes for these deaths are usually attributable to a condition called cardiomyopathy, when the heart muscles grow weak. The bulk of maternal deaths occur after delivery of the baby. [Photo: Commonwealth Fund] Researchers have been scratching their heads to identify the causes for these alarming outcomes. Certainly, conditions like obesity and other chronic diseases compounded by increasing cesarean sections have contributed to severe maternal comorbidities. However, as Dr. Lindsay Admon, an obstetrician-gynecologist at the University of Michigan Medical School, told Scientific American, Focusing too narrowly on demographics, labor and delivery paints an incomplete picture of maternal health. As the report observed, [Over] the past decade, maternal mortality during labor and delivery has decreased in US hospitals across people of all ages, races and ethnicities, which researchers say is a result of improved birthing protocols. This reduction in deaths during childbirth itself implies that other factors are driving the overall rising rates of maternal mortality. Indeed, while efforts have been placed on ensuring safer deliveries, little has been done to improve outcomes before and after deliveries. When one reviews maternal mortality by state, there is an obvious correlation between states like Arkansas (43.5 maternal deaths per 100,000), Mississippi (43.0), Tennessee (41.7), Alabama (41.4), and Louisiana (39.0) and high rates of poverty. An eye-opening report from last month published by Lending Tree, an online lending marketplace, found that six of 10 states that offered the worst access to prenatal and maternal care were in the South. Among these were Alabama, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Arkansas and Tennessee. In particular, Alabama ranked lowest in the number of maternal care providers per capita. Mississippi also has the highest infant mortality rate in the country. In another concerning difference in the international comparison study, Commonwealth Funds found that the number of providers per 1,000 live births in the US was one of the lowest among the high-income countries. Although the number of obstetricians per capita was the same for the US and Sweden, which has almost ten-fold lower maternal mortality, Sweden has 69 midwives per 1,000 live births, compared to the US with only four midwives per 1,000 live births. The US supply of midwives is among the lowest of the advanced countries. [Photo: Commonwealth Fund] These differences have a historical context. Although, as an institution, midwifery survived in Europe, in the US it was displaced in the early 20th century when pregnancies were medicalized and births began to take place more and more in hospital settings. A 2014 State of the Worlds Midwifery Report demonstrated that well-educated midwives operating under international standards could provide more than 80 percent of the essential care for women and their newborns. In a Lancet Global Health report from 2021, the authors noted that [in] high-income settings, midwife-led continuity of care has been associated with positive outcomes, including fewer preterm births, fewer fetal losses at any gestation, and high rates of positive experiences reported by women. The authors of the Commonwealth Fund study said, Midwives are clinicians trained to provide a wide range of serviceshelping to manage normal pregnancies, assisting with childbirth, and providing care during the postpartum period, among others. Such services over the months that pass after delivery can greatly facilitate long-term health assessments such as symptoms of heart overload that may manifest with swelling and fatigue, early signs of thromboembolic events, or even assessment of postpartum depression or domestic violence that could herald tragic consequences. Optimally utilizing midwives could avert 41 percent of maternal deaths, 39 percent of neonatal deaths, and 26 percent of stillbirths. Furthermore, the Commonwealth study added, By placing a priority on natural reproduction processes and relationship-building, midwives also can help address the social needs of mother, baby, and family. Yet, in the US, the trends are diametrically opposed to these conceptions. The cost of delivery continues to climb, and access to obstetric services continues to dwindle. A 2022 March of Dimes report indicated that 5 percent of counties across the country had less access to obstetric services than two years before. These areas of combined low or no access, they wrote, affect up to 6.9 million women and almost 500,000 births in the US, or one in eight children born per year. Another issue that exacerbates maternal mortality rates is the lack of any federally mandated paid leave policy that could help women adjust to the physical and mental demands placed on new mothers while being guaranteed their income and job security. The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that in 2023, only 27 percent of civilian workers had access to paid family leave. Even these statistics conceal the fact that access to paid leave is lowest among workers with the greatest needs. Paid leave has many positive correlations: a decline in infant mortality, decreased risk of preterm birth and low birth weight, lower rates of rehospitalizations, higher rates of attending pediatric and postpartum visits, improved vaccination rates, higher rates of breast feeding, improved parent and child health and interrelationships. There are long-term benefits for the entire family unit, with lowered rates of depression among mothers and better cognitive and coping skills for children. The study also highlights that while maternal mortality is higher in the US than other high-income countries, it is highest among black women. One can also say that it is highest among all racial categories in the US, or, in other words, no one is spared. Clearly, the disproportion among black women is considerable at 49.5 per 100,000 while among whites it is 19.0 per 100,000 live birthsalso higher than any other high-income country. The socioeconomic factors that contribute to these outcomes are multifactorial and regional. The Southern states where access to obstetric care is worst also have a higher proportion of African Americans. Nearly all of the health conditions discussed above are worse in that region of the country. But fundamentally, the issue of maternal mortality is a class issue, and the class differences are pervasive across countries whatever the race or racial divisions in the populations. A 2021 report by Gopal K. Singh from the US Department of Health and Human Service, published in the International Journal of Maternal and Child Health and Aids, looked at trends and social inequalities that contributed to maternal mortality in the US over five decades. Although there had been a notable decline in mortality from 1970s into the 1990s, that trend has ended, along with the broader decline in the global economic standing of the US. The trends among racial groups have also persisted over the last two decades. The authors found that increasing maternal age increased maternal mortality for all racial groups but was most marked for black women 40 years old and older. Also, higher maternal education was protective of health, while unmarried status increased risk of death. Additionally, those living in small towns and large rural areas had higher mortality rates. But the overriding factor, among women of all races, was poverty. Singh found that between 2002 and 2018, both absolute and relative disparities in maternal mortality by deprivation level widened. Higher deprivation levels were generally associated with higher maternal mortality risks among both white and black women in each period. For example, in 2014-2018, black women in the most-deprived area group had a 70 percent higher maternal mortality risk than black women in the most affluent area group. For white women, the corresponding relative risk of mortality was 104 percent higher in the most-deprived group compared to the most-affluent group. Although Singh notes that within each deprivation group racial disparities in maternal mortality existed, these factors are best understood through the perspective of class and the historical development of social life in the United States. Like many important studies highlighting the enormous inequality that is part and parcel of life under the diktats of capitalism in terminal crisis, these reports stop short of making the correct diagnosis or prescribing solutions. The authors operate under the premise that capitalism cant be altered, let alone done away with, and therefore we must look elsewhere for solutions. So there are no calls for slashing the defense budget and using the resources to eradicate maternal mortality. Such proposals are not impossible or inconceivable, but they require a shift in social consciousness in favor of going to war against social evils, not against working people around the world. The University of Toronto administration is seeking to use all available means at its disposal to disperse the ongoing student anti-genocide encampment at the universitys College Circle. Late last month, the university issued encampment members with trespass notices and filed a court case to seek an injunction to remove the camp. The universitys actions expose the implacable hostility of the administration of Canadas wealthiest university, and the ruling class as a whole, to opposition to imperialist war and genocide. Issued the same day as the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel must stop its onslaught on Rafah, the trespass notices express how Canadas ruling elite, from the Trudeau Liberal government on down, will tolerate no exposure of their collusion with the Zionist regime in its final solution of the Palestinian question. OFL President Laura Walton addressing May 27 rally in solidarity with University of Toronto encampment [Photo: OFL/Facebook] The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), which claims to represent over a million workers, responded to the universitys threats by issuing a call for a solidarity rally May 27, the date that the university gave in an ultimatum for students to vacate the premises. The OFL is calling on trade unions, students, community members, and allies to join a solidarity rally to defend students right to protest, and to oppose attempts by the University of Toronto administration to remove the student encampment from campus, the OFL wrote. The call for the rally was issued by Laura Walton, who was catapulted to the presidency of the OFL after proving her ability to effectively suppress the class struggle in the sellout of the 2022 Ontario education support workers strike. With some 55,000 strikers defying a strike ban imposed by the hard-right, Doug Ford-led provincial government in November 2022, Walton, as the lead negotiator for the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), collaborated with top union bureaucrats from the OFL, Unifor, and Canadian Labour Congress to suppress a burgeoning movement for a province-wide general strike. After calling off the education workers strike without so much as a vote, she led the ramming through of a wage-cutting contract a few weeks later. The OFLs encampment solidarity-rally stunt drew approximately 100 people, providing further proof that the union bureaucracy has no intention of seriously mobilizing its membership to oppose Canadas complicity in the genocide and demand an end to the bombardment of Gaza. To date, Israel has officially massacred over 36,000 Palestinians, with thousands more presumed dead under the rubble of Gaza. Tens of thousands more are threatened with imminent starvation due to the deliberate blocking of aid supplies by the Israeli regime. Yet no effort was made to bring contingents of workers to the rally from OFL member unions, including workers in the defence and other industrial sectors forced to manufacture equipment that is shipped by the union-backed Trudeau Liberal government to the murderous Zionist regime. This is because mobilizing and politically wielding the power of the working class is the last thing the OFL bureaucracy intends to do. The focus of the union bureaucracy at the rally was to reassert their authority with students with cynical rhetorical appeals. This authority requires reassertion due to the unions utterly feckless and complicit response to the genocide in Gaza. Over the past seven months there have been many hundreds of demonstrations across Canada against the Israeli onslaught on the Palestinians, yet not one has seen a large union-organized contingent of workers. Many unions, including OFL affiliates, profess support for the besieged Palestinians of Gaza and call for a ceasefire. But this is all hypocritical hot air meant to pull wool over workers eyes. The unions and the union-sponsored NDP are the chief props of the very Trudeau Liberal government that on behalf of Canadian imperialism is backing the Israeli genocide and smearing those opposing it as antisemites. Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) President JP Hornick, who has been lauded as a militant union leader by myriad pseudo-left groups, mounted the podium at the May 27 rally to bluster that If the police come, we will be your human shields. We will be your line of defence. The same Hornick who boasts about the purported readiness of the OPSEU bureaucracy to protect protesting students from violent cops, presided over the cancelling of a meeting last June in opposition to the US-NATO instigated Ukraine war. Without even a whimper of opposition, OPSEU capitulated to violent threats from Ukrainian nationalists and a smear campaign waged by the far-right Ukrainian Canadian Congress. None of the speakers at the May 27 rally offered a way forward for the student protesters, who are demanding that the University of Toronto (UofT) divest its holdings in Israeli companies and acknowledge the genocide being carried out against the Palestinians. Although CUPE and other OFL affiliates represent thousands of workers at the universitys three campuses, the most the OFL statement on the rally could muster was a pathetic appeal for the university administration, which has pulled out all the stops to crush the encampment, to choose negotiations and discussion over ultimatums and repression. UofT management, and Canadas ruling class as a whole, has already made its choice. UofT has threatened students and academic workers with retaliation, including a fine of not more than $10,000 and disciplinary action under the Code of Student Conduct a five-year suspension or a recommendation to Governing Council for expulsion. Faculty members, librarians and staff may be subject to disciplinary measures, up to including termination of employment, in accordance with the relevant university policies and or the applicable collective agreements The University also filed a notice of motion in court seeking to authorize police to forcibly evict the students and academics, citing the threat of irreparable harm to the institution. The court has scheduled a hearing for June 19. The court filing accuses the students of violence, harmful and discriminatory speech and damage to the Universitys property, while alleging that Members of the University community and the public have expressed serious concerns to the University about their health, safety, security, wellbeing, and freedom of speech and expression as a result of the Encampment. As for the Trudeau government, its trade union backers, and their New Democratic Party alliesthey are all accomplices of the genocide. The Liberals approved over $28 million in weapons deliveries to Israel during the first months of the genocide. The NDP brought a motion before the House of Commons in March ostensibly aimed at recognizing the Palestinians right to self-determination, only to then collaborate with the Liberal government to rewrite it so extensively that the final adopted version included a full-throated declaration of support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus bloody onslaught and Israels right to defend itself. This charade saw references to an arms embargo on Israel gutted from the motion, as well as the removal of a declaration of support for the ICCs investigation into Israeli war crimes, whose chief prosecutor has since filed an application for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. Backed by the unions, the NDP has secured the Liberals their parliamentary majority in a confidence and supply agreement since March 2022. The arrangement has enabled Trudeau and his warmongering Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland to repeatedly endorse the genocide and escalate the US-led war against Russia in Ukraine, which threatens to spiral into a global conflagration fought with nuclear weapons. Since the beginning of the genocide, the Trudeau government has overseen a campaign to slander and censor opposition to the genocide. A major impetus for this crackdown was provided by the NDP, whose Ontario leadership threw provincial parliament member Sarah Jama out of its parliamentary caucus in October 2023 because she described Israel as an apartheid state and declared her solidarity with the Palestinians. There is nothing to negotiate or discuss with these political forces, who are up to their necks in the blood of Palestinian men, women and children. What students engaging in entirely legitimate protests on university campuses in Toronto and across the country desperately need is a clear perspective and strategy to take forward their fight against the genocide, including ending the complicity of post-secondary education institutions in it and their role as ideological and logistical auxiliaries of Canadian imperialism and militarism. The key question is the independent political mobilization of the working class. The working class, which creates all of societys wealth, has the power to shut down the capitalist economy, including the manufacturing and delivery of weapons to Israel. There is a huge potential for mobilizing the working class against the genocide in Gaza, which has angered millions, and more generally the developing imperialist world war, of which the war in the Middle East is but one front. Last fall more than half-a-million Quebec public sector workers participated in strike action, in one of largest strike movements in Canada in decades. Pictured above striking educators and school support staff at a rally in the Montreal suburb of Longueuil, on the first day of a three-day province-wide strike last November. Canada has seen a massive wave of strikes over the past two years, including by education support workers, healthcare professionals, teachers, dockworkers, and workers throughout the industrial sector. These strikes have been driven by declining living standards, while stock markets and capitalist profits soar, and an ever-greater portion of societys wealth is directed to preparing for war. Under these socially explosive conditions, the very same unions calling on students to negotiate with those complicit in Israels genocide have done everything possible to prevent worker opposition from developing into a political challenge to the ruling class program of austerity and war. They have confined every strike to the pro-employer collective bargaining system, thereby serving as the biggest obstacle to the mobilization of the working class immense political power. The union bureaucracy has pursued this anti-worker agenda because it is a privileged upper-middle-class layer with interests different from and hostile to those of the workers they claim to represent. It is these reactionary social interests that are at the root of the union bureaucracys support for the Trudeau Liberal government and the NDP-Liberal supply and confidence agreement. The union-NDP-Liberal alliance has worked tirelessly to suppress the class struggle for decades, and shortly after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine was formalized in the form of a governmental compact. The NDP-backed Liberal government is waging imperialist war against Russia, is integrating Canada ever more completely into the US military-strategic offensive against China, and completely supports the Zionist regimes genocide in Gaza and Washingtons plans to wage war on Iran. The anti-genocide movement must assimilate this basic reality. If the working class is to be mobilized as a powerful social force, this must take the form of an open rebellion against and political break with the union bureaucracy in the OFL, Canadian Labour Congress, Quebec-based Confederation of National Trade Unions and Unifor. The potential for a rank-and-file rebellion has been demonstrated recently by academic workers at the University of California. After the police launched a brutal crackdown against a student encampment at UCLA, graduate students and other workers forced the holding of a strike vote on the explicitly political basis of demanding an end to police repression against anti-genocide protesters and divestment from Israeli companies. Faced with an overwhelming vote for strike action, the UAW bureaucracy sought to sabotage the movement by calling out workers at only a handful of campuses. Students at UC Santa Cruz were subsequently attacked by police at the instigation of the Biden government, with which the UAW is working hand in glove in its drive towards a third world imperialist war. Under massive rank-and-file pressure, the UAW bureaucracy was forced to further expand the strike. However, it has imposed an arbitrary time limit on the strike of the end of June, underscoring its determination to prevent the job action from having any real impact. Participants in the student encampments and their supporters in the working class must draw far-reaching political lessons from this experience. Conditions are ripe for a rank-and-file rebellion against the accomplices in genocide sitting in government and the head offices of all major unions. But this rebellion must find an organized political expression through the construction of rank-and-file committees at every workplace. They must adopt a clear anti-capitalist program calling for a political struggle by the working class against the capitalist system, the root cause of imperialist war and genocide. Rather than following the bureaucracys pathetic appeals for negotiations with the university administration, students should focus on turning out to the factories, warehouses, depots, offices, and other workplaces to urge workers to support their protest by halting the production and distribution of all goods to Israel that could conceivably be used for the genocide. This is inseparable from a fight to bring the imperialist war machine in Canada, the United States and Europe to a grinding halt, since it is ultimately the imperialist backers of the Zionist regime that make its brutal massacre of the Palestinian people possible. Representative Andy Kim won the June 4 Democratic primary in New Jersey and will run in November for the Senate seat currently held by Democrat Robert Menendez. Kims victory reflects the ongoing integration of the intelligence agencies and the US State Department into the Democratic Party. Kim has served in the US House of Representatives since 2019. His district encompasses the suburbs of Philadelphia across the Delaware River in New Jersey. Kim has long experience in defending the foreign policy interests of US imperialism. While in college, he was an intern at the US Agency for International Development. This agency has worked closely with the Central Intelligence Agency and presidents of both parties to manipulate governments and political developments in countries such as Brazil, Bolivia and Yemen. Representative Andy Kim [Photo: US House of Representatives] Kim later worked at the US State Department, where he first served as a civilian adviser to General David Petraeus and General John R. Allen in Afghanistan. After leaving this post, Kim advised President Barack Obama on national security and became an official of the US National Security Council. Kim is thus implicated in the illegal and bloody wars that Obama waged, including in Syria and Libya. The WSWS identified Kim in 2018 as one of the dozens for former intelligence, military and State Department officials who were carrying out campaigns for Democratic congressional nominations in a year where the Democrats were expectedand didwin control of the House of Representatives due to mass popular revulsion at the policies of the Trump administration. These former national security officials were the largest single group of candidates seeking Democratic Party nominations, more than lawyers, state legislators, or other traditional categories (see The CIA Democrats). Kim was one of four suchCIA Democrats who won Democratic nominations in 2018 in New Jersey, out of five Republican-held seats in the state. These included former Navy helicopter pilot Mikie Sherrill in the 11th District, former State Department official Tom Malinowski in the 7th District, and retired Marine Corps officer Josh Welle in the 4th District. While Welle lost in his heavily Republican district, the other three won, with Kim and Malinowski defeating Republican incumbents. After all three were reelected in 2020, Malinowski lost his reelection bid in 2022 to Republican Tom Kean Jr. In 2024, Kim has decided to seek promotion to the Senate, and is now heavily favored to win the seat. Sherill is running for reelection in her congressional district and is also heavily favored. Kim recently voted for the $95 billion funding package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. During a debate between the Democratic candidates for US Senate, he explained his vote by saying, We have to also be able to make sure that were addressing the global security, which does affect us here at home. By us here at home, Kim means hedge fund managers and corporate chiefs like billionaire Donald Newhouse, the owner of Advance Publications and a New Jersey resident. Kim became the favorite to win the Democratic nomination after Tammy Murphy, the wife of Governor Phil Murphy, dropped out of the race. Murphys thin resume, long history as a Republican and inability to overcome charges of nepotism likely were factors in her decision. With the support of the Democratic Party and a steep fundraising advantage, Kim easily defeated challengers Patricia Campos-Medina, the executive director of the Worker Institute at Cornell Universitys Industrial and Labor Relations School, and Lawrence Hamm, chair of the activist group Peoples Organization for Progress. Kim, alongside Representative Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, is one of two CIA Democrats running for Senate this year. In November, Kim will face Republican Curtis Bashaw. A wealthy hotelier who had never before run for office, Bashaw defeated Christine Serrano Glassner to clinch his partys nomination. Serrano Glassner, it is worth noting, had the endorsement of Donald Trump. Bashaws other opponents were US Navy veteran Albert Harshaw and Justin Murphy, a former deputy mayor of Tabernacle. Bashaw is running on a platform of support for the police and for the fascistic governments of Israel and Ukraine. He calls for securing our border and describes himself as pro-parent, a designation that has been invoked to justify book bans and restrictions on sex education. Kim and Bashaw will also face Menendez, who is running a quixotic campaign for re-election as an independent. The former chair of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Menendez is on trial in federal court on charges of corruption and obstruction of justice. The longtime hawk allegedly accepted gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz, among other bribes, to interfere in criminal prosecutions and send weapons and aid to Egypt. Trump won New Jerseys Republican presidential primary unopposed. President Joe Biden won the states Democratic presidential primary with 88.4 percent of the vote. But of the states approximately 2.4 million registered Democrats, only 425,512 voted for him, indicating the general lack of enthusiasm among Democratic voters. At the same time, some 42,479 Democrats (8.8 percent of the total turnout) voted uncommitted in New Jerseys presidential primary, mainly to express opposition to Bidens support for Israeli genocide in Gaza. This result is consistent with those of other states. The uncommitted campaign, which is being promoted by some congressional Democrats and pseudo-left groups, is ostensibly directed toward pressuring Biden or the Democratic Party to reconsider its staunch support for Israel and adopt more progressive policies. This tactic is utterly futile. When a reporter asked Biden last month whether the student protests had prompted him to reconsider his position on Israel, he replied, flatly, No. More recently, White House National Security spokesman John Kirby declared, The president does not make decisions or execute policy based on public opinion polling. These statements reflect not only the administrations support for the genocide, but also its open rejection of democracy. The uncommitted campaign thus serves to keep opponents of the ongoing massacre from breaking with the Democratic Party. Of the New Jersey primaries for the US House of Representatives, a few deserve comment. In the 8th district, Representative Rob Menendez, the son of the corrupt senator, won the renomination with 52.5 percent of the vote, a relatively poor showing for an incumbent Democrat. In November, he will face Anthony Valdes, who won the Republican primary unopposed. Menendez has touted his support for Israel, while Valdes is emphasizing border security and increased oil production. In the 9th district, Representative Bill Pascrell won the Democratic nomination handily with 76.6 percent of the vote. The victory is notable because of the popular opposition to Pascrells support for Israels genocide, particularly in his hometown of Paterson, which has a large Arab American population. Billy Prempeh, who unsuccessfully challenged Pascrell in 2020 and 2022, won the Republican nomination. The New Jersey primary results highlight the rightward trajectory of the Democrats, who are in a de facto coalition government with the Republicans. Both parties are united on a program of genocide in Gaza and war against Russia, which they are escalating to the brink of nuclear cataclysm. These wars are to be funded through increasing attacks on workers standard of living, and both parties favor the use of police violence to crush all popular opposition. No progressive solution to any of the current crises can be found through capitalist politics. Since the May 31 knife attack at Mannheims market square, in which a police officer was killed, the Islamophobic media campaign in Germany has continued unabated. Leading establishment party politicians, above all the former Left Party leader Sahra Wagenknecht, are falling over themselves in their hysterical rants against Muslims, calling for an end to tolerance and merciless deportations, including to Afghanistan. Shortly before the European elections, they are doing everything they can to poison the climate in Germany and move it to the right. On Friday, May 31, a young Afghan man attacked a rally organised by the Islamophobic Burgerbewegung Pax Europa (Pax Europa Citizens Movement, BPE) with a knife. A police officer who intervened was so seriously injured that he died two days later, and several participants were also injured, some seriously. The attacker, who was struck down by police gunfire, is still in hospital six days after the incident and is unresponsive. The 25-year-old Sulaiman A. had fled to Germany from Afghanistan with his brother 10 years ago. He is now married, has two children and lives in Heppenheim, Hesse. He had completed his secondary school leaving certificate and actively supported refugee aid. He repeatedly took on jobs as a labourer, but was unable to get a permanent job, not least because the immigration office refused him a permanent residence permit despite his marriage to a German woman. According to his neighbours, Sulaiman A. had recently become radicalised before he attacked Michael Sturzenberger, the chairman of the BPE, and several of his supporters on Friday, fatally injuring a police officer. The way in which this case has since been exploited politically is unprecedented. Top politicians are calling for harsher punishments and deportations, including to Afghanistan and Syria. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (Social Democrat, SPD) described the attack on a police officer as an attack on us all, and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (Liberal Democrat, FDP) promised to better equip the security authorities financially. No more false tolerance! shouted Lindner. The Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) called for a debate in the Bundestag (federal parliament) with the aim of better protecting the police and examining the possibility of deportations to Afghanistan. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced tough penalties: The perpetrator must be punished with the maximum severity of the law for his murderous act, said the SPD politician. The security authorities had the Islamist scene firmly in their sights. On Tuesday, Faeser went one step further and emphasised: It is clear to me that people who pose a potential threat to Germanys security must be deported quickly. ... Germanys security interests clearly outweigh the interests of those affected to stay. YouTube video by Sahra Wagenknecht. Radical Islam doesnt belong in Germany! [Photo by screenshot] Sahra Wagenknecht, who now heads the BSW split from the Left Party, made particularly nationalist and repulsive remarks. In the style of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), Wagenknecht ranted in an election campaign video about the serious problem with failed integration: there are solidifying Islamist parallel societies. The situation had worsened due to non-integrated immigration, she said. Wagenknecht indirectly denounced the Mannheim perpetrator as a social parasite who had received benefits for ten years. Basically, anyone who can halfway pronounce the word asylum can come to Germany. She called for a U-turn in asylum and immigration policy and described it as urgently necessary for asylum procedures to be carried out at Europes external borders or in third countries. She also called for consistent deportations, which should naturally also take place to Afghanistan. Wagenknechts words are exemplary of the hysteria of government and opposition politicians, who are no different from the fascists of the AfD. The intensity and omnipresence with which they express their anti-migrant agitation indicates how important it is to them. In the face of rearmament, escalating war and the associated social cuts, the dissatisfied working class is to be divided, incited and thus paralysed. The background to the events in Mannheim is consistently ignored. Michael Sturzenberger, the first victim of Fridays attack, is a right-wing, Islamophobic activist. The journalist and former CSU press spokesman has distinguished himself as a pioneer of the far-right PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the Occident). He has journeyed throughout the country as a travelling preacher of hate propaganda with the aim of driving Muslims out of Germany. His current organisation, the Burgerbewegung Pax Europa, was originally founded by Udo Ulfkotte, another far-right journalist who spread his Islamophobic filth and conspiracy-theories through the Kopp publishing house. A rally by these Islamophobic agitators on Mannheims market square, of all places, was an unscrupulous provocation. The market square in the centre of Mannheim is located in an area where immigrants predominantly live. It is surrounded by numerous Turkish and other international restaurants, bakeries and fruit and vegetable shops. Here, long-established Mannheim residents live peacefully together with workers of foreign origin. This is also where the large Mannheim demonstration against the genocide in the Gaza Strip took place on February 24, and many residents of the neighbourhood, whether German or immigrant, actively supported the demonstration. There have also been repeated demonstrations here against brutal police violence. Recently, a striking number of such cases have ended fatally, but the police almost always face no consequences. In the last two years alone, there have been at least four cases of police violence resulting in death in Mannheim. Time and again, the perpetrators in uniform have attacked the mentally ill, especially those of foreign origin. On May 2, 2022, for example, several officers killed 47-year-old Ante P., who was in a state of mental crisis. They threw him to the ground, pinned him down and hit him in the head with full force. Those responsible were acquitted at the beginning of March 2024. On December 23, 2023, police officers shot Ertekin O., who was also mentally ill. They were acquitted by the court on May 29, just two days before the latest knife attack. Ertekin O.s family reacted to the acquittal saying they were shaken and shocked, and the May 2 Initiative group announced a rally for June 1. The rally against police violence was cancelled until further notice due to the recent events on the market square. Meanwhile, the injured Pax Europa functionary Sturzenberger has reported back from hospital. He publicly compared himself to the Dutch film director Theo van Gogh, who was murdered in Amsterdam in 2004. At the time, Theo van Gogh had launched unremitting provocations against Islam and, among other things, projected Koranic verses onto naked female bodies. His death took place, as the WSWS wrote at the time, in a climate of increasing xenophobia on the part of the establishment parties and a large part of the media. ... With his provocative attacks on Islam, van Gogh threw fuel on the fire. Those in power reacted to van Goghs murder by expanding police-state measures and tightening deportation and isolation policies. Geert Wilders, the strong man behind the future Dutch government, has based his party partly on the legacy of Theo van Gogh and has even denounced the Koran as a fascist book. In Germany, the AfD youth organisation Junge Alternative reacted to the knife attack on the market square by calling for a rally at the scene of the crime in Mannheim under the slogan: Remigration would have prevented this crime, provocatively quoting the core message of the Potsdam meeting that triggered mass rallies against the AfD a few months ago. However, hardly any establishment politicians or major newspapers has reacted to this latest provocation. Instead, just a few days before the European elections, they are joining in with the right-wing incitement against immigrants and thus strengthening the AfD. They are once again showing that their lip service opposition to right-wing extremism is nothing but propaganda. In reality, they are putting the AfDs programme into practice and promoting the party. They are using it to intimidate opposition to war, the genocide in Gaza and social cuts and to build a police state. The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) has placed the fight against war at the centre of its European election campaign. It stands for the unity of the European and international working class in the fight against war and capitalism and for a socialist programme. The SGP calls on workers to defend their Muslim colleagues. In its election appeal for the European elections, it writes: In order to suppress the growing opposition to this hated policy, the coalition government is donning the moth-eaten garb of fascism. It is inciting hatred against refugees and immigrants and abolishing basic democratic rights. The SGP defends basic democratic rights and demands equal rights for immigrants and refugees. For almost eight months, weekly protests have continued in Australias major cities against Israels genocidal onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza. Part of the Melbourne rally on June 2, 2024 The rallies last weekend in Melbourne and Sydney were among the largest this year, reflecting deepening anger and opposition among workers and young people over the ethnic-cleansing operation, especially the latest offensive in Rafah. Organisers, including from pseudo-left parties such as Socialist Alternative, continue to peddle the bankrupt line of appealing to the Labor government to end its support for Israel. This position covers up the fact that the genocide is part of a broader eruption of imperialist militarism. It serves to subordinate protesters to the very government that is frenetically denouncing all opposition to the genocide as an illegitimate attack on so-called social cohesion. Reporters for the World Socialist Web Site spoke with several of the approximately 20,000 demonstrators at the Melbourne protest rally. Nada is a Palestinian-Australian, working as a construction project manager. She explained: My dad is from a village called Silat ad-Dhahr, which is in West Bank, and my mother is actually from Ramle, which is internationally now known as within Israel. I get to experience firsthand how it affects each one of them because of the different regions that they are from. They discuss the possibility of a two-state solution, but then what would that make my mum? Nada At the end of the day, even if they did agree to that, you are still rewarding the occupation that is happening, and you are trying to push under the rug the pain that has happened from the 1948 period as well. My dads cousin, hes currently in Israeli administrative detentionhe has been there a while as welljust for protesting against what is happening. On the role of US imperialism, she added: If you look at the history of Biden, he has always been a self-professed Zionist. And I think what should be pointed out with that is that Zionism and Judaism are totally differentthey dont equal each other. Nada spoke about the connection between the Gaza genocide and the escalation of war threats around the world: I think the US finds that in its military, they have the power. They are the ones that threatened the Middle East, just to be able to use it for whats happening now. As we all know, that region is full of resources such as oil and gas, and we are finding through research that there are those elements in Gaza too. I believe it is for that cause and they will work to eliminate Palestine just to get those resources. I believe that it is all connected at the end of the daywar is profit, and the small people will always stay small. But we are now rising above, and hopefully we can overturn that. I think that, this time around, because we have the benefit of social media, more people are more open to what is happening, and are now questioning what their previous stances were. Peter Peter, a high school music teacher, said: It seems to me that voices need to be raised so that people who are supposed to be democratically representing us understand that we oppose what is happening, and these people need to change their views and their policies in Australia to show that we oppose what is happening. On the global movement against the Gaza genocide, he responded: Its absolutely heart-warmingI am so happy to see people turning out to peacefully support anti-genocide, and to show each other around the world that what is happening is terrible, and that we stand both with Jewish safety as well as with Palestinian safety. What Israel is doingthey burn the scars on their own soul, by doing this supposedly for their own safety, its nonsense. Conducting this war makes everybody less safe, Israelis, Palestinians, and the rest of us. Vilan Vilans family is originally from Sri Lanka, and he works as a chef while studying community services at university. He explained why he was attending the rally: Its quite simple, the genocide that is happening, I cant just sit and watch. Every little way that you can do something, you do it. On whats happening in Rafah, Im not surprisedthe Israelis call has always been to just wipe the Palestinians out and settle. Philip owns a small business. He said: Its quite obvious we are being manipulated by a Zionist regime that seems to be centring from America and American politics, and the money they are making from their donations. Its enough to turn a blind eye to genocide, and to wipe an entire people out for profit, and its so deep that it affects our government here, to the point where they can say things like lets ban the slogan, From the River to the Sea, and falsely label this as extremely violent. Where does the Gaza genocide fit in with that? No-one in their right mind can support this atrocityyet our government is. Philip The Labor Party is all about business, its not about being equal at all. You look at all the people who have been coming here [to the rallies] for the last eight months, and no one is listening. Its hidden in the media, I dont know what to make of it. I am confusedwhat does it mean? Do we need a rising up from the people? No one here is violent or wants violence, and obviously accusations of antisemitism are a joke. However, more and more I am seeing that theres pro-Israeli groups organising to cause conflict. Students out at Monash University, they have been there at the encampment for weeks, and then we saw a group of pro-Israelis causing the trouble. And the governments prepared to put up with that. I think the student demonstrators are the heroes of today. My son has mild cerebral palsyI had to take him to a hospital appointment in Monash, and I took him to see the students, the encampments, and I introduced them as heroes to him. What they are putting on the line and what they are giving is amazing. At another recent protest, outside Sydney Town Hall, WSWS reporters spoke to Mark, a retired academic. He said: Since October 8th, when the IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces, went into Gaza, weve had an unfolding genocide before our eyes. Im an Australian, but Ive worked in the Middle East a lot. Ive got friends on the West Bank. I know Palestinians in their diaspora around different parts of the world, and all I can say is that, you know, how can I stand by and be a bystander to genocide? At the end of World War II, once people realised what had really happened in the concentration camps, in the Shoah, in the Holocaust, you know what people said? Never again. They said, no, were not going to be bystanders. Were going to speak out when we see violence. Thats what this is about tonight. Were not going to stand by and allow genocide to continue to happen in this new century. All governments, whether they be in the global south, the Arab states, the Western nations, particularly the American leadership, theyre all culpable. Whats happened to the world when leaders endorse genocide? What can we say about Albanese? He can no longer be considered a moral leader in any way of this nation. Hes taken the wrong course. He hasnt spoken out, nor has his foreign minister. In fact, they continue to endorse what the Israeli government has done. Absolutely, the impunity with which they get away with genocide is unbelievable. You can feel and see the outrage here tonight. Theres anger and grief at the number of people unnecessarily being killed at the moment. Rafah is actually the last available spot on that strip for people, after having been moved many, many times, from place to place. My Palestinian friends have said, theyve pushed us around like animals. And what is the world doing? Nothing. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. Chairman of the Russian Gazprom Management Committee, Alexei Miller, and President of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), Rovshan Najaf, have held a working meeting within the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum-2024 (SPIEF), Trend reports via Gazprom. The sides assessed the advancements and future prospects of collaboration within the gas sector, with particular emphasis on the global energy market dynamics. Miller highlighted Gazprom's assessments derived from official data, indicating a 15 billion cubic meter rise in global gas consumption in 2023. Furthermore, he noted an accelerated growth trend in consumption since the onset of 2024. The significance of natural gas within the global energy landscape is poised to escalate across all plausible energy scenarios. Its appeal persists as the most favorable energy source, given its reliability, user-friendly nature, cost efficiency, and environmental advantages, the statement reads. According to Gazprom's estimates, global gas consumption in the first quarter of 2024 surged by over 40 billion cubic meters, marking a 3.5 percent year-on-year increase. The Asia-Pacific region witnessed the most significant surge, with a 20 billion cubic meter rise. Meanwhile, gas consumption in Europe continued its downward trend, experiencing a 5 billion cubic meter decline, equivalent to 3.2 percent, compared to the same period in 2023. This decline was particularly pronounced in Europe's major economies, including Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy. In a press release following a meeting with SOCAR management, Gazprom revealed that international gas trade in the first quarter of 2024 saw an increase of approximately 15 billion cubic meters (a 4.8 percent rise) compared to the previous year. Gazprom notably contributed around 60 percent of this global increase in gas trade and over 80 percent of the increase in pipeline gas trade. To note, the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) is scheduled to take place from June 5 to 8. Stay up-to-date with more news at Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) launched a savage assault on a school run by the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza early Thursday, killing at least 40 people, among them, nine children and three women. Palestinians look at the aftermath of the Israeli strike on a UN-run school that killed dozens of people in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, Thursday, June 6, 2024. [AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi] An investigation by Al Jazeera confirmed that the missiles fired on the camp were equipped with US-supplied precision guidance systems. A piece of debris from one of the weapons used in the attack was traced to the American firm Honeywell. At least three missiles were fired in the attack, which also injured 73 people. Using its standard justification for reducing hospitals, schools, universities and other critical infrastructure to rubble, the IDF asserted that Hamas fighters were using the school, home to some 6,000 displaced civilians, as a base. Asked about the attack at the State Departments daily briefing, spokesman Matthew Miller declared: If it is true that you have this site where Hamas is hiding inside a school, other militants are hiding inside a school, those individuals are legitimate targets, but at the same time, theyre embedded near civilians, Israel has a right to try and target those civilians. The indiscriminate targeting of civilians in military operations is a war crime that recalls the darkest days of World War II, when Hitlers Nazi regime waged a war of extermination against the Soviet Union that claimed the lives of 27 million people. The carpet bombing of major cities on both sidesDresden, Hamburg, London, Tokyoand the dropping of two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki demonstrated the barbarism of imperialism. Eight decades on, Millers remarks confirm how accurately the World Socialist Web Site appraised the official D-Day commemorations, writing Thursday: To be perfectly blunt, the policies and objectives of NATO are eerily similar to those of the Nazi regime against which the Allies fought in World War II. Hitler, were he resurrected for the occasion, would feel perfectly at home in the company of US President Biden, British Prime Minister Sunak, French President Macron and German Chancellor Scholz. Just hours after the school bombing, the White House released a joint statement on behalf of US imperialism and its Canadian and European allies that amounted to a declaration of support for the far-right Israeli regimes genocide in Gaza. Framed as a plea for a ceasefire in the eight-month onslaught by the IDF against defenceless civilians, it is in reality an endorsement of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus policy of ethnically cleansing the Palestinians from Gaza. The statement, which never mentioned the more than 36,000 Palestinians slaughtered by the IDF or the more than 2 million driven to the verge of starvation by Israels deliberate withholding of aid, opened by stressing that the leaders who signed it were deeply concerned for the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. The signatories included the governments of Britain, Canada, France and Germany, Israels main weapons supplier behind the US, and a number of smaller countries in Europe and Latin America. Referring to the much-reported ceasefire proposal presented by US President Joseph Biden, the statement continued: [W]e fully support the movement towards a ceasefire and hostage release deal now on the table. There is no time to lose. We call on Hamas to close this agreement, that Israel is ready to move forward with. Amid the ostensible push for a ceasefire, all that Israel has proven that it is ready to move forward with is the expansion of its onslaught on Rafah with weapons supplied by the imperialist powers. Last week, the IDF carried out two deadly bomb attacks on displaced persons camps in supposedly safe zones in western Rafah. The UNRWA reported that it received no forewarning of Thursdays attack on its school. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini stated: Attacking, targeting or using UN buildings for military purposes are a blatant disregard of International Humanitarian Law. UN staff, premises and operations must be protected at all times. This must stop and all those responsible must be held accountable. The systematic targeting of schools has been a major feature of Israels barbaric assault on Gaza. In Late January, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that 76 percent of Gazas schools had been destroyed by Israeli attacks. All 12 universities in Gaza have been demolished. The IDF has intentionally targeted many leading scholars and educators, such as the poet and Professor of Literature Refaat Alareer and Prof. Nasser Abu Al-Nour, the dean of nursing at Gazas Islamic University. Netanyahu, who heads a fascistic government including right-wing extremist parties committed to reestablishing settlements in Gaza, has repeatedly declared that the onslaught on Gaza will end when Hamas is eliminated, the hostages are freed, and Israel has full security control over Gaza. This genocidal agenda is possible only through the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Those who manage to survive the IDFs incessant bombardment must either be starved to death, killed by disease, or forcibly expelled across the Egyptian border. Thursdays joint statement by the imperialist powers once again confirms their backing for this agenda, with the term ceasefire employed for propaganda purposes alone. A Hamas official underscored this point, describing the agreement promoted by Biden as not acceptable to us. Describing the text of a resolution to be introduced at the UN Security Council by Washington, Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters: The [US] document has no mention of ending the aggression or the withdrawal. The Israeli documents speak of open-ended negotiation with no deadline, and it speaks of a stage during which the occupation regains its hostages and resumes the war. Zuhri reiterated Hamass acceptance of a May 5 proposal that would free the hostages in exchange for a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The Israeli regime disregarded Hamass acceptance of the earlier deal because it came on the very eve of the onslaught on Rafah, which began on May 6. Since then, over one million Palestinians have fled Gazas southernmost city, many of them returning to the ruins of Khan Younis. Aid deliveries into the enclave have dropped by two-thirds from the already abysmally low level prior to the offensive in Rafah, due to the IDFs closure of the border crossing with Egypt and effective shuttering of the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel. The deaths of two children within a week from malnutrition in central Gaza prompted aid organisations to warn that famine is imminent. Around 1.7 million people are believed to be seeking shelter in the areas around Khan Younis, where civilian infrastructure has been obliterated. The latest proposal presented by the US in a draft resolution that could be voted on in the UN Security Council as early as Monday is a transparent effort to cover up Washingtons complicity in the destruction of Gaza. It speaks of a six-week ceasefire during which all female, elderly and sick hostages will be released. Thereafter, all remaining hostages will be released, and IDF forces will withdraw from Gaza, allowing Palestinians to return to their homes. The drafters are indifferent to the fact that the IDFs genocidal onslaught has laid waste to 55 percent of all structures in Gaza, including the vast majority of housing units. The pledge to reconstruct Gaza is equally empty. A recent UN projection estimated that in a best-case scenario, it would take until 2040 to rebuild destroyed buildings in the enclave. A more realistic timeframe, based on the aftermath of past conflicts, the report admitted, was over eight decades. ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, June 7. Turkmenistan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) reviewed the implementation of new joint projects, Trend reports. According to the Turkmen Foreign Ministry, the implementation of these projects was discussed during a meeting between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, Rashid Meredov and the Director General of the Central and West Asia Department of the ADB Eugenue Zhukov. During the meeting, the sides exchanged views on the state of cooperation between Turkmenistan and the ADB, discussed the possibilities of implementing new joint projects in the fields of transport, healthcare, and entrepreneurship, as well as issues related to renewable energy sources. The effectiveness of Turkmenistan's long-term cooperation with the ADB was emphasized, in particular, in the areas of transport and energy, as well as in the field of private sector support and investment partnerships. Furthermore, the parties discussed joint preparatory work to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Turkmenistan becoming an ADB member in 2025. Meanwhile, ADB has been cooperating with Turkmenistan since 2000 and has been helping to diversify the country's export markets and strengthen its regional interconnections. For example, the bank offered expert assistance in establishing long-term exports of Turkmen electricity to Afghanistan, and the loan portfolio approved by the bank for the country amounted to $125 million. Turkmenistan has also been involved in technical assistance projects through the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program since 2010. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. Organizing the Baku Energy Week has become a time-honored tradition, Azerbaijani MP Azer Badamov told Trend. He recalled that this event was first organized thirty years ago, when Azerbaijan had just gained its independence and was dealing with certain difficulties. To develop the nation, foreign investments were required. The MP made the point that "The Contract of the Century" was signed, injecting billions of dollars into the national economy, following the inaugural Baku Energy Week in 1994. "The Baku Energy Week now encompasses the green energy industry, whereas thirty years ago it was focused on developing the oil and gas industry only. New issues with producing green energy have entered our agendas these days. Even though a few companies from a few countries took part in the event back then, 300 companies from 37 countries do now. The newest technology is being displayed by these companies as part of Baku Energy Week. Naturally, this will be significant to the growth of our oil and gas sector as well as the creation of renewable energy sources," he said. According to the MP, Azerbaijan's 'green' agenda is quite extensive. "Our country defined its green agenda even before the decision to hold COP29 was made. Thus, the territories liberated from occupation were declared a green zone, the green energy potential of our country was identified, and it was confirmed that the renewable energy potential in the country is about 200 gigawatts. Azerbaijan, by developing its 'green' agenda, is also contributing to the fight against global climate change. Thus, the country is taking practical steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. During Baku Energy Week, the foundation was laid for three new renewable energy plants. With the launch of these stations, one gigawatt of new capacity will be added to our green energy capacity. Overall, Azerbaijan plans to produce two gigawatts of green energy by the end of 2027. Producing green energy allows us to save on gas consumption. Thus, the production of one gigawatt of green energy will enable us to save 500 million cubic meters of natural gas. By 2027, we plan to increase the volume of gas we export to Europe to 20 billion cubic meters. Thanks to the development of the green energy sector, we will be able to export the saved gas to Europe," said Badamov. According to him, increasing gas exports to Europe will reduce the use of solid fuels there. "This is also one of our contributions to the fight against global climate change. Our country will also export green energy to Europe. Thanks to a joint agreement between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania, and Hungary, the construction of a 'green' cable line along the bottom of the Black Sea will begin soon." This will also enable us to bring the renewable energy resources that we will produce to European markets. During Baku Energy Week, discussions on all these issues are taking place, and serious steps will be taken towards implementing these processes. The Baku Energy Week will also accelerate the influx of new investments into our country. Major leading companies cooperating with us in the energy sector believe that our word carries as much weight as our signature because we are committed to fulfilling all the agreements we sign. The political significance of holding Baku Energy Week is also very great. It strengthens our country's political position and increases the number of our friends. The congratulatory letters sent by the heads of state from the USA, the UK, and Turkiye are indicators of the global importance of Baku Energy Week. Azerbaijan has become a country with extensive experience in hosting international events. Our country brings peace, tranquility, mutual benefit, and development to every cooperating partner," added the MP. Commenting on the issue, economic expert Eyyub Karimli said that the topics discussed during the Baku Energy Week are very important for Azerbaijan and the region. "Considering that these are topics such as energy security, expanding exploration and production capabilities in the Caspian Sea and the region, as well as the potential of green energy, it is clear how important this event is. Today, our country's importance to Europe's energy security is increasing. Already, our nation is effectively drawing in international investors for the green energy industry. Hosting this conference offers Azerbaijan a wide range of chances to realize its enormous potential in this field. Three hundred companies representing 37 nations attended Baku Energy Week. This will all help our nation maintain energy security," added the expert. To note, the Baku Energy Week was held in Azerbaijan on June 46. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. Masdar, a company based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is developing a separate program related to COP29, Masdar Azerbaijan director Murad Sadikhov told Trend. "As you know, Masdar was actively involved in COP28. The company significantly contributed to the organization of COP. We are also actively cooperating with Azerbaijan within the framework of COP29. Masdar experts, who played a crucial role in COP28, are now sharing their experience with Azerbaijan," he said. Sadikhov highlighted that the Zayed Sustainability Prize, one of Masdar's institutions, is collaborating with Azerbaijan for COP29. "Representatives of this company are currently in Azerbaijan, supporting new initiatives and projects in the field of green energy and sustainable development. Masdar is working on a separate program related to COP29," he added. The 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) will be held in Azerbaijan this November. This decision was made at the COP28 plenary meeting in Dubai on December 11 last year. For two weeks, Baku will become the center of global attention, hosting about 70-80 thousand 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. The abbreviation COP stands for Conference of the Parties, 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 otherwise agreed, the COP is held annually. The first COP event took place in March 1995 in Berlin, and its secretariat is located in Bonn. Follow the author on X: @Lyaman_Zeyn After teaming up for a successful comeback album in 2021, all four members of ABBA reunited once more as they were knighted at a royal ceremony in Stockholm on Friday, May 31. Bjorn Ulvaeus, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Agnetha Faltskog and Benny Andersson posed together as they received the Royal Order of Vasa, establishing them as Commanders of the First Class, for very outstanding efforts in Swedish and international music life. They were knighted by Swedish royalty, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia. "The order you get today is Swedens thanks for your exceptional efforts, the king, 78, said, according to Sky News. The group was all smiles as they posed together for pictures and accepted the honor, which was presented in a red box, at the Royal Palace. This years 13 honorees were the first to receive Swedish knighthood since 1974. Royal orders were previously restricted to foreigners only but the Riksdag, the countrys parliament, agreed to reinstate the honor for citizens at the end of 2022. Eurovision Stars Who Made It Big in the U.S.: ABBA, Celine Dion and More Who Found Success Candidates were nominated by both the general public and the Swedish government with nine selected to receive the royal order alongside ABBA, including two Nobel Prize-winning physicists. HENRIK MONTGOMERY/TT/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images ABBA recently received five Grammy nominations for their reunion album, Voyage, which was released in November 2021 to rave reviews. It was the groups first record of new material in 40 years. In celebration of the album, the group announced ABBA Voyage, a virtual concert residency that features avatars of the members as they appeared in 1979. The show uses re-recorded vocals and is accompanied by a live instrumental band on stage. Andersson, 77, and Ulvaeus, 79, appeared at the ABBA Arena in London last week to celebrate the concerts two-year anniversary. Lyngstad, 78, and Faltskog, 74, were not in attendance. Everything Amanda Seyfried and More Mamma Mia! Stars Have Said About a Possible 3rd Movie ABBA an acronym of the first letters of each group member's first name: Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, Anni-Frid launched at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, where they won with their song "Waterloo." In the years since, they've become one of the most successful pop groups of all time, selling millions of albums featuring hits like Dancing Queen and Super Trouper. In 1999, their music was adapted into a stage musical, Mamma Mia!, which was made into the successful 2008 film starring Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried. A 2018 sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, also featured ABBA's music. 41 Things People Said That Were So Dumb Someone Should Check Their Pulse There are a lot of great conversations over on Quora, and recently I stumbled across one asking, "What are some dumb questions you've been asked?" After reading through the answers, I am convinced people are about 84% dumber than I originally believed. Pixar/Disney Here are the most hilariously brain-dead things people on Quora have had said to them, along with some equally facepalm-worthy answers from a similar prompt on Reddit: 1."I had a student email me to ask how to convert years into centuries." Peter L., Quora 2."Last month, a coworker asked if I'll run out of blood eventually because I donate every couple of months. He's 34 years old." u/deleted 3."One of my aunts asked about what I do, so I told her that after completing my electronics engineering degree, I started working in a chip-designing company. After a pause, she asked: 'What are your most popular flavors? Are the chips as good as Lay's?'" Abhinav G., Quora 4."'I'm never going to quit smoking cigarettes. My aunt was healthy until she quit. Then she was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer.'" u/StableDestroyer 5."What is the correct spelling... Iran or Iraq?" Diane C., Quora 6."Someone once said that they couldnt wait for Halloween to fall on Friday the 13th." u/BurningMurphys 7."When I was a waitress at Buffalo Wild Wings, a woman once asked, 'What part of the buffalo do the Buffalo wings come from?'" Charissa E., Quora 8."My husband's mom is very ignorant and known to say really dumb things. Most recently, we were in Italy, and she asked why they didn't just tear down the Colosseum because it looked so old." u/M-Y-girliegirl 9."'How come chicken breasts don't have nipples?'" Vineet K., Quora 10."I had an acquaintance claim that the earth must be flat because nobody is talking about the white landmass around the map and how it's a cover-up. He was pointing at the white rectangular border of the paper." u/Banan4Express 11."A teacher, soon after I arrived in the US: 'How long have you been here?' Me: 'A week.' Teacher: 'How did you learn English so fast?!'" Vinati S., Quora 12."A few years ago, leading up to the great American eclipse, a coworker overheard us discussing it and said, 'Y'all don't actually believe in that shit, do you?' I figured he misunderstood whatever we were talking about and thought we were talking about mysticism or something regarding the eclipse, but no, he followed up with, 'Don't you know if the moon went into the sun, it would melt? That's why the eclipse can't be real.'" u/valhallaswyrdo 13."Once, at my shop, I stood with my register open, counting a fistful of 50-dollar notes in my hand, when a woman came up and asked me if I worked there. I looked at her, then at the money, then at the open cash drawer, and said, 'Nah, mate. I'm just robbing the till.'" Leigh L., Quora 14."They asked, 'Was it difficult for your husband to learn English? Is there a language barrier for you guys?' My husband is Scottish, born and raised." u/Zoo_in_the_bathtub 15."I had a guy I was working construction with say, 'I hope the sun comes up on that side today' pointing west 'because yesterday it came up on this side and it was so hot' with us being on the east side of the building. Ya bud, that's not how the sun works, LOL." u/I-Reddit_Rong 16."Shopkeeper: 'I will get you a 30% discount on this.' My friend: 'If I buy two, I will get it at 60% off, right?'" Anonymous, Quora 17."I was working in the emergency department when I received this call from a frantic mother: 'My toddler just drank out of the dog's water bowl! What should I do?' I told her: 'Give the dog some more water.'" Angela A., Quora 18."I once had a classmate in high school say she wanted to move to Australia. When asked why, she replied, 'I want to look out my window and see giraffes in my yard.' No amount of convincing or documentation would convince her that giraffes were in Africa and not Australia." u/ThunderDash 19."'Do you have internet in Indonesia?' and it was asked by email." Andre O., Quora 20."A guy asked me if Hitler was before or after World War II. We are both native Germans." u/Kilimandijaro 21."Someone told me we dont need farmers because we have grocery stores. (We live in a rural area.)" u/ApplicationFar655 22."I was asked: 'Is this the end of the line?' I answered: 'No, it's the front. We're all standing backward.'" Mike C., Quora 23."A friend of mine asked me why we didnt see stars when we flew over them. She truly believed that when you were flying on an airplane, you flew over the stars. I was speechless." u/Outrageous-Crow-5359 24."My grandma's friend and her daughter said they could hear the International Space Station fly overhead. They claimed it sounded like 'woosh,' LOL." u/TheBookofrook 25."'I don't know if an egg is a fruit or a vegetable.'" u/cannedbenkt 26."After telling a friend I am a psychology major, she said, 'Great. Can you tell me what I'm thinking right now?'" "Please don't ask any psychology students this. They are not mind readers. You are merely embarrassing yourselves." Amruta W., Quora 27."They said that the Golden Gate Bridge connects North America and Europe. Yeah...don't even ask." u/diesereineda 28."'Can you get infected from the virus on your computer?'" Salim U., Quora 29.'Isnt it amazing how dogs just come out knowing commands like sit and lay down?' The man was stone cold serious." u/deleted 30."This friend of mine said, 'I don't think I'd understand Fantastic 4. I haven't seen Fantastic 1, 2, and 3.'" Vivek R., Quora 31."I got onto an elevator on the fifth floor, which already had people who had boarded on the sixth floor. I pressed the button for the third floor and observed that the button for the second floor was also pressed. As soon as the third floor came and I started to get out, a girl piped up, 'Why, that's so unfair. I got into the elevator before her! Shouldn't I be dropped off first?'" Ritika G., Quora 32."As I'm Greek, I've been asked, 'So...do you believe in Greek gods like Zeus and stuff?'" Zoe, Quora 33."My sister was adopted from Korea. She was only about 10 weeks old an almost newborn infant when she came home to us. Several people asked me at the time, 'So does she speak Korean?' or 'Does she have an accent?'" Sonnet F., Quora 34."This one, I have to admit, I'm guilty of asking a coworker a few years ago: 'What date is Cinco de Mayo?'" Ambra B., Quora 35."As an Australian traveling overseas, I've been asked: 'Do you carry a stick everywhere you go to fight off the snakes?' 'Oh, you're from Australia? Do you know my niece in New Zealand?' and 'How many miles is it from where you live to Sydney? No, not miles, liters. How many liters is it?'" "And when someone I met in a foreign country found out I was Australian, she said, 'Why don't you sound like Hulk Hogan?' I didn't know how to react to this because I had no idea why she would think I would sound like The Hulkster. I was wracking my brain trying to work out what had connected me to the former World Heavyweight champion. Finally, I said, 'Why do you think I should sound like Hulk Hogan?' She said, 'Because he's such a famous Aussie.' We then had a brief argument about the nationality of Hulk Hogan. You may have already made the connection, but it took me ages to realize she was talking about Paul Hogan, aka Crocodile Dundee." Dave S., Quora 36."I have fraternal twins (a boy and a girl, with separate placentas), and someone asked if they were identical. Errrrrrr, no." Natalie B., Quora 37."When I told a girl that I have a twin, she asked, 'So, do you, like, have the same birthday?'" Venkat R., Quora 38."My friend, upon seeing a Jaguar car: 'So now PUMA has started manufacturing cars, too?'" Vinkateshwar J., Quora 39."From my ex (we were quite young back then) referring to my you-know-what: 'So where does the bone go afterward?'" Swekar P., Quora 40."From a family member years ago, 'My husband and I are having problems, so we're trying for another baby. That should make things better.' I smiled inanely and walked away, stunned." u/Krissy_ok 41."'Tigers are girl lions!' said my 40-year-old ex-boyfriend, a nuclear engineer." u/doctaliz An actor from Boston who is known for his roles in the television series Kingdom and City on the Hill, is being hailed a hero after he recently interrupted a home invasion and rescued a terrified family. Jonathan Tucker sprang into action in a real-life drama on Sunday night, calling the Los Angeles Police Department to notify them of a suspicious stranger who had entered a home close to where he lives in the Hancock Park section of the city, Los Angeles Magazine reported. Tucker spotted the door to the home in question open and ran inside, carrying a terrified young girl out to the street before returning to rescue a frantic infant and mother, according to the publication. SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 04: (EDITORS NOTE: Image has been edited using digital filters) Jonathan Tucker attends the 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards on March 04, 2023 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images) If you want a quote, call the LAPD because those guys are the real heroes, Tucker told Los Angeles Magazine. It was an extraordinary response. The home invasion and Tuckers swift response were caught on neighborhood doorbell cameras. Tucker, who played a Brinks truck robber in Bostons Charlestown section in City on the Hill, has also appeared in HBOs Westworld. He played an MMA fighter in Kingdom. Tucker was born in Boston on May 31, 1982. He was a member of the Boston Ballet and a member of the Nutcracker production for five years, starting when he was in the third grade. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW New Dateline episode to revisit the Arlington Bathtub Killer murders of 1996 A new episode of Dateline will premiere Friday at 8 p.m. CST on NBC, highlighting the 1996 Arlington, Texas murders tied to Dale Devon Scheanette, also known as the Bathtub Killer. Scheanette was convicted of killing Wendie Prescott, a 22-year-old teachers aide in Mansfield ISD. He was also charged but not tried in the killing of Christine Vu, a 25-year-old Arlington elementary school teacher, according to previous Star-Telegram reporting. The women both lived in the Peartree Apartments and were found raped, strangled, bound with duct tape and left in half-filled bathtubs. Both murders went unsolved for over three years due to lack of fingerprint matching at the murder scenes to anyone in criminal databases. More trending stories from our newsroom: Anthony Johnson Jr.s death in Tarrant County Jail ruled a homicide by asphyxiation A first look, taste of new Fort Worth restaurant serving authentic Spanish tapas This Texas beach town among most affordable in the U.S. Heres what you get for your money Christine Vu and Wendie Prescott Christine Vus death is said to have occurred on Sept. 17 between the hours of 4:30 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. when based on the time Vu usually arrived home from work. Vu was discovered that same evening by her boyfriend, Thang Chi Khuu, whom she lived with in the apartment. Christine Vu. Photo provided by boyfriend. Khuu was deemed as a suspect early in the investigation due to discrepancies in his statement, but was later ruled out as a suspect.. The boyfriend is a suspect: We have told him and he understands that, police spokesman Dee Anderson said during the Star-Telegrams initial reporting. There are some discrepancies with some of the things he told us and what we saw at the scene and heard from other people. Khuu did not hire a lawyer, stating he wanted to cooperate with police. He even provided the police with several DNA samples, took a polygraph test and allowed for the police to search his vehicle. He was eventually ruled out as a suspect. ARL ASLAY THANG KHUU---Thang Khuu talks with a reporter in the courtyard of the Arlington Star Telegram in 1996. Wendie Prescott was found early Christmas morning. Her body was discovered in her apartment bathtub, the same as Vu was found, after relatives came to check on her when she did show up for the familys Christmas Eve gathering. Wendie Rochelle Prescott, killed Dec. 25. 1996 and found in her Arlington apartment. PHOTO PROVIDED BY FAMILY. Several residents of the complex called dispatch services shortly after 12:20 a.m. after hearing the screams of Prescotts relatives upon discovering her body. Following the murders of the two women within a span of three months in the same apartment complex, several residents reported to the Star-Telegram feelings of apprehension around staying in the complex. The front page of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Dec. 27, 1996. This complex is the last place that I thought something like this would happen, resident Tim Captville said. Another resident and employee of the Arlington school district, Mikie Randell, said she was moving out of the complex because she was concerned for her safety. Death row execution The front page of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for Feb. 10, 2009, the day of Dale Devon Scheanettes execution. Scheanette was sent to death row and executed by lethal injection on Feb. 10, 2009, at the age of 35, becoming the seventh murderer executed in Texas in 2009. When asked for a final statement, Scheanette said, My only statement is that no cases ever tried have been error-free. Those are my words. No cases are error-free, according to the Associated Press. Dale Devon Scheanette, left, appeared for a hearing with his lawyer, right, in Judge Joe Dragos Criminal District Court #4, Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2000. (Star-Telegram photo by Dale Blackwell) After his words, he told the warden to continue with the execution. Scheanette was then pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m. Despite having selected no witnesses, his execution was attended by six relatives of Prescott and Vu. The new episode of Dateline, titled Dark Intentions, will air Friday at 8 p.m. CST on NBC. The episode will delve deeper into the murders with interviews of others involved in the case. Fact Check: Online Rumor Claims Reba McEntire Stormed Off 'The Voice' After Producers Kicked Her Off the Show. Here Are the Facts Claim: Country star Reba McEntire stormed off "The Voice" after producers kicked her off the show. Rating: Rating: False In March 2024, Meta approved and accepted money for at least one paid ad claiming country music star Reba McEntire "stormed off" the set of NBC's "The Voice" after producers kicked her off the show. The headline of the ad read, "Reba McEntire Storms off 'The Voice.'" A different version of the ad also added, "I was kicked out by the producers for my choice? I'll Miss Ya'll!" A false rumor claimed Reba McEntire stormed off The Voice after producers kicked her off the show, which led to a scam about Bloom CBD Gummies or Natures Leaf CBD Gummies. However, this ad was both false and a scam. Even so, Meta still hosted the ad for many weeks, with some users still receiving the ad in their feeds on Facebook and Instagram in early June. Snopes confirmed the ad was still active as of June 6. Users clicking on the ad visited a fake Fox News article hosted on the scam website newkirk.buzz. The article falsely claimed McEntire created a product named Bloom CBD Gummies or Nature's Leaf CBD Gummies to help "reverse dementia." The headline of the fake article read, "Reba McEntire reverses dementia solution, sparks huge lawsuit pressure on Fox, she finally fights back on air." A false rumor claimed Reba McEntire stormed off The Voice after producers kicked her off the show, which led to a scam about Bloom CBD Gummies or Natures Leaf CBD Gummies. The website for the British Alzheimer's Society once published, "There are no research studies that prove cannabis, or products such as cannabis oil (CBD oil), can stop, slow, reverse or prevent the diseases that cause dementia." Snopes documented in past articles how Meta and Facebook have for years approved and accepted money for other scam ads showing McEntire's face and name, seemingly with either little or no pushback from the tech giant and its billions of dollars in quarterly revenue. On the same day Snopes reviewed this scam in June 2024, we noted other active false paid ads hosted by Meta leading to similar CBD gummies scams. Those ads and scams falsely claimed Dana Perino and Laura Ingraham were leaving Fox News, James Dobson was "[walking] away from the church," Garth Brooks was leaving "his ministry" and Dolly Parton confirmed "heartbreaking news." None of these famous people have ever endorsed CBD gummies. Bloom CBD Gummies and Nature's Leaf CBD Gummies misleadingly appeared in all of these articles, too. Sources: "Cannabis, CBD Oil and Dementia." Alzheimer's Society, https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/about-dementia/treatments/alternative-therapies/cannabis-cbd-oil-and-dementia. Ortutay, Barbara. "Meta Posts Sharp Profit, Revenue Increase in Q4 Thanks to Cost Cuts and Advertising Rebound." The Associated Press, 1 Feb. 2024, https://apnews.com/article/meta-facebook-instagram-earnings-revenue-profit-abc3e389d97fb97c661ccb6acfcf65c7. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. This November, Azerbaijan will become the central arena of international climate policy as it hosts the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29). The global community holds high expectations for this event, viewing it as a crucial opportunity to take concrete steps on climate finance. Leaders from major countries and international organizations are prepared to collaborate with Azerbaijan to jointly develop effective mechanisms and initiatives aimed at reducing the impact of climate change. COP29 in Azerbaijan symbolizes a decisive step forward in global efforts to protect the planet and strengthen international partnerships in combating one of the most pressing challenges of our time. Addressing the opening of the 29th International Caspian Oil & Gas Exhibition - Caspian Oil & Gas and the 12th Caspian International Power and Green Energy Exhibition - Caspian Power as part of the Baku Energy Week on June 4, Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev said that by taking on this very responsible duty as the host of COP, Azerbaijan fully realized the advantages and maybe some complications. But we are committed to it. Climate change here in Azerbaijan can be seen when you look at the Caspian Sea shore. Every year, we see the sea is going away. That's because of climate change, because of irrational human activity. Because the Caspian Sea is supplied by the rivers, which come from beyond our borders. We have zero responsibility for this catastrophe if we don't take serious measures, we will face a major disaster. We are doing everything in order to supply more water to the sea, building new dams and water storages to collect water. But the main vessels, which feed the Caspian Sea, are not in Azerbaijan, said the head of state. President Ilham Aliyev said that climate change is a challenge for every country. We have taken a proactive step. We are now working actively with our partners. We have established a Troika with the UAE and Brazil, the future host of COP30. As a former chair of the Non-Aligned Movement, which consists of 120 countries, we are trying to build bridges between this institution and the European Union. Azerbaijan has signed declarations on strategic partnership with 10 member states of the EU. We are actively working with the Small Island Developing States. We are planning to establish a special fund to support them. Because for us here in Azerbaijan climate change is a problem, for them it is an existential threat. So, we are trying to demonstrate maximum responsibility and at the same time, to build bridges between different parts of international community. One of the most important results, if we achieve at COP apart from financing, will be putting down mutual accusations and stopping blaming each other for what is happening. We need to join our efforts, put down all these claims, and concentrate on the agenda, which will help us to live on this planet, not only for us but also for our children and grandchildren, said the head of state. Senior Advisor for Multilateral Energy Diplomacy at the Bureau of Energy Resources of the US Department of State Harry Kamian said in an exclusive interview with Trend that COP29 is a critical opportunity to deliver a new paradigm for investing in climate action around the world. PHOTO: US State Department "As COP29 host, Azerbaijan has a real opportunity to continue the momentum from COP28 on tackling methane emissions. Methane emissions are both an environmental threat as they supercharge global warming 80 times more potent than CO2 -- but also a wasted economic resource. Azerbaijan joined the Global Methane Pledge earlier this year, demonstrating real leadership as COP host. Partnership with oil and gas companies will be critical, as the fossil energy sector has the largest, fastest, and cheapest methane reduction potential across sectors," he said. Kamian believes that another main priority for COP29 will be to make progress on implementing the Global Stocktake outcome from COP28. "This includes efforts to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems and triple renewable energy and double energy efficiency globally by 2030. While there is still substantial work ahead of us to keep the 1.5 degree C goal within reach, COP28 put us one significant step closer. COP29 will also focus on efforts to scale-up investments in climate action globally. We need to leverage all the sources of finance to combat the climate crisis - domestic and international, public and private," he said. Kamian pointed out that a critical outcome of the COP29 negotiations will be to adopt the successor to the current goal of developed countries to mobilize $100 billion per year to support climate action in developing countries. "This negotiation is a critical opportunity to deliver a new paradigm for investing in climate action around the world, building on public support to deploy the full force of the global economy and the private sector," he added. Kamian went on to add that Azerbaijan has tremendous renewables potential, particularly in solar and wind. As President Biden wrote in his message to President Ilham Aliyev wishing him a successful Baku Energy Week, Caspian wind can potentially lead to a future where Azerbaijans clean energy exports outpace oil and gas exports, he said. "The United States is eager to expand our bilateral cooperation in transitioning to clean energy as we both pursue our own aggressive paths towards decarbonization. Energy Minister Shahbazovs visit to the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado in February is a great example of how our bilateral cooperation in renewables is growing. As Azerbaijan deploys more renewables, the United States stands ready to partner to ensure these renewables can immediately deliver reliable electricity to the citizens of Azerbaijan and beyond," noted Kamian. He believes that greater deployment of renewables and increasing energy efficiency brings a variety of benefits reducing Azerbaijans carbon emissions in line with its COP commitments, freeing up more gas for export without new investment or related emissions, and bolstering Azerbaijans energy security by adding diversification of energy types. The international Energy Agency (IEA), which is pioneering actively the promotion of green energy agenda, also has high expectations from COP29. Dr. Fatih Birol, Executive Director of IEA said in an interview with Trend that COP29 can be a turning point both for Azerbaijan and at the international level. PHOTO: Fatih Birol/X "The COP meetings are international summits around the world. I had the opportunity to attend several COP meetings. For the COP29, I expect a number of things from Azerbaijan's presidency. The first one is to push forward the good outcomes coming from COP28 on renewables, energy efficiency, reduction of methane emissions and others for which the IEA played an instrumental role. Secondly, I hope, a very key topic for clean energy transition globally, which is the financing of clean energy transition will get a good place there. Thirdly, countries are about to make new commitments in the years to come in terms of how they are going to reduce the emissions. I hope the Azerbaijani presidency will provide a good basis for that," he said. In addition, IEA's executive director believed that Azerbaijan can emerge as a leader in green transition. "I see that there is also a political determination from the government. I expect that on one hand, providing an important contribution to the fight against climate change globally, Azerbaijan can take steps to support the clean energy transition, evolution of the countries in the region. I believe there is a huge opportunity for Azerbaijan to show its leadership. I know that, unlike some other COP presidencies, Azerbaijan has much less time. Normally, it is about two years or so for the preparation of the presidencies. But in the case of Azerbaijan, it is some eight months that the government has. But my interactions with the Azerbaijani government officials, including the president-designate of COP29, and his colleagues, with the foreign minister, the economy minister, I see that they are very keen to make a perfect job," said Birol. He noted that IEA is ready to support Azerbaijan, as it did in the United Arab Emirates, ensuring its successful COP28 presidency. COP29 will be an important milestone in strengthening international partnerships and cooperation in the fight against climate change. The host country and conference participants will strive to develop new mechanisms and initiatives aimed at reducing climate risks and ensuring sustainable development. The successful hosting of COP29 in Baku will be a significant step forward in global efforts to protect the planet, laying the foundation for long-term strategies and actions to preserve the environment for future generations. As a landmark event in international climate policy, COP29 carries the high expectations of the global community, which anticipates concrete action on climate finance. With its significant renewable energy potential, Azerbaijan can demonstrate its leadership and commitment to global climate goals. Follow the author on X: @Lyaman_Zeyn NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) Before we sent off our young men and boys to fight in World War II, did you know that they trained for battle right here at home? Not just in the U.S., and not just in Tennessee, specifically, but in peoples backyard and on their farms. These untold stories are now the subject of a documentary called Maneuvers. Kelly Magill first learned about the Tennessee Maneuvers from her grandmother. I started reading her memoirs, and there was this one paragraph that I didnt understand. It was about how tanks and jeeps were destroying the farm. And I didnt understand why that would possibly be happening. So stopped and said, Granny, I dont understand this. And she explained maneuvers to me for the first time in the 1980s. And I remember thinking, why dont we learn about this? said Magill. Fast forward a few years to when Kelly started a video production company. She knew the story she had to tell: the Tennessee Maneuvers. (Courtesy: KGV Studios) (Courtesy: KGV Studios) (Courtesy: KGV Studios) (Courtesy: KGV Studios) (Courtesy: KGV Studios) (Courtesy: KGV Studios) (Courtesy: KGV Studios) (Courtesy: KGV Studios) (Courtesy: KGV Studios) I started finding and interviewing everybody I could, recalled Magill. To date, weve interviewed over 100 people with firsthand accounts. Seventeen of them were soldiers who maneuvered here, only one of the soldiers I interviewed is still alive, he is 102 years old. An estimated 850,000 soldiers descended upon 21 Middle Tennessee counties from 1941 to 1944. It was chosen because our topography is similar to where they would be fighting in Europe, plus the states interstates and railroad systems made it easy to access. The hundreds of thousands of soldiers set up camp and trained for war on private farms and in backyards as Tennesseans welcomed them. Very few of the civilians did not wholeheartedly support the use of their land, for these maneuvers. And once Pearl Harbor happened, I think everyone supported the use of their property, and they knew it was going to be destroyed, they knew the fences were going to be destroyed, they knew that the soil was going to be compacted and damaged, said Magill. Lives were lost during training, too. About 300 soldiers were killed as well as civilians. Parents across the country are offering up their adult age sons through the draft, to go fight for our country. But in Tennessee, in the middle of these war games that were very realistic, our children were being killed. Ive interviewed people with firsthand accounts of a 15-year-old, a 9-year-old, and a 5-year-old, all being killed on their family farms. And so Tennessee mothers arent just losing their adult children. Theyre losing their children in violent ways, on their property, for the sake of the war, said Magill. Middle Tennessee was changed forever from the Maneuvers. Not just the loss of life and property, but many soldiers ended up moving here. Many of these families began intermarriage. The joke is that there wasnt a single woman left in Wilson County by the time the maneuvers were over. It was also an economic boost for the state. Youve got 850,000 maneuver soldiers who are bringing their money into Tennessee for all that time. Its basically like having tourists here, said Magill. So they were going out and they were spending this money that they were making in restaurants and movie theaters with local people. The Maneuvers changed the way we went to war in 1944; and documenting them, changed Kelly. One of the key messages Id like to get across in this documentary is how unprepared we were we really were an underdog army. And none of us is used to looking at America as an underdog militarily, but at the time we were so if people can realize how far we had to come from being an underdog to winning that war, I think its important to know that this is in our DNA. This is who we are as a people, and even if were divided, even if were unprepared. The documentary is set to come out in 2025. For more information on the documentary, including how you can contribute, click here. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2. George Clooney called White House to complain about how they portrayed Amals ICC work George Clooney reportedly called one of Joe Bidens top aides last month to rebuke the administration for its reaction to an international arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - a case the famed actors wife backed. The call between Clooney and Bidens officials reportedly occurred last month, according to anonymous sources who spoke to the Washington Post. They said Clooney called Bidens counselor, Steve Ricchetti, to push back on Bidens condemnation of the International Criminal Courts arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. They said the actor was especially upset that Biden called the ICCs actions outrageous. The ICC prosecutors application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous, Mr Biden said following the warrant announcement. Clooney also expressed concerns that the administration was considering sanctions against the ICC, which would possibly make his wife, Amal, subject to Bidens retaliation. The report comes before a fundraiser for Biden set for this weekend where Clooney is scheduled to appear. Biden-world officials are reportedly worried that he may withdraw from the event which will also feature an appearance by former President Barack Obama, late night host Jimmy Kimmel, and Julia Roberts over the administrations position on the ICC warrant. Vice President joe Biden meets with George Clooney, Monday, Feb. 23, 2009 at the White House in Washington. Vice President joe Biden meets with George Clooney, Monday, Feb. 23, 2009 at the White House in Washington. Clooney reportedly called the White House recently to blast them for the reaction to his wifes work with the International Criminal Court (The White House) Last month, the ICC announced arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders, accusing both sides of war crimes during the ongoing conflict. I support the historic step that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has taken to bring justice to victims of atrocities in Israel and Palestine, she said after the warrants were announced. Amal Clooney served with other experts and agreed to recommend to the ICC to seek the warrants. The decision was unanimous. However, the US is not a member of the court. Netanyahu, Gallant and three Hamas leaders Yehia Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh were all accused of war crimes for their actions over the Israel-Gaza war. The conflict started on Oct. 7 when Hamas invaded Israel and killed 1,200 people. More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed since. Kennedy Center honorees US actor George Clooney (L) and Bono of Irish band U2 attend a reception for the Kennedy Center Honorees in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on December 4, 2022 (AFP via Getty Images) Biden and George Clooney have had a long relationship. Clooney once met with Biden when he was vice president. In 2022, Biden spoke highly of Clooney during a presentation of the 45th Kennedy Center Honors, saying he sincerely respected the actor for his deep empathy. In addition to dealing with an incensed actor, Biden may also be infuriating Ukraine's President Volodomyr Zelensky, as his fundraiser is scheduled for the same night as the embattled leader's peace summit in Switzerland. Zelensky warned that the summit "needs" to have Biden present for maximum effect, but the president will be skipping. Zelensky called Bidens decision to skip the peace summit in Switzerland not very strong. I would really like for President Biden to personally attend the peace summit. With all due respect, the decision not to attend is not a very strong decision in my opinion. I believe pic.twitter.com/XeW9WbmiAI (@chiIIum) May 28, 2024 His absence would only be met by an applause by Putin, a personal, standing applause by Putin, Zelensky said during a recent visit to Belgium. Instead, the White House plans to sent Vice President Kamala Harris over in his place, according to The Telegraph. The Vice President will underscore the Biden-Harris administrations commitment to supporting Ukraines effort to secure a just and lasting peace, based on Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity and the principles of the UN Charter, the White House said in a statement. Byeon Woo-Seok, Kim Ji-Won, Kim Soo-Hyun (Photo by Han Myung-Gu | WireImage via Getty Images), (Photo by The Chosunilbo JNS | Imazins via Getty Images), (Photo by The Chosunilbo JNS | Imazins via Getty Images) Some of the most beloved K-drama actors are all set to hold highly awaited fan meeting tours this June 2024. It includes Lovely Runner star Byeon Woo-Seok and Queen of Tears actors Kim Soo-Hyun and Kim Ji-Won, among others. With the fast-growing popularity of the K-drama industry, these actors have created their very own fan base all around the world. Thus, through these K-drama fan meetings, the actors are creating opportunities to build a deeper connection with their fans. These meetings allow fans to see and meet their favourite K-drama actors up close and make some special memories. Byeon Woo-Seok fan meeting schedule The beloved Lovely Runner actor Byeon Woo-Seok is all set to begin his Asia fan meeting tour, titled SUMMER LETTER, on June 8, 2024, in Taipei, Taiwan. From there, the actor will visit several other places in Asia, including Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta and Singapore. The Fan Meet 2024 schedule for these places is stated below: June 14 and June 15 Bangkok, Thailand June 22 Manila, Philippines June 28 Jakarta, Indonesia June 30 Singapore In addition to these June fan-meet schedules, Byeon Woo-Seoks Asia tour will also take place from July 6 to July 7 in Seoul, South Korea. Kim Soo-Hyun fan meeting schedule The renowned Queen of Tears star Kim Soo-Hyun is also set to embark on his Asia fan meeting journey on June 15, 2024. The title of the event is EYES ON YOU. The tour will begin in Bangkok, Thailand. Then, the tour will go on to other places in Asia, including Japan and the Philippines. The tour schedule for all these places is given below: June 22 to June 23 Yokohama, Japan June 29 Manila, the Philippines Apart from the June schedule, the tour will also take place in Hong Kong on August 10, 2024. Kim Ji-Won fan meeting schedule The highly popular Queen of Tears actress Kim Ji Won will also hold a fan meeting event in June 2024, following the immense success of the tvN K-drama. The special event has been titled, BE MY ONE. It will take place on June 22, 2024. Thus, fans of these K-drama actors are in for highly special treats this June 2024. The post K-Drama Actors Fan Meetings in June 2024: Byeon Woo-Seok, Kim Soo-Hyun, Kim Ji-Won & More appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More. Visit Visalia has announced the 2024 Miss California and Miss Californias Teen Competitions will be held at the Visalia Convention Center June 8-15. The event could draw thousands of visitors to the city. This prestigious and professional development competition is set to begin Saturday, June 8, when Visalia welcomes delegates for a week of interviews, rehearsals, and meaningful community involvement. The young womens experience will culminate with the crowning of the winners on Saturday, June 15 at the Visalia Convention Center. The public is invited and encouraged to attend.The mission of the Miss California program is to advance the creation, promotion, and support of educational, achievement, and community service opportunities for young women in the State of California. The organization, celebrating its 100th year, focuses on leadership skills, talent, communication skills and educational scholarships and is part of the Miss America organization.The Miss America organization throughout the century has been a champion for advancing women. In its early years, swimsuits were worn as an act of rebellion; women werent allowed to wear swimsuits in public. In 1945, Miss America began awarding scholarships rather than prize money, one of the first organizations in the United States to offer college scholarships to women. In the 1980s, Miss America officially made community service a pillar of the program, helping to raise awareness, and millions of dollars, for worthy causes.It is exciting to see Miss California continue to captivate audiences and to keep pace with societal values reflecting their timeless mission, said Sherrie Bakke, Visit Visalia executive director. We congratulate the Miss California organization on their Centennial Celebration and we look forward to welcoming them to Visalia once again.The reigning Miss California, Sabrina Lewis, was crowned here in Visalia in 2023, chosen from a field of 42 women from across the state. She is an avid equestrian and advocates for Equine Therapy for all. Her year-long reign will come to an end when the new Miss California is crowned on June 15.The Miss California and Miss California's Teen Competitions will be held at the Visalia Convention Center in Downtown Visalia, California. The schedule of events to which the public are invited include: Tuesday, June 11: Preliminary Competitions, Miss Delegates Wednesday, June 12: Preliminary Competitions, Teen Delegates Thursday, June 13: Miss Californias Teen Finals Competition Friday, June 14: Miss Californias Talent Review Saturday, June 15: Miss California Centennial Finals Competition There will be 44 Miss California delegates who range in age from 18-28 and come from all over the state. There will be 24 Miss California's Teen, ranging in age from 13-18. Of course, they will be supported by family and friends who will come to watch. Event organizers are estimating 800 to 1,000 attendees. They expect that the Friday night Talent Review will be especially well-attended. People love to see the varied talent that all 44 of the delegates will perform. This night is only about the talent portion of the competition. And with ticket prices at only $10, it makes it very affordable. Since this year the organization is celebrating its centennial, they are expecting record breaking attendance. The organization has evolved over the past 100 years, staying in step with today's women and societal values. Ticket information for all public events, available hotels, and additional details about the event are available at: https://www.visitvisalia.com/miss-california-2024. This article originally appeared on Salinas Californian: Miss California competition in Visalia could draw thousands of visitors Eurovision loves a bit of rock and metal, these days. From Blind Channel to Voyager, Bambie Thug to 2021 contest winners Maneskin, the pop competition has hosted more than a few breakthrough artists in recent years. But one of the entries from the 2024 competition has caused raised eyebrows when music fans noticed some glaring similarities between their song and a recent metal single. Croatia's Baby Lasagna has been accused of ripping off Swedish industrial metallers Pain with his entry Rim Tim Tagi Dim bearing more than a passing resemblance to Pain's Party In My Head. The video below explores the similarities between the songs. But Pain frontman Peter Tagtgren has publicly dismissed any notion of plagarism. Speaking to Tonela Magazine, Tagtgren admitted he "didn't even hear [it] at first" but isn't too fussed about the similarities. "People were, like, 'Oh, I think Croatia stole your song,' blah, blah, blah," he says. "I was, like, 'What? I don't hear it.' I just hear 'woo hoo hoo' [in the chorus], but you hear 'woo hoo hoo ' in I Love It Loud with KISS since '81 or whatever. So, for me, I was fine with that. And then, actually, our bass player explained, 'Well, he has the same kind of figure of singing.' Whatever. I don't care. I thought it was fun!" Tagtgren also goes on to say that he's happy to see metal in the Eurovision spotlight. "I think it's good that they put in a little bit metal in this Eurovision thing like they did with the Lordi 15 years ago," he acknowledges. "When you get it right, it gets popular. So people want more metal." Baby Lasagna ultimately finished second in the competition, winning the televote with 337 points and giving Croatia it's highest ever placing in the competition. Speaking to Wiwibloggs ahead of the competiton, Baby Lasagna - real name Marko Purisic - said the song was inspired by German industrial metallers Rammstein. "Rammstein all the way!" he says. "When I first started, the first riff, I wanted [Rim Tim Tagi Dim] to sound like a Rammstein riff." Watch the full interview with Peter Tagtgren below. Pain's latest album I Am is out now via Nuclear Blast. Former Dolphins cornerback Xavien Howard sent a boy sexually explicit content of his mother because she refused to get an abortion, a new court filing alleges. The document, filed Thursday by attorneys Cam Justice and Adriana Alcalde in Broward Circuit Court, requested that the then-minor be permitted to sue Howard in an ongoing case related to the NFL free agent allegedly sharing sex videos without consent. Judge Keathan Frink has to rule on whether he will be added to the lawsuit. In May 2023, a woman who dated Howard the year before sued the four-time Pro Bowler after she learned via Instagram that Howard took sexually explicit videos of her and shared them with other people, according to the complaint. The woman who DMed her said Howard sent videos of him having sex with multiple women to make her mad because she didnt want to have sex with him. READ MORE: Miami Dolphins star Xavien Howard accused of making and sharing sex videos The woman suing appeared in some of the clips. In October 2022, her attorneys sent Howard a cease and desist letter, which demanded that he immediately stop sharing the explicit content with other people. Since the lawsuit was filed, Howards attorneys have tried to have the case thrown out multiple times, even citing that the woman previously asked him for a multi-million dollar payout. READ MORE: Seeking to dismiss sex videos suit, Dolphins star Howard claims accuser sought payout In the Thursday filing, attorneys stated that Howard operated by intimidation and force and has engaged in a similar pattern of conduct with several people. Howards attorney hasnt responded to the Miami Heralds request for comment as of Thursday night. Cycle of toxic behavior? The John Doe, whos suing under a pseudonym because he was a minor at the time, is the son of a woman with whom Howard was in a relationship in Broward, according to the filing. When the boys mother got pregnant around September 2022, Howard demanded she have an abortion. She refused. 01 November 2023, Hesse, Frankfurt/Main: American Football: NFL, Before the season game Kansas City Chiefs vs. Miami Dolphins, Dolphins media roundtable. Cornerback Xavien Howard speaks at the press conference. Photo: Jurgen Kessler/dpa/Sipa USA Thats when, attorneys allege, Howard went on a warpath against her. Seeking revenge, Howard texted the boy sexually explicit photos of his mother, causing significant emotional distress, the lawsuit states. This behavior is abhorrent, especially sending this to a child, Alcalde told the Miami Herald. Howard had the boys number because his mother would sometimes text the former Dolphins player from his phone, the documents say. When she noticed the explicit content, she deleted the messages, but her son uncovered them on his iCloud account. Howards conduct was outrageous, went beyond all boundaries of decency, and it is and was regarded as odious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community, the filing says. Attorneys Adriana Alcalde, left, and Cam Justice, right, speak to reporters about the ongoing lawsuit against former Dolphins cornerback Xavien Howard on Thursday, June 6, 2024. Alcalde told the Miami Herald that the woman suing took legal action against Howard because she just wants to ensure that the sensitive content depicting her isnt being shared with others. She doesnt know how many people he sent this to, Alcalde said. Wed like to figure out if anyone else has received these images, these inappropriate images. Howard, who was released by the Dolphins in March with three years remaining on his $90 million contract, has a history of sex-related lawsuits, court records show. Since 2019, Howard has also faced a series of paternity, domestic violence and assault and battery cases in Broward civil court. Last November, Howard was accused of knowingly giving a woman genital herpes. The woman dropped the suit. Brad Sohn, who represented Howard in that case, called the allegations a fabricated lawsuit. Prior to his actual adoption from China, the Ohio mom claimed the child's "only need" was "a nice family that really, truly cares about him" Myka Stauffer/Instagram Myka Stauffer and James Stauffer with their kids YouTuber Myka Stauffer re-homed her adopted son in 2020, claiming she and her husband were unable to care for his special needs In the docuseries An Update on Our Family, Vox Media Studios included clips from Myka's old vlogs leading up to her family's trip to China to pick up the 2-year-old, whom they called Huxley Myka showed the boy's photos in her pre-adoption videos and explicitly stated that he was "not returnable" Myka Stauffer spoke confidently about her adoption process well before its unexpected ending. Vox Media Studios revisited the viral scandal in the new docuseries An Update on Our Family, which explores the family vlogging industry and how Myka and James Stauffer fell from grace in 2020 after they re-homed their adopted son, whom the couple called Huxley. (Huxley has since been renamed by his new family.) The Stauffers adopted Huxley, who was later diagnosed with autism, from China when he was 2 and sought adoption dissolution two years later, claiming they were unaware of the extent of his disabilities. Their decision was met with widespread, extreme backlash that eventually drove the Ohio-based family offline. The Stauffers, as well as Huxley's new family, have not responded to PEOPLE's requests for comment. 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. Myka Stauffer/Instagram Myka and James Stauffer Related: Who Is Myka Stauffer? All About YouTuber Who Placed Son with New Family 2 Years After Adoption The three-part series which was inspired by New York Magazine's 2020 feature on the family includes clips from Myka's since-deleted YouTube videos leading up to their trip to pick up Huxley in Asia. In several snippets, the former nurse claimed she was equipped and willing to learn how to parent a child with special needs. Myka Stauffer/Instagram "We started talking to physicians, we started having meetings, we started doing tons of different things so that we could be really well educated on different conditions," Myka told the camera in one of several videos discussing the adoption process. "Lets just say theres 100 conditions," she continued. "Me and my husband were comfortable with 99 of the conditions. So we were very, very open." The YouTuber also recorded herself sharing how Huxley's photo stood out to her amongst hundreds of other potential adoptee profiles. Related: YouTuber Myka Stauffer Reveals Adoption Dissolution 2 Years After Welcoming Son Home from China I have probably seen over 400 kids profiles. Not their files, not the reviews, not the referral. Just their little profiles on this site," she said in a video. "His picture spoke to me so much. Like, it gives me chills just thinking about his little picture. In addition to showing Huxley's photo online before the adoption was finalized, Myka also told her subscribers about the child's disability, divulging what information she had. I dont know what his medical diagnosis is gonna look like. How much schooling will he need? Will he need a little bit more hands on? Will he be delayed?" she said in 2017, adding, "But if anything, my child is not returnable. Vox Media Studios 'An Update on Our Family' docuseries Related: Myka Stauffer Breaks Silence After Controversy Over Placing Son, Whom She Adopted, with New Family The mom of three maintained that she and James were ready to cater to his disabilities: The only need that our little boy has is a nice family that really, truly cares about him," she told the camera in one vlog post. After the Stauffers revealed their decision to seek out adoption dissolution, their lawyers spoke to PEOPLE at the time about their ultimate hope to "provide Huxley with the best possible treatment and care." "We are privy to this case and given the facts at hand, we feel this was the best decision for Huxley," Myka and James' lawyers, Thomas Taneff and Taylor Sayers, told PEOPLE in an exclusive statement issued in May 2020. "In coming to know our clients we know they are a loving family and are very caring parents that would do anything for their children." "Since his adoption, they consulted with multiple professionals in the healthcare and educational arenas in order to provide Huxley with the best possible treatment and care," Taneff and Sayers continued. "Over time, the team of medical professionals advised our clients it might be best for Huxley to be placed with another family." The vloggers' legal team noted that the Stauffers followed the advice of medical professionals, which, the lawyers clarified, "did NOT include any considerations for placement in the foster system, but rather to hand-select a family who is equipped to handle Huxleys needs." Since the adoption dissolution and resulting backlash, Myka's personal YouTube channel and the family's channel titled "The Stauffer Life" have both been deleted. James' "Stauffer Garage" channel remains online, though he only shares content relating to car flipping, detailing and cleaning, per the page's bio. For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on People. Christy McPhail, left, and Keith McPhail, right, give U.S. Sen. James Lankford a tour of B the Light's facility on March 26, 2024. 'B the Light' homeless mission, founded by Keith and Christy McPhail, is nearing the final stages of construction and hopes to open its doors by August. The mission, which aims to provide essential services and shelter to those in need, has been working diligently to meet the requirements set by various regulatory bodies. The McPhails faced bureaucratic roadblocks in opening the mission due to complications related to the building's prior purpose. The building in question, once a testing facility for the National Institute for Petroleum and Energy Research (NIPER), was remediated in the late '90s for commercial use by Ascension St. John Jane Phillips Hospital, then gifted to 'B the Light.' Oklahoma's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) was concerned with possible contamination and required additional testing before they would sign off. The testing, necessary to meet both DEQ and city standards, is scheduled for June, with results expected in July. The McPhails expressed confidence that the results would be favorable, allowing the mission to open in August. "We're almost done with construction, and we have a lady who used to work for the DEQ helping us with the required testing," Keith McPhail said. A pivotal moment for 'B the Light' was a recent meeting with DEQ officials, attended by a representative from Senator James Lankford's office. "Their involvement helped us get clear answers and a plan of action." Keith McPhail said. "It was great having them because it just gave us an extra set of ears to hear and understand stuff that we don't." With not being able to open until testing is complete, the need for the mission is pressing, with increasing calls for help each week. (left) Keith and (right) Christy McPhail give US Congressman Josh Brecheen a tour of 'B the light's' facility on May 18, 2024. "The Light House is always full, so there's a huge need right now," Christy McPhail stressed. "We have to open these doors." Despite the urgency, the mission aims to ensure all safety and security measures, including fire detectors and a security system, are in place before opening. The mission has recently seen significant upgrades, including a new roof funded by the Lion Foundation and the Parsons Foundation. "Got the roof replaced, so no more leaks and the guttering came with the new roof, so it's all looking great," McPhail noted. Workers replace 'B the Light's' roof on April 4, 2023. When asked about the anticipated demand, Keith McPhail predicted a swift influx of residents. "Within the first week, we'll be full," he said, acknowledging that not all who seek help can be accommodated immediately. The McPhails plan for the mission to house 20 men and six women each night, where they can shower, have a fresh change of clothes and two hot meals. Anyone staying at the mission will first meet with a care coordinator to find their level of need and start them on a path to purpose, according to the McPhails. In addition to financial donations, the mission seeks community support for essential items and services. The Red Cross has also shown interest in making 'B the Light' a designated site for people to come during emergencies. For those wanting to help or needing assistance, 'B the Light' can be reached via their website at b-thelight.org, their Facebook page, or by calling 918-288-0009. Workers replace 'B the Light's' roof on April 4, 2023. "Everyone deserves a hand up," Keith McPhail said. "I know what it's like to struggle with addiction. I'm a former cocaine addict. I know what it's like to be homeless. I lived in my car. I know loss. We lost our son 13 years ago." The McPhails said 100% of the money goes to the mission, which is fully run by volunteers like them. "No one is taking a salary; we are all volunteers," Christy McPhail said. This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Bartlesville's 'B the Light' homeless mission nears completion A juvenile brown booby, which is a tropical seabird, perches near the lake at Spring Mill State Park on June 6, 2024. It's only the second time a brown booby has been seen in Indiana and the first time it's in a public location. People from across Indiana and surrounding states are flocking to Spring Mill State Park to get what might be a once-in-a-lifetime look at a single brown bird that's normally found in tropical oceans. A juvenile brown booby was discovered in the lake at Spring Mill State Park in Mitchell on Monday by the park's interpretive naturalist Wade LaHue. No one knows how long it will remain, so many birders are quickly changing plans to get a glimpse of what would be a "life bird," or the first of that species they've ever seen. On Friday morning, state assistant ornithologist Amy Kearns was at the park watching both the bird and the visitors who could easily see it from the nature center, along the shore of the lake or on the floating dock. "A bunch of people are enjoying it right now," Kearns said, adding although it has people watching it, the bird doesn't seem concerned. People are asked to keep a distance to ensure the bird isn't frightened and has time to rest. After all, Kearns said, "Its taken a really long journey to get to Indiana." A juvenile brown booby fishes in the lake at Spring Mill State Park in Mitchell on June 6, 2024. It's only the second time a brown booby has been sighted in Indiana. "This is never going to happen at Spring Mill State Park again," Kearns said, explaining that the seabird with webbed feet is only the second brown booby to ever have been seen in Indiana. The first was in May 2019 on a private lake in Zionsville and was seen by only two people before it left a day later. A special place for a rare bird Most brown boobies are spotted in tropical oceans by people on a boat trying to look from a distance. The bird at Spring Mill State Park can easily been seen from the shoreline or nature center and with binoculars or spotting scopes quite well. It's not an adult, so the coloring, including its yellow feet, isn't as pronounced. A juvenile brown booby fishes in the lake at Spring Mill State Park in Mitchell on June 6, 2024. It's only the second time a brown booby has been sighted in Indiana. Kearns did say it appears healthy, is acting normally and eating. Brown boobies catch fish while making shallow dives into the water. "The angle is almost horizontal to the water," Kearns explained. "It's almost like a rock skipping out over the water." On Thursday, Kearns said the bird caught a bluegill that was too wide for it to swallow, so it had to let it go and catch another. Watching brown boobies foraging is uncommon as well. The rare sighting is giving bird lovers "great looks" of just that, Kearns said, and in a public location. Even so, park officials are asking people who come to see the bird give it plenty of space. No one knows how long the bird will remain at the lake. Kearns believes it might stay through the weekend, but advises anyone who wants to see it to "go now there's never a better time." A juvenile brown booby, which is a tropical seabird, was spotted June 3, 2024, at the lake at Spring Mill State Park in Mitchell. It's only the second time the species has been seen in Indiana. "This is a species you can't see from land normally," she said, "and this is very north for the species. ... It's so exciting. We're all over the moon." Anyone who wants to travel to see the bird, can enter the state park at 3333 Ind. 60 E., Mitchell, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. Entrance fee is $7 for Indiana vehicles and $9 for out-of-state. Reach Carol Kugler at ckugler@heraldt.com. This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Rare sighting of tropical seabird draws people to Spring Mill State Park BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. The issue of raising funds to reduce emissions has been discussed during a roundtable themed "Maintaining the Momentum of Decarbonization" in Baku held with the support of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and the Atlantic Council, Trend reports via SOCAR's statement. The event also discussed decarbonization solutions for implementing initiatives under the International Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter (OGDC), ways to attract financial resources to this sector, strengthening cross-sectoral partnerships, and raising awareness to support the commitments of companies that signed the OGDC. In addition, the roundtable highlighted the importance of securing funding as a critical component in creating industrial decarbonization solutions. "To ensure access to financial resources during the implementation of emission reduction projects, to raise awareness in this area, and to prepare joint proposals for potential project implementation, it is important that Azerbaijan's local banking sector participate in this process," the statement highlighted. The roundtable was attended by international energy companies such as SOCAR, ADNOC, bp, ExxonMobil, and Petronas, as well as representatives from various sectors including Baker Hughes, Honeywell, GE Vernova, Teneo, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative. Additionally, representatives from the OGDC organization, the International Energy Agency, the Atlantic Council's Global Energy Center, McKinsey, Kapital Bank, Pasha Bank, Bank of Baku, Access Bank, and the International Bank of Azerbaijan participated in the event. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel Canoers travel 250-miles on voyage down Ohio River to Louisville, Kentucky. Here's why. John Nation helps paddle the canoe during the Ohio River Way Challenge, Thursday, June 6, 2024, on the Ohio River in Cincinnati. A team of people on canoes are making a 250-mile trip down the Ohio River that started in Portsmouth and ending in Louisville. The purpose of the trip is to promote the beauty of river towns and appreciate the natural landmark that is the Ohio River. Canoes manned by a group of river enthusiasts made a stop in Cincinnati on Thursday, five days into an extensive journey down the Ohio River to Louisville. The voyage, called the Ohio River Way Challenge, is taking a team of paddlers on a 250-mile trip from Portsmouth, Ohio, to Louisville, Kentucky in an effort to highlight the beauty of the river and the towns along its banks. Who are the travelers? The challenge is named after Ohio River Way, a nonprofit organization focused on enhancing communities along the Ohio River and taking advantage of its opportunities for recreation. A group of volunteers are leading the expedition, and sponsors enabled students from the University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, Shawnee State University and Western Kentucky University to tag along, according to Forest Clevenger, an Ohio River Way spokesperson The trip is taking place over a 10-day span, and students from the various universities are hopping aboard for increments along the way. Students and faculty members from the University of Kentucky were on board for the last three days and disembarked in Cincinnati to return to Lexington. Those students were interns for Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky. Their program is focused on revitalizing the waterfront in Maysville, Kentucky. Our job is to going to be: go into their community, figure out what the people their want, what they value, and then help them draft up some ideas, University of Kentucky student Sylvie Eckel said of the programs partnership with Maysville. Participants of the Ohio River Way Challenge paddle the canoe, Thursday, June 6, 2024, on the Ohio River in Cincinnati. Why are they doing this? This years Ohio River Way Challenge comes as advocacy increases to improve the rivers conditions and encourage activity on the river. Ohio River Way holds this challenge annually, but the anticipation surrounding this years is tied to a major goal: earning the Ohio River National Water Trail designation. Ohio River Way is seeking the designation for a stretch of the Ohio River from Ironton, Ohio to West Point, Kentucky, according to Brewster Rhoads, the nonprofit's chair. The 250-mile stretch of river being traversed for the challenge constitutes a significant portion of that length. National Water Trails fall under the National Recreation Trails Program and receive a blend of support from federal, state, local and nonprofit entities to conserve the water system and boost access to recreation along waterways, according to the National Parks Service. We believe it can be a national destination, Clevenger said. We are working with our communities here to build out the amenities to make that possible, he said. There are 36 National Water Trails, according to the online trail finder. In 2023, the Ohio River was named among the most endangered rivers in America by American Rivers, an organization that works to reduce river pollution and protect their ecosystems. When announcing the rivers placement on the list, American Rivers called on Congress to designate the river as a protected water system and to commit funding to ensure safe drinking water and support the rivers ecosystems. Participants of the Ohio River Way Challenge paddle the canoe, Thursday, June 6, 2024, on the Ohio River in Cincinnati. The purpose of the trip is to promote the beauty of river towns and appreciate the natural landmark that is the Ohio River. Paddlers make stop in Cincinnati The paddlers are setting up camp in a new river town each day of their 10-day journey. They arrived in Cincinnati at the Ohio River Launch Club in East End on Thursday morning after staying Wednesday night at the Thomas More University Biology Field Station. Several public figures spoke at the visit about projects to encourage activity on and by the river, including Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Driehaus, City Councilmember Mark Jeffreys and Ohio Sen. Catherine Ingram, who represents the 9th Senate District. One project discussed by Cincinnati Parks Director Jason Barron regarded the addition of a canoe launch at Smale Park in Downtown. Erosion at the park is forcing Cincinnati Parks to reinforce a 2.75- to 3-acre patch along the shoreline to prevent the situation from worsening, Barron previously told The Enquirer. Parks is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to design a solution. Public feedback about the project sparked the idea to add a spot for people to access the water with paddleboats, Barron said. Therell be a spot where if you were to park in one of the Bengals' tailgating lots, you could car your canoe down, you can enter the river there, Barron added. After a brief stop, the paddlers continued to Gilday Riverside Park where theyre slated to stay Thursday evening. Where else are the paddlers stopping? Cincinnati marked the halfway point of the 10-day trip. See the travelers remaining itinerary below: June 6: Stay in Cincinnati June 7: Stay in Rising Sun June 8: Stay in Vevay June 9: Stay at Payne Hollow with dinner in Madison June 10: Stay at 18 Mile Island with dinner in Westport June 11: Arrive in Louisville This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio River Challenge: Canoers travel 250-miles to Louisville Here comes the boom: Lights Over Lake Erie fireworks show returns July 3 The skies above Presque Isle Bay will once again explode, boom and flash with color on July 3. Erie Mayor Joe Schember's administration on Thursday announced details of the city's annual Lights Over Lake Erie fireworks display, which returns to Dobbins Landing one day before the July 4 holiday. Once again, the fireworks display will be presented by Pyrotecnico Fireworks of New Castle. A fireworks display illuminates the Bicentennial Tower in Erie during the Lights Over Lake Erie event in July 2021. Show time; where to watch The display will begin about 10 p.m. on July 3. City officials said residents/visitors can watch the fireworks from several vantage points along Erie's waterfront, including the east and west bayfront bluffs; Presque Isle State Park; from a boat in Presque Isle Bay, or from almost anywhere that provides a view of the Bicentennial Tower. Fireworks partnership The city is once again collaborating with the Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority for Lights Over Lake Erie. The event is funded in part by a $15,000 events grant from the Erie County Gaming Revenue Authority. Parking/transportation The Erie Parking Authority will provide free parking at select downtown parking garages for those attending the fireworks. The Erie Metropolitan Transit Authority will run free shuttle buses to/from those garages. Adrienne Nannen, the city's events manager, said city officials are encouraging residents to use the parking garages/shuttles, or park downtown and walk to the bayfront, to alleviate traffic and congestion. Additional details More information is available at lightsoverlakeerie.com. Citizens can also check the city's Facebook page for updates. Contact Kevin Flowers at kflowers@timesnews.com. Follow him on X at @ETNflowers. This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Lights Over Lake Erie Fireworks: When and where to watch them Covered bridges are a part of Vermont's landscape. Here are several worth checking out The covered bridge, a staple of any Vermont road trip, is also an architectural icon in its own right, being featured in movies like Beetlejuice although that bridge was a standard uncovered one in East Corinth. Vermont is renowned for its picturesque scenic drives, with views of the Green Mountains, and a multitude of lakes and rivers things that often finds themselves crossed by a covered bridge. The state boasts over 100 of them, many located off the beaten path, but easy to find with the right directions. The history of the covered bridge Covered bridges flourished in Vermont in the 19th century, with the number of covered bridges peaking at over 700, according to the Vermont State Historic Sites. A 2019 count revealed 104 bridges remain, making Vermont the state with the highest density of covered bridges. Made out of wood, the bridges' siding and roof were constructed to protect the main structure from weather damage. Later on, when trains traversed the crossings, iron supports were added to hold the weight. Besides adding character to the landscape, there is "architecture ingenuity, economic necessity and romantic idealism" that has in itself permeated pop culture, according to the tourism site Visit New England. Cornish-Windsor Bridge One of the most well-known bridges, this connector between Vermont and New Hampshire crosses the Connecticut River and is one of the longest wooden covered bridges in the United States. At 450 feet long, it has outlived three longer bridges in New England, all which were destroyed by floods. It was built in 1866 and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Constructed using a lattice truss design, it is made of spruce and pine timber. With a width of 24 feet and a height of 28 feet, the Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge played a vital role in facilitating trade and commerce between the two states during the 19th century. Location: Crosses the Connecticut River between Bridge Street, Windsor, Vermont, and NH Route 12A, Cornish, New Hampshire. Fisher Covered Railroad Bridge Getting ready to ride into the Fisher Covered Railroad Bridge on the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail between Wolcott and West Danville on June 19, 2023. You don't have to worry about a train coming the other way. Located in Wolcott, the 1908 bridge originally carried the St. Johnsbury and Lamoille County Railroad line over the Lamoille River. The state leased the railroad to a private operator in 1989 until all operations ceased in 1994. Severe flooding washed out large sections of track between Wolcott and Hardwick in 1997. In 2001, the Fisher Covered Bridge was renovated into a park by the state. The bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and was the last covered bridge in Vermont to carry railroad traffic. Now closed to trains, it's open for anyone walking or biking as part of the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail. Location: Southeast of Wolcott and south of Vermont 15. It can be accessed from a small parking area just to the north. Poland Covered Bridge Located in Cambridge, the Poland Bridge also crosses the Lamoille River and also gained admission to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Also known as the Junction Covered Bridge or Cambridge Junction Covered Bridge, it was built in 1887 and named after local Judge Poland. Its conception brought controversy, with the Morrisville newspaper News and Citizen reporting in 1888: "Judge Poland has caused the Town of Cambridge to be inflicted with a bridge and a road at an expense of from $6,000-$10,000 which as shown will be of no material benefit to anyone but himself. It will be known in the future as 'Polands Bridge' except to the taxpayers of Cambridge who will christen it 'The Bridge of Sighs.'" Location: Cambridge Junction Road, which connects Vermont 15 on the south side of the river with Vermont 109 on the north side. Greenbanks Hollow Covered Bridge A covered foot bridge in West Danville on June 11, 2023. The Greenbanks Hollow covered bridge is the last covered wood bridge to survive in the town of Danville. Used as a footbridge now, it crosses Joe's Pond. The bridge was originally built without the cover; the roof being added later on. Location: Town road at South Danville, 2.7 miles southeast of Danville village. Brown Covered Bridge Brown Bridge was recently named a National Historic Landmark in Vermont, claimed to be one of the oldest covered bridges in the United States. Built in 1880 by Nichols M. Powers, Brown Bridge crosses the Cold River and spans 100 feet in length. The bridge closed in 2011 due to damage and decay from flooding from Hurricane Irene. It reopened when it was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2016 with some renovations, although most of the structure and roof is original. Location: It's set in a wooded ravine in northwestern Shrewsbury, about 5 miles southeast of Rutland, Vermont. Shelburne Museum Covered Bridge The Meeting House as seen from the Covered Bridge at the Shelburne Museum on June 18, 2021. Built in 1845, the Shelburne Museum Covered Bridge originally spanned the Lamoille River in Cambridge. The double-laned bridge was lit by kerosene lamps and was built to replace a ferry that would take travelers from one side of the river to the other. The relocation of the bridge to its current resting place the grounds of the Shelburne Museum occurred in the late 1940s. Electra Havemeyer Webb of the Shelburne Museum asked the Vermont Highway Department to help find a bridge worth preserving, as they wanted one on their grounds to welcome visitors with an iconic Vermont landmark. It was set to be replaced at the time anyway and was dismantled and moved to Shelburne. It served as an entrance to the grounds for many years before traffic endangered its preservation, and it was once again moved further down the lawn to where it now sits. Location: Sits by the road at 6000 Shelburne Road, Shelburne. Middle Covered Bridge Woodstock, Vermont, USA Middle Covered Bridge Constructed in 1969, the Middle Covered Bridge replaced an iron bridge that had served since 1877. On May 11, 1974, the bridge was set afire by arsonists. It took three years, and almost $55,000 to complete the required repairs. The bridge can be traversed by car or on foot on the separated walkway. Flowers and greenery peak from the lattice, making a picturesque scene during the spring and summer blooms. Woodstock has two other covered bridges, which are located in the hamlets of Taftsville and West Woodstock. Location: Mountain Avenue, Woodstock, Vermont. Emily's Bridge Also known as Gold Brook Bridge, this 1844 bridge in Stowe spans Gold Brook. Being one of the oldest covered bridges in Vermont, it carries secrets and stories of its own. The single-lane, 50-foot-long bridge holds the haunting story of a jilted lover, Emily, whose ghost still walks the wooden planks. There are many iterations of the story, but one story by the travel guide Atlas Obscura goes that Emily was supposed to meet her lover on the bridge and elope, but he never showed. Emily is said to have then committed suicide by hanging under the bridge. Slighted by her lover, she now lashes out at passersby and cars. Reports of a woman's voice being heard echoing down the wooden tunnel is common. It's a folk story that you may need to see for yourself to believe. Location: The intersection of Covered Bridge Road and Gold Brook Road in Stowe. The Kissing Bridge Located next to the Vermont Country Store in Rockingham, the Kissing Bridge explains the romanticism of a covered bridge with its own backstory. Vermont Country Store shares the story of the Kissing Bridge on their website: "Its an old tradition from the horse-and-buggy days, when a boy would stop halfway across a covered bridge where it was quiet to give his girl a kiss." The name stuck with this particular bridge, and the story alone invites tourists to visit and participate in keeping the tradition alive. Location: 1292 Rockingham Road, at the edge of the parking lot of the Vermont Country Store. Sydney P. Hakes is the Burlington city reporter. Contact her at SHakes@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Covered bridges in Vermont found at Shelburne Museum, Woodstock The creative palette is as vibrant as ever for Bernard Stanley Hoyes. The local artist has garnered attention this spring thanks to two unique endeavors. Earlier this year, Hoyes was among six artists commissioned and featured by the city of Palm Springs in its new public arts project, Pillars of Palm Springs. Unveiled on World Art Day (April 15), the project includes six art installations on the median of Tahquitz Canyon Way running from the airport to Palm Canyon Drive. It is the largest, most comprehensive project initiated by the city's Public Arts Commission. Ideals such as creativity, serenity, civility, equity and diversity are featured through the art. Hoyes' creative pillar, which represents diversity, is a kinetic piece featuring two hummingbirds that move with the wind. The result creates a genetic strand, offering a reminder that we all share DNA. The word "diversity" will be illuminated after dark. "Wild Dates" by Bernard Stanley Hoyes. The other good news from Team Hoyes is that the artist recently received a California Creative Corps Fund grant through the Inland Empire Community Foundation. "The grant came at a great time from a creative and career standpoint," Hoyes says. "I received the grant then received news of the diversity project from the city of Palm Springs. I'm having a peak right now, as they say." This is Hoyes' first grant as an artist. "Other than when I was in art school," he's quick to note. "In my first year in art school, I got a scholarship, which was a real big start for me. It got me in, and since then my art has been a vehicle, a financial vehicle. I made a vow that if I couldn't, after art school, make it within three to five years where my work would support me, I would go and find a job. And the good Lord has been good. My work has been supporting me ever since." "Cactus Rose Mirage" oils on canvas by Bernard Stanley Hoyes. Hoyes leaned into his artistic side early on in his hometown of Kingston, Jamaica. When he was 9 years old, his mother sold his unique wood carvings and watercolors to visitors at the Jamaica Tourist Board to help maintain the household and support his growing talents. When he was 15, he moved to New York City to live with his father and began his journey into being a professional artist, honing his skills as a painter and a sculptor. Several university accomplishments and many pieces of art later, he moved to Los Angeles in 1975 and worked as a designer for the California Museum of Science and Industry. But life as a studio artist beckoned and by 1978, he took a leap of faith, devoting his life to creating art. "I have been a creator of art, symbols of ancestral echoes since (I was) a child in Jamaica," Hoyes states on his website, noting that the images he conveys symbolize "a culmination of these ancestral echoes brought to classical form. They are contemporary, eternal in spirit and stand as praise to our existence." Lineage and art weave themselves throughout Hoyes' life. To that end, Caribbean Arts was established in the late 1970s to distribute the Caribbean fine art created by Hoyes, later going on to distribute prints, books, notecards and calendars. "Getting a grant at this age of my career is a validation I never had before," he says. Bernard Stanley Hoyes poses with his family. Hoyes' work spans several mediums. He paints intuitively, and his mural work with the Los Angeles Citywide Murals Programs also allows deeper contemplation. One of them, "Black Folk Art in America," was painted with the assistance of children from Wilshire Crest and Carthay Elementary schools. Hoyes has also curated many exhibitions and was on the board at the Museum of African American Art in Los Angeles. His vibrant art has also been featured in a variety of television and film productions. On the horizon, look for Hoyes to conduct several workshops this summer (June 24-30) for emerging and professional artists. The workshops for emerging artists will be held in his Desert Hot Springs studio while professional artists can attend at Riverside Art Museum in Riverside. Learn more at bernardhoyes.com. The Inland Empire Community Foundation works to strengthen Inland Southern California through philanthropy. Visit iegives.org. This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Creative Corps Fund grant offers new pathways for local artist Eat healthy, build community and enjoy yourself at one of the area's many farmers markets The new mural painted on the side of the South Bend Farmers' Market on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, in South Bend. After enduring Michiana's winter, residents can take advantage of the warm days of early summer through autumn by visiting the numerous farmers markets throughout the region to pick up some of the fresh fruits and vegetables grown on local farms. Although farmers markets operate in nearly every town and city this time of year, the South Bend Farmer's Market, which is marking its 100th anniversary this year, is among the few that offer produce, meat, cheese, eggs, home-baked goods and numerous other items throughout the year. Farmers markets provide a convenient way to purchase fresh foods, plants, flowers, crafts and other items from local vendors, keeping money in the local community. But at the same time, they also build community by providing a location where people can gather to leisurely shop while also enjoying a beverage and a bite to eat. Mikayla Rude, second from left, weighs out a bag of breaded cheese curds at the South Bend Farmers' Market on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, in South Bend. A big-box retailer can offer most of the same products as a farmers market, but it can't equal the freshness, the unique products and the relaxed vibe that can be found at one of the dozens of markets throughout the region. The following is a list of some of the offerings in Michiana. The list was partially built off of information available for farmers markets in Indiana and Michigan. We did our best to ensure its accuracy and completeness, but we'd still suggest checking a web site or Facebook page especially if an outing is planned for a far-away farm market. If there's a problem or we've omitted a farmers market, email me at esemmler@sbtinfo.com and include "Farmers markets" in the subject line so I can update the online version. Indiana Different berries for sale at the South Bend Farmers' Market on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, in South Bend. South Bend Farmer's Market Where: 1105 Northside Blvd., South Bend Hours: 8 a.m. to 2 p.m Tuesdays and Thursdays.; 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays For more information: Call 574-282-1259 or visit southbendfarmersmarket.com. The River Valley Farmers' Market located inside the Commerce Center on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, in South Bend. River Valley Farmers Market Where: Commerce Center, 401 E. Colfax Ave., South Bend Hours: 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays For more information: Call 574-781-8694 or visit www.facebook.com/people/River-Valley-Farmers-Market-Inc/100063577569881. Purple Porch Food Co-op Where: 123 Hill St., South Bend Hours: 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays year-round, weather permitting For more information: Call 574-287-6724 or visit www.purpleporch.coop. Different cuts of meat for sale at the South Bend Farmers' Market on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, in South Bend. Linden Avenue Farmers Market Where: Charles Black Community Center, 3419 W. Washington St, South Bend Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the third Saturday of each month (June 15, July 20, Aug. 17, Sept. 21 and Oct. 19) For more information: Call 574-235-9449 or visit southbendin.gov/food-security. Portage Farm Stands Market Where: 1007 Portage Ave., South Bend Hours: 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays through Oct. 26 For more information: Visit www.facebook.com/portagefarmstands. Flowers for sale at the River Valley Farmers' Market located inside the Commerce Center on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, in South Bend. Mishawaka Farmers Market Where: 230 Ironworks Ave., Ironworks Plaza, Mishawaka Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays beginning June 9 through Sept. 15, excluding July 7 and Sept. 1 For more information: Call 574-258-1664 or visit www.facebook.com/MishawakaMarket. Visitors fill Ironworks Plaza for the Mishawaka Farmers Market Sunday, May 16, 2021, in Mishawaka. New Carlisle Farmers Market Where: 300 W. Michigan St., Memorial Park, New Carlisle, Hours: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays through Sept. 14, except for July 27 during Hometown Days For more information: Call 574-339-2403 or visit https://newcarlisleindiana.com/. A wide variety of fresh produce, plants and homemade goods are among the offerings at Elkhart Parks and Recreation Farmers Market in Kardzhali Park in downtown Elkhart. The farmers market in downtown runs on Saturdays through Sept. 28. Elkhart Parks and Recreation Farmers Market Where: 303 Nibco Pkwy., Kardzhali Park, Elkhart Hours: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays through Sept. 28 For more information: Call 574-295-7275 or visit ElkhartIndiana.org/parks. Farmers Market at The Mill Where: 402 E. Warren St., Middlebury Hours: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays through Sept. 28 For more information: Visit www.joyfullysaid.com/pages/the-mill. Fruit plants for sale at the River Valley Farmers' Market located inside the Commerce Center on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, in South Bend. Goshen Farmers Market Where: 212 W. Washington St., Goshen Hours: 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays throughout the year; 3 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays through October For more information: Call 574-533-4747 or visit www.goshenfarmersmarket.org. Plymouth Farmers Market Where: East Garro and Water streets, Plymouth Hours: 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Saturdays through Oct. 26 For more information: Call 574-217-5776 or visit plymouthfarmersmarket.com. Artwork for sale at the River Valley Farmers' Market located inside the Commerce Center on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, in South Bend. Bremen Farmers Market Where: Jackson Street Event Pavilion When: 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays through the end of August For more information: Call 574-971-6734 or visit facebook.com/bremenfarmersmarket. Bourbon Farmers Market Where: Main and Center streets When: 6 to 8 p.m. Mondays through August For more information: Visit www.facebook.com/BourbonFarmersMarket. Different spices for sale at the South Bend Farmers' Market on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, in South Bend. Farmed & Forged Farmers Market Where: Monroe Street between Washington Street and Lincoln Way, LaPorte When: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. (Central) Sundays through Sept. 29 For more information: Visit www.thecollectivein.com/fandf or www.facebook.com/farmedandforged. Michigan City Farmers Market Where: Eighth and Washington streets, Michigan City When: 8 a.m. to noon (Central) Saturdays through Oct. 28 For more information: emichigancity.com/1235/Farmers-Market or facebook.com/farmersmarketmichigancity. Michigan Niles Homegrown Market Where: 100 block of Main Street, Niles Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays from June 9 through Aug. 25 For more information: Call 269-687-4332 or visit uncoverniles.com or https://www.facebook.com/nileshomegrown. The Niles Homegrown Market will set up near the 100-block of Main Street in downtown Niles beginning this Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and continue through Aug. 25. Buchanan Farmers Market Where: 122 Days Ave., Buchanan Hours 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays through Oct. 12 For more information: 269-506-3021 or visit www.buchananfarmersmarket.com/index. Three Oaks Farmers Market Where: 4 N. Elm St., Three Oaks Hours: 3 to 7 p.m. Fridays through Sept. 29 For more information: Visit https://threeoaks.market/. A variety of peppers for sale at the South Bend Farmers' Market on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, in South Bend. Farmed & Forged Farmers Market Where: Whittaker and Merchant streets, New Buffalo When: 5 to 8 p.m. Thursdays through Sept. 5, excluding July 4 For more information: Visit www.thecollectivein.com/fandf or www.facebook.com/farmedandforged. Shoppers look over the foods, fresh-made products and crafts at the Farmed & Forged Farmers Market in LaPorte. The same group is also bringing a farmers market to New Buffalo this year. Bridgman Open Air Market Where: 4509 Lake St., Bridgman When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays through October For more information: Call 269-313-4494 or visit www.facebook.com/BridgmanOpenAirMarket. Dowagiac Farm and Artisan Market Where: 201 E. Division St., Dowagiac When: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays through October For more information: Call 269-782-8212 or visit www.cityofdowagiac.com/arts_recreation/dowagiac_farm_and_artisan_m. Asparagus for sale at the South Bend Farmers' Market on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, in South Bend. Benton Harbor Farmers Market Where: 127 Pipestone St., Benton Harbor When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays from June 19 through Sept. 25 For more information: Visit www.berriencounty.org/664/Benton-Harbor-Farmers-Market. St. Joseph Farmers Market Where: Lake Bluff Park, St. Joseph When: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays through October For more information: Call 269-985-1111 or visit www.stjoetoday.com. Email Tribune Market Basket columnist Ed Semmler at esemmler@sbtinfo.com. This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Greater South Bend region has an abundance of farmers markets to visit STURGEON BAY - So far, so good for Door County's newest child care center, which opened Monday while continuing to raise funds. Children First Development Center opened in the Door County YMCA's former Barker Child Development Center building on Egg Harbor Road in Sturgeon Bay, and administrator Kayla Lehman said after the first four days, staff, families and young ones are more than happy with how things are going. "It's been a very good week. Everyone's excited," Lehman said. "There's lots of getting to know each other between teachers and families. It typically takes two weeks for the little ones to get adjusted to new faces." Children First currently is licensed to admit up to 69 children ages 6 weeks to 4 years, and it had 45 students during its first week. Lehman said a handful of new students will come in over the next couple weeks, putting the center's enrollment in the low 50s by the beginning of July. The staff at Children First Development Center in Sturgeon Bay, which opened June 3, are joined by Alaine, front center, during a day at the child care facility. From left in the back two rows are Angel Heindel, Linda Weisenel, center director Lorie Torbeck, Olivia Baker, Lisa Mauch, Nicole Wilson, Sarah Lezine, administrator Kayla Lehman, Alex Bretl, Julia Jacobson and Alexa Jennerjohn. From left in the front with Alaine are Elise Christensen, Macey Eastwood and Alexis Zuleger. Lehman said the center is almost fully staffed, with 12 regular teachers (six lead teachers, six assistants) headed by director Lorie Torbeck, who's worked in early childhood development for more than 50 years, and one float teacher, basically a teacher who can fill in as needed or serve as a pair of extra hands during busy times such as lunches. The only two openings at the moment are for float teachers, and Lehman said they're considering applications. The center has student openings for 2- to 4-year-olds but a "pretty long" waiting list for younger enrollees, Lehman said. She said it isn't surprising that parents might be reluctant to enroll a 3- or 4-year-old into a brand new care center when they're only a year or so away from enrolling in a 4K school program, possibly putting stress on a population that typically can struggle with change. Given that Children First is a brand new center, with brand new students adjusting to the new place and teachers learning about them, Lehman said it's OK that they're not yet at full capacity. "It played in our favor that we stayed on the small side of enrollment," Lehman said. The opening of Children First comes at a critical time for working families in Door County. Lehman noted the county already was experiencing a major shortage of child care facilities and workers when plans were forming late last year for their new center, and since then two other local child care facilities have closed: Zion Early Childhood Center in Jacksonport, which was working with 60 children, in December and Adventures Child Care Center in Brussels, which had about 24 kids, in February. "When we started talking about (starting) the center back in October, there was a tremendous need back then," Lehman said. "Since then, we lost two other centers (that served) 80 children. Families have been shuffling to make things work (for child care) between friends, family, work, churches." That's at least part of the reason why Lehman said she, Torbeck and the rest of the staff have received positive reactions from the families of their students in this first week. "Families are excited," she said. "The families are noticing a big change at home. Routines are easier for the families and children, they know what to expect." Meanwhile, the center, which is awaiting approval from the IRS of its 501(c)(3) nonprofit application, is continuing with its $740,000 capital campaign to raise funds for equipment, materials and updates. Lehman said the campaign so far has raised $425,000, which was enough to cover the cost of the building and buying, repairing and updating some equipment. Children First is at 1743 Egg Harbor Road, Sturgeon Bay. For more information on student enrollment or donating to the campaign, call Children First at 920-333-1475 or email info@childrenfirstdc.com. Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@gannett.com. MORE: Wine made by artificial intelligence is now a reality at this Wisconsin winery MORE: A Door County marina in business for almost 60 years is sold to a Texas-based company FOR MORE DOOR COUNTY NEWS: Check out our website This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Children First child care center opens in Door County Kose Corp., the Japanese beauty giant, is opening its first physical retail location in the Los Angeles area at The Shops at Santa Anita the shopping mall in Arcadia, Calif. Along with robust foot traffic, the area has an established Asian community, making it appealing to the company, said Takayuki Morimatsu, president and chief executive officer of Kose America. And the U.S. market is a focus for Kose, he added. More from WWD Our largest customers are the Asian people, said Morimatsu. And theres a growing segment of Asian customers who are passionate about J-beauty brands, as well as beauty in general.Arcadia and also the area surrounding Arcadia are highly populated with Asian people, especially Chinese people and our company is well-known among Chinese people. Founded in 1946 by Kozaburo Kobayashi, Kose manufactures beauty, cosmetics and personal care products. With headquarters in Tokyo, the company has a portfolio of more than 30 brands that are sold in 68 regions and countries. L.A. Dodgers Shohei Ohtani is Koses global ambassador. With retail partnerships and an established e-commerce business, this marks Koses first stand-alone location. Found at 400 South Baldwin Avenue, the 1,230-square-foot store offers a variety of goods for all genders, from skin care to nail care. Prices range widely, from $3 to $1,000, displaying three brands already known to the U.S. market: Koses high-end brand Decorte (which is also found at Nordstrom, Saks, Bloomingdales and Moda Operandi), Sekkisei (sold on Amazon), and Addiction Tokyo (launched in the U.S. in September 2023). In-house brands One by Kose and Kose Infinity are also available, along with mens brand Magnifique and mass market skin care brand Softymo, among others new or less known in the U.S. According to Morimatsu, with the shop, Koses objective is to amplify the Japanese approach to beauty and wellness through the in-store experience, while expanding its presence. Visiting customers are able to utilize a skin diagnostic machine for a personalized beauty assessment and will be able to print customized text on products and ribbons as part of gifting. The skin diagnostic machine in-store at Kose. Impossible to miss is the face of L.A. Dodgers Shohei Ohtani, Koses global ambassador. Ohtani is seen in videos and images all around the store, which will also display signed memorabilia. Kose invites friends and family to get game ready in-store with spirited makeup looks. The company will have ads running at Dodger Stadium and a presence at games to offer product sampling all to further drive company and brand awareness. Best of WWD While frequent flyers may prefer aisle, middle, or window seats, their first choice might not be the best option for a bumpy flight. In late May 2024, a passenger aboard the Boeing 777 from Londons Heathrow Airport to Singapore tragically died of a heart attack after experiencing 19 seconds of extreme turbulence. Geoff Kitchen, the 73-year-old British man who passed away, was aboard the Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 when the plane dropped 178 feet in 4.6 seconds. Kitchen was the only passenger who died, but others, including the crew members, were seriously injured on the 21 May morning flight. Since the uptick in frightening turbulence episodes, many aviation experts have spoken out, sharing safety protocols and the best seats for a rocky flight. Often the ride in the back of the airplane feels less stable but depending on the movement of the air, the ride may feel different, American Airlines Captain Dennis Tajer explained to Fox Business. The wings are more closely located to the center of gravity of the airplane, he said in the 2 June article. Therefore, the ride while sitting near the wings may feel less turbulent than near the tail of the aircraft where vertical input is felt the most. That said, keeping your seatbelt buckled is the safest decision a passenger can make, according to Tajer. Having your seat belt on will be the difference between safety or injury, he added. However, for those interested in the best seating, David Slotnick, senior aviation business reporter for The Points Guy, noted that these tips were mainly for situations of mild turbulence. Difference is mostly for more mild turbulence, and can be helpful if you get anxious or motion sickness, he told Fox Business. Aside from Tajer and Slotnick, one pilot on TikTok has opened up about his recommendations for where to sit if youre worried about turbulence. In a May 2023 post, pilot Jimmy Nicholson spoke to his followers, suggesting they steer clear of the back of the plane. The front of the aircraft, youre going to experience less turbulence. The back, its going to be a little bit more bumpy, he proclaimed. The rear of the aircraft will swing more. The front will swing less. Sit up front of the aircraft, Nicholson said, speaking directly to anyone who feels sick on planes. He added: If you do feel sick when youre flying, look for a visual reference. So, look outside the window and stare at the horizon. Experts share their 6 favorite local places to hike (and 5 more worth the drive) EVANSVILLE It's just one of those things about Evansville that people well, serious hikers and people who hike less seriously have to accept. "This area doesnt have a ton of hiking," said Becca Carter, a Henderson, Kentucky, resident and "ambassador" of the Western Kentucky chapter of Hikerbabes. "We usually have to drive an hour or two to get to anything outside of, like, Audubon (State Park) or Harmonie (State Park). Theres just not a ton of great hiking around here, so our (Hikerbabes) chapter probably does travel a little bit more than some of the others." Travel? Carter, who said many of her group's roughly 850 members are from Evansville, has Hikerbabes set to go to Maine's Acadia National Park in September and to North Carolina in October. "I have family (in Maine), I've been many times, I know the area around national park really well," she said. "I thought, you know, Im just as adept at taking a group there as I am to Land Between the Lakes." Denise Lanier, an Indianapolis resident, is the founder of HikerBabes Community of Southern Indiana. That group focuses on Indiana hikes, of which Lanier says there are many. "The hiking & adventure throughout Indiana is PLENTIFUL!!" she told the Courier & Press by email. Lanier had a few tips for anyone just starting out in the hiking game. "Always carry enough water for your hike, especially as temps are heating up!" she wrote. "Carry snacks, a map and wear a sturdy athletic shoe or hiking boot. Just starting out? Start small and stay close to home. "Hiking is for everybody, whether its a paved pathway thats wheelchair accessible and stroller friendly or deep in the woods with no cell service." Paved pathways. It's a question in hiker circles. Is walking on paved pathways hiking? Carter, whose group organizes about four hikes a month, says no. "I like to call those urban hikes,'" she said. "And that would be its own thing, because its not the same. But sometimes its all we have." It's harder still to find legitimate hiking trails in the immediate vicinity because some areas that would seem to invite such expeditions do not allow dogs. "A lot of times, if I dont want to drive a couple of hours but I want to take my dog, I have to do what I call an urban hike and so that is the state hospital park or the Riverwalk in Henderson, those are two really great places," Carter said. As recommended by Lanier and Carter, here are six great places to hike in the Evansville area kind of and five more that are worth the drive: 6 good hiking spots in the Evansville area Lincoln State Park East Loop in Spencer County, Indiana "I have not hiked this trail, but it is one of the top-rated hikes within an hour of Evansville," Carter said. Lanier named Lincoln State Park and Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City, Indiana. "My 2 favorite trails at LSP both meander around lakes," she wrote. "Trail 1 is 1.5 miles, rated easy, going around Lincoln Lake & Trail 6 is 1.8 miles, rated easy, going around Weber Lake. It should take less than an hour to complete either. "When visiting the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, be sure to stop by the visitors center first! The Trail of 12 Stones highlights major events in President Lincolns life & there is a Living Historical Farm on site as well!" Audubon State Park, Henderson, Kentucky "Audubon has a variety of shorter hikes or you can combine trails for a longer hike. Dogs only allowed on one one-mile loop trail," Carter said. Harmonie State Park, New Harmony, Indiana "HSP offers almost 8 miles of trails. Hike as little or as much as you want!" Lanier wrote. "Bring the family and have a picnic. Harmonie also offers a paved bicycle trail, which may be used for walking." Jeffreys Cliffs, Hawesville, Kentucky "Six miles of trails," Carter said. "No dogs. Lots of steep cliffs and rock outcroppings with a large rock house that you can explore. This was an old farmstead that was donated and turned into a hiking preserve around ten years ago." Angel Mounds near Evansville. Angel Mounds State Historic Site, Evansville "While there are only 4-5 miles of trails, the major draw is the history!" Lanier wrote. "Angel Mounds showcases native peoples who lived in modern-day Evansville from the Mississippian Culture over 1,000 years ago. The site features earthen mounds built by these people." Howell Wetlands, Evansville "Howell is home to one of the largest remaining wetlands in Indiana," Lanier wrote. "Howell Wetlands offers only 2 miles of trails, making it great for families. However, to learn more about biodiversity in our state, this is a must see!" 5 more hiking spots that are worth the drive Clifty Falls State Park in Madison, Indiana Carter and Lanier each cited Clifty Falls State Park in Madison. (Distance from Evansville: 161 miles) "Clifty Falls has ver 14 miles of trails. Make your adventure as long or as short as you wish," Lanier wrote. "However, dont miss the waterfalls, which are best viewed in the Spring or after very heavy rains." Carter said Clifty Falls has a nice variety of options for hiking. "Multiple trails can be combined to create the mileage youd prefer," she said. A ramp leads up to the entrance of Donaldson Cave at Spring Mill State Park. Spring Mill State Park in Mitchell, Indiana (Distance from Evansville: 101 miles) Spring Mill has about 10 miles of trails, Lanier wrote. "The Pioneer Village offers a living historical village of how pioneers lived and worked in Indiana in early times. You cant miss out on the inexpensive Twin Cave Boat Tours. While Mammoth Cave in Kentucky steals the show, you can still get a great taste of the underground world." Hemlock Cliffs & Yellow Birch Ravine in Taswell, Indiana (Distance from Evansville: 80 miles) "Two must-see trails in Hoosier National Forest. Both have waterfalls & Yellow Birch is home to 1 of 4 Natural Arches in Indiana," Lanier wrote. But it's not a cakewalk. "Both trails are rated hard, but short enough that the whole family can enjoy," Lanier wrote. Hematite Lake Trail in Eddyville, Kentucky (Distance from Evansville: 67 miles) "This trail is at Land Between the Lakes and is an easy two-and-a-half miles," Carter said. "LBL offers lots of other options for hiking, including the 58-mile North South Trail." A hiker walks the trail to the boardwalk July 25, 2020, at the Beanblossom Bottoms Nature Preserve. Beanblossom Bottoms Nature Preserve in Ellettsville, Indiana (Distance from Evansville: 126 miles) "This wetland offers a 2.5 mile trail that loops through another Indiana wetland," Lanier wrote. "It is home to the endangered: Indiana Bat & Kirtland Snake as well as a nesting site for the American Bald Eagle. "Nearby you have the Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge, which hosts a stopping point for a plethora of migrating birds in the spring and fall. There are a ton of restaurants, wineries and breweries." This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Where can I go for a hike near Evansville? So far in 2024, about 46 children in Florida have died because of drowning. It is the No. 1 cause of unintentional death among children ages 1 to 4. Those statistics were from Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez, who this week, along with other state leaders, appeared in Ormond Beach to educate the public to prevent drownings. The press conference Wednesday, June 5 took place at a swim school called Aqua Journeys. Owner Carly Caldwell said accidental drownings can happen fast so it's critical to teach young children survival skills, such as floating on their back when they can't reach the side of a pool. "We start them as young as 6 months old and we go all the way through adults. So as soon as your child is mobile, they are able to reach water, so we encourage parents to get them swimming lessons," Caldwell said. Florida Lt Gov. Jeanette Nunez announces a swimming lesson voucher program for low income families while talking about water safety from Aqua Journeys Swim School in Ormond Beach. A new Florida law provides free swimming lessons to low-income families with children 4 and under. The bill creating the swim lessons vouchers, sponsored by Sen. Travis Hutson, R-St. Augustine, provides $500,000 for the year. It goes into effect July 1. The Florida Department of Health will operate the program. More information about it can be found at watersmartfl.com. Families at or below 200% of the poverty level are eligible for vouchers for children 4 and under. Federal guidelines put 200% of the federal poverty level at $40,880 for a family of two, $51,650 for three and $62,400 for four. Organizations in Palm Beach County offer similar free or discounted swimming lessons: The Drowning Prevention Coalition of Palm Beach County provides vouchers for free/reduced cost swim lessons for qualified children ages 2-12. Vouchers are provided on a first come/first served basis. The YMCA of South Palm Beach Countys Safety Around the Water Program is offered year-round at pre-approved sites throughout Palm Beach County and offered to qualified groups at no cost. Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, who was at Wednesday's press conference, said it's sometimes impossible for parents to keep an eye on their children at all times, as a distraction might intervene or fatigue might limit their focus. "I'm a dad of three boys and I can't even wrap my mind around what families go through when they have tragedy, any type of tragedy, but particularly the tragedy of some baby or little kid drowning," he said. Shevaun Harris, secretary of the Department of Children and Families, said more than 80% of the drowning deaths that are reported to her agency occur during non-swim times. And thus far in 2024, 35 of the 46 drownings 2024 occurred when the child was not supposed to be in or around water. "This is a stark reminder that we cannot let our guards down just because we are done swimming for the day. Anything else can wait until all gates are locked and secured," Harris said. Taylor Hatch, director of the Agency for Persons with Disabilities, highlighted one population that is especially endangered around water. She said the Autism Society for Florida identified drowning as the No. 1 cause of death for people with an autism diagnosis. "This data also illuminates that children with autism are 160 times more likely to be involved in both non-fatal and fatal drownings than other neurotypical children." Sadly, a 5-year-old boy with autism died recently, days after being found unresponsive in a Delray Beach pool, police said. Preliminary findings indicate the boy was in his grandmother's care and wandered away. State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo talks about water safety during news conference from Aqua Journeys Swim School in Ormond Beach, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. Swimming and safety suggestions Nunez stressed several steps to help prevent drowning: Making sure children are supervised around bodies of water, pools and even bathtubs Encouraging family members to take swimming lessons Ensuring pool barriers and gates meet state law requirements Adding barriers to pools and hot tubs such as locking covers and working alarms Following lifejacket laws Learning CPR Checking conditions such as weather forecasts, rip-current activity and marine life before heading to the beach Hatch added three more suggestions: If your loved one has a tendency to wander, alert neighbors. "Make learning how to swim visual and third, consistency and structure help. How big of a problem is drowning? Drowning is among the leading causes of death for children but still is only about a third of the number of child deaths caused by firearms in 2021 in the United States, according to a KFF analysis of data collected by the Centers for Disease Control. In 2022, Florida had 464 drowning deaths, according to Florida Department of Health data. Forty-two people died of drowning in Palm Beach County in 2022, for a rate of 2.7 drowning deaths per 100,000 people. Martin County had one death, St. Lucie County seven and Indian River County four. "Every year millions of residents and visitors build fond memories in our state around water and we want that to continue to be the case," Harris said. "We just want to ensure that everyone can do so safely." This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Free Florida vouchers for swim lessons aim to prevent child drownings BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. Azerbaijan and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) have discussed partnership opportunities within COP29, Azerbaijani Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov said on X, Trend reports. The post notes that the meeting was held with Ludger Schuknecht, Vice President and Corporate Secretary of AIIB. During our meeting with Ludger Schuknecht, we discussed several key aspects of our bilateral cooperation: the strategies implemented by AIIB in recent years and planned future measures; the Banks operational focus in Azerbaijan; joint cooperation; and opportunities for partnerships within COP29, the publication says. 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. COP - the Conference of the Parties - is 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 Fordson High seniors come together for prom after journey that began during pandemic Fordson High School senior MohamedAli Bazzi lifts and twirls his prom date Narmeen Dakouche as they share a slow dance while other seniors line the dance floor after they were announced the king and queen during their senior prom held at the Bellagio Banquet And Conference Center in Dearborn Heights on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. For seniors at Fordson High School, prom was more than a chance to step out in stylish colorful suits and dresses. It was a chance to come together. These students started high school in the fall of 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. They helped each other deal with life, inside and outside school. And now, they're ready to celebrate. Family and friends take photos of a group of Fordson High School seniors gathered outside of the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, to take photographs together before heading to their prom in Dearborn Heights. Fordson High School senior Malaak Jadallah takes a photo of classmate Jana Albaiatty by a sculpture outside of the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, as seniors from their school take photographs together before heading to their prom in Dearborn Heights. Fordson High School seniors line a marble staircase behind the Detroit Institute of Arts for photos on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Fordson High School senior Nour Choucair, left, helps a classmate as they walk down a staircase after taking a group photo outside of the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, before heading to their prom in Dearborn Heights. We didn't have a freshman year, which messed up our relationships we could have built with upperclassman, said senior class president Lena Dabaja. During the pandemic, these students learned how quickly life can take a turn. So Dabaja and her classmates put on over 20 fundraisers to help make this years prom a Hollywood experience for all. We all stood by each other and helped one another, she said. We're really like family. I don't think there's ever been a Fordson class that loves and supports each other the way we do. Fordson High School senior prom king and queen candidates Ali Hammoud, left, and his prom date, senior class president Lena Dabaja, are cheered on by students as they make their way to the dance floor before the announcement of the winner of the king and queen during their prom at the Bellagio Banquet And Conference Center in Dearborn Heights on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Fordson High School seniors get their phones out while waiting for the prom king and queen candidates to make their way to the dance floor before the announcement of the king and queen during their senior prom held at the Bellagio Banquet And Conference Center in Dearborn Heights on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Some seniors' parents are recent immigrants, and prom wasn't part of their tradition, or something they'd even necessarily heard of. Like senior Hilal Baalbaki, the first from his family to attend a prom, and excited to have the opportunity. But after he was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma in January 2024, Baalbaki knew his chances of attending any event his senior year were low. I thank God for everything hes blessed me with, and all hes given me to be here and to celebrate with my friends, he said. Fordson High School senior Hilal Baalbaki, center, briefly joins in dancing with classmates while attending his senior prom held at the Bellagio Banquet And Conference Center in Dearborn Heights on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Baalbaki was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma in January 2024 but was able to attend prom after undergoing the majority of his treatments that reduced 80% of the tumors in his body. Baalbaki says he missed a large portion of his high school experience, not only battling cancer, but also working toward his future while taking college courses through Henry Ford College. He had to learn to walk again after being immobilized in the hospital for a month, but now, after going through treatments for cancer, he has 80% fewer tumors in his body although his doctors told him to social distance due to his weakened immune system. I was very happy at the fact that I was able to experience at least part of it, he said about the culmination of his high school years. Its important to enjoy your last years of school, because its a big achievement. Fordson High School seniors senior Moe Ahmed, left, dances with Fordson parent/community liaison and senior class adviser Manal Hammoud, right, during the school's senior prom held at the Bellagio Banquet And Conference Center in Dearborn Heights on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Fordson High School seniors fill the dance floor while celebrating the end of their high school experience together during their senior prom held at the Bellagio Banquet And Conference Center in Dearborn Heights on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Fordson High School senior Majd Amayri, center, is circled by staff members including parent/community liaison and senior class adviser Manal Hammoud, left, while singing and dancing during her senior prom held at the Bellagio Banquet And Conference Center in Dearborn Heights on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Its a sad moment. I cry, said Manal Hammoud, a parent/community liaison and senior class adviser for the school. Its our last moment together. Hammoud started working at Fordson during the graduating class' freshman year, witnessing their four-year journey. On prom night, her face lit up, watching the students from the stage. I watch them in awe. It's good to see them take that moment, that they can have and cherish forever, she said. Fordson High School senior Jad Bazzi, center, joins other male seniors as they bounce off each other while dancing together while celebrating the end of their high school experience together during their senior prom held at the Bellagio Banquet And Conference Center in Dearborn Heights on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. "It's one of the last times I get to hang in a big group with my friends. Now real life is starting. I'm going to pre-med, so I'm not going to have time for a lot of things that I do," said Bazzi. "I'm just going to miss everyone. And I cherish every single moment I have with all these guys." Fordson High School seniors Nour Choucair, right, and Jana Jaber, left, dance together while overlooking classmates on the dance floor during their senior prom held at the Bellagio Banquet And Conference Center in Dearborn Heights on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. As the night carried on, students showed their appreciation for Hammoud and other faculty members, inviting them to take part in the high-energy celebration, dancing to a mixture of hit songs and traditional music. At night, when I have to shut it down, that's the worst part," said Hammoud. Soon, these students' lives will change as they head off in different directions, but on prom night, they enjoyed every last minute together as a group. I've always dreamt of prom. It's the end of a chapter, and now we're opening up a new chapter, and it's something I'm so excited for, senior Nour Choucair said. We're all going to move on to bigger and better things, so we'll see what happens. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Seniors celebrate prom after 4-year journey that began during pandemic The Furniture Bank of North Central Ohio, offering gently-used furniture and household items to people in need who are referred to them, celebrated its grand opening Friday. Social service agencies, non-project charitable organizations, public officials and more attended a luncheon to learn more about the agency, which will help families and individuals starting over after personal crisis have the essential furniture and household items to turn their houses into homes. Visitors are reflected in a dresser mirror during the Furniture Bank of North Central Ohio's grand opening Friday afternoon at 775 Springmill St. Pam Milligan, founder and executive director of the furniture bank, at 775 Springmill St., told a crowded room of local people furniture is something that is always needed by many people who have experienced crises including the homeless, people with mental illness, veterans in need, people leaving domestic violence situations and others. More: Farmhouse chic boutique Whispering Willow Way opens in downtown Shelby A representative from FEMA also was on hand, telling visitors the furniture bank will be able to help people in Richland, Crawford and Hancock counties who have been affected by disasters. Milligan said the furniture store, just across Springmill Street from Dairyland, is not open to the public and its clients are referred to the furniture bank by local social service agencies. Donations of gently-used furniture are needed, Milligan said. Donors should first call for an appointment and leave a voicemail or text at 419-709-7649, or email her at contact@furniturebankncohio.org. Individuals from the Volunteers of America transition program provide manpower for moving furniture as Milligan drives the truck. Pam Milligan, founder and executive director, speaks during the Furniture Bank of North Central Ohio's grand opening Friday. There is a $75 fee to a client for a donation of an entire house of furniture and a $40 delivery fee, since most clients need their furniture delivered. Milligan said local agencies normally pay the fees for clients. "Furniture matters, it matters to create comfort and security. It matters to create an environment where people thrive and not just survive," she said. "We're going to help them." Milligan, a retired general with the U.S. Air Force with 32 years service, said she was born and raised in Mansfield on Howard Street. She left in 1985 and returned last year with her husband to be near family including her two sisters and niece. Milligan started her military career at the 179th Airlift Wing of the Ohio Air National Guard at Mansfield Lahm Airport and served at Rickenbacker Air Force Base and also Mather Air Force Base in Sacramento, completing most of her service in the Air Force Reserves. Military service means you don't stop serving, ever, she said. This is her service now, she said of the desire to help others with furniture. Milligan thanked several people in the room for helping her open the furniture bank including Jim and Libby Oberlin, the owners of the building. She thanked Adriana Miranda for setting up the furniture bank website and she thanked donors in the room. Some of the furniture came from physicians' offices. She initially had a hard time finding a vacant building and had worked with the Richland County Land Bank about finding a lot to build a metal building. Milligan shared that the furniture bank recently provided a bed and bedstand for a 7-year-old girl. "This is love," she said. lwhitmir@gannett.com 419-521-7223 X (formerly Twitter): @lwhitmir This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Mansfield native opens furniture bank to serve people in crisis How you can help MOBILIZE VOTERS Grassroots in Action works to mobilize the north Minneapolis community through voter registration drives, phone banking, elected official forums and community engagement. A wide range of activities and events. grassrootsinactionmn.org GIFT SHOP Assist Saint Therese with sales and inventory in a fun, warm and caring atmosphere. Many shifts are available. Opportunities in New Hope, Brooklyn Park, Shoreview and Woodbury. sainttherese.org ESL ASSISTANT Help Vietnamese Social Service of Minnesota with adult basic education classes in St. Paul. Work with break-out groups, check work and assist students who are struggling. Weekdays, mornings or afternoons. One to three hours per week. vssmn.org DONATION DRIVE Touchstone Mental Health invites groups in the community to help the cause. Art supplies and games, hygiene kits, blankets and quilts, textured hair care products needed. touchstonemh.org MEAL SERVICE Help prepare and serve meals at Catholic Charities (both downtowns) while providing a warm greeting to guests and support for staff. Some cleanup during service. cctwincities.org SHELTER ASSISTANT Help the Animal Humane Society with washing dishes, doing laundry, maintaining toys and more. Flexible scheduling with opportunity to advance to greater areas of responsibility. Four locations in metro area. animalhumanesociety.org COMMUNITY ASSISTANT Breaking Free serves people who have been impacted by trafficking and prostitution. Help through advocacy, housing, education and immediate action. A wide range of opportunities. Some group opportunities available. breakingfree.net MENTOR Big Brothers Big Sisters will match you with a youth. Spend time one-on-one or in small group settings to have fun, explore new interests, etc. Opportunities across the metro area. bigstwincities.org HELP SENIORS Help at Your Door serves seniors wishing to stay in their own homes. Help with various home support tasks dusting, tidying, vacuuming and more. Flexible scheduling. Locations throughout the metro area. Must be 18 and vaccinated for COVID-19. helpatyourdoor.org CAMP COUNSELORS Camp Odayin operates for children with heart disease. Residential Camps are in Crosslake, Minn., and Elkhorn, Wis. Counselors work in pairs, live in a cabin and supervise a group of six to eight campers. Training for the five-day camp session is provided. Full medical staff assistance on site. Variety of dates and age groups. campodayin.org TEEN ASSISTANT Assist TreeHouse with teens forming meaningful relationships, helping them realize their true value. Provide safe spaces to find support and belonging. Support groups, mentoring and fun activities provide the connections. Wide range of opportunities; 50 locations across 13 states. treehousehope.org FRONT DESK Rebuilding Together renovates and revitalizes homes to help homeowners regain a sense of pride in themselves and their community. Phones, correspondence, data entry, filing, greeting visitors and more. Minneapolis location. rebuildingtogether-twincities.org ARTS ASSISTANT Royal Guard Performing Arts has programs that combine the marching arts industry (marching band and color guard), music education and the performing arts. A variety of roles such as board and committee members, drivers, event coordinators, cooks, sewers and event management. royalguard.org ART FAIR The Eagan Art Festival is June 22-23. Assist with site preparation and setup Wednesday through Friday. On Saturday and Sunday, help with check-in, transport to booths, handing out brochures, awards ceremony and more. eaganartfestival.org Find more Thousands of volunteer opportunities are available in the Twin Cities for adults and youth, groups and families. Visit the HandsOn Twin Cities website at handsontwincities.org. Five years since Laurie Sigel first brought Free Mom Hugs to State College, the local LGBTQ+ advocacy group has grown to include hundreds of members who continue to leave an impact both within and beyond the borough. Its members often decked out in colorful Free Mom Hug T-shirts, pins displaying their pronouns and head-to-toe rainbow accessories show up and show out at community events all over central Pennsylvania. They were there when Altoona held its first Pride Parade in 2019 and two years later when State College followed suit with its own downtown celebration. They were there supporting students at Penn States 2021 Love is Louder counter-event, organized in response to a controversial, right-wing speaker bringing hate speech to campus. Theyve handed out pride flags on Memorial Day in Boalsburg, won first place at State Colleges annual tree decorating contest and even traveled 45 minutes to Huntingdon for events at Juniata College. Pride-related event or not, Free Mom Hugs State College group makes themselves known: always prepared to give out a kind word, homemade pompom in the colors of a specific pride flag or, as the name suggests, a well-needed hug. It spreads visibility to the community that gay people are to be celebrated, Sigel, 62, said. Not just tolerated. The local group will join in on the celebration Saturday at the fourth annual State College Pride. Festivities will kick off at 10 a.m. with the start of the parade, continue through the afternoon at the festival in Sidney Friedman Park and wrap up with after parties scattered throughout downtown. A full schedule of events can be found online. Yvette Willson, Rose Petrunyak, Laurie Sigel are part of Free Mom Hugs. What is Free Mom Hugs? Now a national nonprofit with chapters across all 50 states, Free Mom Hugs began in 2015 with just one mother: Oklahoma native and devout Christian Sara Cunningham. It blossomed from Cunninghams own journey to accept her son Parkers sexuality, a crisis of faith that gave way to the movements present mission of visibility, education and conversation. Cunninghams story mirrors that of Sigel, one of three state leaders for Free Mom Hugs Pennsylvania chapter and founder of the State College area group. The two women both mothers of boys, both raised evangelical met at annual conferences run by the Queer Christian Fellowship. Like Cunningham, Sigels son came out as gay when he was 18 years old. Though Sigel wishes she had responded differently in the moment, she said, the experience pushed her to research what the Bible really said about the queer community. She found that what some people interpreted as condemning the LGBTQ+ community actually addressed topics like sexual violence or idol worship. My thinking did a 180, Sigel said. I realized, Oh, my gosh, Ive been really wrong. And I realized that I needed to repair some of the harm that I had caused, as well as the church had caused. After joining Pennsylvanias chapter, Sigel decided to bring Free Mom Hugs to State College, where shes lived since 1984. The local group attended its first Pride event, Penn States annual HUB takeover, in 2019. Today, the group has grown to more than 400 members a diverse array of moms, dads, siblings, grandparents and allies of all sorts who offer their support either in person at events or from behind the scenes. Those who cant dole out physical hugs stay involved by making donations or putting together portable hugs, colorful yarn pompoms members hand out at events as a take-home reminder that someone loves them. Members of Free Mom Hugs make portable hug pompoms at the CentreLGBT+ center in downtown State College. Theres no one type of person who joins Free Mom Hugs. Some, like Sigel, were inspired by a loved ones coming out. Some members of State Colleges chapter had already been involved for some time when one of their kids came out as queer. Others, like Bellefonte native Rose Petrunyak, have children who arent part of the LGBTQ+ community but decided to join to do her part as an ally. Petrunyak, whos lived in State College for nine years working at Penn State World Campus, is now one of the local groups two co-leaders. Engaging with people through Free Mom Hugs is a rewarding experience, she said, and encourages her to have difficult conversations. Its made me a little more likely to challenge some things, Petrunyak, 53, said. Theres definitely people in my own life who when I tell them about this group sort of scoff in the sense of Oh, were making the world soft, when we know the world is the opposite of soft. The world can be a very unforgiving place. Recently, she found herself talking with someone who brought up the topic of individuals transitioning early, telling her that statistics show those who transition too young sometimes die by suicide. In response, Petrunyak said, she shared information that she knew was true: trans youth who arent accepted or allowed to transition have higher rates of attempted suicide. The goal of Free Mom Hugs isnt to confront those who might oppose the groups message. At some events, like Pride Festival of Central PA in Harrisburg, members of the Silent Witness Peacekeepers Alliance stand between Pride-goers and protesters with umbrellas. We always tell our volunteers to lead with love, Sigel said. Ignore the haters, and dont give them the fuel. Spreading love in State College The Free Mom Hugs chapter Sigel founded is one of about 10 across Pennsylvania, mostly existing in major cities like Philadelphia, Erie and Lancaster. But providing acceptance is especially valuable in a place like State College, which houses tens of thousands of young people each year. When Sigels son came out, she said, he confessed that he hadnt planned to tell his parents he was gay until after he graduated college. He worried his parents might kick him out or refuse to pay his tuition. Its a fear many queer college students have as they prepare to move into this next stage of their lives, said Yvette Willson, director of Penn States Gender Equity Center and one of two co-leaders of State Colleges Free Mom Hugs group. They cant be themselves, she said. They have this whole secret life that they cant share with their family. Willson, 58, has always been an ally, but this title took on new meaning when her daughter came out as bisexual her senior year of high school. A few years later, when she saw Sigel and other members of Free Mom Hugs marching past her building, she knew she had found her people. Theres a moment at almost every Pride event where someone will collapse in tears while receiving a free mom hug. The reasons vary a child unable to come out to their parents, a queer student whose mom has died or someone struggling with a completely different issue, like the death of a friend but Free Mom Hugs offers comfort all the same. In some cases, members have even been able to form lasting relationships with the young people they connect with at events. After being interviewed for Penn States multicultural media site The Underground by a student who had just come out to her mom as a lesbian, Sigel stayed in touch. When the student graduated two years later, she sent Sigel a note thanking her for being a part of her undergraduate career. The next generation Watching young people become more comfortable with being authentically queer has also been a joy, Petrunyak said. While tabling at Boalsburgs Memorial Day festivities, she was impressed by a preteen who was able to easily identify the colors of every single pride flag. They were very in touch, Petrunyak said. They said Im an expert, and Im competent. Ill help you. It was really cool. Free Mom Hugs State College area group tables at the Memorial Day event in Boalsburg. Even children who dont necessarily have an understanding of the LGBTQ+ community are invited to help uplift those who might be struggling with their sexuality. At downtown State Colleges annual Fall Festival, one activity asks children to write positive messages on tags attached to portable hugs. Kids as young as 3 years old are able to come up with kind words like you are loved or you matter, Willson said, making the keepsakes even more special when handed out at later Pride events. But one event that sticks out the most, Willson said, is the National Coming Out Day celebration held in Penns Valley. Starting in 2021, when the event was first held, students have expressed support for their school districts diversity club, a group that has received pushback from some Penns Valley parents and residents. Middle and high school students stepping up to the microphone and advocating for the importance of visibility is an empowering sight, Willson said. Theres people everywhere all over our communities, all over the world and thats why we do this, she said. Because you dont want anyone to ever feel like they are alone, that they dont have a choice, that they dont matter. Delicious chicken dishes come in many forms worldwide -- from a perfect batch of Southern-style spicy buttermilk fried chicken to a succulent plate of Hainanese Chicken Rice. There's a special allure to a perfectly roasted bird, with an aromatic exterior skin, and a juicy interior. An especially delicious take on the style comes by way of Peru. Called pollo a la brasa, this national favorite marinates chicken in a wide-ranging mix of herbs, spices, and peppers, before roasting on a rotating spit over charcoal. The skin turns crispy and fragrant, while the flesh stays tender, absorbing all the flavors of the marinade. The precise composition of flavorings is kept secret, with distinct styles among restaurants. Some keep it more straightforward, integrating a mild seasoning to showcase the chicken. Others lean into bolder Asian influences or vibrant Latin American style seasonings. This enigmatic variability -- as well as an often accessible price -- makes it one of the country's most popular domestic dishes and widely enjoyed culinary exports. Diners choose between leg or breast pieces and then accompany the chicken with fries. A selection of sauces ranging from mayo or ketchup to homemade, pepper and herb-based Peruvian aji verde are served alongside. And there's frequently a hot sauce -- simply called aji -- as well. It's a flavorful yet casual array of components that creates an unforgettable roast chicken meal. Read more: 12 Different Ways To Cook Chicken Pollo A La Brasa Combines A Secretive Mix Of Spices To Form An Aromatic Marinade pollo a la brasa with fries and sauces - BlkG/Shutterstock Nowadays, rotisserie chicken is one of Peru's most ubiquitous dishes. It's served out of casual restaurants called pollerias, with families often stopping by for a takeout meal. Despite its widespread nature, pollo a la brasa is a relatively modern creation. Many accredit Swiss immigrant Roger Schuler for its popularity after he started a chicken restaurant called La Granja Azul in the 1950s. An owner of a chicken farm near Lima, he aimed to sell birds with a quick turnaround, so he prepared them on a spit over coals and sold them at an all-you-can-eat price. The concept took hold and roasted chicken shops started sprouting around the city. Schuler seasoned his early creations with a salt-based marinade, but other chefs started integrating more Peruvian flavors. The marinades evolved into an expansive array of blends, showcasing Peru's wide-ranging field of influences. Nowadays, they can contain different types of Peruvian peppers like aji amarillo and aji panca, more European influences like paprika, oregano, cumin, and garlic, as well as vinegar, soy sauce, and ground bean sauce. Plus, chefs prepare the chicken with different roasting methods, employing unique coals and roasting times, which invokes distinct smoky flavors. Such a selection enables an expansive possibility of flavors, with every polleria crafting their own secretive spin on the dish. It makes pollo a la brasa enthralling to sample, with a magical quality when the marinade and heat mix just right. Read the original article on Tasting Table WYOMING, Mich. (WOOD) A new restaurant is in the works near The Village at the University of Michigan Health-West in Wyoming. Palominos is planned for 5980 Metro Way off of Byron Center Avenue, near the southwest corner of the University of Michigan Health-West Campus. Its a project from the owners of nearby Little Mexico. This (hospital) campus is built with a high level of excellency, said Brian Halblaub, the owner of CBH Building & Development, which is working on the project. They (the Little Mexico owners) just wanted to expand their business and they felt like continuing in the city (of) Wyoming was a great place to do it. A Palominos site plan from planning documents, planned for 5980 Metro Way off of Byron Center Avenue in Wyoming. Palominos will offer Mexican cuisine for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Halblaub said the project team expects that will attract customers from the hospital and a nearby hotel. The two-story restaurant will have space on the second floor for smaller special events. The second floor will also have a space that overlooks the bar below. There will also be an indoor-outdoor covered patio with a fireplace and an uncovered patio for the spring and summer months. A rendering of Palominos. (Courtesy CBH Building & Development) A rendering of Palominos. (Courtesy CBH Building & Development) I think its going to be a pretty versatile space, Halblaub said. (It will) hopefully be really comfortable and a welcoming environment. The team has gotten approval from the city for the project. The design process is done, and theyre working on the final steps before construction can start. Halblaub expects ground could be broken on the project in the next 90 days. The goal is to have the doors open by early next year. The future site of Palominos in Wyoming. (June 7, 2024) Phase two of the project will add a 1,500 square-foot event center. Its pretty busy around here, so having additional services and also parking I think is going to be a really good benefit to the area, to just continue to help supply the need in this area, Halblaub said. Its busy, its hopping. This embedded content is not available in your region. CBH Building & Development worked on the nearby Bayberry Market, which Little Mexico is located in. He said the restaurateurs approached his team to work on this new project with them. Were super excited and feel very blessed and privileged to be able to be part of helping to build their business, he said. Thats the American dream. So when you can see the business is growing, the city is partnering with them to help them get into this location, the financial institutions, it really takes a team. And so I think at the end of the day, thats what its all about, is just trying to grow small businesses to service the community. So I think thats a win-win all the way around. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com. In the past couple of decades, waves of new development have swept along major roads south of Austin's Lady Bird Lake, transforming areas like South Congress Avenue, South First Street and South Lamar Boulevard. All the new projects have changed those thoroughfares into lively destinations bustling with crowds of local residents and tourists enjoying the evolving array of dining, shopping, music and other venues. As development pushes south, next up is the St. Elmo area, a stretch off South Congress Avenue just south of Ben White Boulevard, a short drive from downtown. Dubbed the St. Elmo Arts District by developers, the industrial area continues evolving into an up-and-coming scene of its own with new housing, retail, food and entertainment options springing up. While not yet the destination draw of the more popular stretch of South Congress between West Riverside Drive and Oltorf Street, some real estate observers say Austinites might not recognize the St. Elmo area in the next few years as it morphs into a hotbed for new development. Some real estate observers say Austinites may not recognize the St. Elmo area in the next few years as it morphs into a hotbed of new development. Bounded by South Congress Avenue, St. Elmo Road, Industrial Boulevard and Interstate 35, the area still retains some of its industrial flavor. However, it is rapidly gentrifying, with a growing number of apartments and condominiums, brewpubs, food trucks, startups, pickleball courts and more now in the mix. More: Condos, hotel included in project planned for South Austin's St. Elmo area Colorful murals bring new life to many of the warehouses in the St. Elmo Arts District, capturing Austin's creative vibe, artistic bent and entrepreneurial spirit. Employers like Tesla whose St. Elmo sales and service location draws customers from nearby cities including San Marcos, Buda and Kyle and ICON, a startup that builds 3D-printed housing, are among the high-profile tenants. And several thousand people live in the St. Elmo Arts District, with more on the way in new housing that is under construction or planned. "The St. Elmo Arts District is one of the most dynamic pockets of development in all of Texas right now," said Brad Stein, president of Intracorp Texas. Intracorp is building and selling the Congress Lofts, a 148-unit condominium project that includes eight live/work units and retail space, in the heart of the St. Elmo District. The condos are being marketed and sold by Douglas Elliman Development Marketing. The Yard, the St. Elmo Arts District's flagship development, occupies 200,000 square feet. "I believe it is positioned to become like Wynwood in Miami or the Los Angeles Arts District, which both started as industrial districts and have since transformed into premier destinations for art, lifestyle and innovation," Stein said. More: The changing face of South First Street The St. Elmo District spans more than 275 acres, an area equating to more than 60% of downtown. According to Austin-based Aquila Commercial, almost 3,000 apartment and condo units and about 225,000 square feet of commercial space have opened since 2016. An additional 2,500 or so housing units are under construction or planned in the next few years. The St. Elmo Arts District offers more affordable housing options when compared with downtown, while still being close to the central business district and major roads and highways, real estate agents say. More: Major changes could be coming near Lady Bird Lake south of downtown. Here's a preview What are some of the projects taking shape? In addition to the Congress Lofts at St. Elmo, other developments in the St. Elmo Arts District include: The Yard the district's flagship development occupies 200,000 square feet of space that has opened since 2016 in renovated warehouses and is home to mostly local commercial and retail tenants. They include St. Elmo Brewing Co., Spokesman Coffee, Still Austin Whiskey, ICON, Saronic Technologies and Padel Club Austin. Veloway Threads, the local commercial real estate ownership group behind the Yard, plans 1.75 million square feet of industrial mixed-use space. A Tesla showroom in the Yard draws customers from nearby cities. "Our goal is to create a diverse and inclusive space that offers something for everyone and reminds people of why they fell in love with Austin," said Priscilla Sauceda, Veloway Threads vice president of operations and community. Over the next two to three years, she said, "our goal is to make all of the St. Elmo Arts District feel like the Yard does today. That includes curating a community with more restaurant and retail tenants, pedestrian-friendly pathways, sustainable landscaping and vibrant art that ties it together to match the look and feel of Austin." United Properties of Minnesota is building a 274-unit apartment complex called Bishop Momo, which is due to start leasing soon. More: More apartments headed to Austin's St. Elmo District, south of downtown Redcar Properties of Los Angeles has purchased a 5.5-acre strip mall, known as the X-Change Center, in the district. Redcar plans to develop the storefronts into smaller spaces for office, restaurant and retail uses. Leifer Properties recently submitted a zoning request with the city as part of a proposed mixed-use development that could add 1,000 apartments, retail and office space to the district, in buildings of 18 to 20 stories tall. The city plans to develop the Bergstrom Spur Trail, a 6.5-mile bike trail that would connect the St. Elmo Arts District to East Riverside Drive and U.S. 183 in Southeast Austin, along with other parks, neighborhoods and destinations. If all goes as planned, the trail would become a route to walk or bike to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The 148-unit Congress Lofts at St. Elmo is shown under construction last month. What else is underway? Intracorp Texas' Congress Lofts at St. Elmo will have 140 condominiums priced from $400,000 to $700,000. So far, 70% of the units have been spoken for. Units will range from studios to two bedrooms, with the smallest unit about 521 square feet and the largest 1,224 square feet. The project is due to wrap up construction in September or October. Stein said that, with prices in the $600-per-square-foot range, units will be more moderately priced than downtown housing, where prices can run in the $1,100-per-square-foot range Ten percent of the units will be set aside at below-market rates. There also will be eight live/work units priced from $699,000 to $899,000. More: Demand for housing isn't going anywhere; See condo plans for Austin's evolving St. Elmo area Colorful murals bring new life to many of the renovated warehouses in the St. Elmo Arts District. A property formerly planned for a food hall has been purchased by New York-based real estate development firm SomeraRoad. Formerly a bus terminal, the property at 4329 S. Congress Ave. is fully leased with its first tenants, which will bring duckpin bowling by Pins Mechanical Co. plus a bar and arcade to the St. Elmo Arts District, with a projected opening this year. Brock Kenyon, SomeraRoad vice president and head of the firm's Austin office, told the American-Statesman this year: We are firm believers in Austin and its continued economic growth. Weve turned over a lot of stones looking for the right project in the right neighborhood. The St. Elmo Public Market has incredible potential, and were excited to drive a new chapter for this project with Pins Mechanical." More: Food hall no more: St. Elmo Public Market on South Congress sold, has redevelopment plans Coming in mid-July will be Ants Beer Cave. Owner Anthony Capanna said his bottle shop will feature "a treasure trove of over 250 beverages, from rare finds to beloved classics." The beverages will include wine, energy drinks, juice, coffee, seltzers, ciders, sours, cocktails, soda, hard tea, ranch water, kombucha, beer and more. There also will be 16 draft options. Along with Austin beers, Capanna said he will have beers from across Texas and the world. "We will have a hefe from one of the oldest breweries in the world, Weihenstephaner," Capanna said. Ants Beer Cave also will have two pickleball courts and multiple TV screens. In addition, Ants Beer Cave will expand the culinary offerings in the Yard with its two locally owned food trailers: the Pizza Den and an East Coast-inspired delicatessen. More: As South Congress redevelops, will the funky survive? More: Billion-dollar remake of Brodie Oaks retail center site moves closer to reality Capanna said he is excited to be part of the St. Elmo district. "With all the new residences being built, I see this area blossoming into not just a great place to grab a drink, but into one of Austin's best spots to spend an entire day," he said. Hari Vasudevan, a 33-year-old musician in a band called the Green Knights, enjoys hanging out in the St. Elmo Arts District. 'All the pieces are here' Two of the longest tenants in the Yard section of the district are St. Elmo Brewing Co., which opened in 2016, and Spokesman, which serves craft coffee, wine, draft beer and food. On a recent weekday, Austin musician Hari Vasudevan, 33, worked at an outside table at Spokesman. Vasudevan, who lives in a nearby townhome and is a member of the band called the Green Knights, likes the vibe of the St. Elmo District. While it's still a work in progress, he said, it has all the right stuff to take its place in the ranks of Austin hangouts known for their "pub culture." "There's not enough foot traffic, but there will be," said Vasudevan, who is from Tamil Nadu, India, and has lived in Austin 10 years. "It's not quite there yet, but all the pieces are here." Scott Schneider and his wife, Debbie, enjoy stopping in for a handcrafted beer at the St. Elmo Brewing Co. Scott Schneider, who lives in a condominium in downtown Austin with his wife, Debbie, enjoy stopping in at the St. Elmo Brewing Co. for a beer and grabbing a bite at the food trucks outside. "We try to hit all the breweries in Austin," Schneider said, as he, Debbie and their Yorkie, Indy, stopped in at St. Elmo Brewing Co. recently. As the St. Elmo District's popularity grows, the Schneiders said, it can sometimes be difficult to find a parking spot on weekends. Wendell England is another regular at St. Elmo Brewing. England, who is in his 50s, lives less than a mile away and has been walking to the brewery since it opened in 2016. Colorful murals bring new life to many of the renovated warehouses like this one in the Yard, the flagship development in the St. Elmo Arts District in South Austin. The murals capture Austin's creative vibe, artistic bent and entrepreneurial spirit. He said the area was mostly industrial when he bought his home in 2015 in the nearby Battle Bend Springs neighborhood, but he knew the area was primed to appreciate in value as more people moved in. England said he bought his three-bedroom home for $290,000, and that he probably could get double that $600,000 if he were to sell today. "This is going to be like the next 78704," he said of the ZIP code south of downtown that includes the desirable Travis Heights neighborhood. Wendell England is a regular at St. Elmo Brewing Co., in part of the St. Elmo Arts District known as the Yard. England lives nearby and has been walking to the locally owned brewery since it opened in 2016. As for St. Elmo Brewing, he counts it among the "great breweries" in Austin and in Texas, which he said rival some he has visited in Colorado and California. England even bought a $250 membership, entitling him to one free beer every time he steps in the door. He said it only took him 37 trips to break even on his membership. "It's locally owned," England said of the brewery, where he often meets up with friends he has made there. "It's like family here." This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: St. Elmo area in South Austin transitioning into its own district My old friend, Dr. Lance Maki, died in a surfing accident a few years ago at the age of 71, doing what he loved. The well-respected doctor and former fighter pilot surfed all over the world and even started tandem surfing in his 60s. It wasn't his world travels, surfing exploits or even his friendship with the original "Gidget" that I'll always remember. No, it was something he told me about sharks. I asked him if he was afraid of sharks while surfing. He scoffed and said "in California the sharks eat people. In Florida? They're just like nasty dog bites." That bit of reassurance was not quite enough to get me to try paddle boarding or surfing despite his desire to teach me. I don't want to get eaten but I certainly don't want a "nasty dog bite" either. Sharks. We love them, we fear them, we respect them and we may even hate them. They are beautiful, scary, prehistoric, misunderstood, toothy, hunted and the apex predator. Video shows sandbar sharks attacking fishing charter boat motor off Cocoa Beach The much-maligned, perfect eating machines will be the subject of a weeklong series of stories here at FLORIDA TODAY during when else Shark Week, July 7-14. And, I would love your help. Email me your shark stories and locally taken pictures and videos. Don't forget to include your name and where your shark encounter took place so I can give you credit. Why do this project? Well, other than the obvious fact that sharks are pretty friggin cool, our state leads the nation annually in the number of unprovoked shark bites. And while Volusia County just to our north has the title of "Shark Bite Capital of the World," the Space Coast has seen its share of incidents over the years. There were two confirmed "unprovoked" shark attacks last year in Brevard County and there have been 158 since records started getting kept in 1882 and, alas, Florida has seen some fatal shark attacks over the years. Still chances are nothing will happen to you as you cool off in the surf during the next few months. But there are some who never venture into the waters for that fear alone. I do remember one instance about 15 years ago when a bunch of kids fishing in the surf near Indialantic caught a Spanish Mackerel. One of the teens said, "leave it on the hook, they make great shark bait." I was playing with my kids on the sand when suddenly a 5-foot shark started thrashing in the shallow waters maybe four feet from the shore line. That shark appeared no more than 30 seconds after the mackerel was caught! I probably spent more time in my pool that summer than I ever had before. Now, the recent news that a massive (14-foot, 1,700-pound) tagged Great White shark recently pinged off our coastline might be a bit disconcerting to some. But before you decide to forego the ocean for fear of sharks, consider this: only two of the 14 world-wide shark-related deaths in 2023 were in the U.S., and they occurred in Hawaii and California. Compare that to the fact that more than 100 people worldwide were killed by tigers in 2022 and going for that swim should be a no-brainer. And while nearly 500 people globally were killed by tigers between 2014 and 2022, roughly 4,000 lost their lives in elephant attacks during about the same period. During our weeklong shark event, we'll let you know what kinds of sharks inhabit our waters, what they eat, how to avoid an encounter, and what to do if you're bit. But we'll also be looking at what sharks are teaching us about cancer research and tumors and even boat designs. More: Melbourne Beach neighborhood has conflict with shark fishermen More: 2nd massive great white shark in 2 days pings off Space Coast ahead of Delta IV Heavy launch We'll consider at other potentially dangerous marine life in our waters (I had a Portuguese man-o-war jellyfish scar on my leg for years before it finally faded) and maybe even have some fun talking with local chefs on how best to prepare a shark dinner. Lastly, and maybe most important, we'll also be looking at conservation efforts and what overfishing has done to the shark populations. They are overfished in many Asian countries solely for their fins, which are said to help with sexual potency. I guess Viagra hasn't made much of an impact there. A college professor in an ecology class once explained to me why we should selfishly care about sharks. He said overfishing of sharks will result in higher prices for shrimp. He explained in simplified terms that sharks eat the fish that eat the shrimp. Take sharks out of that equation and no more shrimp cocktail. We hope you'll check back often to floridatoday.com and don't forget to send your stories, photos and videos to jtorres@floridatoday.com and please write shark in the subject line. Happy swimming! Contact Torres at jtorres@floridatoday.com. You can follow him on X @johnalbertorres or on Facebook at facebook.com/FTjohntorres. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Shark Week in Brevard, Florida: Share stories of bites, encounters BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. The COP29 Azerbaijan Operating Company hosted presentation on the preparations for the COP29 on the sidelines of the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in the German city of Bonn, Trend reports. The presentation featured information on logistics, visa procedures, accommodation, as well as Blue and Green zones. In his opening remarks, Azerbaijans Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, COP29 President-Designate Mukhtar Babayev highlighted Azerbaijans ongoing rapid preparation process for the upcoming COP29 Conference, adding that the COP29 Operating Company reached significant progress in this regard and Baku would be ready to host this prestigious event. He also highlighted the historical responsibility assumed by Azerbaijan and the countrys intention to make a unique contribution to the climate diplomacy, noting that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declared the year 2024 as the Green World Solidarity Year in the country. Chair of the COP29 Operating Company and Chief Operating Officer Narmin Jarchalova provided insight into the logistics and operating processes, including the specially designed electronic visa system and construction of necessary facilities. The presentation also featured a Q&A session. Stay up-to-date with more news at Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel I took my kids to London. Restaurants there were happy to accommodate all their food allergies. I took my kids to London. Restaurants there were happy to accommodate all their food allergies. Our family traveled to London, apprehensive of how the kids would eat there with food allergies. We were pleasantly surprised by the precautions that London restaurants take more than in the US. London is an ideal destination for food allergy families, and we can't wait to visit again. As a parent of kids with food allergies, traveling can be stressful. I worry about what they will eat and whether they will be safe when we are outside the comfort of our home. We typically avoid restaurants. Relying on staff about allergens can be terrifying, especially when they are misinformed. Yet, I love to travel and share that passion with them. I wanted to show them that we can have amazing adventures, despite our food allergies. So I booked our family flights to London and prepared as much as I could. I quickly realized London restaurants are more accommodating Armed with EpiPens and a suitcase full of foods free of the top eight allergens, we were off on our first London adventure. When we arrived at our hotel in London's West End, I quickly scanned the area for grocery stores and discovered that there were none. The kids wanted hot food, so we went on a quest to find a good meal. We discovered a traditional UK pub nearby. I hoped we could find at least one safe food they could eat. I was surprised as to what happened next. As soon as we sat down, the waiter greeted us. The first question he asked was, "Do you have any food allergies?" In my experience in the US, servers rarely initiate conversations about food allergies. When we ask, they often respond annoyed. Delighted that I didn't have to initiate this discussion, I listed their many allergies. He pointed out the separate fryers and work spaces to avoid cross-contamination. He brought out an iPad with an app that listed the allergens for every item on the menu. We typed in our food allergies, and the app told us the foods my kids could eat. We were thrilled, and the kids devoured their meals safely and without worry. Could eating at a London restaurant with food allergies be this easy? It was too good to be true! I figured this was a fluke, so we went to another place. They took the same precautions, provided me with an allergen menu, and did their due diligence to avoid cross-contamination. My kids never ate so safely and so well as they did in London My kids have never eaten so well and safely as they did while on vacation in London. London is an ideal international destination for food allergy families. Curious as to why we were having such a different experience in London than in the US, I researched. There are more food allergy regulations in the UK than in the US. In the UK, Natasha's Law protects people with food allergies who rely on ingredient transparency. Restaurants must provide allergen information in writing. There is no US federal regulation requiring allergen disclosure in restaurants. In the UK, restaurants are required to list 14 common allergens on food labels, while in the US, they list nine. In the UK, servers ask their customers about food allergies, while in the US, the customers ask. Traveling with kids brings unexpected surprises, sometimes good and sometimes bad. In our case, we unexpectedly ate like royalty. We will visit London again with hungry stomachs and a newly gained sense of safety. Read the original article on Business Insider Travelers Rest among 15 best US small towns for a summer vacation. What other towns made the list? Greenville has soaked up much national attention as of late, with mentions in Southern Living and USA TODAY Homefront. Now, Travel + Leisure is making room for another Upstate town to shine. On Wednesday, June 5, the city of Travelers Rest announced the town's recognition from the magazine, where it was among 15 best U.S. small towns to spend a summer vacation in. This is an amazing accolade that solidifies, what we who live and love TR already know. said Mayor Brandy Amidon. We are honored to receive this recognition embodying the very roots of our community. Our name literally says it all! Travelers Rest is a place to pause, rest, reset and enjoy a true small-town community. The City of Travelers Rest has worked through visionary leadership and public and private investments to retain our home-town values while welcoming travelers from far and wide to visit our local shops, restaurants, and natural amenities. What did the magazine say about Travelers Rest? And if you live in the Upstate, what other small towns are worth packing up and traveling to? Here's what to know. Travelers Rest is one of SC's 'most idyllic' small towns Travel + Leisure believes Travelers Rest lives up to its name. For over three centuries, the town has served as a rest stop over the Blue Ridge Mountains, said the magazine. The town is described as "one of the most idyllic small towns in South Carolina," now home to an estimated 8,400 residents. Those looking to escape from the city life will appreciate the mountain backdrop that comes along with Travelers Rest's scenic landscapes. To take in more of the area's upcountry beauty, visitors can picnic at Trailblazer Park, known for its lush greenery and hilltop views. Visitors of Caesars Head State Park take a selfie on the overlook as the leaves begin to change in the Blue Ridge Mountains on Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2023. What is there to do in TR during summer vacation? When dining in this small-town haven, Travel + Leisure recommends paying a visit to popular restaurants Monkey Wrench Smokehouse, Tandem Creperie & Coffeehouse, and Top Soil. Picking a place to rest your head for the night will depend on what you find comforting. Those who prefer breakfast in bed and European-style decor can lodge at the Swamp Rabbit Inn TR. If you are looking for a bang for your buck, Hotel Domestique just might settle the score. At the boutique style hotel, you can plan the perfect romantic getaway with amenities like champagne, chocolate covered strawberries, and a hot tub. And if you have room in the back of your car, bring your bike along for the trip Travelers Rest is part of Greenville County's Swamp Rabbit Trail, which can be accessed from both lodging options (at the Swamp Rabbit Inn TR, you can rent bikes on site). Kaitlyn + Vince Kaitlyn + VinceKaitlyn + Vince -- The Cliffs at Glassy Chapel and Hotel Domestique, August 13, 2022 15 best U.S. small towns for a summer vacation, according to Travel + Leisure Narrowsburg, New York Buckeye, Ohio Addison, Texas Adairsville, Georgia Coronado, California Travelers Rest, South Carolina Bardstown, Kentucky Abilene, Kansas St. Michaels, Maryland Dewey Beach, Delaware Sheridan, Wyoming Hermann, Missouri New Paltz, New York Bretton Woods, New Hampshire McCall, Idaho Nina Tran covers trending topics for The Greenville News. Reach her via email at ntran@gannett.com This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Travelers Rest a top small-town vacation destination: Travel + Leisure Two icons of 19th century San Diego that historians believe may have been gay Above: A Nexstar video on the history of Pride Month. SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) San Diegos LGBTQ+ community has an incredibly rich and dynamic history one that stretches back as far as the city has been around. Most San Diegans probably have a passing knowledge about some of the citys LGBTQ+ hotspots, like Hillcrests Gayborhood. However, most may not know that a few of San Diegos most influential residents over a century ago people who shaped parts of the city itself are also believed to have been some of the first members of the local LGBTQ+ community. First-ever Pride-themed wrap for MTS bus debuts in San Diego Kate Sessions Trailblazing horticulturalist Kate Sessions was instrumental in shaping the then-infant San Diego during the late 19th and early 20th century. Residents might know her as the Mother of Balboa Park or from her namesake park overlooking Mission Bay at the base of Mount Soledad. Kate Sessions pictured in this undated image. (City of San Diego Digital Archives/Office of the City Clerk) Born in 1857 in Oakland, Sessions moved south to San Diego in 1884, where she founded several plant nurseries and flower shops. In doing so, she committed herself to planting trees and other fauna across the city, creating a number of its present-day green spaces. What San Diegans might not know about Sessions, however, is that historians consider her one of the earliest representatives of the citys burgeoning LGBTQ+ community. According to city historians, little is known about San Diegos queer community before the 20th century, given societal conventions and laws criminalizing activities associated with same-sex relationships that forced them to keep their personal lives largely behind closed doors. Sessions also lived during a time when the concept of homosexuality and heterosexuality were still unused descriptors for sexual desire: Both terms were coined by Hungarian journalist Karl Maria Kertbeny in the late 1860s, yet they did not gain more widespread use take on their current meanings until well into the 20th century. As many people who would be considered members of the modern LGBTQ+ community lived their most authentic lives secretly, historians looking to shed light on their stories often turn to other narratives about how people at the time understood same-sex relationships. This includes the concept of romantic friendships, or close friendships between two members of the same gender that are often ambiguous in nature. Sessions had such a friendship, according to local historians. Pride by the Beach kicks off Pride Month in San Diego County The horticulturalist, who never married, is known to have maintained a very intimate, lifelong friendship with botanist Alice Eastwood. Our friendship developed through flowers our children, which I am growing and you are naming, Sessions said of her relationship with Eastwood, according to the Lambda Archives, a local history center collecting artifacts about San Diegos LGBTQ+ community. However, historians note that whether this affection translated into a physical relationship between the two will likely never be known. Jesse Shepard Performer Jesse Shepard is likely a less familiar name to San Diegans compared to Sessions, but he similarly left a lasting impression namely in the Sherman Heights neighborhood where his house still stands as one of the most well-preserved Victorian homes in the city. Born in England in 1848, Shepard was an eccentric pianist, particularly acclaimed amidst circles of titled or wealthy Europeans. He also wrote a book, The Valley of Shadows, under the pen name Francis Grierson, which is now considered to be an American classic. Shepard lived in San Diego for a very brief time, only about three years, in the late 1880s. He built Villa Montezuma to be his place of residence after being invited to move to the area by local investment bankers, who sought to boost intrigue in the new city for prospective residents. The elegant Queen Anne-style home became an impressive backdrop for a Shepard to hold a number of salon receptions where he performed, hosting celebrities from then-California Governor Robert Waterman to Civil War hero General Benjamin Grierson, his cousin. 1964 photograph of Villa Montezuma in Sherman Heights. (Photo from Survey HABS CA-432/Library of Congress) San Diego Pride announces new additions to festival line-up However, Shepard sold the home in 1889 amid largely self-inflicted financial difficulties, coinciding with the abrupt collapse of San Diegos real estate market when promises of the railroads arrival in the city did not materialize. It now serves as a city-owned museum. During his brief tenure in San Diego, the musician lived in Villa Montezuma along with his secretary and likely romantic companion, Lawrence W. Tonner. Tonner was 15 years Shepards junior, but was described as a devoted consort by historians in a 1987 article in the Journal of San Diego History. He lived with the musician even after leaving San Diego, up until his death in 1927 while playing piano at a recital in their home. Similarly with Sessions, not much more about Shepard and Tonners relationship is known beyond the affection inferred by historians from statements about their 40 years living together. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. Noma, the three-Michelin-Starred restaurant in Copenhagen, launched Noma Projects in 2022 to bring Noma flavors and products out of Denmark, and make them more accessible to the rest of the world. The fine dining restaurant, which is known for its focus on wild local ingredients through foraging and an eye to seasonality, was awarded the honor of Worlds Best Restaurant by the Worlds 50 Best Restaurants Awards in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2021. Earlier this spring, Noma Projects took its efforts across the Atlantic, embarking on a weeklong tour of New York City through a series of pop-up events, ranging from book signings to cooking at the Union Square Greenmarket. Among those tour events: a school lunch takeover, closed to the public, in which DREAM Charter School students in grades K-8 were offered sandwiches and yogurt parfaits made using Noma Projects Pumpkin Seed Praline. The DREAM Charter event on April 19 was facilitated by Brigaid, a company founded by Dan Giusti, formerly Nomas head chef, that places professional chefs in public foodsystems like schools, senior organizations and prisons. Through three back-to-back lunch services last month, the Noma Projects team experienced first-hand the challenges and joys of ensuring students are provided a nutritious, delicious lunch every day. Watch how this unprecedented service went for a team from the worlds best restaurant as they faced their toughest critics schoolchildren. Graduating seniors from Bethel School District donned caps and gowns this week as they strode through the halls of buildings they attended years ago. The Bethel School District Grad Walk is a longtime tradition for the district, bringing Willamette High and Kalapuya High graduates back to their roots to be cheered on by former elementary and middle school teachers and young students. Thursday morning's walk started at Willamette High where Principal Dan Hedberg rallied students together and congratulated them on their achievements. "Grad Walk is an opportunity to showcase the accomplishments of all of our students; they've taken really unique and amazing journeys to get to graduation," Hedberg said. "This is one of those shared experiences that allows them to go back to the schools that they attended growing up, and see many of the teachers and other staff members to support them along the way." Willamette High School graduate Juan Padilla, center, gives his sister Lupita Padilla, 10, a hug as he and fellow graduates celebrate their achievement with students at Prairie Mountain School on June 6. The graduates loaded up on buses and made their first stop at Prairie Mountain School. The seniors visited nine schools in total on their district-wide tour. Kids lined the halls of Prairie Mountain, some waving signs, others reaching out to give high-fives. The walks each last about 10 minutes, with the graduates making their way through the hallways in rows of two. While the Grad Walk is really about the graduating seniors and their journey coming full circle, it also has benefits for younger students and staff. Hedberg said it has become a tradition that teachers look forward to all year. "They remember the second-grade version of the graduates, and to see them as the adult version, as graduates, is inspiring for them," Hedberg said. "It gives them a sense of seeing the product of their work moving forward." Hedberg said it also serves as an opportunity for younger students to start thinking about high school, ask questions and look toward their future education. Approximately 310 students were scheduled to graduate from Willamette High and Kalapuya High Friday in a joint ceremony. A chance to look back Amy Weyand, a graduating senior from WHS, was at the head of the brigade, playing the bass drum as the class toured through the schools. Weyand has been in Bethel since she was in first grade. She remembered watching the Grad Walk herself all those years ago, sitting along the sides of the hallways of Meadow View School and looking up at the graduating seniors. On Thursday, she was looking forward to seeing some of her former teachers. Willamette and Kalapuya graduates celebrate their achievement with students at Prairie Mountain School on June 6. After graduation, Weyand is heading to Boston Conservatory at Berklee, a private performing arts school, for percussion. At WHS, Weyand participated in jazz and wind bands and has been practicing music since she was in sixth grade. She said she's excited to dive into studying music. "Music conservatory, it almost functions like a trade school where it's not like a normal university," Weyand said. "I don't have core classes, just music classes. So it feels kind of odd, taking a math class (senior year) knowing you're never going to take math again." Before this school year, Weyand had never been to the East Coast but has since traveled to tour the school and auditioned for the conservatory. "I'm sure it's gonna be a bit of a culture shock," Weyand said. "It's honestly kind of similar to like Portland and San Francisco, but the East Coast version." Weyand said she had fond memories of her time at WHS, especially all her music-related endeavors. She mentioned a chamber music concert, which she helped organize, emcee and play in. Weyand said high schools normally don't have chamber concerts, which are typically smaller groups and solo performances, so she was thankful to have those opportunities at WHS. A close-knit community Hector Uriarte-Mercado, a graduating senior at Kalapuya High, remembered the Grad Walks from when he was in elementary school. He said he at first he thought it was kind of funny but realized later that it was a "cool" tradition where teachers and students could reunite years later. Uriarte-Mercado said he has a lot of memories from his time at KHS. KHS is an alternative high school, with most of its students pulled from WHS after their freshman year to offer a non-traditional education. It's a tradition at Bethel to have both high schools share a graduation ceremony, as the two work together to support the students in the Bethel community. Uriarte-Mercado said he had a unique experience because of the smaller community. "(I'll remember) all the funny memories I've had with my friends," Uriarte-Mercado said. "Since Kalapuya is such a small school, I have all the close relationships I've been able to have with the teachers as well." Uriarte-Mercado said he plans to go into construction, hoping to one day start his own home construction business. Kalapuya High School graduate Haylee Berry, right, join fellow graduates during a walk through the halls of Prairie Mountain School on June 6. Starting toward the future Marisela Ventura Vazquez spent most of her childhood bouncing between different schools. She said she has moved 18 times between Washington and Oregon as her parents are migrant workers. While she spent some time in Bethel schools like Prairie Mountain, Malabon and Cascade, it wasn't until her junior year that she finally settled more permanently at WHS. After years of hard work, Ventura Vazquez will be attending the University of Notre Dame to study environmental engineering with a full-ride scholarship through the coveted QuestBridge Scholarship program. Ventura Vazquez will be the first person in her family to attend college. "It's still a very confusing feeling because I am also new to this, and my parents are very unaware," Ventura Vazquez said. "They didn't get to have an education." Ventura Vazquez said when she went to tour the Notre Dame campus in Indiana, it was her mom's first time outside the states of Oregon and Washington. She's grateful to be able to give her family new experiences like these. "There's this overwhelming joy that I have when that happens," Ventura Vazquez said. While in Indiana, Ventura Vazquez was able to meet up with students who received the same scholarship and she has already started making some connections. "It's kind of surreal ... already to have this (scholarship) experience and so seeing how others are processing that as well it's just very unexpected," Ventura Vazquez said. Ventura Vazquez gave out high-fives and waved at young students as she walked through Prairie Mountain. She said the Grad Walk is a great way to honor all graduates, not necessarily just those going to a four-year university. She said she's been learning about all the different paths her peers are pursuing after their high school careers have ended, and she's felt proud of her classmates. Willamette Principal Dan Hedberg leads Willamette and Kalapuya High School graduates as they parade through the halls of Prairie Mountain School on June 6. Hedberg shared the sentiment that all students are starting their life journeys. He himself is also following a new path, leaving WHS after 13 years at the school. Hedberg will be transitioning into the role of Bethel's director of teaching and learning for secondary education. Having helped found the Grad Walk tradition about a decade ago, Hedberg said it has been emotional to be a part of his last Grad Walk as principal. "It's been a really amazing and bittersweet experience for me," Hedberg said. "Every year it's amazing to see seniors that are 'very cool,' giving back to kids, and that, at heart, they are all just such gracious, giving young people. It's inspiring." Miranda Cyr reports on education for The Register-Guard. You can contact her at mcyr@registerguard.com or find her on Twitter @mirandabcyr. This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Willamette, Kalapuya high school grads tour former schools June 8 marks 1,000 days since the Taliban banned girls over the age of 12 from all schools in Afghanistan. The ban, issued just days after the group retook control over Afghanistan in 2021, has left hundreds of thousands of girls with little hope of a formal education. Human Rights Watch said in a statement marking the 1,000 days that Afghan society "will never fully recover" from the loss of so many future female professionals, especially in a country that was already struggling with low youth literacy rates. SOLA: Daring to educate Afghanistan's girls The United Nations accuses the Taliban of enforcing a "gender apartheid" with its draconian edicts, policies and system of institutionalized discrimination against women and girls, calling Afghanistan under the hard-line Islamists a "graveyard of buried hopes." A last, risky hope for education Despite the risks, however, many Afghan girls have refused to give up hope, and they've turned to unofficial schools hidden away from the eyes of the Taliban to continue getting an education. Their hope is that if the Taliban regime collapses or is forced through international pressure to relax its restrictions, their clandestine schooling will keep them apace with their international peers, and enable them to pass exams. Many of the unofficial underground schools in Afghanistan operate with limited resources of both supplies and educators. They get support from women's rights and education activists outside the country, who send monthly funding for textbooks and teachers' wages. The Pohana Fund is one of the many private groups that support the secret schools, mainly in the southern and eastern provinces of Afghanistan. The organization's founder, Wazhma Tokhi, who left Afghanistan and now lives in Europe, told CBS News the network of schools supported by her group has about 1,300 teenage girls as students. Sherin, whose real name CBS News is not using, teaches a class of teenage girls at a clandestine school supported by the Pohana Fund, in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, in early June 2024. / Credit: Obtained by CBS News "My aim in establishing these schools is to help girls continue their education, particularly those in remote and underdeveloped provinces, who are deprived of their basic rights to study beyond grade six," Tokhi told CBS News. Sherin, whose real name CBS News is not using due to the nature of her work in Afghanistan, is a rights activist and the sole teacher at one of Pohana's underground schools in the southern province of Helmand the ancestral home of the Taliban. She was a teacher before the Taliban's ban, and has continued her work clandestinely since. She told CBS News she's still teaching many of her former students, offering two sessions per day, each with 20 students, with financial assistance from the Pohana Fund. "Teaching 40 students in two sessions is challenging, but I'm committed to helping these girls who have endured a lot," Sherin told CBS News in a phone interview. "I do it for my students, who are under immense mental pressure, who have experienced severe mental health issues after the Taliban closed their schools." Her students range from the seventh grade to the 11th, and the subjects they study include some barred entirely under the new Taliban-approved curriculum, including for boys. According to students who spoke with CBS News, Sherin's classes are a last hope to escape the mental anguish of being denied an education. Some said continuing education was a way to avoid being married off by their families. "It is a risky choice to educate these girls, but I have chosen this path," Sherin said. "The Taliban will punish us if they discover this school, because I am teaching girls who are supposed to be at home, according to Taliban orders, and because I receive funding from abroad." Najiba, whose name CBS News has also changed, is 15 and would have been in ninth grade this year, if her school was still open. Instead, she attends Sherin's secret school, hoping and preparing for a brighter future, and refusing to give up on her dream of becoming a neurosurgeon. "When I heard the Taliban opened schools only for the boys in the 2024 academic year, I felt humiliated, because women are worthless in the eyes of the Taliban," she told CBS News on the phone. Inconsistent Taliban enforcement Most of Afghanistan's secret schools operate, at least ostensibly, as Islamic religious schools, or madrasas. The Taliban's regulation of madrasas, and even unsanctioned schools, varies significantly depending on the location and the local officials involved, according to teachers who spoke with CBS News from three different provinces. In some provinces, particularly in the traditional Taliban strongholds in the south and east, local authorities enforce a strict ban on girls' education. In other areas, however, there are unspoken understandings between local authorities and teachers. Teenage girls and their teacher Sherin are seen at a clandestine school supported by the Pohana Fund, in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, in early June 2024. / Credit: Obtained by CBS News Some teachers said they run schools from their homes made to look outwardly like religious schools, and some said they were even tipped off by local authorities of potential visits by auditors from the Taliban-run Ministry of Education. "The Taliban in our area know that we also teach school subjects," said one teacher in the capital, Kabul. "I can no longer hide this from them Somehow, they help us by giving us a heads-up before auditors visit." But the inconsistency, and the rapid punishment for anyone who dares to flout the Taliban's strict rules, mean many thousands of girls are still being denied basic rights. "Every additional day, more dreams die" Lima, 17, is a student at another one of Afghanistan's underground schools for girls. "I felt that I was deprived of my human rights just because I was a woman in Afghanistan," she told CBS News. "I wanted to be an independent woman and decide my future, but the Taliban took away those rights from us." She had to stop the conversation, overwhelmed by her emotions. While these young women are still finding ways to get around the Taliban's internationally condemned crackdown on their basic human rights, it's widely expected that Afghanistan will continue to see many of its educated and professional women flee for countries with more opportunities. "Afghanistan will never fully recover from these 1,000 days," Human Rights Watch's associate director for women's rights, Heather Barr, said in the group's statement. "The potential lost in this time the artists, doctors, poets, and engineers who will never get to lend their country their skills cannot be replaced. Every additional day, more dreams die." Pat Sajak takes final spin on "Wheel of Fortune" Polish general examines Putin threat to arm West's enemies Who will be Trump's 2024 VP pick? These are the contenders Dear Katie, Our 1.5 million family home burnt down in a catastrophic fire last February, so myself, my husband and our two daughters are currently residing with my parents. Needless to say, it has been an awful time for us. On the day of the fire we notified our insurers, Tesco Bank, about the incident and our intention to claim under our home insurance policy. We also explained that we were in the middle of substantial renovation work on the property, building an extension which was costing us a further 500,000. We had many calls with Tesco Bank as it investigated our claim over the following months. In April last year Tesco Bank told us that senior underwriting and senior claims management, who were aware of the building work, had recommended settlement of our claim. The paperwork was going to the chief executive for final approval, we were told. But eight working days later, Tesco Bank declined cover. It said that we should have told them that we were carrying out building work when we renewed our policy and, if we had told it, it would have voided our policy. As you can imagine we were completely devastated, and outraged. We made a Subject Access Request (SAR) and were able to find numerous internal documents in which Tesco say that they would have continued cover if we had let them know about our building works when they commenced in August 2022. The SAR also revealed the rude and disrespectful way in which staff were talking about us after lodging our claim, which felt like rubbing salt in the wound. At one point they were laughing over a photo of our burned down home saying things like I bet this has aged her a few years, and joking that it must have given me grey hair. At other points they questioned my intelligence, gossiped about how we were able to afford such an expensive house. It was all so unprofessional and disrespectful. We followed the proper channels and complained to Tesco Bank in July last year, setting out in detail all of the reasons why our claim ought to be covered. We received a final decision from Tesco in September maintaining its position to decline cover. However, at the same time it invited us to engage in an alternative dispute resolution process to reach a settlement. This culminated in a mediation but unfortunately, we were unable to reach a resolution. We have been without a home for almost 15 months now and do not seem to be getting anywhere with Tesco Bank. -Anon Dear reader, These exceptionally rude Tesco Bank staff have been wondering how you can afford such an expensive home. Even though it was absolutely none of their business, Ill happily lay it out for them here: you and your husband are both in your forties with successful careers, which youve forged through hard work, grit, and determination. Having slogged it out for over two decades, you pooled your resources to buy this fantastic 4,000sq ft arts-and-crafts-style period property, which you began to renovate into your dream forever home. This was a major achievement and you were, quite rightly, very proud of yourselves. The unexpected situation you have now found yourself in is absolutely devastating, and my heart goes out to you all. Never in a million years did you think that the fruits of your lifes work would end up being an uninsured, burned out wreck, with you all camped out at your parents. You are the first to admit that your biggest mistake in all this was not informing Tesco Bank about the building work before it commenced. Anyone undertaking structural work to their property must first inform their insurer, as it poses additional risks and therefore may affect their cover. Under ordinary circumstances your builders liability insurance might have covered the cost of the damage, but in a further stroke of bad luck this was never an option to explore, because it transpired it had none. One might have assumed you were up the creek without a paddle at this point, yet despite knowing you had failed to notify it about the builders, Tesco Bank appeared to assure you on multiple occasions that your insurance policy would still pay out. You feel you were strung along for weeks on end until your case was finally referred up to the highest level for approval. This was apparently necessary because your building work cost more than 500,000. It was then that the most senior people in the organisation who decided that had you informed it about the building work before it commenced, it would have refused to insure you because the building work was too expensive. And on that basis, it said, your policy was voided. However it invited you to mediation and presented you with an independent rebuild report estimating how much this would cost, and offered you a cash settlement based on this. You sought two builders quotes to rebuild the property which were four times Tescos independent estimate. Tesco Bank then increased its offer substantially, but it was still less than half of your builders quotes. I told Tesco Bank I thought the rebuild cost presented by its independent report was ridiculously low, and demanded to see it so I could scrutinise it. However, Tesco Bank refused to show me because you have signed a confidentiality agreement with it regarding the mediation. This unfortunately means Im unable to properly assess whether what youve been offered is fair. This is really frustrating for me because I think the handling of your case by Tesco Bank has been absolutely abysmal. You have been through the worst time of your life and instead of being supportive, Tesco Bank has strung you along with false hope, insulted you behind your back, and fobbed you off with an insultingly low compensation offer. At the end of the day Tescos decision seems to have come down to one thing: the fact that your building work cost slightly more than Tescos 500,000 threshold, including VAT. It strikes me that it could have shown a little leeway and chosen not to include VAT in its cost calculation. Instead it has chosen to take a hard line, which devastatingly for you, is tough to argue with because you didnt notify it about the works. Im so very sorry that I havent been able to secure the level of compensation you were looking for here. If you choose to litigate as a next step, I wish you the very best of luck. Your story is a warning shot to anyone planning building work on their home to first inform their insurer. A Tesco Bank spokesman said: We sympathise with the customers and recognise the impact of this event on their lives and family. This is a highly complex case and were continuing to work hard to reach a resolution with our customers. Our customers have acknowledged they should have informed us of their planned building work. If the extent and value of this work had been disclosed we wouldnt have offered cover, and this is why the policy was later voided. Despite this, and given the circumstances of the case, weve made a significant cash settlement offer which we believe is fair and reasonable and which goes beyond the independently valued cost of reinstating the property to its previous condition. We also apologise for the inappropriate conduct of one of our colleagues when discussing the case with a third party supplier. This has been addressed internally, and we dont believe it reflects the culture and values of our wider team or the positive feedback we get from most customers. 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. HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) The Hampton Police Division has arrested a man in connection to a deadly shooting at a Wingstop back in February, police said. Previous Coverage: Man killed in shooting at Hampton Wingstop will be missed greatly Isaiah Harris was arrested on Thursday and charged with second-degree murder, possession of a firearm in commission of a felony, possession of a firearm by a felon and shooting inside an occupied building. The incident occurred on Valentines Day at a Wingstop where both the suspect and victim worked. 29-year-old Travell Giles was found dead inside the business after being shot. If you have any information about this case, you can submit an anonymous tip by calling 1-888-LOCK-U-UP, downloading the P3 tips app to a mobile device, or visiting www.P3tips.com and submitting a tip. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WAVY.com. SAN DIEGO (Border Report) Ten migrants have either died or been killed while trying to unlawfully cross the border between San Diego and Tijuana during the first five months of this year. Enrique Lucero, director of the Migrant Affairs Office in Tijuana, the El Sol de Tijuana newspaper that six migrants died after falling from the border barrier, two were shot and killed by bandits or smugglers at the border, and two drowned trying to swim around the portion of the wall that sticks out into the ocean. He also said 16 others have been injured while trying to cross the border unlawfully since Jan. 1. 2 men arrested for allegedly kidnapping migrant children north of Las Cruces Irregular crossings between San Diego and Baja California have gone up during the last few months, said Lucero. Lucero blames the increase in crossings in the San Diego-Baja region on heavier penalties migrants face, including jail time, when they enter the U.S. through the state of Texas. Migrants rattled, unsure as deportations begin under new rule halting asylum He insists migrants should avoid crossing illegally and wait for a CBP One app, which allows them to enter the U.S. legally and seek asylum. Many migrants hesitate to wait for a CBP One appointment since it can take more than six months. Visit the BorderReport.com homepage for the latest exclusive stories and breaking news about issues along the U.S.-Mexico border We understand the desperation, but its not worth risking your life, the legal path is through the CBP One app, its the only guarantee to at least get an interview with an immigration officer, and its safe and secure, said Lucero. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. PORTER COUNTY, Ind. (WGN-TV) An Indiana boy, who died while in foster care, was killed in a homicide, investigators ruled. Dakota Levi Stevens, 10, died on April 27. The Porter County Sheriffs Office was dispatched to a residence in Liberty Township, where Stevens was in foster care, for a medical emergency. He was taken to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Details surrounding his death have not been released, but on Wednesday his death was ruled a homicide by mechanical asphyxia. Mechanical asphyxia occurs when an object or physical force stops someone from breathing, according to Cleveland Clinic. He was described as being full of life despite going through a lot of trauma as a young child. In 2018, he was removed from his parents custody due to their struggles with drug addiction. Family members said his father later died from a blood infection related to drug addiction, and his mother has continued to struggle with addiction. The boys aunt, Ana Parrish-Parker, told Nexstars WGN that he was known as Levi by those who loved him. Parrish-Parker received custody of Levi and his younger sister in May 2018 after the children spent two weeks in the care of the states Department of Child Services (DCS). Parrish-Parker had them in custody for nearly a year. She described Levi as a child who brought a lot of joy to everyone around him. His eyes popped open in the morning and he was go, go, go,' Parrish-Parker said. His passions were digging for bugs and playing outside with his sister. Levi and his sister were attending therapy sessions twice a week as ordered by DCS, according to Parrish-Parker. She mentioned to DCS that Levi was going through some behavioral issues at school and was told to increase the number of therapy sessions per week. She told WGN she didnt think it was a good idea due to two additional days a week for visitation to their parents, plus school. He was always loved: Former foster parent seeks answers following death of 10-year-old Indiana boy They didnt have time to be children. The judge ruled a removal from care (on behalf of DCS) and I never had the chance to speak to the judge to tell them I didnt want (the kids) to have more therapy, she said. The children were entered into the foster care system by DCS and Levis sister was adopted into a family. WGN previously spoke with Hayden Hetzel, the boys foster dad from 2019-2021. Hetzel said he was lucky to have shared great years with Levi. He never didnt call me dad, he said. He was always like, Dad this, Dad that. Lets go on a walk. The Hetzel family is also seeking justice. Now that we have the actual cause of death the birth family as well as us, his previous foster family and families, would like to see justice be served, not just for Dakota, but for all wrongful deaths that have happened as a result of abuse while in the system, Hetzel told the Chicago Tribune Wednesday. The Porter County Sheriffs Office said the investigation into the boys death is ongoing and detectives are working relentlessly and have been since day one. Anyone with information is asked to call the department at 219-477-3000. The Indiana Department of Child Services had not returned a request for comment at publication time. They told the Chicago Tribune last month that Levis foster parent at the time of his death has been licensed since 2017 and was in good standing, having completed the required training and education required to achieve and maintain licensure. Last month, DCS released the following statement: Our entire staff is heartbroken by this news. DCS works with stakeholders and partners across the state to investigate the death of a child any time there is suspected abuse or neglect and will take the appropriate action. DCS foster parents must complete intensive training and education to achieve licensure. Licensure is reexamined each year to ensure the foster family continues to meet DCS requirements, including additional training each year to maintain this license. DCS policy also addresses termination of licensure, which includes circumstances where a foster parent or member of the household has been substantiated for abuse or neglect. Please see Chapter 12-Foster Family Home Licensing, Foster Parent Training, and Indiana Foster Care. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. ASTANA, Kazakhstan, June 7. The World Petroleum Congress (WPC Energy) will be held in Kazakhstan in 2028, Trend reports, citing the KAZENERGY Association (Kazakhstan Association of Oil and Gas and Energy Sector Organizations). A corresponding agreement was reached during a meeting of the Kazakhstan national committee of WPC Energy represented by the KAZENERGY Association, with the management of WPC Energy in London. Thus, following the negotiations, the parties signed a memorandum committing to Astana as the site of the 26th WPC Energy Congress in 2028. As part of the past campaign to consider Kazakhstans candidacy, members of the WPC Energy Council noted the high level of development of the national industry, its importance for the global industry, and the activity and authority of Kazakhstan within the organization. According to the voting results, Astana's application received unanimous support from all Council participants, which includes 57 countries worldwide. These countries represent 96 percent of global oil and gas production and consumption. To note, the WPC Energy Congress is one of the authoritative global platforms where important issues on the global energy and oil agenda are discussed. The event traditionally involves heads of state and government, heads of major corporations and specialized government agencies, NGOs and international organizations, as well as leading experts from around the world. Elsie Werito, 84, a member of the To'hajiilee Chapter waits in line to cast her ballot on Nov. 2, 2004. Werito said she has been voting all her life and has never missed an election. (Photo by Rick Scibelli / Getty Images) It has been 100 years since the federal government granted citizenship to all Indigenous people born in the U.S. as part of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. But, even after gaining citizenship, Indigenous people were not even provided what many consider a fundamental right of citizenship: the right to vote. Here in Arizona, Natives had to sue for the right to vote, Indivisible Tohono Co-Founder April Ignacio said. Regardless of these acts that get passed, there are still people who are perpetuating the suppression against tribal and rural communities. Ignacio said people recognizing 100 years of the Indian Citizenship Act June 2 marked a century since it became law is the least they can do because the system was not set up or designed for Indigenous peoples. We still exist, Ignacio said. Before the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, Native American Rights Fund attorney Allison Neswood said there were two main ways an Indigenous person could become a citizen: enlistment and land allotment. Through the Dawes Act of 1887, every Indigenous person who received an allotment of land, voluntarily took up residence there and had adopted habits of civilized life that is, lived separate and apart from the tribe was declared to be a citizen of the United States. A few tribes had citizenship included in their treaty rights, Neswood said, and others worked with the state to earn citizenship, but no federal law included Indigenous people as citizens. Thousands of Indigenous people served in World War I, but when they returned home, they were not considered citizens in the country they fought for. It was really embarrassing for the United States at the time to have Native American veterans coming back and not even being citizens, Neswood said. It was not until the United States passed the Citizenship Act of 1919 that all Indigenous World War I veterans were granted citizenship. And it would be five more years before President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, which gave citizenship to all non-citizen Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States. Ignacio said the Indian Citizenship Act was the beginning of the federal governments relationship with Indigenous peoples because, before that, their policies focused on taking land and extermination. We were the first people of this land, and even now, as the first people of this land, its still these governments who are trying to strip the means of equity and equality, Ignacio said, adding that it is carried out when roundabout policies get implemented to hurt the people who have always lived here. Even though Indigenous people were the first peoples of this country, they were the last to receive citizenship. The Indian Citizenship Act was the first time that Native Americans had birthright citizenship like any other person born in the United States, Neswood said. And it was the first time that Indigenous people did not have to meet Westernized standards to be citizens. They could still be full members of their tribe and still live on trust land, she said, adding that Indigenous people got to be citizens of both their tribes and the United States. However, not all tribes considered the Indian Citizenship Act a good thing. Neswood said that many tribal nations felt differently about it because it was not negotiated between the federal government and tribes. She said that some tribes disclaimed U.S. citizenship as a colonial act, fearing that it would undermine the citizenship of sovereign tribal nations. The pushback from tribes was justified, Neswood said, because even though the Indian Citizenship Act was passed in 1924, it did not come with the core rights of citizenship for all Indigenous peoples, including the right to vote. That right wasnt even recognized in many states with large Native populations until the late 1940s and even into the 1950s, Neswood said. I think unilateral conferral of citizenship without the core rights of citizenship really looked and smelled like a colonial act on behalf of the United States, she added. Neswood said in the decades following the Indian Citizenship Act, a lot of states with large Indigenous populations, especially in the southwest, have often pushed and implemented outright prohibitions on Native voting. Some of those policies include not allowing Indigenous people to vote until they completely disclaimed their tribal citizenship and identity, she added. It would take decades of advocacy from Indigenous communities and, at times, the power of the legal system to guarantee Indigenous people had the right to vote. It is so layered in how politics affects our everyday lives, Ignacio said. So, when discussion of the Indian Citizenship Act comes up, Ignacio said it is important for people to remember the larger picture: that it was a policy based on suppressing a marginalized group of people because it still left the states to govern who was eligible to vote. Native Voting Barriers Established in Arizona Arizona is a prime example of how Indigenous communities have had to fight for their voting rights for decades. That fight began in November 1924, when two Indigenous men were trying to utilize their newly gained right to vote in Pinal County. Gila River Indian Community citizens Peter Porter and Rudolf Johnson were turned away from registering to vote by the Pinal County recorder because they lived on tribal land and were not subject to state law. Porter and Johnson sued in November 1924, advocating for Indigenous people in Arizona to have the right to vote in state elections. Their attempt failed when the Arizona Supreme Court determined that, although Indigenous people of tribal nations in Arizona were state residents, they could not vote because they were considered under federal guardianship. Neswood said that Arizonas state law indicated that the federal trust relationship between Indigenous people and the United States government qualified as guardianship status and, thus, made them incompetent to vote. Indigenous people in Arizona did not have the right to vote for more than two decades before the law was rechallenged. In 1948, Fort McDowell Yavapai tribal members and World War II veterans Frank Harrison and Harry Austin tried to cast their votes in state elections with the goal of voting for Arizona leaders who would support their efforts to provide for senior citizens and families, but the Maricopa County recorder turned them away. Harrison and Austin soon filed a lawsuit to overturn the Arizona Supreme Courts 1924 decision. On July 15, 1948, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled in favor of Harrison and Austin. In a democracy, suffrage is the most basic civil right since its exercise is the chief means whereby other rights may be safeguarded, Arizona Supreme Court Justice Levi Udall wrote in the opinion that established Indigenous peoples right to vote in the state. To deny the right to vote, where one is legally entitled to do so, is to do violence to the principles of freedom and equality, Udall wrote. Indigenous people in Arizona fully gained the right to vote as a result. Indigenous people are among the fastest-growing populations in the United States, according to the Native American Rights Fund, but they are still subjected to voter suppression tactics that prevent their full political participation. In a Native American Rights Fund report on the barriers Indigenous voters face throughout the U.S., researchers identified 11 significant factors that contribute to these barriers. The barriers identified are geographical isolation, physical and natural barriers, poorly maintained or non-existent roads, distance and limited hours of government offices, technological barriers and the digital divide, low levels of educational attainment, depressed socio-economic conditions, homelessness and housing insecurity, non-traditional mailing addresses such as post office boxes, lack of funding for elections and discrimination. Like all other Americans, Native people have important rights at stake, Neswood said. During our elections, we have important interests at stake. Neswood said the right to vote gave Indigenous people the right to be heard on their homelands, to elect representatives for their communities, and to make decisions about their resources and future. (Voting is) one tool in the toolbox to defend our rights, she said. We deserve a say as Native people and voting and citizenship is one of those ways that we exercise our power to have a say. Voting barriers have continued to impact Indigenous communities across Arizona. The most recent cases include the Pascua Yaqui Tribe suing the Pima County Recorder in 2020 and Native youth from the Tohono Oodham Nation suing the state in 2022. These are deliberate attempts to ensure that the voiceless (and) underrepresented are not represented, Ignacio said. If we dont do politics, politics does us. Grassroots Efforts Provide Voting Resources for Indigenous Communities It is not uncommon for Indigenous people to lead voter registration and education efforts within their communities because state and federal officials often invest little to no resources into voting education for Indigenous communities. In Arizona alone, I can only think of maybe one handful of grassroots community organizers who are actively registering people to vote all year round, Ignacio said, noting that her group, Indivisible Tohono, is among them. Ignacio said its important to include Indigenous people in political spaces because Native votes do have the power of a swing vote, especially when it comes to Native voters residing on the Tohono Oodham and Navajo Nation. Ignacio said people need to recognize that those two tribal nations hold the largest geographical tribal land bases in the United States, and that means something. Providing dependable information about the policies that impact the Tohono Oodham Nation is the work that Iganico does with Indivisible Tohono. Ignacio said that its important to have Native representation in political spaces because, if Indigenous people do not have people championing for them, they will get lost. All of these things were done to us without our permission and our knowledge, she added. So, I think having Native representation only helps the future quality of life that others are already assured. Ignacio has been involved in community organizing since she was a teenager. In 2017, she co-founded Indivisible Tohono with her friends, helping it grow into a prominent grassroots organization. Ignacio is running for Pima Country Supervisor District 3, and she is the only Indigenous candidate in the race. Throughout her campaign, Ignacio said she has been asked why she invests so much time and effort in Indigenous communities, even though a large portion of the district covers the Tohono Oodham Nation. Rural and tribal communities are constantly fighting for resources that are not afforded to them but are provided in populous areas, Ignacio said. She added that it could be providing small things like art programs or a public library, but it is often things that people who live in larger populated areas take for granted, such as broadband, running water and plumbing. My larger view of it is that, when rural and tribal communities are thriving, everybody thrives, because there isnt this tug for resources, Ignacio said. Some Native-led grassroots organizations in Arizona include Indivisible Tohono, Arizona Native Vote and the Northeast Arizona Native Democrats. These organizations have people on the ground in Indigenous communities who provide resources. These community-led organizations and community leaders understand the barriers that their neighbors and community members are facing, Neswood said. Arizona Native Vote Executive Director Jaynie Parrish had worked to provide voter education within Indigenous communities across Arizona for over a decade before launching her grassroots organization in 2023. Parrish said she sees the centennial of the Indian Citizenship Act as a marker because there is still a lot of work to do for Indigenous peoples to maintain their rights. Parrish and her team work year-round to provide voter resources to Indigenous communities across Arizona. She said that voting is one way to have more influence and representation on the local, state and federal policies that impact Indigenous peoples. Parrish said that it is understandable many Indigenous people are hesitant to vote, but she likes how one of her team members describes the act of voting as casting a ballot. Youre casting your ballot with your ancestors and all the people who fought for our right to be here in mind, she said, adding that its important to have conversations with community members so they can fully understand the election process and whats at stake. Parrish said her on-the-ground team spends time in Indigenous communities, setting up at local markets or even on the side of the road to provide resources and engage in conversation with community members. Theres not necessarily an easy answer all the time, she said, but she added that she hopes Indigenous voters do understand how Native people come from a long line of warriors and people who fought for them to continue living. Even 100 years after the Indian Citizenship Act passed, Parrish said Indigenous peoples continue to fight against the laws and policies that continue to make it harder for their communities to take part in the political system to vote fairly and equally. Remain vigilant (and) pay attention, she added. Dont sit this out, because a no vote is also a choice. 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 100 years after citizenship, Indigenous peoples continue to fight to vote appeared first on Source New Mexico. 101-year-old WWII vet the last man standing in Gaston County heroes club 101-year-old WWII vet the last man standing in Gaston County heroes club GASTONIA, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) At Brookdale Robinwood assisted living in Gastonia, we had an appointment with a World War II veteran. Mr. Arrowood, theyre here to do the interview, okay? a Brookdale employee said to resident Henry Arrowood. The 101-year-old served in the U.S. Army, with the 76th Infantry Division. You saw a lot of people die that you wanted to help, is that what you said? I asked. Thats right, said Arrowood, who still ponders his wartime experience 80 years later. Small town still healing after losing 20 young men on D-Day You think about it all your life, he says. Arrowood is a member of the WWII Last Man Club of Gaston County, which once included some 300 veterans. Sadly, he is the last one still living. Do you know youre now the last man standing? All the others have passed away, I told him. No, I didnt, Arrowood replied, letting the news sink in. Henry Arrowood with his wife of 60 years, the late Minnie Arrowood. (Photo courtesy the Arrowood family) As we commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, the stark reality is that only 1 percent of the 16.4 million Americans who served during World War II are still with us. Ray Stewart of Gastonia was also in the Last Man Club. During the second World War, he served with the 2nd Armored Division as a tank driver. Stewart died on April 21 at the age of 100. He was the next-to-last man living [in the club], his son Mike Stewart told Queen City News. Mike and Rays daughter Karen Dellinger clings to reminders of a century of patriotism. Heres his dog tags, his classification, that kind of thing, Dellinger said, leafing through a scrapbook. Dellinger, whos a schoolteacher, says her decorated dad often spoke to students in class. He felt like he had an obligation to talk about it because he didnt want people to forget, Dellinger said. Dont forget the sacrifices. Gaston County World War II veteran Mike Stewart died in April. He was an honorable man, Mike said, getting emotional. And he taught me a lot he taught me a lot. The number one lesson stays with him. How to love for your family, says Mike. [Ray Stewart] was amazing, said Tony Sherrill, adjutant of American Legion Post 23. He believes its important to celebrate the legacies of his friend Ray and other World War II vets. We can never ever let them be forgotten, we have to keep them in our memories and in our hearts, Sherrill says. Henry Arrowood didnt expect to be the last. Well, being the last man [standing] in the county, what about the state? he asked. I feel like I could live a long time yet. Hell soon be presented with a ceremonial bottle of whiskey. The final living member of Last Man is charged with taking it to the graves of the five heroes who most recently died. In the ceremony hes supposed to go and pour a jigger on each persons grave and was supposed to take a shot, Mike Stewart explained. Its uncertain if Arrowood is physically able to complete that assignment. His grandson says the bottle will be another cherished memento of Henrys military service. While we interviewed Henry, Blenda Chavis came out of her room to just hear his story. Im being nosey, she said. [Rays Arrowoods] family needs to know how important, how important what he did is for us, says Chavis. Then, she echoed the sentiments of the nation by giving him a heartfelt hug. Thank you she told Arrowood. Thank you so much, he replied. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. 11-year-old girl drowns trying to save little sister from Ohio hotel pool 11-year-old girl drowns trying to save little sister from Ohio hotel pool WHEELERSBURG, Ohio (WJW) Detectives are investigating after an 11-year-old girl died while trying to save her little sister from drowning in an Ohio hotel swimming pool over the weekend. Sheriffs deputies and a rescue team were called to the Quality Inn in Wheelersburg just after 6 p.m. Sunday for reports of two children that drowned in the pool. The two girls, ages 9 and 11, were playing at a pool party when the younger sister fell in, according to the Scioto County Sheriffs Office. Family releases statement after toddler killed in stabbing at Giant Eagle parking lot The older sister, Mackenzie Cornell, jumped in to save her sister, but investigators say she also went under the water. Others at the party pulled the girls from the water and started performing CPR before first responders got there. The 9-year-old was resuscitated, but Mackenzie was pronounced dead at SOMC Wheelersburg Family Health Center. Mackenzie attended elementary school at Bloom-Vernon Schools. In a statement on social media, the district said a prayer vigil was being held for Mackenzie Monday evening and grief counselors would be available at the school. A GoFundMe page set up to help Mackenzies family has raised more than $6,000, as of Thursday evening. To ease what is already an unbearable time for her grandparents and father, we are asking for donations to help with her funeral expenses, reads a post on the GoFundMe page. We appreciate each and every person that has reached out to the family. Not Looking At A Dome: Cleveland officials say dome downtown not part of stadium talks Choice Hotels, which owns may Quality Inn locations, released a statement saying, We are deeply saddened to hear about this tragic incident and our condolences are with the Cornell family. As this is an independently owned and operated franchised hotel, please contact the hotel directly. Anyone with information on this ongoing investigation is asked to call detectives at 740-351-1099. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW. 12 mistakes you're making when visiting national parks, according to a former park ranger of 37 years Visitors make avoidable mistakes when visiting national parks, a former ranger told Business Insider. Tom Haraden spent 37 years protecting visitors and wildlife in nine national parks across the US. From packing water to staying clear of animals, he shares how to avoid the worst mistakes he's seen. For 37 years, Tom Haraden worked in nine national parks across the US. Haraden's self-described "magical" career in the National Park Service started in 1972 as a volunteer in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Since then, he's worked in eight other US national parks. "I loved every minute," Haraden told Business Insider. During this time, he has spoken to thousands of visitors and seen plenty of mistakes. During his four-decade career, Haraden said some mistakes were common. Nearly all of them were avoidable. Tom Haraden shows off an old picture of himself working in the national parks. Monica Humphries/Business Insider Haraden's general advice is simple: "be smart." While park rangers are there to support visitors, Haraden said safety is up to the individual. "The park service's philosophy on safety is that your safety is your responsibility," he said. The first common mistake Haraden said visitors make is trying to squeeze too much into a single trip. Instead, travel slow. A person sits in silence at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. Monica Humphries/Business Insider Throughout Haraden's career and today as a tour guide in the national parks Haraden said he talks to visitors with overly ambitious itineraries. They might enter a park with the goal of visiting every viewpoint in a single day. While this is one way to explore, Haraden believes that going slower gives visitors a chance to soak in the park's natural beauty. "I think the biggest mistake I see people make is trying to be too fast," he said. "They go out to a viewpoint at the Grand Canyon and go, 'been there, done that.''' He urges visitors to experience a national park instead of checking things off a list. That might mean watching the sunrise, grabbing a book and sitting by a river, or slowing your hiking pace. "Don't try to do everything," he said. "Enjoy some things to the full depth you can." Don't expect solitude. And if that's the goal, be willing to research and hike farther out. Crowds gather to watch the sunset at the Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. Monica Humphries/Business Insider Haraden said there are plenty of national parks without hordes of people, but it can take time and research to figure out which parks and areas are less crowded. "Do your homework and stay flexible," he said. "Nowadays, doing your park homework involves knowing what's going to be crowded. If you go to a park like Arches in the middle of summer, it's going to be packed. So go to a place that's less visited, like Canyonlands." Even then, you're still likely to run into people if you stick to the main viewpoints, Haraden said. The farther you get into the national park, the higher your chance of finding solitude. Don't arrive without an itinerary. No matter where you go, research the park to get a sense of what you want to do once you're there. A map of Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. Monica Humphries/Business Insider Beyond looking at how crowded parks are, Haraden suggests researching every park you plan to visit beforehand. This will help you craft an itinerary that meets your wants and needs. "Know what you want," he said. "Do you like to hike? If you like the hike, what kind of hikes do you like to do? Do you like flat ones? Do you like vigorous ones?" Haraden's best advice for researching national parks is to use the National Park Service's websites. Every national park has a detailed website, which tells visitors about the park, its crowds, and what to expect when visiting. While Haraden encourages visitors to have a plane, he also urges them to be flexible. A crowded hike at Arches National Park in Utah. Monica Humphries/Business Insider While Haraden said it's helpful to research and have an itinerary before arriving at a national park, he also advises visitors to be adaptable. "Don't get locked into the mindset that 'I must do something,' because you might get there and it's too crowded to do it, or the parking lot is full," he said. Variables like weather and crowds can impact how you experience a park, so Haraden recommends coming up with an open plan with backup options in case an activity doesn't work out. Don't forget to pack enough water, and don't assume bottled water will be readily available. A visitor in Arches National Park carries water in their backpack. Monica Humphries/Business Insider "Running out of water is probably one of the worst mistakes you can make," Haraden said. The National Park Service warns visitors that there's a higher risk of heat-related illness, especially during the summer months. Part of being prepared is ensuring you pack enough water or a water-filtration system. The Interior Department announced it would phase out the sales of single-use plastic bottles on public land and in national parks by 2032, The New York Times reported in 2022. However, many national parks like Zion, for instance, have already stopped selling plastic water bottles. The National Park Service encourages visitors to bring their own reusable water bottles to reduce waste. While there are water fountains available across national parks, visitors won't find many places to purchase a bottle of water. Make sure you have the proper supplies for the hikes and activities you're embarking on, like a windbreaker or bear mace. The author with a backpack of supplies in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. Monica Humphries/Business Insider Haraden said that if you do your research, you'll likely know what to expect and what you'll need for a national park trip. That might mean packing a windbreaker or extra jacket for trails with high elevation or making sure you have bear spray if you're exploring a park like Yellowstone or Grand Teton, which are populated by bears. "Even if you don't use it, you're ready in case you do need it," Haraden said. Never get too close to wildlife. Haraden says visitors could get seriously hurt and get the animal euthanized, too. A bison walks past a crowd of people at Yellowstone National Park. George Frey/Getty Images "Wildlife, big and little, are not tame," Haraden said. "Squirrels can bite and bison can toss people in the air. There's not a single animal that can't hurt you if you pester them or threaten them enough. Any time you change an animal's behavior, you're too close." He said he'd heard stories of people trying to feed bears or placing their children on the backs of bison. Those stories often make headlines, and every year, national park visitors are injured or die due to getting too close to wild animals. Haraden added that it's a lose-lose scenario since the animals involved sometimes must be euthanized. Don't assume that staying in the national park will be more expensive than staying in hotels or cabins outside the park. However, you will likely need to book accommodations far in advance. The Ahwahnee in Yosemite National Park in California. Michael Macor/San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images Whether it's a campsite, cabin, or hotel, national parks across the country offer a wide range of accommodations for visitors. According to Haraden, many of the accommodations are reasonably priced. For instance, a room at the Lake Crescent Lodge in Olympic National Park in Washington starts at $129 during the offseason, according to the lodge's website. "Everyone thinks they're more expensive than lodging outside of the park, but that's not necessarily true," he said. "The park service wants to make them available to everybody, but you do have to reserve them way in advance." For example, during peak season, The Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite can fill up months and even years in advance, Haraden said. It's one of the National Park Service's more expensive hotels, with rooms starting at $536, according to the hotel's website. Haraden urges visitors to keep elevation in mind when planning their trip. A hiker in Glacier National Park, Montana. JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images "Many western parks are high in elevation. Some are obvious, like Rocky Mountain or Glacier, but others are not obvious, like Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon," Haraden said. "Elevation can really affect people who aren't used to it or have medical conditions." If you're traveling from lower altitudes like Florida, for instance, taking the time to acclimate can help ensure that you'll enjoy your trip and not end up with altitude sickness. On a similar note, Haraden encourages visitors to consider the heat as summertime approaches. An extreme heat danger sign at Badwater Basin, Death Valley National Park, on Monday, July 17, 2023, in Death Valley, CA. Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images "It's getting hotter and staying hot longer, and that includes in national parks," Haraden said. "Take all the precautions, but especially don't exert yourself during the hottest part of the day." That might mean getting to a national park earlier or later in the day to enjoy cooler hours or planning trips during the shoulder seasons when the summer temperatures are gone. Don't rely on your phone or GPS for directions. Pack a map and be prepared to lose cell service. A person points to a map of Everglades National Park in Florida. CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images Haraden said that guests shouldn't rely on their phones to navigate around the national parks since many of these areas lack full cell coverage. "GPS will commonly not work in remote areas like national parks. Carry maps and know how to read them," he said. He also encourages visitors to not blindly follow their GPS if they do decide to use it. "If GPS says to use a road but it looks too rough, use your common sense and don't go there. If GPS says to follow a trail that is not there, don't do it," he said. Haraden says visitors shouldn't make the mistake of not asking for help or advice from park rangers. A park ranger at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. George Frey/Getty Images Across any national park, you'll find park rangers who are there to answer questions and help create a positive experience inside each national park. "The park rangers have all the information you need to make decisions," he said. They can help point visitors to good hikes, and they know the weather and other important information that might be handy. Haraden said visitors should never be hesitant to approach a park ranger with questions. Haraden's most important piece of advice is to consider the people who will explore and discover the parks after you. Tom Haraden worked in the National Park Services for 37 years. Monica Humphries/Business Insider Haraden isn't just referring to the people entering the parks tomorrow or next year. He's referencing the future generations of visitors exploring the otherworldly Arches National Park and the geyser-filled "?wonderland of Yellowstone. He said he hopes national park visitors are doing their part to be stewards of the land, which means modeling behavior like picking up trash, giving animals distance, and not packing disposable plastic water bottles. Read the original article on Business Insider Two people charged in the murders of an OFallon man and Swansea man in 2023 are being held in St. Clair County now that a 15-year-old suspect has been arrested. Anthony Jackson, 64, was found on a vacant lot in the 1700 block of Ridge Avenue in East St. Louis on Aug. 12. While troopers with the Illinois State Police were investigating, they were notified that another deceased male, that of 74-year-old Willie Wallace, of Swansea, was found in the 700 block of N. 55th St. Both men had been shot multiple times, according to a release from state police. Assisted by the East St. Louis Police Department, investigators concluded the two homicides were connected, the release stated. Cierra Whitley, 35, was charged on May 3 with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths, according to records with the St. Clair County Circuit Court. She already was being held at the St. Clair County Jail on unrelated charges. On June 5, a 15-year-old male was arrested and is being held at the St. Clair County Juvenile Detention Center. His name has not been released because of his age. No further information has been released. 19-year-old identified as woman who was swept away, drowned off Tybee Island A 19-year-old has been identified by family members as the woman who drowned after she was swept away from a sandbar off Tybee Island last week. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Ayana Janay Miller was walking with her boyfriend when they got caught up in a current on Friday. Miller was rushed to the hospital, where she died. Her boyfriend told police that as he struggled, another man came and pulled his head above the water and told him to turn over and float. Police told ABC News affiliate WJCL that the Good Samaritan had been identified, but did not release that persons identity. TRENDING STORIES: Family members described Miller in a GoFundMe set up to help with funeral expenses. At 19 years old, her light had only just begun to shine. But in her brief time with us, she shone fiercely enough to brighten every life her light fell upon. Passionate about life, she was full of love and overflowing with creativity, the wrote. She squeezed every drop out of her short life, as shown in her dedication to school, work, art, and her love of animals and the beach. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] Miller lived in Richmond Hill, Georgia but went to high school in Texas, according to her obituary. Ayana and I have been inseparable for nearly half my life, and moving forward without her will be incredibly tough, her mother, Sara Miller, said on social media. You can donate to the GoFundMe HERE. A man and woman have been arrested in a deadly 2022 shooting in Lexington County, and authorities are looking for a third suspect, according to the Lexington County Sheriffs Department. Chendric Jawan Brown, 25, was charged with one count of murder and one count of conspiracy, and London Ja Kia Oliver, 26, was charged with one count of conspiracy and one count of accessory before the fact, according to the news release, which cited arrest warrants. Ziyon Tahib McKnight, 24, is wanted on one count of murder and one count of conspiracy, said the news release, which cited arrest warrants. In September 2022, investigators were notified by the South Congaree Police Department about a car on Edmund Highway with two passengers who appeared to have been shot, Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon said in a news release. Harold Lord Peak, III, 22, died of multiple gunshot wounds at the scene, according to Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher. Another passenger was treated at a local hospital and released, Koon said. Detectives determined that Oliver led Brown and McKnight to the victims and shot them while they were driving by, Koon said. Brown and Oliver are being held in the Lexington County Detention Center after a magistrate judge denied bond. Detectives are trying to locate McKnight. Anyone who knows his location is asked to call 911. 2 men wanted after shooting that left man critically injured in Paulding County Officers are looking for two men wanted in connection to a shooting that critically injured a man at a Paulding County apartment earlier this month. On June 1 at around 10:45 p.m., Dallas officers arrived at the 300 block of Old Acworth Road about a shooting and found both a 33-year-old man and a 31-year-old laying on the ground of an apartment. Both men were suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Officers applied tourniquets to stop the bleeding before paramedics took the men to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital. The suspects were identified as 24-year-old Jonathan Fontanez and 28-year-old Shamuel Machado as the suspects in this case. Fontanez and Machado are being charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] The 33-year-old man was critically injured while the 31-year-old man was listed as stable. Dallas police are actively searching for Fontanez and Machado. Anyone with additional information about the shooting is asked to contact Dallas Police Sergeant Nathan Graham at ngraham@dallas-ga.gov. TRENDING STORIES: [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] IN OTHER NEWS: WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) Federal prosecutors are wrapping up their gun case against Hunter Biden, with two more witnesses expected Friday in their effort to prove to jurors that the presidents son lied on a mandatory gun purchase form when he said he wasnt an unlawful user of, or addicted to drugs. Prosecutors were still planning to call a drug expert and an FBI chemist, capping a week that has been largely dedicated to highlighting the seriousness of his drug problem through highly personal and sometimes salacious testimony. Suspect in deadly Giant Eagle stabbing was released from jail 3 days earlier Jurors heard from his ex-wife and a former girlfriend who testified about his habitual crack use and their failed efforts to help him get clean. They saw images of the presidents son bare-chested and disheveled in a filthy room, and half-naked holding crack pipes, and they watched video of his crack cocaine weighed on a scale. Prosecutor say the evidence is necessary to prove that Hunter, 54, was in the throes of addiction when he bought the gun and therefore lied when he checked no on the form. His attorney, Abbe Lowell, has argued Hunter did not think of himself as an addict when he bought the gun and did not intend to deceive anyone. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden worked to walk the line between president and father, telling ABC in an interview that he would accept the jurys verdict and ruling out a pardon for his son. Earlier this week he issued a statement saying: I am the President, but I am also a Dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today. Biden is in France this week for D-Day anniversary events. First lady Jill Biden, who attended court most of the week, flew from France Thursday and was expected at the trial again Friday before returning to France for a state dinner. Hunter Biden, center, departs from federal court, Thursday, June 6, 2024, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) Hunter Biden, center, departs from federal court with his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, right, Thursday, June 6, 2024, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) Hunter Biden departs from federal court, Thursday, June 6, 2024, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) Hunter Biden departs from federal court, Thursday, June 6, 2024, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) Hunter Biden been charged with three felonies: lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the application by saying he was not a drug user and illegally having the gun for 11 days. He has pleaded not guilty. Hed hoped to resolve the gun case and another separate tax case in California with a plea deal last year, the result of a yearslong investigation into his business dealings. The deal had him pleading guilty to lower-level charges that would have resolved both cases and spared him the spectacle of a trial so close to the 2024 election. It fell apart after Judge Maryellen Noreika questioned unusual aspects of the proposed agreement and the lawyers couldnt resolve them. 11-year-old girl drowns trying to save little sister from Ohio hotel pool Hunter Biden said he got charged because the Justice Department bowed to pressure from Republicans who argued the Democratic presidents son was getting special treatment, and who have escalated their attacks on the criminal justice system since Donald Trumps recent conviction in New York City in a hush money case. Lowell said he would call the presidents brother James as a witness, but its unclear yet whether Hunter Biden will testify. But jurors have already heard his voice. Prosecutors have played lengthy audio excerpts in court of his 2021 memoir Beautiful Things, in which he writes about his lifelong addiction issues and spiraling descent after death of his brother Beau in 2015. The book, written after he got sober, covers the period he had the gun but doesnt mention it specifically. Lowell has said Hunter Bidens state of mind was different when he wrote the book than when he purchased the gun, when he didnt believe he had an addiction. He pointed out to jurors that some of the questions on the firearms transaction record are in the present tense, such as are you an unlawful user of or addicted to drugs. And hes suggested Hunter Biden might have felt he had a drinking problem at the time, but not a drug problem. Alcohol abuse doesnt preclude a gun purchase. The reason law enforcement raised any questions about the revolver is because Hallie Biden, Beaus widow, found it unloaded in Hunters truck on Oct. 23, 2018, panicked and tossed it into a garbage can at a nearby market. She testified about the episode Thursday. She told jurors she considered hiding the gun but thought her kids might find it, so she decided to throw it away. I realize it was a stupid idea now, but I was panicking, she said. I didnt want him to hurt himself, and I didnt want my kids to find it and hurt themselves. Hallie Biden, who had a brief romantic relationship with Hunter after Beau died, testified that from the time Hunter returned to Delaware from a 2018 trip to California until she threw his gun away, she did not see him using drugs. That time period included the day he bought the weapon. But much of her testimony focused on Oct. 23, 2018 11 days after he bought it. Hunter was staying with her and seemed exhausted. Asked by the prosecutor if it appeared that Hunter was using drugs around then, she said, He could have been. As Hunter slept in her home, Hallie Biden went to check his car. She said she was hoping to help him get or stay sober, free of both alcohol and cocaine. She said she found the remnants of crack cocaine and drug paraphernalia. She also found the gun Hunter purchased in a box with a broken lock that kept it from fully closing. There was ammunition too. She put in a leather pouch put the pouch in a bag and tossed it into in the trash can at Janssens Market. He noticed it missing and asked her whether she had taken it. Are you insane? he texted. He told her to go back to the market to look for it. Surveillance footage played for jurors showed her digging around in the trash can for the gun, but it wasnt there. She asked store officials if someone had taken out the trash. Hallie testified Hunter told her to file a police report because the gun was registered in his name. She called the police while she was still at the store. Officers located the man who inadvertently took the gun along with other recyclables from the trash and retrieved it. The case was eventually closed because of lack of cooperation from Hunter Biden, who was considered the victim. Jurors also heard from the officers who handled the case, from the man who found the gun and from the store clerk who sold Hunter the revolver. If convicted, Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison, though first-time offenders do not get anywhere near the maximum, and its unclear whether the judge would give him time behind bars. He also faces a separate trial in September on charges of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW. Republican U.S. House candidates, from top left, Rick Becker, Cara Mund, Alex Balazs and Julie Fedorchak participate in a debate June 6, 2024, moderated by Steve Hallstrom, bottom left, and Scott Hennen. (Screenshot) Republican U.S. House candidate Julie Fedorchak claimed in a debate Thursday night that some states allow post-birth abortions, a statement a doctor said during a U.S. Senate committee hearing this week is false. Candidates were asked during the final debate ahead of Tuesdays primary whether life begins at conception and what exceptions to abortion bans, if any, they would support. Fedorchak is competing for the Republican nomination against Rick Becker, Alex Balazs, Cara Mund and Sharlet Mohr. Fedorchak, a Public Service Commissioner, said life begins at conception and she is in favor of abortion exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother. She added she supports the Supreme Court sending the abortion issue back to the states, but she would be in favor of a federal ban on abortions after 16 weeks. More election news For more coverage of the June 11 primary, visit our North Dakota Election 2024 page. We are an outlier in this world, really, as supporting abortion on demand and, in many states, all the way to birth or even, in some cases, post-birth abortion, she said during the debate on radio station WZFG The Flag. Life is a fundamental right. Without the right to life, every other right is meaningless. NDGOP-endorsed Balazs, a military veteran from Cando, also commented on post-birth abortions and said some states are actually looking at terminating children after they are born. They are trying to push that through law, Balazs said. Politifact has rated comments that liberal states allow abortions after birth as false multiple times. Dr. Nisha Verma, a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health in Atlanta, sought to dispel misinformation during a hearing this week to a U.S. Senate committee. I just really want to highlight that the situation of doing an abortion at the moment of birth doesnt happen, Verma said. As a doctor who provides full spectrum reproductive health care, including OB care it is a false hypothetical that is meant to create additional stigma around abortion care. If a patient comes in at 40 weeks, their options are a C-section and a vaginal delivery, and this misinformation is really dangerous to our patients. When asked for clarification, Sean Cleary, Fedorchaks campaign manager, cited former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northams comments to a local radio station in 2019 about third-trimester abortions. During the interview, he said, The infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable, the infant would be resuscitated if thats what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother. Cleary also cited Californias attempts in 2022 to codify abortion up to the moment of birth into state law, which an Associated Press Fact Check said is missing context and added the state law already restricts third-trimester abortions. Cleary also shared a Fox News article showing Democrats voting against a bill that would have required medical care for babies born alive after an abortion attempt. Democrats said the bill would interfere with families medical decisions. During the debate, moderate candidate Mund pushed back on the comments from Fedorchak and Balazs. No one is having after-birth abortions, said Mund, a Bismarck attorney and former Miss America. This is just such false information. When pushed to answer, Mund said shes a Catholic and believes life begins at conception. But she said that doesnt mean she should advocate for laws based on her own religious beliefs. During her campaign, Mund has spoken strongly in favor of abortion rights. As a Republican, we are advocating for limited government, but that doesnt mean in only certain situations, Mund said. The government should not be in doctors appointments and should not be in bedrooms. Plastic surgeon and former state lawmaker Rick Becker said life begins at conception, but he wasnt in favor of any exceptions to abortion bans. But, he added, the rare case in which the mothers life is threatened would potentially be the only exception. If you believe the baby is a baby at the point of conception, at no point is it OK to kill it, Becker said. Thats the only logically consistent position you can take. Williston resident Mohr, a fifth candidate for the Republican nomination for House, did not participate in the debate, moderated by Scott Hennen and Steve Hallstrom. Dylan Mulvaney video Moderators asked candidates about a video Beckers campaign released featuring transgender social media personality Dylan Mulvaney. Becker hired Mulvaney through the website Cameo to make a video praising Fedorchak for her work with green energy. The ad was condemned by Gender Justice, Prairie Action ND and the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition, who called it an appalling stunt. Becker said the video was meant to be taken as a joke and that his campaign is proud of it. It brought a bunch of attention and people throughout North Dakota thought it was the funniest thing that they had seen in politics in years and years and years, Becker said. Fedorchak said Beckers video is the type of political gamesmanship that North Dakotans are sick of. How is that going to help our state move the ball on the policies we need to deal with? Fedorchak said. Balazs said he doesnt think the video was funny and it affects the morality of society. I wouldnt perpetuate that sickness in our society, Balazs said. I certainly wouldnt hire him to attack a woman and I wouldnt hire him to attack another candidate in this race. Mund said, It was something that I wouldnt have necessarily done. Final words During candidate closing statements, Balazs said electing a representative to the U.S. House shouldnt be about money and endorsements, but someone who has work and life experience to get the job done. Balazs formerly worked for the State Department. He also addressed pre-election polling that showed him trailing the other candidates. If you like being told who to vote for, you should listen to those polls, or you should listen to the candidates who tell you to vote for them because they are the only ones who can save you, Balazs said. Im asking you to vote for me. Mund said voters want a moderate who can negotiate and compromise. If you are a fed up North Dakotan who finally wants a voice in Washington, you want someone who represents all, Mund said. Fedorchak said she entered the race because, as a mother of three, our way of life in this country is in jeopardy. We need serious leaders in Washington to get to work, Fedorchak said. I am the only candidate with a record of results. Becker said voters have a choice between a status-quo candidate, or they can go with their gut. I believe I know that your gut is telling you that I am the candidate who will fight for you, Becker said. I will be there day in, and day out. I need to go there because I am trying to make the future better for my four kids, my three grandchildren with a fourth on the way. States Newsroom reporter Jennifer Shutt contributed to this report. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE The post 2 Republican House candidates refer to post-birth abortions during debate appeared first on North Dakota Monitor. ASTANA, Kazakhstan, June 7. Kazakhstan's KTZ Express (a subsidiary of Kazakhstan Railways, KTZ) and QazTrade, in partnership with the Pakistani National Logistics Corporation, have carried out a pilot multimodal transportation to the port of Jebel Ali (UAE) through Afghanistan and Pakistan (the Trans-Afghan Corridor), Trend reports. Based on the information provided by KTZ, the cargo departed from the Pavlodar Special Economic Zone on April 27 and was subsequently transferred to the Zhetygen transport and logistics center. At this center, the cargo was efficiently loaded into two 40-foot sea containers. Afterward, the containers were loaded onto trucks using a container trailer and transported to the port of Karachi in Pakistan. The cargo reached Karachi in 20 days, after traveling a distance of 4,900 kilometers. The containers were loaded onto a feeder vessel on June 1 and arrived at the port of Jebel Ali on June 3. As KTZ noted, the total transportation period was 38 days, which was the most effective solution for the client. A total of 60 containers are planned to be transported along this route in June-July. "This pilot project is a multimodal service that expands the capabilities of Kazakh exporters to supply products to target markets in the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia," KTZ noted. Meanwhile, over the past three years, the volume of export transportation from Kazakhstan to Afghanistan has been growing steadily. In 2023, the volume of transportation by rail amounted to 2.7 million tons, of which 1.5 million tons were flour and grain. This is 14 percent more than in 2021. In the next few years, exports are expected to climb by 40 percent. Meanwhile, traffic is projected to increase threefold by 2030. Two people were arrested in a massive organized retail theft bust involving thousands of dollars worth of allegedly stolen LEGO toys. The suspects were identified as Richard Siegel, 71, from Long Beach and Blanca Gudino, 39, from Lawndale, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. In December 2023, detectives were alerted to a string of thefts at a Target store in the 1700 block of North Gaffey Street in San Pedro. Loss prevention workers identified Gudino as the suspect involved. On June 4, police said they witnessed Gudino allegedly stealing LEGO products from Target stores in Torrance and Lakewood. She would then drop off the merchandise at Siegels home in Long Beach. The next day, a search warrant was served at the Long Beach home where officers discovered over 2,800 boxes of stolen LEGO toy sets, police said, Over 2,800 boxes of stolen LEGO toy sets were discovered inside a Long Beach home during a massive theft ring bust. (Los Angeles Police Department) Over 2,800 boxes of stolen LEGO toy sets were discovered inside a Long Beach home during a massive theft ring bust. (Los Angeles Police Department) Over 2,800 boxes of stolen LEGO toy sets were discovered inside a Long Beach home during a massive theft ring bust. (Los Angeles Police Department) Over 2,800 boxes of stolen LEGO toy sets were discovered inside a Long Beach home during a massive theft ring bust. (Los Angeles Police Department) Photos of the massive bust show countless rows of LEGO boxes stored on shelves that took over the living room in a warehouse-like fashion. Most of the stolen toys were collectors items or expensive sets. The individual retail value for each item ranged anywhere between $20 to over $1,000, LAPD said. Among the stolen sets were collectible Star Wars, Ninjago, Harry Potter, Technic vehicles, LEGO Architecture, Marvel, Minecraft, special pop-culture editions and more, One of the stolen items even appeared to be a demo set housed in a plexiglass that is typically displayed inside a store. Suspects arrested for series of retail thefts targeting Southern California stores While investigating Siegels residence, police witnessed potential toy buyers arriving at the home, brought in by advertisements that Siegel had posted online. Siegel was arrested on charges of organized retail theft and Gudino was arrested for grand theft. The incidents remain under investigation. This bust follows similar thefts targeting Bricks & Minifigs stores throughout Southern California. During those incidents, thieves smashed their way into multiple stores before escaping with around $100,000 worth of LEGO toys. Anyone with information on the case can call Harbor Area detectives at 310-726-7900. The public can also call the LAPD at 1-877-527-3247. Anonymous tips can be provided to L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at lacrimestoppers.org. Tipsters can also contact Crime Stoppers by sending texts to 274637. All text messages should begin with the letters, LAPD. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. 2 suspects bail out of fleeing car, hide from Florida deputies in water 2 suspects bail out of fleeing car, hide from Florida deputies in water VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) Two men are facing several charges after they fled from deputies twice and hid in a body of water in Florida. According to the Volusia Sheriffs Office, the two suspects and a female passenger riding in a Nissan sedan fled from deputies twice in Deltona on Wednesday night. New Jersey man caught driving recklessly on I-275 said he had to pee: FHP The second time, the driver, identified as Hylan Hill, 23, of Deltona, hit an estimated 65 mph in a 35 mph zone. While coming to a stop at a dead-end, the sedan struck a parked vehicle. Deputies tracked the car and saw the driver and one of the passengers, Edward Ross, 24, of Lake Helen, take off, as a female passenger stayed behind. She was detained as they searched for the others. With the help of the deputies aircrew and a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission airboat, Hill and Ross were spotted hiding in the water, just northwest of where they ditched the sedan. In the vehicle, deputies discovered a firearm with an extended magazine, a Glock switch, and a .22 Uzi pistol inside a backpack. Florida woman called 911 on herself during attempted carjacking so she could do it legally: deputies Hill is being held at the Volusia County Branch Jail on no bond and was charged with fleeing or attempting to elude law enforcement, leaving the scene of a crash with property damage, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a machine gun, resisting arrest without violence, and driving with a suspended license. Ross was charged with resisting arrest without violence, tampering with evidence, possession of cannabis, and violation of probation. The female passenger was released without charges. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. MARION, S.C. (WBTW) A 20-year-old man is wanted on a murder charge in connection with a deadly shooting in Marion last month, police said on Facebook. Jhamari Bryson Grant of Marion is wanted on charges including murder, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, pointing and presenting a firearm at a person and discharging a firearm in city limits. Police believe he lives in the Pleasant View area and is known to frequent Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach. Marion police responded on May 9 to the 400 block of McMillan Street for shots being fired. When they arrived, they found two people who had been shot, including one of them fatally. Grant is considered armed and dangerous. Anyone with information is asked to call Marion police at 843-423-8616 or 911. Download the News13 app to stay updated on the go Sign up for WBTW email alerts to have breaking news sent to your inbox. Find todays top stories on WBTW.com for the Grand Strand and Pee Dee. Count on News13 for updates. * * * Caleb is a digital producer at News13. Caleb joined the team in January 2023 after graduating from Liberty University. He is from Northern Virginia. Follow Caleb on X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here. * * * 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. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBTW. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) Four years ago, in 2020, Albuquerque voters were trying to elect a would-be president from a field of candidates dominated by Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Now, those two once again lead the pack, but voters are less enthusiastic, at least in terms of turnout. In Bernalillo County in 2024, voters strongly favored Joe Biden who received 84% of the countys vote for the Democratic nomination and Donald Trump who received 78% of the countys vote for the Republican nomination. Thats a near repeat of the 2020 primary, when Biden won 72% of the vote and Trump won 87%. But drastically different this time around is just how many voters showed up. Story Continues Below Data from the New Mexico Secretary of State shows that turnout varied by voting precinct across Bernalillo County. In the 2020 primary, nearly 88,000 Democratic voters hit the polls in Bernalillo County. In 2024, only 48,180 Democratic voters showed up to cast votes in the presidential races. The story is the same for Republican voters. In 2020, over 46,000 voted in the primary election. This year, 24,257 cast their ballots, data from the Secretary of State shows. Is New Mexico on track to meet its environmental goals? Compared to 2020, we would expect lower turnout given that in 2020 we had a contested primary for president here in New Mexico, which drove turnout in that election, KRQE News 13 Political Analyst Gabe Sanchez says. This year, Biden and Trump have essentially secured their nominations. Top of the ticket races drive enthusiasm and turnout. The unique pandemic situation in 2020 likely also played a role in high turnout. We also saw the implementation of mail-absentee voting state-wide at an unprecedented level due to COVID-19, which helped fuel historic turnout that year, Sanchez explains. So, what does the low turnout in 2024 mean for the general election this fall? Sanchez says its entirely possible that turnout in November could also be low due to a lack of overall enthusiasm voters have in either candidate. To hear Sanchez take a closer look at the results and the races during primary night, check out this KRQE News 13 story. More election results can be found at this link. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos. $2M for EV school buses in Baldwin County will help a county overburdened by pollution A Georgia county with a disproportionately high rate of minority K-12 students suffering from respiratory problems could find some relief in a $2 million federal grant for electronic school buses. The Baldwin County School District will receive a $2 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agencys Clean School Bus Program to acquire six electric buses to improve air quality, the agency announced on May 29. The cleaner fleets will replace older, diesel-powered buses that have been linked to causing problems with asthma and other health issues affecting students, especially those of disadvantaged communities, the federal agency said in a news release. The federal money is crucial for the district to be able afford the buses, according to Eric Little, director of transportation for Baldwin County schools. Without the grant, the cost of purchasing the buses wouldnt be an economically viable option for the district. The grant provides an opportunity for our students and community to be exposed to a type of buses which under normal circumstances would be much more difficult to obtain, he said in an email. Black Baldwin County residents visited emergency rooms for respiratory disorders at a higher rate than others from 2018 to 2022 according to Georgia Department of Health data. Black youth aged 17 and under in Baldwin County accounted for 68% of emergency room visits for respiratory disorders from 2018 to 2022, a significant difference from white youths 26% of emergency room visits, the data shows. The bus program advances President Joe Bidens Justice40 Initiative, which aims to deliver 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved and overburdened by pollution, the agency said in a press release. People of color and low-income populations in Milledgeville are in the 80-90th percentile and 95-100th percentile, respectively, when compared to national socioeconomic percentiles, according to the EPA. Georgia Department of Education data shows that Baldwin County had an rate of emergency room visits for asthma of 809.8 per 100,000, ranking it No. 39 out of 159 Georgia counties in 2022. Because diesel air pollution is linked to multiple health conditions and premature deaths, it can cause students to miss school, particularly in communities of color and Tribal communities, the agency said. One in 10 kindergartens and first graders in Baldwin County were chronically absent in 2023, according to a recent school district attendance presentation. Two in 10 low-income students also missed school and were described as more likely to suffer academically. Although the numbers do not mention if the absences were health-related, the school system faced a chronic absenteeism problem of its most youngest pupils. In 2023, 65% of Baldwin County School students were Black, according to the states Educator Pipeline Dashboard. Baldwin Countys air quality is poorer than state and national averages, which are measured per cubic meter of very small particles in the air, according to County Health Rankings. In the press release, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the funding allows the agency to transform the nations school bus fleet to better protect our most precious cargoour kidssaving school districts money, improving air quality, and bolstering American manufacturing all at the same time. Little said the district is excited about the positive impact the initiative will have on its students well-being and environmental sustainability efforts within the community. Transitioning towards a cleaner fleet means that we can start with improving the air quality for students that will be transported on electric school buses, Little said in an email. Electric buses have zero tailpipe pollution, producing zero Nitrogen Oxide or particulate matter, helping to assist with reducing air contaminants to improve overall human health. The federal grant will also help Baldwin County cover a lift bus thats compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as additional resources from Georgia Power to get the charging infrastructure needed, Little added. Common design mistakes you're making in every room of your house Common design mistakes you're making in every room of your house Robert Gigliotti and Ethan Gaskill went viral on TikTok for sharing their home decor "icks." They stressed the idea of working with your space's unique features, rather than against them. Gigliotti and Gaskill told BI that trendy, expensive furniture pieces are overrated, too. The internet is full of interior design aesthetics Scandinavian, Boho, Country House, Maximalist each with its own set of experts and influencers explaining what must-haves you need to best accomplish the trend. It's no wonder Americans spend an average of $1,599 on home decor annually, per a 2024 Opendoor survey. But LA-based content creators Robert Gigliotti and Ethan Gaskill have taken a different approach to interior design influencing. The friends and collaborators have garnered more than 8 million views on TikTok sharing their most disliked interior design and home decor trends in a series called "home decor icks." Gigliotti and Gaskill are not designers but have self-taught eyes for design fostered by family experiences. Gigliotti told Business Insider that his mother flipped houses while he was growing up in Connecticut and he became "tired of them all being builder gray," so he got involved in helping pick out tiles and other finishes. Meanwhile, Gaskill was raised in North Carolina and drew inspiration from his father, a custom home builder, and his mother, a real-estate agent. "My mom was always around the house and really ingrained in my brain the idea of keeping a tidy space and making sure your space is a kind of reflection of who you are, in the way that it sort of impacts your mind," he said. Gigliotti and Gaskill said their opinions have resonated with audiences online partly because they're calling out mistakes they've made or seen themselves. "It's all things that people kind of agree on or relate to in a way, that they can kind of laugh about," Gaskill said. Gigliotti added, "The second anything becomes too serious, it's not fun anymore, so it's not like we would actually go in someone's home and be like, 'This is disgusting.' Honestly, it's amazing effort if you painted everything pink and did your statement wall of floral wallpaper. At least you're having fun. If you love it, we like it." Business Insider spoke with Gigliotti and Gaskill to hear more about what they think you should avoid when decorating each room of your home, from "cringey" art prints and DIYs to overly curated shelving. Let's start with the living room. You can skip the statement couch for something cheaper and more timeless. Skip the statement couch for something more timeless. Ed Reeve/View Pictures/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Gigliotti told Business Insider he thinks trendy, statement couches are on their way out. "I think a lot of people went in the last few years to those really funky bubble couches or the Togo sofas, like Mario Bellini. All those extravagant, huge, showcase piece sofas that aren't comfortable, are $12,000, or there's a lot of dupes that are just not good quality," he said. Those intense pieces are hard to make work as you move from space to space and as time passes, meaning they could be a waste of money. Gigliotti knows this from experience. He, too, had the orange bubble sofa by Mario Bellini. "That was a lot of when I was letting social media like I'm saying determine, 'This is what's cool. I can't have a gray sofa. I can't have this. I have to have that really cool thing,'" Gigliotti said. It was sold within a month. Instead, there's nothing wrong with choosing something more classic or even using a slipcover. Gigliotti and Gaskill agreed that a linen slipcover would work in any home. And, thrifting is a great option, too. You shouldn't rely too heavily on your interests to inform your home decor choices. Don't let your interests overpower your home. New Africa/Shutterstock A recurring theme across the collaborators' videos has been finding the right balance between highlighting your interests, and not letting them overpower your home. In the fourth installment of their TikTok series, Gaskill said one of his "icks" is "letting your personal interests be your interior design style" and offered an anecdote about how he once let his love of horror films seep into his home decor with an art print of a skull melting. "Your home can speak to your interests in more subtle or timeless ways," he said. Gigliotti elaborated, saying, "You can love fashion, but you don't need to display your Gucci and Hermes boxes as decor. Just wear cute clothes." And it's time to get rid of those grommet curtains. Gaskill likened having grommet curtains to having a shower curtain in your living room. Lek in a BIG WORLD/Shutterstock In the first edition of the duo's "home decor icks" videos, Gaskill likened grommet curtains to "a shower curtain hanging in your living room." Enough said. Moving on to the kitchen: Your appliances don't all need to be on display. You don't need to leave all your appliances on the counter. Serghei Starus/Shutterstock "You don't need a Ninja CREAMi ice cream maker on the counter, an espresso machine, a microwave, an air fryer," Gaskill said. "Obviously, not everyone has the storage for everything, but I think some people just keep all their appliances out all the time and it takes up all your counter space," he added. If you have storage space in your kitchen, display only your most-used appliances, like a coffee maker or toaster, and bring any others out when you're actually using them. Another note on appliances: They don't need to be a "design moment." Appliances don't need to be a "design moment." Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock "Things don't need to be a focus," Gigliotti said. "If you have a microwave, just get one that blends into the space. It doesn't need to be hot pink with cups placed on top of it and cookbooks. Just have a microwave and it is what it is. I use my microwave every single day, but I'm not making it the highlight of my space," he added. This also means you can skip the fake vintage or retro appliances in favor of something classic like stainless steel. It's also time to stop over-decorating your bar carts and open shelving. Overdecorating shelving can make spaces look too curated. gostua/Shutterstock "When it's overly styled, with six cookbooks stacked there and then a little jar that you're never going to use and never touch, I think that just doesn't look lived in," Gigliotti said. "It'll look like you're trying too hard." Prioritizing functionality over aesthetics, thus, is much more practical and appealing. "It's just like, if you're using a wooden spoon every day and it's functional for your kitchen, that's going to look so much better when it's authentic," Gigliotti added. As for bathrooms, leave peel-and-stick tiles alone. Avoid using peel-and-stick tiles for bathroom DIYs. Arina P Habich/Shutterstock "Bathrooms are one of the most common victims for peel-and-stick tile, and because peel-and-stick tile is using an adhesive, when steam gets in the room, things start to peel up," Gaskill told BI. Gigliotti added, "I almost would rather see an old ugly laminate countertop than a bubbling peel and stick. It is what it is." Often, DIY projects are an attempt to mask or cover a disliked area of a home, but when done poorly, they can actually draw more unwanted attention, Gaskill warned. "Most of us are still learning," he said. "I mean, not all of us are professional remodelers, so a lot of times it's not done very well, and then that's when it becomes more of an eyesore. I think you should have fun with DIYs, but at the end of the day, your home I just don't like treating it like a craft project." Toiletries are not decorations. You don't need to install shelving to display your nail polish collection. Tori20/Shutterstock This isn't to say that you shouldn't keep your most used skincare or fragrances out, but rather that it's not necessary to install shelving specifically to display these items. "I keep my skincare out or I'll forget to do it," Gigliotti said. Instead, the issue is when you're "making shelving just to put nail polish." And it's time to update those "cringey" art prints. "Live, Laugh, Love" prints aren't the only art pieces that qualify as "cringey." BillyBlakkr/Shutterstock Move over, "Live, Laugh, Love," there's another art trend that's losing its appeal: cringey, quirky art prints. By "cringey" or "quirky," think of anything with food like bagels or pickle jars, cowboy hats, or odd phrases. For other examples, Gigliotti told BI he recently went to a restaurant in LA that had posters in the bathroom of a giant red pepper that said, "Get spicy," and a cat that said, "This is a fat green cat that you're responsible for watching while you're peeing." To maximize your bedroom floor space, stop placing your bed perpendicular to a corner. Placing your bed perpendicular to a corner leaves unusable space. Benjamin F. Haith/Shutterstock When you angle your bed out from the corner of your bedroom, you create an alcove of space that will likely become a hiding spot for dirty laundry or otherwise go untouched completely. In another installment of the series, Gaskill said, "It just kind of feels like you didn't know how to lay out the room." "There's something about it that just doesn't sit well with me from a design perspective," he added. You don't need to color code your bookshelves. Mix-matching the colors on your bookshelf actually adds character and charm. brunocoelho/Shutterstock Color coding is a great method of organization for your closet, but it's not necessary to do the same with your bookshelves. "A home needs character, it needs charm. Mix-match looks good," Gigliotti said on TikTok. So, whatever order you read or place them back in is fair game. And finally, don't force design elements into your home that weren't there originally. Don't force unnecessary design elements into your home. Sheila Say/Shutterstock Gigliotti emphasized the importance of accepting your home's characteristics and said there's no need to try to make it into something it's not by adding numerous DIY projects like fake beams, brick walls, or different tiles to the mix. "Just let things be what they are, embrace it, and then aspire for something different in your next place," Gaskill added. But, if you're really looking for a change or want to elevate your space, a new coat of paint and good artwork are the best places to start. Read the original article on Business Insider 3 Florida heat records broken Thursday. More may fall over weekend. See the forecast Three Florida cities set heat records Thursday, and more records may fall before the arrival of some tropical moisture next week. A heat advisory was issued for portions of Miami-Dade County early Friday, June 7. By 10 a.m., the heat advisory had been expanded to include Palm Beach and Broward counties. Heat indices between 104 and 108 are likely for most of South Florida. Some areas could see a heat index of 110, according to NWS. A heat advisory has been expanded to include Palm Beach, Broward and Palm Beach counties from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 7, 2024. Heat records set Thursday, June 6: Winter Haven: 102 Sanford: 101 Punta Gorda: 97 AccuWeather forecasters are predicting temperatures could be 5 to 10 degrees above historical averages Friday through Sunday. The potential for record heat means an increased risk for heat-related illnesses, including heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Tropics watch: NHC tracking 3 tropical waves, including 1 in Caribbean There is relief coming. A dip in the jet stream is expected to pull some tropical moisture into Florida next week. While there is a small chance, as of now, a tropical depression could form south of Florida, the system is forecast to bring several inches of rain, with the heaviest expected in South and Central Florida. Those areas have been suffering drought conditions. Why is it so hot in Florida? Record heat is forecast for portions of Florida June 7-9, 2024. The record high temperatures being experienced across portions of Florida can be attributed to several factors, including record warm water temperatures surrounding the state, along with a dome of high pressure suppressing cooling rainfall. "Even by Florida standards, it's hot," said Brandon Buckingham, AccuWeather meteorologist. "Temperatures in the upper 90s and high dewpoints. That's some impressive heat." What's a heat advisory? Heat advisory issued for this Florida county, with record highs expected. Here's where Florida weather forecast: Record heat followed by rain Precipitation forecast across Florida from June 7 through June 14, 2024. Temperatures this week, while feeling really hot, actually have been close to normal, according to the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network. That's changing. Starting Thursday, winds shifted to out of the south in response to a front moving toward Florida. Those winds will push temperatures into the mid to upper 90s. It's also bringing tropical moisture, which will make conditions outside feel very muggy, according to the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network. Bottom line: temperatures will feel between 105 and 110 across much of the state. By Friday, winds are expected to come out of the southwest, dumping heat gathered over land to the east coast of Florida, from the Space Coast south to Miami. "Miami and Fort Lauderdale could break new records and the high temperature is likely to reach 95 degrees on Friday. The afternoon temperature for West Palm Beach is also forecast to beat a record established in 1998 of 94," the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network said. Conditions won't improve over the weekend. "On Saturday and Sunday, record temperatures will be possible across the I-4 corridor, from Tampa to Orlando, and along I-95, from Melbourne to Miami. Highs could range between 94 and 97 and with the humidity, the temperatures will feel as if they were above 105."Related contentlist (ID: 73892033007) Up to 5 inches of rain possible across some portions of Florida next week Rainfall forecast for June 7-8, 2024. Numerous downpours and high rainfall are forecast from the start through the middle of the week. "As of now, most models show the highest rainfall across southern Florida. Some areas could receive up to 5 inches between Sunday and Wednesday," the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network said. The tropical downpours next week are expected to impact the entire Florida Peninsula and could expand across the Gulf Coast, according to AccuWeather. Radar: Track storms using NWS radar Could tropical depression form next week south of Florida? Tropical outlook June 12-16, 2024. As the jet stream dips a tropical disturbance or tropical wave is expected to moves in from the east, "it is "there is a chance a tropical depression could evolve in the zone from the northwestern Caribbean to the eastern Gulf of Mexico," AccuWeather said. "Unusually warm waters, well above the critical threshold of about 80 degrees, and a moist environment favor development. The upcoming jet stream dip may also help to provide some low-grade spin in the zone." Inhibiting development and any significant strengthening will be how close everything is to land. From June 12 to 16, a zone from the northwestern Caribbean to the central and eastern Gulf of Mexico could support tropical development. "The average date of the first named storm in the Atlantic basin is June 20, so if a storm does form, it would be several days ahead of the historical average," said AccuWeather Lead Tropical Meteorologist Alex DaSilva. "Regardless of development, there's the potential for very heavy rain across central and South Florida and portions of Cuba and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula as tropical moisture surges north," DaSilva said. Weekend weather forecast for Pensacola, Florida Panhandle Pensacola, Panhandle: A surface cold front is moving into the forecast area from the north Friday morning and will be dropping south across the area later today. Afternoon temperatures expected to top out in the lower 90s. High temperatures could hit could remain in lower 90s Saturday. Heat indices forecast to hit 100 to 106 Sunday, according to the National Weather Service Mobile. Weekend weather forecast for Tallahassee, North Florida For some locations, the next few days - June 7-10, 2024 - could be the hottest temperatures of the year so far. Tallahassee, North Florida: A lingering cold front draped across the Florida Panhandle and Big Bend Friday will provide a small focus for showers and thunderstorms. The area will likely see the hottest temperatures of season so far as temperatures climb into the upper 90s on Saturday and Sunday. While the lack of significant humidity will keep the dangerous heat away, temps will still be above average with heat indices likely in the low 100s, according to the National Weather Service Tallahassee. Weekend weather forecast for Jacksonville, Northeast Florida Hot temps continue today through the weekend, heat indices reaching 100-106 degrees over most of Northeast Florida June 7-9, 2024. Jacksonville, Northeast Florida: Another hot, humid day expected Friday, with near daily record highs possible heat indices between 101 and 107. Isolated, strong storms possible across Northeast Florida. Expect sunny to mostly sunny skies Saturday and Sunday, with daytime temperatures well into the 90s possibly reaching 100 degrees in some areas Sunday, according to the National Weather Service Jacksonville. Weekend weather forecast for Florida East Coast, from Daytona Beach to Stuart High temperatures expected to get well into the 90s June 7, 2024, with heat indices reached 100 to 107. East Central Florida: Scattered showers and lightning storms are expected from mid to late afternoon through early evening Friday. Hotter than normal temperatures continue Friday, with highs in the mid 90s and heat indices between 102 to 107 degrees. Decreased shower and storm chances will continue this weekend, increasing once again by the early to middle part of next week. Hot temperatures will continue into the weekend with near record highs in the mid to upper 90s and heat indices reaching at least 100 to 107 degrees. A moderate to major heat risk is in the outlook for much of Central Florida, with urban areas reaching an extreme risk on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service Melbourne. A heat advisory has been expanded to include Palm Beach, Broward and Palm Beach counties from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 7, 2024. South Florida: Some scattered thunderstorms will develop Friday afternoon into the early evening. Storms may contain periods of heavy rain, gusty winds and frequent lightning. Peak indices of 104 to 108 degrees are likely for most of South Florida today while a few areas could approach 110 degrees. A heat advisory will be in effect Friday from 10 a.m. through 6 p.m. for areas of Miami Dade away from the coast. Temperatures will remain hot through the weekend and into next week. Additional heat advisories or possibly excessive heat warnings may be necessary in coming days. Showers and thunderstorms will continue to be possible each day, with the greatest coverage expected each afternoon over the interior, according to the National Weather Service Miami. Southwest Florida: Hot temperatures will continue Friday and into the weekend away from the coast. Max temps over the interior likely in the upper 90s each day. Widespread showers and scattered thunderstorms will be possible next week, according to the National Weather Service Tampa Bay. This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Florida heat records fall, heat advisory issued. Here's the forecast 3 Men Were 'Hunted' in Store in Rash of Robberies Targeting Latino-Owned Businesses, Ala. Mayor Says The triple homicide is the latest in a string of violent burglaries targeting Latino-owned businesses in the Montgomery, Ala. community WSFA 12 News/YouTube Montgomery police responded to a triple homicide at Tienda Los Hermanos, Tuesday, June 4. Police arrived at Tienda Los Hermanos, a Latino grocery store in Montgomery, Ala., just before 9 p.m. Tuesday, June 4. There, officers found George Elijah, Jr., 50, and Daniel Lopez, 20, fatally shot, Acting Chief of Police John Hall confirmed at a recorded press conference Wednesday. Romero Lopez, 43 was rushed to a local hospital, where he succumbed to gunshot injuries. At the joint press conference with Mayor Steven Reed, officials confirmed that the shooting at the grocery store was one in a rash of such stick-ups targeting Latino-owned businesses in Montgomery. Calling the shooting inexcusable, Reed said, People working their jobs in their community, trying to make it day-to-day, week-to-week should not be preyed upon, should not be targeted. Were not going to stand for people to be hunted because people think theyre an easy target or theyre easy prey, Reed added. Then, speaking to the perpetrators of the shootings, he continued: Its easy being the hunter, its different when youre being hunted and thats what they are being right now. 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. Police have not yet named any suspects or announced any arrests related to the triple homicide. Hall said that due to the ongoing investigation, he could not yet confirm if the people involved in the set of earlier unenumerated burglaries of Latino-owned businesses were also responsible for Tuesdays shooting. But, he said, once they're identified we're going to seek the most stringent justice that we can, and that in that vein, his department is consulting with the FBI, with an aim to file federal charges. Hall said investigators are reviewing video evidence, interviewing witnesses and utilizing the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, an automated, interstate evaluation tool enabling law enforcement agencies to find patterns and connect crimes. Montgomery police have also set up a special detail of officers focused on such robberies and violent crimes, Hall said. The Lopez men were the owners brother and nephew, Maribel Lopez, the owner, confirmed to WFSA. (The name of the store Tienda Los Hermanos refers to a family-run operation.) Elijah had been caught in the crossfire, the mayor said, when he had come to the grocery store just to do a little shopping and talking to those that worked there. During Wednesdays press conference, a man speaking in Spanish asserted that at least two 911 calls had been placed reporting the shooting at Tienda Los Hermanos before police responded, exacerbating fears within the Latino community about deadly delays in response time. Google Maps Tuesday's fatal shootings at Tienda Los Hermanos are the latest in a rash of violent crimes targeting Latino businesses in Montgomery, Ala. I don't have an answer for that, Hall said, after the concern was translated to him. What I will do is have that researched and find out what happened. Major Saba Coleman of the Montgomery Police Department declined to provide follow-up information to that allegation Thursday or to provide additional insight into the string of race-related burglaries in Montgomery, which officials believe may in part be based on the large amounts of cash often passing through the stores. It is unclear how many Latino-owned businesses have been targeted, or if investigators are searching for one or multiple shooters in connection to Tuesdays shooting and the earlier burglaries. If you have information related to this homicide investigation or other shootings targeting the Latino community in Montgomery, Ala. you may contact CrimeStoppers at 215-STOP, Secret Witness at 625-4000, or the Montgomery Police Department at 625-2831. For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on People. Johannesburg The United Nations confirmed late Thursday that 35 children were among those killed in one of the deadliest attacks to date in the civil war that has torn Sudan apart for more than a year. Eyewitnesses said the brutal attack left up to 200 people dead in the village of Wad Al-Noora, in Sudan's central Gezira state. Sudan's army vowed a strong response against the rival Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, which it accused of carrying out a "massacre of civilians." Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan's army chief and president, said his troops would take action over the incident. The RSF has denied carrying out a massacre, but has acknowledged conducting military operations near the town. An infographic shows the location of the town of Wad al-Noora in central Sudan, where the Sudanese army accused the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of carrying out a massacre on June 5, 2024. / Credit: Elmurod Usubaliev/Anadolu/Getty Local officials initially said more than 100 people were shot Wednesday in Wad Al-Noora, with later reports saying the death toll could be as high as 200. Many more were believed to be wounded. Videos on social media, which could not be independently verified, show what was said to be the aftermath of the attack, with rows of bodies lined up ready for burial. Sudan's military government, led by al-Burhan, called for international condemnation of the attack. A man-made humanitarian crisis and claims of war crimes More than a year into the war in Sudan, roughly half of the country's population some 25 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. In their worst-case outlooks, humanitarian agencies say 4 million children may be facing acute malnutrition, and 2.5 million could die of hunger. It's a man-made humanitarian disaster that aid agencies say has been largely ignored by the world amid the ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine. A recent report by Human Rights Watch claims an act of genocide may have been committed in the West Darfur city of El Geneina. The report lays out claims of alleged ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity committed against the ethnic Massalit and non-Arab communities in the city by the paramilitary RSF forces and their Arab allies. HRW has called for international sanctions against RSF leader Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, widely known as Hemedti. One report details an attack on June 15, 2023, that HRW says involved RSF and allied forces opening fire on a convoy of civilians fleeing El Geneina, allegedly killing 12 children and five adults from two families, before throwing their bodies "into the river and their belongings in after them." There is a long and bloody history of fighting over resources in Sudan, and the surrounding region. Former Sudanese President Omar el Bashir, who was ousted by the army in 2019, regularly exploited those conflicts, fanning the flames of ethnic violence for political gain. His government created Arab militias in the early 2000s to quell rebellions by non-Arab farming and pastoralist communities. Those Arab militias became known as the Janjaweed and, later, the RSF paramilitary group emerged from their ranks. Objects are scattered in the yard of house in Omdurman, central Sudan, May 30, 2024, that was damaged amid fighting in the civil war that has raged for more than a year between the regular military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. / Credit: AFP/Getty Sudan's civil war has become a global proxy war The civil war broke out last year, starting as a power struggle between al-Burhan and Hemedti, but it has morphed into a larger proxy war as regional and foreign actors compete for influence and resources. Saudi Arabia and Egypt back al-Burhan's government, and he has recently been working to forge closer ties with Iran and Russia. Humanitarian groups and regional analysts say the United Arab Emirates and Russia have been providing arms and resources to the RSF. UAE officials have repeatedly denied those claims. In the most significant recent development, it seems almost certain that a deal is about to be signed between Moscow and al-Burhan's government to secure Russia a 25-year Red Sea port, in exchange for military hardware. U.S. holds huge military drill in Africa as Russia and China's influence grows Russia has long sought access to the strategic Red Sea, with analysts saying they would expect considerable military hardware to be offered up in exchange for what's understood to be a small port base where Russia could position four warships and about 300 Russian soldiers. The two generals' battle for control of their country's resources has become a proxy war for major global powers vying for access to gold mines and Red Sea access. Sudan's capital Khartoum, one of the African continent's most populous cities, is now described as a battlefield, in a country whose people are on the brink of famine. Polish general examines Putin threat to arm West's enemies Who will be Trump's 2024 VP pick? These are the contenders Cleaning up the Great Pacific garbage patch Authorities announced 36 people were arrested in a massive bust targeting a California-based drug trafficking network with ties to the Sinaloa cartel. The fentanyl-and-methamphetamine distribution network operated in the Imperial Valley and involved drug trafficking, firearms and money laundering offenses, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. More than 400 law enforcement officials were involved in the arrests of 36 suspects. Search warrants were served in 25 locations across Los Angeles, San Diego, Imperial County, Fresno, Phoenix, Arizona and Salem, Oregon. Officials confirmed 11 additional suspects remain on the run. A U.S. Border Patrol agent, Alexander Grindley, was also arrested for alleged methamphetamine trafficking. The sprawling drug network operated across multiple locations including Brawley, El Centro, Westmoreland, Imperial, Calexico, Niland, Holtville, Calipatria and Mexicali, Mexico. A stockpile of assault rifles that were bound for Mexico belonging to a California drug trafficking organization with ties to the Sinaloa cartel. (U.S. Department of Justice) Firearms and Russian-made ammunition belonging to a California drug trafficking organization with ties to the Sinaloa cartel. (U.S. Department of Justice) Court documents said the suspects belonged to various trafficking organizations that were part of an extensive network supplying all of Imperial County and beyond with dangerous narcotics. During the bust, authorities confiscated: Over four kilograms of fentanyl, which amounts to about two million potentially fatal doses More than 324 kilograms (over 714 pounds) of methamphetamine Significant quantities of cocaine and heroin 52 firearms, including handguns and rifles Agents have been dismantling operations for years across several previous busts. On June 30, 2021, agents seized two pounds of methamphetamine and a cache of ghost guns and ammunition including 15 lower receivers, three upper receivers, multiple barrels and stocks, 18 magazines, 40 Luger 9mm rounds and around 400 rounds of .223 Red Army Russian-made ammunition. None of the firearms or firearm parts had any identifying serial numbers or markings, officials noted. They were all ghost guns. Wiretapped conversations revealed Cory Gershen had supplied organization members with ghost guns in exchange for methamphetamine. Agents also found a cache of assault rifles that were scheduled to be sent to Mexico. Agents seized additional weapons and drugs from Guadalupe Molina-Flores, another member of the trafficking organization, including two AR-style ghost guns, a Colt .380 semiautomatic handgun, additional Russian rifle ammunition and 309.4 grams (0.68 pounds) of methamphetamine. This investigation tore apart a drug trafficking network responsible for supplying dealers in communities across the region, said U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath for the Southern District of California. But there is still much work to be done. If youre a parent and todays price of fentanyl terrifies you, talk to your kids about the dangers of drug use. If youre an addict and your dealer was arrested today, seek treatment. And if youre a dealer but your supplier was arrested today, look out we are coming for you next. With this takedown, the Justice Department has dealt yet another blow to the Sinaloa Cartel and its associates, said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. I am grateful to the more than 400 law enforcement officers whose work in this operation resulted in dozens of arrests, charges against 47 defendants, and the seizure of firearms, meth, cocaine, heroin, and two million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl. We will continue to be relentless in our fight to protect American communities from the cartels. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. Subscription to paid content Gain access to all that Trend has to offer, as well as to premium, licensed content via subscription or direct purchase through a credit card. TOPEKA (KSNT) The car manufacturer Kia America, Inc. is issuing a recall for thousands of vehicles due to fire injury risks. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced in a press release on June 5 that Kia America, Inc. is recalling more than 462,000 of its 2020-2024 Telluride vehicles. The vehicles have a defect where the front power seat motor may overheat due to a stuck power seat slide knob. This can lead to the car catching fire while parked or driving. If you own one of the recalled Kia vehicles, you are encouraged to park it outside and away from nearby buildings until the recall repair is made. The NHTSA said dealers will install a bracket for the power seat switch back covers and replace the seat slide knobs for free. Notification letters will be mailed out to the vehicle owners by July 30, 2024. Kia customer service can be contacted at 1-800-333-4542. The recall number for these Kia vehicles is SC316. Credit card skimmers found at northeast Kansas gas stations 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. Follow Matthew Self on X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/MatthewLeoSelf Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News. Attorneys Clayton Carlson (left) Ian Birrell (right) and Steven Schleicher (second from right) flank defendant Said Shafii Farah on the first day of testimony in the Feeding Our Future trial. Farah was one of two defendants acquitted of all charges. Photo by Max Nesterak/Minnesota Reformer. A jury found five defendants guilty and two not guilty on Friday in the first trial in the nations largest pandemic relief fraud case. They faced a total of 41 charges chiefly wire fraud, bribery and money laundering alleging they claimed to give away 18.8 million meals to needy children from 50 sites across the state. Prosecutors said they fabricated invoices and submitted thousands of phony names of children in order to get $49 million in federal funds. Said Shafii Farah and Abdiwahab Maalim Aftin were acquitted of all charges against them, while the others had a mix of convictions and acquittals. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson held a brief press conference and said, Were pleased with the verdict. Were proud of the trial. He said the outcome confirms what the feds knew all along: That members of the group falsified documents, lied and claimed to be serving millions of meals, taking advantage of a global pandemic to defraud the public and steal millions of dollars. This conduct was not just criminal, it was depraved and brazen, Thompson said. Evidence showed how brazen the scheme was, and how extensive and shameless it was. The verdict came at the end of a chaotic week, when the first day of jury deliberations was marked by chaos Monday, as federal prosecutors revealed that someone left $120,000 at the home of a juror Sunday night in an effort to sway her vote. The juror and another juror who became aware of the bribe attempt were dismissed, while the remaining jurors were sequestered and the defendants detained for the remainder of deliberations. The home of one of the defendants, Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, whom prosecutors have described as a ringleader, was raided Wednesday in connection with the bribe investigation. The defendants are the first to stand trial out of 70 people charged so far in whats been dubbed the Feeding Our Future case named for a nonprofit at the center of the scheme and which revolves around a web of people who federal prosecutors say stole some $250 million. Eighteen people have pleaded guilty and one fled the country. The verdict is sure to affect the 44 others awaiting trial. More could still be charged, especially if the guilty verdicts unleash a wave of cooperation with the investigation, as defendants and suspects seek lighter sentences. The two acquittals may give some the confidence to go to trial, however. In painstaking detail, government accountants and investigators showed how defendants funneled money through numerous corporations to conceal that they werent buying much food, and paid kickbacks to nonprofits that were supposed to be overseeing them. They showed evidence the defendants only spent a few million dollars on food, and spent the rest on pricey vehicles, luxury vacations to the Maldives and the Middle East and new homes, including a suburban lakefront mansion. This case revolved around a small halal restaurant and market in a Shakopee strip mall called Empire Cuisine & Market. It was incorporated by two of the defendants in April 2020, and soon after claimed to be feeding kids at a couple dozen distribution sites. The restaurant received nearly $30 million in federal funds, and spent about $3 million of it on food some of which appeared to be for the restaurant, according to an FBI forensic accountant. Their defense attorneys argued they actually did give away food showing photos and videos with some food being stored, packaged and distributed and were allowed to make a profit. They blamed the state Department of Education that ran the program and two nonprofits at the center of the case Feeding Our Future and Partners in Nutrition for not giving them enough guidance as they navigated a complicated, ever-changing array of federal waivers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture loosened its rules during the COVID-19 pandemic to make it easier to get food to children as schools and child care centers shuttered. Prosecutors say the program was flooded with reimbursement requests from the defendants and others charged in Minnesota, even though very little food was actually served. The defendants Abdiaziz Shafii Farah of Savage and Mohamed Jama Ismail of Savage incorporated Empire Cuisine & Market on April 1, 2020, got permits to convert it into a grocery store and 18 days later told their sponsoring nonprofit, Partners in Nutrition, they were ready to distribute 250 meals at the Samaha Family Center in Shakopee. They opened a bank account for the company on May 12, 2020, and began filing claims seeking reimbursement from the government for meals. Farah was found guilty on all but one count. He was convicted of six counts of wire fraud; one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud; conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery; two counts of federal programs bribery; 11 counts of money laundering; making false statements in a passport application; and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. He was acquitted of one count of wire fraud. Empire Cuisine & Market and other affiliated sites received over $28 million in fraudulent federal child nutrition funds, prosecutors said. Prosecutors showed jurors WhatsApp messages between defendant Abdiaziz Farah and another person indicted in the case talking about how to divide up the money they made, coming up with names of children served, and dealing with the state and nonprofit that were supposed to be monitoring them as opposed to the logistics of getting huge amounts of food to distribution sites. The next multi-millionaires will be you and me, Abdiaziz Farah wrote in one message. He went on to write a $1 million check to buy a lakeside Prior Lake home. Mohamed Jama Ismail of Savage was a co-owner of Empire Cuisine & Market, and prosecutors say he pocketed over $2 million in the scheme, buying a GMC pickup, two trucks for $167,000, and spending $137,000 to pay off the mortgage on the house hed bought six years earlier. Ismail was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and acquitted of another count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud; and convicted of money laundering and conspiracy to money launder. His lawyer, Patrick Cotter, portrayed him as a hard-working immigrant who did not purposely defraud the government. Cotter said Ismail nearly died of hepatitis and hunger before making it to America, where he realized his dream of opening an East African restaurant. After the FBI seized Ismails passport during a January 2022 raid of his home, he applied for a new one months later, claiming hed lost his. Three months later, he was arrested in a jetway about to board a one-way flight from Minneapolis to Kenya, seeking to to reunite with his wife and five children. Abdimajid Mohamed Nur of Shakopee was 20 when he got involved in the food program, where his lawyer Edward Sapone said he may have been in over his head but saw it as a dream job and his big chance. Nur was convicted of four counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud; four counts of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to money launder. He was acquitted of three counts of money laundering. Sapone said Nur picked rocks out of crops at age 10 and put in 14-hour days working at Dairy Queen in high school, where he was an athlete who ran the 800-meter. He enlisted in the U.S. Army as a teen before getting involved in the food program, where his lawyer said he made a lot of money and was seen as the star of the family. He created a consulting company that prosecutors said was used to launder federal funds from Empire Cuisine & Market and other entities. Prosecutors said he signed off on dozens of sites meal claims daily, showed a $30,000 wire transfer from his consulting company to a Dubai jewelry company and an $11,000 payoff of his car. Said Shafii Farah of Minneapolis, brother of defendant Abdiaziz Farah, was an owner of Bushra Wholesalers LLC, which prosecutors said was a shell company used to launder federal funds. His attorney, Steven Schleicher, said Said Farah distributed food and is a self-made businessman who lives in a modest Minneapolis home. Farah was acquitted of all eight charges of wire fraud, bribery and money laundering. Hes just very grateful to be to have been acquitted and exonerated of these charges and to put this behind him, Schleicher said. Abdiwahab Maalim Aftin, 32, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, was an owner of Bushra Wholesalers LLC. Aftin was acquitted of three wire fraud and money laundering charges. Aftins lawyer Andrew Garvis praised the jury for their decision. They were extremely conscientious and Im glad that they heard the evidence and took it all into consideration, Garvis said. Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff of Bloomington was the chief executive officer of Afrique Hospitality Group, which used federal funds to build an East African community center in Bloomington. Prosecutors said Afrique was a shell company used to fraudulently obtain and launder federal funds, but Shariff, the only defendant of seven who opted to testify in the case, said it was a real project with other investors, and actually got built (although it went through bankruptcy and has since been taken over by others and operates under the name Zawadi). Shariff was convicted of two wire fraud charges and two money laundering charges and acquitted of two bribery charges. Prosecutors said Shariff pocketed $1.3 million in 2021 working for Afrique and as a consultant to other entities involved in the food program, and invested over $1 million in cryptocurrency. They alleged he also gave a $250,000 kickback to a former Feeding Our Future employee named Ikram Yusuf Mohamed. Shariff is probably the most well-known defendant, having created the annual Somali Diaspora Conference, started a podcast called Nomadic Hustle and worked in software engineering in Seattle before moving to Bloomington in the fall of 2020. Hayat Mohamed Nur, 25, of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, the sister of Abdimajid Nur, participated in the scheme by creating and submitting fraudulent meal count sheets, attendance rosters, and invoices. Nur was convicted of four wire fraud counts and acquitted of money laundering. The post 5 Feeding Our Future defendants found guilty, 2 acquitted in sprawling fraud case appeared first on Minnesota Reformer. Hunter Bidens trial will enter its fifth day in Wilmington, Del., Friday. The presidents son is on trial for three alleged offenses pertaining to his purchase of a gun in October 2018. The central question is whether he lied by denying he was an addict when he filled out a form in the process of buying the firearm. The charges are lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false statement on the form, and illegally being in possession of the gun. The gun was in Bidens possession for 11 days. Biden wrote extensively about his struggles with addiction to crack and alcohol in a 2021 memoir. He has pleaded not guilty. If he is convicted, the presidents son could theoretically face up to 25 years in prison. But such a sentence would be extremely unusual given that he would be a first-time offender and there are no major aggravating circumstances. The prosecution is expected to rest its case Friday. Here are the main takeaways so far. Trial brings grim details of addiction to the surface Even though Hunter Biden has documented his travails with addiction, the trial has shone a spotlight on grim details that are tough to listen to especially for the millions of Americans of all political persuasions who have seen family or friends in the grip of drug and alcohol abuse. Texts between Hunter Biden and Hallie Biden included one instance in which he wrote that he was sleeping on a car smoking crack. They also included messages that, she surmised, alluded to him meeting a dealer and others where he confessed to being a drunk and an addict. Hallie Biden is the widow of Hunters brother, Beau, who died from brain cancer in May 2015. According to her, she and Hunter began a romantic relationship in late 2015 or early 2016. She testified that she began using drugs during this time and that it was Hunter who had introduced her to narcotics. According to The Associated Press, Hunter rested his face on his left hand and looked down as she offered that detail. Previously, Hunter Bidens ex-wife Kathleen Buhle had testified that she realized her then-husband was using crack when she found a crack pipe in an ashtray in 2015. There were plenty of other similar details. Not all of them are directly relevant to Hunters guilt or innocence, but they werent comfortable moments for him or anyone in his family. Hallie Biden departs from federal court, Thursday, June 6, 2024, in Wilmington, Del. (Matt Rourke, Associated Press) No presidential pardon if convicted President Biden, who is in France to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, told ABC News on Thursday that he would not pardon his son if Hunter were to be convicted. Asked by ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir if he would accept the verdict and if he would rule out a pardon, Biden replied yes to both questions. The president has mostly sought to avoid getting drawn into extended comment about his sons legal woes. But in a statement as the trial began Monday, Biden noted his dual roles as the president and also a Dad. The statement paid tribute to Hunters resilience in the face of adversity and said that the president and first lady Jill Biden are going to continue to be there for Hunter and our family with our love and support. The first lady has been a near-constant presence in the courtroom in Wilmington until Thursday, when she joined her husband in France. She is expected to be back for Fridays proceedings. As the President, I dont and wont comment on pending federal cases, but as a Dad, I have boundless love for my son, confidence in him, and respect for his strength, the president said in his Monday statement. Defense tries to create slivers of doubt Many legal observers think the defense attorneys face stiff challenges in the trial, given their clients open acknowledgment of his addiction troubles during the general period in which he bought the gun. The defense seems to be pinning its hopes, in part, on the suggestion that Hunter was not using drugs during the precise period when he purchased and possessed the gun. For example, on Thursday, defense attorney Abbe Lowell wrung from Hallie Biden the admission that she did not witness firsthand Hunter using drugs during that period. There have also been suggestions that some of Hunter Bidens texts that appear to acknowledge drug use could have been inventions to dodge his partner or to conceal time spent in the company of other women. Time will tell how persuasive the jury finds that explanation. GOP issues request for new Hunter Biden prosecution Besides the specifics of the gun case, Republicans in Congress have long had Hunter Biden in their sights for his business dealings, as well as his personal peccadilloes. On Wednesday, the GOP chairs of three House committees sent letters to the Department of Justice recommending the prosecution of Hunter Biden and James Biden for allegedly making false statements to Congress. James Biden is the presidents younger brother. The letter came from Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), and Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.). Such referrals do not obligate the Justice Department to act, and this one does not directly relate to the events being scrutinized in the Delaware courtroom. Lowell, Hunter Bidens attorney, shot back in a statement that the GOP was trying to twist Hunters testimony so they can distract from their failed impeachment inquiry and interfere with his trial. Hunters wife confronts a Trump ally Hunter Biden has never sought elected office, but politics has, of course, reared its head at the courthouse sometimes in unexpected ways. One of the most striking such moments came on Tuesday when Hunters wife, Melissa Cohen-Biden, was seen by reporters confronting Garrett Ziegler, a one-time staffer in the Trump White House. Ziegler has fashioned himself into a Hunter Biden specialist, compiling personal and financial records from anywhere he can get them, according to The Washington Post. Then, his nonprofit posts them online. NBC News staffer Sarah Fitzpatrick wrote that, during a break in the proceedings Tuesday morning, she witnessed Cohen-Biden approach Ziegler, point her finger at him and tell him, You have no right to be here, you Nazi piece of s, before walking away. Cohen-Biden soon after alleged to NBC that Ziegler had called her the most horrific Jewish slurs, which Ziegler, in turn, called a preposterous suggestion. Ziegler added, For the record, Im not a Nazi. Im a believer in the U.S. Constitution. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Jeff Landry speaks to reporters after qualifying for the governors race Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023, at the Louisiana State Archives building in Baton Rouge. (Wes Muller/Louisiana Illuminator) Louisianas powerful governor will become more so after a massive push from Republican Jeff Landry to increase his authority and influence over state government. In his first few months in office, Landry prioritized bills in the legislative session that will increase his control and make documents about his activities private. He put pressure on the GOP-dominated Louisiana Legislature throughout the spring to approve the measures. The proposals will not only empower Landry but also governors who will follow him. He has not signed all the legislation yet but is expected to over the next three weeks. State board and commission leadership Landry has signed a law that allows him to appoint the leaders of nearly 150 state boards and commissions. Hes already used this new authority to pick leaders for the University of Louisiana System and the Louisiana Housing Corp. board of directors. For decades, the governor has appointed most or all members of dozens of state boards and commissions, but Landry wanted to take his authority a step farther and obtain power to select their leaders. There are concerns this change could impact the accreditation of public colleges and universities, as independent reviews typically frown upon excess political influence on higher education campuses. State ethics board The governor will gain more control over the Louisiana Board of Ethics, even as ethics charges the board brought against Landry last year remain unresolved. Hes in an ongoing dispute with ethics board members over what consequences he should face for not disclosing flights to Hawaii he took on a political donors private plane while attorney general. A status conference in the case is scheduled for July, and the law change giving Landry control over the board takes effect Aug 1. Under current law, leaders from Louisianas private universities and colleges nominate five people for each of the 11 seats on the ethics board, and then the governor and state lawmakers pick their appointees from those lists. The governor gets to pick seven members, and legislators select four. The incoming law removes the private university and college presidents from the process. It also expands the ethics board from 11 to 15 members, with nine appointed by the governor and six by lawmakers. The governor and legislators will be encouraged to build the board with five retired judges, five retired elected officials and five people who have never held elected office to the extent practicable, under the law. The larger, 15-seat board will allow Landry and Republican legislative leaders to take over the board more quickly. With four new members added in 2025, Landry will get to install new people faster than if he had to wait for Gov. John Bel Edwards appointees to cycle off the panel. The ethics board is supposed to monitor whether elected officials and government workers abide by regulations preventing conflicts of interest and campaign finance rules. Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority Legislation Landry is expected to sign into law will remove the independently elected state insurance commissioner and agriculture commissioner, or their designees, from the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority Board. Four other people from the governors cabinet would also come off the panel: the state transportation secretary, economic development secretary, commissioner of administration and director of the Governors Office of Homeland Security and Economic Preparedness. Instead, Landry would get to appoint three at-large members to the authority with no restrictions on his choices. The changes give the governor control of a slightly larger share of the board. Under the CPRA Boards current makeup, 17 of 22 members come from the governors cabinet, staff or other appointments. The new structure will have 16 of 19 members chosen by governor. Travel and schedule records The governor is expected to sign a bill into law that will let him keep more documents about his work schedule and travel hidden from the public indefinitely if they threaten the governor or his familys security. Currently, such records must be made available seven days after a scheduled event or trip. Government transparency advocates worry the exemption could be applied broadly because the new law doesnt clearly define what constitutes a security risk. Government documents Out-of-state residents wont be able to request records from the governors office under legislation Landry is expected to sign. People will need to present Louisiana government identification to receive records from the governors office when they file a public records request. Governors Mansion information The governor has signed into law a new set of rules that give him more control over the operations of the publicly funded Governors Mansion and the ability to keep records related to the mansion private. All meetings of the Louisiana Governors Mansion Commission will no longer be open to the public. Documents the commission produces will also be kept secret. The authority of the commission is also weakened. Its members now serve at the pleasure of the governor instead of in staggered terms that could overlap with different office holders. Commission members also lost authority over private areas of the mansion, and its oversight over the public areas of the mansion is further restricted. The governor used to need permission from the commission to repaint, redecorate or make substantial changes to the interior design of the mansions public areas. Now the governor has power over all of those decisions. The new law also takes the state wing on the second floor and makes it a private area, closing it off to the public. The post 6 incoming laws that will increase Jeff Landrys power as Louisiana governor appeared first on Louisiana Illuminator. A 6-year-old New Jersey girl who was vacationing in Maine with her family has died after she was accidentally injured in the head with a badminton racket while playing, state police said Friday. Lucy Morgan, from Stockholm, New Jersey, died Wednesday, days after she was injured while playing with her 10-year-old brother outside a home on North Shore Drive in Limerick on Saturday, June 1 state police said. Emergency crews responded to the home at noon on Saturday for a report of an injured child. The girl received an unintentional injury from her 10-year-old brother while the siblings were playing outside, state police said. Investigators learned that the aluminum shaft of a badminton racket had become dislodged from the wooden handle, causing the shaft to strike the girl in the head, piercing through her skull, state police said. She was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Sanford and then flown to Maine Medical Center in Portland, where she later died from her injuries on Wednesday, state police said. The girls death remains under investigation. The Maine State Police would like to extend their deepest condolences to the Morgan family, state police said. Limerick is a small southwest of Sebago Lake. The towns population was 3,188 at the 2020 census. 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 Russian forces have carried out 65 attacks against Ukrainian positions across the entire front line so far on 7 June. Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook, information as of 19:00 on 7 June Quote: "In the afternoon, Russian invaders continued to terrorise Kharkiv Oblast with airstrikes launched from their territory. Russian invaders dropped four bombs on the Bilyi Kolodiaz, three on Lyptsi, and one on Vesele from Murom Oblast (Russia). Ternovoe suffered two airstrikes with 16 unguided missiles." Details: Ukraines forces repelled seven attacks on the Kupiansk front. One combat clash is still underway. According to preliminary information, the Russian losses on this front amounted to 84 killed and injured, with two tanks and two armoured fighting vehicles destroyed. All eight Russian assaults on the Lyman front were unsuccessful. The Ukrainian forces have total control over the situation. On the Siversk front, the Russians attempted two unsuccessful attacks on the Ukrainian forces in the vicinity of Bilohorovka. Since the start of the day, Russian troops on the Kramatorsk front have attempted to drive Ukraines Armed Forces units from their positions around Kalynivka, Klishchiivka, Andriivka and Ivanivske seven times. All attempts were unsuccessful. Twelve of the 26 combat clashes on the Pokrovsk front are still ongoing. Russian forces launch their attacks near the towns of Novooleksandrivka, Yevhenivka, Sokola and Yasnobrodivka. The number of attacks on the Kurakhiv front has risen to nine. Ukrainian defenders repulsed eight Russian attacks, with one combat clash still ongoing. The Russian forces launched an airstrike near Vodiane with 10 unguided missiles launched from Su-25. On the Orikhiv front, the Russians also deployed aircraft. Two Ka-52s dropped 30 unguided missiles on Kamianske. Since the start of the day, Ukrainian soldiers have thwarted three Russian assaults near Robotyne. Active combat continues near Mala Tokmachka. Support UP or become our patron! 73-year-old on motorcycle trip stopped contacting family, CA cops say. Then body found The body of a man who vanished while on an out-of-state motorcycle trip has been found, California deputies say. William Robert Knight, 73, who was on a motorcycle trip to Idaho, was found dead in a river south of Alturas, about 350 miles northeast of his San Ramon home, the Modoc County Sheriffs Office said in a June 5 news release posted on Facebook. Knight had been contacting family until Thursday, May 30, deputies said. At the time, he told family he was in Lakeview, Oregon. He didnt speak with family on Friday, the day before his planned return date to San Ramon, according to deputies. Hes an excellent, experienced, rider who generally keeps in touch daily, a friend wrote on Facebook. He was well equipped with (a) new phone, new tires, etc. Family reported Knight missing on Sunday, June 2, when he didnt show, the sheriffs office said. Deputies said they began searching an area in Alturas where Knights cellphone last pinged on Monday, June 3. Multiple agencies and Knights family searched the following day as well, the sheriffs office said. A motorist called 911 at about 6 p.m., saying they found a body, identified as Knight, in the river near Highway 395, deputies said. Later that day, deputies said Knights motorcycle was also found in the river near where he was found dead. Just lost (a) good friend and hiking partner, a Facebook user wrote alluding to Knights death. Never met a trail or road he didnt like. He will be missed by many, another friend wrote on Facebook. The sheriffs office said the California Highway Patrol is investigating the accident, adding that his cause and manner of death are also still under investigation. Alturas is about a 300-mile drive northeast from Sacramento. Duo tending to cattle find skull, WY cops say. It belonged to missing Idaho man Fisherman finds skull of missing man whose death is suspicious, PA officials say 19-year-old found dead near Illinois River during fishing trip with dogs, reports say On 80th anniversary of D-Day invasion, Biden and Macron honor WWII veterans at Normandy COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, FRANCE - JUNE 06: U.S. President Joe Biden greets U.S. World War 2 veterans after French President Emmanuel Macron awarded 11 veterans the Legion d'honneur at the Normandy American Cemetery during a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day on June 06, 2024 in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. (Photo by Win McNamee / Getty Images) WASHINGTON They were brave, they were resolute, they were ready, President Joe Biden said Thursday at the Normandy American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach, one of five along Frances northern coast where Allied troops invaded in 1944 and turned the tide in World War II. Biden and dozens of U.S. lawmakers traveled to Normandy to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, the largest land, air and sea operation in military history. More than 150,000 troops from the United States, Britain and Canada landed on the beaches on June 6, beginning a monthslong battle that eventually liberated Europe from Nazi Germany. Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron honored nearly a dozen D-Day survivors and other World War II veterans on a stage set before an enormous crowd that included service members, U.S. officials, members of Congress and Hollywoods Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, who dramatized searing World War II scenes on film. Caretakers and active-duty military members helped the veterans stand before Macron as he pinned Frances Legion dHonneur, its highest military honor, on their shoulders. Biden shook each veterans hand upon receiving the medal. Among those honored on stage were Hilbert Margol of Georgia, John Wardell of New Jersey, Robert Pedigo of Indiana, Calvin Shiner of California, Edward Berthold of Illinois, Dominick Critelli of New York, Bill Casassa of Kansas, Victor Chaney of Indiana, Raymond Glansberg of Florida, Richard Stewart of Ohio and Jack Kinyon of Illinois. Roughly 20 miles east, Macron presented the same honor to British veterans at a separate event attended by King Charles III and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the British Normandy Memorial overlooking Gold Beach, according to reporters at the ceremony. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered a speech at nearby Juno Beach, according to reporters present. Bands of brothers attend Biden and first lady Jill Biden met with 41 veterans from the Normandy campaign, 33 of whom served on D-Day, according to reporters traveling with the president. Biden gave each a commemorative coin bearing the presidential seal and images of troops on the beaches of Normandy. About 180 American WWII veterans attended the ceremony, according to reporters present. Many veterans, over or approaching age 100, sat on a shaded stage in wheelchairs, covered in blue blankets and wearing red, white and blue scarves. Miniature American and French flags fluttered beside each white marble cross and Star of David in the rows and rows that mark thousands of Americans laid to rest in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. More than 9,300 Americans are buried at the 172.5-acre cemetery. Just over 300 headstones are marked unknown. A Wall of the Missing bears nearly 1,600 names of Americans declared missing or lost at sea. Many, to state the obvious, never came home. Many survived that longest day and kept on fighting for months until victory was finally won. And a few notable bands of brothers are here with us today, Biden said during the ceremony that was livestreamed by several outlets, including C-SPAN. More than 4,400 Allied troops died on the first day of the invasion, including 2,501 Americans. Just walk the rows of the cemetery as I had. Nearly 10,000 heroes buried side by side officers and enlisted, immigrants and native born, different races, different faiths, but all Americans, all served with honor, Biden said. Isolationism was not the answer The day was laden with reminders that Russias ground invasion in Ukraine is ongoing. While Russia fought as an ally in the Battle of Normandy, shoring up the Eastern front, its modern-day President Vladimir Putin continues its assault and land grab in Ukraine. Isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago, and its not the answer today, Biden said to applause. We know the dark forces that these heroes fought against 80 years ago. They never fade aggression and greed, the desire to dominate and control, to change borders by force, Biden said, referring to Russias Putin. These are perennial, the struggle between a dictatorship and freedom is unending. The fact that they (WWII veterans) were heroes here that day does not absolve us from what we have to do today. Democracy is never guaranteed, Biden said. Biden said the U.S. will not walk away from Ukraine. Because if we do, Ukraine will be subjugated, and it will not end there, Biden said. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended a separate D-Day event at Omaha Beach, according to White House press corps reporters who traveled with Biden to his second event of the day. The latest $60 billion security package for Ukraine took six months to clear Congress because of strong opposition on the far-right. Biden said NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization formed four years after WWII that now counts more than 30 member states, is the the greatest military alliance in the history of the world. Precipitated by Russias invasion in Ukraine, two additional European nations joined the alliance in 2023 and 2024 Finland, which shares a long land border with Russia, and Sweden, just across the Baltic Sea. The alliance has been the target of criticism from presumed 2024 Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump. Notably in February, Trump said in a CNN interview that he would encourage Russia to do whatever the hell they want to NATO countries, depending on their financial contributions to the alliance. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said during brief remarks Thursday that Allied nations must again stand firm against aggression and tyranny and uphold the spirit of D-Day. The post On 80th anniversary of D-Day invasion, Biden and Macron honor WWII veterans at Normandy appeared first on Source New Mexico. FILE PHOTO: Test tubes are seen in front of a displayed Abbvie logo in this illustration By Patrick Wingrove (Reuters) - AbbVies top-selling arthritis drug Humira has held onto more than 80% of patients after facing nine lower-priced rivals in the U.S. in the last year, raising questions about whether the market for prescription biosimilars can survive in its current form, drug pricing experts and analysts say. Humira, which lists for almost $7,000 a month, is the first top-selling drug to compete with a slew of biosimilars, which are close but not exact copies of branded biologic medicines. But after their launch last year, industry middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers determined patient access with little incentive for doctors to switch to alternatives, they said. Biosimilars were available at lower prices than Humira through the three largest benefit managers, CVS Healths Caremark, Cigna's Express Scripts and UnitedHealth Group's Optum Rx. At least seven drugmakers offered sharply discounted prices, but few patients used them until CVS removed AbbVie's Humira from its list of covered drugs. Regulatory reform is needed so patients can more easily access biosimilars and draw rival drugmakers to develop them, said Stacie Dusetzina, a health policy professor at Vanderbilt University. It's not clear to me there's any incentive at all for companies to spend their time and money creating biosimilars. And if no one will, then the price of the brand would never come down, she said. The biosimilar industry is advocating for regulatory changes, saying $6 billion in potential savings have been lost since the launches. AbbVie declined to comment, but has previously said it conceded on price to get equal access for Humira alongside biosimilars on lists of covered drugs, and expects 36% U.S. sales erosion for its drug this year. At its peak, annual sales topped $22 billion. Unlike generic drugs, the FDA only allows some biosimilars to be swapped for the branded medicine by a pharmacist. Most must be specifically prescribed. Last year, a bipartisan group of lawmakers backed legislation to make it easier to interchange biosimilars. The government and lawmakers have also called for reforms and are looking closely at benefit manager deals with drugmakers. When an anticipated six biosimilars of Johnson & Johnsons $11 billion Crohns disease drug Stelara hit the U.S. market starting next year, private healthcare insurers will likely repeat the Humira playbook, drug pricing experts said. J&J Chief Financial Officer Joe Wolk told Reuters in April that the Stelara biosimilar market is likely to unfurl similarly to Humiras given benefit manager contracting practices and doctor and patient resistance. Over 75% of our business comes in either Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, which are serious illnesses where the patients or the physicians treating them tend not to want to disrupt the therapy, he said. Spokespeople for Express and Optum, asked about Humira biosimilar launches, said they offered several options to give patients a choice of medicines, helping lower costs for their employer and insurer clients. CVS Chief Medical Officer Sree Chaguturu said in an interview that the company kept covering Humira while determining which manufacturers had high-quality biosimilars with reliable supply. It now covers a Sandoz biosimilar and a co-branded Humira, both from its new Cordavis pharmaceutical unit. WORTH THE WAIT Benjamin Rome, a drug pricing researcher at Harvard Medical School, said that because biosimilars are not exact copies like generics, pharmacists need more information about the safety of switching medicines. Zachary Wallace, a rheumatologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, is one of four doctors who told Reuters they had begun regularly prescribing Sandozs Hyrimoz biosimilar when CVS stopped covering Humira. They said they did not want to prescribe unfamiliar biosimilars unless they were sure patients were benefiting from lower list prices. I would have to see that those discounts actually got passed on to patients in some way, Wallace said. In the U.S., drugmakers have a list price for their drugs that can be discounted for employers and insurers who receive after-market volume based discounts, called rebates. ZS pharmaceuticals consultant Komal Gurnani predicted that as many as five Humira biosimilars will exit the market within a few years before they get to her forecast of $400 million in peak sales. She expects companies with other planned biosimilar launches, like Amgen, Sandoz and South Koreas Celltrion, to leverage their other products to negotiate favorable terms with insurers and stay in the market. Sandoz and Celltrion, which have long sold Humira biosimilars outside the U.S., said they were committed to the U.S. market. Celltrion Chief Commercial Officer Tom Nusbickel said the company is willing to wait years to gain a significant U.S. foothold. We have a last-man standing approach to this market, he said. Indian drugmaker Biocon, which sells a Humira biosimilar in Europe, said it too was committed to the U.S. market, as did Pfizer, which launched its biosimilar in October. Boehringer, which reduced its U.S. sales staff earlier this spring, Teva and Organon said they are committed to the U.S. Fresenius and Amgen declined to comment and Coherus could not be reached for comment. Organon biosimilar head Jon Martin said it would be worth the wait even if biosimilars took six years to gain 50% market share as they did when J&Js arthritis drug Remicade faced rivals starting in 2016. That's what gives us some optimism, he said. (Reporting by Patrick Wingrove in New York; Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot) ASTANA, Kazakhstan, June 7. Kazakhstan's Samruk-Kazyna (Sovereign Wealth Fund) and Russian Sibur have discussed joint projects, including a polypropylene production plant with a capacity of 500,000 tons per year in Atyrau, Trend reports. Discussions took place between the Chairman of Samruk-Kazyna Nurlan Zhakupov and Chairman of the Board, General Director of SIBUR Mikhail Karisalov. The parties also considered the next stages of the polyethylene production project. To note, the development of project documentation is now being completed, and the search for sources of financing is underway. Nurlan Zhakupov noted during the meeting that he sees Sibur as a long-term strategic partner with the necessary experience, stability and ability to organize sales of future products. Meanwhile, in April 2024, a tripartite protocol was signed, officially completing Sinopec's entry into the project for the construction of a polyethylene production plant with a capacity of 1.25 million tons in the Atyrau region of Kazakhstan. The structure of project participants is as follows: KazMunayGas 40 percent; Sinopec 30 percent; Sibur 30 percent. The cost of the joint project of three large companies will be about $7.7 billion, and the plants capacity will be 1.25 million tons per year, which is 1 percent of all global capacity. To supply the "Polyethylene" project with raw materials (ethane), a gas separation complex will be built at the Tengiz field. The gas separation complex's capacity is 9.1 billion cubic meters of dry gas processing per year, of which it is expected to produce 1.6 million tons of ethane. Ethane will be sent through the main pipeline from Tengiz to the Karabatan site, where the polyethylene production plant will operate. The enterprise plans to produce about 22 grades of polyethylene using American-licensed technologies from Chevron Phillips and Univation, of which 40 percent will be premium class. Construction of the plant is planned to be completed by 2029. More than 8,000 jobs will be created during the construction period, and about 850 jobs will be created during the operation period. Note: This story contains mentions of suicide and self-harm. PROVIDENCE If the current mood of suicide-prevention advocates in Rhode Island could be summed up in one word, it would be disappointment. I cant say it enough how extremely disappointed I am, said state Sen. Louis DiPalma. The source of DiPalmas disappointment? Two studies commissioned by the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority on the feasibility of adding safety infrastructure to dissuade people from jumping from the Mount Hope Bridge in Bristol and the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge in North Kingstown. The studies, which were more than a year in the making, concluded that the Mount Hope Bridge could not bear the added weight of a safety barrier, while adding a steel wire net fence across 9,500 feet of the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge would cost $8.9 million to $10.3 million, an estimate state lawmakers balked at. Suicide-prevention advocates have lobbied for years for such safety measures to give pause to people who may contemplate jumping from the bridges. Between 2021 and May 23, 2023, 17 people died by jumping from Rhode Island bridges, according to data from the Rhode Island Department of Health. But Melissa Cotta, founder of Bridging the Gap, an advocacy group, said some deaths may not be included in the toll because bodies cant be found or they are classified as drownings. Advocates and state lawmakers said Thursday brought a grim reminder of what is at stake: that morning, another person died by suicide from a Newport County bridge. Between 2021 and May 23, 2023, five people died by jumping from Mount Hope Bridge, according to Rhode Islands Department of Health. At this point, we all need to look at the human element of this. Do we actually have to lose someone to make a move and do something? Cotta said. Aggravating their disappointment was the timeline of the release of the studies, which were originally due in May but were not released until this week, days before lawmakers vote on this years budget. DiPalma filed a public-records request for the preliminary studies in early April, but it was denied by RITBA, which argued that draft reports are exempt because they are not public records. They could have provided the documents, DiPalma said. Yes, the law does not require it, but the law doesn't restrict them either. Had RITBA provided the preliminary studies, DiPalma said, We would have had a much more robust conversation and debate in Providence at the State House. Without it, can't do that. DiPalma said the likelihood of funding for barriers on the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge being included in this years budget is extremely low. Sen. Louis DiPalma has been an advocate of safety barriers on Rhode Island bridges. RITBA spokesperson Cara Cromwell said the agency had no further comment on the reports. The studies stand on their own as far as just essentially being facts and data, Cromwell said. Draft reports for studies looking at the feasibility of safety barriers on the Newport Pell Bridge and the Sakonnet River Bridge are due later this year. Advocates vow to continue fighting for safety barriers The setback, however, has not dampened the resolve of advocates and lawmakers. State Rep. Joseph Solomon, who along DiPalma championed the bill that funded the feasibility studies, said he would sit down with an engineer to look over the details of RITBAs recommendations for the Mount Hope Bridge. I'm not taking no for an answer that it can't be done on the Mount Hope Bridge, Solomon said. Especially in 2024, with today's technology, it shouldnt be a matter of whether we can do it. It's a question of how we can do it. He also noted that fencing on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida which runs about 1.5 miles on each side and was installed in 2021 cost $3.4 million, about a third of the high-end estimate provided by RITBA for the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge. Transportation authorities in Florida say the fencing has helped reduce suicides. Denise Panichas, executive director of The Samaritans, a nonprofit that works on suicide prevention, said bureaucracy is getting in the way of installing safety barriers in Rhode Island, but she doesnt think there is ill intent by anyone involved. I don't want to believe that no one on the Bridge and Turnpike Authority cares, that no one in the legislature [cares], that no one in our congressional delegation [cares]. I believe everybody cares. Now, how do we bring all of that caring together toward a solution? We can't give up. We have to keep trying, Panichas said. Denise Panichas, executive director of The Samaritans of Rhode Island, said bridge barriers would not only save lives but would spare loved ones and first responders from the ripple effects of guilt and trauma experienced after a suicide. Not all are so charitable toward RITBA. Cotta, who has attended RITBA board meetings with family members of people who have died from jumping from bridges, thinks there is a lack of urgency at the agency. They have chosen year after year not to act. It took pressure from advocates, news media and legislators to get them to move on it at all, Cotta said. And for her part, Panichas is still in disbelief at the delays in installing safety barriers on the states bridges. We can put a man on the moon. We can find things on the bottom of the ocean. [But] we can't figure out how to stop someone from falling off a bridge? Doesn't make an ounce of sense, Panichas said. Suicide-prevention resources: Where to turn if you are considering suicide Anyone in immediate danger should call 911. Other resources: 988 and BHLink: For confidential support and to get connected to care, call (988) or visit the BHLink 24-hour/7-day triage center at 975 Waterman Ave., East Providence. Website: bhlink.org The Samaritans of Rhode Island: (401) 272-4044 or (800) 365-4044. Website: samaritansri.org The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: (800) 273-TALK, or (800) 273-8255 The Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741 from anywhere in the USA, anytime, about any type of crisis. Butler Hospital Behavioral Health Services Call Center: Available 24/7 to guide individuals seeking advice for themselves or others regarding suicide prevention. (844) 401-0111 Thrive Behavioral Health's Emergency Services: 24-hour crisis hotline (401) 738-4300. This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI bridge suicide barriers too costly, not feasible, RITBA study says LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) A former Jehovahs Witness elder was convicted Wednesday to sexually abusing children decades ago in Lancaster County, according to the Attorney General. Norman Aviles-Garriga, 45, was found guilty after a three-day trial on all 12 of his charges that include aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault, and endangering the welfare of children, the AG said in a news release. In a statement, Attorney General Michelle Henry said Aviles-Garriga used religion as a weapon to get closer to children and to abuse them. Ex-NASCAR driver from Pennsylvania arrested, accused of confronting police during Jan. 6 This defendant weaponized religion to gain community trust and proximity to abuse children, then took steps as an elder to have the victims discredited, Attorney General Henry said. The tenacity of investigators and the brave survivors of this abuse did not allow that to happen, and this predatory defendant is now held accountable. During the verdict, Aviles-Garriga was denied bail by the judge and taken into custody. Sentencing is scheduled for a later date. Jehovahs Witnesses leaders learned of the abuse after two victims reported it to them, and when they met with Aviles-Garriga, he called the victims demons, and he also used his position to delay their baptisms, the release says. The sexual abuse happened around 1999 and 2003 in Lancaster City Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now This Week in Pennsylvania Aviles-Garriga was expelled from the church for months but he was then allowed back, the AG says. The charges stem from the 49th Investigating Grand Jury, and were filed and prosecuted by the Office of the Attorney General. Chief Deputy Attorney General Angela Sperrazza prosecuted the case. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton maintains that his sworn deposition is unnecessary in an ongoing dispute with four of his former top aides as he is already willing to concede to a final judgment in the case, according to a filing with the Texas Supreme Court made public Friday. Paxton, who appealed to the state's highest civil court in January to quash a Travis County state District Court's order to mandate his deposition, argued that the lower court overextended its authority in requiring his testimony and the case should have already concluded. "For all intents and purposes, as a legal dispute, the case wasor should have beenover," Paxton's office wrote in the June 5 filing before the state Supreme Court. Attorney General Ken Paxton arrives for his impeachment trial on Sept. 5. Paxton is fighting to avoid giving a sworn deposition in the whistleblowers' suit that prompted his impeachment last year. He was later acquitted by the Texas Senate. Previously, Paxton unsuccessfully moved to end the wrongful termination lawsuit, leading to his latest appeal, and asked that the Supreme Court either entirely overrule the order requiring his testimony or lessen the scope of the deposition to only focus on a future settlement agreement. The dispute stems from a 2020 complaint that Paxton improperly fired four agency employees after they approached the FBI with concerns about Paxton's conduct and his relationship with campaign donor Nate Paul. Paxton has filed motions at all levels of the judiciary to avoid being deposed in the case and is again seeking the Supreme Court's intervention to stop his own deposition along with those of three of his top deputies. Alongside complaints over his pending deposition, Paxton has argued that the whistleblowers are seeking retribution and political ammunition to help secure a future settlement that must be approved by the Legislature and that the case has become a waste of taxpayer time and money as no facts are under dispute. More: AG Ken Paxton asks Texas Supreme Court to overturn election fraud reprimand against him "Without any explanation about what facts remain to be proved, the trial court has accepted Plaintiffs argument that the judicial branch must allow the depositions of four of the senior-most executive officials at (the office of the attorney general), and then proceed to a trial, because a jury verdict might convince the Legislature to fund the judgment in 2025," Paxton's filing reads. Earlier this year, the day before the Supreme Court accepted Paxton's appeal over the depositions, Travis County state District Judge Catherine Mauzy allowed the case to continue, siding with the whistleblowers' argument that Paxton shouldn't be allowed to accept a judgment while also maintaining his innocence. "Those seem to me to be contradictory positions," Mauzy said at the time. Paxton along with First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster; Paxton's chief of staff, Lesley French Henneke; and senior adviser Michelle Smith had been scheduled to be deposed in February prior to the current appeal to the Supreme Court. In their initial response to Paxton's latest appeal to the Supreme Court, attorneys for the whistleblowers defended the District Court decision to allow for unencumbered depositions of Paxton and his deputies and chided the attorney general for the "repugnant ploy" to prevent the testimony. "The trial court did not abuse its discretion; it kept OAG from abusing the judicial system," the whistleblowers' attorneys wrote, referring to the Office of the Attorney General. "The court refused to endorse OAGs disloyal scheme to orchestrate a judgment against the state of Texas just so the attorney general and a few of his close colleagues can avoid depositions." An attorney for the whistleblowers declined to comment Friday on Paxton's most recent filing. Paxton's office did not respond to a request for comment. More: For third year in a row, Nate Paul is Travis County's most delinquent taxpayer A court brief from the whistleblowers' attorneys is due before the Supreme Court on June 25. A previous, tentative $3.3 million agreement between Paxton and the whistleblowers failed in 2023 after Paxton asked for a legislative appropriation to fund the settlement, which prompted House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, to tap the House Committee on General Investigating to look into the situation. Paxton was then impeached by the House in a broad bipartisan vote in a case that was built on many of the complaints voiced earlier by Paxton's hand-picked former deputies. Paxton was then acquitted last fall in a state Senate trial on the matter in September, placing him back in office. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's defense attorney Dan Cogdell, center, speaks to the press on March 26 after the resolution of Paxton's 9-year-old felony state securities fraud case in a special deal with prosecutors. During the primary election cycle, Paxton worked feverishly to unseat members who supported his impeachment, assisting in a successful offensive against several Republican incumbents and in the near defeat of Phelan, who was able to fend off a Paxton-backed challenger. While the whistleblower lawsuit remains unresolved, Paxton was able to conclude his longest-running legal dispute earlier this year through a $271,000 restitution agreement to end a decadelong felony securities fraud case. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: AG Paxton pushes Texas Supreme Court to nix court-ordered deposition Ukrainian forces downed 48 Shahed-type drones and five cruise missiles overnight on June 7, the Air Force said in its morning update. Air raid alarms sounded in several Ukrainian oblasts at around 2:40 a.m. local time. The drones were reportedly launched from Cape Chauda in occupied Crimea, the Russian town of Yeysk in Krasnodar Krai, the Russian town of Primorsko-Akhtarsk, located on the coast of the Azov Sea, and Kursk Oblast. Russia also used Tu-95MS bomber planes to launch Kh-101 cruise missiles from Saratov Oblast, targeting Ukrainian critical infrastructure. Ukraine intercepted five missiles and 48 out of the 53 drones over Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Kharkiv, and Khmelnytskyi oblasts. Aircraft, anti-aircraft systems, electronic warfare units, and mobile fire groups were involved in the operations. The Russian attacks caused a fire at one of the industrial facilities in Kyiv Oblast, according to local governor Ruslan Kravchenko. The fire was still being eliminated as of 8:30 a.m. local time. Explosions were also reported overnight in Khmelnytskyi, Odesa, and Kharkiv oblasts. No casualties were reported at the time of the publication. Drone attacks are a daily occurrence in Ukraine, affecting various regions across the country. In recent months, Russia has intensified attacks against Ukraine's energy infrastructure, launching massive drone and missile strikes targeting critical facilities. Read also: Kyiv struggles with rolling blackouts as officials warn of bleak months ahead Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Southern Californias major polluters will be forced to pay millions in fees after air regulators voted on Friday to undo a controversial rule that made major sources immune from penalties. Since the region doesnt meet federal clean air standards, large polluters in the area are supposed to reduce their emissions by 20% under U.S. law. If they dont, they would have to pay fees comparable to their emissions, the L.A. Times reported. However, the South Coast Air Quality Management District followed an accounting rule enacted in 2011 that protected polluters from paying such fees. These California cities have the dirtiest air, new report finds The money would be used for clean air investments in the region. According to government records obtained by Earthjustice, an environmental law nonprofit, the air district could have collected more than $200 million in fees from the regions largest polluters if the accounting rule wasnt followed. Last year, Earthjustice and other environmental groups petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to intervene and require the air district to update its pollution fee program. During Fridays meeting, air staff said that if the agency didnt collect pollution fees, as mandated by federal law, the U.S. EPA would collect the fees and those funds would go into the federal treasury, according to The Times. Advocates say the action is long overdue. However, critics note that the fees may become financial burdens to regional hospitals, wastewater treatment facilities and other essential operations that may have to pay them. The rule will not improve our air quality in a significant way, Brad Bowman, who works at fiberglass-manufacturing business, told The Times. You will not solve our non-attainment problem and will hurt our already struggling California economy. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. Oil refineries will be subject to the newly enforced fees. Above, a Wilmington refinery near youth soccer fields. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) Southern California air regulators have voted to impose millions of dollars in fees on the region's heaviest polluters, undoing a controversial program that made major sources immune from penalties. Southern California does not meet federal clean air standards, so under U.S. law its large polluters are required to reduce their emissions by 20%. If they don't achieve those reductions, they must pay fees comparable to their emissions. The money is meant to be spent on clean air investments in the region. For years, however, the South Coast Air Quality Management District used a controversial accounting rule it enacted in 2011 to shield polluters from having to pay. The rule allowed the agency to forgive the pollution fees if the air district dedicated a dollar-for-dollar match toward emission reduction initiatives. Over the last decade, the air district could have collected more than $200 million in pollution fees from Southern California's largest polluters, according to government records obtained by Earthjustice, an environmental law nonprofit headquartered in San Francisco. Last year, Earthjustice and other environmental groups petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to intervene and require the air district to revise its pollution fee program, arguing this loophole has removed the impetus for these facilities to curb their emissions. "Environmental racism means communities like ours have lived and worked in life-threatening conditions for generations while corporations have evaded accountability," said Paola Vargas, an organizer for East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice in Long Beach. "These polluter fees are a critical first step toward making sure polluters pay their fair share when the air is unsafe to breathe." At Friday's meeting, air district staff said that if the agency didn't collect pollution fees, as mandated by federal law, the U.S. EPA would collect the fees and those funds would go into the federal treasury. The pollution fees will affect about 320 facilities, including oil refineries and landfills. But critics noted that the fees might also pose a financial burden for regional hospitals, wastewater treatment facilities, power plants and other essential operations that may have to pay them. The rule "will not improve our air quality in a significant way," said Brad Bowman, who expressed concern for the fiberglass-manufacturing business where he works. "You will not solve our non-attainment problem and will hurt our already struggling California economy." Jane Williams, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics, said the action was long overdue. "It's laudable that we will be finally going to be complying with federal law," she said. Read more: Gas stoves may contribute to early deaths and childhood asthma, new Stanford study finds This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. FILE - A Southwest Airlines jetliner waits on a runway for departure from Denver International Airport Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, in Denver. A judges order that three attorneys for Southwest Airlines get religious liberty training from a conservative advocacy group was put on hold Friday, June 7, 2024 by a federal appeals court that said the judge likely exceeded his authority with the requirement. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File) NEW ORLEANS (AP) An appeals court on Friday blocked a federal judges order that three attorneys for Southwest Airlines get religious liberty training from a conservative advocacy group, saying the judge likely exceeded his authority. Three judges with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans put the training order on hold while appeals are pursued. The order is an outgrowth of a case in which a Southwest flight attendant, Charlene Carter, sued the airline and her union after she was fired for sending graphic anti-abortion material and disparaging messages to a union leader and fellow employee. Carter won an $800,000 court award, also the subject of an appeal, after her attorneys argued that she was terminated for her religious beliefs. The religious-training requirement was part of a contempt order against the airline issued by U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr. After Carter won a jury verdict, Starr ordered the airline to tell flight attendants that under federal law, it may not discriminate against Southwest flight attendants for their religious practices and beliefs. Instead, the Dallas-based airline told employees that it does not discriminate, and told flight attendants to follow the airline policy it cited in firing Carter. In August, Starr found Southwest in contempt for the way it explained the case to flight attendants. He ordered Southwest to pay Carters most recent legal costs and dictated a statement for Southwest to relay to employees. He ordered the three lawyers to complete at least eight hours of religious liberty training from the Alliance Defending Freedom, which offers training on compliance with federal law prohibiting religious discrimination in the workplace. The conservative group has played a high-profile role in multiple legal fights. They include defending a baker and a website designer who didnt want to work on same-sex marriage projects, efforts to limit transgender rights and a challenge to longstanding federal approval of a medication used in the most common way to end a pregnancy. Arguments in the appeal were heard Monday. The arguments concentrated on Carter's firing and did not deal with the contempt order. However, in briefs the airline said the contempt order violated its free speech rights and should be overturned. At bottom, it appears that the district court sought, at least in part, to punish Southwest for what the district court viewed as conduct flouting its holding, the appellate court ruling said. But its punitive sanctions likely exceed the scope of the courts civil-contempt authority. Still pending is the decision on the effort by Southwest and the flight attendants' union to reverse the $800,000 judgment in Carter's favor. The panel has given no indication when it will rule. Starr was nominated to the federal district court bench by former President Donald Trump. The 5th Circuit judges on the panel included Trump nominees Cory Wilson and Kurt Engelhardt along with Edith Brown Clement, nominated by former President George W. Bush. These airlines are among the quietest flying in and out of San Diegos airport SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) People who spend any time in downtown communities directly underneath the flight path of incoming and outbound planes from San Diego International Airport know how loud it can get sometimes. Over the last few years, the regional Airport Authority has worked with airlines to try and minimize noise. This week, they recognized a handful of airlines for their outstanding efforts to work as quietly as possible with the 2023 Fly Quiet Awards. These awards, according to the airport authority, are determined based on a scoring system using metrics that measure how quietly an airline operates like the types of aircraft they use, how loud those aircraft are and whether the airline adheres to San Diegos curfew. Here are the airlines who earned recognition for their quiet arrivals and departures: Southwest Airlines According to the Airport Authority, Southwest Airlines earned the highest Fly Quiet Score out of all of the large domestic carriers for minimizing noise coming in and out of San Diego. This is due, in part, to its use of the Boeing 737 MAX, an aircraft that airport authority officials say is newer and quieter. Hawaiian Airlines Out of all San Diegos small domestic carriers, the Airport Authority says Hawaiian Airlines is making great headways at reducing noise. Similarly to Southwest, Hawaiian Airlines is doing this by using a quieter and newer aircraft, the A321new aircraft, for more than half of their flights. San Diego airports new Terminal 1 gets additional $23.5M in federal funds DHL Express USA While San Diego International is mostly known by locals for its commercial travel service, air cargo carriers also utilize the airports runway. As far as these airlines go, Airport Authority officials commended DHL Express USA for its noise-related efforts. Using the Boeing 800, a quieter cargo aircraft, the service did not have a single noise curfew violation in 2023 and had the lowest noise exceedance score among San Diegos air cargo carriers. Lufthansa For international travel, Lufthansa earned recognition from the Airport Authority for its noise mitigation efforts. According to the authority, the airline uses the Airbus 350-900, another new and quiet aircraft. It also schedules nearly all of its departures prior to 9 p.m. and has never had a curfew violation while operating out of San Diego. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. Albany lawmakers are squaring up to approve a last-minute backroom measure to plug the financial hole in the MTAs capital plan created by Gov. Kathy Hochuls decision to scrap the controversial congestion pricing toll earlier this week. State lawmakers in both the Assembly and the Senate told The Post they are considering a bill to give the MTA a glorified IOU, enough to cover the $1 billion of expected congestion pricing revenue for each of the next 15 years. Its very simply something that just says there will be a billion dollars for the MTA in the following years budget, but without any specifics as to what that means, state Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) told reporters shortly after senators broke from a nearly three-hour long meeting around 11:00 p.m. Thursday. A spokesperson for the state Senate said the exact language of the bill is expected to be released Friday with a vote expected sometime during the day. State lawmakers in both the Assembly and the Senate told The Post they are considering a bill to give the MTA a glorified IOU. Newsday via Getty Images The New York Post front cover for June 6, 2024: Tool Boot! rfaraino Lawmakers are fuming at Hochul from all sides after she sprung her decision to scrap the toll only a day before they were scheduled to end the legislative session and with no immediate plan to replace the expected revenue. Nobody wants to see the MTA capital plan explode and unfortunately the governor has created this environment where thats at risk, Gianaris said before showing off a pair of MTA-branded socks. Hochuls first proposal to hike up the payroll mobility tax on businesses drew swift backlash from lawmakers across the board as well as some of her allies in the business community. The move shocked many as Hochul had firmly refused to raise taxes as part of budget talks earlier this year. A map of the MTAs congestion pricing plan for Manhattan. NY Post composite A congestion-pricing toll gantry sits on W40th Street in Manhattan on May 22, 2024. Christopher Sadowski That pitch was effectively dead before sundown Thursday, leading lawmakers to work with Hochul and the MTA to hatch a palatable alternative that would keep projects slated to receive capital funds alive as well as maintain the transit agencys financial health. Its still unclear how much support the IOU measure has in either house, though several lawmakers have already told the Post they plan to vote against it. After a weekend full of crisis-actor-level tears from right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, he has officially moved to liquidate all of his assets in order to pay the $1.5 billion he owes to the families of children murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary. The hoax-pushing supplement hawker, who was found guilty of defamation in 2022, filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 that same year, allowing him to maintain operations of his businesses and rely on reorganization to come up with the funds. But it wasnt enough, with the families warning in 2023 that Joness plan fell woefully short. In a filing on Thursday, Joness lawyers wrote that there was no reasonable prospect for a successful reorganization and that filing for liquidation under Chapter 7 was the massacre deniers only option. This latest decision lays the groundwork for Alex Jones to lose his stake in InfoWars, the pulpit from which the podcaster has continued to spew misinformation. Earlier this week, a judge prolonged Joness slow financial death and allowed him to continue running his media company Free Speech Systems until June 14. This newest move signals that Joness ownership will more than likely be sold, according to Avi Moshenberg, an attorney for the families, who spoke to CNN on Thursday. Free Speech Systems had nearly $4 million in cash on hand at the end of April. The decision came after Jones posted several videos of himself in hysterics, in which he wailed over the prospect of selling his media company. All were trying to do is save America, and theyre fucking us over, over and over again, he sobbed in an emergency broadcast on Saturday. And its just so sickits sick, its sick. I want to leavebecause its going to be over, folks. On Thursday, a lawyer for the families, Chris Mattei, said that Joness decision to liquidate his assets will hasten the end of these bankruptcies and facilitate the liquidation of Joness assets, which is the same reason we have moved to convert his companys case to Chapter 7. Mattei had accused Jones in court Monday of manufacturing a crisis. Last month, Jones was granted permission to sell his ranch, which is valued at $2.8 million, one large chunk of his approximate total $9 million in assets. A unique detail of Joness case is that he cant skirt payments by declaring bankruptcy. The judge who presided over Joness bankruptcy filing last year made his debt non-dischargeable through bankruptcy, meaning he has to continue paying the families until he has fully settled the $1.5 billion debt. As a result, Jones will likely be basically broke now for the rest of his life, Harry Litman, a former U.S. attorney, told MSNBC at the time. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has made steps to liquidate his personal assets in order to begin paying damages to the relatives of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, whom he defamed for years. Jones lawyers asked U.S. Judge Christopher Lopez to move his Chapter 11 bankruptcy to Chapter 7 liquidation, which would streamline efforts to sell off Jones personal assets. Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2022 after he was ordered to pay roughly $1.5 billion in damages to the families he defamed over the course of a decade on his conspiracy program. Jones falsely claimed for years that the Connecticut school shooting that left 20 kids and six adults dead never happened, and that those whose loved ones died were actors. Lawyers for Jones wrote in a Wednesday court filing that there is no reasonable prospect of a successful reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy to pay off debts stemming from the defamation lawsuits he lost. As part of Chapter 7, a court-appointed trustee would be assigned to liquidate Jones assets, including his stake in his Infowars media empire. Chris Mattei, a Connecticut lawyer who represents several Sandy Hook families, told CNN that Chapter 7 will hasten the end of these bankruptcies and facilitate the liquidation of Joness assets, which is the same reason we have moved to convert his companys case to Chapter 7. In May, Judge Lopez gave Jones the go-ahead to sell his 127-acre Texas game ranch for $2.8 million to pay his legal expenses, with any money left over going to the Sandy Hook families. Days before the latest filing, Jones took to Infowars to whine about liquidating his assets. Theres really no avenue out of this, Jones said on his show Sunday. Im kind of in the bunker here. And dont worry. Ill come back. The enemy cant help but do this attack. Related... Alex Jones is seeking a court greenlight to liquidate his holdings, as he faces about $1.5 billion in defamation judgments stemming from his promotion of false conspiracy theories related to the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting massacre. Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2022 as he was found liable to Sandy Hook families for spreading the lies about the school shooting. Jones had asserted that the shootings were staged as part of a federal plot to confiscate Americans guns. More from Deadline In court proceedings in Connecticut and Texas, Jones was slapped with around $1.5 billion in damages, as the families sued the Infowars host and his companies for defamation. They testified that they were subjected to continued threats and harassment. In the federal court filing, Jones attorneys wrote that he does not believe his own estate would continue to benefit by remaining in chapter 11. Furthermore, the Debtor does not anticipate that a resolution may be reached with the other parties in interest sufficient to confirm a chapter 11 plan of reorganization. Thus, drawing out the chapter 11 process merely to complete the liquidation process would result in additional administrative expense with little benefit to the Debtors estate. The Sandy Hook families had rejected Jones offer to settle the case for $55 million, per Reuters. Instead, they sought a court order to convert the bankruptcy to a Chapter 7 liquidation. As Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, were in bankruptcy reorganization, a federal judge found that the vast majority of the defamation judgments could not be discharged. In seeking liquidation, the families cited a June 1 episode of Jones podcast in which he made threatening statements about the chief restructuring officer of Free Speech Systems. The families attorneys wrote, Joness threats and clear lack of respect for the judicial system amounting at times to calls for his followers to surround the building and physically barricade the FSS studios if FSSs operations are threatenedshould not be condoned. Among other things, Jones has made it clear that upon dismissal, FSS will return to business as usual, and that he intends to stall any lawful collection efforts of the Connecticut familieswhether by physical force or otherwise. A court-supervised liquidation directed by a court-appointed trustee would ensure that proceeds are fairly and equitably distributed to creditors who have, to date, received no recovery, the attorneys wrote. The families legal team also noted that Jones had transferred two luxury vehicles and $1.5 million to his wife, and three luxury vehicles, a ranch and more than $500,000 in cash to his father. CNN first reported on the move for liquidation. Best of Deadline Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. During the past two years, the family of Alexis Ware has grieved but still hold faith there are answers on her whereabouts. Ware, now 31 years old, is a Black woman who went missing in McCormick County in January 2022. At a June 6 news conference, Ware's mother Alberta Simpkins talked about the difficulties in managing her daughter's sudden disappearance and working with law enforcement to uncover the truth. The news conference was held at Anderson Road Library in Greenville. "Imagine a 2-year-old waking up crying hysterically for his mother and you not being able to give them an answer," Simpkins said. "Her daughter still speaks about 'Lex in the present," she added as tears fell down her right cheekbone. Alberta Simpkins, mother of Alexis Ware, who went missing on Jan. 30, 2022, stands for a portrait wearing a button with Alexis' photo, after a press conference announcing The Alexis Ware Act to Enhance Missing Person Investigations bill proposal at Greenville County Anderson Road Library on Thursday, June 6, 2024. Alexis' sister, Jasmine Ware, 31, spoke about missing the simple side of her younger sibling: her bubbly personality, hanging around during holidays, and missing Alexis' family famous hot dog chili. Ware's son, Tra'velle Patterson, 4, was not in attendance, but her daughter Nayomi Hawthorne, 11, was present with a saddened face. Simpkins and Ware's family was joined by families and advocates of Jorden Nebling of Marietta and Casi Pogue of Greenville, who both have been missing since 2020. Together, they all are advocating to receive more support for missing persons across the state, as all of their cases have gone somewhat cold by law enforcement divisions in the Upstate. What happened to Alexis Ware: she left a 7-Eleven on Highway 29 on Jan. 30, 2022, and hasn't been seen since What has it been like the past two years for the family of Alexis Ware? Over the past two years, Simpkins with the help of Bruce Wilson and his nonprofit, Fighting Injustice Together, have been pursuing answers from Anderson County Sheriff's Office about bringing in additional support on Alexis Ware's missing person case. Wilson and Simpkins' families have been close since he can remember. When he heard the news Ware was missing, he decided to get involved. During the first anniversary of Alexis' missing in 2023, Wilson and Simpkins traveled to Columbia to meet with statewide law enforcement officials and the Federal Bureau of Investigations in attempt to bring in other law enforcement agencies to assist Anderson County Sheriff's Office with the case. According to Wilson and Simpkins, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and the FBI cannot help unless Anderson County Sheriff Office requests their help. Instead of staying stagnant, they decided to make Alexis Ware the face of a proposal they would like to advance into the "Alexis Ware Act to Enhance Missing Persons Investigations." The bill would have SLED resume a missing persons investigation one year after the trail goes cold, at the family's request. They plan on prefiling the General Assembly proposal in November with hopes that the bill will be pushed though in January 2025. "We thought it would be concluded pretty quickly," Wilson said. "I've used my connections and resources with law enforcement hoping that would help but in this case it hasn't. We will not stop, keep pushing forward, it is time for families to make sure they have adequate resources to investigate missing persons in South Carolina." Bruce Wilson, candidate for South Carolina State House District 25, and Alberta Simpkins, mother of Alexis Ware, who went missing on Jan. 30, 2022, answer questions during a press conference announcing The Alexis Ware Act to Enhance Missing Person Investigations bill proposal at Greenville County Anderson Road Library on Thursday, June 6, 2024. According to Simpkins, she was required to take a polygraph test by Anderson County Sheriff's Office to prove that she has not been in contact or funding Ware, and the results came back inconclusive. Simpkins also added that she had gone through her own polygraph test and it deemed her to be truthful about the information provided to law enforcement. "It saddens me when law enforcement feels like they know Alexis better than me," Simpkins said. What does the family of Alexis Ware want law enforcement to do? Simpkins, and the families of Jorden Nebling of Marietta and Casi Pogue of Greenville are seeking to include other law enforcement agencies to get involved in their missing persons cases. All of the families shared stories of being dissatisfied with the communication and willingness to include additional details that could present leads to their missing persons. "I need to know what happened to my daughter," said Simpkins. "She deserves justice." A.J. Jackson covers the food & dining scene, along with arts, entertainment and downtown culture for The Greenville News. Contact him by email at ajackson@gannett.com, and follow him on X (formally Twitter) @ajhappened. This coverage is only possible with support from our readers. Sign up today for a digital subscription. This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Alexis Ware's mother Alberta Simpkins talks about her missing daughter Alleged drug dealer accused of killing man in the Bronx in 2016 NEW YORK (PIX11) An alleged drug dealer is accused of gunning down a man in the Bronx eight years ago, authorities said Friday. Bruce Morris, aka G, allegedly shot and killed Jerome Jemison, aka Sal, during a narcotics deal near 868 Faile St. in the Bronx in August 2016, according to federal prosecutors. More Local News Morris allegedly ran a crack cocaine ring in the Bronx from 2015 until 2023, according to court documents. Heroin was also part of the alleged drug operation, prosecutors said. Morris was arrested Friday and charged with murder and narcotics conspiracy, authorities said. His arraignment was pending. Gun violence goes hand-in-hand with the illicit drug trade, and todays charges show the tragic consequences of that reality, NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban said. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y. (PIX11) New York architect Rex Heuermann has now been charged in six murders connected to the Gilgo Beach serial killer case, but prosecutors say more charges are on the way. Prosecutors say theyve uncovered a serial killer blueprint. More Local News The Long Island father is accused of torturing and killing at least six women, including Sandra Costilla and Jessica Taylor. Costilla was found in the North Sea in Southampton in 1993. Taylors torso was found in Manorville in 2003. Her other limbs found in 2011 not far from where the Gilgo Four were discovered in 2010. The case is now widening to other parts of Suffolk County dating back more than 30 years. Prosecutors believe Heuermann may have been an active serial killer for much longer than previously suspected and changed his method of killing women. In court, prosecutors said they can place Heuermann in the vicinity of both murders with his hair near their bodies. A timeline of the investigation of the Gilgo Beach killings Heuermann and his attorney maintain his innocence. Forensic experts said they have discovered what appears to be a serial killers blueprint on his computer, including disturbing images of abuse and pornography with lists of supplies for torture, dump sites, and targets. The alleged blueprint also included how to prepare before abduction and things to remember for the next kill. According to the Suffolk County district attorney, there are some details in the document that are identical to the methodology used on the victims in the case. Investigators return to Massapequa Park home of alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer The Suffolk DA also said it is safe to say that Heuermann is a suspect in the killing of Valerie Mack, whose remains were found near Taylors body. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. LAS VEGAS (KLAS) A man accused of robbing a Las Vegas bank and attempting to rob another allegedly used an iPad to display his demand notes to tellers, according to documents the 8 News Now Investigators obtained. Donald Malone, 53, faces charges of robbery, burglary and attempted robbery, documents said. Over 1.2M rechargeable lights sold nationwide recalled after death, fires On Wednesday, May 29, Malone allegedly displayed a prewritten note on an iPad to a teller at a bank on Sunset Road near Eastern Avenue, documents said. The note said, Give me large bills only, dont try anything and dont give any trackers or dye packs, according to police. The teller activated a silent alarm as a co-worker approached her station, which scared the man into leaving, officers said. Donald Malone, 53, faces charges of robbery, burglary and attempted robbery, documents said. (LVMPD/KLAS) The next morning, a man with the same description as Malone showed another prewritten note on an iPad to a bank teller, this time at another area bank. According to police, the note said, I am heavily armed, dont move and dont be suspicious, and to act like nothing is going on. The teller handed over nearly $1,000 in cash during the robbery, police said. Police later learned Malone was also a suspect in a bank robbery in Hermit, California, they said. A check on the car used in that robbery showed it was towed from a Las Vegas hotel the day before the attempted bank robbery on May 29, police said. Police arrested Malone at a hotel on May 30, they said. Officers said he was wearing the same shirt as recorded in surveillance video from the robbery earlier that day. Officers also recovered an iPad. During Malones first court appearance, Judge Daniel Westmeyer set bail at $50,000. Because of his status as a fugitive for his California charge, Malone remained at the Clark County Detention Center as of Thursday. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. Amanda Knox arriving at the courthouse in Florence, Italy on June 5, 2024. - Credit: Tiziana FABI / AFP/Getty Images Amanda Knox said she will continue to fight for the truth and planned to appeal her re-conviction on slander charges tied to the police investigation into the infamous 2007 murder of her roommate. In an interview with Sky News Italy, Knox said, I have been unjustly accused for 17 years. I spent four years in prison as an innocent. Seventeen years, that is my entire adult life, I have been unjustly accused. From the beginning, I just wanted to do the right thing and tell the truth. Sometimes I feel like there is nothing I can do. I am trying, I will try forever. More from Rolling Stone Earlier this week, an appellate court in Florence, Italy, upheld Knoxs slander conviction for wrongly accusing an innocent man of killing of Meredith Kercher. Knox herself was wrongfully convicted of murdering Kercher and spent four years in prison before she was released in 2011. The slander charge stemmed from comments Knox made under intense police interrogation. She said that Patrick Lumumba the owner of a bar where Knox worked while in Italy had broken into the apartment shed shared with Kercher, sexually assaulted Kercher and then killed her. While Knox recanted just a few hours later, Lumumba was still arrested and spent two weeks in custody before his alibi was eventually established (he was bartending at the time). Additionally, authorities still decided to pursue a slander case against Knox, prevailing with a conviction in 2009 while she was still in prison for murder. Last year, the European Court of Human Rights said that Knoxs rights were violated during her interrogation, and Italys Supreme Court called for a retrial. During the new trial, Knox admitted to falsely accusing Lumumba, but argued that her comments should not be taken as slander because of the circumstances of her interrogation. She reiterated this in her new interview Sky, saying she was psychologically tortured, abused, and mistreated by the police during her interrogation. It was the worst experience of my life, she said. They made me think I was crazy. Knox went on to call the verdict unfair, adding that she was really disappointed and upset with the ruling. Still, she was determined to keep fighting the charge, insisting, I didnt slander Patrick; I didnt kill my friend [Meredith]. I will come back here as many times as I have to fight against this injustice. Best of Rolling Stone Amanda Knox Speaks Out After Being Re-Convicted of Slander: 'I'm Going to Keep Fighting This' "I'm just sitting here, 17 years later with an open wound that I thought was going to be healed this time around," Knox said TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Amanda Knox on June 5, 2024 Amanda Knox remains adamant about her claim of innocence, saying she plans to appeal her re-conviction for slander all the way to the Italian Supreme Court if she has to. "I will fight for the truth," Knox said in an interview with Sky News Italy on Thursday, June 6, making her first public comments since an appellate court in Florence, Italy, ruled to uphold the conviction related to the 2007 murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher. The mother of two has been fighting to clear her name since shortly after Kercher was found dead in the apartment they shared in Perugia as exchange students. Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were falsely convicted of Kerchers murder and spent four years in an Italian jail. Their murder convictions were reversed after three jury trials in 2011, and in 2015, the pair were officially exonerated by the Cassation Court, Italys highest court. But one legal hurdle remained: a conviction for slander that came after Knox, while under coercive police interrogation, briefly wrongfully accused Congolese bar owner Patrick Lumumba of murdering Kercher. It was a claim Knox made while being questioned for 53 hours by Italian police in the wake of her arrest. Though she quickly recanted her accusation, Lumumba spent two weeks in jail before his alibi was established. Related: Amanda Knox Breaks Down in Tears as Bid to Overturn Slander Conviction Related to Meredith Kercher's Murder Fails Federico Zirilli/AFP via Getty Images Amanda Knox at an Italian court hearing in September 2008 The real killer, Rudy Guede, was convicted of Kercher's murder in a separate 2008 trial and was given a reduced sentence. He was eventually released from prison in November 2021, per The Guardian. Knox's appeal of her slander conviction, which came while she was still in prison in 2009, came after the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2023 that her rights were violated during her interrogation. Italys Supreme Court ordered a retrial. It began in April, but the conviction was upheld on Wednesday, June 5. Though upset with the outcome, an emotional Knox told Sky News Italy that she will come back to the country as many times as it takes. "I have been unjustly accused for 17 years," a determined Knox said in the interview, which was conducted in Italian. "I spent four years in prison as an innocent. Seventeen years, that is my entire adult life. I have been unjustly accused. From the beginning I just wanted to do the right thing and tell the truth. Sometimes I feel like there is nothing I can do. I am trying to do something. I will try forever." She opened up more about her feelings on two episodes of Labyrinths, the podcast she hosts with her husband Christopher Robinson, which were published on Thursday, June 6. "I was 20 years old when this happened, and I've just been living with this open wound and with this incredible stigma that comes from being accused of this crime and all of the implications that follow," she said. "I'm still living with it and I can live with it I will survive this, and I'm gonna keep fighting it. But it's hard." Her voice trembling throughout the episode, Knox noted how the re-conviction stirred up similar feelings to how she felt during her 2009 murder trial. "I've been here before," she said. "I've been in front of a judge and a jury. I've poured my heart out to them before, hoping that I would be heard, and I've been torn down before, so this feeling is really familiar and it's kind of hard to describe in words because it's not just one feeling." "I'm just sitting here, 17 years later with an open wound that I thought was going to be healed this time around," Knox said. Paula Lobo/Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty Amanda Knox on 'Good Morning America' in 2018. 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. She added that she was "in a state of deep confusion" by the outcome of her appeal, saying it was a "very straightforward proceeding" with just one document to review, her three-page recantation that she says stated "I do not know who killed Meredith." "I'm back in this place of wondering why this happened because it doesn't seem to be based in the facts," she said. "And I'm just going to wait for that motivation document to see what kind of twisted logic is going to be utilized to justify interpreting what the European Court of Human Rights clearly said was a recantation, and they're going to somehow try to say it was an accusation. And I'm going to fight it." "I think the court is patently wrong and I think ultimately what they've done is prolonged the inevitable," she said. "I will be acquitted of this, it's just going to take more time now." Related: Where Is Amanda Knox Now? Inside Her Life After Acquittal and Why Shes Still Clearing Her Name Oli Scarff/Getty Amanda Knox at Perugia's Court of Appeal in 2011. Recounting once again the night of her interrogation, Knox called it the "worst night" of her life, even worse than the day she was convicted. "At the very least when I was wrongly convicted and sentenced, I knew what the truth was. ... But that night, I didn't know what was true anymore," she said on the podcast. "I felt utterly destabilized. I had no idea, and it was so scary." "The police were people I was raised to trust and to obey," she said. "And I was already in a very terrifying situation my friend had just been murdered, there was a killer on the loose and I was trying to help. And then to have the people that I was relying on yelling at me and hitting me and telling me that I had witnessed something horrible and I couldn't even remember it?" And though she expressed gratitude for her legal team and her supporters, the Seattle resident had harsh words for Italian authorities. "I really thought that everyone and especially Italy had learned something from this case," Knox said. "This [appeals] verdict felt like a huge step backwards into this land of fantasy that this case was for so long. It felt like Florence wanted to find me guilty of something. I couldn't be just an innocent person. Like, I had to be to blame for everything that happened to me, instead of the country taking responsibility for what it had done." "What's happening to me is wrong. It's been wrong from the very start," a tearful Knox said. "It's been 17 years and I'm tired. But I'm not going to stop until it's right." For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on People. Five-year-old Navy Roberts will probably not be celebrating Fathers Day this year. She has never met her father or her grandfather, who has long fawned over his six grandchildren, but didnt acknowledge her, his seventh grandchild, until last year. Her father only agreed to support her financially after a bitter legal battle in which he succeeded in preventing her from taking his last name. Her mother, Lunden Roberts, says her father has only ever contacted Navy over Zoom. This sounds like the kind of drama that you might expect to read in the local papers, but it should be frequenting the national ones. Navys father, after all, is Hunter Biden, and her grandfather is the president of the United States. As Hunter Biden is on trial for allegedly purchasing a firearm after lying about his drug use, the sordid details of the wider Biden family are back in the news. Hunter certainly isnt winning any father of the year awards. Wednesday saw testimony from Bidens ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, who said that she would search his car in 2018 after their divorce because she worried about drugs being in the car with their children. Hunter has three children with Buhle, one with his current wife, and, of course, one whom he prevented from taking his name. Whats remarkable about the Hunter Biden trial, beyond the repeated revelations of Hunters depravity, is how little the media seems to care about its implications. When Joe Biden finally acknowledged Navy for the first time, NBC News said the move serves to blunt a GOP line of attack. Perhaps if the media had been doing their job, the line of attack wouldnt have been coming just from Republicans. Joe Biden may have done the right thing when the pressure was on him, but as recently as March, the president referenced his four granddaughters, despite the fact that he has five. Yet the media continually peddle the narrative of the Biden family as a tight-knit, even exemplary, group. Just take a look at how the Bidens are presented by the White House communications team that is, most major media outlets. A recent NBC headline highlights the close-knit Bidens. Since Hunter Bidens criminal trial began on Monday, the Biden family has sought to send the message that for them this is a family affair, not a political one, the article reads. First Lady Jill Biden cut short her recent trip to France with Joe Biden to return to Hunters trial in what the New York Times framed as perhaps the most dramatic illustration yet of the Biden familys personal priorities. In short, the Bidens are a close-knit family weathering the storm of supporting a 54-year-old formerly drug-addicted, deadbeat dad, and potential felon. As families do. Compare this treatment with that of another political family similarly embroiled in scandal: the Trumps. After confusion over whether former President Donald Trump would be able to leave his hush money trial to attend his son Barrons high school graduation, Trump made it after all, but with little appreciation for his efforts. One New York Magazine headline scornfully offers, Trump Will Bolt From Barrons Graduation to a Fundraiser. Former First Lady Melania Trump, for her part, earned the honor of an entire Washington Post article criticising her decision to wear a hat. Outlets have also latched on to Melanias failure to materialize at any of Trumps court appearances, even sparking unflattering comparisons to Jill Biden. Never mind that for Melania, this case was a bit more personal, as it involved an alleged affair with a porn star supposed to have taken place shortly after she gave birth to Barron. You could say that these two households are both alike in indignity. So why does one have its scandals minimised and sugar-coated while the other ignites ire for fashion crimes? It just might have to do with pettiness, partisanship, and an upcoming election in November. The Biden clan get to be a close-knit family because they have made it their brand, and the media have gone along with it. Trumps family arent afforded the same courtesy. 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. By Guy Faulconbridge and Vladimir Soldatkin ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Cut off from the West, Russia is pitching its $2 trillion economy to giants like China and Saudi Arabia and longer-term prospects like Zimbabwe and Afghanistan at its premier investment forum in St Petersburg, which was founded by the tsars as a window to Europe. The war in Ukraine has led to the biggest upheaval in Russia's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and Western sanctions have forced a once-in-a-century revolution in Russia's economic relations. Since Peter the Great laid the foundations of the modern Russian state and made St Petersburg the capital in the early 18th Century, Russia's rulers have looked to the West as a source of technology, investment and ideas. The 2022 invasion of Ukraine, though, has forced President Vladimir Putin to pivot towards Asia and the rest of the non-Western world amid what the Kremlin says amounts to an economic blockade by the United States and its European allies. Western sanctions have not torpedoed Russia's economy, however, and Moscow has nurtured ties with China, major regional powers in the Middle East and across Africa and Latin America. It is less clear, though, how much cash these countries are prepared to invest in Russia's economy, and at what price. No blockbuster deals were announced so far. But Russian officials say it is just beginning - and that relations with the West are ruined for a generation. Bolivian President Luis Arce, who will join Putin at the main session of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, said he wanted to share the experience of Bolivia's new economic model - with a big state - since 2006. "We have our own economic model, which we have been implementing since 2006, and we want to share this experience," Arce told Putin. Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa is attending, as are 45 other foreign officials including the Saudi energy minister, Oman's minister of trade and commerce, and a senior Taliban official. Russian trade with Zimbabwe is tiny though - just $168 million in 2023 versus Russian-European Union trade of$300 billion in the year before Russia invaded Ukraine. Gone from the forum are the Western investors and investment bankers who once flocked to secure a slice of Russia's vast mineral wealth and one of Europe's biggest consumer markets. Reuters saw no major Western companies at the forum. Largely gone too are the 1990s oligarchs who made fortunes wheeling and dealing in the chaos of a collapsing superpower. In Putin's Russia the main arbiter is the state, controlled by the former Cold War spies and technocrats in his entourage. CHINESE DRAGON State-controlled banks such as Sberbank, VTB In a sign of the times, Alfa Bank's stand was a vast Chinese inflated dragon adorned with Chinese characters and an assertion that Alfa was "the best bank for business with China". Chinese luxury car brand Hongqi featured armoured vehicles. A delegation from the Taliban, still officially banned in Russia, toured the stands. The Taliban originally drew members from fighters who, with U.S. support, repelled Soviet forces in the 1980s. The theme of the forum is the statement: "The foundation of a multipolar world is the formation of new points of growth." While Russia's economy has shown resilience in the face of stringent Western sanctions, prices are rising as defence spending balloons. In dollar terms, the economy is about the same size it was a decade ago, and Putin is locked into an economic war with the West whose financial might is at least 25 times bigger than Russia's on a nominal GDP basis. From many foreign attendees there was praise for Russia. "This year's event has grown in size... There are a lot of opportunities," Nebeolisa Anako, an official from Nigeria, told Reuters. "The West may be actually isolating themselves as they are a minority in the world, although a very important part of the world. It is always better to cooperate with other parts of the world." Other officials from Africa and the Middle East echoed those words. Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman met Putin's energy point man, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, at the forum. Novak said "friendly countries" took the vast majority of its oil exports and that about 70% of it was paid for in national currencies. "We already supply 95% of oil and petroleum products to friendly countries this year in four months," Novak said. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Hugh Lawson) Among Latino voters, the biggest threat to Joe Biden is not Donald Trump As President Joe Biden gears up for a tough reelection fight, a narrative has taken hold that former President Donald Trump is ascendant among voters of color. As co-founder and president of the largest organization promoting Latino civic participation, Ive long argued that this storyline cherry-picks facts and ignores others. Stories are often written based on polling crosstabs, the microgroups within a polling sample that are rarely a reliable sample size. A poll that surveys 1,000 American voters, for example, might include a crosstab of Latino voters that number 100 people or fewer. To gain greater insight into the dynamics of the 2024 election, Voto Latino commissioned the respected national polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner to poll 2,000 likely Latino voters to dive deeply on their feelings and preferences heading into the presidential election. The results completely challenge the conventional wisdom. Among swing-state Latinos, Biden actually leads Trump In a new Voto Latino poll of 2,000 likely Latino voters in the United States, President Joe Biden leads former President Donald Trump 59% to 39% among respondents in swing states. The good news for the president: In a head-to-head matchup, Biden's leading Trump among swing-state Latinos by a robust 59% to 39%. This is within striking distance of his 2020 election results. Considering how quickly the Latino population and vote share are growing, approximating his 2020 numbers would significantly boost Bidens raw vote totals in key states. But these numbers dont tell the whole story. When our survey expands the field to include third-party candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West and Jill Stein, Bidens support among Latino voters plummets to just 47%, with Trump falling slightly to 34% and Kennedy taking 12%. 'No spoilers'? RFK Jr. wants Biden to drop out of the presidential race. He's delusional. These voters moving from Biden to Kennedy are precisely those who will decide the outcome of the 2024 election. They are no fans of Trump, but they view their personal financial circumstances as abysmal. This leaves them extremely open-minded about supporting alternatives, especially Kennedy. Make sure Latinos see Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for who he really is Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who started his campaign in April 2023 as a Democrat before going independent in October 2024, is the son of the late former U.S. senator from New York and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. But members of the Kennedy family have endorsed President Joe Biden's reelection bid. Most prognosticators suggest that 2024 will be a pure turnout election. Both campaigns are approaching the race as if there are few truly undecided voters between Biden and Trump, so the winner will be whoever best turns out his base. However, our poll reveals a key reality for the Biden campaign: For all-important Latino swing-state voters, this will be a persuasion election after all between Biden and Kennedy. Historically, most third-party candidates lose support over time. When Election Day is still an abstraction, voters are more willing to register a protest vote. But when the outcome becomes more tangible, voters typically end up choosing between the two major party candidates even if it means choosing the one they perceive as the lesser of two evils. Conservatives can choose better: Trump's a horrible choice for the Republican Party's presumptive nominee Our poll suggests that the Biden campaign cannot count on this historical pattern bringing Kennedy supporters back into the fold. These Latino voters skew young and progressive: We found that 59% of third-party voters are between 18 and 39, which is critical. Latinos trend far younger than the overall U.S. population, so voting trends among this group play an outsized role. The risk isnt that they start trending more conservative; its that they opt out of the two-party system entirely. This is not a potential protest vote akin to choosing none of the above out of frustration. Its an emphatic cry for a changing of the guard, born out of a belief that only a third party can break a system they see as stacked against them. Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. If the Biden campaign assumes Latino voters will return to the traditional Democratic coalition, he will lose. The Latino swing voters who are expressing support for Kennedy are squarely outside the tent, and its going to take real work to bring them back in. There are signs that this work is underway. It needs to accelerate. Even so, there is a clear path. While we intend to dive deeper into how Latino voters perceive Kennedy, the topline is that he benefits from being vaguely seen as both a Democrat and an outsider. The Kennedy brand is powerful in the Latino community: It stands for social activism and economic progress. Knowing little about his actual policy positions, Latinos can squint and imagine him as the progressive working-class champion they want Biden to be. Kennedy has the unique advantage of being a highly undefined product wrapped in a blue-chip brand. But that edge can be erased if the Biden campaign stops ignoring him and starts defining him. Maria Teresa Kumar is the co-founder and president of Voto Latino. Thats what Voto Latino intends to do. Our polling makes it clear that Latinos continue to be repelled by Trump. Yes, we will continue to remind our community just how catastrophic his return to power would be. At the same time, well be shifting our resources to ensure Latinos see Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for who he really is: no champion of social justice and no friend to working people. Maria Teresa Kumar is the co-founder and president of Voto Latino. You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump isn't Biden's biggest threat among Latino voters. RFK Jr. is Hes been a regular at pro-Palestinian protests around Tampa: the stocky man with a neatly trimmed and graying beard. Over the past six months, hes led chants demanding that the University of South Florida divest from Israeli-linked companies. Hes handed out homemade signs calling for the end of Israels war with Hamas. Hes led prayers for peace and freedom for the people of Gaza. Hatem Naji Fariz, 51, is respected among other rally organizers. For local law enforcement, hes considered a trusted member of Tampas Muslim community. But buried in decades-old court records, among the hundreds of pages of phone calls transcribed by federal law enforcement officials, is a far different version of Fariz. More than 20 years ago on Feb. 20, 2003 federal agents raided Farizs Spring Hill home, arresting the then-30-year-old on charges that he provided financial support to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a federally designated terrorist organization. On phone calls recorded by federal agents, Fariz joked about a terrorist attack in Israel, explained how to obscure payments made to a terrorism-adjacent charity organization and bragged about beating a young man whom he suspected of collaborating with the Israelis, according to court records. While Fariz was acquitted of most of the charges against him, he pleaded guilty to providing material support to a terrorist organization. Fariz did not respond to multiple emails, phone calls and a letter left at his Tarpon Springs home. In an email to the Tampa Bay Times, Kevin Beck, Farizs former defense attorney, said the government made frequent errors in describing the actions that led to the charges (against Fariz and his co-defendants). Beck did not address specific questions about the allegations or other court documents reviewed by the Times. For some community leaders who know of this long-ago case, Fariz has since proved himself to be a leader. Hatem has been a force for reason within the Muslim community, said Temple Terrace police Chief Kenneth Albano. He said hes known Fariz for more than a decade and has coordinated with him to ensure that recent demonstrations and events organized by Fariz were peaceful and respectful of the larger community. Albano said he knew of Farizs prior conviction but added you should look at the totality of everything if youre trying to understand. When it comes to coordinating protests with Albanos office, Fariz shares information and listens to concerns, Albano said. He tries to speak reason into situations that could go differently. Palestinian Islamic Jihad Fariz was born in Puerto Rico to parents of Palestinian descent and grew up in a Chicago suburb, Beck said. Every few years, his family would travel to Palestine to spend time in the occupied territories of Israel, Fariz told the Times in 2006. By the early 1990s, Fariz had gained prominence in Chicagos Islamic community as an activist and fundraiser for Palestinian causes. His knack for raising money eventually caught the attention of Sami Al-Arian, and the two began working closely to coordinate relief efforts. It was around this time that FBI agents began monitoring Al-Arians conversations in connection to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, according to court documents. Palestinian Islamic Jihad was founded in the late 1980s with the mandate to eliminate the Israeli state, according to the records. During the 1990s and early 2000s, the group conducted dozens of attacks and bombings in Israel, killing more than 60. The group participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel alongside Hamas, and claimed to have seized Israeli hostages, the BBC reported. Among the nine men charged in 2003 with supporting the group was Al-Arian, a USF computer science professor whom federal prosecutors identified as the groups leader. In 2006, a jury acquitted Fariz on 25 of the 33 charges brought against him by federal prosecutors but couldnt come to a unanimous verdict on the remaining eight. After a 14-month trial, Fariz pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization and agreed to a 37-month prison sentence. The remaining seven charges were dropped as part of Farizs plea agreement. The conviction came after an intensive federal investigation that showed over a two-year period Fariz wired more than $40,000 to charities in Gaza and the West Bank with direct ties to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, according to the indictment. Al-Arian was the fiery face of the pro-Palestine movement in the U.S. and Fariz was his worker bee, said Beck. Al-Arian had already gained national attention after appearing on Bill OReillys Fox News show in the weeks following the September 2001 terrorist attacks. During the interview, OReilly accused Al-Arian of espousing dangerous views and hinted at his suspected ties to terrorism. USF was deluged with phone calls and threatening letters. Though administrators wanted him fired, Al-Arians tenure agreement granted broad protection for speech on and off campus. Given what they knew at the time, the administration totally overreacted, said Robert Shibley, special counsel for campus advocacy for Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free speech advocacy organization. Their reason was that (Al-Arians) presence on campus was causing a disruption, Shibley said. But he wasnt the disruption, it was the people objecting to his presence, making threats. Compared to the aloof and prickly Al-Arian, Fariz had a friendly demeanor that made him a natural fit for fundraising, Beck said. Hatem was a people person and Sami (Al-Arian) took advantage of that ability, he said. Transcripts of taped phone calls reviewed by the Times reveal Fariz as a diligent and principled worker, organizing Ramadan care packages for families in Gaza and repeatedly insisting that he and his fellow organizers keep none of the funds they raised. But on a June 2002 call recorded by federal agents, he and Al-Arian laughed about a bombing in Israel that killed 17 and wounded 45, according to the federal indictment. On another call, Fariz bragged that, while living in the Middle East, he and a group of men assaulted a child who they believed was cooperating with the Jews, according to the indictment. The tapes also indicate Farizs direct knowledge that the charities he raised money for were deemed terrorist organizations by the U.S. On a November 2002 call, Fariz instructed a Gaza-based organizer to draw up documents obscuring the fact that funds raised in the U.S. were distributed to Elehssan Society, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad-associated charity, according to the indictment. After federal officials arrested Al-Arian and raided his campus office in February 2003, the school terminated his professorship without objection from the teachers union, said Dick Beard, the former chairperson of the schools board of trustees. Al-Arian pleaded guilty to supporting a terrorist organization and was sentenced to 57 months in prison, including time served, according to court records. He was deported to Turkey in February 2015. While the St. Petersburg Times and Tampa Tribune wrote dozens of stories about Al-Arians case during the three-year trial, only a handful of stories mentioned Fariz by name. Those that did characterized him as either the moneyman behind Al-Arians operation, or a family man caught up in attorney general John Ashcrofts crackdown on an outspoken critic of U.S. foreign policy. Double jeopardy Lama Alhasan is an organizer with the criminal justice reform organization Bay Area Dream Defenders. She told the Times that shes helped organize some of the events attended by Fariz. She said shes familiar with Fariz as a member of Tampas Palestinian community and was aware of his prior conviction. Alhasan objected to questions about Farizs history of support for Palestinian Islamic Jihad, adding that our No. 1 priority is educating the public and raising awareness of the genocide in Gaza. Everything else is a distraction. Beck, Farizs former lawyer, voiced similar concerns in response to questions from the Times. The Constitutional protection against double jeopardy precludes prosecution on those very charges again, Beck wrote in an email to the Times. It doesnt protect Hatem and his family from undergoing the same kinds of vitriol and hatred that he and his family suffered nearly 25 years ago because he supported what was largely an unpopular and misunderstood cause. Gage Lacharite, an organizer with Freedom Road Socialist Organization, said hes known Fariz through his community activism for about a decade and has spoken with Fariz at protests around Tampa. He said the federal case against Fariz and Al-Arian was part of what he calls the U.S. governments knee-jerk reaction to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It was the stand-out case of that era, which was defined by political repression and rooted, in some part, in Islamophobia, Lacharite said. After his release from federal prison in May 2010, Fariz settled into Tampas Palestinian community. He manages the Islamic Community of Tampa, a nonprofit religious and educational organization run out of the Al-Qassam Mosque, just blocks from USFs Tampa campus. USF administrators were aware of Farizs presence on campus and his prior felony conviction, according to USF spokesperson Althea Johnson. We have reviewed options regarding his presence and found that the conditions of his release do not restrict his access to public land and he has no outstanding warrants for arrest, Johnson wrote to the Times. Thats the right call, according to Shibley, the free speech lawyer. If hes expressing an unpopular opinion or one you disagree with, then thats speech to be protected, Shibley said. Times staff photographer Luis Santana contributed to this story. The News JOHANNESBURG A coalition government that includes most of South Africas main parties has emerged as the most popular option for the African National Congress, according to President Cyril Ramaphosa. The ANCs most senior body, the National Executive Committee (NEC), met on Thursday to consider its options. This moment calls for multiparty unity, multi-stakeholder collaboration, if we are to overcome the severe challenges that our country faces, said Ramaphosa, in a televised closing address at the meeting. The purpose of the government of national unity must first and foremost tackle the pressing issues that South Africans want to be addressed. These issues include job creation, growth of the economy that will be inclusive, high cost of living, service delivery, crime and corruption, he said. The ANC will have 159 of parliaments 400 seats following last weeks general election in which it won only 40% of the vote. Know More Under the constitution, the countrys parliament must meet no later than June 17 to elect a president Options included forming a government with the main opposition Democratic Alliance, which is widely seen as market-friendly or, alternatively, working with populist political parties like the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and former President Jacob Zumas uMkhonto weSizwe, both of which are ANC offshoots. Sams view A coalition with a couple of partners helps the ANC neatly sidestep the public relations mayhem that comes with choosing one of the diametrically opposed options in a grand coalition. One of those options is the Democratic Alliance, which would appease big business and the financial markets. Another is to work with the EFF and a few other smaller parties. The EFF option could roil financial markets while appeasing the ANCs base on the left of the political spectrum. The DA espouses liberal policies and is trying to shake off a perception as a predominantly white party. Working with DA would raise the prospect of ANC the party that fought for Black liberation under apartheid having to defend itself against claims of selling out to a supposed ideological enemy. As a result, the ANC is torn down the middle on whether to choose the DA or the EFF as a coalition partner, with risks and opportunities whichever way it tries to move. A unity government of multiple parties might be the solution to this challenge. Room for Disagreement Former Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu told the SABC, the national broadcaster, that the ANC should not choose a formulation with the Democratic Alliance. We are ideologically at variance with the DA. I cannot imagine having to drag people who do not have similar issues [and insights] into our problems and be able to take the country forward. Her views contradict Cheryl Carolus, another ANC veteran who said the ANC should form a government with the DA. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, which designated the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness one of the nation's first remote areas to be protected in its mostly natural state. Sixty years is something to celebrate, or at least to take note. But the anniversary will largely go unnoticed. And people who do pay attention likely will take away from the commemoration only that someone had a good idea six decades ago to protect the BWCAW and, in the many years since, similarly to set aside about 800 of the nation's other pristine areas. The lesson that instead should be gained from the Wilderness Act's diamond jubilee is that conservation and protection of the nation's valuable places and resources require passion and dedication by many people over significant periods of time. As Teddy Roosevelt famously said, "There can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country." He should have added, "But prepare for the long haul." Safeguarding the BWCAW the nation's most popular wilderness area proves the point, because protecting it didn't begin in 1964 with passage of the Wilderness Act, but more than a century ago, in 1902. That's when Christopher Andrews, Minnesota's forestry commissioner, convinced the state to set aside 500,000 acres near the Minnesota-Ontario border from being sold to loggers. A few years later, Andrews protected another 141,000 acres. And a few years after that, he helped convince Canada to establish the adjoining Quetico Provincial Park. In 1926, U.S. Agriculture Secretary William Jardine helped form the BWCAW's initial boundaries when he designated 640,000 acres of northern Minnesota's Superior National Forest as a roadless wilderness area. Congress passed the Shipstead-Newton-Nolan Act in 1930, preventing logging and dams in the area. And in 1938, the roadless area was expanded again and renamed the Superior Roadless Primitive Area. None of which stopped floatplanes from flying anglers into the border country, most of whom were destined for wilderness resorts, whose businesses were booming, particularly after World War II. Knowing these outfits would result in lakes being over-fished, and that floatplanes taking off and landing would discourage canoe travel in the area, conservationists lobbied for federal funds to buy out the resorts and for a presidential order prohibiting airplanes from flying below 4,000 feet over the border lakes. Canadian officials also had grown weary that resorts on the Minnesota side of the boundary waters were making big money from fly-in sportsmen, while no such transactions were occurring north of the border. In the early 1940s, Canada claimed 1,300 Americans paddled Quetico annually, while only three Canadians did. Unless the U.S. bought out its wilderness resorts and instituted a boundary waters flying ban, the Canadians said they would lease parts of Quetico to similar businesses so they could cash in. The growing number of conservationists who sought to protect the Superior Roadless Primitive Area often disagreed with one another, sometimes vehemently, about the best approach. These included Sigurd Olson, the ecologist and author; Frank Hubachek, a Yale graduate, prominent Chicago lawyer and frequent Boundary Waters visitor and advocate; and Ernest Oberholtzer, an Iowa native and Harvard graduate who lived on a Rainy Lake island for more than 50 years. In his excellent biography of Olson, the late David Backes writes that if Ontario followed through on its threat to open the Quetico to resort businesses, Hubachek would stop raising funds for the region's protection. "That (Ontario's threatened action) will doom our efforts, except for some miracle which reasonable men cannot expect to happen," Hubachek wrote to Oberholtzer in 1946. "I will have to leave the arena because the cause is lost . . . It is bitter to see 21 years lost in this manner." At the time, Olson was just ending a stint as dean of Ely Junior College, and Hubachek and Oberholtzer with some hesitation asked Olson to lead a national group that advocated for the buyout of American wilderness resorts, along with an airplane ban over the roadless area. Hubachek and a colleague, Charles Kelly, were particularly worried that Olson was too much of a wilderness "fanatic" who might not be tactful enough to deal with the "hard-boiled people we have to deal with." In fact, Olson already by then had said publicly he believed motorboats and logging should be banned in the Boundary Waters, positions that neither Oberholtzer nor Hubachek had ever spoken, and perhaps didn't believe possible. But Olson took the job and temporarily moved to Chicago, from which he could travel readily to Washington, D.C., and elsewhere. Presaging the skills for which he would become prominent until his 1982 death in Ely at age 82, he employed his charisma, powers of persuasion and lyrical prose to successfully gain support for the land buyouts and airplane ban. Minnesota U.S. Sen. Hubert Humphrey introduced the first version of the Wilderness Act in 1956. Before the bill's eventual 1964 passage, it would undergo countless revisions and be the subject of considerable acrimony, particularly in Ely, where Olson suffered the condemnation of many of his fellow residents. Now it's 2024, and the issue is mining along the BWCAW's southern border, which opponents say correctly threatens the wilderness's clean water and pristine nature. If the past is prologue on this 60th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, the fight will be a long one. MANHATTAN, N.Y. (PIX11) The largest parade in New York City will take over the streets of Manhattan on Sunday in celebration of the Puerto Rican community. Millions are expected to come out and celebrate all things Boricua this weekend as part of a collection of events that culminates in this celebratory parade. Manhattan street closures for the National Puerto Rican Day Parade Flags, costumes, music, and cultural icons will be the essentials of this parade with the theme Corazon de Boricua, meaning Puerto Rican in your heart. The traditional parade kicks off at 44th Street at 11 a.m. and runs up Fifth Avenue to 79th. Renown for being Americas largest celebration of Puerto Rican pride and achievement, the parade is an iconic platform for cultural preservation and collective legacy-building. Organizers say it was born from the struggle of the Puerto Rican community in New York for not only equity and inclusion but validation in the 1950s. To this day, the parade continues to promote culture, arts, and education. More Local News The grand marshal for this years celebration is salsa legend Tito Nieves. This year, organizers plan to highlight Hawaiis Puerto Rican community, which began in the early 20th century as Puerto Ricans immigrated there for work in the sugar industry. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, June 7. The Russian-Kyrgyz Development Fund (RKDF) and Gazprombank Leasing will collaborate to promote leasing services in Kyrgyzstan, Trend reports. According to RKDF, the cooperation agreement was signed by Artem Novikov, Chairman of the Management Board of RKDF, and Vyacheslav Spirov, Vice President of Gazprombank and General Director of Gazprombank Leasing Group. The agreement opens new prospects for the development of the leasing services market in Kyrgyzstan. Our goal is to create favorable conditions for the introduction of innovative leasing products, as well as to conduct comprehensive market research to determine its potential and needs, Novikov said. He noted that collaboration between the Russian-Kyrgyz Development Fund and Gazprombank Leasing will significantly enhance the potential of leasing services to achieve one of the fund's key goals - economic growth and modernization of Kyrgyzstan's economy Spirov, on the other hand, expressed that the signed agreement reflects their willingness to promote leasing financing in different fields and areas, showcasing their openness and preparedness. The Russian-Kyrgyz Development Fund was established in 2014. The main goals of the fund include promoting economic cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and Russia, modernizing and developing the Kyrgyz economy, and utilizing the opportunities arising from the participation of both countries in Eurasian economic integration. After two years of work with Palmyra and Annville Township officials, residents of the two municipalities can see the colors of a new regional police force patrolling their streets. On May 27, The Annville Township and Palmyra Borough Police Departments officially consolidated into the Western Lebanon County Regional Police Department. Officials have said that this is the first regional police force in Lebanon County, serving more than 12,589 residents. The new force can help address many problems municipal police departments are facing such as a lack of manpower, according to regional Police Chief Andrew Winters. "By combining the services you are able to get a larger department, (and) you are able to increase your minimal manpower that's on the street," he said. "On top of that, you are increasing your supervision that you're going to have on the street with the officers. You are starting to eliminate some of the redundancy." Western Lebanon County Regional Police Department Chief Andrew Winters, Officer Cody Smoot, Officer Tim Lengle, Sgt. Peter Mathews and Det. Jarod Henry display some of the vehicles and equipment displaying the new regional police department's logo. The 15-officer force has 11 patrol officers, two sergeants, one detective and one chief of police to start out. The regional force would be headquartered at the Palmyra Borough Municipal Building with two part-time administrative assistants and a substation in Annville Township. The two municipal departments, along with South Annville Township, began discussions in 2022 about a consolidated police force, asking for a study to be done by the state Department of Community & Economic Development. South Annville Township supervisors decided not to join the proposed department in September 2022. Palmyra Borough and Annville Township officials finalized the charter agreement to consolidate the police departments in April 2023. The regional department is overseen by a five-member commission. Two representatives from both Palmyra and Annville will be appointed for a three-year term, and one citizen-at-large community member serving a two-year term. Police departments are constantly running into issues with limited resources and budgets. Winters said. "When you have more officers, you have the ability to do more things," Winters said about regional police departments. "You can do those speed details, you can put people out on bike, because you have people to address things. It's a little bit easier when you have the bodies." Some problems the department has had over the first week of service were day-to-day issues, like learning reporting styles and programs. Winters said the biggest headache was getting all the officers logged into the vehicle computers. "We had a hiccup a day or two where Annville people had to use Annville cars, and vice versa," Winters said. "For all I know it's all fixed ... So it's just little tweaks that need to be done. Nothing major." Community Policing Palmyra Borough and Annville Township do not share a border, separated by three townships and having at least 2.7 miles between the border of each municipality. But both municipalities are connected to Route 422. "When you start looking at some of the other townships, their areas are huge and it could take them 15 to 20 minutes to get from one end of their township to another," he said. "I know we can get from (Palmyra) to Annville in less than that." Most of the time, the department will have at least one officer patrolling Palmyra Borough and at least one officer patrolling Annville Township, with available extra officers floating between the two municipalities. Winters said officers may have some hiccups learning how to deal with their respective new communities, but they should be able to adjust and learn how to work with residents. "We have a fairly decent mix of (former) Annville and Palmyra officers working at the same time," he said. "So you're going to share the information, and they're going to meet new people. So instead of knowing five cops, now they are going to know 15 cops." Winters said he'd also like to have community meetings in both municipalities for residents to meet their new officers, with officials looking for other options to connect to the two communities like visiting with schools and local businesses. "I think they will be surprised with how much we try to connect," he said. Funding The regional police department's 2024 budget is more than $3.445 million, with Palmyra Borough contributing $2.142 million and Annville Township contributing $1.3 million. According to the charter, costs for police services will be apportioned to each participating municipality using a per capita formula. The per capita rate for 2024 is $273.65. According to census data used to calculate the 2024 regional police budget, Annville Township has a population of 4,759 residents while Palmyra has a population of 7,830 residents. Winters said the top costs to the department is personnel and benefits, a problem that most police departments are currently facing. But the merger added five Annville Township officers to the 10 Palmyra Borough officers. "You're looking at over $100,000 to hire one cop, and I got five for $68,000," Winters said. "Right there you are already ahead. You increase some costs in other places, but those costs were going to go up anyway like your health care." Moving Forward There are more than 35 regional police departments representing 125 municipalities in the commonwealth, according to the state Department of Community & Economic Development. In Lebanon County, North Lebanon Township and North Cornwall Township are also in talks about potentially consolidating into one regionalized police force. "Between manpower and money ... you can only get so far in smaller departments," Winters said. "And if you also look at what are some of the people looking to do. They want to be detectives, they want specialty units (and) they want to be supervisors. If you're in a five-man department, you're probably not going to have a detective and you may only have the chief as your supervisor." Over the next year officials at the regional department are working on issues including coming in compliance with the Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Program, working on crime reduction in the municipalities, getting officers continued training and figuring out the 2025 budget. "These first six months is just lets get everything working right, let's get everybody on the same page, let's get our policing style the same, let's get the accreditation done and then we'll see where we go from there," Winters said. While there is potential for the regional department to grow in the future, Winters said the focus right now is just getting the department to continue moving forward. "If we didn't think we could do it, we wouldn't have done this," he said. "I think you are going to see a better service provided, and I think at some point you are going to see the savings. It might not be in this first six months, and it might not be next year, but I think in the long run you are going to see it." Residents looking for more information about the Western Lebanon County Regional Police Department can visit their website at lebanon.crimewatchpa.com/wlcrpd. Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at mtoth@ldnews.com or on X at @DAMattToth. Douglas Stump is a correspondent for LDN. This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Regional police department starts patrols in Palmyra, Annville Twp. Another Miami-Dade politician charged with a crime runs for office. Call it the Trump Effect | Opinion Suspended Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez announced this week he plans to run for the coveted, brand new, powerful post of Miami-Dade sheriff. Nevermind that Martinez was arrested in 2022 and charged with unlawful compensation for accepting money from a grocery store owner. He is awaiting trial. Martinez maintains he is innocent and the money he received was for work done while he was not a commissioner. He claims the criminal case against him was politically motivated. Heard that one before? Martinez, a Republican and a former police officer, is riding on the Trump Effect a new political reality in which candidates no longer believe that a run-in with the law precludes them from seeking public office, not even the countys top law enforcement job. If its working for the former president, whos fundraising off of his conviction on 34 felony charges in New York, why wont others then try to ride his shameless coattails? This community deserves to have a law enforcement person who not only has an exemplary record as police officer but who also has command of government, Martinez told reporters Tuesday. Martinez is not alone in thinking a criminal record doesnt endanger political aspirations. In September, former Miami City Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla was also charged with public corruption and suspended. He decided to double down and run for his seat again in November. He lost. Kudos for old-fashioned voters. Diaz de la Portilla also claimed his arrest had been politically motivated, a weaponizing of the judicial system led by a renegade Broward County prosecutor. This week, the Herald reported Diaz de la Portilla is under investigation for possible witness tampering related to his case. Diaz de la Portilla told the Herald the only tampering is the States tampering. Sound familiar? And also this week, a consultant once deemed a possible subject in a criminal investigation by the office of Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle was identified as being behind a political committee attacking the longtime Democratic prosecutor. Alex Alvarado, a Tallahassee consultant tied to a 2020 plot to hurt Democrats by promoting ghost candidates, is said to be the one coordinating political ads criticizing Fernandez Rundle for raising money for a reelection campaign she ultimately didnt have to run because she didnt face any opponents, the Miami Herald reported. Alvarado was never charged with a crime. Not again Disgraced Katherine Fernandez Rundle was re-elected without opposition, but she raised over $600k for her ghost campaign, the ads say. He accuses her of being in the pockets of big developers, healthcare executives and lobbyists. For decades, having a criminal record or coming under investigation was seen as a major black mark. Voters generally wanted their elected leaders to be people of high moral character without any scandals. However, it seems those norms have gone, thanks to Trump. From settling lawsuits over housing discrimination to accusations of tax fraud, Trump managed to convince voters that his questionable past was a conspiracy against him. Trumps greatest trick now is likely that despite being convicted in New York, he will likely be the Republican presidential candidate and face President Joe Biden in November. Trump has seemingly given other politicians with problematic histories a new confidence. Martinez and Diaz de la Portilla are, in the eyes of the law, innocent until proven guilty. But, in the past, their legal troubles would have been political suicide and it might have been for Diaz de la Portilla. Martinez is still betting he can win over voters in our current environment. He might be right. But this lowering of standards threatens the very foundations of our democratic system. How can we expect our leaders to faithfully serve the public interest if they themselves face active criminal prosecutions? Voting people under indictment into office removes any incentive for politicians to avoid corruption or legal gray areas. More worryingly, it could even help normalize corruption as just another part of the political game. Lets hope Miami-Dade voters can see clearly when voting this election season. Click here to send the letter. Legislation offering significant pay raises to coroners in Georgia passed the state House of Representatives overwhelmingly this year but ran out of time to get through the Georgia. Senate. But supporters say the need is urgent, and theyre planning to raise the issue again when the General Assembly convenes under the Gold Dome for the 2025 legislative session. The legislature has not addressed pay for coroners in over 30 years, said Dawson County Coroner Ted Bearden, chairman of the Georgia Coroners Associations Legislative Committee. Were working with an antiquated system. ... It needs to be fixed. As the system has evolved over the years, coroners in counties with vastly different populations and, thus, a huge discrepancy in the number of cases theyre called on to handle, often are being paid the same, Bearden said. The coroner system is pervasive in Georgia. Only four large counties - Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb, and Gwinnett - use significantly more expensive medical examiners. A lot of coroners who have been doing it for years are going to retire, Bearden said. You are not going to be able to find qualified people for the pay it currently pays. The House passed legislation this year aimed at replacing that current hodge-podge by upgrading coroner to a full-time position and setting a range of salaries depending on the population of the county they serve. The minimum salary for coroners under the measure would be $35,000 per year. Minimum salaries would go much higher for coroners in the largest counties that use coroners. Under current law, coroners in counties with populations of fewer than 35,000 earn no more than $3,600 annually. Deputy coroners would be paid $250 for each case they handle, up from the current $175. Were trying to update the pay scale to minimum standards, Rep. Will Wade, R-Dawsonville, told members of a Senate committee during a hearing on the bill in March. The vast majority of counties I represent are already paying their coroners well above this minimum standard. But lawmakers heard an earful during this years legislative session from county officials and their advocates worried about how pay raises for coroners would affect their tight budgets. They tell me theyre not prepared, they cant afford it, that its not in their budget, said Sen. Mike Hodges, R-Brunswick, a member of the Senate committee that heard testimony on the bill. Todd Edwards, deputy director of governmental affairs for the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, questioned giving big pay raises to coroners in small rural counties. How many death cases are there in rural counties? Edwards said. Is it really a full-time job? A lot of them are probably full-time funeral home directors. Edwards also argued that decisions on coroners salaries should be made through local legislation rather than a statewide bill. But Bearden called that a terrible idea. If a county does local legislation, it takes another piece of local legislation to change it, he said. The Senate Economic Development and Tourism Committee ended up approving the House bill, including an amendment that moved its effective date back to the beginning of 2026 to give counties time to plan for the financial hit. But the bill never reached the Senate floor during the hectic final day of this years session. Bearden said he and other supporters of raising coroners salaries are planning to reintroduce the legislation next year, probably with few changes. The state has two choices: Keep the coroner system or go to a statewide medical examiner system, he said. Everything would go to the GBI (Georgia Bureau of Investigation. They cant keep the investigators they have now handling the caseload as it is. FILE - U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, speaks at a news conference, Nov. 1, 2022, at the Statehouse in Augusta, Maine. Golden, who is seeking reelection, will know his opponent after voters choose between Republicans Austin Theriault and Mike Soboleski in the Maine primary election on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File) WASHINGTON (AP) Maine voters already cast their votes for president, but theyre back at it on Tuesday for the state primary election. This time, voters will choose two nominees who will vie for a U.S. House seat that could be critical to determining which party wins the majority. When former President Donald Trump won Maines 2nd District in 2016, it seemed like another sign that the largely rural district was moving even further away from Democrats. Maine allocates some of its Electoral College votes to the winners of individual congressional districts, giving Trump a boost despite his statewide loss. Just two years prior, Republican Bruce Poliquin replaced Democratic Rep. Mike Michaud in the U.S. House. But the trend toward Republicans hit a roadblock in 2018, when Democrat Jared Golden defeated Poliquin. Even as Trump went on to win the 2nd District again in 2020, Golden has continued to win reelection. This time, however, Republicans including Trump and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson are hoping that state Rep. Austin Theriault, a former NASCAR driver, can defeat Golden. But first, Theriault has to get through the primary. Heres a look at what to expect on Tuesday: PRIMARY DAY The primary will be held on Tuesday. Polls close at 8 p.m. ET. WHATS ON THE BALLOT The Associated Press will provide coverage for 20 contested races, including Republican primary elections in both of Maines seats in the U.S. House. The remaining races are primaries for the state House and state Senate. WHO GETS TO VOTE Registered party members may vote only in their own partys primary. In other words, Democrats cant vote in the Republican primary or vice versa. However, voters who have not enrolled with a political party may affiliate at the polls and participate in any primary. DECISION NOTES Maine is separated into two congressional districts: a Democratic-leaning district in the south and a political battleground in the north. In the northern 2nd District, Republicans have been increasingly successful in elections in recent years, especially since Trump was first elected. The towns and counties where Trump received the most votes in 2020 could be strong areas for Theriault, who received Trumps endorsement. That includes Penobscot County, home to Bangor, and Oxford County, which shares a border with New Hampshire. Both of those counties also include casinos. While Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election carried the city of Auburn in Androscoggin County, which borders the 1st District, Trump still received a significant batch of votes there, too. In the state legislature, Theriault represents a district on the northern tip of Maine in Fort Kent. In this years presidential primary, Trump received 87% of the vote, or 205 votes, in Fort Kent. But Trump also won dozens of small surrounding towns by overwhelming margins, a pattern that Theriault will hope to replicate to build a winning coalition in the primary. Theriault has a major financial advantage over the other Republican on the ballot, state Rep. Michael Soboleski. As of the May 22 filing deadline, Theriault had raised $1.2 million, while Soboleski had raised $117,000. Soboleskis district includes Franklin, Somerset and Oxford counties. Dale Crafts, the Republican nominee in 2020, has backed Soboleski, as have multiple state legislators. In the 1st District, anchored by Portland, Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree is running unopposed in a seat that shes held since 2010. Its also a district that Biden won in 2020 and that Hillary Clinton won against Trump in the 2016 general election. Maine uses ranked-choice voting for legislative primaries with more than two candidates on the ballot, but most races on the ballot Tuesday have only two candidates to choose from. One state legislative race in Cape Elizabeth, where three candidates are running for District 123, could go to ranked-choice voting if no candidate receives 50% of first-choice votes. One of the three candidates on the ballot in the Democratic race in the 118th district withdrew from consideration Monday, meaning votes will only be counted for two candidates and it is no longer eligible for ranked-choice voting. The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when its determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why. Candidates may request a recount regardless of the margin of the race. WHAT DO TURNOUT AND ADVANCE VOTE LOOK LIKE? As of March 5, there were 1,150,204 registered voters in Maine. Of those, 35% were Democrats and 28% were Republicans. In the 2022 primary for governor, turnout was 6% of 1,117,145 registered voters in the Democratic primary and 5% in the Republican primary. Both races were uncontested. In the June 2022 primary, about 12% of votes in that election were cast before Election Day. This year, as of June 5, a total of 16,194 ballots had been cast before Election Day, about 55% in the Democratic primary and 31% in the Republican primary. HOW LONG DOES VOTE-COUNTING USUALLY TAKE? In the 2022 Republican primary for the 2nd Congressional District, the AP first reported results at 8:17 p.m. ET, or 17 minutes after polls closed. The election night tabulation ended at 2:16 a.m. ET with about 79% of total votes counted. ARE WE THERE YET? As of Tuesday, there will be 147 days until the November general election. ___ Follow the AP's coverage of the 2024 election at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024. FILE - Voters cast their ballots in the Nevada primary election in Reno, Nev., June 14, 2022. After holding both presidential primaries and a presidential caucus in February, Nevadans will vote in primaries for Congress and state legislature on Tuesday, June 11. The state's congressional delegation is currently comprised of five Democrats and one Republican. Tuesday's marquee races include the Republican primaries for U.S. Senate and in the three Democratic-held congressional districts. (AP Photo/Tom R. Smedes, File) WASHINGTON (AP) Voters in the key swing state of Nevada head the polls for the second (or, in some cases, third) time this year to select the candidates who will appear in some of this falls most competitive legislative races. After holding both presidential primaries and a presidential caucus in February, Nevadans will vote in primaries for Congress and the state legislature on Tuesday. The states congressional delegation is currently composed of five Democrats and one Republican. Tuesdays marquee races include the Republican primaries for Senate and in the three Democratic-held congressional districts. First-term Sen. Jacky Rosen, whose seat will likely be among those key to determining the balance of power in the Senate come fall, faces two Democratic challengers in program manager Troy Walker and taxpayer advocate Mike Schaefer. She has significantly outraised her current and prospective opponents, with more than $10 million on hand. The next-best-funded candidate, Republican Sam Brown, has raised $7 million this cycle and spent $4.6 million of it. Brown, an army veteran who unsuccessfully sought the nomination for Senate in Nevada last cycle, and former Ambassador to Iceland Jeff Gunter are the only two Republican candidates for Senate to have raised at least $1 million. Brown has more party support, with endorsements from the state's Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo and backing from the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The crowded field also includes Jim Marchant, a prominent supporter of former President Donald Trump and promoter of the false narrative around fraud in the 2020 election. Trump has not yet endorsed a candidate in the race. There are also key races for Nevadas 1st, 3rd and 4th congressional districts on the Republican side. Those three districts all include at least some of Clark County, home to Las Vegas, and are currently represented by Democratic incumbents Dina Titus, Susie Lee and Steven Horsford. The incumbent in the 2nd District, Mark Amodei, faces a poorly funded challenger and Democrats are not fielding a candidate in the conservative district. The 1st is considered the safest for the incumbent, as Titus is the longest-tenured Democratic representative in the state and had one of the larger margins of victory in 2022 at 6 percentage points. Still, that hasnt stopped business owner Flemming Larsen from loaning his campaign $1.5 million. The field also includes Mark Robertson, a retired army colonel who lost to Titus in 2022. There are seven Republicans seeking the nomination in the 3rd District, which is potentially the states most competitive race. The leading fundraiser is former Nevada State Treasurer Daniel Schwartz. His opponents include former state Sen. Elizabeth Helgelien, whos pitching herself as a strong Trump supporter with endorsements from Marchant and Trump advisers Roger Stone and Michael Flynn. The 4th District has the smallest field, with just three candidates. Financial adviser and veteran David Flippo has narrowly outspent former North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee. Lee also previously served in the state legislature as a Democrat he switched his party affiliation to Republican in 2022. Flippo sought a state assembly seat in 2022 but fell short in the Republican primary. Heres a look at what to expect on primary night: PRIMARY DAY The Nevada state primary will be held Tuesday. Polls close at 10 p.m. ET. WHATS ON THE BALLOT The Associated Press will provide vote coverage and declare winners in 43 contested primaries for Senate, House, state Senate, state Assembly and Washoe County commissioner. The key races are both Democratic and Republican primaries for Senate as well as Republican primaries for the 1st, 3rd and 4th House districts. WHO GETS TO VOTE Registered party members may vote only in their own partys primary. In other words, Democrats cant vote in the Republican primary or vice versa. Nevada also has same-day registration, which allows new voters to register at the polls on Tuesday or during the early voting period. DECISION NOTES The most important county in statewide elections and most congressional races is Clark County, which is home to almost 3 in 4 of Nevadas residents. The 1st and 3rd districts fall entirely within Clark, while the 4th includes the northern suburbs of Las Vegas plus at least part of five other counties. Nevada is generally among the slower-counting states. Every voter in Nevada automatically receives a ballot by mail, unless they opt out, and county officials will accept mail ballots up to four days after election day provided they are postmarked on or before election day. Since mail ballots will continue to arrive until June 15, a close contest in which the number of mail ballots could impact the outcome could delay a race call. This year, the secretary of state has encouraged counties to start tabulating in-person election day votes and mail ballots that arrive before election day during the early voting period. These recommendations are intended to lead to the release of more results faster. Early voting started May 25 and ended June 7. Regardless of how many ballots are tabulated at poll close, Nevada will not release any results until the final voter in line at poll close has cast their ballot. Because of this rule, the state will often need at least an hour after polls close to ensure everyone has a chance to vote before releasing initial results. Ballots include a none of these candidates option (a selection that Republican voters made at a notable scale in the February presidential primary). However, in the event that the top vote-getter in a primary is none of these candidates, the second-highest vote-getter would advance to the general election, and AP would therefore declare that candidate the winner. The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when its determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why. Nevada does not have an automatic recount law, but candidates may request and pay for a recount within three days of the county or statewide canvass. WHAT DO TURNOUT AND ADVANCE VOTE LOOK LIKE? As of Jan. 1, there were 2,278,385 registered voters in Nevada. Of those, 31% were Democrats, 28% were Republicans and 34% were independent. In the presidential primary in February, turnout was 19% of about 703,000 registered voters in the Democratic primary and 13% of about 639,000 registered voters in the Republican primary. Nevada Republicans held both a primary and a caucus in February, and while registered Republicans could vote in both, Trump only filed for the caucuses. About 90% of Democratic votes and 85% of Republican votes in the primary elections were cast by mail or before election day. In addition to a one-week in-person early voting period, all registered voters in Nevada are sent a primary ballot by mail, unless they opt out. As of June 5, a total of 188,846 people had cast ballots before Election Day. About 45% were cast in the Democratic primary and 40% in the Republican primary. HOW LONG DOES VOTE COUNTING USUALLY TAKE? In the Feb. 6 presidential primaries, the AP first reported results at 11:37 p.m. ET, or one hour and 37 minutes after polls closed. The election night tabulation ended at 4:36 a.m. ET with about 84% of total votes counted. ARE WE THERE YET? As of Tuesday, there will be 147 days until the November general election. FILE - This is a bowl of stickers for those taking advantage of early voting, Sunday, March 15, 2020, in Steubenville, Ohio. Small business owners are more undecided about the election than the general public. That's according to a new survey by Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File) WASHINGTON (AP) Donald Trumps allies could soon add another House member to their ranks, as Ohio voters head to the polls in a district the Republican former president carried comfortably in 2020. Republican Bill Johnson served in Congress for more than a decade before resigning in January, leaving a vacancy in a district that has a track record of electing Republicans. In March, primary voters selected two nominees to send to Tuesday's special general election: Republican Michael Rulli and Democrat Michael Kripchak. Johnson won his last four elections by more than 30 percentage points, and Trump carried the district by roughly 30 percentage points in 2020. Rulli is campaigning as a supporter of Trump, running an ad in which he introduces himself as an America-first conservative and pro-Trump delegate. Plus, Rulli had spent more than $600,000 as of the last Federal Election Commission filing deadline, while Kripchak had spent less than $8,000. Heres a look at what to expect on Tuesday: SPECIAL GENERAL ELECTION DAY The special general election will be held on Tuesday. Polls close at 7:30 p.m. ET. WHATS ON THE BALLOT The Associated Press will provide coverage for the unexpired term in the 6th Congressional District. DECISION NOTES The first results that Ohio releases will likely be from ballots cast before Election Day, both by mail and early in person. In past races, those votes have been the most favorable for Democrats. Republicans have been more likely to vote on Election Day, so early results might not reflect the eventual outcome of the election. Rulli won the Republican primary with a strong performance in the northern tip of the district Mahoning and Columbiana counties even as his two GOP competitors carried the rest of the counties in the district. The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when its determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why. The vote automatically goes to a recount if the margin is less than half a percentage point. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is eligible for a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome. WHAT DO TURNOUT AND ADVANCE VOTE LOOK LIKE? As of March 12, there were 528,784 registered voters in the 6th District. In the 2022 general election, turnout was 52% of about 536,837 registered voters. As of Wednesday, a total of 5,497 ballots had been cast before Election Day. HOW LONG DOES VOTE-COUNTING USUALLY TAKE? In the 2022 election, the AP first reported results at 7:37 p.m. ET, or seven minutes after polls closed. The election night tabulation ended at 2:54 a.m. ET with about 98% of total votes counted. ARE WE THERE YET? As of Tuesday, there will be 147 days until the November general election. ___ Follow the APs coverage of the 2024 election at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024. The U.S. is preparing to announce a military aid package for Ukraine worth about $225 million, the Associated Press reported on June 6, citing unnamed American officials. The new package will include new HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) ammunition, mortar systems, and artillery shells, AP reported, citing its sources. On June 1, the U.S. gave Ukraine permission to use American-supplied weapons, including HIMARS rockets, to strike targets in Russia located near the border with Kharkiv Oblast, and in recent days, Ukraine's armed forces have used U.S.-supplied weapons to strike targets inside Russia. According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Ukraine hit a Russian S-300/400 air defense battery in Belgorod Oblast "likely with HIMARS on June 1 or 2." The aid package also contains Howitzers, HAWK air defense missiles, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, Javelin and AT-4 anti-armor systems, Howitzers, armored vehicles, patrol boats, trailers, demolition materials, in addition to a wide range of spare parts and equipment, according to officials. U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on June 7 amid their visit to Paris for D-Day commemorations. In April, the U.S. passed a long-awaited $61 billion aid package, with much of it covering military aid. The Pentagon announced on April 26 that it was ready to move forward with sending $1 billion worth of weapons to Kyiv from U.S. stockpiles. The U.S. subsequently sent two other aid packages in May, authorizing a $400 million defense aid package, followed by a $275 million later in the month. According to AP, the new aid package will be provided under presidential drawdown authority, pulling weaponry from existing U.S. stockpiles. Over the winter months, Ukraine suffered a critical shortage of artillery shells, in large part due to delays in U.S. military aid. Russia has taken advantage of this, taking the city of Avdiivka in February. Washington still prohibits Ukraine from using ATACMS and other long-range U.S.-supplied weapons for strikes deeper inside Russia, according to U.S. officials. Read also: France to transfer Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine, Macron announces Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Leaders within the Apache County Attorney's Office on Thursday asked their boss, Michael B. Whiting, to resign after their office was searched earlier this week in an Arizona Attorney General's Office investigation they said targets him. Whiting avoided the office, leaving the agency without its leader, while state officials executed a search warrant Tuesday morning, according to the letter penned by Chief Deputy County Attorney Celeste Robertson, Assistant Chief Deputy County Attorney Tyron Jensen and Lead Prosecutor Garet Kartchner. Whiting's residence was also searched, the letter states. In an email to The Arizona Republic late Thursday, Whiting said he was "driving home from a pre-planned vacation with family" in California and would address the letter with his staff when he returns to the office next week. He said the reason he had not been in the office for the past few days was because of the vacation. On Friday afternoon, Whiting said that he had returned from the trip. "I will sit down with the three attorneys who expressed concerns and see if we can reach an understanding to resolve their issues," Whiting said. He said he remained committed to Apache County's residents and did not plan to step down. The Attorney General's Office said it is investigating Whiting in connection with allegations of misusing public funds and threatening a political opponent, according to a letter sent Friday to the Apache County Board of Supervisors. Attorney General Kris Mayes said in the letter she would assist the County Attorney's Office for 90 days and Robertson has the authority to make county attorney decisions in Whiting's absence. The County Attorney's Office will need to provide monthly expenditure reports to the Attorney General's Office, according to Mayes' letter. If Whiting returns to the office, she said, he must get approval from her office before making "personnel decisions" or spending more than $200. Attorney General's Office: Full indictment in fake electors case released by Arizona attorney general Whiting told The Republic that he looked forward to working closely with the Attorney General's Office as they "work through the current situation." In their letter, Robertson, Jensen and Kartchner said they did not know the extent of the allegations against Whiting but that the attorney general's investigation cast a negative light on the office and the county's government. "We are fearful of retaliation," they wrote. "We are fearful for our safety and the safety of our loved ones. Meanwhile, your whereabouts remain unknown." The investigators were courteous, the letter states, but the situation left the authors in a "state of shock" as they waited in the lobby and were interviewed by agents. Whiting's colleagues first tried to contact him by phone, according to the letter, but he did not answer. They informed Whiting by text message that the search was being executed, according to the letter, and in subsequent messages and a call, Whiting repeatedly asked what the warrant was for and demanded it be read to him. According to the letter, Whiting did not come to the office, although he told his colleagues he would. Then, the letter states, Whiting stopped communicating with them for hours. While the search proceeded, Whiting, the letter's authors were told, turned his phone off, and the GPS device on his county vehicle was disabled, according to the letter. The letter's authors did not know where he was, they wrote. They asserted Whiting was "at the Board of Supervisors meeting room less than one mile" from the county attorney's offices when the search began. But hours later, they wrote, Whiting texted saying he was done with meetings "up North" and that he was now in cellphone range. "As your staff, we knew that the meetings you had scheduled that day were not in the northern part of the County, but instead, at the County office in St. Johns," Robertson, Jensen and Kartchner wrote. "You were also mere seconds away when you first assured us you were on your way, but you never came to the office. You texted you would call later that evening and hold a staff meeting the next day. You did neither." The search continued into the night and disrupted the flow of normal procedures, they wrote. People who visited the office to discuss their cases had to be turned away, staff could not use computers because digital evidence was being collected and staff had to be sent home because they could not complete their work, according to the letter. After news of the search broke, Whiting, in an emailed statement to The Arizona Republic on Wednesday, said his office remained open and was "continuing to serve the public." "We knew the process would be somewhat disruptive to the efficient operations of the office, but the agents were very professional and the disruption was minimal," Whiting said. "In speaking with people present, including one of the agents, everybody was very cordial and very cooperative." But Whiting's colleagues said in their letter that his claim about the office continuing to serve the public and the search being a minimal disruption was not true. "Since you failed to return to the office, you have no first-hand knowledge of what actually occurred in our office that day and the disruption that it caused," they wrote. Whiting did not reach out to his colleagues again until Thursday when he tried to downplay the investigation in a text message, the letter states. The Apache County Attorney's Office officials wrote that, based on the allegations against Whiting and his behavior throughout the execution of the search warrant, they would be sending a copy of the letter to the State Bar of Arizona and the Apache County Board of Supervisors. "The investigation into your alleged misconduct has brought about unparalleled scrutiny and distrust towards our office," the letter states. The decision to ask Whiting to resign, they wrote, did not come lightly. The letter's authors said they hoped the attorney general's investigation would be thorough and justice served as they continued to handle hundreds of cases at their office while he remained absent. "To ensure the integrity of our criminal cases and restore the public's trust in our office, it is necessary for you to step down," they wrote. Who is Apache County Attorney Michael B. Whiting? Whiting grew up in Apache County, and his family has a long history there, according to his bio on the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys' Advisory Council website. Whiting attended Arizona State University for his undergraduate degree and law school. His spouse, Joy Whiting, is Apache County's school superintendent. Whiting, a Democrat, was elected to serve as Apache County attorney in 2008 after running against then-incumbent Criss Candelaria. Apache County Attorney Michael B. Whiting was first elected in 2008. He appears here in a YouTube video uploaded in 2014. Candelaria said Thursday that he first became familiar with Whiting when he hired him as a prosecutor. Candelaria said he quickly got the impression Whiting was prone to lying about his professional experience. "He was somebody that didn't know what he was doing," Candelaria said. "In fact, he asked one of my secretaries, who was my lead secretary, how to prosecute a case." When the two campaigned against each other, Candelaria said, Whiting overstated his past legal work. Candelaria said he believes that he lost the election because of Whiting's exaggerations and because Whiting had the support of former Apache County Sheriff Brian Hounshell. Hounshell was convicted of corruption and misuse of public funds in 2007, forcing his resignation, but still had political sway in the county. "Part of the Michael Whiting strategy and that of the good ol' boys is you fly as high as you can to keep under the radar because the world is concerned with Pima County and Maricopa County," he said. State officials do not look at Apache County or Navajo County unless something severe happens, Candelaria said. Whiting declined to respond to Candelaria's remarks. "It just doesn't help foster good relationships or congeniality among the citizens of Apache County," Whiting said. "Our office has tried hard for the last 16 years to foster proper & professional relationships among the attorneys in northeastern Arizona." Whiting has run unopposed since beating Candelaria in 2008. Apache County stretches from the state's northeast corner down through the White Mountains. The Navajo Nation overlays much of the county, which includes the communities of Chinle, St. Johns and Eagar. Republic reporters Christina Avery, Fernando Cervantes Jr. and Jimmy Jenkins contributed to this article. Reach the reporters at elena.santacruz@gannett.com and miguel.torres@arizonarepublic.com. This embedded content is not available in your region. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Apache County prosecutor Michael Whiting investigated over funds ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) The Abilene Police Department (APD) identified 30-year-old Jacob Poor of Abilene as the pedestrian who was struck by a train in South Abilene Friday morning. APD told KTAB/KRBC a pedestrian and the train were both headed east when they collided at Leggett Drive and South 1st Street at around 10:30 Friday morning. Next-of-kin notifications were made through efforts from the investigation and witnesses Friday afternoon. As police continue to investigate, APD said this is Abilenes first fatal train incident of 2024. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com. FILE - This photo provided by the Alexandria, Va., Sheriff's Office shows El Shafee Elsheikh. A federal appeals court upheld the conviction Friday, June 7, 2024, of Elsheikh, a British national, for his role in a hostage-taking scheme by the Islamic State group that took roughly two dozen Westerners captive a decade ago. (Alexandria Sheriff's Office via AP, File) ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) A federal appeals court upheld the conviction Friday of a British national for his role in a hostage-taking scheme by the Islamic State group that took roughly two dozen Westerners captive a decade ago. El Shafee Elsheikh was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2022 in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. His jury trial established that he was one he was one of the notorious Beatles, captors nicknamed for their accents and known for torturing and beating prisoners. Elsheikh appealed his conviction. He argued that confessions he gave in media interviews after his capture in 2018 should have been tossed out of court. He alleged that the Kurdish-led Syrian Defense Forces tortured him and forced him to conduct the interviews. Elsheikh's lawyers also argued that FBI interviews of him while he was in foreign custody violated his constitutional rights. Elsheikh said he was confused by the process, in which he was initially interrogated by investigators with the Department of Defense who did not read him his rights and used the information to gather intelligence. He was later questioned by FBI agents who did read him his rights and told him that anything he said going forward could be used against him in court. In both cases, a unanimous three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond ruled against Elsheikh. The judges said the evidence did not support his contention that he was beaten or tortured. And the judges ruled that interrogators followed proper procedures in their two-step interrogation process to inform Elsheikh of his rights. Elsheikh was one of two Beatles brought to the U.S. to face trial. The United Kingdom agreed to the extradition and provided intelligence and evidence to assist with the prosecution after the U.S. promised it would not seek the death penalty. The other Beatle who faced trial, Alexanda Kotey, pleaded guilty under a deal that provided a possibility he could, after 15 years, serve the remainder of his life sentence in the United Kingdom. Elsheikh's convictions revolved around the deaths of four American hostages: James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller. All but Mueller were executed in videotaped beheadings circulated online. Mueller was forced into slavery and raped multiple times by Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before she was killed. They were among 26 hostages taken captive between 2012 and 2015, when the Islamic State group controlled large swaths of Iraq and Syria. BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, June 7. Gazprom Export and Gazprom Kyrgyzstan have signed long-term contracts for the supply of natural gas to Kyrgyzstan, Trend reports. According to Gazprom, the new contracts will ensure gas supplies from 2025 to 2040. The documents were signed during the 27th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2024) in the presence of Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller and Kyrgyzstan's Minister of Energy, Taalaibek Ibraev. Additionally, long-term contracts for natural gas supply were also signed between Gazprom Kyrgyzstan and major consumers in the country, including Electric Stations Company and Bishkekteploenergo Municipal Enterprise. However, the content of these contracts has not been disclosed. At the same time, a long-term agreement was also signed for the transportation of Russian gas through Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan at SPIEF-2024. Gazprom is the exclusive exporter of natural gas to Kyrgyzstan and the owner of the country's gas transportation and distribution systems. The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is an annual Russian business event in the economic sector, held in St. Petersburg since 1997. SPIEF is a leading platform for discussing international development issues. Apple is set to board the runaway locomotive that is generative AI at next weeks World Wide Developer Conference. Reports thus far have pointed to a partnership with OpenAI that will, among other things, help supercharge Siri. A fresh round of rumors reported by Bloomberg shed more light on the news expected to be unveiled at Mondays 10 a.m. PT keynote. First theres the name: Apple Intelligence. The company was clearly invested in maintaining the AI initials for its own whack at the large language model (LLM) pinata. The name appears to apply to a broader push into the category that could include that OpenAI partnership and a resulting chatbot. Apple Intelligence will arrive as an opt-in beta, similar to developer-focused operating system updates the company releases after WWDC. The system should ship on upcoming versions of the iPhone, iPad and Macs. According to the report, a limited number of older devices will also be able to run the system, including iPads and Macs running an M1 chip or higher and the iPhone 15 Pro. That means the standard iPhone 15 may be left out in the cold on this one. Apple Intelligence will initially be focused on bolstering existing applications. This includes things like summarizations of pages in Safari and notification summaries. As reported earlier, Siri is getting a 2024 glow-up, with the ability to access more things like photo editing with voice. it sounds like Apples big push into AI is less about flash and more about making its operating system more intuitive and user friendly. In spite of the reported hardware limitations, the system wont run entirely on-device, instead mixing local and cloud-based processes, depending on the complexity of the task at hand. Arkansas says New York womans clinic complying with cease & desist order on abortion pill access LITTLE ROCK, Ark. A New York facility is now in compliance with a cease-and-desist order made by the state of Arkansas regarding access to abortion pills. Attorney General Tim Griffin said Thursday that Choice Womans Medical Center of New York had complied with his cease-and-desist request sent in May seeking for the center to stop advertising access to abortion pills for Arkansas residents in violation of the states Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin sends cease and desist letters to companies advertising abortion pill access The pills are taken in two rounds, and a website ran by the clinic had said the second round of pills could be taken at home. That access offer was in violation of Arkansas law since it was offering access to a drug in a state where abortion is prohibited, Griffin said in May. Arkansas attorney general sends cease & desist letters to companies advertising delivery of abortion pills The center has since removed the language from its website, Griffin said. Choices has since removed the problematic language from its website, which resolves this violation of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, Griffin said. I have sent a letter notifying Choices that the organization has satisfactorily complied with my demand. Attorney General Tim Griffin certifies Arkansas Abortion Amendment ballot language The AG added that his office would continue to monitor the Choice Womans Medical Center website for future violations of the order. In addition to the order directed at the New York operation, Griffin also sent cease-and-desist order to Aid Access, which is based out of the Netherlands. Will Arkansas have abortion on the ballot this year? At the time of the announcement of the order, the director of Aid Access provided a statement, saying in part that Aid Access provides all support they need and we will not stop doing that. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KARK. Arkansas State Police say 42 suspects arrested in crimes against children sweep LITTLE ROCK, Ark. Officials are calling a recent operation to stop child sex predators by Arkansas State Police a significant success. An agency release Friday said 42 suspects were arrested during its recent Operation Cyber Highway Safety Check operation. Beginning March 10 through the end of May, the operation made arrests related to child sex abuse material and failure to comply with registration requirements, including nine individuals arrested for hands-on offenses, officials said. Arkansas man facing more than 100 counts of child pornography Investigators said five children were rescued from ongoing sexual abuse and 22 children were identified as new victims. Officials tallied 178 search warrants executed and over 1,600 home visits with registered sex offenders during the operation. Members of the ASPs Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force started 160 investigations and have submitted 63 cases for prosecution to state and federal courts. Cabot man accused of assaulting officers during arrest tied to child pornography investigation Officials said 45 cases have become grand jury indictments. In two cases that involved child sex trafficking, arrests were made and ongoing investigations across multiple states are in progress. This statewide operation has been the most successful in the task forces history, ASP Criminal Investigation Division commander Major Stacie Rhoads said. Jacksonville man facing 150 child porn charges after arrest Tools to help parents protect their children against technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and internet crimes are available at the Arkansas Internet Crimes Against Children website ARICAC.org. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KARK. SEARCY, Ark. An Army veteran from White County is leaving a lasting impact after his death, donating a $20,000 life insurance policy to St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital. Mathew Logan Plummer died in his own home on March 28. It was shortly after the 21-year-olds parents, Kenneth Charles K.C. Plummer and Kristina Swiney, learned that upon enlisting in the Army at the age of 18, Plummer elected to deduct pay from his check for a life insurance policy. Instead of writing it out to his name though, Plummer he listed St. Jude. Mothers Day dread for Little Rock Starbucks barista reversed by strangers kindness K.C. said he was not sure why his son selected St. Jude but remembered one of Plummers friends received treatment from the Memphis hospital in high school. What teenager thinks of kids with cancer in high school? Not many. I didnt think that, Swiney said. She said her son was headstrong, diagnosed with high-functioning autism at a young age, but always carried a smile and often left others with one too. Logans father found him unresponsive at his home. An autopsy was unable to explain what killed Logan Plummer apart from an irregular heartbeat. No drugs, alcohol or disease were found in his body. Though Plummers death is still a mystery, what he did in his free time is something his parents have since learned. Errol Kumendong, co-owner Fried Rice N More, said Plummer was a regular but felt like a brother. He was like an angel, Kumendong described. Texas postal worker delivers WWII veterans letters to Arkansas family Kumendong said Plummer stopped eating twice halfway through a meal and began helping, from scrubbing the floor to cleaning dishes, anything to lighten the load. I was just like, Logan, please youre a customer. He said, No, Im your family, Kumendong said. Who does that nowadays? Only Logan. Now, every Thursday inside Fried Rice N More is Logan Thursday where his favorites are available at a discount, including one roll he designed and named after himself. You just dont realize how much of an impact your children have on this entire world, and sometimes its until theyre gone, Swiney said. Plummer is buried at Shady Grove Cemetery in Bald Knob because one day when his father asked him where he went off to so often, he discovered Plummer would clean off and place roses on veterans graves. K.C. said that selflessness inspires him. Just try and help out who you can help out, and dont look for anything in return. Just try and help because its the right thing to do, K.C. encouraged. The $20,000 check will be presented to St. Jude once a medical examiner finishes all testing to learn more about Plummers cause of death. Arkansas organization aims to help veterans struggling with PTSD with service dogs To join in his generosity, anyone can register for a 9-11 Memorial Run in Jonesboro on Sep. 8. A military friend nominated Logan as its honoree this year so all donations will be forwarded to St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KARK. MEMPHIS, Tenn. An arrest has been made in the death of a man who was shot and killed while at a Parkway Village gas station Thursday evening, police say. Dameon Thomas, 35, is charged with second-degree murder and convicted felon in possession of a firearm. According to reports, just before 4:30 p.m., officers say they responded to a shooting in front of the Exxon gas station at 2675 Getwell Road. ORIGINAL STORY: 1 dead, 3 detained after Parkway Village shooting That is when officers say they found a male victim at the scene lying on the ground and unresponsive. He was then taken to Regional One Hospital where he was later pronounced dead due to his gunshot wound. Investigators say Dameon Thomas was developed as the gunman. This comes after witnesses told them he shot the victim after their verbal argument became physical. While still on the scene, Thomas was taken into custody by police and brought to the Homicide Bureau for further investigation. Thomas stated that he shot the victim in self-defense. However, investigators say video surveillance from the scene refuted the suspects statement. Two dead in Westwood double shooting The video footage shows the victim to be unarmed during the time of the shooting, investigators say. Dameon Thomass next court date is scheduled for Monday morning. On November 5, 2009, Thomas was also convicted of aggravated burglary. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com. MUSCOGEE COUNTY, Ga. (WRBL) The Muscogee County Sheriffs Office said three wanted gang members were found and arrested and says the agency remains committed to arresting dangerous and wanted felons in Muscogee County. On Thursday, the sheriffs office with help from the U.S. Marshals Services, the FBI and the DEA successfully located and detained Xzorion Word. At the time of his arrest, Word was wanted on the following warrants: Felony aggravated assault Felony theft by taking (vehicle) Felony possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime Felony Reckless Conduct Obstruction of a law enforcement officer After an investigation during Words arrest, authorities also arrested Jessie Harper and Quantavios David who also had arrest warrants. Harper had warrants for the following offenses: Felony reckless conduct Felony possession of a firearm by a convicted felon Obstruction of a law enforcement officer David only had a warrant for a hold in Fulton County, Georgia. MCSO says all three were validated as gang members and taken to the Muscogee County Jail. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WRBL. VAN BUREN, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) Arkansas State Police arrest a Kentucky man on June 5 after they found marijuana, mushrooms and THC products in his car. Benjamin Joyner, 25 Courtesy: Crawford County Sheriffs Office According to a press release, Benjamin Joyner, 25, of Bowling Green, Kentucky, is facing felony charges of trafficking a controlled substance, possession with purpose to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia. Around 2 p.m., troopers stopped a rented 2023 white Kia Soul driven by Joyner near the 2-mile marker on Interstate 40 headed east in Crawford County for a traffic violation. The release says during a search of the vehicle, troopers found 22 pounds of illegal marijuana inside vacuum-sealed bags, around 3 pounds of psilocybin mushrooms, 2,400 THC vape cartridges and 5 pounds of THC concentrate. Joyner told police he was traveling from Los Angeles to Kentucky. He was arrested and taken to the Crawford Couty Detention Center. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KNWA FOX24. By Nafisa Eltahir CAIRO (Reuters) - Refugees from Sudan's civil war who fled into neighbouring Ethiopia say they have been forced to move on again and take shelter in a forest and on roadsides after repeated attacks by gunmen left their tents pock-marked with bullet holes. About 8,000 people have left the Kumer and Awlala refugee camps, set up by the United Nations in Ethiopia's northern Amhara region, since repeated assaults last month, mostly by bandits, camp representatives told Reuters this week. They had originally fled fighting that broke out between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023 that has led to extreme hunger in parts of that country and accusations of ethnic cleansing in Darfur. "We left our country because we were scared of the stray bullets from the army and RSF," one young man told Reuters by phone. "We sought refuge in Ethiopia to save our lives, and now we are facing the same danger." He said he had originally left Sudan's capital Khartoum, then the camps, and was now sheltering in a forest with fellow refugees in the Amhara region - where militias have been battling Ethiopian federal government troops in a separate conflict. Images sent via WhatsApp and Telegram showed makeshift dwellings made out of branches and tarp, and scores of people, including many children, sitting outside along a roadside. Reuters confirmed the date and location of the photographs. Like others there, the young man spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he feared reprisals. Their accounts highlighted the lack of options facing Sudan's refugees as they look for shelter in countries with their own conflicts and shortages. The Ethiopian government's Refugee and Returnee Service did not respond to requests for comment. In early May it said it was engaged with refugees to address safety and service concerns, despite limited resources. The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR referred Reuters to a statement from last week that acknowledged security incidents and a "deeply challenging" security environment, without going into further details. In the statement it said Ethiopian police had increased patrols, and that it continued to provide services inside the two camps and to encourage what it said were around 1,000 people outside Awlala to return. There was no-one immediately available to comment on the different estimate of the numbers involved. Sudan's war has created the world's largest displacement crisis, with more than 8.9 million people fleeing their homes. Of the 2.1 million who left the country, more than 122,000 have gone to Ethiopia, according to the International Organization for Migration. The aid group Medical Teams International, which has run a clinic near the camps in Ethiopia, said last week one of its staff was killed after armed men fired on a convoy. 'CATASTROPHE AFTER CATASTROPHE' Refugees who were now sheltering outside the camps told Reuters people faced regular violence. "People have to go to the valley to bathe and wash clothes. But they are either robbed, beaten up, or kidnapped daily," said one member of a camp leadership committee. "We are facing catastrophe after catastrophe," they said. Cholera has spread in Kumer, where there was at most one doctor available to see patients, several refugees and an aid worker, who asked not to be named, said. Monthly food deliveries by the U.N. World Food Programme last less than two weeks, two refugees told Reuters. Three refugees told Reuters that about 6,000 people from Kumer and Awlala had set off together on May 1 to walk 170 km (105 miles) to the UNHCR's headquarters in Amhara's main city of Gondar to protest about their conditions. They were stopped by police and sought shelter in a forest near the Awlala camp, the three refugees said. Many of them began a 10-day hunger strike over conditions as supplies ran low, which they stopped after donations came in from Sudanese abroad, the only assistance received so far, the three said. About 2,000 who remained at Kumer fled onto a main road after armed men began firing at the camp on May 1, the committee member and another refugee said. Those who later returned found gunshots had pierced the tents, they said, convincing them that the men aimed to drive them out. Aid workers, who asked not to be named, say insecurity and a lack of funds have severely hampered relief efforts. The U.N. says just $400,000 in funding for Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia has been delivered, out of an appeal for more than $175 million. (Reporting by Nafisa Eltahir, additional reporting by Dawit Endeshaw in Addis Ababa and Milan Pavicic in Gdansk; editing by Aidan Lewis and Andrew Heavens) This photo supplied by the U.S. Attorney's Office for Minnesota shows cash from a bag that was left at the home of a juror in a massive fraud case, June 2, 2024, outside Minneapolis, Minn. Authorities have confiscated cellphones and taken all seven defendants into custody as investigators try to determine who attempted to bribe the juror to acquit them on charges of stealing more than $40 million from a program meant to feed children during the pandemic. (U.S. Attorney's Office for Minnesota via AP) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) A jury convicted five Minnesota residents and acquitted two others on Friday for their roles in a scheme to steal more than $40 million from a program that was supposed to feed children during the coronavirus pandemic. The case received widespread attention after someone tried to bribe a juror with a bag of $120,000 in cash. That juror was dismissed before deliberations began, and a second juror who was told about it also was dismissed. An FBI investigation of the attempted bribe continues, with no arrests announced. After the verdicts were read, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson called the attempted bribe an attack on our criminal justice system and told reporters that authorities would investigate with all of their resources. He made no other comment on that issue, and expressed satisfaction at the convictions in the fraud case. "They lied and they fraudulently claimed to be feeding millions of meals to children in Minnesota during COVID. The defendants took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to defraud the state of Minnesota and to steal tens of millions of dollars, Thompson said. This conduct was not just criminal, it was depraved and brazen. Defense attorneys argued at trial that their clients provided real meals to real people. The seven people were the first of 70 to stand trial in what federal prosecutors have called one of the nations largest COVID-19-related frauds, exploiting rules that were kept lax so that the economy wouldnt crash during the pandemic. More than $250 million in federal funds was taken in the Minnesota scheme overall, with only about $50 million of it recovered, authorities said. The food aid came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and was administered by the state, which funneled the meal money through nonprofit organizations and other partners. As rules were eased to speed support to the needy, the defendants allegedly produced invoices for meals never served, ran shell companies, laundered money, indulged in passport fraud and accepted kickbacks. Federal prosecutors said just a fraction of the money the defendants received through the Feeding our Future nonprofit went to feed low-income kids, while the rest was spent on luxury cars, jewelry, travel and property. The defendants in this trial faced a mix of multiple counts including conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and federal programs bribery. Each defendant was charged based on their alleged role, and each had their own attorney. In the end, the jurors delivered a split verdict. Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Mohamed Jama Ismail, Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff and Hayat Mohamed Nur were found guilty on most of the counts against them. Prosecutors have described Abdiaziz Farah as a ringleader of the seven and faced the most counts; he was convicted on 23 of 24 counts against him. Said Shafii Farah and Abdiwahab Maalim Aftin were acquitted on all counts they faced. Aftin was charged with three counts, the least of all seven defendants. Andrew Garvis, an attorney for Aftin, said afterward that the case was complex. The government had a lot of evidence, and the jury took their time in consideration," Garvis said. "Thats what we want in the system, so we appreciate it. Steven Schleicher, Said Farah's attorney, said his client is grateful to have been acquitted. Attorneys for Abdimajid Nur, Hayat Nur, Abdiaziz Farah and Ismail did not immediately respond to phone messages seeking comment. Frederick Goetz, an attorney for Shariff, declined to comment. The common thread in the defense arguments was that investigators failed to dig deep enough to see they served real meals to real kids. Sentencing hearings will be scheduled at a later date. An Associated Press analysis published last June documented how thieves across the country plundered billions in federal COVID-19 relief dollars. Fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion, while another $123 billion was wasted or misspent. Combined, the loss represented 10% of the $4.3 trillion the government disbursed by last fall. Nearly 3,200 people have been charged and about $1.4 billion in stolen pandemic aid has been seized, according to the U.S. Justice Department. After the juror reported the bribe attempt in the Minnesota case, the judge ordered all seven defendants to surrender their cellphones so that investigators could look for evidence. She also ordered all seven taken into custody, and sequestered the jury. According to an FBI agents affidavit, a woman rang the doorbell at the home of Juror #52 in the Minneapolis suburb of Spring Lake Park the night before the case went to the jury. A relative answered the door and was handed a gift bag with a curly ribbon and images of flowers and butterflies. The woman said it was a present for the juror. The woman told the relative to tell Juror #52 to say not guilty tomorrow and there would be more of that present tomorrow, the agent wrote. After the woman left, the relative looked in the gift bag and saw it contained a substantial amount of cash. The juror called police right after she got home and gave them the bag, which held stacks of $100, $50 and $20 bills totaling around $120,000. The woman who left the bag knew the jurors first name, the agent said. Names of the jurors have not been made public, but the list of people with access to it included prosecutors, defense lawyers and the seven defendants. It is highly likely that someone with access to the jurors personal information was conspiring with, at a minimum, the woman who delivered the $120,000 bribe, the FBI agent wrote, noting that the alleged fraud conspiracy at the heart of the trial involved electronic communications, including text messages and emails. Days later, while the remaining jurors were deliberating, FBI agents searched the home of Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, according to a neighbor who witnessed the search and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of safety concerns. The FBI confirmed agents were in the city where Farah lives, but did not elaborate. It was not clear if the search was connected to the bribery investigation. Federal charges of bribery of a juror and influencing a juror carry a maximum potential penalty of 15 years in prison. Eighteen other people pleaded guilty in the larger $250 million fraud scheme. Among those awaiting trial is Aimee Bock, the founder of Feeding our Future. She has maintained her innocence, saying she never stole and saw no evidence of fraud among her subcontractors. A judge in San Francisco granted a request from defense lawyers to throw out some of the most serious state charges against the man who attacked Rep. Nancy Pelosis (D-Calif.) husband in their home in 2022. Judge Harry M. Dorfman of the San Francisco County Superior Court dismissed the charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse, the court confirmed Friday in an email to The Hill. The defendant, David DePape, is still facing four counts for the trial. Both the prosecution and the defense asked for a stay of further trial proceedings Friday to allow the appeals court to review the rulings. The stay was granted by Dorfman, per the court statement. The jury will return at 10 a.m. June 14 to resume the trial. DePape, 44, could still face up to life in prison on the remaining charges. DePape broke into the California home of Pelosi, who was Speaker of the House at the time, in October 2022 and violently attacked her husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer. He called out repeatedly for the lawmaker but encountered her husband asleep in their bedroom. Paul Pelosi barely survived the attack, during which he was hit in the head multiple times. DePape planned on kidnapping the then-Speaker, but she was in Washington. DePape gave an emotional apology during his testimony after hearing about the result of Pelosis injuries. He was never my target, and Im sorry that he got hurt, DePape said. He also described to the court how his political views had shifted after reading comments on YouTube about former President Trump. The defendant told the judge that he traveled to the Pelosis home to talk about alleged Russian involvement in the 2016 election. He was convicted in November of two crimes in a separate federal trial. While the Department of Justice requested a longer sentence, DePape was given 20 years in prison last month for the attempted kidnapping and 30 years for attempted murder. Both sentences were to be served simultaneously. The case was briefly reopened after the judge failed to let DePape speak during the sentencing hearing. But while he apologized once again, the defendant was resentenced to 30 years late last month. DePape blamed the violence on a poor mental state. He said he has since reconnected with family and improved mentally. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. After a week of deliberation, a Wayne County Circuit Court jury acquitted attorney David Sutherland of two charges Friday in a case in which he was accused of embezzling from trusts of former Carhartt leader and philanthropist Gretchen Carhartt Valade. Judge Paul John Cusick declared a mistrial on two other charges filed against Sutherland as the jury was hung after deliberating a lengthy period of time about 22 hours over five days. The jury acquitted Sutherland on one count each of embezzlement of $100,000 or more and conducting criminal enterprises. It was hung on another count of embezzlement of $100,000 or more and one count of embezzlement from a vulnerable adult $100,000 or more. Cusick set a June 18 pretrial date to determine the way forward for the charges on which there was a mistrial. Attorneys for both sides were allotted 10 minutes each to talk with the jurors before they were released. Sutherland's attorney, James Joseph Sullivan, said the jurors were "very dedicated to their work, I mean really, as evidenced by the five days of deliberation." He acknowledged the case was complex and gave the jury "a lot of credit" for taking the case seriously. Sullivan said he believes Sutherland feels some relief, saying, "It's a big thing to be facing such a thing. Obviously, they don't take you to Disneyland if it goes the other way. (The) pressure, I'm sure has been tremendous. "Acquittals are good," Sullivan said. "The (charges) that they couldn't agree on, that's up to the prosecution on how they want to proceed on that. That's their prerogative to continue with it, so we'll see." In an email to the Free Press after the verdict, Danny Wimmer, press secretary for the Michigan Attorney General's Office, wrote: "We appreciate the jury's service and are currently assessing next steps in consultation with the victims and the Court." Days of difficult deliberations The jury of six men and six women indicated Monday it was deadlocked. The jury returned Tuesday, where it indicated it was still deadlocked before lunch. It returned Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to continue deliberations. David Sutherland, an attorney who has been charged with embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from recently deceased Carhartt heiress Gretchen Valade's trust, right, stands after his arraignment hearing at Grosse Pointe Farms Municipal Court on January 11, 2023. Jurors had a note about 3:20 p.m. Friday indicating it could not reach a verdict on two charges and that it was hung. Cusick confirmed with the jury foreman that the jury had a verdict on two charges and had not reached a verdict on two others. After polling the jury after the verdict was read, Cusick told jurors: "I truly thank you for your time and patience." On Wednesday, jurors asked whether they had the most current estate plan and were told they had all the exhibits and evidence. Jurors had two questions Tuesday related to Valade's 2009 irrevocable trust and the business/entities that are a part of that trust, of which there are five. The trust was at the heart of the case. The Attorney General's Office accused Sutherland of embezzling millions from Valade's trusts when he served as trustee of them. Each charge was a 20-year felony offense, according to the office. The trial began May 15 and wrapped up May 31 after closing arguments. During the trial, about two dozen witnesses testified, including Sutherland, who took the stand. During closings, Scott Teter, division chief of the financial crimes division for the Attorney General's Office, asserted to jurors: "It's sad that before (Valade) passed away, what she found out was David Sutherland was a liar and a thief and not her friend. "He didn't want to serve Ms. Carhartt. He wanted to be Ms. Carhartt," Teter told jurors. "He wanted to be the wheeler dealer. He wanted to be the guy. And he used her to do it." He added: "Ms. Valade deserves justice, even if she's not here to see it." Defense: Charges were 'a bunch of baloney' Sullivan asserted to jurors during his closing that no crime was committed and his client had authority as trustee and kept a complete, accurate record. "This notion that he was trying to rip her off is just a bunch of baloney. He had plenty of opportunities for gain," he said of Sutherland. "He's not a thief. He wasn't disloyal to her. He's not a criminal." Sullivan asserted that Sutherland was targeted and that Carhartt stock was at the center of the issue. Sullivan questioned how much was allegedly embezzled in 2019 and 2020, adding, "I don't know, because they don't know." He implored the jury to find Sutherland not guilty. Sutherland was arraigned in January 2023, less than two weeks after Valade died. Gretchen Carhartt Valade, metro Detroit businesswoman, philanthropist and "angel of jazz," died peacefully in her home on Dec. 30, 2022 at age 97. Valade, a businesswoman, philanthropist and arts patron, died at her Grosse Pointe Farms home on Dec. 30, 2022. She was 97 and the granddaughter of Carhartt Inc. founder Hamilton Carhartt. Her son, Mark Valade, the CEO of Carhartt, sat in the courtroom for the trial after he testified. He, like Sutherland and the attorneys in the case, waited in the court hallway each day the jury deliberated. Teter told jurors during closings that Gretchen Valade was a trusting, caring, generous person who was active into her 90s. He told them that she began to have health issues in 2016, and was in a wheelchair two years later. As her health began to fail, Teter asserted, Sutherland's activities began to pick up. He said it turned Valade, who "gave and gave and gave to this town and to this community, and it turned her into an ATM. Every time they needed money, they came and hit the buttons and hit the buttons and hit the buttons. And pulled her into stuff that turned this thing into a nightmare because of all of the debt and all of the obligations." The case focused on Valade's 1982 revocable trust and her 2009 irrevocable trust. Prosecutors alleged Sutherland wrote two promissory notes for $5 million each owed to the 2009 irrevocable trust, one to Sutherland himself; the other to Byzantine Holdings LLC, in which Sutherland was a partner. Testimony indicated the notes were produced and backdated a year and a half after the money was withdrawn. Valade trust 'deeply underwater' Julie Cotant, a senior trust officer with Plante Moran Trust, previously testified the notes are owed to Valade's 2009 irrevocable trust, and a review of the records on each note indicates the amounts actually owed appear to be in excess of $7.7 million each. Cotant testified that the 2009 irrevocable trust of Valade's "is deeply underwater" with liabilities far exceeding its assets. Plante Moran became the trustee of the trust in August 2020, taking over Sutherland's role, she testified. When the firm took it over, the interests it held included real estate (buildings and parking lots), some promissory notes and life insurance policies. Cotant testified the trust today holds about $9.4 million. However, she testified the trust owes $60 million, adding that money was borrowed from Valade's 1982 revocable trust to keep the 2009 irrevocable trust alive. The borrowing occurred while Valade was alive, Cotant testified. Bruce Knapp, a licensed certified public accountant and certified fraud examiner who looked at the promissory notes for Sutherland and Byzantine Holding LLC, testified during cross-exam by the prosecution that the 2009 irrevocable trust lost money under Sutherland's control. The prosecution asked if the total loss calculated to the 2009 irrevocable trust during Sutherland's tenure was $42 million. Knapp testified that he thought it was closer to $37 million. Prosecutors alleged that Sutherland moved money out of the trust to pay for entities Sutherland owned or was tied to and that the 1982 revocable trust was used to try to create cash flow. Attorney James Joseph Sullivan, center, arrives at an arraignment hearing for his client David Sutherland, an attorney who has been charged with embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from recently deceased Carhartt heiress Gretchen Valade's trust, at Grosse Pointe Farms Municipal Court on January 11, 2023. Sullivan told jurors at closings the alleged crime wasn't reported to law enforcement for year and a half and that Sutherland's payment plan was rejected. He said Plante Moran considered the promissory notes as assets of the trust. Cotant testified neither note has been paid in full. Sullivan told jurors Sutherland was venturing, had assets and that Valade was supportive. He told jurors the racketeering statute his client faced, and for which Sutherland was acquitted, is meant for "mobsters" and "gangbangers," not attorneys practicing for three decades. He told jurors that his client was "never a threat." During the trial, Sullivan asked for a directed verdict and mistrial, both of which Cusick denied. Sutherland also is accused of stealing from the trust of a Grosse Pointe Farms school in a case that Cusick said had a jury trial slated for July 29. Cusick indicated that trial, in which Sutherland is charged with one count of embezzlement of $100,000, will be canceled and probably be set for a new date next year. That matter also will be discussed June 18, Cusick said. The Attorney Generals Office said that allegation involves embezzlement of more than $1.4 million from the William Cardinal Foundation, which is to benefit education at St. Paul on the Lake Catholic School in Grosse Pointe Farms. That alleged crime is said to have occurred between Aug. 1, 2018, and last year, according to statements made during Sutherland's arraignment in June 2023 in Grosse Pointe Farms Municipal Court. Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @challreporter. Support local journalism. Subscribe to the Free Press. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Attorney acquitted on 2 of 4 counts of embezzling from Gretchen Valade Attorney General Dana Nessel | Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a notice of intervention earlier this week in Consumers Energys latest electrical rate case, requesting a $303 million annual rate increase. If approved, the increase would raise electricity rates by 6.5% beginning in March 2025. The company is also seeking to recover $21.8 million in deferred distribution expenditures by charging customers a separate 12-month surcharge scheduled to begin in March 2025. If the rate increase and the surcharge are approved, rates would increase by 7% from March 2025 through February 2026. Nessels office intervenes on all rate cases with its staff and experts scrutinizing the filings for costs that do not provide customers with quantifiable benefits. Our intervention in these cases is vital to ensuring corporate utilities arent successful in their efforts to stuff unjustifiable costs into their rate hike requests, Nessel said in a statement. There are standards concerning what costs Consumers Energy, DTE, and our other utility companies are allowed to pile onto their customers bills in their rates and other charges. My office is working diligently to hold the utilities accountable and keep unjustified expenses off the monthly bills of ratepayers, she said. Earlier this year, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), which regulates electrical, natural gas and telecommunications industries within the state, approved a rate increase for Consumers where the company was granted a $92 million electrical rate increase after it requested an increase of $216 million. The increase took effect in March. In its statement, the Department of Attorney General said this latest rate request is tied to Consumers Energys $7 billion distribution plan, which Nessel previously criticized as lacking affordability, reliability and accountability. She has also called for a 96% reduction of the $136 million requested in Consumers ongoing natural gas rate case. In an email to the Advance, Katie Carey, director of external relations for Consumers Energy, pointed to the companys efforts to improve reliability as the reason for the proposed electric rate increase. According to a statement released on May 29, the company will begin implementing its reliability roadmap which includes a new wildfire risk mitigation plan alongside efforts to bury 35 miles of power lines, upgrade infrastructure and perform proactive maintenance to improve reliability. All parties want a more reliable system and that requires investments in the system in the form of rate cases. All supporting arguments to each investment to a case are accompanied by an explanation of why it is needed and how customers will benefit from the work we proposed, Carey said, noting the company had submitted 3,700 pages of support and business cases as part of the most recent rate case. We have [Electric Power Research Institute] data that shows delivering improvements ahead of a storm or outage equates to a 40% less spend than fixing it during an emergent event. We know customers dont deserve lengthy, unexpected outages and that is why we would rather invest now at 40% lower cost than pay more when things fail later, Carey said before noting the companys commitment to improving reliability and anticipation to defending its position as the rate case moved forward. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE The post Attorney general intervenes on Consumers Energy case requesting $303M rate increase appeared first on Michigan Advance. CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand Australia has approached several foreign shipbuilders in an urgent quest to procure general-purpose frigates under Project Sea 3000, the Defence Department told Defense News. The government sent requests for information to German, Japanese, South Korean and Spanish shipbuilders on May 24, the department said. However, a spokesperson for the department declined to provide further details while the evaluation is underway, due to [the] commercial, procurement and probity process. A government review unveiled in February, titled Enhanced Lethality Surface Combatant Fleet, recommended 11 general-purpose frigates replace eight existing Anzac-class frigates. To speed up the process, the first three would undergo construction overseas and the remainder in Western Australia. The review pinpointed Germanys MEKO A-200, Japans version 30FFM, South Koreas FFX from the second and third batches, and Spains Alfa 3000 as contenders. It cites the two FFX batches as a single platform type, though its unclear why. The shipbuilders were reportedly given four weeks to respond to the initial request, plus another three weeks to explain how follow-on frigates can be built in Australia. Selection is expected to occur next year, with commissioning of the first overseas-built ship to take place in 2030. The fourth through sixth vessels, built in Australia, are to have an identical baseline. No decision has been made on the design of the seventh through eleventh frigates. The Royal Australian Navys surface combatant fleet will feature a total of nine hulls in 2026, underscoring the looming capability gap before new frigates start arriving. Shipbuilders approached by Defense News declined to go into detail regarding Australias procurement effort. For example, German company ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems confirmed it participated in the tender but added that well not comment on further details of the ongoing process. Ongoing construction of six Ulsan-class FFX-III vessels for the South Korean Navy is split between Hyundai Heavy Industries, SK Oceanplant and Hanwha Ocean. The construction of eight Daegu-class FFX-II ships concluded last year. A Hyundai Heavy Industries spokesperson confirmed it received the request for information. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries has great competitiveness with its rich experience in warship building, such as [research and development] and first ship of the latest Ulsan-class frigate, the spokesperson said. This will be an opportunity for HHI to show how they approach warship orders that fit the situation of each country. In reference to frigate designs, Rear Adm. Stephen Hughes, Australias head of naval capabilities, told the Combined Naval Event conference in the U.K. on May 23 that the country is using existing designs in order to quicken the introduction of the vessels into the fleet. However, Australian frigates identical to the aforementioned parent ships the exemplars have been built for Egypt, Japan, Saudi Arabia and South Korea raises potential difficulties because some of their weapons, sensors and systems were chosen by the original customers and could be unfamiliar to the Royal Australian Navy. Notably, Saabs 9LV combat management system, which the Australian service uses across its fleet, isnt incorporated into those ships. Likewise, the Australian-made CEA Technologies radars are also excluded. Whatever we choose, whatever standard we go with, were going to adopt that. Were going to have discipline around that capability, Hughes said, describing the acquisition process as an opportunity, not a risk. The risk is we dont choose wisely and we dont understand the designs. Authorising Ukraine to strike Russia with US-supplied weapons will be very useful, Pentagon chief says US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has said that allowing Ukrainian forces to conduct limited strikes on Russian territory with US-supplied weapons would be "very, very helpful to the Ukrainians going forward". Source: Austin in an interview with CNN, as reported by European Pravda Details: Austin's comments come a few days after US President Joe Biden granted Ukraine permission for limited strikes on targets in Russia with US-supplied weapons. "What we have done is provided Ukraine the ability to counter fire, to fire back at those Russian troops that are firing at them and to be able to take out their artillery batteries as theyre firing at the Ukrainians," the Pentagon chief said. Asked whether support for Ukraine in the US has waned, Austin said that he believes there is "strong support for Ukraine" among both political parties despite the time it took Congress to pass the security assistance package. The Pentagon chief further emphasised that Russian ruler Vladimir Putin is unlikely to stop in Ukraine. "And Ukraine matters not just for Ukraines purposes alone, not for Europe alone it matters to us and it matters to the entire globe. So, we have to make sure that Putin doesnt have the ability to trample Ukraine because as the president said theres a good chance, almost certain, that Putin wont stop there. He will continue to move forward in other acts of aggression," Austin concluded. Background: Earlier, after granting limited permission for Ukraine to use US weapons to strike Russian territory, Biden expressed opposition to potential strikes deep into Russian territory with US-supplied weaponry. The White House has previously explained that the US permission to use US-supplied weapons applies to the border areas of not only Kharkiv Oblast but also Sumy Oblast. At the same time, the authorisation does not apply to long-range ATACMS missiles. Meanwhile, Kyiv wants to negotiate an extension of the scope of this authorisation. Support UP or become our patron! Madeleine McCann, 3, went missing while on vacation with her family in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007 Metropolitan Police/AFP/Getty Madeleine McCann German authorities say theyve discovered an email account that is related to the killing of missing 3-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann. Titus Stampa, a detective with Germanys Federal Crime Police, told a court that the Hotmail account belonged to Christian Brueckner, per the Times of London. Stampa said he wasn't allowed to talk about the account, according to the Times. Brueckner, who is considered to be the prime suspect in Madeleines presumed murder and disappearance, is on trial in an unrelated rape and child sexual abuse case, the Telegraph reported. He has denied having anything to do with Madeleines disappearance, per the Evening Standard. Stampa alleged that authorities found a second email account he used to share photos and videos of child abuse, and that emails from that account were deleted in early 2007 when Madeleine disappeared, per the Telegraph. Julian Stratenschulte/Pool/AFP/Getty Christian Brueckner Related: 'We're Never Going to Give Up': Madeleine McCann's Parents Post Tribute on Missing Girl's 20th Birthday I can remember that things were massively deleted in the inbox. There was nothing in there from January 2007, he testified, according to the Telegraph. LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Kate and Gerry McCann pose with an artist's impression of how their daughter might look now at the age of nine on May 2, 2012. 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. Madeleine went missing while on vacation with her family in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007. Her parents left her and her 2-year-old twin siblings in an unlocked rental while they ate at a restaurant 130 feet away. When Madeleine's mother Kate went to check on the children, Madeleine was missing. Initially her parents were suspects in her disappearance, but they were cleared by authorities the following year. Related: Prosecutor Thinks Madeleine McCann Was Killed Shortly After Abduction On the night of Madeleine's disappearance, police said Brueckner was in the Praia de Luz area and received a nearly 30-minute phone call. In mid-2020, German authorities identified him as the main suspect in the girls disappearance. He has never been charged. In 2019, he was sentenced for raping a 72-year-old American woman in 2005 in Portugal. For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on People. ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, June 7. Representatives of Belgian companies will visit Turkmenistan to negotiate cooperation in the infrastructure and industrial sectors, Trend reports. According to the Turkmen Foreign Ministry, the upcoming visit of European businessmen was discussed in Brussels during a meeting between Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Ahmet Gurbanov and acting Political Director General at the Belgian Foreign Ministry Ghislain D'hoop. During the meeting, the sides exchanged views on key issues of bilateral cooperation and the international agenda. In particular, the directions of cooperation in the economic, cultural, humanitarian, and political spheres were considered. Ahmet Gurbanov and Ghislain D'hoop also considered the possibility of holding another round of consultations between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of both countries at a mutually acceptable time. In conclusion, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan and the acting Political Director General at the Belgian Foreign Ministry stressed the importance of further strengthening friendly ties and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries. Meanwhile, Eurostat data show that Turkmenistan and Belgium have been actively increasing their trade relations in recent years, supporting the growth of mutually beneficial trade turnover, totaling more than 104.7 million euros from the beginning of 2018 to the end of 2023. The largest trade turnover between Turkmenistan and Belgium over these years occurred in 2022 (34 million euros) and the smallest in 2018 (8.13 million euros). Cruise ships line the Juneau waterfront on Wednesday, June 8, 2022. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) JUNEAU, Alaska Alaskas state capital is set to become the first city in Alaska and one of only a handful in the United States to limit the number of daily cruise ship tourists. Under the terms of a voluntary agreement announced Monday and effective in 2026, the nations four largest cruise lines will schedule ships containing no more than 16,000 standard beds in Juneau per day, what the industry calls lower berths, with the limit dropping to 12,000 on Saturdays. The agreement comes after growing complaints by locals about overcrowding, housing shortages, noise pollution and air pollution. The goal and the message here is that Juneau is hitting pause on growth, said Alexandra Pierce, the citys tourism manager, of the agreement. Because some ships sail above their listed capacity, the number of tourists allowed by the agreement may exceed 16,000 on some days, and that figure also doesnt include visiting crew. Some city residents say the agreement doesnt go far enough to answer residents complaints, and theyre gathering petition signatures for a ballot measure that would ban cruise ships altogether on Saturdays. One of the organizers of that measure, Karla Hart, said that even if the citys agreement were for 12,000 or 5,000 people per day, it doesnt give people a break from the cruise tourism season, which stretches from April through October. Im still going to have helicopters flying over there will still be whale-watching boats in numbers big enough that people cant avoid those; all of the impacts of the industry will still be going even if there are some reductions in numbers of cruise passengers, she said. A counter-campaign, urging locals to not sign the petition, is already underway. Juneau, a city of 32,000 residents, welcomes more than 1.6 million visitors annually, and on peak days, more than 21,000 tourists may visit by cruise ship. By number of ships and number of visitors, Juneau is the most popular whale-watching destination in the world, the city claims. The Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area, located within city bounds and operated by the U.S. Forest Service, is the most-visited tourist attraction in Alaska. Vendors sell tours to cruise ship passengers on July 18, 2023, in downtown Juneau, Alaska. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) The full-on cruise season in Juneau now is about 22 weeks long, which spans all of our summer plus our spring and our fall, Hart said. Travelers frequently spread out across the city, climbing aboard helicopters, boarding whale-watching boats and riding buses. Hart described listening to strings of eight or more helicopters flying over her home. Its every day that people who are in their own homes are interrupted and disturbed by helicopter noise, she said. Their enjoyment of their yard, of the trails around their home is disturbed by helicopter noise. And people who want to go out boating are disturbed or displaced or disrupted or endangered by a fleet of over 70 whale-watching boats which creates horribly confused wakes and noise and disruption. Some businesses are already taking steps to mitigate the problems. Wings Airways, which flies tourists via floatplane to a remote lodge, imposed its own limits on its operation, said Holly Johnson, a company vice president. It hasnt grown its fleet of five airplanes. Its something weve sort of always done behind the scenes, because it was the right thing to do for our business, she said. Wings is an exception: After the end of the COVID-19 pandemic emergency, the number of cruise tourists visiting Juneau grew by 40% from 2022 to 2023. That was shocking for people, and we had a lot of community reaction, Pierce said. Meilani Schijvens, director of Rain Coast Data, speaks to the Juneau Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023, about the record cruise ship tourism season in Juneau. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) She said the busiest days have felt a bit suffocating for a lot of people and were trying to eliminate that and create some balance for the community. For the city, the difficulty has been balancing the interests of workers employed in the tourism industry with the needs of local residents who feel the consequences. As far back as 2019, Juneau had convened a task force to consider a cap on the number of visitors, and current discussions began in March, she said. Pierce said the new limit is designed to effectively hold tourist numbers steady, allowing businesses and the city to develop more infrastructure that spreads out the number of visitors, whether through new attractions like a summertime gondola planned for the citys ski area, another cruise ship dock to spread out the crowd of arriving visitors, or changes to the Mendenhall Glacier site, planned by the Forest Service. Our goal is to make a million and a half people feel like a million people through infrastructure development, she said. By not having the cap take effect until 2026, cruise lines have time to reschedule their ships, said Renee Limoge Reeve, vice president of government and community Relations for Cruise Lines International Association Alaska. Other ports in Southeast Alaska will also have time to anticipate the arrival of ships that otherwise might visit Juneau. Juneaus approach is a voluntary agreement, which differs from some approaches taken elsewhere. The city of Key West, Florida, passed several voter-approved ordinances putting hard limits on cruise ships, but those were vetoed by the state legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis. In Bar Harbor, Maine, locals installed a hard cap of 1,000 cruise ship passengers per day. A U.S. District Court judge upheld that limit after a legal challenge, but the case has been appealed. In Alaska, the city attorney in Sitka rejected a Bar Harbor-like limit last year as unconstitutional under the language of the Alaska Constitution. Juneau itself had an extended legal battle with the cruise industry over the use of head taxes paid by passengers. The city lost that case, which now limits how the city can spend passenger taxes. That case, and the experience of other cities, encouraged Juneau to pursue negotiations and a voluntary cap. Pierce said that doesnt mean the city will surrender to the industry if cruise lines decide to break the agreement. Three of the four docks used by cruise ships in Juneau are city-owned, and in the worst-case scenario, wed say great, were closing our city docks, Pierce said. We do have a hammer. We just dont want to use it. Meanwhile, Hart said shes prepared to give Juneau residents the chance to vote on a tougher restriction. If the petition turns into a ballot vote this fall, she expects the resulting campaign could get really ugly. Already, banners on some Juneau businesses are urging residents not to sign the petition. Our story is pretty clear, she said. Its the lived experience of people. So well just put in the work to give the community the chance to decide. And then its up to the community to decide. And well see how it goes. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alaska Beacon maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Andrew Kitchenman for questions: info@alaskabeacon.com. Follow Alaska Beacon on Facebook and Twitter. The post Awash in tourists, Juneau, Alaska, prepares to turn some cruise ships away appeared first on Rhode Island Current. An awkward kiss and a promise of mass deportations: 5 takeaways from Trumps Arizona stop Former President Donald Trump delivered an alternately playful and fiery address and at least one kiss in Arizona on Thursday as he visited the Grand Canyon State for the first time in nearly two years. It was Trumps first political rally since a New York jury convicted him last week of 34 felonies in connection with hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016 to conceal their sexual relations. Here are five key takeaways about his Thursday event. Trump brushes over his felony verdict onstage Trump wasted no time in calling his New York trial a "rigged" case and said his only crime was winning the 2016 election over Democrat Hillary Clinton. He didnt address the hush money payments he paid to a porn star to conceal their sexual relationship ahead of the 2016 election. Instead, he blasted the judge overseeing the case. I just went through a rigged trial in New York, with a highly conflicted and I mean highly conflicted judge, where there was no crime. It was made up, fabricated stuff, Trump said minutes into his speech at the conservative-aligned Dream City Church in northern Phoenix. Trump spent most of the town hall discussing immigration. He panned Bidens recent executive action to restrict access to asylum along the U.S.-Mexico border, which essentially guarantees an immediate shutdown of all asylum processing between border crossings. Instead, he pledged to undertake "the largest domestic deportation operation" in the country's history if reelected. Trump peppered his address with coy remarks and jibes. "They come up with this order," Trump said of Biden's executive action. "I won't say it because I don't like using the words," he said, before immediately relieving the suspense: 'B------t.'" The crowd gleefully chanted the expletive back to him in response. This time it was almost all about Trump Maybe the biggest difference between the town hall and earlier Trump events was the near-total focus on Trump. Other than remarks from Turning Point co-founder Charlie Kirk long before Trump came on stage, the event belonged to the man at the top of the ticket for Republicans this year. In earlier rallies, Trump invited the recipients of his coveted endorsements to speak. Not for long, but at least for a few moments to praise him, to see the crowds he draws and stand next to someone with real power. 'Latinos for Lake': Candidate attempts to reach essential Arizona voting bloc in US Senate race On Thursday, Trump quickly dispensed with shout-outs to most of the states congressional delegation and two of his preferred candidates, Kari Lake for the U.S. Senate and Abe Hamadeh for Congress. No pol shared the stage with Trump except for the one man Trump summoned: former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, an early ally and a personal friend. The format kept the focus on Trump and lent an all-business feel to an event that lacked the carnival quality that some of his earlier visits have had. Trump mounts praise, and a kiss, on Joe Arpaio Former President Donald Trump hugs former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio during an appearance at a town hall meeting hosted by the conservative group Turning Point Action at Dream City Church in Phoenix on June 6, 2024. Trump summoned Arpaio to the stage for an awkward peck on the cheek as Trump continued to lament what has become of Arizona under Biden. I don't kiss men. But I kissed him, Trump said to laughter from the crowd. In office, Trump granted his first presidential pardon to Arpaio, who had been convicted of misdemeanor contempt of court in connection with the continued practice of racial profiling by his agency. That conviction grew out of federal court orders for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office to stop detaining people solely on the basis of their immigration status. Latinos were racially profiled under a department policy that Arpaio refused to end. Maricopa County voters rejected Arpaio in 2016 and he received the pardon in 2017. Trump lauds Senate candidate Kari Lake after reports of a rift Despite keeping the spotlight on himself, Trump did squeeze in some praise for Phoenix, most of the state's Republicans in Congress and Arizona's top 2024 GOP candidates. You got to elect Kari Lake, Trump said early on in his remarks. He called her a friend of mine and an incredible woman. That comes after reports that Trump has cooled on Lake, who is the Republican front-runner in the U.S. Senate race. He specifically praised Republican U.S. Reps. Andy Biggs, Eli Crane, Paul Gosar and Debbie Lesko. He made no mention of the states other two GOP House members, U.S. Reps. Juan Ciscomani and David Schweikert. Trump also praised his endorsed congressional candidate Hamadeh, who is running for the seat being vacated by Lesko, who is retiring and running for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. Democrats counter Trump is 'unhinged' and 'the worst of Washington' Ahead of Trumps town hall event, Arizona Democrats countered his visit with a news conference. Arizona Democratic Party Chair Yolanda Bejarano cast Trump as unhinged and a threat to U.S. democracy. We know that Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans see Arizona as a testing ground for election conspiracy theories and denialism, Bajarano said. This is ground zero of what has become our entire countrys struggle against misinformation and false claims. President Joe Bidens campaign has reminded voters that Turning Point Action, the conservative organization hosting Trump on Thursday, sent seven buses of students to Washington to participate in the Stop the Steal rally that preceded the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol. Peggy Neely, a former Vice Mayor of Phoenix, introduced herself as a lifetime Republican and said Trump caused her to become an independent. Every time that Trump comes to the microphone, he lies. And I could not take it anymore, she said. After Trump's appearance, Kevin Munoz, a Biden campaign spokesperson, said: "Donald Trump is exactly what Americans hate about politicians. Hes the worst of Washington." Trumps campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He has forcefully decried the felony verdicts against him as politically motivated and has taken a careful position on abortion in the ongoing campaign, declining to back a national ban on the procedure. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 5 takeaways from Donald Trumps visit to Arizona BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) Bakersfield College is set to host two one-day virtual express enrollment events in June for new and returning students. Advisors and staff will be available to answer any questions and help students enroll for the summer and fall semesters and also sign up for financial aid, organizers said through a news release. Help save lives by becoming a Water Watcher this summer BCs express enrollment events will take place on Wednesday, June 12 and 26, from noon to 5 p.m. For more details and to reserve your spot for the event, visit, BakersfieldCollege.edu. Never miss a story: Make KGET.com your homepage If you cannot attend one of the sessions this month, you can get similar help by visiting the BC online Student Information Desk during regular business hours. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17. The Bastrop school board on Monday rejected a family's appeal for additional services after the parents of two high school-age daughters accused the district of failing to stop students from bullying the girls. The Bastrop school board this week rejected a family's appeal for additional services after the parents of two high school-age daughters accused the district of failing to stop students from bullying the girls. Julio Meraz, who has said his two teenagers are getting called names and intimidated at school, said Monday that he and his family were disappointed by the boards decision. Meraz and his wife requested a grievance hearing with the school board after they raised complaints over their daughters being bullied with the campus's leadership and were left feeling like officials didn't address the problem. So, he and his wife asked the school board to acknowledge the bullying and reprimand the students he alleged are harassing his children. They keep saying there's no bullying when in fact we know there is. I don't know why they're not telling the truth, Meraz said. School boards, like Bastrop's, regularly hold grievance hearings on issues such as bullying. The hearings are typically held behind closed doors. In a statement, the Bastrop school district declined to comment on the specifics of the case but said it "is committed to maintaining a safe and supportive learning environment." We take concerns of bullying very seriously and have policies and procedures in place to address and prevent bullying, it said in the statement. Parents and guardians who are concerned about bullying should reach out to district officials, according to the statement. Meraz said he is considering other schooling options for his children. It makes me think next year where we're going to put them, he said, because hes concerned the bullying will continue. BISD issues warning The district confirmed to the American-Statesman that it issued a criminal trespass warning to Merazs wife. This decision was made in the interest of student safety and the use of district resources, according to a district statement. Bastrop ISD would like to respect the privacy of those affected and will not be disclosing specific details related to the" criminal trespass warning. The May 2 warning came after the family had already been trying to address their concerns about bullying. Meraz said he thinks the district handed down the warning because his wife was making so many complaints and going to school buildings so often. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Bastrop ISD declines more services for girls allegedly getting bullied Bear vs. alligators: Watch clip of Florida predators battling it out while swimming in St. Johns River A mighty bear takes on two angry alligators It's not the plot of any upcoming summer action flick. It's just another day in Florida. A kayaker captured video of a black bear encountering the reptiles while taking a dip in the St. Johns River, writing that he had "never seen this before." In an interview with WKMG, Tyler Futrell said he was kayaking Tuesday morning on St. Johns River near the High Banks Marina, roughly 25 miles north of Orlando when he saw the battle go down. In the video, the bear swims across the river when an alligator swims over and lunges. However, the bear quickly swats away the gator and continues swimming. Before it reaches the shore, it comes across another large gator and gives it a "swat" as well. Futrell didn't know he was recording a bear until he got out of water. When (the bear) got out, he just seemed kind of annoyed, Futrell joked. Where is the St. Johns River? The St. Johns River is the longest river in Florida, flowing 310 miles north from Blue Cypress Lake in Indian River County to where it empties in to the Atlantic Ocean east of Jacksonville. How many black bears are in Florida? A male Florida black bear yawns while sitting next to a road in Tiger Bay State Forest on Sept. 20. News-Journal/Dinah Voyles Pulver "The Florida black bear (Ursus americanus floridanus) is one of 16 subspecies of the American black bear and is the only bear species in Florida," the FWC's website says. A Tallahassee Democrat report shared biologists estimate there are 4,000 bears in Florida, who are mostly shy and reclusive and live in hardwood forests. They can weigh up to 350 pounds and eat mostly plants and insects. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) recently out out press statement to advise that juvenile black bears might be seen in unexpected areas as they leave their mothers home ranges in search of new locations of their own to settle down. Juvenile or yearling bears, between the ages of 1 and 2, start wandering on their own in spring and summer each year, according to FWC Bear Management Program Coordinator Mike Orlando. What should you do if you come across black bear in wild? The FWC says if you encounter a bear at close range, they suggest you to "remain standing upright, back up slowly and speak to the bear in a calm, assertive voice." "Never approach or surprise a bear. If you see a bear from a distance, enjoy the experience, but do not move toward the bear. If you are close, do not make any sudden or abrupt movements. Back way slowly and be sure the bear has an obvious escape route." As for if you see one around your home or in a public space, the FWC advises to leave it alone. The best thing people can do if they see a bear in an unexpected area is to give them plenty of space and to never approach or feed them and they will typically move along on their own," Orlando said. This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Bear fights off 2 gators in Florida river. Video shows the outcome Bedford memorial keeps D-Day memories alive and more Virginia headlines The state Capitol. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury) 80 years after D-Day, a national memorial in Bedford keeps memories alive.Cardinal News Heinous crime: Authorities searching for woman suspected of killing 3 roommates in Fredericksburg.WTOP Child and 2 adults killed on railroad bridge when struck by train in Virginia.Associated Press Public left out of talks about future of Virginia Aquarium, Virginia Beach council member says.Virginian-Pilot Virginia Amtrak customers are getting a Richmond-made beer option.Axios The post Bedford memorial keeps D-Day memories alive and more Virginia headlines appeared first on Virginia Mercury. ST. LOUIS A Bel-Ridge man appeared in U.S. District Court on Thursday and admitted committing an armed carjacking in St. Louis last year. Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Missouri said Ahdaejay Britton, 19, and a juvenile accomplice stole a Mazda 3 from a parking garage in the 3800 block of Lindell Boulevard during the middle of the day on May 8, 2023. Britton told the court that he and his accomplice saw the victim park his car and then followed him down a stairwell, where they tackled him from behind and demanded his car keys, wallet, and phone. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily News Police observed the stolen Mazda in the 10000 block of New Halls Ferry Road and saw the juvenile in the drivers seat. Britton was at a nearby business. Police located a .45 caliber pistol and the victims phone inside the Mazda. Britton pleaded guilty to one count of carjacking and one count of possession and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Britton will be sentenced on November 14. He faces up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the carjacking charge, and anywhere from seven years to life imprisonment for the firearm charge. The sentences would run consecutively. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto visits Belarus, despite EU sanctions. Poland to reinstate 200-meter buffer zone at Belarus border amid surge in attacks on border guards and worsening of the Belarus-instigated migration crisis at EU border. EU approved tariffs on Russian and Belarusian grain products to cut funding for Russia's war against Ukraine. Subscribe to the Newsletter Belarus Weekly Join us Belarus suspends participation in Conventional Armed Forces Treaty Twenty exiled political analysts and journalists accused of helping opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya campaign in the 2020 presidential elections are now charged in absentia. Hungarian foreign minister visits Belarus despite EU sanctions, signs nuclear energy agreement Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto arrived in Minsk on May 29 for talks on broadening economic cooperation, despite European sanctions being in effect against the regime of Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko. Arriving for a Belarusian-Hungarian business forum in Minsk with 24 representatives of Hungarian companies, Szijjarto said, Our position is clear: the fewer sanctions, the more cooperation! Szijjarto reiterated that Hungary does not agree with the EU sanctions, and would develop ties "in areas not affected by sanctions. During the visit, Belarusian and Hungarian officials signed a memorandum on cooperation in the nuclear energy sector, envisaging training for personnel and handling radioactive waste. The experience Belarus gained while constructing reactors with a similar technology might be of use to Hungary, Szijjarto said. Budapest is currently building its second nuclear power plant Paks II. Belarus commissioned its first and only Russian-built nuclear power plant in November 2020, sparking safety concerns in neighboring Lithuania. Reportedly, the plant was built with a multitude of flaws and has been undergoing repairs for nearly 40% of the time since it started operating. Designed as a way to escape energy dependency on Russia, the plant was also to sell its energy to Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine, but these markets have been cut off due to the Lukashenko regimes complicity in Russias war against Ukraine. Despite the plants economic inefficiency, Belarusian dictator Lukashenko has said he is considering building another nuclear plant in Belarus with the help of the Russian nuclear corporation Rosatom. Meanwhile, Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Aleinik said he hoped healthy trends would appear in Europe when Hungary takes over the EUs six-month rotating presidency in July. Hungary is the only EU member state that has maintained ties with the Lukashenko regime and sent an ambassador to Belarus following the fraudulent presidential elections in 2020 and the regimes subsequent harsh crackdown on dissent. Franak Viachorka, the chief political advisor to Belarus democratic leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, noted the regularity of the visits, and labeled Hungary's stance hypocritical. Such meetings mean splitting EU unity in the policy to isolate the Lukashenko regime, legitimizing repression and terror against Belarusians, Viachorka wrote on X. Read also: Opinion: No quiet for Europe on the Eastern Front Poland to reinstate buffer zone at border with Belarus amid multiple attacks on border guards Poland will reintroduce a 200-meter buffer zone on its border with Belarus amidst an intensified migration crisis and attacks on its border guards, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on May 29. The buffer zone, initially set to be introduced on June 4, was delayed until later this week due to the need for more planning and consultations with local authorities, national parks, and public organizations, Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said at a press conference on June 3. In the meantime, the border is being reinforced with 100 more soldiers, in addition to the existing 190-kilometer long metal fence, Polish radio station RMF FM reports. The interior minister also noted that the number of attempts to illegally cross the Polish-Belarusian border has doubled compared to 2023, and levels of aggression towards soldiers and officers have increased. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk delivers a speech in Warsaw, Poland, on June 4, 2023. in Warsaw, Poland. (Omar Marques/Getty Images) The announcement came after a Polish border guard was stabbed through the existing fence on May 28 with a makeshift spear by a migrant who was attempting to cross the border illegally. Officials said the soldier remains hospitalized in a serious condition. On May 31, Polish border guards reported two more hospitalizations of guards following attacks by illegal migrants. On June 3, another Polish officer received a head injury when migrants threw thick tree branches from the Belarusian side of the border. Poland blames Russia and Belarus for using the migration crisis to conduct hybrid warfare against the EU. For several months, we have been observing (a rise in) the intensity of attempts to cross the border by people who in no way want to get asylum or shelter, but who are a tool in the hands of the special services of Belarus and the Russian Federation, said Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz. Most of them have Russian visas. On June 3, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski announced that the intensification of hybrid war had forced Poland to drop the idea of reopening one of its border crossings with Belarus. Prime Minister Tusk had earlier promised to consider reopening a crossing at the request of local businesses that depend on cross-border traffic. Tusk announced earlier in May that Poland plans to invest 10 billion zlotys ($2.55 billion) in strengthening its borders with Russia and Belarus to deter potential aggression. Read also: Tusk: Poland to fortify border with Belarus due to hybrid war EU approves tariffs on Russian, Belarusian agricultural products The EU Council adopted a regulation to increase tariffs on certain agricultural products from Russia and Belarus on May 30. The regulation, which the European Commission proposed on March 22, limits EU imports of Russian and Belarusian cereals, oilseeds and derived products, beet-pulp pellets, and dried peas. All are currently subject to no or low tariffs. According to Business Insider, the tariff would reach 95 euros ($103) per ton on corn and wheat, while oilseeds and derived products would be subject to an ad valorem duty of 50%. The new regulation, designed to halt grain imports from the two states, enters into force on July 1, but does not affect transit shipments to third countries. These measures will, therefore, prevent the destabilization of the EUs grain market, halt Russian exports of illegally appropriated grain produced in Ukraine, and prevent Russia from using revenues from exports to the EU to fund its war of aggression against Ukraine, Belgian Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem said. Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman Anatoli Glaz said the decision was a blow to global food security and flouted the general rules of international trade, as well as WTO rules. Russia exported around 1.4 billion euros worth of grain products to the EU in 2023. European imports of grains, oilseeds, and their derivatives from Russia reached a record 4 million metric tons in 2023, which is 1% of total EU consumption, Financial Times reported earlier this year. Belarusian grain exports to Europe are far more modest. In 2023, Belarus exported only 610,000 tons of such products, worth about 246 million euros. However, agricultural product derivatives, such as malt, starch, inulin, and wheat gluten, saw a surge in exports in 2023, reaching 4.78 million euros, according to Belarusian news agency Belsat. Belarus suspends its participation in Conventional Armed Forces Treaty Lukashenko has signed a law suspending Belarus involvement in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), which was designed to establish arms limits in NATO and Warsaw Pact countries. The law suspending the treaty was published on Belarus official legal platform on May 29, following its adoption by the countrys lower chamber of parliament on April 5 and its subsequent approval by the upper chamber on May 6. The law states that the suspension does not mean Belarus is withdrawing from it, or the cessation of internal procedures in the Armed Forces related to its implementation. Lukashenkos press office justified the move by referring to a similar suspension of the treaty by NATO member states. In the wake of Russias all-out invasion of Ukraine, the Czech Republic officially notified Belarus in August 2022 that it would not fulfill its obligations under the CFE with respect to Belarus. Poland announced a similar decision in March 2023. Lukashenkos parliament responded with symmetric measures against Prague and Warsaw on Sept. 19, 2023. Read also: Opinion: Much ado about Russias nuclear rumblings? The countries have since stopped exchanging information on their conventional arms and equipment. Mutual compliance inspections and the limits on the number of these weapons imposed by the CFE Treaty were also halted. Russia formally withdrew from the CFE in November 2023, prompting NATO to announce it would suspend the treaty in response. While recognizing the role of the CFE as a cornerstone of the Euro-Atlantic security architecture, a situation whereby Allied States Parties abide by the Treaty, while Russia does not, would be unsustainable, NATOs press service wrote. The CFE Treaty was negotiated between NATO and Warsaw Pact countries at the end of the Cold War to limit the size of forces that could be used in a swift offensive. The treaty was signed in Paris in November 1990 and was initially agreed upon by 16 NATO members and six countries of the former Warsaw Pact, including the Soviet Union. Belarus ratified the agreement in 1992. Belarus tries 20 political analysts in absentia In absentia trials against 20 political analysts and journalists, dubbed Tsikhanouskayas analysts after Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, opened in Minsk on May 31. The exiled experts and journalists, many of whom work with world-renowned universities and think tanks, have been accused of conspiring to overthrow the government and taking part in an extremist group. If found guilty, they could face up to 12 years of imprisonment and seizure of property. Listed among the accused in the case are the Belarusian Initiative director at the U.K. think tank Chatham House, Ryhor Astapenya, and RFE/RL analyst Yury Drakakhrust, as well as several advisors to Tsikhanouskaya, including associate researcher at the University of Strasbourg Yauheni Kryzhanouski, policy analyst and PhD fellow at Virginia Tech University Katsiaryna Shmatsina, and researcher at the City University of Manchester and Vilnius University Tatiana Chulitskaya. People attend a demonstration in support of Belarusian prisoners of conscience in Warsaw, Poland, on 18 May, 2024. (Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Belarusian authorities have accused all of them of helping Tsikhanouskaya to campaign against Lukashenko in the presidential elections in 2020. Fourteen out of 20 defendants put forward a joint statement, noting the politically motivated nature of the trial and legal violations in its proceedings. All those arbitrarily grouped together in the case were engaged in purely professional activities that cannot be related to the acts charged in the indictment, the statement reads. Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejcinovic Buric, condemned the trial, linking it to the wider political repression in Belarus. Civil society in Belarus has been subjected to a four-year-long repressive crackdown. Between 300,000 and 500,000 Belarusians have been forced out of the country of 9.5 million. Having oppressed every form of dissent domestically, the Lukashenko regime is now seeking to silence its exiled opponents with in absentia trials and property seizures. Four years of political repressions May 29 marks exactly four years since the detention of Siarhei Tsikhanouski, the first political prisoner of the 2020 presidential campaign in Belarus. On this day, the Viasna Human Rights Center released a report detailing the scope of repressions that has engulfed Belarus in the last four years. According to human rights activists, at least 5,133 Belarusians have been charged in politically motivated criminal cases, and over 36,000 underwent administrative prosecution. Six political prisoners have died in detention. Since 2020, 1,012 Belarusian political prisoners have served their terms in full, and the human rights community records dozens of new prisoners every month. In April 2024, the total number of current and former officially declared political prisoners neared 3,150. Belarus has declared 4,100 of its citizens to be extremists and 400 to be terrorists. Viasna marks all of its numbers with an asterisk, noting that those figures encompass only the data reported to them, and suggesting that the real toll of repression is much higher. Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Photo: Office of the President of the Republic of Korea ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, June 7. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will pay a state visit not only to Kazakhstan but also to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan on June 1015 this year, Trend reports. According to an official source, he will be accompanied by his wife during the president's visit. The President and his wife will arrive in Ashgabat on June 10, and on the same day he will hold talks with the head of Turkmenistan, Serdar Berdimuhamedov, and the next day with the Chairman of the People's Council of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. Furthermore, the South Korean president will fly to Uzbekistan on June 13, and on June 14, he will be received by the President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev. In line with these visits, South Korea plans to hold a six-party summit with Central Asian countries next year, namely Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, and hold the first series of meetings in South Korea. Meanwhile, the development of cooperation between South Korea and Central Asian countries is a potentially important area, including the expansion of trade relations, the exchange of experience in high technology and infrastructure projects, as well as cooperation in the fields of education and culture, which can contribute to strengthening stability and prosperity in the region. Berlin "irritates" NATO allies with disputes over name of Ukraine support programme Germany is supposedly irritating many allies in the North Atlantic Alliance by resisting the use of the word "mission" in the title of a new programme to support Ukraine. Source: dpa news agency, citing diplomatic sources, followed by other German media outlets. Details: The programme is reportedly to be called NATO Mission Ukraine, with Germany opposing the word "mission" out of fear that it will create a false impression of NATO's alleged intentions to send Western troops to Ukraine and that Russian propaganda will further use this to promote the narrative of an "aggressive bloc" and all sorts of disinformation. For virtually all other allies, Berlin's arguments seem to be completely "incomprehensible" and "unnecessary thoughtfulness towards Russia". Nevertheless, Germany fully supports the substantive component of the support plan. Berlin, for its part, is allegedly proposing to call the support programme PACT, an acronym for Pledge Assistance Coordination and Training, which would literally describe that NATO's plan involves coordinating military assistance to Ukraine. However, this idea found no support among other allies. Germany's Federal Foreign Office has declined to comment on the debate, citing the confidentiality of negotiations between the allies. Background: The discussions focus on transferring coordination efforts to support Ukraine from the US-led Ramstein format to NATO. This shift is due to the uncertainty surrounding future US policy if presidential candidate Donald Trump wins. The new programme is expected to be finalised at the summit in Washington. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg believes the NATO summit will approve a new system for funding Ukraine's defence worth US$40 billion. Support UP or become our patron! VANDALIA, OHIO - MARCH 16: Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump greets Ohio Republican candidate for US Senate Bernie Moreno during a rally at the Dayton International Airport on March 16, 2024 in Vandalia, Ohio. The rally was hosted by the Buckeye Values PAC. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) In December of 2018, Cleveland hosted the first of two conferences aimed at promoting blockchain technology and establishing itself as a destination for blockchain companies. The ideas biggest booster was Bernie Moreno, who is now the Republican nominee in Ohios U.S. Senate race. And Morenos plans didnt stop at the Blockland conference. He launched his own company using blockchain to manage vehicle titles and dreamed of redeveloping the downtown Tower City Center into City Block a mixed-use space hosting tech companies and startups. But three years later, the effort was dead. Moreno, in his first U.S. Senate bid, stepped away from Blockland because he didnt want the community tarnished by the divisiveness and vitriol that permeates our current political environment. Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert announced new plans for Tower City, making no mention of City Block. According to Moreno, though, it wasnt a total loss. In 2019, he claimed the Blockland initiative prompted AT&T to bring 5G service to Cleveland. AT&T is looking at putting 5G in Cleveland, he told Smart Business Dealmakers Cleveland that April. That probably wouldnt have happened without the Blockland effort and the people who were involved. In a Cuyahoga County finance and budgeting committee meeting a few months later, Moreno said, AT&T has made the decision to roll out 5G in Cleveland first in Ohio, and probably first fully implemented city in America, if they go on their timeline. The record, however, tells a different story. One in which Blockland was less a draw for AT&T than a new platform to lobby for infrastructure improvements the company was already planning. The episode demonstrates how Moreno interacts with major corporate interests and burnishes his own reputation in the process. AT&Ts plans AT&Ts earliest announcements about 5G networks come from 2016. In December, the company announced the deployment of a 5G network at Intels offices in Austin. Put simply, 5G is just the latest technological standard for mobile devices, following 3G and 4G and eventually to be overtaken by 6G. Its broader rollout was inevitable, and AT&T moved rapidly. In April of 2017, before the standards were even finalized, the company began touting what it called 5G evolution in parts of Austin, TX. The service was essentially a juiced up 4G connection, that the company routinely described as laying the foundation for 5G. AT&T projected it would roll out the technology in 20 metro areas by the end of 2017. The following year, AT&T announced plans to introduce true 5G services in a dozen cities, and in April touted the expansion of 5G evolution to more than 100 new markets, including Columbus. The announcement projected theyd bring 5G evolution to 500 markets, Cleveland among them, by the end of the year. Thats more than six months before the first Blockland conference, and while AT&Ts 5G evolution service isnt a true 5G connection, Ohios big cities were part of the companys planning. And at the outset of 2019 just weeks after Blockland the company was already looking past cities and predicting it would have a nationwide mobile 5G footprint by early 2020. The press release bragged we took what was typically an 18-month cycle from the time standards were finalized to launching and whittled it down to 6 months. State & local lobbying While AT&T was rushing headlong toward 5G coverage nationally, it was also lobbying leaders in the Ohio Statehouse and in Cleveland City Hall. Those efforts began years before Blockland and were aimed at laying the groundwork for 5G around the state. Late in 2016, the company secured passage of legislation capping how much municipalities could charge telecom companies for installing small cell wireless infrastructure. In a press release, AT&T Ohio president Adam Grzybicki described how that legislation would encourage millions worth of investments in wireless infrastructure. This investment will also help pave the path to 5G mobile services in the years ahead. But those provisions caught a ride on a bill cracking down on puppy mills and prohibiting cities from establishing their own minimum wage. In all, 80 cities, including Cleveland, sued the state over the caps on wireless development, and courts struck down the measure in 2017 because it violated the single subject rule. A year later, lawmakers passed a new measure crafted in consultation with local leaders and AT&T. Again, proponents like Verizon invoked the looming introduction of 5G in committee testimony. Then-Gov. John Kasich signed the bill and it took effect in August of 2018. Later the same month, Grzybicki wrote to then-mayor of Cleveland Frank Jackson to complain about the slow permitting process for AT&Ts deployment efforts. AT&T has been working with the (Cleveland) law department and other contacts within the mayors office for more than a year to secure a small cell attachment agreement, he wrote, adding As you know, small cell technology is crucial to bringing 5G to cities like Cleveland. In contrast, Grzybicki praised Columbus diligent efforts to secure a small cell agreement and promised to share information about the deal in the event you find it helpful. Morenos inaugural Blockland conference was held that December, roughly three months later. When Grzybicki wrote Mayor Jackson the following February, still frustrated with the slow pace of permitting, he invoked Blockland. But in his telling the conference was less a magnet for AT&T than a warning for the mayor. There was robust discussion surrounding the importance of 5G in securing any momentum for blockchain development, he wrote. The blockchain community clearly heard the call to action and is eager to see these technologies deployed. That robust discussion came in part from AT&T itself. When Moreno spoke before Cuyahoga Countys finance and budgeting committee he shared a fireside chat from Blockland featuring John Donovan, then-CEO of AT&T Communications, and Beth Mooney, the chairwoman and CEO of KeyCorp and a member of AT&Ts board of directors. Morenos response Nevertheless, Moreno still insists Blockland played a major role in convincing AT&T to bring 5G to Cleveland. Bernie is proud to have helped spearhead the Blockland initiative in Cleveland, in an effort to bring blockchain and other leading-edge technology to Cleveland, campaign spokeswoman Reagan McCarthy said in a statement. These efforts by the Blockland team, all volunteers, undoubtedly helped AT&T decide to bring 5G to Cleveland, which was a huge win for the city. He gave up his time and resources as a private citizen. AT&Ts declined to comment for this story as did a person who led one of the Blockland conferences subgroups, referred to as nodes. Grzybicki did not respond to an email requesting comment. Additionally, Morenos campaign recommended a person involved with the conference and AT&T, but that person didnt respond to attempts to reach them by text and phone. In a swipe at Morenos Democratic opponent this November, McCarthy added, By contrast, (U.S. Sen.) Sherrod Brown has done nothing to help NE Ohio attract cutting edge companies. Sen. Brown, of course, has taken a share of the credit for landing the Intel fab currently being built in Licking County. Brown, his former U.S. Senate colleague Rob Portman, and virtually every official in Ohio have argued that facilitys impact will be felt statewide. In Northeast Ohio specifically, Browns campaign noted hes lobbied for federal investment in Akrons sustainable polymers efforts to benefit the rubber industry and hes pushed the Biden administration to protect steelworkers by blocking the sale of U.S. Steel and combatting unfair trade practices. Brown also supported and voted for the CHIPS Act of 2022, which included historic funding for domestic semiconductor manufacturing. Follow OCJ Reporter Nick Evans on Twitter. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE The post Bernie Moreno claims Blockland conference convinced AT&T to bring 5G to Cleveland appeared first on Ohio Capital Journal. BERRY HILL, Tenn. (WKRN) The Berry Hill Police Department is asking for the publics help finding a man who allegedly threatened a fast food worker with a knife. The incident happened at a McDonalds on 8th Avenue South. A disgruntled customer reportedly ordered a meal, ate some of it, threw the rest in the trash, and then wanted his meal replaced. Since the man tossed the food into the garbage and only had a receipt, the McDonalds managers said they could not replace the meal. Have breaking news come to you: Subscribe to News 2 email alerts This made the customer angry, so much so that he tried to grab the female employees phone from across the counter, according to police. What are you doing? the worker asked on surveillance footage. Youre going to get my food, the suspect said. No Im not giving you your food! the employee replied. Dont touch me! Dont touch me! Youre tripping now. THP sergeant crashes into lawnmower in Maury County There was a physical assault that happened there. He got very handsy with her, flashed a knife, threatened her, Berry Hill Sgt. Tony Russo explained. Thats when the man decided to go around the counter. As he approached, a male employee asked the female employee if she knew the customer. She said she didnt know him. While on the move, the suspect announced, Im gonna come back there and get my- The male employee interrupted, saying, No, no, not today, bro. Man arrested after performing dangerous burnout maneuver on Broadway Thats when the quick-thinking male employee grabbed a cart and used it to block the customers path. As the suspect tried to get past the two workers, the male employee kept saying, Hold on, player. The coworker is sort of heroic, News 2s Andy Cordan said. The guys coming back, hes going after a woman, the guy sticks a cart in his way, and that kind of defused the situation. Yeah, hes definitely a hero in my books. He got in the way, and if there wasnt anything in the way for him to put in the way, he was going to put himself in harms way, so hes definitely a hero, Russo replied. As the female employee called 911, the man grabbed his black backpack and walked away. The victims described what happened to law enforcement, who had their body cameras on. Read todays top stories on wkrn.com He gave me a paper, a receipt, saying that he had that food and it was messed up, and I said, Well, I need the food to replace it. And hes like, Im diabetic. Give me my food. And thats when he tried to reach for my phone, and I backed up. He said, Well Im coming back there to make it,' the female employee explained in the video. I was up here with her, he was coming through the thing. Thats when I see him going into his pocket. I thought he had a gun, but I see him pulling a knife, so I grabbed this, the male employee recalled. He flashed a knife, threatened people; he went as far as to grab her phone off camera, but its still an assault, still an intimidation, still a felony, Russo told News 2. According to the McDonalds workers, after the suspect left the restaurant, he went to a nearby Mapco and reportedly stole beer and candy. (Photo: WKRN) Authorities said the man is now facing aggravated assault charges for putting the McDonalds clerk in fear for her life. If you recognize the suspect photographed above, you are asked to call the Berry Hill Police Department at 615-297-4701. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2. EL PASO Walking onto the stage to a thunderous standing ovation at the Democratic Party Convention in El Paso, former U.S. presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke encouraged Texans to stand up for democracy and progressive values. "This moment is ours. We cannot be found wanting. We must meet this moment," O'Rourke, a fourth-generation Texan who represented Texas' Congressional District 16, including El Paso, from 2013 to 2019, said Thursday as the final speaker of the convention's opening day. He recalled his 2018 campaign against U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, when he fell short by roughly 215,000 votes to unseat the incumbent, as well as his trip to the state's 254 counties as part of his campaign. He remembered a train station in Cook County where, in 1943, an entire division of Texas men and boys came to start their training for World War II. Eventually, they stormed the beaches of Normandy, he said as the world marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday. Beto ORourke greets Gabby Giffords at the Texas Democratic Party Convention in El Paso Texas on June 6, 2024. "And what were they fighting for? To stop fascism across the sea and protect Democracy here at home," O'Rourke said. While President Joe Biden is off commemorating that sacrifice, he said, Trump "wants to bring Germanic fascism to this country." More: What's in store for the 2024 Texas Democratic Party Convention in El Paso this week? O'Rourke, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, recalled other Texans throughout history and their effect on the nation, including the woman who fought at the U.S. Supreme Court against a Texas law banning abortions, ultimately leading to the high court's landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that for nearly 50 years guaranteed a right to terminate a pregnancy. The Supreme Court in 2022 reversed Roe v. Wade and Texas later that year banned all abortions except in cases when a pregnant patient's life is at risk or the patient could suffer substantial impairment of a major bodily function. "No one came from outside of Texas to rescue Texas women," O'Rourke said, "it was Texas women who rescued the rest of the country, and it will be Texas women that rescue this country again." 'America needs all of us' The Democratic Party Convention, which is being held at the El Paso Convention Center and wraps up Saturday, also featured on its opening day former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords of Arizona, and U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar and state Sen. Cesar Blanco both of El Paso. Giffords, a gun control activist who walked on a cane to the stage, urged Texas Democrats to keep fighting for progressive causes amid the uncertainly of national politics. Former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords of Arizona blows a kiss to her supporters after her speech on June 6, 2024 at the Paso Del Norte Hotel during the Texas Democratic Party Convention in El Paso Texas. In recalling her own journey of recovery after a right-wing gunman shot her in the head in an assassination attempt in January 2011 during a constituent meeting in Arizona, she related that experience to what Democrats are facing now. "I've known the darkest of days," she said. "Days of pain and uncertain recovery. ... I put one foot in front of another. I found one word and then another." "America needs all of us to speak out, even when you have to fight to find the words," she said. 'Deep sense of excitement' Escobar and Blanco, who are co-chairing the convention, got the Texas Democrats fired up Thursday, with Escobar, energized, rising to the state with a shout and calling on the crowd to follow suit. Texas Sen. Cesar Blanco and Congresswoman Veronica Escobar give the opening speeches as co-hosts for the Texas Democratic Party Convention in El Paso Texas on June 6, 2024 at the Paso Del Norte Hotel. "We need your energy, we need your commitment, we need your hard work because, Democrats, this is the most important election of our lifetime," she said, battling to be heard over the raucous audience. "We need you to take all of the energy that you are bringing to this great party, and after we have done all of our celebrating, all of our working, all of our unities, we've got to get to work knocking on doors, registering voters ... and make sure every Democrat gets to the ballot box in November so we can win," she said. After an impassioned "Bienvenido," Blanco took stock of the crowd. "I can't help but feel a deep sense of excitement here in El Paso," he said. "This room is filled with a lot of leaders. This room is filled with a lot of change-makers. It's filled with a lot of people who are talking while there's a presentation going on." The lighthearted criticism did little to silence the still-roaring crowd, which had been loud throughout the opening day, muffling earlier remarks by El Paso Democratic Party Chairman Michael Apodaca and Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa. Still, Blanco continued and called on Democrats to turn that excitement into action. "We need to believe in a brighter, more inclusive future for all of Texas," he said. "And we've got to do so especially during a time when our nation is divided." This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Beto O'Rourke, Gabby Giffords headline Texas Democratic Convention Nasser Beydoun (L) and Anil Kumar (R) | Courtesy photos The Michigan Court of Appeals has rejected a lawsuit filed by Dearborn businessman Nasser Beydoun requesting access to the Aug. 6 primary ballot after the Board of State Canvassers blocked him from the ballot. The board rejected Beydouns petitions to appear on the Aug. 6 primary ballot as a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate for listing a post office box as the address on his nominating petitions, rather than a street address as required by state law. An opinion Friday from Judges Mark J. Cavanagh, Jane E. Markey and James Robert Redford found the board properly declined to certify the Beydoun as a candidate. Also on Friday, Anil Kumar, a member of the Wayne State Board of Governors, announced a lawsuit arguing his campaign has the number of valid signatures needed to qualify for the ballot. On May 31, the Board of State Canvassers concurred with the Bureau of Elections recommendations that Kumar, who filed to run as a Democrat in Michigans 10th Congressional District, did not submit enough valid signatures to make the ballot, with bureau staff finding clear indications of fraud on at least 47 of Kumars petition sheets. The board similarly invalidated petitions filed by Rhonda Powell, who was also seeking the Democratic nomination in the 10th Congressional District. The district seat is currently held by U.S. Rep. John James (R-Shelby Twp.), who is running unopposed in the Republican primary. The remaining Democrats looking to unseat James are Emily Busch, former Judge Carl Marlinga, Tiffany Tilley and Diane Young. Kumar has filed the suit against the board with the Michigan Court of Appeals, seeking certification as an eligible candidate on the August primary ballot. He released a statement arguing the Board of Canvassers had incorrectly disqualified at least 94 valid signatures, and that his campaign had the sufficient number of signatures needed to make the ballot. To deprive Michigan voters of their chance to vote on the candidate of their choice is undemocratic and wrong. I am confident we will be placed on the ballot, we will win in August, and we will take the fight to John James in November, Kumar said. The post Beydouns disqualification challenge fails, Kumar files suit for ballot access appeared first on Michigan Advance. Beyonce tickets, pricey artwork: All the free stuff Supreme Court justices got last year The US Supreme Court is one of the last black boxes in American politics. No anonymous sources talking to the press. No secret videos recorded on the inside. What happens in the chambers when the nine justices meet to decide their cases remains strictly confidential. However, annual disclosures from the high court judges do give us one peak into the world of SCOTUS: they get a ton of free stuff and plenty of big checks for their work off the bench. Far from a dull government disclosure form, these records are the latest bit of fodder for observers of a court thats suffered a string of ethics controversies in recent years. Released Friday, the disclosures capture the high-flying life of Americas top jurists. Justice Clarence Thomas, for instance, amended his past disclosures to capture gifts from conservative billionaire Harlan Crow, who paid in 2019 for the justice to visit the Indonesian island of Bali and the Bohemian Grove, an elite mens club in California. He also disclosed free private jet travel he got in 2022, citing the courts recently adopted ethics policy, a first-of-its-kind set of requirements for the high court adopted in November. United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas poses for an official portrait at the East Conference Room of the Supreme Court building on October 7, 2022 in Washington, DC (Getty Images) The justice has said he began flying private after the court suffered an unprecedented May 2022 leak of a draft ruling of the decision in which the court ultimately overturned the constitutional right to an abortion in Roe v Wade. The disclosures contain other eye-popping figures. Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson reported receiving four concert tickets from Beyonce, valued at $3,700, and $10,000 in artwork for her chambers from artist Lonnie Holley. Justice Jackson is Crazy in Love with Beyonces music. Who isnt? court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe told The Washington Post of the gift, referencing the pop stars 2003 hit of the same name. Justice Jackson also reported a nearly $900,000 dollar advance for an upcoming memoir. Ketanji Brown Jackson, nominated to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit, is sworn in to testify before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on pending judicial nominations on Capitol Hill, April 28, 2021 in Washington, DC (Getty Images) Justice Sonia Sotomayor, meanwhile, reported $1,900 in earnings from the arts as well. She lent her voice to Almas Way, a PBS animated childrens show about a Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx, the jurists home borough. No justice has been the subject of more scrutiny for his gifts than Thomas, though. A recent analysis of financial gifts to Supreme Court members between 2004 and 2023 showed that the conservative justice raked in roughly $2.4m of the nearly $3m total current justices have received during that period. Supreme Court justices should not be accepting gifts, let alone the hundreds of freebies worth millions of dollars theyve received over the years, Gabe Roth, executive director at Fix the Court, the advocacy group that compiled the data, said in a statement to The Independent. Over the years, Thomas flew multiple times on the private jet of billionaire Wayne Huizenga, and Crow paid $160,000 for a yacht cruise around the Greek isles. All the free stuff Supreme Court justices got in 2023 (Getty Images) Tax and property records show Crow also bought three parcels of land from the justice for $133,363 in 2014, including the one where Thomass mother currently lives. In a statement to CNN, Crow said he bought the land so he could one day create a public museum at the Thomas home dedicated to telling the story of our nations second black Supreme Court Justice. Thomas has defended his association with the conservative donor. As friends do, we have joined [ Crow and his wife] on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them, Justice Thomas said of the trips in a statement last year. The court has been dogged by ethics issues in recent years. In the throes of the 2020 election, where the Supreme Court would eventually hear cases from Donald Trump challenging election results, Ginni Thomas, wife of Clarence Thomas, lobbied the White House to continue falsely claiming Trump won the contest. Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!! reads one message from November of that year she sent to Mr Trumps chief of staff, Mark Meadows. You are the leader, with him, who is standing for Americas constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History. Such messages landed Ms Thomas in front of the congressional January 6 committee, where she denied exerting any improper influence over her husbands work at the Supreme Court. In 2011, Justice Thomas, under scrutiny from watchdog groups, updated years of disclosure forms to include the fact that Ms Thomas, a conservative activist, earned more than $686,000 in income from the right-leaning Heritage Foundation between 2003 and 2007, a discrepancy Mr Thomas attributed to a misunderstanding of filing instructions. More recently, Justice Samuel Alito has come under fire, after an upside American flag was seen flying above his home in 2021, which some observers took to be a statement of allegiance to pro-Trump protesters challenging the validity of the 2020 election. Alito says his wife flew the flag as part of a dispute with neighbors in which he had no part. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been accepting luxury vacations cruises on yachts, private jet flights and accommodations at five-star resorts from billionaire Harlan Crow for over 20 years, as ProPublica has reported. Now the justice is coming clean, in part, disclosing Friday that a 2019 trip to Indonesia was indeed paid for by in late June was paid for by the Republican megadonor. As ProPublica noted when it first reported on the trip to Bali, Thomas boarded a private jet for Indonesia, where he and his wife proceeded to island hop for nine days on a 162-foot superyacht with a private chef a trip that would have cost him over $500,000 had he tried to pay for it himself. In his annual financial disclosure, which usually notes gifts, travel and outside income from the previous year, Thomas admitted that Harlan and Kathy Crow paid for food and lodging for his Bali trip, CNN reported. The same month, Crow also paid for a four-day stay at a private club in Monte Rio, California the home of Bohemian Grove, an exclusive, all-male retreat. The annual disclosures are required from all justices, though Thomas reports have garnered considerably more attention given the sheer scale of the gifts, dwarfing those received by all other members of the court combined. Thomas, who did not previously disclose such trips, had attempted to explain his selective reporting by stating that ethics officials had advised him not to report personal hospitality from friends. The fact that the justice decided to disclose Crows generosity indicates that it should have been included earlier, according to Politico. George Conway, a conservative lawyer and critic of the modern Republican Party, said the disclosure points to the need for a comprehensive criminal investigation, and congressional investigation, of Justice Thomas and his finances and his taxes. What he has taken," Conway posted on Threads, "and what he has failed to disclose, is beyond belief, and has been so for quite some time." A military aide carries a briefcase containing launch codes for nuclear weapons as U.S. President Donald Trump returns to the White House in Washington By Jonathan Landay WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States may have to deploy more strategic nuclear weapons in coming years to deter growing threats from Russia, China and other adversaries, a senior White House aide said on Friday. Pranay Vaddi, the top National Security Council arms control official, made his comments in a speech on "a more competitive approach" to arms control that outlined a policy shift aimed at pressing Moscow and Beijing to reverse rejections of U.S. calls for arsenal limitation talks. "Absent a change in adversary arsenals, we may reach a point in the coming years where an increase from current deployed numbers is required. We need to be fully prepared to execute if the president makes that decision," he told the Arms Control Association. "If that day comes, it will result in a determination that more nuclear weapons are required to deter our adversaries and protect the American people and our allies and partners." The U.S. currently observes a limit of 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads set in the 2010 New START treaty with Russia even though Moscow "suspended" its participation last year over U.S. support for Ukraine, a move Washington called "legally invalid." Vaddi spoke a year after National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told the same group there was no need to increase U.S. strategic nuclear arms deployments to counter the arsenals of Russia and China, to which he offered talks "without preconditions." The administration remains committed to international arms control and non-proliferation regimes designed to curb the spread of nuclear weapons, Vaddi said. But, he said, Russia, China and North Korea "are all expanding and diversifying their nuclear arsenals at a breakneck pace, showing little or no interest in arms control." The three and Iran "are increasingly cooperating and coordinating with each other in ways that run counter to peace and stability, threaten the United States, our allies and our partners and exacerbate region tensions," he said. Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are sharing advanced missile and drone technology, said Vaddi, citing Moscow's use in Ukraine of Iranian drones and North Korean artillery and missiles, and Chinese support for Russia's defense industries. PUTIN'S WARNING Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he could deploy conventional missiles within striking distance of the U.S. and its European allies if they allowed Ukraine to strike deeper into Russia with long-range Western weapons. But he said on Friday Russia had no need to use nuclear weapons to secure victory in Ukraine, where Moscow is waging war. U.S. nuclear doctrine, Vaddi said, reserves nuclear weapons to deterring attacks by adversaries "on us and our allies and partners," while remaining committed with Britain and France to "transparency" on nuclear policies and forces. But if U.S. adversaries boost reliance on nuclear weapons "we will have no choice but to adjust our posture and capabilities to preserve deterrence and stability," he said. The administration is taking "prudent steps" toward that end, including modernizing the U.S. arsenal, he said. At the same time, the administration is committed to halting the spread of nuclear weapons, including bolstering the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the cornerstone of the global arms control regime, he said. Vaddi noted that President Joe Biden has pledged continued compliance the deployment limits set in the New START treaty as long as they are observed by Russia. However, he said, Moscow has repeatedly rejected talks on a successor pact to New START, the last strategic arms limitation pact between the world's largest nuclear powers, which expires in 2026. China, meanwhile, has declined to discuss with the United States its expanding nuclear arsenal, he said. (Reporting by Jonathan Landay and Ismail Shakil, Editing by Alistair Bell and Timothy Heritage) Biden to announce US$225m military aid package for Ukraine while in France AP US President Joe Biden will meet with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris on Friday, 7 June, where Biden is expected to announce a new US$225 million military assistance package for Kyiv. Source: Associated Press (AP), citing sources familiar with the matter, as reported by European Pravda Details: The sources said the new package includes ammunition for HIMARS missile systems, artillery shells and mortar systems. APs sources further noted that the package would include air defence missiles, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, Javelin and AT-4 anti-tank systems, 155mm howitzers, armoured vehicles, trailers, patrol boats, demolition materials and a wide range of other spare parts and equipment. Background: Earlier, after granting limited permission for Ukraine to use US weapons to strike Russian territory, Biden expressed opposition to potential strikes deep into Russian territory with US-supplied weaponry. The White House has previously explained that the US permission to use US-supplied weapons applies to the border areas of not only Kharkiv Oblast but also Sumy Oblast. At the same time, the authorisation does not apply to long-range ATACMS missiles. Meanwhile, Kyiv wants to negotiate an extension of the scope of this authorisation. Support UP or become our patron! In this picture provided by the US Army, US President Joe Biden gives a speech at the commemoration ceremony for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Sgt. Landon Carter/Us Army/Planet Pix via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa US President Joe Biden has announced a new military aid package for Ukraine totalling $225 million. Biden personally delivered the message to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky at a meeting in Paris. The US Defense Department said the package includes missiles for Hawk air defence systems, ammunition for the HIMARS multiple rocket launchers as well as Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and artillery ammunition. The US is focusing its efforts on strengthening Ukraine's air defence and supplying the country with ammunition after a long break in deliveries. The United States is Kiev's most important ally and largest supplier of weapons in its defence against Russia. According to the Pentagon, the US has provided or promised Ukraine military aid totalling more than $51 billion since the start of the war. At the beginning of the year, however, a domestic political fight in Washington brought US arms deliveries to a standstill for several months. Congress finally authorized a massive spending bill for Ukraine in April, which has allowed for the new aid packages. ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, June 7. Organizational issues of the upcoming 15th meeting of the Turkmen-Japanese and Japanese-Turkmen committees for economic cooperation were discussed, Trend reports. According to the Turkmen Foreign Ministry, these issues were discussed during a videoconference meeting between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, Chairman of the Turkmen-Japanese Committee for Economic Cooperation Rashid Meredov and Chairman of the Japanese-Turkmen Committee for Economic Cooperation Hiroyuki Tsubai. During the meeting, the parties discussed issues of further development of bilateral relations, where they noted the high level of cooperation between Turkmenistan and Japan, in particular, in the trade and economic sphere, in connection with which it was stated that an important mechanism for this interaction is the active work of the existing committees on economic cooperation. They reviewed the possibilities of implementing new projects in the oil and gas, chemical, and agricultural sectors, as well as the implementation of previously reached agreements. Furthermore, as part of the negotiations between them, attention was focused on the further development of cooperation in the fields of energy, the gas chemical industry, issues of carbon neutrality, and reducing methane emissions. The interlocutors discussed the state of preparation for the upcoming 'Central Asia + Japan' Summit, planned in Astana city in August of the coming year. To note, the delegation of Turkmenistan headed by Turkmen Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov visited Japan in late January 2024. During the visit, the delegation held meetings in the government, parliament, relevant ministries and departments, as well as with the leadership of financial and export credit agencies and leading Japanese companies, where they discussed further prospects for the development of cooperation. Biden announces $225m arms package for Ukraine as he meets with Zelensky in France The US will soon dispatch an arms and aid package to Ukraine amounting to $225million as Kyiv works to repel renewed Russian attacks, President Joe Biden said on Friday. Biden announced the new tranche of defense assistance in Paris during a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, a day after the Ukrainian president joined the US president and other world leaders for ceremonies commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day. In remarks at the American cemetery in Normandy during the ceremony, Biden had described Ukraines fight against Russia as a modern-day analog of the war against Hitler and Nazism while stressing the importance of beating back isolationist sentiment, providing an implicit contrast with his predecessor and likely 2024 election opponent, former president Donald Trump. Sitting alongside Zelensky on Friday, Biden again told the Ukrainian leader that the US would stand with [him] and praised the countrys resistance to Russias invasion, specifically how forces have pushed back on Moscows offensive in the city of Kharkiv. U.S. President Joe Biden shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris, Friday, June 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (AP) The way youve stood in holding onto Kharkiv, youve proven once again that the people of Ukraine cannot and will never be overtaken ... you are the bulwark against the aggression thats taking place. We have an obligation to be there, Biden said. You havent bowed down. You havent yielded at all. You continue to fight in a way that is just remarkable, just remarkable. Were not going to walk away from you, he added. Biden also apologized for the months-long delay in approving new aid to Ukraine, caused by Republicans in Congress who opposed the defense assistance at the behest of former president Donald Trump. We had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass that had the money in it. Some of our very conservative members were holding it up. But we got it done finally, Biden said. The president has repeatedly linked Ukraines defense to a broader struggle between democracy and autocracy a theme which dovetails with the one he has used to describe his re-election fight against Trump. The presumptive Republican nominee has threatened to cut off all aid to Ukraine if he wins the November presidential election. Zelensky thanked Biden for the continued US support and said it was very important for America to stand with Ukraine the way the western allies stood together during the Second World War, shoulder to shoulder. We are with you, with our strategic partner, Zelensky said. Biden announces new aid package worth US$225 million in talks with Zelenskyy photo President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the President of United States Joe Biden. Screenshot Negotiations between the Presidents of Ukraine and the United States, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Joe Biden, have begun in the French capital of Paris. Source: American media, as European Pravda reports Details: In particular, CNN correspondent Natasha Bertrand wrote on Twitter (X) that Biden announced a new US$225 million aid package for Ukraine. Zelenskyy and Biden. Photo: Natasha Bertrand/X In response, Zelenskyy thanked him. In addition, AP reported that the US president apologised for the months-long delay in the delivery of US military aid, which allowed Russia to gain certain advantages on the battlefield. At the same time, Biden stressed that the American people will support Ukraine in the long term: "Were still in. Completely. Thoroughly." APs sources further noted that the package would include air defence missiles, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, Javelin and AT-4 anti-tank systems, 155mm howitzers, armoured vehicles, trailers, patrol boats, demolition materials and a wide range of other spare parts and equipment. Background: Earlier, after granting limited permission for Ukraine to use US weapons to strike Russian territory, Biden expressed opposition to potential strikes deep into Russian territory with US-supplied weapons. Support UP or become our patron! US President Joe Biden delivers a speech during the US ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the World War II "D-Day" - DANIEL COLE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images Joe Biden has apologised to Volodymyr Zelensky for the way Republican hardliners delayed a $61 billion (47.7bn) aid package that was finally pushed through earlier this year. I apologise for the weeks of not knowing whats going to happen in terms of funding because we had trouble getting the bill passed, he said in a meeting at a hotel in Paris on Friday, blaming the delay on some of our very conservative members. Allies in Congress of Donald Trump, the former president, held up the package of aid for Kyiv for six months as they tried to disrupt Mr Bidens support for Ukraine. The delay put enormous pressure on Ukraines forces, with Russia now seeking to exploit Kyivs shortages of ammunition and troops with an offensive along the length of the front line. The US president on Friday pledged that his country would stand with Ukraine and announced another $225 million in aid to Kyiv including more missiles for Kyivs Himars launchers. 02:58 PM BST Todays live coverage has ended Todays live coverage has ended. Thank you for following the days main events. 02:45 PM BST Zelensky urges West to do more for a fair peace President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday urged the West to do more to achieve a fair peace as Ukraine battles the Russian invasion, telling US leader Joe Biden that Kyiv is counting on shoulder-to-shoulder support. Mr Zelensky told Frances National Assembly he hoped a summit hosted by Switzerland later this month on bringing peace to Ukraine could hasten a fair end to the conflict. The inaugural peace summit could become a format that would bring closer a just end to this war, Mr Zelensky said. I am grateful for all you are already doing and it is a lot. But for a fair peace, more must be done, he added. 02:27 PM BST Zelensky welcomes French promises Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday he hoped to see French-supplied warplanes in Ukrainian skies soon after President Emmanuel Macron said France planned to provide it Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets. Mr Zelensky has long expressed his frustration at how long Western allies are taking to make key decisions on military support for Ukraine in its war against Russian invasion forces. Im sure that a day will come when Ukraine will see the same jets in our skies that we saw in Normandy skies yesterday, Mr Zelensky told French lawmakers, referring to Thursdays commemorations for the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy. Your combat aviation, brilliant fighter jets under Ukrainian pilots command will prove that Europe is stronger, stronger than evil which dared to threaten it, Mr Zelensky said. 02:01 PM BST Russia accuses Kyiv of using US missiles to hit civilian targets in Luhansk The Russian Defence Ministry accused Ukrainian forces of firing five US-supplied ATACMS missiles at the Russian-controlled eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk in an attack it said had wounded 20 people, including children, on Friday. Separately, Leonid Pasechnik, the Russia-installed governor of the region, said on the Telegram messenger app that three people had been killed in the strike and that the total number of victims had risen to 35, including three children. The Defence Ministry said in a statement that its air defence systems had shot down four of the five missiles, but that one of the missiles had damaged two residential apartment blocks, something it alleged was deliberate. Pasechnik said 33 buildings had been damaged, including two schools and three kindergartens. He said rescuers were continuing to pull people from the rubble. The claims have not been independently verified. 01:35 PM BST Russia captures another village in Ukraines eastern Donetsk region Russias army said on Friday its forces had captured another village in Ukraines eastern region of Donetsk, where it has been advancing against Kyivs stretched military. During the past week, units of the Southern group of troops improved their positions along the front line and liberated the settlement of Paraskoviivka, Russias defence ministry said in a daily briefing. 01:15 PM BST Russian children shelled by US-supplied weapons, claims Kremlin Russia has accused Ukraine of using US-supplied weapons to shell civilian targets and being responsible for the deaths of women and children. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed on Friday that HIMAR rockets were used in the Belgorod region. She said fragments of the HIMAR rockets would serve as proof of what had happened. The reports have not been independently verified and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine or the United States. It follows moves by several countries, including Germany and the US, to green-light Ukraine to use Western-supplied weapons to strike targets inside Russia. It has raised fears of a protracted war that could draw in Nato. 12:50 PM BST Biden apologises to Zelensky for the monthslong holdup on support President Joe Biden on Friday for the first time publicly apologised to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a monthslong holdup in American military assistance that let Russia make gains on the battlefield. Speaking in Paris, Mr Biden told Mr Zelensky that he apologised to the Ukrainian people for the weeks of not knowing if more assistance would come while Congress waited six months before sending Mr Biden a $61 billion for Ukraine. 12:03 PM BST Biden pledges support for Ukraine as he meets with Zelenskiy in Paris President Joe Biden told his counterpart Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Washington will not walk away from the crisis in the country at war with Russia as both leaders met for talks in Paris on Friday. 11:57 AM BST Pictured: Russia holds military drills A Russian nuclear-powered submarine was pictured during military drills in the Chukchi Sea opposite Alaska. A Russian nuclear-powered submarine - Reuters/Russian Ministry of Defence 11:36 AM BST Ukrainian trust in Zelensky at wartime low Ukraines trust in President Volodymyr Zelensky has fallen below 60 per cent for the first time since Russias invasion. A new poll found that trust had plummeted from 90 per cent in May 2022 to 59 per cent in May 2024. The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) said: We would like to point out that Volodymyr Zelensky still retains legitimacy in the eyes of Ukrainian society and the majority of Ukrainians continue to trust him. However, the downward trend in trust continues and, as can be seen from the results, the main reasons for criticism from ordinary Ukrainians are the not always successful staffing policy and issues of justice (in particular, in the form of fighting corruption and the fair burden of war for all). Mr Zelenskys first presidential term, which began in 2019, expired last month but he has remained in post under martial law. The Ukrainian leader said last year he was ready to hold elections if necessary. 11:05 AM BST Kremlin accuses Macron of raising tensions across Europe The Kremlin accused French President Emmanuel Macron of fuelling tensions across Europe after a series of comments on Ukraine that it described as provocative. Russian state news agency RIA quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that Mr Macron had declared his absolute support for Kyiv and his readiness for direct French involvement in the Ukraine conflict. On Thursday, Mr Macron said that Paris planned to provide Mirage 2000 warplanes to Ukraine. 10:35 AM BST Zelensky hopes Ukraine peace summit will hasten just end to war President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday said he hoped a summit hosted by Switzerland this month on bringing peace to Ukraine could hasten a fair end to the conflict. The inaugural peace summit could become a format that would bring closer a just end to this war, Mr Zelensky told the French parliament in an address more than two years after Russia invaded Ukraine. I am grateful for all you are already doing and it is a lot. But for a fair peace, more must be done, he said. He warned that 80 years after the D-Day landings of World War II, Europe was unfortunately no longer a continent of peace. It is in Ukraine that lies the key to the security of Europe, he said, implying peace could not be made along the current lines of control. Because without control on Ukraine, Russia will have to be a normal national state and not a colonial empire that is constantly looking for new territory in Europe, as well as Asia and Africa, he said. 10:24 AM BST Pictured: Zelensky addresses National Assembly at the French Senate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is addressing Senators and members of the National Assembly at the French Senate. Mr Zelenskys fourth visit to Paris aims to discuss Frances support of Ukraine amid Russias invasion, focusing on the bilateral security agreement. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses Senators - Kristy Sparow/Getty Images 10:22 AM BST Woman killed by Ukrainian drone attack in Russias Belgorod A woman was killed in Russias Belgorod region and her parents were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Friday via his official channel on the Telegram messaging app. Gladkov said the Ukrainian drone had attacked a car the three were travelling in when it left a village. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on his assertion. 09:54 AM BST What to expect from Biden and Zelenskys meeting Joe Biden will meet Volodymyr Zelensky later this morning and announce a new $225m US aid package for Ukraine, reports our US Editor Tony Diver from Paris. The US president is on a four-day trip to France to commemorate D-Day and attend a state dinner with Emmanuel Macron. But Mr Zelenskys visit has allowed the pair to sit down for hastily-organised bilateral meeting in a Paris hotel. Mr Biden struck a blow to the Ukrainian leader earlier this week by revealing he was opposed to the Natoisation of Ukraine and would not support moves to bring the country into the Nato alliance. But the passage of a major Ukraine aid bill through Congress in April gives him funds to distribute. The latest $225m is thought to include artillery rounds and air defence interceptors. 09:30 AM BST Kyiv comes under fire from Russian drones Ukraine shot down 48 out of 53 drones launched by Russia overnight, as well as all five missiles fired during its overnight attack. The Kyiv region was targeted with drones and Kh-101/Kh-555 missiles, sparking a fire in an industrial facility, according to the governor. In Kharkiv, drones knocked out windows from at least three residential buildings and damaged other local infrastructure. A total of three drones were eliminated over Dnipropetrovsk region, with Ukraine averting all damage with its rapid response. Khmelnytskyi governor also reported no damage, saying the air force shot down 11 targets over his region.The Ukrainian military said seven drones were shot down over the southern Odesa region with three more downed in Kherson region and two more in Mykolaiv region. 08:56 AM BST Graves of dead soldiers marked In Kharkiv region, hundreds of new graves of soldiers, each marked out by the Ukrainian National Flag and flowers from mourners, have been filled. In Kharkiv region, hundreds of new graves of soldiers , each marked out by the Ukrainian National Flag and flowers from mourners - David Rose 08:26 AM BST Biden draws comparisons between WW2 and war in Ukraine Joe Biden drew comparisons between the war in Ukraine and World War II during his speech commemorating 80 years since the D-Day landings. The US president warned that democracies across the globe were once again under threat. He added that autocrats were closely watching the Western response to Ukraine. Mr Biden pointed out connections between the fight against fascism in World War II and Russias invasion on numerous occasions He promised that the US would not walk away from the conflict, adding that if we do Ukraine will be subjugated, and it will not end there. Ukraines neighbours will be threatened, all of Europe will be threatened. 07:53 AM BST Biden to meet Zelensky in France President Joe Biden will meet Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris on Friday with a package of $225 million in weapons on the sidelines of D-Day anniversary events. It will be their first face-to-face talks since Mr Zelensky visited Washington in December when the two wrestled with Republican opposition to more Ukraine aid. Mr Zelensky told Reuters last month that Western countries are taking too long to make decisions about aid. Mr Biden in remarks in Normandy, France, on Thursday drew a link between the World War Two battle against tyranny and Ukraines war with Russia, calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a dictator. The $225 million in new weaponry includes artillery rounds and air defence interceptors, among other items, sources said. 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. In this picture provided by the US Army, US President Joe Biden gives a speech at the commemoration ceremony for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Sgt. Landon Carter/Us Army/Planet Pix via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa US President Joe Biden apologized to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for Washington's long delay in approving a sweeping new military aid package for his country. Biden, during a meeting with Zelensky in Paris, said he wanted to "apologize" for the months-long hold-up to approve $61 billion in military spending for Ukraine, which was finally passed by Congress in late April. The US president blamed "some of our very conservative" members of Congress for the postponement in sending more ammunition and other weapons to Kiev. In the meantime, Ukraine suffered a number of front line setbacks and Russia assaulted cities from the air with drones and cruise missiles. "I'm not gonna walk away from you," Biden told Zelensky during a brief exchange of remarks made in front of reporters. Biden then announced that more military support totalling $225 million was being sent to Ukraine. The US Defense Department provided details, saying it includes missiles for Hawk air defence systems, ammunition for the HIMARS multiple rocket launchers as well as Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and artillery ammunition. Biden praised the bravery shown by the Ukrainians, especially in the defence of north-eastern city of Kharkiv, which lies not far from the border with Russia and been under heavy attack. In view of the attacks, Biden recently changed course and allowed the Ukrainian armed forces to use weapons from the US to hit targets on Russian territory - but only for counter-attacks in defence of Kharkiv. With regard to the situation in the Kharkiv region, Zelensky said that Washington's recent decisions had had a "positive effect," but did not want to say more. The Ukrainian president thanked Biden for the "significant" help from the US. "It is so important for the morale of our people that we are not alone," he said. The United States is Kiev's most important ally and largest supplier of weapons in its defence against Russia. According to the Pentagon, the US has provided or promised Ukraine military aid totalling more than $51 billion since the start of the war. On Thursday, Biden and Zelensky took part in the commemoration of D-Day, the Allied landings in Normandy, France 80 years ago during World War II. Zelensky addressed the French parliament on Friday morning, while Biden was due to give a speech on democracy and freedom in Normandy on Friday afternoon. According to the White House, Biden is planning a speech on the power of democracy and the fight against aggressors and autocrats against the historic backdrop of Pointe du Hoc on the northern French coast. Pointe du Hoc is a stretch of coast in Normandy where Allied troops landed 80 years ago, on June 6, 1944, now known as D-Day, which marked the beginning of the liberation of France and Western Europe from Nazi rule. The Allied forces at the time consisted mainly of US, British, Canadian, Polish and French troops. Biden had already used a D-Day commemoration at a US military cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer in northern France on Thursday to call for the defence of democracy. "We know the dark forces that these heroes fought against 80 years ago - they never fade," Biden said. He cited the Russian war against Ukraine as an example. Biden's speech at Pointe du Hoc is not part of the official D-Day celebrations, but is likely to be aimed at a US audience in particular. Biden is in a tight race with Donald Trump for a second term in the White House. Biden is in France for a visit lasting several days. After his stops in Normandy, he is scheduled to be received as a state guest by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Saturday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) is applauded by France's Prime Minister Gabriel Attal (2nd L), France's Minister for Foreign and European Affairs Stephane Sejourne (3rd L) and former Prime Ministers Alain Juppe (4th L) and Manuel Valls (5th L) after a speech in the National Assembly. Julien De Rosa/AFP/dpa Biden apologizes to Zelensky for months-long delay in military aid In this picture provided by the US Army, US President Joe Biden gives a speech at the commemoration ceremony for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Sgt. Landon Carter/Us Army/Planet Pix via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa US President Joe Biden apologized to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for Washington's long delay in approving a sweeping new military aid package for his country. Biden, during a meeting with Zelensky in Paris, said he wanted to "apologize" for the months-long hold-up in a $61 billion aid package, which was finally passed by Congress in late April. The US president blamed "some of our very conservative" members of Congress. "I'm not gonna walk away from you," Biden told Zelensky during a brief exchange of remarks made in front of reporters. On Thursday, Biden and Zelensky took part in the commemoration of D-Day, the Allied landings in Normandy, France 80 years ago during World War II. Zelensky addressed the French parliament on Friday morning. Biden is due to give a speech on democracy and freedom in Normandy on Friday afternoon. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) is applauded by France's Prime Minister Gabriel Attal (2nd L), France's Minister for Foreign and European Affairs Stephane Sejourne (3rd L) and former Prime Ministers Alain Juppe (4th L) and Manuel Valls (5th L) after a speech in the National Assembly. Julien De Rosa/AFP/dpa An earlier version of this article was published in the On the Trail 2024 newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox on Tuesday and Friday mornings here. To submit a question to next weeks Friday Mailbag, email onthetrail@deseretnews.com. Hello, friends, especially to my fellow Boston Celtics fans out there. Heres to cautious optimism. 3 things to know Half the town is in a swing state , half the town isnt thats the case for Wendover, a community on the Nevada-Utah border, where some voters could help decide the 2024 election. On the Nevada side of the street, residents are being flooded with campaign texts, robocalls and mailers. On the Utah side, though, things are quiet. Theyre dynamic, and were not, the Wendover, Utah, mayor said. Its really that simple. Read more here. The Hunter Biden trial began this week, in which the presidents son is charged with lying on federal forms when purchasing a gun in 2018. First lady Jill Biden has appeared in the courtroom to support her stepson. If convicted, Biden could face up to 25 years in prison and $750,000 in fines. Read more here. The path to the White House runs through the West and for the Senate, too. While Arizona and Nevada are critical battleground states in the presidential race, key Senate elections in both states, along with Montana, could determine whether Democrats keep the majority or Republicans retake control. Read more here. The Big Idea Biden, a bad candidate? Polls say so A Wall Street Journal story on Wednesday sent the White House reeling. Titled Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping, the report offered private illustrations of what the public has seen for some time: that President Joe Biden, now 81, is showing signs of his age, often mumbling or forgetful in closed-door interactions with lawmakers. The Journal relied on more than 45 sources, most anonymous, that weaved a consistent narrative: Biden is not the same person he once was. The White House quickly went into damage control. Several lawmakers ran to Bidens defense including, surprisingly, Sen. Mitt Romney, who said he is not concerned about the presidents fitness for the job. When we get older like me, we may not be as sharp as we once were, Romney said. But we, hopefully, make up for that with wisdom and better judgment. The Trump campaign jumped on the Journal story, saying it was a sign Biden is unfit for office. (Trump, 77, is just four years younger.) But as Donald Trump campaigns through the West this weekend, he will find voters with a different, less salacious view: Biden, they say, is just a bad candidate. Trump will intersperse fundraising events in California with campaign stops in Phoenix yesterday, in Las Vegas Sunday. In 2020, Biden won both Arizona and Nevada. Now, Trump maintains a polling lead in both: in Arizona, Trump leads by five percentage points; in Nevada, by six. The two states are battlegrounds among the six or seven that could determine the election. In both states, Trump benefits from a perfect storm. Voters there say immigration and the economy are their top issues, and they widely see Trump as stronger on both. And though both states have strong Democratic bases, Biden is widely unpopular. Take the polling for statewide Senate races in both states. In Arizona, where Rep. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat, likely will face Kari Lake, a Republican, Gallego has a 10-percentage-point lead. In Nevada, incumbent Sen. Jacky Rosen has at least a 6-percentage-point lead against any prospective Republican challenger. And yet, Trump is beating Biden in both. The issue in these states, isnt Democrat unpopularity; its Biden. Biden is just not that strong of a candidate, said Mike Noble, head of Noble Predictive Insights, one of the Southwests top polling firms. Heres the thing: Trump is a bad candidate, too. Theyre both bad candidates. Its just given the choice, we know that voters view Trump better on the economy than Biden. According to a New York Times/Siena College poll last month, both Arizona and Nevada voters view the economy as the top issue. In both states, 61% of voters say they trust Trump to do a better job than Biden in handling the economy. In Nevada, immigration is the second-most important issue for voters; in Arizona, immigration is tied with abortion. Both issues could be on the ballot in Arizona. A controversial immigration measure was approved by the Arizona state legislature this week, meaning it will go before voters this fall. It would make immigration a state crime and empower local police to arrest and jail unauthorized immigrants. Meanwhile, pro-abortion groups are rallying to add a right-to-abortion constitutional measure to the ballot. Photo of the week Bryan Arrington, who is trying to gain support for his campaign for president, poses for a photo in West Wendover on Friday, May 31, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News At least one Utahn is running for president: Bryan Arrington, 35, of Wendover, Utah. Arringtons platform is cannabis legalization and criminal justice reform. An independent candidate, Arrington has yet to qualify for any state ballots. Running independent is possible. If you just look and see whats required, you can do it, Arrington told me in a parking lot in Wendover last week. Thats the thing about America. We have the freedom to run. If you want to run, its what you make it. Weekend reads Time Magazine interviewed both Trump and Biden. Both are wide-ranging and worth your time. The two most striking nuggets to me: Trump said he would use the National Guard to round up and deport unauthorized immigrants if reelected; and Biden came as close as he has to criticizing Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu saying there is every reason to assume Netanyahu is prolonging the war for his own political gain. Read the full interviews here: Trump; Biden. What should voters do who cant bring themselves to vote for either Trump or Biden? This writer makes the case that they shouldnt vote for either because ones personal conscience will have more weight than a single vote could sway the election. Its an interesting argument, and to The Dispatchs credit, a counterargument is proffered, too (read that here). No, Biden did not approve an assassination attempt on Trump, though the former president repeatedly claimed that he did. The approval for the FBI to use deadly force if necessary in its classified documents raid of Mar-a-Lago last year was typical boilerplate language, a new report shows, and was used in a raid of Bidens Delaware residence, too. It Was Legal Boilerplate. Trump Made It Sound Like a Threat to His Life. (Alan Feuer, The New York Times) See you on the trail. Editors Note: The Deseret News is committed to covering issues of substance in the 2024 presidential race from its unique perspective and editorial values. Our team of political reporters will bring you in-depth coverage of the most relevant news and information to help you make an informed decision. Find our complete coverage of the election here. By Jeff Mason POINTE DU HOC, France (Reuters) -Atop the cliff that U.S. Army Rangers scaled 80 years ago on D-Day, President Joe Biden on Friday compared the threats posed by Nazi Germany to those facing the world today by dictators and authoritarianism, and urged Americans to resist isolationism. Biden's speech in Normandy, his second in as many days, sought to strengthen support for Ukraine, which is locked in a war with Russia and its President Vladimir Putin, and bolster democratic ideals at home. Biden said the Army Rangers who fought that day would want Americans to defend freedom. "Does anyone doubt that they would want America to stand up against Putins aggression here in Europe today?" he asked. Biden never mentioned his Republican rival in the Nov. 5 presidential election, Donald Trump, but his speech criticized the former president's isolationist inclinations. "The most natural instinct is to walk away, to be selfish, to force our will upon others, to seize power and never give up," Biden said, in an apparent dig at Trump. "American democracy asks the hardest of things: to believe that we're part of something bigger than ourselves." Biden urged Americans to remember the Rangers whose dramatic heroism on D-Day helped make the invasion a success. "As we gather here today, its not just to honor those who showed such remarkable bravery on that day, June 6, 1944," Biden said. "Its to listen to the echo of their voices. To hear them... Theyre not asking us to scale these cliffs, but theyre asking us to stay true to what America stands for." On June 6, 1944, the elite Ranger troops scaled the 100-foot (30-meter) cliffs overlooking Omaha Beach under withering gunfire and seized German artillery pieces that could have fired on American troops coming ashore at Omaha and nearby Utah Beach. By setting his speech at Pointe du Hoc, Biden echoed Republican predecessor Ronald Reagan, who marked D-Day's anniversary there 40 years before. Reagan said democracy was "worth dying for" and emphasized an American desire for peace in what turned out to be the waning years of the Cold War. Biden's goal was to draw a "through line" from World War Two, connecting the Cold War, the establishment of the NATO military alliance and Russia's current war with Ukraine, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. "Were the fortunate heirs of a legacy of these heroes, those who scaled the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc. But we must also be the keepers of their mission," Biden said. CONTRAST WITH TRUMP The U.S. president is in the middle of a five-day trip to France, a rare excursion abroad during an election year in which he faces a tight race against Trump, a Republican who has threatened to use a second four-year term to punish political rivals, deport immigrants and upend global alliances. Trump has criticized the cost of supporting Ukraine after Russia's invasion, proposed higher tariffs as part of an "America First" policy and questioned America's decades-long commitment to NATO, saying European members are not paying their fair share. On Thursday, Biden made an impassioned call for the defense of freedom and urged Western powers to stand by Ukraine in its fight with Russia. The D-Day anniversary on June 6 and surrounding events are part of Biden's presidential duties, not campaign events. But they gave him a chance to contrast himself with Trump. Biden, at 81 the oldest to serve in the office, has sought to rebut concerns about his age by focusing on the potential impact Trump, 77, could have during a second term. The Democratic incumbent has characterized Trump, whose supporters raided the U.S. Capitol after the Republican declined to accept his 2020 election loss, as a threat to U.S. democracy. Meanwhile, hard-right parties are gaining ground in Europe, and Russia's President Putin said on Wednesday he could deploy conventional missiles within striking distance of the United States and its allies if they allowed Ukraine to strike deeper into Russia with long-range Western weapons. "This will hit the core messages that Biden is wanting to highlight during his re-election campaign but also has real resonance still in Europe as well," said Max Bergmann, director of the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies. Biden met with World War Two veterans in Normandy on Thursday and with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday. (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Heather Timmons, Cynthia Osterman, Jonathan Oatis and Diane Craft) TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, June 7. Uzbekistan and Turkiye reached an agreement on the establishment of the Uzbek-Turkish industrial cluster, Trend reports. This was revealed at the first meeting of the Uzbek-Turkish Business Council under the chairmanship of President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and President of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The cluster will become an industrial zone in Uzbekistan and a driving force of hands-on collaboration between the two countries. During the meeting, the president of Uzbekistan noted a number of promising areas of partnership, first of all, the expansion of investment cooperation and industrial cooperation. Moreover, the first meeting of the Uzbek-Turkish Business Council is held for the first time in such a format. The presidents of Uzbekistan and Turkiye stressed that the establishment of the Uzbek-Turkish Business Council symbolizes the achievement of a new benchmark in the development of bilateral relations. Both parties stressed the importance of keeping the ball rolling with regular meetings of the Council to tackle any new challenges head-on and push forward key areas of investment, trade, and economic collaboration. WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) President Biden is in France where he met with the president of Ukraine to talk about new aid, and to deliver a message about the future of democracy and Americas role in protecting it. On the heels of the D-Day anniversary President Biden is trying to make the case that the world is facing similar threats to democracy, and he argues America has a responsibility to do something about that. In a sit-down meeting with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, President Biden delivered both a promise and an apology. Im not going to walk away from you. I apologize for the weeks of not knowing whats going to pass in terms of funding, said Biden. Despite the delay in U.S. aid for Ukraine, President Biden insists the U.S. will continue its support and he announced a new $225 million aid package for the country which includes rocket systems and artillery. Just recently, the U.S. gave Ukraine permission to use the weapons America sends for limited attacks inside of Russia. He hopes it will help Ukraine gain ground in their fight. We count on your continuing support standing with us, said Zelenskyy. Later in the day, President Biden gave a speech at Pointe du Hoc, the spot where Army Rangers scaled seaside cliffs during D-Day 80 years ago. He reflected on the heroism of those soldiers and the lesson they left behind. Theyre asking us to stay true to what America stands for, said Biden. He says their legacy should rally present day Americans. To protect freedom in our time, to defend democracy, to stand up aggression abroad and at home, Biden said. In the lead up to the presidential election, President Biden has been working to draw a sharp contrast between his foreign policy plans and former president Trumps vision. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | Washington, DC. In this picture provided by the US Army, US President Joe Biden gives a speech at the commemoration ceremony for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Sgt. Landon Carter/Us Army/Planet Pix via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa US President Joe Biden is to give a keynote speech in the northern French region Normandy on Friday in defence of freedom and democracy as part of a visit to France that includes D-Day commemorative events. According to the White House, Biden is planning a speech on the power of democracy and the fight against aggressors and autocrats against the historic backdrop of Pointe du Hoc on the northern French coast. Pointe du Hoc is a stretch of coast in Normandy where Allied troops landed 80 years ago, on June 6, 1944, now known as D-Day, which marked the beginning of the liberation of France and Western Europe from Nazi rule. The Allied forces at the time consisted mainly of US, British, Canadian, Polish and French troops. Biden had already used a D-Day commemoration at a US military cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer in northern France on Thursday to call for the defence of democracy. "We know the dark forces that these heroes fought against 80 years ago - they never fade," Biden said. He cited the Russian war against Ukraine as an example. Biden's speech at Pointe du Hoc is not part of the official D-Day celebrations, but is likely to be aimed at a US audience in particular. Biden is in a tight race with Donald Trump for a second term in the White House. Biden is in France for a visit lasting several days. After his stops in Normandy, he is scheduled to be received as a state guest by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Saturday. US President Joe Biden delivers a speech during the US ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the World War II "D-Day" Allied landings in Normandy, at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, which overlooks Omaha Beach in northwestern France, on June 6, 2024. The D-Day ceremonies on June 6 this year mark the 80th anniversary since the launch of 'Operation Overlord', a vast military operation by Allied forces in Normandy, which turned the tide of World War II, eventually leading to the liberation of occupied France and the end of the war against Nazi Germany. (Photo by Daniel Cole / POOL / AFP) President Joe Biden drew parallels between the Allied fight against Nazism during World War II, and present efforts to thwart Russia's all-out war against Ukraine, during a speech today marking D-Day 's 80th anniversary. During his remarks, the President explicitly underscored both the U.S. and NATO's commitment to supporting Ukraine's fight for freedom, which comes amid continued concerns over the speed at which Western aid is arriving in the country. Biden's speech was given in front of World War II veterans and numerous senior political figures, including French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, at the U.S. cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy. The cemetery contains the graves of 9,388 U.S. war dead the majority of whom were killed during the D-Day landings and ensuing operations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBdFdKeFyYw The President was also among 20 world leaders , including Ukrainian President Zelensky, who later came together at a D-Day ceremony at Omaha Beach, where U.S. forces suffered major losses in order to gain a foothold in France 80 years ago. "The men who fought here became heroes not because they were the strongest or toughest or were fiercest although they were but because they were given an audacious mission knowing every one of them knew the probability of dying was real, but they did it anyway," Biden said during his speech at the U.S. cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer. "They knew, beyond any doubt, there are things that are worth fighting and dying for." The D-Day landings, also known as the Normandy landings, of June 6, 1944, brought together the land, air, and sea forces of the major Allied countries to invade Nazi-occupied Europe. Troops came ashore at across five code-named beaches Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword along a 50-mile stretch of French coastline. It remains the largest amphibious invasion in military history. An LCVP (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel) from the U.S. Coast Guard-manned USS Samuel Chase disembarks troops of Company A, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division (the Big Red One) wading onto the Fox Green section of Omaha Beach (Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France) on the morning of June 6, 1944. Chief Photographer's Mate (CPHoM) Robert F. Sargent "We know the dark forces that these heroes fought against 80 years ago," Biden noted. "They never fade. Aggression and greed, the desire to dominate and control, to change borders by force these are perennial. And the struggle between a dictatorship and freedom is unending. Here, in Europe, we see one stark example. Ukraine has been invaded by a tyrant bent on domination." "Make no mistake, the autocrats of the world are watching closely to see what happens in Ukraine, to see if we let this illegal aggression go unchecked... To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators is simply unthinkable. Were we to do that, it means wed be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches." Much like the Allied fight against Nazism, Biden noted that Ukraine's resistance to Russian aggression centers on "stand[ing] for freedom" and "defend[ing] democracy." While the U.S. is not actively engaged in the conflict militarily, Biden's speech reaffirmed the importance of its support for Ukraine wherever possible outside of boots on the ground. Notably, this comes as President Zelensky has openly criticized the speed at which U.S. aid has been arriving in Ukraine recently. U.S. President Joe Biden delivers a speech, as U.S. WWII veterans look on during the U.S. ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the World War II "D-Day" Allied landings in Normandy, at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, which overlooks Omaha Beach in northwestern France, on June 6, 2024. Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP Biden's pledge for continued allied support for Ukraine wasn't restricted to America. Echoing Allied unity during World War II, he also referenced the support of the wider NATO alliance, which was created in 1949 to provide collective European security against the then-Soviet Union. NATO has also been the primary source of military aid for Ukraine, and NATO members have also provided key training for Ukrainian military personnel. "Today, NATO stands at 32 countries strong. And NATO is more united than ever and even more prepared to keep the peace, deter aggression, defend freedom all around the world," he stated. "The United States and NATO [are] standing strong with Ukraine. We will not walk away... because if we do, Ukraine will be subjugated. And it will not end there. Ukraines neighbors will be threatened. All of Europe will be threatened." France's President Emmanuel Macron (2nd L) and his wife Brigitte Macron (L), and U.S. First Lady Jill Biden (C) applaud as U.S. President Joe Biden prepares to deliver a speech during the US ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the World War II "D-Day" Allied landings in Normandy, at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, which overlooks Omaha Beach in northwestern France, on June 6, 2024. Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP While Ukraine's joining NATO in the near term, even after the conclusion of the present war, has recently been questioned by President Biden as a necessary precursor to peace thereafter, the alliance has gained several new members since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In 2023, Finland joined NATO, and earlier this year Sweden was added to the list of NATO member states. Irrespective of his stance on Ukraine joining NATO, Biden was firm on the need to address the present-day threats being faced by that country in light of the lessons from history during the speech. "In their generation, in their hour of trial, the Allied forces of D-Day did their duty. Now the question for us is: In our hour of trial, will we do ours?" "Were living in a time when democracy is more at risk across the world than at any point since the end of World War Two since these beaches were stormed in 1944. Now, we have to ask ourselves: Will we stand against tyranny, against evil, against crushing brutality of the iron fist? Will we stand for freedom? Will we defend democracy? Will we stand together? My answer is yes. And it only can be yes." Contact the author: oliver@thewarzone.com President Biden on Friday made the case for American democracy and its role on the world stage using the memory of veterans who stormed the beaches of France on D-Day 80 years ago. Biden delivered remarks from Pointe du Hoc, the 100-foot cliff in Normandy that Army Rangers scaled under gunfire to help turn the tide of World War II. He urged Americans not to forget the selflessness and bravery of those who fought that day, tying it directly to the global and domestic challenges the U.S. is facing today. As we gather here today, its not just to honor those who showed such remarkable bravery on that day. Its to listen to the echoes of their voices. To hear them, Biden said. Because they are summoning us, and theyre summoning us now. They ask us, what will we do? Theyre not asking us to scale these cliffs. But theyre asking us to stay true to what America stands for. My fellow Americans, I refuse to believe, I simply refuse to believe, that Americas greatness is a thing of the past, Biden added, taking a subtle dig at former President Trumps signature Make America Great Again slogan. Biden did not mention Trump by name in his remarks, which lasted less than 15 minutes. But Bidens rhetoric was a clear reference to the issues he has focused on in his reelection campaign, including protecting democracy from the threat of Trump and retaining Americas role as an influential power that can rally allies on the world stage. American democracy asks the hardest of things, to believe that were part of something bigger than ourselves. So democracy begins in each of us, begins when one person decides theres something more important than themselves when they decide their country matters more than they do, Biden said. He also invoked the war in Ukraine to argue for Americas support against Russias invasion, which is a theme that he has used throughout his trip to France. Biden earlier on Friday met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and apologized for the delay in funding for the war-torn country. Does anyone doubt that they would want America to stand up against Putins aggression here in Europe today? Biden said of the soldiers who fought at Pointe du Hoc. Does anyone believe these rangers would want America to go it alone today? Does anyone doubt they wouldnt move heaven and earth to vanquish hateful ideologies of today? They believed America was the beacon of the world, and Im certain they believed it would be that way forever, he added. Bidens speech was delivered in the same spot where then-President Reagan marked the 40th anniversary of D-Day in 1984 with a rousing address about the value of democracy amid the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The presidents chief foreign policy achievement during his first term has been rallying European allies in support of Ukraine as Kyiv fights against invading Russian forces. Biden has repeatedly referred to the U.S. as the world power. Trump, meanwhile, has expressed skepticism about continued support for Ukraine if he is elected in November. The former president has been critical of allies, such as NATO, and has sparked alarm among some former aides that he would try to leave NATO if he wins back the White House or would cozy up to dictators like Vladimir Putin of Russia or Kim Jong Un of North Korea. Biden honored the bravery of the World War II veterans, saying on Friday that during this trip to France, One thought comes to mind, my God, my God, how did they do it? He mentioned a few veterans, including one who was there in person sitting next to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and was in the D-Day invasion at 18 years old. Biden greeted the veteran personally after the speech. Bidens reelection campaign released a video Thursday, blasting Trump as a draft dodger to mark D-Day. The video featured three veterans who argued that Trump is unfit to be commander in chief, arguing that A good commander in chief is somebody who gives a s. The president will cap off his visit Sunday with a stop at the same cemetery where Trump was unable to visit due to weather in 2018 and reportedly referred to those buried there as losers and suckers, comments Biden has repeatedly cited to attack his predecessor. He will travel to Paris on Saturday for an official state visit with French President Emmanuel Macron. Biden on Thursday gave remarks at the D-Day landing anniversary, during which he also invoked Ukraines fight against a tyrant, appealing to Americans to remember the value of international alliances at a precarious moment in world affairs. He spoke in front of dozens of surviving World War II veterans and there, too, took subtle jabs at Trumps America First agenda, stressing the importance of standing by allies. The D-Day landings, which are the largest amphibious invasion in history, helped turn the tide of World War II. Biden on Thursday met with 41 veterans, 31 of which were at D-Day, telling them theyre the greatest generation and saved the world. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. By Jeff Mason PARIS (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden met Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Paris on Friday, apologized for congressional delays in approving the latest U.S. aid package, and announced a fresh $225 million tranche on the sidelines of D-Day events. The meeting was their first face-to-face encounter since Zelenskiy visited Washington in December, when the two pressed Republicans to overcome opposition in their party to more support for Ukraine. They will meet again next week at a G7 summit in Italy, as rich Western nations discuss using Russian assets frozen after the Ukraine invasion to provide $50 billion for Ukraine. Zelenskiy told Reuters last month that Western countries are taking too long to make decisions about aid. "You haven't bowed down, you haven't yielded at all, you continue to fight in a way that is ... just remarkable," Biden told the Ukrainian leader at the start of their meeting on Friday. "We're not going to walk away from you." Biden apologized to Zelenskiy for the delays before the last U.S. aid package passed in Congress in April. He confirmed he was signing an additional tranche of $225 million on Friday to help Ukraine reconstruct its electric grid. "I apologize for those weeks of not knowing" whats going to happen in terms of funding, Biden said. Some of our very conservative members (of Congress) were holding it up. But we got it done, finally. "We're still in, completely, totally," Biden said. Zelenskiy thanked Biden for U.S. military, financial and humanitarian support. "It's very important that you stay with us. This bipartisan support with the Congress, it's very important that in this unity, United States of America, all American people stay with Ukraine, like it was during World War Two, how United States helped to save human lives, to save Europe," he said in English. In remarks in Normandy, France, on Thursday, Biden drew a link between the World War Two battle against tyranny and Ukraine's war with Russia, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a tyrant. Ukraine has struggled to defend the Kharkiv region after an offensive launched by Moscow on May 10 overran some villages. The new security package includes air defense interceptors, artillery systems and munitions, armored vehicles, anti-tank weapons, and other capabilities, and will also help strengthen Ukraines air defenses and reinforce Ukrainian capabilities across the front lines, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. Biden last week shifted his position and decided Ukraine could launch U.S.-supplied weapons at military targets inside Russia that are supporting the Kharkiv offensive. The United States is trying to catch up with Ukraine's weaponry needs, deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said in Washington on Thursday. "If there were two things that we could provide an infinite number of to the Ukrainians to try to turn the tide in this war, it would be artillery munitions and air defense interceptors," but the U.S. lacked supply, Finer told a forum by the Center for a New American Security. Outside the physical battlefield, the Russia-Ukraine war is "also a competition that takes place in our factories, the factories in Europe, the factories in Ukraine, he said. Reaching consensus on the frozen assets has been complicated, Daleep Singh, the U.S. administration's deputy national security adviser for international economics, told the same group. "We're waist-deep in the sausage-making of trying to strike a deal," said Singh, adding that he was heading back to Italy on Friday to continue the negotiations. (Reporting by Jeff Mason in Paris and Steve Holland and Andrea Shalal in Washington; Editing by Heather Timmons and Leslie Adler) President Biden apologized to Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky on Friday for the gap in U.S. funding for Ukraines war against Russia amid GOP opposition, but vowed the White House is thoroughly supportive of Kyiv. Biden met with Zelensky in Normandy, France, where world leaders are gathered to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. The U.S. president unveiled another $225 million aid package for Ukraine during the meeting. I apologize for the weeks of not knowing whats going to pass in terms of funding because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass that had the money in it. Some of our very conservative members were holding it up. But we got it done finally, Biden said. Were still in, he added. Completely. Thoroughly. Biden in late April signed a $95 billion national security supplemental that included $61 billion for Ukraine in its war against invading Russian forces. The bill was passed months after the White House said it was out of funds to provide Ukraine with munitions and other support. But dozens of Republicans in Congress opposed spending additional money for Kyiv, arguing the government should focus on domestic problems. While the bill ultimately passed after months of negotiations, 18 senators and 112 members in the House still voted against it. During the break in U.S. aid, Russian forces made gains in parts of Ukraine and, in early May, launched a fresh offensive in the northern and eastern parts of the country, putting the Ukrainian military under further stress. The Biden administration recently authorized Ukraine to use U.S. weapons to strike targets inside Russia near the border between the two countries, more than two years after Moscow launched an invasion of its neighbor. Were not authorizing strikes 200 miles into Russia, and were not authorizing strikes on Moscow, on the Kremlin, Biden told ABC News on Thursday. Rallying allies to support Ukraine has been a central part of Bidens foreign policy during his first term, even as the right wing of the Republican Party, led by former President Trump, have pushed back on continued U.S. support for Kyiv. Biden, in remarks Thursday to mark the anniversary of D-Day, directly connected the fighting in World War II to the importance of maintaining alliances today. The presidents meeting with Zelensky in France comes a week ahead of a scheduled Summit on Peace in Ukraine in Switzerland. Biden will not attend, as he will be traveling from the Group of Seven Summit in Italy to a fundraiser in California. Vice President Harris will represent the White House instead. Updated at 7:49 a.m. EDT Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Former President Donald Trump continues to hold an edge among Florida voters, but President Joe Biden is starting to close the gap, according to a new Fox News poll released Thursday. The poll of 1,075 registered Florida voters, which was conducted from June 1-4, shows Trump leading Biden 50% to 46% in a head-to-head contest in Florida just outside the surveys 3-percentage-point margin of error. The results suggest a much closer race in the Sunshine State than other recent polls. Florida has swung to the right in recent years, prompting national Democrats to reevaluate the time and money they spend in the state, but the poll could help state Democratic leaders make their case that Biden still has a fighting chance in Florida come November. In response to the Fox News poll, the Florida Democratic Party blasted out a statement insisting that Trump is in trouble in Florida. Trump won the state in 2016 by little more than 100,000 votes, but his margin of victory increased drastically in 2020 when he won Florida by more than 370,000 votes. Since then, Florida Republicans have racked up a roughly 900,000-person voter registration advantage over Democrats, and most polls this year have shown Trump leading Biden in Florida by as much as 15 percentage points. The Fox News poll still underscored numerous challenges for Biden. While hes trailing Trump by only 4 points in a head-to-head matchup, that gap grows to 7 points in a multi-candidate field that includes independents Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein. Bidens performance among key constituencies including Hispanics and Black voters is also slipping. The Fox News survey found Biden with only a 2-point edge among Florida Hispanic voters, whom he won by 6 percentage points in 2020, according to exit polls. Among Black voters, Biden leads Trump 69% to 29%. He carried 89% of Black voters in Florida four years ago. And despite Trumps conviction last week on 34 felony counts in New York, most Florida voters 64% say they dont expect the former presidents guilty verdict to matter much in the election, if at all. Still, the poll brought other welcome news for Democrats, especially when it comes to a pair of proposed constitutional amendments that will appear on the November ballot. Sixty-nine percent of respondents said that they will vote in favor of a measure that would safeguard the right to an abortion in Florida up to the point of fetal viability generally understood to be around 24 weeks of pregnancy after a six-week abortion ban went into effect last month. That amendment will need at least 60% of the vote in November to pass. Two-thirds of Florida voters polled said they will support an amendment that would legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 years and older. The Florida Republican Party has officially come out against both proposed amendments, while Democrats are hoping that voter support for those measures could help boost their prospects in the elections. TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, June 7. Uzbekistan and Turkiye inked several cooperation agreements, Trend reports. The signing took place following the third meeting of the Strategic Cooperation Council. President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and President of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a joint declaration on deepening comprehensive strategic partnership. In addition, 19 documents were signed: Agreement on cooperation in the field of scientific exchange and high technologies; Agreement on strengthening cooperation in the field of regional development; Agreement on cooperation in the field of standardization; Protocol on cooperation in providing technical assistance for Uzbekistan's accession to the WTO; Protocol on cooperation in the field of space sciences, technologies and research; Protocol on cooperation in the field of agricultural education; Protocol on cooperation in the field of energy development; Protocol on cooperation in the field of culture; Protocol on cooperation in the field of information; Protocol on cooperation in cadastre matters; Protocol on cooperation in the field of tourism; Protocol on cooperation in the field of support of the institute of family and women; Protocol on cooperation in the field of management training; Protocol on cooperation in the field of professional development in the legal sphere. The sides also adopted bilateral documents on preferential trade, energy market regulation, and the action plan on expanding cooperation in agriculture. President Joe Biden, in France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, offered a forceful defense of democracy at a site of American heroism during World War II in a speech that carried 2024 political undertones for those watching in the U.S. Biden on Friday spoke from Pointe du Hoc, where Army Rangers scaled 100-foot cliffs to seize the German ammunition that could have been used against troops at Omaha and Utah beaches. MORE: Biden marks 80th D-Day anniversary in Normandy "As we gather here today, it's not just to honor those who showed such remarkable bravery that day June 6, 1944," Biden said. "It's to listen to the echo of their voices. To hear them. Because they are summoning us and they're summoning us now. They're asking us what will we do? They're not asking us to scale these cliffs. They're asking us to stay true to what America stands for." "They're not asking us to do their job. They're asking us to do our job," Biden continued. "Protect freedom in our time, defend democracy, stand up to aggression abroad and at home, be part of something bigger than ourselves." PHOTO: President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the World War II Pointe du Hoc Ranger Monument following the 80th anniversary of the 1944 D-Day landings in Cricqueville-en-Bessin, Normandy, France, June 7, 2024. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters) It was the same backdrop where Ronald Reagan, the first U.S. president to visit the shores of Normandy to mark the anniversary of allied forces invading occupied France, gave an iconic speech lauding the men who fought there and warning about the dangers of isolationism in the battle against totalitarianism. Biden similarly spoke of the soldiers' bravery, and of the principles of American democracy and leadership on the world stage. Biden put democracy front and center of his 2020 campaign for the White House and is doing so again in his reelection bid, pushing back against former President Donald Trump's "America First" agenda. Biden didn't mention Trump by name in his address but sought to make that contrast clear. "When we talk about American democracy, we often talk about the ideals of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. What we don't talk about is how hard it is The most natural instinct is to walk away, to be selfish, to force our will upon others to seize power, never give up," Biden said. "My fellow Americans, I refuse to believe, I simply refuse to believe that America's greatness is a thing of the past," he added. PHOTO: President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the World War II Pointe du Hoc Ranger Monument following the 80th anniversary of the 1944 D-Day landings in Cricqueville-en-Bessin, Normandy, France, June 7, 2024. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters) Biden also drew a connection between World War II and threats facing eastern Europe with Russian President Vladimir Putin's aggression in Ukraine. Hours before his speech, Biden met face-to-face with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to reiterate unwavering U.S. support for the war-torn nation. At the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc, Biden said the troops who stormed Normandy decided to believe in something bigger than themselves, and that they would want the same against modern-day challenges. MORE: Exclusive: Biden tells Muir US weapons will not be used to strike Moscow, Kremlin "They stood against Hitler's aggression. Does anyone doubt, does anyone doubt that they would want America to stand up against Putin's aggression here in Europe today?" Biden said. "They fought to vanquish a hateful ideology in the 30s and 40s," he added. "Does anyone doubt they wouldn't move heaven and earth to vanquish hateful ideologies of today?" PHOTO: D-Day veteran John Wardell listens as President Joe Biden delivers a speech on the legacy of Pointe du Hoc, and democracy around the world, June 7, 2024, in Normandy, France. (Evan Vucci/AP) PHOTO: President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the World War II Pointe du Hoc Ranger Monument following the 80th anniversary of the 1944 D-Day landings in Cricqueville-en-Bessin, Normandy, France, June 7, 2024. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters) In the crowd on Friday was veteran John Wardell, a New Jersey native who became a private first class and fought in the Battle of Brest. Biden thanked Wardell for his service, prompting applause from the audience. "You deserve that and a lot more, John," Biden said. Wardell told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce the experience was an "honor" and humbly insisted he was just a small part of that history. Wardell said his message to the next generation was, Lets see what they do. I hope they honor whats happened here in years past and are made to realize. Read a little history. I hope that they do. Biden offers forceful defense of democracy in Normandy speech aimed at American audience originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Biden says D-Day soldiers would want US to keep defending democracy In this picture provided by the US Army, US President Joe Biden gives a speech at the commemoration ceremony for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Sgt. Landon Carter/Us Army/Planet Pix via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa With the dramatic Normandy coast at his back, US President Joe Biden said the US soldiers who fought their way onto the French beaches 80 years ago to combat the tyranny of German leader Adolf Hitler would expect their modern-day counterparts to do the same. "As we gather here today, its not just to honour those who showed such remarkable bravery that day June 6, 1944," Biden told those gathered for the sombre ceremony. "Its to listen to the echo of their voices. To hear them. Because they are summoning us. Theyre asking us what will we do." The soldiers storming those beaches who risked their lives - and many of them died - are asking us to defend democracy at home and abroad, he said. Pointe du Hoc is a stretch of coast in Normandy where Allied troops landed marking the beginning of the liberation of France and Western Europe from Nazi rule. The Allied forces at the time consisted mainly of US, British, Canadian, Polish and French troops. Biden travelled nearly 300 kilometres from Paris to the beachhead to make the address, which lasted about 12 minutes. He had already used the D-Day commemoration ceremony at a nearby US military cemetery on Thursday to call for the defence of democracy. The dark forces against which the D-Day soldiers fought 80 years ago still exist today, he said there, citing the Russia's war against Ukraine as an example. In his speech at Pointe du Hoc, the US President also referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin's war against the neighbouring country - and invoked international alliances against autocracy. He said the D-Day fighters at Pointe du Hoc would want the US to stand up to Putin's aggression. Earlier in the day Biden apologized to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for Washington's long delay in approving a sweeping new military aid package for his country and announced a new military aid package for Ukraine totalling $225 million. Biden, during a meeting with Zelensky in Paris, said he wanted to "apologize" for the months-long hold-up to approve $61 billion in military spending for Ukraine, which was finally passed by Congress in late April. The US president blamed some of the "very conservative" members of Congress for the postponement in sending more ammunition and other weapons to Kiev. In the meantime, Ukraine suffered a number of front-line setbacks and Russia assaulted cities from the air with drones and cruise missiles. "I'm not gonna walk away from you," Biden told Zelensky during a brief exchange of remarks made in front of reporters. Biden then announced that more military support totalling $225 million was being sent to Ukraine. The US Defence Department provided details, saying it includes missiles for Hawk air-defence systems, ammunition for the HIMARS multiple rocket launchers as well as Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and artillery ammunition. Biden praised the bravery shown by the Ukrainians, especially in the defence of north-eastern city of Kharkiv, which lies not far from the border with Russia and been under heavy attack. In view of the attacks, Biden recently changed course and allowed the Ukrainian armed forces to use weapons from the US to hit targets on Russian territory, but only for counter-attacks in defence of Kharkiv. With regard to the situation in the Kharkiv region, Zelensky said that Washington's recent decisions had had a "positive effect" but did not want to say more. The Ukrainian president thanked Biden for the "significant" help from the US. "It is so important for the morale of our people that we are not alone," he said. The United States is Kiev's most important ally and largest supplier of weapons in its defence against Russia. According to the Pentagon, the US has provided or promised Ukraine military aid totalling more than $51 billion since the start of the war. Biden's speech at Pointe du Hoc is not part of the official D-Day celebrations but is likely to be aimed at a US audience in particular. Biden is in a tight race with Donald Trump for a second term in the White House. Biden is in France for a visit lasting several days. After his stops in Normandy, he is scheduled to be received as a state guest by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Saturday. President Biden and former President Trump are deadlocked in Virginia, a state that went blue in 2020, according to a poll released Thursday. A Fox News survey of registered Virginia voters released Thursday found Biden and Trump are tied at 48 percent. In 2020, Biden won in the state by more than 10 points: Biden earned 54.1 percent of the vote, compared to Trumps 44 percent. The recent survey found that Biden is getting support from 73 percent of Black voters, 58 percent of suburban women and 56 percent of college-educated voters. Trump is earning support among 80 percent of white evangelical Christians, 63 percent of rural voters, 56 percent of voters without a college degree and 54 percent of white voters. The survey found that both of the presumptive nominees have equal support across different generations. Both Biden and Trump earned 48 percent among voters under 30 and 48 percent among voters over 65. Independents have a slight lean toward Biden, 45 percent, with Trump closely behind at 43 percent. Men are more likely to support Trump than women are, the survey found. In a hypothetical five-way match-up among Biden, Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West and Jill Stein, the president squeaks by with 42 percent to Trumps 41 percent. Kennedy earned 9 percent in the state, and West and Stein each had 2 percent support. Kennedy, West and Stein currently are not on the ballot in Virginia. Virginia is a must-win state for Biden, so a tight race here is going to require some serious defense from his campaign to hold it, said Democratic pollster Chris Anderson, who conducted the Fox News Poll, noting that its not impossible for Biden to hold on to his lead. The polling, released one week after Trumps conviction in his New York hush money case, found that 66 percent of Virginians say the guilty verdict wont have an impact on their vote. The survey also found that Trump leads in two key swing states, Nevada and Arizona. The survey was conducted June 1-3 among 1,107 Virginia voters. It has a margin of error of 3 percentage points. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) During the D-Day ceremony in France, President Joe Biden linked the allied efforts then to the fight for Ukraine. The president will give a speech later today on democracy and freedom. President Biden emphasized that the fight for Ukraine echoes that struggle for freedom 80 years ago on the beaches of Normandy. Ukraine has been invaded by a tyrant bent on domination, said Biden. Biden sent a message to democracies that Ukraine is under threat by Russia and Vladimir Putin. Ukrainians are fighting with extraordinary courage, suffering great losses but never backing down, said Biden. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in attendance with other allied leaders. Biden promised the U.S. would not walk away from the conflict. The United States and NATO and a coalition of more than 50 countries stand strong with Ukraine, said Biden. He also warned that if Russia wasnt stopped Putin would continue and threaten Ukraines neighbors. We cannot let that happen. To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators is simply unthinkable, said Biden. Other world leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau echoed Bidens message and promised unwavering support for Ukraine. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. U.S. President Joe Biden, left, walks past the cliffs of the Normandy shore with Scott Desjardins, superintendent of the Normandy American Cemetery, before speaking at Pointe du Hoc amid the 80th anniversary of D-Day on June 7, 2024, in France. Win McNamee via Getty Images U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday urged Americans to honor the Army Rangers who turned the tide of World War II by scaling the steep cliffs of Pointe du Hoc in France by doing their part to preserve democracy against aggression from both abroad and at home. They fought to vanquish a hateful ideology in the 30s and 40s, Biden said at the iconic monument atop the windswept promontory overlooking the English Channel in Normandy. Does anyone doubt they wouldnt move heaven and earth to vanquish hateful ideologies of today? These Rangers put mission and country above themselves. Does anyone believe they would exact any less from every American today? Biden never mentioned his coup-attempting predecessor, Donald Trump, by name in the 11-minute speech, but has spent the last year warning that the now-convicted felon is promising to rule as an autocrat if he wins back the White House in November. Bidens speech at Pointe du Hoc mirrors the one given by then-President Ronald Reagan from that same site in 1984, at the 40th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of the French coast that began the process of liberating Western Europe from Nazi Germany. Like Reagan four decades earlier, Biden recounted the assault on the cliffs mounted by 225 U.S. Army soldiers from the 2nd Ranger Battalion as they landed on the beach with the assignment of taking out the long-range German artillery at the top that threatened the thousands of Allied ships taking part in the assault. They launched their ladders, their ropes and grappling hooks, and they began to climb. When the Nazis cut their ladders, the Rangers used the ropes. When the Nazis cut the ropes, the Rangers used their hands. And inch by inch, foot by foot, yard by yard, the Rangers clawed literally clawed their way up this mighty precipice until at last they reached the top, Biden said. One thought comes to mind: My God. My God. How did they do it? But while Reagans warnings about freedom and democracy in 1984 focused on the then-Soviet Union and its decades-long grip on Eastern Europe, Bidens warning was largely centered on something unimaginable four decades ago: a threat from within. Biden pointed out that he is the first president to go to Pointe du Hoc when none of the surviving Rangers from the assault is still alive, and he asked Americans to honor their spirit. So listen to the echoes of their voices to hear them, because they are summoning us and theyre summoning us now, he said. Theyre not asking us to scale these cliffs, but theyre asking us to stay true to what America stands for. He urged Americans to remember the sacrifices made to preserve democracy by resisting the call to abandon those ideals. The most natural instinct is to walk away, to be selfish, to force our will upon others, to seize power and never give up, he said. To come here simply to remember the ghosts of Pointe du Hoc isnt enough. We need to hear them. We have to listen to them. ... We need to make a solemn vow to never let them down. Trump became the first president in U.S. history to refuse to hand over power peacefully after losing an election, instead attempting a coup to remain in office. That culminated in the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a last-ditch effort to coerce Trumps own vice president, Mike Pence, and Congress into awarding Trump a second term. One hundred and forty police officers were injured in the hourslong assault. One died hours later and four others died by suicide in the following weeks. Trump faces federal and Georgia state indictments based on his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, as well as an unrelated federal indictment because of his refusal to turn over secret documents he took with him to his South Florida country club when he left the White House. Late last month, a New York state jury convicted him on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide a hush money payment to a porn actor to keep her story from hurting his 2016 presidential campaign. Despite all this, Trump is expected to be officially nominated as the Republican presidential candidate for the November election at the partys convention next month in Milwaukee. TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) Big Storm Brewing is in some choppy waters. The brewery is being evicted from its Ybor City location, and a lawsuit alleges the company has ties to a troubled nonprofit. The lawsuit ties Big Storm and its owner, L.J. Govoni to the Center for Special Needs Trust Administration in St. Petersburg. If that name sounds familiar, it should. Floridas Attorney General just filed suit against the center, alleging that its founder siphoned off over $100 million meant to help disabled people. The centers founder is Leo Govoni, L.J. Govonis father. The brewery has made a name for itself in the Tampa Bay craft beer scene. Owner L.J. Govoni gave 8 On Your Side a tour of their Clearwater location in 2021. Big Storms Ybor location is facing eviction and will close on June 16. The landlord, Third Lake Partners, alleges Big Storm owes them nearly $400,000 in rent. This decision was not made lightly, and we want to extend our deepest gratitude to all of you who have supported us. Our Ybor taproom has been a place of joy, creativity, and community since we opened our doors, Catalyst Communications Group, the PR firm representing Big Storm, said in a statement shared with 8 On Your Side. Who is Leo Govoni? Nonprofit founder accused of taking $100M from vulnerable peoples trusts Its not the brewerys first setback. Locations in Odessa and Cape Coral already closed their doors. Back to the lawsuit against Big Storm and its parent company, Seaboard Craft Beer Holdings. Dr. David Wenk, a local physician claims he invested $3 million in the brewery in 2021. Wenk said he knew the investment involved risk, but said he never received any financial documentation until last month. Wenk said he discovered checks showing a transfer of over $4.1 million from the Center for Special Needs Trust into Big Storms accounts. The lawsuit alleges that Big Storm was used to launder and embezzle money taken from the trust. The claims made in this lawsuit are entirely false, baseless, and lack any factual foundation and are designed solely to tarnish my reputation and embarrass my family. Look no further than the fact that I first heard about the suit from the media. Mr. Wenk knows full well that I have absolutely nothing to do with the Center for Special Needs Trust Administration, L.J. Govoni said in a statement. I want to make it unequivocally clear that I have never engaged in any fraudulent activities or wrongdoing as alleged. These accusations are not only unfounded but also defamatory, and I am committed to fighting them vigorously. In response to this malicious attack on my character, I intend to take immediate legal action against Mr. Wenk and his associates. While the law affords a Plaintiff the right to allege wrongdoings, it does not allow them the right to their own fictitious facts. The basis of Mr. Wenks lawsuit contradicts documents he himself signed stating his accreditation, sophistication, and the due diligence he performed on this investment. For him and his counsel to assert otherwise is nothing short of a bald-faced lie. I will not allow attacks on my character to go unchallenged and will pursue all available legal remedies. Its important to note that, despite the lawsuit and the actions taken against his father, L.J. Govoni has not been named in the Attorney Generals civil complaint. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. Lighthouse at Nantucket National Wildlife Refuge. (Amanda Boyd/USFWS) In the coming weeks, thousands of people from around the world will come to our islands, filling our streets, bars, restaurants, shops, and beaches and putting enormous stress on our first responders. But the biggest challenge facing our departments the Dukes County Sheriffs Office on Marthas Vineyard and the Nantucket Police Department isnt from crime and crowds: Its from the cost of housing. Marthas Vineyard and Nantucket are two of the most expensive places in America to buy or rent a home. Public safety officers cant live a ferry ride away from the communities we are sworn to protect and that is making it hard to attract and keep officers who then become a part of the community where we live and work. It isnt just the police officers and sheriffs deputies; because of housing costs Marthas Vineyard and Nantucket cant find and keep the kind of people who make a community work: nurses, teachers, waitstaff, retail help, nonprofit workers all of them are finding it increasingly hard to live here, and that makes our economy increasingly hard to maintain. Nantucket Fire Chief Michael Cranson recently said two island firefighters live off-island, and one who left was commuting from Lowell. Others work a second or third job to afford housing, which means theyre not always available to cover extra shifts or help with an incident. At the Dukes County Sheriffs Office, a state agency, starting salary is about $60,000, while the average price of a home on Marthas Vineyard is $2 million and the average rent of an apartment, if you can find one, is $2,600 per month. We have been increasingly unable to retain or attract staff including essential 911 communications personnel and highly trained public safety officers because we cannot offer them a realistic opportunity to live in our community. This situation is untenable. On Nantucket, the average price of a home is nearing $4 million. Visitors will spend $20,000 or more a week to rent a house making a year-round rental for a police officer virtually impossible. Nantucket officers who leave for other police agencies on the mainland routinely cite housing as the primary reason for their decision. We have been increasingly unable to retain or attract staff including essential 911 communications personnel and highly trained public safety officers because we cannot offer them a realistic opportunity to live in our community. It has become unrealistic that an officer who we hire now or that we have hired in the past few years will ever be able to own a home on the island in many cases they cant even find a year-round apartment to rent. Officers want to live here, and we need them to live here, but often, they just cant stay. It has become increasingly challenging to retain newer officers on Nantucket for more than three or four years. Nantucket hired five officers in 2018, and not one is still here. In 2019 we hired seven new officers. Three of them remain. Police officers should be a part of the community they serve, where they can develop strong ties with schools, civic groups, businesses, and non-profits. These strong relationships are the foundation of effective community policing efforts. For those of us on the islands, residency requirements are necessary to ensure that emergency responders are rapidly available for emergency events. On the islands, our municipal mutual aid partners are a boat or a plane ride away. Depending on weather, that response may take hours. Typically, the critical time where life-saving efforts are needed should come in the first few minutes of an event as it unfolds. An immediate public safety response is paramount. There is a solution in front of the Legislature right now, a solution proposed by the Healey administrations housing bond bill that will allow us to preserve and build year-round housing. A small transfer fee on the sale of luxury real estate overwhelmingly supported by the voters of both islands will create substantial annual revenues to provide financial assistance for new developments that serve the missing middle, funding the purchase of existing inventory to serve year-rounders, creating worker housing, and providing financial assistance to develop accessory dwelling units, like guest houses, garage apartments, or even small units attached to a main house. These measures and more will go a long way to ensuring we can both attract the best and brightest to build careers in public safety and grow our community. We cannot wait any longer to ensure that the people who protect our communities can afford to live where they work. This is a critical need to support a future with a focus on high quality, professional, community-oriented public safety services. This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons license. The post This is the biggest challenge facing law enforcement on Nantucket, Marthas Vineyard appeared first on Rhode Island Current. Republican Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty is the latest person to be mentioned in Donald Trump's orbit as the former president and presumptive GOP presidential nominee decides who to pick as his running mate. Three sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News that Hagerty is among the names being floated recently in Trumpworld, including by the former president, during discussions about the veepstakes. A fourth source familiar with the matter told ABC News that Hagerty's team is promoting the senator as a possible addition to Republicans' 2024 ticket as an alternative to the other candidates in the mix. Hagerty was one of several Trump surrogates who attended the former president's fundraiser in San Francisco Thursday night. Two sources also confirmed that Hagerty attended an Alabama fundraiser Wednesday night for Trump that was hosted by Donald Trump Jr., the former president's eldest son. MORE: What Trump's VP hopefuls have to say about accepting the 2024 election results PHOTO: Ranking Member Bill Hagerty questions U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during a Senate Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee hearing in Washington, June 4, 2024. (Anna Rose Layden/Reuters) The fourth source said they believe Hagerty would take the job if offered -- but that the senator hasn't received or been asked for vetting materials. That would put Hagerty behind other vice presidential hopefuls. ABC News reported Wednesday that Trump's campaign has formally requested information from a small handful of potential running mates, including North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Sens. Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance. Trump campaign officials have also requested information from Sen. Tim Scott, Reps. Byron Donalds and Elise Stefanik and Ben Carson, though it's unclear how extensive the requests were. Trump also did not mention Hagerty during an interview on Newsmax on Tuesday in which he complimented Burgum, Rubio, Scott and Vance. MORE: Trump team asks VP contenders Burgum, Vance, Rubio for documents Perhaps more than anything, the mentions of Hagerty's name underscore the fluidity of Trump's veepstakes, even as his campaign presses forward to obtain information from other potential picks. "Anyone claiming to know who or when President Trump will choose his VP is lying, unless the person is named Donald J. Trump," said Brian Hughes, a senior adviser for the Trump campaign. Trump has said he plans on announcing his pick closer to the Republican National Convention, which is in mid-July. Asked about his potential running mate by Fox News' Sean Hannity, Trump repeated that he's going to announce his choice "during the convention." "In all fairness, we have some people that have done a fantastic job in communicating the ills and the assets and the advantages and the disadvantages of what we're doing as a country and where we are as a country," Trump told Hannity in clips that aired Thursday night. Like other potential Trump running mates, Hagerty has maintained a presence on cable news, appearing on channels such as Fox News to defend the former president and excoriate Democrats' record. "Clearly, Donald Trump's policies led to a far more robust American economy, and the American worker was far better off," Hagerty claimed during an appearance earlier this month on Fox Business. Other candidates have also appeared at fundraisers for the former president, including some they've organized themselves. PHOTO: Ranking Member Bill Hagerty questions U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during a Senate Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee hearing in Washington, June 4, 2024. (Anna Rose Layden/Reuters) Hagerty also has a tie with Trump, having served in his administration as ambassador to Japan. Hagerty is a white male from a reliably red state, so it's not clear exactly what constituency he'd bring along for Trump. Hagerty he did not appear in New York to join Trump in court during his criminal trial, a prominent destination for Trump's allies and would-be running mates prior to his conviction. Several potential running mates, including Burgum, Donalds and Vance, traveled to the Manhattan court room where Trump was tried and ultimately convicted of felonies regarding hush-money payments to cover up an alleged affair during the 2016 race, payments that prosecutors said amounted to campaign finance violations. MORE: 'It's a disgrace': Trump's VP hopefuls come to his defense following conviction Several other allies, including Speaker Mike Johnson convened outside the court, setting the building as a high-profile stage for Republicans to underscore their support and bash witnesses and local prosecutors, some of whom Trump was barred from going after due to a gag order. "The president is expected to sit here for six weeks to listen to the Michael Cohens of the world," Vance wrote on X the day he attended the trial. "I'm now convinced the main goal of this trial is psychological torture. But Trump is in great spirits." "The American people have already acquitted Donald Trump," Burgum added during his own trip to New York. "The sooner that this scam trial can be concluded, the sooner the president can get back to getting out and campaigning and talking to the American people about the issues that matter." Hagerty has still be a vocal defender from afar, however, saying on Fox Business earlier this month that the trial was a "mockery of the American justice system." ABC News' Soorin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report. Bill Hagerty latest to be floated in Trump veepstakes, underscoring fluidity originally appeared on abcnews.go.com WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) Residents of East Palestine, Ohio are one step closer to federal funds that could help address the health impacts of the Norfolk Southern train derailment that happened in February 2023. 16 months after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed, the long-term health impacts worry the people of East Palestine, Ohio. As we know, lives were turned upside down, Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio.) said. Joyce and Ohio Democratic Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur want to help ease concerns. Their bill would allow the Department of Health and Human Services to give grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements to universities and research institutions in the region to do voluntary health studies and give a final report in five years. I know that theres smarter people out there who can gather this information and look at the people whove been affected by it and be able to make some intelligent decisions about what their best recourse may be, Joyce said. Lawmakers say the community has been asking for help to understand the potential health risks they face. We have a responsibility and duty to address the communitys concerns. I am honored to co-lead this bipartisan legislation which would secure the necessary funds to better understand the long-term health impacts that residents and neighboring communities face, Kaptur said. While we cannot undo what has been done, we can put every possible effort forward to ensure that the railroads are held accountable for their negligence and that those impacted are made whole. Both Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) are pushing similar legislation in the Senate. 15 years from now, if these residents, God forbid, have health problems, it would be nice to be able to say with confidence what caused those health problems, Vance said. Vance says the bill is needed because the Biden administration was not helpful. The White House pushed back, saying the Biden administration was on the ground in East Palestine on day one. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. The USDA has performed more than 17,000 tests for avian influenza on cattle, with a total of 67 herds affected throughout nine states. Photo via Getty Images. Dairy farmers throughout the country are on guard and the federal government is mobilizing after an outbreak among cattle herds of highly pathogenic avian influenza once thought to be confined to poultry flocks. Cases have been confirmed in a Benton County dairy herd in central Minnesota this week after a producer noticed clinical signs in a handful of cows, with more than 40 showing signs of fever the next day, according to a statement Thursday from the Minnesota Board of Animal Health. We knew it was only a matter of time before this detection would reach our doorstep, said Dr. Brian Hoefs, state veterinarian. Its important for dairy farmers to follow the example of this herd and test sick cows. The more the animal health community can learn about this virus today through testing and research, the better we can equip ourselves to prevent infections tomorrow. The virus, also known as H5N1 or bird flu, was diagnosed in a third dairy farmworker last week, in Michigan, marking the first U.S. case with respiratory symptoms, said to be mild. The other two cases, also both mild, were diagnosed as pink eye. The notable leap from cows and chickens to humans is not yet ringing alarm bells for public health officials or veterinarians, who believe the risk to the public remains low. However, they are closely monitoring poultry and dairy farms for any changes, despite a reluctance among some dairy farmers to test their herds. Avian influenza is something that public health scientists are worried about, said Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. Its probably the potential infection or outbreak that causes the greatest amount of anxiety just because, if this did get into a place where it was easily transmissible among humans, everybody fears that could be a really, really bad scenario. The ongoing response has brought together a veritable alphabet soup of government agencies and agricultural organizations, highlighting the complicated nature of fighting bird flu. The mobilization is intended to stem the significant economic toll that farmers could face and curb the virus spread. At the federal level, the Agriculture Department is responsible for the farm animals, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for human health, the Food and Drug Administration has jurisdiction over the eggs and milk sold in grocery stores, and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response oversees its piece of the pie. Then come the state agencies, interest groups, agribusiness and family farms. As of last week, more than 40 people had been tested for H5N1 with more than 350 people enrolled in monitoring, about 220 of whom are in Michigan. Two of the human cases have been in Michigan while the other was diagnosed in Texas. Michigan also has several dairy cattle herds diagnosed with H5N1. The USDA has performed more than 17,000 PCR tests on cattle, with a total of 67 herds affected throughout nine states, including Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas. This strain of bird flu has also cropped up in a wide variety of mammals, including domestic cats. Thats led experts to recommend that people limit their pets interactions with wild birds, which hold a reservoir of the virus, as well as all farm animals. USDA begins expanded testing The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last week that its launching a voluntary pilot program to expand testing for dairy farms to gain better insight into the virus and make it easier for farmers to ship dairy cows across state lines. The department is also transferring $824 million from the Commodity Credit Corporation to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service for the ongoing response. Its important to note that as these additional testing measures take place, USDA anticipates that we may see an increase in the number of herds that are testing positive, said Eric Deeble, acting senior adviser for highly pathogenic avian influenza and deputy assistant secretary for congressional relations. The pilot program will test milk samples from bulk tanks for H5N1. Farms that consistently test negative will be able to ship their cows at the time they prefer and without testing individual animals, knowing that their entire herd is free of the disease, Deeble said. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, on a press call with reporters Monday, declined to say whether USDA has a full grasp of the extent of the virus spread in dairy cattle, but he said, We have a pretty good understanding of the nature of this virus and essentially whats causing its spread. Were trying to essentially corner this virus, so that over time it dissipates, Vilsack said. Dairy farmers can begin enrolling in the pilot program this week in participating states. Dairy farms reluctant to test Infected cows have tremendous amounts of the virus in their milk, so those that are lactating must test negative for the virus before they can be transported across state lines, the USDA has ordered. In states such as Iowa, which has no detections of the virus in cattle, dairy farmers have been reluctant to test more than is required. There has not been a lot of testing to date, said Rodger Main, director of the Iowa State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, which first discovered bird flu was infecting cattle. Whats being tested is the dairy cattle that are moving interstate. Scientists are sequencing the genetic code of an avian flu that was found in a flock of 4.2 million egg-laying hens last week in northwest Iowa to determine if it is the same variant that has been infecting cattle, said Don McDowell, a spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. If so, it might indicate that there are infected cattle in Iowa. A similar detection happened more than a month ago at a turkey flock in Minnesota, another state with no known dairy cattle infections. However, no coordinated testing was done of dairy farms near the infected turkey flock to determine whether they had infected cattle and might have been the source of the transmission, said Michael Crusan, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Board of Animal Health. The Board of Animal Health didnt collect any samples from dairy farms surrounding HPAI positive poultry premises, Crusan said. We do not have authority to test those dairy farms without suspected or confirmed illness reported to us. There is reluctance among some dairy farmers to voluntarily test their cattle for fear of what might happen if those tests reveal their herds are infected, said Dr. Barb Petersen, a Texas veterinarian who helped discover that bird flu was infecting cattle. They might be afraid that theyll be barred from selling their cattle for an unknown amount of time or that animal movements to and from their farms will be otherwise restricted. Petersen suspects that nearly all the dairies in her area near Amarillo were infected but that many were not tested. Infected cows typically recover in 10 to 14 days. Infected herds suffer a drop in milk production that can last about a month. The virus is much more severe for chicken and turkey flocks, where it often causes fatal illness. Entire flocks are destroyed to prevent the spread of the virus. More testing and better biosecurity measures are important to help prevent the virus from spreading from infected cattle to the poultry flocks, said Phillip Jardon, the dairy extension veterinarian for Iowa State University. He is aware of several dairy farms that installed noise-making systems to keep away wild birds, which are believed to be an initial source of the infections. Its unclear how many other state-recommended precautions are being adopted. The risk to dairies is not as large as it is to poultry, but dairies should keep in mind that they have neighbors who are poultry producers where it can be devastating, and they dont want to have a local source of the virus, he said. Vilsack said USDA needs to better educate dairy farmers about the risks to their neighboring farmers to get more voluntary help in tracking and containing the virus. It spread from Texas to faraway states through the transportation of infected cattle, but it has likely spread locally via farmworkers, veterinarians and equipment moving farm to farm, Vilsack said. PPE for farmworkers Plescia from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials said during an interview with States Newsroom that while the risk to the public remains low, health officials are paying close attention to agricultural workers. Ensuring farmworkers have access to personal protective equipment is essential, though it could be challenging to get all workers to use it during the hotter summer months, Plescia said. The most recent case in a farmworker in Michigan, announced May 30, is more concerning to experts. Were much, much more worried about respiratory infections because its respiratory infections, where in the past with earlier versions of H5N1, weve seen that those infections can be very, very severe and the mortality can be very high, Plescia said. Public health officials need to work with farm owners and farmworkers to make sure that even people with mild symptoms get tested for avian flu to ensure that it isnt circulating more widely than the documented cases, he said. They need to ensure that undocumented workers or those on agricultural work visas who are concerned about interaction with the government are comfortable enough to get tested. When the state government starts showing up to do testing as far as theyre concerned, people are fearful of that and so theyll stop coming to work, Plescia said. Plescia also cautioned that people shouldnt drink raw milk for the foreseeable future. Dr. Nirav Shah, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview with States Newsroom the agency is focusing its attention on farmworker safety through personal protective equipment, testing and additional resources. The CDC is also working to build trust so that workers who might be in the U.S. on visas or who are undocumented feel comfortable getting tested for H5N1 or reporting an illness to public health officials. When H5 became a phenomenon in poultry farms, it took some time for poultry farm owners and poultry farmworkers to gain trust with the public health system, Shah said. The same thing, the same dynamic, is at play here. Shah, speaking during a separate press briefing on H5N1, said that even with the new respiratory case, there have been no signs, either genetically or epidemiologically, that this strain of avian influenza is adapting in a way that would lead to greater transmission. We are on the lookout for those changes, but the mere fact that this individual displayed some respiratory symptoms again, we should be alert but, in and of itself, is not a cause to change or suggest that were at an inflection point, Shah said. It is a cause and a reason to remain alert. Amira Roess, professor of global health and epidemiology at George Mason University, said in a written statement that public health officials must provide incentives for individuals to report illness and to get tested, or at least we have to remove barriers. Because we dont have meaningful, high quality and accessible health care for the majority of our population, particularly those in rural areas where the virus has first spilled over, it will be challenging to get ahead of this, Roess wrote in response to questions from States Newsroom about H5N1. Many farmworkers are hourly workers and cannot afford to take time off for what they perceive as mild illness. Keep pets away from wild birds Meghan Davis, associate professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said in an interview with States Newsroom this particular strain of avian flu has been spreading between mammals, including domestic pets, and will likely continue to do so. The fact that this particular clade has been able to infect so many different mammalian species, and has now caused at least two documented cases in people although, thankfully, with relatively mild symptoms is a concern, she said, before the third case was announced. Davis cautioned that because there have been cases among cats living on dairy farms that drank raw cows milk, people shouldnt give raw milk to their pets. Pet owners should also be cautious about letting their animals interact with wild birds, which are known to spread the virus. Milk purchased in grocery stores is safe to drink since its been pasteurized and has been repeatedly tested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration during the past few months to ensure theres no active virus in the countrys food supply. Other mammals diagnosed with avian flu this year include a mountain lion in Montana, red foxes in Michigan and Missouri, and a raccoon in Colorado. Domestic cats have been diagnosed in Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas, according to data from the CDC. Davis said the surveillance system for H5N1 should be broadened to include more systematic testing, which would require us to have somewhat better access to workers, to animals on farms, etc. as well as antibody testing to determine if more people have contracted avian flu and recovered. The additional information could help if the virus were to shift in the coming months or years. We dont know exactly what this virus is going to do, Davis said, noting the mild nature of the virus detected so far could mean that more people have contracted it and simply didnt realize it. Davis explained that public health officials and researchers need to closely monitor viruses like H5N1 since they can change in a way similar to how the flu changes, leading to the need for a different flu shot each year. Roess, the epidemiology professor from George Mason University, noted that an uptick in human cases of avian influenza, could be an indication of other types of transmission than what is currently believed. Right now, the cases reported are a result of direct contact with infected food animals, Roess said. It is critical to ramp up surveillance of people working closely with possibly infected animals, other animals in the vicinity and other people who are not directly in contact with possibly infected animals in the community. The post Bird flus spread from poultry to cattle including in Minnesota provokes worry appeared first on Minnesota Reformer. The USDA has performed more than 17,000 tests for avian influenza on cattle, with a total of 67 herds affected throughout nine states. (Getty Images) The USDA has performed more than 17,000 tests for avian influenza on cattle, with a total of 67 herds affected throughout nine states. (Getty Images) Dairy farmers throughout the country are on guard and the federal government is mobilizing after an outbreak among cattle herds of highly pathogenic avian influenza once thought to be confined to poultry flocks. Whats more, the virus, also known as H5N1 or bird flu, was diagnosed in a third dairy farmworker last week, marking the first U.S. case with respiratory symptoms, said to be mild. The other two cases, also both mild, were diagnosed as pink eye. The notable leap from cows and chickens to humans is not yet ringing alarm bells for public health officials or veterinarians, who believe the risk to the public remains low. However, they are closely monitoring poultry and dairy farms for any changes, despite a reluctance among some dairy farmers to test their herds. Avian influenza is something that public health scientists are worried about, said Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. Its probably the potential infection or outbreak that causes the greatest amount of anxiety just because, if this did get into a place where it was easily transmissible among humans, everybody fears that could be a really, really bad scenario. The ongoing response has brought together a veritable alphabet soup of government agencies and agricultural organizations, highlighting the complicated nature of fighting bird flu. The mobilization is intended to stem the significant economic toll that farmers could face and curb the virus spread. At the federal level, the Agriculture Department is responsible for the farm animals, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for human health, the Food and Drug Administration has jurisdiction over the eggs and milk sold in grocery stores, and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response oversees its piece of the pie. Then come the state agencies, interest groups, agribusiness and family farms. As of last week, more than 40 people had been tested for H5N1 with more than 350 people enrolled in monitoring, about 220 of whom are in Michigan. Two of the human cases have been in Michigan while the other was diagnosed in Texas. Michigan also has several dairy cattle herds diagnosed with H5N1. The USDA has performed more than 17,000 PCR tests on cattle, with a total of 67 herds affected throughout nine states, including Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas. This strain of bird flu has also cropped up in a wide variety of mammals, including domestic cats. Thats led experts to recommend that people limit their pets interactions with wild birds, which hold a reservoir of the virus, as well as all farm animals. USDA begins expanded testing The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last week that its launching a voluntary pilot program to expand testing for dairy farms to gain better insight into the virus and make it easier for farmers to ship dairy cows across state lines. The department is also transferring $824 million from the Commodity Credit Corporation to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service for the ongoing response. Its important to note that as these additional testing measures take place, USDA anticipates that we may see an increase in the number of herds that are testing positive, said Eric Deeble, acting senior adviser for highly pathogenic avian influenza and deputy assistant secretary for congressional relations. The pilot program will test milk samples from bulk tanks for H5N1. Farms that consistently test negative will be able to ship their cows at the time they prefer and without testing individual animals, knowing that their entire herd is free of the disease, Deeble said. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, on a press call with reporters Monday, declined to say whether USDA has a full grasp of the extent of the virus spread in dairy cattle, but he said, We have a pretty good understanding of the nature of this virus and essentially whats causing its spread. Were trying to essentially corner this virus, so that over time it dissipates, Vilsack said. Dairy farmers can begin enrolling in the pilot program this week in participating states. Dairy farms reluctant to test Infected cows have tremendous amounts of the virus in their milk, so those that are lactating must test negative for the virus before they can be transported across state lines, the USDA has ordered. In states such as Iowa, which has no detections of the virus in cattle, dairy farmers have been reluctant to test more than is required. There has not been a lot of testing to date, said Rodger Main, director of the Iowa State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, which first discovered bird flu was infecting cattle. Whats being tested is the dairy cattle that are moving interstate. Scientists are sequencing the genetic code of an avian flu that was found in a flock of 4.2 million egg-laying hens last week in northwest Iowa to determine if it is the same variant that has been infecting cattle, said Don McDowell, a spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. If so, it might indicate that there are infected cattle in Iowa. A similar detection happened more than a month ago at a turkey flock in Minnesota, another state with no known dairy cattle infections. However, no coordinated testing was done of dairy farms near the infected turkey flock to determine whether they had infected cattle and might have been the source of the transmission, said Michael Crusan, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Board of Animal Health. The Board of Animal Health didnt collect any samples from dairy farms surrounding HPAI positive poultry premises, Crusan said. We do not have authority to test those dairy farms without suspected or confirmed illness reported to us. There is reluctance among some dairy farmers to voluntarily test their cattle for fear of what might happen if those tests reveal their herds are infected, said Dr. Barb Petersen, a Texas veterinarian who helped discover that bird flu was infecting cattle. They might be afraid that theyll be barred from selling their cattle for an unknown amount of time or that animal movements to and from their farms will be otherwise restricted. Petersen suspects that nearly all the dairies in her area near Amarillo were infected but that many were not tested. Infected cows typically recover in 10 to 14 days. Infected herds suffer a drop in milk production that can last about a month. The virus is much more severe for chicken and turkey flocks, where it often causes fatal illness. Entire flocks are destroyed to prevent the spread of the virus. More testing and better biosecurity measures are important to help prevent the virus from spreading from infected cattle to the poultry flocks, said Phillip Jardon, the dairy extension veterinarian for Iowa State University. He is aware of several dairy farms that installed noise-making systems to keep away wild birds, which are believed to be an initial source of the infections. Its unclear how many other state-recommended precautions are being adopted. The risk to dairies is not as large as it is to poultry, but dairies should keep in mind that they have neighbors who are poultry producers where it can be devastating, and they dont want to have a local source of the virus, he said. Vilsack said USDA needs to better educate dairy farmers about the risks to their neighboring farmers to get more voluntary help in tracking and containing the virus. It spread from Texas to faraway states through the transportation of infected cattle, but it has likely spread locally via farmworkers, veterinarians and equipment moving farm to farm, Vilsack said. PPE for farmworkers Plescia from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials said during an interview with States Newsroom that while the risk to the public remains low, health officials are paying close attention to agricultural workers. Ensuring farmworkers have access to personal protective equipment is essential, though it could be challenging to get all workers to use it during the hotter summer months, Plescia said. The most recent case in a farmworker in Michigan, announced May 30, is more concerning to experts. Were much, much more worried about respiratory infections because its respiratory infections, where in the past with earlier versions of H5N1, weve seen that those infections can be very, very severe and the mortality can be very high, Plescia said. Public health officials need to work with farm owners and farmworkers to make sure that even people with mild symptoms get tested for avian flu to ensure that it isnt circulating more widely than the documented cases, he said. They need to ensure that undocumented workers or those on agricultural work visas who are concerned about interaction with the government are comfortable enough to get tested. When the state government starts showing up to do testing as far as theyre concerned, people are fearful of that and so theyll stop coming to work, Plescia said. Plescia also cautioned that people shouldnt drink raw milk for the foreseeable future. Dr. Nirav Shah, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview with States Newsroom the agency is focusing its attention on farmworker safety through personal protective equipment, testing and additional resources. The CDC is also working to build trust so that workers who might be in the U.S. on visas or who are undocumented feel comfortable getting tested for H5N1 or reporting an illness to public health officials. When H5 became a phenomenon in poultry farms, it took some time for poultry farm owners and poultry farmworkers to gain trust with the public health system, Shah said. The same thing, the same dynamic, is at play here. Shah, speaking during a separate press briefing on H5N1, said that even with the new respiratory case, there have been no signs, either genetically or epidemiologically, that this strain of avian influenza is adapting in a way that would lead to greater transmission. We are on the lookout for those changes, but the mere fact that this individual displayed some respiratory symptoms again, we should be alert but, in and of itself, is not a cause to change or suggest that were at an inflection point, Shah said. It is a cause and a reason to remain alert. Amira Roess, professor of global health and epidemiology at George Mason University, said in a written statement that public health officials must provide incentives for individuals to report illness and to get tested, or at least we have to remove barriers. Because we dont have meaningful, high quality and accessible health care for the majority of our population, particularly those in rural areas where the virus has first spilled over, it will be challenging to get ahead of this, Roess wrote in response to questions from States Newsroom about H5N1. Many farmworkers are hourly workers and cannot afford to take time off for what they perceive as mild illness. Keep pets away from wild birds Meghan Davis, associate professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said in an interview with States Newsroom this particular strain of avian flu has been spreading between mammals, including domestic pets, and will likely continue to do so. The fact that this particular clade has been able to infect so many different mammalian species, and has now caused at least two documented cases in people although, thankfully, with relatively mild symptoms is a concern, she said, before the third case was announced. Davis cautioned that because there have been cases among cats living on dairy farms that drank raw cows milk, people shouldnt give raw milk to their pets. Pet owners should also be cautious about letting their animals interact with wild birds, which are known to spread the virus. Milk purchased in grocery stores is safe to drink since its been pasteurized and has been repeatedly tested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration during the past few months to ensure theres no active virus in the countrys food supply. Other mammals diagnosed with avian flu this year include a mountain lion in Montana, red foxes in Michigan and Missouri, and a raccoon in Colorado. Domestic cats have been diagnosed in Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas, according to data from the CDC. Davis said the surveillance system for H5N1 should be broadened to include more systematic testing, which would require us to have somewhat better access to workers, to animals on farms, etc. as well as antibody testing to determine if more people have contracted avian flu and recovered. The additional information could help if the virus were to shift in the coming months or years. We dont know exactly what this virus is going to do, Davis said, noting the mild nature of the virus detected so far could mean that more people have contracted it and simply didnt realize it. Davis explained that public health officials and researchers need to closely monitor viruses like H5N1 since they can change in a way similar to how the flu changes, leading to the need for a different flu shot each year. Roess, the epidemiology professor from George Mason University, noted that an uptick in human cases of avian influenza, could be an indication of other types of transmission than what is currently believed. Right now, the cases reported are a result of direct contact with infected food animals, Roess said. It is critical to ramp up surveillance of people working closely with possibly infected animals, other animals in the vicinity and other people who are not directly in contact with possibly infected animals in the community. The post Bird flus spread from poultry to cattle to humans provokes worry among feds, states appeared first on Oregon Capital Chronicle. United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens to a speech during a commemorative ceremony to mark D-Day 80th anniversary, Thursday, June 6, 2024 at the US cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy. Normandy is hosting various events to officially commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings that took place on June 6, 1944. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole, Pool) WASHINGTON (AP) Secretary of State Antony Blinken will push for a breakthrough on President Joe Biden's cease-fire proposal when he returns to the Middle East next week on his eighth diplomatic mission to the region since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began in October, the State Department said Friday. Blinken, who is currently in France accompanying Biden on a state visit timed to the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion during World War II, will fly from Paris to Cairo on Monday to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and other officials before traveling to Israel, Jordan and Qatar, the department said. Blinken will then go to Italy to join Biden at the summit for the Group of Seven advanced economies. In all of his meetings, Blinken will emphasize the importance of Hamas accepting the proposal on the table, which is nearly identical to one Hamas endorsed last month and discuss how the cease-fire proposal would benefit both Israelis and Palestinians, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. He will underscore that it would alleviate suffering in Gaza, enable a massive surge in humanitarian assistance, and allow Palestinians to return to their neighborhoods, he said in a statement. It would unlock the possibility of achieving calm along Israels northern border so both displaced Israeli and Lebanese families can return to their homes and set the conditions for further integration between Israel and its Arab neighbors, strengthening Israels long-term security and improving stability across the region. In Israel, Blinken will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials. In Jordan, he will participate in an emergency international conference on aid to Gaza, and in Qatar he will meet with officials who are attempting to mediate the cease-fire deal. The lightning tour comes as the Biden administration is pushing hard for Hamas to accept a three-phase cease-fire proposal that would include the release of hostages taken from Israel and held by the militant group and potentially pave the way for an end to the conflict and the reconstruction of Gaza. Biden, Blinken and other U.S. officials have lobbied Arab nations heavily to use what influence they have with Hamas to get it to accept the deal that the president announced last week. Hamas has said it views the offer positively but also called on Israel to declare an explicit commitment to an agreement that includes a permanent cease-fire, a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, a prisoner exchange and other conditions. But there has been no definitive response so far, and in the absence of one, Blinken will press the case in his meetings in Egypt and Qatar, the two countries with the closest ties to Hamas. However, Blinken may also have trouble selling the proposal or at least its implementation to Netanyahu. Although the deal has been described as an Israeli initiative, some members of Netanyahu's far-right coalition government are strongly opposed to it. And, Netanyahu himself has expressed skepticism, saying what has been presented publicly is not accurate and rejecting calls for Israel to cease all fighting until Hamas is eradicated. Despite Blinken's roughly once-a-month visits to the region since the war began following Hamas' deadly attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, the conflict has ground on with more than 36,000 Palestinians killed in eight months of Israeli bombardments and ground offensives in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. The war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians, who are facing widespread hunger. United Nations agencies say over 1 million in Gaza could experience the highest level of starvation by mid-July. As the crisis has escalated, Israel has come under increasingly harsh international criticism for its actions and just this week has been excoriated for airstrikes in Gaza that have reportedly killed dozens of civilians. On Friday, Israeli strikes killed at least 18 people, including children, just a day after 33 were killed at a United Nations-run school sheltering displaced Palestinian families, health officials said. Since mid-October, Blinken has shuttled between Israel and its Arab and Muslim neighbors, trying to boost aid to civilians in Gaza, prevent the conflict from spreading throughout the region and build support for plans for the reconstruction and governance of postwar Gaza all while vocally backing Israels right to defend itself. Israels offensive in Gaza has heightened political pressure in the U.S., with pro-Palestinian protests springing up at universities and resulting pushback from some who say the demonstrations have veered into antisemitism. By Humeyra Pamuk WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to the Middle East next week, the U.S. State Department said on Friday, as Washington tries to put pressure on Israel and Hamas to accept a ceasefire proposal that President Joe Biden laid out last week. In his eighth visit to the region since Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, triggering the latest flare-up in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the top U.S. diplomat will visit Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Qatar and meet with their senior leaders. Blinken's visit comes after Biden laid out a fresh ceasefire plan to end the eight month-long war and at a time when tensions between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah has escalated in recent days, with both sides signaling a readiness for a bigger confrontation. "The Secretary will discuss how the ceasefire proposal would benefit both Israelis and Palestinians," the State Department said in a statement. "He will underscore that it would alleviate suffering in Gaza, enable a massive surge in humanitarian assistance and allow Palestinians to return to their neighborhoods." Talks mediated by Egypt, Qatar and others to arrange a ceasefire between Israel and the militant Hamas movement in the Gaza war have repeatedly stalled, with each side blaming the other for the lack of progress. The ceasefire, the State Department said, would also unlock the possibility of achieving calm along Israel's northern border with Lebanon and set conditions for further integration between Israel and its Arab neighbors. "The Secretary will also continue to reiterate the need to prevent the conflict from escalating further," it added. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel was prepared for strong action in the north. He warned in December that Beirut would be turned "into Gaza" if Hezbollah started an all-out war. The Israel-Hamas war began when Hamas-led Palestinian fighters attacked southern Israel from Gaza, killing more than 1,200 people, and seizing more than 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's ground and air campaign in Gaza has left the territory in ruins, led to widespread starvation, and killed more than 36,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities. While in Jordan, Blinken will attend a conference on humanitarian response to Gaza, the department said. (Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Rod Nickel) The German government is considering sending a fourth Patriot air defense battery to Ukraine, Bloomberg reported on June 7, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. Kyiv has been calling on its partners to provide additional air defenses as Russia intensifies its strikes against Ukrainian population centers and infrastructure. Germany has not yet made a final decision on the delivery of the fourth battery, according to Bloomberg's sources. U.S. President Joe Biden's administration is also reportedly working to supply Ukraine with an additional Patriot air defense battery. The Netherlands wanted to deliver another Patriot air defense system to Kyiv in the short term jointly with other countries, the Dutch Defense Ministry said in late May. Initially a hesitant partner, Berlin has become Ukraine's second-largest military donor after the U.S., although Chancellor Olaf Scholz is still reluctant to supply some key capabilities, namely Taurus long-range missiles. Germany has long opposed lifting the ban on Ukraine's use of Western weapons to target Russia, but reversed course in late May amid growing calls from Western leaders to lift the restrictions. The decision applies to the area around Kharkiv. Berlin plans to up its military aid to Ukraine by another 3.8 billion euros ($4.13 billion) in 2024, Reuters reported on May 21, citing its unnamed source. Read also: Germany procures more artillery shells for Ukraine Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. BND recognized with 19 statewide awards, 6 first places and Reporter of the Year The Belleville News-Democrat won 19 awards for journalism excellence Thursday, including six first place awards and Illinois Reporter of the Year, at the Illinois Press Associations annual convention in Bloomington. BND veteran journalist Teri Maddox was honored with the IPAs Reporter of the Year Award. The award recognizes a reporter for producing outstanding local journalism in 2023, some of which received individual awards in this years competition. Teri has been a professional reporter for about 40 years, joining the BND in 1990 as a feature writer and moving to news reporting in recent years. Her coverage responsibilities include Belleville government and community issues, among other topics. BND journalists received awards in 13 individual categories. Here is a list of the work: First place Knight Chair Award for Best Investigative/Enterprise Reporting, for Hazardous Homes, by BND reporter Lexi Cortes. A relentlessly thorough investigation into how state and community health officials allowed raw sewage, mold and other environmental health issues to exist over years in Illinois communities. First place news reporting-single story for Police had been investigating Cox family of hunters in Freeburg for more than a month by BND reporter Teri Maddox. Superbly documented and well-crafted story that not only covered the hunting violations by a well-known family but put into context the larger regulatory issues, a contest judge wrote. First place freedom of information for the challenges of reporting the investigative project Hazardous Homes, by BND reporter Lexi Cortes. Despite facing major challenges, reporter Lexi Cortes pushed to get answers and detail the extent of the sewage issue affecting the health and homes of people in Cahokia Heights in an outstanding article, a judge wrote. ...She filed FOIAs, read hundreds of pages of public records, interviewed residents and experts, visited damaged homes, attended community meetings, and analyzed thousands of water test results. Through her work, she amplified the voices of people who have been ignored and minimized for years. First place business/economic reporting for Hes made millions from video gambling in Illinois. Regulators want to revoke his license by BND reporter Teri Maddox. ...Good in-depth report. First place video journalism for Cahokia Heights and sewage flooding by BND photojournalist Joshua Carter. A strong story, in text, video and presentation with revelatory content, strong images and distinct personalities that highlights a situation worth shining a light on, a judge wrote. Obvious care was placed in each shot, cut and the organizational flow of the video. BND veteran reporter Teri Maddox was honored as the Illinois Reporter of the Year at the 2024 Illinois Press Association awards in Bloomington Thursday. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) Robert Bob Johnson, co-publisher of Charlottes oldest newspaper, died Wednesday at the age of 84, the publication reported. The Charlotte Post printed its first issue in 1878. Its also one of the longest running Black newspapers in the nation. Johnson and his brother Gerald had been publishers there since 1986. Editor in Chief Herb White says Johnson wore many hats at the publication. He sold advertising, he ran our circulation department, up until the very end, White said. His biggest role, to me the most important thing that he did, was he was friend and mentor. Hardware shop in historic West End has been a go-to for 38 years The Charlotte Post is headquartered on Princess Street in Charlotte. Before moving to that location, it was previously housed on Beatties Ford Road. The previous office is now a coffee shop named Archive CLT where people can pick up copies of the paper. To have a Black publication during Jim Crow was extremely important, Ken Koontz, the first Black reporter at WBTV said. Back then, it was not under Black ownership, but nonetheless, it did reflect some of the experiences of the Black community. An edition while the paper was under the leadership of Johnsons father, Bill. Decades later, diversity remains a problem in newsrooms across America. A Pew Research Survey shows about 6% of reporting journalists are Black compared to 11% of the adult working population. Koontz now writes for The Post. We have to rely more on and support more publications like The Charlotte Post to not just tell our stories but have some impact in terms of responding to the stories they tell whether its politics, religion, and education, Koontz said. Johnson was known for giving aspiring journalists a chance to get their feet wet in the industry. A part of what Bob helped enable us to do, is to go out here and develop journalists, a lot of what we have been able to do, over the years, has been with people who came through our doors and had no journalism training, Herb White said. We train them, we treat them like professionals, we expect professionalism out of them. We show them the ropes. There are fewer than 200 Black newspapers left in the country. White says Johnsons legacy will live on through The Charlotte Post and its mission. He understood people and how to make people realize that theres true goodness in all of us, he recalls. And thats what he saw a people he saw the good in everybody. And whether he worked with folks at the office or out in the community. It was always on that path in terms of seeing the humanity in folks. Honoring Black History: A look back on Charlottes legacy Advocates say the Black press will remain a vital part in the fight for equity and justice for all people. It tells the story of people who historically have been underappreciated, overlooked, or just not cared for, White said. And the mission hasnt changed since [the 1900s], because a lot of the issues that plagued Black people in America back then still plague us now. There has been progress but theres still issues. The Post not only covers issues of the day that our media cover, we cover it from a different perspective in terms of how it impacts Black people. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. Body found in burning home in Citrus Heights, fire officials say (FOX40.COM) A persons body was found inside a home that was on fire in a Sacramento suburb on Friday, according to Sacramento Metro Fire. Crews responded to the well-involved house fire near Oak Grove Avenue and Auburn Boulevard in Citrus Heights, fire officials said. Overnight fire in Rancho Cordova damages business complex The fire was knocked down and a deceased person was found inside, fire officials said. Because of the discovery of the body, Citrus Heights police also responded to the site to investigate whether the person died before the fire started or as a result of the fire. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX40. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. Iran can activate its potential in the nuclear industry based on the interests of the country and the priorities of the Atomic Energy Organization, acting Foreign Minister of Iran Ali Bagheri Kani told reporters after the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers in Tehran, Trend reports. According to him, Iran had and has many potentials within the framework of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Speaking about the meeting of the Board of Directors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Kani pointed out that the Iranian side has always invited various countries to allow the IAEA to continue its technical and specialized work. The IAEA should not be a place for some states to realize their political ambitions, he added. On June 3, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said at a board meeting that since Iran has suspended compliance with its obligations under the Additional Protocol, the agency cannot access complete information about Iran's nuclear program over the past three years. In addition, the agency lost a constant stream of data on the production and number of centrifuges, heavy water, and so on. The Comprehensive Plan of Joint Action on Iran's Nuclear Program was executed in January 2016 by Iran and the P5+1 group (the US, Russia, China, the UK, France, and Germany). The US declared in May 2018 that it was withdrawing from the plan and slapped sanctions on Iran in November of the same year. Iran stated that there would be no constraints on the Iran nuclear agreement in 2020. In late 2020, the Iranian parliament adopted a strategic plan to counter the sanctions, citing the non-fulfillment of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed between Iran and six countries and the imposition of sanctions on Iran. Based on the decision of the Iranian parliament, as of February 23, Iran stopped the implementation of additional measures and an additional protocol included in the nuclear deal. As a consequence, the monitoring mechanism of the IAEA was reduced by 2030 percent. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel A white space capsule is seen against the blackness of space. Boeing's Starliner capsule has arrived at its orbital destination. Starliner reached the International Space Station (ISS) today (June 6), making contact with the orbiting lab at 1:34 p.m. EDT (1734 GMT) as the duo flew over the southern Indian Ocean. That was a bit later than originally planned. Starliner missed its first docking chance, at 12:15 p.m. EDT (1615 GMT), after five of its 28 reaction-control thrusters malfunctioned. But the mission team got four of those impacted thrusters back online, and Starliner was cleared to approach the ISS in the next window. (You can follow our Boeing Starliner live updates for the latest on the mission.) a white space capsule is seen against the blackness of space Starliner launched Wednesday (June 5) on its first-ever astronaut mission, known as Crew Flight Test. CFT is sending NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the ISS for a roughly week-long stay. "Butch and Suni, nicely done," Neal Nagata, NASA's CAPCOM (spacecraft communicator) radioed the Starliner astronauts from Mission Control in Houston. "Welcome back to the ISS." "Nice to be attached to the big city in the sky," Wilmore radioed to Mission Control. "It's a great place to be. We're looking forward to staying here for a couple of weeks and getting all the things that we need to get done." Seven astronauts float in a mostly-white module of a space station, hugging and smiling. Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are embraced aboard the ISS as they enter from their Starliner spacecraft June 6, 2024. About two hours after, Wilmore and Williams opened Starliner's hatch and entered the International Space Station and received a warm greeting by the seven members of the station's current Expedition 71 crew. They were welcomed by the ringing of a bell (an ISS tradition), music and zero gravity "dancing" as the pair floated around the Harmony module, hugging their new crewmates. "Wow, great to be back here," Wilmore said during a welcome ceremony. "Obviously, we certainly have been gone for a little while, but it's very familiar." Both Wilmore and Williams have flown to the space station before on previous missions. nine astronauts float in a mostly-white module of a space station, all smiling for a photo. "There's only one problem," Wilmore added as he turned to NASA astronaut Matt Dominick on the Expedition 71 crew. "Matt is in my crew quarters. I don't know what we're gonna do about that. But thank you all for the great welcome." If all goes well with CFT, Starliner will be certified to fly long-duration astronaut missions to the orbiting lab for NASA. RELATED STORIES: Boeing's Starliner rolled off launch pad to replace 'buzzing' rocket valve (photo) Meet the crew launching on Boeing's 1st Starliner astronaut flight 2 astronaut taxis: Why NASA wants both Boeing's Starliner and SpaceX's Dragon Boeing received a $4.2 billion contract to do just this back in 2014. SpaceX got one as well, worth $2.6 billion. Elon Musk's company flew its version of CFT, known as Demo-2, in 2020 and is in the middle of its eighth operational crewed mission to the ISS. Starliner's thruster issues tody followed two helium leaks the mission team detected after the capsule reached orbit. A different helium leak cropped up before launch as well, but was not regarded as a serious problem. Editor's note: This story was updated at 4:30 p.m. ET on June 6 to include comments of the Starliner astronaut crew after arriving at the ISS. Libraries in the Treasure Valley are reassessing their policies and preparing for how they will comply with a new law that opens them up to lawsuits if they provide materials that lawmakers deemed are harmful to minors. Boise-area libraries said they plan to change their procedures around how patrons challenge books and continue to monitor impacts of the new law, which takes effect July 1. In the profession, there is a lot of concern, Mary DeWalt, the director of Ada Community Library, told the Idaho Statesman. People are really confused because the law is very vague. And so people across the state are thinking, Well, how does it apply here, and what does this exactly mean? The law bans school and public libraries from distributing materials considered harmful to minors, which are defined as having descriptions or representations of nudity or sexual conduct that appeals to the prurient interest of minors as judged by the average person and that are patently offensive to the prevailing standards in the adult community with respect to what is suitable for minors. Sexual conduct includes homosexuality. Under the new law, parents or minors can submit a request for a library to relocate material they considered harmful to an adult section. If the library doesnt move the material within 60 days, the requester can then sue the library and receive $250 in statutory damages, plus additional damages and relief. Libraries across the Treasure Valley told the Statesman their boards are reviewing their policies and updating the forms patrons use to challenge books to be in compliance with the law. They have no plans to take more drastic measures. The Donnelly Public Library, a small library located about two hours north of Boise, told the Statesman it would transition to an adults-only library. Children can still use the library if theyre accompanied by a parent, as well as take part in after-school and summer programs if parents sign a waiver. Our materials would not be seen as obscene, DeWalt said. Were not reacting at this point, thinking that were gonna get lots of these forms and get sued, but well just take things as they come. Diverse viewpoints are all protected speech The Meridian Library District similarly is focused on updating its reconsideration policy. The district was at the center of debate over harmful materials last year, when a group attempted to dissolve the library taxing district over concerns about sexually explicit materials. That effort ultimately failed, and dozens of people rallied in support of the institution. Meg Larsen, who chairs Meridian Librarys board, said the library district has had to spend money on legal counsel to go through its reconsideration forms and ensure compliance with the law. The board will likely approve the changes later this month. Our community here in Meridian have been overwhelmingly supportive of library services. Our library is just a beloved institution, Larsen said, adding she doesnt expect that to change under the new law. I dont think (the law) its necessarily reflective of what our community as a whole wanted to see. For the Boise Public Library, officials changed its challenging policy to allow the board more time to consider challenged material so that it can comply with the 60-day deadline from the new law. Its procedure currently includes several steps before it reaches the board that may take longer than the 60 days the law allows for. But starting July 1, if a book is challenged, the library district will create a case file, give the library director 28 days to provide a written response, and then give the library board 32 days to review the directors decision, Boise Public Library director Jessica Dorr said. If someone doesnt consider the librarys response satisfactory after the 60 days, at that point, the person could take legal action. Dorr said the library district has no obscene materials in its collection. It has been receiving questions from the public about whether it will restrict access or create an adults-only section. It has no plans to do either. I think its really important that we remember that diverse viewpoints, stories and characters are all protected speech, Dorr told the Statesman. And libraries have the discretion to curate the collections. But this discretion cannot be used to silence or muffle viewpoints with which some library users or the government disagrees. Stephanie Bailey-White, the state librarian for the Idaho Commission for Libraries, told the Statesman the organization has advised libraries to review their collection development and policies on challenging library materials. But she added that the commission is reminding libraries and school districts that they must be mindful of the First Amendment rights of minors and adults. If staff or boards consider relocating or removing books, they should follow library policies that are in place to ensure they are not creating any additional liabilities, she said in an email. Library officials fear chilling effect on books Idaho lawmakers for years tried and failed to pass bills targeting libraries before this years bill made it to the finish line. Legislators and conservative lobbying groups have proposed the bills over concerns libraries in the state were distributing pornography, despite a lack of evidence. Libraries have denied offering materials to minors that would fit that definition. Last year, Gov. Brad Little vetoed a similar bill that would have let families receive $2,500 in damages each time a child accessed materials defined as harmful by the state. Little in his veto letter said he agreed with the intent but feared unintended consequences of the bill, including a concern that libraries would be forced to close because they couldnt afford a bounty system. But Little signed this years bill into law. Idaho Republicans push to limit materials offered to children joins a growing movement across the country to restrict minors access to books, especially those on LGBTQ+ people or topics. Legislatures in several states have passed measures in recent years that open librarians and school employees up to fines or jail time for distributing materials deemed harmful to minors, according to an analysis from The Washington Post. One law in Arkansas, which was temporarily blocked last year by a federal judge, would have carried a felony charge and a possible sentence of up to six years in jail and a $10,000 fine for librarians found to have violated the measure. DeWalt told the Statesman library staffers worry about a chilling effect. Regardless of whether patrons challenge more books, the fear of liability could impact the books that libraries hold, she said. Even if no one overtly takes any action, in the back of their mind, they may be thinking, Oh, Im not going to add this book because it might be problematic, she said. Maybe thats the actual intent. U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Oregon, listens during a roundtable discussion. (Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici's office) PORTLAND An innovative Oregon program turned $125 million into nearly 1,400 new shelter beds across 32 facilities in 18 Oregon counties. Now, U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici wants to take the states Project Turnkey program nationwide. The Democratic Oregon representative was in Portland on Thursday to meet with community leaders who have worked on developing shelters and housing through Project Turnkey, a state program that launched in 2020 to add shelter space by converting motels into emergency shelters. A second round of state funding in 2022 added more types of buildings, including repurposed apartments and single-family homes, but the model remained the same: People or families coming into the shelters had their own rooms and access to services. Oregon really has been at the forefront in developing innovative strategies to address the housing shortage and to help people who are experiencing homelessness transition from the street into stable housing, Bonamici said. She introduced House Resolution 8297, the Project Turnkey Act, in May with 15 Democratic co-sponsors, including fellow Oregon Reps. Andrea Salinas and Earl Blumenauer. It would allocate $1 billion annually for Project Turnkey grants through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and allow grant recipients to use the money to convert vacant buildings into housing or shelter, provide direct rent support and assistance with security deposits and utility bills, contribute to down payments and repair and expand emergency shelters. Bonamici said she isnt counting on passing anything this year, with Congress away from D.C. for most of the rest of the year, but shes trying to build support. She noted that she has a Republican cosponsor, Pennsylvanias Brian Fitzpatrick, on a separate bill for recovery housing, and that there is a growing bipartisan awareness in Washington around housing issues. Im really excited to take these stories back with me and share why this is a meaningful program, Bonamici told participants in the town hall. Tigard project The Bridge to Home shelter in Tigard was the final one funded under Project Turnkey last year, said Rose Money, executive director of the Family Promise of Tualatin Valley that operates the shelter. Money from Project Turnkey, Washington County and the city of Tigard cleared the way for the nonprofit to turn a Quality Inn hotel into a shelter that can house up to 70 households in rooms with kitchenettes. Before Project Turnkey allowed the Tualatin Valley program to buy a hotel, it was renting individual hotel rooms to house people and families. But as more people started traveling as the COVID pandemic lightened, available rooms were harder to find. When we were in that motel environment, the motel industry started coming back to life and people were traveling again, so our ability to secure those 40 rooms was harder and harder and harder, she said. We went from 40 down to 37, down to 22. And we thought, What are we going to do? because the need was growing in the community. For the Urban League of Portland, which received $2.7 million to adapt a multifamily complex into seven units for women returning from incarceration, the funding meant providing stability. Two women who participated in the program are the responsible adults in their childrens lives again, and that likely wouldnt have happened if the Urban League was limited to providing shelter in a motel or congregate setting, president and CEO Nkenge Harmon Johnson said. Project Turnkey for us was an opportunity to acquire an asset, because thats important to our ability to survive as an organization and not be at the mercy of these motel owners who now know the moneys in the long term leases, she said. Beyond that, it gives us an opportunity to make commitments to community partners to say, Hey, I can get you five beds. Because I know you can always fill them and I will always have them, and Im not at the mercy of someone else. It makes a big difference. Longer-term plans Most of the community organizations that own Project Turnkey shelters plan to convert them into longer-term housing, including apartments with below-market rents or permanent supportive housing that includes on-site social services. Creating shelters and future affordable housing in existing buildings has proven to be cheaper than new construction: According to the Oregon Community Foundation, a Portland nonprofit that oversaw the development Project Turnkey, the average unit costs less than $100,000, compared to a pre-pandemic statewide average of $226,000 and a nearly $375,000 cost per unit for affordable apartments funded by Portlands 2016 housing bond. But retrofitting buildings also brings some challenges, not all of which can be solved with money from state or local governments. Jes Larson, assistant director of Washington County Housing Services, said one glaring example is sprinklers. These are great, ready-made buildings that have immediate shelter for our community, that sometimes dont meet code in really big expensive ways, like required sprinkling systems, Larsen said. And that wasnt a part of the original Project Turnkey plan. Its not a part of the flexible homeless services dollars that I get to work with in Washington, so we have to figure it out. The post Bonamici talks about plans to take Oregons Project Turnkey shelter program nationwide appeared first on Oregon Capital Chronicle. Booker blasts lack of focus on Sudan: Defining the soul of our nation Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) on Wednesday condemned the American publics lack of focus on the crisis in Sudan, which has displaced about 8.8 million Sudanese people, subjected millions to risk of famine, and left thousands dead since its start in April 2023. We are defining the soul of our nation, as Americans, by how we are allowing, frankly, such a nightmarish scenario to go undiscussed and unfocused, Booker said Wednesday at a Center for American Progress panel on the forgotten war. Booker was joined by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and U.S. special envoy to Sudan, Tom Perriello, on the panel. The urgency is not captured the way it is spoken about, if not spoken about at all, Emtithal Mahmoud, a prominent Sudanese American poet and United Nations Refugee Agency ambassador, told the panelists. For those of us in the diaspora, the silence has been deafening. The civil war has been overshadowed globally by Russias invasion of Ukraine and Israels war in Gaza, which began after Hamass terrorist attack on Oct. 7. Yet the war in Sudan rages on, and this week the rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF) reportedly killed 150 people, including 35 children, after storming an unguarded village. The total death toll from the war is estimated at 15,000 but may be far higher. Perriello expressed disappointment at the lack of foreign engagement with the crisis, specifically attributing blame to a growing interest in anti-imperialist critiques. It means when the U.S. is not the bad guy, theres a lot less interest around the world, he said. He advocated a more aggressive approach to pressure Sudanese officials to let humanitarian missions across the border to deliver aid and facilitate peace talks. While U.S. attempts to advance talks between Sudanese leaders stagnate, Jayapal and Booker pushed for alternative U.S. approaches to handling and halting the conflict. Its really important to think about all of the tools that we have because often sanctions end up hurting the people at the bottom, but not the people at the top, Jayapal noted. Jayapal has co-sponsored a bill with Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) to halt military aid to the United Arab Emirates until they commit to cease arm sales to the RSF, which is warring against the Sudanese Armed Forces for control of the country. The legislators also advocated for direct U.S. aid to indigenous efforts to help Sudanese people on the ground. Specifically, Jayapal encouraged support for youth-led emergency response rooms (ERR), which deploy teams of volunteer medical staff, engineers and other emergency responders to help those impacted by war. Haitham Elnour, a Sudanese American human rights activist, echoed a call for U.S. investment in homegrown Sudanese initiatives. We are claiming that we are supporting the modality of the ERR we need to actually up that support, he said. Booker also took a moment to critique the lack of U.S. engagement with the African continent more broadly, noting that China does four times the amount of trade with Africa than the U.S. Dollars invested now in stability, invested in civil society, in youth, in democracy, will bear a harvest not just for our country, but for stability and growth on the African continent, he said. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. A boomer who struggled to afford retirement in the US moved to Costa Rica and said money is much less of a concern Cheryl Sands moved from Illinois to Costa Rica, fearing retirement costs in the US. As costs rose, she struggled to live on her pension and Social Security despite working two jobs. Many Americans are relocating to Latin America for cheaper living and better quality of life. Cheryl Sands, 69, had worked two jobs at a time for much of her life, but after seeing her two older siblings work into their 70s and 80s to afford daily costs, she knew it was time to move from Illinois and the US. She feared her teaching pension and Social Security wouldn't be enough to live on without continuing to work. She had saved about $300,000, but into her 60s, she had two jobs to keep her savings stable. She looked to Costa Rica as an option, having visited a few times prior, and she knew the cost of living was cheaper and life was calmer. She moved earlier this year and has loved it since. "What I love about Costa Rica is the freedom, work ethic, value of learning and education, taking responsibility for their and their children's actions and accepting the consequences of their actions, pride in what they have, even if it's not much, respect for others, positive attitudes, and valuing children and the elderly," Sands said. Cheryl Sands rents a home by the beach and lives with her two dogs. Cheryl Sands Sands is one of many Americans who moved to Latin America for their retirement. Some recently told Business Insider they were scared they wouldn't have enough money for a comfortable retirement in the US and thought living in Latin America would be cheaper. Others said they found new income opportunities that were much more relaxed than in the US. Life in the US got more expensive Sands lived in northern Illinois for much of her life. At one point, she described herself as a "professional student" who accumulated various degrees but did not know what to do with them. She worked odd jobs until she was 35. Eventually, she became a chemistry teacher in Aurora, about 40 miles from Chicago. She taught for over 20 years, and in 2007, she quit her job and put her house up for sale. She assumed that the equity on her home would be her savings for another house, but she said it lost a lot of value amid the 2008 housing crisis. She moved to the Illinois-Kentucky border and bought a cheap house on 10 acres in Shawnee National Forest. She said the home was "deserted and isolated," and she enjoyed living in peaceful nature. Sands received a pension from teaching, but it wasn't enough for her to live on. She worked as a substitute teacher and installed barbed wire and chain link fencing on properties in the area to help pay her bills. She said people in her area were shocked because she held two jobs even in retirement. Her 82-year-old sister and 78-year-old brother still work as well. Sands increasingly felt out of place. She was 25 miles from the closest town, meaning going to medical appointments was a growing hassle, and taking care of her property was more challenging and expensive. Between her Social Security and pension, she earned $30,000 a year, not nearly enough to enter an assisted living or retirement community. Her property taxes increased 165% in one year, and the cost of deliveries from stores like Walmart also spiked. Though she had a comfortable home, she worried she wouldn't have enough money to live without constantly worrying or working two jobs. She considered moving to a more urban area but couldn't imagine paying more for a much smaller home. "I did not see myself being able to go anywhere, and I could see myself having to fall into the public support sector after not too long because I would not have any money," Sands said. Moving to Costa Rica She remembered a trip to Costa Rica in 1995 and visited in 2022 and 2023 to see if escaping retirement in the US by living there was viable. "Last fall, I sold my house, sold all my belongings, packed up my two 90-pound dogs, packed as much as I could fit in carpet bags and suitcases, and left," Sands said. She moved to a condo in the Guanacaste region in northwest Costa Rica earlier this year. Within three weeks, she realized it wasn't big enough for her dogs, so she searched for another rental property. She chose not to buy a home as she's still waiting on her pensioner visa. She rented another home for $1,100 a month, a one-bedroom house a short walk from the beach. Her home is in Junquillal, a town between Santa Cruz and Tamarindo. An overhead look at Cheryl Sands' home. Cheryl Sands She has a 30-foot treehouse with views of the ocean and mountains. Her property is surrounded by trees, and she has a large front yard for her dogs. Her home has reliable internet and electricity, which are included in her rent. Sands said nearly everyone she's met has been very friendly, and she hasn't had much of an issue with the language barrier. Many residents speak some English, and she's learning Spanish to feel more at home. Still, she said many people think she's wealthy because she's from the US. "It's incomprehensible that with the money I had, I didn't have enough money to live where I lived, and I came here because it's less expensive," Sands said. "I feel more welcomed here than I did in Southern Illinois." She said the cost of food is much lower than the US, though portion sizes for packaged goods are smaller. She's valued the wide selection of fresh produce and fish, though the stores in her small town don't have everything she needs. Dairy products are also rather expensive, she's noticed. The closest city is about a half-hour drive, which is $50-$75 each way via taxi. She doesn't need to worry about owning a car as she said vehicles are a luxury and "for the very brave." While the cost of living is much lower in Costa Rica, the exchange rate between the US dollar and Costa Rican colon has worsened, meaning prices in Costa Rica have recently shot up. Her Walmart bill, for example, increased by at least a third in just a month. Still, she's not too stressed about money anymore. She wakes up at 5:30 a.m. each morning, takes her dogs for a walk, swims for a few hours, does household chores, and reads which she acknowledges she rarely had time for as a teacher. "It doesn't sound like much, but my days are full," she said. "If I were back in the US, I would have to be worrying about weeding my flower beds, mowing the lawn, and chainsawing trees." She's considered making some extra income by purchasing homes and converting them into rental properties for tourists. She also wants to move into a permanent home by August and continue learning about the local culture. "I do attempt to plan for future financial expenses to avoid not having any money, but I don't obsess over it because life often changes things in ways you would not ever plan for," Sands said. Have you recently left the United States for a new country? Reach out to this reporter at nsheidlower@businessinsider.com . Read the original article on Business Insider The state of Indiana has purchased 4,009 acres to date and has an additional 3,607 acres under contract. (Screenshot from IEDC website) For two years, the state of Indiana has sat on thousands of acres of farmland in Boone County with no new announced tenants for a controversial innovation park. Hoosiers should be concerned about the lack of progress given the $358.4 million spent on land so far. And that doesnt count millions more in consulting and development contracts into which the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) has entered. The state began acquiring land in late 2021. Then, in May 2022, the IEDC publicly revealed the Limitless Exploration/Advanced Pace (LEAP) Research and Innovation project: a massive tech park with Eli Lilly & Co. as its first tenant. Lilly initially planned to invest $2.1 billion into the project on 600 acres of land. But it increased that to more than $3.7 billion at the groundbreaking in April 2023. The company again added to that investment a few weeks ago, for a total of $9 billion and 900 new jobs, still on its 600-acre LEAP lot. Lilly last year quietly bought its 600 acres from the state in two parcels for $60 million. Erin Sweitzer, spokeswoman for the IEDC, said the state purchased the Lilly land at $81,000 an acre and sold it at $99,260 an acre. Cash received at time of sale was returned to the General Fund. Additionally, the improvements being made to the land we have purchased to date will increase the value of the land for future sale, she said. The IEDC has purchased 4,009 acres of land to date and has an additional 3,607 acres under contract, according to Sweitzer. Its all about the water The progress on LEAP seems to have stalled because of one major issue: water. While there is enough water to support the Lilly project, when the state started talking to major semiconductor companies it became clear they would need more water than Lebanon had to offer. Thats when a plan was proposed privately to pipe up to 100 million gallons of water a day from the Wabash River in Tippecanoe County. The plan leaked in a clumsy way and residents in Tippecanoe reacted negatively. IEDC commissioned a water study and initial results claimed there was enough water to support the diversion. But momentum was moving against it. As a result, Gov. Eric Holcomb directed the Indiana Finance Authority to take over the study and widen it for a more comprehensive examination. Need to get in touch? Have a news tip? CONTACT US The IFA has retained Stantec Consulting Services, Inc. and Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. Preliminary data from the study are anticipated to be released in late spring or summer of 2024 with final results in the fall. If the water pipeline happens, the cost will be massive. Some have said upwards of $2 billion, though the state disputes that an estimate exists. But in the meantime, Boone County is losing property tax revenue as thousands of acres of land have been removed from tax-paying rolls and sit idle. Thats because government-owned land is tax exempt. The IEDC website boasts about the districts future. Modeled after the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, in the heart of the Midwest in Indiana, the LEAP district will be a hub of global innovation and a key component of Indianas plan to attract and retain businesses that keep Indiana one of the top states in the nation in which to do business, it says. Some work is being done to prep the land with needed infrastructure but as far as adding tenants, the project seems stuck in neutral with state costs continuing to rise. The post Is Boone Countys LEAP project stuck in neutral? appeared first on Indiana Capital Chronicle. Instead of attending his high school graduation ceremony, an El Paso-area teenager was in jail after being arrested in a migrant smuggling high-speed chase on the West Side, court officials said. The Operation Lone Star case is among the continuing risks young people face getting involved in border migrant smuggling vehicle pursuits on El Paso's streets. Heat wave in the Borderland: El Paso Border Patrol reports 4 migrant heat deaths over weekend Jabin Encinas, 17, is accused of leading Texas state troopers on an 80 mph chase through residential streets in a Chevrolet Silverado transporting undocumented migrants, Assistant District Attorney John Briggs said at a teleconference bond hearing on Sunday, June. 2. Encinas, of Socorro, was booked into the El Paso County Jail on Friday, May 31, on charges of smuggling of persons with a firearm, unlawful carrying of a weapon and evading arrest in a vehicle. He was released on a surety bond on Tuesday. Under Texas law, persons 17 and older are considered adults in the criminal justice system. Teen smuggler suspect misses high school graduation Encinas has no prior criminal record, had completed high school and was supposed to have taken part in his graduation ceremony last Saturday, public defense attorney Richard "Rick" Huffman said at the bond hearing. The name of the high school was not disclosed. Huffman added that Encinas, who lives with his mother and grandmother, plans to study mechanical engineering and is enrolled to start soon at the University of Texas at El Paso. "I spoke to his mom. His mom was really surprised by this. This is way out of character, judge," Huffman told Magistrate Judge Ruben Nunez at the hearing while seeking to have the bond amounts reduced. West El Paso migrant smuggler pursuit The incident started in the border smuggling hot zone near Santa Teresa, New Mexico, just west of El Paso. Texas Department of Public Safety troopers monitoring U.S. Border Patrol radio transmissions learned that a group of migrants had climbed over the border wall in New Mexico and were heading to a known smuggler pick-up spot, Briggs said at the hearing. The migrants got into a Chevrolet Silverado, which a trooper found on Artcraft Road after it crossed the state line into Texas, the prosecutor said. The trooper attempted to pull over the truck because a brake light was out and registration expired in 2022. A Texas Department of Public Safety vehicle during a human and drug smuggling traffic stop in West Texas as part of Operation Lone Star in November 2021. File art. The pursuit began when the driver of the Silverado refused to stop and traveled up Artcraft Road across Interstate 10 past a Walmart store into a neighborhood, Briggs said. In the neighborhood, the truck momentarily stopped as three men and a woman exited and ran off before the driver continued, going 80 mph through residential streets and running red lights, almost causing several accidents before eventually stopping, the prosecutor said. Law enforcement: The life and legacy of 'Don Chuy.' Undercover El Paso Border Patrol agent mourned Troopers found a loaded .40-caliber Glock 23 handgun in the truck's center console which made the human smuggling charge more serious because it involved a firearm, Briggs, the prosecutor, said. One of the persons arrested after running from the truck was an undocumented Mexican citizen, who was allegedly the "guide" for other migrants who led them on foot over the border, the prosecution said. 'Placed a lot of people in danger' Encinas, who is accused of being the driver, was arrested on charges of smuggling of persons with a firearm, unlawful carrying of a weapon and evading arrest in a vehicle. He was booked into the El Paso County Jail in Downtown. Pursuits: PIT maneuver used by state troopers leads to fatal wreck in El Paso Upper Valley Bonds were set at: $50,000 for the smuggling case $40,000 for evading arrest in a vehicle $10,000 for unlawful carrying of a weapon Huffman, the public defender, argued that the young man didn't have a criminal record and the bonds were too high for his mother to pay. Nunez, the judge, refused to lower the bond amount. "Mr. Encinas, I'm not going to lower your bond," Nunez told him. "What it is alleged that you did placed a lot of people in danger not just you, the people that were in the vehicle, law enforcement officers that were chasing you, but more importantly, the citizens of this community." Jail records show Encinas was released Tuesday on a surety bond. Smuggler groups hiring drivers in El Paso The pursuit last week is part of a continuing pattern of Texas DPS vehicle chases of migrant smugglers on the El Paso border. Migrant trafficking with its associated crimes of smuggling, kidnapping and extortion is now as profitable as drugs for Mexican cartels on the border, Chihuahua state law enforcement officials have said. More: El Paso high school student arrested in smuggling case after migrant falls from overpass In the lower rungs of the smuggling organizations are the "load drivers" on the U.S. side who are hired to pick up and transport migrants after they illegally cross the border. Generally, the drivers take the migrant "load" to a meeting spot, where someone else then transports them to a stash house, where they stay before their journey continues to other U.S. cities. Drivers are ordered not to stop for police. Operation Lone Star made at least 33 arrests for human smuggling in the El Paso region from April 19 to May 16, according to a Texas DPS West Texas Region post on X. Those arrested were men ranging in age from 18 to 65 years old. Border migrant smuggling: Payments and pitfalls A quick look back at migrant smuggling cases in the El Paso Times in recent years shows drivers were to be paid from $50 to $1,000 per person most payments appeared to be about $200 to $350 per migrant. Teenagers and young people are being recruited by smugglers with risk-filled promises of easy cash on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and other social media, Texas DPS spokesman Sgt. Eliot Torres said in an email. A suspected smuggler driver, who was 18 at the time, faces a murder charge after an undocumented migrant from Mexico died in a car crash while trying to get away from a Texas state trooper on North Mesa Street in West El Paso on March 17, 2023. Some of those smuggler runs ended in fatal crashes and, in at least one case, a teen driver faces a murder charge set for trial next year after a Mexican migrant died in a crash while fleeing a trooper on North Mesa Street last year. Texas DPS gives school presentations on "the dangers of human smuggling and the pitfalls that our youth go through due to recruitment to smuggle humans," Torres said. "Our advice is the same with any crime," Torres said. "You get paid what you think is a lot of money to transport humans. In reality, you're paid just a small fee that can ruin the rest of your life." This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Texas teen misses graduation after smuggler pursuit arrest in El Paso Bradenton man could spend life in prison on drug trafficking charges, prosecutors say A grand jury indicted a Bradenton man on firearm and narcotics charges, the United States Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Florida announced. Terry McDonald Jr., 31, faces charges of possession of firearm or ammunition by a convicted felon, possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance and possession of a firearm for a drug trafficking crime, according to a news release. McDonald faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 5 years with a maximum penalty of up to life in federal prison if convicted on all counts, according to Florida Statutes. In October, the Manatee County Sheriffs Office SWAT team raided a Bradenton house in the 3300 block of 20th Street East, where they found McDonald seated inside a white Ford Explorer backed into the driveway, according to arrest records. After searching the vehicle, detectives say they found a loaded black nickel-plated Smith & Wesson handgun, a small bag of cocaine and a digital scale. Detectives say they also found a small amount of marijuana in a plastic bag in the center console cup holder. Bradenton man facing life in prison, prosecutors say Also in the center console was a clear plastic bag containing three additional bags of rock cocaine, according to arrest records. The rock cocaine was 20.8 grams in total while the powder cocaine totaled 4.4 grams, detectives say. McDonald possessed cocaine and fentanyl with the intent to distribute it, according to a news release. Detectives said they ran a criminal history on McDonald which showed at the time he had 14 felony charges with six convictions, including previous firearm charges and drug-related charges. Due to McDonald being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, the Smith & Wesson will be forfeited, according to a news release. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives assisted the Manatee County Sheriffs Office with the investigation, according to a news release. U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio, and his challenger in the GOP runoff, Brandon Herrera. Herrera lost the race and will ask for a recount. YouTuber Brandon Herrera will request a recount Friday in his Republican primary runoff election against U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales. Herrera told The Texas Tribune he will request recounts in Bexar, El Paso, Medina and Uvalde counties after trailing Gonzales by 407 votes in a race that drew national attention as a fight between the more moderate and more conservative wings of the Republican party. Last week, Herrera indicated he would accept the election results, posting that the close margin, despite running a campaign that was outfunded by Gonzales, was itself a major accomplishment. However, Herrera told the Tribune that his campaign had expected to call a recount from Day 1 because of the tight margin about 1.4 percentage points. I dont expect the results to change, but I feel I owe it to my volunteers, voters, and supporters to leave no stone unturned, Herrera said in a statement. Texas 23rd Congressional District is the states largest congressional district by land area, spanning 29 counties from West Texas to San Antonio and Eagle Pass. The recount requests target the three counties that cast the most votes in the runoff Bexar, Medina and Uvalde counties, home to San Antonio, Hondo and Uvalde, respectively. The requests also target El Paso County, whose rural lands fall within the district. According to unofficial election results, Gonzales carried Bexar County with 7,917 votes to Herreras 6,800 votes, Herrera carried Medina County with 2,215 votes to Gonzales 2,138 votes, Gonzales carried Uvalde County with 1,312 votes to Herreras 1,052 votes, and Herrera carried El Paso County with 382 votes to Gonzales 266 votes. The race was Gonzales first since his censure by the Texas Republican Party in March last year for taking centrist stances that the more culturally conservative state party found objectionable. More: What's in store for the 2024 Texas Democratic Party Convention in El Paso this week? Gonzales censure came after his opposition to a hardline U.S.-Mexico border bill by U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, and his support for bipartisan gun safety legislation after the Robb Elementary shooting. The censure opened Gonzales to primary challenges, and Herrera was endorsed by the Bexar County GOP and the campaign arm of the U.S. House Freedom Caucus. U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, was the first high-profile name to endorse Herrera, and brought him on stage during a speech at the Texas GOP Convention days before the runoff. U.S. House Republican leadership, Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick backed Gonzales. Herrera is known for this online persona, dubbed the AK Guy, and his irreverent sense of humor in YouTube videos and podcast appearances. His off-color online reputation was seen by some in his party as a liability, but it ended up a significant platform, allowing him to widely spread his message and fundraise hundreds of thousands of dollars. This isnt the end. Im not done fighting. There are plenty of other great Americans who need backup, and lots of places to make a difference, Herrera posted on social media two days after election night. Im not backing down, this is just the end of this particular chapter. Im not going anywhere. This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Brandon Herrera wants recount in runoff against U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales Briahna Joy Gray fired from The Hill days after rolling her eyes at sister of Oct. 7 hostage during interview A political commentator was sacked from The Hill days after rolling her eyes while interviewing the sister of an Israeli abducted on Oct. 7 victim. It finally happened. The Hill has fired me, Briahna Joy Gray wrote on X Thursday. There should be no doubt that @RisingTheHill has a clear pattern of suppressing speech particularly when its critical of the state of Israel. An outlet spokesperson also confirmed to The Post she was no longer employed at The Hill. In a follow-up tweet, Gray said her firing was clearly part of a coordinated effort. The Hill fired political commentator Briahna Joy Gray days after she rolled her eyes at the sister of a Oct. 7 terror attack victim Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Politicon Gray said she had no additional comment when reached by The Post Thursday evening. Gray, Sen. Bernie Sanders former press secretary during the 2020 election, was slammed for her treatment of Yarden Gonen, the sister of Romi Gonen, who was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, during an interview on Tuesday. When Yarden Gonen told Gray that she hopes she believes female victims who say they were sexually assaulted by Hamas terrorists, Gray rolled her eyes and abruptly ended the interview, video shows. I really hope that you, specifically, will believe women when they say that they got hurt, Gonen said. Gray lets out a sigh, appears to roll her eyes and says, All right thanks for joining. Stick around, as Gonen is still trying to get a word in. Gray accused The Hill of being against free speech. x/briebriejoy Romi Gonen, 23, called her mother while she was in a car fleeing the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7 and ambushed by Hamas militants. Her best friend Gaya Halifa, 24, lay dying in front of her. Yarden Gonen told The Hill that the last shed heard about her sister was during the November cease-fire deal, when some released hostages recounted some horrifying things they experienced. The released hostages told her they saw Romi on Oct. 7 being dragged by her hair with a wounded arm. At one point she was knocked unconscious after a militant hit her with his weapon. This is how you treat people? This is how you treat people? Yarden asked on the program. And this is only the things that happened to my little sister on Oct. 7, and from then, we dont know what else. Gonen said she didnt want to talk politics when pressed about the situation in Israel by Gray, telling her that she was only there to tell her sisters story. When Gonen was asked if she felt that Netanyahu was prioritizing his political aspirations over the lives of hostages, she said it was not her profession to comment. I am here to talk about my sister; please, help me spread her story. Help me make people understand what she is going through as a woman in 2024, she said, Grays demeanor during the interview outraged viewers online as the clip circulated on social media. Hen Mazzig, the founder of the Tel Aviv Insitute, wrote The Hills @briebriejoy rolling her eyes and sighing after Yarden Gonen, sister of a hostage in Gaza, asking her to believe rape victims. No low this person wont sink to, truly disgusting, he added. BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. Armenia is ready to finalize the peace agreement with Azerbaijan and sign it within a month, Trend reports via the Armenian Foreign Ministry. On June 5, during a joint press conference with Peter Szijjarto, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov reiterated Azerbaijan's readiness to proceed with the signing of the peace agreement. "We have recently received a revised draft of the peace agreement from the Armenian side, which has reduced the number of remaining open issues. Azerbaijan remains dedicated to the peace process and is prepared to advance to the next stages," Bayramov stated. Stay up-to-date with more news at Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel New York lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow evidence of past sexual offenses to be introduced in sex crimes trials. The bill is named for Harvey Weinstein, the movie mogul whose rape conviction was tossed out by the state Court of Appeals because the trial judge allowed testimony about alleged incidents that were not part of the case. The bill has passed the state Senate, but it has met resistance in the Assembly, where some members have expressed concern it could have a disproportionate impact on men of color. But Assembly member Amy Paulin (DWestchester), one of the bill's sponsors, says those concerns are overblown. "Most rapists that are serial rapists which is what we're talking about here because multiple victims are privileged white men," Paulin said. The post Brickbat: Get 'Em Next Time appeared first on Reason.com. Britains pothole crisis will worsen over the next two years as councils battle a 6.2bn funding gap, the Local Government Association (LGA) has warned. The representative for local authorities said the shortfall was driven by rising costs and a growing demand for services such as adult social care and homelessness. This has left councils with insufficient funds to meet simple requirements for residents, the LGA said, including filling potholes. Essex councillor Kevin Bentley, who is senior vice chairman of the LGA, said: We all rely on local government to keep our streets clean, collect our bins, fix our potholes, build more homes, create jobs, keep children safe and support people of all ages to live fulfilling lives. However, he said the 6.2bn funding gap was creating a growing divide between what communities need and want from their councils and what councils can deliver. Two-thirds of councils have already been forced to reduce a range of neighbourhood services this year, according to a recent survey by the LGA, affecting issues such as waste collection. In a white paper published ahead of the general election, the organisation warned that local authorities budgets would be stretched to the limit without further funding. As a result, it is urging mainstream political parties to commit to providing councils with more cash, while also investing more in preventative services to reduce demand. It came as the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), an independent think tank, warned that local authorities core funding for each resident remains nearly a fifth below 2010 levels in real terms. The think tank said local government funding had been conspicuously absent from the election debate. David Phillips from the IFS said: Given the fundamental role of local government in delivering services, and indeed in our democracy, we have heard remarkably little about council funding in the election campaign. It will certainly be a key issue post-election. Councils have faced growing cost pressures across several key services, the IFS said in a new report. This includes housing, as the number of families forced to live in B&Bs doubled from 2019 to September 2023. Mr Phillips said increasing pressures had made many local authorities finances unsustainable. He said: Some councils have already been pushed to the financial brink and more are likely to follow unless demand and cost pressures abate. While the Government has increased councils funding by 14pc over the last five years, it has failed to offset larger cuts imposed during the austerity years, the IFS added. Councils have also become far more reliant on taxation, with council tax now making up more than half of funding this year compared with just over a third in 2010 to 2011. This has led to many councils imposing cuts, as the IFS found that overall spending on housing was down by a third over the past 14 years. 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. British Prime Minister Rishi Suank apologized Friday after he decided to skip an international event commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day in France so he could record a television interview instead. The rightwing leader did attend a ceremony honoring fallen British troops in Normandy but then missed a larger gathering of heads of state at Omaha beach on Thursday afternoon. ITV News U.K. Editor Paul Brand confirmed in the evening that Sunak had returned to Britain early in order to film an interview with him, adding that the network hadnt asked Sunak to do so and they dont know why that was when the prime minister chose to make time available for the recording. Prince William Takes Place of Sick King Charles at D-Day Commemoration The revelation sparked uproar, in turn prompting Sunak to release a groveling apology statement early Friday. The last thing I want is for the commemorations to be overshadowed by politics, he wrote on X, saying that he cares deeply about veterans and had attended a number of events in Portsmouth and France over the past two days and to meet those who fought so bravely. After the conclusion of the British event in Normandy, I returned back to the UK, Sunak wrote. On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer and I apologise. The error of judgment could hardly have come at a worse time as Sunak fights to avoid his Conservative Party being utterly annihilated in next months general election. The opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmerwho is on track to secure an unprecedented majority, according to recent pollingdid attend the Omaha beach ceremony. Hell have to answer for his own choices, Starmer told Sky News Friday when asked about Sunaks apology. For me, the only choice was to be there. Others were more scathing. Admiral Lord West, the former head of Britains Royal Navy, variously described Sunaks decision on BBC radio as an own goal, a stupid thing, and a considerable cock-up. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. Britains Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has apologized for leaving the 80th anniversary commemorations of D-Day early in order to film a TV interview, a decision that prompted incredulity and further derailed his floundering general election campaign. Sunak attended the first part of the commemorative events in Normandy, France, on Thursday, but skipped the international ceremony at Omaha Beach, which was attended by other world leaders and veterans of the Allied operation in 1944. The last thing I want is for the commemorations to be overshadowed by politics, Sunak wrote in a long apology on X. After the conclusion of the British event in Normandy, I returned back to the UK. On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer and I apologise. But the move had already caused anger and disbelief in Britain, and represented another major miscalculation in Sunaks faltering election campaign. Sunak left the event to record a campaign interview with broadcaster ITV, the network confirmed, in which he defended claims about the opposition Labour Partys tax plans which fact-checkers and a senior civil servant have said were misleading or inaccurate. More than 20 heads of state and government, and representatives from royal families across Europe, attended the international ceremony, which took place on a day of commemoration 80 years after the Allied beach landings in Nazi-occupied France laid the groundwork for the defeat of Germany in World War II. Look, I get the outrage. I get that this is a significant mistake, Sunaks own veterans minister, Johnny Mercer, told UK newspaper The Sun on Friday, while also attacking what he labelled as faux outrage from Sunaks critics. Sunak took part in the early D-Day commemorations, but left halfway through proceedings to film the ITV interview in Britain. - Jane Barlow/PA The UK was represented at the international ceremony by David Cameron, Sunaks foreign secretary and a former prime minister, who took photographs alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden. Also in attendance was Labour leader Keir Starmer, who was filmed speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during the event. Labour was quick to condemn Sunaks decision to skip the events, and the gaffe dominated British news coverage of the election on Friday. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Sunak said that his leaving early was a mistake, but added that its important though, given the enormity of the sacrifice made, that we dont politicize this. The focus should rightly be on the veterans who gave so much, he said, before stating that he will always be proud of our record in supporting veterans here in the UK. Sunaks campaign began with a rain-soaked speech outside Downing Street and has been beset by questionable decision-making and optically damaging events, all while failing to shift a cavernous poll deficit but Thursdays D-Day error felt like the most perplexing and detrimental moment of the campaign so far. He was already batting back accusations from Labour that he lied about the cost of the opposition partys tax plans a topic in the debate he filmed with ITV on Thursday night. The UK Treasury flatly contradicted Sunaks claim in a TV debate Tuesday that its impartial officials had calculated Labour plans would put up everyones taxes by 2,000. Labours policy manifesto has not yet been published, and the party says its agenda is fully costed. Labour leader Keir Starmer greets Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky during the international ceremony. - Benoit Tessier/Reuters ITV News said its team had not specifically requested to speak to the prime minister on Thursday, and that the date was in fact put forward by Sunaks team, despite it falling on the anniversary of D-Day. Today was the slot that we were offered, we dont know why. Obviously its not our choice, but he certainly returned from Normandy ready to dive back into the campaign, ITVs UK Editor Paul Brand, who carried out the interview, stated in an ITV report on Thursday night. Yesterdays D-Day commemorations were about remembering the bravery of all those who serve our country, Jonathan Ashworth, Labours Shadow Paymaster General, said Friday . In choosing to prioritise his own vanity TV appearances over our veterans, Rishi Sunak has shown what is most important to him. Sunak is projected to lose the election on July 4 to Labour by a hefty margin, and his campaign has failed to land a decisive moment that could swing opinion polls in his favor. In recent days his efforts were dealt a further blow when Nigel Farage, an architect of Brexit and a populist thorn in the side of numerous Conservative leaders, announced he would lead the Reform Partys campaign, directly appealing to right-leaning Tory backers to abandon Sunak and vote for his insurgent group. Farage also leapt on Sunaks lapse in judgment, writing on X that the Prime Minister could not even be bothered to attend the international event above Omaha Beach. In another post, he added: Patriotic people who love their country should not vote for him. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak issued a public apology Friday morning after facing backlash over his decision to leave D-Day anniversary commemorations in France early. After the conclusion of the British event in Normandy, I returned back to the UK. On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer and I apologize, Sunak wrote in a post on the social platform X. This anniversary should be about those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. The last thing I want is for the commemorations to be overshadowed by politics. With the United Kingdoms July 4 general election less than a month away, the conservative prime minister reportedly returned to the U.K. Thursday to record an election interview with ITVs Tonight program. Sunak sought to push back on these claims as well as allegations that he planned to skip the anniversary entirely, telling Sky News that the itinerary for D-Day anniversary events was set weeks ago before the general election campaign. Throughout his apology, the incumbent took the opportunity to emphasize his commitment to the armed forces, citing a host of government initiatives his Cabinet has helped establish as well as his attendance at several D-Day events in Portsmouth and France. I will always be proud of our record of supporting veterans here in the U.K., Sunak told reporters. I had the privilege of speaking with many veterans and their families to express my personal gratitude to them for their service to our country, he continued. The British prime minister joined a host of international leaders, including President Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, the invasion that helped turn the tide of World War II. While Sunak attended a Thursday memorial event at Ver-sur-Mer in northern France as well as an earlier ceremony at the British memorial in Normandy alongside King Charles III and surviving World War II veterans, his premature departure has been met with sharp criticism, dealing a blow to his already struggling campaign. Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, who is vying to oust Sunak from office, told Sky News that the prime minister will have to answer for his choice, noting that he himself attended all of Thursdays anniversary events, including a notable international ceremony on Omaha Beach. Meanwhile, Sir Ed Davey, who leads Britains Liberal Democrats Party, described Sunaks return to the campaign trail as a dereliction of duty, going as far to say that the prime minister abandoned those who served during the historic mission on the beaches of Normandy. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Over the last year, several Brockton Public Schools programs have operated out of buildings that the school district leases around the city, like the Brockton Therapeutic Day School and Community Schools located at the Westgate Mall. But Brockton Public Schools now must vacate these leased properties as the school year comes to an end. Before next year, some schools will swap facilities to free up space. One program, however, still doesnt have a home. Brocktons New Beginnings Reengagement Center is currently located in a leased building at the Brockton Fairgrounds and the lease expires this summer. Brockton Public Schools has sent out a request for proposal for a new location to house the reengagement center, but the request is still pending. According to the school district's procurement laws, Brockton Public Schools cant freely renegotiate a new lease with the Fairgrounds without submitting a request for proposal first, Acting Superintendent James Cobbs said. Any property owner in Brockton can respond to the request for proposal if theyd like to house the program, including the Brockton Fairgrounds. The Brockton School Committee held a regular public meeting on May 7, 2024 at Arnone Elementary School. What is the reengagement center? Brockton's reengagement center, known as New Beginnings, officially launched at the start of this school year, but the program has existed in some capacity before then. Brockton Public Schools has been working to connect with Brockton students who dropped out of school, or otherwise haven't been attending school, to bring them back into a school environment. Students who want to come back to school can start by taking classes at the reengagement center. More: Brockton Therapeutic Day School and Edison Day Academy relocating, school committee votes Students can take one or more classes at a time, earning back high school credits and getting back on track to graduate. Students take classes at their own pace and can utilize the staff and resources that the reentry program has to offer. On top of their classwork, students are slowly reintegrated back into the school system, interacting with peers, tutors, adjustment councilors and mentors who help them get used to the social and emotional aspects of going to school. Once a student has earned enough credits and is ready to take on school full time, they'll enroll in one of Brockton Public Schools' pathway programs like the Edison Day Academy. Lydia Bloodsworth receives her diploma and is congratulated by Ward Six School Committee member Joyce Asack during Brockton High School's 158th graduation ceremony on Saturday, June 1, 2024. How common is dropping out? The Brockton School Committee recently passed a resolution urging the state to increase its school dropout age from 16 to 18, which several other school districts across Massachusetts are expected to sign onto. Since 2012, between 150 and 200 Brockton Public Schools students have dropped out every year, ranging from 3% to 5% of the total high school-age enrollment, according to data from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. What is chronic absenteeism? Is absenteeism really worse at Brockton High? We compared it to 8 schools to find out However, state data show that the dropout rate began to increase in 2022 when 224 students, or 5.1%, left the district. In 2023, the dropout rate peaked for the first time since 2011 at 6%, with 245 students exiting of school. Over the last two years, English language learners have had the highest dropout percentage. In 2022, roughly 10% of the district's 1,200 English learners dropped out, while 12.6% of the 1,145 students dropped out in 2023. Where will the reengagement center go? The Brockton School Committee has approved a whole slate of facilities moves going into next school year to make room for the programs and schools that have to vacate leased properties. The committee considered moving the reengagement center to the Jones Building on Summer Street, but the Therapeutic Day School will take that space. Some committee members want to keep New Beginnings at the facility on the Brockton Fairgrounds, but the law requires that Brockton Public Schools seek out bidders to house the program. Brockton Public Schools has not announced if any property owners have responded to the request for proposal yet. This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Brockton Public Schools' reengagement center waiting for a new home We are not taking up items that are not properly before us, including things like the PFAS request, Co-chair Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said. (Screenshot via WisEye) The Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee voted to release $9 million in funding on Thursday that will be used to create a program to help people who were incarcerated transition back into life and a program to boost tourism. The Department of Public Instruction and child care advocates criticized the Republican-led committee for not acting on other funding requests, including money for literacy programs across the state and grants to child care providers. Those are among several funding requests that lawmakers have refused to take up in recent months, including PFAS and hospital funding. Lawmakers approved the release of $4 million for a new reentry program for people who were incarcerated under the Department of Corrections. The agency has been instructed to contract with at least one organization to establish a community reentry center under Wisconsin Act 233, signed into law in March. The center will serve as an initial point of contact for health, identification, financial, housing, employment, education and supervision services for people released from state correctional institutions This is an important pilot project, something that will create a center in Milwaukee that will help folks transition from incarceration, especially people that have been incarcerated for a long time who find a number of challenges in working their way back into the community, and this can be very helpful to them, committee co-chair Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said. I think its a good program and Im hopeful that it will help a lot of folks here in Wisconsin transition. The committee also voted to release $5 million for the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation to establish the Opportunity Attraction and Promotion Fund. The agency was directed to create the program under Wisconsin Act 169. The agency will be able to award grants under the program to help assist with the costs of major opportunities and events that will draw national exposure and drive economic development and visitors to Wisconsin. Under the law, successful applicants will be able to use grant funds to bid against states and jurisdictions outside Wisconsin to attract an event to Wisconsin and to host any events secured through a competitive bid. Were showing confidence WEDC and the Department of Tourism that they can continue to work together to bring things that are going to be beneficial to the state of Wisconsin, Sen. Joan Ballweg (R-Markesan) said during the meeting. Weve heard a lot, now that Top Chef is out there, that they have what they call the halo effect. It isnt just that the programs are going on. Its that people across the country are now seeing great things that they can do when they come to visit Wisconsin. Rep. Deb Andraca (D-Whitefish Bay) criticized Republicans for only releasing $5 million half the $10 million set aside in the 2023-25 budget, which WEDC requested. If this proposal were on Top Chef, Id probably ask it to pack its knives and go, Andraca said. Its half of what theyre asking for and well get half of the benefit. Rep. Alex Dallman (R-Green Lake) said lawmakers would only be releasing $5 million since Wisconsin is already about halfway through the current biennial budget. This seems like its appropriate, Dallman said of the amount the committee doled out, adding that he was happy to get the program started and be able to see how successful it is for the future. Child care, literacy, PFAS, hospitals not on the calendar The money released on Thursday is just a fraction of the funding requests that have been submitted to the committee in recent months. Republicans have refused to release several of those requests, including $125 million for PFAS funding, almost $50 million for literacy programs and $15 million to support hospitals in western Wisconsin. The continued delays in the release of funding prompted recurring discussion Thursday. We are not taking up items that are not properly before us, including things like the PFAS request, Born said at a press conference ahead of the meeting. Obviously, the governor vetoed that bill. Thats on him. Child care advocates were the first to bring attention to recent delays, noting that a recent funding request to support the Child Care Counts program was not on the committee calendar. The same week JFC received the request for the tourism funds, the Evers administration also requested the release of $15 million that would go to support grants through the Child Care Counts program. While the finance committees Republican majority originally budgeted the money for a revolving loan program, Gov. Tony Evers used his partial veto to turn it into a grant program. The Wisconsin Care Coalition, which includes child care providers and other advocacy organizations, urged lawmakers to release the funding, saying it would help centers provide care to children and help families afford care. All we are asking is for the Joint Finance Committee to fulfill that funding allocation that was passed into law, the coalition said in a statement. Everyday child care centers across Wisconsin are having to make decisions on whether to stay open or to close permanently. The Child Care Counts program has provided a critical lifeline, but because of inaction by the state legislature those funds have been cut by 50%. Following the meeting, State Superintendent Jill Underly called on Republicans to release funding to implement new state literacy programs under Wisconsin Act 20, signed into law almost a year ago. Of the $50 million budgeted, only $327,400, to support the Director of the Office of Literacy, has been released so far. State lawmakers and Evers are suing each other over the literacy programs, also stalling the funding. In their lawsuit, GOP lawmakers argue that the legislation was not an appropriations law and therefor did not allow Evers to use his partial veto power to eliminate language. Their suit asks the court to bar DPI from spending the money as if Evers veto stands. Meanwhile, Evers has sued, arguing that the Legislature is improperly withholding the money. Every day of delay makes it increasingly difficult to meet the requirements of Act 20 a bipartisan law designed to help Wisconsin kids learn to read and our children are the ones who will pay the price, Underly said in a statement. We have been working in partnership with the legislature throughout this process, and I know our shared goal is to improve literacy education and outcomes for all Wisconsin students. This week, we announced the hire of a Literacy Director to keep moving this work forward, Underly continued. We renew our call on the Joint Committee on Finance to release the allocated funding so we can meet our shared goal helping kids learn to read, so they can read to learn. Battling with memos A dispute about the ability of the Joint Finance Committee to release already budgeted funds to address PFAS contamination and health care needs in the Chippewa Valley also escalated Thursday. On Wednesday, Sen. Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton), the Senate minority leader, traded attacks with Born and Marklein over a Wisconsin Legislative Council memo that states the committee could release those funds. The memo also included a caveat about hypothetical court rulings that might block such action as a result of veto decisions a prospect that the GOP JFC co-chairs have cited in defending their refusal to release the money. On Thursday, Sen. Jeff Smith (D-Brunswick) and Rep. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire) released a Legislative Reference Bureau memo identifying times when the JFC had released money on budget items despite partial vetoes. The 88-page memo identified 10 instances in which the committee had gone ahead with action on items that were partially vetoed by Governors [Scott] Walker and Evers since 2011. The instances were initially identified by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, according to the reference bureau memo. The memo included individual budget items, the language that governors had removed with the partial veto, the fiscal bureaus budgetary paper for the JFC when it put the item on its agenda, and the minutes of the JFCs subsequent action. In their statement, Smith and Emerson focused on $15 million set aside to address hospital closures in Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls. Evers used his partial veto power to remove a restriction in the original legislation that limited the money to bolstering emergency services in Eau Claire and Chippewa counties. Republicans want people to think they cant release the $15 million, but in fact theyve done it at least ten times in recent history, Smith said in the joint statement. Lets make this abundantly clear it is a deliberate choice by Republicans to not release these funds, Emerson stated. They noted that Born and Marklein in a joint statement Wednesday had specifically pointed to a sue-happy Evers in arguing that their fear of being sued for releasing the money was justified. This is the weirdest and saddest excuse yet cowering about litigation from the Governor for doing what he requested I mean, come on, Smith said. The excuses are beyond ridiculous at this point. Theyve done it before just do it again. The post Budget committee releases $9 million for reentry programs and tourism appeared first on Wisconsin Examiner. Bundestag approves purchase of additional 155-mm shells, in particular for Ukraine The Budget Committee of the Lower House of the German parliament, the Bundestag, has approved the purchase of additional 155-mm artillery shells. Source: European Pravda; German Defence Ministry This decision should allow Germany to continue providing Ukraine with the necessary ammunition and replenish German reserves, the report says. Quote: "Now a German defence company has agreed on the production and supply of thousands of shells to provide further support to Ukraine and replenish the countrys own ammunition reserves," the ministry reports. These shells are primarily intended for Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled howitzers, 22 units of which Germany has provided to Ukraine. The Defence Ministry indicates that 880 million will be allocated for these needs from the Bundeswehr's special fund and the defence budget. The Budget Committee also approved amendments to the framework agreement with the defence contractor, which allows other countries to join it. Reuters reported that the German army intends to order 200,000 more artillery shells from the arms manufacturer Rheinmetall than it had planned, which will cost the government 880 million. Rheinmetall already has a deal worth 1.2 billion for several hundred thousand shells, fuses and warheads. A letter from the German Defence Ministry to the parliaments budget committee says that by placing the order, the German Defence Ministry also wants Rheinmetall to be able to install a new production line in the town of Unterluss in the country's centre. Background: Rheinmetall is investing more than 180 million in the construction of an ammunition production plant in Lithuania. Prior to that, the company received a large order for artillery ammunition from a NATO member country, worth almost 300 million. Meanwhile, Rheinmetall will receive more than 130 million from the European Union to increase ammunition production. Support UP or become our patron! BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address a joint session of the US Congress on July 24, US House Speaker Mike Johnson said, Trend reports. According to information, last week Netanyahu received an official invitation to speak in Congress. Netanyahu reportedly views the speech as an opportunity to present Israel's military case on the world stage. It was previously reported that the performance would take place on June 13, but the prime minister rejected this idea since it fell on the second day of the month of Shavuot. Burbank police say severely distressed homeless man was taken to L.A. voluntarily The Burbank Police Department came under fire Friday after video was released that purportedly showed two officers dropping off a severely distressed unhoused man in front of Los Angeles City Council President Paul Krekorians office in L.A. Krekorian shared the video shortly after he filed a motion with the L.A. City Council calling for an investigation and possible legal action against both the city of Burbank and the Burbank PD. The video, which was taken Thursday at the Council District 2 office on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood, shows a Burbank PD vehicle pull up and park in front of the building. Two police officers then get out of the vehicle and open the rear door and remove a man who appears to be handcuffed. One officer removes the handcuffs and the man is seen shouting and visibly distraught as the officers return to their vehicle. They then drive away, leaving the man behind as he drops to the ground. Video shared by L.A. City Council President Paul Krekorian purportedly shows two Burbank police officers drop off a distressed homeless man in L.A. jurisdiction on June 6, 2024. Video shared by L.A. City Council President Paul Krekorian purportedly shows two Burbank police officers drop off a distressed homeless man in L.A. jurisdiction on June 6, 2024. Video shared by L.A. City Council President Paul Krekorian purportedly shows two Burbank police officers drop off a distressed homeless man in L.A. jurisdiction on June 6, 2024. Video shared by L.A. City Council President Paul Krekorian purportedly shows two Burbank police officers drop off a distressed homeless man in L.A. jurisdiction on June 6, 2024. Video shared by L.A. City Council President Paul Krekorian purportedly shows two Burbank police officers drop off a distressed homeless man in L.A. jurisdiction on June 6, 2024. In a news release issued Friday, Krekorian said his staff was eventually able to locate the man who was left by police and get him in connection with medical care. The man, whose name is being withheld, recently became homeless and was living outside of L.A. Krekorian called the behavior of the officers inhumane and inexcusable. We in Los Angeles have worked long and hard to bring our unhoused neighbors off the streets by building interim shelters, tiny homes, navigation centers, and supportive housing. Meanwhile, neighboring jurisdictions have simply removed unhoused people from their streets and dumped them on ours, said Krekorian. The Council President continued by saying that city officials have known for years that neighboring cities were bringing homeless people into L.A. city limits and leaving them behind. Here is the proof, he said as he showed the video to the media during a press conference Friday. In the City Council motion filed Friday, Krekorian called for the L.A. City Attorney, Los Angeles County District Attorney and the California Attorney General to investigate this latest incident, as well as the alleged ongoing practice of transporting unhoused individuals from one city and leaving them in another. Homelessness is a regional crisis and the City cannot address it alone, Krekorians motion reads. Following the release of the video, Burbank Mayor Nick Schultz released a statement on social media in which he stated that the city takes the concerns raised by Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Krekorian seriously. He released a longer response Friday evening that says in part: Burbanks foremost priority is to provide our unhoused residents with the support and resources necessary to transition from the streets into stable and secure living conditions We greatly value our relationship with the City of Los Angeles and are dedicated to enhancing communication and collaboration to effectively address this issue and all homelessness-related matters. Burbank Mayor Nick Schultz Police say ride was voluntary Around 5:30 p.m. Friday evening, the Burbank Police Department released its own news release in which it stated officers were giving the man shown in the video a voluntary ride. A police spokesperson said officers initially responded to the area of Buena Vista Street and Alameda Avenue around 8:45 a.m. for a report of a naked man sitting at a bus stop, not far from Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center. Officers asked the individual if he needed assistance. The individual said he was homeless and had been transported to the hospital from the Sunland/Tujunga area. The individual said he had a leg injury he had suffered many years ago, and officers learned he had left the hospital voluntarily prior to the officers arrival, the release states. The individual declined any medical services. Police officials said the officers believed the man was lucid and communicative when they contacted him, but said he turned down an offer for clothing because he already had his own clothes. The officers purportedly offered the man a ride to the place of his choosing in exchange for him getting dressed. He voluntarily got into the patrol vehicle and was driven towards the Metro [B] Line station. Along the way, the individual asked to be let out of the patrol vehicle to get coffee. The officers complied immediately with his request, pulled over, and let the individual out of the patrol vehicle in the 5200 block of Lankershim Boulevard, the release states. Police officials say the incident is being investigated thoroughly, with interviews and a review of all available camera footage expected to take place to determine what exactly happened that led to the man being driven to L.A. The Burbank Police Department remains committed to treating the unhoused community with compassion and respect, and thanks Los Angeles City Council President Paul Krekorian for bringing this matter to our attention, the release concludes. Editors Note: KTLA reached out to the Burbank Police Department for comment prior to publishing the original story and did not receive a response until the official news release was issued. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. Police in Burlington, Vermont, released an apology Thursday after performing a mock shooting drill that one student said left her shaking and crying. During a presentation to Burlington High students at the citys police headquarters, officers role-played a robbery, with a person running into the room with a mask and gunshot noises amplified in the room. In the statement, the police emphasized they communicated with the school district what the demonstration would look like and the use of fake firearms they were planning to use. Do you think that sort of incident would be ok for your group of students? It is about as real life as you can get, and is certainly exactly the sort of thing we deal with most frequently, police asked the school officials, according to the statement. YES Program staff responded, I think these students will be fine with this simulation. We will give a heads up to parents and students,' the statement continued. But some students believed the shooting was real, with one anonymously telling local outlet Seven Days they scraped their knee diving to the ground when they heard the fake gunshots. Im shaking and crying because Im like, Oh my god, Im gonna get shot, another student anonymously told the outlet. It felt so real. The police apologized to any students in attendance who were upset by the specific scenario and crime scene portion of the presentation. A school district official told VTDigger school administrators had been aware that a reenactment would occur, but didnt realize the presentation would happen without warning. The Hill has reached out to the school district for comment. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. A Winter Park woman accused of taunting and slowly suffocating her boyfriend while he was zipped in a suitcase lashed out at her court-appointed attorney Friday the latest of eight lawyers she has run through. Sarah Boone, 46, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Jorge Torres Jr. the night of Feb. 23, 2020. She pleaded not guilty saying he ended up in the suitcase when they were playing hide-and-seek and has been held in Orange County Jail without bond since early 2020. She has a nasty attitude and I do not trust her, Boone told Circuit Court Judge Michael Kraynick about her lawyer, Patricia Cashman of Orlando. I dont understand what it is that she has against me. I have told her from day one that her snotty attitude was inappropriate. And I try very hard to bear with her and her attitude. But Cashman shot back at her clients false allegations. Cashman said, for example, that Boone walked out of two separate video teleconferences they held to discuss defense strategy since April, when she took on the case. She also said Boone calls her from the jail repeatedly. She has lots of lists, lots of questions, Cashman said. I will take in the collect phone calls from her that are at my expense [Floridas state court system] doesnt reimburse. But I think its important to give clients access to their attorneys. Just wrong: Elections chief gets $180k contract from Disney district on top of $205k elections salary | Commentary Cashman has plenty of company in encountering difficulties representing Boone. Previous attorneys appointed by the court to represent Boone have stated their frustrations about working with her. At this point, were at that impasse that if she walks out of every conference that I have with her, Im not sure what that says about the attorney-client relationship, Cashman said to the judge. During the hearing, Boone handed Kraynick a manila envelope containing a 58-page letter with a list of concerns regarding Cashman and questions about the case. Among those concerns: She wants to take a more active role in her defense and has urged Cashman several times to file a motion for a bond hearing. She also has requested her cellphone and medical records but hasnt received them. Boone added that she has dumbed herself down to talk and coexist with Cashman. I dont just sit around and eat bonbons and watch soap operas all day, she said. I fully apply myself at all times. But she constantly wastes my time because shes not going to explain anything to me I really worry about having a fair trial at this point. In February 2020, Boone told Orange County investigators her boyfriends death inside the suitcase resulted from them drinking and playing hide-and-seek in the apartment they shared. But investigators later found her cellphone videos that showed Torres trapped inside the suitcase on the floor and repeatedly yelling he could not breathe. Torres seemed to desperately try opening the suitcase as the video shows it shaking. Yeah, thats what you do when you choke me, Boone replied as he struggled, according to an Orange County Sheriffs Office report. Boone later went to sleep and found Torres dead the next morning, according to authorities. During the hearing, Boone called her criminal charges an adventure that God has given her and shes not the malicious murderer that everyone thinks that I am. Kraynick said he would review Boones letter after sharing it with prosecutors and Cashman. He said in the coming days he would either issue a ruling or schedule a hearing before trial to address Boones concerns. Still, Boone stopped short of asking Kraynick to remove Cashman from her case. If you could just please let her know to just please be nice to me and have a welcoming attitude, she said to the judge regarding Cashman. State prosecutors made no comments about Boones criticisms of her attorney during the half-hour hearing. Kraynick set a jury trial for Oct. 7 at the Orange County Courthouse in downtown Orlando. State prosecutors and Cashman said the trial should last about five days. mcomas@orlandosentinel.com Byron Donalds walks back remarks on segregation, says he doesn't think "Jim Crow was great" Trump surrogate and vice presidential hopeful Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., is trying to walk back his claim that Black Americans had it better when segregation was still being imposed, falsely claiming his words are being twisted. In an interview with MSNBC host Joy Reid, Donalds, who is Black, denied making the remarks in question. I never said that it was better for Black people in Jim Crow, he insisted. [Theyre] saying I was being nostalgic or saying that Jim Crow was good for Black people, thats all political spin, its a lie, its gaslighting and thats truly unfortunate." Donalds maintained that his comments were only meant to refer to marriage rates, which have declined over the decades. But at an event earlier this week in Philadelphia, aimed at promoting the Trump campaign to Black voters, Donalds said the era of segregation was also better politically. "You see, during Jim Crow, during Jim Crow, the Black family was together," he told an audience, cigar in hand, at the event. "During Jim Crow more Black people were not just conservative, Black people have always been conservative-minded, but more Black people voted conservatively." Reid challenged Donalds' original claim, noting that segregation was a time of racist violence. The man in the Jim Crow era had no rights," Reid said Thursday. "Could not protect his wife from rape, could not protect his son from lynching. She also rebutted Donalds' claim of victimhood. You said Jim Crow three times for emphasis," she noted. "It wasnt the media or the Democrats or gaslighters who brought up Jim Crow. It was you. You brought up Jim Crow." After repeated interruptions, Reid pressed on: If a Black man, a Black father, could not protect his wife, his son, or himself from lynching and violence, how is him being in the home mean that that is an era that was better for the Black family or that we should think of as a good thing? Donalds insisted he wasn't praising everything about the era of state-sanctioned discrimination. Dont try to impose that the marriage rates were better higher, higher I want to be clear higher in the Jim Crow era to mean that I think Jim Crow was great, Donalds said. That is a lie, that is gaslighting. I would never say such a thing. Donalds Tuesday comments were not taken lightly and sparked criticism from Black congressional leaders, such as Rep. Steve Horsford, D-Nev., who is the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. He called on Donalds to apologize for misrepresenting one of the darkest chapters in our history for his own political gain." California Democrats are facing blowback from Republicans over amendments to a package of retail theft bills that would void them if voters approve a ballot measure changing portions of Proposition 47. Assembly Republican leader James Gallagher of Yuba City and Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones of San Diego on Thursday sent a letter to Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, and Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, saying the amendments threaten to do grave damage to the bipartisan progress we have made with the retail theft package. The poison pill amendments specifically, an urgency clause and the automatic repeal of retail theft bills should voters adopt the (ballot) initiative undermine these efforts, the letter said. These amendments set a dangerous precedent, forcing our constituents into a false choice between legislative reforms and necessary modifications to Proposition 47. Republicans are angry about amendments Democrats want to add to some bills that would cause them to take effect immediately after Gov. Gavin Newsom signs them and would repeal them if voters approve the ballot measure in November. Its unclear whether Republican influence will do much damage to the measures in a Legislature with a Democratic supermajority. But it shows ballot measure backers may be concerned about whether the bill package could affect support for their initiative. Nick Miller, a Rivas spokesman, said leaders dont plan to add the repeal amendments to all the bills. For example, they wouldnt amend Assembly Bill 1972 from Assemblyman Juan Alanis, R-Modesto, which expands the regional property crimes task force to include cargo theft. Retail theft politics Democrats in recent months have put forward dozens of bills meant to address retail theft. The package is Rivas and McGuires answer to the initiative changing Proposition 47. The 2014 voter-approve initiative reduced penalties for some drug and theft crimes. It set a $950 threshold for misdemeanor shoplifting, which some attribute to a perceived uptick in retail theft. Some of the bills in the retail package mirror aspects of the ballot measure. However, a key difference is a provision in the initiative that would increase penalties for someone convicted of shoplifting who has two or more prior theft-related convictions. Leaders goal is to get the bill package to the governor during the next two weeks, Miller said. The amendments would allow Democrats to head off the ballot measure by immediately enacting their policies, which may satisfy some groups clamoring for increased theft penalties, such as the California Retailers Association. The repeal amendments could push those who support the legislation over the initiative to lean on proponents to remove it from the ballot. Rachel Michelin, president of the Retailers Association, said Republicans reaction is a little bit of an admission that the package is a strong package. In a statement, Miller said Republicans threats to pull support represents political grandstanding. He said the amendments will ensure that there are no conflicts and inconsistencies in policies that move forward, no matter what voters decide. McGuire said in a statement that these 14 (Senate) bills that will move next week arent about partisan politics, theyre about keeping the people of California safe. The measures are set for hearings in the Assembly and Senate Public Safety committees next week. Retailers boxed in by changes Rivas and McGuire are rushing the retail theft measures ahead of a June 27 ballot measure qualification deadline. Californians for Safer Communities, a group pushing changes to Proposition 47, will likely see their initiative the Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act cleared to go before voters in November. The legislative leaders and Newsom oppose the ballot measure, saying they can address retail theft without going to voters with substantial Proposition 47 changes. Their package attempts to address the concerns of the big box store chains that have backed the ballot measure. But Californians for Safer Communities has continued to push the initiative, insisting its changes are necessary. The amendments seem intended to add stakes to the ballot measure and potentially act as a negotiating stick. Michelin of the Retailers Association said she has long backed an urgency clause enacting the retail theft bills immediately. But she is kind of boxed in by the amendment repealing them if the ballot measure passes. Were supporting the package, she said. Im just hopeful that we are going to be able to find some kind of conclusion that we can get that out between now and by the time these bills get to the governors desk. Michelin said her group and the California District Attorneys Association, which backs the ballot measure, met with Assembly leadership on Monday and learned of the amendments then. She said shes frustrated, because this shouldnt be a political game. Now its all blown up because everyones using it for politics, Michelin said. Which I think, at the end of the day, is nothing really to do about putting tools in the toolbox to combat retail theft. Reality Check is a Bee series holding officials and organizations accountable and shining a light on their decisions. Have a tip? Email realitycheck@sacbee.com. At first glance, California Latino lawmakers seemed united against President Joe Bidens action Tuesday to bar migrants from receiving asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. As the Chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus, I urge President Joe Biden to remember the promises he made and reconsider implementing an asylum ban, Democratic Assemblywoman Sabrina Cervantes said in a statement on behalf of the group. The reality is much more complicated. Not all of the groups 35 legislative members have come out strongly against the order. In fact, more than two-thirds of them declined to even state if they supported or opposed the policy when contacted by The Sacramento Bee this week. Their varied, and cautious, views are a sign of a nationwide shift in how Americans feel about immigration. The change is evident even among Latinos, some of whom are undocumented or are the children and grandchildren of immigrants. Take Sen. Melissa Hurtado, a Democrat from the Bakersfield area and the daughter of Mexican immigrants. In an interview, she said her feelings are more nuanced than the groups statement. She did not agree with the demand for Biden to reverse the ban, saying it could provide a short-term solution to a severely broken immigration system. At the same time, she said it was not a long-term fix. The country, she added, needs to have a more humane pathway for people who are fleeing their homes seeking asylum. Im not 100% on board with the Latino Caucus (statement), but Im not 100% on board with the action in itself, Hurtado said. I think that a lot of people are feeling that way as well. When asked if she supported or opposed the policy, Democratic Sen. Caroline Menjivar of the San Fernando Valley said: Are you allowed to put 0.5 on each one? She worries the ban will impose barriers for asylum seekers. But also acknowledged the country currently lacks the resources to process all the migrants seeking help. Part of the hesitation from other Latino lawmakers to speak out is likely influenced by the fact that it comes during just months before the general election. Beyond that, the race features former President Donald Trump and his ardent anti-immigrant beliefs, said Fernando Guerra, a political science and international relations professor at Loyola Marymount University. He argued that some Democrats remain quiet on the matter to not undermine the presidents efforts to thwart Trumps message on immigration. Elected officials, particularly Latino ones, he said, are engaging in a subtle dance. If this was, six to eight months ago, or six to eight months from now, Guerra said, youll get a very different reaction. Recent polls show that U.S. Latinos are deeply concerned with the border and are in favor of strong restrictions, including giving the president authority to shut it down during a surge in migrants. That said, California has long led the nation in pro-immigrant legislation, given its high number of foreign born Latinos and a decades long history of pushing back against restrictive immigration policies. Bidens order keeps restrictions in place until the number of migrants crossing the southern border drops below a certain level. In comments Biden made while signing the policy, he tried to distance himself from Trump, saying he would not demonize immigrants or separate children from their families. Still, 10 caucus members expressed opposition to Bidens action in statements to The Bee. The comments ranged in their degree of disapproval including that of caucus vice chair Sen. Lena Gonzalez of Long Beach. Gonzalez, a Democrat, released a separate statement. Her comments did not urge the president to reverse his action. While I understand the Presidents desire to tackle this issue in light of the Congresss inaction, Gonzalez wrote, it is imperative to adopt a comprehensive approach that does not unfairly impact individuals seeking asylum. A spokeswoman for Gonzalez did not respond to a question asking why the vice chairs name was not on the caucus statement, alongside the chair. A spokesperson for the group pointed to past statements in which Cervantes commented solely on behalf of the caucus. Staff for 23 lawmakers did not respond to requests to comment, said they were not able to meet a deadline or declined to state their view of the decision altogether. That included the office of Robert Rivas, a Central Coast Democrat and the top lawmaker in the Assembly. Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia, a Democrat whose district runs along the border, said he was surprised the action was taken, adding there are a lot of other pressing issues. His views aligned with the statement issued by Cervantes, on behalf of the caucus, Garcia said. As a nation, we cannot afford to return to Trump-era immigration policies that threaten the lives of refugees or delegitimize migrants for the sake of political expediency, Cervantes, who represents the Riverside area, said in the statement. These policies would only criminalize the fundamentally human act of fleeing from violence, torture, or oppression. Mike Madrid, an expert on Latino voting trends, sees a double standard in how Democratic Latino lawmakers are reacting to Bidens order. If this were Donald Trump, they would be lighting their hair on fire and marching down K Street, he said. The Bee also reached out to all four Republican Latinos in the Legislature who are barred from joining the caucus because of their party affiliation. Three did not respond to a request for comment. Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, a Republican representing the San Bernardino area, is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. In a statement, she supported Bidens action and felt it could have been done sooner. Regardless of their political party, Madrid called the differing views on the policy an extraordinary moment for Latino politicians across the country. Now, what youre seeing is a true reflection of the community, where some members are coming out in support of it, he said. Some members are coming out opposed to it. Most of them are hiding under the covers because they dont know what to do. This article was originally published in CalMatters. In January, the University of California Board of Regents broke the hearts of undocumented students by halting a proposal to allow them to work on campus. A few days later, David Alvarez had a plan. The Democratic assemblymember from Chula Vista huddled with student organizers and decided to draft a bill to compel the UC, as well as the community colleges and California State University, to do what the UC regents would not. Federal law prohibits employers from hiring anyone who is undocumented, but Alvarezs Assembly Bill 2586 says Californias public colleges and universities should be exempt and allowed to hire undocumented students for on-campus jobs. The approach rests on an untested legal theory backed by law scholars at UCLA and 27 other prominent academics. Its based on the argument that a pivotal federal employment law from 1986 doesnt apply to state agencies, including public colleges and universities. Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Assemblymember Sabrina Cervantes, a Corona Democrat and chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus, has introduced a similar bill addressing just the UC that, if passed, would be taken to CA voters in the form of a ballot measure. Both bills are priorities of the Latino Caucus. We wouldnt have to do this if the federal government actually did their job and passed immigration reform, said Alvarez in an interview with CalMatters. Instead of working on-campus jobs like their peers, undocumented students must seek employment as independent contractors or find under-the-table jobs, where some students say labor exploitation is rampant. If Alvarezs bill prevails, an estimated 60,000 undocumented students could benefit. Last May, the UC Board of Regents promised to study the plan to allow undocumented students to work. In January, the regents reversed course, voting 10 to 6 to delay any implementation by a year. The decision gutted student advocates, who sobbed in the public meeting space, castigated the regents and reverted to an agonizing square one in which they lacked the legal right to work. Alvarezs bill cleared its first hurdle in April, but it faces a bigger test tomorrow during an opaque legislative process known as the suspense file, in which members of the appropriations committee decide in relative secrecy whether bills with a price tag advance or die. A committee analysis says the bill could cost California a few million dollars to implement these hiring changes and to handle the legal fees, should someone decide to sue a college or university for hiring undocumented students. Those costs could become a large obstacle as the state battles multi-year budget deficits in the tens of billions of dollars. How much of an impact the bill would have on undocumented students is an open question: Most students regardless of their immigration status work off campus. Federal law is clear that private employers must follow the employment ban. The bills by Alvarez and Cervantes do not extend to the many other state agencies where undocumented students could work after graduation and earn competitive wages. It is not fair For Alvarez, the bill is a continuation of Californias commitment to make college affordablefor undocumented students. Already the state extends tuition waivers, grants and loans to these students, but theyre barred from receiving federal dollars. A campus job would allow them to cover the difference when financial aid falls short; it would help them with major expenses like housing, transportation and food. Im out here fighting for the right to be given the opportunity to apply to a job on campus, said Karely Amaya Rios in April to a panel of lawmakers. The 23-year-old is a graduate student at UCLA and has a pending job offer from a professor to help him write a book and teach his immigrant rights courses. Though shes lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years, shes undocumented and ineligible for the job. It is not fair, she said. Rios previously told CalMatters that she cobbles together enough money to cover rent and food costs by babysitting and selling clothes at a swap meet with her mother. She also receives some scholarships and stipends. I fear that all of you do not understand how disappointing and gut-wrenching it feels to be denied my humanity and my right to access the same opportunities as my peers, added Fatima Zeferino, an undocumented Cal State Long Beach student, at the April hearing. Cervantes proposed constitutional amendment would target just the UC, a potentially necessary move because the UC is constitutionally independent. The Legislatures bills can rarely force the system to do something. Still, Alvarezs office believes the UC would be bound by his bill, his district director, Lisa Schmidt, wrote in an email. She added that even if it were not formally bound it would comply with the law once the Cal State and (community colleges) were doing so. Why public colleges are worried The UC isnt formally opposed to the bill, but its government relations office wrote a letter to lawmakers warning the bill could expose UC hiring managers to civil and criminal prosecution and jeopardize the billions of dollars in federal research grants the university receives. Alvarez bristled at one objection the UC raised: that the bill as law could expose undocumented students and their families to the possibility of criminal prosecution or deportation. He called that borderline offensive to students who already have to navigate the legal complexities of their immigration status outside of school. Alvarez cited his own experience as a child born in the U.S. living in fear of what would happen to his undocumented parents. They were eventually granted legal status through the same 1986 federal law that now bars undocumented residents from working. Hovering in plain sight is the concern that a potential Trump White House would wage an aggressive legal attack on the university. It would potentially repeat a judicial system showdown that saw the university successfully sue to block Trumps attempts to end job protections for undocumented workers who came to the country when they were young. That previous legal saga involved the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, but federal courts have since halted the federal governments ability to accept new applications. The UC Office of the President never appeared persuaded by the legal argument put forward by the UCLA scholars. It sought outside legal opinion, and the conclusion was that the plan wouldnt be legally viable, a regent told CalMatters in January. UCs April letter to legislators underscored that worry: However, after receiving advice from both inside and outside legal counsel, we concluded that there were considerable risks for the University and the students we aim to support. Ahilan Arulanantham, one of the two UCLA legal scholars behind the theory that state agencies are exempt from the federal rule barring undocumented residents from working, sought to assure lawmakers in April that no hiring manager could be prosecuted if universities began hiring undocumented students. The risk that people would actually be criminally prosecuted for following state law is, in my view, vanishingly small, he said then. And were not aware of any example where people have been criminally prosecuted by the federal government for following a law that they were required to follow as a matter of the state. More likely is that the state would be sued and the matter would play out in courts, Arulanantham said. If the universities lost that lawsuit and they still kept trying to hire people, of course that would present a different question. The states attorney general would defend the campuses in those suits, Alvarez said. The press office of the attorney general wouldnt comment on Arulananthams legal argument or whether the attorney general would defend the campuses in a possible suit. Cal State has issued no position, though it reiterated another point the UC made: The bill could have consequences on the federal aid the CSU and our students receive, wrote Amy Bentley-Smith, a spokesperson for Cal State. The fear isnt unfounded. When the UC system weighed the issue, Republican Congressman Darell Issa wrote a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsomasking that he please inform Congress how the system intends to refund its current federal funding, as well as provide a detailed estimate of the fiscal impact to students by foregoing future federal assistance. Can community college students benefit? While the legal risk of the bill looms large, the impact of the legislation on undocumented students may be limited in scope. Thats because the majority of undocumented students attend community college. The Cal State system has fewer undocumented students, and the UC campuses have the least, according to estimates from each system. Yet community college students are the least likely to work on-campus jobs. When they do work, only 7% of them have a campus job, according to an analysis provided by California Student Aid Commission. The rates are higher at Cal State and UC campuses, where 16% of working students at Cal State and about half of working students at the UC are employed on campus. Many community college students work full time in the private sector, whereas campus jobs typically restrict students to no more than 20 hours a week. The hourly limit comes from research that says working more hurts students grades. Over the past six years, Jerry Reyes has studied at Reedley College, just south of Fresno, though he left at various points. Hes undocumented and ineligible for DACA, which offers temporary work permits for undocumented youth. He worked anyway, taking a job at an agricultural packaging house, where he made around $15 an hour. They didnt really ask about his immigration status, he said. Better jobs are hard to find, he said. I just ignore potential opportunities because I know theyre just going to turn me away because of my status. After a brief stint at San Francisco State, he returned to Reedley College, where hes pursuing a new major in business administration and serving as a trustee on the community college districts board. The position is supposed to pay $375 per month, but he said the district wont compensate him because of his immigration status. Its frustrating, Reyes said, to watch others get paid for student jobs when he does the same amount of work. He supports Alvarezs bill but he wants a broader solution too. A lot of these (undocumented) students dont work campus jobs, he said, and even the jobs they take dont pay as well. Alvarez said hed consider future legislation to open job opportunities in other sectors too, but not before passing this legislation. Look, this is already a heavy lift, he said. Its not going to be easy. This story was originally published on CalMatters. Mark William Anten, 52, of Sun Valley, Calif., was found guilty Wednesday of sending threatening messages to the FBI. He is to be sentenced Sept. 13 on two counts of threats by interstate communication. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI June 6 (UPI) -- A 52-year-old California man has been found guilty of sending threatening messages to the FBI that included references to Unabomber Theodore John Kaczynski, the Justice Department said. Following a three-day trial, Mark William Anten, 52, of Sun Valley, Calif., was convicted Wednesday on two counts of threats by interstate communication, and faces a maximum of five years' imprisonment for each offense. He is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 13. Anten was accused of sending the FBI emails prosecutors described as increasingly threatening between July 2023 and his arrest Dec. 21. Authorities said the messages included repeated references to Kaczynski, whose 20-year bombing spree killed three people and injured nearly two dozen more while setting America on edge. The Chicago native was arrested by FBI agents who raided his Montana shack on April 3, 1996, following a tip from his brother. Prosecutors said that before Anten's arrest, two FBI officers interviewed him on Nov. 20, 2023, at his residence and warned him to stop sending the messages, but he only escalated his threats, with prosecutors stating that on Dec. 5 of that year he sent the FBI agents an email declaring "I am the Unabomer" and that he will "Unabomb the Los Angeles FBI HQ." He emailed the agents a message with a photograph of a Internet search for "how to make a dirty bomb" on Dec. 6 -- the same day he visited the FBI Los Angles Field Office, which was caught on surveillance cameras. "I can go on a mass murder spree. In fact it would be very explainable by your actions," he said in the email, which signed "SupreMax or Death," according to prosecutors. "This verdict should make clear that the Justice Department has no tolerance for threats of violence against the FBI," Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said Thursday in a statement. Kaczynski pleaded guilty in 1998 to sending 16 bombs in the mail during his crime spree that began in 1978 and ended in 1995. He died a year ago this coming Monday as he was serving eight life sentences. A California man was sentenced in Tacoma on Thursday to 66 months in prison and four years of supervised release for dealing fentanyl and laundering drug money in Washington, as well as smuggling people across the U.S. and Mexico border. U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman announced Friday that 28-year-old Andre Jackson had been identified as a key distributor of narcotics in the Kitsap County and Pierce County areas. At the sentencing hearing, Chief U.S. District Judge David G. Estudillo said, Drug dealing is of course dangerous and when you engage in human smuggling, you were making money off of vulnerable people. According to records filed in the case, Jackson was in contact with a Mexican-based source of supply named Pacheco. Working at Pachecos direction, Jackson coordinated the delivery of drugs from California to Washington before sending the drug proceeds back to Pacheco and his associates in Mexico. At times, Jackson would deliver drugs in person from California to Washington. In one instance, Jackson completed a cross-state delivery of around 3,500 fentanyl pills to a person working with law enforcement at the Tacoma Mall. Later that day, he made a second smaller drug delivery to a codefendant at a grocery store parking lot in Bremerton. The investigation also revealed Jackson wired drug proceeds from multiple Bremerton and Silverdale locations to people in Mexico. Throughout August, September, and October 2021, Jackson sent money to sources in Mexico from various locations across Kitsap and Pierce counties. During the drug and money laundering investigation, officers discovered Jackson had also been smuggling non-citizens across the U.S. and Mexico border. Jackson used various social media channels to recruit drivers to smuggle non-citizens across the border or pick them up near the border and drive them north. A number of the recruited drivers were apprehended by law enforcement with the non-citizens in their cars. Jackson was indicted and arrested in November 2022. In February 2024, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to transport certain non-citizens for profit. Jason Baker (61-month sentence), Ashley Chico (18-month sentence), and John Irias-Mejia (18-month sentence) were also charged in this investigation. In asking for a 6-year prison sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Hobbs wrote to the court, Most basically, Jackson was involved in the distribution of significant quantities of fentanyl pills and likely other drugs. The Court is certainly aware of the dangers that controlled substances particularly fentanyl pose to those who use them. But Jackson was not just a street dealer or simple courier. He was in direct contact with the DTO leader in Mexico and played a knowing and significant role in transporting drugs from California to Washington, distributing the drugs in this state, and sending the proceeds back to Mexico. California Man Stunned After Bear Walks into Kitchen While Hes Doing Dishes: Hello, Are You Nice? "I'm not going to hurt you guys, I just want you guys to move on," Sierra Madre resident Jason Wightman said in a video of the incident Getty A stock photo of a brown bear. A Sierra Madre, Calif., resident had a surprise visitor this week. On Tuesday, June 4, Jason Wightman had a shock when a 300-pound bear came walking into his kitchen at around 5:30 p.m. local time while he was doing dishes. In a video shared on his Facebook, Wightman asked the animal, "Hello, are you nice?" adding: "You're in my house. Get out of my house, Mr. Bear!" "I'm warning you," Wightman said, adding: "Bear, bear, bear, be nice!" while spotting the animal licking its lips. "Do you want me to spray you with water?" Wightman told the bear. Related: How to Prevent Bear Attacks and What to Do If a Bear Approaches You, According to Experts Wightman did end up spraying the bear with water before he followed it outside only to see there were actually two of them. "Is it just you two? I see you over there," Wightman said. "You alright? What you doing? I'm not going to hurt you guys, I just want you guys to move on," Wightman told the animals, adding: "Go on, I got nothing here for you." Wightman ended up opening a door for the bears before they eventually climbed over a fence. "I don't even remember what I was saying," Wightman told KCAL News of the incident. "It was happening so fast. There was a bear in my kitchen." "They are cute animals, but they don't have a cute disposition," Wightman added to the outlet. "Their disposition can change on a dime." Sierra Madre Deputy City Manager Laura Aguilar told KCAL News that in 2023 the area recorded over 370 bear sightings, with over 70 having entered people's homes. 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. Getty A stock photo of a brown bear Related: Tourist Mauled After Rolling Down Window to Take Selfie with Bear Aguilar also said there had been 100 bear sightings in the area so far this year, with three home intrusions. The city is now providing bear-resistant trash cans and there's a ban on feeding wild animals, per the outlet. City resident Bruce Anderson told KABC of the two bears, "Usually, they're still playing with each other so you see them kind of rolling over, kind of wrestling and stuff." "I've seen them on my outdoor furniture, for example. They just get on top of it and play around and then fall off the deck... It's kind of cute," Anderson added. For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on People. The latest collection from revived watchmaking icon gerald genta is a capsule line of three deeply evocative watches inspired by the 1994 Oursin, a fascinating preview of the brands in-house experimental design lab, codenamed Gentissima Before plunging into the world of gerald genta, it is necessary to understand three things. Firstly, the legendary designer of the same name was as prolific as he was creative, with thousands of sketches and concepts in his portfolio, some of which never saw the light of day. Secondly, a gerald genta watch is not for the faint of heart; it demands a bold partner with an adventurous spirit. Thirdly, gerald genta watchmaking is transcendental. It goes beyond the purely horological and is more precisely described as jewel for the wrist. At the outermost frontiers of the gerald genta realm, a current of disobedience governs the tides. This transient domain is called Gentissima, the ultimate expression of liberated watchmaking design that takes an equal measure of audacity and abandon to navigate. Throughout his career, Genta reserved his most experimental work for his eponymous brand, indulging the full extent of his creative genius without restriction, an approach that characterises the landscape of Gentissima. Gentissima Oursin Gerald Genta Emerging from these turbulent waves and marking the debut of the Gentissima design lab is the Oursin, a watch which origins can be found in 1994, at the confluence of passion and untrammeled self-expression. The 2024 Oursin comes in three distinct models that reinterpret the Maestros vision at its most extravagant for a contemporary audience. The Story Gerald Genta first sketched the Oursin French for sea urchin after a family vacation in Corsica. From that moment on, the oursin caught hold of Gentas imagination. Its spiny, globular exteriors found horological form in a round case with deeply convex sides, studded with beads that gave the watch its startlingly unique aesthetic in all its variations. After having seen the first prototypes in 1994, Evelyne Genta fell in love with the Oursin and received a special version a year later. It remains her favorite watch to this day. Today, the Oursin opens the Gentissima chapter at gerald genta, bringing to light one of the most personal and intimate chapters of the Genta story. The 2024 Oursin comes in three distinct models that reinterpret the Maestros vision at its most extravagant for a contemporary audience. Gentissima Oursin Gerald Genta Like its 1994 forebear, the Gentissima Oursin is made for those who appreciate complexity, audacity and difference. Channeling the transgressive approach of its original creator, it represents the sublimation of unexpected objects into art. In the words of Evelyne Genta, The Oursin was among Geralds few creations that he was the proudest of; he would have loved those new versions! They are perfect evolutions of Geralds original design, retaining yet furthering the Oursins inimitable style. La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton Artistic Director, Matthieu Hegi: The Oursin is a fascinating model for a designer, with an almost infinite creative potential. The Watch The gerald genta Gentissima Oursin is a 36.5mm creation, a powerfully versatile diameter that draws from the 1990s dual pursuit of structured androgyny and voluptuous allure. It plays with contrasts in color and texture, seducing the eye with its layered geometries and inviting touch with its tactile surfaces. In all three models, a convex titanium case, designed and crafted at La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, is studded with 223 beads, set in a radially expanding series of halos.Each of the decorative beads is individually threaded and screwed down, and comes in a contrasting material to the underlying titanium white gold, rose gold and diamonds, or yellow gold. Its aesthetic polyvalence is enhanced with a bund strap option that imparts a striking note of sporty ruggedness. The octagon, so strongly associated with the designs of Mr. Genta, appears in the center of the dial via a reflection from the facetted crystal, traversed by the rounded baton hands that Genta aficionados will immediately recognize. The exterior surface of the sapphire crystal bears a taut, subtle dome that is contiguous with the camber of the surrounding case. Gentissima Oursin Gerald Genta The inner edge of the case bezel has been cut in a specific shape the familiar octagon, combined with gently curved sides, echoing Gentas gravitation towards more biophilic forms in the later part of his career. Watchmaking Artistic Director Matthieu Hegi elaborates, The Oursin is a fascinating model for a designer, with an almost infinite creative potential. The faceted crystal pays homage to Mr Genta's passion for the octagon, which is also hidden in the shape of the case, appearing round at first glance. In fact, I chose a bead-blasted titanium case: light and dark, it highlights the beads with which it is dressed. Stark elegance characterizes the anthracite-dial model of the new Oursin. This model is perhaps the most adaptable of the trio, with its tone-on-tone color palette, finely etched guilloche dial and polished round white-gold case beads. Its effortless ability to simultaneously blend in and stand out in a multitude of environments is ideal for the wearer with a chameleonic streak; it is ready to transform from discreet wrist companion to neo-baroque style statement in a moment. Gentissima Oursin Gerald Genta A second model effects a glamorous reconciliation between the opalescence of its guilloche dial in pink mother of pearl and its light-shattering array of case beads in rose gold and diamonds. The soft blush hues of this model evoke a nuanced delicacy, while its sparkling extrusions hint at the radiant strength of its wearer. Of the trio of Gentissima Oursin models, the one with the pink mother-of-pearl dial has the closest affinity with nature, featuring two of the worlds most celebrated hard stone. Gentissima Oursin Gerald Genta Third in the trio is a model whose extreme tonal contrasts disguise a polished and urbane charisma. Yellow-gold spiked beads project outwards from a matt black DLC-coated titanium case, setting up a tense visual equilibrium against the magnetic pull of the gravity-dark dial. Seemingly the most outspoken of the collection, this model is also the most aesthetically pure, eschewing diamonds and guillochage for a simplicity that speaks to the unarticulated yearning in modern life for Zen-like clarity. Gentissima Oursin Gerald Genta At the heart of the Gentissima Oursin beats the automatic-winding GG-005 based on the Zenith Elite, a high-performance movement from the fabled Le Locle manufacture de la haute horlogerie. This iteration of the Elite has been customised for the Oursin, with the rotor reshaped in the form of an octagon, and bas-relief beads sculpted along the periphery of the mass. In a final touch of symmetry, the Elite was launched at a similar time as the historical Oursin 1994. The Future The Gentissima Oursin premiered at an exclusive client event in the South of France to a rapturous reception, amid a celebration of everything defining the creative spirit of the Maestro Gerald Genta. Setting the tone for subsequent Gentissima collections, the Oursin will have a limited lifespan, allowing the design lab to explore different aspects of undiscovered Genta. Until the next Gentissima project, further varietals of the Gentissima Oursin are to be expected down the line as the collection continues to gestate and develop a natural progression for the Gentissima ethos of unrestrained creativity. California Senate bill could help pave the road to Black students college success. Heres how A new movement to identify California colleges and universities that serve Black students is growing inside the state Capitol and on campuses including Sacramento State, which has established itself as a hub for African-American students in the Golden State and beyond. A proclamation Thursday before the California State Assembly designating Sacramento State as Californias first Black-serving institution brought university President Luke Wood and other campus educators to the state Capitol. It paves the way for what happens next a road to improving Black students experiences and success on Californias college campuses. Senate Bill 1348 is authored by state Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena. The bill would designate a statewide code to identify Black-serving institutions in the University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges systems as those with 10% or more Black student enrollment, or a headcount of at least 1,500 Black or African-American students. Because we want to be welcomed in those colleges, Bradford told Black educators, parents, teachers and advocates at a Sacramento forum on the state of Black education in late May. That legislation is moving forward so we can identify these universities, these colleges, so you know that thats going to be a welcoming, inviting environment for you, Bradford said. Adrienne Thames, state Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, talks with fellow alum and Sacramento State President Luke Wood on Thursday, June 6, 2024 he attends an Assembly session at the state Capitol to recognize his university as a Black Serving Institution. Eight California colleges and universities five UCs and three California State University campuses would be eligible for the designation today. Another 25 community colleges would hold the designation, according to University of California, California State University and California Community College Chancellors data cited by statewide education equity research advocacy EdTrust-West. Bradford noted Sacramento State, California State University, Dominguez Hills, in Carson, near Los Angeles, and Compton Community College, as leaders in the nascent movement. Were hoping that Sen. Bradfords bill will spark interest, not just in California, but across the western and mid-western United States, Wood said outside the Assembly floor Thursday. Those three (campuses) are at the nucleus of whats taking place here: a movement to serve Black students and to serve Black students well. Whats the point of a Black-serving institution? The designation matters, said EdTrust-West, a supporter of SB 1348, calling the Bradford bill a great starting point that has the potential to improve how institutions in California serve and support Black students. California has the nations fifth-largest Black population at about 2.8 million, but money and red tape too often block Black Californians path to college and a degree, the group said in its recent Equity Alert report focused on establishing Black-Serving Institutions. All told, little more than a quarter 26% of Black adults in California have bachelors degrees or higher, according to EdTrust-West data. Once they enroll, they experience institutions ineffective at serving them, the report read, with Black students college completion rates across all three segments of higher education in the state borne out in the data: 38% of Black students earn an Associates degree from a California community college in six years. The average completion rate is 49%. Though the completion rates for Black students at California State University schools are higher, the disparity is nearly identical to the community college gap: 48% of Black students complete degrees from CSUs in six years time 12 points fewer than the average of 60%. Degree completion rates are higher and the gap narrower for Black University of California graduates: 76% of Black students earn degrees in a six-year span compared to the average 83% six-year rate. Sacramento State President Luke Wood smiles Thursday, June 6, 2024, as his university is being recognized as a Black Serving Institution in the Assembly. Sacramento State has the largest Black enrollment of any campus in the CSU system and has been designated a hub for Black student success. The researchers say a Black-serving designation could let college applicants know during their search that the campuses are explicitly committed to supporting them. When you send the message to Black students that this is a welcoming campus, theyre going to come, Wood said. Sacramento State has the largest Black enrollment of any campus in the CSU system, has created a Black Honors College that welcomes its inaugural class in the fall, and in May was designated a center for Black student success by CSU leaders. Black students applying to the Sacramento campus have since increased, said Wood: a 20% rise in applications to Sacramento State; as well as a 43% increase in applications from Black students transferring from the states community colleges. Its because were saying to our students very publicly that we are here to serve you, Wood said. We hope that other institutions will do the same. Calls for hand-counting ballots in elections exemplify a growing distrust in the election process in the United States. File Photo by Archie Carpenter/UPI June 6 (UPI) -- Ballot measures in three South Dakota counties failed on Tuesday that would move to counting votes on election night by hand. But the broader calls for such a change demonstrate the enduring effects of conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. The validity of election results, and more so the transparency around the process, remain in question for some, to the point that big changes have been proposed. Election night hand counts are one proposal that has gained some traction. A fraction of a percentage of jurisdictions across the country hand count ballots on election night. The jurisdictions that do are generally counties with small populations. Yet the process remains challenging even in those instances. Barb DeSersa is the auditor of Tripp County, S.D. Her county was one of three to vote down proposals to ban vote tabulating machines and move to hand-counting ballots. Haakon and Gregory County did the same. DeSersa shared her concerns and experience with hand counting with UPI prior to Tuesday's results. She said hand counting would require more poll workers to be hired and push vote tallying back hours or more. Tripp County has a population of 5,624, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. "I think this comes from [Donald] Trump losing the election. I do believe that's where it's stemmed from," DeSersa said. "They feel like the election was rigged. In South Dakota we have one electoral vote and he went through in South Dakota. I don't think there's a problem here." Tripp County election workers hand-counted ballots in the 2022 midterms. According to DeSersa, the count was incorrect. "The last precinct that we did get in that morning at 5:30 was off," she said. "They knew that when they brought it in. They knew that but they were all exhausted." Counties in Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, California and Texas have either recently performed hand counts or plan to do so in 2024. Mike Carter, a Republican candidate for Missouri secretary of state, has proposed it during his campaign. There have also been discussions in Georgia, Ohio and Michigan. Election conspiracy theories Jennifer Morrell, CEO and founder of The Elections Group, told UPI the conspiracy theories about voting technology coming out of the 2020 election certainly played a large role in eroding the trust in elections. "It all kind of goes back to the messaging we saw post-2020 related to conspiracy theories about voting technology," Morrell said. "Four years of fear-mongering and grifting, repeating those messages. Mike Lindell, founder of My Pillow and supporter of former President Trump, has been among the biggest individual proponents of hand counting being adopted more widely. He has also lent his platform to conspiracy theories about the election. Dominion Voting, a voting system technology company, filed a defamation lawsuit against Lindell for furthering disproven claims about their voting machines following the 2020 election. Dominion settled a defamation lawsuit against Fox News and former host Tucker Carlson after Carlson and other television personalities repeatedly spread disinformation about its voting machines. Fox News agreed to pay $787.5 million in the settlement. Another election voting system company, Smartmatic, settled a lawsuit in April after suing One America News Network for defamation. The company alleged that OANN made false claims about it despite Smartmatic machines only being used in Los Angeles. Lindell was also ordered to pay $5 million after hosting a contest challenging people to disprove his election claims. He had refused to pay the winner of the contest, Robert Zeidman, who proved that data Lindell had touted was not related to the election. Lindell is not alone. Others have followed his lead. The Liberty Lions League has pushed the theory that hackers in Italy -- backed by the Vatican -- tampered with voting machines in 2020. Mark Cook, the group's cybersecurity and network consultant, toured 19 states with his "Hand Count Road Show" to share the conspiracy theories and tout hand counting as a solution. Cook and other members of the group also presented to the Kansas legislature in September. The presentation focused on criticism of voting machines and election officials. Trump's former attorney Rudy Giuliani was found liable for defamation last year after spreading false claims about two Georgia election workers. He was ordered to pay $133,000 in sanctions over a civil lawsuit brought forth by Ruby Freeman and Wandrea' ArShaye Moss. "We've seen tech companies suspend their efforts to curb election misinformation and disinformation on mainstream social media sites," Morrell said. "When you have voters and constituents seeing those consistently in their feeds it's really challenging for those trying to counter those messages. It really is this deep-seated mistrust of the government and mistrust of technology." 'Human process' The Elections Group partnered with the States United Democracy Center to craft a report about hand counts and their limitations. They found that full hand counts cost counties and states more, take much longer and are more likely to result in incorrect counts. There is a place for hand counting, even in larger jurisdictions, according to Pam Smith, president and CEO of Verified Voting -- a nonpartisan organization that researches the impact technology has on the administration of elections. That role is often limited to taking a sample of ballots and checking them for accuracy with the tablature machines. These post-election audits were not as common in 2020 but they have been adopted by most states since. South Dakota is implementing post-election audits for the first time this year, starting with auditing Tuesday's results in the coming week. "We've worked from the premise all along that there could be problems with the technology but you don't just rely on it," Smith said. "You perform checks. If you had a physical ballot that a person can check, that physical ballot can be used to confirm whether the equipment got the count right." These checks happen at multiple points throughout the process, including in preparation for an election. Machines are tested to ensure that all of the contests and candidates are correctly included on the ballot and that the systems are operating as they should. Smith added that even with election night hand counts, technology is still involved. "It may be even using electronic poll books to check voters in," Smith said. "You can't legally abandon all of the technology. A [ballot] scanner is just one more piece of the puzzle." Researchers like Smith and Morrell, and election workers like DeSersa continue to face the challenge of instilling trust back in the election process for those who have lost it. Smith and Morrell agree that the best path to mending that trust is through education. This comes in many forms, including messaging by federal, state and local governments, as well as more personal methods. Some counties have invited the public in to tour their election headquarters, ask questions and get a closer look at how it all works. By witnessing the chain of custody ballots go through and meeting with election workers, Smith said she has seen people change their minds and ease their concerns. "Once they did that they were totally onboard," she said. "It's about the knowledge. The sooner we get to that, people can know there's these checks and balances. It's really important for people to be proactive. They can ask questions, but ask them of the election officials. The more you can participate, the better." Smith also encourages concerned voters to volunteer to work the polls. Almost every precinct in the country is struggling to find poll workers, she said. The mistrust in elections has added to that challenge. Morrell adds that with or without voting machines, the election process is a human process. She echoes Smith in encouraging people to volunteer to work their elections to gain a greater appreciation of the human aspect. "We put so much focus on the technology but the election is still very much a human process and a community process," Morrell said. "We do rely on voting systems to do a lot of that heavy lifting. At the end of the day, it's still a lot of people working side-by-side. People of both parties. Anybody that works an election raises their hand and takes an oath. That means something to them." President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden lay a wreath in the Normandy American Cemetery following the ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of D-day on Thursday. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) When I traveled with U.S. presidents on foreign trips, Id have days when I couldnt believe I was actually getting paid for the experience. One of those was June 6, 2004. President George W. Bush was in Colleville-sur-Mer on the French coast in Normandy, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the D-day landing. The ceremony under a sunny, azure sky was moving enough (and I sat behind Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, of Saving Private Ryan fame). Better yet was my walk later among rows of austere white crosses and a few Stars of David in the Normandy American Cemetery . I was alone but for a few Englishmen. One clutched a clipboard and seemed to direct the others to certain graves. I watched them, then interrupted. Turns out the elderly men were from a town where U.S. servicemen had stayed in 1944 while awaiting orders to cross the English Channel. They had a list of names and grave numbers for those long-ago American visitors who were now buried in this place. At each grave, they left a cross, 7-by-4 inches, with a red paper poppy affixed above the word REMEMBRANCE. They gave me one, which for 20 years has had a place of honor in my home. When I dust it, I do so reverently. That small token holds outsize symbolism, both of an America that is great its citizens willing to sacrifice to preserve democracy against tyranny for themselves as well as foreigners and of our allies gratitude. In that spirit, but with a disquieting difference, I watched the coverage of President Bidens visit to Normandy to mark the 80th anniversary of D-day. Read more: Column: Trump's pity party maligns America's real darkest days Two decades ago, few if any of us listened to the tributes with any thought that the democracies represented there, or their alliances born of World War II, were at all endangered. Yet now both seem nearly as fragile as the 180 veterans who assembled at the cemetery , mostly in wheelchairs, bent and blanketed. The surviving boys of Pointe du Hoc and other Normandy operations are now centenarians. At the next decennial commemoration, those last living links to the liberation of Europe from Nazism and fascism will surely be gone. But what of the countries and the cause they fought for? The challenge for the rest of us is to ensure they live on. That challenge was Bidens theme in his 16-minute speech at Colleville on Thursday. What the United States and its allies did 80 years ago, he said, was a powerful illustration of how alliances, real alliances, make us stronger a lesson that I pray we Americans never forget. Read more: The last WWII vets converge on Normandy for D-day and fallen friends and to cement their legacy The fact that Biden even added that line about forgetting was a tell about his insecurity, and ours. The president, who was a baby on D-day but for the past half-century has been an actor in U.S. foreign policy debates, knows better than anyone the unsettling rightward shift in domestic and global politics of late, and the threats that fester. When he reiterated his message Friday at Pointe du Hoc, the echoes of Ronald Reagans famous speech there 40 years ago put Biden closer to Reagans internationalist vision than Reagans own party is. In Bidens first State of the Union address two years ago, just six days after Russia invaded Ukraine, a U.S. and European ally, he was more confident: In the battle between democracy and autocracies, democracies are rising to the moment. Yet he has barely been able to sustain the once-strong U.S. military commitment to the 50-nation coalition backing Ukraine. He faces a growing America First isolationism among Republicans in Congress, who take their orders from Donald Trump. And he could well be defeated in November by the former president. Read more: Centenarian veterans are sharing their memories of D-day, 80 years later Bidens international audience at the American cemetery Thursday plainly shared the uncertainty about the free world, and about the U.S. willingness to continue to lead it. There was a burst of applause, where in past years there might well have been none, when Biden recounted that after the war the allies established NATO. The clapping seemed to surprise him; it shouldnt have. The subtext: His listeners fear that if Trump is elected again, hell make good on past threats to weaken or abandon NATO and to encourage the Russians to do whatever they hell they want. Isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago, and it is not the answer today, Biden said to more applause. The test case is Ukraine: We will not walk away, he said. Applause again. Yet Biden has said that before, and he was nearly proved wrong. Read more: Remembering D-day: Facts and figures about the invasion that changed the course of World War II The presidents audience was as much the one at home as the one before him on the cemeterys green expanse: Let us be the generation that when history is written about our time in 10, 20, 30, 50, 80 years from now it will be said: When the moment came, we met the moment. Our alliances were made stronger. And we saved democracy in our time as well. The choice has never been clearer: Biden seeks reelection against a rival whos made a movement of Make America Great Again, which amounts to authoritarianism at home and a go-it-alone, dictator-friendly approach abroad. Trump has none of my reverence or yours for Americas history of sacrifice and leadership abroad. As president, he canceled a visit to an American World War I cemetery in France, grousing to advisors , Its filled with losers. That would appall the Brits I met at Colleville 20 years ago, whod crossed the Channel to honor the Americans who did the same and died on foreign soil. Now its up to us to do our small part to salute past generations sacrifices, and save democracy. @jackiekcalmes If its in the news right now, the L.A. Times Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. As if Canada doesnt have enough labor concerns on the horizon with a possible strike of its rail workers looming, the countrys border patrol could strike as early as Friday afternoonpotentially stalling the movement of goods entering from the U.S. The 9,500 members of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said Tuesday they will commence a work stoppage across the country at 4 p.m. ET if a new contract is not reached. Represented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and the Customs and Immigration Union (CIU), the border agents have been working without a contract for over two years. More from Sourcing Journal The union announced in late May that 96 percent of PSAC-CIU members who work for CBSA voted to strike. We are still hopeful that we can reach an agreement to avoid strike action and any potential delays at Canadas borders, said Sharon DeSousa, PSAC national president, in a statement. But the clock is ticking for [Prime Minister Justin] Trudeaus Liberal government to get to work on a fair contract for our members. PSAC and the CBSA started mediated negotiations with Canadas Treasury Board on June 3. The union is demanding higher wages that align with other law enforcement agencies in the country, as well as earlier retirement benefits and more flexible remote work options. Government negotiators have said the pay demands are unaffordable, due to economic conditions and rising public-debt charges. Negotiation is a process of give and take. The government is prepared to make concessions, but there needs to be movement on both sides, the Treasury Board of Canada said in a statement. Canadians expect these outstanding issues to be resolved at the bargaining table swiftly, and the announced labor disruptions undermine the negotiation process. We are disappointed that PSAC has threatened labor disruptions when we are ready and willing to negotiate and reach a fair agreement through good faith bargaining. As 90 percent of front-line border agents are deemed essential workers in Canada, the countrys border cannot be shut down. But slowdowns and delays for trucks moving freight between the U.S. and Canada cannot be ruled out due to longer processing times. Looking at brief strike action by CBSA personnel in August 2021 as a recent example, commercial truckers experienced border-crossing delays of up to five hours, while airports across the country saw major delays. Heading into the weekend, shippers should watch for inbound Canadian loads to face higher scrutiny from carrier partners, and for an immediate impact to transit delays, said Chicago-based Redwood Logistics in a Thursday advisory. Flexports freight market update released Thursday said a five-to-10 minute delay off the normal average crossing time could have a large cumulative effect on imports. Redwood Logistics said the impacts on capacity returning to the U.S. in the next week is still unknown, but observed that the disruption could have at least some impact on potential inbound Canadian truck supply. Because of its high volumes, the Detroit-Windsor crossing will probably feel the most significant impacts of a strike, Redwood Logistics said. Were also helping customers explore a temporary shift to rail transportation, to avoid customs processing at the border. Ocean shipments will generally not be affected unless flagged for inspection, said Noatum Logistics in its own advisory. According to the U.S. Department of State, nearly $2.6 billion in goods and services are traded between the two countries every day. The border uncertainty precedes the threat of a walkout by 9,300 rail workers at Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) that has been pushed back to July at the earliest. Negotiations on collective agreements between CN and CPKC and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) are ongoing. TCRC-represented workers at CN rejected the railroad operators offer to enter arbitration, the company said Thursday. Canadas Labour Minister Seamus ORegan stepped in last month to delay the strike by asking the countrys labor board to review whether a work stoppage would jeopardize Canadians health and safety. As part of the delay process, the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) requested information from stakeholders on the potential impacts of a strike, initially expecting submissions by May 31. However, the deadline for CN and CPKC has been extended to June 14. Under the Canada Labour Code, a legal strike or lockout cannot occur until the CIRB renders its decision. An image captured from a Canton police body camera after a police dog attacked a man face down on the ground with his hands behind his back. CANTON The police chief says a city officers use of his dog to detain a man last week was unjustified and is recommending the officer be fired. Police Chief John Gabbard notified officer Nicholas Casto on Thursday that he is recommending to the citys safety director that Casto be fired for using his K-9 to arrest a man on May 30 in the 1100 block of 16th Street NW, according to records obtained by the Canton Repository through a public records request. Videos released by police and posted to social media show three city officers already had the man lying facedown in the grass with his hands crossed behind him before Casto approached with his K-9, Scooby, and allowed the dog to aggressively bite the mans arm that was still crossed behind his back. In assessing this incident, I have determined that your actions are clearly outside of the training you have received as well as our policies, rules and regulations, Gabbard wrote in his notification letter to Casto. I believe you included demonstrably false information in your written account of the arrest in order to justify the level of force that was clearly unjustified. In a press release issued Friday afternoon, Gabbard stated, I have always, and will continue to advocate for the incredible officers who serve this community. I am dedicated to professionalism and community service, and cannot champion those values without also demanding accountability from those who do not meet my high expectations. "My review of this incident revealed clear violations of department policy and actions that are not in line with our mission, our values or our training. To preserve the integrity of this department, to demonstrate my commitment to our values, and out of my responsibility to the officers and community I serve, I had no choice but to recommend to the Director of Public Safety the termination of Officer Castos employment with the Canton Police Department. Safety Director Andrea Perry has scheduled a pre-disciplinary termination hearing for Casto on June 21 at City Hall. The hearing is required under the citys contract with the Canton Police Patrolmens Association whenever an officer appeals a disciplinary penalty and must be set at least 10 working days after the officer is notified. Casto has been on paid administrative leave since May 31. The Repository has reached out to the patrolmen's association president for comment. Gabbards recommendation follows a review by the departments Bureau of Professional Development and its Office of Professional Standards that found Casto violated multiple department policies, including use of force, canine apprehension guidelines, preparation for deployment, use of force and departmental reports. Videos show Canton police dog biting bystander Casto, who has been with the Canton City Police Department since 2014, responded with Scooby to 16th Street NW on May 30 to help control a crowd of residents gathered in the streets and sidewalks as members of Canton's Coordinated Response Team, which is a special investigative unit, stopped a four-door sedan they said failed to use a turn signal when it pulled in front of a house to park. The video released by Canton police shows a bystander signaling to Casto and Scooby as Casto talks with bystanders about their dogs. Scooby's rapid barking drowns out anything the bystander may have said. Casto tells the man that he is under arrest for taunting the dog and three other police officers approach the man to handcuff him. While handcuffing the bystander, the three officers and the man fall to the ground with two officers landing in a bush. Casto then brings the leashed K-9 over to the man who is now lying face down with his wrists crossed behind his back, the video shows. The three officers stand back as Scooby jumps toward the man and latches onto the mans arm. An officer repeatedly yells, Stop resisting! as the dog shakes its head aggressively. Screams from bystanders could be heard in the background. Officers said in their reports the man had continued to pull his hands away from them while his hands were behind his back. The 43-year-old man has been charged with obstructing official business, resisting arrest, assaulting or harassing a police dog, disorderly conduct and sexual imposition. The last charge is from a 2022 case. He has a preliminary hearing Monday in Canton Municipal Court regarding the charges related to the May 30 arrest. A pretrial hearing has been scheduled for June 13 in municipal court regarding the 2022 case. His attorney, Kenneth Abbarno of the DiCello Levitt law firm, said Friday that he supports the chief's recommendation to fire Casto. He also believes Casto should be charged criminally. "If this were you, me or any other citizen who let this dog do what this dog did and have this dog attack somebody, I think we can all be pretty darn certain that we'd have charges against us," Abbarno said. "We're just asking for that officer to be treated like we would be and that charges be filed as well." He said his client, who had been taken to a local hospital after being bitten on May 30, continues to recover physically and mentally. "The emotional toll this has taken on him is unimaginable," Abbarno said. "... The reliving of this of every moment of every day is absolutely terrifying." Abbarno's law firm also represents the families of James Williams, who was fatally shot by a city officer in 2022 as Williams was shooting a gun into the air to celebrate the New Year; Zachary Fornash, who was fatally shot by a city officer in December 2023; and Frank Tyson of Canton Township, who died April 18 while lying face down in handcuffs in Canton police custody. Abbarno expressed hope that the chief's recommendation to fire Casto signifies the start of a cultural change for the Canton police department. Urban League calls for "reimagined" Canton police department The videos sparked outrage among residents, people on social media and community leaders. Thomas West, president of the Greater Stark County Urban League, has called for a reimagined Canton City Police Department following the May 30 incident that he called a disturbing attack, egregious abuse of power and malicious assault. Enough is enough, West wrote in a letter he gave Monday to the citys safety director, prosecutor and council president. We demand a reimagined police department where integrity and respect for fellow citizens and our city are paramount. Among the recommendations, West suggests that officers under investigation should not only be placed on leave, but their pay should be held in escrow until the investigation is complete and their vacation days should be used for their time off. If they are cleared, their pay and vacation days can be restored, he wrote. He said the current practice of paid administrative leave, which is required under the citys contract with its police unions, allows police officers to avoid consequences. Residents who attended a Canton City Council meeting on Monday demanded accountability and police reform for what they say is the department's ongoing mistreatment of residents. They cited not only the May 30 incident but also the deaths of Tyson, Fornash and Williams. The two officers involved in the death of Tyson remain on paid administrative leave while the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation continues to investigate. Authorities still have not released a cause of death for Tyson. Reach Canton Repository staff writer Kelli Weir at 330-580-8339 or kelli.weir@cantonrep.com. This article originally appeared on The Repository: Canton police chief wants officer fired for unjustified police dog use A deputy corrections officer from the Barnstable County Sheriffs Office was arrested on Friday for allegedly assaulting an inmate in his care last month. Gregory Djaoen, 38, of New Bedford, is charged with two counts of assault and battery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault, and intimidation of a witness. Barnstable County Sheriffs Office employee accused of assault, placed on leave, officials say Cape and Islands District Attorney Robert J. Galibois says his office became aware of a possible assault and battery at the Barnstable House of Corrections on June 2 just after 5:15 p.m. According to investigators, a former inmate reported being assaulted by Djaoen on May 25 and 26. Officials say there is security video of the incident, although it is not being released at this time. Djaoen has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. The DAs office also requested that New Bedford Police Chief Paul Oliveira suspend Djaoens license to carry a firearm in light of the charges. Djaoen will be arraigned Monday in Falmouth District Court. Boston 25 News has reached out to the Barnstable County Sheriffs Office for comment. 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 Caregiver charged after 5-year-old wanders from St. Pete hotel, gets struck by car Caregiver charged after 5-year-old wanders from St. Pete hotel, gets struck by car TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) A caregiver was accused of child neglect after she allowed a 5-year-old to wander away from a St. Pete hotel and get struck by a car, according to an arrest report released Friday. Police allege Charrida Smalley, 29, let a 5-year-old boy play in an unsupervised area of the hotel where they resided on April 24. Video shows cyclist tell dad to put his toddler on a leash along trail The boy wandered off the property and onto a busy road, where he was struck by a car. The extent of his injuries was redacted from Smalleys arrest report, but police described them as major. After the incident, Smalley told officers that she didnt realize the boy was missing or injured until a significant time after (the crash) occurred, police said. The victim provided a statement indicating he was not being properly attended to, the arrest report stated. Smalley was arrested Thursday and charged with child neglect with great bodily harm. Police did not indicate her relationship to the child or the name of the hotel they were staying at. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. On June 7, the Duke of Westminster Hugh Grosvenor, and his chosen one Olivia Hanson had the "wedding of the year" in London, where they invited Crown Prince William and much other royalty. Many paparazzi were not allowed to attend the event, but photos have already begun to appear in the public domain. ADVERTISIMENT The pictures show the elegant bride, some of the guests, and Prince William himself, who stood near the couple during the exchange of vows. OBOZ.UA will show you what the "wedding of the year" looked like. The ceremony took place in Chester Cathedral, where British citizens began to gather in the morning. The strong London wind played a bad joke on the bride. Her long veil and dress by British designer Emma Victoria Payne were blowing around, which certainly added to the photos, but prevented Olivia Hanson from walking down the aisle. ADVERTISIMENT The dress was decorated with custom embroidered details. The wedding dress had a graceful silhouette with a flared skirt and a pleated belt. Prince William, a close friend of the groom, acted as best man at the ceremony. Princess Eugenie was also a guest at the event. Prince Harry was supposed to fly in from the United States, but it turned out at the last minute that his presence would be undesirable. ADVERTISIMENT Hugh, 33, and Olivia, 31, announced their engagement in April 2023. The Duke of Westminster inherited the title and family fortune of 10 billion at the age of just 25. He was considered one of the most enviable grooms in the country. Only verified information is available on the OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! A federal judge on Friday sentenced developer Eric Sheppard to one-and-a half years in prison for fraudulently obtaining hundreds of thousands of dollars in emergency loans from a government program meant to help businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. In punishing the 55-year-old developer, best known for renovating the Carillon Hotel in Miami Beach, U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom gave Sheppard far less prison time than prosecutors sought. They had accused him of lying when he testified during his January trial that ended with his jury conviction for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Bloom rejected prosecutors moves to enhance Sheppards sentence based on allegations of obstructing justice and using sophisticated means to exploit the governments Paycheck Protection Program, but she also denied defense lawyers bid for no prison time. He was facing up to two and a half years under federal sentencing guidelines for his crime. Certainly this case did not involve Lamborghinis or jewelry, Bloom said, referring to dozens of PPP loan fraud cases in which South Florida defendants have been convicted of spending their ill-gotten pandemic loans on luxury items instead of business payroll. But you received money to which you were not entitled. READ MORE: Lambos. Jewels. How easy money from Uncle Sam made Miami a feast for PPP fraudsters Bloom allowed Sheppard, a Miami native, to remain free on bond until after his restitution and forfeiture hearing on Aug. 23, and then he will have to surrender to prison. According to evidence presented at Sheppards sentencing hearing on Friday in Miami federal court, the developer was convicted of receiving about $450,000 in PPP loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration after the COVID-19 virus swept the country in March 2020. Evidence also showed that the developer paid most of the loans back unlike the vast majority of recipients accused of fleecing the system. One of Sheppards defense attorneys, Howard Srebnick, argued the developer should be given a probationary sentence, saying he used the PPP loan money for paying his employees and hiring workers to complete the renovation of a major retail store at his shopping mall in Orlando. Eric has been a fixture in our community for decades, Srebnick argued, saying he may have been convicted of falsifying his loan applications but he used the proceeds to pay his employees as the SBA program requires. This crime is so different from so many others where they take the money and spend it like a rock star. Thats not what Eric did. Sheppards college-age daughter, in addition to former Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Amy Steele Donner, who is related to him through marriage, asked the judge for lenience as they spoke of his difficult upbringing in Miami Beach, success as a businessman and acts of generosity as a family man. But federal prosecutors depicted him as a conniving developer who fleeced the governments PPP loan program to enrich himself and divert some of the proceeds for the mortgage on his Bal Harbour home and his American Express credit card. It may not be a Lamborghini case, but it would drop the jaw of a legitimate businessman, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ana Martinez. This is a businessman with real businesses who knew better, said fellow prosecutor Aimee Jimenez, who accused Sheppard of lying when he testified at trial. In my view, hes trying to manipulate the court at this sentencing hearing. Two jury convictions dropped Earlier in the week, Sheppard caught a huge break from Bloom. The judge threw out his two jury convictions for aggravated identity theft after finding that while he forged the name of his corporate accountant on tax forms submitted with two PPP loan applications, that misrepresentation was not critical to the developers convictions of bilking the governments relief program. Bloom found that Sheppards forgery was not at the crux of the developers crime of wire fraud, so she threw out the identity theft convictions in a 44-page order filed Monday in Miami federal court. She concluded he was convicted of fraud because he misled lenders about his development businesses and their eligibility for Paycheck Protection Program loans. READ MORE: Carillon developer Eric Sheppard catches big break on potential prison sentence With her decision, the judge reduced Sheppards potential sentence by four years. Bloom kept intact the jurys guilty verdicts on four counts of wire fraud, which carried up to 20 years in prison for each offense. Convicted in January of loan fraud In January, Sheppard was convicted after a three-week trial of falsifying paperwork and forging signatures on applications to obtain about $900,000 in government-guaranteed loans under the emergency COVID-19 relief plan for struggling businesses during the pandemic. The Carillon on Miami Beach Sheppard, who records show lives in a $4.2 million home in Bal Harbour, first drew attention as a real estate developer 15 years ago when he renovated the historic Carillon in Miami Beach and turned it into an upscale resort complex with a pair of condo towers and the Canyon Ranch spa. The Collins Avenue project put Sheppard and his company, WSG Development, atop Miami Beachs real estate world. The U.S. Attorneys criminal case against Sheppard, the first South Florida real estate developer accused of defrauding the U.S. governments Paycheck Protection Program, has yielded mixed results. The 12 Miami federal court jurors unanimously found Sheppard guilty on four out of nine wire fraud charges but acquitted him of the other five. The panel also found him guilty of two aggravated identity theft charges but acquitted him of the other three. Prosecutors depicted Sheppard as a duplicitous developer who cheated the system to line his pockets, while his defense team portrayed him as a hard-working businessman who needed the governments help to pay his employees during a public health crisis. Sheppard was charged with COVID-19 loan relief fraud under the Small Business Administrations Paycheck Protection Program approved by Congress, which authorized $800 billion in loans through private banks to companies across the country. The loans under this and other pandemic programs were forgiven by the SBA as long as they were used for legitimate purposes, such as employee wages, leases and utility costs. Sheppards loan applications were in the $150,000 range, reviewed by three lenders and disbursed during the pandemic, according to an indictment. Four of Sheppards pandemic relief loans were included in the indictment. Jimenez and Martinez, the prosecutors, said his loan applications for three different companies HM Management and Development, HM-UP Development Alafaya Trails and HM Four were false and fraudulent. They contended he used some of the loan proceeds for personal expenses though Sheppards lawyers argued that the commingling of his funds was proper. The prosecutors also said only one of his companies had any employees HM Management and Development and that business employed only a few workers besides him. READ MORE: Former Miami TD Bank manager gets 10-year sentence for swindling pandemic loan program Prosecutors said the main problem with Sheppards pandemic loan applications was that they contained purported benefits for full-time W2 employees, but his business hired only independent contractors. That was not allowed under the SBAs Paycheck Protection Program. In response, his attorney, Jayne Weintraub, downplayed the difference between the two definitions of workers, saying the Florida State University economics graduate was a smart, self-made millionaire but unsavvy with a computer. She also challenged the prosecutors claim that Sheppard forged the signatures of others without their knowledge on a bank letter, a lease agreement and three IRS tax forms. Weintraub, who worked on Sheppards trial defense with attorneys Jonathan Etra and Christopher Cavallo, stressed that the developer sought economic assistance from the SBA program at a critical time during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said Sheppard used the federal loans to pay workers and buy materials to rebuild a vast space left vacant by the bankruptcy of anchor tenant Toys R Us to make way for another major retailer, Burlington Coat Factory, at a shopping center that he developed off Alafaya Trail in Orlando. As the nations No. 1 fraud capital, South Florida has led the financial crime wave that followed Congress passage of the CARES Act during the pandemic. About 200 South Floridians have been charged with defrauding the PPP program, submitting hundreds of millions of dollars in applications deemed bogus by federal prosecutors. Almost all have been convicted, while others still await trial. Of those convicted: a businessman using PPP money to buy a $318,000 Lamborghini; a nurse alleged to have lied about his business to get $474,000 that was used in part to pay a Mercedes-Benz lease and child support; and a North Miami suburban couple who claimed to be farmers to qualify for $1 million in relief benefits. CASD budget includes 4% tax hike, but many homeowners will pay less than last year A 4% tax increase and a $1.4 million deficit offer a deceiving glimpse at Chambersburg Area School Districts 2024-25 budget. Many homeowners will see their tax bills go down by a few bucks despite the tax hike. A funding boost could wipe out the deficit, depending on the state legislature. The CASD school board voted 9-0 on Tuesday to pass the $188,399,991 budget. Revenue is budgeted at $186,959,332. The difference is about $1.2 million less than it was when the proposed budget was passed in May due to the addition of significant tax revenue from a property in Guilford Township, business manager Tammy Stouffer said. The 4% tax increase brings CASD's millage rate to 132.4930. One mill is equal to $1 for every $1,000 of a property's assessed value (which is a small fraction of the market value). Tax hike offset by homestead/farmstead reduction The front of Chambersburg Area Senior High School Many homeowners need not worry about that tax increase, though. Of the approximately 30,000 properties that receive a tax bill from CASD, 18,190 are eligible to receive a discounted bill because they qualify for the homestead/farmstead exclusion. The assessed value of these properties is lowered by $7,006, leading to up to $928.25 in tax relief, according to the homestead/farmstead exclusion resolution the board passed. That is $130.49 more than last year. The average home value in Chambersburg will actually see a decrease by $12," said Superintendent Chris Bigger. "So, the increase of 4% is offset by the homestead/farmstead increase, which gives a decrease by about 12 bucks. The homestead/farmstead exclusion will cover 100% of the tax bill for 923 properties. A property qualifies as a homestead if it is the owner's primary residence, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Economic and Community Development. A farmstead is a property used for farming work. Class of 2024: Chambersburg Area Senior High School 2024 graduation photos Graduation photo gallery: Class of 2024 graduates from Chambersburg Career Magnet School Part of tax rate earmarked for capital reserve fund Board President Ed Norcross said 1% of the tax increase will go to the capital reserve fund. It's part of a plan the board approved last year to put money back on an annual basis for upcoming infrastructure improvement projects that will cost many millions of dollars. By transferring 1% of the millage rate each year to the capital reserve fund, the district can save up funding over time and avoid short-term borrowing, eliminate interest costs, reduce impacts on students and taxpayers, and avoid extra costs tied to putting off large projects. Deficit depends on state education funding While the district can use assigned fund balance to cover the $1,440,579 deficit, Stouffer is hopeful that the district will receive a big enough increase in state education funding to eliminate it. Gov. Josh Shapiro's proposed 2024-25 budget includes an increase of over $1 billion in basic education funding, according to the Department of Education. That increase includes $8.5 million more in state funding for CASD, Stouffer previously said. The business office built the budget based on state funding being the same level as this year, about $58.3 million. About half of that comes from the basic education funding formula. Stouffer said there has been no word recently on the likelihood of the funding increase coming through. And it could be a while before there's an update. I dont anticipate that the state will have a budget by June 30, I think it will be well beyond that," she said. Q&A with Chris Bigger: New CASD superintendent aims to be relatable, go back to basics New tech: CASHS switches to iPads, and more things to know from Chambersburg school board Budget evolves under new superintendent Since coming back to CASD last fall as superintendent, Bigger has been busy evaluating the district and making changes to address evolving needs. To give the community better insight into what money is actually being spent on, Bigger had narratives added alongside the traditional budget documents that detail the budgets for individual schools and programs. Each one includes the budget requested this year compared to last year and lists materials, positions and programs that will be covered. The intent of those narratives is to show a storyline of how the budges changed. (In a traditional budget) you can see how the numbers changed, but you can't necessarily see how the program changes," said Bigger. Amber South can be reached at asouth@publicopinionnews.com. This article originally appeared on Chambersburg Public Opinion: Chambersburg Area school board adopts 2024-25 budget All About Case of Cherrie Mahan, Missing Since 1985, and Theories that Have Surrounded Disappearance A woman recently claimed to be the long lost 8-year-old girl, sparking renewed interest in the cold case National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (2) Cherrie Ann Mahan around 1985 when the 8-year-old went missing (left) and an age-progressed photograph approximating what she would look like at 44 years old (right). Bundled in a gray coat over her blue leg warmers and denim skirt, the 8-year-old got off the school bus in Cabot, Pa., on Feb. 22, 1985. Cherrie Ann Mahan was about 100 yards from home. But she never made it there. To this day, investigators do not know what happened to her. Her missing persons poster the first featured on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Childrens mailers has stayed up for decades, updated with an age-progressed photograph of what she would look like as a woman in her 40s. Pennsylvania State Police have continued to process tips in the intervening years, running into many dead ends in a case that long ago ran cold. Related: Woman Claims to Be Long-Lost Girl Cherrie Mahan, Girl's Mom Says It's Untrue And, yet, as recently as last month a woman claimed to be the long-lost Cherrie. Cherrie's mom said she doesn't believe the woman, and police have said the woman's fingerprints aren't a match. And, so, the investigation moves forward. A Mural-Covered Van Was Nearby Witnesses at the time other young children on the school bus last saw Cherrie getting off at her home stop. They also reported to authorities a nearby bright blue 1976 Dodge van, which was painted with a mural depicting a mountain and a skier, per her missing persons poster, which notes that the van may be involved in her disappearance. The poster includes few other clues about what happened that day. There's been a lot of vans that we looked at, Pennsylvania State Trooper Jim Long told CBS News in 2020. There's been a lot of vans we actually processed forensically and unfortunately didn't lead us anywhere. National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Cherrie Ann Mahan in an age-progressed photograph approximating what she would look like at 44 years old. Phantom Sightings Cherries body has never been found, and police are still investigating the case as a missing persons case as opposed to a homicide 39 years later. The age-progressed photograph released by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children suggests what Cherrie might look like if she survived into adulthood. CBS News previously reported on several phantom sightings of women who looked like a grown Cherrie in both Michigan and New Jersey, which police have ruled out. Another woman once called the nursing home where Cherries mother worked, saying that she was Cherrie, per the outlet. Police compared family photographs and took the womans fingerprints and ruled her out, too. 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. This May, a woman went on a Facebook group called Memories of Cherrie Mahan, and said she was Cherie in what the administrator, Brock Organ, later called aggressive posts, which have since been taken down. Some people say, But what if it was really her? Organ wrote in the post explaining the womans removal from the group. This has an easy answer: if it was really her, she could present herself at any police office and arrange for a DNA test without reaching out to people online and making aggressive claims. That is what a reasonable person would do. Cherries mother, Janice McKinney commented below the post, saying that police were investigating. This is very hard on me so please be aware I see everything, she added. A Handwritten Letter In the 2010s, Cherries mother received a handwritten letter purporting to detail how the little girl had been killed and where she was buried. It was very graphic and cruel to me, McKinney said of the letter in an interview with CBS News in 2020. I pray you find some peace after you find her body, the person concluded in the letter, signing off as Pastor Justice, WPXI reported after speaking with McKinney. She handed it over to police, and the letter sparked the investigation anew. We actually followed up on to the point we were investigating people outside of [Pennsylvania], Trooper Long told CBS News, adding that the FBI joined the investigation. Related: Police Can't Verify Woman's Claims to Be Missing Cherrie Mahan, Say Fingerprints Arent a Match McKinney traveled with the authorities and cadaver dogs to the property noted in the letter. But again, they ran into a dead end. Unfortunately that letter as a whole hasn't been very fruitful at this point, Long said at the time. National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Cherrie Ann Mahan, around the age of 8 years old in a photograph taken circa 1985, when she went missing off her school bus in Cabot, Pa. Her Mother's Theory McKinney was 16 when she gave birth to Cherrie, and McKinney said she became pregnant with her daughter after she was raped. (The biological father was never charged with rape.) She was 'IT' for me. Everything!, she told CBS News. I never left that house without her, we were always together, we grew up together, she was my life. Although she does not believe that McKinneys biological father is personally responsible for Cherries disappearance, she does believe that the people that he knows were involved, she told CBS. I believe that but I can't prove anything, she added. Police have interviewed the father, the outlet reported, and he denies any connection. Speaking generally about suspects in the case in the interview with CBS News, Trooper Long said: Anybody that was implicated, until we find evidence otherwise, they still would be considered a suspect. For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on People. A prayer book with a bullet hole from the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting is part of a display at the U.S. Capitol (Photo via Sen. Casey's office) Pennsylvania U.S. Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman hosted a memorial exhibit honoring the victims of the 2018 shootings at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the U.S. Capitol this week, featuring artifacts from what is believed to be the deadliest antisemitic attack on U.S. soil. Remember, Rebuild, Renew: Lighting the Path Forward also includes the Pittsburgh communitys response to the attacks, as well as future plans for the synagogue site. Last month, Casey announced $1 million in community project funding to develop an educational hub there to combat antisemitism. With reports of antisemitism at an all time high in this country, this exhibit serves as an important reminder that the dark, cold evil of antisemitism is no match for the bright light of education that inspires compassionate communities, Casey said in a statement. Antisemitism is not a Jewish problem; it is an American problem, and I will keep fighting until we root it out. Joyce Feinberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax, and Irving Younger were killed in the Oct. 2018 mass shooting. Gunman Robert Bowers was convicted on all 63 charges against him last June, and was sentenced to the death penalty a few weeks later. In the aftermath of the horrific and hateful act of violence in 2018, its incumbent on all of us to stand together, vocally and across party lines, to declare that antisemitism has no place in our country or beyond. Todays political climate sadly underscores that need. I want to commend The Tree of Life congregation and community at large for their tireless work on the path to recovery. It is an honor to help them share their story here in the Senate, Fetterman said in a statement. The post Casey, Fetterman host Tree of Life memorial exhibit in Washington, D.C. appeared first on Pennsylvania Capital-Star. Louisiana becomes 1st state to require Ten Commandments in public schools: Here's what else came from the state's busy legislative session Louisiana is now the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in all public schools across the state, after Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed a bill into law Wednesday. It's all part of a sweeping rightward policy change that's afoot across Louisiana. Landry, a mere five months into his tenure, celebrated the close of the state's three-month Legislative session earlier this month by saluting the more than 400 bills passed by the body. I'm extremely excited that we have done more than I think any other governor has done in a long time in a very short period of time, Landry proclaimed in a news conference. That legislative energy is no accident. For the first time in years, Louisiana's Republican-controlled legislature was able to team up with a governor from the same party. Landry's predecessor, Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, had effectively used his veto powers to stave off some initiatives from the state's lawmakers. Last year, Louisiana passed only 179 bills in the same time period. Not everyone is embracing the change. Several pieces of legislation have been met with controversy, including bills involving surgical castration, abortion medication, and religion in schools. For example, more than 200 doctors from the Pelican State signed a letter criticizing a bill to classify abortion medications mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled substances. The letter said the measure instituted a barrier to physicians ease of prescribing appropriate treatment. Vice President Kamala Harris called the bill "absolutely unconscionable." Landry, however, appeared undeterred by any criticism. In a June 3 video, he thanked residents for their support and touted the "great success" of his first legislative session. Here's a look at some of the high-profile measures that were passed. Religion in schools Legislation passed: HB 71 Status: Signed by Landry Main sponsor: Louisiana state Rep. Dodie Horton, a Republican What it will do: Louisiana now requires that by Jan. 2025, the Ten Commandments must be displayed in every classroom at all public universities and K-12 schools. It's now the first state in the U.S. to enact a religious requirement like this in public schools. Four civil liberties groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have said they plan on suing Landry over the law. Read more: Louisiana will face lawsuit over Ten Commandments school displays Surgical castration for sex offenders Legislation passed: SB 371 Status: Awaiting Landrys signature Main sponsor: Louisiana state Sen. Regina Ashford Barrow, a Democrat What it will do: It allows for a judge to sentence sex offenders whose victims are under the age of 13 to be surgically castrated as a punishment. The bill doesnt apply to sex offenders under the age of 17. Read more: Louisiana lawmakers approve bill to allow surgical castration of child sex offenders Restricting abortion access Legislation passed: SB 276 Status: Goes into effect Oct. 1, 2024 Main sponsor: Louisiana state Sen. Thomas Pressly, a Republican What it will do: Louisiana will classify two commonly used abortion drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration, mifepristone and misoprostol, as dangerous controlled substances. Under SB 276, individuals who possess the medication abortion drugs without a prescription could face a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. Pregnant women will be exempt from persecution. Read more: Louisiana becomes first state to criminalize abortion pills without prescription Targeting the LGBTQ+ community Legislation passed: HB 608 Status: Signed by Landry, Act 436 goes into effect Aug. 1, 2024 Main sponsor: Louisiana state Rep. Roger Wilder, a Republican What it will do: Transgender people will be required to use only public restrooms, locker rooms or changing facilities based on the sex they were assigned at birth. The law will also apply to restrooms in prisons and at domestic violence shelters and sleeping areas at those facilities. All-gender, single-occupancy restrooms or changing spaces would still be allowed under the law. Read more: Louisiana legislature sends transgender bathroom ban to governor for signature Legislation passed: HB 122 Status: Awaiting Landrys signature Main sponsor: Louisiana state Rep. Dodie Horton, a Republican What it will do: The law would ban all discussion of sexuality and gender in classrooms, school clubs and social activities. Read more: Louisiana Legislature passes bill restricting discussion of gender and sexuality Legislation passed: HB 121 Status: Awaiting Landrys signature Main sponsor: Louisiana state Rep. Raymond J. Crews, a Republican What it will do: Parents will have to give permission for students to change their name or use preferred pronouns they use in school. If a school employee refuses to address a student or co-worker by a name or pronoun other than whats indicated on their birth certificate, the employee cannot be punished. Limits on lunch breaks for working teens Legislation passed: HB 156 Status: Signed by Landry, Act 603 goes into effect Aug. 1, 2024 Main sponsor: Louisiana state Rep. Roger Wilder, a Republican What it will do: Under the law, employers will not be required by law to provide at least a 20-minute lunch break for 16- and 17-year-olds when they work at least five hours. Breaks would be required for workers under 16 years of age. Protection for police officers Legislation passed: HB 173 Status: Signed by Landry, Act 259 goes into effect Aug. 1, 2024 Main sponsor: Louisiana state Rep. Bryan Fontenot, a Republican What it will do: It will be a crime for a person to come within 25 feet of a police officer who is carrying out his official duties if that person had been warned not to do so. If convicted, a person could face up to a $500 fine and up to 60 days in jail. Read more: New Louisiana law will criminalize approaching police under certain circumstances Limiting protesters Legislation passed: HB 737 Status: Awaiting Landrys signature Main sponsor: Louisiana state Rep. Kellee Hennessy Dickerson, a Republican What it will do: It will be illegal for anyone to petition, picket or assemble within 50 feet of a persons home. Anyone who violates the law would face a penalty of up to $500 per day. Read more: Louisiana passes bill to outlaw protests near residences Legislation passed: HB 383 Status: Signed by Landry, Act 612 goes into effect Aug. 1, 2024 Main sponsor: Louisiana state Rep. Jay Galle, a Republican What it will do: The measure will grant immunity for drivers who run over protesters if the drivers feel threatened. Newly surfaced CCTV footage appears to show British TV doctor Michael Mosley strolling through a small Greek town less than half an hour after he was last seen by his wife leaving a nearby beach, offering investigators a clue in the timeline of his disappearance. Dressed in black with his face partially obscured by a hat and carrying an umbrella over his shoulder, the BBC presenter appears in the footage walking along a main road in Pedi, a town on the Greek island of Symi, near where he was vacationing with his wife. The footage is timestamped to 1:50 p.m. local time, about 20 minutes after Mosley left his wife at St. Nicholas Beach to go for a walk along a cliffside path. BREAKING: CCTV images have emerged showing TV doctor Michael Mosley half an hour after he left a Greek beach and went missing. Read more here: https://t.co/Re1YCbvIWf Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/EaMjn11IRy Sky News (@SkyNews) June 7, 2024 After Mosley was reported missing on Wednesday evening by his wife, cops feared that the 67-year-old may have fallen from the cliffside walk while en route to Pedi. But with the discovery of the new footage, it appears that Mosley at least survived the initial walk and made it to the nearby village. We know now that he crossed the path, that he made it to the other side and got to Pedi, a police officer told The Sun, confirming that Mosley was the man in the footage. Now we have to look at all the possible paths he could have taken from there. Multiple agencies are cooperating in the ongoing search and rescue effort, using drones and volunteer help from divers and firefighters to comb the Aegean island in search of the doctor. Eleftherios Papakalodoukas, the mayor of Symi, said the search party would expand to the seas after turning up nothing on land, but expressed how bizarre Mosleys vanishing was. This is a small place and it is difficult for a man to just disappear, Papakalodoukas said. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. (PUEBLO, Colo.) The Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo brings visitors from near and far to see the beauty found in the heart of the downtown area. The story behind the Riverwalk is rooted in the 1920s flood which destroyed the downtown area, that now serves the southern Colorado community lined with businesses and restaurants. We have different aspects out throughout the Riverwalk that kids can enjoy, Pueblo Mayor Heather Graham said. We have restaurants for families, theres always free events going on, especially during the summer months. We have the Lake Elizabeth that has the boat rides. Its really just a really community driven aspect and its our gem and people come to Pueblo to see this. To further enhance the experience for both visitors and locals, the Riverwalk has undergone improvements with the newest being an expansion of the channel towards Santa Fe Avenue and building a multi-use boathouse. Thursday morning marked the next step towards the Riverwalk improvements with local leaders coming together for a groundbreaking celebration. This groundbreaking means that Pueblo number one gets a fantastic amenity, Lynn Clark, Executive Director of Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo (HARP) said. Number two, our community cares about beautiful things, and were willing to do the work to build them. So, I think its a perfect example of how when you work together, you get things done. The Riverwalk is known as a gem in downtown Pueblo and now a multi-million-dollar project will help expand on the historic attraction. Multiple entities came together to help make this project possible costing close to 16 million dollars, evidently, the determination in the Pueblo community came together to enhance the future of the area. We were able to take some of the citys ARPA funds that we had left over and move some money around in the city, with the ARPA funds and how we were able to allocate those, Mayor Graham said. We applied for a $1 million grant, so at the end of February, I went and spoke at DOLA, gave a seven-minute presentation and we received a couple of weeks later the notice of receiving, that we were going to be getting that $1 million grant. Plans for the boathouse include space for public restrooms, concessions, a storage space for boats, and a permanent location for the HARP Authority Office. The top level will feature a rooftop party deck which will be open for the public to rent out for events. That rooftop event space is going to be really nice for Pueblo, Scott Robb, President of H.W. Houston Construction, said. For one, were short on them anyway and two, its going to bring new vendors and new caterers and people down there and its an income generator. Pueblo leaders gathered for a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday morning to celebrate the next milestone in the enhancement of the Pueblo Riverwalk. H.W. Houston Construction are the ones helping bring this project from the ground up. Robb said means a lot to my company because we just recently bought back our company, 100% internal local Pueblo Control. Weve done the other two phases back in those days we were locally owned as well, so now its 100% locally contracted and were proud to be that contractor. According to city officials, construction will not affect activities planned for the summer with the expansion expected to take around 18-24 months to complete. The next couple of weeks are going to be pretty slow getting permitting and getting things like that, contracts out, Robb said. Probably going to start full-fledged construction here come July 15th, and then we will be done by December 2025. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX21 News Colorado. CENTRAL ILLINOIS (WCIA) Several Central Illinois public libraries are getting slices of a $2 million grant from the Illinois Secretary of States Office to help improve their technology. State officials say public libraries receive most of their funding through property taxes, which can leave libraries in poverty-stricken areas scraping by. These funds aim to help upgrade public library tech in these underserved areas, which can include buying digital devices, enhancing software and hardware, expanding online collections and e-resources, getting better internet access, installing self-checkouts, and obtaining adaptive technologies and ADA compliance for library websites for people with disabilities. IDOT Safe Route grants awarded to Central Illinois communities Libraries play a significant role in our communities, so its imperative that they evolve to meet the needs of residents and expand their offerings, particularly when it comes to technology, Secretary of State and State Librarian Alexi Giannoulias said. We have a responsibility to ensure that all communities, regardless of their location or wealth, have access to the best library programming beyond just written materials. These grants will help narrow digital divides. Out of 113 public libraries across the state, 13 in Central Illinois will benefit from the grant. Beardstown: Beardstown Houston Memorial Public Library $12,500 Centralia: Centralia Regional Library District $27,500 Charleston: Charleston Carnegie Public Library $27,500 Chrisman: Chrisman Public Library $12,500 Danville: Danville Public Library $27,500 Decatur: Decatur Public Library $27,500 Farmer City: Farmer City Public Library $12,500 Georgetown: Georgetown Public Library $12,500 Melvin: Melvin Public Library $12,500 Pana: Carnegie-Schuyler Library $12,500 Paris: Paris Carnegie Public Library $12,500 Rantoul: Rantoul Public Library $27,500 Watseka: Watseka Public Library $12,500 Congressman Jesus Chuy Garcia (D-IL) hopes the grants will help spread access to quality technology. Our libraries provide a place for every Illinoisan to make connections with their community and to think, learn and explore new ideas, he said. Im excited to see how our libraries use this technology grant funding to expand opportunities for our residents, increase access to information and help our communities thrive. Tech projects can start as early as June 28 for the recipient libraries, and the grant money must be spent within two years. For a full list of libraries receiving this Illinois grant, click here. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com. After much anticipation, Emily in Paris will finally return to Netflix this summer, with the first half of season 4 coming out on August 15. In addition to the main character's love affairs and successful career, fans of the show are looking forward to new fashion looks. ADVERTISIMENT Although Lily Collins' French colleagues dubbed her style "ringarde" (French for banal), Emily's taste is actually more appropriately described as extravagant and maximalist. As Bustle writes, the American's outfits are the antithesis of restrained Parisian elegance. The famous costume designer Patricia Field, who worked on the first two seasons of the series, confirmed that the main character's wardrobe consists of "fashion statements". In Emily's language, this means controversial prints, bright colors and bold silhouettes. ADVERTISIMENT On Wednesday, June 5, Netflix released photos from Season 4, and it's probably going to be the most gorgeous part. Even Collins herself thinks so. Sharing the photos on Instagram, she wrote, "With every new season comes new fashion choices, and Emilys winter wardrobe will not disappoint." Emily's cobalt blue suit ADVERTISIMENT As Emily develops professionally as a digital marketing expert, her style becomes more appropriate for business meetings. In one scene, for example, she wears a three-piece suit in cobalt blue. A master class in textures Instead of mixing prints (the heroine's signature styling technique), she plays with textures in the yellow look, combining a blouse with a leather jacket and a corduroy miniskirt. Even her accessory contributes to the look: a quilted bag with long fringes. Butter yellow is called the new neutral color. However, Emily doesn't go for the fashionable muted tone, instead she chooses a rich pineapple shade. ADVERTISIMENT The monochromatic look of Mindy is also noteworthy. The character, played by Ashley Park, is wearing a cobalt blue high-waisted minidress. According to the authors of the Kulturnaya_Prachechnaya Telegram channel, the color scheme of the look is "pleasant" because it resembles the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Winter glamor Most fashionistas don't usually pair a plush coat with another furry piece of clothing: in this case, a handbag. But Emily's double-furry outfit in beige tones is stylish. She also manages to add some Christmas spirit to the neutral base. She wears a red scarf and green gloves, and her Chistmass tree earrings match the decorated trees in the background. ADVERTISIMENT Maximalist restraint This outfit proves that Emily knows how to appease her passion for controversial maximalist prints: by opting for variety. She wears a ruffled blouse with feathered sleeves while keeping the style polished with a structured yellow dress with crow's feet over the blouse. The heroine also adds a gray coat, an element of "quiet luxury" that further mutes the look. Little black dress While most fashion insiders call the little black dress a wardrobe staple, Emily prefers her closet to resemble a rainbow. However, in Season 4, she proves that she can also wear this piece of clothing. Spending time with Gabriel, the American wears a long-sleeved turtleneck. ADVERTISIMENT Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! This afternoon, Marine Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron One (VMX-1) finally became whole when they welcomed their last detachment of aircraft home to Marine Corp Air Station Yuma with the arrival of the CH-53K King Stallion . Since VMX-1 was established in 2016, when the Marines took their MV-22s from Marine Corp Air Station (MCAS) New River to MCAS Yuma, the squadron always had a Type Model Series (TMS) detachment that operated away from the squadron's home station. Now, with the arrival of the first of two CH-53Ks, VMX-1 can fully operate as its planners had envisioned over a decade ago by flying large training events with all of the crewed aircraft slated for its inventory F-35s, MV-22s, AH-1s, UH-1s, and CH-53Ks integrated as one team over the Yuma ranges. Editor's note: This is the fifth and final entry in a multi-part series covering VMX-1's highly unique mission, diverse stable of aircraft, and the critical role it is playing in shaping the future of Marine Corps aviation. You can check out the other installments here, here , here, and here . The CH-53K, known as the King Stallion, has the same physical footprint as the older CH-53E Super Stallion it is due to replace, but is significantly more capable in terms of lift capacity and features a glass cockpit and fly-by-wire technology to further improve performance and reduce pilot workload. It can carry external loads up to 27,000 pounds across distances of more than 100 miles. The Marine Corps hopes to buy 200 of them over the next several years. The CH-53K King Stallion lands after a test flight in West Palm Beach, Fla. on March 22, 2017. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Molly Hampton) The aircraft left MCAS New River for the cross-country flight piloted by Lt. Col. Adam Mongo Horne and Lt. Col. W.Z. "Gypsy" Crittenden. Horne served as the officer in charge of the Heavy Lift detachment at New River and helped the CH-53K reach Initial Operational Capability (IOC). Horne and Crittenden were welcomed onto the flightline at Yuma by Col. Brad Spicoli Hipp who serves as the commanding officer of VMX-1. Hipp, who is about to transition to a new assignment in Hawaii, told The War Zone: The arrival of the Kilo in Yuma is very important to VMX-1. Having the whole team together under one roof allows us to do the experimentation and demonstration that we want. We can do things individually with our platforms which prove capability and weapons and software, but really the strength of this unit when compared to other Operational Test squadrons, or other squadrons in general, is our ability to integrate. To integrate across all our TMSs, with the most recent additions of platforms with the newest software, the newest weapons and then we can really get after things that our stand-in force is going to need to do in our Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO) execution. And so that's kind of where I see the unit. We are on a trajectory now with two new hangers and all the platforms under one roof in Yuma and we're really going to be able to take it to the next level. Both generations of the Marine Corp's heavy lift helicopter - the CH-53E Super Stallion and the CH-53K King Stallion - are in the air during the King Stallion's testing at Yuma Proving Grounds, AZ in August. While Hipp is a fighter pilot by trade with hundreds of hours in the F/A-18 and F-35, he has had the chance to fly the CH-53K. Asked about the experience, he told us, I cannot be a bigger fan of this airplane. As a guy that has never had any helicopter training, with one simulator ride and competent pilot, they had me landing the airplane and doing landing patterns and making small adjustments in the hover. All of the things that are really challenging to do in a helicopter are easier due to an amazing flight control system. While I never flew the Echo, from what I heard, it's a bear to fly and you would not dare take your hands off the controls. I remember hovering and struggling a bit and Mongo looked over to me and said, Sir, take your hands off the controls. I did and the airplane immediately stabilized. That's how good this airplane is. The takeaway is that in our Echo you had to really focus on flying and not as much focusing on the mission and tactics. The Kilo allows the pilots to focus more on the mission. For the last few years, VMX-1s CH-53K detachment had been very busy on the East Coast at MCAS New River as they helped the aircraft through Integrated Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E). It was conducted from July 30, 2021 to April 11, 2022 in accordance with a comprehensive DOT&E-approved test plan. It involved VMX-1 flying over 450 hours over the course of 114 test flights. To cover different environments, these flights occurred in desert, mountainous, and forested environments and aboard the USS Tripoli during both day and night flight operations at sea. During this phase, the detachment had four aircraft and 10 pilots and about 90 maintainers. Lt. Col. W. Z. "Gypsy" Crittenden served as the CH-53K Operational Test Director at VMX-1 during this time. Sailors assigned to the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS Arlington (LPD 24) direct a Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion helicopter aboard Arlington, Feb. 7, 2023. The King Stallion is a heavy-lift cargo helicopter undergoing sea trials as the next evolution of the CH-53 series helicopters that have been in service since 1966. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class John Bellino) I've been a -53 guy my whole career. I came into the Marines in 2007 and showed up to North Carolina and the fleet here in 2010. I flew the CH-53E on and off in the fleet for about 12 years. The Marines were kind enough to send me over to VMX-1 as a Major. I participated in IOT&E, and then shepherded that all the way through its completion. After that we did the next phase of tests beyond that. Other than one year out of the cockpit where I was a forward air controller, I've pretty much spent my whole career in the cockpit of -53 with about two or three years of CH-53K experience. Crittenden is on his second tour at VMX-1. His first time with the squadron saw that the program was delayed,so he went back to the fleet and was flying for another two years as a Major and then came back in 2020. He explained: Originally, IOC was supposed to happen in 2015, and there were some technical issues with the aircraft. It resulted in a delay. The aircraft was ultimately ready for primetime at the end of 2020. We received our first aircraft from the factory, ready to start conducting training for IOT&E. We had a combination of probably the 10 best pilots. I think it was like three Lieutenant Colonel's, five or six Majors, and some Captains that were fresh out of their fleet tour. We also had a whole host of maintainers, a few of which had been embedded in the West Palm Beach [at Sikorsky] detachment. So, they had been down in West Palm Beach prior to this, basically seeing and getting on the K all the way back in like 2015. We had about 100 people including the 10 pilots, and I would say it was a broad swath of people across our -53 community. We had a bunch of other folks that came from all walks of life to form this detachment. U.S. Marines with Combat Logistics Battalion 24, Combat Logistics Regiment 2, 2nd Marine Logistics Group prepare to attach a LAV Hulk to a CH-53K King Stallion during a Helicopter Support Team operation at Tactical Landing Zone Albatross on Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Nov. 19, 2021. The CH-53K is currently undergoing initial operational test and evaluation to develop tactics, techniques, and procedures of CH-53K utilization as the Marine Corps modernizes and prepares to respond globally to emerging crises or contingencies. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Meshaq Hylton) Crittenden continued: We got our first aircraft in March of 2021, roughly. We started basically training and flying from there. Lt. Col. Batcha was the test director here at the time, and he had been a previous developmental test pilot early on in the program down in West Palm Beach, so we kind of used him as the seed corn, along with a civilian contractor pilot from Sikorsky. Once VMX-1 got everyone to a comfortable level of proficiency to begin testing, they started IOT&E. It included a desert phase which was done at MCAS 29 Palms, and a forested phase and an at sea phase. Those two were done out of MCAS New River. With initial testing done, the Marine Corps declared Initial Operational Capability (IOC) for the CH-53K helicopter in April 2022, when HMH-461 became the first operational squadron to receive, maintain, and operate the CH-53K King Stallion. They did that with a tremendous amount of support from VMX-1. With both HMH-461 and the VMX-1 detachment sharing the same flightline, IOC was made a lot easier. Crittenden added: After IOT&E and getting all the data we needed for the test letter, if you will, we chopped I would say 60% of the detachment and we pushed them over to HMH-461. We started training those guys early and we sort of did like a phased approach to give them the relevant people they needed to start training the squadron. We also chopped them four aircraft. They now had what they needed. They had four aircraft and they had at least a detachment of people that were appropriately trained and equipped in accordance with Marine Corps standards. With these people and aircraft, they could declare IOC out of the squadron. From IOC HMH-461 worked on building up combat power as quickly as they could to try to keep the transition going. U.S. Marine Corps CH-53K King Stallions, assigned to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 461, are staged on the flight line at Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina, April 29, 2022. HMH-461 received their fourth CH-53K King Stallion helicopter as part of the Marine Corps' declaration of initial operational capability (IOC) for the aircraft. The declaration of IOC supports the commandant of the Marine Corps' Force Design 2030 by improving capabilities and restructuring Marine Corps aviation for the future fight. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Servante Coba) Even after declaring IOC, there were still a host of improvements needed prior to a deployment. This included getting the aircraft in the data network which is known as Digital Interoperability Medium. They began test planning for that which would get the aircraft in a deployable MEU configuration. There were also things that needed some attention, including work on the cargo floor and on the aircrafts winch system. Another area that needed testing was bringing the CH-53Ks survivability equipment up to speed. The upgrade was known as the Data Transfer Unit DECM (Defensive Electronic Countermeasure) System Replacement (DDSR). These improvements include upgraded radios and survivability equipment with both radar and IR countermeasures and an updated data transfer system for cyber hardening. VMX-1 conducted DDSR Integrated Test with the HX-21 while on the East Coast, so they got a good first look and identified some issues ahead of time saving time with duplicating efforts. Crittenden added: Getting Digital Interoperability Medium allows us to get into the Link 16 and ANW-2 data network when we're deployed, as well. We've been planning for that all the way through this past year and we've been doing integrated tests up in Patuxent River with HX-21 because they had the only aircraft that had that configuration. We anticipate getting an aircraft in that configuration very soon. The CH-53K King Stallion recently completed Degraded Visual Environment (DVE) testing at Yuma Proving Grounds, AZ. The heavy lift aircraft is the most powerful helicopter ever built by the United States government. (DoD) Digital Interoperability (DI) is a big part of the CH-53K and is needed if the aircraft is going to operate over the long over-water distances of the Pacific. Once VMX-1 gets an appropriately configured aircraft in Yuma, they will do some more testing and operate with the other aircraft that are part of the MAGTF. Col. Hipp explained, we recently did similar DI testing with the H-1s so we have the expertise, testers, and engineers here so it will be a great addition once we get that kit on the airplane. Plans are to test the DI kit on the CH-53K some time in the fall in Yuma as part of an exercise. This will be a first look at DI specifically with ANW-2 which works in the Marine centric data network as well as link-16. The other thing tests conducted as part of the Integrated Test were secondary missions. Crittenden explained: For us secondary missions consist of all the fast rope, repel, aerial delivery of both cargo and people and water operations such as helo cast and ladder ops. So we, alongside DT down here at New River, conducted all the secondary missions and then wrote discrepancies and evaluated the secondary missions and then updated the publications for that. So, the fleet can now do secondary missions when they deploy. The CH-53K program office is also hard at work trying to come up with a solution to the biggest problems before a MEU deployment, including an unsatisfactory winch, and a tendency for the aircraft to squat when cargo was being loaded on the ramp. All of the upcoming fixes to these issues will get the CH-53K into the ideal configuration, which is the capacity to take two 463 Lima pallets of 10,000 pounds apiece (20,000 pound total internal payload) and move it around the battlespace. A CH-53K King Stallion (right) and a CH-53E Super Stallion are staged during a redesignation ceremony at Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina, Jan. 24, 2022. The squadron received its first CH-53K King Stallion, and the ceremony signified the beginning of the Marine Corps modernization from the CH-53E Super Stallion to the CH-53K King Stallion in support of the expeditionary warfare vision for future-force employment. The CH-53K is an optimized vertical, heavy-lift, sea-based, long-range solution for the Marine Corps and will provide three times the lift capability of its predecessor. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Elias E. Pimentel III) HMH-461 has given back to VMX-1, sending over one of their best, as VMX-1 looks to begin integrating the CH-53K into a host of large exercises, including the internal exercise Obsidian Iceberg. Maj. Flood Metcalf recently arrived in Yuma, having previously served as the executive officer of HMH-461. Hipp told us Flood has a lot of experience so he is the perfect fit. We are also getting another pilot that will head up the Assault Support Division at VMX-1. That person is a test pilot and they will look over not only the CH-53K but also the H-1s and the MV-22s. Like any new platform, I dont think we have fully comprehended how much capability the K will bring to the fight. We have certainly done some airborne nodes in the back of the CH-53E and this airplane is going to make that even better. Its got more lift capability, more range, and has sixth generation radios, so I think we have yet to prove how much these capabilities can be optimized on the battlefield. That is the perfect reason why we need all these assets under one roof here in Yuma. We have everything here like the command and control Marines so we can go up and do things that prove digital interoperability with other platforms like the F-35 and H-1s. Teams at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, collaborate to conduct a Load Certification Lift of non-flying aircraft CF-1, the first F-35C model, with a CH-53K from U.S. Marine Corps Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron One (VMX-1) on December 13, 2022. (DoD) The second CH-53K that VMX-1 will be receiving is currently still in New River getting modifications including the DDSR mod and a cockpit armor upgrade. These modifications should be done by the end of the summer, at which time the squadron will fly the aircraft to Yuma, bringing the total of two aircraft, three pilots and about 20 Marine maintainers along with about a dozen contractors. As new aircraft come off the line in Connecticut, VMX-1 should be receiving a new deployable configured aircraft in the coming months. That aircraft will have the DDSR upgrade and a Digital Interoperability Medium kit. While moving the CH-53K detachment to MCAS Yuma has its benefits, it also has some drawbacks with the main one being access to spare parts. With a focus on standing up the CH-53K on the east coast first, VMX-1s aircraft are far from the supply line. Hipp explained, we thought hard and long about moving the det [detachment] out to Yuma. We have a supply pack up with MALS-13 [Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron] here in Yuma. We will have a time where we need something that will have to come across the country if something unusual breaks. but we do have a supply chain here that is ready to support. U.S. Marines with 1st Battalion, 2d Marine Regiment (1/2), 2d Marine Division, sprint to a CH-53K King Stallion at Camp Lejeune, N.C., June 10, 2021. In support of Marine Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron 1, Marines with 1/2 executed an air assault operation to test the capabilities of the CH-53K King Stallion, the U.S. Marine Corps newest heavy-lift helicopter. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Reine Whitaker) VMX-1 will now quickly begin to integrate the CH-53K into a host of Marine Air Ground Task Force exercises and WTI (Weapons and Tactics Instructor course) as well as Gray Flag with F-35s which happens in September, as they refine tactics and work on Force Design initiatives. When the CH-53K King Stallion gets deployed from the East Coast sometime in 2026 with a Marine expeditionary unit, it will no doubt be ready for a host of missions thanks to the men and women of VMX-1. Crittenden finished his thoughts when he told us, I went from flying the hardest helicopter to fly in the Marines to the easiest. A Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion helicopter lands aboard the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS Arlington (LPD 24), Feb. 14, 2023. The King Stallion is a heavy-lift cargo helicopter undergoing sea trials as the next evolution of the CH-53 series helicopters that have been in service since 1966. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class John Bellino) Contact the editor: tyler@twz.com Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, the chair of the Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund Committee, listens to a budget presentation from the Alabama Community College System on March 7, 2023. The presentation came on the first day of the Alabama Legislature's 2023 regular session. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) The Alabamas American Rescue Plan Act Joint Oversight Committee discussed ongoing challenges in fund allocation and project implementation, praising some agencies but criticizing others. Legislators reviewed the status of the ARPA funding expenditures in Thursdays oversight commission meeting. Agencies have until Dec. 31, 2024 to obligate the funds, establishing agreements for specific projects. Once the funds are obligated, they must be spent by Dec. 31, 2026. The goal here is to make sure that we have all of these funds expended, i.e. spent, gone from our coffers, meaning that this infrastructure will be in the ground prior to Dec. 31, 2024. Thats 18 months away, said Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, the chair of the Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund Committee. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) provided updates on multiple programs aimed at expanding broadband infrastructure and other services across the state. The statewide middle-mile project, utilizing up to $85 million from ARPAs first distribution in 2022, was tasked with connecting nearly 3,000 miles of fiber. About 33% of the project has been completed. The grant agreement was signed in February 2023. The second middle mile project, with an allocation of up to $245 million, focuses on extending fiber broadband infrastructure to institutions like schools, hospitals and government facilities. These projects will add 4,287 miles of middle-mile infrastructure, benefiting almost 800 institutions. The projects should be completed by February 2026 to complete their projects, with potential extensions up to the federal deadline of December 2026. Those extensions would only be offered if there was clear evidence that the project just needed a little more time to finish, said Maureen Neighbors, digital expansion division chief for ADECA. ADECA was also tasked with developing a last-mile broadband program with up to $191.89 million in ARPA funds. These projects will provide high-speed internet to 53,892 residents, businesses and community institutions, covering 5,429 route miles of fiber. The annual report to the U.S. Treasury is due on July 1, detailing the progress of these programs. Quarterly reports are also being collected to monitor fund obligations. A follow-up meeting is scheduled for August or September to review the completed annual report and provide further updates. Officials in the oversight commission questioned challenges, such as delays, because of financial audits or developing a sustainable fiscal plan. The committee also emphasized exploring lower-cost, emerging technologies to maximize the funds impact, particularly in small, rural communities. Sen. Chris Elliot, R-Josephine, questioned Neighbors on why the state is spending significantly more money on building a fiber network if there is existing technology that is cheaper and can be deployed more quickly to rural areas. I ask this question again. Is the department looking at alternative technologies that are much lower cost to implement, especially as we look at much higher cost per rooftop? Elliot asked in reference to Starlink, a satellite internet provider. Elliot added that when the state reaches rural areas, it may spend up to $20,000 per housing unit when they could have spent $600. Neighbors maintained that they are administering the program according to federal guidance. Albritton said that was an unsatisfactory response and said they may submit an official request for more information to ADECA Commissioner Kenneth Boswell on why less expensive, alternative technology is not getting considered. Our obligation is to make sure the money is used in the best way possible, and the concern here is that were dealing with old technology, and not in the future. We want to make sure thats where were going in, Albritton said. DONATE: SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST The post Challenges in Alabamas ARPA broadband projects discussed in oversight meeting appeared first on Alabama Reflector. Chaotic moments aboard the Amtrak Cascades train between Seattle and Portland Wednesday when the train crew had to break into one of the cars to restrain a passenger who latched a car door, grabbed a fire extinguisher, and sprayed it erratically. Videos sent to KIRO 7 captured the scene. This happened Thursday along the rails in Castle Rock in Cowlitz County, near the Oregon border. Passengers on board the train called 911, which stopped so police could come on board. Castle Rock police hopped on and subdued the passenger, grabbed his luggage, and took him into custody. The video showed the man screaming and resisting when he was cuffed and taken away. KIRO 7 reached out to Amtrak for a comment. After the incident, the train moved on, and no one was hurt. SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) One of the perks of living in San Francisco is you can turn on your kitchen faucet, drink straight out of the tap, and enjoy the freshness. That is because San Franciscos tap water comes from Sierra Nevada snowmelt stored in the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir on the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park. Hetch Hetchy water travels 160 miles via gravity from Yosemite to the Bay Area. On Friday, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) released its annual Water Quality Report based off 100,000 drinking water tests. Testing found that SFPUC-supplied water met or exceeded all state and federal standards in 2023. Hetch Hetchy Reservoir (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images) The water we deliver to homes, businesses, and partner water agencies around the Bay Area is some of the best in the country, said SFPUC General Manager Dennis Herrera. We provide millions of Bay Area residents with clean and affordable drinking water to support their businesses, families, and livelihoods, which also saves them money because there is no need to buy bottled water or home water treatment devices. Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is viewed from OShaughnessy Dam on October 28, 2021, in Yosemite National Park. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images) The nearly 100,000 drinking water tests we conducted this year on the supply for San Francisco alone confirm that we deliver some of the highest quality tap water in the country, Herrera said. The Hetch Hetchy system supplies 260 million gallons of water per day through 280 miles of pipelines and 60 miles of tunnels. SFPUC tests its drinking water more than 250 times a day. Engineers and operators evaluate water for contaminants, including microbes, copper, lead, and disinfection byproducts. For 2023, drinking water met or surpassed all federal and state requirements for these contaminants, the report found. water-quality-report-2023Download The commission produces a Water Quality Report every year to provide specific information about where San Franciscans water comes from, how it is treated, and its overall quality. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4. PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) The EPAs Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) announced on Thursday that oyster restoration in the Bay is expected to meet their 2025 goal. 200 acre oyster restoration project on Chesapeake Bay sees completion According to the CBP, eight out of the 10 tributaries chosen for large-scale restoration are considered complete as of June 6, 2024. The two remaining tributaries, the Manokin River in Maryland and the Lynnhaven River in Virginia, have just 222 and 38 more acres left to restore. The restoration, which is a part of the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, comes shortly after an April celebration of the restoration activities in the lower York River. To date, CBP partners have spent $108 million towards the construction of reefs. Its exciting to see the progress that has been made toward the goal to restore oyster reef habitat in 10 Chesapeake tributaries by 2025, Acting Director, Chesapeake Bay Office Kevin Schabow said. All this work is possible thanks to the strong partnership of federal and state agencies, local governments, nonprofit organizations and academic institutions who are committed to restoring the tremendous ecosystem and economic benefits that healthy oyster reefs provide. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), the largest independent conservation organization dedicated to the Bay, works alongside CBP partners towards large-scale oyster restorations. The achievement of this large-scale oyster restoration work over the past decade has become the global model for restoring oyster populations and reef habitat, Chesapeake Bay Foundation Maryland Executive Director Allison Colden said. The success of this work reflects the importance of strong partnerships and innovation in meeting a long-term goal in the larger effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay. Continue to check WAVY.com for updates. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WAVY.com. CHICAGO A suburban man has been charged in a massive $60 million COVID-19 fraud scheme that billed Medicare for millions of at-home test kits over a two-month period last year, including tests for at 4,000 people who were later determined to be dead. Syed Shaukat Ahmed, 58, was arrested this week on a three-count criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court with Medicare fraud, transfer of fraudulently obtained funds, and using illegally obtained money to pay off his mortgage. Agents stopped Ahmed Monday at OHare International Airport, where he was scheduled to board a flight to Pakistan with his family, according to court records. It was later determined that it was a pre-scheduled annual trip back to his home country, not an attempt to flee prosecution. Still, prosecutors initially sought to have Ahmed held in custody pending trial. But he was released Thursday after posting a $5 million bond secured by two homes including the same Morton Grove house he allegedly paid off with a $560,000 cashiers check last year, court records show. Ahmeds attorney, Eric Pruitt, declined to comment on the charges Friday. Syeds arrest is the latest court action to stem from a wave of similar schemes, mostly taking advantage of government programs to ease costs for consumers for pandemic-related testing, including an effort by the Biden administration to provide free at-home test kits to anyone by having the providers directly bill Medicare. The charges against Syed are believed to be the biggest single COVID-19 fraud scheme to be charged in federal court in Chicago since the onset of the pandemic more than four years ago. According to the complaint, the investigation began in April 2023 when authorities detective a massive spike in Medicare billings for at-home COVID-19 tests emanating from several Chicago-area labs. Two of those companies, Zoom Lab Co. and Western Labs Company, both in Chicago, had been recently founded by Syed and were responsible for a spike of astronomical levels beginning in on April 17, 2023, the complaint stated. Over a 52-day period, Syed two labs billed Medicare for a total of $60.3 million for tests for more than three million at-home test kits on behalf of about 364,000 Medicare recipients, the charges stated. Many of those purported to have requested the tests lived out of state and told authorities they never asked for them, according to the complaint. Whats more, Syeds companies billed Medicare on behalf of about 4,100 people who turned out to be dead, the complaint stated. The investigation was ongoing. When agents visited Zoom Labs purported headquarters on West Peterson Avenue last year, all that was there was an empty store front with a for lease sign, the complaint stated. A similar scenario was found at Western Labs in the 200 block of North Western Avenue, where the address led to a low, vacant brick building behind a gas station. In all, Medicare paid out $32 million to Syeds companies before further payments were frozen in an escrow account due to suspected fraud, the complaint stated. While the fraud was ongoing, Syed withdrew hundreds of thousands of dollars from the accounts in the form of cashiers checks, including one check for $569,000 that he used on June 15, 2023, to pay off his home mortgage, the complaint alleged. Federal authorities later filed warrants to seize up to $32 million from more than half a dozen bank accounts set up in Syeds name, the charges stated. The complaint against Syed was filed just a week after another man, Fasiur Syed, 46, was arrested on similar allegations that he fraudulently billed Medicare for $6.2 million in home COVID tests through his company, Advanced Diagnostic Solutions of Bensenville. At Fasuir Syeds detention hearing last week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Hayes called the COVID test schemes an epidemic in this district. Last year, federal authorities filed warrants to seize $43 million in fraudulent Medicare payments for test kits billed by a shell company called SK Diagnostics, which was headquartered in an empty store front on North Cicero Avenue, court records show. Another warrant earlier this year sought to hold $5.1 million in Medicare payments to a company called State Scientific, which like other companies had billed a massive amount of tests in a very short time period, court records show. On June 5, 2023, law enforcement went to State Scientifics so-called headquarters in the 1500 block of North Mannheim Road in Stone Park and found that it was actually a restaurant, court records show. Immediately next to the restaurant was a vacant area with a sign that read, For Rent, with no apparent presence of State Scientific, the seizure warrant stated. And in April, Baqar Hussain Razv Syed pleaded guilty in Chicagos federal court to being the front man for a fraud involving Schaumburg-based Luna Labs, which in one three-month period in 2023 billed Medicare for more than $14 million in fraudulent tests, court records show. Baqar Syeds plea agreement with prosecutors stated his co-schemers, who have not been charged, agreed to pay him $10,000 a month for his services. He is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly on July 18. Its not clear if any of the defendants are related. _______ TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) A woman and child were killed in a drive-by shooting shooting at a Florida bank early Friday morning, according to police. NBC affiliate WTVJ reported that the shooting happened at a Chase Bank in at Bird Avenue and 152nd Avenue in Miami-Dade County. Child killed, 2 adults seriously hurt in DUI crash in Auburndale According to WTVJ, Miami-Dade Detective Luis Sierra said a sergeant heard the shooting as he was driving in the area, finding three bodies at the scene. Authorities said a woman was in a minivan at the banks ATM when a man in an SUV pulled up alongside her and fired at her vehicle, killing her and a child who was also in the minivan. After killing the two victims, the gunman then shot himself dead, Sierra said. At this time, the identities of the victims and suspect are unknown. However, police said the childs body was found in a car seat, which suggests that the child was very young. The connection between the gunman and the victims is also not yet known. We dont know familial ties yet, Sierra told WTVJ. Homicide is on scene. They are investigating. 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. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. A Chillicothe man and former professional bowler has been sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to child pornography charges. A professional bowler from Chillicothe whom U.S. marshals arrested in February at a Professional Bowling Association tournament in Indianapolis has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison on child pornography charges. Brandon Novak, 35, pleaded guilty in April to 15 charges filed by Chillicothe police related to child pornography, including illegal use of a minor in nudity material and pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor, according to Ross County Common Pleas Court filings. Ross County Common Pleas Judge Matthew Schmidt sentenced Novak on Thursday to 12 months in prison on each of the first four counts of pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor, plus 11 months in prison for the fifth count, with credit for 27 days already served. Ten-month sentences for each of the 10 counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material will be served at the same time. Novak also will have to register as a Tier II sex offender, which means he will have to register every 90 days for the rest of his life. Who is professional bowler Brandon Novak? Brandon Novak began bowling in amateur competitions in 2009 and has competed professionally since 2012, winning some high-profile games and titles over his career, according to his profile on the Professional Bowlers Association website. In his first year professionally, Novak won the 2012 PBA Central Region Rookie of the Year title. He has played in more than 75 PBA games and has earned more than $93,000 in winnings from competitions and tournaments. Novak's arrest and subsequent conviction on child porn charges is not his first brush with the law. In three separate incidents in July, September and November 2022, Novak was charged with violating a temporary protective order filed against him by his ex-girlfriend, according to court records obtained by The Dispatch. In all three incidents, Novak tried to contact the ex-girlfriend via phone, text, email and social media. In December 2022, he was sentenced to 56 days in jail, but that sentence was later reduced to 19 days, court filings indicate. Child sex material connected to Novak's social media Chillicothe police had been investigating Novak since February 2023, according to a report obtained by The Dispatch through an Ohio Public Records Act request. According to the report, a Chillicothe police detective first received a complaint Feb. 17, 2023, from Facebook that was also submitted to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force about Novak's Facebook account being associated with child pornography. Submitted with the complaint were multiple videos showing young males and one juvenile male having sex with an adult male, as well as a still photo of Novak. Through investigation, the detective matched the IP address from the photos and videos to a computer at Novak's home in Chillicothe. On Feb. 21, 2023, the detective got a search warrant for Novak's home. The detective interviewed Novak about child pornography being associated with his Facebook account, the report states. During the interview, the detective reported, Novak said he bought pornography from someone on the social media app Snapchat but initially said that he did not know the videos would contain child pornography. According to the report, Novak told the detective that after he bought the Snapchat videos, he would send them to a spam Facebook account that was not in his name so that he would not have to save the videos on his phone. Later in the interview, the report states that Novak admitted to the detective that he knew he was buying child pornography and was taking steps to conceal it. smeighan@dispatch.com @ShahidMeighan This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Pro bowler Brandon Novak sentenced to prison for child porn Three European Space Agency (ESA) Swarm satellites have detected plasma high in the upper layers of the Earth's magnetic field that is illuminating the polar sky with an unearthly purple glow, an atmospheric phenomenon known as STEVE. The twin of the unusual phenomenon could be seen at dawn. ADVERTISIMENT Photographer Gabriel Hofstra spotted the streak of purple light in 2021. Images were taken with a digital panoramic camera at the Ramfjordmoen research station in Norway. The Swarm satellites, which study the Earth's magnetic field and its interaction with the electrically charged solar wind, confirmed that the man had found what astrophysicists call a STEVE-like phenomenon. A new study by the University of Telecommunications in Japan, the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, the Arctic University of Norway, and photographer Gabriel Hofstra from Troms showed the relevant results, ESA reports. The team has developed a program that collects images of the aurora borealis over the Arctic from a digital camera to view the entire sky at the research station. While looking through the data archives, Gabriel Hofstra came across something special, similar to STEVE, in an image from December 28, 2021. Significant differences were found compared to STEVE. ADVERTISIMENT The 1000 km long arc appeared after midnight, i.e. at dawn. It was located to the north of the green aurora, which was also visible. None of the three Swarm satellites flew directly through the arc at the same time and place. Two of the satellites' electric field instruments were able to measure conditions in the violet region before, during and after the event. The data showed signs of an eastward flow of ions in the violet region. What is STEVE? In late 2016, astronomers saw a ribbon of pale purple light in the night sky over Alberta, Canada. Experts realized that this was not a normal part of the Northern Lights as such phenomena are usually green and sometimes red. Their ephemeral discovery was so puzzling that it attracted the attention of researchers studying how the Earth's magnetic field interacts with the electrically charged solar wind. They gave the strange light a name that is appropriately shrouded in mystery and intrigue: STEVE. ADVERTISIMENT The aurora borealis is caused by a stream of extremely hot, electrically charged gas (or plasma) flowing rapidly through the upper reaches of the Earth's magnetic field. It is a bit different from the others because it is caused by a gas made up of electrically charged atoms, not just tiny subatomic particles. Because of its different composition, it falls on different magnetic field lines than the electrons that cause the usual aurorae. This is why STEVE can be seen at lower latitudes. Unlike the regular aurora, which can last several hours, STEVE appears and disappears much faster. Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! ADVERTISIMENT BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong held a video call with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday, with both agreeing to maintain communication on counter-narcotics and law enforcement cooperation, according to Chinese state media. Wang said the two countries need to deepen cooperation in areas such as drug control, repatriation of illegal immigrants, and combating transnational crime, in order to achieve more results in law enforcement cooperation, Xinhua news reported on Friday. The two met earlier this year with other senior U.S. and Chinese officials to discuss cooperating on law enforcement concerns including the illicit flow of synthetic drugs such as fentanyl. The two countries later launched a joint counter-narcotics working group to tackle the spread of fentanyl. The United States has said China is directly subsidizing production of illicit fentanyl precursors for sale abroad and fuelling the U.S. opioid crisis. China's embassy in Washington had said China was sincere in drug control cooperation with U.S. authorities and had a special campaign underway to control fentanyl and precursor chemicals and crack down on illegal smuggling, manufacturing, and trafficking activities. (Reporting by Bernard Orr and Shanghai newsroom; Editing by Lincoln Feast.) CIA assessment concludes Netanyahu is likely to defy US pressure to set a post-war plan for Gaza A CIA assessment circulated among US officials this week concluded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likely judges he can get away without defining a post-war plan even as the Biden administration has launched a full-court press to pressure him to bring an end to the conflict in Gaza. Netanyahu probably believes he can maintain support from his security chiefs and prevent defections from the right wing of his coalition by discussing the future of Gaza in vague terms, the June 3 report, reviewed by CNN, reads. The assessment which has not been previously reported represents one of the most up to date intelligence assessments about Netanyahus mindset that has been circulated among senior US officials, according to a source familiar with internal reporting. It comes amid a clear shift in how the Biden administration views Israel: less as a trusted partner and more as an unpredictable foreign government to be analyzed and understood. The CIA declined to comment when asked about CNNs reporting. The assessment highlights how the Israeli leader is defying pressure from members of his own government and the Biden administration to define an end state for Gaza and warns what Netanyahu has said publicly is likely true: that he will only engage seriously on post-war issues after meeting what he sees as key security benchmarks, which may take months. According to the assessment, those benchmarks include completing major military operations something analysts have said is deliberately vague as well as eliminating Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif. Deif is the commander of the Qassam Brigades and, as a senior commander of the military wing of Hamas, is believed to have been deeply involved in the planning of the October 7, 2023, attacks in Israel. Israel has tried to target Deif multiple times in the past, and although he has been injured, he is believed to still be alive. The report is consistent with what CNN and others have reported in the days since President Joe Biden announced a three-pronged peace deal proposal on Friday. It comes as senior Biden administration officials, including CIA Director Bill Burns, are meeting with key mediators between Israel and Hamas at a particularly tense moment in negotiations. Burns has been the primary US negotiator on a potential agreement. The US has publicly characterized the deal as an Israeli proposal and has said it is waiting for Hamas to approve the terms. But Israel has been tepid at best on the proposal. Privately, officials have long been clear-eyed about the difficulty of getting both sides to reach an agreement. The relationship between Biden and Netanyahu a world leader whom he once claimed to love has been increasingly strained as the civilian death toll in Gaza has mounted as a result of Israels bombing campaign. Biden and other American officials have grown more and more critical of Netanyahu in public. Although initially the administration was deeply reluctant to discuss Israeli politics in public, officials have in recent weeks and months inched closer to frank assessments of Netanyahus motivations. There is every reason for people to draw [the] conclusion that Netanyanhu is prolonging the war for his own political gain, Biden said in a TIME magazine interview this week. In one early and stark moment in March, the US intelligence community said publicly that it assessed Netanyahus viability as a leader was in jeopardy, pointing to public distrust of the prime ministers ability to rule and predicting large protests demanding his resignation and new elections. Netanyahu faces a domestic reckoning over the military and intelligence failures that led to Hamas devastating attack on southern Israel on October 7. He also faces deep divisions inside his own government. Even amid stiff pressure from Biden to wrap up the war, he faces equally strident pressure from rightwing officials in his fragile governing coalition to continue fighting. The CIA assessment highlights that, within Israel, there is no consensus on the postwar plan for Gaza, indicating each cabinet ministers ranging views on postwar governance, security and reconstruction. Netanyahu, for example, is depicted alongside a blurb noting he prefers a coalition of moderate Arab states to manage the territory with eventual participation from other leaders. Other Israeli leaders are depicted as having various views on future governance that are diametrically opposed to those attributed to Netanyahu. Overall, the assessment illustrates how Israels coalition government remains deeply divided over several critical post-war issues supporting the CIAs broader conclusion that a lack of unity among Netanyahus political rivals could enable his continued defiance of any pressure to define a plan for Gaza once the conflict ends. My major disagreement with Netanyahu is, what happens after Gazas over? Biden told TIME. What does it go back to? Do Israeli forces go back in? For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Mirror Mirror In one California town, local officials have shut down the United States' first so-called "cloud-brightening" experiment even after an investigation found that it's safe for residents and the environment. As the New York Times reports, the City Council in Alameda, California has voted to end its pioneering marine geoengineering experiments, which involved spraying tiny particles of sea salt off the deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier in hopes of one day making clouds brighter and capable of reflecting sunlight away from our planet. Undertaken by climate researchers from the University of Washington, the beginning of the sun-dimming experiments which, notably, had not yet begun seeding clouds with salt but were instead measuring the feasibility of the equipment being used made national news earlier this year, which per CBS News took Alameda Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft by surprise. Soon after that reporting, and after Tennessee banned similar experiments under the misguided notion that they constituted "chemtrails," city officials ordered the UW trial to a halt, claiming that the researchers hadn't been transparent about what they'd be doing. The council commissioned an environmental assessment to determine whether or not spraying salt into the sky could be harmful to natural or human health. No Foul The ensuing environmental assessment found, as the NYT noted in a previous report, that the "chemical components of the saltwater solution (which is similar to seawater) being sprayed are naturally occurring in the environment." City staff recommended the experiment continue, citing the potential environmental benefits it could lead to. Nevertheless, after a lengthy meeting in which residents and council members voiced concerns about whether or not the geoengineering trial was truly harmless, the governing body voted unanimously to shut down the experiment. "I dont think its appropriate for our community to be asked to bear that risk," councilor Trish Herrera Spencer said, per the NYT. "I dont think this is the right place." Mayor Ashcraft echoed those concerns, saying she doesn't "have a huge desire to be on the cutting edge." "I just feel like this is not the right time," the mayor said. More on climate change: You Might Cry When You Read This Study About What's Happening to the Oceans Protesters gather in Milwaukee to march on the Republican presidential debate in August 2023. (Isiah Holmes | Wisconsin Examiner) The Coalition to March on the RNC has sued the city of Milwaukee for violating our First Amendment rights to protest the Republican National Convention (RNC) in July, the coalition said in a press release Thursday. We have been clear from the beginning: we will march within sight and sound of the Fiserv Forum as it is our Constitutional right to assembly, speak, and petition. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin filed the suit in Milwaukee on behalf of the coalition in federal court late Wednesday. With less than six weeks left before the RNC, city leaders have been unwilling or unable to say whether it accepts the route proposed by the coalition and have failed to identify any permissible parade route whatsoever, contrary to claims they made previously, the ACLU said in a press release. Instead, they passed an ordinance that limits demonstrators to an undisclosed parade route somewhere in a 90-square block area around Fiserv Forum. Protesters have a constitutional right to demonstrate within sight and sound of an event theyre protesting, and these additional rules will render them unseen and unheard. The coalition applied for its permit for a family friendly march more than a year ago, but it remains unapproved with just six weeks left until the convention, the coalition and the ACLU said. The coalition has been raising free speech concerns since it first submitted the application. The coalition says that the city has yet to provide concrete details about the hard and soft security zones for the RNC, or about [the citys] approved parade route. Coalition members have condemned a proposed speakers platform, which the city and Secret Service would have to approve, where supporters and opponents to the convention must share limited speaking slots. The coalition has also said that the city has posed prying questions to its members, including related to whether any had participated in past civil unrest. When Milwaukee was announced as the location for the RNC in 2022, Mayor Johnson claimed that the decision to host the RNC was a business decision to attract tourist dollars to Milwaukee not a political one, the coalition stated in its press release. However, the City has bent over backwards to accommodate the racist, reactionary Republicans while stonewalling Milwaukee community members who want to have their voices heard in protest. Even their new permitting system makes it clear that their priority is catering to the Republicans and not every day Milwaukeeans. They want to force us onto their parade route, not a march route or demonstration route, with no guarantee it will be anywhere near the Fiserv Forum. Additionally, this permitting system allows the City to limit our march to a timeframe they decide. On the other hand, the Republicans have all week and multiple convention centers to make their voices heard. The coalition said it wasnt surprised at the citys actions but was disappointed nevertheless. We hope this lawsuit will grant us our First Amendment right to be in the streets, but no matter what the permits or the Courts say we will be marching within sight and sound of the Fiserv Forum in July. We know that the people of Milwaukee are with us, and we will not let our City become a playground for the Republicans. Citing Milwaukees proud history of being a city of unions, immigrants, Black and brown families, and LGBTQ people, the coalition stated, We will not stand for the Republicans and the City of Milwaukees attempts to erase our diversity in the past or the present. The post City sued to allow protesters within sight and sound of RNC appeared first on Wisconsin Examiner. Clarence Thomas officially disclosed he took luxury vacations paid for by the conservative billionaire, Harlan Crow something the US supreme court justice had yet to acknowledge in the official record. The right-leaning justice has updated a financial disclosure to the court to confirm the Crow-funded travel, to Indonesia and a mens club in California, amending a previous version. He belatedly reported travel paid for by others from 2019: a hotel room in Bali and food and lodging in Sonoma county, California, were paid for by Crow. He did not report any travel paid by others last year. ProPublica first revealed the trips in April 2023, but Thomas, had not previously included them in court financial disclosure records, which are updated annually, although he had acknowledged publicly the hospitality. ProPublicas reporting on Thomas and Crow won the Pulitzer prize for public service this year. The filing only offers a brief explanation of why Thomas is now disclosing the expenses. During the preparation and filing of this report, filer sought and received guidance from his accountant and ethics counsel, the report says. Following ProPublicas reporting last year, Thomas released a statement acknowledging travel with Crow, but said Crow, a Republican mega-donor, did not have business before the court. Thomas previously said he had been advised that he did not have to report this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends. But Crow was affiliated with Club for Growth, which has lobbied the court with amicus briefs while Thomas has sat on it, the Guardian reported last year. ProPublica has also reported that Thomas sold his mothers home in Savannah, Georgia, to Crow (Thomas disclosed the transaction last year after the report). Thomas also disclosed that his wife, Ginni, received income from consulting she did on behalf of various conservative organizations, Politico reported. Thomas has faced pressure to recuse himself on cases involving the January 6 attempt to reverse the 2020 election result over his wifes ties to the right, but he has refused so far. Thomas received 103 gifts totaling $2.4m, according to an analysis by Fix the Court, a watchdog group. The total dollar amount he received is 10 times what his fellow justices combined received over the same period. Thomass relationship with Crow set off calls for more transparency by the justices and calls for more transparency. ProPublica also reported last year that Samuel Alito, another of the courts conservative justices, flew on a private jet and vacationed with a billionaire who had business before the court. Alito was granted a 90-day extension to file his report, something he has routinely sought. Alito is also under scrutiny after reports from the New York Times that there was an upside-down US flag flying outside his home in Virginia as well as an Appeal to Heaven flag flying outside a beach home in New Jersey. The former is associated with the January 6 attack on the Capitol and the latter with Christian nationalism. The supreme courts nine justices all agreed to a code of conduct last year, though some experts have noted it does not go far enough and there is no way to adequately enforce it. The newest justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, collected nearly $900,000 last year for her upcoming memoir, one of four supreme court justices who reported sizable income from book deals. Jackson also disclosed that Beyonce gave her four tickets worth $3,700. Justice Clarence Thomas belatedly acknowledged that Republican billionaire Harlan Crow paid for Thomas accommodations during trips in 2019 to Bali and Sonoma County a disclosure that comes amid unprecedented scrutiny of the Supreme Court and the wealthy benefactors close to the justices. The acknowledgment of Crows largesse was included in an annual financial disclosure report filed by Thomas and made public on Friday. Financial reports for eight of the nine justices were also released Friday. Justice Samuel Alito received a 90-day extension to file his report, as he did last year. Three justices reported receiving six-figure amounts last year from book deals or royalties. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said Beyonce gave her four concert tickets worth about $3,700. According to Thomas newly-released report, Crow and his wife provided food and one day of hotel lodging during Thomas trip to Indonesia in July 2019, and Crow also picked up the tab for a four-day stay by the justice a few days later at a private club in Monte Rio, California, which is home to the Bohemian Grove, an all-male retreat. Thomas has faced criticism for accepting lavish trips from Crow, a Texas real estate mogul and Republican megadonor, without disclosing them. Thomas has called Crow a close and longtime personal friend. Thomas new filing explained that he sought and received guidance from his accountant and ethics counsel as part of a review of prior filings that began last year. The gifts from the Crows were inadvertently omitted at the time of filing, Thomas said on the new form, which primarily covers the 2023 calendar year. Thomas 2019 trip to Indonesia with the Crows some of it spent aboard a private yacht was first reported last year by ProPublica, which noted it was not included on the justices disclosure form for that year. Thomas later said hed been advised by ethics officials that personal hospitality from friends did not need to be reported. However, the new filing appears to be a concession that whatever ambiguity may have existed around travel on private jets or yachts, gifts of stays at hotels or clubs owned by third parties have long been required to be disclosed. For the past two years, the courts ethics practices have been the subject of intense attention and criticism, as journalists, court-reform advocates and legal ethics experts have increasingly questioned the financial and personal ties of the justices, as well as the political, business and personal activities of some of the justices spouses. Senate Democrats have subjected the high court to withering criticism, with many suggesting that ethics lapses show the Republican-appointed justices to be under the sway of conservative activists. Amid the firestorm, the Supreme Court took the unprecedented step last November of adopting a formal ethics code, although it lacks an enforcement mechanism and in some respects is weaker than vaguer ethics principles endorsed earlier by the justices. Alito, like Thomas, has faced particular scrutiny. He flew on a private jet and vacationed in Alaska with a hedge fund billionaire with interests before the court, ProPublica reported, and two controversial flag displays associated with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol flew at his homes, the New York Times reported. A spokesperson for the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts, which processes the financial disclosure forms, confirmed that Alito had received an extension to file his report but did not provide a rationale for the delay. Various justices reported cashing in on book deals last year. Jackson reported nearly $900,000 in a book advance, paid through a limited liability company. Justice Brett Kavanaugh earned $340,000 in book royalties in 2023, and Justice Neil Gorsuch reported $250,000 in royalty income, according to the filings. Justice Sonia Sotomayor saw about $87,000 in book royalties and was paid about $1,900 for her voice performance in the PBS Kids animated show Almas Way. In addition to receiving the four tickets from musician Beyonce Knowles-Carter, Jackson also received artwork for her chambers valued, in total, at $12,500. Thomas reported his wife, Ginni Thomas, again received an undisclosed salary and benefits from Liberty Consulting, a consulting firm she established in connection with work she did for various conservative organizations. Public officials are not required to disclose their spouses salaries, but Thomas form put the value of his wifes business at between about $15,000 and $50,000. The Thomases also received two photo albums valued at $2,000 from Terrence and Barbara Giroux. Terrence Giroux appears to be the former executive director of the Horatio Alger Association, a nonprofit whose board of directors counts Thomas as an honorary member, according to Thomas filing. Chief Justice John Roberts reported some rental income from a cottage in Maine and share of a cottage in Ireland. Additionally, his wife Jane Sullivan Roberts received a base salary and commission from the attorney search firm for which she works. After POLITICO and other outlets reported on Jane Sullivan Roberts work, the chief justice began reporting in his disclosures that some of her income comes from commissions. Clarkstown accuses 2 landlords of putting immigrants at risk with illegal use of 15 houses NEW CITY - Clarkstown Supervisor George Hoehmann announced Friday that the town has gone to court to shut down 15 residences that officials say are illegally converted into unsafe dwellings, housing too many people and rife with safety violations. The town is seeking state Supreme Court court orders to get the properties vacated. The next step would be to force the two landlords who own the 15 houses to re-convert them to their permitted use, often as single-family residences. "We will pursue every legal action," Hoehmann said. He called the illegal conversions a business model based on putting lives at risk. Clarkstown Town Attorney Kevin Conway confirmed that beyond fines, repeat offenders of building violations could face jail time if convicted in justice court. Clarkstown: Landlord's 9 houses hit with allegations of overcrowding and dangerous living conditions Hoehmann identified the landlords as: Simcha Schwartz of Brooklyn is the listed owner of 10 properties under scrutiny by Clarkstown. Schwartz has bought up properties in the Nyack and Clarkstown areas. Wilson Bermeo of New City is listed as the owner of five properties in town. "This will not be tolerated in Clarkstown," Hoehmann said. Some properties were listed with the town's rental registry but others were not, he said. Clarkstown Supervisor George Hoehmann talks about town legal action being taken against two landlords who are accused of subdividing multiple houses. The press conference took place Friday, June 7, 2024. In one house that on paper is a single-family residence, about 24 people were living there, including three families occupying the second floor, Hoehmann said. Code violations in this and other houses abound, he said, which jeopardize the residents and first responders in case of fire or other emergency. "We always learn in just about every case that these are recent arrivals to the country," Hoehmann said. 'Unscrupulous landlords' and immigration wave The problem has grown exponentially since more newcomers to the U.S. head to New York City and then Rockland amid a swell of immigration at the Southern border, Hoehmann said. He, Rockland County Executive Ed Day, and U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler said several times Friday that it was the "unscrupulous landlords" who were taking advantage of immigrants amid a housing crunch. A room seen during an inspection by Clarkstown officials of 401 Phillips Hill Road in New City. Inspectors said the house showed signs of multiple families living there. Hoehmann recalled a recent call for inspectors to a house where 30 residents appeared to be living. At another site, which was supposedly restored to a single-family residence, an inspector discovered a false wall that obscured a ladder leading to an attic where people could live. "It's migrants coming into this country who are being victimized," Hoehmann said. This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Illegal housing with immigrants in Clarkstown lands landlords in court Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus in top 10 for dogs biting USPS workers. See where Ohio ranks The United States Postal Service is bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase "don't bite the hand that feeds you." As part of the mail service's 2024 National Dog Bite Awareness Campaign, USPS put together a ranking of cities with the most dog attacks on postal service employees in 2023. There were over 5,800 incidents involving dog attacks on USPS employees last year alone, the mail carrier reported. Dogs are generally protective of their turf and can perceive even an innocent gesture like a postal worker handing mail to a homeowner as a threat, USPS said. The ranking reveals that it's a dog-eat-dog (well, dog-bite-mail-carrier) world in Ohio. Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati among top cities for dog attacks on mail carriers Believe it or not, all three of the state's major cities (Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati) fall in the top ten U.S. cities with the most dog attacks on postal service workers. No. 5 Cleveland carries the highest ranking among Ohio cities, with 44 incidents in 2023. No. 8 Cincinnati recorded 38 attacks last year. No. 10 Columbus finished 2023 with 33 attacks reported. A new ranking from USPS shows all three of the state's major cities (Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati) are among the top 10 U.S. cities with the most dog attacks on postal service workers. (Credit: Kara Hawley/Rockford Register Star) Ohio No. 3 state for most dog attacks on USPS workers, punches above its population Statewide, Ohio ranks No. 3 for most dog attacks on mail carriers across the country, with 359 incidents in 2023, up from 311 incidents the year before, USPS reported. Dayton (tied with Fort Worth, Texas, for 17th with 23 incidents in 2023) helped propel the Buckeye State up the rankings. What's perhaps more miraculous than Ohio's propensity for pup vs. postal worker standoffs is the fact that Ohio's cities are punching (er, biting) above their weight given their population numbers. The cities that join Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus in the top 10 are significantly larger, population wise. For example, Los Angeles, California, is ranked as the No. 1 city for dog attacks on postal service workers, with 65 incidents reported in 2023. U.S. Census Bureau numbers indicate that Los Angeles boasts a population of nearly 4 million more than 10 times the size of Cleveland's approximate population of 360,000, which had 44 incidents reported in 2023. Many of the other top-10 cities (Houston, Chicago, San Diego, Philadelphia, Dallas) are million-plus person metropolises. Columbus is home to roughly 913,000 people, per the Census Bureau, while Cincinnati claims a little more than 311,000 residents. The postal service's statewide ranking exhibits the same miraculous juxtaposition. California home to over 39 million people is ranked first in dog attacks, with 727 incidents last year. Meanwhile, Ohio home to about a quarter of California's population numbers follows closely behind, ranked third in dog attacks by state. A new ranking from USPS shows all three of the state's major cities (Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati) fall in the ten U.S. cities with the most dog attacks on postal service workers. Here's how dog owners can help Are you a dog owner? Here are steps you can take to help Ohio overcome its pup vs. postal worker problem. 1. Secure your dog before the mail carrier arrives. Most people have an idea for when their letter carrier arrives every day. So, do yourself and your letter carrier a favor and secure your pup before postal service comes. 2. When the mail carrier comes, make sure your dog is ... Inside the house or behind a fence or gate. On a leash. 3. If you have children, remind them not to accept mail from a letter carrier. If you have children, remind them not to accept mail directly from a letter carrier because your dog may view the carrier as a threat to the child and attack as a result. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio ranks as No. 3 state for dog attacks on mail carriers: USPS report On the afternoon of June 7, a series of powerful explosions occurred in the temporarily occupied Luhansk. OSINT researchers found that the Defense Forces managed to hit the TransPele base, where the occupiers lived and trained. ADVERTISIMENT The invaders also repaired their damaged equipment at this facility, so there was always more than enough hardware there, according to the CyberBoroshno OSINT community and InformNapalm. "The plane arrived in Luhansk at a very well-known rehab/base where terrorists lived and trained. There are a lot of enemy photos and reports from there, and the base itself has been geolocated by various OSINT/GEOINT teams, so it's time to go," CyberBoroshno said in a statement. The OSINT researchers accompanied the post with two satellite images, dated June 5 and May 28, 2024. Both, they emphasize, show high activity of enemy vehicles and heavy vehicles, as well as vehicles undergoing repair. ADVERTISIMENT At the same time, the Russian occupiers have been using the "TransPele" base site for parking military equipment since 2014, and InformNapalm volunteers began recording "interesting samples" there ten years ago. In particular, in 2014, InformNapalm reminded, a BPM-97 KamAZ-43269 "Dozor" was spotted there. In 2017, the invaders organized a drone exhibition at the base, which proved that Russia was already supplying Russian unmanned aerial vehicles to the "young republics" in the occupied part of Ukrainian Donbas: "Orlan-10", "Takhion" and "Eleron-UAV". "Archival satellite images show that a certain amount of military equipment of the Russian occupiers is constantly present in this territory," InformNapalm noted. ADVERTISIMENT As a reminder, around noon, information about explosions in occupied Luhansk began to spread online. In local chat rooms, city residents posted numerous videos of unknown missiles being shot down by Russian air defense and of powerful explosions, apparently after arrival. Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber . Do not fall for fakes! Hunter Bidens eldest daughter took the stand on Friday as a witness for the defense in her fathers federal trial, detailing her dads struggle with addiction and how hopeful he was around the time he allegedly illegally bought a gun. Sorry, Im nervous, Naomi Biden, 30, told jurors as she began testifying in a Delaware courtroom. Hunter, who was sitting several feet away at the defense table, wiped away tears as his eldest daughter spoke. Naomione of three daughters Biden shares with his ex-wife Kathleen Buhle, who testified earlier this weekdescribed first learning about her fathers struggle with addiction and his stints in rehab. She detailed seeing her father in 2018 while he was in an L.A. rehab center. I knew that he was struggling with addiction, she said, noting how things got bad after her uncle and Hunters brother, Beau Biden, died of brain cancer. Around October 2018, when prosecutors allege Biden lied on a federal form to buy a gun by saying he wasnt a drug addict, Naomi said her father was hopeful about getting better. Still, according to texts shown in court, the relationship between Biden and his daughter was strained. Im really sorry dad I cant take this, Naomi texted her dad around that time while he was on a trip to New York, before adding that she wanted to hang out with you. Hours later, Biden responded, apologizing for being unreachable. Naomi Biden and her husband Peter Neal pictured at an event in April. Nathan Howard/Reuters During cross-examination, prosecutor Leo Wise tried to establish a timeline for Bidens drug use by asking Naomi if she ever saw her father using drugs. No, I never saw him use, she said, adding that she would not be able to recognize whether he was. When court broke for lunch, Naomi quickly hugged her father as she walked past the defense table to exit the room with her husband. NBC noted that, unlike other Biden family reunions throughout the trial, there were no big hugs or laughter around Naomi in the hallway. Instead, the Biden family and supporters reportedly appeared silent and serious. Naomi was the second defense witness to take the stand on Friday after prosecutors rested their case earlier in the day, CNN reported. President Joe Bidens brother, James Biden, was also in the courthouse on Friday and was expected to testify but the defense decided not to call him up and jurors were sent home early. Defense attorneys said Friday afternoon that they would make a decision on their last witness over the weekend, including whether Hunter Biden will testify. James Biden arriving at the courthouse on Friday. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Biden has pleaded not guilty to three counts of owning a firearm while using narcotics. His defense attorneys insist that the presidents son may not have knowingly lied on his form because, at the time, he was in a deep state of denial about his drug use. Earlier on Friday, a forensic chemist testified that white powder found in a brown leather pouch that contained the gun tested positive for drugs. Cocaine was identified within the residual white powder that I sampled, chemist James Brewer told jurors. He added that the minimal amount of white power was found in and on the pouch, and that the tests were done last year. You cant date when the residue got there, or who put it there? defense lawyer David Kolansky asked during cross-examination. I cannot, Brewer said, also confirming he did not initially analyze the pouch and did not test for fingerprints. Hunters Women: The Three Exes Tangled Up in Bidens Trial On Thursday, Bidens sister-in-law and former paramour testified that she put the gun inside his leather pouch after finding it in his truck. Hallie Biden testified that she then put the pouch in a shopping bag and threw it away at a grocery store near her house. I didnt want him to hurt himself or my kids to find it and hurt themselves. I was afraid to, kind of, touch it, Hallie said. I was just so flustered from the whole thing. I realize it was a stupid idea now, but I was just panicking. When Biden found out she threw away the gun, he initially told her to look for it before suggesting she file a police report since the firearm was under his name. She testified that she eventually called the police because she could not find it. Millard Greer, a police officer who was tasked with finding the gun, testified that security footage showed an old man near the trash can where Hallie had discarded the weapon. Witnesses nearby later told him that the man had a habit of rummaging through garbage for recyclables and Greer said he eventually found the man poking around a strip mall days later. The man, Edward Banner, confirmed that he found a thirty-eight special in the trash and took it home. On the stand, Banner explained to jurors he had a hobby of finding recyclables and driving them to New York for profit. Greer said he went to Banners house with him but there was some difficulty getting inside, thanks to a lost set of keys and a sleeping wife. When they finally got in, Banner ran upstairs to give Greer a box of rolled-up socks. I think this is what youre looking for, Greer said Banner explained. And he pulls out a sock that has a gun in it. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. COLD CASE: GBI still searching for answers after 7 men were shot 20 years ago DOUGLAS, Ga. (WRBL) March of 2003 saw the shooting death of five men with two survivors left behind. Now, 20 year later, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) is still searching for answers. Douglas, Georgia, March of 2003 According to the GBI, Bartolo Salez Claudio was shot and killed at 159 Maple Street, Lot #14, on March 1. Four weeks later, on March 29, six men were shot at 325 Elm Street. Authorities found Jose Luis Gaitan, Ramon Obino, Juan Camacho Recendes and Nabor Recendes dead at the scene. These shootings both occurred in what authorities call the Oak Park Community. The two shootings were about a block away from each other. Investigators say evidence found at both crime scenes indicate the possibility the same suspects are responsible for both incidents. There were two survivors of the 325 Elm Street shooting, and with their help, investigators were able to create sketches of the suspects. The GBI has updated these sketches to reflect changes in appearance over time. Anyone with information is asked to call the GBI Region 4 Douglas Office at 912-389-4103. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WRBL. Colorado GOP Condemned for Harmful Anti-LGBTQ Call to Burn All the Pride Flags This Month Colorado GOP chairman Dave Williams who is currently running for Congress with Donald Trump's endorsement was proudly behind the dangerous messaging Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post/Getty 2019 Pride celebrations in Denver, Colo. The Colorado Republican Party is facing immense backlash after the organization sent an anti-LGBTQ+ email to its supporters and then doubled down by calling for Pride flags to be burned. According to a report from the Denver Post, the Colorado GOP sent out an email on Monday, June 3, with the title "God hates pride." Related: Daughter of Store Owner Killed Over Pride Flag Dispute Says Mom Was an Incredible Person Who Helped Others The body of the email contained anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric such as calling supporters of LGBTQ+ equality godless groomers, according to local ABC affiliate station Denver7 and a video from a pastor discussing similar themes. The thumbnail of the video also reads: God hates flags, according to the Post, in an apparent reference to the Westboro Baptist Church, which went viral years ago for carrying banners with anti-LGBTQ+ slurs. The email was signed by Colorado GOP chairman Dave Williams, a former state representative who is currently running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives with the backing of Donald Trump. After the email was sent out, the Colorado GOP then shared a post to X (formerly Twitter) calling for Republicans to "burn all the #pride flags this June." Related: Wisc. Homeowners Who Were Told to Take Down Pride Flag Find Colorful Loophole to Show Support ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Colorado GOP Condemned for Hateful Anti-LGBTQ Call to Burn All the Pride Flags This Month The backlash from Republicans, Democrats and independent organizations was swift. Rocky Mountain Equality, a local Colorado LGBTQ+ advocacy group, told the Post that Williams' rhetoric was "harmful" and "extremist." As we enter Pride Month, a time for the LGBTQ community to celebrate who we are and find connection with others, some groups would still wipe us from existence if they could, Rocky Mountain Executive Director Mardi Moore told the outlet. We know that these extremist groups do not represent all Coloradans, but that doesnt make statements like the Republican Partys call to burn Pride flags or the rhetoric from the anti-LGBTQ activists leading efforts to put hateful measures on our November ballots any less harmful. Related: Biden Reaffirms Commitment to LGBTQ+ Community as Pride Month Begins, Denouncing Hateful Laws and Violence Valdamar Archuleta, who leads the state chapter of the LGBTQ+ group Log Cabin Republicans, also spoke out against the aggressive messaging. "I think the worst thing in there was the video they embedded into the email which was titled 'God Hates Flags' because of the obvious reference to the Westboro Baptist Church," Archuleta told Denver7. "It's really bad optics. It's a really bad message. All it's doing is being divisive and non-inclusive, and that's not who we are as Republicans." Related: Joe Biden Rules Out Pardon for Hunter as He Vows to Respect Any Verdict in Son's Federal Gun Trial Following the anti-Pride statements, Archuleta rejected an endorsement from the Colorado GOP as he runs for Congress in the 1st District, the outlet added. "Seeing that this endorsement came from the group of people who sent out that email I'm just talking about the few people who are in the state party at the top it was not something that I wanted to represent myself or my campaign," Archuleta said. 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. On the other side of the aisle, Democrats in Colorado, including the party's chair, Shad Murib, said that Williams' email was full of "bigotry," according to the Post. "Until they grow a backbone and dismiss this, we will assume that the CO GOP is speaking for [the state's Republican elected officials] and all GOP nominees and well make sure CO voters know it," Murib wrote in an X post on Monday following the release of the email. "Theres no more room for this." Related: Lawmaker with Transgender Daughter Responds to Colleague's Transphobic Sign Outside Her Office A number of Colorado Republican Party officials, including county leadership, have called for Williams to resign. An open letter shared to Facebook stated that "a very divisive email message was sent that is not in alignment with the voices of over one million Republicans in the state of Colorado." Williams, however, has not backed down, telling both outlets that he stands behind his anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. "We make no apologies for saying God hates pride or pride flags as its an agenda that harms children and undermines parental authority, and the only backlash we see is coming from radical Democrats, the fake news media, and weak Republicans who bow down at the feet of leftist cancel culture," he said in a statement. For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on People. DENVER (KDVR) Some Colorado Republicans are distancing themselves from the Colorado GOP after an anti-LGBTQ newsletter went out to supporters earlier this week. The email followed up with a post on social media, where the group said burn all the #pride flags this June. The email and posts prompted one Republican congressional candidate to reject the partys endorsement. Valdamar Archuleta is running to unseat longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, and hes the president of Colorado Log Cabin Republicans an LGBTQ advocacy group for conservatives. Stolen pride flags in Arvada prompt questions about political climate Archuleta called the email and posts hateful and wrong, adding: I dont believe that leadership speaks for the entire party. I think its a very, very small group of people. Anti-LGBTQ messages the straw that broke the camels back Archuleta discussed the statements on Colorado Point of View this week, where he was asked if the Colorado Republican Party is not considered a small group of people. I would like to think its not, but I do think theres a fringe element that has hijacked the party, Archuleta said. Valdamar Archuleta The Republican candidate for Colorados 1st Congressional District added: When it comes to higher profile Republicans in the state, I cant think of anyone who saw this email and said, No, this is good, I agree with that. Its overwhelmingly being rejected, and its not just this one issue. This is kind of the straw that broke the camels back if you look at things that have been happening in the party for the past year, and people are unhappy and it shows. Polis signs bill that would delay ranked-choice voting Archuleta also called on the states Republican Party chairman, Dave Williams, to step down immediately, adding: He has failed the party. His job is to get Republicans elected. This email alone I believe is going to result in the loss of elections for Republicans. Watch the full interview with Valdamar Archuleta on Colorado Point of View on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. on Colorados Very Own Channel 2. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. DENVER (KDVR) A well-known Colorado real estate investor is suing one of the largest banks in the country on claims of discrimination and breach of contract. Christopher Narin said she was profiled at a branch in Denver resulting in the manager calling the police on her, even putting employees in a safe. The bank adamantly disputes Narins claims. Whether you are breaking into the Denver housing market or commuting past the billboards on Colorado Boulevard, Christopher Narin is a familiar face to many in the metro area as a broker and investor. However, real estate is not why shes sitting down with the FOX31 Problem Solvers. I feel like the story is just its not anything that I anticipated, Narin said. I never thought I would leave that branch in fear, and I did This story starts 5 miles down the same road as her billboard at a Chase Bank branch on Colorado Boulevard. I did bank with Chase for a while for over a decade, and now things have changed, Narin said. Narin looks back to November 2021, the date of a Denver police incident report about an interaction prompting a court case, first filed in state district court and now moved over to federal court. I never thought I would leave that branch in fear, and I did, Narin said. Narin told FOX31 she stopped at the Chase drive-through that day before heading to a client meeting. At that time, I just deposited funds that I was using to purchase another property, Narin said. Southwest passenger: Crying and screaming as plane makes emergency landing at DIA The $80,000 deposit seemed to be taking a bit longer than what Narin said she had experienced before with that kind of money. It was 20 minutes, so I rang the bell and pressed the button, and the woman came on and I said, hey, you know, Im just checking on my deposit, Narin said. Her response it wasnt just like a normal response. It was a quip. Narin told FOX31 the bank managers response in the drive-through drove her to head inside to try to figure out what was happening. And shes like, Youre rude and disrespectful, Narin said. I said, you know what? Youre actually rude. Go ahead and give me my funds from the branch and, you know, Ill bank elsewhere. Ive banked here for 10 years without issue until this event. So then she called 911. Narin told FOX31 that the bank manager called 911 and directed all of her employees into the safe at the bank. I thought to myself, this is now a very dangerous situation that she created, Narin said. You were behind 8 inches of Plexiglas, and all I have is my purse and Im making a deposit. I have no weapon on me. I thought, what is this woman doing? But creating a really unsafe environment for everyone, the employees, myself, even herself. You dont know how the police are going to respond to a situation. And now the employees are in the safe, and people are in fear of what? A Chase bank sign in Richmond, Va., Wednesday, June 2, 2021. PMorgan reports earnings on Friday, April 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File) Chase Bank moves to dismiss lawsuit According to the Denver Police Department incident detail report, the caller claimed a customer was threatening staff, with no weapons seen, and saying: They dont know who they are messing with and willing to light up this place words Narin said never came out of her mouth. The FOX31 Problem Solvers requested body camera video of the police response, but the department said it did not exist. The report shows a request to cancel before police arrived. If you were truly in fear of your safety and the safety of your employees, you would have pressed charges, Narin said. Narin is now taking legal action, with Chases latest response in the courts: a motion to dismiss. According to the motion filed by Chase: Plaintiff simply alleges her check deposits took too long and that she was African American. Everything else is an assumption that cannot save the Complaint. 111 license plate readers to be installed across Denver The motion to dismiss also claims: Instead, she was not satisfied with her service and assumed it was because of her race. The next turn of events after that in-person interaction is what Narins lawsuit surrounds. Narin said she immediately called customer service after the event, aiming to speak to corporate about what happened and her funds in that account. Between the date of the incident at the Branch Location and early December, 2021, Plaintiff repeatedly contacted Defendants to report the incident and the branch managers behavior to upper-level management, as well as resolve whether or not she would continue banking with Chase, the complaint states. During those conversations, Plaintiff repeatedly expressed her longtime relationship with Defendants, the volume of funds and transactions Plaintiff completes with Defendants, and the need for access to funds to close on another property. Narin received a letter from Chase dated Dec. 2, but she said it did not end up in her mailbox until Dec. 4 or Dec. 5. The letter stated that her accounts were closed due to inappropriate conduct with our employees. It gave a timeline for mailing a check with the rest of her funds within 10 business days after the accounts were closed. I have earnest money on the line, Narin said. Im under contract on a property that Im under market value on this deal, and it is extremely important to me. Lawsuit claims breach of contract against Chase Narin said she ended up missing out on the deal because she could not get the money back from Chase in time something she said she tried to prevent by contacting Chase about the deal over and over again before the date she needed it. Our focus is more on the contract we have a breach of contract case, said Narins attorney, Neil Sullenberger. Everybody who opens an account at Chase basically agrees to the terms of a deposit account agreement. Theres also a duty of good faith and fair dealing within every contract in Colorado. Chases motion to dismiss the case claims that even if Narin moved to close her account because of the complaint, Chase has a contractual right to end its relationship with a customer. Plaintiff not only agreed Chase could do exactly what she alleges Chase did, but also requested it, the motion continues. Her final claim for tortious interference rests on the frivolous assertion that Chase both knew she needed her Account open to close on a home purchase and closed the account (at her request) to disrupt the deal. FOX31 Newsletters: Sign up to get breaking news sent to your inbox As she waits for a judges ruling on this motion, Narin hopes her lawsuit can prevent this situation for another customer. Equity and inclusion really matters, Narin said. And it matters in this day and age in 2024. And thats all were looking for. FOX31 reached out to Chase for a statement and to request video from that event and received the following response: We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind. We also take seriously the safety of our employees especially when they feel abused and threatened in the branch. In this case, we dispute the factual allegations. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) A Columbia woman has been convicted of TennCare fraud after reportedly selling a controlled prescription medication during an undercover drug case. On Thursday, June 6, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) announced the conviction of 32-year-old Laquita Caldwell for one count of TennCare fraud for selling Adderall during an undercover investigation by the Williamson County Sheriffs Office Drug Unit. 2 indicted in Coffee County for TennCare fraud, theft According to officials, the medicine was prescribed to Caldwells son, who is a TennCare recipient, and paid for by the Division of TennCare at a cost of $38.74. The OIG said Williamson County District Attorney General Stacey Edmonson prosecuted the case, which resulted in Caldwell being sentenced to three years of supervised probation and ordered to pay restitution to TennCare for the prescriptions cost. East Nashville residents face parking warrants after receiving invisible tickets Through her actions, Ms. Caldwell took advantage of her sons prescription benefits that were provided by TennCare, said Inspector General Chad D. Holman. The OIG remains committed to our mission of protecting the resources and benefits that TennCare provides to eligible citizens of Tennessee. Anyone who wants to report suspected TennCare fraud is asked to call 1-800-433-3982, email Tenncare.Fraud@tn.gov, or visit the OlG website. If your tip leads to a conviction, you can receive a reward through the OIG Cash for Tips Program. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2. Protesters shut down traffic in downtown Boston on Friday afternoon, according to authorities. The intersection of State and Congress Street was shut down for a little over an hour due to an ongoing protest. The public was asked to avoid the area for the time being. It is unclear how long the demonstration is expected to last. All roads were reopened by 7:15 p.m. Traffic Advisory: The intersection of State and Congress Streets in Downtown Boston is currently closed due to protestors. Please seek an alternative route. Boston Police Dept. (@bostonpolice) June 7, 2024 Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW Tony Wied addresses supporters on Monday, April 8, 2024, at the Legacy Hotel in Green Bay, Wis. Wied announced his candidacy as a Republican for Wisconsin's 8th Congressional District seat. WASHINGTON Republican Tony Wied is facing accusations of misrepresenting his nomination papers while collecting signatures to qualify for the ballot in the northeastern Wisconsin House race to replace retired Rep. Mike Gallagher. A former Green Bay alderman filed a complaint Thursday with the state elections board alleging petitioners for Wied at a farmers market in Green Bay late last month asked people to sign papers to help the homeless, though the documents were Wieds nomination papers. Tony Theisen, the former alderman who has also volunteered to collect signatures for one of Wieds primary opponents, state Sen. Andre Jacque, said two petition circulators for Wied on the morning of May 25 asked shoppers to sign Wieds papers by presenting them as a petition for housing for the homeless. Theisen in the complaint identified one of the circulators by name and challenged 425 signatures collected by that circulator between the nomination papers for both the special and regularly scheduled election for the district. While the potential removal of the signatures would not drop Wied below the threshold to qualify for the ballot, Theisen in his challenge asked the elections commission to conduct a thorough investigation into all of the nominating petitions submitted by Wied. These fraudulent signature-gathering tactics violated Wisconsin law and affronted the Republican Partys commitment to the rule of law and election integrity, he wrote in the petition. Wieds campaign on Thursday called the challenge nothing more than dirty political games, adding that Wisconsin voters will see right through it. Career politicians will do anything to stay in power, Wieds campaign said in a statement. Just like the Democrats are trying to do to President Trump, Andre Jacque and his allies are trying to remove the Trump-endorsed conservative from the ballot. Still, another attendee at the Green Bay farmers market the same morning separate from Theisen told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel she also witnessed two petition circulators for Wied present the nomination papers as supporting homeless people. Maureen Hughson, a De Pere resident who was at the market with her husband, said a woman approached her and asked if she would sign a petition to help get funding for homelessness on the ballot. Hughson said the documents were clearly marked as Wieds nomination papers and made no mention of homelessness, but she noted people appeared to sign them without reading the petition. Im still pissed, said Hughson, a self-described Independent voter who posted about the incident on Facebook later that day. I think if somebody is starting out even though he may not know the people who are circulating the petition when someone is starting out with misrepresentation to get their name on the ballot, thats a bad start. Theisen, who served on the Green Bay city council from 1984 to 2012, told the Journal Sentinel he volunteered to collect signatures for Jacque last month but said he is not getting paid for his help. Theisen similarly said people appeared to be readily signing the petition without asking questions. He claimed he walked around the market shortly after encountering two women circulating the petitions and returned about 20 minutes later to find two men had taken their place. They were holding up Tony Wied flyers, and they are straightforward saying, Please sign for Tony Wied for Congress, Theisen said. Im thinking, these people are doing it the right way. It was just a night and day difference. (From left) Former state Sen. Roger Roth, former gas station chain owner Tony Wied and state Sen. Andre Jacque are competing for the Republican nomination for the 8th Congressional District seat vacated by Mike Gallagher. Wied, Jacque and former state Sen. Roger Roth are competing in the Republican primary for the 8th Congressional District, set for Aug. 13. De Pere OB-GYN Kristin Lyerly is the only Democrat in the race. Candidates in the district needed to submit two sets of nomination papers after Gov. Tony Evers last month called for a special election to fill the vacancy left by the early retirement of Gallagher. Evers set the 8th Congressional District special election for the same dates as the regularly scheduled partisan primary and general elections, meaning candidates for the seat will appear twice on the same ballot. More: Donald Trump Jr. blasts congressional candidate Andre Jacque over IVF stance The Wisconsin Elections Commission this week recommended for approval well over the required minimum of 1,000 valid signatures needed to qualify for both ballots for each of the four candidates. A WEC spokesman declined to comment on the Thursday complaint. But the commission will review challenges and formally vote to approve candidates for the Aug. 13 and Nov. 5 elections during a meeting on June 10. Wied can file a response to the challenge in the next three days, according to guidance from WEC. The strength of the challenge to Wied signatures, however, is uncertain. Theisens complaint challenges 228 signatures collected by one of the circulators on the special election nomination papers and 197 signatures on the regular papers. Wied collected 1,667 for the special election ballot and 1,647 signatures for the regularly scheduled election ballot, records show. Under Wisconsin law, nomination paper signatories must have signed the paper with full knowledge of its content. Both Hughson and Theisen told the Journal Sentinel that the papers circulated at the farmers market last month were clearly marked as Wieds nomination papers. But Wieds opponents were quick to seize on the allegations Thursday. Will Terry, Jacques campaign manager, called the complaint an extremely serious charge. Its vital that our elections are secure and the process to get on the ballot has integrity and accountability, Terry said. And Roth had this to say: Anyone who talks to voters in the 8th District understands the importance of election integrity, which is why I am proud of how our campaign collected our signatures through hard work and grassroots volunteers to get on the ballot." This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Complaint says Wied's nomination papers presented as help for homeless Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with US President Joe Biden in France on June 7. During the talks, the American leader announced a new $225 million arms package for Ukraine. ADVERTISIMENT Zelenskyy began his meeting with Biden after a visit to the French National Assembly. A video of the talks was posted on the President's official Telegram channel. "I met with US President Joseph Biden in Paris. We discussed Ukraine's defense capabilities, the situation on the battlefield, and preparations for the signing of a bilateral security agreement," Zelenskyy said. He added that to effectively defend itself against Russia's daily terror, Ukraine must be able to strike at military targets in Russia. It is also important to strengthen the defense of the Kharkiv region and speed up the delivery of American weapons, the President of Ukraine emphasized. ADVERTISIMENT "Thank you for the US standing with Ukraine. It is necessary for our people to feel that we are not alone we are with you, with our strategic partner. We appreciate the leadership support of the United States for the Ukrainian peace formula," Zelenskyy said. The meeting was also attended by State Department Secretary Anthony Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, CNN Pentagon correspondent Natasha Bertrand reported. She published the first photos from the meeting. "President Biden and President Zelenskyy have just started their meeting here in Paris with Secretary of Defense Austin and Secretary of State Blinken. Biden announced a new $225 million aid package for Ukraine, for which Zelenskyy thanked him," the journalist wrote on social media at 2 p.m. on Friday. ADVERTISIMENT What will be included in the new US arms package The Pentagon has released a list of weapons included in a new package of assistance to Ukraine: shells for HAWK air defense systems; shells for Stinger air defense systems; ammunition for HIMARS MLRS; 155-mm howitzers; 155 mm and 105 mm artillery shells; 81-mm mortar systems; M113 armored personnel carriers; trailers for transportation of heavy equipment; coastal and river patrol boats; TOW anti-tank guided missiles; Javelin and AT-4 anti-tank systems; ammunition for small arms and grenades; explosive ammunition; night vision devices; spare parts, maintenance, and other support equipment. ADVERTISIMENT The Associated Press adds that the Ukrainian army will be able to use the weapons from the new package to attack "threats inside Russia" to defend Kharkiv. The weapons will be transferred from existing U.S. stockpiles to get to the battlefield in Ukraine as quickly as possible. Zelenskyy and Biden met on the sidelines of ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in the French region of Normandy. Earlier, the United States confirmed that Biden and Zelenskyy would talk on the sidelines of events in Normandy, as well as the G7 summit scheduled for June 13-15 in Italy. As reported by OBOZ.UA, on June 7, Zelenskyy addressed the French parliament. From the rostrum of the National Assembly, he said that Europe was no longer a continent of peace. The audience greeted the Ukrainian leader with a standing ovation. ADVERTISIMENT During his speech, Zelenskyy also rejected the possibility of territorial concessions to Russia to end the war and said that Ukraine would be able to win. Only verified information on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! The thing about America is, it is full of Americans. Even in Manhattan, where, in spite of what you might have heard, the local political realities are not so different from what they are in the rest of the country. New York had a big ideait was going to impose congestion pricing, meaning a $15 daily fee for anybody who wanted to drive a car in Manhattan below 60th Street. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has the keen understanding of major urban affairs that you can really only get in Greater Buffalo, was talking up the plan only a couple of weeks ago at some globaloney conference in Irelandand, of course, she has now killed the proposal. Why? Because New Yorkand New Jersey, and Connecticut, and neighboring states beyondare positively full of Americans, and Americans do not want to pay $15 to drive their cars south of the Plaza. (How will they even get to Bergdorfs? Take the R Train?) Americans do not much want to pay $15 to drive their cars anywhere. Americans are kind of funny that way: Many of themand I mean the well-off who can afford a few extra bucks and think nothing of paying for such expeditious amenities as TSAPre at the airport or admission to Georgetownwill sit positively boiling in their Audis rather than pay to drive in the express lane. You see it in Dallas, you see it in Washington, you see it in Los Angeles. You saw it at the mere mention of congestion pricing in Manhattan. Congestion pricing, like higher pay for public-school employees, is the progressives Swiss Army knife, and there is nothingadvocates sayit cant do: It would fund transit, contribute to urban revitalization, increase social justice, mitigate climate change, etc. etc. et a whole lot c. The arguments against it were also perfectly progressive: It would make access to driving into the red zone a privilege for the rich, and what about all the impoverished people trying to drive to Rockefeller Center or Dior SoHo? It might even damage New York Citys fragile economy, which is still recovering from endemic misgovernance under progressive ideologues the COVID-19 pandemic. Hochul says the congestion tax risks too many unintended consequences, which, well, bless my little libertarian heart! Now do the minimum wage, the Jones Act, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The real problem for Hochul et al. is that the congestion tax would almost certainly workat least a little bit. Some people would decline to drive into the affected area, and some people would do so and be made to cough up the price of a Hocus Pocus Frappuccino (which is a thing!) at Starbucks, assuming a $1 (were talking cheap bastards here) tip. Nobody wants that. We have been here before. Democrats have been fighting for years to uncap the so-called SALT deduction, the measure that allows taxpayers in high-tax (meaning Democratic) jurisdictions to deduct their state and local taxes from their federal tax obligation. Reinstating the full deduction remains a major goal for Democrats in high-tax progressive states such as New Jersey. Getting rid of the SALT deduction was a good policyit raised revenue and reduced a fat subsidy for big-spending misgovernance in places such as New Jersey. Getting rid of the SALT cap would add more than $1 trillion to the debt over a decade, more than it will cost to operate the State Department or the Department of the Interior at current spending projections. Some of us are old enough to remember federal anti-deficit measures such as Gramm-Rudman and budget sequestration, which were undone by bipartisan majorities because they workedi.e., because they actually threatened to force the government to limit spending or raise revenue rather than go deeper into debt. (Sequestrationautomatic cuts based on budget goalsis, in theory, still on the books, but Congress simply works around it.) So, none of this is new. What we have here is a classic public-choice problem: concentrated costs and dispersed benefits, the equally toxic inversion of the more familiar challenge of concentrated benefits and dispersed costs (i.e., Sen. Marco Rubio and his national security argument for sugar-industry handouts). There probably would be significant benefits from the congestion fee, although it is worth emphasizing that New York Citys transit problems are not mainly a matter of resource scarcity. (The London Underground costs $9.30 a mile to operate, while its $15.10 a mile to operate the New York subways. And if you ever get a chance to compare themits no comparison. Transit authorities have spent $2 billion a mile on the Second Avenue line, spending more money on consultants than on digging the tunnel and laying tracks. New Yorks transit construction costs six times what they pay in Paris, which isnt exactly Swiss in its efficiency.) But the benefits wouldnt land in anybodys bank accountnot very often or very directly, anyway. Telling the people who run businesses in Midtown that youre going to tax x to subsidize y which will, someday, produce some vague benefit z on 42nd Street is a hard sellfor a good reason. New Yorkers have heard all that before, as indeed have the good people of Los Angeles and Provo and Muleshoe. Remember this the next time some nice progressive tells you that were going to get to net zero with construction, air travel, and electricity generation, and that not only will there be no unpleasant economic trade-offs but the big bold agenda willall together now!pay for itself. Even New York Democrats know that kind of thing is nonsenseand sometimes, they will even act on that knowledge, when pressed. Read more at The Dispatch The Dispatch is a new digital media company providing engaged citizens with fact-based reporting and commentary, informed by conservative principles. Sign up for free. Craters across the Frenchman Flats in Nevada where the U.S. government tested hundreds of nuclear weapons. Craters across the Frenchman Flats in Nevada where the U.S. government tested hundreds of nuclear weapons. (Photo by Karen Kasmauski/Getty Images) After months of advocacy and lobbying Congress, time has run out for downwinders hoping to expand compensation for the harms caused by nuclear weapons testing and development. The decades-old Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RECA, expires June 10. The Senate already passed a bipartisan bill that would expand the program, but with the House not in session Friday and neither chambers meeting Monday, RECA will lapse after the weekend. Its a blow for downwinders, who for years have urged Congress to not only keep the program alive, but expand it. Passed in 1990 with help from former Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, RECA provided compensation for Utahns who lived in 10 counties Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane, Millard, Piute, San Juan, Sevier, Washington or Wayne for two consecutive years from 1951 to 1958, or during the summer of 1962, and contracted certain types of cancer. Thats despite ample evidence that the radiation traveled well beyond those county lines, impacting the entire state of Utah and much of the Mountain West with dangerous, cancer-causing levels of radiation. At that time, they could only document problems in 22 counties. Now we know that the downwind results and exposures were much more broad, said Mary Yakaitis, who lived in Salt Lake City when above-ground nuclear testing was being conducted in Nevada. Yakaitis, herself a breast cancer survivor, had three of her siblings die from cancer at a young age. None were ever eligible for compensation. But advocates and several House Democrats are hopeful that Congress will find a solution. On Friday, New Mexico Democrat Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, said she believes the lapse will only be temporary, telling reporters on a press call that the House has the votes to amend the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, to include a provision expanding RECA. Her message to House Speaker Mike Johnson? Let us vote! Let us vote on an amendment to make sure that everybody is covered. On Tuesday, the House Rules Committee will consider what amendments will be allowed to the NDAA, though Leger Ferdnandez said its up to House leadership. Were going to be voting on a lot of amendments, let this be one of them, she said. That amendment would mirror the bill already passed in the Senate, spearheaded by Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican, that would greatly expand RECA to include eligible residents in all of Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Guam and parts of Missouri and Kentucky. Under the amendment, downwinders would be eligible for up to $100,000 to cover medical bills and the program would last 10 years. It would also expand the list of eligible diseases, cover uranium mine and mill employees who worked up until 1990, and compensate uranium core drillers and remediation workers. Despite Leger Fernandezs claim that the House has the votes to pass the amendment, Utah Republican Rep. Celeste Maloy called the bill dead on arrival. In a video statement posted on Thursday, Maloy said Hawleys expansion was too much of a financial burden. Instead, Maloy said she supports a bill initially introduced in 2023 by Wyoming Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman. Called the Uranium Miners and Workers Act of 2023, the bill extends RECA benefits to people who worked in a uranium mine or mill until 1978, but still excludes much of Utah. Utah Republican Rep. Blake Moore has also signaled his support for Hagemans bill. If that bill fails, Maloy said she is pushing for a simple extension of RECA, keeping the 1990s-era program as is. Whatever happens, Maloy wants a right-sized bill that protects Utahns but doesnt end up spending a lot of money thats not related to radiation exposure and government action. That stings for downwinders like Mary Dickson, another Salt Lake City resident and cancer survivor, who called Maloys statement maddening. To me, it shows she doesnt really understand this issue or the Senate bill, Dickson said on Friday. Shes working against expanding compensation. What she is saying is not what constituents want. That sentiment was echoed by Leger Fernandez, who called a simple extension akin to a no vote. The people who have been directly harmed and will benefit when we pass RECA, they have been very clear that they are not for a clean extension, she said. A clean extension is a vote against all of the people who have been left out. RECA has been in the spotlight lately. Several bills have been voted on in Congress; state-level politicians, senators and representatives are making repeated statements explaining their positions; President Joe Biden has signaled he would sign an expansion; and news outlets from The New York Times to local television stations are covering it. Once that momentum is lost, Dickson said it will be gone forever. It would be hard to get where we are again. People burn out, this is hard work, she said. Dickson has been fighting for expanding compensation for 30 years. Although advocates are clinging to hope that the House could expand the program next week, she said its hard to stay optimistic. We cant stop. Weve come so far, we just cant stop. Its kind of our last hurrah, our last-ditch effort, she said. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE The post Congress lets compensation for downwinders expire, but advocates see a path forward appeared first on Utah News Dispatch. Laila Cunningham has withdrawn from the race in Rotherham for the Tories The Tories have announced that they will not field a candidate in Rotherham in a boost to Reforms chances of winning the seat. Laila Cunningham, who was to represent the Conservatives, withdrew from the race and was not replaced before the deadline for candidate submissions. The news, confirmed in a council statement on Friday evening, means the South Yorkshire town will become a straight shoot-out between Labour and Reform. The Tories came second in Rotherham at the 2019 election and only fell 3,100 votes short of overthrowing Sarah Champion, the sitting Labour MP. Back then the Brexit Party came third, and combining its support with that of the Conservatives would have been enough to oust Labour. The UK Independence Party meanwhile came in second in the constituency in 2015 when it was led by Nigel Farage, who has now returned to lead Reform UK. Rotherham has been held by Labour since 1923 and represented by Ms Champion since 2012. But in recent years the partys majorities have shrunk. In 1997 it won the seat by a commanding 21,500, compared with the few thousands it won it by in 2019. Despite that, Conservative Campaign Headquarters described the seat as unwinnable according to Michael Crick, a political journalist. The Tories withdrawal from the contest will see the constituency shoot up the list of potential seats Reform will be hoping it can win on July 4. It means that the party will only field candidates in 630 of the 632 seats that are up for grabs across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. As well as not fielding a candidate in Rotherham, the party is also not standing against Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, as is convention. Ms Champion said it was appalling that the Tories had failed to stand in Rotherham. She said: Rotherham has been let down and overlooked by successive Tory Governments for generations. Now they cant even be bothered to field a candidate and give us a fair fight. 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. Construction on new I-25 interchange in Los Lunas expected to start in the fall LOS LUNAS, N.M. (KRQE) Work on a new I-25 interchange in Los Lunas is expected to begin this fall. The village recently held a public meeting where officials outlined reasons why the interchange is needed. Some of those reasons include deficiencies in current roads, expected growth of the village, and congested traffic within village limits. Thousands of dollars in stolen merchandise recovered after raid at Santa Fe home The interchange is expected to be installed near the Central New Mexico State Prison and stretch over to Highway 47 across the Rio Grande. Construction on the projects first phase is expected to begin this fall, hoping to be completed by 2027. A public comment period on the project is open until Wednesday. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos. Construction on FM 812 upgrades could begin as early as 2027, TxDOT says TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) Following a public hearing in January, officials with the Texas Department of Transportation said improvements to Farm to Market 812 could begin as early as 2027. TxDOT has proposed substantial upgrades along the roadway between U.S. Highway 183 in Travis County and State Highway 21 in Bastrop County, including enhancements to a sliver of Farm to Market 973 from north of McAngus Road to south of FM 812. That proposed project comes as traffic along FM 812 has far surpassed the roadways current capacity level, TxDOT officials told KXAN. We know that FM 812 cant handle the traffic volumes adequately that were seeing today, much less the growth that we expect, said Brad Wheelis, a TxDOT spokesperson. We also have the Circuit of the Americas [COTA] out in this area, and so we get a lot of that traffic when we have races or other events at COTA. Right now, TxDOT is prioritizing upgrades to FM 812 between State Highway 130 and Elroy Road and is working with Travis County to accelerate those improvements. Construction on that portion of the overall proposed project could begin as soon as 2027, Wheelis said. That work will include reconstructing the S-curve at FM 973, he added. Were going to go from 973 to U.S. 183 and meet up with William Cannon Drive, he said. Thats all brand new roadway. Beyond that section, he added other sections of FM 812 within the project scope could begin construction closer to 2031. And changes are needed along the corridor, particularly when considering safety gaps. Wheelis said TxDOT has seen a substantial number of crashes along FM 812, especially at the intersection with FM 973. We know that FM 812 cant handle the traffic volumes adequately that were seeing today, much less the growth that we expect. Brad Wheelis, spokesperson, Texas Department of Transportation When reviewing TxDOTs Crash Records Information System (C.R.I.S.) data, KXAN found 667 reported crashes within the project boundaries between Jan. 1, 2019 and Wednesday, June 5, 2024. When broken down by year, those crash numbers are as follows: 2019: 122 crashes 2020: 109 crashes 2021: 133 crashes 2022: 126 crashes 2023: 127 crashes 2024 YTD: 50 crashes Analyzing that crash data, the highest concentration of clusters were found at the intersection of FM 812 and U.S. 183, with 73 crashes denoted. Near the intersection of FM 812 and FM 973, TxDOT crash data reveals a cluster of 69 crashes, with a cluster of 59 crashes reported near FM 812 and Elroy Road. Near COTA, state crash data revealed a cluster of roughly 17 crashes over that five-year period. How does TxDOT time signals at its intersections? KXAN received a viewer tip earlier this year regarding signal timings near COTA. In an email, Wheelis said that traffic signal is relatively newer in TxDOTs system and the state agency hasnt received requests to change it. COTA Boulevard is part of the regular signal cycle, but the side street is not given priority, Wheelis wrote. Folks can contact us with specific details about what theyre experiencing and our signal crews can take look. For those with concerns about signal timing or traffic concerns, Wheelis encouraged people to contact TxDOT via emailing ausinfo@txdot.gov. Were always taking input on any of our roadways, he said. So if folks think theres a need out there, they have a concern, we do want to hear from them. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin. The warehouse wars of Southern New Castle County are never over, it would seem. A 2.4 million-square-foot LogistiCenter warehouse project north of Middletown, ardently opposed by nearby residents and the subject of litigation by its developer, looks to be getting sent back to the trenches. County Councilman David Carter signaled Wednesday that he plans to withdraw an ordinance that would have greenlit the long-delayed, long-planned "LogistiCenter at New Castle County" a hulking two-warehouse project near the Village of Bayberry, at Route 301 west of Jamison Corner Road. The project was previously poised for approval by the New Castle County Council after the Department of Land Use attested that the project was compliant with county code. But on Tuesday, the Department of Land Use issued a letter rescinding that previous approval. So what gives? Is the warehouse dead? And what changed? Here's what's happening. The LogistiCenter has long been a controversial project, and the subject of a lawsuit Plans for the new LogistiCenter at New Castle, at Jamison Conrer Road and 301 north of Middletown. The LogistiCenter at New Castle County, first proposed in 2021, has long been one of the larger and more controversial projects in a New Castle County warehouse boom that has ignited concerns from residents over the potential for house-shaking, window-rattling truck traffic near residential neighborhoods. The controversial warehouse boom: This quiet community near Middletown is fearful of warehouse plans taking shape next door More: What to know about Delaware's warehouse and industrial projects slated for 2024 The plans, from Nevada-based Dermody Properties, include two side-by-side logistics warehouses on 229 acres of land along Jamison Corner Road, totaling 1.4 million square feet and 962,000 square feet in size. Local residents opposed the plans in council meetings, with pages of public outcry decrying future traffic or threats to public safety, and speculating that the site is destined to become an Amazon fulfillment center. Representatives for Dermody said in council meetings they had no particular end users in mind, and that traffic would likely be better than a business park of the same size. This sets up a familiar conflict in the previously rural lands south of the canal in New Castle County, as a massive influx of new residents and would-be warehouse developers fight over limited capacity on roads originally designed for rural populations. The flood of affluent new residents resoundingly commutes outside the area for work. New warehouses bring truck traffic, but also daily commutes from warehouse workers who likely cannot afford the new half-million-dollar houses nearby. The LogistiCenter would arrive just north of the rapidly expanding planned community of Bayberry north of Middletown, which has expanded by at least 1,700 homes since 2010. Construction is likely to begin this year on at least 500 more Bayberry homes, in addition to a shopping complex that will include a Weis Markets store. A map of current and planned developments in the master-planned village of Bayberry just south of the proposed LogistiCenter, which has already added 1,700 homes since 2010. Plans for 500 more were approved, or likely to be approved, this year. Amid resistance and traffic concerns, the LogistiCenter has been stalled for months. By late 2023 the project had passed Land Use and state review, and moved to County Council for approval. A quirk of New Castle County law means that whatever a building's unpopularity, councilmembers cannot deny a project that has met all zoning and code requirements. Beginning in December, southern New Castle County councilmembers Bill Bell and David Carter instead sent the project back to the Department of Land Use for a series of technical clarifications about traffic and infrastructure, saying they believed the project did not meet code. The LogistiCenter ordinance was tabled in December 2023, then tabled again, then left on the table for so long it might as well have been a flower arrangement. In April, Dermody filed a lawsuit against the county, claiming that consideration of the project was willfully and arbitrarily delayed and demanded an expedient answer by the Department of Land Use. For the moment, it appears Dermody finally has its answer: "No." Why did Land Use approve, then un-approve the LogistiCenter project? A map of the proposed warehouse projects around Jamison Corner Road and Route 301 near Middletown. Land Use's response gave credence to some of the concerns laid out by Councilmen Bell and Carter. In a letter dated Tuesday, June 4, the Department called it rare, but hardly unheard of, that members of County Council would find code compliance issues that Land Use had not considered when approving a project. The letter called this process part of the normal checks and balances when considering a project. The issues in play were technical, but the eventual conclusion drawn in the letter was relatively straightforward. The LogistiCenter project would likely generate far too much traffic 427 trips a day during evening rush hour to avoid doing an additional traffic study. Previously, the project had received a waiver on this, because of a 2013 traffic study already conducted by the state. But County Council's objections and questions prompted a deeper review, according to the Land Use letter. The conclusion was that the warehouse likely would increase traffic on Jamison Corner Road by as much as 15% compared to projected levels, making a traffic waiver "inappropriate." The benchmark for a traffic impact study waiver is a mere 5% increase. "Moving forward, the Applicant has two options under the UDC," reads the assessment from Land Use. "(1) revise its Plans to reduce the proposed trip generation consistent with the TID; or (2) complete a Traffic Impact Study (TIS) for the as-proposed development." Which is to say: Make the project generate less traffic, or do a traffic study to show that the existing plan could be supported by current infrastructure. What's next for the LogistiCenter plans near Bayberry Open land is seen from the perimeter at the Bayberry community near Middletown. Councilman Carter praised the Land Use department, saying he believed they'd taken his and Councilman Bell's technical questions seriously, in a long and complicated review. He plans to withdraw the LogistiCenter ordinance at the County Council meeting on Tuesday, June 11, he said, after Land Use's rescission of approval. He noted that this result doesn't reject the project, nor even send it back to the drawing board. "Essentially what is required for this LogistiCenter is merely that they come back and demonstrate that the traffic that results will not cause infrastructure problems," Carter said. Dermody has until fall to conduct such a study, Carter noted. The LogistiCenter would again be eligible for council approval if the results are favorable. Will Wawa open?: After four years of land-use limbo, a Wawa near Middletown will move forward New owners for Dogfish?: Wait, what? Is Dogfish Head getting bought by a Japanese whisky company?: WSJ In the meantime, warehouse construction will continue apace nearby. Another warehouse project is well on its way just across Jamison Corner from the LogistiCenter. The Scott Run Commerce project, approved in 2023 on the east side of Jamison Corner Road, will add about 1.4 million square feet of warehouses in four buildings just south of Hyetts Corner Road. Three of those planned buildings, totaling nearly 1.3 million square feet of warehouse or industrial space, are still available for lease to the right tenant. Matthew Korfhage is business and development reporter in the Delaware region covering all things related to land and money: openings and closings, construction, and the many corporations that call the First State home. Send tips and insults to mkorfhage@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Massive Logisticenter warehouses near Middletown, get approval revoked Trump convictions By now, weve all heard the news that former President Donald Trump was found guilty of all 34 felony counts of falsifying his companys business records to keep information from voters that he knew would harm his 2016 presidential campaign. This isnt just about hush money payments. Its about breaking the law to hide the truth from the American people 11 days before a presidential election. Trump has a clear pattern of lying to the American people and trying to undermine our elections in order to cling to power. He still faces three additional indictments and 54 criminal charges, including federal charges for inciting an insurrection to overturn the 2020 election. In spite of all of this, hes still running for president. Trump is a convicted fraudster and criminal who still poses a massive threat to our fundamental freedoms. We cant let him hold the highest office in our land in 2025. Its up to all of us to hold him accountable and defeat him at the ballot box in November. LaRue Brewer, Lexington Law & Order Isnt it interesting that the so-called Law and Order party has no desire for either when its application through the judicial system is seen as a threat to their hold on power? But in the age of former President Donald Trump, what is up is down, and what is right is wrong. The same people that yelled, Lock her up, are now saying Oh no, dont lock him up even though the courts see him as a convicted felon as determined by his peers. It is sad to see one man as such a threat to democracy. It is more than sad to see those that encourage him on. Bob Sutton, Springfield Republican propaganda Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it. This quote is attributed to Joseph Goebbels. This concept is now part of the Republican game plan, especially since their leader, former President Donald J. Trump, has been convicted of 34 felony charges. Stop the Steal is a lie, but it has been repeated so much that people believe it. The Jan. 6 attack on our nations Capitol was an insurrection, but the Republicans think that it was normal tourism. Trumps convictions are a tribute to the Rule of Law as set forth in the Constitution, not a liberal plot. Its time that reasonable people stand up for truth and VOTE. This is our only choice to counter the lies! James Ware, Lexington Trump character The results are in and the facts are clear. What do they mean? In my view, the information I have tells me that if you still support former President Donald Trump, you no longer are representing your views through a political party, but you are now part of a cult. Factual data has been collected over the past nine years that clearly define the person you are supporting. The cult that he has formed allows you to ignore his character and the clear threat he poses to our democracy and the word order. Do you really want a cult leader as president? William Farnau, Lexington Trumps conviction Twelve jurors picked by both the prosecution and defense from the public at large over five weeks listened to 20 prosecution witnesses and two defense witnesses, were offered scores of crucial documents, including checks to Michael Cohen bearing Trumps signature. One of the jurors got their news from Truth Social, and a second from Fox News. The rest got their news from Google, ABC, CBS, NBC & MSNBC. Twice these jurors were read the New York law that covers business fraud which has put hundreds if not thousands of others in jail for similar offenses. These jurors, based upon the evidence and the witnesses, found Trump guilty! Its been a common phrase among Americans that No man is above the law. Yet the party that has for years portrayed themselves as the Law & Order party has almost to a person portrayed Trumps 34 count guilty verdict as a travesty of justice. It seems our Republican politicians think the laws dont apply to Republicans but apply only to those they disagree with, such as Hunter Biden. Either the laws apply to all, or they apply to none! Joe Crouch, Lexington Everything he touches A friend, a major airline stewardess, told me a story about being in a waiting area reading a book, in full uniform because she was catching the plane to her next work flight. A man walked up to her and started ranting about her airlines food, service, bag retrieval, seating... She slowly pulled down her book and said: Did it ever occur to you that everything you touch turns to s**t? I cant think of a better question to ask convicted felon former President Donald Trump. If youre old enough to have watched his journey, you wonder why it has taken so long for his lies, threats, bankruptcies, fraud, and lack of human norms, civility, or decency to catch up with him. I think it was the national attention he got in the non-reality reality show, The Apprentice where he could say, Youre fired! to those pandering for his attention. But what makes GOP senators, representatives, governors, judges, lawyers grovel before him? Are power, money, and control so overpowering that these officials are willing to give up the very freedoms of the persons they pretend to represent (and who pay their salaries)? Weve seen this movie before. Now its called Enslavement 3.0. Ramona Rush, Lexington Birth Control Recently, Democrats tried to pass a bill in Congress that would guarantee Americans right to birth control and IVF. The republicans blocked it. They told us that they wanted to leave abortion decisions up to the states; they lied! We know that from the beginning they intended to pass legislation forbidding abortion in all 50 states. They told us they had no intention to limit or forbid birth control. They were lying! Uncle Tom Thomas let the cat out of the bag when, following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, he opined that the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) might take up constitutional and judicial guarantees pertaining to birth control and same sex marriage. We also know from recent decisions pertaining to religiously focused charter schools that the Reich wing majority of SCOTUS does not believe in the sanctity of the separation of church and state. In fact they do not believe in much of the United States Constitution. Jim Porter, Danville Abortion arguments I have been following the debate on abortion. Moreover, I have perused Hannah Matthews You or Someone You Love : Reflections from an Abortion Doula. Matthews did not convince me to become pro abortion, but she did help me to see her vista. Matthews very quickly admits that pro abortionists are on a dangerous road. Often these women are poor and afraid. Pro-lifers make their lives pure hell. We judge them without even knowing their stories. We need to stop being dogmatic. Jesus said the world would know us by our love .Well, where is our love? Tmoura Gardner, Lexington Criminalizing homelessness The Safer Kentucky Act of 2024 takes a punitive approach to homelessness, framing unsheltered individuals as criminals and deviants. The legislation overlooks systemic factors and lacks a humanitarian response. Historically, homelessness has been blamed on individual failings, such as poor decisions and substance use, ignoring issues like the lack of affordable housing, long waitlists for mental health and substance abuse treatment, employment barriers due to criminal records, and low-wage jobs. The Act aims to protect those with housing and income stability but harms those without. To effectively address homelessness, we must consider all contributing factors. According to the Homeless and Housing Coalition of Kentucky, the state is short over 89,000 affordable rental homes and unsheltered individuals often lack the required identification documents for housing. Reframing homelessness in Kentucky involves acknowledging historical and systemic issues. By contacting legislative members on the Affordable Housing Caucus and working with community partners, we can create more affordable housing solutions. This ensures safety and stability for both housed and unhoused citizens, addressing root causes of homelessness rather than punishing those affected by it. Andrea Sparrow, Frankfort Compiled by Liz Carey Warning: The material in this report is of a sensitive nature. LAS VEGAS (KLAS) A convicted pimp remained defiant in court Thursday after a judge agreed to appoint a fifth attorney to his case. Richard Babb, 23, faces 35 years to life in prison after a Clark County jury found him guilty of 10 counts on April 15. So you know you may want to look within because there is a common denominator, and its you, Clark County District Court Judge Michelle Leavitt told Babb. Okay, these are all very fine lawyers, all of them that have been appointed. Leavitt referred to previous attorneys on the case who asked to be withdrawn because of issues with Babb and his family. Babbs family was not allowed inside the courtroom Thursday because of behavior described by court staff and attorneys as hostile. Babb tried to cover his face with a file folder to avoid 8 News Nows camera and appeared to be upset as he was escorted out of the courtroom. They wont give me no explanation on why they wont allow my family in the courtroom, Babb said. Yall take notes on that. Babb was convicted of nine felony charges including two counts of sex trafficking a child under 16 years of age, two counts of soliciting a child for prostitution, two counts of luring children or mentally ill persons with the intent to engage in sexual conduct, sex trafficking a child under 14 years of age, sexual assault with a minor under 14 years of age, and first-degree kidnapping of a minor. He was also convicted of statutory sexual seduction, a gross misdemeanor. Babb victimized four underage girls, according to the Clark County District Attorneys office. He exchanged marijuana for oral sex without protection from two girls, ages 13 and 14 after communicating on Snapchat and sex trafficked two other girls, both age 15, prosecutors said. One victim testified that Babb asked her to Walk the blade, meaning work as a prostitute for him. Babb dropped her off on Tropicana Avenue, a corridor near the Las Vegas strip known for sex work. Police rescued the teen after they found her in a parked car with a man believed to be a customer paying for sex. Prosecutors plan to argue for a sentence of 59 years to life in prison, the 8 News Now Investigators have learned. A Clark County grand jury previously indicted Babb. In the hallway outside of the courtroom Thursday, family members said, Free Rich. A new attorney is expected to be appointed by June 20. Babb remains in the Clark County Detention Center. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg regularly attends services at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, where he's just another parishioner. But when he entered the historically Black church on Sunday, after securing the first-ever conviction of a former president, he drew a shoutout from the pulpit and a standing ovation. Bragg is riding high since last Thursday, when Donald Trump was convicted in Manhattan Criminal Court on 34 counts of falsifying business records by listing reimbursements for hush money payments as legal expenses. "Bragg really deserves all the flowers," tweeted Elie Mystal, the widely followed justice correspondent at the left-leaning Nation magazine. "Clearly, that was a popular decision in Manhattan," said Kenneth T. Jackson, editor-in-chief of "The Encyclopedia of New York." In 2020, Trump won just 12% of Manhattan's votes. Bragg had already made history as the New York County District Attorney, covering Manhattan. In 2021, he became the first African American ever elected to that office. New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a centrist Democrat, is up for reelection next year. With just 28% approval and 58% disapproval among New Yorkers in the most Quinnipiac University poll, he looks potentially vulnerable to a primary challenge from the left. In 2026, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who also has a net-negative approval rating, will face reelection. So could Bragg, a Democrat, successfully challenge one of them, or run in another four years, when Adams would be term-limited out of office and Hochul would be over 70 years old? "If (Bragg) wants to run for mayor, that'd probably be a possibility," said Jackson, who is the former president of the New York Historical Society. "Here's the guy who took on the challenge of the most powerful person in the world, with a case that people didn't think was the strongest case in history, and to get a unanimous verdict 34 times you couldn't get that unanimity voting for motherhood or apple pie." If Bragg decided to run for higher office, he'd hardly be the first New York prosecutor to do so. May 30, 2024; New York, NY, USA; May 30, 2024; Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. speaks at a press conference on Thursday evening following the conviction of former President Donald Trump. The Republican presidential frontrunner was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records, making him the first American president convicted of a crime. Mandatory Credit: Olivia Falcigno. Mandatory Credit: Olivia Falcigno-USA TODAY A history of high-profile prosecutors Since Manhattan is the capital of U.S. commerce, any prosecutor with jurisdiction there has the opportunity to make national headlines. In the 20th Century, Manhattan DAs Charles Whitman and Thomas Dewey parlayed prosecutions of corrupt politicians and mafiosos into the New York governorship. Dewey went on be the Republican nominee who was so widely expected to beat President Harry Truman in 1948 that the Chicago Daily Tribune prematurely celebrated his victory on the front page. Rudy Giuliani rode media stardom as the mafia-fighting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, which includes Manhattan, to City Hall, from which he became a nationwide household name and an early frontrunner for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination. New York state attorneys general such as Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo also have combatted corporate malfeasance, building a brand that vaulted them to the governorship. With Trump's prosecution, Bragg joins that lineage. "Manhattan or the Southern District of New York are the most important courts of the United States," said Jackson. "In some ways, it's the center of the legal universe in the United States, and it's the center of the business world, and the center of the media world, and the first criminal trial of a former president." The pipeline from state attorney general to governor is so well-established that the biggest obstacle to Bragg running for governor might be state Attorney General Letitia James, who won a $453.5 million civil fraud judgment against Trump in February. A prosecutor, not a politician Unlike, say, Melinda Katz, who became district attorney across the East River in Queens after serving as City Council member and borough president, Bragg is not a career politician. The 2021 DA race was his first campaign. Previously, he worked as an assistant state attorney general and an assistant U.S. attorney. But the newcomer won on a platform of criminal justice reform, which is popular in the liberal borough. Bragg's political advisor Richard Fife, who is consulting for Bragg's 2025 reelection campaign, says Bragg wants to continue implementing that agenda. "There are electeds who are in office and always looking for the next office and that's just not his mindset," Fife said. "I'm not saying never (will he run for higher office), I'm saying he's happy in his position," Fife added. "He started a lot of initiatives like a wage theft unit, like a tenant rights unit. He reinvigorated the sex crimes unit. There are a lot of things going on in the office that he wants to continue. That's his focus." Bragg lives in the district of Rep. Adriano Espaillat, 69, and near the district of Rep. Jerry Nadler, 76. One of those seats could open up due to retirement in the years ahead. But a source close to Bragg suggested that if he ever did seek higher office, he'd be more likely to look at executive positions like mayor or governor, or perhaps state attorney general, rather than legislative seats. More: Who is Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg? Prosecutor has battled Donald Trump in court before Overcoming the skeptics Bragg's tenure got off to a rocky start in 2022, with attacks from his right and his left. Conservatives blasted his decision which kept a campaign promise to stop prosecuting minor crimes such as riding the subway without paying. That same year, when he passed on prosecuting Trump for defrauding lenders by inflating the value of his real estate assets, two disappointed prosecutors quit his office. One called it a grave failure of justice," sparking critical coverage of Bragg. (James's successful civil case against Trump was for the same actions.) When Bragg indicted Trump, many eyebrows were raised by those who questioned the strength of the somewhat convoluted case against Trump. And hands were wrung among Trump critics who feared it threatened to undermine Trump's forthcoming indictments in other jurisdictions for trying to steal the 2020 election and hiding classified documents from the FBI after leaving office. One legal expert who had questioned the case graciously conceded on the New York Times op-ed page that Bragg has now been vindicated. Republicans have decried the prosecution as politically motivated and claimed it was orchestrated by the White House. "Today is a shameful day in American history," House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a statement. "The weaponization of our justice system has been a hallmark of the Biden Administration, and the decision today is further evidence that Democrats will stop at nothing to silence dissent and crush their political opponents." They have not offered any evidence that the Biden administration influenced Bragg, and Bragg's allies deny it. "The way Alvin looks at it is not the typical political way," Fife said. "He looks at things really in a way of pursuing justice." Before, during and after his trial, Trump attacked Bragg, calling him "a local failed district attorney" and even holding a campaign event at a Harlem bodega where Bragg controversially had prosecuted the store clerk for stabbing a man in self-defense, before dropping the charges. But Bragg's unpopularity with Republicans is hardly an obstacle to winning elections in Manhattan, New York City or even New York state, which favored Biden over Trump by more than 20 points in 2020. Jackson noted that Bragg's low-key style contrasts the flashy, combative public persona of some past politically successful prosecutors like Spitzer and Giuliani. Bragg didn't hog the spotlight during the trial, avoiding interviews and limiting public statements. But during the trial, polling showed Bragg with strongly net positive approval ratings among New York City voters. "In my district, people have not been as critical of him as they have been in other places," said Jo Anne Simon, a Brooklyn Democrat from a progressive area. "He is an incredibly talented and experienced attorney who really knows his stuff. He knew he wanted to build an ironclad case that in fact could win, so he took his time and he built the case." This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What's next for Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg after convicting Trump? Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin commented on the US authorization of limited strikes on Russian territory using US munitions. He said that the new policy will be "very useful for Ukrainians in the future." ADVERTISIMENT This was reported by CNN. "What we've done is given Ukraine the ability to return fire, to return fire on those Russian troops that are firing at them, and to be able to disable their artillery batteries when they're firing at Ukrainians," Austin said. His comments came days after US President Joe Biden authorized Ukraine to conduct strikes on Russian territory (albeit limiting it to targets near the Kharkiv border, where Russian forces are concentrating their efforts) using US munitions. Asked about waning support in the United States, Austin said that he believed there was "strong support for Ukraine" among both political parties, despite the length of time it took Congress to pass the security assistance package. He also emphasized that otherwise, Russian President Vladimir Putin would likely not stop in Ukraine. ADVERTISIMENT "Ukraine is important... not only for Ukraine's purposes, not only for Europe's purposes, it's important for us and it's important for the whole globe. So, we have to make sure that Putin doesn't have the opportunity to trample on Ukraine, because as the president said, there's a good chance, almost certainly, that Putin will not stop there. He will continue to move forward with other acts of aggression," Austin explained. As a reminder, the United States has recently allowed Ukraine to use the weapons it has provided to Russia to a limited extent. The Ukrainian Armed Forces can now intercept missiles and aircraft over Russian territory, strike military targets, and conduct counter-battery fire from the other side of the border. The launch of long-range missiles by Russia, such as ATACMS, is still prohibited. ADVERTISIMENT Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), the co-chair of the Biden campaign, acknowledged in an interview that President Biden, who is 81 years old, has diminished energy compared to when he was a younger man but insisted the president shows no mental feebleness and remains sharp and commanding. Coons, in an interview with Politicos Playbook Deep Dive podcast, said hes tired of the relentless media focus on Bidens verbal slipups and speculation about whether he has experienced cognitive decline since winning the 2020 election. Of course Joe Biden is over 80 years old, and like any human being over 80 years old, that means theres a little diminished energy, he acknowledged. But he said the media should be more focused on what he called the yawning gap in character, morality and capability between Biden and former President Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Coons noted that Biden has had a lifelong stutter, the effects of which emerge from time to time, but which he insisted isnt a sign of a mental confusion. I think what is highlighted in some of the, in my view, attack reels that I see on other news outlets is not evidence of mental feebleness but is either evidence of a lifelong stutter, or the result of having an incredibly demanding schedule and having served in public life 50 years, he said. When I say that I find him sharp and commanding, and I have no concerns about his mental acuity, Im being honest, he said. Coons pointed out that both Biden and Trump in recent public events have misidentified who they were speaking to and who they met with, but he said public officials who often speak to the media, travel regularly and work long days make similar slips. I get a little tired of the relentless focus on what are very minor slipups by President Biden that I see other elected officials of comparable age make regularly, and frankly other elected officials my age make regularly, the 60-year-old said. Biden is 81 years old, and Trump will turn 78 next week. Trump was recently convicted in Manhattan of 34 felony counts of falsifying New York business records and will be sentenced July 11. He faces up to 20 years in prison, but legal experts say they expect him to remain free while he appeals his conviction. Trumps Republican allies have criticized Trumps prosecution as politically motivated. Coons said the media should spend more time reporting about Trumps character and its possible impact on the country if hes elected and less time raising questions about Bidens mental and physical abilities. The number of times Ive been interviewed about the question, Is Joe Biden the same man he was when he was 60? vastly outweighs the numbers of times Ive been asked, Are you scared about the future of our democracy given what Donald Trump said today? he said. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. A sign held by a teacher at a rally at the Arizona Capitol on June 5, 2024, to advocate for restrictions on the state's school voucher system, known as Empowerment Scholarship Accounts. Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror A new report from the Grand Canyon Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, shows that the estimated net cost of the universal portion of Arizonas school voucher program is $332 million in the current fiscal year a figure that will grow to around $429 million next year. The Grand Canyon Institute found that the net cost of the recently-expanded universal part of the ESA program is equal to about one-half of the states budget deficit in the 2024 fiscal year and about two-thirds of the projected deficit in 2025. The state is facing an estimated $1.3 billion budget deficit in both those years combined, with pressure on Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and Republican leaders in the state legislature to work together to balance them before June 30, when the 2024 fiscal year ends. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The current fiscal years budget was crafted assuming that 68,380 students would take advantage of the program, at a cost to the state of $625 million. In January, the Arizona Department of Education boosted its estimates to 74,000 students and a $723.5 million price tag. But even more students than that are already participating: Through May, more than 75,200 students were enrolled, with a median cost of $7,000 to $8,000 per student. The Education Department estimates that enrollment will increase even more by the end of the next fiscal year, to around 99,000 total participants, according to a May 31 letter from the agency to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. Failure to rein in these costs means critical areas of state government expenditures will be cut to balance the budget, GCI said in a statement about the report. Public school proponents have staged press conferences at the Capitol in Phoenix two weeks in a row now, calling for the cessation of the costly universal portion of the voucher program or at least a cap on it, but its unthinkable that the Republican-led legislature will agree to do so. Public school advocates say the program takes money away from the district schools that educate 90% of Arizonas K-12 students and that universal vouchers are essentially a subsidy for wealthy parents who were already sending their children to private schools before vouchers were available to them. The Empowerment Scholarship Account program, as its formally known, works by giving the parents of participating students a debit card that can be used to pay for various educational costs, including private school tuition and homeschooling supplies. The money can even be saved for college. Parents can also be reimbursed for educational purchases through the Class Wallet system. The voucher scheme was created in 2012 to allow special education students to attend private or parochial schools using state funding. After the Arizona Supreme Court determined that the program did not violate Arizonas constitutional ban on directing tax dollars to religious entities, the ESA system was later expanded to include other groups like foster kids and those attending failing public schools. In 2022, legislative Republicans voted to expand access to allow any K-12 student in the state to attend private school or to be homeschooled using public money, even if that students parents were already paying for them to attend private school before a voucher was available. The Grand Canyon Institute found that the gross cost of the ESA program in 2024 including universal students and those who qualified under the previous program was around $700 million, with the universal portion making up about $385 million. The cost of the universal expansion was calculated by first determining how many of the universal voucher recipients wouldnt have been eligible before the expansion. The researchers found that 54,028 students enrolled in the program in December 2023 were newly eligible, while another 17,492 receiving universal vouchers would have qualified anyway. The net cost of only the universal students was then determined by using state education data to figure out approximately how many of those students never attended a public school and how many moved from a charter school to a private voucher. GCI estimates that 82% of universal ESA recipients never attended a district or charter school, the report concluded. ESA vouchers were initially designed to transfer 90% of the cost of educating a student in a traditional public school to the voucher, thus saving the state money. But several years ago, GOP lawmakers changed that formula and now base the vouchers on 90% of what the state pays to charter schools for each student. Because charter schools arent able to tax local property, their per-student payment from the state is substantially higher than for district schools, meaning the cost of school vouchers are markedly higher per student now than when they were first created. The change eliminated the savings of vouchers for nearly all students who use them. So, the net cost to the state for each voucher student depends on whether the state previously paid for that students education and to what extent. Students who never attended public or charter schools are a new cost to the state, while a student who moves from a charter school to a voucher saves the state a modest amount since per-student payments for vouchers are about 90% of what the state pays for a charter student. The impact on state coffers when a student switches from public school to a private voucher depends on which school that student attended. Schools in areas with high property values, like Scottsdale Unified, dont receive state aid and are funded primarily by local property taxes. That means that each of the estimated 283 universal ESA students who previously attended Scottsdale Unified schools but entered the voucher program in fiscal year 2024 are a new cost to the state, to the tune of around $2 million, according to GCI. The Grand Canyon Institute also took transportation costs into account when determining the net cost, since public schools usually provide transportation to students, while voucher students generally have to provide their own transportation. With all of those factors taken into account, the institute found that the gross cost to Arizonas general fund for universal voucher students was $385 million, while the net cost was lower, at $332 million. The report shows that while Republicans who back the program, including Arizonas Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, say it saves the state money, that isnt actually the case. DONATE: SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST Michael Paterson used the stolen funds to pay off debts and go on foreign holidays - UNPIXS An employee at one of Scotlands largest local authorities embezzled more than 1 million from his bosses over 16 years by issuing refunds to himself, a court has heard. Michael Paterson, 59, exploited his position at Aberdeen city council to pocket a total of 1,087,444.47. He spent the money on Apple technology, foreign holidays and eating out. The High Court in Edinburgh was told how Paterson was a council tax and recovery team leader when he stole the money between 2006 and last year. He had started stealing cash to pay off debts but had continued to take the money for an extravagant lifestyle, and the court heard he was still in debt when he was arrested. Brian Gill KC, the prosecuting lawyer, told the court how Paterson had unsupervised authority to issue council tax refunds of up to 3,000. He could also alter payee account details without authorisation or verification and he did so to transfer money to himself. The prosecutor said Paterson had worked out he could benefit in situations where a householder had left a property and had not reclaimed for overpayment of their council tax. He would then make payments into a Nationwide bank account in his name. His scam went undetected until September 2023, when a colleague noticed that a refund of more than 2,000 had been made on a computer system using Patersons username. She reported her concerns to bosses, who launched an investigation into Patersons activities, which revealed that he had paid more than 1 million in council tax money to himself. The embezzlement happened from 2006 to 2019 - BBC David Young KC, the judge, heard Paterson was sacked and police were called. Detectives arrested him in November last year. Mr Gill said: The accused explained the state of his financial affairs. When he had started the embezzlement in 2006, he had been in debt to the sum of 20,000 through credit cards and other loans. Although he had paid off his mortgage approximately 13 years previously, he had always spent more than his salary and had been in a state of perpetual debt. He had originally started the embezzlement because he was worried about the debts. But over time he had just continued his overspending. He had spent the stolen money on technology, particularly Apple goods, foreign holidays, eating out approximately once a week, shopping and the maintenance of his flat. He had not in fact cleared his debts and was still in significant debt. He said Paterson had expressed remorse and pleaded guilty to a charge of embezzlement. Investigators discovered that between 2006 and 2019, there had been 490 refunds totalling 711,401.62 to a Nationwide account. The council also discovered that a further 376,042.85 had been made to a Bank of Scotland account belonging to Paterson. These payments were then transferred to the Nationwide account. He will be sentenced on July 5. 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. This Country Produces Less Than 1% Of Emissions. Is That A Pass To Export Gas? Lush, old-growth rainforest covers 65% of Rosalie Matondos country nearly double the share of wooded land in the United States or European Union and conservationists hail it for its success in cracking down on deforestation and poaching. But the Republic of the Congos gains are in danger, Matondo warns, if the majority of Central African nations 6 million residents keep getting poorer. The poverty rate eclipsed 66% last year, and its on pace to surpass 72% next year. As the top government official in charge of the forest economy, Matondos job is to find ways to make money without chopping down one of the worlds last intact old-growth rainforests. In the meantime, however, Congo is following the same path the U.S. has long taken to make money and strengthen alliances: selling natural gas to the Europeans. Congo sometimes called Congo-Brazzaville to distinguish the coastal state from its larger neighbor, the Democratic Republic of the Congo this year became the worlds newest exporter of liquified natural gas. And Matondo is tired of Western environmentalists lecturing her country about the toll its fossil fuel exports take on rising global temperatures. We have people that will come and tell us what we have to do, Matondo, the Congolese minister of the forest economy, told HuffPost through a French translator in a wide-ranging interview last month. NGOs from developed countries think they can tell us what we have to do. Congo ranks among the worlds countries most vulnerable to climate change. And although its emissions are rising, it still constitutes a tiny fraction of a percent of the global total. The countrys trees absorb about three times as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as its people emit. Minister of the Forest Economy Rosalie Matondo of the Republic of the Congo speaks at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome, Italy, in 2018. FAO/Roberto Cenciarelli Built by the Italian state-owned oil giant Eni, the new LNG export terminal off Congos Atlantic coast sent its debut shipment to Italy in February, part of a bid to seize a slice of the fuel market Russian pipelines served before the war in Ukraine prompted Europeans to turn away from the Kremlins fuel. A second facility set to open next year will more than quadruple how much gas Congo can sell overseas. We cannot be telling the population that is poor that they should do their best to preserve biodiversity, Matondo said. We have to see our population not being poor, so we can try to tell them, OK, since youre not poor and you have the means to survive, now you can preserve the diversity. Shes the latest government leader from a developing country to rebuke critics in richer parts of the world who oppose developing fossil fuel reserves amid growing global demand for oil and gas. In March, Guyanas president, Mohamed Irfaan Ali, lashed out at a British reporter who asked about the climate risks posed by the South American countrys massive offshore oil development. Noting that Guyana has kept the vast majority of its forests intact, Irfaan Ali accused the BBC presenter Stephen Sackur of hypocrisy in attempting to lecture us on climate change. Im going to lecture you on climate change. Because we have kept this forest alive that you enjoy that the world enjoys, that you dont pay us for, that you dont value, Irfaan Ali said. Guess what? We have the lowest deforestation rate in the world. And guess what? Even with the greatest exploration of oil and gas, we will still be net zero. Video of the exchange, which aired on the BBCs HARDtalk program, went viral. Despite limited coverage of the spat in the U.S., English-language news outlets based in places like China and India promoted the clip a sign that the Guyanese leaders words resonated with post-colonial countries. An aerial photo provided by the Italian oil giant Eni shows its liquefied natural gas barges in the Republic of the Congo. Eni This is the hypocrisy that exists in the world, Irfaan Ali told Sackur. The world in the last 50 years has lost 65% of the biodiversity. We have kept ours. Compared to the massive oil fields U.S. giants like Exxon Mobil and Chevron are developing off South Americas northeast coast, the Congos fossil fuel exports are small. But after years of gearing much of its economy around selling small amounts of oil and petroleum the country even joined the OPEC oil cartel in 2018 Brazzaville is hoping to go big on energy exports with LNG. Oil generates roughly 50% of the energy Congolese use at home, with natural gas comprising another 33% and renewables particularly hydroelectric dams providing another 17%, according to 2021 data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Virtually any natural gas that wasnt used at home was either injected into crude wells to extract more oil or burned up onsite in a highly-polluting industry practice known as flaring. In 2022, Congo flared about 64 billion cubic feet of gas that was seen as a waste byproduct of oil drilling roughly four times as much gas as the country intentionally produced that same year, World Bank data show. Capturing this gas and using it as fuel, rather than just burning it off as a byproduct of oil extraction, might be less wasteful in the long-term, proponents of the countrys LNG push argue. And since the Congolese would have likely burned the gas as waste anyway, Eni has said its projects zero flaring technological approach in the country is in line with the oil giants plan to cut back on planet-heating emissions. The fossil fuel industry has a poor record of actually developing the countries from which it extracts oil and gas. Corrupt officials often pocket revenues that could otherwise go toward schools, infrastructure and investments in cleaner industries, and the fuels themselves are mostly sent overseas. Fossil fuel development hasnt even solved energy poverty in the African countries that have embraced it; Nigeria has the continents largest and oldest fossil fuel industry and yet still has the worlds lowest energy access rates, Amy Westervelt, an American journalist who investigates the fossil fuel industrys propaganda campaigns, wrote in a March edition of her newsletter Drilled, referring to the Guyanese presidents comments. Oil majors arent in these countries to help them, theyre there to exploit resources. Guyana's President Mohamed Irfaan Ali arrives for the South American Summit at Itamaraty palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, May 30, 2023. via Associated Press While much of the gas extracted in the Congo will head to Europe, economist Vijaya Ramachandran said the country will still likely develop more of its own energy infrastructure as it reaps in sales revenue, so that more of the energy it produces can go to Congolese households. She said international institutions like the World Bank, whose shareholders include some of the richest nations in the West, should finance pipelines and transmission networks in countries like the Congo to help them vault past the dirtiest phases of development faster. Instead, however, she said developed nations and groups like the World Bank are very keen that Africa only develop wind and solar reserves. The problem with that is you cant use wind and solar for a lot of things, said Ramachandran, who previously worked at the World Bank and now leads energy development research at the California-based Breakthrough Institute think tank. The U.S. has heavily invested in drilling and exporting its own gas and oil, enough to leapfrog Saudi Arabia and Russia in production and neuter the effects OPECs supply cuts once had on global energy prices. The American drilling industry is responsible for adding the largest portion of cumulative emissions to the atmosphere over the past 200 years. But it isnt anywhere close to shutting down over climate concerns. Still, Congo may have a future in green energy, too. Matondo said she would like to see her country follow the Democratic Republic of the Congo in establishing itself as a major player in the markets for the critical minerals needed to make the lithium-ion packs electric vehicles use even if hooking those batteries up to Congos own shoddy energy grid remains a challenge. Liberia offers another example Matondo said she might follow. Last year, the government in Monrovia agreed to sell 10% of the West African countrys land to a Dubai-based company looking to preserve the forests as a way to offset emissions from the United Arab Emirates oil and gas sales. Describing Congo as a welcoming country, she said her government is open to any international partnership that delivers a win-win and helps Brazzaville develop the means to keep an increasingly urban Congolese population safe, fed and air conditioned as heat waves, drought and disease intensify over the coming years. An endangered African forest elephant seen in Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of the Congo. Godong via Getty Images We need our partner to go along with us so that we may have the capacity to adapt ourselves to this climate change, Matondo said. Cleaner technologies that offer the same abundant energy output as fossil fuels without the emissions such as nuclear reactors, green hydrogen fuel, or next-generation geothermal power are still years away from full-scale deployments in rich places like the U.S., let alone in counties like Congo, which have far less-developed regulatory agencies and infrastructure. Renewables like wind and solar are growing and will likely play a major role in Congos electricity system, particularly as prices for turbines and panels keep falling, Ramachandran said. But even in California, where she lives, Ramachandran pointed out that the solar panels that help keep the lights on during the day are typically backed up by gas-burning plants in the evening, or on hot days when demand for air conditioning overwhelms the electricity supply on the grid. We need liquid fuels. We need air conditioning. The bottom line: We need a continuous source of energy for growth, poverty alleviation and development, and renewables alone cannot provide that, Ramachandran said. So telling them at this moment in time they can only use wind and solar is just terribly unfair, because no rich country is doing that. Theres nobody in the rich world existing on renewables only, Ramachandran said. The idea that we expect very poor countries to do that is terribly unfair and makes no sense. CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story mistakenly described the Democratic Republic of the Congo as landlocked when the country has a 25-mile strip of Atlantic coast. Related... LANSING The Michigan Court of Appeals will soon offer a ruling on a legal challenge to Ford Motor Co.'s electric vehicle battery plant in Marshall, BlueOval Battery Park Michigan. A three-judge panel comprised of Court of Appeals judges Thomas Cameron, Adrienne Young and Noah Hood on Thursday heard oral arguments from the Committee for Marshall - Not the Megasite, the city of Marshall, the Marshall Area Economic Development Alliance and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation on the matter, which concerns a push for a citywide vote on rezoning tied to Ford's EV battery plant. "This was exceptionally well briefed, exceptionally well argued," Cameron told all parties to the case at the close of Thursday's hearing. "I expect youll have an opinion from us within the next few weeks." In March, the Court of Appeals granted the Committee for Marshall - Not the Megasite's motion to expedite its appeal in its case against the city of Marshall, City Clerk Michelle Eubank and the Marshall Area Economic Development Alliance. Committee members originally filed the lawsuit last year, arguing the city and Eubank inappropriately rejected their petition seeking a citywide vote on Ordinance # 2023-08 which effectively rezones 741 acres of the Marshall Megasite in support of the Ford project. The Committee filed its appeal with the Michigan Court of Appeals in early February after Circuit Judge William Marietti dismissed the group's lawsuit against the city of Marshall and MAEDA on Jan. 10. "A referendum delayed is a referendum denied," Robby Dube, an attorney representing the Committee for Marshall - Not the Megasite, argued Thursday. "For over a year, the city has delayed and denied my client's right to a referendum. It has done this by flouting a century of precedent limiting a clerks ministerial power to review a referendum petition for signatures and physical form requirements only." Attorney Robby Dube argues on behalf of the Committee for Marshall - Not the Megasite during a hearing Thursday, June 6, 2024 at the Michigan Court of Appeals in Lansing. Dube argued the clerk should have issued a certificate of sufficiency on the referendum petition, with questions of legality reserved for after the successful referendum. "The clerk is not a judicial officer, she does not have the judicial power to look at a proposed legislative act and say, 'This will be illegal if passed.' ... But thats what this clerk did here," Dube said. "She took it upon herself to say this would be illegal." The Marshall City Council on May 1, 2023 unanimously approved a request to rezone 741 acres of the Marshall Megasite to Industrial and Manufacturing (I-3) Zoning, marking a key step forward in Ford's plans to build an electric vehicle battery plant on a portion of the Marshall Megasite. The nearly 2,000-acre parcel southwest of the I-94/I-69 interchange in Marshall Township has been considered for decades as a potential destination for a large-scale manufacturing operation. The Committee for Marshall - Not the Megasite subsequently submitted more than 800 petition signatures to Eubank on May 30 in hopes of triggering a citywide vote on the rezoning request. The number of signatures collected was well above the 10% threshold of about 580 signatures required by the city charter. In a June 16 letter, Eubank indicated the targeted ordinance, in this case the rezoning of 741 acres of the Megasite, is not subject to a referendum or vote because the ordinance amendment approved by the city council included appropriations of $40,000 for site plan review services and $250,000 for building inspection services for the development of the proposed project. Such appropriations make the ordinance amendment ineligible for referendum under Article V, Section 5.01(b) of the city charter. Eubank added the petition lacked the minimum number of valid signatures to place the measure on the ballot, in large part because the bulk of signatures were obtained by circulators that were not part of the five-member petition committee. Committee members claimed they were unaware of this requirement and argued the city charter does not explicitly state that only committee members can collect signatures. Attorney Zach Larsen argues on behalf of the city of Marshall and City Clerk Michelle Eubank during a hearing Thursday, June 6, 2024 at the Michigan Court of Appeals in Lansing. "If you look at Section 5.01 (b), the city charter plainly states that the referendum power shall not extend to the annual operating budget, any emergency ordinance or to any ordinance relating to the appropriation of money," attorney Zach Larsen argued Thursday on behalf of the city of Marshall and Eubank. "The case law is clear that cities can provide for referendum and that they have the ability to determine the scope of that referendum right, and so these restrictions restrict ultimately the ability to proceed on a referendum." Dube said the appropriation of money included in the ordinance amendment is illegal and must be severed as appropriations must be passed by resolution, not ordinance, according to sections 9.06 and 9.08 of the city charter. "The city chose to limit itself that way," Dube said. "Thats not something appellants put on them, they chose to limit their power so they can only appropriate via resolution But they passed the appropriations in an ordinance, they cant do that, they are violating their own charter to do that. "Ultimately, this court should just allow the people to have a vote as they entitled to have, and should have had over a year ago." Whether appropriations can be done only by resolution or by ordinance under the Marshall City Charter is "very easy to resolve just by the text of (Section) 5.01(b) itself," Larsen explained. "The powers of the city council allow them to choose between resolution or ordinance unless there's some sort of explicit restriction on that," he continued. "There is no explicit restriction." The Michigan Economic Development Corporation and the Michigan Strategic Fund, meanwhile, have appealed the Circuit Court's denial of their motions to intervene in the case. Attorney Scott Eldridge, arguing on behalf of the MEDC Thursday, explained that both the MEDC and MSF play a large role in the development of this project and thus have an interest in the property in this case. "This sort of megasite economic development project cannot happen without the MEDC or the MSF's involvement. Impossible, hard stop," Eldridge said. "That is because the MEDC and the MSF are statutorily and legally obligated to marshall these projects from start to completion and beyond." Construction progress at the site of the Blue Oval Battery Park on Michigan Avenue in Marshall Township on Thursday, May 9, 2024. Ford initially promised 2,500 new jobs and a $3.5 billion investment when announcing the project in February 2023. The automaker then instituted a two-month pause on its own work at the Marshall site in September amid the UAW strike. In November, Ford indicated it would be reducing its commitment to the Marshall-area EV battery facility by 800 jobs and more than $1 billion, moves that company officials said will reduce the plant's production capacity by roughly 40%. State officials have indicated incentives for the project will likewise be revised in accordance with the new investment parameters. Construction of the plant continues, with production of lithium iron phosphate batteries expected to begin at the plant in 2026. We remain confident the Court of Appeals will affirm decisions by the lower court and allow this project to stay on track," Jim Durian, CEO of MAEDA, said in a statement. "That way, we can continue to create local jobs, boost investment and provide new opportunities for our young people so they wont have to move away to find a job. It is time to move beyond litigation and work together to build a positive future for our community." Contact reporter Greyson Steele at gsteele@battlecreekenquirer.com This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Court of Appeals hears arguments in challenge to rezoning tied to Ford EV plant COVID shots should target JN.1 variant in fall 2024 campaign, US FDA says (Reuters) -The U.S. health regulator on Friday advised COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers that new shots for the fall 2024 campaign should target the JN.1 variant that was dominant earlier this year. The Food and Drug Administration's advisory is in line with European and World Health Organization recommendations and comes after the agency's advisers on Wednesday overwhelmingly backed the targeting of the older JN.1 variant over the newer KP.2 strain. The advisers recommended the older strain as it is the only strain which Novavax - one of the vaccine makers - said it would be able to target with its shot. Separately, another vaccine maker Moderna said on Friday it has filed an application with the FDA for its COVID-19 shot targeting the JN.1 strain. Pfizer and its partner BioNTech have said they will be ready to supply their updated vaccines immediately upon approval, while Moderna forecasts a timeline for August. Novavax, which makes a more traditional protein-based shot, said it expects to be ready for commercial delivery of its JN.1 vaccine in the United States in September. Shares of Novavax were down 9% in late morning trade, its second straight session of losses, while Moderna was down 2%. Pfizer was up 0.7%. Uptake of COVID-19 vaccines, however, has been a concern. Only about 22.5% of adults in the United States received a COVID shot in the 2023-2024 vaccination season, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was current through early May. While JN.1 was the dominant strain in the US earlier this year it is no longer as prevalent estimated to account for 3.1% of cases over a two-week period ended June 8, according to CDC data The KP.2 variant was estimated to account for about 22.5% of cases, with another variant KP.3 now becoming dominant at 25%. (Reporting by Leroy Leo in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid and Shailesh Kuber) Celebrity and quackery. Very 2024. (Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images) Policy, politics and progressive commentary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. sued Nevadas secretary of state last week for not accepting Kennedys petition to be on the ballot as a presidential candidate. In March, Kennedy thought he had already gathered enough signatures on a petition to qualify him for Nevadas ballot. However, in a glimpse of Kennedys executive acumen, it turned out the petition he submitted to the Nevada Secretary of States office failed to identify a vice-presidential candidate, as required by state law. In late March, Kennedy did pick a VP candidate, Nicole Shanahan, whose sole qualification appears to be possessing enough money to bankroll his campaign. One curiosity in all this apart from Kennedys candidacy itself is that Kennedy could have just played it safe and had Shanahan pay to start regathering signatures, and submitted a fresh and legitimate petition by now. Petitions with the requisite number of signatures must be submitted no later than July 5. If Kennedy misses that, his lawsuit will be his last resort to get on Nevadas ballot. But Kennedy has an even more pressing deadline if he wants to achieve the ultimate goal of his campaign: attracting attention to himself. Along with meeting other criteria, to be invited to participate in the debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump scheduled for June 27 on CNN, Kennedy (just like Jill Stein or Cornel West or that guy the Libertarians nominated last month while they were raspberrying Trump) must be qualified to appear on ballots in states whose combined electoral votes total at least 270, i.e., enough to win the presidency. Nevadas modest six electoral votes are the least of Kennedys debate qualification hurdles, by the way. The idea of watching Trump and Biden debate no doubt gives many voters the heebie-jeebies. Kennedys daffy stream-of-consciousness babbling would render the event even more unwatchable. Robert F. Kennedy the Younger is not a serious person. Somehow, somewhere, the once-respected environmental attorney and activist abandoned that career, instead charting a direct course to Quackadoodleland. Hes best known now for spreading conspiracy theories about the covid vaccine. Perhaps less widely known is that Kennedy has been spreading conspiracy theories about pretty much all the vaccines, for a long time, particularly the thoroughly discredited conspiracy theory that MMR vaccines lead to autism. Other Kennedy-endorsed conspiracies include (but are not limited to): Wi-Fi causes cancer and leaky brain; the covid vaccine is secretly laced with tracking chips that can be activated by cellular networks using 5G (you may remember that one); chemicals in the water are turning children transgender (deliberately, of course its a conspiracy, remember); and the cause of school shootings is not access to guns, but access to antidepressants. Kennedy should buzz off People who wish both parties had different nominees might shudder at the idea of watching the Biden-Trump debate later this month. Yes, it promises to be quintessential cringe TV. But there are two potentially saving graces in the format: First, there will be no audience at the debate. When Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debated over the expansion of slavery (and an Illinois U.S. Senate seat), an audience made sense because, you know, 1858. But in these our audio-video-enabled times, audiences hooting and hollering at debates is a dopey idea. Second, at the June 27 debate, when one candidates speaking time is up, their mic will be turned off. Understandably given the format, there is a school of thought that says even though Trump agreed to it, he wont actually show up for the debate (calling it rigged in the process, of course). An even better case scenario, however, might be that Trump does show up, but the first time they turn off his mic while hes lying, er, snarling, er, talking, which no doubt would be in the first minutes of the event, he storms off the set in one of his trademark displays of unhinged huffery puffery. That might at least be some good TV, as well as remind viewers that Trump is a snot-nosed child in a septuagenarians McDonalds-stuffed body, and unfit for public office. In case theyve forgotten. Meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is almost assuredly not going to be in the debate. And he absolutely assuredly is not going be president of the United States. But there he is, crying Look at me! I am a quack! But I am also a Kennedy! Celebrity and quackery! What could be more attractive to U.S. voters in the 2020s? Except Kennedy phrases it differently. A little. In last months splashy New York Times-Sienna poll of Nevada and other swing states, Kennedy had the support of 12% of Nevada registered voters. Third party candidates almost never do as well in actual elections as they do in polls, and Kennedys support will shrink the closer we get to the election. But in what is going to be a very close election in Nevada and the handful of other battleground states that will decide the presidency, Kennedy getting even one or two percent of the vote could allow Trump to win the state, and maybe the presidency. If he cared about the country and its future as much as he seems to care about media attention and daft conspiracies, Kennedy wouldnt be suing Nevada in the hope of getting on the debate stage with Biden and Trump. Hed shut the hell up and go away. The state and the nation have enough problems. Nobody needs some screwball with a famous name playing spoiler under the delusion that it accomplishes something other than his own gratification. A few passages in this column were initially published in the Daily Current newsletter, which is free, and which you can subscribe to here. The post Craving the spotlight, Kennedy sues Nevada appeared first on Nevada Current. Dairy lovers should check the refrigerator for cream cheese that was sold at Aldi or pre-sliced Tillamook cheese sold at Costco which have both been recalled independently and pulled from shelves. Details of Tillamook cheese recall from Costco On June 1, the Oregon-based dairy co-op alerted Costco members who had purchased its twin-pack of Tillamook cheese slices because the company said it "identified a very small quantity of gray and black plastic pieces" that may be present in a limited quantity of its Monterey Jack Cheese. PHOTO: A recalled package of Tillamook Colby Jack and Tillamook Monterey Jack cheese slices is shown. (Tillamook) The affected products, which had a Best If Used By date of October 22, 2024, were sold at Costco locations in the Northwest region and came in a 32 oz. package with Tillamook Monterey Jack and Tillamook Colby Jack cheese slices bearing item number 651195. Any customers who purchased the product between May 9 and May 31, 2024, received a written letter advising them to "please refrain from consuming it and return the package to your local Costco for a full refund. "In an abundance of caution and as part of our commitment to product quality and safety at the highest levels, we are voluntarily taking action to remove this product from the marketplace," the letter stated. "If you have already consumed the product without issue, you do not need to take any action, as the likely presence of the foreign plastic material is very minimal." Details of Schreiber Foods cream cheese recalls sold at Aldi, Kroger PHOTO: In this Dec. 27, 2017 file photo, an Aldi supermarket is seen in High Point, N.C. (Anna Driver/Reuters, FILE) Wisconsin-based dairy company Schreiber Foods Inc. has recalled more cream cheese products as part of an ongoing recall due to potential salmonella contamination. As of the time of publication, the cream cheese maker has recalled 836,721 units of cream cheese products, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration incident report initiated on May 3. Several major food retailers, including Hy Vee, Kroger, and Aldi, distributed and sold the affected cream cheeses. The recalled products were distributed in California, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. The products were also shipped to Puerto Rico. A total of eight cream cheese spreads made for various supermarkets and sold under different names are impacted by the recall including Dunkin, Dutch Farms, Happy Farms, Fareway, and Essential Everyday. PHOTO: Certain cream cheese products sold at Hy-Vee have been voluntarily recalled due to possible salmonella contamination. (FDA) Click here for the complete FDA list of product UPC codes, best by dates and specific label information for the hundreds of products impacted. A representative for Aldi and Schreiber Foods did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment. Customers who may have purchased the products have been urged by Schreiber Foods to "discard it immediately or return it to their local store for a full refund." Potential health impacts, symptoms of salmonella According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most people infected with salmonella experience diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps, and symptoms typically begin six hours to six days after swallowing the bacteria. Most people recover without treatment after four to seven days. But some -- especially children younger than five years and adults 65 years and older, or people with weakened immune systems -- may experience more severe illnesses that require medical treatment or hospitalization, the CDC states. Cream cheese recall expanded as Tillamook recalls cheese slices sold at Costco originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com JEFFERSON COUNTY (KSNT) A northeast Kansas sheriff is investigating after card skimmers were found at two local gas stations recently. 27 News reached out to Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Herrig for more information after some locals reported card skimmers being found in the county on social media. The Jefferson County Sheriffs Office is currently investigating these discoveries and is warning residents to remain vigilant to avoid falling prey to one of these scams. Herrig said the skimmers were found in the towns of McLouth and Ozawkie at local gas stations. The first skimmer discovery was in McLouth last week while another was found in Ozawkie on June 6. So far, no other reports have been made of more skimmers being found at any other gas stations or local businesses. Do you still have to slow down for work zones on the weekend in Kansas? Always keep a vigilant eye on your credit card activity to make sure someone else isnt using it, Herrig said in a written statement. Some companies use a break away tape on the face of the pumps to readily see if the pump has been tampered with, if not it is hard to detect from the outside of the pumps. The Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA) describes credit card skimmers as electronic devices which capture credit or debit card information from card readers whenever a card is swiped. The KDA recommends businesses put programs in place to deter criminals from installing the skimmers, focus on detecting skimmers if they have been installed and train employees on how to respond if suspicious devices are found. Employees should check for skimmers daily as it only takes around 10 seconds for someone to install one. Some skimmers may appear home-made and be easy to spot while others are much more sophisticated and are meant to blend in with their surroundings. Skimmers can be installed on the exterior and interior of card reader devices. Can a felon run for public office in Kansas? Suspect anything that is unusual or does not match the other dispensers. When in doubt, shut down the dispenser and consult your service company or contact the Kansas Department of Agriculture Division of Weights & Measures. Kansas Department of Agriculture statement on credit card skimmers The KDA further recommends you take the following steps if you think youve found a card skimmer: Avoid touching the device and the dispenser. This is evidence of criminal activity. Turn off the dispenser immediately. Dont let customers use it going forward. Call law enforcement. Leave the device in the dispenser until law enforcement can examine and take it away. Save any surveillance video footage from before the device was found. You can learn more about credit card skimmers, how to combat them and other dangers they pose by clicking here. If you think youve fallen victim to a scam, contact the Kansas Attorney Generals office by clicking here. A rare opportunity: Heartland Motorsports Park goes to auction, some land on no reserve 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. Follow Matthew Self on X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/MatthewLeoSelf Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News. French President Emanuel Macron has authorized the use of weapons provided for Ukraine on the territory of the aggressor country. He noted that the limit of strikes is set by what the Russians are doing. ADVERTISIMENT The French leader said this in a joint interview with BFMTV and TF1 on June 6. He also emphasized that there is no question of strikes against civilians. "The line is set by what the Russians are doing," Macron said, answering journalists' questions. The French President reminded that Paris had never gone for escalation and noted that "we did not attack Ukraine." "The Russians have been threatening us from day one. The main thing is that we are not to blame. But we are set up in such a way that we can handle any risk. We are ready for it," the president assured, commenting on the Kremlin's threats. As a reminder, according to media reports, France may soon send military instructors to Ukraine despite the concerns of some allies and criticism from Russia. Paris may announce its decision during the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the occasion of the anniversary of the Normandy landings of the Allied forces during World War II. ADVERTISIMENT Following this information, the spokesman for the Russian Embassy in France, Alexander Makogonov, said that French instructors who might be sent to Ukraine would allegedly be "legitimate targets" for the Russian occupiers. Paris said that such comments would not be left without consequences. As reported, the French military have been in Ukraine since the beginning of the great war, according to the former commander of the French Marine regiment, Peer de Jong. According to him, French instructors accompanied Caesar howitzers at every stage before they arrived at the front in Ukraine. Only verified information is available on OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! Crews battle blazing fire at historic building, across from where iconic Krispy Kreme burned down Crews battle blazing fire at historic building, across from where iconic Krispy Kreme burned down Atlanta fire crews are battling a blazing fire at a historic building near downtown. Video from a viewer shows flames that appear to be coming from the old Atlanta Eagle and Original Kodak Moments buildings on Ponce De Leon Avenue Northeast. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] According to Atlanta police, officers responded to the area of Ponce De Leon Avenue NE and Argonne Avenue NE about a building fire. At this time, no injuries have been reported. Officers are helping with traffic control in the area and several lanes are blocked off. The old Atlanta Eagle and Kodak Buildings were constructed in 1898 and 1905. According to The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, the Atlanta Eagle Building was altered for commercial use in 1949 and eventually became a place of prominence in the LGBTQ community, significant as a site for public social interaction. On Thursday afternoon, Mayor Andre Dickens released the Mayors Division of LGBTQ+ Affairs Biennial Report in light of National Pride Month. Atlanta serves as a gleaming model of how a municipality can advance equity for its LGBTQ+ residents, visitors and employees through best-in-class practices, humility training, employee resources and overall inclusion and representation, said Mayor Dickens. The Kodak Building is historically significant for its association with the rise of commercial amateur photography in the mid-20th century, it also served as the campaign headquarters of Shirley Franklin, Atlantas first female mayor. It was originally constructed as an Italian Renaissance house but underwent a commercial alteration in the 1940s with the opening of Star Photo. The Georgia Trust also stated that the structures suffer from a lack of maintenance and they are a direct threat of demolition. The Atlanta Eagle announced plans to close due to financial hardship brought on by the pandemic. The buildings are located near the iconic Krispy Kreme, which reopened last Fall after burning down. According to investigators, the business was closed in Feb. 2021, when the store was intentionally set on fire along the exterior of the building. TRENDING STORIES: At this time, there are no details on what caused the fire. Channel 2 Action News reached out to the Atlanta Fire and Rescue Department and we are waiting to hear back. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] IN OTHER NEWS: CONNEAUT, Ohio (WJW) Authorities in Conneaut said they suspended the search Saturday for a child who went missing in Lake Erie Friday evening. Lake conditions and safety of those searching played a major role in making the determination, police told FOX 8. It was not made clear when the search would resume. Earlier in the day police had said the following: Dive team members from Conneaut and the multitude of county agencies assisting are performing grid searches in the last known location of the victim. Lake conditions are hampering recovery efforts. As of now we have no plans in calling off the search. The 10-year-old boy was looking for sea glass at Conneaut Township Park when he was swept away, never returning to the shore, his father confirmed to FOX 8. The boys mother also reportedly went into the water to try and save him and had to be rescued herself. Police had previously said the boy was swimming. Flood the streets: Family of toddler killed outside Giant Eagle has this special request for his procession Dispatchers confirmed to FOX 8 News that the boy had been missing since before 2 p.m. Friday. Crews look for 10-year-old boy missing in Lake Erie at Conneaut Township Park Friday night, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed the search was called off for the night. Officials said operations were shifting to recovery efforts. Woman, 65, killed in Tuscarawas County crash: OSHP The National Weather Service issued a high rip current risk for Lake and Ashtabula Lakeshore counties through Saturday afternoon. Swimmers should avoid getting in the water at this time. The Coast Guard, Conneaut police and fire, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and dive teams all responded to the operation. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW. It's hard to say which way crime in Los Angeles is going these days. The Police Department has stopped posting crime numbers to its public website after rolling out a new recordkeeping system and changing the way it counts burglaries, assaults and other crimes. Officials say that the changes will more accurately capture the level of public safety citywide, and that efforts are underway to get the statistics back online for the public. But for months there has been no easy way to track crime trends in the city. Police are still providing up-to-date numbers to city officials upon request, and interim Chief Dominic Choi delivers his crime picture briefing to the Police Commission every week. Read more: Who should be the next LAPD chief? Public shrugs as city asks for input The department used to release weekly crime reports with breakdowns on the number of offenses and arrests for all violent and property crime categories from the prior week and the year-to-date for the entire city. But the familiar multicolored tables have since disappeared from its site. LAPD officials added a disclaimer to the site's crime page about the department's shift to the National Incident-Based Reporting System, which will bring it in line with federal guidelines aimed at gaining more detailed crime data. "We are hoping to have both the Open Data Portal and crime statistics both and running in the next few months," Lt. Christopher Chase of the Compstat Division said in an email to The Times. "It is a Herculean task but lots of smart people are working on it!" In his latest briefing Tuesday, Choi highlighted figures showing that overall violent crime which includes homicides, robberies, rapes and serious assaults is basically unchanged from this time last year, while property crime is down roughly 3%. Read more: Brass knuckles, body cams and bad behavior: LAPD probe links troubled Valley gang units Although nonfatal shootings are down citywide, homicides have risen nearly 11% compared with the first half of 2023, Choi told the commission. He said there is no single explanation: "No trend of a gang feud or no trend of a particular race war." The increased bloodshed bucked a trend seen in many large U.S. cities that have seen slayings decline this year. Of the LAPD's four geographical bureaus, South L.A. has had the highest number of homicides this year: 47, 14 more than in the same period in 2023. Worryingly, Choi said, the city has seen a nearly 18% jump in robberies an additional 585 incidents over the same period last year, with the Rampart, Southwest and Wilshire areas seeing the biggest increases. The downtown area has seen the largest increase in commercial burglaries, with 106 more incidents, an increase of about 15% from the first half of last year. Residential burglaries are also up, particularly in the Wilshire and Hollywood areas, while Foothill has seen one of the largest jumps in stolen vehicles, with an additional 153 thefts. Criminologists and others who study crime have long cautioned about the reliability of statistics reported by police agencies, warning that the numbers are open to manipulation for political purposes and often provide only a narrow view of the ebb and flow of violent crime, which has been trending downward for decades. In efforts at transparency and uniformity, departments around the country are slowly phasing into the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System, which launched in 1988 and is supposed to collect data on a much wider array of offenses. The LAPD was among the last big-city agencies to make the leap, said Liberty Vittert, a data sciences professor at Washington University in St. Louis. The older system could leave some crimes overlooked by recording only the most serious offense that occurred during an incident. In a robbery-homicide, for example, only the killing would be registered. With the FBI system, both acts are counted separately. Read more: LAPDs recruiting woes laid bare: Only 30 officers per class, analysis shows Although most agencies that made the switch to the system reported "growing pains," Vittert said she found it odd that the LAPD would stop reporting yearly crime statistics. For all their limitations, such reports are still an important resource for the public and elected officials, she said. "Doing a year-over-year comparison" from the LAPD's old system to the new one isn't complicated, Vittert said. "I wouldn't say it's apples to oranges. It's more like red apple to green apple." The statistical reporting problems first emerged in early March, when the LAPD unveiled its new records management system, which department officials said would replace several antiquated computer programs. Officers in the Central Bureau were the first to work with the new system. The change includes going paperless, with officers now able to fill out crime reports and field interview cards on a native iPhone application designed for the department by Motorola, officials said. In the past, officers would have to return to their police station to type up reports a time-consuming process that kept them from being out in the streets doing police work, said Deputy Chief John McMahon of the Information Technology Bureau. Read more: L.A. tests program to send unarmed civilians instead of cops to people in crisis McMahon acknowledged that there would be "bumps in the road" as the department adjusts to a new way of doing things, but that ultimately the system would boost efficiency and productivity. Department officials said they conducted site visits in Philadelphia and New York, which also recently updated their records systems. But the changes have also been met with skepticism from police critics, one of whom contended at a commission meeting this year that the "aggregation" of disparate data sources has historically been used to justify further over-policing of communities of color. "We need to kind of ask ourselves, whom does this efficiency serve? What purpose does it serve?" Matyos Kidane of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition said at a meeting in March. 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. CLEVELAND (WJW) The eight vests are hanging in a room in the Cuyahoga County Sheriffs Department. Each vest has a badge, and each vest will be worn by K-9s that recently finished a 16-week drug detection training. The K-9s are expected to graduate Monday and then begin working at the jail. They all did a very good job, said Lt. Joseph Kelley, of the Cuyahoga County Sheriffs Department. They are all very dedicated. Ohio pro bowler arrested during tournament gets prison The Cuyahoga County sheriff is adding the additional dogs to help address one of the biggest problems in the county jail, illegal drugs. The sheriffs department had two dogs that were used to sniff out narcotics, but sheriff officials said more K-9s were needed. The jail houses about 1,400 inmates. Kelley said about 100 people a day are booked into the facility and the K-9s will be able to screen each one. They will be doing narcotic detection, said Paul Shaughnessy, president of Excel K-9. They are able to detect all different kinds of drugs and it will really save lives. The dogs will go home each night with their handlers. The sheriff has told us the goal of the program is to eventually have anyone who enters the facility, including employees, to go through the screening process. 11-year-old girl drowns trying to save little sister from Ohio hotel pool Sheriff officials are still working on drafting the policy regarding employees being screened. Correction guards at the jail are represented by the Ohio Patrolmens Benevolent Association. Attorney Adam Chaloupka, general counsel for the OPBA, says the union fully supports collaborative efforts with the sheriff to eliminate illegal drugs and contraband in the jail. Chaloupka, however, says the union is demanding to negotiate the matter before employees are subject to the screening process. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW. The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., is pictured on Tuesday, April 9, 2024. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom) President Joe Bidens immigration executive order, Dr. Anthony Fauci and a GOP letter to Biden over Donald Trumps trial were all major focuses for Iowa lawmakers this week. Efforts to renew the farm also could see delays as Democrats and Republicans debate over Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Heres a roundup of how Iowas congressional representatives were responding to issues this week: GOP senators promise to oppose Biden funding, nominees Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst joined 10 other Republican senators in signing a letter promising to oppose Bidens non-security-related funding efforts and judicial appointments. Initially written by Utah Sen. Mike Lee, the signatories allege the Biden administration played a role in Trumps guilty convictions in his hush money trial. The White House has made a mockery of the Rule of Law and fundamentally altered our politics in un-American ways, Utah Sen. Mike Lee wrote in the letter. Thank you, @SenJoniErnst, for joining our letter. More to follow! pic.twitter.com/rGXPfF3XGw Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) June 3, 2024 We must restore integrity in our government after Democrats clear weaponization and politicization of our justice system, Ernst said in a tweet. Iowas other senator, Sen. Chuck Grassley, will not sign the letter. I have to say that not at this point, but what you said the letter said, I dont find too much disagreement with, he told Radio Iowa. Farm bill faces roadblock over SNAP benefits The $1.5 trillion farm bill is unlikely to advance this year as debates over SNAP benefits stall efforts to pass the bill for the second year in a row. A farm bill is meant to be passed every five years and is generally considered must-pass legislation. However, the 2018 farm bill expired last year without a new bill to replace causing lawmakers to extend the expiration date to Sept. 30. The House Agricultural Committee passed their version of the bill with little bipartisan support in May which included decreases to SNAP benefits. That version of the bill will not pass in the Senate, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Sen. Debbie Stabenow said in a news release. The ranking Republican on the committee, Sen. John Boozman, agreed that without improvements, extending the 2018 farm bill was the best option. Iowa Rep. Randy Feenstra, who added a handful of amendments to the House farm bill, praised the bill for how it benefits Iowa farmers. The farm bill also includes my work to expand broadband in rural Iowa, support research initiatives at universities like Iowa State University, improve the Livestock Indemnity Program to deliver fair market prices for our cattle producers and invest in homegrown Iowa biofuels, Feenstra said. He said he will still do what he can to get a new version of the farm bill passed. Ill continue working with my colleagues to get the farm bill signed into law as soon as possible, Feenstra said. Iowa lawmakers say Biden immigration decisions too little, too late President Joe Biden revealed plans Tuesday to curb immigration at the southern border. The executive order would shut down asylum requests at the border if the number of illegal crossings surpasses 2,500. Iowa lawmakers quickly criticized the move as a political ploy meant to secure votes in the runup to the November election. He hasnt done a single thing to secure our border, Feenstra said in a Tweet. President Biden created the border crisis through radical executive orders and policies. He doesnt want to finish the wall. He doesnt want to restore Remain in Mexico. He doesnt want to end catch-and-release policies. He hasnt done a single thing to secure our border. Rep. Randy Feenstra (@RepFeenstra) June 5, 2024 Rep. Ashley Hinson described the move as an election-year ploy. Americans see right through this last-ditch, election-year ploy from President Biden to feign interest in curbing illegal immigration, Hinson said in a social media post. Biden said he would prefer longer-term laws over an executive order. A bipartisan immigration law was on the table before being rejected by Republicans following pressure from former President Donald Trump who hopes to use immigration as an issue in the upcoming election. Republicans in Congress chose to put partisan politics ahead of our national security, twice voting against the toughest and fairest set of reforms in decades, Biden said in a press release. Ernsts comments about the move mirrored many of her Republican colleagues. Millions of illegal crossings later, Biden is attempting to act on the border months before the election. The buck stops with Biden, Ernst said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. Fauci address to Congress Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S.s lead infectious disease expert during the COVID-19 pandemic before his 2022 retirement, spoke to members of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic about the origins of the disease. The subcommittee, of which Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks is a member, started in 2020 to oversee how economic stimulus money would be spent to revitalize the economy. Following the Republicans taking the majority in the House, the subcommittee was kept but with a new goal of investigating COVID-19s origins, pandemic-era policies and government spending. Many Republicans used the hearing as an opportunity to throw unproven accusations at Fauci while Democrats generally apologized for their colleagues behavior. Ernst, who has argued with Fauci in previous hearings, reiterated her attacks. Fauci might be hiding the truth, but Ive been exposing how he funneled tax dollars to Wuhan through @EcoHealthNYC, Ernst said in a tweet about the hearing. The main accusation against Fauci was that he used his influence to quell theories that COVID-19 began in a lab, something he called preposterous. Most scientists believe that COVID-19 occurred naturally and jumped from animals to humans. Fauci repeated his previous stance that he believed a natural origin is better supported by evidence but was still open to other possibilities. I have repeatedly stated that I have a completely open mind to either possibility and that if definitive evidence becomes available to validate or refute either theory, I will readily accept it, Fauci said. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE International Criminal Court sanctioned by House The House of Representatives voted Tuesday to sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) for issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others for war crimes in the Israeli-Hamas conflict. The sanction passed the House with some Democratic support in a 247-155 vote. All four Iowa House representatives voted in favor of the sanction. Every Republican voted in favor of the sanction except for two, representatives Warren Davidson and Thomas Massie, who voted present. I just voted to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court for issuing arrest warrants for prominent Israeli leaders. This is a reckless and dangerous move. The people of Israel have every right to protect their homeland and defend themselves from Hamas terrorists. Rep. Randy Feenstra (@RepFeenstra) June 4, 2024 While disagreeing with the ICCs decision, the Biden administration said it strongly opposes the sanction. With a democratically controlled Senate and Biden against the move, the sanction is unlikely to advance any further. The ICC also issued arrest warrants for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and other Hamas officials. The vote comes as Netanyahu accepted Congresss invitation to speak at a joint address. Correction: A section in the farm bill subhead incorrectly said Rep. Zach Nunn made a statement when Rep. Fandy Feenstra actually made the statement. Feenstras work on SNAP is intended to eliminate fraudulent SNAP payments. The post D.C. Dispatch: Immigration, Trump trial, Fauci and farm bill delays appeared first on Iowa Capital Dispatch. COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) The National Infantry Museum (NIM) rarely has walk-ins where guests come in with pieces for curators to look at. Its even rarer for a walk-in to be so timely. In the days leading up to the 80th anniversary of D-Day, Patricia Patterson of Largo, Fla., found herself at the NIM, memorabilia from her parents in hand. Really the only thing I know is my dad jumped on D-Day and that my moms nursing group went in six days later, Patterson said as she sat at a table in the museum, waiting with family members to meet with museum curators. Faces of D-Day: Remembering Pvt. Matthew Spitz The group had traveled from McDonough, Ga., where they were visiting Pattersons son-in-law, a current servicemember stationed there. Were just trying to find out a little bit more about it. What exactly they did, you know, where they went, Patterson continued. Growing up, Patterson remembers her parents rarely talked about their time in the service. During WWII, her father, Joe H. Meredith Jr. was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division. Her mother, Lynn M. Meredith Thurman at that time was an officer in the Army Nurse Corps. They married after the war. Joe H. Meredith. (Courtesy: Patricia Patterson) Lynn M. Meredith, nee Thurman. (Courtesy: Patricia Patterson) Even decades later, when Pattersons son was in high school and asked his grandfather about the war, he came up with few answers. [They] wouldnt talk about it, didnt want to talk about it, you know. I imagine things they saw, none of us would want to talk about, Patterson said. It was only after her parents passed that Patterson, who grew up in Tampa, Fla., was able to find out more about her parents service from the items they left behind. Remembering D-Day: The role of tankers on D-Day and beyond She brought a collection of her fathers items including patches, pins and a Purple Heart to the NIM. She also brought a leather pouch, filled with photos from a German soldier, which her father had acquired during the war. Although Patterson plans to give most her fathers items to her son-in-law, who will display them in a shadow box, she was open to donating some of her mothers items to the museum. Patterson brought a cigarette case and a timepiece her mother would have carried during the war. Patches belonging to Pattersons father, representing the 82nd Airborne Division. (Hannah James) A cigarette case which Pattersons mother would have carried during the war. (Hannah James) A collection of photos acquired by Pattersons father from a German soldier. (Hannah James) A timepiece belonging to Pattersons mother. (Hannah James) Items, including a Purple Heart, belonging to Pattersons father. (Hannah James) NIM curators will use the memorabilia Patterson provided to search for more answers about what her parents may have done while in the Army. I am very proud of my parents. Very, very proud, Patterson said. I think they were the best generation ever. More than 80 years ago, Pattersons father would have trained on jump towers at Fort Benning, now Fort Moore, in preparation for operations like the one he would carry out in France on D-Day. It was a full-circle moment as Patterson returned to the NIM, just a few miles away from where her father once trained. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WRBL. A program to honor the 80th anniversary of D-Day and recognize eight fallen World War II soldiers with connections to Lexington was held Thursday night at the Kentucky Theatre. D-Day has a special meaning for all of us, Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton said. Gorton gave proclamations to the families of eight fallen soldiers with ties to Lexington and are now buried in the Normandy American Cemetery. Students who are part of the Lexington Sister Cities Deauville Exchange Program announced the name and information of each soldier while a family representative was given a plaque from the mayor. Sister Cities International is a program created in 1956 by President Eisenhower to create bonds and peace between communities globally. The Lexington Sister Cities Deauville Student Exchange Program is a six-week experience that allows high school students the chance to spend three weeks in Deauville, France, before returning to the U.S. with a French peer for the remaining three weeks. It [Sister Cities] is a testament to the enduring friendship between our nations forged in the fires of war as a stand for peace, U.S. Rep. Andy Barr said. Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton (right) listens University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto speak the soldiers who fought in World War II at a D-Day 80th anniversary memorial event Thursday night at the Kentucky Theatre. Let us continue to remember and celebrate their legacy ensuring their sacrifice was never forgotten, Capilouto said. Dewayne Brewer, the nephew of one of the recognized soldiers and a retired military chaplain, said he appreciated the opportunity to honor his uncles life and service. He didnt have an opportunity to continue to serve, but he gave everything, Brewer said. I just viewed my whole life of service was part of his life he gave for us. Its what we honor now with D-Day and the freedoms we share. The D-Day program attendants, mostly veterans and their families of all ages, were shown audio interviews with some of Lexingtons D-Day veterans and a KET World War II documentary that featured Kentucky veterans sharing their personal stories from the war. I believe it [D-Day] is one of the most pivotal days in the history of the world, University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto said before introducing the interview footage. I want to extend a heartfelt thanks, especially to our veterans and their families who are with us today. Your courage, sacrifice, resilience, are the essential and unshakable foundations in which we can preserve freedom around the globe. The event was sponsored by the city of Lexington, the Kentucky Theatre, Lexington Sister Cities, Kentucky Educational Television (KET), The Nunn Center, the Lexington Public Library Kentucky Room, Lexington History Museum and Full Field Agency. D-Day veteran accuses Rishi Sunak of 'letting down the country' by leaving Normandy ceremony early D-Day veteran accuses Rishi Sunak of 'letting down the country' by leaving Normandy ceremony early A Normandy veteran has slammed Rishi Sunaks for leaving a D-Day ceremony in France early, saying his actions let the country down. The Prime Minister has apologised for flying back to the UK early on Thursday to do a TV interview rather than stay longer in France with other world leaders to mark the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings. But British D-Day veteran Ken Hay, 98, who was captured as a prisoner of war just weeks after D-Day, criticised Mr Sunak, saying: What can you say? Theyre politicians. I dont have a great regard for politicians. It lets the country down. You know? Its not representation of how were trying to weld things together...to keep the peace. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaking during commemorative events for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, in Normandy (PA Wire) He suggested the Prime Ministers actions indicated an attitude of: Let them get on with it...because I want to stand in the election, I want my seat back. The Prime Minister apologised for his decision to leave Normandy before a major international ceremony to mark the anniversary of the Allied landings but urged people not to politicise the event. He admitted that on reflection he should have stayed for the event where world leaders including US President Joe Biden marked the sacrifice made by troops landing on the Normandy beaches in 1944. Asked directly about Mr Hays accusations on Sky News, the Prime Minister said he cares deeply about veterans before eventually reiterating his earlier apology. I participated in events both in Portsmouth and in France over two days, because this is an incredibly important moment for our country, to commemorate the sacrifice of all of those and their service, Mr Sunak told Sky News. And it was a real honour and a privilege to meet many veterans and speak to them and their families, hear their stories, express my gratitude to them, and build on our record of making sure this is the best country in the world for veterans. I care deeply. As I say, the itinerary for these events was set weeks ago, before the General Election campaign. I participated in events both in Portsmouth and in France and having fully participated in all the British events with British veterans, I returned home before the international leaders event. That was a mistake, and I apologise for that, but I will always be proud of our record in supporting veterans here in the UK. Mr Sunak has faced a furious backlash from Tory party activists, opposition parties and other military figures, over his decision to leave Thursdays ceremony early. D-Day veteran Ken Hay speaking on Sky News (Sky News) Reform UK leader Nigel Farage seized on the blunder, saying patriotic people who love their country should not vote for Mr Sunak, who he said could not even be bothered to attend the international event above Omaha Beach. The timing of the row was especially grim for the Conservatives, as it came ahead of a TV debate on BBC on Friday evening between Mr Farage, Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt, herself having served as a Royal Navy reservist, Labours Deputy Leader Angela Rayner, SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, Deputy Liberal Democrat leader Daisy Cooper, Carla Denyer of the Green Party and Rhun ap Iorwerth of Plaid Cymru. The Prime Minister left France to record an ITV General Election interview which will air next week. ITV said the timing of the interview was suggested by the Conservative Party. Veterans minister Johnny Mercer said he understood the outrage at the Prime Ministers actions. I get the outrage. Its a mistake. Its a significant mistake for which hes apologised, Mr Mercer told The Sun. He suggested that Mr Sunaks team should take a share of the blame for their advice to him. Obviously its a mistake. The PM on these visits receives a lot of advice on what he should and shouldnt be doing, he said. The Prime Ministers actions caused unease within a Tory party already nervous about its General Election prospects on July 4. As of Friday afternoon, four opinion polls had been published in the past 24 hours, all of which showed Labour continuing to enjoy a large lead over the Conservatives as well as a recent rise in support for Reform UK. DA: Man with criminal history charged in intolerable Andrew Station attack, 2nd suspect on the lam A South Boston man with a lengthy criminal history was held without bail on Wednesday for his alleged role in a violent attack at an MBTA station on June 4. 42-year-old Thomas Digaetano is charged with assault to murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. According to Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden, Digaetano has a 22-page criminal record with five open cases in South Boston, some of which include assault and battery, strangulation, and kidnapping. Police say Digaetano was seen fighting with a victim near the Ellery Street entrance of the Andrew Station T stop just around 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday. Digaetano allegedly fled toward Southampton Street where he was apprehended by police. The 41-year-old male victim sustained several lacerations to his head and abdomen and was transported to Boston Medical Center, according to authorities. It is unclear if Digaetano and the victim knew each other. Surveillance video from the incident allegedly shows Digaetano attacking the victim with a knife and a second suspect kicking and punching the victim while he was on the ground. The second suspect, seen wearing a black T-shirt, tan shorts, and a black backpack, is still on the loose. This act of violence in the middle of the day in a busy transit station is intolerable and an affront to the many public transportation users who expect and deserve safe, efficient transit, DA Kayden said. Digaetano will be back in court on June 11 for a dangerousness hearing. Anyone with information about the second suspect or the stabbing itself is asked to call Boston Police. 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 On the night of June 7, the aggressor state of Russia took to the skies a group of Tu-95MS strategic bombers. They launched X-101 cruise missiles at Ukraine. The city of Bila Tserkva in Kyiv region and Starokostiantyniv in Khmelnytskyi region were hit. ADVERTISIMENT According to the Telegram channel of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, four Tu-95MS took off from the Olenya airfield in the Murmansk region of the Russian Federation. Around 03:00, the military noted that the occupiers launched X-101/555/55 missiles from Tu-95s from the Saratov region of the Russian Federation. An air alert was declared throughout Ukraine. The first missiles hit the Kyiv region and later changed direction to Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, and Ternopil regions. The enemy attacked the western regions of Ukraine. At 04:30, the Air Force reported that two groups of X-101 missiles had changed direction and were heading for Starokostiantyniv, Khmelnytskyi region. ADVERTISIMENT Around 05:00, the missile threat was declared over. The Monitor channel writes that the enemy used: X-101/555 cruise missiles launched by four Tu-95s from the Saratov region of Russia; attack UAVs of the Shahed type. Some of the X-101/55 missiles covered the longest distance of about 2055 km (from Saratov region of the Russian Federation to Starokonstantinov) in two hours of flight. Bila Tserkva and Starokonstantyniv were under attack. The missile attack lasted 2 hours, the UAV attack lasted five hours. ADVERTISIMENT Ruslan Kravchenko, head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration, said that a fire broke out at one of the industrial facilities in the region as a result of the enemy attack. There are no casualties. As a result of the air battle, Ukrainian air defense forces destroyed all five X-101/X-555 cruise missiles and 48 of the 53 drones used by Russia to attack Ukraine last night. In particular, they were neutralized in Kherson, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Kirovohrad, Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Khmelnytskyi regions. The Southern Ukrainian Defense Forces reported that Russia had deployed three missile launchers to the Black Sea. The total volley of these surface missile carriers is 24 Kalibr missiles. The military urged Ukrainians not to ignore air raid warnings and not to neglect their own safety. ADVERTISIMENT As a reminder, on the night of June 1, the occupiers took six Tu-95MS strategic bombers into the sky. They launched X-101 cruise missiles at Ukraine. In addition, Kalibr missiles were launched from the Black Sea. The enemy was again targeting the energy sector. As reported by OBOZ.UA, on the night of June 5-6, the Air Defense Forces destroyed 17 out of 18 Shahed-131/136 kamikaze drones. The enemy launched the UAVs in several waves from the south to the west of our country. Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! A video showing a dad pushing a school superintendent as his daughter walks across the graduation stage has gone viral on social media. The 49-year-old Wisconsin man is now facing a disorderly conduct charge following the May 31 graduation, according to court records and the Baraboo School District. McClatchy News is not naming the man to protect his daughters identity. As the high school graduate receives her diploma and shakes hands with the line of administrators, her dad steps on stage and pushes Superintendent Rainey Briggs out of the line, video posted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shows. According to the criminal complaint, the parent told Briggs that he was not going to touch his daughter, WISN reported. The man said Briggs had treated his daughter unfairly when she got in trouble at school, WISN reported. However, Briggs later told police he never interacted with the student during the disciplinary process, according to WMTV. He said he wanted to prevent (Briggs) from having the satisfaction of shaking his daughters hand, according to WMTV. The school resource officer and two off-duty officers stepped in to escort the parent off the stage, allowing the graduation ceremony to continue, a spokesperson for the school district said in a statement. We want to ensure that the significance of this milestone and the hard work of our students are not overshadowed by this unfortunate event, the spokesperson said. Briggs also filed a restraining order, according to WISN. Wisconsin State Rep. Francesca Hong called the dads actions racist on social media. How selfish of this dad to take away what should have been a day of celebration from his child, she said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. The man is scheduled to appear in court on August 14. Torso and arm found along lake may belong to woman who vanished on date, WI cops say One arrested, dozens cited after senior prank involving eggs and trash, cops say Watch monster 12-foot alligator get removed from Texas roadside ditch in a unique way Dallas voters could get the chance to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana A view of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge from The Tower Club on the 48th floor of the Santander Tower in downtown Dallas on Nov. 07, 2023. Credit: Ben Torres for The Texas Tribune Dallas voters could decide whether to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana if City Council members approve a plan to put the measure on the November ballot, several council members said Friday. Council member Chad West will propose the Dallas Freedom Act at a June 26 meeting, he said in a news release. A petition supporting the change garnered more than 50,000 signatures, organizers said. Voters in our city and across the country want to decriminalize marijuana, West said. Our already burdened police should focus their attention on serious crime, not arresting people with small amounts of marijuana. Bringing this to voters through a City Council-proposed Charter amendment instead of a petition will save the city time and resources. The proposal would direct police to stop writing tickets or making arrests for less than four ounces of marijuana. Possessing two to four ounces is a class A misdemeanor that can carry a one-year jail term and holding under two ounes is a classor B misdemeanor that can come with a 180-day sentence. Similar ordinances have passed in six other cities: Austin, Killeen, Harker Heights, Denton, Elgin and San Marcos. In some cases, city officials have resisted putting the voter-approved ordinances in place. And Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has taken steps to block them from going into effect. If voters approve, Dallas would become the largest city in a growing number of Texas municipalities to sidestep state laws that currently ban recreational pot. A similar effort in Lubbock failed last month. Texas is one of 26 states that has not fully legalized marijuana. The 24 states that have include both liberal California and conservative Montana. For the past four years I have advocated for our council to implement this kind of initiative, said Dallas council member Adam Bazaldua. Our jails are overfilled with predominantly brown and black males serving sentences for a substance that is making others millions of dollars in more than 30 states across the country. Its past time we take action against this injustice. In 2021, Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia ordered his officers to stop arrests for possession of less than two ounces of marijuana after the citys public safety committee urged him to do so in light of data that showed unequal treatment of people of color under marijuana laws. But this would be the first time voters there would get to decide on significant statutory relief from arrests on small amounts of weed. Despite the positive steps taken by the city and DPD in recent years, marijuana-related arrests continue, and racial disparities persist, council member Jaime Resendez said. Although marijuana use is comparable across racial lines, Black and Latino individuals are disproportionately arrested and punished. Decriminalization is the best way to address this disparity. City ordinances like the one the Dallas City Council will consider are key to any effort to decriminalize weed across the state, because there is no process in Texas for a voter-driven statewide referendum that would let voters from the Rio Grande Valley to the Panhandle decide what they want their marijuana laws to be. Most Texans support some type of marijuana decriminalization, according to recent polls. But there is little hope for a law in favor of marijuana decriminalization or outright legalization while hard-right social conservatives are in charge of the state. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate, and his allies have blocked legislation that would relax marijuana laws in the past. Theres even less hope for a constitutional amendment, which would be the only way to put the question to voters across the state. Only lawmakers can pose a statewide question and to do that, it would need two-thirds support from a Legislature that has historically been unenthusiastic about relaxing marijuana laws. The Dallas amendment will reform marijuana enforcement, redress historic discrimination, end marijuana criminalization, and save millions in much needed public funds, Catina Voellinger, executive director of Ground Game Texas, said in a news release. Ground Game Texas gathered the petition signatures. The Texas House overwhelmingly supported legislation last year that would have expanded the states medical marijuana program. But proponents have not been able to find enough support in the Texas Senate to get anything to the governors desk. Texas does allow voters in municipal elections to collect signatures to force ballot measures that create or strike down city ordinances if city council members dont propose them. Historically, that right has been frequently exercised without pushback from legislative leaders, in cities large and small, on a host of issues ranging from texting-while-driving bans to paper bag restrictions. However, state leaders have begun to push back. The Legislature last year approved a law that effectively prohibits cities from putting in place certain policies that might go beyond state law, such as requiring employers to have paid sick leave. The law, while in effect, is being challenged in court. State leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott, insist that cities may not enact statutes in direct opposition to state law. Paxton is suing five of the cities that have voted to decriminalize marijuana. Weve added new speakers to the stellar lineup of leaders, lawmakers and newsmakers hitting the stage at The Texas Tribune Festival, happening Sept. 57 in downtown Austin. Get an up-close look at todays biggest issues at Texas breakout politics and policy event! Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over Donald Trumps classified documents case, may be in over her head due to a serious lack of experience, according to a new report from CNN. The news outlet spoke to 10 attorneys who had cases before Cannon in the Southern District of Floridaand they painted a picture of a judge with limited trial experience, whos prone to getting bogged down by irrelevant legal questions and struggles to manage her docket of cases efficiently. Before Trump appointed her to the federal bench in 2020, Cannon was an attorney in the Justice Department for seven years and only took part in four criminal trials. In her four years as a judge, she hasnt presided over many criminal cases eitherand attorneys said it shows. She just seems overwhelmed by the process, one lawyer told CNN. Other lawyers said that she lets small, marginal issues overwhelm the major details of cases. She also has rejected joint motions, agreed upon by both parties in a case with no dispute. You cant assume that just because theres agreement between the parties that she will go along, one lawyer said, describing her as incredibly hands on. She wants to be the decision-maker of everything, the lawyer said. Defense attorneys that spoke to CNN described her as tough on defendants and notoriously strict on sentencing. But in Trumps classified documents case, she has given him a long leash, which has not gone unnoticed. Shes certainly not sympathetic to most defendants, and shes certainly playing a different game with the current defendant before her, one lawyer told CNN regarding Trump. Whether Cannons odd handling of Trumps case is due to inexperience or a deliberate attempt to help Trump, he seems to be happy with her. Mette Frederiksen's office said she was left "shocked" by the assault - AP The Danish Prime Minister was assaulted on Friday evening in Copenhagen, her office said. Mette Frederiksen was beaten by a man in Kultorvet public square in the centre of the Danish capital, local media reports said. The prime ministers office said she was left shocked. It was unclear if she has been injured in the attack. Danish police arrested a suspect and confirmed the incident to local newspaper Jyllands-Posten but made no further comment. Ms Frederiksen has recently been campaigning with her partys in the candidates European Parliament elections on Sunday. The elections have been dominated by a rise in the hard-Right. Magnus Heunicke, the environment minister, sent his support, calling the attack ugly and unacceptable. Denmarks Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was today assaulted and beaten by a man on Kultorvet in Copenhagen, he said. Mette is naturally shocked by the attack. I must say that it shakes all of us who are close to her. Something like this must not happen in our beautiful, safe and free country. We all have a responsibility to look after each other and the values our country is built on. The police have arrested a man for the assault. 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. Mette Frederiksen during her Constitution Day speech at Christiansborg Castle on Wednesday - EPA-EFE/Shutterstock A man who assaulted Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, in a Copenhagen square has been jailed for 12 days. The 39-year-old man, understood to be a foreign national, appeared in court in the Danish capital as world leaders condemned the despicable attack. Ms Frederiksen was attacked in central Copenhagen on Friday evening, just days before the start of the European elections which will select a new cohort of MEPs in Brussels. The prime ministers office said she suffered a minor whiplash injury and had cancelled all public engagements for Saturday to recover. The attacker appeared in court on Saturday afternoon. In light of the fact that the accused has no connection to Denmark, there is a risk of escape, the court stated as the grounds for a custodial sentence. Danish police say they do not believe the attack was politically motivated. The prime ministers office said: After being assaulted yesterday, prime minister Mette Frederiksen was taken to Rigshospitalet for a medical check-up. The assault has caused a minor whiplash injury... [she] is otherwise safe but shaken by the incident. Witness accounts suggest the prime minister was shoved by the man, who strode up to her and gave her a strong push. They have described the assailant as being of slim build with medium length blond hair. It remained unclear on Saturday what the attackers motive was and no words were exchanged between the man and the prime minister during the incident, Danish media reports said. Assailant looked confused and dazed A man came by in the opposite direction and gave her a hard shove on the shoulder, causing her to fall to the side, one witness told Danish newspaper BT. The prime minister was sitting by a fountain at around 6pm when the attack occurred. After the assault, Ms Frederiksen went to sit down in a cafe as the assailant attempted to flee. He was quickly tackled to the ground by what appeared to be her security team. They had pacified him, and as he lay there, he looked confused and a little dazed, a witness told Danish media. Ms Frederiksens office said that she was shocked by the incident. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, led cries of condemnation from across the EU over the assault, which comes amid increased levels of violence against politicians. The attack is unacceptable. I strongly condemn this act and wish Mette a speedy recovery, the French leader said on Saturday morning. Deeply shocked by the outrageous attack on my colleague and friend, Prime Minister of #Denmark Mette Frederiksen. @Statsmin, all our thoughts are with you and your loved ones. Wishing you a speedy recovery! Evika Silina (@EvikaSilina) June 7, 2024 The assault was also condemned by Evika Silina, the prime minister of Latvia, and Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of Nato. Shocked to hear about the violence against my friend Mette Frederiksen of our ally Denmark, he wrote in a statement. I strongly condemn all violence against our political leaders. Nato allies stand together to protect our values, freedom, democracy and the rule of law. Nikos Christodoulides, the president of Cyprus, expressed my best wishes for your speedy recovery while Simon Harris, the Irish Taoiseach, said: Violence has no place in politics and cannot be tolerated. Despicable act Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, said he was outraged by the assault, adding: I strongly condemn this cowardly act of aggression. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, called it a despicable act which goes against everything we believe and fight for in Europe. The incident follows a spate of attacks on politicians out campaigning ahead of the EU elections, notably in Germany where candidates for the AfD, SPD and Greens have all been assaulted. Earlier this week, an AfD candidate for local elections in Mannheim was attacked with a knife after confronting a man for tearing down campaign posters. Ms Frederiksen, 46, became Denmarks youngest prime minister when she was elected in 2019 and is serving her second term after securing an election victory in 2022. Magnus Heunicke, the environment minister, said he was particularly shocked that the incident had happened in a country like Denmark. I must say that it shakes all of us who are close to her...something like this must not happen in our beautiful, safe and free country, he said. 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. DANVILLE, Ill. (WCIA) A Danville man has been sentenced to four years in prison after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a coworker. Prosecutors said Kasey Hollis, 30, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a class 4 felony of criminal sexual abuse. Evidence presented in court showed that in May of 2023, Hollis forcibly touched the sex organ of a female coworker. After being sexually assaulted, both verbally and physically by a man who is 11 years older than me, I now live with the constant fear of being around and trusting men, she said in a victim impact statement. Today I want you to know that I will no longer let you or the horrendous things you did to me cross my mind, ever again. Family of Caleb Witty speaks out after breakthrough in cold case States Attorney Jacqueline Lacy thanked the victim for her courage in coming forward and for giving her victim impact statement. I hope through her powerful impact statement the victim in this case can begin to heal, Lacy said. Hollis has two prior convictions in Champaign County for aggravated battery in relation to inappropriate touching. In 2018, Hollis was convicted of slapping a U of I student on the buttocks, which he was sentenced to probation for. Four years later, he was convicted of trying to pull another students pants down, for which he was given a sentence of conditional discharge. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com. On January 26, 1700, a tsunami struck Japan. We know this from written records describing the coastal inundation. Yet whats most notable about these records is what they dont describe. Tsunamis are the result of water displaced by earthquakes, but the 1700 tsunami didnt correlate to any quake felt in Japanthere was no warning tremor. Instead, this orphan tsunami was the result of a massive earthquake all the way across the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of present-day Oregon and Washington. The same event is traceable in the oral traditions of the Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest which contain accounts of shaking Earth and floods. And also in the tree rings of long-drowned ghost forests, which suddenly died before the start of the 1700 growing season. The quake was an estimated magnitude 9, a catastrophic event for the Pacific Northwest according to the stories which tell of entire settlements and tribes disappearing, and among the largest known quakes in human history. Through modern-day geological analysis, its now well-established that the 1700 quake was one of more than 40 significant tremors to shake the region over the past 10,000 years, and one of about twenty earthquakes of magnitude 9 or greater from the same time period. Each was the result of the Cascadia subduction zone, a ~600-mile-long fault line running from southern British Columbia to Northern California. Along the fault, the small oceanic Juan de Fuca tectonic plate is sliding below and forcing upwards the much larger North American plate, building up friction and pressure pending an inevitable burst. For more than a decade, seismologists have warned that another quake is on its way. Averaged over time, big quakes (about a magnitude 8 or larger) in the region have occurred approximately every 230 years, while the even larger ones (magnitude 9 and above) have happened about every 500 years. Were at more than 324 years since the last one. And though the sudden shifts and ruptures that cause earthquakes dont come like clockwork, they do come eventually. A new study offers a deeper glimpse into two colliding tectonic plates than weve ever had before. The research, published June 7 in the journal Science Advances, includes imagery of the lower plates terrain and confirms segmentation of the whole subduction zone into smaller chunks. The data and analysis will be instrumental to improving forecasts of future quakes and tsunamis, and help prepare the Pacific Northwest for its seismic fate. It provides an unprecedentedly detailed view of the Cascadia [fault], which we know has the potential to host large earthquakes, Erin Wirth, a research geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Seattle who was uninvolved in the new work, tells Popular Science. These results are going to be critical inputs for future earthquake and tsunami models, she says. A schematic cross section of the Cascadia Subduction Zone shows the ocean floor plate (light grey) moving under the North American continental plate, along with other features. CREDIT: U.S. Geological Survey For 41 days in 2021, members of the study team were at sea aboard a sophisticated research vessel, with an array of thousands of underwater recording devices trailing for miles behind the ship. They shot powerful sound pulses towards and through the seafloor, collecting the echoes with their bevvy of sensitive hydrophones. Based on the strength and timing of those return signals, the scientists were able to suss out the topography and features of much of the fault, explains Harold Tobin, a study co-author and professor of geophysics at the University of Washington. It works in an analogous way to radar, he notes. But though the gist of the methods may have been simple, analyzing the vast quantity of information they collected hasnt been. Its supercomputer-level work to do all the processing. Thats one of the reasons why the paper is [only] coming out now, Tobin adds. He expects this study to be the first of many, as he, his colleagues, and other scientists dig further into the dataset. This paper is really just scratching the surface, agrees Chris Goldfinger, a professor of marine geology at Oregon State University. Goldfinger wasnt involved in the new study, but is one of the worlds foremost experts on the Cascadia subduction zone. Theyve done a tremendous amount of work, but the dataset has much more depth to it. New things will come out of it for decades to come, he says. On this initial toe dip in the data pool, Tobin and his co-authors have already identified some important results. For one, their analysis confirms the pre-existing theory that smaller, horizontal faults cut through both the upper and lower plates, splitting the subduction zone into segments. (Exactly how many segments depends on how the divides are defined, but its somewhere between three and five.) In an earthquake event, any number of these segments might be involved, and the more that slip at once, the larger the affected region, tremor magnitude, and scale of catastrophe is likely to be. Sub-seafloor map of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, showing depth of the fault between the eastward-moving Juan de Fuca place and the North American plate. Yellow/orange indicates shallow depths; green, deeper; blues/purples deepest. Diagonal black lines approximate divisions between different segments of the zone. Wavy red line to right indicates the seaward edge of rigid continental rocks that apparently cause the zone to break into these segments. CREDIT: Modified from Carbotte et al., Science Advances, 2024 Another key finding: The segment (or segments, depending on how you slice it) of the Juan de Fuca plate off the coast of Washington is very smooth and flat, says Tobin. Counterintuitively, a fault that is smoother at the boundary between two plates has the potential for larger earthquakes than a fault that is rougher, he adds. Smooth means more contact between the plates, more friction over a larger area, and fewer geologic features impeding the spread of a slip event. When that Washington segment goes, it will be especially dramatic. We can infer it represents the largest part of the hazard of a future earthquake rupture, he says. The study also provides finer-scale information about the subduction zone, including the fault depth throughout the area. In many regions along the fault, the new data shows that the fault is shallower (i.e. closer to the seafloor surface) than previously thought. That can possibly have an impact on ground shaking and tsunami hazard, says Wirth. The closer you are to a fault or the closer the fault is to the surface, the stronger the ground shaking could be and also potentially the greater the tsunami generation could be. Though, she emphasizes, more analysis and quantification is needed to better understand the exact effects of thisand every observation in the study. Thats where the models will come in. Theres no guarantee of exactly what the next event will do, says Tobin. The big one (or really big one) could happen tomorrowbut it could also be literally centuries in the futureThe more you know, the more you can build a guide. Already, Wirth and her USGS colleagues are beginning to add this new information into their simulations. Eventually the outcomes of those computer test-runs will be used by hazard researchers to make more accurate shake maps, by engineers to test building design and responses, and by local and state governments to decide building codes. Though unprecedented in its scale and depth and instrumental to improving future models, even the new still data has limits. It is missing imagery from the section of the fault closest to the coastline, says Writh, which is pretty important when it comes to forecasting quake impacts. And the boats path leaves about 50 kilometers between each data collection track along the study zone, says Goldfinger. From past work, its possible to fill in those 50km gaps with some information, but nothing nearly as detailed as the new data. Its a very good data set, he says, but the line spacing of 50 km is pretty big, and theres a lot of stuff going on in between that we still cant see. Yet we dont really need any more data to know that the Pacific Northwest is still woefully unprepared for the possibility of a major earthquake. The science consensus is strong enough that the story is not going to fundamentally change, says Goldfinger. Were in this situation where weve discovered a ticking time bomb [beneath] fragile cities. Some grassroots efforts to retrofit schools and build tsunami evacuation towers have been successful in recent years, but Oregon and Washington remain significantly behind other quake-prone places like Japan and even neighboring California. People tend to think collapsing buildings are limited to Turkey or Haitiplaces that have [no or poorly enforced] building codes says Goldfinger. But the Pacific Northwest is in the same boat as Turkey and Haiti because we didnt have building codes that were up to snuff until 1994. There are eminently collapsable, unreinforced masonry buildings all over Seattle, Portland, Tacoma, and the other major cities in the quake zone. There are schools along the coast within the tsunami inundation area with no available evacuation route. Even the standard advice for how to best protect yourself in a quake likely doesnt apply to many of the places and people at risk in the Cascadia zone, says Goldfinger. Weve got a very fragile infrastructure and a coming big earthquake. What are we supposed to tell people about that? Correction June 7, 2024 7:17PM: The attribution of the quote about the smooth Juan de Fuca plate has been updated. Details about Turkeys building codes have been clarified. View comments David Boaz, longtime executive vice president at the Cato Institute, died this week at age 70 in hospice after a battle with cancer. Boaz was born in Kentucky in 1953 to a political family, with members holding the offices of prosecutor, congressman, and judge. He was thus the type "staying up to watch the New Hampshire primary when I was 10 years old," as he said in a 1998 interview for my book Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement. In the early to mid-1970s, Boaz was a young conservative activist, working on conservative papers at Vanderbilt University, where he was a student from 1971 to 1975. After graduation, he worked with Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), in whose national office he served in various capacities from 1975 to 1978, including editing its magazine, New Guard. In the 1970s, he recalls, YAF saw themselves as not merely College Republicans but were instead "organized around a set of ideas." When he started with YAF he already thought of himself as a libertarian but saw libertarianism "as a brand of conservatism. But during my tenure at YAF, as I got to know people in the libertarian movement, I came to believe that conservatives and libertarians were not the same thing and it became uncomfortable for me to work in the YAF office." Now fully understanding libertarianism as something distinct from right-wing conservatism, "I badgered Ed Crane to find me a job and take me away from all this." Boaz had met him when Crane was representing the Libertarian Party (L.P.) at the Conservative Political Action Conference in the mid-'70s and kept in touch with him when Crane was running Cato from San Francisco from 1977 to 1981. Via his relationship with Crane, Boaz became one of two staffers on Ed Clark's campaign for governor of California in 1978, which earned over 5 percent of the popular vote. (Clark was officially an independent because of ballot access requirements but was a member of the L.P. and ran with L.P. branding.) Boaz then worked with the now-defunct Council for a Competitive Economy (CCE) from 1978 to 1980, which he described as "a free market group of businessmen opposed not only to regulations and taxes but to subsidies and tariffsin effect it was to be a business front group for the libertarian movement." He left CCE to work on Ed Clark's 1980 L.P. presidential campaign, where Boaz wrote, commissioned, and edited campaign issue papers as well as the chapters written by the various ghosts for Clark's official campaign book. Boaz also did speech writing and road work with Clark. The campaign Boaz worked on earned slightly over 1 percent, 920,000 total votesrecords for the L.P. that were not beaten until Gary Johnson's 2012 run (in raw votes) and 2016 run (in percentages). "The Clark campaign was organized around getting ideas across in a way that is not outside the bounds of what was politically plausible," Boaz reminisced in a 2022 interview. "When John Anderson got in [the 1980 presidential race as an independent], we recognized he was going to provide a more prominent third-party choice, maybe taking away our socially liberal, fiscally conservative, well-educated vote, and he ended up getting 6 percent. We just barely got 1 percent. And although we said, 'This is unprecedented, blah blah,' in fact we were very disappointed." Boaz began working at the Cato Institute when it moved to D.C. in 1981, where he became executive vice president and stayed until his retirement in 2023. He was Cato's leading editorial voice for decades, setting the tone for what was among the most well-financed and widely distributed institutional voices for libertarian advocacy. Cato, with Boaz's guidance, provided a stream of measured, bourgeois outreach policy radicalism intended to appeal to a wide-ranging audience of normal Americans, not just those marinated in specifically libertarian movement heroes, styles, and concerns. Boaz was, for example, an early voice getting drug legalization taken seriously in citadels of American cultural power with a forward-thinking 1988 New York Times op-ed that concluded presciently: "We can either escalate the war on drugs, which would have dire implications for civil liberties and the right to privacy, or find a way to gracefully withdraw. Withdrawal should not be viewed as an endorsement of drug use; it would simply be an acknowledgment that the cost of this warbillions of dollars, runaway crime rates and restrictions on our personal freedomis too high." Boaz wrote what remains the best one-volume discussion of libertarian philosophy and practice for an outward-facing audience, one that while not losing track of practical policy issues also provided a tight, welcoming sense of the philosophical reasons behind libertarian beliefs in avoiding violence as much as possible to settle social or political disputes, published as Libertarianism: A Primer in 1997. Boaz's book rooted its explanatory style in the American founding, cooperation, personal responsibility, charity, and uncoerced civil society in all its glories. He explained the necessity and purpose of property, profits, entrepreneurship, and how liberty is conducive to an economically healthy and wealthy society, and how government interferes with the growth-producing properties of the system of natural liberty. He discusses the nature and excesses of government in practice and applies libertarian perspectives to many specific policy issues: health care, poverty, the budget, crime, education, even "family values." Boaz's book is thorough, even-toned, erudite, and thoughtful and intended for mass persuasion, not the sour delights of freaking out the normies with your radicalism. Meeting Boaz in 1991 when I was an intern at Cato (and later an employee until 1994) was bracing to this wet-behind-the-ears young libertarian who arose from a more raffish, perhaps less civilized branch of activism. As a supervisor and colleague, Boaz was a civilized adult, stylish, nearly suave, but was patient nonetheless with wilder young libertarians, of whom he'd dealt with many. His very institutional continuitythough it was barely two decades long at that pointwas influential in a quiet way to the younger crew. It imbued a sense that one needn't frantically demand instant victory, no matter how morally imperative the cause of freedom was. Boaz's calm sense of historical sweep both as a living person and in his capacious knowledge of the history of classical liberal ideas was an antidote to both despair and opportunism for the young libertarians he worked with. His edited anthology The Libertarian Reader: Classic & Contemporary Writings from Lao-Tzu to Milton Friedmanwhich came out accompanying his primer in 1997was a compact proof of libertarianism's rich, long tradition, showing how it was in many ways the core animating principle of the American Founding and to a large extent the entire Enlightenment and everything good, just, and rich about the whole Western tradition. The anthology featured the best of libertarian heroes both old and modern, such as Thomas Paine, Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, Lysander Spooner, and Benjamin Constant from previous centuries and Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, and Ludwig von Mises from the 20th, as well as providing even wider context with more ancient sources ranging from the Bible to Lao Tzu. He also placed the libertarian tradition rightly as core to the fights for liberation for women and blacks, with entries from Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and Angelina and Sarah Grimke. Asked in 1998 why he chose a career pushing often unpopular and derided ideas up a huge cultural and political hill, Boaz told me: "I think it's satisfying and fun. I believe strongly in these values and at some level I believe it's right to devote your life to fighting for these values, though particularly if you're a libertarian you can't say it's morally obligatory to be fighting for these valuesbut it does feel right, and at some other level more than just being right, it is fun, it's what I want to do. "I like intellectual combat, polishing arguments, and I also hate people who want to use force against other people, so a part of it is I am motivated to try to fight these people. I wake up listening to NPR every morning and my partner says, 'Why do you want to wake up angry every morning?' In the first place, I need to know what's going on in the world, and in the second place, dammit, I want to know what these people are up to! It's an outrage what they're up to and I don't want them to get away with it. I want to fight." For decades, at the forefront of the mainstream spread of libertarian attitudes, ideas, and notions, David Boaz did. The post David Boaz, RIP appeared first on Reason.com. On the afternoon of June 7, Russian troops launched a missile attack on the Poltava region. Civilian infrastructure in the Poltava district came under fire, and a private house was hit. A woman was rescued from the rubble and hospitalized in a critical condition. ADVERTISIMENT This was reported by Philip Pronin, head of the Poltava Regional Military Administration. "Russians shelled civilian infrastructure in Poltava district. According to preliminary information, a private house was hit," he wrote on his official Telegram channel. Later, Pronin informed that a woman was rescued from the rubble of the destroyed house and hospitalized in serious condition. "The rocket fragments also damaged the surrounding houses. The rescue operation is ongoing," said the head of the RMA from the scene. ADVERTISIMENT ADVERTISIMENT The air alert in Poltava region was announced from 14:51 to 15:26. The reason was the activity of Russian tactical aviation in the northeastern direction and the threat of using air strikes, the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported. At 15:08, the Air Force reported that a missile was moving through the Sumy region in the direction of the Poltava region. ADVERTISIMENT The sound of the explosion was heard by residents of the Poltava community around 15:15, reports Suspilne. Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! David Wamsley, a former developer and political first-timer, filed to run in April for Tallahassee City Commission Seat 1. He lobbed criticism at his opponent City Commissioner Jack Porter, after taking the microphone during two City Commission meetings. After sinking considerable resources into his first-ever campaign, David Wamsley is pulling the plug on his bid for Tallahassee City Commission. Wamsley, a self-described businessman and former developer who spent much of the last decade outside Tallahassee, filed in April to run for Seat 1 and embarked on a well-funded if not combative campaign to oust City Commissioner Jack Porter. On Friday, he confirmed with the Tallahassee Democrat that he intends to bow out. "Im planning to withdraw from the race because one of my parents has a serious health issue that requires me to spend a good amount of time in Virginia," he said in a text message. "This is not an easy decision, but one I feel is necessary." Over the course of two City Commission meetings in April, he hurled insults and criticism at Porter and City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow, her lone ally on the board, during public speaker time. Youre going to resign, he said without explanation April 24 after criticizing the commissioners. David Wamsley, founder and CEO of Rosebud Communications and developer of Evening Rose, filed April 10, 2024, to run for City Commission Seat 1. Last month, his campaign began running billboard ads across town, each with a unique put-down aimed at Porter. Jacqueline doesnt know Jack, one of them said alongside a giant-sized head shot of Wamsley. Ran Xu, partner and vice president of strategy for Rosebud Communications, one of Wamsleys firms, told the Democrat in a May 17 email that six billboards had gone up and another batch was on the way. Xu also said Wamsley was working with a high-profile political consulting house with offices worldwide. In an interview with the Democrat shortly after filing for office, Wamsley vowed to raise a lot of money quickly. It's unclear how much he raised or spent; the latest campaign finance reports are due on Monday. David Wamsley's campaign paid for this billboard and others that went up in Tallahassee attacking City Commissioner Jack Porter. He filed to run against Porter in April but confirmed Friday, June 7, 2024, that he plans to bow out of the race. The 59-year-old Wamsley ran K2 Urbancorp, which built the first iteration of the Evening Rose development nearly two decades ago, and founded two other companies, Rosebud and Byline Buddy. He lived in Tallahassee from 2002 to 2010, earning degrees at Florida State University before moving to California. He returned to town in early 2021, he said previously. Wamsleys candidacy turned the Seat 1 race into a five-person contest, making it more difficult for any one candidate to get enough votes 50% plus one to win the Aug. 20 primary outright. If no one wins more than half the vote, the top two vote-getters will go on to compete in the Nov. 5 general election. Also running are Rudy Ferguson, a pastor and neighborhood activist who ran for County Commission in 2022; Louis Dilbert, a Florida A&M University official; and Anthony DeMarco, an IT worker who hasnt raised any money and is living outside Tallahassee. The field of candidates will become final after the qualifying period, which runs from noon Monday to noon Friday, June 14. Candidates who haven't already submitted signatures must pay fees to appear on 2024 ballots. Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: David Wamsley drops bid for Tallahassee City Commission seat President Barack Obama (L) claps with Louvon Harris (C) and Betty Byrd Boatner, the sisters of James Byrd, Jr., who was a victim of a hate crime, as he delivers remarks on the passing of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, at the White House in Washington on October 28, 2009. On June 7, 1998, three white supremacists killed Byrd by dragging him for 3 miles behind a pickup truck in Jasper, Texas. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI On this date in history: In 1776, the Lee Resolution, which led to the U.S. Declaration of Independence, was introduced in the Continental Congress. In 1864, Republican delegates meeting in Baltimore nominated Abraham Lincoln for his second term as president. His running mate was Andrew Johnson. In 1942, Japanese forces occupied Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands. U.S. forces retook the islands one year later. In 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Connecticut law banning contraceptives. President George W. Bush hugs Oreta Burnham, mother of killed missionary Martin Burnham, during a meeting with Gracia Burnham (L) and her family in the Oval Office July 24, 2002. On June 7, 2002, U.S. missionary Martin Burnham, captured in the Philippines by a Muslim group more than a year earlier, was fatally shot during a rescue attempt. UPI File Photo In 1967, Israeli troops captured Jerusalem during the Six-Day War. Far-right Israeli supporters wave national flags on Jerusalem Day to celebrate Israel's victory in the Six-Day War outside the Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, May 13. Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI On June 7, 1864, Republican delegates meeting in Baltimore nominated Abraham Lincoln for his second term as president. His running mate was Andrew Johnson. File Photo by Pat Benic/UPI In 1975, the first videocassette recorder went on sale to the public. In 1983, one day after Nicaragua expelled three U.S. diplomats, the Reagan administration ordered six Nicaraguan consulates closed and expelled six of the country's diplomats. In 1990, South African President F.W. de Klerk lifted a 4-year-old nationwide state of emergency in all but the strife-torn Indian Ocean province of Natal. In 1998, three white supremacists killed James Byrd Jr. by dragging him for 3 miles behind a pickup truck in Jasper, Texas. The three men were convicted of murder -- one was executed in 2011, another is on death row and a third was sentenced to life in prison. The lynching spurred a Texas hate crime law as well as the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. In 2002, U.S. missionary Martin Burnham, captured in the Philippines by a Muslim group more than a year earlier, was fatally shot during a rescue attempt. In 2008, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., officially ended her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination and endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president. File Photo by Matthew Healey/UPI In 2013, an arsonist set fire to a bus in Xiamen, China, killing 42 people and injuring 30 others. In 2013, six people were killed and five injured in a Santa Monica, Calif., shooting rampage that started at a private home and ended on a college campus. The dead included the 23-year-old gunman, who was shot by police. In 2021, two express trains collided in southern Pakistan, killing at least 40 people and injuring dozens. File Photo by Waqar Hussein/EPA-EFE Tonights BBC general election debate once again revealed the level of dishonesty and immaturity which hinders hard-headed and rational conversation on immigration. What was especially interesting were the contributions made by SNPs Stephen Flynn and Plaid Cymrus Rhun ap Iorwerth two nationalist politicians representing Scotland and Wales respectively. These are two home nations which do not come close to experiencing the industrial-scale inward migration experienced by England in recent decades. It is incredibly easy to be liberal and virtue-signal over matters of immigration when your own patch is relatively unaffected. Then there is the myth that our public services are unable to function without immigration. There are many dedicated foreign workers in the NHS and the social care sector their contributions should be acknowledged. But it is not healthy for any country to be so hyper-dependent on immigration to prop up our social systems, depriving the underdeveloped world of healthcare professionals they educated and trained with limited resources. Britain needs to invest in its own people funding bursaries and scholarships, as well as improving pay and working conditions in health and social care sectors. National self-sufficiency should be the order of the day. Least of all, it is not cruel as the Green Partys co-leader Carla Denyer suggested to streamline the immigration system in a way that reduces the level of migrant dependents entering the UK. Increasing the number of people in Britain who rely on public services,without making meaningful contributions to the tax system, only serves to erode the bonds of mutual trust and social solidarity. As a traditional old-school leftist, I can safely say that the open-borders brigade poses the greatest threat to the British welfare state. 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. Deer and boar could roam forests in the Kakhovka reservoir in 5 years, head of national reserve says A verdant green forest has sprouted in one of Ukraines most unlikely locations the Kakhovka reservoir left nearly empty after Russia blew up its dam last year. Following the destruction of the dam on June 6 last year, nearly 20 cubic kilometers of water flooded Ukraines four southern oblasts causing a massive humanitarian and environmental crisis. The vast reservoir, spanning an area nearly the size of London and New York combined, lost 90% of its water, causing water shortages for 700,000 residents. The environmental damage has been catastrophic with pollutants poisoning the soil and natural habitats wiped out. A year later, 1,600 square kilometers of native poplar and willow trees have sprouted across the former reservoir. The landscape hasnt been so lush since before the Soviets flooded the plain to construct the dam in 1956. This is a huge coincidence, Mykhailo Mulenko, acting head of the Nature Protection Sector of the Khortytsia National Reserve, told reporters at a press tour in Zaporizhzhia to mark the anniversary of the explosion. A view of dead fish due to the floods following the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam and Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP) in Ukraine, on June 15, 2023. (Ercin Erturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) Clamshells are seen in the dried-up lands of Kakhovka Reservoir, Ukraine, on June 5, 2024. (Dominic Culverwell/ the Kyiv Independent) The timing of the attack coincided with the pollination of the willow and poplar trees in May with seeds spreading across the stagnant waters of the reservoir and sinking into the mud. After the reservoir was drained, the seeds, still stuck in the mud, began to germinate and grow rapidly. If the Kakhovskaya dam had been blown up in March or August, the situation would have been completely different and much worse, Mulenko added. In just one year, the tallest saplings tower up to five meters high and number 20 plants per square meter. The trees have guzzled up recent spring floods, helping their growth. Mulenko predicts that wild deer and boar could roam the forest in just five years time if conditions remain the same, echoing its pre-Soviet life as part of the Velykyi Luh (Great Meadow). Under the trees on the north side of the reservoir and the nearby Khortisya Island in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraines Academy of Scientists noted at least 100 species of herbaceous plants and mosses forming a new ecosystem. Thick vegetation in the dried-up lands of Kakhovka Reservoir, Ukraine. The tallest trees are already three to five meters high. June 5, 2024. (Dominic Culverwell/ the Kyiv Independent) The results are promising for a region that experts previously warned could suffer from desertification as a result of the catastrophe. But the sound of crushed shells when walking through the young forest is a cruel reminder of the price of this new ecosystem. A lot of living organisms died in connection with the disaster within the Kakhovka Reservoir. This can be compared to ecocide, said Svitlana Okhrimenko, deputy director of the Khortytsia National Reserve in Zaporizhzhia. Ukraine wants to prosecute Russia for what it deems as environmental war crimes, or ecocide. The Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ministry is documenting cases of damage caused by Russia to Ukrainian land and wildlife and plans to take Moscow to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Environmental damage has cost Ukraine $60.5 billion, according to Environmental Minister Ruslan Strilets. The Kakhovka crisis alone caused $3.8 billion in damages, including Hr 1.3 billion ($32 million) from the loss of freshwater and Hr 1.2 billion ($30 million) in soil pollution. These numbers are dynamic. Calculations are still underway, said Bohdan Vasyliovych, head of the State Environmental Inspection of the Southern District, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts. Read also: Looking back at the Khakhovka Dam explosion one year later (Photos) The economic impact on local industries is also large. The reservoir was a source of irrigation for farmland, designed to cover nearly 6,000 square kilometers. Initial calculations from the Agricultural Ministry estimated losses in irrigated land at $800 million. Fishermen too have paid a hefty price with freshwater fish swept into the Black Sea and fisheries flooded. Last year, the Agricultural Ministry said the industry expects losses of Hr 10 billion ($250 million) and will take years to recover. In the northern part of the reservoir, close to the village of Malokaterynivka in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Vasyliovych notes that 10,000 fish corpses were discovered. The amount of fish amounts to about Hr 1.7 million in losses ($42,300). Around 20 kilometers north of Malokaterynivka lies Khortytsia Island, a sacred place in Ukraine once home to the Zaporizhzhian Cossacks. Water levels dropped by five meters around the island adding 1.8 square kilometers of land. Nearly a square kilometer of lakes dried up around Khortytsia Island, uncovering hidden artifacts including a historic longboat but killing wildlife and rare aquatic plants in the process. The lakes that remain have shrunk and are no longer connected to the Dnipro River, causing overheating that suffocates aquatic wildlife. Dnipro Dam, which serves the upper end of the Kakhovka reservoir in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine, on June 5, 2024. (Dominic Culverwell/ the Kyiv Independent) The nearby Dnipro Dam, which served the upper end of the Kakhovka reservoir, gushes out water from the Dnipro River but at a fluctuating rate. While this spring saw water levels rise once more, they have since retracted, displaying rocks and sand previously submerged. Okhrimenko says vegetation has also returned to areas around the island, but stresses that it is currently impossible to grasp the full extent of the damage as Ukraine doesnt yet have the capabilities to account for all the small organisms harmed by the catastrophe. It will take years before Ukraine has those results. Read also: Russian forces destroy Kakhovka dam, triggering humanitarian disaster Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Delaware department heads in letters to the General Assembly this week defended their actions surrounding the theft of more than $181,000 from the states unemployment insurance fund, promising lawmakers a full report on the problems in July after the legislative session ends. A joint letter penned by Delaware Department of Labor Secretary Karryl Hubbard and Finance Secretary Rick Geisenberger on Tuesday, June 4, pledged to provide a full accounting of findings and actions to date, along with a recommended path forward for lawmakers to review in July. A separate letter sent the same day to legislators by Auditor of Accounts Lydia York also outlined steps her office took regarding the problems within the Division of Unemployment Insurance. Unemployment claims processors work through cases at the Delaware Department of Labor in Newark. State department heads have promised a full report regarding issues within the Labor Department's Division of Unemployment Insurance following the discovery of embezzlement by a former administrator. Both letters blamed recent media reports for causing confusion and a misunderstanding around the theft of state money, despite the offices being asked detailed questions by reporters that were never answered directly. This reporting has unfortunately caused some misunderstandings amongst the Delaware public, York wrote in the June 4 letter. While our office normally would not comment on any open investigation, in this extraordinary circumstance I felt it was appropriate to provide the legislature with an update. SCANT DETAILS: Delaware offers little explanation for why embezzlement issues never publicly disclosed The letters to the General Assembly come days after Delaware Online/The News Journal reported that an open government group was calling for a legislative investigation into why an embezzlement problem in the Labor Departments Division of Unemployment Insurance wasnt disclosed until news media began asking questions. Its ludicrous to blame the news media for the misunderstanding. The responsibility for clearing that up is for them to do their job in the first place report criminal activity to the governor, to the General Assembly, said John Flaherty, a board member of the Delaware Coalition for Open Government. There is a process in place, and they didnt follow that even though the law is clear. The letters parallel a statement provided by Gov. John Carneys office when Delaware Online/The News Journal asked questions about what his office was doing to address the matter, whether he was concerned about the lack of disclosure, and if creating an Inspector Generals Office could help address transparency issues. Our administration took this theft very seriously, said Emily Hershman, a spokesperson for Carney. The Delaware Department of Labor will be notifying the General Assembly this week that they will be providing a report in the coming weeks that outlines the timeline of events, communications, and attempts to recoup the money. The Labor Department later confirmed that former unemployment insurance administrator Michael Brittingham was found embezzling more than $181,000 from the states unemployment insurance trust fund last year. Shortly after an internal criminal investigation began in April 2023, Brittingham took his own life. TRANSPARENCY: Why an open government group is calling on Delaware to investigate embezzlement problems Hubbard and Geisenberger defended the actions taken by state officials, ensuring legislators that when theft from the unemployment insurance fund was discovered, Labor Department officials immediately notified the Department of Human Resources and the Department of Safety and Homeland Security. They said the theft was also reported to the auditor, the Department of Finance, State Police, the Department of Justice, the federal Labor Departments Office of Inspector General and legislators who serve on the Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council. Like in any other investigation involving state personnel and particularly alleged criminal conduct, it has been important to maintain an appropriate level of confidentiality to ensure a full and fair investigation, to provide time to put in place appropriate controls to try to prevent such actions from recurring, and to maximize the prospects of partial or full recovery of the amounts stolen, the department heads wrote. Many of these efforts remain underway and will for some time. What state officials are now saying In the letter to lawmakers, Hubbard and Geisenberger say media reports have conflated the embezzlement issue with the extensive problems plaguing the division that were underscored in a March 2024 special auditor report. Yorks letter to lawmakers explains that the special report on the Delaware Unemployment Compensation Fund was in response to independent auditors issuing a disclaimer of opinion in last years comprehensive financial report because the unemployment division had poor internal controls that led to a lack of accounting records needed to complete an audit. It is important to understand that the criminal activity described in recent media coverage did not contribute to the disclaimer of opinion on the (annual comprehensive financial report), she wrote to lawmakers. That disclaimer was solely related to accounting practices and internal controls within the Division of Unemployment. Unemployment claims processors work through cases at the Delaware Department of Labor in Newark Tuesday, July 28, 2020. State officials in the letter say the theft was done by exploiting gaps in the divisions processes whereby a temporary worker was manipulated by Brittingham into stealing from the fund. After Labor Department leaders notified the appropriate departments about the alleged theft, Hubbard and Geisenberger said the employee suspected of the theft was placed on administrative leave and regrettably died later that same day. READ THE MARCH 2024 SPECIAL REPORT FROM STATE AUDITOR The auditors office said they were informed about the embezzlement after Brittingham had died and immediately began the process of determining whether this fraud was replicable, and if there had been further instances of it. Unfortunately, due to the incomplete state of accounting records at the Division of Unemployment, this investigatory work is not yet complete, York said in her letter to legislators. Officials across multiple Delaware departments have danced around this issue, seeking to speak off the record about what transpired, or avoiding questions seeking clarity on why, for months following the conclusion of the criminal investigation in August 2023, nothing was publicly reported about the theft. Flaherty said the letters to lawmakers still fail to explain why the embezzlement wasnt disclosed sooner, which is why the open government coalition continues to call for legislative oversight hearings. This is certainly a substantial violation of the public trust, he said. We are still calling for oversight investigations by the General Assembly to get to the bottom of this. Whats happening to address the problems? While the Labor Department and state finance officials promise a full report in July for lawmakers to review, the auditors office has also provided reassurances that they, too, will provide a complete report. State auditors are working with the Labor Department to construct last years accounting records. These records, which must be completed by Department of Labor and the Division of Accounting, are necessary not only to prevent disclaimers of opinion on future (comprehensive reports), but also for us to be able to continue our investigation into the theft, York said in the letter. Our ability to both audit the Unemployment Fund and continue our investigation for evidence of further fraud hinges on those records being complete, accurate, and auditable. York added that auditors are not leaving the division until their work is finished, and promised a formal report when the investigation ends. Delaware Auditor of Accounts Lydia York has promised state lawmakers a formal report regarding the issues within the labor department's Division of Unemployment Insurance. This work is paramount to keeping the State of Delaware transparent and accountable to our constituents, she said. It is my sincere hope that our audits and special reports can be resources to help guide your decisions as lawmakers. The Democratic legislative leaders who received the letters from department heads said the information contained within begins to answer some of our questions about the facts of the case and the steps taken by the various state agencies involved. The additional reporting required by Delaware Code, and promised by the auditor and the Department of Finance, are important next steps for public transparency and preserving the publics trust, the lawmakers said in a joint statement provided to Delaware Online/The News Journal. The Legislature takes its oversight role seriously, and upon receiving the promised Department of Finance report, may consider calling a Joint Labor Committee hearing to review the findings and ask additional questions. The Republican Caucus in the House of Representatives sent a letter Thursday to Speaker Valerie Longhurst urging a bipartisan-sponsored resolution to empower an investigative committee to probe the apparent systemic issues in the Labor Department. "Even a casual analysis of the known facts in these cases reveals a lack of proper financial oversight, disjointed accounting procedures, unconnected databases, a failure to follow internal protocols and take needed corrective actions, and employing in a sensitive state financial position a person accused of misappropriating money from other organizations," the Republican representatives wrote, outlining how the committee would operate. "It would be tasked with conducting hearings, soliciting testimony, subpoenaing records, and issuing a report suggesting corrective legislative measures (if deemed necessary)." Read the letters sent to the General Assembly Letter from Delaware Department of Labor and finance secretaries by Mandy on Scribd This embedded content is not available in your region. Delaware Auditor of Accounts letter to General Assembly by Mandy on Scribd This embedded content is not available in your region. This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware promises full report on unemployment insurance theft in July Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy US WWII veteran PFC John M. Wardell and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken watch U.S. President Joe Biden deliver a speech at Pointe du Hoc, where U.S. Army Rangers scaled cliffs over 100 feet high on D-Day to destroy a heavily fortified German position, on June 7, 2024 at Pointe du Hoc, near Le Bavent, France. Biden is in France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy and to emphasize the continued role of the United States in helping to protect democratic values in Europe. | Win McNamee/Getty Images WASHINGTON President Joe Biden, speaking from the site of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France, said Friday that those who support democracy must remember what World War II soldiers sacrificed and to live up to those ideals. Bidens remarks came during commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day and sought to tie the threats to democracy in the 1940s to those that exist today in the United States and Europe. American democracy asks the hardest of things to believe that were part of something bigger than ourselves, Biden said. So democracy begins with each of us. Biden spoke from the Ranger Monument at Pointe du Hoc, where former President Ronald Reagan in 1984 delivered a memorable speech on the invasions 40th anniversary. The monument, constructed by the French, sits eight miles west of the Normandy American Cemetery and was built to honor the members of the American Second Ranger Battalion. Biden walked in to give the speech alongside Scott Desjardins, the superintendent of the Normandy American Cemetery, who later told reporters that he spoke with the president about the battle. I explained to him that when the Rangers were still living, they would tell us climbing up the cliff was not the difficult part, Desjardins told White House pool reporters. Holding onto this terrain for two and a half days, being outnumbered, is really the amazing thing about Pointe du Hoc. First Sergeant Gavin Stith, U.S. Army, 2nd Ranger Battalion, and his spouse, Kourtney Stith, attended the speech alongside about 150 other people. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken both attended as well. Pfc John M. Wardell, 99, from New Jersey, who landed in France on June 18, 1944, was seated in the audience as well and spoke with Blinken, according to pool reports. Standing up to dictators Biden said during the 12-minute speech the soldiers who stormed the beach in 1944 had decided that it was necessary to stand up to a dictator who threatened democracy in Europe and that people today must live up to that benchmark. Does anyone doubt that they would want America to stand up against (Russian leader Vladimir) Putins aggression here in Europe today? Biden asked. They fought to vanquish a hateful ideology in the 30s and 40s, Biden added. Does anyone doubt they wouldnt move heaven and earth to vanquish the hateful ideologies of today? These rangers put mission and country above themselves. Does anyone believe they would exact any less from every American today? Biden met earlier in the day with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and announced a $225 million aid package for the country to assist in its war against Russias invasion. Biden told Zelenskyy during the meeting that his countrys efforts to win the war are remarkable and apologized for how long it took Congress to approve the latest round of military and humanitarian assistance. I apologize for the weeks of not knowing whats going to pass in terms of funding because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass that had the money in it, Biden said during the Zelenskyy meeting. Some of our very conservative members were holding it up. But we got it done finally. Be part of something bigger than ourselves Biden said during his speech at Pointe du Hoc the Allied soldiers who scaled those cliffs on D-Day, all of whom are deceased, would ask every American today to stay true to what America stands for. Theyre not asking us to give or risk our lives, but they are asking us to care for others in our country more than ourselves, Biden said. Theyre not asking us to do their job. Theyre asking us to do our job; to protect freedom in our time, to defend democracy, to stand up to aggression abroad and at home, to be part of something bigger than ourselves. If Americans wish to honor the sacrifices of our countrys WWII soldiers, they must ensure that our democracy endures and the soul of our nation endures, he said. Biden did not mention the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, by name, but Democrats have repeatedly stressed the danger they believe Trump poses to democracy. Biden spoke Thursday at the Normandy American Cemetery near Omaha Beach about the bravery of the soldiers who stormed the beaches on D-Day and the allied forces who worked together to defeat Nazi Germany and end the Holocaust. The post Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy appeared first on Michigan Advance. Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy LE BAVENT, FRANCE - JUNE 7: US WWII veteran PFC John M. Wardell and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken watch U.S. President Joe Biden deliver a speech at Pointe du Hoc, where U.S. Army Rangers scaled cliffs over 100 feet high on D-Day to destroy a heavily fortified German position, on June 7, 2024 at Pointe du Hoc, near Le Bavent, France. Biden is in France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy and to emphasize the continued role of the United States in helping to protect democratic values in Europe. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) WASHINGTON President Joe Biden, speaking from the site of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France, said Friday that those who support democracy must remember what World War II soldiers sacrificed and to live up to those ideals. Bidens remarks came during commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day and sought to tie the threats to democracy in the 1940s to those that exist today in the United States and Europe. American democracy asks the hardest of things to believe that were part of something bigger than ourselves, Biden said. So democracy begins with each of us. Biden spoke from the Ranger Monument at Pointe du Hoc, where former President Ronald Reagan in 1984 delivered a memorable speech on the invasions 40th anniversary. The monument, constructed by the French, sits eight miles west of the Normandy American Cemetery and was built to honor the members of the American Second Ranger Battalion. Biden walked in to give the speech alongside Scott Desjardins, the superintendent of the Normandy American Cemetery, who later told reporters that he spoke with the president about the battle. I explained to him that when the Rangers were still living, they would tell us climbing up the cliff was not the difficult part, Desjardins told White House pool reporters. Holding onto this terrain for two and a half days, being outnumbered, is really the amazing thing about Pointe du Hoc. First Sergeant Gavin Stith, U.S. Army, 2nd Ranger Battalion, and his spouse, Kourtney Stith, attended the speech alongside about 150 other people. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken both attended as well. Pfc John M. Wardell, 99, from New Jersey, who landed in France on June 18, 1944, was seated in the audience as well and spoke with Blinken, according to pool reports. Standing up to dictators Biden said during the 12-minute speech the soldiers who stormed the beach in 1944 had decided that it was necessary to stand up to a dictator who threatened democracy in Europe and that people today must live up to that benchmark. Does anyone doubt that they would want America to stand up against (Russian leader Vladimir) Putins aggression here in Europe today? Biden asked. They fought to vanquish a hateful ideology in the 30s and 40s, Biden added. Does anyone doubt they wouldnt move heaven and earth to vanquish the hateful ideologies of today? These rangers put mission and country above themselves. Does anyone believe they would exact any less from every American today? Biden met earlier in the day with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and announced a $225 million aid package for the country to assist in its war against Russias invasion. Biden told Zelenskyy during the meeting that his countrys efforts to win the war are remarkable and apologized for how long it took Congress to approve the latest round of military and humanitarian assistance. I apologize for the weeks of not knowing whats going to pass in terms of funding because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass that had the money in it, Biden said during the Zelenskyy meeting. Some of our very conservative members were holding it up. But we got it done finally. Be part of something bigger than ourselves Biden said during his speech at Pointe du Hoc the Allied soldiers who scaled those cliffs on D-Day, all of whom are deceased, would ask every American today to stay true to what America stands for. Theyre not asking us to give or risk our lives, but they are asking us to care for others in our country more than ourselves, Biden said. Theyre not asking us to do their job. Theyre asking us to do our job; to protect freedom in our time, to defend democracy, to stand up to aggression abroad and at home, to be part of something bigger than ourselves. If Americans wish to honor the sacrifices of our countrys WWII soldiers, they must ensure that our democracy endures and the soul of our nation endures, he said. Biden did not mention the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, by name, but Democrats have repeatedly stressed the danger they believe Trump poses to democracy. Biden spoke Thursday at the Normandy American Cemetery near Omaha Beach about the bravery of the soldiers who stormed the beaches on D-Day and the allied forces who worked together to defeat Nazi Germany and end the Holocaust. The post Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy appeared first on New Jersey Monitor. Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy U.S. WWII veteran PFC John M. Wardell, of New Jersey, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken watch President Joe Biden deliver a speech on June 7, 2024, at Pointe du Hoc, near Le Bavent, France, where U.S. Army Rangers scaled cliffs over 100 feet high on D-Day to destroy a heavily fortified German position. Biden is in France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy and to emphasize the continued role of the United States in helping to protect democratic values in Europe. (Win McNamee | Getty Images) WASHINGTON President Joe Biden, speaking from the site of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France, said Friday that those who support democracy must remember what World War II soldiers sacrificed and to live up to those ideals. Bidens remarks came during commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day and sought to tie the threats to democracy in the 1940s to those that exist today in the United States and Europe. American democracy asks the hardest of things to believe that were part of something bigger than ourselves, Biden said. So democracy begins with each of us. Biden spoke from the Ranger Monument at Pointe du Hoc, where former President Ronald Reagan in 1984 delivered a memorable speech on the invasions 40th anniversary. The monument, constructed by the French, sits eight miles west of the Normandy American Cemetery and was built to honor the members of the American Second Ranger Battalion. Biden walked in to give the speech alongside Scott Desjardins, the superintendent of the Normandy American Cemetery, who later told reporters that he spoke with the president about the battle. I explained to him that when the Rangers were still living, they would tell us climbing up the cliff was not the difficult part, Desjardins told White House pool reporters. Holding onto this terrain for two and a half days, being outnumbered, is really the amazing thing about Pointe du Hoc. First Sergeant Gavin Stith, U.S. Army, 2nd Ranger Battalion, and his spouse, Kourtney Stith, attended the speech alongside about 150 other people. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken both attended as well. Pfc John M. Wardell, 99, from New Jersey, who landed in France on June 18, 1944, was seated in the audience as well and spoke with Blinken, according to pool reports. Standing up to dictators Biden said during the 12-minute speech the soldiers who stormed the beach in 1944 had decided that it was necessary to stand up to a dictator who threatened democracy in Europe and that people today must live up to that benchmark. Does anyone doubt that they would want America to stand up against [Russian leader Vladimir] Putins aggression here in Europe today? Biden asked. They fought to vanquish a hateful ideology in the 30s and 40s, Biden added. Does anyone doubt they wouldnt move heaven and earth to vanquish the hateful ideologies of today? These rangers put mission and country above themselves. Does anyone believe they would exact any less from every American today? Biden met earlier in the day with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and announced a $225 million aid package for the country to assist in its war against Russias invasion. Biden told Zelenskyy during the meeting that his countrys efforts to win the war are remarkable and apologized for how long it took Congress to approve the latest round of military and humanitarian assistance. I apologize for the weeks of not knowing whats going to pass in terms of funding because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass that had the money in it, Biden said during the Zelenskyy meeting. Some of our very conservative members were holding it up. But we got it done finally. Be part of something bigger than ourselves Biden said during his speech at Pointe du Hoc the Allied soldiers who scaled those cliffs on D-Day, all of whom are deceased, would ask every American today to stay true to what America stands for. Theyre not asking us to give or risk our lives, but they are asking us to care for others in our country more than ourselves, Biden said. Theyre not asking us to do their job. Theyre asking us to do our job; to protect freedom in our time, to defend democracy, to stand up to aggression abroad and at home, to be part of something bigger than ourselves. If Americans wish to honor the sacrifices of our countrys WWII soldiers, they must ensure that our democracy endures and the soul of our nation endures, he said. Biden did not mention the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, by name, but Democrats have repeatedly stressed the danger they believe Trump poses to democracy. Biden spoke Thursday at the Normandy American Cemetery near Omaha Beach about the bravery of the soldiers who stormed the beaches on D-Day and the allied forces who worked together to defeat Nazi Germany and end the Holocaust. The post Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy appeared first on West Virginia Watch. Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy John M. Wardell, of New Jersey, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken watch President Joe Biden deliver a speech on June 7, 2024, at Pointe du Hoc, near Le Bavent, France World War II PFC John M. Wardell, of New Jersey, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken watch President Joe Biden deliver a speech on June 7, 2024, at Pointe du Hoc, near Le Bavent, France, where U.S. Army Rangers scaled cliffs over 100 feet high on D-Day to destroy a heavily fortified German position. Biden is in France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy and to emphasize the continued role of the United States in helping to protect democratic values in Europe. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) WASHINGTON President Joe Biden, speaking from the site of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France, said Friday that those who support democracy must remember what World War II soldiers sacrificed and to live up to those ideals. Bidens remarks came during commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day and sought to tie the threats to democracy in the 1940s to those that exist today in the United States and Europe. American democracy asks the hardest of things to believe that were part of something bigger than ourselves, Biden said. So democracy begins with each of us. Biden spoke from the Ranger Monument at Pointe du Hoc, where former President Ronald Reagan in 1984 delivered a memorable speech on the invasions 40th anniversary. The monument, constructed by the French, sits eight miles west of the Normandy American Cemetery and was built to honor the members of the American Second Ranger Battalion. Biden walked in to give the speech alongside Scott Desjardins, the superintendent of the Normandy American Cemetery, who later told reporters that he spoke with the president about the battle. I explained to him that when the Rangers were still living, they would tell us climbing up the cliff was not the difficult part, Desjardins told White House pool reporters. Holding onto this terrain for two and a half days, being outnumbered, is really the amazing thing about Pointe du Hoc. First Sergeant Gavin Stith, U.S. Army, 2nd Ranger Battalion, and his spouse, Kourtney Stith, attended the speech alongside about 150 other people. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken both attended as well. Pfc John M. Wardell, 99, from New Jersey, who landed in France on June 18, 1944, was seated in the audience as well and spoke with Blinken, according to pool reports. Standing up to dictators Biden said during the 12-minute speech the soldiers who stormed the beach in 1944 had decided that it was necessary to stand up to a dictator who threatened democracy in Europe and that people today must live up to that benchmark. Does anyone doubt that they would want America to stand up against (Russian leader Vladimir) Putins aggression here in Europe today? Biden asked. They fought to vanquish a hateful ideology in the 30s and 40s, Biden added. Does anyone doubt they wouldnt move heaven and earth to vanquish the hateful ideologies of today? These rangers put mission and country above themselves. Does anyone believe they would exact any less from every American today? Biden met earlier in the day with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and announced a $225 million aid package for the country to assist in its war against Russias invasion. Biden told Zelenskyy during the meeting that his countrys efforts to win the war are remarkable and apologized for how long it took Congress to approve the latest round of military and humanitarian assistance. I apologize for the weeks of not knowing whats going to pass in terms of funding because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass that had the money in it, Biden said during the Zelenskyy meeting. Some of our very conservative members were holding it up. But we got it done finally. Something bigger than ourselves Biden said during his speech at Pointe du Hoc the Allied soldiers who scaled those cliffs on D-Day, all of whom are deceased, would ask every American today to stay true to what America stands for. Theyre not asking us to give or risk our lives, but they are asking us to care for others in our country more than ourselves, Biden said. Theyre not asking us to do their job. Theyre asking us to do our job; to protect freedom in our time, to defend democracy, to stand up to aggression abroad and at home, to be part of something bigger than ourselves. If Americans wish to honor the sacrifices of our countrys WWII soldiers, they must ensure that our democracy endures and the soul of our nation endures, he said. Biden did not mention the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, by name, but Democrats have repeatedly stressed the danger they believe Trump poses to democracy. Biden spoke Thursday at the Normandy American Cemetery near Omaha Beach about the bravery of the soldiers who stormed the beaches on D-Day and the allied forces who worked together to defeat Nazi Germany and end the Holocaust. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE The post Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy appeared first on Louisiana Illuminator. During a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris on June 7, US President Joe Biden apologized for the months-long delay in supplying weapons to Ukraine's army. He also assured that the American people would continue to support Ukrainians. ADVERTISIMENT Details of the meeting were reported by The Associated Press and CNN. During the talks, Biden said that he apologized to the Ukrainian people for the period when military aid was not received. "I apologize for the weeks of not knowing whether it would be passed in terms of funding because we had trouble passing a bill that we had to pass that had money in it from some of our very conservative members that held it up, but we did," he said. The American leader added that the people of the United States support Ukraine in the long run. "You know, you haven't bowed down, you haven't given in at all, you continue to fight in a way that is just amazing, just wonderful and we are not going to leave you," he said. ADVERTISIMENT As reported by OBOZ.UA, on June 7, Zelenskyy and Biden met on the sidelines of the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings. During the talks, the US president announced a new arms package for Ukraine worth $225 million. Zelenskyy also addressed the French parliament. From the rostrum of the National Assembly, he said that Europe was no longer a continent of peace. The audience gave him a standing ovation. The President of Ukraine also rejected the possibility of territorial concessions to Russia and said that Ukraine would be able to win. Only verified information on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy U.S. WWII veteran PFC John M. Wardell, of New Jersey, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken watch President Joe Biden deliver a speech on June 7, 2024, at Pointe du Hoc, near Le Bavent, France, where U.S. Army Rangers scaled cliffs over 100 feet high on D-Day to destroy a heavily fortified German position. Biden is in France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy and to emphasize the continued role of the United States in helping to protect democratic values in Europe. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) WASHINGTON President Joe Biden, speaking from the site of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France, said Friday that those who support democracy must remember what World War II soldiers sacrificed and to live up to those ideals. Bidens remarks came during commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day and sought to tie the threats to democracy in the 1940s to those that exist today in the United States and Europe. American democracy asks the hardest of things to believe that were part of something bigger than ourselves, Biden said. So democracy begins with each of us. Biden spoke from the Ranger Monument at Pointe du Hoc, where former President Ronald Reagan in 1984 delivered a memorable speech on the invasions 40th anniversary. The monument, constructed by the French, sits eight miles west of the Normandy American Cemetery and was built to honor the members of the American Second Ranger Battalion. Biden walked in to give the speech alongside Scott Desjardins, the superintendent of the Normandy American Cemetery, who later told reporters that he spoke with the president about the battle. I explained to him that when the Rangers were still living, they would tell us climbing up the cliff was not the difficult part, Desjardins told White House pool reporters. Holding onto this terrain for two and a half days, being outnumbered, is really the amazing thing about Pointe du Hoc. First Sergeant Gavin Stith, U.S. Army, 2nd Ranger Battalion, and his spouse, Kourtney Stith, attended the speech alongside about 150 other people. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken both attended as well. Pfc John M. Wardell, 99, from New Jersey, who landed in France on June 18, 1944, was seated in the audience as well and spoke with Blinken, according to pool reports. Standing up to dictators Biden said during the 12-minute speech the soldiers who stormed the beach in 1944 had decided that it was necessary to stand up to a dictator who threatened democracy in Europe and that people today must live up to that benchmark. Does anyone doubt that they would want America to stand up against (Russian leader Vladimir) Putins aggression here in Europe today? Biden asked. They fought to vanquish a hateful ideology in the 30s and 40s, Biden added. Does anyone doubt they wouldnt move heaven and earth to vanquish the hateful ideologies of today? These rangers put mission and country above themselves. Does anyone believe they would exact any less from every American today? Biden met earlier in the day with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and announced a $225 million aid package for the country to assist in its war against Russias invasion. Biden told Zelenskyy during the meeting that his countrys efforts to win the war are remarkable and apologized for how long it took Congress to approve the latest round of military and humanitarian assistance. I apologize for the weeks of not knowing whats going to pass in terms of funding because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass that had the money in it, Biden said during the Zelenskyy meeting. Some of our very conservative members were holding it up. But we got it done finally. Be part of something bigger than ourselves Biden said during his speech at Pointe du Hoc the Allied soldiers who scaled those cliffs on D-Day, all of whom are deceased, would ask every American today to stay true to what America stands for. Theyre not asking us to give or risk our lives, but they are asking us to care for others in our country more than ourselves, Biden said. Theyre not asking us to do their job. Theyre asking us to do our job; to protect freedom in our time, to defend democracy, to stand up to aggression abroad and at home, to be part of something bigger than ourselves. If Americans wish to honor the sacrifices of our countrys WWII soldiers, they must ensure that our democracy endures and the soul of our nation endures, he said. Biden did not mention the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, by name, but Democrats have repeatedly stressed the danger they believe Trump poses to democracy. Biden spoke Thursday at the Normandy American Cemetery near Omaha Beach about the bravery of the soldiers who stormed the beaches on D-Day and the allied forces who worked together to defeat Nazi Germany and end the Holocaust. The post Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy appeared first on Iowa Capital Dispatch. Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy U.S. WWII veteran PFC John M. Wardell, of New Jersey, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken watch President Joe Biden deliver a speech on June 7, 2024, at Pointe du Hoc, near Le Bavent, France, where U.S. Army Rangers scaled cliffs over 100 feet high on D-Day to destroy a heavily fortified German position. Biden is in France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy and to emphasize the continued role of the United States in helping to protect democratic values in Europe. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) WASHINGTON President Joe Biden, speaking from the site of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France, said Friday that those who support democracy must remember what World War II soldiers sacrificed and to live up to those ideals. Bidens remarks came during commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day and sought to tie the threats to democracy in the 1940s to those that exist today in the United States and Europe. American democracy asks the hardest of things to believe that were part of something bigger than ourselves, Biden said. So democracy begins with each of us. Biden spoke from the Ranger Monument at Pointe du Hoc, where former President Ronald Reagan in 1984 delivered a memorable speech on the invasions 40th anniversary. The monument, constructed by the French, sits eight miles west of the Normandy American Cemetery and was built to honor the members of the American Second Ranger Battalion. Biden walked in to give the speech alongside Scott Desjardins, the superintendent of the Normandy American Cemetery, who later told reporters that he spoke with the president about the battle. I explained to him that when the Rangers were still living, they would tell us climbing up the cliff was not the difficult part, Desjardins told White House pool reporters. Holding onto this terrain for two and a half days, being outnumbered, is really the amazing thing about Pointe du Hoc. First Sergeant Gavin Stith, U.S. Army, 2nd Ranger Battalion, and his spouse, Kourtney Stith, attended the speech alongside about 150 other people. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken both attended as well. Pfc John M. Wardell, 99, from New Jersey, who landed in France on June 18, 1944, was seated in the audience as well and spoke with Blinken, according to pool reports. Standing up to dictators Biden said during the 12-minute speech the soldiers who stormed the beach in 1944 had decided that it was necessary to stand up to a dictator who threatened democracy in Europe and that people today must live up to that benchmark. Does anyone doubt that they would want America to stand up against (Russian leader Vladimir) Putins aggression here in Europe today? Biden asked. They fought to vanquish a hateful ideology in the 30s and 40s, Biden added. Does anyone doubt they wouldnt move heaven and earth to vanquish the hateful ideologies of today? These rangers put mission and country above themselves. Does anyone believe they would exact any less from every American today? Biden met earlier in the day with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and announced a $225 million aid package for the country to assist in its war against Russias invasion. Biden told Zelenskyy during the meeting that his countrys efforts to win the war are remarkable and apologized for how long it took Congress to approve the latest round of military and humanitarian assistance. I apologize for the weeks of not knowing whats going to pass in terms of funding because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass that had the money in it, Biden said during the Zelenskyy meeting. Some of our very conservative members were holding it up. But we got it done finally. Be part of something bigger than ourselves Biden said during his speech at Pointe du Hoc the Allied soldiers who scaled those cliffs on D-Day, all of whom are deceased, would ask every American today to stay true to what America stands for. Theyre not asking us to give or risk our lives, but they are asking us to care for others in our country more than ourselves, Biden said. Theyre not asking us to do their job. Theyre asking us to do our job; to protect freedom in our time, to defend democracy, to stand up to aggression abroad and at home, to be part of something bigger than ourselves. If Americans wish to honor the sacrifices of our countrys WWII soldiers, they must ensure that our democracy endures and the soul of our nation endures, he said. Biden did not mention the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, by name, but Democrats have repeatedly stressed the danger they believe Trump poses to democracy. Biden spoke Thursday at the Normandy American Cemetery near Omaha Beach about the bravery of the soldiers who stormed the beaches on D-Day and the allied forces who worked together to defeat Nazi Germany and end the Holocaust. The post Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy appeared first on Pennsylvania Capital-Star. Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy U.S. WWII veteran PFC John M. Wardell, of New Jersey, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken watch President Joe Biden deliver a speech on June 7, 2024, at Pointe du Hoc, near Le Bavent, France, where U.S. Army Rangers scaled cliffs over 100 feet high on D-Day to destroy a heavily fortified German position. Biden is in France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy and to emphasize the continued role of the United States in helping to protect democratic values in Europe. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) WASHINGTON President Joe Biden, speaking from the site of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France, said Friday that those who support democracy must remember what World War II soldiers sacrificed and to live up to those ideals. Bidens remarks came during commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day and sought to tie the threats to democracy in the 1940s to those that exist today in the United States and Europe. American democracy asks the hardest of things to believe that were part of something bigger than ourselves, Biden said. So democracy begins with each of us. Biden spoke from the Ranger Monument at Pointe du Hoc, where former President Ronald Reagan in 1984 delivered a memorable speech on the invasions 40th anniversary. The monument, constructed by the French, sits eight miles west of the Normandy American Cemetery and was built to honor the members of the American Second Ranger Battalion. Biden walked in to give the speech alongside Scott Desjardins, the superintendent of the Normandy American Cemetery, who later told reporters that he spoke with the president about the battle. I explained to him that when the Rangers were still living, they would tell us climbing up the cliff was not the difficult part, Desjardins told White House pool reporters. Holding onto this terrain for two and a half days, being outnumbered, is really the amazing thing about Pointe du Hoc. First Sergeant Gavin Stith, U.S. Army, 2nd Ranger Battalion, and his spouse, Kourtney Stith, attended the speech alongside about 150 other people. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken both attended as well. Pfc John M. Wardell, 99, from New Jersey, who landed in France on June 18, 1944, was seated in the audience as well and spoke with Blinken, according to pool reports. Standing up to dictators Biden said during the 12-minute speech the soldiers who stormed the beach in 1944 had decided that it was necessary to stand up to a dictator who threatened democracy in Europe and that people today must live up to that benchmark. Does anyone doubt that they would want America to stand up against (Russian leader Vladimir) Putins aggression here in Europe today? Biden asked. They fought to vanquish a hateful ideology in the 30s and 40s, Biden added. Does anyone doubt they wouldnt move heaven and earth to vanquish the hateful ideologies of today? These rangers put mission and country above themselves. Does anyone believe they would exact any less from every American today? Biden met earlier in the day with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and announced a $225 million aid package for the country to assist in its war against Russias invasion. Biden told Zelenskyy during the meeting that his countrys efforts to win the war are remarkable and apologized for how long it took Congress to approve the latest round of military and humanitarian assistance. I apologize for the weeks of not knowing whats going to pass in terms of funding because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass that had the money in it, Biden said during the Zelenskyy meeting. Some of our very conservative members were holding it up. But we got it done finally. Be part of something bigger than ourselves Biden said during his speech at Pointe du Hoc the Allied soldiers who scaled those cliffs on D-Day, all of whom are deceased, would ask every American today to stay true to what America stands for. Theyre not asking us to give or risk our lives, but they are asking us to care for others in our country more than ourselves, Biden said. Theyre not asking us to do their job. Theyre asking us to do our job; to protect freedom in our time, to defend democracy, to stand up to aggression abroad and at home, to be part of something bigger than ourselves. If Americans wish to honor the sacrifices of our countrys WWII soldiers, they must ensure that our democracy endures and the soul of our nation endures, he said. Biden did not mention the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, by name, but Democrats have repeatedly stressed the danger they believe Trump poses to democracy. Biden spoke Thursday at the Normandy American Cemetery near Omaha Beach about the bravery of the soldiers who stormed the beaches on D-Day and the allied forces who worked together to defeat Nazi Germany and end the Holocaust. The post Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy appeared first on North Dakota Monitor. Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy U.S. WWII veteran PFC John M. Wardell, of New Jersey, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken watch President Joe Biden deliver a speech on June 7, 2024, at Pointe du Hoc, near Le Bavent, France, where U.S. Army Rangers scaled cliffs over 100 feet high on D-Day to destroy a heavily fortified German position. Biden is in France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy and to emphasize the continued role of the United States in helping to protect democratic values in Europe. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) WASHINGTON President Joe Biden, speaking from the site of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France, said Friday that those who support democracy must remember what World War II soldiers sacrificed and to live up to those ideals. Bidens remarks came during commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day and sought to tie the threats to democracy in the 1940s to those that exist today in the United States and Europe. American democracy asks the hardest of things to believe that were part of something bigger than ourselves, Biden said. So democracy begins with each of us. Biden spoke from the Ranger Monument at Pointe du Hoc, where former President Ronald Reagan in 1984 delivered a memorable speech on the invasions 40th anniversary. The monument, constructed by the French, sits eight miles west of the Normandy American Cemetery and was built to honor the members of the American Second Ranger Battalion. Biden walked in to give the speech alongside Scott Desjardins, the superintendent of the Normandy American Cemetery, who later told reporters that he spoke with the president about the battle. I explained to him that when the Rangers were still living, they would tell us climbing up the cliff was not the difficult part, Desjardins told White House pool reporters. Holding onto this terrain for two and a half days, being outnumbered, is really the amazing thing about Pointe du Hoc. First Sgt. Gavin Stith, U.S. Army, 2nd Ranger Battalion, and his spouse, Kourtney Stith, attended the speech alongside about 150 other people. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken both attended as well. Pfc John M. Wardell, 99, from New Jersey, who landed in France on June 18, 1944, was seated in the audience as well and spoke with Blinken, according to pool reports. Standing up to dictators Biden said during the 12-minute speech the soldiers who stormed the beach in 1944 had decided that it was necessary to stand up to a dictator who threatened democracy in Europe and that people today must live up to that benchmark. Does anyone doubt that they would want America to stand up against (Russian leader Vladimir) Putins aggression here in Europe today? Biden asked. They fought to vanquish a hateful ideology in the 30s and 40s, Biden added. Does anyone doubt they wouldnt move heaven and earth to vanquish the hateful ideologies of today? These rangers put mission and country above themselves. Does anyone believe they would exact any less from every American today? Biden met earlier in the day with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and announced a $225 million aid package for the country to assist in its war against Russias invasion. Biden told Zelenskyy during the meeting that his countrys efforts to win the war are remarkable and apologized for how long it took Congress to approve the latest round of military and humanitarian assistance. I apologize for the weeks of not knowing whats going to pass in terms of funding because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass that had the money in it, Biden said during the Zelenskyy meeting. Some of our very conservative members were holding it up. But we got it done finally. Be part of something bigger than ourselves Biden said during his speech at Pointe du Hoc the Allied soldiers who scaled those cliffs on D-Day, all of whom are deceased, would ask every American today to stay true to what America stands for. Theyre not asking us to give or risk our lives, but they are asking us to care for others in our country more than ourselves, Biden said. Theyre not asking us to do their job. Theyre asking us to do our job; to protect freedom in our time, to defend democracy, to stand up to aggression abroad and at home, to be part of something bigger than ourselves. If Americans wish to honor the sacrifices of our countrys WWII soldiers, they must ensure that our democracy endures and the soul of our nation endures, he said. Biden did not mention the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, by name, but Democrats have repeatedly stressed the danger they believe Trump poses to democracy. Biden spoke Thursday at the Normandy American Cemetery near Omaha Beach about the bravery of the soldiers who stormed the beaches on D-Day and the allied forces who worked together to defeat Nazi Germany and end the Holocaust. The post Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy appeared first on Nebraska Examiner. Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy U.S. WWII veteran PFC John M. Wardell, of New Jersey, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken watch President Joe Biden deliver a speech on June 7, 2024, at Pointe du Hoc, near Le Bavent, France, where U.S. Army Rangers scaled cliffs over 100 feet high on D-Day to destroy a heavily fortified German position. Biden is in France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy and to emphasize the continued role of the United States in helping to protect democratic values in Europe. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) WASHINGTON President Joe Biden, speaking from the site of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France, said Friday that those who support democracy must remember what World War II soldiers sacrificed and live up to those ideals. Bidens remarks came during commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day and sought to tie the threats to democracy in the 1940s to those that exist today in the United States and Europe. American democracy asks the hardest of things to believe that were part of something bigger than ourselves, Biden said. So democracy begins with each of us. Biden spoke from the Ranger Monument at Pointe du Hoc, where former President Ronald Reagan in 1984 delivered a memorable speech on the invasions 40th anniversary. The monument, constructed by the French, sits eight miles west of the Normandy American Cemetery and was built to honor the members of the American Second Ranger Battalion. Biden walked in to give the speech alongside Scott Desjardins, the superintendent of the Normandy American Cemetery, who later told reporters that he spoke with the president about the battle. I explained to him that when the Rangers were still living, they would tell us climbing up the cliff was not the difficult part, Desjardins told White House pool reporters. Holding onto this terrain for two and a half days, being outnumbered, is really the amazing thing about Pointe du Hoc. First Sergeant Gavin Stith, U.S. Army, 2nd Ranger Battalion, and his spouse, Kourtney Stith, attended the speech alongside about 150 other people. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken both attended as well. Pfc John M. Wardell, 99, from New Jersey, who landed in France on June 18, 1944, was seated in the audience as well and spoke with Blinken, according to pool reports. Standing up to dictators Biden said during the 12-minute speech the soldiers who stormed the beach in 1944 had decided that it was necessary to stand up to a dictator who threatened democracy in Europe and that people today must live up to that benchmark. Does anyone doubt that they would want America to stand up against (Russian leader Vladimir) Putins aggression here in Europe today? Biden asked. They fought to vanquish a hateful ideology in the 30s and 40s, Biden added. Does anyone doubt they wouldnt move heaven and earth to vanquish the hateful ideologies of today? These rangers put mission and country above themselves. Does anyone believe they would exact any less from every American today? Biden met earlier in the day with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and announced a $225 million aid package for the country to assist in its war against Russias invasion. Biden told Zelenskyy during the meeting that his countrys efforts to win the war are remarkable and apologized for how long it took Congress to approve the latest round of military and humanitarian assistance. I apologize for the weeks of not knowing whats going to pass in terms of funding because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass that had the money in it, Biden said during the Zelenskyy meeting. Some of our very conservative members were holding it up. But we got it done finally. Be part of something bigger than ourselves Biden said during his speech at Pointe du Hoc the Allied soldiers who scaled those cliffs on D-Day, all of whom are deceased, would ask every American today to stay true to what America stands for. Theyre not asking us to give or risk our lives, but they are asking us to care for others in our country more than ourselves, Biden said. Theyre not asking us to do their job. Theyre asking us to do our job; to protect freedom in our time, to defend democracy, to stand up to aggression abroad and at home, to be part of something bigger than ourselves. If Americans wish to honor the sacrifices of our countrys WWII soldiers, they must ensure that our democracy endures and the soul of our nation endures, he said. Biden did not mention the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, by name, but Democrats have repeatedly stressed the danger they believe Trump poses to democracy. Biden spoke Thursday at the Normandy American Cemetery near Omaha Beach about the bravery of the soldiers who stormed the beaches on D-Day and the allied forces who worked together to defeat Nazi Germany and end the Holocaust. The post Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy appeared first on Rhode Island Current. Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy U.S. WWII veteran PFC John M. Wardell, of New Jersey, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken watch President Joe Biden deliver a speech on June 7, 2024, at Pointe du Hoc, near Le Bavent, France, where U.S. Army Rangers scaled cliffs over 100 feet high on D-Day to destroy a heavily fortified German position. Biden is in France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy and to emphasize the continued role of the United States in helping to protect democratic values in Europe (Win McNamee/Getty Images). WASHINGTON President Joe Biden, speaking from the site of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France, said Friday that those who support democracy must remember what World War II soldiers sacrificed and live up to those ideals. Bidens remarks came during commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day and sought to tie the threats to democracy in the 1940s to those that exist today in the United States and Europe. American democracy asks the hardest of things to believe that were part of something bigger than ourselves, Biden said. So democracy begins with each of us. Biden spoke from the Ranger Monument at Pointe du Hoc, where former President Ronald Reagan in 1984 delivered a memorable speech on the invasions 40th anniversary. The monument, constructed by the French, sits eight miles west of the Normandy American Cemetery and was built to honor the members of the American Second Ranger Battalion. Biden walked in to give the speech alongside Scott Desjardins, the superintendent of the Normandy American Cemetery, who later told reporters that he spoke with the president about the battle. I explained to him that when the Rangers were still living, they would tell us climbing up the cliff was not the difficult part, Desjardins told White House pool reporters. Holding onto this terrain for two and a half days, being outnumbered, is really the amazing thing about Pointe du Hoc. First Sergeant Gavin Stith, U.S. Army, 2nd Ranger Battalion, and his spouse, Kourtney Stith, attended the speech alongside about 150 other people. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken both attended as well. Pfc John M. Wardell, 99, from New Jersey, who landed in France on June 18, 1944, was seated in the audience as well and spoke with Blinken, according to pool reports. Standing up to dictators Biden said during the 12-minute speech the soldiers who stormed the beach in 1944 had decided that it was necessary to stand up to a dictator who threatened democracy in Europe and that people today must live up to that benchmark. Does anyone doubt that they would want America to stand up against (Russian leader Vladimir) Putins aggression here in Europe today? Biden asked. They fought to vanquish a hateful ideology in the 30s and 40s, Biden added. Does anyone doubt they wouldnt move heaven and earth to vanquish the hateful ideologies of today? These rangers put mission and country above themselves. Does anyone believe they would exact any less from every American today? Biden met earlier in the day with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and announced a $225 million aid package for the country to assist in its war against Russias invasion. Biden told Zelenskyy during the meeting that his countrys efforts to win the war are remarkable and apologized for how long it took Congress to approve the latest round of military and humanitarian assistance. I apologize for the weeks of not knowing whats going to pass in terms of funding because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass that had the money in it, Biden said during the Zelenskyy meeting. Some of our very conservative members were holding it up. But we got it done finally. Be part of something bigger than ourselves Biden said during his speech at Pointe du Hoc the Allied soldiers who scaled those cliffs on D-Day, all of whom are deceased, would ask every American today to stay true to what America stands for. Theyre not asking us to give or risk our lives, but they are asking us to care for others in our country more than ourselves, Biden said. Theyre not asking us to do their job. Theyre asking us to do our job; to protect freedom in our time, to defend democracy, to stand up to aggression abroad and at home, to be part of something bigger than ourselves. If Americans wish to honor the sacrifices of our countrys WWII soldiers, they must ensure that our democracy endures and the soul of our nation endures, he said. Biden did not mention the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, by name, but Democrats have repeatedly stressed the danger they believe Trump poses to democracy. Biden spoke Thursday at the Normandy American Cemetery near Omaha Beach about the bravery of the soldiers who stormed the beaches on D-Day and the allied forces who worked together to defeat Nazi Germany and end the Holocaust. The post Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy appeared first on Missouri Independent. Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy U.S. WWII veteran PFC John M. Wardell, of New Jersey, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken watch President Joe Biden deliver a speech on June 7, 2024, at Pointe du Hoc, near Le Bavent, France, where U.S. Army Rangers scaled cliffs over 100 feet high on D-Day to destroy a heavily fortified German position. Biden is in France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy and to emphasize the continued role of the United States in helping to protect democratic values in Europe. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) WASHINGTON President Joe Biden, speaking from the site of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France, said Friday that those who support democracy must remember what World War II soldiers sacrificed and live up to those ideals. Bidens remarks came during commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day and sought to tie the threats to democracy in the 1940s to those that exist today in the United States and Europe. American democracy asks the hardest of things to believe that were part of something bigger than ourselves, Biden said. So democracy begins with each of us. Biden spoke from the Ranger Monument at Pointe du Hoc, where former President Ronald Reagan in 1984 delivered a memorable speech on the invasions 40th anniversary. The monument, constructed by the French, sits eight miles west of the Normandy American Cemetery and was built to honor the members of the American Second Ranger Battalion. Biden walked in to give the speech alongside Scott Desjardins, the superintendent of the Normandy American Cemetery, who later told reporters that he spoke with the president about the battle. I explained to him that when the Rangers were still living, they would tell us climbing up the cliff was not the difficult part, Desjardins told White House pool reporters. Holding onto this terrain for two and a half days, being outnumbered, is really the amazing thing about Pointe du Hoc. First Sergeant Gavin Stith, U.S. Army, 2nd Ranger Battalion, and his spouse, Kourtney Stith, attended the speech alongside about 150 other people. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken both attended as well. Pfc John M. Wardell, 99, from New Jersey, who landed in France on June 18, 1944, was seated in the audience as well and spoke with Blinken, according to pool reports. Standing up to dictators Biden said during the 12-minute speech the soldiers who stormed the beach in 1944 had decided that it was necessary to stand up to a dictator who threatened democracy in Europe and that people today must live up to that benchmark. Does anyone doubt that they would want America to stand up against [Russian leader Vladimir] Putins aggression here in Europe today? Biden asked. They fought to vanquish a hateful ideology in the 30s and 40s, Biden added. Does anyone doubt they wouldnt move heaven and earth to vanquish the hateful ideologies of today? These rangers put mission and country above themselves. Does anyone believe they would exact any less from every American today? Biden met earlier in the day with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and announced a $225 million aid package for the country to assist in its war against Russias invasion. Biden told Zelenskyy during the meeting that his countrys efforts to win the war are remarkable and apologized for how long it took Congress to approve the latest round of military and humanitarian assistance. I apologize for the weeks of not knowing whats going to pass in terms of funding because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass that had the money in it, Biden said during the Zelenskyy meeting. Some of our very conservative members were holding it up. But we got it done finally. Be part of something bigger than ourselves Biden said during his speech at Pointe du Hoc the Allied soldiers who scaled those cliffs on D-Day, all of whom are deceased, would ask every American today to stay true to what America stands for. Theyre not asking us to give or risk our lives, but they are asking us to care for others in our country more than ourselves, Biden said. Theyre not asking us to do their job. Theyre asking us to do our job; to protect freedom in our time, to defend democracy, to stand up to aggression abroad and at home, to be part of something bigger than ourselves. If Americans wish to honor the sacrifices of our countrys WWII soldiers, they must ensure that our democracy endures and the soul of our nation endures, he said. Biden did not mention the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, by name, but Democrats have repeatedly stressed the danger they believe Trump poses to democracy. Biden spoke Thursday at the Normandy American Cemetery near Omaha Beach about the bravery of the soldiers who stormed the beaches on D-Day and the allied forces who worked together to defeat Nazi Germany and end the Holocaust. The post Democracy begins with each of us, Biden says at site of D-Day invasion in Normandy appeared first on Wisconsin Examiner. Democrat-led Connecticut town council refuses to fly thin blue line flag for trooper killed in line of duty but LGBTQ, American flags flown at half-mast A largely Democratic Connecticut town council has sparked controversy after it refused to fly the thin blue line flag for a state trooper killed in the line of duty last week. The Wethersfield Town Council voted down the request to raise the flag traditionally flown to support police claiming that to some people, it represents divisiveness and racism. Council Member Rich Bailey (R) suggested the town raise the thin blue line flag over town hall in honor of Connecticut State Trooper First Class Aaron Pelletier, 34, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver during a traffic stop last week. Connecticut State Trooper First Class Aaron Pelletier AP The Wethersfield Town Council voted down the request to raise the thin blue line flag, claiming that to some people, it represents divisiveness and racism. AP But the measure did not get enough votes to pass at Tuesdays council meeting with three in favor, five against, and one abstention. The council is made up of six Democrats and three Republicans. Instead, the LGBTQ pride flag, which was already raised for pride month, the month of June, and other flags like the American flag and the state flag were flown at half-mast. All we are doing is trying to respect a fallen police officer, Bailey told WTNH News 8. In my home, [the thin blue line flag] means police, and they protect us, and they are our first line of defense, he added. They always are, and theyre always here, and theyre always for us. But other council members said the flag has taken on new meaning in recent years. Instead, an LGBTQ+ flag which was already raised for Pride month, June, and other flags were lowered to half-mast to honor fallen trooper Aaron Pelletier. WTNH It represents racism and antagonism to many, many people, Emily Zambrello (D) told the local news station. And if you dont personally believe that, and you fly at your own house and you think it means something to you, that is much more positive its just not how many people feel about it. Its not appropriate to raise it over our town hall, especially when our flag policy prohibits us from doing anything associated with hate. Wethersfield Mayor Ken Lesser, who was among the no votes, said that they offered an alternative option to the thing blue line flag, the first responders flag, in order to honor the fallen trooper. The first responders flag recognizes all the first responders police, fire, emergency management. The blue line flag was designed for police officers and it goes back over 100 years, but now it has been used by white supremacists and many police groups have disavowed that flag. Bailey who is a retired fire chief and whose father was a police officer wouldnt accept the first responders flag as a replacement. Pelletier leaves behind his wife and two young sons. AP Pelletier, the trooper who was killed by an allegedly drugged-up driver, was laid to rest Wednesday with thousands in attendance at his funeral service. His widow and the mother of his two young sons gave a tearful tribute to her husband at the ceremony. To my honey, you werent just my husband, his wife Dominique said. You were my home. You were my heart. You were my safe place and my provider. My best friend. My secret keeper. My favorite gossiper. The light in our smiles will be forever dimmed and the thought of this world without that laugh seems unimaginable but has already become real, she said. I promise to keep you alive in our home, in our heart and in our boys memories forever. I love you, and I miss you. With Post wires DENVER (KDVR) A Denver judge on Thursday sentenced a convicted human trafficker to 448 years in prison in what prosecutors described as the longest sentence ever given to a human trafficker in the U.S. Nexstars KDVR was in the courtroom as victims of Robert Hawkins gave testimony about their experiences. A jury in March convicted Hawkins of 18 counts, including human trafficking, pimping, sex assault and exploitation, some with minors. In addition to the prison sentence, Hawkins will be designated as a sexual predator and habitual criminal. Southwest passenger: Crying and screaming as plane makes emergency landing at DIA Denver District Attorney Beth McCann said she hopes the lengthy sentence sends a message that human trafficking will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted aggressively. Seven people came forward to testify in three different cases four women, two girls and one man. A 13-year-old said Hawkins was 40 when she was manipulated by him. Between 2018 and 2021, Hawkins exploited four adult women and two children in Denver, preying on the victims vulnerabilities, using physical violence and threats to keep the victims under his control, and profiting from the sale of their bodies, McCanns office said in a release. Hawkins also shot a sex buyer after he dropped off one of the victims. Judge Kandace Gerdes handed down the sentence. Convicted human trafficker Robert Hawkins Convicted trafficker rejected plea deal before trial Hawkins attorney suggested he get a 40-year sentence once offered as part of a plea deal, which prosecutors hoped would help the victims avoid the trauma of trial. But he chose to go to trial instead. 111 license plate readers to be installed across Denver by mid-June Prosecutors pointed to a pre-sentencing investigation report that said Hawkins was arrested, cited or detained for 57 offenses in more than 20 cases dismissed between 1997-2003. They also said he was placed on probation in 2012 when charged with pimping a child because the 16-year-old in the case was too afraid to speak. Hawkins did not speak at the sentencing hearing. His attorney said he advised him not to do so because they plan to appeal. The attorney also doubted the severity of how prosecutors painted the victims in the case. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. DENVER (KDVR) A Denver judge on Thursday sentenced a convicted human trafficker to 448 years in prison in what prosecutors described as the longest sentence ever given to a human trafficker in the U.S. FOX31 was in the courtroom as victims of Robert Hawkins gave testimony about their experiences. Southwest passenger: Crying and screaming as plane makes emergency landing at DIA A jury in March convicted Hawkins of 18 counts, including human trafficking, pimping, sex assault and exploitation, some with minors. In addition to the prison sentence, Hawkins will be designated as a sexual predator and habitual criminal. Denver District Attorney Beth McCann said after the sentencing that she hopes the lengthy sentence sends a message that human trafficking will not be tolerated in this community and will be prosecuted aggressively. Seven people came forward to testify in three different cases four women, two girls and one man. A 13-year-old said Hawkins was 40 when she was manipulated by him. Between 2018 and 2021, Hawkins exploited four adult women and two children in Denver, preying on the victims vulnerabilities, using physical violence and threats to keep the victims under his control, and profiting from the sale of their bodies, McCanns office said in a release. Hawkins also shot a sex buyer after he dropped off one of the victims. Judge Kandace Gerdes handed down the sentence. Convicted human trafficker Robert Hawkins Convicted Denver human trafficker rejected plea deal before trial Hawkins attorney suggested he get a 40-year sentence once offered as part of a plea deal, which prosecutors hoped would help the victims avoid the trauma of trial. But he chose to go to trial instead. Prosecutors pointed to a pre-sentencing investigation report that said Hawkins was arrested, cited or detained for 57 offenses in more than 20 cases that were dismissed between 1997-2003. They also said he was placed on probation in 2012 when charged with pimping a child, because the 16-year-old in the case was too afraid to speak. 111 license plate readers to be installed across Denver by mid-June Hawkins did not speak at the sentencing hearing. His attorney said he advised him not to speak because they plan to appeal. The attorney also doubted the severity of how prosecutors painted the victims in the case. FOX31 is hearing from prosecutors about the sentencing and will update this story with more information. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. Four Russian ships, including ballistic missile carriers, are heading to the Caribbean Sea. They will be in Havana next week and will remain in Cuba until June 17. ADVERTISIMENT According to the Cuban communist authorities, "this visit is in line with the historical friendly relations between Cuba and the Russian Federation" and "does not pose a threat to the region." Earlier, Russia reported that it plans to send warships to the Caribbean region "to conduct naval exercises." The Yasen-class nuclear submarine, the Admiral Gorshkov-class frigate, as well as the Akademik Pashin oil tanker of Project 23130 and the Nikolai Chiker rescue tug of Project R-5757 are heading to Havana. The first two boats are carriers of Kalibr, Oniks, and Tsyrkon class cruise missiles. All four ships belong to the Russian Northern Fleet. It is stated that they will be based 144 kilometers from the US coast. The US unofficially reported that it does not consider the arrival of Russian ships in the Caribbean region to be a threat, but the US Navy will "closely monitor" the exercises. ADVERTISIMENT Against the backdrop of Cuba's statements about the absence of a threat to the region, several leading media outlets reminded us of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which began in the same way and almost ended in nuclear war. The Cuban Missile Crisis is considered to be the high point of the Cold War, after which the world began to talk about the need for disarmament. It began with the Cuban government's request to the USSR for military assistance to prevent the overthrow of Fidel Castro's government. The USSR responded to Cuba's request by proposing the deployment of nuclear weapons in the Caribbean region. ADVERTISIMENT The outbreak of the Cuban Missile Crisis was also preceded by the USSR's announcement of "military exercises" in the region. Instead, all available Soviet weapons, including nuclear weapons, were deployed in Cuba. In response, U.S. President John F. Kennedy declared a naval blockade of Cuba, which included the search of all ships heading to the island. In late October 1962, five Soviet ships came close to the blockade zone and stopped. Only three hours remained before a possible U.S. strike on Cuba and, consequently, the exchange of nuclear strikes. However, the leaders of the United States and the USSR managed to reach an agreement and the war did not begin. As reported by OBOZ.UA, in May, the Ukrainian Defense Forces hit the Cyclone missile ship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet's 22800 project in Sevastopol . The ship was hit with ATACMS missiles. The attack killed six Russian Black Sea Fleet servicemen and wounded 11 others. The ship itself sank. ADVERTISIMENT The spokesman for the Southern Defense Forces, Dmytro Pletenchuk, said that the corvette did not even have time to pass state tests because it never launched a single cruise missile. Also in May, the Defense Forces destroyed the Russian Black Sea Fleet's Project 266-M Kovrovets minesweeper, and the Lomonosov ship, which was undergoing repairs, burned down in Arkhangelsk, Russia. Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber . Do not fall for fakes! BANGOR TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) Authorities say the driver of a stolen vehicle was arrested after a high-speed chase in Van Buren County. The Van Buren County Sheriffs Office said on Thursday that deputies were searching for a vehicle stolen out of Covert Township. A deputy on patrol found the stolen vehicle near County Road 380 and 62nd Street in Geneva Township. The deputy pulled over the vehicle. However, while talking with the driver, he drove away and a police chase started. The vehicle reached speeds of 100 mph before the driver lost control and spun out near the intersection of County Road 376 and 63rd Street, according to the sheriffs office. The suspect, a 43-year-old Watervliet man, ran away but was taken into custody a short time later. He was taken to the Van Buren County. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com. VIRGINIA BEACH The chairwoman of the Republican Party of Virginia Beach was indicted this week on a felony charge of intercepting wire communications. Laura K. Hughes, an attorney and former Virginia Beach School Board member, was indicted Monday by a Virginia Beach grand jury, according to online court records. The crime carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A court document filed in the case says the charges stem from an incident in February, but did not provide any details. However, a Republican Party member who said he was there during the alleged offense, recounted the incident. He described an interaction at the partys office in February in which Hughes was inquiring about whether anyone else had filed to run for chair and a phone conversation was overheard. Hughes described that February interaction in a public Facebook post, though no mention was made in her video of any recording of the conversation. Hughes was elected chair in March. Gary Byler, her attorney, provided a statement to The Virginian-Pilot in which he denied she had done anything wrong, and questioned the motives of those seeking to prosecute her. The allegation that Ms. Hughes recorded an openly audible conversation in GOP Party headquarters with her cell phone is an absurd basis for a felony prosecution, the statement said. There is no allegation that any recording was surreptitious or done without the knowledge of those on an open speaker phone call. Neither is there any allegation that the alleged recording was shared or even played. The Virginia law under which Hughes was charged states it is illegal for any person who is not a party to a communication to intentionally intercept, disclose, or use that communication without the consent of at least one involved party. The law also states its illegal to use any wired or wireless device to intercept such a communication. In the Facebook video recorded Feb. 21, Hughes says she wanted to let people know about the filing process to run for chair. The deadline to file paperwork and a $500 check was 5 p.m. Feb. 20. She handed hers to Carol Hickman, at the partys office, and Hickman logged it and put it in the safe, Hughes said in the video. She goes on to say that she went back to the partys office with a few other people the following day and asked to see who else had filed. I wanted verification of filing to see if anyone else who filed did file timely, she said in the video. Hughes said Hickman then went into the bathroom to have a private call with Bill Curtis, the former party chair. She had him on speaker phone, so it could be clearly heard, Hughes said. The person on the phone said he had handed his paperwork to another person who works in the office, Hughes said. She then called that person who said Curtis paperwork was at the office. Hughes asked to see it again but was not allowed. Hughes said she was concerned about election integrity. Hughes term as chair of the Republican Party of Virginia Beach is from 2024-26, according to the organizations website. She served on the Virginia Beach School Board from 2018-22. Curtis, who served as party chair before Hughes took over, could not be reached for comment Friday. Jimmy Frost, a member of the Republican Party of Virginia Beach, corroborated the account given by Hughes in the video recording. He said he was one of the people with Hughes who went to headquarters to find out if Curtis or anyone else had filed in a timely manner in the chairs race. They couldnt really seem to produce any documentation that he had, Frost said. Hickman called Curtis and put him on speaker phone while they were in the office, Frost said. Its dubious that there was a violation of anybodys privacy, he said, adding he could hear Curtis voice on the phone. Frost believes Hughes is being targeted by people who wanted Curtis to be the chair. If Laura Hughes hadnt won that election this would have never happened, said Frost. This is basically the party establishment having a tantrum because they didnt get the outcome they wanted. Northampton County Commonwealths Attorney Jack Thornton on Thursday confirmed that his office was asked to handle the case after Virginia Beach Commonwealths Attorney Colin Stolle recused himself. Stolle is a longtime member of the local Republican Party. Thornton said he will prosecute the case, but declined to provide any other information. A spokesperson for the Virginia Beach Commonwealths Attorneys Office said she could not discuss the case. Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com Detroiters on Friday get their first look inside revived Michigan Central Station after Thursday's blowout opening night concert. Visitors, who had to sign up in advance for tours for the Detroit train station, will encounter a range of activities and exhibits honoring the station's history and six-year restoration. Tours continue daily through June 16, but they are fully booked. The station will be open for self-guided tours on Fridays and Saturdays through August. The first floor of the station, by then with some shops and other features expected to be built out, is scheduled to be open to the public in September. Follow along here to experience Detroiters' first steps inside the renovated station. Michigan Central Station tours: How to visit Ford's renovated train depot 3:40 p.m.: A job loaded with smiles John Martin is a new Michigan Central ambassador, after making a career out of cable TV advertising and spending a couple of more years working part-time gigs. Friday was just his second day of work after he snagged the job just in time for the stations reopening. Martin grew up in Lincoln Park and later worked in downtown Detroit, so he spent most of his life watching the city up close. Being that I worked down here, Ive always been interested about whats going on in the city, and that never left me even after I found another job, he said. He toured Michigan Centrals open house back in 2018 after it was acquired by Ford and has since been stunned by Detroits numerous and gorgeous renovations. After he stopped working one of his part-time jobs earlier this year and almost simultaneously came across the Michigan Central ambassador position, he knew he could take the job and have a good time with it. Martin stands at the doors of the Grand Hall and greets people as they enter with smiles widening and eyes lighting up at their first sight of the hall. One of my jobs that I didnt do this year after working it for 12 years was at a golf course You get a lot of interaction with folks. Youre not always putting out fires, but there always seems to be one on your shift. So, I thought, jeez, I could come in here and how many fires could I have? People are coming in here awestruck, theyre not complaining, he said. 3 p.m.: Streets around train station returning to normal By Friday afternoon, Michigan Avenue opened to vehicles after being closed for Thursday's opening festivities, and there was no traffic congestion even as thousands of people descended on the train station for the first day of public tours. As workers outside continued to dismantle the concert stage, about 1,800 visitors walked through the train station as of 3 p.m., Michigan Central spokesperson Dan Austin said. A total of 5,000 visitors were expected Friday, with tours ending at 10 p.m., he said. 1:55 p.m.: Details make the difference Christina Roki of Sterling Heights, and Grant Sloan of West Bloomfield, two automotive content creators who were invited to opening day by Ford, said they were brought to tears by the stories preserved inside Michigan Central Station. What we appreciate about it most is how much detail Ford cared to preserve to show the story. They kept part of the graffiti on the walls, they preserved a lot of the tickets they found Even the brick, all the chisels we see on the brick, they didnt try to make fine cut lines, they still want to show all the history that this building has, said Roki. As their tour guide led from room to room in the building, they remained at a loss for words. The inside was literally mind-blowing. I feel like I was walking in on such a big piece of history thats been preserved for so long, so its crazy to think that this is something theyve been working on in the past few years, said Roki. But for the two metro Detroiters, one of the most significant parts was just to see how Michigan Central had been given new life, narrowly dodging demolition. Sloan remembered times passing by the station with his friends just before the renovation began to see the graffiti and decay; now, to see that part of modern history meshed with its historical past, he said to step inside the new shiny floors was an awesome experience. Any Detroiter will agree that this building was such an eyesore for such a long time. Growing up in Detroit and knowing its history but never seeing it operational But now seeing it up in running, its really touching to see that Ford took on such a large project, said Sloan. Its early but I think its safe to say that the investment already paid off. Kylie Martin 1:45 p.m.: Returning soon Southwest Detroit resident Jennifer Serra set an alarm in hopes of scoring tickets to see the train station on its first day of public tours. There's just not enough wonderful words to describe it, Serra, 45, said after securing tickets and touring the station Friday. The only problem? She had somewhere else to be this afternoon and wanted to spend more time in the station. Shes already made plans to come back for another tour in a few days. I feel like it's like a symbolic representation of what goes on in our city, she said of Michigan Central Station. I feel like there's just these landmarks in certain cities that just really kind of embody the overall history of what's going on. I feel like this helps us bring a little bit of closure to some tough times and show renewal. Adrienne Roberts 1 p.m.: 'Another crown jewel' Tom Schultz and his wife, Sylvia Ross-Schultz, are both born and raised Detroiters, but more than that, theyre Detroit-lovers. Were so glad to see it getting so much better, and its beautiful Its just in my heart, its been the neatest thing, said Ross-Schultz. Its another crown jewel in the renovation of Detroit. I made the statement, and I was wrong, that (the comeback) would never happen in my lifetime, said Schultz. The rebirth is off the charts. Remembering the good old days of Michigan Central Station in the 1970s, the couple knew they had to tour the station on opening day, and so did Ross-Schultzs cousin and her husband, Renee and Tom Toft. With ancestors who worked in the building, the families are woven into the fabric of Michigan Central, as well as the city of Detroit. Additionally, the Tofts took what they called the falling apart tour of the station back when Ford purchased it in 2018. Now, the four stood waiting for their tour in awe at the renovated front of the building. Instead of just knocking it down, to bring it back to this grandeur is absolutely fantastic, said Ross-Schultz. You see the work they did out here, they recreated everything the right way, said Tom Toft. Its spectacular. We havent even gone inside yet but I know its going to be spectacular. Kylie Martin 12:40 p.m.: Eager to return Donny Wilson and his brother Paul Wilson had never been inside the train station until Friday morning, but theyre all ready to come back. Donny Wilson, 41, an influencer who lives in Oak Park, wants to bring his family and friends to the station to see it. I can't wait until all this stuff is actually in there the shops, hotel Donny Wilson said after touring the station. Paul Wilson, 42, a Detroit resident, said hes just thought of the station as a ruin his whole life until now. Its so cool how they refurbished everything and still kept a whole lot of the building intact, Paul Wilson said. Adrienne Roberts Noon: 'Berliners are obsessed with Detroit' NPR reporter Bobby Allyn, 35, walked quickly toward Michigan Central Station as he prepared to interview President Joe Bidens director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Arati Prabhakar, at Newlab on Friday. He said he was super excited to be in Detroit, having heard so much about the city when he lived in Berlin. Berliners are obsessed with Detroit because of techno music, Allyn said. Its the birthplace of techno. Look up Jeff Mills of Detroit and techno. Youll see. When you go to Club Berghain in Berlin, its impossible to get in but if you wear a hat that says, Detroit, they let you in. Allyn, a technology correspondent, reports on startups, artificial intelligence, privacy issues and tech litigation. While he was directed to the building next door to Michigan Central Station, the whole site is part of the mobility hub led by Ford Motor Co. Allyn said he couldnt wait to see the inside of the restored train depot after the interview. Phoebe Wall Howard 11:50 a.m.: Memories rekindled outside Michigan Central Bob Bilkie, 63, and Shari Bilkie, 62, of Northville walked the side streets surrounding Michigan Central Station as they waited for the noon public tours to begin. They parked at 10 a.m. and took in the sights of the Corktown neighborhood on the cool, cloudy day. As they approached their 41st wedding anniversary on Monday, they talked about dates at Lafayette Coney Island in Detroit, ordering their lemon meringue pie and Faygo Red Pop. Thats pretty much all Bob Bilkie could afford as an intern at Detroit Edison. At lunch, he ordered coney dogs with lots of onions and mustard because thats what he could afford. Now Bob is an investment adviser and Shari is a compliance officer for a financial firm. Being in Detroit together during this special time also celebrates memories of their families. Her grandfather went to Cass Tech High School and owned Wards Bar in Dearborn. They went to the old Tiger Stadium around the corner as a family. His father worked at American Motors as a fabricator, and his grandfather worked for the railroad. He probably worked here, Bob said, glancing up at the 18-story Beaux Arts-style building from the corner of Wabash and Marantette. Shari said smiling, It is so cool, the fact that they took something decrepit, falling apart, an eyesore and turned it into something absolutely beautiful. Phoebe Wall Howard 11:35 a.m.: The morning after and a new dawn On a much noticeably cooler and windier morning compared with Thursday, Corktown appeared to be just waking up after last nights celebration. With much of Michigan Avenue still closed off to vehicles Friday morning, the few businesses that were open had just a couple of customers. The train station, however, was bustling with activity, albeit a different kind of energy compared with Thursday night, as workers dismantled the concert stage that the night before featured acts including massive music concern in Roosevelt Park a night earlier that featured Diana Ross, Eminem, Jack White and Big Sean. Adrienne Roberts Members of the public line up for tours outside of Michigan Central Station in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood on Friday, June 7, 2024. 11:25 a.m.: Michigan Central prepares for company The sounds of Motown and techno music filled the halls of Michigan Central Station, spilling from speakers in a gallery plastered with vintage posters less than an hour before the doors officially opened to visitors on Friday. Inside the station, hundreds of workers dashed about, putting final touches on exhibits scheduled to attract 60,000 people over 10 days. A woman from Chicago leading a group of eight South Korean government officials, walking through the renovated station half an hour before the official open, explained that the visitors oversee small- and medium-sized businesses and theyre looking at the 30-acre innovation zone created by Bill Ford, executive chair of Ford Motor Co. Phoebe Wall Howard This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan Central Station tours give Detroiters 1st look inside Shouldn't foreign mining companies first prove it can be done safely? Ensign Lake in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Reformer file photo by Zach Spindler-Krage. No one went to the recent DFL state convention in Duluth expecting surprises. Sen. Amy Klobuchar accepted the partys nomination and speakers delivered a clear message that revolved around party unity and getting behind Democratic candidates. When people denounced the party, they were met by polished talking points about a big-tent party, and reassurances that they were seen and heard. In other words, business as usual. But there was one issue the DFL Party leadership had little appetite to see or to hear. On the ballot was a resolution to hold hearings on the Prove It First bill. This bill states that before a copper-nickel sulfide mine can operate in Minnesota, there must be independent proof that sulfide mining has been conducted elsewhere in the country without causing pollution. Despite popular support among elected officials and the DFL base, DFL leadership which has long sought to appease mining interests opposes the bill. This was made abundantly clear when, earlier this year, when DFL Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy canceled a hearing on the Prove It First bill. In response to this attempt to silence debate on the issue, clean-water advocates held an open, public hearing at the Capitol, featuring testimony from Indigenous representatives, mining experts, and witnesses to the impact of mining disasters. The DFL is the party of labor. Its also the party of the environment. What most Democrats do not want is to be is the party of big business. At the convention, the AFL-CIO mustered its considerable resources to fight the resolution to hold a hearing on Prove It First. This was not just revisiting an old fight premised on that worn-out dichotomy of environment versus jobs. Instead, labor had become an unlikely ally of giant mining corporations. This is strange. One of the fundamental roles of unions is to check corporate power. In doing so, unions gave us the 40-hour work week, built the middle class, brought dignity to work and fought for health care and other benefits that have made life better for countless millions. By taking such an extreme stance to oppose even a hearing on Prove It First, the AFL-CIO was working in tandem with some of the most corrupt corporations on the planet. The United Steelworkers has called Glencore a Swiss-based mining giant seeking to open a copper-sulfide mine in Minnesota the second worst company in the world to work with, and wrote an entire report, Glencores history of broken promises. Now the AFL-CIO is acting as the political arm of this corrupt corporation? At the convention, the floor debate was overwhelming around the Prove It First resolution. With any debate involving so many voices, there were plenty of straw men, red herrings, mischaracterizations, and, of course, an amendment to weaken the resolution. Labor introduced an amendment to subtly change the resolution from a hearing on Prove It First, to a hearing on copper-nickel mining in general. Labor dubbed this the unity amendment. The tactic was to remove the Prove It First bill from the resolution so there would be no tangible legislation to debate. Ultimately, the amendment was adopted by just six votes, out of more than 600 votes cast. This amended resolution went on to pass with 62% of the vote. It supports the Legislature holding hearings on copper nickel mining, and supports withholding all permits for copper nickel mines in Minnesota until it can first be proven that such mines can be operated safely in our water rich environment and not violate state, federal, and tribal water quality standards. It isnt perfect, but the party platform now calls for the first legislative hearings on copper-nickel mining in 14 years. We look forward to next session when we can have this long-overdue discussion. The DFL talks about being a big tent. For too long, clean water constituents have been left out of that tent. This may be based on a calculation by DFL party leaders who think this is good for their political future, but it hasnt been good for water, for Minnesotans, or for the environment. The post The DFL convention showed a curious alliance between labor and foreign mining corporations appeared first on Minnesota Reformer. Ive been intrigued by some of the commentary by certain Ohio political figures in response to the New York jury finding Donald Trump guilty on 34 felony counts. Some have been over the top to put it mildly. Senator J.D, Vance had this to say: Dems invented a felony to get Trump, with the help of a Soros funded prosecutor and a Biden donor Judge, who rigged the entire case to get this outcome. U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan said: The Manhattan kangaroo court shows what happens when our justice system is weaponized by partisan prosecutors in front of a biased judge with an unfair process, designed to keep President Trump off the campaign trail ... And this from GOP Chairman Alex Triantafilou: The American people know a sham when they see it referring to the trial. Jack Greiner, partner of Faruki PLL Secretary of State Frank LaRose and State Treasurer Robert Sprague also weighed in with similar sentiments. But I highlight the comments of Vance, Jordan and Triantafilou because they are lawyers (or at least law school graduates) and ostensibly subject to the Rules of Professional Conduct. In Ohio, Rule 8.2 may apply here. Rule 8.2 is part of the section headed Maintaining the Integrity of the Profession and it states: A lawyer shall not make a statement that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to its truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity of a judicial officer, or candidate for election or appointment to judicial office. This rule raises several important points. First, lawyers are different. Readers may insert any snarky comment here that they wish. But lawyers are expected to adhere to certain guidelines that dont apply to non-lawyers. Among those are Rule 8.2, which limits what lawyers can say about the justice system and judges. Its not a good look for members of the legal system to be making unfounded comments about how the system is corrupt. Another important point about the ethical rules is that they are supposed to be self-executing. While a non-lawyer could presumably get sued by a judge for making false comments, the non-lawyer is not barred from making the comments in the first place. But a lawyer is supposed to be bound by the ethical rules whether or not someone presses legal action. The expression guide your conduct accordingly comes to mind. Do the comments above cross the line? There are certainly arguments that they dont. They are expressed as opinions, and so cant be proved true or false. And if the statements cant be proven false, then the speakers cant be charged with making the statements knowing them to be false. But claiming that the judge rigged the case to get to an outcome sounds close to a statement of fact. And it would be interesting to know what evidence Vance possesses to back up this claim. The comment from Jordan is similar did Judge Juan Merchan design the process to keep Trump off the campaign trail? Representative Jordan levels that unqualified charge. Is there any evidence to support it? As a general rule, all of us should be careful about making unsubstantiated charges about anyone. Indeed, the Bible cautions against bearing false witness. But its not a general rule for lawyers. We are subject to specific rules of conduct. And we are expected to know better. Jack Greiner is a partner at Faruki PLL law firm in Cincinnati. He represents Enquirer Media in First Amendment and media issues. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: What are lawyers allowed to say about Trump verdict What did Utah have to do with D-Days Utah Beach assault? Not much, as it turns out. SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) Utah Beach was the codename for the westernmost beach American troops landed on in the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France. But what did Utah have to do with Utah beach? Not much. A face and a personal story: American cemetery in France honors sacrifice of D-Day soldiers According to a 1994 Associated Press report, the original codename for Utah Beach was Oregon Beach. The Oregon name was picked because it was familiar to Americans and it wouldnt be confused over the radio with Omaha, the other beach on which American troops landed in Normandy. Per the AP report, historian Samual Eliot Morison, who studied codeword selection during World War II, said that the U.S. Army changed the Oregon codename to Utah the during planning phase of the operation. An explanation was that although Utah sounded similar to Omaha over the radio, it would produce less confusion for the troops as they crossed the English channel into deadly fire from entrenched German positions. In all, the AP report concluded that the Utah codename was picked for the beach more or less at random. Utah Beach was one of five Normandy beaches the Allied forces invaded by air and sea on June 6, 1994. The invasion led to the liberation of France from Nazi control and the Allied victory in World War II. According to a report from the U.S. Department of Defense, the five-mile stretch of beach saw the fewest casualties of any of the five major landing beaches. Out of 23,000 troops, only 197 men were killed or wounded. Utah Beach was divided into three zones: Tare Green, Uncle Red, and Victor. The National Museum of the U.S. Navy states the assault force on Utah Beach consisted of minesweeper, assault, escort, bombardment, and shore party groups. Navy Rear Admiral Don P. Moon led Task Force 125 for the Utah Beach assault, while Maj. Gen. Raymond O. Barton led the U.S. Armys 4th Division. This was an important assignment in the effort to seize the deep-water port of Cherbourg as quickly as possible, states the website of Liberation Route Europe, a trail connecting WWII remembrance sites across the continent. Five hours before the first seaborne landings, U.S. airborne troops were dropped behind the coastal defences. Fighting their way towards the beach, they cleared the enemy positions that threatened the Allied exit from the beaches. The paratroopers managed to prevent any significant counterattacks. The German strongpoint on the beach of La Madeleine was composed of various shelters and bunkers, a grenade launcher and four canons assigned to cover an antitank zone. These modest defences could not withstand the terrible air and naval bombardments of D-Day. They offered little resistance to the American assault forces, even though many units landed nearly 2000 metres to the southeast from the original plan. At the end of the day, the assault was a total success, with relatively few American casualties. Because the Germans had destroyed almost all port facilities along the Atlantic coast, the beaches had to take over their crucial logistic role. From June to November 1944, an almost endless stream of men and supplies were brought in via Utah Beach. https://www.liberationroute.com/pois/289/utah-beach Among those who fought on Utah Beach was Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr., the eldest son of President Theodore Roosevelt. He was the only general to land by sea with the first wave of troops on D-Day. At 56, he was the oldest man in the invasion force. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah. Commemorations marking the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Brussels By Crispian Balmer and Andreas Rinke ROME (Reuters) - Diplomats preparing for next week's Group of Seven (G7) leaders' summit will need to be creative to find ways to leverage profits generated by Russian assets frozen in the West and help Ukraine, officials said on Friday. The leaders of the United States, Japan, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Britain meet from June 13-15, with discussion on how to best utilise the immobilised Russian funds near the top of their agenda. The question has been under review for weeks and the G7 chiefs were hoping to make significant progress at their gathering in Borgo Egnazia, an exclusive resort in Italy's southeastern Puglia region. A German government official told reporters on Friday that he did not expect a final decision would be made at the summit, but a senior Italian official said diplomats were working hard to overcome numerous technical problems. "I am confident that diplomatic creativity and the convoluted language of us diplomats can often help in these cases when there is a genuine political will," said the Italian official, who has been following the discussions closely. Around 260 billion euros ($281 billion) of Russian central bank funds are frozen worldwide, most of it in the European Union, generating 2.5-3.5 billion euros a year in profit. Some EU governments would like to skim off the interest income and invest most of it in arms purchases and some in the reconstruction of Ukraine, which has been devastated by Russia's 2022 invasion. The United States is pushing instead to use the profits as a steady revenue stream to service a large loan of $50 billion that could be raised on the market. Russia says any diversion of the profits from its frozen funds would amount to theft. The Italian official said one of the problems is that the Russian funds are frozen in Europe under a sanctions regime that has to be unanimously renewed by all 27 EU governments every six months. "If you make a loan that is repaid over 50 or 10 years, how can you use the profits of an asset that you know is frozen for only six months? This is one of the most challenging technical difficulties we are considering," the official said. "It is purely technical, it is not a matter of will." ($1 = 0.9253 euros) (Reporting by Crispian Balmer in Rome and Andreas Rinke in Berlin; Editing by Kirsten Donovan) FILE - Law enforcement officers maintain their presence at Schemengees Bar and Grille in the aftermath of a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023. Thousands of pages Maine State Police documents released Friday, June 7, 2023, include detailed descriptions of the chaos and carnage surrounding the states deadliest mass shooting. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) PORTLAND, Maine (AP) Thousands of pages of Maine Department of Public Safety documents released Friday include detailed descriptions of the chaos and carnage surrounding the states deadliest mass shooting. Officers arrived at the two shooting scenes in Lewiston last October not knowing if the gunman was still there, and with living and dead victims on the floors. One officer described desperate survivors screaming for help as he searched for the shooter. They grab at our legs and try to stop us and we can not help them, wrote Lewiston Officer Keith Caouette. We have to walk by and continue to search and hope they are alive when we come back around. Another police officers first instinct was that an act of domestic terrorism had been committed, underscored by the heavy police presence and flashing blue lights. I truly felt like we were at war, Auburn Lt. Steven Gosselin wrote. Their descriptions of the scenes at a bowling alley and a bar and grill where 18 people were killed and 13 others wounded were included in more than 3,000 pages of documents released Friday in response to Freedom of Access Act requests by The Associated Press and other news organizations. Associated Press reporters had reviewed more than a third of the pages before the website with the documents crashed late Friday afternoon. State officials said documents will be made available again on Monday. Among the details included in the report were the words from a note left behind by the gunman, 40-year-old Army reservist Robert Card, who wrote that he just wanted to be left the (expletive) alone, the Portland Press Herald reported. The note also contained his phone password and passwords needed to access his various accounts. The gunmans family and fellow Army reservists reported that he was suffering from a mental breakdown in the months leading up to the shooting Oct. 25, 2023. In the aftermath, the legislature passed new gun laws for Maine that bolstered the states yellow flag law, criminalized the transfer of guns to prohibited people and expanded funding for mental health crisis care. Cards body was found two days after the shooting in the back of a tractor-trailer on his former employers property in nearby Lisbon. An autopsy concluded he died by suicide. The documents that were released Friday provided officers firsthand accounts of what they saw along with additional details of the massive search for Card and the investigation. At the peak, the law enforcement presence was immense with 16 SWAT team and officers from 14 different agencies, along with eight helicopters and additional airplanes, and an underwater recovery team, wrote state police Lt. Tyler Stevenson. I have experienced several large-scale manhunts in my career, but this was, by far, the largest manhunt I have been a part of, he wrote. Officers used lasers to map the shooting scenes, searched Tracfone purchases at a Walmart in the event Card had a burner phone and even retrieved data from the infotainment system of Cards Subaru. Police recovered hundreds of items of potential evidence from a number of locations, including bullet cartridges and fragments, phones, hair, fibers, swabs of a gas pedal, a handwritten letter, a tomahawk knife, arrows, a hearing aid, broken eyeglasses, a blue sneaker, a black chain necklace, bean bags, miscellaneous military records, $255 in cash, and a night vision monocular. The documents underscored the confusion as police officers poured into the region. In addition to the two crime scenes, police responded to unfounded reports of a gunman in a field near the shooting scene, at another restaurant and at a massive Walmart distribution center. I asked who was in charge and got no answer, wrote Androscoggin County Deputy Jason Chaloux, describing the scene outside the bar. Chief Paul Ferland of the Monmouth Police Department said that when he arrived in Lisbon hours after the shootings, 60-70 officers were standing around waiting for instructions that never came. A member of the U.S. Marshals Service told him he had been given no updates and was going to start following up on his own leads. Ferland said he got more information from reporters standing outside the hospital than he did from law enforcement and that he withdrew his officers by early morning due to concerns for their safety. It became obvious to me that there was a lack of communications between agencies and no one knew what was going on, he wrote. Others described the horrific scenes inside the bowling alley and bar and grill. Cellphones ringing on bloodied tabletops, tablecloths and a pool table cover turned into makeshift stretchers. A quick scan of the building revealed blood and flesh scattered throughout the business," Lewiston Detective Zachary Provost wrote of the bowling alley. I also could smell the heavy odor of gunpowder mixed with burning flesh. Caouette, the Lewiston officer who responded to the bar and grill, said some witnesses yelled that the gunman was still in the building when he arrived while others said he already left. He told one man lying on the floor to hang in there, but by the time he returned to him, the man had died. ___ This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Keith Caouette's name. ___ Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writer Steve LeBlanc contributed from Boston. Some years ago, as a rookie reporter, I covered a small New Jersey town where the police had a clever way of covering up crime. The cops kept two police blotters. One blotter the one for public viewing was little more than a convenient dodge of reality. Incredibly, it made no mention of crimes or arrests or even a complaint that a teenager had set off a firecracker or a dog was barking too much. The other blotter with the truth and the details of police activity and various crimes was kept out of sight. Many people did not even know this secret blotter existed. In fact, I soon realized plenty of other towns had the same two-blotter arrangement for keeping records and steering clear of the spotlight. I thought of this un-American system of small-town bureaucratic cover-ups this week after Gov. Phil Murphy gutted the states landmark law requiring government agencies to open their records to public scrutiny. Gov. Phil Murphy in February 2024. What Murphy has done with what he described in a self-serving, five-page statement as various changes to the Open Public Records Act is nothing less than turning back the clock in New Jersey to the days of those dueling police blotters, when far too many petty bureaucrats hid the truth from the citizens who actually paid their salaries. In that small town I covered, the publics blotter, which was kept at the front desk of the police station, was filled with just the barest of facts. A crime might be reduced to a call from a resident. In one case, a horrific murder was an incident. It was laughable, yet deeply sad to read. The goal, as I soon learned, was to convey to the world that this small town had no problems. Real estate investors and other businesses need not worry. The town was safe. The police were never to be questioned. It was image-making at its worst and on the taxpayers' dime. OPRA: Lights out: Gov. Phil Murphy now presides over execution of transparency in New Jersey The other blotter with such details as the times and places of alleged crimes, the names of suspects and the observations of officers, could be found in a back room, under the control of the chief who saw himself as something of a public relations manager of information in a banana republic, not a law enforcement official in a democracy that purportedly valued transparency and freedom. Reading this blotter and its accompanying records was off-limits. As a reporter, I grew to depend on sources to tip me off that a crime had been committed. Then, I had to bang on doors and sometimes buttonhole officials to piece together what happened. Needless to say, I was not well-liked by this towns officials. The cops and town officials worried more about me than the criminals I wanted to write about. Murphy insists he is really modernizing and streamlining New Jerseys progressive system of forcing government agencies to be more transparent. Really? The deeper question, with its political, moral and legal implications, is whether Murphy actually knows what he has set loose. What about the timing of Murphy's signature? Lets start with the timing of Murphys decision to approve state Senate bill 2930, which sets new limits on how ordinary citizens and journalists and lawyers and various activists can gain access to government records. Murphy signed the legislation on June 5 the day before America commemorated the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France. Was Murphy even aware of the symbolism of him gutting a process of preserving freedom of information as the rest of the nation prepared to remember how its soldiers rushed toward the guns of Hitlers Nazis to save freedom and democracy? Stile: Phil Murphy's legacy is destroyed as he signs a death warrant for transparency Lets just say that Murphy seemed clueless to this moment in history and the train-wreck collision of principles he set off. This is not to say that Murphy ignored what he had done. Lets give him some credit for trying to acknowledge that his decision was not pleasing to everyone. After all, Murphys five-page, single-spaced statement ran on for some 1,900 words. But those words came off as just another PR-generated hug before Murphy placed a symbolic noose around the neck of anyone who called for government transparency. The governor stated that he wanted to acknowledge that this decision will disappoint many members of the advocacy community, including a number of social justice, labor, and environmental organizations, among others. The list was strange at best. It included only progressives whose support Murphy craves. He did not mention critics such as the coalition that opposed his ill-conceived plan to build wind farms along the Jersey Shore. Nor did he mention the opposition from the states diverse collection of journalistic organizations that range from new digital platforms to long-established TV and newspaper outlets. Murphy went on to say that he has heard the many objections to the bill directly, and I know that they are made in good faith and with good intentions. He noted that he wanted to commend everyone who has engaged in this debate for making their voice heard, which is the foundation of our democratic system of government. He also acknowledged that we are living in a moment where our democracy feels more fragile than ever and that the most troubling concern that I have heard is that signing this bill will both enable corruption and erode trust in our democracy. To emphasize the point and perhaps remind us that he has some knowledge of the outside world, Murphy even mentioned that this new legislation to cut back on transparency comes as America copes with a former president who has been indicted for inciting an insurrection during his final days in office and that closer to home, New Jerseyans across the political spectrum feel deeply betrayed and outraged by the serious allegations that our senior United States senator accepted bribes from a foreign government. But Murphy signed the bill anyway. It was as if the opposition was just noise to endure. Who is Phil Murphy, after all? In his words and, finally, with his signature Murphy showed the truth of who he is. Indeed, his support for cutbacks of government transparency opened a window to the governor himself and whether he even understands the notion of transparency in public life. When he left his Wall Street career to run for governor of New Jersey nearly eight years ago, Murphy seemed a perfect fit for public service. After making all that money on Wall Street, Murphy insisted he wanted to give something back as a government servant, first as ambassador to Germany and then as New Jerseys governor. In a not-so-subtle manner, Murphy even hinted that he wanted a national role after he left his perch in Trenton. And why not? Murphy seemed articulate, smart, with a progressive streak that seemed appealing to the new generation of Democrats. Yes, he was steeped in the world of business. But unlike Donald Trump, another New York businessman who was in the White House at the time, Murphy seemed to understand that politics was not just about power and himself. It was about ideals and the common good. But amid all the polite rhetoric and the progressive proposals, something always seemed missing with Murphy. Some of the trouble emerged last fall, with Murphys silly plan to push his inexperienced wife, Tammy, into a campaign to replace Bob Menendez in the U.S. Senate. Thankfully, Tammy had the good sense to drop out, realizing that she had little connection with voters. But now, we know the problem with Murphys understanding of politics and the role of government service has always been far more basic and troubling than just trying to push his wife into a U.S. senate seat. Simply put: Murphy never understood that the spirit of politics is rooted in checks and balances. In other words, if you want a spot in the public arena, you must accept the public's spotlight. Here, in New Jersey, the essential ingredient of government checks and balances is transparency. And the strongest pillar of transparency in government was the Open Public Records Act. Phil Murphy, the alleged progressive, has turned that law into a joke. Hes reminded us that hes just another bureaucrat. His field of vision ends with himself and his pals. He belongs in that small town where the cops kept two blotters. Mike Kelly is an award-winning columnist for NorthJersey.com, part of the USA TODAY Network, as well as the author of three critically acclaimed nonfiction books and a podcast and documentary film producer. To get unlimited access to his insightful thoughts on how we live life in the Northeast, please subscribe or activate your digital account today. Email: kellym@northjersey.com This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Phil Murphy: Does he understand the import of gutting OPRA? DOJ: 3 men charged after trying to sell machine gun to undercover agent FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) Three men who were trying to sell a machine gun to an undercover agent via the internet have been indicted for conspiracy to commit firearms trafficking and possession of a firearm by a felon, according to the federal Department of Justice. Court documents state that 33-year-old Wendell Moton of Fresno, 33-year-old Donnie Hicks of Visalia, and 34-year-old McCael Marshall of Visalia arranged to sell a machine gun to an undercover agent but were stopped by investigators on the way to the sale. Officials say Morton was additionally found with another firearm after he previously fled from police. According to officials, this prosecution is the product of Operation Gridlock a long-term investigation into a network of violent criminal street gangs. If convicted each defendant faces a maximum statutory penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to YourCentralValley.com | KSEE24 and CBS47. The United States has officially announced the introduction of visa sanctions against Georgian parliamentarians from the ruling Georgian Dream party. Similar sanctions have also been imposed on law enforcement officials. The sanctions were announced because of "oppression of democracy in the country." ADVERTISIMENT This was stated by US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. He clarified that the sanctions were imposed due to the adoption of the law "on transparency of foreign influence", the reaction of law enforcement agencies to peaceful protests, as well as "intimidation of society" and "disinformation at the direction of the Georgian government". Miller emphasized that sanctions against specific individuals are only the first step. The State Department spokesman expressed hope that the Georgian leadership would change course. Otherwise, he said, the United States is ready to conduct a "complete review of relations with the Georgian government." The State Department spokesman refused to specify against whom the sanctions were imposed. "I cannot give you specific names. Visa records are confidential under the law. But, as I said, we have added to the sanctions a list of people who have taken steps to spread disinformation, to undermine democracy, to violently attack peaceful protesters, to intimidate civil society at the direction of the Georgian government," Miller said. ADVERTISIMENT The State Department spokesman added that "the United States is ready not only to impose additional sanctions but also to take all other appropriate steps." "There is still time for the Georgian government to change the trajectory it is on. This concerns not only this law. It concerns the practice of suppressing dissent in general. This also applies to the statements of Georgian leaders who are now rejecting the path that Georgia has been following for so long. So they still have time to change the situation. And our policy will depend on the policy pursued by Georgia," Miller said. As reported, on May 14, the Georgian parliament passed the draft law on "foreign agents" in the third reading. Before the vote, MPs fought and protesters gathered near the parliament building once again. On May 18, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili vetoed the bill. However, the parliament overrode the veto, and on June 3, the speaker of the Georgian parliament signed the law on "foreign agents". ADVERTISIMENT Only verified information is available on OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! Were here to say dont give up: Time is running out to get justice for Camp Lejeune exposure Time is running out for families whose loved ones died after exposure to dangerous chemicals at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Victims or family members have about two months to file a claim to get compensation. That includes several widows here in Jacksonville. READ: Could that have been because of the water? Widow fighting to get justice for Camp Lejeune widows Michelle James and Karen Swindler both lost their husbands to a form of cancer. Both men served in the military and spent time at Camp Lejeune. The women have been brought together through the tragic loss of their husbands. Weve started to go out to lunch, James said. We start to build like a sisterhood. The sisterhood was formed through a Facebook group, Camp Lejeune Toxic Water Widows. James husband, Private Eric Holford, was at Camp Lejeune from 1984 to 1988. In 2011, he was diagnosed with M.S. In 2017, he found out he had colon cancer. A year later, the cancer spread to his bladder. He passed away in 2019. Theres been a lot of pushback from the government trying to discredit a lot of the information that we have, James said. She has binders filled with her husbands medical records and pleas to the Veteran Affairs Department. Her claims are still pending. Karen Swindlers husband, Edward Swindler, served at Camp Lejeune from July 1984 to April of 1988. He was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died six months later in 1991 at age forty-four. She applied for compensation right after her husband passed and she was denied. Im in the process now of renewing my fight to you know obtain the benefits based on his service, Swindler said. Now, the two women head the group Lejeune Empowered Advocacy for Widows group to assist women in need. They recommend getting legal counsel to help with claims as well. Under the recent Camp Lejeune Justice Act (CLJA) passed in 2022, families can get compensation for their loved ones who were exposed. The deadline to apply is August 10, 2024. More than 220,000 cases have been filed through the CLJA. Sixty-three people have been made offers, and forty payouts have been made. Were here to say dont give up, James said. Right now, theres a bill on the table to make corrections to the CLJA. It would cap attorney fees to make it more affordable to obtain legal help. The changes would also allow for victims and their families to have trial cases. [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter] Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live. Donald Trump is offering a peek into his father-son relationship with his youngest son, Barron Trump. In a recent interview, Trump shared updates about Barron's college entry efforts while acknowledging the toll his New York hush money trial has taken on the young man. He also revealed that the criminal trial, in which he was found guilty, and his 2024 campaign have also affected his wife, Melania, who is understood to be keeping Barron behind a protective "bubble" at their Mar-a-Lago resort. Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide hush money payments made to former adult film star Stormy Daniels. Donald Trump Says Barron Doesn't Want To Open Up MEGA In a new interview with Phil "Dr. Phil" McGraw, the former president discussed his New York hush money trial's impact on his family, especially his wife, Melania, and his youngest son, Barron. Trump had been battling a New York trial where he was alleged to have falsified business records to cover up a $130k payment he made to former adult film star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence over an alleged one-night stand. He has been found guilty on all 34 count charges and awaits sentencing, which is scheduled for July 11. My one on one interview with President Donald Trump. In depth. No holds barred. A must watch. pic.twitter.com/a5SuCgVsdW Dr. Phil (@DrPhil) June 7, 2024 In the conversation, which was shared on X, McGraw asked him if there had been "blowback on Barron because he's younger and more vulnerable," to which Trump replied, "It's not easy." The billionaire politician went on to add that Barron "doesn't say it" and that he thinks the teenager "doesn't say it because he doesn't want to hurt me, and he thinks it's possibly a hurtful conversation." "But it has to affect my family, and I think that's really very unfair. Because I have a very good family; I have good kids, I have a wonderful wife," he added. Donald Trump Gives Update On Barron's College Decision MEGA Just before he weighed in on the impact his legal troubles have had on his son, Trump revealed how Barron's college entry effort is coming along. Barron, who recently turned 18, graduated from Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach last month, as Trump and Melania, as well as Grandpa Victor Knavs, attended the ceremony. The youngster was tipped to follow in his father's footsteps after he was named among Florida's at-large representatives to the Republican Party National Convention before Melania's office announced that he'll not be honoring the nomination due to "previous commitments." Speaking to McGraw about Barron's college entry, Trump said, "He's a great kidhe's a good student, he got accepted to different colleges." He continued, "Some of those colleges, all of a sudden, they're rioting all over the place. But he's a good boy. He's a tall boy, very tall, and he's a great kid. Good-looking kid. And, you know, he's going to be at college." The Former President Also Shared How Melania Is Dealing With The Legal Battles MEGA The former host of "The Apprentice" also shed some light on his wife, Melania's well-being. He stated that the mother-of-one has also seemingly found it hard to cope with the trial. Melania was notably absent from the courtroom throughout the duration of Trump's trial and had barely appeared on his campaign trails, sparking speculations about her objection to his potential 2024 White House return. During the interview, McGraw asked him how the former first lady was "holding up through all this." "I think good," he replied. "But I don't think it's an easy thing for her, and I think if it wasn't good, she wouldn't want to tell me about it, to be honest." He went on, "Because, you know, she sees that I'm fighting like hell; I'm trying to become president and make America great again." "I have a wonderful wife - I mean, it's not easy for her to read about this stuff, that's fake - fake stuff," he added. "But that's the way it is. It certainly is not a good thing. It affects me more than it would if it were just about meI wish it would be just about me." The Trump Family Is Rallying Behind Their Patriarch MEGA Sources revealed that the guilty verdict in Trump's hush money trial has seemingly caused his family members to stand firm behind him in support. According to Page Six, the source disclosed that the verdict has now "brought the entire family closer together than they have ever been," including "a thaw in the sometimes chilly and tense relationship between Melania and Ivanka." "The entire family including all Trump's children, and their [significant others, including Don Jr.'s fiancee] Kimberly Guilfoyle are all circling the wagons," the source added. Melania And Barron Trump Were Seen Leaving Trump Tower MEGA According to the New York Post, Melania was seen leaving Trump Tower on Tuesday with Barron by her side. She kept her head down as she made her way into a Black Secret service SUV with at least seven Louis Vuitton luggage bags. In his Interview with McGraw, Trump stated that his family "tolerates" his media scrutiny and legal woes out of patriotism and faith in him. "I think to a certain extent, my family wants me to do it. Our country's in trouble. We could be in a world war very soon," Trump told the host, adding, "My family loves this country, and I think they feel I do a good job." Donald Trump Speaks On The Impact Of His Hush Money Trial On Melania: 'She Sees That I'm Fighting' Donald Trump is reflecting on the impact his New York hush money trial has had on his family, especially his wife, Melania Trump, and youngest son, Barron Trump. During a sit-down interview with Dr. Phil, Trump admitted that it hasn't been "easy" for Melania but that he thinks she is "good." He also shared his beliefs about Barron not complaining because he "doesn't want to hurt me," going on to say that his family "tolerates" his legal woes and 2024 campaign because of their love for America. Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and will be sentenced on July 11. Donald Trump Says His Wife Melania Is 'I Think Good' MEGA In a recent conversation with TV host Dr. Phil, whose real name is Phil McGraw, the former president discussed his family's emotional state following his months-long hush money trial and his 2024 presidential campaign. Trump became the first former US president to be convicted of felony crimes after he was found guilty of 34 count charges for falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to former adult film star Stormy Daniels. His family, especially his daughter Ivanka, wife Melania, and son Barron, distanced themselves from the case and never appeared in court to show him support, which he now admits must have been tough on them. During the interview, McGraw asked how the former first lady was "holding up through all this." "I think good," he replied, per The Independent. "But I don't think it's an easy thing for her, and I think if it wasn't good, she wouldn't want to tell me about it, to be honest." He went on, "Because, you know, she sees that I'm fighting like hell, I'm trying to become president and make America great again." "I have a wonderful wife - it's not easy for her to read about this stuff, that's fake - fake stuff," he added. Donald Trump Reveals Why Son Barron Is Not Opening Up About The Trial MEGA According to the news outlet, the presumptive GOP nominee also voiced concerns that his son, Barron, may not be opening up about the impact his legal woes and media scrutiny have had on him. Not much is known about the high school graduate, who recently turned 18, as Melania has made it a duty to keep him locked in a protective "bubble" at their Mar-a-Lago estate, away from media attention. Although he has rarely been seen speaking in public, Barron reportedly favors his father's political efforts and was even nominated among Florida's at-large representatives to the Republican Party National Convention, held in Milwaukee in July. Speaking to McGraw, Trump said, "I think he doesn't say because he doesn't want to hurt me and thinks it's a possibly hurtful conversation, but it has to affect my family." Donald Trump's Family 'Tolerates' His Battles For The Love Of America MEGA In recent months, Melania's continuous absence from the campaign trail has sparked speculation that she does not support Trump's 2024 hopes. In addition, Ivanka, who served as a senior advisor during his first administration, has since retired from politics to focus on her family and build a private life in Miami. However, the billionaire politician has now stated that his family "tolerates" his media scrutiny and legal woes out of patriotism and their faith in him, per Independent. "I think to a certain extent, my family wants me to do it. Our country's in trouble. We could be in a world war very soon," Trump told McGraw, adding, "My family loves this country, and I think they feel I do a good job." Donald Trump Slams Judge In First Post-Conviction Rally MEGA In his first rally after his conviction at a Turning Point Action event in sweltering Phoenix, Trump slammed the judge who presided over the case, Judge Juan Merchan. "Those appellate courts have to step up and straighten things out, or we're not going to have a country any longer," he said, per The Guardian. Trump then ripped President Joe Biden's recent executive order limiting asylum seekers, which he called "bulls--t" and said he would rescind if elected for a second term. He also criticized Biden's immigration approach, urging him to reinstate Trump-era border policies to solve the issue. "Arizona is being turned into a dumping ground for the dungeons of the third world," Trump claimed. He Called The Hush Money Trial A 'Disgrace' MEGA The former president's sentencing for his hush money guilty verdict is scheduled to take place on July 11. Trump has previously slammed the trial as a "disgrace," adding that it is a "witch hunt" that's politically motivated. "Our whole country is being rigged right now," He told the press outside the courtroom. "This was done by the Biden administration in order to wound, to hurt an opponent. A political opponent. And I think it's just a disgrace, and we'll keep fighting, we'll fight till the end, and we'll win because our country has gone to hell. We don't have the same country anymore, we have a divided mess ." He continued, "We are a nation in decline, serious decline of people pouring into our country right now. From prisons and from mental institutions. Terrorists, and they're taking over our country. We have a country that's in big trouble, but this was a rigged decision right from day one, with a conflicted judge who should have never been allowed to try this case. Never!" Trump concluded his statement: "We will fight for our constitution. This is far from over. Thank you very much." DOVER Since launching a community power program, Dover has seen roughly 12,800 accounts enroll, saving residents and business owners $772,000-plus combined on electricity bills in the first five months. Just 51 users have opted for plans utilizing higher renewable energy content while most have chosen plans that result in bigger cost savings, according to Jackson Kaspari, the city's resilience manager. City Council members were briefed Wednesday by Kaspari on several energy projects in Dover, including the citys efforts to expand renewable energy sources and gradually lower electricity bills through the community power program. Dover is one of almost five dozen members of the Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire. Dover leaders are reporting cost savings on electricity bills through joining a statewide community power program. About 40,000 megawatt hours have been served since the start of the program among all users in Dover. Grass or turf?: Coaches speak up on Dover High School athletic complex upgrades Officials in Dover will work to promote the entire city community power program in hopes of attracting more customers. There is an effort right now between Seacoast New Hampshire communities to look at how we can increase outreach, specifically about the higher renewable content options and their credit price points, so well be working on ways to engage the public just to let them know they have that available to them, he said. Hopefully more folks may consider that choice if it makes sense. Dover is one of the founding members of the Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire. The coalition reported having 57 municipal members and two county members as of April 1. Locally, Barrington, Durham, Epping, Exeter, Hampton Falls, Newmarket, Portsmouth, Rye, Somersworth and Stratham have joined the coalition. What are choices for community power customers on their monthly electric bills? Four options for electricity customers are offered in the community power program. The default Granite Basic plan matches Eversources 23.4% renewable content offering, though the community power rate of 8.1 cents per kilowatt hour and estimated monthly pay of $53 is slightly less than Eversources rates. The 33% renewable energy Granite Plus plan costs 8.4 cents per kilowatt hour and is an estimated $55 per month, while the Clean 50 Plan with 50% renewable content costs 9.4 cents per kilowatt hour at an estimated $61 per month. The 100% renewable energy Clean 100 option comes in 12.4 cents per kilowatt hour and an estimated $81 per month. Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire officials are looking to reduce the price of the Clean 100 cost per kilowatt hour in Dover, Kaspari told the City Council. They've been able to increase their staff capacity as more communities are participating, which is good because they're providing a real high level of support, including legislative support on behalf of communities as well as technical support for programs and projects, Kaspari said. Dover community power participants are currently locked into a six-month plan that began on Feb. 1 and will end July 31. Councilor Fergus Cullen reminded his colleagues the 51 city community power program account holders whove selected a higher renewable content plan make up approximately 0.4% of all enrolled Dover members. Lets not kid ourselves that this is really making a difference. Its fine that we offer the choice, but consumers are acting on that and theyre not choosing it, he said. The roughly 12,800 accounts currently enrolled in the Dover program represents a 1.4% decrease in registered users since the start of the city initiative. Kaspari speculated the city saw a small dip in account holders because of apartment tenant changeover in Dover and occupants being automatically enrolled with Eversource. Kaspari said the Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire is countering that trend by sending out mailers to potential new customers in communities like Dover. Program touted as 'great success' Across the statewide coalition, participating community power users in New Hampshire have seen a total of about $23 million in savings to date, according to Kaspari. Its been a great success for Dover and for the state of New Hampshire overall, he added. I think this is an incredibly beneficial program that has been rolled out in Dover, said Councilor April Richer, who is a member of Dovers energy commission. Kaspari sits on the board of directors for the Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire and is the primary city staffer overseeing the program in Dover. City Manager Michael Joyal Jr. noted Kasparis position with the city is grant-funded and has led to hundreds of thousands of dollars saved for Dover residents and businesses within the community power program. That has almost more than tenfold paid for the cost of the position that Jackson occupies here in the city, Joyal said. So when the grant funds run out, theres clearly an opportunity to show that there was a significant return on the investment that was made. That was one of the purposes of the grant was to show that there could be significant savings and benefit to the community by investing in projects and activities that promote sustainable practices, renewable energy use, etc. The Dover community power launch occurred at the end of last October. This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Dover NH touts saving on electric bills with community power Palestinians inspect damages after an Israeli airstrike on a school for displaced people run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Nuseirat refugee camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip. Omar Naaman/dpa Dozens of civilians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in central Gaza, Palestinian medics and the Hamas militant group said, a claim Israel denies. The Hamas-controlled health authority in Gaza said that at least 30 people were killed in the attack on Wednesday night and that most of the victims were women and children. Hamas said 40 people died. Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner said Israel had no knowledge of possible civilian causalities. Twenty to 30 members of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) were believed to have been in three classrooms of the school building in the Nuseirat refugee neighbourhood, he said. Initial findings indicated that many of them had been killed in the attack, Lerner said. The school had been monitored in recent days and the attack had been postponed twice in order to avoid civilian casualties, the army spokesman added. According to Palestinians, civilians fleeing the war from other areas of Gaza had sought refuge in the building. Hamas spoke of a "cruel massacre" of displaced Palestinians. Lerner, however, said that internally displaced people had not been in the area attacked by Israel. The United States called for an investigation into the airstrike and told Israel it must be "fully transparent." US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that even if Israel's army intended to target Hamas militants, the claims of children killed in the strike "show that something went wrong." "If that is accurate that 14 children were killed, those aren't terrorists," Miller said. "These are all facts that need to be verified, and that's what we want to see happen." It was impossible to independently verify the figures and allegations made by the sides. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said earlier that militants who had participated in the October 7 massacre in Israel had been targeted at the UNRWA school. Internally displaced Gazans have often taken refuge in UN school buildings since the start of the war, hoping Israel will not target UN buildings. "Another horrific day in Gaza," wrote UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini on X. "The school was sheltering 6,000 displaced people when it was hit. Claims that armed groups may have been inside the shelter are shocking. We are however unable to verify these claims." Since the beginning of the Gaza war, more than 180 UNRWA buildings have been hit, killing more than 450 displaced people, Lazzarini said. According to the Israeli army, this is the fifth known case within a month in which Hamas and PIJ fighters have misused UNRWA facilities for their own purposes. Israel accuses Hamas of operating from civilian facilities such as schools, hospitals and mosques, thereby endangering civilians or deliberately using them as shields. Elsewhere, three Palestinians have been killed in clashes between Israeli soldiers and militants in the town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank. Several other Palestinians were injured, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said. According to the Israeli military, the soldiers arrested a wanted Palestinian. Militants then fired on them, which the troops returned. They received support from a combat helicopter during the battle. Several armed Palestinians were killed, it said. Palestinian media reported, citing witnesses, that members of an undercover Israeli special forces unit had initially entered Jenin to arrest someone. Militants opened fire on the Israelis, whereupon more troops entered the town and engaged in skirmishes with the militants. Jenin is considered a stronghold of Palestinian extremists. Since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip on October 7, the situation in the entire West Bank has deteriorated significantly. According to the Ministry of Health, 509 Palestinians have since been killed in the West Bank in Israeli military operations, confrontations or their own attacks. There has also been an increase in settler violence against Palestinians. Meanwhile, violence resumed on the border between Lebanon and Israel on Thursday. On the Lebanese side, at least one fighter from the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah was killed in Aitaroun near the border with Israel, local media reported. Another fighter was also injured. The Israeli military said it had attacked Hezbollah infrastructure in the area. Hezbollah again claimed several attacks on targets in northern Israel on Thursday. The situation on the Israeli-Lebanese border has recently become significantly worse. According to the Israeli army, a soldier was killed in a drone attack from Lebanon on Wednesday. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has renewed his calls for a ceasefire, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement. "He remains gravely concerned that the exchanges of fire have not only ravaged communities close to the Blue Line but have also impacted deeper into the territories of both Lebanon and Israel, with the use of increasingly destructive weapons," he said. "These exchanges of fire could trigger a broader conflict with devastating consequences for the region." The United Nations supported all diplomatic and political efforts to end the violence, the statement added. The Blue Line is a demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon set by the UN. Palestinians inspect damages after an Israeli airstrike on a school for displaced people run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Nuseirat refugee camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip. Omar Naaman/dpa A Palestinian child sits between damages after an Israeli airstrike on a school for displaced people run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Nuseirat refugee camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip. Omar Naaman/dpa Palestinian children look through bullet holes following an Israeli airstrike on a school for displaced persons belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Nuseirat refugee camp. Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa Student of color raising his hand showing only the hand holding a pencil in a classroom background Getty images The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) notified Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) Thursday that it is withholding a $16.6 million state special aid payment due to the districts failure to submit required financial reports. The action was expected as DPI notified the district in May that it was in danger of having state aid withheld due to significantly overdue financial data, some over eight months late. DPI officials met with MPS repeatedly over several months in an effort to collect the missing data. DPI spokesperson Chris Bucher said in a statement that the agency was working deeply and actively to develop a corrective action plan (CAP) and that once that happens, the district will be able to recoup the June aid payment. We remain optimistic we will have a CAP in place so we can make the scheduled general aid payment later this month, Bucher said. When we have a CAP in place, we will also be able to release this withheld special education aid payment. Our focus remains on solving this challenge and supporting all of Milwaukees children. The Milwaukee Board of School Directors said in a statement that MPS has been in close communication with DPI to resolve the issue and working closely with the department and its auditors to complete the necessary documents and reports. Currently, our top priority continues to be ensuring that all key required financial data is submitted to DPI as quickly as possible, the school board said. The statement said board members are finalizing a corrective action plan to complete and submit past due financial reports to DPI. A draft corrective plan along with missing financial data were submitted to DPI on Wednesday, according to school board members. MPS is optimistic that the [corrective action plan] will allow the districts general aid payment to be received on time, and that its special education aid payment will also be released at that time, the board stated. The plan submitted seems to need additional work. State Sen. John Jagler (R-Watertown) posted the districts draft plan that was submitted to DPI to social media Thursday afternoon, saying that it was pretty obvious why this wasnt sufficient to stop DPI from withholding funds. Theres no urgency on finding immediate solutions, Jagler wrote. Tom McCarthy with DPI responded to Jaglers post, saying the lawmaker was right. We communicated that directly to MPS in a meeting this morning, McCarthy said. We made it clear we need a real plan, we are committed to help them get there, and we believe they understand what we need to be able to move forward. The missing financial reports led to the resignation of Keith Posley as MPS superintendent on Tuesday as he was criticized over the delays. Alfredo Balmaseda, who was serving as the comptroller for MPS, said he was fired. Our students, families, staff, and community count on MPS to prepare our youth for success in higher education, post-education opportunities, work and citizenship, the board statement continued. This is our mission and our guide as we navigate this complex situation. The post DPI withholds $16.6M in Milwaukee Public Schools aid over missing financial reports appeared first on Wisconsin Examiner. Dripping Springs man gets life in prison for continuous sexual abuse of child HAYS COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) A man was sentenced to life in prison May 30 after he was found guilty of continuous sexual abuse of a child younger than 14 years of age, according to Hays County Criminal District Attorney Kelly Higgins. According to the DAs office, 38-year-old Andrew Brown, of Dripping Springs, sexually abused an 8-year-old, who was the child of a family friend, for more than a year. The DAs office said the abuse occurred after Brown volunteered to care for the child while his wife and friends were out. Evidence in the punishment phase showed that the defendant had also possessed thousands of pornographic images depicting the sexual abuse of young children, the DAs office said. The child pornography was discovered after he made calls from jail asking a family member to destroy the storage device containing the images. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin. Nick Bril, owner of restaurant The Jane in Antwerp, allegedly ran over a colleague while drunk A double Michelin star chef texted colleagues I dont think well keep the intern after allegedly running the British trainee over with a Land Rover while drunk in Belgium. Nick Bril, the owner of restaurant The Jane in Antwerp, did nothing to help his sous chef Joe Claridge, 37, for ten minutes after the incident, it was reported. Mr Bril is alleged to have sent some messages to a Whatsapp group of The Jane staff after running over Mr Claridge, who lost his legs and some internal organs in the incident. Judicial sources said the chef wrote: Guys, I just finished up with our new intern. Complete KO. An ambulance and the police, everything involved. I dont think well keep Joe as an intern. Emergency services were only called after a passing jogger urged Mr Bril, who had taken a photo of the victim on the ground, to make the call, it was alleged. When they arrived, he did not tell paramedics he had run over Mr Claridge and only said he was drunk, according to the reports in the Belgian media. The incident happened in a private car park for staff outside the restaurant on Jan 8. Joe Claridge, 37, lost both legs in the incident - Newsflash Mr Bril reportedly told the authorities he had consumed one glass of wine, then two negronis and two beers. Then I finished with a few shots of tequila with the team. I cant say how many. I think I was still able to drive. The victim was also reportedly drunk that evening as it was a Sunday, when the staff traditionally finishes off the opened bottles of wine and champagne. At 6am, there were still eight people present at the party before Mr Claridge left for the taxi stand in front of the restaurant. According to CCTV reportedly seen by investigators, Mr Bril left the restaurant and headed to his Land Rover. The footage does not show how Mr Claridge fell to the ground, but does allegedly capture the car at 6.20am apparently reversing over where he was laying before driving over him a second time. I panicked Mr Bril got out of the car and walked to a still-moving Mr Claridge. The chef reportedly said that he tried to wake him up but that didnt work and I panicked. The jogger appeared at 6.29am and asked Mr Bril why he had not called an ambulance. He later told local media that the chef said he had a new phone that he didnt know how to use. The jogger then walked to the front desk of a nearby hotel and asked them to call the emergency services, who arrived and took the British chef away. Mr Bril reportedly sat in his car with the engine ready to drive off, with only the ambulance blocking his way. Police breathalysed him and found he was over the limit, it was reported. He is not only suspected of intoxication behind the wheel and the accident itself, but also committed negligence by not immediately providing assistance. After the accident, Mr Claridges mother immediately travelled to her son in hospital where he was in a coma for 50 days. Both of his legs had to be amputated. Omar Souidi, Nick Brils lawyer, told local media he couldnt reach his client and thought he was probably abroad. I note that journalists today appear to have quicker access to a secret investigation than the parties directly involved, he said. If this is the case, it is shocking and a manifest violation of, among other things, Nick Brils rights of defence and the right to a fair trial. Antwerp public prosecutors office refused to comment as the investigation is still ongoing. 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. Matthew Croucher, a former Lance Corporal who received the George Cross for bravery in Afghanistan, was arrested in November - Steve Parsons/PA A former Royal Marine who was arrested in Dubai and accused of spying has been cleared and will be allowed to leave the country, according to local authorities. Matthew Croucher, a former Lance Corporal, was arrested last November in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after accessing a public facility using illegal means of technology, Dubai authorities said on Friday. No further details were provided regarding the accusations against Mr Croucher, who has been working as a security consultant based in the UK. The case was referred to the Dubai Public Prosecution, and after thorough investigation, the evidence was found to be inadequate, said the Dubai media office, a government agency in the UAE. The case was dismissed and Croucher is now free to leave the UAE. The decision highlights the Dubai Public Prosecutions commitment to upholding the rule of law, the statement added. Lance Corporal Matt Croucher in 2010 with the George Cross he received for his work in Afghanistan - Ian West/PA After being arrested last year, the authorities held Mr Croucher for four days in jail, then confiscated his passport and banned him from leaving the country. While in jail, he was interrogated by Dubai police for six hours, and reportedly asked about his role within the UKs Ministry of Defence and intelligence services. He was also required to report to Al Barsha police station each week. Mr Crouchers family denied the allegations, saying that they were shocked at the circumstances which have played out. We believe the case to be made up and ridiculous. The Foreign Office has been useless, often making things worse and telling him his case has been formally concluded. This has caused our family immense stress and we just hope this can be concluded at the earliest opportunity. Received the George Cross Mr Croucher, 40, received the George Cross Britains second-highest decoration after he threw himself on a grenade in Afghanistan to protect his fellow soldiers. The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office did not immediately reply to a request for a comment about Mr Croucher being allowed to leave the UAE. Earlier, a UK Foreign Office spokesman said: We are supporting a British man in the UAE and are in contact with the local authorities. 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. Between June 6 and 9, more than 360 million European citizens are being called to elect the 720 men and women who for the next five years will make up the European Parliament, a body presented as the only multinational parliamentary assembly in the world elected by direct suffrage. This years will be the 10th time that voters elect the most democratic branch of the EUs institutions, a practice that began in 1979. The DNA of the bloc is undergoing a transformation process as a reflection of the geopolitical challenges of the world, with enormous external challenges such as Russias war against Ukraine and internal such as the predicted rise of political groups with Eurosceptic overtones that are promising to walk back the current model. In the middle of this difficult situation, the EU has made a great effort to encourage voting and achieve high turnout. The challenge is to maintain or exceed the 50.6% rate registered in 2019, the highest since 1994. When do Europeans vote? It depends on each member state. The vast majority of countries vote on Sunday, June 9, but since organizing the elections is the responsibility of each country, there are some in which voting takes place on other days. In Italy, for example, voting takes place over two days, June 8 and 9; the Czech Republic does so on June 7 and 8. The Netherlands went to the polls on Thursday, June 6. Ireland is voting on Friday, while Latvia, Malta and Slovakia will vote on Saturday. What is being voted on between June 6 and 9? The 720 MEPs from the 27 member states that make up the European Union are being elected. The first elections were held in 1979 and, over time and through different treaties, the European Parliament has gained powers. Who can vote? Unlike national elections, in the European elections in several countries the voting age has been lowered: in Germany, Austria, Belgium and Malta, 16-year-olds will now be able to go to the polls on this occasion, while 17-year-olds may do so in Greece. In the rest of the member states, the minimum voting age is 18. Citizens of one European country residing in another can choose whether to vote for the list of their country of origin or that of their place of residence, although they cannot do so in both. Is the European Commission being elected? No. The person who will preside over the European Commission is chosen by the heads of State and Government, taking into account the electoral result. However, the European Parliament can veto the appointment, since the chosen candidate must be subject to ratification by MEPs. Nor are the members of the College of Commissioners directly elected. These are designated by each government. However, it is once again up to the European Parliament to grant the required confidence vote. The European Parliaments tasks also include approving the EU budget and monitoring how money is spent. Do all countries have the same number of MEPs? No. The EUs largest country, Germany, will elect 96 representatives; the smallest (Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta), six. The distribution is calculated based on the population. However, there are corrections to this basic criterion, since strictly speaking the smallest members would have very little representation. Thus, depending on the population of each country, on January 1 of this year, there was one German MEP for almost 900,000 citizens. Malta, on the other hand, had one for every 90,000. These numbers cannot be extrapolated to how many votes a party must get to have a representative, since these figures include citizens without the right to vote (minors). This will depend on the turnout and will be significantly lower. Who are the main candidates? The best-known face of these elections is, without a doubt, the current president of the European Commission, the German Christian Democrat Ursula von der Leyen. But neither she nor the socialist leader, Luxembourgs Nicolas Schmit, or Austrias leftist Walter Baier, are eligible to be MEPs. They are instead the candidates of their political families to preside over the next College of Commissioners, but they are not running for election directly. How many political parties are there in the European Parliament? It will not be easy to answer this question until the elections are held. Right now there are 217 parties that are grouped into seven political families. Each country sends delegations with several parties. How many political groups are there? This figure is much more stable. Since 2004, the different European families have been organized into seven political groups in the European Parliament. In the last one, from highest to lowest, they have been: the European Peoples Party (EPP), the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the liberals of Renew Europe, the Greens/European Free Alliance, Identity and Democracy (ID), the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and The Left. There is also a group of non-aligned members that includes, among others, the parliamentarians of Fidesz, the party of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who were expelled from the EPP. What do the polls say? All known polls agree that the winner will be the European Peoples Party, with a result very similar to what it achieved in 2019 (178 seats) or even a slight improvement, explained by the increase in the number of MEPs that will be in the chamber, which is going from 705 to 720 seats. The Socialists and Democrats are also expected to achieve a similar number of representatives as they did five years ago, although in this case there is a small decrease, from 140 to 138. But this does not mean that they will constitute the second largest group in the EU Parliament. That will depend on the result of the far-right groups, now split into two. If the rise of the two groups (Identity and Democracy, and European Conservatives and Reformists) is confirmed and they join forces, as the French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has proposed, that second place could correspond to them. The sharpest declines are expected among the liberal ranks and among the greens. For the most leftist group in the chamber (The Left), the polls point to a small advance over the 2019 results. When will the results be known? Although the votes begin on June 6, it will not be until the night of June 9 when the estimates and projections begin to be made. The European Parliament plans a first set of estimates by country on Sunday evening. On Monday the 10th, all the provisional results should be known. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition The society wedding of the year, with Prince William as an usher, was always going to attract plenty of attention. However, the day took an unexpected turn this afternoon when a protest created commotion as the couple and Prince William left the cathedral. Protesters from organization Just Stop Oil set off orange smoke from a fire extinguisher as Hugh Grosvenor and Olivia Henson made their way to their car following the service. Police intervened and Just Stop Oil said that two of their supporters were arrested. The organization is demanding an end to the extraction of burning oil, gas and coal by 2030. Their attention-grabbing protests have also included throwing soup at Van Goughs Sunflowers in the UKs National Gallery. Neil Mockford - Getty Images Members of the public standing near to the protest expressed their shock yesterday after the bride and groom had departed. She had a trolley like a pensioners trolley on wheels, one woman told journalists. She just let it go off. Another woman nearby said she thought it was confetti at first before realizing that there was a protest going on. Crowds simultaneously cheered the wedding party while booing the protest. At around 12:30 p.m., two Just Stop Oil supporters used fire extinguishers to project powder paint near the entrance to Chester Cathedral, whilst billionaire aristocrat Hugh Grosvenor and his new wife Olivia Henson made their way towards a waiting luxury 8-Litre Bentley, after leaving their wedding service and standing for photos, Just Stop Oil said in a media release today. Streets near to the cathedral had been lined with barriers and there was a strong police presence ahead of the midday wedding. You Might Also Like The websites of three Dutch political parties came under attack by a Russian hacking group as the Netherlands kicked off voting for the European elections, Dutch media reported on June 6. The Russian hacking group Hacknet claimed responsibility via a post on Telegram for the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. "We continue to attack the websites of the Netherlands and its parties," Hacknet claimed. The attack meant the websites of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), as well as the far-right Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV) and Forum voor Democratie (FvD), were temporarily inaccessible. "On Election Day, we consider this an attack on free, democratic elections. We are reporting this to the relevant authorities," CDA posted on X. Before Hacknet claimed responsibility for the attack, far-right FvD party leader Thierry Baudet posted on X "Russians?" and a laughing emoji. "The whole team is working overtime to repel the attack," he said. The Netherlands is the first among the 27 EU member states to start voting for the European elections, with polling stations open on June 6. The results are not announced before June 9, once citizens in other EU countries have had the chance to vote. Read also: EU aid and accession talks: Why European elections matter for Ukraine Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. EAA offers up-close look at two planes critical to the D-Day invasion EAA offers up-close look at two planes critical to the D-Day invasion OSHKOSH, Wis. (WFRV) Two planes synonymous with the legendary battle in France during World War II are on display at EAA. Every airplane has a soul, said Chris Henry, who coordinates the programs at the museum. This hangar is full of the souls of the people who built them, took care of them, and flew them. Plus, the folks who restored them. Relatives of inmates who died in Wisconsin prison shocked guards werent charged in their cases The first plane is the P-51 Mustang, located inside the hangar. Even with a very American-sounding name, it was originally made for the British. The planes maker, North American in California, churned out a prototype within just 120 days. It had the range and the performance to go all the way to Germany and back and escort American bombers while fending off enemy fighters and allowing our bombers to strike, said Henry. The only thing the British changed was the engine. They put in a Rolls Royce Merlin engine that gave it its distinctive sound. Both engines are on full display. What happened at D-Day is that P-51s, even though they werent allowed over the beaches, provided cover to make sure no German aircraft were able to get over the beaches. So, what we were doing was destroying the German airforce before they could get to our troops who were trying to land on the beaches of Normandy. The blue and yellow paint job is in honor of EAA founder Paul Poberenzy, who owned the plane, restored it, and then donated it to the public when he no longer flew it. Henry says it was his favorite. The black and white painting underneath, known as invasion stripes, is historically accurate. They realized early on they had to let people know on the ground that these were friendly forces, explained Henry. Either from above or below. Somebody came up with the idea, lets just paint, in the middle of the night, black and white stripes on anything that was going to be allied. Especially if they were flying at low altitudes, so you knew it was friendly. EAA will allow folks to climb into the cockpits of some of the planes, hoping it will help bring history to life. As a lover of the black and white film, theres something to be said for coming out and seeing it in person, Henry emphasized. The second plane is a Douglas C-47 outside at the EAA museum entrance. Henry says it wasnt originally designed for the military. When the war broke out, everyone had something to do with the war effort. So, this aircraft was originally ordered for Eastern Airlines. They had to give it up to the Army Air Force. Henry says students who volunteer and help clean the plane are shocked at the thin, aluminum shell. There are some iconic planes and pieces of equipment. No matter what branch of the service, when you see one, you identify it. The Army Jeep. In Vietnam, it was Huey (helicopter), and in World War II, the C-47 was that. Those entrusted with the care and preservation of these planes say it is the least they can do for the service members who are no longer here to tell their stories. Its very important to make sure the stories are told. Concerns about treatment of homeless population surface in Oshkosh During its AirVenture in July, EAA is dedicating an entire day to the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Tuesday, July 23: Turning the Tide in WWII and D-Day 80th anniversary, featuring Timeless Voices interviews with D-Day vets, plus in-person commentary from those who keep the historic aircraft flying. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFRV Local 5 - Green Bay, Appleton. Easing federal marijuana rules: Theres still a long way to go In this photo illustration, marijuana joints and buds, also known as flower, are viewed on May 24, 2024 in Los Angeles. (Photo Illustration by Mario Tama/Getty Images) Nearly three weeks after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration proposed loosening a federal prohibition on marijuana, the next phases of policy fights over the drugs status are starting to take shape. Public comments, which the DEA is accepting on the proposal until mid-July, will likely include an analysis of the economic impact of more lenient federal rules. Administrative law hearings, a venue for opponents to challenge executive branch decisions, will likely follow, with marijuanas potential for abuse a possible issue. Congress, meanwhile, could act on multiple related issues, including banking access for state-legal marijuana businesses and proposals to help communities harmed by the decades of federal prohibition. U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat from Oregon and longtime advocate for legalizing marijuana whos retiring at the end of the year, is encouraging his colleagues to build on the administrations action by taking up bills on those related issues. The politics of the issue should favor action, even in the face of an upcoming campaign season that typically slows legislative action, Blumenauer said in a May 17 interview, noting the popularity of a more permissive approach to the drug. Congress may not do a lot between now and November, but they should, the 14-term House member said. Because its an election year, theres no downside to being more aggressive. Economic impact In a proposed rule published in the Federal Register last month, the DEA specifically asked commenters to weigh in on the economic impacts of moving the drug from Schedule I to the less-restrictive Schedule III list under the federal Controlled Substances Act. That will likely mean the agency will consider the impact of allowing state-legal marijuana businesses to deduct business expenses from their federal taxes, Mason Tvert, a partner at Denver-based cannabis policy and public affairs firm Strategies 64, said in an interview. Under current law, no deductions are allowed. That issue is seen by advocates, including Blumenauer and fellow Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden, who chairs the tax-writing U.S. Senate Finance Committee, as paramount for the industry. Thousands of state-legal businesses struggle to earn a profit or operate at a loss under the current system, Blumenauer said. Potential for abuse The DEA typically looks at three factors when assessing how strictly to regulate a drug: its medicinal value, potential for abuse relative to other drugs and ability to cause physical addiction. A 2023 analysis by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that looked at data from states where medicinal marijuana is legal showed that there exists some credible scientific support for the medical use of marijuana. That finding could lead DEA to look at other factors, Tvert said. The battleground that well see will be around how we define potential for abuse, he said. Agencies split? But the DEA proposed rule revealed a divided view among government agencies about the drugs potential harms, Paul Armentano, the deputy director for the longtime leading advocacy group National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, told States Newsroom. The text of the proposed rule shows a lack of consensus among HHS, the Attorney Generals Office and the Drug Enforcement Administration, he said. There are several points in the DEAs proposed rule where they express a desire to see additional evidence specific to concerns that the agency has about the potential effects of cannabis, particularly as they pertain to abuse potential and potential harms, Armentano said. The HHS addresses those issues, but the DEA essentially says, Wed like to see more information on it. Kevin Sabat, the president and CEO of the anti-legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, agreed that the DEA did not appear to agree with the HHS conclusion that medical uses exist. The proposed rule just brings up all these issues with the HHSs determination and it basically invites comment on all those issues, he said. Administrative law hearing Sabats group will also be petitioning for a DEA administrative hearing, he said. An administrative law judge could rule that the proposal should not go through or that it should be amended to remain stricter than the initial proposal described. Were going to highlight the fact that, first of all, this does not have approved or accepted medical use, he said. Tvert said the accepted medical value question is likely not to be a major factor in an administrative law hearing. Several medical organizations and states that allow medicinal use have already endorsed its medicinal value, he said. Instead, the focus will turn to the drugs potential for abuse, he said. What will be critical is looking at cannabis relative to other substances that are currently II or III or not on the schedule, and determining whether cannabis should be on Schedule I when alcohol is not even on the schedules and ketamine is Schedule III. As of June 6, nearly 12,000 people had commented on the proposal in the 18 days since its publication. While opinion polls show that most Americans favor liberalizing cannabis laws a Pew Research Center survey in March found 57% of U.S. adults favor full legalization while only 11% say it should be entirely illegal the public comments so far represent a full spectrum of views on the topic. This rule is a horrible idea, this should remain in Schedule I, one comment read. Marijuana is a gateway drug and ruins lives. There are no negative side effects to its use, another commenter, who favored fully legalizing the substance, wrote. Its not harmful. The only harm is what the government has done to me and America. Shame on the people that continue to oppose this. Seriously shame on anyone that would stand in the way of this change. Congressional action? Blumenauer authored a memo last month on the path forward for reform as the rescheduling process plays out. He listed four bills for Congress to consider this year. One, sponsored by House Democrats, would remove cannabis from the Controlled Substance Act schedule entirely and expunge prior offenses. A bipartisan bill would make changes to the banking laws to allow state-legal businesses greater access to loans and other financial services. Another, cosponsored with Florida Republican Brian Mast, would allow Veterans Administration health providers to discuss state-legal medicinal marijuana with veteran patients. Blumenauer has also co-written language for appropriations bills that would prevent the Department of Justice from prosecuting marijuana businesses that are legal under state or tribal law. All of these things are overwhelmingly popular, theyre important, we have legislative vehicles and supporters, he said. Still, there may be disagreements about what to pursue next. Recent years have seen disagreements among Democratic supporters of legalization over whether to prioritize banking or criminal justice reforms. A banking overhaul has much greater bipartisan support, and advocates on all sides of the issue agree its the most likely to see congressional action. But some who support changes to banking laws in principle object to focusing on improving the business environment without first addressing the harms they say prohibition has caused to largely non-white and disadvantaged communities. As recently as 2021, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer described banking reform legislation as too narrow. Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, called it a common-sense policy but said that he favored a more comprehensive approach. Ive gone around with Cory on that, Blumenauer said. More than anybody in Congress, Im in favor of the major reforms, and weve been fighting for racial justice and equity but (racial justice and banking reforms) are not mutually exclusive. In September, Booker agreed to co-sponsor the banking reform bill after winning a promise from Schumer that a separate bill to help expunge criminal records would also receive a vote. Neither measure has actually received a floor vote. In a statement following the administrations announcement on rescheduling, Booker praised the move, but called for further action from Congress. That includes passing a bill hes sponsored that would decriminalize the drug at the federal level, expunge the records of people convicted of federal marijuana crimes and direct federal funding to communities most harmed by the failed War on Drugs, according to a summary from Bookers office. We still have a long way to go, Booker said in the statement on rescheduling. Thousands of people remain in prisons around the country for marijuana-related crimes. They continue to bear the devastating consequences that come with a criminal history. Blumenauer said Congress should act on the proposals that have widespread support from voters. This not low-hanging fruit, this is having them pick it up off the ground, he said. There is no other controversial issue that has as much bipartisan support thats awaiting action. The post Easing federal marijuana rules: Theres still a long way to go appeared first on North Dakota Monitor. Protesters march to a Planned Parenthood office in Santa Monica in July 2022 to denounce the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade and end abortion rights protections. (David McNew / Getty Images) For the record: 10:25 p.m. June 8, 2024: A previous version of this editorial misstated the number of votes the Right to Contraception Act received in the Senate. It received 51. It is infuriating as well as alarming that the U.S. Senate on Wednesday failed to pass the Right to Contraception Act, a straightforward bill that would guarantee a federal right to safe and legal contraception. The bill needed 60 votes to proceed but only received 51, all but two coming from Democrats and independents who caucus with Democrats. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), a staunch supporter of the bill, changed his vote to a "no" so as to allow him to bring up the bill again. Americans should be appalled that nearly half of the people elected to represent them in the Senate are so spineless they couldnt vote for something as simple as a right to contraception, which 90% of women have used at one point in their lives and is considered basic preventive healthcare. Read more: Editorial: A right to IVF or abortion will never be protected if fetuses and embryos are declared people Only two Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted for it. Good for them. Their Republican colleagues, on the other hand, blustered variously about the bill being a political move, too broad or unnecessary. Thats ridiculous. There's clearly a movement among antiabortion activists to wrongly redefine contraceptives as abortifacients. And any of their constituents should think long and hard about voting for a senator who wont support their right to contraception. If it were enshrined into federal law, states couldnt override it with restrictions. If the Supreme Court struck down its own precedents protecting the right to contraception, the federal law would still protect it. Read more: Abcarian: Hang on to the pill and your IUD. After abortion, birth control is the next fight And that is not out of the question. The Supreme Court has voted three times to support the right to contraception over the decades, but does anyone want to bet on the justices upholding this precedent? The court also guaranteed a right to abortion in Roe vs. Wade and upheld it in a subsequent case before overturning it in the Dobbs decision two years ago. Ominously, that abortion decision also contained a concurrence written by Justice Clarence Thomas that suggested the court revisit the landmark 1965 decision in Griswold vs. Connecticut, which granted married couples the right to birth control. So there are plenty of reasons to fear that the Supreme Court could withdraw its support for birth control. Read more: The first over-the-counter birth control pill becomes available. Where is it sold? The Senate contraception bill does not force anyone to provide contraception. It allows women to access it and healthcare professionals to provide it. Nor is this bill a slippery slope to condoning abortion, as opponents claim. Contraceptives are not abortifacients. The medical definition of pregnancy is an embryo implanted in the wall of the uterus, says Daniel Grossman, a professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at UC San Francisco. No contraceptives end an established pregnancy they prevent pregnancy from occurring. So why would Senate Republicans block a bill supporting a right to contraception? Arent these the same people who, for the most part, dont want women having abortions? How do they think reproduction works? Or is this about taking away the rights of women to control their own bodies to curry favor with far-right antiabortion groups who have problems with contraception as well? We should all work to make sure lawmakers who don't support the right to control your own body dont get reelected. If its in the news right now, the L.A. Times Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. After eight months of war, heres what Gazas humanitarian crisis looks like Raed Redwan shades his three-month-old baby from the heat and shoos away insects in a tent in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. They are trapped, along with his wife and mother, in a sea of displaced families with little respite from overcrowding and pollution. The Palestinian father told CNN he struggles to find aid. Instead, he and his family have no choice but to drink contaminated water and eat just one meal per day. I dont want to talk about food because there is none, he said in a written message on June 5. We survived the death from rockets and shelling; will we die of famine? After eight months of Israels bombardment in Gaza following the October 7 attacks led by the militant group Hamas that killed around 1,200 people and captured 250 hostages in southern Israel human rights groups have described unspeakable living conditions for Palestinians in the enclave, with over 75% of the population displaced, according to the UNs agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). Israels military campaign has pulverized neighborhoods, damaged health infrastructure and depleted food, water and fuel supplies. The Israeli offensive has killed at least 36,654 Palestinians and injured another 83,309 people, according to Gazas Ministry of Health. CNN cannot independently confirm these figures. While Israeli officials have insisted there is no limit on the amount of aid that can enter Gaza, the UN has accused authorities of imposing unlawful restrictions on relief operations such as blocked land routes, communications blackouts and air strikes. Local staffers told CNN they are forced to turn away the needy at distribution points because there is not enough relief to hand out. Here is a breakdown of how the aid crisis has deepened in the territory after 245 days of war. Crossing closures nearly halt all aid Israels restrictions on land routes into Gaza meant aid was barely trickling into the strip. But the crisis became even more dire early last month, after Israeli forces launched an assault in the southern city of Rafah and seized control of the Palestinian side of the land crossing into Egypt. The UNs food agency said ongoing attacks have blocked access to its main warehouse in Rafah since May 9, forcing them to suspend distributions there for nearly a month now. The agency expressed concerns for Palestinians in the south as the closure of the key Rafah crossing has severely limited food supplies reaching the area, recalling the dire food insecurity in northern Gaza after previous closures. Similarly, US-based non-profit World Central Kitchen paused operations at its main facility in Rafah and relocated north last week. The US militarys temporary maritime corridor into the strip was repaired Friday. The operation was dealt a major blow in May after only a few operational weeks, when a $320 million makeshift pier sustained damage in stormy seas off the Gaza coast, according to the Pentagon. The resulting overall quantity of aid entering Gaza has since dropped by 67%, according to the UN, to a daily average of 58 trucks between May 7 and May 28. For comparison, the UN previously reported that an average 500 trucks entered the strip per day in the months before October 7. Everything that has been in place in the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings has now changed, said Louise Wateridge a communications officer for UNRWA. When these crossings have been interrupted, its just simply not enough coming from any other sources. Trucks stuck at the border Scenes have emerged of large relief trucks piling up at the border with Gaza, after Israeli authorities ramped up inspections on relief convoys entering the strip doubling down on claims that such aid could be used by Hamas. COGAT, the Israeli agency that manages aid flow into Gaza, said on June 4 that more than 1,000 trucks are waiting to be picked up by the UN on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing accusing the UN of failing to coordinate the entry of the vehicles into Gaza. Palestinians distribute food from the United Nations, in Wadi Gaza, central Gaza, on May 18. Aid workers say they can barely meet humanitarian demands on the ground. - Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg/Getty Images/File But rights groups say the systematic obstruction at Israeli-controlled crossing points and increased fighting is paralyzing truck deliveries. Wateridge told CNN that trucks stuck at Kerem Shalom cannot be received due to intense military action on the Gazan side of the crossing. Its just a complete waste of vital humanitarian aid, and its such a manmade situation, she said. These distribution challenges come as the UNs food agency warned in May that Palestinians in the north are under a full-blown famine that is spreading south. More than one million people, half of Gazas population, are expected to face death and starvation by mid-July, another UN report warned this week, as civilians struggle to find enough food amid scarce market supplies and rising prices. More than 7,000 children under the age of five have already been diagnosed with malnutrition, according to the UNs Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. With aid stocks in rapid decline, workers can barely meet demands on the ground, according to Mahmoud Shalabi, the senior program manager of the NGO Medical Aid for Palestinians. No safe corridors for humanitarians For the few aid trucks that do enter the strip, damaged roads from Israeli strikes and security concerns over ongoing hostilities are stifling attempts to reach displaced Palestinians, human rights workers told CNN. Relief agencies have repeatedly called for new entry routes, more trucks to get through daily border checks, fewer obstacles to the movement of humanitarian workers and guarantees for their safety. Israeli attacks on aid convoys have sparked fierce condemnation from rights groups, drawing attention to growing Western skepticism of Israels war in Gaza. Since October 7, Israeli forces have struck known locations of aid workers in the enclave at least eight times, despite agencies providing their coordinates to ensure their protection, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). The attacks reveal fundamental flaws with the so-called deconfliction system, meant to protect aid workers, according to the report. CNN previously asked the Israeli military for a response to the HRW report. Its really unsafe for us humanitarians, there are no safe corridors, no movement coordinations, said Shalabi. Smoke billows over buildings flattened by Israeli strikes, in Bureij refugee camp, central Gaza, on June 5. Aid agencies told CNN that bombardment disrupts critical relief operations in the strip. - Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg/Getty Images Shalabi says he, his wife and children have been forced to flee at least three times since October. Im not sure whats going to happen next, he added. I hope I will be able to return to my home and resume whatever life I had before I was displaced. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com An emergency preparedness exercise in Beaver County will assess the ability of Pennsylvania and West Virginia to respond to an emergency at a nuclear facility. The Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency will evaluate a Biennial Radiological Emergency Preparedness Exercise at the Beaver Valley Power Station on June 11. These drills are held every other year to evaluate governments ability to protect public health and safety, said MaryAnn Tierney, regional administrator for FEMA Region 3. We will assess state and local government emergency response capabilities within the 10-mile Emergency Planning Zone within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and State of West Virginia. The final report will be available to the public about 120 days after the exercise. FEMA will present preliminary findings of the exercise during a public meeting at 4:30 p.m. on June 13 at Pittsburgh Airport Marriott, 777 Aten Road, Coraopolis. Written comments may be submitted after the meeting by emailing FEMAR3NewsDesk@fema.dhs.gov. FEMA created the Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program to ensure the health and safety of those living around commercial nuclear power plants would be adequately protected in the event of a nuclear power plant accident and to inform and educate the public about radiological emergency preparedness. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW TRENDING NOW: Use of force expert weighs in on deadly Brentwood officer-involved shooting Canon-McMillan senior badly burned in house fire defies odds, walks at graduation Historic Pittsburgh church demolished after more than a century VIDEO: Local veteran sits down with Channel 11 on 80th anniversary of D-Day DOWNLOAD the Channel 11 News app for breaking news alerts Emmanuel Macron: 'Europe could find itself at a standstill' if far right wins EU elections Emmanuel Macron: 'Europe could find itself at a standstill' if far right wins EU elections Just three days before the European elections, French President Emmanuel Macron gave a televised interview to TV channels TF1 and France 2 on Thursday in Normandy following the commemorations of the D-Day landings. Although historical and diplomatic reasons were cited to justify his intervention, Emmanuel Macron commented on the elections a move heavily criticised by multiple opposing parties who feel the leader was omnipresent during the electoral campaign. 'We need it to protect France' "Europe has never been so threatened," warned the French leader, referring to the rise of the far right in France and across the European continent. Macron's party, Renaissance, headed by Valerie Hayer, is struggling in the polls, more than 15% behind Jordan Bardella, the head of the far-right National Rally party (RN), according to the latest Euronews poll. "I see the levels of abstention (...) and I call on compatriots to go and vote on 9 June", said Emmanuel Macron, mentioning the fervent opponents of Brexit, who did not come out in sufficient numbers to make their voices heard during the British referendum of 2016. "If tomorrow France sends a large far-right delegation and if other major countries do the same, Europe could find itself at a standstill," insisted Emmanuel Macron. "We need it to protect France," he pleaded, warning against "a vote to vent our anger." Domestic issues have been at the forefront of the EU elections in France, with immigration, purchasing power and security seen as the main concerns for voters. Jordan Bardella's party (RN) has pitched its campaign as a referendum on Macron's approval, particularly on these issues. Bardella said he will demand early legislative elections if his party wins. When asked about the possibility of calling legislative elections in case of a far-right victory, Macron declined to answer, saying: I'll go and vote, and on Sunday evening, we'll see the results. I like to do things in the right order." How did other EU election candidates react to Macron's interview? Soon after the end of the interview, Jordan Bardella reacted to the president's words on X (former Twitter), saying: "Emmanuel Macron confirms that by sending the largest delegation of MEPs to the European Parliament, the RN will be able to block the EU Commission's harmful policies, such as punitive environmental measures against our farmers and the flood of migrants," before calling on electors to go vote on Sunday. Francois-Xavier Bellamy, from the traditional right-wing party The Republicans (LR), also criticised the president's interview and announcement on the French TV channel BFM as inappropriate. "I don't see anything in the statement made by the president ... that justifies the fact that 24 hours before the end of the official election campaign, there is such an urgency to speak to the French people," Bellamy said. The election campaign in France ends at midnight on Friday, after which the candidates are not allowed to speak publicly about the election until the first exit polls on Sunday at 8 pm. Macron's interview could be deducted from Valerie Hayer's speaking time After multiple parties filed complaints on Monday after the announcement of Macron's scheduled interview, the country's media watchdog, Arcom, warned it could deduct the interview from the EU candidate Valerie Hayer's speaking time. Why? During election campaigns in France, the amount of airtime given to a certain candidate or party is counted according to strict rules. For the European elections, speaking time for all candidates must be fair rather than equal. A list's speaking time is deducted when the head of the party speaks, but also when one of his supporters speaks or if a guest announces his support for a particular party. This rule also applies to the head of state. Avian influenza, in its various strains, has long been on the radar of health authorities: a mutation that facilitates the jump to humans and its transmission between people could have serious consequences. On Wednesday, the WHO reported the worlds first known fatality from the A(H5N2) variant. The case was recorded in April in Mexico. Other types of avian influenza, or bird flu, have already caused human deaths in other parts of the world. This is what is known about the virus, its variants, and its dangers: What is bird flu? Avian influenza is a disease caused by viruses of the same family as those that cause human influenza. There are four types: A, B, C and D. The one that spreads among birds is the A type. Within it, there are subtypes, five of which have been shown to be capable of jumping to humans: H5, H6, H7, H9 and H10. The one that has been under the spotlight for some years is H5N1, which has frequently jumped to mammals and, for more than a year (as far as we are aware) has been transmitting among them. H5N2, which caused the fatality in Mexico, had not been detected in humans before. Can it be transmitted between humans? With H5N1, cases of the virus jumping to humans are not frequent, but neither are they extraordinary. Since its discovery in 2003, some 900 instances have been documented, with case fatality rates of around 50%. What has not been proven so far is any person-to-person transmission. With respect to H5N2, until the Mexico patient, no human cases had been verified in the laboratory, so there is no known contagion from one person to another. How did the first person who died from this variant become infected? That remains a mystery. The patient was a 59-year-old man who had no contact with birds, which is the route of transmission for avian influenza to humans. He was already in hospital suffering from several underlying conditions and had been bedridden for three weeks with fever, respiratory distress, diarrhea, nausea, and general malaise. The role of this virus in the fatal outcome cannot be assumed to be directly responsible without further investigation. The prompt follow up in healthcare professionals and family members in contact with the infected patient provides reassurance at present this is an isolated case, Ian Brown, head of the Avian Virology group at the Pirbright Institute, told the Science Media Center (SMC). Ed Hutchinson, senior lecturer at the MRC-University of Glasgow Virus Research Centre, believes it is most likely a spillover infection, where a virus adapted to one host species manages to infect a member of another species (in this case a human), but is not able to transmit further. Could it spread between humans? In its statement, the WHO said that avian influenza has the potential for high public health impact, although it considers H5N2 to represent a low risk to the population. Available epidemiological and virological evidence suggests that A(H5) viruses from previous events have not acquired the ability to sustain transmission between humans, thus the current likelihood of sustained human-to-human spread is low, the agency reports. In the opinion of Ian Jones, professor of virology at the University of Reading (UK), it is impossible to generalise based on a single case. However, as H5N2 is present in Mexico and the infected individual had underlying medical conditions, which may have contributed to the outcome, it would be reasonable to suppose this is a one-off case of zoonotic transfer with no potential to spread. This would be consistent with previous examples of occasional avian influenza infections in people. Unless or until there is evidence of strain adaptation or sustained transmission, the risk to the population is very low. The case should act to reinforce the importance of monitoring and eradicating outbreaks in poultry as soon as they occur, he told SMC. Where did H5N2 come from? Although it is not known how the victim was infected, there have been recent outbreaks of the H5N2 influenza virus in poultry in Mexico. How is it different from H5N1? They are two subtypes of avian flu, but H5N1 is much more widespread around the world. Recently, it has been spreading between cattle on dairy farms in the U.S., but it is unclear how it is transmitted between them. Although it is not perceived as an imminent threat to humans, it is of much greater concern than H5N2, for several reasons: since 2021 it has proliferated more among non-waterfowl, such as scavengers. This has resulted in more contact with mammals, which provide food for these species. And, for the first time, contacts between mammals were detected last year, which have been expanding to more species and specimens. It is extremely complex for the mutation to become contagious between humans, but not impossible, so the international health authorities are remaining vigilant as they work to get to the bottom of the H5N2 fatality case. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) Get ready, Oklahoma! Its going to be hot, said Kim Querry, of EMSA. EMSA issued a heat alert of Thursday after responding to five suspected heat-related illness calls. Two people were taken to the hospital. You may be going to a softball game, maybe going outside for different activities and youre completely caught off guard because you didnt drink enough water and youre not adjusted to these high temperatures, said Querry. LOCAL NEWS: OSDH warns of heat-related illness as temperatures rise EMSAs warning Oklahomans that the extreme heat can lead to heat exhaustion or heat stroke. These are the symptoms to look out for: Heat exhaustion vs. heat stroke symptoms. The good news, its completely preventable. We want everyone to take the precautions, said Querry. Christina Stewart said shes extra careful because she has a history of skin cancer. Hat, SPF shirt, long pants, sunscreen, all the way lots of sunscreen on my face, exposed areas, said Stewart. EMSA also recommends taking breaks in the shade, checking on your neighbors and most importantly, staying hydrated. The heat alert is in effect until at least Sunday, according to EMSA. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City. The state of Ukraine's energy system will temporarily improve after an additional unit of a nuclear power station starts to operate, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the head of Ukraine's state grid operator Ukrenergo, told Ukrainska Pravda on June 6. A recent uptick in Russian strikes put a heavy strain on Ukraine's power grid, with several power plants being destroyed or disabled. Due to resulting power deficits, Ukraine began implementing rolling shutdowns on May 15. The blackouts last from four to eight hours on average and could be carried out up to three times per day. Ukrenergo expects that another nuclear power plant unit will be launched overnight on June 8 after its repair. The improvement will be temporary and last for two weeks, as the heat in July will affect the load of Ukraine's energy system, Kudrytskyi said. The scheduled blackouts will not disappear after the launch of the additional unit but will become "more relaxed." It will also be easier for local authorities to comply with energy limits in oblasts, he added. Kudrytskyi did not specify which Ukrainian nuclear power station unit is undergoing repair. Ukraine has four nuclear power stations in Rivne, Khmelnytskyi, Mykolaiv, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. The latter one has been occupied by Russian forces since March 2022. Since the start of 2024, Russia has launched six large-scale attacks against Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Russia carried out the last large-scale attack overnight on June 1, damaging energy infrastructure in various regions across the country. An attack in April destroyed the Trypillia Thermal Power Plant, the main electricity supplier to Kyiv, Zhytomyr, and Cherkasy oblasts. Russian strikes against Ukraine's energy infrastructure have cost the state over $1 billion in damage, Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said in May. Read also: Kyiv struggles with rolling blackouts as officials warn of bleak months ahead Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. EPA threatens to step in if Alaska does not update its water pollution limit A pile of salmon awaits filleting on May 7, 2022, in Juneau, Alaska. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) A pile of salmon awaits filleting on May 7, 2022, in Juneau, Alaska. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is prodding the state of Alaska over its failure to update water pollution rules. On Thursday, the EPA issued a formal determination that the state should update pollution limits that are based in part on the amount of fish consumed by state residents. Under federal law, those limits are supposed to be reviewed every three years, but Alaska hasnt updated its limits since 2003. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has been working since 2013 on an updated list of water quality standards, but despite telling EPA last fall that a draft would be ready for inspection by the end of the year, none has been released. EPA has determined that new and revised water quality standards for Alaska are needed to protect the health of Alaska residents. EPA prefers that the state of Alaska address this determination by updating its water quality standards. If not, EPA is prepared to step in, and today weve taken the first step, said Caleb Shaffer, acting director of the water division for EPA Region 10, which covers Alaska. Fish consumption is a key factor in settling water-pollution limits for almost 100 different individual pollutants, including mercury and the insecticide DDT, under the simple principle that polluted water leads to polluted fish, and eating polluted fish can make someone sick. Alaska currently bases its water pollution guidelines on the notion that residents eat an average of 6.5 grams of fish per day an amount that can fit on a cracker. That figure was set in 1992 by the EPA as a general estimate for Americans nationwide. Alaska set its 2003 limits on that figure and has not revised those since, the EPA said on Thursday. Meanwhile, the EPA, Alaska Native tribes and local environmental groups have all said they believe the state should use a much higher estimate for how much fish Alaskans eat. That would result in tougher clean-water standards. In 2015, the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council asked for DEC to work from an estimate of 175 grams per day for Alaskans that rely on subsistence harvests. The state of Alaska is responsible for deciding how much pollution is safe in the water, said Maggie Rabb, SEACCs executive director. And that is tied into how much seafood we eat. And when they purposely and knowingly underestimate how much seafood we eat, that means that their determination of what is a safe level of pollution isnt using sound science or data. And thats a problem for us. Even the state itself has said the fish-consumption levels are far too low. In 2019, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game published a study finding that urban Alaskans consume an average of 8.9 grams per day, and in rural Alaska, the figure is much higher an average of almost 195 grams per day in western Alaska. That finding means Alaskans could be exposed to significantly more water pollution than the residents of other states. Compounding the issue is the states decision to set the acceptable rate of pollution-caused cancer at 1 in 100,000. Other states have taken a tougher limit of 1 per 1,000,000 or 1 in 10,000,000. We commend the EPAs action. Its in the interest of all Alaskans to have clean, safe, healthy water free from contamination, and theres no reason for the State of Alaska to be using fish consumption numbers we all know are wildly inaccurate especially when that estimate guides the amount of contamination allowable in our fish-bearing rivers, said Mary Catharine Martin, communications director for SalmonState, an environmental organization. Gene McCabe, director of the division of water for the DEC, said the EPAs determination didnt tell his agency something new. I think its their way of saying, we are formally stating that you do need to take action. We have known that for several years and been working on the project. It is a momentous undertaking, and the staff have really been working hard on this, he said. He said its reasonable to think that the states new limits will be ready in the next six to 12 months, but he declined to say whether the DECs limits will be based on a higher estimate of fish consumption. Were still deliberating on that, he said. The best I could say is that the fish consumption rate is based on data obtained from fish consumption within the state of Alaska. That would be a change from current practice, but it isnt yet clear how the new figure if there is one will be received by Alaskans or the EPA. In Florida, for example, EPA officials sent a similar warning in 2022 to state officials there. Florida never finalized new rules, and late last year, the EPA proposed a new federal rule for them. It would apply to more than 70 limits for individual chemicals. That rule remains under discussion and deliberation. DONATE: SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST Correction: This article has been updated with the correct name for the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council. Erie School District administration building has buyer. It will be used to house homeless Less than two months after a coalition of public and private Erie groups announced a sweeping plan to address homelessness in the city, the coalition has found a building to be the centerpiece for its efforts. An entity affiliate with the coalition has arranged to buy the Erie School District's administration building at West 21st and Sassafras streets and turn it into long-term housing for people who are homeless. The purchase price is $490,500. The entity, Building Development Corp., offered the high bid for the 42,000-square-foot administration building, at 148 W. 21st St., and all its associated parking lots, Erie School District officials said at a School Board study session on Wednesday night. The Erie School District has found a buyer for its administration building at West 21st and Sassafras streets as the central offices prepare to move into a newer building two blocks north. The school district put the administration building on the market in May as it prepares to move into its new administration building a former medical offices complex at West 19th and Sassafras streets, two blocks north of the current administration building. The move for the 10,000-student Erie School District's 75 administrators and administrative staff is scheduled to start this summer as renovations are completed. To sell the current administration building, the Erie School District advertised for bids, which were due May 28. The School Board will vote on awarding the bid to Building Development Corp. at the board's regular monthly meeting on June 12, according to what the school directors said on Wednesday night. The group behind the purchase intends to refashion the building into "long-term housing for homeless coupled with services wrapped around the program," Erie schools Superintendent Brian Polito told the board. "There is going to be a long-term shelter here as well as additional services to support the people who are staying there." None of the school directors objected to the sale. "We are all in favor of this," School Director Sumner Nichols said. "It is going to have a positive impact for what it is being used for," School Director Zakaria Sharif said. Bid is close to market analysis for properties, district says Building Development Corp. was the high bidder on all the properties that were up for sale, Neal Brokman, the Erie School District's assistant superintendent for operations, told the School Board. He said Building Development Corp. was the only entity that offered a bid on all the properties, including a parking lot on Sassafras Street across the street from the building and a parking lot on the east side of the building, closer to Peach Street. Brokman said the $490,500 purchase price is in line with the value that a district-funded market analysis estimated for the properties. That analysis came in at $580,000, according to district records. School Director Daria Devlin recused herself from the discussions. She is director of social impact for the Hamot Health Foundation, one of the nonprofits that is part of the coalition leading the project to address homelessness. Building will be key to plan to address homelessness The coalition announced its plans on April 18. The initiative to address homelessness represents the first large-scale collaboration of public and private-sector groups in Erie on the issue, Charles "Boo" Hagerty, president of Hamot Health Foundation, said at the time. The foundation is among the local entities working on the plan, developed with the assistance of Wyatt Schroeder, a nationally known supportive housing consultant. Schroeder is being paid $100,000 for his work. The group estimated its multi-year plan to address homelessness could cost up to $35 million. Hagerty and other officials said the plan involves constructing a multimillion-dollar facility in the city that would provide long-term housing for up to 50 homeless individuals and feature on-site supportive social services such as medical care and mental health counseling. The officials on April 18 said the site for the housing had yet to be determined. The school district's administration building is that site, based on the discussions at the School Board meeting. "We are very excited," Hagerty said Thursday morning. "Erie School District is a great partner. We are very happy that our bid will be the one awarded pending final board approval." Hagerty said the purchase price is just the first step in a project that's likely to cost $20 million as the initiative renovates the existing structure and adds one or more buildings on parking lots included in the purchase. Hagerty said the housing initiative looked at dozens of properties around the city and that this one "checked all the boxes," including proximity to bus lines and stores as well as workforce and educational opportunities. Hagerty said the school district's office building can provide space for about 22 apartments, while a new building on the property could provide apartments for 50 people. He expressed confidence that the needed funding will be found. "There are dollars out there in the state and national budgets that should make their way to Erie," he said. "It's time to put our hand in the air." He acknowledged that the project is moving ahead quickly. "We are not messing around," he said. "We have to go. We have a great need in this community to have these people served." Funding for the project will come from a variety of sources, officials said on April 18. They include nearly $3 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds that the city of Erie has earmarked for helping the homeless, as well as private and philanthropic donations and low-income housing tax credits. Erie Mayor Joe Schember and Erie County Executive Brenton Davis have been involved in the plan to address homeless. Driving the effort has been Infinite Erie, a group launched to implement what is known as Erie's Investment Playbook a set of 35 initiatives and transformational projects. School district bought newer building to save money Transforming the school district's administration building into housing will take a substantial amount of money. The school district decided to move into a newer building largely because of the cost of renovating the current administration building, which is 114 years old. The school district's architects estimated the building needs $13 million in renovations, including a new roof and a new heating and ventilation system, Polito has said. The district is spending about $5.4 million to renovate its new 28,500-square-foot building, which was erected in 2003. The cost of the renovations, combined with the purchase price, is still about $4 million less than the cost of renovating the existing building, Polito has said. The Erie School District bought a former medical office building at West 19th and Sassafras streets to replace its current administration building two blocks south, at West 21st and Sassafras streets The new building had been the home to offices associated with Allegheny Health Network, whose Saint Vincent Hospital is just south of the building. The Erie School District bought the building from the parent company of an entity called Healthcare Trust Inc. for $2.8 million in June 2023. The district years ago set aside the money needed for the new building as part of Polito's plan to make all the district's buildings "warm, safe and dry" after years of neglect due to budget woes. The current building was never designed to be an office building. It opened in 1910 as the Erie School District's Washington School. It closed in 1976 and was sold to different owners before the school district repurchased it in 1999 for $1.2 million, plus another $200,000 for computers and furniture already in the building. The district bought the building from Saint Vincent Health Center in 1999. Saint Vincent bought the building in 1982 and operated its school of nursing there. The district needed the building for a new administration building. In 1999, it sold what had been its administration building, a former bowling alley at 1511 Peach St., to a group of social service agencies led by Perseus House. That sale price was $550,000, according to assessment records. The district's new administration building is more spacious and has a more open layout, unlike the cramped quarters of the existing building, as it was designed to be a school. Staff writer Jim Martin contributed to this report. Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com or 814-870-1813. Follow him on X @ETNpalattella. This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie schools administration building to be bought to house homeless State Sen. Bill EIgel of Weldon Spring speaks during a campaign stop in Columbia as he seeks the Republican nomination for governor (Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent). State Sen. Bill Eigels campaign for governor accepted too much in anonymous donations and too much from some individual donors, complaints filed Thursday with the Missouri Ethics Commission allege. St. Louis attorney John Maupin, a Republican who in the 1990s was chairman of the Missouri Ethics Commission, filed the two complaints, which also accuse Eigel of accepting a pair of contributions from corporations that are barred by the Missouri Constitution from making direct donations to campaigns. The duplicate donations 115 of 268 entries on Eigel for Missouris report filed in April 2023 account for $14,906 of the $54,031 in new contributions listed in that report. Taken together, these errors show more than sloppy and inaccurate record keeping and reporting, Maupin wrote in one of his complaints. They suggest a fraudulent attempt (to) inflate the amount of Eigels contributions by tens of thousands of dollars, thereby artificially boosting its publicly-reported cash-on-hand figures and providing Missourians with an inaccurate picture of Eigels fundraising. Eigel is one of nine candidates on the Republican ballot for governor and one of three along with Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe and Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft running full-scale campaigns. He trails Kehoe in fundraising for both his campaign committee and joint fundraising PAC, but his totals have exceeded Ashcrofts. The most recent reports, filed in April, show Eigels campaign committee has raised $1.3 million since the start of 2023 and BILL PAC has collected $2.4 million. Kehoe has raised $3.1 million for his campaign committee and $5.3 million for American Dream PAC, his joint fundraising committee. Ashcroft has collected $954,000 for his campaign and $2.1 million for the Committee for Liberty, his joint fundraising PAC. Maupin contributed $2,825 to Kehoes campaign last year but said in an interview with The Independent that the complaint is not related to his support for the lieutenant governor. He says he filed the complaints because Missourians deserve accurate information from candidates. If Eigel files amended reports correcting the issues, he would be satisfied, he said. This is just wrong, and somebody needs to step up and say, hey, get your reports right, Maupin said. Eigels campaign manager, Sophia Shore, blamed the complaint on Eigels political foes. She said any mistakes in the campaign disclosure reports would be fixed. The establishment is scared and they should be; were going to win, Shore said. We are in the process of reviewing the complaints. Any clerical accounting and reporting errors would have been made by a vendor, not by Bill, and if legitimate, will be corrected immediately. Maupin filed two complaints instead of one with all the identified issues because the issues are different enough to be dealt with separately, he said. Maupin said he started digging into Eigels reports last year after the St. Louis Post-Dispatch contacted out-of-state donors who responded to fundraising appeals that used support for Donald Trump to attract contributions. Some of those interviewed were on fixed incomes and had no idea their money was going to Eigel or his PAC. Im a nerd and Ive looked at hundreds, maybe dozens of hundreds of campaign finance reports over the years, Maupin said. I just pulled up his out of curiosity and some of these mistakes were just so apparent, I cant imagine that you could put together that report and not know it right away. One of the complaints focuses on anonymous contributions and donations in excess of the limits. In the complaint, Maupin notes that Eigel was sent a cease and desist letter in September by Donald Trumps presidential campaign demanding he stop using Trumps name and image in his fundraising appeals. Those appeals, sent nationwide by Eigels fundraising consultant Targeted Victory, helped Eigels campaign and his PAC to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars from donors giving as little as $1. More than 90% of the names on Eigels donor list and almost all of the donors listed by BILL PAC were from outside Missouri. The donors not listed pushed Eigels anonymous contributions to $21,370, 2.4% of the total he raised in 2023. Anonymous donations cannot exceed 1% of the total raised. Too ashamed to list the poor, disabled, and retired individuals on fixed income whom he fleeced, Senator Eigels campaign committee violated the law in exceeding aggregate anonymous contribution limits, the complaint states. The complaint lists 22 donors on Eigels April 2023 report who gave more than the $2,825 allowed by the constitution for donations to statewide candidates. The excess amounts range from $5 to $8,775 and total $44,198. There is no indication on Eigels reports that the impermissible portion of these contributions have been returned or reattributed to a spouse, the complaint states. A donor can contribute $2,825 for the primary and again for the general election, but there is no allowance in Missouri law for taking general election donations before the primary, Maupin said in the interview. The other complaint details the allegations about illegal corporate contributions, solicitations in excess of the allowed amounts and the duplicate entries. The corporate contributions are two donations, one from 2021 and the other from last year, totaling $3,250. I just think that people, that the voters, need to have the right numbers, Maupin said. The solicitation in excess of the limit, reported by Maupin with a screenshot of Eigels donation page, has since been fixed. The ethics commission keeps complaints confidential but people who file complaints can make them public. The complaint against Eigel is the second known complaint against one of the leading GOP candidates. Late last month, St. Louis attorney and lobbyist Jane Dueker filed a complaint against Ashcroft, accusing his campaign of illegal collaboration with Committee for Liberty on a letter sent to potential donors. Whether any action will occur on either complaint depends on achieving a quorum at meetings of the six-member commission. Three terms expired in March and while Gov. Mike Parson appointed a new member this week, one of the existing members has not been able to attend meetings since at least October. The commission could also be without an executive director soon. The term of the current head of the staff, Elizabeth Ziegler, ends in July and no new executive director can be chosen until a quorum is established. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE The post Ethics complaints allege Eigel exceeds limit on anonymous donors to campaign for governor appeared first on Missouri Independent. EU ambassadors fail to decide on launch of accession talks with Ukraine due to Hungary's objection media Permanent Representatives of the European Union member states have again failed to make a decision on the European Commission's recommendation to start EU accession talks with Ukraine, as Hungary has raised objections. Source: Interfax-Ukraine with reference to an unnamed European diplomat, European Pravda reports Details: The source said that the discussion will continue next week. He also said that everyone knows that the Commission believes that Moldova and Ukraine have fulfilled their conditions and that the EU should hold an intergovernmental conference. It was very clear at the meeting. Many countries said they agreed with this, but Hungary reiterated that they still have conditions that need to be fulfilled; otherwise, they will not be able to accept the Commission's assessment. Another senior diplomat said that Hungary made the same complaint as last time about the lack of progress made by Ukraine on national minorities. "Hungary again mentioned 11 issues and read out two amendments to the negotiation framework on good neighbourly relations and national minorities, mentioning that we (the EU ed.) also need to move forward with Serbia and Albania. The rest of us participating in the debate all of us except Hungary loudly and clearly supported the Commission's assessment and rejected the introduction of new requirements. We are all in favour of holding an intergovernmental conference as early as 25 June," the source said. At the same time, both senior diplomats stated that the discussion would continue next week. They did not rule out the possibility that Budapest would compromise for the sake of progress for the Western Balkan countries, giving the green light to Ukraine and Moldova as well. Katarina Mathernova, the EU Ambassador to Ukraine, believes that Ukraine is ready to start negotiations on joining the European Union and hopes these will begin by the end of June. President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola, during her recent visit to Kyiv, also said that she expects the talks to start by the end of the first half of 2024. Support UP or become our patron! BRUSSELS/KYIV (Reuters) - Ukraine and Moldova meet all the criteria needed to formally start negotiations on EU membership, the European Commission said on Friday, as Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal expressed hope that the talks could start later this month. "We confirm that on the Commission side we consider that all the steps have been met by the two countries," Commission spokeswoman on enlargement Ana Pisonero said. "The decision is now in the hands of the member states -- it is for them to adopt the negotiating framework," she said. "Once this step is done it is the prerogative of the EU Presidency to convene an intergovernmental conference to formally mark the start of the negotiations," she added. Opening talks with the European Union would be a morale boost for Ukraine as the war with Russia enters its third year and Moscow's forces are advancing in the eastern Donetsk region and opening a new front in the northeastern Kharkiv region. "Now we expect our European partners to take the next step to start negotiations on European Union membership already this month," Shmyhal said on the Telegram messaging app. "Every day, the Ukrainian people fight for the right to be part of the European family in the war against the Russian aggressor." The Commission assessment will now be discussed by experts in working groups and then by ambassadors of EU governments next week. The 27 EU member states have to unanimously agree to start the negotiations, which take years to conclude, by adopting the so-called negotiating framework. HUNGARY SCEPTICAL Belgium, which holds the rotating EU presidency until the end of June, is making arrangements for intergovernmental conferences with Ukraine and Moldova to be held on June 25 in Luxembourg if there is unanimous backing. But such backing is not guaranteed because Hungary, which maintains warm ties with Russia and has criticised Ukraine's membership bid, has doubts about the Commission's assessment that Ukraine is ready and wants to see some more items added to the negotiating frameworks, diplomats said. Belgium and the Commission are keen to get agreement in June, before Hungary takes over the rotating presidency from July 1 for six months, because EU diplomats expect Budapest will put the whole process on ice until 2025. Kyiv applied for EU membership in the weeks after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 and it was granted candidate status four months later. Despite the impact of the war, which has devastated the economy and forced millions to abandon their homes in frontline cities, towns and villages, the Ukrainian government has been implementing sweeping reforms recommended by the EU. The changes have ranged from anti-corruption measures to regulations for public administration and food safety. (Reporting by Yuliia Dysa and Olena Harmash in Kyiv and Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Editing by Gareth Jones) Insights from Chatham House, The Parliament, and the Centre for European Reforms Ian Bond The News The European Commission on Friday recommended that EU accession negotiations with Ukraine begin this month, with the first round of talks starting June 25, the Financial Times reported. The EU is pressing ahead with the move in an effort to boost support for Kyiv before Hungary which has consistently opposed Ukraines bid for membership assumes the blocs presidency in July. The Commission told ambassadors Friday that Ukraine and Moldova had met the criteria for starting negotiations, but Hungary reportedly raised objections at the meeting. All 27 member states have to agree to the negotiating framework before talks can begin. SIGNALS Semafor Signals: Global insights on today's biggest stories. The EU may have gotten over its enlargement fatigue Sources: Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Chatham House, The Parliament Since Croatia joined the EU more than a decade ago, the blocs so-called enlargement fatigue has slammed the brakes on further expansion. Despite Ukraines political leverage, Kyivs leaders should not be overconfident in their ability to expedite the years-long accession process without treaty reform, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies argued. That said, the EU may be turning to defensive enlargement to stave off regional threats after Russias invasion of Ukraine, a Chatham House expert noted: Ukraine was granted candidacy just a few months after applying for membership, without the detailed impact assessment normally necessary, a former European Commission official told The Parliament. Hungary could make the negotiations complicated, bloody, and long Source: Centre for European Reform's Ian Bond The Commissions attempt to speed up the start of negotiations is symbolically important but will make little practical difference, Ian Bond from the Centre for European Reform told Semafor Friday. Hungary has every opportunity to make the negotiating process complicated, bloody, and long whether in the presidents chair or not, he said. The Commission might also be wary about being seen as giving in to blackmail from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who may allow talks to begin only in exchange for the release of EU funds earmarked for Hungary that were frozen over rule-of-law concerns. And theres little chance of the EU invoking Article 7 to suspend Hungarys voting rights because Slovakia at least is unlikely to agree, Bond added. Ukrainian accession may open up new wave of enlargement Sources: European Centre for International Political Economy , Bertelsmann Stiftung, Brookings Institute The EU has already confronted and overcome some of the challenges associated with integrating Ukraine into the bloc, an economist at the European Centre for International Political Economy argued: Like Ukraine, Romania was very poor relative to the EU average when it first applied to join, an expert wrote for Bertelsmann Stiftung. But Ukrainian accession may open up a new wave of expansion for other countries bordering Russia, which would dramatically reduce the amount of financial aid available to current EU members and change some from net recipients to net creditors, the Brookings Institute wrote. The European Commission has confirmed that it has given a positive verbal assessment concerning the process of European integration reforms by Ukraine and Moldova, published in the November enlargement report. Source: Ana Pisonero, spokesperson for the European Commission, at a briefing, as reported by European Pravda Details: Pisonero stated that the European Commission can confirm that Ukraine has fulfilled the requirements regarding the implementation of the reforms necessary for the start of Ukraines accession talks to the EU. Quote: "We consider that all the steps have been met by the two countriesNow the decision is in the hands of the member states. It is for them to adopt the negotiating framework." Pisonero noted that Kyiv has thus achieved necessary criteria in the selected areas: anti-corruption, political lobbying control, transparency of the officials income and the rights of national minorities. As it is known, the EU and Ukraine seek to officially start the negotiations by the end of June, as on 1 July, the Presidency of Hungary in the Council of the European Union will begin. Earlier, the media revealed that Hungary was expected to express disagreement, continuing to argue that the rights of the Hungarian minority are being violated. Before that, it was reported that Hungary had blocked the approval of a draft negotiation framework on Ukraine's accession to the European Union over the issue of minority rights at a meeting of EU ambassadors on 29 May. The German government announced that Ukraine has fulfilled the requirements for reforms necessary to start negotiations on joining the European Union. Support UP or become our patron! KYODO NEWS - Jun 7, 2024 - 16:54 | All, Japan Japan's securities watchdog is planning to call for a bank and two brokerage firms under Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. to be punished over allegations they shared confidential information about customer businesses despite being refused permission, a source familiar with the matter said Friday. The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission is considering recommending the Financial Services Agency take punitive action as early as next week against MUFG Bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. and Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities Co. The two securities firms are alleged to have used information shared by the bank for sales activities. MUFG Bank also is accused of telling business customers they would only be extended financing on the condition they work with the brokerages, according to the source. The Financial Instruments and Exchange Act requires a "firewall" be put in place to stop information sharing among related banks and brokerages and stipulates they cannot transfer confidential information about customers if they refuse. The commission will examine when the information sharing started and which entity directed it. It also plans to investigate the culpability of the parent company, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki declined to comment on the case, only saying, "The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission carries out its duties independent from the Financial Services Agency." In 2022, two group companies of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Incl. -- Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. -- were also found to have shared customer data without gaining consent as part of a wider market manipulation scandal. The parent company was ordered to strengthen oversight of SMBC Nikko, with the brokerage forced to suspend part of its operations for three months. Related coverage: Japan's Diet enacts law to create economic security clearance system Classified Japanese diplomatic info leaked after Chinese cyberattacks Diplomatic sources have confirmed that the European Commission will provide an overall positive verbal assessment of Ukraine's implementation of the recommendations outlined in the November enlargement report on Friday. Source: Financial Times with reference to three sources speaking on condition of anonymity, as reported by European Pravda Details: Three sources familiar with the matter stated that the European Commission will announce on Friday that Ukraine has met the necessary criteria in certain areas, including anti-corruption efforts, political lobbying control, transparency of officials' assets and minority rights protection, and will recommend starting EU accession talks with Ukraine. Hungary is expected to express disagreement, continuing to argue that the rights of the Hungarian minority are being violated. Prior to this, Rikard Jozwiak, Radio Svobodas Europe editor, also reported that the verbal assessment for Ukraine and Moldova is expected to be positive. Background: Hungary blocked the approval of a draft negotiation framework on Ukraine's accession to the European Union over the issue of minority rights at a meeting of EU ambassadors on 29 May. The EU and Ukraine hope to officially start talks by the end of June, as Hungary takes over the EU Council Presidency on 1 July. According to sources, Brussels officials have insisted on starting official talks on Ukraine's accession to the European Union on 25 June. The Minister of Foreign Affairs for Belgium, which currently holds the EU presidency, confirmed intentions to organise an intergovernmental conference with Ukraine, which is effectively the beginning of negotiations, before the end of the Belgian presidency. Support UP or become our patron! The European Commission supported the start of accession talks with Ukraine, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on June 7. "Now we expect our European partners to take the next step to start the membership negotiations already this month," Shmyhal wrote on Telegram. Ukraine received EU membership candidate status in June 2022. In November 2023, the European Commission recommended launching accession talks with Kyiv. The European Council then agreed in December to open accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's journalist Rikard Jozwiak reported that the EU's executive arm confirmed that both Ukraine and Moldova "have fully completed all steps to start talks." For talks to begin, the EU needs to unanimously agree that Ukraine has undertaken measures to improve issues like corruption and the protection of minority languages. Hungary is expected to raise objections, mainly regarding minority rights. Budapest has repeatedly claimed that the Hungarian ethnic minority concentrated in southwestern Ukraine is discriminated against due to Kyiv's language laws. Ukraine denies the allegations and updated its national minorities law at the end of 2023 in line with the EU's recommendations. EU and Ukrainian officials are reportedly pushing for the talks to start by June 25 before Hungary takes the presidency of the EU Council in July. Relations between Kyiv and Budapest became particularly tense throughout the full-scale war, as Hungary maintained close ties with Russia and obstructed aid to Ukraine and sanctions against Moscow. Read also: EU aid and accession talks: Why European elections matter for Ukraine Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. The European Commission has given a positive verbal assessment of the progress of reforms in Ukraine and Moldova in certain areas necessary for European integration, as set out in the November report on EU enlargement. Source: Rikard Jozwiak, Radio Liberty Europe Editor, on Twitter (X), as reported by European Pravda Details: This means that Ukraine has achieved the necessary criteria in certain areas: anti-corruption, control over political lobbying, transparency of officials' wealth, and ensuring the rights of national minorities. Therefore, the European Commission recommends starting accession talks with Kyiv. The EU and Ukraine hope to officially start negotiations by the end of June, as Hungary takes over the EU Council presidency on 1 July. Background: Earlier, the media reported that Hungary would express disagreement with Ukraine's progress, continuing to state that the rights of the Hungarian minority are being violated. Prior to that, it was reported that Hungary had blocked the approval of the draft negotiation framework on Ukraine's accession to the European Union at a meeting of EU ambassadors on 29 May over the issue of minority rights. The German government stated that Ukraine had fulfilled the reform requirements necessary to start negotiations on accession to the European Union. Support UP or become our patron! Insights from Politico, the Financial Times, and Euronews The News Voting for the multi-day European Parliament election is under way in the European Unions 27 member states but the focus remains local, with votes largely being fought over national issues. Far-right parties are expected to make gains in a vote that has the potential to reshape how the EU operates. Exit polls in the Netherlands, which voted Thursday, shows a surge in popularity for an anti-immigration party while left-leaning parties are projected to have narrowly won the most seats, Al Jazeera reported. SIGNALS Semafor Signals: Global insights on today's biggest stories. Far-right surge tilts normal order on its head Source: Politico Right-wing rhetoric is on the rise in Europe, a region historically known for its left-leaning political landscape. The EU could be facing its Donald Trump moment, Politico noted. Frances far-right National Party is surging, as is the controversial euroskeptic AfD (Alternative for Germany) in Germany. The bloc is therefore on track to admit more extreme right-wing members of parliament than ever before. Those parties are too fractious to entirely upend how politics operates in Europe, but after the votes are counted on Sunday night, the sheer fact of their success will trigger a political upheaval equivalent to that caused by Donald Trumps election as U.S. president in 2016, it said. Ursula von der Leyen fights to keep her role Source: Financial Times European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is campaigning for a second five-year term as the blocs leader, but has run a campaign that has failed to really resonate with voters, the Financial Times noted, given its similarity to her opponent, Nicolas Schmit, who was part of the same commission administration. Von der Leyen hopes to capture some of the right-wing voices that will join this iteration of the bloc a plan that has upset left-leaning parties, who have pledged not to support her if she does. The centre should hold but parliament will be more volatile and harder to get compromises, one EU diplomat told the FT. Backlash to climate policies could be driving far-right rise Source: Euronews It is possible that some of the far-rights success during this campaign is due to greenlash, Euronews noted. In several European countries, right-wing parties that are seeing boosts in their polls are opposed to green deals being carved out by von der Leyens administration. The Green Party is set to lose around a third of its seats, Euronews reported but climate policies arent the entire driving force behind the right-wing surge. A survey showed that over three-quarters of Europeans remain deeply concerned about the direct effects of environmental issues on their everyday lives and health, the outlet wrote. TechCrunch Fidelity Investments, one of the world's largest asset managers, has confirmed that over 77,000 customers had personal information compromised during an August data breach, including Social Security numbers and driver's licenses. The Boston, Massachusetts-based investment firm said in a filing with Maines attorney general on Wednesday that an unnamed third party accessed information from its systems between August 17 and August 19 "using two customer accounts that they had recently established. We detected this activity on August 19 and immediately took steps to terminate the access, Fidelity said in a letter sent to those affected, adding that the incident did not involve any access to customers Fidelity accounts. Ex-Baja governor not ruled out in murder of journalist, state attorney general says SAN DIEGO (Border Report) Baja California State Attorney General Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez told reporters on Thursday that former Gov. Jaime Bonilla has not been ruled out in connection with the murder of journalist Lourdes Maldonado, who was shot in front of her Tijuana home more than two years ago. At the time of her death, Maldonado had a running feud with Bonilla who was her boss when she worked for a news agency in Tijuana long before he became governor. Killers of Tijuana journalist receive prison sentences Maldonado claimed he owed her back wages, and after years of legal hearings, a court ordered Bonilla to pay her, something he said he would never do. In January 2022, Maldonado was killed in her car after being shot once in the face. Three suspects were arrested and convicted, all sentenced to 20 years in prison, but the intellectual author of the killing, has never been named or detained. Andrade Ramirez said on Thursday that Bonilla has always been considered for questioning, but they have yet to interview him. Since leaving the Baja governors seat, Bonilla has served as a Baja California senator in Mexico City. Ex-Baja governor named person of interest in slaying of Tijuana journalist Once his term ends on September 1, were not ruling out bringing him in for questioning in connection with the Lourdes Maldonado killing, Andrade Ramirez said. Everyone remains a suspect until the investigation is over. She told reporters: In time they will see about an apprehension order. Visit the BorderReport.com homepage for the latest exclusive stories and breaking news about issues along the U.S.-Mexico border Bonilla has always maintained his innocence and has denied any involvement in Maldonados assassination. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. Ex-husband of Real Housewives star convicted of hiring mobster to assault her boyfriend NEWARK, N.J. (AP) The ex-husband of a Real Housewives of New Jersey cast member was convicted Tuesday on charges he hired a reputed mobster to assault the womans boyfriend in exchange for a free, lavish wedding reception. A federal jury found Thomas Manzo of Franklin Lakes guilty of conspiracy, falsifying and concealing documents, and committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering activity. The ex-husband of Real Housewives cast member Dina Manzo faces up to 46 years in prison when hes sentenced Oct. 15. Florida woman called 911 on herself during attempted carjacking so she could do it legally: deputies Federal prosecutors have said Thomas Manzo, 59, hired John Perna whom they described as a soldier in the Lucchese Crime Family to commit the July 2015 attack. Pernas wedding reception was held the following month at a restaurant in Paterson partly owned by Manzo, prosecutors said. Perna pleaded guilty in December 2020 to committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering activity and received a 2 1/2-year sentence. He was freed last August. Dina Manzos boyfriend is now her husband. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. While a new formula for gasoline may slightly drive up prices this summer, experts say they do not expect a drastic shift. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, parts of the state of Colorado are in "severe violation" of the Clean Air Act's ozone limits. As a result, gas stations in the Denver metro area and North Front Range are now required by the federal government to sell "reformulated" gas during the summer. The requirement became effective June 1. What is reformulated gasoline? Reformulated gasoline (RFG) is blended to "burn more cleanly than conventional gasoline in order to reduce smog-forming and toxic pollutants in the air we breathe by regulating the vapor pressure of gasoline sold," Virva Aryan, a spokesperson for the EPA's Region 8, said in an emailed statement to the Chieftain. "These additional regulations reduce gasoline emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) that are another major contributor to ground-level ozone, or smog," she said. "RFG is required in cities with high smog levels and is optional elsewhere. About 25 percent of gasoline sold in the U.S. is reformulated. The air quality benefits RFG has achieved represent a significant part of the country's smog reduction strategy." Aryan said that modeling indicates the cleaner gasoline will eliminate more than 260 tons of ozone-forming pollution along the front range, including more than 210 tons of volatile organic compounds and 50 tons of nitrogen oxides. A driver fills her gas tank at a station at the intersection of W. 4th Street and Abriendo Ave. on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. Will Colorado gas prices increase? The EPA believes that the new gas will have minimal impact on the price of gas in Colorado. "EPAs ongoing, data-driven assessment of current market conditions shows that fuel suppliers to the Denver Metro/North Front Range market have made the necessary preparations following years of lead time to deliver RFG in a cost-effective way," Aryan said. "This analysis indicates a fuel supply consistent with historic market demand and estimates that the potential cost increase will be between three to five cents per gallon." Gov. Jared Polis delivers remarks before signing the Railroad Safety Requirements bill at the Pueblo Union Depot on Friday, May 10, 2024. Why Colorado's governor is protesting the requirement Despite the EPA's assurances, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis stated in a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan that out of 10 scenarios explored by contracted company Energy Analysts International Inc. an energy consulting and product development firm based in Denver nine resulted in fuel shortfalls caused by the lack of a pipeline, with "only one facility prepared to serve our market which had traditionally only met a third of our total demand," according to a copy of Polis' letter obtained by the Chieftain. "The one scenario where fuel demands were met was identified as the lowest probability scenario with the highest associated cost for Colorado residents," Polis stated in the letter. "The EAI study further concludes that the implementation of the RFG sale mandate would result in a 60 cent per gallon premium that would be borne by Colorado residents and most impactful to disproportionately impacted communities. This is 20 times the cost that EPA projected in their letter to me September 2022." Polis emphasized that Colorado has taken its own measures to provide for clean air and less emissions. "Unlike the onerous and counterproductive impacts of RFG, Colorado is focused on reducing mobile source emissions and accelerating the adoption of clean vehicles by implementing the low and zero emission vehicle (ZEV) standards for cars and trucks," Polis said. "The Colorado Clean Cars (CCC) rule will require 82% of new light-duty vehicle sales to be zero emissions by 2032. Colorados Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) rule will require 40%-75% of new medium and heavy-duty vehicle sales be zero emissions by 2035. Another component of this rule is the Low Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) Truck rule that sets more stringent emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles." In the letter, the governor stated that the Colorado Department of Health and Environment also estimated that RFG would not have a large impact on air quality, with a maximum benefit of 0.1 parts per billion decrease in ozone concentrations in the Denver metro area, with no benefit anticipated in areas of the North Front Range that "historically measured some of the region's highest ozone concentrations." In conclusion, Polis asked the EPA for a waiver exception for the RFG requirement. However, the request has not been granted. What to expect from Pueblo gas prices this summer Skyler McKinley, Pueblo native and representative for AAA Colorado, said he anticipates that while RFG is more expensive to produce, store, and shift, he does not believe the reformulated gas will cause a major spike to the tune of 60 or 70 cents a gallon, as predicted by the governor. McKinley clarified that Pueblo is not in the most severe "non-attainment area" where motorists are required to fill their tanks with RFG. However, due to the nature of supply lines into Colorado, southern Colorado service stations may nonetheless be forced to buy it, he speculated. "Generally, I would say most vehicles in the state will end up using RFG, just as a function of the market, which means you're paying extra even though you're not in the severe non-attainment zone," McKinley said. However, McKinley pointed out that Colorado gas prices, as of now, are still lower than the national average. As of Wednesday, the Colorado average gas price was $3.29 a gallon, with Pueblo just under one cent higher at $3.39, according to AAA gas prices. The national average, as of Wednesday, was $3.50 cents a gallon. This is despite Colorado recently experiencing a 16-cent surge, on average, in May. McKinley said he believes that upward pressure may raise prices to match the national average in the coming weeks, but not much beyond. McKinley also emphasized that gas prices are "very complex," with a variety of factors that could influence price from changes in the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East or Ukraine, supply chain interruptions, potential production cuts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), or a bad hurricane season affecting oil production in the Gulf Coast. "I don't want folks to see prices increasing and say, this is all because of the big, bad EPA that's not the case," he said. "It's all of the factors that go into gas prices." More Pueblo news: Pueblo's Lake Minnequa park is receiving upgrades to make it accessible to everyone Questions, comments, or story tips? Contact Justin at jreutterma@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @jayreutter1. Support local news, subscribe to the Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com. This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: What to know about Pueblo gas prices this summer Six businesses in Wichita were out of compliance during food safety and lodging inspections conducted by the Kansas Department of Agriculture last week. They were cited for a number of violations including employees who handled food with their bare hands or didnt wash their hands before putting on gloves, greasy build up in areas were food is prepared, a broken cooler and water heater, expired licenses, pastry display shelves that had no doors or other coverings to prevent contamination, roaches on bedding and on a bathroom wall, exposed wires and missing light bulbs, mold, meats that werent labeled with their preparation dates, blocked and non-working sinks and more, according to inspection reports. Information about the food establishments and hotels, as well as a summary of their violations, appears below. The list includes inspections conducted in Sedgwick County from May 26 to June 1. The list was compiled on June 6. At least 40 establishments passed inspections during that same time. A list of those also appears below. Some may have been non-compliant in previous weeks. Some of the food businesses inspected were set up at Riverfest. Many of those have addresses listed on Century II Drive. 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. Comments will be added to the online version of this article. More details about inspections are in The Eagles searchable database of non-compliant restaurant and hotel inspections at www.kansas.com/databases. Out of compliance inspections Chiang Mai Thai Restaurant, 3141 S. Hillside in Wichita Eight violations on May 30 during an expired license inspection. The restaurant didnt have any chlorine test strips to check the concentration of sanitizer in the dish washing machine, no probe thermometer to check food temperatures, an employee touched ready-to-eat tomatoes with her bare hands, items including soap and paper towels were sitting inside of a hand-washing sink in the kitchen, several employees put on gloves without first washing their hands, build up of grease along baseboards and floor junctions and on kitchen fans, bottles of chemicals were stored with their nozzles facing to-go sauces and cans of soda, build up of grease and food debris between the fryer and grill and on racks and walls inside a cooler. Next inspection: June 9. Family Dollar, 1330 N. Oliver in Wichita One violation on May 28 during a follow-up inspection. The store had no hot water because a new hot water heater hadnt arrived yet. Next inspection: June 7. Gorditas Rodeo, 3090 W. 13th St. in Wichita Six violations on May 30 during an expired license inspection. The business didnt have a consumer advisory posted warning customers about the risks of consuming undercooked eggs, the drain at a kitchen hand-washing sink was draining very slowly so employees were washing their hands in other sinks, pans of meats and beans werent labeled with their preparation dates, no probe food thermometer to check food temperatures, refrigerated eggs werent cold enough because a cooler wasnt working. Next inspection: June 9. Panaderia La Casa de Mi Abuela, 1510 W. 21st St. in Wichita Two violations on May 31 during an expired license inspection. There was no soap at a hand-washing sink behind he counter, cabinets and display shelves filled with pastries had no doors or other forms of protection to shield the baked goods from contamination. Next inspection: June 10. Scotsman Inn, 5922 W. Kellogg Drive in Wichita Twelve violations on May 31 during a complaint inspection. The motel didnt have records showing its carbon monoxide detectors and smoke detectors are checked every six months, bedding in one room had burn holes in it, there were no emergency evacuation signs in at least seven rooms, an inspector saw roaches on bedding and on a bathroom wall in one room, the emergency light at the top of the central staircase of the motel didnt work, wiring on a bathroom ventilation fan was exposed in one room, a bottle of all purpose cleaner wasnt labeled, a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) outlet in the bathroom of one room didnt work, lights bulbs were missing from a hallway fixture, mold was growing on a damaged wall between a toilet and bathtub in one room, the motel has no emergency management plan available for employees to refer to in emergency situations. Next inspection: June 10. Wichita Hookah Cafe, 6249 E. 21st St., Suite 124 in Wichita Eight violations on May 29 during an expired license inspection. Chicken breasts and gyro meat werent labeled with their preparation dates, a hand-washing sink couldnt be used because it was full of teapots, a hand-washing sink couldnt be used because it was leaking, no soap at a hand-washing sink, there was no working hand-washing sink outside of the public bathrooms, the restaurant didnt have a sanitizing sink set up or have test strips to measure the concentration of sanitizer, there was no probe thermometer to check food temperatures. Next inspection: June 8. Dead bugs in liquor. Old meats. Bare hands on food. Wichita KS restaurant inspections Cockroaches on pans. Botulism risk. Flies. Filth. Wichita KS restaurant inspections How do 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 a foodborne illness, when a problem cant be fixed right away, such as bug and rodent infestations, and more. Typically, establishments are reinspected within 10 days. Its rare for a business 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. The lists in this story only include businesses from Sedgwick County. But you can search food and lodging inspection results anywhere in Kansas at https://foodsafety.kda.ks.gov/FoodSafety/Web/Inspection/PublicInspectionSearch.aspx. Complaint? Heres where to submit it 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 complaint 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 www.agriculture.ks.gov/public-resources/comments-complaints/lodging-complaint. For more information about foodborne illnesses, visit www.foodsafety.gov. These businesses passed inspections last week Aguas Frescas Laguna (mobile vendor/food truck), 1919 E. Lockwood in Wichita Aldi , 2826 S. Seneca in Wichita Asia Bazaar Grocery & Cafe , 6100 E. 21st St., Suite 300 in Wichita Bingo Casino West , 540 N. West St. in Wichita Brain Freeze , 604 E. Ross in Clearwater Braums Ice Cream & Dairy Store , 2121 N. Ridge Road in Wichita Chans Concessions , 123 Century II Drive in Wichita Concert Crestview Bevco (pool house) at Crestview Country Club, 1000 N. 127th St. East in Wichita Corner Market 133 , 6115 N. Air Cap Drive in Park City Dirty Ds , 1110 W. Harry in Wichita Doc Greens Gourmet Salads , 10096 E. 13th St., Suite 102 in Wichita Emperors Japanese Grill , 7825 W. Maple in Wichita Forge ICT , 917 E. Douglas in Wichita Fuzzys Taco Shop , 10728 W. 21st St. in Wichita Gabbys Peruvian Restaurant & Catering , 1002 S. Seneca in Wichita Heritage Inn of Wichita , 4539 S. Broadway in Wichita Hoopingarner Concessions #2 (mobile vendor/food truck), 14035 Century II Drive in Wichita Hoopingarner Funnel Cakes , 14035 Century II Drive in Wichita Il Vicino Wood Oven Pizza , 4817 E. Douglas in Wichita Kona Ice of NW Wichita (mobile vendor/food truck), 13629 W. Ponderosa Court in Wichita Kona Ice of NW Wichita Truck #2 (mobile vendor/food truck), 13629 W. Ponderosa Court in Wichita LH Ice Cream , 123 Century II Drive in Wichita Made 2 Grill (tent), 10906 Century II Drive in Wichita Meals On Wheels/Friendship Meals , 4808 W. Ninth St. in Wichita Metta Lao Bubble Tea (mobile vendor/food truck), 2550 S. Greenwich in Wichita Northwest Branch YMCA Concessions , 13838 W. 21st St. in Wichita Ottaway Legacy Shows (mobile vendor/food truck), 4830 S. Oliver in Wichita Petes Donut Shack (mobile vendor/food truck), 2326 S. St. Francis in Wichita Pho Ong 8 , 3801 E. Harry in Wichita Piatto Neapolitan Pizzeria , 1706 E. Douglas in Wichita Promise Thai Cuisine , 313 S. Greenwich in Wichita Saigon Oriental Restaurant , 1103 N. Broadway in Wichita Saltgrass Steak House , 2624 N. Greenwich in Wichita Smokin Diner Food (mobile vendor/food truck), 4835 S. Martinson Circle in Wichita Sweet Ps Love Machine (mobile vendor/food truck), 922 W. 11th St. in Wichita Taco Bell , 950 Connolly Court in Park City Tacos TJ 664 (mobile vendor/food truck), 1014 N. West St. in Wichita Tamales Marycano , 2206 W. MacArthur, Lot 21 in Wichita Tru By Hilton Wichita Northeast , 1236 N. Greenwich in Wichita Wendys, 2612 N. Greenwich Court 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. Mings owner explains his decision to hang it up and close his restaurant after 47 years Wichita buddies refused to pause morning coffee meetup just because their shop was closed Press Release June 6, 2024 Batting for more inclusive and accessible healthcare services in communities, Bong Go inspects Super Health Center in Dauis, Bohol; aids struggling workers Senator Christopher "Bong" Go, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, has remained steadfast in bringing essential public health services closer to more Filipinos down to the communities through the establishment of Super Health Centers. Go emphasized the necessity for an inclusive strategy in strengthening the country's healthcare infrastructure during the inspection of a Super Health Center in Barangay Dao, Dauis, Bohol, on Wednesday, June 5. He highlighted the crucial role of Super Health Centers in effectively addressing health challenges and ensuring the well-being of the populace, especially those at the grassroots level. "The more we should invest in our healthcare system. Hindi natin akalaing tamaan tayo ng pandemya. Mas mabuti nang handa tayo sa anumang pandemyang darating sa buhay natin," said Go. "Patuloy po akong tutulong sa pagpaparami ng Super Health Centers sa bansa sa abot po ng aking makakaya. Sa mga itinayo nang Super Health Centers, nakita namin kung gaano kalaki ang naitutulong nito sa komunidad lalo na sa rural areas," he added. Super Health Centers are strategically designed to deliver primary care, offering consultations, and enhancing the early detection of diseases at the grassroots level. They aim to bolster the country's healthcare sector, with a particular emphasis on rural communities. Through the concerted efforts of Go, fellow lawmakers, the Department of Health, led by Secretary Teodoro "Ted" Herbosa, and local government units, adequate funding was allocated for establishing more than 700 Super Health Centers nationwide. During his visit to Dauis, Go acknowledged government and local officials for their service to their constituents, including Acting Vice Governor Tita Baja, Board Member Lucille Lagunay, Dauis Mayor Roman Bullen, and Vice Mayor Miriam Sumaylo, among others. Following the inspection, Go and his Malasakit Team proceeded to the Dauis Municipal Gym to distribute aid to 522 displaced workers. They gave away food packs, snacks, vitamins, masks, shirts, and balls. Select recipients also received a bicycle, watch, shoes, and a mobile phone. Through Go's initiative, these beneficiaries also qualified for livelihood support from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) under its Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/ Displaced Workers (TUPAD) program. Go emphasized the importance of protecting the well-being of marginalized workers, especially those residing in rural areas who require increased economic opportunities. The lawmaker has filed Senate Bill No. 420 to institutionalize the Rural Employment Assistance Program (REAP) to offer temporary employment opportunities to individuals who meet the criteria of being economically disadvantaged, impoverished, displaced, or seasonal workers if enacted into law. To further ease the financial burden on Filipino families, Go also co-authored and co-sponsored SBN 2534, which aims to raise the daily minimum wage by P100 nationwide. Throughout his visits, Go also continues to support individuals requiring healthcare services. He advised them to seek assistance at the Governor Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital (GCGMH) in Tagbilaran City and at Don Emilio del Valle Memorial Hospital in Ubay, where Malasakit Centers are ready to assist them in managing their medical expenses. Go is the principal author and sponsor of Republic Act No. 11463 or the Malasakit Centers Act of 2019, which institutionalized the Malasakit Centers program. As of now, 165 Malasakit Centers are operational across the country, poised to assist with patients' medical expenses. The DOH reports that the Malasakit Center program has already provided aid to more or less ten million Filipinos. Go, vice chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance, has also supported numerous initiatives focused on boosting economic growth and improving the quality of public service delivery in the province. Among these are the construction of multipurpose buildings in Alburquerque, Alicia, Anda, Balilihan, Batuan, Buenavista, Corella, Danao, Dauis, Dimiao, Duero, Garcia Hernandez, Guindulman, Loay, Loon, Pilar, Tagbilaran City, and Valencia; improvement of evacuation centers in Panglao, Anda, Balilihan, Carmen, Corella, Garcia-Hernandez, Sikatuna, and Valencia; installation of a water system in Alicia, Antequera, Inabanga, and President Carlos P. Garcia; as well as the construction of slaughterhouses in Inabanga and Loay. Furthermore, he also pushed for the improvements of public markets in Bilar, Calape, Clarin, Lila, Sagbayan, and Tagbilaran City; the acquisition of an ambulance and rescue vehicle in Trinidad and Catigbian; the installation of solar street lights in various towns of Bohol; as well as road rehabilitations throughout the province. "Patuloy kaming magseserbisyo sa inyo dahil bisyo ko ang magserbisyo at ako ay naniniwala na ang serbisyo sa tao ay serbisyo 'yan sa Panginoon, serbisyo 'yan kay Allah," underscored Go who is known as Mr. Malasakit for his compassionate service to Filipinos in need. On the same day, Go also visited Panglao to aid displaced workers and inspect the Super Health Center in the town. He also attended the Liga ng mga Barangay Congress-Bohol Provincial Chapter in Tagbilaran City. KYODO NEWS - Jun 7, 2024 - 10:09 | Arts, All A small business based in Nagoya, central Japan, is offering people of all ages a chance to step into colorful fish tails and learn the graceful art of "mermaid swimming." The practice of donning a mermaid costume and displaying underwater moves inspired by the mythical creatures has been growing in popularity, especially in countries such as the United States and the Philippines, where professionals are increasingly hired to perform at events and parties. "I want to help it catch on in Japan, too," said Shoko Goto, 44, head of Mermaid Academy Japan. During one session in mid-May, eight students gathered at a local diving pool to channel their inner mermaids. Their pink and yellow costume tails fluttered as they practiced underwater spins, working to master smooth movements with a monofin. "If you rush it, you reveal your human nature," advised Goto, who is known professionally as Mermaid Shellina. "Slow down, go nice and easy." Teachers at the academy provide detailed instruction on everything from swimming technique to the proper fingertip angle for various moves. A 26-year-old woman based in Tokyo who has been attending the academy for a little under a year said, "I started taking classes because I wanted to be like Ariel from Disney's 'The Little Mermaid.' My goal is to appear in a live performance." According to Goto, mermaid swimming is all about elegance and beauty rather than competition such as in swimming for speed or distance. Along with a growing number of freelancers who perform professionally, there are also thriving communities of hobbyists and cosplayers who cultivate alter-egos as merpeople through in-person gatherings and sharing photos online. Coming across such images on Instagram in 2015 is what inspired Goto to make her mermaid dreams a reality. Although she had no special proficiency as a swimmer, she had loved the popular mermaid story since childhood and wanted to challenge herself. Through regular trips to a local municipal pool, she trained herself to stay underwater for longer durations and mastered on her own the necessary swimming performance techniques. She went on to earn a professional certification as a mermaid swimming instructor in 2020. The school in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, was launched the same year. Attracting students was difficult at first, but with the school's growing reach through social media, over 250 people in total have joined classes or experiential events, Goto said, with participants ranging from age 6 to those in their 70s and an increasing number of males signing up. The school has also organized mermaid performances at an aquarium in the prefecture and other venues around the country. "For anyone who dreams of being a mermaid, I encourage them to go for it at any age," she said. Related coverage: FEATURE: AM radio listeners set to be permanently tuned out in Japan Paris film fans embrace "Tora-san" as appetite for Japan movies grows FEATURE: Famed U.S. artist Gates melds Black, Japanese cultures in Tokyo show A statue of Lady Justice at the Court of Final Appeal is pictured, in Hong Kong By Greg Torode and James Pomfret HONG KONG (Reuters) - Two senior British judges recently resigned from Hong Kong's top appeals court as international concerns mounted over the rule of law in the city following the recent convictions of 14 prominent democratic activists amid a national security crackdown. "Hong Kong, once a vibrant and politically diverse community is slowly becoming a totalitarian state. The rule of law is profoundly compromised in any area about which the government feels strongly," wrote one of the judges, Jonathan Sumption, in an editorial in the Financial Times on June 10. Another judge on the court, Beverley McLachlin, announced on Monday that she would step down when her three-year term expired on July 29. WHY ARE THE RESIGNATIONS SIGNIFICANT? While Hong Kong has a deep pool of legal professionals across its courts, commerce and academia, it has since 1997 appointed foreign judges to sit on the five-person court of final appeal for certain cases. They have been described as a "canary in the coalmine", generating confidence in Hong Kong's judiciary as an independent entity free from outside interference after Hong Kong returned to Chinese Communist Party rule in 1997. These judges do not dominate the system but help keep Hong Kong tied to British Common Law traditions. Critics, including the U.S. government, say these are under threat after the imposition of a sweeping national security law in 2020, and another set of security legislation in March this year. A roster of local judges, designated by Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leader to hear specific national security cases, have in recent years delivered jail terms to scores of opposition figures for a number of offences including rioting, unauthorised assembly and most recently, conspiracy to commit subversion. The International Bar Association said the latest national security legislation, known as Article 23, "significantly enables further crackdowns on human rights in Hong Kong." The Hong Kong and Chinese governments have repeatedly stated that the city's judiciary remains independent and the laws were needed to ensure stability. HOW MANY FOREIGN JUDGES REMAIN ON HK'S TOP COURT? After the departure of Lawrence Collins, Jonathan Sumption and Beverley McLachlin, eight foreign non permanent judges remain on the Court of Final Appeal. They don't all sit together but are selected by the chief justice to join the five-judge CFA, flying in to Hong Kong for specific cases. COULD THE RESIGNATIONS SPARK OTHERS TO LEAVE? Despite the pressures, that is far from clear at this point. Retired judges say jurists discuss the broader environment among themselves, but rarely publicly or with outsiders. "As a judge, one is schooled in how to stay totally above the fray," one retired senior judge told Reuters. "If anyone can keep the pressures from bothering them, an old judge certainly can. I'm not surprised many have stayed this long." Two judges - Beverley McLachlin and Nicholas Phillips - face the end of their three year terms in July and October respectively. McLachlin departs then but any extension of Phillips' term has yet to be announced. McLachlin, who previously served for 17 years as the Chief Justice of Canada, has faced Canadian press criticism for staying on, but has at times defended Hong Kong's legal system. Other judges have extended or joined in the last 18 months. That said, the international pressures on those that remain is likely to continue, particularly as more high profile national security cases move up the system, with some defendants like media tycoon Jimmy Lai facing possible life imprisonment. When asked about Western criticism, Hong Kong's top judge Andrew Cheung said in January he was confident he would still be able to recruit leading foreign judges, later saying they had "played a significant role" in the courts in some of the most substantive appeals heard. The foreign judges, however, have not been involved so far in the most high profile national security cases. WHAT CASES ARE LOOMING? One of the three remaining British judges, David Neuberger, is scheduled to hear a number of appeals this month that involve pro-democracy campaigners including barristers and former lawmakers Martin Lee and Margaret Ng, and Jimmy Lai. They had been convicted for unauthorised assembly cases in 2019 when the months-long pro-democracy demonstrations took place. Neuberger told Reuters that he could not comment on the resignations, but that he intended to remain on the Hong Kong court "to support the rule of law in Hong Kong, as best I can." Hong Kong's judicial officials involved in national security cases, including prosecutors with the department of justice, judges designated by Hong Kongs leader to hear national security cases, as well as the citys justice secretary Paul Lam are all facing scrutiny. The U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) - which advises Congress - has been calling on the U.S. to consider imposing sanctions on judges" presiding over national security cases for their role in weakening Hong Kongs once venerated rule of law," while rights advocacy groups have published reports on the issue. The judiciary as well as the Hong Kong and Chinese governments have condemned such calls. (Additional reporting by Jessie Pang; Editing by Stephen Coates) (Reuters) - Citizens across the European Union are currently voting in the European Parliament elections to choose direct representatives for the supranational legislative body. The European Parliament is one of the EU's three main political institutions, along with the European Council, which represents national governments of the 27 member states, and the European Commission, the bloc's Brussels-based executive arm. Here are some details about how the three main EU bodies function. HOW LAWS ARE MADE Only the European Commission can formally propose new laws, either on its own initiative or after requests by other EU institutions or citizens. Laws are passed through an agreement between the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, composed of national government ministers of a particular policy area. In May, the Council approved landmark rules on artificial intelligence after the Parliament voted in favour of them, but a law to restore damaged nature is hanging in the balance after Hungary withdrew its support for the bill in March. As some of the Council's decisions must be unanimous, member states hold a de facto veto power over EU lawmaking in areas including taxes, EU enlargement, and foreign policy, including sanctions. Both the Parliament and the Council can formally reject a law at any stage of the process, thus scrapping it. HOW INSTITUTIONS AND GOVERNMENTS INTERACT Apart from Councils of EU ministers, EU countries' heads of state or government also meet, usually every three months, in the European Council. The head of the Commission is invited to participate. The European Council is the highest political body in the EU, dealing with issues that ministers were unable to sort out, setting priorities for EU work, and taking positions on global issues. EU leaders also propose the President of the European Commission, who then has to secure majority backing in the Parliament. This will be one of the first tasks of the newly elected European Parliament, along with picking its own president for a term of two and a half years. The European Council also appoints the European Commission, and other key officials such as the European Central Bank chief and the head of diplomacy. Countries contribute to, and receive a portion of, the EU budget, depending on the size and type of their economy, adherence to EU law, and specific policy or project needs. About a third of the funds goes to raising the standard of living in poorer regions, and another third to farmers. Money is also spent on grants and loans to businesses, non-profit organisations and students. TREATIES, REGULATIONS AND DIRECTIVES - WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? EU law is negotiated by the Parliament, the Commission and member states. Treaties set out the bloc's principles, institutions and legislative processes. Regulations apply directly to all member states, while directives require countries to achieve specified objectives and allow flexibility in implementation methods. Decisions are addressed to specific companies, individuals or member states. Among recently approved acts are a regulation on horse mackerel fishing quotas, a directive on occupational gender equality, and a decision to approve Kuwait's accession to an international sugar agreement. Prominent examples from recent months include a May regulation to set tariffs on Russian grain products, a February directive on environmental crimes, and a decision to approve German state aid to RWE in December. Treaties and legislation are interpreted by the Court of Justice of the EU that ensures they are applied, with the power to impose fines on members for breaches. In antitrust cases, the court reviews fines imposed on companies by the Commission. International agreements with partner countries or organisations also shape the legal landscape. (Reporting by Olivier Sorgho, Luca Fratangelo and Alessandro Parodi; editing by Milla Nissi and Gareth Jones) Reality Check is a Ledger-Enquirer series digging deeper into key issues and focusing on accountability. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email mynews@ledger-enquirer.com. The swearing-in ceremony for the newest member of the Columbus Council was delayed because of a conflict between two elements of city law. In a 6-3 vote May 28, the council appointed retired Columbus police officer Byron Hickey to succeed the late Jerry Pops Barnes as the District 1 representative and fill the remaining two years of the four-year term. Barnes, who died April 14 at age 80 from an undisclosed illness, was the District 1 representative on the 10-member council for 17 years. The council is the governing body of the Columbus Consolidated Government. The city consolidated with Muscogee County in January 1971 after the charter was ratified in November 1970. So the city council has a dual function as the county commission and councilors must be sworn in by the probate court judge for the city part of their role and by the superior court judge for the county part of their role. Monday morning, Hickey was sworn in by Columbus Probate Court Judge Marc DAntonio because DAntonio couldnt attend Tuesday nights meeting. But after that ceremony, an email the same day Hickey received from CCG human resources director Reather Hollowell informed him that his city pension would be suspended while he served on the council because the citys pension ordinance considers councilors as full-time employees, despite the charter treating councilors as part-time employees. Thats why, although Hickeys swearing-in was on the agenda for Tuesday nights meeting, Mayor Skip Henderson announced the ceremony would be delayed. But nobody involved would explain why then. Hickey told the Ledger-Enquirer on Friday that he doesnt know why this conflict arose this late in the process. I was just told this was a unique situation, he said. I just feel its unfair to retired people who put in, in my case, over 30 years of service to the city, to be penalized and punished for being in public office on the council. The Ledger-Enquirer didnt reach Hollowell or city attorney Clifton Fay for comment before publication, but two councilors said a solution is in the works. The city attorney is drafting a revised pension ordinance to present to the pension board. The revision would reclassify councilors as part-time. That would make their participation in the pension plan optional, just like the option to participate in the citys health insurance plan, so city retirees could serve on the council while still drawing from their pensions. Were waiting on the mayor to set up the meeting and work with the city attorney to draft everything, Councilor Toyia Tucker of District 4 told the L-E on Thursday. We want to come up with the language to do this right for any future person running for the city council. The city would have had another person with the same conflict if Tucker lost her re-election bid last month. Her opponent was Tyrone Tucker, a retired Columbus police officer. Jim Wetherington was a retired Columbus police chief when he served as the citys mayor from 2007-11. His pension was frozen during that time, Hickey said, but the mayors position is full-time. Mayor Hendersons salary as of October 2023 was $82,910. Councilors receive a part-time salary of approximately $22,000. Were going to get this worked out, Councilor Charmaine Crabb of District 5, who nominated Hickey, told the L-E on Thursday. Byron will be a great asset on the council. Explosions were heard in Khmelnytskyi Oblast during a Russian missile attack on the night of 6-7 June. Source: Suspilne, Ukraine's public broadcaster Details: An air-raid warning was still in effect for the region at the time. Ukraine's Air Force warned of a missile attack. Residents of the town of Starokostiantyniv, which was the target, were asked to take shelter. Background: On the late evening of 6 June, the Air Force reported that four Russian strategic bombers had taken off in Russia, and later the military recorded launches of cruise missiles. On the evening of 6 June, Russian troops launched several groups of attack drones from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraines south. Support UP or become our patron! The occupying authorities in the city of Luhansk have claimed that their air defence has shot down six missiles. A video of the explosions was published online. Source: Russian Kremlin-aligned agency RIA Novosti Details: The occupiers reported the explosions at 11:00. They claimed that a Russian air defence system had downed the ATACMS missiles. Later the so-called local authorities reported that a stairwell of a residential building had collapesed. pic.twitter.com/nBfMaNeHiT (@ukrpravda_news) June 7, 2024 Meanwhile, Lysohor reported that in the morning, Russia-occupied Luhansk had been subject to a large-scale attack. Explosions rang out in the district where barracks and an airfield are located. Quote: "Local witnesses have reported about seven to 20 explosions. This number may include interception attempts and strikes on the city. But we are firmly confident about two things. Firstly, the videos were shot in the Hostra Mohyla district, near the barracks of the former Luhansk Higher Military Aviation School of Navigators, where the occupiers are currently residing. And also near the former regional military enlistment office. An airfield is located in the same spot, as are an aircraft repair plant and a road leading to the Russian border. The Russian army uses this road round the clock to transport cargo, armament and personnel located in the same barracks as the aviation school. There are also reports about a strike on an oil depot for the fourth time in the last two months. That is, only the old and well-equipped military infrastructure of the occupiers has been struck. Secondly, the weapons provided for us by our Western allies are extremely accurate. Sadly, the Russians always shield themselves with civilians, and if air defence had not been operating above residential areas, then there would have been no reports of civilian casualties, let alone children." Support UP or become our patron! South Korea, one of only four nations that still operated the classic F-4 Phantom, formally retired the Cold War-era fighter today. The decommissioning ceremony saw the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) provide an honorable discharge for its last Phantoms, which had helped defend the nation for 55 years. The event also saw the air force looking to the future, with involvement from the F-4s successors, including the F-35A stealth fighter. Ultimately, the Phantom will also be superseded by the locally developed KF-21. South Korea, one of only four nations that had still been operating the classic F-4 Phantom, formally retired the Cold War-era fighter today. The decommissioning ceremony saw the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) provide an honorable discharge for its last Phantoms, which had played a hugely important role in the defense of the nation for 55 years. The event also saw the air arm looking to the future, with involvement from the F-4s successors, including the F-35A stealth fighter . Ultimately, the Phantom will also be superseded by the locally developed KF-21, an aircraft that you can read more about here . One of the last active ROKAF F-4Es jets was painted in the jungle camouflage pattern that recalls the scheme first worn by Korean Phantoms. ROKAF The decommissioning ceremony took place today, June 7, at Suwon Air Base, in the northern Gyeonggi province, and was presided over by South Koreas Minister of National Defense Shin Won-sik. In attendance were various other military leaders, past and present, as well as former pilots and maintenance crew associated with the ROKAF F-4. The emotional intensity of the event was such that more than one of the former ROKAF Phantom crew in attendance was seen shedding a tear. Also at the event, on behalf of TWZ, was contributor Roy Choo. One of the two F-4Es involved in the final sortie today, seen here during a rehearsal for the even earlier this week. Roy Choo The two F-4Es involved in the final sortie return to Suwon. Roy Choo In his address, Minister of National Defense Shin said: The past 55 years with the Phantom have marked a history of victory for South Korea. With the introduction of the Phantom, the guardian of the free world, the Republic of Korea swiftly superseded North Koreas air power , and since then, North Koreas air force has been no match. The Phantom never dies; it just fades away. https://www.twitter.com/JETBIRDER/status/1799014231331025018 Two of the pilots involved in the final ROKAF F-4E sortie after landing their jet at Suwon today. Roy Choo The four pilots involved in the final sortie pose for the camera. Roy Choo The ceremony included recognition for ROKAF Phantom aircrew who had lost their lives while on duty, the presentation of commendations and citations to former and current F-4 personnel, and a very last sortie. On the order of Minister of National Defense Shin, a pair of Phantoms launched from Suwon for the last time. One of those jets was painted in the jungle camouflage pattern that recalls the scheme first worn by ROKAF Phantoms. Once the two Phantoms taxied back after their sortie, Defense Minister Shin hung congratulatory wreaths on the nose of the jets and wrote the commemorative message on the fuselage of one of them: Beyond legend, into the future! A wreath adorns the nose of one of the F-4Es after its return to Suwon Air Base today. SBS News/YouTube screencap The ROKAFs Black Eagles aerobatic team then performed a display, with their T-50B Golden Eagles , while flights were then performed by other current ROKAF fighters. First, five F-16s launched a total of 55 flares, commemorating the F-4s 55 years of service in South Korea since its introduction in 1969. Next, a formation flight was performed by six F-16s and five FA-50s. The six F-16s symbolized the initial introduction of the first six F-4D aircraft in 1969, while the FA-50s represented five additional F-4Ds that were funded using donations from South Korean citizens, becoming the so-called Pilseung Squadron. Following them, two reconnaissance-configured RF-16s, which took on the mission of the RF-4C recce Phantom, performed a flight over the base. Next came a formation of F-15K Slam Eagle , F-35A, and F-16 aircraft, which are stationed at air bases in Daegu, Cheongju, and Jungwon, each of which was formerly home to Phantoms. The aerial displays ended with three F-35As, symbolizing the successful transition from the third-generation Phantom to the fifth-generation stealth fighter. Two of the last ROKAF F-4Es, in 1980s-style light gray and current dark gray schemes. ROKAF ROKAF An F-4E turns hard to reveal AIM-9P Sidewinder heat-seeking air-to-air missiles underwing. ROKAF ROKAF It was more than half a century ago that South Korea became the fourth country to acquire the Phantom (after the United States , United Kingdom, and Iran). In total South Korea, operated 187 Phantoms, in three versions. The ROKAF initially received 18 of the F-4D version, paid for with $64 million in special military aid provided by the U.S. government. Training for aircrew and maintainers began at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, in 1968. The first six of these F-4Ds arrived at Daegu Air Base on August 29 the following year, after a ferry flight across the Pacific that had taken them around 7,500 miles from McClellan Air Force Base, California, via refueling stops in Hawaii, Guam, and Okinawa. Arrival of the first F-4Ds at Daegu Air Base on August 29, 1969. Among the attendees was the most popular Korean actor of the time, Shin Sung-il, whose brother was the squadron commander, Lt. Col. Kang Shin-koo (seen on the left). ROKAF Lt. Col. Kang Shin-koo waves from the cockpit of his F-4D after arrival at Daegu Air Base on August 29, 1969. ROKAF An F-4D touches down at Daegu Air Base on August 29, 1969. ROKAF Delivery certificate for the first six ROKAF F-4Ds. ROKAF The first ROKAF Phantom squadron, the 151st Fighter Squadron, was formally established at Daegu on September 23, 1969. The 152nd, 153rd, and 159th Fighter Squadrons followed, making Daegu the Korean Phantoms primary home base. The ceremony for the establishment of the first ROKAF Phantom squadron, the 151st Fighter Squadron, at Daegu in September 1969. ROKAF Among the pilots involved in bringing the first ROKAF Phantoms to Korea was retired Maj. Gen. Lee Jae-woo: My heart still races when I think of the moment I flew the then state-of-the-art Phantom, received mid-air refueling, and landed at the Daegu base. Fifty-five years have passed since then, and witnessing the Phantoms final flight is deeply moving. The Phantom enabled the Air Force to operate the F-16, F-15K, and F-35A, and it paved the way for the creation of the domestically developed KF-21 . The primitive AGM-12 Bullpup air-to-ground missile was used by the ROKAF F-4D early in its career. ROKAF South Korea credits the Phantom with turning the tables on the Korean Peoples Air Force (KPAF) in the North, which at the time was roughly twice the size of the ROKAF and operated the capable MiG-21; it wasnt long before the Phantom was also involved in skirmishes with North Korea. On June 1, 1971, a North Korean spy ship appeared off the coast of Soeguksan Island, and the ROKAF and the Republic of Korea Navy conducted a joint counter-espionage operation. The North Korean vessel put up anti-aircraft fire, before being destroyed by F-4Ds. The moment before the sinking of a North Korean armed spy ship after it was attacked by F-4Ds in June 1971. ROKAF In 1972, South Korea acquired another 18 F-4Ds from the United States as a free loan, in a reciprocal arrangement that saw Seoul send 30 F-5A/Bs to South Vietnam. In May of the same year, the ROKAF took its Phantoms onto the road, with a highway exercise taking place on the Seonghwan emergency runway, a specially adapted portion of the Gyeongbu Expressway on Koreas west coast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYVzbghUYnw More Phantoms arrived in 1975, amid changes in the regional security situation, including the visit of North Korean leader Kim Il-sung to China and the communist takeover of Vietnam. Under the National Defense Fund, South Korean citizens funded the purchase of five more F-4Ds at a cost of around 7 billion won ($6.7 million). President Park Chung-hee inaugurated the resulting Pilseung Squadron at Suwon Air Base on December 12, 1975. A ROKAF F-4D armed with AIM-9P Sidewinder air-to-air missiles taxis on the flight at Daegu Air Base in January 1979. U.S. Air Force A major advance came with the introduction of the F-4E version on September 20, 1977, offering enhanced air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities. It was an F-4E that was at the center of another significant incident involving North Korea, on February 25, 1983. When KPAF Capt. Lee Ung Pyeong defected to the South in a MiG-19, a Phantom was scrambled and intercepted the North Korean pilot over Yeonpyeong Island, before guiding him safely to land at Suwon Air Base. A ROKAF F-4E (nearest the camera) and an F-5 escort the MiG-19 of North Korean defector Capt. Lee Ung Pyeong on February 25, 1983. ROKAF https://www.twitter.com/KorHistory/status/1629134062983204865 Other notable interceptions involved various Soviet military assets that were closely monitored by ROKAF Phantoms, including Tu-16s (in 1983), and Tu-95s plus nuclear submarines (in 1984). Russian bogeys also followed, including on February 17, 1998, when F-4Ds were responsible for shadowing a Russian Il-20 Coot electronic intelligence aircraft over the Sea of Japan. Seoul accused the Russian aircraft of violating South Korean airspace. A poor quality but interesting photo of a ROKAF F-4D intercepting a Russian Il-20 on February 17, 1998. ROKAF Modernization of the ROKAF saw the introduction of the F-16 in April 1986, followed by the F-15K in October 2005, and the F-35A in March 2019. In the process, South Korea disposed of its F-4Ds in 2010, while the RF-4C reconnaissance jet was retired in 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G2jGPxwUfE With the withdrawal of the F-4E looming, the ROKAF organized various retirement events to mark the end of its service. A pair of F-4Es over the port of Pyeongtaek, in Gyeonggi province, South Korea. ROKAF On March 8, 2024, all of the ROKAFs in-service fighter types gathered at Suwon Air Base for an Elephant Walk. Eight F-4Es led the way, followed by a total of 33 other fighters, including examples of the F-15K, F-16, FA-50 , F-5E/F, and F-35A. The F-4Es were armed with the AGM-142 Popeye and AGM-65D Maverick air-to-ground missiles as well as 500-pound Mk 82 freefall bombs. I am very proud to be flying the Phantom for the last time in my career, explained Maj. Do-Hyung Kim, of the 153rd Fighter Squadron, 10th Fighter Wing, during the Elephant Walk event. I am doing my best to make each sortie historic. I will soon switch to another aircraft, but I will firmly defend the Republic of Korea with the pride of being a Phantom pilot. Two F-35As fly overhead the Elephant Walk at Suwon Air Base on March 8, 2024. ROKAF An F-4E armed with an AGM-142 Popeye missile leads the Elephant Walk. ROKAF As well as F-4Es, the unique Elephant Walk involved the F-15K, F-16, FA-50, F-5E/F, and F-35A. ROKAF An F-4E armed with AGM-65D Maverick air-to-ground missiles. ROKAF The final months of Phantom operations in Korea also put the spotlight on the Israeli-made AGM-142 Popeye air-to-ground missile, a missile that has been retired by the ROKAF alongside the F-4. According to the ROKAF, the Popeye, first introduced in 2002, was able to hit targets at around 62 miles with a circular error probable (CEP) of around three feet and could penetrate more than five feet of reinforced concrete. The AGM-142 is man-in-the-loop control, meaning it is flown to its target via two-way datalink, usually via the launching aircraft. As TWZ reported at the time , the Phantoms final live-fire exercise took place on April 18 and saw AGM-142 Popeyes being fired, as well as the delivery of Mk 82 unguided bombs, with three F-4Es dropping 10 of the bombs each. An F-4E launches an AGM-142 Popeye missile. ROKAF The AGM-142 was carried in conjunction with the AN/ASW-55 datalink pod. ROKAF ROKAF ROKAF The same live-fire exercise saw three F-4Es dropping 10 Mk 82 bombs each. Each jet could carry a maximum load of 24 of the 500-pound weapons. ROKAF The live-fire exercise gave me the confidence to strike any target immediately and powerfully, said Maj. Kim Do-hyung, of the 153rd Fighter Squadron, 10th Fighter Wing. It is a special feeling to be the last live-fire operator of the Popeye, which was once our most powerful strategic weapon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI6oWiHV5Dc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPeanjmoVi8 On May 9, four F-4Es paid tribute to the famous Pilseung Squadron, making a flight across notable locations in South Korea, including the air bases at Suwon, Cheongju, Chungju, and Daegu. The flight over Sacheon was accompanied by two KF-21s, representing the future of the ROKAFs fighter force, while one of the F-4Es by now had its original jungle camouflage reinstated. Two more of the jets had the Phantoms iconic Spook painted on their fuselage sides with the commemorative inscription From the hands of the people, by the heart of the people. The Pilseung Squadron formation over Geoga Bridge that connects the South Korean city of Busan to Geoje Island. ROKAF The Pilseung Squadron formation over Daegu. ROKAF The Pilseung Squadron formation over the Daegu Stadium. ROKAF Flying over Gageo Island. ROKAF In line-abreast formation over the West (Yellow) Sea. ROKAF In Korean service, the F-4 was nicknamed Dokkaebi, after a kind of goblin from Korean mythology and folklore. However, the Spook motif was also widely used. To mark the retirement, new versions of the Spook were created, one of them wearing a traditional Korean red scarf and a flag, and another with the helmet of a Joseon Dynasty warrior, holding an AGM-142 Popeye missile. A trio of new Spooks to commemorate the retirement of the F-4. From the left, they comprise a figure with a traditional red Korean mahura scarf and national roundel, a figure dressed as a warrior from the Joseon dynasty, and one wearing traditional Korean warrior headgear and carrying an AGM-142 missile. ROKAF On June 5, ROKAF Chief of Staff Lee Young-su visited Suwon Air Base and flew in an F-4E during one of the very last sorties before its retirement, as part of a readiness inspection of key fighter squadrons. The camouflaged F-4E that Lee flew was serving as a Red Air asset to test the responses of other fighter units. While reflecting on the upcoming end of Phantom operations, Lee also drew attention to the current tensions with the North: The level and frequency of enemy provocations, including ballistic missile launches, GPS jamming, and dirty balloons , have increased in recent years, Lee said after his flight, and we must be ready and able to respond immediately, forcefully, and to the end, to any provocation. The F-4E Phantom that served as a virtual representative today will be retired in two days, but our airmen will forever carry the security will and wishes of the people that were embodied in the Phantom. The Pilseung Squadron formation over Saemangeum, a 21-mile man-made dyke, which separates the Yellow Sea and the former Saemangeum estuary. ROKAF Three different color schemes worn by ROKAF F-4Es at the end of their service. ROKAF ROKAF The Pilseung Squadron formation and KF-21 fighters that met in the sky over Sacheon. ROKAF In formation over Samcheonpo, a city in South Gyeongsang province. ROKAF ROKAF ROKAF Speaking again today, the ROKAF Chief of Staff reflected: The Phantom, introduced with fervent desire and active support from people longing for strong national security, has steadfastly defended the skies of the Republic of Korea for over 50 years, repaying the citizens support. This years final journey of the Phantom will be recorded as the most magnificent retirement of a fighter jet in the history of the Air Force. Despite life-extension initiatives including airframe strengthening, enabling the F-4 to go well beyond the original design life of 4,000 hours, time has caught up with the Phantom. After Japan retired its F-4s in late 2020 , Iran remains the biggest Phantom operator , while, within NATO, Greece and Turkey each retain a single squadron of the jets. A ROKAF F-4E is checked under simulated extreme weather at a climatic chamber of the Air-Weapons Systems Testing Center in Seosan, southwest of Seoul, in September 2008. JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images A ROKAF F-4E undergoes maintenance in 2011. ROKAF As South Koreas F-4 bows out, the last words go to Phantom pilot Lt. Col. Kim Tae-hyung, the commander of the 153rd Fighter Squadron, 10th Fighter Wing: As the last commander of the last Phantom Squadron, it was an honor to witness the Phantoms final moments. Though its mission has concluded, the majesty that once overwhelmed the enemy and the thunderous engine roar that resonated through the earth will forever endure in the hearts of the Phantom Men. With unwavering pride as a Phantom pilot, I am committed to steadfastly defending the Republic of Korea. Phantom, Forever! ROKAF Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com Fact Check: Posts Claim WWII Veteran, 97, Returned to Normandy to Re-Create D-Day Parachute Jump. Here Are the Facts Claim: A 97-year-old World War II veteran returned to Normandy on the most recent anniversary of the D-Day landings to re-create his parachute jump. Rating: Rating: Outdated Context: Former paratrooper Tom Rice did return to Normandy on June 6, 2019, the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, to re-create his jump. However, most online posts recounting the story fail to note the year the re-creation took place, instead implying that it was a recent event. Rice died in 2022 at the age of 101. On June 6, 2024, an X user posted a video of a 97-year-old World War II veteran returning to Normandy to recreate his D-Day jump. The footage was uploaded on the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings and was captioned: "Incredible! 97-year-old WW2 paratrooper vet returns to Normandy to recreate his D-Day jump." Incredible! 97-year-old WW2 paratrooper vet returns to Normandy to recreate his D-Day jump. pic.twitter.com/ITfNPXs7fO Pizza Pepe (@RealPizzaPepe) June 6, 2024 Although the X post did not specify when the clip was recorded, the fact it was uploaded on the 80th anniversary of the Allied operation, and that a subsequent post said, "He's definitely still got it," suggests the person who posted it believed the video was made on June 6, 2024. He's definitely still got it. Pizza Pepe (@RealPizzaPepe) June 6, 2024 Other X users also appeared to believe it was from the 80th-anniversary commemorations. One wrote: "97-year old WW2 paratrooper still vacations in France the old-fashioned way." "This 97 year old man is still jumping out of airplanes," another said. A third added: "Old man loved it. Hes still in good shape. Moving around great, and his mind is still sharp it seems, joking around. Amazing for someone pushing a full century." Hey @genoplant team. This 97 year old man is still jumping out of airplanes! https://t.co/b0d1rMGlAJ Seth Rosen (@TavCannaLLC) June 7, 2024 However, although the video was real and did show veteran paratrooper Sgt. Tom Rice returning to Normandy to recreate his D-Day landing, the footage was actually recorded on June 6, 2019 the 75th anniversary of the operation, which is why we have rated this claim as "Outdated." Numerous credible news outlets reported Rice's 75th anniversary jump and included parts of the footage in their coverage. Getty also published multiple photos from the event. Rice, of the 501st Regiment of the 101st Airborne, died on Nov. 17, 2022, according to several news reports. Sources: CBS Evening News. 97-Year-Old Veteran Parachutes Back to Normandy. 2019. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2ctATya1NY. 'Former Students Celebrate Memory of 101-Year-Old World War II Veteran Tom Rice'. NBC 7 San Diego, 19 Nov. 2022, https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/former-students-celebrate-memory-of-101-year-old-wwii-veteran-tom-rice/3102984/. 'Thomas Rice, 97 Years Old Native of Coronado, California, Sergeant In...' Getty Images, 4 June 2019, https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/thomas-rice-97-years-old-native-of-coronado-california-news-photo/1148037893. TODAY. Tom Rice, WWII Paratrooper And American Hero, Dies At 101. 2022. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaZQbXVxaYA. Twitter, et al. 'Tom Rice, WWII D-Day Paratrooper Who Continued to Jump out of Planes, Dies at 101'. San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Nov. 2022, https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/obituaries/story/2022-11-18/tom-rice-wwii-d-day-paratrooper-who-continued-to-jump-out-of-planes-dies-at-101. 'US WWII Veteran Tom Rice Takes Part in a Parachute Drop Over...' Getty Images, 5 June 2019, https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/veteran-tom-rice-takes-part-in-a-parachute-drop-over-news-photo/1148104112. Waxman, Gabe Ramirez, Craig. '97-Year-Old Vet Jumps out of a Plane for D-Day'. CNN, 5 June 2019, https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/ww2-parachute-tom-rice/index.html. '"Woo-Hoo!" D-Day Vet, 97, Parachutes Over Normandy 75 Years Later: I "Represent" a "Generation"'. Peoplemag, https://people.com/human-interest/tom-rice-97-d-day-parachute-jump/. Accessed 7 June 2024. Fact Check: About Those Claims That Half of UK Fast Food Delivery Drivers Are Working Illegally Claim: Roughly 50 percent of all fast food deliveries in the U.K. are carried out by illegal workers. Rating: Rating: Research In Progress On May 30, 2024, British political party Reform UK posted a campaign video across its social media accounts in which the party's chairman, Richard Tice, claimed around half of all food takeouts in Britain are delivered by illegal workers. "Did you know around 50% of fast food deliveries are done by illegal workers. Many of the delivery companies know about this, but do nothing. Reform UK will ban this practice," the party wrote on its X account. Did you know around 50% of fast food deliveries are done by illegal workers. Many of the delivery companies know about this, but do nothing. Reform UK will ban this practice. pic.twitter.com/KLcmHGM67A Reform UK (@reformparty_uk) May 30, 2024 In the political advertisement, Tice called the practice a "fast food, illegal worker scam" that depresses British wages and evades taxes. He also accused delivery companies, such as Deliveroo, Just Eats and Uber Eats, of allowing people to rent out "substitute accounts" to illegal workers filling in for self-employed drivers: Why would you pay for an account that's free if you're legal? Maybe, it's because you're working illegally or you're hiding something. I reckon there's up to 50 percent of all these deliveries are being done by legal workers, and big businesses know about this scam, but they're making hundreds of millions more profits at the taxpayer's expense. Tice's call for a ban on substitute accounts also appeared on Reform's Facebook, TikTok and YouTube profiles, as well as on Tice's Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=959389105639768 Snopes approached Tice and representatives for Reform for comment on the source of the 50 percent claim and will update this article if we receive a response, but until then we have rated this claim as "Research in Progress," as we were unable to scrutinize the party's figures. Representatives for Uber Eats, Just Eat and Deliveroo declined to provide Snopes with comments on the claim. However, the U.K. government published a news release on April 30, 2024, saying the three companies committed to enhancing security checks to prevent illegal work following discussions with ministers: All 3 firms have now committed to changing their processes to confirm substitute riders have the right to work legally in the U.K. directly, with Deliveroo the first to roll out a new substitute registration feature, including right to work checks, earlier this month. The firms will continue to work closely with the government as they roll out their new operating procedures, to help them adapt to any emerging risks. Substitute accounts are allowed due to the companies' workers being self-employed, the news release read. However, it said "a small minority of drivers have taken advantage of the system to avoid completing right to work checks, leading to an increase in operations by Immigration Enforcement to prevent this." This leaves customers with no way of knowing if the person handing over their food can legally work in the UK. It can also leave delivery firms in the dark about whether their substitute drivers have the right to work in the UK. All three firms were quoted in the news release. A Deliveroo spokesperson said: We take our responsibilities extremely seriously and are committed to strengthening our controls to prevent misuse of our platform. We are the first major platform to roll out direct right to work checks, a registration process and identity verification technology to ensure that only substitutes with right to work can continue riding on our platform. We will continue to work in close collaboration with the Home Office and leaders in industry to support efforts in this area. An Uber Eats spokesperson said: At Uber Eats we are going to roll out identity verification checks to help ensure only those who legitimately use someone else's account to earn with us are able to, and we are pleased to be working with government to find a solution. A Just Eat spokesperson said: We take our responsibilities on this issue seriously and have high expectations for couriers delivering on our behalf which is why we're continuing our work together with industry and policymakers to develop a solution which will ensure couriers substituting their work do so in accordance with the law. Sources: 'Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats to Enhance Security Checks to Prevent Illegal Working'. GOV.UK, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/deliveroo-just-eat-and-uber-eats-to-enhance-security-checks-to-prevent-illegal-working. Accessed 7 June 2024. A fake developer who scammed a Florida county of $1.4M now has to pay. How a judge ruled A man who scammed Manatee County out of $1.4 million by impersonating a local developer has been ordered to pay back the money, according to court records. Timothy Ledford, 27, pleaded no contest in May to charges of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy after prosecutors say he and two co-conspirators stole over $1 million from the Manatee County Clerk of Court by pretending to be Lakewood Ranch-based developer Neal Land and Neighborhoods. Circuit Judge Matt Whyte sentenced Ledford to 11 months and 29 days in jail and 25 years probation, court records show. Whyte also ordered Ledford to pay the Manatee County Clerk of Court $1,370,631 in restitution. Restitution payments are set to begin within 60 days of probation and are to be paid in installments of $1,400 on the first day of each month, according to court documents. Ledford, who has already spent around 11 months in jail, will receive credit for time served. Prosecutors say Ledford is one of three men facing fraud charges in the million-dollar scheme. The cases against Ledfords alleged co-conspirators, Ezekiel Deshaun Chester and Ibrahima Biteye, are still open and pending, according to prosecutors. Chester is due to appear in court on July 31 for a hearing. Biteye, meanwhile, was arrested for another fraud scheme in 2020 when he was caught allegedly stealing checks out of a mailbox in Georgia, according to a Fox 5 Atlanta news report. About the fraud case Assistant State Attorney Justin Foster, the lead prosecutor in the case against the three men, told the Bradenton Herald Tuesday that as part of his plea, Ledford agreed to testify truthfully and consistently with his prior statements to law enforcement in any trial involving Chester or Biteye. Ledford and Chesters attorneys did not immediately respond to the Bradenton Herald for comment. Jennifer Linzy, a spokesperson with the Clerk of Court, said the office has recovered nearly $510,000 and expects to make a full recovery of the $1.4 million. In July 2023, Manatee County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller Colonneso thanked the sheriffs office for a swift investigation and provided the following statement to the Bradenton Herald: Fraud cannot always be prevented, and we will be working with the sheriffs office to learn additional details on how this cybercrime was carried out to work with the county to further enhance our existing controls, as all protocols were followed in the transfer, Colonneso wrote in an email. Ledford and Chester, who both live in Georgia, were brought back to Manatee County to face charges. Highly sophisticated fraud The Manatee County Sheriffs Office arrested Ledford in June 2023 after an investigation revealed what Manatee County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller Angel Colonneso previously described as a highly sophisticated fraud. Ledford told detectives during an interview that the scam began after Chester approached him with an idea for a money-making scheme. According to an arrest report, Ledford then provided Chester with account information and once the fraudulent wire transfers were completed, the two went to different bank branches together where they made withdrawals in the form of cashiers checks. During the scam, detectives say Ledford impersonated a representative with Neal Land and Neighborhoods asking to be paid for work on an extension to Fort Hamer Road in Parrish. The only problem? Neal never demanded payment from the county, the companys president previously told the Bradenton Herald. In March 2023, the Manatee County Clerks Office sent an email to legitimate Neal Land representatives specifying the amount Manatee County would pay for the services. Thats when detectives say an unknown third party, now believed to be Ledford, began responding to the clerks office as the Neal representatives. In doing so, detectives say Ledford requested that the clerks office switch the payment from an in-person check to a wire transfer instead. Georgia man posed as local developer, deputies say Ledford sent fraudulent documents on Neal Land letterheads requesting the change, in addition to a fraudulent W-9 tax form and a standby letter of credit and a letter of account verification, deputies say. A little more than a week later, investigators say the clerks office sent a wire transfer of $221,165 to a bank account belonging to Ledford. The account had a balance of $3.17 before the wire transfer, according to an arrest report. A few days later, another wire transfer was made to one of Ledfords accounts for the next scheduled payment to what was supposed to be Neal Land and Neighborhoods in the amount of $1,149,466, court documents show. Monthly account statements showed Ledford spending large amounts of money on daily purchases while transferring significant amounts of money to another bank account, but the arrest report did not detail the purchases he allegedly made. Bank of America shared photo surveillance of Ledford making multiple withdrawals, the Bradenton Herald previously reported. Later, when Neal asked the county when Neal Land and Neighborhoods should expect to receive payment, the county said they had already wired the funds, prompting the sheriffs offices investigation. KYODO NEWS - Jun 7, 2024 - 15:42 | All, Japan, Feature Solar flares -- massive explosions on the sun's surface which recently have been occurring at an increasing rate -- have resulted in auroras being observed in areas of Japan where the natural light displays are rarely seen. The phenomena, which cause geomagnetic storms that disrupt the planet's magnetic field, have been seen around the world and in areas such as Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost main island, and other regions of the country since May 8. It is a clear indication of increasing solar activity, causing experts to increase their vigilance over concerns that larger solar flares may wreak havoc with satellites or interfere with global positioning systems, posing the threat of disruption to people's daily lives, such as major power outages and communication problems with airplanes and ships. Since around May 11, there have been a series of images posted on social media of the northern lights -- normally most visible in the polar region of the Arctic -- snapped in Hokkaido, central Japan's Ishikawa Prefecture and other locations. Reports of the colorful light streams have also been made in Britain, the southern areas of the United States and parts of Europe. A solar flare is an explosion that occurs on a sunspot on the sun's surface, ejecting powerful X-rays and electrically charged particles called plasma into space in the form of solar wind. Mass ejections from the sun's corona can reach the Earth's upper atmosphere in large quantities, resulting in magnetic storms and auroras. A magnetic storm in February 2022 resulted in the loss of 40 of the 49 satellites then launched by U.S.-based company SpaceX. The number of sunspots and the frequency of solar flares change on a roughly 11-year cycle, and the sun is currently in a phase of increased activity toward its peak expected next year. "In the past several years, it has become more and more active," said Takuya Tsugawa, the head of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology. Kazunari Shibata, a distinguished visiting professor of astrophysics at Doshisha University, suggested solar flares in the next several years may be more than the Earth bargained for. "There might be two peaks. We have to be very careful over the next several years," he said. The size of a solar flare is divided into five classes according to the strength of the X-rays emitted, increasing tenfold at each stage. The national institute observed that the highest X-class, 10,000 times more powerful than the least intense A-class, occurred 13 times from May 8-15, and many experts agree the flares have been "strikingly numerous." The Japan Meteorological Agency's Kakioka Magnetic Observatory in Ishioka, Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, observed a massive magnetic storm from May 11-14. The sun completes a full rotation on its axis in about 27 days. Ryuho Kataoka, an associate professor of astrophysics at the National Institute of Polar Research, said, "We'll be on the lookout for when the same sunspots return to a position facing the Earth in several weeks." Fortunately, no X-rays or high-energy particles strong enough to affect the human body have been emitted, experts say, and no serious damage on Earth has been confirmed thus far. However, the Japanese government lacks any unified response mechanism, with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and other ministries and entities currently independently gathering information. Japan's communications ministry plans to launch an initiative this year, warning businesses and the general public about the risks of blackouts to broadcasting, communications and satellites caused by the increase in solar flares. "We would like to communicate the effects of solar flares more clearly than ever before," said a ministry official. Related coverage: Auroras illuminate night skies across world, parts of Japan Family hopes for justice after mother found shot to death in North Lawndale kitchen Family hopes for justice after mother found shot to death in North Lawndale kitchen CHICAGO A family is seeking justice after a 27-year-old mother was found shot to death in her North Lawndale kitchen last month. Tetorsha Williams, 27, was pronounced dead in the 1400 block of South St. Louis after suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. The mother described as the sweetest person on Earth leaves behind a 5-year-old son named Khristian. He understands that mommy in his Heaven, said Williams mother Trinetta McClure. But he is like why mommy?' Her mother said she and Williams were about to buy and move into a three-flat. She was so excited, McClure said. She had a heart of gold. Everyone that she encountered had good things to say about her. No one is in custody, but Chicago police told WGN News the case is still under investigation. Anyone with information can leave an anonymous tip at cpdtip.com. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV. A womans death in Sierra County has been confirmed as the first documented fatal attack by a black bear on a human in California history, according to officials. Patrice Miller, 71, was found dead in her Downieville home last November, but a recently released autopsy report by Californias Department of Fish and Wildlife has verified she was killed by a bear, the Sierra County Sheriffs department said. A sheriffs deputy discovered Miller deceased in her home while conducting a welfare check after a grocery store employee reported that she had not been seen or heard from for several days, according to Sheriff Michael Fisher. The sheriffs office said when they found Miller, there were clear signs a bear had been inside the house. But officials believed Miller had died of natural causes and the bear broke into the house after her death and had been feeding on her remains. The bear was eventually trapped and euthanized, the sheriff said. However, a recently released autopsy revealed that Miller did not die of natural causes but had in fact been killed by the bear, the sheriff said. Post investigation, we found out that she had been having some bear issues at the house. And after we concluded our coroners investigation and removed her remains from the house, the bear continued to break into the house over and over again over the next several days, Fisher added. The sheriff said further investigation revealed bears had been prowling around Millers house for some time because she would leave cat food on the front porch for her cats and there was garbage around the home as well. Millers daughter also told authorities that one particular bear would come to the house quite often and her mother had put bars on the windows to keep the bear away. Its a big deal. That doesnt happen in California. Normally a bear is going to stay away from you, a bear that hasnt been normalized to human behavior, Steve Gonzalez with the fish and wildlife department told CNN affiliate KCRA. Last month, there had been reports of another bear breaking into homes in the mountain community. That bear has also been euthanized, the sheriff said. Fisher said that bears are seen around the area regularly, but usually theyre rummaging through garbage or breaking into cars for food, and flee when they see a human. We deal with bears on a weekly basis through spring, summer and fall and 99.9% of those animals are not a public safety (issue). Theyre a nuisance, but theyre not a public safety (issue), the sheriff said. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Fatal shooting suspect at One17 SofaBar in Greensboro arrested in Phoenix, Arizona, Greensboro police say GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) A man accused of first-degree murder after a fatal shooting in Greensboro earlier this year was arrested in Arizona on Friday and is awaiting extradition back to North Carolina, according to a Greensboro Police Department news release. At around 2:07 a.m. on Feb. 25, officers, firefighters and EMS came to the 100 block of North Greene Street after getting a report of a shooting. Two people were found suffering from gunshot wounds, and they were taken to a local hospital. 24-year-old Devonte Jamaal Stephenson was pronounced dead at the hospital. The second victim is considered to be in critical condition. On Friday, 27-year-old Michal Michael Tyrone Styles was arrested in Phoenix, Arizona, on a warrant for first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious injury. Styles is being held in Phoenix and is awaiting extradition back to NC. Investigators determined a fight happened outside of One17 SofaBar, which led to the shooting. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact Greensboro/Guilford Crime Stoppers at (336) 373-1000. Citizens can also download the mobile P3tips app for Apple or Android phones to submit a mobile tip, or go to P3tips.com to submit a web tip. All tips to Crime Stoppers are completely anonymous. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. Thomas Hand, the Irish-born father of 9-year-old Emily Hand who was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 and was returned in a hostages-prisoners swap deal, looks out towards the desert from his temporary accommodation in Ein Gedi Thomas Hand, the Irish-born father of 9-year-old Emily Hand who was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 and was returned in a hostages-prisoners swap deal, looks out towards the desert from his temporary accommodation in Ein Gedi By Rami Amichay Hannah Confino EIN GEDI, Israel (Reuters) - Living in temporary accommodation in the desert above the Dead Sea, nine-year-old Emily Hand and her father Thomas slowly recover from an ordeal that has upended their lives as the Gaza war rages. Emily, a dual Irish-Israeli citizen, was kidnapped by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 last year during a rampage of killing and destruction on her Kibbutz Be'eri. She spent 50 harrowing days in captivity in Gaza until her release in November. Since her reunification with her father, Dublin-born Thomas Hand, they have been moving from one place of temporary accommodation to another, carrying only a few belongings and the family dog. Hand said his native Ireland had been instrumental in the release of his daughter. But he voiced strong criticism of the Irish government's recognition of a Palestinian state. He feels the step rewards Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group which kidnapped his daughter after the attack on Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken to Gaza as hostages. Israel responded with an offensive that has killed more than 36,000 people and reduced much of Gaza to rubble. Ireland said its stance is rooted in seeking a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "We're praying for it to happen, and for all of this to end. All they (Hamas) have to do is hand over the hostages and the war is over," said Hand. He tries to provide a sense of normalcy for Emily, and says that, despite one or two triggers, she is on track for a full recovery. Tens of thousands of Israelis have been displaced from the southern communities near the border with Gaza amid the ongoing war, and also from northern Israel due to ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces. (Editing by Michael Georgy and Angus MacSwan) The father of a Minnesota transgender high school student who says she was beaten in school said Thursday he wants the students who beat or harassed his daughter to face criminal charges. Mark Walztoni tells CNN his 17-year-old daughter Cobalt Sovereign, a junior at Hopkins High School in Minnetonka, was in the school bathroom last Thursday when a student started calling her transphobic slurs. While she was leaving the bathroom, Walztoni says his daughter said she was surrounded by that student and two others, who began following Sovereign down the hall, and when she turned around to ask them to stop, she was punched in the mouth. During the attack, according to Walztoni, Sovereigns jaw was broken in two places. She had a compound fracture and lost teeth, leading to reconstructive surgery. Walztoni says the students responsible should face criminal charges. There has to be repercussions for their actions. And if they are not charged for some reason, which is our fear, then that is just going to further escalate their behavior because when you get away with stuff, you continue to do stuff, he said. There needs to be some kind of punishment and there needs to be some serious discussion as to whether those kids should be able to come back to the same school. He also says he was notified about the incident from a social worker at the school and was told by school officials to notify the police, adding he was displeased the incident wasnt treated as an emergency. Walztoni also tells CNN he is unsure if his daughter will be safe going back to school and wants to see changes. Its unacceptable. The whole transphobia and homophobia thing is, in my opinion, so 20th century, or it should be a thing of the past. And its clear that the climate is getting worse in this regard, he told CNNs Kaitlan Collins on The Source. We have a tremendous amount of community support here and Cobalt feeling very loved but its you know its the kids that are there today arent safe. Cobalt Sovereign, a Minnesota transgender high school student who says she was beaten in school, and her father Mark Walztoni speak with CNNs Kaitlan Collins. - CNN Sovereign tells CNN she has never met or seen the students who attacked and harassed her prior to the incident. She said she has faced harassment in the past but nothing even close to this extent. Sovereign also said using the restroom as someone who identifies as non-binary has always been an issue for her. I try to use any general neutral or family restroom options if theyre available but when Im not given that option I use the mens restroom because its what makes everybody around me the least amount of uncomfortable and making other people uncomfortable is something that I tried not to do. Its from one of my worst fears, Sovereign told Collins. The Minnetonka Police Department said in a statement to CNN it is investigating an attack that day at Hopkins High School as a possible hate crime, but said details remain limited as the case was reported to police after school had ended for the day. Hopkins High School said it is investigating an act of violence that involved a student who identifies as part of the LGBTQ+ community. We will address any issues that compromise the safety and inclusivity of our school environment, the school told CNN in a statement. We support and stand by any group that is marginalized, including our LGBTQ+ scholars and staff. Minnetonka Police Chief Scott Boerboom tells CNN Sovereigns mother reported the incident to the police department the day it happened and he was not made aware of it until the following Monday. Boerboom says he would have preferred the school notify the police as soon as the incident occurred. We would arrive at the school, we would meet with the victim, Cobalt, we would talk to the suspects, identify the suspects, get their side of the story, talk to the victim. And then we are required to notify parents at that time, he said. By having us contacted at the onset, we can assess it as first responders and we have access to EMS or medical services. Boerboom also says a video of the assault exists, and he has seen it. He says his department filed a subpoena for the video from the school, in line with policy. In the video, he says, one boy is seen assaulting Sovereign in the hallway. There were two other boys nearby, Boerboom says, who were not involved in the physical assault. The attack comes amid a rise in anti-LGBTQ legislation and as advocates say LGBTQ students have faced an uptick in threats and violence. It also comes nearly four months after the death of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary 10th grader in Oklahoma who told police about being beaten to the point of blacking out during a confrontation in the school bathroom. Colbalt Sovereign is a junior at Hopkins High School in Minnetonka. - courtesy Mark Walztoni Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, executive director of GLSEN, a non-profit group working to end intolerance and homophobia in K-12 schools, said the attack is a heartbreaking reminder of the violence and discrimination that trans youth face daily. GLSEN stands in solidarity with Cobalt and their family, and we call on their school officials to take immediate, concrete steps to ensure the safety and dignity of all students, Willingham-Jaggers told CNN in a statement. Hate has no place in our schools, and its our collective responsibility to create systems where every student can thrive without fear. Minnesota state Rep. Leigh Finke, a Democrat and the first out transgender lawmaker in the states legislature, condemned the school and police for their responses to the incident. Finke said violence against transgender youth like Benedict and Sovereign will continue unabated until accountability and responsibility is accepted. The response of Hopkins High School and the Minnetonka Police so far sends the same transphobic message to () the world: do as you will and if no one decides to take it public, youll get away with it. Is that the message that we want to send? Finke said in a statement. We want to see Hopkins High School and Minnetonka Police, and every school and police department in the future to do what is right and take immediate action, not because people are looking, but because transgender folks everywhere are entitled to live a life free of fear, and violence, Finke added. CNNs Andy Rose contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com O.J. Simpson - Credit: Sygma via Getty Images Ahead of the 30th anniversary of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman and just two months after his death, the FBI has released 475 pages of documents on O.J. Simpson. The documents, obtained by Rolling Stone, are largely focused on the investigation into the 1994 murders of Simpsons ex-wife and her friend. The documents include information on forensic evidence, including blood found at the crime scene, fiber samples, and hair samples from both Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman. More from Rolling Stone But a large portion of the documents focus on authorities attempts to place Simpson at the crime scene by connecting him to a pair of Bruno Magli-style shoes, which an FBI expert testified were left behind at the crime scene. The files show the officers efforts to prove that Simpson had purchased a pair of size 12 shoes prior to the murder. At one point, according to the file, police flew to Italy to study a replica of the shoes, which were rare. The FBI also compiled a list of all of Bruno Maglis stores in the United States. Simpson was charged with the murders but was acquitted after a highly publicized trial. He was later found liable for the deaths in a civil suit brought by the families in 1997. During the trial, police testified that O.J.s shoe size matched up with the print found at the crime scene, but Simpson denied ever wearing a pair of the Bruno Magli shoes. Simpson died from metastatic prostate cancer in April at age 76. Following his death, Fred Goldman, the father of Ron, told Rolling Stone, The only thing I have to say is that today is just a further reminder of how long we have missed my son, how long hes been gone, and the only thing that is important today are the victims. Thats it. I have nothing else to say. Best of Rolling Stone The FBI released 475 pages of documents related to the O.J. Simpson investigation for the 1994 double homicides of his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Former NFL star Simpson, who was acquitted of the murders during a sensational trial that dominated the headlines for months, died of prostate cancer in April. He was 76 years old. The documents had been released previously through new Freedom of Information Act requests but this is the first time the collection has been made widely available to the public. Evidence collected by the FBI's Miami field office in collaboration with the Los Angeles Police Department represented a significant portion of the posted documents. Multiple released pages focused on the 1991 or 1992 purchase of a pair of Italian luxury Bruno Magli men's shoes. There were photos of the size 12 shoes, and details about various stores that sold this type of shoes, including a distribution list, and outreach to salespeople who might remember who sold the shoes and where they were shipped. FBI records included handwritten notes about the shoes, including one that said, "purchased many pairs of shoes for children, son-in-law" O. J. Simpson sits in the Los Angeles Superior Court on December 8, 1994. / Credit: Pool Photo Getty The FBI traveled to the Bruno Magli factory in Italy in 1995 and obtained shoe molds and soles to give to the Los Angeles Police Department. Laboratory results included in the documents said tests confirmed that the bloody shoe prints found at the crime scene prints were made by Bruno Magli shoes either in the Lorenzo or Lyon style. The LAPD sent the FBI swatches of fabric from their evidence, including fibers from the infamous white Ford Bronco, which Simpson used to flee police after being served arrest warrants in the homicides. He and a friend led police on about an hour-and-half car chase while Simpson was holding a gun to his head and was viewed live on television by at least 95 million people. A copy of Simpson's driver's license was also included in the collection. Detailed handwritten pages listed various fibers, fabrics and hairs gathered from Simpson and victims Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. There was also a detailed list of photographs, but copies weren't included in the released files. Pat Sajak takes final spin on "Wheel of Fortune" Polish general examines Putin threat to arm West's enemies Who will be Trump's 2024 VP pick? These are the contenders For years, models have complained about rampant sexual and financial exploitation in their industry, from hidden agency fees and overpriced model apartments to unchecked sexual harassment on shoots and castings. Now, the first legislation in the country to meaningfully regulate modeling agencies has passed in New York, ending a bitter two-year fight between models rights activists and the companies that represent them. The Fashion Workers Actwhich was endorsed by supermodels Karen Elson, Carre Otis, and Beverly Johnsonpassed the New York Senate Thursday night and unanimously passed the Assembly on Friday. It now goes to Gov. Kathy Hochul for her signature. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Karines Reyes and written in partnership with the Model Alliance, an advocacy group. New York has long prided itself on being the fashion capital of the United States, Hoylman-Sigal said in a statement to The Daily Beast. When the Governor signs this bill into law, models working in our state will finally receive the labor protections that they are entitled to, making New York the fashion worker protection capital, as well. Beverly Johnson is among the supermodels who backed the legislation. Arturo Holmes/Getty Model Alliance founder Sara Ziff, who drove Sprinter vans full of models to the state Capitol to lobby for the bill over the last two years, said she hopes it will change the culture of fashion and improve the standard of treatment for models. I hope that with the passage of the Fashion Workers Act, models will realize theyve been operating completely in the dark, and with no rights or protections whatsoever, she told The Daily Beast. Is it going to fix every problem? No, she added. But for the first time, models are going to have rights as workers. There are going to be industry standards that historically have never existed, and I think thats a big deal. Sara Ziff of the Model Alliance Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty The bill will establish workplace protections that include mandatory meal breaks and overtime pay for jobs lasting over eight hours, and it will require agencies to implement a zero-tolerance policy for abuse. It aims to crack down on financial exploitation by capping agency commissions at 20 percent of a models earnings and requiring agencies to provide copies of deals and agreements at least 24 hours in advance of a shoot. The legislation has been endorsed by major industry players, including the Council of Fashion Designers of America, SAG-AFTRA, and the union representing workers at Conde Nast, the publisher of Vogue. But the proposals have also faced criticism from management companies who believe some of the language goes too far. Top modeling agenciesincluding Ford, Wilhelmina, Next, and Eliteformed a group called the Coalition for Fairness in Fashion to lobby against the bill last session and hired former Ford Models co-president Joey Hunter as spokesperson. Hunter told The Daily Beast the agencies did not fully oppose the bill but had qualms about specific provisions, such as preventing agencies from making models sign over power of attorney. He said the Model Alliance had not consulted the agencies in his coalition on the language of the bill and that they hoped to make some tweaks before it went to the governor for her signature. I think there are a few more things that have to be tweaked, and I know were going to talk about them, Hunter said. But our problem was this bill was created without the input of an agent or a manager, and I dont think that was fair. Ziff said Hunters coalition never reached out for a meeting, but that the Alliance heard the agencies concerns through lobbying efforts and made amendments accordingly. She added that the Model Alliance incorporated comment from powerhouse agency WME-IMG, which was not part of the coalition. She also praised the models who spoke out in the face of opposition from the industry, including several she said had been threatened or even dropped by their agencies for supporting the bill. Its no small thing to risk your livelihood to stand up for whats right, she said. This was very much a team effort, and every model who spoke at a press conference or rode the bus to Albany or called their elected official really made this possible. Actress Ashley Grace: Fashion Photographer Raped Me During Shoot One such supporter is Ambra Gutierrez, an Italian fashion model who accused Harvey Weinstein of sexually assaulting her at a casting she was sent to by her agent. The Fashion Workers Act would requires agencies to conduct due diligence to ensure castings dont pose unreasonable risks for their models and require them to let models bring a chaperonepolicies that Gutierrez says could have prevented what she says happened to her. After what I experienced, Im trying to prevent [situations like this] as much as I can, and also help models understand what they can do if something happens, she told The Daily Beast. Gutierrez said she thinks changing the regulations in New York will have ripple effects across the fashion industry, adding: This city [provides the] base for how fashion should be. Ambra Gutierrez pushed for the Fashion Workers Act. Dia Dipasupil/Getty The bill passed the New York Senate last year but failed to make it out of committee in the Assembly. Since then, dozens of models have spoken out in favor of the bill in press conferences, on lobbying trips to Albany, and at a rally last month outside the famed Met Gala. Many shared personal experiences of sexual assault, racial discrimination, and financial coercion. The bill also earned high-profile support from big names like Otis, a 90s supermodel who has publicly accused her former modeling agent of assaulting her. Otis told The Daily Beast it is high time the industry is regulated.. Not only is this such a powerful moment, but desperately needed, she said. We need to have basic human rights in terms of financial transparency and safe workplaces free of sexual misconduct, [and to] begin to hold this industry accountable for some very, very bad behavior over the decades. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. A Washington, D.C.,-based watchdog filed a federal campaign finance complaint against recently endorsed GOP U.S. Senate candidate Royce White on Thursday, claiming he violated disclosure laws in a previous and current campaign. The nonprofit Campaign Legal Center submitted a 27-page complaint, alleging White illegally used $157,000 from his 2022 congressional campaign for personal items on everything from clothing and cosmetics to jewelry, fitness, strip and nightclubs. "White appears to have misappropriated donors' money to benefit himself, and then doubled down by failing to report how his 2024 Senate campaign is spending its money," the complaint read, adding that White's "outrageous pattern of personal enrichment and obfuscation violates the Federal Election Campaign Act's bedrock requirements that candidates must accurately disclose the contributions they receive and the disbursements they make." The Federal Election Commission (FEC) generally does not comment on pending investigations or complaints so it's difficult to track the process. If the FEC were to investigate and find wrongdoing, there are a range of penalties that could be imposed from conciliation to a federal lawsuit. The FEC did not comment specifically on this case and the state GOP did not respond to a request for comment. Reached by phone, White declined to answer questions about the complaint. Instead, he used an expletive followed by the word, "communists" and said, "That's the quote." The complaint alleges that White's lax reporting has carried over to his Senate campaign. From Jan. 1 through April 30, the complaint said, White reported $8,100 in contributions to his campaign and a single expense of $216.38. He claimed to have disbursed that amount on March 31 to "Anedot" for "credit card processing fees," the complaint said. The complaint alleges there is "ample indication" the Senate campaign "has incurred other expenses and made disbursements that it has simply not disclosed." In support of that claim, the complaint noted the White campaign maintains a "polished campaign website, which not only contains information about White's platform but also solicits contributions through both the Anedot and WinRed donation platforms." White's campaign site also links to a variety of social media pages affiliated with White and his podcast, "Please Call Me Crazy." The site includes a campaign video announcement with a montage of images and a disclaimer at the end stating it was "paid for by Royce White for Senate," the complaint said. "White's 2024 Senate campaign's failure to report virtually any campaign disbursements is particularly brazen in light of the fact that White has previously run for federal office and is at least somewhat familiar with the requirement that campaigns must report their disbursements," the complaint said. The complaint also noted that White registered his U.S. Senate campaign committee last Sept. 15 with Michelle Wahlen as his treasurer. He then notified the FEC in February that Wahlen had resigned Jan. 1. White reported Tom Madden as his new treasurer on April 30. "As such, Royce White for Senate appears to have had no treasurer of record for nearly four months," the complaint said. The same was true from July 15, 2022, through Oct. 5, 2023, the complaint said. During that period, the Royce White for Congress campaign reported no treasurer while raising $16,300. White ran for the U.S. House in the Minneapolis-centered Fifth District. For failing to file a pre-primary report in 2022, White was fined almost $8,000 by the FEC. The latest complaint notes that from March 2022 through mid-October of 2022, White's campaign reported spending more than $157,000 on expenses that appear, on their face, to be personal, the complaint said. But the complaint acknowledged that many of the explanations for the expenses are "too ambiguous or opaque to tell." Federal law prohibits using campaign donations for personal use defined as any use for an obligation or expense of a person that would exist regardless of a person's campaign. The decisions about personal use can be made by the FEC on a case-by-case basis. The Campaign Legal Center describes itself as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization advocating for every eligible voter to participate in the election process. KYODO NEWS - Jun 7, 2024 - 16:00 | All, Japan Japan's imperial couple has offered a glimpse of their more relaxed side with the release of photos from a family vacation to an imperial farm in the country's east, including some taken by Emperor Naruhito himself. The pictures of the emperor with Empress Masako and their daughter Princess Aiko at the Imperial Stock Farm in Tochigi Prefecture in May show them in more practical wear as they pose with Rainbow, a cow the princess named the previous year, dig up vegetables and cycle together. Among the photos taken by the emperor that the Imperial Household Agency included in Thursday's release were a sunset-drenched shot of the prefecture's imposing Mt. Nantai and another of Empress Masako petting a horse. Pictures of the family cats previously shown to artist Tadanori Yokoo in April were also issued. The stock farm's responsibilities include rearing horses to serve the imperial family and raising livestock and other animals, according to the agency's website. Related coverage: Japan's imperial couple to visit Britain as state guests from June 22 Princess Aiko expresses desire to help people in choosing to work Japan imperial family to make Instagram debut in April CHICAGO Weeks after a high-profile FBI raid on a quiet Lincoln Square street, federal racketeering charges have been unsealed accusing two gang members in the 2021 drive-by slaying of a teenage National Guard member on the Northwest Side. Gary Roberson, who goes by the nickname Gotti, and Joseph Matos, whose street name is Troubles, were charged in an indictment unsealed Thursday with murder in furtherance of racketeering conspiracy, which could bring the death penalty if convicted, court records show. Roberson, 40, of Chicago, was arrested on May 16 and is being held without bond. That same day, the FBI raided a home in the 2200 block of West Farragut Avenue, where Matos was believed to be living with relatives, but he was not found there, according to court records. Matos remained a fugitive as of Friday, according to the U.S. attorneys office. The indictment alleged Roberson and Matos are members of the Milwaukee Kings, a street gang based on Chicagos North Side that uses violence and intimidation to control turf and boost its reputation. The bare-bones, 18-page indictment alleged only one specific act of violence: the July 3, 2021, slaying of Chrys Carvajal, who was fatally shot in the back and abdomen in the 2200 block of North Lockwood Avenue in the Hanson Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side. According to Tribune reports at the time, Carvajal, 19, had recently completed Army basic training and was waiting to be assigned to a unit with the Illinois National Guard. The 19-year-old grew up in the Austin neighborhood before his mother, who raised him and three other siblings, moved them to Portage Park out of fear of violence, relatives told the Tribune. Police arrested a suspect shortly after the shooting but the Cook County states attorneys office declined charges at the time, citing a lack of evidence. ______ The Oregon Health Authority oversees the Oregon State Hospital in Salem. (Oregon Health Authority) Staff at Oregon State Hospital failed to make hourly checks of a patient who died of a suspected fentanyl overdose in May, public records and hospital staff said. On May 24, the patient was last observed alive four and a half hours before staff found the person in their room unresponsive, federal regulators said in a Thursday notice to Oregon State Hospital, the state-run secure psychiatric hospital in Salem. As a result, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services put the Salem hospital in immediate jeopardy status, which means it could lose its certification and eligibility for federal funding if it doesnt make swift changes to fix the problem. Staff who conducted continuous rounds during that night shift failed to determine whether or not the patient was alive, federal regulators wrote in the notice, obtained by the Capital Chronicle through a public records request. The death was at least the hospitals second fatality since April that federal officials have connected to inadequate medical attention for patients, public records show. Each time, the hospital has faced the threat of losing its federal certification, which also demonstrates whether it is capable of meeting essential standards for hospitals. In the latest instance, federal officials determined the hospital failed to ensure the patients safety based upon a review of security video footage, which showed staff didnt determine whether each patient was alive and breathing, the notice said. The document doesnt disclose the cause of the patients death, but Oregon State Police and hospital staff have told the Capital Chronicle the patient died of a suspected fentanyl overdose. The state police agency is investigating the death, which is standard procedure for all unattended deaths at the state hospital. After the death, the hospital suspended all outside in-person visits with patients, citing an unspecified incident with contraband that a visitor brought in to a patient. The hospital sent an email on May 29 to remind staff to check patients on their rounds. But a video review afterwards of two night shifts showed minimal to no change in how staff did their work. The time and proximity of staff looking through the windows of closed (patient) room doors into darkened rooms were not sufficient to assess whether patients were alive, the document said. The report also said in one instance, a patient entered and stayed in the room of two other patients of the opposite gender without detection. The hospital cares for more than 600 patients at any one time, mostly suspects who need treatment to face charges. In response to the report, the state hospital is directing staff to make regular, thorough checks that ensure the patients are alive, hospital officials said in a release. The hospital plans to submit a detailed plan early next week to CMS. If approved, the federal agency will visit the hospital again to ensure compliance. We know that patients find viability checks disruptive of their sleep, Interim Superintendent and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sara Walker said in a statement. We hope to find a technology solution that will be less intrusive. It is our responsibility to ensure the safety of our patients day and night. In a memo to staff, Walker said the checks mean they may see more patient activity at night and encouraged staff to work with patients who have difficulty with the adjustment. As challenging as responding to CMS investigations can be, it does help us identify and close gaps in our procedures and keep patients safe, Walker wrote in the email, obtained by the Capital Chronicle. Its hard when the ground feels like it is constantly shifting underneath us. Its hard to keep up with all of it. But I am confident we can do it. The case is the latest in a string of incidents at the state hospital. In April, another patient, Skye Baskin, 27, was declared dead 69 minutes after his arrival and federal inspectors determined staff failed to check his vital signs immediately upon arrival. Federal officials have also found blind spots in the security camera system and inattentive staff that failed to stop a patient-on-patient assault. Last year, a patient escaped in a transport van and led police on a high-speed chase down a highway. The post Federal regulators put Oregon State Hospital on notice after patient death appeared first on Oregon Capital Chronicle. Federal sentence for felon who threatened St. Louis gas station employees ST. LOUIS A man who threatened employees at a south St. Louis gas station appeared in federal court on Wednesday for sentencing. Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Missouri said Richard Skinner, 45, was arrested on March 27, 2023, following a dispute at the BP Gas Mart in the 1100 block of South Kingshighway Boulevard, located in the Kings Oak neighborhood. Employees told police Skinner took out a gun and threatened them during the dispute. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily News Police arrested Skinner after a brief struggle and found a pistol in his possession. Skinner has prior convictions for cocaine conspiracy, forgery, and robbery. Skinner pleaded guilty in December 2023 to a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. A U.S. District Court judge sentenced Skinner to 100 months in prison. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2. PATERSON Federal authorities have dismissed criminal charges against the owner of a Lyndhurst security company that sold about $13 million in cameras and other equipment to the Passaic County Sheriffs Office. Officials did not reveal why they dropped the charges, which had accused Tamer Zakhary of selling equipment that came from Chinese companies banned under the National Defense Authorization Act. We are gratified that the government took the time to look closely at the statute and the facts in this case in arriving at its decision to dismiss the matter, said Zakharys lawyer, Charles McKenna. What remains unclear is what will happen with the security equipment the sheriffs office bought from Zakharys company, Packetalk. The sheriffs office had only installed some of the devices and kept much of it in storage after federal authorities alerted county officials to their probe of Zakhary about a year ago. Headquarters of Passaic County Sheriff's Office on Hamburg Turnpike in Wayne. United States Attorney Philip Sellinger dismissed the charges against Zakhary on Thursday. When asked about the status of the cameras in storage, said sheriffs office spokesman Bill Maer said: The department is awaiting direction from both law enforcement and the Passaic County administration before we take any further action regarding the Packetalk equipment. Passaic County spokesman Keith Furlong said administration officials continue to cooperate with law enforcement as a victim in this matter. Proactive measures are being taken, including exploring the possibility of litigation, to protect taxpayer dollars, Furlong added. Sellingers order said that further prosecution of the charges "is not in the interests of the United States at this time. The dismissal was without prejudice, which means federal authorities are allowed to pursue the charges again if they see fit. The original charges of wire fraud and making false statements were filed in late December, when federal authorities said Zakharys company sold at least $35 million worth of cameras and other equipment to various New Jersey law enforcement agencies. Less than three months after that, lawyers in the case signed a court order that said the two sides were negotiating a plea agreement. How those plea negotiations evolved into a dismissal remains unclear. This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Feds drop charges against NJ man who sold cameras to Passaic County Monday morning got off to a good start for the High Plains Food Bank (HPFB) with a grant for $32,954.55 from the Morgan Stanley Foundation to support programs that effectively reach children, seniors and families facing hunger in Amarillo and the area. Were grateful to the Morgan Stanley Foundations support and dedication to hunger relief programs across the nation. Were especially thankful to Morgan Stanley for investing in our local community through volunteerism and this grant to support our Kids Cafe program. Their support helps ensure that kids across the city have access to healthy meals and snacks each weekday at multiple community sites, said Maribel Sotelo, director of the Kids Cafe Program at HPFB. High Plains Food Bank received a $32,954.55 grant from the Morgan Stanley Foundation, to support its programs to more effectively reach children and families facing hunger in Amarillo, during a check presentation held at the food bank Monday morning. HPFB is one of 44 Feeding America partner food banks receiving funding from the Morgan Stanley Foundation this year, as part of its long-standing commitment to supporting childrens health in communities across the country. The Morgan Stanley Foundation has announced $8 million in additional funding over the next four years to Feeding America, bringing the firms total funding to more than $50 million since 2009 to support local hunger-relief programs that deliver food assistance and nutritious meals to children and families. Volunteers from Morgan Stanley met at the local food bank during a hot, sultry, Monday evening to help put together Senior Packs for around 2,500 seniors in the area that provide nutritious meals at low-income apartment complexes and supplemental meals to adult students attending classes at Heal the City Clinic. Morgan Stanley employees volunteered their time to help pack boxes of food for seniors Monday evening at High Plains Food Bank. Any leftover items are used by Kids Cafe to prepare daily meals, offered to those at no cost in neighboring communities and anyone facing food insecurity. Morgan Stanley employee Regina Dingo was part of a group of workers who volunteered their time to help pack boxes of food for seniors Monday evening at High Plains Food Bank. One of Monday's volunteers, Regina Dingo, said, Hunger is a problem in the country, especially in children. Their basic human needs should be met. Dingo was enthusiastic about lending a hand to HPFB in the mission to feed hungry children, families and seniors. John Polley, Branch Manager of Morgan Stanley in Amarillo, stepped up to fill boxes for hungry seniors in this area Monday evening at the High Plains Food Bank. Morgan Stanley Branch Manager John Polley was also on hand to help with the project and enjoyed being able to help the community. There were also a number of community service volunteers helping to pack the boxes. According to Morgan Payne, Grants Manager for HPFB, the Kids Cafe program feeds about 1,000 children a day, all year long. They go out to 22 sites including community centers. They also feed a growing group of seniors with boxes of nutritional food. They distribute the meals at around 12 sites. Were really excited to have the Morgan Stanley team out today, she said. "The Morgan Stanley Foundation recently granted us just over $30,000 for our kids meals program, and our volunteers came out to help pack the Senior Boxes, which go out to about 2,000 seniors across the Panhandle every month. So thats a big impact for our kids and our seniors. The oldest working member of High Plains Food Bank, Dennis Howard, shows volunteers the ropes of packing boxes for a worthwhile cause, feeding the local food insecure population which continues to grow. The longest standing member of the food bank, Dennis Howard has been on the job for 30 years, and he gave the group instructions on how to pack the bags and what the mission was. He told the members they were part of an elite group of volunteers in the city. Food insecurity impacts people of all ages, races, ethnicities, abilities and beliefs. In the Texas Panhandle, one in six people, including one in five in children, face hunger, according to information provided by the HPFB. HPFB is one of 44 Feeding America partner food banks receiving funding from the Morgan Stanley Foundation this year, as part of its long-standing commitment to supporting childrens health in communities across the country. The Morgan Stanley Foundation has announced $8 million in additional funding over the next four years to Feeding America, bringing the firms total funding to more than $50 million since 2009 to support local hunger-relief programs that deliver food assistance and nutritious meals to children and families. 'Map the Gap' shows hunger levels reaching highest point in 20 years The extra amount of money that people facing hunger said they need to have enough food reached its highest point in the last 20 years, according to Feeding Americas annual Map the Meal Gap study. At the local level, Map the Meal Gap finds that 15,290 more individuals face food insecurity this year than last year. HPFB is one of more than 200 food banks that are part of Feeding Americas nationwide food bank network. Map the Meal Gap is the only study that provides local-level estimates of food insecurity and food costs for every county and congressional district. The study builds upon the USDAs latest report of national and state data, which showed a sharp increase in food insecurity in 2022 amidst historically high food prices and the expiration of many pandemic-era programs. Map the Meal Gap emphasizes the urgent call for all of us to take action. The insights from this year's study confirm what we hear from people facing hunger: elevated food prices are making hunger in America and in our community worse, said Zack Wilson, executive director of HPFB in a news release. This powerful tool helps us understand the impact of food insecurity and underlines that we can choose to end hunger in America by coming together as a nation. In the Texas Panhandle, 16.4 percent of the population or one in six neighbors face food insecurity, including 21.6 percent or one in five kids. There are over 15,290 more neighbors, including 6,450 kids who face food insecurity than they did last year. This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Morgan Stanley Foundation donates $32K to High Plains Food Bank When Naomi Goldberg began working for the Movement Advancement Project, same-sex couples were unable to legally marry in more than half of states including her home state of California and LGBTQ Americans were barred from serving openly in the military. Now the nonprofit think tanks executive director, Goldberg is fighting to protect LGBTQ rights secured over the last decade and prevent the nation from backsliding as anti-LGBTQ policies gain ground in state legislatures. We recognized really early on that the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, while about a gay couple and a wedding cake, really had the potential to carve a huge hole through nondiscrimination laws for many people, including people of color, immigrants and women, as well as LGBTQ people and people who sit at the intersection, Naomi Goldberg told The Hill. Goldberg, a self-described policy wonk, began her career as a fellow at the Williams Institute, where she spent two years researching the economic impact of policies affecting LGBTQ people, including employment discrimination and restrictions on adoption and foster care. In 2010, she joined the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), founded just four years earlier, as an LGBTQ policy researcher. Goldberg describes her role as the organizations newest head, a position she took in March, as the dream job where shes able to marry her two passions: quantitative research and social change. Thats especially apparent when she talks about the think tanks Equality Maps that track more than 50 LGBTQ-related laws and policies in the U.S. Advancing LGBTQ equality MAPs sole focus when it first launched in 2006 is personal for Goldberg, a lesbian who has been advocating for LGBTQ rights since the early aughts, when a wave of states adopted constitutional amendments and statutes banning same-sex marriage. I feel so fortunate to have this opportunity, she told The Hill in a recent interview. MAPs second equality-minded project, a campaign called Open to All, launched in 2017 as a response to the Supreme Courts decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. In that case, the court sided with a baker who refused to design a wedding cake for a gay couple, raising alarm bells for MAP and Goldberg, then the director of the organizations policy and research teams. We recognized really early on that the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, while about a gay couple and a wedding cake, really had the potential to carve a huge hole through nondiscrimination laws for many people, including people of color, immigrants and women, as well as LGBTQ people and people who sit at the intersection, Goldberg said. The Supreme Court last summer cited its decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop in also siding with a Christian web designer who refused to make same-sex wedding websites, bolstering conservative arguments that antidiscrimination laws may violate the First Amendment. MAPs 2017 campaign, now a coalition of more than 200 nonprofits, is rooted in the belief that businesses open to the public should be open to all, Goldberg said. In 2021, five years after MAP launched its Open to All campaign, the organization expanded its focus to track state election laws and policies, inspired in part by voter restrictions that went largely unchecked under former President Trumps administration. Nineteen states in 2021, the first year of President Bidens tenure, also passed laws restricting access to voting, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. You cannot separate the experience of our democracy in 2016 through 2021 from the kind of crisis moment that we think we are at in terms of the health of democracy in the states and nationally, Goldberg said. Like the groups Equality Maps, its Democracy Maps track state election laws in real time to provide policymakers and advocates with a blueprint for protecting voting rights. A states democracy tally counts the number of laws and policies that foster a healthy election system. Its really important to show all the different dimensions of elections and what it means to have a healthy, thriving democracy, Goldberg said. Its really easy to point to misinformation or point to voter suppression, but we actually need to be thinking holistically about what democracy means, and I think our democracy maps allow for that sort of vantage point. With each of its projects, MAPs goal is to be accurate, to update in real time and to offer that kind of big picture look across the states and across many issues, she added. The organizations maps are used often by media, advocacy groups and state legislators advocating for progressive policy changes, Goldberg said. Last month, a resolution introduced by Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) referred to MAP by name. Goldberg has big plans for MAP, including bringing on more communications and research staff and working more closely with lawmakers and the media. We know the work that needs to be done, and I think MAP in particular sits in a unique place in our theory of change, she said. We really do believe that through deep listening, through conversations, through thoughtful and accurate policy research, we can change. We can create change in democracy, and we can create change for LGBTQ people in this country. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Fire is still being extinguished in Kyiv Oblast after Russian strikes: robot and firefighting train involved photos Firefighting efforts were still ongoing at an industrial facility in Kyiv Oblast as of 08:30 this morning (7 June). The fire broke out as a result of Russian strikes. Source: State Emergency Service of Ukraine on Telegram Quote: "Efforts to extinguish the fire caused by enemy attack are ongoing in Kyiv Oblast. Fire and rescue units from Kyiv Oblast and the city of Kyiv are working at the scene. A robot and a fire train have been deployed to extinguish the fire." Firefighters extinguishing fire. Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine Kyiv Oblast Military Administration reported the fire at the industrial facility at around 06:00. A robot. Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine Background: Russia launched another large-scale strike on Ukrainian territory on the night of 6-7 June. A fire broke out at an industrial facility in Kyiv Oblast. Ukraine's Air Force reported that the Russians attacked Ukraine's critical infrastructure with five cruise missiles and 53 Shahed-131/136 attack UAVs on the night of 6-7 June; all missiles and 48 drones were destroyed. Support UP or become our patron! Firefighting progress continued Thursday of a fire caused by lightning burning near Ruidoso, according to the New Mexico Forestry Division. The Blue 2 Fire burned 7,532 acres in the White Mountain Wilderness Area eight miles north of Ruidoso, noted a press release from New Mexico Forestry. The fire was 83% contained as of Thursday morning as 318 personnel continued firefighting operations. Smoke from the Blue 2 Fire was seen near Bonito Lake on May 25, 2024. The entire eastern side of the fire is now contained. Firefighters continue work on repairing any impacts from suppression efforts, read the press release. Firefighters have spread grass seed to start the revegetation process along the burned area. More: Moser Fire near Cloudcroft burns more than 100 acres Crews and equipment install water diversion features to limit erosion, read the press release. Law enforcement continues to enforce forest closures as firefighters finish up the work. The fire is producing minimal smoke as communities near the fire are seeing good air, according to New Mexico Forestry. A plane flies over the Blue 2 Fire on May 25, 2024 in Lincoln County near Bonito Lake. Fire danger remains very high across all ranger districts of the Lincoln National Forest, cited a webpage. Weather forecast shows promise Firefighters have two days of temperatures around 90 degrees on Friday and Saturday to contend with, according to National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters based in Albuquerque. Temperatures should cool down to near 80 degrees on Sunday and Monday with rain and thunderstorm chances ranging from 30% to 70% during the forecast period, read an NWS forecast. Mike Smith can be reached at 575-628-5546 or by email at MSmith@currentargus.com. This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: Blue 2 Fire near Ruidoso more than 80% contained First baby box in Oak Ridge will provide 'Save Haven' for mothers, infants in crisis Oak Ridge Fire Department will open the city's first Safe Haven Baby Box for mothers needing to give up their newborn babies anonymously and safely if they cannot care for them. The baby box is in memory of "Baby Wyatt," a baby found dead along the banks of Melton Lake Greenway near Edgemoor Bridge on March 26, 2020. He has never been identified, but the police department gave him the name Wyatt, meaning "little warrior." A Safe Haven Baby Box in Gadsden, Alabama has detailed instructions in English and Spanish. The first baby box in Oak Ridge will be unveiled June 12, allowing mothers in crisis to safely drop their infants at the box behind Oak Ridge Fire Station No. 3 at 333 Tuskegee Drive. A public unveiling ceremony for the new Oak Ridge baby box is set for 1 p.m. Wednesday, June 12, behind the Oak Ridge Central Fire Station, also known as Fire Station No. 3, located at 333 Tuskegee Drive. The baby box is a temperature-controlled bin installed on the outside back wall of the fire station, according to a city news release. "It will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to any mother who needs help in a time of crisis," the release stated. The Oak Ridge box will be the eighth Safe Haven Baby Box in Tennessee. A "blessing" was held for the fifth baby box in the state - located at the Clinton Fire Department's Fire Station No. 2 on Hiway Drive in South Clinton - on April 17. The Isaiah 117 House Anderson County provided funding to place the baby box on the back of Bay 1 at at the fire station. The Safe Haven Baby Boxes website shows there are baby boxes at Kingston Fire Station No. 1 and two in Knoxville. In announcing the Wednesday ceremony for the Oak Ridge baby box, the fire department issued "special thanks" to First United Methodist Church of Oak Ridge; Bender & Associates - Structural Engineers LLC; Free Medical Clinic; Choices Resource Center; and Sylvan. Wednesday's ceremony is expected to be attended by Safe Haven Baby Boxes CEO/Founder Monica Kelsey, the Rev. Jenny Caughman, associate pastor at First United Methodist, city officials and employees of the city's fire, police, public works and electric departments. Baby Wyatt In March 2020, a newborn was found dead along the Melton Lake Greenway near the Edgemoor Bridge. Investigators worked the case and asked the public for tips and information, with Oak Ridge City Council approving the use of a $5,246 grant for genetic testing. But the results of the genetic testing didn't provide any information needed in the hunt for Wyatt's family, according to city spokesperson Lauren Gray. The $1,000 reward for information leading to information on Wyatt is still available, she said. Tipsters can be anonymous. The police and fire departments set up a memorial in his name near the parking area on Melton Lake at Edgemoor Road in April 2020. At the time, a city-issued news release stated that the community had come together to honor the baby and give him a funeral and proper burial. 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. Support The Oak Ridger by subscribing. Offers available at https://subscribe.oakridger.com/offers. This article originally appeared on Oakridger: First baby box in Oak Ridge will give infants, moms a 'Save Haven' The first case of a 'highly contagious' ringworm infection spread through sex has arrived in the US, researchers say The first case of a 'highly contagious' ringworm infection spread through sex has arrived in the US, researchers say A sexually transmitted fungal infection, TMVII, has been reported in the US for the first time. The infection, which resembles eczema, often affects men who have sex with other men. TMVII responds to terbinafine, but another fungus, T. indotineae, shows resistance to this treatment. Researchers in New York are warning that a sexually transmitted fungal infection that can take months to resolve has been reported for the first time in the US. In a report published on Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Dermatology, medical experts highlighted the case of a man in his 30s who had just arrived in New York City. He suffered a fungal infection on his penis, buttocks, and limbs after arriving from a trip to England, Greece, and California, wrote the researchers from New York University and the New York State Department of Health in Albany. These rashes were found to have been caused by a ringworm called the Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII, or TMVII, according to the study. One of their concerns is that the infection can be confused as lesions from eczema and can go untreated. The infection appears to often affect men who have sex with other men, researchers said, citing 13 cases reported in France last year. The male patient in the newly published study reported engaging in sex with multiple male partners on his travels, they added. They warned that even if treated, infections like these can take months to clear up and are highly contagious. "Healthcare providers should watch out for new and highly contagious forms of ringworm or jock itch, which are emerging as a potential public health threat," read an NYU press release about the report. John Zampella, a senior author of the paper and an associate professor of dermatology at NYU's Grossman School of Medicine, encouraged doctors to check on rashes they see around their patients' groin and buttocks. The researchers said the infection can often be difficult to treat but seems to respond well to terbinafine, an antifungal medicine that can be administered orally or as a gel on the skin. Meanwhile, another fungus that causes contagious rashes like those from TMVII has been found to resist the medicine, the researchers said. They highlighted T. indotineae, which they said they tested in 11 patients from May 2022 to 2023. Patients affected by the fungus didn't have their rashes improve even after 42 days of treatment with terbinafine, they added. T. indotineae has largely affected India, but more cases have been reported globally in recent years. Researchers wrote that itraconazole, an antifungal treatment, appears to work well. However, if used for prolonged periods, it can often interfere with other medicines or cause side effects such as diarrhea. Read the original article on Business Insider KYODO NEWS - Jun 7, 2024 - 12:20 | All, World Japanese chef Wataru Kakiuchi was fatally stabbed in Vancouver earlier this week, the local Japanese consulate general said Thursday after being notified of the attack by police. Kakiuchi, 32, was found fatally injured at around 3:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday on a street near the city's Chinatown and died before he could be taken to hospital, local media said. Kakiuchi, who was popular among locals, was waiting for a ride home after going out drinking on Tuesday night when he was attacked, according to media reports. He began working in Vancouver at a Japanese-style izakaya restaurant in 2015, sometimes bringing his guitar for jamming sessions, and had expressed his desire to remain in Canada permanently, the media reported. Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim issued a statement calling the stabbing "senseless" and offered his condolences to Kakiuchi's family, friends and colleagues. "Wataru Kakiuchi was more than a talented chef...he was a positive presence and a cherished friend to many," the statement said. Stakeholders and members of the West Virginia First Foundation met for the first time in the Truist building in Charleston, W.Va., on Monday, Nov. 6, 2023. (Caity Coyne | West Virginia Watch) A year after being founded and exactly seven months after holding its first meeting, the West Virginia First Foundation is, leaders hope, getting closer to establishing a process for distributing opioid settlement funds across the state. So far, no money has been allotted by the organization. Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce, who sits on the First Foundation board, said he would like to see a time frame presented at the nonprofits next meeting regarding when they can expect to have an application process up for groups or individuals looking to start or expand programs to combat the ongoing drug and overdose epidemic in the state. Were a year old and Im a little disheartened that weve got a full summer break for our youth and weve got no money out [for programs], Joyce said. It seems to me like folks and I run at about a level 12 out of ten on the impatience scale sometimes but I think thats something that we need to be super mindful of. First Foundation leaders, at previous meetings, had expressed interest in running needs assessment surveys for localities across the state to pinpoint gaps in funding and the needs for certain services. Theyve also said that distributions by the nonprofit would likely occur through an application process, where organizations looking to receive funding would apply for it and be vetted by members of the First Foundations board before receiving any funds. Statewide, counties and municipalities which receive their own share of money from the opioid settlements have already begun to distribute their portion of the funds. Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Matt Harvey, who chairs the board, said the foundation is working to ensure protections and standards are in place so when money is distributed, it is done so in a sound way. Part of building up that process, he said, was creating and approving the organizations objectives, which include a mission statement, a vision statement and guiding principles. Those sentiments which will be listed on the organizations website in coming days address the goals of the First Foundation, including their intention with how money is distributed and how they operate. All three of the items were approved unanimously by the board at Thursdays meeting. The First Foundation is scheduled to meet again in July. The normal meeting day the first Thursday of the month falls on July 4, a national holiday, so its likely a different date will be set by the board for that meeting. The post First Foundation adopts mission statement, more as it moves closer to distributing opioid funds appeared first on West Virginia Watch. First lady Jill Biden in front row to support Hunter Biden during closing arguments First lady Jill Biden's support for Hunter Biden during his trial in Delaware continued on Monday, as she appeared at the courthouse for closing arguments before jury deliberations. The first lady sat with her daughter Ashley Biden, Hunter's half-sister, and Melissa Cohen, Hunter Biden's wife. The three women were dressed in all-black. The entire first three rows and some of the fourth row were full on Monday of Hunter Biden's friends and family, approximately 25 people in total. After one of the breaks, Hunter Biden and Jill Biden entered the courtroom hand-in-hand. MORE: Hunter Biden gun trial updates: Closing arguments up next after Hunter Biden does not testify PHOTO: First lady Jill Biden arrives to federal court, June 10, 2024, in Wilmington, Del. (Matt Slocum/AP) Almost every day during the trial, Jill Biden's been in court watching the proceedings as details of Hunter Biden's drug addictions, fraught relationships and other dark aspects of his past were brought up by prosecutors. The first lady's commitment to attending the trial was evident as she flew back late last Thursday from France, where she accompanied President Joe Biden to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, to attend Friday's court hearings before flying back overseas to attend a state dinner hosted by the French prime minister on Saturday. President Joe Biden has not appeared at his son's trial. In a statement on the first day of proceedings, as jury selection was underway, Biden said he wouldn't comment on the case but expressed "boundless love" for his son. "I am the President, but I am also a Dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today," the president said in the statement. "Hunter's resilience in the face of adversity and the strength he has brought to his recovery are inspiring to us." Hunter Biden was indicted in September by special counsel David Weiss on two counts related to false statements in purchasing the firearm and a third count of illegally obtaining a firearm while addicted to drugs. Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty and has denied the charges. The indictment came after a plea deal with the federal government fell apart at the elventh hour last summer. It marked the first time a child of a sitting president was criminally indicted. Hunter Biden's legal issues have put the first family in the spotlight by their critics, particularly among Republicans on the Hill and former President Donald Trump. The jeers did not appear to deter Jill Biden from showing up in court nearly every day since proceedings began. PHOTO: First lady Jill Biden arrives to federal court on June 7, 2024, in Wilmington, Del. (Matt Slocum/AP) The first lady has entered the courtroom with her security detail, sometimes affecting foot traffic in the federal courthouse as the first family has protection needs. During the first week of the trial, the first lady was attentive and craned her next toward the screen showing exhibits of video, photos or text message data collected by the government. She was visibly emotional last Tuesday as some of those exhibits included audio excerpts from Hunter's book -- him reading in lurid detail tales of his addiction to crack cocaine and alcohol. Hunter Biden has been open about his addictions and the effect it had on his entire family, including his parents. In his 2018 memoir, he spoke about how then-Vice President Biden saved his life when he was on a binge and pushed him to get into rehab. Jill and Ashley Biden sat shoulder-to-shoulder as the clips played out, at times leaning their heads against one another. At one point, as Hunter Biden's voice was heard describing a raucous 12-day bender in Los Angeles, Jill Biden lifted her left arm and draped it around her daughter's shoulders. A person sitting with the family told ABC News they were both "fighting off tears." PHOTO: First lady Jill Biden arrives to federal court on June 7, 2024, in Wilmington, Del. (Matt Slocum/AP) On Friday, Jill and Hunter Biden entered the courtroom arm-in-arm as Naomi Biden, Hunter Biden's daughter, took the stand for the defense. While she testified, her husband, Peter Neal, sat in the gallery next to the first lady. Naomi Biden's testimony included emotional text messages between her and her father from October 2018, around the time he had purchased the gun. Hunter Biden did not take the stand to testify in his own defense. MORE: Exclusive: Biden tells Muir he wouldn't pardon son Hunter, says Trump got 'fair trial' The two counts of making false statements carry sentences of up to 10 years and five years, respectively, while the possession charge carries a sentence of up to 10 years. President Biden told "World News Tonight" anchor David Muir on Thursday that he would accept the outcome of his son's trial and would not consider pardoning him. ABC News' Olivia Rubin and Lucien Bruggeman contributed to this report. First lady Jill Biden in front row to support Hunter Biden during closing arguments originally appeared on abcnews.go.com In first rally since being convicted, Donald Trump rails against immigration in Phoenix Former President Donald Trump speaks at Dream City Church in Phoenix on June 6, 2024, in his first campaign event since being convicted in New York of 34 felony counts related to paying hush money to a porn star before the 2016 election to keep her from telling people about their sexual relationship. Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror Former President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Phoenix on Thursday, his first since being convicted in a New York court, speaking to a crowd of supporters, many holding campaign signs featuring his mugshot. The town hall event was organized by Phoenix-based Turning Point USA and the event was held at a local church that is a frequent partner of the right-wing organization. The churchs private school, which has collected nearly $1 million in school vouchers, is a Turning Point Academy affiliate. Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts on May 30 by a New York jury in a trial in which the former president was accused of falsifying business records to illegally influence the 2016 election, which he won. The business records related to hush money payments he made to porn star Stormy Daniels to cover up a sexual encounter the two had nearly a decade earlier. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX In a long-winded speech to supporters prior to taking questions from audience members, Trump made spurious accusations against President Joe Biden and his administration, claimed elections were rigged and made allusions to a racist conspiracy theory about immigrants. I just went through a rigged trial in New York, with a highly conflicted and I mean highly conflicted judge, where there was no crime, Trump said to the crowd. It was made up, fabricated stuff. Trump was found unanimously guilty by 12 jurors at the end of the five-week-long trial. They convicted him of every charge prosecutors brought against him. The former president spent much of his time speaking about immigration, claiming that Biden is bringing in immigrants in order to obtain their votes. That, he falsely claimed, is the only explanation for the rise in immigration to the United States. Non-citizens are not allowed to vote in the United States and never have been. Arizona is being turned into a dumping ground for the dungeons of the third world, Trump told the crowd, adding that he intends to create the largest domestic deportation operation in the history of the world if he is elected. Former President Donald Trump speaks at Dream City Church in Phoenix on June 6, 2024, in his first campaign event since being convicted in New York of 34 felony counts related to paying hush money to a porn star before the 2016 election to keep her from telling people about their sexual relationship. Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror An attendee at a campaign event for former President Donald Trump at Dream City Church in Phoenix on June 6, 2024. The event was Trump's his first since being convicted in New York of 34 felony counts related to paying hush money to a porn star before the 2016 election to keep her from telling people about their sexual relationship. Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror Former President Donald Trump speaks at Dream City Church in Phoenix on June 6, 2024, in his first campaign event since being convicted in New York of 34 felony counts related to paying hush money to a porn star before the 2016 election to keep her from telling people about their sexual relationship. Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror An attendee at a campaign event for former President Donald Trump at Dream City Church in Phoenix on June 6, 2024. The event was Trump's his first since being convicted in New York of 34 felony counts related to paying hush money to a porn star before the 2016 election to keep her from telling people about their sexual relationship. Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror An attendee at a campaign event for former President Donald Trump at Dream City Church in Phoenix on June 6, 2024. The event was Trump's his first since being convicted in New York of 34 felony counts related to paying hush money to a porn star before the 2016 election to keep her from telling people about their sexual relationship. Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror An attendee at a campaign event for former President Donald Trump at Dream City Church in Phoenix on June 6, 2024. The event was Trump's his first since being convicted in New York of 34 felony counts related to paying hush money to a porn star before the 2016 election to keep her from telling people about their sexual relationship. Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror An attendee at a campaign event for former President Donald Trump at Dream City Church in Phoenix on June 6, 2024. The event was Trump's his first since being convicted in New York of 34 felony counts related to paying hush money to a porn star before the 2016 election to keep her from telling people about their sexual relationship. Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror Former President Donald Trump speaks at Dream City Church in Phoenix on June 6, 2024, in his first campaign event since being convicted in New York of 34 felony counts related to paying hush money to a porn star before the 2016 election to keep her from telling people about their sexual relationship. Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror Trump made a number of spurious claims, including that the Biden administration is aiding and abetting human traffickers. Biden signed an executive order this week that has divided his party as some argue that the order goes too far in restricting immigration. The executive order blocks migrants access to the asylum system when illegal border crossings exceed 2,500 a day. The order comes as Congress has had multiple failed attempts at passing immigration reform measures, including a bipartisan bill, with most Republicans voting against the measure due to opposition from Trump. He vowed to rescind the executive order on Day 1 if elected, a promise that elicited a thunderous cheer from the audience. Speaking from the stage that the churchs pastor uses to address congregants each week, Trump called the order bullsh, prompting the audience to chant bullsh repeatedly. The former president also advocated for sentencing drug dealers to death, claiming that Chinas use of the death penalty for drug dealers, which has also included a United States citizen, has created a China with no drug problem. Youll never solve the problem without the death penalty, Trump said, adding that he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who told him they dont have a drug problem because of the countrys use of capital punishment. Much of the deadly opioid fentanyl comes into the U.S. from China. After his speech, Trump took questions from the audience, the bulk of which focused on either the border or immigration. Outside the church, several hundred people began waiting in line as early as 9 a.m., hoping to catch a glimpse of the former president. A long line of several hundred people stretched across the lawn in front of the church at 11 a.m., an hour after the doors opened to let people in, with event staff handing out water as temperatures climbed into the triple digits. Many waiting in line were Phoenix natives, but some had traveled for the event. Claire, a 15-year-old who arrived in Phoenix with her parents from Washington state on Wednesday night, said that although she is not yet a voter, she wanted to be around people who shared her ideas. At the school I go to, theres only one other conservative person who thinks like me, she said. All of the other kids are listening to their parents. I think its important for people like us to stand up for the truth, even though we cant do anything immediate to contribute to that. Phoenix residents T. and Cliff Jennings came to the event to express their support for Trump. Like many others at the event, Trumps felony conviction did not change their decision to vote for him in November. Just because he was convicted doesnt mean hes guilty, Cliff said. Its a very sad time for America. Weve stooped to a new low. Theyre desperate. For 18-year-old Joseph Gatesman of Phoenix, this will be the first chance to vote. He said hell cast his ballot for Trump. Its an odd feeling saying that I want to vote for somebody who has been criminally tried, accused, and soon to be sentenced, Gatesman said. Its a tough pill to swallow. But at the end of the day, we have three optionsBiden is so old. If he were to win again, Id be surprised if he makes it. Biden, 81, is the oldest president in American history. If elected, Trump, who is 78, would surpass Biden to become the oldest president. As the town hall got underway inside, event staff cut off entry at around 2 p.m. after the venue reached capacity, with several hundred people still waiting in line. Although a large crowd of people gathered in front of the church doors, many people left as the temperature climbed toward 110 degrees. Several people were seen being wheeled away from the church on stretchers, but the Phoenix Fire Department could not immediately confirm exactly how many people suffered heat-related injuries. Democrats, who paid for billboards near the event that highlighted Trumps conviction, had strong words for Trump after the event. Donald Trump blocked the toughest, fairest bipartisan border legislation in a generation legislation that would have increased the nations border security and helped halt the flow of fentanyl into this country, Biden campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said in a written statement. And he did it because he thinks it would help him politically. Democrats also brought up Trump working with TPUSA, which recently saw two of its employees admit to assaulting an LGBTQ Arizona State University professor. After canceling not one, not two, but three trips to the state, Trump is finally making his way to Arizona, but instead of meeting with working families, hes choosing to spend time with the most extreme Arizonans he knows: The Arizona GOP and Turning Point, Democratic National Committee spokesperson Cameron Niven said in a statement. TPUSA and Dream City Church have a history of hosting extremists as the non-profit organization has been shifting further into christian nationalism. The Mirror observed one attendee with a Proud Christian Nationalist shirt, as well as a follower of white nationalist Nick Fuentes who is slated to speak at his next conference. QAnon was also present at the event with some in attendance even wearing QAnon themed shirts, as well as a number of vehicles at the event with QAnon bumper stickers. A number of lawmakers were also present including Glendale Republican Sen. Anthony Kern who was recently indicted for his involvement in a fake elector scheme concocted by the Trump campaign. Other state legislators in attendance included Reps. Leo Biasiucci, Joseph Chaplik and Teresa Martinez, and Sens. Sonny Borrelli, Wendy Rogers and Justine Wadsack. Trump personally called out some of the lawmakers present, including GOP Congressmen Eli Crane, Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar. He also praised and urged supporters to vote for Kari Lake and Abe Hamadeh. Lake is running for U.S. Senate, while Hamadeh is seeking the Republican nomination in Congressional District Eight. Emily Holshouser contributed to this story ***UPDATE: This story has been updated with additional reporting. DONATE: SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST In first rally since being convicted, Donald Trump rails against immigration in Phoenix Former President Donald Trump speaks at Dream City Church in Phoenix on June 6, 2024, in his first campaign event since being convicted in New York of 34 felony counts related to paying hush money to a porn star before the 2016 election to keep her from telling people about their sexual relationship. (Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy / Arizona Mirror Former President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Phoenix on Thursday, his first since being convicted in a New York court, speaking to a crowd of supporters, many holding campaign signs featuring his mugshot. The town hall event was organized by Phoenix-based Turning Point USA and the event was held at a local church that is a frequent partner of the right-wing organization. The churchs private school, which has collected nearly $1 million in school vouchers, is a Turning Point Academy affiliate. Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts on May 30 by a New York jury in a trial in which the former president was accused of falsifying business records to illegally influence the 2016 election, which he won. The business records related to hush money payments he made to porn star Stormy Daniels to cover up a sexual encounter the two had nearly a decade earlier. In a long-winded speech to supporters prior to taking questions from audience members, Trump made spurious accusations against President Joe Biden and his administration, claimed elections were rigged and made allusions to a racist conspiracy theory about immigrants. I just went through a rigged trial in New York, with a highly conflicted and I mean highly conflicted judge, where there was no crime, Trump said to the crowd. It was made up, fabricated stuff. Trump was found unanimously guilty by 12 jurors at the end of the five-week-long trial. They convicted him of every charge prosecutors brought against him. The former president spent much of his time speaking about immigration, claiming that Biden is bringing in immigrants in order to obtain their votes. That, he falsely claimed, is the only explanation for the rise in immigration to the United States. Non-citizens are not allowed to vote in the United States and never have been. Arizona is being turned into a dumping ground for the dungeons of the third world, Trump told the crowd, adding that he intends to create the largest domestic deportation operation in the history of the world if he is elected. Trump made a number of spurious claims, including that the Biden administration is aiding and abetting human traffickers. Biden signed an executive order this week that has divided his party as some argue that the order goes too far in restricting immigration. The executive order blocks migrants access to the asylum system when illegal border crossings exceed 2,500 a day. The order comes as Congress has had multiple failed attempts at passing immigration reform measures, including a bipartisan bill, with most Republicans voting against the measure due to opposition from Trump. He vowed to rescind the executive order on Day 1 if elected, a promise that elicited a thunderous cheer from the audience. Speaking from the stage that the churchs pastor uses to address congregants each week, Trump called the order bullsh, prompting the audience to chant bullsh repeatedly. The former president also advocated for sentencing drug dealers to death, claiming that Chinas use of the death penalty for drug dealers, which has also included a United States citizen, has created a China with no drug problem. Youll never solve the problem without the death penalty, Trump said, adding that he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who told him they dont have a drug problem because of the countrys use of capital punishment. Much of the deadly opioid fentanyl comes into the U.S. from China. After his speech, Trump took questions from the audience, the bulk of which focused on either the border or immigration. Outside the church, several hundred people began waiting in line as early as 9 a.m., hoping to catch a glimpse of the former president. A long line of several hundred people stretched across the lawn in front of the church at 11 a.m., an hour after the doors opened to let people in, with event staff handing out water as temperatures climbed into the triple digits. Many waiting in line were Phoenix natives, but some had traveled for the event. Claire, a 15-year-old who arrived in Phoenix with her parents from Washington state on Wednesday night, said that although she is not yet a voter, she wanted to be around people who shared her ideas. At the school I go to, theres only one other conservative person who thinks like me, she said. All of the other kids are listening to their parents. I think its important for people like us to stand up for the truth, even though we cant do anything immediate to contribute to that. Phoenix residents T. and Cliff Jennings came to the event to express their support for Trump. Like many others at the event, Trumps felony conviction did not change their decision to vote for him in November. Just because he was convicted doesnt mean hes guilty, Cliff said. Its a very sad time for America. Weve stooped to a new low. Theyre desperate. For 18-year-old Joseph Gatesman of Phoenix, this will be the first chance to vote. He said hell cast his ballot for Trump. Its an odd feeling saying that I want to vote for somebody who has been criminally tried, accused, and soon to be sentenced, Gatesman said. Its a tough pill to swallow. But at the end of the day, we have three optionsBiden is so old. If he were to win again, Id be surprised if he makes it. Biden, 81, is the oldest president in American history. If elected, Trump, who is 78, would surpass Biden to become the oldest president. As the town hall got underway inside, event staff cut off entry at around 2 p.m. after the venue reached capacity, with several hundred people still waiting in line. Although a large crowd of people gathered in front of the church doors, many people left as the temperature climbed toward 110 degrees. Several people were seen being wheeled away from the church on stretchers, but the Phoenix Fire Department could not immediately confirm exactly how many people suffered heat-related injuries. Democrats, who paid for billboards near the event that highlighted Trumps conviction, had strong words for Trump after the event. Donald Trump blocked the toughest, fairest bipartisan border legislation in a generation legislation that would have increased the nations border security and helped halt the flow of fentanyl into this country, Biden campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said in a written statement. And he did it because he thinks it would help him politically. Democrats also brought up Trump working with TPUSA, which recently saw two of its employees admit to assaulting an LGBTQ Arizona State University professor. After canceling not one, not two, but three trips to the state, Trump is finally making his way to Arizona, but instead of meeting with working families, hes choosing to spend time with the most extreme Arizonans he knows: The Arizona GOP and Turning Point, Democratic National Committee spokesperson Cameron Niven said in a statement. TPUSA and Dream City Church have a history of hosting extremists as the non-profit organization has been shifting further into christian nationalism. The Mirror observed one attendee with a Proud Christian Nationalist shirt, as well as a follower of white nationalist Nick Fuentes who is slated to speak at his next conference. QAnon was also present at the event with some in attendance even wearing QAnon themed shirts, as well as a number of vehicles at the event with QAnon bumper stickers. A number of lawmakers were also present including Glendale Republican Sen. Anthony Kern who was recently indicted for his involvement in a fake elector scheme concocted by the Trump campaign. Other state legislators in attendance included Reps. Leo Biasiucci, Joseph Chaplik and Teresa Martinez, and Sens. Sonny Borrelli, Wendy Rogers and Justine Wadsack. Trump personally called out some of the lawmakers present, including GOP Congressmen Eli Crane, Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar. He also praised and urged supporters to vote for Kari Lake and Abe Hamadeh. Lake is running for U.S. Senate, while Hamadeh is seeking the Republican nomination in Congressional District Eight. Emily Holshouser contributed to this story ***UPDATE: This story has been updated with additional reporting. 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 In first rally since being convicted, Donald Trump rails against immigration in Phoenix appeared first on Source New Mexico. A restored oyster reef in a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay provides habitat for a number of species. Photo courtesy Oyster Recovery Partnership A 2014 plan to restore oyster reefs in 10 Chesapeake Bay tributaries by 2025 is on track, with restoration in eight of the original 10 waterways considered complete, according to state and federal organizations involved in the project. The Chesapeake Bay Program partners said by the end of last year, 1,572 acres of reefs had been restored in the tributaries in Maryland and Virginia that were selected for large-scale restoration. Restoration work remains in Marylands Manokin River and Virginias Lynnhaven River, which currently have 222 and 38 more acres to go, according to a statement this week from the Chesapeake Bay Program. The waterways were targeted in the 2oi4 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, as well as several nonprofit organizations and academic institutions. Virginia added an 11th waterway, the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River, in 2019. Related Stories The plan called for reefs to be constructed in each waterway, seeded and monitored for progress. In Maryland, monitoring is under way in the Little Choptank, the Tred Avon and Upper St. Marys, and in Virginia on the Piankatank, the lower York, Lafayette and Great Wicomico. Monitoring of Marylands in Harris Creek is complete. Since 2014, the Chesapeake Bay Program partners have spent approximately $108 million to construct reefs. Besides being a valuable fishery, oysters are important for Bay cleanup efforts, as they survive by pumping water through their gills to trap food and, in doing so, they remove contaminants from the water. It has been estimated that one oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day. Oyster reefs, typically made up of mounds of old shells, can also help prevent shorelines from erosion. Oysters have been a valuable product for watermen since the late 19th century, but their numbers in the Bay have been decimated by decades of overfishing, pollution and loss of habitat. Maryland Natural Resources Secretary Josh Kurtz said in a prepared statement from the Chesapeake Bay Program that gains in oyster populations mean growing oyster harvests for watermen in the state The future for eastern oysters in the Chesapeake Bay is brighter than it has been for decades and theres no question that the tributary-scale restoration efforts have played an important role in improving the outlook for these iconic Bay bivalves, Kurtzs statement said. The post Fisheries officials, advocates say oyster reef restoration project remains on track appeared first on Maryland Matters. BENTONVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) A Benton County couples lawsuit against companies owned by HGTV stars could be delayed after recent storms in Northwest Arkansas, according to court documents. Matthew and Sarah McGrath sued Jupiter Rentals and Marrs Construction in February 2023, companies owned by Dave Marrs, who co-stars in HGTVs Rock the Block and Fixer to Fabulous with his wife Jenny. The couples lawsuit claims the Marrs companies worked on a house for them, only to realize later it had multiple problems, including a critical safety issue with the homes deck. The Marrs claimed the couple would not allow the companies to repair the home, but made an effort to do so. A settlement in the lawsuit was not reached after multiple failed attempts at court-ordered mediation. A filing in October 2023 by the plaintiffs said one attempt failed utterly. A motion for extension was filed on June 4 by the plaintiffs asking that the discovery deadline set for June 24, which the two parties are bound to, be pushed back. Court filings reveal new details in lawsuit against HGTV stars companies The McGraths claim in the filing that due to the tornadoes that ripped through Benton County on Memorial Day weekend, leaving numerous businesses and homes affected, contractors will be unusually busy for the next few weeks to come. The new proposed deadline is July 15. The filing goes on to say that the defendants are not willing to consent to an extension and claims while the extension may not affect the defendants, the plaintiffs will be dramatically prejudiced to the extent of being potentially unable to present the merits of their case if they cannot supplement their experts report by the deadline. The McGraths noted in the filing that they have no objection to adjusting other deadlines if the extension is granted. A pretrial hearing is currently set for September 5 with the five-day jury trial scheduled to begin September 23 at the Benton County Courthouse. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KNWA FOX24. Florida softball player Madison Schemitz shared her remarkable recovery from a knife attack last year that left her paralyzed. Schemitz, who was allegedly stabbed 15 times by an ex-boyfriend while leaving a restaurant with her mother on June 3, 2023, walked across the stage on June 1, 2024 to receive her diploma at graduation from Ponta Vedra High School (Fla.). One whole year! I wish I had the right words to describe this last year, the teen wrote on Instagram. Through all the sleepless nights, secret tears, and the never-ending struggle, the last year has been far from easy but my heart is so full. The powerful moment was captured on a video, which she shared on Instagram as well, along with a few celebratory pictures. Schemitz also said, A respiratory therapist shared this very quote with me. He reminded me that when youre going through hell, nobody ever wants to stay there. So, keep going. Every day, this quote has served as a reminder to persevere, even in the face of adversity and to push through it with the belief that there is an end to the struggle. A day before, she thanked those who had been there and helped her through the recovery process. When I was at my lowest you, all were there, Schemitz, who was an infielder and captain of the softball team, told hospital staff and first responders a week ago Thursday. Providing comfort and support and expertise that ultimately saved my life. Your dedication, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to your work are nothing short of remarkable. Story originally appeared on High School Sports Floridas state Supreme Court sided with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and denied an effort by a Democratic state attorney to be reinstated after she was removed from office last year. The justices voted 6-1 on Thursday to deny State Attorney Monique Worrells request to be reinstated after she was suspended from her Orlando-based district last August. The Supreme Court justices who denied her request said they disagreed with her arguments that DeSantiss reasons for suspending her were too vague or that her removal infringed on her lawful rights of prosecutorial discretion, The Associated Press reported. At a press briefing last year, DeSantis said he was suspending Worrell from the 9th Judicial Circuit for an alleged neglect of duty. She was elected to serve in 2020 and was running for reelection in 2024. The governor said her administration of criminal justice was clearly and fundamentally derelict so as to constitute both neglect of duty and incompetence. Worrell said her suspension was politically motivated, since it took place when DeSantis was still running his presidential campaign. She said she was doing her job as she saw fit and the states constitution only allows for someone to be suspected for egregious misconduct, AP reported. Five of the seven Florida Supreme Court justices were appointed by DeSantis, AP noted. Justice Jorge Labarga, appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist who was elected as a Republican but left the party while in office in 2009, said state attorneys must have the discretion to address challenges in their communities, since Florida is a big state. This is not the first time DeSantis has removed a state attorney. In 2022, he suspended Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren for neglect of duty after Warren refused to enforce bans on abortion and transgender-related surgeries. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Florida woman called 911 on herself during attempted carjacking so she could do it legally: deputies TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) A Florida woman was arrested after she reportedly called 911 on herself while trying to steal a car from a dealership so she could do it legally. Christy Turman, 37, called the Lee County Sheriffs Office because she wanted authorities to know, deputies said. Because Im trying to steal a car thats not legally mine, Turman said during the 911 call. So, yall better come make a report. Im reporting this. Queen City News is tracking CRIME in your area >> Latest stories here Deputies arrived at the dealership a short time later, where they say they found Turman exiting the drivers side of the stolen Toyota Corolla. The 37-year-old told deputies she was being trained in a game of Black Ops to steal a car, but called authorities to make her carjacking legal. According to the sheriffs office, Turman was arrested and is facing trespassing charges. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. KYODO NEWS - Jun 7, 2024 - 23:00 | All, World, Japan The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News. ---------- Watchdog accuses MUFG bank of sharing info with brokerage affiliates TOKYO - Japan's securities watchdog is planning to call for a bank and two brokerage firms under Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. to be punished over allegations they shared confidential information about customer businesses despite being refused permission, a source familiar with the matter said Friday. The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission is considering recommending the Financial Services Agency take punitive action as early as next week against MUFG Bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. and Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities Co. ---------- Japan political group head faces new arrest over campaign obstruction TOKYO - The leader and other members of a Tokyo-based fringe political group were served with fresh arrest warrants Friday for allegedly obstructing a rival candidate's campaign for a Diet by-election in April. Atsuhiko Kurokawa, the 45-year-old leader of "Tsubasa no To," Ryosuke Nemoto, 29, the group's unsuccessful candidate in the April 28 election and Hayato Sugita, 39, allegedly chased one of their rival camps' vehicles, police said. ---------- Baseball: Hiroshima's Daichi Osera throws no-hitter vs. Lotte HIROSHIMA - Hiroshima Carp right-hander Daichi Osera threw a no-hitter in a 4-0 win over the Lotte Marines in an interleague game Friday. The 32-year-old Osera allowed five baserunners, all on walks, at Hiroshima's Mazda Stadium for the second no-hitter of the season in Japan after Shosei Togo of the Yomiuri Giants tossed one on May 24 against the Hanshin Tigers. ---------- Japan household spending up 0.5% for April, 1st rise in 14 months TOKYO - Japan's household spending in April rose a real 0.5 percent from a year earlier for the first increase in 14 months, lifted by increased outlays on education and clothing amid warm temperatures, government data showed Friday. While a three-day holiday in the reporting month also helped increase outlays, "As a trend, it's hard to say that spending is moving upward," a ministry official said. ---------- Japan PM vows to boost "active cyber defense" to prevent cyberattacks TOKYO - Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday instructed a minister to craft a bill to boost Japan's "active cyber defense" capabilities to prevent cyberattacks against the country by monitoring early warning signs. "It is an increasingly urgent task to enhance Japan's ability to deal with cyberattacks in light of the current security environment," Kishida said at the first meeting of a government panel involving experts in the field. ---------- Trio arrested for "insulting" Chinese anthem at World Cup q'fier HONG KONG - Three individuals were arrested Thursday night for allegedly insulting China's national anthem during a 2026 World Cup Asian qualifier football match in Hong Kong before being released on bail the following morning, according to police. The trio, aged 18 to 31, were seen turning their backs to the field and failing to stand during a broadcast of the Chinese national anthem "March of the Volunteers" at the beginning of the match. ---------- Japanese man indicted over putting girl in washing machine MITO, Japan - A man was indicted Friday for allegedly injuring his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter by putting her in a washing machine and turning it on. The Mito District Public Prosecutors Office in Ibaraki Prefecture did not disclose whether Hideaki Masui, 30, had admitted to the allegation. The incident in May left the girl with injuries to her face and legs that took around two weeks to heal, according to the indictment. ---------- Toyota, Mazda halt production of 5 models amid certification scandal TOKYO - Toyota Motor Corp. and Mazda Motor Corp. on Thursday paused production of a total of five vehicle models after the transport ministry said their certifications had been obtained improperly, affecting more than a thousand suppliers. The move comes after the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Tourism ordered shipments of Toyota's Corolla Fielder, Corolla Axio and Yaris Cross, as well as Mazda's Roadster RF and Mazda2 to be halted, saying their vehicle certification tests were carried out in ways that did not comply with government specifications. Video: Fantasy Springs theme area opens at Tokyo DisneySea Ukraine has responded to the European Commission's positive verbal assessment regarding the progress of European integration reforms required for EU accession negotiations to begin. Source: Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal commented on the European Commission's decision on Telegram, European Pravda has reported Details: The European Commission's conclusion states that Ukraine is continuing its systematic efforts to join the EU and has completed all four additional reform steps, Shmyhal said. Quote from Shmyhal: "Now we expect our European partners to take the next step to start EU membership negotiations this month." He added that the Ukrainian people are fighting every day for the right to be part of the European family in the war against the Russian aggressor. Background: On 7 June, the European Commission confirmed that it has given a positive verbal assessment of the progress of European integration reforms in Ukraine and Moldova, as set out in the November report on EU enlargement. However, according to media reports, the Permanent Representatives of the EU member states have again failed to make a decision on the European Commission's recommendation to start accession negotiations with Ukraine, as Hungary had raised objections. Another senior diplomat said that Hungary "came out with the same rant as last time about Ukraines lack of progress on national minorities". The German government recently announced that Ukraine has met the requirements for the reforms necessary to start EU membership negotiations. Read more: Kyiv will take the Albanian path to EU membership: details of Ukraine's negotiating framework emerge Support UP or become our patron! A former City of Atlanta assistant attorney and Atlanta police officer, Shelitha Robertson, 62, has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison after she stole about $15 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans from the government during the COVID-19 pandemic. Robertson and other co-conspirators got the loans on behalf of four businesses she owned and controlled, the Department of Justice said in a news release Friday. The loan applications falsely inflated the number of employees and average monthly payroll for each of the four businesses, resulting in larger PPP loans than Robertson would be legitimately entitled to obtain. Robertson and her co-conspirator, Chandra Norton, also submitted false tax documents to support the inflated statements in each loan application, the DOJ said. TRENDING STORIES: Robertson used the money she got from the loans to buy luxury items, including a 10-carat diamond ring. The DOJ said she also transferred some of the money to other family members and her co-conspirator, Chandra Norton. Motivated by greed, Robertson deceptively obtained funds that were designated to provide emergency financial relief to struggling small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute criminals who stole pandemic relief funds. A jury convicted Robertson of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering on December 19, 2023. The judge sentenced her to seven years and three months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. IN OTHER NEWS: A Los Angeles County jury has awarded a former California Highway Patrol employee $1 million in damages after she sued the agency for mishandling sexual content found on her cellphone. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Years after a controversial overtime fraud probe, a Los Angeles County jury has awarded a former California Highway Patrol employee $1million in damages after she sued the agency for mishandling sexual content found on her cellphone. Doris Peniche, a former CHP overtime coordinator at the East Los Angeles office, claimed her colleagues improperly viewed and shared her sexual photos and videos after obtaining the material through a search warrant. She sued CHP and several individuals for negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and distribution of private sexual material, among other charges. The jury ruled in her favor Thursday after a three-week trial. The overtime probe that led to Peniches phone being searched first became public in 2019, when CHP Southern Division Chief Mark Garrett held a news conference alleging dozens of officers had bilked the agency for unworked hours. The search warrant for Peniches phone data, including photos and cell tower pings, was issued in July 2018. Garrett said officers assigned to protect Caltrans workers repairing Southern California freeways billed CHP for eight-hour overtime shifts even when the protection detail did not take that long. Officers at the East L.A. station claimed at least $360,000 worth of fraudulent overtime, Garrett said. Dozens were relieved of duty, and the California attorney generals office filed felony fraud and theft charges against 54 officers from the station. Read more: Before a Palmdale baby vanished, there were multiple abuse allegations. Why didn't agencies intervene? The roster cleave was so broad that it triggered an agency-wide shuffling of staff because the station was home to only approximately 100 officers to begin with. Though the case gained headlines and was touted as a major corruption investigation by the CHP and attorney general, charges against all but one defendant have since been dismissed. Peniche was fired from the CHP in May 2019 amid the investigation, her lawyer, Charles Murray, said. Murray argued during the civil trial that CHP investigators improperly shared the sexual content from her device with one another and with at least one other employee outside of the case, Murray said. Members of the criminal investigation team uploaded the content onto a shared drive, witnesses testified, and also shared it with administrators. Lt. Martin Geller, who was author of the search warrant, discovered photos and videos of Peniche giving and receiving oral sex upon his initial review of the evidence. He told other investigating officers about the content in order to alert them, he testified. Geller was following CHP policy that potential evidence be shared with the administrative team, he said. Murray questioned that policy, arguing it didnt make sense and ultimately harmed Peniche. You have an investigator that knows theres sex material and it is highly sensitive, Murray said in court. It doesnt appear to be relevant, but he goes ahead and uploads it to the criminal shared drive. You decide if that policy makes sense. A CHP spokeswoman declined to comment. Where internal investigators saw corruption in the overtime investigation, attorneys for the accused officers and a number of former CHP leaders saw standard operating procedure. Read more: Juvenile hall fight videos raise question: Can L.A. County probation reports be trusted? Officers assigned to Caltrans overtime details routinely remained on call for a full eight hours even if they were not in the field and were entitled to the extra pay because they could be called back to the repair site, attorneys argued in a dismissal motion filed in 2022. That approach had been the procedure established by CHP since at least 2010, according to a number of former CHP executives including ex-Southern Division Chiefs William Siegel and Art Acevedo. In late 2022, an L.A. County Superior Court judge reduced the charges to misdemeanors, granting the 54 officers entry into a diversion program as long as they satisfied certain requirements including paying restitution. All but one have paid restitution and had their cases dismissed, according to the attorney generals office. The remaining officer, Pedro Chavez, is due back in court in August. Former L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, who represented some of the officers at disciplinary hearings, called the overtime prosecution shameful and one of the great frauds by corrupt law enforcement in California history. Ironically, he said, the state spent more money attempting to prosecute officers than they ever alleged was stolen. CHP Sgts. Robert Ruiz and Matt Lentz on the administrative team shared the material with Capt. Melissa Hammond, who was a lieutenant at the time, Peniches complaint said. The complaint also said Hammond told CHP Sgt. Connie Guzman that the images confirmed rumors that had been circulating about Peniche having multiple sexual partners, including her brother-in-law. Murray denied the rumors and said that the images did not show Peniche with her brother-in-law or with multiple men. He also said that Hammond and others acted outside the scope of their duties to intentionally harm Peniche. They are trying to see if theres enough material to fire over 50 people, he said of the overtime investigation. Why was my clients folder the only one with a subfolder of photos? Was it because she was the overtime coordinator or was it because she was disliked immensely? Read more: Will these drones 'revolutionize' 911 response? L.A. suburb will be first to test Defense lawyer Joseph Wheeler said his clients appropriately reviewed the content as part of their investigation. You cant determine whether somethings relevant unless you actually review it, he said during the trial. Wheeler attempted to place some responsibility on Peniche, arguing that she should not have allowed sexual photos of herself to be taken. Once that search warrant is issued for the data on your phone, any expectation of privacy is gone, he said. If you wanted to keep your body private, why would you let other people take photos of you? Although Peniche testified that she was concerned about where her sexual material was spread and who had access to it, Wheeler said there was no evidence the content was leaked outside of CHP. Before deliberations, Murray told the jury to look beyond CHPs evidence policies when deciding the case. You can send a message and say, I dont care what your policy is, that aint right what you did, he said. 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. Former Attorney General Gurbir Grewal testified Thursday in Sen. Bob Menendez's corruption trial that a now-ex state senator and a former Murphy administration official tried to discuss pending criminal matters with him. (Edwin J. Torres/Governors Office) The corruption allegations facing Sen. Bob Menendez are so expansive, the senators trial was bound to reveal some unrelated unsavory allegations involving other New Jersey officials. And sure enough, Thursdays testimony by former Attorney General Gurbir Grewal included two juicy tidbits about former state Sen. Dick Codey and a Murphy administration official who went unnamed but who appears to be former chief of staff George Helmy. Grewal was on the witness stand to relay that Menendez tried to talk to him multiple times about a pending criminal case Grewals office was prosecuting, with Grewal testifying that he believed the message from Menendez was to handle the case differently. Under cross-examination by Menendez attorney Avi Weitzman, Grewal conceded that Codey and the chief of staff both did the same. Weitzman appeared to cite Codey and the chief of staff conversations as a hey, its Jersey, everyone does it defense, but Grewal made clear that public officials should know not to speak to the states chief law enforcement officer about cases his office is prosecuting. I think the prohibitions on elected officials and members of the governors staff reaching out about pending criminal matters, these are just norms that people should be aware of, Grewal said. People should be aware of them, yes. But as weve learned, sometimes our leaders dont think the norms apply to them. Helmy Few details about the episode involving the chief of staff were discussed in court. Weitzman mentioned it first, asking Grewal about the governors chief of staff reaching out to discuss a particular case pending in your office. I said I cant speak to you about pending matters, Grewal said. And then I reached out to the governors counsel, Matt Platkin at the time, to remind folks in his office what the lines were and what they could and could not raise. The conversation so alarmed Grewal, he testified that it prompted him to issue a memo informing the governors office about what they can and cant raise with the AGs office. The memo is dated Oct. 8, 2020 when Helmy, now a hospital executive, was Gov. Phil Murphys chief of staff. A source familiar with the matter told me the case Helmy inquired about involved Walter Somick, a North Bergen recreation worker charged by the Attorney Generals Office under a Grewal predecessor with official misconduct, a serious charge that comes with a mandatory prison sentence upon conviction. Authorities alleged Somick falsified time sheets to collect pay for work he didnt perform, your classic Hudson County no-show job. The source told me Helmy tried to speak about the case with Grewal multiple times. Somick is not just anyone: His mother is married to North Bergen Mayor Nick Sacco, who in 2020 was a powerful state senator and someone Helmy needed to help guide Murphys agenda through the Legislature. And at about the time of Grewals memo, Sacco was trying to get the Legislature to pass a bill that would have ended the mandatory jail time minimum for official misconduct convictions. The bill ended up on Murphys desk and he came close to signing it (he issued a conditional veto instead). Helmy did not respond to a request seeking comment. A Murphy spokeswoman declined to comment. Somicks case finally ended for him in October 2022, with him pleading guilty to fourth-degree records tampering and winning an 18-month term of probation and a yearlong suspended jail term, according to the Jersey Journal. Codey The episode with Codey, Grewal said, happened early in Grewals tenure as attorney general (he assumed that role in January 2018). It was at the tail end of a meeting when Codey said this, per Grewal: Im concerned about how the prior administration weaponized this office politically, and Im particularly concerned about a pending matter. I said to him, Im not having a conversation with you about a pending matter, Grewal testified Thursday. Weitzman said the matter involved Kevin Bannon, a former Mercer County parks official and onetime loyalist of Democrat Brian Hughes, the former Mercer County executive. Grewals predecessor charged Bannon with diverting thousands of dollars of public money to a nonprofit he controlled. Why would Codey an Essex County Democrat and former acting governor be so interested in this case that hed try to lean on the attorney general over it? Codey, like Helmy, did not return my call. So I asked Bannons lawyer, Jack Furlong, who told me he believes Codey who he said called him once to get background on the case is friendly with the Bannon family. Governor Codey, as he likes to be called, is a hail fellow well met, and I think hes one of those fellows that if he thinks he can be helpful he will be, Furlong said. Non-lawyers or people outside of the criminal justice system dont seem to understand we are not lobbyists. We dont pick up the phone and call somebody and say, hey can you dismiss this indictment? Thats just not how this thing works. Ive written before about Menendezs own defense of these claims. His lawyers say its no big whoop that he had conversations with prosecutors about cases involving his friends and allies, that he just wanted to make sure the prosecutors were doing the right thing. Absolute nonsense. When youre in a position of power and you pull someone aside to say, My friends in a jam and you can help him, youre sending a message that they need to listen to you or else. This is bad behavior even if you havent been accused of accepting gold bars in exchange for it. Whether youre a U.S. senator, a state senator, or a Murphy administration official, it is to quote Grewals colleague on their conversation with Menendez gross. Furlong is correct that asking prosecutors to help out your buddies is not how the criminal justice system is supposed to work. Alas, in New Jersey, too many of our leaders think it is. The post Former A.G.s testimony in Menendez trial reveals more New Jersey grossness appeared first on New Jersey Monitor. Former Georgia deputy charged with abusing his K-9 partner A former Georgia deputy has been arrested after an investigation found that he abused his K-9 partner. The Richmond Hill Police Department arrested Matthew Ainsworth on Thursday and charged him with aggravated animal cruelty. Ainsworth was a former McIntosh County Sheriffs Deputy and a former Long County Sheriffs Deputy. TRENDING STORIES: The police department said K-9 had been assigned to Ainsworth while working for the Long County Sheriffs Office. The K-9 that was injured has since been transferred to another department and is said to be doing well. IN OTHER NEWS: Nancy Turbak Berry is the founder of Turbak Law Office in Watertown. (Courtesy of Turbak Law Office) Organizers of the campaign to enshrine abortion rights in the South Dakota state constitution announced Friday that Democratic former lawmaker, former magistrate judge and Watertown lawyer Nancy Turbak Berry will lead a new group supporting the effort. Turbak Berry will chair the Freedom Amendment Coalition to support the Nov. 5 ballot question that would reinstate abortion rights in the state. The announcement came from Dakotans for Health, the ballot question committee that gathered the thousands of signatures required to put the measure on the ballot. Turbak Berry served as a lawmaker for four years in the 2000s and has been an outspoken advocate for reproductive rights, open government and privacy rights. The issue motivated her campaign for the Legislature after lawmakers passed an abortion ban in 2006. Voters repealed the law later that year and Democrats gained legislative seats for two consecutive elections. The semi-retired lawyer and founder of Turbak Law Office introduced unsuccessful bills during her legislative tenure to include contraception drugs and devices under health insurance. In 2008, she was invited to give the commencement speech at Presentation College before the institution rescinded the offer because of her position on abortion, according to news reports at the time. I have never really been interested in politics. I hate partisan politics. Im interested in public policy, Turbak Berry said. This has pretty much always been an issue that prompts me to get involved. Then I have to hold my nose and deal with politics in the process. As chair of the new coalition, Turbak Berry said her focus is to tell the truth about the crushing injustice of South Dakotas current anti-abortion law and to work with groups and people who support the initiative across the state. People associated with the Life Defense Fund protest outside a Sioux Falls library on May 1, 2024, as an abortion-rights group conducts a press conference inside. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight) Turbak Berry also called on Gov. Kristi Noem to convene a special session of the Legislature to repeal our extreme abortion ban. The ban with one exception to preserve the life of the pregnant female took effect in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The proposed state constitutional amendment would legalize abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy but allow the state to impose limited regulations in the second trimester and a ban in the third trimester, with exceptions for the life and health of the mother. The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood have said they dont plan to support the constitutional amendment, due to what their local leaders described as the amendments hasty drafting and lack of adequate input from stakeholders. Turbak Berry said she is focused on local groups, such as lawyers, medical professionals and others who support the amendment. Its about womens reproductive freedom. We had it. They took it away. We want it back, she said. Its about womens reproductive freedom. We had it. They took it away. We want it back. Nancy Turbak Berry, chair of Freedom Amendment Coalition Turbak Berry is remembered as a legislator who used her legal background and debating skills to stand out as one of 18 female lawmakers at the time (including then-legislator and current Gov. Noem) in a Legislature with 105 seats. Gary Hanson is a Democratic former state senator from Sisseton who served as assistant minority leader at the time. He remembers Turbak Berry as someone who worked across the aisle and was well schooled on each bill. Hanson said Turbak Berrys choice to return to the South Dakota political fray is significant for Democrats. I think its good for the Democratic Party, Hanson said. A lot of the issues she was fighting for out there are Democrat-involved. Its refreshing to see her active again. Turbak Berry has practiced law in Watertown since 1982 and has two sons who are taking over her law firm. The Life Defense Fund, which is opposing the abortion-rights ballot question, is planning a legal challenge against the validity of the measures petition signatures. Co-chair Leslee Unruh issued a statement to South Dakota Searchlight referencing Turbak Berry and Rick Weiland of Dakotans for Health. Nancy Turbak Berry and Rick Weiland need to acknowledge the forgotten woman hurt by abortion and dignity of all human life, Unruh said, in part. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE The post Former lawmaker Turbak Berry will lead new group supporting abortion-rights amendment appeared first on South Dakota Searchlight. Over a month after a customer sued a Massage Envy parlor in Fort Worth, the company and a former employee are being sued over an alleged sexual assault at a Dallas location. The lawsuit was filed by Houston-based firm Blizzard Greenberg PLLC on Monday in a Dallas County court. The defendants named in the lawsuit are Massage Envy, Trinity Health Spa which owns and operates Massage Envy franchises in Dallas-Fort Worth and Tarence Harrison, the former employee accused in the suit of sexually assaulting his female coworker. On Dec. 27, 2023, the female employee had a massage appointment with Harrison at the Massage Envy at 3699 McKinney Ave. in Dallas, where they both worked at the time, the lawsuit states. The woman was employed with Massage Envy franchises for 15 years, according to the suit. Before the massage began, the plaintiff told Harrison she did not want him to work on her legs because they are sensitive and she does not like it, the suit alleges. When Harrison returned to the room after she undressed and lay down, he started the massage with compressions from the feet up, including her legs, she said. When the plaintiff repeated she did not want him touching her legs, Harrison said he was just trying to get a feel of what needed to be done, the suit states. More top stories from our newsroom: H-E-B announces opening date for Mansfield grocery store Heres how many illegal voters Tarrant election integrity unit has investigated Patch Cafe from TVs Landman will open as real restaurant [Get our breaking news alerts.] He then loosely undraped her back to begin working on the area and the plaintiff tucked the sheet under her own hips, believing Harrison was not going to secure the draping, the suit says. After he finished working on her back, Harrison slid his hands under her underwear and began massaging her buttocks, the suit alleges. She asked him to stop and he responded with just seeing what needed to be done, and she asked him to stop a second time, at which point he did, according to the suit. The woman said she felt shocked and scared by Harrisons conduct and her concern was to try to stay safe without escalating the situation, according to the suit. Harrison then moved to massage her legs again with the plaintiff telling him, Dont touch my legs. Please dont touch my legs, the suit alleges. It was only after she explained to him she was a victim of abuse and was uncomfortable with her legs being touched that Harrison stopped and said, Yeah, I can tell you hide your body, the suit says. He continued the massage by moving her arm unnaturally, causing pain in her shoulder, the suit alleges. He rolled the plaintiff over and had her facing up on the table, but again, did not secure the draping to keep her chest from being exposed, according to the suit. Harrison reached under her shoulder and began working on the area, requiring the plaintiff to cover herself quickly and pull her breast away from being touched, the suit alleges. He responded with, Oh yeah, I guess you should hold that out of the way, the suit states. The massage ended shortly after and the woman rushed out of the building to her car, the suit says. As a result of the assault, the woman has suffered severe mental anguish, emotional distress and psychological trauma, the suit alleges. The woman notified the clinic manager, who then reported the assault to the Trinity Health Spa district and assistant district managers. But instead of terminating Harrison, as required by Massage Envys zero tolerance policy, Trinity Health Spa chose to retrain him, according to the suit. That marked Harrisons third training on draping during massages, the suit says. The Massage Envy franchise expected Harrison and the plaintiff to continue working together, she alleges. She told the assistant district manager she was fearful of Harrison repeating the offense to a customer, the suit says. Her superiors continued to refuse to fire Harrison, and the assistant district manager also revealed she was the one who informed Harrison that his coworker complained about him, according to the suit. The plaintiff said she never gave the manager permission to disclose that information to him. It wasnt until the plaintiff sent an email about the assault to human resources that an investigation into Harrison began, resulting in his termination, according to the suit. During the investigation and before he was fired, Harrison was transferred to a Massage Envy at 3100 Texas Sage Trail in Fort Worth, the suit says. This location is the same Massage Envy that was sued by a customer in April, alleging a therapist made obscene comments to her and inappropriately touched her. Harrisons transfer was another violation of the companys policy, as employees are supposed to be suspended and removed from work schedules until an investigation is completed, according to the suit. Former megachurch leader who protested LGBTQ causes to lead Sacramento rally during Pride As many as 2,000 people are expected to flock Saturday night to the California state Capitol with a Let Us Worship concert and a Jesus March both happening concurrently with the Sacramento Pride Festival this weekend. The Let Us Worship Capitol tour is led by Christian musician Sean Feucht, a former worship leader at Reddings controversial megachurch, Bethel Church, and former candidate for Californias 3rd Congressional District. The Jesus March will partner with Feuchts Let Us Worship movement. This will be the fourth anniversary of the Let Us Worship concert and event, which started in 2020 as a response to COVID-19 public health measures, such as enforced social distancing and face mask requirements. Feucht has positioned himself as a conservative Christian firebrand. He visited former President Donald Trump in 2019, where he and dozens of other Christian leaders laid our hands on him and prayed for him, and has protested against LGBTQ causes, abortion, the Black Lives Matter movement, vaccine mandates and sex education. Feucht will visit Rocklins Destiny Church whose members are encouraged to attend both downtown Sacramento events the next day for a conversation on culture, truth, and the Church. Former Peanut Festival queen indicted for murder in case of baby killed DONALSONVILLE, Ala. (WDHN) Former Miss Donalsonville, accused of killing her boyfriends 18-month-old infant, has been indicted on 6 counts in relation to the murder. Trinity Poague has been indicted on 1 count of Malice Murder, 2 counts of Felony Murder, 2 counts of Aggravated Battery, and 1 count of Cruelty to Children in the First Degree. Officials with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation say on Sunday, January 14 the Georgia Southwestern State University Police Department asked the GBI to investigate the death of a child. The investigation indicates an unresponsive 18-month-old boy was admitted to the emergency room at Phoebe Sumter Hospital in Americus, Georgia. Officials say hospital personnel performed life-saving measures on the child, but he later died. After multiple interviews and an examination of the evidence, GBI agents arrested Poague. Poague, 18, was released from the Sumter County Jail on a $75,000 bond on February 21. According to the Sumter County Sheriffs Office, Poague is able to leave the county but must wear an ankle monitor. Investigators have not released any additional information at this time. The Georgia Southwestern State University Police Department along with the Americus Police Department assisted with this investigation. Poague was crowned Miss Donalsonville in 2023 and later went on to compete in the Miss National Peanut Festival Pageant. If she is convicted of the crime she could be facing life in prison. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDHN - wdhn.com. PORTLAND, Ore. (PORTLAND TRIBUNE) Former Reynolds High School teacher Edward Hernandez-Corchado was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison and 10 years supervised release on Friday, June 7, for attempting to entice and coerce a child. The 27-year-old traveled from Portland to Bend in hopes of meeting a 15-year-old child he met online, according to a U.S. Attorneys Office District of Oregon press release. Salem police investigate suspicious death of 28-year-old woman found in road Court records show in November 2022, as part of an ongoing investigation into online child exploitation, an officer from Bend started using a Snapchat account to pose as a 15-year-old child. Over several days, Hernandez-Corchado engaged in sexually explicit conversations with the officer, who he believed to be the child, ultimately developing a plan to meet in Bend. Costco recalls Tillamook cheese due to plastic pieces in Monterey Jack slices After being intercepted and arrested by officers on Nov. 11, 2022, during his trip to meet the child in Bend, he admitted to regularly engaging in sexually explicit conversations with underage girls online, possessing child pornography and previously meeting with two children in the Salem area to engage in sexual conduct. Read more at PortlandTribune.com. The Portland Tribune and its parent company Pamplin Media Group are KOIN 6 News media partners Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com. The BRICS Expert Forum is held in St. Petersburg, Russia, on June 6, 2024. The forum was co-hosted by Xinhua News Agency and Rossiya Segodnya. (Xinhua/Cao Yang) ST. PETERSBURG, June 6 (Xinhua) -- BRICS countries have made significant achievements in promoting global economic growth, improving global governance, and enhancing multilateral cooperation, participants at the BRICS Expert Forum said here Thursday. Lyu Yansong, editor-in-chief of Xinhua News Agency, said that as the world is undergoing unprecedented changes, BRICS countries have been strengthening cooperation in various fields, promoting high-quality partnerships, and jointly exploring paths to modernization. Lyu, also deputy director of the Academic Committee of New China Research, noted that these efforts are crucial for humanity to collectively address challenges and create a brighter future. As China's state news agency and a high-end think tank in the form of a media outlet, Xinhua is committed to in-depth research on the successful practices of the BRICS cooperation mechanism, deeply interpreting its contemporary value and global significance, Lyu said. He added that the agency is willing to further strengthen research and promotion of the BRICS cooperation mechanism with its partners. Alexander Zhukov, first deputy chairman of the Russian State Duma, said BRICS countries respect sovereign equality and the right to choose development paths independently. They take into account mutual interests, adhere to principles of openness and consensus, and strive to establish a multipolar world order and a fair global financial and trade system, collectively addressing the most pressing issues of the day. The mechanism has become a model for inter-state cooperation, he noted, adding that Russia, as the rotating chair of BRICS this year, will host a series of events focusing on topics including politics, security, economy, finance, and education and culture. Philani Mthembu, executive director at the Institute for Global Dialogue based in South Africa, said that BRICS countries advocate and practice genuine multilateralism and are dedicated to promoting multipolarity and democratizing international relations. BRICS aims to build a more just and reasonable international order, continuously contributing to global peace, stability, and prosperity, he added. Jose Pio Borges de Castro Filho, chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Brazilian Center for International Relations, said that BRICS is a crucial force in shaping a new world order, as the mechanism showcases its flexibility and inclusiveness, respecting the cultural, economic, and religious differences of its members while fostering mutually beneficial cooperation. He emphasized the need for member states to strengthen cooperation in reducing carbon emissions, poverty alleviation, energy transition, and digital transformation. Dmitry Kiselev, general director of Rossiya Segodnya media group, said that new development centers are emerging in today's world, with BRICS being one of the most important forces. Under the BRICS framework, cooperation in economic, trade, cultural, and other fields has progressed smoothly, effectively safeguarding the common interests of emerging and developing countries, Kiselev noted. The BRICS Expert Forum was held within the framework of the 2024 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, and co-hosted by Xinhua News Agency and Rossiya Segodnya. Government officials from BRICS countries, heads of major international media, and scholars attended the forum. High schoolers in the Fort Worth Independent School District either held steady or improved in all categories but one on this years state end-of-course exams, according to results released Friday. High school students across Texas are required to take STAAR end-of-course exams in English I, English II, algebra I, biology and U.S. History as a part of their graduation requirements. In Fort Worth ISD, the percentage of students who scored on grade level on the exam held steady in algebra and English I. In biology, 36% of students scored on grade level, up four points from last year. And in English II, 44% of students scored on grade level, up five points from last year. The only subject in which scores declined was U.S. History, where 56% of students scored on grade level, down from 60% last year. Fort Worth ISDs results roughly mirror those from across Texas. Statewide scores were flat in algebra, biology and English I. The number of Texas students who met grade level in English II climbed by four points compared to last year, and the number of students meeting grade level in U.S. history dipped by two points. The results also laid bare the areas where students have made up ground they lost during the pandemic and the areas where they still struggle. In four of the five subject areas tested, the number of Texas students meeting grade level either exceeded or approached those from the spring of 2019, the last round of testing before the pandemic. But in algebra, just 45% of students met grade level this year, a 17-point drop from pre-pandemic levels. A similar trend existed in Fort Worth ISD: Just 20% of students met grade level in algebra this year, the same percentage as last year. That total represents a 28-point decline from the spring of 2019. Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said the results emphasize the importance of investing in research-backed educational strategies. State education officials are working hard to help students continue to recover from the academic effects of the pandemic, he said. The 2024 STAAR End-of-Course results highlight both the progress Texas students and educators have made and the challenges that remain to help students improve outcomes, which can only come from a robust assessment and accountability system, Morath said. While we celebrate the gains in English II, we must also acknowledge the areas where student performance has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Gabe Grantham, a policy advisor for the advocacy group Texas 2036, said the lack of progress in algebra indicates that Texas students are still struggling to recover in math. He acknowledged that state lawmakers have taken steps toward a solution, but said more needs to be done to support teachers, students and families. With 55% of our students below grade level in Algebra 1, we run the risk of leaving students ill equipped to enter the future workforce without the basic math skills needed to be successful, Grantham said. Parents can view their childrens individual results at TexasAssessment.gov. Fox News host Jeanine Pirro on Thursday shared a deceptive video of President Joe Biden at a D-Day ceremony in Normandy, France, calling his actions embarrassing. But it is the former judge who should be embarrassed. The edited clip was posted by a Trump campaign and RNC-backed X account it had conservatives mocking Biden over nothing. And that included Pirro in a misguided right-wing attempt to prove that the president is unfit for office. RNC Researchs clip showed Biden shaking hands with French President Emmanuel Macron and beginning to sit as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is called to be the next speaker. But the video is strategically cut to make it appear as if Biden were trying to sit without a chair. Awkward, the caption read with a gritted-teeth emoji. Biden critics on social media jumped to cast the video as another sign of his decline, none more so than Pirro. THIS is the man representing us. THIS is how we are being perceived as a nation. Our commander-and-chief trying to sit in an imaginary chair on stage in front of the entire world, Pirro, a panelist on The Five, wrote on X in a post that now seems deleted but was screen-captured by Mediaite. Lights on, but Bidens not home. Embarrassing is an understatement.THERE IS NO CHAIR "Embarrassing is an understatement," Pirro wrote. X There was a chair, and Biden used it to sit down when the introduction for Austin was nearly done. Heres a fuller look: Republicans are sharing a misleading video edit of President Joe Biden at a D-Day commemoration, suggesting he tried to sit in an imaginary chair. In reality, Biden, wearing a bulletproof vest, was simply waiting for the speech to end. Full video.pic.twitter.com/NVKZDgoPr7 Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) June 6, 2024 The video ruse was so egregious that The Associated Press devoted an entire article to debunking it. The RNC Research account went after Mediaite for also correctly calling out the video hoax. Are you guys mad? Because you guys seem REALLY MAD we post clips of Biden in public somehow managing to turn the most mundane activity into an exercise in decline. https://t.co/CmE7kGqcFm RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 6, 2024 Related... French anti-terror prosecutors have charged a Ukrainian-Russian man who triggered a bomb in a hotel room with plotting to commit a violent act in a terrorist plot. On Friday, French intelligence agents were still detaining the 26-year-old suspected terrorist who, sources close to the investigation say, fought with the Russian army in Ukraine. He suffered serious burns to the face and arms after igniting TATP an explosive dubbed Mother of Satan by Islamic State and al-Qaeda at the B&B Hotel at Charles de Gaulle airport on Monday afternoon. An investigative source said: There are indications that he was producing improvised bombs in order to target companies supplying weapons to Ukraine, said an investigative source. The charges came as a Moscow court on Friday ordered a French citizen accused of gathering Russian military information to be held in pre-trial detention. Frances national anti-terrorism prosecutors office (PNAT) said the suspect had arrived in France several days ago. The investigation would continue to identify other people who may be involved, the prosecutors said. The suspect was charged with participation in a terrorist conspiracy and possession of a substance or explosives with a view to harming people. Products and materials intended to manufacture explosive devices were found in his hotel room, the PNAT said. An explosive device found by French police in the hotel room - Police Handout A source said the man was from the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, part of which has been occupied by pro-Russian and Russian forces since 2014. He appeared to have a pro-Russian attitude after fighting for two years for the Russian army, the source added. He was charged as France was hosting Joe Biden, the US president, and Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, following commemorations on Thursday of the 80th anniversary of D-Day landings. French prosecutors said the suspect had been remanded in custody pending the investigation. French man held in Moscow Meanwhile, Laurent Vinatier, a 47-year-old French national who works for a Swiss conflict mediation NGO, was arrested in Moscow and charged with breaching Russias foreign agents law. The charges carry up to five years in jail. Mr Vinatier, who was held in a metal cage at the back of the courtroom, accepted the accusations against him. I have accepted that I am guilty, he told the court. I present my apologies. The judge ordered Mr Vinatier to be sent to jail until at least Aug 5, pending trial. Investigators accuse the Frenchman of gathering military information that could be used against Russia by foreign states. Under Russian law, people who collect, report or share information related to Russias military or security services are required to register as foreign agents. The law has typically been used to target Russian citizens and domestic critics of the Kremlin, rather than foreign citizens. On Thursday, Emmanuel Macron said he was aware of Mr Vinatiers arrest and added that he had no connections with the French government. It is one of our citizens working for a Swiss NGO ... it was in no way someone who was working for France, said the French president. Mr Macron called on Russia to clarify all the facts and to release him as soon as possible. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. What are Frances Mirage 2000-5 jets, and how can Ukraine use them? During the D-Day commemorations in Normandy on June 6, French President Emmanuel Macron declared that Paris would give Kyiv an unspecified number of Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets alongside the required training. This announcement sets the stage for Ukrainian pilots to potentially deploy these versatile aircraft in striking deep into Russian territory with Storm Shadow and SCALP missiles or defending Ukrainian airspace from Russian drones and missiles. "Tomorrow we will launch a new cooperation and announce the transfer of Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine made by French manufacturer Dassault and train their Ukrainian pilots in France," Macron revealed during a live interview. However, Ukraine may have to exercise patience before these planes take flight. Macron noted, You need normally between five to six months (for training). So by the end of the year, there will be pilots. The pilots will be trained in France, refraining from specifying any concrete deadline for the planes delivery. Nonetheless, this commitment signifies an expansion of Ukraines air fleet with another Western aircraft system, complementing the U.S.-made F-16s already pledged by the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, and Denmark. Read also: France to transfer Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine, Macron announces What is the Mirage 2000-5? The Mirage 2000, a fourth-generation multirole supersonic jet, was introduced by the French manufacturer Dassault in the 1970s. With over 600 aircraft produced across all variants, it serves nine countries, available in single- and twin-seat variants. The Mirage 2000-5, introduced in 1999, represents an upgraded version featuring advanced avionics, enhanced firing capabilities for both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions, and a modern sensor and control system. The (Mirage 2000)-5 variant has a high-quality radar, (is) fitted with drop tanks, has a reasonable range, and carries a range of air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons, Peter Layton, a visiting fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute and an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told the Kyiv Independent. A significant enhancement of the Mirage 2000-5 is the inclusion of the Thomson-CSF Radar Doppler Multi-target (RDY), augmenting its capabilities for deep-strike and close-support missions. Equipped with a variety of air-to-air missiles and weapons, such as Mica missiles with a range of up to 60 kilometers or older Magic short-range missiles, the Mirage 2000-5 can be configured to meet diverse mission requirements. Its capacity for carrying drop tanks further extends its operational range. In terms of air-to-ground operations, the Mirage 2000 can deploy various weaponry, including SCALP missiles, previously supplied to Ukraine by France, and guided bombs. While the French Air Force has around 40 Mirage 2000-5s, only 26 one-seaters are in active service. The French military is reportedly planning to phase them out by the end of the decade, replacing them with the more advanced Dassault Rafale and thereby potentially freeing up the older Mirage 2000 aircraft for transfer to Ukraine. How can Ukraine use them? Mirage jets are versatile and can be used for ground strikes, intercepting missiles, and countering drones. Viktor Kevliuk, a retired Ukrainian military officer and defense expert, told the Kyiv Independent that Ukraine could use the aircraft to target Russian positions with Storm Shadow or SCALP missiles. According to Layton, the Ukrainian Air Force has a dwindling supply of Su-24 aircraft previously used for SCALP launches. Mirage 2000-5s can deploy anti-ship Exocet missiles and AS 37 anti-radar projectiles, Kevliuk added. The jets can also conduct strikes using long-range bombs, such as the AASM Hammer, and incorporate advanced precision-guided munitions like JDAM-ER and SDB, which offer increasing targeting accuracy and flexibility. Ukraine has already used JDAM-ER bombs to strike Russian targets, thanks to U.S. supplies. Washington is also planning to supply Kyiv with seekers, advanced targeting systems integrated into the JDAM-ER munitions, to help destroy Russian electronic warfare systems, which have proven effective against Western weaponry. However, Layton advised caution regarding Mirage ground attack missions near the front lines due to vulnerability to Russian air defenses. The Mirage 2000-5 has only a limited range when carrying bombs, even if fitted with drop tanks, Layton said. I think the small fleet of Mirage 2000-5s that will be provided would be too important to lose. This means air defense and firing long-range stand-off missiles is the best use for them. Air defense capabilities are crucial for Ukraines defense against ongoing Russian missile and drone attacks on civilian areas and critical infrastructure. Considering Macrons statement permitting strikes on Russian military targets if they pose a threat to Ukraine, Mirage kets theoretically wouldnt be confined to Ukrainian airspace for their operations. Ukraine's Western air fleet Talks on the provision of Mirage jets to Ukraine have surfaced before. Kyiv has been exploring options for acquiring advanced Western aircraft from various countries, not limited to just F-16 jets. Previously, there were speculations in the media about the possibility of France supplying Ukraine with Mirage 2000D aircraft, specifically designed for long-range precision ground strikes. There were also rumors suggesting the potential shipment of the older Mirage 2000C interceptor variant, which had already been decommissioned by the French military in 2022. However, no official announcement regarding their transfer has been made thus far. The impending arrival of Mirage 2000-5s will further augment Ukraines expanding fleet, which is poised to include not only Soviet-era planes like the MiG-29 or Su-27 but also dozens of F-16 jets committed by Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, and Denmark. The initial batch of F-16s is anticipated to arrive as early as this summer, with deliveries continuing over the next few years. Read also: F-16s for Ukraine: When will they arrive and what can they do? Another aircraft model under consideration for Ukraine was Sweden's Saab JAS 39 Gripen. Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson disclosed to the Kyiv Independent in March that talks regarding a possible transfer to Ukraine were underway following Stockholm's NATO accession. The Gripen is a light multi-role aircraft capable of being equipped with modern active radar-guided air-to-air Meteor missiles, tailored for intercepting agile targets like jet aircraft, cruise missiles, or drones. However, in a surprising development, Jonson announced in late May that partner nations had requested Sweden to temporarily halt any plans for supplying Gripen jets. This decision came as the fighter jet coalition prioritized the development of Ukraine's F-16 capabilities. Macron's recent announcement regarding the supply of a different fighter jet system has introduced further uncertainties into the equation. Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. France reports on military aid to Ukraine provided in first months of 2024 France's Ministry of Armed Forces has updated the list of military assistance provided to Ukraine, focusing mainly on supplies in the first four months of this year. Source: a report by the French Ministry of Armed Forces, as reported by European Pravda Details: On 4 March, France released a quantitative list of military equipment supplied to Ukraine between 24 February 2022 and 31 December 2023 for the first time. This list has now been updated to include deliveries made before 1 May 2024. France has supplied Ukraine with military equipment totalling 420 million over the past four months, to which should be added 900 million paid to the European Peace Facility, bringing the total military support since 1 January 2024 to over 1.32 billion. In particular, France supplied Ukraine with rations (over 100,000 portions), night vision devices (1,526 pieces), 15 Milan anti-tank systems, 34 armoured and medical vehicles, 5 TRM 10,000 lorries, 19 Zodiac Futura boats, 60 reconnaissance UAVs, small arms, fuel, and ammunition in the first months of the year. France also shipped air-to-ground bombs to Ukraine, the first such supply this year. This includes 63 Mk81 bombs and AASM guided bombs, the number of which is not disclosed. These financial activities are accompanied by training efforts, as Poland's and France's armed forces have already trained almost 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers since the beginning of the year. "At the same time, France contributes to the security of the Eastern Flank of Europe by deploying land components to Romania as Framework Nation, and to Estonia, rotational air components to Lithuania and from mainland France, as well as a permanent maritime presence in the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas," the French Ministry of Armed Forces said. Background: Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the transfer of several French Mirage-2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine and the training of additional Ukrainian military personnel as part of a "new cooperation" with Kyiv. Support UP or become our patron! France to send Mirage jets to Ukraine but are they worth the bother? Mirage jets will arrive in Ukraine 'by the end of the year' - Christophe Simon/AFP With advanced missiles and radar, capable of shooting down four aerial targets at once, the Mirage 2000 seems ideally suited to defend the skies over Ukraine. But taking on another Western jet could cause headaches for Kyiv, experts have warned after Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, announced he would start selling the jets to Ukraine by the end of the year. Ukraine is already struggling to prepare for the arrival of American-made F-16s. Like the F-16, the Mirage will only have a meaningful impact on the war effort if Ukraines Western partners can help build and maintain the extensive support and logistics infrastructure needed to keep it in the air. There is uncertainty over whether the neatly-kept airfields and glut of spare parts required by the American F-16 jets will arrive in time for them to join the fray as expected this summer. Weve seen from the F-16s, that even with 80 aircraft donated, its taking a lot of time and lots of resources in multiple countries, said Prof Justin Bronk, senior research fellow for airpower and technology at the Royal United Services Institute. The jets have shorter-range missiles than American F-16s - Christophe Simon/AFP In recent months, the French themselves had suggested that donating Mirage to Ukraine would only complicate matters for the transfer of F-16s and stepped aside, until President Macron made his announcement on Thursday. The Ukrainians have faced serious challenges in establishing enough suitable air bases to operate their expected fleet of F-16s without them becoming immediately obvious to the Russians. Ukrainian sources have discussed building underground bunkers to protect the planes from long-range missile and drone strikes by Russian forces. Modern, Nato-standard aircraft need clean runways, free from foreign object debris (FOD), especially the F-16, which is particularly sensitive because of its under-belly air intake. The Mirage 2000 is more resistant to FOD than the F-16, and capable of using rougher surfaces, but it will still be difficult to find suitable locations to house fleets of both aircraft. Its probably not worth all the personnel and huge resources that it will take to develop a Ukrainian Mirage 2000 capability, get it up and running and defend it in Ukraine, Prof Bronk said. Like the F-16, the Mirage is a single-engine, multi-role fighter jet, which first entered into service in the 1970s, and shares many similarities with its American-made counterpart. American-made F-16s require a clean area for take-off - Alamy The aircraft are closely matched with respect to their performance. The 2000-5, or dash five model that Emmanuel Macron earmarked for the Ukrainians is one of the most modern variants of the jet and features an upgraded radar and a high-tech, touch-screen glass cockpit borrowed from the later Rafale jet. It is also capable of firing sophisticated missiles like the Storm Shadow. But its Mica air-to-air missile, while highly capable, falls short of the Amraam fired by the F-16. Mica is by no means a bad missile its a fairly agile missile that can be pretty unpleasant to defend against if youre inside what is called the no escape zone. But it is fundamentally, significantly shorter-ranged than Amraam, Prof Bronk said. Mica missiles boast specifications claiming they can hit targets up to 50 miles away, compared to the Amraams range of 75 miles. To achieve such ranges, shots would have to be taken at high altitude, where the air is thinner, and with the launching aircraft travelling at supersonic speeds. But the presence of so many Russian anti-aircraft missiles along the front lines means Ukrainian pilots must fly sorties at very low altitude, limiting their effectiveness against the Russian fighter-bombers who have been pummelling Kyivs ground forces. Prof Bronk said: There are layers of medium to very long-range SAMs anywhere near the front line. Any Ukrainian fighter is going to be flying at very low altitudes to try and use terrain-masking to minimise the range at which those SAM systems can engage them. Its a really significant limiting factor for how much utility they can get in the crucial air defence task of which any fighter is primarily needed. More costly than ground-based systems The jets could, of course, be used to fend-off missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities, but at an incredible cost compared to using ground-based systems for the task. It [Mirage] could be used to intercept cruise missiles and Shahed-type drones inside Ukraine, but so can F-16, and quite frankly its an incredibly expensive way of trying to do that, said Prof Bronk. Paris is building a coalition of countries that operate the Mirage 2000, with the ultimate goal of having an unspecified number of the planes in the war-torn country by the end of the year. The programme mirrors the scheme by Nato allies to provide Ukraines air force with dozens of F-16s. Frances access to Mirage 2000-5 models is extremely limited its air force only has around 26 of the dash five version in service, and they are set to be replaced entirely by 2029 but it was an export success. To start delivering en masse, Paris would need to negotiate with the likes of Greece, India, and the UAE, whose air forces use the jet. In February, Indonesia backed out of a 700 million (594 million) deal to buy 12 of the aircraft, potentially meaning they could be freed up for Ukraine. 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. PARIS France plans to supply Mirage 2000-5 jets to Ukraine and begin training pilots this summer, with the first training completed by the end of the year, French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday. France is building a coalition with other countries to provide the jets, similar to the coalition by several other European countries to supply Ukraine with F-16 fighters, Macron said in an interview with broadcasters TF1 and France 2. The French president and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy were in Normandy for D-Day commemorations. Well be launching a new cooperation program and announcing the transfer of Mirage 2000-5s French fighter jets that will enable Ukraine to protect its soil and airspace, Macron said. From tomorrow, were going to launch a pilot training program, followed by the transfer of these aircraft. Dassault Aviation produced about 600 Mirage 2000 jets, of which half were exported to eight countries including Greece, the United Arab Emirates and Taiwan. The Mirage 2000-5 is an updated air defense variant with improved radar. Its compatible with the Mica air-to-air missile as well as the Scalp cruise missiles that France has supplied to Ukraine, which is fighting off a Russian invasion. Macron declined to say how many jets France will provide, noting details will follow on Friday when Zelenskyy is in Paris. The key factor is pilot training time, and so were going to propose to President Zelenskyy that pilots be trained as early as this summer it normally takes five to six months so that by the end of the year theyll be able to fly these aircraft, Macron said, adding that the Ukrainian pilots will be trained in France. The Dutch and Danish governments last year announced they would provide F-16 jets to Ukraine, with Norway and Belgium joining the coalition. Training of pilots for the aircraft has been ongoing in several European countries. France will also propose to train and equip a brigade of 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers, according to Macron. He said France and allies are considering training soldiers on Ukrainian soil in response to a request by the embattled country. Is this something that is an escalation factor? The answer is no, Macron said. Going to train someone in the western zone, which is a free area of Ukraine, is not aggressive towards Russia. Macron said Ukraine can use French arms to attack locations in Russia from where the country is being targeted, and restricting such use would be equal to not allowing Ukrainians to defend themselves against being bombed. The limit is set by what the Russians do, Macron said. Were not the ones who decide now that were going to change our methods and attack Ukraine from Russian soil. Zelenskyy will meet with French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu in Paris on Friday. Hell also meet with defense firms KNDS, Thales, MBDA, Dassault Aviation and Arquus, as well as attend the signing of a letter of intent with KNDS to create a unit in Ukraine, according to the Armed Forces Ministry. Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong co-chairs the 5th joint working group meeting on cooperation in preventing and combating transnational crime with Saifuddin Nasution Bin Ismail, minister of home affairs of Malaysia, in Beijing, capital of China, June 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Hong) BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Chinese and Malaysian authorities held the 5th joint working group meeting on cooperation in preventing and combating transnational crime in Beijing on Thursday. Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong co-chaired the meeting with Saifuddin Nasution Bin Ismail, minister of home affairs of Malaysia. Wang said that under the strategic guidance of the leaders of the two countries, China will work with Malaysia to strengthen high-level exchanges, deepen practical cooperation on law enforcement and security, and promote the building of a China-Malaysia community with a shared future. It is hoped that the two sides will continue to strengthen cooperation in the fields of anti-terrorism, combating telecommunications fraud and cross-border illegal gambling, anti-drug work, network security and police capacity building, Wang said. Saifuddin said that Malaysia is willing to deepen cooperation with China on law enforcement and security, crack down on various transnational crimes in accordance with the law, and earnestly safeguard the security and stability of the two countries. Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong co-chairs the 5th joint working group meeting on cooperation in preventing and combating transnational crime with Saifuddin Nasution Bin Ismail, minister of home affairs of Malaysia, in Beijing, capital of China, June 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Hong) FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) Whats described as an inappropriate off-duty relationship between Fresnos Police Chief Paco Balderrama and a non-city employee is under investigation, according to the City of Fresno. City officials say Police Chief Paco Balderrama informed Mayor Jerry Dyer and City Manager Georgeanne White in February of an allegation that would likely be made against him related to an inappropriate off-duty relationship he was involved in with a non-city employee. On Thursday, city officials released that information publically. Officials say the city began an administrative investigation utilizing an independent investigator retained by the City Attorneys Office to determine if the police chief violated department policy. The investigation is described as being in the review process. On Thursday, just before 8 p.m., Chief Balderrama posted to his social media account a picture with a caption that reads: We will be okay. The picture contains a text that reads: Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. Hebrews 13:5. Despite the investigation, Chief Balderrama will remain in his position and continue to serve as the Chief of the Fresno Police Department. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to YourCentralValley.com | KSEE24 and CBS47. Chief Paco Balderrama has been under investigation since February for an alleged inappropriate relationship with someone who is not a city employee, according to a news release on Thursday. Balderrama, who has been chief for more than three years, was not placed on administrative leave but remains under investigation by an independent investigator retained by the City Attorneys Office, according to the release. Until the investigation is finalized and thoroughly reviewed, we ask that you reserve judgment in this confidential personnel matter, the statement released at 3:55 p.m. Thursday said. The investigation was in the review process, the release said, and would determine if Balderrama violated department policy. The release said Balderrama made Mayor Jerry Dyer and City Manager Georgeanne White aware of the potential for the allegation in February. A call to Balderramas cellphone on Thursday went unanswered. The Fresno City Council met Wednesday as part of budget hearings typical for June, and Balderrama made a presentation. He wrapped up his time with some comments before any news of the investigation became public. Serving as chief has been a struggle at times. Ive had a few nights where Im like, What the heck did I get myself into? he said at the hearing. But I can tell you its very rewarding to see the success of this police department. And I cant forget our mayor as well. He told me a while back, I cant give you a contract, but I give you my word that as long as Im mayor, youre my guy. Balderrama became the 22nd chief in the citys history, and the first of Hispanic descent, when he came to Fresno from Oklahoma City at the start of 2021. He replaced Andy Hall, who served as chief for a short yearlong stint following Jerry Dyers retirement as chief after 18 years. Both Hall and Dyer left after union policy required them to retire. Dyer had followed Ed Winchester, who retired in 2001 following a scandal in December 1999 in which several young men broke into a Fresno police bunker near Auberry and stole 200 pounds of explosives. Police hadnt checked on the bunkers contents for more than a year. Winchester told a Fresno County grand jury in 2000 he didnt know of the bunkers existence until after the theft. Balderramas arrival drew praise from city leaders, with at least one calling it a historic day. The department reached its all-time highest number of officers in 2023 when it tallied 848, Balderrama said during a ceremony for new cops. The total has continued to push toward 900 sworn officers. The number of intentional homicides were high before creeping down during Balderramas tenure after beginning at a grim high not seen in Fresno in nearly 25 years at 74 homicides in 2020. The city saw another 74 in 2021, his first year as chief. The number of intentional homicides in Fresno fell to 35 in 2023, which was down 43.3% from the previous year. That crime was trending down nationally at the same time. He has not been without criticism. The department has not adopted all of the 73 recommendations set out by the Commission on Police Reform, whose report was finalized a couple of months before Balderrama was announced as the next chief. Critics, including at least one member of the commission, said the department was too slow to adopt the policies. Balderrama himself said some of the policies were off the table. Balderrama is married and a father of three. FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) Raising Canes officials announced the grand opening of their new restaurant located at the Herndon and 99 exit in the Marketplace Shopping Center in Fresno. The grand opening will be on Tuesday, June 11. The new restaurant is located at 6791 N. Weber Ave. in Fresno. Raising Canes officials say that it is conveniently located at the Herndon and the 99 exit in the Market Place Shopping Center. The restaurant will be open Sunday through Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. and Thursday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. To celebrate the opening day, Raising Canes officials say they will be hosting a variety of activities for the community. They say there will be a lucky drawing to award 20 customers (age 13 and older) with free Canes for a year. The Lucky 20 entries will be accepted from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. with the drawing held shortly after the entry period closes. There will also be a commemorative hat and free Box Combo card for the first 100 customers who purchase a combo (free Box Combo card valid on return visit). Canes officials say there will also be a DJ, the Fresno State mascot, and the Fresno State Dance Team, as well as a check presentation to Reading Heart to support literacy efforts in the Central Unified School District and to the Central California Food Bank. The doors open at 9 a.m. on Tuesday. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to YourCentralValley.com | KSEE24 and CBS47. The European Commission will recommend that the EU start accession talks with Ukraine before July, when Hungary will assume the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, the Financial Times (FT) reported on June 7. Belgium, the current holder of the presidency, is "pressing ahead hoping to achieve unanimity" for the move before Hungary assumes the presidency on July 1, the FT said, citing three people familiar with the matter. Budapest has maintained close ties with the Kremlin since the launch of Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine and has repeatedly opposed sanctions against Moscow and obstructed EU support for Kyiv. Politico also reported in May that EU and Ukrainian officials are pushing to begin formal accession negotiations by June 25, with intense diplomacy underway to convince Hungary to drop its objections to Kyiv's membership. Ukraine received EU membership candidate status in June 2022. In November 2023, the European Commission recommended launching accession talks with Kyiv. The European Council then agreed to open accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova the following month. For talks to begin, the EU needs to unanimously agree that Ukraine has undertaken measures to improve issues like corruption and the protection of minority languages. "Hungary is expected to raise objections," particularly on the minority language issue, the FT said. Budapest has repeatedly claimed that the Hungarian ethnic minority concentrated in southwestern Ukraine is discriminated against due to Kyiv's language laws. Ukraine denies the allegations and updated its national minorities law at the end of 2023 in line with the EU's recommendations. The European Commission is also pushing for formal talks to begin with Moldova, but Georgia will not get the green light due to Tbilisi adopting the "foreign agents" law "in defiance of Brussels' warnings," the FT said. Read also: EU aid and accession talks: Why European elections matter for Ukraine Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Moles Farewell Tributes & Crematory has a lease with Whatcom County to provide storage of bodies of the deceased. In the Spotlight is a Bellingham Herald series that digs into the high-profile local issues that readers care most about. Story idea? Email newsroom@bellinghamherald.com. The owner of a Whatcom County funeral home thats providing space for the countys temporary morgue and is being investigated by the state and the county for claims that bodies of the deceased were stored without refrigeration in one of its facilities in May is pushing back on the notion that they are at fault. In a statement sent Thursday evening, June 6, John Moles, fourth-generation owner and funeral director for Moles Farewell Tributes & Crematory Center, said the Whatcom County Medical Examiners Office is to blame for the improperly stored human remains. Reports about the mishandling of decedents under the care of the Whatcom County Medical Examiners Office are grossly incomplete and unfairly tarnish the reputation of our funeral home, Moles said in the release. When Whatcom County was in a difficult situation seeking a temporary Medical Examiners Office facility last year, we provided the county use of our preparation room for autopsies, plus office space and space to place a storage cooler for decedents. We were acting as a landlord and couldnt move decedents without a request from the Medical Examiners Office, which has a legal responsibility for the decedents. We offered to transport their decedents to our refrigerated space at Greenacres Memorial Park near Ferndale only upon the request of the Medical Examiners Office and when we had staff available or were already heading there. We didnt receive a request on Friday, May 10. On May 10, we told the Medical Examiners Office that it needed to make arrangements for the decedents under its care. They told us that funeral homes were coming to pick up the decedents later that day. When we returned to work Monday, May 13, we discovered that no one had picked up the decedents. It was the sole responsibility of the Medical Examiners Office to make arrangements for the proper handling of those decedents. Its understandable why families are distraught over this situation, and we are heartbroken over this mismanagement and negligence by the Medical Examiners Office, the statement said. Moles Farewell Tributes & Crematory Center has been owned by the Moles family for four generations and has provided funeral care in Whatcom County for more than 100 years, according to its website. Dr. Allison Hunt became Whatcom Countys medical examiner in January 2022 following the retirement of Dr. Gary Goldfogel, who previously held the position for more than 30 years. Deborah Hollis is Hunts operations manager and chief investigator. The Herald has reached out to the Whatcom County Executives Office, which is handling media inquiries on behalf of the Whatcom County Medical Examiners Office. Temporary lease Whatcom County entered into a lease agreement with Lengesot LLC also known as Moles on Aug. 1, 2023 to provide temporary space at its Bayview Chapel location in Bellingham for the Whatcom County Medical Examiners Office to conduct autopsies, store bodies and perform other duties required by the examiners office while the countys morgue and medical examiners offices on State Street in downtown Bellingham are being renovated. The lease was originally slated to end in March but was extended by the Whatcom County Council at its May 21 evening meeting due to construction delays with the State Street project. The lease will now last through the end of the year, according to county documents. As part of the lease agreement, Moles is expected to provide space in its garage at its Bayview Chapel location for a cooler that could store up to three bodies. If additional storage space is needed, Moles is expected to transport the bodies to its Greenacres Memorial location east of Ferndale. The lease agreement states that Whatcom County will pay Moles $250 per autopsy performed by the county medical examiners office at Moles Bayview Chapel location. The county will also pay $50 for Moles to transport bodies to its Greenacres location for purposes of overflow cases, according to the lease agreement. To accommodate overflow, transportation will be provided by the Landlord when mutually determined necessary through coordination with the Medical Examiners Operations Manager. Transportation to the Green Acres facility will occur when capacity at the leased facility is limited, the lease agreement states. The county has paid Moles $36,803 for autopsies and transports from Aug. 1, 2023 through February 2024, according to Jed Holmes, a spokesperson for the Whatcom County Executives Office. Holmes said the step-by-step procedure in place for how a body is handled from the time the medical examiners office takes custody of it until the time it is then released to the family and/or funeral home for burial or cremation purposes is as follows: Once the medical examiner has taken custody of a body, itis transferred to Moles Bayview Chapel location on Lakeway Drive. The body is then placed in a three-person cooler, which is owned by the county, while an autopsy is scheduled. The autopsy is then performed by county medical examiner staff at Moles Lakeway facility, the site of the temporary morgue. Following completion of the autopsy, the body is then transferred to Moles Greenacres location where it is placed in cold storage until it is retrieved by the selected funeral home, crematory, etc;, Holmes said. The county purchased the three-person cooler in late 2022 for approximately $7,500. It was delivered in March 2023 and was put into use at the State Street morgue immediately after delivery, according to Holmes. The three-person cooler is now currently located at Moles Bayview Chapel location and is being used to store bodies prior to autopsy, Holmes said. Operating costs for coolers are not significant, except for electrical costs, which are similar to a typical commercial-sized cooler, Holmes said. The Herald has asked the county multiple questions related to its lease with Moles; whether the protocols outlined in the lease have been followed; the number of autopsies and transports that have taken place; who had jurisdiction over the bodies that are alleged to have been unrefrigerated in May; whether discussions regarding the county terminating its lease with Moles have occurred and more. John Moles declined to comment at this time when asked Thursday evening whether he was considering terminating the lease with Whatcom County. State investigation The Washington State Department of Licensing and Whatcom County started inquiries into Moles and the Whatcom County Medical Examiners Office after becoming aware of allegations that multiple bodies under the care of the medical examiners office went unrefrigerated in mid-May while at the countys temporary morgue, resulting in severe decomposition, The Bellingham Herald previously reported. The state licensing department received a phone call from a local funeral director on May 16 alleging that a dead body they picked up from the temporary county morgue had not been refrigerated while in the care of the county medical examiners office. The funeral director alleged that when they received the body on May 16, roughly six days after the person died, they found the decedent severely decomposed and covered in flies, according to Christine Anthony, a funeral and cemetery inspector, investigator and trust examiner with the state licensing department. When the state licensing department became aware of the temporary lease agreement between the county, medical examiners office and Moles, and that a funeral home was involved, it launched an investigation May 17, The Herald previously reported. The state licensing departments Funeral and Cemetery Board licenses funeral directors, embalmers and cemetery operators within the state. It also investigates violations of state regulations related to the funeral and cemetery industries, according to the Washington State Governors website. The state licensing departments Funeral and Cemetery Boards investigation is looking into possible violations by Moles of state regulations that govern the refrigeration or embalming of human remains. The licensing department does not have regulatory authority over the medical examiners office, but does over Moles, Anthony said. Theres no expected timeline for when the state licensing departments investigation will be completed, but it could take several months, Anthony told The Herald. The state administrative codes governing the refrigeration or embalming of human remains state that Funeral directors, embalmers, and others assisting in the preparation of human remains for final disposition shall refrigerate or embalm the remains upon receipt. Officials can delay the refrigeration of human remains or remove the remains from refrigeration for purposes of embalming; transporting; cremating, reducing by alkaline hydrolysis or burying or reducing by natural organic reduction. Refrigeration can also be delayed for washing, anointing, clothing, praying over, reading to, singing to, sitting with, guarding, viewing, or otherwise accompanying the deceased for not more than 24 hours according to the deceaseds directions or at the request of the person who has a right to control the disposition of the remains, according to the state administrative codes. Two funeral homes have complained to the state licensing agency about the situation, and at least one Whatcom County Council member has as well. Anthony said she has spoken with at least two local funeral homes, the Whatcom County Health and Human Services Department, and Moles as part of the investigation. As of Thursday afternoon, she said she had not yet heard from the countys medical examiners office. I have been assured during each conversation with the respondent funeral home and staff that all human remains are in refrigeration since the May 17th conversation with the business owner, Anthony said in a previous statement to The Herald. I have not yet determined responsibility for this situation. The Herald has reached out to the county health department for more information. The number of asylum requests made in Germany continues to fall, with 17,231 initial applications registered in May, according to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF). From January to May, there were an overall 103,467 applications, a decrease of 17.6% compared to the same period last year. In April, the drop was 16.7%. The BAMF says around a third of asylum seekers continue to come from Syria, followed by Afghanistan and Turkey. The migration office says it has decided on 131,750 asylum cases so far this year. Fewer than half of asylum seekers (46.8%) were granted protection status and 35,892 applicants were rejected. Another 34,183 procedures were terminated for other reasons - for example, if the applicant withdrew their application because they no longer saw any prospect of success. The BAMF made 108,606 decisions in the same period last year. Migration is a sensitive issue in Germany and has fuelled the rise of anti-immigrant parties ahead of the European Parliament elections that are currently under way, as well as three key German state elections later this year. Former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally Sept. 8, 2023, at The Monument in Rapid City. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight) There used to be a time when you could count on how Republicans would react to the news of the day. They stood for the rule of law and high moral standards. Through the Trump years we have seen those standards erode and vanish in other states. Recently the Trumpian infection was on full display among South Dakotas top elected officials. When the former president was convicted on 34 felony counts in New York, South Dakotas top Republicans all had something disparaging to say about the outcome. To varying degrees, Gov. Kristi Noem, U.S. Sens. John Thune and Mike Rounds, U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson and state Attorney General Marty Jackley all added their voices to the chorus of GOP naysayers claiming that Trump got a raw deal. This criticism of the verdict is to be expected from Noem. She has spent so much time trying to mold herself into the former presidents perfect vice presidential candidate that she not only drinks the Trump Kool-Aid, she bathes in it. It was disconcerting, however, to see the states other top elected officials take such big gulps. Thunes criticism centered on the politically motivated nature of the trial. His scorn, like his endorsement of Trumps candidacy for president, may be fueled by pragmatism. As a candidate for the top Republican job in the Senate, he would be called on to work closely with Trump if he is elected. Consequently, it may be best for Thunes chances if he toes the company line on Trumps conviction. Its a certainty that if Trump were a Democrat, Republicans would be quick to point out his shattered marriage vows, his dalliance with a porn star and the likelihood that a man who would cheat on his wife would think nothing of cheating on his business records to cover it up. Rounds, who has not endorsed Trump, said the verdict would cause people to question the judicial system. He seemed more upset, however, by the notion that Trump will be able to use the verdict to raise funds for his campaign. Johnson, who also has not endorsed Trump, confessed his own long-standing concerns about the trial, citing unnamed legal experts from across the political spectrum who predict that the convictions will be overturned on appeal. Perhaps the most disconcerting voice in this South Dakota chorus belonged to state Attorney General Marty Jackley. The AG said he had deep concerns about New Yorks prosecution of Trump after the U.S. attorney and Federal Election Commission chose not to prosecute. While it was a state court that convicted Trump, Jackley managed to chalk it all up to a failure of leadership by the Biden administration. Its most disheartening to hear a man who has spent his life in the judicial system trashing the process. Would Trump and his minions have noticed if Jackley stayed silent? Maybe criticizing the verdict is the price elected Republicans have to pay if they want to stay out of Trumps crosshairs. A lesson in how far Republicans have strayed from embracing the concept of law and order can be seen in the example of former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. After the trial, Hogan, who is a candidate for the U.S. Senate, said there must be respect for the verdict. A Trump advisor immediately posted on X that Hogans campaign was over. Just as they once embraced the rule of law, Republicans could also be counted on to stake out the high moral ground on any issue. Yet few, if any, Republican office holders and certainly none from the South Dakota contingent criticized the lack of morality that led Trump to his New York hush money trial. Its a certainty that if Trump were a Democrat, Republicans would be quick to point out his shattered marriage vows, his dalliance with a porn star and the likelihood that a man who would cheat on his wife would think nothing of cheating on his business records to cover it up. This has happened across the country as Republicans who were initially critical of Trumps role in the Jan. 6 insurrection later came to his defense. Election denialism seems to be the new gold standard for Republicans who hope to be Trumps vice presidential nominee. Its disappointing to see Trumps brand of rule by complaint take such a firm grip on all of South Dakotas top elected officials. Time will tell what other Trump sins and crimes theyll have to excuse in the future to curry the mans favor or avoid the mans wrath. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE The post What further Trump sins and crimes will SDs highest elected officials excuse? appeared first on South Dakota Searchlight. A 58-year-old Galion woman died Thursday following a two-vehicle crash on state Route 19 in North Bloomfield Township, Morrow County. Julie Sitzer died following the crash at about 5:50 p.m., according to a news release from the Mt. Gilead Post of the State Highway Patrol. Switzer was driving a 2002 Buick LeSabre eastbound on County Road 8 when she failed to yield at a stop sign and her vehicle was struck by a Jeep Wrangler being driven by a 44-year-old Galion woman, according to the release. An Ohio State Highway Patrol cruiser. After impact, both vehicles continued off the east side of the roadway, according to the patrol. The driver of the Jeep sustained minor injuries and was treated at the scene, according to the release, which notes both drivers were wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash. The Ohio State Highway Patrol was assisted on scene by the Crawford County Sheriffs Office, Iberia Fire Department, Galion Fire & EMS, Morrow County EMS and the Morrow County Coroners Office. This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Julie Switzer, 58, of Galion, died in two-vehicle crash Thursday Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Chen Hai (1st R) attends a donation event at the No. 14 Basic Education High School in Hlaingtharya Township in Yangon, Myanmar, June 6, 2024. The Chinese Embassy in Myanmar and the China Foundation for Rural Development jointly donated educational materials and food to a high school here on Thursday to commemorate the 74th anniversary of China-Myanmar diplomatic relations. (Photo by Myo Kyaw Soe/Xinhua) YANGON, June 6 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Embassy in Myanmar and the China Foundation for Rural Development jointly donated educational materials and food to a high school here on Thursday to commemorate the 74th anniversary of China-Myanmar diplomatic relations. The educational materials donated to the No. 14 Basic Education High School in Hlaingtharya Township included backpacks, exercise books, drawing books and pencils. Speaking at the event, Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Chen Hai said that the donation to the school is aimed at reviewing the original intention of establishing diplomatic relations, inheriting the fraternal friendship and supporting the development of the school. China is willing to work with Myanmar to create more opportunities and platforms for the young people of the two countries to deepen understanding and friendship, he added. Yangon Region Chief Minister U Soe Thein thanked China for its support for Myanmar's education in his speech, saying that Myanmar and China have a deep brotherly relationship. A local historian has been recognized for her efforts at chronicling the stories of the workers who built the Chair Citys manufacturing legacy. Tracie Pouliot, founder of the Chair City Oral History Project, was presented with a Star Award from the Massachusetts History Alliance (MHA) at the groups annual conference in Devens on Sunday, June 3. The project, which Pouliot completed while she was the director of the Chair City Community Workshop, featured 12 published volumes, each of which chronicled the individual story of a local worker who played a key role in Gardners history of furniture manufacturing. It always feels good to be recognized, and when this project gets any recognition Im so glad that furniture workers stories are also being recognized because (the project) would be nothing if those people hadnt worked at those jobs for 20, 30, or 40 years and had that experience to share, Pouliot said. Tracie Pouliot, right, watches as Heidi Hosmer gives the letterpress a final spin at the Chair City Community Workshop in 2021. MHA Star Awards are granted to Massachusetts residents who have made outstanding contributions to researching and expanding access to the history of their communities. Pouliot closed the doors to the workshop on Central St. in 2021 following the completion of the project. Word of Chair City Oral History Project is spreading Word of the project had spread across the country since its completion, according to Pouliot. She said she had been contacted by several museums and colleges, including the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and UNC Chapel Hill, looking to obtain copies of the volumes for their library collections. More: Gardner business bringing woodworking back to city Its neat that its going a little bit beyond Gardner and other people are finding out about it and are interested in these stories too, she said. I think the stories resonate with people on a lot of levels, including what was unique and interesting about the craft of furniture in Gardner and the timeline of industrialization (in the area). All of those little themes that are within peoples stories are speaking to people in different ways. Keeping the legacy of Gardners industrial past alive for future generations was a labor love for Pouliot, who said her project documented a special moment in local history. Artist and historian Tracie Pouliot has been recognized for her Chair City Oral History Project, which she created to document Gardner's manufacturing past. More: From barware to cribbage boards: Templeton couple creates a buzz with woodworking business I think while it was happening, people kind of knew it was special, but once its gone you really realize that this was a very unique skillset that people had and a very unique product that was coming out of our little city, she said. And the further we get away from having those folks kind of active in the community, it just feels even more important to make sure the stories stay available for those of us still around and for the next generation. Pouliot pleased to see return of manufacturing to Greater Gardner Pouliot said she was pleased to see the recent return of manufacturing to Greater Gardner on a slightly smaller scale with the success of such businesses as Wood You Build It in Gardner, Bees Boards in Templeton, and Triumph Play Systems in Ashburnham. More: Ashburnham company swings onto list of Inc. magazine's fastest-growing businesses I think it represents a kind of bigger movement in the country that people want things to be handmade, and people who have the ability are starting to not mind the cost and are paying more for things that are made very well and arent from the big chain stores, she said. Its nice to see those values kind of coming back, and Im excited for Wood Your Build It and the other places that are able to make that work right now. This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Tracie Pouliot honored for Chair City Oral History Project The unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip has soared to nearly 80 percent amid the Israel-Hamas war that has been raging since October, according to a United Nations labor agency report released Friday. The war has caused a massive amount of job loss, bringing the unemployment rate in Gaza to 79.1 percent, according to the International Labour Organizations (ILO) assessment. Unemployment in the West Bank, which has also been rocked by the conflict, has reached 32 percent. The unemployment rate across both territories now sits at 50.8 percent. The unemployment numbers do not account for those people who have left the workforce, with jobs being unobtainable, therefore those figures are even higher than what the unemployment rate numbers show, according to the assessment. Our new bulletin shows that the grim toll the war in the Gaza Strip has taken on human lives, and the desperate humanitarian situation it has caused, are accompanied by widespread devastation of economic activities and livelihoods, said Ruba Jaradat, the ILO regional director for Arab states. This compounds the suffering of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and further endangers their safety and wellbeing. Gaza Strips real gross domestic product (GDP) has shrunk by 83.5 percent. In the West Bank, it has dropped by 22.7 percent over the last eight months, according to ILO data. The real GDP of both territories has been diminished by an average of 32.8 percent. The unemployment rate were around 46.6 percent in 2022, according to United Nations data. The war started when the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 Israelis and taking around 250 hostages. Israels forces have retaliated with a military operation that has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials. Both tallies include both civilians and combatants. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Gen Z voters don't trust you. And they may pick your next president. Younger and older Americans have often been disconnected, but the differences between Gen Z and older generations are proving to be especially pronounced. Having come of age during a global pandemic, economic crisis and social and political unrest, todays young people are perhaps understandably sour on public institutions, existing power structures and even the country, compared with older Americans. As we head into an election where 41 million Gen Z Americans are now eligible to vote, politicians, organizers and pundits would be wise to pay attention to differences in guiding values between older and younger generations that affect perceptions of the world and voting behaviors. Younger and older voters view the world and their place in it very differently There is a stark difference between younger and older generations in what values they believe in, particularly when it comes to religion, patriotism and economic success. Generation Z, born from 1997 to 2012, is less than half as likely as baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, to place importance on things like patriotism, belief in God and having children. They are also half as likely to agree that America is the best place to live. Generations also differ about what is important to them financially or in their careers. The 2021 Solutions Voter Survey by Lake Research Partners found that baby boomers are more likely to say being able to pay bills and provide for their family is extremely important. Generation X, born between the years 1965 and 1980, is most likely to focus on stability and financial success. A voting machine on May 29, 2024 at an early voting center in Washington, D.C. Gen Z is much more likely than boomers to say pursuing a passion is extremely important, as well as accomplishing a goal and achieving their full potential. However, Gen Z and boomers equally disagree with the notion that hard work is good for them. Younger people also see systemic issues as more of a barrier to success: Gen Z and millennials, born between 1981 and 1996, are more likely than older generations to agree that people of color face greater barriers to economic success than white people (64% of Gen Z and 67% of millennials compared with 57% of Gen X and 45% of baby boomers). Gen Z is smarter than that: Gen Z voters like me should be mad at Biden. But we can't risk another Trump presidency. Younger Americans have little trust in public institutions A nearly defining feature of young Americans is their lack of trust in public institutions. Faith in institutions among Americans under 30 has dropped dramatically in the past decade. Trust in the president, Congress, federal government, Supreme Court, Wall Street, the news media and the military are all at an all-time low. Young people also have less faith in our economic system. Only 40% of Americans under 30 have a positive impression of capitalism, compared with 73% of those 65 and over. Gen Z even has less faith in their fellow Americans they are far less likely than older generations to agree that most people are willing to make minor sacrifices for the benefit of the common good. This vein of cynicism persists in many younger adults and affects their perception of American democracy. Americans under 30 are less connected to the two-party system While younger registered voters are more Democratic, they are more likely to be partisan leaners and independent leaners than older voters, who tend to identify completely with a one party or the other. Younger Americans are also more likely to say they wish that there were more political parties to choose from. Younger adults are also less likely to see a great deal of difference between Democrats and Republicans. Voters are split: Is Trump or Biden the true threat to democracy? Gen Z turnout could decide the result of this years election. Turnout rates have historically been lowest among eligible voters under 30, while older voters consistently turn out at higher rates. In 2022 though, Gen Z turned out at higher rates than millennials or Gen X did when they were that age. However, increases in young voter turnout were largely concentrated in swing states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, while turnout rates in solidly red or blue states were lower among young people. Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. According to 2022 exit polls, 63% of voters under 30 voted for the Democratic candidate for the House and 35% voted for the Republican, a higher Democratic margin than any other age group. Now, among likely voters under 30, Joe Biden leads Donald Trump 56% to 37%, according to the Harvard Youth Poll. However, only 44% of likely Biden voters say they enthusiastically support him while 76% of Trump supporters are enthusiastic. As candidates make their pitch to voters this summer through Election Day, they would be wise to understand how the experiences of each generation have shaped their values and in turn shape their campaigns pitch accordingly. Celinda Lake, president of Lake Research Partners, was one of two lead pollsters for Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign. She also is a pollster for the Democratic National Committee. Christine Matthews, president of Bellwether Research, is a leading public opinion pollster known for her understanding of swing voters, particularly women. You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Will Gen Z back Biden? Young voters say they're unenthusiastic The Scene Sneha Revanur has become one of the leading Gen Z voices calling for AI guardrails, a push that has taken her to the White House, state legislatures, and the cover of Time magazine. She is the founder and president of Encode Justice, a group she established when she was 15 to mobilize high school and college students to ensure AI is aligned with human values. The organization, funded by groups connected to billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and others, recently called on global policymakers to pass rules protecting the livelihoods and rights of young people as the technology is developed by 2030. We talked with Revanur, 19, and Adam Billen, 22, director of policy who attends American University, about Encodes ambitious AI 2030 agenda. The manifesto outlines Encodes policy goals as it works alongside governments and companies to develop the technology in a way that benefits young people. The View From Sneha Revanur and Adam Billen Q: What are some of the top AI concerns for young people? Billen: The most present thing for people that feels very direct is deepfakes and disinformation online. Anyone thats actively using social media is encountering that now. Young people are also thinking more broadly about these tools in the workplace and in schools, and some of the larger risks in the future like autonomous weapons. Ive talked to a lot of people my age, seeing especially in Ukraine recently, the use of autonomous drones by Russia, and then also economics and labor. People are very concerned about their career paths going into the future, and whether what theyre studying now will even be relevant in 10 or 15 years. Revanur: For a young person navigating the digital world, theres a whole host of things you have to worry about that previous generations didnt have to. We have seen young people turning to chatbots when they should be turning to friends and family, or mental health professionals. Thats obviously very concerning, because sometimes these chatbots arent equipped to navigate mental health emergencies. I really worry that that will impact the fabric of our society, and that will lead to a collapse of the bonds that really sustain us. Q: How do you figure out what young people want or are concerned about? Its such a large general group. Revanur: Obviously, there are so many young people all around the world who have varied experiences. For example, there are countries where were first talking about access to the internet as a more fundamental barrier, before were even entering those conversations about AI. So were definitely sensitive to those varying social, cultural and political contexts, but we do our best to kind of get a sense of what young people are feeling on the ground through our workshop program. We have a huge public awareness wing of the organization, and we actually run workshops directly in high school and college classrooms for young people. And we always want to ask: How are you feeling about these technologies? How are you using these technologies? Q: Theres a big focus on how addictive and manipulative social media is right now for Gen Z. How does AI play into this? Billen: People are starting to recognize that the basic algorithms on these platforms are at the crux of a lot of what is driving their sort of toxic patterns of attention and associations with themselves and their friends. Its driving eating disorders, CSAM [child sexual abuse material], all of these issues are being driven partially just because the fundamental profit mechanism of these companies is to push whatever gets clicks, and will keep people on the platform. Revanur: I would say that its really important to shift the blame from individual users to these larger companies that could honestly make very minute design choices that wouldnt really impact their bottom line all too much, but would have a dramatic impact on user experience. Billen: I personally have paid a lot of money for an app on my phone that forces me to not be able to use those apps for more than a certain amount of time each day and between certain periods of time. My phone is in black and white all the time. Its taken me years just to figure out those things. Q: Do you think that companies are doing enough to let people opt out of using their algorithms or tools? What should they be doing to give us more choices? Revanur: Theyre not, and were asking for them to let us opt out in our AI 2030 agenda. Billen: Yeah, absolutely. Two key examples of this would be Snapchat. Its AI bot is glued to your home screen and is the top thing whenever you open the app, and theres no way to easily opt out of that. And just on Instagram, weve seen now that the Meta AI search is extraordinarily annoying. Sometimes you search for things and it pops up with the Llama chatbot screen instead of just going and searching what you actually want to search. Q: Are you working with companies to make it easier for people to opt out of using AI? Do you think that theyre willing to be cooperative? Revanur: Weve had some conversations with companies like Meta and OpenAI. There has been some willingness to engage with civil society. But at the same time, its important to also remember that a lot of these companies will superficially engage with groups behind closed doors, and will try to broadcast publicly that theyre cooperating with them. But they arent really walking the walk. Q: So how do you move Encode Justices agenda forward and actually make it actionable? Revanur: We have presented the agenda as an itemized list of things we want more leaders to enact by 2030 but its also, in many ways, a to-do list for us by 2030 and what were going to be pushing for in the US and internationally. We hope to continue working with legislators at the state level, at the federal level, and at the international level to get these things passed. We also believe that this could be a really important turning point for just changing the general public narrative around AI. We actually, earlier this week, got a sign on from one of my favorite actors, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who supported AI 2030 and I think its really exciting to see this work broadening beyond a couple of people who are AI experts or AI leaders. Q: Are there any policies on the agenda that you think are closer to being more achievable than others? Billen: An example would be in Bidens executive language around watermarking for AI generated outputs. Thats sort of started to become accepted as relatively common sense. There is some stuff around the use of AI-generated content and political advertising that is seeing some movement at the federal level in the US with Senator Klobuchars election bill. Q: What are some of the most ambitious items on the agenda that will be more challenging? Revanur: One of the central calls of the entire statement is obviously our global AI body bringing together actors like the US, the EU, China, India, and other top players in AI. We have to understand that it will take years for us to create any sort of central authority, and there will also be plenty of international pushback. Q: At the end of the agenda, theres a line where you talk about going against the blurring of human and machine. Can you give me some examples of the harmful ways you think its blurring? And what values from humanity would you like to see preserved for future generations? Billen: If youre interacting with a chatbot, you should know that youre interacting with a chatbot, for example, with a customer service representative. We dont want to live in a world where youre talking to someone on the phone and you have no idea whether youre talking to a human or a machine. Its going to take real work to make these machines actually reflect human values based on the current technology. We dont want to see one where theyre entirely built on the predicate of appeasing us, especially with the interaction of chatbots with young people or in romantic relationships. Revanur: We want a world where we can see trust and community and connection and creativity and critical thinking not just preserved, but also revitalized. That is a future that is possible with AI, but its not the future that were headed towards right now. Those are all the core values that make human society resilient and so strong, and thats what I want to keep fighting for. How a General Motors retiree picking trash in Delaware was thrust into Hunter Biden trial Delaware resident Edward Banner says he has rummaged through public trash bins for more than two decades. On Thursday, that hobby landed the 80-year-old man on the witness stand in a federal courthouse in Wilmington facing the president's son at the defendant's table and in the middle of a national drama. Banner, a 40-year retiree of the former General Motors' Boxwood plant in Newport, was called by federal prosecutors to testify in their firearms felony case against Hunter Biden, the first child of a sitting president to face criminal trial in U.S. history. It was Banner who fished Hunter Biden's Colt revolver from a trash can outside Janssen's Market in Greenville in October 2018 after it was trashed by Hallie Biden, the widow of Hunter's brother and his former girlfriend. Prosecutors claim Hunter Biden lied about his drug addiction on a federal form required to purchase the weapon, the foundation of two of his felony charges. They've spent three days exploring the excruciating details of drug addiction suffered by the president's son from 2015 to 2019 through the testimony of his former lovers, his ex-wife, an FBI agent and his own memoir. In a trial where testimony has been heavy with sorrow and emotion, Banner's questioning, as well as that of the Delaware State Police detective who tracked down him and the gun, provided moments of levity and answered an odd question: Who was the man that was fishing through the garbage and unknowingly found a gun owned by the president's son six years ago? 'I dont know nothing about no sock' The final session of Thursday's trial testimony began with Millard Greer, who in 2018 was a Delaware State Police lieutenant and is now an investigator for the Delaware Department of Justice. After Hallie Biden tried to retrieve the gun a half hour after trashing it, it was no longer there. So it fell to Greer to find it. He testified that it was common knowledge that a man frequently rummaged the trash in the upscale shopping centers in Greenville and he set out to find him. A man picking through garbage in one of Delaware's most monied areas tends to get noticed, he said. Days later, a local business employee alerted Greer to the man's presence at a nearby shopping center and he watched for nearly an hour as Banner dug through the trash. "I didn't count the number of trash cans he went through, but it was multiple shopping centers," Greer said. WHAT HAPPENED WEDNESDAY: Hunter Biden gun trial recap: Jurors hear from Hallie Biden, man who found trashed gun Janssen's Market in Greenville He then approached Banner and informed him someone had recently trashed something they were not supposed to. "Yes, they did," Greer quoted Banner saying. "A .38 special." On the witness stand, Banner said: "I definitely remember finding that." His testimony was somewhat unusual because the prosecutor and defense attorney had to stand right beside him in the witness box so he could both listen to their questions and read their lips. Banner told the jury he'd been picking through trash for about 20 years, a few years before he retired from General Motors in 2006 after a 40-year career that included everything from working in janitorial services to production. He said he started picking aluminum cans and plastic bottles as a hobby. CONNECTIONS: Janssen's, StarQuest Shooters and more: The Delaware people, places part of Hunter Biden's trial He'd take them to New York when he visited friends or family there and "got a nickel apiece." Now, however, "you only get so much a pound," he said. "Id get like $120 dollars, but now I only do cans because plastic, I dont know nothing about plastic now," he told the jury. He agreed when prosecutor Derek Hines asked if he was both saving the environment and making a buck. Prosecutors then played for the jury a video of him rummaging the Janssen's garbage. "That sure looks like me," he said. CATCH UP: Hunter Biden trial in Wilmington: What you need to know about the case During the 2018 investigation, Banner took Greer back to his home where he had stashed the gun. Unfortunately, he'd locked himself out of his house. "He didnt have a key," Greer testified. "He was pounding on the door, eventually (his wife) woke up and answered the door." Lt. Millard Greer talks to Brett Holbrook, who's visiting every state's officers. Greer said Banner was panicking about not being able to get in and when the door unlocked, he started running up the steps. "I'm like, 'Woah woah woah,'" Greer told the jury. "I was beginning to chase him down." The lieutenant told the jury he was concerned about Banner's pace because there were "two guns" there. This prompted defense attorney Abbe Lowell to inquire about a second gun. "Well, I had a gun too," Greer said, earning a chuckle from the packed courtroom. Green said Banner slowed down and was calm by the time he retrieved what he thought was a lid-less shoe box. "What I remember seeing was a bunch of socks," Greer told the jury, adding that he recalled the gun being stuffed in a sock. The revolver center to Hunter Biden's felony trial in Wilmington this week. When Banner took the stand, he told the jury that it wasn't a shoebox he actually had the firearm in an old General Motors lunchbox. Questioning the man's memory, Lowell, the defense attorney, asked about whether it was in a sock, as Greer testified. "I dont know nothing about no sock," Banner replied. During testimony, Lowell also asked Greer whether he pushed Banner on why he hadn't reported the gun to police. Greer said he asked the question, but Banner didn't answer and told him the gun probably would have stayed in the box for years. Hunter Biden, the son of U.S. President Joe Biden, leaves the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 6, 2024 in Wilmington, Delaware. After handing over Hunter Biden's gun, Greer said Banner had something else: a .25 caliber semi-automatic pistol he also had stored in a sock. He told Greer a coworker had given it to him about two-and-a-half decades ago because the man's brother was in trouble. Those are some very suspicious circumstances there," Greer said, explaining he took possession of that gun to test whether it matched any suspected of being used in a crime. "He didn't want his brother to get in trouble so he gave it to me," Banner later explained on the stand. He added he never looked at that firearm or Hunter Biden's gun until Greer asked for it. Prosecutors contend residue of drugs belonging to Hunter Biden was found on a leather pouch with the gun, prompting a pointed question for Banner. "This may sound like a strange question, but does anyone in your household use cocaine?" Hines asked Banner. He laughed and said no. Edward Banner, the man who found Hunter Bidens gun in the trash, leaves the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 06, 2024 in Wilmington, Delaware. The trial for Hunter Biden's felony gun charges continues today with additional witnesses. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images He left the courthouse with his wife, holding her purple purse as the two walked side by side. At the end of his testimony, Hines asked her how long they had been married. "I think 11 years," he said laughing. "Shell know better than I do." Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com. Read more: Janssen's, StarQuest Shooters and more: The Delaware people, places part of Hunter Biden's trial This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Hunter Biden trial: Meet the retired trash picker who found tossed gun A disgruntled George Clooney, a longtime supporter of Democratic candidates, rang up the White House last month after President Joe Biden denounced the International Criminal Courts request to issue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant. The prosecutors also sought the arrest of top Hamas officials. Clooneys wife, Amal, an international human rights lawyer, worked with the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan and a panel of international legal experts to review evidence of suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel and Gaza. After an evaluation, Amal and her colleagues published a legal report agreeing with the prosecutor that the applications for arrest warrants were based on reasonable grounds. According to The Washington Post, which first reported the news, Clooney spoke to Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president, over Bidens use of the word outrageous when denouncing the ICC prosecutors application. Clooney also reportedly voiced concern over the Biden administrations initial consideration of placing sanctions on the ICC, which could potentially include Amal. The ICC prosecutors application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous, Biden said in a statement. And let me be clear: Whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence none between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security. On Tuesday, the House approved legislation that would impose sanctions penalizing the ICC. Although Biden harshly criticized the ICCs request of arrest warrants for senior Israeli leaders, the presidents administration said it strongly opposes the bill because it could require sanctions against court staff, judges, witnesses, and U.S. allies and partners who provide even limited, targeted support to the court in a range of aspects of its work. In an op-ed published by the panel enlisted by the ICC, which included Amal, the group wrote: There is no conflict that should be excluded from the reach of the law; no childs life valued less than anothers. The law we apply is humanitys law, not the law of any given side. It must protect all the victims of this conflict; and all civilians in conflicts to come. They continued, And as investigations continue, we hope that state authorities, witnesses, and survivors will engage with the judicial process. Ultimately, we hope that this process will contribute to increased protections for civilians and sustainable peace in a region that has already endured too much. More from Rolling Stone Best of Rolling Stone A now-former city councilman in Swainsboro, Georgia has pleaded guilty to federal drug charges. Quantavius Foster Sr. was suspended from the Swainsboro City Council after they became aware of his guilty plea, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on April 30. In August 2019, a grand jury criminal indictment was handed down against Foster and 16 other defendants alleging they were involved in a criminal drug conspiracy. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] He was initially charged with criminal conspiracy involving 50 grams or more of methamphetamine. The grand jury alleged he also had the intent to distribute, resulting in another charge. According to his plea agreement, he is facing a mandatory minimum sentence of five years, but could face up to 40 years. His sentencing is scheduled for August. In a statement posted to his official Facebook page, Foster announced he had been removed from the council by City Attorney Jon Levis, instead of by a vote from his fellow council members. TRENDING STORIES: He went on to explain the situation surrounding his crimes. On August 30, 2018, our lives changed drastically as we lost our home and vehicles, experiencing a period of homelessness. Despite what may be said or seen, I made decisions to ensure my familys safety and well-being, he wrote in part. My faith in God remains unwavering, and I am committed to providing for my beautiful wife and five children. I refuse to be consumed by this setback or by negativity from social media. Levis shared a statement with WJBF-TV on behalf of the City of Swainsboro. The City of Swainsboro has been recently made aware of the felony guilty plea of Councilperson Quantavious Foster in the United States District Court, Northern District of Georgia. In compliance with O.C.G.A. 45-5-6.1 Councilperson Foster has been immediately and without further action suspended from office. The City of Swainsboro is currently working in accordance with O.C.G.A. 45-5-6.1(b) for the appointment of a replacement officer until the resolution of matters affecting the suspension of Councilperson Foster is concluded. The City of Swainsboro has no further comment at this time. Swainsboro City Attorney Jon Levis [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] IN OTHER NEWS: President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit Berlin on June 11, where he is expected to speak in the Bundestag for the first time in person, German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on June 7, citing its sources. While Zelensky has previously spoken in the Bundestag via video connection, this would be the first time he would speak to the German parliament in person and would require MPs meeting for a special session, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said. Zelensky's visit comes after Berlin recently issued a major U-turn, announcing that it was no longer against Ukraine using German and other Western-supplied weapons to strike Russian territory. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had long opposed lifting the ban on Ukraine using Western-supplied weapons to strike inside Russia, citing concerns that the move would escalate the war. Scholz told the Antenne Bayern radio station on June 3 that Ukraine's use of German and other Western-supplied weapons to strike targets in Russia will not "contribute to escalation." June 11 is also the first day of the Ukraine Recovery Conference, hosted in Berlin. The event, which aims to mobilize international support for Ukraine's economic stabilization and war recovery, was held in 2023 in London. Zelensky gave a speech at the event in London via video connection. Zelensky traveled to France on June 6 for the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, following a visit to Qatar earlier in the week. After Berlin, Zelensky's next international visit is expected to be to Italy for the Group of Seven (G7) summit on June 13, where he will likely call on Western partners to seize Russian assets to help fund Ukraine's defense and reconstruction. Read also: Ukraine war latest: Russian tugboat destroyed, Biden calls Putin tyrant bent on domination Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Winfried Kretschmann (L), Minister President of Baden-Wuerttemberg and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier stand together during a minute's silence for a police officer killed in a knife attack on the market square. A week earlier, a police officer was killed in a knife attack on the square. Bernd Weibrod/dpa Leading national and local politicians as well as some 1,500 family, friends and supporters commemorated the police officer who was stabbed to death by an Afghan immigrant a week ago in the south-western German city of Mannheim. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier described the knife attack in which a police officer was fatally injured on the city's Market Square as a "bloody act of terrorism." The mother of police officer Rouven Laur, 29, broke down in tears. Laur died on Sunday, days after he was injured as he sought to intervene when a man attacked several people during a rally by the anti-Islam movement Pax Europa in Mannheim, a city in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg. Steinmeier, Baden-Wurttemberg Premier Winfried Kretschmann and state Interior Minister Thomas Strobl all paused for a minute's silence at 11:34 am (0934 GMT). Police officers across the country remembered Laur too. In recent weeks, there have been further "heinous acts of politically motivated violence" with attacks on mayors, ministers, members of parliament and volunteers, Steinmeier said. "We, the democrats of this country, must never and will never get used to violence in political disputes." As a consequence of the fatal knife attack, Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to allow the deportation of serious criminals to Afghanistan and Syria again. In his government statement on Thursday, the chancellor did not say exactly how he intends to implement this. At the ceremony, Steinmeier laid a floral tribute at the scene as many gathered on the square to mourn the death of the policeman. Laur's mother burst into tears. Some 50 officers from the city's police headquarters, mainly patrol officers, a spokeswoman said, lined up in front of a sea of flowers laid on the Market Square and clasped hands as they paid tribute to their colleague. Onlookers applauded. The 25-year-old Afghan also injured five participants at the rally on May 31 who are still suffering from the consequences and are all still in pain, according to Stefanie Kizina from Pax Europa. "We are all still in shock," she said. "You pull yourself together, you have to get over it first." She said they've lived in danger but "somehow you always assumed that nothing would happen, that it wouldn't be so bad." Board member Michael Sturzenberger, 59, had to be hospitalized once again due to his high blood loss from the attack. On Friday evening after the ceremony, several hundred people demonstrating against Islamism at a rally organized by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Mannheim were met with several thousand counterdemonstrators calling for Nazis to get out of the country. Police said there were around 700 at the AfD event who were met by around 3,300 counterdemonstrators opposed to the AfD rally. Chants of "AfD, AfD" on the one hand and "Nazis out" on the other could be heard. A large police contingent separated the demonstrators. Meanwhile, the regional chairman of the German Police Union, Ralf Kusterer, said the force is touched by the outpouring of sympathy over Laur's death, but that is mixed with anger. "The frustration towards politicians is huge." After acts like these, there are extensive political discussions and demands, but ultimately nothing changes, Kusterer said. For example, there needs to be concrete discussion about further training for police officers, equipment for protection and for treating wounds after attacks. The local police haven't said much since the attack. A Mannheim police spokesman said on Thursday they did not wish to comment. The attacker was shot by a police officer during the attack. He underwent surgery for his injuries. The 25-year-old has not been fit for questioning in recent days. He came to Germany as a teenager in 2013 and applied for asylum, according to dpa research. The application was denied in 2014. However, a ban on deportation was imposed, presumably due to his young age. The perpetrator last lived in Heppenheim in Hesse, with his wife and two small children. The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office has taken over the investigation into the case. The Mannheim police are planning a public memorial service for Laur on June 14 but due to space considerations only family, invited guests and Mannheim police department employees will be able to attend. Thomas Strobl (C), Minister of the Interior of Baden-Wuerttemberg and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (R) stand together with relatives (L) of a police officer killed in a knife attack during a minute's silence on the market square. A week earlier, a police officer was killed in a knife attack on the square. Bernd Weibrod/dpa Thomas Strobl (C), Minister of the Interior of Baden-Wuerttemberg and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier stand during a minute's silence on the market square. A week earlier, a police officer was killed in a knife attack on the square. Bernd Weibrod/dpa BEIRUT, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The unemployment rate in the Palestinian territories has surged to 50.8 percent, according to a joint bulletin released Friday by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). The report reveals that unemployment in the Gaza Strip has reached a staggering 79.1 percent, while in the West Bank it has seen a rise to 32 percent. These figures exclude individuals who have left the labor force due to unattainable job prospects, suggesting the actual number of jobless individuals is even higher. Real GDP in the Gaza Strip has contracted by an astounding 83.5 percent and by 22.7 percent in the West Bank over the past eight months. Overall, the real GDP of the Palestinian territories has shrunk by an average of 32.8 percent. "Our new bulletin highlights the grim toll the conflict in the Gaza Strip has taken on human lives and the desperate humanitarian situation it has caused, compounded by widespread economic devastation," said ILO Regional Director for Arab States Ruba Jaradat. "This exacerbates the suffering of Palestinians in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, further endangering their safety and well-being." German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier lays a wreath of mourning during a minute's silence for a police officer killed in a knife attack on the market square. A week earlier, a police officer was killed in a knife attack on the square. Bernd Weibrod/dpa German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier commemorated the death of police officer Rouven Laur at a ceremony in the western city of Mannheim on Friday. Laur died in an attack at Mannheim's market square a week ago. Steinmeier, state premier Winfried Kretschmann and state interior minister Thomas Strobl all paused for a minute's silence at 11:34 am (0934 GMT). Laur died on Sunday, days after he was injured as he sought to intervene when a man attacked several people during a rally by the anti-Islam movement Pax Europa in Mannheim. Steinmeier laid a floral tribute at the scene as many gathered on the square to mourn the death of the policeman, aged 29. The 25-year-old Afghan also injured five participants at the rally on May 31. Thomas Strobl (C), Minister of the Interior of Baden-Wuerttemberg and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (R) stand together with relatives (L) of a police officer killed in a knife attack during a minute's silence on the market square. A week earlier, a police officer was killed in a knife attack on the square. Bernd Weibrod/dpa Thomas Strobl (C), Minister of the Interior of Baden-Wuerttemberg and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier stand during a minute's silence on the market square. A week earlier, a police officer was killed in a knife attack on the square. Bernd Weibrod/dpa Winfried Kretschmann (L), Minister President of Baden-Wuerttemberg and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier stand together during a minute's silence for a police officer killed in a knife attack on the market square. A week earlier, a police officer was killed in a knife attack on the square. Bernd Weibrod/dpa German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier described the knife attack in which a police officer was fatally injured on market square as a "bloody act of terrorism." Steinmeier spoke said during a ceremony commemorating the death of police officer Rouven Laur in Mannheim on Friday, attended by many of his colleagues and citizens of the western city. Laur, 29, died in an attack on Sunday, days after he was injured as he sought to intervene when a man attacked several people during a rally by the anti-Islam movement Pax Europa in Mannheim. Steinmeier, state premier Winfried Kretschmann and state interior minister Thomas Strobl all paused for a minute's silence at 11:34 am. In recent weeks, there have been further "heinous acts of politically motivated violence" with attacks on mayors, ministers, members of parliament and volunteers, Steinmeier said. "We, the democrats of this country, must never and will never get used to violence in political disputes." Steinmeier laid a floral tribute at the scene as many gathered on the square to mourn the death of the policeman. Some 50 officers from the city's police headquarters, mainly patrol officers, a spokeswoman said, lined up in front of a sea of flowers laid on the market square and clasped hands as they paid tribute to their colleague. Onlookers applauded. The 25-year-old Afghan also injured five participants at the rally on May 31. A slew of demonstrations are planned for later. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party plans to demonstrate on the square against Islamism at 6 pm. A counter-demonstration by thw anti-fascist organization Antifa is to take place at the same time. At 4:30 pm, a rally is planned under the motto "Mannheim stands together - for democracy and diversity," organized by the local branch of the German Trade Union Federation and representatives of democratic parties and religious communities. A demonstration against the AfD rally is planned at 5:30 pm by the "Mannheim against the Right" alliance. On Thursday, the Karlsruhe Administrative Court granted an urgent appeal by the AfD against a general order by the city which banned events such as demonstrations on the market square. On Tuesday, the city had temporarily declared the market square a memorial site for the dead police officer and banned events such as demonstrations. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier lays a wreath of mourning during a minute's silence for a police officer killed in a knife attack on the market square. A week earlier, a police officer was killed in a knife attack on the square. Bernd Weibrod/dpa German Chancellor Olaf Scholz makes a government statement on the "current security situation" in a plenary session of the German Bundestag. Sabina Crisan/dpa The German refugee advocacy group Pro Asyl has condemned German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's initiative to allow deportations of serious criminals to Afghanistan and Syria. "International law clearly prohibits any deportations to Afghanistan and Syria," Pro Asyl's managing director Karl Kopp told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper in remarks published on Friday. Kopp described Scholz's proposed plans as unlawful, because "both countries are known for their use of torture and inhuman punishments." On Thursday, Scholz proposed to allow the deportation of serious criminals to Afghanistan and Syria again, following the recent death of a police officer who was stabbed at an anti-Islamic rally in Mannheim. "Such criminals should be deported - even if they come from Syria and Afghanistan," Scholz told the Bundestag or lower house of parliament. "Serious criminals and [people posing] terrorist threats have no place here." The chancellor did not explain exactly how he intended to make this possible, but said the Interior Ministry was working on the practical implementation and was already in talks with Afghanistan's neighbouring countries. An Afghan national stabbed several people last week in the south-western city of Mannheim during a rally by the anti-Islam movement Pax Europa. A policeman who tried to intervene later died of his injuries. "The attack in Mannheim has shocked us all, but the German government must not undermine international law. Instead, it must rely on the resources of the German constitutional state," Kopp said. "The prohibition on torture applies to everyone including criminals. This important principle must not be undermined," he added. Germany has not sent anyone back to Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in August 2021. Even before that, the agreement was that only men - especially criminals and those deemed terrorist threats - would be forcibly returned, due to the difficult security situation. Annalena Baerbock, German Foreign Minister, speaks in the plenary session of the Bundestag on the subject of the deployment of the German Armed Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Sabina Crisan/dpa The German Foreign Ministry on Friday warned against cooperating with Afghanistan's Taliban rulers on deporting Afghan offenders, saying the Islamist government would seek international recognition through such a move. "The Taliban will want to have any repatriations paid for at least through international recognition," a spokesman for Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in Berlin. "And it is a fact that the German government does not recognize the de facto Taliban government in Afghanistan, just like any other country in the world, and does not cooperate with it." There is only sporadic contact "on a technical level" in individual cases. Following a fatal knife attack in Mannheim, in which a police officer was stabbed to death by an Afghan national, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he intended to allow the deportation of serious criminals to Afghanistan and Syria again. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is currently looking into this. The Taliban had previously shown themselves to be open to cooperation on accepting Afghan criminals and dangerous individuals. "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan calls on the German authorities to settle the matter within the framework of normal consular relations and an appropriate mechanism based on a bilateral agreement," Taliban Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Kahar Balchi wrote on X on Friday. Since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in August 2021, a deportation ban for Afghans has been in place in Germany. An Interior Ministry spokesman said deportations do not mean impunity for criminals in Germany. "In murder cases, this means at least 10 years imprisonment in Germany as a minimum before deportation can be considered following this prison sentence." Germany has not sent anyone back to Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in August 2021. Even before that, the agreement was that only men - especially criminals and those deemed terrorist threats - would be forcibly returned, due to the difficult security situation. Critics warn against talks with the Taliban, who are currently internationally isolated. Representatives of the Green Party are against both deporting Afghans back to Afghanistan and cooperating with the Taliban. "Every expulsion and every deportation to Afghanistan requires cooperation with this Islamist terrorist regime and thus virtually recognizes the Taliban," Germany's Commissioner for Human Rights and Green party member Luise Amtsberg told the taz newspaper in an interview published online on Friday. Green party member of parliament Julian Pahlke described Scholz's announcement as "unrealistic" and legally unrealizable. According to Afghanistan expert Thomas Ruttig, the co-founder of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, the Taliban could benefit from deportations by using them as an opportunity to cooperate with a Western state, which could be seen as a boost to their reputation. The German refugee advocacy group Pro Asyl has condemned Scholz's initiative. "International law clearly prohibits any deportations to Afghanistan and Syria," Pro Asyl's managing director Karl Kopp told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper in remarks published on Friday. Kopp described Scholz's proposed plans as unlawful, because "both countries are known for their use of torture and inhuman punishments." A diversion via Afghanistan's neighbouring countries such as Pakistan is also currently being considered by the German government. However, the Taliban reject this possibility. Extraditions to other countries would be a violation of current conventions, the Foreign Ministry spokesman emphasized in a statement. So far, no country has officially recognized the Taliban government. Western states demand that human rights and especially women's rights are respected in the country before recognition is granted. Annalena Baerbock, German Foreign Minister, speaks in the plenary session of the Bundestag on the subject of the deployment of the German Armed Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Sabina Crisan/dpa The German government is considering supplying Ukraine with another Patriot anti-aircraft missile battery, its fourth, to enhance Ukraine's air defence. Source: Bloomberg, as reported by European Pravda Details: Germany's latest Patriot SAM battery is intended to supplement the three that Germany had handed over or pledged to deliver over to Ukraine in the spring, when Russia increased missile strikes on Ukraine. According to Bloomberg sources, Berlin has yet to make a final decision. Background: In May, Germany confirmed that the Ukrainian crew would begin training on the third Patriot air defence system, which Kyiv were to receive soon. The country also spearheaded the global search for additional air defence systems. Some countries, including the United States and Romania, are considering providing Ukraine with one Patriot battery, while Italy plans to provide the SAMP/T system following the Group of Seven summit in June. Furthermore, the Netherlands declared that a Patriot system would be assembled from the major components and spare parts donated by Ukraines allies, with the goal of having it operational in Ukraine as soon as possible. Support UP or become our patron! (KRON) A carjacking in San Jose led to a lengthy police pursuit on Highway 25 and Highway 101 stretching across San Benito County and Santa Clara County. The incident began when a thief shot a victim in San Jose and stole their car on Wednesday, Hollister police said. San Jose Police Department officers entered the stolen cars information into a regional system equipped with automated license plate reading cameras, also known as Flock cameras. At 11:57 p.m. Wednesday and 12:06 a.m. Thursday, two license plate reading cameras sent police a notification that the stolen gold Infiniti sedan was traveling around Hollister. Police identified the stolen cars driver as Sonya Ortiz, a 35-year-old Gilroy woman. A Hollister Police Department officer found the Infiniti speeding on Highway 25 near Meridian Street. Officer McKinney was able to catch up to the vehicle at Highway 25 and he initiated an enforcement stop. The vehicle failed to yield, and a pursuit ensued, HPD wrote. The pursuit continued onto Highway 101 as the fleeing driver sped from San Benito County into Santa Clara County. Officers with the California Highway Patrol, Santa Clara County Sheriffs Office, and Gilroy Police Department joined the chase. The driver double-back from south Santa Clara County into San Benito County before it finally stopped on Highway 101 near Highway 156, police said. Man charged with DUI, hit-and-run after Walnut Creek Farmers Market crash The suspect attempted to flee on foot but was swiftly apprehended with the aid of a K-9 unit from the Santa Clara County Sheriffs Office, HPD wrote. Investigators said they determined that Ortiz was driving under the influence during the police pursuit. She was booked into the San Benito County Jail on the following charges: evading a peace officer in a reckless manner, DUI, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of a stolen vehicle. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4. Glass House for sale in Sonoma wine country for $6.5M. Hot venue for car commercials Remember those TV ads around 2015 with real people, not actors looking at and reacting to Chevrolet car models? Whether you do or dont, the setting for one of those focus-group commercials was the electrifying Glass House in Sonoma, California. And its a residence thats not easily forgotten. The stunning modern masterpiece set in the middle of 150 acres of picturesque hills and vineyards in Northern Californias wine country is now for sale for $6.5 million. The estate also provided the backdrop for several photo shoots for outdoor furniture and home accessory retailers, including West Elm, Pottery Barn and Terra Outdoor, according to Sothebys International Realty, which holds the listing. Daniel Casabonne of Sothebys International Realty Wine Country, Sonoma Brokerage is the listing agent. Among the propertys top features: Bringing in an abundance of natural light, walls of glass retract to seamlessly blend the indoor space and outdoor spaces; Located in prime Los Carneros American Viticultural Area (AVA), there are nearly 10 acres of Pinot grapes and nearly 100 olive trees planted; Resort-like lifestyle swith pool and spa, bocce ball, outdoor fireplace, room for guests, and complete privacy; Solar is owned; An ideal event venue with space for up to 125 people outdoors and 50 indoors; Guest house. This is like no other in wine country and it will impress, the property listing states. Built in 2008, the four-bedroom, four-bathroom home located at 21765 Champlin Creek Lane spans 3,350 square feet. The total size of the lot is 11.2 acres. Other car companies have shot commercials at the residence, too, including Audi and BMW. Many viewers found the Real People, Not Actors campaign premise to be cringeworthy and parody videos mocking the ads surfaced. However, the architecture and scenery of the Sonoma Glass House is worth taking a good, long look at. See the video and photos above. Glass estate for sale in California is more than a home its a work of art. See it KEREM SHALOM, Israel The family of Eitan Mor, held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip for more than 240 days, marked his 24th birthday by protesting the delivery of humanitarian aid for Palestinians suffering amid the war between Israel and Hamas. If the Arabs get the humanitarian aid, we want our son to get [aid], Tzvika Mor, Eitans father, said to reporters at the Kerem Shalom crossing last week, holding a symbolic box of goods for his son. Tzvika was joined by about two dozen members of his community, Kiryat Arba, representing a hardline segment of Israeli society that wants the Israeli government to focus all efforts on the military campaign, regardless of blowback from international courts warning of genocide and accusing Israeli leaders of war crimes. We should not talk to the terrorists, we have to kill them, we have to crush Hamas, Mor said. A number of Israeli politicians have called for and implemented for short stretches policies to cut off the delivery of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, especially in the first fraught weeks following Hamass shocking Oct. 7 terrorist attack against Israel. Eitan Mor was among more than 250 people taken hostage by Hamas, and is one of 124 yet to be released. Far-right Israeli protesters have sought to block aid trucks from reaching Israeli checkpoints, presenting just one of many challenges complicating aid delivery to the estimated two million Palestinians under siege amid Israels campaign to rout Hamas. The actions and rhetoric of Israeli officials at key gateways into Gaza feed into allegations that they are using starvation as a weapon of war, along with other violations against international humanitarian law. Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, charged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant with war crimes, citing evidence that Israel has intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival. Israel rejects these claims, and says that it is committed to upholding its obligations under international law and facilitating the aid moving into the Gaza Strip. But there is no disputing that distribution on the Palestinian side is an enormous challenge. International NGOs are asking for the Israelis to provide safe and predictable access routes for the movement of aid, and allow for the safe movement of humanitarian workers in and out of Gaza. The U.N. estimates that 254 aid workers have been killed so far in the war. And the Kerem Shalom crossing has moved to the center of the global debate, as one of the few land crossings that allows for large shipments of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and the movement of humanitarian workers. Tzvika Mor, the father of Eitan Mor, held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip for nearly 240 days, speaks to reporters at the Kerem Shalom border cross on May 30, 2024. (Laura Kelly) Other land crossings between Israel and Gaza have been shut down over security reasons or damage inflicted by Hamas amid the Oct. 7 attack. Two additional crossings, Erez and Erez West, allow for aid transfers from Israel to Gaza. Earlier this month Israel seized Gazas Rafah crossing with Egypt, setting off a diplomatic standoff with Cairo that held back aid for weeks. Under pressure from President Biden, Egypt last week agreed to start sending aid trucks through Kerem Shalom. Rafah remains closed. More than 1,800 trucks moved through Kerem Shalom between May 26 and 30, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The four main categories of aid going into Gaza are food, water, shelter items and medicine. The approximate 360 trucks of aid per day is supplemented by air drops of aid largely provided by the Jordanian air force. Approximately 102 airdrops have taken place over nearly eight months of war with about 9,200 aid packages. President Biden has said he wants to increase the number of aid trucks entering Gaza to 600 per day, as part of a wide-ranging ceasefire deal with Hamas that would require the release of Israeli hostages. A cessation of fighting would also allow for the safe and easy movement of humanitarian workers to distribute aid. Hamas has rejected Bidens proposal for a ceasefire, saying it fails to guarantee an end to the war. Still, the Israeli government argues that the amount of aid entering and present in Gaza is sufficient to meet the needs of the population and trades blame with aid groups over the overarching challenges of distribution. Israels position stands in stark contrast to the dire warning of famine and images of starvation coming out of Gaza. The entire population of Gaza around 2.2 million people is facing acute food insecurity, meaning they require food assistance, and the threat of famine is looming, Dan Dieckhaus, response director for the USAID, told reporters in a briefing in mid-May. A controversial, American-built floating pier operated for about a week in May before it was damaged by rough seas and made it inoperable. While about 1,000 metric tons of aid was delivered through the pier, it took about four days to be distributed out into Gaza and barely made a dent in the need for aid, according to humanitarian groups. From the beginning humanitarians have said land crossings, land crossings, land crossings, said Jason Knapp, country representative for Catholic Relief Services in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. I dont think anyone had their head wrapped around how challenging, from a logistical standpoint, the pier would be. OCHA, the U.N. agency for humanitarian affairs, has cited fuel shortages in Gaza as hampering efforts of distribution, along with the limited number of entry points into Gaza and sub-optimal operating hours at crossings and checkpoints. OCHA said in a summary of activities between May 13-19 that the limited number of trucks allowed access is making food distribution particularly dire in the north, where food is reaching only 36,000 people and a limited number of partners are able to provide assistance. USAID Administrator Samantha Power said last week that humanitarian workers are reporting that conditions are worse now than ever before. Israeli military operations and closed crossings are making it extremely difficult to distribute aid, in a post on the social media site X. Shimon Friedman, the International Spokesperson for COGAT, the Israel Defense Forces coordinating body for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, said that more than 85 percent of movements coordinated between COGAT and aid groups to travel throughout Gaza are approved. There are different reasons why things will be denied, one of them is for the security of the convoy itself. As much as we can, we want to approve these coordinations, he told The Hill during a tour of the Kerem Shalom crossing last week. Aid groups have also pointed to challenges of getting their workers into and out of the strip. Kerem Shalom is the only crossing coordinating the movement of people. Its only accessible by private car or taxi, and roughly two hours from Tel Aviv or Jerusalem without traffic. A sign stands at the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza on Thursday, May 30. (Laura Kelly) The crossing looks like a vast parking lot, with 30-foot concrete blast walls squaring off areas and creating a maze of routes for vehicles. A few loitering trucks sat out in the open sun on the day The Hill visited last week, with temperatures in the Spring months reaching almost 90 degrees fahrenheit. Boxes of black and green tea, sponsored by the U.S.-based aid group World Central Kitchen, bears a warning that boxes should be kept in a dry place, away from sunlight. Other goods on trucks included flour provided by the World Food Program. Metal buckets for laundry, blankets, and woven mats were provided by IOM UN Migration, the Norwegian Refugees Council and European Union Humanitarian aid. A truck with aid provided by UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees from Israels 1948 war of independence, also waited to enter Gaza. Weve taken many steps to improve our logistical capabilities so that we can inspect the aid and deliver it into the Gaza Strip, Unfortunately the international organizations havent taken similar steps to increase their distribution capabilities, Friedman said. Distribution has been an issue since the beginning of the war. The trucks that pass through Kerem Shalom are unloaded on the Gazan side, which can be seen from across the border. Its a wide stretch of flat concrete with shade provided by open-sided shelters. Goods are also placed in the open sun. Ami Shaked, manager of the Kerem Shalom Crossing, closely watches the offloading and buildup of goods across the border with a live camera feed zooming in on boxes logos to see which aid organizations have yet to pick up their materials. The picture from Gaza, you can see more than 800 trucks on the ground, they didnt come yet to take them, he said, referring to both the pick-up of commercial goods for Palestinian markets, and humanitarian aid distributed by international non-governmental organizations. The goods are on the ground, more than weeks, and they didnt supply to the Palestinian side. Shaked said there are about 200 workers on the Israeli side, and 100 workers on the Palestinian side. Work is sometimes suspended as the most intense fighting between Israel and Hamas currently centers around Rafah, which neighbors Kerem Shalom. Israeli military armaments are staged near the Kerem Shalom crossing as the IDF escalates its operations in Rafah, described as the last holdout of four Hamas battalions. That has made the crossing a target for Hamas munitions. In this zone of war, especially in the last two weeks, it became harder than before, Shaked said, describing near-daily air raid alarms and rocket attacks. On Sunday, Hamas fired eight rockets from Rafah that triggered air raid sirens at least 75 miles away in Tel Aviv. We are daily under launching of rockets, sometimes its to this area, sometimes its above this area. But until you dont see the rockets go far away from you, you dont know what will happen, Shaked said. We have a special procedure for this, we usually stop the work for 15 minutes and after this we continue. But dont try to do it at home. Its complicated. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Lawyers representing Southwest Airlines no longer have to undergo religious liberty training from a far-right Christian hate group, a federal appeals court ruled Friday, overturning a ruling from August. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the training would likely violate the lawyers constitutional rights and exceed the courts authority. Three Republican judges sat on the panel making the decision, two of whom were appointed by Donald Trump. Tweet screenshot: Chris Geidner Last year, a federal judge in Texas appointed by Trump ordered three senior lawyers for the airline to take eight hours of training from the Alliance Defending Freedom as part of sanctions resulting from a religious discrimination lawsuit brought by a former flight attendant. The attendant, Charlene Carter, sued Southwest for firing her in 2017 after she sent anti-abortion messages to her unions former president. Carter argued she had been discriminated against based on her religious beliefs, and U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr ruled in her favor, ordering she be reinstated. Starr also ordered Southwest to issue a statement to its employees saying that the airline may not engage in religious discrimination against them. When Southwest said that it does not do so, Carter demanded additional sanctions against the company, to which Starr responded by requiring the religious liberty training. Why Starr brought in the ADF is unclear, as they werent representing Carter and had no involvement in the case whatsoever. The Alliance Defending Freedom is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for advocating laws promoting discrimination against LBGTQ people. ADF recently represented the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case 303 Creative v. Elenis, where a web designer sued to have the right to refuse services to LGBTQ people based on an entirely fabricated premise. The group has also fought against reproductive rights, helping to overturn Roe v. Wade. This photo taken on June 7, 2024 shows a building destroyed during an Israeli strike in Kafr Kila, Lebanon. Hezbollah raised its military readiness in all its deployment areas on Friday in anticipation of any military escalation following repeated Israeli threats, Lebanese military sources told Xinhua.(Photo by Taher Abu Hamdan/Xinhua) BEIRUT, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Hezbollah raised its military readiness in all its deployment areas on Friday in anticipation of any military escalation following repeated Israeli threats, Lebanese military sources told Xinhua. Hezbollah's step comes a day after Commander of the Northern Command of the Israeli army, Ori Gordin, announced the completion of deployment for a major attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon. The military sources, who spoke anonymously, told Xinhua that Hezbollah had placed its members and leaders on maximum alert along the borderline in southern Lebanon and in the remote rear areas as well, especially the Baalbek region in eastern Lebanon. The sources added that Israeli warplanes carried out seven airstrikes in southern Lebanon during the dawn and morning hours on Friday. In a statement, Hezbollah said it has fired air defense missiles "at the enemy warplanes that were attacking our skies and broke the sound barrier in an attempt to terrify the children, which forced them to retreat to behind the borders." Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated on Oct. 8, 2023, following a barrage of rockets launched by the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas' attack on Israel the day before. Israel then retaliated by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon. This photo taken on June 7, 2024 shows a building destroyed during an Israeli strike in Kafr Kila, Lebanon. Hezbollah raised its military readiness in all its deployment areas on Friday in anticipation of any military escalation following repeated Israeli threats, Lebanese military sources told Xinhua.(Photo by Taher Abu Hamdan/Xinhua) This photo taken on June 7, 2024 shows a building destroyed during an Israeli strike in Kafr Kila, Lebanon. Hezbollah raised its military readiness in all its deployment areas on Friday in anticipation of any military escalation following repeated Israeli threats, Lebanese military sources told Xinhua.(Photo by Taher Abu Hamdan/Xinhua) This photo taken on June 7, 2024 shows a building destroyed during an Israeli strike in Kafr Kila, Lebanon. Hezbollah raised its military readiness in all its deployment areas on Friday in anticipation of any military escalation following repeated Israeli threats, Lebanese military sources told Xinhua.(Photo by Taher Abu Hamdan/Xinhua) This photo taken on June 7, 2024 shows a building destroyed during an Israeli strike in Kafr Kila, Lebanon. Hezbollah raised its military readiness in all its deployment areas on Friday in anticipation of any military escalation following repeated Israeli threats, Lebanese military sources told Xinhua.(Photo by Taher Abu Hamdan/Xinhua) For much of the last three years of legislative sessions, hard-line conservative state House members have clashed with Republicans on whether theyre conservative enough. Now those clashes will play out at the ballot box. More than 30 seats represent the battlefield for the Republican Caucus versus hard-line conservative Freedom Caucus in Tuesdays legislative primary elections. The outcomes of these primary races may influence how conservative the House gets, how well the chamber functions, and whether hard-line members gain or lose influence. Because most state Legislative districts are drawn in favor of one party over another, the winners of primary races often decide who will win Novembers general election. In the June 11 primaries, 32 districts feature Republican-held seats with a GOP-caucus aligned candidate against a Freedom Caucus aligned candidate. Of the 32 seats that represent the Freedom Caucus-GOP caucus battleground, 14 are held by the Freedom Caucus members and 18 are held by those in the House GOP caucus. The Freedom Caucus holds 17 seats in the state House, but three of those districts only have one candidate running in this years election and arent counted toward the battlefield total. Elections in these districts are the latest chapter of the contentious disagreements between members of the two caucuses. The battle has led to more than $1.5 million in spending in the districts and a flood of mailers trying to mold incumbents and challengers records to voters. The two House factions may not have too much that truly divides them, even when examining voting records. And yet, while House Republicans have become more serious in their pursuit to keep Freedom Caucus members out of their seats, and vice versa, GOP leadership and allies continue to describe the group under a variety of names, downplaying them publicly while raising alarm bells behind the scenes. For House GOP leadership, these races are about substance over style, and being able to disagree with respect. The key to it is the people of South Carolina. Do they want people that want to come to Columbia and get along, work together, create good legislation, but we do it in a civil manner? Or do they want chaos and confusion? said House Majority Leader Davey Hiott. I think thats what it all boils down to because thats the difference between the two groups. Even before filing, Hiott said the job was to protect House members, and he and the GOP would do so, even if it wasnt by social media. Were going to campaign for them, were going to help them as much as we can. Were going to do everything we can to protect our members, Hiott said. Rep. David Hiott, left, and Rep. Brandon Newton during a House of Representatives session in Columbia, S.C. on Tuesday, March 14, 2023. (Travis Bell/STATEHOUSE CAROLINA) House Freedom Caucus Chairman Adam Morgan, who is running for Congress and wont return to the State House, said his caucus sees the races as candidates fighting against the establishment. We have a stranglehold of special interests over both chambers here in Columbia and we have outsiders who have really taken a hatchet to that stranglehold and its time to have people who really represent their constituents and fight against ethics abuses, cronyism and government waste, Morgan said. Lexington County state Rep. R.J. May, vice chair of the Freedom Caucus, is confident that the Freedom Caucus is coming back, and stronger than before, predicting its membership will grow from 17 members to 25 members. The stakes are high, but not necessarily for the Freedom Caucus, May added. Its about the future of the state and a beacon of conservative policy, May and Freedom Caucus members are pushing for. The conservative movement is not just about one person, its a collective effort. The swamp is doing everything they can to eradicate the conservative movement in South Carolina, May said. More Freedom Caucus members means a smaller, more accountable state government that is actually doing the work of the people as opposed to the bidding of lobbyists and special interests. On the flip side of that, fewer Freedom Caucus members means the return to the failed status quo. Campaigning: Door knocking, mailers and spending Because of gerrymandering in how legislative districts are drawn, the outcome of the primary election in a district may end up determining who wins the general election in November. With that in mind, both caucuses have focused their efforts and spending on winning these races. May said the caucus has done as much as they can to help their members. We obviously dont have as large of a checkbook as the swamps donors, but were confident we can make that up with grassroots shoe leather, May said. And I think voters are smart enough to see through the blatant lies and false attacks from RINO (Republican in name only) leadership and their liberal allies. In terms of where members are being attacked, May said you can tell where the swamp wants to make a particular impact. He said he expected attacks but thought the House GOP would at least have some integrity about the attacks, referencing fliers that were sent out about him and State Rep. Jay Kilmartin that he said were false. Myself, April Cromer, Josiah Magnuson, Joe White, it seems that they invested quite heavily in the four of us, May said. I shouldnt say invested in us but invested in taking us out. We share being attacked on the radio and the mailbox, online text messages, print media, TV. May said the Freedom Caucus has mostly focused on digital and text messaging campaigning, while he noticed the attacks against himself and the other Freedom Caucus members were mostly mailers. The mailers, he added, were mostly coming from third-party groups, and a majority coming from the Palmetto Truth Project, he said. They self admitted that they sent out over a million pieces of mail, May said. When asked about concerns from House Republicans being vulnerable to Freedom Caucus members or candidates, House GOP strategist Walt Whetsell said hed reference one of Strom Thurmonds favorite quotes, there are only two ways to run a campaign, unopposed or scared. There are 14 incumbent House caucus Republicans who have had somewhere between eight and 12 pieces of negative mail land on them from various and sundry Freedom Caucus affiliated groups, said Whetsell, who is president of Starboard Communications. You know, tons of text messages and paid Facebook ads. I think it is a legitimate battlefield kind of on all fronts. Whetsell said its clear that the members of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus are pining for the same kind of chaos and Republican infighting thats been observed in Washington, D.C. Well, its unfortunate, right? Weve seen what the results of that are, which is accomplishing almost nothing, Whetsell said. In terms of things actually getting done and progress being made, sure theres a concern. Hiott said the GOP caucus has focused the last two years preparing. We knew it was coming. We knew its gonna be a different kind of campaign Hiott said. Freedom Caucus candidates have spent more than $562,000 on their campaigns through May 22, according to state ethics commission reports. But overall they trail candidates that align with the GOP caucus, who have spent more than $1 million through May 22 on their campaigns. These figures, however, do not include spending by third-party groups that have interest in certain elections. The battle between the two camps has played out in campaign fliers as voters mailboxes have been inundated with mailers from candidates but also third party groups. Campaigning against the Freedom Caucus includes work by the Realtors association and the Palmetto Truth Project, which has connections to Whetsell of Starboard Communications, the communications strategy firm for the House GOP Caucus, according to media reports. Kilmartin, a Freedom Caucus member from Lexington County, acknowledged the spending difference is a challenge the Freedom Caucus will have to overcome. Its a concern because they have deep pockets, Kilmartin said. Kilmartin also said hes been encouraged by the feedback hes received while meeting voters on doors on the campaign trail. The primary voter is going to be, I think, motivated to get rid of the norm down here. They follow more than most. Theyre in tune, Kilmartin said. Knocking on doors Im getting a lot of good feedback about the Freedom Caucus. Morgan is encouraged by the signs for Freedom Caucus incumbents he sees when hes out campaigning for Congress. Several of the State House districts in play during the primary overlap with the 4th Congressional District. I would assume most of the current incumbent Freedom Caucus members win by large margins, Morgan said. The signs are everywhere and none of them are going to be in trouble. I would assume that you will see big flips from more RINO establishment members. State Rep. Adam Morgan shares a laugh with other members before the start of the Education and Public Works Full Committee meeting in Columbia, S.C. on Tuesday, March 1, 2022. (Travis Bell/STATEHOUSE CAROLINA) Disagreements lead to chaos at times The dysfunction and disagreements between the GOP and Freedom caucuses has led to public spats, including fights during budget debates, a proposed amendment over whether there should be a definition of a woman in a law declaring an annual Women in Hunting and Fishing Awareness Day, and in a debate on a bill to merge the states health care agencies. The extended health care agency merger debate on the last days of session led to the bill dying before the mandated adjournment. House Speaker Murrell Smith conceded during a news conference on May 9, the last day of the formal session, that the disarray and dysfunction seen in Congress has percolated into the South Carolina State House. Its not lost on me that yesterday you see chaos created in Washington, D.C., and the same agents who have been imported down to South Carolina tried to create chaos on our floor and try to kill bills to get attention, Smith said. This is about making a difference and someone says this is about governing, and I sure hope that we get back to governing and quit trying to try and get that social media attention and clickbait. Smith said previous practices of disagreeing while respecting one another has been thrown out the window. Well have an election and people will have a dichotomy that they can choose from whether they want someone that wants to make noise or they rather elect someone that wants to make a difference, Smith said. And so I think we will get there and I have a belief that says as a South Carolina go choose people who represent their values, who want to improve South Carolina. House Speaker Murrell Smith is shown in January as lawmakers began discussing a massive energy bill. Differences aside, votes agree more than disagree. The groups may, too. While the fighting sometimes spans into personal attacks on the House floor, the result of what is and isnt in legislation. Even in the primary races, Freedom Caucus candidates and House Republican candidates, while they may not admit it, find themselves arguing the same points. Freedom Caucus members often end up voting with the House GOP. In analysis of votes in the House chamber, R.J. May and Ryan McCabe voted with Davey Hiott 58% of the time. State Rep. Jay Kilmartin voted with Hiott 75% of the time. State Rep. April Cromer voted with Hiott 77% of the time. State Rep. Paula Calhoon, a House GOP caucus member running against a Freedom Caucus aligned candidate, voted with Hiott just under 71% of the time. A lot of the things that the House Republican caucus has touted as their issues, you see the Freedom Caucus people at the end of the day voting for everything we put up. So it aint got nothing to do with policy, Hiott said. They put up gotcha amendments trying to have bumper sticker politics and things like put on social media in ways that they can kind of tear into the establishment as they like to call us. Its all about presentation. Calhoon, a Lexington County Republican, acknowledged disagreements happen on amendments on the House floor. GOP Caucus members have openly criticized Freedom Caucus members for not consulting with other House members when crafting amendments which leads to proposed amendments getting killed. A lot of them were inartfully drawn, and they were poorly written and or they did not provide a protocol or procedure to implement it, Calhoon said. So to try to do something on the floor that quickly is uncomfortable for me to represent my district and not have all the information available to vote on it. Rep. Paula Rawl Calhoon listens to a citizen speak during the Education and Public Works Full Committee meeting on critical race theory in Columbia, S.C. on Tuesday, March 1, 2022. (Travis Bell/STATEHOUSE CAROLINA) Freedom Caucus amendments to keep the Arts Commission and state universities from receiving more money in the budget and shift more dollars towards bridge repairs and more money for sheriffs deputies failed earlier this year during a budget debate. Freedom Caucus members fought for medical freedom bills and amendments on the health agency merger bill, only to be shut down. When those proposals are defeated, Freedom Caucus members portrayed it as Republican leadership refusing to listen to conservative voices. The main tactic has been good policy, Cromer said, Good policy makes good politics. We get to run on our record, as opposed to most of the incumbents and challengers theyre actually running from their record Cromer said. The primaries highlight the infighting in a different way than could be shown through arguments on the House floor. The Freedom Caucus modus operandi has become quite clear in the State House. But to the rest of the state of South Carolina, is there that distinguishable of a difference? Karyn Amira, political science professor at College of Charleston, said the average voter probably doesnt fully pick up on the fracture within the Republican Party, when people are more familiar with national figures, such as U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia. They might understand that those individuals tend to be fighting within the establishment part of their party, Amira said. But in terms of caucuses, theres no polling that I know of whether people understand caucuses and factions within parties. In the Upstate race between Freedom Caucus member April Cromer and her opponent Kyle White, the two clash on Twitter. They emphasize to voters of the differences within the Republican Party. Cromer said her voting record stands for itself, shes a true conservative, which makes her different from White. He is running as a conservative, but yet he wants to come to Columbia and just be the mouthpiece for the speaker and all the other people in the establishment, where I am the voice for people in District Six. She doesnt see similarities in their policies, because White is running on lies, she said. Both Cromer and White say they support small businesses, are anti-abortion and support of the Second Amendment on their campaign websites. White said he draws the line, at extremism, which he referred to as Cromers decision to vote for convicted felons being able to carry firearms and her signing onto a bill that would define an unborn child who is a victim of homicide equal protection under the homicide laws of the state. White, however, said he can see a lot of things that they generally agree on to a point. The way that I like to think about myself versus April is I subscribe more to a common sense conservative type of mentality and I think her views and policies are significantly more extreme than my own, White said. I think April and some other folks in the Freedom Caucus are carrying out sort of an agenda thats prescribed to them by a central command and it doesnt necessarily have to do with bringing resources back to the district. State Rep. Josiah Magnuson, R-Spartanburg, and member of the S.C. House Freedom Caucus, speaks to reporters after stopping a health agency merger bill on Thursday, May 9, 2024. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers addresses the Legislature in early 2024. Evers said in a statement Friday that families, taxpayers and the Milwaukee community deserve honest and transparent answers to their questions about Milwaukee Public Schools after its failure to submit timely financial reports to the state. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner) Gov. Tony Evers called for new operational and instructional audits of Milwaukee Public Schools on Friday following its failure to submit key financial data to the state. The failure has led the Department of Public Instruction to withhold $16.6 million in state aid and caused the districts superintendent to resign. Evers said in a statement that families, taxpayers and the Milwaukee community deserve honest and transparent answers to their questions and that the audits would help identify the extent of the problems and drive future conversations. The last time a similar audit effort was conducted was 15 years ago under former Gov. Jim Doyle. The purpose of the outstanding MPS audit is to examine the districts finances for the sole purpose of meeting statutory reporting requirements. That audit is critically important, but it is not comprehensive, Evers said. Im proposing today to go two steps further with two important goals: the first, to audit MPS programs and operations in their entirety, and the second, to audit the effectiveness of teaching and instruction of our kids in classrooms across the district. State Rep. Chris Sinicki (D-Milwaukee), Sen. LaTonya Johnson and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley stated their support for the audits, saying they would help provide the necessary information to work towards greater transparency in the district. Accountability and transparency are the way forward and we need answers in order to address these challenges, identify solutions, and move forward, Crowley wrote on social media. Im looking ahead to working with local leaders to ensure every possible tool is provided for Milwaukee County students to succeed. Evers said his administration would oversee the audit in collaboration with DPI. According to spokesperson Britt Cudaback, Evers is proposing to hire outside, independent auditors to conduct both audits. The Milwaukee Board of School Directors said in a statement on Friday that it would welcome the audit by the Evers administration as well as the offer for help with comptroller and superintendent search assistance from Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson. Republican leaders criticized Evers call for the audits, saying that he shouldnt use auditors within his administration. And who do you think [Evers] will suggest conducts the audits? Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) wrote on social media. The same failed DPI bureaucrats who allowed this to happen or his administration who wanted to dismantle the school choice system so all kids were forced into this MPS mess? We need real reforms to the current mentality where MPS has been protecting the bureaucracy and Gov. Evers has been advocating for shoveling hundreds of millions of dollars into this broken system, Vos continued. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg), who said he was glad Evers called for the audits, said the governor should use the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) to conduct the audits, rather than outside contractors. Evers and DPI would need to work with the co-chairs of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Green Bay) and Rep. Robert Wittke (R-Racine), to authorize an LAB audit. The LAB is more than capable of handling this important undertaking independently and transparently without the use of outside contractors, LeMahieu said in a statement. This report has been updated with comment from the Milwaukee Board. The post Gov. Evers calls for new audits of Milwaukee Public Schools appeared first on Wisconsin Examiner. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis speaks during a news conference on May 6, 2024, at the Colorado Capitol. (Quentin Young/Colorado Newsline) Defying pressure from election reform advocates backed by an influential Colorado megadonor, Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday signed into law a bill that would delay the implementation of a sweeping election overhaul poised to make the 2024 ballot. But the governor and top lawmakers on both sides of the aisle pledged to promptly take up legislation fulfilling the intent of the measure, which proposes to abolish the party primary and assembly system and implement ranked choice voting for state and federal offices, if the initiative wins approval from Colorado voters. The nonprofit Unite America backed a successful effort to establish such a system in Alaska in 2020 and is pushing its model in Colorado and at least four other states in 2024. The group is co-chaired by Kent Thiry, former CEO of Denver-based dialysis services company DaVita, who has previously bankrolled successful efforts to open Colorados primaries and establish independent redistricting commissions. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Were disappointed with todays outcome, but we know whose side voters are on, said Curtis Hubbard, a spokesperson for Colorado Voters First, the campaign supporting the ballot measure. We will continue fighting in the courts, across the state, and at the ballot box for the rights of any voter to vote in any election and for the citizens initiative process. Opponents of the proposal said that Polis and other state leaders recognized that implementing the system is virtually impossible as proposed. The governors signature assures that Colorado voters will be able to test the viability of the ballot proposals before they would be implemented statewide and only if all the requirements are in place, said Ellen Dumm, a spokesperson for the opponents. Philanthropist Kent Thiry participates in a news briefing on Aug. 26, 2020. (Governor Jared Polis Facebook) Senate Bill 24-210, passed by large bipartisan majorities in the General Assembly last month, included a variety of reforms to election security and administration broadly supported by voting rights groups and local elections officials. But it also contained a last-minute amendment introduced on the House floor by Democratic state Rep. Emily Sirota of Denver, enacting a series of hurdles that must be cleared before the new election system could go into effect. The Unite America model, which proponents champion as a cure for political extremism and dysfunction, would abolish partisan primaries in favor of an all-candidate primary, from which the top four vote-getters would advance. The four-candidate general election would be decided by ranked choice voting, also known as instant-runoff voting, a method in which voters rank as many or as few of the four candidates as they wish; candidates with the fewest first-place votes are eliminated until one candidate receives a majority. The system would apply to elections for U.S. House, U.S. Senate, governor and other statewide executive offices, and the state Legislature. Under SB-210, the proposed system could not take effect until a number of Colorado local governments meeting various population and demographic criteria have implemented ranked choice voting, and the Colorado secretary of state has completed an analysis of its implementation and impacts on historically under-represented communities. News of the amendments implications was broken last week by The Colorado Sun, which reported that the initiatives proponents were unaware of the roadblocks until contacted for the story. Unite America and a dozen groups that advocate for voting rights and election reform promptly urged Polis to veto SB-210 and what they called its egregious abuse of power. The Colorado County Clerks Association, which represents local elections officials from across the state and supported guardrails on a ranked choice voting rollout like those added to SB-210, had urged Polis to sign the bill. A coalition of left-leaning interest groups also lobbied against a veto, writing in a letter that Unite Americas proposal would enact expensive, untested, and inaccessible processes that hurt voters and disproportionately benefit money-backed candidates. Implementation by 2028? In a statement issued Thursday, Polis said that the provisions in the bill relating to ranked choice voting were included at the last moment and without proper stakeholding. If voters approve a ballot measure pertaining to those issues this November, the language in the bill will not be the starting point for implementation and it will be essential to reconcile the bill with the measure and to take prompt and good faith actions to successfully implement the will of the voters, Polis said. Polis statement was quickly echoed by top Democratic and Republican lawmakers, all of whom issued statements expressing nearly identical sentiments implying a legislative fix if Unite Americas ballot measure passes. Should voters adopt a ballot measure on multi-party primaries and ranked choice voting, notwithstanding language added to SB-210, we would always work in good faith to uphold the will and intent of the voters on a practicable timeline. Senate President Steve Fenberg of Boulder and House Speaker Julie McCluskie The problematic language in SB-210, said GOP Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen of Colorado Springs, must not serve as a starting point for any conversation about what the election process in Colorado looks like. Should voters adopt a ballot measure on multi-party primaries and ranked choice voting, notwithstanding language added to SB-210, we would always work in good faith to uphold the will and intent of the voters on a practicable timeline, while taking into account the very real and legitimate implementation issues identified by our local election administrators, Democratic Senate President Steve Fenberg of Boulder and House Speaker Julie McCluskie said in a statement. If a ballot initiative passes in the 2024 election related to ranked choice voting, I am committed to working with all sides on a process to find agreement on implementation of the initiative in a way that respects voter intent and the needs of our county clerks, said House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese, a Colorado Springs Republican. The ballot measure proposed by Thiry and his allies several different versions of which are still pending proposed the implementation of the new system in time for the 2026 election, when Colorado will elect a new governor to succeed the term-limited Polis. Some critics have speculated that a motive behind the reforms is to make it easier for Thiry who publicly mulled a run for governor as a Republican in 2017, then formally switched his registration to unaffiliated later that year to mount a gubernatorial bid. Polis said that he would work to implement an approved initiative as soon as practicable and certainly no later than the 2028 election cycle a timeline also endorsed by the Colorado County Clerks Association in a separate statement Thursday. The clerks remain committed to bringing forth our election expertise to any conversation that would reform our nationally recognized election model, the organizations statement read. If all system requirements are in place and voters pass the 2024 citizen ballot initiative regarding (ranked choice voting) and all-candidate primaries, implementation of the initiative duly passed by the people of Colorado can be done by 2028. DONATE: SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST Graffiti with images and messages referencing Ukraine appear on Paris buildings near Parliament A graffiti reading "Return the elections to the Ukrainians", in Ukrainian, is seen in Paris Friday, June 7, 2024 in Paris. Unusual spraypainted images and messages with references to Ukraine have appeared on the streets of Paris on Friday as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with U.S. President Joe Biden in the French capital.(AP Photo/Oleg Cetinic) PARIS (AP) Unusual spray-painted images and messages with references to Ukraine appeared on the streets of Paris on Friday as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with U.S. President Joe Biden in the French capital. It was unclear who sprayed the graffiti that has appeared on several buildings in central Paris near the Parliament complex and various government ministries. Some depicted coffins with stenciled signs in French that say A French soldier in Ukraine. Others include a sign that says in Ukrainian Return the elections back to Ukrainians. It was the latest of several strange incidents in recent months worrying French authorities as Paris prepares to host the Olympic Games in 50 days. Three people were detained and released Monday after they allegedly placed five coffins at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, a Paris landmark that will feature prominently in the upcoming games. Last month, graffiti showing red hands appeared on the Holocaust Memorial in Paris. And in October, soon after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, stencils of blue Stars of David appeared on Paris buildings. French authorities accused Russian security services of stirring up controversy around the stars. French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said both incidents involved people paid to destabilize and drive wedges in French society. The Russian Embassy in Paris denied any Russian involvement. Grand jury adds new charges in case alleging billing fraud by Kentucky drug clinics A federal grand jury has returned additional charges against three people accused of submitting fraudulent bills to federally funded health care programs. The three now face charges of aggravated identity theft, in addition to conspiracy and healthcare fraud charges included in an earlier indictment. Those named in the new indictment are Dr. Jose Alzadon, Michael Bregenzer and Barbie Vanhoose. The indictment says Alzadon worked at a series of clinics between October 2017 and late 2020 that went by different names, including Kentucky Addiction Centers, which had offices in Winchester and Paintsville. Bregenzer was a part-owner of the business and Vanhoose was the billing manager. The business purported to offer treatment for opioid use disorder, including by prescribing Suboxone, according to the indictment. Suboxone is used in addiction treatment because it curbs the effects of withdrawal from pain drugs. Alleged fraud scheme involves billing Alzadon, Bregenzer and Vahoose are accused of taking part in a scheme to submit bills to Medicaid and Medicare for services that a doctor at the clinics provided, when in fact that doctor didnt provide the service. The doctor was identified only as Doctor-1 in the indictment. The three created, or had others, create, false records for the claims, the indictment charges. The fraud also allegedly included billing the federally-funded insurance programs for services that werent medically necessary or for a higher level of service than clients received, called upcoding. The three also took part in using Doctor-1s name in writing prescriptions without authority, the indictment says. That resulted in the allegation of identity theft. In federal court, ID theft carries a mandatory minimum two-year sentence, to be imposed on top of any other prison time for someone convicted. The clinics provided prescriptions in the name of Doctor-1, but Alzadon actually authorized them, the indictment alleges. Charges against the three The three each face one charge of conspiracy to commit health care fraud; 10 charges of health care fraud; two counts of aggravated identity theft; and one charge of conspiracy to illegally distribute drugs. The most serious charge is the drug charge, punishable by up to 20 years in prison. A grand jury in Lexington returned the superseding indictment Thursday. Alzadon, Bregenzer and Vanhoose pleaded not guilty to the charges returned earlier in the case. Another owner of Kentucky Addiction Clinics, Kristy Berry, was initially charged with them but pleaded guilty last December to charges of conspiring to commit health care fraud and to illegally distribute drugs. The plea agreement in her case said the fraud resulted in a combined loss of $814,820 to Medicaid and Medicare between October 2017 and January 2021. Berry has not been sentenced. Grand jury indicts Glade Hill man on several gun, larceny charges FRANKLIN COUNTY, Va. (WFXR) A Glade Hill man has been indicted on more than eight charges that stemmed from several investigations from 2023 to 2024. Deputies said on June 3, a grand jury indicted 31-year-old Alan Michael Crook on the following charges: Two felony charges for Receipt of Stolen Firearm Three felony charges for Possession of Firearm by Convicted Felon One felony charge for Breaking & Entering w/ Intent to Commit Felony One felony charge for Grand Larceny One misdemeanor charge for Receiving Stolen Goods One misdemeanor charge for Obtaining Money by False Pretenses Man found with gunshot wound on Tazewell Avenue SE, RPD investigating Crook has been held at the Western Virginia Regional Jail since Feb. 2024 on 11 probation violation charges. The Sheriffs Office says he will remain incarcerated without bond. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFXRtv. DENVER (KDVR) A grand jury determined that no charges will be filed against officers who were involved with an in-custody death in December 2022 at the Adams County Detention Facility that the Adams County Coroner ruled was a homicide. Arthur Roybal died after a medical emergency while in custody, according to the 17th Judicial District Grand Jurys report about why they declined to press charges. Before his death, deputies placed Roybal face-down on a gurney to be transported for medical treatment, according to the report. While waiting for that transport, the inmate became unresponsive and stopped breathing. Man arrested on suspicion of distributing narcotics, connections to Sinaloa cartel A toxicology report showed he had methamphetamines in his system, and the Adams County Coroners Office determined he died of acute methamphetamine toxicity and a contributing factor was prolonged restraint in a prone position. The office ruled his manner of death as a homicide. Deputies, experts provided testimony on incident According to reports from deputies, Roybal was observed naked, grunting, and yelling incoherently while moving about the cell in an agitated state at around 7:27 a.m. on Dec. 24, 2022. Deputies reported trying to communicate with Roybal, but he continued his actions. By 7:32, deputies had entered Roybals cell and carried him downstairs to a medical gurney at the base of the stairwell, according to the grand jurys summary of video evidence provided. The report said that less than thirty seconds elapsed between when Roybal was lifted from his cell floor to when he was placed facedown. Officers also fastened gurney straps over Roybals back, which the grand jury reported took a couple of minutes, during which time Mr. Roybal continued to yell and breathe heavily. Deputies also could be heard on the video saying that Roybal was bleeding from his mouth, and because his struggles with the handcuffs appeared to be causing other lacerations, they tried to place a towel between him and the cuffs. The grand jury report said Roybal continued to pull at restraints until about 7:47 a.m. when he stopped breathing and appeared to lose consciousness. Shortly thereafter, deputies reportedly administered Narcan (an opioid reversal agent) and began CPR. Bomb squad disarms homemade fireworks at Cherry Creek State Park An expert also provided testimony about the video surveillance. According to the grand jurys report, the expert said that while there were other methods that he would have preferred to be used in removing Roybal from his cell, the deputies did not violate generally accepted practices in restraint. The expert also said the use of the gurney as a restraint device is not advisable, and deputies should have placed Roybal in a recovery position to ensure he could breathe without restriction. In the autopsy reports written opinion, the pathologist said Roybal would not have died if he was not intoxicated by methamphetamine. However, he said the prone restraint created a risk of respiratory compromise. Grand jury conclusions Ultimately, the grand jury concluded that Adams County Sheriffs Office deputies properly and appropriately recognized Roybals condition and created a plan to remove Roybal from his cell in an efficient and reasonable manner. However, the same individuals who appeared to act in Mr. Roybals best interest failed to exercise generally accepted best practices when they restrained him face down on the gurney thus increasing the risks associated with his medical condition, the grand jury wrote in its report. Furthermore, as reflected in ACSOs own policy on the use of restraints, inmates shall only be placed in a face up position, thus prohibiting putting a restrained individual in a prone position that would inhibit blood flow or breathing. Southwest passenger: Crying and screaming as plane makes emergency landing at DIA The jury concluded that there was no one person responsible for Roybals death and said none of the deputies involved had a criminal state of mind for their actions. They also noted that a sergeant involved in the incident told deputies not to use restraint devices that would have kept Roybal upright. To that end, the grand jury recommended the agency enhance its training on the use of restraint devices and risks associated with positional asphyxia. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. Attorney Ben Crump leads a chant at a rally on the Michigan State Capitol steps, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Chants for justice for individuals who had been killed by law enforcement in Grand Rapids were both shouted and sung Friday afternoon by local advocates and families impacted by police brutality on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol. Robert Womack, a former Kent County commissioner, organized the rally. He was accompanied by attorney Ben Crump, an attorney who has represented the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in police brutality cases; Ven Johnson, a civil rights lawyer from Michigan; and Hill Harper, an actor who is running to represent Michigan in the U.S. Senate. Harper is running against U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) in the Aug. 6 primary. On the Republican side, former U.S. Rep. Justin Amash (I-Cascade Twp.), physician Sherry ODonnell, businessman Sandy Pensler and former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-White Lake) are running. Several family members of people who had been killed at the hands of the police also spoke at the rally Friday. Participants called for greater transparency from state and local governments so they could better hold police officers accountable in their communities. Were here at the State Capitol of the state, Crump said. We wont go away until we get justice for Samuel Sterling. We wont let you sweep it under the rug. We wont let you forget about him. Justice for Samuel, participants chanted throughout the rally. Justice for Riley. Justice for Patrick. The rally followed the death of 25-year-old Kentwood resident Samuel Sterling. Michigan State Police Det. Sgt. Brian Keely struck Sterling with his vehicle during a pursuit on April 17. Sterling died from his injuries resulting from the crash. Last week, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed criminal charges against Keely, calling the former sergeants actions legally grossly negligent. Keely appeared in court in Kentwood this week and received a personal recognizance bond, meaning he didnt have to pay bail to remain out of police custody during the trial. Womack said the bond was a slap in the face to the family. Andrica Cage, the mother of Samuel Sterling, also spoke at the rally. That officer that killed my son walked in as a normal person, as if he was in the courtroom already with no handcuffs on, and he walked back out with no handcuffs on, Cage said. He did not get treated as a criminal. He might got charged as a criminal, but he did not get treated as one. Jermar Sterling, a cousin of Samuel Sterling, leads the crowd around the front of the Michigan State Capitol building, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Becky Wilbert, the mother of Riley Doggett, speaks to a crowd on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Peter Lyoya, the father of Patrick Lyoya, speaks to a crowd on the Michigan State Capitol steps, June 7, 2024. | Lucy Valeski Andrica Cage, the mother of Samuel Sterling, speaks to a crowd about her son's death on the Michigan Capitol Steps, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Actor Hill Harper, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat, addresses a crowd on the steps of the Michigan Capitol, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski A crowd listens to speakers demand more accountability from state police officers on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Taylor Daniels, the sister of Riley Doggett, addresses a crowd on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol, June 7, 2024. | Lucy Valeski Becky Wilbert, the mother of Riley Doggett, speaks to a crowd on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Attorney Ben Crump speaks to a crowd at a rally on the Michigan State Capitol steps, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Michael Sterling, the father of Samuel Sterling, addresses a crowd at the steps of the Michigan State Capitol, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Andrica Cage, the mother of Samuel Sterling, speaks to a crowd about her son's death on the Michigan Capitol Steps, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Attorney Ben Crump speaks to a crowd at a rally on the Michigan State Capitol steps, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Attorney Ben Crump speaks to a crowd at a rally on the Michigan State Capitol steps, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Actor Hill Harper, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat, addresses a crowd on the steps of the Michigan Capitol, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Andrica Cage, the mother of Samuel Sterling, speaks to a crowd about her son's death on the Michigan Capitol Steps, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Lawyer Ven Johnson addresses a crowd on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Jermar Sterling, a cousin of Samuel Sterling, speaks at the Michigan State Capitol building, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Jermar Sterling, a cousin of Samuel Sterling, leads the crowd around the front of the Michigan State Capitol building, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Taylor Daniels, the sister of Riley Doggett, addresses a crowd on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol, June 7, 2024. | Lucy Valeski Actor Hill Harper, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat, addresses a crowd on the steps of the Michigan Capitol, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Attorney Ben Crump speaks to a crowd at a rally on the Michigan State Capitol steps, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Andrica Cage, the mother of Samuel Sterling, speaks to a crowd about her son's death on the Michigan Capitol Steps, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Becky Wilbert, the mother of Riley Doggett, speaks to a crowd on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Attorney Ben Crump speaks to a crowd at a rally on the Michigan State Capitol steps, June 7, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Also in April, a police officer in the Grand Rapids area killed 17-year-old Riley Doggett after striking him with his card in another pursuit. The Kent county prosecutor, Chris Becker, decided not to press charges against the officer, Deputy Josiah McMains. Police brutality aimed at Black residents in the Grand Rapids area has a long history, the Advance previously reported. Two years ago, unarmed motorist Patrick Lyoya was shot by the police. His father, Peter Lyoya, was present at Fridays rally. Many of the forces that contribute to police brutality are systemic, Harper said. He made a list of demands from the government, asking for transparency, investigations, video footage, mental health support, medical attention for those in police custody and better support for people on probation or parole. Crump and Womack, along with many of the other speakers, talked about how widespread video footage made it easier to hold police accountable. However, they called on the government to make footage more easily accessible and for prosecutors to watch the videos when making decisions. To Attorney General Nessel, I give a little advice to your prosecutors, and I cant even take credit for it Dont say no more, watch the video, Crump said. Crump also called for legislation that would force employers to terminate police officers who are charged with a crime. Doggetts mother, Becky Wilbert, spoke about the unnecessary use of force from the police officers and asked the AG to press charges against McMains. Nobodys body stands a chance against a vehicle, Wilbert said. I would like to ask Dana Nessel to please review the case and charge the officers. Many other members of Sterlings, Doggetts and Lyoyas families spoke during the protest about their concerns surrounding policing and a need for justice for their families. I need the world to know, theres no justice here in America, said Peter Lyoya. Theres no justice here in America. The officer still sleeps [at his] home, [at] his house with his kids, but Patrick is underground for two years, so I need justice for Patrick. The post Grand Rapids residents call for greater transparency in police brutality cases appeared first on Michigan Advance. Great white shark off the coast, VSP search for driver, manatee in river | Top WAVY stories this week HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) Take a look at some of the top stories on WAVY.com from the week of June 3. Click here for more local news. WAVY Local News Under pressure: Truckers exceed own limits to make deliveries A deadly local crash involving a tractor-trailer and a party bus in 2022 has led to alarming revelations about the current state of the trucking industry. Great white shark pings off coast of Outer Banks The 9-foot-7 inch, 578-pound Keji just recently pinged off the North Carolina coast, just east of Kitty Hawk, on Tuesday, per shark tracking organization OCEARCH. VSP search for suspect driver after Warwick Blvd crash splits car in two Virginia State Police are still searching for a suspect after a vehicle crash early Wednesday morning. Gov. Youngkin says VMSDEP needs to be dealt with by the end of June Gov. Glenn Youngkin said families have called him saying they are unsure how their children will attend college in the fall, and that those families need answers by the end of the month. 18-year-old shot at Mt. Trashmore arrested on gun violations maintains innocence The 18-year-old who was shot at Mount Trashmore on May 25 and was arrested in connection to the incident there maintained his innocence in a jailhouse interview. Manatee found on Lafayette River is first spotted in Norfolk since 2022 A viewer sent a video of the manatee to WAVYs Report It! that shows it sticking its snout out of the water on Sunday. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WAVY.com. The Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Kobakhidze, criticized the United States, calling the MEGOBARI Act initiated in the US Congress "a dishonorable act" that will not help Georgia-US relations.The MEGOBARI Act (Mobilizing and Enhancing Georgia's Options for Building Accountability, Resilience, and Independence Act) was introduced by Republican Congressman Joe Wilson. The act proposes repercussions for individuals responsible for adopting or potentially implementing the "Russian-style foreign agents" law in Georgia, while also promising increased financial assistance and an eased visa regime for Georgia if the country strengthens its democratic and Western alignment.Kobakhidze also criticized a letter sent by opposition parties to Joe Wilson urging Congress and the Senate to expedite the MEGOBARI Act, calling it "a continuation of betrayal."Amid the ruling party's anti-Western rhetoric, Kobakhidze further accused former US ambassador Kelly Degnan of "two attempts at revolution.""This is a continuation of treason. It is cynical when the law being discussed in Congress, which is called the 'friendly' act, is directly hostile. I would call this law the 'DAUDZINEBELI' [unyielding] law; such a title would be more appropriate. It's a pity, all this will not help the improvement of Georgia-US relations.There were two coup attempts in 2020-2021, then in 2022 involving the previous US ambassador. Against this background, when people think not about healing and restarting the relationship, but about further ruining this broken one, it is sad. I call on everyone to act pragmatically and contribute to the improvement of Georgian-US relations," said Kobakhidze.The Minister of Culture, Thea Tsulukiani, has called the visa restrictions imposed by the US State Department "another mistake." Speaking on the air of Imedi TV, she expressed regret over the decision, describing it as detrimental to both countries' strategic partnership."I can boldly say that this is another mistake that the United States of America makes in relations with its strategic partner, unfortunately, unfortunately for them, unfortunately for us.From this, we must assume that after this next mistake, other mistakes will be made. This will further extend the time it takes in a mutual relationship to reach the day when the page begins to be turned, and the relationship resets.Of course, the United States needs to rethink these relations first. We will wait for this day because we were and are committed to our strategic partnership. We have never refused the United States and friendship with them," said Tsulukiani. BAGHDAD, June 7 (Xinhua) -- As the dusk rush for dinner peaks, the KFC outlets on Palestine Street and in Karrada neighborhood in Iraq's capital Baghdad stand eerily empty. Nearby, several police cars are on high alert, with armed Iraqi security forces patrolling the area, as the past few days have witnessed these two American fast-food franchises being attacked multiple times. In a recent surge of violence against American businesses in Iraq, attacks have become alarmingly frequent. According to local media, two motorcyclists hurled an explosive device at the KFC on Palestine Street on May 26. The following day, a group of masked men wielding guns and clubs stormed the KFC in Karrada, smashing furniture and other equipment, leaving shattered glass strewn across the floor. On the same day, another American restaurant Chili House and Lee's also came under attack. Early in the morning of May 30, a branch of the American company Caterpillar in Baghdad was targeted with a sound grenade. Analysts said that these American businesses have become targets mainly due to the perceived U.S. favoritism towards Israel in the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which has infuriated the Arab world, including Iraq. Ding Long, a professor at Shanghai International Studies University, echoed this sentiment, noting that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has ignited a new round of anti-American wave in Iraq as people believe that the United States has shown partiality for Israel, which is the root cause of the Palestinian issue and the Palestinian national tragedy. On May 26, Israel bombed a tent camp housing displaced people in Gaza's southern city of Rafah, killing dozens and sparking widespread condemnation. The White House's claim that Israeli operations and attacks in Rafah do not constitute a major ground operation that crosses any U.S. red lines appears to be the blasting fuse that ignited the latest wave of anti-American sentiment in Iraq. "Since the outbreak of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict last October, the United States has continuously indulged Israel, sending it a constant supply of weapons while ignoring the living hell that Gaza has become," said Ali, a Baghdad resident. "How many more innocent lives need to be lost before the U.S. is willing to stop the disaster?" Ali asked. According to health authorities in the Palestinian enclave, since the Palestinian-Israeli conflict broke out last October, Israeli military actions in Gaza have resulted in over 36,000 Palestinian deaths and more than 82,000 injuries, the majority of whom are women and children. Additionally, due to blockades and famine, Palestinians in Gaza are facing severe survival crises. "Iraq has endured years of war and conflict, especially since the U.S. invasion in 2003. We empathize with the Palestinian people and stand firmly with them, hoping this catastrophe will end soon," said Omar, a retired Iraqi civil servant with gray hair. The recent spate of attacks on American businesses in Iraq offers just a glimpse of the broader anti-American sentiment in Iraq. Since last October, Baghdad has seen countless anti-U.S. and anti-Israel protests, while the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has launched hundreds of attacks on U.S. military bases in Iraq and Syria, as well as Israeli targets. Additionally, calls from the Iraqi government, militia groups, and the public for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq have grown louder. Following the Israeli attack on the Rafah tent camp, Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr even called for the closure of the U.S. embassy in Iraq and the expulsion of the American ambassador. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski condemned on the social media X the violent attacks against U.S. businesses, noting that "these attacks endanger Iraqi lives and property, and could weaken Iraq's ability to attract foreign investment." The frequent attacks may endanger the security and stability of Iraq and further deteriorate the U.S.-Iraq relations, Ding said. Western brands in many parts of the world have faced boycotts and other protests during the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Media reports indicate that in Malaysia, over 100 KFC outlets were temporarily closed in April, while Americana Restaurants -- the Middle East and North Africa franchisee of fast-food chains including KFC and Pizza Hut -- reported that its net profits halved in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period last year due to ongoing geopolitical tensions in the region. "Wherever there is America, there is endless turmoil," said Saeed, a university student in Baghdad, adding: "The U.S. supports Israel's killing of Palestinian civilians, so we resolutely boycott American products. Justice will prevail in the end!" There are so few left from so many. The 80th anniversary of D-Day on June 6 was yet another reminder of how thin the ranks have become of those who served this nation in World War II. Of the around 16 million Americans who did their duty, about 119,000 were still breathing as of 2023. From this cohort of extraordinary survivors, I know of fewer than a dozen Americans who actually saw action on that day in 1944, arguably the most momentous date of the 20th century. As the 80th anniversary commemorations were underway in Normandy, in my role as resident historian for Friends of the National WWII Memorial, I stood at the memorial in Washington, D.C., reading out loud the names of some 9,000 Americans who died on D-Day and during the subsequent Battle of Normandy. Indeed, I would rather visit the fallen and the sands where they died when there are no crowds, no politicians spouting platitudes, when I can be alone with my memories of soldiers Ive met who helped save the world on D-Day. Every time I go there, I hesitate before I walk down weather-beaten steps onto the golden sands. I feel the spirits. Then Im standing on Omaha Beachs Dog Green sector, the deadliest place on that day. It was there that more than half of A Company, 116th Infantry Regiment, died in the first wave of Americans to land on that longest of days 80 years ago. The 1998 film Saving Private Ryan opened with a harrowing recreation of the slaughter. On Omaha Beach, I say thanks to the warriors Ive met who fought there and have since passed away. The first D-Day veteran I befriended was Sgt. Bob Slaughter from Roanoke, Virginia, who counted himself extremely lucky to have survived D-Day as an 18-year-old, because his landing craft came ashore hundreds of yards from where it was scheduled to land and therefore fires and smoke provided a modicum of protection from relentless machine gun fire. Fifty years later, he stood on Omaha Beach with President Bill Clinton to commemorate the battles anniversary. Until he died in 2012, Slaughter honored his dead buddies from D Company of the 116th Infantry Regiment11 were killed on D-Day. More than any other veteran, he helped during the research for my 2003 book, The Bedford Boys: One American Towns Ultimate D-Day Sacrifice. When I interviewed him, he was brutally honest about combat: Your best hope was for a million-dollar wound, nice clean sheets and a pretty nurse. You didnt want it in the groin or stomach but the legs, shoulders, hands. That would have been wonderful. Fingers didnt count. Slaughter also introduced me to Roy Stevens, a Bedford boy who lost his identical twin brother, Ray, on D-Dayone of 19 men from Bedford County, Virginia, who served in the 116ths A Company who gave their lives on D-Day. Every time I met Roy, often at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, he would tell me: Freedom is not free. When you lose your twin and so many childhood friends in combat, those words are no mere slogan. Lt. Ray Nance knew only too well that democracy comes at a price. He was the only officer from Bedford to return home, half his heel shot away, having staggered across Omaha Beach as the tide flooded in behind him, washing away those too badly wounded to crawl. He was so traumatized by the events of that day that he refused to speak to me about his experiences until after I begged him to describe the carnage before he passed away so that at least there would be a record. Seven years before his death in 2009, he told me he remembered trying in vain to dig a hole in the beach with his hands so he could hide from a machine gunner who sent volley after volley of bullets toward him: Hed send a line of bullets my way, pass on to another target and then come back for me, like he was playing cat and mouse. Nance turned and faced the bullets head-on, making his body a harder target. He said God saved him on D-Day, but he was not spared from enormous survivors guilt. He delivered mail around Bedford after the war and recalled parents of dead Bedford boys shunning him, enraged at his return when so many sons had come home in coffins. Pvt. Bob Sales of Lynchburg, Virginia, recounted hilarious tales of nights in cold pubs sipping warm beer, of his encounters with skinny English girls during his many months of training before D-Day, and of dancing with wild abandon to Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller in London. Just 18 years old, he landed in the second wave on Omaha Beach and used the corpses of other Americans to shield himself from a hailstorm of bullets. He was the only man on his landing craft who survived. D-Day was the longest day, he said. Theres no doubt about that. But for those who survived it was just one day. I had a hundred and eighty to go. I couldnt begin to tell you how many men right beside me got killed. One D-Day anniversary more than a decade ago, I walked across Omaha Beach with a small and wiry former Army Ranger called Dan Farley. He needed a couple of whiskey shots before he recrossed the beach for the first time since 1944. He didnt say a word until a few hours later, while standing amid the huge bomb and shell craters at Pointe du Hoc, which was seized by his fellow Rangers after they had scaled high cliffs in one of the most dramatic and heroic operations of D-Day. He would never forget the bullets whipping through his legs and buzzing past his head, saying they sounded like honeybees. Farley had passed away in 2017 by the time I met Leon Gautier, a French commando who landed at Sword Beach. Gautier was one of some 200 Frenchmen who had the immense honor of fighting to free their homeland. I interviewed Gautier, who died last year at age 102, in his home in Ouistreham, less than a mile from where he had attacked several German pillboxes. After the war, he had moved to the very town he had helped liberate. His green commando beret was his most prized possession. Every June 6 he placed a wreath to his fallen comrades at a memorial within walking distance of his home. He told me a new generation must now ensure that Europe is never again enslaved. Others must now be vigilant. While researching my book, The First Wave, about the first to fight on June 6, I came across Warren Goss, now 99, who landed on Utah Beach before the first wave of soldiers, tasked with providing covering fire for engineers as they destroyed beach defenses. The Germans had obstaclesbig iron crosses stuck in the sandand they had mines tied to them, Goss said. I took cover under the obstacles as best I could. I was lying by one of these things being shot at, only they werent shooting at me. They were trying to hit the mines to blow a lot of people up. Goss fought to the end of the war, witnessing the death of so many Americans, some of the more than 400,000 who died in WWII to set others free and earn this nation the greatest respect it has ever known. This week, Goss was in Normandy for the 80th anniversary, staying with a French family not far from Utah Beach. On June 6 this year, as I read out the names of some of the more than 2,000 Americans who died on D-Day, I thought of another D-Day warrior, Maj. Gen. John Raaen, the last surviving officer from the 34,000 Americans who landed on Omaha Beach and a Silver Star recipient. As a captain in the 5th Ranger Battalion, he arrived in the third wave around 7:50 a.m., was wounded six months later, and went on to serve his country for 36 years in all. Ill always treasure a selfie I took with him in his living room in Florida, his many medals filling a display case nearby. He is now 102 and unable to do interviews because, as he explained earlier this year, he finds it hard physically and mentally to respond to all the demands of our society. He previously told me that on June 6, 1944, amid the din of death, he could hear a constant Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop as bullets passed just overhead: The machine gun fire was absolutely continuous. A few weeks ago, in a chateau in Normandy, I celebrated another D-Day heros upcoming 100th birthday. Charles Shay, a Penobscot tribal elder from Maine, is the last living medic from the legion of life-savers who did their best to help wounded young Americans on Omaha Beach. Shay lost a close friend, Pvt. Edward Morozewicz, but managed to save others that day, pulling them from the blood-red shallows to safety: [Morozewicz] had a wound that I could not help him with because I did not have the proper instruments. He was bleeding to death. And I knew that he was dying. I tried to comfort him. And I tried to do what I could for him, but there was no help. He died in my arms. Shay now lives in Normandy, far from Maine, cared for by a wonderful French woman, and will be 100 on June 27. This weekend, Ill think about all these men and also about a remarkable woman, Lucille Hoback Boggess, who turns 95 on June 8. She had to wait more than six weeks to find out what had happened to her brothers, Raymond and Bedford Hoback, two of the Bedford boys, on D-Day. The only time she saw her father cry was when he walked to a barn on the familys farm having received the second of two telegrams informing him in July 1944 that he had lost both his sons. Bedford Hoback is buried at the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, not far from where he was killed, surrounded by 9,386 white crosses, perfectly aligned, headstones facing west, toward the New World, toward home. Raymond Hobacks name is inscribed on the Wall of the Missing in the same graveyard, alongside some 1,500 warriors whose bodies were never found. You wonder what they might have done with their lives, how Bedford would be different if all those boys had come home, Lucille once told me. You never forget. I miss them every day. On my most recent visit to Normandy, I paid my respects to the Hoback brothers and so many others who made the ultimate sacrifice, observing a minutes silence. I also walked across Omaha Beach. The tide was out. I stepped over runnels, in awe of the grit and courage of the citizen soldiers who landed 80 years ago as part of what Allied Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower called the Great Crusadethe liberation of Northwestern Europe from Nazism, a genocidal evil that plunged the Old World into five years of darkness and left some 19 million Europeans dead. Next year, and every year until I can no longer walk, Ill go back to Normandy. Ill squat down, again touch the sands on Omaha Beach, and thank God the Allies succeeded on D-Day. Ill marvel at the enormity of the greatest gift the United States has ever bestowed. For 80 years, the longest period in history, the Europe set free by my American heroes has enjoyed what so many of us take so much for grantedpeace and democracy. And every time I return, Ill repeat to myself the words inscribed on the wall of the chapel in the Colleville-sur-Mer graveyard above Omaha Beach: Think not only upon their passing. Remember the glory of their spirit. Read more at The Dispatch The Dispatch is a new digital media company providing engaged citizens with fact-based reporting and commentary, informed by conservative principles. Sign up for free. From the Boiling Frogs on The Dispatch From time to time in this newsletter, we take up the question of cynic or convert? Nearly every conservative of significance within the Republican Party has reconciled themselves to Trumpism since 2016, but the earnestness with which theyve done so varies. Many are careerists who privately despise Donald Trump and what he stands for but despise the idea of losing their political stature just a little more. Theyve pledged their fealty because they had to, not because they wanted to. Theyre cynics. Other conservatives started out despising Trump but have grown to idolize the man and his movement. A few might have been won over to populist-nationalism on the ideological merits (giggle) but for most, I think, the appeal is more primal. MAGA politics is a daily bath of authoritarian fervor, cultural outrage, and insatiable suspicion that malicious conspiracies are afoot in every part of society. Whatever may have motivated these conservatives to join the cult, theyre enthusiastic converts now. Usually, its pretty easy to tell one type from the other. Nikki Haley is an obvious cynic. Her years-long half-hearted vacillation about whether Trump is fit for office is clearly a ploy to try to preserve her viability in the GOP in case the party comes to its senses someday. Contrast her with Mike Lee, who holds a safe Senate seat and is unlikely to occupy any higher office (hopefully!), yet chatters manically about Trumpist priorities on social media day in and day out. Hes a convert, a true fanatic. Which one is Marco Rubio? Not long ago, I would have called the senator from Florida a textbook example of a cynic. No one spoke more presciently in 2016 about the long-term civic damage that would be done to right-wing politics and to America if Republicans embraced Trumpism. And no one described Trumps personal unfitness for the presidency in terms as stark. At times on the trail that year, Rubio was visibly shaken by how easily Reagan conservatism had been co-opted by a lowbrow demagogue. When he made peace with Trump after the primary, it was a straightforward matter of an ambitious young Republican who knew better choosing to protect his perch in the GOP. Pure cynicism, same as Haley. Is it still so straightforward today? Marco Rubio is a curious case from the cynic or convert? perspective because even at this late date, I think, one can plausibly argue the question either way. There are reasons to believe hes become a glassy-eyed MAGA zealot. And there are reasons to believe he remains an opportunist red in tooth and claw, possibly even a quietly idealistic one. But either way, no one on the American right embodies the corruption of conservatism quite like Marco Rubio does. So much so that his ending up as Trumps running mate this year feels like the only fitting conclusion to the GOPs descent into civic degeneracy since 2016. A bit of trivia about Marco Rubio that sticks in my mind is that he never thanked the Tea Party in his Senate victory speech in 2010. Oversights happen, but that was an odd one. Earlier that year, Rubio had been touted by the New York Times as The First Senator from the Tea Party. His longshot Senate primary challenge to centrist favorite Charlie Crist was celebrated by grassroots conservatives throughout the campaign as a populist insurrection against the stale Republican establishment. Rubio had every reason to spike the ball on their behalf on election night. He did not. I dont think it was an oversight. I think for most of his career he was uncomfortable with populism and keen to keep it at arms length. The distress he evinced in 2016 about the, shall we say, animal spirits Trump had unleashed on the right was sincere. Marco Rubio didnt want to burn down the system. Remember, as a young politician in Florida, he was an ally (if not quite a mentee) of Jeb Bush. After he joined the Senate, his biggest legislative initiative was a bipartisan immigration reform bill. Until recently, he reliably supported foreign interventions favored by the so-called foreign-policy blob in D.C. When he ran for president in 2016, he was the clear favorite of the same establishment class that had championed Crist in his 2010 Senate race. More so than even Haley, who ended up endorsing him, Rubio symbolized center-right conservatisms potential to gain converts among blocs like young adults and nonwhites who traditionally favored the left. He was the future of the GOPthe Republican savior, as Time magazine had dubbed him in 2013. Then he got smoked by Trump in the primary. And, no doubt to Rubios private horror, Trump did not get smoked by Hillary Clinton in the general election. The shelf life of gonzo right-wing populism would be extended by four years, at least. The senator, then just 45 years old, decided to play along with the new leader of his party rather than burn any bridges (or retire), but his discomfort with Trumps politics still flared occasionally. In 2018 he published an op-ed in defense of nationalism that resorted to blatantly misdefining the concept so that Rubio could find something praiseworthy to say about it. A true American nationalism isnt about a national identity based on race, religion or ethnicity, he wrote. Instead, it is based on our identity as a nation committed to the idea that all people are created equal, with a God-given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The true nationalism he described there sounds suspiciously like classical liberalism, which Marco Rubio has always preferred. It sure doesnt sound like Trumpist nationalism, the point of which is to identify and subjugate various tribal enemies within. A movement bent on distinguishing real Americans from others is, by definition, not gung ho on the idea of a shared national identity. But this is the sort of thing Rubio had to tell himself to make his pacification during Trumps presidency tolerable. He was biding his time until 2020, when MAGA would at last lose at the polls and Republicans would begin to tilt back toward conservatism. Trump did lose, and Rubio remained enough of a principled conservative after the election to resist the Republican effort to block Congress from certifying Joe Bidens electoral votes. But then a funny thing happened: Republicans didnt tilt back toward conservatism. They tilted further toward Trump. And thats when Marco Rubio began to change. The 2020 election and its aftermath taught the senator two lessons, I think. One was that Trumpy politics wasnt a passing fad. The shelf life of indefensible populism had been extended again, this time indefinitely as right-wing voters evinced no interest in reverting to Reagan-style politics. Rubio could make peace with that or not, but there was no longer any point to biding his time and waiting for Republicans to change. The other lesson was the shifting nature of Trumps electoral coalition. Although he fell short against Biden, he made significant gains with Hispanicsand Rubio took a keen interest in it. A week after Election Day, he crowed with excitement to reporters that the future of the party is based on a multiethnic, multiracial working-class coalition. Hes continued to use that phrase in the years since, and no wonder: If Hispanic voters are warming up to a more populist GOP, the GOPs most prominent Hispanic politician will surely grow in stature and influence within his party. Its no coincidence that, as Trumps polling with Hispanics has improved further in 2024, Rubio has become a top-tier candidate for the vice presidency. In short, Trump has actually done what Rubio hypothetically would have as the Republican nominee in 2016: make inroads with an important constituency that traditional conservatives like Mitt Romney and John McCain struggled with. Imagine Rubio digesting that fact in early 2021 while also confronting the hard reality that populism in the GOP is here to stay. Under that sort of psychological stress, its easy to see how he might have begun to appreciate certain political virtues of Trumpism and how his cynicism might have started to give way to an earnest conversion. Emphasis on might. If Rubio is a convert to populist policy, its thus far a partial conversion. For instance, when he took the unusual step as a Republican of siding with workers in a union drive at an Amazon facility in early 2021, he specified that he was doing so only because Amazon had decided to wage culture war against working-class values. Thats an idiotic position on the meritsunionization isnt about forcing management to be less wokebut it was, it seems, the best a natural conservative like him could do to talk himself into solidarity with labor. As another example, Rubio remains enough of a hawk to have partnered with Democrats last year on a bill clarifying that the president has no power to withdraw the United States from its treaty with NATO without approval from the Senate. The target of that legislation is obvious, and it aint Joe Biden. But Rubio is also now enough of a skeptic of the Western coalition to have voted twice this year against further aid to Ukraine, justifying his refusal to do so on America First grounds that securing the southern border should be a higher priority. Try to imagine pre-Trump Marco Rubio, the Republican face of the so-called Gang of Eight in 2013, abandoning an American ally to Russian conquest because illegal immigration needs to be solved first. And then voting against the bipartisan immigration enforcement bill negotiated by GOP Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma back in February. Cynic or convert? Are these examples of Rubio saying what he knows he needs to say to boost his VP stock? Or has the pressure to conform to Trumpy populism finally gotten to him? Hes a sellout either way, of course. But to fully appreciate just what a sellout hes become, consider how deep into the tank hes gone lately to defend Trumps most destructive illiberal impulses. Weeks ago, he was asked on Meet the Press whether hed accept the results of the presidential election. For the Marco Rubio of 2016, righteously anxious about Trumpisms corrosion of norms, that would have been an easy question. For the Rubio of 2024, a populist fanatic in earnest or a pretender angling for a spot on the national ticket, its a stumper: WATCH: Will you accept the results of the 2024 no matter who wins? @kwelkernbc asks.@SenMarcoRubio (R-Fla): "No matter what happens? No, if it's an unfair election." Welker: "Senator, no matter who wins." Rubio: "I think you're asking the wrong person." pic.twitter.com/OnuiovsKDs Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) May 19, 2024 Last week, after Trump was convicted in Manhattan, Rubio seized the opportunity to display his new populist bona fides in full flower. Partly that meant stooping to the sort of undignified pugilistic hyperbole thats common on partisan social media Our current President is a demented man propped up by wicked & deranged people willing to destroy our country to remain in power Its time to fight with pic.twitter.com/InzXGdWCXm Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) May 31, 2024 but much worse was how hard the senator strained to equate the verdict against Trump with the sort of show trial that one sees in communist countries. In an op-ed for Newsweek, Rubio described Trump as a hostage, implied that a jury in a liberal jurisdiction like Manhattan couldnt possibly have been fair, and uncorked a long culture-war rant that ended with gripes about our ruling class of oligarchs and alleged experts. Read his piece and youll find it indistinguishable from something you might see at American Greatness; a vote for any candidate other than Trump, Rubio concluded, is a vote to criminalize the traditional American way of life. Theres a lot we might say (and have said) about Trumps trial in New York, but one thing it wasnt was a show trial. Rubio, whose parents fled Castros Cuba, knows what a show trial is; he knows that the defendant in one doesnt receive due process or appeals; and he knows what sentence is usually imposed after the inevitable guilty verdict. That he would argue otherwise means that his cynicism has reached the point where hes now willing to tell any lie on Trumps behalf or his conversion has metastasized to the point where he truly can no longer see the difference between a trial in America and a show trial. Rubio is a picture-perfect caricature of what he feared eight years ago that Republicans would become under Trumps influence. Popularity is not leadership. It never has been, Rubio told an audience in 2006. Leaders tell people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. Almost 20 years later, his ethos has become the precise opposite, rendering him a sort of ventriloquists dummyLittle Marco, we might call himfor the most repulsive political figure in modern American history. In a party overflowing with weak, disgraceful conservative sellouts to authoritarianism, he might be the very weakest. But as I said, Rubio would be the perfect running mate. And not just because he might help win over Hispanics. Trumps takeover of the old GOP is like a barbarian horde invading a kingdom and conquering it. In that circumstance, it wouldnt be unusual for the defeated monarchy to marry off one of its princesses to the barbarian king in order to cement the union of their tribes going forward. Princess Marco will be an ideal bride for King Donald, joining the conservative future in formal partnership to the populist present. Putting Rubio, the great establishment hope of 2016, on the ticket could convince many reluctant Reaganites who supported Nikki Haley in this years primaries that its worth rolling the dice on Trump one more time in November, if only to give Princess Marco a chance of becoming President Marco. The conservative dream of 2016 might be realized after all! Itll just have taken a, shall we say, circuitous route to becoming reality. If youre very favorably disposed to Marco Rubio and desperate to believe that hes still the idealist of 2016 deep down, you can even concoct a scenario in which hes been secretly working on behalf of Reaganism all along. If he ends up as VP and Trump dies in office, partisan pressure on the right to support the new president will give Rubio political cover to implement some traditionally conservative policies if hes so inclined. Under his leadership, the right might become more classically liberal by 2028 than it is in 2024. If so, if this is all a sort of long con to put Rubio in a position where he might restore sanity, his efforts to ingratiate himself to Trump might be justified retroactively. But I wouldnt bet that Senator Show Trial is bluffing. And if Trump doesnt die in office and Rubio is counting on parlaying the vice presidency into winning his partys nomination in 2028, I have news for him: Its not going to happen. I think. If Marco Rubio went all-in on Marjorie Taylor Greene-style populism as Trumps No. 2 and Trump endorsed him in 2028, hed admittedly have a solid shot at the nomination. But theres a lot of pre-Trump Republican stink on him that would need to be scrubbed off and Im not sure that anything could do it. He speaks demagogue as a second language and true populists can tell, as surely as one can tell by a persons accent if theyre a native or from somewhere else. Marco Rubio is an immigrant in MAGA-land and the locals dont like immigrants. He can prattle on forever about a multiethnic, multiracial, working-class coalition but to be the peoples choice in this lousy party hell need to become considerably more Trumpy than he already is. More argle-bargle about real Americans; more hysterical attacks on institutions like the justice system; more betrayals of U.S. allies under fire like Ukraine. To fulfill his presidential dreams he will, quite simply, need to become one of the most loathsome figures in a movement thats already top-heavy with them. Im confident he has it in him. Hes well on his way. Read more at The Dispatch The Dispatch is a new digital media company providing engaged citizens with fact-based reporting and commentary, informed by conservative principles. Sign up for free. Over the last week, 31-year-old Taylor Edwards has had a lot to process emotionally. Since becoming a plaintiff in Zurawski v. State of Texas, a landmark case that sought to clarify a confusing exception to the states abortion laws, she has repeatedly had to relive the worst day of her life. Her story began when she and her husband happily learned she was pregnant in November 2022 after two years of in vitro fertilization. But at 17 weeks of gestation, the couple found out devastating news at an anatomy scan: her fetus had a fatal condition called encephalocele and would die at or before birth. It causes a sac-like protrusion of brain tissue coming out of an opening in the skull and impacts about 1 in 10,000 babies born in the U.S. After a confirmed diagnosis, she was told by her doctors that they couldnt help her if she wanted to terminate the pregnancy. Edwards found a clinic in New Mexico, but three hours before her flight, the clinic canceled due to a shortage of medication needed for the procedure. Taylor was eventually able to obtain an abortion at a Colorado clinic two weeks later. But during those two weeks, she started to get sick and vomit daily. Still, Edwards was unable to access abortion care in Texas because she wasnt imminently dying. The experience has had lasting effects emotionally and physically. After the procedure, because of my delayed care, my doctor believes that my scarring of my uterus was made much worse, Edwards told Salon in a phone interview. And so I had to undergo a procedure to kind of repair the scarring before I could even begin IVF again. Edwards gave birth to a healthy boy in March of this year, but her postpartum has been coupled with awaiting the ruling in the lawsuit filed against the state of Texas on behalf of 20 women, including Edwards, who had pregnancy complications, and were denied abortion care as a result of the states near-total ban on abortion. The group of plaintiffs argued that the language of the law was ambiguous and that it results in a culture of fear and uncertainty among doctors as to when they can legally provide abortions in emergency, life-threatening situations. If physicians violate the law in Texas, they face up to 99 years in prison, loss of their medical license and at least $100,000 in fines. But last week, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that despite the horrific stories told by plaintiffs, the states abortion bans are clear in their exceptions. Texas law permits a life-saving abortion, the court wrote. Under the Human Life Protection Act, a physician may perform an abortion if, exercising reasonable medical judgment, the physician determines that a woman has a life-threatening physical condition that places her at risk of death or serious physical impairment unless an abortion is performed. Want more health and science stories in your inbox? Subscribe to Salon's weekly newsletter Lab Notes. The Texas Supreme Court also said that as painful as such circumstances are, referring to fatal fetal anomalies, the law does not authorize abortions for diagnosed fetal conditions absent a life-threatening complication to the mother does not render it unconstitutional. Edwards said after the ruling she is feeling at a loss and continually more upset. How the Supreme Court could hear our stories and our real, lived experiences and decide that no, they were OK with what was happening in Texas, Edwards said. Thats been really hard to wrap your brain around because when you go through something super traumatic and you think people would make a change if they know what's happening, and that they are OK with it its really difficult. Lead plaintiff Amanda Zurawski was denied abortion care after she experienced preterm prelabor rupture of membranes (PPROM) at 18 weeks of pregnancy. Zurawski ended up in the ICU for days with sepsis after being denied an abortion. In an Instagram video, she said the ruling was a gut punch and heartbreaking. Physicians have been begging to have these statutes interpreted in medical language so that they can understand that they can apply, and that's what the trial court did, Marc Hearron, counsel for the plaintiff, told Salon in a phone interview. And the Texas Supreme Court's opinion wiped that away and says, we understand that these exceptions may not be super clear, but there's nothing we can or will do about it. The ruling by the Texas Supreme Court did provide clarity and say an abortion is recommended to prevent a womans death or serious bodily injury if she develops preterm pre-labor rupture of membranes (or PPROM). However, Hearron said, if physicians have to engage in documentation requirements that have been suggested by the Texas Medical Board, hes skeptical PPROM will be able to be properly treated. Hearron said he believes Texas is an outlier compared to other states that have had similar lawsuits asking to clarify and expand abortion-law exceptions. Any time this issue has come up before the highest court in a state, that state has recognized a right under the state constitution to terminate a pregnancy when needed to preserve the patient's life and health, and they read the life exception very broadly, he said. We've seen that in Oklahoma, North Dakota and in Indiana. Meanwhile, plaintiffs like Edwards have to figure out what the ruling means for their own future. Edwards told Salon shed like another child, but shes afraid she wont be able to access healthcare in Texas. In her last pregnancy, she had preeclampsia at 36 weeks of pregnancy. I'm afraid that I won't be able to access health care if my preeclampsia happens before viability or much earlier in the pregnancy, she said. Haines City could soon become the first municipality in Polk County to install automated speed-detection cameras in school zones. Haines City may become the first in Polk County to install automated speed detection cameras to slow down traffic in its school zones. Haines City officials voted 4-0 on Thursday night to approve the installation of school zone speed limit detection systems within city limits. Vice Mayor Morris West was absent from Thursday's meeting. "We try to have as many officers in school zones as possible," Haines City Police Chief Greg Goreck said Thursday night. "We have to have some kind of mechanism to hold those people who are blatantly barreling through our school zones accountable." A Florida law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that went into effect July 1, 2023, allows municipalities to use a camera system to enforce speed limits in school zones. This year, some counties and municipalities have started installing the cameras, from Eustis to Tampa and Osceola County. "The decision to draft and present this ordinance to the City Commission was not solely based on reoccurring complaints from our community stakeholders regarding speeding vehicles in our school zones; but also on the data gathered during speed studies, which supports the allegations that there are significant speeding violations occurring within our school zones on a daily basis," Goreck said. Studies show the average risk of severe injury for a pedestrian struck by a vehicle reached 75% at 39 mph, with risk of death hitting 50% at 42 mph, according to a study from AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. These risks vary by age, with young children being especially vulnerable. Haines City had Verra Mobility Corp. conduct speed studies in the school zones within city limits. Verra Mobility is a publicly traded company based in Mesa, Arizona, that manufactures Flock cameras and red-light traffic cameras. Verra Mobility ran a speed study demonstration in 26 of Haines City's school speed zones from Jan. 16 to 18. The study showed more than 30% of drivers were breaking the speed limit in some areas: 30.5% of drivers south on South 22nd Street approaching Shelley S. Boone Middle. 30.4% of drivers heading north on Scenic Highway/State Road 17 approaching Scenic Terrace school. 29.5% of drivers heading east on East Grace Avenue/Hornet Drive approaching Haines City High School. With the city's approval in hand, Goreck said the police department will begin pricing different speed detection systems and select a potential vendor. The proposed contract will have to be brought back to the City Commission for consideration, including any budgetary costs, and approval before installation can begin. Many speed detection system manufacturers have agreements that work similar to red-light traffic cameras, according to Goreck, in that often there is no upfront cost to the municipality but they collect money from the fee assessed. Under Florida Law, the speed detection cameras can be used to enforce school zone speed limits up to 30 minutes before and after any regularly scheduled school breakfast programs, the start time of school, the entirety of the school day and after the school's release time. Commissioner Vernal Smith asked whether state law allowed the flexibility for the city to continue to enforce school zone speed limits while after-school programs are taking place. Goreck said he would have to look into the matter. I want to set the minds of our community members at ease. These systems will not be used for any type of enforcement against the law-abiding citizen who may accidentally be a couple miles per hour over the posted speed limit in our school zones," Goreck said. "These systems are used to properly address those drivers who are barreling through our school zones at double digits over the speed limit. The state statute speaks to drivers who are 10 mph or more over the posted school zone speed limit. Goreck said he hopes to have a speed detection system in place by the start of next school year. Under state law, the police department will need to launch a 30-day educational campaign once the cameras are installed before it can begin issuing citations. Any potential violations detected by the automated system will be reviewed by a trained law enforcement officer, Goreck said, before a notice is sent to the vehicle's owner. He said the average fine is about $150. 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: Haines City approves adding speed detection cameras to school zones (FOX40.COM) One person was arrested after Turlock Police discovered hundreds of pounds of illegal fireworks at a home, according to the agency. Police said in a Facebook post that a search warrant was served on Jefferson St., where officers found over 1,215 pounds of illegal fireworks. 2 million pounds of nuts lost in Northern California storage facility fire Investigators also found drug paraphernalia and evidence of drug sales, police said. Pictures shared by police show dozens of boxes loaded into the back of a pickup truck. A 25-year-old suspect was arrested on charges of possessing illegal fireworks and drug sales. In California, sales of fireworks are limited to the immediate days before July 4, and all fireworks must have the Safe and Sane seal from the state Fire Marshal. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX40. Hallie Biden reveals troubling details about her relationship with Hunter Biden, and why she threw away his gun Hunter Bidens sister-in-law, Hallie Biden, took the stand on the fourth day of his gun trial. Not only was Hallie romantically involved with Hunter, her deceased husbands brother, but she saw his addiction up close, and she slipped into drug use herself, she testified Thursday in a Delaware court. She also found and threw away the gun central to this case, she testified. The three felony charges stem from October 2018, when Biden purchased a Colt Cobra revolver and allegedly lied on federal forms by not disclosing his drug use. The firearm was in his possession for 11 days. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison and $750,000 in fines. Hunter Biden arrived at the courtroom alongside his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden. First lady Jill Biden attended the proceedings Monday through Wednesday, but on Thursday she was in France with President Joe Biden for the anniversary of D-Day. The president, in a recent conversation with ABC News, said the White House will not pardon Hunter Biden if he is convicted. The president also said he will accept the outcome of the trial. Valerie Biden, Hunters aunt, was spotted in the courtroom Thursday right before Hallie Biden took the stand. This witness detailed her troubled relationship with Hunter and her efforts to protect him. Hallie Bidens testimony Hallie Biden is Beau Bidens widowed wife. After Beaus death in 2015, Hallie testified she had a relationship with his brother, Hunter Biden, which grew gradually. They dated in 2015 and 2016, and during this time, Hallie said she found Hunters crack pipe and witnessed him with copious amounts of drugs, according to CNN. She said Hunters behavior would change when he was using drugs, describing him as agitated, (and) high strung, but well functioning. Hunter Bidens ex-wife Kathleen Buhle had earlier made similar statements in the trial about his temperament when on drugs. Between 2017 and 2018, Hallie Bidens concerns for Hunter grew and she confronted him about his drug use. This cant go on, we cant do this, she recalled telling him, and the presidents son asked her to leave him alone. Hallie Biden said that in 2018, Hunter Biden introduced her to crack and she was abusing it. She testified it was a terrible experience and added that she was embarrassed and ashamed, as NBC News reported. In August that year, she said she quit using drugs. Then, on Oct. 23, 2018, Hallie said she was cleaning out Hunters car when she found drugs and a gun. She said she wasnt sure if the gun the prosecutors had was the same one she stumbled across six years ago. At the time, she said she panicked and wanted to get rid of the gun and the bullets and feared Hunter would hurt himself or someone else. According to her testimony, she found a small pouch that Hunter Biden kept drugs in, and put the gun in there. Hallie Biden said she then went to a store and threw the firearm in a trash can. As CNN reported, she testified she went back to the store looking for the revolver, before eventually filing a police report. Hallie said Hunter Biden became angry with her after she told him what she had done. The prosecution showed many heated text messages between the two from that day. During the cross-examination, Hunter Bidens attorney Abbe Lowell grilled Hallie Biden on the details from the October 2018 incident. He pulled out phone records showing Hunter and Hallie had multiple conversations, but Hallie Biden couldnt recall any details, according to The Associated Press. If you or someone you know is in crisis, please contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988 or chatting online at 988lifeline.org. GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KREX) WesternSlopeNow went to downtown Grand Junction to ask residents about D-Day and its history. WesternSlopeNow first talked with Ethan Bollinger, a Central High School math teacher. WesternSlopeNow asked him questions to test his knowledge about this solemn day. It was a whole lot of allies. So, obviously the United States. Thats why were talking about it now. There was Great Britain who was currently, I guess, under siege from Germany. So, they were a little busy and Im fairly certain there was the French were also involved. As we were invading France so to speak. WesternSlopeNow also talked with Rick and Barbara Silverman, a couple who moved to Grand Junction within the last five years. They told WesternSlopeNow all about D-Day and the trip they took to Normandy. We saw those guns, and we saw the embankment that those service personnel had to climb with what was on their backs. It was absolutely a remarkable fear to establish a beachhead that day. Approximately 4,400 Allied soldiers died that day, sacrificing their lives to protect freedom and democracy. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WesternSlopeNow.com. Election season is underway in the Myrtle Beach area, and voters have already started casting ballots in Horry County to determine who will square off in November to represent South Carolinas Seventh Congressional District. Republican incumbent Russell Fry will run unopposed in the June 11, 2024, primary, but the Democratic field features two candidates vying to face Fry, who have previously run for office. Mal Hyman, a retired professor who previously taught at Coker University in Hartsville, S.C., and once worked for the United Nations, will face Daryl Scott, a 24-year Army and S.C. National Guard veteran, in the Democratic Primary June 11, 2024. Hyman ran for the Seventh Congressional District twice before. Former Republican Congressman Tom Rice defeated Hyman in the 2016 general election. In 2018, Hyman lost a run-off election to become the Democratic nominee to Robert Williams, who won with more than 400 votes in a close race. Meanwhile, this is Scotts second run to represent the Myrtle Beach area in Congress. The Conway native represented the Democratic party in the 2022 Seventh Congressional District general election, losing to now-incumbent Russell Fry. In an email to The Sun News, Scott touted his military and educational background, citing his masters degree in aeronautical science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University as why voters should elect him. Scott emphasized his support for the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, a proposed bill that expands voting rights protections in response to Supreme Court cases that weakened the Voting Rights Act. Scott also wrote that he supports the already introduced bill For The People Act, which would expand voting rights and restructure campaign finance laws. If elected, Scott wrote that hed also introduce an Education Bill of Rights package of legislation that would give teachers access to loans and other tools to help make housing and transportation costs affordable, among other initiatives. My small-town upbringing and military service have ingrained values of integrity, discipline, and dedication within me, Scott wrote. I am dedicated to prioritizing key family issues, including educational resources for students and teachers, womens rights advocacy, quality care for seniors, veterans rights championing, and addressing fiscal stewardship. Hyman re-entered the political field because he saw many needs in the district that needed addressing. Hyman said his background as an educator working at the collegiate level and in maximum-security prison gives him a good background for Congress. He added that his policy focuses are: Early childhood education. Strengthening Medicare and Social Security. Increasing the minimum wage. Increasing health care for civilians and veterans alike. Climate change. Rebuilding infrastructure. Hyman, who has promised not to take donations from corporations during his campaign, added he supports passing bills like the Medicare for All Act, the Womens Health Protection Act, which expands access to abortion, and the Raise the Wage Act, which increases the minimum wage. He also supports introducing a Childrens Bill of Rights. Ive been arguing and campaigning on a Childrens Bill of Rights that all children have a right to food, health care, housing, good schools, safe streets, clean air and clean water, He added. Russell Fry focuses on the border and touts the Longs Post Office project Fry will have to wait until after June 11 to determine who he faces in November, but he is already preparing his pitch to voters about why they should re-elect him to a second term. Fry will be in Washington, D.C. June 11, 2024, and he credited his work helping Longs secure a new Post Office after the previous one burned down as one way hes helped local voters. Fry added that hes focused on securing the United States border, stopping wasteful spending, and keeping taxes low. He also said hes in favor of passing the Secure the Border Act of 2023 bill. Fry said he intends to be visible in the area prior to the general election. We pride ourselves in being very visible to the public, Fry said. We will not be sitting in a basement somewhere. We will be very visible in the district as we always have been. While it remains to be seen who wins the Democratic Primary June 11, 2024, Hyman or Scott will face an uphill battle to get to Washington. Republicans have won every general election since the South Carolina Seventh Congressional District was re-established in 2013. Former Congressman Rice served as the districts first representative since Hampton Fulmer in 1933, when the Seventh District previously existed. Fulmer, who also represented South Carolinas second district from 1933 to 1944, was a Democrat, according to govtrack.us. There are some records you just don't want to see broken. Record high temperatures is one of them. But that's what is happening right now across Florida, and record high temperatures are expected through the weekend. Early Friday morning, a heat advisory was issued for areas of in Miami-Dade County away from the coast. The heat advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. through 6 p.m. Heat indices between 104 and 108 are likely for most of South Florida. Some areas could see a heat index of 110, according to the National Weather Service Miami. By 10 a.m., the heat advisory had been expanded to include Palm Beach and Broward counties. A heat advisory has been expanded to include Palm Beach, Broward and Palm Beach counties from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 7, 2024. What is a heat advisory? A heat advisory is one of several types of health alerts issued by the National Weather Service. A heat advisory is issued within 12 hours of the onset of extremely dangerous heat conditions. The general rule of thumb for this advisory is when the maximum heat index temperature is expected to be 100 degrees or higher for at least two days, and nighttime air temperatures will not drop below 75 degrees. These criteria vary across the country, especially for areas that are not used to dangerous heat conditions. In Florida, except for Miami-Dade County, the National Weather Services offices around the state would issue a heat advisory if the heat index is expected to reach 108 to 112 degrees. The National Weather Service Miami said Miami/Dade County wanted a lower threshold for an advisory for its population, which was set at 105 degrees. If a heat advisory is issued, take precautions to avoid heat illness. If you don't take precautions, you may become seriously ill or even die. What is the heat index mean and why is it important? The heat index measures how how it really feels outside, according to the National Weather Service. It's sort of the summer equivalent of the wind chill factor our more northerly neighbors watch in the winter. The heat index is calculated based on two factors: Air temperature Relative humidity Important point: Heat index values were devised for shady, light wind conditions. Exposure to full sunshine can increase heat index values by up to 15 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. What is an unsafe heat index? What number is dangerous? The heat index is calculated based on air temperature and relative humidity. In general, dangerous conditions would occur as soon as the heat index hits 105 degrees. Conditions are considered extremely dangerous if the heat index is 126 degrees or higher. Weather alerts issued in Florida Florida weather forecast: Record heat followed by rain Precipitation forecast across Florida from June 7 through June 14, 2024. Temperatures this week, while feeling really hot, actually have been close to normal, according to the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network. That's changing. Starting Thursday, winds shifted to out of the south in response to a front moving toward Florida. Those winds will push temperatures into the mid to upper 90s. It's also bringing tropical moisture, which will make conditions outside feel very muggy, according to the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network. Bottom line: temperatures will feel between 105 and 110 across much of the state. By Friday, winds are expected to come out of the southwest, dumping heat gathered over land to the east coast of Florida, from the Space Coast south to Miami. "Miami and Fort Lauderdale could break new records and the high temperature is likely to reach 95 degrees on Friday. The afternoon temperature for West Palm Beach is also forecast to beat a record established in 1998 of 94," the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network said. Conditions won't improve over the weekend. "On Saturday and Sunday, record temperatures will be possible across the I-4 corridor, from Tampa to Orlando, and along I-95, from Melbourne to Miami. Highs could range between 94 and 97 and with the humidity, the temperatures will feel as if they were above 105." Up to 5 inches of rain possible across some portions of Florida next week Numerous downpours and high rainfall are forecast from the start through the middle of the week. "As of now, most models show the highest rainfall across southern Florida. Some areas could receive up to 5 inches between Sunday and Wednesday," the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network said. This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: What is a heat advisory? Florida weather forecasts high temperatures This photo taken with a mobile phone shows smoke rising from an Al-Siyanah military position after an airstrike in Sanaa, Yemen on June 7, 2024. (Photo by Mohamed Azaki/Xinhua) SANAA, June 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. and British warplanes struck Houthi targets in Yemen's capital Sanaa and the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah on Friday, Houthi media and residents said. In Sanaa, at least four airstrikes hit the Al-Siyanah military position, according to Houthi media and residents. The strikes caused explosions and sent plumes of smoke rising from the area. The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) did not immediately comment on the airstrikes. Earlier on Friday, CENTCOM reported that U.S. forces in the Red Sea had intercepted and destroyed eight Houthi drones in the previous 24 hours. Houthi-run al-Masirah television said the Sanaa strikes were accompanied by additional raids targeting Houthi positions in Hodeidah, including the city's airport. On Thursday, the Houthis claimed a joint drone attack with an Iraqi group targeting Israeli ships in Haifa, a claim denied by the Israeli military. The Houthi group, controlling northern Yemen including Sanaa, began launching attacks on ships they believe are linked to Israel in the Red Sea last November, in solidarity with Palestinians. The U.S.-British naval coalition has responded with air and missile strikes since January to deter the Houthis. However, these efforts have been met with an escalation in attacks from the Houthis, now targeting both U.S. and British vessels. This photo taken with a mobile phone shows smoke rising from an Al-Siyanah military position after an airstrike in Sanaa, Yemen on June 7, 2024. (Photo by Mohamed Azaki/Xinhua) PARIS U.S. President Joe Biden delivered remarks Friday on the coastal cliffs of Pointe du Hoc, where Army Rangers 80 years ago suffered immense casualties during the Allied invasion of Normandy. Bidens address, which aimed to tie the Europe of 80 years ago to that of today, followed a larger ceremony with European and American officials the day before, commemorating eight decades since D-Day almost certainly the last major anniversary featuring veterans of the war. As a living parallel, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy attended the Thursday event, the climax to weeks of travel to meet with world leaders. Zelenskyy, whose country has defended itself against a full-scale Russian invasion for the last two years, spoke with some of the veterans of D-Day, including one who in a poignant moment grasped Zelenskyys hand and said hed saved Europe. The exchange was symbolic of the comparison Biden has attempted to make, meeting with Zelenskyy in Paris just hours before. Biden opened his presidency with the frame of an inflection point in a larger competition between autocracies and democracies. The war in Ukraine has become an emblem of his argument, as Russian President Vladimir Putin tries to oust the elected government in Kyiv. Unlike his speech Thursday, which largely focused on Americas responsibilities abroad, Biden used Pointe du Hoc to argue for a new sense of domestic responsibility. Does anyone doubt they wouldnt move heaven and earth to get rid of hateful ideologies today? Biden said, referencing the soldiers who fought there. An emotional staging ground During the 1944 Allied invasion of Normandy, a band of 225 Army Rangers there attacked a Germany artillery position atop the steep cliffs, a mission considered almost impossible at the time. The Rangers took the cliffs, though at great loss. By the next morning, there were fewer than 100 Rangers who could still fight. Forty years ago, former President Ronald Reagan spoke at the same backdrop in one of the most powerful moments of his presidency. With some of the veterans who scaled those cliffs seated in the audience, Reagan helped create the legend of the boys of Pointe du Hoc the ultimate symbol of Americans carrying out their countrys mission. Biden echoed similar sentiments on Friday, at times using comparable language as he narrated the scene from 80 years ago. The bullets cracked nearby, the soldiers climbed relentlessly even as their ropes were cut, their victory helped turn the tide of a war for world freedom. Perhaps most strikingly, Bidens speech Friday showed how vivid the memory of those soldiers actions remains. The president, like Reagan 40 years ago, is in the middle of a campaign for reelection and hoping for a rebound. That he chose this site for a marquee address is a reminder that those war stories still have power. Biden noted that, unlike Reagan, hes the first president to come to Pointe du Hoc without any of the 225 men who fought there still alive. Drawing parallels to todays conflicts, Biden spoke often of those soldiers in the present tense. Theyre asking us to stay true to what America stands for, he said. "Held severed leg pressed to body to prevent it from bleeding out": story of 11-year-old boy from Kharkiv Oblast photos Kyiv doctors have recollected a story of the treatment of Sashko (Oleksandr), 11, from Kharkiv Oblast, who lost his leg as a result of Russian attacks. Source: Okhmatdyt, one of the best childrens hospitals located in Kyiv Details: Okhmatdyt stated that Sashko was treated for over three months. "During this time in the hospital, he managed to undergo several operations, make new friends, celebrate his 11th birthday, change his hairstyle and get used to a new life with an amputated leg," the doctors said. Sashko was injured in his native village of Malyi Burluk. Unfortunately, his cousin was killed In January 2024, Sashko and his cousin Alina were walking to the grocery store in their village of Malyi Burluk in Kharkiv Oblast. It was at that moment that Russian troops began shelling. A Russian shell landed near the children. Both Sashko and Alina were seriously injured. Doctors said that Sashko held his severed leg pressed to his body to prevent it from bleeding out. Sashko underwent many surgeries in Kharkiv, and then he was transferred to Kyiv Shortly afterward, Ukrainian soldiers arrived at the scene of the strike, provided first aid to the children, put a tourniquet on Sashkos leg and drove to meet the ambulance in their car to avoid wasting time. Sashko lost his leg, and his cousin unfortunately died after 10 days in intensive care. Sashko underwent many surgeries in Kharkiv, and then he was transferred to the Kyiv Okhmatdyt, where he was treated in the orthopaedics and traumatology department. Here, Sashko underwent surgical interventions and recovery and attended sessions with a physical therapist and psychologist. Sashko celebrated his 11th birthday in hospital "During his stay in our hospital, the boy adapted to his new life, made friends with other children, met famous people, went to a hairstylist and attended many activities. Sashko has become an example of resilience, optimism and courage. The Okhmatdyt team is happy to meet such a bright and sincere child who, despite everything he has been through, inspires and gives joy to others. We are proud of Sashko!" the doctors say. The boy is in Lviv now, where he has been fitted with a prosthesis The boy is in Lviv now, where he has been fitted with a prosthesis, but he dreams of coming back home. Support UP or become our patron! Hello Colorado Springs program seeks to bring new talent to the citys workforce (COLORADO SPRINGS) The Colorado Springs Chamber & Economic Development Corporation (Chamber & EDC) has launched the Hello Colorado Springs talent program for 2024. The programs goal is to attract and keep young, talented workers in Colorado Springs. This years program brings 40 interns to the city. Two come from Canada and Iran, and 38 are from North Carolina, California, Kentucky, Virginia, Indiana, Tennessee, Hawaii, Maine, Washington State, and Colorado. Colorado Springs has immense opportunities for workforce talent, providing well-paying jobs, great outdoors, and amenities, making it the ideal location for talent to locate. Hello Colorado Springs talent program blends the beautiful Pikes Peak region with interaction with local leaders, enabling talent to grow professionally, said Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer, President & CEO of Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC. The program is a great solution to attract and retain high-quality workers to support our local industries. This years interns will receive training for hands-on experience in 12 Colorado Springs organizations: Bluestaq, Entegris, Boeing, Infinity Systems Engineering, the City of Colorado Springs, and El Paso County, among others. The Hello Colorado Springs talent programs goal is to expose the strengths of our city to attract young professionals and boost local businesses with an influx of new talent. Like many other cities across the United States, Colorado Springs has been feeling the effects of labor and talent shortages. The program will kick off at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 6 at Weidner Field. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX21 News Colorado. Here's the latest in the case against the Topeka man charged in the death of Zoey Felix, 5 A court hearing set to take place Thursday for Mickel Cherry, charged with capital murder in last year's Topeka killing of 5-year-old Zoey Felix, was rescheduled. That status conference will now take place at 9 a.m. Sept. 19, said Lea Welch, administrator for Shawnee County District Court, on Wednesday. Cherry, 26, was being held Wednesday in the Shawnee County Jail on a $2 million bond on charges of one count each of capital murder, first-degree murder and rape, jail records said. A woman sits with a sign memorializing Zoey Felix before participating in an October march in downtown Topeka. Why have Cherry's attorneys said they needed more time? Cherry most recently appeared in court on March 8, when one of his attorneys Peter Conley, senior assistant capital defender for the Kansas Death Penalty Defense Unit told Shawnee County District Court Judge Jessica Heinen that Cherry's attorneys weren't yet ready for her to schedule a preliminary hearing. Conley said he needed more time regarding the roughly 9,000 pages of mitigation records he had received and added that he expected to receive 25,000 pages more. Mitigation records share information about the defendant aimed at convincing the court to lessen any sentence that might subsequently be imposed. Conley wanted in particular for prosecutors to know "where this should be going if we have a penalty phrase," he said. Heinen on March 8 scheduled the status conference that had been set to take place Thursday. Prosecutors aren't pursuing the death penalty yet While Cherry faces charges that include capital murder, prosecutors are required to file a notice of intent if they plan to seek the death penalty. District Attorney Mike Kagay's office hasn't done so. "That determination is typically made at the preliminary hearing, which hasn't been scheduled yet," said Katie Garceran, a spokeswoman for Kagay's office. What happened to Zoey Felix? Zoey often roamed her neighborhood alone and unsupervised as she formerly lived with her parents and others at a house in the block of 2200 S.E. Market, neighbors told The Capital-Journal in October. Zoey's mother, Holly Felix, last September expelled from that house a group that included Zoey; Cherry; Ezequiel Felix-Guerrero, who was Zoey's father and had legal custody of her; and Zoey's half-sister, Katelenn Marie Cain. The group went to live in a campsite in the 2000 block of S.E. 28th. Zoey was brought Oct. 2 to the nearby Dillons gasoline pumps at 2010 S.E. 29th. She was suffering from injuries that proved fatal. On Oct. 3, Topeka police said Zoey had been raped and killed the previous day. Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934. This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Court hearing postponed for man charged in Topeka death of Zoey Felix Here's why these canoers are making a 250-mile voyage down the Ohio River John Nation helps paddle the canoe during the Ohio River Way Challenge, Thursday, June 6, 2024, on the Ohio River in Cincinnati. A team of people on canoes are making a 250-mile trip down the Ohio River that started in Portsmouth and ending in Louisville. The purpose of the trip is to promote the beauty of river towns and appreciate the natural landmark that is the Ohio River. Canoes manned by a group of river enthusiasts made a stop in Cincinnati on Thursday, five days into an extensive journey down the Ohio River. The voyage, called the Ohio River Way Challenge, is taking a team of paddlers on a 250-mile trip from Portsmouth, Ohio, to Louisville, Kentucky in an effort to highlight the beauty of the river and the towns along its banks. Who are the travelers? The challenge is named after Ohio River Way, a nonprofit organization focused on enhancing communities along the Ohio River and taking advantage of its opportunities for recreation. A group of volunteers are leading the expedition, and sponsors enabled students from the University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, Shawnee State University and Western Kentucky University to tag along, according to Forest Clevenger, an Ohio River Way spokesperson The trip is taking place over a 10-day span, and students from the various universities are hopping aboard for increments along the way. Students and faculty members from the University of Kentucky were on board for the last three days and disembarked in Cincinnati to return to Lexington. Those students were interns for Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky. Their program is focused on revitalizing the waterfront in Maysville, Kentucky. Our job is to going to be: go into their community, figure out what the people their want, what they value, and then help them draft up some ideas, University of Kentucky student Sylvie Eckel said of the programs partnership with Maysville. Participants of the Ohio River Way Challenge paddle the canoe, Thursday, June 6, 2024, on the Ohio River in Cincinnati. Why are they doing this? This years Ohio River Way Challenge comes as advocacy increases to improve the rivers conditions and encourage activity on the river. Ohio River Way holds this challenge annually, but the anticipation surrounding this years is tied to a major goal: earning the Ohio River National Water Trail designation. Ohio River Way is seeking the designation for a stretch of the Ohio River from Ironton, Ohio to West Point, Kentucky, according to Brewster Rhoads, the nonprofit's chair. The 250-mile stretch of river being traversed for the challenge constitutes a significant portion of that length. National Water Trails fall under the National Recreation Trails Program and receive a blend of support from federal, state, local and nonprofit entities to conserve the water system and boost access to recreation along waterways, according to the National Parks Service. We believe it can be a national destination, Clevenger said. We are working with our communities here to build out the amenities to make that possible, he said. There are 36 National Water Trails, according to the online trail finder. In 2023, the Ohio River was named among the most endangered rivers in America by American Rivers, an organization that works to reduce river pollution and protect their ecosystems. When announcing the rivers placement on the list, American Rivers called on Congress to designate the river as a protected water system and to commit funding to ensure safe drinking water and support the rivers ecosystems. Participants of the Ohio River Way Challenge paddle the canoe, Thursday, June 6, 2024, on the Ohio River in Cincinnati. The purpose of the trip is to promote the beauty of river towns and appreciate the natural landmark that is the Ohio River. Paddlers make stop in Cincinnati The paddlers are setting up camp in a new river town each day of their 10-day journey. They arrived in Cincinnati at the Ohio River Launch Club in East End on Thursday morning after staying Wednesday night at the Thomas More University Biology Field Station. Several public figures spoke at the visit about projects to encourage activity on and by the river, including Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Driehaus, City Councilmember Mark Jeffreys and Ohio Sen. Catherine Ingram, who represents the 9th Senate District. One project discussed by Cincinnati Parks Director Jason Barron regarded the addition of a canoe launch at Smale Park in Downtown. Erosion at the park is forcing Cincinnati Parks to reinforce a 2.75- to 3-acre patch along the shoreline to prevent the situation from worsening, Barron previously told The Enquirer. Parks is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to design a solution. Public feedback about the project sparked the idea to add a spot for people to access the water with paddleboats, Barron said. Therell be a spot where if you were to park in one of the Bengals' tailgating lots, you could car your canoe down, you can enter the river there, Barron added. After a brief stop, the paddlers continued to Gilday Riverside Park where theyre slated to stay Thursday evening. Where else are the paddlers stopping? Cincinnati marked the halfway point of the 10-day trip. See the travelers remaining itinerary below: June 6: Stay in Cincinnati June 7: Stay in Rising Sun June 8: Stay in Vevay June 9: Stay at Payne Hollow with dinner in Madison June 10: Stay at 18 Mile Island with dinner in Westport June 11: Arrive in Louisville This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio River Challenge advocates for National Water Trail designation Hero Dog Runs 4 Miles to Get Help for Owner After Oregon Car Crash Brandon Garrett was traveling with his four dogs on June 2 when he lost control of his truck, went over an embankment and crashed into a stream Baker County Sheriff's Office/Facebook A dog has reached hero status after it ran four miles to alert its owner's family of trouble when the man lost control of his truck and crashed into a stream, according to police. Per a Tuesday, June 4 Facebook statement, the Baker County Sheriff's Office (BCSO) received a call at 9:28 a.m. local time on Monday, June 3, reporting Brandon Garrett missing. His family grew concerned when he didn't report to their camping site on Sunday, June 2 as planned. One of his dogs showed up on the site instead, which helped alert a family of trouble and prompted them to search for him. According to the statement, they called authorities when they found Garrett's truck but could not reach it due to the difficult terrain. Related: Shelter Dog Rescues Elderly Owner Shortly After Getting Adopted: 'She Really Is Our Hero' Baker County Sheriff's Office/Facebook BCSO arrived on the scene alongside Baker County Search and Rescue (BCSR), Pine Valley Rural Fire District (PVRFD) and Halfway Ambulance. Sheriff Travis Ash spotted Garrett's truck and one of his dogs stuck in a ravine. Garrett was heard screaming as first responders looked for a point through which they could access the creek. Garrett was eventually located about 100 yards from his truck, above the water. First aid was administered as U.S. Forest Service employees and PVRFD volunteers used chainsaws to clear a path to Garrett for BCSR, who needed to use its ropes team to access Garrett and get him in a rescue basket. "He was connected to a highline rope system and pulled across the ravine," BCSO's statement said of Garrett, adding that he was then given medical attention by professionals and was eventually transferred to a regional hospital by helicopter. Baker County Sheriff's Office/Facebook Related: 'Unbelievable' Police Dog Finds Missing 85-Year-Old Colorado Woman 'in 10 Minutes' Further investigation helped authorities determine that Garrett was traveling with his four dogs north on U.S. Forest Service Road 39 on Sunday when he "failed to negotiate a curve causing the vehicle to plummet off the embankment." "One of his dogs traveled the nearly four miles to their camp, which alerted the rest of the party that something was wrong," the statement said of his hero dog. 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. Per the statement, Garrett crawled 100 yards from his vehicle where he "spent the night" before his family found him thanks to the dog. The three other dogs were found alive at the scene of the crash. For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on People. The Scene At the time, in the summer of 2019, it was an easy question for Joe Biden. The future president was in Iowa, speaking to the Iowa Asian and Latino Coalition, a now-defunct PAC that vetted every major candidate for the Democratic nomination. Shaimaa Aly, an immigrant from Egypt, asked how Biden would end Donald Trumps horrible treatment for our asylum seekers and refugees. Hes changed the law on asylum seekers, Biden said. He cant do it. This week, Biden changed how asylum-seekers will interact with the law, with an executive order that allows non-citizens to be deported quickly unless they arrive at an official port of entry. Progressives called it a return to Trump-era policies. Trump called it all for show. The ACLU, which successfully halted Trumps asylum limits with lawsuits, promised to sue and win again. Hes using tools that Donald Trump used and that we all spoke out against, Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told Semafor. I hope this will be declared unconstitutional, just as Trumps was when he tried to do the same thing. But its troubling that our Democratic president and some Democrats are endorsing this strategy. Davids view The long and agonizing climb-down from their 2020 ambitions may be the defining story of the Biden-era Democratic Party. On border policy, the Emma Lazarus mindset of the Trump years has vanished; a president who once summoned his inner Irish poet when talking about asylum seekers has now ordered that migrants detrimental to the interests of the United States can be kept out. To protect America as a land that welcomes immigrants, Biden said on Tuesday, we must first secure the border and secure it now. During his presidency, Trumps actions to limit immigration and restrict asylum were broadly unpopular, and every faction of the opposition rejected them, from the socialists who wanted to dismantle Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the wealthy suburbanites who raised money for refugee groups. That backlash was captured in virtually every official policy position Democrats released during the 2020 campaign cycle. Bidens initial immigration plan asserted that the US has a responsibility to help our neighbors and partners process and support refugees and asylum seekers. The partys unity commission recommendations, written by representatives of the Biden and Bernie Sanders campaigns, declared that Democrats believe the United States should be a beacon of hope for those who are suffering violence and injustice, which is why we will protect and expand the existing asylum system. The official Democratic platform echoed the same promise to rebuild a beacon of hope as it mentioned asylum for the first time. Trumps framing of the issue is still horrifying to Democrats. They remain comfortable comparing his rhetoric to the words of fascists when he talks about migrants poisoning the blood of the country. Bidens announcement of the new policy included a series of to-be-sures that were basically about Trump: the Statue of Liberty is not some relic of American history, and I will never demonize immigrants, and (once again) I will never refer to immigrants as poisoning the blood of a country. But three years of stories about migrants surrendering, asking for asylum, and roaming freely until far-off court dates have taken a rough political toll. In polling conducted for Gallup and the Pew Research Center, support for mass deportation has surged since 2020; support for deporting all noncitizen migrants jumped from 37% to 50%, driven by Republicans and conservative independents. Polling has also shown Trump winning more support among Latinos while promising mass deportations sucking the wind out of any argument that tacking left on immigration might win more votes. The Democrats who embraced Bidens move this week were usually in tough races Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego, Montana Sen. Jon Tester and had endorsed bipartisan legislation that would have included the same changes. More wary Democrats could at least excuse that legislation as the price Republicans were demanding as a condition for approving more aid to Ukraine. Trumps public opposition helped kill that bill, forcing Biden to act unilaterally, or not at all. Biden has been cornered on this issue by his Republican opponents in more subtle ways, too. The promise to humanely welcome asylum seekers was always premised on a surge of resources necessary to process a historic number of arrivals at the Southern border money and manpower the GOP has blocked. Democrats have not entirely flipped on immigration; the party still favors work status and legalization for noncitizens. But they now find themselves with little leverage to demand those policies in a trade with Republicans while the border weighs on Bidens polls. We are where we are, California Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia told Semafor. The presidents doing the best he can with having no Republican support. We also have to have immigration reform, but its not gonna get brought up. So I think we have to be honest about the reality. Progressives who worked on the 2020 platform, while not abandoning Biden, are expressing frustration that the new policy is so far from what he promised. There is a right-wing, white Christian nationalist, xenophobic movement in America and its nominee for president is Donald Trump, said Analilia Mejia, Co-Executive Director of Center for Popular Democracy, an appointee to the unity commission. President Biden is better served by differentiating himself from that hate. The View From Immigration Hawks Republicans have given Biden no credit for his switch, and the White House didnt expect any. The Biden announcement might be the first small stirring of acknowledgement on the left of center that asylum is, potentially, a problem, said Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the restrictionist Center for Immigration Studies. Liberals have been mugged by the reality of open borders. Trump bad-mouthed the Biden shift from the get-go, initially ignoring the details and saying it was all about the presidents vulnerability in their upcoming debate. Hes since focused on one provision of the order exempting unaccompanied minors from the count of daily border crossings. At a Thursday rally in Phoenix, he labeled Bidens action pro-child trafficking and led the crowd in a chant of bullshit. Notable Previously in Semafor, Joseph Zeballos-Roig and Kadia Goba talked to more progressives who were furious about the Biden order. We shouldnt fall into the trap that Republicans have set for us, said Texas Rep. Greg Casar, a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. In The New York Times, former Obama and Biden immigration adviser Andrea R. Flores urges the president to change the debate and lead his party back to a time when fighting for the undocumented was a major policy priority alongside border security. In the Liberal Patriot, Ruy Teixeira chastises Biden critics on the left who want to stop the executive order: What part of, We need to get a lot tougher on border security, dont these Democrats understand? For MSNBC, Dara Lind speculates that the order may backfire once fully implemented. Its quite possible that border numbers will drop over the summer. Its harder to imagine that they wont rise at any point between now and, say, November. The News A waterfall billed as Chinas tallest was discovered to be fed by a pipe. The 1,000-foot Yuntai Mountain Waterfall, in a national park in Hunan, has millions of annual visitors. But one hiker who reached the top found that the water was flowing from a pipe built into the rock face: His viral video got 24 million views across social media, where the topic the origin of Yuntai Waterfall is just some pipes began trending. Know More The national park, posting as the waterfall, said it had made a small enhancement in the dry season so I would look my best to meet my friends. The local government then intervened, saying operators should explain the enhancement ahead of time to tourists in the future. Sign up for CNNs Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. A dad, his two sons and their cousin were on a hike in the Badlands of North Dakota in 2022 when they found what looked like a dinosaur leg sticking out of a rock. Liam Fisher lies next to the dinosaur discovery. His father texted this image to Lyson, a former classmate, who set the stage for the fossil's excavation. - Courtesy Denver Museum of Nature and Science Sam Fisher, his sons, Jessin and Liam, then 10 and 7, and their cousin Kaiden Madsen, who was 9, had been amateur fossil hunters for years and knew that the area the Hell Creek Formation was rich with them, having yielded some of the most famous Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons in the world. They did not know, however, that they were making a significant scientific discovery. My dad hollered for Jessin and Kaiden to come, and they came running up, Liam said during a news conference Tuesday in Denver. Dad asked, What is this? And Jessin said, Thats a dinosaur! They posed for a picture with the bones, and Fisher sent the image to paleontologist and Denver Museum of Nature & Science curator Dr. Tyler Lyson, who had been a high school classmate of his. Now, the museum has unveiled what it calls Teen Rex, a rare juvenile T. rex skeleton, one of only a handful in existence. The public will be able to see it get extracted from the rock at an exhibition opening on June 21. Wishful thinking When he first got the picture of the leg bone, Lyson thought he was looking at a duck-billed dinosaur. I didnt know it was a T. rex, because all I had were photos, and the knee joint looked like a duckbill, he said. Later, I started looking at the photos a little more closely. And the way in which the bone was breaking up into sheets indicated it might be a meat-eating dinosaur. He then texted his paleontologist friends, checking to see if anyone thought it might be a T. rex. They were like, No, it looks like a duckbill. And I was like, OK, probably just wishful thinking. Nevertheless, Lyson set up an excavation in July 2023, bringing along the family of discoverers. The kids were with us every step of the way, which was great, he said. We realized it was a T. rex on the first day. We had cameras rolling while it was happening. The dinosaur-discovering family returns to the site in July 2023 for the excavation, including (clockwise from upper left) Sam Fisher, Emalynn Fisher, Danielle Fisher, Liam Fisher, Kaiden Madsen and Jessin Fisher. - Courtesy Denver Museum of Nature and Science Lyson was hoping to find a neck bone, which would have helped to distinguish between a duckbill dinosaur or a T. rex, as they are different in the two species. Instead, he got something much better: We uncovered a lower jaw with a bunch of teeth sticking out, which he believes was unmistakable proof that the fossil was a T. rex. I was completely, like, speechless, said Jessin Fisher about the moment he realized the fossil was in fact a T. rex. They then proceeded to remove the overlying rock and, over the course of 11 days, they carefully unearthed the 66 million-year-old sandstone rock layer containing the fossil, which they collected in a 9-foot-long, 5-foot-wide plaster jacket weighing more than 6,000 pounds. It was too heavy for a regular helicopter to lift, so a more advanced Black Hawk was called in. Less than a year later, the piece is about to become a live museum exhibit, during which visitors will get to watch scientists clean up the fossil and separate the individual bones a process that could take up to a year, Lyson said. A 40-minute documentary titled T-REX, will also be shown at the exhibition; it includes behind-the-scenes footage from the excavation of the fossil. A lower jaw of the T. rex skeleton is uncovered during the 11-day excavation. The skeleton was only about 30% complete. - Courtesy Denver Museum of Nature and Science Juvenile T. Rex finds: a fierce debate Based on early estimates, Lyson thinks the fossil is that of a young T. rex that died of an unknown cause when it was 13 or 15 years old. It was about 25 feet long and weighed about 3,500 pounds. An adult T. rex was on average 40 feet long and weighed at least 8,000 pounds, according to Lyson. The skeleton is about 30% complete, but Lyson said the bones are in good condition. We know we have an articulated leg with the hip bones, we have a couple of tail vertebrae, and I think a decent chunk of the skull. We hope that theres a lot more of the skeleton inside the rock, but its weird that we dont have any of the ribs, we dont have the arms, we dont have very many of the vertebrae it well could be that theres more of it where this came from, he said, adding that hes making plans to go back to the Hell Creek Formation and excavate more. Juvenile dinosaur fossils are rare because theyre smaller and therefore harder to find, and more prone to having been consumed after death due to their softer bones, Lyson said. Once the researchers isolate a bone, they will be able to carefully analyze it and get more information about the fossil, and perhaps confirm whether its a juvenile T. rex or something else. That distinction is a hot topic in paleontology at the moment, and a paper published this year argued that some of the few juvenile T. rex skeletons found might belong to a separate species called Nanotyrannus. An artist's reconstruction of what the Denver Museum of Nature & Science has dubbed "Teen Rex." An exhibition on the rare discovery will open June 21 at the museum. - Courtesy Denver Museum of Nature and Science Thats been a fiercely fought out debate, the Nanotyrannus versus Tyrannosaurus Rex, Lyson said. I still think ours is a juvenile, because it is too big to be a Nanotyrannus. Theres other things that suggest that its a juvenile, too, in terms of skeletal maturity. Undoubtedly, this specimen will weigh in heavily on that debate. Its going to be another data point from which people can make their arguments, and thats important. Once the bone exams are complete, Lyson will work on a scientific study outlining the discovery, which he aims to publish within the next couple of years. Nick Longrich, a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom and one of the authors of the Nanotyrannus paper, said that confirming a juvenile T. rex find would be extraordinary. Tyrannosaurus isnt common and juvenile dinosaurs are incredibly rare, so young T. rex are the rarest of the rare, he said. For that reason Im skeptical. So far, almost all juvenile T. rex are actually adults of its smaller cousin, Nanotyrannus. Not knowing anything else about it, Id tend to guess thats what they have, Longrich added. But if they do finally have a good skeleton of a small T. rex, that would be pretty remarkable, and great to see its sort of the holy grail of Hell Creek dinosaur fossils. But a good skeleton of a young T. rex must turn up sooner or later. Ill be interested to see the paper. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Diplomatic envoys learn about big data applications at the exhibition center of the national big data comprehensive pilot zone in Guiyang, southwest China's Guizhou Province, June 3, 2024. From Sunday to Friday, a delegation of diplomatic envoys visited big data enterprises and learned about how big data is leveraged in various fields in Guizhou. (Xinhua/Wu Si) GUIYANG, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The mountainous Guizhou Province, once among the least developed regions in China, has become a pioneer in the country's big data endeavor and a backbone of the province's high-quality development. This was what impressed a delegation of diplomatic envoys most during their six-day tour to Guizhou, the country's first national big data comprehensive pilot zone. From Sunday to Friday, the delegation, which comprised 24 diplomats and representatives of foreign organizations from 15 countries in Africa, Asia, Oceania, Latin America, and Europe, visited big data enterprises and learned about how big data is leveraged in various fields in Guizhou. At the Internet hospital of Longmaster Information and Technology Company in Guiyang, several diplomats consulted with a doctor online in front of a computer screen. Grasiano Nyaguse, Minister of the Embassy of the Republic of Zimbabwe in China, inquired about side effects of weight-loss drugs. The doctor asked him about the medications he was taking, his health conditions, blood sugar level, and hepatorenal functions in particular, and informed him of the side effects as well as treatment suggestions. "It's impressive to talk to doctors online, which enabled us to interact with and get expert advice from qualified doctors in our homes and get assisted," said Nyaguse, adding that he was impressed by Guizhou's technological advancement and how this could be replicated in his country. At the exhibition center of the national big data comprehensive pilot zone in Guiyang, big data applications in various sectors, including education, tourism, and government management, were exhibited and introduced to the diplomats. Malick Diarra, first secretary of the Embassy of Mali in China, once pursued his three-year post-graduate study at Beijing-based Capital University of Economics and Business and has started to do diplomatic service between China and Mali since March 2024. Diarra learned about China through Chinese kung fu movies. He even practiced kung fu for two years and became interested in the country and its people. "I have to go to China to know China and the Chinese. That was why I chose China to study and work," he said. During his stay in China, Diarra visited big cities like Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, but it was his first time visiting the mountainous province of Guizhou and its big data centers. He experienced unmanned agricultural machinery and visited the soilless cultivation greenhouse at Guizhou Aerospace Intelligent Agriculture Co., Ltd. According to Chen Guo, president of the company's smart agriculture research institute, the research team has developed pest monitoring lamps that could lure pests with light and baits and differentiate their species and group size with the help of high-definition cameras. "The lamps could recognize pests with the smallest size of two millimeters, with an accuracy rate of about 85 percent," Chen said. Applauding Guizhou's development in the big data sector, Diarra said he would recommend that the Malian authority contact and invite data centers in Guizhou to invest in his country. Iven Zyuulu, Zambian ambassador to China, said that there would be a lot of scope for cooperation with Guizhou in terms of learning how it has managed to put up such big data facilities. Zyuulu added they could also attempt to set up such facilities to assist their own communities. "For us developing countries, we are very happy to cooperate with China because we are able to see the path of development. And we can try to follow that path using technology and assistance from China," Zyuulu added. Malick Diarra (3rd R), first secretary of the Embassy of Mali in China, experiences unmanned agricultural machinery at the Luojiaqiao base of Guizhou Aerospace Intelligent Agriculture Co., Ltd. in Guiyang, southwest China's Guizhou Province, June 4, 2024. From Sunday to Friday, a delegation of diplomatic envoys visited big data enterprises and learned about how big data is leveraged in various fields in Guizhou. (Xinhua/Wu Si) Grasiano Nyaguse, Minister of the Embassy of the Republic of Zimbabwe in China, visits the soilless cultivation greenhouse of Guizhou Aerospace Intelligent Agriculture Co., Ltd. in Guiyang, southwest China's Guizhou Province, June 4, 2024. From Sunday to Friday, a delegation of diplomatic envoys visited big data enterprises and learned about how big data is leveraged in various fields in Guizhou. (Xinhua/Wu Si) The Hill fired video show cohost Briahna Joy Gray on Thursday following a controversial interview she conducted with the sister of an Israeli woman abducted by Hamas in which Gray rolled her eyes at a closing comment from her interview subject. Gray announced her firing on social media. Gray, who previously served as Bernie Sanders press secretary in the 2020 Democratic primary campaign, has been a controversial figure, particularly due to her comments about the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the war in Gaza. It finally happened. The Hill has fired me. There should be no doubt that @RisingTheHill has a clear pattern of suppressing speech particularly when it's critical of the state of Israel. This is why they fired @kthalps, & it was only a matter of time before they fired me. pic.twitter.com/lLqgWjgOIV Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) June 6, 2024 Those comments include stating last month that Hamas wasnt seeking to kill all of the Jews in Israel. Her remarks came during a panel at the Dissident Dialogues festival debating whether Israels war in Gaza is just. When Hamas is talking about eliminating Israel, its not talking about killing all the Jews, she said, causing fellow panelist Eli Lake to erupt in laughter. She continued, Its about eliminating the idea of a Jewish state ending a Jewish state, ending an ethno-nationalist state and having a state more like what we have in the United States of America. Following the panel, Gray told the moderator, This is the most Islamophobic, racist audience Ive ever seen, the New Republic reported. Its disgusting. I hope someone drops a bomb on this entire building. Pro-Israel nonprofit watchdog StopAntisemitism is among those whove called out Grays comments, including listing her as Antisemite of the Week on May 17. They launched a campaign at the time seeking to get Gray fired from The Hill. Briahna Joy Gray claims that Hamas has no interest in killing all the Jews in Israel. It only wishes to establish a state like what we have here in the United States. To Gray, October 7th was not a massacre of Jews. It was simply an attempt at democracy-building by Hamas. pic.twitter.com/NLlCqInMXY Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) June 1, 2024 Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres was also among those whove expressed outrage at Grays comments. In what seems to have been the final straw leading to her firing, Gray interviewed Yarden Gonen in her role as cohost of The Hills YouTube show Rising earlier this week, which she cohosted alongside libertarian journalist Robby Soave. As the interview wrapped up, Gonen told Gray, I really hope that you, specifically, will believe women when they say that they got hurt. Gray sighed and rolled her eyes at the comment before moving on to break ahead of the shows next segment. Watch that moment in the interview here: The family member of an Israeli hostage pleads with Briahna Joy Gray to believe Jewish women who have been abducted, tortured, and raped by Hamas. Instead of projecting empathy, as a normal person would, Gray rolls her eyes, her mouth dripping with contempt. Gray has a hatred pic.twitter.com/0Y0wBwCbWk Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) June 6, 2024 Soave has objected to Grays firing, according to Gray. Gray promised to speak more about her firing on her Bad Faith podcast. The Hill is owned by center-right media company Nexstar. Watch the full Rising interview with Yarden Gonen here: The post The Hill Fires Progressive Host After She Defends Hamas, Rolls Eyes at Israeli Hostages Sister appeared first on TheWrap. Hillary Clinton compares voting against Donald Trump to fighting on D-Day in Normandy Hillary Clinton's comments were seized on by Republicans who said they were disrespectful to those who fought in the Second World War - Vital Voices Global Partnership/Reuters Hillary Clinton has come under fire for comparing the D-Day landings and the war against Nazi Germany to voting against Donald Trump in the US election. Marking the anniversary of D-Day, the former presidential candidate wrote: Eighty years ago today, thousands of brave Americans fought to protect democracy on the shores of Normandy. Mrs Clinton, the Democrat candidate who ran against Trump in 2016, added: This November, all we have to do is vote. More than 4,400 Allied soldiers were killed on D-Day and many tens of thousands more, including French civilians, died in the ensuing Battle of Normandy as they fought to liberate Europe. The former secretary of states comments were seized on by Republicans, who said her comments were disrespectful to those who fought in the Second World War. Tommy Tuberville, the Republican senator for Alabama, said: These Dems couldnt be more dramatic and deranged. Theyre comparing storming the beaches of Normandy on #dday to voting against Trump. Republicans said Mrs Clinton's comments were disrespectful to those who fought in the Second World War - AFP Meanwhile, Marsha Blackburn, another Republican senator, said: How disrespectful to our WWII heroes who faced unimaginable fear with immense courage 80 years ago today. Ben Shapiro, the Conservative political commentator, said: What an enormously stupid and vile comment. Trump is not Hitler. And voting is not storming a beach under a hail of machine-gun fire to free millions from the tyranny of the Nazis. Sean Parnell, the combat veteran and author, said it is impossible to capture just how loathsome a comment this is... WWII veterans deserve so much better than this. Mrs Clintons comments come after Joe Biden hinted at the threat his Republican rival poses to democracy in his D-Day address. Let us be the generation that when history is written about our time in 10, 20, 30, 50, 80 years from now, it will be said when the moment came, we met the moment, Mr Biden said. We stood strong, our alliances were made stronger. And we saved democracy in our time as well, added the president. Mr Biden did not mention Trump by name, but his speech offered a critique of the Republican nominees isolationist approach to foreign policy which he has embraced as he campaigns to return to the White House. The Telegraph contacted Mrs Clintons office 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. The Cascade County Courthouse in Great Falls, Montana (Photo by Darrell Ehrlick of the Daily Montanan). In the Republican primary for the open Cascade County Commission seat, more moderate Eric Hinebauch won, defeating incumbent Rae Grulkowski by 14 percentage points Tuesday night. The win marked a sea change in the race for the open seat on the commission, which in the last year has seen open contention amongst commissioners and staff complaints. The result in the Republican primary wasnt the only moderate outcome in the county; a handful of legislative wins went to moderate Republicans as well. Hinebauch said in an interview Republicans in the county are tired of the divisiveness and wanted a positive voice thats coming to the table ready to work and find solutions. Hell take on Democrat Don Ryan, who was unopposed in the primary. Grulkowski, who did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday, has been at the center of some of the countys most controversial debates, including how to deal with an inexperienced elections administrator whose leadership led to breakdowns in local elections. Hinebauch was appointed in 2021 to the Great Falls City Commission to serve out the remainder of former Commissioner Tracy Houcks term, but lost his re-election bid in November. Tuesday was Hinebauchs first electoral win in his political career. In a video posted to his Facebook page Wednesday, Hinebauch said he was super pumped about Tuesday nights victory and the vote of confidence for his message. He also thanked Grulkowski for running a great campaign and her years of service to the county. Im just humbled by all the support, Hinebauch said. The commission has made controversial decisions in recent months that have drawn large crowds and outrage often from a split in the commission between Grulkowski and her supporters against the two long-serving, more moderate Republican commissioners. These included a vote for a resolution to remove election duties from Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant, as well as a change in how commission leadership is selected. Hinebauch was one of several more moderate Republican candidates to win in Cascade County this week, with Rep. Josh Kassmier beating Rep. Lola Sheldon-Galloway by 28 points and Melissa Nikolakakos beating Rep. Steven Galloway, Lolas husband, by 37 votes. In other Republican primaries, Rep. George Nikolakakos, Melissas husband, won over challenger James Whitaker; and Rep. Ed Buttrey won over James Osterman. The Galloways, Whitaker, Osterman, Merchant and Grulkowski were endorsed by the Cascade County Republican PAC (political action committee), which largely endorsed candidates to the right of their opponent, with Kassmier getting endorsed by Gov. Greg Gianforte. Hannah Trebas, wife of Sen. Jeremy Trebas, and Rep. Russel Miner were the only candidates in contested races endorsed by the PAC to survive the primary. Hinebauch said Republicans in the county in races including his own, were tired of the noise and wanted a positive, conservative voice focused on solutions. Hes focusing on support for law enforcement as the community grows and ensuring county staff have the appropriate resources to serve the county. Democratic candidate in the commission race Ryan said Thursday he knows some Democrats who decided to vote in the Republican primary because there werent many contested races, and in his eyes that could have been a mistake. He said he felt some of the candidates who were beat, including Grulkowski, had baggage that could have been used in the general election, giving the example of property tax increases. Ryan earlier told the Daily Montanan he had filed to run to improve the tone of the commission and would drop out of the race if Hinebauch won. However, he told the Daily Montanan on Thursday he intends to stay in the race because county staff encouraged him to run and bring normalcy back to the office. I wont walk away, he said, noting this will be the last campaign of his career. He also said he would have much rather run against Rae, saying its not likely hell pick up any of Grulkowskis supporters in the race against Hinebauch. He said hes looking forward to a positive campaign against Hinebauch, saying it was like Greshams law. Bad money drives good money off the market, and a lot of bad politicians have come in and made politics bad and made it a bloodsport, and it shouldnt be, Ryan said. I want to see good people and do it the right way. Editors Note: This story has been updated to correct the percentage point difference in the results of Rep. Lola Sheldon-Galloways race against Rep. Josh Kassmier. The post Hinebauch beats Grulkowski in Republican primary for open Cascade County Commission seat appeared first on Daily Montanan. FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) A project to both protect some of Fresnos historic homes and provide affordable housing at the same time is complete. On Thursday, the ribbon was cut at the Historic Old Armenian Homes restoration project. The homes at 450 M Street represent a significant preservation of Fresnos Armenian local history, organizers say. Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias says three families will live at the historic homes. Officials say the homes were originally constructed between 1890 and 1908. In 2020, two of the five original homes were destroyed by fire, with the affected area transformed into an open green space. The $1.3 million restoration project began in 2021 and received funding from the City of Fresno as a Housing Successor to the Redevelopment Agency. The project focused on the restoration of the remaining historic structures into three homes and a summer kitchen, to provide additional housing opportunities in Downtown Fresno. Arias thanked everyone on the project and the Armenian community. He said that they were not done yet and that the Armenian Cultural Center has also been awarded $150,000 to make improvements to their facility. The Armenian Heritage Museum will be given $300,000, subject to approval by Fresno City Council. We continue to invest in cultural centers, museums and historical centers because Fresno is everyones city, and its our job to make sure that we preserve that culture and history by investing in it, Arias said. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to YourCentralValley.com | KSEE24 and CBS47. A John Deere tractor stolen more than two months ago was discovered last week in a riverbed near Ventura, thanks in part to members of the unhoused community that live in the area. The John Deere 5100MH tractor, valued at approximately $125,000, was stolen from an outdoor agricultural business on March 17, according to the Ventura County Sheriffs Office. Last Thursday, members of the Sheriffs Office Homeless Liaison Unit, a team of sworn personnel assigned to provide community outreach to the local unhoused population, conducted an operation in Santa Clara River bottom when they were informed that the stolen tractor was in the area. Using information provided to them, as well as their knowledge of the Santa Clara River bottom, the deputies focused in on a specific search area and were able to locate the stolen tractor and its attached blade tool valued at $10,000. A John Deere tractor stolen in March 2024 was recovered by members of the Ventura County Sheriff's Office Homeless Liaison Unit on May 30, 2024. (VCSO) The owner of the tractor was contacted and arrived to the scene to recover their missing equipment. Sheriffs officials said the recovery wouldnt have been possible without the breadth of relationships and good will established by the Homeless Liaison Unit and the trust theyve established with members of the unhoused community. These relationships have proved valuable in HLUs ability to obtain information related to criminal activity and the recovery of stolen property, Sheriffs Officials said in a news release. The Ventura County Sheriffs Office says it is in the process of forming a full-time Homeless Liaison Unit that will be comprised of two sergeants and eight deputies when fully staffed. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. LAS VEGAS (KLAS) The homeless population in Clark County is at a 10-year high, according to preliminary data from a survey conducted on Jan. 25, 2024. Documents from a May 9 meeting show the homeless population stands at 7,928, an increase of 56% over the past three years. The count includes 4,202 people found on the streets and 3,726 who were at shelters, transitional housing and safe havens. Getting housing referrals to people in need is difficult as space fills up fast. One supportive housing program reported it could only accommodate seven additional people per month. The report emphasizes that the numbers are not final and may change, but documents provide the first glimpse at the severity of the problem. Clark Countys homeless population was nearly four times the national average in 2023, and it increased by more than 1,350 just in the past year. The numbers are gathered each year for a Point in Time (PIT) count that helps officials adjust as the numbers change. Federal funding can vary based on each countys need. As the county works to improve its process to evaluate and prioritize people who need housing, there are clearly not enough resources to make a dent. Many people will not receive housing as a result of being placed on the community queue, according to a statement in a presentation to Southern Nevada Homelessness Continuum of Care Membership. Where did you stay last night? Questions for homeless begin the journey to help An analysis by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) found that roughly 1 in 8 people brought into the system eventually receive a housing referral. The length of time people stay in shelters has steadily decreased in Clark County, from 111 days in 2018 to 71 days in this years survey. Thats less than half the national average, which was 158 days in last years survey. Clark Countys Rapid Re-Housing (RRH) and Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) programs include 51 projects accounting for slightly more than 4,000 beds. There are roughly 7 supportive housing (RRH&PSH) openings per month in Southern Nevada. This new process will not solve the lack of supportive housing availability; this new process intends to better connect people to resources in real time (HPS), and prioritize the most vulnerable people for very limited supportive housing, according to the presentation. Breakdowns showing the makeup of Clark Countys homeless population indicate 60% are male and 42% identify as Black, African-American or African. About 22% are between the ages of 35 to 44. Clark County reports the rate of return to homelessness has been increasing. In 2023, it was at 28.59% compared to 25.00% the previous year. That number has been decreasing nationally and was at 16.5% in 2022. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS. House Appropriations Committee Republicans released their fiscal year 2025 State Department spending bill this week, which will be considered by the full committee next Wednesday, with sections demonstrating the continued U.S. interest in countering Chinas growing threat in the Indo-Pacific region. A subcommittee approved the measure during its markup Tuesday after some Democrat members voiced concerns that proposed funding cuts for international financial institutions including the UN Development Program harm U.S. national security. While the Democrats argue the bill underfunds the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, there is bipartisan support for an increase in overseas military aid to both the Philippines and Taiwan. The bill, which is $12 billion below the Biden administrations State Department budget request for FY25, would reduce overall funding by 6%. At the same time, it allocates $100 million in Foreign Military Financing for the Philippines and another $500 million in Taiwan FMF. Thats well above the State Departments FY25 budget request, which asked for $42.2 billion in FMF for the Philippines and $100 million for Taiwan. The FMF program grants U.S. allies and partners cash assistance to buy defense equipment, training and services to ensure they can work toward common security goals together in this case, the threat of China in the region. The legislation makes clear that we will not retreat from the cause of freedom, House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said during the bills markup Tuesday. It confronts the growing creep of hostile regimes by countering Communist Chinas influence in the Indo-Pacific region and intimidation of Taiwan and our other partners in the area. Both the Philippines and Taiwan need to defend their territory from China, and the U.S. is there to help. In the South China Seas Scarborough Shoal, Chinas Coast Guard attacked Philippine fishing vessels in late April. But this is not the only instance of Chinese aggression in the area. More recently, China put the pressure on Taiwan, the country that China considers a province, when they commenced a military drill around the island after the inauguration of President Lai Ching-te. My view is that we should principally focus on Taiwan and the Philippines right now, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., told Defense News in an interview at the Shangri-la dialogue in Singapore last week. But look, even $20 [million] or $40 million in [foreign military financing] for some of our partners out here would be significant. As chair of the Senates State Departments spending panel the State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs subcommittee Coons oversees FMF. Unlike the House, the Senate panel has not released its FY25 bill yet. Chinas aggressive activity in the area is causing the U.S. to pay more attention and give FMF to those countries in need, like the Philippines and Taiwan, to counter their growing competitor. To deter China, the U.S. has relied on partnerships with allies in the Indo-Pacific. There are a whole series of conversations underway between the United States and Taiwan, the United States and the Philippines, and a half dozen other regional actors, Coons said. Those conversations should then inform the final downselect in terms of how much for each and for what purpose. The U.S. and Philippines have ramped up their joint military exercises, called Balikatan, because of the acknowledgment that the Philippines territorial defense needs improvement. Balikatan, the Tagalog word meaning shoulder to shoulder, has expanded over the years under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. The U.S. and the Philippines used this 2014 agreement to boost their alliance. The agreement allows the U.S. to deploy troops and fund Philippine military bases improvement and construction. As of 2023, there are 10 sites under this agreement. Other legislation the U.S. has approved to counter the influence of China in the Indo-Pacific includes the foreign aid bill that Congress passed in April. That bill included $2 billion in FMF for Taiwan and other allies that are confronting Chinese aggression, as well as $1.9 billion to transfer weapons to Taiwan from U.S. stockpiles. A group of U.S. House lawmakers marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day with a commemorative parachute jump at Normandy, France, on Friday. The group was organized by Reps. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) and Jason Crow (D-Colo.) and was comprised of 10 veteran congressmen who traveled to France for the D-Day celebrations that mark the anniversary of the end of World War II. Waltz in a post on social platform X joked that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La), a Christian, would be saying extra prayers for the group of eight GOP lawmakers before their jump. Waltz shared a photo of the men inside a plane, saying next stop, Mont St Michel. See you on the ground! he wrote in the selfie caption. Crow shared a series of photos wearing the gear before the jump. In Normandy and about to jump out of a plane in honor of my fellow vets that made the jump 80 years ago, he said. He followed up the post with more photos on the ground. Just hit the ground. The weight of this moment is not lost on me. To the Greatest Generation our deepest thank you, Crow wrote on X. They sacrificed so we could enjoy our freedoms today, he continued. Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) said in a post that he was parachuting out of the plane over the same Normandy beaches where many great heroes made the ULTIMATE sacrifice. I am FOREVER thankful for their service, he said. Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla) said as the lawmakers prepared for their jump, let us pause to honor the greatest generation and their fight for freedom. Honored to jump with my congressional colleagues, and our Band of Brothers, Mills wrote. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) shared video and photo online to mark the event as well. MACO Brief. Normandy 2024, he wrote. Waltz said he believes its important for Americans to see their representatives in Congress coming together to honor veterans in the current political divide. I think to really do something that is notable that, you know, maybe young people will pay attention to and go, Wow thats exciting and cool to kind of pass on their legacy is worthwhile, Waltz told The Associated Press. Waltz is a former Army officer and Green Beret. Crow served in the Armys 82nd Airborne Division and 7th Ranger Regiment. Jackson is a former Navy rear admiral. Mills served as a member of the Armys 82nd Airborne Division. Van Orden is a retired Navy SEAL. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. VIENTIANE, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Laos' Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism organized a conference aimed at tapping tourism's potential as a key factor in driving Laos' economic growth. The meeting, which took place in Lao capital Vientiane from Thursday to Friday, was attended by representatives of relevant offices, provincial departments of information, culture and tourism, and tourism-related businesses. The meeting aimed to provide participants with the opportunity to exchange points of view on the current state of tourism in the country and how to promote growth in the tourism sector, the local Pasaxon newspaper reported on Friday. Several topics were discussed at the conference including tourism development and management promotion, penetration of Lao tourism products into overseas markets, and personnel development in the tourism sector. The meeting also discussed the development of tourist sites, tourism products, and facilities in line with sustainable trends and regional and international standards. The House Rules Committee will consider a resolution to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress next week, potentially clearing the way for a full House vote on the lingering legislation. The Tuesday meeting could indicate a shift in GOP dynamics after at least two Republicans privately said they planned to vote against the resolution. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said this week that lawmakers were buoyed by the recent guilty verdict handed down by a New York jury in former President Trumps hush money case. The contempt vote has been in limbo since last month, when two committees forwarded the legislation to censure Garland, an action that was overshadowed by a raucous House Oversight and Accountability Committee meeting. Their scheduled markup was delayed to allow members to travel to former President Trumps New York trial, and in the late night session Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) kicked off a fight by commenting on Rep. Jasmine Crocketts (D-Texas) use of false eyelashes. But another barrier has been the content of the resolution itself. Republicans have strained to connect their subpoena of Garland to their impeachment investigation into President Biden. Republicans on the House Oversight and Judiciary committees have demanded the audio recording of Bidens interview with special counsel Robert Hur conducted as part of his classified documents probe. Garland had resisted, noting that Republicans already have a transcript of the interview that makes clear none of the matters related to the GOP impeachment investigation were discussed. And Biden gave Garland further legal cover, claiming executive privilege over the recordings. Democrats have mused that Republicans only want the recording to use in campaign commercials. Garland during an appearance before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday defended his decision, noting that GOP lawmakers have failed to provide any legislative purpose for needing the tapes, giving little rationale for him to take an action he said could chill the Justice Departments ability to secure future interviews. Garland noted the lawmakers already had five hours of testimony from Hur, while calling the effort to censure him only the most recent in a long line of attacks on the Justice Departments work. I view contempt as a serious matter. But I will not jeopardize the ability of our prosecutors and agents to do their jobs effectively in future investigations, he told the panel. If the resolution passes out of the Rules Committee, it will go to the full House floor for a vote. But the legislation essentially serves as a referral to the Justice Department, which would then be tasked with determining whether it believes a crime was committed and if charges should be brought. Its unlikely that Justice Department officials would come to a different conclusion than Garland when weighing whether he should face prosecution. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. After 19 years in the position, Howard-Suamico School District superintendent Damian LaCroix is retiring. LaCroix announced his retirement at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year; his last day is June 30. Mark Smith, who is currently deputy superintendent, will succeed him as superintendent. LaCroix comes from a family of educators, who inspired him to join the profession. After serving as a high school principal at Pulaski High School, LaCroix moved to Howard-Suamico in 2002. He was principal of Suamico Elementary School for three years before becoming superintendent in 2005. For one year, all four of LaCroix's kids were students at Suamico Elementary while he served as principal. LaCroixs retirement marks a 33-year long career in education. He looks forward to more time with his wife and children, visiting national parks and working on a book about leadership. Superintendent Damian LaCroix will retire this month after 19 years in the position at Howard-Suamico school district. We say, education, or public education, in particular, is one of the most endearing and enduring professions, LaCroix said in an interview. Thats what gets me up early and keeps me up late. LaCroix was named Wisconsin Superintendent of the Year in 2017. His 19 years saw a national pandemic and the start of several new programs at HSSD, including a food pantry and digital transformation program. LaCroix partnered with community to start food pantry When asked what he was proudest of during his tenure, LaCroix immediately had an answer: the Giving Tree food pantry. The idea grew out of the strategic teaching process shortly after LaCroix became superintendent. The Green Bay Community Church built an addition to its campus to create a space for the food pantry, complete with walk-in freezer, storage space and offices for social workers. As superintendent, LaCroix has tried to ramp up community partnerships, but highlighted the Green Bay Community Church partnership as a "game-changer." The pantry also runs a holiday store, where families can pay a nominal price to purchase gifts for their children, and a back-to-school event that provides school supplies. In 2023, the store provided 255 families with holiday gifts and 505 families with school supply items. In the early years of the Giving Tree pantry, LaCroix recalled overhearing a child at the back-to-school event who had just received a new backpack. "He said: 'This is the greatest day of my life,'" LaCroix remembered. "On the one hand, I felt like that was tragic, right, that a backpack would compel an elementary child to say this was the greatest day of their life. But I also felt so proud and grateful that we were in a school system and a community that was responding to the need." Inheriting a volatile district, LaCroix sought stability Before 2005, HSSD had seen four superintendents in five years. "The board was in a state of semi-dysfunction, our staff was disillusioned, and our community was distrustful," LaCroix said. The district had recently lost two referendums and was on the verge of losing the third. LaCroix credits the stabilization of the district to a system adopted by his predecessor called "policy governance." The system originated in Atlanta and aims to clearly define the roles of the school board compared to the superintendent. LaCroix rarely wonders about the extent of his jurisdiction or his responsibilities, which he said has been key to the board running smoothly. "It's the key thing that's allowed me to stay as superintendent for 19 years, when the national average is 2 years," LaCroix said. "I really believe that part of our secret sauce over time is this governance model that pairs accountability for results and the authority to make decisions." International Baccalaureate program, graduate profile aim to develop well-rounded students After accreditation in April 2011, International Baccalaureate classes were offered at Bay Port High School that September. Like Advanced Placement classes, International Baccalaureate classes offer college credit after passing an exam. LaCroix said he is proud of a district that offers both AP and IB credits, something that was accomplished during his tenure. The program also defines an International Baccalaureate-learner profile, which LaCroix said correlated with the HSSD graduate profile, which all students discuss. The graduate profile is a list of seven key characteristics the district aims to develop in students before they graduate. The top priority, as identified by the school board, is students who are solutionists and critical thinkers. At an eighth-grade promotion ceremony LaCroix visited June 6, his last day with students, each incoming freshman identified the characteristic on the graduation profile that spoke to them the most. As they walked across the stage, the characteristic flashed on the screen, alongside a write-up by the student on why they chose that characteristic. "It's very different than a number on a transcript. It's really: can you articulate how you're learning and growing in this field and the evidence that supports what you can bring to the table for an employer," LaCroix said. In 2023, 50 students at Bay Port High School took International Baccalaureate exams; 90% of them earned a passing score and potentially qualified for college credit. After loss of a teacher, LaCroix navigates COVID-19 pandemic with HSSD In 2011, HSSD launched a digital transformation program as a charter member of the League of Innovative Schools. The League is a group of over 150 school districts nationwide that aims to spearhead new learning practices using technology. Today, all K8 students in the district are equipped with iPads, and all high schoolers have MacBooks. While technology is not a solution, LaCroix said, it is a tool that can be used to create a dynamic learning environment and prepare students for future employment. The digital transformation program paid off when Gov. Tony Evers closed schools statewide in response to the pandemic in March 2020. "When the pandemic hit, we were several years already into an environment where we were using technology as a tool," LaCroix added. "While nobody was prepared for necessarily learning from home, we were much better suited for that transition." Despite this technical preparation, nobody was prepared for the loss of a teacher due to COVID-19. LaCroix recalled giving high school teacher Heidi Hussli her 15-year service award in August 2020; she died in September. Hussli was the first area schoolteacher to die from COVID-19 after schools reopened in the fall. "Her loss was probably the hardest day (as superintendent)," LaCroix said. Hussli taught German at Bay Port High School. After her death, LaCroix asked her family to use Hussli's mantra "let's bring humanity back" as part of the school district's theme for the next year. The pandemic had thrown the district into disagreements about masking policies, vaccinations and virtual learning. "Out of tragedy came an opportunity for us to honor (Hussli's) life," LaCroix said. "In partnership with the family, we were able to play a leading role in challenging everyone within our learning community to step up and do their part to bring unity back ... at a time where on a national, regional, state and local level there was a lot of division." The school district went to in-person learning in August 2020, then returned to virtual learning. LaCroix created a medical health advisory committee comprising parents, medical professionals and local leaders that made choices about returning to in-person learning. Engagement surveys, listening sessions identified community needs In partnership with the school board, LaCroix piloted a community engagement survey and community listening sessions in 2011. The listening sessions are held monthly by the board, and the survey is sent out every spring. "We talk a lot about ... making the connection from the dining room to the board room to the classroom," LaCroix said. "For me, growing up in Wisconsin, when we had a family meeting we sat at the dining room table. We're trying to tap into the values of the dining room and transfer them so our policies reflect community values." The survey and listening sessions are an essential part of staying connected to community values for LaCroix. LaCroix's successor as superintendent, Smith, previously served as deputy superintendent. The two have been working together throughout the 2023-24 school year to ensure a smooth transition. LaCroix advised Smith to try to learn as many names as possible throughout the district. "A lot of the advice (I've offered Smith) is to protect ... our caring learning community. It requires you to have a relational connection with as many people as possible," he said. "To know and call someone by their first name is a little thing that makes a really big difference to people." Contact Kathryn Muchnick at KMuchnick@gannett.com or 812-568-4468. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Howard-Suamico Superintendent Damian LaCroix reflects on 19 years in the position The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Center for Civil Liberties (CCL), and the Kharkiv Human Rights Group have jointly submitted a report to the International Criminal Court (ICC) detailing hate crimes perpetrated by Russian propagandists against Ukrainians. Five prominent Russian propagandists and Alexei Gromov, the First Deputy Chief of Staff of Russias Presidential Administration, are implicated by the human rights groups. The report, prepared by Ukrainian NGOs and an undisclosed Russian NGO, focuses on hate speech violations under Article 7 of the Rome Statute. The submission also seeks to justify Gromovs responsibility for ordering or permitting such actions under Articles 25 or 28 of the Rome Statute. Media personalities Vladimir Solovyov, Margarita Simonyan, Dmitry Kiselyov, Sergey Mardan, and deputy chairman of Russias Security Council Dmitry Medvedev are listed as key propagators of hatred. The report also holds Gromov accountable for his role in disseminating such messages. Through meticulous analysis of over 500 hours of broadcast, the authors identified more than 300 instances of hate speech, urging the ICC to investigate these crimes. While certain sensitive materials will remain confidential, the public portion of the submission will be accessible on the FIDH website. "For each of these people, we specified in the submission about 5-7 main narratives that this or that person constantly promoted. For some, more; for some, less. But all of them definitely have called for violence and so on, Volodymyr Yavorsky, program director of the Center for Civil Liberties, said. Yavorsky emphasized the significance of this investigation in challenging the normalization of hate speech and violence. Previously, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian official allegedly overseeing the forced deportations of Ukrainian children to Russia. Read also: Ukraines military intelligence disputes POW figures given by Putin Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. A man holds a poster showing a cover of the magazine "Der Spiegel" with a picture of Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the words "we must finally deport on a grand scale" during a demonstration on the parade ground against Islamism organized by the Alternative for Germany (AfD). A week earlier, a police officer had been killed in a knife attack on Mannheim's market square. -/dpa Several hundred people demonstrating on Friday against Islamism at a rally organized by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Mannheim were met with several thousand counterdemonstrators calling for Nazis to get out of the country. The demonstrations followed a fatal attack on a policeman by an Afghan immigrant on May 31. Police said there were around 700 at the AfD event who were met by around 3,300 counterdemonstrators opposed to the AfD rally. Chants of "AfD, AfD" on the one hand and "Nazis out" on the other could be heard. A large police contingent separated the demonstrators. Several speakers at the AfD rally called for "knife violence" to "not become the norm" in Germany. Political Islam is "the greatest threat" to Germany's security, others said. In addition to German flags, banners with inscriptions such as "Remigration now" and "Close the borders" could also be seen at the rally. The demonstration began with a minute's silence for police officer Rouven Laur, who died on Sunday from injuries sustained in the knife attack. The AfD originally wanted to demonstrate on the market square, but the Baden-Wurttemberg Administrative Court (VGH) upheld an appeal by the city of Mannheim against a decision by the Karlsruhe Administrative Court. That lower court had given the go-ahead for an AfD rally at the crime scene. As a result, the party had to move to a different location. On May 31, a 25-year-old Afghan injured five participants at a rally organized by the Pax Europa movement, which is critical of Islam. Laur, the 29-year-old police officer, was critically injured and later died of his injuries. A woman holds a poster with the slogan "Close the borders!" during a demonstration on the parade ground against Islamism organized by the Alternative for Germany (AfD). A week earlier, a police officer had been killed in a knife attack on Mannheim's market square. -/dpa A woman holds a poster reading "Islam is the nail in the coffin of all democracy" during a demonstration on the parade ground against Islamism organized by the Alternative for Germany (AfD). A week earlier, a police officer had been killed in a knife attack on Mannheim's market square. -/dpa Hunter Biden was found guilty on Tuesday morning of all three felony charges in his federal gun trial, after days of testimony that revealed deeply personal and grim details about his drug addiction. The felony charges against Hunter Biden, the only surviving son of Joe Biden, were tied to a 2018 firearm purchase he made while still using narcotics. He was accused and convicted of making false statements on a gun-purchase form when he said he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs, and then unlawfully possessing the gun for 11 days. Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty. With this conviction, he could face up to 25 years in prison, though such a sentence would be highly unusual given that he is a first-time offender. It is unclear whether the presiding judge, Maryellen Noreika, would give him time behind bars. Hunter Biden also faces a separate federal trial in California on charges of failing to pay $1.4m in taxes. Related: Joe Biden says he will not pardon son Hunter if convicted in gun trial Here are some key takeaways from the trials proceedings: Jury selection centered on the toll of the US drug epidemic A jury of 12 six men and six women and four alternates was seated from a pool of more than 60 people last Monday. Potential jurors were quizzed individually by Noreika about their knowledge of the case and views on gun ownership to determine whether they could be fair and impartial. Among the questions asked of potential jurors was whether they, or anyone close to them, had experienced substance abuse or addiction. Many said they had, as stories of loved ones experiences with addiction unfolded over the course of the day. One said theyd had a childhood best friend die from a heroin overdose, one had a daughter who was in recovery from addiction, and another had a brother addicted to PCP and heroin. Drug addiction played a central role in the case, as prosecutors delved into Hunter Bidens drug use after the death of his older brother, Beau Biden, as they sought to prove that he knowingly lied on a form to buy a Colt Cobra revolver at a Wilmington gun store in October 2018. Hunter Biden has been open about his crack cocaine use, and the defense were hoping that the jury would see in him a familiar and sympathetic story reflected in their own lives. A study published this month found that one in three Americans know someone who has died of a drug overdose; nearly 20% said the person they knew who died was a family member or close friend. Prosecutors used Hunter Bidens memoir against him The jury heard long excerpts from the audiobook of Hunter Bidens 2021 memoir, Beautiful Things, narrated by the presidents son himself, detailing his drug addiction leading up to and after the gun purchase. Hunter Biden and his family listened for more than an hour on Tuesday as a lead prosecutor for the special counsel, Derek Hines, played extracts from the memoir detailing how crack cocaine had plunged the presidents son into the darkest recesses of [his] soul, including a story of how he tried to buy drugs from an unhoused woman in Franklin Park in Washington DC. Prosecutors pointed to how Hunter Biden detailed his four-year addiction to crack cocaine that would cover the time period when he bought the firearm to argue that he was a high-functioning drug user who lied to friends and family and ultimately broke the law. Addiction may not be a choice, but lying and buying a gun is a choice, Hines said. Nobody is above the law. Hunter Bidens lawyer, Abbe Lowell, argued that his client did not knowingly lie when filling out forms to buy a weapon. Pointing to a two-week rehab visit in August 2018, Lowell suggested that Hunter Biden had not been using drugs at the time he bought the gun. Witnesses called to the stand included Hunter Bidens exes and daughter Prosecutors had said part of their case would come from the testimony of several women from Hunter Bidens past, including his ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, and two girlfriends, Zoe Kestan and Hallie Biden, who is also the widow of Hunter Bidens brother Beau. Buhle was married to Hunter Biden for nearly 25 years and shares three daughters with him. Buhle testified about her ex-husbands long substance-use addiction, and how his drug use and infidelity fueled the collapse of their marriage. Kestan, who was involved with Hunter Biden around 2017-2018, told jurors about his near-constant crack cocaine use at lavish hotels. He would want to smoke as soon as he woke up, she testified, and described meetings with a scary drug dealer and hunting for instructions on the internet to cook powder cocaine into crack. Hunter Bidens daughter, Naomi Biden, gave emotional testimony on Friday as the defenses witness, telling jurors that she was proud to see her father in rehab in 2018. As she left the stand, she stopped to give her father an embrace and was seen wiping her eyes. Widow of Beau Biden testified about finding gun in Hunter Bidens truck The prosecutions most important witness, Hunter Bidens sister-in-law turned girlfriend, Hallie Biden, took to the stand on Thursday. The pair had a brief romantic relationship after Beau Biden, Hallie Bidens husband and Hunter Bidens brother, died of brain cancer in May 2015. Hallie Biden was a central part of the prosecutions case because she discovered the gun that Hunter Biden had bought, and threw it out. The purchase of the Colt revolver by Hunter Biden and Hallie Bidens disposal of it are the fulcrum of the case against him. Hallie Biden told jurors that she had panicked when she discovered the gun and ammunition in his truck, and described how she had put it into a leather pouch, stuffed it into a shopping bag and tossed it into a trash can outside a market near her home. I didnt want him to hurt himself, and I didnt want my kids to find it and hurt themselves, she said. Early in her testimony, Hallie Biden testified to using drugs, saying that Hunter Biden had introduced her to crack cocaine in 2018. She testified she stopped using drugs in August 2018, but that Hunter Biden continued smoking crack cocaine. It was a terrible experience that I went through, and Im embarrassed and ashamed, and I regret that period of my life, she said. Biden family turned out for trial Hunter Bidens family and close friends attended the trial en masse to show their support, even as Joe Bidens presidential campaign and the White House strive to distance themselves out of fear of handing political grist to Republicans searching for a distracting issue in the wake of Donald Trumps 34-count conviction last week. The first lady, Jill Biden, was seated in the Delaware courtroom behind her stepson for the first three days of the trial until leaving late on Wednesday to attend a D-day commemoration ceremony in France. Joe Bidens sister, Valerie Biden Owens, flew in from the west coast to take the first ladys seat in court on Thursday, next to Hunter Bidens wife, Melissa Cohen-Biden. Hunter Bidens sister, Ashley Biden, appeared in court as did several of his close friends. In contrast, several members of the Trump family steered clear of the New York courthouse during the former presidents hush-money trial. Most notably, Trumps wife, Melania Trump, and daughter, Ivanka Trump, were conspicuously absent. Joe Biden, who is in France this week for the 80th anniversary of the D-day landings, has indicated he would not pardon his son if he is convicted at his federal gun trial. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today. Hunters resilience in the face of adversity and the strength he has brought to his recovery are inspiring to us, Biden said in a statement on Monday. Hunter Biden trial updates: Here is what to expect next week after early court end Friday Federal prosecutors in the trial against Hunter Biden rested their case Friday after days of personal testimony about Biden's drug use and struggle with addiction. Jurors on Thursday heard from Hallie Biden, widow of the late Beau Biden and Hunter's ex-lover, about how she discovered and then trashed the gun at the center of the federal firearms case. Her testimony also included her own drug use during her time dating the man she referred to as her brother-in-law, as well as her attempts to help him find sobriety. Defense attorneys for Hunter Biden on Friday called three witnesses, including Hunter Biden's eldest daughter Naomi Biden, before court was adjourned mid-afternoon for the weekend. The defense is expected to call one or two more witnesses before determining whether they will put Hunter Biden on the stand. Naomi Biden described how her father struggled with addiction after his brother, the late Beau Biden, died from brain cancer in 2015. In mid-October, the same month Hunter Biden purchased the gun at the center of this trial, Naomi Biden said he seemed "hopeful," like he had when she visited him at a rehab facility in California. FROM THE TRIAL: Was Hunter Biden using drugs when he bought his gun? Hallie Biden talks drug use, gun discovery Prosecutors, however, questioned when she met up with her father in New York City, asking questions about why the meeting time was 2 a.m. and whether she knew what her father was doing in the meantime. Here's what happened in court Friday. What to expect for the Hunter Biden trial next week When the Hunter Biden gun trial resumes Monday, it's likely, but not certain, the defense will call one or two more witnesses. In opening statements, defense attorney Abbe Lowell stated that he intended to call James Biden, the president's brother to the stand. James Biden was at the courthouse today. Once the defense finishes calling its witness, they will then have to decide whether Hunter Biden takes the stand. Prosecutors will also have to decide whether to present a rebuttal case. There will likely also be a discussion over Lowell's motion for acquittal as well as the final instructions for the jury. --Xerxes Wilson Trial testimony ends Friday The judge came back from lunch and dismissed the jury for the day. The trial will resume Monday morning. The reason for the early dismissal is unclear. --Xerxes Wilson Court breaks for lunch The defense is expected to continue its case after a one-hour lunch break and will resume about 1:45 p.m. --Xerxes Wilson Prosecutors focus on the New York visit with Naomi Biden in October 2018 Prosecutors walked through a series of text messages between Naomi Biden and her father. Did he tell you he was meeting with someone named Frankie? That he had Frankie come to his hotel room? That he gave him the access key to his Wells Fargo account, Leo Wise questioned, referencing a dealer that a prior witness told the jury Hunter Biden used in New York the year before. Naomi replied "no." In a message around the same time, she told her father: I cant take this. I miss you so much. I just want to hang out with you. Her father replied: I am sorry Ive been so unreachable. It is not fair to you. With her fathers attorney back questioning her, she told the jury there was no confusion about whether she had time to spend with Hunter in New York. --Xerxes Wilson Prosecutors question Naomi Biden on New York City trip Naomi Biden said she saw her father in New York in October 2018 to exchange vehicles and told her father's defense attorney and the court that he was doing great. During cross-examination, prosecutor Leo Wise brought up text messages from when they were in New York where Hunter Biden was trying to arrange the swap in the middle of the night. Do you know what your father was doing at 2 a.m. and why he was asking for the car then, Wise asked her. Naomi Biden said she did not. --Xerxes Wilson Who is Naomi Biden? Naomi Biden, 30, is Hunter Bidens eldest daughter with his first wife Kathleen Buhl. Like several other members of the countrys first family, she is a lawyer. She attended the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia Law School. The granddaughter of President Joe Biden, she lived in the White House with her then-fiance Peter Neal for a few months before the pair got married on the South Lawn in November 2022. She remains based in Washington, D.C. Rachel Barber I knew he was struggling: Naomi Biden about her father Hunter Biden Prosecutors asked Naomi Biden about her father Hunter Bidens drug addiction but she said she never saw him using drugs. I knew he was struggling with addiction, she said. Asked when the struggle began, Naomi Biden cited the death of Hunter Bidens brother, Beau, from brain cancer in 2015. After my uncle died, things got bad, she said. --Xerxes Wilson Hunter Biden's daughter, Naomi: Her father 'seemed hopeful Naomi Biden saw her father in mid-October, she said, days after he purchased the gun central to the trial. She had driven her fathers truck to New York to move into a new apartment. Hunter Biden then drove Joe Bidens Cadillac to New York because he needed his truck back. She said her father seemed similar to how he was when he was in rehab in California. He seemed great and he seemed hopeful, she said. --Xerxes Wilson Hunter Biden's daughter, Naomi Biden, called by defense to testify Hunter Biden's eldest daughter, Naomi Biden, has been called to the stand just after noon Friday. An attorney who lives in Washington D.C., she spoke about visiting her father in California in the summer of 2018 when he was in rehab. He seemed like the clearest he had been since my uncle died, she said. He seemed really great. --Xerxes Wilson Defense picking at issue judge previously ruled out: In pretrial hearings, defense attorneys contend there are two different versions of the ATF form center to Hunter Bidens trial. One was sent to state police investigators 11 days after the gun was purchased and another was sent to federal investigators years later. The two versions are different. The original one only lists Hunter Bidens passport as the document used to verify his identity. Passports do not typically list addresses. The one sent to investigators later includes vehicle registration as a supplemental address verification. Lowell claims the form was doctored and in pretrial hearings sought to explore that at trial. The judge ruled it was not relevant the week before trial. StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply owner Ron Palimere took the stand Friday in the Hunter Biden trial. In his testimony, Turner claimed that he wrote the vehicle registration into the form on the day of the sale, pointing to the original version of the form on the projector saying, that form is wrong. Lowell then asked him why he said that, prompting prosecutor Leo Wise to object. THE DETAILS: Janssen's, StarQuest Shooters and more: The Delaware people, places part of Hunter Biden's trial Ron Palimere, the gun store owner, is now testifying. --Xerxes Wilson Hunter Biden's defense grills gun store employee over forms Defense Attorney Abbe Lowell is walking former gun store employee Jason Turner through the exact sequence of him approving the background check necessary for Hunter Biden to buy a gun, including details like the color of the ink he wrote the form in and what identification Hunter Biden showed to verify his address. Lowell has previously claimed the gun shop did not receive proper identification from Hunter Biden and annotated the form years later to indicate that Hunter Biden presented vehicle registration documents as supplemental identification. On the stand, Jason Turner said he wrote that on the form the day of the sale. This embedded content is not available in your region. Original ATF Form by Xerxes Wilson --Xerxes Wilson Gun shop employee is first defense witness Jason Turner was an employee at the StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply in Talleyville and was working the day Hunter Biden purchased the gun center to the criminal trial in October 2018. He said he would run background checks and make sales as part of his employment there. --Xerxes Wilson Defense previews witness list As court was going into a short recess, defense attorney Abbe Lowell noted to the judge which witnesses he intends to call today. Those include the owner, as well as a manager, at the store where Hunter Biden purchased the gun, as well as another police officer involved in the Janssen's incident. Lowell did not mention any Biden family members as potential witnesses today. --Xerxes Wilson Hunter Bidens defense asks judge to dismiss charges With the prosecution resting, Defense Attorney Abbe Lowell moved that the court acquit his client before the jury gets the case, a standard maneuver in criminal cases. He made the motion orally, but said hed file paperwork outlining his argument later today. He said the motion is based on the charges being unconstitutional, legislative changes in the relevant statute in recent years and that prosecutors presenting insufficient evidence to convict his client. We will take a look, presiding Judge Maryellen Noreika told him. Lowell noted what he described as her skeptical smile. It didnt mean I was skeptical, it was kind of an interesting concept, she said describing one of his arguments.The court is now in recess for a short break. --Xerxes Wilson Prosecution rests gun case against Hunter Biden After about three and a half days of trial testimony, featuring 10 different witnesses, the government rested its case Friday morning. Action now moves to the defense case, which attorneys indicated yesterday will feature two or three witnesses. Those witnesses are expected to include James Biden, the presidents brother. Defense attorney Abbe Lowell said Thursday that after those witnesses, they will decide whether to call Hunter Biden to the stand. --Xerxes Wilson Defense, DEA agent spar over bong photo One photo prosecutors showed the jury depicted what appeared to be a bong. Defense attorney Abbe Lowell asked how DEA special agent Joshua Romig could know it was used for cocaine. He conceded that one could smoke meth, heroin or even pipe tobacco out of the device. Any drug could be in there even a non-controlled substance, he said. Romig contested Lowell referring to the device as a water pipe, explaining he felt it was used for crack cocaine because of burn marks on the pipe. --Xerxes Wilson A photo of a device DEA agents testified was used to smoke crack cocaine is part of the evidence used by prosecutors in the federal firearms case against Hunter Biden Defense cross-examines DEA agent On cross-examination, DEA special agent Joshua Romig stated that he did not take any steps to further investigate what he felt the meaning of the messages were. This is not my investigation, he said. Defense attorney Abbe Lowell then took Romig back through each message and video that prosecutors had him interpret, asking him about the dates those messages were sent or received. Most were dated months before or after the October 2018 gun purchase central to the trial. --Xerxes Wilson DEA agent testifies about videos, slang Joshua Romig, a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent, testified about one message sent by Hunter Biden in February 2019 that read I think it may be fentan. Romig identified "fentan" as another way of saying fentanyl and explained that drug dealers sometimes cut their product with fentanyl. Prosecutors outlined another message sent to Hunter Biden that stated I have a ball on me. Hunter Biden replied stating he felt he was being scammed. Romig said ball is slang for eight ball or 3.5 oz of crack cocaine. Prosecutors also played a video showing white rocks on a scale, which Romig said appeared to be cocaine. They also showed multiple photos of Hunter Biden holding what Romig said appeared to be a crack pipe. Cross-examination of Romig is now starting. --Xerxes Wilson Prosecutors show photographs depicting drugs During DEA special agent Joshua Romig's testimony, prosecutors showed photographs pulled from Hunter Bidens electronic devices. Romig offered his expert opinion that photographs, sent in April 2018, depict cocaine. Prosecutors also read out corresponding text messages which Romig said show that he was upset that the amount is a lot smaller than what he paid for. --Xerxes Wilson A WhatsApp message sent by Hunter Biden is part of the evidence used by prosecutors in the federal firearms case against the president's son. Prosecutors entered into evidence a drug photo that Hunter Biden sent on WhatsApp in April 2018. DEA Agent says cocaine trade basic economics. Joshua Romig, a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent, explained to the jury his opinion on how cocaine flows into the United States and was asked why so much cocaine comes into the country. We have a lot of cocaine users in the United States, he said. Its kind of basic economics. He told the jury that for years his primary function was conducting wiretap investigations, so hes listened to thousands and thousands of calls between buyers and sellers. He said hes also reviewed thousands of text messages between buyers and sellers, reviews that involved interpreting slang and code. Prosecutors now beginning to walk him through Hunter Bidens messages. --Xerxes Wilson DEA agent outlines expert qualifications: Joshua Romig, a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent. is being offered by prosecutors as an expert witness qualified to testify about his professional opinions, as opposed to simply facts. He outlined his 25-year career in law enforcement investigating narcotics and leading to his current job as the assistant special agent in charge of the DEAs Philadelphia field office. Its literally all Ive done for the last almost quarter century, Romig told the jury. --Xerxes Wilson Prosecutors call DEA agent to witness stand DEA Special Agent Joshua Romig will be the prosecution's second witness of the day. He's expected to testify on his opinions regarding coded messages pulled from Hunter Bidens electronic devices. Several messages make outright reference to drugs, but prosecutors have argued that others, referring to terms like baby powder and chore boy, are also references to drug use. --Xerxes Wilson Defense: Pouch not tested for five years The brown leather pouch was recovered with Hunter Bidens gun in October 2018. On cross-examination, Brewer testified that he conducted his tests on the pouch in October 2023 and that it was the first such test on the pouch to his knowledge. He agreed with the defense attorney that the residue collected was minimal. He also agreed that the tests do not indicate who put the residue on the pouch or how long it had been on the pouch. --Xerxes Wilson Chemist testifies about tests on pouch Brewers testimony focuses on a brown leather pouch that Hallie Biden said she placed Hunter Bidens gun in before trashing it. Prosecutors put photos of the pouch onto a projector screen in the courtroom and Brewer pointed out where he found a minimal amount of off-white powder in two spots on the pouch. Cocaine was identified within the residual white particles I sampled, he told the jury. Much of Brewers testimony has focused on explaining in detail the various tests he uses to determine whether a residue is a controlled substance. He told the jury he was not asked to analyze the pouch for fingerprints or DNA and that he couldnt determine who put any residue on the object. --Xerxes Wilson Forensic chemist begins Friday testimony Prosecutors began day four of trial testimony with Jason Brewer, a forensic chemist with the FBI, on the stand. Brewer is expected to testify about residue found on a brown leather pouch recovered with Hunter Bidens gun. Prosecutors contend the pouch evidences Hunter Bidens crack cocaine use around the time he purchased and owned the gun. Abbe Lowell, Hunter Bidens attorney, argued in opening statements that detectives dont know whether it was his client or Hallie Biden who is responsible for the residue on the pouch. --Xerxes Wilson Meet the man who found Hunter Biden's gun When Hallie Biden went looking for the gun she discarded of Hunter Biden's only to find it no longer there, she "panicked," she told the jury Thursday. This prompted her to file a police report and for police to go on a quest to find a dumpster-diving man often seen around shopping centers in Greenville. Meet Edward Banner, who prosecutors called to the stand Thursday. Edward Banner, the man who found Hunter Bidens gun in the trash, leaves the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 06, 2024 in Wilmington, Delaware. The trial for Hunter Biden's felony gun charges continues today with additional witnesses. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images In a trial where testimony has been heavy with sorrow and emotion, Banner's questioning, as well as that of the Delaware State Police detective who tracked down him and the gun, provided moments of levity and answered an odd question: Who was the man that was fishing through the garbage and unknowingly found a gun owned by the president's son six years ago? --Xerxes Wilson and Isabel Hughes NEED TO KNOW: Janssen's, StarQuest Shooters and more: The Delaware people, places part of Hunter Biden's trial President Biden says he wouldnt pardon his son if he is convicted President Joe Biden said he would not pardon his son Hunter Biden, who is on trial for federal gun charges, according to a wide-ranging exclusive interview with ABC News. ABC anchor David Muir, interviewing President Biden in France for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, asked whether he would accept the outcome of his sons trial. Yes, the president said. Muir also asked if he would rule out a pardon for his son. Yes, the president said. --Bart Jansen This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Hunter Biden trial: Here is what to expect after early end Friday By Jack Queen and Tom Hals WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) -Hunter Biden's daughter testified in her father's defense on Friday that he seemed to respond well to drug treatment in the weeks before he bought a gun that prosecutors say he obtained illegally by failing to disclose his addiction. Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden's son, has pleaded not guilty in federal court to felony charges that include lying about his addiction when he applied for the Colt Cobra revolver in 2018 and illegally possessing the weapon for 11 days. His daughter Naomi Biden, 30, told the jury at his criminal trial she saw her father in California then and "He seemed really great." On cross-examination, Naomi Biden was shown that she had been messaging and calling her father and unable to reach him. "I can't take this," she texted her father several days after he purchased the gun. "I miss you so much and I just want to hang out." Prosecutors introduced prior testimony and evidence that they said showed Hunter Biden was arranging to buy crack cocaine at the time. Naomi Biden was the last witness on Friday. The jury was dismissed until Monday when the defense will announce whether Hunter Biden, 54, will testify. Testifying can be risky for criminal defendants because it exposes them to cross-examination. The jury in the 5-day-old first-ever criminal trial of a U.S. president's child heard witnesses including Hunter Biden's ex-wife, former girlfriend and sister-in-law testify about his use of crack cocaine. His sister-in-law, Hallie Biden, on Thursday recounted finding the gun and throwing it away out of concern for the safety of Hunter Biden and her children. Prosecutors said that there was overwhelming evidence Hunter Biden was actively using crack in the weeks before and after he bought the gun and that he lied by answering "no" on a government screening document when asked if he was a drug user. Defense attorney Abbe Lowell has said Biden did not intend to deceive because he did not consider himself an addict when he purchased the gun. Hunter Biden told the judge at a 2023 hearing that he had been sober since 2019. Earlier on Friday, prosecutors rested their case and Hunter Biden's team asked the judge overseeing the case to acquit him. His lawyers said the evidence did not support a conviction. U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika did not immediately rule on the request which is routinely filed by defendants and often denied. In addition to Naomi Biden, Lowell called as witnesses an employee and the owner of the gun shop to try to cast doubts about the accuracy of the background check form at the center of the case. The trial follows another historic first - last week's criminal conviction of Donald Trump, the first U.S. president to be found guilty of a felony. Trump is the Republican challenger to Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the Nov. 5 election. Trump and some Republicans in Congress have accused Democrats of pursuing the case and three other criminal prosecutions to prevent Trump from regaining power in his rematch with the president. Congressional Democrats have pointed to cases including the Hunter Biden prosecution as evidence that Joe Biden is not using the justice system for political or personal ends. Joe Biden told ABC News on Thursday that he would not pardon his son if convicted. The sentencing guidelines for the charges against Biden are 15 to 21 months, but legal experts say defendants in similar cases often get shorter sentences and are less likely to be incarcerated if they abide by the terms of their pretrial release. (Reporting by Jack Queen and Tom Hals; Editing by Scott Malone, Bill Berkrot and Howard Goller) Hunter Biden's daughter closes out week of trial testimony. What's next in the case? The government rested its case against Hunter Biden in Wilmington on Friday, and the defense called Naomi Biden, his daughter, to the stand. Her vulnerable testimony underscored the family dynamics of the trial: Hunter Biden's ex-wife has testified, as well as his former lover the widow of his brother. On most days, First Lady Jill Biden has looked on from the courtroom gallery. Hunter Biden faces two firearms felonies based on allegations that he lied about his drug use when he filled out a form required to purchase a revolver in October 2018, as well as an additional felony for illegally possessing the gun while addicted to controlled substances. To convict the president's son, prosecutors must prove he was an unlawful user or addicted to controlled substances when he bought the gun. His defense has conceded he was addicted before and after he bought the gun, but has sought to build a wall around that month, arguing that he was not using drugs at the time and didn't knowingly lie on the form. Hunter Biden's daughter testifies To that end, defense attorneys called Naomi, 30 and Hunter's eldest child, to the stand Friday morning. She was soft-spoken and apologized for being nervous early in her testimony. She said she had not spoken to her father for several months in summer 2018 when she took her boyfriend who she would later marry to meet him in California that August. At the time, Hunter was undergoing drug treatment. They met at a coffee shop and spent the afternoon shopping together. He seemed the clearest since my uncle died, Naomi said of her father, noting that she also met his sober coach like a sponsor during the visit. He seemed really great. She saw him again in New York that October and told the jury he appeared to be doing well, saying he seemed hopeful. Yet prosecutors painted a different picture during Naomis cross-examination, using text messages to undercut the narrative presented by the defense that Hunter had a period of sobriety in the fall of 2018. According to Naomi's testimony, that October, she borrowed her fathers truck to move Peter from Washington, D.C. to New York, where he was moving in with her. The plan was for Hunter to drive up to New York. Hed take what Naomi called Pops car, referring to a black Cadillac leased by her grandfather, President Joe Biden. Once in New York, the two would swap cars. Prosecutor Leo Wise read through a series of text messages between Naomi Biden and her father in her attempts to schedule the car swap. The first messages began mid-afternoon on Oct. 17, with Naomi inquiring when Hunter wanted to swap vehicles. She didn't receive a reply until almost midnight that day. Then, around 2 a.m. on Oct. 18, Hunter texted his daughter asking if they could meet at Fifth Avenue and West 57th Street to swap the cars. She replied asking if he meant at that hour, though didn't hear back until later that day. Naomi Biden (C), daughter of Hunter Biden, leaves the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 07, 2024 in Wilmington, Delaware. The trial for Hunter Biden's felony gun charges continues today with additional witnesses. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) Wise seized on the 2 a.m. messages. Do you know what your father was doing at 2 a.m. and why he was asking for the car then? Wise asked pointedly. He then addressed text messages sent later that day in which Naomi tried to firm up plans for Peter and Hunter to swap cars. In the messages, Naomi asked if she would see her father during his short trip to New York. He replied no, though she testified Friday that she believed he was saying no to another inquiry she had made. Still, she wrote back: So no see you?! That message was followed by an unhappy face, Wise said. Wise also read a text message around the same time in which Naomi told Biden I'm sorry, I cant take this. I miss you so much. I just wanna hang out with you. Her father replied: I am sorry Ive been so unreachable. It is not fair to you. Wise's questions seemed to imply that Hunter was avoiding his daughter, asking Naomi if she knew if during this timeframe he was meeting with someone named Frankie a man who, according to previous testimony, sold drugs to Hunter in New York early in 2018. Prosecution rests Friday Before Naomi Biden's testimony, prosecutors rested their case after three and a half days of testimony from 10 witnesses. Three of those were Hunter Biden's former lovers: his ex-wife Kathleen Buhle, his former girlfriend Zoe Kestan and Hallie Biden, the widow of his brother and his former girlfriend. Kestan and Hallie Biden provided what might be the most damning testimony. Hunter Biden trial: Ex-wife, former girlfriend detail his drug use, battle with sobriety Kestan testified to Hunter Biden's frequent drug use through summer 2018 and as late as September after a period in rehab. Hallie Biden also testified about text messages from October 2018, the same month Hunter Biden bought the gun, where he told her he was waiting for a dealer in one message and smoking crack on a car in another message sent days after he purchased the gun. She also told the jury she found what she believed to be drug paraphernalia and residue with Hunter Biden's gun before she trashed it at a local grocery store. This directly undercuts the defense argument that Hunter Biden was not using drugs in October and thus didn't knowingly lie on the form he completed to purchase the revolver. Trial Coverage: Hallie Biden testifies to drug use, gun discovery Prosecutors have also introduced excerpts from Hunter Biden's memoir where he goes into detail about his struggles with addiction in 2018 and in the surrounding years. They've also introduced dozens of text messages and that a DEA agent testified on Friday show Hunter Biden arranging drug deals. Other than the two messages to Hallie Biden in October, the messages were primarily sent before and after October 2018. An FBI special agent also testified to large cash withdrawals by Hunter Biden, with prosecutors contending those are consistent with someone frequently buying drugs. The prosecutor's case also featured testimony by employees from StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply, the Talleyville shop where Hunter Biden bought the gun, as well as testimony from police responsible for recovering the weapon after Hallie Biden threw it in the trash 11 days after its purchase. The Delaware man who found the gun while rummaging through the grocery store garbage also testified Thursday. What comes next It is unclear if Hunter Biden's defense team will call more witnesses. In opening statements, defense attorney Abbe Lowell said James Biden, the president's brother, would feature in the defense case. He was at the courthouse Friday, however court adjourned early that day without him testifying. There is also the question of whether Hunter Biden might take the stand, a decision Lowell told the court has not been made as of Friday. It is also unclear if prosecutors will offer rebuttal witnesses once the defense rests. Presiding Judge Maryellen Noreika told attorneys to return to the courthouse Monday at 8:15 a.m. to continue the proceedings. This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Naomi Biden testifies about dad's addiction, closes out week of trial BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) -- China will further promote the reform and high-quality development of public hospitals as part of the efforts to deepen its healthcare reform, according to a list of healthcare reform tasks for 2024 recently released. The document, released by the General Office of the State Council, encourages local governments to learn from the successful healthcare reform practices implemented in Sanming, a city in Fujian Province. Sanming started to reform its public hospitals in 2012 to address the overpricing of drugs and medical consumables, and the overuse of medication and tests in healthcare services, which led to expensive medical care services and a heavy burden for local medical insurance funds. The document calls for a deepened reform of the payment system at public hospitals, stating that medical workers' income should be stable and must not be linked to bills for drugs, medical materials, examinations and tests. According to the document, China will promote the national centralized volume-based procurement of drugs and medical consumables and adjust the pricing of medical services. Since 2018, China has conducted nine rounds of volume-based procurement bids for medication and several bids for medical consumables such as coronary stents, artificial joints, and intraocular lenses. The country will improve its medical service system, including enhancing health service capacity at the primary level, and establish a multi-tiered healthcare insurance system with efforts to both improve the basic health insurance system and promote commercial health insurance. China will also deepen reform regarding drug use and management, the mechanism of drug evaluation and approval, and the supply of drugs, according to the document. Idahos health data exchange is among several health information systems across the country meant to help health care providers, insurers and others share patients medical data more effectively. (Getty Images) The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare is ending its contract to access a government-created and formerly bankrupt health data sharing service. Idahos $100,000 contract to access the Idaho Health Data Exchange will end June 30. The exchange received $24.4 million through the state health department, according to a watchdog state report released last fall that found the state-created nonprofit tough to regulate. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare was concerned by the findings of the watchdog report related to the exchanges management and accounting of public funds, data security and the exchanges compliance with applicable federal laws, agency spokesperson AJ McWhorter told the Sun. The department terminated the contract due to these concerns and (the Idaho Health Data Exchanges) lack of transparency, he said. Idahos health data exchange is among several health information systems across the country meant to help health care providers, insurers and others share patients medical data more effectively. The Idaho Health Data Exchange exited bankruptcy last year, with a plan to pay 25% of its debts. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Idaho Health Data Exchange Executive Director Jesse Meldru told the Sun in an email the loss of fees from the state health department would be immaterial to the exchange, which he said was supported by fees from other Idaho clients. Meldru said hes not sure he knows why Idaho ended the contract. But he said the move will cost taxpayers more for the health departments increased labor to obtain data through far less efficient processes. It would be unfortunate to the team at (the exchange) who dedicate themselves to (the exchanges) mission for (the Idaho Health Data Exchanges) services to not be available to the employees of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare as they work to execute on their mission to serve Idahoans, Meldru said. Why is Idaho terminating its contract with the Idaho Health Data Exchange? The Idaho Health Data Exchange is a nonprofit organization propped up by almost $94 million in mostly federal tax funds. About $65 million of those funds were federal grants to medical providers to develop electronic health systems. Thats according to a watchdog report by the Office of Performance Evaluations in November that found the exchange had few state-built accountability measures more than a decade after state officials created it. The watchdog report didnt find evidence that the exchanges data is vulnerable, but identified a potential conflict of interest in a third party that attested to its security in 2021. Meldru previously said the exchanges data security is top notch, citing external reviews. The exchange has operated without state or federal grants since late 2020, Meldru previously told the Sun. A top health official warned in April that Idaho would end the contract if the exchange didnt release finance and security audits. Since then, the Idaho Health Data Exchange did not provide documentation requested, health department spokesperson McWhorter told the Sun. The Idaho Health Data Exchanges response did not indicate that the organization would consider following transparency and ethical requirements described as necessary in the (watchdog) report, he wrote. Misleading statements about a change in leadership at (the exchange) added to these concerns. Former Idaho Department of Health and Welfare interim director Dean Cameron notified Meldru on May 31 that the agency will terminate the contract. The new full-time health department director Alex Adams, Gov. Brad Littles former budget chief, started Wednesday. FINAL_INFOGRPHX_DATA_5X3 1THIRD Idaho could regulate the exchange, search for new contractor Idaho medical providers can continue their relationships with the Idaho Health Data Exchange, deputy Medicaid administrator Sasha OConnell told the powerful Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Monday. The exchange is predominately used in rural areas as a way to reduce additional phone calls and faxes, she said. But the exchange didnt live up to its promise, said OConnell, who led the watchdog report into exchange as an evaluator for the Idaho Office of Performance Evaluations. I think that we still have a grand idea of what an exchange could look like. But the exchange did not live up to its full potential, OConnell said. Need to get in touch? Have a news tip? CONTACT US Idaho could pursue another health data sharing service called a health information exchange through a competitive bidding process, she said. And OConnell said lawmakers could pursue reform for the exchange. The state does not have control at this point over the Idaho Health Data Exchange operating independently. The Legislature could pass legislation around that area, but to date they are still operating, OConnell told the state budget committee. But, Meldru said in an email, if the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare chooses ANY OTHER vendor to enable electronic patient health information exchange, it will be costing the taxpayers far more than the cost would have been to continue with the Idaho Health Data Exchange. DONATE: SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST The post Idaho ends contract with Idaho Health Data Exchange appeared first on Idaho Capital Sun. IDF says it hit UNRWA school compound in Gaza used by Hamas Palestinians inspect damages after an Israeli airstrike on a school for displaced people run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Nuseirat refugee camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip. Omar Naaman/dpa Israel's army says it has once again attacked a school compound belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in order to take action against a Hamas cell. Members of the terrorist organization had used a container on the school grounds in the al-Shati refugee camp in the northern part of the coastal strip as a meeting place for their activities, the military announced on Friday. They had also planned attacks there. Terrorists were killed in the air strike, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. It did not initially say exactly how many people were killed. The information provided by the military could initially only be partially verified. Eyewitnesses confirmed an Israeli attack on the container to dpa. There had been several casualties. There were initially no reports of civilian casualties. "Hamas systematically, intentionally and strategically places its infrastructure and operates from within civilian areas, in full violation of international law and while putting the lives of Gazan civilians at risk," the IDF wrote on the social media platform X. On Thursday the IDF attacked a school building in the Gaza Strip in which it said 20 to 30 members of terrorist groups were present. According to the Palestinian authorities, at least 30 people were killed, including women and children. Hamas spoke of 40 dead. Since the war began in October, many internally displaced people have sought refuge in UN schools. Israel's army has been heavily criticized internationally for its actions in the Gaza war. Attacks on civilian facilities in particular are highly controversial. Meanwhile there have been no updates as to whether Hamas has accepted a recent proposal for a ceasefire and hostage deal. Qatar, which is mediating talks to forge a deal between Israel and Hamas, said late Thursday that the Palestinian Islamist group has yet to respond to a recent proposal for a ceasefire and hostage release. In one small positive sign, the US military said on Friday that it had repaired the temporary pier on the coast of the Gaza Strip that was damaged in rough seas at the end of May. The structure enables the continuation of deliveries of urgently needed humanitarian aid for Gaza residents, regional command Centcom announced Centcom said. The Pentagon had already held out the prospect earlier this week that the pier anchored on the coast would be repaired in the course of this week and that aid deliveries could then be resumed. The pier was severely damaged in rough seas just a few days after the completion of the temporary harbour. Due to strong waves, four US military ships anchored in the area broke free from their moorings. There had also previously been problems with the distribution of aid supplies. The Pentagon said at the time that some lorries had been "intercepted." Under the provisional arrangement, freighters will initially bring aid supplies from Cyprus to a floating platform a few kilometres off the coast of the Gaza Strip. The goods are then loaded onto smaller ships that can sail closer to the coast. These then dock at the temporary pier attached to the coast. There, the supplies are received by aid organizations and then distributed in the Gaza Strip by lorry. Palestinians inspect damages after an Israeli airstrike on a school for displaced people run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Nuseirat refugee camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip. Omar Naaman/dpa Palestinians inspect damages after an Israeli airstrike on a school for displaced people run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Nuseirat refugee camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip. Omar Naaman/dpa Illinois Mom Is Killed by Ex-Husband in Murder-Suicide, Leaving Their 3 Children Without Parents Amy Moore, a second grade teacher at Grove Elementary School in Illinois, was killed by her ex-husband Matthew Moore on May 29 Thomas Burns/GoFundMe Amy Moore, 46, was killed by her ex-husband on May 29 An Illinois second-grade teacher and her ex-husband were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide that took place in her home in Normal, Ill., on May 29. According to a Normal Police Departments news release, preliminary evidence shows that Matthew Moore, 46, illegally entered the home of Amy Moore, 46 in the early morning. Moore confronted the victim and shot [her] multiple times before he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound," the release states. Following the murder-suicide, WGLT, Illinois' local NPR network, reported that the incident left the former couple's three sons ages 12, 11 and 7 without parents and that Thomas Burns, Amy Moores older brother, started a GoFundMe fundraiser on May 31 to help support the children. 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 of June 7, the fundraiser is currently close to its $400,000 goal. That response is such a testament to Bloomington-Normal and the surrounding areas, Burns told WGLT on June 2. Its just really unbelievable. I dont think youd get this anywhere else. Burns also told WGLT that Amy Moore was essentially a single mother at the end of her life, working full time, living paycheck to paycheck. WGLT previously reported on May 30 that Amy and Matthew had gotten divorced. The outlet reported that the paperwork for the divorce included orders of protection Amy had filed against Matthew. There were many red flags, many phone calls, many trips to lawyers to try and address this," Burns told WGLT. "I think for sure the entire system let her down. This is something that, with the number of incidents weve had over the years, they shouldve never been in the same room at the same time, ever. It should have been impossible for that to happen. If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages. For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on People. The International Labour Organization and the government of Turkmenistan have adopted a roadmap of cooperation detailing priority actions aimed at preventing tens of thousands of public sector employees, such as hospital workers, school staffers and utilities personnel, from being compelled into the severely repressive Central Asian nations cotton fields every year. The issues are large, manifold and structural: Cotton production is wholly controlled by the state, which imposes aggressive quotas on farmers on the threat of penalties such as fines and the loss of their land. Pickers are subject to similar coercion, and anyone unwilling or unable to participate is required to hire replacements or risk pay reductions and unemployment. Officially, the government no longer conscripts minors, yet children as young as 10 are often seen picking cotton to scrounge up money for their families or serve as replacement pickers for relatives. The root causes of forced labora dearth of freedom of association, freedom of expression and collective bargaining rightsremain endemic and pervasive, making credible due diligence all but impossible. More from Sourcing Journal It isnt for nothing, therefore, that the United States has maintained a Withhold Release Order on both Turkmen cotton and products produced in whole or in part with the same since 2018. Nor is it a coincidence that 150 multinational brands and retailers, including Adidas, Amazon, Gap Inc., H&M Group and Calvin Klein owner PVH Corp., have signed a public commitment shunning Turkmen cotton until the ILO determines that forced labor is no longer involved. But the 2023 cotton harvest offered something new. For the first time in 10 years of consecutive monitoring by Turkmen.News and the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, both frontline members of the multi-stakeholder Cotton Campaign, authorities allowed teachers and doctors to leave the fields without paying for replacement pickers. The decision dovetailed with a visit to Turkmenistan by an ILO mission, which the organizations surmised might have been the trigger. Even so, the move had limited impact, with the mission noting in its interim report that it found direct or indirect evidence of mobilization of public servants in all regions visited. That said, the relatively robust nature of the roadmap, which was published last week, paves the way for a cautious optimism about engagement between Turkmenistan and the ILO, said Allison Gill, forced labor program director at the Global Labor Justice-International Labor Rights Forum, the Washington, D.C. nonprofit that hosts the Cotton Campaign. If all of the priority components in the roadmap were implemented, that would go a long way toward beginning to dismantle the system of forced labor. The document reiterates that forced or compulsory labor and the employment of under-18s are prohibited by the countrys constitution. It asks that the government release public statements denouncing forced or compulsory labor in cotton harvests, set fair and decent wages for cotton pickers to incentivize voluntary picking, create an easy and accessible way for workers to confidentially file grievances and complaints, promote social dialogue among cotton production stakeholders, and step up the prosecution of individuals and public officials found guilty of forced mobilization or extortion. This is the first time the eradication of forced labor isnt being discussed in nebulous terms, said Ruslan Myatiev, editor of Turkmen.news. Although the government has not yet publicly acknowledged the problem, such a detailed plan gives hope, he added. But Gill has a couple of grouses. For one thing, the roadmap doesnt appear to have been formulated with input from independent social partners. Real social dialogue, she said, requires involved parties to be independent of one another, yet Turkmenistans employers organization and its sole trade union are knotted up with the government. Another is the lack of commitment to allowing freedom of association and other fundamental labor rights, when the best way to prevent and resolve forced labor and labor exploitation is when workers have power, she said. Without the right enabling conditions, any progress Turkmenistan may make could go the way of Uzbekistan, where despite historic success in ending state-enforced labor through economic reforms is in imminent danger of backsliding because civic freedoms continue to be curtailed. Without independent unions to protect their interests without fear of reprisal, workers are especially vulnerable to exploitative practices such as forced labor. It concerns me that in Turkmenistan, where were at the brink of something really importantbecause there are not a lot of openings in Turkmenistan and this is an important oneis that this appears to be so far a missing component, Gill said. I very much hope that it is incorporated and that the ILO is attentive to ensuring independent social partners and an emphasis on fundamental labor rights, including freedom of association, as part of the plan to dismantle state-imposed forced labor. President Joe Bidens attempt to crack down on illegal immigration is already being leveraged in court by administration critics who favor an even tougher approach at the southern border. A lawyer for the state of Texas, which is fighting to maintain concertina wire along a stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border, argued in court Thursday that Bidens sweeping executive order to suspend the right to make asylum claims undercuts previous administration legal arguments in a suit brought by Gov. Greg Abbott. Texas Solicitor General Aaron Nielson told a panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that Bidens action, which prohibits most migrants from being permitted to claim asylum when certain conditions are met, was flatly contrary to legal arguments the Justice Department previously offered in the case. They told the district court and this court and the Supreme Court, essentially the toehold theory: If you get one toe into the United States, you are entitled to the asylum process. That is not consistent with what the president said two days ago, that they can turn off the asylum process, if too many people are trying to come into the country, Nielsen said during the court session in New Orleans. Under Bidens plan, which went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, the government will suspend the right to claim asylum, with few exceptions, if the number of people apprehended between the ports of entry exceeds 2,500 people for seven straight days. The suspension remains in effect until the number drops to 1,500. The initial conditions have already been met, so the U.S. has effectively stopped accepting new claims except at ports of entry. The executive order, announced Tuesday, does not apply to unaccompanied minors and allows the government to make exceptions in cases of urgent humanitarian need. Immigrant rights groups have vowed to challenge the new Biden rules as a violation of existing law and treaty obligations. Its unclear precisely what form such legal challenges will take, since some existing asylum limits are already being litigated and some suits over Trump-era policies are still active or on appeal. However, the arguments Thursday at the 5th Circuit underscore the fact that Biden is also likely to face continued legal pressure from Republican state officials and their attorneys, who contend hes still not doing enough to limit uncontrolled immigration from Mexico. Texas filed suit against the Biden administration last year for destroying concertina wire installed at the direction of Abbott in response to record numbers of people coming to the U.S.-Mexico border to seek asylum. At the court session, Justice Department attorney Melissa Patterson said the Texas lawyers claims about Bidens new policy were inaccurate and that it does not completely foreclose asylum proceedings for everyone who is encountered by the Border Patrol after the daily quota is exceeded. We simply lackthere is no turn-back authority, Patterson declared. Once someone is within the United States, once they have entered and are present to the United States, regardless of whether they have entered unlawfully or whether they've entered lawfully at a port of entry, [immigration law] gives folks the right to apply for asylum. Nothing about the proclamation and the rule that accompanied changed that. It imposed a limitation on eligibility. It's going to be harder to get itto get asylum for a lot of folks, but you still get to apply, you still get to be processed, the DOJ lawyer said. The Biden administration has argued that the razor wire Texas national guard troops deployed last year interferes with the Border Patrols ability to monitor the border and to respond to medical emergencies such as drownings. In January, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to lift a 5th Circuit ruling that prevented federal officials from cutting through the wire so they could easily reach the border. However, that was a one-time decision and did not preclude the 5th Circuit from granting similar or other relief to Texas as the litigation continued. GROVER BEACH, Cal. An Independence, Missouri man has been identified as the suspect shot and killed by a police officer in California following an incident last month. On Saturday May 25, Grover Beach, California police officers responded to a gas station regarding a man who displayed a firearm to a person. Multiple dead, multiple injured after shooting in east Kansas City Officers arrived on scene and were unable to locate the suspect and cleared the area. A few minutes later, officers responded to a man causing a disturbance. Callers reported that a man was throwing rocks at passing cars. A Grover Beach police officer arrived on scene and contacted the suspect. After getting out of his patrol car, the man told the officer he had a gun, and would shoot the officer. The officer gave several commands to the suspect to comply, who continued to be uncooperative and continued to tell the officer he had a gun and would shoot the officer. The man then advanced toward the officer quickly raising his right arm with a replica firearm in his hand. The officer fired and struck the suspect several times. The entire incident was captured on a body worn camera. Download the FOX4 News app on iPhone and Android The suspect, identified as 41-year-old Aaron Edward Gardner, was taken to Arroyo Grande Community Hospital where he was later pronounced dead. Police say at the time of the shooting, Gardner had warrants for his arrest in Kansas and Texas. He was homeless and traveling through California. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. After securing a surprisingly narrow victory during Indias latest elections on Wednesday, a flood of congratulations rushed in for Narendra Modi. From Rishi Sunak to Emmanuel Macron, world leaders queued up to congratulate the Indian prime minister on his historic third term. Yet it was Modis exchange with one overseas counterpart that raised eyebrows in diplomatic circles. My sincere congratulations to Prime Minister [Modi] on his election victory, wrote Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te on social media platform X. We look forward to enhancing the fast-growing Taiwan-India partnership. Replying to the post, Modi said: Thank you for your warm message. I look forward to closer ties as we work towards mutually beneficial economic and technological partnership. Thank you @ChingteLai for your warm message. I look forward to closer ties as we work towards mutually beneficial economic and technological partnership. https://t.co/VGw2bsmwfM Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 5, 2024 The Indian leaders statement though seemingly dull at first glance will be seen as a subtle dig at China, at a time when relations between New Delhi and Beijing are decidedly frosty. Chinas communist government regards Taiwan as a rogue province that must reunify with the mainland, furiously objecting whenever foreign countries engage with the democratic island independently. Modi, who has been Indias prime minister since 2014, certainly understands this. Hes a seasoned politician, says Gray Sergeant, an Indo-Pacific expert at the London-based Council on Geostrategy. So theres no doubt he would have known what he was doing here. It shows he is not prepared to mend the relationship on Beijings terms alone, or step on what is, for China, a very red line. Unsurprisingly, the statement triggered a swift rebuttal from China. India has made serious political commitments regarding the one-China principle and should be vigilant against the political schemes of the Taiwan authorities and refrain from actions that violate the one-China principle, Mao Ning, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry told reporters on Thursday. There is only one China in the world. Relations between China and India hit a low in 2020 following violent clashes between troops from both countries along their shared 2,100-mile border in the Himalayas. Today, around 60,000 troops from each side remain stationed along the disputed area, turning it into an effective powder keg. Today, around 60,000 troops from each side are stationed along China and India's shared border in the Himalayas - TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP via Getty Images However, New Delhi is also growing increasingly wary about its neighbours activities across the broader Indo-Pacific region, where Beijing is building up its military presence. The two powers have both been on manoeuvres, with India recently opening its own military facility near the Maldives amid fears China is seeking bases in nearby Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Meanwhile, Chinese president President Xi Jinping has sought to thwart Indias ambitions to play a bigger role on the global stage. Beijing vetoed its neighbours bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group in 2016, blocked New Delhis efforts to put Pakistan-based terrorists on global watchlists and has repeatedly denied its attempt to join the powerful United Nations Security Council. That is despite support from all other sitting members, including Russia. Against that backdrop, India has sought to foster closer alliances with partners, including the US, Australia and Japan, all of which sit on the Quad security alliance, to help contain Chinese aggression. However, with Modi having suffered a surprise loss of his parliamentary majority in the latest Indian elections forcing him to rely on coalition partners his latest position on Taiwan may be a sign of strength regarding his foreign policy. Symbolically, it shows efforts to send a signal to Beijing that despite the Modi governments weakened mandate, India will maintain its more assertive and muscular foreign policy and not kowtow to pressure from China on the border, says Dr Chietigj Bajpaee, a senior research fellow for South Asia at the Chatham House foreign policy think tank. After a surprise loss of Modi's parliamentary majority, his position on Taiwan may be a sign of strength regarding foreign policy - ARUN SANKAR/AFP More broadly, New Delhi is trying to show that it has means of counterbalancing Chinese encroachments into Indias self-perceived sphere of influence in South Asia by deepening engagement with Taiwan. Indias ties with Taiwan are not just for show, however. New Delhi has no formal diplomatic ties to the self-governing island but has sought a deeper economic partnership with Taipei since the 1990s. This has involved courting investment from Taiwan and more recently striking agreements that allow greater numbers of Indian migrants to go there to work. Around $3.4bn (2.66bn) of goods were exported by Taiwan to India in 2022, including $937m of integrated circuits, with other top exports including plastics and computer and office equipment. However, the jewel in Taiwans economic crown remains its unparalleled ability to craft semiconductors, also known as microchips a technology India is increasingly keen to gain a foothold in. While the Modi government has carefully guarded against Chinese involvement in sensitive technology areas, it has sought to woo Taiwanese firms, including by rolling out a $10bn scheme to incentivise domestic manufacturing. The Indians are very concerned about any potential points of leverage that China could have over them, says Sergeant. And like a lot of other countries, theyd like a slice of the Taiwanese semiconductor pie. India has enjoyed only limited success with chips so far, with Taiwanese firm Powerchip teaming up with Mumbais Tata to establish Indias first leading-edge microchip factory (capable of making 12-inch silicon wafers). To unlock more investment from Taiwanese chip companies, Taipei has argued a free-trade agreement is needed. That would demonstrate an attempt to stand up to Beijing, while also improving Indias industrial capabilities. Substantively, a key objective of the Modi government is to develop India into a global manufacturing hub, particularly in the area of critical and emerging technologies including semiconductors, explains Chatham Houses Bajpaee. Closer alignment with Taiwan is key to achieving this objective: hence, the tweet from Modi that he looks forward to a closer economic and technology partnership. India is eager to attract further Taiwanese investment and technology transfers. Modis social media post on Wednesday may well have been the latest example of a foreign leader pushing back against Chinese efforts to isolate Taiwan, by challenging Beijing in a subtle manner. For example, Lord Cameron, the UK Foreign Secretary, was recently among the world leaders to congratulate Taiwans president for an election victory, albeit without mentioning his title. That is partly a response to Chinas own grey zone tactics, which seek to break the will of the Taiwanese people and force them to surrender their sovereignty without a fight, says Sergeant at the Council on Geostrategy. So all these little actions are meant to push back a bit and help. So even with a weakened mandate, it seems Modi is keen to show how India will join the West in refusing to kowtow to China. 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. An examinee claps hands with teachers outside a national college entrance examination site in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Ren Chao) An examinee hugs her parent outside a national college entrance examination site in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Wu Zhizun) A parent hugging flowers waits for an examinee outside a national college entrance examination site in Taiyuan, north China's Shanxi Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Zhan Yan) A parent writes encouraging words on a board outside a national college entrance examination site in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan) Teachers encourage examinees outside a national college entrance examination site in Guiyang, southwest China's Guizhou Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Tao Liang) An examinee walks out of a national college entrance examination site in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Li Bo) Volunteers encourage an examinee outside a national college entrance examination site in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Huang Bohan) Examinees wait for exams at a national college entrance examination site in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Huang Bohan) Examinees enter a national college entrance examination site in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao) An examinee hugs a teacher outside a national college entrance examination site in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao) Examinees enter a national college entrance examination site in Hanshou County, central China's Hunan Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Chen Sihan) Parents wait for examinees outside a national college entrance examination site in Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Wang Fei) Family of examinees wait outside a national college entrance examination site in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi) Examinees enter a national college entrance examination site in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Hu Jingwen) Examinees walk out of a national college entrance examination site in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Li Bo) A special bus for transporting students is pictured at a national college entrance examination site in Qinzhou, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Zhang Ailin) An examinee is accompanied by her parents before entering a national college entrance examination site in Lanzhou, northwest China's Gansu Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Ma Xiping) An examinee reviews outside a national college entrance examination site in Tianjin, north China, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue) Examinees have security check before entering a national college entrance examination site in Lanzhou, northwest China's Gansu Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Ma Xiping) Examinees have their identity cards checked before entering a national college entrance examination site in Lanzhou, northwest China's Gansu Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Ma Xiping) An examinee waves to his family at a national college entrance examination site in Tianjin, north China, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue) An examinee shakes hands with his teacher before entering a national college entrance examination site in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Zhang Nan) An examinee hugs his teacher before entering a national college entrance examination site in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Zhang Nan) An examinee claps hands with his teacher before entering a national college entrance examination site in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Zhang Nan) Examinees enter a national college entrance examination site in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Wang Song) Examinees clap hands with their teachers before entering a national college entrance examination site in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Zhang Nan) Examinees enter a national college entrance examination site in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong) Parents of examinees wait outside a national college entrance examination site in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Chen Yehua) (240607) -- TIANJIN, June 7, 2024 (Xinhua) -- An examinee walks to enter a national college entrance examination site in Tianjin, north China, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Photo by Du Penghui/Xinhua) An examinee touches a handicraft in the shape of zongzi, a traditional Chinese food to mark the Dragon Boat Festival, before entering a national college entrance examination site in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei) Examinees wait to attend the national college entrance examination at an examination site in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Ren Chao) Examinees wait to attend the national college entrance examination at an examination site in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Li Bo) An examinee claps hands with a person dressed as a mascot sending best wishes at a national college entrance examination site in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Li Bo) Examinees wait to enter a national college entrance examination site in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Zhang Chenlin) An examinee enters a national college entrance examination site in Kaili, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Guizhou Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Photo by Long Jianrui/Xinhua) Examinees wait to attend the national college entrance examination at an examination site in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Ren Chao) Examinees enter a national college entrance examination site in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Zhang Nan) The Charlestown Board of Public Works presented Zoey Jasso with a City of Charlestown challenge coin and a Certificate of Appreciation for heroic actions WDRB/Youtube Zoey Jasso inside the remains of her home A 14-year-old teen in Indiana saved her family from a devasting house fire on Tuesday morning. Zoey Jasso has been hailed as a hero after helping her loved ones escape a fire inside their home on the 200 block of Level Street in Charlestown around 10 a.m. on Tuesday, June 4. According to WLKY, the escape from the burning flames began after Zoey woke up after smelling a "sweet sent" and hearing a fire alarm go off. "I'd seen orange like it was like an orange light. And so I turned on my flashlight, and I'd seen the smoke fill up the room," she told the new station. Related: 3 Girls Cared for Their Mom as She Was Dying of Cancer Now They're Becoming Nurses: Mom Is Looking Down (Exclusive) After she woke up her twin sister, who was sleeping in the same room, the two immediately rushed to the other room where their 3-year-old twin cousins and their dad were sleeping. "I yelled, 'I think there's a fire,' and then everyone just woke up immediately, and then they all got out," said Zoey. The five family members, including their dog, were out in less than a minute, and fire crews arrived about four minutes later, reports WDRB. PEOPLE has reached out to the Charlestown Fire Department for comment. Sandy Huff, Zoey's great aunt who also lives in the home, was at work when the fire started. Getty Stock image of a fire engine Related: Dad of 2 Returns to Space as Boeing Successfully Launches Their First Crewed Flight She told WDRB she is "thankful we have our village to support us. Our family is, when something happens they're there." Although the cause of the fire is not yet known, Zoey's family believes that their home, which was rental, is a "total loss," according to WDRB. The family had insurance for the home, but they are currently staying with loved ones until they figure out their next steps. "It is a little scary because it was right next to me. And I was just thinking, 'What if I stayed in the room a little bit longer? What would have happened?' It is very scary to look at this and see I was almost in that," Zoey told the news station. Following the fire, the Charlestown Board of Public Works presented Zoey with a City of Charlestown challenge coin and a Certificate of Appreciation for heroic actions. 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. "Mayor Treva Hodges explained during the presentation that Zoey awoke to the smell of smoke and because of her quick thinking and action; without panic, she awoke other occupants of the dwelling to help ensure everyone in danger made it out safely," the city of Charlestown shared on its official Facebook page. For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on People. Indianapolis author John Green is among a group of renowned writers with the dubious distinction of having the most books banned in Iowa, according to an exclusive investigation by The Des Moines Register. A sister publication of IndyStar, journalists at the Register examined the impact of Senate File 496, a 2023 education law requiring library materials to be "age-appropriate" and bans most books depicting sex acts from Iowa schools. The sweeping law also restricts curriculum about sexual orientation and gender identity through sixth grade. Here's what we know. How did the Register investigate banned books? The Register documented nearly 3,400 book removals due to the law, which included about 1,000 unique book titles; 335 titles were removed in more than one school district. 'Looking for Alaska' among the top 2 books banned in Iowa; John Green and others are suing The top two books "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult and "Looking for Alaska" by John Green were both removed in more than 70 school districts. Picoult and Green are now suing the state over Senate File 496 after their books were banned. The state cannot enforce the law's book and curriculum restrictions during two pending lawsuits due to a judge's injunction. After the judge's decision, some districts decided to restore the books to shelves. What books are being banned or removed off the shelf in Iowa? The most banned books in Iowa since Senate File 496 appear to have been flagged for their sexual content, including scenes where characters have sex or with depictions of rape. They are: 1. 'Nineteen Minutes' by Jodi Picoult Jodi Picoult's "Nineteen Minutes" What it's about "Nineteen Minutes" tracks the events leading up to and the fallout from a fatal shooting at a high school in New Hampshire at the hands of a 17-year-old student who suffered physical and verbal abuse from his classmates. The shooter's former best friend, Josie, who witnessed the massacre, ostensibly can't remember the event, while the shooter's parents consider how their past actions after a tragic accident may have played a role. A trial soon reveals divisions between the town's adults and students and rips relationships apart. Number of school districts that removed the book 77 Number of districts that later reshelved the book after injunction 22 2. 'Looking for Alaska' by John Green John Green's "Looking for Alaska" What it's about A 16-year-old boy named Miles, who is obsessed with famous last words, leaves his safe life at home for boarding school in this coming-of-age young adult novel. Miles becomes infatuated with a female classmate named Alaska, who later dies, and Miles and his friends seek details about her final day as they process her death and wrestle with the meaning of life. Number of school districts that removed the book 76 Number of districts that later reshelved the book after injunction 25 3. 'Sold' by Patricia McCormick Patricia McCormick's "Sold" What it's about Lakshmi is a 13-year-old girl living in a small hut in the mountains of Nepal with her family. After a monsoon sweeps away the familys crops, her stepfather tells the teen she must leave home and take a job. Lakshmi thinking she will be a maid for a rich woman finds herself at a brothel and learns she must stay until her familys debt is paid. Over time, she teaches herself to read and write in English. Eventually, she meets an American who is investigating the brothel's owners. Number of school districts that removed the book 62 Number of districts that later reshelved the book after injunction 16 4. 'Thirteen Reasons Why,' by Jay Asher "Thirteen Reasons Why," written by Jay Asher, is on the list of most challenged books in 2017. What it's about After her death, a high school student named Hannah Baker leaves behind tapes that detail the 13 reasons why she decided to die by suicide and unfold the events that preceded her death. Her former classmate Clay, who had a crush on Hannah, listens to the tapes, which reveal Hannah was a victim of sexual assault and faced bullying and harassment. Number of school districts that removed the book 60 Number of districts that later reshelved the book after injunction 21 5. 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower,' by Stephen Chbosky Stephen Chbosky's "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" What it's about Charlie, a teenage wallflower who is introverted and shy, writes letters to an anonymous "Dear Friend" as he details his struggle after a friend's suicide and a family member's death and documents his transition into high school. The teen befriends his classmates, and he develops a crush and experiments with alcohol and drugs. The novel explores sexuality, mental health and abuse as Charlie learns his friends' secrets and discovers repressed memories from his past. Number of school districts that removed the book 55 Number of districts that later reshelved the book after injunction 17 For the full list, visit the DesMoinesRegister.com. The Top 10 most challenged books of 2023 in the United States A recent report by the American Library Association revealed more than 900 attempts were made last year to remove 4,240 different books from school and public libraries in the United States the highest levels ever documented by the ALA, according to the organization. The most frequently challenged books of 2023 in the U.S. include the following: Who is author John Green? Bestselling author and Indianapolis resident John Green expresses his thoughts on libraries banning books as the Indianapolis Public Library kicked off national Banned Books Week with a discussion on Oct 2, 2023, at the Indianapolis Central Branch Public Library. Green is known for popular young adult novels that tell coming-of-age stories of teenage struggle. He's also known for building a large online community that sprung from his work, his foray into YouTube with his brother Hank, educational videos and a podcast. He is one of the authors suing the state of Iowa over the book ban law. Number of times removed in Iowa 107 Books removed in Iowa "Looking for Alaska," "The Fault in Our Stars," "Paper Towns," "An Abundance of Katherines" Green's books have been challenged in Indiana Green is no stranger to such controversies. Last year in Fishers, members of the Hamilton East Public Library board removed "The Fault in Our Stars" including scores of other books from the library's teen section due to a policy labeling them not "age appropriate." The book was returned later to the library's teen section after intense public backlash and what one HEPL board member blamed as a misinterpretation of the board's new relocation policy. What books did Hoosiers in Indiana challenge in 2023? Hoosiers filed at least 16 challenges at Indiana libraries last year, according to the ALA, targeting up to 24 books. Among the most challenged book titles was "Looking for Alaska." Claims that Green's novel is sexually explicit and has LGBTQ+ content have consistently put it in the crosshairs of those who want it removed or relocated off the library shelves. "Looking for Alaska" was listed among the ALA's most banned books of 2022. Indiana's Top 10 most challenged books in 2023, according to the ALA, were: Since 2020, the ALA has documented at least 87 challenges to books from Hoosiers in Indiana. Others are reading: As book challenges skyrocket, these are the books Hoosiers tried to ban last year Chris Higgins covers the northern and eastern suburbs for the Register. Reach him at chiggins@registermedia.com or 515-423-5146 and follow him on Twitter @chris_higgins_. John Tufts covers trending news for the Indianapolis Star. Send him a news tip at JTufts@Gannett.com. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: John Green among most banned authors in Iowa A fire has broken out at an industrial facility in Kyiv Oblast as a result of an overnight air attack on Friday, 7 June. Source: Kyiv Oblast Military Administration Details: The aftermath of the fire is still being dealt with. All emergency services are actively working at the scene. There were no casualties. The Russians attacked the oblast with drones and missiles throughout the night. An air-raid warning was in effect for four hours, during which air defence forces were actively engaged. Background: Ukraines Air Force reported that four Russian strategic bombers took off late in the evening of 6 June. Shortly after the announcement, the military recorded likely launches of cruise missiles. In addition, Russian forces launched several groups of attack drones from Ukraines south on the evening of 6 June. Support UP or become our patron! Rightwing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones moved to liquidate his personal assets, a move that would end his ownership of InfoWars and allow him to begin paying off the $1.5 billion in legal damages he owes the families of those killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre. Jones on Thursday requested to convert his personal bankruptcy filing into a Chapter 7 liquidation, telling a judge that there is no reasonable prospect of a successful reorganization of his debts, according to court filings obtained by CNN. Liquidation means the Texas-based internet personality would have to sell most of his assets, including his company, with the proceeds going directly to his creditors. The request marks a large pivot for the InfoWars host and founder, who has mostly resisted mounting legal pressure from the Sandy Hook families. Theyve not yet received a cent from Jones despite two separate juries finding him liable for defamation and emotional distress in 2022. Jones for years used his internet and radio shows to proclaim the 2012 school shooting was a hoax perpetrated by crisis actors to support a push for stricter gun control laws. His claims triggered a series of defamation lawsuits filed by families of several of the victims, who said they were subjected to harassment and death threats as a direct result of Jones commentary. Jones who has also claimed the Sept. 11 terror attack was an inside job and the 2020 presidential election was rigged has since acknowledged the shooting did actually happen. A total of 26 people, 20 elementary school students and six staffers, were killed during the violence inside the school in Newtown, Connecticut. In October 2022, Jones was found legally responsible for his false claims. A Connecticut judge awarded the Sandy Hook families $965 million in compensatory damages; the judge later added another $473 million in punitive damages. Jones also has to pay $49.3 million in damages to a Sandy Hook victims family as part of a separate lawsuit in Texas. Over the weekend, 50-year-old Jones said on his radio show that he expected InfoWars to be shut down within months. Theres really no avenue out of this, Jones said on Sunday. Im kind of in the bunker here. And dont worry. Ill come back. The enemy cant help but do this attack. The owner of a Boston pizza chain who allegedly abused and threatened to deport some of his workers was convicted Friday on forced labor charges, Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy said. The owner of Stashs Pizza, Stavros Papantoniadis, also known Steve Papantoniadis, 48, of Westwood, forced or threatened five men and one woman to work through intimidation, physical abuse or threats of deportation, Levy says. The pizza chain owner with locations in Dorchester and Roslindale thinly staffed his shops and purposely employed workers without immigration status to work 14 or more hours a day behind the scenes and sometimes as many as 7 days a week. In order to keep the workers in line, Papantoniadis made his employees believe that he would physically hurt them or turn them over to deportation authorities. The Department of Justice says Papantoniadis monitored the workers with surveillance cameras, which he would watch on his cell phone, and constantly demeaned, insulted and harassed them. Levy says that when Papantoniadis learned that one worker planned to quit, he violently choked him. When others also expressed their intentions to quit, Papantoniadis told one victim that he would kill him and call immigration authorities. Another worker was allegedly threatened by Papantoniadis telling the worker that he knew where he lived. When a worker tried to leave and drive away from one the shops, Papantoniadis allegedly chased him down Route 1 in Norwood, Mass., and reported the victim to local police to pressure the victim to return to work at the pizza shop. Todays guilty verdict sends a powerful message to abusive employers that exploiting employees through fear and intimidation will never be tolerated. I hope that this verdict also alerts others who may be victims of exploitation and harm by employers, that the federal government will not sit idly by. We will vigorously investigate and prosecute any employer who thinks they are above the law and physically and mentally abuses employees, withholds wages due, or threatens and intimidates workers, said Levy. Mr. Papantoniadis preyed on the desperation of those without immigration status, subjecting them to violence and threats of deportation. Forced labor is a serious violation of human rights, and no one in the United States should live in fear of abuse and coercion in their workplace. I commend the tireless efforts of our law enforcement partners who worked collaboratively to bring this defendant to justice. Stavros Papantoniadis instilled fear in his employees. He underpaid and threatened them, some with fear of arrest and many with physical abuse. Today, the jury saw the indignities his employees were subjected to and have found Papantoniadis guilty of forced labor violations, said Michael J. Krol, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England. Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect especially those who place their trust in their employer. HSI is committed to ensuring those who violate forced labor laws are held accountable and brought to justice. In addition to the Dorchester and Roslindale locations, Stashs Pizza also previously operated locations in Norwood, Norwell, Randolph as Boston Pizza Company, Weymouth as Pacinis Italian Eatery, and Wareham. The charges of forced labor and attempted forced labor each provide for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, up to five years of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000, and restitution. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW A memo obtained by the American-Statesman on Friday disclosed that Austin interim Police Chief Robin Henderson isn't applying for the permanent chief position and that she intends to retire when a new chief is hired. Austin interim Police Chief Robin Henderson will not be the next permanent chief, as she did not apply for the position and intends to retire once a new permanent chief is hired, according to a memo obtained by the American-Statesman. The memo sent by City Manager T.C. Broadnax to the City Council and the mayor Friday said the city had worked out a deal with Henderson to remain with the Police Department to assist the transition. Henderson was quoted in the memo as saying the decision "was not an easy one" and that she would "continue to be a champion" for the Police Department. "It has been a tremendous honor to serve as the Interim Chief of Police for the Austin Police Department," Henderson said in the memo. "This agency is where I have been raised professionally and developed lifelong meaningful relationships and friendships. I am extremely proud of the work our officers and civilian staff perform every single day. You will not find a group of women and men who are more resilient and dedicated to keeping our Austin Community safe." Hiring a permanent police chief is a top priority for Broadnax, who stepped into the city manager role last month. Applications opened last month and will close Monday. Community members also have an opportunity to fill out an anonymous survey about what characteristics they want to see in the next chief. Henderson has served as the interim chief of the Austin Police Department since September after former Chief Joe Chacon announced his retirement last year. A 27-year veteran of the Police Department, Henderson, as interim chief, led the city's police force through multiple major incidents, including the first shooting death in a decade of an officer in the line of duty last November and a multicounty shooting rampage that left four people dead in Austin in December. Henderson inherited a department with an ongoing staffing shortage. The department had nearly 330 vacancies for sworn officers as of last month. Henderson also signed a draft letter supporting the pardon of Daniel Perry before Gov. Greg Abbott pardoned him last month for the murder of Black Lives Matter protester Garrett Foster in 2020. While it's uncertain if anyone else from the Austin Police Department has applied for the job, the news could mean the department will bring someone from outside the city to lead the force for the first time since Art Acevedo's appointment 17 years ago. Michael Bullock, president of the Austin Police Association, said Henderson was well liked and respected by the department, adding that he wished she would be in the permanent role. The introduction of a new city manager means there will likely be a new assistant city manager overseeing public safety, which is currently led by Bruce Mills. Bullock said he hopes once the roles are filled, the city will enter an "era of stability" in which the Police Department can focus on retaining current officers and filling hundreds of vacancies. Bullock said he's not concerned whether the new chief comes from the Austin Police Department or is an external hire, just that it's the right person who will focus on tackling the current staffing and morale "crisis" in the department. "Whoever fills the chief role, my hope is just that they truly focus on taking care of the officers that we have now," Bullock said, "because if you don't take care of the people that are here right now, then they're not going to stay, and you're going to continue to struggle to bring new people." Robin Henderson This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin interim Police Chief Henderson not for applying permanent role United by shared grief, a group of parents from around the country who say their children died from social media harms traveled to Washington, D.C. on Thursday to meet with an American billionaire interested in buying the popular app TikTok. Frank McCourt started the initiative Project Liberty with the goal of creating a safer space online. Its now working to put together a group of bidders to purchase TikTok from Chinese-owned ByteDance. Our Washington News Bureau was present during a breakfast meeting with McCourt and his team and the grieving parents. It was hard enough to raise children before the internet. It is nearly impossible now, McCourt said. ALSO READ: Boy burned from TikTok challenge becomes friends with firefighters who saved him Sam Chapman was one of the parents who took part in the discussion. His 16-year-old son Sammy died from a fentanyl-laced pill he got through Snapchat. Right now, our data is being used by these large companies to drive nefarious actors to our children, even to adults, said Chapman. Were not willing to put up with doing nothing. Since his sons death, Chapman has been pushing for more parental control on social media platforms through a bill named after his son. What we need is something that makes all of the platforms safe at once, said Chapman. Its a vision McCourt said he shares for the future of the internet. I want a new internet. A new improved alternative to what we have, said McCourt. We can fix this. No we will fix this. McCourt said he wants to stop the use of the TikTok algorithm that allows the company to collect and control user data. Its really about giving control back to everyone, giving our data back to us, said Deb Schmill, one of the grieving parents. ALSO READ: TikTok says cyberattack targeted CNN and other 'high-profile accounts' Schmill said her 18-year-old daughter Becca died from fentanyl she got through social media. It came after Becca turned to drugs to cope after she was sexually assaulted and cyberbullied. We do not want to see another family going through this loss and another child dying, said Schmill. President Biden signed a law that would ban TikTok unless its sold within a year. But ByteDance has said it will not sell. There are several other American-owned companies that may also be interested in buying TikTok. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has also expressed interest in buying the social media platform. We reached out to TikTok for comment about McCourts interest to buy the company but have not heard back. VIDEO: Boy burned from TikTok challenge becomes friends with firefighters who saved him A 61-year-old second-grade teacher in Ohio was arrested on charges accusing him of trading images depicting child pornography on Thursday, according to a spokesperson from the Hamilton County Sheriffs Office. >> Principal on leave in locker room theft investigation resigns Amit Netanel was booked into the Hamilton County Jail on four felon counts of pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor. Detectives with the Hamilton County Sheriffs Office Regional Electronics & Computer Investigations Section arrested Netanel at his house in Cincinnati, according to the spokesperson. Netanel was a teacher at Rockwern Academy, a K-6 school in Sycamore Township. News Center 7 has since confirmed Netanel is no longer employed by the academy. The sheriffs office opened an investigation into Netanels activities after receiving information about a person trading images depicting child pornography via the Kik messenger app. The investigation yielded a search warrant, which was served on Netanels residence. Anyone with information related to this case should contact the Regional Electronics & Computer Investigations section at (513) 946-8338. RECI, among other duties, is the Greater Cincinnati Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. CORRECTION: News Center 7 previously reported that Amit Netanel was arrested at Rockwen Academy, but has updated the information as the arrest took place at his residence. Intersection improvements on U.S. Route 60 in Newton & Barry Co. NEWTON & BARRY COUNTIES, Mo. MoDOT invites the public to engage in discussions regarding upcoming intersection improvements along U.S. Route 60 in Newton and Barry counties. The project aims to enhance traffic flow and safety in these areas. Virtual and In-Person Meetings Virtual Meeting: Those interested in joining online can access the meeting starting Monday, June 17, through Monday, July 1 at this link here. In-Person Meeting: Those interested in attending the public meeting in person will have two opportunities to do so in Monett and Neosho. The Monett meeting will be held Tuesday, June 25 at the Monett Park Casino located at 101 Lincoln Ave. from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Neosho meeting will be held Tuesday, July 9. MoDOT says the time and location for this meeting will be announced at a later date. Project Overview MoDOT says contractor crews are scheduled to commence intersection improvements at six locations along Route 60 in Newton and Barry counties beginning in the spring of 2025. These improvements include: Newton County: Turn lanes at Routes Y/CC Turn lanes at Hammer Road west of I-49 Turn lane at Oak Ridge Drive in Neosho Roundabout at Newton County Route HH east of Neosho Turn lanes at Routes M/W east of Granby Barry County: Roundabout at Missouri Route 97 near Monett Regional Airport in 2026 The estimated project cost is $13.8 million. Get Involved If you are unable to access either option, reach out to MoDOTs Southwest District Office at 417-895-7600. MoDOT says accommodations will be made to ensure those interested receive the necessary information and have an opportunity to provide feedback. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNF/KODE | FourStatesHomepage.com. BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Braving the scorching summer sun, Liu Hongyan, 44, wearing an orange vest and carrying a litter picker, treks through waist-high bushes across rugged terrain for about 20 minutes to reach her destination: a 10-km stretch of the Great Wall. Liu and her fellow villagers in Shixia Village, located at the foot of the iconic Badaling section of the Great Wall, are among thousands of Great Wall rangers across the country dedicated to protecting this UNESCO World Heritage Site. They pick up trash along the Great Wall and inspect bricks for cracks caused by weathering or damage from human activities. Recently, Liu and her fellow villagers wrote to Chinese President Xi Jinping, telling what they had done to protect the Great Wall and the changes taking place in their village. In his reply, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said he was pleased to learn about the villagers' commitment over the years to protecting the Great Wall, passing on the Great Wall culture, and leveraging its resources on their way to prosperity. Protecting the Great Wall is a long tradition in Shixia. The baton of Great Wall protection was passed on to Liu from her 80-year-old uncle, who had devoted himself to the cause as a volunteer since four decades ago. The Great Wall is the largest-scale existing cultural heritage in China, consisting of walls scattered across 15 provincial-level regions, with some sections dating back 2,000 years. In China, safeguarding the Great Wall is a collective responsibility that spans from the top leadership to citizens at the grassroots level. "When people mention China, they think of the Great Wall, and when they talk about Chinese civilization, they also think of the Great Wall," Xi once said. It embodies the great resilience of the Chinese nation, which is united as one, like a fortress, and ceaselessly pursues self-improvement, he added. Since assuming the Party's top office in late 2012, Xi has paid close attention to activities that celebrate and protect the cultural value of the Great Wall, and issued multiple instructions to guide the establishment of a Great Wall national cultural park. In 2019, a plan to build the cultural park was approved at a leadership meeting chaired by Xi. During an inspection tour to the northwestern province of Gansu in the same year, Xi visited the Jiayu Pass, the starting point of a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) section of the Great Wall. He ascended to the rostrum of the pass to view the layout and terrain of the fortress, which underwent a major renovation in previous years. "We must salute efforts to keep our history and culture alive and strong and strive to preserve our roots for a prospering Chinese spirit," Xi said. Over the years, new progress has been made in the conservation of the Great Wall. In Beijing, an all-encompassing system that includes regular repair, emergency reinforcement, preventive measures and daily maintenance has been established. In addition, high-tech means, such as drones and satellite images, have played an important role in discovering damage with greater speed and accuracy. For the Great Wall rangers, their endeavors in preserving this iconic cultural heritage also benefit them and fellow villagers. Leveraging its resources related to Great Wall culture, Shixia Village, like many other villages nestled near the wall, has transformed into a popular destination for rural tourism with homestay and restaurants. In his letter to villagers in Shixia, Xi expressed the hope that they will continue to protect the Great Wall with the same dedication as they protect their own homes. He emphasized the importance of passing on this precious heritage to future generations. "We will double down on our efforts to protect the Great Wall, promote its culture and better tell its captivating story as required by General Secretary Xi," said Liu the villager. Invasive beetles found in Sacramento area pose a serious threat. Have you seen them? Invasive beetles have been spotted in the Carmichael area, Sacramento County announced on Thursday. State and county officials are on the lookout for Japanese beetles, which are considered pests. Japanese beetles can damage over 300 species of ornamental, horticultural, agricultural and native plants, posing a serious threat to our states agriculture, environment, and your backyard, the county said in its social media post. According to its announcement, officials will be setting and assessing bug traps, conducting visual surveys and performing treatments to eliminate the beetles in the Sacramento area. What are Japanese beetles? While many beetles may look similar, Japanese beetles are known for their metallic green thoraxes, the section of the body between the head and abdomen, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The beetles also have brown wings and white hairs. An oval-shaped bug, an adult Japanese beetle typically measures about half an inch long and a quarter of an inch wide, the Food and Agriculture Department said. Why are insects invasive? How do they come to the US? Japanese beetles arent native to the United States, the state Department of Food and Agriculture said on its website. Like many invasive species, Japanese beetles outside of their native habitat do not have natural enemies in the United States to balance out and stabilize their population, the agency said. The insects are considered a threat to the states industries, including turf grass, nurseries and specialty crops. Generally, Japanese beetles enter an environment via infected potted plants. According to the department, the beetles eggs and larvae live in the soil and can be easily transported. Additionally, the insects can enter California from airplanes that have been in areas with Japanese beetle infestations. What should you do if you see pests? The county is asking people to report sightings of Japanese beetles. You can call the California Department of Food and Agriculture Exotic Pest Hotline at 1-800-491-1899. You can also email photos of the bugs and the location of the sighting to pesthotline@cdfa.ca.gov. Sacramento County advises people to be on the lookout the beetles, especially if you have a rose bush nearby. Roses are a preferred host for the insects, the county 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. Isolated and inexperienced: A portrait of the judge overseeing Trumps documents case from veterans of her courtroom Judge Aileen Cannon had been on the federal bench for little more than a year when a senior judge offered to preside over one of her first criminal trials in her isolated south Florida courthouse. Its very lonely, Senior Judge Paul C. Huck told CNN of Fort Pierce, a small fishing and citrus community on the edge of the Southern District of Florida where Cannon is the only federal judge. Its a pretty sleepy town with a pretty sleepy courtroom. Huck ultimately presided over the March 2022 criminal trial not because Cannon needed help, he said, but because he enjoys volunteering for trials in courts across Florida. I thought Id go up there and just spend some time with her and get to know her better, Huck said of Cannon, whom he recalled as very smart and very personable. Two years later, Cannon is now presiding over one of the most consequential and complex cases in America: the criminal prosecution of former president Donald Trump over his handling of the nations secrets. And shes attracting nationwide scrutiny for how shes approached the case. Since Trump was first indicted a year ago, Cannon has dragged out the proceedings in ways that have flummoxed legal scholars and put a trial initially scheduled to begin last month on hold indefinitely. Several attorneys who have practiced in front of Cannon and who spoke to CNN for this story pointed to her isolation as one explanation for her conduct. Cannons solitary post in the Fort Pierce courthouse, one that rarely sees high-profile action, deprives her of the informal, day-to-day interactions with more seasoned judges who sit at the other courthouses and could offer her advice, the lawyers told CNN. They also said Cannons lack of trial experience, both as a lawyer and a judge, is apparent. In her seven years as a Justice Department attorney, Cannon participated on the trial teams of just four criminal cases. And on the bench, shes only presided over a handful of criminal trials and Huck took over one of them. For this account of Cannons judicial demeanor, CNN spoke to ten attorneys who have had cases both criminal and civil before her. The lawyers spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity because of the professional and ethical risks of speaking to press about a sitting federal judge in front of whom they practice. To corroborate their characterizations of Cannons approach, CNN reviewed the public dockets of scores of cases that have traveled through her courtroom. The attorneys described Cannon as extremely diligent and well prepared, a tough questioner who accepts nothing at face value, and thoughtful in her rulings. But they also said that some of her habits that have raised eyebrows in Trumps case have plagued her approach from the bench more generally. Those tendencies include a penchant for letting irrelevant legal questions distract from core issues, a zero-tolerance approach to any technical defects in filings, and a struggle with docket management that allows the type of pretrial disputes that other judges would decide in weeks go unresolved for months. She is not efficient, said one attorney who practices in south Florida. She is very form over substance. Another attorney described her as indecisive. A third attorney whos had cases before Cannon said, She just seems overwhelmed by the process. You cant really take issue with her Five months after Huck visited Cannon in Fort Pierce, she was thrust into the center of back-to-back legal hurricanes. First, she oversaw the lawsuit Trump brought challenging the FBIs search of his Mar-a-Lago residence that August, when agents found hundreds of classified documents scattered about the property. (Cannon granted Trumps request for a third-party review of the search, only to see her rulings reversed by a conservative appeals court.) Then, in a twist of fate last June, Cannon was assigned the criminal case in which Trump is charged with 40 felony counts of allegedly mishandling classified documents and obstructing the governments attempts to find them. The high-profile national security case is a dramatic departure from most of the other criminal cases playing out in Cannons courtroom, the bulk of which are more mundane prosecutions like gun charges or immigration infractions that are often resolved through guilty pleas, a CNN review of her case log showed. Cannons assignment to the documents case was a game of odds. Though the charges were filed in West Palm Beach, the division that is home to Mar-a-Lago, Cannon was randomly chosen from a broader pool of judges in Floridas southern district. Judge Aileen Cannon in court on March 14, 2024. - Lothar Speer Her approach as a jurist detail-obsessed to the point of tedious appears uniquely prone to being exploited by a defense team eager to delay the case. And the complicated system Cannon has set up for redacting public filings has only exacerbated a backlog of unresolved issues. She still has not decided foundational questions that will determine whether the Trump case will go to trial. Marginal issues clutter her docket, including a longshot motion to invalidate Jack Smiths appointment as special counsel that shes scheduled a hearing on later this month. Some attorneys who have practiced before Cannon chalked up her struggle handling the practical logistics of being a trial court judge to her background of mostly appellate work for the local US Attorneys office. They described her as latching onto abstract, academic questions at the expense of the type of on-the-fly decision-making required by trial judges that keeps litigation moving along. As Cannon slowly plods through the backlog of issues on her plate, special counsel prosecutors are now learning firsthand the wrath that they can incur from the judge for seemingly minor discrepancies in their filings, and they have drawn Cannons ire for pushing her to move more quickly to resolve the substantive pretrial issues that have slowed the pace of the case to a crawl. You cant really take issue with her, otherwise its going to work against you, a fourth attorney who has practiced before Cannon said. Trumps attorneys have also attracted heat from Cannon, though far less often than the special counsel. Defense attorneys CNN spoke to described Cannon as a judge who gives minimal deference to defendants and as a notoriously tough sentencer. To that end, the long leash shes given the Trump team in the pretrial phase of the case has struck a chord with them. Shes certainly not sympathetic to most defendants, and shes certainly playing a different game with the current defendant before her, another lawyer told CNN, in reference to Trump. Nothing taken at face value Not every attorney who spoke to CNN about their experience in front of Cannon was critical. Some praised her for asking questions at hearings that showed she had done her research and said that she moved their cases along at a reasonable pace. Veterans of her courtroom broadly agreed on one aspect of Cannons judicial approach: that lawyers should expect her to sharply probe any and all assertions made in her courtroom, no matter the party, with a resistance to taking anyone at their word. She doesnt like any litigant to tell her what she should be doing, one of the attorneys said. Many recalled her rejecting joint motions such as sentencing recommendations or requests to delay proceedings even though there was no dispute between the two sides. You cant assume that just because theres agreement between the parties that she will go along, one of the attorneys said, while describing her as an incredibly hands on judge who wants to be the decision-maker of everything. Criminal defense attorneys who practice in front of Cannon appreciate that, despite being a former Justice Department attorney, she doesnt defer automatically to the assertions of prosecutors, cutting against the stereotype of judges always erring on the side of the government. She doesnt like the government to come in and play bully, steamroller, one of the attorneys said. The Alto Lee Adams, Sr. U.S. Courthouse on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, in Fort Pierce, Florida. - Lynne Sladky/AP/File In the Trump case, Cannon has repeatedly taken Smiths attorneys to task for using broad generalizations to back up their requests a practice that prosecutors can get away with in other courts and demanding extreme specificity in whatever prosecutors are asking her for. Her intense scrutiny extends to whether attorneys are following granular procedural rules about how to file submissions to her court. Last month, such deficiencies prompted Cannon to rebuff a gag order request Smith filed after Trump falsely claimed the FBI had a plan to assassinate him during the Mar-a-Lago search. She did so because she found the prosecutors had run afoul of local rules requiring them to give the opposing side ample time to consult with them on the request. On other occasions in Trumps case, she has rejected even routine filings for minor technicalities. The practice is reflected in several court dockets reviewed by CNN, including at least two other examples where Cannon denied motions because she said lawyers failed to appropriately confer with one another. One of the attorneys who spoke to CNN described Cannons approach to policing procedural rules as, I decide the way its going to be, and if you dont want to do it the way I tell you, thats a problem. Attorneys pointed out that she is not the only judge on the federal bench who gives no leeway for even the most minor of procedural errors, but some said that her fixation on technicalities led cases to get bogged down in minutiae. In the Trump case, it took nearly three months for several major pretrial motions to even be docketed after the cumbersome process of litigating what would be redacted in the public filings. Seven of those requests, which seek to throw out parts of the case, remain undecided, and oral arguments have been scheduled on only some so far. And Cannon still has to handle all the other cases playing out in the Fort Pierce division while she navigates the Trump case. Seizing on irrelevant concepts Cannon has repeatedly hauled the lawyers in Trumps case in for hearings on pretrial disputes in the classified documents case several of which legal experts say appear tangential or even irrelevant. The Florida attorneys CNN spoke to acknowledged that its understandable for a new judge to hold hearings on issues more experienced judges might be more comfortable in dealing with, and they did not fault her for being especially thorough in the incredibly high stakes Trump case. Still, Cannon has asked questions in the Trump case that appear out of left field. In March, for example, Cannon ordered attorneys to draft jury instructions that consider the Presidential Records Act, the federal law that requires an outgoing president to return government records to the National Archives at the end of their administration. Outside experts and the special counsels office lambasted the request as both procedurally premature and legally unsound for how it entertained a fringe theory from the Trump team. Cannon testily defended the exercise as a genuine attempt to understand the parties positions. Her orientation toward such legal rabbit holes is not distinct to the Trump case, veterans of her courtroom say. She seems to seize on concepts that for one reason or another become interesting to her whether or not theyre pertinent to the case at hand or decide that they have importance for reasons that escape the rest of the parties in the court room, one of the attorneys said. Her lack of trial experience before her appointment stands out among the other judges confirmed to the south Florida federal court under the Biden, Trump and Obama administrations all of whom had either extensive trial experience as state court judges or had tried 10 or more cases as lawyers before their nomination to the federal bench. Some attorneys say theyve been concerned her decisions have made it more likely their cases would be appealed. One attorney told CNN that if he has a case that is assigned to Cannon, he asks the opposing party whether theyd consent to allowing the cases to be handled by a magistrate judge, a type of judge that does not have all the power of US district judge but can handle some kinds of proceedings. Ultimately, nearly every attorney CNN spoke to said that Cannon, despite the criticism, is unwavering in her beliefs about how each case in her courtroom should proceed. As one attorney put it: She thinks what shes doing is correct. CNNs Sara Murray contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Iowa State University will pay $124,000 to the executive assistant to the senior VP for operations and finance as part of a settlement agreement. (Photo by Perry Beeman/Iowa Capital Dispatch) Iowa State University has agreed to pay a university employee $124,000 as part of a settlement agreement after she raised allegations of harassment and retaliation, according to settlement documents. Caitlynn Miller, the executive assistant to the ISU senior vice president for operations and finance, settled with the university just months after Shawn Norman, the former senior vice president for operations and finance, entered a settlement agreement for the same amount. She will receive the first payment installment of $61,000 within 30 days of May 17, when the settlement was finalized, and will receive additional installments of $21,000 in 2025, 2026 and 2027 as long as she signs Renewed Release and Covenant documents each year. The settlement and future forms confirm that Miller will not sue the university and releases it from any actions, claims and liabilities that have come about from her employment. The settlement agreement states that it is not an admission that any involved parties violated any laws or policies. With each new document she signs, Miller will affirm that she has not experienced any discrimination, harassment, or retaliation arising out of or related to her employment with the University that she has not already disclosed to the University, according to the release and covenant documents. She will not be able to sue based on claims of harassment or discrimination, no matter whether she has disclosed it to ISU or not. Norman cut ties with the university Dec. 1, 2023 after coming into his role at the start of the year, and was paid $124,000 in full between Jan. 1 and Jan. 15. His settlement agreement also included a commitment to not sue the university. Miller is still employed by ISU in the same position, serving as executive assistant to Interim Senior Vice President for Operations and Finance Heather Paris. The settlement agreement states that nothing in it would change the terms and conditions of her employment. The university announced in April the start of a national search for the new VP, lead by a seven-person search committee aided by the Academic Search firm. The application deadline passed on May 28, and the university is aiming to have a new hire in place before the fall semester commences. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE The post ISU signs $124,000 settlement with second university employee appeared first on Iowa Capital Dispatch. Hours ahead of Michigan Central Stations blockbuster Thursday night concert, two of the evenings performers and a very special guest were honored by Mayor Mike Duggan and Ford Motor Co. brass. Jack White, Slum Village and Patti Smith were presented with chunks of marble from the restored train station and saluted for their contributions to Detroit music. Smith was accepting on behalf of her late husband, MC5 guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith. Youll now always have a piece of Michigan Central with you, said Mary Culler, Fords president of philanthropy. Jack White and Patti Smith sit for a ceremony before the "Live From Detroit: The Concert at Michigan Central" at Roosevelt Park in front of the Michigan Central Station in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood on Thursday, June 6, 2024. On a windy afternoon just behind the stage, Duggan celebrated Michigan Central as an exciting new cultural epicenter and gave thanks to Eminem, one of the concerts executive producers, who worked incredibly hard pouring his heart into the project. Patti Smith, the acclaimed New York punk poet, recalled sneaking into the abandoned train station with her husband in the 1980s and said Fred Smith had always envisioned what it would be like to save the historic site. The two had wed in 1976 and ultimately settled in St. Clair Shores. More: Michigan Central Station reopening: Live updates from concert, festivities in Corktown Some of the greatest and most important parts of my life have been in your great city, she said Thursday. Wielding her seasoned stage and poetry skills, she then read aloud Eminems 2009 Letter to Detroit, his tribute to a city built on steel, muscle and sweat. After the ceremony, White who grew up less than 2 miles away recalled his moments with the train station growing up. Sometime around 1986, he biked with a friend to the stations newsstand to buy comic books; four years later, following the buildings closure, he visited and saw it in the dilapidated state where it remained for more than three decades. If youd asked me then, Id would have thought theres no way its just too massive of a job, the musician said. Its just incredible. Every five seconds, Im walking around, (thinking) I cant believe it. It really shows that Detroit is a different place than it was. Slum Village members Young RJ, left, and T3, sit with Illa J during a ceremony before the "Live From Detroit: The Concert at Michigan Central" at Roosevelt Park in front of the Michigan Central Station in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood on Thursday, June 6, 2024. As for the nights upcoming show, White was excited and hoping to finally meet Diana Ross. Hed only ever seen the Motown star from 100 feet away when shed returned to their shared alma mater, Cass Tech. When you first hear about these things, you never know how theyre going to turn out, whos going to show up, whos going to be invited. When they first started talking about Eminem, Diana Ross, Slum Village, I thought, Wow, if that really happens, it would be a great thing. Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Jack White, Patti Smith, Slum Village honored at Michigan Central event Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan, in middle, joined city administrators at the end of a bargaining session Friday with Jacksonville Association of Fire Fighters union leaders. The sides reached a tentative agreement on a three-year contract that still must get approval by union members and City Council. A new labor contract for Jacksonville's union-represented firefighters would give them a 12% pay raise in the first year followed by 5% raises each of the following two years while also bringing back pensions through the Florida Retirement System. The tentative agreement heads next to rank-and-file members of the Jacksonville Association of Fire Fighters for a ratification vote. "It's the best contract we've ever been able to negotiate if you look at in its totality," said Kelly Dobson, president of the association. He said in addition to the pay raises, the ability to once again have pensions as a retirement option "is huge for our members." The return of pensions for new hires would happen in 2027, according to the city. Mayor Donna Deegan joined city administrators at the bargaining table at the close of the session with union leaders that wrapped up talks with a tentative agreement. Its an honor to present this historic agreement to the courageous men and women who work so hard to keep our citizens healthy and safe, she said in a statement released by the city. We continue to have the best fire department in the country because of their efforts, and the tentative agreement ensures their benefits match their talent and dedication to our community. The city closed the Police and Fire Pension Fund to new enrollees on Oct. 1, 2017, as part of changes that included a voter-approved half-cent sales tax for paying down the huge pension debt the city owes for pension benefits earned by police and firefighters. Jacksonville Association of Fire Fighters President Kelly Dobson talks with Mayor Donna Deegan after her administration and union leaders reach a tentative agreement on a three-year contract. Those already in the city-administered Police and Fire Pension Fund before October 2017 have continued to earn benefits through that pension plan, but people hired since then have been covered by 401(k) style retirement accounts. The agreement reached by Deegan and the firefighters union would put new hires in the Florida Retirement System starting in 2027. Current employees would have an option then of switching to the state system or continuing with the city's retirement investment accounts. UNF poll: Mayor Donna Deegan at 63% job approval as she nears end of her first year Police on beat: Sheriff makes pitch for 40 more police officers and mayor offers return of pensions Dobson said Jacksonville is the only one of 67 Florida counties whose fire department doesn't offer pensions to new hires and that's a factor for where people apply and work. He said restoring pensions through the Florida Retirement System combined with higher wages will help the city recruit and retain public safety workers. "Putnam, St. Johns, Baker, Nassau, Clay (counties) all can afford FRS," Dobson said. "And we're having a problem with hiring, so what's the common denominator? We know what it is." City Council President Ron Salem and council president-designate Randy White both praised the tentative agreement. Salem said it "marks a significant step in formalizing historic raises" and changes in retirement benefits. This is a step in the right direction for the department," White said. This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville and firefighter union agree to bring back pensions James Comer Attacked Joe Biden for Using Email Aliases. He Used Two Himself James Comer, chair of the powerful Republican-led House Oversight Committee who has attacked President Joe Biden for using email pseudonyms, did not use email for his four years as Kentucky agriculture commissioner, a spokesperson claimed. The Congressman does not recall logging on or using email accounts while at the Kentucky Department of Agriculture [KDA], the spokesperson told The Daily Beast this week. That claim appears false, according to emails obtained by The Daily Beast. The statement came in response to questions about Comers use of two pseudonyms on Kentucky government accounts. Comer has for months trafficked in innuendo that Bidens use of email pseudonyms indicates an attempt to evade public records disclosure and hide wrongdoingparticularly regarding a failed business deal his son, Hunter Biden, negotiated with a Chinese company after his father left the vice presidency in 2017 and before his White House run in 2020. But emails show that when Comer was a senior Kentucky state official, he used pseudonyms for government businessincluding an industrial hemp pilot program involving Chinese seeds which later tested as illegal marijuana, The Daily Beast revealed this week. For instance, in a January 2014 message sent from one of two accounts named for Comers son, Harlan Comer, Comer told a KDA aide, Ill touch base with you today about Hemp. Some things have happened over night [sic] with respect to hemp so we may be growing it this year. That email came in response to an inquiry about Kentucky hemp regulations, including Chinese imports. Harlan Comer was then around seven years old. His father signed the email, James Comer. The next month, Comer used an alias to revise a presentation with a hemp program partner. Ok. Ill fix it to just study production aspects and then resend to you to approve, Comer wrote. Signed Jamie, the email was Sent from my iPhone. That program partnera Comer campaign donor who considered the commissioner a good friendsent numerous emails to Comer pseudonyms, some addressing Jamie. The Daily Beast uncovered the pseudonymsharlan2@ky.gov and harlan.comer@ky.govwhile reviewing documents the Kentucky government produced in response to an open records request from a third party. The request only targeted material connected to the hemp initiative. The full scope of Comers use of alternate emails remains unclear. But the pseudonyms appeared on dozens of emails, many discussing Chinese imports, sometimes alongside Comers official james.comer address. KDA officials were aware of the aliases, records show, as was the hemp programs outside counsela Comer associate who addressed Jamie at one of the Harlan accounts. Comers spokesperson did not answer why alias emails bore Comers signature. As the Commissioner of Agriculture, Congressman Comers email accounts were solely monitored and maintained by staff, the spokesperson said. All communications are publicly available through the Kentucky Open Records Act. (The KDA rejected the third partys request for private emails, claiming it lacked the requisite knowledge of what, if any, private email addresses may have been used by Mr. Comer.) The spokesperson did not answer when asked who managed Comers emails; how communications were relayed; or if emails were forwarded to a nongovernmental account. The KDA did not reply to a comment request. While the claim that Comer did not use email seems implausibleand contradicted by the signaturesit may contain a grain of truth. Of hundreds of emails involving the official james.comer account, only one was sent from that address: a forwarded email with no additional content. Amye Bensenhaver, a former assistant attorney general with the state of Kentucky and an open records specialist, told The Daily Beast it is inconceivable to her that Comer did not use email. While alias accounts are consistent with state law, she said, that analysis depends on intent. Its fairly common practice to have an account to ensure vital official records are saved separately, Bensenhaver said. But if the purpose is concealing it, it is wrong, it is illegal. Bensenhaver called Comers denial a stupid thing to say, especially with proof that he did use the email, adding that it gives the impression of subterfuge to avoid accountability. That is how Comer has criticized Biden in numerous media appearances. In a Newsmax interview last August, Comer claimed Joe Biden was using pseudonyms to hide the fact that he was working with his son to peddle access to our enemies around the world. On a podcast that month, he said Biden was using a fake name on a government email, because he knew that emails are subject as you know to FOIA, to [the] Freedom of Information Act, and he wanted to disguise his communication. Also last August, Comer got multiple hits on a FOIA request about Bidens pseudonyms. When they were released, The New York Times reported the alias emails had been known for two years and undercut Comers insinuations, yielding only banal content and personal information. Months later, Comer was still attacking. Joe Biden told the American people he had a wall between the government and his familys business schemes, and what were seeing with those emails is he did not have a wall, he told Newsmax in December. Comers pseudonyms fielded sensitive informationincluding from a campaign donor who scored a hemp partnership thanks to Comers personal intervention. Weeks into Comers administration, an aide flagged a message to the harlan.comer account from this donor, Dan Caudill of Caudill Seed. The email thanked Comer for slashing 90 percent off of a fine for multiple fumigation violations. Regarding the fumigation violations that we were written up for, we had a mitigation meeting with Kentucky Department of Agriculture today and they amended the fine down to $250 from the $2,500 and also assigned my head fumigator to attend 2 future classes on fumigation, Caudills email said. Of course that is better than paying the $2,500. So, here again it looks like the Kentucky Department of Agriculture is being much fairer than they were under the previous administration and I give you the credit for that. Months later, the same aide forwarded another Caudill email to the harlan.comer address, thanking Comer for a Partner in Excellence Award. Comer later made a personal call to get Caudill in on his hemp initiative, The Daily Beast reported. Caudill Seed then imported Chinese hemp seeds that tests revealed as marijuana. Both Harlan accounts were shut down later in Comers term. On May 27, 2015, the harlan.comer account received an invitation to celebrate Hemp History Week with Kentucky Hempsters. (James, youre invited!) The next month, though, deputy agriculture commissioner Steve Kelly emailed a colleague, the Harlan Comer account is not activeplease send all emails to James Comer. Comer had just lost a bitter Republican gubernatorial primary, in which he reportedly helped orchestrate a counter-scandal including the leak of a journalists emails. The next year, Comer ran for Congress and won. The Biden email crusade isnt over. Comers spokesperson told The Daily Beast they await more records. The White House is still refusing to allow the National Archives to publicly release all emails associated with President Joe Bidens pseudonym email accounts, the spokesperson said. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. Japans births just fell to a new record low. Tokyo hopes a dating app can turn that around Japans fertility rate, which has seen a precipitous fall for many years, has reached another record low as the government ramps up efforts to encourage young people to get married and start families even launching its own dating app. The nation of 123.9 million people only recorded 727,277 births last year, according to new data released by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare on Friday. The fertility rate defined as the total number of births a woman has in her lifetime dropped from 1.26 to 1.20. For a population to remain stable, it needs a fertility rate of 2.1. Anything above that will see a population expand, with a large proportion of children and young adults, as seen in India and many African nations. But in Japan, the fertility rate has been well below that stable marker of 2.1 for half a century, experts say it fell below that level after the 1973 global oil crisis pushed economies into recession, and never recovered. The downward trend has accelerated in recent years, with the number of deaths overtaking births each year and causing the total population to shrink with far-reaching consequences for Japans workforce, economy, welfare system and social fabric. In 2023, the country recorded 1.57 million deaths, according to the Health Ministry more than double the number of births. And Japans not having much matrimonial luck, either the number of marriages fell by 30,000 last year, while the number of divorces rose. Experts say the decline is expected to continue for at least several decades and is to some extent irreversible due to the countrys population structure. Even if Japan were to boost its fertility rate tomorrow, its population will keep falling until the skewed ratio of young people to older adults balances out. Still, the government is now racing to soften the impact, launching new government agencies to focus specifically on this problem. It has launched initiatives such as expanding child care facilities, offering housing subsidies to parents, and in some towns, even paying couples to have children. In the capital Tokyo, local officials are trying a new tack: launching a government-run dating app, which is in early testing phases and will be fully operational later this year. Please use it as the first step to begin marriage hunting, the apps website says, adding that the AI-matchmaking system is provided by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Users are asked to take a values diagnostic test but theres also an option to put in the desired traits of a future partner. Based on your values and the values you seek in a partner, which can be determined by taking a diagnostic test, AI will introduce you to a compatible person, it said. What cannot be measured by appearance or conditions alone may lead to unexpected encounters. The app even caught the eye of billionaire Elon Musk, who wrote on X, formerly Twitter: Im glad the government of Japan recognizes the importance of this matter. If radical action isnt taken, Japan (and many other countries) will disappear! Experts have told CNN this scenario is unlikely the fertility rate is expected to even out at some point, and the country will adjust. Japan may look very different at that point, from its demographic makeup to its economy and domestic policies, but it wont simply vanish. Marriage is a decision based on ones own values, but the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is working to build momentum for marriage so that those who think they intend to get married eventually can take that first step, says the dating apps website. Users must be single, over 18 years old with a desire to get married, and be living or working in Tokyo, the website says. It also lists the governments other measures to support couples such as providing information on work-life balance, child care and housing support, mens participation in housework and child-rearing, and career counseling. We hope that every single one of you who wishes to get married will think about what being in a couple means to you, it says. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Li Xi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, meets with Special Envoy of Cuban President and Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2024. (Xinhua/Yue Yuewei) BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Li Xi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, met with Special Envoy of Cuban President and Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla in Beijing on Friday. Li, also secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said that under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, the building of a China-Cuba community with a shared future continues to deepen and solidify. Noting that China and Cuba are good friends, good comrades, and good brothers who stick together through thick and thin, Li said China will continue to support Cuba in pursuing a socialist path that suits its national conditions and defending its national sovereignty and dignity. Li said China is willing to deepen political mutual trust, promote practical cooperation and strengthen strategic coordination with Cuba for new developments in the relations between the two parties and two countries. Rodriguez expressed gratitude for China's strong support for the just cause of Cuba, saying Cuba will firmly abide by the one-China principle, steadfastly deepen friendship with China and resolutely defend the socialist cause. Li Xi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, meets with Special Envoy of Cuban President and Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2024. (Xinhua/Yue Yuewei) New Jersey man caught driving recklessly on I-275 said he had to pee: FHP New Jersey man caught driving recklessly on I-275 said he had to pee: FHP TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) A man caught driving recklessly along Interstate-275 in St. Petersburg reportedly told the Florida Highway Patrol he did it because he had to pee. Troopers spotted Karl-Jason Roberts-Rosenburg, 51, of Newark, New Jersey making abrupt lane changes and slamming on the breaks to avoid hitting other cars, according to an arrest report. FHP stopped Roberts-Rosenburg and he told them he was speeding because he had to pee, the arrest report said. Roberts-Rosenburg, who works as an Uber driver, was arrested and charged with reckless driving. He is being held without bond at the Pinellas County jail. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. First lady Jill Biden has traveled to great lengths to show support for her son Hunter as his federal gun trial is underway this week. The first lady was on hand at the Wilmington, Delaware, courthouse for the first three days of the felony trial this week, sitting through testimony recounting moments from one of the most troubled periods of her sons life. After departing court on Wednesday, she took a red-eye flight to France to attend the commemoration ceremonies for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Less than 24 hours later, she boarded a military aircraft at Paris-Orly airport to make the journey home to Wilmington, where shes expected to attend court once again on Friday. Dr. Biden is set to travel back to Paris this weekend as she and her husband, President Joe Biden, will be feted with an official state visit. The back-and-forth travel and hours spent in the Delaware courtroom relistening to the details of a tumultuous saga in her familys history mark the latest example of how the first lady and president continue to keep their only living son close even as his legal entanglements play out against the backdrop of the presidential campaign. I am the President, but I am also a Dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today, the president said in a statement Monday as the trial began. Our family has been through a lot together, and Jill and I are going to continue to be there for Hunter and our family with our love and support. The Bidens wanted to be close as the court proceedings began with the president spending most of Monday just a few miles away at his Wilmington home. For the first lady, there was no question she would be on hand at the courthouse to support her son throughout the trial even as official duties called back in Washington, DC, and abroad. Shes his mother, and hes on trial, so of course she wants to be there as much as humanly possible, said Elizabeth Alexander, communications director for the first lady. Its something that a lot of parents, and maybe mothers especially feel, that when your children need you, it doesnt matter how old they get, theyre always your children and you always want to be there to support them, she added. The first day of the trial coincided with the first ladys 73rd birthday. On Tuesday, she hosted lawmakers for the annual White House congressional picnic after sitting in the court room earlier that day. That same evening, she traveled back to Delaware to be in court on Wednesday morning and is expected to be a continual presence as the trial proceeds. The back and forth, the push and pull, of family responsibilities, of first lady duties, of her career, of the campaign thats just who she is, said Alexander. The White House has not announced the first ladys appearances in Delaware ahead of time. She could be in court when other family members are called to testify in the coming days. Hunter Bidens defense team plans to call Naomi Biden, his daughter, and James Biden, his uncle and the presidents brother, to testify as they begin to present their case Friday, according to people briefed on their plans. Shes listened as prosecutors have laid out their case related to three felony charges stemming from a gun purchase her son made in 2018, and questioned witnesses. Dr. Biden was in France and not on hand when Hallie Biden, the widow of Beau Biden who later had a romantic relationship with Hunter Biden, took the witness stand. The first lady has sat stoically as her sons voice boomed through the courtroom when prosecutors played long audio excerpts of him detailing his addiction in his memoir, details shes likely heard before. During breaks from the courts proceedings, shes spent time with Hunter, the defense team and other Biden family members in a small room a few paces from the courtroom, with a phalanx of Secret Service agents guarding the door. The first lady huddled with her sons attorney Abbe Lowell for several minutes during one of the breaks in the courtroom on Tuesday. The first lady stepped into the role of matriarch after marrying then-Senator Biden in 1977, five years after his first wife and infant daughter were killed in a car accident that also injured Beau and Hunter. Jill came along at a really important point and put my family back together, the president said in an interview in 2021. Shes the glue that held it together. The Biden family was once again tested in 2015 when Beau Biden, whom many believed would one day run for the White House, died of brain cancer. The years that followed were tumultuous for the Biden family as Hunter Biden sank into the dark depths of addiction. In his memoir Beautiful Things, he detailed how his mom and father tried to stage an intervention at their Wilmington home, a moment that descended into screaming and tears from the family. The first lady is known to be fiercely protective of her family, and she defended Hunter as he faced a federal criminal investigation in 2022. Everybody and their brother has investigated Hunter. They keep at it, and at it, and at it. I know that Hunter is innocent. I love my son, and I will keep looking forward, the first lady told NBC News. The first lady has slammed House Republicans investigating her son, saying that what they are doing to Hunter is cruel. Im really proud of how Hunter has rebuilt his life after addiction, the first lady said in an interview earlier this year. I love my son and its hurt, its hurt my grandchildren, and thats what Im so concerned about that its affecting their lives as well. In an interview with ABC News on Thursday, the president said he would accept the jurys verdict in Hunters case and ruled out the possibility of pardoning his son. As they wait for that decision to come, the first lady will be close by to lend her support at home and in court. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Joe Biden stood on a cliff at Normandy on Friday to deliver a speech that emphasized the need to defend democracy, as he connected the heroism of D-Day 80 years ago to the present day. As we gather here today, its not just to honor those who showed such remarkable bravery that day June 6, 1944, Biden said. Its to listen to the echo of their voices, to hear them, because they are summoning us, and they are summoning us now. Theyre asking us, what will we do? Theyre not asking us to scale these cliffs, but theyre asking us to stay true to what America stands for. More from Deadline The speech at Pointe du Hoc was in the same location where Ronald Reagan delivered a famous address on the 40th anniversary of D-Day, as the threat then was the Soviet Union. When we talk about democracy, American democracy, we often talk about the ideals of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. What we dont talk about is how hard it is, how many ways we are asked to walk away the most natural instinct is to walk away, to be selfish, to force ourselves on others, to seize power, to never give up. American democracy asks the hardest of things, to believe that were part of something bigger than ourselves. For Bidens reelection campaign, the speech also is a contrast to his chief rival, Donald Trump, who delivered a fiery address to a campaign rally in Phoenix, where he railed against his conviction in New York last week and focused a great portion of his remarks on immigration. Trump also sat for an interview with Dr. Phil McGraw, a roughly hourlong one-on-one that was largely the famed daytime host siding with the former presidents claim that hes been mistreated by the justice system and even that the Biden administration had a hand in orchestrating his prosecution. Best of Deadline Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Joe Biden Rules Out Pardon for Hunter as He Vows to Respect Any Verdict in Son's Federal Gun Trial Hunter Biden, 54, faces up to 25 years in prison if a Delaware jury chooses to convict him on three gun-related charges Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images Joe and Hunter Biden at the White House Easter Egg Roll on April 1, 2024 President Joe Biden has ruled out a future pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, who faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted in his ongoing federal trial. On Thursday, June 6, the president told ABC News' David Muir that he will accept any outcome in Hunter's trial. He also affirmed that if a guilty verdict is reached, he will not use his presidential pardon power to help his son walk free. Related: Hunter Biden's Criminal Trial Kicks Off in Delaware: Here's What to Know About the Federal Gun Charges Hunter, 54, began his first of two criminal trials on June 3, reporting to a Wilmington, Del., courthouse in the company of loved ones. Federal prosecutors allege that Hunter lied to illegally obtain a gun in 2018, then possessed it for 11 days while under the influence of narcotics. The legal saga marks the first-ever criminal case against a sitting president's child, and if Hunter is convicted of all charges, he faces up to 25 years in prison. RYAN COLLERD/AFP via Getty Images Hunter Biden arrives for the first day of his federal gun trial on June 3, accompanied by his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden In the weekend leading up to Hunter's trial, the Biden family spent quality time together in Delaware. President Biden was spotted riding his bicycle alongside Hunter, and the two attended an afternoon church service. Related: Joe Biden Spent Weekend with Son Hunter Before Start of Federal Gun Trial, Riding Bikes and Attending Church When the trial began, Hunter's father released a lengthy statement expressing "boundless love" for him despite the complicated circumstances. "I am the President, but I am also a Dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today," President Biden said on Monday morning. "Hunter's resilience in the face of adversity and the strength he has brought to his recovery are inspiring to us. A lot of families have loved ones who have overcome addiction and know what we mean." "As the President, I don't and won't comment on pending federal cases, but as a Dad, I have boundless love for my son, confidence in him, and respect for his strength. Our family has been through a lot together, and Jill and I are going to continue to be there for Hunter and our family with our love and support," he continued. Related: Jill Biden and Daughter Ashley Attend Start of Hunter's Federal Trial, Which Falls on First Lady's Birthday Kevin Dietsch / POOL / AFP via Getty Joe and Jill Biden hug their children, Hunter and Ashley, at the 2021 presidential inauguration The president's affirmation to Muir on Thursday that he will not interfere with the criminal justice system echoes what White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said months earlier when the charges against Hunter first dropped. Related: White House Weighs In on Whether the President Would Consider Pardon for Hunter Biden President Biden's promise to respect what the jury decides in his son's trial sends a powerful message to voters, as he aims to draw a distinction between his view of democracy and Donald Trump's. Trump has routinely attacked the justice system when it's worked against him, and recently spread baseless claims that his felony conviction was the result of a "rigged" trial. 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. During the president's conversation with ABC News, he admitted frustration with Trump's rhetoric surrounding the rule of law. "He's trying to undermine it," Biden told Muir. "He got a fair trial. The jury spoke." For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on People. Nothing in recent months has stirred Democratic passions like the magic words convicted felon Donald J. Trump. Most Democrats embrace a simple strategy for weaponizing the 34-count verdict from a dingy Manhattan courtroom: Shout it from the rooftops. Hire town criers. Emulate the bullhorn tactics of the Republicans by constantly screaming, Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. On Saturday, The New York Times reported, Post-verdict interviews with more than 50 Democrats revealed a party hungry to tell voters that Mr. Trumps conviction makes him unfit and worried that Mr. Biden might not use the bully pulpit of the presidency to press that argument. Here at The New Republic, our editor, Michael Tomasky, argued on Monday, No federal Democratic officeholder should, for the foreseeable future, say the name Donald Trump without putting the words convicted felon before it. Color me skeptical. After years of Trump avoiding retribution for just about everythingincluding inciting an insurrection on January 6, 2021Democratic euphoria over the long-awaited guilty verdict is understandable. But a close election, with the future of America democracy on the line, is not the moment to follow the 1960s mantra If it feels good, do it. A consistent danger in politics is preaching to the choir while neglecting the swing voters in the back pews. There remains major ambiguity about the long-term effects of the Trump conviction on the horse-race numbers. What is unequivocal, however, is that almost all low-information voters have heard something about the verdict. A Morning Consult Poll, conducted at the end of last week, found that only 3 percent of registered voters had entirely missed the news about Trumps legal fate, while another 9 percent admitted they had not heard much about trial. That means that 88 percent of the electorate are reasonably knowledgeable about Trumps status as a convicted felon. What Democrats fear is that memories of the guilty verdict will fade with the election still five months away. But even without the Biden campaign saturating swing states with convicted-felon TV ads, voters will still receive constant reminders that Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts. The June 27 CNN debate will undoubtedly feature a series of questions about the verdictand none of them will be targeting Joe Biden. Trumps sentencing hearing on July 11 will prompt banner headlines, even if the former president avoids the slammer. And at the Republican convention in Milwaukee, beginning July 15, Trump is almost certain to devote a large portion of his acceptance speech to his festival of grievances as he rails against his rigged trial and conviction. The worst thing for the Democrats would be to turn Trumps conviction into a purely partisan issue. The jury verdict will have much more credibility with up-for-grabs voters if they are reminded of the details by the news media and postings on social media. What would be more persuasive: a Kamala Harris speech denouncing the convicted felon or a bulletin on your iPhone or TV screen revealing the details of Trumps sentencing? Biden aggressively attacking Trump as a convicted felon in every speech only bolsters the former presidents bogus charge that the entire case was a political witch hunt concocted in Washington. Part of the Democrats love of aggressive tactics in giving Trump a scarlet F for Felon is the belief that MAGA high-decibel diversions always work. Yes, they had a powerful impact in 2016 in portraying Hillary Clinton as a would-be criminal for her mishandling of her emails as secretary of state. But Trumps track record since the 2016 election suggests that a nonstop torrent of lies is not necessarily a winning strategy. As president, Trumps approval rating never hit 50 percent. You might also recall that the Democrats gained 40 House seats in the 2018 off-year elections and that Trump himself was defrocked as president in 2020. For all of Trumps bleating about the unfairness of his having been tried in Manhattan rather than Alabama for an offense that occurred in New York City, there is scant evidence that this smoke screen of duplicitous rhetoric is working. A CBS News Poll released over the weekend found that 56 percent of independents believe that the Trump jury reached the right verdict. Yes, Republicans currying favor with Trump can scream that a Manhattan jury is worse than a North Korean tribunal, but this over-the-top oratory is convincing no one other than the MAGA faithful. Bidens reluctance to come out swinging against the Trump verdict is widely interpreted as the 81-year-old presidents hidebound failure to understand that the rules of politics have changed since he was in the Senate. But there is another more plausible interpretation. The Biden campaign has a polling infrastructure that is far more sophisticated than the surveys sponsored by the media and public polling organizations. Horse-race numbers, particularly at this stage, are far less important to the Biden campaign than survey data about how best to politically frame an argument. Bidens public restraint may be far more shaped by the campaigns polling numbers than the presidents personal reluctance to go after a convicted felon who has taken over the Republican Party. Two years ago this month, after the Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade, pundits brooded that the Democrats were caught flat-footed and did not have an aggressive messaging strategy ready to deploy. But abortion has been a powerful and winning political issue on its own terms without having to largely depend on Democratic partisan talking points. None of this is to argue that the Democrats should model their campaign around Thumper the Rabbits dictum: If you cant say anything nice, dont say anything at all. But shouting convicted felon every seven seconds is not a magic formula for winning the votes of undecided voters in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. The Manhattan verdict is part of Trumps legacyalong with January 6, threats of retribution against his enemies, Covid denial, threatened immigration roundups, and mendacity on a scale rarely seen since 1930s Berlin. Trump will pay a price for all this at the polls in November, as long as the Democrats avoid making everything a partisan issue. John Carter is expected to appear Friday in a Butler County courtroom for a plea in the Katelyn Markham murder case, according to a report from Enquirer media partner Fox 19. Carter, 35, is accused of killing Markham, his fiance at the time, in 2011. This comes just weeks before his June 24 trial and more than a week after his defense team filed court papers saying he has an alibi that will prove he wasnt there when she was killed. The 22-year-old art student disappeared from her Fairfield condo on the night of Aug. 13, 2011. Katelyn Markham of Fairfield disappeared in 2011 and her body was found 20 months later by a couple looking for aluminum cans near an Indiana creek. Her fiance has been arrested for her murder. She was considered a missing person until her skeletal remains were found nearly two years later on April 7, 2013, in southeastern Indiana. Her death was ruled a homicide, but her cause of death has never been established. Dave Markham, Katelyn's father, posted on social media about the potential plea Friday morning. Last year, Butler County prosecutors announced they resurrected the cold case and had Carter arrested at his workplace in Forest Park on March 22, 2023. The indictment charges Carter with murder by purposely causing her death on or about Aug. 13-14, 2011, in Butler County. The second murder count alleges he caused her death on the same dates as a proximate result of committing or attempting to commit a violent felony offense (felonious assault). Markham suffered trauma and her remains were not originally in the location where they were found, according to a forensic anthropology report released by prosecutors late last year. It indicates there were three or four sharp, blunt-force trauma wounds to her left wrist bone. Carter has pleaded not guilty and remains free on a $1 million posted bond. His mother released a statement last year after her sons arrest declaring he is definitely not guilty. Enquirer media partner Fox 19 provided this report. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: John Carter may enter a plea in Katelyn Markham murder trial Friday John Carter, Katelyn Markhams fiance who faced two murder charges in connection to her 2011 death, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in a Butler County courtroom Friday morning. Carters attorneys entered the plea before Butler County Common Pleas Court Judge Daniel Haughey, acknowledging that he caused Markham's death in the course of committing a misdemeanor assault. John Carter, 36, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the 2011 disappearance and death of Katelyn Markham on Friday. Carter, 36, was accused in 2023 of killing his fiancee. He initially pleaded not guilty and has since remained free on a $1 million bond. "The guilty plea by the defendant, John Carter, concludes the investigative work of a number of law enforcement agencies, my office and other investigative professionals, and brings absolute undeniable finality to the question of 'Who is responsible and accountable for the disappearance and death of Katelyn Markham?'" said Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser. Prosecutors said her family was advised of and are in agreement with the plea negotiations. Dave Markham, Katelyn Markham's father, was present in the courtroom Friday but declined to speak about the case after the hearing. A memorial event is planned for Saturday at Creekside Park in Fairfield. What happened to Katelyn Markham? Markham disappeared on Aug. 13, 2011. She was last seen between 11:30 p.m. and midnight when Carter said he left her Dorshire Drive home Friends, relatives, local authorities and a national mounted search group from Texas conducted dozens of searches for Markham. They combed local parks, waterways and areas in Butler and Hamilton counties but found no sign of her. It was Carter who called 911 on April 14, saying he could not reach Markham throughout the day. He told Fairfield police that he let himself into Markham's townhouse and found no signs of her. Her purse and keys were inside but her cell phone was missing. Markham's car was parked outside and her dog wasn't locked up, Carter said. Katelyn Markham of Fairfield disappeared in 2011 and her body was found 20 months later by a couple looking for aluminum cans near an Indiana creek. When Markham disappeared, she was a month away from finishing her graphic arts degree at the Art Institute of Ohio-Cincinnati. She also was nearing the first anniversary of her engagement to Carter. Carter said he and Markham were planning to move to Colorado that November. However, several witnesses told investigators Carter and Markham's relationship had become strained in the months leading up to her disappearance, according to court filings. Markham even confided in one witness that she was unhappy with her engagement to Carter and she felt "trapped in the relationship." Where was she found? Markhams remains were found nearly two years later, on April 7, 2013, in a rural, wooded area at Big Cedar Creek in southeastern Indianas Cedar Grove. A couple looking for scrap metal spotted a human jaw in a plastic grocery bag. Her death was ruled a homicide, but her cause of death has not been established. Prosecutor: Evidence against Carter largely "circumstantial" The case lacked any evidence that viewers of crime dramas might expect in a murder trial, including DNA or fingerprints, Gmoser said. "As such, this case presented the most extensive and challenging collection of circumstantial evidence never before seen in this office to reach the guilty plea today and end the dissembling of the defendant, and his alibi, that have gone on for way too long," Gmoser said in court. During Carter's March 2023 arraignment, Gmoser offered examples of evidence prosecutors planned to present at trial. Those included cryptic writings belonging to Carter, which were recovered during the execution of a search warrant at his former residence. Butler County Common Pleas Judge Daniel Haughey accepts John Carter's guilty plea to involuntary manslaughter in the 2011 disappearance and death of Katelyn Markham on Friday. When police interviewed Carter the day after Markham's disappearance, investigators observed and photographed scratch marks on the left side of his neck, according to a search warrant unsealed ahead of trial. He initially said the scratches came from a razor but later told police he didn't know how he got them. Markham's remains showed cutting wounds caused by "sharp force trauma" to her left wrist, according to prosecutors, who said Carter caused her death by "physical violence and by force." Three polygraph examinations indicated "deceptive responses" from Carter as he denied his involvement in Markham's death, according to investigators. Investigators believe Carter obtained plastic sheeting typically used in construction and landscaping and used the material to dispose of Markham's corpse, the search warrant states. Markham's remains were found wrapped in that same type of material, though her skull had been wrapped separately, the documents said. ohn Carter, 36, stands between his attorneys while pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the 2011 disappearance and death of Katelyn Markham on Friday. Carter would have been familiar with the area where Markham's remains were recovered, the search warrant said, because it was near the routes from his home in Butler County to the properties his father owned in Ross Township and Laurel, Indiana. A forensic anthropology report indicated that the location where Markham's remains were discovered is different from where they were first left. His jury trial was set to begin June 24 and was expected to last five weeks. Carter is facing a maximum possible sentence of three years in prison. He's scheduled to appear in court for sentencing on July 18. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: John Carter pleads to lesser charge in fiancee Katelyn Markham's death John Creek Police introduced a new brave, fury friend to its police force on Thursday. The new K-9 officers name is Eko and shes ready to serve the community with JCPD. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] JCPD said Eko is a year-and-a-half-old Belgian Malinois from Poland. K-9 Officer Eko just completed her patrol dog training in North Carolina. TRENDING STORIES: The police department said she is trained in narcotic detection, tracking, criminal apprehension, article searches, and area searches. Eko officially joined the JCPD in March. Off-duty, she loves going for runs, playing fetch, and having a blast with her Kong toy, read the Facebook post from JCPD. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] IN OTHER NEWS: GAZA, June 7 (Xinhua) -- At least 13 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on a house and a UN-run school housing displaced people in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said on Friday. At least 10 Palestinians, including children and women, were killed in a missile attack on a house in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to Palestinian security sources. Meanwhile, local sources and eyewitnesses told Xinhua that Israeli aircraft targeted a school operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the al-Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City. The Palestinian Civil Defense Service reported that its crew recovered the bodies of three people and dozens were injured in the raid. Israeli warplanes also bombed a UNRWA school in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza a day earlier, which killed at least 35 Palestinians. Responding to Thursday's bombing, Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner said that the Israeli forces targeted "20 to 30 terrorists" in the school compound, adding that efforts were made to minimize civilian casualties. The Israeli army has been conducting a large-scale offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, after Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on the Israeli towns adjacent to the strip, during which approximately 1,200 people were killed and about 250 others were taken hostage. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is asking a top attorney on special counsel Jack Smiths Mar-a-Lago case to sit for an interview with the panel, the latest escalation of its probes into those prosecuting former President Trump. A Thursday letter to Jay Bratt accused the prosecutor of raising the specter of impropriety by taking meetings at the White House. The inquiry gets at the heart of a favored but unsubstantiated GOP claim: that there may have been coordination between the Biden White House and those working on Trumps prosecution. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., on Feb. 23, 2024. Jordans letter homes in on three White House meetings Bratt took since the start of the Biden administration that he argues raises, at the least, a perception of improper coordination. Two, however, were in 2021, before the National Archives alerted the Justice Department to the issues it was having recovering records from Trumps time in office, a referral that did not come until February 2022. Bratts third White House meeting, in March 2023, was related to the Mar-a-Lago probe, with The Washington Post previously reporting that the attorney met with a career White House staffer who had worked under both the Trump and Biden administrations to discuss the moving of boxes. It is not uncommon for prosecutors to interview government workers at their offices. Nonetheless, the matter has been a longtime focus for Jordan, who previously asked Attorney General Merrick Garland and White House chief of staff Jeff Zients about the meeting. And it was also part of a request Jordan made to Smiths team last December, asking the special counsel to turn over the bulk of his records about his prosecutions into Trump. Thursdays letter is addressed to Bratt directly, with Jordan writing that the lack of a response from the others left him compelled to write to you directly to request your voluntary cooperation with our Constitutional oversight. The Justice Department (DOJ) declined to comment on the letter. But Garland on Tuesday accused Republicans of a long line of attacks on the DOJ, including threats to defund the special counsel investigation while career agents and prosecutors have been singled out just for doing their jobs. Jordan is focused not just on Bratts meetings, but also a claim from Stanley Woodward, an attorney representing Trumps co-defendant in the case, Walt Nauta. Court documents filed by Woodward said that while meeting with Bratt, the prosecutor noted he had been mentioned for a possible judge appointment. Bratt would later counter he was simply noting Woodwards involvement with a commission that handles judicial nominations. Mr. Bratt followed up with words to the effect of I wouldnt want to do anything to mess that up,' Woodward relayed. The special counsels office has disputed Woodwards summary of the meeting, with Bratt saying he was simply noting Woodwards involvement with the Judicial Nomination Commission. Woodward was nominated to serve on the commission but was not yet on the board, creating a moment of confusion between the two attorneys. Bratt mentioned this to Woodward early in their meeting purely as a matter of professional courtesy and only to indicate to Woodward that he understood that Woodward must have a good reputation. Nothing more was intended, Smiths team wrote in court filings. Putting aside the details of this confusion, the prosecutors who participated in the meeting are clear that Bratts comments contained no threat or suggestion of any quid pro quo, and that the exchange was purely professional. Woodward raised the meeting in court in Florida last month in a broader argument seeking to toss Nautas charges due to prosecutorial misconduct. A member of Smiths team called it a garbage argument. Jordan, however, argues that as indicated by defense lawyers and unsealed documents, you have engaged in a series of improper actions and unethical conduct that violate the Departments duty to impartial justice. The letter asks Bratt to turn over a series of documents and communications about his White House meetings as well as any communications concerning Woodward. The letter otherwise takes Bratt to task for how hes handled Trumps case, including that Trumpss Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida was searched for the documents and that prosecutors asked Judge Aileen Cannon to clarify that Trumps false statement that the FBI was authorized to take me out was a violation of his conditions of release. Your course of conduct continues to raise serious concerns about the abusive tactics of the Office of the Special Counsel and the Departments commitment to impartial justice, Jordan wrote. The letter is one in a series of actions Jordan has taken in the wake of Trumps guilty verdict in a New York case concerning his concealment of hush money payments made to an adult film star ahead of the 2016 election. Jordan has called for holding back funding for the FBI as well as the limited federal funds given to local prosecutors. He also signed onto criminal referrals accusing Biden family members of lying to Congress. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. The Kyiv Independent's journalists have identified two Russian soldiers who were involved in the rape of two women during the occupation of Kyiv and Kherson oblasts in March 2022. The findings have served as the basis for the Kyiv Independent's documentary about Russian sexual violence in occupied parts of Ukraine He Came Back available in English and Ukrainian. The Kyiv Independent confirmed that Mykola Senenko, a soldier with the 109th Motorized Rifle Regiment, raped a woman in Krasnivka, Kherson Oblast. Senenkos unit, part of the Russian-controlled proxy army based in occupied Donetsk Oblast, was stationed in Krasnivka during the Russian occupation of parts of Kherson Oblast in early 2022. The other soldier, Nadbit Dabayev, private first class in the 8th Company of the 37th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, raped a woman in occupied Havronshchyna, Kyiv Oblast, where his brigade was stationed. The two identified Russian soldiers have not been punished for their crimes, according to information found by the Kyiv Independent. In June 2022, Ukrainian law enforcement officials charged Dabayev in absentia with a number of other crimes committed during the occupation stealing cars, death threats, and the murder of a civilian. Dabayev has refused to answer direct questions from journalists about his involvement in crimes, including those committed in Havronshchyna. He continues to post photos of himself in military uniform and with weapons on his social media. The other Russian soldier, who is accused of raping a woman in occupied parts of Ukraine, Mykola Senenko, is currently located in Russian-occupied Horlivka, Donetsk Oblast. Senenkos location was confirmed by his comrades who spoke with the Kyiv Independent. In the documentary, the Kyiv Independent names Dabayev and Senenkos commanders. Colonel Yuri Medvedev led the 37th Brigade. Under Medvedevs command, the brigade committed some of the most brutal war crimes. Ukrainian law enforcement officials charged soldiers of this unit in absentia, in particular, for murder, rape, torture, and threats to shoot civilians. In March 2022, Medvedev was injured. A few months later, he spoke at the Victory Day parade in Kyakhta, Russia. He was also awarded one of Russia's highest state honors, the Order of Courage. The 109th Regiment of the Russian-controlled militant group was subordinate to the Russian 11th Guards Air Assault Brigade, led by Colonel Denis Shishov. Shishov participated in the capture of Kherson Oblast and was wounded. He was soon promoted to the rank of Major General and received the state award of Hero of Russia. Read also: Inside a prison where Russia tortured Ukrainian POWs. Investigation by the Kyiv Independent Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. MSNBC MSNBC anchor Joy Reid questioned Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) on Thursday about his recent suggestion that the Jim Crow era was better for Black familiesand presented the potential Trump running mate with some unpleasant facts about the societal limitations for Black people in that era. Donalds, at a campaign event in Philadelphia on Tuesday, had said that the Black family was together during Jim Crow, a period when segregation was codified by white lawmakers to prevent upward mobility for Black Americans after slaverys demise. During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservativeBlack people have always been conservative-mindedbut more Black people voted conservatively, Donalds said then. Donalds has insisted that criticsof which there are manyare taking him out of context, and that he wasnt being wistful when he made those remarks. He reiterated that point to Reid. Democrats, President Joe Bidens re-election campaign, and some members of the media want to twist my words for political purposes, Donalds claimed on The ReidOut. The overarching issue is talking just about Black families and why youre seeing a trend of Black people leaning towards Republicans in this election cycle, and probably in election cycles to come, he said. Part of that is when youre raising families, raising kids, et cetera, youre thinking of all the public policy issues, all of the economic issues, and its leading people to have divergence in political thoughts. That was the only point. The stuff that comes up about Jim Crow and twisting my words saying I was being nostalgic or Jim Crow was good for Black people, thats all political spin. Its a lie. Its gaslighting and thats truly unfortunate. MSNBC Host Joy Reid Unloads on Pro-Trump Troll Outside Trial But Reid wasnt satisfied by that response. When she followed up by asking what exactly he was getting at by mentioning Jim Crow laws on his own, Donalds said he was just talking about marriage rates. If youre going to use the chronological timeline of America before the Great Society and Lyndon Johnsons time period, you had unfortunately the Jim Crow era in America. During that time period, the marriage rate of Black Americans was significantly higher than any other time since then in American history, he said. So it is a divergence if youre talking about marriage rates in the Black community. They have plummeted, he continued. What we have seen recently in America, which is a very good thingwe should all celebrateis marriage rates in the Black community are rising again. Thats good for Black families. Thats definitely good for Black children. Its something I want to see, Im sure you want to see it as well. The exchange grew testy after Reid wanted to know if Donalds thought there was a specific period between 1867 and 1968 when there was this golden era for Black families, or a time that was good for Black families. See, this is where the gaslighting comes in, Donalds replied, taking offense to Reids phrasing. I never said that! Youre saying I said it was better back then. I never said that. After Reid played back the tape and asked about Black fathers agency in that era, Donalds acknowledged that Black people were under great persecution, unfortunately by Southern Democrats and the Democratic Party overall. A bit later, Reid described in detail the 1943 lynching of a Black boy in Floridawhich his father was essentially powerless to stopand read an excerpt from her book about Medgar Evers, another lynching victim. So, the man in the home during Jim Crow had no rights, could not protect his wife from rape, could not protect his son from lynching, she said. So, again, why would you quote that era and say that at that time, the family all being in the home together was something we should think of as a good thing? Donalds, after calling the events that Reid cited disgusting and disgraceful, claimed once more that he was just talking about marriage rates for Black people at that time. After a bit of cross-talk, where Reid accused him of trying to filibuster, Reid repeated her question. Donalds again accused Reid of gaslighting. Reids final question to Donalds, whose wife is white, was if his marriage could have existed during Jim Crow. No, it could not, Joy, and we all know that, Joy, he acknowledged. Thats why Im blessed to live in America today as opposed to America during that time. But we cannot ignore the realities of not having fathers in homes. That is important to our Black people today and all people today as we move forward toward a better America. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. A judge declined to remove a state prosecutor this week from a murder trial, saying it appeared to be a crazy coincidence that the prosecutor showed up while a defense investigator was interviewing a key witness in front of an apartment complex. Assistant Miami-Dade Public Defender Natalie Ender argued that Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Shawn Abuhoff attempted to intimidate the witness last week, with a police officer at his side. She said the two knocked on the car window of investigator Pedro Fernandezs vehicle as he interviewed the witness. The defense attorney said she listened in on the conversation because she was on a cellphone speaking with the witness and her investigator, when they were interrupted. But Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Andrea Ricker Wolfson denied the motion to remove Abuhoff, who told the judge that Fernandez was knocking on doors flashing a badge as if he were pretending to be a cop, while showing people a booking photo of the witness and referring to that person as a rat for expected testimony. Im going to deny the request without prejudice, the judge said, adding that Abuhoff and the officer finding the investigator with the witness led to a chain of events that otherwise would have been innocuous. Misconduct charge in case involving fight, gunfire death The witness is scheduled to testify at the trial of Jamal Pratt, 37, who was charged with second-degree murder after a fight he was involved in escalated to gunfire in early January 2020. According to Pratts arrest warrant, he shot and killed a man named Demetrius Batts after getting into a fight with him just outside Brewtons Market, 7000 NW 15th Ave., in Liberty City. A witness told police that during the fight, Batts pulled off a hoodie that was covering Pratts face. Then Pratt shot him. The witness said Pratt fired and struck Batts twice more as he ran inside the market. The trial, which was set to begin this week, will likely be pushed back to the end of July. Prosecutorial misconduct claims escalate Though its not unheard of for defense attorneys to try and have prosecutors removed, there has been an uptick since the very same judge ordered the removal of one of the longest-tenured prosecutors in the state from a particularly high-profile case in March. READ MORE: State Attorney Fernandez Rundle faces mounting criticism over prosecutor conduct Wolfson, overseeing the re-sentencing of convicted murderer and gang leader Corey Smith, sided with his defense attorneys and said Assistant Miami-Dade prosecutor Michael Von Zamft overstepped boundaries during a jailhouse phone call in which he appeared to be trying to get potential witnesses to align with each other. She booted Von Zamft from the case and also dismissed prosecutor Stephen Mitchell, saying he emphatically argued that Von Zamfts conduct was not unethical. The judges order likely prompted defense attorneys for OnlyFans model Courtney Clenney to fight to dismiss the case led by prosecutor Khalil Quinan. Clenney is charged with the 2022 stabbing death of her boyfriend Christian Obumseli inside their Miami bayfront apartment. READ MORE: OnlyFans model Courtney Clenney charged with murder in stabbing death of boyfriend in Miami Defense lawyers filed a motion saying charges brought against Clenneys parents for attempting to hack into Obumselis laptop were unnecessary and vindictive. Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Laura Shearon Cruz is expected to rule on the motion by the end of the month. The attacks on state prosecutors are also seen as an attempt at reform being pushed by the Miami chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys. The group brought a thick book of gripes with them during a meeting with State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and her new Chief Assistant Jose Arrojo, last month. The group asked the state attorney to create a new unit that would be run by an outsider who has never worked in the office, which would examine convictions where misconduct has been alleged. It would also advise prosecutors on ethical issues in ongoing cases. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) A judge on Thursday dismissed several state charges against Paul Pelosis attacker, who was convicted in federal court last month, based on the argument that the counts fall under double jeopardy, according to the San Francisco Public Defenders Office. David DePape was convicted last month of assaulting a federal officials family member and attempting to kidnap a federal official. He was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison, which will run concurrently with any potential punishment to come out of the state trial. He will likely be deported back to Canada after he completes his punishment. Following the victory in federal court, state prosecutors continued to pursue their own case against DePape, who bludgeoned former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosis husband with a hammer inside their San Francisco home in 2022. Paul Pelosi was 82 at the time of the attack. But DePapes public defenders say the state trial represents double jeopardy following the federal conviction. Even though the criminal counts are not exactly the same, the two cases stem from the same act, the public defenders office said. The judge on Thursday dismissed the state charges of attempted murder, elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon. DePape still faces charges of false imprisonment, residential burglary, threatening a family member of a public official, attempting to sway a witness and aggravated kidnapping. Those were not part of the federal trial. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The public defenders office did not have an additional comment besides confirming the judges ruling. The San Francisco Chronicle and KQED first reported the dismissed charges. DePape admitted during his federal trial testimony that he planned to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage, interrogate her and break her kneecaps if she did not admit to the lies he said she told about Russiagate, a reference to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. The attack on Paul Pelosi was captured on police body camera video just days before the 2022 midterm elections and shocked the political world. He suffered two head wounds including a skull fracture that was mended with plates and screws he will have for the rest of his life. His right arm and hand were also injured. The district attorneys office did not immediately return requests for comment. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4. SAN FRANCISCO A judge on Thursday dismissed several state charges against Paul Pelosis attacker, who was already convicted in federal court, based on the argument that the counts amount to double jeopardy, according to the San Francisco Public Defenders Office. David DePape was convicted of assaulting a federal officials family member and attempting to kidnap a federal official. He was sentenced last month to 30 years in prison. Following the victory in federal court, state prosecutors continued to pursue their own case against DePape, who bludgeoned former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosis husband with a hammer inside their San Francisco home in 2022. Paul Pelosi was 82 at the time of the attack. But DePapes public defenders say the state trial represents double jeopardy following the federal conviction. Even though the criminal counts are not exactly the same, the two cases stem from the same act, the public defenders office said. The judge on Thursday dismissed the state charges of attempted murder, elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon. DePape still faces charges of false imprisonment, residential burglary, threatening a family member of a public official, attempting to sway a witness and aggravated kidnapping. Those were not part of the federal trial. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. DePape admitted during his federal trial testimony that he planned to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage, interrogate her and break her kneecaps if she did not admit to what he said were lies she told about Russiagate, a reference to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. The attack on Paul Pelosi was captured on police body camera video just days before the 2022 midterm elections and shocked the political world. He suffered two head wounds including a skull fracture that was mended with plates and screws he will have for the rest of his life. His right arm and hand were also injured. The district attorneys office did not immediately return requests for comment. A California judge on Thursday dismissed multiple state charges including attempted murder against David DePape, who was sentenced in federal court last month for a violent 2022 attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. On Thursday, Judge Harry M. Dorfman granted the defense motion to dismiss three of eight counts against DePape, San Francisco Superior Court of Californias spokesperson Ann Donlan told CNN. The dismissed counts are attempted murder, assault of an elder and assault with a deadly weapon. DePape was previously convicted in federal court of one count of assault on the immediate family member of a federal official, and a second count of attempted kidnapping of a federal official. DePapes defense team previously argued that he should not be charged twice for the same acts, saying that would amount to double jeopardy. The prosecution and the defense asked for a stay of further trial proceedings to allow the Court of Appeal to review the rulings, Donlan said. The trial is scheduled to resume on Friday, June 14, at 10am. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Jace Hanson, 21, a former employee of the Hereford House restaurant in Leawood, appeared with his attorney in Johnson County District Court Thursday, June 6, 2024, in Olathe. Hanson has been with 22 felony counts of criminal threat for allegedly contaminating food and one count of criminal damage. Hanson also faces 10 felony counts of sexual exploitation of a child for allegedly possessing child sexual abuse materials. A Johnson County judge on Thursday declined to lower the bond instead raising it to $500,000 for a 21-year-old man accused of contaminating food at Leawoods Hereford House and possessing child sex abuse materials. Jace Christian Hanson of Kansas City and his attorney appeared in Johnson County District Court before Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan Thursday afternoon, asking to be released without bail or have a substantial reduction in his bond. Hanson, who was being held in Johnson County jail on a $100,000 bond, had planned to live with his cousin in Ottowa, Kansas, and get in mental health treatment if released. He was agreeable to house arrest or electronic monitoring, according to his attorney, Sydney Wilson. Prosecutors argued against reducing his bond, saying Hansons additional 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a child made him a danger to the public. Hanson is accused of possessing child sexual abuse materials of someone under the age of 18 years old. All of the 33 charges are felonies, according to court documents. Assistant District Attorney Melinda Parrishs voice cracked when she told the court that not only was there possession, but evidence of a chat history among Hanson and other users online about wanting to sexually exploit infants and children calling it, shocking to the conscience (and) sadistic behavior. Ryan agreed with prosecutors to raise the bond $500,000. Hansons court appearance comes days after prosecutors filed additional charges against him. In an amended complaint filed Tuesday, prosecutors charged Hanson with 22 counts of criminal threat for allegedly adulterating or contaminating food between April 1-23 and one count of criminal damage. At the time of the alleged food contamination, Hanson was a part-time employee of the Hereford House in Leawoods Town Center Plaza. According to court documents, Hanson allegedly posted videos online under the name Vandalizer that showed a man urinating in restaurant-style food bins and rubbing food on his genitals and buttocks. After receiving a tip, the FBI tied the videos to Hansons cellphone. The FBI contacted Leawood police, who went to the restaurant and spoke with a manager on April 25. After the manager confirmed that Hanson was working, they asked Hanson if he knew about any food contamination. Ill just be straight up, yeah, Hanson said, according to the affidavit. He added that hed just been doing stupid s--t. Hanson, who was arrested and booked into jail, allegedly told investigators he started contaminating the food because he didnt enjoy his job. He was initially charged with one count of criminal threat while police investigated the crime and made his first court appearance on April 26. Last week, Leawood police said they had been contacted by more than 380 people who had eaten at the restaurant, including some who fell ill afterward. Customers who ate there and said they fell ill with food poisoning symptoms have filed five lawsuits against the Hereford House Restaurant Company of Kansas, Inc. The lawsuits contend the restaurant was negligent, breached an implied warrant that its food was safe and should be held liable for serving a defective product to its customers. Ryan set Hansons next court appearance for 11:15 p.m. on July 10. Justice Juan Merchan informed prosecutors and Donald Trumps attorneys on Friday about a newly discovered post on the New York court systems Facebook page from a user who claimed to be the cousin of a juror. "My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted, the user wrote in a week-old comment, according to the judge. Thank you folks for all your hard work!!!! Merchan, who presided over Trumps recently concluded hush money trial, did not indicate whether the post which is no longer visible on Facebook appeared legitimate or may have been the result of a prank. Media efforts to locate the poster indicated that the post likely came from an account associated with someone who appears to be a regular troll of the New York court systems social media pages. Merchans decision to alert lawyers in a brief letter on Friday afternoon quickly riled up some commentators on the right, who seized on the message as a sign that Trumps conviction in the hush money case was somehow tainted. Jurors were under strict orders from the judge not to discuss the case with anyone while the trial was ongoing. Trumps lead defense lawyer, Todd Blanche, declined to comment. The office of the Manhattan district attorney did not respond to a request for comment. Merchan said in the letter that the post appeared in a reply to a May 29 notice regarding oral arguments in a New York appeals court unrelated to this proceeding. Neither the post nor the May 29 argument notice is currently visible on the court systems Facebook page, suggesting that they have been deleted. The jury in Trumps trial deliberated from May 28 to May 30 before declaring Trump guilty on all 34 charges he faced. The historic first-ever conviction of a former president found that Trump orchestrated a scheme to cover up a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the closing weeks of the 2016 election. Its unclear whether the users comment was posted on May 29 or sometime soon after. Its also unclear whether court officials have done any work to substantiate the post or whether Merchan simply disclosed it out of an abundance of caution. There is currently no oral argument notice on the New York court systems Facebook page dated May 29 of the nature the judge described, but there is a notice that fits the description dated May 20. In addition to the letter about the Facebook post, Merchan also granted permission Friday for Blanche to attend a pre-sentence interview with a probation officer that Trump is expected to participate in before his July 11 sentencing date. July hearing set to determine if accused Indian Creek serial killer is fit for trial A July hearing will determine whether accused serial killer Fredrick Demond Scott is mentally competent to stand trial, a Jackson County judge ruled Thursday. Scott, 29, has been accused in the killings of Steven Gibbons, 57; John Palmer, 54; David Lenox, 67; Timothy S. Rice, 57; Mike Darby, 61, and Karen Harmeyer, 64. Most of the fatal shootings took place along the Indian Creek Trail. Harmeyer was killed in Grandview. Scott has been in custody for nearly 8 years since his arrest in the killings. Judge Charles McKenzie ruled Thursday that since two different judges gave conflicting opinions on Scotts mental competency, state law dictates that a separate hearing should take place to determine whether he is fit to stand trial. In July 2021, Scott was initially ruled mentally unfit to stand trial by a Jackson County judge. A second Jackson County judge ruled in October 2021 that Scott was mentally competent to stand trial. Due to the discrepancy over Scotts mental state, trials set for 2022 and 2023 were both canceled. Scott has also been assigned new representation after his first attorney withdrew from the case. Scott, who is Black, also gained notoriety for saying he wanted to kill all white people in 2014 while enrolled at Center Alternative School in Kansas City. All six of Scotts victims were white, and five were middle-aged men. The killings began in 2016 and continued until August 2017, when Scott was arrested. All of Scotts victims were fatally shot without warning, some right outside of their homes. Scott will next appear in court at 9 a.m. July 23 for an evidentiary hearing surrounding his mental competency. Both sides plan to bring at least one medical professional to weigh in as an expert witness. McKenzie said he expects the hearing to last at least a day. In the moments leading up to Thursdays brief hearing, Scott conversed in urgent low tones with his attorney, reading quietly from a sheet of paper. His gaze drifted to the side of the courtroom as the evidentiary hearing date was debated and set. Scotts mother has previously voiced her belief that Scott suffers from undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia. She told the Star in 2017 that Scotts brother was formally diagnosed with the same and shes noted similarities in their behavior. Families of Scotts victims have questioned her motives in attempting to publicly explain her sons mental state. Previous reporting by Bill Lukitsch, Toriano Porter, Glenn Rice, Ian Cummings and Joe Robertson was used in this article. BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- China's independently-developed AC311A civil helicopter has successfully completed a major plateau sling-load flight test in Lhasa, in the southwestern Xizang Autonomous Region, according to the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC). The light helicopter recently underwent this sling-load operation flight test by slinging freight weighing 325 kilograms at a general airport at an altitude of 3,680 meters in Lhasa, said the AVIC, the country's leading aircraft manufacturer. Lifting and slinging the freight, the AC311A smoothly conducted a series of flight test activities, such as climbing, turning, level flight, and gliding, before landing safely. During the whole process, the AC311A helicopter showed good flight controllability and stability in plateau conditions, said the AVIC. The six-seat AC311A is a two-tonne light single-engine civil helicopter. It has a maximum take-off weight of 2,250 kilograms, a maximum cruise speed of 240 kilometers per hour, a maximum range of 630 kilometers, and a service ceiling of up to 6,000 meters, according to the developer. Juror in Minnesota case excused after being offered bags of cash to acquit Photos from court documents of the bag of cash containing 100s, 50s, and 20-dollar bills totaling about $120,000 that was seized by the FBI. A juror in the Feeding Our Future case in Minnesota was excused Monday morning after prosecutors said an unidentified individual went to the jurors house on Sunday night and offered a bag containing $120,000 in cash and another bag if she voted for acquittal. The bribery allegation comes during closing arguments and right before the jury was to begin deliberations on the guilt of seven defendants accused of fraudulently getting reimbursed $49 million in federal funds by vastly inflating the number of meals served to children at 50 locations across Minnesota during the pandemic. Prosecutors say they used the reimbursement money to buy luxury cars, houses, jewelry and property overseas and very little food. With the jury out of the courtroom, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said in open court that a woman in a Mazda drove to the jurors home in Spring Lake Park, left a bag of cash with her father-in-law and said therell be another bag tomorrow if she voted to acquit the seven defendants. Thompson said the juror wasnt home at the time the money was left with her father-in-law. She called 911 and the money was left at her home until the FBI could retrieve it Monday. This is outrageous behavior, Thompson said in court. This is stuff that happens in mob movies. Thompson asked that the 12 jurors and six alternates be sequestered for the remainder of the trial, and suggested defendants be held until a verdict. U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel ordered the defendants to put their cell phones in airplane mode until the prosecution could get a search warrant to have them confiscated and searched. Another magistrate judge would likely decide on that. The defendants were ordered not to leave the courthouse Monday, and Brasel questioned each juror individually about whether theyd been contacted or questioned by anyone about the case during the trial, including over the weekend. None of the others were, they said. Even the defense attorneys were frazzled by the stunning turn of events. Its a troubling and upsetting accusation, defense attorney Andrew Birrell said in court. The defendants Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff, Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Mohamed Jama Ismail, Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, Said Shafii Farah, Abdiwahab Maalim Aftin and Hayat Mohmed Nur are the first to go on trial out of 70 people charged in the massive federal case so far. Federal prosecutors have said it was the nations largest pandemic relief fraud, in which $250 million in U.S. Department of Agriculture funding was misused. Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com. Follow Minnesota Reformer on Facebook and Twitter. The post Juror in Minnesota case excused after being offered bags of cash to acquit appeared first on Source New Mexico. My family often told me that I would find my life-long friends during my first year at college. As a Yale freshman, I found that idea ridiculous, but I still felt pressure in my first year. I'm worried I didn't make long-lasting friendships, but I am trying not to rush it. When I started college at Yale a year ago, I had one worry: I might not meet my best friends for life the second I got to campus. It's an unrealistic expectation, but it sticks with you when you grow up hearing stories about how your parents or older siblings met their best friends during freshman orientation. Thankfully, I found Yale students who laughed at this idea. While some people tried to find their lifelong friends immediately, most of the people I met at college joked about how ridiculous that expectation was. Whether it's true or not, however, that pressure weighed heavily on me throughout my freshman year. I just don't think it's realistic. Yale is a very social school, and I've found it easy to meet new people. I've been lucky to make many good friends, but sometimes, I still worry I haven't made as many deep friendships as I should have in my first year. I felt pressure to make immediate, lifelong connections While I and many people on campus relentlessly satirized and made fun of the concept, it was still omnipresent. It was hard to escape the appearance that other people have found their core group for life. At Yale, little weekend excursions are common. I often heard that another group of first years went on a trip to New York City together; it rang in my southern ears as a big deal even though it just takes a free Sunday, $34, and a few hours on the Metro North. Still, it felt like people were connecting in ways I wasn't. It's also hard to ignore the role social media plays in creating the impression that everyone has more and better friendships. As a result, I found it difficult to fully shake the uncomfortable impression that I should've been making deeper connections faster. But on the other hand, I also didn't want to force the connections in my first year. I told myself that deep friendships cannot be willed into existence. I learned this lesson early on. While I connected with the people I met before we even got to campus, the experience of trying to force those friendships always fell flat. Good friendships take time to find and grow I've probably met over 100 people I could see as potential lifelong friends. Between the people I've made in my residential college, improv group, moot court team, political union, and just wandering around campus, I've probably met my best friends already. But I can't be sure. We have a long road ahead. A lot could happen, so I don't want to rush anything. Friendships take time to nurture and grow. While I felt disappointed with myself because I haven't made many truly soul-to-soul deep connections with many people, I accept that takes serious time. Even for people I've been close with for years, our relationships took a long time to develop. Now should be no different, and I must remind myself of that. I still haven't taken that friend group trip to New York yet, and that's fine. I'll get to it eventually. Read the original article on Business Insider Gov Jim Justice's Chief of Staff Brian Abraham held a press briefing on Thursday, June 6, 2024 to discuss findings in an investigation into a teen's death in Boone County. Department of Human Services Secretary Cynthia Persily, West Virginia State Superintendent of Schools Michele Blatt and West Virginia State Police Chief of Staff Maj. James Mitchell also attended to answer questions. (Office of the Gov. Jim Justice | Courtesy photo) The governors administration admitted on Thursday that it mishandled communication surrounding the high-profile death of 14-year-old Kyneddi Miller. In response, state agencies vowed to make improvements that could prevent future tragedies. Possible changes include beefing up homeschool laws as the girl was removed from public school prior to her death. Kyneddis mother, who is facing felony child neglect charges, hadnt turned in the required homeschool assessments to the local school district that could have prompted someone to check in on the child. If you want to say, What do we think is a fail in terms of what do we see and what do we need to fix? I think this is a fail that we need to see what we can do, said Brian Abraham, Gov. Jim Justices chief of staff. Kyneddi was found in a skeletal state on the bathroom floor of her Boone County home in April. Two grandparents have also been charged related to the girls death. West Virginia State Police shared a document and audio saying that they made a referral to a local Child Protective Services office about the girl in March 2023, and a GPS tracker verified that his cruiser traveled there. CPS, which has been overwhelmed in the states foster care crisis, said there was no record of the referral. The discrepancies in stories, along with state leaders stonewalling and combative response to media questions about the case, led up to a press conference at the state Capitol attended by Abraham along with representatives from the state police, the Department of Human Services, the state Department of Education and the governors administration. Justice was absent from the event. Abraham pushed back on the assertion that there had been any cover up on the administrations part in the case. He explained to reporters that the administration had shared information that wasnt 100% accurate because of ongoing media questions to the governor about Millers death. From a political perspective in the governors office, we would wish that we could be more forthcoming. Because, I think as you get to the bottom of this and hear more information, a lot of your concerns will be dissuaded, Abraham said. He conducted an investigation, which included interviews with the troopers and CPS workers who could have had knowledge of the case. A formal report was not made available to the media. Among his findings, Abraham shared that West Virginia State Police troopers didnt have any reason to report abuse and neglect when they visited Kyneddi at her home in 2023. Its the representation of both troopers that she was in good health, she was unharmed, that she was not in any way malnourished, or did she display any aches about any abuse or neglect, he said. They did not intend to make a report or referral of that to DoHS. He added that he did believe the troopers went to the local DoHS office to make informal contact with CPS about concerns for Kyneddis mental health. The girl had shared with troopers about her fear of being around people due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, he said. Its our belief that state police went there and made this informal disclosure. That disclosure, again, was not a referral for abuse and neglect. [It] would never have resulted in an investigation and would have, in my belief, not affected what happened this year, Abraham said. Despite that knowledge, Abraham said local CPS workers had no memory of the trooper making the referral. Additionally, an office security system showed no record of troopers entering the building. The state has records of two prior CPS referrals involving Kyneddis family one from 2009 and another made in 2017. DoHS Secretary Cynthia Persily previously said that those referrals had nothing to do with the death of this young lady. Abraham, a former prosecutor, emphasized that neither of those two referrals contained any information that Kyneddi had been subjected to abuse or neglect. He added that, in his opinion, there was a nuance in the 2017 referral where allegations made against the adult which were unfounded at the time that could have been substantiated and followed up on that directly involved Kyneddi. Through an attorney, West Virginia Watch sought copies of those referrals through the Freedom of Information Act; DoHS has not yet turned over responsive records. State schools leader, Senate president call for look at homeschooling rules Abraham also pointed to missed steps in the local school system, as Kyneddis mother, Julie Anne Stone Miller, didnt turn in homeschool assessments required under state education law. Miller began homeschooling Kyneddi in 2021. A FOIA request to Boone County Schools revealed that Miller never submitted assessments showing Kyneddis progress. The assessments can be used by a local truancy officer to raise concerns about the childs status, but school districts arent required to follow up on the missing documentation. If you dont do the assessment, you can be terminated from the home school, he said. Theres a possibility that there might have been some court conviction that might at least have had contact with her in between 2023 when the trigger was there, and in 2024 when they found her. State Superintendent of Schools Michele Blatt said theyre looking at strengthening the guardrails around homeschool requirements. I think that our 7,000 foster kids in the system is proof that not all parents do what's best for children. Michele Blatt, West Virginia state superintendent of schools While we know that we have a great deal of homeschool parents that do things the right way to take care of their kids and its the best choice for those families, I think that our 7,000 foster kids in the system is proof that not all parents do whats best for children, she said. And, during the pandemic, our biggest concern was that we did not have eyes on some of these students for every year. The states Republican-heavy legislature, which has strongly backed school choice, would have to approve changes to homeschool laws. Earlier this year, lawmakers failed to pass an amendment that would have paused or potentially denied a parents request to homeschool if a teacher has reported suspected child abuse. Known as Raylees Law, the bill was named for an eight-year-old girl who died of abuse and neglect in 2018 after her parents withdrew her from school. Senate President Craig Blair said in a statement that Kyneddis story has highlighted that our current system of checks and balances has cracks. What has become apparent above everything else is that this child was failed by her local network of safety nets. Through a series of circumstances, she became lost in the system, and she tragically lost her life. As legislators, we have an obligation to protect our most vulnerable citizens, especially our children, said Blair, R-Berkeley. We will work with the governors office, the Department of Education, DoHS and the state police to discuss ways that we, legislatively, can improve our regulations related to homeschooled children to ensure that no children suffer this same outcome. DoHS developing a new referral process Abramam encouraged mandated reporters, including police, to make all referrals through the Centralized Intake for Abuse and Neglect hotline, which can keep a record of referrals. Centralized Intake, the WV Child Abuse Hotline number, is 1-800-352-6513. Additionally, Persily said the department is developing a differentiating response system for referrals that dont meet the statutory requirements for abuse of neglect but still involve a child in need of help. Right now, the state can only screen out those calls. There is this middle area, and I will tell you that most often thats related to poverty, and we do not equate poverty with abuse and neglect, she explained. The system would allow DoHS to better connect families with local support centers for assistance. Abraham also addressed allegations made Wednesday by Millers attorneys that her constitutional rights were violated when a CPS investigator attempted to interrogate her earlier in the week as part of the states investigation. Her lawyers were not contacted or present for the questioning. Abraham explained that a DoHS employee went to the jail to close out the file involving Miller. Its been alleged in the court pleadings that that worker concealed their identity and made reference to themselves as a lawyer. That is inaccurate, he said. Now, I cant find the words to explain how incredibly, in my mind, stupid it was for that worker, to go to that facility and try to interview that person, given what were doing here today, and given the fact that they have been in the governors office, as recently as last Friday being interviewed about this, he continued. Abraham emphasized to reporters that the governors administration will no longer be answering questions about the ongoing criminal case. We will not be discussing anything about the criminal case. We never intended to, he said. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE The post Justice admin admits missteps, zeros in on beefing up homeschool laws following teens death appeared first on West Virginia Watch. Gov. Jim Justice said during his Friday, June 7, 2024 briefing that he might call a special session of the Legislature to tighten up homeschool reporting laws. (Perry Bennett | West Virginia Legislative Photography) Following the death of 14-year-old Kyneddi Miller, the governor and state lawmakers are pushing to bolster homeschool requirements in an effort to prevent future child deaths. Kyneddi, who was found in a skeletal state in April, was homeschooled beginning in 2021. Her family lived in Boone County. On Friday, Gov. Jim Justice said that he may call a special session that would focus on the issue. Were in discussion with the legislature, he said during a news conference. The homeschooling issue we probably need to find a way to tighten it. Thats an area we can [for] sure probably make things a little better. Senate President Craig Blair has already called on the Legislature to look at homeschool regulations. We must act quickly to ensure that something of this magnitude doesnt happen again, he said. Any bolstering of homeschool requirements could face an uphill battle in the Republican supermajority Legislature particularly in the House of Delegates as lawmakers have expanded school choice and approved financial assistance for families who homeschool. Del. Kathie Hess Crouse, R-Putnam Del. Kathie Hess Crouse, a homeschool educator and advocate, stressed that homeschool laws shouldnt be altered. More than anything, its the parent and the grandparents fault. I dont see what else we can do, said Crouse, R-Putnam. Child abuse and child neglect is already against the law. Kynnedis mother and grandparents are facing felony child neglect charges. Her mother hadnt turned in the required homeschool assessments to the local school district that could have prompted someone to check in on the child. Parents or legal guardians are required to submit to the county superintendent academic assessments of the homeschooled student at grade levels three, five, eight, and 11. If documentation isnt submitted, state education law permits but does not require local school districts to take action against the family. I do believe that the actual following up on our homeschool kids is more of an issue than specific homeschool law, Justice said. I think this is still in its infancy, and we need to do more work with the Legislature to see how we can tighten up some things to insure that maybe just nothing will happen like this again. West Virginia has high rate of child abuse West Virginia has one of the nations highest rates of child abuse, and the states foster care system has been overburdened largely with abuse and neglect cases. Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Amy Grady, a public school teacher, said the states mostly rural areas can make it difficult for people to find abused or neglected children who have been pulled from public schools. Teachers and school personnel are required to report suspected child abuse and neglect to Child Protective Services. Its very easy for these families in these rural areas to pull their child and abuse them and there not be eyes on them, she said. West Virginia State Superintendent of Schools Michele Blatt said she was looking at strengthening homeschooling guardrails, but would need the support of the Legislature to make those changes. Grady said, We dont want to take rights away from parents, and I completely support school choice. I hope whatever we do solves the problem the best we can and lets homeschool parents know were not attacking you. Were just trying to protect kids who dont have good parents. I dont know if we can find that balance, but I hope we can. Blair, in a statement on Thursday, asked the House of Delegates to sit down with us as we start working toward these plans to improve regulations related to homeschooled children. I hope whatever we do solves the problem the best we can and lets homeschool parents know were not attacking you. Were just trying to protect kids who dont have good parents. I dont know if we can find that balance, but I hope we can. Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason House members, particularly, have been adamant about protecting the right to homeschool with limited government intervention. Several delegates currently homeschool their children. I think it will have a harder time in the House, Grady said. House Spokesperson Ann Ali said in a statement that Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, often says every bill is important to somebody, and he also believes not every problem within the state is the Legislatures to fix. She continued, He is always open to meaningful legislative proposals that lead to a majority of Delegates agreeing that the change they work through the legislative process is necessary to improve safety and education for its residents. Crouse said the school system was largely to blame for not following up on Kyneddis education. Homeschool laws shouldnt be altered as a result, she stressed, noting that there are nearly 30,000 homeschool students in West Virginia. We already have laws on the books, and the school system chose not to take them to court, said Crouse, R-Putnam. How are you going to do anything? She also said there were CPS failures in Kyneddis case. In 2023, state troopers visited the Boone County CPS office to make an in-person referral about concerns for Kyneddis mental health. The Justice administration has verified the troopers car went to the office, but CPS doesnt have verification of the troopers entering the building and the referral cannot be located in their system. Additionally, the state has records of CPS referrals in 2009 and 2017 that involved Kyneddis family. The secretary of the Department of Human Services said that those referrals were not connected to Kyneddis death. Del. Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio I am surprised that they totally absolved CPS and [Boone County Schools] of any issues and that none of that appeared to be their fault, Crouse said. I knew they were going to go after homeschooling, and this was one of the ways they could go after school choice. In February, the House approved a bill amendment known as Raylees Law that would have paused or potentially denied a parents request to homeschool if a teacher has reported suspected child abuse. The bill failed to be taken up in the Senate. The legislation, championed for years by Del. Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, was named for an eight-year-old girl who died of abuse and neglect in 2018 after her parents withdrew her from school to homeschool. Raylees Law finally made it out of the House after years of trying and the Senate would not even put it on the agenda, Fluharty said. The governors office has been silent this entire time while story after story reveals a broken system begging for leaders to step up. Im tired of the press conferences, we need actual policy. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE The post Justice, lawmakers focus on tightening homeschool reporting laws following Kyneddi Millers death appeared first on West Virginia Watch. New Kansas political party wants to change how you vote. Can they get around the ban? 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. Imagine walking into the voting booth and looking at the ballot. One candidates name is listed twice in the race for state representative once as a Republican or Democrat and once as a third-party candidate. Kansas law prohibits this scenario, but its exactly what United Kansas, a new political party, wants to achieve. If the party succeeds, it could upend Kansas elections, challenging decades of Republican dominance in state legislative elections and undermining the power of conservatives to send their candidates to Topeka over the opposition of moderates and Democrats. Its a big if. United Kansas, recognized last month by the Kansas Secretary of States Office, has nominated five candidates for the 2024 general election two candidates for state representative, one for state senator and two for Leavenworth County Commission. All three state legislative candidates are also running in a major party primary, two as a Democrat and one as a Republican. Under United Kansas plan, those candidates would appear on the November ballot twice if they win their major party primary in August. On one line, they would be listed as a Republican or Democrat and on a second line as a United Kansas candidate. Voters could still only vote one time. The votes the candidates receive from both ballot lines would be combined for their total. Like every other election, whichever candidate has the most votes wins. But Kansas law prohibits any persons name from appearing more than once on a general election ballot, with small exceptions for special elections and races for party precinct positions. United Kansas leaders are readying themselves for a legal confrontation over the ban their supporters will argue the restrictions violate voters constitutional rights even as the party signals its uncertain how state officials will react. We need to be prepared for that and we are prepared, Jack Curtis, the United Kansas chair, said. The idea at the core of United Kansas, called fusion voting, has a long history in the United States. Sometimes called cross nomination or multi-party nomination, it was once a common part of politics, especially prior to the 20th century. Today it is widely practiced in New York but few other areas. Before the Republican and Democratic parties achieved the near-total dominance they enjoy today, smaller parties would often team up to jointly nominate a single candidate or give their ballot line to a major party candidate. Fusion voting allowed smaller parties and the voters they represented to still influence election outcomes even when they were unlikely to win elections outright. Most states have since banned or heavily restricted fusion voting, part of a backlash to progressive and populist-era politics. The Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature passed an anti-fusion law in 1901, part of its fight against Populist and fusionist candidates in the years following the 1893 legislative war when Populists took armed control of the Kansas House. Modern fusion voting supporters say it exerts a moderating effect on elections. Voters who have a difficult time casting their ballot for a Democrat or Republican candidate may be more likely to vote for that person under a third-party ballot line. And candidates elected with the help of fusion votes know they must pay attention to the concerns of fusion voters to continue enjoying their support. At a time of sharp polarization, fusion voting offers a way for voters to push back against candidates on the ideological fringes, supporters say. United Kansas says it wants to break the two-party doom loop and encourage political coalitions and compromise. It doesnt take a degree in political science to know that there is a mess and it is not working as effectively as it should be. Theres always a better way, said Curtis, who leads the new party along with Sally Cauble, a former Republican member of the Kansas State Board of Education, and Aaron Estabrook, a former Manhattan city commissioner. A voter cast their ballot into a voting machine at Asbury United Methodist Church on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023, in Prairie Village. Test the waters Kansas law poses major obstacles. Modern state statutes contain several provisions that prevent fusion voting, including a requirement that no candidate may accept more than one party nomination. Asked how Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab will handle the United Kansas nominations, spokesperson Whitney Tempel pointed to KSA 25-306e the state law that limits candidates to one party nomination. If candidates are nominated by multiple parties, they have one week to decide which one to accept; if they dont choose, Schwab chooses for them. At this point, none of United Kansas candidates have technically been nominated twice. They include Rep. Jason Probst, a Hutchinson Democrat; Lori Blake, an Assaria Democrat; and J.C. Moore, a Republican challenging Republican Sen. Chase Blasi of Wichita. Probst and Blake have no Democratic opponents, and barring an unforeseen event appear set to test the Kansas ban on fusion candidates after they formally win their party primaries in August. Kansas law prohibits someone from accepting two nominations for the same office. Blake said the potential legal issues surrounding the United Kansas effort were a concern but that she ultimately agreed to be nominated by United Kansas. I think sometimes in order to make change, we have to test the waters. If thats where it goes, I will be a part of that, Blake said of a legal challenge. Probst said he agreed to allow United Kansas to nominate him after speaking with individuals from the party several months ago. Theres a lot of people, particularly west of me, who would be really good in government, who would be good representatives and could do some good things. They cannot get through a Republican primary. Same thing can be said in some Democratic areas, Probst said. By way of example, Probst mentioned Steve Morris, a moderate Hugton Republican who was the Kansas Senate president from 2005 to early 2013. Morris was defeated in the 2012 Republican primary by a conservative challenger, part of a larger effort by then-Gov. Sam Brownback and other conservatives that year to oust moderates. I think our primary system is really widening the divide and I think we could create an alternative in some areas where thats the case where theres nothing to choose from but a Republican primary or a Democratic primary and we can provide another option for people who might be a better option for the community and the state, Im willing to support that, Probst said. Rep. Jason Probst, a Hutchinson Democrat. Legal challenge likely Whoever sues to challenge Kansas law whether United Kansas, a candidate or a voter will likely argue the restrictions violate rights to free speech and association. A third party is fighting an anti-fusion law in New Jersey on similar grounds. The Kansas Constitution says all political power is inherent in the people, that all persons may freely speak and that the people have a right to assemble peaceably. Beau Tremitiere, counsel at Protect Democracy, a group that aims to defend American democracy against authoritarianism, said modern litigation surrounding fusion voting has often centered on the right to association. Protect Democracy, which supports fusion voting, has been in communication with proponents of fusion voting in Kansas. It really just gets to the heart of can a group of people work together in pursuit of their goals can they name the person who best represents their interests? Tremitiere said. Few things are as central to that right as being able to name who your standard-bearer is. A successful challenge to Kansas anti-fusion laws would likely require convincing the state Supreme Court not a federal court to overturn the ban. The U.S. Supreme in 1997 affirmed the power of states to restrict fusion voting, upholding a Minnesota law that prevents candidates from appearing on more than one partys ballot. In the 6-3 decision, the high court found the state law didnt violate federal rights to association. The Kansas Supreme Court has shown a willingness to interpret the state constitution to provide additional or stronger rights than those guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. In 2019, the court ruled that the state constitution protects bodily autonomy, securing the right to abortion at the state level just three years before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Still, the Kansas Supreme Court last month ruled that voting is not a fundamental right. Of course, the GOP-controlled Legislature could repeal the states anti-fusion laws, but theres no indication thats imminent. Kansas Republican Party chair Mike Brown didnt respond to a request for comment about United Kansas. Kansas Democratic Party chair Jeanna Repass said the party puts its full support, faith and effort behind Democratic candidates. The party is heavily focused this year on ending Republican supermajority control in the Legislature, which would prevent Republicans from unilaterally overriding vetoes from Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly during her final two years in office. We dont have a comment about any other parties, Repass said, adding that our goal is to elect as many declared Democrats as possible. Moore, the United Kansas candidate whos challenging a sitting state senator in the GOP primary, said he agrees with the new partys aim of bringing the state toward the middle. Moore, who calls himself a moderate Republican, previously served one term in the Kansas House, in 2019 and 2020. I think most Kansans are very moderate in their views, Moore said, And the Legislature advances to the tune of the money, basically. LENEXA, Kan. (WDAF) A few months after 160,000 Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, Charles Staubus would arrive in France himself with the U.S. Armys 82nd Airborne Division. When I first got to France, they took me to a large tent full of uniforms and said the people who had these are all dead. Any that you like you can have, Staubus said Thursday, remarking on the invasion in which 2,501 Americans gave their lives. But D-Day and Operation Overlord was a turning point in the war over a Nazi-occupied France and in liberating Western Europe. By the end of April 1945, Staubus was in Berchtesgaden, Germany, home of Adolph Hitlers Eagles Nest and his other office at what was known as the Little Reich Chancellery, headed by Hans Lammers. After Hitler committed suicide and German soldiers began to flee, Staubus said he spent the night in Lammers office. I picked the lock on his desk. The one thing he had left on his desk was this: a seating diagram for all the top Nazis, Staubus said, pointing to the 1938 document laid out on his bed in a Lenexa assisted living facility. World leaders and veterans commemorate D-Day And inside Hitlers office he found something else hes held onto for 79 years: Hitlers personal stationery with Der Fuhrer stamped upon it. I lifted this lid. It was like a hope chest. There it was, half-full, he smiled. There were only two sheets of that, one of them I kept for my copies, and the other one I wrote my dad a letter on and told them the war was over. The first words of that letter, dated May 8, 1945, on Hitlers own stationery, read, Dear Dad, Well this is it, V.E. Day. Nexstars WDAF asked the World War II Veteran, who is just three months from his 100th birthday, if he ever informed the U.S. Army of what he took home or, in his words, liberated as a memento. They didnt know a thing about it, he said. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. Nearly 13 years after he reported his fiancee missing, John Carter has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of Katelyn Markham, a 21-year-old art student just weeks away from graduation. Here's a timeline of the case. Aug. 13, 2011: Katelyn Markham was last seen on this date, a Saturday, just a few days shy of her 22nd birthday. Katelyn Markham of Fairfield disappeared in 2011 and her remains were found 20 months later by a couple looking for aluminum cans near an Indiana creek. Her fiance, John Carter, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter Friday in her death. Aug. 14, 2011: Markham's fiance, John Carter, reported her missing. He said he'd last seen Markham at nearly midnight when he left her alone in her Fairfield townhome. Carter said the two exchanged a few texts but by morning, Markham had quit responding. Aug. 15, 2011: Markham failed to show up for her job at David's Bridal. That evening, Carter said he went by her house and saw her car and dog but she and her cellphone were missing. Police and volunteers launched search parties that worked on and off for months looking for her. April 7, 2013: Skeletal remains were discovered near a creek in a wooded area in Cedar Grove, Indiana. April 10, 2013: Officials confirmed that the Indiana remains were those of Markham. She'd been identified using dental-record comparisons. The cause of death was not discernible from the remains. Aug. 13, 2013: The coroner for Franklin County, Indiana, Wanda Lee, ruled Markham's death a homicide, despite being unable to determine the cause of death. Aug. 25, 2013: Markham's family held a visitation and funeral service at the Fairfield High School Auditorium. April 2014: Fairfield Police told the Hamilton Journal-News that a new tip had come in from a "validated source." Soon after, additional remains belonging to Markham were discovered in the same Cedar Grove location. 2015: Dave Markham, Katelyn Markham's father, successfully lobbied the Butler County Sheriff's Office to reexamine the case. After months of investigation, the department announced they had a suspect in Markham's death but not enough evidence to move forward with the case. August 2016: A documentary titled "Taken Too Soon: The Katelyn Markham Story" was shown at a Springdale movie theater in hopes of drumming up new leads. January 2017: A private investigator hired to investigate Markham's case released his findings in a podcast titled "Gone at 21." In it, J. Ryan Green was critical of Fairfield and Butler County officials' slow work on the case. June 2020: Markham's death was featured on "Still a Mystery" on the Discovery ID network. Feb. 17, 2023: Butler County prosecutors announced the arrest of Jonathan Palmerton, then 35, in relation to the case. Palmerton was a friend of Carter's. He was charged with perjury for allegedly lying in connection with the investigation. March 22, 2023: John Carter, Markham's fiance, was arrested and charged with her murder. On March 13, a grand jury had indicted him. That indictment was unsealed 10 days later. March 27, 2023: Carter was arraigned for murder in Butler County Common Pleas Court. April 3, 2023: Carter posted his $1 million surety bond, allowing him to go home under GPS monitoring as he awaited trial in the case. April 25, 2023: Officials unsealed search warrants that pointed to circumstantial evidence implicating Carter, including computer data, witness statements and cellphone records. May 2, 2023: Butler County prosecutors dismissed perjury charges against Palmerton. April 2024: Butler County prosecutors submitted another supplemental evidence list that included an Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation evidence submission sheet, a lab report and the report for Markham's MacBook. They also submitted dozens of subpoenas for people expected to testify at the trial, which was scheduled to begin in June. June 7, 2024: Weeks before his trial was set to begin, Carter admitted guilt in causing Markham's death. In exchange for his plea to involuntary manslaughter, the two murder charges he'd previously faced were dropped. Sentencing is set for July 18. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: A timeline leading to John Carter's plea in Katelyn Markham slaying On Thursday night, a clip of Kellyanne Conway began to circulate on social media, in which she uses a segment of Fox News to rewrite history, painting a picture of Donald Trump as someone who took a more graceful stance when it came to the treatment of Hillary Clinton in the prime of the "lock her up" era. "This is the new narrative by all the lemmings in the mainstream media this week . . . Trump wants revenge and vengeance," Conway says during the broadcast. "He's the one who's had that visited upon him. And if you need any evidence, look no further than how he just stood down in any kind of prosecution of Hillary Clinton, and retribution after he beat her fairly and squarely and racked up 304 electoral votes in 2016. Many people said 'Lock her up.'" Trump sang this same remix himself during an interview with Fox & Friends on Sunday, in which he denied ever saying "Lock her up" while speaking to co-host Will Cain on the subject. "Hillary Clinton I didnt say, Lock her up, but the people would all say, Lock her up, lock her up. OK. Then we won, and I said pretty openly, Id say, Alright, come on, just relax. Lets go. We gotta make our country great." Of course, there is quite a bit of evidence to the contrary. And to cite more recent evidence that would point to Trump very much having an interest in revenge, he posted a rant to Truth Social on this very day, calling for members of the Jan. 6 committee to be indicted. "It is a Total and Complete American Tragedy that the Crooked Joe Biden Department of Injustice is so desperate to jail Steve Bannon, and every other Republican, for that matter, for not SUBMITTING to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, made up of all Democrats, and two CRAZED FORMER REPUBLICAN LUNATICS, Cryin Adam Kinzinger, and Liz 'Out of Her Mind,' Cheney," Trump writes. "It has been irrefutably proven that it was the Unselects who committed actual crimes when they deleted and destroyed all material evidence, in a pathetic attempt to protect Crazy Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats from the TRUTH THAT I DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG. The unAmerican Weaponization of our Law Enforcement has reached levels of Illegality never thought possible before. INDICT THE UNSELECT J6 COMMITTEE FOR ILLEGALLY DELETING AND DESTROYING ALL OF THEIR 'FINDINGS!' MAGA2024." Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Indianola, Iowa, Jan. 24, 2024, on the eve of the Iowa caucuses. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) When U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell voted not to convict Donald Trump of impeachment for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection, which he nevertheless blamed on Trump, he excused himself in part by saying We have a criminal justice system in this country. The Senate Republican leader was surely not thinking about the $130,000 in hush money the president paid a porn star to help his 2016 election chances, which led to Trumps May 30 conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records judged to be felonies because they facilitated another crime, election interference. It was the weakest and least significant of the four criminal cases against Trump, and the verdict may be overturned on appeal; the election-interference crimes werent specified. But no other cases are likely to be tried before the Nov. 5 election, so Republicans are using the curiosities of the case to delegitimize the verdict of the jury a linchpin of our system of government. They avoid direct attacks on the jury, blaming the judge and the prosecutors. But when they say such things as judges, investigators and prosecutors . . . misled the jury, as 4th District Rep. Thomas Massie did on X, they impugn the intelligence of the jury, which included two lawyers and people who get their news from a wide range of sources. And they are, with little evidence, undermining public trust in our courts. Sixth District U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, a lawyer who knows better, called it a sham trial. Second District Rep. Brett Guthrie, a former Army officer who should know better, called it a kangaroo court. They didnt hear the case; the jury did. McConnell was circumspect, saying These charges never should have been brought. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, state Attorney General Russell Coleman and U.S. Reps. James Comer of the 1st District and Hal Rogers of the 5th District, a former prosecutor, called the case political. Republicans attacks on that system are the purest form of cynicism: a belief that everyone always acts in their own self-interest. The attacks are right in tune with Trumps siren song to cynical voters, that our whole system is corrupt and nothing is on the level so hes the one you should trust. Autocrats have been selling that sewage for centuries, and sometimes millions of people join their cults. Sadly, that is what we see in our country today. Theres no real proof of that. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is a Democrat who, like most prosecutors, is elected on a partisan basis. Prosecutors are supposed to be advocates, and while Braggs theory of making it a felony case looked like a stretch, he had a mountain of facts to prove the charges. And an appellate court rejected Trumps attempts to disqualify the judge for alleged conflicts. Yes, the judge made $35 in anti-Trump political donations, but he swore an oath to render impartial justice, and so did the jurors. Republicans attacks on that system are the purest form of cynicism: a belief that everyone always acts in their own self-interest. And the attacks are right in tune with Trumps siren song to cynical voters, that our whole system is corrupt and nothing is on the level so hes the one you should trust. Autocrats have been selling that sewage for centuries, and sometimes millions of people join their cults. Sadly, that is what we see in our country today. The cases details take some explaining, so some persuadable voters will be steered by the simple but vociferous arguments of Trumps defenders. It seems that an outrageous proposition electing a convicted felon who faces even more serious charges in three other jurisdictions calls for a defense full of outrage. The basic fact of the case is Trump did everything he was accused of, and as conservative commentator David French said, The underlying facts of the case here should be totally disqualifying for any presidential candidate ever. That is also true of the other cases (about the insurrection, election interference and secret documents), which have much stronger facts that make convictions likely if they ever come to trial. The election of Trump could prevent that, and cause more injustice. Hes already said he would use the government to wreak revenge on his enemies; allegations that Biden is doing that to Trump are completely unproven, and his own Justice Department is trying his son! But Trump has long run on lies, the biggest one being that he was defrauded in 2020, and now Republicans facilitate those lies because his election chances will be the biggest factor in their partys election performance (thats McConnells rationale as party leader); Trump may become president again, and has made clear he will help friends and punish enemies; and even if he doesnt win, apostates could suffer bad consequences because hes primed for revenge and has a firm grip on most Republican voters. So, as disappointing as the reactions of leading Kentucky Republicans are, they are understandable if you think cynically, that they are acting purely in their own political interests. So much for the national interest, and for the moral high ground. As conservative commentator David Brooks says, moral character was once a pillar of American conservatism, and Character is destiny, and if private virtue falls apart, the public order collapses. Danger lies before us. This column is republished from the Northern Kentucky Tribune, a nonprofit publication of the Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism. A pro-Trump demonstrator who gave his name as Hungry Santa outside Manhattan Criminal Court on April 15, 2024. (Photo by Zachary Roth/States Newsroom) The post Kentucky Republicans help Trump tear down the system appeared first on Kentucky Lantern. (ECNS) -- The human rights situation in the United States continued to deteriorate in 2023. U.S. gun violence has spilled over, while the government's control policies are ineffective, according to the Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2023 released by the State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China. Gun violence in the U.S. takes a terrible toll on human lives, and vicious political party infighting leads to difficulties in achieving consensus on gun control, the report said. The U.S. government has abused its power to monitor citizens' privacy, police violence has intensified, and the system of police accountability for law enforcement is in vain. Political polarization continues to intensify, election manipulation is rampant, and the credibility of the government continues to decline, it noted. Data shows that all types of gun violence are on the rise in the U.S. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there were at least 654 mass shootings in the country in 2023. Gun violence is responsible for nearly 43,000 deaths, an average of 117 per day. The proliferation of guns in the U.S. has led to the intensification of gun smuggling in neighboring countries, which has brought great harm to the lives of local people and regional stability, the report stressed. Mexican government figures show that more than half a million guns are smuggled into Mexico from the U.S. each year. More than 70 percent of guns seized at violent crime scenes in Mexico between 2014 and 2018 came from the U.S. According to a 2022 report by InSight Crime, the flow of illegal guns from the U.S. into the Caribbean has led to a rising murder rate in the region. According to a survey report released on the website of the Pew Research Center on June 28, 2023, gun violence is widely recognized as a major and growing national problem, with 58 percent of respondents in favor of stricter gun control laws and more than 60 percent of American adults believing that gun violence is a major national problem in the U.S. today. However, American politicians ignore the international community and the public call for gun control, only for money and political self-interest, so that the proliferation of guns in the country cannot be effectively controlled. CHENGDU, June 7 (Xinhua) -- More than 800,000 sturgeon bred in captivity were released into the upper reaches of the Yangtze River on Wednesday to revive the wild population of endangered Dabry's sturgeon. The release was conducted by the China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG) in the city of Yibin, southwest China's Sichuan Province. The Dabry's sturgeon, also known as the Yangtze sturgeon, is an endangered species under the top level of national protection in China. It was classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2010. The species' natural population has seen a sharp decrease since the 1980s, and it has not had the ability to breed naturally since 2000 due to dam construction, overfishing and crowded river. In an effort to restore the population of the rare species, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued the Yangtze River Sturgeon (Dabry's Sturgeon) Rescue Action Plan (2018-2035) in 2018. The Yangtze River Protection Law, China's first piece of legislation for a specific river basin, came into force on March 1, 2021, strengthening the protection of Dabry's sturgeon and other rare or endangered species. "The large-scale release of artificially bred sturgeon has supplemented the natural population of Dabry's sturgeon. The CTG will continue breeding Dabry's sturgeon seedlings and conduct more releases, and it will promote the restoration of the species' natural population," said Qu Huantao, who works at a CTG rare fish breeding base. Rep. Nima Kulkarni, D-Louisville, (LRC Public Information) Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Laurance B. VanMeter issued a one-page order Friday afternoon that said incumbent state Rep. Nima Kulkarni of Louisville is disqualified as a candidate in this Mays Democratic election for the 40th House district. Meanwhile, a Shelby County Circuit judge was waiting on the Supreme Court order in the Kulkarni case to determine how to handle a similar lawsuit filed against Democrat Richard Henderson, the first Black candidate to run for the state Houses 58th District. That seat is now held by Republican Jennifer Decker, director of the Operation Care store in Shelbyville. Shelby Circuit Judge Michelle Brummer, who held a hearing Friday morning on the Henderson case, had no immediate comment after the Supreme Court ruling on Kulkarni. The Supreme Court order in the Kulkarni case came one day after the states highest court held a hearing on her eligibility to run in the May primary election. She handily won the primary election and had no opposition for the November general election. VanMeters order said a majority of the court upholds the decision by the Kentucky Court of Appeals that Kulkarni should be disqualified from the race. He said the order was issued for benefit of the parties involved and that it will issue an opinion in due court. The court is scheduled to release several rulings next Thursday. It is not clear what will be done to make sure the Jefferson County district has a state representative for the next two years, beginning Jan. 1. A possible scenario is that with no candidates both political parties in the district will have to field candidates to run in a special election. Kulkarnis attorney, James Craig of Louisville, said she would be interested in that. So would Democrat Dennis Horlander, who lost to Kulkarni in the 2018 and 2020 Democratic primaries in he the 40th House District, said his attorney, Steven Megerle of Covington. Horlander filed the lawsuit challenging Kulkarnis eligibility. He said her candidacy papers had to be signed by two witnesses who are Democratic voters in the 40th District. At the time of signing, one witness was a registered Republican and changed her registration after the filing deadline. Kulkarni previously testified she thought the voter was a registered Democrat and only later became aware of the issue. Megerle said Kulkarni could not run in a special election for the seat because a new law approved by this years General Assembly House Bill 580 would make her ineligible because she is a disqualified candidate. The law says that disqualified or defeated primary candidates cannot be general election candidates unless there is a vacancy. I would urge her not to go down that route because it would be vigorously litigated, said Megerle. But Craig, Kulkarnis attorney, said he disagrees with Megerles interpretation of that election law. She would be eligible to be a candidate if there is a special election, he said. Shelby County eligibility case The candidacy eligibility case in Shelby County is similar to the Kulkarni case. Democratic House candidate Henderson was in Shelby Circuit Court Friday morning to fight legal challenges to remove him from the ballot because of alleged problems with his candidacy paperwork. Shelby County Judge-Executive Dan Ison, a Republican, and Democrat Janrose Stillwell, a Shelby County citizen, filed a lawsuit April 25 against Henderson, claiming the witness signatures for Hendersons candidacy papers were not proper. Shelby Circuit Judge Brummer, after a 25-minute hearing Friday, said she would wait on the Kentucky Supreme Court ruling on the Kulkarni case before handling the Henderson case. Jason Nemes, the Republican House Whip from Jefferson County and attorney for Ison and Stillwell, predicted that the judge would disqualify Henderson in light of the Supreme Court order. Hendersons attorney, Fielding Ballard of Shelbyville, said he wanted to see and review the Supreme Courts opinion before commenting. Henderson, an IT employee who had no opposition in the May Democratic primary election, faces Decker, who has been in office since Jan. 1, 20221, in the Nov. 5 general election. Ison, in a brief interview before the hearing, said Decker did not ask him to file the lawsuit. He said he was involved in a similar case years ago and decided that it was his duty as Shelby Countys top Republican official to challenge Hendersons papers. Ballard questioned that, saying Ison filed the lawsuit after Henderson handed out all his campaign cards at Shelbyvilles annual Dogwood Festival. In their lawsuit against Henderson, Ison and Stillwell claim Henderson violated the state law that requires a candidates notification petition to run to be signed by the candidate and by not less than two registered voters of the same party. Hendersons candidacy papers were not signed by a single registered Democratic voter, said the legal challenge against him. The lawsuit said Adam Muntzinger and Taunya Muntzinger, were the two citizens who signed Hendersons papers and both are registered Republicans in the district. The suit asks the court to find that Henderson is not a bona fide candidate for the state House and is ineligible for election to state representative. Nemes said the state Board of Election should strike his name from the November ballot. The board is to certify the ballots Aug. 4. Henderson, in a response to the court, denied the allegations and said the candidacy papers as filed were believed to be proper and sufficient when filed as the individuals signing them were believed to be registered voters of his party from all conversations and statements he had with them over the years. He asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit with prejudice and order that he be compensated for any costs and his attorney receive a reasonable fee. Ballard, Hendersons attorney, said the cases are similar but differ in that Henderson did not have a primary challenger while Kulkarni did, William Zeitz. According to unofficial results, Kulkarni took 78% of the vote in the 40th House District Democratic primary. No Republican candidates filed for the election. The post Kentucky Supreme Court disqualifies Kulkarni in state House race appeared first on Kentucky Lantern. Kentucky Supreme Court Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer The Kentucky Supreme Court has agreed to hear oral arguments in a case that could clarify how the states open records law covers public officials text messages. The court will review a Court of Appeals decision in a lawsuit between Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources Commission and nonprofit Kentucky Open Government Coalition. Last October, the appellate court ruled that messages on personal cell phones are public records when they are created or used by government officials for government business. In 2021, the coalition requested emails and text messages from current and former members of the commission. However, the commission did not furnish the records, prompting the coalition to file a complaint in Franklin County Circuit Court. There, a judge ruled that the emails concerning business of the Commission sent to or received via the Commission members private email accounts were public records but text messages concerning Commission business sent to or received on the Commission members private cell phones were not subject to disclosure. Amye Bensenhaver, a co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition, said the public has a right to know how public servants conduct business no matter if they are employees, volunteers or one of Kentuckys highest ranking officials. We have a right to know, she said. These are our records. Bensenhaver added that she doesnt think theres any question that legally we are on absolutely solid footing. As it is now, the Kentucky Open Records Act covers records in physically different formats, whether that be a written document or an electronic one. By and large, our courts have been very, very, very, very strong on open government and the rights invested in the public under the open records law, but we have new players on the court, she said. The Kentucky Open Records Act was created in 1976 and established the right to access public records. Public agencies subject to the law include a range of organizations and individuals, like small local government boards and large public universities. The lawsuit against Fish and Wildlife also inspired legislation that ultimately failed in the General Assembly this year. Open government advocates, including the Open Government Coalition, warned that House Bill 509 would add loopholes to the open records law for public officials to avoid disclosing public records on personal devices, such as text messages. The primary sponsor, Rep. John Hodgson, R-Fisherville, said the Court of Appeals decision prompted his bill and it was an attempt to modernize Kentuckys open records laws. The bill gained passage in the House, but died in the Senate during the final days of this years legislative session because it was not brought to the floor for a vote. Republican Senate President Robert Stivers told reporters at the time he had no doubt discussion about open records would come up during the interim session. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear also expressed support for the bill. He argued that it would have allowed more records to be disclosed by requiring that public officials have an agency email account that could be easily searched. Bensenhaver said the portions of the bill that would have prevented an agency from searching private accounts or devices and solely relying on agency-owned email accounts were problematic. It also does not matter how a record is created like an email or a text but the contents of the record that involve public business. We dont need to change our law, she said. Our law works until its misrepresented and lied about. A spokesperson for the Fish and Wildlife department did not immediately return a request for comment. Oral arguments have yet to be scheduled as of Friday. The post Kentucky Supreme Court to hear open records case against Fish and Wildlife commission appeared first on Kentucky Lantern. The Kentucky Supreme Court on Friday disqualified state Rep. Nima Kulkarni as a Democratic primary candidate less than three weeks after she won the primary. A majority of justices issued the decision Friday, adding that a full ruling will come later. The order was issued one day after the court heard oral arguments from both sides. Kulkarni, a Democratic immigration attorney from Louisville, won the May 21 primary for House District 40 and was seeking a fourth term. Though the path forward is still unclear without a full ruling yet, Kulkarnis side believes its likely that shell get another shot at re-election. Kulkarnis attorney, James Craig, told the Herald-Leader he anticipates the order will be just a speed bump on the way to Kulkarni getting sworn into office again. He mentioned the possibility of her winning her partys nomination in a special election or party nomination process. Her head is high, and she thinks theres still a path for her to be on the general election ballot even thought she was disqualified from the primary on a technical basis, Craig said. Dennis Horlander, a former state representative whom Kulkarni unseated in a 2018 primary, sued to remove Kulkarni from the ballot in March, claiming her candidacy was invalid because one of the required witnesses on her filing paperwork was a registered Republican when she signed the form. Horlanders attorney, Steven Megerle, sees things differently. He says because Kulkarni has been disqualified this cycle, she should not be a candidate in the general election to regain her seat. If Ms. Kulkarni does not honor and respect the decision of the Kentucky Supreme Court and the recently passed House Bill 580, we will vigorously do everything possible to prevent her from undermining the decision of the Kentucky Supreme Court, Megerle said. A week before the primary election last month, the Kentucky Court of Appeals unanimously sided with Horlander. Kulkarni immediately appealed to Kentuckys highest court, and justices quickly issued a two-page opinion that said the May 21 primary between Kulkarni and Democratic challenger William Zeitz could proceed as planned. This story may be updated. New Jersey businessman Jose Uribe testified Friday that he bribed Sen. Bob Menendez as part of a scheme to derail the prosecution of an associate and shield Uribe and his close friends and family from being dragged into a related investigation. Four weeks into the New Jersey Democrats corruption trial in Manhattan, prosecutors are attempting to piece together, through Uribe, what they have described as a sprawling scheme to trade Menendezs influence for cash, gold bars and luxury gifts. On Friday, Menendez turned in his seat to see Uribe enter the court, then watched attentively as the businessman, who is testifying under a cooperation agreement with the government after pleading guilty in March, told the court he had committed federal crimes, including bribery of a public official. Uribe named and identified Menendez as the person he bribed before describing in broad terms the template of his deal with the senator that allegedly involved giving Menendezs wife, Nadine, a Mercedes-Benz C300 convertible. I (agreed) with Nadine Menendez and other people to provide a car for Nadine in order to get the power and influence of Mr. Menendez, Uribe said, in order to help me get a better resolution for one of my associates who was being charged in a criminal matter and to stop and kill investigations that could lead to my daughter and family members. The Menendezes, along with New Jersey businessmen Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, are accused of engaging in bribery schemes and acting as foreign agents for the Egyptian government and assisting the government of Qatar. All four have pleaded not guilty. Nadine Menendez will be tried separately this summer. Uribes testimony Friday linked the Mercedes, one of the main alleged bribes, back to Nadine and Bob Menendez and offered insight into Hanas relationship with the couple. But it is not expected to shed much light on the inner workings of other alleged bribery schemes between Menendez and Hana to benefit the Egyptian and Qatari governments. Uribe in his testimony described a series of meetings and exchanges, some of them text messages presented to the jury, that connected a vast array of characters who had, before Friday, appeared to operate in separate orbits. The key initial discussion, though, appears to be one he had with co-defendant Hana a man Uribe described as being like a brother in the hallway outside the office of attorney Andy Aslanian in 2018. Uribe said he was discussing a mess of legal concerns with Aslanian, his lawyer, when Hana, who had been listening in, pulled him aside to offer a simple solution. I can make the investigations go away, Uribe said Hana told him. The particulars, he added, were murky, but Hana insisted that he was close to Menendez and, for between $200,000 and $250,000, could parlay the relationship into an arrangement that would as he repeatedly said stop and kill an ongoing criminal case that Uribe worried would soon lead investigators to his business and close associates. Menendez, who has sat impassively throughout four weeks of testimony, appeared to shake his head and shoot a derisive grin at his legal team when Uribe spoke about his yearslong relationship with Hana. We considered each other brothers, Uribe said, before implicating the Egyptian American businessman in a series of federal crimes and describing his friend as an aggressive, sometimes cloying middleman who promised Uribe and his associates more than he could deliver. Uribe, Hana, and business partners Elvis Parra and Bienvenido Hernandez eventually agreed to meet at a Marriott in Teaneck, New Jersey, where they gathered at the end of a hotel bar to hash out a plan. In substance, (Hana) confirmed to all of us that he has a way to make this investigation stop and kill(ed) if he received a sum of somewhere between $200,000 to $250,000, Uribe testified, adding that Hana namechecked Nadine and Bob Menendez at the meeting but did not specify how they would help. Uribe ended up arranging a 2018 campaign fundraiser for the senator, at Hanas suggestion, that he said pulled in about $50,000, $5,000 of which came from his own wallet. Menendez was up for reelection that year, when he won his most recent term. Menendez did not run in the Democratic primary for his seat this year but has filed to appear on the general election ballot on an independent line. The fundraiser yielded cash for Menendezs campaign and the kind of good vibes, including drinks and dancing at an afterparty with the senator and his wife, that Uribe said convinced him all was going to plan. He told his family and friends that their legal issues were all but resolved. My understanding was that the deal was in good terms, that what Wael has promised will have a good result, Uribe said, telling the court he was confident, in that moment, that this was going to work for all parties. But as prosecutors said in their opening statements and a handful of witnesses have testified since, this fast friendship quickly unraveled. A detective for the state Attorney Generals Office who had been poking around Uribes business, showed up at one point to interview Ana Peguero, a woman Uribe said he considered and frequently described on the stand as his daughter. Peguero was the agent of record at his brokerage, he testified. The same detective also traveled to Seattle, Uribe said, to speak to his son, who had moved there to attend law school. Uribes mood, as seen in text messages displayed by prosecutors, soured as the prosecution of Parra and the probe into his own associates continued apace. This was not a good time for me, Uribe said, repeating language from a text message he sent Hana in October 2018 that read I am f**ked man. After a series of failed attempts to jumpstart the arrangement with Hana, including a frustrating lunch with him, Bob and Nadine Menendez in which the deal was never discussed, Uribe said he decided to cut out what he viewed as a feckless middleman and contact Nadine, whose phone number he got from Aslanian. In their initial phone call in March 2019, Uribe said, Nadine put a line of complaints about how her life was not going well and that most men that had promised her things in the past never come through. Hana was one of them, Uribe said, testifying that Nadine was particularly upset that Hana had not provided a car that she wanted. Their concerns now aligned, Uribe said Nadine agreed to an arrangement along the lines he had previously drawn with Hana, now though in exchange for a new Mercedes. Uribe, who is scheduled to be sentenced later this month, left the courtroom without looking at any of the defendants, keeping his eyes trained on the double doors that marked the exit. Judge Sidney Stein halted the proceedings as business hours came to a close. Uribe will return to the stand and the trial will resume on Monday. Menendez, seated alone as the court began to clear out, looked down at the table in front of him and shook his head. He then stood up, straightened his coat, and left for the weekend. This story has been updated with additional information. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Kia is recalling more than 450,000 KIA Tellurides because over time there is an increasing risk of a fire while driving or while parked. The company said there is an issue with the power seats in the vehicles that can lead to them constantly running, ultimately to them catching fire. The flaw impacts certain models between 2020 and 2024. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is telling people who own the vehicles to park their vehicles outdoors and away from other vehicles or structures until the recall repair has been performed. If your vehicle is impacted, you should be receiving a recall notice in the mail. This is not the first time that KIA has had to recall some of their vehicles over a fire risk. In 2022, Channel 2 Action News reported that the company issued park outside orders for select vehicles including the 2014 to 2016 Kia Sportage, the 2016 to 2018 Kia K-900, and the 2016 to 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe because they would spontaneously burst into flames. RELATED NEWS: It happened to Ginger Evans 2020 Kia Soul. It caught fire just down the road from her Blue Ridge home. I think about just someones loved one having to die because of Kia, are they taking this seriously? Evans said. Many of the Kias and Hyundais rolled right off the line in Georgia at the dealers West Point factory. Kia and Hyundai agreed to pay $137 million in fines and for safety improvements because they moved too slowly to recall more than 1 million vehicles with engines that can fail. Although the cause of the sudden fires remains unknown, the manufacturers believe an electrical component in the anti-lock brake system may experience an internal electrical short circuit that could increase the risk of fire both while the vehicle is being driven and when it is parked. You can check if your car is impacted by the current recall by CLICKING HERE. RELATED NEWS: What to know in Manatee: Impact fee increases, Deer Park development heads to Parrish Manatee County commissioners are increasing county and school impact fees to help offset the impact of rapid residential growth, but one commissioner believes the county may be hindering itself by taking a moderate approach. Commissioners also took steps to replace transportation concurrency in the county comprehensive plan with a new fee structure, approved plans for a new development called Deer Park owned by the Neal family, and removed North Overlay District requirements from the Haval Farms development. More in Manatee: Manatee County approves new schools, and hires a new county attorney School impact fees set to increase in Manatee Commissioners unanimously approved a request by the School Board of Manatee County to increase impact fees on new residential development. School impact fees are assessed on new residential development to fund capital improvements such as construction of new schools or expansions, land purchases and buses to offset the toll of a growing population. More school news: Bradenton supports Manatee County-wide school zone speed limit cameras The School Board of Manatee commissioned a new impact fee study that was completed in May 2023. The study projects that residential development will generate 3,255 new elementary students, 1,438 middle school students, and 2,384 high school students over the next 10 years. It suggested a change in impact fee calculations from a set price per unit to a sliding scale based on the size of the home to meet demand. The district proposed a fee increase that will unfold over four years to $2,957 for a unit of 750 square feet or less, $5,253 for a unit between 751 to 1,000 square feet, $7,055 for a unit between 1,001 to 1,300 square feet, $8,377 for a unit between 1,301 and 1,700 square feet, $9,190 for a unit measuring 1,701 square feet or more. Manatee County set to increase Impact Fees The Manatee County administration building. Manatee County is increasing impact fees by 50% over four years, but Commissioner George Kruse argues the county could lose out on millions in funding by taking a tapered approach. The fee increase in question will take place over four years as prescribed by Florida statute, with a 12.5% increase slated per year, starting in January. Tuesday they held the first of two public hearings scheduled for the effort, and no vote was held. More: Manatee County sets plans to raise impact fees by 50% in motion Kruse pushed back on the tapered approach, but his argument was only supported by members of the community who spoke during public comment. State statute indicates that an impact fee may not exceed 50 percent of the current impact fee rate and that it may not be increased more than once every 4 years. The statute also allows local governments to exceed those limitations if a study indicates that there are extraordinary circumstances to do so. Kruse argued that the county should avail itself of that option given rapid development trends in the county. No other commissioner voiced support for his position and expressed fear of potential litigation from local developers. Concurrency no more, Manatee shifts to transportation impact fee plan Commissioners unanimously voted to transmit plans to the state that to remove transportation concurrency from the Manatee County comprehensive plan and replace it with a multimodal transportation funding system that assesses an impact fee. More: This week in Manatee: New pools for Premier and Bradenton convention center upgrades Concurrency requires local governments to ensure adequate road capacity is available concurrently with new development to offset any traffic impacts. The county is now moving forward with an Alternative Transportation System that uses a multimodal transportation impact fee to help fund necessary mobility improvements to accommodate new development. A final vote on the matter is expected in August. Deer Park development headed to Parrish This embedded content is not available in your region. Commissioners approved a general development plan for Neal family-owned development with 261 single-family homes called Deer Park. Deer Park is located on 87 acres of land on the north side of Buckeye Road, just east of Pritchard Road. The property was rezoned in 2008 as a part of a larger 322-acre project called Arbor Park Phase I, which included a preliminary site plan that has expired. Those plans include the construction of 703 single-family units, 80 multifamily units that will be designated as workforce housing, and 150,000 square feet of commercial space overall. The effort is the second project conducted under the Neal family's Simply Dwell Homes brand, which features homes priced between $299,000 to $415,000. North Central Overlay requirements removed from Haval Farms Commissioners approved a request by Haval Farms LLC to amend its general development plan to remove requirements related to the North Central Overlay, which was dissolved in April 2022. It also changed front yard setback requirements for homes with a front porch. The development calls for 3,842 residential units and 82,000 square feet of commercial space. This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Manatee County debates impact fees, approves more housing in Parrish Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen testifies before the U.S. House in an impeachment hearing for Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Jan. 10, 2024 (Committee webcast). Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen appears to have doubled down on his comments from a meeting in Dillon last month in which he told an audience that he had recruited a fellow Republican to run against him for attorney general so that he could raise more money. Those comments triggered a still ongoing investigation with the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices for violating state campaign and election laws, which Knudsen also described during that Dillon meeting as ridiculous. In a radio interview with KGEZ in Kalispell, Knudsen said that he wasnt trying to hide anything and meant to disclose his efforts to recruit an opponent as a demonstration of the states quite silly laws. Furthermore, he said he told the audience gathered to hear conservative candidates in Dillon about recruiting Daniels County Attorney Logan Olson so that he could be transparent. Olson, meanwhile, is under a separate but related investigation by the Commissioner of Political Practice because theres a question whether he lied on the paperwork he filed to run against Knudsen as a Republican candidate for attorney general, and whether he was even qualified to be on the ballot. Montana law requires a candidate for attorney general to have been practicing law for five years by the time of the election. Olson graduated from law school in 2020, but in paperwork filed in the investigation process at the COPP, Olson claims that part of his work as a law student at the University of Montana should qualify him under what is known as the student practice rule, which allows students to do limited work for courts and clients under the supervision of a practicing attorney. Knudsens campaign has repeatedly refused to answer questions or comment when contacted by the Daily Montanan. On Thursday, after the conclusion of Tuesdays primary election in which Knudsen defeated Olson, the states Republican attorney general said, I made a public statement that was recorded surreptitiously, but, I mean, thats fine. That happens. But yes, I was making a comment about our campaign finance laws in Montana. I happen to think that theyre quite silly the way that theyre structured. And I was making a comment about that. Yes. In speaking about the incident on radio, Knudsen now says that he was fine and even meant to go public about his efforts to recruit Olson. I was being completely transparent with the people in Montana, which doesnt often happen in these primaries. Lots of times a shadow opponent shows up in a primary, doesnt raise any money, doesnt do any work. No one bats an eye at this. So, yeah, theres nothing untoward here, Knudsen said. Knudsen has also said that he recruited Olson as a way to challenge some of Montanas campaign laws. I just happen to think that this system weve got in place, you know, where were youre encouraged to to to run against a sitting incumbent in order to let that incumbent raise more money. I happen to think thats pretty silly, Knudsen said on KGEZ. However, Knudsen was a longtime Republican lawmaker in the Montana Legislature before successfully running for attorney general. That tenure included four years, 2015 through 2019, as the Speaker of the House, with a majority of Republicans. That position has arguably the most influence on how legislation is prioritized and what topics get attention. Meanwhile, despite the allegations that he recruited Olson simply to raise more money, a number of residents voting on the Republican primary ballot on Tuesday supported the Flaxville-based attorney who works at the same law firm where Knudsen used to be employed. Still, despite not appearing to have campaigned, Olson took 18% of the vote against Knudsen, with the Montana Secretary of States Office showing Olson garnering 31,627 to Knudsens 146,740. https://dailymontanan.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/knudsen-kgez.m4a The post Knudsen calls Montanas campaign laws silly and says comments were proof of transparency appeared first on Daily Montanan. KSP searching for missing 8-month-old child after she wasnt found during welfare check Kentucky State Police is searching for a missing 8-month-old child who was not found during a welfare check. Miya Tucker, of Reynolds Station in Ohio County, was last suspected to be in the care of her parents, Cage Rudd and Tesla Tucker, KSP said. Rudd and Tucker were arrested and charged with abandonment of a minor after detectives couldnt locate Tucker during a welfare check. Miya Tucker has not been seen by the family since the end of April, according to arrest citations for Rudd and Tesla Tucker. KSP said Miya Tucker has brown hair and green eyes. Anyone with information about Miya Tuckers whereabouts are encouraged to contact KSP post 16 at (270) 826-3312. Law enforcement and Department for Community Based Services officials have been searching for Miya Tucker for the last week, according to court documents. Rudd and Tesla Tucker were found at a motel in Owensboro Wednesday with no information on the babys whereabouts and in possession of a large amount of drugs. Rudd faces additional charges of possession of fentanyl, possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to KSP. Tesla Tucker also has been charged with possession of fentanyl and possession of drug paraphernalia. State police said in an update Friday night that Tucker, 29, and Rudd, 30, are facing additional charges including first-degree child abuse, trafficking in a controlled substance (greater than two grams of methamphetamine), trafficking marijuana, trafficking of legend drugs and engaging in organized crime. Rudd and Tesla Tucker are being held at the Daviess County Detention Center, state police officials said. State police said another man, Ricky J. Smith, 56, of Reynolds Station, is also facing related charges, including abandonment of a minor, first-degree child abuse, first-degree trafficking in controlled substance (greater than 2 grams of methamphetamine), trafficking of legend drugs, engaging in organized crime, possession of a handgun by a convicted felon; possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and being a persistent felon. Herald-Leader staff writer Karla Ward contributed to this report. On the same day that millions of sensitive records purportedly stolen from the Los Angeles school district were posted for sale on the dark web, the Federal Communications Commission approved a $200 million pilot program to help K-12 schools and libraries nationwide fight an onslaught of cyberattacks. A Los Angeles Unified School District spokesperson confirmed theyre investigating a listing on a notorious dark web marketplace, posted Thursday by a user named The Satanic Cloud, which seeks $1,000 in exchange for what they claim is a trove of more than 24 million records. The development comes nearly two years after the district fell victim to a ransomware attack that led to a widespread leak of sensitive student records, some dating back years. Simultaneously, federal officials were citing that earlier ransomware attack in L.A. and subsequent breaches, with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel noting that theyve become a growing scourge for districts of all sizes. Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter School districts as large as Los Angeles Unified in California and as small as St. Landry Parish in Louisiana were the target of cyberattacks, Rosenworcel said, adding that these events lead to real-world learning disruptions and sometimes millions in district recovery costs. This situation is complex, but the vulnerabilities in the networks that we use in our nations schools and libraries are real and growing. So today, were going to do something about it, she said. The five-person FCC voted 3-2 to approve the pilot, which will provide firewalls and other cybersecurity services to eligible school districts and libraries over a three-year period. While the pilot aims to study how federal funds can be deployed to bolster the defenses of these vulnerable targets, some have criticized the initiative for being too little, too late. When Rosenworcel first outlined the proposal in July, education stakeholders demanded a more urgent and substantive federal response. Districts selected to participate in the newly approved pilot will receive a minimum of $15,000 for approved services and the commission aims to provide funding to as many schools and school districts as possible, it notes in a fact sheet. While the funding will not, by itself, be sufficient to fund all of the schools cybersecurity needs, the fact sheet notes, the commission seeks to ensure that each participating school will receive funding to prioritize implementation of solutions within one major technological category. A post on the BreachForums marketplace listed a trove of Los Angeles Unified School District records for sale for $1,000. (Screenshot) The Satanic Cloud, which posted the most recent batch of LAUSD data, told The 74 its entirely separate from what was stolen in the September 2022 ransomware attack on the nations second-largest school district. An executive at a leading threat intelligence company said his team suspects the data did originate from the earlier event. The Los Angeles district is aware of the threat actors claims, a spokesperson told The 74 in an email Thursday, and is investigating the claim and engaging with law enforcement to investigate and respond to the incident. Its definitely sensitive data In an investigation last year, The 74 found that thousands of L.A. students psychological evaluations had been leaked online after cybercriminals levied a ransomware attack on the system. The district had categorically denied that the mental health records had been compromised, but within hours of the story, acknowledged that they had. Just last month, a joint investigation by The 74 and The Acadiana Advocate revealed that officials at the 12,000-student St. Landry Parish School Board, located some 63 miles west of Baton Rouge, waited five months after a ransomware attack to inform data breach victims that their sensitive information had been compromised. The notice came after an earlier investigation by the news outlets uncovered that personally identifiable student, employee and business records had been exposed, despite the districts assertion otherwise, and that St. Landry had likely violated the states breath notification law. Within hours of the first story publishing, the Louisiana Attorney Generals Office issued a notification warning to the district. Related Louisiana School District Notifies Data Breach Victims After News Investigation The latest Los Angeles files were listed Thursday on the dark web marketplace BreachForums, an online outpost that was taken offline briefly last month after it came under the control of federal law enforcement officials. The Federal Bureau of Investigation first targeted BreachForums in March 2023 when it arrested the sites owner, 20-year-old Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, at his home in Peekskill, New York. At the time, BreachForums was among the largest hacker forums and claimed more than 340,000 users. A sample file included in the L. A. listing is a spreadsheet with the names, student identification numbers and other demographic information of more than 1,000 students and their parents. Data disclose students who receive special education services, their addresses and their home telephone numbers. A list of file names suggest the records include similar information about teachers. Reached for comment through the encrypted messaging app Telegram, the BreachForums user who listed the Los Angeles data told The 74 there is no connections to the previous ransomware attack. The breach, the threat actor said, originated via the Amazon Relational Database Service, which allows businesses to create cloud-based databases. The service has been the subject of previous hacks that led to the public disclosure of troves of sensitive information. Sign up for the School (in)Security newsletter. Get the most critical news and information about students' rights, safety and well-being delivered straight to your inbox. Kaustubh Medhe, the vice president of research and threat intelligence at the threat intelligence company Cyble, said the latest threat actor has a history of engaging in discussions about cryptocurrency scams on Telegram but this is the first time theyve sought to sell stolen data. Cybles research team, he told The 74, sees a high likelihood that the data was sourced from files exposed in the earlier ransomware attack. Historically, we have seen this kind of activity where old data leaks are recirculated on dark web forums by different actors, Medhe said. Either way, Medhe said its incumbent on district officials to take urgent action. The files, he said, could be useful for some kind of profiling or some kind of targeted phishing activity. Its definitely sensitive data, for sure, he said, adding that district officials should analyze the sample data set available online and confirm if the records align with their internal databases and, perhaps, those stolen in 2022. They would need to do a thorough incident response and investigation to rule out the possibility of a new breach. Related Trove of L.A. Students Mental Health Records Posted to Dark Web After Cyber Hack An important step forward During Thursdays FCC meeting, Commissioner Anna Gomez said the pilot program was an issue of educational equity. She cited a federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency report, which noted that as ransomware attacks and data breaches at K-12 districts have surged in the last decade, districts with limited cybersecurity capabilities and vast resource constraints have been left most vulnerable. Connectivity, she said, is essential for education in the 21st century. Technology and high-speed internet access opens doors and unbounded opportunity for those who have it, Gomez said. Unfortunately, our increasingly digital world also creates opportunities for malicious actors. Faced with a growing number of cyberattacks, educators have for years called on the FCC to provide cybersecurity resources with money from the federal E-rate program, which offers funding to most public schools and libraries nationwide to make broadband services more affordable. Its a move that more than 1,100 school districts endorsed in a joint 2022 letter but one the commission declined to adopt. In a press release, the commission said the pilot was kept separate to ensure gains in enhanced cybersecurity do not undermine E-rates success in connecting schools and libraries and promoting digital equity. The pilot will be allocated through the Universal Service Fund, which was created to subsidize telephone services for low-income households. In a letter to the commission last month, the American Library Association, Common Sense Media, the Consortium for School Networking and other groups said the selection process for eligible schools and libraries was unclear and could confuse applicants. On Thursday, the library association nonetheless expressed its support. The FCCs decision today to create a cybersecurity pilot is an important step forward for our nations libraries and library workers, too many of whom face escalating costs to secure their institutions systems and data, President Emily Drabinski said in a statement. We remain steadfast in our call for a long-term funding mechanism that will ensure libraries can continue to offer the access and information their communities rely on. Related New $200 Million FCC Proposal Could Help Schools Combat Cyber Attack Onslaught Among the pilot programs critics is school cybersecurity expert Doug Levin, who told The 74 that many school districts lack sufficient cybersecurity expertise and, as a result, the advanced tools that the pilot seeks to provide may not be a good fit for school systems with scarce capacity. Theres no argument that schools need support, said Levin, the co-founder and national director of the K12 Security Information eXchange. But the FCCs techno-solutions point of view to the problem, he said, is far too small to make a meaningful impact and could instead prompt a vendor marketing surge that may end up convincing some [schools] to buy solutions that, frankly, they dont need. An examinee claps hands with his teacher before entering a national college entrance examination site in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province, June 7, 2024. China's national college entrance examination, known as the Gaokao, started on Friday. (Xinhua/Zhang Nan) BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- With rain easing summer heat in Beijing on Friday morning, conditions were cool and fresh as tens of thousands of students made their way to venues to take China's 2024 national college entrance examination. Buses have been ordered to take detours and construction operations have been halted, as authorities implemented steps to avoid noise at the city's 105 entrance examination test sites during the four-day exam period, according to the municipal government's notice. On Friday, a total of 13.42 million young people across China began participating in this year's college entrance test, known as the gaokao. This number is a record high since matriculation resumed in China in 1977, and marks an increase of 510,000 students compared to last year, the Ministry of Education revealed. Wearing a red dress, Liu Jinhuan gave her daughter a big hug and then watched her walk towards a gaokao test site inside Beijing 101 Middle School in Haidian District in the northwest of the Chinese capital. "I chose this dress for an auspicious start on the first day of my daughter's exam. I believe taking the gaokao exam is quite an experience for young people like my daughter, preparing them to learn how to face future challenges in life," she said. The exam is considered crucial for young Chinese people, with results determining their university admissions and even shaping their career prospects. This year, the seven provincial-level regions of Heilongjiang, Gansu, Jilin, Anhui, Jiangxi, Guizhou and Guangxi have introduced changes to the exam. In addition to the unified national exam for the three major subjects, namely Chinese, mathematics and foreign language, students in these regions are allowed to choose between physics and history when taking the exam, and select two among the other four subjects -- ideology and politics, geography, chemistry and biology. Meanwhile in Beijing, following two days of the unified national exam for the three major subjects, students will need to take exams for three of the other six subjects -- ideology and politics, history, geography, physics, chemistry and biology. FAIR GAME China's college admission rate has seen a significant rise in recent years. Nonetheless, the gaokao, the largest exam of its kind in the world, is still widely recognized as one of the toughest college entrance exams globally. Although the pressure is intense, it is considered a fair game for those who study hard, rewarding them with good scores and access to the country's institutions of higher learning. The Chinese government and the whole society have shown great determination to ensure the fairness of the gaokao. Special provisions are in place for students with disabilities and other special needs, according to authorities. These include the creation of Braille exam papers for 15 visually impaired candidates across 11 provincial-level regions. Notably, support is available for over 11,000 candidates with disabilities this year. To ensure the fairness of the exam, police departments are targeting cheating in all forms, from providing exam papers or answers ahead of exams to relaying answers to students via wireless devices during exams. Those who cheat during the exam run the risk of being stripped of their college enrollment qualification prospects for a period ranging from one to three years. In south China's Guangdong Province, advanced technology including artificial intelligence is involved in checking for exam cheating. All examinees can only reach the test sites in Guangdong after passing two checks using detectors and another when passing through a security machine gate -- all of which are designed to detect electronic devices. Meanwhile, intelligent inspection systems are used to monitor exam venues in the province, where radio signal shielding equipment is also used to prevent cheating. SOCIAL SUPPORT Chinese society, renowned for valuing young people's education, is enthusiastically mobilized to give a helping hand to gaokao candidates. Outside the exam venue of Beijing 101 Middle School, traffic police appeared on the street as early as 6 a.m. on Friday to help smooth and reduce the flow of vehicles and pedestrians, as the school is located near the famous Summer Palace scenic spot as well as Tsinghua University and Peking University. Parents of examinees waited quietly outside the school, which has prepared beach umbrellas and benches on the sidewalk for them. In Shanghai, four major taxi dispatch centers started as early as June 1 to accept taxi bookings for students taking the exam. The public security department of Liaoning Province in northeast China has also been active in assisting students, setting up service booths at test sites to provide an on-site ID verification service in case gaokao candidates lose or damage their ID cards before the exam. In addition, police vehicles on street patrol make a point of assisting gaokao examinees in case of traffic congestion and other emergencies that may prevent them from taking the exam. Thankfully, gaokao is no longer the only option for young people in China seeking to pursue higher education. "I passed an enrollment exam at the Liaoning Rail Transit Vocational College in April to study mechanical manufacturing and automation," said Kang Yuhan, a high school senior in Liaoning. He feels the vocational college qualification will give him an advantage in securing better job prospects in the country's thriving railway sector. Higher vocational colleges, which are currently booming in China, make independent decisions concerning enrollment of students. Such enrollment tests took place ahead of the gaokao. In the manufacturing hub of Liaoning, a total of 54,000 high-school candidates were admitted to such vocational colleges in April 2024. Recent polls have revealed that a majority of Palestinian respondents, both on the West Bank and in Gaza, believe that the October 7 atrocities were a good idea. There could be no clearer illustration that creating a Palestinian state would be Jewish suicide. Next week, however, Labour is set to launch a manifesto committing to recognition of such a state over the heads of the Israelis. To mainstream voters, it makes little sense. People understand instinctively that rewarding the worst pogroms since the Holocaust with a push for Palestinian self-determination is an example to put it mildly of rewarding bad behaviour. If this is the result of October 7, surely Hamas will feel even more encouraged to do it again? Not that the terror group wants a state alongside Israel. Its intentions are too genocidal for that. But it pursues its true goal by forcing capitulation by increments. The asymmetric strategy of terror that unfolded on October 7 had two stages. First came the unprovoked, depraved atrocities against Israelis; then came the human sacrifice of the Palestinians, an attempt to brainwash the world into believing that this was a case of Jewish genocide rather than self-defence. Hamas knew that once the initial shock had passed, it could rely upon the UN, the keffiyeh-chic students on university campuses and the international Left to complete its propaganda goals. Today, Labour is facing mounting pressure from British Muslims to shift to an anti-Israel position, with Angela Rayner and John Ashworth both running against pro-Gaza candidates in their seats. Rayner was even caught on camera saying her party would recognise Palestine and rebuild Gaza . This was grubby electioneering, trading recognition of Palestine for Muslim votes. Do we really want such crucial foreign policy positions decided by the wishes of relatively small communities in Ashton-under-Lyne and Leicester South? The last time a unilateral move over Palestine was attempted was by Israel itself, which withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and handed the keys to the Palestinians. We all know how that ended: the creation of an enclave in public services and civilian buildings were bent towards the cult of death. Is there any reason to believe that replicating the experiment on a grander scale would produce anything but grander and bloodier results? And if such horrors came to pass, would Labour support Israels self-defence? How quickly would it pivot to decrying the genocide and demanding a ceasefire? Palestinian leaders have repeatedly shown no interest in a peaceful state of their own alongside Israel. Instead, the likes of Hamas wish for a country as a replacement for Israel. In 1947, the Arab League rejected a UN proposal that would have created a Palestinian state alongside the nascent Israel. This rejectionism was repeated on many subsequent occasions, most vividly in 2008. Then, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert offered them 94 per cent of the West Bank, with 6 per cent of Israeli land to make up the difference. In turning this offer down, Mahmoud Abbas revealed that he did not want what the West so desperately wanted him to want. Sir Keir has made a point in purging his party of its Corbynite rump. But voters will look at this manifesto pledge and worry that the tail still wags the dog. The sectarianism that has deformed British society, both in northern constituencies and on the streets of London on Saturdays, has its deepest hooks in Labour. Capitulation may buy a measure of party unity, but at what cost? If this policy was implemented, Britain would sit at odds with the United States. But it would also sit at odds with reality. The tragedy of the region is such that before two states can be achieved, Palestinian society must be deradicalised. This is the work of generations and no manifesto commitment can change that. Jake Wallis Simons is editor of the Jewish Chronicle and author of Israelophobia 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. Labours plans to charge VAT on private schools could lead to the McDonaldisation of education if schools are forced to make drastic cost cuts, a headteacher has warned. The head of a 22,000-a-year prep school in the West Midlands said Labours proposal to add 20 per cent tax on private schools could force them to slim down their curricula and axe add-ons to avoid hiking fees for parents. If families start leaving, weve got an almost unviable school well, we would have an unviable school unless we make those drastic changes which could include stripping out all the add-on services, he said. Those additional clubs or extracurricular activities, the sport, music, drama, art - you know, all those sorts of things that are bedded into the curriculum that we provide that a lot of state schools cant, or provide on an ad hoc basis with non-specialist teachers. Speaking to the Telegraph anonymously, the headteacher of the 150-pupil school said this could pose a threat to many smaller independent schools as parents weigh up whether the cost of private education is worth it. And I call that the McDonaldisation of education, he said. Everything becomes standard. Everything will be prefab. Everyone will be offering the same thing. More or less up and down the country there will be no point of difference And thats what Labour want. Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to start charging 20 per cent VAT on private schools as soon as it can be done if Labour wins the next general election. Labour hopes the policy will create 1.7 billion, which it has pledged to spend on recruiting 6,500 new state school teachers, rolling out a new national oracy programme and ensuring all state schools in England have access to mental health counselling. Private schools have urged Labour to clarify when it will introduce its flagship policy. It is understood that introducing the tax raid before the new school year in September would prove extremely difficult for Labour if the party wins the election. Many expect Sir Keir could introduce it mid-year next year or wait until the academic year starting in September 2025. The independent sector has warned that Labours proposals would disproportionately impact smaller institutions, while top fee-paying schools such as 50,000-a-year Eton and Winchester would likely be able to absorb the VAT cost. A report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies last year found between three and seven per cent of privately educated pupils could switch to state schools as a result around 40,000 pupils. Deneal Smith, the headteacher of Bootham School in York, said schools have been forced to draw up provisional contingency plans with the few details they have, with his 450-pupil boarding school facing difficult choices over where the axe will fall. If were offering 25 A-level subjects, can we reduce that a little bit if there are some with very small classes? he told The Telegraph. But then thats affecting the subjects for which people do send their children to private schools because theyre not available in the state sector so much. So we cannot diminish that offering, which is the reason parents send their children here those smaller classrooms and more bespoke programmes. Im doing my best to maintain everything thats made the school what it is. Melanie Sanderson, the managing editor of the Good Schools Guide, said earlier this year that schools will now have to undertake a careful balancing act of drawing clear dividing lines with the local state education on offer while also trying to reduce costs. I dont think anyones got their head in the sand any longer. I think theres a really open dialogue with the parent body and schools are really looking hard now at what costs can be cut, she said. It comes as Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said on BBC Question Time last week that many private schools have pleaded poverty over the proposals, adding: I say to the headteachers, youre going to have to cut your cloth accordingly like state schools have had to. Labour was approached for comment. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. The presence of a 12-mile long lake under the south pole of Mars was probably just a technology glitch, scientists have said, dampening hopes that life may exist there. In 2018, the European Space Agencys (ESA) Mars Express satellite discovered its radar signal was being strongly reflected back, suggesting there was a large area of liquid water beneath the ice cap. The finding was backed by Cambridge University who measured patterns in surface ice and found they matched what would be expected from a sub-glacial lake. It was hoped that if liquid water existed on Mars, then microbial life might also be present. But those hopes have been dashed after New Yorks Cornell University found that small variations in the water ice are enough to cause interference in the radar waves, producing reflections which give a false impression of liquid water. Daniel Lalich, research associate in the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, said: I cant say its impossible that theres liquid water down there, but were showing that there are much simpler ways to get the same observation without having to stretch that far, using mechanisms and materials that we already know exist there. But just through random chance you can create the same observed signal in the radar. Like Earth, Mars has thick ice caps at both poles, holding as much frozen water as the volume in the Greenland Ice Sheet. View of Earth from Martian perspective - WORLD PERSPECTIVES/GETTY IMAGES Until the satellite data, the polar ice caps on Mars were thought to be frozen solid all the way to their beds due to the cold Martian climate. The Mars Express radar data showed that the south polar region was made of many layers of ice and dust down to a depth of about one mile but then changes to the signature of water. Esa said a lake 12 miles long likely existed about one mile beneath the southern Martian ice cap and appeared similar to Lake Vostok, which was found 2.4 miles beneath Antarctica and contained more than 3,500 species. But Cornell scientists said that although bright radar reflections would likely indicate a subglacial lake on Earth, Mr Lalich said, the temperature and pressure conditions on Mars are very different. The idea that there would be liquid water even somewhat near the surface would have been really exciting, added Lalich. I just dont think its there. Robotic explorers have provided extensive evidence that water flowed on the surface of ancient Mars, including at a former river delta now under investigation by Nasas Perseverance rover. In 2015, Nasa even believed it had found liquid water, after discovering new rivulets in the sand, but the marks were later found to be sand itself moving. Cambridge scientists said they had not seen the new research, but said the unusual patterns they found in the surface would not be explained away by radar interference. The research, which was in collaboration with Nasa. was published in the journal Science Advances. 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. Is Lake Wales city manager leaving? James Slaton is finalist in two other Florida cities James Slaton, who has worked for the city of Lake Wales for nearly 20 years and became city manager in 2020, is a finalist for city manager positions in two coastal Florida cities. Lake Wales City Manager James Slaton is a finalist for the same position in two Florida coastal cities. Slaton is among four finalists for city manager of New Smyrna Beach, a city of about 32,000 in Volusia County. The city has scheduled a public meeting with the job candidates for Friday at 6:30 p.m. The four finalists emerged from 54 applicants, New Smyrna Beach reported. Slaton is one of five finalists for city manager of Treasure Island, a city of about 6,500 in Pinellas County. Each candidate is scheduled to meet with city commissioners June 19 before public interviews on June 20, the city announced. Slaton joined Lake Wales in 2005 as an informational technologist and network administrator. He progressed to become assistant city manager and was promoted to his current position in 2020. This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lake Wales city manager is finalist for top jobs in two other cities CAHOOTS emergency medical technician Summer Johnson, left, and crisis worker Amy May stop by Monroe Park in Eugene at the end of their 12-hour shift. The Eugene-based mobile crisis intervention program of White Bird Clinic has become a nationwide model as cities search for ways to handle calls for service without involving the police. Lane County plans to roll out a new mobile crisis response program this month. Mobile Crisis refers to an alternate response model where health professionals are deployed to emergencies instead of, or in conjunction with, law enforcement. Founded in 1989, the Eugene-based CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) program has received national recognition as a pioneer of this model. CAHOOTS vans are staffed with a mental health crisis worker and medics deployed to applicable emergencies. Lane County Health and Human Services Director Eve Gray said the new program would be an additional resource, not a replacement, for CAHOOTS, and that the county and WhiteBird (the nonprofit that runs CAHOOTS) "have been closely aligned in the development of what this is going to look like." The program stems from an Oregon Health Authority mandate. At Tuesday's meeting, Lane County commissioners expressed a mixture of optimism for the help the service could provide, and reservations over rolling out a program they and staff felt the state was underfunding. "It's going to provide service to people who are in crisis who need a certain kind of help right now," Commissioner Pat Farr said. But, he added, "We have the staffing issues the funding issue and we also have the geographic diversity of a county that has volcanoes and potential tsunamis. I'm afraid that the higher-level authorities that are giving us these requirements aren't ready to give the support that is needed for us to achieve the requirements successfully." The State of Oregon has required counties to provide 24/7 mobile crisis service since 2018, Pauline Gichohi, Manager of Lane County's Behavioral Health Division, told county commissioners Tuesday, but the funding provided by the state "wasn't enough to expand mobile crisis to the entire community, so we've been limited in terms of access and trying to do the best with the funding that we have." Since 2018 Lane County has partially fulfilled this obligation through three contracts: Riverview Center for Growth (formerly known as The Child Center) provides countywide crisis response for youth. WhiteBird CAHOOTS provides crisis response for adults in Eugene and Springfield. Western Lane Fire and EMS provides crisis response for communities near Lane County's coast. Since March of 2023, Lane County has been working toward how to comply with the stricter requirements for mobile crisis service put into effect at the beginning of 2024. The most challenging for the county is the requirement to respond anywhere outside the Eugene-Springfield metro within two hours. Gichohi said the county submitted requests for proposal, but no one applied to provide mobile crisis county-wide, and so Lane County Behavioral Health is obligated to provide it directly. Gichohi said that while OHA requires 24-hour service, Lane County's mobile crisis would begin as an 8-hour per day service because of underfunding from the state and a shortage of qualified mental health clinicians. Lane County mobile crisis will serve all of Lane County besides the area covered by Western Lane Fire and EMS, which aims to continue serving that area. Gray said Western Lane applied for a mobile crisis certification from OHA (another one of the new requirements) and that application's pending. She also said Western Lane will have a smaller budget going forward as Lane County splits mobile crisis funding between itself and Western Lane. To illustrate how CAHOOTS and Lane County mobile crisis would interact in Eugene and Springfield, Gichohi demonstrated the relationship between Portland Street Response (a city of Portland program modeled after CAHOOTS) and Project Respond (Multnomah County's crisis response). CAHOOTS, like PSP, would handle "street response, medic, physical-type responses." Lane County mobile crisis, like Project Respond, would handle "more acute behavioral health and distress," Gichohi said. "There's going to be some overlap and some gray areas as long as we are coordinating and so long as there's those warm handoffs from each of these different teams we should be able to manage this." County commissioners voted unanimously to give Gray permission to hire 14 more employees for the mobile crisis program Tuesday. This is a doubling of the 14 they approved in January when it was unclear how much of the county Lane County would cover directly. These employees have a projected June 17 start date. Alan Torres covers local government for the Register-Guard. He can be reached over email at atorres@registerguard.com or on X @alanfryetorres. This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Lane County to roll out in-house mobile crisis response SPRINGDALE, Utah (ABC4) Zion National Park is moving to ban RVs and other large vehicles from traveling the historic highway that snakes through the parks iconic red-and-white sandstone landscape. Starting in the summer of 2026, the most-visited of Utahs Mighty Five national parks plans to restrict large vehicles from driving along the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway. The National Park Service said the decision was made to reduce the likelihood of crashes, the strain on bridges, and lane-crossings due to vehicles being too long to negotiate turns. Hot springs resort with 53 pools slated to open next year near Zion National Park These changes reflect months of discussions to find the best way forward to manage the historic Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway and increase driver safety, said Jeff Bradybaugh, Zion National Park superintendent, in a statement. Our goal is to protect drivers, meet modern safety standards and ensure the integrity of the road and tunnels so that we continue to enjoy scenic drives on the historic Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway. Specifically, the park will reroute vehicles if they are: taller than 11 feet and 4 inches wider than 7 feet and 10 inches longer than 35 feet and 9 inches or weigh more than 50,000 pounds. According to officials, vehicles restricted from the park will still be able to drive around Zion on existing roadways, although this might increase travel time by up to 40 minutes, depending on the destination. Tourists stopped their car in front of the Great Arch in Zion National park, Utah. The Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway is listed as a landmark on the National Register of Historic Places. Designed and constructed in the 1920s and 1930s, the road has tight turns, steep grades, several switchbacks, narrow lanes, and two low and slender tunnels. While these design elements make the road compatible with the beloved desert landscape, they werent meant to accommodate a 45-foot-long motorhome. A century ago, cars were much small and weighed far less than they do today. Studies on the busy scenic highway highlighted the dangers of hosting large vehicles. According to the park service, engineering and traffic surveys showed that large recreational vehicles crossed the highways center lines in 18 locations because the roads turning radius cannot accommodate vehicles that exceed 35 feet and 9 inches. Already, vehicles that too wide for the narrow Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel require escorts in order to pass through so they dont collide with on-coming traffic. Because of the parks unique terrain, wildlife and the costs associated with new construction, expanding the roadway is not an option, park officials said. They added that the decision to restrict large vehicles in Zion was the result of discussions with many stakeholders, including transportation departments, neighbors, business owners, and elected officials. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah. LAS VEGAS (KLAS) A Clark County judge has denied the district attorneys request to remove another judge from all criminal cases his office prosecutes, citing the procedure for disqualification. Last week, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson filed a petition with the court, asking a judge to remove Clark County District Court Judge Erika Ballou from all criminal cases the office prosecutes. In his motion, Wolfson referred to Ballous behavior as egregious, and wrote, The stakes are extraordinarily high for Judge Ballou since one potential outcome of this ethics complaint could be her removal from judicial office. In her response, Clark County District Court Judge Susan Johnson said Wolfson needed to file an affidavit laying out the facts for his request and present the document to the judge. Johnson said she was randomly assigned the petition and that Clark County District Court Chief Judge Jerry Wiese was the correct party to determine case reassignment. As the 8 News Now Investigators first reported, the Nevada Supreme Court ordered Clark County District Court Chief Judge Jerry Wiese to remove Ballou from a criminal case on May 3. Ballou had not followed two previous orders from Nevadas high court regarding the same case. The May 3 order pointed to the district courts failure to comply. The district attorneys office filed a motion for Ballou to recuse herself from the case. A judge should not act on a case after that filing, according to Nevada state law. The 8 News Now Investigators first reported the criminal case in question involves Mia Christman who took part in a violent crime spree at the age of 18. She pleaded guilty to two felony charges and was sentenced to a minimum of 10 years in prison. In an appeal, Christmans attorney, Betsy Allen argued that Christman was the victim of sex trafficking and childhood trauma. Ballou vacated the sentence in 2021, resulting in Christmans release from prison before she finished serving her original term. The district attorneys office continued to fight for Christman to serve the remainder of her sentence and argued Christman was manipulating the system again. Christman failed to cooperate and disappeared twice before her guilty plea, according to prosecutors. The Nevada Supreme Court reversed Ballous order in 2022. Ballou did not send Christman back to prison. The high court issued an order again in 2023 and Ballou still did not send Christman back to prison. After the Nevada Supreme Court ordered Wiese to remove Ballou from Christmans case, Clark County District Court Judge Eric Johnson ordered Christman to surrender on May 7. She surrendered the next day. In his petition, Wolfson also referred to an ethics complaint he filed with the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline on April 30, accusing Ballou of five ethics violations. In addition to Wolfsons ethics complaint, Ballou faces two ethics charges with the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline. The charges center around social media posts, one where Ballou appeared to state that cases in which defendants are not in custody should be tossed out and another in which she posed with two individuals from the Clark County Public Defenders office in a hot tub. Wolfson cited those cases in his petition, saying in part, that the comments demonstrate that Judge Ballou is not only biased against the State of Nevada in the form of the Clark County District Attorneys office, but also law enforcement officers who form an integral part of every single criminal case before her. Ballou served as a public defender for more than 15 years before being sworn into the bench in 2021. Her current term ends in 2027. A district court spokesperson has repeatedly said Ballou was unavailable for comment. The district attorneys office also did not respond to a request for comment. Johnsons ruling allows Wolfson to re-file his request. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS. The last heroes of Normandy return to France 80 years after D-Day invasion The sun was yet to rise over the beaches of Normandy when, on June 6, 1944 -- 80 years ago this week -- thousands of American sons and Allied troops began what would become the largest amphibious assault in history. Their bravery and their sacrifice would turn the tide of World War II and push Nazi Germany to defeat. For the last five years, ABC News' "World News Tonight" anchor David Muir and his team have traveled around the country documenting the stories of World War II veterans who landed on those beaches on D-Day and the days that followed. For the 80th anniversary of the Allied invasion, Muir met these quiet heroes as they journeyed back to Normandy, many of them for the first time since landing there as young soldiers fighting for freedom. MORE: Reporter's notebook: A Black WWII hero is finally honored, 80 years after lifesaving D-Day courage Out of the 16.4 million Americans who served in the armed forces during WWII, less than 1% of them were still alive at the end of 2023, according to estimates from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The country loses an average of 131 WWII veterans every day. PHOTO: World War II veteran Irving Locker looks back on the invasion of Normandy ahead of the 80th anniversary of D-Day. (ABC News) Irving Locker is 99 years old, but in 1944 he was a 19-year-old staff sergeant in charge of 65 men. Drafted right out of high school in 1943, he went on to be in the First Army, 4th Infantry Div., 116th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Gun Battalion. And he was with his battalion that fateful day in June. His orders: land and run through the beach and start setting up your guns. He remembers the moment when -- at 5 feet tall -- he jumped into the frigid waters as German forces attacked the beaches. "I've never seen as many dead men on the beaches as I've seen," he told ABC News of the invasion. "Everybody was scared," Locker said. "The long life we figured we're gonna have could be ended with one bullet, or one bomb, or one mine." Reflecting on his acts of service and those who paid the ultimate price with their lives, Locker said, "People have to know that freedom is not free." "So I'm doing that now with my full heart and conscience," he said of returning to Normandy. PHOTO: World War II veteran Jack Claiborne looks back on the invasion of Normandy. (ABC News) Jack Claiborne of Dyersburg, Tennessee, drove the troops to Omaha Beach on LCI 492. He was a helmsman and gunner. "Seeing all of these boys that was killed, and just layin there on the beach," Claiborne told ABC News in 2019. "It was just ... tough for a little old kid to handle." "We were all young," he said. Claiborne died on September 28, 2023. His family told ABC News this year, he was proud to have served, and to have spent his last years talking about the war to younger generations. PHOTO: World War II veteran Andrew 'Tim' Kiniry looks back on the invasion of Normandy ahead of the 80th anniversary of D-Day. (ABC News) At 102 years old, WWII veteran Andrew "Tim" Kiniry was just 22 when he landed on Omaha beach in the days after the invasion. With no time to think and there to help the injured as a medic with the 45th Evacuation Hospital, Kiniry said soldiers had to keep moving. As a young man at war, Kiniry kept a list of his outfits movements. Under June 1944, that list had two words: "bloody beach. Kiniry, who has lived in Vineland, New Jersey since 1964, fears the sacrifices of D-Day will be forgotten if veterans dont share what they went through during the war. Not a day goes by he doesnt think about the men lost during the invasion. Now 80 years later, hes going back to Normandy for the first time since he first landed there. "Eighty years, and the people of Normandy are still honoring us," Kiniry told Muir. "That's somethin' that gets gets to me." PHOTO: World War II veteran Harold Himmelsbach looks back on the invasion of Normandy ahead of the 80th anniversary of D-Day. (ABC News) Harold Himmelsbach landed in Normandy on D-Day at age 18, and called it "the most dramatic time" in his life. Himmelsbach, who's now 98, said in an interview with Muir commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day that he remembers seeing "things that very few people would ever see" in their lifetime. "I would see other guys die within feet of me." "You knew you had to do these things," he continued. "It was just take care of your friend. And thats what we all did." He remembers the letter he wrote to his mother. Dear mom I suppose I should begin by telling you Im somewhere in France," Himmelsbach wrote. PHOTO: World War II veteran Harold McMurran looks back on the invasion of Normandy ahead of the 80th anniversary of D-Day. (ABC News) Born and raised in Dora, Alabama, Harold McMurran served with the 546th Ord as a FA, Instrument Fire Control Repairman, on June 6, 1944, on Utah Beach and faced 300,000 Germans. Like many soldiers, McMurran kept a diary. On D-Day, he wrote, June 6, 1944. Invasion started." He wouldn't write in his diary for the next five days. PHOTO: World War II veteran Harold McMurran's diary documenting his time before and after the invasion of Normandy. (ABC News) In 2019, McMurran told ABC News he watched the medics trying to save his friends. "Sometimes they would be in worse shape than the men they were trying to take care of," he said. "People say, 'How did you get off that boat and go in on that beach?' There was a job had to be done," he said, holding back tears. "Somebody had to do it. We did it." McMurran, who received the French Legion of Honor Medal, died on Dec. 25, 2022. PHOTO: World War II veteran Jake Ruser looks back on the invasion of Normandy ahead of the 80th anniversary of D-Day. (ABC News) Jake Ruser was a combat medic in Normandy with the 4th Infantry Division, 2nd Brigade Medical Detachment, 12 Inf. Reg. "For 67 years, I never talked about it," he told Muir in the hallways of a high school in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, where he went to speak to a high school history class about the sacrifices made for freedom. Those students were nearly the same age that Ruser was when he was sent off to war. "You always went with the idea you were gonna make it through," he told the students. PHOTO: World War II veteran Alan Kinder looks back on the invasion of Normandy ahead of the 80th anniversary of D-Day. (ABC News) In Gainesville, Georgia, Alan Kinder prepared for his first trip back to Normandy since the invasion. He remembers how the country came together when word got out that American troops had landed in France. And the scene when he got to Utah beach in the middle of the night. "We knew the people had to be killed," he told ABC News. "You grow up in a hurry." Kinder now grateful he gets to share his story, saying talking about it with his grandson, Justin, a history teacher, has brought them closer. They traveled together to Normandy. "Being able to come here and experience this with him, it's words can't describe it," Justin said. "It's amazing." PHOTO: World War II veteran Onofrio Zicari looks back on the invasion of Normandy ahead of the 80th anniversary of D-Day. (ABC News) Onofrio Zicari, 96, of Las Vegas, fought with the 5th Amphibious Brigade, 5th Wave on D-Day. "Man I was scared," Zicari told ABC News. "I didnt realize what war was until that day; it was awful. PHOTO: ABC News' 'World News Tonight with David Muir' anchor sits down with World War II veterans Jake Ruser, Andrew Tim Kiniry, Irving Locker, Alan Kinder and Onofrio Zicari. (Courtesy of David Muir) Now, 80 years after answering the call, Ruser, Kimora, Locker, Kinder and Zicari return to Normandy with help from the nonprofit, Forever Young Veterans. Just before the anniversary commemorations, the five brave heroes journeyed back to Utah beach, where Muir met them. Kinder, who has not set foot back on that beach until now, said he is grateful to be here. This is also the first time he has seen Utah Beach in the daylight. "When they told me there was a chance to come here, I've kinda lived my life over again," he said. "I've really, really enjoyed that." Locker told Muir that returning to Normandy meant that he came back because hes determined to honor the sacrifices of D-Day, and hopes to connect with the next generation. "I thank God every single day that I'm alive and well," he said. "And people have to know that. People have to know that." Kiniry told Muir being back in Utah Beach reminded him of the brave men, his brothers, who were lost. "It means a great deal to me to be here today to honor ... the ones that lost their lives in particular," he told Muir. MORE: Biden marks 80th D-Day anniversary in Normandy Ruser also took notice of the large number of people honoring the sacrifices WWII veterans made in Normandy. And as strangers approached them to shake their hands, he was moved by their gratitude. "We're meeting people from all over the world," he said. "It's really something when you're remembering what happened 80 years ago here." Zicari, who Muir first met five years ago, returned to Normandy again, thinking of the future. "We fought for freedom," he said. "We gotta have the younger generation help us now." "We're depending on them. They depended on us. We're gonna depend on them now," Zicari added. MORE: Women veterans return to Normandy for 80th D-Day anniversary Diane Hight, the founder of "Forever Young Veterans," told Muir about the mission they hope to achieve. "We must never forget," she said. "A lot of people think, 'Oh. Well, how nice that you take these vets on trips.' These are not vacations." "Do you know why they really wanna come back?" she continued. "They want to say to their friends that did not come home, 'I haven't forgotten you. And I hope I've lived my life where you're proud of me.'" Full episodes of "World News Tonight with David Muir" are now available to stream on YouTube. The last heroes of Normandy return to France 80 years after D-Day invasion originally appeared on abcnews.go.com TOKYO, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Japan's real household spending gained 0.5 percent in April from a year earlier although consumption remained sluggish amid soaring prices, government data showed on Friday. Households of two or more people spent an average of 313,300 yen (about 2,000 U.S. dollars), reversing the 1.2-percent fall in March with the first increase in 14 months, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. On a seasonally adjusted basis, spending fell 1.2 percent from the previous month for the first time in three months, against an estimated rise. "The weakening trend in real personal consumption will remain unchanged even after the start of this fiscal year," said Toshihiro Nagahama, chief economist at Japan's Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, citing the weak month-on-month change. The average monthly income per workers' household in April was down 0.6 percent in real terms from the previous year, said the ministry report. By category, food expenditure, accounting for around one-third of household spending, shrank by 2.7 percent year-on-year in real terms, amid rising prices of dining out and beverages during the reported period. Outlays for transportation and communications, which include the purchase of automobiles, were down 10.2 percent, which, according to local analysts, was attributed to the spillover damage of production and shipment suspension by some automakers due to quality irregularities. Accounting for more than half of Japan's gross domestic product (GDP), household spending is a key gauge of private consumption in the country. Separate labor ministry data on Wednesday showed that Japan's real wages in April dropped 0.7 percent from a year earlier for the 25th straight month of decline, the longest since comparable data became available in 1991. Alan Canterbury, left, heads to school in the morning with his daughter who is in transitional kindergarten in Baldwin Hills. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) For the record: 6:58 p.m. June 10, 2024: An earlier version of this report referred to Assemblymember David Alvarez as Rep. David Alvarez. LAUSD has been fined $8.1 million after an independent audit uncovered classrooms in the district's highly promoted transitional kindergarten program with too many students and not enough teachers' aides a stiff financial penalty that will be withheld from the district's state funding. State policies for TK the new grade level of free public education for Californias 4-year-olds require classrooms to have a ratio of at least 1 adult for every 12 children and no more than 24 students, and mandate an annual independent audit to make sure districts are in compliance. In a sample of 88 LAUSD schools in the 2022-23 school year, auditors from a local accounting firm discovered two schools where TK classes had an average enrollment of more than 24 children, resulting in a penalty of nearly $7 million. In addition, 20 schools were found to have a student-teacher ratio that exceeded the state limit, most likely because there was no teachers assistant present, resulting in another fine of $1.1 million. A total of 19 additional adults were needed in those classrooms. In a statement, a spokesperson for LAUSD called the financial penalties egregious and said that the auditors had found only minor violations of a single student over the class size limit. The penalty for class size violations is so high because the fine is not based on the number of rule-breaking schools. Instead, it's calculated using the average daily attendance for TK students in the entire school district, leading to a particularly harsh penalty for the largest school system in California. But what also concerns LAUSD officials are even stricter ratios that were put into effect this year and the possibility of more fines in the future. Assemblymember David Alvarez (D-San Diego), who chairs the Assembly budget subcommittee on education finance, said the penalties are important to maintain the fidelity of the TK program and hold districts accountable. Some districts were adhering to those rules and worked around being penalized, and still provide a service, versus those who chose to go a different direction with the knowledge of the penalty potentially being assessed," he said. The results of LAUSD's 2022-23 school year audit suggest that the district was already struggling to meet the less restrictive staffing requirements, even before it expanded TK eligibility to all 4-year-olds last fall. A closer look at TK staffing L.A. Unified did not release the names of the district schools that were found to be in violation of the requirements in 2022-23. The state requires the annual staffing audits but does not require that districts divulge the names of the scofflaw schools. Read more: LAUSD caves to public outcry: No more timed testing for 4-year-olds Out of 2,228 audits of school districts and individual charter schools reviewed by the state, LAUSD was one of only two districts found to have violated both class size and ratio rules, according to documents released by the California Department of Education to The Times. Twelve charter schools across the state were also found to have violated both requirements. The audit results were first reported by EdSource. Education experts say low student-faculty ratios are crucial in early childhood programs to ensure that children receive enough one-on-one attention from their caregivers and that classrooms are properly supervised. California law requires preschools, which can take in children as young as 36 months, to maintain an even lower ratio of eight 4-year-olds for each adult. Because schools are required to accept new students throughout the year, ratios and class size requirements can be difficult to balance. Karina Hanna, a TK teacher in San Pedro who is wrapping up her 30th year of teaching, and her eighth in TK, explained the challenge facing educators. When a new TK student is enrolled in a class already at capacity, one of the older or more advanced students is often bumped up to kindergarten, creating a TK-kindergarten combination class, she said. She recalls a few children "who would cry the whole first week" after being moved. Last year was a hot mess, said Hanna, who helps organize a group of about 80 LAUSD TK teachers and heard frequent complaints from teachers who didnt have an aide. A lot of people didnt even know what the ratios were." Read more: Preschool? Transitional kindergarten? Is there a difference? Parents are stressing out The state Department of Education says TK and kindergarten combo classes are permissible but "not ideal," and requires them to maintain the lower TK ratio and class size requirements. I think its quite clear these were exceptional cases and not evidence of a broader issue, said LAUSD school board member Kelly Gonez, who chairs the early education committee. There will always be hiccups when you have to implement what is essentially an entire new grade of public education. She said that although the district was able to recruit and hire enough certified teachers to fill the new TK classrooms, the required aides have been more difficult to find, even in the current school year. There were some definite staffing challenges in the fall of 2023, she said, and the hiring process was often slow. There's a reason aides are so difficult for LAUSD to hire and retain, said Max Arias, executive director of SEIU Local 99, the union that represents them. Teachers' assistants earn an average of $22.50 an hour a 30% increase over the previous school year but still barely enough to put them over the poverty level. They are among the lowest-paid employees in the district, yet the work is physically and emotionally demanding especially for those who work with young children and must often deal with behavioral issues, Arias said. With the same amount of money as the fine, Arias said, they could have hired 144 additional assistants. The district is now monitoring classroom ratio requirements and working with schools to make sure they are in compliance, the LAUSD spokesperson said. Read more: California public school enrollment drops again, but transitional kindergarten is up The scene at one school At Baldwin Hills Elementary, Alan Canterbury said LAUSD's problems continue and his daughter's class is still out of compliance. For the first several weeks of the year, he said, his daughter's combined TK-kindergarten class had nearly 30 students and a single teacher. Several parents pulled their children out of the class, and by October the number of students had dropped to 24, Canterbury said, but the class still did not have an aide. He decided to step back from his job to volunteer several hours a day in the classroom, where he observed the environment. The class had descended into chaos, he wrote in a series of emails to LAUSD administrators, which were reviewed by The Times. He pleaded for an aide to be assigned, describing unsupervised bathroom trips, scissor fights, students climbing furniture and throwing objects, and very little instruction. Alan Canterbury, left, helps get his daughter ready for school in Baldwin Hills. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) The teacher was "performing valiantly ... but he is simply outnumbered to such an extreme degree (double the legal limit) that he is not able to manage all of the behavior issues that occur on a regular basis with this age group," Canterbury wrote. "This is why the state mandates a 12:1 student teacher ratio for this age group. How the school or the District thinks it is acceptable to flaunt that standard by DOUBLE the legal limit is shocking to me and the other parents." The district assigned a teacher's assistant for a few months, but Canterbury said the class is ending the year with only a part-time aide. Several other parents interviewed confirmed his account. Neither Baldwin Hills nor the district responded to questions about the situation at the school. Stricter rules to come LAUSD had moved aggressively to expand its TK program this year and had successfully lobbied legislators to allow it to admit all 4-year-olds, regardless of birthday, two years ahead of the state timeline. But weeks before classes began in August 2023, the state required LAUSD and other districts that similarly expanded to adhere to stricter class sizes of 20 students with two adults, usually a teacher and an aide, in classrooms with the youngest students. Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, that new ratio will apply to all TK classrooms in California. LAUSD officials said the new rules were handed down last summer with little time to implement. Dean Tagawa, executive director of LAUSDs Early Childhood Education Division, urged legislators to take immediate action to waive TK penalties until after the program is fully implemented in the 2025-26 school year. In an April hearing on TK before state budget subcommittees in Sacramento, he also asked lawmakers to amend state statute to allow school districts to seek waivers for all TK class size and ratio requirements that are beyond their control. The biggest challenge that LA Unified is facing regarding its UTK expansion is the onerous and rigid penalties that have been implemented by the legislature for class sizes and ratios, he said, referring to the district's term for TK, universal transitional kindergarten. I cant think of another area of education where districts face multiple overlapping penalties for even very slight shortcomings in staff, staffing ratios and staff requirements. Districts were faced with the decision to either turn away families they had enrolled in TK or be penalized fiscally, said one letter to legislators, which was signed by 56 districts, including LAUSD. Many districts chose to serve their families because of the high number of students who depended on the free access to education and care, despite the states fiscal penalties. So far, legislators have not been particularly sympathetic, and a bill to waive the 2023-24 penalties for early TK enrollments failed in committee. Too many districts focus on checking off a box and not the quality and the best practices that it takes to ensure you're getting the outcomes that you need," said Assemblymember Corey Jackson (D-Perris), who chairs the budget subcommittee on human services. "Some of these districts who serve so many children of color, it is very concerning that yet another program which is trying to uplift our most marginalized populations again are not getting high quality services." This article is part of The Times early childhood education initiative, focusing on the learning and development of California children from birth to age 5. For more information about the initiative and its philanthropic funders, go to latimes.com/earlyed. 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. In a society where victims of rape are often blamed and shamed, what message are we sending to the public and our victims when our laws draw hard lines between which sex crimes are deemed violent vs. non-violent? Right now, in California, perpetrators who drug or intentionally intoxicate their victims to commit sexual assault are charged with a non-violent crime. But those who rape their victims while they are conscious but under fear, force, duress, menace, violence, or any other threat of violent retaliation are charged with violent felonies. Think about it; someone who has been intentionally incapacitated cannot resist, and cannot say no. Is the crime therefore non-violent because the victim was intoxicated or drugged? Rape is rape, period. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), 1 out of every 6 women has been the victim of rape attempted or completed in her lifetime. A disturbing statistic from the California Department of Justice reveals that in 2022, 14, 346 rape crimes were reported across the state. Of those, only 1,890 rape arrests were reported. In 1996, Tonja found herself a victim of Lusters heinous crimes when she was drugged to unconsciousness with GHB, only to discover the horrifying reality of what had been done to her years later. Tonja Baldens harrowing experience with Andrew Luster, the notorious serial rapist, is a powerful testimony demonstrating the urgent need for legislative action. Tonja visited me at the Capitol and told me, He narrated the things he was doing to me for the camera and manipulated my body like a mannequin. In 2000, Tonja learned Luster had been arrested for raping a young college student. With a restraining order against him at the time, Tonja went down to the Ventura County Sheriffs Office to speak with detectives. Little did she know at the time, she would be shown a video recorded by Luster of her while she was incapacitated. Tonja recounted the horrifying experience of watching the videotape of her assault, realizing the extent of the violence Luster had inflicted upon her. Married and pregnant with twins, Tonja told me she ended up losing one of them during her pregnancy due to her immense stress after discovering the truth. Luster was ultimately sentenced to 124 years in prison for his heinous assaults. But then the voters passed Proposition 57 and the laws changed. The stories of two courageous survivors I also spoke with ended differently; they were left with no taste of justice, and their perpetrators walked free. Anabel Velasquezs story is one of resilience in the face of unspeakable trauma and suffering endured by survivors of sexual assault. At just 15 years old, she found herself in a nightmare that still haunts her today. Anabel was intentionally drugged, sexually assaulted by several men, and thrown onto a Bay area freeway in May of 1994. Her survival, gripping onto the guardrail to prevent her death, illustrates the sheer magnitude of her strength as she fought for her life. But the scars from that night run deep, manifesting in enduring guilt, shame, and a tumultuous journey through abusive relationships. What was once sacred to me was stripped away, Anabel recalled. My sexual assault set me on a downward spiral into toxic, abusive relationships because I felt worthless, she cried. The absence of justice and lack of validation for her trauma only compounded her suffering, leaving her feeling isolated and invalidated in her pain. These feelings are all too familiar for Katherine Grayson, who also was drugged and sexually assaulted by a man she had just started dating when she was 21. My vision was blurred, and I had moments where I could see him on top of me, Katherine recalled, adding I was numb, I was immobilized, and I was totally confused. Katherine spent the next two decades blaming herself for what happened and repressed her trauma. It wasnt until she heard about the Brock Turner case in 2015 that she started hearing sexual assault being spoken about on a more serious front, sparking the beginning of her journey to healing. For the first time, I was able to see clearly what had happened. I had been raped. I had been drugged out of my mind and then raped by a person who was willing to risk my very life in order to take his pleasure from my body, unimpeded by my personhood and free will, Katherine stated. As a state legislator, it is my responsibility to author and advocate for legislation that empowers and protects Californians. The rights of survivors who were sexually assaulted while incapacitated must be prioritized and protected, not the other way around. Legislation over the past decade has given offenders in California more rights and protections, essentially under punishing them. It is glaringly obvious prison overcrowding is a serious concern in California. Early prison release under Prop 57 was intended to mitigate prison overcrowding, but it fails miserably in its classification of rape of an incapacitated person as a non-violent felony, resulting in offenders convicted of that crime being eligible to walk the streets. This is not how we seek justice for victims of this heinous sex crime, or any sex crime. Although Tonjas perpetrator was arrested for his despicable crimes, he now faces the possibility of early release in 2026 because of Prop 57s classification of rape of an incapacitated person as non-violent. How can anyone look at what he did to us and say it wasnt violent? Tonja pleaded. She fears that Luster, once released, will continue his predatory behavior, as evidenced by his previous attempt to flee the country and evade justice. I am authoring Senate Bill 268 to close this dangerous loophole and protect sexual assault victims who were incapacitated by keeping their offenders behind bars and serving lengthier sentences. SB 268 sends a clear message: rape by incapacitation is a violent crime and will be punishable to the fullest extent of the law. Justice can no longer be a notion, but a tangible reality. This bill takes it a step further and empowers survivors by validating their experiences through the legal system. Harsher penalties under SB 268 will serve to deter potential offenders and help prevent future victims. In a situation where the victim cannot say no, it is imperative we stand up and give the silenced a voice. SB 268 represents a glimmer of hope for Anabel and Katherine, who wish similar legislation had been in effect at the time of their assaults. I felt destroyed emotionally and physically, and had SB 268 been in effect after my brutal assault, I would have sought help and felt validated as a survivor I would have gotten a piece of myself back, Anabel said. I would have processed the experience in an entirely different and much more empowered way, and if there would be a swift and coordinated response to this crime every time we would see a LOT less of it, said Katherine. For both Anabel and Katherine, the passage of SB 268 wouldnt just be about legal reform; it would mean that survivors like them would no longer be burdened by feelings of guilt and self-blame, that they would finally be seen, heard, and acknowledged. We must normalize having a culture where survivors voices are heard, their experiences are valued, and their journey towards healing is supported. The impending early release of Luster serves as a stark reminder of the flaws in the justice system, where survivors including Tonja are left feeling betrayed and vulnerable. Senate Bill 268 is a crucial step forward in the fight against sexual violence, sending a clear message that perpetrators like Luster will no longer be able to hide behind legal technicalities or societal indifference. We must get to a place in society where sexual assault survivors are believed, supported, and empowered to reclaim their dignity and their voices. Now is the time to fix Californias flawed criminal justice system. Without SB 268, numerous sex crimes, especially those committed on an intentionally intoxicated victim, will continue to slip through the cracks. These offenders know they will receive lenient sentences, and its time we get real about tackling this sex crime and treat it like the violent offense it is. We need to crack down on these perpetrators now and make their consequences so uncomfortable they wont think twice about reoffending. State Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil represents Senate District 4, which includes portions of Merced, Madera and Stanislaus counties. Instagram remains one of the top social media apps for teens with feeds of videos and photos. But soon, there could be an opt-in feature that allows users to track more than just trends. Its called Friend Map. According to online news service, TechCrunch, the feature would be similar to Apples Find My app where you can share your location with friends and vice versa. But some members of Congress worry this kind of feature could be harmful to teens. >> Medical helicopter responding to golf cart crash near Eldora Speedway In a letter to Instagrams CEO, Congresswomen Lori Trahan (D Massachusetts) and Kathy Castor (D Florida) said geolocation is a violation of privacy. They said in part, Furthermore, the public sharing of that information puts young users at risk of further surveillance, violence and unsolicited interactions. We are in a crisis with social media here in America, said Shelby Knox, campaign director at ParentsTogether. Shelby Knox works at the national organization, ParentsTogether. She said Snapchat rolled out its Snap Map opt-in feature in 2017 and it raised similar concerns back then. Knox said there are reports of location-based features potentially exposing teens to possible danger. Predators using these locations, geolocation to find kids and take them to different locations, said Knox. Or that drug dealers are using these to get drugs to kids. In a written statement about this letter, Meta said Were focused on building out safety precautions and mitigations before we explore offering this broadly. >> Fiance accused in death of Katelyn Markham pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter Earlier this year, the social media giant also announced new restrictions that prevent adults from messaging teens who dont follow them on Instagram. Meta has also developed 50 tools and features for teens on the platform and to help parents set boundaries for younger users. This includes providing controls that allow parents to set limits on when and for how long teens can use the platform. In the meantime, ParentsTogether is urging Congress to pass regulation over these platforms. This moment, this crisis demands new solutions and immediate action from Congress and thats what the parents we work with reiterate over and over again, said Knox. Laws meant to keep different races apart still influence dating patterns, decades after being invalidated If you are single and looking for a romantic partner, chances are that you have used a dating app. But the likelihood that others will like, or even see, your profile may depend on your race. Studies have found that all people on dating apps, regardless of their own race, are more likely to contact white people using the app. And all people using dating apps are least likely to contact African American women and Asian American men. Until recently, some popular apps, including OkCupid, Match, Hinge and Grindr, provided race and ethnicity filters that allowed users to categorically exclude daters based on race and ethnicity. Although most apps, including Grindr, removed their ethnicity filters in the past few years, others, such as Hinge and Match, have not. While people may think that whom they find desirable is a personal preference, attraction is influenced by family members views, the schools people attend, friends and society in general and dating sites themselves. I am a legal scholar who researches race and the law. As I argue in my new book, The Architecture of Desire: How the Law Shapes Interracial Intimacy and Perpetuates Inequality, the legacy of discriminatory laws that have been struck down still influences peoples romantic preferences by limiting opportunities for interracial relationships to develop. The marriage of Richard Perry Loving, right, and his African American wife, Mildred, led the Supreme Court to determine in 1967 that laws banning interracial marriages are unconstitutional. Bettmann/Contributor Segregation laws limited interracial relationships Until the 1960s, some U.S. state laws prohibited white people from marrying Black Americans, Asians Americans and Native Americans. These laws known formally as anti-miscegenation laws were in effect in 41 states, including Maryland, California, Oregon and Virginia, at some point between 1661 and 1967. Then, Mildred Loving, a Black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, successfully challenged Virginias anti-miscegenation law known as the Racial Integrity Act. They were convicted of violating this law by marrying each other in another state and returning to their Virginia home. In the case aptly named Loving v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that these anti-miscegenation laws were designed to maintain White Supremacy and declared them unconstitutional. Other old laws in effect until the 1960s also hindered interracial relationships indirectly. The Naturalization Act of 1790 provided that only free white persons could become naturalized U.S. citizens. Although the Naturalization Act of 1870 extended eligibility to persons of African descent, it did not extend eligibility to other racial and ethnic groups. The Supreme Court affirmed these laws when it determined in 1922 and also in 1923 that people of Asian ancestry were not white and could not become naturalized U.S. citizens. These laws significantly reduced the pool of desirable marital partners by ruling out people of Asian ancestry. The Immigration Act of 1924 also barred individuals of Asian ancestry, except for Filipinos, since the Philippines was a U.S. colony, from immigrating to the U.S. Congress abolished these race-based exclusions in 1952 when it passed the Immigration and Nationality Act. But it did not eliminate the U.S. governments preferences for immigrants from Western European countries until 1965, when it passed another Immigration and Nationality Act that abolished quotas for immigrants from particular countries. Housing and educational discriminatory laws Until the late 1960s, federal, state and local governments promoted and enforced discriminatory housing policies, such as redlining and racially restrictive covenants, that segregated African Americans and other racial groups from white people. These policies determined where people of color could live and send their children to school. Since they could not live in predominantly white neighborhoods, their children could not attend schools with white children, as students were assigned to their local school. State laws and local practices in most Southern states, as well as California and Texas, among others, required Black, Asian American, Mexican American and Native American children to attend separate schools without any white students. These policies primary goal was to to prevent the formation of interracial relationships in public schools, as the legal and race scholar Reginald Oh has argued. The legacy of old discriminatory laws These explicitly discriminatory laws that impeded interracial relationships until 1967 have all been abolished. The Fair Housing Act banned housing discrimination in 1968. School districts can no longer separate or exclude children based on race. There are now federal laws and laws in every state that prohibit businesses open to the public from discrimination based on race or ethnicity. Yet, these old laws left a legacy that still limits opportunities for interracial interactions online and offline. Residential segregation persists as a result of decades of federal, state and local practices that excluded racial minorities from white neighborhoods. Houses and apartments in predominately white neighborhoods remain out of reach for many people of color, as real estate prices have skyrocketed. Affordable housing is also concentrated in low-income and predominantly minority neighborhoods. As a result of this residential segregation, many Black and Latino children attend what education scholars Gary Orfield and Danielle Jarvie refer to as apartheid schools in high-poverty neighborhoods with few white students. The opportunities for meaningful interactions across race in the workplace where some people meet their romantic partners are also limited. Black Americans, for example, are disproportionately clustered in low-wage positions and sectors, making intimate relationships with the predominantly white managerial and professional staff unlikely. Segregation in schools and housing persists in many parts of the U.S., influencing whom people are attracted to and limiting the potential for interracial dating and marriage. Photo illustration by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images Boundaries on dating apps Online dating is now the most common way to meet a romantic partner, so you might assume that the lack of opportunities for meaningful interracial interactions at school, in the workplace and around the neighborhood do not matter. I believe that they do matter. By facilitating segregation, these defunct laws not only influence whom people meet offline but whom they are interested in meeting online. The internet may not have geographical boundaries, but psychological boundaries follow us online. When seeking a romantic partner, whether online or offline, people gravitate toward others who are similar and familiar to them not people whom they have been taught to see as fundamentally different from their family, friends and neighbors. Attraction is complicated, and race might always play a role in whom people choose to bring into their bedrooms and family. But I think that people should be concerned by the role that these discriminatory laws continue to play in their intimate lives, especially when it reproduces racial inequality. 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: Solangel Maldonado, Seton Hall University Read more: Solangel Maldonado 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. At least 1 injured after Russian missile strike on house near Poltava Russian forces attacked a house in the Poltava district with a missile on June 7, injuring at least one person, Poltava Oblast Governor Filip Pronin said. A woman was rescued from the rubble and hospitalized in serious condition, according to the governor. "The missile fragments also damaged nearby houses. The rescue operation is ongoing, Pronin said, sharing a video near the destroyed house. No further details were disclosed. Poltava Oblast is located in central Ukraine and is regularly subjected to Russian drone attacks. In early April, at least one person was reportedly killed and 16 injured, including four children, after Moscow struck a two-story apartment building and damaged several others in the region. Read also: Russian attacks across Ukraine kill 1, injure 9 over past day Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. SMITHS STATION, Ala. (WRBL) In the early hours of Friday June 7th, an alleged violent altercation between family members in Smiths Station led to the arrest of a local man on allegations of First Degree Assault. At 12:19 AM, the Lee County Sheriffs Office responded to a 911 call reporting gunshots and an unresponsive male in the 15000 block of U.S. Hwy 280 East. Upon arrival, deputies found a 40-year-old man unconscious and receiving medical attention from emergency services. Smiths Station Fire & Rescue, Salem Volunteer Fire Dept. rescues dogs, cats and occupants from structural fire Witnesses reported the victim had been involved in an argument with his uncle by marriage, Jamey Dillard, 46, also of Smiths Station. The altercation escalated when Dillard allegedly brandished a firearm and allegedly pistol-whipped the victim until he lost consciousness.The injured man was transported to Piedmont Hospital in Columbus, Georgia, where he remains in critical condition. Dillard was apprehended and taken to the Lee County Sheriffs Office. He has been charged with allegations of Assault in the First Degree and is currently being held at the Lee County Jail on a $50,000 bond. Authorities are urging anyone with information about the case to contact the Lee County Sheriffs Office at 334-749-5651 or Central Alabama Crime Stoppers at 334-215-STOP (7867). Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WRBL. Rep. Terri Collins, R-Deactur, stands on the floor of the Alabama House of Representatives on April 18, 2024 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) The Alabama Legislature passed a bill that expanded options for alternative teacher certification. HB308, sponsored by Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, would add organizations certified by the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation, provided that they are also seeking accreditation from Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation by April 1, 2024. Starting Oct. 1, 2026, certification by the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation will no longer qualify. The move comes after the Legislature already expanded avenues for teacher certification in the regular 2023 session. The goal is to have quality alternative certification programs so that if you got your undergraduate degree in basically anything, and you wanted to go back and teach, you would not need a four year degree to do that, she said. Last years changes had made it so that the State Board of Education could only consider whether the organization successfully operated in five states; successful operation for the last ten years; an examination aligned with Alabama standards; successfully certifying 10,000 teachers; or getting approved by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation. Rep. Susan DuBose, R-Hoover, sponsor of last years bill and co-sponsor of this years bill, said that they wanted to add another way for programs to be approved. She said they still require State Board approval. The state board is the final, theyre the final authority, Dubose said. But were trying to make sure that good, good quality alternative teacher prep programs do have an option to come before the board and be voted on. Teachers can also go through the traditional pathways at higher education institutions in the state. This years bill was among the bills that State Superintendent Eric Mackey had concerns over at the March State Board of Education work session. The discussion took place before the bill had finished moving through the legislative process and was amended. Mackey had had concerns the bill could lower standards. In a statement from Mackey provided Wednesday by Alabama State Department of Education spokesperson Michael Sibley, Mackey wrote that more information would be available after the Acts effective date. The brief amendment to the Alternate Teacher Certification appears to create a pathway for a very narrow set of vendors to apply for consideration in the 25-26 cycle, he wrote. We are still reviewing the matter internally and will discuss with the State Board members in the upcoming weeks. This window is very limited, and since it does not refer back to any intent to upend the provisions of the Literacy Act, it would likely be applicable only in secondary schools. Collins said they did sunset the bill with the CAEP accreditation to address concerns over the adhering to the Literacy Act. The bill goes into effect Oct. 1, 2024. The post Legislature passed bill to open new avenues for teacher certification appeared first on Alabama Reflector. Letters to the Editor: Incarcerating Trump would infuriate Republicans. Do it anyway Former President Trump walks out of court in New York after being convicted in his hush money trial on May 30. (Mark Peterson / Associated Press) To the editor: Republicans are up in arms that former President Trump, convicted on 34 felony counts in New York, could be sentenced to prison or jail an unusual, but not unprecedented, punishment for a white-collar criminal that would have a profound impact on one political party's fortunes and our nation's future. ("How Trump's deny-everything strategy could hurt him at sentencing," June 3) Democrats were similarly up in arms when then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) contemplated blocking President Obama from filling a Supreme Court vacancy in 2016 and, again, when McConnell had an opportunity to rush through another vacancy in 2020. These were two lifelong judicial appointments that would also have a profound impact on our nation's politics and future. He did it anyway. That new, consequently conservative-leaning Supreme Court faced an equally massive uproar when the justices were deciding in 2022 to overturn Roe vs. Wade. And guess what? They did it anyway. Republicans have shown New York Judge Juan Merchan the principles they support when contemplating decisions that could bend the arc of history while infuriating an entire political party. Incarcerating Trump would do just that. He should do it anyway. Daniel Shafer, Los Angeles .. To the editor: I think discussion of Trumps conviction for falsifying business records to conceal damaging information has missed the point of concern. After the "Access Hollywood" tape was revealed close to the 2016 election, then-candidate Trump was concerned that showing more of his true moral character could cost him the presidency. So, he tried to hide an alleged affair with a porn star. Also consider the civil court ruling that he is liable for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll and then defaming her. In sentencing Trump, Judge Merchan has the added factor of the former president violating numerous gag orders. Regardless of Merchan's decision on July 11, the voters will have the opportunity in November to decide whose character they most identify with and who should represent the United States on the world stage. Will Trump be correct that exposing his moral character could cost him an election? Steve Latshaw, West Hills This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Letters: The Prime Ministers D-Day blunder has damaged his election prospects even further SIR Rishi Sunak showed both arrogance and a lack of respect by leaving the D-Day commemorations early (report, June 7). Once again he has demonstrated that he lives in a bubble, totally out of touch with reality. The sooner the Conservative Party rids itself of him and his band of sycophants, the sooner it will become electable again. Tony Ellis Northwood, Middlesex SIR Like many Conservative voters, I was preparing to support the party while holding my nose. However, seeing the Prime Minister putting politics before those brave young men who fought and died for our freedom has changed my mind. Rishi Sunak disrespected Britain in front of the world. On a political level, he also allowed Sir Keir Starmer to take the spotlight and be seen as someone who understood the gravity and solemnity of this special occasion. Michael Edwards Haslemere, Surrey SIR Rishi Sunak is the smartest Prime Minister we have had for several decades. Yes, he left the D-Day event early and missed a photo opportunity but he is a busy man with a country to govern. Graham Mitchell Haslemere, Surrey SIR With regard to the question of who to vote for (Letters, June 7), Nigel Farage appears to have two policies: zero net migration and scrapping net zero. His aim is to destroy the Conservatives. Voting for Reform UK will hand Labour a mandate to go soft on immigration, hurtle towards net zero and put the brakes on any further progress towards Brexit freedoms the opposite of what Conservatives want. Carol Rispin Hessle, East Yorkshire SIR Fraser Nelsons message (Farage will do more to hand the Left power than anyone since Blair, Comment, June 7) appears to be: vote for someone you dont like or trust in order to keep out people who would be even worse. What a choice. The Conservatives have only themselves to blame for this disastrous situation. It is very likely that Sir Keir Starmer and his friends will make a pigs ear of almost everything but so have the Tories. They need a period in opposition to think hard and brighten up their message. Nicholas Wightwick Wrexham, Denbighshire SIR As this election has now become a farce for the Tories, is it not time for a joining of forces? Conservative Reform could be their salvation. It might also encourage some serious Conservatives back into the fold. Janet Warwick Shipton-under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire SIR Lord Frost (Comment, June 7) includes many interesting quotes from military strategists to illustrate the dire position of the Conservative Party now that Nigel Farage has entered the election. However, he misses perhaps the most pertinent one, from that well-known sage Mike Tyson: Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the mouth. Dr David Slawson Nairn A Palestinian state SIR Before Sir Keir Starmer promises to recognise a Palestinian state (report, June 7), perhaps he should ask the terrorist organisation currently controlling Gaza to confirm that it accepts Israels right to exist. There will never be a two-state solution for as long as Hamas denies this right. Cynthia Bengen London N3 SIR Any pledge to recognise a Palestinian state now must ignore the 1933 Montevideo Convention, which requires a state to have four things: a territory, with a permanent population, subject to the control of a government, and the capacity to conduct international relations. Arguably Palestine has only the population. Its territorial borders have changed over the years and do not provide for a viable, coherent entity (unless Israel is removed). The Palestinian Authority is ineffective, with governance split between Fatah and Hamas, neither of which provides adequate public services, economic control or social security, despite massive international support. Rather than recognising a non-functional state, it would be far better to pledge support for a process inevitably involving difficult negotiations to change existing boundaries and move people whereby a viable Palestinian state could eventually be established. Col Ronnie Bradford (retd) Vienna, Austria Slow trains SIR When I moved to Sydney I was quite surprised by the double-decker trains (Letters, July 6). They work well, and have a good level of capacity. The problem is that they move so slowly that, if I were younger, it would be faster to run. However, I wonder if Britains Box Tunnel, say, would be big enough for them. Guy Robb Leichhardt, New South Wales, Australia How to move house with a lifes worth of books Tomes by the tableful: The Yellow Books, painted in 1887 by Vincent van Gogh - Bridgeman Images/Bridgeman Images SIR I understand Ben Lawrences pain (I own too many books, so which titles should I keep?, Arts, June 6). Every time I changed jobs, I had to move home. For years, I kept all my books. With novels and decades worth of academic tomes, shifting thousands of volumes was ridiculous. I therefore carried out an agonising cull and introduced Annes Rule of Book, which states that any book, once read, has to go to others. If it is staying, another book in storage has to go. The rule is mostly inviolable. Anne Jappie Cheltenham, Gloucestershire SIR One can never have too many books. The answer to Mr Lawrences conundrum is simple: put up more bookshelves. We have now three fitted libraries, one downstairs and two in former bedrooms. This has the added advantage of reducing ones ability to accommodate guests. David Pearson Haworth, West Yorkshire Silent heroes SIR My late father, like Lesley Mayos (Letters, June 6), was serving in the Royal Marines at the time of D-Day, and volunteered to be in the Landing Craft Obstacle Clearing Units, removing mines and obstructions. I found out by pure chance this year through Stephen Fisher, whose book Sword Beach has just been published. My father never spoke about D-Day. Whether this was because of the secrecy demanded beforehand (Letters, June 6) or his traumatic experience as a 22 year-old, we will never know. David Dunn Malaga, Spain SIR In June, 80 years ago, I was a 12-year-old schoolboy living in Gloucester. At that time the city was surrounded by barrage balloons to protect Gloster Aircraft Company, which made thousands of Hurricane fighters, and Gloucester Waggon Works, which made tanks. One night I happened to look at the sky, and was amazed to see masses of twin-engined planes towing gliders, with the moonlight shining on the white stripes of their wings and fuselages. It was only later that I learnt this was the beginning of D-Day. Gordon Green Porlock, Somerset SIR My father was a carpenter (a reserved occupation) during the Second World War and worked in Portsmouth docks. When he was quite old he told me that he and a team were instructed to build a wooden structure, which, he subsequently discovered, was a model of a Mulberry harbour. I like to think he played a small but important part in the success of the Normandy landings. Jeffrey Gregory Swanage, Dorset SIR I was four years old at the time of the D-Day landings. My father was serving on HMS Hilary, a headquarters ship moored off Juno Beach. One day, all those on board were given permission to send a telegram to their nearest relative, to say they were well, without revealing any important details. Dad was on duty at the time, so could not take the opportunity to send his message to Mum. Instead, he asked an off-duty colleague to send one for him, using one of a series of safe messages offered to those who didnt know what to write. Mum was somewhat mystified to be told: Having a lovely time, wish you were here. Rob Upward Brighton, East Sussex SIR At the beginning of the Second World War my stepfather was a bicycle mechanic with aspirations of becoming a decent road-racer. Enlisting in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in time to serve in France, he was evacuated from Dunkirk, and was one of a very small number of survivors from the first ship he boarded, which was bombed, burned and sunk. Weeks later he was participating in the Western Desert campaign, in the Siege of Tobruk and then El-Alamein, before returning to Britain to assist in preparations for Normandy. He was not demobbed until after the wars end. To my mothers great chagrin, he never even bothered to send off for the many campaign medals he was entitled to, never went to reunions or Remembrance Day, and spoke very little about any of it. The only things that I, as a child, could drag out of him were that in Tobruk his unit adopted a dog they called Ere ya!; that he liked the Australians (subsequently emigrating to their country and dying there); that, if he had a pound for every time he ran away from a Junker Ju 88 plane he would never need to work again; and that on D-Day he drove the first unarmoured vehicle to land in the invasion. He was a specialist in tank recovery, and there were apparently not enough armoured recovery vehicles to go round, so he finished up with an unarmoured one. Even his name, Smith, J, was as good as anonymous. I am 80 next month and he remains my greatest hero. Michael Bird Tavistock, Devon Ale origins SIR You discuss (Business, June 6) how Madri Excepcional beer is actually brewed in Yorkshire. On holiday in Cornwall this week, it seemed appropriate to invest in a case of St Austell Brewerys Cornish Best, described as a moreish sessionable ale thats bursting with character. The marketing was rounded off with a label featuring Cornish sky, sea and beaches surely making this drink the perfect sundowner to enjoy while admiring the seascape over Cawsand Bay. My enjoyment was a tad diminished, however, when I read the back label, which stated that Cornish Best is actually brewed in Warmley, south Gloucestershire. Geoff Pringle Long Sutton, Somerset Que? SIR Years ago, in the company of my brother, who was an excellent linguist, I found myself first down for breakfast at a hotel in Spain, so decided to place our order with my somewhat limited Spanish. All went well until, having recalled that the French word for butter was beurre, I got it into my head that the Spanish equivalent was burro. After much confusion, my brother arrived and asked why anyone would want bread and donkey, especially so early in the day. Vincent Hearne Chinon, Centre-Val de Loire, France Letters to the Editor We accept letters by email and post. Please include name, address, work and home telephone numbers. ADDRESS: 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 0DT EMAIL: dtletters@telegraph.co.uk FOLLOW: Telegraph Letters @LettersDesk NEWSLETTER: sign up to receive Letters to the Editor 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. KABUL, June 7 (Xinhua) -- More than 800 Afghan refugees returned home from Pakistan on Thursday, Afghanistan's Ministry for Refugees and Repatriation Affairs said Friday. Over 800 refugees returned from Pakistan via the Torkham and Spin Boldak crossing points on Thursday, the ministry said in a statement posted on social media. The ministry reported Tuesday on the return of more than 300 Afghan refugee families to Afghanistan from neighboring countries. More than 1 million Afghan refugees, most of them undocumented migrants, have reportedly returned home from the neighboring countries of Pakistan and Iran since last November. The Afghan caretaker government has been repeatedly calling upon Afghan migrants living abroad to return home and contribute to the rebuilding process of their war-torn country. GLEN DANIEL, WV (WVNS) One Liberty High School student will represent West Virginia on the national level. Raleigh County HS seniors get their diplomas Liberty freshman, Lillie Runion, will be attending the National Academy of Future Physicians and Medical Scientists in Boston. At this prestigious event, students will learn from the worlds top doctors and scientists. Students will also get the opportunity to watch a live surgery. Runion said it took more than just a high GPA to attend the academy. My mom, my dad, my church family, said Runion. I have raised a lot of money; working hard, baking stuff, bake sales. Personally, and academically, it has been a lot from keeping straight As, taking only honors classes, and keeping up with work. It was hard, but anyone can do it, honestly, if they try hard enough. First virtual integrated career services website in West Virginia launched by Concord University Runion said she is excited for the new doors this academy could open for her future educational and career opportunities within the medical field. Although Liberty and Trap Hill Middle School helped foster her growth in the sciences, Lillies passion for the medical field extends far beyond her educational years. Even when I was little, Ive always wanted to help people and do whatever I can to give back to the people that I know in the community, said Runion. I have always been interested in the medical field, especially psychology. Blessing of the Hands at WVU Medicine: Princeton Community Hospital for National Nurses Week The academy will take place from June 26-28 on one of the campuses at the University of Massachusetts. On top of all her academic achievements, Runion also competes on the Liberty Volleyball and Dance teams. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WVNS. Little Rock officials highlight summer programs aiming to help youth stay away from violence Little Rock officials highlight summer programs aiming to help youth stay away from violence LITTLE ROCK, Ark. After Wednesday nights shooting involving young people in Little Rock, city officials say they have summer programs aimed towards helping youth stay away from violence. Little Rock Community Program Director Dana Dossett said they hope the programs will give kids job opportunities, a positive environment and a place they can plan their future. We want to make sure that they are getting into positive opportunities, not turning to violence, said Dossett. Little Rock man aims to teach that violence is not the answer after being shot in the head 30 years ago Dossett said they target all young people for their programs, adding that they have at least 300 different ones this summer. She said their most popular is the summer employment program which had over 1000 applicants. A 2014 study on the US Department of Labor website found that summer youth jobs can help reduce crime. She said through that program they are able to help place young people in various jobs throughout the city for the summer. In partnership with Junior Achievement and Watershed who have made a difference with finding us great employers to work with, Dossett said. For example, Bank of America, we have Costco, The Outlets. Montavious Goins said he chose to be a mentee in the program this year after his experience last year where he said his outlook on life changed. It gets you connections to further educational people, he said. Communication is key to the workforce. Pine Bluffs Gloves Not Guns aims to help youth stay off the streets as summer approaches The programs lead mentor Erin Farmer was a mentee herself in 2016. She said she learned a lot and it helped her in the future. It helped with my leadership skills, presentations, interviews and it molded me to the person I am today, Farmer said. Farmer said she is glad to return as a mentor after graduating from college with her masters, adding that she also wants to help youth pick a different path besides violence. A five-minute decision could cost you 50 years in prison. Dont let someone influence you into something you do not want to do. Farmer said. I have seen it happen plenty of times and it has ruined children, keep your eye on the prize, stay in school. Pair demonstrates importance of mentoring Dossett said although registration has closed for the summer employment program, there are other youth who can take part in it. Next week from Monday through Thursday the city will have a training workshop and on Thursday there will be a job fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Arkansas State Fairgrounds Hall of Industry. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KARK. WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (WFLA) Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd announced a new partnership to help combat AI threats against the community. Judd and Dr. Randy K. Avent, president of Florida Polytechnic University, discussed the new Polk County Sheriffs Office Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in a Friday press conference. Judd started the press conference with a near-realistic video of Elon Musk congratulating the sheriff for his work and saying hed move to Polk County. Not one word of that is real, the sheriff said. Not one frame of that video is real. Its fake. Its all created with AI, and we must be able to tell the difference. According to Judd, the criminal use of artificial intelligence is advancing by the hour, so the sheriffs office is partnering with Florida Polytechnic University to use the same technology to fight back. Our mission is not to keep up with the future, he said. Our mission is to shape it. The initiatives goals will be to develop legislation to help combat civilians from AI crimes if left unchecked. The initiative will also be researching and educating others on the criminal use of AI, developing new tools to stop these crimes before they happen. We will prevent bad AI actors from invading your personal privacy space, Judd said. Approximately eight to 12 Florida Polytechnic students will worked with the sheriffs office. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. The obvious solution to dealing with an embarrassing statue of a slaver is not to replace it with a sculpture also redolent of those who perpetrated the Atlantic slave trade. But that is one of the options proposed by Sadiq Khans Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm, and backed up with 500,000 of public money. On June 7 2020, during the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the killing of George Floyd the previous month in Minneapolis, a mob toppled the statue of Edward Colston into Bristol Harbour. On June 9 the statue of Robert Milligan, the founder of West India Docks, was swiftly removed from its precarious quayside perch in front of the Museum of London Docklands. Now Milligan is not one of those figures with only a tenuous link to the slave trade. He was a Scottish merchant initially based in Kingston, Jamaica, trading in sugar and slaves. After returning to London he established the West India Docks, which had a monopoly of trade from the West Indies to London for 21 years after its establishment. The statue of Milligan by Richard Westmacott was erected by the West India Dock Company in 1813, four years after his death. It had been removed to storage for safekeeping during World War Two in 1943 and was only returned to public view in 1997. What was seen as a celebration, or at least acknowledgement, of local history had become anathema just 13 years later. Removing statues is a dubious undertaking and risks erasing our historical memory. But if there is a case for a take down, Milligans statue is a better candidate than most. Whilst a typical example of early nineteenth century public statuary it is no artistic masterpiece. If it is to be replaced, what should come in its place? Khans commission has come up with a shortlist of six monumental works. They include a 22 foot high model of a cowrie shell by Khaleb Brooks, bronze statues of children wearing renditions of carnival masks by Hew Locke and a 40 foot high statue of Nana Buluku, the female goddess of the Kingdom of Dahomey by Zak Ove. The Kingdom of Dahomey, a power in West Africa from 1600 till its final demise at the hands of the French in 1900, grew rich on the Atlantic slave trade. There is little doubt that slavery played a much larger role in its economy and those of its fellow West African kingdoms of Benin and Ashante than it did for the British economy. These realms captured other Africans and then sold them on to European and American slavers the profits in large part going to the Royal courts themselves. Being transported to the Americas was not even the worst fate that could befall the poor unfortunates who had been captured. As even Dan Hicks the Oxford University professor and curator of the Pitt Rivers Museum who is perhaps the leading advocate of stripping our museums in the name of returning artefacts acknowledges in his tome The Brutish Museums, these kingdoms practised sacred human sacrifice. The only debate is on what scale it took place. Oves Nana Buluku is adorned with a necklace of Benin Bronze type torsos. Demands for the return of the originals of these from European museums to Nigeria have been at the forefront of the whole restitution movement, but the bronzes are themselves direct products of the slave trade. The kingdom exchanged their captured fellow Africans for the very metal they were cast from heavy horseshoe shaped manillas manufactured in Europe. The bronzes are every bit as much an expression of slavery created wealth than any plantation house in the American south or, indeed, those English stately homes built on the proceeds of West Indies sugar estates. Nana Buluku is certainly no embodiment of the abolitionist spirit. If the monument to a slaver is to be replaced would it not be more appropriate to erect a statue of a British black abolitionist such as Ignatius Sancho? The story of a man born a slave who became a shopkeeper, man of letters and society figure in eighteenth century London is surely rather more worth celebrating, and rather more inspirational, than is the mythological incarnation of a slaving kingdom. 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. FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises above Lebanon, following an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Israel's border with Lebanon FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises above Lebanon, following an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Israel's border with Lebanon (Reuters) - Israel's chief of staff has said it is nearing a decision on an offensive along the frontier with Lebanon against the Iran-backed Hezbollah after months of cross-border exchanges of fire. Here is a timeline of decades of conflict involving Israel and Lebanon. 1948 Lebanon fights alongside other Arab countries against the nascent state of Israel. Some 100,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes in what had been British-ruled Palestine during the war arrive in Lebanon as refugees. Lebanon and Israel agree an armistice in 1949. 1968 Israeli commandos destroy a dozen passenger planes at Beirut airport in response to an attack on an Israeli airliner by a Lebanon-based Palestinian guerrilla group. The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) relocates to Lebanon two years later after its expulsion from Jordan, leading to increased cross-border flare-ups. 1973 - Disguised Israeli special forces shoot dead three Palestinian guerrilla leaders in Beirut in retaliation for the killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Palestinian guerrilla raids into Israel and Israeli military reprisals on targets in Lebanon intensify during the 1970s, leading many Lebanese to flee the south and aggravating sectarian tensions inside Lebanon, where civil war is starting. 1978 Israel invades south Lebanon and sets up a narrow occupation zone in an operation against Palestinian guerrillas after a militant attack near Tel Aviv. Israel backs a local Christian militia called the South Lebanese Army (SLA). 1982 Israel invades Lebanon all the way to Beirut in an offensive that followed tit-for-tat border fire. Thousands of Palestinian fighters are evacuated by sea after a bloody 10-week siege of the Lebanese capital involving heavy Israeli bombardment of West Beirut. Hundreds of civilians in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila are massacred by Christian militiamen allowed in by Israeli troops after Lebanon's newly elected Maronite Catholic president is killed by a car bomb. Iran's Revolutionary Guards establish Hezbollah in Lebanon. 1985 Israel pulled back from central Lebanon in 1983 but retained forces in the south. It now establishes a formal occupation zone in southern Lebanon, about 15 km (nine miles) deep, controlling the area with its SLA ally. Hezbollah wages guerrilla war against Israeli forces. 1996 With Hezbollah regularly attacking Israeli forces in the south and firing rockets into northern Israel, Israel mounts a 17-day "Operation Grapes of Wrath" offensive that kills more than 200 people in Lebanon, including 102 who die when Israel shells a U.N. base near the south Lebanon village of Qana. 2000 Israel withdraws from southern Lebanon, ending 22 years of occupation. 2006 In July, Hezbollah crosses the border into Israel, kidnaps two Israeli soldiers and kills others, sparking a five-week war involving heavy Israeli strikes on both Hezbollah strongholds and national infrastructure. While Israeli ground forces move into southern Lebanon, much of the conflict is conducted by Israeli airstrikes and Hezbollah rocket fire. It ends without Israel achieving its military objectives and with Hezbollah declaring it a "divine victory". At least 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 158 Israelis, mostly soldiers, are killed. 2023-24 Hezbollah begins trading fire with Israel on Oct. 8, a day after the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked communities in southern Israel and sparked the Gaza war. Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, says its attacks aim to support Palestinians under Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip. Tens of thousands of people are forced to flee their homes on both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border. Israeli airstrikes pound areas where Hezbollah operates in southern Lebanon and in the Bekaa valley to the northeast near the Syrian border. (Compiled by Tom Perry and Angus McDowall; editing by Mark Heinrich) Elon Musk makes more than cars and rockets. See his line of flamethrowers, mezcal, and Cybertruck-inspired beer. Elon Musk has created a range of products other than cars, rockets, and underground tunnels. Tesla recently added to the list a $450 bottle of mezcal. Here's a list of the weird merchandise Musk has sold, including flamethrowers and surfboards. Elon Musk is known for building cars and rockets, but he's actually a man of many products, including tequila, surfboards, and flamethrowers. Musk's latest innovation? A lightning bolt-shaped bottle of Tesla Mezcal that'll set you back $450. (Big missed opportunity to call it Tezcal if you ask us.) Under Musk's leadership, SpaceX, Tesla, and The Boring Company have sold a number of quirky wares, oftentimes taking inspiration in name or design from Tesla vehicles or SpaceX rockets. Perhaps the most famous are Tesla's red satin short shorts, designed to taunt short-sellers betting against his stock, and The Boring Company's "Not-A-Flamethrower." The products some of which are available in limited releases often sell out and command sky-high resale prices. Here's a look at some of the weirdest products Musk has sold to date: For kids, Musk sells this onesie with the SpaceX logo on its shoulder. SpaceX's onesie sells for $45. SpaceX The SpaceX onesie comes in sizes newborn to 5T, and costs $45. Tesla has sold mini battery-powered cars for children for $600. Tesla has even sold "My First Model Y" for children as young as one. Tesla Tesla's Model S for kids can reach top speeds of 6 mph and comes with an MP3 sound system, headlights, and a horn. The company also sold a Tesla for younger children between the ages of one and a half and four, called "My First Model Y." The Boring Company sold thousands of its "Not-A-Flamethrower" in 2018. The Boring Company has sold flamethrowers passed off as "Not-A-Flamethrower." Robyn Beck/Pool via REUTERS The Boring Company, which builds underground transit tunnels, sold 20,000 limited-edition flamethrowers for $500 each in February 2018. But the $10 million in quick revenue caused legal issues, with the machines showing up in weapon seizures and drug busts across the world. The company named it "Not-A-Flamethrower" to get past foreign laws and shipping bans on flamethrowers, Musk told Joe Rogan in 2018. "It's dangerous, it's wrong. Don't buy it. Still, people bought it. I just couldn't stop them," Musk said on Rogan's podcast. When red satin Tesla short shorts with "S3XY" printed across the back went on sale, the car company's crashed within minutes, Musk said. The shorts are a play on the word "sexy" and a reference to Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, and Model Y vehicles. Tesla The Tesla CEO posted on X, formerly Twitter, in July 2020 that his electric-vehicle company was selling limited-edition red satin shorts. The shorts were priced at $69.420 on Tesla's website a reference to one of Musk's favorite jokes and marijuana. "Dang we broke the website," he tweeted, three minutes after posting about the shorts. The "S3XY" refers to Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, and Model Y vehicles, while the shorts could be a mocking nod to short-sellers who bet against Tesla's stock. Tesla briefly put 200 surfboards up for sale at $1,500 each. Tesla's surfboards, in limited supply, resold for much higher online. Tesla If red satin short shorts weren't enough, Tesla started selling surfboards in 2018 for $1,500 each. Only 200 were put up for sale and they quickly became a collector's item, going for sky-high prices on resale sites like eBay. The carbon-fiber surfboards were painted red and black in the same matte and gloss paints used on Tesla cars. Tesla has launched its own brand of tequila for $250 a bottle. Musk dubbed it "Teslaquilla." Elon Musk joked about a product called "Teslaquilla" years before Tesla started selling $250 tequila bottles. Tesla More than two years after Musk first referred to "Teslaquilla" in an April Fools' Day tweet, Tesla released its own tequila in November 2020. Hours after the product went on sale, it sold out. The tequila came in a bottle shaped like a lightning bolt and cost $250 for a 750ml bottle. Those who got their hands on the drink sold the empty bottle online for a hefty markup. Dozens of bottles sold on eBay for $500 to $800. Off the heels of "Teslaquilla," Tesla released sipping glasses for $75. Tesla has also sold glasses to go with its tequila. Tesla The limited-edition set includes two glasses. Tesla said on its website that they were inspired by the company's tequila. After SpaceX's first attempt at launching its Starship rocket was called off in April 2023, Musk tweeted about the company selling a new Starship-shaped torch. SpaceX announced a 1:200 scale model of its Starship rocket. SpaceX The $175 Starship Torch sold out and was supposed to start shipping in the third quarter of 2023, according to SpaceX's website, but appeared to be delayed. It's named after Starship, the rocket that SpaceX wants to fly to the moon and Mars. The windproof torch, which refills with butane canisters and comes with a safety lock, can light candles, melt cheese, sear steaks and meringues, and caramelize sugar, the company said, also clarifying that it was "100% not a toy." SpaceX says the torch can be used as a statue of Starship when it's not in use. Musk peddled a fragrance called "Burnt Hair" for $100 a bottle. The Boring Company sold more than 10,000 bottles of its "Burnt Hair" fragrance, according to Elon Musk. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue; The Boring Comapny In 2022, Musk released a fragrance through The Boring Company, which he called "the finest fragrance on Earth." The perfume cost $100 a bottle and was described as "the essence of repugnant desire." Musk said he'd sold more than 10,000 bottles of the "Burnt Hair" fragrance which would translate to $1 million in sales within the first six hours of the product being listed. And for your pets, how about a Cybertruck-inspired cat bed? Tesla's cat box mimics the design of the Cybertruck. Tesla In August 2023, Tesla started selling a "multifunctional corrugated cat nest" exclusively in China. The cat bed is made of cardboard with an angular shape inspired by the design of the Cybertruck, Tesla's electric pickup truck. Also taking a cue from the Cybertruck's design is another alcoholic beverage sold by Tesla. Tesla's beer and steins are inspired by the Cybertruck's appearance. Tesla Last year, Tesla started selling a set of two beers and two ceramic steins, designed to mimic the look of the Cybertruck, for $150. The 11-ounce bottles of Tesla CyberBeer have notes of herb, spice, tea, and citrus, Tesla says on its website. Also in 2023, Tesla started selling a Cybertruck for Kids for $1,500. Tesla's Cybertruck for Kids is for ages 6 to 12. Tesla It's currently out of stock but is meant for kids ages 6 to 12 and can comfortably seat two. It has LED head and tail lights, boasts up to 12 miles of range, and can go 10 miles per hour. Musk's latest merch addition is Tesla Mezcal. Why isn't it called Tezcal? Tesla Tesla introduced a $450 bottle of mezcal this week. The taste is described as "smoky and floral with a smooth finish" on Tesla's website. It's available in select states and starts shipping in three to six weeks. Read the original article on Business Insider Loved ones are devastated after a Southern California father was shot and killed by an off-duty LAPD officer. Family and friends held a vigil Thursday night, calling for justice in the death of Hugo Cachua, 37, a father of three young children. He was the best, said Luc Cachua, Hugos mother. Thats why so many people have come [to the vigil] because he was so lovable. Everyone who met him loved him. The incident happened on May 30 in Ontario near North Euclid Avenue and West 6th Street as Cachua and Victor Corral, a Los Angeles police officer who was off-duty at the time, became embroiled in a heated argument after a reported fender bender at around 8:30 p.m. Both men exited their vehicles and somehow the situation escalated into a physical confrontation. A dashcam video from a passing vehicle captured the two men struggling on a neighborhood sidewalk when three gunshots were suddenly heard. Hugo Cachua, 37, a father of three, is seen in a personal photo. (Facebook) Hugo Cachua, 37, a father of three, is seen during playtime with his daughter in a personal photo. (Cachua Family) Victor Corral, a Los Angeles Police Department with the central division. Police investigate a fatal shooting in Ontario on May 30, 2024. (Key News) Police investigate a fatal shooting in Ontario on May 30, 2024. (Key News) Hugo Cachuas mother, Luc Cachua, mourns the loss of her son at a vigil in Ontario on June 6, 2024. (KTLA) Friends and family held a vigil honor Hugo Cachua in Ontario on June 6, 2024. (KTLA) Friends and family held a vigil honor Hugo Cachua in Ontario on June 6, 2024. (KTLA) Hugo Cachua, 37, a father of three, is seen in a personal photo. (Facebook) Hugo Cachua, 37, a father of three, is seen in a personal photo. (Cachua Family) Police investigate a fatal shooting in Ontario on May 30, 2024. (Key News) Police investigate a fatal shooting in Ontario on May 30, 2024. (Key News) Hugo Cachua, 37, a father of three, is seen in a personal photo. (Cachua Family) Family members said Cachua was unarmed and was shot in the back. At the time, Corral had been on medical leave for about a year due to an injury, according to the Los Angeles Times. On Thursday night, Cachua was honored by friends and loved ones who held a vigil near the spot where he was killed. He was everything to us, said Luis Cachua, Hugos brother. Our knight in shining armor. He kept our family together. Manuel Acevedo, a family friend, said he attended the vigil to help the mother and the family. To respect and honor [Hugos mother] and stand by her side in the troubles she is going through. Hugo was an Amazon delivery worker who was a father to three young children and an older brother to five siblings. Loved ones are devastated while desperately seeking answers, with some questioning why Corral was armed in the first place. Corral joined the LAPDs Central Division in 1995. An LAPD source told the Times Corral had not regularly qualified on the shooting range according to department procedure since he had been off work for an extended period. In such circumstances, under department policy, an officers privileges to carry a concealed weapon should be withdrawn, but that had not happened in this case, the source told the Times. Hugos family said they have not received any updates on the the LAPD officer or the investigation so far. We want answers, Luis said. We want justice for our brother. We cant just sit back and let [the police officer] live his life while we suffer, mourn and grieve in pain. An LAPD spokesperson said the department was aware of the shooting and is fully cooperating with the investigation, however, no further statements were released. The California Department of Justice will be leading the investigation into the fatal incident. A GoFundMe page created to help Hugos family with funeral expenses can be found here. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. Loyal as ever to former President Donald Trump, state Sen. Jake Hoffman arrived at the former president's town hall in Phoenix Thursday after his arraignment on felony charges related to the 2020 presidential election. Hoffman, the chair of the conservative Arizona Freedom Caucus, is one of 18 people indicted as part of state Attorney General Kris Mayes' investigation into the alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election in Arizona, and one of 11 Republicans who falsely affirmed they were electors for Trump despite Biden's win. Trump himself is an unindicted co-conspirator in the case, according to the indictment released in April. Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, and his attorney, Tim LaSota, appeared by video conference Thursday morning for the Maricopa County Superior Court proceeding. Like the other accused officials so far, Hoffman pleaded not guilty at his arraignment. Jake Hoffman (left) and his attorney, Timothy La Sota (right), appear virtually for Hoffmans arraignment in Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix on June 6, 2024. Hoffman is among those charged by a grand jury in a conspiracy stemming from the 2020 election. Before heading to the rally at the Dream City Church in Phoenix, Hoffman posted on the social-media platform X that he was proud to welcome Trump back to Arizona. "The energy in Arizona to deliver victory for President Trump this November is electric and the momentum is overwhelmingly in his favor," Hoffman said in his X message. "Arizonans have seen the destructive, weaponized politics of Democrats and the incompetence of Joe Biden. Re-electing President Trump is the only way to get America back on track for safe communities, a secure border, a booming economy, and a vibrant country that works for everyone. After arriving at the Trump event, Hoffman chatted briefly with The Arizona Republic about one of the bright spots of his week: A county judge ruled Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs broke the law by circumventing the state Senate's Committee on Director Nominations, which Hoffman chairs. The Republican lashed out at Hobbs, who has blamed him for turning the committee into a "political circus" focused more on bashing Democrats than vetting quality agency directors. "If Hobbs wants to continue to sling immature insults at me, that's her choice," he said. "But I'm focused on making sure that we follow the process that we said we were going to follow, an honest, accurate and thorough vetting of every single nominee. And that I faithfully do my work on behalf of the people of Arizona to give them the best state possible." Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney declined in his ruling to dictate how Hobbs and Senate President Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, should resolve the matter, saying he would set a date for the parties to figure out for themselves. Hoffman said he expected "gamesmanship" from Hobbs and that the judge would ultimately have to order her to comply with the law. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Trump in Arizona: Fake elector Jake Hoffman attends event in Phoenix A white house with green shutters with an oak tree in the front yard The LSU Foundation purchased a home on South Lakeshore Dr for the use of LSU's President (Greg LaRose/Louisiana Illuminator) The LSU Foundation purchased a new house in Baton Rouge for the presidents use across University Lake from the existing presidents house. The new home was purchased by a entity under the LSU Foundation, the private fundraising arm of the university, to be used by the president, spokesperson Sara Whittaker said in a statement to the Illuminator. The LSU Foundation made a strategic investment in a home in one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Baton Rouge with the goal of offering it to the university and the university president for aiding in fundraising, Whittaker said. The new house is at 188 S. Lakeshore Drive and is valued at around $2 million, according to the East Baton Rouge Parish assessors website. It is currently undergoing renovations. The 7,600-square-foot house sits on about a half-acre of lakefront property. The current presidents house, at 2959 E. Lakeshore Drive is 5,805 square feet on 1.5 acres. The state still owns the existing presidents house, Whittaker said. It has been used as the LSU president and chancellors residence since 1999. It underwent a $300,000 renovation before LSU President William Tate moved into the home in 2021, The Reveille reported. Its current value was not available online, but smaller homes in the same neighborhood off the lakefront are listed for sale starting at $700,000. The post LSU Foundation purchases new $2 million presidents house appeared first on Louisiana Illuminator. Myrtle Beach is growing at an exceptional pace the policy decisions made about the Grand Strand today could impact residents for decades to come. As populations grow, infrastructure, roads, and energy capacity must adapt to meet the needs of new residents. Climate change and more frequent severe weather will impact Grand Stranders pocketbooks, and protecting their interests will become more critical, particularly if development-associated flooding worsens. Politicians and elected officials will steer these choices in the Palmetto states capital in Columbia. At this pivotal juncture, Horry County residents face a primary vote to help decide who represents them in the South Carolina State Senate. Residents of parts of Myrtle Beach and Conway go to the ballot box June 11, 2024, to vote in the Republican Primary for the 33rd state senate district the election pits 30-year incumbent Luke Rankin against challenger current Conway City Councilmen and businessman Autry Benton. Historically, Rankin has faced minimal challengers in the general election aside from occasional write-in votes. With no Democratic Primary occurring, the winner of the Republican Primary will decide who goes to Columbia to represent the 33rd District in the state senate. The election is a case of who voters believe will be most effective. Rankin believes his seniority and relationships in the statehouse give him an edge in steering resources to the Grand Strand. Rankin added that re-electing him gives Myrtle Beach and Conway residents more political clout in Columbia to better serve their interests, as opposed to Benton, who Rankin said would need to spend years in the statehouse before gaining the influence he has now. For Benton, Rankins tenure has not delivered for Horry County residents during his office and is too focused on judicial appointments. In contrast, Benton says hell focus more on bringing money to the Grand Strand. to help with infrastructure projects. Where do Luke Rankin and Autry Benton stand on the issues that impact Conway and Myrtle Beach, SC? Bentons campaign revolves around three policy items: judicial and civil liability reform, improving infrastructure, and securing more funding for projects from the state house. Regarding judicial reform, Benton wants to overhaul judge selection in South Carolina. According to the South Carolina Bar, legislatures currently pick judges deemed qualified by a commission. For Benton; judges should get elected by voters instead. Were able to vote for the president of the United States, Benton said. Certainly, we should be able to choose from a qualified list of judges who we want to judge us. Benton added that he would also push for more state funding for Horry County infrastructure projects if elected. He added that most infrastructure funding comes from local taxes, and Horry County could do even more road projects if it secured more state funding. Senator Rankin has spent the majority of his time appointing judges on the Judiciary Committee, Benton said. He hasnt really addressed the issues that we have in Horry County, which is roads and infrastructure. Bentons plan to obtain additional funding would involve requesting a seat on the state senates finance committee to help steer more funds toward Horry County for infrastructure projects. Benton added that he also favors changing South Carolina civil liability laws to put the burden of disputes on those deemed at fault. As for his record and plans for the future, Rankin took credit for helping to kill NextEra Energys deal to buy Santee Cooper, which he said wouldve hurt Horry County residents, balancing the budget, and lowering personal income taxes. He added that his seniority in the statehouse will help him to continue passing legislation that benefits Horry County, something his opponent wont be able to do for years. Being in a leadership position, you can bring more money home to your area for roads, for schools, and for projects that weve had here, across the county itself, and particularly in District 33, He said. Im proud to have been able to show the folks of Horry County that seniority does pay off. If re-elected, Rankin added that he would work towards adding to the areas power and energy generation capacity and infrastructure to ensure that rolling blackouts dont become a problem as Horry County grows. Rankin also said he wants to work on legislation protecting residents from exorbitant insurance premiums other coastal areas, like Florida, face regarding home and flood insurance. South Carolina had an influx of residents from Florida who moved to the Grand Strand, as the Palmetto states faced less extreme weather. For Rankin, much of Bentons criticisms fall flat. Rankin, the chairman of the S.C. state senates judiciary committee, said the state house has no appetite for making judge appointments by-election. He added that partisan judge elections often cause conflicts of interest and the appearance of corruption. We have historically avoided that because weve heard experts tell us that the states where the most problems have occurred with a public election of the judges is violation of campaign finance laws, Rankin said. A number of states where folks just violate campaign finance laws, and you go before the judge in those states, you better have made a big campaign contribution to their election. Indeed, the statehouse is already looking at reforming judicial appointments. Furthermore, Rankin said one does not simply request to get on the finance committee, as Benton suggestedseniority decides who is appointed. Rankin added that Horry Countys delegation already has two members on the finance committee. The most senior member on that committee, before he becomes chair of that committee, hes going to have to wait for 10 sitting senators to either retire, be defeated or die, Rankin added. Rankin also defended his record on steering resources to projects within Horry County. He claimed he helped bring $40 million to the county two years ago and assisted Horry Georgetown Technical College, Coastal Carolina, the City of Myrtle Beach and Conway. Rankin also downplayed Bentons criticisms about bringing in money for infrastructure from the state level, saying its impractical to rely on additional funding from the state level to push forward new projects. He added that the county plans to begin more than five billion dollars worth of infrastructure projects in the next five years and that much of the revenue paid for the projects comes from tourists. The idea, as nice as it might sound, somebody else needs to pay for our way (which) is like waiting for the Great Pumpkin in the Charlie Brown series, Rankin said. That Great Pumpkin aint coming to pay for roads that we desperately need. This photo taken with a mobile phone shows a poster of the U.S. movie "Civil War" standing among other posters at a cinema in Beijing, capital of China, May 24, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Anni) BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- "Civil War," a U.S. movie alluding to political and social divide in the United States, premiered on the Chinese mainland on Friday, joining dozens of productions ahead of this year's Dragon Boat Festival holiday. Since the movie premiered in the U.S. market in April, it has caught the attention of many Chinese, partly due to its political theme rarely seen in imported movies. Zhang Yiwu, a professor at Peking University, said some Chinese moviegoers watched this film because they are interested in the United States and hope to better understand the country through this movie. The conflicts among the various parties in the movie are so intense that effective communication between them is entirely impossible, he said, adding that this actually reflects issues within American society and politics. For Qi Minghui, a moviegoer and U.S. university graduate, the movie reminded her of the racial inequality, wealth gap, gun violence and partisan politics she observed during her years in the United States. "Although an artistically exaggerated work, the movie mirrors the problems in reality," the 31-year-old auditor said. Numerous moviegoers are sharing their reviews online. "An insightful film that showcases the division within American society," wrote an internet user named "Yongjia111" on the review platform Douban. On microblogging platform Weibo, "Chendu" commented that "I hope that the United States will not instigate civil wars in other countries and be a model country of immigrants where various races blend well." Set in the near-future, the movie, written and directed by Alex Garland, follows a group of reporters who travel across the United States as a rapidly escalating civil war engulfs the nation. It features stars including Kirsten Dunst and Wagner Moura. Rating growing political polarization in the United States as a top-tier threat, the Council on Foreign Relations' 2024 annual Preventive Priorities Survey stated that it leads to acts of domestic terrorism and political violence particularly around the 2024 presidential election. As many people are still reeling from the Jan. 6, 2021 "storming of the Capitol," a recent incident involving Donald Trump supporters turning U.S. flags upside down to protest the guilty verdict in his hush-money case raised widespread concerns among Americans. Describing the movie as a warning for future development, Shen Yi, a professor of international studies at Shanghai-based Fudan University, said it depicts the dangers that rising populism poses to the United States, as well as the challenges to the core American spirits such as diversity, unity and solidarity. It also helps the Chinese people better perceive the contemporary United States and the development of China-U.S. relations, Shen said. Zhang said that the introduction of indie studio movies had the potential to enrich the domestic film market. "The vast Chinese market offers abundant opportunities for American films and productions from around the world," he said. At a sideline event during the Cannes Film Festival in May, Mao Yu, deputy director of the China Film Administration, pledged efforts to introduce more foreign films to the Chinese market. This photo taken with a mobile phone shows a man taking his ticket from a ticket vending machine at a cinema in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Anni) This photo taken with a mobile phone shows a woman walking past a poster of the U.S. movie "Civil War" at a cinema in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Anni) This photo taken with a mobile phone shows a woman walking past a poster of the U.S. movie "Civil War" at a cinema in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Anni) Im very devastated, Owner of iconic Atlanta Eagle weighs buildings future after fire There are now plans to possibly restore the original Atlanta Eagle after a fire ripped through the site of the iconic gay bar, Thursday night. There was so much love, and it was amazing to have everyone here, said Richard Ramey, the owner of the original Atlanta Eagle bar. The fast-moving flames tore through both the now-closed bar and the old adjoining Kodak building on Ponce De Leon Avenue. No one was hurt, but the cause of the fire is under investigation. Channel 2 Action News spoke with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens at the scene. This doesnt look like its vandalism or arson or anything or malice intent, Dickens said. Im very devastated for our loss, Ramey told Channel 2s Audrey Washington. The original Atlanta Eagle bar was a safe space for those in the LGBTQ community. The bar made national headlines during the 2009 police raids. RELATED STORIES: Those raids sparked a movement and created change for the gay community in Atlanta. Maybe we can make something out of this, Ramey said. Ramey said he is now thinking about the future. He hopes the burned building will be restored into something greater. He said he wants the building to become home to a new Atlanta Gay History Center. I feel like this can be rebuilt and made into something. Maybe this is the beginning of something new, Ramey told Washington. The investigation into the fire is ongoing. The new Atlanta Eagle location near Ansley Mall was not impacted and remains open for business. RELATED NEWS: The owner of a Macon area rehabilitation center admitted on Wednesday to ordering two employees to alter documents during a 2019 federal investigation into fraudulent billing, according to the Department of Justice. Brenda Hicks, the owner of Middle Georgia Family Rehab, ordered the tampering after investigators demanded patient records so they could look into allegations that the the center filied false claims with health insurance companies about services patients received. Hicks then told the two employees that the order was an audit, and that if the requested records were missing or not signed they were to create and sign them. One of the employees quit after suspecting what they were doing was illegal, while the other employee stayed and continued to add notes and signatures to patient documents, according to the DOJ. Middle Georgia Family Rehab turned the documents into the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorneys Office in December 2019. Hicks admitted to altering the documents and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice as part of an agreement. She faces a maximum of 20 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. The plea agreement will also require Hicks to pay restitution to the affected entities, which include Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, the Department of Veterans Affairs and Blue Cross Blue Shield. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 5. Anyone who attempts to alter or destroy documents requested as part of a federal investigation will face federal penalties for breaking the law, said U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary. For the sake of justice and truth, it is imperative that the integrity of the investigation is maintained for the benefit of all parties. U.S. District Judge Tilman E. Self ordered Middle Georgia Family Rehab to pay more than $9.6 million to the companies in damages and penalties over the fraudulent billing in June 2022. At the time of the ruling, Leary said the center took hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars through the billing scheme. The reckless disregard displayed by Middle Georgia Family Rehab in its billing should serve as a warning to other health facilities across Georgiaand the nationthat filing improper and false claims will come with hefty consequences, Leary said. Macron calls for high turnout to avoid mistakes of Britons who didnt vote against Brexit Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance party is facing a humiliating debacle in the June 9 vote, according to polls - Jacques Witt/Shutterstock Emmanuel Macron called on voters to avoid the mistakes of Britons who failed to cast a ballot against Brexit and turn out in high numbers in Sundays European Parliament election. The French president warned that low turnout would hand power to the hard-Right, leading to mass migration, weakened protection against future pandemics and a damaged European Union. Mr Macron, who has been attending the 80th anniversary of D-Day, intervened in the campaign in a last-ditch attempt to ward off a predicted rout for his Renaissance party against Marine Le Pens National Rally (Rassemblement National, RN). Come on, go vote on June 9, it is very important. I say this because I always think back to our British friends who did not go to vote on Brexit day. Not going to vote is leaving the future of our continent and our country to others, he said. Voting will help France be stronger in Europe and to help Europe be stronger in protecting France, he insisted. If France sends a very big far-Right delegation, if other big countries do this, Europe could be blocked. The Macron camp has repeatedly warned that the EU is in mortal danger and that a vote for Ms Le Pens RN party is a vote for Frexit by stealth as while she no longer wants to leave the EU, the bloc would cease to function if her party got its way. Many French voters think differently. Mr Macron warned that low turnout would hand power to the hard-Right, leading to mass migration and weakened protection against future pandemics - Jacques Witt/Shutterstock The French presidents Renaissance party is facing a humiliating debacle on the June 9 vote with Jordan Bardella, Ms Le Pens candidate, on around 32 per cent in polls and Valerie Hayer, Mr Macrons candidate, on half that score. Finishing far behind Mr Bardella would be a huge setback for the president. Rivals have blasted Mr Macron for exploiting the 80th anniversary of D-Day for domestic political gain by hogging the media limelight in the run-up to the vote. Francois-Xavier Bellamy, the Republicans Party candidate, accused the president of using the Normandy landing beaches to stage this absurd battle that has no relevance in Europe. Mr Macrons camp says its normal that he speaks out about the importance of European unity at such a historic occasion marking the defeat of bellicose nationalism and decades of peace on the continent. Mr Macron said he had reached a moment when I want to convince the French and to spur them into voting for more European integration. By way of argument, he insisted that a Europe blocked by the hard-Right would lead to more, not less illegal immigration due to a lack of a joined-up EU approach. If tomorrow you have the far Right with a blocking minority in Europe, in the face of the illegal immigration we are suffering, you will no longer have laws that protect us because they believe in a nationalist response and not a European one, he said. The RN wants to restrict freedom of movement in the Schengen area to EU nationals and ban it for foreigners, even if they are legally resident. In his interview, Mr Macron also hit out at hard-Right parties historic pro-Russia stance, warning that France and Europe could expect the Sputnik vaccine in the event of a new Covid-style pandemic if nationalists had their way. Instead of a Europe of vaccines, he said such parties would give you chloroquine or the Sputnik vaccine produced by Russia but widely seen as ineffective. Mr Macron is not the first member of his camp to brandish Brexit as a bugbear during the campaign. Last week, Gabriel Attal, his prime minister, warned: Dont be like the British who cried after Brexit. When you say you are not going to respect the rules of the single market anymore, not pay Frances dues and stop respecting most of the treaties, the reality is that we are no longer in the EU, he told RTL. Mr Attal referred to recent UK polls showing that, if there was a repeat of the 2016 referendum on EU membership, Britain would vote to stay. A large majority of British regret Brexit and sometimes regret voting for something that was negative for their country, he said. Painting a bleak picture of post-Brexit Britain, the prime minister said there was more illegal immigration than ever and massive economic problems. France will not be stronger by being alone, he said. On the contrary, Mr Bardella on Thursday warned against voting for Mr Macron. If (he) isnt very far behind the National Rally list, hell feel like hes growing wings and will accelerate his unpopular reforms. 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. Editor's note: This story is being updated. France wants to finalize a coalition of countries to send military instructors to Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron said on June 7 during a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky. Ukraine is ramping up mobilization, and it would be "more effective and practical" to train "thousands of new soldiers" on Ukrainian soil, Macron said. "We are not at war with Russia, we do not want an escalation, but we want to do everything we can to help Ukraine resist. Is it an escalation when Ukraine asks us to train mobilized soldiers on its sovereign soil? No, Macron said. A number of allies have already agreed to join the Paris-led coalition, he said. "We already know that we will not be alone, and we will use the next few days to organize a broader coalition to respond to Ukraine's request," he added. Read also: Russia returning Europe to time of Nazism, Zelensky tells French parliament France is reportedly planning to initially send a limited number of personnel to assess the modalities of a mission before involving several hundred trainers, Reuters reported on May 30, citing two unnamed diplomats. Zelensky said that Kyiv supports Macron's initiative to send instructors to Ukraine. "This (move) simply shortens the path for training," the president added. Paris will allocate 200 million euros ($216 million) to companies that will invest in the restoration of Ukraine's critical infrastructure, with 60 million euros ($64 million) of these funds to be devoted to the country's energy sector, according to Macron. The French president did not specify the number of Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets that Paris will transfer to Ukraine, but announced a training program for Ukrainian pilots. "Now the priority is to start forming (groups) of pilots and mechanics (for training). This is something that will be launched in just a few days. We are talking about technical training, Macron said. The two made the announcements a day after world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden and Zelensky attended the commemoration of the D-Day landings. In late February, Macron announced a coalition to send long-range missiles to Kyiv. He is one of the leaders who recently supported Ukraine's right to strike on military bases inside Russia with Western weapons. Read also: Producer of Caesar howitzers to set up branch in Ukraine Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Macron hints he is preparing coalition of countries to send military instructors to Ukraine French President Emmanuel Macron stated that at least five other countries have agreed to send instructors to Ukraine to train the Ukrainian troops. Source: Macron at a joint press conference with Zelenskyy, as reported by European Pravda Details: Macron reiterated that he views Ukraine's request for military training on its soil as acceptable, particularly given the growth in the number of people mobilised into the army. Quote: "We are not at war with Russia, and we do not want an escalation, but we want to do everything we can to assist Ukraine in its resistance. So, when Ukraine requests us to train mobilised troops on its sovereign soil, is this an escalation? No," he said. The French president went on to say that despite Russia's threats, the West has every right to send instructors to Ukraine because it is not about deploying Western troops "to the front line", but about "recognising the sovereignty of Ukraine on its territory". Macron also declared the formation of a coalition that will "respond to Ukraine's request" to train its troops on its soil, but provided no details. "We decided to form a coalition, and several of our partners have already given their assent. We already know we will not be alone. And we will use the next several days to build the broadest possible coalition to react to Ukraine's request," he said. Last month, the media reported that Macron had formed a coalition of states willing to send military instructors to train Ukrainian soldiers directly in Ukraine. According to reports, France may soon send military instructors to Ukraine, despite reservations from some partners and criticism from Russia. Support UP or become our patron! Macron says preparation for training of Ukrainian troops on Mirage 2000 jets will begin "in next few days" French President Emmanuel Macron said preparations for training Ukrainian pilots and mechanics for Mirage 2000-5 fighters will begin "in the next few days". Source: Macron at a joint press conference with Zelenskyy, as reported by European Pravda Details: Macron refused to specify the number of Mirage 2000-5 jets to be supplied to Ukraine and which countries are contemplating their provision, saying: "I think you can understand why." "We agreed on the requirements; now the objective is to begin training pilots and mechanics, as this is what will be launched literally in the next few days in France. We are discussing technical training that will take place on our land," he stated. The French president further stated that after that, Paris will specify what it can send to Ukraine, and that necessary negotiations "have already begun several months ago with several of our partners". "I can't say much more. We've always tried to report numbers only when they're already being transported and used. This is more effective; it prevents our adversaries from taking advantage of [the information]," Macron concluded. French President Emmanuel Macron announced the transfer of several French Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine and the training of additional Ukrainian military personnel as part of a new cooperation with Kyiv. On 7 June in Paris, Ukrainian and French presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Emmanuel Macron signed agreements to provide help for the repair of essential Ukrainian infrastructure. Support UP or become our patron! President of France Emmanuel Macron waves during an international ceremony on Omaha Beach in the context of the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, France. Dirk Waem/Belga/dpa France is discussing the deployment of military trainers to Ukraine with partners, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris. "We want to have a coalition for reasons of efficiency and several of our partners have already given their agreement," Macron said on Friday evening. "We will use the coming days to finalize the largest possible coalition capable of responding to Ukraine's request." Macron emphasized that this request was legitimate. Under certain circumstances, it would be much more efficient and practical to train on Ukrainian soil. "We are not at war with Russia, we do not want escalation, but we want to do everything in our power to help Ukraine resist," Macron said. "Is it an escalation if Ukraine asks us to train mobilized soldiers on its soil? No, that does not mean deploying people, European or allied soldiers on the front line," said Macron. There has been speculation for days as to whether France would send personnel to Ukraine to train soldiers on the ground. Ukraine has been defending itself against a full-scale Russian invasion for more than two years. Recently, there have been repeated discussions about the possibility of sending Western military trainers to the war zone to provide more effective support to the Ukrainian army, which has come under increasing pressure. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska arrive at the official international ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, at Omaha Beach in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer. Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire/dpa Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled to be received by President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace on Friday as part of an official visit to France. In the morning, Zelensky is first due to meet Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu and then visit the defence company KNDS in Versailles. The Elysee Palace announced that the company intends to set up a weapons production facility in Ukraine itself to support the country in its defence against Russia. Zelensky's other stops on Friday include the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, in the morning, where the Ukrainian president plans to address lawmakers. He is also expected to be received by Mayor Anne Hidalgo at City Hall. Zelensky arrived in France on Thursday and took part in the commemoration of D-Day, the Allied landings in Normandy 80 years ago during World War II. Macron announced that during Zelensky's visit he intended to comment on the issue of a possible deployment of French military trainers to Ukraine. The possibility of sending Western military trainers to the war zone to provide more effective support to the Ukrainian army, which has come under pressure, has been discussed repeatedly recently. Officially, there are no such training programmes to date. It remains to be seen whether France will actually decide to take such a step alone or with partners. Back in February, Macron brought up the possibility of sending ground troops to Ukraine, which he did not want to rule out, sparking a lively debate among the Western NATO allies. President of France Emmanuel Macron waves during an international ceremony on Omaha Beach in the context of the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, France. Dirk Waem/Belga/dpa Ukraine and France's presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Emmanuel Macron in Paris on 7 June signed agreements to provide help for the repair of Ukrainian essential infrastructure. Source: Macron at a joint press conference with Zelenskyy, as reported by European Pravda Details: According to the French president, the delegations from Kyiv and Paris met to discuss Ukraine's reconstruction and "decided that new tools would be created to accompany" the process. "An agreement has been signed to establish a 200 million fund for companies that will invest in Ukraine's critical infrastructure for reconstruction. We also resolved that 60 million of this money would be allocated to the energy sector and its priority [issues]," he stated. In addition, Macron stated that Paris is increasing the mission of the French Development Agency to support projects in Ukraine at the local level and sending 20 technical specialists to several key ministries in Ukraine to provide technical assistance. The Elysee Palace previously announced the signing of two agreements enabling the provision of 650 million to Ukraine in the form of loans and grants to support, in particular, critical energy infrastructure objects that are the target of Russia's attacks. On 6 June, Zelenskyy and his wife Olena arrived at Omaha Beach, where a ceremony to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Allied landing in Normandy was held. On the same day, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the transfer of several French Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine and the training of additional Ukrainian military personnel as part of a new cooperation with Kyiv. Support UP or become our patron! SHANGHAI, June 7 (Xinhua) -- China's homegrown regional jetliner, the ARJ21, launched its first air route to Central Asia on Friday, according to Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. (COMAC), its developer. The aircraft was operated by Chengdu Airlines. It took off from Kashgar Prefecture in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region at 10:38 a.m. on Friday and arrived in Khujand in Tajikistan more than two hours later, COMAC said. The opening of the air route will further promote exchanges between Kashgar and Khujand in fields including economy, culture and tourism, contributing to the development of the "Air Silk Road," according to COMAC. As a pioneer of Chinese commercial airplanes, the ARJ21 was put into commercial service by Chengdu Airlines in June 2016. Montana 2024 Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy. (Courtesy Tim Sheehy campaign) When Tim Sheehy overwhelmingly won the Republican primary to challenge Jon Tester for his senate seat his election night speech was truly a masterful piece of political theater. Surrounded by his kids on the stage, with one hugging him around the neck while resting on his shoulder, it was heartwarmingly perfect. But when he claimed his campaign was for the kids hed best take a harder look at the Make America Great Again platform hes promising to support, because its anything but for the kids. The Sheehy-Tester race is one of the most closely watched in the nation, drawing millions and millions in out-of-state contributions that promise to make it the most expensive in Montanas history. Given that Montanas junior senator, Steve Daines, is head of the powerful National Republican Senatorial Committee, Sheehy can rest assured the money will continue to flow like the Yellowstone River in flood stage. As Daines put it: Tim Sheehy is a strong conservative, an American hero and a successful businessman who will bring an outsiders perspective to a broken Washington. Of course thats kind of hilarious for a couple of reasons. Only four years ago, MAGAs orange hero was president, spewing invective, making looney suggestions to handle COVID by injecting bleach, and claiming hed already Made America Great Again. Yet now, Daines says Washington is broken, and its completely Joe Biden and Jon Testers fault. But if Sheehy wins, by golly, everything is going to be coming up roses especially if they can keep their presidential candidate just convicted of 34 felonies out of jail and re-install him in the White House. As it turns out, Daines description of Sheehy as an outsider is probably more applicable in Montana than it would be in Washington, given that hed be one of the wealthiest members of the Senate, which is chock full of millionaires. Having grown up in a multimillion dollar lake house in Minnesota and only been a Montana resident for about a decade, its fair to say theres a lot about the Big Sky Country Sheehy doesnt know. And thats where the conflict between the MAGA agenda and its for the kids arise. For instance, its doubtful Sheehy ever saw the Gallatin River below Big Sky when it ran gin clear and drinkably clean. Those days are gone thanks to the proliferation of MAGA McMansions for the wealthy whose sewage has now turned one of Montanas great rivers a sickly neon green. Likewise, hard to see how he could ever have experienced a real Montana winter, since thanks to the increasing impacts from climate change, our winters come later, with less snow, that vanishes earlier thanks to hotter springs and broiling summers with triple-digit temperatures rarely experienced in our past. Thats totally attributable to the burning of fossil fuels and the MAGA agenda is to drill, blast and burn ever more fossil fuels in a misplaced goal of global energy domination. If Sheehy wants his kids to have any kind of future other than inhabiting a burnt cinder of a planet, hell have to dump the MAGA climate denial and face the fact that we just set a new record for the hottest year in recorded human history. It would take more than one column to detail all the ways MAGA isnt for the kids at all, its get as much as you can as fast as you can and devil take the hindmost. And Mr. Sheehy, if you really want to do right by those cute kids of yours, the degradation has to stop not continue and expand into the environmental nightmare MAGA will bring to our state, our planet, and your kids future. The post Making America Great Again is not for kids, Mr. Sheehy appeared first on Daily Montanan. A turtle crawls along the rocky beach, heading towards the South China Sea after laying its eggs on the shore of Redang Island A turtle crawls along the rocky beach, heading towards the South China Sea after laying its eggs on the shore of Redang Island By Mandy Leong and Hasnoor Hussain KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - On a secluded Malaysian beach, a group of volunteers carefully retrieved newly laid sea turtle eggs in the sand and moved them to a shady, cooler location, in response to fears by researchers that warmer weather is leading to fewer male hatchlings. The temperature of the developing turtle eggs is what determines sex. Observers at the Chagar Hutang Turtle Sanctuary on Redang Island believe they are already seeing fewer males being hatched due to climate change - with the situation made worse this year by prolonged hot and dry spells caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon. "Sea turtle conservationists were concerned that uncontrolled global warming in the future, in the next 15, 20, 30 years, will be detrimental... because it will feminise sea turtle hatchling populations," Nicholas Tolen, a researcher at University of Malaysia Terengganu said. Moving nests to shadier spots or irrigating them with water has been proven to help lower incubation temperatures, though the success of the sanctuary's program was still being measured. Such methods were also preferable to artificial incubators, which could disrupt sea turtle hatchlings' understanding of the earth's magnetic field, affecting their orientation and ability to nest, the researchers said. (Reporting by Mandy Leong and Hasnoor Hussain; Writing by Rozanna Latiff, Editing by Alexandra Hudson) A man wanted on charges of attempted murder and home invasion 30 years ago in Madison County has been arrested and accused of living under a stolen identity in Michigan, authorities said Friday. Robert D. Mason III, 53, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, was charged Friday with one felony count of identity theft, according to a news release from the Madison County States Attorneys Office. In 1994, Mason was charged with one count of attempted first-degree murder and one count of home invasion. The charges allege Mason shot a man four times and used force to enter an Alton womans home on May 15, 1994. The identity theft case was investigated by Alton Police after an Alton resident made a report that someone had used his identity in a financial transaction, the news release states. The investigation resulted in Mason being identified as a suspect. Alton Police, along with U.S. Marshals Service, recently took Mason into custody in Kalamazoo. Mason was being held in the Madison County Jail on Friday. A defense attorney listed for Mason could not be reached for comment Friday. If convicted of the identity theft charge, Mason faces up to a 15-year sentence. The charge alleges that Mason knowingly used the personal identifying information of another person to obtain credit and property under the victims name, with the value of the credit and property being between $10,000 and $100,000, the news release states. The attempted murder and home invasion charges are each punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Mason could not be located after those charges were filed in 1994 but they remain pending. The Madison County States Attorney who filed the charges against Mason in 1994 was the late William R. Haine, the father of Tom Haine, who is the current states attorney. I commend Alton Police for their diligent investigation and their commitment to pursuing justice, no matter how long it takes, Tom Haine said in a statement. Prosecutors have filed a pretrial detention petition asking for Mason to be held in jail until his trial. A hearing date has not been set for this request. Man accused of killing mother and child in Worcester gets high-profile lawyer WORCESTER Prosecutors are in the process of seeking indictments in the killings of Chasity Nunez and her daughter Zella, lawyers said during a brief court appearance Friday in which a well-known South Shore lawyer appeared to represent one of the cases two defendants. Rosemary Scapicchio, whose work freeing Sean Ellis in the 1993 killing of a Boston police detective was featured in the Netflix documentary Trial 4, appeared in Central District Court on Friday to represent one of the defendants, Dejan Belnavis. Belnavis and another city man, Karel Mangual, are facing murder charges in the deaths of Nunez and 11-year-old Zella, who were shot to death inside an SUV on March 5. Prosecutors will need to secure indictments into Worcester Superior Court in order to pursue the murder charges, a process Assistant District Attorney Brett Dillon told a judge Friday is still ongoing. Rosemary Scapicchio, center, looks at a photograph during a murder trial in Brockton Superior Court, in December. No substantive discussions were held at Fridays brief court hearing, during which Belnavis, in orange prison garb, appeared on a television screen from jail. Scapicchio, an experienced defense lawyer who has handled many murder cases and in 2004 argued at the U.S. Supreme Court, declined to comment after the hearing, saying she would need to confer with her client before speaking to the media. Belnavis pleaded not guilty to murder March 29, two weeks after he was arrested in California. Police allege that video, witness and phone evidence links Belnavis and Mangual to the crime. Chasity Nunez, right, and daughter Zella Authorities have not yet detailed a motive. Court records show police have linked both Belanvis and Mangual to gangs, and that Mangual has a tattoo memorializing Robert Walker, an 18-year-old Blackstone man who died in 2013 after an altercation at a birthday party in Worcester. Chasity Nunezs brother, Collage Nunez, was sentenced to seven to 10 years in prison in 2016 after pleading guilty to manslaughter in Walkers death. Mangual is due back in Central District Court on June 17 for a probable cause hearing, while the court Friday set another probable cause hearing for Belnavis for Aug. 8. While such hearings which allow defendants to test the strength of the states evidence are often scheduled, they are rarely actually held prior to indictments, and are generally seen as placeholders. This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Dejan Belnavis gets high-profile lawyer in mother-daughter murder case Man arrested for assault in connection to Stockton shooting now charged with murder: BCSO BALDWIN COUNTY, Ala. (WKRG) A man previously charged with assault in connection to a mass shooting in Stockton is now facing charges of attempted murder and murder, according to the Baldwin County Sheriffs Office. 24-year-old Robert G. Brown, Jr. was previously arrested for first-degree assault for his participation in the shooting, which left 19 injured and three of those 19 dead. Woman found guilty of 2020 Prichard murder Robert G. Brown (Photo courtesy of the Baldwin County Sheriffs Office). On Friday, June 7, Browns charge was upgraded to attempted murder and two counts of murder for the deaths of Michael Anderson, Jr. and Chiquita Ewing, according to BCSO. 25-year-old Mack Aurthur Adams was arrested Friday as well and charged with two counts of murder. 19-year-old Tyquan French was previously arrested and charged with one count of murder for the death of Christian Bradley. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRG News 5. HEFEI, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists have demonstrated the effectiveness of early insulin therapy for newly diagnosed patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D), which can reduce the risks of stroke and hospitalization due to heart failure compared to those who have not received the treatment. A joint research team led by Professor Weng Jianping from Anhui Medical University, and scientists from the University of Science and Technology of China, Southern Medical University, and Peking University, conducted a 24-year observational study on the treatment of 5,424 T2D patients across the country. They found that newly diagnosed T2D patients who underwent the therapy experienced a 31 percent reduced risk of stroke and a 28 percent lower risk of hospitalization due to heart failure. This study further demonstrates the effectiveness of early insulin therapy in improving biomarkers related to low-grade inflammation and endothelial function, which are known indicators of cardiovascular risk, in newly diagnosed T2D patients. This provides compelling evidence for adopting early insulin therapy as a first-line treatment option for newly diagnosed patients. The findings were published in the international journal of Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy in early June. A man has been arrested after attacking Denmarks prime minister Mette Frederiksen in central Copenhagen on Friday. It was unclear whether Frederiksen was injured by the attacker. The prime ministers office said in a statement that Frederiksen was shocked by the incident, but did not provide further details. Prime minister Mette Frederiksen was hit by a man Friday evening on Kultorvet in Copenhagen. The man was subsequently arrested, the statement said. Police in the Danish capital said the incident had taken place at Kultorvet, a pedestrianised square in the centre of the city. We have made an arrest in the case, which we are now investigating. We currently have no further comments or observations on the matter, the police said on X. The attack on Frederiksen comes as 450 million citizens in the EUs 27 member states are going to the polls to elect more than 700 members of the European parliament. It also comes just weeks after Slovakias prime minister, Robert Fico, was shot in an assassination attempt, and against a surge of growing low-level political violence and threats against candidates, mayors and elected officials in France, Germany and other countries. Danish leaders from across the political spectrum voiced outrage over the attack. Pelle Dragsted, a spokesperson for the opposition Red-Green Alliance, described the attack as appalling and completely unacceptable. Business minister Morten Bdskov described the incident as completely insane, while Morten Messerschmidt, chairman of the anti-immigrant Danish Peoples party, said: Violence is never OK. European leaders also condemned the attack. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president and lead candidate for the centre-right European Peoples party in the EU elections, expressed her shock. I condemn this despicable act which goes against everything we believe and fight for in Europe, she said, wishing the Danish prime minister strength and courage I know you have plenty of both. European Council president Charles Michel said he was outraged by the horrendous attack, adding: I strongly condemn this cowardly act of aggression. Swedens prime minister Ulf Kristersson said: Mette is a very good colleague and wise partner. I sincerely hope that she is unharmed. An attack on a democratically elected leader is also an attack on our democracy. Tonight, my thoughts and those of the family are with her. The European parliament president, Roberta Metsola, wrote: Tonights assault on the Danish prime minister is appalling. Violence has no place in politics. Keep strong, Mette! she added. Finlands prime minister, Petteri Orpo, said he is deeply shocked by the assault on my colleague. I strongly condemn any form of violence against democratically elected leaders in our free societies. My thoughts are with you, and I wish you strength during this difficult time, he said. Latvias prime minister Evika Silina also said she is deeply shocked. The Socialists and Democrats group in the European parliament said it stands with Frederiksen a social democrat and the Danish people. Acts of violence are always an attack against democracy. We will not be intimidated, the group said. Stefan Lofven, president of the Party of European Socialists (PES), said: The whole PES community is with Mette and her family. We condemn this senseless attack. Political violence must have no place in our societies. Man arrested in connection to armed robbery of US postal employees, taken to Russell County jail COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) A wanted man was taken into custody on Wednesday in connection to the armed robbery of US postal employees, according to the Muscogee County Sheriffs Office (MCSO). Demetrice Sampson was arrested by the United States Postal Inspectors and MCSO. Sampson is charged with two counts of armed robbery and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. ARRESTED: MCSO apprehends three wanted gang members on numerous warrants Sampson was taken to Russell County Jail. He is waiting to be extradited to Muscogee County. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WRBL. Man arrested in Houston in connection to east Charlotte homicide: CMPD Man arrested in Houston in connection to east Charlotte homicide: CMPD CHARLOTTE (QUEEN CITY NEWS) Jose Francisco Ulloa-Martinez, 42, was arrested in Houston, Texas, in connection to killing 23-year-old Kevin Merlos-Saravia, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. On Monday, June 3, Ulloa-Martinez was arrested and charged with first-degree murder by the Houston Police Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. CMPD detectives went to Houston to interview the suspect who is currently awaiting extradition back to Mecklenburg County, officials said. PREVIOUSLY | Victim identified in Sundays east Charlotte homicide: CMPD Just after 5 a.m. on Sunday, May 26, officers responded to an assault with a deadly weapon call in the 6100 block of Winged Elm Court. Merlos-Saravia was pronounced dead at the scene after being shot during an altercation between him and the suspect, police said. Ulloa-Martinezs arrest was an effort from officials with CMPD, the Fairfield County (S.C.) Sheriffs Office, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, ICE, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) unit, Houston Police Department and Houston Police Departments Gang Unit. Police say the investigation into this case is ongoing. Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600. This is a Developing Story . Check back for updates Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. Man charged with assaulting, taking gun from Kentucky State Police trooper after chase A man was charged Friday with assaulting a Kentucky State Police trooper and taking the officers gun. The trooper was treated at a hospital and released. State police did not release the officers name. The incident happened just after midnight in Nelson County. The trooper tried to stop a 2012 Chevrolet Equinox for a traffic violation but the driver allegedly didnt stop. The trooper pursued the driver until the road reached a dead end and the driver ran into some woods, according to a news release. When the trooper caught up with the suspect, the man allegedly assaulted the trooper and fled. State police obtained a warrant charging Dustin M. Thompson, 31 of New Hope, with first-degree assault, first-degree strangulation, disarming a police officer and theft of a firearm, according to the release. State police did not immediately find Thompson and cautioned people against approaching him because he was considered dangerous, but said in a later release that he had been found and arrested. Man convicted of wife's 1987 murder shares first days with family outside of prison Leo Schofield has spent the last 35 years behind bars, convicted of the 1987 murder of his wife Michelle. Schofield filed four appeals while in prison, amidst new forensic evidence and a confession from a convicted killer. Each time he was denied. But in April Leo Schofield was granted parole by the Florida State Commission on Offender Review. Leo Schofield spoke with ABC News' John Quinones following his release on parole, saying he is now learning to "be in the moment and just enjoy" the time he is living outside prison. MORE: A killer confession: How a detective's unusual tactics led to uncovering the truth PHOTO: Leo Schofield, speaking with ABC News John Quinones, says his future looks very bright after he was released on parole in May 2024. (ABC News) "It doesn't take long in prison before you realize that you were taking a lot of things for granted," Leo Schofield said to Quinones, "and then you're fighting for the next 36 years to get them back." A new "20/20" airing Friday, June 7, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC Network and streaming the next day on Hulu, features the latest details of Leo Schofield's case and examines what happened to Michelle Schofield. Leo Schofield, now 58, has maintained his innocence from the very beginning. "I love Michelle with all my heart to this day," Leo Schofield said in a prison interview with "20/20" in 2022. "She was a victim of a cruel and heinous crime, but not one committed by her husband." On Feb. 24, 1987, 21-year-old Leo Schofield was waiting to get picked up by his then 18-year-old wife, Michelle Schofield. Hours passed without any sign of Michelle. Two days and a massive search later, police found her car, abandoned and missing its stereo speakers, along a highway exit ramp. The following day, her body was found underneath a plank of plywood in a drainage canal. She had been stabbed 26 times. PHOTO: Leo Schofield is seen in this wedding photo with his first wife, Michelle Schofield. (Don Morris) Leo Schofield recalled the flood of emotions he felt in the moments after Michelle's body was recovered. "I was so angry at God at that moment," Leo Schofield said. "I ripped my shirt off. I punched a tree, punched the ground. I was pulling grass out of the ground." Leo Schofield was arrested fifteen months later, in June 1988. During his trial in 1989, the prosecution argued that Leo regularly acted violently towards Michelle throughout their relationship. They brought in 21 character witnesses who testified about incidents of physical abuse by Leo towards Michelle, including slapping her and pulling her by the hair. While on the stand, Schofield denied the claims made by the witnesses but admitted to slapping his wife twice. Despite there being no forensic evidence linking Leo Schofield to the crime, the jury returned their verdict in two hours. Leo Schofield was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. About four years into his life sentence, Leo Schofield met Crissie Carter, a former state probation officer. The two married in 1995. PHOTO: Crissie Schofield and Leo Schofield are seen together in this photo from May 2023. (ABC News) While researching Leo Schofield's case, Crissie Schofield couldn't stop thinking about the discrepancies in timelines presented at trial and the set of unidentified fingerprints found in Michelle Schofield's car, both of which Leo Schofield's defense attorney raised in court. Due to a lack of forensic technology, the fingerprints couldn't be matched... until 2004. The prints belonged to Jeremy Scott, a convicted murderer who was serving prison time for an unrelated crime. Scott lived less than 2 miles from where Michelle Schofield's body was recovered. PHOTO: Michelle Schofield's car was found abandoned and broken into before her body was discovered. Fingerprints were also found on the car. (Polk County Sheriff's Office) Leo's appellate attorney made a request for a new hearing based on this evidence. The court denied their request, arguing that Jeremy Scott's fingerprints alone would not likely have led to an acquittal on retrial, and ruled there were no issues with the trial evidence that would have led to Leo's exoneration. In 2005, two detectives from the Polk County Sheriff's Office interviewed Jeremy Scott. He denied any role in the murder of Michelle Schofield. In 2017, Leo Schofield's defense attorney, Andrew Crawford, enlisted an investigator to interview Scott again. PHOTO: Jeremy Scott in a police photo. (Polk County Sherriff's Office) It was during this interview that Scott claimed that Michelle Schofield offered him a ride, and there was a struggle after a knife fell out of his pocket. The details recorded during this conversation led Leo Schofield's legal team to request a retrial, which led to an evidentiary hearing. At a 2017 evidentiary hearing, Jeremy Scott testified to the court that he murdered Michelle Schofield. During cross-examination, the prosecution pointed out multiple times over the years where Scott denied any role in Michelle Schofield's murder, as well as certain details that he could not recall or got wrong in his testimony, such as the clothes she wore that night. Ultimately, Leo Schofield was again denied a new trial. The court ruled that the evidence did not meet the legal threshold for a new trial and made a finding that the testimony of Jeremy Scott was not credible. In 2023, Leo Schofield became eligible for parole again. He was denied but was given an extension for his case to be reviewed again in 2024. In the year leading up to his review, Leo Schofield was transitioned to a minimum-security facility in South Florida, one with a transitional program that helps prepare inmates for a life outside of prison walls. "We've been walking in a tunnel in utter darkness for 35 years," Leo Schofield told Gilbert King, a Pulitzer-prize winning author who is the host of a podcast about the case, "Bone Valley," after the 2023 parole hearing. "We have never had a light at the end of this tunnel, ever... Yesterday, a big, bright light was lit." In April 2024, a parole board voted to release Leo Schofield. Now, more than three decades later, he's being given a taste of freedom. Leo Schofield was released on parole from a medium security correctional facility in the Everglades on April 30, 2024. "I saw him come around the building," Crissie Schofield told "20/20" about the day Leo Schofield was paroled. "After all these years and dreaming and hoping and waiting, it was just the most glorious, magical experience of my life." Leo Schofield's legal team said he must reside in a halfway house for a year, enter a community outreach program and undergo mandatory mental health, substance abuse, anger and stress evaluations. He also has 18 months of curfew restrictions and is not allowed to contact Michelle Schofield's family. Leo Schofield told John Quinones that he still thinks about his first wife Michelle Schofield "every single day." "This is not yet complete justice for her, and she deserves justice. She deserves better than this," Leo Schofield said. According to Crissie Schofield, the next step for her husband is exoneration. He is still technically a guilty man in the eyes of the law. The members of his legal team, many of whom come from the Florida Innocence Project, are fighting for full exoneration."It's wonderful that he's out, but he's not free. This isn't over," Crissie Schofield said. Former Florida Judge Scott Cupp is another of Leo's many supporters. Cupp made headlines after he stepped down from the bench in 2023 to focus on Leo's fight for freedom. "I finally made the decision that I'm going to step off and go back to being his lawyer and represent him at the parole hearing," Scott Cupp told John Quinones. "... because this guy's innocent." Leo Schofield recently celebrated his 29th wedding anniversary to Crissie Schofield, played guitar for her at her birthday party and held one of his grandsons, the son of his daughter Ashley Schofield, for the very first time. Quinones asked Leo Schofield how the future looks to him, to which he replied, "very bright." "I'm not going to ever take that for granted again," Leo Schofield told Quinones. "I'm missing 36 years' worth of moments. I'm not going to miss another 36 years." ABC News' Kaitlin Amoroso, Gail Deutsch, Jonathan Leach, Brian Mezerski, Emily Moffet, Lydia Noone, Jeff Schneider, and Brooke Stangeland contributed to this report. Man convicted of wife's 1987 murder shares first days with family outside of prison originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Man pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter in death of fiancee who went missing FILE - This booking photo provided by the Butler County, Ohio, Jail shows John Allen Carter. The fiance of an Ohio art student who went missing nearly 13 years ago pleaded guilty Friday, June 7, 2024 to involuntary manslaughter. John Carter, 36, had been charged with two counts of murder when he was arrested in March 2023. He now faces up to three years in prison when he's sentenced July 18. (Butler County Jail via AP, File) The fiance of an Ohio art student who went missing nearly 13 years ago pleaded guilty Friday to involuntary manslaughter. John Carter, 36, had been charged with two counts of murder when he was arrested in March 2023. He now faces up to three years in prison when he's sentenced July 18. The charges stemmed from the August 2011 disappearance of Katelyn Markham, who was last seen at her home in Fairfield. At the time, Markham was a few weeks away from finishing her graphic arts degree at the Art Institute of OhioCincinnati, and Carter has said they were planning to move to Colorado later that year. Skeletal remains identified as Markhams were found in 2013 in a wooded area in Cedar Grove, Indiana, about 20 miles (about 32 kilometers) west of her home in Fairfield. Authorities ruled her death a homicide but did not determine how she was killed. Butler County prosecutors have said Carter caused Markham's death by physical violence and by force. The Bibb County Sheriffs Office was searching Friday for a man accused of robbing a Family Dollar in Macon, the BCSO said in a press release. It was reported that a masked man entered the store Thursday and brandished a firearm, demanding money from the store clerk and patrons, at 4925 Bloomfield Road around 7:45 p.m., deputies said. The man took an undisclosed amount of money, then fled west on foot near Chambers Road, the media release said. The suspect was described as a slender man in all black clothing, about 5-feet-7-inches to 6 feet tall and weighing about 120 to 160 pounds, according to the sheriffs office. No one was injured during the commercial robbery, deputies said. The sheriffs asked anyone with information related to the incident or suspect to call them at 478-751-7500 or Macon Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-877-68CRIME. Man sought for two camera thefts near Central Park in Manhattan Man sought for two camera thefts near Central Park in Manhattan MANHATTAN, N.Y. (PIX11) Police are searching for a suspect connected to two separate camera robberies near Central Park. No injuries were reported in either incident. More Local News The first victim was using a camera and tripod near West Drive and Terrace Drive on Friday, May 31. At around 2:19 p.m., an unknown man removed took the equipment while the victim was distracted and ran away, police said. The second victim was using a camera near West Drive and 79 Street Transverse on Saturday, June 1, according to the NYPD. An unknown man took the camera from the victims hand and ran away, police said. The incident happened at around 1:30 p.m. Teen shot during prom party in Brooklyn building: sources Police have released the following surveillance image of the suspect. Credit: NYPD Submit tips to police by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), visiting crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, downloading the NYPD Crime Stoppers mobile app, or texting 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. Spanish-speaking callers are asked to dial 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Ben Mitchell is a digital content producer from Vermont who has covered both local and international news since 2021. He joined PIX11 in 2024. See more of his work here. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. WENZHOU/NEW YORK, June 7 (Xinhua) -- "We are committed to being a model of China-U.S. educational cooperation," Lamont Repollet, president of Kean University in the United States, told Xinhua in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou. Repollet is visiting Wenzhou to attend the graduation ceremony of Wenzhou-Kean University (WKU), an international province-state friendship project jointly established by Wenzhou University in China's Zhejiang Province and Kean University in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Since its establishment in 2014, the WKU has exchanged more than 1,700 students with Kean University, providing opportunities for young people from both sides to explore cultural differences, break down silos and foster bilateral friendship. "When you are in your silos, you don't really understand the culture. When you start to understand the culture, you start to appreciate the people," said Repollet. Back in 2006, Xi Jinping, then secretary of the Communist Party of China Zhejiang Provincial Committee, witnessed the signing ceremony of China-U.S. cooperation in establishing the WKU, and facilitated its preparation. In 1981, Zhejiang Province established a sister state-province relationship with New Jersey, and Wenzhou University's predecessor, Wenzhou Normal College, has had long-term exchanges and cooperation with Kean University in the United States. Repollet recently wrote a letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping to expound on the situation and achievements of cooperative education, and voice readiness to actively promote communication between the younger generation of China and the United States. And to his surprise, Xi replied. Xi hailed in his reply the university as a landmark project in bilateral educational cooperation and encouraged more U.S. students to come to China for exchange and study. China-U.S. education exchanges and cooperation, a project for the future of bilateral relations, help promote mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples, especially between the youths of the two countries, Xi wrote. Repollet said he was excited to hear from Xi and vowed to do more to promote exchanges between young people from both countries. "As we start to understand and appreciate other cultures, we start to shrink the differences between us." Xi also sent greetings in his reply to Dawood Farahi, former president of Kean University who initiated the plan to establish the WKU. "This is a moment that I want to celebrate with him (Farahi)," said Repollet. "The blood, sweat, and tears he put into this project laid the foundation." Calling Xi's mention in the letter an "honor," Farahi recalled his meeting with Xi in 2006 before the signing ceremony, when "Xi's vision defined and broadened the scope of what we were about to do." "There is no difference in the dream of an American parent from that of a Chinese parent from what they want for their children: a better opportunity than they have had themselves," Farahi told Xinhua in a written interview. "Higher education is one such vehicle that would allow them to achieve that dream. This is also important for the two societies to be able to understand each other, cooperate with each other and work together." Recalling the year and a half as an exchange student at Kean University, Zhang Ying, who is graduating this summer, expressed gratitude for the warm welcome and support she received from her teachers and classmates, saying it helped her overcome her anxiety about a foreign culture and society. "Starting this fall I will be studying for a Master's degree in the United States. I hope to serve as a friendship envoy between the two countries, and promote exchanges between Chinese and U.S. youths," she said. Her sentiment was echoed by Baaba Eshun, a senior at Kean University who had planned to apply for an exchange program at the WKU. "There is a lot of confusion and misunderstandings in the world. I think if we just come together and get to know each other, it will help promote mutual appreciation for sure," Eshun said. Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., walks to the Senate chamber to vote at the U.S. Capitol on September 20, 2023. On Friday, Manchin offered a resolution regarding unaccompanied minor children who cross the U.S. border illegally. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI June 7 (UPI) -- Newly independent West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is leading a Republican effort to turn around a Biden administration rule that he says puts migrant children in danger by relaxing sponsorship vetting. Manchin, who earlier this month announced that he was leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent, said in a release that Biden's rule jeopardizes the safety of children with minimal background checks for sponsors. Manchin said the Unaccompanied Children program is supposed to place migrant children who enter the country alone illegally with a trusted adult sponsor. However, he said vetting of the sponsors is optional, it refuses to consider criminal records, has weak standards for home studies and restricts whistleblowers. While Manchin called the resolution "bipartisan," all 45 of the co-sponsors are Republican. There are no Democratic signees. "I have repeatedly called on President Biden to use his executive powers to shut [the border] down and address the cycles of exploitation that illegal immigration empowers," Manchin said in his statement. "Instead, the administration is allowing rules like this one to jeopardize the safety of migrant children and trust them in the hands of unvetted sponsors, all the while spending billions of taxpayer dollars to enforce the flawed program." Manchin said his resolution would add accountability to the program by striking down the new rule that the Department of Health and Human Services introduced in April. Unaccompanied children at the border are taken to the Office of Refugee Resettlement until the child is released to a sponsor, usually a family member. Sponsors must be able to prove they can provide for the child and pass a background check. Manchin said the new rule doesn't allow potential sponsors to reveal their immigration status or past criminal history. Manufacturer of Caesar artillery systems announces plans to build plant in Ukraine The Franco-German company KNDS announced on Friday, 7 June, that it would set up a subsidiary in Ukraine. Source: European Pravda, citing BFMTV, a French news broadcast television and radio network Details: The announcement was made in the presence of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Representatives of the KNDS and the Ukrainian company ENMEK signed two declarations of intent, one of which concerns the creation of a maintenance centre for Caesar self-propelled howitzers (SPHs), and the other relates to the 3D printing of spare parts. A contract was also formalised for the transfer of licensed production of 155mm shells to Ukraine. KNDS produces artillery systems and main battle tanks, as well as Caesar SPHs used by Ukraine's Armed Forces. Background: In late March, French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu and his German counterpart Boris Pistorius announced that the plant would produce military equipment and ammunition on Ukrainian soil. In addition, talks between President Zelenskyy and his US counterpart Joe Biden commenced in the French capital of Paris, where the White House announced a new US$225 million aid package for Ukraine. Media reports indicate that the announced package includes, among other things, air defence missiles, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, Javelin and AT-4 anti-tank systems, 155mm howitzers, armoured vehicles, trailers, patrol boats, demolition materials and a wide range of other spare parts and equipment. Support UP or become our patron! A tiger shark vomited up an unexpected Australian icon, right in front of a surprised biologist. Tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) aren't exactly fussy eaters. They've been known to take bites out of seabirds, other sharks, and humans, as well as tires, license plates, and even a small TV. But one of these marine predators couldn't quite stomach a spiky short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus). The incident was recorded off the coast of Orpheus Island in north Queensland, where a team of researchers caught the shark to tag it in 2022 as part of a three-year project. Marine biologist Nicolas Lubitz from James Cook University in Australia captured the startling moment the 3-meter (9.4-foot) long shark spat out its barbed breakfast. "It was a fully intact echidna with all its spines and its legs," Lubitz says. "I managed to only get one picture, but you can see the outline of the echidna in the water." Lubitz suspects this spiky spew was the result of a combination of stress and indigestion. "It's very rare that [tiger sharks] throw up their food but sometimes when they get stressed they can," Lubitz says. "In this case, I think the echidna must have just felt a bit funny in its throat." A Tiger shark not long after it regurgitated an echidna off the coast of Orpheus Island in May 2022. (Nic Lubitz/James Cook University) Echidnas have been known to swim from time to time, perhaps to stay cool, pushing their little snout up from the water like a snorkel. But most sightings have been in creeks, lakes, rivers, and swimming pools rarely in the ocean. So it's pretty surprising that they might sometimes paddle out far enough from shore to become shark bait. There have been sightings of Queensland echidnas swimming between the mainland and nearby islands, but it's still quite unusual. Lubitz says the unlucky echidna must have been swimming in shallows off the island, or perhaps even swimming between nearby islands, in search of food or a mate, when it was snapped up by the shark. Because the dead echidna's carcass was still fully intact when it was regurgitated, Lubitz suspects it was a recent kill the shark hadn't begun to digest before taking the research team's bait. "It's known that Tiger sharks will eat anything. They're just a scavenger. I've seen videos of them eating a rock for no reason," Lubitz says. While the echidna certainly takes first prize for prickliest prey, the team observed another bizarre shark vom on a separate occasion during their time at sea. This time, a Tiger shark coughed up half a dugong. "It threw up a big piece of blubber and then a full vertebral column. I think it was a dugong calf it had a go at," Lubitz says. Both sharks seemed to recover post-regurgitation, and were fitted with acoustic trackers before being sent on their way. It's hoped the trackers will provide scientists with data on the sharks' movements for a decade. So far 812 animals have been tagged as part of the Queensland Array project, including critically endangered eastern shovelnose rays (Apychotrema rostrata), also known as guitarfish. In 1996, Mark Fuhrman one of the investigating LAPD officers responding to the scene after the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson was charged with perjury for false testimony delivered during the trial of O.J. Simpson. Decades later, California has barred him from ever carrying a badge in the state again, though at 72, the move is being viewed as ceremonial and "was likely meant to make clear that California will not tolerate such officers," as AP News describes it. Having been exposed for racial-bias and accused by Simpson's defense team of planting evidence at the scene of the crime, Fuhrman retired from the LAPD and went on to write a book called Murder in Brentwood" and, as The Los Angeles Times points out, Fox News website lists him as a forensic and crime scene expert for Fox News Channel. In response to the news of his decertification, he gave brief quotes to both The San Francisco Chronicle and AP News, saying, Good for them, have a nice day, and, That was 30 years ago. You guys are really up to speed. The California decertification law that stripped Fuhrman of his policing capabilities was put into practice in response to the 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Per AP News' reporting, roughly 100 officers have been decertified since 2023. California authorities have confirmed the first fatal black bear attack in the states history, which occurred in November 2023 in Downieville. The victim, Patrice Miller, 71, was discovered by police executing a welfare check. Her remains were badly decayed and appeared to have been fed upon for several days. It took investigators months to figure out what had happened inside the home. On June 5, 2024, it was finally reported that the bear had been the cause of her death. Patrice had passed away due to a bear mauling or a swipe and a bite to the neck area, Sheriff Mike Fisher told local station KCRA. Initially, investigators did not know whether the bear had killed Miller or if shed died previously, and it had been drawn in by the scent. What was clear as soon as they arrived at her home was that the bear had forced entry and fed upon her remains for an extended period of time. The sheriff told reporters that the bear returned to the residential home even after the remains had been removed. I was getting a lot of phone calls from concerned citizens that live in the area and other county employees, Fisher said. Eventually, California Fish and Wildlife officers captured and euthanized the bear. But the story has left the community rattled. Miller had had numerous issues and encounters with bears at her home before this, and other bears remain active in the area. Black Bear Attacks: Rare and Almost Never Fatal black bear Black bears are not generally aggressive toward people. Attacks on people by black bears are extremely rare, and fatalities are almost never reported. This incident is an exception. Its a big deal, Steve Gonzalez with California Fish and Wildlife told KCRA. That doesnt happen in California. Millers daughter told police that her mother had constantly been dealing with bears trying to get in through broken windows. She said her mother had to physically hit one to keep it from entering her residence. One particularly troublesome bear was a frequent visitor at Millers home. Shed dubbed the problem bear big bastard, according to her daughter. Fisher said he was unaware of Millers recurring confrontations with bears until after her death. The Department of Fish and Wildlife claims there are between 30,000 and 40,000 black bears roaming the state. In some areas like Downieville and Lake Tahoe, residents are reporting higher numbers of bear break-ins than normal, according to KCRA. Nonprofits like Bear League have been established as a response. It loans out electric doormats to homeowners so they can deter bears from returning. Bears that become conditioned to eating out of human dumpsters or elsewhere around human neighborhoods are often tranquilized and relocated or euthanized to avoid future conflicts. The post Mauled in Her Home: California Confirms First Fatal Bear Attack in States History appeared first on GearJunkie. In May 2024 Ukraine reached second highest level of exports of goods since full-scale war begun In May 2024, Ukraines physical exports of products totaled 12.2 million tonnes, worth US$3.3 billion. This is the second-highest figure recorded since the start of Russias full-scale invasion. Source: press service of Ukraines Ministry of Economy Details: According to Taras Kachka, Ukraines Deputy Minister of Economy, May is generally the month when grain exports fall. Thus, maize exports in May totalled 3.6 million tonnes, 452,000 tonnes less than in April, while wheat exports totalled 1.6 million tonnes, 285,000 tonnes less. Simultaneously, metallurgical exports rose significantly in May. Exports of seamless pipes climbed by 50.2% from April 2024, semi-finished items by 40%, and flat rolled products by 17%. Quote: "And so it is important that on 31 May, Biden adopted a proclamation that extended the exemption of Ukrainian steel from duties. By the way, the EU's autonomous measures also provide for the exemption of Ukrainian steel from the protective duty in the EU. This gives us great opportunities for the integration of the Ukrainian metallurgical industry with the industry of the EU and the US," said Kachka. The Ministry of Economy emphasises that export geography has shifted. Exports to Poland climbed by 12% compared to April, totaling US$365.8 million. Ukraine's exports to India have increased by 85%, with sunflower oil being the primary product. At the same time, exports to China fell by 30% due to a seasonal decline in maize shipments, Ukraine's primary export to the country. "Despite the fact that last month physical exports of goods decreased by 6.9% compared to April, May was the second month in these indicators for the entire time of the full-scale invasion," adds Kachka. Background: In May, Ukraine exported a record 108,000 tonnes of sugar, with 65% going to the EU and 35% to other countries. Ukraine must improve its processing sector in order to sustain agricultural capacity while also increasing efficiency and export capabilities. Support UP or become our patron! GAZA, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 36,731, the Hamas-run health authorities said in a press statement on Friday. During the past 24 hours, Israeli forces killed 77, and wounded 221 others, bringing the total death toll to 36,731 and injuries to 83,530 since the Palestinian-Israeli conflict broke out in October last year, the statement said. The statement noted that some victims remained under the rubble amid heavy bombardment and a lack of rescue crew. Israel launched a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and around 250 were taken hostage. It is a painfully documented reality that a lack of transportation options can lead to students missing school. Despite this known fact, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and City Manager Howard Chan are still kicking kids to the curb. Its only been a few years since the City of Sacramento won acclaim for funding the RydeFreeRT program that provides free use of regional public transportation for all Sacramento-area students one of the first of its kind in the nation. Now that those headlines have faded from memory, Steinberg and city officials are shifting this program into reverse by proposing cuts to city funds for RydeFreeRT. Now, Steinberg is looking to shift half of the costs for the program to local school districts and hes doing this all while claiming to support Sacramentos students and families. The mayor cant have it both ways. This added financial burden would be placed on local school districts at a time when the state budget the primary source of funding for Californias schools faces a massive deficit. The mayor is now proposing that $250,000 for RydeFreeRT be covered by the Sacramento City Unified School District and an additional $250,000 be covered by the Natomas, Twin Rivers and the Elk Grove Unified school districts. Opinion According to Darryl White, chair of Sacramento Unifieds Black Parallel School Board, RydeFreeRT has been instrumental in shaping transportation equity in Sacramento. If the city were to cut this program, the consequences for students could be profound, White said. In 2023, RydeFreeRT student ridership reached 3.4 million, accounting for a quarter of all Sacramento Regional Transit rides on bus and light rail (up from 8% pre-pandemic). According to Sac City Unified officials, the percentage is even higher at some Sacramento City campuses, where more than one in three students rely on public transit. Behind Steinbergs retreat on his commitment to students is the fiscal mismanagement that is driving the need for the city to cut costs. Despite record revenue coming into city coffers, Steinbergs inability to say no to raises for Chan, who is already the highest paid city manager in the state, and other staff have pushed the city to the fiscal brink. While it may be true that Steinberg and Sacramento City Council members have faced challenges closing the citys $66 million shortfall, the simple fact that they are willing to take an ax to this program is providing disturbing insight into city leaders priorities. Budgets are statements of our shared community values. The $1-million annual cost of the RydeFreeRT program (in an overall city budget of $1.6 billion) is an investment in our students and the future, providing the resources to help our students make it to school safely and combat the chronic absenteeism weve seen skyrocket at schools since the pandemic. Longtime former Sacramento City Councilmember Jay Schenirer said continuing to fund RydeFreeRT is an investment in a sustainable, equitable and progressive Sacramento. We agree. Steinberg and other city leaders need to embrace these ideals and show our students that they are seen, valued and supported during good budget times and bad. Our school districts shouldnt be forced to cut resources from our classrooms to fix the citys budget shortfalls. In 2016, when he was first running for election, Steinberg repeatedly promised that he wanted to be the Education Mayor. Now he should stand up for students by allocating the needed funds for the RydeFreeRT program. Mara Harvey is the president of Natomas Teachers Association. Nikki Milevsky is the president of Sacramento City Teachers Association. Hungary is preventing consensus among EU members on the start of Ukraine's accession talks, Interfax Ukraine reported on June 7, citing undisclosed diplomatic sources. The news came after the European Commission supported the start of accession talks with Ukraine on the same day, according to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. For talks to begin, the EU needs to unanimously agree that Ukraine has undertaken measures to improve issues like corruption and the protection of minority languages. Budapest has repeatedly claimed that the Hungarian ethnic minority concentrated in southwestern Ukraine is discriminated against due to Kyiv's language laws. Ukraine denies the allegations and updated its national minorities law at the end of 2023 in line with the EU's recommendations. "Everyone knows that the Commission thinks that Moldova and Ukraine have fulfilled their requirements and that we should hold an intergovernmental conference," a European diplomat told the Ukrainian media outlet. "Many countries agreed with this, but Hungary reiterated that they have conditions that still need to be fulfilled. Otherwise, they will not be able to accept the Commission's assessment." Another undisclosed senior diplomatic source said that Hungary had reiterated its previous stance about the lack of progress regarding the ethnic minority issue in Ukraine, mentioning that the EU also needs to "move forward" with Serbia's and Albania's accession talks. "We are all (apart from Hungary) in favor of holding the intergovernmental conference on June 25," the diplomat said. Both senior diplomats said that the discussion about Ukraine would continue next week. Budapest may compromise for progress for the Western Balkan countries, giving the "green light to Ukraine and Moldova as well," the sources told Interfax Ukraine. EU and Ukrainian officials are reportedly pushing for the talks to start by June 25 before Hungary takes the presidency of the EU Council in July. Relations between Kyiv and Budapest became particularly tense throughout the full-scale war, as Hungary maintained close ties with Russia and obstructed aid to Ukraine and sanctions against Moscow. Read also: EU aid and accession talks: Why European elections matter for Ukraine Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. The "Melbourne Beach crocodile" has become a multimedia star in parts of Florida ... because it apparently loves Florida. The crocodile earned its nickname after a series of sightings in the Melbourne Beach area. As of June 6, 2024, there have been about 14 reported sightings of possibly the same crocodile since 2019. Some of those crocodile sightings occurred outside of Brevard County, which has 72 miles of coast, but the majority of them happened in Melbourne Beach. Here's a timeline of the Melbourne Beach crocodile's comings and goings. Melbourne Beach crocodile really loves this part of Florida. It keeps showing up What is the Melbourne Beach crocodile? The "Melbourne Beach crocodile" earned its nickname after a series of sightings in or near Melbourne Beach, Florida, from 2019 to 2024. Photos and video of the crocodile on Facebook, X (the social media site formerly known as Twitter) or Instagram receive a lot of engagement whenever there's a Melbourne Beach crocodile sighting. A video of the apparent Melbourne Beach crocodile splashing on the shoreline of Sebastian Inlet went viral. Where is the Melbourne Beach crocodile in Florida? A crocodile unexpectedly appeared this weekend in South Patrick Shores. Dec. 17, 2019: According to FLORIDA TODAY, a crocodile lingered in a neighborhood in South Patrick Shores, Florida, causing a stir among residents. The reptile was seen in the Berkeley Street canal in South Patrick Shores. He laid in the sun, walked in backyards and swam in the canal. South Patrick Shores is south of Patrick Space Force Base, between Cocoa Beach and Satellite Beach. A crocodile, estimated to be 8- to 10-feet-long, was spotted on a dock in Indialantic on Feb. 25, 2020. Feb. 25, 2020: Just ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic, a crocodile, estimated to be 8- to 10-feet-long, was spotted on a dock in Indialantic. March 3, 2020: There was another sighting of the reptile. Sara Sutton, then 18, hopped on a kayak to get a closer look: He likes to bask at certain times of the day," Sutton, a 2019 graduate of Melbourne Central Catholic, told FLORIDA TODAY. November 2022: Tiara Weethee spent an hour hanging around the beach at sunset and words can hardly describe what she saw. Weethee found an American crocodile getting lapped up by waves on the beach south of Sebastian Inlet by McLarty Treasure Museum in Florida. Sebastian Inlet is just past Melbourne Beach and is on the border of Brevard County and Indian River County, or the Space Coast and the Treasure Coast. At first, Weethee thought it was an alligator in the shallow waters needing help to get back into freshwater. Once she realized it was a crocodile this one without a tracking device she kept her distance and filmed it on her phone. "I won't probably ever get to see this again in my life. I'm going to hang out until the sun is gone," she said in her video (see above), which has gotten thousands of views on YouTube and TikTok. Dec. 4, 2022: Pedro Tellez, a land management technician with Brevard's Environmentally Endangered Lands Program, saw an 8-foot crocodile hanging out on the dunes near the county's Barrier Island Sanctuary in Melbourne Beach. This 9-foot-long American crocodile born in Key Largo is 16 years old. When he was a juvenile, he was hit twice by cars back to back and spent time in rehab before being released. After rehab, he traveled from Key Largo over the years and ended up in Melbourne Beach in December 2022. FWC said he got pretty beat up when trying to live in the ocean and ended up being captured, had a transmitter added and released in Archie Carr. April 16, 2023: Ian Gronosky, a commercial drone pilot, posted a video of a crocodile swimming in his backyard in Melbourne Beach (see above video). His caption states: "The American Crocodile. (Yes, in our backyard) He is 9 feet long. He was born in Key Largo and is 16 years old. When he was a juvenile, he was hit twice by cars back to back and spent some time in rehab before being released. Since being released, he traveled from Key Largo over the years and ended up on our beachside around December this last year (2022). FWC said he got pretty beat up when trying to live in the ocean and ended up being captured, had a transmitter added and released in Archie Carr." Information from FWC, via Joy Gilbert. May 9, 2023: An American crocodile was spotted in Melbourne Beach, according to the town's police department. On May 9, Melbourne Beach Police posted photos of the crocodile and warned people not to feed the reptile, according to its Facebook page: "Florida Fish and Wildlife is aware of this croc hanging around Sixth Avenue River Access and the Key Streets. They (estimate) his age to be about 10 years old. ... This crocodile has been tagged with a telemetry unit to track him. There are less than 12 statewide that are wearing this unit. They picked him because he's one of the northernmost American crocodiles, and they want to follow where he goes in the winter. He is federally protected, so please do not mess with or feed him; it is a felony." May 18, 2023: Satellite Beach police posted about a crocodile encounter on its Facebook page: "Earlier today we received a call from a resident about a 'crocodile' that mysteriously appeared in his driveway. Our patrol units arrived just as the endangered American Crocodile took refuge in the culvert drainpipe. Our officers swiftly issued a trespass warning and called in our partners at FWC for an assist. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission sent trappers out to safely trap and relocate the 9-foot croc that was tagged with a tracking device. It was a happy ending for the croc, and just another eventful day for the SBPD!" The Satellite Beach Police Department posted information about a crocodile sighting in summer 2023 with contact info for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission if residents see a crocodile. June 27, 2023: A Facebook post showed a crocodile was spotted in the canal between Kenwood Court and Cinnamon in Satellite Beach. June 30, 2023: A Satellite Beach community Facebook page posted photos of a crocodile and a map of the sighting: "Crocodile Spotted This Week In Satellite Beach One of several in our area this year This one spotted off Samson Island and also South Near Desoto Park." Crocodile warning signs have been put up at DeSoto Park in Satellite Beach near the kayak dock after a crocodile ate a dog. July 31, 2023: According to an Aug. 1, 2023, story in FLORIDA TODAY, Florida Fish and Wildlife officials warned Brevard County residents to be on alert after a crocodile was spotted carrying away a pet dog near Tortoise Island. The incident was reported to Satellite Beach Police. "The statewide nuisance alligator program received a call yesterday about a video of the incident," Kristen Turner, spokesperson for Florida Fish and Wildlife said in a 2023 email to FLORIDA TODAY. The claim was then forwarded to the agency's crocodile team. Agents searched for the missing dog and crocodile at the site, but neither was found. A resident reported on Facebook seeing a crocodile swim along a canal with a medium-sized pug in its mouth, Satellite Beach officials reported. Crocodile warning signs were posted near the area days later. Oct. 1, 2023: A 9-foot crocodile was spotted hanging around the east bank of the Indian River in Indialantic. Cam McKegg of Indialantic shared video of the reptile with FLORIDA TODAY: "We have not seen this croc before, but had seen the one with the white tracker," McKegg said via email. "My wife (Meg) and I have three French bulldogs so we are now taking extra precautions when we let them out in the yard. Also, occasionally we see long distance swimmers in the river and (are) concerned they are not aware there is a large predator in the river." Oct. 13, 2023: The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission relocated the Melbourne Beach crocodile. In a June 4, 2024, news report (see below), the FWC released a statement about the Melbourne Beach crocodile: "The crocodile that the FWC relocated on Oct. 13, 2023, was recently seen again in Brevard County. This particular crocodile has traveled over 100 miles during the course of eight months to return to Brevard County, indicating that it prefers this area ... To date, this animal has not displayed any concerning behaviors and is not considered to be a threat." June 4, 2024: According to a Fox 35 Orlando story, the Franco family of Indialantic spotted a crocodile hanging out by their boat and got a little too close for comfort to the family dog, Loki. "Crocodiles aren't anything to play with. You see it. You should go the other direction. He's probably getting very desensitized to humans, so there's really not a lot of fear," Adam Franco, who filmed the "Melbourne Beach crocodile" encounter, told Fox 35. In the June 2024 report, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission released a statement about the Melbourne Beach crocodile: "The crocodile that the FWC relocated on Oct. 13, 2023, was recently seen again in Brevard County. This particular crocodile has traveled over 100 miles during the course of eight months to return to Brevard County, indicating that it prefers this area ... To date, this animal has not displayed any concerning behaviors and is not considered to be a threat." Whom to call if you see a crocodile in your yard If you're concerned about a crocodile, call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation and Commission at 866-392-4286, and a FWC crocodile response agent will respond. Contributing: JD Gallop and Jim Waymer, FLORIDA TODAY Sangalang is a lead digital producer for USA TODAY Network-Florida. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram at @byjensangalang. Support local journalism. Consider subscribing to a Florida newspaper. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Melbourne Beach crocodile travels 100 miles in 8 months to come back The former New Jersey attorney general Gurbir Grewal testified at U.S. Senator Bob Menendez's corruption trial on Thursday that the lawmaker sought to intervene in a local criminal case, including a meeting that Grewal's deputy described as "gross." Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have said Menendez sought to have Grewal, the state's top prosecutor from 2018 through 2021, intervene in cases involving two associates of insurance and trucking businessman Jose Uribe. In exchange, Uribe allegedly helped Menendez and his wife Nadine Menendez buy a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz convertible with money disguised as a loan. Uribe pleaded guilty this year to fraud and bribery charges and is expected to testify against Bob Menendez. Then-New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal speaks during an evening of solidarity in Ridgewood on Wednesday June 10, 2020 to show support for Black Lives Matter. Testifying for the prosecution, Grewal said Menendez objected in a January 2019 phone call and September 2019 meeting that the attorney general's insurance fraud unit treated Hispanic defendants in the trucking industry different from others. Upon being told by Menendez that the senator was referring to a specific case, Grewal said he advised Menendez to instruct the defendant's lawyer to go through proper channels by speaking with individual prosecutors. More: Jose Uribe flipped. Here's why he bribed Bob Menendez with a new Mercedes "I can't talk to you about this," Grewal said he told Menendez at the September meeting at the senator's office in Newark, which Grewal's deputy Andrew Bruck also attended. Now head of enforcement at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Grewal said Menendez did not identify the case or ask for specific help, but that it was "pretty unprecedented" for an elected official to ask about a pending criminal matter. "Andrew said to me, 'Whoa, that was gross,'" Grewal said Bruck told him after the September meeting. United States Senator, Bob Menendez (center), arrives at Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse where he will be on trial for bribery and corruption charges. The jury selection for the trial is expected to start today, Monday, May 13, 2024. Menendez's lawyer Avi Weitzman later sought to portray Menendez's conduct as normal advocacy for a constituent. "He didn't tell you, 'You'd better look at this or I'm going to haul you in front of Congress?'" Weitzman asked Grewal when cross-examining him. "No," Grewal replied. Menendez, 70, a three-term Democratic senator, has pleaded not guilty to 16 criminal charges including bribery, fraud, acting as a foreign agent and obstruction. Prosecutors have said Menendez and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes including cash, mortgage payments and gold bars in exchange for political favors and aiding the governments of Egypt and Qatar. Menendez has resisted calls from former Democratic allies to resign, but stepped down as chair of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee after he was charged in September. He is seeking re-election on Nov. 5 as an independent, but his unpopularity with voters makes it an uphill battle. Rep. Andy Kim on Tuesday won New Jersey's Democratic primary for Menendez's seat. Earlier in the trial, Menendez's lawyers blamed his wife for concealing her financial dealings from him. Nadine Arslanian Menendez has pleaded not guilty. Her trial was postponed to July because she is being treated for breast cancer. Her husband's trial could last through June. This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bob Menendez trial: What to know as Gurbir Grewal testifies A Mesa Public Schools governing board member has proposed a policy that would ban the display of any flag "which conveys political, social, or ideological messaging" by district employees and students. Board member Rachel Walden said during the district's May 28 board meeting that her proposed policy was intended to keep classrooms "free from ideology." It would allow the U.S. and Arizona flags, official school flags, flags representing other nations for historical purposes, banners from colleges, universities or professional sports teams, flags that "denote a recognition of achievement," and other flags for district-approved instructional purposes. An attendee waves the pride flag as floats pass by on Third Street during the Phoenix Pride Parade on Oct. 16, 2022, in Phoenix. Walden said she modeled it after a policy passed in June 2023 by the Chino Valley Unified School District in California, which effectively banned pride flags from the district's classrooms. Walden's proposed policy stated that the ban would apply not only to flags but also to "stickers, posters, banners, pennants, articles of clothing, electronic media, or any other unanticipated means of display which would or could be visible or auditorily available to any student or staff member in the normal course of their school related to activities." It stated that the ban would apply to both students and teachers. But during the May 28 discussion, Walden said she would be "happy to remove" the part about students after hearing concerns from fellow board members about the policy's inclusion of students. "If students want to wear pride flags or whatever, then that's fine," Walden said. The agenda item drew one public comment from Ed Steele, who spoke in support of the policy and who is one of 10 people who have filed a statement of interest with the Maricopa County School Superintendent to run for the three Mesa Public Schools board seats that will be up for election this November. "It's imperative that some sort of effort be made by this governing board to stop the indoctrination in this district," Steele said at the meeting. "The gay pride ... and BLM flags convey ideological and social values that are not shared by everyone in this community or by every student." The four other board members did not appear to immediately support Walden's proposed policy during the May 28 discussion. Board member Kiana Sears said she thought it restricted students' freedom of speech, and board members Courtney Davis and Joe O'Reilly suggested the board receive legal guidance on the policy. Board President Marcie Hutchinson said the board would schedule a closed session at its next meeting on June 11 to review the policy with legal counsel. In a statement emailed to The Arizona Republic, Walden said her proposed amendment would tell students and teachers that they can't "use school grounds and school classrooms as a platform for activism of any kind." "Activism expressed through things like promoting agenda-specific flags and banners is not neutral, it's an endorsement," Walden wrote. She said she is "not singling out any one group, cause or agenda." She added that though students can have different opinions, she thinks they are "not entitled to use the school grounds, or the school classrooms as platforms to advocate those opinions." In November, Walden sued Mesa Public Schools over its guidelines for supporting transgender students, represented by a conservative legal group headed by former Donald Trump adviser Stephen Miller. The lawsuit was criticized by some teachers in the district, who called it "baseless" and said it would hurt students who need the policies. An oral argument regarding the district's motion to dismiss Walden's lawsuit was scheduled for next week in Maricopa County Superior Court. Reach the reporter at mparrish@arizonarepublic.com. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Mesa Public Schools board member proposes flag display restrictions The Metro bus driver charged in the January death of a pedestrian has been involved in dozens of court cases some criminal, some civil and others involving traffic violations, public records reviewed by The Enquirer reveal. The charges against Deon Willis, along with details of the Jan. 11 accident that killed Beverly Kinney, likely will be used as evidence when he is tried on five misdemeanor vehicular homicide charges, additional court documents indicate. Willis will be back in court Monday for a pre-trial hearing in the Kinney case. The proceeding is not the start of a non-jury trial, as listed online, according to Willis' attorney, James Costin. Willis's trial will be in November, at a date to be determined, Costin said. Willis, meanwhile, remains on paid leave with Metro, as the bus operator completes its investigation of the accident, a Metro spokesperson said. And Kinney's family is planning its own lawsuit, a family attorney told The Enquirer. Costin did not respond to a request for additional comment on behalf of Willis. Bus driver Deon Willis in the moments after his bus hit a pedestrian. Driver charged in close to 40 court cases Willis, 47, was hired by Metro in February 2018 after operating a garbage truck for Rumpke for four years. As earlier reported, he was driving with a suspended license when his bus hit and killed Kinney, an 87-year-old retired teacher, in Hyde Park. According to his Metro personnel file, Willis was also involved in two other "preventable accidents," five instances of arriving for work two or more hours late, six-and-half days of "absenteeism," and one instance each of discourtesy, insubordination, taking an unassigned bus and getting to a bus stop ahead of schedule. Willis has also been involved in close to 40 cases in Hamilton County courts since 1997, court records show. He was charged with robbery in 1998, in one of two felony cases. In 2002, he faced felony charges for attempting to sell two ounces of marijuana. In connection with that case, officials seized $1,024 and a 1984 Mercedes Benz from him. Both cases were ignored by grand juries and did not go to trial. Willis has also faced misdemeanor charges for: Three collisions in 1997, 2012 and 2018 where the other drivers said Willis was negligent behind the wheel. Two traffic violations for improper backing in 2006 and speeding in 2008 that put four points on his Ohio drivers license. Four civil suits related to payments for a car, rental home, flatscreen TV and credit card, with two more suits alleging non-payment of income tax. Eight charges listed as minor drug abuse, from 1997 to 1999. Seven charges involving noise, from 1997 to 2012. 911 calls, video among prosecution evidence Willis was charged in the Kinney case on May 14, then returned to court May 23 to seek a lower bond. Prosecutors plan to use 911 calls and video from the bus as evidence against Willis, court records show. Six witnesses reported the accident to 911, with three more 911 calls from law enforcement officials, according to recordings provided by the Cincinnati Police Department. None of the calls came from Willis. Witnesses reported that Kinney lay under a rear wheel of the bus after being hit and appeared dead. Its pretty gruesome, one caller said. Kinney was just starting to cross Duck Creek Road at Dana Avenue when hit, according to video footage from inside the bus provided by Metro. She is visible through the bus windshield, wearing a dark coat and knit hat. After impact, Willis immediately stopped the bus, and raced down the steps, out the door and to the rear of the bus. Five seconds later, he returned to the bus, yelling Call 911 four times. He then backed up the bus slightly and exited to the street again, phone in hand. Beverly Kinney was a long-time teacher at Princeton City Schools and patron of the arts. She was killed Jan. 11 after being struck by a Cincinnati Metro bus while walking in Hyde Park. Authorities said she was in a marked crosswalk at Dana Avenue and Duck Creek Road, crossing with a walk signal, when hit. Metro 'finalizing' investigation Metro said it is currently in the process of finalizing our internal investigation of Willis. Due to pending litigation, we are not able to comment on any specifics related to the incident at this time, Metro spokesperson Brandy Jones said. Our deepest sympathies go out to the Kinney family for the tragic loss of Mrs. Kinney." The hearing begins at 9 a.m. in the Hamilton County Municipal Court. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: What's new in Metro driver case? This photo taken on June 6, 2024 shows a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Wadi Gilo, Lebanon. A member of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed and 10 civilians were injured in Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Thursday, Lebanese military sources said. (Photo by Ali Hashisho/Xinhua) BEIRUT, June 6 (Xinhua) -- A member of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed and 10 civilians were injured in Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Thursday, Lebanese military sources said. The sources, who spoke anonymously, said that the Israeli army conducted drone and missile attacks on a motorcycle and a vehicle in the village of Aitaroun, killing a Hezbollah member and wounding two others, while another two civilians were wounded in an Israeli raid targeting a three-story home in the village. The Israeli airstrikes also struck a three-story building in the Gilo Valley in southwestern Lebanon, wounding six civilians, including two members of the Civil Defense team who were removing the rubble of the destroyed house, the source said. For its part, Hezbollah announced that it attacked eight Israeli targets, causing damages. Confrontations between Hezbollah and the Israeli army intensified on Thursday following an assault drone attack by Hezbollah a day earlier on an Israeli gathering south of the Al-Kosh settlement in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, which resulted in many casualties. Commander of the Northern Command of the Israeli army, Ori Gordin, announced on Thursday that the deployment for a major offensive against Hezbollah has been "completed." Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated on Oct. 8, 2023, following a barrage of rockets launched by Hezbollah toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas's attack on Israel the day before. Israel then retaliated by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon. A man is seen in a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Wadi Gilo, Lebanon, June 6, 2024. A member of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed and 10 civilians were injured in Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Thursday, Lebanese military sources said. (Photo by Ali Hashisho/Xinhua) This photo taken on June 6, 2024 shows a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Wadi Gilo, Lebanon. A member of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed and 10 civilians were injured in Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Thursday, Lebanese military sources said. (Photo by Ali Hashisho/Xinhua) This photo taken on June 6, 2024 shows a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Wadi Gilo, Lebanon. A member of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed and 10 civilians were injured in Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Thursday, Lebanese military sources said. (Photo by Ali Hashisho/Xinhua) CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. (KRQE) A 75-year-old Pine Hill man was sentenced to prison for sexually abusing a 7-year-old girl outside a church in 2022, according to the Department of Justice. Tony Jake Jr., an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, approached the girl as she played outside a church she attended with her grandmother. Jake separated the girl from the other children and sexually abused her. Story continues below Jake admitted his actions to an FBI agent when questioned and later pleaded guilty to one count of abusive sexual contact. Jake was sentenced to four years in prison, and when he is released, he will be required to serve five years of supervised release and must register as a sex offender. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) New Mexicos population has been growing for decades, but the latest prediction from the University of New Mexico Geospatial & Population Studies (UNM-GPS) office predicts that the states population will top out in 2035, and the state will see an aging population as well. Our population is experiencing a rapidly changing age structure. New Mexico will have a greater share of seniors in the coming years while also experiencing a decline in the number of children and emerging adults, UNM-GPS Senior Research Scientist Jacqueline Miller said in a press release. Gila Wilderness, the nations first wilderness area, celebrates 100 years The researchers predict that the number of 85-year-olds and older in New Mexico will more than double in the next two decades, UNM-GPS said. By 2040, the state could have over 85,000 seniors over the age of 85. An aging population is nothing new in New Mexico or across the nation. Generally, people are living longer and having fewer kids. Broadly, UNM-GPS researchers expect the states population reach a peak of about 2.16 million. Thats about 500,000 more than the current population revealed by the last decennial census. We are projecting some growth for New Mexico in the coming years, but the increases are small enough that minor shifts in births, deaths, and especially migration trends could easily push growth up or result in years of decline, New Mexico State Demographer and UNM-GPS Director Robert Rhatigan said in a press release. Accused DWI drivers back on New Mexico roads after officer no-shows For the last 100 years, New Mexico has seen only population growth, but shifting birth and death rates, along with the ability for residents to move out of state, could change that pattern. The key to continued growth or decline will be the rate of international migration, UNM-GPS researchers say. Over the last two decades or so, about 6,000 New Mexicans have moved out of the state, but thats offset by the 12,000 people that have migrated from other nations into the state, UNM-GPS said. Those migrating individuals have also offset the states declining birth rate, so far. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos. (Bloomberg) -- The leader of Mexicos ruling party in the lower house said that the bloc will be very prudent about taking advantage of its strong lead in congress amid concerns it may speed through legislation before President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum takes office. Most Read from Bloomberg The party will respect the legislative process and wait for votes to be officially confirmed before initiating discussions with Sheinbaum about next steps, Morena party coordinator Ignacio Mier said in an interview with local radio late Thursday. Hours earlier, Mier said in a press conference the party would seek to begin initial discussions on constitutional reforms in September, when the newly-elected congress takes office. The peso sank almost 3% amid concerns that lawmakers could move forward with reforms, including modifying institutions such as the judiciary, before Sheinbaum is sworn in. Our ample majority in the Lower House and senate obligates us to be very prudent, very sensible, Mier said in the radio interview. We want to bring calm to all. Since we received these reforms in February, Ive said we need to look at the ones that benefit Mexico, its economic stability and growth, that lead to the possibility of more investment. Separately, Morenas Senate leader Ricardo Monreal said in a statement Thursday that the party will open dialogue with all sectors of society on constitutional reforms proposed by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. We will not act in an authoritarian manner or impose proposals that affect the harmony and the confidence in Mexico, Monreal said in the statement. Sheinbaum, who won the presidency in a landslide vote on June 2, is still awaiting final confirmation from electoral authorities amid a routine process to verify votes. She said later Thursday in response to journalists questions that the process on the reforms would follow normal procedures and involve dialogue. --With assistance from Alex Vasquez. (Updates with comment from Sheinbaum in last paragraph) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2024 Bloomberg L.P. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has set the state on a path toward decreased emissions. Several years ago, she signed an executive order to decrease the states emissions by 45% by the year 2030. So, how is that going? While New Mexico made some progress this past session, the state is likely still far off-track to reach its climate goals, Alex DeGolia, the director for state legislative and regulatory affairs at the Environmental Defense Fund, told KRQE News 13. New Mexicos UFO incidents youve never heard of To see if New Mexico was on track to meet the governors goals, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) ran an analysis to come to that conclusion. Their report, published in September of 2023, estimates that New Mexico may only reduce emissions by about 13% from 2005 levels by the year 2030. Thats well below the goal set by the governor. Since the report, recent progress has moved the needle some, but EDF still stands by their conclusion from the 2023 report, that the state is still not on track. There are several targets that are in place for New Mexico, one established by executive order by Governor Lujan Grisham, and another that is established by New Mexico being a member of the U.S. Climate Alliance, says Michael Bueno, the senior manager for state climate policy and strategy at the Environmental Defense Fund. What we found is that the state is not on currently on track to meet those targets. Story Continues Below The Environmental Defense Fund projects New Mexico wont hit its emissions goal by 2030. The Environmental Defense Funds projection is only an estimate, which is based on estimating state-level emissions from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data, the methodology of which comes from the climate researchers at a company called Rhodium Group. Theres some inherent uncertainty in the results, but Bueno says the estimate does give a sense of whether New Mexico is on-track under current conditions with three potential scenarios. For example, as oil and gas prices change, New Mexicos oil and gas production levels tend to change in response. So, estimates under different scenarios account for potential market changes. And even under the best-case-scenario estimate, New Mexico isnt projected to hit its emissions goal, according to the Environmental Defense Fund. What might prevent the state from reaching its goal? When it comes to statewide emissions, there is no one single agency or rule that accounts for New Mexicos progress. Michael Bueno notes that in fact, the states climate goals arent quite settled matters. One thing to account for is that these goals were set by executive orders, so theyre nothing thats sort of written into law, Bueno explains. And its up to the directive of environmental agencies in the state to actually do the work to achieve those targets. Bueno says the state has made some progress. And other climate advocates agree. New Mexico to use over one fourth of opioid settlement fees on outside lawyers, according to LFC One of the nice things about New Mexico is that our leaders are really committed to solutions on global climate change, says Camilla Feibelman, the director of the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter. Feibelman says one of the reasons its so hard to implement real change that could push the state towards its goals is the powerful influence of the oil and gas industry an industry whose taxes and fees account for around a third of the state governments budget and an industry that employs New Mexicans. The big oil and gas extractors have done a really I dont know if I can call it a good job but an effective job of suppressing information about the impact of global climate change. Exxon has as much as admitted that they knew how bad the impact of fossil fuels on are climate would be and yet, they hid that science, Feibelman says. Exxon has denied that they knew. Regardless of the debate over fossil fuels, the simple economics of the oil and gas industry in New Mexico mean that its hard for the state to just turn its back on oil and gas, Feibelman adds. We are a state with a high amount of need. We have a high poverty rate. We have low success rates when it comes to health and education. Theres a feeling that if we can continue to receive this [oil and gas] money, that we can somehow solve these problems, Feibelman says. Despite record revenue from the oil and gas industry over the last decade, Feibelman says we havent yet seen the cash solve those social issues, although lawmakers are putting some of the revenue towards efforts to improve the state. There has been progress since the 2023 analysis We need our government to act to protect us, Feibelman says. And in New Mexico, we are lucky to have a lot of that happening. For example, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham initiated nation-leading methane and ozone (or smog) rules that ban routine [gas] venting and flaring. The states environment department has also increased efforts to crack down on non-compliant oil and gas companies. The state agency is trying to better coordinate with federal regulators and has issued a handful of massive fines to oil and gas companies that have skirted the rules. While progress might not be happening as fast as some had hoped, the state continues to take steps towards its goals. And some big initiatives have moved forward since the 2023 progress report. For example, New Mexico recently received $25 million to help clean up orphaned oil and gas wells. And the New Mexico Supreme Court recently ruled that the states utilities can completely decouple their revenue plans from customers energy usage essentially opening the door for new investments in renewable energy. New Mexico has also put hundreds of thousands of dollars towards supporting clean transportation, and environmental watchdogs say the state has seen a decrease in the number of oil spills relative to the states high oil production. New Mexicos lawmakers have also put additional regulations into law. In 2024, lawmakers approved House Bill 41, which allows the state to create rules limiting the carbon intensity of gasoline and other fuels. There were important climate wins during the 2024 New Mexico legislative session, as well as regulatory wins in the fall of 2023, Alex DeGolia from EDF said. Some of the most notable include the adoption of Advanced Clean Trucks and Advanced Clean Cars 2 rules by the Environmental Improvement Board, and passage of bills directing adoption of a rule establishing a clean fuel standard. State leaders also focused on funding water projects and reuse in the state. In January, the governor announced a plan to secure water for the next 50 years. Programs to secure federal funding for climate initiatives also help push New Mexico towards its goals. Still, EDF says more needs to be done. In short, the state has made progress on addressing climate pollution, but significantly more is needed if New Mexico intends to meet its climate commitments and do its part in limiting adverse climate impacts to protect New Mexicans now and in the future, DeGolia says. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. 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 Miami-Dade County police detective shot and killed a man Thursday night during a surveillance operation in Homestead related to an armed robbery investigation, the agency said. Around 10 p.m., officers were staking out an apartment building at 40 NW Second St., where they believed the man they were looking for was staying, said Detective Argemis Colome, a Miami-Dade police spokesman. The 33-year old man, whom police have not identified, was wanted in connection with a robbery that happened Wednesday, Colome said. When detectives entered the building, they found the man holding what police describe as a sharp object. Colome said a confrontation ensued between the man and detective, and the detective shot him. Paramedics took the man to the hospital, where he died, Colome said. The department has not released the name of the detective, only saying he or she has been an officer for five years. A law enforcement source told the Herald that police recovered a screwdriver they say the man was holding. Steadman Stahl, president of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association the union representing Miami-Dade officers said the armed robbery happened in the Cutler Ridge area. Regarding the confrontation, Stahl said, In the first couple of seconds, it looks like hes coming at [the officer] with a knife. As are all police shootings, the case is being investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. What does Detroit renewal sound like? Thursday night, it was loud, soulful, righteous and swelling with pride. On one of the most memorable evenings of homegrown music shared by the city in many years, Diana Ross switched on the party, Jack White turned up the dial, and Eminem brought it all to a crescendo at the resurrected Michigan Central Station. About 20,000 eager concertgoers piled into Roosevelt Park for the much-anticipated free event, held to celebrate the reopening of the 111-year-old, long-abandoned train station following its dramatic makeover by Ford Motor Co. More than a dozen genre-spanning musical acts along with athletes, actors, civic officials and community figures took the stage to create a special moment with the on-site crowd and others tuning in from across the region and world. The tapestry of Detroit music was set against the striking backdrop of the handsomely lit Michigan Central, a longtime relic of decay transformed into an 18-story landmark of hope. The show, produced by a team of top-end music and broadcast veterans, was crisp and polished, managing to serve up a fresh highlight every few minutes. Diana Ross performs during the "Live From Detroit: The Concert at Michigan Central" at Roosevelt Park in front of the Michigan Central Station in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood on Thursday, June 6, 2024. Ross launched the evening with time-tested elegance, taking the stage in a billowy, sequined orange gown and a buoyant Im Coming Out, part of an 11-minute set capped by her Motown classic Aint No Mountain High Enough. Like most of Thursdays performers, she was backed by a versatile house band led by musical director Adam Blackstone. The setting sun that greeted Ross eventually gave way to the nightfall that would accompany Eminems potent finale where the Detroit Symphony Orchestra added its grandeur to a set punctuated by fireworks and special guests. More: After 3 decades of darkness, Michigan Central Station reopens with epic celebration More: 'Detroit, we love you': Eminem caps memorable night at Michigan Central Station For Thursdays audience, Eminem was a not-so-shocking surprise: Going into the show, hed been billed as an executive producer though not listed on the performer lineup. So buzz was palpable as DSO musicians quietly got situated on the stage and Bill Ford, executive chair of Ford, stepped out to introduce the next performance. The Detroit rapper, stalking the stage in a hoodie and playing his first hometown show in a decade, was in strong voice and tight flow while unleashing a four-song set that kicked off with his new retro-vibed hit, Houdini. Eminem and Denaun Porter perform on stage during the "Live From Detroit: The Concert at Michigan Central" at Roosevelt Park in front of the Michigan Central Station in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood on Thursday, June 6, 2024. He moved on to Sing for the Moment with guest Jelly Roll, who sang the hook made famous by Aerosmiths Steven Tyler, before welcoming hometown hip-hop guru Trick Trick for a high-performance take on their 2005 collaboration Welcome 2 Detroit. Eminem at last made his way to Not Afraid as the DSOs strings brought a cinematic feel to his rousing 2010 song of triumph over tribulation. That was a fitting closer for Thursdays communal celebration of Detroit resurgence: Come take my hand, Eminem rapped in the chorus. Well walk this road together through the storm. White had preceded Eminem with a reliably explosive performance backed by his longtime touring band. A rendition of the White Stripes Hotel Yorba his festive homage to another area landmark gave way to a scorching cover of Jimi Hendrixs Hear My Train a Comin topped with Whites slide-guitar frenzy. Jack White performs during the "Live From Detroit: The Concert at Michigan Central" at Roosevelt Park in front of the Michigan Central Station in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood on Thursday, June 6, 2024. I thought it might be all right if I played a couple of songs that were written a few blocks from right here, the southwest Detroit native announced. Having strapped on his well-weathered Kay Hollowbody guitar, White dove into the Stripes Seven Nation Army and went on to whip up a neighborhood singalong of the seven-note riff that has become a global anthem. Earlier, Big Sean spoke passionately about the revival of Michigan Central, centerpiece of a 30-acre campus positioned by Ford as a leading-edge technology and innovation hub. The train station saw a whole lot of Detroit history, the rapper pointed out: the rise of the auto industry, Motown, the 1967 riot, the citys 2013 bankruptcy. Its been here longer than all of us, he said. (With the possible exception of some of yall OGs, anyone 111 years old and up, he cracked.) Michigan Central, like Detroit, went through hell and back. The fact that its gone through all this pressure, its a diamond that came from the rough, Big Sean said. The rappers performance included his bright and funky new song dedicated to his 1-year-old son with Jhene Aiko. On a night that included in-person appearances by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan along with onscreen commendations from former President Barack Obama and General Motors CEO Mary Barra music played the central role. A tribute to Bob Seger featured Melissa Etheridge (Mainstreet), Jelly Roll (Turn the Page) and a very invested Fantasia in a Tina Turner-esque rendition of Shakedown. The three then linked up for Old Time Rock and Roll. A vividly outfitted Clark Sisters, backed by the Greater Emmanuel choir and joined by Kierra Sheard, delivered a medley of their gospel hits capped by an effervescent "You Brought the Sunshine. Old-school Detroit hip-hop reigned during a dedication to the late hip-hop producer J. Dilla, with Slum Village offering a lush Fall in Love and Common performing his uplifting Dilla-produced hit The Light. In a show designed to run 90 minutes (it ultimately clocked in at 108), theres only so much music to be squeezed in. Still, it's not nitpicking to point out there was no spotlight on Aretha Franklin. No Stevie Wonder, no Temptations, no Marvin Gaye. No nod to jazz, no Grande Ballroom-era rock. That might speak to the vastness of Detroits musical heritage, sure. But those were glaring omissions in a show touted as a comprehensive survey of the citys legacy. Nevertheless, Thursdays Michigan Central concert was a symbolic mile marker for Detroit: a gush of creative vibrance and a coming-together amid a burgeoning revival. If the event sometimes came off like a supersize promo for Fords ambitious development, you could forgive the rah-rah approach. Its hard to knock a nearly $1 billion investment and a well-intentioned recognition of Detroit community, complete with what up doe greetings from the stage throughout the night. The Michigan Central concert reveled in a unique American place: a city that has intermingled cultures while innovating industry and building important things, battling its demons while fighting for triumphs. That mix raw, yearning, hardworking, combustible long ago ignited a distinct approach to art. It has been influential across the world, and it was the common thread onstage Thursday night. Resurgence is a real sense in Detroit, a city where resilience is inborn and tougher tests have been endured. And at Michigan Central, with music at the forefront, that cultural confidence reigned. Amid the nostalgic sounds and historical images, the mood was optimistic, forward-looking, defiant. Detroit knows what it has given the world, what it might be poised to give the world, and it was proud to show it off. Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan Central Station concert review: Eminem, Diana Ross hit stage When Freddy Diaz thinks of graffiti at Michigan Central Station, he thinks of childhood in Detroit and not giving up. He's not alone. This is why the multimillion-dollar restoration of the 1913 historic depot includes spray-painted images and messages left inside the building when it had no roof, no windows, no heat and no locked doors to keep people from trespassing for nearly three decades. The train station closed in 1988, then Ford Motor Co. bought it in 2018. After six years of difficult restoration work, the public will get to see the revived station including markers of the long vacancy. Critics refer to the kids who covered the iconic Beaux Arts-style building as vandals and hoodlums. But graffiti writers look back and describe it as sort of a gritty community center viewed as a safe space for children who loved to draw and paint but didn't have art programs like students who attended elite schools in the suburbs. "You can't have something so beautiful without struggle," said Diaz, 31, of southwest Detroit. Artist Freddy Diaz in front of his artwork at Taqueria El Parian in Detroit on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. "I started off doing graffiti when I was 12, 13 years old," he said. "My childhood was pretty rich when it came to the culture, having graffiti, hip-hop, low-riding and all this stuff happening in my neighborhood. I feel like graffiti is a misguided culture of artists. It's freedom of expression. When I started doing graffiti, I had no idea that I could ever become a muralist." What was and what will be Ford sees the artwork as essential to the memory of Detroit what was and what will be. The 18-story building sat abandoned until 2018, when Ford purchased it as part of a campus vision that included remodeling the Detroit schools' Book Depository next door as an incubator for startups and innovation, now known as Newlab. Starting Friday, Michigan Central opened its doors to 60,000 visitors who signed up for free tours over 10 days. But how does a company spend $950 million on the massive 30-acre campus and keep graffiti, a reminder of when the station was an eyesore? Key members of the Ford team and artists themselves revealed to the Free Press behind-the-scenes details about the graffiti artwork and its preservation that few people knew until now. CEO Joshua Sirefman, left, and Head of Place Melissa Dittmer speak to the media in a hallway where the graffiti has been preserved at the Michigan Central Station, in Corktown neighborhood of Detroit on May 14, 2024. Dittmer says the graffiti represents the history of Detroit when Central Station was the practice canvas for many up and coming graffiti artists. The graffiti represents more of a movement than an individual piece of graffiti. Learning to embrace our past During that time, 2011-12, Detroit was "still on the come up," Diaz said. His parents, who immigrated during the Reagan era from Mexico to North Carolina to pick strawberries, came to Detroit for factory work. They missed the outdoors, and his father left to build a career in landscaping. His hardworking immigrant parents had high expectations, Diaz said, and hoped to see their son in a career like law or medicine. After working with spray paint at Michigan Central, Diaz enrolled at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit but flunked out after two years. "It was really hard," he said. "I didn't anticipate what art school was going to be like. But I had art history class that taught us where art came from. ... So I went out to Europe and realized I could make it as an artist." Diaz, now an artist known as SW Freddy, told his parents he was following his dream, and he met graffiti artists overseas who made a living off art. He came home to southwest Detroit and knocked on all the doors of small businesses, including liquor stores and car washes, to ask about painting. "Local businesses gave me an opportunity, and I learned to network with business owners, make connections, learn how they work, how their finances work, where they source products," Diaz said. "I learned how to run emails and set up an account and send an invoice." Artist Freddy Diaz in front of his artwork at Taqueria El Parian in Detroit on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. All because of those days painting in an abandoned station. "Often, graffiti is referred to as blight, as something that scares away our economy, and people don't want to live near it," Diaz said. "If we learn to embrace our past, I think we can have a good future. The Central Station embodies that. It was a landmark that maybe didn't have a future but what it meant to the people that were painting in there and hanging out, and seeing what it is now, man, it almost gives you goose bumps, to really learn to appreciate the good and the bad of everything, you know?" Diaz said. "It shows, hey, we weren't always this beautiful. Things take time, things take money, they take blood and sweat and tears to get where we are.' " The abandoned station was 'a different world' Paul Carmona, 45, of Allen Park, is a former Detroit Police officer (and the son of an Ecorse police officer), who works security now. He began his spray painting at age 15 as "Phame." He focused on lettering at Michigan Central and other parts of the city with his spray cans over five years. "Going into the train station to paint, it was peaceful," he said. "You went into a different world where you didn't have to worry about nothing. You went there with your sketchbook and tried your best to put something up there that people would like." Paul Carmona, seen here in Ecorse around 1994, does graffiti art under the signature "Phame." He went on to become a Detroit police officer and now works security. The restoration project in Detroit reminds him of The Salt Shed in Chicago, which also kept graffiti as part of the updated design for the old Morton Salt warehouse complex. Memories of art in the train station are vivid for children from Detroit and Downriver, he said, "I have cousins from Milwaukee and Chicago, theyre the ones that actually put this idea in my head, trying graffiti," Carmona said. "They came down here one time with a whole trunkload of spray paint and asked, 'Where can we go paint?' I had no idea." They ended up at the train station where the family created a mural together, Carmona said. One of those cousins is now a graphic designer. Glass atrium was shattered, sunshine seeped into Michigan Central A well-known artist living in Wyandotte known by his signature "Fel3000ft" or "Fel" asked that his name not be used because he has worked so hard to create his brand by the age of 52. He grew up in and around Delray, River Rouge and Ecorse. Fel would hop freight trains, he said, and jump off around Rosa Parks Boulevard and often end up at Michigan Central. "One of my best friends was an exceptional artist. We used to battle each other on paper. His dad was an old gospel minister and would have tore him up, so he wasnt going anywhere near it," Fel said. "I would travel out and put work on the walls. By the time I turned 18, I started to realize I could be part of a solution instead of part of a problem. So instead of doing the illegal stuff so much, I wanted to focus on working with people trying to better Detroit back in some of our hardest times." Paul Carmona, left, is with a graffiti writer known by his signature "Fel3000ft" at an undisclosed location around 1995. Each of them painted in Michigan Central Station and they're among artists who consulted with Ford Motor Co. on art preservation. He has done work for the Detroit Lions on the tunnel at Ford Field, as well as the side of the Hopcat building at Woodward and Canfield. His clients have also included Taylor Swift and Pepsi. "I started painting when I was 10. We had some kids move into my neighborhood from New York. ... They brought back pictures of graffiti art and street art," Fel said. "Shortly after, I got my hands on some spray paint and started doing it." Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff (16) and guard Graham Glasgow (60) walk down a tunnel decorated by a graffiti writer known as fel3000ft before the game against Atlanta Falcons at Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023. (Credit: Junfu Han, Detroit Free Press) He began writing poetry about Detroit and its strength and tried to uplift struggling neighborhoods with inspirational words, he said. "If you think about Delray before the Gordie Howe Bridge came in, it was pretty much like 'Life After People,' if youve ever seen that show, where its like this is what it would be like 15 years after people were gone in a neighborhood, with, like, full trees growing through houses." Where Fel grew up, he said, "There was so much blight I could just walk into a building and paint it. It wasnt like I was doing anything. These were abandoned properties that were homes and things like that nobody even owned or cared about. Thats how I cut my teeth." Homeless men were kind to the children Everything in his life began with graffiti, said Fel, the grandson of a portrait artist in Greece and son of a steeplejack painter who worked on high buildings and towers and projects such as the Mackinac Bridge. "He'd go 20 stories up." Fel describes his parents as supportive, especially when he started getting commercial jobs by age 14. The graffiti writer known as fel3000ft, who now lives in Wyandotte, is seen here in May 2021. His artwork is considered collectable and admired by artists throughout generations of Detroiters, according to his peers. He painted often in Michigan Central Station. Back when he was a kid doing street art, everyone was using spray paint without tape or masking or any paint brushes or airbrushes. Things have changed, he said. Street art is where artists use anything to get the job done, Fel said. But artists themselves often use the term graffiti writer, he said. "When I was a kid, Id never seen the Central Station in full swing. Id only known it in disarray. I was painting Delray, I was painting around that area and moving in toward southwest Detroit and I noticed the station was empty. At that point, you could walk right in. Nobody would stop you," Fel said, referring to the early 1990s. "They used to have this, what I call the atrium area ... a glass roof that was all broken and busted," he said. "These little sapling trees, what they call Gods gift trees, would grow anywhere. Youd have them growing inside the train station in that area where theyd get light. You could sit on a bench, and I would just draw for hours. Nobody would bother you. I would draw on a sketchbook and then Id walk right over to a room and just do it" on the wall. Interior of the Michigan Central Train Depot in Detroit in April 2009. Homeless people lived there at the time, including a man known as Catfish, Fel said. "He was such a nice guy that I'd buy him lunch or whatever and we'd sit around and chitchat about his life while I'm painting. He used to say, 'Man, I'd never let anybody mess with your work. You're decorating my house.' " Filled with echoes of the past, and hope for the future The train station back then was filled with an echo of all the people who had passed through the halls and stairs, Fel said. "Sometimes youd be painting in that room, and a plaster piece would fall off of the roof and come crashing down. It would give you a startle, man. Youd jump up, like, holy crap. If youd ever see anybody, theyd just give you a nod and a wave and just go about their business. I went in all the time. I was there in the summer. I was there in the winter. I was always there." Salvaging Michigan Central and the legacy of the building tells not just the character of the city but the durability of the Detroit citizen psyche, and the children who have experienced the evolution, Fel said. Looking toward the old ticket counter at the Michigan Central Depot in Detroit, Wednesday, April 15, 2009. SUSAN TUSA/Detroit Free Press "You would look at the architecture and attention to detail and arched cathedral ceilings and it makes you feel like youre sitting in the Sistine Chapel or a place that you know is sacred," Fel said. "Keep in mind, I was a kid that had nowhere else to go. I needed a safe place to practice my art. I thank God that I had it. I dont think there would be a career for a Fel3000ft from Detroit without that place. ... To see someone save it is, its moving to me. I cried my eyes out when I was invited back in there." Fel has a 9-year-old son who paints now, and they do gallery shows together. What they create together, and sell, goes into a college fund. Bringing graffiti writers back one more time Mary Culler, who is overseeing the strategic direction of the train station as president of Ford Philanthropy, confessed she "knew nothing about graffiti" before meeting with Detroit artists who guided the Ford team during the past six years of restoration. And the extent to which Ford preserved the artwork changed. "So much of the first year of the project was just about drying out the building because the building was so saturated in water. So that gave us a little leeway to really have some thoughtful discussion about 'How do we really retain the story of the station?' " Culler said. "It wasn't just about coming in and renovating it but really thinking about the history here." History of the building included more than just train travel for generations of Detroiters celebrating trips to New York or the return of soldiers after the war. Generations of graffiti artists made their mark. So Ford pulled together a group of artists all these years later, people who are respected by their peers and innovative in their efforts to preserve local art movements, to walk through the station floor by floor explaining the artist signatures and significance of images. "I was grateful to these artists. It was freezing freezing and we did it twice, and in about 15 minutes your hands and feet were ready to fall off," Culler said. "There was no heat and the whole place was exposed to the elements." The basement of Michigan Central Depot flooded in June 2021 after workers had spent more than a year drying out the building to proceed with restoration. Water eroded columns and corroded steel. The water delayed completion of the restoration. As the building dried out, plaster on the walls peeled off and broke off. Ford brought in photography students from the Center for Creative Studies to capture all the images before they were lost, perhaps for an installation one day or art study. Ford also cut pieces of artwork away to preserve some. The parts left at Michigan Station are in original form, untreated. Brick held the paint. A corridor on the east side of the train station was preserved in its graffiti state, along with areas near elevator lobbies. "I think we found a fresco artist in Italy at one point who talked us through how you could lift these things off the wall in a way that they wouldn't just fall apart," Culler said. "It was really quite a process." Ford Motor Co. worked to save and preserve graffiti art that covered Michigan Central Station, capturing photographic images as well as storing them for future display in special cases, seen here. Art pieces will be included on display during public tours, and will continue to be a significant part of the restoration throughout the campus restoration, she said. "When you think about art, art is innovation, too. More will be coming." When vandalism is art Matthew Naimi, 51, of Detroit, is an art curator who runs the Lincoln Street Art Park and the Dreamtroit project. He sees preservation of the graffiti as essential because generations of artists developed their craft there. "All street art is an expression of an individual. Some people call it vandalism. Some people call it expression," Naimi said. "Detroit, with its abandonment, had a canvas and a certain lawlessness for a long period of time that allowed for our street art, rather than be quickly done, artists were able to take their time and develop their craft." Matthew Naimi, 50, of Detroit, stands on courtyard stairs in his Dreamtroit project on Wednesday, June 5, 2024 with a piece by Sew 50 just above his head. Naimi was consulted by folks at the Michigan Central Station to identify graffiti art that would be worth saving during the rehabilitation of the building. Ted Ryan, Ford Motor Co. archivist, told the Detroit Free Press, "People breaking in, the way the building symbolized Detroit. Graffiti artists used the building as a canvas. They used abandoned buildings in Detroit to showcase their art and make statements. We could have painted everything white, said it's a new day and we want a fresh start. But we wanted to acknowledge the past. The rebirth is shown beautifully through the graffiti. It's not a negative. It's a positive. It's stunning." Contact Phoebe Wall Howard: 313-618-1034 or phoward@freepress.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter @phoebesaid. Read more on Ford and sign up for our autos newsletter. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ford kept graffiti from Michigan Central Station's years of vacancy Migrant stabbed outside NYC shelter after sitting on attackers moped A 22-year-old migrant was stabbed outside a Brooklyn shelter Thursday all because he sat on his attackers electric moped, sources said. Cristian Concepcion, 25, allegedly erupted when he spotted a fellow resident sitting on his moped outside the shelter on Hall Street and Flushing Avenue near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, according to sources. A 22-year-old migrant was stabbed outside a Brooklyn shelter after sitting on a mans electric scooter. Peter Gerber An argument between the two migrants turned violent when Concepcion allegedly plunged a knife twice into the mans chest around 12:15 p.m., police and sources said. It was a whole dispute over territory or the scooters, a police source told The Post. The victim was stabbed outside a migrant shelter on Hall Street near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Peter Gerber The dispute was over territory or the scooters, a police source said. Peter Gerber The victim was rushed by EMTs to NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital in serious but stable condition. Concepcion, who sources said emigrated from Venezuela, was arrested and charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon and menacing. His arraignment was pending Thursday night. Gov Ron DeSantis announced on Feb. 1, 2024, that he was sending National Guard and Florida State Guard troops to help control the Texas-Mexico border. On March 13, he deployed Guard and law enforcement resources against immigration from Haiti. Source: Screenshot/Florida Channel Quality Journalism for Critical Times The last time a bipartisan U.S. Congress passed comprehensive immigration reform was 38 years ago, when President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law. Since 1986, successive Congresses have tried and failed to enact legislation that the Migration Policy Institute says would marry increased border enforcement with legalization for unauthorized immigrants and the ability to bring in future workers needed by the U.S. labor market. Americas more than 11 million undocumented immigrants, their families, and the rest of the country have waited for decades for political leaders at the highest levels of government to do what the electorate elected them to do. That is to secure the southern border and codify a legal path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, who are a vital backbone of Floridas and Americas labor force. Even as Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republicans spilled fake tears, gnashed their teeth, and wailed about hordes of immigrants spilling across the southern border, they have politically weaponized the immigration issue. Republicans have lied about migrants being criminals, minimized the positive impact of their presence in the United States, and some governors even bundled these profoundly vulnerable human beings onto airplanes and buses and deposited them in Democratic-run cities such as New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Los Angeles. According to a recent MoveOn petition, DeSantis used more than $600,000 in taxpayer dollars to lure 50 Venezuelan asylum-seekers onto a flight to Marthas Vineyard, Massachusetts. The stories from the Venezuelan immigrants are both heartbreaking and enraging. They were intentionally deceived and were put on a plane with nothing but a fake brochure that said they would be given benefits like eight months cash assistance, housing, food, clothing, expedited work papers, jobs, and assistance registering their children for school. But it was all a lie. Its absolutely inhumane. A variety of polls, analysts, and pundits say immigration will be an issue in the presidential election in November. Republicans and Democrats are jostling to wrest control of the issue. DeSantis and the GOP brain trust have been deliberate and strategic in manipulating the immigration issue, stirring the pot and stoking unfounded fear in the hearts of Americans about the migrant crisis. Democrats, on the other hand, have fumbled in their response. They always seem a day late and a dollar short. To those in immigrant communities fighting to be heard and pushing for policies and laws to advance their cause, Democrats have fallen well short of their promises. Ability to divide DeSantis, party leaders, and policymakers signaled well ahead of this falls presidential election that immigration would be front and center as a political issue primarily because of its acrimony and its ability to divide. A recent Gallup poll survey and a range of stories across the news spectrum show that the ploy has worked. Gallup researchers concluded that immigration has surged to the top of the electorates concerns. Rank-and-file Republicans have been spooked by a peak influx of more than 300,000 undocumented immigrants who crossed the southern border in December. Consequently, 28% of those polled cited immigration as the most important national problem. Gallup researchers said Republicans typically are the subgroup most likely to name immigration as the most important problem, adding that they are largely responsible for the increase in mentions in the poll. To wit, 57% of Republicans characterize immigration as the top problem. In response, DeSantis, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, other Republican governors and national and state politicians have poured gasoline on an alarming and distressing problem by sending migrants to Democratic cities. As these racist, repulsive politicians use undocumented immigrants as political pawns, the fact that they are human beings whose only crime is that they seek a better life gets overlooked or ignored. Meanwhile, former president Donald Trump the son and grandson of immigrants has made his revulsion for Black, brown, and other non-white immigrants an animating factor in his 2024 attempt to return to the White House. Nobody has ever seen anything like were witnessing right now. It is a very sad thing for our country, Trump told a right wing news site in a 2023 video interview, as reported by CNN. Its poisoning the blood of our country. Its so bad, and people are coming in with disease. People are coming in with every possible thing that you could have. An immigration reform bill that a bipartisan group of senators hammered out but that Trump forced the GOP to scuttle was described by immigration activists and advocates almost universally as draconian. It was characterized as the strictest border crackdown in a generation. Oklahoma Sen. Tom Lankford, a Republican, Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, and Arizona Kyrsten Sinema, an independent, led the months-long negotiations on the bill that they hoped would severely diminish the number of people crossing the border; raise the bar for migrants qualifying for asylum; and allow the president to close the border when the numbers of migrants coming in gets concerningly high. The senators, who negotiated the legislation in good faith, learned the hard way that those Republicans who have shouted the loudest about border security are hypocrites and snake oil salesmen. Once they learned of Trumps strident opposition to the bill because he didnt want to give President Joe Biden a pre-election legislative victory, the senators jettisoned the legislation. In the end, all but four Republicans voted against moving forward on the legislation including Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who had delegated Lankford to negotiate the bill combining Ukraine aid and border security and had been closely involved in the negotiations, the Associated Press said in a February story. Political expediency Immigration advocates and activists, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and others have castigated politicians in both parties for sacrificing undocumented immigrants on the altar of political expediency. They fear passage of the bill would set back comprehensive immigration reform for decades. Haddy Gassama, national director for policy and advocacy for the UndocuBlack Network, said in an interview that undocumented immigrants and other migrants dodged a bullet. It was pretty awful and really shocking but a good turn of events that Republicans killed it, she said of the bill. It was shocking and worrisome. We were very concerned about it, such as the provision requiring the U.S. to close border to those seeking asylum using a trigger number. We were very concerned about that. Gassama said the bill was crazy, arbitrary, concerning, because it sought to create a policy similar to Title 42 to trap people seeking asylum, offering zero due process rights and invoking a policy to expel people, she explained. It seems to be a very clear theme of gutting asylum by both parties. They seemed really focused on making asylum as weak as possible. Democrats had planned to bring the measure back for a vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, despite no real chance of the bill becoming law. But in an election year, performative gestures are more important than substance. True to form, when the measure was brought up for a vote on May 23, it failed again. Activists like Gassama; Patrice Lawrence, executive director of UndocuBlack and a member of the community it serves; plus other groups and individuals fought against the corrosive immigration policies of the Trump administration and collaborated with the Biden administration and political allies. But they have watched legislative session after session end without what they seek: a measure that would allow DACA recipients, undocumented immigrants, and others seeking asylum to work, remove the considerable barriers to their freedom, and the ultimate prize of a path to citizenship. But in the present, Republicans in Congress are intent on resuming work on the border wall, reintroducing a policy of the Trump administration demanding that asylum seekers remain in Mexico. They also plan to use mass surveillance to remove all undocumented workers from the U.S., roll back protections for migrant children, eviscerate services to undocumented immigrants, and make it considerably harder for migrants to secure asylum. For undocumented immigrants, the emotional rollercoaster will likely not end soon. Threatened crackdown Whoever is elected president in November will be confronted with a searing, discordant issue thats not going away. If Biden wins and Democrats hold the Senate and take the House, he promises to work with Congress to develop a path toward citizenship. But if Trump wins, he promises on Day One to kick off an immigration crackdown and widespread deportations of as many as 20 million people. Allies of Trump are working out details to speed up asylum hearings and deportation eligibility, and remove deportation protections implemented by Biden. In 2024, whats clear to migrants, undocumented immigrants, DACA recipients, and others is that neither political party may provide them with what they sorely need. More and more, they are hoping for a miracle which may not come in our lifetimes. The post Migrants wait in vain for progress on comprehensive immigration reform appeared first on Florida Phoenix. Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi will attend the BRICS Foreign Ministers Meeting upon invitation in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia from June 10 to 11. CCTV: To follow up on your announcement that Foreign Minister Wang Yi will attend the BRICS Foreign Ministers Meeting, can you give us more details about the arrangement and Chinas expectation? Mao Ning: The upcoming BRICS Foreign Ministers Meeting is to be held in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia from June 10 to 11. The BRICS Dialogue with Developing Countries will be held on the sidelines of the meeting. Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi together with foreign ministers of other BRICS member states and countries invited to the dialogue will exchange views on BRICS cooperation, the current international and regional landscape, and other issues of mutual interest, and prepare the ground for the 16th BRICS Summit. As an important platform for cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries, BRICS is committed to upholding multilateralism, taking an active part in global economic governance, and working for a more just and equitable international order. Last year, BRICS achieved a historic expansion, which was a milestone in the development of the mechanism. This is the first BRICS foreign ministers meeting after the expansion. China stands ready to work with BRICS partners to consolidate the BRICS strategic partnership, deepen practical cooperation in various areas, join hands with the rest of the Global South to achieve common development and seek strength through unity, and set greater BRICS cooperation off to a good start. Shenzhen TV: We noted that US President Joe Biden in an interview this week said that the Belt and Road Initiative has become a nuisance initiative and look whats happening in Africa. Whats Chinas comment? Mao Ning: I believe the people of BRI partner countries have the best say in what the Belt and Road Initiative really is. Over the past decade since China presented the BRI, more than 150 countries and over 30 international organizations have signed over 200 Belt and Road cooperation documents with us. Belt and Road has become the worlds largest international cooperation platform that covers the widest range of cooperation. It has brought tangible benefits to the people of BRI partner countries and is widely welcomed by the international community. Africa is one of the most active regions in Belt and Road cooperation. Thanks to the BRI, many African countries have built their first motorway, first cross-sea bridge and first industrial park. The African continent now has its first well-equipped pan-African center for disease control and prevention. Africa today has taken on a fresh look thanks to the BRI. It is easier to criticize than to do better. We hope the US will actually step up as well, deliver on its funding commitments, and do something real and concrete for Africas development and revitalization. CCTV: We noted that Chinas Permanent Mission to the UN Office at Geneva and Other International Organizations in Switzerland held an event on the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative (GDI) in the Palace of Nations of the UN yesterday. This is the first official event of the Group of Friends of the GDI in Geneva. Can you share more information about the event? Mao Ning: Yesterday, an event on the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative (GDI) was held in Geneva. Discussions focused on enhancing international cooperation on development and promoting global sustainable growth. President Xi Jinping put forward the GDI in September 2021 to promote stronger, greener and healthier global development. The Group of Friends of the GDI was established in New York in January 2022. Over the past two years and more, cooperation on the GDI has achieved fruitful results. Over 100 countries and many international organizations, including the UN, have expressed support for the GDI, and over 80 countries have joined the Group of Friends of the GDI. China has also set up the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund to support the implementation of relevant cooperation under the GDI. China stands ready to work with the rest of the international community to advance the steady and sustained growth of practical cooperation under the GDI, and make positive contribution to accelerating the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We welcome more like-minded countries to join the Group of Friends of the GDI and work together to forge a global partnership for development. China News Service: We noted that the signing ceremony of the trilateral agreement on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project was held in Beijing yesterday. Do you have any comment? Mao Ning: In 1996, Uzbekistan first proposed the idea of a China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway. In the following three decades, China, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan have had many rounds of consultation and negotiation, through which ideas concerning the implementation were fully exchanged. In May last year, the feasibility study of the project was generally completed which put the implementation of the project on a fast track. In just one year, the three countries have worked closely together to press ahead with consultation on the details and managed to narrow the gaps on major issues and accumulate common understandings. As a result, the trilateral agreement was finally signed yesterday. This important milestone was achieved thanks to the tremendous efforts of different departments and experts, as well as the personal attention and support from the leaders of the three countries. The China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project demonstrated the common aspiration for cooperation and development shared by the three countries. It will be a strong boost to the economic and social development of the three countries, as well as the Central Asian region. It is another testament to the importance of the Belt and Road Initiative and demonstrates the popularity of the vision for a community with a shared future for mankind in Central Asia. China looks forward to working closely with all parties for the early completion of this railway of development, friendship, and happiness which is in the common interest of the people in the region, and turbocharges the China-Central Asia cooperation. Reuters: The Philippine coast guard has accused Chinese coast guard of blocking efforts to evacuate a sick member of its armed forces stationed at the Second Thomas Shoal. The Philippines said Chinese coast guard made dangerous maneuvers and intentionally rammed its navy boat while the sick personnel was being transported. The Philippines has also called the Chinese coast guards actions barbaric and inhumane. How does the Ministry respond to this? Mao Ning: Chinas position on the issue of Renai Jiao is clear. If the Philippines notifies the Chinese side in advance, we can allow delivery of living necessities to the grounded warship or evacuation of personnel concerned. However, the Philippines should not use this as an excuse for delivering construction materials in an attempt to permanently occupy Renai Jiao. Beijing Youth Daily: It was reported that when meeting with the Palestinian Ambassador to Bangladesh a few days ago, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that although Western countries always talk about human rights for all, but, they dont bother about the human rights violation of Palestinians, and killing of innocent people there, rather they keep mum here. She said the people of Bangladesh could realize the pain and suffering of the Palestinians and that in every international forum across the globe, she always expressed her concern and voice for the Palestinian people. What is Chinas comment? Mao Ning: China noted the reports. Over the years, the US has wantonly interfered in other countries internal affairs under the pretext of human rights, but said nothing about what is happening to the Palestinian people, and even poured fuel to the fire. This lays bare the USs long-standing double standards and selfish and hegemonic nature. US-style human rights is just a tool serving the USs hegemony and selfish interests. China supports full UN membership for Palestine and hopes that there can be a comprehensive, just, and lasting solution to the question of Palestine at an early date. China is ready to work tirelessly with all countries including Bangladesh for a ceasefire in Gaza and lasting peace and stability in the Middle East, and to jointly uphold peace and stability across the region. Al Jazeera: According to US government press release, the State Department has approved the sales of F-16 spare parts and relevant services worth US$80 million to Taiwan. What is the Ministrys comment? Mao Ning: The US arms sales to Chinas Taiwan region seriously violate the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, especially the August 17 Communique of 1982. Such sales gravely undermine Chinas sovereignty and security interests, harm China-US relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and send a gravely wrong message to Taiwan independence separatist forces. China strongly deplores and firmly opposes this. What happened shows once again that the biggest threat to cross-Strait peace and stability and the biggest source of damage to the cross-Strait status quo are the separatist moves for Taiwan independence and connivance and support for such moves from US-led external forces. Taiwan independence is as incompatible with cross-Strait peace as fire with water. The DPP authorities attempt to seek independence through the use of force and the US is hellbent on helping advance that agenda by arming Taiwan. This is against the trend of the times, which will only escalate cross-Strait tensions and lead nowhere. The Taiwan question is at the core of Chinas core interests, and the first red line that cannot be crossed in China-US relations. China urges the US to earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, stop selling arms to Taiwan and having military contact with Taiwan, stop creating factors that fuel tensions in the Taiwan Strait, stop endangering cross-Strait peace and stability, and stop going further down this wrong and dangerous path. We will take strong and resolute measures to defend our national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Bloomberg: We are wondering why Chinese leader has not yet sent a congratulatory message to Indias Prime Minister Modi after his reelection? Mao Ning: China has extended congratulations on the victory of the BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the National Democratic Alliance in Indias general election. India expressed appreciation for that. ************************************** For the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, there will be no regular press conference on Monday, June 10. The press conference will resume on Tuesday, June 11. During the holiday, questions can be submitted to the Spokespersons Office via fax, email or WeChat. Happy weekend and may the Dragon Boat Festival bring you good health. Zhao Leji, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, meets with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling) BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Zhao Leji, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, met with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Beijing on Friday. Noting that China and Pakistan are all-weather, strategic, cooperative partners and ironclad friends, Zhao said the two countries have maintained unwavering mutual trust and friendship since the establishment of diplomatic relations more than 70 years ago, serving as a model for the friendly coexistence of nations. Zhao said China is willing to work with Pakistan to implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, support each other firmly, enhance cooperation in various fields, and promote the deepening of bilateral relations, contributing to the accelerated construction of a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era. China's NPC is willing to strengthen friendly exchanges with the Pakistani parliament, and deepen exchanges and interactions at various levels, in multiple fields and through diverse channels. It is also ready to work together to provide legal support for practical cooperation, enhance communication within multilateral organizations, and safeguard the common interests of developing countries, Zhao added. Hailing the Pakistan-China relationship as unbreakable, Sharif said that Pakistan supports the major visions and initiatives proposed by the Chinese leader, and upholds the one-China principle. Pakistan is also willing to promote cooperation between the legislative institutions of the two countries, he said. Zhao Leji, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, meets with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling) June 7 (UPI) -- Tens of millions of Americans were under heat warnings early Friday as record temperatures scorched the Southwest a day prior. The National Weather Service early Friday said some 13 million people were under an excessive heat warning and another 8.5 million were under a heat advisory covering parts of southern California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. Both excessive heat warnings and heat advisories are issued within 12 hours of the onset of extremely dangerous heat conditions. The advisories come after several daily high temperature records were broken on Thursday. In Phoenix, the temperature hit 113 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking the previous record set back in 2016 by two degrees. On Thursday, 11 people attending a rally for former President Donald Trump at a church in north Phoenix were hospitalized with heat-related symptoms. The Grand Canyon National Parks Service is also warning the public against hiking below the rim until at least 8 p.m. Friday when the excessive heat warning is to expire. "Extreme heat can pose serious risks like heat exhaustion and heat stroke," it said on X. "Plan your hikes wisely! Hit the trails before 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m. to avoid the scorching heat. Keep an eye out for warning signs like altered mental status, confusion or fainting." Early Friday, NWS Las Vegas cautioned dog owners to walk to their pets in the relative cool of the morning after a blacktop in Henderson hit 162 degrees a day prior. "When it's this hot outside, blacktop & sidewalks can turn into frying pans in the afternoon, which is why it is best to walk your four-legged friends in the morning hours when it is cooler," it said. Las Vegas and the California cities of Death Valley, Needles, Kingman, Bishop and Barstow/Daggett all saw record-breaking high daily temperatures Thursday, the NWS said. Texas also saw some of its daily records be broken on Thursday, including in San Angelo, where the mercury climbed to 108 degrees, surpassing the previous record of 107 set in 1916. "Can't say we're too excited to see that record fall," NWS San Angelo said on X. Early Friday, the NWS forecast highs in the 90s for most areas of Austin and San Antonio and up to 104 degrees along the Rio Grande. "A hot weekend ahead with slight chances for showers/storms on Monday and then dry and hot again," it said. The NWS warned in a discussion that while the heatwave's intensity peaked Thursday, there would be "little to no overnight relief from the heat" affecting those without cooling and adequate hydration. Milwaukee mayor says he will not 'take over' schools but will be more involved Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said at a press conference Friday that he has no intention of taking over Milwaukee Public Schools, while school board members work to pull the district through an accounting crisis amid the departure of the superintendent and comptroller. However, Johnson said he would get more involved. "Let me be very, very clear. I'm not seeking to have the mayor's office take over the schools in this city," Johnson said. "I am standing here today to be a central partner to solve the problems and improve educational outcomes here in Milwaukee." Also getting more involved: the city's comptroller, Bill Christianson, who said he would help MPS as it scrambles to complete crucial financial reports that are months late. "When we learned about some of the financial reporting challenges and vacancies in critical finance roles, we felt compelled to offer our assistance," Christianson said. Mayor Cavalier Johnson, at the podium, explains that city comptroller Bill Christianson, standing behind him, will help Milwaukee Public Schools with its accounting problems. Christianson said school board members were "receptive" to the offer and would have more conversations about their specific needs. He said it's unclear how long his office might offer that assistance. Jilly Gokalgandhi, vice president of the Milwaukee School Board, said she welcomed the support from city officials and from Gov. Tony Evers, who on Friday called for audits of MPS' operations and educational practices. "We are really appreciative of the governor's and the mayor's support," Gokalgandhi said. "We look forward to working in partnership to ensure the best outcomes for our kids and our families." Johnson also said Friday that he supported the audits suggested by Evers. "We've reached an extremely important juncture as it relates to education in Milwaukee," Johnson said. "Plans must be advanced to address leadership and financial issues." Johnson wants to interview superintendent candidates Johnson said he wants a seat at the table when school board members interview finalists for the permanent superintendent position during the board's national search, though he said he still believes board members should maintain their power to appoint the candidate of their choosing. "I want to have my voice heard, because I'm going to be working directly with that superintendent," Johnson said, added that he has been working since becoming mayor to "reestablish the link" between his office and the superintendent's. Milwaukee School Board member Megan O'Halloran said she welcomed the mayor's involvement in the process. "In addition to being the mayor, he's an MPS parent, and an MPS graduate who succeeded in the face of many challenges," O'Halloran said in a text Friday. "I think his perspective is valuable on many levels." The school board is scheduled to consider interim superintendent candidates at a meeting on Thursday. After that interim is in place, the board plans to launch a national search for a permanent superintendent. Johnson raises issue of school board election schedule and turnout Johnson said Milwaukee needs "more top-notch school board directors" and noted that school board elections in Milwaukee have "shamefully, shamefully low turnout." "It's not uncommon to have fewer than one in six voters show up and take part in school board elections in this city," Johnson said. "We need more from the people in this community." In an upcoming special school board election to replace Aisha Carr, who resigned mid-term, only one candidate is running. Asked whether he has a problem with the current board members, he said no. Asked whether he has confidence in them, he said: "That's a question for voters, and that's why I'm asking for people in Milwaukee to step up and be a part of the solution." Johnson suggested there could be consideration of changing the timing of school board elections "to coincide with bigger turnout elections." He didn't share more details on that idea. In Milwaukee, school board elections take place in the spring of odd-numbered years while mayoral and aldermanic elections take place every four years in the spring of even-numbered years. While fall elections generate higher voter turnout because of bigger races on the ballot, state statute requires regular school board elections to take place in spring. Reached after the press conference, Mayor's Office spokesman Jeff Fleming said the mayor was just posing a question and was "not likely to push for election changes by himself." "He wants to spur a discussion on the structure and timing of elections," Fleming said in an email. "The goal is to promote resident engagement. The timing of elections could be one change although that would likely get bogged down in the legislative process in Madison." Journal Sentinel reporter Alison Dirr contributed to this report. Contact Rory Linnane at rory.linnane@jrn.com. Follow her on X (Twitter) at @RoryLinnane. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee mayor says he will not 'take over' schools but will be more involved Mini Cooper goes up in flames on Los Angeles freeway, cause unclear Mini Cooper goes up in flames on Los Angeles freeway, cause unclear A yellow Mini Cooper engulfed in flames was seen off the shoulder of the 110 Freeway in Los Angeles on Friday. In a video submitted to KTLA by Faustino Beltran, the car is shown on fire as traffic continues as normal in the northbound lanes of the 110. No person appears to be inside or near the car. MiniCooper fire 101 Beltran told KTLA that the fire was spotted near the Highland Park neighborhood of L.A. As of 1 p.m. Friday, there was no official word on what started the blaze, and no additional details, including any potential injuries, were immediately available. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. A wild rice area in Flowage Lake, about 10 miles west and northwest of the proposed Talon sulfide mine in Tamarack, Minnesota. The wetlands directly west of the proposed mine are some of the most fertile wild rice fields in the entire state of Minnesota. Photo by Rob Levine for Minnesota Reformer. Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. This week: DFL party reaches rocky compromise on copper-nickel mining; nursing home workers threaten second strike; Minneapolis police approve union contract; senators chastise Amazon for treatment of delivery drivers; Half Price Books workers win first contract; and jobs numbers. DFL party supports holding hearings on copper nickel mining Labor unions beat back a push by environmentalists at the recent Democratic-Farmer-Labor state convention for the party to hold hearings on Prove It First legislation, which would block copper-nickel mining in Minnesota until theres independent scientific proof that a similar mine has operated elsewhere in the country for at least 10 years and been closed for at least 10 years without polluting. The party instead adopted with 62% support a kind of compromise platform to hold legislative hearings on copper-nickel mining in general, which hasnt happened in more than a decade. It does little to resolve an entrenched dispute between two of the DFLs most important constituencies, however. Labor unions say Prove It First is an impossible standard that effectively bans copper-nickel mines, robbing the state of good union jobs and the opportunity to support the green transition by producing metals needed for solar panels, batteries and other green infrastructure. Circumventing our comprehensive environmental review process with a politically-motivated ban would be a disservice to Minnesotans and our commitment to fighting climate change, Joel Smith, president of LIUNA Minnesota and North Dakota, said in a statement. Environmentalists argue sulfide ore mining presents too great a threat to the states waters, particularly the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, and the jobs created by more than 150,000 tourists visiting the area every year. Friends of the Boundary Waters Executive Director Chris Knopf accused the AFL-CIO working in tandem with some of the most corrupt corporations on the planet in opposing hearings on Prove It First legislation. The resolution approved by the DFL party supports the Legislature holding hearings on copper nickel mining, and supports withholding all permits for copper nickel mines in Minnesota until it can first be proven that such mines can be operated safely in our water rich environment and not violate state, federal, and tribal water quality standards. Last year, the Biden administration withdrew more than 225,000 acres near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from mineral leasing for 20 years. New Hope nursing home workers file to strike Nearly 200 nursing home workers at Saint Therese in New Hope filed their intent to strike again on June 15 for five days as negotiations over wages continue to stall, the union SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa announced on Thursday. Workers at Saint Therese along with hundreds of other at 11 other nursing homes in the Twin Cities walked off the job for 24 hours in March in the largest nursing home strike in recent state history. Since then, the 11 other facilities settled contracts with workers, winning double-digit wage increases. SEIU and UFCW, which also represents nursing home workers, fell short of their goal for a $25 minimum wage for all workers but are getting close. Union and non-union nursing home workers will be guaranteed an average minimum wage of $23.49 per hour as part of the first rules approved by Minnesotas new labor standards board for nursing home workers. The major sticking point at Saint Therese is over codifying a temporary $5 per hour pay increase for workers, which the union fears could go away when the facility is sold to a new company. Saint Therese announced this week it would sell the nursing home to Compass, giving the union less than the 90-days notice required in the union contract. It feels like theyve treated us like trash, and it feels like this strike is our only option right now to protect workers and residents. We want to make them understand that how you treat your staff is how you treat your residents, and thats why we are ready to strike, Mofoba Kanneh, a certified nursing assistant, said in a statement. A spokesperson for Saint Therese declined to comment amid ongoing negotiations. Minneapolis police union approves new contract Minneapolis police will get more than a 11.5% raise over the next three years with veteran cops receiving as much as 21.7% raises with pro-rated backpay under a tentative labor contract approved by the police union on Monday, the Star Tribune reported. The agreement must still be ratified by the City Council. The wage increases, while historic, are less than the police union wanted. Last fall the union requested a one-year 13.25% raise. The agreement, which came after eight months of negotiations and mediation, also includes some changes to the citys disciplinary response to problem officers. The contract extends the time period in which an officer accused of misconduct can be placed on leave during an investigation, and adds civilian investigator positions. Bipartisan group of senators chastise Amazon for lying A bipartisan group of 34 U.S. senators including Minnesotas Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith sent a letter to Amazon saying the company has been evasive and self-contradictory in the information its provided Congress about mistreatment of workers for its delivery service program. The retail behemoth contends that workers for Amazons Delivery Service Partner Program are not Amazon employees, even though the company exerts immense control over their delivery subcontractors. The senators letter says there is ample evidence that Amazon is a joint employer of the drivers and includes a list of questions for the company to answer. As The American Prospect reports, Amazon has attempted to skirt accountability for labor protections and foil unionization efforts by using subcontractors to employ the drivers. Meanwhile, Amazon trains the drivers, who wear Amazon uniforms and drive Amazon-branded vans, which are equipped with Amazons AI-powered surveillance cameras. Half Price Books workers win first contract Workers at four Half Price Books locations in the Twin Cities ratified their first union contract last week since voting in 2022 to unionize with UFCW Local 663 and 1189. In a news release, the union said because of their efforts, employees across the company saw a 33% increase in starting wages from $12 to $16 an hour. UFCW said Half Price Books workers in Minnesota paved the way for union drives to follow in Indiana, Illinois, Kansas and California. Through the hard work of the entire bargaining committee, we have shown all of our coworkers the priceless value of having a union contract, Aaron Kerr, a worker at the Roseville location, said in a statement. U.S. added 272,000 jobs in May U.S. job growth continues to exceed expectations, adding 272,000 jobs in May. But the countrys unemployment rate also increased, which had been below 4% for the past 27 months, CNN reports. Minnesotas unemployment rate has been significantly lower, hovering around 2.7%. The post Minnesota DFL agrees to legislative hearings on copper-nickel mining and other labor news appeared first on Minnesota Reformer. Maxwell Robert Wilson, 14, died from his brain injuries two days after he was hit by a car while on his scooter GoFundMe Maxwell Robert Wilson A 14-year-old boy was fatally struck while riding on his scooter on Monday, June 3, in Lakeville, Minn., reports KARE 11, Fox 9 and Pioneer Press. Maxwell Robert Wilson, an eighth grader at Century Middle School, was hit by a vehicle heading westbound as he was crossing 179th Street on his scooter in Lakeville around 3:15 p.m. The street has stop signs for vehicles traveling in north and southbound directions, but there are no stop signs for those traveling east and west on 179th Street, per the Lakeville Police Departments press release. After he was hit, Wilson was rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center with critical injuries. A helmet wasnt found at the crash site, reports Pioneer Press. The drivers identity has not been revealed, but she is an adult female who did not report any injuries. Following the accident, the Lakeville Police Department arrived at the scene with the Lakeville Fire Department, Allina EMS and Minnesota State Patrol. Due to the extent of his brain injuries, Wilson died two days later on Wednesday, June 5. An investigation into the crash is ongoing. Related: 15-Year-Old Boy Died 9 Days After He Was Hit by Car: 'We Talked to Him Until His Heart Stopped Beating' Legacy Maxwell R. Wilson Following the news of Wilsons death, a GoFundMe page, which was first created to assist the Wilson family with medical expenses, has begun raising money for after-life care. We are all heartbroken by the tragic loss of Maxwell (Max) Robert Wilson, read the start of the fundraisers information section. Chad (Father) and Jody (Mother), are heartbroken with the loss of their precious son. Morgan (Sister) has lost her only brother. He was so full of life, happiness, and joy. The post continued: If you were one lucky enough to have known Max, you knew he lit up every room he walked into. Max loved sports, his family, his dogs, his friends, and adventures. Related: Pennsylvania Teen Dies Nearly a Week After Being Hit by Car While Riding His Skateboard On Wednesday, the Hennepin County Medical Center hosted a "Hero Walk" in honor of the late teen who was an organ donor. Wilsons organs could save up to eight lives, and his tissue could assist up to 75 people, per LifeSource Minnesota. 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. "I cant imagine what his parents are going through, and his siblings," Mayor Luke Hellier said, per Fox 9. "My heart just goes out to them and our community... our community grieves with Maxs family, adding, "I just cannot thank their family enough [for making] that courageous decision to be organ donors. For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on People. Missiles for HAWK, ammunition for HIMARS: Pentagon reveals contents of latest US military aid package for Ukraine The Pentagon has officially revealed the contents of a new US$225 million military aid package for Ukraine, announced by US President Joe Biden. Source: European Pravda, citing a statement by the US Department of Defense Details: The Pentagon said the package would provide Ukraine with additional capabilities to meet its most urgent needs on the battlefield. The package includes, in particular: missiles for HAWK air defence systems; Stinger anti-aircraft missiles; ammunition for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS); 155mm howitzers; 155mm and 105mm artillery ammunition; 81mm mortar shells; M113 armoured personnel carriers; trailers for transporting heavy equipment; coastal and riverine patrol boats; TOW anti-tank missile systems; Javelin and AT-4 anti-tank systems; ammunition and grenades for small arms; demolition munitions; night vision devices, spare parts, maintenance and other support equipment. Background: On 7 June, during talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Biden announced a new US$225 million aid package for Ukraine. Earlier, after granting limited permission for Ukraine to use US weapons to strike Russian territory, Biden expressed opposition to potential strikes deep into Russian territory with US-supplied weaponry. Support UP or become our patron! Skeletal remains found near a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee were identified as those of a missing 20-year-old woman from Georgia. Maury-Ange Faith Martinez was reported missing in Gwinnett County, Georgia on August 28, 2023, according to a news release from the Cobb County Police Department. No details of the circumstances of her disappearance were shared except that it was believed Martinez disappeared from unincorporated Cobb County. The skeletal remains were found on January 5, 2024, police said. The remains were found in a rural area near a Volkswagen assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, police said. The facility is about 130 miles south of Nashville. Maury-Ange Faith Martinez. / Credit: Cobb County Police Department An investigation into Martinez's disappearance is ongoing. Police have asked anyone with information about her case to come forward. Martinez's mother, Anita Darling, told a local news station that her daughter loved "fashion and color and photography" and "making people feel good." She said that she was on her way to pick her daughter up when she vanished and that the family is still hoping for answers. "I know that something happened to her," Darling said. "Her sisters deserve to know and I deserve to know. Step up and say something." Polish general examines Putin threat to arm West's enemies Who will be Trump's 2024 VP pick? These are the contenders Biden delivers remarks on democracy and freedom to mark D-Day | Special Report Missouri Republican Sen. Bill Eigels campaign for governor engaged in several violations of campaign finance law, including accepting contributions in excess of the legal limit and corporate contributions, according to new ethics complaints. The complaints come amid an intensifying Republican race for governor. Eigel, an outspoken and sometimes acerbic presence in the Missouri Senate, is competing for the nomination along with Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe and Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft. John Maupin, a St. Louis-area attorney and former chair of the Missouri Ethics Commission, filed two complaints with the commission on Thursday. The Star obtained copies of the complaints after they were filed. Maupin alleges the Weldon Spring senators campaign accepted 24 contributions above legal limits during the current campaign, and that 2.4% of his contributions have come from anonymous donors more than the 1% limit in state law. Eigel also accepted two contributions from corporate entities in violation of the Missouri Constitution, Maupin alleges. The campaign has solicited contributions over the legal limit, Maupin says, pointing to Eigels campaign website, which invites visitors to contribute amounts up to $2,900 and $5,800 in excess of the states limits for individuals and couples the current limit is $2,825 for individuals and $5,650 for couples. Voters in 2016 reimposed campaign contribution limits after Missouri spent a decade as one of a very small number of states without limits. In 2020, voters also approved lower limits for state legislative candidates. Taken together, these errors show more than sloppy and inaccurate record keeping and reporting, Maupin, who last year donated the maximum amount to Kehoes campaign, wrote in one of the complaints. They suggest a fraudulent attempt (to) inflate the amount of Eigels contributions by tens of thousands of dollars, thereby artificially boosting its publicly-reported cash-on-hand figures and providing Missourians with an inaccurate picture of Eigels fundraising. Eigels campaign in a statement on Friday didnt confirm or deny the alleged violations, but sought to place any blame on an unnamed campaign vendor. The establishment is scared and they should be; were going to win, Eigel campaign manager Sophia Shore said. We are in the process of reviewing the complaints. Any clerical accounting and reporting errors would have been made by a vendor, not by Bill, and if legitimate, will be corrected immediately. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch first reported on the complaints. Ashcrofts campaign faces its own ethics complaint. In May, attorney and lobbyist Jane Dueker alleged it illegally coordinated with a political action committee on a letter attacking his opponents. The Ashcroft campaign has denied the allegation. Its unclear whether the Missouri Ethics Commission will take action on either complaint. The commission lacked a quorum to meet until earlier this week when Gov. Mike Parson appointed Whitney Smith of Des Peres to the commission filling the fourth of sixth commission spots. Publicly-available polling has generally shown Ashcroft leading the race, with Kehoe in second and Eigel in third. Whoever wins the primary will likely take on either House Minority Leader Crystal Quade or businessman Mike Hamra, the two major Democratic candidates. The Stars Kacen Bayless contributed reporting Mistrial declared for man charged with using a torch to intimidate at white nationalist rally FILE - Jacob Joseph Dix arrives at the Albemarle County Circuit Court in Charlottesville, Va., Tuesday, June 4, 2024. Dix is charged with using a flaming torch to intimidate counterprotesters during a 2017 gathering of white nationalists in Charlottesville, but the judge overseeing the case declared a mistrial after jurors were deadlocked on Thursday, June 6. (AP Photo/Ryan M. Kelly, File) CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) A Virginia judge declared a mistrial after jurors deadlocked on charges against a man accused of using a flaming torch to intimidate counterprotesters during a 2017 gathering of white nationalists in Charlottesville. The trial for Jacob Joseph Dix of Clarksville, Ohio, was the first test of a state law that makes it a felony to burn something to intimidate and cause fear of injury or death. After deliberating for about 12 hours over two days, jurors in Albemarle County Circuit Court announced Thursday that they were deadlocked. Judge H. Thomas Padrick declared a mistrial Thursday evening. Indictments unsealed last year showed 11 people had been charged with intimidation by fire, but prosecutors have not said whether additional defendants were also charged. Five people have pleaded guilty to the charge. Dix was the first to go on trial. Legislators passed the 2002 law after the state Supreme Court ruled that a cross-burning statute used to prosecute Ku Klux Klan members was unconstitutional. On Tuesday, prosecutors showed the jury videos of 300 to 400 white nationalists marching through the campus of the University of Virginia, carrying torches, shouting Nazi slogans and surrounding a much smaller group of anti-racist counterprotesters, an event that ended in chaos and fighting between the two groups. Dixs lawyer, Peter Frazier, told the jury nothing Dix did the night of Aug. 11, 2017, was criminal, and that the chants he joined in, including, You will not replace us! were free speech protected by the First Amendment. Henrico County Commonwealth's Attorney Shannon Taylor, who was appointed as a special prosecutor, said she intends to try the case again and will see if there is any other evidence to pursue. We appreciated the enormous amount of time that the jury took to consider this case of first impression," she said. After the clash at the university, violence broke out the next day when a Unite the Right rally was planned. After police declared the gathering an unlawful assembly and the crowd began to disperse, James Alex Fields Jr., a white supremacist from Maumee, Ohio, intentionally rammed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one and injuring dozens. Fields is serving a life sentence for murder and hate crimes. YANGON, June 7 (Xinhua) -- A fire broke out in Chanayethazan Township, Mandalay Region, on May 31 has resulted in a death toll that has now risen to six, an official from the Mandalay Region Fire Services Department told Xinhua on Friday. Initially, there were no fatalities on the day of the fire, but 15 people were injured, five of them seriously. Between the day of the fire and June 5, five people died from their injuries. Then, early on June 7, an auxiliary firefighter also died from injuries sustained during the incident. The fire was caused by a gas leak during the transfer from a large gas container to a smaller one. All the deceased suffered fatal burns in the incident, the official said. The two individuals have been charged in connection with the fire that broke out, the official added. A man, mistaken for a murder suspect, was bum-rushed by a group of Fort Lauderdale officers after he got off a county bus nearly a year ago. Hes now suing the officers involved two of whom were also named in another lawsuit accusing them of excessive use of force during a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020. Errol Leath, 34, is alleging that the City of Fort Lauderdale and police officers Eliezer Ramos, Steven Smith, Eduardo Requejo, Michael Lopinot, Todd Hill and Matthew Emala were negligent when they ambushed him for no reason on July 19, 2023, according to a lawsuit filed May 30 in Broward Circuit Court. Ramos and Smith were included in a federal lawsuit filed last week that accused the police department of deploying tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators who gathered on May 31, 2020 to demand justice for George Floyd, a Black man killed days before by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. READ MORE: Your rights were violated: BLM protesters sue Fort Lauderdale cops over brutal crackdown In the filing, attorney Robert Rogers said Leath has been brought into public scandal, and with great humiliation, mental suffering and damaged reputation after he was tackled at a bus stop by officers with the departments fugitive unit. The lawsuit also claimed that the city wasnt training officers properly, particularly how to implement a tactical plan, identify a correct suspect and use only the minimum amount of force necessary. Similar allegations regarding the departments training protocols have come to light in the lawsuit brought forth by protesters. [Fort Lauderdale] knew of the dangerous conditions, or they existed long enough that [the city] should have discovered them in exercising due care, or [the city] created the dangerous conditions, Rogers says in the filing. Officers started tailing Leath, who cant drive due to epilepsy, when he got on the bus near Northwest 24th Street in Lauderdale Lakes, according to the suit. They suspected that Leath was Daenon Malik King, a man wanted in connection to a murder. They followed the bus in unmarked cars, parking the vehicles around the bus when it stopped near 2912 N State Road 7, the filing states. Thats when they hopped out of the cars, armed and wearing tactical gear. The officers then pointed their weapons at Leath and other people getting off the bus. This embedded content is not available in your region. You look just like him The officers didnt identify themselves and, with guns drawn, shouted Hey! You right there at the crowd, according to the lawsuit. At that point, Leath, who attorneys say had no reason to believe that the police were looking for him, began to run away from the sights of the officers guns as he believed he was in danger from some other individual in the area, according to the filing. One of the officers tackled Leath, slamming his head into the ground and placing their hands around his neck while handcuffing him, the document states. Body camera footage published by the Miami New Times shows Leath repeatedly asking What did I do? Leath, who appeared perplexed in the footage, told the officers that he had epilepsy. They informed him that there was a warrant out for his arrest before asking for his name. Murder? a perplexed Leath said, according to the footage. I never killed no one in my life. Officers proceed to look through Leaths fanny pack, which contained his ID, epilepsy medication and a Bible. Realizing they had mistook his identity, they uncuffed Leath, the footage shows. These things happen, one of the officers said in the video. You look just like him. Leath, however, doesnt resemble King, Rogers says in the lawsuit. Leath is in his early 30s and doesnt have tattoos while King, who is in his 40s, does. Daenon Malik King Im getting off the bus thinking theyre going after someone else. Im trying to get out of the way, Leath told WSVN shortly after the incident. I wouldnt wish on my worst enemy to go through that. Errol Leath talks to WSVN reporters. A spokesperson for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department told the Miami Herald on Thursday that it does not comment on pending litigation. At the time of WSVNs report, the department apologized to Leath, adding that officers observed a man with several identifying features that were similar to the suspect in an area known to be frequented by the suspect. They had their firearms drawn because the suspect was known to be armed and dangerous, according to the statement. We recognize the impact this mistake can have on an innocent individual, the department said. We will continue to be committed to upholding the highest standards of accountability, transparency, and fairness in our policing efforts as we serve our community. King was arrested less than five minutes away from that bus stop in August after the Marshals Service staked out his location. He remains behind bars awaiting trial. In the Spotlight is a Modesto Bee series that digs into the high-profile local issues that readers care most about. Story idea? Email tips@modbee.com. Stanislaus County is proceeding with infrastructure projects in South Modesto despite state Sen. Marie Alvaradio-Gils recent scrutiny of the $5 million funding, according to Supervisor Channce Condit. I am proud to say that this project will move forward, and it will be completed by 2026, and I would ask that the county prioritize this community and these funds moving forward, Condit said at the Tuesday Board of Supervisors meeting. During the meeting, County Counsel Thomas Boze addressed the county codes Condit allegedly violated, according to a letter by Alvarado to Stanislaus CEO Jody Hayes. Alvarado accuses Condit of violating the boards conflict-of-interest policy and code of ethics. She alleges he used familial ties and received preferential treatment from his father, Chad Condit, in pursuit of state funding. Chad Condit was the senators former chief of staff in 2023. The board is subject to state law with respect to conflicts of interest and general ethical principles, said Boze. I think ultimately individual supervisors are answerable to voters. They fire the supervisors. So with respect to adherence to the code of ethics, there is no enforcement mechanism in that code of ethics other than the voters. Condit revealed that his office has not been contacted by any state investigators regarding the senators inquiry into the allocation of $5 million for south Modesto. The only state investigation he said he is aware of is the one against Alvarado-Gil, regarding an alleged state human resources wrongful-termination violation filed by his father. Condit said if there is an investigation, he and the county will comply. Until then, he advised the county counsel to contact the attorney general to see where the issue lies. [The senator] has brought a lot of questions of doubt and honestly has frightened the community of south Modesto with her erroneous attacks. And I think it is pertinent of us to give the south Modesto community members some reassurance, Condit said. The board confirmed that the south Modesto infrastructure work including sidewalks, streetlights and other neighborhood improvements has not yet gone out to bid and that the state money still is in the county treasury. When this does go out to bid, of course, I will follow proper protocol and recuse myself, said Condit. But until that happens and until there is an actual and relevant conflict, I will continue to vote on this measure and continue to support this measure of the $5 million being properly allocated to the south Modesto community as Sen. Alvarado-Gil originally authorized and promised that community. He also urged for the creation of a south Modesto community advisory committee to involve them in the process and to increase transparency. The grant was included in the 2023-2024 Budget Bill and disbursed by the California Department of Housing and Community Development, according to a statement by county Chief Executive Officer Jody Hayes. It was accepted by the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors on Feb. 27, 2024. The project is currently in the design and engineering phase. The current estimated project cost is $11.9 million, but that may change as the project develops, said Hayes. The $5 million grant supplements other funding sources for this project. If the funding does not come through, the county may scale back on the project, seek alternative funding sources, shift funding from other projects or defer the projects until more funding is available, Hayes said. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. Molina Healthcare donates site for Jefferson Countys first new middle school in 90 years A new middle school will rise in West Louisville on the site where Passport Health had once intended to build its headquarters. (Photo by Deborah Yetter/Kentucky Lantern) A new middle school is planned for a long-vacant site in West Louisville where Passport Health, the states first Medicaid managed care company once hoped to build its corporate headquarters. The news was celebrated at a press conference Friday by a host of state and local officials and representatives of the predominantly Black area of Louisville who have long lobbied for development of the 20-acre site at 18th and Broadway. Molina Healthcare is donating the site it acquired in 2022 for about $7 million after it bought out Passport, which ceased construction of its headquarters amid financial problems brought on by changes in state Medicaid policies. It will be Jefferson Countys first new middle school to be built in 90 years, said school Superintendent Marty Pollio, who spoke at the event that also included Gov. Andy Beshear and Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg. We thought this would be a great place for a new middle school in West Louisville, Pollio said. I never in my wildest dreams thought they would donate this plot of land. Ryan Sadler, president of the company now called Passport by Molina HealthCare, said the decision comes after several years of meeting with community groups to determine the best use for the site. We are all here today for West Louisville, he said. Molina also plans to open a one-stop health and wellness center on the site to serve area residents, Sadler said. Molina, a Fortune 500 company based in Long Beach, California, serves about 296,000 Kentucky Medicaid members, making it the second largest of the six managed care companies, or MCOs that oversee health services for Medicaid enrollees. It is the single largest Medicaid MCO for patients in West Louisville. Pollio also included a surprise announcement: JCPS will consider locating a new headquarters on the West Broadway site, replacing its aging building in southeast Jefferson County, he said. But the first step is to begin construction on what he described as a state of the art middle school as a home for the Dr. J. Blaine Hudson Middle School opened last year temporarily in a former elementary school. The new school is expected to open in 2026 and is named for Hudson, a longtime Louisville scholar, educator and Black activist who died in 2013. Development of the site has been long sought by community leaders as a source of jobs and economic growth for the historically disadvantaged West Louisville. Vacant for 20 years, it had been a symbol of promise for leaders in the largely Black community who were excited about Passports plan to locate its headquarters there. But they grew increasingly concerned after construction ceased amid Passports financial problems. Passport had proposed its headquarters and a health and wellness site at 18th and Broadway but was forced to suspend construction in 2019 amid a revenue shortfall it blamed on Medicaid rate cuts enacted by the administration of former Gov. Matt Bevin. Bevin, a Republican and critic of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, had proposed limiting benefits and restructured how his administration paid MCOs which Passport, as the largest provider in Louisville, claimed unfairly cut its reimbursement for health claims. The Bevin administration at the time denied the rate cuts were unfair to Passport. Beshear, a Democrat who defeated Bevin in the 2019 governors race, in comments Friday alluded to the dispute. A little over six years ago, a previous governor stopped a $100 million construction of this building, said Beshear, now in his second term. I made you a promise that if I were elected, we would develop this property. Rev. Charles Elliott, left, a West Louisville pastor who has long championed development of the vacant site in West Louisville, was among the crowd at Fridays announcement. (Photo by Deborah Yetter/Kentucky Lantern) Among those in the crowd was Rev. Charles Elliott, whose King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church is near the site and who once led a prayer delegation to Frankfort in support of the Passport project. Beshear directly addressed Elliott, a prominent West Louisville pastor. Pastor Elliott, I remember looking at you and saying, West Louisville deserves better, Beshear said as Elliott nodded. Other speakers echoed enthusiasm over the plan for the site. Jefferson County School Board chairman Corrie Shull called Friday an awesome day to be alive. We are incredibly grateful for this day, added Hudson school principal Jeronda Majors. Passport faced potential demise after it failed to get its contract renewed with the state in 2019, but was saved by the sale to Molina, which was a successful bidder for Kentuckys Medicaid business. Kentuckys $1.5 billion-a-year Medicaid program covers about 900,000 low-income and disabled adults and about 600,000 children, with most of its money coming from the federal government. Passport was established in 1997 as a non-profit company designed as a pilot project to try to control rising Medicaid costs in the Louisville area, a model officials hoped to take statewide. It was Kentuckys first Medicaid MCO. But efforts to create such entities in other parts of the state failed and the state in 2011 began awarding its Medicaid business to Passport and outside, for-profit companies. Friday, with the rusting steel beams of the former Passport site in the background, officials were ready to look ahead. Congratulations to everyone involved, Beshear said. We look forward to cutting the ribbon on these amazing projects. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE The post Molina Healthcare donates site for Jefferson Countys first new middle school in 90 years appeared first on Kentucky Lantern. Mom of Palestinian boy who was fatally stabbed in Will County files suit against alleged killer Months after surviving a knife attack in unincorporated Will County that killed a 6-year-old Palestinian boy, the childs mother has sued the alleged attacker, his wife and brother for wrongful death, battery and negligence. Joseph Czuba, 72, is currently awaiting trial in the Will County Adult Detention Facility for allegedly stabbing Wadea Al-Fayoume 26 times and seriously injuring his mother, Hanaan Shahin, over his anger about the war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023. In the days between Hamas initial attack on Israel and the Oct. 14 attack in unincorporated Plainfield, Czuba reportedly became heavily interested in the conflict through conservative talk radio and targeted the pair because they were Muslim and Palestinian, according to the Will County sheriffs office. Wadeas death drew condemnation from elected officials across the state and country. President Joe Biden named him in a national address shortly after he died and federal authorities launched investigations into the attack shortly after it occurred. Shahins attorney, John Simon, said the lawsuit, filed late last month in Will County Circuit Court, had been delayed due to the federal hate crime investigation that is currently underway and which has limited some discovery. We are welcoming the opportunity to get to the bottom of what caused this man to do this and who knew about it, he said. This is a racially and religiously charged incident and anyone who had any ability to stop it should have intervened. The complaint accuses Czubas wife, Mary Czuba, and his brother, Daniel Czuba, of failing to warn Shahin that Czuba had extreme and violent thoughts and opinions towards Palestinians and Muslims, including Hanaan and Wadea Al-Fayoume, and presented a risk of foreseeable physical harm to Hanaan Shahin and Wadea Al-Fayoume. The suit also accuses Czuba himself of wrongful death and battery and names his and his brothers rental corporations as defendants. The 39-page complaint states that Shahin had identified the rental property through Daniel Czuba and moved in about two years before the attack. According to the complaint, Joseph Czuba approached his tenants several times over the week between the start of the war and the attack to tell them he hated Muslims. When Shahin told Mary Czuba about those interactions, Mary Czuba allegedly assured her that she and Wadea were safe. Czuba also allegedly asked Shahin and her son to move out of the house and told Mary Czuba that he feared Shahins Palestinian friends would hurt them about three days before the attack. According to the complaint, Czuba first attacked Shahin while she was giving Wadea a bath and returned to stab Wadea after she had called 911 and before authorities arrived. The last words Shahin heard her son say were oh no, the complaint said. Simon said that should the jury find the case in Shahins favor, it would be up to them to determine how much she would be awarded in monetary damages. The public defender representing Czuba in criminal proceedings did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday night. Czubas next criminal court date is 9:30 a.m. June 14, according to Will County sheriff records. CHICAGO Months after surviving a knife attack in unincorporated Will County that killed a 6-year-old Palestinian boy, the childs mother has sued the alleged attacker, his wife and brother for wrongful death, battery and negligence. Joseph Czuba, 72, is currently awaiting trial in the Will County Adult Detention Facility for allegedly stabbing Wadea Al-Fayoume 26 times and seriously injuring his mother, Hanaan Shahin, over his anger about the war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023. In the days between Hamas initial attack on Israel and the Oct. 14 attack in unincorporated Plainfield, Czuba reportedly became heavily interested in the conflict through conservative talk radio and targeted the pair because they were Muslim and Palestinian, according to the Will County Sheriffs office. Wadeas death drew condemnation from elected officials across the state and country. President Joe Biden named him in a national address shortly after he died and federal authorities launched investigations into the attack shortly after it occurred. Shahins attorney, John Simon, said the lawsuit, filed late last month in Will County Circuit Court, had been delayed due to the ongoing federal hate crime investigation that is currently underway and which has limited some discovery. We are welcoming the opportunity to get to the bottom of what caused this man to do this and who knew about it, he said. This is a racially and religiously charged incident and anyone who had any ability to stop it should have intervened. The complaint accuses Czubas wife, Mary Czuba, and his brother, Daniel Czuba, of failing to warn Shahin that Czuba had extreme and violent thoughts and opinions towards Palestinians and Muslims, including Hanaan and Wadea Al-Fayoume, and presented a risk of foreseeable physical harm to Hanaan Shahin and Wadea Al-Fayoume. The suit also accuses Czuba himself of wrongful death and battery and names his and his brothers rental corporations as defendants. The 39-page complaint states that Shahin had identified the rental property through Daniel Czuba and moved in about two years before the attack. According to the complaint, Joseph Czuba approached his tenants several times over the week between the start of the war and the attack to tell them he hated Muslims. When Shahin told Mary Czuba about those interactions, Mary Czuba allegedly assured her that she and Wadea were safe. Czuba also allegedly asked Shahin and her son to move out of the house and told Mary Czuba that he feared Shahins Palestinian friends would hurt them about three days before the attack. According to the complaint, Czuba first attacked Shahin while she was giving Wadea a bath and returned to stab Wadea after she had called 911 and before authorities arrived. The last words Shahin heard her son say were oh no, the complaint said. Simon said that should the jury find the case in Shahins favor, it would be up to them to determine how much she would be awarded in monetary damages. The public defender representing Czuba in criminal proceedings did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday night. Czubas next criminal court date is 9:30 a.m. June 14, according to Will County Sheriff records. ____ BEDFORD, Va. (WFXR) For John Hussey and his family, D-Day has a strong meaning. John Hussey from Moneta spoke with WFXR News at the D-Day Memorial in Bedford during the 80th Anniversary Ceremony about his father John Robert Hussey. John Robert Hussey was a second lieutenant on June 6 and a part of the 16th Infantry Company. Hussey shares he was in the same unit as many of the Bedford Boys. Husseys father was killed in action on Omaha Beach, and like so many others who lost loved ones on that day, it will never be forgotten. Loss, a lot of loss, said Hussey to WFXR News when asked about what D-Day personally means to him. I miss my father. RELATED STORY: National D-Day Memorial 80th anniversary commemoration For Hussey, he continues to go to the Memorial and sees his dads name on the memory wall, paying honor and tribute to his father. He shows his father off to his family, especially his grandson, and so many others pointing out how important D-Day is and the remaining impact of the invasion. We should all know, said Hussey, One country attacked another country and we had to help the French get back their freedom and had to get rid of Adolf Hitler. Some young American Men and British men and Canadian men, a lot of American men, they died doing it. WFXR thanks John and his family for sharing their story. (Courtesy, John Hussey) Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFXRtv. Water pipe (Photo by Travis Modisette via Flickr | CC-BY-SA 2.0). The Montana Land Board decided to take back the authority it ceded decades ago at its May meeting, but the decision to do that, along with a recent Supreme Court ruling, has cast an uneasy tension between state leaders and the agricultural community. As temperatures continue to rise and the threat of fire grows, ranchers and farmers continue to be concerned about their land and access to water. In Montana, water rights are notoriously complex and litigious, with some disputed claims still outliving the residents who originally brought them. At issue is how the State of Montana claims water rights when dealing with state-owned leased lands. Like many western states, large tracts of land are held in trust by the state and money made from leasing the land goes into a fund to support public education. However, a recent court case and the management of water rights by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, the state agency in charge of the trust lands, has sparked renewed concerns that the state may try to take water rights away from property owners. The case, Schutter vs. State Land Board, was decided in May and the states highest court ruled that if a resident filed a water claim, even if the source of the water was on private land, that if it has been used in part to water state land then the state owns part of that water right. That has led to an uproar from the agricultural community, which is worried that simply transferring water from private land to leased state land will create an opportunity for the state to take water rights. From that decision and recent contentious land board meetings, the Montana Land Board, comprised of the five constitutional officers (the governor, attorney general, auditor, secretary of state and superintendent of public education), has revisited its policy of delegating legal challenges to the states Department of Natural Resources. Because of the uproar and concern from the Schutter case, the land board decided to reverse a decades-long policy of delegating water rights decisions to agency officials, and will now require any potential future water cases go to the board for permission to proceed. In other words, the DNRC will no longer be able to litigate or challenge cases without first getting the approval of the land board, a change brought by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, who had previously vowed to update the policy to bring more oversight to the elected leaders and less authority to the agency. The proposal was supported unanimously. All members of the states Land Board are Republican. Though the policy promised more oversight, farmers, ranchers, attorneys and those in agriculture seemed uncertain whether the move would help with disputes. Many members of the agriculture community testified that they were still worried about the uncertainty they saw in the application of Montana law. Many expressed concern that during dry years if they used water they owned on state land to help, the state may try to claim a portion of it. We have to be assured that if we use our water on state land, said Sen. Butch Gillespie, who gave public comment as both a rancher and Republican state senator. Carl DeVries, a rancher from Roberts and a member of the Senior Agricultural Water Rights Alliance agreed. We need assurances if it is a temporary situation, DeVries said. For months, farmers and ranchers have said that without more protections or assurances that they would be hesitant to lease land for fear of losing water rights. Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras worked with the DNRC to present to the Land Board an overview about how the state department works with residents who bid on and win the state leases. Juras is not only the lieutenant governor, but comes from an agricultural background and is an attorney. She pointed out that paperwork can be filed with the state to protect temporary water usage on state land. Betsy Story, a water law attorney from Helena, said that she was still concerned about the gray areas of the law, including when the state claims part of a water right that originates completely on private land. What happens, she asked, if another person in the future wins the lease for state land? She said a situation like that raises plenty of thorny legal issues. Knudsen said he hoped returning legal oversight to the land board will help mitigate some of the conflict. This means that if the DNRC wants to make a legal claim, it must get explicit approval from us, Knudsen said. This should be as much as it can be in the public. The post Montana Land Board decides to take stronger role in water decisions appeared first on Daily Montanan. Another group of Georgia lawmakers will be touring the U.S. Postal Service Distribution Center in Palmetto. On May 30, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff toured the troubled facility, searching for and demanding answers on how the facility was being run. After his tour, Ossoff told Channel 2s Tyisha Fernandes that the problems plaguing the facility and impacting Georgians were due to not being properly managed. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Now, a group of four Georgia House Reps. will be touring the facility. An announcement from Rep. Mike Collins said he, Rep. Drew Ferguson, Rep. Andrew Clyde and Rep. Austin Scott will tour the Palmetto Distribution Center on June 10 at 10:30 a.m. RELATED STORIES: According to Collins office, the tour comes after a phone call between the representative and U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy regarding the ongoing issues with mail delays for Georgia residents since the facility opened earlier this year. In recent congressional hearings, DeJoy has taken repeated fire from Georgia senators and House members over the delays, though the criticism and problems at the USPS are not just in Georgia. DeJoy said there are other facilities across the country also experiencing delays. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] IN OTHER NEWS: For most Statehouse races, the ultimate winners are decided this month The SC Statehouse (File/Mary Ann Chastain/Special to the SC Daily Gazette) COLUMBIA Elections for just over half of South Carolinas 170 legislative seats will be settled by the end of this month. Thats because 80 incumbents seeking re-election and candidates for six open seats will have no competition at all in November. And for a good chunk of the other half who will face a general election opponent, there wont actually be much of a contest. Six races will feature only third-party challengers, according to an analysis by the SC Daily Gazette. Plus, many other districts lean so heavily Republican or Democrat, something really extraordinary has to happen to flip the seat. Thats why its so important for voters to participate in next weeks primaries and for the contests not decided June 11 the run-offs two weeks later, said Lynn Teague with the state League of Women Voters. (Early voting for the primary ends Friday.) The point thats apparently hardest to get through to voters right now is everybody thinks November is the election. For most purposes, June is the election here, she said. The primary is where things get decided. Teague estimates that only 10 legislative races will be competitive this fall. And that may be an overestimation, she said. However, if turnout is higher than normal, more seats could be in play, she added. Turnout is traditionally abysmal in primaries, especially when there are no statewide offices at the top of the ticket. Four years ago the last time all 170 Statehouse seats were on the ballot less than a quarter of registered voters participated. And that was a year with a statewide contest on the Republican primary ballot, with U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham facing three GOP challengers. (Graham got 68% of the votes.) In 2016, the last presidential election year with no statewide contest on primary ballots, less than 14% of registered voters bothered to participate in the June primary, according to data from the South Carolina Election Commission. That means Statehouse races are generally decided by a relatively small number of motivated primary voters. People who are very angry, who are operating at the extremes, are probably going to vote in that primary, Teague said. Whereas somebody sitting at home, mainly concerned about the fact they just had to have their car repaired because of all the potholes, may not pay attention to the fact an election is happening until October. In the House, there are 15 open seats with no incumbent running: 12 currently held by a Republican and three by Democrats. In the 46-member Senate, there are five, evenly split among Republicans and Democrats, plus one Democrat-turned-Independent. In most cases, who wins the primary for those 20 seats will decide voters next representative or senator. In South Carolina, most of the races have become primary races as opposed to general election races, said Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, who is among 55 incumbent legislators with no opposition whatsoever for re-election. His caucus is just one vote shy of a supermajority in the Senate. And, in senators first time on the ballot since the Legislatures post-census redrawing of district lines, Republicans could surpass that. Who wins primary contests will decide whether seats are more or less vulnerable for a flip in November. Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, said a better-than-normal turnout would likely benefit his caucus, but getting people to participate can be tough, especially in areas without a competitive primary for U.S. House seats or at least a local sheriffs race. Six of South Carolinas seven congressional seats have a primary for at least one party. The three U.S. House contests most likely to draw voters to the polls will decide whether Rep. Nancy Mace bests another Republican challenger in the coastal 1st District; whether Rep. William Timmons can hang on against a challenge from the chairman of the state Houses hardline Freedom Caucus in the 4th District; and who among seven Republicans wins a primary for the open 3rd District seat being vacated by Jeff Duncan. That contest is expected to head into a runoff among the top two vote-getters. Freedom Caucus In the state House, the big question is whether the hard-right Freedom Caucus grows or diminishes its ranks in its civil war with the majority Republican caucus. The 2022 elections gave Republicans in that chamber a mega-majority of 71% of the seats. But the chambers floor debates often devolve into GOP vs. GOP feuding. The Freedom Caucus is trying to oust GOP incumbents to increase its influence, while the majority GOP caucus is trying to downsize the Freedom Caucus. Four Freedom Caucus members arent seeking re-election, including two running for Congress in the Upstate. Eleven are facing GOP candidates in the primary. Only two are running unopposed with a guarantee to return. Entering the fray is Gov. Henry McMaster, who endorsed three GOP challengers trying to oust Freedom Caucus members. It is rare for McMaster, a former state GOP chairman, to choose sides in GOP primaries. Its certainly the first time since he became governor in 2017 that hes endorsed a Republican challenger to an incumbent GOP legislator. As for why he decided to weigh in now, spokesman Brandon Charochak said, Gov. McMaster has endorsed incumbents and candidates in contested and open House and Senate primary elections who share his conservative values and support his policies and proposals for prosperity for all South Carolinians. Asked if that meant Freedom Caucus members hes opposing dont represent McMasters values, Charochak responded, you could read it that way. The three challengers hes backing are Kyle White, who is opposing Rep. April Cromer in Anderson County; Adam Crisp, who is challenging Rep. Rob Harris in Spartanburg County; and Jason Shamis, who is running against Rep. Josiah Magnuson, in a different Spartanburg County district. McMaster has also endorsed Republican incumbents in the state House who are trying to fight off Freedom Caucus-aligned challengers in the primary. The running of campaigns to oust fellow Republicans is exactly what got the Freedom Caucus booted from the majority caucus after the November 2022 elections. The House Majority Caucus newly required members to sign a pledge not to work for GOP challengers. Freedom Caucus members refused, keeping them outside of majority GOP caucus meetings since. A couple of Republicans left the Freedom Caucus amid the kerfuffle to stay with the majority. The governor has also endorsed three congressional candidates, including Timmons in his bid to fight off Morgan, the Freedom Caucus chairman. He also endorsed Sheri Biggs, a candidate in the open 3rd Congressional District, whose opponents include state Rep. Stewart Jones, a Freedom Caucus founding member. Biggs and her husband have also been longtime donors to McMasters campaigns. McMaster also endorsed Mace in the 1st District over GOP challenger Catherine Templeton, who headed two state agencies during Gov. Nikki Haleys tenure. Templeton also challenged McMaster in his 2018 run for his first full term after Haleys 2017 departure to be then-President Donald Trumps United Nations ambassador made McMaster governor. (Templeton came in third in that five-way primary.) Trump too has weighed into South Carolinas GOP primary races. His endorsement differed from McMasters in the 3rd District, where Trump instead backed pastor Mark Burns. In state House races, Trump generally just backed Republican incumbents, which included Freedom Caucus members. His statement on Truth Social praised the leadership of House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, who is campaigning against Freedom Caucus members. The post For most Statehouse races, the ultimate winners are decided this month appeared first on SC Daily Gazette. LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) A corner store in Mount Pleasent may be the luckiest lottery location in the state after three tickets sold turned into huge money prizes, two within the last few months. Congratulations to the lucky winners on their life-changing prizes, and to the owner of Borders Corner Store for selling these huge prizes, said Lottery Commissioner, Suzanna Shkreli. In many ways, retailers like Borders Corner Store are the face of the Michigan Lottery, and because of their exceptional customer service to our players, the Lottery has been able to contribute more than $1 billion to Michigan schools for five consecutive years. Borders Corner Store is located at 7024 East Pickard Rd. in Mount Pleasant and near Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort, a place where many hope to become lucky and win big. This embedded content is not available in your region. Dina Russell won $25,000 a year for life after playing Lucky for Life. A man from Iseballe County won $115,000 from a Fantasy 5 jackpot and a woman from Gladwin County won a $1 million prize from playing the Black & Gold instant game. For selling the winning tickets, Borders Couner Store earned a $2,000 bonus commission. I play Lucky for Life regularly. I pulled up to the gas station to purchase a ticket, but before going in, I checked the Lucky for Life ticket I had in my purse by scanning it on the Lottery app. When $25,000 a year for life came up on the screen, I was thrilled! said Russell. I like playing the instant games and I always stop to buy one on my way home from work, said the woman from Gladwin County. I stopped at the store after work as usual one night and decided to try the Black & Gold game. I started scratching the ticket when I got home and when I saw I had won $1 million, I was in shock! Approximately 97 cents of every dollar spent on Lottery tickets benefits Michigans School Aid Fund. In 2023, the Lottery contributed over $1.3 billion to Michigans public schools, marking the fifth consecutive year of contributions exceeding $1 billion. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WLNS 6 News. Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Brazilian Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, who is on an official visit to China, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Hong) BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Brazilian Vice President Geraldo Alckmin in Beijing on Friday. Xi said China and Brazil are like-minded good friends, and good partners walking hand in hand. "In April last year, President Lula and I reached an important consensus on leading and opening up the new future of China-Brazil relations in the new era." With joint efforts in the past year, the two countries have continuously deepened strategic mutual trust, steadily advanced pragmatic cooperation, and closely coordinated on the international stage. This has not only promoted their respective development, but effectively safeguarded the common interests of all developing countries, Xi said. Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Brazilian Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, who is on an official visit to China, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Hong) Nicolle Baird, a federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fellow, works on a real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis to better understand mpox at a laboratory in Ghana in 2022. U.S. public health officials are encouraging those at risk of mpox infection to get vaccinated as cases rise in several states compared with last year. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) The number of U.S. mpox cases has more than doubled compared with last year, and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been urging clinicians across states to encourage vaccinations for those at risk. As of May 25, the nation had seen a roughly 150% increase in cases of the disease formerly known as monkeypox from 434 at that time last year to 1,089 this year, according to the CDC. About a third of the cases are in New York state, New York City (which the CDC reports separately), New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Either their immunity is waning, or folks didn't get complete vaccination. Dr. Richard Silvera, assistant professor of infectious diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Anyone can contract mpox, a viral disease that can cause a rash, pain severe enough to require hospitalization and in rare cases, primarily in patients with other complications death. But during 2022s U.S. outbreak, the contagious infection mainly affected men in gay and bisexual communities. While its not a sexually transmitted infection, mpox can be passed through skin-to-skin contact, respiratory droplets or contact with bodily fluids. June is Pride Month, and public health experts are concerned about a potentially higher caseload this summer as people gather for large celebrations. Experts are encouraging vaccination outreach, especially to Black and Hispanic LGBTQ+ people, who are less likely to be vaccinated and more likely to face barriers to getting care. Those who are at highest risk for mpox, including men who have sex with men and people with advanced HIV, should receive two doses, four weeks apart, of the trademarked Jynneos vaccine to prevent infection. The CDC has warned that low vaccination rates among those groups with the highest risk of mpox exposure could lead to a resurgence of the disease. Prevention Resource Network workers staff an STI mobile health unit in New Jersey. The network has been providing mpox awareness and vaccines as mpox cases rise across several states this year and public health officials urge vaccinations. Courtesy of Ethan Anderson, Prevention Resource Network Dr. Richard Silvera, an assistant professor of infectious diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, said the current mpox rates are far lower than they were in 2022, when there were more than 3,800 cases citywide, but that the numbers are growing rapidly. I am very concerned that there will be increased rates over the summer, particularly as we hit Pride Month, Silvera said. New York City has seen more than 200 cases this year up from 46 at this time last year. Its unclear what is causing the surge, but Silvera and other experts say one factor could be that some patients may not have received their second doses. Either their immunity is waning, or folks didnt get complete vaccination, he said. And so now theres been time for that virus to exploit those gaps in protection. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released an advisory in early May, noting that of the 256 diagnoses between October 2023 and April 15, 73% were among unvaccinated people or people who had received only one dose. Theres a large overlap between people who belong to BIPOC communities, living with HIV, identifying as LGBTQ+, said Preeti Pathela, executive director of the STI program at the agency. Our hope is that, through this kind of regular outreach which we have intensified in the last couple of months, knowing that coming into the summer is going to be a critical time to really double down, were just hoping that the messaging and the services get out to the communities that need it. Racist language associated with the former name of mpox helped spur the World Health Organization to rename it in 2022. Public health experts also were concerned that the former name might be discouraging people from being tested and vaccinated by contributing to the stigma surrounding the disease. In reports last month, the CDC warned of a heightened global threat of a deadlier strain of mpox that is devastating the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the virus is endemic. That strain hasnt been detected in the United States, but the agency and clinicians are on alert for possible cases in travelers from the country. Infectious disease physician Dr. Anu Hazra said he and others in the field are closely watching that strain. The only way that we can truly think about eradicating mpox is bringing vaccines to everywhere in the world thats impacted by the illness, said Hazra, who sees patients at Howard Brown Health, which runs several clinics in the Chicago area focused on LGBTQ+ care. HIV patients are at higher risk of contracting mpox, and are disproportionately Black and Hispanic. Racism, homophobia and barriers to care such as poverty and a lack of transportation complicate prevention and treatment efforts. When we think about, sort of, any communicable disease, we know that it tracks along racial and economic fault lines. Weve seen that with HIV, weve seen that with COVID, we see that with certain STIs we have certainly seen it with mpox, Hazra said. Silvera, of the Icahn School of Medicine, said clinicians and state health agencies also should consider the historic distrust of medicine among Black and Hispanic communities. It takes a lot of time. Were undoing decades and centuries of work, he said. Its a tough job. And so, we can do that person to person, but its also going to require larger efforts as well to undo these disparities. Along with distrust and vaccine skepticism, fear of being outed as gay is a major barrier in some Black communities, said Ryan Payne, a prevention specialist at the Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina. The organization serves six counties in North Carolina. That is a full-blown truth. Its very hard. Me and my co-workers are talking about that all the time, Payne said. At the end of April, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services found that 30 of the 51 cases over the previous six months were among Black people. But only 27% of patients vaccinated in the state this year were Black. In Pennsylvania, there have been 64 reported mpox cases compared with two at this time last year, according to the CDC. The states health department said it will emphasize the importance of vaccinations throughout 2024, using an awareness campaign that will focus on reaching the at-risk populations through social media and dating apps. Cory Haag, a registered nurse at the Central Outreach Wellness Center in Pittsburgh, said the best way to stem the spread is by addressing barriers, educating patients and quelling fears within the LGBTQ+ community the center serves. Many patients travel for up to two hours to receive care at the center. It provides bus passes to patients so they can more easily return for a second vaccine dose. Were just happy to be that safe space to catch them, Haag said. This story originally appeared in Stateline, which, like the Virginia Mercury, is part of States Newsroom. The post As mpox cases rise, experts urge complete, 2-part vaccinations appeared first on Virginia Mercury. Eleven people have been hospitalized while waiting for a rally featuring Donald Thursday in Phoenix, where temperatures climbed to a sweltering 110 degrees and lingered in the triple digits. City fire officials confirmed that number at 3 p.m. local time, saying all had been transported to local hospitals due to heat exhaustion while waiting to get into a Turning Point rally featuring the former president. Reporters on the scene shared video and photos on social media of rally attendees being carried off in stretchers and receiving intravenous fluids outside the venue. Ive seen so far at least 3 people carried off on stretches due to the heat as they wait in line in the sun to get into Donald Trumps event its 102 degrees out @abc15pic.twitter.com/8jQeaXDugS Ben Brown (@bdbrown473) June 6, 2024 Here is another person getting an IV pic.twitter.com/QxwNuwEy7p Ben Brown (@bdbrown473) June 6, 2024 Extreme heat waves like the one spreading across the Southwest right now are expected to become more common as the climate continues to warm something scientists say is directly linked to humans carbon output. But Trump appeared unfazed by that during his speech. Our countrys falling to pieces, and these guys all they want to do is spend money on the green new scam, Trump said at the rally, a reference to the Green New Deal, a Democrat-backed plan from 2019 to address climate change and shift to renewable energy resources. I mean the things theyre spending money on, its like throwing the money out the window, Trump continued. And we dont want to do that. We want to fix our roads and highways. We want to get rid of the electric mandate for the car. ... If you want to buy a different type of car, you have to have a choice. The extremely high temperatures sweeping the Southwest have prompted excessive heat warnings across southeast California, southern Nevada and Arizona. The National Weather Service said the heat peaked Thursday but will remain high over the next few days. Related... How the murder of a young couple in the Florida Keys played out a second time in court The man convicted in May of murdering a Florida Keys couple in 2015 over a cocaine dealing operation that went sour has been sentenced to two consecutive life prison terms by a Monroe County judge. Circuit Judge Luis Garcia issued the sentence Tuesday at the Plantation Key courthouse. The ruling came nearly a month after 12 jurors convicted 41-year-old Jeremy Macauley of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Tara Rosado, 26, and Carlos Ortiz, 30, inside Rosados Tavernier home on Oct. 15, 2015. Jeremy Macauley Macauley was being retried because a state appeals court overturned his 2017 conviction on the same charges after Garcia didnt allow jurors to hear a sworn statement given by a jailhouse informant during the original trial. The appellate judges ruled the statement saying another man took credit for the slayings should have been heard. He had been convicted after the first trial and received the same sentence. Family reaction Rosados family, after enduring the second trial, issued a statement Thursday to the Miami Herald saying theyre pleased with the sentence, but disappointed that Macauleys defense attorney announced that he will again appeal the verdict. Tara Rosado sits in a car in this undated photo provided by her family. I am truly unsure how much pain inflicted will be enough to satisfy this man, Rosados sister, Katelyn Farley said. However, for now [she, her parents and Rosados children] are once again at peace and we can only hope it stays that way. Rosados three children were inside the Cuba Road house the night Rosado and Ortiz were both shot once with a .45 Caliber Colt 1911 pistol, which prosecutors say Macauley fired. The children were found unharmed the next day by a neighbor, who then went inside the house and found the bodies. Carlos Ortiz and Tara Rosado Case background Prosecutors says the motive for the case was to silence Ortiz, who had been sending a series of threatening text messages to Macauley and Macauleys boss, charter fishing captain Rick Rodriguez, demanding more money over an ongoing cocaine selling operation. If he didnt get the money, Ortiz told the pair that hed rat them out to police. The cocaine they were selling was from a huge load in which investigators say Macauley, a fishing mate and Rodriquez found the previous summer while on a charter with clients. The clients were paid off to keep quiet. Plus, Macauley employed several friends, including Ortiz, to break down the contraband said to be up to 18 to 20 kilos and deal it locally in the Upper Keys, both prosecutors and Macauleys defense attorney, Donald Barrett, said at the trial. Rodriguez was never arrested in connection to either the cocaine or murders, and has denied to the Miami Herald that he was involved in either crime. The man who drove Macauley to the house the night of the murders was another local charter boat mate and captain, Adrian Demblans. He was also one of the men helping Macauley sell the cocaine. After the killings, Demblans drove Macauley through a Key Largo subdivision, where they threw the Colt and a cellphone Macauley stole from the house off a small bridge into a canal, investigators say. Macauley wanted the phone because he believed it contained the text messages of conversations between him and Ortiz, according to prosecutors. Adrian Demblans Solving the crime A snorkeler swimming in the canal a month later found the gun, turned it in to the sheriffs office, which allowed detectives to start piecing together the narrative of the crime. Sheriffs office divers found the phone days later. Demblans, 42, made a deal with prosecutors before the original trial and agreed to cooperate in the investigation against Macauley. In exchange he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for accessory after the fact. Had he gone to trial, he faced 30 years in prison. He ended up being released after eight years for cooperating in the states investigation into the cocaine operation. During the trial, he testified that he did not know Macauley was going to kill Ortiz and Rosado. Rather, Demblans said he drove Macauley to the house so Macauley could give Ortiz money in hopes he would stop threatening to go to the cops. Barrett, Macauleys attorney, argued during the trial that his client was at his Key Largo home with his wife the night of the murders. He cited cellphone records showing his phone never left his house, and argued that security camera footage from that night that investigators say showed Macauley outside Rosados home was too grainy to discern who was in the images. He also cited claims from the informant at the root of the retrial. That man, Eric Bama Lansford said in his sworn statement that Demblans twin brother, Kristian Demblans, told him during a conversation that happened while they were both in county jail that he was the one who shot Ortiz and Rosado not Macauley. Lansford was set to fly from Alabama to the Keys to testify in the 2017 trial, but backed out the day he was set to appear in court telling Macauleys attorney at the time that he received calls from Key Largo threatening hed be killed if he showed up. Speaking with a Miami Herald reporter outside the courthouse after he testified last month, Adrian Demblans insisted his brother although a drug dealer at the time ran in different circles and was not involved with Macauleys cocaine operation, so he had no motive to kill anyone. He also said that even if Kristian told Lansford he shot the couple, he was unstable at the time because he was withdrawing from heroine while locked up, and he also may have been trying to portray an image as a hardened criminal so other inmates would leave him alone. They are the prized bounty of Haitis hard-fought struggle for freedom, taken in battle from European powers and then placed on top of the countrys most revered monument, Citadelle Henry, to guard against French occupation. National treasures, the 18th century cannons are priceless and come in various weights and dimensions. The largest of them, cast in iron, flank the mountaintop fortress outside of the northern city of Cap-Haitien in the rural town of Milot. Smaller ones, cast in bronze with intricate markings hinting at their origins, have been safely tucked away behind locked doors in a museum open only to dignitaries, diplomats and other important personalities. Now, like the Irish Crown Jewels, which went missing from a Dublin castle in 1907 never resurface again, two of the smaller cannons have vanished without a trace from inside the locked museums gallery. The theft was first noticed over two weeks ago by a security guard at the monument. But it was only recently made public after people started discussing it on social networks. Until Thursday there had been no official notification to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, which considers the cannons part of its World Heritage site designation for the Citadelle and several other historical landmarks located inside the National History Park in Milot. That notification by Haitian authorities is necessary, sources say, for UNESCO to issue an alert for the missing cultural artifacts so that INTERPOL can be notified in hopes of tracking down the cannons, which one preservationist worries could be half way around the world by now. Patrick Durandis, the current director of the Institute for Safeguarding National Heritage, blamed the delayed UNESCO notification on the current state of affairs in Haiti, wracked by gang violence. The theft, he said, required him to visit Cap-Haitien, which he had been unable to get to from Port-au-Prince. I have the photos of the cannons and am gathering the files to mount the forms and make the request, he said Thursday. Durandis said whether the cannons are still in Haiti depends on the whether they were stolen for their precious metal or as a collectors item. They speak about a gang leader who went up to the Citadelle at night in the rain to commit this crime. In principle everyone in Milot knows, a lot of the residents in the commune know exactly what happened, said Durandis. But Haiti is a very peculiar country. Even when you encourage people to talk and come forward, there is something in their minds that stops them from doing so. Neat Achille, the director of the institute for Haitis northern region, responsible for protecting the Citadelle, says the theft is an inside job. At the very least its one of the employees who is complicit or the author of the theft, Achille said. Where the cannons were located, they couldnt just walk off, first of all. Secondly, they were located in an area of the Citadelle thats closed to the public. The last visit conducted there was three years ago. No one has entered except for the Citadelles employees who go to clean and security. Achille said there are a dozen people currently employed by the Citadelle and all have been jailed as part of an investigation. Its a dishonest employee who carried this out, he said. A dozen employees at Haitis Citadelle Henry are currently in jail after two cannons went missing from inside a locked museum at the mountaintop fortress in northern city of Milot. Weeks later, UNESCO still has not been notified about the theft. Achille says the theft came to light after a day security guard, Ernest Valmyr, reported an empty table where the cannons had been displayed. Valmyr, Achille said, had gone up to the museum to close two open windows when it rained. We took everyone so that if someone knows something, they will have to talk, Achille said. Attack on Haitis history So far no one is claiming responsibility, and the mysterious disappearance and how it is being handled are igniting more questions than answers. When I was growing up in the shadow of the Citadelle, this monument and its companion, the Sans-Souci Palace, were a constant reminder to us youngsters to dream big, said Frandley Julien, a South Florida immigration attorney who is originally from Milot, where the monuments are part of the areas tourist attractions. Its sad to see that our generation, after failing to fulfill our forefathers grandiose vision, does not even have the decency to preserve their legacy. Dominique Dupuy, Haitis ambassador to UNESCO, worries that if the cannons are not recovered, their disappearance can pose a threat to the Citadelles integrity [and] the national parks classification as a World Heritage site. The cannons, she notes, are part of Haitian history, symbols of Haitis fight for freedom.. The symbolism of this theft is huge, she said. Its like the antithesis of the foundation of the Haitian nation. What does it say, if we can get to a point where we allow the bounty of our revolution to be sold off in pieces? Its the beginning of the end of everything that we stand for as a nation on a symbolic level. Cannon collection The Citadelles collection of cannons is considered among the largest in the world. They were acquired from the English, Spanish and French after slaves on the island, then known as Saint-Domingue, rebelled and launched the Haitian Revolution in 1791. The 12-year uprising finally culminate in the Battle of Vertieres on Nov. 18, 1803, near Cap-Haitien when the army led by slave-turned-revolutionary hero Jean-Jacques Dessalines defeated Napoleons army. On Jan. 1, 1804, Dessalines declared the birth of a new nation, Haiti, the worlds first free Black republic. To defend that freedom, Henri Christophe, a general in the war, took over after Dessalines assassination and commissioned the construction of large 19th century fortress, the Citadelle Henry or La Citadelle. Daniel Elie, the former head of ISPAN, sees the cannons disappearance as the latest assault on Haitis cultural history. Four years ago, the historic Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church was partly gutted by fire. Built in 1809, the church is located in the National History Park in Milot park, along with the ruins of the Palace of Sans-Souci and the fortified site of Ramiers. In April, amid the deadly gang violence in Port-au-Prince, armed groups looted and ransacked the National Library in their bid to topple the government. The attack against the librarys collection of rare books and manuscripts documenting 200 years of Haitian history came after a series of other assaults against other institutions, including Haitis oldest teacher training school, Ecole Normale Superieure, and the National School of Arts. The teaching of history has degraded a lot in Haiti, Elie said. People do not believe in history. We are always talking about 1804, the first Black republic, the Battle of Vertieres; how we beat Napoleons army. When you are recounting this history, parallel to the fact that the person cant go to school, cant eat, theres a certain confusion with the reality that he is living.... Its hard for a professor to recount this history with a population that is living in dire poverty and the only hope he has is to leave the country. The theft of the cannons has him fuming, he said, even if he was not surprised by it. People have long been waiting to do this kind of heist at the Citadelle, said Elie, recalling how cannonballs regularly went missing. Elie, an architect, twice served as head of the institution, and safeguarding both the cannons and the cannonballs was a priority. He oversaw the construction of the museum, which was financed by the National Pantheon Museum. There are other problems with the cultural site, he said. There is no real security, he said. What they call security up there is badly organized. They have no supervisor and there is no control. This year's East Brunswick High School yearbook omitted the names and photo of the Jewish Student Union, including a photo of a group of Muslim students instead NO CREDIT The names of Jewish Student Union members were not included in the yearbook and a wrong photo was used. A New Jersey high school came under fire over a yearbook controversy involving a group of Jewish students. The school says an initial investigation showed that it was a mistake, but some students say what happened is just the latest in a series of incidents. Every year, New Jersey's East Brunswick High School which PEOPLEs Rebecca Aizin attended, though years before the controversy puts out a yearbook that features the names and photos of the members of each student club. However, this year's yearbook omitted the names and photo of the Jewish Student Union, and instead included a photo of a group of Muslim students. Though the school immediately stopped the distribution of yearbooks after the issue was flagged and requested students return the books, Victor Valeski, East Brunswick Public School System's superintendent, tells PEOPLE that news had already begun to spread online, leading to concern and criticism from the community. Mayor Brad Cohen called the incident a "blatant Anti-Semitic act" in a statement released on June 4, and called on the school's administration to determine how this occurred and "what person or persons are responsible." "Hate has no place in East Brunswick and Anti-Semitism will not be tolerated," he wrote. 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. Valeski sent out a message on June 4 apologizing for the "hurt, pain and anguish" the Jewish community was feeling and asked for time to properly investigate the situation. "I urge the East Brunswick community, the one I have a decade long relationship with, to give me the opportunity to determine the cause and I simply ask individuals and organizations to slow their rush to judgment," he wrote in the message, which was obtained by PEOPLE. Apart from the yearbook incident, members of the Jewish Student Union tell PEOPLE the most recent situation was just the latest in a line of alleged antisemitic altercations, which according to Abigail, a junior, "have not been dealt with." The students say that though they have raised their concerns to the administration, they don't feel that any actions have been taken to make them feel safe. "It's a very hostile environment where we're scared to be ourselves," says Stephanie, a junior. "The school does not take us seriously when we talk about what we've experienced. I want them to care." "I'm supposed to be a kid, I'm supposed to be having a high school experience and I feel like I've grown up to be such an adult," adds another junior, who asked to remain anonymous. DOMINICK REUTER/AFP via Getty The campus of East Brunswick High School in East Brunswick, New Jersey. Valeski tells PEOPLE that an initial investigation has been completed and determined that the incident was a mistake. He says that the investigation found digital exchanges where the Yearbook Club, which is run by students with a faculty advisor, reached out to the Jewish Student Union to ask about names of members, but never got a reply. As the organization is a non-paid club, which is the case for many clubs in the school, there is no official roster of its members, the superintendent says. Valeski adds that the yearbook club could not find a photo taken of the group, though four members who spoke to PEOPLE say they recall one being taken. Valeski notes that while the responsibility is on Yearbook Club students to file and name the photos they take, only an adult places the photos in the yearbook. He explains that after a page is made, it is edited and reviewed, and the school is looking further into who performed those tasks for the page in question. Related: Teen Cancer Survivor Speaks Out After Her Chemotherapy Port Scar Was Edited Out of Yearbook Photo Though the initial investigation is complete, Valeski shares that he has recommended that the school hire an independent lawyer who specializes in school law to investigate the situation. "At this point, myself and other people in the district who I had involved in the investigation do not believe this was an intentional act or a subvert act where somebody went in and pulled a picture and replaced it right before publication," he says. "It appears simply that a picture was pulled from a digital file, it was dropped onto the page, it was not double checked and it was sent for publication." Related: Dozens of University of Florida Students Injured as Stampede Breaks out at Israel Vigil Valeski says the administration "thoroughly investigates" any act of hate that is reported and that he plans to instate a policy that allows students' voices to be heard more. "Our job is to protect students and create an environment where they can learn and thrive," he says. "So if that didn't happen, then we're responsible for that." Members of Jewish Student Union tell PEOPLE they're hopeful the error will be corrected which Valeski says they're actively working on as a new photo of the club was taken June 6 and that antisemitism will be taken more seriously at the school going forward. For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on People. Not even California Representative Nancy Pelosi believes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should address Congress. Speaking to CNN on Friday, the former House speaker said that it was wrong to invite Netanyahu, and that she would absolutely not have invited him if she were still leading the chamber. Frankly, I didnt approve of his being invited the last time, but the Speaker just on his own invited him without consulting the rest of the leadership, Pelosi said, recalling when former House Speaker John Boehner called on Netanyahu to address Congress in 2015. And he came, and he criticized President Obama for the masterful work that he had done with the nuclear agreement regarding Iran to stop them from developing a nuclear weapon. And I thought it was completely inappropriate, she continued. I feel very sad that he has been invited. But who knows, by then will he still be prime minister? Everything I read is theyre unhappy about this, theyre unhappy about that, Pelosi said, referring to Benny Gantz, the Israeli minister without portfolio who has given Netanyahu an ultimatum: Adopt Gantzs partys objectives by Saturday or witness the National Unity Partys exit from government. I wish that he would be a statesman and do what is right for Israel. Pelosi then quickly rotated through her usual positions on the conflict: advocating for a two-state solution, decrying Hamas as a terrorist organization that is dedicated to the destruction of Israel, and lamenting that the hostages are not free and that the people of Gaza are suffering. We need to help them and not have him stand in the way of that for such a long time, Pelosi said. I think its going to invite more of what we have seen in terms of discontent among our own people about whats happening there. Bash: If you were Speaker, would you have invited Netanyahu? Pelosi: No, absolutely not. I think this is wrong.. I feel it's very sad that he has been invited, but who knows by then.. will he still be prime minister? pic.twitter.com/4R0ZgMZhto Acyn (@Acyn) June 7, 2024 Pelosis comments are a surprising shift for the California Democrat, who has been unyielding in her support for Israel. In January, she came under fire for accusing pro-Palestine protesters of having ties to Russia and the Kremlin. The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday refused to reinstate suspended Orlando-area State Attorney Monique Worrell an allegedly soft-on-crime prosecutor despised by Florida sheriffs finding that Gov. Ron DeSantis has virtually unlimited power to remove elected prosecutors as long as he provides only the thinnest veneer of justification. The court's majority endorsed a provocative view of executive power and of law-and-order politics one in which cowed prosecutors must always fight for the harshest-possible outcomes no matter the strength of evidence or the broader interests of justice, lest they face suspension by DeSantis. In the court's analysis, the views of the communities subjected to all this are beside the point. Their choices at the ballot box can be vetoed by the governor, and Thursday's decision effectively forecloses the courts as a remedy. Voters, if they disagree, must simply be protected from themselves: Worrell, the Florida Sheriffs Association wrote in support of DeSantis, "failed the public whom she had a duty to serve" quite a statement about an elected prosecutor who won office in 2020 with nearly 66 percent of the vote. The sheriff knows what's best for you, even if you disagree. The sun sets behind the Florida Supreme Court building Monday, Nov. 16, 2020. DeSantis, a Republican, booted Worrell, a Democrat, based on vague accusations that she may not have always pursued sufficiently harsh sentences against criminals. But criminal cases often have complex, disputed underpinnings with evidence that is less than perfect, and state attorneys in any case have an array of priorities beyond harsh sentences they must consider. DeSantis' official reason for suspending Worrell centered on alleged "neglect of duty" and "incompetence" justifications Florida's constitution provides a governor for exercising this remarkable power. In his telling, Worrell failed too often to achieve the right results in criminal cases, allegedly letting dangerous people walk free. But in transforming what are in truth policy and political disagreements into substantive allegations of neglect and incompetence, DeSantis has in essence given those words new meaning. Supreme Court Justice Jorge Labarga, one of the court's two justices not appointed by DeSantis, was the sole court member uncomfortable with this flexible view of the constitution. " ... a state attorney may deem it necessary to drop a firearm charge even though it carries a mandatory prison sentence because trial preparation reveals evidentiary problems that would diminish the likelihood of a guilty verdict from a jury," Labarga wrote. "For this reason, it is difficult to grasp how Worrell, given the specific challenges and circumstances posed by her diverse circuit in dealing with specific cases, will be able to mount a meaningful defense to allegations of 'incompetence' and 'neglect of duty' for basically engaging in similar practices, even if with greater frequency, as other state attorneys throughout our state." To wit: the Orlando Sentinel found in an exhaustive review that some of the outcomes in the cases cited by DeSantis' suspension order were necessitated by errors made by police including deputies working under Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez, who became a vocal critic of Worrell. Complaints like his helped form the purported basis for DeSantis' suspension order against Worrell. Yet it's hard to prosecute someone for drug trafficking when the baggies of "cocaine" and "fentanyl" police recovered at the scene were later found by the state crime lab to have contained no drugs whatsoever. But the suspension of Worrell was not concerned about such trivial matters. Last August, in the heat of a shambolic presidential campaign, the governor simply needed a progressive totem to toss into the volcano, and Worrell, a Black, reform-minded prosecutor, fit the bill. Worrell is the second elected Democratic prosecutor DeSantis has removed from office. Like Worrell, DeSantis targeted Tampa-area State Attorney Andrew Warren in 2022 on even flimsier grounds shaky enough that multiple conservative federal judges came to believe Warren may have been suspended for little more than exercising his First Amendment rights when signing statements about protecting abortion access and transgender people. In a concurring opinion in the Warren case, 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Kevin C. Newsom, a Trump appointee, noted that DeSantis had bragged at a presidential primary debate about having removed "radical district attorneys." " ... for the same reason that the government can't muzzle so-called 'conservative' speech under the guise of preventing on campus 'harassment,' the state cant exercise its coercive power to censor so-called 'woke' speech with which it disagrees," Newsom wrote. "Whats good for mine is (whether I like it or not) good for thine." For Worrell, DeSantis' office labored to produce a more substantive case for removal substantive, at least, on paper. But the Florida Supreme Court's ruling Thursday indicated that even this half-baked effort was more than was necessary. Its deepest analysis was to ask whether the reasons for Worrell's suspension bore "a reasonable relation" to the constitutional justification a governor can use to suspend an elected official, a threshold, the court said, that was a "low bar" to satisfy and one that apparently doesn't involve any search for the truth. Was Worrell guilty of DeSantis' allegations? It doesn't matter: DeSantis need only say he's removing a prosecutor for "negligence" because of "negligent behavior," and the matter is apparently closed. In a concurrence, Justice Renatha Francis went even further, suggesting the court remove itself from such cases almost entirely because they involve "political questions" rather than legal issues (Worrell can challenge her suspension before the state Senate, a process that Francis argued demonstrates what little role the courts have to play). In prioritizing the views of sheriffs over prosecutors to such a degree that it can merit removal from office DeSantis has created perverted incentives in Florida's criminal justice system. In Jacksonville, for example, the State Attorney's Office is charged with determining whether police shootings are legally justifiable. How can the public have confidence in those decisions, particularly in the controversial edge cases, when the threat of removal hangs over a prosecutor's head should they cross a sensitive sheriff? Prosecutors and judges face daunting political pressure even without the threat of gubernatorial suspension: Years ago, the Jacksonville Fraternal Order of Police called on local judges to fall in line and begin issuing higher bonds to defendants: "If you are a judge in Duval County and you have a weak stomach when it comes to bonds for dirtbags who attack our officers maybe you should find a new line of work," the FOP's then-president said. As Labarga's dissenting opinion noted, prosecutors clean up cases all the time as they move toward trial. Sometimes that means modifying the charges against a defendant or dropping them entirely. Sometimes that happens because of flimsy evidence, or a bad cop, or because in those rare instances a prosecutor may simply believe a defendant to be innocent. Regardless, those decisions might anger police: Fair enough, who likes to have their work questioned? But cops aren't the ones who take cases to trial. This is a modest check at best on police power, but in Florida it's apparently a bridge too far. Worrell and Warren are both mounting campaigns to return to office, and at least in theory, DeSantis can't suspend them for the same reasons he provided for their initial suspension. Voters should get a definitive chance to rebuff the governor. But the Florida Supreme Court's expansive view of DeSantis' powers likely gives him enough legal cover to effectively do just that. Because it wasn't what Warren or Worrell did in office that got them removed but who they are, and that's not changing. 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: Florida Supreme Court lets DeSantis veto voters, oust prosecutors The Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) has launched the nations first online records repository and research tool for Indian boarding school records. The database, called The National Indian Boarding School Digital Archive (NIBSDA), was nearly five years in the making, and contains records collected from National Archives in Seattle and Kansas City, Mo. Those records contain case files, administrative records, enrollment registers, and health information about Native American students who attended Indian boarding schools operated by the federal government for more than a century. Currently, the records focus on nine boarding schools: Pipestone (Minnesota); Cushman (Alaska); Carlisle (Pennsylvania); Genoa (Nebraska); Chemawa (Oregon); Stewart (Nevada); Mt. Pleasant (Michigan); Ft. Bidwell (California); and Mt. Edgecumbe (Alaska). The available information and research tool will expand with continued work and partnership, NABS staff said in a press release. Stephen Curley (Dine), NABS former director of digital archives who worked on the project since its inception, said hes hopeful that the tool will be useful for generating additional research, and also genuine healing for survivors and communities. These records represent a small window into the past from a particular administrative lens that justified a long history of child removal supported and endorsed by federal policy, Curley told Native News Online. Curleys mother attended a boarding school, and he describes her as his archetype for inner faith and strength. Despite these policies, I found glimmers of student and family voices that demonstrate resistance that can uplift our spirits as we venture collectively towards healing. This power is in us, Curley said. In May 2022, the federal government released an investigative report that showed for the first time the United States operated or supported at least 408 boarding schools that directly targeted American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children in the pursuit of a policy of cultural assimilation that coincided with Indian territorial dispossession. The report called the institutions both traumatic and violent and identified at least 53 burial sites on or near former schools properties, with more gravesite discoveries expected as research continues. Although the names of the institutions themselves are known or becoming known, the identities of the tens of thousands of Native children believed to have gone through the Indian boarding school systemmany of whom died at schools far from homeare not. Student and school records are held in repositories across the country, oftentimes far removed from Native communities and available only for in-person viewing, or altogether closed to the public. That lack of access to records is a key reason why NABS, a national nonprofit dedicated to truth and healing around Indian boarding schools, created The National Indian Boarding School Digital Archive. Curley and NABS digital archivist assistant Fallon Carey (Cherokee) hand collected, cataloged and uploaded more than 40,000 pages of boarding school records, he told Native News Online last year. Those pages include 39 student indexes, or recorded names of children who attended these boarding schools, and the dates they attended. Additionally, close to 100,000 additional catalog recordswhich Curely said can each contain tens to hundreds of individual pageswere contributed to the repository from partner groups doing similar work, including The Carlisle Indian Digital Resource Center in Pennsylvania, and the Geona Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project in Nebraska. According to the NISBDA website, the idea is to constantly update and add additional records to the database. There are numerous ongoing projects aimed at expanding the scope and depth of our archive, the website reads. In August 2023, NABS received a half-million dollar grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to digitize and catalog an additional 120,000 pages of records. In just two weeks since its release, tribal members across the country have already successfully used the tool to locate relatives who attended Indian boarding schools. Birdie Sam, a Tlingit woman with the popular social media platform ShowMe_YourMask, posted a video to her Instagram account last week showing her stunned reaction to the tool, and the confirmation that her late grandmother had attended Wrangell Institute in Wrangell, Alaska. The biggest feeling was validation because up until this point, theres been so much denialism around the subject, Sam told Native News Online. She always knew her grandmother, Bessie Kitka, who died in 2008 at 88 years old, had attended boarding school, but she never heard her speak about her experience. Its one thing to know, its another thing to read her name in the records. It grounded me in a way that I haven't been able to find my footing since Oregon. Sam has also received comments from at least four others saying they, too, were able to find relatives using the database. It's the closest to closure that I expect to get in my lifetime, she added. So at this point, anything above and beyond this is a pleasant surprise. For information about locating your relatives on NIBSDA, visit here. About the Author: "Jenna Kunze is a staff reporter covering Indian health, the environment and breaking news for Native News Online. She is also the lead reporter on stories related to Indian boarding schools and repatriation. Her bylines have appeared in The Arctic Sounder, High Country News, Indian Country Today, Tribal Business News, Smithsonian Magazine, Elle and Anchorage Daily News. Kunze is based in New York." Contact: jkunze@indiancountrymedia.com National Donut Day 2024: Here's where you can get Ohio's best donuts, per Yelp users Mmm, donuts. It's National Donut Day, meaning everyone has an excuse to join Homer Simpson in enjoying the sweet treat. So where are the best places in Ohio to get a donut (or doughnut, if you prefer the traditional spelling)? Yelp users have the answer. Bengals-themed donuts from Donna's Delicious Dozen. Donna's Delicious Dozen in Columbus is Yelp's best donut shop in Ohio Yelp, which allows users to rate restaurants and business as well as write reviews, has scoured its data to find the best donut shop in every state for 2024. In Ohio, Yelp puts Donna's Delicious Dozen in Columbus at the top. According to the Yelp article, the donuts there are made to order and are completely customizable. They take about 15 minutes to prepare. Along with the build-your-own donut option, the store's menu offers a dozen varieties of donuts premade and ready to go, including It's All About The Bacon, Oh We Oh -- Ooreo and The S'more. National Donut Day 2024 deals: Get free food at Dunkin', Krispy Kreme, Duck Donuts, Sheetz Yelp's top five donut shops in Columbus The five highest-rated donut shops in and around Columbus, per Yelp users, are: Donna's Delicious Dozen Cherbourg Bakery Bake Me Happy Bakery El Rico Pan The Mochi Shop The top five donut shops in Cincinnati, per Yelp users The five highest-rated donut shops in the Cincinnati area, per Yelp users, are: Street Fried Chicken & Donuts Golden Hands Bakery Starlight Doughnut Lab Sebastian Bakehouse Brown Bear Bakery The best donut shops in Akron, according to Yelp The Akron area's five highest-rated donut shops, per Yelp users, are: Honey Girl Donuts Anna Bean Coffee Company Fresh Planet Jubilee Donuts North Hill Donuts The top donut shops in Canton Pangea Keto Dough Doughnuts and Coffee Johnnie's Baker of Canton Momohana Ramen & Boba Tea Mary Ann Donuts Where to get free doughnuts (and donuts) on National Donut Day If you're looking for a deal on National Donut Day, you can get free food at Krispy Kreme, Dunkin', Tim Horton's and more, USA TODAY reports. See the article for full details on donut day deals. The history of National Donut Day, which dates back to the 1930s There are plenty of foods that have their own "holiday" -- such as National Hamburger Day and National Wine Day, but National Donut Day has some real history to it, USA TODAY reports. It can be tracked back to 1938, when The Salvation Army set aside the first Friday in June as National Donut Day to honor the organization's Donut Lassies. The Lassies were women who traveled to France to serve donuts and other snacks to soldiers during World War I. This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: National Donut Day 2024: The best doughnut shops in Ohio, per Yelp KHARTOUM, June 7 (Xinhua) -- A total of 288 civilians have been killed in the western Sudanese city of El Fasher since clashes intensified on May 10, a senior official said on Friday. "The deaths recorded since May 10 reached 288," said Ibrahim Abdullah Khatir, director-general of North Darfur State's Health Ministry. The number of the injured in the same period reached 1,300, most of whom were women, children and the elderly, Khatir added. Since May 10, fierce clashes have been raging in El Fasher, the capital city of North Darfur State. It is the latest escalation of the broader conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces across the country since April 15, 2023. The deadly clashes have claimed 15,550 lives and displaced over 8.8 million people nationwide, according to estimates by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab is sworn into office on Jan. 9, 2023, on the south side of the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka. Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab is sworn into office on Jan. 9, 2023, on the south side of the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA The national chief strategist for No Labels says Kansas GOP political operative Kris Van Meteren is unaffiliated with the party and fraudulently misrepresented himself when he filed nominations under the partys name. Those nominations were invalidated by Secretary of State Scott Schwab, igniting a fiery rebuke from Van Meteren, who claims he seized ownership of No Labels Kansas in a series of moves Monday morning, shortly before the candidate filing deadline for this years election cycle. Van Meteren set off alarms by nominating state Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, against her will, and his wife, Republican Echo Van Meteren, who is also running for a Senate seat. In doing so, he guaranteed the candidates would have a spot on the November ballot under their chosen party if they win the primary, or under No Labels if they lose, creating three-way races. Francisco faces a primary challenge from Rep. Christina Haswood, while Echo Van Meteren faces GOP challenger Jeff Klemp, who is backed by the powerful Kansas Chamber. Last year, No Labels Kansas gathered signatures and submitted paperwork to the Kansas Secretary of State in order to be formally recognized as a party. But officers associated with the national movement took no action to nominate candidates in Kansas. Kris Van Meteren filed paperwork on Monday to incorporate No Labels Kansas as a business entity. In his version of events, he then called a convention, elected himself chairman and nominated the two candidates. Schwab said the nominations were invalid because they were made by Kris Van Meteren, rather than Glenda Reynolds, a Democrat who was designated chairwoman when the party submitted paperwork last year. At the time that it applied for ballot qualification in 2023, No Labels Kansas designated a state leadership team and submitted adopted bylaws to the Secretary of State, said Ryan Clancy, the national No Labels chief strategist. That leadership team and those bylaws remain unchanged, with Glenda Reynolds as the chair of No Labels Kansas. We understand that a longtime Republican operative fraudulently misrepresented himself to the secretary as the chair of No Labels Kansas, when he has no affiliation whatsoever with the state party committee, and proposed action that would have violated No Labels Kansas bylaws. We are pleased that the secretary disregarded this obvious attempt at election manipulation and expect that the Republican operative will be prosecuted for impersonating a party officer under state law. The alleged crime is a Class A misdemeanor. Kris Van Meteren owns the political consulting group Singularis and is a longtime player in Kansas politics. In recent years, he is best known for the high-profile split with his former business partner, Jared Suhn, which spawned a lawsuit and an ethics inquiry. In an email to Kansas Reflector, Kris Van Meteren said he followed state law as he registered to vote under the No Labels Kansas party, incorporated the name, secured nonprofit political party status with the IRS, called a convention, was elected chairman, and made nominations. He provided copies of supporting documentation, including video of the nominating commission. Clearly, they dont have all of the pertinent facts in hand and are making wild-eyed claims without understanding Kansas law, he said. The truth is that Ive gone to considerable lengths to abide by the statutes and regulations in play. He also noted that the national No Labels movement had hired petition gathers who now face criminal charges for allegedly forging signatures in Kansas. I, of course, had nothing to do with the hiring of these charlatans, he said. In a lengthy post on his personal Facebook page, Kris Van Meteren lashed out at Republican forces who are aligned with Suhn. He accused Schwab of orchestrating an obvious political stunt, executed on behalf of both Democratic and Republican fever swampers. To hear lefty reporters breathlessly tell it, Im a half-crazed, ultra-conservative gypsy who showed up in politics yesterday, bent on swindling the good people of Kansas into buying some kind of dangerous electoral snake oil, Kris Van Metersen said. Obviously, potentially giving general election voters more options is such dangerous medicine. The buzz phrase du jour within the political establishment is election interference and fever swamp dwellers are seizing the opportunity to accuse me of it. The post National No Labels group accuses Kansas GOP operative of impersonating a party officer appeared first on Kansas Reflector. NATO leaders will discuss assistance to Ukraine on upcoming summit, but not its accession State leaders of the North Atlantic Alliance will focus on three critical points concerning Ukraine at the summit in Washington, but they will not discuss its NATO membership or potential accession timelines. Source: The Washington Post, as reported by European Pravda Details: According to Rob Bauer, Chair of the NATO Military Committee, the Alliance's summit in Washington will address three areas of support for Ukraine. The mission to bring Kyiv closer to NATO membership will include four aspects: coordination of Ukrainian military training; coordination of military assistance among NATO members; supply of military aid through logistics hubs; discussions on the future of Ukraine's Armed Forces after the war. Bauer recalled that the first three concerns are already under the jurisdiction of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (Ramstein format), which is overseen by the United States. "But it is an important signal if those efforts 50 nations, through the US, helping Ukraine are going to be coordinated through NATO," Bauer emphasised. The second significant topic concerning Ukraine at the summit, according to the Military Committee head, is assuring reliable financing of military support to Kyiv, rather than "a discussion on a monthly basis". "And the third element is there is this new joint analysis and training centre in Poland that is going to be set up to make sure that we learn the right lessons from the war in Ukraine, together with Ukraine and with NATO," he said. At the same time, Bauer warned that the issue of Kyiv's membership in the Alliance, as well as the timing for such membership, would not be discussed in Washington, because no one can foresee when the war in Ukraine will end. The discussions concerns moving the coordinating work on Ukraine from the Ramstein framework to NATO, due to the unpredictability of future US policy in the case of Donald Trump's victory in the upcoming presidential election. The new plan should be finalised during the meeting in Washington. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg anticipates that the NATO summit will approve a new US$40 billion scheme for supporting Ukraine's defence. Support UP or become our patron! PENSACOLA, Fla. (WKRG) A ceremony at the Naval Air Station Pensacola was held Friday morning to commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of Midway. Missing Chunchula boy has been found Hosted by the Navy Medicine Operational Training Command, the goal of the ceremony was to honor the 82nd anniversary of the air and sea battle between the U.S. Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy that lasted from June 4-7, 1942. (News 5 photo) (News 5 photo) The battle, which resulted in the deaths of more than 300 Americans and over 3,000 Japanese, was considered a critical US victory. Foley working to improve police pay, opportunities to increase recruitment, retention Captain Kimberly Toone, the Commanding Officer of NMOTC, explained why the victory that came just six months after the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor was considered a monumental turnaround, saying, After that point, the Japanese were on the defensive. She added, So the Americans and their ingenuity and figuring out how to counter the Japanese. Again they had better technology. Their planes were better their ships were better. But we had more ingenuity. We figured out how to fight regardless of them having the better technology. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRG News 5. One of North Carolinas oldest charter schools is being ordered to close this month due to mismanagement of taxpayer dollars and other violations. The State Board of Education voted Thursday to uphold the decision by the N.C. Charter Schools Review Board to not renew Childrens Village Academy in Kinston when its charter expires June 30. Its unclear if the school can follow through on an agreement to repay $152,050 in misspent federal grant money. The extensive record before the State Board demonstrates years of financial mismanagement issues, legal violations and charter violations that have been ongoing even during the last two years of renewal review and up until April of this year while the school was under review for renewal, state board member John Blackburn said during this weeks meeting. Childrens Village leaders admitted they made mistakes. But they asked the state for a three-year renewal to continue serving 147 mostly low-income and Black children. CVA is the only charter school in a low-performing county, and it is achieving student outcomes, Jonathan Vogel, an attorney for the school, said at an appeal hearing on Monday. Its compliance issues are fixable. In April, the State Board also upheld the Review Boards decision to not renew Ridgeview Charter School in Gaston County, The Charlotte Observer previously reported. Unable to pay its bills Childrens Village was among the first group of 27 charter schools that opened in North Carolina in 1997. There are now more than 200 charter schools statewide. Unlike traditional public schools, charters need to be renewed by the state to continue to receive state and federal funding. During the renewal process, the state Department of Public Instruction received several allegations questioning how the school was handling a loan from one of its leaders and how it was spending federal funds for an after-school tutoring program. DPI ordered the school to repay $162,597 in tutoring program funds. Childrens Village appealed DPIs order before reaching an agreement to repay $152,050. The money still hasnt been repaid. More recently, Blackburn cited how the school was accused of inflating the number of students in the after-school program to get more federal money. Blackburn said the school also violated federal law when it switched 13 of its 44 employees to independent contractors to avoid paying benefits. Vogel said it was a rash decision that was corrected. Childrens Village is a school that appears to be unable to pay its bills or operate within the bounds of the law, Blackburn said. Improvement plan comes too late On Monday, a state board appeals panel chaired by Blackburn heard the schools plea to stay open. Vogel cited how the school is academically comparable to Lenoir County Schools and is performing better than several district schools. He said the schools economically disadvantaged students outperform their peers in the district schools. Vogel, who was recently hired by the school, presented a plan to replace members of Childrens Villages board of directors and to hire outside consultants. But members of the appeals panel said the plan came too late. They recommended that the state board reject the schools appeal. Given the long history of issues that could have and should have been addressed at a minimum over the past two years this panel cannot in good faith base a recommendation upon assertions and promises of changes to come, said state board member Jill Camnitz, who was on the appeals panel. The production backlog that caused people to wait weeks before receiving drivers licenses in the mail this spring has been cut in half and should be eliminated by the end of the month, according to the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles. Since February, people have waited up to eight weeks for their license or state ID to arrive in the mail. The DMV issues about 10,000 temporary new licenses and ID cards each day, and at its peak the backlog of permanent cards delivered to customers neared 355,000, says DMV Commissioner Wayne Goodwin. Goodwin told state lawmakers Thursday that the number has been cut to less than 150,000 and should reach zero by June 30. The reason the backlog grew so large remains unclear, even after a legislative hearing on Thursday. The House Oversight and Reform Committee invited representatives of the DMV and IDEMIA, the company that makes the cards, to try to explain how a relatively small computer problem in February spiraled out of control. The agency and IDEMIA agree that the mess stemmed from a software glitch at DMV that accidentally allowed 2,136 people across the state to get a license online when by law they needed to visit a DMV office in person. The problem occurred over a four-day period, from 6:45 p.m. on Feb. 15 through 5:45 p.m. on Feb. 19. To prevent those 2,136 licenses from being issued, the DMV asked IDEMIA to stop producing North Carolina cards at its plant in Sacramento, California. IDEMIA proposed to identify and pull the problem licenses electronically but was told by the DMV that it should be done manually, Lisa Shoemaker, vice president for global corporate relations, told lawmakers Thursday. Our team attempted on multiple occasions to provide North Carolina with the most efficient resolve for this, Shoemaker said, and we were forced to do a manual process. The company halted production for 10 days, resuming on March 4. Under normal circumstances, that would have created a backlog of about 100,000 cards. Somehow, Goodwin said, the company continued to fall behind. What had been a stoppage of a few days that had turned into a 12-day backlog then inexplicably continued to grow week by week with the company until, to our customers and our own frustrations, it was taking upwards of 7 and ultimately close to 8 weeks for customers to receive their cards, he told lawmakers. What turned the tide, Goodwin said, was the companys offer to begin production at a second plant, which began May 13. IDEMIA should be completely caught up by the time its role making driver licenses and ID cards for the state ends June 30. The DMV chose another contractor, CBN Secure Technologies Inc., to make the credentials, and those new cards are being phased in this month. By July, DMV customers should be receiving their cards in the mail within 10 business days of when they were issued, Goodwin said. The CBN contract is another point of friction between the DMV and IDEMIA. The agency chose the new company without going through a competitive bid process, and IDEMIA has sued, saying the contract is illegal. The DMV says an exemption in state law allowed it to switch card contractors without going through an open process. At the outset of Thursdays hearing, Rep. Harry Warren, a Republican from Rowan County who helps lead the committee, said new voter identification requirements make the need for timely and reliable license and ID cards more important than ever. It leaves us in need of assurances from DMV that there will be no further snags between now and November, Warren said. It is imperative that the department and its vendors perform exceptionally well because the need for acceptable ID is critical for the upcoming elections. Under the Dome Get the latest news about North Carolina politics from The News & Observer's award-winning team. Get the free digest sent to your inbox by signing up here. Almost $17 million will be given as loans and grants to fund five transportation infrastructure projects across Georgia. Gov. Brian Kemps office announced the funding Thursday in conjunction with the State Road and Tollway Authority Board of Directors. Three of the projects are in the metro Atlanta area. The funding itself will be awarded to the projects by the Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank. The governors office said the funding is the fourth latest loan amount allocated in the programs history, all four of which have been while Kemp has served as governor. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Our states unprecedented economic growth is in part thanks to our reliable transportation infrastructure network that serves both hardworking Georgians and the job creators that employ them, Kemp said in a statement. In order to continue attracting talent and opportunity and maintain our status as the number one state to do business, we must responsibly fund our infrastructure needs. Thanks to this investment, even more communities will see improvements with a generational impact. Peach County will receive $6.6 million, split between a $5.6 million loan and a $1 million grant, according to officials. They said that was the largest award in GTIBs history, reflecting continued efforts to help prioritize investment in rural parts of the state. The funding in Peach County will go toward the Lilly Creek Road project, meant to repave dirt roads to improve access to more than 1,000 acres of developable land. The City of Watkinsville is getting $3.75 million for the Simonton Bridge Road Pedestrian Improvements project, which the state said was more than the citys entire annual budget. For decades, residents along busy Simonton Bridge Road have requested a pedestrian connection to downtown Watkinsville, said Watkinsville Mayor Brian Brodrick. Given the challenging terrain, limited right of way and our small budget, Watkinsville simply could not make this happen without a very long timeline or outside support. GTIB funding will allow us to accelerate our plans while connecting a new 100-acre park to downtown. We are grateful to Governor Kemp and SRTA for their support. TRENDING STORIES: Three more awards are coming to the metro Atlanta area, in Locust Grove, Sandy Springs and the Upper Westside of Atlanta. According to the governors office, Locust Grove will get a $2 million loan and a $2 million grant to go toward the construction of a new two-lane road connecting Peeksville Road to Frances Ward Drive where it intersects with SR 42. Sandy Springs will receive a loan of $850,000 and a grant of $650,000 for a realignment project on Boylston Drive between Hildebrand and Hammond Drive, as well as installing new sidewalks. In the Upper Westside CID, $1 million will be awarded as a loan to fund converting a mile of westbound turn lane at Howell Mill and Chattahoochee Avenue to construct a multiuse path and streamline signal operations. We are excited that the investment we have made into transportation projects around this state will continue to grow. While weve invested $16.9 million throughout the state this year, there were $52 million in additional funds requested, the majority of which was in the form of loans. Thanks to the members of the Georgia General Assembly, starting in Fiscal Year 2025, GTIBs annual funding allocation from the state legislature will increase from $13 million to $15.4 million, said SRTA Executive Director, Jannine Miller. This increase in funding will allow GTIB to help even more local governments throughout the state accelerate project delivery and reduce transportation infrastructure costs for Georgia taxpayers. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] IN OTHER NEWS: Attorney General Mike Hilgers speaks during a news conference in Lincoln. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers signed a letter with 20 of his Republican counterparts asking the American Bar Association to drop its diversity and inclusion standards for law schools. DEI efforts implemented in the schools directs their administrators to violate both the Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin, the states argued. The letter comes a year after the U.S. Supreme Courts decision in a lawsuit against Harvard College that dictated students must be considered based on their experiences as an individual and not on their race. The decision led higher institutions to stop affirmative action policies, and many states since then have passed laws restricting DEI programs. The diversity and inclusion standard of the American Bar Association, which is currently under revision, seemingly asks law schools to defy the Courts clear directive. In its current form, the Standard all but compels law schools to consider race in both the admissions and employment contexts, according to the letter led by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. The standard establishes that law schools should demonstrate by concrete action a commitment to diversity and inclusion by providing full opportunities for the study of law and entry into the profession by members of underrepresented groups, particularly racial and ethnic minorities, and a commitment to having a student body that is diverse with respect to gender, race, and ethnicity. The same diversity and inclusion commitment should also be extended to faculty and staff, according to the standard. The issue with this guidance, the attorneys wrote, is that it suggests schools undertake concrete actions such as special recruitment efforts and considerations, in addition to special financial assistance programs. But the standard and its accompanying recommendations dont mention how to take those suggested actions without unlawfully using race-based means. If race-based admissions cannot satisfy strict scrutiny then neither can racially motivated recruitment or financial aid, according to the letter. A demand to show a commitment to have a body of faculty and staff thats diverse with respect to race and ethnicity is also an explicit demand to make hiring decisions based on race, the attorneys argue. By maintaining the standard, they write, the American Bar Association would burden every law school in the country with litigation. Further, if American legal culture internalizes the ABAs determination to ignore unwanted legal obligations, our profession, and our country, may never recover, the letter reads. The proposed revisions for the American Bar Association include that the access commitment must be extended to all persons, including those who have faced disadvantages or exclusion because of their identity traits. Faculty and staff should also be diverse with respect to different characteristics, such as race, religion, gender and socioeconomic background, among others. But those changes do little to solve these problems, according to the letter, as bundling race with other permissibly considered characteristics does not somehow make (the standard) requirements any more constitutionally sound. The issue is concerning, the attorneys say, because accreditation rests on a tightrope walk between federal law, on one hand, and (the standard) contrary demands on the other. American-Bar-Association-letter This article first appeared in the Utah News Dispatch, a sister site of the Nebraska Examiner in the States Newsroom network. The post Nebraska joins request to American Bar Association to drop its DEI standards appeared first on Nebraska Examiner. Attorney General Dana Nessel at the Mackinac Policy Conference, May 29, 2024 | Susan J. Demas Michigan has found itself in a very dangerous space going into the 2024 presidential election, as threats against elected officials and hate speech in politics is commonplace, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said.. From the candidates on the ballot to the election workers who process them, Michigan has grappled with an onslaught of threats. A plot to kidnap and murder Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer made national headlines in October 2020 and since then, several men have been convicted on charges related to terrorism, kidnapping conspiracy and possession of weapons. During an interview with the Advance at the Mackinac Policy Conference last week, Nessel said instances of hate speech and threats that led to the indictment of a man in March 2023 for threatening to kill any Jewish government officials he found in Michigan have been difficult for her as a Jewish woman. Theyve been hard on me, but theyve been hard on our family, as well, and I think were living in a sort of unique space where unfortunately many people face threats, Nessel said. Ive talked to people who thought about running for public office, but have decided not. Threats can impact how elected officials make decisions for fear of retaliation, Nessel said, noting that there are current policymakers shes spoken to who have said they are not running for reelection because of threats. She points to former President Donald Trump who hasnt left national headlines since his campaign for office in 2016 for inflammatory statements hes made about different people and groups. We have the nominee for president for the Republican Party who feels that making these kinds of threats is totally acceptable, Nessel said. This is a very dangerous space and we need to get as far away from it as possible. A year ago, Nessel testified at a state House committee in support of bills that would expand Michigans hate crime laws to include more criteria for prosecutors to consider when determining if actions constitute hate crimes. The legislation also aims to add protections for the elderly, individuals with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ+ community who may face actions meant to intimidate and harm them. While the expansion bills have laid dormant in a Senate committee since last summer, Whitmer did sign bills into law that make it a hate crime to vandalize or desecrate institutions, businesses and places of worship on the basis of identity or perceived identity. One of the things that weve tried really hard to do is to work with the Legislature to change the ethnic intimidation laws over to the new proposed hate crimes statutes, so far unsuccessfully, but its important to expand the number of classes that would be covered by such a law, Nessel said. House Bills 44744477 would enact the Michigan Hate Crime Act and the Institutional Desecration Act, update sentencing guidelines and make it easier to prosecute individuals who target others for their ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, age or disability. In the last year, Michigan has seen reported increases in hate crimes as the Israel-Hamas war persists. Universities in Michigan, in particular, are reporting rising antisemitism and hate speech on campus. When U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) in November posted on X using the phrase from the river to the sea, several Jewish leaders in Michigan, including Nessel, made public pleas for Tlaib not use a slogan that many find hurtful and antisemitic, as terrorist organizations like Hamas use it. I think we have to stay away from some of these incendiary statements, understanding that were seeing a significant rise in hate crimes not just in the state of Michigan, but around the country. I think that there is certain language that exacerbates this already very tense situation, Nessel said. My role, of course, as the top law enforcement agent in the state is to do everything in my power to make sure that were addressing issues involving hate crimes. We have the hate crimes and domestic terrorism unit. We are working very hard to make sure we are addressing any of those complaints and prosecuting them to the fullest extent of the law. Amid these ideological clashes happening around the country, theres a lot for the Michigan Attorney Generals Office to be proud of this year, Nessel said, and much to look forward to in the future. In April, Nessel announced criminal charges against former state House Speaker Lee Chatfield (R-Levering) involving embezzlement from a nonprofit organization. Her office has also filed charges against other Michigan political figures for what it asserts are financial crimes. In March, the Michigan Attorney Generals Office argued in an Ohio court that its lawsuit to shutdown the Line 5 oil pipeline ought to take place in a Michigan court, which would likely reinvigorate the states case against the pipeline. At the end of 2023, Nessel announced that her office was reopening the investigation into Michigan State University over its handling of the Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal, finally getting the opportunity to review documents from the university that the office has long requested. But what Nessel said sticks out to her when thinking about the last year is the work of the Organized Retail Crime unit, which was created in January 2023. The unit works with businesses, investigators and analysts that partner to prosecute those who steal from businesses for their own financial gain, costing the state $1 billion annually, the Attorney Generals Office reports. Thats a really exciting unit and project and its one that Ive been floating around for a long time, Nessel said. Were really encouraged by it. We are a model nationally. We get called a lot from other AG offices around the country to find out exactly what it is that were doing. As for Line 5, which Nessel ran her first term campaign on the promise of shutting it down, she said shes not letting up. She hopes that President Joe Bidens administration, which has publicly remained quiet on the topic, will understand the significance of her fight against the pipeline through the straits of Mackinac and address the jeopardy for the Great Lakes. But I learned a long time ago that I have to focus on what I can do as an officeholder, Nessel said. Ive done, I think, literally everything I can to [deliver on] my campaign promises from 2018 to do everything within my power to decommission Line 5. Looking ahead at the 2024 election, Nessel has spoken in support of Bidens reelection campaign, particularly in regards to Trumps record on reproductive rights. Trump has taken credit for being the catalyst for the federal right to abortion being overturned, as his three U.S. Supreme Court appointees from his presidency voted in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade. Nessel said she could see the same result for Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage across the country, a case that she was involved in years before before running for Michigans attorney general. If we learned anything from Trumps first term in office, its that hes more interested in persecuting the LGBTQ community than protecting it, Nessel said. Im worried about Obergefell being overturned. I think that it would not be surprising if that occurred. Nessel is term-limited in 2026, along with fellow Democrats Whitmer and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. The attorney general didnt let on to the Advance her plans at the end of her term, like if shell be running for another elected office. Instead, Nessel said shes taking things one day at a time and preparing to work with the Secretary of States office to ensure people know the law when it comes to elections and ensure that everything runs smoothly. Attorney General Dana Nessel at the Mackinac Policy Conference, May 29, 2024 | Susan J. Demas Attorney General Dana Nessel at the Mackinac Policy Conference, May 29, 2024 | Susan J. Demas Attorney General Dana Nessel at the Mackinac Policy Conference, May 29, 2024 | Susan J. Demas Attorney General Dana Nessel at the Mackinac Policy Conference, May 29, 2024 | Susan J. Demas Attorney General Dana Nessel at the Mackinac Policy Conference, May 29, 2024 | Susan J. Demas Attorney General Dana Nessel at the Mackinac Policy Conference, May 29, 2024 | Susan J. Demas The post Nessel talks about threats to the 2024 election, hate crimes, Line 5 and more appeared first on Michigan Advance. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address a joint meeting of Congress on July 24, top Republicans announced Thursday night. The top four congressional leaders officially invited Netanyahu to speak to lawmakers Friday, capping off weeks of speculation regarding whether the prime minister would be extended the opportunity to visit the Capitol amid Israels war against Hamas. Netanyahu accepted the invitation Saturday. The bipartisan, bicameral meeting symbolizes the U.S. and Israels enduring relationship and will offer Prime Minister Netanyahu the opportunity to share the Israeli governments vision for defending their democracy, combatting terror, and establishing just and lasting peace in the region, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement Thursday night. The announcement of a date for the address excluded the names of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), both of whom signed the letter inviting Netanyahu to address Congress last week. The omissions are notable, as progressive Democrats in both chambers have expressed sharp disapproval of Netanyahu being invited to speak, with some already vowing to skip the event. Schumer also voiced his opposition to Netanyahu in a March floor speech, calling for new elections in Israel and declaring that the longtime conservative leader had lost his way. The Senate leader who is the highest-ranking Jewish official in American history issued a statement Thursday evening that emphasized his support for the U.S.-Israel relationship but did not address his absence from the date announcement. I have clear and profound disagreements with the Prime Minister, which I have voiced both privately and publicly and will continue to do so. But because Americas relationship with Israel is ironclad and transcends one person or prime minister I joined the request for him to speak, Schumer said. Netanyahus address next month will mark the fourth time he has delivered a speech before a joint meeting of Congress, following visits to the U.S. in 2015, 2011 and 1996. His address this year is sure to spark intense outrage among liberal Democrats, who have been up in arms over the mounting number of deaths in the Gaza strip. Some of them are already saying they plan to boycott the speech. Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal. He should not be invited to address a joint meeting of Congress. I certainly will not attend, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement last week. The topic of the Israel-Hamas war has been a contentious one in the Democratic caucus, where pro-Palestinian progressives have found themselves at odds with their staunchly pro-Israel counterparts. Recently, those divisions were on full display after the International Criminal Court (ICC) requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu, the Israeli defense minister and leaders of Hamas, alleging they bear criminal responsibility for a list of war crimes. Pro-Israel Democrats slammed the ICC, accusing it of drawing a false equivalency between Israel and Hamas leaders, while pro-Palestinian liberals urged respect for the courts decisions. The U.S. does not recognize the ICC and does not consider Americans to be under its jurisdiction. Johnson first proposed the idea of inviting Netanyahu to speak to Congress in March, shortly after Schumer called for new elections in Israel. The process for inviting Netanyahu, however, was delayed several weeks as Schumer held off on signing a letter extending the invitation to the Israeli leader. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- China will see a boom in railway trips during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday travel rush, China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (China Railway) said Friday. Some 74 million railway trips will be made from Friday to Tuesday, with average daily railway trips reaching 14.8 million, the group confirmed. Passenger flow will peak on Saturday, with about 17 million railway trips expected to be made. China's railways are elaborating holiday transport plans, increasing capacity, implementing measures to facilitate and benefit the people, and striving to provide guarantees for passengers to travel safely and orderly, the group said. Nearly 70.38 million railway passenger trips were made nationwide during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday travel rush last year, according to China Railway. The Dragon Boat Festival, also called Duanwu Festival, is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. Netanyahu to defend Gaza war in address to US Congress on July 24 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to address lawmakers from both chambers of the US Congress in a rare joint meeting on July 24. Netanyahu's speech, which will defend his war in Gaza, is controversial in Washington, as President Joe Biden struggles to seal a lasting ceasefire deal in Gaza and his Democratic party grows more divided over the conflict. Even before the date of the speech was announced, several left-wing Democrats had vowed to boycott it over Netanyahu's handling of his war with Hamas. The invitation to Netanyahu was issued last week from the leaders of both parties in the US Congress, including Democrat Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader who has been highly critical of Netanyahu. Schumer, who is the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the US government, recently called for new elections to be held in Israel. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a Republican, announced the July 24 date late Thursday. "We look forward to hearing the Israeli governments vision for defending democracy, combatting terror, and establishing a just and lasting peace in the region," Johnson wrote on social media. Netanyahu Invited to Address Both Houses of Congress in July (Bloomberg) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted an invitation to address a joint meeting of the US House and Senate on July 24, House Speaker Mike Johnsons office announced. Most Read from Bloomberg Netanyahu will be given a chance to share the Israeli governments vision for defending their democracy, combating terror, and establishing just and lasting peace in the region, Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, both Republicans, said in a statement Thursday night. The invitation was signed by Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, as well as McConnell and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. The Israeli Embassy in Washington didnt respond to a query on whether the invitation had been accepted. Netanyahu faces intense criticism over the civilian death toll in the war in Gaza, which has caused divisions among US lawmakers and led to public disagreements with President Joe Biden. Earlier: Biden Bid to End Gaza War Falters as Israel, Hamas Push Back Even as fellow Democrats have intensified their demands for a cease-fire and an end to the conflict, the US president has remained steadfast in his support of Israel since last Octobers deadly assault by Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the US and European Union. Both Israel and Hamas have balked at Bidens latest peace effort. In an interview with Time magazine published this week, Biden hinted that Netanyahu might be dragging out the war in order to cling to power. The president later told reporters that he didnt think that was the case. Some lawmakers have said they would boycott the address, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, and Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats. In a post on X, Sanders accused Netanyahu of creating the worst humanitarian disaster in modern history. Starvation. Destruction. Death. We should not honor him with an invitation to address the United States Congress, Sanders said. Earlier: Schumer Urges Netanyahu Exit as Democrats Gaza Worries Grow Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the US, has previously called for Netanyahu to be replaced in an Israeli election. In a statement, he noted his many disagreements with Netanyahu, but because Americas relationship with Israel is ironclad and transcends one person or prime minister I joined the request for him to speak. This would be the prime ministers fourth speech to a joint meeting of Congress, making him the first foreign leader to do so that many times. According to the US House website, Winston Churchill was the only other foreign leader to address the House and Senate three times. In 2015, Netanyahu used one of those speeches to denounce the Iran nuclear accord, angering the Obama administration. (Updates with Sanders quote in ninth paragraph. Previous versions corrected Sanders party affiliation and that Democrats in both chambers plan not to attend.) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2024 Bloomberg L.P. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address a joint meeting of Congress on July 24, congressional leaders said Thursday. Netanyahus speech will arrive at a time when his relationship with President Joe Biden has become strained over Israels war plans and efforts to alleviate humanitarian suffering in Gaza. While Congress passed a bill with aid to Ukraine and Israel in April, Democrats remain divided over Israels handling of its war against Hamas. The top four congressional leaders House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell signed on to a letter inviting Netanyahu on May 31. An Israeli official confirmed that Netanyahu will address Congress on July 24. The timing of the address was uncertain earlier this week, after an initial floated date of June 13 was ruled out because it fell on the Jewish holiday Shavuot. It also coincided with Bidens visit to Italy for a Group of 7 summit. CNN has reached out to the White House for comment. It is not clear whether the prime ministers visit to Washington will include a meeting at the White House. Netanyahu has yet to publicly endorse an Israeli peace proposal laid out by Biden last week. Meanwhile, the US has grown frustrated by some of Israels war tactics, which officials believe do not include stringent enough protections for civilians. The decision to invite Netanyahu was not met with unanimous approval among Democrats. Many in the party say the prime minister has become an obstacle to peace, and some members of Congress have vowed to boycott the speech. Schumer, a New York Democrat who called for new elections in Israel earlier this year, acknowledged in a Thursday night statement that he had clear and profound disagreements with Netanyahu, but he defended his decision to sign on to the letter. Because Americas relationship with Israel is ironclad and transcends one person or prime minister I joined the request for him to speak, he said. CNNs Kevin Liptak and Haley Talbot contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to address a joint meeting of Congress on July 24 during a visit to Washington, D.C., Republican leaders announced Thursday. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement that the address would allow Netanyahu to share the Israeli governments vision for defending their democracy, combatting terror, and establishing just and lasting peace in the region. In accepting the invitation, Netanyahu said he was very moved and would present the truth about our just war against those who seek to destroy us to the representatives of the American people and the entire world. Benjamin Netanyahu Is No Ally, Hes a Liar and Shouldnt Be Allowed to Address Congress The address will undoubtedly prove controversial amid mounting international criticism of the manner in which Netanyahu is prosecuting his war with Hamas in Gaza. His arrival in the U.S. also comes after tensions with President Joe Biden, who has largely supported Israels war but has recently criticized Netanyahus strategy and halted shipments of certain munitions. Bidens backing of Israel has also proved politically costly for the president during his re-election campaign with many Democrats expressing outrage over the colossal number of civilians killed and displaced over the course of the almost eight-month conflict. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer released his own statement on Netanyahus address saying he had supported the invitation despite having clear and profound disagreements with the prime minister, which I have voiced both privately and publicly and will continue to do so. Schumer said he nevertheless joined in extending the invitation because Americas relationship with Israel is ironclad and transcends one person or prime minister. In March, Schumer made an impassioned speech on the Senate floor describing Netanyahu as being one of several major obstacles to achieving peace between Israel and the Palestinians. He also called for Israel to hold electionsa comment which drew condemnation from Netanyahu who said it was inappropriate for Schumer to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there. A letter dated May 31 inviting Netanyahu to address Congresssigned by Schumer, Johnson, McConnell, and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffriessaid the U.S. joins Israel in its struggle against terror, especially as Hamas continues to hold American and Israeli citizens captive and its leaders jeopardize regional stability. The existential challenges we face, including the growing partnership between Iran, Russia, and China, threaten the security, peace, and prosperity of our countries and of free people around the world, it continued. The letter added that Netanyahu would be welcomed to the Capitol to build on our enduring relationship and to highlight Americas solidarity with Israel. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. Netherlands to build combat vehicles and Patriot systems for Ukraine jointly with other EU countries The Dutch government, which will resign soon, has adopted decisions aimed at accelerating the production of defence equipment for Ukraine and for its own use. Source: European Pravda with reference to NOS Details: With this goal, the Netherlands seeks cooperation with other European countries and with the Dutch defence industry. For instance, the Netherlands will cooperate with Denmark and Sweden to develop CV90 infantry fighting vehicles for Ukraine. 400 million will be allocated for a Swedish fund for constructing these vehicles. Earlier, Denmark made a choice in favour of cooperation with the Swedes. These CV90 vehicles are mainly manufactured in the Netherlands (180 out of 230 vehicles). "European production capacities must be increased for Ukraine and for us as well," Kajsa Ollongren, Dutch Minister of Defence, said. "Our armed forces must be combat ready, and the time for this is limited," she noted. Moreover, a European assembly line for the production of Patriot missiles will appear in Germany, and the Netherlands will participate in it too. The government announced this decision earlier. "The American manufacturer allowed the production of Patriot missiles in Europe. This will accelerate the pace of the production," Ollongren stated. 25 million were also reserved for startups, and 54 million will be handed over to the Dutch defence industry for creating the drones for "own use" by the Dutch Armed Forces. In addition to this, the procurement policy will be more focused on speed and whether the equipment is produced in Europe than on cost. These projects are expected to accelerate the pace of production by the Dutch and European defence industries and make the products more innovative, both for Ukraine and for the Dutch defence sector. Background: Christopher Cavoli, commander of NATO in Europe, stated that NATO member states were "ready for collective territorial defence" but needed more military equipment. Earlier, Eirik Kristoffersen, head of the Norwegian Armed Forces, said that the "window of opportunities" of NATO for preparing for a possible confrontation with Russia had decreased to two to three years. Support UP or become our patron! The Netherlands will invest 400 million euros ($436 million) into a Swedish fund to produce infantry fighting vehicles for Ukraine, Dutch media reported on June 7. According to De Telegraaf the announcement is part of a wider action plan aimed at scaling up the country's defense industry. The report did not specify the type of infantry fighting vehicle, but Ukraine and Sweden last year signed an agreement to start jointly producing the CV90, considered one of the best of its type in the world. Sweden has previously given Ukraine a variety of advanced military equipment, including the CV90 and the Archer self-propelled howitzer. Its latest package for Ukraine the country's largest tranche of military assistance since the beginning of the full-scale invasion also contained the "entire Swedish stock" of Pansarbandvagn 302 infantry fighting vehicles. Elsewhere, the Netherlands plans to start delivering its F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine this autumn after Denmark begins transferring its aircraft already in the summer, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said in May. Later that month, Dutch Foreign Minister Hanke Bruins Slot said the country would not object to Ukraine using Dutch-supplied F-16 fighter jets to strike targets inside Russia as a means of self-defense. "If you have the right to self-defense, there are no borders for the use of weapons. This is a general principle," she said at an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Prague in comments reported by RFE/RL. Read also: Dutch political parties websites attacked on EU election day, Russian hacking group claims responsibility Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Newly selected San Diego Chief of Police to be sworn in: how to watch Newly selected San Diego Chief of Police to be sworn in: how to watch SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) A ceremony will be held Friday to bid a final farewell the San Diego Police Departmentt 35th Chief of Police, David Nisleit. After 36 years of serving San Diego, Nisleit is passing his duties to Scott Wahl, who will be sworn in as the newly appointed chief during that same ceremony. Nisleit will be seen walking out of police headquarters in Kearny Mesa for the final time, as well as handing over command to Wahl, something the department described as symbolic change. For those who wish to witness the exchange, the ceremony will be streamed on the police departments YouTube page. During the event, which is slated for 1 p.m., Broadway will be closed between 14th and 15th Streets. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. A week into Hunter Bidens federal firearms trial in Delaware, one legal analyst sees the case leaning toward a conviction. Heres the deal, theres a strong chance that Hunter Biden will be convicted, NewsNation legal contributor Jesse Weber told the networks chief Washington correspondent, Blake Burman, this week. This is a really straightforward case, Weber added. Biden, the presidents 54-year-old son, is accused of falsifying documents when he purchased a gun in 2018 because he said he wasnt a drug addict. Prosecutors rested their case Friday, with the defense expected to call members of the Biden family as the trial moves forward. Its unclear whether Hunter Biden will take the stand in his defense. Jurors so far have heard testimony about Hunter Bidens drug use. He has been open about his struggles with drug addition and wrote about his troubled past in a 2021 memoir. Hallie Biden, the widow of Hunter Bidens brother, Beau, testified that she panicked when she discovered a gun in 2018 in Hunter Bidens possessions, so she discarded it. I realize it was a stupid idea now, but I was panicking, said Hallie Biden, who was in a brief romantic relationship with Hunter Biden at the time he purchased the firearm. Hallie Biden also testified that Hunter Biden introduced her to crack cocaine. I regret that period of my life, she testified. If convicted, it could be several months before Hunter Biden faces sentencing, with some observers speculating that President Biden could move to pardon his son after the November election. President Biden, however, rejected the notion this week that he would pardon his son. When ABC Newss David Muir asked whether he would rule out pardoning his son, President Biden replied flatly yes. He also said he would accept the results of the federal trial, no matter what they are. But Weber said he could envision a scenario in which the president pardons his son if convicted. Its about the election, and its about letting this process play out, Weber said. I dont think a lot of people would blame him. He added that he thinks the case wouldnt have gone this far if Hunter Bidens name wasnt Hunter Biden. The presidents firm anti-pardon stance this week echoed the official position held by the White House for months. Ive been very clear; the president is not going to pardon his son, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters in December. In a statement as the trial got underway, President Biden expressed support for his son but said he didnt want to wade into a pending federal case or questioning the legal system. I am the President, but I am also a Dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today, the president said in a statement Monday. As the President, I dont and wont comment on pending federal cases, but as a Dad, I have boundless love for my son, confidence in him, and respect for his strength. First lady Jill Biden attended the trial before traveling to France to for D-Day commemoration activities earlier this week. She returned Friday as the prosecutors wrapped their case. NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. PFAS are in New Hampshires air, water, and soil. The problems have been especially acute in the southern part of the state. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) On Rep. Wendy Thomas Merrimack street, there are four private wells contaminated with PFAS, and four homes struck by cancer. In one house, the dad died of kidney cancer. In another, a father and his adult son both died of colon cancer. In the third, the dad is dying of prostate cancer. Thomas home is the fourth. Her children are sick, and she has had to put down four dogs because of cancer. In 2019, her husband had a quadruple cardiac bypass at age 55. In 2022, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had no genetic predisposition. She had no family history. But she did have 12 PFAS chemicals in her blood over the toxic limit set for humans. She attributes those chemicals to her health problems and those of her neighbors. Weve hit some roadblocks, Thomas, a Democrat, said of the PFAS legislation pushed by her and other lawmakers this session, but I think weve made significant progress. Several bills aimed at PFAS or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances passed the Legislature this session and await approval from the governor. Some of them were more watered down than their sponsors would have liked, but theyll collectively put some limits on selling products with intentionally added PFAS, notify property-buyers of the chemicals, and create liability for PFAS-producing facilities. PFAS are in New Hampshires air, water, and soil. The problems have been especially acute in southern New Hampshire, particularly in the communities surrounding Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, a French manufacturer that announced in August it would close its Merrimack facility that contaminated hundreds of private wells. The class of chemicals, of which there are thousands of variations, have been used in industrial and commercial products since the mid-20th century. The forever chemicals dubbed so because they dont break down naturally in the environment can be found in food packaging, waterproof cosmetics, dental floss, stain-resistant carpets, smartphones, cars, and much more. Their presence in the environment has contaminated fish, dairy products, produce, and humans. Nearly all Americans have measurable amounts of PFAS in their blood, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Research has linked PFAS to a number of health issues, including high cholesterol, weakened immune systems, decreased fertility, increased blood pressure in pregnant women, developmental problems in children, and prostate, kidney, and testicular cancers. The goal is to stop the source, said Rep. Nancy Murphy, a Merrimack Democrat who sponsored several PFAS-related bills. And thats our intent, and were not gonna stop until we do that. Banning some PFAS products A list of products with intentionally added PFAS will be prohibited from sale in New Hampshire starting in 2027 if the governor signs into law House Bill 1649, passed by the Legislature. That list includes: Carpets or rugs;Cosmetics;Textile treatments, such as those that add PFAS for stain- or water-resistant properties;Feminine hygiene products, such as tampons and pads;Food packaging and containers, such as plates, bowls, and bags;Products for children under 12, such as high chairs, playmats, and strollers;Upholstered furniture; andTextile furnishings, such as draperies, bedding, and towels. This bill would not include unintentional PFAS contamination of a product in the production or shipping process, said bill sponsor Rep. Karen Ebel, a New London Democrat. The bill would also exempt medical devices, adult mattresses, personal computers, wireless phones, and some other electronics. It would also allow products with at least 85 percent recycled content, the resale of products made before the ban, and replacement parts for products manufactured before 2027. The bill would also through language adopted from a separate Senate bill require that funds received by the state through settling PFAS litigation be used to support public water systems contaminated by PFAS. Ebel came to be interested in PFAS through her work chairing the states Solid Waste Working Group, created by statute to support the Department of Environmental Services on related issues. Because of the abundance of PFAS in a variety of products, those chemicals end up in landfills and, consequently, in the polluted water called leachate that leaks out of them. Some of that is treated by wastewater facilities, but some of it ends up in the environment and drinking water. Ebels bill sought to stop that contamination before it got to the landfills. And considering the impact PFAS have had on New Hampshire, she said, what better state to ban some of the products that have wreaked havoc and join other states that are doing this? Murphy, a cosponsor, would have liked to see fewer exclusions in the bill and wants to amend it in the future. These are incremental changes, and theyre far from perfect, she said, but we cant let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Accountability Other measures this session sought to hold polluters accountable and get more data to explain the health outcomes people are seeing in their communities. PFAS facilities that release such chemicals into the groundwater or surface water in total combined concentrations of 100 parts per trillion or greater would be held liable under House Bill 1415 by Murphy, which passed both chambers. The goal of her bill, Murphy said, is to give our state agencies some teeth in the law. When polluters make that decision to shut down operations and leave the facility where theyve done business, Murphy said, we must be sure that they are held responsible for removal of all PFAS materials and waste. Murphy said she is cautiously optimistic the governor will sign her bill. Another measure passed by the Legislature, House Bill 398, would require that PFAS be included along with radon and arsenic in the notification about common contaminants in New Hampshire provided to a property-buyer. The notice, if approved by the governor, would say that PFAS have been detected at levels that exceed federal and/or state advisories or standards in wells throughout New Hampshire, especially in the southern part of the state. Testing of the water by an accredited laboratory can measure PFAS levels and inform a buyers decision regarding the need to install water treatment systems, the notice would read. Thomas, the bill sponsor, wanted testing included in the bill but said the House watered it down from its original version. She said she has heard stories of people who bought houses in town without ever being informed of the water contamination. To me, thats just criminal, Thomas said, because, again, youre not allowing them to protect themselves. Another proposal, House Bill 1114, sponsored by Murphy, will extend by five years the life of a commission to study PFAS released into the air, soil, and groundwater in Merrimack, Bedford, Londonderry, Hudson, and Litchfield. Murphy sponsored the bill that first established the commission in 2019, shortly after she arrived at the State House. PFAS contamination is the issue that propelled her to public service. I had never been a legislator and actually, quite frankly, had never been interested in anything political until then, Murphy said. But as a now-retired nurse and mother of six children who were feeling health impacts associated with PFAS, she quickly became interested. The commission studies the health impacts of PFAS releases, and the re-upped version of the bill includes Hudson at the request of a lawmaker from there. Its membership represents state agencies, lawmakers, scientists, local government officials, and citizens from affected areas. This commission has been instrumental in seeking the collection of health data relative to the health concerns that we see in these communities and then spearheading the legislation to address that, Murphy said. Well be back Mindi Messmer, a scientist who discovered a pediatric cancer cluster along the Seacoast in 2014 and represented Rye in the House as a Democrat from 2016 to 2018, said she was the first person to file PFAS-related legislation in New Hampshire. As a scientist, she thought she could explain the issues in a logical way and get people on board. That didnt happen a lot of times, she said, and I also faced a ton of pushback from the regulators at the time. Murphy said theyre light-years ahead of where they were when Messmer first raised PFAS as an issue in the State House. The lawmakers focused on PFAS some of whom call themselves water warriors didnt get everything they wanted this session, but they have made progress they said would have been hard to imagine a few years ago. Murphy and Thomas are both rearing to bring forth more legislation next session some of which will be aimed at strengthening bills passed this year, such as the product ban. Other initiatives may focus on health insurance coverage for PFAS-related health issues. Well be back, Murphy said. Anything that we didnt pass, well be back. For these lawmakers, this fight is as personal as it gets. Thomas had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed preventively after her breast cancer diagnosis. Sometimes I want to just forget that I have cancer, she said, but she shares her story often to put a face to the consequences of PFAS contamination. She points at her chest when she talks about the issue in the State House. To live in a PFAS-contaminated town, Thomas said, we have to amputate parts of our bodies to lay at the altar of profit. This piece was originally published by New Hampshire Bulletin. Like Maine Morning Star, New Hampshire Bulletin is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on Facebook and Twitter. The post NH legislators send several PFAS bills to governors desk appeared first on Maine Morning Star. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) A Nigerian national has received 52-month prison sentence after pleading guilty wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) says Uchenna Nlemchi worked with a co-conspirator to steal from a 56-year-old New Mexico widow. The DOJ says the co-conspirator promised to marry the woman, but asked for money for supposed business expenses. The woman sent over $375,000 from her retirement account and from a home equity loan. Some of the funds passed through a fraudulent bank account set up by Nlemchi, the DOJ says. Accused DWI drivers back on New Mexico roads after officer no-shows With money from the New Mexico woman, as well as other victims, Nlemchi was able to put over $868,000 into his bank account before bank investigators started looking closely in 2016, the DOJ says. Around that time, Nlemchi was attending Texas Southern University before being arrested in 2017. He then escaped while released on an electronic monitor and made his way back to Nigeria. For years, Nlemchi lived as an international fugitive. He was finally re-arrested in Hungary in 2023, the DOJ says. Now that he has pled guilty to federal crimes, Nlemchi will have to serve over four years in prison and pay more than $500,000 in restitution. He will also have to pay a judgment of over $800,000. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos. NAIROBI, June 7 (Xinhua) -- China has made significant strides in preserving its marine ecosystems for sustainable development in coastal areas, a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) official has said. Leticia Carvalho, who heads the UNEP Marine and Freshwater Branch, said China has prioritized marine ecosystem health, which is critical to the overall stability of oceans that provide a range of benefits, from oxygen to food, jobs and recreation. "There are efforts to minimize waste entering the marine environment seen through initiatives to reduce sources of pollution at the provincial and municipal levels, including Hainan Province's steps to ban single-use and non-recyclable plastics," Carvalho told Xinhua in an interview. Carvalho identified China's Blue Circle, a marine initiative developed by the Department of Ecology and Environment of Zhejiang province and Zhejiang Lanjing Technology, as the most impactful in marine environment conservation. "It has collected over 10,700 tonnes of marine debris. Named a UNEP Champion of the Earth in 2023, the Blue Circle initiative is harnessing advanced technology to scale the reuse of recycled marine plastics," she said. The UNEP official observed that China, in its Biodiversity Conservation Strategy and Action Plan (2023-2030) released a few months ago, has marked marine ecosystems, including estuaries, bays and coastal wetlands, mangroves, coral reefs and seagrass beds as priorities for ecosystem restoration. According to Carvalho, China's Marine Ecological Red Line, which is part of its Ecological Conservation Red Line policy and is designed to identify and protect crucial ecological zones, is one of the best planning approaches for ecosystem management. China has also set a target of at least 150,000 square kilometers of marine area for protection by 2030 in its Biodiversity Conservation Strategy and Action Plan (2023-2030). "By designating areas for protection, countries are working to maintain ocean health and prevent further degradation. The adoption of an integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) approach is a positive step towards ensuring the sustainable development of coastal areas. ICZM is also an example of how society can pursue a harmonious existence between people and nature," she said. Carvalho observed that the health of coral reefs lies in the nexus between climate change and marine ecosystem protection, as she acknowledged China's efforts in marine ecosystem protection to address challenges posed by global warming on coral reefs. "Experts have noted the increased synergies in China among policies on climate change response, marine environment protection and biodiversity conservation in recent years. By treating climate change and marine ecosystem protection as intertwined issues, governments are better placed to address these challenges and identify appropriate solutions," she said. Carvalho observed that China's engagement in international bodies has been crucial for marine ecosystem development and protection at the global and regional levels. Under China's presidency of the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, member states delivered a landmark agreement for people and nature through the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. China is one of the nine participating countries in the Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA). Last year, COBSEA countries adopted a Marine and Coastal Ecosystems Framework, which looks at pathways to achieve Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework targets. Carvalho said China is also an active member state of the Northwest Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP), which works on the protection, management, and development of the region's marine and coastal environment. "Scientists and practitioners from research and applied institutions throughout China provide valuable contributions to NOWPAP activities, including the development of regional overviews and state of the marine environment reports," she said. Coral reefs, Carvalho explained, are often mistaken for rocks, but they are not. "At the heart of each individual coral is a polyp, a clear, tube-shaped animal with a ring of tentacles that it uses to catch prey," she said. Carvalho explained that some corals surround themselves with a limestone skeleton forged from calcium absorbed from seawater and that corals get their color from thousands of plant-like organisms known as zooxanthellae, which live inside the corals and provide them with food. "It is a symbiotic relationship that supports at least 25 percent of all marine life," Carvalho said, noting that coral reefs face many local stressors, from mismanagement of wastewater to plastic suffocation, overfishing within reef systems to unsustainable fishing and tourism practices that harm the physical reefs. There is also the threat of rising sea temperatures, she said. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius would result in the loss of 70 percent to 90 percent of reefs, and a surge of 2 degrees Celsius would cause the loss of up to 99 percent of reefs. Reefs support 24 percent of all marine life. Therefore, it is urgent to minimize local threats while working to drastically reduce emissions. In recent years, governments and international organizations have stepped up efforts to protect corals. The UNEP-supported Global Funds for Coral Reefs is aiming to channel and leverage up to 3 billion U.S. dollars toward projects that safeguard these underwater cities. Carvalho said the fund, a partnership between the public and private sectors, and co-chaired by the UNEP and the British government, is designed to support a broader global effort to protect biodiversity while helping coastal communities adapt to a changing climate. Meanwhile, 45 countries, home to most of the world's corals, have signed a pledge to protect 125,000 square kilometers of reefs, supported by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) High-Level Climate Champions, an effort known as the Coral Reef Breakthrough. ROCHESTER The Olmsted County Attorney's Office will not file charges against the four teenagers accused of putting a racial slur on a bridge here near a high school earlier this year. Olmsted County Attorney Mark Ostrem said in a statement Thursday that prosecutors likely could not meet the necessary burden of proof to file criminal or delinquency charges against the teens. "I am deeply disturbed that anyone in this community could be so oblivious to find humor or enjoyment in this type of conduct," Ostrem said. "We are better than that. But, we evaluate incidents based on the law, not our internal responses to the event." The NAACP of Rochester condemned the decision not to charge the teens, calling their actions a form of racial terrorism and saying in a statement that Ostrem's office "sends a dangerous message to our community and students." "Community healing requires accountability, and these individuals were not held accountable today," NAACP officials said. The Rochester Police Department earlier this week announced it had identified four boys three 16-year-olds and a 17-year-old as suspects behind the slur found in April on an E. Circle Drive pedestrian bridge near Century High School. The slur, commonly used against Black people, was spelled out using plastic cups to plug holes in a fence on the bridge. The incident prompted numerous community forums where Black residents decried Rochester's seemingly increasing racial tension in recent years. The Circle Drive bridge wasn't the only place where graffiti was found; similar slurs have been found on hiking trails and sidewalks in the past few years. The county attorney's office outlined four possible charges against the teens but dismissed them all, arguing the boys didn't deface the bridge as cups are routinely used to spell out messages to nearby motorists. The slur didn't constitute a specific threat of violence against someone. The teens didn't post the slur multiple times, ruling out harassment charges. Prosecutors could have charged the teens with disorderly conduct, but Olmsted County argued the slur doesn't meet the necessary threshold to be considered fighting words. It would likely be considered protected speech, however hateful it may be. Yet the NAACP views the incident as victimizing Rochester's Black and immigrant communities. NAACP officials argued Thursday the teen suspects "intimidated, demonized, and inflicted pain upon the Black and brown community of Rochester." "Their actions also targeted the fabric of the community we are all working hard to build a thriving Rochester where everyone, including Black and underrepresented people, can live, work, and enjoy equitable opportunities," NAACP officials said. NAACP Rochester President Wale Elegbede said earlier this week that the organization plans to build on its community forums with more citywide initiatives to help the area heal from the incident. There should be no restrictions on Ukraine using Western weapons to strike Russia NATO Military Committee head Admiral Rob Bauer, the head of the NATO Military Committee, argues that Ukraine should be able to properly defend itself by striking Russia with Western weaponry without having its range limited. Source: The Washington Post, as reported by European Pravda Details: Bauer advocated permission to strike Russia with Western weaponry, saying that it is militarily logical. Quote: "In the law of armed conflicts there are no limits in terms of the range. So militarily, again, if the target is deeper into Russia, then, military, youd want to strike that target. If, for example, aircraft that take off from an airfield deeper into Russia," Bauer states. Bauer noted that the increased range of weapons in Ukraine impacted Russian forces' logistics. "If you push back the Russians deeper into Russia, that will make the fight more difficult for them," Bauer concluded. Separately, he stated that the West should not allow Vladimir Putin to threaten him with "red lines", since this would just give Russia time to reinforce its defences and position in Ukraine. "So we have to be careful not to jump, time and time again, to this idea that everything is a red line, that everything is an escalation. Because, first and foremost, Putin has been lying about basically everything," he believes. After giving Ukraine limited permission to deploy American weapons to hit Russian territory, US President Joe Biden expressed resistance to potential US military strikes deep into Russian territory. At the same time, Kyiv wishes to agree on broadening the scope of this permission. Support UP or become our patron! Noblesville looks to Carmel's Monon Trail success as it develops along Midland Trace Trail After a three-year delay, a project with 180 townhouses along the Midland Trace Trail in Noblesville is slated for construction as the city sprints to develop property next to the greenway that connects to Westfield. The hold-up: city planners want to be sure they find the best mix of projects along the five-mile trail that holds promise as a magnet for walkable residential and commercial development. For inspiration, they asked themselves a simple question "What would Carmel do?" The suburbs successful development along the Monon has become the standard by which all new greenway development is measured. The Village at Trail Crossing will be south of State Road 32 and west of Hazel Dell Parkway on a site where the council previously voted down a similar residential development. The new proposal by M/I Homes is more dynamic than the initial previous plan by Olthof Homes for 123 two-story homes, officials said. The three-story townhomes fit better, Sarah Reed, community development director, said. Its a got a more urban vibe, the way the development of the Monon Trail in Carmel has progressed. Big plans Demolition begins on Monon Square shopping center ahead of future Carmel development The Midland Trace between Westfield and Noblesville has been under construction for five years. It will be extended over a bridge into downtown Noblesville when the Pleasant Street road project is finished next year, connecting the Monon in Westfield to the just-completed Nickel Plate Trail in Noblesville. Noblesville and developers see that connection as a lucrative draw for homes and businesses, pointing toward Carmels cultivation of development on Monon as an economic engine. Monon envy The Monon is now the center of Carmels recreational, social and economic activity and has spurred more than $1 billion in private investment. Tall, trail-facing apartments and office buildings, businesses, plazas, a performing arts center the Palladium and an upscale Hotel Carmichael, are among projects that line the greenway on both sides. Former Mayor Jim Brainard labeled the Monon as Carmels beachfront property, which has increased land values around it. The phrase has been repeated by at least one optimistic Noblesville councilor to describe the Midland Traces potential. In Fishers, the Monon was the blueprint for the newly completed Nickel Plate Trail, which has already spurred $515 million in private investment. The largest of the developments was the first, and it began construction even before trail work began. Nickel Plate Station includes the 6-story First Internet Bank, a 237-room mixed-use apartment complex and Hotel Nickel Plate, all at 116th Street. The most recent project is the $75 million City Walk homes planned at 121st and the Nickel Plate, with 87-unit apartment building, 106 condominiums and 41 townhouses. None of this would be here without the Nickel Plate Trail, Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness told IndyStar. City wants trail density M/I Homes decided to develop the Village at Trial Crossing when Olthof determined it couldnt afford to after refining their design with the three-story townhouses at Noblesville's request. That was a new concept for them, and they suggested we might want to try it because it was like some of our other properties, said Jonathan Isaacs, a land planner for M/I. The $70 million project will have four rows of townhouses with one facing the Midland Trace. An alley will separate that row from the second behind it, which will face a grassy courtyard. Two rows of townhomes on the other side of the courtyard, and a few homes on the side of it, will complete the development. The houses will top off at about $375,000. The City Council voted 7-2 in favor the project at a recent meeting. Councilor Evan Elliott voted against it because he said it packed in too many units in the given space and the design of the townhouses was repetitive. It was the second higher density proposal within a month with similar townhome product, Elliott told IndyStar. I was looking for a (housing) mix. Not everyone is going to walk up three flights of stairs. Elliott said he also didnt like that the balconies on the townhouses along the trail do not face the greenway but rather the alley and homes behind it. The balconies in the second row of homes also face the alley, instead of the courtyard. I like concept of central green space, said Elliott, who owns Elliott Real Estate. I didnt understand why balconies don't face the greenspace. Isaacs said the trailside homes have front doors that face the trail and the second row homes front doors face the central green. He told IndyStar that though balconies are a desirable amenity, residents generally use them as places to decorate or grow plants rather than hang out on them. The buyers tend to live in the community spaces, he said. They want be here to be able to get out. More projects in works Several other developments along State Road 32 north of the Midland Trace are in planning. Midland Pointe, on the east side of Hazell Dell, will be a commercial mall facing State Road 32 with a subdivision behind it fronting the trail. The developer is Old Town Companies, which has several Carmel developments along the Monon, including Sun King Brewery, Allied Solutions headquarters' and Sunrise on the Monon, a complex of 148-single family homes and 256 custom apartments. The Midland Pointe commercial mall will have a Crew Car Wash, Wawa Convenience store and gas station and a restaurant. The residential development will be a mix of townhouses, mid-rise stacked flats and two-story buildings. Epcon Communities, of Ohio, is proposing 110 houses called The Courtyards of Hazel Dell on the east side of Hazel Dell Parkway next to the trail that would be for residents 55 and older. And on the Northside of State Road 32 a new Meijer store will open in July. Next to the Meijer, Promenade Trails, is finishing up construction of 151 apartments and 59 cottage rentals with sidewalks and trails for people 55 years and older. The complex is an addition to Promenade Apartments, which has 300 apartments, both built by Justus Companies, of Indianapolis. Rendering of townhouses proposed at Village of Trail Crossing along the Midland Trace Trail in Noblesville. All the developments stress open park areas and connecting walkways and trails as an easy hop to the nearby Midland Trace. Call IndyStar reporter John Tuohy at 317-444-6418. Email at john.tuohy@indystar.com and follow on Twitter and Facebook. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: In trail development, Carmel's Monon sets bar for other HamCo cities A key advocacy group in conservative judicial activist Leonard Leos network paid millions to his consulting firm, a new filing shows, the latest example of Leos web of nonprofits sending money to his business amid government scrutiny of his dealings. The Concord Fund, a Virginia-based nonprofit, paid $6 million to Leos firm CRC Advisors between July 2022 and the end of June 2023 for Consulting, according to the filing, provided to POLITICO by the left-leaning watchdog group Accountable.US. The revelations of the large sum transferred to Leos firm come amid mounting questions around Leos advocacy activities and whether he has stood to gain financially from nonprofit groups pushing a conservative agenda around the country. D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb has been probing Leos network, which includes the Concord Fund, as part of an inquiry into whether the groups skirted nonprofit rules. Leo has vowed not to cooperate. In recent years, Leo, co-chairman of the Federalist Societys board, has amassed outsized influence in conservative legal circles, advising former President Donald Trump on judicial picks. That role has also brought added scrutiny to his financial activities. He also obtained a massive $1.6 billion gift from the businessman Barre Seid to fund Leos agenda through a group called the Marble Freedom Trust. The Marble Freedom Trust, which counts Leo as a trustee and chairman, has transferred tens of millions of dollars to the Concord Fund. The Concord Fund has also paid millions to Leos for-profit business. Between July 2022 and the end of June 2023, the Concord Fund, also known as the Judicial Crisis Network, received about $52.8 million. Between May 2022 and the end of April 2023, Marble Freedom Trust reported giving $55.5 million to the Concord Fund. Schwalb, a Democrat, has questioned whether the Leo groups activities violate nonprofit tax laws. Republican members of Congress have launched their own inquiry into the attorney generals probe. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and James Comer (R-Ky.), chairs of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees respectively, have asked for documents related to his investigation. The Concord Fund has reported spending $140,000 to lobby Congress on Issues related to government oversight, law enforcement, public advocacy and Rule of Law since it registered to lobby in late 2023, not long after news of the probe broke. Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network (an alias of the Concord Fund), did not immediately return a request for comment. Through counsel, CRC Advisors denied that anything in the 990 provided evidence of self-enrichment. In a statement, the company called Politicos coverage irredeemably biased and unreliable. The filing from the Concord Fund also illustrates how the grant-making organization funded efforts across the country to stymie abortion access through other groups, including one fighting a constitutional amendment in Ohio that protected access to the procedure. The Concord Fund gave $8.8 million to Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a leading anti-abortion group, along with $3 million to Protect Women Ohio Action, a group that was fighting the constitutional amendment in Ohio that enshrined abortion access. The amendment ultimately passed. The Concord Fund also gave $6 million to the Republican Governors Association and $4 million to the Republican Attorney Generals Association. It gave an additional $3 million to a group that was backing the Republican candidate for Kentucky governor, David Cameron, who ultimately lost. The large gift to the Republican Attorneys General Association is notable, in part, because a number of Republican attorneys general have also questioned Schwalbs inquiry into Leo. The Concord Fund also gave $500,000 each to a Florida political committee then called Friends of Ron DeSantis and a nonprofit founded by former Vice President Mike Pence called Advancing American Freedom. It also gave $300,000 to a nonprofit founded by former presidential candidate and U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley. Accountable.US President Caroline Ciccone blasted the Concord Fund, calling it an important part of Leos machinery to transfer money to his own business. Leonard Leos Concord Fund is at the center of his far-right dark money web and a key cog in Leos apparent self-enrichment scheme, Ciccone said. In its financial filing, the Concord Fund reported that it produced radio and television advertisements regarding significant legal and civic issues, court packing, executive branch appointments, federalism, and civic accountability. It also reported paying about $3.8 million to the media buying firm Mentzer Media for Advocacy, but CRC Advisors was the Concord Funds largest independent contractor by millions of dollars. The 85 Fund, also part of the investigation by Schwalb, paid $21 million to Leos consulting firm in 2022. Retired Pasadena Police Lt. Carolyn Gordon is among a group of current and former officers who allege discrimination and assault within the department. Pictured in the background is Pasadena Lt. Sam De Sylva, one of the plaintiffs. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times) Several current and former Pasadena police officers and supervisors all of them people of color suffered assaults, discrimination and retaliation by a pair of department cliques, one of which is dubbed the Good Ole Boys Club, according to a series of lawsuits filed against the department. Three allege they were assaulted by colleagues. Officer Jarvis Shelby said he was placed in a headlock by a commander in August. Lt. Sam De Sylva said he was kicked so hard in the leg by another lieutenant that he needed surgery. And retired Lt. Carolyn Gordon said she was shot in the groin with a paintball gun during training, an injury that caused internal bleeding. "These are police officers that are supposed to protect the community, but they attack their own," said Brad Gage, an attorney representing the six Pasadena officers and former supervisors. Four have already sued the department, and two others Gordon and retired Officer Omar Elhosseiny are planning suits, Gage said. The allegations cast a further pall on a department accused of stopping minorities and using deadly force on young Black men under questionable circumstances. At the crux of the lawsuits are two cop gangs alleged to control the Pasadena Police Department. One is dubbed the GOBC, or Good Ole Boys Club, and the other is known as the Veteranos, which consists of officers who have been involved in a police shooting. Those named in the current and pending lawsuits say the police gangs rule the department. Former Pasadena police officers Carolyn Gordon and Omar Elhosseiny, right, recount their experiences with assault and discrimination during a news conference with attorney Brad Gage, left, at police headquarters Thursday. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times) "If there is racism, retaliation and violence within the Police Department, it can certainly bleed over into the community," said Gordon, a department supervisor who retired in April. She said she was called a crybaby after being shot during a training exercise in 1998. "Sometimes in this building, I feared for my safety," said Gordon, standing outside police headquarters at a news conference Thursday. Read more: Brass knuckles, body cams and bad behavior: LAPD probe links troubled Valley gang units Elhosseiny, a retired officer who was awarded the department's Medal of Courage, said that last year, when he reported three officers for drinking on duty, he was mocked. "I was called 'Taliban,' " said Elhosseiny, who is Muslim. "I was told to park my car facing Mecca." The series of lawsuits against the Pasadena Police Department began last year and garnered public attention when Officer Taisyn Crutchfield alleged that she was wrongfully punished for trying to de-escalate a situation with another officer and a woman being detained. In the lawsuit, Crutchfield, 27, alleges she was punished after a situation on Feb. 20, 2023, in which additional officers were called to an argument involving the two sons of Charles Towns, a Black man who was shot and killed by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies in Altadena in January. Clockwise from top left: Pasadena Officer Omar Elhosseiny, Officer Jarvis Shelby, retired Lt. Carolyn Gordon, Sgt. Milton White, Lt. Sam De Sylva and Officer Taisyn Crutchfield. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times) Crutchfield's attorney said that police were called to the scene when one of Towns' sons, a juvenile, was "understandably upset by the death of their father." The incident was captured on body camera video and shows her touching Officer Ralph Palacios' arm and then his shoulder in what she characterized as an effort to de-escalate a situation in which he was arguing with a Black woman who was being detained. Palacios told her, "No, you don't do that," and then pushed her arm away and told her to get out of his face. A supervisor then directed the officers to move away from each other. Crutchfield was placed on administrative leave with pay after the incident. In the aftermath, she said, officers retaliated against her by not answering her call for backup when responding to a man with a gun. Read more: Jurors award $11.5 million to former LAPD K-9 handler who claimed discrimination over Samoan heritage In her lawsuit, Crutchfield also alleged that while she was in training, Officer Al Garcia asked that she be washed out and fired from the department. Once on patrol, she was subjected to derogatory racial comments and left without backup, according to her lawsuit. In another instance, Crutchfield was dispatched to a domestic violence call alone, and Shelby said he responded as backup. The call caused him trouble in the department and put a target on his back, he said in his lawsuit, noting that a commanding officer put him in a headlock last fall. Melvin White, who is now a sergeant, witnessed the headlock incident and described what he saw to his superiors, he said in a lawsuit. White said after his report, he became the subject of retaliation. Pasadena Chief Gene Harris, however, said of the incident: "There was no assault or violence perpetrated on or by any member of this police department." Harris said in December that "a thorough investigation was conducted and completed before [White's] claim was filed." I take any complaints of assault or violence seriously, and I will not tolerate an internal culture of assault or violence, Harris said at the time. The Pasadena Police Officers Assn., the union that represents rank-and-file officers, called the allegations false. And Pasadena police officials have said they will vigorously defend themselves, adding that the department "is proud of its diversity throughout all ranks." Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo did not immediately respond for comment. During the last decade, Pasadena has paid out millions of dollars in civil lawsuits stemming from fatal police shootings and in-custody deaths of Black men. In 2021, the city paid $7.5 million to the three young children of Anthony McClain, a Black man fatally shot as he ran away during a 2020 traffic stop. In 2012, police fatally shot Kendrick McDade, another unarmed Black man, after a 911 caller falsely reported he had a gun. Times staff photographer Myung J. Chun contributed to this report. 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. North Attleboro man pleads guilty to stealing more than $1 million in precious metals A 54-year-old North Attleboro man has pleaded guilty to stealing gold, silver and platinum from a Rhode Island jewelry manufacturer. Benjamin Preacher, who worked for the company as a manufacturing supervisor, pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court, Boston. Preacher stole the precious metals from his employer over a period of more than three years. Feds say Massachusetts man sold more than $1 million in stolen precious metal to a company in Canton, Mass. Between March 2020 and March 2023, Preacher then sold the stolen metals to businesses in Massachusetts, including one Canton-based metals buyer that paid him more than $1 million, according to federal prosecutors. The rectangular gold sheets in this photo were among precious metals sold to a Massachusetts metals dealer. In 2023, a West Bridgewater metals buyer paid him more than $177,000 for metals that included sheets of gold. Preacher, who was charged in March, pleaded guilty to interstate transportation of stolen goods and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions. He made the pleas before U.S. District Court Judge Angel Kelley, who scheduled his sentencing for September. This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Employee stole more than $1 million in precious metals on job in R.I. Colby Braun, director of the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, informs the Emergency Commission about the lack of prison beds in the state on June 6, 2024. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor) North Dakota inmates are serving longer sentences, causing prisons to run out of beds at a pace the states top corrections official labeled a crisis. The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on Thursday asked the state Emergency Commission for $1.2 million to convert a dining hall at Bismarcks Missouri River Correctional Center into a 40-person dormitory to house additional inmates. This is a Band-Aid to try and get us into the next session to have the bigger conversation of, what are we going to do about beds? said Colby Braun, director of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. North Dakota prisons eclipsed their capacity of 1,624 male inmates last July, Braun said. This week, the population was 1,721 male inmates. Entrance sign at the gate of the Missouri River Correctional Center in Bismarck on June 6, 2024. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor) Since last summer, the jail in McKenzie County has helped house the overflow population and soon the jail in Rugby will as well, Braun said. County jails are typically used for inmates with short sentences or parole violations. Prison inmates that are housed in county jails miss out on state services designed to assist their rehabilitation and transition back into society, Braun said. You can warehouse people in rooms for up to a year, but if you dont get access to programming, when you go to the parole board, youre probably not getting paroled, Braun said. The prison population is 200 people higher than corrections officials predicted during the legislative session. Braun attributed the increase in part to a trend of inmates serving longer sentences. In every crime category, people are sentenced longer than they were five years ago, Braun said. Braun said the department has not begun using prioritization, or deferring prison admissions. The department prefers to work with county jails that have extra space rather than impact every county, Braun said. Senate Appropriations Chairman Brad Bekkedahl, R-Williston, questioned why the department was not working with jails in Williams and Ward counties, which were expanded during the oil boom. Braun said its up to the counties to house the overflow inmates. Often its harder for the county jails to predict what their population will be, he said. The dining area at Bismarcks Missouri River Correctional Center may be renovated to add 40 beds to the facility. (Provided/Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) Gov. Doug Burgum, who chairs the Emergency Commission, said the department has to prioritize its rehabilitation mission. For the nonviolent folks that are there, were trying to make better neighbors and turn people into the workforce, not just make them better prisoners, Burgum said. The departments funding request would involve renovating the dining room into space for beds, plus adding a temporary modular building to the Missouri River Correctional Center to provide dining and program space. I cant say that the dining room space that were looking at is the most desirable, but its the most feasible, Braun said. The Emergency Commission tabled the request for further discussion. The commission, which also includes Secretary of State Michael Howe and legislative leaders, had questions about the departments level of spending authority and whether the Emergency Commission approving the request would comply with Century Code. The Legislatures Budget Section also would need to approve the emergency request. The Emergency Commission plans to meet again before the Budget Section meets June 19. The post North Dakota prisons running out of room; more state money requested appeared first on North Dakota Monitor. This will not happen: Kings Canyon Unified apologizes for spoiling graduation for families FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) Following a familys vocal response to being locked out of their relatives high school graduation, Kings Canyon Unified School District issued a formal apology on Thursday, June 6. Ruined a day that was supposed to be hers: Family locked out of high school graduation in Reedley On Tuesday, the Kings Canyon High School graduation ceremony took place at Reedley High School Stadium. Paola Reynoso says she and her family along with many other families were locked out of the stadium despite having tickets. Reynoso says her ticket had no indication that the gates would be closed at anytime. Kings Canyon Unified also say locking the gates is not typical and has not been their practice in the past. According to Kings Canyon Unified, security made the decision to close the gates seeing no one else seeking to enter. The school district claims the gates closure happened without the knowledge or imput of senior administrators who were all on the graduation stage at the time. Kings Canyon unified management accepts responsibility for this error and apologizes to any affected parties. This action has been addressed internally and will not happen in the future. Kings Canyon Unified. Kings Canyon Unified officials say administrators will meet in person with the family who raised the concerns. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to YourCentralValley.com | KSEE24 and CBS47. SHANGHAI, June 7 (Xinhua) -- China's first domestically built large cruise ship, Adora Magic City, has completed 37 journeys and welcomed over 150,000 tourists as of Friday, according to its operators. The ship embarked on its maiden voyage at the beginning of the year and gained popularity among tourists. In the run-up to the Dragon Boat Festival this year, the ship received nearly 4,000 passengers shortly after docking at Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal Friday. The cruise ship, 323.6 meters in length, has a gross weight of 135,500 tonnes, and can accommodate up to 5,246 passengers in 2,125 guest rooms. The cruise industry, with its long industrial chain and a high degree of internationalization, is often called "the golden industry that floats." Over 1,000 domestic and foreign manufacturers were involved in building Adora Magic City. Meanwhile, China's second homegrown large cruise ship entered a shipyard in Shanghai for final assembly on April 20, signifying that China has developed the capability to engage in bulk production of cruise ships. Editors note: The video above aired on June 3, 2024. NEW YORK (PIX11) Friday marks one year since the record-high Air Quality Alert that plunged New York City and the surrounding area into a smoky haze. Smoke from Canadian wildfires blanketed the Big Apple and the tri-state area on June 7, 2023. New Yorkers were encouraged to stay home and wear masks if they went outside a sentiment parallel to the COVID pandemic in 2020. More Local News The Air Quality Index reached 484 by 5 p.m. that day. The index tops out at 500, and anything over 301 is considered hazardous even for healthy people, according to AirNow.gov. New York City ranked No. 1 in the world for worst air quality, over Delhi and Dubai. Slideshow: NYC plunged into orange haze during Air Quality Alert A person waiting for the subway wears a mask as smoky haze from wildfires in Canada blankets a neighborhood in the Bronx on June 7, 2023. (Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images) Pedestrians pass the One World Trade Center amid a smokey haze from wildfires in Canada on June 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) Smoky haze from wildfires in Canada blankets a neighborhood in the Bronx on June 7, 2023. (Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images) In the middle of the afternoon, smoke from Canadian forest fires blankets the skyline of New York City, as seen from Brooklyn. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images) A view of the hazy city during bad air quality as smoke of Canadian wildfires brought in by wind in New York. (Photo by Selcuk Acar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) View of hazy New York city skylines during bad air quality because smoke of Canadian wildfires brought in by wind. (Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images) View of hazy New York city skylines during bad air quality because smoke of Canadian wildfires brought in by wind. (Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images) People wear facial masks because of bad air quality brought in by smoke of Canadian wildfires. (Photo by Lev Radin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) People walk in Central Park as smoke from wildfires in Canada cause hazy conditions in New York City. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP) (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images) People walk at Times Square, known as the World Capital of New York as smoke from wildfires in Canada spread badly in United States. (Photo by Eren Abdullahogullari/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) The Statue of Liberty is seen amid hazy conditions due to smoke from the Canadian wildfires. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) A view of the city as smoke from wildfires in Canada shrouds sky in New York City. (Photo by Selcuk Acar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) Hazy orange tinted skies as a result of bad air quality from smoke coming from Canadian forest fires, Queens, New York. (Photo by: Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) Flights were grounded, beaches were closed and any city-run outdoor activities were canceled. The Food Bank For New York City was forced to cancel its annual meal distribution event, where volunteers planned to pack over 27,000 meals. Officials with New York State distributed 400,000 masks to New Yorkers at subway stations, the Port Authority Bus Terminal, state parks and the Jacob Javits Center. It probably wont be the last time the Big Apple experiences an unhealthy haze. More wildfires are possible this summer due to very dry areas in Canada, according to New York City Emergency Management Department Commissioner Zachary Iscol. In response, New York City has updated its Air Quality Alert guidelines. 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. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. The ongoing brawl between City Hall and the City Council heated up Thursday with a top aide to Mayor Eric Adams getting accused of perjury ahead of a controversial oversight vote. Council members handily passed by a 46 to 4 margin an advice and consent bill in a bid to give themselves the final say over nearly two dozen top mayoral appointments in whats yet another bone of contention between Adams and his no-relation counterpart Speaker Adrienne Adams. But the veto-proof bipartisan vote was arguably overshadowed hours before when Council Member James Gennaro (D-Queens) a self-described simple geologist told a room full of reporters that Tiffany Raspberry, the mayors head of intergovernmental affairs, had perjured herself last week during a hearing on the hotly contested bill. Council Member James Gennaro accused Tiffany Raspberry, the mayors head of intergovernmental affairs, of perjury ahead of a vote on City Hall oversight. Stephen Yang Raspberry during her impromptu, short remarks that ended with her storming out of Council Chambers in dramatic fashion testified that the mayor had never tried to intervene in how Speaker Adams assigned committee seats. Im not a lawyer, Im just a simple geologist, Gennaro said in the Red Room Thursday afternoon. I knew it to be factually inaccurate, and I said something on the record. For her to declare that he (Eric Adams) would never do that when he has been all about that it just shows the disingenuousness of their position, he added. City Hall spokesperson Liz Garcia called the remarks an egregious attack on Tiffany Raspberrys character. The proposed charter change, giving the lawmakers approval power over 20 top spots in the administration, will go on the ballot come November, unless the mayors office successfully thwarts the councils plans. A City Hall spokesperson called Gennaros remarks an egregious attack on Raspberrys character. Andrew Schwartz / SplashNews.com The speaker told reporters the approval process would eliminate conflicts of interest or ethical issues. Which often happens now, Adrienne Adams charged. The mayor could replace the Councils question if his Charter Review Commission, which was announced just a day after the advice and consent bill was public, finish their assessment by Aug. 5. The commission is now sprinting to make the ballot deadline, starting this week with meetings in Queens and Staten Island. Both public meetings, which were held at 10 a.m., were marked by poor attendance and some misunderstanding by the few members of the public who testified about what the commission could do. The commission is slated to hold another meeting at New York Law School next Thursday. Additional reporting by Matt Troutman Rana Abbasova, the aide to Mayor Adams whose home was raided as part of a federal probe into his campaigns ties to Turkey, flew to the Middle Eastern country for free in connection with her official government duties, official records show. Her October 2022 trip involved traveling to Istanbul with Adams then-chief of staff Frank Carone and the citys International Affairs Commissioner Ed Mermelstein to attend a conference hosted by GYODER, a Turkish real estate trade group. Abbasova, whos now cooperating with federal investigators, was serving as the administrations international affairs protocol director at the time. Her travel to Turkey with Carone and Mermelstein has not been previously reported. The investigation into the Adams campaigns ties to Turkey exploded into public view last November when the FBI raided the homes of Abbasova, Brianna Suggs, one of Adams top campaign fundraisers, and Cenk Ocal, a former Turkish Airlines executive. Since those raids, the feds have seized Adams electronic devices, and investigators have honed in on free upgrades the mayor received from Turkish Airlines, a story first reported by the New York Times. Adams has not been accused of any wrongdoing as part of the probe. According to a 2022 financial disclosure form Abbasova filed with the citys Conflicts of Interest Board, GYODER paid my travel and accommodation on the October 2022 trip. As always, she did a great job managing the logistics, Carone said Thursday, noting that Abbasova speaks Turkish. The mayor did not travel with her, Carone or Mermelstein to Istanbul, but he did appear virtually and, as reported by Politico, extolled the upsides of investing in the Big Apple. Carone spoke at the conference in person. The mayor has a great love of the country of Turkey, the Turkish people, he said at the time. In fact, hes been here seven times and he has a deep connection to the culture, to the people, and he says it all the time. Like Abbasova, Mermelstein reported travel expenses valued between $1,000 and $4,999 for the trip. Carone didnt report any travel expenses associated with the trip on COIB forms and told Politico that generally he pays his own way for foreign trips. Rachel Maimin, Abbasovas attorney, declined to comment. Immediately after the raid of her New Jersey home, Abbasova allegedly told her colleagues to delete their text exchanges, according to a source close to the investigation who spoke to the Daily News at the time. After learning of that, Adams personal attorney Boyd Johnson said an unspecified individual had acted improperly and that the behavior was immediately and proactively reported to investigators. The source who spoke to The News confirmed that Johnson was referring to Abbasova in those remarks. Abbasova remains on unpaid leave from her city job. Which airlines she, Mermelstein and Carone used to travel to Turkey remains a mystery. Carone said on Thursday that while he primarily uses Delta Airlines, he didnt recall if he did on the GYODER trip. He noted that he flew to Turkey by himself and said he was checking his records to determine which airline he took there. Kayla Mamelak, a spokeswoman from the mayors office, refused to answer direct questions inquiring about which airline Mermelstein and Abbasova used or whether the two traveled together. This trip to an international conference was approved in accordance with the conflicts of interest law and it was properly reported on public documents, she said. The trip gave our team the opportunity to discuss affordable housing work, develop diplomatic relations, and improve the citys global standing. _____ NYC plan to convert obsolete office buildings into residential units would solve crisis but City Council stands in the way New measures are in the works to solve the citys housing and office crises but they depend on whether Mayor Eric Adams has what it takes to push them through the obstructionist City Council. The housing-starved city will need 473,000 new apartments by 2032, according to the Regional Plan Association, but only 11,000 new ones were built last year compared to 45,000 in 2022. At the same time, office vacancies are at a record 20%, mostly in older, undesirable buildings. Transforming the obsolete office buildings into residential units has become the proposed elixir especially on the heels of Chicagos highly-publicized plan to give landlords generous subsidies to convert four vacant downtown buildings. Office vacancies are at a record 20%, mostly in older, undesirable buildings. Christopher Sadowski However, piecemeal, location-specific programs like those in the Windy City wont make a dent in the Big Apple, a policy expert told The Post. Its apples and watermelons, the source told The Post. New Yorks office market is more than twice as big as Chicagos and has literally thousands of buildings in trouble, not just a few. The biggest obstacle to residential conversion in New York isnt the cost several such projects costing more than a half-billion dollars are ongoing such as at 25 Water St. but archaic zoning rules that severely limit the areas and numbers of buildings eligible for conversion. The current proposals would loosen current rules that forbid conversions of buildings constructed after 1961 or after 1971 in parts of Downtown Manhattan. New rules would allow conversions of buildings that went up as recently as 1991 making thousands more eligible. The other change would expand the areas where conversions are allowed at all currently from Midtown and Downtown Manhattan and a few other high-density areas such as Long Island City, to nearly 90% of the five boroughs. The measures are currently under reviews by borough presidents and community boards. The Council will likely vote on the proposed changes by the end of the year. Urban planners say such sweeping changes are needed to promote wide-scale transformations of useless offices to apartments. Mayor Eric Adams faces a recalcitrant City Council thats trying to limit his powers by requiring approvals over his mayoral appointments. Andrew Schwartz / SplashNews.com The state recently took a step toward relieving both the strain on the Big Apples office market and the scarcity of new homes by granting landlords a 90% tax exemption to convert failing office towers to rental apartments if they make 25% of the units affordable. SL Green CEO Marc Holliday, who plans to convert 750 Third Avenue, predicted that the so-called 467M program will generate 20 million to 40 million square feet in new apartment creation. City Planning Commissioner Daniel Garodnick said the rezoning proposals will free up a whopping 136 million square feet of offices more than a quarter of the citys entire office stock for conversion to homes. New York is taking on this challenge on a city-wide basis, throwing a lifeline to struggling office spaces in every borough, and enabling a variety of buildings to convert to new housing in the process. Its a win-win, Garodnick told The Post. SL Green CEO Marc Holliday, who plans to convert 750 Third Avenue (above), predicted that the so-called 467M program will generate 20 million to 40 million square feet in new apartment creation. Robert Miller Insiders said its up to Adams to make it happen. He needs to persuade the Council to approve it, if he has to horse-trade for future favors or send them pastrami sandwiches, one insider joked. Making conversions easier might seem to be a no-brainer. Theyd require no outlay of taxpayer funds, no demolitions and no tenant evictions. But Adams faces a recalcitrant City Council thats trying to limit his powers by requiring approvals over his mayoral appointments. Obstacles to conversion rule changes can come from the left and the right. Piecemeal, location-specific programs like those in the Windy City (above) wont make a dent in the Big Apple, a policy expert told The Post. Getty Images Some progressives support union arguments that apartment conversions will cost jobs in areas like the Garment District. Others dont want to give developers any favors that dont require affordable apartment components. Opposition also comes from NIMBY-minded Council members who regard any neighborhood change as an assault on their constituents way of life whether in Central Harlem or in Flushing or more suburban parts of Queens. This will be a defining moment for Adams, one political analyst said. He talks about City of Yes, but his Get Scaffolds Down campaign has yet to make a dent in the scaffold scourge and there are more illegal pot shops since his pledge to shut them down. He really needs to step up on making apartment conversions easier. NYC set to send parents info on how to safely store guns after 14-year-old was accidentally killed by cousin Tiffany Grant, (pictured, black shirt) the mother of Jasai Guy, getting comforted near a memorial that was set up for her son Big Apple parents will be issued information on how to safely store guns at home, city officials announced Thursday less than a week after a 14-year-old boy was fatally shot by his younger cousin with a gun they found in a bedroom. A multi-page letter will be sent to families from the citys education department, and will address firearms safety and whether the guns are legal or not, officials confirmed. It would be guidelines that would apply to anyone possessing a gun, Brooklyn Congressman Dan Goldman told reporters at a press briefing on Thursday at City Hall. Big Apple parents will be issued information on how to safely store guns at home, city officials announced Thursday. Brigitte Stelzer So far this year, four kids in New York have been accidentally shot by guns found in homes including Jasai Guy, who was killed when his 12-year-old cousin accidentally shot him with an illegal, sawed-off shotgun. In March, a 3-year-old boy accidentally shot and wounded his 6-year-old brother with an unsecured handgun in Albany. Brooklyn Congressman Dan Goldman said school principals across the country were sent letters from the US Department of Education explaining the importance of safe storage and encouraging them to speak to families. However, school principals and administrators are not required to share this information, he said. Now, New York families will have access to new federal resources to curb the instances of gun violence in the Big Apple. Really think about the inquisitive nature of a child to pick up a gun, and oftentimes they dont realize the seriousness of it because the gun culture is all around us, said Mayor Eric Adams. Meanwhile, Schools Chancellor David Banks recalled how his own father who was a police officer handled having a gun in the home. This comes less than a week after a 14-year-old boy was fatally shot by his younger cousin with a gun they found in a bedroom. Gregory P. Mango He let us touch the gun because what he was doing, he was being very intentional in saying, I want to eliminate your curiosity about the gun, he said. The city didnt say whether it would send out the US Education Departments form letter on gun storage safety, but Goldman said it would be a multi-page resource with guidelines for parents. This year, there have been at least 87 unintentional shootings by children, resulting in 34 deaths and 55 injuries nationally, according to data collected by anti-gun rights site Everytown. Gun owners in New York City are required to register for a license to legally process handguns, rifles or shotguns. New York state law requires gun owners to lock up their firearms if they live with a child under 16, or know that a minor is likely to gain access to the weapon. So far this year, four kids in New York have been accidentally shot by guns found in homes including Jasai Guy, who was killed when his 12-year-old cousin accidentally shot him with an illegal, sawed-off shotgun. @jasaitheguy The 12-year-old who killed Jasai was charged with manslaughter. Jasais mother, Tiffany Grant, 35, wept about the tragedy to the Post saying her son meant everything to her. as police revealed grisly details of the accidental shooting. No one is perfect, but he was very close to it, she said at the teens memorial outside her mothers Dean Street home in Crown Heights where Jasai spent part of his childhood. VOORHEES TOWNSHIP, N.J. (PIX11) An NYPD officer was charged with attempted murder and suspended after allegedly shooting another person in a fit of road rage, according to NYPD and New Jersey officials. Hieu Tran, 27, of Yonkers, was in a multi-vehicle crash around 11:13 p.m. on May 17 at Route 73 and Cooper Road, according to the Camden County Prosecutor Grace C. MacAulay and Voorhees Township Police Chief Louis Bordi. Alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer linked to two more murders: DA At some point before officers arrived, Tran shot one of the other drivers using his department-issued firearm in what seems to be a road rage incident, New Jersey officials said. The other driver, a 30-year-old from Voorhees Township, was rushed to an area hospital, where he remain in treatment, officials said. Tran was taken into custody Thursday in New York City and was extradited to Camden County Friday, officials said. He faces aggravated assault and weapon possession charges, according to officials. Tran has been suspended without pay, according to the NYPD. Tran has worked at the NYPD since 2021 and was most recently working in the in a public information role in Manhattan, city records show. In 2022, he received a department recognition for excellent police duty, city records show. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Cody Skinner of the Camden County Prosecutors Office at (856) 580-6053 and Detective John Loberto of the Voorhees Township Police Department at (856) 428-5400. Tips can also be sent to CAMDEN.TIPS. This is a developing story. Please refresh this page for updates. Emily Rahhal is a digital reporter from Los Angeles who has covered New York City since 2023. She joined PIX11 in 2024. See more of her work here and follow her on Twitter here. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. One month after the death of O.J. Simpson, state officials barred the Los Angeles Police Department detective most closely linked to Simpson's failed prosecution from ever wearing a badge in this state again. Mark J. Fuhrman was a key witness in Simpson's trial for the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, in 1995, but his credibility was gravely wounded by racist statements he'd made as an LAPD officer. He retired in August 1995, while the trial was still in progress; a jury acquitted Simpson later that year. Since then, Fuhrman has made a living writing crime-themed books, hosting a radio show in Spokane, Wash., for several years and appearing as a commentator on TV news programs; Fox News' website lists him as "a forensic and crime scene expert for Fox News Channel." It's not clear whether Fuhrman has any interest in returning to police work. Regardless, the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training added Furhman in mid-May to the list of people ineligible to be certified in California as a law enforcement officer. The reason cited: the state law that forbids law enforcement agencies from hiring people with felonies on their criminal record. Fuhrman pleaded no contest in 1996 to a felony perjury charge, which stemmed from his false testimony during the Simpson trial that he had not uttered a racial slur in the previous decade. Fuhrman was one of 10 former LAPD officers and 17 former Los Angeles Sheriff's Department deputies declared ineligible for certification based on their criminal records. Four deputies and one LAPD officer were listed as having their certifications revoked, most because of felony convictions. Fourteen Los Angeles Sheriff's Department deputies and seven LAPD officers were listed with temporarily suspended certifications, in most cases because they have criminal charges pending against them. For example, a temporary suspension was reported for Ricardo Castro, a deputy who was charged with murder in connection with a high-speed collision in a South Gate school zone that killed a 12-year-old boy. Also listed with a suspended certification: Adrian Munoz, an investigator with the L.A. County Medical Examiner accused of stealing jewelry and coins from two of the people whose deaths he was investigating. The commission's main role is to set standards for how law enforcement officers are recruited and trained, and to certify officers who meet those standards according to the level of training they'd completed. For many years, however, the commission had no way to revoke a certification, regardless of how egregious an officer's actions might be. Nor was it allowed to keep track of officers who'd been fired for excessive use of force, falsifying records or other forms of malfeasance, allowing bad cops and deputies to bounce from one city to the next. After years of pressure from police reform groups, state lawmakers passed Senate Bill 2 in 2021, requiring the commission to gather records of felonies and disqualifying misdemeanors by current and former peace officers. It also authorized the commission to suspend or revoke the certification of individuals it found unfit to serve as peace officers because of serious misconduct. In effect, the measure turned the commission into a clearinghouse for information about which former police officers and deputies were not eligible to be hired in the state, either temporarily or permanently. And by law, the commission's records on revoked or suspended certifications are available to the public. According to the commission's statistics, the state has almost 82,000 current full-time peace officers and 101,532 active peace-officer certifications. The commission has received more than 26,300 misconduct reports involving 16,617 officers more than one-fifth the number of full-time officers the bulk of which allege excessive use of force or biased enforcement. Statewide, the commission has revoked 23 certifications and temporarily suspended 25 this year, it reported. An additional 30 officers voluntarily surrendered their certifications, and 64 other individuals were declared ineligible because of their criminal records. 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. It takes about three hours to drive Ohio's 6th Congressional District from top to bottom, and during that drive, you'll encounter areas with different economies and people with different cultures, a new report says. At a press conference Friday, University of Cincinnati political science professor David Niven and League of Women Voters of Ohio Executive Director Jen Miller put a spotlight on what they say is a badly gerrymandered district. They argued the way the district is drawn hurts voters. "The slicing and dicing is designed to secure partisan outcomes," Miller said. "It is not designed to maximize quality representation." The 6th Congressional District comprises parts of 11 counties: Belmont, Carroll, Columbiana, Harrison, Jefferson, Mahoning, Monroe, Noble, Stark, Tuscarawas and Washington. Voters in the district will cast ballots in a special election Tuesday to decide who will represent them in the U.S. House of Representatives through the end of the year. Perils of the 6th Congressional District Niven said the size and diversity of the district make it difficult to represent. "[We have districts to] create coherent and cohesive entities that can be represented," he said. "The 6th district is actually built on adversarial economic interests, it's built on an incongruent culture and it's built on divided geography." Some portions of Stark County are in the 6th District, while the other portion of the county is in the 13th District. Niven pointed to the city of Massillon, which is split between the two districts. The city also has a large minority voter population. "Those lines were drawn to divide Massillon," Niven said. "I've done some research nationwide, that is a condition that is twice as likely to be imposed on minority communities." City of Massillon congressional districts. Dots represent concentrations of minority voters. The blue area is the 6th district and the beige area is the 13th. The district has four different economic regions that are sometimes at odds on policy, Niven said. In much of the district, including Carroll and Columbiana counties, manufacturing jobs dominate the economy, but fossil fuels are a large part of the economy in places like Belmont. "If a member wanted to represent these interests, you'd have to do contradictory things," Niven said. "The energy industry has an interest in the profits of the energy industry. Manufacturing has the exact opposite interest in reducing use of fossil fuels. ... A member who was trying to honestly represent this district would have to be both for and against initiatives to reduce fossil fuels." The large geographic size of the district also inhibits the ability of constituents to visit their district office, Niven said. "It would be natural to think that the closest local office for a member of congress should be in your district," he said. "In gerrymandered states, for between a third and half of voters the closest congressional district office is in the wrong district." He said for some people living in western edge of the 6th Congressional District in Navarre, there are seven congressional district offices that are geographically closer to their home than their local district office. "You put these folks so much closer to the heart of other districts than to the heart of their own district, and that's how you get this effect," Niven said. "That is gerrymandering." Districts across the state face similar problems Niven said the district is not even the worst when looking across Ohio. "It's not going to be in the Ohio hall of fame of gerrymandering, but in some ways that's more depressing," he said. "It's a normal Ohio district in these days and times." Niven said the 1st Congressional District, which encompasses Warren County and part of Hamilton County, including the city of Cincinnati is a particularly bad one. "It is really, really, really hard to come up with a rationale for pairing the city of Cincinnati with Warren County except wanting to punish the people of Cincinnati," he said. "If the point is coherence, you can do this easily, and you do it regionally." Next week's special election will decide 6th Congressional District Republican Michael Rulli and Democrat Michael Kripchak will be on the ballot Tuesday to represent 6th Congressional District. The special election was called to fill a vacancy left by Republican Bill Johnson, who resigned earlier this year to become president of Youngstown State University. The winner will serve the remainder of Johnson's term, which runs through the end of the year. The candidates will also face off in the November general election for a full two-year term. Reach Grace at 330-580-8364 or gspringer@gannett.com. Follow her on X @GraceSpringer16. This article originally appeared on The Repository: League of Women Voters report gerrymandering in Ohio's 6th District Ohio's newest state park is open with focus on history of Shawnee Tribe, prairie wildlife Ohioans gathered for the grand opening of Great Council State Park in Oldtown on Friday Ohio's newest state park is now open. Great Council State Park is located in Oldtown, between Yellow Springs and Xenia. The park features a three-story center designed to honor the Shawnee longhouse with exhibits on the history of the Shawnee people, the settlement in Oldtown and the local environment, including the Little Miami River. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine opened the park on Friday. "They were the first Ohioans," DeWine said. "I think theres a lot of lessons for all of us, no matter what age youre going to get something out of this." The Ohio Department of Natural Resources partnered with the Shawnee Tribe, Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma and Absentee Shawnee Tribe while developing the center. Members of the Absentee Shawnee Tribe came from Norman, Oklahoma for the park's opening. Children explored exhibits on the history of the Shawnee tribe and Oldtown as a center for trade at the Great Council State park opening on Friday. The Shawnee Tribe said in a news release that when Xenia was known as Oldtown, it was one of the largest known Shawnee settlements in the region with more than 400 families from roughly 1777 to 1780. "Their stories directly intersect with those of individuals like Daniel Boone, who was held captive in Oldtown for a period," the Shawnee Tribe said. The entrance to the park's center features a statue of Shawnee leader Tecumseh by Alan Cottrill. Exhibits in the park's center include a timeline of Oldtown and descriptions of daily life in each season, along with information on notable historic figures such as Tecumseh, Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton. The park also has trails to showcase native Ohio prairie plants and animals. Demonstrators protested fracking in Ohio's state parks at the opening of Great Council State Park. Demonstrators also attended the opening to protest fracking in Ohio's state parks. Anne Sparks with Save Ohio Parks said she appreciates the park for presenting a fuller picture of Ohio's history and the history of the Shawnee Tribe but she feels the tribe's contributions in terms of stewardship of the land should be more a part of Ohio's state parks. "Especially because of the fracking that's going on in the public parks and wildlife areas, we would like [the Shawnee Tribe's] message about the stewardship of the land and preserving what you have for the future generations to be echoed loudly, very loudly," she said. Exhibits in the Great Council State Park center showcase local wildlife. Erin Glynn is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio. This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio's newest state park explores the history of the Shawnee Tribe BRUSSELS, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor (GWM) has denied rumors of withdrawing from the European market, despite announcing the closure of a subsidiary office in Germany. "The allegations of our withdrawal from Europe are completely unfounded," said Xu Lin, managing director of GWM Netherlands Investment Holdings B.V., in an exclusive interview with Xinhua. She emphasized that the company highly values the business autonomy of its existing dealer partners and will continue collaborating with them to maintain sales and services across Europe. "We are currently adjusting our future European strategy and modifying our European market configuration with plans to expand and enter new markets," she said. Regarding the reasons for closing the German office, Xu cited numerous upcoming uncertainties. She emphasized that increasing protectionism and the European Commission's use of unfair measures to pressure Chinese new-energy vehicle companies were significant factors. GWM established its European operation headquarters in Munich, Germany, in 2021, with the intention of using it as a base to tap into the potential of the European market. The closure of GWM Deutschland GmbH will result in the layoff of over 100 German workers. "It is heartbreaking for me, as I have seen my European colleagues grow alongside the company over the past few years," Xu said. "We hope that the new European Commission will listen to companies' concerns and take measures to stabilize its investment environment," she said. Heath Thomas, president of Oklahoma Baptist University, right, hands keys to right Abbot Lawrence Stasyszen of St. Gregory's Abbey, during a June 7 press conference to announce a land exchange program between OBU and St. Gregory's Abbey in Shawnee. Land that was once home to a Catholic university is being returned to Benedictine monks who live on adjacent property. The Oklahoma City-based retailer Hobby Lobby and the Green family bought the 73-acre property that housed St. Gregory's University in Shawnee for $8 million in 2018 after the university declared bankruptcy. In 2019, Hobby Lobby donated the land to Oklahoma Baptist University, whose campus is nearby. On Friday, OBU leaders announced that they had returned the land to the monks at St. Gregory's Abbey in exchange for two other parcels of land in Shawnee that the Abbey owned. More: 'The land has been redeemed': St. Gregory's Abbey monks retain property that was collateral on university loan Benedictine Hall at the former St. Gregory's University is pictured in Shawnee on June 7. Heath Thomas, OBU president, talked about the decision to give the land to the monastic community during a brief news conference with Abbot Lawrence Stasyszen held just outside St. Gregory's Abbey chapel. More: Creating buzz: St. Gregory's Abbey finds homes for bee hives in expanded honey operation After the 2019 land donation, OBU referred to the former St. Gregorys property at 1900 W MacArthur as the OBU Green Campus, named after the Green family. St. Gregory's Abbey and the Mabee-Gerrer Museum continued to occupy their adjacent property because they operated as separate entities from St. Gregory's University. More: Monks in the marketplace: Monastery rejects suggestions for cannabis-growing enterprise More: These monks have a beefy partnership with a Shawnee restaurant This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma Baptist University to trade Shawnee land to St. Gregory's Abbey OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) Oklahoma City Public Schools is hosting a job fair for teachers on Monday, June 10. According to OKCPS, the fair is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Clara Luper Center for Educational Services at 615 N. Classen Blvd. LOCAL NEWS: Service Oklahoma Launches Sweet 16 Guarantee Those interested are encouraged to attend, even if theyre not experienced in teaching or education. Team members will be there to answer questions about becoming a certified educator. Officials say OKCPS is looking for teachers including early childhood, elementary education, special education, and secondary math, science, and English language arts. There are benefits that come with being a teacher with OKCPS, like one of the higher starting salaries in the OKC metropolitan area and health benefits. Also, OKCPS pays for the employees portion of Oklahoma Teachers Retirement. Those interested can register at okcps.org/joinokcps. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City. Attorney General Gentner Drummond attends the State of the State address earlier this year. (Photo by Kyle Phillips/For Oklahoma Voice) Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond signed a letter with 20 of his Republican counterparts asking the American Bar Association to drop its diversity and inclusion standards for law schools. DEI efforts implemented in the schools directs their administrators to violate both the Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin, the states argued. The letter comes a year after the U.S. Supreme Courts decision in a lawsuit against Harvard College that dictated students must be considered based on their experiences as an individual and not on their race. The decision led higher institutions to stop affirmative action policies, and many states since then have passed laws restricting DEI programs. In Utah, a bill restricting DEI programs in public institutions is scheduled to become effective on July 1. Under that law, all public Utah schools are required to make all programs and resources available to everyone regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, among other identity traits. The diversity and inclusion standard of the American Bar Association, which is currently under revision, seemingly asks law schools to defy the Courts clear directive. In its current form, the Standard all but compels law schools to consider race in both the admissions and employment contexts, according to the letter led by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. The standard establishes that law schools should demonstrate by concrete action a commitment to diversity and inclusion by providing full opportunities for the study of law and entry into the profession by members of underrepresented groups, particularly racial and ethnic minorities, and a commitment to having a student body that is diverse with respect to gender, race, and ethnicity. The same diversity and inclusion commitment should also be extended to faculty and staff. The issue with this guidance, the attorneys wrote, is that it suggests schools undertake concrete actions such as special recruitment efforts and considerations, in addition to special financial assistance programs. But, the standard and its accompanying recommendations dont mention how to take those suggested actions without unlawfully using race-based means. If race-based admissions cannot satisfy strict scrutiny (), then neither can racially motivated recruitment or financial aid, according to the letter. A demand to show a commitment to have a body of faculty and staff thats diverse with respect to race and ethnicity, is also an explicit demand to make hiring decisions based on race, the attorneys argued. By maintaining the standard, the attorneys continued, the American Bar Association would burden every law school in the country with litigation. Further, if American legal culture internalizes the ABAs determination to ignore unwanted legal obligations, our profession, and our country, may never recover, the letter reads. The proposed revisions for the American Bar Association include that the access commitment must be extended to all persons, including those who have faced disadvantages or exclusion because of their identity traits. Faculty and staff should also be diverse with respect to different characteristics, such as race, religion, gender and socioeconomic background, among others. But, those changes do little to solve these problems, according to the letter, as bundling race with other permissibly considered characteristics does not somehow make (the standard) requirements any more constitutionally sound. The issue is concerning, the attorneys said, because accreditation rests on a tightrope walk between federal law, on one hand, and (the standard) contrary demands on the other. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE The post Oklahoma joins request to American Bar Association to drop its DEI standards appeared first on Oklahoma Voice. GORE, Okla. (KNWA/KFTA) An Oklahoma man was convicted of child abuse and child neglect on Wednesday, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office Eastern District of Oklahoma. Mason Wilson, 28, of Gore, was found guilty by a federal grand jury of one count of child abuse in Indian Country and one count of child neglect in Indian Country. California man sentenced in Oklahoma for leading officers on pursuit, possessing nearly 50 pounds of meth During his trial, evidence was presented that Wilson caused injuries to a newborn, including 10 fractured bones and multiple bruises. He then failed to provide medical care for the baby, according to the release. The release said the guilty verdicts were the result of investigations by the FBI and Muskogee Police Department. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KNWA FOX24. OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) Governor Stitt signed legislation Wednesday on a framework for public school students to get credits by attending religious instruction during school hours. The taxpayers should not be providing course credits for religious instructions, said Representative Andy Fugate (D-Oklahoma City). | READ LOCAL NEWS > Norman city leaders unveil plans for new $1 billion entertainment district > What HB 1425 does is that it gives the schools a framework, said Representative Clay Staires (R-Skiatook), who authored the bill. Starting in November of this year students from all grade levels would understand their opportunity when leaving their classroom during school and heading to a religious instructional class that has to be off-site. Another rule is that it cannot be led by the school or anyone employed with the school. It would have to be an elective, said Rep. Staires. Students would be allowed to leave for three class periods a week and 125 class periods a year to attend it. They are already allowed to leave school for religious and moral education, said Rep. Staires. That was determined all the way back in 2014. The Oklahoma Parents Bill of Rights. It (Oklahomas Parents Bill of Rights) doesnt say that a parent can permanently take their kid out of class to go do religious activities. The taxpayer should not be providing course credits for religious instruction, said Rep. Fugate. The U.S. Supreme Court decided in 1952 that it is constitutional for public schools to allow students to leave campus during the school day to take religious classes, as long as it doesnt cost any public funds. Several dozen House Republicans along with several Democrats voted against HB 1425 but it ultimately passed the Senate with amendments at a 50-40 vote. The reason some voted against it was due to what they called vague language and that it opens up the opportunity for litigation. Rep. Staires said the bill was needed after a Marietta teacher tried to implement something similar but was sued. He said that they will more than likely lose that lawsuit. Two groups have come out to say that they are interested in taking advantage of the new law. One is LifeWise Academy, an Ohio-based religious instruction program that said it is non-denominational Christianity based. It is for students to be let out of school to study the Bible and is being adopted by more than a quarter of public school districts in Ohio. | READ LOCAL NEWS > Audit uncovers suspected embezzlement by town clerk in Kay County > The other was last week when The Satanic Temple announced that if Governor Stitt signed HB 1425 they would offer up their instructional programs. The Satanic Temple, a federally-recognized religious organization, the group stated that Oklahoma public school students could soon earn graduating credits from their Hellion Academy of Independent Learning (HAIL). KFOR spoke to the author of the bill Rep. Staires to get his reaction to the signing of his bill and to answer many questions surrounding the bill. Why did the teacher get sued, what went wrong? Well number one, they did it in the school. Oops, cant do that. Number two, they had a teacher, an employee by the school district do the education. Those are two things you cant do that is a constitutional issue. Its not a separation of church and state, its a constitutional issue. And so it was this teacher and the association that this teacher belongs too, said Rep. Staires. Why couldnt this be done outside of school, why during school? That is a very valid question. It can happen after school. Theres no limit here. Its just if a parent asks for this during school, its already been determined by a Supreme Court all the way back in 1952 that if a to do this during a public school day does not go against the Constitution of America, said Rep. Staires. If one religious organization or group wanted to participate at a school and the school board accepted them but they rejected another. Wouldnt that open us up to a lawsuit? Again these are hypotheticals that youre bringing up, said Rep. Staires. Yes but as a lawmaker you have to come up with hypotheticals when determining what should be law in the state. Dont you think? I think your hypotheticals just lead to argumentation, though, and thats unfortunate. It just leads to more argument. So, I mean, I could come up with a hypothetical that that would lead down a road. It would be perfect, a hypothetical of a parent coming to a school and wanting to do something. And its a fantastic thing, said Rep. Staires. Do you think HB 1425 is what could help bring Oklahoma from one of the lowest in education in the nation? Again, this has that question has nothing to do with House Bill 1425. This bill puts in guidelines to fulfill the law. Thats what it does, said Rep. Staires. If a student switches out certain classes would the teacher be at fault in the end for them missing class to attend a religious lesson? Well, it depends upon the school right now as far as what class are they going to exchange it for the school board has all the power to make that decision. First of all, the bill says that it cant be in exchange for a core class in school. It has to be an elective. And many high schools, not all of them, but many high schools have a study hall period there, said Rep. Staires. How do you feel about The Satanic Temple announcing they would bring in their HAIL program after this was signed? They would have to arrive in their TST bus and take them to class. I love the huge leap youre taking. I have also heard some concerns from people. What about different religions? What are we going to do now? You know, theres going to be this big conflict. Okay. Well, my honest response to that is it sounds like the conflict there is not so much with House Bill 1425, but its with your First Amendment right as an American citizen. And so having the freedom having the freedom to exercise your religion, thats the First Amendment right, said Rep. Staires. But also having the freedom from religion, right? Exactly. So I guess I guess Im confused by your hypothetical whenever possible. Excuse the students that would possibly I guess the students that would be on the bus. The only reason why those students are on the bus is because their parents want them on the bus, said Rep. Staires. When could we see this begin implemented? Thats a great question right there. It did have an emergency on it. The emergency did not pass. So it will not go into effect until November 1st, said Rep. Staires. This legislation ensures that every Oklahoman knows that the law respects their right to seek religious education for their children through these time-tested programs. We commend the Oklahoma Legislature and Gov. Stitt for making sure parents are in the drivers seat to direct the upbringing and education of their kids, Alliance Defending Freedom Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City. Olive oil prices soar to new highs amid drop in global production: 'Supply is difficult and not sufficient to meet demand' While there are hopes for a rebound in some countries, the ongoing climate crisis has contributed to a strain on the global olive industry and the production of olive oil, causing many consumers to pay a hefty price. What's happening? As explained by the Guardian last month, the price of olive oil is expected to reach as high as 16 ($20.50) for just one liter of extra virgin in some areas because of "a drop in global production to the lowest level in more than a decade." The report stated that recent data from the International Olive Council revealed that "just under" 2.5 million tons (2.3 million metric tons) are expected to be produced globally in 2024, down from the roughly 2.75 million tons last year and well below the 3.75 million tons produced in 2022. As the Guardian summarized it: "Production around the world is being affected by more extreme weather caused by the climate crisis. There are hopes that output this year could be helped by a return to more normal weather in Italy and Spain, where trees are just coming into bloom. However, production is expected to be up to 60% lower in Greece and down by more than half in Turkey, as trees in both countries recover from big harvests in 2023." With demand outpacing supply, shoppers are being forced to empty their pockets for the popular cooking ingredient. The price of a liter of mass-market-branded extra virgin olive oil already increased to 14 (about $17.90) earlier this year and is expected to go up to 16 (about $20.45) before the end of June, the Guardian stated. Premium brands like Odysea and Belazu have already soared to more than 18 (about $23). "Supply is difficult and not sufficient to meet demand," said Walter Zanre, the UK boss of Filippo Berio, one of the world's biggest olive oil producers, in the Guardian report. Why is this important? Constantly shifting weather patterns are causing instability in the agriculture industry. This is leading to higher prices for consumers looking to purchase key products and making it harder for growers to maintain their livelihoods. Unfortunately, droughts and extreme heat aren't the only threats to olive harvests. The Washington Post reported last year that record precipitation levels in California, another key olive oil producer, delayed the blooming of olive plants and made the quality of the year's crop uncertain. The Guardian noted that, per the IOC, production prices for olive oil increased "more than 60% in Italy and Spain last month [meaning April] and more than 80% in Greece." Rising prices led to an increased sense of desperation among consumers. In Spain, olive oil was named the most wanted item for shoplifters, per the Guardian, and some supermarkets in the United Kingdom have resorted to placing olive oil bottles in security boxes to thwart theft attempts. What's being done about this? Unfortunately, experts don't foresee the price of olive oil dropping anytime soon. Consumers have been forced to explore other alternatives to include in their meals. The Guardian noted that "high prices have prompted switches to other oils such as sunflower and rapeseed." In addition, Zero Acre Farms is providing a sustainable alternative to traditional oils, with its oil created by feeding living microorganism cultures non-GMO sugar, which then are fermented into healthy fats. The cultures are then pressed to release their oils, all while using 99% less water than olive oil production, according to the company. A return to more normal weather in Italy and Spain has fueled hope that production could improve this year, but trees have only recently begun coming into bloom. Some oil producers, like Filippo Berio, have resorted to importing oil from other continents to support production. However, the ongoing situation has also caused an increase in wholesale prices. "When we get to the other side of the summer, it could light the blue touch paper and [wholesalers] will be able to charge whatever they like for what is left," Zanre said, per the Guardian. Join our free newsletter for cool news and cool tips that make it easy to help yourself while helping the planet. One in 10 Democratic primary voters in NM chose Uncommitted instead of Joe Biden A sign outside of the Lomas Clerk's Annex polling site urges voters to pick an Uncommitted choice on the ballot instead of President Joe Biden in the Democratic primary race for the presidency, as a means of protest on his actions in Gaza. (Photo by Danielle Prokop / Source NM). After nearly 13,000 people voted Uncommitted in New Mexicos Democratic primary election, campaign organizers expressed gratitude for being able to feel empowered and in community with each other eight months into Israels war on Gaza. As a protest vote to convince President Joe Biden to stop supporting the war, as many as 12,852 registered Democrats in Tuesdays primary chose Uncommitted as their preference for president, according to the unofficial results from the Secretary of States Office. Uncommitted New Mexican voters accounted for 10% of all Democratic ballots cast in the primary, with Marianne Williamson getting 7% and presumptive nominee Biden winning with the remaining 84% of the statewide tally. Vote Uncommitted New Mexico Organizer Rhi Mauldin said the Democratic Partys base have heard the devastated cries, we have seen the horrific violence, and we have seen our leaders ignore genocide. We have now sent a message so loud that the Democratic Party cannot, and should not, ignore us, Mauldin said. Just 3% of Democratic voters (about 6,500 in total) chose Uncommitted in the presidential primary in 2020. Organizer Sayrah Namaste said the group feels good about the results because we were a mostly unfunded, totally grassroots, small group of volunteers. It was this really beautiful, horizontal, decentralized but really well structured group, Namaste said. New Mexicos primary was one of the last among the 25 states and territories where voters can fill out a ballot option other than the parties nominees, be counted in the actual national party results, and not get discarded. Also on Tuesday, 40,000 people in New Jersey voted Uncommitted and more than 9,000 people in Montana voted no preference. South Dakota and Washington D.C. also held primaries on Tuesday but neither of those jurisdictions allow someone to pick Uncommitted and have their ballot counted. Democratic Party of New Mexico spokesperson Daniel Garcia said voters have every right to use their vote to send a message. Were not perturbed by Uncommitted voters at all. Were happy to see New Mexicans participate in the primary and exercise their fundamental right to vote, Garcia said Thursday. Now that the primary is over, DPNM leadership will be going across the state to organize Democrats who are interested in participating in the Democratic National Convention, he said. There will be conventions at the county, congressional district and statewide levels, he said. Its unclear at this time if these meetings will be open to the public or press. The Uncommitted campaign did not manage to reach 15% of the statewide total, which is required for candidates to qualify for any statewide delegates at the DNC, according to the national partys rules. Any presidential preference which reaches 15% of the total votes in a given congressional district can also send delegates to the DNC. A spokesperson for the Secretary of States Office said they do not track the presidential primary results broken down by congressional districts, though a Source New Mexico review confirmed that Uncommitted did not meet the 15% threshold in the three districts. Still, a review of precinct-level data showed Uncommitted votes comprising a sizeable portion of Democratic vote totals all across the state, in the middle of big cities and in sprawling, rural precincts with a few dozen voters. In two small precincts in Eddy and Chaves counties in southeastern New Mexico, for example, 16 of 30 voters (or 53%) voted Uncommitted. In 252 precincts in 28 counties statewide, more than 15% of voters chose Uncommitted, according to a Source NM review. There are 2,169 precincts in the state. Even though the Uncommitted movement didn't have the capacity to be on the ground in every county, there were rural parts of New Mexico where Uncommitted had support, Namaste said. She pointed to De Baca County, where Uncommitted made up 23% of the Democratic primary vote, according to the unofficial returns from the secretary of state. Unconscionable that we vote for Biden anyway Namaste said the campaign organizers felt like they mobilized people who were not going to vote in the primary to do so, and we heard the same sentiment from multiple voters. So many people are not happy with the choices, and Uncommitted gave them a way to participate, to speak up, to have another strategy about how to oppose the war, Namaste said. Dair Obenshain, who lives in the South Valley, said their main reason for voting on Tuesday was to cast an Uncommitted vote. I think its just unconscionable that we just vote for Biden anyway, just as an alternative to Trump, Obenshain said. Lily Rich, a 19-year-old student researcher from Albuquerque and a registered independent, said she hadnt heard of the Uncommitted campaign but said thats the option that a lot of people want: someone thats not either of them. Obenshain said they heard about Uncommitted from attending protests in support of Palestinians at the University of New Mexico and from Source New Mexico's coverage. Weve got to do something, and the Democratic Party is not standing up to do it, Obenshain said. There are individuals who are, but to know that our tax dollars are used in actively killing children, its too much. No longer satisfied with lesser of two evils Organizer Jane Yee said grassroots organizing is the key to their movement, especially how they mobilized working people, queer activists, and people of color. It was young people and people of color that got Biden into the White House; if he doesnt listen to the constituency that elected him, he risks losing in November, Yee said. Our communities are insisting that their message of hope, morality and decolonization must be heeded; we are no longer satisfied to simply vote for the lesser of two evils. Garcia said the party is confident New Mexican voters will support Bidens record of job creation and commitment to protecting reproductive rights over convicted criminal Donald Trump in November. The campaigns first public announcement was specific to point out that Biden ending his unconditional support for what Israel is doing would make a stronger Party for victory over Trump in November. Were not trying to help get Trump elected. We know that he is pro-genocide, Namaste said on Thursday. A Republican congressman from her home state suggested bombing Gaza with nuclear weapons in March, she added. Garcia said the party is also confident there will be high turnout among Democrats in the general election, and that Republicans will face challenges getting out the vote. He pointed to Trumps losses in New Mexico in 2016 and 2020. New Mexico Democrats are ready to do our part once again to keep him out of the White House, he said. Palestinian-American Uncommitted organizer Leila Salim said Palestinians arent giving up, so they arent either. Our campaign, our movement does not end here; we will continue to mobilize voters to fight for an end to U.S. weapons going to Israel and an end to the U.S. blocking diplomatic efforts at the United Nations and the International Criminal Court, Salim said. Reporter Danielle Prokop contributed reporting to this story. The post One in 10 Democratic primary voters in NM chose Uncommitted instead of Joe Biden appeared first on Source New Mexico. One dead, one detained in Parkway Village stabbing MEMPHIS, Tenn. One male victim is dead and one person detained Friday morning after a stabbing at an apartment complex off Getwell near I-240. Memphis Police responded to the 2800 block of Georgetown Court at 9:10 a.m. The victim was found dead on arrival. One person was detained. Police are investigating. If you have any information regarding this incident, call Memphis CrimeStoppers at 901-528-CASH. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com. LAYTON, Utah (ABC4) One person is dead and another hospitalized after a shooting in a Layton neighborhood on Thursday night, June 6. The Layton City Police Department confirmed with ABC4.com that police were called to the area of Kirk Street and Sherwood Drive around 11:30 p.m. When officers arrived, one man was found dead at the scene with a gunshot wound to the chest. Bride-to-be thrown from truck bed on day before wedding while lying down to secure mattress Another man was found with a gunshot wound to the hand and was taken to the hospital for treatment. Layton police said no suspect has been taken into custody as of Friday morning but they do not believe there to be any danger to the public. An investigation is ongoing and no further details were released. This is a developing story. ABC4 will update this article as more information becomes available. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah. KHARTOUM, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the artillery shelling by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a number of residential neighborhoods in Omdurman city, north of the capital Khartoum, has risen to 40, a non-governmental resistance committee announced on Friday. Rep. Les Farnum asks a question during the May 26, 2022, meeting of the House and Governmental Affairs Committee. (Greg LaRose/Louisiana Illuminator) Officials in Louisiana will soon be free to disregard state public records law at no risk if Gov. Jeff Landry signs into law a bill that currently sits on his desk. One expert says it will change nothing because courts have never enforced that part of the law anyway. House Bill 768, sponsored by Rep. Les Farnum, R-Sulphur, repeals a statute within the public records law that makes the records custodian of a government agency personally liable for unreasonably withholding records or failing to respond to a public records request. Under current law, courts can consider custodian liability when a requester sues the government agency that withheld the records. The custodian can be forced to pay a fine of $100 per day and attorney fees of the person who was denied access to the records. Farnums bill repeals that provision, stating that no person shall be liable for any penalty attorney fees and other costs of litigation assessed for failure to comply with the law. Instead, the government body shall be responsible for such penalties. Some lawmakers argued public records custodians have little authority in how to respond to requests and merely serve as liaisons between the person making the request and the public official who ultimately decides whether to provide or withhold a record. During House floor debate on the bill in April, Farnum said it is unfair to hold custodians personally liable because they are probably very low-paid employees just doing what theyre told to do. Current law says differently. Such low-level employees dont fit the definition of custodian, and a government agency can choose whether and whom to designate as an official records custodian. At larger agencies, it is often a division head or staff attorney. Many smaller government offices dont have a designated custodian. If that is the case, the law defines the custodian as the head of the agency or the official who has actual control over a public record. Also, current law provides an exception that states a custodian shall not be held personally liable if they deny a records request on the advice of an attorney representing the agency. Rather than providing a shield for low-paid employees just following orders, Farnums bill would likely protect the wallets of officials at the very top who issue those orders to withhold records from the public shifting the entire financial penalty onto taxpayers. Some lawmakers during the floor debate pointed out that without personal liability, government officials will have little reason to follow the law when it comes to public records. But according to one public records expert, that is pretty much the situation already in Louisiana. Scott Sternberg, a First Amendment lawyer who represents members of the Louisiana Press Association in public records disputes, said the legislation is unlikely to make things worse than they already are because courts almost never enforce the custodian liability law. Sternberg defended The Advocate reporter Andrea Gallo, who then-Attorney General Landry sued in 2021 for filing a public records request with his office. Many critics saw the move as an obvious, if not egregious, violation of the public records law. The judge ruled against Landry but denied the reporters claim for penalties under the statute that Farnums bill is repealing. Thats not [a bill] that I was particularly interested in because it never happens anyway, Sternberg said in a text message. Farnums legislation sailed through the Capitol with little scrutiny in a session that saw multiple bills that threatened to weaken or repeal state public records law, most spearheaded by the governor. Sternberg focused more on a measure from Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek, that would have almost entirely negated the public records law, and a proposal by Rep. Michael Melerine, R-Shreveport, that would have exempted the governor from having to follow the public records law. Neither made it through the Legislature. Also notable was a bill from Rep. Steven Jackson, D-Shreveport, that will allow local governments to hide economic development records from the public for up to two years. That proposal passed the Legislature and is also pending consideration by the governor. Louisiana lawmakers have gradually chipped away at the states public records law, adopting hundreds of changes to revoke public access to a long list of government documents since it was enacted in 1940. DONATE: SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST The post One facet of Louisianas public records law is never enforced appeared first on Alabama Reflector. Lawmakers earlier this year axed a few critical portions of the law and rewrote others, making it virtually unrecognizable. The Open Public Records Act, a New Jersey law that allowed journalists, good-government groups, and everyday citizens alike to uncover government corruption at the state and local level, died this week after a series of fatal blows at the hands of the Legislature and Gov. Phil Murphy. It was 22. The law, commonly known as OPRA, was hailed at the time of its passage as a major reform that helped citizens access documents that had previously been denied to them. It was responsible for the public knowing about glaring missteps at state-run veterans homes during the early months of the pandemic, the level at which police officers use force against citizens, the high rate of deaths in custody in New Jersey jails, and more. But government officials soured on the law in recent years. County and municipal clerks said their offices were inundated with requests for government records, sometimes as many as one a day. Meanwhile, town leaders chafed at the legal costs associated with records disputes they lost in court, and at commercial entities that used the law to access records that, as taxpayers, they paid to create and maintain. Fueled by this discontent, lawmakers earlier this year axed a few critical portions of the law and rewrote others, making it virtually unrecognizable. Murphy signed those revisions into law Wednesday. Supporters of the Open Public Records Act expressed sorrow at its demise. Sad day for the people of New Jersey; a sad day for the party that I still believe in; and a sad day for our governor, said former state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, a Bergen County Democrat and longtime OPRA champion. Elouise McDaniel, an Irvington senior citizen who often used the law to obtain information about her towns finances, expressed disappointment with Murphy. Irvington sued McDaniel in 2022, alleging she used the Open Public Records Act so much it verged on harassment (the town later dropped the suit). The law Murphy signed Wednesday creates an incentive for towns to lodge these kinds of lawsuits against their citizens. It gives judges the power to ban some people from filing records requests entirely if a public entity accuses them of using the requests to substantially interrupt how the entity functions. It appears that rights are being given to municipalities to use public funds as they see fit with no restrictions, McDaniel said. The Open Public Records Act was born in Trenton on Jan. 8, 2002, when the states acting governor, Donald DiFrancesco, signed it on his final day in office. At the time, DiFrancesco, a Republican who was then wrapping up a 26-year career in the Legislature and nearly a year as the states chief executive, called the bill truly unprecedented and historic. It throws open the doors of government like weve never done before by affirming the publics right to access virtually all government records, he said. The prior version of the law granted disclosure only of records specifically required to be filed or maintained, but OPRA allowed citizens to view and copy a host of other government documents, including electronic records, unless the law specifically barred disclosure. A key enforcement mechanism imposed heavy fines on officeholders who purposely denied access. The law also required public entities to reimburse plaintiffs who were forced to go to court to obtain documents. It was not without its critics from the start. A key last-minute change exempted certain legislative records, something press advocates at the time said they believed the Legislature would correct. It never did. But over two decades, the law was key in uncovering political scandals major and minor. It helped reveal that millions in taxpayer dollars flowed to private schools and their highly-paid administrators, that Monmouth County commissioners secretly awarded themselves pay raises, and that a Jersey City councilman used a taxpayer-funded car to take joyrides while he was getting paid for a low-show public job. But the law couldnt survive lawmakers complaints that it allowed citizens to obtain too much information about their government. The Open Public Records Acts end was mourned on both sides of the aisle. Assemblyman Brian Bergen (R-Morris) called its replacement the epitome of terrible government. A bad bill, passed with bad intention, by people who either directly benefit from it or have been bought off to vote a certain way. Ive never been part of anything more disgusting in my life, Bergen said. The post The Open Public Records Act, once touted as a major reform, dies at 22 appeared first on New Jersey Monitor. This article was originally published in The Conversation. In the past few years, the city of Austin, Texas, has approved the construction of thousands of windowless rooms in new apartment buildings next to The University of Texas at Austin. Most of these rooms are being leased to UT students, resulting in a deterioration of their well-being. In April 2024, the Austin City Council finally voted to ban the construction of windowless bedrooms. Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter As a professor at UTs School of Architecture, I see this ban as a belated but welcomed development. For 25 years, I have given my students an assignment called My Window, where I ask them to draw a section of the window in their bedroom. In 2021, some students started to tell me that they did not have a window in their room. I was shocked because, as a practicing architect, I had always assumed that windowless bedrooms were illegal. Some students started to share with me photographs of their rooms and what dozens of students have described as their terrible experiences living in them. Adverse effects on mental health A common complaint is messed up circadian cycles and the development of depression and fatigue. They try to avoid their rooms as much as possible. One student told me about experiencing unbearable loneliness and claustrophobia caused by the four solid walls. Another one lamented waking up with anxiety every morning. As soon as I learned that windowless bedrooms were being built in Austin, I started advocating to ban them. I have asked the City Council to act, via letters and in op-eds. I have educated myself on the issue and shared my views with architects, professors and students in multiple venues. Students have mobilized, too. In the spring of 2023, they ran a survey to compare students experiences living in rooms with and without windows. Students who lived in rooms without windows scored lower in all the categories on a well-known scale that measures well-being. In a September 2023 [letter to Austins City Council], 762 students demanded a ban on windowless rooms. Our citys negligence to defend its citizens is being weaponized by developers as a means of profit, they wrote. They also pointed out that windowless rooms are illegal in cities such as New York City and Madrid. Not legal elsewhere Indeed, in New York City as in major cities around the world windowless bedrooms are illegal. A percentage of the rooms floor area, set in each citys building code, determines the minimum window size. In New York City, every bedroom must have a window area at least 10% the size of the rooms floor area; in Madrid, 12%; and in Mexico City, 15%. In Austin, the number has been 0% until the recent ban. Why? There is a simple reason: Austin, like most cities in the U.S., follows the International Building Code, and this code has a glaring loophole. Its lighting section states: Every space intended for human occupancy shall be provided with natural light by means of exterior glazed openings in accordance with Section 1204.2 or shall be provided with artificial light in accordance with Section 1204.3. The code then goes into great detail on the specific requirements for each situation. But the word or leaves the door open for some developers to interpret the code to mean that natural light is optional. To protect themselves against those developers, cities such as Chicago and Washington, D.C., have closed the loophole by simply replacing or with and in their adopted codes. Austin is finally doing precisely that. The recently approved code revision will ban windowless bedrooms when it takes effect on May 20, 2024. Putting profits first Unfortunately, developers have already exploited the loophole and built thousands of windowless bedrooms that soon will no longer be legal to build but will be legal to continue to be leased. Windowless rooms have not resulted in lower rents for students in Austin. Moreover, during my two-year campaign to ban windowless rooms, no developer has spoken in their favor in front of the Austin City Council. They have been quietly building them for as long as they have been able to because student housing is very profitable, and more so when windowless rooms are allowed. How come? Because a bulky building, with interior rooms away from the facade, can capture more interior space with a smaller ratio of exterior walls, which are more expensive to build than interior walls. A vulnerable population Namratha Thrikutam, a UT architecture student, sums up the predicament of her peers living in windowless rooms: Students are a population that developers know they can take advantage of. A bed and nightstand in a windowless room with a ceiling fan. We dont have as much money. We dont have as much standing in the world. We dont have as much experience about things that weve been through, so its very easy to take advantage of us, she told the Daily Texan, UT Austins official newspaper. Lured by the proximity to campus, students in windowless rooms try to cope with abundant room decoration, circadian rhythm LED lighting, mental therapy or medication. For example, an exchange student from Spain who had unknowingly leased a windowless room contacted me asking for help. She told me that, being illegal in her hometown of Barcelona, it never crossed her mind that the room she had leased before arriving in Austin could be windowless. She described her anxiety and deteriorating mental health after just a few days in her unit. When I wrote on her behalf to her building manager requesting a room with a window, they responded: We do not promise windows in any of our rooms. Like other buildings in the Austin area, windows are not promised. Shockingly, their leases do not disclose the absence of windows either. Much like immigrants in New York Citys tenement buildings in the 1850s, UT students have been left to fend for themselves. Austin has failed them by approving the construction of thousands of windowless units. UT, a top-tier public university, has failed them by not providing enough university housing and by remaining silent during the campaign to ban windowless rooms. The universitys position is based on the fact that West Campus falls under the city of Austins jurisdiction, according to a statement obtained by The Conversation. My position is: Yes, but these are your students asking for help. And architects have failed students by willingly designing windowless rooms. In doing so, architects have ignored one of the core guidelines of the American Institute of Architects: to consider the physical, mental, and emotional effects a building has on its occupants. Some UT students walk this hallway in a new building in West Campus to access their windowless rooms. (Juan Miro) Changes sought The experiences of students living in windowless rooms in Austin should serve as a cautionary tale for authorities who control building codes. If windowless rooms are already illegal in your city, keep it that way. If they are not, ban them as soon as possible. If not, students and other vulnerable populations such as immigrants, seniors and low-income people would always be a potential target for developers. In the meantime, and to protect these populations, I am working with other concerned architects across the U.S. in closing the loophole at the source, by directly modifying the International Building Code instead of assuming that each city will close it by amending their codes locally, as Austin just did. It is a slow and bureaucratic process, but, ultimately, the message should be clear: Having natural light in buildings should be a human right, not a developers choice. The Conversation This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. President Biden made the right call last week when he allowed Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied weapons to hit targets inside Russia. Although the actions are limited to counter-fire purposes just across Ukraines northern border, they will bolster Ukraines security and ours. Read more: Opinion: Every day is Memorial Day in Ukraine First, this decision will help Ukraine counter Russias mounting aggression. Taking advantage of the U.S. governments six-month delay in sending Ukrainians military aid, Russias autocrat, Vladimir Putin, pushed deeper into Ukraines east; launched a new 70-mile-wide offensive in Ukraines north; captured about 180 square miles of Ukraines territory; fired more than 3,000 glide bombs of up to one and a half tons; and intensified bombardments of Ukraines second-largest city, Kharkiv, wiping out power plants, residences and a hardware megastore. More than 100 Ukrainian settlements daily come under Russian fire. Read more: Opinion: How Biden can reassure Ukrainians that they won't face Russia alone Bidens announcement appears to already be making a difference in the war. Just two days after the decision, images showed Russias prized S-300/400 surface-to-air launcher exploding in flames in Russia, about 35 miles from Ukraines northern border. Ukraine could reach it only with the U.S.-supplied HIMARS missiles. Other strikes, possibly also with U.S.-supplied M270 launchers, heavily damaged a Russian base, a weapons storage area and armored vehicle repair facilities. These efforts are helping Ukraine stall Russias Kharkiv offensive and undercut Russias capacity to attack further west and potentially target Kyiv. Second, theres a multiplier effect. The U.S. being the largest supplier of military equipment to Ukraine, our permission is a more powerful example than permissions granted earlier by Britain and Poland. And the day before Bidens announcement, the leaders of France and Germany stated Ukraine should be able to use weapons supplied by others on legitimate targets inside Russia. We and our allies have now signaled our resolve and unity to support Ukraine. Third, we showed Putin his scaremongering failed. Bidens announcement rightly defied the Kremlins threat to strike at European countries with small, densely populated territories if U.S. weapons strike inside Russia. Our national security officials have indicated they are not detecting changes in Russias nuclear strike preparedness. Moreover, using nukes in Ukraine or attacking a European country presumably a NATO member would undermine Putins whole strategy: betting on diminishing international visibility and support to force Ukraines surrender. Fourth, we signal that while limited, Bidens authorization opens the door to later allowing Ukraine to hit targets farther afield. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken stated that the U.S. will adapt and adjust as necessary going forward. This is important. We are telling our adversaries not to count on the U.S. to always err on the side of restraint. This is crucial to give pause not only to Moscow, but also to Beijing, Tehran and Pyongyang. Despite the significance of Bidens authorization, it is not enough. Given Russias relentless push west, it is vital to reinforce the permission with other measures, particularly boosting Ukraines antiaircraft capability with weapons such as Patriot missiles. The Institute for the Study of War reports that Russia is close to starting production of much deadlier three-ton glide bombs, a possible game changer. The only countermeasure is to hit the bombers before they drop their payload. This means we need to do our best to help Ukraine get F-16 fighter jets as soon as possible. In doing so we will also complement Ukraines battlefield resilience and significant achievements in developing air and sea drones and long-range artillery. Ensuring Putin doesnt win is vital to our security and prosperity. Over the last year, he laid bare his intent to intimidate and challenge us. Moscow carried out a joint naval exercise with China near Alaska; staged a tactical nuclear weapons exercise north of Ukraine; removed the buoys marking maritime borders around the Baltic states; and reportedly deployed antisatellite weapons in space. Russia knocking out our GPS or seizing our oil platforms off Alaska seems unthinkable today. But so was Russias World War II-style invasion of Ukraine just about three years ago. There is special significance in Bidens timing for the weapons authorization, announced shortly after Memorial Day. At Arlington National Cemetery, honoring Americas fallen heroes, he sent a somber reminder not to take our freedom for granted. Every generation, he said, has to earn it; to fight for it; defend it. Democracy and freedom are not just about the type of government, he said, but are the soul of our nation. Thats what Ukrainians are fighting and dying for. An opinion poll that I led in mid-May with Ukraines National Academy of Sciences funded by the National Science Foundation makes this clear. Nearly 90% of 882 Ukrainians we polled report war-related traumas, and more than 80% report family members, health, homes and jobs lost to Putins invasion. Yet, as in our three prior wartime surveys, 80% believe democracy and free speech are vital for their future. Ukraines fight for survival is also a fight for what we Americans hold dear. Mikhail Alexseev, a professor of international relations at San Diego State University, is the author of Without Warning: Threat Assessment, Intelligence, and Global Struggle and principal investigator of the War, Democracy and Society project funded by the National Science Foundation. If its in the news right now, the L.A. Times Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. June 6 marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day, when the World War II Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy. As Western leaders commemorate the event that led to Europes liberation from fascism, they ought to keep in mind that just five years earlier, the French socialist and future fascist politician Marcel Deat argued that French troops should not defend Poland against Nazi Germany. Fighting alongside our Polish friends, for the common defense of our territories, our property, and our freedoms, is a prospect that we can courageously envisage, if it is to contribute to maintaining peace, he wrote in May 1939. But to die for Danzig, no! Today, many fear that if Russian President Vladimir Putin wins his war of aggression against Ukraine, countries like Poland and the Baltic states will be his next targets. Some even suggest that instead of waiting for Russian forces to reach their borders, these countries should preemptively send troops to Ukraine to force Russia to withdraw from all Ukrainian territory and keep Putin at bay. Read also: Opinion: Elon Musk, Civilization, and Ukraine how computer games shape our reality While such sentiments are not yet common in the West, some Western leaders are increasingly aware of the need for swift action. As French President Emmanuel Macron said in a May 2024 speech in Dresden, Russia will be here tomorrow, (or) the day after tomorrow. The implication was that it is easier to fight Russian forces on Ukrainian soil, with Ukraines army bearing the brunt of the fighting, than it would be to confront Putins military on NATO territory. The upcoming June 15-16 Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland, as well as NATOs 75th anniversary meeting in Washington in July, could make Putin more willing to consider a ceasefire. But Ukraines Western allies should not coerce President Volodymyr Zelensky into negotiating with a leader as untrustworthy as Putin. Instead, they should focus on strengthening Ukraines position, ensuring that the country achieves the peace and security it deserves. To be sure, time is now working against Ukraine, and not just militarily. With this summers blackouts potentially foreshadowing an apocalyptic winter for Ukrainians, the countrys very survival is at stake. Given its desperate plight, NATO membership would be the best security guarantee for Ukraine. However, given that Ukraine will not be invited to join the alliance as long as the war continues, NATO countries should deploy troops on the ground in Ukraine. This would help prevent the loss of additional Ukrainian territory while Ukraines military continues to fight to recapture the territories occupied by Russia. Instructors with the Norwegian army participate in a military training exercise alongside Ukrainian soldiers in line with NATO-standard combat methods to enhance Ukrainian military capabilities in Trondheim, Norway, on Aug. 25, 2023. (Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images) Five caveats are in order. First, such an action must not be viewed as acceptance of Russias rights to any of Ukraines sovereign territory. Second, this effort should involve a coalition of willing NATO members rather than the alliance as a whole. Some NATO countries, including Estonia, France, Lithuania, and Poland, have already signaled their readiness to join such a coalition, while others, like Robert Ficos Slovakia and Viktor Orbans Hungary, are openly pro-Putin and would almost certainly opt out. Third, forces should be deployed only to the four-fifths of Ukraines territory that is not occupied, specifically the 20 oblasts never claimed by Russia. Although Russias annexation of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson is illegal, this strategy would avoid giving credence to the Kremlins absurd assertion that NATO poses a threat to its territory. Fourth, NATO countries should not deploy combat troops, but rather personnel whose roles would include training, which is currently conducted abroad in costly and logistically complicated ways, as well as clearing minefields and maintaining equipment, thus freeing up Ukrainian troops for actual combat. This approach has already been suggested by some of Ukraines allies, such as France, while other countries may discreetly provide similar support. Lastly, if Russian forces attack foreign troops in Ukraine Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov already said that military instructors are a legitimate target for Russia they should expect immediate reprisal. Affected countries should allow weapons that they delivered to Ukraine to intercept incoming missiles and aircraft, both in Ukraine and within Russian territory, and target Russias weapons production facilities even deep inside the country. While many NATO countries have agreed that such actions would constitute legitimate self-defense, some have imposed strict conditions. The United States, for example, hesitated the longest and then insisted that Russian territory may be targeted only to defend Kharkiv. Read also: Opinion: No quiet for Europe on the Eastern Front Crucially, our proposal does not involve friends of Ukraine setting for themselves a rigid red line that would leave them with limited room for maneuver. Instead, we view it as a prerequisite and a clear warning to Putin: do not attack any foreign personnel, military or civilian, on Ukraines sovereign territory. If our proposal is viewed as provocative or escalatory, so be it. Since 2014, Putin has done all he could to provoke NATO into a conflict, and the Kremlins propaganda has already declared war on the collective West. As the late U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told then-U.S. President George H.W. Bush at the start of the 1990-91 Gulf War, This is no time to go wobbly. Ultimately, we agree with Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, who recently said that if Russia wants to attack, it will, regardless of NATOs actions. Consequently, it is time to stop wondering what is on Putins mind and start making him fear a potential Western response. We owe it to the Ukrainian people and to future generations to end Russias war of aggression where it started. 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. Submit an Opinion Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Minutes after a jury of Donald Trumps peers found him guilty on all 34 felony counts, the former president trotted out the same tired line about the system being rigged that he seems to air whenever he loses, whether its a court case, an election, or even at the Emmy Awards. For Trump and his allies, those complaints are generally reserved for judges and juries and voters when things dont go his way. But thats not how the law, or the rule of law, works. What Trump really means when he says something is rigged is that he lost. However, there are several legal forums where he is doing just fineand he doesnt think those courts are rigged, or at least not rigged the wrong way. Its not the rigging thats the problem in his eyes. In fact, he likes them rigged in ways that help him. In the months leading up to the 2020 election, then-President Trump expressed the sentiment that the Senate needed to move quickly to fill the Supreme Court seat that had become vacant after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburgs death. Hunter Biden Prosecutors Mightve Already Lost the Jury Trump knew that the election was going to be close. He wanted to ensure he could pack the court with judges who he thought would rule in his favor should the contest find its way to the courts, and, ultimately, the Supreme Court. The plan to have the Supreme Court decide the election in his favor failed miserably. His lawyers filed dozens of baseless and unsuccessful lawsuits to challenge the results. And some cooked up schemes to develop fake slates of electors to send to Congress on Jan. 6 in an effort to stall the certification of then-President-elect Joe Bidens victory. Many of the lawyers who filed these lawsuits and developed the fake electors scheme have either been suspended, pleaded guilty to various crimes, and/or now face disbarment for their actions. When the smoke cleared on all of these bogus legal actions, Trump was asked whether he needed better lawyers. His answer, no, he needed better judges. And what is a better judge in Donald Trumps mind? Well, thats quite simple: Its a judge who rules in his favor. 2154742305 Donald Trump and his attorney Todd Blanche exit the courthouse and speak to media after Trump was found guilty following his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court. Mark Peterson/Getty Images Justice Juan Merchan, who presided over the trial in which a New York jury found the former president guilty on 34 felony counts, is not one of those judges. He was conflicted, in Trumps words, and the devileven though, during the course of the trial, he made several evidentiary rulings that seemed to favor the defendant, and generally handled a very challenging case with great equanimity and poise in the face of vicious and personal attacks on him and his family. Is there an example of a judge who Trump likes? Why, yes. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon is certainly the type of judge Trump prefers. Cannon, who is presiding over the classified documents case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith, has stymied the progression of that case by entertaining, delaying her consideration of, and even pushing back hearings on, numerous evidentiary motions and borderline frivolous legal claims that most judges would dispose of as a matter of course. Justice Alitos Jan. 6 Flags Are a Desperate Wake-Up Call for the DOJ In that case, though, Trump has essentially bragged about having committed the offenses for which he is chargedand has argued that everything he did was totally legal. It is difficult to fathom how the matter has dragged out for so long. But what is important for the defendant in this case is not victory, but simple delay. Kick it down the road, and make sure the trial does not occur before Election Day 2024. After that, all bets are off. And if Trump is elected once again, he can simply pardon himself, or rely on the Justice Departments policy of not prosecuting a sitting president. (Judge Cannon appears to be doing just about everything she can to accommodate that goal.) In a case involving the fake electors scheme, the criminal case brought by D.A. Fani Willis in Georgia, an appeals court in that state has agreed to hear an appeal of the trial courts decision to reject the effort to disqualify Willis for her romantic relationship with her chief prosecutor in the case. While the trial judge chastised Willis for a lapse in judgment, he did not find her conduct warranted disqualification. There, delay also serves the former president, and that is exactly what these procedural maneuvers will produce, with the appellate court setting down oral argument for October, staying all proceedings below. But not all cases move at a snails pace. At the U.S. Supreme Court, the body jumped into action when Colorado sought to keep the former president off the ballot in that state for his alleged participation in the events of Jan. 6 under the Insurrection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. There, the court heard oral arguments just weeks after the case came before it, and a decision followed less than a month after that. And there was no rigging there, apparently: Trump won, with the courts justices who were nominated by Democratic presidents siding with Trump, putting partisanship aside. 2155448226 Donald Trump speaks at a news conference at Trump Tower following the verdict in his hush-money trial at Trump Tower. Spencer Platt/Getty Images In that case, of course, speed was important for the former president. And speed is just what he got. Theres another case before the Supreme Court where speed is not in Trumps interests. And there, the court is moving slowly, helping Trump, again, avoid another judgment day before Election Day. Indeed, in the case in which the court has been asked to rule on the preposterous claims that a president should be immune from prosecution for efforts to interrupt the peaceful and lawful transfer of power, the court chose not to put that case on a fast track, as it did in the Colorado ballot access case. It heard oral argument nearly two months after the lower courts ruling there finding Trump was not immune. We are just about six weeks from that oral argument with no decision, even though the court was able to get a decision out in Colorado in half that time. Trumps Verdict Was No Disgrace. The Rule of Law Won. Trump apparently believes the Supreme Court should simply step in immediately and halt the proceedings in the state felony case against him. Trump must believe the court is so in his pocket that it should take such a brazen step even though there is no legal mechanism for the court to do so. And why shouldnt he think that, given its different handling of the Colorado and immunity cases? Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson appears to agree with Trump, and would like the Supreme Court to rig the New York election-interference case, as well. Indeed, he has urged the court to do just that. But that wouldnt be rigging cases of course, even though, in his words, he knows many of them personally, and he thinks theyre deeply concerned about the conviction. Trump is fine with the outcome of legal proceedings when he wins, or even when they simply accede to his political goals. The only good judge is one who rules in his favor. Thats not how our system of justice works, however, and its certainly not how the rule of law works. But Trump does not seem concerned with either if they do not serve his purposes. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. SUVA, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Fiji's ministry of trade is focusing on the Canadian market for trade opportunities. With over 125,000 Fijians residing in Canada, there is significant potential for investment as well, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade Manoa Kamikamica told Fiji Broadcasting Corporation on Friday. During his visit to Canada last month, Kamikamica said successful Fijian businessmen in the country are showing interest in investing back in Fiji in various sectors. To enhance their engagement, the deputy prime minister said talks are underway for Canada to open an embassy in Fiji. Gov. Kathy Hochul is pushing a New York City tax hike to replace the $15 congestion pricing tolls she indefinitely postponed a last-minute funding Hail Mary that drew fierce opposition Thursday. Lawmakers and business groups slammed the prospect of a tax increase, especially after Hochul scuttled congestion pricing Wednesday because it would break the budget for the working class. Proposing another tax is an insulting joke that will only exacerbate the affordability crisis that Gov. Hochul pointed to as her reason for killing congestion pricing, Assemblyman Matt Slater (R-Putnam) told The Post. Gov. Kathy Hochul has floated a payroll mobility tax increase to replace congestion pricing funds. Governor Kathy Hochul/Facebook The combination of corporate income, payroll and other taxes on New York City businesses already has them paying some of the highest effective rates in the nation, noted Ken Girardin, director of research at the Empire Center for Public Policy. Bigwigs and politicos who already felt burned by Hochuls flip-flop on congestion pricing said the tax proposal shows she had no real Plan B to make up for the $1 billion a year Manhattan tolls would have raised for the flailing transit agency and theyre not likely to throw her a lifeline. I think it does not have support, state Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) said about a vote on the tax. No new taxes, added Assemblyman Brian Cunningham (D-Brooklyn). The governors shock announcement also created turmoil at the MTAs highest levels. MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber, along with Hochuls board appointees, have threatened to resign, a state Senate source told The Post. Many lawmakers and business leaders contend Gov. Kathy Hochul had no Plan B to replace the $15 billion congestion pricing would have raised. rfaraino Complicating matters is the fact Albany lawmakers are poised to skip town Friday as the legislative session ends a deadline that could leave major MTA projects in limbo as officials scramble to replace the $15 billion promised by congestion pricing. Legislative opponents of congestion pricing hailed Hochuls move as a victory for everyday New Yorkers, but offered no firm solutions for the last-minute funding problem it created. State Assemblyman Member David Weprin (D-Queens) said hiking the mobility tax is a possibility, along with other vague proposals that he wouldnt elaborate upon when pressed by The Post. Youll find out within a week, he said. Were committed to find a billion dollars. The payroll mobility tax is leveled on businesses and self-employed workers in New York City and the surrounding region to help fund the MTA. Hochul and lawmakers just last year raised the tax on the citys largest businesses to raise $1.1 billion annually. The governor, besides a potential mobility tax hike, has floated tapping into state reserves as a replacement, insiders said. Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella, a co-plaintiff in one of the lawsuits to block congestion pricing, said tax hikes cant always be the answer. We have $300 billion combined between the state and city budget, said Fossella, suggesting efficiencies can be found elsewhere to fund transit. Vehicle tolls only account for 13 percent of MTA funding, proponents of congestion pricing contend. Helayne Seidman Raising taxes will just hurt businesses more. I just dont understand it, he said. Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler, who supports congestion pricing, also blasted a New York City-focused tax increase. Our transit system serves twelve New York counties and two other states, he tweeted. Its completely unacceptable for the burden of yet another payroll tax increase to be raised on NYC small businesses to fund regional transit projects. The legislators werent alone in their opposition. Protesters demonstrate outside New York Gov. Kathy Hochuls Manhattan office, Wednesday, June 5, 2024, in New York. AP Prominent business groups including some that stuck their necks out in support of congestion pricing, such as The Real Estate Board of New York have criticized Hochuls reversal and funding replacement proposals. Unquestionably, there is a cost of living and affordability crisis in New York, which is also deeply felt by small business owners, said Ashley Ranslow, the New York director for the National Federation of Independent Business. Increasing the MTA payroll tax will only exacerbate this crisis and worsen New Yorks dismal business climate and lagging economic growth post-pandemic. Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the prominent Partnership for NYC, told NY1 Thursday that she personally expressed her frustration and disappointment to Hochul. Her group later that day issued a statement opposing any increase in the payroll mobility tax to replace the $1 billion. Business and real estate taxes already account for 44% of MTA revenues, followed by rider fares at 27% and 13% for vehicle tolls an unfair share that congestion pricing would have corrected, the statement contended. Congestion pricing spread the MTA funding burden equitably across all the constituencies that benefit from the mass transit system that supports the tri-state regional economy, the statement reads. The PMT burden is entirely on New York City, which is already the most highly taxed city in the country. Over 100 firefighters battling fire at Kyiv Oblast industrial facility following Russian strike A fire at an industrial facility in Kyiv Oblast, which started due to a nighttime Russian air attack, is still being extinguished. Source: Ruslan Kravchenko, Head of Kyiv Oblast State Administration Quote: "Fire is still being extinguished at an industrial facility in Kyiv Oblast after a Russian air attack. There are no casualties or injuries." Details: According to Kravchenko, over 135 firefighters and emergency workers and 42 pieces of fire appliances, including a fire extinguishing robot and two fire trains, are involved in the firefighting operations. "The fire has already been extinguished in a large area," the official added. Background: On the night of 6-7 June, Russian forces launched another combined attack on the territory of Ukraine. A fire broke out at an industrial facility in Kyiv Oblast. Support UP or become our patron! YORK COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) York City Police are investigating an overnight shooting that left one person dead. According to York City Police, they responded to the 400 Block of North Beaver Street for a reported shooting on Thursday, June 6 around 11:56 p.m. Once on the scene, police discovered a 21-year-old male who was deceased from an apparent gunshot wound. Detectives were notified of the incident and are currently investigating. No arrests have been made at this time. Were still going on track of seeing declines and the shootings and other incidents, said York City Police Commander Andy Baez. So although were not happy with the homicide occurring, you know, were going to do our due diligence, investigate the best we can, and get justice for the family. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the York City Police Department by calling 717-846-1234, sending a tip through the Crimewatch app, or by emailing abaez@yorkcity.org. abc27 news will keep you updated as more information becomes available. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. The statue of Saint Tirumankai was created in the 16th century as part of a display at the Sri Soundararaja Perumal temple in southern India - JON BOWER/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO Oxford has agreed to hand over a stolen statue to India in the universitys latest repatriation pledge. The universitys Ashmolean Museum was asked to return the 500-year-old sculpture of Hindu holy man Tirumankai Alvar, alleged to have been stolen from a temple. The Oxford museum has now agreed to hand over the artwork following pressure from India, which has been conducting a quiet campaign to reclaim treasures from Britain. The Telegraph previously revealed that Indian officials in London and New Delhi had been tasked with securing artefacts taken during the days of the empire. They have achieved a breakthrough with the return of the Tirumankai statue, which is the latest high-profile repatriation pledged by Oxford since the university agreed to return its Benin Bronzes to Nigeria. A spokesman for the Ashmolean Museum said: The Council of the University of Oxford supported a claim from the Indian High Commission for the return of a 16th-century bronze sculpture of Saint Tirumankai Alvar from the Ashmolean Museum. This decision will now be submitted to the Charity Commission for approval. This statue was sold to the Ashmolean by Sotheby's in 1967, with little known about its provenance but India claims it has been stolen from the site - EYE UBIQUITOUS/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP EDITORIAL The artwork depicts Saint Tirumankai, a holy man and poet of Tamil Nadu who lived in 8th century India and was said to have had visions of Vishnu, the Hindu deity. It was created in the 16th century as part of a display at the temple of Sri Soundararaja Perumal in southern India, dedicated to Vishnu. This statue was sold to the Ashmolean by Sothebys in 1967, with little known about its provenance before that sale. However, in 2020, Indian officials demanded that the statue be returned, claiming that it had been stolen from the site, and that photographs showed it in situ at the temple as recently as 1957. It is believed it was swapped with a fake. These allegations of theft were made by Vijay Kumar, an antiquities expert and the founder of the India Pride Project, who stressed the importance of the statue, saying: These bronzes are called Tirumeni in Tamil, which means literally body of God, and are treated as living gods when under worship. The Ashmolean has agreed to the repatriation request and has submitted the details to the Charity Commission, which must decide whether the University of Oxford technically a charity can dispense with the artwork without undermining its charitable purpose. In 2022, the university pledged to return a collection of 97 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria, but it was delayed by the Commission. Growing calls for repatriation The repatriation decision came amid growing calls for British museums to return artefacts taken from imperial possessions, which India quietly joined. It was revealed in 2023 that antiquities experts in New Delhi and officials in London had been tasked with locating and pursuing the return of artefacts taken from India. New Delhi would ultimately like to see the return of treasuries like the Koh-i-Noor diamond, which once topped the Mughal emperors Peacock Throne, but officials are primarily focused on what has been termed low-hanging fruit. These first targets are artefacts that were probably stolen in recent decades, thus giving officials more leverage in requesting their repatriation. Smaller museums and private collections would also have more leeway to sign off returns. Work may then progress to the British Museum, which holds a collection of Hindu statues and the Amaravati Marbles, which were taken from a Buddhist stupa by Sir Walter Elliot, a civil servant. The Victoria and Albert Museums Indian collection includes a wide range of materials taken by British forces, but these national museums are hindered by law from handing over their treasures. The National Trust could legally return its Indian artefacts, which include treasures taken by Clive of India and held at his old country seat of Powis Castle in Wales. The Ashmolean statue will not be returned to India in time for the reconsecration of the temple from which it is believed to have been stolen, which is set to take place in the coming weeks. Mr Kumar said: These are religious objects that can and will go back to worship if restituted, back to their communities shaping their faith as the original creators created them for. That we see them as art is incidental, for they were never created as art objects. To see them reduced to showpiece curios is heartbreaking. 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. By Joe Cash BEIJING (Reuters) -China's President Xi Jinping met Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Beijing on Friday, Chinese state media reported, days before Pakistan presents its annual budget and applies for a new International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan. Pakistan's location on the Arabian Sea gives it strategic importance for China, providing an overland route out towards the Gulf of Aden and onto the Suez Canal, and enabling Chinese ships to avoid the potential chokepoint of the Malacca Strait. "China will, as always, firmly support Pakistan and safeguard its national sovereignty and territorial integrity," Xi told Sharif, adding that the two countries' "all-weather strategic partnership... had broad development prospects." Xi also said that China would also help Pakistan with its economic and social development. Pakistan is in the middle of a debt crisis. As such, Sharif's government is expected to seek at least $6 billion under a new IMF programme after it presents its annual budget on June 12. And the $27 billion or so that Pakistan owes China, according to World Bank data, is central to this next round of discussions with the fund. The IMF in May opened discussions on the new loan after Islamabad completed a short-term $3 billion programme, which helped stave off a sovereign debt default last summer. Pakistan owes China almost 13% of its total debt, which was taken on to pay for infrastructure projects over the years and other types of spending. Beijing has lent Islamabad almost twice as much as its second- and third-ranked multilateral lenders, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, to which Pakistan owes $16.2 billion and $13.7 billion respectively. Chinese firms have also invested a further $14 billion in Pakistan since a new economic corridor connecting their countries was announced in the summer of 2013 as part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's flagship Belt and Road Initiative, data from the American Enterprise Institute think tank shows. Most of that investment was made by Chinese state-owned energy companies financing fossil-fuel and nuclear power plants, as well as logistics routes under construction connecting Gwadar Port in the Arabian Sea with the Xinjiang region in China's northwest. Xi told Sharif that their two countries should focus on "promoting the joint construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor," and Chinese and Pakistani firms 31 memoranda of understanding covering technology, agriculture, trade, energy, coal and gasification, according to Pakistan's commerce ministry. But the Chinese leader also called on his guest to step up efforts to ensure the security of Chinese projects in the country. In May, a suicide bomb attack killed five Chinese engineers working on a dam project in Pakistan's northwest. (Reporting by Joe Cash; Additional reporting by Asif Shahzad in Islamabad; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Louise Heavens) Panamanian figures show at least 174,513 migrants crossed the treacherous Darien Gap, a mountainous rainforest region connecting South and Central America, from January to June 6 of this year. The latest figures are higher than around the same period in 2023, when more than 166,000 crossings were reported, according to Panamas National Migration Service. The Darien Gap, which a decade ago was seen as an almost impassable barrier, has continued to see an increase in the number of migrants willing to risk their lives and safety to cross it. According to migration service figures, a record 520,000 people crossed the jungle last year. Experts say many continue to journey towards the United States in search of better opportunities. The National Migration Service of Panama said Thursday that in the first six days of June 2024, at least 4,499 people 3,598 adults and 901 minors arrived in the country. This comes as the number of children crossing the Darien Gap has increased by 40% this year, putting the route on track to see record levels of child migration for the fifth consecutive year, according to a report by the United Nations childrens agency. The UNICEF report added that in the first four months of 2024, over 30,000 children crossed the Darien Gap, and that 2,000 were unaccompanied or separated from their families. This comes as Panamanian politicians seek to harden the countrys borders. During his election campaign, Panamas president-elect Jose Raul Mulino said that he wanted to close the Darien, citing safety concerns. He explained in early May that he had proposed to initiate a repatriation process with full respect for human rights for the hundreds of thousands of migrants who pass through the area each year. So that those from there, and those who would like to come, know that those who arrive here will be returned to their country of origin, Mulino said. Mulinos plan may prove unfeasible given that the jungle is 266 kilometers (165 miles) long. Discouraging migrants from crossing could be a tough challenge since many of them pay human smugglers operating on both sides of the borders. Migrants walking by the jungle near Bajo Chiquito village, the first border control of the Darien Province in Panama, on September 22, 2023. - Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images In practical terms, trying to reduce migration through the Darien is a difficult task. The complexity is not just about entry points, but how to manage and have better information on who is helping migrants get through, Ariel Ruiz, a policy analyst at the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute, told CNN. The 66-mile (106-kilometer) hike through the Darien Gap brings migrants from Colombia to Panama and is a crucial passage for those hoping to reach the United States and Canada. Mass migration across the Western Hemisphere has fueled a growing number of people moving north. The journey carries multiple risks for migrants, including robberies, assaults, kidnappings, diseases, wild animal attacks, and accidents in a jungle full of rivers, mountains, and mud flats, according to the UN Refugee agency, UNHCR. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com By Lucy Craymer WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Further landslides will likely plague the area where part of a mountain collapsed onto a remote village in Papua New Guinea two weeks ago, New Zealand geological experts warned on Friday, as authorities ended search and rescue efforts. It remains unclear how many people died in the massive landslide in PNGs Enga region on May 24, with the national government reporting more than 2,000 people have been buried alive and a U.N. estimate putting the death toll at around 670. Only 11 bodies have been recovered so far. New Zealand geotechnical engineers sent to Papua New Guinea released a report on Thursday raising concerns about the stability of the ground not just in the landslide but also to either side of it. "We believe that there is real potential for further landslides to occur in the near or medium term, Aaron Waterreus, the leader of the Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) team which include the geotechnical engineers, said in a press conference on Friday. FENZ geotechnical engineer Jan Kupec added the landslide, which covers roughly 14 hectares (35 acres), is of such a scale it is impossible to stop it from moving and it could continue to move for months or even years. He said the rock avalanche was likely part of an old landslide that has been reactivated and there were now concerns the start of monsoon rains will liquefy the material that had fallen off the hill and again reactive the landslide. Enga Provincial Government on Thursday announced mass evacuations of further areas around the landslide due to concerns around further earth movement. The government has ceased searching for bodies and the area has been deemed a mass burial site. The U.N. International Organisation for Migration said more than 7,200 people were displaced by the landslide and the numbers may increase. Treacherous terrain and tribal unrest in the area meant heavy equipment and aid have been slow to arrive, and PNG government officials a week ago ruled out finding survivors under the rubble. The disaster site will be quarantined with access restricted to prevent the spread of disease from decaying bodies, according to the IOM. (Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Lincoln Feast.) Millions Hear about Persecuted Christian Prisoners in Eritrea Through The Voice of the Martyrs NEWS PROVIDED BY The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) June 6, 2024 BARTLESVILLE, Okla., June 6, 2024 /Standard Newswire/ -- Over the past year, The Voice of the Martyrs has creatively challenged people to call for the release of falsely imprisoned persecuted Christians in Eritrea. Through VOM digital media campaigns, millions of people have heard about the horrific treatment of persecuted Christians in Eritrea, nearly 20,000 people committed to pray, U.S. leaders responded and 13 Christian prisoners were released. Over 5.5 million people heard about the 20-year anniversary of two Eritrean church leaders imprisonment through the ministrys digital efforts this year. Social media influencers, such as Jen Bricker-Bauer, Nathan Harmon, Gabby Hall, Mark Hall, Solomon Jordan and others, used their platforms to raise awareness of persecuted Christians in Eritrea. In 2023, VOM asked Christians to add their voice and demand the release of Eritrean prisoners through persecution.com/eritreanprisoners. There, believers committed to pray, posted on social media tagging Eritrean government leaders, and sent letters to the Eritrean embassy. Gods people have shown tremendous support for Pastors Haile Nayzgi and Dr. Kiflu Gebremeskel, said Todd Nettleton, VOM Vice President. On May 23, 2004, these two Christians leaders of the Full Gospel Church of Eritrea were arrested for the crime of being a pastor. They are just two of 350+ Eritrean Christians currently imprisoned after President Isaias Afwerkis government outlawed evangelical churches in 2002. I believe the prayers of Gods people and the bright light of attention on the persecution of Christians in Eritrea is making a difference, said Nettleton. Scripture calls us to remember those in prison as if in prison with them. VOM has used todays digital toolbox to call Christians to prayer, spread the word of this injustice and bring believers together. According to VOMs 2024 Global Prayer Guide, Eritrea is classified as a restricted nation due to the governments long history of Christian persecution. Only about 3 percent of Eritreans are evangelical Christians. Please keep praying for imprisoned Eritrean Christians, Nettleton said. Go today and add your name to the list of those who are committed to pray. About The Voice of the Martyrs Founded in 1967 by Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, The Voice of the Martyrs is a nonprofit, interdenominational missions organization serving persecuted Christians in the worlds most difficult and dangerous places to follow Christ. For more information, visit VOM.org. SOURCE The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) CONTACT: Jon Wilke, 270-293-7818 ISLAMABAD, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said on Friday that strengthening food security systems is crucial to ensure safe, clean, and nutritious food, underlining the need for investing in research as well as utilizing the latest technology to address food safety challenges in Pakistan. "Food safety is a shared responsibility requiring the collective efforts of all stakeholders. We need to adhere to the highest food safety standards for the well-being of our people," the president said in his message on the occasion of World Food Safety Day. Zardari highlighted that food-borne diseases and global pandemics are becoming more prevalent nowadays, and the urgency to take proactive measures to emphasize proper hygiene and protect our food system has never been greater. Preparing for the unexpected scenario regarding food safety requires anticipating potential risks and vulnerabilities in the food chain and implementing robust measures to mitigate them, he said, adding that there is a need for investing in food surveillance systems, strengthening relevant laboratories, and improving emergency response mechanisms to detect food safety threats before they escalate into crises. Besides that, he said promoting best agricultural practices can help reduce the likelihood of food-borne diseases and improve the quality of Pakistan's food supply. The president also called for creating awareness among the people about food safety, and clean and hygienic food through television and other social media platforms. SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) A passenger was killed over the weekend in a suspected driving under the influence crash on State Route 52, authorities said. The collision occurred around 2:28 a.m. on SR-52 eastbound, west of Convoy Street, Salvador Castro with the California Highway Patrol said in a news release Thursday. A 25-year-old man driving a Nissan Altima was traveling in the aforementioned location at unknown speed when his car went off the roadway and hit a tree, according to authorities. Family mourns Escondido teen stabbed to death in street fight During the crash an unidentified passenger was partially ejected and trapped in the Nissan as it became fully engulfed in flames, Castro said. The passenger was unable to be removed from the Nissan and died due to his injuries. His identity is being withheld pending notification from the next of kin. The 25-year-old driver was taken to the hospital with major injuries, per CHP. Once released, the driver was booked into San Diego County Jail on multiple DUI-related charges. Anyone who witnessed or has information about the crash is asked to contact the CHP San Diego Area at 858-293-6000. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal, professional politician or fresh-faced newcomer, all members of the Florida House and Senate have one thing in common they want to be seen as regular working folks, just like us. If theyre on the right, politically, that means boasting about family values and keeping taxes low. If theyre on the left, it means talking about education and health care a lot. But generally, few if any are living paycheck to paycheck. In this election season, its prudent for all candidates to cultivate the common touch. Their campaign advertisements portray them in earnest conversation with cops or teachers, spending time with their families, rolling up their sleeves to help with hurricane recovery or hurrying down the steps of the Old Capitol (which isnt really where the work gets done) toward some important policy meeting. Cotterell: Lawmakers owe farm workers breaks from the Florida heat. Their video clips and re-election leaflets never show them meeting with lobbyists for big business interests. They dont brag about how much money they can squeeze out of those guys or what favors theyre willing to do for corporate interests in return for campaign cash. Thats pretty much a given, understood by all. More on farms: Florida faces huge impact from federal Farm Bill that Congress is revising Oh, your opponents will mention it and make it sound as sinister as possible. But if your opponent had a realistic chance in these gerrymandered districts, the lobbyist would be channeling money to the opponent, rather than you. So then the legislative session convenes and the special interests, as theyre reflexively referred to by both sides, almost always get what they pay for. But sometimes, the pay-to-play system goes beyond regular back-scratching and turns into cruelty. And when that happens, our regular-working-guy lawmakers can show us revealing glimpses of just how far out of touch they really are. On the last day of this years legislative session, the Republican-run Legislature approved a bill that overrides any city or county ordinances providing heat-safety rules for outdoor workers. Miami-Dade County had sought to assure agriculture and construction workers some measure of protection by requiring employers to provide water and shade and to require training to spot signs of heat stroke. More on farms: Farmworkers march in Palm Beach, calling for better wages, conditions Agriculture, construction and other business interests that write big checks to political parties and candidates werent having any of that. Pre-empting local authority to Tallahassee is not new whenever powerful lobbying interests get antsy about cities and counties taking some bothersome action, so lawmakers sent a solution to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who of course signed it into law. The law passed along party lines, with Republicans supporting it and Democrats opposed. Some things need to be uniform from the Alabama line to the southernmost tip of the United States marker in the Keys. But telling growers and contractors to keep a vat of water at job sites is not a Kremlin-inspired attack on free market capitalism. No company wants people keeling over in the fields but if some employers are just oblivious to common decency, why shouldnt cities and counties set some safety standards especially since the state wont? More: Man's death in South Florida heat prompts federal investigation into company that employed him Jason Garcia, whose superb newsletter Seeking Rents explores the intersection of campaign money and public policy, recently delved into the new law. He detailed how even mild encouragement that employers provide some comfort for outdoor workers had failed in past legislative sessions. And he showed how large contributions from agriculture, construction and other businesses greased the wheels for House Bill 433 this year. Money and political turf-protection aside, the law reflects a class distinction in the Legislature. With very, very few exceptions, our lawmakers will be working in air-conditioned offices this summer. If they get a sunburn, it will most likely be from holding a poolside fund-raising reception in the afternoon, or maybe going door to door with campaign leaflets in a precinct that needs a little bolstering for re-election. And nobodys going to dock their pay if they have to take a break. Bill Cotterell Empathy is good, but it doesnt offset the persuasiveness of political advertisements bragging about how a legislator cut taxes, fought woke education, and in some vague way created jobs. And who pays for those ads? The same business interests who tell legislators they need to stop local governments from ensuring that field workers have a little shady space and a cup of water in the Sunshine State. Bill Cotterell is a retired capitol reporter for United Press International and the Tallahassee Democrat. He can be reached at wrcott43@aol.com This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: GOP lawmakers, DeSantis block requiring breaks for Florida farmworkers Penn Hills man sentenced for trying to receive over 5 kilograms of cocaine A Penn Hills man was sentenced to over three years in prison on one count of violating federal narcotics laws Tuesday. >> Penn Hills man pleads guilty to trying to receive over 5 kilograms of cocaine Jose Santiago Hernandez, 32, was sentenced to 37 months of incarceration, to be followed by three years of federal supervised release, on Thursday. He pleaded guilty to attempting to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of a mixture and substance containing cocaine in February. Officials said on June 28, 2021, Hernandez tried to receive two United States postal parcels that contained powder cocaine. The parcels weighed over five kilograms combined. In imposing the sentence, the emphasized the serious nature of Hernandezs conduct, noting the harm to the community that could have resulted but for law enforcements intervention. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW TRENDING NOW: 18-year-old randomly thrown into the street, beaten by woman in downtown Pittsburgh Historic Pittsburgh church demolished after more than a century Pittsburgh Steelers announce training camp schedule VIDEO: Woman claimed to be Cherrie Mahan on social media; fingerprints not a match, police say DOWNLOAD the Channel 11 News app for breaking news alerts People gather for first Wawa groundbreaking in Ohio People gathered for a ceremonial groundbreaking at Ohios first Wawa location. >>PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Wawa celebrates 60th anniversary with free coffee Leaders broke ground at the 5300 block of Fields Ertel Road, according to a social media post. The Fields Ertel location in Warren County is the first to break ground in Ohio for Wawa. Deerfield Township posted photos of the groundbreaking on its Facebook page. Board of Trustees President Julie Seitz and Trustee Kristin Malhotra officially welcomed Wawa on Thursday. The company is investing $7.5 million in the project and will employ 40 people, Deerfield Township said. Wawa also presented a $10,000 check to the Freestone Food Bank. It is scheduled to open in 2025. Man rushed to hospital after shooting in Dorchester, police say Authorities are investigating a shooting in Bostons Dorchester neighborhood on Thursday that sent one person to the hospital. Officers responding to the area of 7 Elwyn Road around 8:30 p.m. for a report of a shooting found an adult male victim who had sustained a gunshot wound, according to police. The man was transported to Boston Medical Center. Their condition is unknown at this time. No arrests have been made. A description of a suspect was not immediately available. The incident remains under investigation. #Breaking Big scene in #Dorchester right now. Police were just seen lining Elwyn Street sweeping it for evidence. Follow @boston25 for more info. pic.twitter.com/89B4uy4u6r James Cullity (@JCullityNews) June 7, 2024 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 EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) A person suffered serious injuries after being stabbed at a Circle K Thursday night, June 6 in East El Paso, according to El Paso Police. Police say the call came in just before 8 p.m. and was reported as a fight in progress with weapons. The incident happened at the Circle K located at the intersection of Montwood Drive and Joe Battle Boulevard. Police say a male was stabbed and was transported to a local hospital. Police did not specify the males age. The male was transported cCode 3 (serious injuries), according to the El Paso Fire Department. No further information has been released. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News. By Michael Erman (Reuters) - A 15-day course of Pfizer's COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid did not relieve symptoms of long COVID, according a study by Stanford University researchers. Currently, there are no proven treatments specifically for long COVID in which a host of symptoms can last for many months after initial coronavirus infection. Scientists and patients had hoped that Pfizer's two-drug oral treatment would ease symptoms of long COVID after anecdotal reports of patients who said Paxlovid helped them. But the 15-week, 155-participant study failed to show that a 15-day course helped more than a placebo in reducing fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath, body aches, or gastrointestinal or cardiovascular symptoms. Trial participants, on average, had been sick more than 16 months before enrolling in the trial. "We did not see a measurable difference based on patient reported outcomes in the six composite symptoms together," Stanford Medicine Professor Dr. Upinder Singh said in an interview. "We didn't see a benefit in individual symptoms either." Dr. Singh said she believes that further study of the treatment for long COVID still has merit, perhaps in longer courses than 15 days or in patients who haven't been sick for as long. The study did show that Paxlovid, which is currently prescribed as a 5-day course early after infection or symptom onset, is safe when used for 15 days, she added. Pfizer said in a statement that the results will not impact its other planned collaborative studies of Paxlovid as a potential treatment for long COVID. Paxlovid is the most commonly prescribed at home treatment for COVID-19 in the U.S. It is approved to treat COVID in adults who are at risk of severe complications from the illness. In Pfizer's original clinical trial, Paxlovid was shown to reduce hospitalizations and death from COVID by around 90% for unvaccinated people at risk for serious disease. In another trial, Pfizer was not able to show benefit for those considered at standard risk, including vaccinated patients. Pfizer funded the long COVID trial. Aside from Stanford researchers, scientists from Kaiser Permanente North California and Pfizer also contributed to the study. (Reporting by Michael Erman; Editing by Bill Berkrot) A resident fishes as the sun sets at the coastal village of Santa Clara near a liquefied natural gas power plant in Batangas province, Philippines on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023. The Philippines is seeing one of the world's biggest buildouts of natural gas infrastructure. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila) MANILA, Philippines (AP) Sea turtles still scramble from the waters of Batangas Bay, paddling up the sand to bury their eggs. Coral reefs that some marine biologists call the Amazon of the ocean lie just offshore, home to giant clams, nurturing small fish, which in turn are prey for manta rays. But above the surface the land is changed. The fishing village of Santa Clara is now surrounded by four power generating stations, all burning natural gas. The construction isnt over. Four more power plants that burn natural gas are planned for the coastline. What was a string of fishing villages is now an industrial zone. The Philippines is going all in for electricity made via climate-damaging combustion, with almost two dozen power stations planned and the ambition to become a gas hub for the entire Asia Pacific region. When natural gas is super-chilled into a liquid, special tanker ships can transport millions of cubic feet of it at a time, and the global trade in liquified natural gas or LNG is growing fast. It's one of the worlds largest natural gas power buildouts and will contribute to climate change at a time when alternative, renewable electricity has never been cheaper. Its mindboggling that the Philippines, a climate-vulnerable country, would still pursue dirty fuels which exacerbate climate disasters, said Gerry Arances, executive director of the Philippine nonprofit Center for Energy, Ecology and Development. Natural gas causes warming of the atmosphere both when it leaks out, unburned, and when it is burned for heat or electricity. Experts who have studied the country found its future growth could be met entirely with renewables; reliance on natural gas will make power more expensive for Filipinos and there will be other environmental costs. Wilma Abanil, a grandmother of four, witnessed changes after the first plant opened in 2002. Within two years, the fish catch was falling, she said. It grew worse as more plants opened. Before when you worked really hard, you could send your children to school, Abanil said. We were happy. We could support our family. These days we have nothing. While Philippine fish exports are going up nationally, officials records show the catch from Batangas Province in a slide. Many residents blame the power plants. There is overfishing, too. We heard they will build more, Abanil said. What will happen to us?" But Philippine Department of Energy fossil fuels director Rino Abad defended the plans. We just have to make our best choice which is natural gas, he said in a Zoom interview, describing it as the least expensive energy source, flexible and very clean. We cannot increase our energy capacity by RE (renewable energy) alone. He noted the country is not building any new power plants that burn coal, which is dirtier. Abad disputed the size of the expansion, saying 14 plants are planned. But that appears to include only those in the department's formal pipeline and not others that are at an earlier stage or more recently announced. Today, the Philippines accounts for less than 4% of overall natural gas use in Southeast Asia, Abad said. Indonesia and Thailand use several times more. Philippine environmental guidelines protect the coral reefs, he said, for example limiting the temperature of hot water discharged from power plants. All the plants surrounding Santa Clara are owned by First Gen, the Philippines leading natural gas energy company. First Gen did not reply to requests for comment. Many energy watchers disagree that in 2024, it's essential to build new fossil fuel plants for electricity, or that it's the least expensive. Natural gas plants require a constant supply of fuel that rises and falls in price on international markets, unlike solar, wind and geothermal electricity, which cost very little to run once they are built. Relying on very expensive, unreliable, imported fuel, is a mistake, said Sam Reynolds of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, which analyzed the Philippines energy plan in several white papers. Electricity made from burning liquefied natural gas is between two and three times as expensive for Filipinos than electricity made from renewables, he found. And coastal power plants can cause environmental damage in a number of ways. Their hot water discharge can kill corals; changing the coastline alters flows of seawater and sand, which can disrupt delicate ecosystems, and tanker ships risk importing invasive species. The risk assessment for a San Miguel plant currently under construction next door described corals in the area surrounding the power station as already in a poor state. President of the Philippine Association of Marine Science, Jayvee Saco and others are concerned that corals further offshore could suffer the same fate. In the worst case, future generations will only see the beauty of the reef in books or museums, he said in an interview at his laboratory at Batangas State University. Seagrass will die first, then sea cucumbers, then fish, he said, as a machine flipped vials containing samples behind him. A study by marine biologists at Ateneo de Manila University found coastal areas under stress from the five power plants that already operate in the area. A spokeswoman for San Miguel said via email its monitoring shows marine life has not been affected and a thriving marine ecosystem remains. The company has created employment and liquified natural gas is internationally recognized as a transition fuel to cleaner energy, she said. But there is no such international recognition. For years, evidence hasaccumulated that natural gas power is not much better for the climate than coal, if at all. Thats because its made up mostly of methane. It burns cleaner than coal, as the industry claims, but when it leaks out, unburned, which it does, it is more than 80 times more harmful to the climate than CO2. The Philippines may have made its decision to invest heavily in natural gas in part on the advice of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which encouraged the expansion, arguing in a 2021 paper that the country could realize strong economic and environmental benefits by using LNG to meet its energy needs. The paper came out as U.S. natural gas companies rapidly turned the United States into the worlds largest LNG exporter. U.S. President Joe Biden has recently delayed consideration of new export terminals. Twenty years ago, in this same part of the Philippines, communist insurgents took up arms against an earlier generation of power plants that had displaced them. The New Peoples Army launched a pre-dawn assault on soldiers guarding a nationally-owned power plant in Batangas. Several were killed on both sides in the gunfight. There are echoes of that conflict today: Some protestors against the LNG buildout say they've been threatened. Aaron Pedrosa, a lawyer for the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice, said in an interview in Manila that soldiers often round them up, then offer money to keep quiet. If they refuse? Some have been abducted, he said. You can be charged with anti-terrorism laws. Some leaders have been killed because they were, resisting arrest. The Philippine Army didnt respond to requests for a comment. Back in Santa Clara, Joseph Vargas, president of a fishing association and husband of Abanil, says most communities have seen no benefit from the power plants built so far, even though Philippine law requires financial support for livelihoods in affected areas. Residents in four villages visited by The Associated Press agreed. He too has experienced pressure against protesters. He said soldiers wouldnt allow them to fish, as a punishment. We were harassed until we stopped, he recalled, and they said if we continue, something bad will happen to us. Freelance reporter Anton Delgado contributed to this report. ___ Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about APs climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content. BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese defense spokesperson on Friday urged the United States to revoke its plan to sell arms to China's Taiwan region, and to cease arming the region with weapons in any form. Zhang Xiaogang, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks in response to a media query on the U.S. Department of Defense's recent approval of arms sales worth approximately 300 million U.S. dollars to Taiwan. The U.S. arms sales to China's Taiwan region have severely violated the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, particularly the August 17 Communique, Zhang said. The move has seriously undermined China's sovereignty and security, and posed a grave threat to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. China is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposes the U.S. arms sales to China's Taiwan region, he added. Zhang said that the Taiwan question is the first red line that shall not be crossed in China-U.S. relations, and that supporting "Taiwan independence" separatist forces will only escalate tension in the region, push Taiwan into a dangerous situation, and ultimately harm the United States itself. The Chinese People's Liberation Army has intensified military training and enhanced combat preparedness to resolutely safeguard China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity, Zhang said. Detectives with the Pierce County Sheriffs Department released a sketch of a suspect in a rape from May. At about 11:30 a.m. on May 17, deputies say the man in the sketch raped a 19-year-old woman in the woods next to the Kings Manor Senior Living Community at 8609 Portland Avenue East in Midland. According to deputies, the man lured the woman into the woods by telling her he needed help with an injured cat. He then knocked the woman to the ground and sexually assaulted her. The man is described as a Black man, between the ages of 55 and 65, over six feet tall, and over 300 pounds, wearing a gaiter-style mask. He had short dark hair with a noticeable amount of gray. His brow was also heavily wrinkled and he had dark circles under his eyes, which the victim described as distinctly wide-set and small for his face. His belly weight seemed to affect how he walked as well. A reward of $1,000 has been offered by Crime Stoppers for information that leads to his arrest and charges being filed. If you have information about this incident, contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS or visit tpcrimestoppers.com. After advertising then canceling community meetings with candidates for superintendent last week, the Bethel School Board has chosen Brian Lowney as interim district superintendent for the 2024-2025 school year. Lowney is in his second year as assistant superintendent for secondary schools in the district and has more than 25 years of experience in K-12 education, including 23 years in the Puyallup School District. Tom Seigel was the longest-serving superintendent the district ever had and announced his retirement after 23 years in April. The Bethel School District had advertised online it would host community and staff forums with candidates for superintendent the week of May 27 but canceled those meetings. After extensive consideration and discussion over the past two months, the Bethel Board of Directors has decided to suspend its current search for a new superintendent. This decision comes despite the impressive pool of qualified candidates, both internal and external, who progressed through the process, district communications director Doug Boyles told The News Tribune via email Wednesday. The Board recognizes the disappointment this news may bring, especially given the caliber of the applicants. Hiring a superintendent is the Boards most important decision, and in this case, the timing for such a critical hire simply was not right. We remain committed to finding the best possible leader for our district. School board president Marcus Young told The News Tribune on Thursday he couldnt repeat what was discussed in the boards private executive sessions. Appointing an interim superintendent will give the district more time to search and vet candidates, he said. Bethel School District is a very unique school district because we do not have municipality support [in unincorporated Pierce County], Young said. With the number of students in the area that we cover, with the lack of services that we have in that area, we cant afford to not make the right decision. The district wants to take more time to avoid future turnover and so that we have continuity and consistency for our staff, our students and for this community, he said. Bethel School District has hired a firm to survey community and staff needs, gather a large net of candidates and organize interviews, Young said. He said there wasnt anything wrong with the current pool of candidates, but the district is hoping in appointing an interim superintendent there will be more time to widen the candidate pool for superintendent. Young said in posting about the public forums with candidates last week the board wanted to keep the community informed so they could participate. I understand the confusion that it may have caused, he said. We will start that up when we deem thats the perfect time. Lowney is a great worker with a passion for students needs and an understanding of where the district is heading and what the board wants to accomplish, Young said. The interim superintendent will not be expected to reinvent the wheel, but Lowney will provide a fresh set of eyes, he said. Student achievement, resources focus of interim The Bethel School Board approved the appointment of Lowney as interim superintendent Tuesday night, with an annual salary of $268,529, in addition to $22,500 towards the purchase of a tax-sheltered annuity retirement plan, according to the interim superintendent contract. He starts July 1. Prior to his role as assistant superintendent for secondary schools, Lowney was the executive director of special services in the district, working closely with special education parents and staff, as well as multilingual staff and students. During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lowney said he was also in charge of health and nurses. During his time in the Puyallup School District, he started out as a high school business marketing teacher, English teacher and advisor before serving as an assistant principal for two years. Lowney said he was high school principal of Emerald Ridge High School for 10 years, and, before he came to the Bethel School District, served as the chief academic officer of the Puyallup School District, overseeing kindergarten through 12th grade. I agreed to the appointment, and Im excited about it because I love Bethel. Were the hub of the community, he told The News Tribune on Thursday, saying he shares Seigels passion to bring resources to students and the community at large. My real goal is to continue us headed in the direction were headed, which is around student achievement, supporting students social emotional needs, making sure that we are the hub of the community and continue to expand resources to kids and families, and serv[ing] our most marginalized kiddos, Lowney said, adding hed work with the school board to make annual course corrections based on test scores and identified needs. Lowney said hes not going to be a mini-me of Seigel, but said Seigels stubbornness has rubbed off on him working together the last four years. Ive heard 100 times about how we dont have a YMCA or hospital, and that we only have three miles of public transportation in a 200-plus square mile district, he said. Thats Toms passion for those things, and theyve definitely impacted all of us that work in Bethel. In any leader in Bethel, youll see a little bit of Tom in all of us, but our styles arent identical. Lowney said he wants to be visible in the community and build relationships not only with students and staff but with outside entities who can partner to bring more parks, public transportation, health clinics and activities to the school district. Our kids and our families deserve a voice in the community, he said. I started as a teacher. I have a teachers heart. In my head, I was a principal for all those years so Im in a principals headspace most of my day. And then in this role as interim superintendent, Im really about building capacity as a team so that we can continue the great work thats happening at Bethel. Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen visits with members of the Nebraska National Guard on Wednesday at the Texas-Mexico border. Pillen deployed Guard members in April to help Texas patrol its border. (Courtesy of the Nebraska Governor's Office) LINCOLN Gov. Jim Pillen, Speaker of the Legislature John Arch and State Sen. Tom Brewer visited a 35-member Nebraska National Guard contingent in Texas on Wednesday that the governor deployed to help the Lone Star State police its border with Mexico. Pillen sent Nebraskans south for 90 days starting in April to join the Texas National Guard in patrolling the border region as part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbotts state-funded effort to more aggressively intervene during attempted border crossings. Guard members are set to return from this latest deployment in late June or early July. They are likely to be replaced with volunteers from other conservative-led states. Abbott and other Republican governors have publicized people trying to cross the border in the run-up to the 2024 election, drawing a contrast between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. They argue the Biden administration waited too long and acted too late in responding to an influx of migrants seeking asylum and others trying to cross the border. The Biden administration says it needs more help from Congress. Pillen and the five members of Nebraskas all-GOP congressional delegation have criticized as ineffective Bidens new executive order taking steps including a cap on the number of people who can seek political asylum each day, calling it too little, too late. Meanwhile, progressive Democrats have criticized Bidens executive order as a partial ban on immigration. Pillen is one of several GOP governors spending state and federal tax dollars to police a national border. His previous deployments of the Guard and Nebraska State Patrol troopers had already cost more than $1 million, the Examiner has reported. He has faced criticism from Nebraskans who dont want him spending state money on a federal responsibility, Other critics have said Pillens rhetoric is making the state more hostile to people who look, speak and act differently than they do. Pillen says public safety in Nebraska and elsewhere is harmed when the U.S. lets more people cross into the country illegally. He calls every state a border state. Pillen made another trip to the border Wednesday with state leaders and said Nebraska remains committed to the critical mission. He mentioned upticks in fentanyl seizures by U.S. law enforcement agencies. These Nebraska troops are helping to stop the influx of criminals, weapons, drugs and human trafficking into our country and state, Pillen said in a statement. Pillen was joined on the trip by Maj. Gen. Craig Strong, adjutant general of the Nebraska Guard, and Brewer, the term-limited chairman of the Legislatures Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee. Both thanked the volunteers. The post Pillen visits Nebraska National Guard on Texas-Mexico border with Speaker Arch, Sen. Tom Brewer appeared first on Nebraska Examiner. SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) The plague has been confirmed in prairie dogs in the Badlands National Park, Buffalo Gap National Grassland, and the greater Conata-Badlands ecosystem, according to the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service. The plague a non-native bacterial disease that occurs in rodents and their fleas throughout the western U.S., according to NPS was confirmed from tests done in late May. The issue was discovered last week when three deceased prairie dogs were discovered above ground, Meredith Mingledorff of the NPS said in an email to Nexstars KELO. Once Eric Veach, the superintendent of Badlands National Park, learned of the plague, he and his team immediately took action to inform the public to reduce future risk to park visitors, Mingledorff said. It was a popular national monument, until it was robbed to extinction The NPS, U.S. Fish and Wildlife and U.S. Forest Service are working to determine how many prairie dogs may have died from the plague, Mingledorff said. Because the prairie dog colonies live and burrow underground, an estimate of effected animals is unknown at this time, Mingledorff said in the email. In response to the plague, NPS, the U.S. Forest Service,and conservation partners are applying emergency flea control agents to stop the spread, according to the release. They are also monitoring for plague activity in the Conata-Badlands area. NPS has posted signs for visitors to the South Dakota national park, alerting them of the situation and offering safety and risk reduction tips. That guidance includes avoiding contact with rodents and their burrows, wearing insect repellent and long pants while outdoors, and seeking medical care if you begin experiencing signs or symptoms of plague. National Park Service sign. (Shared via NPS) While humans can get the plague, their risk is low, according to officials. The same cant be said for the endangered black-footed ferrets that call the Badlands area home. They, along with the prairie dogs, may be at the greatest risk from plague. The Conata Basin has the largest black-footed ferret population in the world, Travis Livieri told KELO in April. Livieri is a biologist with the Prairie Wildlife Research organization, a non-profit working with federal agencies and others to restore the black-foot ferret population. The ferrets are one of the most endangered mammals in the world. When the plague infected mammals in the Conata Basin in 2009, it killed more than 80% of the black-footed ferret population, a news release from the NPS said. The black-footed ferret depends on the prairie dog. Ferrets will often use an abandoned prairie dog burrow as a home. According to NPS, prairie dogs make up about 90% of a black-footed ferrets food. A ferret eats a prairie dog about every three days, while the average ferret family will need about 250 prairie dogs a year, NPS explains. In February, a case of human plague was confirmed in Oregon. The person was believed to have been infected by their pet cat, and both were able to receive the necessary treatment. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. DENVER (KDVR) A plane crashed into the front yard of an Arvada home Friday morning, hitting multiple objects on the way down and sending four passengers to the hospital. Officers received reports of the crash around 9:30 a.m., according to the Arvada Police Department. On scene, they found that a plane struck a fence and tree at Oberon Road and Balsam Street before crashing into the yard of a home at the corner of Oberon Road and Brentwood Street. The plane burst into flames after crashing, and the injuries to the planes four passengers included burns, Alex Lemishko, a senior accident investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said. Two of the four people taken to the hospital were adults. It was not clear yet whether the other two people were adults or children, he said although Arvada Fire said earlier in the day that two of the people hurt were juveniles. Witnesses told FOX31 that neighbors helped pull people out of the plane. No one in the home, which is on a street running parallel to railroad tracks, was hurt, Lemishko said. The 1969 Beechcraft 35 crashed about 15 minutes after taking off from Centennial Airport south of Denver, apparently headed to another suburban airport about 30 miles to the northwest, Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport, Lemishko said. Randy Hamrick and his wife live in the home where the plane crashed. They were inside at the time, and their first thought was a train derailed from the track across the street. We saw the explosion and the glow from the outside and said, well, wait a second, Hamrick told FOX31s Nate Belt. Then he thought the house was collapsing. It felt like it was falling in. I mean, it was just that violent, he said. Pilot calls in emergency landing before Arvada crash The unidentified pilot radioed that he was experiencing engine problems shortly before the crash and planned to land at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport, which was probably visible from the air by then, Lemishko said. According to Arvada Fire, the pilot called into a Jefferson County air traffic control tower and asked for an emergency landing after seeing a low oil pressure light. Minutes later, another call came in reporting extreme power loss. The pilot told the tower that they were not going to make it and they would have to put it down somewhere, as can be heard on air traffic control recordings. Shortly after, the tower lost contact with the plane which is when witnesses started to report seeing a low-flying plane teetering side to side in Arvada. Witness describes plane weaving back and forth before crashing in Arvada The pilot tried to land in the street in the residential neighborhood, Lemishko said. The planes left wing hit a large spruce tree, and the plane skidded down the roadway and veered into the yard, he said. The plane also hit a pickup truck parked on the street in front of the home, pushing the truck up into the homes driveway into another truck, Arvada Fire spokesperson Deanna Harrington said. A roadway or even railroad tracks is a reasonable option for a pilot to try to land if they cannot make it to an airport, Lemishko said. Im sure what was going through the pilots mind was I see a roadway, I need to get this aircraft down, lets give it a shot, he said. Arvada first responders at the scene of a plane crash on June 7, 2024. (Credit: Evan Sherlock) Arvada first responders at the scene of a plane crash on June 7, 2024. Debris from a plane crash in Arvada on June 7, 2024. Arvada first responders at the scene of a plane crash on June 7, 2024. (KDVR) First responders block off traffic to the scene of a small plane crash near Oberon Road and Carr Street in Arvada on June 6, 2024. An aerial view of a plane crash in Arvada on June 7, 2024. First responders said everyone on was taken to the hospital. Arvada plane crash: Witness describes the scene Evan Sherlock told FOX31 he was driving in Arvada to get mulch for his front yard when he saw a plane flying extremely low, weaving back and forth and dipping wings. When he looked in his rearview mirror and realized the plane was gone, he made a U-turn and found plane debris in the front yard of a home. I couldnt believe thats what I just saw. I was hoping that it was doing something else, Sherlock said. I could see smoke coming out of it, and at first it looked like a crop duster to me. And then I was like, theres no way why would you be crop dusting in Arvada? But obviously, something was mechanically wrong with the airplane, and it was just entirely too low for it to be doing anything safe. Watch: 2 were inside home where Arvada plane crashed in yard As seen in pictures, the crashed plane started to smoke and caused a fire, which was quickly extinguished. But the wreckage caught fire again a few hours later, not long after the perimeter was taken down. FOX31s Ashley Michels reported that news crews and onlookers were within feet of the wreckage when it ignited for the second time. Fire crews hit the flames with water and eventually had to use a fire extinguisher. Hours after Arvada plane crash, it is back on fire. The perimeter had been taken down and news crews, public are extremely close. Lots of thick smoke just filled the air pic.twitter.com/WDy04ddoZk Ashley Michels (@ReporterAshley) June 7, 2024 FOX31s Vicente Arenas was on the scene just after 4 p.m. when crews hoisted the planes engine from the crash site. Crews remained on the scene to continue processing the wreckage. Watch: Neighbors come together to help after Arvada plane crash Back at the home where the plane crashed, Hamrick said he and his wife are thankful that the passengers in the plane are being treated at the hospital and hope they make a full recovery. Me and the wife have even talked about maybe going up and checking on them tomorrow in person actually, he said. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders was on board the plane that crashed near Orcas Island Friday, family told KIRO 7 News. Anders died in the crash, his son, retired Air Force Lt. Col, Greg Anders, told the Associated Press. Friday afternoon, the Coast Guard said a plane crash happened between Orcas Island and Jones Island. Late Friday night, the Coast Guard confirmed that they had ended their search as the pilots body had been recovered by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife dive team. According to a video from the incident, Anders may have been attempting a loop in a Beechcraft T-34 when the plane hit the water. Anders, a former United States Air Force major general, is best known for being one of the first three people to travel to the moon, circumnavigating it ten times and returning to Earth. Anders also took one of the most famous photographs in the history of the planet, known as Earthrise. Born Oct. 17, 1933, in Hong Kong, Anders was the pilot for Apollo 8. With astronauts Frank Borman and Lovell, Anders received a call in mid-August of 1968 telling them to cancel their holiday plans, as they were going to the Moon. On Dec. 21, 1968, a Saturn V rocket launched from Cape Kennedy with the three astronauts on board. For the first time, humans were on board a 36-story tall rocket, filled with 1 million gallons of fuel, and launched into space. The 7.6 million pounds of thrust would take them through the atmosphere and they would become the first humans to be taken beyond Earths orbit. On Sunday, Dec. 22, about halfway to the moon, Frank Borman told Mission Control, Its a beautiful, beautiful view. Courtesy NASA 69 hours after launch, the crew had reached the far side of the Moon. They burned their engines to slow their ship down so it could be captured by the Moons gravitational pull. For the first time in human history, human beings were able to see the other side of the Moon. On Christmas Eve, they filmed the surface of the Moon from onboard Apollo 8, broadcasting the footage on televisions around the world. The vastness up here of the Moon is awe-inspiring. It makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth. The Earth from here is a grand oasis in the blackness of space. Lovell said. As the Earth rose up over the lunar horizon, Anders took his photo, known as Earthrise. On Christmas morning, after nine-and-a-half lunar orbits, the crew fired their engines to propel them out of orbit and to begin their flight home. They splashed down Dec. 27 in the Pacific Ocean, where the Navy plucked them aboard the USS Yorktown. Shortly after returning to land, President Lyndon Johnson called to congratulate them on their efforts. Youve seen what man has really never seen before. Youve taken us, taken all of us all over the world, into a new era, Johnson said. NASA Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on June 7 called on state authorities to reduce electricity consumption amid Russia's continuing attacks on energy infrastructure. A recent uptick in Russian strikes put a heavy strain on Ukraine's power grid, with several power plants being destroyed or disabled. Due to resulting power deficits, Ukraine began implementing rolling shutdowns on May 15. The blackouts last from four to eight hours on average and could be carried out up to three times per day. In a post on Telegram on June 7, Shmyhal said that, as well as fixing infrastructure, a second approach was also needed. "Let's start with ourselves. All state authorities are tasked with reducing electricity consumption," he said. "We are adopting the relevant government order today." Shmyhal said "ministries, central executive bodies, and regional state administrations" should no longer use air conditioning or external lighting on buildings. Local authorities have been asked to limit street lighting. "We also urge businesses to limit the use of air conditioners and other energy-intensive equipment that is not critical for production," he added. Hospitals, and enterprises where air conditioning is part of the production process would not be subject to the order. The state of Ukraine's energy system will temporarily improve after an additional unit of a nuclear power station starts to operate, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the head of Ukraine's state grid operator Ukrenergo, told Ukrainska Pravda on June 6. Ukrenergo expects that another nuclear power plant unit will be launched overnight on June 8 after its repair. The improvement will be temporary and last for two weeks, as the heat in July will affect the load of Ukraine's energy system, Kudrytskyi said. Since the start of 2024, Russia has launched six large-scale attacks against Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Russia carried out the last large-scale attack overnight on June 1, damaging energy infrastructure in various regions across the country. An attack in April destroyed the Trypillia Thermal Power Plant, the main electricity supplier to Kyiv, Zhytomyr, and Cherkasy oblasts. Russian strikes against Ukraine's energy infrastructure have cost the state over $1 billion in damage, Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said in May. Read also: Kyiv struggles with rolling blackouts as officials warn of bleak months ahead Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Police arrest man accused of forcing woman into car at gunpoint, sexually assaulting her A man who Lexington police say forced a woman into a car at gunpoint and then sexually assaulted her has been arrested by police in Scott County. The Lexington Police Department said the kidnapping and assault happened May 4. Two days later, police said they were called to the 1300 block of Village Drive regarding an assault, and the woman told them she had been taken to an apartment complex after being forced into a vehicle at gunpoint, according to a news release issued by Lexington police Friday. Police said they identified Jose Cabellero-Vazquez, 24, as the suspect using the Real-Time Intelligence Center, Flock license plate readers and traffic cameras. Caballero-Vazquez was arrested by the Georgetown Police Department Thursday and was being held in the Scott County Detention Center on charges of kidnapping of an adult and first-degree sexual abuse, police said. Fayette District Court records indicate that Caballero-Vazquez was involved in a collision Monday afternoon and that Lexington police charged him the same day with driving without a license/negligence in an accident in reference to that incident. Police declined to answer questions about whether he had been identified as a suspect in the kidnapping case before that or how he came to be arrested in Georgetown Thursday. Anyone with information is asked to call Lexington police at (859) 258-3600. Anonymous tips can be submitted to Bluegrass Crime Stoppers by calling 859-253-2020, visiting Bluegrasscrimestoppers.com or using the P3 Tips app at P3tips.com. Editors note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of the suspects name. Woman arrested, charged with murder in connection to fatal shooting on Newtown Pike Man arrested in New York faces murder charge for shooting in Lexington KAMPALA, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Uganda has launched a paramilitary force to enforce environmental laws and avert related crimes in the country, authorities said Friday. The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), the state-owned environmental watchdog, said that the Environment Protection Force (EPF) was formed in line with the country's laws. The force will perform functions such as 24-hour surveillance of the environment, detection and investigation of environmental crime, and monitoring and enforcing compliance with related laws. "The force will work closely with the Uganda police force, army, wildlife rangers and the intelligence community," NEMA said. "The launch of the force demonstrates the government's commitment to environmental conservation. It is also a significant step towards effective environmental protection and management in Uganda." According to NEMA, some of the most common environmental crimes in Uganda include failure to undertake social impact assessments, forgery of impact assessment certificates, illegal mining, lakeshore encroachment, logging, littering, noise pollution and wetland encroachment, among others. Police in Burlington, Vermont, have apologized to high school students who were rattled by a role-play robbery demonstration and mock shooting they say sent them diving to the floor to hide under tables and texting goodbye and I love you to their loved ones. About 20 students from a Burlington High School Year End Studies (YES) forensics class went to the police station for a field trip Wednesday where school officials were aware a crime reenactment would occur, school district spokesperson Russ Elek said in a statement to the VTDigger. However, school officials didnt realize the presentation would happen without warning, Elek said. During the visit, three Burlington Police Department personnel simulated a robbery scenario that was not directed at students or faculty, the department said in a release. Police said they had communicated with school staff last month about the details of the demonstration, including saying that the training incident would involve using fake firearms in a mock shooting. Its unclear whether teachers were told the simulation would occur without warning. One 15-year-old in the class said students were listening to a presentation when he suddenly heard people enter the room screaming. Theres like three people fighting. The fake gun, that we didnt know was fake at the time, got pulled out and shot what I think were blanks. They left shells. And it was still like loud, the sophomore, who asked not to be named, told CNN. Me and almost the whole class dove to the floor to hide under the tables because we didnt know what was going on. CNN has reached out to the Burlington Police Department about the weapon used in the simulation. The student said the person holding the gun was wearing a mask and they heard someone scream get down. He said that he was shaking, and that some kids were getting their phones out to text family members. The email from school officials to families said, While the gun was fake, the reenactment involved screaming and fake gun shot sounds. If these are the people quote-unquote protecting us, why did they make such a stupid decision without really thinking. Especially with school shootings and stuff, were all already on edge, the student said. Police said they asked school staff whether the demonstration would be suitable for the student group, saying It is about as real life as you can get, and is certainly exactly the sort of thing we deal with most frequently. YES Program staff responded, I think these students will be fine with this simulation. We will give a heads up to parents and students, according to the police release. But in an email sent to families of the students after the incident, school officials wrote the simulation was startling for many students and may have left some feeling confused and frightened as a result, the VTDigger reported. Burlington School District Superintendent Tom Flanagan and Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad released a joint statement apologizing to students Friday. It is clear to us that this weeks events resulted from a breakdown in communication between two groups trying to work together to create a meaningful experience for students, the statement read, in part. Both BSD and the BPD are committed to doing a better job of clearly laying out descriptions, expectations, and agendas and seeking clarification when working together in the future. Neither of us want any repeat of anything like this moving forward. Students literally thought they were being shot at The sophomore student and his parent said they had no knowledge that there was going to be a shooting demonstration during the field trip. A grandparent who is guardian to one of the students likewise said the school did not inform them of the planned mock shooting. CNN has been unable to independently confirm what parents and students were told before the trip. If I had known that was going to happen, I wouldve never put him through that, said the grandparent, who has asked to remain anonymous to protect the grandchilds privacy. The grandparent said the students literally thought they were being shot at, adding that their grandchild didnt know what to do or how to react. The grandparent told CNN their child froze up during the demonstration. Other kids were diving on the floor, trying to get under furniture, whatever they could do to get out of the situation, the grandparent said the student told them. The Burlington Police Department said it apologizes to any students in attendance who were upset by the specific scenario and crime scene portion of the presentation. A representative for Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak also told CNN that parents and students were upset following the demonstration. Mayor Mulvaney-Stanak said in a statement to CNN that she apologizes for the harm and distress this incident caused Burlington High School students students who have tragically grown up in a society where gun violence, including in school settings, has become commonplace. The mayor said she hopes the school district and police department will take responsibility for the harm caused and be self-reflective about all the ways this should have been handled differently and will not be repeated in the future. School officials hosted a restorative circle on Friday for students and teachers to share their thoughts about the incident, according to an email sent to parents and students. The 15-year-old student told CNN that teachers and police officers were present, but that he felt like police werent directly holding themselves accountable. CNNs Elizabeth Wolfe contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Pennsylvania State Police, who are investigating, say they've yet to have "in person contact" with the woman claiming to be Cherrie Mahan National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (2) Cherrie Ann Mahan when she was 8 years old, left, and an image of what she may look like in 2024, right. Police have shared an update after a woman claimed to be Cherrie Mahan, who disappeared in 1985 when she was just 8 years old. Mahan was last seen getting off a school bus about 100 yards from her home in Pennsylvania on Feb. 22, 1985, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. In May, a woman shared a post in a Facebook group claiming she was Mahan, CBS affiliate KDKA-TV and USA Today reported. The individual who made the post was banned from the page, moderator Brock Organ wrote on Thursday, May 30. In an update on Thursday, June 6, Pennsylvania State Police said the woman left them a voicemail, but they've been unable to get in contact with her. "No contact could be made with the female at the phone number and address provided by the female caller," state police wrote. "This female has not contacted the Pennsylvania State Police or any other law enforcement agencies that we are aware of since her original post or voicemail." Related: Missing Student Riley Strain Seen Stumbling on Surveillance Video Night He Went Missing Police went on to say that they were able to obtain access to her fingerprints, although an initial review indicated that "she is not Cherrie Mahan." 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. Although police have yet to make "in person contact" with the woman, they said that "if the caller decides to make herself available to the Pennsylvania State Police or any other law enforcement agencies, her claim will be investigated." Related: Va. Authorities Say Mom and 3 Kids Are Missing But Husband Disputes That, Says He's Not 'Concerned' Three other women have come forward over the last 40 years claiming they were Mahan, but were not, according to KDKA-TV. A $5,000 reward is still available for anyone who may have information that could lead to an arrest in the case. A blue 1976 Dodge van featuring a mural of a mountain may be involved in her disappearance, per the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Related: Melting Glacier Reveals Remains of German Hiker Who Went Missing 37 Years Ago Reflecting on the upcoming 40th anniversary of her daughter's disappearance, McKinney told NBC affiliate WPIX that it "breaks my heart." I pray every single day of my life that she would just come home," she added. "If that is not Gods will, I hope that he will allow me to find out for sure exactly what happened to her. For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on People. A Black man was gunned down. A neighborhood was besieged by heavily armed police. And a police officer also Black was killed trying to provide first aid. In post-George Floyd Minneapolis, the overlapping narratives of last week's events have proved to be a challenge for leaders who have pushed for police reform. Many hailed officer Jamal Mitchell as a hero, not just for his actions that day but for his strong-yet-cheerful demeanor with community members and for such acts as running into a burning house near Bde Maka Ska to rescue two elderly residents just days into his job exactly the type of police officer that seemingly everyone wants as the MPD seeks to reinvent itself. But others were silent on Mitchell's death. The City Council member who represents the Whittier neighborhood released a seven-paragraph statement discussing the scourge of gun violence and the traumas of a massive police response but never mentioned that a police officer was killed. "Last night, three people tragically lost their lives to gun violence in our neighborhood," Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai wrote in a newsletter to constituents on May 31, when only Mitchell's name was public. "I'm heartbroken for their families and loved ones, who are first and most deeply impacted by this loss." Here are the three people who lost their lives: Minneapolis police officer Jamal Mitchell, 36.Mustafa Ahmed Mohamed, 35, of Minneapolis, who killed Mitchell, according to authorities.Osman Said Jimale, 32, who was shot and killed inside an apartment in the 2200 block of Blaisdell Avenue S.Harrowing events The apartment shooting that left Jimale dead and another man wounded is what brought Mitchell to the area. He was the first to arrive, and investigators have said he spotted Mohamed sitting in the street, along with another man. Mitchell approached to offer medical assistance and, authorities said, Mohamed pulled out a gun and fatally shot Mitchell. Two other officers who took fire from Mohamed shot him dead in a shootout that included at least 11 shots, according to cellphone video reviewed by the Star Tribune. One of the officers, Luke Kittock, was hit. Another man, Alexander G. Hage, 38, whom police have described as a someone simply driving through the area, was critically wounded in the gunfire, and a firefighter was struck. Jimale was later found dead inside the apartment, where another man was found with a gunshot wound. With reports of "officer down" ringing out on police radios, law enforcement swarmed the two-block area. Residents in the densely packed neighborhood were barred from returning home or trapped inside their homes for hours. Formations of officers broke down doors to dozens of apartments inside the building where the shooting had been reported, looking for those involved, residents said. In neighboring buildings, investigators knocked on door after door well past midnight, asking residents what they'd witnessed. By the next morning, there were no police to be seen, only tatters of police tape, makeshift memorials, residents comparing harrowing tales, and tenants trying to find out when their doors could be fixed amid a smattering of reporters looking to speak to, photograph or record just about any part of it. Shows of support That the outpouring of support for a fallen officer was swift, full-throated and widespread isn't surprising; it remains a political no-brainer for many elected officials. In one show of bipartisan unity, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, who represents Minneapolis and had supported efforts to dismantle the Police Department, led the entire Minnesota House delegation four Republicans and four Democrats in a remembrance and moment of silence for Mitchell on the House floor. The most striking display of unity might have been at the city's first news conference, held at 10 p.m. on the day of the shooting, when Mayor Jacob Frey announced Mitchell had been killed. Joining Frey were Gov. Tim Walz, senior law enforcement officials, and all 13 City Council members many of whom are outspoken police critics. When the remarks concluded, council members lined up to embrace a choked-up Assistant Police Chief Katie Blackwell. Public statements that followed included Council Member Michael Rainville, one of the most pro-police members of the council, stating Mitchell had been "assassinated" and only momentarily mentioning "other victims." Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, a former police abolitionist, described Mitchell as "a father, fiance, friend, and beloved by many especially those he worked side by side with." Council Member Jamal Osman's statement hailed Mitchell as a "hero" and said the city's police "courageously serve under stressful and often dangerous conditions" but the words weren't his. Osman later acknowledged to the Star Tribune that he copied and pasted most of his statement from an internal email sent to city employees hours earlier by Frey, Community Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette and City Operations Officer Margaret Anderson Kelliher. In an interview, Osman said he felt pressure to get updates out swiftly to his constituents, who were pressing him for information after hearing rumors that those involved included Somali immigrants and he agreed with the sentiments. "This was a very sensitive time, and we had just lost a hero," he said. "I felt like it was the right thing to communicate." Fears of hypocrisy Council Member Jeremiah Ellison, a longtime police critic who rose to political prominence protesting the police killing of Jamar Clark in 2015, was the only council member to not make a public statement. In an interview, Ellison said he thought it was appropriate for the mayor and those with more direct knowledge to be the public voice but he shares their sentiments. "While I didn't know officer Jamal Mitchell, by all accounts he was an exemplary person and civil servant ... the type of person the city should be proud to have employed," Ellison said, emphasizing that his criticisms of the police system don't equate to criticisms of the people in the system. "He lost his life and has a family, and that stands on its own. All those criticisms, they still stand and they're still relevant." He also understands why some active in the police accountability movement might hesitate to express public sympathies out of fear of of being labeled as hypocrites even though Ellison sees no contradiction. "In the political environment we're in, things that are not morally inconsistent can sometimes be framed as morally inconsistent," he said. Indeed, various non-elected officials involved in police reform work were reluctant to speak about the shootings so soon after Mitchell's death. Among the elected officials who notably didn't mention Mitchell by name were Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, who first acknowledged the death in a news release Sunday announcing that she was no longer pursing charges against a state trooper who shot and killed a Black motorist; Council Member Robin Wonsley, who released a two-sentence statement about a "tragic shooting"; and Chughtai, the council member who represents and lives in the Whittier neighborhood. In a statement to the Star Tribune, Chughtai suggested she was trying to balance the outpouring of support for Mitchell with others who were affected but received less attention. "I grieve the loss of Officer Jamal Mitchell and my thoughts are with his family," she said. "I also believe the tragic loss of Osman Said Jimale, and life threatening injuries to Alexander Hage and another unidentified victim, are not footnotes. As the Councilmember for Ward 10 and a leader in my neighborhood I know their stories also deserve to be told." She added that the "violent loss of three people was traumatic for our community, and for many of our neighbors, the (law enforcement) response made it so much worse," because many in the neighborhood didn't know what was happening. "My first responsibility is to my constituents," she wrote, "and I want all of them to feel safe, seen, and be treated with compassion as they process this trauma." Star Tribune staff writer Zoe Jackson contributed to this report. Last week, Reason reported on the rising trend of Colorado police departments increasingly using aerial drones as first responders to certain 911 calls. A new investigation out this week reveals how such a system could work in practice, with startling implications for privacy and civil liberties. In WIRED, Dhruv Mehrotra and Jesse Marx write about Chula Vista, a town in southern California roughly equidistant between San Diego and Tijuana. In 2018, the Chula Vista Police Department (CVPD) launched the Drone as First Responder (DFR) program, allowing 911 operators to deploy drones either in lieu of or in addition to uniformed officersthe first U.S. city to do so. DFR "is not a replacement for officers, it's an enhancement," Police Chief Roxana Kennedy told KPBS at the time. In the program's first week, drones responded to 30 calls and led to three arrests, including a domestic violence case in which a man suspected of stabbing a woman fled back to a homeless encampment and a pursuing drone led police to his location. The program was initially limited to within one mile of the police station, but it expanded over time before receiving federal authorization to operate citywide in March 2021. In the nearly six years since, as Mehrotra and Marx detail, CVPD drones have taken nearly 20,000 flights, "often dispatched for serious incidents like reports of armed individuals [but] also routinely deployed for minor issues such as shoplifting, vandalism, and loud music. Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, the city even used drones to broadcast public service announcements to homeless encampments." WIRED examined "nearly 10,000 drone flight records from July 2021 to September 2023," encompassing "more than 22.3 million coordinates from flight paths," to assess CVPD's claim that drones are only dispatched in response to specific 911 calls or lawful searches and do not merely go roaming in search of suspicious activity. "Drones were used in about 7 percent of the city's service requests," the authors found, including "nearly half of the incidents involving reports of armed individuals and about a quarter of those related to violent crime," plus mental health and domestic violence calls. "The vast majority" of the 10,000 flight records analyzed "could be linked to corresponding 911 calls. But not all of them." In fact, about 10 percent "lacked a stated purpose and could not be connected to any relevant 911 call; for 498 flights, the department lists the reason as an 'unknown problem.'" Further, "nearly 400 [flights] didn't come within half a mile of where any call in the preceding half hour originated." Even specifically sanctioned flights may be cause for concern: "Operators are trained to start recording with the drone's camera immediately, capturing video throughout the entire flight, from takeoff to landing," Mehrotra and Marx note. The cameras, "powerful enough to capture faces clearly and constantly recording while in flight, have amassed hundreds of hours of video footage of the city's residents," the vast majority of which the city has refused to release. "On average, each drone flight passes above 13 census blocks and potentially exposes approximately 4,700 of the residents below to a drone's camera," the WIRED analysis found. And potential exposure did not fall equally: "Residents on a typical block in the working-class and largely immigrant west side of Chula Vista had drones in the skies above 10 times longer than a resident of a typical east-side block," Mehrotra wrote in WIRED's Politics Lab newsletter yesterday. West-side residents "alleged that police drones were following them personally, lingering unnecessarily in their backyards, or watching them during their most intimate moments," and others complained about the noise of drone rotors. (The CVPD claimed the disparity is due to the unequal number of 911 calls that each area receives; the WIRED analysis "confirm[ed] that this is largely the case.") Interestingly, support for the drone program is also strongest among the lower-income Chula Vista residents most likely to be subjected to it. One Latino manwho lives in an apartment complex that CVPD drones have flown over more than 300 times since July 2021told WIRED that the drones make him feel safer, especially after a stranger tried to steal his child and police deployed a drone to look for the suspect. This isn't unheard of: Polls show black Americans are significantly more afraid of the police than their white neighbors, yet they still want a strong, effective police presence in their neighborhoods. Regardless, Chula Vista's drone program could be a concerning sign of where American policing is headed. Even apart from DFR, city residents have been subject to a shocking amount of surveillance in recent years: automated license plate readers, facial recognition software, and a partnership with Amazon for access to its Ring doorbell cameras. In December 2017, the CVPD partnered with a company to share its data with other law enforcement agencies, including federal agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). As Colorado's example makes clear, police departments increasingly see DFR programs as a plausible alternative to traditional policing, in which an officer would be dispatched to the scene of an emergency. While that's certainly true, it would also expose everyday citizens to a shocking new world of state surveillance. The post Police Flew Drones Over One California City Nearly 20,000 Times in 6 Years appeared first on Reason.com. LAS VEGAS (KLAS) Police say a 2-year-old boy reported missing Thursday was found dead in a dumpster, and his mother was arrested in connection to the death. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officials said the boy was found in a dumpster in the 1300 block of Lewis Avenue in Downtown Las Vegas. He was declared dead at the scene. Homicide detectives took over the investigation and determined that the boys mother, identified as Diaja Smith, 23, was the suspect in the boys death. She was arrested and booked into Clark County Detention Center. Smith faces a charge of open murder, among other felony charges. A flyer created by police stated that Jacoby Robinson Jr., 2, was last seen around 7:45 p.m. near the corner of Lewis Avenue and S. 15th Street, which is near Mayfair Place Park. The closest major cross streets are Charleston Boulevard and Maryland Parkway. Police did not initially release information connecting the two cases. However, the police event numbers for both cases are identical. LVMPD officials issue event numbers for every incident to which officers respond. LVMPD investigates a death in downtown Las Vegas.(KLAS) LVMPD investigates a death in downtown Las Vegas.(KLAS) LVMPD investigates a death in downtown Las Vegas.(KLAS) Police distributed the flyer with the boys photo and description, asking nearby residents whether they had seen him. Early Friday morning, a Metro Watch Commander released information that officers located a body at Lewis and 15th just before 1 a.m., and homicide investigators were sent to the scene. 8 News Now Investigators spotted police searching the neighborhood near Lewis and 15th, and a man who said he owned a group of townhouses behind where police were searching said officers told him the child on the flyer was dead. Additional neighbors said police asked them if they had seen the missing child and whether they might have any home surveillance video. Police also asked a clerk in a nearby convenience store if they could look at the stores surveillance video. The 8 News Now Investigators requested the stores video but were told the manager was not available at the time. Smiths next court appearance is set for Saturday, June 8. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS. EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) A 25-year-old man has been arrested and charged with sexual assault of a child, El Paso Police said in a news release issued Friday, June 9. Adrian De La Cruz, 25, was arrested on May 16, police said. Detectives said that on April 10, De La Cruz was driving a van along Giles Road when he approached two girls walking along the roadway. De La Cruz then sexually assaulted one of the girls, police said. No age was given on the victim. He was booked into the El Paso County Detention Facility and was charged with sexual assault of a child with a $100,000 bond. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News. Police seek suspect in Fifth Third Bank robbery near Grandview Heights COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) Columbus police are looking for a suspect accused of robbing a Fifth Third Bank near Grandview Heights. A security camera captured photos at 4:51 p.m. Wednesday as the woman approached the bank, located at 1349 W. 5th Ave. Another camera showed the suspect walk up to the counter inside. As she approached the teller, the suspect shouted, This is a robbery, and demanded money, according to police. (Courtesy Photo/Columbus Division of Police) (Courtesy Photo/Columbus Division of Police) Unsolved Ohio: Elderly woman who vanished on Halloween night in 1961 still not found Police said the teller gave the woman an unspecified amount of money. The suspect then ran away through an alley. This embedded content is not available in your region. Police described the suspect as a woman between 25 to 35 years old, and weighing between 170 to 200 pounds. They asked anyone with information on the suspects identity to call a detective at 614-645-2602, the Columbus Police Robbery Squad at 614-645-4665, or the Central Ohio Crimestoppers at 614-461-8477. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV. The Burlington Police Department in Vermont faced backlash over a controversial surprise mock shooting it staged Wednesday before Burlington High School students. The demonstration was held for the students in Burlington High Schools Year End Studies program, and it involved a role-playing scenario with police personnel, the police department said in a statement Thursday. The ... scenario only involved three department personnel simulating a robbery scenario and was not directed at any students or faculty, the department said, adding later that fake firearms were used in the demonstration at the police station. According to a newspaper in Vermont, Seven Days, the scenario was supposed to demonstrate the unreliability of witness statements. The presentation had been cleared by the districts Year End Studies (YES) program staff in late May, who reportedly agreed to notify parents and students about it in advance, the department said. But students were given no warning and dove for cover, Seven Days reported. Students and parents were reportedly shocked and outraged. We take our responsibility to keep students safe very seriously, and we are deeply sorry that this event occurred, school officials said, according to WPTZ-TV in Burlington. We understand the impact this incident may have had on the mental health and well-being of students, and we let parents and students know that staff in both our counseling and mental health support offices will be able to provide support tomorrow if needed. The department also issued an apology on Thursday, noting that there was a social media post circulating about how upset students felt after the class. The Burlington Police Department apologizes to any students in attendance who were upset by the specific scenario and crime scene portion of the presentation, the statement said. HuffPost reached out to Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak and the Burlington School Districts superintendent for comment but did not immediately receive a response. According to the police department, the school districts YES program staff had reached out to police officials in April about conducting a presentation following a successful demonstration the department had done for another program within the school district last fall. The police department and YES program staff had reportedly talked about details of the session beforehand, with the police department saying it would be about as real life as you can get. It had asked whether the staff thought students would be comfortable with it, and they reportedly confirmed that students would be OK. Even though the department said the scenario was not set up as a crime directed at students, experts have emphasized how traumatic such situations, including active-shooting drills at schools, can be for students. A majority of states in the U.S. require schools to do active-shooting drills to prepare students and faculty for such an incident, especially as violence has shaken schools and communities across the country in recent years, PBS reported. But a recent report from Everytown for Gun Safety shows that active-shooting drills can have an alarming effect on mental health. The results of the study, which analyzed millions of social media messages and more than 1,000 Reddit posts related to 114 schools in 33 states, indicated a 42% increase in anxiety and stress and a 39% increase in depression displayed in the posts after active-shooter drills compared with before the drills. The data also showed that this trend continued for at least 90 days after the drills regardless of the school setting or the tactics used. The police department will be meeting with the districts students and staff on Friday to discuss the presentation and the effect it had. We hope that this can be a reflective growth opportunity for all parties, the police department wrote in its statement. Related... Police in Wisconsin continue search for missing woman nearly one month after she was last seen RICE LAKE, Wis. (WFRV) Authorities in northwestern Wisconsin say the search for a missing 39-year-old woman who has not been seen since May 13 continues. On May 25, the Rice Lake Police Department posted on its Facebook page that it was trying to find Melissa Davis after her family didnt talk to her in several weeks. A few days later on May 29, the police department says that Davis was last seen on foot in the area of Allen Street and Main Street around 6:45 p.m. on May 13. Authorities asked residents near the location where Davis was last seen to check video footage to see if anyone had footage of her in the area. Davis was described as 504 tall weighing 125 pounds with brown hair and hazel eyes. Altercation at a Wisconsin bar turns into deadly shooting, dozens of shell casings found On June 5, police provided another update saying that authorities searched Daviss last known residence. This search was done on May 31. Additionally, a land and water search was also conducted. Officials say that neither search resulted in any leads to finding Davis. Police are now asking residents to check out buildings on their property within a specific area around Rice Lake. Anyone with information is asked to call 715-537-3106. No additional details were provided. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFRV Local 5 - Green Bay, Appleton. NAIROBI, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Experts convened Friday in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, to discuss ways to reduce the cost of sending diaspora remittances to Africa. The digital remittances cost reduction conference gathered more than 100 delegates, including senior government officials, United Nations agencies, money transfer operators, mobile network operators, financial technology companies and financial institutions from around the world, to explore strategies for decreasing remittance costs for Africans living abroad. Susan Koech, deputy governor of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), said "Even as remittance costs have reduced over time, corridors such as those in the East African Community region remain higher than in other regions." She noted that the cost of sending money to Kenya still exceeds the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of 3 percent. According to CBK data, remittance inflows to Kenya, a major source of foreign exchange, reached 4.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. Remittance transfers increased 20 percent in the first four months of 2024 compared to the same period last year. Ronald Ajengo, country program coordinator for Kenya at the United Nations' International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), emphasized the need for public and private sector collaboration to make remittances cheaper, faster and safer to harness their potential for sustainable development. "This financial flow is crucial for achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), promoting sustainable development, and reducing poverty," Ajengo added. Killian Clifford, a senior specialist in migrant financial and economic empowerment at the United Nations' International Organization of Migration (IOM), said that digitalizing remittances, particularly through mobile money networks, would help reduce costs, improve access and advance financial inclusion in Africa. Isaiya Kabira, secretary of remittances and entrepreneurship at the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, said that fluctuating currency exchange rates in Kenya can lead to significant foreign exchange losses for those remitting money. Kabira also pointed out that barriers to digital remittance services and financial services persist, especially for marginalized communities and those in rural areas. Polish and allied fighter aircraft were scrambled due to a Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine. Source: Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces on Quote: "Be advised that Polish and allied aircraft are flying in Polish airspace, which may lead to increased noise levels, especially in the southeastern part of the country. Intense activity of the Russians has been observed this evening, related to the launch of missiles, Shahed drones and ballistic weapons on facilities located on the territory of Ukraine." Details: Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces noted that the latest activity of Russian aircraft, when strikes were launched on Ukraines west, was recorded on the night of 31 May 31-1 June 2024. Later, Operational Command reported that the air operation had ended due to a "reduction in the level of threat of missile strikes by Russian aircraft on areas bordering our territory." "This night was very tense for the entire Polish air defence system, as a Russian large-scale missile attack covered the entire territory of Ukraine, including regions bordering Poland," the statement said. Operational Command emphasised that the Polish military "is continuously monitoring the situation on Ukrainian territory and is on constant combat alert to ensure the security of Polish airspace." Background: Russia launched another large-scale strike on Ukrainian territory on the night of 6-7 June. A fire broke out at an industrial facility in Kyiv Oblast. Support UP or become our patron! Polish protesters lifted their blockade at the Hrebenne-Rava-Ruska crossing on the Ukrainian border, Border Guard Service spokesperson Andrii Demchenko told Ukrainska Pravda on June 7. The news comes only a few days after the protesters started the blockade of trucks at the checkpoint on June 4 over Ukrainian agricultural imports. Polish farmers and truckers have intermittently protested at the Ukrainian border since last fall, but the previous wave of blockades largely ended in late April. "Active movement of trucks in both directions effectively began at 1 a.m. Currently, all the checkpoints on the Polish border work as usual," Demchenko said. Disputes over crop imports have soured the relationship between Warsaw and Kyiv. Both countries are major agricultural producers, and Polish farmers have complained that Ukrainian products create uneven competition, especially since the EU lifted tariffs in 2022 after the full-scale Russian invasion. Poland banned the import of several products from Ukraine, such as grain, corn, or rapeseed, in 2023, but the country's farmers continue to oppose other products flowing to Poland and the EU. Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) A day after an attorney representing the family of Mica Miller urged South Carolina lawmakers to go to work on coercive control legislation aimed at helping victims of domestic violence, an Horry County Republican appeared to take offense to her comments. I was shocked and saddened at the news of Mica Millers death, and I join our community in mourning her much to short life, state Sen. Luke Rankin said in Facebook post. Now we await the results of any investigation by the proper authorities of possible wrongdoing. Timeline: Whats happened so far in the death of Myrtle Beach woman Mica Miller Disappointingly, yesterday the family law attorney who represented Mica before her tragic death chose to use Micas death to take a political cheap shot at me. For the record, there is no such bill pending before the House or Senate judiciary committee, and no bill has been introduced by any member of the House or Senate since 2021. During a news conference Wednesday afternoon, outside the Horry County Government building in Conway, attorney Regina Ward challenged Rankin to act on legislation. State Republican Sen. Katrina Shealy of Lexington filed the most recent bill in 2021. However, it failed to make it out of the Judiciary Committee, which Rankin now leads. What this family wants you to do is to help this, Ward said. We want the coercive control bill to be looked at, taken seriously. Put some time into it and somebody make an amendment to call it Micas Law. Getting this law on the books will help. Rankin responded in the Facebook post by saying that prior to Wednesdays news conference he had never been asked about the legislation. No law enforcement, victims advocate, family court judge or family law attorney including Ms. Ward has ever asked me to help make this bill a law, Rankin said. The statement or suggestion made otherwise is completely false. While I always seek ways to strengthen SC laws to protect the innocent, I realize for a bill to become law it requires action by the majority of the House, Senate, and the Governor. I stand ready to help continue to make SC and our community the place so many love to call home. Ward said during the news conference that Rankin has the power to get the ball rolling again on the legislation. [Rankin] has the ability to assign this bill to a subcommittee, Ward said. He has the ability to put it on the agenda and walk it all the way through. I challenge them to go back there and find it and bring it out. Lets get this done. It is important. It is extremely important. News13 reported that legislation filed four years ago would have criminalized coercive control and established punishments of up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Since then, efforts to get such a law on the books have stalled in both chambers of the General Assembly. Prior to Micas death on April 27, Ward was working to finalize her divorce from John-Paul, the founder and senior pastor at Solid Rock church in The Market Common. He was served papers two days earlier. Since her death by gunshot at Lumber River State Park in Robeson County, which authorities have deemed a suicide, News13 has reported multiple times about claims of abuse at the hands of John-Paul including him placing GPS trackers on her vehicle, slashing her tires and posting explicit photos of her online. * * * Dennis Bright is a Digital Producer at News13. He joined the team in May 2021. Dennis is a West Virginia native and a graduate of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Follow Dennis on, Facebook, X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBTW. U.S. President Joe Biden "expressed concern" to French President Emmanuel Macron about his proposal to send Western military trainers to Ukraine, Politico reported on June 6. News emerged at the end of May that France could soon send its military trainers to Ukraine, after Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said that he had already signed documents "that will allow the first French instructors to visit training centers soon." France is yet to officially confirm the plans, with the French Defense Ministry telling Reuters on May 27 that the topic is still being discussed. Citing "two people familiar with the conversation," Politico said that Biden and Macron spoke about the proposal on a recent phone call. "Biden was not supportive" and expressed "concern about the potential consequences of sending troops from any NATO country into a place where they could wind up in the line of fire and lead to an escalation of the conflict," Politico said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on June 4 that the presence of French military instructors in Ukraine would be deemed a "legitimate target" for Russia's Armed Forces. The call ended without Biden and Macron resolving the matter, according to Politico. Politico reported that another point of disagreement between the two leaders is Washington's proposal to provide Kyiv with a $50 billion loan that would be repaid by profits from frozen Russian assets. The plan is contingent on the EU agreeing to extend sanctions against Russia until it ends the war, the Financial Times reported on June 5. Currently, EU sanctions against Russia require an extension every six months, unless renewed by unanimous consent. "Macron is the key remaining holdout among Group of Seven (G7) leaders" on the plan, Politico said, citing two Biden administration officials. Despite their disagreements, Politico said that the relationship between Biden and Macron is "solid." Read also: France to transfer Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine, Macron announces Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. NewsBroken NewsBreak the most downloaded news app in the US has been publishing made-up news articles generated by AI, a Reuters investigation reveals. The app, helmed by CEO Jeff Zheng, is a news aggregator that syndicates licensed news from a range of national and international publishers. Lately, it's been using AI to rewrite and republish web-scraped local news and press releases. But according to Reuters, NewsBreak's AI efforts have been riddled with consequential missteps: since 2021, the service has reportedly published at least 40 inaccurate AI-generated news stories, many published under made-up bylines. Many of these fake AI articles had real-world impact. Per the report, multiple NewsBreak posts repeatedly and inaccurately stated that a Colorado-based food kitchen was distributing food at times when it wasn't, resulting in the kitchen having to refuse hungry community members. A similar issue occurred in Pennsylvania, where AI-generated NewsBreak articles incorrectly claimed that a local charity would be hosting a 24-hour foot-care clinic for homeless people. Do Harm "You are doing HARM by publishing this misinformation," the charity wrote NewsBreak in a January email, according to Reuters, adding that "homeless people will walk to these venues to attend a clinic that is not happening." In yet another instance flagged by Reuters, NewsBreak published an AI-spun article about an alleged Christmas Day shooting in New Jersey that turned out to be entirely fake, forcing local police to issue a statement. "Nothing even similar to this story occurred on or around Christmas, or even in recent memory for the area they described," read the police response, according to Reuters. "It seems this 'news' outlet's AI writes fiction they have no problem publishing to readers." All five of these erroneous articles were reportedly published under nonexistent bylines, further confusing the flow of already bad information not to mention undermining the integrity and trustworthiness of the platform as a whole. Alarm Bells The issue also didn't go unnoticed internally. In a May 2022 memo to Zheng, Norm Pearlstine a former executive editor at the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times who was consulting for NewsBreak at the time called attention to NewsBreak's dubious AI practices, telling the CEO that he could not "think of a think of a faster way to destroy the NewsBreak brand," according to Reuters. But NewsBreak didn't halt its use of the AI tool. And in March of this year, per Reuters, it caveated in a homepage disclaimer that its articles "may not always be error-free." It's a bad look for the service, which prides itself on being the "nation's leading local news app" in an era when local news is on a rapid and concerning decline. And sadly, it's only the latest aggregator of news and information to wreak havoc on its core product with AI. More on AI and media: Meet AdVon, the AI-Powered Content Monster Infecting the Media Industry FILE - Colorado Gov. Jared Polis speaks in the House of Representatives chamber in the State Capitol, Jan. 17, 2023, in Denver. As a Colorado group gathers signatures to put a measure on the ballot installing ranked-choice voting in the state, Polis signed a bill Thursday, June 6, 2024, that would impose another hurdle for the new system if the measure is passed. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File) DENVER (AP) As a Colorado group gathers signatures to put a measure on the ballot installing ranked-choice voting in the state, Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill Thursday that would impose another hurdle for the new system if the measure is passed. If ranked voting makes the ballot in Colorado, the voters in the state would join those in Oregon, Alaska and Nevada who will decide on ranked voting in November. If the ballot measure passes, the new law signed by Polis will require that ranked voting be tested first at a municipal level before being used statewide, delaying implementation. The group Colorado Voters First, which spearhead the campaign to get ranked voting on the November ballot, had decried the bill's provision as an attempt to effectively halt ranked voting and asked the governor to veto the bill. Polis tried to quell concerns after signing the legislation by saying that if the measure passes they will work quickly to install ranked voting statewide as soon as practicable and certainly no later than the 2028 election. Curtis Hubbard, a spokesperson for the Colorado Voters First, said in a statement that they are disappointed but will continue to forge ahead for the rights of any voter to vote in any election. The Colorado County Clerks Association said in a statement that if voters pass the ranked voting ballot initiative, implementation can be done by 2028. Colorado Voters Firsts initiative would open primary elections to all candidates. The top four would advance to a general election, where voters would rank candidates instead of choosing just one. Ranked voting lessens the power of the two major parties, and battles over its use have been driven in part by deep dissatisfaction with hyperpartisan politics. Only two states use ranked voting, Maine for state primaries and federal elections and Alaska for state and federal general elections. ___ Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Full of enthusiasm, Freeborn Garrettsons sermons, according to Methodist historian John Lendum, were a hammer and a fire, to break and melt the hearts of the people The people were so much interested in having him preach, that they came ten and twelve miles on foot. Born in 1752, Garrettson was a follower of John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield and other Methodists who were prohibited from speaking in many established churches. These eloquent itinerant preachers spoke in barns, fields and other places where large numbers of people gathered to hear them. Preacher became entangled in early days of American Revolution Garrettsons early preaching career coincided with the start of the American Revolution, and he soon became entangled between those who favored independence from Great Britain and those who did not. Both Patriots and Tories were suspicious of Garrettson and other itinerant preachers who remained neutral in the dispute between the colonists and the king. Michael Morgan Most of the people of Lewes and the area near the Delaware Bay were Patriots who supported independence; but many residents of western Sussex County were Tories, who remained loyal to the king. In 1779, Garrettson was invited to preach at a house in Lewes. While delivering his sermon to a small congregation, a man burst into the house carrying a gun and beating a drum. Garrettson and his listeners retreated to the courthouse, where he was able to finish his sermon in a private room. Goin Nuts permanently closes: Salisbury's Goin' Nuts Cafe closes permanently after 32 years in business The saga of notorious Tory Cheyney Clow On another occasion, Garrettson was near Dover when a rumor circulated that he was a follower of Cheyney Clow, a notorious Tory. Clow had been commissioned by the British to raise a force of men to fight the Americans. The Clows farm was in western Kent County, close to the border with Maryland. Although his house was 200 yards inside Delaware, the rebellious Clow insisted it was in Maryland. In addition to his house, Clow built a small fort from which he dispatched his Tory followers on several raids on isolated farms in Delaware. When Garrettson was suspected of being one of Clows men, a crowd collected in Dover, and some of the hotheaded Patriots demanded that Garrettson be hung as a traitor. Fortunately, there were those in Dover who knew the Methodist preacher, and Garrettson was not harmed. Cheyney Clow was not so lucky. A force of Delaware militiamen under the command of Lt. Col. Charles Pope was dispatched to attack Clows fort. After exchanging fire with the men inside the fort, Pope ordered his men to withdraw. Wicomico's county executive debate: Should Wicomico eliminate executive position? Idea splits residents at hearing Two days later, Pope returned with reinforcements, The Patriots found the fort abandoned and destroyed it. Clow was arrested in 1782, following a gunfight in which a man was killed. Charged with murder, he was convicted and sentenced to death, but the sentence was not carried out immediately, and Clow remained in jail. The American Revolution had been over for several years when he demanded the authorities either pardon him or carry out the execution. In 1788, he was finally hung. Despite his clear violence against the Patriots of Delaware, Clow became a folk hero, who some believed had been persecuted for his political convictions. After his confrontation with Clows followers in Dover, Freeborn Garrettson continued to travel and to preach in the Eastern United States. During that time, Methodism rose from obscurity to become an important religious force, due to preachers like Garrettson who delivered sermons with a hammer and a fire, to break and melt the hearts of the people. Principal sources John Lendum, Rise of Methodism in America, Philadelphia, 1859, pp. 236-238. Smyrna Times December 3, 1879; January 14, 1880. Cheney Clow's Rebellion: https://www.visitdelaware.com/listing/cheney-clows-rebellion/5142/ National Park Service, Nomination Form, January 14,1974, Scene of Cheyney Clows Rebellion, This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Saga of Freeborn Garretson, preacher who spoke with 'hammer and fire' Prepare to get wet, KC. Heres when storms, straight-line winds expected to move in The Kansas City area could get a good soaking as rounds of showers and thunderstorms are expected to roll across the region this weekend, according to the National Weather Service. Storms will sweep into the area Friday night, bringing the threat of heavy rains, strong straight-line winds and hail. But before the deluge arrives, the metro may experience its warmest day of the year, with temperatures expected to reach 90 degrees. Kansas Citys first 90-degree day of the year typically arrives around around May 27, according to climate data. The warmest its been so far is 86 degrees, which happened on May 18 and 19. That doesnt mean Kansas City has had a cool start to the year. According to climate data, the average temperature this year is 49.3 degrees, making it the 10th warmest in Kansas Citys history. A quiet morning with clear skies and seasonably low dew points in the 40s and 50s degrees will make for a pleasant Friday. However, according to the weather service, the weather will begin to change in the afternoon and evening as moisture gradually builds back into the forecast area. The air will become more humid as dew points rise into the lower to middle 60s across eastern and western Missouri by sunset, the weather service said. Some isolated storms could pop up in the afternoon Overnight rains likely in NW Missouri A complex of showers and thunderstorms is expected to develop over Nebraska and move southeast towards Missouri. As the storms march south, they are expected to strengthen and form a line. While the threat of large hail and tornadoes is low, localized damage by strong, straight-line winds is the primary concern, mainly across far northwestern Missouri and northeastern Kansas. The threat of severe weather is relatively low in areas to the south and east. Moderate to heavy rainfall is expected overnight. Most areas will see between a half to an inch of rain. However, some areas could see as much as two inches of rain. The threat of flash flooding is low, the weather service said. The storms will likely move into northeast Kansas and northwest Missouri between 9 and 11 p.m. According to the weather service, they will arrive in Kansas City between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. Areas south and east of the immediate metro area can expect the storms to arrive between 1 and 5 a.m. Local Radar Image KC weather forecast: Lull before next round of storms Quieter weather is expected Saturday morning as sunny skies return. Temperatures will climb into the mid-80s. The weather will change in the afternoon as the atmosphere becomes more unstable, setting the stage for another round of thunderstorms and heavy rains, the weather service said. A few supercell storms may develop near the Interstate 70 corridor over central Missouri during the evening hours, with all hazards possible with these storms, the weather service said in its forecast discussion. A corridor of heavy rainfall is possible over the southern part of the Kansas City forecast area. Depending upon Friday nights rainfall, localized flash flooding and river flooding could be possible. With thunderstorms and flooding possible this weekend, the National Weather Service in Springfield advises those headed outdoors to areas like the Lake of the Ozarks for floating, boating or camping to consider weather safety. Showers and thunderstorms could continue into Sunday morning. Cloudy skies will gradually become sunny, allowing temperatures to climb into the upper 70s. Typically, Kansas City temperatures are 82 degrees this time of year. Weather watches and warnings A live data feed from the National Weather Service containing official weather warnings, watches, and advisory statements. Tap warning areas for more details. Sources: NOAA, National Weather Service, NOAA GeoPlatform and Esri. Open Reporters surround Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) as he speaks in the Canon House Office Building on Capitol Hill on Dec. 19, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) disagree about many things. But they both introduced bills to protect reporters and their sources from government surveillance. One may finally pass. You might be surprised to learn that in 2005, then-U.S. Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) introduced the Free Flow of Information Act (H.R. 581). His proposed legislation had the support of 54 bipartisan cosponsors. Its purpose, to provide journalists/reporters protection from punishment in any federal criminal or civil action if they refused to name their confidential news sources, unless (judicial) authorities meet strict criteria. When Sen. Richard Green Lugar (R-IN) brought the bill (S. 340) to the Senate, he reminded legislators: The Constitution makes very clear that freedom of the press should not be infringed. A cornerstone of our society is the open market of information which can be shared through ever expanding mediums. The media serves as a conduit of information between our governments and communities across the country. It is important that we ensure reporters certain rights and abilities to seek sources and report appropriate information without fear of intimidation or imprisonment. This includes the right to refuse to reveal confidential sources. Without such protection, many whistleblowers will refuse to step forward and reporters will be disinclined to provide our constituents with the information that they have a right to know. The bill never passed, but a successor of it may be on the verge of doing so. The Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying Act, H.R. 4250, more commonly referred to as the PRESS Act a descendant of the Free Flow of Information Act unanimously passed the House in January 2024. The PRESS Act is necessary to ensure journalists will not have to worry that under a future repressive administration federal law enforcement agencies might secretly subpoena their emails and phone records even though journalists depend on confidentiality to keep the American public informed, according to Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-MD. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Wyden introduced the PRESS Act into the Senate in June 2023 with support from Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Richard Durbin (D-IL), but there has been no action since. Is there any American who doubts that a free, fair, truthful, pluralist and lawfully protected media, holding itself to the highest journalistic standards, is essential to our democracy? Medias credibility also depends, in large measure, on its independence (actual and perceived). Critically, a free (independent) media serves as both a watchdog and a rampart against possible government malfeasance. Notable historic examples include publication of the Pentagon Papers and Deep Throats Watergate revelations. Journalists rely on various sources to inform their reporting. When freedom of the press is threatened, there is the possibility that potential news sources may be fearful of retaliation and hesitate to share their information without assurances of anonymity. Journalists have an increasingly challenging job given the rise of social media. Moreover, they risk being pressured to reveal confidential news sources, while also risk being sued by a confidential news source for revealing them! Thus, I support the PRESS Act. Its been almost two decades since Pence introduced the Free Flow of Information Act. The U.S. House has passed it. It has bipartisan support in the Senate. Several news outlets such as the Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, The Hill, CNN, and others have expressed strong support for the PRESS Act. The Media and Democracy Project (a nonpartisan, nonprofit) joined more than 80 civil liberties, press freedom, and journalism organizations in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee leaders expressing strong support, which was also signed by 33 lawyers and law professors. And, currently, interested citizens are emailing Kadeem Cooper, senior counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee, at Kadeem_Cooper@judiciary-dem.senate.gov, asking the Committee to schedule S. 2074 for markup in June so it can be sent to the floor for a vote. DONATE: SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST Richard Mutingwende, an acupuncturist, treats a patient at his clinic in Harare, Zimbabwe, June 6, 2024.(Photo by Tafara Mugwara/Xinhua) by Tafara Mugwara HARARE, June 7 (Xinhua) -- At an acupuncture clinic in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, Charity Karekwaivanane remained calm as acupuncture needles pierced her body. "It's a mystery that I got healed by those needles. I did not know what they would do to my body. I don't have any pain anymore. I am okay," the 69-year-old grandmother who had suffered from back pain for more than a decade told Xinhua after receiving the treatment. The acupuncturist, Richard Mutingwende, a Zimbabwean licensed acupuncturist, opened the clinic after witnessing first-hand the wonders of ancient Chinese medical treatment. With acupuncture, Mutingwende has a tool to fulfill his passion for relieving others from pain. "Chinese treatment works wonders, it's like magic," Mutingwende told Xinhua. "It gives instant results, especially to conditions that don't have solutions when it comes to other systems of medicine. So you find many people come here as a last resort after trying quite several medical systems." Mutingwende is among a group of 10 medical professionals who graduated from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and acupuncture personnel training course by Chinese doctors in Zimbabwe in 2022. The training program, the first of its kind in Zimbabwe, was held at the Zimbabwe-China TCM and Acupuncture Center at the Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals (PGH) in Harare. It comprised theory and practice and included components of TCM such as acupuncture and moxibustion as well as diagnosis and treatment of diseases. In November 2023, Mutingwende started his private practice to provide alternative medication at a lower cost. Word of mouth has spread fast about the wonders of acupuncture, and he now treats about 20 patients each day at the clinic located in the Harare south suburb of Stoneridge. He hopes to increase the number to 50. Mutingwende said people with conditions such as arthritis, sciatic nerve pain, back pain, stroke, diabetes, hypertension, and even infertility and digestive disorders have received treatment. "I started this center so that many people get healed at a very low cost considering the high cost of drugs," he said. Acupuncture is a component of TCM, a medical system with a history of over thousands of years that has been used to diagnose, treat, and prevent illnesses. TCM also employs techniques such as moxibustion, and cupping, and uses herbal products and mind-body practices. "The biggest advantage of acupuncture is that it makes the body heal itself. So it means there are no side effects as compared to other systems of medicines because it's just a matter of stimulating the natural healing process in the body, then the body will heal itself," said Mutingwende. For many patients, such as 32-year-old Vimbainashe Siziba, who was diagnosed with arthritis, acupuncture is proving to be the last resort. "Before receiving the acupuncture for arthritis treatment, I was struggling to walk, but now I can walk nicely, I can wear different types of shoes, even heels, so I can confidently say that acupuncture has helped me to treat arthritis," said Siziba. Gearly Madziva, 68, said she struggled with mobility for over a decade after developing a heart condition. She could not walk when she came for her first acupuncture session. "When people saw me coming back home walking unaided, they were surprised. Even my husband was shocked to see me walking. He immediately decided to come and get treatment himself," said Madziva. While TCM treatment is still new in Zimbabwe, people are slowly embracing it, said Mutingwende. "There were certain misconceptions when it comes to acupuncture but many people are now testifying that this is one of the greatest medicines," he added. FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) A Pride Flag-raising ceremony will be held at the Fresno City Hall on Friday is being put on to support the LGBTQ+ community. Council President Annalisa Perea, the first LGBTQ+ community member of the Fresno City Council, will sponsor the fourth Annual Pride Flag Raising Ceremony. She will facilitate the event as master of ceremonies and will be joined by several community leaders, including Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer. City officials say the city will continue its tradition of flying the Pride Flag at the Fresno City Hall to support Fresnos LGBTQ+ community. Everyone is welcome to attend the flag-raising. The event will be held at Fresno City Hall at 2600 Fresno Street on June 7 at 10 a.m. City officials say parking will be relaxed for the ceremony. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to YourCentralValley.com | KSEE24 and CBS47. Prince Georges County police looking for man accused of deadly shooting in MGM parking garage OXON HILL, Md. (DC News Now) The Prince Georges County Police Department (PGPD) said it was looking for the person whom it believes shot and killed a man at the MGM National Harbor parking garage. Dayon Neal, 26, is accused of murdering 37-year-old Daniel Antonio Thomas of D.C. 5 Gaithersburg buildings collapse, people trapped inside, officials say PGPD officers responded to the 100 block of MGM National Ave. on May 11 at around 4:50 a.m. after MGM Special Police and Security reported the shooting. Officers found Thomas in the parking garage suffering from a gunshot wound. He died there. After investigating, PGPD identified Neal as a suspect. A warrant for his arrest for first and second degree murder along with other related charges was taken out. Anyone with information was asked to call (301) 516-2512 or submit a tip on the P3 Tips app. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | Washington, DC. Editor's note: This is the second in a three-part series on a recent candidate forum for this year's St. Joseph County election. This installment covers the county probate judge race. SHERMAN TWP. - The two St. Joseph County probate judicial candidates shared their candidacy ideals and answered questions Tuesday as part of a candidate forum at Glen Oaks Community College. Kevin Kane and Kelly Ward are both seeking election this year to the opening probate bench. The seat is currently held by Judge David Tomlinson, who is not seeking re-election. Kevin Kane and Kelly Ward are both seeking election this year to the opening probate bench. Kane, a 1997 Centreville High School graduate, said he cares about St. Joseph County and is running to put to judicial use his experience in private practice and involvement in family and probate court, as well as the human services commission. In his daily work, Kane said he often sees the worst in people. "When people come to court, they see the best in us; we work hard to help them and give them hope," Kane said. Ward, a 41-year resident of St. Joseph County, said she has legal work experience in multiple counties across southern Michigan, allowing her to grow in her profession. The probate bench, she said, is the "next logical step" in her career in private practice and as a judicial officer. The role of a probate judge, Ward said, has sensitive cases to deal with and, if elected, would use the position to ensure all resources available would come to the community to provide services necessary to help. Ward said characteristics necessary to be a successful probate judge is ensuring the court is run appropriately and in a timely manner. A probate judge needs to exercise both authority and understanding. Kane, referring to himself as a leader-servant, said that judges have staff and community around them to enable them to lead. "I have the respect of all the attorneys in the county," Kane said as part of remarks about his qualifications. Outside the legal and judicial realms, each candidate spoke about their community involvement. Ward cited her involvement with Area 18 of Special Olympics Michigan, while Kane has volunteered with United Way and said he is one of the co-creators of the area suicide prevention network. Kane said he has had a private practice prior to coming to the courts in 2014. Four years later, he began work with the county juvenile and probate courts, and has spent 6 1/2 years working together with the county judges. Kane also has experience as a juvenile day treatment supervisor. Ward said she operated a private law practice from 2011 to 2021 across southwestern Michigan, working with juveniles and as a judicial officer. Both candidates were asked to weigh in on truancy in county schools and how to decrease students not going to school, and increasing their chances for success as a graduate. Ward said truancy is a "big issue" for her, adding the matter has been an "extreme issue since the (COVID-19) lockdowns. "Kids don't understand why they were not allowed to attend school for so long and now being forced to go back," Ward said. If elected as probate judge, she said, she would work to ensure any juvenile coming to court as a truant would be fast-tracked so services can be put in place immediately. Ward said that route is ideal "to getting them back in school to be happy, healthy citizens." Kane said he has been part of the area truancy task force, and helped make it better to navigate. "When I came in, it was an 18-step process," Kane said. "We streamlined it to three. We went from 300-plus cases to 50, 60 right now that are true truancy." When asked about reflections on past failures not limiting success, each candidate spoke about how they grew from any shortcomings. Ward said she recalled a court case involving a family in child protection proceedings. "We gave the family every opportunity for services, thinking we were on the path to reunification," Ward said. "The case went very wrong. It was a heartbreaking learning experience for me." Kane said he readily acknowledges he has fallen short in his legal career. "I have failed a lot. I admit it," he said. "I failed the bar, but then I passed. It's not whether you failed, it's about you getting back up ... persevere through thick and thin and tough times." Both candidates also said they see great strength in the St. Joseph County community, and will work to foster that trait from the bench. Kane said that "everyone cares," and it is merely a matter of "getting people on the same page." "All the candidates want the best" for the community," Kane said. "They have the county at heart." The key, he said, is "just trying to get all those other outside things out of peoples' heads and back to core family values." Ward said the "strength of our community is in our people." "Everyone I know is ready to stand up and help," she said. "We are a small county with people with big hearts." Ward said that significant challenges are having sufficient funding for services, and service availability. She said that, if elected, she would look for grants and other available funds to bring in to serve the citizens more appropriately. When asked how to combat increasing polarity in the system, Ward said one's demeanor and temperament are vital to closing the gap between those in need of services and those offering guidance. "Treat people with dignity, compassion and respect ... fight for their rights under the law; that instills trust." Kane said he agreed with Ward. "As a leader-servant, you have to establish yourself with respect, integrity and love," he said. It is important to him to help people caught up in the system to stop generational cycles of behavior. When asked how each candidate would help improve St. Joseph County in their capacity as probate judge, both cited improving mental health services as a top goal. "My goal is to get a mental health court going," Kane said, "not for us but for DHS (currently the Department of Health and Human Services) and CMH (Community Mental Health, now called Pivotal). We need foster care desperately. We do not have enough. I would call 30 places in a day to get placement for kids. We need safe places for kids to go." Ward said issues in probate court are serious and often involve mental health issues. "My goal would be to partner with stakeholders to bring a holistic, all-around approach to providing services, turn people to happy, healthy, prosperous citizens," she said. This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Probate judge candidates sound off Prodded by fed up parents, some in Congress try to curb kids use of social media Members of Congress are seeking to set a minimum age to access social media and put more of the onus on social media companies and their algorithms, while also giving parents more controls in trying to protect their kids online. (Photo by Peter Cade/Getty Images) WASHINGTON Attempts to get kids off of their phones are ramping up in Congress, despite intense lobbying by social media giants and pushback by those worried about violations of First Amendment speech rights. Lawmakers are seeking to set a minimum age to access social media and put more of the onus on social media companies and their algorithms, while also giving parents more controls in trying to protect their kids online. A bipartisan coalition of U.S. senators, led by Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Brian Schatz of Hawaii, introduced a new version of a bill that would set a minimum age of 13 to access social media platforms. It would also block the use of addictive algorithms on social media platforms for those under 17 and limit social media use in schools. In late April, the bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, but the committee said it does not have a markup date. TikTok divestment Major social media platforms, such as TikTok and Metas Instagram, have been criticized for their algorithms that can influence kids and teens mental health. In late April, President Joe Biden signed a bill that forces TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company ByteDance within the next year or face a possible ban in the United States. The law baked into a massive foreign aid package grew primarily out of privacy and national security concerns. The app and its parent company have both sued to block the potential ban. Responding to the unhappiness among parents, Metas CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized in January to distraught family members of social media victims during a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee surrounding child safety online. Yet Meta and ByteDance have also invested significantly in their lobbying efforts, according to an April report from the group Issue One. The nonpartisan nonprofit found that in the first quarter of 2024, Meta spent a whopping $7.64 million on lobbying and had one lobbyist for every eight Congress members. Similarly, ByteDance spent $2.68 million and had one lobbyist for every 11 members of Congress. Kids online safety bill Other bipartisan congressional efforts are also targeting the algorithms of social media companies to protect kids safety online. Sens. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, and Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, introduced a new version of their legislation, the Kids Online Safety Act, in May 2023. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation approved the bill, and in December it was placed on the Senate legislative calendar. Part of the revised measure, which has garnered the support of over half the U.S. Senate, would require platforms to give minors the option to protect their information, disable addictive product features, and opt out of personalized algorithmic recommendations and allow for certain parental controls to spot harmful behaviors. The bill would also provide a platform for parents and teachers to report such behavior. Lawmakers in the U.S. House introduced a companion bill in April. A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee forwarded the bill to the full committee in late May. Free speech worries But attempts to either tailor or limit minors interactions on social media have been met with objections tied to potential First Amendment violations. Any government limits on what we can say or see online are likely to be unconstitutional, said Aaron Terr, director of public advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonprofit that defends free speech rights. Terr said many of these types of bills hit an unconstitutional trifecta, where they threaten the First Amendment rights of the platforms to disseminate speech, the First Amendment rights of minors to access lawful content and the rights of adults to speak or access content anonymously because they may have to provide information about their identity in order to prove their age. Parents are in the best position to set rules about their kids social media use, and the government shouldnt usurp parental authority, Terr said. He also noted that when it comes to laws attempting to regulate social media or speech in general, one-size-fits-all approaches dont work. A problem with these laws, too, is who decides whats appropriate? Theres vagueness issues with these laws, and the problem with that is that it gives the government a lot of discretion to just insert its own subjective determination of what they consider is appropriate and substituting its judgment for that of private platforms and the people who use them, he added. Warnings about kids health In 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy publicly warned that, despite more research needed to grasp social medias impact and some evidence outlining potential benefits for kids and teens, there are ample indicators that social media can also have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents. Dr. Jenny Radesky, a developmental behavioral pediatrician and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School, told States Newsroom that the science is clearest around sleep. When kids are using media for long periods of time, or when its upsetting and kind of makes them more alert or kind of dysregulated or when its used in the evening hours all of those are linked with worse sleep, and sleep is so essential for child development, said Radesky, chair of the Council on Communications and Media at the American Academy of Pediatrics. The AAP is among the over 200 organizations supporting the Kids Online Safety Act. We dont want to pursue legislation that somehow is regulating the content that can show up online because thats a real First Amendment problem, so you dont want to have something thats a law that says this sort of content cant show up in kids feeds. But what we are asking is for some accountability, said Radesky. Radesky said so much of the work of making sure kids have safe experiences online falls on their parents. Thats exhausting, and its something we dont all know how to do, she said. She said parents should feel free to talk to their members of Congress and say: Listen, parenting is hard enough right now. Please do something to clean up the digital ecosystem, so that this can be easier, and the default experience for kids can lean more towards healthy and positive and less towards these risks that have been documented over the past five to 10 years. The North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force has raised similar concerns about the influence of social media in our state. Phones in the classroom At the state level, there is also a push to get kids off their phones in the classroom, with several states either passing or introducing bills barring students from using their phones while in class, as Stateline reported in March. Last year, Florida became the first state to require public schools to prohibit students from using their cell phones in class. Indiana has also followed with similar action. Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a bill into law earlier this year that with some exceptions requires schools to bar the use of wireless communication devices during class. Some lawmakers in Congress have also sought concrete studies regarding the use of cell phones in schools, including Sens. Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, and Tim Kaine, of Virginia. The two introduced legislation in November that would require the U.S. Department of Education to conduct a study regarding the use of mobile devices in elementary and secondary schools, and to establish a pilot program of awarding grants to enable certain schools to create a school environment free of mobile devices. In November, the bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. The post Prodded by fed up parents, some in Congress try to curb kids use of social media appeared first on NC Newsline. Prodded by fed up parents, some in Congress try to curb kids use of social media Members of Congress are seeking to set a minimum age to access social media and put more of the onus on social media companies and their algorithms, while also giving parents more controls in trying to protect their kids online. (File/Peter Cade/Getty Images) WASHINGTON Attempts to get kids off of their phones are ramping up in Congress, despite intense lobbying by social media giants and pushback by those worried about violations of First Amendment speech rights. Lawmakers are seeking to set a minimum age to access social media and put more of the onus on social media companies and their algorithms, while also giving parents more controls in trying to protect their kids online. A bipartisan coalition of U.S. senators, led by Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Brian Schatz of Hawaii, introduced a new version of a bill that would set a minimum age of 13 to access social media platforms. It would also block the use of addictive algorithms on social media platforms for those under 17 and limit social media use in schools. In late April, the bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, but the committee said it does not have a markup date. In South Carolina, legislation attempting to limit childrens access to social media passed the state House 113-1 earlier this year. The bill would have required parental permission for anyone under 18 to have a social media account. But it never got a vote in the Senate and officially died with sessions end last month. However, a separate bill requiring South Carolinians to verify theyre at least 18 to access pornographic websites was signed into law last month. TikTok divestment Major social media platforms, such as TikTok and Metas Instagram, have been criticized for their algorithms that can influence kids and teens mental health. In late April, President Joe Biden signed a bill that forces TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company ByteDance within the next year or face a possible ban in the United States. The law baked into a massive foreign aid package grew primarily out of privacy and national security concerns. The app and its parent company have both sued to block the potential ban. Responding to the unhappiness among parents, Metas CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized in January to distraught family members of social media victims during a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee surrounding child safety online. Yet Meta and ByteDance have also invested significantly in their lobbying efforts, according to an April report from the group Issue One. The nonpartisan nonprofit found that in the first quarter of 2024, Meta spent a whopping $7.64 million on lobbying and had one lobbyist for every eight Congress members. Similarly, ByteDance spent $2.68 million and had one lobbyist for every 11 members of Congress. Kids online safety bill Other bipartisan congressional efforts are also targeting the algorithms of social media companies to protect kids safety online. Sens. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, and Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, introduced a new version of their legislation, the Kids Online Safety Act, in May 2023. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation approved the bill, and in December it was placed on the Senate legislative calendar. Part of the revised measure, which has garnered the support of over half the U.S. Senate, would require platforms to give minors the option to protect their information, disable addictive product features, and opt out of personalized algorithmic recommendations and allow for certain parental controls to spot harmful behaviors. The bill would also provide a platform for parents and teachers to report such behavior. Lawmakers in the U.S. House introduced a companion bill in April. A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee forwarded the bill to the full committee in late May. Free speech worries But attempts to either tailor or limit minors interactions on social media have been met with objections tied to potential First Amendment violations. Any government limits on what we can say or see online are likely to be unconstitutional, said Aaron Terr, director of public advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonprofit that defends free speech rights. Terr said many of these types of bills hit an unconstitutional trifecta, where they threaten the First Amendment rights of the platforms to disseminate speech, the First Amendment rights of minors to access lawful content and the rights of adults to speak or access content anonymously because they may have to provide information about their identity in order to prove their age. Parents are in the best position to set rules about their kids social media use, and the government shouldnt usurp parental authority, Terr said. He also noted that when it comes to laws attempting to regulate social media or speech in general, one-size-fits-all approaches dont work. A problem with these laws, too, is who decides whats appropriate? Theres vagueness issues with these laws, and the problem with that is that it gives the government a lot of discretion to just insert its own subjective determination of what they consider is appropriate and substituting its judgment for that of private platforms and the people who use them, he added. Warnings about kids health In 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy publicly warned that, despite more research needed to grasp social medias impact and some evidence outlining potential benefits for kids and teens, there are ample indicators that social media can also have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents. Dr. Jenny Radesky, a developmental behavioral pediatrician and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School, told States Newsroom that the science is clearest around sleep. When kids are using media for long periods of time, or when its upsetting and kind of makes them more alert or kind of dysregulated or when its used in the evening hours all of those are linked with worse sleep, and sleep is so essential for child development, said Radesky, chair of the Council on Communications and Media at the American Academy of Pediatrics. The AAP is among the over 200 organizations supporting the Kids Online Safety Act. We dont want to pursue legislation that somehow is regulating the content that can show up online because thats a real First Amendment problem, so you dont want to have something thats a law that says this sort of content cant show up in kids feeds. But what we are asking is for some accountability, said Radesky. Radesky said so much of the work of making sure kids have safe experiences online falls on their parents. Thats exhausting, and its something we dont all know how to do, she said. She said parents should feel free to talk to their members of Congress and say: Listen, parenting is hard enough right now. Please do something to clean up the digital ecosystem, so that this can be easier, and the default experience for kids can lean more towards healthy and positive and less towards these risks that have been documented over the past five to 10 years. Phones in the classroom At the state level, there is also a push to get kids off their phones in the classroom, with several states either passing or introducing bills barring students from using their phones while in class, as Stateline reported in March. Last year, Florida became the first state to require public schools to prohibit students from using their cell phones in class. Indiana has also followed with similar action. Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a bill into law earlier this year that with some exceptions requires schools to bar the use of wireless communication devices during class. Some lawmakers in Congress have also sought concrete studies regarding the use of cell phones in schools, including Sens. Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, and Tim Kaine, of Virginia. The two introduced legislation in November that would require the U.S. Department of Education to conduct a study regarding the use of mobile devices in elementary and secondary schools, and to establish a pilot program of awarding grants to enable certain schools to create a school environment free of mobile devices. In November, the bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. The post Prodded by fed up parents, some in Congress try to curb kids use of social media appeared first on SC Daily Gazette. Prodded by fed up parents, some in Congress try to curb kids use of social media Members of Congress are seeking to set a minimum age to access social media and put more of the onus on social media companies and their algorithms, while also giving parents more controls in trying to protect their kids online. (Peter Cade/Getty Images) Attempts to get kids off of their phones are ramping up in Congress, despite intense lobbying by social media giants and pushback by those worried about violations of First Amendment speech rights. Lawmakers are seeking to set a minimum age to access social media and put more of the onus on social media companies and their algorithms, while also giving parents more controls in trying to protect their kids online. A bipartisan coalition of U.S. senators, led by Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Brian Schatz of Hawaii, introduced a new version of a bill that would set a minimum age of 13 to access social media platforms. It would also block the use of addictive algorithms on social media platforms for those under 17 and limit social media use in schools. In late April, the bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, but the committee said it does not have a markup date. TikTok divestment Major social media platforms, such as TikTok and Metas Instagram, have been criticized for their algorithms that can influence kids and teens mental health. In late April, President Joe Biden signed a bill that forces TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company ByteDance within the next year or face a possible ban in the United States. The law baked into a massive foreign aid package grew primarily out of privacy and national security concerns. The app and its parent company have both sued to block the potential ban. Responding to the unhappiness among parents, Metas CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized in January to distraught family members of social media victims during a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee surrounding child safety online. Yet Meta and ByteDance have also invested significantly in their lobbying efforts, according to an April report from the group Issue One. The nonpartisan nonprofit found that in the first quarter of 2024, Meta spent a whopping $7.64 million on lobbying and had one lobbyist for every eight Congress members. Similarly, ByteDance spent $2.68 million and had one lobbyist for every 11 members of Congress. Kids online safety bill Other bipartisan congressional efforts are also targeting the algorithms of social media companies to protect kids safety online. Sens. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, and Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, introduced a new version of their legislation, the Kids Online Safety Act, in May 2023. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation approved the bill, and in December it was placed on the Senate legislative calendar. Part of the revised measure, which has garnered the support of over half the U.S. Senate, would require platforms to give minors the option to protect their information, disable addictive product features, and opt out of personalized algorithmic recommendations and allow for certain parental controls to spot harmful behaviors. The bill would also provide a platform for parents and teachers to report such behavior. Lawmakers in the U.S. House introduced a companion bill in April. A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee forwarded the bill to the full committee in late May. Free speech worries But attempts to either tailor or limit minors interactions on social media have been met with objections tied to potential First Amendment violations. Any government limits on what we can say or see online are likely to be unconstitutional, said Aaron Terr, director of public advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonprofit that defends free speech rights. Terr said many of these types of bills hit an unconstitutional trifecta, where they threaten the First Amendment rights of the platforms to disseminate speech, the First Amendment rights of minors to access lawful content and the rights of adults to speak or access content anonymously because they may have to provide information about their identity in order to prove their age. Parents are in the best position to set rules about their kids social media use, and the government shouldnt usurp parental authority, Terr said. He also noted that when it comes to laws attempting to regulate social media or speech in general, one-size-fits-all approaches dont work. A problem with these laws, too, is who decides whats appropriate? Theres vagueness issues with these laws, and the problem with that is that it gives the government a lot of discretion to just insert its own subjective determination of what they consider is appropriate and substituting its judgment for that of private platforms and the people who use them, he added. Warnings about kids health In 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy publicly warned that, despite more research needed to grasp social medias impact and some evidence outlining potential benefits for kids and teens, there are ample indicators that social media can also have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents. Dr. Jenny Radesky, a developmental behavioral pediatrician and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School, told States Newsroom that the science is clearest around sleep. When kids are using media for long periods of time, or when its upsetting and kind of makes them more alert or kind of dysregulated or when its used in the evening hours all of those are linked with worse sleep, and sleep is so essential for child development, said Radesky, chair of the Council on Communications and Media at the American Academy of Pediatrics. The AAP is among the over 200 organizations supporting the Kids Online Safety Act. We dont want to pursue legislation that somehow is regulating the content that can show up online because thats a real First Amendment problem, so you dont want to have something thats a law that says this sort of content cant show up in kids feeds. But what we are asking is for some accountability, said Radesky. Radesky said so much of the work of making sure kids have safe experiences online falls on their parents. Thats exhausting, and its something we dont all know how to do, she said. She said parents should feel free to talk to their members of Congress and say: Listen, parenting is hard enough right now. Please do something to clean up the digital ecosystem, so that this can be easier, and the default experience for kids can lean more towards healthy and positive and less towards these risks that have been documented over the past five to 10 years. Phones in the classroom At the state level, there is also a push to get kids off their phones in the classroom, with several states either passing or introducing bills barring students from using their phones while in class, as Stateline reported in March. Last year, Florida became the first state to require public schools to prohibit students from using their cell phones in class. Indiana has also followed with similar action. Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a bill into law earlier this year that with some exceptions requires schools to bar the use of wireless communication devices during class. Some lawmakers in Congress have also sought concrete studies regarding the use of cell phones in schools, including Sens. Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, and Tim Kaine, of Virginia. The two introduced legislation in November that would require the U.S. Department of Education to conduct a study regarding the use of mobile devices in elementary and secondary schools, and to establish a pilot program of awarding grants to enable certain schools to create a school environment free of mobile devices. In November, the bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE The post Prodded by fed up parents, some in Congress try to curb kids use of social media appeared first on Maine Morning Star. Prodded by fed up parents, some in Congress try to curb kids use of social media Members of Congress are seeking to set a minimum age to access social media and put more of the onus on social media companies and their algorithms, while also giving parents more controls in trying to protect their kids online. (Photo by Peter Cade/Getty Images) (This image cannot be republished unless you have a Getty subscription.) WASHINGTON Attempts to get kids off of their phones are ramping up in Congress, despite intense lobbying by social media giants and pushback by those worried about violations of First Amendment speech rights. Lawmakers are seeking to set a minimum age to access social media and put more of the onus on social media companies and their algorithms, while also giving parents more controls in trying to protect their kids online. A bipartisan coalition of U.S. senators, led by Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Brian Schatz of Hawaii, introduced a new version of a bill that would set a minimum age of 13 to access social media platforms. It would also block the use of addictive algorithms on social media platforms for those under 17 and limit social media use in schools. In late April, the bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, but the committee said it does not have a markup date. TikTok divestment Major social media platforms, such as TikTok and Metas Instagram, have been criticized for their algorithms that can influence kids and teens mental health. In late April, President Joe Biden signed a bill that forces TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company ByteDance within the next year or face a possible ban in the United States. The law baked into a massive foreign aid package grew primarily out of privacy and national security concerns. The app and its parent company have both sued to block the potential ban. Responding to the unhappiness among parents, Metas CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized in January to distraught family members of social media victims during a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee surrounding child safety online. Yet Meta and ByteDance have also invested significantly in their lobbying efforts, according to an April report from the group Issue One. The nonpartisan nonprofit found that in the first quarter of 2024, Meta spent a whopping $7.64 million on lobbying and had one lobbyist for every eight Congress members. Similarly, ByteDance spent $2.68 million and had one lobbyist for every 11 members of Congress. Kids online safety bill Other bipartisan congressional efforts are also targeting the algorithms of social media companies to protect kids safety online. Sens. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, and Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, introduced a new version of their legislation, the Kids Online Safety Act, in May 2023. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation approved the bill, and in December it was placed on the Senate legislative calendar. Part of the revised measure, which has garnered the support of over half the U.S. Senate, would require platforms to give minors the option to protect their information, disable addictive product features, and opt out of personalized algorithmic recommendations and allow for certain parental controls to spot harmful behaviors. The bill would also provide a platform for parents and teachers to report such behavior. Lawmakers in the U.S. House introduced a companion bill in April. A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee forwarded the bill to the full committee in late May. Free speech worries But attempts to either tailor or limit minors interactions on social media have been met with objections tied to potential First Amendment violations. Any government limits on what we can say or see online are likely to be unconstitutional, said Aaron Terr, director of public advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonprofit that defends free speech rights. Terr said many of these types of bills hit an unconstitutional trifecta, where they threaten the First Amendment rights of the platforms to disseminate speech, the First Amendment rights of minors to access lawful content and the rights of adults to speak or access content anonymously because they may have to provide information about their identity in order to prove their age. Parents are in the best position to set rules about their kids social media use, and the government shouldnt usurp parental authority, Terr said. He also noted that when it comes to laws attempting to regulate social media or speech in general, one-size-fits-all approaches dont work. A problem with these laws, too, is who decides whats appropriate? Theres vagueness issues with these laws, and the problem with that is that it gives the government a lot of discretion to just insert its own subjective determination of what they consider is appropriate and substituting its judgment for that of private platforms and the people who use them, he added. Warnings about kids health In 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy publicly warned that, despite more research needed to grasp social medias impact and some evidence outlining potential benefits for kids and teens, there are ample indicators that social media can also have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents. Dr. Jenny Radesky, a developmental behavioral pediatrician and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School, told States Newsroom that the science is clearest around sleep. When kids are using media for long periods of time, or when its upsetting and kind of makes them more alert or kind of dysregulated or when its used in the evening hours all of those are linked with worse sleep, and sleep is so essential for child development, said Radesky, chair of the Council on Communications and Media at the American Academy of Pediatrics. The AAP is among the over 200 organizations supporting the Kids Online Safety Act. We dont want to pursue legislation that somehow is regulating the content that can show up online because thats a real First Amendment problem, so you dont want to have something thats a law that says this sort of content cant show up in kids feeds. But what we are asking is for some accountability, said Radesky. Radesky said so much of the work of making sure kids have safe experiences online falls on their parents. Thats exhausting, and its something we dont all know how to do, she said. She said parents should feel free to talk to their members of Congress and say: Listen, parenting is hard enough right now. Please do something to clean up the digital ecosystem, so that this can be easier, and the default experience for kids can lean more towards healthy and positive and less towards these risks that have been documented over the past five to 10 years. Phones in the classroom At the state level, there is also a push to get kids off their phones in the classroom, with several states either passing or introducing bills barring students from using their phones while in class, as Stateline reported in March. Last year, Florida became the first state to require public schools to prohibit students from using their cell phones in class. Indiana has also followed with similar action. Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a bill into law earlier this year that with some exceptions requires schools to bar the use of wireless communication devices during class. Some lawmakers in Congress have also sought concrete studies regarding the use of cell phones in schools, including Sens. Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, and Tim Kaine, of Virginia. The two introduced legislation in November that would require the U.S. Department of Education to conduct a study regarding the use of mobile devices in elementary and secondary schools, and to establish a pilot program of awarding grants to enable certain schools to create a school environment free of mobile devices. In November, the bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE The post Prodded by fed up parents, some in Congress try to curb kids use of social media appeared first on Oklahoma Voice. Producer of Caesar howitzers to set up branch in Ukraine European arms company KNDS announced on June 7 the establishment of a branch in Ukraine, the French TV channel BFM reported. KNDS produces Leopard tanks and Caesar self-propelled howitzers, both of which Kyiv has in service, and other military vehicles. It is headquartered in Amsterdam and owned by German and French arms producers. Representatives of Ukrainian and French companies signed an agreement to set up an ammunition production facility under a KNDS license during President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Paris on June 6-7. He visited France's Defense Ministry and discussed Ukraine's defense needs, according to the Presidential Office. It is important to expand joint arms production in our country, the president said. In addition, Kyiv and Paris signed documents on plans to establish a service and repair center for KNDS equipment in Ukraine and to use 3D printing technology to manufacture spare parts for equipment, Zelensky said. Ukraine's president arrived in France on June 6 for the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, together with U.S. President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. French President Emmanuel Macron announced that that France would deliver Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Kyiv. France could also soon send its military trainers to Ukraine, Reuters reported in late May after Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said that he had already signed documents "that will allow the first French instructors to visit training centers soon." Paris is yet to officially confirm the plans. Read also: Russia returning Europe to time of Nazism, Zelensky tells French parliament Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Proportion of state school pupils taken in by Cambridge University narrowly falls The proportion of state school pupils accepted at the University of Cambridge dropped this year for the first time in a decade. Undergraduate data published by the leading Russell Group university on Friday showed 1,895 pupils joined from state schools this academic year, making up 72.6 per cent of successful UK applicants. It marks a drop from the previous year, when 72.9 per cent of Cambridges undergraduate intake was state-educated. Meanwhile, the proportion of private school pupils enrolling at the university grew this year. In total, 716 pupils were accepted on to undergraduate courses from UK private schools, making up 27.4 per cent of the pupil intake up from 27.1 per cent in 2022-23. Although a marginal widening of the attainment gap, it marks the first time the proportion of state school admissions has fallen in a decade. In 2013, the first year where like-for-like data is available, 61.4 per cent of Cambridge undergraduate admissions were from state schools, with the figure growing steadily over the past decade. This years data suggest that trend could have begun to reverse, with the number of pupils enrolling from private schools also increasing for the first time since 2013. It comes after Cambridge announced earlier this year that it will scrap its state school target for undergraduate admissions from next year and instead consider a broader range of factors when selecting students. It followed accusations that the university was discriminating against pupils from private schools amid a decline in offer rates at top independent institutions. Cambridge said it will still take candidates schools into account as part of its access plans, but that it no longer intends to have a target for the share of state and private school pupils winning places. Prof Deborah Prentice, who took over as vice-chancellor last summer, insisted there is no discrimination against privately-educated pupils hoping to join the university, but competition is fiercer as more state school pupils have been encouraged to apply. Cambridge introduced a state school target for the five academic years leading up to 2024-25, with the ambition of increasing the proportion of state-educated undergraduates to 69.1 per cent. This years data show that grammar school pupils had the highest success rate of all school types, with more than a quarter of those who applied taking up a place. Lucy Cavendish College, founded in 1965 and named after a womens education pioneer, welcomed the highest proportion of state school-educated students at undergraduate level this year. In total, 93.7 per cent of its intake came from state schools. Trinity College, founded in 1546, accepted the lowest proportion of students from state schools, excluding those solely catering for mature students. Just over half of the colleges new undergraduates came from the state sector this year. Among the arts, humanities and social sciences, the four-year classics degree, which is designed for those with little or no experience of Latin, took the highest proportion of state-school students, at 88 per cent. The standard three-year classics course, which is aimed at people who studied the classical language for A-level, took the lowest proportion at 29.5 per cent. Music had the second-lowest state school acceptance rate of the arts and humanities this year, with 44.9 per cent of pupils coming from the sector. Meanwhile, state school-educated pupils made up the bulk of admissions on to science degrees across the board this year, with chemical engineering and biotechnology, and computer science taking the highest proportions. This year also marks the first year in a decade the gender ratio of accepted students has been equally split over the last decade, following several years of marginally higher offers to women, and seven years of more generous offers to men before that. Students from New Zealand had the highest success rate among international applicants, with almost a quarter accepted to Cambridge this year. Romania came in second at 22.6 per cent and Japan in third at 22 per cent. A spokesman for the university said: Any reading of our annual admissions statistics should be done by making appropriate comparisons. The last few years have been exceptional in view of A-level grading patterns. If you look back to pre-pandemic years and, in particular, the 2019 cycle, then we continue to make progress on a range of widening participation measures. 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. MOGADISHU, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has welcomed the country's election to the 15-member United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for a two-year term starting in 2025, saying it will enable Somalia to regain its global status. The historic vote shows how the world perceives development and governance taking place in the country, Mohamud said in a statement issued Thursday evening in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. He said that Somalia, among the five countries that received the winning votes for UNSC non-permanent seats, alongside Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, and Panama, will for the first time in 50 years, have influence in global affairs in terms of peace and conflicts. "The diplomatic success we have reached today translates to how the world is witnessing the efforts and development of Somalia, especially the recovery and rebuilding of our country," he said. The election is an opportunity for Somalia to take part in the promotion of peace and security in the world, Mohamud said. Meanwhile, the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) has also congratulated Somalia on the country's election as a non-permanent member of the UNSC. African Union Special Representative for Somalia and Head of ATMIS Mohamed El-Amine Souef said the election is a clear demonstration of the trust and confidence the UN member countries have in Somalia's progressive journey toward peace and security. "The achievement will embolden Somalia's drive to secure the safety and prosperity of its people," Souef said in a statement issued in Mogadishu. He said Somalia's historic election will also provide vital lessons for the quest for international peace and security in parts of the world experiencing conflict and instability. The five countries that were elected Thursday will join existing non-permanent members Algeria, Guyana, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia. Editor's note: The height for one of the two parking garage plans has been corrected. One parking garage plan is four stories high, and the other plan is seven stories. Most people commenting on a proposed parking garage in downtown Dover this week were in favor of the concept, but they posed a variety of questions about the buildings appearance and how it will be operated. About 80 residents and business owners attended two information sessions June 3 at the Dover Library to hear presentations by Michael Caine from the Bernardon architectural firm along with and Jed Hatfield, Colonial Parking president. Those companies are working with the Downtown Dover Partnership, which would own the garage. Now the concept is moving to the city planning commission meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, June 17, at City Hall, 15 Loockerman Plaza. We want to make a decision that is as good for as many people as possible, said Todd Stonesifer, Downtown Dover Partnership board president. We want to provide for the best interest of downtown Dover. Todd Stonesifer, president of the Downtown Dover Partnership board, points to the location of the proposed parking garage and mobility center in downtown Dover during the public information session June 3, 2024 at the Dover Library. The need for a parking garage was identified as a priority, he said, in the Capital City 2030: Transforming Downtown Dover master plan finished in January 2023 to increase parking in the business district for customers, workers, residents and visitors. The estimated cost is $14 million, to be paid with grants the Downtown Dover Partnership received from the federal American Rescue Plan Act and the state bond bill. However, to comply with the grants, the project has to be finished in 2026, Stonesifer said. More on redevelopment funding: $25 million 'jumpstart' to downtown Dover revitalization for apartments, shops, parking Where will parking garage be built and how big will it be? The proposed location of the 400-space garage is one block north of Loockerman Street, along the Minor Street alley between South Bradford Street and South Governors Avenue. Most of the land is a parking lot with a few buildings. The net number of new parking spaces would be about 320 because about 80 current spaces in the lot would be lost where the garage structure takes up space on the ground. Jed Hatfield, president of Colonial Parking, talks about the plans for the parking garage and mobility center in downtown Dover during the public information session June 3, 2024 at the Dover Library. Colonial is the parking management company working with the Downtown Dover Partnership on the project. Its across Governors Avenue from the planned building that will have retail space on the first floor and about 150 apartments above. The facility wont interfere with deliveries along Minor Street to the back of businesses that front Loockerman Street, Hatfield said. Plans are for a height of four or seven stories, depending on if two buildings at the site can be moved or demolished. If the buildings are moved or demolished, then the garage would have a larger footprint and be four stories. If the buildings remain, the garage would have to fit in a smaller area and be seven stories. One woman at the meeting asked about fire safety with such a tall building. Hatfield said the building plans would have to be approved by the fire marshal. More than parking the idea of a mobility center Along with parking, the facility could have: bike and/or scooter rentals and storage, a central place for Uber, Lyft and other ride-share services to pick up passengers, electric vehicle charging stations, travel/tourist information. What will it look like? The picture of the design plan shown at the information session didnt draw any praise. I want to know why this building looks so contemporary in the historic district of Dover. It does not fit, one woman said. Hatfield said the design isnt final. The picture shown was a design made more than a year ago as a concept during the master plan process. The final design will respect the historic character of downtown, he said. The design will also have to be approved by the citys historic review committee. More development news: 5 new food/drink businesses include national chains open or opening soon in Dover, Camden Would you have to pay to park? The garage would probably charge for parking, but the plan isnt finalized, Hatfield said. There could be a combination of spaces for hourly, daily and monthly parking along with residential permits. A woman at the meeting said many customers and visitors wont pay to use the garage because on many streets there are free spots with a time limit. But one concept in the downtown redevelopment plan is to create a more pedestrian-friendly environment by taking about half the parking spaces on Loockerman Street to widen the sidewalk for gathering spots and outdoor dining for restaurants. Another woman objected to that idea: People prefer to park close to the business that theyre going to. Youre getting rid of the on-street parking outside of the buildings, outside of our businesses? I want to be close, where I can hop in my car and leave. I dont want to pay to park and then walk a long way to the store. This is the proposed site of a parking garage and mobility center in downtown Dover between Bradford Street (pictured) and Governors Avenue, one block north of Loockerman Street. Would the garage be monitored with security? Mayor Robin Christiansen favors a parking garage as long as its a safe place. I dont want to add to issues that already exist. Were working hard to remove those issues, Christiansen said. This needs to be a secure facility, a clean facility. Hatfield said, Our team completely agrees, and it is our plan that it will be professionally managed, clean and secured. Could the garage include bus parking? The owner of a downtown restaurant recommended including a place for tourist buses because people from Michigan recently came into his business and said they were part of a bus tour group. That's a market that should be pursued to benefit downtown businesses, he said. A place for buses in the garage isnt in the current plan, Hatfield said, but there is a proposal for a covered waiting area for people boarding buses on the existing state bus route nearby on Governors Avenue. Could a hotel be tied to the parking garage? One recommendation in the master plan for downtown redevelopment is a 204-room hotel. Gigi Windley, a Dover resident with a background in tourism and economic development, recommended planning the hotel in conjunction with the parking garage. However, shes concerned that the requirement to complete the garage by 2026 doesnt allow time for a plan that fully explores everything that should be considered. Parking is always needed downtown, but this appears to be forced with having to spend the grant money by a deadline, Windley said after the June 3 meeting. The next environmental study should be done immediately before any more plans are made, she said, because of possible chemical contaminants left by previous businesses at and near the site. Im also concerned about the height being so out of scale with the surrounding buildings, Windley said. The historic facade is going to be important to make sure the architecture blends in well. Like the restaurant owner, she favors a place for tourist buses at the garage. Dover has always been a destination for tourists. It changed during COVID but now things are dramatically better, Windley said. Tourists spend money at restaurants and shops. People visit Dover, she said, because its a state capital, but also because it now has a national park site and many people plan trips to national parks. Visitors want to see historic areas involved with Delaware becoming the first state to ratify the Constitution. Other attractions include museums, Ballys Casino Resort, NASCAR races and events at Dover Motor Speedway and nearby Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge. A business owners reaction Codi Canasa, who owns Agape Body Piercing on South Bradford Street and lives downtown, said shes 100% in favor of a parking garage. Her business is a perfect example of why its needed, she said. Im blessed to have five parking spaces, but I have five employees, Canasa said. My clients usually park in the street. If we had one site with 400 spaces, if its for residents, if its for clients, if its for visitors, wed be able to say, This is where you go, one spot, boom. We could have signs directing people to it. It would make things a lot easier. She appreciated the Downtown Dover Partnership including business owners and residents in the planning. The fact that we get invited to meetings like this and asked for our comments is crucial, Canasa said. Reporter Ben Mace covers real estate, development and business news. Reach him at rmace@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Praise and criticism for proposed parking garage in downtown Dover Proposed rule expansion would impose speed limits on boats to prevent collisions with whales: 'The risk of extinction is very real' North Atlantic right whales are in a dangerous position with less than 360 surviving in the wild, but a new proposed speed limit could help save lives, according to Grist. Since 2017, 39 right whales whose North American habitat extends along the coast of Florida to Canada have died in what scientists call an "unusual mortality event," as Grist reported. The publication noted that boat strikes are one of the leading causes of death for this endangered species. In fact, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed the first right whale death of 2024 in April after a baby was struck by a vessel. Now, expanded speed limits for boats have been proposed and, as of the end of May, were under review by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. This is the last stage of federal review, according to Grist. Meanwhile, an increasingly warmer world is also threatening right whales, impacting its food supply and leading the creatures to venture to new areas without legal protections in place. This has put the species at risk of disappearing completely. "Our impacts are so great right now that the risk of extinction is very real," Jessica Redfern, associate vice president of ocean conservation at the New England Aquarium, told Grist. "To be able to save the species, we have to stop our direct human-caused impacts on the population." Currently, ships in certain areas over 65 feet long must slow down when whales are likely to be around the time of year varies by region. As Grist reported, the new proposed rules would expand the speed limits to a broader geographical area, include smaller craft like fishing boats, and make temporary speed limits mandatory after visual sightings confirming the presence of three or more right whales within a dynamic management area. Helping to conserve right whales is a win for oceans and people. Whales play an important role in their ecosystem, enabling tourism opportunities and supporting a web of life. They can even help us fight a warming world, as they play an important role in carbon sequestration. Worldwide, according to the World Wildlife Fund, "six out of the 13 great whale species are classified as endangered or vulnerable." But many conservationists and governments are working to protect these gargantuan mammals. For instance, the island nation of Dominica created a first-of-its-kind marine sanctuary to conserve sperm whales. Join our free newsletter for cool news and cool tips that make it easy to help yourself while helping the planet. Rockville General Hospital is one of three hospitals in Connecticut owned by Prospect Medical Holdings. (Shahrzad Rasek/CT Mirror) Prospect Medical Holdings is suing Yale New Haven Health, claiming the health system breached its contract with Prospect by failing to deliver the agreed-upon purchase price for the three Connecticut hospitals it has made a bid to buy. The California-based company also alleges that YNHH failed to make reasonable best efforts to complete the acquisition of the three Prospect-owned facilities and has actively worked to prevent the closing of the transaction in order to get a lower purchase price. The lawsuit comes a month after YNNH sued Prospect, charging that Prospect violated the contract by defaulting on rent and tax liabilities, allowing its facilities to deteriorate, mismanaging assets, driving away physicians and vendors and engaging in a pattern of irresponsible financial practices. [RELATED: Yale New Haven Health wants out of deal to buy Prospect hospitals] YNHH asked the state Superior Court to be let out of its contract with Prospect. It had made an offer to buy Manchester Memorial, Rockville General and Waterbury hospitals for $435 million, but following a cyberattack that devastated operations at the facilities, as well as revelations that Prospect owed tens of millions of dollars to vendors, physicians under contract at the hospitals and the state in taxes, YNHH asked Prospect to adjust the purchase price. In the lawsuit filed Thursday, lawyers for Prospect wrote that Yale suggested a lower purchase price on Jan. 31, and that on Feb. 15, Prospect declined. Our primary purpose in filing this lawsuit is to hold YNHH to its binding promise to acquire these critically important safety net hospitals and maintain YNHHs stated commitment to ensuring the hospitals continuing ability to serve their communities, Von Crockett, co-CEO of Prospect Medical Holdings, said in a statement Thursday. This transaction is in the best interest of these communities, and is supported by our physicians, nurses, caregivers, and elected officials. The lawsuit also alleges that YNHH violated the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act and its confidentiality agreement, and failed to act in good faith in its dealings with Prospect. Lawyers for Prospect said the companys three Connecticut hospitals have struggled for years, even pre-dating [Prospects] ownership. They also accused YNHH of abandoning discussions. Yale New Haven Health has further frustrated closing by canceling numerous meetings with [Prospect] and instructing its counsel to decline and not appear for regularly scheduled closing calls, lawyers wrote in the lawsuit. In a statement Thursday, YNHH officials said they stood behind their May legal filing. Yale New Haven Health stands by our complaint, which outlines Prospects numerous violations of our Asset Purchase Agreement through serious mismanagement, Dana Marnane, a spokeswoman for the health system, said. The lawsuit filed by Prospect is a clear attempt to shift attention away from the for-profit, California-based companys mismanagement of their Connecticut facilities and neglect of the communities who entrusted them with their care. We are prepared to defend ourselves against this suit, while pursuing our own litigation to the end. The state approved a certificate of need authorizing the hospital merger in March. The Connecticut Mirror previously reported that surgeries at Prospects Connecticut hospitals were being postponed because health care providers didnt have the needed resources. Contracts with traveling nurses and technicians were in jeopardy and had remained in place only on a week-to-week basis at one point last fall, physicians at the hospitals said. An anesthesiologist group sued over nonpayment of more than $3 million. And the cyberattack that crippled operations also set the hospitals back further financially, executives have said. In January, CT Mirror reported that Prospect neglected to pay $67 million in taxes. The state has filed three liens against the California-based company. On May 22, Gov. Ned Lamont met with the CEOs of YNHH and Prospect in an effort to move the stalled negotiations out of the courtroom. Lamonts spokesperson, Julia Bergman, said at the time the governor was encouraged by the meeting even if the parties left without an agreement. This is the first time the two CEOs have been in a room together, so we take that as a sign of progress, Bergman said. The governor wanted to get everyone back together, away from the courtroom, to see if there was a way to move this forward, Bergman said. He continues to see this as the best deal and Yale as the best owner for the three hospitals. Connecticut Mirror is a content partner of States Newsroom. Read the original version here. The post Prospect Medical files countersuit against Yale New Haven Health in hospital sale appeared first on Rhode Island Current. Back in 2016, Rosalind Watts volunteered to work on one of Imperial College Londons early trials investigating psilocybin for depression. She had previously spent several years as a clinical psychologist with the UKs National Health Service and quickly saw the incredible potential for psychedelics to help people with mental health problems. By the following year, Watts had abandoned her conventional healthcare work, joining the Imperial team and evangelizing the benefits of these miraculous medicines. Psilocybin is one of several psychedelic drugs currently being explored as treatments for a variety of mental health issues. These drugs, which also include LSD, DMT and adjacent compounds like MDMA and ketamine, can give users profound shifts in perception, both during a dose session and in the weeks or months following. This particular consciousness-altering aspect to the drugs means patients can require more therapeutic support than they would if they were receiving conventional psychiatric medications. As time passed, Watts grew concerned that these drugs were not being administered with enough broad support for patients. She was finding many clinical trial participants, months later, struggling with the return of their previous sense of disconnectedness and depression, alongside big questions that had been raised in the psychedelic session, with no one to talk to about them. Even with bespoke and careful therapeutic containers created for the trial, the support ended very quickly afterwards. So Watts and a colleague set up the UK's first community-based psychedelic integration group to provide a safety net to catch any participants in their next trial who might find they needed help afterwards. We went and sat in a community center, Watts recalls in an interview with Salon. We gave our time for free, month after month, because many people were having psychedelic experiences without enough support, after trials and retreats, and most months we witnessed people really struggling to cope alone with the aftermath of intense and confusing experiences." Disillusioned with corporate impacts on the psychedelic space, Watts changed path to develop a long term community integration framework for building connectedness to self, community and nature after a psychedelic experience. This was designed to catch people who might struggle to integrate experiences with the drugs after consuming the psychedelic renaissance hype. In a frank Medium post published two years ago, Watts expressed remorse at contributing to a simplistic and dangerous narrative around psychedelic medicine. She still believes psychedelics are incredible agents for catalyzing healing but is also concerned theres a growing narrative suggesting we need to just take the drug and everything will be fine. Watts wrote, the greatest threat to a healthy psychedelic future is the fetishizing of just the drug alone, adding, Whether plant, or synthesized compound of one, there is a narrative that all you need to do to change your mind is eat something. I unknowingly contributed to that narrative. Dont call it therapy For the past 70 years, most Western medical uses of psychedelics have centered on the way these drugs can serve as an adjunct to psychological therapy, or psychotherapy. From treating alcoholism to alleviating depression and anxiety, the general idea has been that psychedelics can amplify suggestibility, increase neuroplasticity and accelerate the clinical process of psychotherapy. In fact, for much of the current so-called psychedelic renaissance, the treatment has been explicitly referred to as psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. While there may be more and more research illustrating exactly what psychedelics do pharmacologically to our brain, for the most part it was never particularly controversial to suggest the drugs should always be delivered in tandem with a broad program of psychological preparation and integration. Want more health and science stories in your inbox? Subscribe to Salon's weekly newsletter Lab Notes. Its pretty unusual in psychiatry for a drugs efficacy to be fundamentally influenced by counseling or psychotherapy. Certainly medicines such as antidepressants or drugs like buprenorphine for opioid use disorder are known to be more effective when accompanied by clinical support but they are often administered solely as pharmacological treatments. Psychedelics, on the other hand, are considered to be so life-altering, emotional and sometimes distressing that having a licensed practitioner nearby to walk one through the experience has been one approach to reducing harm or side effects. Over the last few years, however, the word therapy has been appearing less and less in psychedelic clinical trials as the research moves closer to real-world applications and approval by agencies like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Setting aside the somewhat atypical example of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD a treatment modality that intrinsically intertwines psychological interventions into its process recent clinical research with classical psychedelics (psilocybin, LSD and DMT) has quietly dropped the psychotherapy and replaced it with a variety of more ambiguous terms such as psychosocial support. Compass Pathways has led the way in this semantic shift. Currently deep in Phase 3 trials testing psilocybin for depression, the company has been forceful in its reframing of psychedelic medicine away from the classic psychedelic psychotherapy model. Compass studiously avoids any reference to psychotherapy in its trial work, instead calling its research psilocybin treatment with psychological support. A provocative 2022 commentary published in the American Journal of Psychiatry and co-authored by Guy Goodwin (Compass Chief Medical Officer) and Ekaterina Malievskaia (Compass co-founder) made the case for psilocybin treatment being a drug therapy first and foremost. They argued support to ensure psychological and physical safety was of course necessary with psilocybin treatment, but their dose-response data purportedly indicated efficacy was primarily a pharmacological effect and more expansive psychotherapy programs were not necessary. In other words, the drug does most of the work. Part of this subtle shift in nomenclature has been informed by the FDAs first guidance for psychedelic clinical studies, released in mid-2023. The guidance established an assortment of clinical issues the drug regulator will be considering when looking at applications to bring psychedelic medicines to market. One crucial question the FDA raised in the document was what it saw as a problematic conflation of drug effect and psychotherapy when exploring the therapeutic efficacy of psychedelics. It suggested clinical research should attempt to separately quantify the contribution of psychotherapy from the drugs effects when evaluating a patients response to the treatment. Essentially the question being asked was are these drugs still safe and effective in the absence of psychotherapy? A recent advisory committee to the FDA was particularly focused on this question when trying to evaluate the safety and efficacy of MDMA for PTSD. This problem with psychotherapy ultimately played a part in the committees near unanimous recommendation against the approval of MDMA therapy, which could dampen hopes that the drug will be legally prescribed in the near future. The drug does all the work? In early March of this year, psychedelic startup MindMed made a pair of striking announcements. It revealed the FDA had granted breakthrough status designation to its investigational drug MM120, a patented formulation of LSD. It also revealed data from its Phase 2b study testing MM120 for generalized anxiety disorder. According to the company, a single dose of the psychedelic drug led to significant and sustained clinical improvements for up to 12 weeks. Less prominent in MindMeds announcement, but perhaps most significant, were details surrounding the treatment protocol being tested. MindMed was claiming to have completely eliminated all traces of psychotherapy from its treatment model. In an investor presentation the company proudly declared its MM120 trial contained no preparation, no integration, and no ongoing therapeutic engagement. This was psychedelic medicine pared back to the absolute minimum. Spend a day taking the drug in a safe clinical environment and then go back to your life. Speaking to Salon, MindMeds chief medical officer Dan Karlin said the primary goal of the trial was to home in on the sole pharmacological effect of the drug, as suggested by the FDA. Every step of the trial design looked to remove conventional traces of psychotherapy while maintaining basic levels of support necessary for patient safety. There are elements of the history of these drugs, like the need for psychotherapy, that we were doing our best to try and test if that is a real need, Karlin explained to Salon. Not because we don't think people would benefit from it, because psychotherapy helps. But because we wanted to see if the drug worked without it. So instead of a series of preparatory therapy or support sessions before a drug dose, MindMed simply engaged with the patient in an expanded informed consent process. According to Karlin, informed consent for psychedelics looks a lot like it would for any other psychotropic medication except it is maybe, a little more robust. The conversation there is about what people may or may not experience, from a perceptual standpoint, from a cognitive standpoint, from a physical sensation standpoint, and from an emotional standpoint. Then there's a putative conversation about mechanism, Karlin said, describing MindMeds informed consent process. In the room for a dosing session there are two monitors. One of those monitors is either a medical doctor or a nurse practitioner, while the other need only have a bachelors degree with some working experience in anything adjacent to psychiatry. Some of the session monitors used in the MindMed trials did have experience with psychotherapy. However, that was not a requirement when selecting personnel. In fact, Karlin explains some of those monitors in the trial were even medical doctors from non-psychiatric fields such as oncologists and gastroenterologists. In the room, these folks are instructed explicitly not to provide psychotherapy, Karlin notes. What they do provide is monitoring obviously for safety, though that has not really been much of an issue. They do things like vital signs, checks and then they assist the participant if they need anything. Of course, sitting in a room with someone going through a high dose psychedelic experience is rarely a completely passive experience. Karlin admits there were moments where participants were in distress or looked for some kind of engagement with the monitors. In those instances, the monitors were instructed to reorient the participants to whats happening in the room and remind them the drugs effects will pass. In essence, its supervising, not therapy, he stresses. Most patients on very high doses are not looking for dyadic engagement. They're not looking to be psychotherapized. Occasionally, someone would say something or ask a question that might be sort of leading towards something that could be a more therapeutic intervention. And then the instruction that the DSM [dose session monitor] had been given was to redirect back to the patient, they have to do their thing while they're here. Once the dose day was over the participants went home and were followed for several months to track the effectiveness of the treatment. Two in-person assessments were conducted in the week after the dose. Here, the participant met up with one of the monitors present during their dose. Karlin stresses no systematic psychotherapy took place at these follow-up appointments. The participants simply completed assessments to measure their symptoms and occasionally asked the monitors about events that may or may not have occurred during their dose session. So, has MindMed demonstrated a psychedelic drug can be clinically effective in the absence of psychotherapy or a broad psychological support protocol when treating certain psychiatric conditions? Does this mean the future of psychedelic medicine is a clinic where patients drop in, spend a day experiencing a drug while under supervision, and then simply leave with no follow-up support or management necessary? Maybe. But what if this therapy versus drug binary is the wrong way to think about the impact of psychedelics? Is this dynamic a red herring that could be diverting our attention away from other, more deeply metaphysical issues that can emerge with psychedelic use? If researchers are only measuring a drugs efficacy using anxiety or depression scales and tracking adverse effects from the perspective of things like suicidality could they be missing other kinds of long-term adverse impacts? Ontological shock My sense of self was gone. It was like it had been obliterated into a million pieces, Theo said. And I couldn't really work out who I was. I just had this, like, routine of going to work. And I just stuck to that as a means of like, keeping some sense of inner structure by having some outer structure. And, like, if I'm honest, if I'd sat and thought about that for a while, for the first few weeks, I think I would have just cried because like, it didn't seem very clear who I was anymore. Theo participated in an ayahuasca ceremony in his mid-20s. His experiences in the weeks and months following the psychedelic brew led him to profoundly question his identity. Theo is one of 26 people interviewed in a new preprint study exploring the varieties of existential distress that can follow a psychedelic experience. Theres Adriene, a woman in her 30s who, after a magic mushroom experience alone in her apartment during the pandemic, changed her life path from being an atheist dominatrix to taking vows and becoming a Buddhist nun. Theres Cal, whose experience with DMT and cannabis at a party moved them away from a journey to become a rabbi and into a world of Wicca and paganism. Western science has a name for these radical transformations, coined in the early 1970s by philosopher Paul Tillich:ontological shock. Tillichs work was focused on how we as humans conceive of God and what happens to us if we are confronted with Gods non-existence. One of his definitive works concluded with the iconic line, The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt. Tillich suggested certain experiences in life can trigger a kind of spiritual destabilization where people are confronted with existential realizations. This ontological shock is precipitated by challenges to ones worldview or beliefs. For Tillich, an ontological shock was primarily contained within a theistic frame. So something like a near-death experience, for example, could bring a person face-to-face with a feeling of there being no God in the universe. This profound break in a persons belief system can be frightening for many, leaving one feeling unmoored, disconnected and groundless. Over the last few decades, the term ontological shock has been more broadly used to describe experiences where someones fundamental metaphysical beliefs are deeply challenged beyond theism. Members of alien abduction communities, for example, often speak of the ontological shock they experience after an abduction encounter. Psychedelic experiences are also deep mediators of ontological shock. From a clinical perspective these kinds of psychedelic-induced ontological shocks are not merely a bothersome side effect of the drug, but instead could be crucial to the kinds of healing being seen in medical contexts. The therapeutic benefits of psychedelics are theorized to be driven by increases in entropy a measure of uncertainty that shift individuals' reliance on their prior beliefs, the researchers write in the study. This destabilizing mechanism allows for a recalibration of cognitive structures, enabling the re-evaluation of previously rigid mental models. However, when individuals lack adequate psychological or social resources, this increase in uncertainty can lead to distress manifesting as confusion and difficulty accommodating the ungrounding of established worldviews. Psychedelics in a disconnected world Most of the work Ros Watts does nowadays is in establishing systems of support for people after psychedelic experiences. She co-runs an online integration community called ACER Integration that offers peer support and a 12 step process for building connectedness. The big problem, from Watts perspective, is that 21st century Western culture is disconnected and isolating, lacking any kind of context or container to help people safely integrate psychedelic experiences. If you put psychedelics into a disconnected culture, then people go back to disconnectedness, and they're left with these big huge questions with no one to talk to, Watts says. A reigning aphorism of the psychedelic renaissance is that these drugs have been safely used by innumerable Indigenous cultures for thousands of years. And while that may be true, Watts is keen to stress a big difference between every psychedelic-using community in the past and people in the world today. Indigenous groups have [used psychedelics] as part of a community, Watts explains. You have loads of support, you're doing it in a group of people, you have your shaman, you have your community care. There's no 'psychedelic integration', because you're living in a community of people who are integrating all the time. After a psychedelic session people need a community of ongoing support from people who understand. Not just to mitigate risks, but to maintain benefits. We can't extract the medicine from its context of doing it that way. From MindMeds perspective, Karlin doesnt deny some people can have challenging experiences with psychedelics, but he stresses drug developers do not control the practice of medicine. And neither does the FDA, he adds. By establishing a potential baseline of safety and efficacy in their clinical trials, Karlin argues MindMed is helping broaden access to these medicines if they were to be eventually approved. The goal is that in the real world this is just another tool in the toolbox to bring this toward regulatory approval in such a way that a label and REMS [Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy], if one is required, are as much as is needed for true safety, but broad enough that this can be incorporated into a lot of different types of practice patterns. Karlin agrees psychedelic drugs can lead to patients making large life changes due to the nature of the experience. But he doesnt see this as something wholly novel to psychedelics. He argues patients undergoing psychotherapy, for example, can often come to similar major life-changing realizations. People getting good psychotherapy sometimes leave their families, he says. That's the nature of exploring one's own mind. These drugs can accelerate that process in many cases, but they don't change someone. They just open people to the idea that maybe they're not on the path that's right for them now. Watts is a little more concerned about the shockwaves likely to ripple through communities if these drugs are simply slotted into a Western medical model without broader support systems in place. Her experiences with people who have been deeply unsettled by psychedelic trips led her to believe small, grassroots organizations are going to have to pick up the pieces when big pharmaceutical companies start rolling these medicines out. And she feels pharmaceutical companies making profits off these drugs have a larger responsibility to at the very least offer financial support to these organizations. The list of deep, powerful experiences where you need a hand to hold and need someone to work with you afterwards is very long, Watts says. So what [these companies] could do if they had compassion is support people through those processes. And not gaslight them by saying, yeah, this [single drug dose] is going to fix you. What they would also do is they would provide a proportion of their profits, to support grassroots organizations who have been set up to catch the people who are damaged by psychedelic therapy. LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) More than eight years after the the former Lansing Eastern High School was sold to Sparrow Hospital, health system officials have outlined a plan for the site. University of Michigan Health, which merged with Sparrow in 2023, now plans to ask the state of Michigan to approve 120 beds for mental health services at the site of the former high school, built in 1928, on North Pennsylvania Avenue, officials said Friday. A spokesperson for the health system said most behavioral health patients in the emergency department are there because they are waiting for a longer-term bed to open up for them. U-M Healths plan is designed to help address the behavioral health crisis by using the site of the former Lansing Eastern High School, which adjoins UM Health-Sparrow Lansing, they said in a news release. U-M Health officials said the old high school building has been closed for years and its dilapidated interior makes it unsafe and cost-prohibitive to locate any services there. Students attended the former Lansing Eastern High School for the last time in June 2019. (WLNS) Officials would not explicitly say whether the plan is to tear down the old high school building to make room for new facilities, but said that U-M Health plans to work closely on the plan with school alumni and community members in the next few months before a final proposal is put forth to the Board of Regents. Scott Bean, spokesperson for Lansing Mayor Andy Schor, told 6 News in an email that I should add that the Mayor would be disappointed to see Eastern come down. He appreciates that UM Sparrow is engaging the neighborhood and alumni on the future plans. Hed love to see that building be reused somehow. Mayor Schor said in a separate statement Friday that UM Medicals increase in behavioral health bed capacity here in Lansing will address a tremendous need in our city, region, and state. Lansing School District entered into the sale agreement with Sparrow in January 2016. Eastern High School students attended school for the last time at the former building five years ago today: June 7, 2019. U-M Health officials said the location of the former high school is key to the plan. The proximity to the hospital is crucial, as the complex needs of behavioral health patients are best served by being close to the UM Health-Sparrow Lansing emergency department, officials said. They said that U-M Heath will eventually submit a proposal to the U-M Board of Regents for approval of the plan for the former high school site. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WLNS 6 News. Have any public safety concerns? You can meet with law enforcement in Brockton next week BROCKTON If you have any public safety concerns in the city of Brockton, you can bring them straight to law enforcement officials next week. The Operation Safe Streets Task Force is holding a public meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 12, at the Arnone Elementary School, at 135 Belmont St. "In an effort to keep open communication channels between law enforcement and area residents, the public will have the chance to discuss any and all public safety concerns within the city," the event flyer states. The Operation Safe Streets Task Force is holding a public meeting on Wednesday, June 12, 2024. Law enforcement officials who will be at the meeting include representatives from the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office, Massachusetts State Police, Brockton Police Department, U.S. Attorney's Office, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. For more info, contact the DA's office at 508-584-8120. Enterprise senior reporter Cody Shepard can be reached by email at cshepard@enterprisenews.com. This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Operation Safe Streets Task Force: Public meeting on June 12 Supporters of a proposed Arkansas constitutional amendment that would create a limited right to abortion seek signatures at the intersection of 9th and State streets in Little Rock on Thursday, May 30, 2024. Little Rock police arrived during the collection efforts and parked outside the event venue The Hall. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate) Supporters of a proposed Arkansas constitutional amendment that would allow a limited right to abortion denounced a conservative advocacy groups publication of a list of paid canvassers, calling the move an intimidation tactic. The right-wing Family Council posted Thursday on its website a list of 79 people that the Arkansans for Limited Government ballot question committee is paying to collect signatures from across the state. The committee needs 90,704 signatures from registered voters by July 5 for the proposed amendment to appear on the November ballot. The Family Council obtained the list of paid canvassers and their home cities via an Arkansas Freedom of Information Act request, according to the post. Ballot question committees do not have to submit lists of unpaid or volunteer canvassers to the state. AFLG released a statement Friday in response to the post. The canvassers working tirelessly to collect petitions in support of the Arkansas Abortion Amendment are proud of the work they are doing to promote reproductive liberty in the state and to engage in direct democracy they arent hiding, the group stated. But when the Family Council releases lists of their names and whereabouts to their network of anti-choice protestors who vehemently, and sometimes violently, disagree with our work, it puts our team at great risk for harassment, stalking, and other dangers. The Family Councils tactics are ugly, transparently menacing, and unworthy of Arkansas. We wont be intimidated. The Family Councils post is the second instance of alleged intimidation of abortion amendment supporters in less than two weeks. On May 30, canvasser Veronica McClane filmed an interaction between herself and Little Rock police, in which Officer Christopher Tollette told her that both Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission did not want her and others canvassing at the intersection of 9th and State streets. Tollette told McClane that canvassers could be arrested for obstructing traffic. The canvassers told reporters they were not blocking traffic but instead sought the attention of drivers from a public sidewalk. The Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, located at the 9th and Broadway intersection, attracted a slow-moving line of cars with a free food giveaway on May 30. Mark Edwards, the Little Rock Police Departments spokesman, told reporters that Sanders had nothing to do with the officers presence and that Tollette misspoke when he mentioned her. Edwards also said the police arrived because a Martin Luther King Jr. Commission member claimed to have overheard a canvasser trying to coerce someone into signing the petition. The proposed amendment The Arkansas Abortion Amendment would not allow government entities to prohibit, penalize, delay or restrict abortion services within 18 weeks of fertilization. The proposal would also permit abortion services in cases of rape, incest, a fatal fetal anomaly or to protect the pregnant females life or physical health, and it would nullify any of the states existing provisions of the Constitution, statutes and common law that conflict with it. The Family Council claims this measure would allow thousands of elective abortions in Arkansas every year and permit abortion through all nine months of pregnancy in many cases because of its health provisions despite the 18-week limit. The proposed amendment would alter Amendment 68 to the state Constitution, which currently states that Arkansas policy is to protect the life of every unborn child from conception until birth, to the extent permitted by the Federal Constitution, by adding and the Constitution of the State of Arkansas at the end. Amendment 68 states, No public funds will be used to pay for any abortion, except to save the mothers life. The proposed amendment would not alter this statement, contrary to the Family Councils claim in Thursdays post. Abortion has been illegal in Arkansas, with a narrow exception to save the pregnant persons life, since June 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that made abortion a federally recognized right. Democratic state lawmakers introduced bills during the 2023 legislative session that would have created exceptions to the abortion ban for fatal fetal anomalies, child victims of incest and threats to the health of the pregnant person. Republican lawmakers voted down all three proposals in committee. The anti-abortion Arkansas Right to Life has been leading a Decline to Sign campaign encouraging voters not to sign petitions for the amendment. McClane said last week that opponents of the proposed amendment have attended AFLGs signing events in protest, which she said amounts to harassment. The post Publication of abortion amendment canvasser list is intimidation, ballot question committee says appeared first on Arkansas Advocate. (PUEBLO, Colo.) The Pueblo Police Department is asking citizens for any information they may have about a shooting that occurred on Sunday, June 2. The shooting occurred at the 800 block of E. Northern Ave and Orman Ave around 9:50 p.m.. When officers arrived, they located a 23-year-old man with injuries consistent with gunshot wounds. Detectives believe that the gunshots may have originated from a silver sedan that left the scene immediately following the shooting. There were several witnesses and vehicles in the area before and after the shooting that left prior to the arrival of law enforcement. The police department is asking anyone who may have information or video related to the shooting to come forward. Individuals with information can contact Detective Joseph Cardona at (719)-553-3385. Those who wish to remain anonymous may contact Crimestoppers at (719)-542-STOP (7867). Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX21 News Colorado. Put the guns down. Moms and leaders speak out about gun violence in Lexington Marita Cole is a survivor of gun violence. Her son, William, was shot and killed in a Lexington street on May 22, 2017. He was 26. The journey, she said, has been horrible, and she often questions how she makes it from day to day. On Friday, she told her story to a crowd of people wearing the color orange, revealing how hard it is to make it through Mothers Day, May 22 -- the anniversary of Williams killing -- and Memorial Day without her son. Theres nothing like being a mother with no child, Cole said. You have no child because somebody decided to take a gun and murder yours. Cole was one of several speakers at an event recognizing National Gun Violence Awareness Day at the Courthouse Plaza in Lexington, where Mayor Linda Gorton presented a proclamation to Moms Demand Action, recognizing June 7 as Wear Orange Day in the city. Fayette County Sheriff Kathy Witt, an advocate for survivors of crime, called for victims and survivors of gun violence to join her near the podium and share their stories. One is too many, one homicide, one act of gun violence is too many, Witt said. The work must continue, it must go on. We have to continue to work harder and more collectively than we ever have before. How Wear Orange Day got its start Kathi Crowe, a co-lead of Moms Demand Action in Lexington, also spoke, telling the crowd that 120 people die every day from gun violence in America with 837 people in Kentucky killed per year. Fridays gathering was hosted by Moms Demand Action, a network of survivors, victims and families committed to fighting gun violence across America The orange shirts people wore represented Wear Orange Day, an effort to spread gun violence awareness. Wear Orange Day was started by friends of Hadiya Pendleton after the 15-year-old from Chicago was shot and killed in 2013. Lynsey Sugarman, co-lead of Moms Demand Action in Lexington, said they worked with leaders around the country to start the National Gun Violence Awareness Day. Gorton told the crowd on Friday she wanted people, especially youth to put the guns down. Gun violence has plagued our nation for many years and has claimed the lives of far too many Lexington residents, Gorton read from the proclamation. By participating today in Wear Orange, we rally for safer communities and together we can build a future free from gun violence, Crowe said. William Coles murder in 2017 William Cole was 26 when he was shot and killed on Anderson Street near the Distillery District on May 22, 2017. He was found on the street and died later that night at the University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital. Chanse Robertson, 37, was arrested and charged with Coles murder. In 2019, he was sentenced to six years in prison with credit for 600 days he had already served after pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter, a lesser charge. My brother was worth more than six years, Jordan Cole, Williams brother, said in 2019. Theres not a time amount you can put on someones life, but I feel like the type of person my brother was, the things he did for this community, no ones perfect, but his heart was pure and the things he did were pure. On Friday, Marita Cole spoke about the pain shes been dealing with since the death of her son, who was a father of two. Anybody that has to go through this because of gun violence, I feel for you, I pray for you, Marita Cole said. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday threatened for a second time to send weapons to Western adversaries, while declining to name any countries or groups. Putin made the threat, his second this week, during a speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum when discussing Western support for Ukraine amid its war with Moscow. If they supply [weapons] to the combat zone and call for using these weapons against our territory, why dont we have the right to do the same? he told attendees. Putin would not say when he would carry out such an act stressing that Russia is not currently supplying weapons to enemies of the West nor did he reveal what countries or entities he was considering for sending arms. The Russian leader on Wednesday told international journalists that Moscow could provide long-range weapons to nations to strike Western targets, a threat that comes after the U.S. gave Ukraine permission to strike with American-made weapons in a limited area of Russia. We reserve the right to act the same way, Putin said on the sidelines of the forum earlier this week. The response might [be] asymmetrical, and we will think about that. Putin on Friday also reaffirmed that he is prepared to use nuclear weapons if he sees a threat to Russian sovereignty, even as he said the current threat level did not warrant the use of such weapons as stipulated in Moscows nuclear doctrine. However, he noted that could change. We have a nuclear doctrine which states that the use of nuclear arms is possible in an exceptional case, when the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country is threatened, he said. But the doctrine can be changed. Russia has picked up its saber rattling amid fresh U.S. aid packages to Ukraine as well as the limited new permission to strike at Kremlin targets within Russia. As part of that, Russia has sent three navy ships and a nuclear-powered submarine to Cuba, to arrive at the Port of Havana for an official visit next week, according to the Cuban armed forces. U.S. officials expect the two countries to engage in exercises to include heightened naval and air activity near the United States, involving both Russian aircraft and combat naval vessels the first coordinated air and sea exercise by Russia in the Western Hemisphere in five years, a U.S. official told McClatchy and the Miami Herald on Wednesday. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. TUNIS, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Tunisia arrested a woman for alleged links to a terrorist group in the town of Sejnane in the country's northern province of Bizerte, said the Tunisian National Guard on Friday. "The young woman, who was wanted by security and judicial agencies, had been sentenced to 48 years in prison on charges of being involved in a terrorist group," said a statement posted on the National Guard's Facebook page. The statement did not provide further details. Tunisia has witnessed increased terrorist activities since 2011, in which dozens of security and military personnel, as well as civilians and foreign tourists, were killed. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin claimed on June 7 that his country had increased ammunition production by more than 20 times, and there is "no need" to use nuclear weapons to win in Ukraine. Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin also said he had no plans for another wave of mobilization as Moscow had enough volunteers willing to fight in Ukraine. When asked if Russia should hold a "nuclear pistol to the temple" of the West over Ukraine, Putin dismissed the idea except in an "exceptional case." "The use (of nuclear weapons) is possible in an exceptional case - in the event of a threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. I don't think that such a case has come," he said. "There is no such need." Russian officials have regularly raised the threat of nuclear war over Ukraine. In February, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev threatened to use nuclear weapons against the U.S., the U.K., Germany, and Ukraine if Moscow loses all occupied Ukrainian territories. Speaking of another wave of mobilization in Russia, Putin said there was currently "no need." "We do not plan to do so," he said. "Last year, without any mobilization, our men voluntarily came to military enlistment offices and signed contracts. There were more than 300,000 of them. This year, more than 160,000 have already come." The claim that Russia had raised ammunition production by 20 times could not be independently verified, but last month Sky News reported that Russia is managing to produce artillery shells at triple the speed of Ukraines allies for a quarter of the price. According to the report, Russian factories can produce or refurbish 4.5 million 152 mm shells this year for $1,000 per round. European countries and the U.S. are only expected to produce 1.3 million 155 mm shells combined, at an average cost of $4,000 per unit. Slow artillery production has hindered Ukraines progress on the battlefield. Soldiers claim that for every round they fire, Russia launches around five back. Read also: A tyrant bent on domination, Biden says of Putin during D-Day speech Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Russian President Vladimir Putin will address the 27th St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Friday with a speech on global politics and Russia's economic situation in times of sanctions. At the annual meeting, the raw materials superpower aims to show it is defying the pressure of sanctions imposed as a result of the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine with comparatively high growth and innovations. Putin is once again to answer questions on a podium, including about his war against Ukraine, which has been going on for more than two years. Despite the restricted economic contacts, many entrepreneurs from Western countries are attending the forum, including from the United States and the European Union. Western experts also point to the comparatively robust state of Russia's economy, even as it endures unprecedented financial sanctions and trade bans. A large part of the growth and the comparatively good consumer sentiment can be attributed to the massive ramp-up of the war economy. Right at the start of the economic forum, which has been running since Wednesday and ends on Saturday, Russian politicians and entrepreneurs emphasized that the country was preparing for a long military conflict. The war economy could shape the economy of the nuclear power for years to come, according to organizers of the forum. Putin: Russia not considering nuclear strike with West over Ukraine Russia is not considering a nuclear strike in its conflict with the West over Ukraine, but the Russian nuclear doctrine is a "living instrument" that could change depending on the circumstances, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday. Putin, speaking at an economic forum in St Petersburg, said his country would only use nuclear weapons in extreme situations and these these have not yet occurred, "We have no need to think about this issue," the Russian leader told the 27th St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). Russia could carry out nuclear tests, but for the time being there is no need to do so, Putin said. But that could change if circumstances do. We should not speak of nuclear war without necessity, Putin said, presenting himself more cool-headed than the moderator of the discussion, veteran Russian political expert Sergei Karaganov, who has advocated for a Russian nuclear strike to deter the West more strongly. At Friday's event, Karaganov once again tried to push the Russian president in this direction. Putin said there would not be a major nuclear exchange with the United States, but he questioned the US nuclear umbrella for its European allies. The Russian leader hypothesized that Washington would not want to become embroiled in a strategic nuclear war in response to Russian retaliatory strikes against Europe. In Ukraine, Russia would achieve its war aims through a slow, planned advance, he said. A faster advance would risk the lives of Russian soldiers. During Russia's war with Ukraine, which Putin started in February 2022, he has repeatedly tried to dissuade Western states from supporting Ukraine by pointing to Russia's nuclear potential. Putin repeated his threat to supply Russian weapons to anti-Western states in response to Western arms aid for Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg. -/Kremlin/dpa Putin says there is "no need" to use nuclear weapons Russian leader Vladimir Putin has once again speculated on the possibility of a nuclear war and noted that it will "never come to that" due to the large number of casualties it would cause. Source: Putin at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum on 7 June, as reported by European Pravda Details: Russian propagandist Sergei Karaganov asked Putin about the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons for a "quick victory" in Ukraine, as well as the possibility of it turning into a global nuclear war with the United States. In response, Putin said that Russia's tactical nuclear weapons are "three times more powerful than the bombs used by the Americans against Hiroshima and Nagasaki" and far exceed Europe's atomic potential. "The very same Europeans will have to think if those with whom we will exchange such strikes cease to exist, will the Americans get involved in this exchange of strikes at the level of strategic weapons or not? I doubt it very much," he added. The Russian leader went on to say that Moscow is far superior to the "enemy" even without nuclear weapons, so "we don't need to consider this topic". "But I still proceed from the fact that it will never come to this [the use of nuclear weapons ed.], and we have no such need," Vladimir Putin concluded. Background: In May, Russia's Defence Ministry announced exercises on the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons, which drew condemnation from Western powers. Following this, Belarus also announced a "surprise inspection" of non-strategic nuclear weapons carriers, following suit of Russia. Support UP or become our patron! President Vladimir Putin says Russia remains a key partner in world trade even under increasing Western sanctions. Despite all the obstacles and what he called "illegitimate sanctions" imposed by the West, the country is developing its logistics and the geography of its international cooperation, Putin said on Friday at the 27th St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). The country is among the leading economic nations - ahead of Germany, he said, referring to data that takes purchasing power into account. The West has imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia as punishment for Putin's war against Ukraine, which has been going on for more than two years. Around three quarters of foreign trade is now conducted with countries that are friendly to Russia, Putin said. Since the West imposed trade bans in many areas, Russia has orientated itself economically towards China in particular, but also towards India, Africa and Latin America. In a speech to hundreds of guests, Putin also called for the expansion of cooperation in technology transfer and announced interesting growth prospects for investors from abroad. The Russian president also said that the development of a payment system independent of the United States would continue. Despite the limited economic contacts, many entrepreneurs from Western countries are attending the forum, including from the US and the EU. Western experts point to the comparatively robust state of Russia's economy, due largely to the huge ramp-up of the war economy. Right at the start of the economic forum, which has been running since Wednesday and ends this Saturday, Russian politicians and entrepreneurs have emphasized that the country was preparing for a long military conflict. Russia's war-footing could now characterize the economy of the nuclear power for years to come, they said at the forum events. President Vladimir Putin says Russia remains a key partner in world trade even under increasing Western sanctions. Despite all the obstacles and what he called "illegitimate sanctions" imposed by the West, the country is developing its logistics and the geography of its international cooperation, Putin said on Friday at the 27th St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). The country is among the leading economic nations - ahead of Germany, he said, referring to data that takes purchasing power into account. The West has imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia as punishment for Putin's war against Ukraine, which has been going on for more than two years. Around three quarters of foreign trade is now conducted with countries that are friendly to Russia, Putin said. Since the West imposed trade bans in many areas, Russia has orientated itself economically towards China in particular, but also towards India, Africa and Latin America. In a speech to hundreds of guests, Putin called for the expansion of cooperation in technology transfer and announced interesting growth prospects for investors from abroad. The Russian president also said that the development of a payment system independent of the United States would continue. President Vladimir Putin says Russia remains a key partner in world trade even under increasing Western sanctions. Despite all the obstacles and what he called "illegitimate sanctions" imposed by the West, the country is developing its logistics and the geography of its international cooperation, Putin said on Friday at the 27th St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). The country is among the leading economic nations - ahead of Germany, he said, referring to data that takes purchasing power into account. The West has imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia as punishment for Putin's war against Ukraine, which has been going on for more than two years. Around three quarters of foreign trade is now conducted with countries that are friendly to Russia, Putin said. Since the West imposed trade bans in many areas, Russia has orientated itself economically towards China in particular, but also towards India, Africa and Latin America. In a speech to hundreds of guests, Putin also called for the expansion of cooperation in technology transfer and announced interesting growth prospects for investors from abroad. The Russian president also said that the development of a payment system independent of the United States would continue. In addition, Russia wants to roughly quadruple shipping traffic on the North-East Passage via the Arctic Ocean from the 36 million tons moved last year to as much as 150 million tons, Putin said. "In the future, transport could increase to 150 million tons," Putin said. The 36 million tons that moved last year consisted of freight transported on the northern sea route between Europe and Asia. Russia is expanding the sea route along its northern coast and establishing overland transport routes to its Arctic harbours, Putin said. The Arctic route between Europe and Asia is significantly shorter than the routes through the Indian Ocean, but it is blocked by ice for a large part of the year. Climate change is extending the navigable time. One of the uses Russia puts the route to is the transport of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by ship from the port of Sabetta on the Yamal Peninsula in Siberia to customers in Asia. Moscow is also planning to build new nuclear icebreakers to keep the route open for longer and increase its presence in the Arctic Ocean. Many Russian harbours along the northern coast have no connection to the road or rail network. Critics fear that an increase in shipping traffic could damage the sensitive Arctic environment. Despite the limited economic contacts, many entrepreneurs from Western countries were attending the forum, including from the US and the EU. Western experts point to the comparatively robust state of Russia's economy, due largely to the huge ramp-up of the war economy. Right at the start of the economic forum, which has been running since Wednesday and ends this Saturday, Russian politicians and entrepreneurs have emphasized that the country was preparing for a long military conflict. Russia's war-footing could now characterize the economy of the nuclear power for years to come, they said at the forum events. Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a press conference in China. -/Kremlin/dpa Russian President Vladimir Putin held a now-rare press conference with senior editors from international media outlets on June 5. Putin blamed Ukraine and the West for Russia's war crimes, and made a new round of threats and jaw-dropping lies. The Kyiv Independent examines some of the more notable statements. 'World has lost its mind' Before Putin began taking questions from journalists, he engaged in some light back-and-forth with the director general of Russian state media TASS, Andrei Kondrashov, who was hosting the event. Noting this was the first time Putin had met with international media editors in some time, Kondrashov said that since the last such event "many of the countries they represent have suddenly become unfriendly towards Russia." "This will perhaps be the first meeting amid such international tensions," he said, adding: "It looks like the world has lost its mind, that someone is intentionally pushing it towards a catastrophe." What Kondrashov failed to mention was that since the last such event, Russia launched its unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the biggest land war in Europe since World War II which has killed tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians, reduced Ukrainian towns and cities to rubble. In its latest guise, Russia destroyed civilian infrastructure to such an extent that Ukrainians face "life in the cold and the dark" for the foreseeable future. Misplaced optimism Putin began by apologizing for being late to the event, a regular occurrence employed by the Russian president in an attempt to assert dominance over people including Donald Trump, Angela Merkel, the Financial Times and, most recently, right-wing TV host Tucker Carlson. "It is very difficult to escape from the grip of Gazprom CEO, who tells you everything about every element and infects you with his optimism," Putin said. While the content of Putin's meeting with Alexey Miller was not made public, a recent report commissioned by Gazprom painted a far from "optimistic" picture. The company will not be able to recover losses incurred from Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine for at least 10 years, it said. Western sanctions have increasingly targeted the Russian oil and gas industry, whose profits fuel the Kremlin's war machine in Ukraine. The European Union pledged to reduce its dependence on Russian fossil fuels in the wake of the 2022 invasion, leading to a 71% drop in gas imports from 2021 to 2024. Ukraine's non-existent army Putin made a rare statement about Russian troops losses during the event, and while he didn't mention specific numbers, he claimed they are "certainly significantly smaller than those of the opposite party." "As for irretrievable losses, the ratio is one to five," he added. Moscow didn't release any estimates of the losses suffered by their Armed Forces since 2022, though the consensus among Western governments and analysts is that Russian losses figures released by the Ukrainian government are broadly accurate. According to Ukraine's General Staff, the number of killed or wounded Russian soldiers since the start of the full-scale invasion passed the grim milestone of 500,000 last month, and on June 6 stood at 515,000. Read also: As Russian losses in Ukraine hit 500,000, Putin buries future demographic risks at home Putin said that Ukraine is losing "up to 50,000 soldiers" each month, meaning that according to the Russian president Ukraine has up to 1.3 million soldiers dead or wonded since February 2022. Given Ukraine's total military personnel numbers around 1 million, this would mean every single member of Ukraine's Armed Forces was dead or wounded. In February, President Volodymyr Zelensky said 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since the start of the all-out war. He did not say how many had been wounded. According to estimates by U.S. officials, Ukrainian casualties might be higher than those mentioned by Zelensky in February, however, independent verification is impossible. The nuclear threat Once again, Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons and provided a justification for it. "For some reason, the West believes that Russia will never use it," he said. "We have a nuclear doctrine, look what it says. If someone's actions threaten our sovereignty and territorial integrity, we consider it possible for us to use all means at our disposal. This should not be taken lightly, superficially." This is not the first time Putin or other senior Russian officials have threatened to use nuclear weapons. In February 2022, three days after the launch of the full-scale invasion, Putin said he had put Russian nuclear forces on special combat readiness. The U.S. later said it had observed no change in the status of Russian nuclear forces. In April 2022, when it was clear the Kremlin's invasion wasn't going according to plan and Western nations ramped up military support to Ukraine, Putin hinted Russia would use nuclear weapons if "someone from the outside tries to intervene in Ukraine." In September 2022, Putin threatened outright to use nuclear weapons, saying in a televised speech: "I'm not bluffing." In January 2023, Parliament Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said continued supplies of Western weapons to Ukraine could be met with a nuclear response if they are used to "seize our territories." Just a few months before, Ukraine had already used Western weapons to help liberate swathes of Ukraine annexed by Putin just weeks earlier. In June 2023, Putin announced the first tactical nuclear weapons to be stationed in Belarus. In February 2024, Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, threatened to use nuclear weapons against the U.S., the U.K., Germany, and Ukraine if Moscow loses all occupied Ukrainian territories. It's just one of several times Medvedev has made such threats, most recently on May 31 when he insisted he was "not bluffing." Read also: Opinion: Much ado about Russias nuclear rumblings? Fourth biggest economy According to Russian state media outlet TASS, Putin said that Western sanctions against Russia had failed and "the goal he set for the country to enter the top four economies of the world has been achieved." It's not true by all accounts. According to the 2024 predictions by the International Monetary Fund, Russia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the 11th largest in the world and sixth based on the purchasing power parity (PPP). PPP compares the economies of different countries by comparing the costs of a set basket of goods. It does not take into account factors such as local costs, taxes, tariffs, and other measures usually used to determine the strength of a country's economy. Read also: Russian banks post record profits. Is war helping them? In the landmark 2003 economic study "Burgernomics," the authors noted that PPP is not a good reflection of reality. Additionally, the Kremlin hides a significant amount of economic data. "Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes that turning Russia into a black box will help support his claims that sanctions do not work, confusing Western policymakers, journalists, and citizens," Foreign Policy noted in a March 2023 piece titled "Don't trust Russian numbers." Good intentions In a particularly passionate section of the event, Putin said the idea that Russia would attack a NATO country was "rubbish." Russia made similar claims in the months, weeks and even days leading up to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Putin also insisted Russia had no "imperial ambitions." According to the online encyclopedia Britannica, imperialism is defined as: "State policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas." Read also: Kyiv struggles with rolling blackouts as officials warn of bleak months ahead Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Supporters of Leonard Peltier gather in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. for a rally on November 13, 2022 demanding Peltier's release from federal prison. (photo/Darren Thompson) As Leonard Peltiers parole hearing approaches on June 10, there is renewed hope and vigorous debate about his potential release. Convicted for the killing of two FBI agents during a 1975 shootout on the Oglala Nation, Peltier has been imprisoned for over 47 years. Among the voices calling for justice is Kevin Sharp, a former Navy veteran and former federal judge. Sharp is Co-Vice Chairman of Sanford Heisler Sharp and Co-Chair of the Public Interest Litigation Group. He served as a U.S. District Judge for the Middle District of Tennessee from 2011 to 2017, including as Chief Judge from 2014 to 2017, handling over 4,000 cases, including high-profile ones like Young v. Giles County Board of Education. With nearly 30 years of experience, Sharp has litigated complex civil cases, including opioid litigation and significant employment settlements. He has received numerous accolades, including The American Lawyers South Trailblazers and Lawdragon 500. Since 2019, he has led efforts to secure presidential clemency for Leonard Peltier. Sharp was on a recent Native Bidaske. He was asked by Native News Onlines editor Levi Rickert to discuss Leonard Peltier's poor health at age 79 after decades in prison and his belief that Peltier risks death if kept in maximum security. He discusses the historical context of the 1975 Pine Ridge murders, and Peltier's involvement with the American Indian Movement, arguing Peltier's constitutional rights were violated during his 1977 trial. Peliters June 10 parole hearing will consider testimony from both supporters and the government. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Leonard is having some health issues; he's nearly 80 years old. Can you talk about his current health conditions? Thanks for asking about his health because, as you said, he has been in prison since 1977. He will turn 80 in September. He's 79 now, so he has all the health issues that come along with a normal 79-year-old, plus additional health issues. One of the worst is an aortic aneurysm, which is deadly if it ruptures. It has to be monitored closely, and it hasn't been as closely monitored as it should have been. He has heart issues and diabetes. The last few times I've seen him, he's used a walker. He's been blind in one eye, left partially blind from a stroke he had years ago, and his eyesight has gotten worse. He hasn't had access to a dentist in years. He's in bad shape, and things are not going well. With a parole hearing coming up on June 10th, if they deny parole, I don't know that he makes it to the next one. He's in Coleman 1, a maximum-security prison, which is dangerous for a frail, in-poor-health, 80-year-old man. It's a perfect storm for something bad to happen if we don't get him out. We wish him well on parole. Before we talk about the parole hearing itself, can you tell us a bit about who you are and why you left the federal bench to do what you're doing for Leonard? I didn't know who Leonard was; these events happened in 1975, and I was a young kid in Memphis at the time. I was a lawyer in Nashville doing civil rights work when I was nominated by the Obama administration for a position on the federal bench in 2010. I became a federal district court judge in Nashville. As a judge, I encountered mandatory minimums, where Congress dictates the sentence, removing the judge's ability to fashion a fair sentence. One case that really troubled me involved a young man convicted of a non-violent drug offense who I had to sentence to two life sentences. This made me question whether I should be on the bench. I decided to step down and work on clemency for that young man, and we were successful. After that, Connie Nelson contacted me about Leonard. I started reading his case files and was disturbed by the constitutional violations and misconduct in his prosecution and investigation. I contacted Leonard in 2019 to help him, and here we are 4.5 years later, still working on his freedom. You mentioned that Leonard was there at the time, and they talk about aiding and abetting. But the time period was volatile, and Pine Ridge Indian Reservation was in turmoil. Can you talk about the context of that time? Pine Ridge was a powder keg with the Goon Squad operating there with the government's help. AIM was there to protect those who were not part of the Goon Squad. There were many murders and assaults in a three-year timeframe. When plain-clothed agents in unmarked cars arrived, a firefight ensued. Leonard did not shoot the agents, and the FBI knew this but withheld evidence. The court of appeals acknowledged this but couldn't overturn the conviction due to legal standards. Judge Heaney, who wrote the opinion, later supported clemency for Leonard. Now, 38 of Judge Heaney's former clerks support parole for Leonard, including three who worked on his case. The government admits they don't know who killed the agents, but it wasn't Leonard. It's time to release Leonard and start the healing process. Please tell us about the particulars of the parole hearing on June 10. The hearing will take place at Coleman, with a hearing officer present to take evidence and witness testimonies. We don't know all the witnesses yet, but some will testify in written form and some live. We'll hear from Leonard's doctor about his health, and from James Reynolds, the former US attorney who supervised the appeals, who supports parole for Leonard. We'll have witnesses to discuss Leonard's life after release, including his housing and healthcare on the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa reservation. Leonard will also address the hearing officer. The government will have people there arguing against his release. Support from the public is important, and we'll provide information on how to write to the parole commission. Typically, parole boards want to hear an admission of guilt and remorse. Leonard has maintained his innocence. How does this play into the hearing? It's difficult because Leonard didn't commit the crime, and there's no evidence that he did. He shouldn't lie about something he didn't do. Leonard has expressed remorse for the tragic events of that day and the overall situation. The whole thing is tragic, and Leonard feels bad about everything that happened. It's important for the hearing officer to understand this context and Leonard's genuine feelings of remorse for the tragedy. Watch the complete Native Bidaske episode: {source}{/source} About the Author: "Native News Online is one of the most-read publications covering Indian Country and the news that matters to American Indians, Alaska Natives and other Indigenous people. Reach out to us at editor@nativenewsonline.net. " Contact: news@nativenewsonline.net VIENTIANE, June 7 (Xinhua) -- ASEAN countries are taking concrete actions to enhance food production to ensure food security and nutrition at the regional and global levels. Representatives from the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) gathered in Vientiane province for the 44th meeting of the ASEAN Food Security Reserve Board, according to a report issued by the Lao Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry on Friday. During the meeting held from Wednesday to Thursday, participants discussed issues involving sustainable food production, food trade, and food security. During the meeting, the Lao government shared common views with other ASEAN members and shared its substantial efforts to achieve food security, which is one of the country's top priority issues. The Lao Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is implementing the Agriculture Strategy 2025 and Vision 2030 to support food security and nutrition, food quality and food trade, particularly for rice and other cereal crops. NEW YORK (PIX11) NYCHA has received a flood of applications for the Section 8 voucher waitlist, which remains open to apply for until Sunday. Heres what you need to be considered eligible for a voucher in New York City. If your household spends nights at a shelter run by DHS and HRA, you would be eligible for a voucher. A family that stays at someones home in the city and is recognized as homeless by New York Citys Housing Preservation and Development Emergency Housing Services Bureau would also be eligible. The city will also check to see if anyone is currently living in a building that needs renovation and is owned by the city. According to the HPD website, those households could get vouchers so they can find a permanent home where repairs are needed. Also, buildings being renovated with financial assistance from the HPD would be eligible for a voucher if they are required to pay more than 30% of their gross income toward rent and utilities, much like those receiving Section 8. What you should do after applying for Section 8 waitlist Another set of households that are eligible are those part of HPD homeless and special needs programs. They must also have a rent burden of over 30% of their income. However, according to the website, applications must be referred by HPD program staff or a designated program sponsor, and represent a household that has relocated from a homeless shelter within 24 months. Being a U.S. citizen or noncitizen with eligible immigration status is also a requirement. According to the Section 8 website, families with at least one of those things may also qualify for pro-rated assistance. The website also features several bullet points with further details on immigration status. To be eligible, you must also provide the social security numbers of all citizens in their household. You would be deemed ineligible if youve ever been convicted of producing methamphetamines in federally-assisted housing before. Lifetime members of any state sex offender registration programs are also ineligible. The income requirement ensures that Section 8 applicants must not exceed 50% AMI, meaning applicants must also ensure their households annual gross income is not more than the following: Family Size Income Limit 1 $54,350 2 $62,150 3 $69,900 4 $77,650 5 $83,850 6 $90,050 7 $96,300 8 $102,500 Applications will close on June 9 at 11:59 p.m. After applications close, 200,000 applicants will be randomly selected to join the programs waitlist through a lottery. Click here to apply. Jonathan Rizk is a digital journalist who has covered local news in New York City and Washington, D.C. He has been with PIX11 since August 2022. See more of his work here, and follow him on X and Facebook @OfficialRizk. Get in touch at jonathan.rizk@pix11.com. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. Patrons cross the casino floor at Ballys Twin River Lincoln on the afternoon of Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. (Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current) Legislation doubling how much money high-roller patrons at Ballys Twin River Lincoln and Tiverton casinos can borrow cleared the Rhode Island Senate Thursday evening. The chamber voted 28-5 to pass an amended bill by Sen. Frank Ciccone III, a Providence Democrat, that increases the maximum line of credit Ballys can offer its customers from $50,000 to $100,000. Voting against were Democrats Sam Bell of Providence, Tiara Mack of Providence, Joshua Miller of Cranston, Linda Ujifusa of Portsmouth, and Bridget Valverde of North Kingstown. The bill, which was co-sponsored by Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, was filed on behalf of Providence-based Ballys Corporation to keep the states casinos on par with neighboring states, Ciccone said on the Senate floor. Most facilities in other states have allowances to exceed the credit much larger than this, he said. Since 2014, when table games were first introduced at Twin River, the maximum credit cap has been $50,000. Massachusetts has no limit on lines of credit. Connecticuts two tribal-run casinos, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, also have no borrowing cap. Some opponents of Ciccones legislation fear that raising the credit limit to $100,000 might contribute to problem gambling. This is bad going into debt from gambling is dangerous, said Sen. Sam Bell, a Providence Democrat who was among the five dissenting votes. We should not maximize profit when it comes to an addictive product. The bill requires an application and vetting process based on personal income and credit history before extended credit is approved. Ciccones bill also drew opposition from the Rhode Island Lottery, which manages state rules and revenue from gambling including at its casinos, just ahead of its committee vote June 4. Lottery Director Mark Furcolo protested a provision that would allow Ballys to negotiate a new debt ratio with the states Division of Lottery and the Department of Business Regulation something Elizabeth Suever, Ballys Vice President of Government Relations, previously said would allow the company to take out additional credit as it constructs a new casino in Chicago. Furcolos primary concern was that gambling regulators would be required to accept the methodology for calculating restrictions and limitations used in other Ballys debt agreements. Not only are the particular other debt agreements not specified in the Substitute A, but the Rhode Island Lottery and the Department of Business Regulation would be bound to a methodology determined by non-State actors, Furcolo wrote. Namely lenders who have a much different interest in Ballys than the state and who have much different remedies available to them in the event that Ballys runs into financial trouble. Ciccone introduced a floor amendment to remove the clause referring to other debt agreements, though the amended bill still allows for changes to how the debt ratio is calculated. Furcolo had no comment on the legislation passed by the Senate, said Department of Revenue spokesperson Paul Grimaldi. We are grateful for the Senates support on this legislation and look forward to the Houses review next week, Ballys spokesperson Patti Doyle said in an emailed statement Friday. The bill also originally included a change to the way Ballys can use promotional points, but that language was struck before it was advanced out of committee. Companion legislation, sponsored by Rep. Gregory Costantino, a Lincoln Democrat, remains under review in the House Committee on Finance following a May 23 hearing. If you or somebody you know is dealing with gambling issues, contact Problem Gambling Services, which can be reached 24/7 at (401) 499-2472. This story was updated to include comment from Ballys spokesperson Patti Doyle. The post R.I. Senate approves doubling credit limit at Ballys casinos appeared first on Rhode Island Current. RADFORD, Va. (WFXR) Radford Universitys Board of Visitors approved a decision for undergraduate in-state students to be eligible for a tuition rebate in the 2024-2025 academic year. In March, the Board initially voted to increase tuition for the academic year by 1.5% for all undergraduate traditional programs, with the commitment to reevaluate the universitys financial outlook after Virginias state budget was finalized. However, the university found that following the evaluation and recognizing the additional investment from the Commonwealth, the Business Affairs and Audit Committee recommended the rebate and reversing the approved tuition increase. Maintaining affordable access to a best-in-class education and high-quality Radford experience is our top priority, said Tyler Lester, a Board of Visitors member and chair of the Business Affairs and Audit Committee. This vote was made possible through a combination of strategic budgeting by the university and significant investments in state support approved by the Governor and General Assembly. The tuition rebate is another example of Radford University leading the way and demonstrates our commitment to putting students and families first while being efficient and effective stewards of our resources. Radford University to increase tuition and fees during 2024-25 academic year This shows Radford Universitys dedication to ensuring the education provided at the college remains accessible to everyone, aligning with the Universitys mission. This rebate shows how were continuing to keep Radford one of the most affordable universities in Virginia while still providing top-notch academic programs and student experiences, said President Bret Danilowicz. The strong support we receive from the Commonwealth helps us balance these priorities and stay financially sound for the future. The rebate is available to undergraduate in-state students enrolled in traditional programs. Undergraduate students qualifying for the rebate will receive it as a financial aid award posted to their account for the spring 2025 semester. Students who expect to graduate in the fall will have the payment applied to their account this September. Other tuition increases for differential or graduate programs remain as announced in March. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFXRtv. Heat advisory for Palm Beach County with more alerts possible as temps rise over the weekend A heat advisory was issued for Palm Beach County through 6 p.m. Friday with more alerts possible during the weekend as Caribbean-warmed air blasts into South Florida. Temperatures could feel as high as 112 degrees through at least Sunday. National Weather Service meteorologists in Miami said excessive heat warnings the highest heat alert level from the NWS are on table with temperatures rising. A heat advisory has been issued for all of South Florida Saturday, May 18, 2024. A heat advisory is issued in Palm Beach County if the heat index is forecast to reach 108 degrees or higher for at least two consecutive hours. An excessive heat warning is issued when the heat index temperatures are predicted to reach 113 degrees or higher for at least two hours. "The only potential relief for residents would be when scattered afternoon/evening showers and thunderstorms temporarily move through and cool things down," NWS Miami meteorologists wrote in their weekend forecast. The showers will be welcome as drought has consumed Peninsular Florida from the Cape to the Keys with conditions so parched in West Palm Beach the city is tapping its supplemental wells to keep faucets flowing. Despite much of the state entering the rainy season in mid-May, including South Florida, a report released Thursday shows about 11 million residents living in areas considered abnormally dry to severe drought the third highest ranking in a five-tier scale that measures arid conditions. Up to a 60% chance of rain is forecast this weekend in parts of Palm Beach County with bouts of heavier rainfall possible early next week as a potential tropical disturbance teases in the northwestern Caribbean. The National Hurricane Center had not identified an area of concern as of Thursday afternoon, but the National Weather Service in Miami and AccuWeather pointed to a deep dip in the jet stream as a possible source for something to spin up. The US Drought Monitor's June 6, 2024 report shows much of Central and South Florida in drought conditions. This potential system needs to be taken with a grain of salt for now, Miami-based NWS meteorologists wrote in their forecast. With the far northern, southern and western reaches of Palm Beach County listed Thursday as in severe drought by the US Drought Monitor, rain is desperately needed. Its been a dry start to the rainy season, said NWS Miami meteorologist Chuck Caracozza. We will get some much-needed rainfall in the weekend. Its just a matter of how widespread that rain is and where exactly it falls. Ad-libbed system doesn't cut it anymore: Because of growth and a fear of contaminants, West Palm considering a new way to get water The wet season officially runs May 15 through Oct. 15 for the seven counties overseen by the Miami NWS office. Those include Miami-Dade, Monroe, Broward, Collier, Palm Beach, Glades and Hendry. Other NWS offices, and South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), dont set official rainy season dates, preferring to use dew point temperatures and an established pattern of rainfall to determine, in hindsight, when the rainy season started. The month of May dried up and so far, this month we havent had that much rain either, said district Chief Engineer John Mitnik during a governing board meeting Thursday. The past two months, both of them, were a deficit. The effects of a drought can be seen along the banks of Lake Wellington where water levels are so low irrigation equipment pipes are showing as well as what usually sits at the bottom of the lake is now visible Thursday, June 06, 2024 in Wellington. Last month was the 5th driest May since 1991 for the 16-county region from Orlando to the Keys covered by the district, Mitnik said. It was the 9th driest May since 1932. The dry conditions triggered West Palm Beach to fire up its supplemental wells to provide water for its 130,000 customers, which include residents of Palm Beach and South Palm Beach. West Palm Beachs main water supply is surface water from Clear Lake west of downtown West Palm Beach and Grassy Waters Preserve. Digging deep for clean water: West Palm Beach hopes to tap Floridan Aquifer for water source as population grows On Wednesday, city officials announced they were taking 10 million gallons a day from supplemental wells that draw from the surficial aquifer. They urgently reminded customers to adhere to year-round landscape irrigation rules, which allow watering three days per week. Watering between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. is prohibited. Its crucial to remember that watering lawns is a major contributor to water waste, with nearly half of residential water use dedicated to irrigation, the city announcement said. West Palm Beach has asked the SFWMD for permission to dig deeper wells that would draw from the brackish water of the Floridan aquifer and provide a stable water supply that isn't as vulnerable to weather conditions and pollutants. The weekend rain will also come with southerly winds toting abnormal heat. Temperatures for West Palm Beach are expected to be in the mid-90s Friday through at least Monday with heat index or feels like temperatures hitting up to 109 degrees. Todd Kimberlain, lead meteorologist for the SFWMD, said whether a tropical system develops or not, the shift to a rainier wet season next week will be significant. The weather pattern is going to change here pretty drastically, he said. The winds are going to turn south and southwest and allow a lot of deep moisture come in. Kimberly Miller is a journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate and how growth affects South Florida's environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism, subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Rainy season in Florida is delayed but possible tropical system may change that LANSING, Mich. (WOOD) Dozens rallied in Lansing Friday for three people who were killed during interactions with police in the Grand Rapids area. Andrica Cage was joined by dozens of family and supporters to demand justice for her son, Samuel Sterling. When my son laid on that ground and cried for help, and asked that officer why he hit him, yall dont know how much pain that hit me. Mothers dont have to go through this, Cage said. Former MSP detective sgt. charged with murder in death of fleeing suspect Sterling died after being struck by an unmarked Michigan State Police cruiser while running away from officers in Kentwood on April 17. Brian Keely, the detective sergeant who was driving and has since retired from MSP, has been charged with second-degree murder in Sterlings death. He was arraigned earlier this week and released on a personal recognizance bond. I had to bury my son. That officer gets to go home to his kids, gets to go home to his wife, Cage said. The loved ones of Riley Doggett were also in Lansing. On April 8, he ran away after jumping from a stolen Range Rover and was hit by a Kent County sheriffs deputys cruiser. There are plenty of other resources (the deputy) couldve used besides his vehicle. Nobody stands a chance against a vehicle, Doggetts mother Becky Wilbert said. No charges for Kent County deputy after teen hit by cruiser Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker decided not to charge the deputy in that case, stating he could not find evidence of intent. What did the officer lose? He didnt lose anything, Wilbert said. He was on a paid leave, a vacation, while were sitting in the hospital praying and hoping that Riley wakes up or shows us a sign that things are going to get better. Doggett died about a month after he was hit. His family wants the case to get a second look from the Michigan attorney general. I would like to ask Dana Nessel to please review the case and charge the officer, charge the officer, Wilbert said. Civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Ven Johnson spoke to the crowd, pushing for legislation requiring body or dashboard cam footage to be released under the Freedom of Information Act within 14 days. Who owns Freedom of Information Act request, yall? We do. Then why are sitting back and allowing them to hide it from us when they run over and kill our children, Johnson said. 2 years after Patrick Lyoya died, Grand Rapids waits for trial Those at the rally said they would continue to go after justice for police killings. We stand on the side of truth and we will speak truth to power, Crump said. Im standing for justice for all of Gods children. It doesnt matter if theyre Black, white, or brown. If you kill our children unjustly, were going to stand up for them. Those at the rally also took issue with the fact that a trial date has not yet been set for Christopher Schurr, the former Grand Rapids police officer charged with murder in the 2022 death of Patrick Lyoya. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com. LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) More than a dozen gun safety activists, from lawmakers, religious leaders, and mid-Michigan residents gathered at the state capital pressing for continued momentum to curb gun violence. A woman wears a shirt calling for an end to gun violence during a rally in Lansing. (WLNS) The rally comes after 6 people have been shot and killed around Lansing in the last two months. Its a bitter reality of what activists call rampant gun violence, an issue they want to see come to an end. Its absolutely necessary to look at every single casualty and realize that every single person is important, said Johnathan Gold with Giffords, a gun violence intervention group. Gold came from one of several gun safety groups that brought their concerns to the lawn of the state capital. Through speeches and a moment of silence for the victims, they pressed for additional regulations, and more support of community programs and praised the passage of recent gun safety laws like safe storage, one of the laws put into effect nearly three months ago. A law that Gold said has saved lives. No child should die for being inquisitive, said Gold. It just makes sense to have a deadly weapon either on your person where it can be controlled or locked upstairs where no one can get at it. But gun rights advocates like Avi Rachlin for Michigan Open Carry, are skeptical of how effective the new gun laws have been. If youre a responsible, peaceable gun owner, you dont need the government shoving down your throat. What you need to be doing, and it is indicated by the fact that a convicted felon whos going to possess a firearm, is really not going to care about a new safe storage law, Rachlin said. He calls the goal to end gun violence noble but criticizes the approach. He says finding the causes, rather than drafting new laws, is a way to end the shooting. Its about The Who. Its about the why. Its about the where. Right? Its all about those questions. Its not about theres a problem in Detroit, so were just going to ban assault weapons for everybody in the Upper Peninsula,' said Rachlin. The rally comes days ahead of a weekend Wear Orange event set up by gun safety groups at Everett High School in Lansing. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WLNS 6 News. LONGVIEW, Texas (KETK) The City of Longview has tabled a vote on a nearly $20 million investment for a proposed biomining facility. SPCA offers $5,000 reward after 10 puppies dumped in Van If passed, the facility would be built at 2120 E. Loop 281 and used to recover precious metals from broken computers and outdated tech devices. Residents who oppose the proposed location of the facility held a rally on Thursday ahead of next weeks vote by city council. More than 50 people showed up to the rally held just feet away from the property in question, to take a stand against the proposed location. Some residents said they dont like the idea that chemicals involved would be used so closely to their neighborhoods. There are two chemicals that are used, hydrogen peroxide, which is used in everybodys house. Im sure everybody has hydrogen peroxide at home and a two mol sulfuric acid, Wayne Mansfield, Longview Economic Development Corporation (LEDCO) President/CEO, said LEDCO said the biomining facility would not be a danger to the community. Its actually beneficial to the environment because its removing computer waste that would have been gone to a landfill with those materials leaching into the soil, Mansfield said. Woodland Hills Baptist Church, where Pastor Charles Hunt resides, sits directly across the street from the proposed facility. Hunt said he believes the business could be harmful to children in the area. Hallsville Independent School District West Campus is just three blocks down the road from here and then we have probably 50 to 60 homes within just a short distance of here, just a few blocks, Hunt said. LEDCO also said there would be no health dangers. Theres no chance of any leakage or anything out, no emissions. The water used in the process is pretreated internally self contained within the industry and recycled back within their process. Theres no discharge into the city sewer system, Mansfield said. Hunt said there is always room for error when it comes to chemicals. I know everything is supposed to be safe and all contained and all that, but there are always possibilities for human error, Hunt said. Mansfield said over the past few week false information has been reported, painting biomining to be something its not. Efurd Orchards seeing best peach crop in 5 years Likening it to fertilizer plant explosions, deep hole explosions that could be the furthest thing from the truth, Mansfield said. Although the community isnt against new companies bringing in new industrial practices, Pastor Hunt believes the business would be better suited for an industrial park and away from people. The area where the facility is being proposed is designated as a heavy commercial district. The city council will vote on the proposal June 13th. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KETK.com | FOX51.com. Rare sea turtle found alive and well in Mexico, seven years after it was injured in SC Injured by a boat strike near Edisto Beach seven years ago, a rare Kemps ridley sea turtle was rescued and nursed back to health by experts at the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston. Now, the turtle nicknamed Coral has shown up in Mexico, in good shape and laying eggs in a nest along the Gulf Coast some 1,700 miles away. A team that monitors Kemps ridley sea turtles discovered Coral in mid-May at Miramar Beach, not far from Tampico, Mexico. The discovery delighted scientists who said efforts to save injured turtles can make a difference in helping to replenish populations of the endangered reptiles. When discovered, Coral had produced 84 eggs that are currently incubating and expected to hatch, according to a statement from Thane Wibbels, a University of Alabama researcher. Finding the once-injured turtle on a Mexican beach provides an example of how the rehabilitation efforts .... throughout the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Coast of the U.S. can directly contribute to the recovery of the natural population of Kemps, Wibbels said. It is a great example that directly links efforts by the (S.C. Department of Natural Resources) and the S.C. Aquarium to the reproductive output on the natural nesting grounds for the Kemps ridley. Kemps ridley turtles are federally protected endangered species that are found more often in the Gulf of Mexico than along the South Atlantic coast. They are considered the most endangered of all sea turtle species. They sometimes travel to South Atlantic waters to feed when they are young. Very rarely, a few will remain in South Carolina waters and build nests when they mature. In this case, Coral traveled to Mexico after recovering from her injury, being tagged and then released, a trip that has been rarely documented by the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, DNR biologist Jeff Schwenter said. The DNR says Coral was released to the ocean off South Carolina in 2018, following a years recovery. The turtle had suffered a cracked shell from the boat strike. Because Kemps ridleys are so endangered, they are the subject of monitoring efforts at nesting grounds along the Gulf coast. In this case, a network found her on the Mexican beach, but realized the area where she was laying eggs was not suitable for survival of her hatchlings. Turtles sometimes lay eggs in areas with too much development or where rising sea levels could flood nests. So Corals eggs were moved to a more suitable part of the beach in Mexico, according to the DNR. Kemps ridley turtles, first discovered in the 1880s, are the smallest sea turtles, the DNR says. They typically weigh about 100 pounds. Kemps ridleys have drab olive shells when they are young, but the color lightens as they grow older. In contrast, loggerhead sea turtles, found far more often in South Carolina, weigh about 250 pounds, making loggerheads the third largest type of marine turtles. Loggerheads, which nest on Palmetto State beaches, are reddish brown in color. They are also protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. Kemps ridleys dwindled in population considerably beginning in the late 1940s, the result of harvesting females and their eggs, according to research by the DNR. Their numbers have rebounded somewhat since the mid 1980s as a result of conservation efforts, but they still remain endangered, the DNR says. DNR officials say Coral is doing her part to help rejuvenate the species. Coral has now joined the incredibly important ranks of nesting Kemps ridley mothers, the agency said on its Facebook page. When state Sen. Dan Foley was campaigning for reelection, he wanted every voter to know how much money he had brought back into his district. And as Majority Leader of the state Senate, he brought home baskets full to build schools, playgrounds and roads, and to support community organizations. Dozens of important local projects benefited from Foleys help, which otherwise might have been delayed or not gone forward at all. The same was true when Joe Early was helping to lead the House Ways and Means Committee. City and community leaders could count on him to deliver funding for their projects. Each year, every state senator and most state representatives get to add money to the state budget for projects and purposes that will benefit their district. Those in significant leadership positions get to add considerably more money. For those who hold positions of power in the state Legislature, its a matter of considerable pride that they are in a position to get extra cash to help the people who live in their districts. And we cheer for them when they deliver the goods. Conversely, when someone else does it for some other district, we call it dirty politics and backroom dealing, and decry the unfairness of it all. Theyre called earmarks money put into the state budget for specific projects within someones district. And both Democrats and Republicans have been doing it for as long as anyone can remember. Heres how it works. A city leader wants state funds set aside for a particular local project, or the head of a nonprofit health center needs funding for a specific program. He or she contacts a member of the Legislature and asks them to have the money set aside in the state budget. If their request gets included, once the state budget is approved the money is awarded. Those who benefit love it. Those who get overlooked say the process stinks. I want to be clear that theres nothing illegal or unethical about it. But it really isnt fair. This year, according to a report in The Boston Globe, every state senator will get about $500,000 to fund local projects in their district and that includes the senates few Republican senators as well. In past years, the amount has been about the same. But the Globe report shows that the higher up the political food chain you go, the more dough you get to pass around. Before any of the other senators get to add their earmarks, Senate leadership has included more than $4 million into the state budget to fund their favorite projects and groups in their districts. Of that amount Senate President Karen Spilka was able to garner about $2.4 million in earmarks, including $1.5 million for a conference and wedding venue in Ashland connected to Framingham State University. That particular project had already received $4.5 million in state funding in recent years. Budget chief Michael Rodrigues got more than $1 million for his district, including $60,000 for the eradication of invasive weeds in a pond in Lakeville. Overall, Senate earmarks will account for about $24 million. That amount is in addition to tens of millions already proposed by leaders in the House. Look, I want to be very, very clear about this. Most of these earmarks, things like funding for health centers and local college projects, have considerable merit. But the selection of these projects is not necessarily based on need or merit although most of the projects are worthy. They are based on power and what an individual official can get for his or her district. I should point out that the U.S. Congress also allows earmarks. Even the Worcester City Council has a version of earmarks in that district city councilors get to decide which streets get resurfaced and which streets get left behind. The funding of important public and community projects should be based on merit and should be evaluated against other applicants and chosen based on need and merit, not who controls the purse strings. 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 political power at work in Massachusetts budget by Xinhua writers Zhang Yisheng, Wang Xiaowei MANILA, June 7 (Xinhua) -- In the crystal-clear waters of central Philippines, Phillip Bendanillo, a freediving guide, led a group of Chinese tourists through a shimmering tornado of sardines. The bronzed and sculpted 18-year-old Filipino works for Chinese employers who he says treat him like "a family member" in the small island town of Panglao. In recent years, this freediving destination has attracted not only Chinese tourists but also experienced instructors who have started local businesses. In the first two months of 2024, 82,314 Chinese travelers entered the Philippines, making China the third-biggest source of foreign visitors to the Southeast Asian country. Freediving, the art of diving underwater on a single breath without the use of scuba tanks, is one of the world's burgeoning water-sports industries. "Nowadays more and more freedivers come to Panglao to enjoy the beautiful underwater world," Bendanillo said. Located in the Bohol province, known for its conical Chocolate Hills and bug-eyed tarsiers, Panglao has become a popular freediving site due to its excellent sea conditions and pleasant tropical weather. From local clubs to international competitions, professionals from the Philippines and worldwide are working to build a community of their like-minded. Sura Dai, a Chinese founder of Freedive+, a freediving school in Panglao, said she hopes to build a "warm and big family" for divers, allowing them to share experiences, celebrate achievements, and support each other in their pursuit of dreams. Opened in 2015, her school is "the first batch of its kind run by foreigners here," said Dai. Today, more than 100 freedivers from around the world live in Panglao for daily training, including China's Xu Tongtong, a top-ranking female player. Last year, Xu successfully dived to 100 meters in both games of constant weight and constant weight bi-fins, becoming the third female freediver on the planet to achieve this feat. "Our diving resorts in Panglao provide safe underwater experiences with well-designed management, attracting more and more international athletes to gather here for training and competitions," said Xu. When Xu came to Panglao for training a couple of years ago, she met a local bed and breakfast housekeeper. Last year, she found her old friend in a freediving-themed T-shirt, having joined the breath-hold diving community. Tracy Roxanne, another freediver, praised the professional and high-quality services of Chinese-run diving schools. The Philippine diver sees the Chinese role as "welcoming" and "supportive." "It's good in a way, because they attract a lot of tourists and also give jobs to the locals," she said. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in May that the tourism industry has significantly contributed to the revenue generation, job creation and economic growth of the country. He called for a continued relationship between the government and the private sector to promote the Philippine tourism industry. Bendanillo echoed these sentiments. "My Chinese bosses are very kind and friendly. They share their experience with me and help me develop my career," he said. NEW YORK (PIX11) A bipartisan group of City Council members proposed an overhaul to some of New Yorks sanctuary city laws. They have introduced legislation they say will crack down on migrants who commit crimes. More Local News The proposal largely stems from rising rates of migrants arriving in New York City and in the wake of several high-profile crimes involving migrants. The coalition of eight City Council members says it is time for law enforcement to begin working more closely with Immigration and Customs Enforcement a stark pivot away from current city policy. The bill calls for overturning some sanctuary city policies to re-establish cooperation between ICE and local agencies, including the NYPD and the Department of Corrections, allowing law enforcement to hand over migrants suspected of crimes. The legislation was announced just days after two NYPD officers were shot, allegedly by a migrant police say is also suspected in a string of robberies in Queens. Supporters of the bill say it will make New York City safer, but many in the City Councils Democratic majority oppose the legislation. Migrant squatter shot and killed 2 residents in Bronx building: NYPD Mayor Eric Adams has also voiced concerns about New York Citys sanctuary status. A spokesperson for the mayor said he will review that legislation. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. Records of Pompeiis survivors have been found and archaeologists are starting to understand how they rebuilt their lives On Aug. 24, in A.D. 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted, shooting over 3 cubic miles of debris up to 20 miles (32.1 kilometers) in the air. As the ash and rock fell to Earth, it buried the ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. According to most modern accounts, the story pretty much ends there: Both cities were wiped out, their people frozen in time. It only picks up with the rediscovery of the cities and the excavations that started in earnest in the 1740s. But recent research has shifted the narrative. The story of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius is no longer one about annihilation; it also includes the stories of those who survived the eruption and went on to rebuild their lives. The search for survivors and their stories has dominated the past decade of my archaeological fieldwork, as Ive tried to figure out who might have escaped the eruption. Some of my findings are featured in an episode of the new PBS documentary, Pompeii: The New Dig. Making it out alive Pompeii and Herculaneum were two wealthy cities on the coast of Italy just south of Naples. Pompeii was a community of about 30,000 people that hosted thriving industry and active political and financial networks. Herculaneum, with a population of about 5,000, had an active fishing fleet and a number of marble workshops. Both economies supported the villas of wealthy Romans in the surrounding countryside. In popular culture, the eruption is usually depicted as an apocalyptic event with no survivors: In episodes of the TV series Doctor Who and Loki, everyone in Pompeii and Herculaneum dies. But the evidence that people could have escaped was always there. The eruption itself continued for over 18 hours. The human remains found in each city account for only a fraction of their populations, and many objects you might have expected to have remained and be preserved in ash are missing: Carts and horses are gone from stables, ships missing from docks, and strongboxes cleaned out of money and jewelry. All of this suggests that many if not most of the people in the cities could have escaped if they fled early enough. Some archaeologists have always assumed that some people escaped. But searching for them has never been a priority. So I created a methodology to determine if survivors could be found. I took Roman names unique to Pompeii or Herculaneum such as Numerius Popidius and Aulus Umbricius and searched for people with those names who lived in surrounding communities in the period after the eruption. I also looked for additional evidence, such as improved infrastructure in neighboring communities to accommodate migrants. After eight years of scouring databases of tens of thousands of Roman inscriptions on places ranging from walls to tombstones, I found evidence of over 200 survivors in 12 cities. These municipalities are primarily in the general area of Pompeii. But they tended to be north of Mount Vesuvius, outside the zone of the greatest destruction. It seems as though most survivors stayed as close as they could to Pompeii. They preferred to settle with other survivors, and they relied on social and economic networks from their original cities as they resettled. Some migrants prosper Some of the families that escaped apparently went on to thrive in their new communities. The Caltilius family resettled in Ostia what was then a major port city to the north of Pompeii, 18 miles from Rome. There, they founded a temple to the Egyptian deity Serapis. Serapis, who wore a basket of grain on his head to symbolize the bounty of the earth, was popular in harbor cities like Ostia dominated by the grain trade. Those cities also built a grand, expensive tomb complex decorated with inscriptions and large portraits of family members. Members of the Caltilius family married into another family of escapees, the Munatiuses. Together, they created a wealthy, successful extended family. Some of the survivors resettled in Ostia, a port city north of Pompeii. DEA Picture Library/Getty Images The second-busiest port city in Roman Italy, Puteoli whats known as Pozzuoli today also welcomed survivors from Pompeii. The family of Aulus Umbricius, who was a merchant of garum, a popular fermented fish sauce, resettled there. After reviving the family garum business, Aulus and his wife named their first child born in their adopted city Puteolanus, or the Puteolanean. Others fall on hard times Not all the survivors of the eruption were wealthy or went on to find success in their new communities. Some had already been poor to begin with. Others seemed to have lost their family fortunes, perhaps in the eruption itself. Fabia Secundina from Pompeii apparently named for her grandfather, a wealthy wine merchant also ended up in Puteoli. There, she married a gladiator, Aquarius the retiarius, who died at the age of 25, leaving her in dire financial straits. Three other very poor families from Pompeii the Avianii, Atilii and Masuri families survived and settled in a small, poorer community called Nuceria, which goes by Nocera today and is about 10 miles (16.1 kilometers) east of Pompeii. According to a tombstone that still exists, the Masuri family took in a boy named Avianius Felicio as a foster son. Notably, in the 160 years of Roman Pompeii, there was no evidence of any foster children, and extended families usually took in orphaned children. For this reason, its likely that Felicio didnt have any surviving family members. This small example illustrates the larger pattern of the generosity of migrants even impoverished ones toward other survivors and their new communities. They didnt just take care of each other; they also donated to the religious and civic institutions of their new homes. For example, the Vibidia family had lived in Herculaneum. Before it was destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius, they had given lavishly to help fund various institutions, including a new temple of Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty and fertility. One female family member who survived the eruption appears to have continued the familys tradition: Once settled in her new community, Beneventum, she donated a very small, poorly made altar to Venus on public land given by the local city council. How would survivors be treated today? While the survivors resettled and built lives in their new communities, government played a role as well. The emperors in Rome invested heavily in the region, rebuilding properties damaged by the eruption and building new infrastructure for displaced populations, including roads, water systems, amphitheaters and temples. This model for post-disaster recovery can be a lesson for today. The costs of funding the recovery never seems to have been debated. Survivors were not isolated into camps, nor were they forced to live indefinitely in tent cities. Theres no evidence that they encountered discrimination in their new communities. Instead, all signs indicate that communities welcomed the survivors. Many of them went on to open their own businesses and hold positions in local governments. And the government responded by ensuring that the new populations and their communities had the resources and infrastructure to rebuild their lives. 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: Steven L. Tuck, Miami University Read more: Steven L. Tuck 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. MURRELLS INLET, S.C. (WBTW) The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Coast Guard returned Thursday afternoon to remove the sunken sailboat in Murrells Inlet, but say it was unsuccessful. Wednesday night, with help from locals and DNR, the Ornament of the Inlet sailboat that sat for almost two years after being washed ashore during Hurricane Ian, was removed but shortly after, it sank in the Inlet. Asher Robinson, the boat owner, said he tried removing it, but his hands were tied. He said he couldnt cut it up on the island or drag it off without thousands of dollars in potential fines. He also said it used to be owned by actor Tom Selleck. Some locals said they enjoyed seeing it in the Inlet, but others said it was not good for the environment. Well, you know, the good Lord blessed us with all this beauty out here, and we just need to take care of it, Jeff Mattevi said. Its our responsibility and thats not where it was belongs. It wasnt part of the natural marsh. Robinson said he signed it over to DNR one day before the removal. He watched as it was taken off the mudflat, and said hes thankful to everyone who helped remove it. There were 30 seconds of relief and a big ovation and applause and its like one of those cheers and then everything goes, oh, Robinson said. During removal, the U.S. Coast Guard and DNR first tied airbags to keep it afloat, then cut off the mast to let it sit up right. Jason Burton, the owner of Murrells Inlet Fishing Charters, said hed like to have seen it stay. Its become a Murrells Inlet icon. I know we leave on our charter boat, so thats the first thing we do is we explain some type of lie or something, we make up something about the sailboat, Burton said. So, now were not going to have anything to talk about. The goats are gone, the sailboats gone, so its just going to be a regular old island. Burton said maybe another ornament of the inlet will come around. So, now that youve removed it, you know, I guess well wait for the next storm and see if we get some more, he said. DNR said it will try again Friday once the wind dies down. It said it still plans to drag it over to Morris Park and dismantle it. * * * Adrianna Lawrence is a multimedia journalist at News13. Adrianna is originally from Virginia Beach, Virginia, and joined the News13 team in June 2023 after graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University in May 2023. Keep up with Adrianna on Instagram, Facebook, and X, formerly Twitter. You can also read more of her work, here. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBTW. Will recreational pot go on sale soon in Ohio? Medical marijuana stores can now apply to sell it FILE - Nikko Griffin, left, and Tyra Patterson, call out to arriving voters for several issues, including Issue 2, legalizing recreational marijuana, at a parking lot during early in-person voting in Cincinnati, Nov. 2, 2023. Recreational pot sales are nearing reality in Ohio. The state Division of Cannabis Control posted applications Friday, June 7, 2024, for new dual licenses that will allow existing medical marijuana dispensaries to also sell nonmedical cannabis. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File) COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) Recreational pot sales are nearing reality in Ohio. The state Division of Cannabis Control began accepting applications Friday for new dual licenses that will allow existing medical marijuana dispensaries to also sell nonmedical cannabis. Friday was the deadline for making applications available, a provision in a 2023 initiated statute approved overwhelmingly by Ohio voters. Under the measure, Ohioans over 21 were immediately able to legally grow and possess adult-use marijuana at home, but there has yet to be anywhere in the state to legally buy it. State regulators wont say how long license approvals could take, but those who have helped put together rules for the program believe the first sales could come by mid-June. Thats because obtaining a dual license will allow Ohios network of about 132 medical pot dispensaries to begin selling those same products simply for fun. An industry representative told legislators last month that many stores are busy preparing for the conversion. Were very excited about Ohio. Ten million person population here in the state, so its a big, big opportunity for us, Trip McDermott, chief operating officer of Verano, said at the company's cultivation facility in Canton. The new law allows adults 21 and over to buy and possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis and to grow up to six plants per individual or 12 plants per household at home. It gave the state nine months to set up a system for legal marijuana purchases, subject to a 10% tax. Sales revenue is to be divided between administrative costs, addiction treatment, municipalities with dispensaries, and paying for social equity and jobs programs supporting the cannabis industry itself. The law remains subject to change by state lawmakers. A Senate bill introduced last month proposes banning smoking or vaping marijuana products in public and would require home growers to file affidavits with the Division of Cannabis Control. Legislators have also discussed setting other limits on the state's new recreational marijuana program, including adding protections against advertising aimed at children. ___ See AP's full coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/marijuana. Red Lake Nation College on Thursday celebrated the opening of its new Minneapolis location, with music and applause filling the air as supporters gathered to mark one of the first times an accredited tribal college has set up in a U.S. city. "It's really hard to do. If it was easy, it would have been done a long time ago," College President Dan King told a crowd of tribal members, government officials and others packed into the new building on Third Street, across from U.S. Bank Stadium. "Today is a great day for celebration." Music played as a long list of speakers made their way up to a podium to talk about the obstacles they had to overcome to open a Minneapolis site and their hopes for how it might transform students' lives. Minnesota has long reported disparities in higher education. About two-thirds of adults living in Minnesota have some type of college degree, but the figure among American Indians is closer to one-third, according to data kept by the state's Office of Higher Education. While the state has a goal to close those gaps by 2025, Office of Higher Education Commissioner Dennis Olson acknowledges it's "a moonshot." Still, he says, the state is committed to making progress and sees projects like this one as a crucial step in the right direction. "We focus on primarily access and affordability and, of course, attainment, and this new site here in Minneapolis certainly has the potential to greatly impact all three of those," Olson said. There are about three dozen tribal colleges in the United States and few have a significant presence in cities. Oglala Lakota College has a location in Rapid City, S.D. Others are working to get accreditation for their urban programs, including one in Sacramento, Calif. The Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians opened the two-year tribal college on its reservation in 2001 in hopes of providing a closer option for tribal members who wanted to take classes. Today nearly half of the tribe's 16,000 members live off the reservation and most of those people live in the Twin Cities metro area, said King, one of the tribe's hereditary chiefs. "That's what brought us here," King said. "We were just serving our own members." Red Lake Nation College began offering classes in Minneapolis three years ago, hosting them out of the tribe's embassy in Ventura Village. Its new building has dedicated classrooms, a kitchen space, stations for setting up laptops, and technology designed to hold classes both in-person and online. College leaders plan to rent out a rooftop event space in hopes of bringing in extra revenue. The project cost just over $16 million, about $3 million of which was provided by the state. Tribal colleges "serve a unique market niche that nobody else serves," King said. The average age of a student at Red Lake Nation College is 29 years old. About 80% of the students are the first in their family to go to college. Many of the students are women who have children and juggle jobs as well. "They're overcoming a lot more than an average student," he said. Summer May, 20, graduated from Red Lake Nation College earlier this year with an associates degree after taking classes at the temporary Minneapolis location. She'll head this fall to Augsburg University, where she hopes to earn a bachelor's degree in environmental studies with a focus on American Indian studies. At Red Lake Nation College, May said she had Indigenous instructors for the first time. She was able to connect with her culture, despite being more than four hours away from the reservation. "A lot of urban Natives feel disconnected from their roots. A lot of us are trying to find access to our culture," May said. "To physically have a site here is such a huge step in the right direction to bringing all of these Indigenous peoples who are in the city back to their culture and their roots." Two Edina residents will face off again for the District 6 seat on the Hennepin County Board, filing for the November ballot just weeks after competing in a special election for the seat. Heather Edelson, a three-term state representative who resigned from the House after the 2024 legislative session ended, defeated businesswoman Marisa Simonetti in the May 14 special election with 54% of the vote. County board races are nonpartisan, but Edelson and Simonetti differ ideologically. Edelson, a DFLer, emphasized during the recent campaign her experience on the House Human Services policy committee and work as a therapist. Simonetti, a Republican, said she entered the race to address rising crime and residents' increased tax burden. Edelson filed for re-election on May 31, just days before being sworn in Tuesday to finish Commissioner Chris LaTondresse's term after he stepped down in September to lead a St. Paul-based housing nonprofit. Edelson will face Simonetti again in the fall for a full four-year term on the board. The special election to replace LaTondresse drew just 11,386 of the more than 126,000 registered voters in the district, which includes Edina, Greenwood, Hopkins, Minnetonka, Eden Prairie, Shorewood and Wayzata. Nearly 98,000 District 6 voters cast ballots when the seat was last on the November ballot in 2020. It is one of four board seats up for election this fall. An August primary is not needed because only two candidates filed for each of them by the Tuesday's deadline. After the state government, Hennepin County's is the second-largest in Minnesota. Its board of seven commissioners oversees about 10,000 employees and an annual budget of nearly $2.7 billion. Hennepin County commissioners earn $122,225 annually. In District 1, Commissioner Jeffrey Lunde is being challenged by Gulled Ahmed Badel of Brooklyn Center. Lunde was first elected to the board in 2020 and is a former Brooklyn Park mayor and council member. Badel has never sought elected office. The district includes Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center, Crystal, New Hope and Robbinsdale. In District 5, Commissioner Debbie Goettel is running for a third term and facing Jeffrey A. Beck of Eden Prairie. Beck previously ran for the board and served on the county's soil and water district. Goettel was first elected in 2016. The district includes Bloomington, Richfield, Eden Prairie and Chanhassen. In District 7, first-term Commissioner Kevin Anderson is facing Brad Kohler of Champlin, a former mixed martial arts fighter who has run for Congress and the Legislature. The district stretches from Minnetrista to Champlin and includes Medina, Maple Grove, Rogers and Dayton. CHARLOTTE (QUEEN CITY NEWS NOW) Thursday, June 6, marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France. Queen City News Now sat down with Dr. Mark Wilson, a history professor from UNC Charlotte, to talk about how this day in 1944 changed the course of history. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. REPORT: Police confirm 9 fatalities in 8 crashes on Abilene roads in first half of 2024 ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) Nine people have died in eight crashes within Abilenes city limits this year. Friday, a pedestrian was hit by a train along South 1st Street and Leggett Drive, making this victim the ninth person to be killed on Abilene roads in 2024. Halfway through the year, were just about two weeks into the 100 Deadliest Days, which begins with Memorial Day and ends with Labor Day. Where are Abilenes crash hotspots? 2045 transportation plan looks at crash stats BigCountryHomepage.com has responded to each of the eight crashes this year to give our audience direct details from credible sources. Here is a chronological list of this years fatal crashes and names of the souls weve lost on our streets: February 16 Brenda Ann Janiszewski Jodoin, 58, of Virginia was a pedestrian in a hit-and-run on Pine Street. February 20 Brayden Shockley, 30, of Merkel was a killed in a motorcycle crash on Pine Street. Abilene authorities promote motorcycle safety, caution following fatal crash February 29 Donan Myron Justice, 59, was killed while crossing an intersection by the northside Walmart in his wheelchair when he was hit by two vehicles. March 13 A 41-year-old man was killed in a hit-and-run on South 14th Street while riding his bike. Abilene community sees increase in vehicle & pedestrian/cyclist accidents March 30 Shanna Bowman, 35, of Abilene was killed on South Leggett Street when she was a passenger of a motorcycle that left the roadway while speeding. May 18 Nicole Nash, 58, died in a multi-vehicle crash on South Danville Drive. June 6 Ulysses Samayoa, 25, and Mary Casey, 62, both from Abilene died in a 2-vehicle crash on Loop 322 when Samayoas vehicle left its lane. Jun 7 Jacob Poor, 30, of Abilene was a pedestrian struck by a train in South Abilene. Its a horrifying reality to face; seeing the names of the lives lost, those with families and loved ones who continue to mourn them every day. Our deepest condolences are with those impacted. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) reports that there has not been one day without a fatality on Texas roads since November of 2000, which led to its #EndTheStreakTX campaign to encourage drivers to be more aware and cautious as they drive. To date, Abilenes deadliest year on roads was 2022 when 28 people were killed in 23 wrecks by December 10. In response to these crash deaths, Rick Tomlin with the Abilene Police Department told KTAB/KRBC, We want to encourage our drivers, our citizens, if youre a pedestrian walk on the right side of the road. Be careful, watch where you go. If youre driving, also be careful Slow down, pay attention. TxDOT says pedestrians should walk in designated walking paths against traffic, use crosswalks and make eye contact with drivers before crossing roadways, and stay visible. Likewise, drivers should yield for pedestrians, stay alert, off distracting devices, and sober behind the wheel. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com. In the Spotlight is a Bellingham Herald series that digs into the high-profile local issues that readers care most about. Story idea? Email newsroom@bellinghamherald.com. The Washington State Department of Licensing and Whatcom County have started investigations into claims that bodies of the deceased were stored without refrigeration at a local funeral home that is providing the space for the countys temporary morgue. Both the state licensing department and the county became aware of allegations that at least one body went unrefrigerated over the second weekend in May while at the countys temporary morgue, resulting in severe decomposition. The county and state licensing department also are aware of allegations that there were additional unrefrigerated bodies during the same time frame. As a result of the claims, both the county and the state licensing department have launched inquiries into the matter. We recently heard some concerns regarding the storage of bodies at a funeral home where we have a facility use agreement for our Medical Examiner to conduct autopsies, Jed Holmes, public affairs and strategy manager for the County Executives Office, said in a prepared statement sent to The Herald on Wednesday, June 6. As a result, weve decided to open a fact-finding investigation into the matter. For the sake of everyone involved, we will not be able to speak about the situation until we complete this investigation and have a full picture of what transpired. Temporary morgue Whatcom County entered into a lease agreement with Lengesot LLC, also known as Moles Farewell Tributes & Crematory, in July 2023 to provide space starting Aug. 1, 2023 at its Bayview Chapel location in Bellingham for the Whatcom County Medical Examiners Office to conduct autopsies, store bodies and perform other duties required by the examiners office. The lease was required because the countys morgue, on State Street in downtown Bellingham, is under construction as part of The Way Station project, a $12.6 million project that will provide homeless people with a range of health and social services to assist their transition to more permanent housing. The county morgue and Medical Examiners Office is in the same building. Moles Farewell Tributes & Crematory has a lease with Whatcom County to provide storage of bodies of the deceased. The lease was originally slated to end in March but was extended by the Whatcom County Council at its May 21 evening meeting due to construction delays with the Way Station project. The lease will now last through the end of the year, according to county documents. As part of the lease agreement, Moles is expected to provide space in its garage at its Bayview Chapel location for a cooler that could store up to three bodies. If additional storage space is needed, Moles is expected to transport the bodies to its Green Acres Memorial location east of Ferndale. DOL investigation The state licensing department received a phone call May 16 from a local funeral director alleging that a dead body they picked up from the temporary county morgue had not been refrigerated while in the care of the Whatcom County Medical Examiners Office, according to Christine Anthony, a funeral and cemetery inspector, investigator and trust examiner with the state licensing department. The funeral director alleged that when they received the body on May 16, roughly six days after the person died, they found the decedent severely decomposed and covered in flies, according to Anthony. Funeral home says Whatcom medical examiner to blame for improperly stored human remains The following day, the state licensing department became aware of the temporary morgue and lease between the county, medical examiners office and Moles. The state licensing department then began its investigation because a local funeral home was involved, Anthony told The Herald. The state licensing departments Funeral and Cemetery Board licenses funeral directors, embalmers and cemetery operators within the state. It also investigates violations of state regulations related to the funeral and cemetery industries, according to the Washington State Governors website. The state licensing departments Funeral and Cemetery Boards investigation is looking into possible violations by Moles of state regulations that govern the refrigeration or embalming of human remains. The licensing department does not have regulatory authority over the medical examiners office, but does over Moles, Anthony said. Anthony said two funeral homes in Whatcom County have complained to the state licensing agency about the situation and she is aware that complaints from additional funeral homes have been made to Whatcom County officials. The funeral homes that complained to the licensing department said theyve seen roughly six to seven bodies that were in the garage at Moles Bayview Chapel location that were not refrigerated, Anthony told The Herald. Anthony said she has spoken with at least two local funeral homes, the Whatcom County Health and Human Services Department, and Moles as part of the investigation. She said she has not yet heard from the countys medical examiners office. I have been assured during each conversation with the respondent funeral home and staff that all human remains are in refrigeration since the May 17th conversation with the business owner, Anthony said. I have not yet determined responsibility for this situation. The Herald has reached out to Moles for comment and more information. Questions sent to the Whatcom County Medical Examiners Office are being handled by the Whatcom County Executives Office. The Herald has also reached out to the county health department for more information. County response As of Thursday, June 6, the county has not yet determined who will be conducting its fact-finding inquiry, Holmes told The Herald, but he added that the county is hoping to move quickly and fairly. The countys fact-finding investigation is centered around what transpired during the second weekend in May, when at least one body is alleged to have been stored without refrigeration. Holmes said the county realized Wednesday, June 5, that it did not have enough information about the situation, which prompted the fact-finding inquiry. Holmes said he hopes the investigation will clear the air with whats happened and that it will also enlighten the county in regards to the medical examiner and morgues capacity and space needs. He said the inquiry will show the county if there were things that happened that didnt follow protocols or need corrections, and that we would be able to look at that and do course corrections and plan better for the future. We need to get to the bottom of all the facts, Holmes said. One of our partners is Moles, one of the partners is the MEs office. Were finding out more information about the situation so that it can inform future decisions. The Whatcom County Sheriffs Office has not started a criminal investigation into the allegations, according to Deb Slater, a spokesperson with the sheriffs office. There have been no official reports filed with the sheriffs office, so no investigation has been started at this time, Slater said. Investigations begin with either a deputy witnessing a crime or the sheriffs office receiving reports, she said. As with any case, upon receipt of official reports of criminal activity within unincorporated Whatcom County, WCSO would conduct an initial response to determine if a more in-depth investigation is warranted. If the preliminary investigation reveals evidence of criminality or other concerns, WCSO would defer to an outside agency to take over the investigation to ensure impartiality and avoid any potential conflicts of interest, Slater told The Herald in an email. The Herald has reached out to the Bellingham Police Department to see if theyve received any reports or have started an investigation. ISLAMABAD, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Five terrorists were killed in a security operation in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, official sources told Xinhua. The security forces conducted an intelligence-based operation at a hideout of the terrorists in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan district of the province on Thursday, killing five terrorists of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban on the spot, according to the sources. The killed terrorists were involved in several terrorist activities against the security forces and innocent citizens, the officials said, adding that a huge cache of weapons and ammunition were also recovered from their possession. The killed terrorists were planning to carry out terror attacks in the province. Law enforcement agencies also launched a search operation in the surrounding areas to arrest accomplices of the killed terrorists. TOPEKA (KSNT) A Consumer Affairs report has named Topeka as the number one city in the USA for relocation benefits. Consumer Affairs highlighted the Choose Topeka program led by Go Topeka which offers up to $15,000 to relocate. The program garnered flak after a segment on Fox and Friends where Anchor Tomi Lauren criticized the program as inviting migrants to the city. Greater Topeka Partnership spokeswoman India Yarborough refuted any claims that the program is meant to bring in either migrants or illegal immigrants to the city. Describing Choose Topeka as a holistic talent attraction effort, she said the program is open to people from a wide variety of backgrounds who are legally able to work in the country. Choose Topeka has been around since 2019 when it was approved by the Joint Economic Development Organization (JEDO). The program seeks to offer people incentives to move to Topeka and find work. The program officially went into effect in 2020. Is Choose Topeka bringing migrants to the Capital City? Remote workers are increasingly drawn to the prospect of setting up shop in new cities, especially given the prevalence of relocation packages that soften the costs of hiring a moving company and finding a new home, Consumer Affairs wrote. Consumer Affairs found Topeka to have the best relocation benefits of the cities it canvased. Other cities listed and their maximum compensations to move were: Mattoon, Illinois $11,707 Tulsa, Oklahoma $10,000 The Shoals, Alabama $10,000 Also listed were states that will pay you to move: West Virginia $20,000 Kentucky $8,800 To read the full Consumers Affairs article, click 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. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News. The Covid pandemic provided a real-time experiment of a strengthened social safety net, in which several anti-poverty programs were bolstered and benefits increased. One such program, called Pandemic EBT, provided a voucher for families to purchase groceries while children were unable to attend school in person, helping them to obtain the nutrition they would otherwise get through free school meals and lifting millions of children out of hunger. In late 2022, Congress approved a similar, permanent program on a bipartisan basis. Called SUN Bucks, or Summer EBT, the program begins this month and provides families with $40 per child per month in grocery benefits over the summer, or $120 in total, when they dont have access to free lunches at school. Thirty-seven states, five territories, and the District of Columbia will participate in the program. But 13 states, all led by Republican governors, have opted out of the program, depriving millions of low-income kids. Several of these states have also declined to expand Medicaid, increasing the burden on households too poor to afford health care or basic groceries. SUN Bucks isnt as generous as its pandemic-era iteration, but the Department of Agriculture nonetheless estimates that the program will reach more than 20 million children. We always see summer as one of the hungriest times of year, said Kelsey Boone, the senior child nutrition policy analyst at the Food Research and Action Center. We see summer EBT as kind of filling that gap in the summer nutrition programs that only reach a fraction of the children that participate in reduced-price school meals during the school year. The bakers dozen of red states that opted out are Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, Mississippi, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. Their governors have cited an array of reasons, including logistical difficulties, but much of the opposition appears patently ideological. An EBT card does nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic, said Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds in December, referring to the debit-like card that food stamp recipients use to purchase groceries. A Florida state official told WFSU News that we anticipate that our states full approach to serving children will continue to be successful this year without any additional federal programs that inherently always come with some federal strings attached. A spokesperson for Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves insisted that Summer EBT amounted to attempts to expand the welfare state, adding that if Democrats in Washington had their way, Americans would still be locked down, subjected to Covid vaccine and mask mandates, and welfare rolls wouldve exploded. (Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen, who initially said his state would not participate because he did not believe in welfare, reversed course in February after speaking to low-income children.) Some governors cited the cost of Summer EBT as prohibitive; a spokesperson for South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem said in January that federal money often comes with strings attached, and more of it is often not a good thing. The federal government will cover the cost of the program, but states must provide the funds for half of the operational costs. Others argued that it is redundant, pointing to state summer meal programs. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt rejected the $60 million in federal funding, saying he was satisfied that kids wont be going hungry in the summertime. (He told KJRH News in January, We gave over $20 million over the last couple of years to different food banks.) But Chris Bernard, the president and CEO of Hunger Free Oklahoma, noted that only 6 percent of eligible children in the state participate in summer meal programs. Moreover, he argued, the existing summer food programs administered by the state are insufficient on their own. These programs are meant to complement each other, not be exclusive, Bernard said. Even though Stitt opted out of Summer EBT, several Native tribes in the state will be participating and will provide the benefits to Native and non-Native children living in tribal territories. As much of the state is composed of tribal lands, this means that a large portion of Oklahomas population of low-income children will be served. However, this will also result in piecemeal application of the benefits across the state. Children living in Oklahomas second-largest city, Tulsa, will be eligible to receive the benefits through the Muscogee Nation, but families in the states largest metropolitan area, Oklahoma City, will not be able to obtain Summer EBT. You could be in a school district thats bordering one of these other territories but not in it, and youre going to miss out. But even your sibling could attend the other school district, and theyll get the benefit, Bernard said. It makes for confusion. It makes for an unnecessary absence of resources for families. Neighboring Texas, the second-largest state in the country, with 3.8 million children eligible for the program, also opted out of Summer EBT; however, the reasoning seemed more logistical than political. Texass Health and Human Services Commission argued that it was given insufficient time by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to get the program up and running. Moreover, the state is currently busy unenrolling people from Medicaid after the federal government removed its pandemic-era requirements for continuous coverage. As a result, the charitable sector may bear much of the brunt of keeping low-income families fed over the summer. For example, the Houston Food Bank operates a summer meal program at around 200 sites in the Houston area, but its expensive to administer and reaches a relatively low percentage of children who need it. For years, weve argued that, yes, were happy to do this, but we do not think this is the best solution. The best solution is for those families just to be able to buy the food they need less expensively at supermarkets, said Brian Greene, the organizations president and CEO. He added that food banks are not meeting the need to begin with, so having to help even more families with children will further strain the charitable sectornot to mention low-income Texans themselves. Well keep doing as best we can, and it wont be enough by a large margin. But its the families who are going to be taking the hit, Greene said. Still, even if a state doesnt opt into Summer EBT this year, it does not preclude them from doing so in 2025. Stitt has not ruled out participating in the future, and states like Texas that dealt with administrative burdens may find those issues resolved in time for next year. Something similar occurred with the Affordable Care Acts Medicaid expansion, the cost of which is largely borne by the federal government. Many Democratic-led states adopted the expansion in 2014, while many red states refused it, even as research demonstrated the expansions health and fiscal benefits. Since 2019, six more Republican-led states have joined the club. Seven of the remaining 10 holdouts have also rejected SUN Bucks. (COLORADO) In a statement released on Friday, June 7 many leaders within the Republican Party called for the resignation of Republican State Party Chair David Williams. In the statement, Nancy Pallozzi, Chairman of the Jefferson County Republicans said numerous Colorado Republican County Chairs, along with other county party officers, members of the Colorado State Central Committee in all 64 Counties and many Republican candidates are asking for Williams resignation. The call comes after what the statement said were a series of actions that encouraged division instead of unity in the party. The statement writes examples of Williams actions that encouraged division including: Sending a number of emails endorsing former President Trump before the presidential primary, violating the partys long-established position of primary neutrality. Surveys aligned with the state committees issue positions were sent to all Republican candidates mandating that they complete it to determine if the State Party would give them its endorsement. A divisive email was sent that was not in alignment with the voices of over one million Republicans and Conservatives in the state. The statement accuses Williams leadership of not aligning with the majority of Colorado Republicans, mentioning the recent email message on Pride Month and the LGBTQ+ community, and the post on X (formally known as Twitter) calling for the burning of Pride flags. Williams spoke about the recent social media post during the Colorado District 5 Primary debate on Thursday, June 6. I do not care what some pride organizers think about what were doing, Williams explained. What I care about is protecting our children. What I care about is advancing biblical principles, and what I care about is what the Lord has to say. If that costs me this election, if that costs me everything so be it. WATCH: Congressional District 5 Primary Debate between Crank and Williams We are asking Mr. Williams to immediately resign his position as Chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. We urge him to step down to allow us to bring in a new Chair who will help build our party, support all our candidates and county organizations, and bring unity, Nancy Pallozzi, Chairman of Jefferson County Republicans FOX21 News reached out for a comment from Williams and a representative, Hope Scheppelman Vice-Chairwoman of the Colorado Republican Party, sent the below statement: We make no apologies for standing against pride month as its a destructive agenda that harms children and undermines parental authority and if certain weak Republicans like Nancy Pallozzi want to side with a movement that promotes transgender chemical castration and genital mutilation then we look forward to notifying their base membership of that disgraceful fact, Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX21 News Colorado. Rep. Phil Jensen, R-Rapid City, speaks on the House floor on Jan. 16, 2024. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight) The Republican Party divide that was evident in Tuesdays primary election continued to play out Thursday and Friday as rival factions clashed during the state party convention, with more turmoil expected Saturday. Fourteen Republican legislators lost their primary races Tuesday to fellow Republicans. Two days later, party delegates from around South Dakota gathered in Pierre. There is a lot of frustration from the grassroots people who have come to partake in the convention, said Rep. Karla Lems, R-Canton, who won her primary. She said some of those people feel party officials are attempting to sideline the everyday Republicans who make up the base of the party. That is the heartbeat of the Republicans of the state of South Dakota, Lems said. Property rights debate She described the divide as the corporatists who currently run the state versus the constitutionalists who gained ground during Tuesdays election. A major factor in the primary was a division over the proposed multi-billion-dollar Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline. It would cross farms, ranches and other private property to transport carbon dioxide captured from Midwest ethanol plants to North Dakota for underground storage. Summit wants to capitalize on federal tax incentives to keep heat-trapping carbon out of the atmosphere. Lems and others in her faction have pushed to prevent the project from using the legal right of eminent domain to cross private property. Others in the party including some of the incumbents who lost Tuesday helped pass a bill during the last legislative session that implements new protections for landowners but also preserves a path forward for the project. That is why they went down, and that is why they will continue to lose, Lems said. Pat Powers, a Republican who is at the convention and writes the Dakota War College political blog, sees it differently. They believe themselves to be the base, but they dont take into account the other 80% of registered Republicans, Powers said. They are by no means reflective of the views of South Dakota Republicans as a whole. He said the allegation that some people at the convention are being sidelined is silliness. If they have the votes, they can do what they want, Powers said. Races for party nominations, positions The rift has been underscored during the convention by a newly announced challenge to incumbent Public Utilities Commissioner Kristie Fiegen, from Amber Christenson of Rapid City. The PUC position is the only nomination for a public office up for grabs at the convention this year. The person chosen by convention delegates as the partys nominee will run in the Nov. 5 general election. The PUC denied Summit a project permit last year, but the company has said it plans to reapply. There are other races at the convention for party positions. Rep. Phil Jensen, of Rapid City, is challenging Watertown Mayor and former legislator Ried Holien for the position of national committeeman. Jensen said party members want and deserve more deeply conservative leadership. I want to be a voice for the grassroots, Jensen said. These county parties have gotten organized so that they can be represented. Powers said the national committeeman represents the state party at the national level voting at the national party convention, coordinating with state officials and assisting in fundraising and campaigns. After learning Jensen announced his bid for national committeeman, Powers published commentary on his Dakota War College blog calling on fellow Republicans to ask themselves what image we want to represent. Because Phil Jensen might be the worst role model to represent South Dakota Republicans, Powers wrote. Powers cited numerous controversial statements and positions taken by Jensen, including 2011 legislation from Jensen that unsuccessfully sought to expand the definition of justifiable homicide to include killings intended to protect a fetus from an abortion. Powers also cited 2016 comments by Jensen about a tip Jensen said he received regarding dozens of South Americans fleeing a bus parked in Rapid City. Jensen said at the time that the tip was substantiated by a witness who knew they were South Americans because they had different skull structures and skin tones from Mexicans. Powers wrote that sending Jensen to the national convention would reflect poorly on the state party: If the South Dakota Republican Party wants to portray to the rest of the nation that we are a bunch of backwater redneck crazy uncles who might be racists, then he might be a good selection. Jensen said convention delegates are also debating language used in GOP materials. In the rules committee yesterday morning, they about had a riot in there, Jensen said, And we had one of the guys on the platform committee try to get rid of the phrase our Judeo-Christian heritage because it would offend the Muslims in the state. Lems said one committee tried to stop attendees from including language that describes the use of eminent domain by private industry for profit as fascism, calling that language too divisive. We have to start saying the truth, speaking the truth, Lems said. State Party Chairman John Wiik did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Several other Republicans, including legislators and current or former party officials, declined to comment or did not return messages. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE The post Republican primary shakeup continues to play out at state convention appeared first on South Dakota Searchlight. Republican TV Ad Would Like To Remind Texas Voters That Colin Allred Is Black A right-wing political action committee put up a TV ad on Friday indirectly highlighting the racial differences between Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and his Democratic challenger, Rep. Colin Allred. The ad shows a Latina woman talking about how hard her family has always worked and how she would resent the government paying African Americans reparations for slavery and falsely suggesting that Allred, who is Black, supports doing so. Colin Allreds group would take our tax dollars to pay for reparations, the unidentified woman says in the ad. Im not okay with it. Allreds group, per text on the screen, is the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, an organization affiliated with the Congressional Black Caucus a Capitol Hill group that counts most Black lawmakers, including Allred, as members. But Allred, a moderate, is not one of the 130 cosponsors of H.R. 40, the main pro-reparations legislation on Capitol Hill. The bill itself would not make the government pay reparations it would establish a commission to study and develop proposals for doing so. Even if Congress passed the bill, which is unlikely anytime soon, lawmakers would have to vote again to actually pay anyone. This ad is blatantly false, and is a desperate attack from lying Ted Cruz and his special interest backers to distract Texans from his extreme record, an Allred campaign spokesman told HuffPost in an email. The reparations ad, by Win It Back PAC, does showcase an important dynamic in the Texas Senate race. Latino residents make up 40% of the states population, and a 2021 Pew survey suggests a significant majority of Latino voters nationwide oppose reparations. During the Democratic primary earlier this year, Allreds more progressive opponent, state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, suggested to a supporter during a campaign event that a Black candidate would have a disadvantage against Cruz, who is Latino. Im telling you, its not Allred. I mean, its gonna be a Hispanic candidate, a strong Hispanic candidate, Gutierrez said, according to a recording obtained by the Daily Beast. Win It Back PAC put $19,000 behind the reparations ad, according to the group AdImpact Politics. Thats not a lot of money, and suggests the ad is mostly a bid for media attention. #TXPol: "Colin Allred's group would take our tax dollars to pay for reparations... [He] is not fighting for us." Win it Back PAC is up with the first TV ad against Colin Allred in the #TXSen general election. Yesterday, the group placed $19K. pic.twitter.com/2sEe8TRHOT AdImpact Politics (@AdImpact_Pol) June 7, 2024 Related... Republicans killed a bill that would protect birth control. What it could mean for Idaho As reproductive health care continues to consume the national spotlight, Democratic federal lawmakers have turned now to protecting birth control but the efforts this week have fallen short, with the help of Idahos Republicans. Idaho Republican U.S. Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo on Wednesday, alongside their GOP colleagues, voted to kill a federal bill that sought to protect access to contraceptives medications, devices and procedures meant to prevent pregnancy. Democrats brought forward the bill, which would make it illegal for states to outlaw the sale or use of all types of contraceptives, just as conservative groups in red states have signaled their intent to push to ban them. Idaho now has some of the strictest abortion restrictions in the country, and the conservative group responsible for crafting those laws has said it plans to push for bans on multiple types of contraception. Without the federal protection, an Idaho law could eliminate emergency contraception, which is often called by the brand name Plan B, and intrauterine devices (IUDs) if the ultra-conservative Idaho Family Policy Center is successful. IUDs, Plan B under fire The Right to Contraception Act, which Republican lawmakers said Democrats attempted to rush without proper discussion, failed 51-39 on Wednesday. Conservative legislators said they didnt see a need for the legislation or felt it didnt protect health care providers right to religious or moral objections, according to The New York Times. Instead, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, introduced a competing bill that would carve out protections for oral medication but not other forms of birth control, such as intrauterine devices (IUDs), implants or injections. The bill excludes any drug that is also approved for induced abortion, as well as emergency contraception. Risch is one of the bills cosponsors. Democrats at the national level and in Idaho slammed Republicans refusal to vote for what President Joe Biden called a fundamental right for women, while Republicans called the bill a political stunt. Your right to use birth control should never be up for debate, but Mike Crapo and Jim Risch chose to continue supporting the extreme GOP war against reproductive freedoms, Idaho Democratic Party Chair Lauren Necochea said in a news release. According to polling conducted by news website FiveThirtyEight in 2022, 81% of Americans support the use of IUDs, and 70% support emergency contraception. Risch and Crapo did not respond to requests for comment on their votes. Birth control debate in Idaho continues Birth control has been a hot topic in Idaho in recent years. During the 2024 legislative session, state lawmakers approved a bill to require health insurance companies to provide up to a six-month supply of birth control at a time. It took years to approve such a law. Two years ago, state Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa, drew criticism when he told Idaho Public Television he intended to hold hearings on legislation to ban IUDs, emergency contraception and abortion pills. Crane later walked back the comments on IUDs, which are hormonal or copper devices that can be inserted in the uterus to prevent pregnancy for several years. In a phone interview, Crane told the Idaho Statesman he has not heard any discussion or been presented with any draft legislation regarding emergency contraceptives. Instead, Crane said, the focus has been on addressing any potential issues with the abortion ban triggered after Roe v. Wade was overturned. He said he anticipates lawmakers will address in vitro fertilization, or IVF, during next years session. While no bills have been introduced in the Idaho Legislature aimed at limiting or eliminating contraception, the ultra-conservative lobbying group Idaho Family Policy Center indicated in a January report that those birth control methods are its next targets. The group crafted several bills that made it into law, including a bill to outlaw abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected before many women know theyre pregnant. The organization declined to comment on any legislation that may be in the works on the topic. In an emailed statement, Idaho Family Policy Center officials said the organization believes that married couples should be free to make personal decisions about contraception use. The statement said Idaho Family Policy Center opposes abortifacients that are known to destroy human life after fertilization. It named IUDs and two emergency contraception brands, which do not end existing pregnancies. Both forms of birth control can prevent fertilization when sperm and egg meet and also prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus, where it could develop into a fetus. Our state will not fulfill its promise of guaranteeing the right to life for every child until abortifacient drugs and devices are prohibited, the nonprofits report said. Idahoans push for birth control access Necochea, the Democratic Party chair, said in the news release that Republicans have made it clear they are willing to rip away every aspect of our reproductive health access and bodily autonomy. She called Idaho ground zero for reproductive health care fights and pointed to doctors recent attestations that pregnant patients experiencing complications are being airlifted to neighboring states for care. A group of Republican women have also advocated for expanding birth control access in Idaho. Former state Reps. Kelley Packer and Laurie Lickley and former Idaho Senate candidate Tara Malek launched the Idaho Contraceptive Education Network, or ICEN, last year. None of the women were available for comment on the Senate vote. Packer told the Idaho Capital Sun last year that the group wants to clarify that contraceptives and abortifacients are not the same. She reiterated that goal in a recent interview with the Washington Post and said the group will focus on educating legislators about how birth control works. When the group first launched, Lickley said in a news release that there is nothing more pro-life than giving our families access to this important family planning resource. For a study in contrasts, it doesn't get more stark than the partisan reactions to the 34 felony convictions of Donald Trump versus the ongoing trial of Hunter Biden, the son of the sitting president. Even though Trump was convicted in a New York state court by a jury of 12 ordinary people, Republicans rushed forward to defend Trump with a series of lies and conspiracy theories. Although President Joe Biden had no hand in the prosecution, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La. blamed the "Biden administration" for an imaginary "weaponization of our justice system." Attorney General Merrick Garland was hauled before Congress and sat through hours of Republicans blaming him for the verdict. While few Republicans are stupid enough to pretend Trump is innocent, they refuse to accept that the only man responsible for the convictions is the man who committed the 34 felonies: Donald J. Trump. In contrast, Democrats just aren't defending Hunter Biden on charges that he lied on a gun application about his drug addiction. President Biden released a statement affirming that he has "boundless love" for his son, but that he "won't comment" further. He has since affirmed he will not pardon his son if he's convicted. When asked about it, Democratic politicians and progressive pundits mostly reaffirm faith in the justice system and leave it at that. The only politician defending the younger Biden appears to be Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who said (accurately enough), "I dont think the average American would have been charged with the gun thing." Outside of the rabid conspiracy theory MAGA circles, the social media response has mostly been variations of, to quote one Redditor, "Dear weirdos. no one cares about Hunter Biden. Signed, normal America." This was not how things were supposed to go. The sad saga of Joe Biden's only living son the president lost a small child in a car accident in 1972 and his other son died of cancer in 2015 was supposed to be the bright, shiny electoral gambit for the GOP. Republicans were going to use it to distract voters from the fact that their own presidential nominee is a career criminal who incited a fascist insurrection. As Roger Sollenberger of the Daily Beast wrote, every time someone points out Trump is a big-time criminal, Republicans "invoked a whatabout defense to counter the charges with accusations about the sitting presidents son." Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics? Subscribe to her newsletter Standing Room Only. But what about Hunter Biden? He isn't running for office. His misdeeds, as sordid as they may be, appear to have no victims outside of his friends and family members who have endured the fallout from his addictions. Trump, in contrast, has repeatedly conspired against the American people, from the election interference he was convicted for late last month to attempted coup at the center of two of his three still-pending trials. Even the much-discussed "low information" voters aren't so dumb as to confuse these two situations. No doubt the mainstream media, forever addicted to bothsiderism, has been lavishly covering Hunter Biden's trial, almost as if to make up for the heavy coverage of Trump's objectively more important criminal trial. I have no doubt, either, that there's a huge amount of audience interest. Heaven knows I found myself reading more than one article recounting the trial testimony about crack pipes and Cadillacs. Even on that level, Google Trends shows that it's hard for the gossipy aspects of the Biden trial to compete with the tabloidy aspects of the Trump trial. More importantly, the political relevance of these two stories can't really be measured by prurient interest. The case for why Trump's felony convictions should impact vote choice is clear-cut: His abiding interest in defrauding the public makes him untrustworthy as a public servant. No one can explain, however, why Joe Biden would be a bad president because his son struggles with severe mental health and addiction issues. What treatment of Biden's trial illustrates is the vast gulf between the two parties when it comes not just to respect for rule of law, but whether they have a basic grasp on reality. The Republican obsession with Hunter Biden speaks more about them than it does about either President Biden or the larger Democratic Party. In the grifting economy of right-wing media, there's plenty of money to be had with lazy propaganda films meant to titillate elderly MAGA viewers with scenes depicting Hunter Biden smoking crack and nuzzling the breasts of sex workers. But it's not at all clear that anyone outside of the already MAGA-pilled is worked into a froth over this. Hunter Biden's trial tells a story that all too many Americans, across the political spectrum, are familiar with: The pain of loving a drug addict. Prosecutors shared text messages between Hunter Biden and Hallie Biden, the widow of his brother Beau Biden. The two had an ill-advised affair amid their shared grief and at the time of Hunter Biden's application for a gun license. "I dont want to live like this anymore. This is too much for me to handle," Hallie Biden wrote. It's a sad thing. It's a common thing. But it's hard to imagine this will get anyone so angry that they feel they have to vote for Trump to punish the Bidens. Even if you don't feel much about President Biden one way or another, it's hard not to pity him and his family at this moment. Readers can be forgiven if they forgot that, technically speaking, President Biden has been subject to an "impeachment inquiry" by House Republicans for nearly a year now. It's barely rated as a media event. Republicans even struggled to get much interest from the making-it-all-up-anyway right-wing press. "Those months of effort produced nothing of substance by the end of 2023, leading Comer and his colleagues to repeatedly attempt to exaggerate the importance of demonstrably nonsignificant findings," Philip Bump of the Washington Post wrote Wednesday. Unable to find even a shadow of a thread of evidence to demonize President Biden, the committee instead lamely requested criminal referrals of Hunter Biden and President Biden's brother. And even MAGA diehards don't really care about the brother, because of the lack of cocaine and strippers. These referrals will almost certainly go nowhere. After all, Biden's DOJ is already prosecuting Biden's son, a reality that cuts directly against Republican claims that Biden has politicized the department against his political enemies. In the end, it may be that the right's need for self-titillation was what doomed these efforts to make Hunter Biden their latest faux-scandal. Previous hoax scandals such as "Benghazi" worked because the false allegations towards Democrats involved a lot of complex inner workings of government that most people aren't going to take the time to understand. The obtuse nature of the conspiracy theory allowed people to assume whatever it is, it must be bad. But a story of a man self-medicating his grief by acting out and abusing drugs? That's a story most of us understand perfectly well, and plenty of us have direct personal experience with. Such understanding makes it very hard to argue that Hunter Biden's troubles have some larger political meaning that should bother voters at all. Even if he gets convicted, which the evidence suggests is likely, it's hard to see how it makes much impact beyond reminding people that the Bidens, in their all-too-common tragedy, are much more relatable than the Trumps. UTAH BEACH, France (ABC4) Plenty of military reenactors flocked to Normandy this week as the world commemorated the 80th anniversary of D-Day. But when actual American military members toured the memorials and battlefields, the French rolled out the red carpet. It has blown me away, honestly, said Sgt. 1st Class Tim Beery with the Utah National Guard. Theres so many people. Theres parties, theres festivals. Worlds leaders thank surviving D-Day warriors in French ceremony on Omaha Beach He said that when one tourist saw his badge for the 101st Airborne, she pulled him over and demanded a picture. Its what happens when Americans wear the uniform in Normandy. Beerys unit is currently in Europe for a nearly year-long deployment. This week, they helped with the D-Day commemorations in France, taking pictures and documenting the events. They also visited Utah Beach, one of the two shorelines where American troops landed on D-Day. Eighty years ago, the invasion of Normandy marked a turning point in World War II, leading to the liberation of France and eventual Allied victory. French and American flags wave over Utah Beach. (credit: KTVX) While walking the beach and taking photos with smiling tourists, the Utah National Guard members reflected on what their forebears faced in the fight against Nazi Germany. To come ashore and see your fellow servicemen fall, but you continue on, said Capt. Laureen MacGregor. Those who had that courage, we call them the Greatest Generation. What the soldiers did on June 6, 1944 cleared the way for what happened in Normandy this week. The gratitude of the French was felt by the soldiers from Utah. Ive noticed respect and honor from everybody, said Staff Sgt. James Bunn, of Ogden. He added: They feel the gravity of it and the importance that this played, that D-Day played for freedom in Europe. What did Utah have to do with D-Days Utah Beach assault? Sgt. 1st Class John Etheridge said the unit has been in Europe for nine months. Typically, when they are in another country, the soldiers learn how to say hello in the local language. In Normandy, its different. This is the first time Ive come to another country where they say hello to you because they want to reach out to you as an American, Etheridge said. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah. Tara Johnson looks out toward the lake from the 2nd floor of her Rice Hope home. Behind her traffic can be seen passing by on I-95. At this time two years ago, 60-foot-tall pine trees loomed between Interstate 95 and the residents of Rice Hope. There in Port Wentworth, they had grown for at least 20 years, providing habitat for wild animals, fresh air, shade and most important to some, a sound barrier and protection from the busy highway. In mid-June 2022, every single tree was cut down, according to Tara Johnson, a five-year resident of Rice Hope, to stuff one-story cottages into the neighborhood that already held hundreds of homes. Its transformed the once safe and quiet neighborhood to living adjacent to a busy interstate with a parade of semi-trucks day and night. Though they knew more homes were going to be added, no one expected the decimation of the tree line. Now, 28 homeowners have partnered and retained a law firm, gearing up to sue the City of Port Wentworth and the developers of Rice Hope. They are seeking assistance with expenses through a GoFundMe. Although the lawsuit has not been filed yet, the homeowners are alleging that the city neglected to do a comprehensive review of the plans submitted by the developer. Additionally, residents believe that even the solution provided by the city, a wooden fence parallel to I-95, lacked a comprehensive review of necessary and easily accessed information from GDOT about tempering highway noise before being implemented. This has caused a number of issues, Johnson said: full views of I-95 from the second stories of their house, 24-hour highway noise, loss of use to outdoor areas, depreciation of home value despite the lakefront view, and overall effects on the health and wellness of the neighborhood. A berm and a fence was added behind Lakeside Drive homes after the trees separating the Rice Hope neighborhood from traffic on I-95 were removed. Port Wentworth City Council talks amphitheater, warehouse rezoning Garden City panel slams brakes on project backed by Federal Highway Administration Failure to do comprehensive reviews The site plan that set the removal of the entire tree line in motion was approved by both the sitting members of Port Wentworths 2021 planning commission and city council. Two of those planning commission members - Rufus Bright and Gabrielle Nelson - now are both current city council members, who were elected to a council that unseated three incumbents in November that year. Just months after the site plans were approved, major shakeups changed the composition of Port Wentworths city administration, beginning with the resignation of the then-city manager Edwin Booth and mass walkouts. The city was also tasked with, in 2022, redoing its 2021-41 comprehensive plan, the document that governs future land use and development within a city. This comprehensive plan was adopted in August before the site plans for the new homes of Rice Hope were approved. In the character area description for suburban residential areas, the comprehensive plans states that developments require the preservation of trees during the development process and post development. The developer also violated the city ordinances by not getting city permits prior to ground disturbance, and for not installing environmental protections prior to construction. So, it was basically a bunch of people not doing their job, Johnson said. I reached out to the city to see what was going on, and they put a stop work order on the whole site because they were even upset about it. They didnt realize what was about to happen, let it happen and in the midst of it they destroyed an entire corner of the neighborhood. Johnson, spearheading the charge, reached out to a number of people after the landscape was flattened, including the developer, newly hired City Manager Steve Davis and newly elected city council member Nelson. Davis placed the stop work order on the property after seeing the site. Nelson said she didnt realize at the time of approval that they would be clear-cutting the trees and asked for the developers to be fined, which they were, after they discovered it had already been done. Theres also a difference in someone asking for a rezoning and asking for a site plan to be approved, Nelson said. With a site plan, if they checked all of their boxes, got all of their permits and everything it seems personal to just say, 'no, I dont want this,' and they could sue. In an email to Johnson in July 2022 , Davis stated that the city administration had met with the developer, requiring them to increase the size of the earth berm from 4 ft to 10 ft. Additionally, they would be required to place a 6 ft tall privacy fence on top of the berm, and install a mixture of pine and cypress trees on the interstate side of the berm and plans on the homeowners side of the fence. The main thing for this lawsuit was everything the city promised that they would try to do to help us, they didnt follow through with most of it, Johnson said. Their fix did not work, their fix was not even what they promised us - the average height of the majority of the berm/fence is 11-12 ft. The Federal Highway Administration has guidance on highway traffic noise abatement, stating that noise barriers do very little good for homes on a hillside overlooking a road, which rise above the barrier and to avoid undesired effects, the general rule is that the barrier should extend four times as far in each direction as the distance from the receiver to the barrier. Additionally, it says that noise barriers and earthen berms are only beneficial to homes in the shadow zone, the space right next to the barrier. Unshielded homes get none of the protection of the noise barrier, plus the view of the interstate. Openings in the barrier also reduce the effectiveness of it, which the Rice Hope fence has. After the barrier of trees separating Rice Hope from I-95 the Muntons now here all of the noise from the interstate in their 2nd floor bedroom. Fears and concerns Melanie Munton, whos daughter just turned 6, and Celina Hall, who has her grandchildren visiting frequently, said at the top of their list of concerns is safety because of the proximity of the Georgia welcome center. In five minutes someone could come off at the interstate, have your child back in a car and across the state line before you even knew they were missing, Hall said. We have too much trafficking and kidnapping thats going on all across the country. Lisa Barrow, who moved to Port Wentworth from Kentucky in 2021, agrees with the sentiment. That is nothing more than a wooden fence, Barrow said. There is no protection, if one of those semis lose control theyd just come right through that fence. Before, we were heavily wooded and you couldnt really see our neighborhood from the highway and now were heavily exposed. A lot of residents moved to Rice Hope, to the lakeview properties and paid thousands extra for the serenity, peace and privacy of the area. Barrow said they looked at multiple properties in the area and absolutely loved the lake and the character of the neighborhood. We moved here in hopes of this being our retirement homes, Barrow said. We laughed and said this is it, were not moving again. Now were no longer sure. One resident moved in with her sister due to the highway noise, which after testing it with a sound meter Johnson said can reach up to 70 dB. Another resident plans to put her home on the market this month to get away from the noise. Dan OConnor and his wife Melissa got their house appraised and were told the value dipped by $100,000 because of the noise from I-95. Another major cause of concern is the loss of sleep due to the near-constant noise from the highway, something that was raised by multiple residents who have jobs that require them to be up early. My husband and son, physically you can tell theyre tired, Johnson said. My sons dark circles are just getting darker. When trucks are going too fast, theyll use their engine to brake and slow down and for some reason in the middle of the night theyre all doing it. It lasts only about 10 seconds but itll wake you up out of a dead sleep. Johnson firmly stated that the wall has not done anything to stop the noise, just penetrating directly into the second story of their home, and going outside to just have a conversation either in-person or on the phone is a task. Before, it was beautiful, Johnson said. We could sit outside and everyone once in a while a super loud truck would go by, but you never really thought about it because you couldnt even see them. An aerial view of Rice Hope in Port Wentworth. Going Forward The optimal solution in the end for all of the homeowners is the same: a concrete barrier this time. An actual GDOT approved concrete barrier, Johnson said. We need somebody, we dont care who it is, to erect this wall to stop the noise from coming in, and to stop the view. The GoFundMe goal for the litigation is set at $10,000, and they have raised $850 so far. Destini Ambus is the general assignment reporter for Chatham County municipalities for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach her at dambus@gannett.com This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Rice Hope residents to sue Port Wentworth for view, noise pollution Nazrin Abdul The Mangystau region of Kazakhstan has proposed boosting the supply of consumer food products from Azerbaijan, Azernews reports. Nurdaulet Kilybay, head of the Mangystau region, presented this proposal during a meeting with Elchin Mammadov, the Consul General of Azerbaijan in Aktau. "I'd like to propose some collaboration options. Instead of waiting for high-level official meetings, let's initiate joint projects and foster bilateral relations through mutual agreements. As you know, the Mangystau region lacks a variety of fruits and vegetables and mostly relies on imports. Therefore, I suggest that companies in Azerbaijan explore opportunities to enhance the supply of food and consumer goods, particularly fruits and construction materials, to our region. Additionally, we should strengthen tourism ties between Azerbaijan and the Mangystau region," he said. Mammadov emphasized the strong relationship between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, expressing the Consulate General's keen interest in fostering joint projects to reinforce the fraternal ties between the two peoples. "The Mangystau region is of significant importance to our nation. Collaboratively, the state maritime companies of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have augmented the fleet of vessels for cargo transportation. We believe that construction materials, textiles, and agricultural products from both countries, as well as the exchange of food items, mutual investments, and joint productions, can substantially boost trade volume. There are promising prospects for enhancing tourism cooperation between our nations. It's worth noting that in 2025, the city of Aktau will be designated as the capital of the Turkic world. Numerous events and official visits from delegations of Turkic-speaking countries are anticipated. This presents an opportunity for us to further strengthen our close cooperation," he elaborated. In 2023, the trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan surged to $529.4 million, marking a 14.2 percent increase compared to the previous year's figure of $463.3 million. Exports to Azerbaijan during this period totaled $456.3 million, representing a notable 21.6 percent increase compared to the same period in 2022. Imports from Azerbaijan from January through December 2023 experienced a decline of 17.3 percent, amounting to $73 million, compared to $88.3 million in 2022. CANBERRA, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The head of the Australian National University (ANU) has said the university will review its investments in weapons manufacturers in response to a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus. Appearing before a Senate hearing on Wednesday, vice-chancellor Genevieve Bell said that ANU's socially responsible investment policy, which was last updated 10 years ago, would be reviewed by the university's council at a meeting on June 14. ANU students in April set up an encampment at the university's main campus in Canberra's northern suburbs as an act of protest against ties with Israeli institutions and weapons manufacturers amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The Senate committee heard on Wednesday that as of November 2023 ANU held shares worth 171,000 Australian dollars (114,000 U.S. dollars) in defense and security company BAE Systems, which Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi said had supplied F-35 fighter jets to Israel. Additionally, deputy vice-chancellor Lachlan Blackhall said ANU had contracts with a small number of defense companies and had received philanthropic donations from them. Asked if the university had sought legal advice on whether the links with weapons companies made it complicit in genocide, Blackhall said he rejects the notion that ANU is involved in genocide. Bell told the hearing that 10 ANU students have had disciplinary action lodged against them and two have been expelled since the conflict in Gaza broke out in October last year. "Academic freedom is not absolute, it's governed by and constrained by Australian law as well as our internal policies as a university," she said. Protesters in late May agreed to move the pro-Palestine encampment at ANU to a different site on campus after university administrators cited serious safety concerns that it was blocking an emergency evacuation route. The Richland County Council has voted unanimously to close the juvenile wing at the troubled Richland County jail. Tuesdays vote comes after law enforcement and partners at the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice say they were caught unawares by the countys plan. County officials maintain that closing the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Centers juvenile wing is necessary for them to focus on the jails adult population. We are responsible for detaining male individuals, female individuals, who are adults and not juveniles. The state of South Carolina has given the statutory responsibility to the Department of Juvenile Justice, said Richland County Administrator Leonardo Brown on Tuesday evening. Closing the juvenile wing was not only a good, solid use of taxpayer dollars, Brown said. Operationally, we came to the realization that this recommendation makes sense so that we can comply with the standards that we have for staffing and operational facility services for Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center adults. The councils vote, following three minutes of discussion, accepted the jail staffs recommendation, which had already been unanimously approved by the councils detention center ad hoc committee. About 27 juveniles currently housed in the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center will now be moved to the state Department of Juvenile Justice. Law enforcement agencies will now send teens arrested in Richland County to the Department of Juvenile Justice, which maintains a facility on Broad River Road, outside of Columbia. Were not just throwing them out. Theres also a transition period that were going through, said councilperson Cheryl English. Were being nice, were playing nice in the sandbox. Following the initial approval of the plan by the councils detention center ad hoc committee in May, representatives from the Department of Juvenile Justice expressed concerns about the plan and the lack of communication. Our facilities are already extremely overcrowded; and adding additional youth to facilities, it just exacerbates those overcrowded conditions, said DJJ spokesperson Michelle Foster. By statute, the county will have to pay DJJ $50 per juvenile per day, but that was not sufficient to cover costs, Foster said. Richland had good intentions for a park. But along the way it all went wrong | Editorial Richland residents have every right to be furious about the state of restoration in W.E. Johnson Park. Ten acres of shrub steppe habitat look more like an abandoned corner lot overrun with weeds. Dirt, invasive species and construction tape have replaced nature. We hope the city learns a valuable lesson from this bungled project. W.E. Johnson Park sprawls over 236 acres on the east bank of the Yakima River. It is mostly undeveloped, a natural break between neighborhoods and the river. Bird watchers, horseback riders, hikers and anyone looking for a natural respite frequent the park. Last month, park visitors discovered the destruction. Workers had cleared vegetation and left exposed earth, ripe for weeds to take hold, especially invasive Russian knapweed. As reported by the Tri-City Heralds Wendy Culverwell, the area was cleared as part of an environmental restoration project tied to a hotel development near Columbia Center mall. West77 Partners, a Nevada-based developer, is building a 126-room hotel that will target temporary workers like visiting nurses and construction workers. West77 is removing some sagebrush for its project. Under a city ordinance, the company must therefore restore twice the amount of sagebrush habitat elsewhere. Its a good rule to ensure that developers leave Richlands natural spaces better off than before they broke ground. This is the first time the city has applied the ordinance, and its safe to say that despite the best intentions it did not go as well as anyone had hoped. West77 worked with J-U-B Engineering and WildLands, a local restoration firm, on the project, but they didnt consult the public. West77 does not appear to have been skirting the law or trying to sneak one by the public. It thought it was taking the right steps. Indeed, there does not appear to be any ill intent in any of this. Part of the problem is that the project hit during a transition period at the city. Laura Hester, Richlands beleaguered parks and public facilities director, abruptly resigned last year after being on the job for less than 10 months. Her successor, Chris Waite, got the job at the end of April. As he was getting his footing, W.E. Johnson happened. Public outreach and engagement that could have and should have happened did not. Instead, members of Tapteal Greenway, the Lower Columbia Basin Audubon Society and other conservation groups discovered what had happened without warning. Its far from clear that this was even the best place for a restoration project. The birds and other animals that live in the park were hardly crying out for an upgrade. Chalk an iffy site selection up to the transition as well. Now everything is on hold amid the righteous furor. Planting native species cant happen until later in the year. In the meantime, there probably will need to be repeated applications of weedkillers to keep things under control. Thats far from an ideal solution in the middle of a natural park. It doesnt take much breeze to blow Roundup onto nearby plants. When the next restoration project comes along, communication will be critical. Richland has passionate experts who care about natural areas. It is foolish not to tap that resource when a developer comes along looking for the easiest way to fulfill its restoration obligation. Hold a public hearing and have the developer call local conservationists who can help identify the best sites for restoration and the best ways to go about it. Thats the lesson for next time, though. For now, reach out to those same people and collaboratively figure out the best way forward to mitigate the mitigation at W.E. Johnson Park. With all the construction going on around the Tri-Cities we will never get back to the bucolic fields of asparagus and the miles of fruit trees we once enjoyed. But our other cities can learn from Richlands mistake and sharpen their need to take care of more than building permits and traffic lights. Rochester WWII veteran Robert Persichitti dies at 102 on way to D-Day ceremony in France Robert Persichitti was able to take an Honor Flight to tour the war memorials in Washington D.C. in 2013. He spent much of his life ensuring other veterans like him would be remembered and celebrated. Days before he left on a flight to Europe to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, Robert Persichitti climbed a flight of stairs at the East Rochester Memorial Day parade, faced a crowd of veterans like himself, and led them in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. The American flag held significant meaning to him. Decades earlier, Persichitti was serving as a U.S. Navy radio operator aboard the U.S.S. Eldorado sailing near Japan, when he peered through a set of binoculars and witnessed the now-iconic scene of six Marines hoisting the American flag atop a pile of rubble during the Battle of Iwo Jima. The image stayed with Persichitti and, even at 102 years old, the Fairport man remained steadfast in his commitment to honoring the triumphs and losses veterans have faced. Persichitti died last week while traveling to France for a ceremony to commemorate the pivotal Allied forces invasion known as D-Day, according to Richard Stewart, president of Honor Flight Rochester. Stewart said Persichitti flew to Europe and joined other veterans on a ship sailing toward Normandy, when he suffered a medical emergency on May 30 and had to be airlifted to a military hospital in Germany, where he later died. "There is a sadness to him passing," Stewart said. "There's an inevitability around Honor Flight where we see an awful lot of people that are on the older side now. But he lived right. He made a world around him that was supportive ... and he was nice right back. Bob did it right." Robert Persichitti, WWII veteran, dies at 102 Persichitti was born in a coal mining town in Pittsburgh in 1922, Stewart said. He was raised in the era of the Great Depression, which likely contributed to his humble personality and strong work ethic. Growing up, the closest high school was 20 miles away and required a $4 per month bus pass. On the months his family couldn't afford the fee, Persichitti would hitchhike to school instead, Stewart said. After graduation, Persichitti joined the U.S. Navy and went to radio school in New York City to learn Morse code. He was later assigned as a radio operator aboard the Eldorado, which sailed near Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Guam. Following the war, Persichitti worked as a school teacher in the Rochester City School District. Stewart said he spent the rest of his life celebrating veterans. When Honor Flight opened a chapter in Rochester in 2008, Persichitti was eager to join. He was able to organize different benefit events for veterans in a way that seemed effortless, Stewart said. "He was so easily infectious," he said. Persichitti was able to take his own honor flight to tour the war memorials in Washington D.C. in 2013. A photograph captures him with a World War II veteran hat, one arm raised in a crisp salute. Ever since, Stewart said Persichitti made sure he was at the airport to welcome other veterans home from their trip. He was there in April and again in May. "We were just so certain he'd be there for Father's Day when we have another welcome home in June," Stewart said. "We're all going to miss Bob a lot." Kayla Canne reports on community justice and safety efforts for the Democrat and Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter @kaylacanne and @bykaylacanne on Instagram. Get in touch at kcanne@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Robert Persichitti dies on way to D-Day ceremony in France Rockford native Maggie Polsean will rejoin the WIFR news team the week of June 17. Im thrilled to be joining such a talented and dynamic team, Polsean said. From starting my journalism career at WIFR as an intern to now being an anchor, it is a full-circle moment that I am incredibly thankful for. Polsean, who most recently served as a marketing and communications specialist for Chartwell Agency, will help host WIFR News this Morning alongside veteran newscasters Andy Gannon and Aaron Wilson. Maggie Polsean will join WIFR News this Morning the week of June 17, 2024. Polsean grew up in Rockford and graduated from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. She returned to Rockford to launch her career at WIFR where she served as an anchor, multimedia journalist, producer and videographer. Maggies knowledge and love of the Rockford region, her passion for journalism and her enthusiastic spirit are a welcome addition to the WIFR news team, said Maggie Hradecky, WIFR news director. Polsean lives in the Rock River Valley with her husband, Ben. WIFR is part of Gray Television, a subsidiary of Gray Media Group, which operates 180 stations across 114 markets in the U.S. This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Rockford native returns to local airwaves New rolling blackout schedules to be introduced in Ukraine in test mode starting Saturday The new procedure for applying rolling blackout schedules, which will start operating in Ukraine in a test mode beginning Saturday, 8 June, should ensure shorter power cuts. Source: Yurii Vlasenko, Ukraine's First Deputy Energy Minister, as reported by Interfax-Ukraine news agency Details: "A new procedure for applying rolling blackout schedules will be introduced in a test mode effective Saturday, setting limits regarding how much [the power grid is to be] unloaded in a particular oblast. In this regard, distribution network operators must organise outage queues to utilise this limit exclusively. We expect that the number of queues should be less, and people's homes should have electricity for more hours," Vlasenko said during the Hour of Questions to the Government in the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) on Friday. Background: Due to the large concentration of critical infrastructure that takes up part of electricity consumption, some of Kyiv's districts have no power for about 20 hours. Every day, Ukrenergo, a Ukrainian national power company, informs local distribution network operators of the consumption limit, part of which is immediately allocated to critical infrastructure, while the rest is distributed among consumers. Support UP or become our patron! As Donald Trumps first criminal trial in New York neared its end, attentive observers sensed the ex-president was likely to be found guilty. While prosecutor Alvin Braggs team presented a clear, tight, well-supported case, the ex-presidents attorneys were all over the map. Whether that was due to poor lawyering or their clients insistence on denying everything even facts most lawyers would stipulate they signally failed to give jurors anything to latch onto. Douglas Rooks The unanimous verdict from a jury including two lawyers should have provided food for thought, especially for office-holders pronouncing on the result. Maines Sen. Susan Collins was among those who, by their own admission, werent paying close attention to the trial. She released her statement hours after the rest of the Maine delegation, and it was a doozy. Rather than urging respect for the legal process and pointing out potential defects in the prosecution that might be relevant on appeal a defensible position she slammed Bragg for bringing the charges in the first place. She claimed without evidence that Bragg brought these charges precisely because of who the defendant was rather than because of any specified criminal conduct. Since Trump was convicted of criminal conduct, Collins claims she knows more about the case than the 12 jurors who decided It a stunning admission from a Republican senator who voted to convict Trump after impeachment on Jan. 6 charges. Now, Collins thinks its too much trouble to uphold the law against a president with three more criminal indictments outstanding. Her stance on impeachment, however, highlights another conspicuous failure, despite wall-to-wall reporting. Theres now no reason why the Supreme Court shouldnt swiftly decide about Trumps claimed immunity concerning the very same Jan. 6 events. Trump was indicted nearly a year ago on charges he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election after voters chose Joe Biden. Prosecutor Jack Smith presented abundant evidence showing Trump was de facto leader of the hundreds who invaded the Capitol on that dark day, attempting to halt the counting of electoral votes. Many are already in prison for their actions. Yet there seems a media consensus that the Supreme Court will delay proceedings until after the election despite a definitive decision by the D.C. Court of Appeals demolishing all of Trumps claims to absolute immunity. If a president is entitled to commit crimes to stay in office rather than hand over the presidency to a legally elected successor, then the very basis of our constitutional order is overthrown, let alone the established meaning of the Constitution itself. Yet that is exactly what the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts is supposedly contemplating. The spectacle several justices have created is appalling. Roberts, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito are the longest-serving, though lengthy experience seems only to have hardened them. Thomas and Alito have serious ethical charges against them they ignore or deny, while Roberts effectively lost control of the six-member Republican super-majority when he failed to avert the disastrous Dobbs decision, which instantly eliminated all protections for abortion rights. As it stands, Roberts legacy of divisiveness and disunion is on track to match that of Chief Justice Roger Taney, who in the 1857 Dred Scott decision said the Constitution provided black men no rights which the white man was bound to respect, and thus helped bring on the Civil War. Its not too late to salvage the situation. At oral argument in April, several justices especially Alito, far more interested in some hypothetical future president than the ex-president being charged found reasons for more delays, but conspicuously not Roberts. Alito and Thomas may be beyond reason, but the three younger justices pushed onto the court by Trump with the eager assistance of former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could possibly be persuaded. No man, no defendant, and no ex-president is above the law. Trumps immunity claims have no real basis in law, tradition or the Constitution, and it shouldnt be beyond Roberts powers to insist the court affirm that. The federal classified documents case in Florida is being nakedly delayed by the trial judge, Aileen Cannon, but was always a sideshow to Jan. 6. The Georgia state case involves multiple co-defendants and a sprawling indictment that was never going to be ready for trial quickly. The Jan. 6 charges, though, are central to determining whether Donald Trump is fit to hold office, and theres no reason on earth the trial cant proceed well before November. For the good of the nation, the chief justice has one month to get this right. The saying is just: Those who sow the wind, reap the whirlwind. Douglas Rooks has been a Maine editor, columnist and reporter since 1984. He is the author of four books, most recently a biography of U.S. Chief Justice Melville Fuller, and welcomes comment at drooks@tds.net. This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Rooks: Roberts has one chance to salvage top courts reputation Run of the mill sea creature washed up on Oregon beach turns out to be rare find An odd sea creature caused such a stir on social media that rumblings of its washing ashore on an Oregon beach reached another hemisphere. Marianne Nyegaard, a New Zealand based researcher, was combing social media when images of the 7-foot-3-inch fish caught her eye, Seaside Aquarium said in a June 6 Facebook post. The unusual fish also piqued locals interest. Despite stormy weather, people flocked to Gearhart Beach to catch a glimpse of the large strange looking fish that washed ashore June 3, the aquarium said. Based on the photographs Nyegaard observed, she knew this might not be a run of the mill ocean fish, also known as mola mola, according to the aquarium. Instead, she suspected it was a species shes very familiar with a mola tecta, or hoodwinker sunfish. Nyegaard dubbed the mola tecta as a new species of sunfish hiding in plain sight in a 2017 scientific journal publication, according to the aquarium. Per Nyegaards request, the aquarium said it took tissue samples from the fish for genetics testing. It also took additional photographs along with measurements. Through analyzing the photos, the aquarium said Nyegaard confirmed the fish was her elusive hoodwinker sunfish. This particular specimen may be the largest ever sampled, the aquarium said. Hiding in plain sight The species was initially thought to only reside in the temperate waters of the southern hemisphere, according to the aquarium. This theory, however, has been challenged, as a few have recently washed ashore in California and one as far north as Alaska. Staying true to its catchphrase, hiding in plain sight, the fish has likely washed ashore in the Pacific Northwest previously, the aquarium said, but was probably mistaken for the more common Mola mola. The new species managed to evade discovery for nearly three centuries by hiding in a messy history of sunfish taxonomy, partially because they are so difficult to preserve and study, even for natural history museums, Nyegaard said in a July 2017 statement from Murdoch University. Hence the fishs name, mola tecta, derived from the Latin tectus, meaning disguised or hidden, Nyegaard said. Finding these fish and storing specimens for studies is a logistical nightmare due to their elusive nature and enormous size, so sunfish research is difficult at the best of times, Nyegaard said. The path to identifying the fish was rooted in a four-year treasure hunt, Nyegaard wrote in The Conversation in 2017. Early on, when I was asked if I would be bringing my own crane to receive a specimen, I knew I was in for a challenging but awesome adventure, Nyegaard said in the university statement. The journey began as Nyegaard worked on her PhD off Bali in Indonesia doing population studies of sunfish in the area, she said. Through testing more than 150 DNA samples from sunfish, Nyegaard said she noticed there was one that didnt fit any known species, but in 2013 researchers had no inkling as to what it looked like. Nyegaard said she got some answers a year later as she examined photos of a sunfish from New Zealand and Australian fisheries. This fish had a little structure on its back fin that Id never seen on a sunfish before, Nyegaard said. During the course of three years, the university said Nyegaard collected data from 27 specimens of the new species, at times traveling thousands of miles or relying on the kindness of strangers to take samples of sunfish found stranded on remote beaches. This was the first new species added to the Mola genus in 130 years, Nyegaard said in the university statement. The process we had to go through to confirm its new species status included consulting publications from as far back as the 1500s, some of which also included descriptions of mermen and fantastical sea monsters, Nyegaard said. Remarkable fish The elusive fish will likely remain on Gearhart Beach a few more days, maybe weeks as their tough skin makes it hard for scavengers to puncture, the aquarium said. It is a remarkable fish, the aquarium said, adding it encourages people to go see it for themselves. Gearhart is about an 80-mile drive northwest from Portland. This huge, rare sunfish washed up on a Santa Barbara beach. Where did it come from? Creature impersonating a shark off California coast is not what it seems Huge strange looking creature swims under paddleboarder off California, video shows For some rural communities, a stripped-down hospital is better than none at all Martin County General Hospital in Williamston, N.C., sits abandoned in April 2024 after being closed in August 2023. Hospital leaders are consulting with state and federal officials about the possibility of reopening it as a rural emergency hospital. It would be the first hospital in the country to shut down and then reopen under the rural emergency hospital designation. (Photo by Karl B DeBlaker / The Associated Press) On many days, some small hospitals in rural Mississippi admit just one patient or none at all. The hospitals are drowning in debt. The small, tight-knit communities theyve anchored for decades can do little but watch as the hospitals shed services and staff just to stay afloat. The federal government recently offered a lifeline: a new Medicare program designed to save dying rural hospitals that will pay them millions to stop offering inpatient services and instead focus on emergency care. More than two dozen hospitals across the country, including five in Mississippi, have taken the offer. Community reaction has been mixed, said Chad Netterville, director of the Mississippi Hospital Associations Rural Health Alliance. Some of the community feedback is, Youre giving up. Youre not a hospital any longer, said Netterville, himself a former administrator at a small rural hospital in south Mississippi. In reality, the local hospital is giving up a service thats no longer viable anyway. Under the new federal program, rural hospitals with fewer than 50 beds can become a rural emergency hospital to unlock additional government funding about $3.3 million extra per year plus a 5% increase in Medicare reimbursements. But theres a catch: Participating hospitals must stop all inpatient services. No labor and delivery, no inpatient surgeries, no inpatient psychiatric units. Instead, they must become 24-hour emergency departments that offer some outpatient services but, on average, keep patients for 24 hours or less. They can only stabilize patients who need more acute care and transfer them out of the community to larger hospitals. Its not a panacea for rural health, said George Pink, deputy director of the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Its targeted at a small subgroup of rural hospitals, those that have typically been losing money for a long period of time and are at risk of closing. Nearly one-third of rural hospitals around the country are at risk of closing, according to a new report from the Center for Healthcare Quality & Payment Reform, a national health policy research group. Research suggests rural hospital closures increase community death rates, harm local economies and force patients to travel farther for care. In 2020, Congress established the Rural Emergency Hospital program, which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services put into effect in January 2023. The goal is to preserve emergency care and at least some health services in communities that can no longer support a full-fledged hospital. More than 150 rural hospitals have closed or converted to other types of facilities in the past 15 years, primarily due to financial distress. That distress has many causes. Rural communities have shrinking populations, leading to fewer patients filling hospital beds. Rural residents tend to be older and sicker than people in cities, requiring more expensive care. They are also more likely to be uninsured or underinsured, forcing hospitals to pick up the tab. And reimbursement rates by public and private insurers havent kept pace with the cost of care. In the past two years, at least 17 states have amended or enacted laws to allow hospitals to scale back their services under the new program. Other states, such as Mississippi, have existing state regulations they can modify to allow their hospitals to qualify. Since January 2023, 27 hospitals have joined the program, out of 1,700 that researchers estimate are eligible, according to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Pink and other experts say its too soon to know how well the program will work. Some community hospitals are embracing the new model. Meanwhile, some for-profit health care companies are testing whether a rural emergency hospital could be profitable. In the middle of it all, rural communities are waiting to see what this better-than-nothing approach to health care will mean for them. Community pushback Mississippi is currently home to the most rural emergency hospitals in the nation, with five. Its also home to a hospital management company, Progressive Health Group, that is focused on converting struggling rural hospitals to the new model. Progressive Healths CEO, Mississippi attorney Quentin Whitwell, said conversion might make sense for many hospitals even some that arent at deaths door. His company has converted a handful of hospitals in Mississippi, Arkansas and Georgia, with more in the works. We analyze hospitals that are either brought to us or that we identify, to see if we believe we can recruit the necessary providers, provide the necessary services, and be a benefit to the community, Whitwell said. Rather than trying to keep rural hospitals with empty beds and few patients open, he said, the new federal designation can provide the funding needed for a successful, leaner facility focused on select essential outpatient services, such as emergency care. We have contracts, letters of intent and expressions of interest in place, and are looking at hospitals from the West Coast to the East Coast, he said. We dont necessarily have a target number of hospitals; we just want to be effective where we are. But hospitals looking to make the switch can face pushback from their communities and from physicians. An obstetrician in rural Alabama recently warned the states health department that conversions could undermine maternal care by removing even more labor and delivery services from rural communities. When asked about that possibility, Netterville, of the Mississippi Hospital Association, said many of Mississippis small rural hospitals gave up their labor and delivery services long ago. In some rural communities, converting a hospital wont result in a meaningful loss of services, said Brock Slabach, chief operations officer with the National Rural Health Association. Most of the rural hospitals that might consider converting have few patients using those services in the first place, he said. Of the rural emergency hospitals listed in federal hospital enrollment data, nine are owned by private health care systems, while a few more are owned by hospital management companies such as Progressive Health. It could make financial sense for larger health systems to convert smaller, less-profitable rural hospitals to rural emergency hospitals, said Pink. They would in turn funnel sicker patients from their outlying communities to the systems larger flagship hospitals. But, he said, It would be a source of concern if systems are converting to this new model for the sole purpose of saving the system money, because Im not sure that would be serving the care and access concerns of the rural community. Changes ahead What do I have to give up? is usually one of the first questions that rural hospital leaders have about the conversion program, Netterville said. One of their biggest concerns is that converting means a hospital cant participate in some federal programs already designed to offset their costs. The 340B Drug Pricing Program, for example, allows them to purchase outpatient drugs at discount prices, while the Medicare swing bed program gives small, rural hospitals more flexibility in providing and billing for different types of care. Neither is available to rural emergency hospitals. The National Rural Health Association supports some changes to the federal program, including allowing participating hospitals to be part of the 340B and swing bed programs. But operators such as Whitwell also have been working on changes at the state level. Whitwell said his organization advocated for a bill in Mississippi that would have allowed rural emergency hospitals to license inpatient geriatric psychiatry beds on their campuses, creating another source of revenue. The bill died in committee this year, but Whitwell hopes a similar one will be filed in the next legislative session. If a rural emergency hospital cant have a geriatric psychiatry unit under federal law, but a state authorizes the hospitals owners to separately license a unit, that would be essentially a workaround, he said. Stops and starts Last May, Alliance Health Care System in Holly Springs, Mississippi, became the first hospital in the state to convert to a rural emergency hospital. Whitwell is the hospitals chief operating officer and legal counsel. Less than a year later, the federal Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services rescinded its new status, saying the hospital is too close to Memphis, Tennessee, to meet its definition of rural. Hospital leadership had just laid off staff and shuttered its inpatient services to complete its transition to a rural emergency hospital. Now the North Mississippi community of fewer than 7,000 is without an emergency department. Leaders assumed the hospital would be allowed to quickly return to an acute care facility, Whitwell said. But they have forced us to relicense completely. Therefore, the hospital is essentially open without the ability to bill and collect for services. While changes are proposed at the state and federal levels, Pink said its still too soon to know how rural emergency hospitals will affect local communities. Its a not just a different kind of hospital, he said. Its a whole new way of doing things. 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 For some rural communities, a stripped-down hospital is better than none at all appeared first on Source New Mexico. For some rural communities, a stripped-down hospital is better than none at all Martin County General Hospital in Williamston, N.C., sits abandoned in April 2024 after being closed in August 2023. Hospital leaders are consulting with state and federal officials about the possibility of reopening it as a rural emergency hospital. It would be the first hospital in the country to shut down and then reopen under the rural emergency hospital designation. (Karl B DeBlaker | The Associated Press) On many days, some small hospitals in rural Mississippi admit just one patient or none at all. The hospitals are drowning in debt. The small, tight-knit communities theyve anchored for decades can do little but watch as the hospitals shed services and staff just to stay afloat. The federal government recently offered a lifeline: a new Medicare program designed to save dying rural hospitals that will pay them millions to stop offering inpatient services and instead focus on emergency care. More than two dozen hospitals across the country, including five in Mississippi, have taken the offer. Community reaction has been mixed, said Chad Netterville, director of the Mississippi Hospital Associations Rural Health Alliance. Some of the community feedback is, Youre giving up. Youre not a hospital any longer, said Netterville, himself a former administrator at a small rural hospital in south Mississippi. In reality, the local hospital is giving up a service thats no longer viable anyway. Under the new federal program, rural hospitals with fewer than 50 beds can become a rural emergency hospital to unlock additional government funding about $3.3 million extra per year plus a 5% increase in Medicare reimbursements. But theres a catch: Participating hospitals must stop all inpatient services. No labor and delivery, no inpatient surgeries, no inpatient psychiatric units. Instead, they must become 24-hour emergency departments that offer some outpatient services but, on average, keep patients for 24 hours or less. They can only stabilize patients who need more acute care and transfer them out of the community to larger hospitals. Its not a panacea for rural health, said George Pink, deputy director of the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Its targeted at a small subgroup of rural hospitals, those that have typically been losing money for a long period of time and are at risk of closing. Nearly one-third of rural hospitals around the country are at risk of closing, according to a new report from the Center for Healthcare Quality & Payment Reform, a national health policy research group. Research suggests rural hospital closures increase community death rates, harm local economies and force patients to travel farther for care. In 2020, Congress established the Rural Emergency Hospital program, which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services put into effect in January 2023. The goal is to preserve emergency care and at least some health services in communities that can no longer support a full-fledged hospital. More than 150 rural hospitals have closed or converted to other types of facilities in the past 15 years, primarily due to financial distress. That distress has many causes. Rural communities have shrinking populations, leading to fewer patients filling hospital beds. Rural residents tend to be older and sicker than people in cities, requiring more expensive care. They are also more likely to be uninsured or underinsured, forcing hospitals to pick up the tab. And reimbursement rates by public and private insurers havent kept pace with the cost of care. In the past two years, at least 17 states have amended or enacted laws to allow hospitals to scale back their services under the new program. Other states, such as Mississippi, have existing state regulations they can modify to allow their hospitals to qualify. Since January 2023, 27 hospitals have joined the program, out of 1,700 that researchers estimate are eligible, according to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Pink and other experts say its too soon to know how well the program will work. Some community hospitals are embracing the new model. Meanwhile, some for-profit health care companies are testing whether a rural emergency hospital could be profitable. In the middle of it all, rural communities are waiting to see what this better-than-nothing approach to health care will mean for them. Community pushback Mississippi is currently home to the most rural emergency hospitals in the nation, with five. Its also home to a hospital management company, Progressive Health Group, that is focused on converting struggling rural hospitals to the new model. Progressive Healths CEO, Mississippi attorney Quentin Whitwell, said conversion might make sense for many hospitals even some that arent at deaths door. His company has converted a handful of hospitals in Mississippi, Arkansas and Georgia, with more in the works. We analyze hospitals that are either brought to us or that we identify, to see if we believe we can recruit the necessary providers, provide the necessary services, and be a benefit to the community, Whitwell said. Rather than trying to keep rural hospitals with empty beds and few patients open, he said, the new federal designation can provide the funding needed for a successful, leaner facility focused on select essential outpatient services, such as emergency care. We have contracts, letters of intent and expressions of interest in place, and are looking at hospitals from the West Coast to the East Coast, he said. We dont necessarily have a target number of hospitals; we just want to be effective where we are. But hospitals looking to make the switch can face pushback from their communities and from physicians. An obstetrician in rural Alabama recently warned the states health department that conversions could undermine maternal care by removing even more labor and delivery services from rural communities. When asked about that possibility, Netterville, of the Mississippi Hospital Association, said many of Mississippis small rural hospitals gave up their labor and delivery services long ago. In some rural communities, converting a hospital wont result in a meaningful loss of services, said Brock Slabach, chief operations officer with the National Rural Health Association. Most of the rural hospitals that might consider converting have few patients using those services in the first place, he said. Of the rural emergency hospitals listed in federal hospital enrollment data, nine are owned by private health care systems, while a few more are owned by hospital management companies such as Progressive Health. It could make financial sense for larger health systems to convert smaller, less-profitable rural hospitals to rural emergency hospitals, said Pink. They would in turn funnel sicker patients from their outlying communities to the systems larger flagship hospitals. But, he said, It would be a source of concern if systems are converting to this new model for the sole purpose of saving the system money, because Im not sure that would be serving the care and access concerns of the rural community. Changes ahead What do I have to give up? is usually one of the first questions that rural hospital leaders have about the conversion program, Netterville said. One of their biggest concerns is that converting means a hospital cant participate in some federal programs already designed to offset their costs. The 340B Drug Pricing Program, for example, allows them to purchase outpatient drugs at discount prices, while the Medicare swing bed program gives small, rural hospitals more flexibility in providing and billing for different types of care. Neither is available to rural emergency hospitals. The National Rural Health Association supports some changes to the federal program, including allowing participating hospitals to be part of the 340B and swing bed programs. But operators such as Whitwell also have been working on changes at the state level. Whitwell said his organization advocated for a bill in Mississippi that would have allowed rural emergency hospitals to license inpatient geriatric psychiatry beds on their campuses, creating another source of revenue. The bill died in committee this year, but Whitwell hopes a similar one will be filed in the next legislative session. If a rural emergency hospital cant have a geriatric psychiatry unit under federal law, but a state authorizes the hospitals owners to separately license a unit, that would be essentially a workaround, he said. Stops and starts Last May, Alliance Health Care System in Holly Springs, Mississippi, became the first hospital in the state to convert to a rural emergency hospital. Whitwell is the hospitals chief operating officer and legal counsel. Less than a year later, the federal Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services rescinded its new status, saying the hospital is too close to Memphis, Tennessee, to meet its definition of rural. Its a not just a different kind of hospital. Its a whole new way of doing things. George Pink, deputy director of the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Hospital leadership had just laid off staff and shuttered its inpatient services to complete its transition to a rural emergency hospital. Now the North Mississippi community of fewer than 7,000 is without an emergency department. Leaders assumed the hospital would be allowed to quickly return to an acute care facility, Whitwell said. But they have forced us to relicense completely. Therefore, the hospital is essentially open without the ability to bill and collect for services. While changes are proposed at the state and federal levels, Pink said its still too soon to know how rural emergency hospitals will affect local communities. Its a not just a different kind of hospital, he said. Its a whole new way of doing things. 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 For some rural communities, a stripped-down hospital is better than none at all appeared first on West Virginia Watch. ISLAMABAD, June 7 (Xinhua) -- An officer of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) was killed in a firing incident in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, police said on Thursday. The incident occurred when unknown terrorists sprayed bullets at the vehicle of the CTD officer when he was on his way to perform duty in the Nawab Kally area of Lakki Marwat district of the province, according to the district police. The attackers fled the scene on a motorbike after the attack, said the police, adding that it was a targeted attack on the CTD personnel, and an investigation has been launched into the matter. Following the incident, security forces rushed to the site and cordoned off the area, kicking off the hunt for the culprits in the surrounding areas. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. For some rural communities, a stripped-down hospital is better than none at all (Photo by Susan J. Demas) On many days, some small hospitals in rural Mississippi admit just one patient or none at all. The hospitals are drowning in debt. The small, tight-knit communities theyve anchored for decades can do little but watch as the hospitals shed services and staff just to stay afloat. The federal government recently offered a lifeline: a new Medicare program designed to save dying rural hospitals that will pay them millions to stop offering inpatient services and instead focus on emergency care. More than two dozen hospitals across the country, including five in Mississippi, have taken the offer. Community reaction has been mixed, said Chad Netterville, director of the Mississippi Hospital Associations Rural Health Alliance. Some of the community feedback is, Youre giving up. Youre not a hospital any longer, said Netterville, himself a former administrator at a small rural hospital in south Mississippi. In reality, the local hospital is giving up a service thats no longer viable anyway. Under the new federal program, rural hospitals with fewer than 50 beds can become a rural emergency hospital to unlock additional government funding about $3.3 million extra per year plus a 5% increase in Medicare reimbursements. But theres a catch: Participating hospitals must stop all inpatient services. No labor and delivery, no inpatient surgeries, no inpatient psychiatric units. Instead, they must become 24-hour emergency departments that offer some outpatient services but, on average, keep patients for 24 hours or less. They can only stabilize patients who need more acute care and transfer them out of the community to larger hospitals. Its not a panacea for rural health, said George Pink, deputy director of the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Its targeted at a small subgroup of rural hospitals, those that have typically been losing money for a long period of time and are at risk of closing. Nearly one-third of rural hospitals around the country are at risk of closing, according to a new report from the Center for Healthcare Quality & Payment Reform, a national health policy research group. Research suggests rural hospital closures increase community death rates, harm local economies and force patients to travel farther for care. In 2020, Congress established the Rural Emergency Hospital program, which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services put into effect in January 2023. The goal is to preserve emergency care and at least some health services in communities that can no longer support a full-fledged hospital. More than 150 rural hospitals have closed or converted to other types of facilities in the past 15 years, primarily due to financial distress. That distress has many causes. Rural communities have shrinking populations, leading to fewer patients filling hospital beds. Rural residents tend to be older and sicker than people in cities, requiring more expensive care. They are also more likely to be uninsured or underinsured, forcing hospitals to pick up the tab. And reimbursement rates by public and private insurers havent kept pace with the cost of care. In the past two years, at least 17 states have amended or enacted laws to allow hospitals to scale back their services under the new program. Other states, such as Mississippi, have existing state regulations they can modify to allow their hospitals to qualify. Since January 2023, 27 hospitals have joined the program, out of 1,700 that researchers estimate are eligible, according to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Pink and other experts say its too soon to know how well the program will work. Some community hospitals are embracing the new model. Meanwhile, some for-profit health care companies are testing whether a rural emergency hospital could be profitable. In the middle of it all, rural communities are waiting to see what this better-than-nothing approach to health care will mean for them. Community pushback Mississippi is currently home to the most rural emergency hospitals in the nation, with five. Its also home to a hospital management company, Progressive Health Group, that is focused on converting struggling rural hospitals to the new model. Progressive Healths CEO, Mississippi attorney Quentin Whitwell, said conversion might make sense for many hospitals even some that arent at deaths door. His company has converted a handful of hospitals in Mississippi, Arkansas and Georgia, with more in the works. We analyze hospitals that are either brought to us or that we identify, to see if we believe we can recruit the necessary providers, provide the necessary services, and be a benefit to the community, Whitwell said. Rather than trying to keep rural hospitals with empty beds and few patients open, he said, the new federal designation can provide the funding needed for a successful, leaner facility focused on select essential outpatient services, such as emergency care. We have contracts, letters of intent and expressions of interest in place, and are looking at hospitals from the West Coast to the East Coast, he said. We dont necessarily have a target number of hospitals; we just want to be effective where we are. But hospitals looking to make the switch can face pushback from their communities and from physicians. An obstetrician in rural Alabama recently warned the states health department that conversions could undermine maternal care by removing even more labor and delivery services from rural communities. When asked about that possibility, Netterville, of the Mississippi Hospital Association, said many of Mississippis small rural hospitals gave up their labor and delivery services long ago. In some rural communities, converting a hospital wont result in a meaningful loss of services, said Brock Slabach, chief operations officer with the National Rural Health Association. Most of the rural hospitals that might consider converting have few patients using those services in the first place, he said. Of the rural emergency hospitals listed in federal hospital enrollment data, nine are owned by private health care systems, while a few more are owned by hospital management companies such as Progressive Health. It could make financial sense for larger health systems to convert smaller, less-profitable rural hospitals to rural emergency hospitals, said Pink. They would in turn funnel sicker patients from their outlying communities to the systems larger flagship hospitals. But, he said, It would be a source of concern if systems are converting to this new model for the sole purpose of saving the system money, because Im not sure that would be serving the care and access concerns of the rural community. Changes ahead What do I have to give up? is usually one of the first questions that rural hospital leaders have about the conversion program, Netterville said. One of their biggest concerns is that converting means a hospital cant participate in some federal programs already designed to offset their costs. The 340B Drug Pricing Program, for example, allows them to purchase outpatient drugs at discount prices, while the Medicare swing bed program gives small, rural hospitals more flexibility in providing and billing for different types of care. Neither is available to rural emergency hospitals. The National Rural Health Association supports some changes to the federal program, including allowing participating hospitals to be part of the 340B and swing bed programs. But operators such as Whitwell also have been working on changes at the state level. Whitwell said his organization advocated for a bill in Mississippi that would have allowed rural emergency hospitals to license inpatient geriatric psychiatry beds on their campuses, creating another source of revenue. The bill died in committee this year, but Whitwell hopes a similar one will be filed in the next legislative session. If a rural emergency hospital cant have a geriatric psychiatry unit under federal law, but a state authorizes the hospitals owners to separately license a unit, that would be essentially a workaround, he said. Stops and starts Last May, Alliance Health Care System in Holly Springs, Mississippi, became the first hospital in the state to convert to a rural emergency hospital. Whitwell is the hospitals chief operating officer and legal counsel. Less than a year later, the federal Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services rescinded its new status, saying the hospital is too close to Memphis, Tennessee, to meet its definition of rural. Its a not just a different kind of hospital. Its a whole new way of doing things. George Pink, deputy director of the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Hospital leadership had just laid off staff and shuttered its inpatient services to complete its transition to a rural emergency hospital. Now the North Mississippi community of fewer than 7,000 is without an emergency department. Leaders assumed the hospital would be allowed to quickly return to an acute care facility, Whitwell said. But they have forced us to relicense completely. Therefore, the hospital is essentially open without the ability to bill and collect for services. While changes are proposed at the state and federal levels, Pink said its still too soon to know how rural emergency hospitals will affect local communities. Its a not just a different kind of hospital, he said. Its a whole new way of doing things. 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 For some rural communities, a stripped-down hospital is better than none at all appeared first on South Dakota Searchlight. For some rural communities, a stripped-down hospital is better than none at all Martin County General Hospital in Williamston, N.C., sits abandoned in April 2024 after being closed in August 2023. Hospital leaders are consulting with state and federal officials about the possibility of reopening it as a rural emergency hospital. It would be the first hospital in the country to shut down and then reopen under the rural emergency hospital designation. Karl B DeBlaker/The Associated Press On many days, some small hospitals in rural Mississippi admit just one patient or none at all. The hospitals are drowning in debt. The small, tight-knit communities theyve anchored for decades can do little but watch as the hospitals shed services and staff just to stay afloat. The federal government recently offered a lifeline: a new Medicare program designed to save dying rural hospitals that will pay them millions to stop offering inpatient services and instead focus on emergency care. More than two dozen hospitals across the country, including five in Mississippi, have taken the offer. Community reaction has been mixed, said Chad Netterville, director of the Mississippi Hospital Associations Rural Health Alliance. Some of the community feedback is, Youre giving up. Youre not a hospital any longer, said Netterville, himself a former administrator at a small rural hospital in south Mississippi. In reality, the local hospital is giving up a service thats no longer viable anyway. Under the new federal program, rural hospitals with fewer than 50 beds can become a rural emergency hospital to unlock additional government funding about $3.3 million extra per year plus a 5% increase in Medicare reimbursements. But theres a catch: Participating hospitals must stop all inpatient services. No labor and delivery, no inpatient surgeries, no inpatient psychiatric units. Instead, they must become 24-hour emergency departments that offer some outpatient services but, on average, keep patients for 24 hours or less. They can only stabilize patients who need more acute care and transfer them out of the community to larger hospitals. Its not a panacea for rural health, said George Pink, deputy director of the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Its targeted at a small subgroup of rural hospitals, those that have typically been losing money for a long period of time and are at risk of closing. Nearly one-third of rural hospitals around the country are at risk of closing, according to a new report from the Center for Healthcare Quality & Payment Reform, a national health policy research group. Research suggests rural hospital closures increase community death rates, harm local economies and force patients to travel farther for care. In 2020, Congress established the Rural Emergency Hospital program, which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services put into effect in January 2023. The goal is to preserve emergency care and at least some health services in communities that can no longer support a full-fledged hospital. More than 150 rural hospitals have closed or converted to other types of facilities in the past 15 years, primarily due to financial distress. That distress has many causes. Rural communities have shrinking populations, leading to fewer patients filling hospital beds. Rural residents tend to be older and sicker than people in cities, requiring more expensive care. They are also more likely to be uninsured or underinsured, forcing hospitals to pick up the tab. And reimbursement rates by public and private insurers havent kept pace with the cost of care. In the past two years, at least 17 states have amended or enacted laws to allow hospitals to scale back their services under the new program. Other states, such as Mississippi, have existing state regulations they can modify to allow their hospitals to qualify. Since January 2023, 27 hospitals have joined the program, out of 1,700 that researchers estimate are eligible, according to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Pink and other experts say its too soon to know how well the program will work. Some community hospitals are embracing the new model. Meanwhile, some for-profit health care companies are testing whether a rural emergency hospital could be profitable. In the middle of it all, rural communities are waiting to see what this better-than-nothing approach to health care will mean for them. Community pushback Mississippi is currently home to the most rural emergency hospitals in the nation, with five. Its also home to a hospital management company, Progressive Health Group, that is focused on converting struggling rural hospitals to the new model. Progressive Healths CEO, Mississippi attorney Quentin Whitwell, said conversion might make sense for many hospitals even some that arent at deaths door. His company has converted a handful of hospitals in Mississippi, Arkansas and Georgia, with more in the works. We analyze hospitals that are either brought to us or that we identify, to see if we believe we can recruit the necessary providers, provide the necessary services, and be a benefit to the community, Whitwell said. Rather than trying to keep rural hospitals with empty beds and few patients open, he said, the new federal designation can provide the funding needed for a successful, leaner facility focused on select essential outpatient services, such as emergency care. We have contracts, letters of intent and expressions of interest in place, and are looking at hospitals from the West Coast to the East Coast, he said. We dont necessarily have a target number of hospitals; we just want to be effective where we are. But hospitals looking to make the switch can face pushback from their communities and from physicians. An obstetrician in rural Alabama recently warned the states health department that conversions could undermine maternal care by removing even more labor and delivery services from rural communities. When asked about that possibility, Netterville, of the Mississippi Hospital Association, said many of Mississippis small rural hospitals gave up their labor and delivery services long ago. In some rural communities, converting a hospital wont result in a meaningful loss of services, said Brock Slabach, chief operations officer with the National Rural Health Association. Most of the rural hospitals that might consider converting have few patients using those services in the first place, he said. Of the rural emergency hospitals listed in federal hospital enrollment data, nine are owned by private health care systems, while a few more are owned by hospital management companies such as Progressive Health. It could make financial sense for larger health systems to convert smaller, less-profitable rural hospitals to rural emergency hospitals, said Pink. They would in turn funnel sicker patients from their outlying communities to the systems larger flagship hospitals. But, he said, It would be a source of concern if systems are converting to this new model for the sole purpose of saving the system money, because Im not sure that would be serving the care and access concerns of the rural community. Changes ahead What do I have to give up? is usually one of the first questions that rural hospital leaders have about the conversion program, Netterville said. One of their biggest concerns is that converting means a hospital cant participate in some federal programs already designed to offset their costs. The 340B Drug Pricing Program, for example, allows them to purchase outpatient drugs at discount prices, while the Medicare swing bed program gives small, rural hospitals more flexibility in providing and billing for different types of care. Neither is available to rural emergency hospitals. The National Rural Health Association supports some changes to the federal program, including allowing participating hospitals to be part of the 340B and swing bed programs. But operators such as Whitwell also have been working on changes at the state level. Whitwell said his organization advocated for a bill in Mississippi that would have allowed rural emergency hospitals to license inpatient geriatric psychiatry beds on their campuses, creating another source of revenue. The bill died in committee this year, but Whitwell hopes a similar one will be filed in the next legislative session. If a rural emergency hospital cant have a geriatric psychiatry unit under federal law, but a state authorizes the hospitals owners to separately license a unit, that would be essentially a workaround, he said. Stops and starts Last May, Alliance Health Care System in Holly Springs, Mississippi, became the first hospital in the state to convert to a rural emergency hospital. Whitwell is the hospitals chief operating officer and legal counsel. Less than a year later, the federal Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services rescinded its new status, saying the hospital is too close to Memphis, Tennessee, to meet its definition of rural. Hospital leadership had just laid off staff and shuttered its inpatient services to complete its transition to a rural emergency hospital. Now the North Mississippi community of fewer than 7,000 is without an emergency department. Leaders assumed the hospital would be allowed to quickly return to an acute care facility, Whitwell said. But they have forced us to relicense completely. Therefore, the hospital is essentially open without the ability to bill and collect for services. While changes are proposed at the state and federal levels, Pink said its still too soon to know how rural emergency hospitals will affect local communities. Its a not just a different kind of hospital, he said. Its a whole new way of doing things. 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 For some rural communities, a stripped-down hospital is better than none at all appeared first on North Dakota Monitor. For some rural communities, a stripped-down hospital is better than none at all The need for healthcare workers is not expected to lag, analysts say. Shown here is a nurse in the emergency room at MedStar St. Marys Hospital in Leonardtown, Maryland. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) By Anna Claire Vollers and Stateline On many days, some small hospitals in rural Mississippi admit just one patient or none at all. The hospitals are drowning in debt. The small, tight-knit communities theyve anchored for decades can do little but watch as the hospitals shed services and staff just to stay afloat. The federal government recently offered a lifeline: a new Medicare program designed to save dying rural hospitals that will pay them millions to stop offering inpatient services and instead focus on emergency care. More than two dozen hospitals across the country, including five in Mississippi, have taken the offer. Community reaction has been mixed, said Chad Netterville, director of the Mississippi Hospital Associations Rural Health Alliance. Some of the community feedback is, Youre giving up. Youre not a hospital any longer, said Netterville, himself a former administrator at a small rural hospital in south Mississippi. In reality, the local hospital is giving up a service thats no longer viable anyway. Under the new federal program, rural hospitals with fewer than 50 beds can become a rural emergency hospital to unlock additional government funding about $3.3 million extra per year plus a 5% increase in Medicare reimbursements. But theres a catch: Participating hospitals must stop all inpatient services. No labor and delivery, no inpatient surgeries, no inpatient psychiatric units. Instead, they must become 24-hour emergency departments that offer some outpatient services but, on average, keep patients for 24 hours or less. They can only stabilize patients who need more acute care and transfer them out of the community to larger hospitals. Its not a panacea for rural health, said George Pink, deputy director of the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Its targeted at a small subgroup of rural hospitals, those that have typically been losing money for a long period of time and are at risk of closing. Nearly one-third of rural hospitals around the country are at risk of closing, according to a new report from the Center for Healthcare Quality & Payment Reform, a national health policy research group. Research suggests rural hospital closures increase community death rates, harm local economies and force patients to travel farther for care. In 2020, Congress established the Rural Emergency Hospital program, which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services put into effect in January 2023. The goal is to preserve emergency care and at least some health services in communities that can no longer support a full-fledged hospital. More than 150 rural hospitals have closed or converted to other types of facilities in the past 15 years, primarily due to financial distress. That distress has many causes. Rural communities have shrinking populations, leading to fewer patients filling hospital beds. Rural residents tend to be older and sicker than people in cities, requiring more expensive care. They are also more likely to be uninsured or underinsured, forcing hospitals to pick up the tab. And reimbursement rates by public and private insurers havent kept pace with the cost of care. In the past two years, at least 17 states have amended or enacted laws to allow hospitals to scale back their services under the new program. Other states, such as Mississippi, have existing state regulations they can modify to allow their hospitals to qualify. Since January 2023, 27 hospitals have joined the program, out of 1,700 that researchers estimate are eligible, according to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Pink and other experts say its too soon to know how well the program will work. Some community hospitals are embracing the new model. Meanwhile, some for-profit health care companies are testing whether a rural emergency hospital could be profitable. In the middle of it all, rural communities are waiting to see what this better-than-nothing approach to health care will mean for them. Community pushback Mississippi is currently home to the most rural emergency hospitals in the nation, with five. Its also home to a hospital management company, Progressive Health Group, that is focused on converting struggling rural hospitals to the new model. Progressive Healths CEO, Mississippi attorney Quentin Whitwell, said conversion might make sense for many hospitals even some that arent at deaths door. His company has converted a handful of hospitals in Mississippi, Arkansas and Georgia, with more in the works. We analyze hospitals that are either brought to us or that we identify, to see if we believe we can recruit the necessary providers, provide the necessary services, and be a benefit to the community, Whitwell said. Rather than trying to keep rural hospitals with empty beds and few patients open, he said, the new federal designation can provide the funding needed for a successful, leaner facility focused on select essential outpatient services, such as emergency care. We have contracts, letters of intent and expressions of interest in place, and are looking at hospitals from the West Coast to the East Coast, he said. We dont necessarily have a target number of hospitals; we just want to be effective where we are. But hospitals looking to make the switch can face pushback from their communities and from physicians. An obstetrician in rural Alabama recently warned the states health department that conversions could undermine maternal care by removing even more labor and delivery services from rural communities. When asked about that possibility, Netterville, of the Mississippi Hospital Association, said many of Mississippis small rural hospitals gave up their labor and delivery services long ago. In some rural communities, converting a hospital wont result in a meaningful loss of services, said Brock Slabach, chief operations officer with the National Rural Health Association. Most of the rural hospitals that might consider converting have few patients using those services in the first place, he said. Of the rural emergency hospitals listed in federal hospital enrollment data, nine are owned by private health care systems, while a few more are owned by hospital management companies such as Progressive Health. It could make financial sense for larger health systems to convert smaller, less-profitable rural hospitals to rural emergency hospitals, said Pink. They would in turn funnel sicker patients from their outlying communities to the systems larger flagship hospitals. But, he said, It would be a source of concern if systems are converting to this new model for the sole purpose of saving the system money, because Im not sure that would be serving the care and access concerns of the rural community. Changes ahead What do I have to give up? is usually one of the first questions that rural hospital leaders have about the conversion program, Netterville said. One of their biggest concerns is that converting means a hospital cant participate in some federal programs already designed to offset their costs. The 340B Drug Pricing Program, for example, allows them to purchase outpatient drugs at discount prices, while the Medicare swing bed program gives small, rural hospitals more flexibility in providing and billing for different types of care. Neither is available to rural emergency hospitals. The National Rural Health Association supports some changes to the federal program, including allowing participating hospitals to be part of the 340B and swing bed programs. But operators such as Whitwell also have been working on changes at the state level. Whitwell said his organization advocated for a bill in Mississippi that would have allowed rural emergency hospitals to license inpatient geriatric psychiatry beds on their campuses, creating another source of revenue. The bill died in committee this year, but Whitwell hopes a similar one will be filed in the next legislative session. If a rural emergency hospital cant have a geriatric psychiatry unit under federal law, but a state authorizes the hospitals owners to separately license a unit, that would be essentially a workaround, he said. Stops and starts Last May, Alliance Health Care System in Holly Springs, Mississippi, became the first hospital in the state to convert to a rural emergency hospital. Whitwell is the hospitals chief operating officer and legal counsel. Less than a year later, the federal Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services rescinded its new status, saying the hospital is too close to Memphis, Tennessee, to meet its definition of rural. Its a not just a different kind of hospital. Its a whole new way of doing things. George Pink, deputy director of the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Hospital leadership had just laid off staff and shuttered its inpatient services to complete its transition to a rural emergency hospital. Now the North Mississippi community of fewer than 7,000 is without an emergency department. Leaders assumed the hospital would be allowed to quickly return to an acute care facility, Whitwell said. But they have forced us to relicense completely. Therefore, the hospital is essentially open without the ability to bill and collect for services. While changes are proposed at the state and federal levels, Pink said its still too soon to know how rural emergency hospitals will affect local communities. Its a not just a different kind of hospital, he said. Its a whole new way of doing things. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE 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 For some rural communities, a stripped-down hospital is better than none at all appeared first on Alabama Reflector. Russell Ray is running for Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner. (Provided photo) Editors note: This is the final of three profiles on the candidates seeking the Republican nomination for Oklahoma Corporation commissioner. OKLAHOMA CITY Russell Ray is running for Corporation Commission because he said voters in Oklahoma deserve an honest choice and more diversity on the powerful governing board. Right now we have a commission with two politicians, and we have another career politician running for office, said Ray, who is director of communications and marketing for the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education. I think we need a more practical skill set on the commission. The Edmond resident said his two decades of experience as an energy reporter make him qualified. Hes worked as an editor at The Journal Record and Power Engineering Magazine and as an energy reporter at the Tulsa World. He has also been chairman of POWER-GEN International, which hosts a conference and exhibition for the power and energy sector. Ive got 20 plus years of experience analyzing, investigating and evaluating energy markets, pricing, policy and trends, Ray said. Ray is one of three Republican candidates running for commissioner. Ray and his opponents, Brian Bingman and Justin Hornback, will face off for the Republican nomination during the June 18 primary election. Elections for the post have normally attracted little attention despite the fact that the three-person commission regulates various industries, from the states public utilities to its towing industry. The commission, though, has faced scrutiny over its handling of debt securitization following Winter Storm Uri that saw a nearly 40,000% spike in natural gas prices. The event generated more than $4.5 billion in additional energy costs over a matter of days. The Corporation Commission later allowed some of the states largest public utilities to securitize the debt by adding a monthly surcharge to consumers bills that will last for decades. Recent rate increase requests from two of the states public utilities OG&E and PSO have also generated public scrutiny and frustration. Ray said the utilities should have been more prepared for Winter Storm Uri. That was a very extraordinary event that led to extraordinary costs, he said. It raises the question in this state about what the incentive is for utilities. I dont think the commission has been providing them much of an incentive to keep their fuel costs as low as possible. If elected, Ray said transparency would be his priority, something he believes is under attack at the Corporation Commission. We had two of the three commissioners back legislation this session that would have allowed them to meet behind closed doors to discuss private business, Ray said. It would squeeze the sunshine out of state sunshine laws. Corporation Commissioner Bob Anthony, who is terming out after 36 years in office, has endorsed Ray. Hes extremely qualified and knows how to read and write, Anthony said. Ive known him for many years, starting 25 years ago when he was a reporter covering the Corporation Commission. Ray said one week after he filed to run he had a heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery. While he said hes not back to 100%, he will be soon. Ray wants to bring greater transparency to the Corporation Commission. Hes calling on the Commission and state to disclose as much information as possible to consumers about the winter weather events costs. It is imperative now more than ever, that the Commission strikes the right balance between business interests and consumer interests. And right now, I dont think it is, Ray said. When it comes to rate increase requests, Ray said its a numbers game and thinks he can do a better job of balancing business concerns and whats fair to consumers. Right now the vote is going the way of big corporations every time because I think the career politicians on the commission are playing politics with electric bills and siding with the big corporate interests instead of the consumer, Ray said. Ray said because he filed to run last minute, his campaign has not had to report campaign contributions and expenditures yet. That deadline is June 10. Its not clear yet who is funding his campaign. Ray said he will not accept any donations from political action committees or companies that he would regulate. He plans to only raise a few thousand dollars to cover the cost of filing and printing some campaign materials. That is something Ray said sets him apart from one of his opponents. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE The post Russell Ray aims to bring transparency and more diversity to Oklahoma Corporation Commission appeared first on Oklahoma Voice. Russian troops attacked a car with a drone in the village of Kozacha Lopan in Kharkiv Oblast on June 7, injuring two women, the Kharkiv Oblast Prosecutors Office reported. Kozacha Lopan, with a pre-war population of around 5,000 people, is located nearly 40 kilometers north of the regional capital, Kharkiv. A 62-year-old driver and a 65-year-old passenger suffered injuries and are receiving medical care, the prosecutors said. Russian forces launched new offensive operations in the north of Kharkiv Oblast on May 10, exposing Kharkiv and a number of border settlements in the region to heavy attacks. During the full-scale war, Russian troops have repeatedly attacked civilian vehicles, including when people tried to evacuate from front-line settlements. Read also: With all eyes on Kharkiv, Russian troops take one Donbas village after another Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Russia and China have signaled reluctance toward the U.S.-backed United Nations resolution on the Gaza Strip cease-fire plan that President Biden unveiled last week. Russia has suggested amendments to the U.S. version, urging both Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas to accept an unconditional and permanent cease-fire that would be adhered to by all sides, according to Reuters. Russia reportedly demanded that the draft of the resolution emphasize that the cease-fire, outlined in phase one, would stay even with negotiations being carried out for phase two, Reuters reported. Alegria was also not yet on board, according to Reuters, citing diplomats. The resolution required nine votes. Russia and China have veto power as permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. Biden detailed the three-part road map toward a cease-fire in Gaza last Friday. It was an Israeli-led proposal that was delivered to Hamas for review. The U.S. sent around a one-page draft resolution to all of the Security Councils members, according to Reuters. In it, they characterized the cease-fire proposal as acceptable to Israel and have called on Hamas to accept it, Reuters reported. Some members of the council questioned if Israel has greenlighted the plan, according to Reuters. Instead, they want the body to back the cease-fire resolution passed in late March. The proposal shared by Biden from the White House included a six-week cease-fire. Then, it calls for a withdrawal of Israels forces from Gazas populated areas and the release of remaining hostages taken from the Jewish state on Oct. 7 when Hamass attack on the country left 1,200 Israelis dead. It also has a pathway for Palestinian civilians to return to their homes and for reconstruction efforts of the enclave. Over the course of the war, now in its eighth month, Israel has killed more than 36,000 people, according to Gaza health officials. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Israeli armoured personnel carriers (APC) operate, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, near Israel's border with Gaza in southern Israel By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia and China, which hold veto powers in the U.N. Security Council, raised concerns on Thursday with a U.S. draft resolution that would back a proposal - outlined by President Joe Biden - for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas. The council's only Arab member, Algeria, also signaled it was not ready to back the text, diplomats said. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the U.S., France, Britain, China or Russia to pass. Biden laid out a three-phase ceasefire plan for the Gaza Strip a week ago that he described as an Israeli initiative. The U.S. is seeking international support for the plan that Hamas is still studying. It circulated a one-page draft resolution to the 15-member U.N Security Council on Monday and a revised version on Wednesday, both seen by Reuters. The current draft welcomes the ceasefire proposal, describes it as "acceptable" to Israel, "calls upon Hamas to also accept it, and urges both parties to fully implement its terms without delay and without condition." It lists some details of the proposal - with "a full and complete ceasefire" in the Gaza Strip as part of phase one and "upon agreement of the parties, a permanent end to hostilities" in phase two. But some council members have raised questions about whether Israel has actually accepted the plan and want the council to stick to a demand made in March for an immediate ceasefire and unconditional release of all hostages, diplomats said. Russia proposed amendments to the U.S. text, which were seen by Reuters, that included calling upon both Hamas and Israel to accept the proposal and demanding an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire respected by all parties. Moscow also wants the draft to stress that the phase one ceasefire will remain in place as long as negotiations continue on phase two, reflecting remarks made by Biden last week. For months, negotiators from the U.S., Egypt and Qatar have been trying to mediate a ceasefire. Hamas says it wants a permanent end to the war in the Gaza Strip and Israeli withdrawal from the enclave of 2.3 million people. Israel is retaliating against Hamas, which rules Gaza, over an Oct. 7 attack by its militants. More than 1,200 people were killed and over 250 taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, according to Israeli tallies. More than 100 hostages are believed to remain captive in Gaza. Israel launched an air, ground and sea assault on the blockaded Palestinian territory, killing more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) An oil depot was hit in a strike against Russian-occupied Luhansk on June 7, and a fire broke out in the southern part of the city, Atesh partisans reported. "An Atesh agent reports a succesful hit at an oil depot and a large fire in the Hostra Mohyla area," the partisans said. Russian occupation authorities claimed that Ukrainian forces likely launched six U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles against the city, "most of which were downed," according to the Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti. Russia alleged that residential areas were hit and 20 people were injured. The Kyiv Independent could not verify the claims. The Ukrainian military has not commented on the purported attack. Explosions were heard in the occupied city at about 11 a.m. Local Telegram channels shared unverified pictures and videos capturing damaged civilian buildings. An entrance of a high-rise building reportedly collapsed, the state-owned news agency TASS claims. The reports did not specify whether the damage to the civilian infrastructure was caused by direct hits or fallen debris of downed missiles. 0:00 / 1 Russia has occupied Luhansk and a significant part of the region since the start of its war in 2014. Several attacks against the city have been reported in recent weeks, allegedly targeting energy infrastructure or military targets. Read also: Gas pipeline damaged in missile attack on occupied Luhansk Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed on Thursday that a French national has been detained in Moscow, but denied that the man was working for the French government. In no way was he working for France. Now we are very vigilant, he will receive all the consular protections that apply in such a case. I want to say the truth in the face of the brainwashing that we hear, Macron said. Russias Investigative Committee said earlier on Thursday that a French citizen, employed by the non-profit Swiss Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, was detained on suspicion of collecting information in the field of military activities of the Russian Federation. Video released by the Investigative Committee showed the man being arrested by security personnel at a cafe in Moscow and escorted into a military van. The Investigative Committee alleges the French national had been gathering information on Russias military and military-technical activities for several years and didnt register as a foreign agent. For these purposes, he repeatedly visited the territory of Russia, including the city of Moscow, where he held meetings with citizens of the Russian Federation, the Investigative Committee said. An Investigative Committee official told Russian state news agency TASS that the man worked as a consultant at the non-profit handling Eurasian issues after the February 2014 events in Ukraine, including the mass pro-democracy protests that swept Kyiv and the exit of the pro-Russian, former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich. CNN has reached out to the French Foreign Ministry and the Swiss Center for Humanitarian Dialogue for comment. Relations between both countries became strained when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago. Several Westerners have found themselves detained in the country amid the rising tensions. US-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva was detained last year in the Russian city of Kazan while waiting for a return flight to the Czech Republic, where she was based. She had arrived in Russia in May due to an urgent family matter, according to her employer the US-funded Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), and was accused of refusing to register as a foreign agent. Russia expanded its law on foreign agents in 2022, signaling an intensifying crackdown on free speech and opposition under Putin. Since then, not only individuals or organizations receiving funding from abroad are regarded as foreign agents but also anyone who has received support and (or) is under foreign influence. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested on a work trip in 2023 and charged with espionage accusations he and his employer vehemently deny. He has yet to face trial, and his pre-trial detention was extended until June 30. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison. This story has been updated with additional developments. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com PHNOM PENH, June 7 (Xinhua) -- ASEAN ministers on science, technology, and innovation on Friday stressed the need for concerted action and collaboration to harness the benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI), said a joint statement. The statement was issued after the 20th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Science, Technology, and Innovation, which was held in northwest Cambodia's Siem Reap province. "The meeting recognizes the significant transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a key driver of technological advancement and innovation and ascertains the need for concerted action and collaboration to harness the benefits of AI while proactively addressing its multifaceted social, economic, and ethical implications," the statement said. "The meeting notes that AI is projected to significantly impact the ASEAN economy, potentially resulting in a 10 to 18 percent GDP uplift, valued at approximately 1 trillion U.S. dollars by the year 2030," it added. The meeting noted the establishment of a working group under ASEAN Digital Senior Officials' Meeting on AI governance, aimed at addressing pertinent issues concerning AI governance, including the governance of generative AI, and fostering safe, responsible and ethical use of AI. Also, the meeting welcomed the launch of the ASEAN Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation Tracks on AI for 2024-2025, aimed at expanding regional capacity development initiatives on AI, the statement said. It added that the meeting recognized the potential of leveraging AI technologies to foster inclusive and equitable economic growth, improve access to education, healthcare, and essential services, and mitigate socio-economic disparities within societies. The meeting also underscored the importance of investing in AI infrastructure, encompassing data centers, computing resources, and connectivity, to bolster the advancement and deployment of responsible AI applications and services throughout ASEAN. The meeting encouraged collaborative efforts towards the establishment of regional AI infrastructure initiatives and platforms to facilitate knowledge exchange, data sharing, technology transfer and collaboration among researchers, innovators, and entrepreneurs. The meeting also emphasized the critical need for robust data governance frameworks and mechanisms to safeguard data privacy, security, and integrity, while also fostering data sharing, interoperability, and innovation in AI applications, the statement said. ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Editor's Note: This is a developing story and is being updated. Russian forces launched a missile attack on Ukraine overnight on June 7, primarily targeting the country's western oblasts. Ukraine's Air Force announced an air alert notifying of the threat of missile strikes against Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, and Lviv oblasts, as well as in the capital region in Kyiv Oblast. The Air Force cited the threat of Russian cruise missiles, Tu-95MS bombers, and Shahed-type drones. Multiple explosions were heard in Khmelnytskyi Oblast around 4:15 a.m. local time, Suspilne reported. As a result of the attack, a fire broke out at an industrial facility in Kyiv Oblast, the local military administration reported. Emergency crews are currently on the scene to assess the extent of the damage. Polish and other allied aircraft were scrambled to protect the country's own airspace in response to reports of the Russian missile attacks, the Operational Command of Poland's Armed Forces said on X. Air raid alerts were turned off at 5:00 a.m., and Polish and allied aircraft operations concluded around 7 a.m. local time. No casualties were reported at 7 a.m. According to the Air Force, mobile fire groups downed 48 of 53 Shahed-type drones and all 5 cruise missiles launched by Russia overnight. The missiles and drones were shot down over Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Odesa, Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Khmelnytskyi oblasts. In recent months, Russia has intensified its attacks against Ukraine's critical infrastructure in a renewed assault against the country's energy grid. As a result of the attacks on energy infrastructure, Ukraine began implementing rolling shutdowns on May 15, but they have dramatically increased in recent days. The latest Russian mass-missile attack on May 31 caused further damage to energy infrastructure across the country. Read also: France to transfer Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine, Macron announces Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Russian troops hit two oil depots during a large-scale drone and missile attack on Ukraine overnight on June 7, said Serhii Kuyun, head of A95, a Kyiv-based consulting group. Ukrainian forces reportedly downed 48 of the 53 Shahed-type drones and all five Kh-101 cruise missiles at night, causing a fire at one of the industrial facilities in Kyiv Oblast. No casualties were reported. "Minus two oil depots. Millions of dollars in the air," Kuyun wrote on Facebook, without disclosing where the impacted facilities were located. Ukrainian officials did not comment on this statement. Russia has already attacked 10 oil storage facilities in 2024, according to Kuyun. He said that such attacks would not affect the availability of fuel in Ukraine. Russia intensified its attacks against Ukraine's critical infrastructure in the spring as part of a renewed assault against the country's energy grid, with several power plants being destroyed or disabled. Ukraine began implementing rolling shutdowns in mid-May, but they have dramatically increased in recent days, and one of the latest Russian mass-missile attack on May 31 caused further damage across the country. Read also: Kyiv struggles with rolling blackouts as officials warn of bleak months ahead Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Russia has plunged Europe back in time, turning it into a continent where there are filtration camps, deportations, and hatred, where "cities are destroyed and villages are burned," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on June 7 in an address to the French parliament. This is "Russias new cult," Zelensky said. "It is the opposite of liberty, the opposite of equality, the opposite of fraternity, and the opposite of Europe. Anti-Europe, that is what (Vladimir) Putin represents." "We live in a time when Europe again ceased to be the continent of peace," Zelensky said. Zelensky arrived in France on June 6 for the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, together with U.S President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. "I am confident that the day will come when Ukraine will be able to see in its skies the same aircraft that we saw yesterday in the skies of Normandy," Zelensky told the French parliament. "Your combat aircraft, your brilliant fighter jets in the hands of Ukrainian pilots will prove that Europe is stronger than the evil that dared to threaten it," Zelensky said, referring to French President Emmanuel Macron's announcement on June 6 that France would deliver Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine. Beyond Europe, Russia "has already been destroying Syria and sowing chaos in the Sahel," Zelensky added. Russia "invests in terror and undermines life wherever it can reach. Wherever it meets no resistance." "It has brought back to the 21st century the entire arsenal of the past from a maritime blockade to the mass abduction of our people's children from the occupied territories to re-educate them to hate their homeland." Zelensky also addressed the topic of diplomatic solutions to the war, saying that Ukraine has "never relied only on the power of weapons," but has "always cared about diplomacy." "Putin rejected a diplomatic solution by launching a full-scale war and choosing to try to commit genocide of Ukrainians instead of a dialogue with Ukraine. This is his choice. We need the unity of the world to overcome it," Zelensky said. Zelensky pointed to Ukraine's initiative to organize the global peace summit in Switzerland next week as a format that could "bring a just end to this war." German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported earlier on June 7 that Zelensky is expected to address the Bundestag during a visit to Berlin on June 11. While Zelensky has previously spoken in the Bundestag via video connection, this would be the first time he would speak to the German parliament in person. Read also: Ukraine war latest: Russian tugboat destroyed, Biden calls Putin tyrant bent on domination Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Russian forces attacked several Ukrainian settlements over the past day, killing one and injuring nine people, local authorities said on June 7. Russia targeted a total of 12 Ukrainian oblasts Sumy, Luhansk, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi, Mykolaiv, Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Kherson. Casualties were reported in the latter three regions. In Donetsk Oblast's Bakhmut district, one person was killed, and another one was injured in the Chasiv Yar community, which sits close to the front line. Eight houses, an industrial facility, and two outbuildings were damaged due to the Russian strikes. One person was injured, while two houses were damaged in the Toretsk community, Governor Vadym Filashkin reported. In Kherson Oblast, Russian forces carried out strikes against 15 settlements, including the regional center of Kherson. Four people were injured, according to Governor Oleksandr Prokudin. The Russian military shelled residential areas, damaging three multi-story buildings, 14 houses, and cars. A shopping hypermarket and a garage were hit as well. In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Russian forces struck the city of Nikopol, which is situated on the banks of the mostly dried-up Kakhovka Reservoir, just across from Russian-occupied Enerhodar and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Two women, aged 70 and 61, were injured, Governor Serhii Lysak said. The Russian attacks with artillery and "kamikaze" drones damaged a total of 15 homes, a garage, 10 outbuildings, and several cars. Two outbuildings were destroyed completely, and power lines were also affected by the attack. Russia also launched 53 Shahed-type drones and five Kh-101 cruise missiles using Tu-95MS bomber planes overnight. Air raid alarms sounded in several Ukrainian oblasts at around 2:40 a.m. local time. Russian missile and drone attacks caused a fire at one of the industrial facilities in Kyiv Oblast, according to local governor Ruslan Kravchenko. The fire was still being put out as of 8:30 a.m. local time. Read also: Kyiv struggles with rolling blackouts as officials warn of bleak months ahead Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Russian attacks against the Nikopol district of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast overnight on June 7 injured two women aged 61 and 70, Governor Serhii Lysak said. Russian forces attacked the region with artillery shelling and drones, firing on the Nikopol, Myrove, and Marhanets communities. A total of 15 homes, a garage, two outbuildings, two farm buildings, and several cars were damaged. Power lines were also affected by the attack. As a result of the attacks, a fire broke out in Nikopol. Nikopol, situated on the banks of the dried-up Kakhovka Reservoir, just across from Russian-occupied Enerhodar and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, is a regular target of Russian attacks. Three men, aged 52, 65, and 73, as well as a 38-year-old woman, who were sitting on a bus, were injured on June 6 after a Russian drones hit a bus in the city of Nikopol and caused a fire. Read also: Looking back at the Khakhovka Dam explosion one year later (Photos) Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov spoke with a delegation from the Taliban, which had traveled from Afghanistan for the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russian media reported on June 7. "Praise the Almighty that you are here," St. Petersburg-based outlet Fontanka quoted Beglov telling the delegation. The Taliban is officially on a Russian government list of banned organizations. News emerged in April that Russia was considering removing the Taliban from the list after the Taliban received an invitation to attend a forum in Kazan, Tatarstan. Russia's Foreign Ministry and Justice Ministry proposed on May 27 that Russian President Vladimir Putin remove the Taliban from the list of banned organizations. According to Russian state-controlled news agency TASS, the step would pave the way for Russia to officially recognize Afghanistan's Taliban government, which seized power in 2021 and has not received de jure recognition from any country in the world. Russia originally designated the Taliban a terrorist group in 2003, along with Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood. The Taliban previously ruled over Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 and enforced strict Sharia, religious law, that brutally persecuted women, political opponents, and religious minorities. Since returning to power in 2021, the U.N. estimates that 1,000 civilians in Afghanistan have been killed. Read also: Russia returning Europe to time of Nazism, Zelensky tells French parliament Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Russia is sending a naval detachment to Cuba next week for military exercises that will likely exacerbate tensions with the U.S. amid the war in Ukraine. Cubas military said in a Friday press release that the Russian naval vessels would visit the port of Havana from Wednesday to June 17. The visiting Russian detachment includes a frigate, a nuclear-powered submarine, an oil tanker and a tugboat, according to Cuba. This visit corresponds to the historical friendly relations between Cuba and the Russian Federation, Cuban officials said in the release, adding that the visit adheres to international regulations. None of the ships carry nuclear weapons, so their stopover in our country does not represent a threat to the region. The Russian naval group will also visit Venezuela and participate in military exercises, according to U.S. officials who spoke to ABC News. The deployment to the Caribbean is part of the Kremlins response to chilled tensions with the U.S. over the war in Ukraine, according to those officials, but also a demonstration of naval power after Ukrainian forces have repeatedly sunk Russian ships in the Black Sea and forced them out of the western part of those waters. The upcoming naval deployment comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin told international journalists earlier this week he was considering providing weapons to nations hostile to the U.S. and Western allies, after Washington gave Ukraine permission to strike into Russia with American-made weapons to defend the northeastern Kharkiv region. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. ISLAMABAD, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan strongly condemns the Israeli air strike targeting a school housing displaced people in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip that led to multiple deaths including women and children, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said Friday. "This attack is another crime in a series of attacks against civilians including an internally displaced persons camp last week that resulted in deaths of around 45 Palestinians, the ministry's spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said here during a weekly media briefing. Conducted overnight by the Israeli Air Force, the airstrikes targeted a school run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, killing at least 35 people. The school was housing displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza at the time of the incident. "The deliberate targeting of civilian population and facilities is a grave violation of international law and constitutes war crimes," according to the spokesperson. Israel Defense Forces attacked a Hamas compound inside a school in the Nuseirat area during the night, eliminating many saboteurs who participated in an attack on Oct. 7, 2023, said Avichay Adraee, Israeli military spokesperson, in a statement on Thursday. A total of 73 combat clashes took place on the battlefield in Ukraine over the past 24 hours, and 28 of them occurred on the Pokrovsk front. Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook, information as of 22:30 on 6 June Quote: "At the moment, there have been 73 combat clashes. Over the course of the current day, the occupiers have launched one missile attack with two missiles and 35 airstrikes (including dropping 58 aerial bombs) on Ukrainian territory, and used 477 kamikaze drones. The enemy fired 2,734 times at the positions of our troops and populated areas using various types of weapons." Details: On the Kharkiv front, there were no active offensive operations. The Russians were trying to push Ukrainian units back by inflicting intense fire. The situation is under control. On the Kupiansk front, the Russians attempted to approach Ukrainian positions near Druzheliubivka and Petropavlivka. The Ukrainian defence forces repelled three Russian attacks. On the Lyman front, the Russians carried out 11 attacks near Nevske, Serebrianka forest, Terny and Miasozharivka. No territories or positions were lost. On the Siversk front, Russian forces attempted to break through the Ukrainian defences in the vicinity of Bilohorivka and Verkhnokamianske five times. They failed. The situation is under control. On the Kramatorsk front, the activity of Russian troops was limited to five combat clashes. There were four attacks near Ivanivske, Klishchiivka and Kalynivka, and all of them were successfully repelled by Ukrainian defenders. The situation is tense, a battle near Kalynivka is still ongoing. The Russians were most active on the Pokrovsk front over the past day. In total, they attempted to break through the Ukrainian defences in the areas of Novoselivka Persha, Sokil, Yevhenivka, Kalynove, Novooleksandrivka, Yasnobrodivka, Novopokrovske and Prohres 28 times. 22 of those attacks were repelled, and six combat clashes are ongoing. Ukrainian defenders are taking measures to stabilise the situation and prevent the Russians from advancing deeper into Ukrainian territory. On the Kurakhove front, the Russians attacked Ukrainian positions in the areas of Paraskoviivka and Krasnohorivka five times. They couldn't reach their goals there. The situation is under the control of the defence forces of Ukraine. Russian forces unsuccessfully stormed Ukrainian positions on the Vremivka front near Staromaiorske, Urozhaine and Novodarivka nine times. The situation on the Orikhiv and Prydniprovske fronts remained unchanged, with no losses of positions or territory. On other fronts, there were no significant changes in the combat situation. Over the past day, Ukraines Air Force and units from Rocket Forces and Artillery struck four areas where Russian military personnel were concentrated, a cluster of weapons and military equipment, an air defence system and a radar station. Support UP or become our patron! Russians hit residential building in Poltava Oblast: woman rescued from rubble The Russian forces hit a private house in Poltava district on 7 June. Source: Philip Pronin, Head of Poltava Oblast Military Administration Quote: "The Russians attacked civilian infrastructure in Poltava district". Details: Preliminary information suggests that the Russians hit a private house. Updated: Pronin said at 16:13 that a woman had been rescued from the rubble of the destroyed building. She is currently in hospital in a serious condition. Support UP or become our patron! Twenty-four combat clashes with Russian troops have taken place since the beginning of the day on 7 June. There were 90 such clashes on 6 June. Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Quote: "Over the past day, 90 combat clashes took place... 24 combat clashes have already taken place since the start of today. The invaders have carried out two airstrikes using five guided bombs, and fired more than 460 times at the positions of our troops and settlements. On the Kharkiv front, the enemy did not conduct any active operations. They are regrouping their troops." Details: The General Staff also reported that the situation on the Kupiansk front is tense. Four combat clashes have already taken place there. On the Lyman front, Ukrainian defenders repelled three attacks, and a combat clash is ongoing near Terny at the moment. On the Kramatorsk front, Ukrainian troops have repelled two Russian attempts to advance in the vicinity of Klishchiivka since the beginning of the day, and five hostile attacks are ongoing on the Pokrovsk front near Yevhenivka, Sokil and Krasnohorivka. On the Orikhove front, the Russian forces have made one unsuccessful attack in the vicinity of Kopani. Ukrainian positions have not been lost. The situation on other fronts has not changed significantly. Support UP or become our patron! Sacramento District Attorney Thien Ho has filed a new amended complaint against the city of Sacramento a second attempt to convince a judge to allow his lawsuit to move forward in its entirety. Ho originally filed the suit in September, alleging the city was causing a public nuisance by allowing homeless camps to exist on public property, and also violating a state law by allowing camps along creeks. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Jill Talley last month ruled the lawsuit could move forward, but it had to be scaled down to remove the public nuisance claim, due to the separation of powers between the government and the DA. The complaint also claimed the city is violating the state Fish and Game Code by allowing the homeless to pollute creeks a claim that remains in the amended complaint. Ho on Wednesday re-filed the lawsuit, again including the public nuisance claim, as well as the Fish and Game Code claim. Sacramento is ensnared in a Groundhog Day loop where, despite promises and assurances otherwise, nothing changes or improves, the amended complaint stated. Encampments continue to occupy and fully block large portions of sidewalks, rendering them unusable and impassable for the general public, including members of the community who are disabled and rely on clear sidewalks to safely navigate from one place to another in wheelchairs or with other mobility aids. City spokesman Tim Swanson said the city has received the amended complaint and is in the process of reviewing it. Longtime former federal defense attorney Mark Reichel said he expects Talley to again rule that the public nuisance claim, a major piece of the lawsuit, must be removed. The crux of her ruling is that the law allows discretion for municipalities on how they govern, Reichel said. This is just a statement by the DAs Office that they dont agree with the policies ... You dont get to sue the elected leaders to say, I want you to do it this way. Theres a strong presumption of this discretion vested in the elected representatives. In extreme cases where you can prove extreme facts, you can go to court and compel those representatives to enforce the law. I dont think they have shown enough here. 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. 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 2,500. 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. The city will now have a chance to file a response to Hos amended complaint, Reichel said. Then Talley will likely rule within two months whether it can move forward in its entirety or will have to be scaled down. A prominent Sacramento developer pleaded no contest to two counts of embezzlement in Sacramento Superior Court and will serve two years of house arrest as part of his deal. Chris Vrame was charged with 34 counts of felony embezzlement after he embezzled more than $4.1 million from investors between 2013 and 2017 meant to buy an unidentified property, according to court documents. He pleaded not guilty in March 2021 and was set for trial later this year. According to court papers, Vrame took $3.6 million from KV Sierra Vista LLC and $731,000 the Conservancy to Protect the Land, two entities he controlled. Investors discovered the scheme when they came across a document in the copy room of Vrames business office, according to previous Bee reporting. Vrame, a relative of Sacramento megadeveloper Angelo Tsakopoulos and former president of the Del Paso Country Club, created an investor group named SV Baseline LLC to purchase the property. But in June 2016, investors discovered there was debt involved with the property purchase and that Vrame admitted that he had financed the purchase of the property and had done so for business reasons that were justified, court records say. A year later in July 2017, Vrame showed a balance sheet to investors indicating the entity had $3 million in the bank as of June 21, 2017, court records say. Unbeknownst to the SV Baseline investors, Vrame had borrowed the $3 million from an outside company (Company #1) on June 16, 2016, court records say. That loan was for 20 days, with a $15,000 fee instead of interest spelled out in a Deposit Authorization Control agreement, or DACA, court records say. In effect, the DACA allowed Vrame to show that KV Sierra Vista had $3 million that it did not actually have, court records say. His defense attorney, Bill Portanova, said Vrame changed his plea Monday to receive a sentence of probation and home detention. If the Sacramento developer had gone to trial and been found guilty, he would have faced three years in prison for each charge. If he completes his two-year probation with no issues, Portanova said, Vrames offenses will be reduced to misdemeanors and dropped. According to court documents, Vrame paid full restitution to investors of KV Sierra Vista and the conservancy. Hell also pay $30,000 restitution fines, according to the Special Prosecution Section of the states Department of Justice, which tried the case. Clients sometimes choose to accept plea bargains simply to end the stresses of a case and its financial burdens. Chris Vrame pleaded no contest to dramatically reduced charges, the matter is now closed, Portanova said. Within 24 months both charges will be reduced to misdemeanors and dismissed by the court. In other words, it is a slow dismissal of the case. The Attorney Generals Office lauded the sentencing as an example of the justice system working how it was intended. The victims of this embezzlement have been given back what was stolen and the guilty party has taken responsibility and been held responsible, Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. I am proud of my team for all their work on this case and am glad this was a positive outcome. Bontas office did not return a call seeking further comment on the case. The city of Sacramento is acting so broke that it cannot find $1 million in a $1.7 billion budget so that students can continue to take Regional Transit buses for free. To save the program, Mayor Darrell Steinberg wants no less than five other local governments to start contributing so the program can survive. Trying to get six governments to agree on anything is a problem, but a rare and sudden eruption of collaboration may indeed save the RydeFreeRT program, which allows any participating student (kindergarten through high school) to ride the countys transit system at ho cost. But the underlying issue here isnt the students themselves, its the Sacramento City Councils misplaced priority: giving big raises to government staff first before considering the implications on the voting public. In the unfolding RydeFreeRT saga, nobodys hands are clean. A whole lot of government process is about to take place for a lousy million dollars. Opinion Students found themselves on the chopping block when Sacramento City Manager Howard Chan unveiled a draft budget in April for the coming fiscal year which eliminated $1 million for RydeFreeRT, a program the city has consistently funded for five years. This is the same Chan who, back in December, recommended raises of more than 10% for city staff over two years, creating a $45 million hole in the coming budget. The healthy raises account for roughly two-thirds of the structural deficit to be closed in the coming budget. A few weeks back, Steinberg countered with his proposal to save RydeFreeRT mostly with other governments money. He wants to slash Sacramentos support of the program by 75%, contributing only $250,000. He seeks $250,000 from Regional Transit and $500,000 from local school districts. Half is to come from the Sacramento City Unified School District, and the other half, in some yet-to-be-determined formula, would be shared by the Elk Grove, Natomas and Twin Rivers Unified school districts. Im confident we will agree on a funding formula by June 11 when the city passes its final budget, Steinberg said in an official blog post. If an agreement cannot be finalized by that date, I will present an updated recommendation to the council. Meanwhile, some parents are up in arms, taking their case recently to the city council. Also angry are unions representing teachers of the various districts. They are in no mood to redirect money to go to student transportation that could be spent on their own pay. While it may be true that Steinberg and Sacramento City Council members have faced challenges closing the citys $66 million shortfall, the simple fact that they are willing to take an ax to this program is providing disturbing insight into city leaders priorities, wrote Mara Harvey and Nikki Milevsky in an op-ed in todays Bee. They represent the teachers in the Natomas and Sacramento City unified school districts. Sac Citys school board has been just as generous with staff raises as the city council. The district agreed earlier this year to 6% raises, another 2% next year and a 1.5% increase in contributions to the teachers health benefits. Steinbergs proposal does have a rationale. This RydeFreeRT program benefits many governments. However, Sacramento City Hall created this program and its own budget problem. On Dec. 12, the council unanimously approved these big raises without discussing the financial implications of what they were about to do. It was another month before Chan told the council that the raises they had approved were unsustainable. And it wasnt until April that Chan unveiled his proposal to kill RydeFreeRT. Frankly, a city contribution of $250,000 for a program deemed widely successful seems pretty stingy. In 2022, this same mayor and city council gave Chan nearly double that amount of money in the form of 64 weeks of extra vacation. This is the same city that urged voters back in 2018 to increase the sales tax by a half-cent via Measure U, promising more youth programs and economic development. Measure U generates about $139 million annually. Theres not any more money in there for student transit? Hopefully, this ends well for students who have gotten accustomed to using public transportation. Some adults in power will need to truly put students first. North Americas largest farmed salmon producer defrauded the U.S. government by hiding ownership of a controversial fishing fleet with a history of flouting federal authorities, according to a recently unsealed lawsuit. The lawsuit adds a new dimension to a longstanding fight over the environmental impacts of aggressively harvesting menhaden from U.S. coastal waters. Conservationists have campaigned for years to limit menhaden fishing in the Chesapeake Bay, arguing that overharvesting the small, fatty fish too close to shore imperils marine wildlife that depends on them, including predatory fish, ospreys, bald eagles, dolphins and whales. Many conservationists are especially concerned that dwindling menhaden stocks may be playing a role in the decline of striped bass, a species that follows menhaden migrations along the Atlantic Coast and spawns in the Chesapeake Bay. Recreational fishing for striped bass contributes roughly $8 billion annually to the U.S. gross domestic economy, according to a 2019 study by the McGraw Center for Conservation Leadership. The complaint against Cooke Inc. and its subsidiaries and partners, filed in the Southern District of New York by two individuals on behalf of the federal government, was unsealed in April, but received little attention beyond the trade press. It asks a federal judge to levy fines that could total more than $2 billion. Virginia is the only state on the Atlantic Coast that still allows commercial ships to net menhaden in state waters in order to process them into oil and feed a once-common practice in the region, known as reduction fishing. Canadas Cooke Inc. bought Omega Protein, the American company that has long dominated that market, in 2017. Omega Protein also fishes for menhaden in the Gulf Coast. Barrel of menhaden bait fish on the Potomac River near Fort Washington, Maryland. Edwin Remsberg/VW PICS/UIG via Getty Image Federal law bars foreign ships from commercial fishing in U.S. waters. But the lawsuit accuses the two companies of conspiring to create the illusion that its ships operate as independent, American-owned vessels by transferring Omega Proteins fleet to a shell company controlled by Cooke employees and family members who hold U.S. citizenship. Its pure fraud, the plaintiffs lawyer, Brendon DeMay, told HuffPost. Its totally illegal. They didnt think anyone would find out, but we found out. Cooke Seafood insisted its arrangement with Omega Protein and the fishing vessels the company contracts are all legal, though the company declined to discuss the lawsuit. Cooke has no comment except to state that it denies any and all allegations of wrongdoing in the recently filed lawsuit, spokesperson Joel Richardson wrote in an email to HuffPost. A Troubled History Reduction fishing for menhaden was once common across the Atlantic coast. But as states pushed the practice away from shore, the industry declined and consolidated. Omega Protein emerged as the last major company dedicated to the fishery on the Atlantic coast by the early 2000s. It has one other major competitor in the Gulf Coast, called Daybrook Fisheries, which is also foreign-owned. At its height, Omega Protein operated as a publicly traded company in the United States, using the fish to produce omega-3 oil supplements and livestock feed. But the company repeatedly ran afoul of federal law. Omega Protein pleaded guilty to Clean Water Act violations in 2013 for intentionally discharging fish waste mixed with chemicals within 3 miles of the Chesapeake Bay shoreline. The company paid $7.5 million in damages and spent three years on probation. Three years later, a federal judge in Louisiana found Omega Protein guilty ofbreaking the Clean Water Act again an offense that violated the terms of its probation. A worker drives a tractor past mounds of dried and crushed Menhaden fish, to be used as animal feed supplements, at the Omega Protein processing plant in Reedville, Virginia, on June 23, 2015. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS via Getty Images When a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the company became public in 2017, Omega Proteins stock tumbled. Cooke Inc. bought the company that year, using it as an opportunity to fuel its growing farmed salmon operation by acquiring one of its main suppliers of menhaden feed. Menhaden fishing has grown increasingly contentious in recent years. Omega Protein openly defied the harvest cap set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in 2019, citing poor ocean conditions and an abundance of menhaden just inside the Bay. Thousands of pounds of fish washed up on Virginias Eastern Shore after widely publicized spills from fishing boats tied to the company. Conservationists presented Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin with a petition bearing 11,000 signatures two years ago asking for a moratorium on menhaden fishing, without success. An Unusual Lawsuit Executives for both Cooke Inc. and Omega Protein knew that the American Fisheries Acts citizenship requirement which forbids any vessel owned or controlled by foreign citizens from commercial fishing would bar Omegas fleet from fishing U.S. waters, the lawsuit says. Cooke Inc. allegedly created a holding company to skirt the requirement, installing as directors its employees Seth and Gregory Dunlop who both hold U.S. citizenship and are directly related to Cooke CEO Glenn Cooke. Omega Protein sold its fishing vessels and the planes it uses to spot menhaden schools from the sky to the holding company. Omega Protein then contracted itself as the sole buyer of the fleets harvest, the complaint says. Neither director of the company that owns the fishing fleet which is now called Ocean Harvesters, and is a subsidiary of Ocean Fleet Services can sell his interest in the company without the consent of the other, unless he sells to a direct relative of the Cooke CEO, the lawsuit says. Cooke Inc., Omega Protein, and Ocean Fleet Services all share the same address in Suffolk. The sole purpose of this circuitous approach was to facilitate false certifications of compliance with the AFA Citizenship Requirement and to facilitate a scheme to fraudulently induce the Government into allowing Defendants to take fish from U.S. waters, the lawsuit says. That new structure was designed to trick federal regulators into thinking that those operating the fishing fleet and spotter planes worked as independent contractors who would demand a fair price for the fish they netted, according to the lawsuit. Instead, Cooke Inc.s acquisition of Omega Protein allowed the Canadian company to lower costs for its salmon feed. Despite its well-known ties to the Canadian seafood giant, each of the ships under Ocean Fleet Services control certified each year to two federal agencies the U.S. Coast Guard and the Department of Transportations Maritime Administration that they were not controlled by a foreign owner, according to the complaint. The law is very clear, DeMay said. You absolutely cannot have a scenario where the guy who owns everything on paper is a U.S. citizen, but hes taking orders from a foreign company. Ben Landry, Ocean Fleet Services vice president of public affairs, declined to address the allegations in detail, but said his companys arrangement with Omega Protein and Cooke Inc. did not violate federal law. As this case proceeds, we look forward to establishing that accusations of failure to disclose appropriate information are inaccurate, Landry wrote in an emailed statement. Ocean Harvesters is committed to compliance with all applicable laws and to continuing to conduct responsible, sustainable fishing operations along the Atlantic coast and in the Gulf of Mexico. Violating the citizenship requirement for commercial fishing in U.S. waters is punishable by up to $16,687 in fines per vessel, per day on the water. Falsifying or withholding information affecting the citizenship requirement for commercial fishing ships is punishable by fines up to $100,000 per day. The complaint estimates the total fines easily reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars and could top $2 billion. While the company hid its foreign ties from federal authorities, it advertised them to potential investors in order to assure them that the acquisition would drive profits, according to the complaint. As a result of their fraudulent scheme, Defendants have illegally harvested from United States waters many millions of dollars worth of fish to which they are not entitled, the lawsuit says. The case was originally filed in 2021 under the False Claims Act on behalf of two private investigators, Benson Chiles and Chris Manthey, who had been scrutinizing Omega Proteins operations in the years leading up to the Cooke purchase. The False Claims Act, which was passed in 1863 to crack down ondefense contracting fraud during the Civil War, allows private citizens to file lawsuits to recover on the federal governments behalf to recover damages from fraud. The Justice Department has already reviewed the lawsuit and declined to join it. CORRECTION: A previous version of this article said the DOJ was allowing the lawsuit to proceed. However, the department has declined to join the suit. (KRON) Santa Rosa police said they busted a drug dealer who targeted high school students in Sonoma County as buyers. Alvaro Hurtado-Diaz, 32, of Cotati, used social media apps that are popular among teenagers, including Instagram, Snapchat, and Telegram, to sell illicit drugs to minors, according to police. Detectives with the Santa Rosa Police Department Property Crimes Investigations Team began investigating Hurtado-Diaz in April. Evidence suggested Hurtado-Diaz was likely targeting juveniles as potential customers. The controlled substances Hurtado-Diaz was selling included marijuana, THC vape pens, psilocybin mushrooms, and cocaine, SRPD wrote. On May 8, detectives watched Hurtado-Diaz pick up a student at an access gate in the rear of a Sonoma County high school. Concerned Hurtado-Diaz was likely about to furnish the juvenile with controlled substances, the detectives conducted a traffic stop on Hurtado-Diaz and detained him, SRPD wrote. Police said officers found drugs inside his car. Detectives also searched a search warrant on the alleged drug dealers house on Highway 116 in Cotati. Inside they found extensive marijuana products, edibles, THC vape pens, cocaine, and psilocybin mushrooms, SRPD wrote. Several firearms, including an AR-15 assault weapon and a stolen handgun, were also found. Detectives are continuing to follow up on this case, including identifying and contacting additional juveniles who may have been targeted by Hurtado-Diaz. Emoji Drug Code And Warning Signs For Parents SRPD wrote, The Santa Rosa Police Department encourages parents to be extremely vigilant in monitoring social media activity and recognizing signs of drug dealers who children may be communicating with. Law enforcement officials released an Emoji Drug Code guide to understanding the use of emojis as part of the Drug Enforcement Administrations national One Pill Can Kill campaign. For example, a plug emoji is street slang for a social media drug dealer. Other emojis include a blue dot to represent pressed fentanyl pills. Snowflakes and snowmen represent cocaine. Dragon emojis are used for heroin, red hearts can mean MDMA, and crystal balls represent methamphetamine, according to the guide. Police encourage parents to also monitor their childrens use of peer-to-peer payment applications, such as Venmo. Emoji-DecodedDownload SRPD wrote, In this case, the offender used social media platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram and Telegram to sell controlled substances to juveniles, and peer-to-peer payment applications such as CashApp and Venmo to accept payments. This is a popular and increasingly common trend throughout our communities. Alleged drug dealer charged with murdering Sarah Tillman Hurtado-Diaz was booked into a Sonoma County jail for the following felony offenses: Soliciting controlled substances to minors, child endangerment, furnishing minors with marijuana, possessing controlled substances for sales, possessing narcotics for sales, possessing a stolen firearm, and possessing an assault weapon. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4. By Crispian Balmer ROME (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will join at least 12 other heads of state and government invited by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to take part in next week's Group of Seven (G7) summit, officials said on Friday. The unusually long guest list reflects Italy's desire to broaden the horizons of the G7, a club of wealthy democracies that comprises the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the European Union. "The G7 brings together countries that are like-minded regarding fundamental principles and standards, but it is not closed off like a fortress. It opens up to the world," said a senior official who declined to be named. Diplomats had already released a list of many of those expected at the June 13-15 gathering, including the leaders of India, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Turkey, Algeria, Kenya and Mauritania. All those countries have now confirmed their attendance, meaning a first overseas trip for India's Narendra Modi since his election victory this week and for Cyril Ramaphosa, who lost an overall majority in South Africa this month. Emphasising concern over the situation in the Middle East, officials on Friday confirmed that both the Saudi crown prince and Jordan's King Abdullah would attend discussions in Borgo Egnazia, an exclusive resort in the southeastern Puglia region. It is believed to be the first time a leader from Saudi Arabia, a country regularly accused of human rights abuses, has been invited to join a G7 summit. "We do not always have the same approach, but it is through dialogue and by understanding different needs that results are achieved," the Italian official said. UKRAINE RETURNS As last year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will take part in the G7 meeting, joining a session on June 13 dedicated to his country's conflict with Russia. The other leaders will take part in the talks on Friday, June 14. The guest star will be Pope Francis, who will be the first pontiff to participate in a meeting of the wealthy nations' club. He is due be the keynote speaker in a session dedicated to the risks and opportunities posed by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Critics accuse the G7 of being elitist and arrogant. By drawing in so many guests, Italy hopes to bolster consensus on critical issues such as relations with China, while also drawing attention to the problems of the Global South, especially Africa. Previous hosts have tended to offer far fewer invitations, with the last two host nations, Germany and Britain, inviting just five apiece. The last time anyone invited more people than Meloni was in 2009, when former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi asked 22 world leaders to take part. Besides a meeting on Friday on AI, energy, Africa and the Mediterranean, which all the leaders are expected to join, there will also be numerous opportunities for bilaterals. Much attention will be focused on a possible encounter between Argentinian President Javier Milei and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva - South American neighbours who have been openly critical of each other in recent months. (Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Alex Richardson) SC shrimp season fully opened but fewer local shrimpers are on the waters. Heres why Two words and one action can help South Carolinas storied and struggling shrimping industry: Eat local. For some, its a culinary click-phrase that goes unpracticed. For others, its a habitual routine at farmers markets, grocery stores and restaurants. But for Cameron Reaves, who captains a shrimp boat with Beaufort-based Sea Eagle Market, his familys livelihood depends on people eating locally. While shrimpers have been able to harvest from eight smaller provisional areas in the states outer waters since April 19, commercial shrimp trawling opened in all of South Carolina legal waters Tuesday, which means fresh shrimp will be more readily available at docks and markets along the states coast. Now, shrimpers are harvesting browns and early-season large white shrimp, which typically generate the most value. And this seasons shrimp population is one of the better years. But greater latitude and a healthy population didnt bring out the usual fleet. There were noticeably fewer shrimp boats, Reaves said Tuesday. Its a clear example of the troubled market shrimpers are up against. The shrimp market is kind of a mess right now, Reaves said. Its hard for a lot of shrimpers to make it. Fuel prices at over $3 dollars a gallon are slightly lower than last year, but they are still high for what the boats burn through in a day. Reaves 70-foot boat that can hold up to 30,000 pounds of shrimp averages 200 gallons daily. An employee heads freshly caught shrimp at Bluffton Oyster Company at Wharf Street on June 4, 2024, in Old Town Bluffton. Today marked the start of commercial shrimp trawling in all legal waters of the state. To boot, the Southern Shrimp Alliance said the excessive amount of farm-raised shrimp flooding the United States market has dropped domestic prices, according to previous reporting by The Island Packet. The alliance, representing shrimp fishermen and processors in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas, pressed the states governors seeking a region-wide fishery resource disaster declaration, The Island Packet reported. The unprecedented catastrophic crises is threatening the very existence of the U.S. shrimp fishing, the alliance said. Craig Reaves, Sea Eagle Market owner and Camerons brother, told the newspaper in September that there was nobody in the shrimping industry right now alive, above ground, that has seen anything close to this. In South Carolina, shrimp harvest and values for the spring and fall seasons, which runs April through December, have trended downward in the past five years, according to the states Department of Natural Resources. In 2021, 3.13 million head on pounds of shrimp, harvested via trawl, were reported in South Carolina. The following year that number dropped to 1.96 million pounds. Between 25% and 26% came from Beaufort County dealers in 2021 and 2022, SCDNR said. This year, despite high fuel costs, Reaves shrimp prices are lower but he is still afloat. As shrimpers battle the beleaguered industry, he said shrimp enthusiasts should be picky. When eating out, ask where the shrimp is coming from. He urged people to support local seafood docks and fisherman. Simply put by Reaves: Demand local domestic shrimp. This undated aerial drone photo shows the Huadian Sihanoukville Power Generation Co., Ltd. in Sihanoukville, southwest Cambodia. Put into operation in December 2022, the 2350 MW coal power plant, a subsidiary of the Huadian Overseas Investment Company, is the largest power generation project in the Southeast Asian country, with the highest level of environmental protection. (Huadian Sihanoukville Power Generation Co., Ltd./Handout via Xinhua) SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Situated in southwest Cambodia's Sihanoukville, the Chinese-invested coal power plant has not only supplied reliable electricity to the national grid, but also provided technical skills to local talents. Put into operation in December 2022, the 2350 MW coal power plant, a subsidiary of the Huadian Overseas Investment Company, is the largest power generation project in the Southeast Asian country, with the highest level of environmental protection. Hiy Phearey, a 23-year-old technical controller at the Huadian Sihanoukville Power Generation Co., Ltd., said he had been well-trained in technical skills and Chinese proficiency before starting his job. "The company has provided us with training in Chinese proficiency for three months and technical skills for one month before offering us the jobs," he told Xinhua on Thursday. "The benefits I've got from this job are knowledge in Chinese language and specific technical skills as well as subsequent training on new techniques," he added. Phearey said prior to working in the plant, he worked as an electrician in the capital Phnom Penh, with a small salary. "Working at this plant, we get decent salaries, and we don't spend any money on accommodation and meals because the company has provided us with these for free," he said. He said his current salary is more than enough for monthly expenses, so he can send a portion of his salary to his parents in his hometown in northwest Pursat province. "For my salary, I can save between 400 U.S. dollars and 500 U.S. dollars per month," he said. Phin Engsiv, a 21-year-old laboratory technician at the Huadian Sihanoukville Power Generation Co., Ltd., said she is in charge of testing the quality of fuel, coal and water. She said that prior to her job, the firm had sent her to learn Chinese language for three months, covering all her expenses on tuition fees, accommodation and meals. "The company has also trained me on some technical skills, work safety, and control system in the power plant," she told Xinhua. "I am very happy to work here because the job is very stable, all colleagues are good, and the superiors have also treated me as a valuable asset," Engsiv said. Ho Chhunlim, a 25-year-old Khmer-Chinese translator at the Huadian Sihanoukville Power Generation Co., Ltd., said the plant is the largest power generation project in Cambodia, with high technologies in producing and supplying electricity. "The plant has not only contributed to Cambodia's socio-economic development, but also promoted friendship between Cambodian and Chinese people," he told Xinhua. "Working here, I have learned a lot about electrical engineering skills and communication skills with state institutions," Chhunlim said. He suggests that the Chinese government encourage more Chinese enterprises to come and invest in Cambodia, saying that the kingdom has full peace, security, and stability. The power plant is one of many Chinese-invested mega-projects in Cambodia under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Ky Sereyvath, director-general of the Institute of China Studies at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said under the BRI, China has carried out many mega-projects such as roads, bridges, ports, airports, power plants, and economic zones in Cambodia. "These projects have provided and will continue to provide great benefits for Cambodia," he told Xinhua. Sereyvath said Chinese assistance and investment have played a crucial role in supporting Cambodia's socio-economic development and poverty reduction through generating hundreds of thousands of jobs for local people. This undated aerial drone photo shows the Huadian Sihanoukville Power Generation Co., Ltd. in Sihanoukville, southwest Cambodia. Put into operation in December 2022, the 2350 MW coal power plant, a subsidiary of the Huadian Overseas Investment Company, is the largest power generation project in the Southeast Asian country, with the highest level of environmental protection. (Huadian Sihanoukville Power Generation Co., Ltd./Handout via Xinhua) This undated aerial drone photo shows the Huadian Sihanoukville Power Generation Co., Ltd. in Sihanoukville, southwest Cambodia. Put into operation in December 2022, the 2350 MW coal power plant, a subsidiary of the Huadian Overseas Investment Company, is the largest power generation project in the Southeast Asian country, with the highest level of environmental protection. (Huadian Sihanoukville Power Generation Co., Ltd./Handout via Xinhua) SC woman fell ill after co-worker spiked her iced tea with degreaser, police say Rock Hill police arrested a South Carolina woman Thursday after video showed her pouring degreaser into a co-workers iced tea before the victim drank it and became sick, according to police and court documents. Tina Michelle Burch, 57, of York, is charged with felony illegal tampering with drugs or food, according to an arrest warrant obtained by The Herald. Burch and the victim worked together at a company on Galleria Boulevard, a police incident report stated. The name of the business and the identity of the victim were not released by police. Officers say security video from the workplace shows Burch pour the cleaner into the victims bottle of iced tea after the victim had walked away from her post around 12:45 a.m. Thursday. Burch then put the cap back on the tea bottle, police said. The victim returned and took a drink, then vomited and had facial numbness before requiring medical treatment, according to the warrant and police report. Police talked to the victim at a medical facility after the incident but her condition was not released. Authorities did not disclose what might have sparked the incident. The tea bottle was seized as evidence, according to the report and Rock Hill police Capt. Brent Allmon. Burch was arrested at work Thursday but denied involvement, according to the police report. It remains unclear if she has a lawyer. The charge against Burch can carry up to 20 years in prison for a conviction, South Carolina law shows. Burch remained at the York County jail Friday under a $35,000 bond, according to the York County Sheriffs Office jail web site. SCDOT Commission approves $719 million for pavement improvements. What you need to know. South Carolina Department of Transportation Commission has approved an additional $719 million for the 2025 Pavement Improvement Plan. The funds will be added to the previously invested $3.6 billion in pavement improvements across the state since the Strategic 10-Year plan was implemented. The plan was implemented following an increase in funding allocated by the General Assembly in the 2017 Roads Bill. In 2017, the South Carolina General Assembly passed legislation to increase the state gas tax by 12 cents, phasing in an increase of 2 cents per year for six years. The money is deposited into an Infrastructure Maintenance trust fund. The General Assembly also provided one-time funding. The program focuses on four key areas: highway safety, bridges, road resurfacing, and interstate capacity. South Carolina Department of Transportation, Anderson County, and City of Anderson work on repairing a sinkhole in the left Northbound lane of Clemson Boulevard in Anderson, between Pine Lane to Hammett Acres Wednesday, May 25, 2022. The section of lanes were blocked off as the broken drainage pipe underground would need to be fixed, estimated by SCDOT around seven hours said Police Chief Jim Stewart at the scene. According to SCDOT, the new plan will add another 727 miles of roadway to the more than 8,800 miles of completed and ongoing road work. We are grateful to our Governor and the General Assembly for their bold action in investing in our road and bridge network in South Carolina, and we are putting those dollars to work on pavement improvements," SCDOT Commission Chair Pamela Christopher said. "We recognize that there is more work to do, and this action is another step toward improving the pavement on our roadways across South Carolina, ensuring safe and efficient travel for everyone. Here is what you should know about the 2025 Pavement Improvement Program This file photo from 2015, shows the condition of South Carolina roads. (Credit: FILE) 2025 Pavement Improvement Program The program rehabilitates major roads, primary routes, secondary routes, and neighborhood streets. The proposed 2025 Pavement Improvement Program projects were chosen using a ranking process based on objective and quantifiable factors. "These projects comply with the 10-Year Plan, support the performance targets established in the Transportation Asset Management Plan, and utilize a county-by-county distribution of paving funds to ensure that every county in the state receives paving funds," according to the South Carolina Department of Transportation Commission. Here are the recommended roadway improvement projects for the Upstate. Total Funds Allocation by County Anderson County will receive $19,917,458 Spartanburg County will receive $25,706,202 Greenville County will receive $23,714,678 Anderson County Anderson County will receive $12,483,521 to repair major roads which included Highway SC-184 reconstruction, Highway SC-20 rehabilitation, US Highway 76 rehabilitation, and SC Highway 24. Road work in Anderson County at Welcome Road on U.S. Highway 29 in February 2024. $5,598,343 for Farm-to-market secondary roads, such as Cotton Bottom Road Rehab, White Street Extension Rehab, and Danenhoever/E. Queen Street Rehab. $1,835,594 for Neighborhood streets, Winfield Drive Rehab, and Brick Mill Road Rehab. Spartanburg Spartanburg will receive $15,566,037 for Major and primary roadway projects, including Asheville Highway Rehab and North Pine Street Rehab. A Spartanburg County bridge was deemed unsafe for travel this week by SCDOT. $8,273,654 for Farm-to-market secondary roads, such as Parris Bridge Road Rehab and Casey Creek Road Reconstruction. $1,866,512 for Neighborhood streets, West Gate Mall Drive Rehab, Parris Bridges Road Rehab, and West Frontage Road Reconstruction. Greenville Greenville will receive $16,204,114 for Major and primary roadway projects, including Whitehorse Road, Augusta Road Rehab, Bessie Road Rehab, and Lee Vaughn Road Rehab. $5,527,786 for Farm-to-market secondary roads, such as Old Easley Bridge Road Rehab, Miller Road Rehab, and E. North Street Rehab. $1,982,777 for Neighborhood streets, Hood Road Reconstruction, and Jones Avenue Rehab. Roadway improvement selection process The projects selected for the Proposed 2025 Pavement Improvement Program were chosen through a ranking process based on objective and measurable criteria. "These criteria are in line with the 10-Year Plan, support the performance targets outlined in the Transportation Asset Management Plan, and prioritize a fair distribution of paving funds across all counties in the state," according to SCDOT. This approach ensures that every county receives its fair share of funding for pavement improvements. There is no question that the transportation system in South Carolina is critical to our future as a state and to the prosperity of all South Carolinians," Secretary of Transportation Justin P. Powell said. "With the implementation of the Strategic 10-Year Plan in 2018, we invested a significant amount of the new gas tax in improving our pavements and catching up on more than 30 years of deferred maintenance on our system," Powell said. Travis Rose covers Anderson County for the Independent Mail. Reach him via email at trose@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on Anderson Independent Mail: SCDOT pavement program to improve roads, bridges and road resurfacing Scientists call the region of space influenced by the Sun the heliosphere but without an interstellar probe, they dont know much about its shape The Sun warms the Earth, making it habitable for people and animals. But thats not all it does, and it affects a much larger area of space. The heliosphere, the area of space influenced by the Sun, is over a hundred times larger than the distance from the Sun to the Earth. The Sun is a star that constantly emits a steady stream of plasma highly energized ionized gas called the solar wind. In addition to the constant solar wind, the Sun also occasionally releases eruptions of plasma called coronal mass ejections, which can contribute to the aurora, and bursts of light and energy, called flares. The plasma coming off the Sun expands through space, along with the Suns magnetic field. Together they form the heliosphere within the surrounding local interstellar medium the plasma, neutral particles and dust that fill the space between stars and their respective astrospheres. Heliophysicists like me want to understand the heliosphere and how it interacts with the interstellar medium. The eight known planets in the solar system, the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and the Kuiper Belt the band of celestial objects beyond Neptune that includes the planetoid Pluto all reside within the heliosphere. The heliosphere is so large that objects in the Kuiper Belt orbit closer to the Sun than to the closest boundary of the heliosphere. An artists depiction of the heliosphere and its place in the local interstellar medium and in the Milky Way galaxy. An interstellar probe could travel farther than any previous spacecraft and help scientists get a good look at our heliosphere the Suns influence in space from the outside. JHU/APL Heliosphere protection As distant stars explode, they expel large amounts of radiation into interstellar space in the form of highly energized particles known as cosmic rays. These cosmic rays can be dangerous for living organisms and can damage electronic devices and spacecraft. Earths atmosphere protects life on the planet from the effects of cosmic radiation, but, even before that, the heliosphere itself acts as a cosmic shield from most interstellar radiation. In addition to cosmic radiation, neutral particles and dust stream steadily into the heliosphere from the local interstellar medium. These particles can affect the space around Earth and may even alter how the solar wind reaches the Earth. Supernovae and the interstellar medium may have also influenced the origins of life and the evolution of humans on Earth. Some researchers predict that millions of years ago, the heliosphere came into contact with a cold, dense particle cloud in the interstellar medium that caused the heliosphere to shrink, exposing the Earth to the local interstellar medium. An unknown shape But scientists dont really know what the heliospheres shape is. Models range in shape from spherical to cometlike to croissant-shaped. These predictions vary in size by hundreds to thousands of times the distance from the Sun to the Earth. Scientists have, however, defined the direction that the Sun is moving as the nose direction and the opposing direction as the tail direction. The nose direction should have the shortest distance to the heliopause the boundary between the heliosphere and the local interstellar medium. No probe has ever gotten a good look at the heliosphere from the outside or properly sampled the local interstellar medium. Doing so could tell scientists more about the heliospheres shape and its interaction with the local interstellar medium, the space environment beyond the heliosphere. Crossing the heliopause with Voyager In 1977, NASA launched the Voyager mission: Its two spacecraft flew past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in the outer solar system. Scientists have determined that after observing these gas giants, the probes separately crossed the heliopause and into interstellar space in 2012 and 2018, respectively. While Voyager 1 and 2 are the only probes to have ever potentially crossed the heliopause, they are well beyond their intended mission lifetimes. They can no longer return the necessary data as their instruments slowly fail or power down. These spacecraft were designed to study planets, not the interstellar medium. This means they dont have the right instruments to take all the measurements of the interstellar medium or the heliosphere that scientists need. Thats where a potential interstellar probe mission could come in. A probe designed to fly beyond the heliopause would help scientists understand the heliosphere by observing it from the outside. An interstellar probe Since the heliosphere is so large, it would take a probe decades to reach the boundary, even using a gravity assist from a massive planet like Jupiter. The Voyager spacecraft will no longer be able to provide data from interstellar space long before an interstellar probe exits the heliosphere. And once the probe is launched, depending on the trajectory, it will take about 50 or more years to reach the interstellar medium. This means that the longer NASA waits to launch a probe, the longer scientists will be left with no missions operating in the outer heliosphere or the local interstellar medium. NASA is considering developing an interstellar probe. This probe would take measurements of the plasma and magnetic fields in the interstellar medium and image the heliosphere from the outside. To prepare, NASA asked for input from more than 1,000 scientists on a mission concept. The initial report recommended the probe travel on a trajectory that is about 45 degrees away from the heliospheres nose direction. This trajectory would retrace part of Voyagers path, while reaching some new regions of space. This way, scientists could study new regions and revisit some partly known regions of space. This path would give the probe only a partly angled view of the heliosphere, and it wouldnt be able to see the heliotail, the region scientists know the least about. In the heliotail, scientists predict that the plasma that makes up the heliosphere mixes with the plasma that makes up the interstellar medium. This happens through a process called magnetic reconnection, which allows charged particles to stream from the local interstellar medium into the heliosphere. Just like the neutral particles entering through the nose, these particles affect the space environment within the heliosphere. In this case, however, the particles have a charge and can interact with solar and planetary magnetic fields. While these interactions occur at the boundaries of the heliosphere, very far from Earth, they affect the makeup of the heliospheres interior. In a new study published in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, my colleagues and I evaluated six potential launch directions ranging from the nose to the tail. We found that rather than exiting close to the nose direction, a trajectory intersecting the heliospheres flank toward the tail direction would give the best perspective on the heliospheres shape. A trajectory along this direction would present scientists with a unique opportunity to study a completely new region of space within the heliosphere. When the probe exits the heliosphere into interstellar space, it would get a view of the heliosphere from the outside at an angle that would give scientists a more detailed idea of its shape especially in the disputed tail region. In the end, whichever direction an interstellar probe launches, the science it returns will be invaluable and quite literally astronomical. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Sarah A. Spitzer, University of Michigan. Read more: Sarah A. Spitzer works as a research fellow for the University of Michigan department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering. She receives funding from the the University of Michigan and from grants supported by organizations such as NASA. She is affiliated with the University of Michigan and the Interstellar Probe Study Team. Scientists have pinpointed the brain network that's involved in stuttering, brain scans reveal. The work suggests that stuttering may be triggered by disruption to a specific network of brain cells, or neurons that connects three major regions of the brain . These regions the amygdala , the putamen and the claustrum are respectively involved in regulating emotions, controlling movements and relaying information between different areas of the brain. The brain imaging results were described in a recent paper, published May 27 in the journal Brain . Knowing what causes stuttering could aid the development of new targeted treatments for the condition, Dr. Juho Joutsa , co-senior study author and a professor of neurology at the University of Turku in Finland, told Live Science. Such treatments could include the use of electrical brain stimulation , which involves placing electrodes on or inside a patient's head and delivering pulses of electricity to target areas of the brain at specific times. Related: Super-detailed map of brain cells that keep us awake could improve our understanding of consciousness Finding a new target for treatment Stuttering is a speech disorder that affects around 1% of adults and between 5% and 10% of children . The condition causes people to involuntarily repeat or prolong certain sounds, syllables and words as they speak, as well as experience "blocks" in speech. People who stutter can therefore experience difficulty in communicating with others, which can contribute to social anxiety . There are two major types of stuttering: developmental stuttering , which emerges in childhood but resolves before age 18 in up to 90% of cases , and the less-common, acquired form of stuttering, which can occur after a brain injury. These injuries include those caused by a stroke , or a disease such as Parkinson's . Stuttering is typically treated with speech therapy . However, the benefits of this treatment do not always last , and there are currently no effective drugs to treat the condition. Until now, scientists didn't know where in the brain stuttering originated, which limited their ability to come up with alternate treatments. To find answers, Joutsa and colleagues started by looking at published medical case reports from 20 people who'd started stuttering after a stroke. They compared these reports to those from nearly 170 stroke patients at Turku University Hospital in Finland who did not develop stuttering. The team found that, in those who started stuttering, the damage caused by their strokes showed up in different parts of the brain but all clustered in the same brain network. The people who didn't develop stuttering didn't show this pattern. The team uncovered this same pattern in a separate experiment in which they used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan the brains of 20 people who had developed stuttering after a stroke. Related: A mysterious brain network may underlie many psychiatric disorders To determine if this brain network might indeed be responsible for all types of stuttering, and not just those caused by brain damage, the team also imaged the brains of 20 adults with developmental stuttering. In addition to scanning participants' brains, the researchers assessed the severity of their stuttering symptoms through video-recorded conversations and a questionnaire that the participants filled out. They uncovered patterns in how the participants' symptom severity related to the structure of their gray matter, which includes the main bodies of neurons. People more severely impacted by their stuttering showed higher gray matter volume in the same brain network linked to stuttering after stroke. This correlation was consistent in that, the greater the volume someone showed in the network, the more severe their stuttering was. RELATED STORIES Universal process that wires the brain is consistent across species AI pinpoints where psychosis originates in the brain 'Flow state' uncovered: We finally know what happens in the brain when you're 'in the zone' Taken together, these findings suggest that there is a common brain network underlying stuttering, regardless of its original trigger. This raises the possibility of targeting this network to treat the condition, Joutsa said. Electrical brain stimulation is already used to treat patients with various disorders , such as obsessive compulsive disorder, depression , Parkinson's disease and essential tremor. It is also currently being tested for the treatment of additional neurological conditions, such as traumatic brain injuries . In theory, brain stimulation may also be able to help prolong the beneficial effects of speech therapy in some patients, Catherine Theys , the study's lead author and an associate professor of psychology at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, told Live Science. The new findings could help clinicians make more informed decisions about which treatments to select for each patient, she said. However, there is a "long road ahead," as it may take years for this vision to be realized, Joutsa said. Ever wonder why some people build muscle more easily than others or why freckles come out in the sun ? Send us your questions about how the human body works to community@livescience.com with the subject line "Health Desk Q," and you may see your question answered on the website! ST. CLOUD St. Cloud State University is facing a lawsuit filed this May by 2024 graduate Tayah Lackie, who alleges the university violated her first amendment freedom of speech right by requiring she and other students pay a fee toward Students United, an organization established to advocate on students behalf. The university, which says it's following the law, collects 80 cents per credit hour to go toward the organization that was established in 1967. Students United, which collects fees from all Minnesota State system schools, has a track record of calling for student debt relief and enhancing student access to government assistance programs like food stamps. Truly I want students to be repaid for the funds that were taken from their accounts, Lackie said. The university shouldn't be forcing students to pay for political speech because that's against the Constitution. The fact students have had these fees taken out of our accounts is wrong. Lackie told the St. Cloud Times she was particularly irked by Students Uniteds work advocating for student debt relief since she went into SCSU with college credits and worked part-time to graduate debt-free. She said she shouldnt be paying to fund an organization advocating for something she doesnt believe in. The recent graduate was unaware of Students United until the Liberty Justice Centers legal team, a non-profit with headquarters in Chicago, is representing her alongside the non-profit Upper Midwest Law Center, headquartered in Golden Valley, Minnesota, reached out. Lackie said she never saw the organization on campus since becoming a student at SCSU in Fall 2021, which further motivated the justice center in its case against the university. (Students United) seems to operate on the downlow with respect to the actual students it purports to represent, Liberty Justice Center President Jacob Huebert said. What this looks like to me is a scheme where the university system can fund this lobbying group to advocate for causes at students expense. A July 2020 fee agreement requiring all Minnesota State system schools collect Student United fees references Minnesota Statutes Section 136F.22 as its basis, which the agreement claims also requires universities to collect fees for the group. All seven of the systems four-year universities in the Spring 2024 semester collected a combined total of approximately $400,000 in Students United fees, according to a fee report. Minnesota State University Mankato raised the most funds at $135,000 followed by SCSU at $68,000. Student fees account for 76% of Students Uniteds revenue, according to its 2024 budget. A screenshot included in the lawsuit complaint of a Students United social media post showing the organization going to Washington D.C. to advocate for its 2024 federal agenda. St. Cloud States response Students United and SCSU, who are both listed as defendants in the case, have until July 15 to officially respond to the lawsuit, Huebert said. However, SCSU responded to the St. Cloud Times inquiry and provided insight into its defense. Similar to the Minnesota State systems fee agreement, SCSU Vice President for Student Affairs and Strategic Enrollment Management Jason Woods said the university is only following the law set by Minnesota Statutes Section 136F.22. (The law) requires Minnesota State schools recognize one statewide student association for the state universities, make all state university students members of that organization and require each state university to collect fees on that organizations behalf, Woods said. SCSU and the other Minnesota State universities follow that statute. Lackies legal team alleges SCSUs defense of following the law doesnt make charging the fees correct. Huebert said theres a responsibility on the part of the university to allegedly ensure students constitutional right of deciding whether or not they fiscally support political speech isnt violated. You don't sue the people who pass the law, you sue the people who carry out and enforce it, Huebert said. That doesn't get (SCSU or) the Minnesota State system off the hook they're the ones who are forcing students to make these payments. Students United didnt respond to the St. Cloud Times inquiry. Janus v. AFSCME Huebert said Lackies argument will be similar to Janus v. AFSCME, which is a case the Liberty Justice Center took to the Supreme Court in June 2018 with a 5-4 victory. In that case, the plaintiff was Mark Janus, who was a child support specialist for the State of Illinois. At the time, Illinois was one of 22 states requiring government workers to pay union fees as an employment condition. Janus was upset he had to pay thousands of dollars to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, commonly referred to as AFSCME, because he was never asked if he wanted to be covered by a union contract. Huebert alleges this is similar to Lackies case because she was never asked if she wanted Students United to advocate on her behalf and was still required to pay fees toward funding the organization. Instead of having to pay a union to work for the government, you have to pay an advocacy group to be allowed to attend a school, Huebert said. To me, this precedent with Janice v. AFSCME should control the case. Corey Schmidt covers local government for the St. Cloud Times. He can be reached at cschmidt@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Student and nonprofits sue St. Cloud State for fee allegedly funding political activism Seminole County says it will vigorously defend lawsuit brought by 2 homeless men Were getting new insight into a lawsuit targeting Seminole Countys panhandling laws. Two homeless men are suing the county over laws that ban aggressive panhandling, and Channel 9 spoke with the attorney representing them on Thursday. Attorney Dan Marshall believes the lawsuit he filed this week is a first amendment case. He told Channel 9 the ordinance banning so called aggressive panhandling is unconstitutional because it restricts only certain types of speech. If our clients are asking for $1 for food, theyre violating the ordinance. Whereas if somebody else is asking for, hey, vote for me, or asking for a signature on a petition, or just asking for directions or something like that, then thats not a violation of the ordinance, said Marshall. Read: Ringleader identified in gruesome Seminole County kidnapping, murder Marshall also said he believes panhandling ordinances are counterproductive overall. He said he was confident his lawsuit would prevail because similar lawsuits were successful in Ocala and Lakeworth. From Southern legal counsels perspective, these, these types of ordinances tend to be counterproductive, because its not solving the problem. It doesnt help the homeless people, and it doesnt help the county itself, said Marshall. Homeless Service Providers have said money used to enforce similar ordinances should instead be used to address a housing crisis and lack of shelter capacity across Central Florida. Read: Severe storms continue to taper off over next few hours On Thursday, Channel 9 reached out to Seminole County for their response to the lawsuit. A spokesperson told Channel 9 the county doesnt comment on pending litigation. However, that spokesperson did send a letter which sheds light on the arguments attorneys for the county will likely present. Read: Investigation into misconduct at Holly Hill Police Dept. reveals shocking details, sheriff says That letter was sent to Marshall and the Southern Legal Counsel on August 9th, by Seminole County Attorney David Shields. It was filed in response to a letter Marshall sent arguing Seminole Countys ordinance was unconstitutional. That letter states the ordinance only covers aggressive conduct, so nonaggressive panhandling is not included. It also states the county will vigorously defend any lawsuit challenging the ordinance. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live. WASHINGTON, DC Compensation for St. Louis-area victims of radioactive contamination is not likely to happen after a deadline to reauthorize the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) ends today. Since Congress is not in session on Friday, if the bill doesnt clear by Thursday, the federal government will not accept RECA claims postmarked after June 10, stopping payments to anyone in the United States who may have developed diseases from contamination. Senator Josh Hawley issued this statement on X today, RECA expires today because the House has done nothing. I hope when @SpeakerJohnson gets back from Europe he will get focused on America and make time to meet with radiation survivors, like he promised. Speaker Johnsons decision to let the Senate-passed, bipartisan, expanded Radiation Exposure Compensation Act die in his lap is abhorrent, states Rep. Cori Bush. Senators Hawley and Eric Schmitt stressed the urgency of passing the bill, citing its importance for thousands affected by radioactive contamination in Missouri and beyond. The issue was highlighted by contamination at Jana Elementary School and concerns about the West Lake landfill, Coldwater Creek, and a former uranium plant site. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently completed a project to remove contaminated soil from Coldwater Creek. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2. U.S. lawmakers are saying Amazon and CEO Andy Jassy are dodging questions related to its Delivery Service Partner (DSP) program, particularly over concerns that the e-commerce giant is allegedly mistreating its contracted delivery drivers. In a bipartisan letter to Jassy on Thursday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and 33 other U.S. senators clamored for Amazon to provide the information initially requested in a previous letter on Jan. 10. More from Sourcing Journal That letter posited 12 questions related to the program, prodding into areas like Amazons justification for refusing to bargain with union representatives for the drivers, and whether delivery partners can work with direct package delivery competitors. But Congress felt Amazons Feb. 9 response was largely steered clear of telling them anything the lawmakers didnt already know. Unfortunately, Amazons response to our letter follows a familiar pattern of Amazon providing evasive and non-specific answers to questions from Congress and gives little if any new information on the DSP Program. Previous inquiriesmuch like ourshave been met with Amazons refusal to share important information on the companys operations, the senators wrote. As we noted in our initial letter, Amazon is facing allegations of flagrant violations of the National Labor Relations Act. As members of Congress, we have the responsibility to ensure that Amazon is working to address shortcomings in the DSP program and placing the utmost importance on workers rights and safety. The senators gave Jassy until July 5 to respond to their latest letter. Amazon took umbrage to the letter and its allegations. This letter is wrong on the facts, and shows the Committee continues to be intentionally misled. Weve been, and will continue to be transparent when it comes to the safety and health of our employees, partners, and communities, said Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, in a statement. As we shared in our previous response, the Delivery Service Partner (DSP) program is made up of thousands of small business owners and entrepreneurs around the world, and they receive support from Amazon to help them be successful. DSPs employ these drivers and maintain their own safety logs, providing the required information directly to OSHA. As independent businesses, DSPs are free to work for other companies, and drivers are free to choose their employers. One such area of concern for Congress is Amazons insistence that it is not a joint employer, a status in which two or more entities share control over a workers terms and conditions of employment. The senators letter says the suggestion contradicts evidence indicating its considerable control over workers employment conditions following investigations by the Department of Labors Wage and Hour Division into Amazon delivery service partners Inpax and Colonial Logistics. Moreover, Amazons use of AI-powered surveillance cameras in delivery vans and its mandate that DSP drivers in the U.S. sign biometric consent forms under threat of job loss further demonstrate the control the company has over individual DSP drivers, the letter wrote. Revelations from these investigations and reporting on Amazons surveillance practices underscore the depth of the companys involvement in its DSPs operations, challenging the companys stance on its relationship with DSP employees. The letter also went after Amazon for potentially circumventing safety and reporting data required by the Department of Transportation for its vehicles, and for contradicting delivery partners and their drivers on whether they can sign non-poaching agreements. In the case of the former, the senators said that Amazons practice of giving their vehicles two separate DOT numbers to represent both the tech titan and the contracted delivery company could provide opportunities to distort or otherwise mask safety data. Both concerns came with requests for further clarification. The Teamsters, who recently began a formal affiliation with the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) in an apparent effort to gear up for a nationwide unionization push for the companys workers, demanded that the tech titan cooperate with the congressional inquiry. Andy Jassy and Jeff Bezos think they can lie to the American people and break the law without consequences, said Teamsters general president Sean OBrien, in a statement. This company is making billions off the backs of the hardworking men and women that drive Amazon vans, wear Amazon vests and deliver Amazon packages, yet Amazon executives still have the audacity to turn around and deny that theyre Amazon employees. No company should be above the law, period. The Teamsters continue to support Senate efforts that hold this corporate bully accountable for its dishonesty and mistreatment of its workers. DSP driver Jessie Moreno, who is one of dozens of former Amazon contracted delivery drivers out of Palmdale, Calif. picketing the companys warehouses across the U.S., said Amazons letter to the U.S. Senate is full of lies. Shortly after Moreno and 83 other drivers working for Battle-Tested Strategies, a last-mile delivery partner of Amazon, unionized with the Teamsters Local 396 branch last year, Amazon terminated their DSP contract. Amazon has long held that the dissolution of the partnership was due to poor performance. The National Labor Relations Board hasnt acted yet on an unfair labor practice petition submitted by the Teamsters. CANBERRA, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian on Thursday suggested Chinese and Australian entrepreneurs and businesses deepen cooperation in traditional and emerging sectors and explore more possibilities in green innovation. Xiao made the remarks in a keynote speech, themed "Consolidate the Foundation for China-Australia Economic and Trade Cooperation, to Steadily Promote the Development of Bilateral Relations", at the 2024 Australia-China Economic Cooperation Forum held in Melbourne. The economic structures of China and Australia are highly complementary, and there is huge potential for economic and trade cooperation, Xiao told the audience, saying that after China and Australia successfully resolved the wine trade dispute earlier this year, Australian wine exports to China have grown rapidly, increasing by more than seven times year on year, making Australia China's third largest wine supplier. "Facts have proven that strengthening China-Australia economic and trade cooperation will bring tangible benefits to the business communities of both countries, effectively promote steady economic growth and benefit the two peoples," said the Chinese diplomat. He suggested business communities in the two countries deepen cooperation in traditional fields. In recent years, China-Australia cooperation in agriculture, energy, mining and other fields has made steady progress, and cooperation in tourism, education and other service industries is full of vitality, playing an important role in the stable development of China-Australia relations, Xiao said. Second, Chinese and Australian entrepreneurs and businesses can blaze a trail in emerging sectors, Xiao said, noting that China is at present accelerating its pace of new quality productive forces. The two sides should give full play to the potential of the China-Australia free trade agreement and expand cooperation in emerging industries such as healthcare and new energy to jointly safeguard the global and regional free trade system, he said. The Chinese ambassador also suggested business communities of both countries explore more possibilities in green innovation, saying that China is now stepping up the green transition and Australia is also striving to becoming a renewable energy superpower. Business communities of the two countries can seek opportunities to cooperate in clean energy, green transport, green manufacturing, digital economy, AI and other possible sectors, Xiao said. "We are heading for a future where high-level exchanges between China and Australia are gradually getting back on track, leading bilateral relations to develop in the right direction," Xiao said at the forum, which was hosted by the China Chamber of Commerce in Australia Melbourne Branch with the theme of "Join Forces, Build Futures." "We are ready to work with Australia to build a relationship based on equality, seeking common ground while shelving differences and win-win cooperation in the common interests of the two countries, so as to bring more benefits to the two countries and two peoples," Xiao said. Theres a new plan to preserve some of Georgias history and keep the legacy of the late-Rep. John Lewis alive. Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock announced that they have $600,000 in federal funding for the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation to help digitize Lewis paper trail and preserve all his notes, letters, journals, and paperwork he accumulated over the years. Congressman Lewis life-long commitment to civil rights, nonviolence, and universal human dignity remain essential to local, national, and global progress. No ones ideas or approach to public life have had more of an impact on me than Congressman Lewis, Ossoff said. Its imperative we protect and preserve Congressman Lewis teachings and records to help inspire future generations and to protect his legacy. Lewis was a member of the Atlanta City Council from 1982 through 1985 and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgias 5th district in 1986 and served 17 terms. He died on July 17, 2020. One of the defining moments of Lewis civil rights actions was when he helped lead a group of voting advocates across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and into a bloody battle with law enforcement in 1965. RELATED NEWS: The night before I presided over his funeral, as I was considering what I would say, I asked myself what he may have been thinking when he crossed Selmas Edmund Pettus Bridge, encountering all that violence. Certainly, he was just trying to stay alive so he could live and fight another day, but somehow, by some stroke of grace mingled with human determination, he managed to cross a bridge and build a bridge to the future at the same time, Warnock said. He is one of Georgias greatest sons and he taught us all how to make good trouble, which is why I was proud to work with Senator Ossoff to secure these federal funds for the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation so that future generations may learn and benefit from the lessons of his life and his tireless work to advance democracy, equality and justice. Lewis was involved in organizing the 1963 March on Washington and played a key role in the civil rights movement to end legalized racial segregation in the United States. The funding is part of this years bipartisan government funding package. The $595,000 package will help preserve and showcase invaluable documents and materials left by Lewis. Housed at the National Archives, the digitization of these materials will provide access for students, historians, academics, and individuals worldwide to study and explore Congressman Lewis commitment to justice and equality for all and his lifelong commitment to peace, a news release said. The digitization will also launch the development of a virtual center and serve as the basis of a physical space in Atlanta for leadership and professional development as well as civic engagement through the Good Trouble curriculum designed to inspire and empower young people for generations to come. RELATED NEWS: Donald Trump's first post-conviction rally was scheduled to start at 2 p.m on Thursday at the Dream City Church in Phoenix, Arizona, but many hopeful attendees landed in the hospital before he even took the stage. According to MTN, many people were lined up outside of the church well before doors officially opened at 10 a.m. and the brutal heat began to take its toll. The Phoenix Fire Department was on hand to treat those affected, many of whom were seniors, transporting just under a dozen people to be treated for heat exhaustion. Per reporting by Forbes, "Phoenix hit 111 degrees around 3 p.m.tying the daily heat record set in 2016, according to the National Weather Serviceand marking the first day the Valley reached 110 degrees this year." Having caught wind of this, resulting coverage of the hospitalizations by several outlets, and comments made by many on social media, turned a stink eye to Trump for putting his followers at risk. "Trump takes 6 days off from campaigning then sends 11 people to the hospital holding a rally at 2:00 PM in Arizona in June when its 108 degrees," writes Ron Filipkowski, Editor-in Chief of MTN, in a post to X. "He doesnt care at all about these people. He wants their money & their votes so he can acquire power. When will the rubes wake up?" Perhaps loopy from the heat himself, Trump's speech at the Turning Point USA sponsored event included a rather creative swipe at President Biden, accusing him of falling out of airplanes and helicopters. Convicted Felon Trump just said at his Arizona rally that President Biden falls out of airplanes and helicopters. Biden is James Bond apparently. pic.twitter.com/5kd91MNNMT Art Candee (@ArtCandee) June 6, 2024 Sentara, EVMS and CHKD rally to end gun violence: One thing you learn being a doctor is how special life is. NORFOLK Daysha Snipes applied to nursing school the day after her little brother was shot to death. Jordan Harris-Snipes, 17, was four months shy of graduating high school when he died Feb. 12, 2023, the day after he was struck in a drive-by shooting while heading to a party. His sister, 28, is determined not to let the world forget her brothers name. Now a patient care technician for Sentara, Snipes, who goes by Day, said she often finds herself wondering whos next. Every time I drive to work, panic sets in, she told a crowd of about 200 people gathered Friday on the lawn in front of Sentara Norfolk General Hospital for a Wear Orange to End Gun Violence rally. The event was hosted by Sentara, Eastern Virginia Medical School and Childrens Hospital of The Kings Daughters. This is the 10th year Wear Orange events across the country have raised awareness of gun violences effects on children and their families. Wear Orange launched June 2, 2015, which would have been the 18th birthday of Hadiya Pendleton, a Chicago teen killed by a stray bullet in January 2013, just a week after shed marched in President Barack Obamas second inaugural parade. Orange was Hadiyas favorite color. Others have since connected the glowing hue with hunting safety gear, indicating its wearer is not a target. Dr. Jay Collins, medical director of Sentara Norfolks Level 1 trauma center, has worked in trauma medicine in the city for 25 years. The surgeon said he hears different versions of the same story from gunshot victims, their families, police and others, but none of that changes his job to patch up his patients. I try to stay out of what happened on the streets, Collins said. His kids are now in their mid-20s, but when his daughter was a student at Old Dominion University, shed occasionally text to ask if he had worked on victims of a recent shooting, then tell him she was nearby when it happened. If I were to walk in there and see her Collins said, shaking his head. One thing you learn being a doctor is how special life is. Rallying to end gun violence is part of various prevention efforts in which Collins and other Sentara, EVMS and CHKD professionals participate from community outreach to giving away free gun locks. We dont want to make this into a political thing, Collins said. That isnt what this is about. The primary goal for Kamron Blue, 33, coordinator of CHKDs Safer Futures program, is to connect families with resources and address any barriers preventing them from using those resources. Barriers can be anything from the need for transportation to addressing feelings of trauma that might prevent families from returning to the place their children almost died even for important follow-up care, he said. Blue was a medical social worker before the Safer Futures program launched in 2021. Responding to the bedside of a child who has been shot is a heavy reality, Blue said, but his job also gives him a lot of hope. He often meets people on the worst day of their lives, but he gets to be there the day theyre told they dont have to come back to the hospital again, too. I leave here every day knowing I did the best I could by my families and my patients, he said. It makes a difference, one family at a time. Katrina Dix, 757-222-5155, katrina.dix@virginiamedia.com. WESTCHESTER COUNTY, N.Y. (PIX11) City officials are asking New Yorkers to stay away from the Hudson River because partially treated sewage has leaked into surrounding water, Westchester County officials said Friday afternoon. Until the repair is completed, up to one million gallons of partially treated sewage is expected to be released into the Hudson River, officials said in a statement. Contact with the sewage is a potential public health threat, so through the weekend and until further notice, residents are advised to avoid recreational activities in the Hudson River, from Peekskill to Yonkers. More Local News Currently, a significant amount of partially treated sewage is leaking into Yonkers. The water can carry the contamination upstream or down south below Yonkers, depending on the tides. The Hudson flows southward through the Hudson Valley and between New York City and Jersey City, eventually draining into the Atlantic Ocean. A contractor is currently working on-site to repair a broken pipe. The duration of how long it might take crews to finish repairs is unknown, city officials said. Matthew Euzarraga is a multimedia journalist from El Paso, Texas. He has covered local news and LGBTQIA topics in the New York City Metro area since 2021. He joined the PIX11 Digital team in 2023. You can see more of his work here. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. With voting starting yesterday in the Netherlands to elect the new European Parliament (EP), to last until Sunday (France, Germany, Italy etc.), some 450 million citizens of the 27 should, in principle, express their political will. Its more like 400 million, actually, abstention being usually higher than in national elections, which tells its own story. And the likelihood is that even with a projected rise of Right-wing parties, the full makeup of the EP wont change much. So are the Euro-elections any use at all, apart from producing life-size polls on the (un)popularity of each national government? The body we now call a Parliament was never intended by the founding fathers to mimic an actual legislative branch of a non-existent government of Europe, recalls Catherine Rouvier, a French constitutional law professor, who, 45 years ago, was a witness to the major political changes pushed by the then French president, Valery Giscard dEstaing. There was a consultative assembly, to which EEC nations sent national MPs. They discussed proposed regulations from the point of view of different national legislative traditions, in order to come to positions acceptable by all. This, she explains, is why the European Parliament cannot to this day initiate legislation: it was never meant to. Similarly, the forerunner to todays bloated Commission was initially small and restrained. Governments sent recognised national experts depending on the topic under discussion, only concerned with harmonisation between specific practices. It was, she remembers, extraordinary civilised, with remarkable people who came to offer help and then went again. How very different from the life of Ms von der Leyen, you might say. Of the two bodies, its the Commission that achieved the biggest mission creep, initiating now vast regulatory sweeps intended to curb national and international policies. Valery Giscard dEstaing, a man enamoured with his own cleverness (Professor Rouvier calls him Macron times ten) and, abetted by his friend Helmut Schmidt, the German chancellor at a time when West Germany was still lagging under the weight of history, decided to build up European institutions with a view to, one day, becoming President of Europe. Giscard created a series of permanent institutions, adding to the informal (then) Council of Ministers (which met ad hoc when decisions had to be pondered), another body of almost the same name, the European Council (of European leaders, PMs and presidents). This met twice a year, a grandiose travelling talking shop with photo-opportunities galore, while the newly-evolved process created permanent commissioners which had to be confirmed by the Parliament. This, Giscard decided, would have to be elected, giving it legitimacy (or the look of it). The learned amateurs were soon replaced by professional civil servants, while parliamentary candidates became political. The first crop, sent by France, were prestigious, like Simone Veil, Frances former conservative minister for justice, an Auschwitz survivor who became the first president of the European Parliament: everyone applauded the symbolism of her election. Similarly, Francois Mitterrand nominated Jacques Delors, his former finance minister, to be the first president of the revamped Commission. This was the last time such people were picked: wary of giving stature to potential rivals, most governments then sent mediocre personalities to pasture in Brussels, from Neil Kinnock to Edith Cresson. As for the European Parliament, it is kept busy by the mountain of overreaching legislation sent by the Commission, always watched by the European Council with which it shares that oversight. It is also tasked with providing its advice on treaties, laws, decisions but it still cannot initiate any of them. It is, in many ways, a very elaborate mood board. Not useless, but with less power than its beautiful name implies. 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. Mexican presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo gives a message to her supporters to celebrate her victory after receiving the preliminary election results of Mexico's general election. The 61-year-old led on 57.9% of the vote with around two-thirds of ballots counted, the national electoral institute said on Monday. Carlos Tischler/eyepix via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa Four days after Mexico held presidential elections, government candidate Claudia Sheinbaum has been officially declared the winner, making her the first female president in the country's history. A former mayor of Mexico City, Sheinbaum from the ruling left-wing Morena party won 59.75% of the votes, the electoral authority said late on Thursday. Her main challenger, opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez, came in second with 27.45%. Jorge Alvarez, from the smaller centre-left Movimiento Ciudadano party, had always been seen as having no chance. Almost 100 million citizens were eligible to vote to fill all seats in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, as well as regional and municipal posts, making it an election day of historic proportions. While the final results of the parliamentary vote are still pending, Sheinbaum's Morena party is projected to have garnered a solid majority. The party is hoping to secure a two-third majority in both chambers, to be able to single-handedly push through constitutional reforms, including the appointment of judges by direct vote, a plan that has critics fearing for the democratic separation of powers in Mexico. Following the election, the Mexican stock exchange suffered losses and the peso, the national currency, lost around 5% of its value against the US dollar. Sheinbaum is from the same party and a longtime ally of outgoing left-wing populist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The popularity of the president, who was not allowed to run again after six years in office, helped the 61-year-old scientist to win the election. Sheinbaum is expected to continue his policies, in particular the popular state aid schemes for young and old people. Although the opposition conceded defeat, it intends to file a complaint with the electoral court about alleged irregularities in the electoral process, denouncing Lopez Obrador's undue interference and the use of state resources in favour of Sheinbaum. Donna Deegan stands next to Sheriff T.K. Waters during a May 24, 2023 news conference at the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5-30. Deegan was mayor-elect at the time. Forty more police officers and the return of pensions for new hires could be coming to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. Mayor Donna Deegan's negotiators in collective bargaining talks with the Fraternal Order of Police offered Thursday to bring back pensions as an option for new hires as part of a three-year contract. The same day, Sheriff T.K. Waters told the Mayor's Budget Review Committee he wants to hire another 40 police officers in next year's budget on top of the 80 police positions the Sheriff's Office gained over the past year, an expansion he said will help catch up with Duval County's growth. When Deegan ran for mayor in 2023, she said she supported hiring more police and was open to bringing back pensions for police and firefighters. She has backed both initiatives during her first year as mayor, even though Waters was a high-profile endorser of Daniel Davis in the mayor's race and the Fraternal Order of Police also threw its support behind Davis. University of North Florida political science professor MIchael Binder said he's not surprised Deegan, a Democrat, offered to return pensions. "If you look back historically, Democrats and unions were locked at the hip for decades," he said. "The idea that Republicans became this pro-union cop party is really new and localized in a lot of ways. So it doesn't shock me that a Democrat is working positively with a union at all." He said the support Deegan has shown for hiring more police fits the "reach across the aisle" approach she's taken with Republicans, such as Waters, in city government. "She certainly has appointed Republicans to her administration and kind of followed through on what she said about working with the police and endorsing a budget increase the past year," Binder said. "Who knows what next year will bring, but certainly for the past year." Jacksonville stopped pensions for new hires in 2017 The city stopped offering pensions to all new hires in city government in October 2017 after the city piled up massive amounts of unfunded obligations and Mayor Lenny Curry lead a successful campaign for a half-cent sales tax dedicated to paying down that pension debt. Employees already enrolled at the time in city-administered pension plans, such as the Police and Fire Pension Fund, have kept earning benefits from the city plans. But everyone joining city employment since Oct. 1, 2017, could only save for retirement with 401(k) style accounts. Deegan's offer still would keep the Jacksonville Police and Fire Pension Fund closed to new hires, but it would let them enroll in the financially stronger Florida Retirement System that covers government workers across the state. FOP lodge President Randy Reaves said when the city stopped offering pensions to new hires, Mayor Lenny Curry's administration said other counties also would be moving away from pensions. But seven years later, the other 66 counties still have pensions for police and firefighters and "no one's even thinking about taking their pensions away from first responders," Reaves said. "So I do give Mayor Deegan a lot of credit in the fact that she listened." Thank you .@MayorDeegan for fixing a problem you did not cause. This is a huge deal & will help JSO to recruit & retain the best & brightest. We will no longer be the ONLY police agency in FL without a pension. https://t.co/osUskeW9uj FOP5-30 (@TheRealFOP530) June 6, 2024 He said part of the argument for restoring pension is the Sheriff's Office has about 100 vacant police officer positions. "We talked to her about the reasons why we should never have had the pension taken away here in Jacksonville," Reaves said. "And we showed her the data that Sheriff Waters was being handcuffed by not being on a level playing field in this highly competitive market for police officers." The Jacksonville Association of Fire Fighters reached a tentative agreement Friday on a three-year contract with pay raises and restoration of pensions in 2027. Negotiations continue on a contract with the Fraternal Order of Police. "Out of respect for the process, we are not commenting on the active negotiations, which are going well and at the finish line," city spokesman Phillip Perry said. Sheriff T.K. Waters' four-year goal is 200 additional officers Separately from the union negotiations, the Mayor's Budget Review Committee heard Waters make his request for next year's budget. Waters is proposing a $630.5 million budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, a 5.5% increase from this year's $597.7 million budget. Jacksonville has suffered from violent crime for decades, but at least so far this year, homicides are trending down. As of Friday morning, the city had 39 unofficial homicides, compared to 62 at the same time in 2023, according to The Florida Times-Union's tracking data. Jacksonville is on pace to have fewer than 100 homicides for only the third time in the 21 years since the Times-Union has chronicled the city's death toll. The total in 2023 was 157 homicides by the Times-Union's count, although the Sheriff's Office has since updated its figures to a lower total. Waters said adding more police officers, primarily for patrol, will help stay on top of all kinds of crime. "Violent crime is not the only thing we hear about," he told reporters. "We have so many different things that take place in the city and everyone deserves an equal amount of service, so we want to make sure we stay focused on that." Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters talks to reporters April 25 after officer Malik Daricaud's release from rehabilitation for treatment of spinal cord injuries he suffered while helping fellow officers apprehend a wanted suspect His proposed budget would have a total of 3,350 civilian employees and sworn officers, which actually would be slightly less than the 3,352 positions this year, according to documents provided to the Mayor's Budget Review Committee. But the number of positions for sworn officers within the Sheriff's Office would be increasing again. The city added 80 police positions over the past year, including 40 police officers whose cost will be partially paid over three years by a federal COPS grant, which is short for Community Oriented Policing Services. The request for 40 more officers would be paid from the city's general fund that covers city services and would bring the total number of sworn officer positions to 1,948. Waters told the Mayor's Budget Review Committee that when people call the Sheriff's Office for assistance, they "expect us to respond in a timely manner." "And in order for us to keep up and be able to do that, I think it's very important for us to continue to try to grow as we move forward," he said. Sheriff's Office has large number of vacant positions Waters faced questions about whether the Sheriff's Office should first take advantage of all the patrol positions already authorized and by fill them with police officers before asking for more slots. The patrol and enforcement division, which is the single largest division in the Sheriff's Office, had 61 vacant police officer positions, according to a snapshot of staffing levels provided to the committee. Waters said the Sheriff's Office is about to kick off a training academy for 40 police recruits. He said he hopes the ongoing contract talks between Deegan's administration and the police union can provide a compensation package for officers that will attract "the best and brightest" for filling future academy classes. If Deegan and City Council agree to Waters' request, the next round of police positions would put him more than halfway toward the goal he set in 2023 of adding 200 positions over a four-year period. Settlement authority: Jacksonville City Council gives sheriff official say despite community concern City Council member Nick Howland said he'll support Waters' budget request when it comes before council, including the 40 police officers. Waters said based on national benchmarks, the Sheriff's Office should have more than 2,000 officers for a city the size of Jacksonville. "That's something that City Council will look favorably on because we know, as the sheriff clearly stated, that we're understaffed as far as patrol officers," Howland said after hearing the presentation to the Mayor's Budget Review Committee. Deegan, who supported Waters' request for additional police last year, will present her proposed budget to City Council in July. Florida Times-Union Metro Editor Scott Butler contributed to this report. This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville sheriff request 40 officers. Deegan puts pensions on table Shock poll? New Fox News survey has Trump over Biden by just 4 points in Florida President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and former President Donald Trump, a Republican, are headed for a rematch in the 2024 presidential election. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) Quality Journalism for Critical Times Despite a claim by the Joe Biden campaign earlier this year that Florida is in play, theres been little indication so far in 2024 that the Sunshine State wont go for Donald Trump for a third presidential election. But Florida Democrats are touting a new public opinion survey released Thursday night by Fox News of 1,075 registered voters that shows Trump up over Biden by only 4 points, 50%-46%. Donald Trump is in trouble in Florida, the Florida Democratic Party announced in a written statement. Later, the party made a fundraising pitch on X referring to the poll, saying that This confirms that Florida is back as a battleground state. Is it really? The RealClearPolitics average shows Trump up over Biden by 8 percentage points. The only other poll in Florida that showed Biden as close was a St. Pete Polls survey conducted with WMNF Radio in Tampa in March that showed Trump up by 6 points, 48%-42%. The Fox News poll was conducted of registered voters, and not likely voters. Pollsters with Gallup wrote years ago that not all registered voters will actually vote, which is why they created systems in 1950 to isolate likely voters, that group of individuals who the company can estimate are most likely to actually vote. The survey was conducted June 1-4, after Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records in New York. The Fox News poll shows that Trumps lead over Biden expands to 7 points when third-party candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West, and Jill Stein are included. Trump leads with 47%, with Biden at 40%, Kennedy at 7%, West at 2%, and Stein at 1%. Stein is running for the Green Party nomination. If nominated this summer, she is guaranteed to be on the ballot, as the Greens already are qualified in Florida. Kennedy Jr. intends to be placed on the Florida ballot as the Reform Party candidate, but that hasnt officially happened yet. And Wests political party has yet to hold a nominating convention that would get him placed on the Florida ballot. The Fox News survey has good news for those supporting the two big measures on the November ballot: recreational cannabis for adults over 21 and abortion rights. This is an outlier poll and more left leaning than turnout will be, Republican Party of Florida Chairman Evan Power told the Phoenix. The cannabis measure, Amendment 3, gets 66% support, with 32% opposing it. Amendment 4, which would establish the right of abortion until viability, gets 69% support, with 27% opposing. Those are the highest poll numbers for both measures since the Florida Supreme Court voted to place both on the ballot on April 1. The post Shock poll? New Fox News survey has Trump over Biden by just 4 points in Florida appeared first on Florida Phoenix. PRINCE GEORGES COUNTY, Md. (DC News Now) Police said they were investigating a shooting that left one person dead Wednesday night. The Prince Georges County Police Department (PGPD) said it happened around 11:30 p.m. in the 1400 block of University Blvd. Charles County man arrested for shooting father, deputies say PGPD said a second person who also had been shot was taken to the hospital. He still was there as of 4:46 p.m. Thursday, PGPD said in a post on the X platform. Detectives asked anyone with information to call 1-866-411-TIPS or submit a tip on the P3 Tips app. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | Washington, DC. He was shot in the back by a Kentucky cop. Can his fellow officers be sued? Lawyers for a Georgetown police officer who was a member of a team of officers who shot and paralyzed a fellow officer in September 2018 argued he should be immune from a lawsuit over police actions that day. Meanwhile, lawyers for former Scott County Deputy Jaime Morales argued before the state Supreme Court Thursday officers who were involved in the botched take-down of a fugitive at a rest area that ended in Morales being shot should be held liable for their actions. The legal drama surrounding Morales career-ending injury has lasted more than five years. During an attempt to arrest Edward Reynolds, a fugitive from Florida, Morales was shot in the back. Reynolds was killed in the confrontation at a Georgetown rest area on Interstate 75 but did not fire his weapon. Morales sued the city of Georgetown and its police department in September 2019, alleging the department did not properly train members of its special response team. The lawsuit alleges that Georgetown officer Joseph Enricco shot Morales, and Enrico had only completed basic response team training one month before the incident. Enricco had not been on any serious response team call outs and had no vehicle assault training, the lawsuit said. However, there is dispute on which officer shot Morales during the failed attempt to arrest Reynolds. The bullet that paralyzed Morales is still in his body. Ballistics tests have not been conducted. Enricco was the only officer standing in a position that could have fired the bullet that injured Morales. Also sued was Georgetown Police Lt. James Wagoner, who commanded the the special response team the night Morales was shot, the city of Georgetown and the Georgetown Police Department. Wagoner has since retired from the department. Enrico also has since left the department. Law enforcement officials did not admit it was a police officer who shot Morales until March 2019, nearly six months after the shooting. In December 2021, Circuit Court Judge Brian Privett ruled law enforcement officers involved in the shooting of Morales could not be sued because of qualified immunity, which gives public officials, including police officers, protections from lawsuits. Morales appealed that decision to the state Court of Appeals, which reversed the Circuit Court decision on whether Lt. James Wagoner could be sued on two key points -- whether he supervised the operation correctly and if he should have told officers responding on Sept. 11, 2018, to wear full body armor. Morales was not wearing full body armor on the night of the shooting. Lawyers for Morales say if he had been wearing that body armor, he may not have been paralyzed. Wagoners lawyers than appealed that decision to the state Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Morales lawyers appealed the lower courts decision to dismiss the case against Enricco, the city of Georgetown and Georgetown Police Department. Prior court decisions have ruled police officers and public officials can be sued if they fail to follow ministerial acts, such as not following rules or orders. Discretionary actions, when an official uses judgment, are immune from lawsuits. The majority of lawsuits against police are dismissed particularly in cases involving excessive force because police officers actions are deemed discretionary and therefore cannot be held liable. Ministerial or discretionary Tom Miller, a lawyer for Morales, argued Thursday that Wagoner did not exercise his ministerial duties because he failed to require the officers that responded the night of Sept. 11 to wear body armor. Miller also argued Wagoner did not require attendance at certain training. It is alleged that Enricco did not attend training of the joint Scott County and Georgetown special response team. Moreover, Miller argued Enricco should also be liable for his actions that night. His decision to fire his weapon was discretionary. However, Enricco had an official and ministerial duty to make sure no one was near him when he shot his weapon. According to the special response team general orders, before a call out, the commander, Wagoner needed to develop a sound tactical plan. That wasnt done, Miller said. He failed to to develop or oversee an actual tactical plan, Miller said Thursday. Former Lexington Police Assistant Chief Kevin Sutton, an expert witness for Morales, said the this assignment was flawed from inception, according to testimony read by Miller in court. Lawyers for Enricco, Wagoner and the city of Georgetown argued the officers and the city could not be sued by Morales because officers actions were discretionary. Enriccos decision to fire when Reynolds, the fugitive, started to reverse the vehicle and then opened the glove compartment to get a gun was discretionary and therefore he cant be sued, said Jeffrey Mando, a lawyer for Enricco. It was a quintessential judgment call, Mando said. And judgment calls are discretionary, he said. Its not clear when the seven-member Supreme Court will rule on both appeals. Morales, who now uses a wheelchair, attended Thursdays hearing. He can no longer work due to his injuries. Its been heartbreaking, Morales said. The six years since he was shot has been really, really hard. Geona Gray (R, front) from Heriot-Watt University, poses with her Best Performance award after the 23rd "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition UK Regional Final for university students in London, Britain, June 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Li Ying) LONDON, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Eight university students from across the United Kingdom (UK) showcased their language skills and shared their passion for Chinese culture in a Chinese competition held in London on Thursday. During the 23rd "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition UK Regional Final for university students, each contestant tackled tasks including speech, quiz race, and talent show. "Looking back at my journey of learning Chinese, I feel very fortunate since it has enabled me to make many new friends and appreciate the depth and breadth of Chinese culture," said Chidimma Daisy Anyakora, the champion of the competition, who she has been learning Chinese only since 2019. The contestant -- a freshman from the University of Manchester, along with three other winning contestants, has earned the opportunity to compete in the global finals of the competition in China later this year. "Each of us serves as a disseminator of culture, with fervent passion in our hearts and a broad perspective in our eyes," said Francesca Pala from the University of Leeds, who won second place and the prize for the most eloquent contestant. As an Italian learning Chinese in the UK, she expressed her joy in experiencing how three different cultures echo and flourish together. Many contestants shared their interest and passion for both traditional and pop culture from China. Some appeared onstage in Hanfu, traditional Chinese dresses, while others performed Chinese pop songs. The panel of judges for the competition comprised professionals from different backgrounds, ensuring a comprehensive evaluation. It consisted of experts in Chinese language teaching from across the UK, along with representatives from the business and media sectors. During the competition, Minister Yang Xiaoguang of the Chinese Embassy in the UK delivered a speech highlighting the significance of learning Chinese. Learning Chinese would provide students with opportunities to "engage in dialogue on major issues concerning the development of humanity and contribute to China-UK friendship and cooperation as well as the advancement of human civilization," he emphasized. Jessica Bethany Keighley from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, competes at the 23rd "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition UK Regional Final for university students in London, Britain, June 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Li Ying) Chidimma Daisy Anyakora (L, front) from the University of Manchester and the champion of the 23rd "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition UK Regional Final for university students poses for a photo at the awards presenting ceremony of the competition in London, Britain, June 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Li Ying) Chidimma Daisy Anyakora from the University of Manchester competes at the 23rd "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition UK Regional Final for university students in London, Britain, June 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Li Ying) Two people exchanged gunfire outside of Kansas City Public Schools East High School as summer classes were dismissing Thursday afternoon, a police spokesman said. No one was injured when the gunfire erupted about 2:30 p.m. Thursday in front of the high school at 1924 Van Brunt Boulevard on Kansas Citys East Side, said Sgt. Phil DiMartino with the Kansas City Police Department. Detectives are working to identify the persons involved, and the investigation is ongoing. The gunfire occurred shortly after classes were dismissed, said Shain Bergan, public relations coordinator for Kansas City Public Schools. The shots were fired from two vehicles driving along Van Brunt Boulevard in front of the high school. People were outside the school, and students were filing onto buses. After the shots rang out, the buses left, and the school districts security staff ushered everyone inside the building and initiated a lockdown, Bergan said. Kansas City police responded, and once the area was secured, Bergan said the lockdown was lifted. The districts transportation department worked to get the rest of the students home. This did delay many of our students getting home on time, but everyone was safe, and thats what matters, Bergan said. A message notifying parents of the incident and the delay in getting their children home was sent. It was followed up with another message saying classes would be held on Friday as scheduled. Extra security and trauma clinicians were at the school for anyone who needed them. It was unknown what the people were shooting at, Bergan said. No school district property was struck by gunfire. The incident came on the second day of Kansas City Public Schools summer academy, according to the districts website. The summer classes started June 5 and run to June 28. East High School is the site for all of the districts high schools. You are, Im sure, familiar with Occams razor. Its the old philosophical theorem that holds that the simplest explanation for an event, the one requiring the fewest assumptions, is probably the best explanation. If you wake up in the morning and theres snow on the lawn, there are any number of possible explanations. Maybe some friends played a practical joke on you and dumped snow in your yard. Maybe space aliens visited during your slumber and dusted your lawn with the white stuff. Ormaybe it snowed last night. Republicans keep asking, completely dishonestly, why so much criminal suspicion surrounds Donald Trump. They say its all being orchestrated by Joe Biden and Merrick Garland. They insist its an effort to interfere with his election campaign. They say a lot of things, but if ever there was a case where Occams razor applied, its this one. Trump is surrounded by criminal suspicion because hes a criminal. Hes been doing criminal things for decades. He just finally got cornered and caught on something. Ive been writing recently that Democrats have to make sure every voter in the country remembers by Election Day, having heard it said thousands of times, that Donald Trump is a convicted felon. Thats true, and so far, Democrats and affiliated groups arent doing a terrible job of this. Its a little sad that the best expression Ive seen of this so far comes from a Republicanfiercely anti-Trump Republican Sarah Longwells group, Republican Voters Against Trump, has put up some blunt billboards around the country featuring photos of voters, with their names, under the statement: I wont vote for a convicted felon. But Democrats need to do more. Trumps criminality, both past and future, should be central to the campaign. Theres a story to tell here, and its all true. No matter what the pollsters and the messaging gurus say, its impossible that all of this, taken together, doesnt matter to swing voters. To tell the story, you go through Trumps record: convicted on 34 felony counts determined by a court to have raped a woman and ordered to pay her $83 million found by a court to have overvalued his assets and ordered to pay $364 million ordered to pay a $2 million settlement after admitting that he misused his charity, which the state of New York shut down found by the Justice Department to have refused to rent apartments to Black applicants; settled out of court sued by the Justice Department for violating proper procedures in the purchase of stock; paid $750,000 in civil fines charged by the New York State Lobbying Commission with violating state lobbying laws while purchasing a casino; paid $250,000 to settle fines found by the courts to have grossly defrauded students at the so-called Trump University and ordered to pay them $25 million in restitution This list isnt even the tip of the iceberg. Its the tip of the tip. Trump has spent four decades being sued for something or other, typically not paying his bills, like those famous cases where he stiffed the poor vendors for his casinos, filing his own ridiculous countersuits and libel suits, and paying fines to make things go away. If indeed he actually paid the fines. I wonder if anyone has ever really gotten to the bottom of that. And I havent even mentioned the current charges around January 6 and the stolen classified documents because, so far, theyre just charges. But whatever the courts end up saying on those two matters, weve all seen with our own eyes the insurrection that he obviously incited (as of this January, 718 rioters had pleaded guilty to various federal charges, and 139 had been found guilty in court) and the photos of the boxes of documents at Mar-a-Lago that he refused for months to turn over to the FBI. Another important point: The criminality around Trump isnt limited to Trump. Eight Trump associates were sentenced to prison time: Steve Bannon, Michael Cohen (joined the good side but still served time), Rick Gates, Paul Manafort, Peter Navarro, George Papadopoulos, Roger Stone, and Allen Weisselberg. Others copped pleas: Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Cheseboro, and Scott Hall, another Georgia defendant. This is not a coincidence. As GOP strategist Rick Wilson said, Everything Trump touches dies; he corrupts everything and everyone around him. And does anyone seriously think that if he gets back to the Oval Office, the same thing isnt going to happen again? Its going to be worse. Its going to be far worse. First, hes going to start, on that dictatorial day one, by pardoning himself. Joe Biden and the Democrats need to try to get voters focused on this. If it happens, people will be completely outraged. Yes, the 38 percent or so who are MAGA world will be fine with it, but majorities will be flabbergasted at such an act. Is it possible to get voters pre-outraged about something that hasnt happened? The polls will say no. But as Ive written over and over lately, polls can either be acceptedor they can be changed. Right now, whats most terrifying to me about the polls is that they tell us emphatically that people forget. They forget all the horrible things Trump did. That includes presidential actions, like his lies to the American people about the pandemic, but it also includes his history of criminality and the way that history guarantees hell keep behaving that way. In sum: Trumps criminal record hardly begins and ends with Stormy Daniels. Somebody needs to make sure that, by November 5, voters know the entire, sordid history. SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) A skateboarder is fighting for his life after a suspected DUI driver struck him at a high rate of speed Thursday night, authorities said. The incident occurred in the Fox Canyon neighborhood around 11:50 p.m. when a man of unknown age was riding a skateboard southbound in the 3600 block Euclid Avenue, explained the San Diego Police Department. Passenger killed in suspected DUI crash on SR-52 At that same time, a 20-year-old woman was allegedly driving a 2009 Honda Accord at a high rate of speed southbound on the same block as the skateboarder. Police said the driver struck the man and fled the scene. The woman was then reported to be involved in another collision at 2500 46th St. before, again, fleeing the scene, according to authorities. She was eventually located and arrested about three hours later after the Honda Accord was disabled at Fairmount Avenue and Interstate 8, police confirmed. The suspect, whose identity was not immediately released, was suspected to be under the influence of alcohol. The skateboarder sustained serious head and torso trauma. His injuries are considered to be life-threatening. Traffic Division personnel responded and are handling the investigation. Anyone with information related to the incident is encouraged to call Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. SmartLane: Commute on I-275? This should make it easier starting Monday Drivers traveling a northern span of Interstate 275 are about to get a little more breathing room. The Ohio Department of Transportation on Monday plans to open the first of two SmartLanes that will allow vehicles to use the inside shoulder during morning rush hour. That will add a fourth lane for commuters between roughly 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. on weekdays. Smart corridors, also known as managed lanes or SmartLanes, allow an extra lane of travel on highway shoulders during certain times to alleviate traffic congestion. The SmartLane the first in southwest Ohio will run between Reed-Hartman Highway and Loveland-Madeira Road on westbound I-275. Thats roughly between Blue Ash and Loveland. Less congestion, fewer accidents With 95,000 to 115,000 vehicles traveling that section of I-275 a day, the SmartLane will help ease congestion and reduce accidents, the department said in a press release. A SmartLane is due to open on westbound Interstate 275 on Monday. The design of the project, supported with technology, will help mitigate safety risks" on the interstate, the release said. How SmartLane will work Transportation staff will monitor traffic in the area and open the SmartLane if traffic slows to less than 55 mph. When in use, digital signs will mark the inside shoulder lane with a green arrow. The lane will be marked with a red X when closed and a yellow X when starting to close. Digital signs will also adjust speed limits. When the SmartLane is open, all traffic on that stretch of I-275 will be 55 mph or less instead of the usual 65 mph. Digital signs will tell drivers when the SmartLane is open and the speed limit. The SmartLane will provide a fourth lane for traffic on I-275, not five as depicted in the illustration above. What will SmartLane cost? The westbound I-275 SmartLane is part of a $22.3 million interstate project that includes repairs and resurfacing between U.S. 42 and state Route 28. An eastbound I-275 SmartLane is planned, with construction to start in 2028 if funding is in place. It will run the full distance of the interstate project. The balance of the westbound SmartLane will be completed then as well, to match the starting and ending points of the eastbound one. The overall eastbound interstate work will cost $69.5 million. It calls for widening bridges over the Little Miami River and improving the interchange at Interstate 71, in addition to installing the SmartLane and related technology. The I-275 improvements are among more than 100 construction projects for the Ohio transportation departments District 8 this year. They include 38 in Hamilton County, 14 in Clermont, 12 in Greene, 11 in Butler, 10 in Preble, nine each in Warren and Clinton, and six district-wide. A SmartLane will be added to eastbound Interstate 275, with construction slated to start in 2028 pending funding. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: SmartLane: What's new on I-275? Smoke shops and dispensaries can apply for their license to sell recreational marijuana beginning today [June 7] as Ohio continues to prepare for such sales. >> Driverless golf cart hits woman sitting in lawn chair Winning an application will mean bringing in money, even more for dispensaries already working with medical patients. Applications from medical permit holders will get first attention, by state statute. There are about 20 dispensaries in Montgomery, Greene, Butler, Warren, Clark and Miami counties. One of those is Terrasana Cannabis Co., an Ohio-based medical marijuana company, which is seeking to become a dual-licensed dispensary. Were really excited to be able to serve just an entirely new group of individuals while still serving our medical patients, Nikki Stanley, marketing director for Terrasana, which has locations in Springfield, Columbus, Cleveland and Fremont. Stanley said Terrasana thinks marijuana prices are going to increase because of demand and because discounts will be going away. Medical patients will receive priority at Terrasana, she said, advising recreational consumers to preorder online if they know what they want and are familiar with the product they want. Springfield resident Steve Marshall said licensing smoke shops and dispensaries to sell for recreational use is like alcohol consumption: You have to dring responsibly, so you have to smoke responsibly. Marshall said surely there will be more money to be made, but allows that concerns are ever present. I can understand parents concerned about that, but you know, kids are going to young people going to do what theyre going to do, he said. One big concern is the continuing sale of unregulated products such as Delta 8, state Division of Cannabis Control spokesperson Jamie Crawford said: As the division prepares to introduce products that have met its highest standards of testing and safety, all of which will carry the DCC seal, we must ensure dangerous, unregulated products such as Delta-8 are removed from circulation. Delta-8 THC is a psychoactive substance found in the Cannabis sativa plant, of which marijuana and hemp are two varieties. Delta-8 THC is one of over 100 cannabinoids produced naturally by the cannabis plant. Delta-8 THC products have not been evaluated or approved by the FDA for safe use in any context and may be marketed in ways that put the public health at risk and should especially be kept out of the reach of children and pets, according to the U.S. Food & Drug administration. There is no specific date set for locations to sell recreationally, Crawford said, noting the department is reviewing applications, performing inspections of facilities and approving those applications roughly in the order that they have been received. Our focus has been to make dual use applications available to medical permit holders by today [June 7] as stated in the voter-approved initiated statute as for what happens after that, it is too early to say how quickly dual-use permits will be turned around, Crawford said. It will be up to the retailer based on staffing, stock and other considerations as to which day they will begin sales. The last day to approve a dual application will be Sept. 7, according to the DCC. We need something that works: Activists call for more resources for gun violence prevention State Rep. Emily Dievendorf (D-Lansing) addresses a gun violence prevention rally on the Michigan Capitol steps, June 6, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Gun reform advocates gathered around the steps of Michigans Capitol Thursday, calling for more policy and community resources surrounding firearms in the state. Speakers at the rally addressed a need for collaboration between local activists and legislators while creating policy for gun reform. Its the lack of community violence intervention and sensible regulation that fueled the cycle of gun violence, said Maya Manuel. We urgently need increased funding for our community violence intervention. I understand that grasping the importance of this funding can be challenging, especially for those from communities less frequently struck by these tragedies. Manuel, a local gun reform advocate, and Charlotte Plotzke organized the rally. Both are recent graduates of Michigan State University. Plotzke said the rally was intended to bring awareness to community violence, including a recent deadly Memorial Day weekend shooting in Lansing. Michigan passed a slew of laws restricting gun access in 2023 following a shooting on Michigan State Universitys campus that left three students dead and several injured. The new rules went into effect in February. One of the new laws requires safe storage of firearms to prevent accidental deaths or injuries. Another makes background checks and license possession mandatory for all gun sales, including rifles. Individuals charged with misdemeanors related to domestic violence were also put on an eight-year probation of possessing, purchasing or distributing guns after completing their sentence. Finally, people who pose a risk to themselves or others could potentially have their guns confiscated at the request of a professional or a close member of the family under an extreme risk protection order, or red flag law. But advocates for gun reform want more funding for community organizations that prevent violence and more policy that will help educate on gun safety. Were so grateful for the new bills that we passed last year, Manuel said. Let me remind you that it took years to get sensible gun legislation passed. It was a battle to get done. It was a battle to get the votes and I do not want that to continue as we tried to push for more safety legislation. Manuel highlighted two bills, HB 5450 and 5451, currently making their way through the House that would require schools to distribute information to parents about safe storage of gun laws. She said this would bring awareness to the passed gun laws and make them more effective. State Rep. Emily Dievendorf (D-Lansing) spoke during the rally about how they prioritize listening to community activists, including Manuel, when trying to address gun violence in the state Capitol. This community knows what it wants, but it also knows what it needs, because were tired of counting gunshots, Dievendorf said. More than that were tired of the loss, and we need something that works. They also touched on the importance of inclusive gun legislation that did not perpetuate inequities and kept residents throughout the state safe. We cant pick and choose who we care about, whether its a community or a neighbor, Dievendorf said. Maya Manuel, a gun violence prevention activist in Lansing, speaks at a rally on the Michigan State Capitol steps, June 6, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Michiganders hold signs and listen to Pamela Pugh speak at a gun violence prevention rally on the Michigan State Capitol steps, June 6, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Barry Randolph, a pastor and community activist from Detroit, speaks during a gun violence prevention rally on the Michigan State Capitol steps, June 6, 2024. | Lucy Valeski Trini Pehlivanoglu, a member of the Lansing City Council, speaks at a gun violence prevention rally on the Michigan State Capitol steps, June 6, 2024. | Lucy Valeski Rally against gun violence at the Michigan Capitol, June 6, 2024 | Courtesy photo Emma Kaiser, a high school student and board member of No Future Without Today, speaks during a gun violence prevention rally on the Michigan State Capitol steps, June 6, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Rally against gun violence at the Michigan Capitol, June 6, 2024 | Courtesy photo Trini Pehlivanoglu, a member of the Lansing City Council, speaks at a gun violence prevention rally on the Michigan State Capitol steps, June 6, 2024. | Lucy Valeski State Rep. Emily Dievendorf (D-Lansing) addresses a gun violence prevention rally on the Michigan Capitol steps, June 6, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Pamela Pugh, president of the state board of education, speaks at a gun violence prevention rally on the Michigan State Capitol steps, June 6, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Barry Randolph, a pastor and community activist from Detroit, speaks during a gun violence prevention rally on the Michigan State Capitol steps, June 6, 2024. | Lucy Valeski Pamela Pugh, president of the state board of education, speaks at a gun violence prevention rally on the Michigan State Capitol steps, June 6, 2024 | Lucy Valeski State Rep. Emily Dievendorf (D-Lansing) addresses a gun violence prevention rally on the Michigan Capitol steps, June 6, 2024 | Lucy Valeski Jonathan Gold, the Michigan chapters president of Giffords Gun Owners for Safety, addresses a gun violence prevention rally on the Michigan State Capitol steps, June 6, 2024. | Lucy Valeski Rally against gun violence at the Michigan Capitol, June 6, 2024 | Courtesy photo Jonathan Gold, president of Michigans arm of Giffords Gun Owners for Gun Safety, also asked the legislature to pass rules prohibiting guns in polling places. He spoke further on the necessity of legislation that makes guns more safe. The state of Michigan saw a problem and it stood up after four decades of nothing, Gold said. People want to blame politicians for things not getting done. Our Legislature, once gun-sense candidates were elected to the majority, stood up and made a difference. Emma Kaiser also spoke during the rally. She is a Michigan high school senior on the board of No Future Without Today and spoke about her fear of gun violence in school, as well as the importance of gun reform legislation. Im asking each and every one of you for your help, Kaiser said. Take the time to educate yourself and others on gun legislation, safety laws and more specific ideations, such as universal background checks and red flag laws. Pamela Pugh, the president of the state board of education, spoke during the rally about how gun violence disproportionately impacts Black Michiganders. Additionally, she spoke about how the board of education has advocated for more funding for mental health and safety measures in schools in the state budget. We also must have elected officials who support equitable investment in our school systems, our neighborhoods and adequate provisions for mental health and social and emotional support, Pugh said. Pugh is running for the Democratic nomination for the open 8th Congressional District alongside state Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City) and Matt Collier. On the GOP side, Mary Draves, Anthony Hudson and Paul Junge are running on Aug. 6. Manuel also spoke about a lack of resources, including mental health support, in local school districts as a root source of gun violence. We have to dismantle this pipeline to ensure that all students have the opportunity to thrive in a safe and supportive learning environment, Manuel said. Its not just about the lack of counselors, its about investing in the future of Lansing. Trini Pehlivanoglu, a member of the Lansing City Council, spoke about the importance of local support for violence prevention. She highlighted the newly created Office of Neighborhood Safety in Lansing that will help connect local advocacy organizations. Recently, more than ever, I have seen so many partnerships being forged between government and grassroots organizations to help solution and help reduce gun violence, Pehlivanoglu said. This is absolutely a time that we need all hands on deck, everyone from policymakers to neighborhood volunteers. One of the final speakers was Barry Randolph, a community activist and pastor in Detroit. He spoke about the importance of community engagement and cooperation in working towards ending gun violence, especially amongst young people. The mission to save our childrens lives is the most important thing we should be working on, Randolph said. We can eradicate gun violence, this is a man made problem and we can eradicate it if we stand united and do something about it. The post We need something that works: Activists call for more resources for gun violence prevention appeared first on Michigan Advance. Donald Trump issued a chilling warning that revenge can be justified during a wild interview with Dr Phil, less than a week after a New York jury convicted him on all charges in the hush money trial. The former president, and new felon, has gone on to blast the judge and jury, while falsely accusing President Joe Biden of orchestrating the criminal case against him. Trump has also made repeated threats to prosecute his political rivals should he return to the White House. Dr Phil addressed Trumps threats of retribution during Thursday evenings interview. I think you have so much to do, the TV host said. You dont have time to get even. You only have time to get right. Trump replied: Well revenge does take time, I will say that. And sometimes revenge can be justified. The former president also told Fox News Sean Hannity earlier this week that he believed he had every right to go after his rivals. Trump had made his intended retribution against Biden clear even before the trial. From January 1, 2023- April 1, 2024, Trump has posted 25 direct or implied threats on his Truth Social platform about his plans to target Joe Biden using the power of the federal government if he returns to the White House, according to a Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) analysis. Trumps allies have joined in his calls for revenge. Texas Republican Representative Ronny Jackson told Newsmax that he planned to aggressively go after the president and his entire family after Biden leaves office. Fellow Texas GOP Rep. Troy Nehls also warned there will be hell to pay for the guilty verdict. Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Trumps 2016 rival for the White House, tweeted after the verdict that Biden was a demented man propped up by wicked & deranged people willing to destroy our country to remain in power. He added, using emojis: Its time to fight [fire] with [fire]. Dr Phil began his interview on Thursday by aligning himself with Trump. They need to stop this, Dr Phil said, referring to the New York criminal case. They need to stop pursuing you. The clinical psychologist-turned-TV host also asked whether the gag order against Trump, which bars him from discussing the jury, witnesses, and others until after the court proceedings end, was an attempt to muzzle him. Theyve taken away my voice, Trump said. Theyre keeping me in this icebox and theyve taken away my voice. Trump has violated the gag order multiple times and was hit with hefty fines. His lawyers this week asked the judge to lift the gag order. Prosecutors opposed this suggestion, writing to the judge that the gag order should remain not only on the need to avoid threats to the fairness of the trial itself but to protect the integrity of the proceedings and the orderly administration of the court. Trump pleaded not guilty at his hush money trial, and has maintained that he is a very innocent man. He will be sentenced on July 11 but has vowed to appeal the verdict. Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader, Julius Malema, front center, arrives at the Results Operation Centre (ROC) in Midrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, Saturday, June 1, 2024. The African National Congress party has lost its parliamentary majority in a historic election result that puts South Africa on a new political path for the first time since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule 30 years ago. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) JOHANNESBURG (AP) South African opposition parties were meeting Friday and will continue crunch talks into next week to consider the ruling African National Congress' offer to become part of a government of national unity. ANC failed to secure a majority in last week's highly contested election, but some opposition parties are already rejecting the party's offer because of deep-seated divisions. Senior officials of the main opposition Democratic Alliance, or DA, will meet on Monday to discuss the centrist party's approach to the negotiations. The top leadership of the the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters, or EFF, party were holding talks on Friday. Parties are under pressure to conclude negotiations and reach an agreement by June 16, because South Africa's constitution requires them to do so within 14 days after the declaration of the election results. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is ANC leader, announced on Thursday that the party had decided to form a government of national unity and had invited all parties to join, a process that is expected to be complex considering vast divisions among the opposition parties themselves. Most of the opposition parties don't differ only with the ANC on various socioeconomic policies, but are also at extreme odds with each other on economic policies like land redistribution and affirmative action. Opposition party ActionSA has already declared it won't be part of the negotiations, saying that it refuses to work with the ANC. In what looks likely to be a government of national unity reminiscent of a path taken by the Nelson Mandela-led ANC after the country's first democratic election in 1994, the party has decided to invite a myriad of opposition parties to be part of the government. While Mandela insisted on a unity government despite the ANC having won by an overwhelming majority with nearly 63% of the national vote, the ANC has been forced into the current situation by its worst electoral performance ever, dropping from the 57.5% it got in the 2019 election to 40% this year, a decline of 17.5%. Shortly after Ramaphosa's announcement, the EFF's leader took to X to reject Ramaphosa's proposal of a government of national unity and accused the ANC of arrogance despite failing to win a majority. The EFF is among the top five parties after the election with just over 9% of the national vote, having declined from the 11% it garnered in 2019 but is expected to form a crucial part of the eventual outcome of the negotiations. The arrogance continues even after the South African voters issued warning signs. You cant dictate the way forward as if you have won elections, EFF leader Julius Malema said. "We are not desperate for anything, ours is a generational mission. We cant share power with the enemy, Malema said. In 2023, DA declared the Economic Freedom Fighters as its No. 1 enemy. DA, which got just over 21% of the national vote to remain the second-biggest party, said its highest decision-making body, the Federal Council, would meet on Monday to consider its options. I can't say now what the position of the DA is, we have a whole negotiation team and we are meeting as the federal council on Monday. We will have a framework for negotiations that we will release this weekend, Democratic Alliance federal chairperson Helen Zille said Friday. The fifth-biggest party with nearly 4% of the national vote, the Inkatha Freedom Party, on Friday expressed willingness to be part of the government of national unity, but was also set to discuss the matter with its party structures over the next few days. In principle, the IFP is not averse to a GNU (government of national unity). However, the devil is in the details, which will become clearer in the coming days ... enabling the IFP to make a well-considered decision, IFP spokesman Mkhuleko Hlengwa said. The uMkhonto weSizwe Party led by former President Jacob Zuma, who left the ANC, was the latest to enter the negotiations, with the party confirming on Thursday that it had begun talks with the ANC after initially failing to respond to the party's invitation. The party has raised objections about the election results to the country's electoral body, citing alleged voting irregularities and threatening to boycott the first sitting of Parliament to swear in the country's new lawmakers. Economists say that the markets are keenly awaiting the outcome of the negotiations to see the composition of the next government of Africa's most developed economy, and the economic policies it will pursue. By Nellie Peyton and Tannur Anders JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South African opposition parties said on Friday they were waiting for more details on a proposal by the African National Congress to form a government of national unity after it lost its majority for the first time in the democratic era. The former anti-apartheid liberation movement once led by Nelson Mandela has run South Africa since 1994. But voters, angered by years of economic stagnation, high unemployment and corruption, punished it at the ballot box on May 29. It remains the biggest party. But the lack of an outright majority means it must now share power - and President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday the ANC leadership had decided that a broad collaboration was the best way forward for South Africa. The Democratic Alliance (DA), the largest opposition party, said it was open to talks and was "committed to the process". "But the broad invitation to all parties ... rather than limiting it to parties committed to our current constitutional dispensation, the rule of law and a social-market economy, has undoubtedly complicated matters," spokesperson Werner Horn said. "Our negotiation team will ... have further meetings with other parties to listen to their views and reaction," Horn added. The ANC will have 159 of the 400 seats in the new National Assembly. Its nearest rivals are the pro-business, white-led DA, with 87 seats; the populist uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) led by former President Jacob Zuma, with 58; and the hard-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) with 39. Ramaphosa said the ANC had already held constructive discussions with the EFF and DA, as well as with the smaller Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), the National Freedom Party and the Patriotic Alliance. Zuma's MK said it expected to meet with the ANC soon. During the election campaign, the DA had called any potential ANC tie-up with the EFF or MK a "doomsday coalition" that would tank the economy. Both smaller parties advocate nationalising mines and seizing land without compensation. The EFF said it would not be part of a government involving the DA. "We are not desperate for positions in government," its deputy leader Floyd Shivambu told a press conference. The socially conservative IFP, which has its power base among South Africa's Zulu people, said it was not averse to the proposal of a national unity government. "However, the devil is in the details, which will become clearer in the coming days," it said in a statement. The powerful COSATU trade union group, a major ANC ally, said it would engage with the ANC and another backer Communist Party in the coming days, including on the various "permutations and modalities" that would need to be in such a government. The new parliament has to convene within two weeks of Sunday's results declaration and one of its first acts must be to elect the president. The constitutional deadline, which will fall on or near June 16, is putting pressure on the ANC and others to reach an agreement quickly. (Additional reporting by Alexander Winning, Bhargav Acharya, Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Siyabonga Sishi; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Andrew Heavens) To bolster an even more conservative stance on the definition of life among a key evangelical Christian constituency, the Southern Baptist Convention will take up a resolution opposing in vitro fertilization, or IVF. The proposed measure comes on the heels of a pivotal Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are legally protected as children, a decision that set off a nationwide political debate due to its potential impact on abortion laws. The Alabama decision received praise from anti-abortion groups who have pushed for the definition of life as beginning at conception. The Nashville-based SBCs vote on the IVF resolution at the denominations annual meeting in Indianapolis starting June 11 in many ways aligns with many Southern Baptists values. But it would also represent an affirmation of an idea championed by a select few thought leaders. The SBC Resolutions Committee recommended the resolution for approval after receiving a draft submitted by Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Southern seminary ethics professor Andrew Walker. Southern Baptist Convention at the New Orleans Ernest N Morial Convention Center. Tuesday, June 13, 2023. The hard thing is that many who consider themselves to be pro-life have refused to extend their own logic to the huge moral crisis posed by IVF procedures, Mohler said in a column for World magazine in February following the Alabama Supreme Court ruling. Amid the backlash to the court ruling, the Republican-dominated legislature in Alabama carved out new rules aimed at protecting IVF providers. Mohlers column cited what he viewed as other potentially problematic components of IVF, such as that it allows same-sex couples or a single woman to have children. Mohler, a leading contemporary evangelical figure in the U.S., said hes been opposing IVF for 20 years. The SBC, the nation's largest Protestant denomination, has generally been silent about the medical technology, according to Religion News Service. A man plus a woman plus marriage is the right context for children to emerge with no moral complications, Mohler said in his February column. Any alienation from that context brings, at the very least, moral risk. Mohler has recently backed other ideas that resonate with some Southern Baptists but irked many others. Some examples are endorsing a proposed measure to enshrine a ban on women pastors and denouncing the guilty verdict in former President Donald Trumps hush money trial. Dr Albert Mohler speaking at the Southern Baptist Convention at the New Orleans Ernest N Morial Convention Center. Tuesday, June 13, 2023. For decades, the SBC has been a major force in the anti-abortion movement and helped frame the moral parameters for a conservative view of childbearing. Resolutions non-binding statements that Southern Baptist voting delegates, called messengers, vote on every year are one way the denomination has done that. Those resolutions inform advocacy work by the SBCs public policy arm, the Nashville-based Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. In fact, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission recently wrote members of Congress advocating for policy priorities, including opposition to increased access to IVF. The proposed resolution for the 2024 SBC annual meeting calls on Southern Baptists to advocate for the government to restrain actions inconsistent with the dignity and value of every human being, which necessarily includes frozen embryonic human beings. Last year's SBC resolutions: SBC updates: Rick Warren gives impassioned plea for Saddleback Church in SBC debate over women pastors Other items the SBC Resolutions Committee is recommending for approval include: Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on social media @liamsadams. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Southern Baptists to debate measure opposing IVF at annual meeting UNITED NATIONS, June 6 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Thursday called for joint efforts toward a more effective European security architecture. The Ukraine crisis needs a political solution that addresses the security architecture of Europe. An early restoration of peace bears on the future of Europe. Nobody should have the illusion that they can force the other side to the negotiating table by gaining the upper hand on the battlefield. Such a mindset could only further escalate confrontation and prolong the war, said Fu Cong, China's permanent representative to the United Nations. In the current situation, the principle of indivisible security is of particular importance and should be championed and put into practice. The legitimate security concerns of all countries should be taken seriously and addressed in a balanced manner and joint efforts should be made to build a balanced, effective, and sustainable European security architecture, he told a UN Security Council informal meeting with the EU Political and Security Committee. "The world today is faced with major challenges and a grim security situation. To end conflicts, restore peace, and effectively address different kinds of threats and risks, we must tackle the root causes of conflicts, jointly pursue peace and stability, and make genuine efforts to uphold the spirit of multilateralism," he said. "In this context, the United Nations, as the core of the international system, must live up to its mission, and the EU, as an important force on the international stage, must shoulder its responsibilities." In Europe, there is a phrase called a Pyrrhic victory, meaning a victory achieved at so great a cost that negates any true sense of achievement. In China, there is a similar saying: "injure 1,000 enemy soldiers but lose 800 of your own." Many issues facing today's world, such as security, trade, and technology, may end up in such a lose-lose scenario if handled inappropriately, he warned. "That's why we need multilateralism, with the UN at the center, to help us find a proper solution. Countries don't have to engage in zero-sum competition. There is no need for a new Cold War. And the world is big enough for all countries to progress together," he said. Fu urged countries to come together under the banner of multilateralism and jointly safeguard the international system with the United Nations at its core, the global order underpinned by international law, and the basic norms of international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. It is only natural for countries to have different views on certain issues. However, this should not prevent countries from treating each other as partners. Rather, it is all the more imperative for countries to enhance mutual understanding through dialogue and jointly address global challenges, he said. China puts Europe high on its diplomatic agenda and views Europe as a key partner for cooperation. China has always attached great importance to its relations with the EU and hopes to see the EU strengthen its strategic autonomy, play a greater role in international affairs, and make greater contributions to world peace and security, said Fu. Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic ties between China and the EU. China stands ready to deepen cooperation with the EU in the United Nations and other multilateral fora, and together make unremitting efforts to safeguard world peace, promote common development, and improve global governance, he said. The EU Political and Security Committee is responsible for the bloc's common foreign and security policy and common security and defense policy. Southwest Airlines plane blew tire during take off, made emergency landing in Denver A commercial airline flight made an emergency landing in Colorado this week after an issue with its landing gear during takeoff. Southwest Air Flight No. 225, headed from Denver to Phoenix on Monday night, had return to the Denver International Airport and make the emergency landing after an issue with one of its tires during takeoff. Southwest Aif flight No. 225, a Boeing 737-800 headed from Denver to Phoenix on June 3, 2024, had return to the Denver International Airport and make the emergency landing after an issue with one of its tires during takeoff. According to the online site Flight Aware, which tracks flight paths, the Boeing 737-800 took off at 6:31 p.m., was diverted and then returned to the Denver airport 41 minutes later. No injuries were reported. Flight delayed or canceled? How to get ahead of the issue. Southwest tire blows during takeoff from Denver On Friday, the airline released the following statement to USA TODAY: "Southwest Flight 225 returned safely to Denver on Monday, June 3, after a tire failed during takeoff. Following standard Safety procedures, the Pilots declared an emergency prior to landing. The flight landed without incident and taxied off the runway. A separate aircraft operated the scheduled flight to Phoenix." In the statement, the airline thanked its flight crew for "their professionalism" and its customers for "their patience." 'Crying and screaming' Boulder resident Julianna Donadio, who said she was on the plane headed to visit her mom, told local KDVR-TV, she and fellow passengers knew the plane blew a tire. When the flight attendants said we were going to have an emergency landing, we started to panic a little bit. People were definitely crying and screaming and trying to console one another, told the outlet. They started preparing us for crash position, so having our head between our knees, and they were informing the emergency exit line how to open the doors and operate potentially the slides. Donadio told the outlet she was grateful to the pilot and crew, who all remained calm during the frightening scene. 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: Southwest 225 plane makes emergency landing in Denver for tire problem Spotsylvania woman accused of killing 3 roommates arrested in New York after police chase reaching 100 mph SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) A Spotsylvania County woman accused of murdering her three roommates was arrested in New York Thursday evening following a police chase that reportedly reached 100 mph. 23-year-old Alyssa Jane Venable was taken into custody in Steuben County, New York, with the assistance of the United States Marshals Service and the New York State Police on Thursday, June 6, according to a press release from the Spotsylvania County Sheriffs Office. At about 5:45 p.m. on Thursday, New York state troopers noticed a 2009 Honda Civic what Venable was known to drive and tried to perform a traffic stop. According to the release, Venable refused to stop and a pursuit began, which reportedly reached 100 mph. Teen shot during prom party in Brooklyn building: sources After tire deflation devices were deployed, Venable crashed the Civic. According to the release, she was then arrested without incident and taken to a local hospital. New York State Police said in a press conference Thursday night that Venable remains at the hospital for treatment of minor injuries. No one else was injured as a result of the crash. Upon release, she will be held at the Steuben County Jail pending her extradition back to Virginia. Venable is accused of the murders of her roommates, identified as 77-year-old Robert John McGuire, 60-year-old Gregory Scott Powell and 65-year-old Carol Anne Reese, all of Spotsylvania. The search for Venable began following a welfare check performed at about 10 p.m. on Tuesday, June 4, in the 10500 block of White Street. Spotsylvania deputies found the three victims dead inside, all with upper body trauma. According to the office, Venable was soon identified as a suspect and a warrant was issued for her arrest. Venable faces three counts of second-degree murder and one count of using a firearm while committing a felony. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. Beaver Dam Mayor Mike Wissell shovels dirt from dialysis centers in Beaver Dam, Fond du Lac and Waupun as part of a tree planting celebration for a new facility in Beaver Dam. BEAVER DAM SSM Health Waupun Memorial Hospital has started construction on a new dialysis center for local patients. Work will progress at 2100 Kellom Road in Beaver Dam over the summer to accommodate patients from both the Beaver Dam and Waupun facilities, combining them into one updated location. The new, 7,900-square-foot facility will feature more care space, new equipment, energy efficient systems and better parking, according to the hospital. It will have the capacity to treat up to 64 patients a week, with 16 patient care stations and an isolation station for high-risk patients. Sign up for local business news with our new Fond du Lac Streetwise newsletter Nicole Gill, SSM Health Waupun Memorial Hospital and SSM Health Ripon Community Hospital vice president and clinical administrator, said demand for dialysis services has grown, which partly is the result of an aging population experiencing a higher rate of kidney-related disease. Nicole Gill, SSM Health Waupun Memorial Hospital and SSM Health Ripon Community Hospital vice president, shovels dirt from dialysis centers in Beaver Dam, Fond du Lac and Waupun as part of a tree planting celebration for a new facility in Beaver Dam. For more than 50 years, the hospital has offered outpatient dialysis services. Dialysis is the process of removing excess water and toxins from the blood in people whose kidneys can no longer perform these functions naturally. Patients often have to spend up to four hours a day, three days a week connected to the dialysis machines, depending on their medical diagnosis, so this new facility will have a focus on maintaining a clean, inviting facility with friendly staff. The design includes a a spacious lobby and large windows in treatment areas to aid that goal. More: Construction is underway for Rosendale-Brandon School District referendum projects. Here's what's in store. "Were excited that this newer facility will help us continue to enhance our patients overall care experiences in a facility designed specifically for dialysis services," SSM Health Wisconsin Regional Dialysis Director Diane Posthuma said. "Through our new design, we will have access to more efficient spaces, which will help our staff be as productive as possible," Posthuma added. WDS Construction, of Beaver Dam, will lead the $2.5 million project, expected to conclude in early September. City of Beaver Dam Mayor Mike Wissell and City Administrator Nathan Thiel joined SSM Health leaders in a June 4 ceremony for the start of construction, alongside Beaver Dam Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tracy Propst, chamber ambassadors and WDS Construction Project Manager Trevor Viren. More: City of Ripon looks back on 175 years, built from idealist dreamers and pragmatic 'go-getters.' In celebration for consolidating the local centers, the ceremony included a symbolic tree planting, combining soils and water from existing Beaver Dam, Fond du Lac and Waupun locations. WDS Construction President Ben Westra noted, "This tree is a symbol for health and growth, and we appreciate the opportunity to play a role in making this project a reality." For more about SSM Health in the area, visit ssmhealth.com. Daphne Lemke is the Streetwise reporter for the Fond du Lac Reporter. Contact her at dlemke@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on Fond du Lac Reporter: SSM Health Waupun Memorial Hospital starts construction on new center ST. LUCIE COUNTY A new state law that caps the amount St. Lucie County pays when jail inmates receive medical care at outside hospitals could become a model for other counties across the state, county commissioners said this week. The law shepherded through the Legislature by state Rep. Dana Trabulsy, R-Fort Pierce, and signed last month by Gov. Ron DeSantis sets the cap on those costs at 110% of what Medicare allows, with some exceptions where costs may reach 125%. Those rates are similar to what state prisons already pay. "This bill stands to be one of the most significant pieces of legislation in St. Lucie Countys history," St. Lucie County Government Relations Director Courtney Calderone said in an interview Tuesday. High costs for inmate care The St. Lucie County Jail at 900 N Rock Rd, Fort Pierce, FL 34945. Counties are legally required to provide adequate medical care for inmates in their jails. "The counties are responsible by state law, but then there's no cap on what the outside providers can charge," Calderone said. "As you can imagine, you have some medical providers that are not willing to negotiate, and there's really no leverage to get them to the table because they know that we are statutorily obligated to pay the costs of the inmate medical care." This can lead to extremely high costs, compared to what the general public often is charged for the same care, Calderone said. Despite more than a decade of attempted negotiations with medical providers, Calderone said, St. Lucie has been paying on average about 9,000% of what Medicare allows, and at times that reaches more than 27,000%. Efforts to address issue statewide failed over years A similar issue with the Florida Department of Corrections and its state prisons was addressed in 2008 and 2009, when the state enacted a cap on what it would pay for outside medical care. That cap, 110% of the Medicare rate for most procedures, remains in place for state prisoners, but not for inmates in county jails. That is despite more than a decade of efforts from some legislators, including then-Rep. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, to address county inmate outside medical costs on a statewide level, Calderone said. This year, instead of trying to pass a statewide fix, Trabulsy filed a local bill to put in place a cap just in St. Lucie County. Grall, now a senator, helped move the bill through the Senate. Potential model for other counties At a County Commission meeting Tuesday, commissioners recognized Trabulsy for her work, alongside Calderone and other county staff, to get the bill passed. Dana Trabulsy As a local law, the cap applies only to St. Lucie County. It took effect May 16, immediately after DeSantis signed the legislation. Commissioners said they could see this cap model spreading from St. Lucie County to every county in the state. "Rep. Trabulsy, thank you for doing this. I think you're going to be well well known throughout the state of Florida because of this because you're going to carry this forward to all 67 counties," Commission Chair Cathy Townsend said. Money saved can be more responsibly used elsewhere The efforts to address this issue over the years have been a team effort, Trabulsy said, and St. Lucie County residents will be the beneficiaries. "The money that we save through the inmate billing is going to be able to be redirected in a much more responsible way," Trabulsy said. New medical provider in the jail Also Tuesday, commissioners approved a new contract with Alabama-based NaphCare to provide medical services to inmates within the jail. That came after commissioners voted in March to terminate the county's contract with Tennessee-based WellPath. More: Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin counties spend millions on inmate health care over 6 years More: Nude man crashes car into MC jail, throws rubber snakes County Attorney Daniel McIntyre, however, cautioned that the county is still negotiating details with the company. Part of those negotiations include attempts to lessen the number of inmates who require outside treatment at hospitals and emergency rooms. In order to begin on the proposed start date of July 29, McIntyre said, NaphCare will need to begin hiring, which is why he asked commissioners for the preliminary approval vote before terms are finalized. It passed unanimously. Wicker Perlis is TCPalm's Watchdog Reporter for St. Lucie County. You can reach him at wicker.perlis@tcpalm.com. This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Will St. Lucie County lead the way on reducing inmate medical costs? Earlier this year, Modesto City Schools was notified by the state that its middle school sex education curriculum was not comprehensive and contained inaccurate and misleading information. Since then, the district has approved a new curriculum that complies with state law. How do other school districts in Stanislaus County stack up? The Modesto Bee reached out to local school districts to examine if their sex education curriculum is included in the California Healthy Kids Resource Center and falls in compliance with the California Healthy Youth Act. According to the state, the purpose of the California Healthy Youth Act is to provide all students with the knowledge and skills necessary to protect their sexual and reproductive health from unintended pregnancy, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and sexually transmitted infections. Under the California Healthy Youth Act, the material must include passive parent or guardian notification for comprehensive sexual health education and HIV prevention education, either at the beginning of the school year or at least 14 days before instruction. What do local school districts use? Positive Prevention Plus Ceres Unified, Oakdale Unified, Riverbank Unified and Sylvan Union School District use Positive Prevention Plus curriculum materials. According to the California Healthy Kids Resource Center, materials are mostly compliant with CHYA but have some issues. Positive Prevention Plus is compliant with: the alignment and support of the California Healthy Youth Act. It is found to be age-appropriate, medically accurate and not promoting religious doctrine. The materials also are compliant with discussions of sexual orientation and gender. The materials also have inclusion of communication with parents, guardians and trusted adults. The sex ed is compliant with curriculum that teaches about committed relationships and healthy relationships. Positive Prevention Plus also reviews the social issues and nature of HIV and other STIs and how they are transmitted, risk reductions and treatment. The materials also properly discuss FDA-approved contraceptive methods. But some big issues cited in Positive Prevention Plus by the California Healthy Kids Resource Center are that the materials do not adequately have instruction on all legally available pregnancy outcomes, which include but arent limited to parenting, adoption and abortion, surrendering physical custody of a minor child 72 hours of age and the importance of prenatal care. There is also no information on adolescent relationship abuse and domestic violence with a partner, including early warning signs. In addition, the resource center found the Positive Prevention Plus does not provide a curriculum to teach and promote healthy attitudes about body development and image. Check the Facts Patterson and Turlock Unified use Check the Facts sex education materials for middle school students. The materials were created by the Turlock Pregnancy and Health Center, a religious womens health organization. Those involved with the center also give presentations for the sex education material. The materials are given to the district at no cost. The Check the Facts program is not in the California Healthy Youth Resource Center database and has not been reviewed by it to determine compliance with CHYA. The Check the Facts website does claim it is in compliance with the law. Jennifer Chou, a staff attorney for the Gender, Sexuality & Reproductive Justice Program at the ACLU of Northern California, said school districts in the Central Valley have a long history of working with crisis pregnancy centers. A crisis pregnancy center is a type of nonprofit organization established by religious groups primarily to persuade pregnant women not to have an abortion. The centers do not provide comprehensive reproductive health care. I think most school districts understand that to work with the crisis pregnancy center requires a lot of heightened attention to the type and content of the instruction that they might otherwise provide, said Chou. Teen Talks Middle School During its June 3 meeting, the Modesto City Schools board approved Teen Talks Middle School as the eighth-grade curriculum. It was approved by a 4-3 vote, and materials requiring a demonstration of dental dams and putting on a condom were removed. According to the California Healthy Kids Resource Center, Teen Talk Middle School is fully compliant with the California Healthy Youth Act. However, the center recommends adding information about Hepatitis C and clear treatments of gonorrhea. Teen Talks Middle School will be taught to students in the fall. Beforehand, parents will have the opportunity to review the materials once more and can opt out their students. California Healthy Resource Center Director Nora Hana said there may be some materials in the center that do not fully follow the California Healthy Youth Act. She said the organization has indicated this by stating on its website assessment tools where the gaps are and what is missing for each of these curricula. We invite many publishers to have their curriculum reviewed and there have been many that have declined the offer on numerous occasions, Hana said. We are in the middle of a review right now and we will have additional curriculum added to our list of reviewed curriculum by the end of June. Chou said parents, teachers or anyone wanting to take a closer look at a schools sexual education material can go to the ACLU website to look at a rubric and a checklist to ensure instruction is being provided in a way that is objective and medically accurate. Under the California Healthy Youth Act, comprehensive sexual health and HIV prevention education are mandated and should happen once in middle school and once in high school. As for other requirements in the CHYA checklist, the curriculum must be age-appropriate, be medically accurate and objective, have materials that are knowledge- and skill-based, accessible to English learners, accessible for students with disabilities, not promote any religious doctrine, inclusive to those with other sexual orientations, discusses gender and gender identity, and more. I do think its really important for people to be paying very close attention, not just when these contracts or curricula are being adopted at the school boards, but well after that, Chou said. In the classroom, it is really important for students and parents to know what their rights are. Welcome to Startups Weekly Hajes weekly recap of everything you cant miss from the world of startups. Anna will be covering for him this week. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. Most interesting startup stories from the week As the end of 0% interest rates keeps taking its toll, SoftBank-backed Norway-based online supermarket delivery startup Oda has confirmed 150 layoffs and a refocus on Norway and Sweden, where it hopes to reach profitability next year. People being let go is never good news, but Oda co-founder Jon Kare Stene, now a partner at VC firm Skyfall Ventures, hopes that this "could spark off the birth of several new startups in the Norwegian tech scene or strengthen companies already set out on a journey." Europe already has several startup factories think Skype and now it could be Norway's turn. As 150 people are let go from Oda, let's hope they're moving on to better things. Hardware is hard, episode 234: We already knew that Humane's Ai Pin launch was going anything but smoothly. Now the startup urges customers to stop using its charging case due to battery fire concerns. This is "out of an abundance of caution" and based on a single complaint, according to Humane, but it is unlikely to help its case. Reinventing the walkie-talkie: The two co-founders of French startup ten ten are getting little sleep these days as their original social app went viral, with 1 million downloads in their home country and 6 million globally. Sued, fined, and evicted: AI mortgage startup LoanSnap isn't doing well. With backers such as Reid Hoffman, Richard Branson and the Chainsmokers, it has employees deeply concerned about its future as worries keep mounting. Falling from height: The inside story of Fisker's collapse is a fascinating one, and TechCrunch has it. Sean O'Kane worked on this for weeks, and the result is a tale of hubris, power struggles, and the repeated failure to set up basic processes that are foundational for any automaker. We will dance again: Co-founder and CTO of Firefly, Joseph Sefi Genis, was among the hundreds murdered by Hamas on October 7. Now the Israeli startup is forging on. Most interesting fundraises this week Solutions by Text (SBT), a company that gives people a way to pay their bills and apply for loans via text messaging, raised $110 million in funding. But as TechCrunch's Mary Ann Azevedo noted, "this is not your typical startup raising capital." The company was bootstrapped from its creation in 2008 to 2021. Another difference between SBT and the average startup is that it is EBITDA positive and working toward full profitability this year, according to its CEO, David Baxter, who took over in 2021. Founded by brothers Danny and Mike Cantrell, the company took a turn under Baxter's helm. "We really have transformed the business from more of a founder-led family, lifestyle type of a business, doing roughly 20ish million messages a month to about 150 to 200 million messages a month," Baxter told TechCrunch. Sword Health is an AI-powered virtual physical therapy startup. Live by the sword : Sword Health, an AI-powered virtual physical therapy startup, raised a $30 million primary funding round and a $130 million secondary funding round that brought its valuation to $3 billion. That's a 50% increase from its November 2021 Series D valuation. EV design in 18 months : Swiss startup Neural Concept raised $27 million to cut electric vehicle design time to 18 months, a strong selling point as Europe and America seek to reduce EV production costs to compete against China. We can get why : GetWhy, a consumer research tech company that leverages AI to help businesses conduct market studies and extract insights from video-based interviews, raised $34.5 million from California-based VC firm PeakSpan Capital and others. Where's your head at: Austrian startup Storyblok raised $80 million to add more AI to its "headless" content management system (CMS) for non-technical people. Other unmissable TechCrunch stories Hearing of the Ticketmaster antitrust lawsuit made some among us wonder if this could give hope to ticketing startups. And now Ticketmaster owner Live Nation confirms Ticketmaster was hacked. If your personal data was caught in the breach, that's not great. But if that's another step toward getting alternatives, maybe there's a silver lining. More top stories: Walk the walk : SAP is shelling out a whopping $1.5 billion in cash to acquire WalkMe, a digital adoption platform provider. Big nest egg : Private equity firm Bridgepoint entered a $650 million deal to buy a majority stake of LumApps, a French "intranet super app" and this could fuel more acquisitions. Spotted in filings : We knew that Salesforce bought Spiff in February. Now we know how much it paid for the sales commission management company: $419 million, including $374 million in cash. 11 figures: Spanish startups reached 100 billion in aggregate value last year, as the tech scene keeps maturing. Still, with a combined value of $191 billion, Cambridge's ecosystem alone is almost worth double Spain's. There are about 850 dairy farms in Iowa, ranging in size from 25 to 10,000 cows. (Photo courtesy of Iowa State Dairy Association) State agriculture officials will test dairy farms for bird flu if they are near a poultry flock that is infected by the disease, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship announced Friday. The new surveillance measure is meant to help reveal the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Iowa, which has been detected in a massive chicken flock, a turkey flock and two dairy farms in recent weeks in northwest Iowa. On Friday IDALS confirmed the second dairy farm infection, in Sioux County. The dairy operator noticed symptoms of a potential infection and contacted the department, which helped facilitate testing, said Don McDowell, an IDALS spokesperson. The newly announced surveillance testing will include dairies within 20 kilometers of an infected poultry site, McDowell said. That protocol is already in place for other poultry sites. IDALS is not yet restricting the movement of cattle within the state, but it encourages dairies to boost their biosecurity measures, including by limiting visitors to the sites. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has said it is likely the virus has been transported between herds by people and equipment. This is going to take the entire agricultural community working together because we all have a stake in protecting the herds and flocks of Iowa, Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said. Naig has asked USDA to compensate farmers for lost revenue from cows and milk. He also wants federal help to track the movement of the virus in Iowa at infected sites and in wildlife. Cows typically recover from infections within two weeks, but the virus is often fatal for poultry. Entire flocks are destroyed to prevent the virus spread. Because Iowa farmers produce 10% of the nations food supply, protecting the health of our livestock is one of our highest priorities, Gov. Kim Reynolds said Friday. Reynolds has asked federal officials to accelerate the approval process for animal vaccines that could reduce the spread of viruses such as avian flu. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE The post State identifies second dairy with bird flu, expands testing appeared first on Iowa Capital Dispatch. San Francisco Judge Harry Dorfman Thursday dismissed three state charges against Paul Pelosi attacker David DePape. Dorfman sided with the defense on double jeopardy, ruling DePape had already been convicted on federal charges for the act alleged in the state indictment. File Photo courtesy San Francisco Police Department/UPI June 7 (UPI) -- San Francisco Judge Harry Dorfman Thursday tossed multiple state charges against Paul Pelosi attacker David DePape, siding with defense arguments alleging double jeopardy. Attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse charges were dismissed in DePape's Oct. 28, 2022 hammer attack on then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband because of federal convictions against DePape for those acts. "This is all one event. A sober look at the evidence is - same place, same time, same act," Dorfman said during a hearing Thursday. Dorfman's decision caused both the prosecution and defense to ask for a trial delay so the Court of Appeal can review the rulings. The judge granted the stay. Five state counts remain against DePape, including aggravated kidnapping resulting in bodily harm or death, first degree residential burglary, false imprisonment of an elder or dependent adult, preventing or dissuading a witness by force or threat, and threatening staff, family or family members of public officials. David DePope pictured attacking Paul Pelosi Oct. 28, 2022, during a home invasion. DePape was convicted on federal charges and sentenced to 30 years in prison. His state trial has been stayed while the Court of Appeal reviews a ruling by a state judge dismissing three state charges against DePape on double jeopardy grounds. File Photo courtesy San Francisco Police Department/UPI DePape was sentenced to 30 years in prison on federal charges in May for the attack on Paul Pelosi. The attacker broke into the home looking for Nancy Pelosi. He was convicted of attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assaulting the family member of a federal official. DePape struck Pelosi in the head with a hammer during the attack. Federal prosecutors called it an act of domestic terrorism. In their sentencing memo prosecutors said, "The defendant planned a violent hostage-taking of the Speaker Emerita, and then nearly killed her husband. The defendant planned and unleashed violence and has stayed true to his belief that the actions were necessary." TAYLOR, Texas (KXAN) Leaders at the state and local level gathered in Williamson County Friday morning to celebrate the completion of the Samsung Highway and other area road projects. Williamson County, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the Samsung Corporation held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday on the Samsung Highway near County Road 404. Gov. Abbott was there, along with Samsung Vice President and President of Taylor Project Dr. Chanhoon Park, Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell, TxDOT District Engineer Tucker Ferguson, and Williamson County Precinct 4 Commissioner Russ Boles. Gov. Greg Abbott and leaders of Samsung and Williamson County attend a ribbon cutting for Samsung Highway in Taylor, Texas, on June 7, 2024. (KXAN Photo/Frank Martinez) Gov. Greg Abbott attends ribbon cutting for Samsung Highway in Taylor, Texas, on June 7, 2024. (KXAN Photo/Frank Martinez) A ribbon cutting was held for Samsung Highway in Taylor, Texas, on June 7, 2024. (KXAN Photo/Frank Martinez) The event celebrated the completion of several road projects in the southwest Taylor area including the reconstruction and expansion of CR 401, improvements to CR 404 and FM 973, water line realignment on CR 404 and the completion of Segments 1 and 2 of Samsung Highway. Related: Williamson County announces Segment 1 of Samsung Highway open The Samsung Highway project constructed a four-lane road to reduce curves on CR 404 and increase safety, according to the Williamson County website. The roadway connects FM 3349 to FM 973. The project was completed in segments. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin. A box of hemp CBD and THC seltzers made by the Framingham-based Cantrip sit in the back of a retailer in Hopkinton, pulled from the shelves, ready to be picked up by a distributor for a refund. Stores in Massachusetts can no longer sell such products. Hemp-derived CBD and THC beverages surged into Massachusetts package stores last year to create a market that grew like a ballooning house party after the parents leave town. The drinks offered an alcohol-free alternative that, through low doses of THC, provided a hangover-free buzz. And they came free from any state regulations and oversight. But the music got too loud, the revelers too rowdy, and the state came knocking to break up the fun. Last week, the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission warned retailers and restaurants to stop selling the beverages, containing a mix of CBD and delta-9 THC extracted from hemp, or they could have their liquor licenses pulled or suspended. In banning the beverages, the ABCC followed guidance from the state Department of Public Health and the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) that said selling and manufacturing hemp-derived CBD and THC food products is illegal under federal law. The party had to end. You cant have intoxicating products sold in an unregulated Wild West, in a state that spent years building a legal cannabis market, with rigorous requirements for testing and taxing everything within it. Cannabis companies were watching angrily, rightfully upset. And everyone involved in bringing the hemp CBD and THC drinks to store shelves should have seen this response coming: The state doesnt like to play catch-up, and if it has to, its response usually isnt nuanced. Still they took the risk and offloaded as many cases as they could, knowing state agencies could swiftly bring the whole industry down. A new market takes shape The hemp beverage market in Massachusetts grew at a dizzying pace. Wholesalers enticed retailers with more and more new brands, urging them to beat competitors to the punch. And at every turn they assured them they could sell CBD and THC legally despite the lack of regulations at cheaper prices than licensed dispensaries and under no official requirements for things like signage and testing. Stores took advantage of another nonalcoholic product, which are hot commodities in the beverage business, to add to their inventory. A narrative began to form around the hemp market, though, of dangerous products being sold to kids with reckless abandon at gas stations and bodegas. Companies like the Framingham-based Cantrip took offense. They make beverages tested and scrutinized many times over, while taking pains to explain how to safely sell and consume their products. In Massachusetts, as in most states, the beverages occupied a legal gray area. For a while, no state agency would take a regulatory stance. An agricultural product, hemp does not fall under the purview of the states Cannabis Control Commission. Those in the industry say they never embraced the legal confusion around their products. They say they dont move furtively from one unregulated state to another, but go into each one demanding that legislators enact laws so they can do business free of worry. Retailers and distributors accepted the burden to vouch for the non-alcoholic drinks and make sure they arent sold to people under 21. Meanwhile, the companies that make and distribute the products formed the Adult Beverage Alliance locally and the Hemp Beverage Alliance nationally to urge states to impose regulations, such as an age-limit. Nobody wants to be selling and unsafe product or a product that isnt of the highest quality, said Christopher Lackner, founder and president of the Hemp Beverage Alliance. Legislators are beginning to realize there are a small few bad actors that are drawing media attention, and perhaps that media attention is being leveraged by folks who do not want hemp beverages on the shelves. But theres a mature, sensible industry out there that wants to do the right thing. State takes action In March and April, the state began to clear up the confusion over hemp and THC beverages. The ABCC informed three businesses two wholesalers and a package store they were in violation of their liquor licenses for selling the intoxicating hemp beverages, which entered the market through a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill that removed hemp from the definition of marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act; as long as the hemp products contain less than 0.3% delta-9 THC, the psychoactive component in marijuana, by dry weight, they are legal. Atlantic Beverage Distributors in Holliston, Craft Collective in Stoughton and DJs Variety in Ipswich represented the first businesses in Massachusetts cited for selling the hemp-derived THC seltzers, sodas and mixers. The ABCC sent investigators to their store and warehouses, producing reports that read like affidavits after a drug raid. Oddly when it initially notified the three businesses months ago, the ABCC didnt explicitly tell them then to pull any of the hemp CBD and THC products, even as it laid out in the reports its argument for why they cannot be sold. The businesses have hearings slated next month, around the same time legislators on Beacon Hill are expected to convene for a hearing on hemp. The wholesalers continued with business as usual, with at least one trying to schedule tastings with a hemp CBD and THC company. They held onto hope until the joint notice came from DPH and MDAR. Now they must pick up the products they already sold and award refunds. The hemp beverage companies have begun pulling their products out of the state, too. Certainly based on this were going to comply with the law and Massachusetts will be indefinitely on hold till we can get an answer, said Adam Terry, Cantrips CEO and co-founder. I dont think they made the right move here, though. I dont think it will protect consumers in any way. Few bad actors Terry told me his seltzers, which come in flavors like ginger peach and lemon basil, arent ending up in gas stations, placed willy-nilly on shelves and sold to children. Its not an accurate representation of his industry and ignores the time and money he spends on producing safe beverages. Almost every brand Ive seen that has been on liquor store shelves has test results on their web sites and in most cases theyre part of the Hemp Beverage Alliance, Terry said. I havent seen any bad actors show up at a legitimate liquor store in the state. Cantrip puts child-resistant lids on all of its cans. It has vetted its labeling with attorneys from 35 states to make sure its in compliance with any local laws or regulations. The cans include nutritional standards.The liquid is tested again and again, said Terry, who started Cantrip after working in the cannabis industry. We can work in the hemp channels that have a much higher degree of quality control in anything Ive seen in dispensaries, he said. Massachusetts was not the first state where he brought Cantrip; he came here after seeing other hemp beverages showing up at package stores. Despite being a local company, Cantrip cant make its seltzers in Massachusetts, he said, with the closest facility producing them in Waverly, New York. I was proud, but I was a little bit nervous, he said of bringing them to his home state. But once competition is moving into my backyard, there was no reason not to. Now Terry must wait to learn whether the state will bring his industry back under new regulations. I would love to hire 15 sales people just for Massachusetts, he said. But theres really no productive reason to do that. The market is in a state of uncertainty now. This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Beyond Beer: An unsurprising end to hemp beverage sales in Mass. BARCELONA, Spain, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Developing a direct rail link for the exchange of goods between China and Spain is a top priority, experts told Xinhua at the SIL international logistics trade fair in Barcelona this week. From June 5 to 7, SIL brought together over 14,000 professionals in the international logistics sector. Top of the agenda at their talks was strengthening trade links with China, and in particular the Silk Road rail route. Ignasi Sayol, president of the Logistic Cluster of Catalonia, told Xinhua that as a ship takes some 60 days to reach Spain from China, a direct rail route would be much quicker and therefore reduce costs. "There's already a good rail link with China from the heart of Europe, but there are investors pushing hard to have a direct rail link from here, so traffic from Spain to China will only take between 17 and 19 days. There's a lot of interest," he said. Xavier Mestre, head of logistics for TPNova rail operator, one of Spain's largest transport companies, explained that the Silk Road rail route connecting China with Europe avoids the sort of conflicts that are currently disrupting global shipping. "Rail is an alternative to maritime transport, which as we're seeing with all the current global problems can be affected and turn into bottlenecks, but as long as no new conflicts break out rail does not have these problems," he told Xinhua. TPNova this year opened a new rail goods service between Barcelona and the Chinese province of Shanxi, and it is expecting a new train from China next month. Mestre explained that the project is still in its early stages, but in less than five years there could be frequent goods trains going back and forth between Barcelona and China. SIL, the largest international logistics fair in southern Europe, this year welcomed industry professionals from over 90 countries. About 320 speakers addressed issues such as Green Logistics and the application of 4.0 technologies to the global supply chain. "The connections with places like America and Asia, especially China and other countries in the Pacific region, show that everything is now global and interconnected, and that's what this international logistics fair celebrates," Pere Navarro, president of SIL, told Xinhua. Some 650 companies took part in the logistics fair, presenting innovations including robotics, warehouse automation, the introduction of AI systems, and the use of Big Data. The steep drops in Sacramentos homeless population seem way too good to be true | Opinion Sacramento has had a 29% drop in its homeless population since 2022. Does that sound right to you? Because it doesnt sound right to me, it doesnt sound right to homeless advocates at Loaves & Fishes, and it doesnt sound right to an academic who has analyzed homeless data in Sacramento before. Experts and advocates are questioning the methodology and the newly-released data from the 2024 Point in Time Count. The 2024 PIT count showed there was not only a 29% drop overall in homelessness in the county, but a 41% drop in unsheltered homeless one of the largest decreases in the state. Opinion Frankly, those numbers seem too good to be true. Such precipitous decreases were the most surprising finding of the count announced earlier this week. Meanwhile, the non-profit organization in charge of the count, Sacramento Steps Forward, says its important to remember that the PIT count is just that a point in time and the number of homeless people living in our area can fluctuate daily. This years Point in Time count, conducted by volunteers with SSF on Jan. 24 and 25, found 3,944 people living unsheltered, down from 6,664 people identified in the 2022 count, while the total number of unhoused people counted in Sacramento County, including those in shelter and temporary housing, dropped by 29 percent from 9,278 to 6,615. Angela Hassell, Executive Director of Sacramentos Loaves & Fishes, said that drop isnt a realistic portrait of what she sees going on in Sacramento. These numbers are incredibly difficult to believe and further highlight the trust issues with local government that our guests have consistently expressed over our many years of service, wrote Hassell along with Shannon Dominguez-Stevens, director of Maryhouse, a shelter for women and children. At Loaves & Fishes, we publish an annual report using a consistent methodology, and our numbers show a 6.4% overall increase in guests served, with a 20.5% increase in meals served. All campus programs have reported serving more guests daily than last year, Hassell and Dominguez-Stevens wrote in a press release. Some believe sweeps, weather led to decrease There is concern among homeless advocates that the PIT count numbers may have been deflated by several factors, including sweeps conducted in early January before the count. The 2024 PIT count notes that 74% of people they surveyed reported that theyd had to move and find a new sleeping location within the last two months a seriously high level of disruption that can be attributed, at least in part, to the city and countys sweeps of encampments. (Sweeps kill, by the way: Displacing the homeless creates a deadly cycle where people are repeatedly forced to move, many never getting access to the programs and services they desperately need to rise out of homelessness and has been shown to directly lead to increased mortality rates.) Also, volunteers who participated in the January count emailed The Bee and said they found far fewer people than they knew were living on the streets, which she believed was due to the inclement weather and rain over the two nights the count was conducted. The problem with such drastically lower numbers is that city and county services rely on the PIT count as a means of securing governmental funding for homelessness programs. (Funding) is going to be decreased all over the county and that means less services, less housing opportunities and less overall compassion and support for the folk who need it the most. Thats going to be really devastating and really heartbreaking, Hassell said. Data collection method changed There was also a change to the way SSF collected and reported on this years data. In previous years, SSF contracted with Sacramento State and Arturo Baiocchi, a tenured Social Work professor, to collect and extrapolate the data. This year, the job was done by SimTech Solutions, a software company based in Cambridge, Mass. The methodology of the survey was changed too, and that could also have affected the numbers. This years PIT count was collected using census tracts as a means of organization, but those tracts can be miles-wide and take a single team many days to cover and it has to be a single team to stop duplicative surveying. Previously, Sacramentos surveys were done using smaller, more manageable zones. Baiocchi said that when he was in charge of the PIT count, he did research into using census tracts, and officially warned SSF against the method. Lisa Bates, CEO of SSF, said the numbers were surprising to them too, but the census-tract system is in use across the country. SSF also said more data on the homeless population would be released this summer. Still, Baiocchi said, I think the 41% is likely an artifact of canvassing too large of an area. I also dont see efforts (this year) to count hard-to-reach populations like families living in cars, transitional-aged youth or people living on the American River Parkway. These are all things we did in previous years. Drop is unrealistic say advocates The precipitous drop from 2022s numbers is shocking for many. A slight decrease would have been believable, but 29% overall seems like theres been an error in data collection, however unintentional. I would have recognized a 3%-5% increase or decrease, Hassell said. I would have accepted that as realistic. But the 29% and the 41% feels out of line with my experience as a homeless service provider. On the positive side, Baiocchi said, the surveys seem like they were done well, even if the count may not have been: The same racial disparities, the same composition of data those proportions seem right to me. But the numbers of unsheltered seem too low. And thats a shame, he said, because Baiocchi believes the city and county have instituted programs in the last two years that would have helped decrease the homeless population in the capital region. All anyone needs to do is look around the city and county to see that the drastic decreases being reported dont accurately reflect the reality of Sacramentos homeless population. Sacramentans want nothing more than good news when it comes to the homelessness crisis, but were not fools. ARVADA, Colo. (KDVR) A group of neighbors in one Front Range community are wondering who took their pride flags and why. Neighbors in Arvada said they woke up to bare flag posts and are now wondering if recent political messages played a role. The neighbors FOX31 spoke to say they fly pride flags every June, which is LGBTQ Pride Month. This year, the flags were stolen just days after some hateful political messages went public. Just the level of destruction and malintent was pretty shocking, one Arvada mom told FOX31. Pride flag thefts caught on camera The Arvada neighbors, who did not want to be identified in this story out of concern for their safety, were stunned and disturbed Thursday morning when they realized what had happened in their community. We woke up to a text from a neighbor down the street asking if our pride flag had been destroyed or taken. And sure enough, when we came out in the morning, we noticed it was missing. After connecting with another neighbor that we know had a pride flag out, it sounds like the person stole their flag, banged on a window and yelled an obscenity about the gay community, the mom said. RuPauls Drag Race stars to grace Denver PrideFests Center Stage The incidents were caught on doorbell surveillance cameras. Neighbors said they have flown pride flags every year they have lived in the neighborhood. They want to know why someone chose to take the flags now. I was informed about an email that went out saying that people should disrespect the pride flag, and it was even stated to burn pride flags this month. So, seeing that this sort of thing happened today after that email went out didnt really surprise me that much, state Rep. Brianna Titone said. Colorado GOP chair says flag thefts likely a hoax Titone is the chair of the LGBTQ caucus at the Colorado Capitol and represents the area that was affected. She believes a recent email from the Colorado GOP stating that God hates flags, and a subsequent tweet calling for folks to Burn all the #pride flags this June, could be influencing people in the state to act in this manner. Colorado GOP mailer with an embedded video clip that says "God hates flags" She is calling on Republicans to rebuke the behavior. If someone might be watching this and they are a Republican, and you dont agree with this kind of malicious activity and this blatant pedaling of hatred, that you tell your party that you dont agree with this, Titone said. And if enough people can stand up and say enough is enough, then they will have to do something to change. Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams told FOX31 he believes the incident is likely a hoax, saying in a statement: We make no apologies for saying God hates pride or pride flags as its an agenda that harms children and undermines parental authority, and the only backlash we see is coming from radical Democrats, the fake news media, and weak Republicans who bow down at the feet of leftist cancel culture. Colorado Republicans condemn anti-LGBTQ messaging Republican congressional candidate Russ Andrews is running for Colorados 3rd Congressional District, currently held by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert. He condemned the partys rhetoric, which reads in part: Our focus as Republicans should be on uniting our party, bringing in independent voters, and winning elections. The divisive rhetoric and actions from our state GOP leadership, such as those displayed by Chair Dave Williams, do nothing but alienate voters and create unnecessary fractures within our ranks. In Aurora, Council Member at Large Curtis Gardner did the same, saying he stands with all Aurorans, and that includes those in the LGBTQ+ community. The Republican Party, and specifically the Colorado GOP, no longer stands for the issues that I care about individual rights, fiscal responsibility, restraint of government, limited foreign intervention, and encouraging economic mobility, Gardner posted, in part, on social media. When is monsoon season in Colorado? Two of the neighbors whose flags were stolen filed police reports after seeing the doorbell videos. A neighbor whose house was not attacked brought over a new pride flag for the impacted houses after they heard what happened. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. New study finds significant increase in heat-related ER visits last year: 'Every year now we're doing this earlier and earlier' In 2023, record-breaking heat caused an increase in the number of people visiting the emergency room with heat-related illnesses, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study detailed by The New York Times. What happened? A recent study by the CDC found that the rate of emergency room visits caused by heat illness increased significantly last year in many areas of the country compared to the previous five years. The data, collected from an electronic surveillance program used by the government to detect the spread of diseases, showed nearly 120,000 heat-related emergency room visits. More than 90% of these occurred between May and September. The highest number of visits were recorded in the South, in states such as Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Why is the increase in heat-related illness important? 2023 broke a lot of heat records. According to information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2023 was the warmest year on Earth since global record-keeping began, and the U.S. experienced its 15th-hottest summer since record-keeping began. Some states felt the heat more than others Louisiana recorded its hottest summer ever, and it was among the top 10 hottest summers in six other states, per Yale Climate Connections. Climate scientists have been warning for decades about the dangers of a warming planet. Every year we are seeing more deadly heat-related events, such as the astonishing 125-degree heat index that occurred in Puerto Rico last June. This is having an impact on health. Heat illness often creeps up on people gradually over a few hours and requires immediate attention to cool the body down. Without treatment, it can cause major damage to the body's organs. Early symptoms of heat exhaustion include fatigue, dehydration, nausea, headaches, increased heart rate, and muscle spasms. Trying to keep cool as the temperatures soar is the best way to avoid harm. State officials are working to coordinate cooling shelters in some areas, while in others hospitals are already trying to ensure they are ready to cope with the number of heat illness patients they are expecting this year. Dr. Aneesh Narang, an emergency medicine specialist at Banner-University Medical Center in Phoenix, told the Times: "Every year now we're doing this earlier and earlier. We know that the chances are it's going to be the same or worse." What can I do to help? There are several ways we can all contribute to reducing the pollution that is causing global warming. Using public transport or driving electric vehicles, reducing energy consumption, switching to renewable energies, and buying local produce are all steps that one can take to help cool the planet down.Voting for pro-climate candidates and taking local action can also ensure that our governments are working to reduce climate issues and help secure a more sustainable future for our planet. Join our free newsletter for cool news and cool tips that make it easy to help yourself while helping the planet. Suckers: Biden campaign hits Trump over past comments about veterans in new ad President Bidens reelection campaign dropped an ad that hits former President Trump over his rhetoric about veterans on the week of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy. The one-minute video, titled What Trump Thinks, includes quotes of Trump making negative comments about military members, some of which he has denied since they were first reported. The video highlights that Trump reportedly referred to American veterans buried in France as losers and suckers in 2018. Biden is set to visit the same cemetery in France on Sunday. Trump has previously denied making the suckers remark, though it was later confirmed by his former chief of staff John Kelly. The video notes that Trump repeatedly mocked then-Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who was a prisoner in the Vietnam War. It also featured that Trump told a war widow that her husband knew what he signed up for. Trump in 2017 denied that he made those remarks. Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler argued in a statement that the video shows the difference between Biden and Trumps treatment toward veterans and service members. The choice this November could not be more obvious: Donald Trump has no respect for our men and women in uniform, their families, or the freedoms many of them gave the ultimate sacrifice to defend, Tyler said. President Biden, a military father, values and respects soldiers and their families. President Biden will continue to deliver on getting veterans the health care and benefits they need and deserve. Donald Trump simply does not care. Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung bashed Biden in response to the video, noting that the then-vice president called troops stupid bastards during a military base address and was seen looking at his watch during the dignified transfer of those who died in the Kabul airport bombings in 2021. Joe Biden has disrespected U.S. service members by calling them silly bastards, showed his lack of empathy by repeatedly checking his watch during a solemn ceremony for soldiers killed during the catastrophic Afghanistan withdrawal, and been criticized by Gold Star families for his lack of respect. The fact is that under Biden, America is weaker on the world stage and has made America more vulnerable, Cheung said. On Thursday, the Biden campaign dropped an ad featuring three veterans who slammed Trump as a draft dodger and argued that hes unfit to be commander in chief. The two videos come as Biden is in France for the anniversary of D-Day. He made remarks on Thursday and Friday, taking subtle digs at Trumps America First agenda and his slogan, Make America Great Again. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Sudan could soon have 10 million internally displaced people, UN agency says GENEVA (Reuters) - The number of people internally displaced in Sudan due to conflict could soon exceed 10 million, the United Nations migration agency said on Friday, in the world's largest displacement crisis. Fighting broke out in the capital Khartoum in April 2023 and quickly spread across the country, reigniting ethnic bloodshed in the western Darfur region and forcing millions to flee. "How much suffering and loss of life must the people of Sudan endure before the world takes notice? Isn't 10 million internally displaced enough to compel urgent global action?" said Mohamed Refaat, Sudan Chief of Mission for the International Organization for Migration (IOM). "Every one of those 10 million displaced life represents a profound human tragedy that demands urgent attention." The IOM recorded 9.9 million people internally displaced across Sudan this week. Prior to the war, there were already 2.8 million internally displaced people, according to the IOM. In total, about 12 million people have been forced to flee their homes, with more than 2 million crossing into neighbouring countries, including Egypt and Chad. Refaat said that more than half of the internally displaced people in Sudan were woman, and a quarter of them children under five. He said aid agencies were struggling to keep up with the rising needs. "Funding shortfalls are impeding efforts to provide adequate shelter, food and medical assistance," Refaat said. "Serious concerns are mounting about the long-term impact of displacement on Sudan's social and economic fabric." U.N. agencies have warned that Sudan was at "imminent risk of famine", with around 18 million people acutely hungry, including 3.6 million children who are acutely malnourished. (Reporting by Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila) Rex Heuermann, the man accused of killing four sex workers and dumping their bodies on Long Island's Gilgo Beach in New York, was indicted Thursday in the slayings of two more women as authorities revealed disturbing new evidence including a "planning document" allegedly found on Heuermann's computer. Heuermann, 60, was arraigned in Suffolk County Court in the deaths of Jessica Taylor, a 20-year-old Poughkeepsie native whose dismembered remains were first found days after she disappeared in July 2003, and Sandra Costilla, 28, whose body was found in 1993. He now faces two additional second-degree murder charges. "This year has been 21 years since she was taken from us, longer than the chance that she got to be alive," Jasmine Robinson, Taylor's cousin, said at a news conference on Thursday. "I can't express what this day means after waiting and hoping for answers." Taylor had been living in Manhattan and working as a sex worker near Heurmanns midtown office. Her family reported her missing to law enforcement July 25, 2003, after she did not show up in Poughkeepsie for her mother Elizabeth Baczkiels birthday or answer phone calls. Jessica Taylor, a 20-year-old Poughkeepsie native, was killed in July 2003 and her body parts dumped in Manorville and Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County. A new indictment against Rex Heuermann, the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer, adds the killings of Taylor and Sandra Costilla to the four Heuermann was charged with in 2023. Baczkiel last spoke with her daughter four days earlier, during a 7-minute call in which Taylor said she would be coming to celebrate with her. She made a statement that was read at the press conference by her attorney Gloria Allred. I miss how she called me 'mommy' and 'mama'. It is a tragedy she never had children. Jessica would have made a great mother, Baczkiel wrote, concluding later with "Jessica, my darling daughter, you will never be forgotten. You will always be missed. You will forever be in our hearts." The new charges came just weeks after authorities renewed searches of Heuermann's home in Massapequa Park and a wooded area on Long Island where human remains were found over a decade ago. Investigators found new evidence, including a document on a hard drive recovered from Heuermann's basement that they believe he used to plan the murders, according to a superseding bail application emailed to USA TODAY on Thursday. "The task force believes that this is a planning document and it was utilized by Heuermann to methodically blueprint and plan out his kills with excruciating detail," Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said at a news conference. What does the 'planning document' tell investigators? The document lists "supplies," including "saw/cutting tools," and "photo film," and a "DS," which investigators believe stands for "dump site." It also contains a "dispose of the following" section and the note, "hunt too long seen in area too long." Another note says that more sleep and "noise control" would allow for more "play time," which prosecutors say refers to sexual mutilation. Some notes from the document were sourced from "Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit," a book by retired FBI agent John E. Douglas and author Mark Olshaker about the psychological profiles of serial killers and mass murderers, according to court documents. For example, prosecutors say one note from the document that reads, "look at the painting," references a passage from the book: If you want to understand the artist (the perpetrator), you have to look at the painting (the victim)." Tierney said Heuermann referenced the book "not to gain insight into his own behavior or to modify or change it, but rather to use it as a means of improving his methodology and avoid capture by the authorities." Throughout multiple searches of Heuermann's residence, authorities seized more than 350 electronic devices, according to the bail application. Tierney said analysis of Heuermann's devices also turned up a collection of "violent bondage and torture pornography" dating back to 1994. "That material was very similar to the condition that the two latest victims were left in," he said. The initial search of Heuermann's residence also turned up a copy of The Cases That Haunt Us," a book about famous serial murder cases by the same authors. Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to all charges The former New York architect has been in jail since July on charges in connection with the murder of four women Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, Megan Waterman, 22, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, and Amber Costello, 27 all sex workers whose bodies were discovered on the same strip of highway on Gilgo Beach on Long Island. Their remains were among 11 sets of remains found throughout suburban Long Island in 2010 and 2011. Michael J. Brown, Heuermann's attorney, told reporters he was not given the time to review the new evidence enough to comment. "It's unfair when you hand somebody something and say, 'OK, here you go, defend it,'" he said. Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. His trial date has not been set. "He is the same as he was from day one," Brown said. "He's indicated he is not guilty of these charges, and he wants his day in court now." Fifth victim's skull, hands, arms found near 'Gilgo Four' A person walking their dog on July 26, 2003, in Manorville, 40 miles east of Gilgo Beach, spotted human remains and contacted police, according to court documents. The remains were Taylor's body, decapitated and with both arms severed. A tattoo on the torso had been obliterated with a sharp object. Investigators believe the mutilation of the tattoo, decapitation and dismemberment were efforts by Heuermann to prevent the identification of the victim, consistent with planning details found in the document on his hard drive. Her skull, hands and forearms were found eight years later in 2011 as investigators searched the area along Ocean Parkway where the "Gilgo Four" were found. Prosecutors say Taylor made one other phone call the night of July 21, 2003, and never used her phone again. Evidence showed that Heuermann was working in midtown that week and his family was vacationing in Vermont at the time of her disappearance, according to investigators. A review of Heuermanns digital devices showed that on July 28, 2003, he accessed a Newsday article entitled, Cops Seek Help in IDing Manorville Body, according to court documents. That activity was later deleted. Investigators also linked hair discovered on both Taylor's and Costilla's bodies to Heuermann through DNA testing. Tierney said investigators had uncovered more information that prosecutors would unveil during the trial. DNA on pizza box leads to Heuermann's July arrest Heuermann's arrest in July came more than a decade after the first bodies were discovered on Gilgo Beach in 2010. He was first identified as a suspect in Costello's death in March of 2022 when investigators linked him to a pickup that was reportedly seen by a witness in 2010. According to an indictment, detectives on the case found credit card payments and phone calls made by Heuermann in the same area where someone used burner phones to contact several of the victims before they disappeared. Prosecutors said Heuermann's Tinder profile, where he went by the name "Andy," had links to the burner phones. Detectives also found searches on other serial killers and "sex workers, sadistic, torture-related pornography and child pornography" on a burner email account investigators tied to Heuermann, the indictment said. A key breakthrough in the investigation came the next year, when a surveillance team saw Heuermann throw a pizza box into a trash can outside his office and DNA taken from the crust matched DNA from a hair found on one of the victims. Days after the arrest, Heuermann's wife Asa Ellerup filed for divorce. In March, Ellerup's attorney wrote in a statement that she still visits her ex-husband weekly and "believes he is not capable of the crimes he is accused of." I will listen to all of the evidence and withhold judgment until the end of trial," Ellerup said in the statement. "I have given Rex the benefit of the doubt, as we all deserve. Staff writer Jonathan Bandler contributed to this report This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: New charges link Gilgo Beach killer to Poughkeepsie woman's death SUNSET PARK, Brooklyn (PIX11) The Sunset Park community is getting a look at the future of a pier in the neighborhood thats been neglected for decades. A community engagement meeting held at the Brooklyn Public Library Thursday night allowed residents to give feedback on their hopes for Pier 6, which is set to receive major upgrades. The waterfront, in its current state, is a symbol of decades of decay and neglect. The area has sat with overgrown trees and debris, adding to a sense of abandonment. The future is bright, however, for the dilapidated space as a transformative redevelopment project promises to rejuvenate the deteriorating pier. The pier has been completely disused for many years. It used to have structures on it. They burned down in the 1980s, and since then, theres been nothing on it, said Christine Paglialunga of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. More Brooklyn News The NYCEDC hopes to draw visitors to the pier for the first time that the pier has opened to the public. During the community engagement meeting, Sunset Park residents saw proposed design layouts, which could bring green space, walking trails, and an event venue to the community. Maria Roca has lived in the neighborhood for 60 years and fought to have the neglected space transformed into a vibrant community asset. We want to see a viable, sustainable, naturally beautiful, well-constructed space that is accessible to every single person, said Roca. More Local News While many welcome the new project, others voiced a number of concerns. Some are calling for developers to extend their plans beyond the pier, emphasizing the need to revitalize the surrounding industrial and commercial areas as well. Invest in cafes, venues, and other commercial enterprises that could really revitalize not only revitalize the neighborhood but bring in labor, talent, interest, said Sunset Park resident Ted Flomenhaft. Developers hope to break ground on the pier in 2025 and complete construction by 2026. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. It was in the wee hours of a morning in spring 2018 when Keith Posley became the superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools. It was in the wee hours of a morning in spring 2024 when he lost the job. Operating in the dark seems to be a preferred mode for Milwaukee Public School leaders. But there is operating in the dark, and there is Operating in the Dark. Now the evidence is stronger than ever that the system is operating in the figurative dark, unsure of how to navigate a path forward, facing increasing crises, fearful of what will happen next and losing public confidence, including among friends it had long counted on. For the last 14 years including the six years that Posley was superintendent MPS leadership has not been fond of daylight, at least not in the sense of letting the public see whats going on. Those often kept pretty much in the dark have included other MPS leaders, employees, parents, political and civic leaders, news reporters who have struggled to figure out what is going on within MPS (even when working on positive stories) and the general public. Keith Posley, then superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, discusses a new college access program earlier this year. Posley stepped down from his position on June 4. That reached a peak in recent days when harsh light shined on how poorly the system has been functioning: Provide minimal information while seeking a huge increase in taxes ($252 million a year) from Milwaukee voters? Sounds like a plan. The referendum vote in April squeaked to passage without voters knowing many details on what was going to be done with the money. More: Comptroller for Milwaukee Public Schools is out of the job More: Milwaukee alderman calls on MPS board to not enact full referendum after financial problems revealed Then, even with new revenue, release a budget proposal that calls for reducing staff positions and some services, while providing only the minimum required amount of public information? Yes and that triggered a surprising amount of anger from within the ranks of MPS staff and parents. Struggle for years to figure out how to house two popular and generally successful schools that share an overcrowded building, even though your school system has excess capacity and a lot of other weak-performing schools? Yeah, thats the case for the Carmen South and ALBA schools. Leave it to a report from federal overseers of the Head Start preschool program to let the public know there have been serious problems with the way young children have been supervised and treated by MPS employees, problems so serious that they might cost MPS its future as a multi-million dollar a year Head Start contractor? Why not? And especially, dont tell anyone, maybe even School Board members, that you have not yet provided required financial reports to the state Department of Public Instruction that were due last September? Surprise! The DPI sent an unprecedented and stern letter a few days ago to MPS, warning that it was in danger of losing millions of dollars in state funding while the MPS failure was threatening to mess up the entire state school funding system. Might someone have foreseen that this could blow up and become the last straw for the job tenure of Posley and probably others? (By the way, there is no clear evidence that news of the financial reporting crisis was intentionally kept from the public until after the referendum passed. But some people at a School Board public hearing Monday night suggested that. And it seems likely that if this problem had become known before the April vote, the referendum, which passed narrowly, would have failed.) With no support left, Posley's departure was inevitable Posleys departure at this point was inevitable since he was left by this week with no base of support. His six years as superintendent have not exactly been a shining period for MPS. The COVID period from 2020 through much of 2021 dominated the Posley era. Whatever you thought about how long schools should have been operating only remotely, MPS kept its buildings closed about as long as anyone in the nation, and the price paid in educational and emotional development of kids has clearly been hefty. Overall, student achievement, attendance and enrollment struggled during the six years of Posleys tenure (and for a long time before that, really). Finding and keeping teachers has been a problem, with hundreds of vacancies on a routine basis. Before Posley was named superintendent, I asked an MPS insider about him. Posley had been a central office administrator for about 15 years at that point. Wheres the vision? she asked. He did have some vision: improving early childhood programs, helping schools in the low-income 53206 ZIP code, increasing music and art offerings, and improving outcomes at the many low-success MPS high schools. Art and music classes did increase, but progress on those other goals was not significant. But Posley was very good at navigating the politics of the local education scene. He was a bureaucratic survivor until now. Is MPS better off now than it was six years ago? No. That isnt all Posleys fault, by any means. But it goes on his own report card. Challenges won't go away with Posley's departure Posleys departure doesnt solve anything for MPS except for getting him off the scene (something demanded in fiery and sometimes foul terms at the public hearing Monday night). I expect that the financial report screw-up will get resolved, perhaps with some pain. And someone will be found to lead the states largest and most-troubled school system. But those seem like almost small goals compared to the giant challenges facing MPS. Those include: Reversing a decades-long enrollment slide, or at least stabilizing enrollment. Finding more teachers, including filling hundreds of vacancies, and increasing the overall talent level of the teaching staff. Retaining more teachers when other teaching opportunities or career paths become more appealing in many teachers eyes. Responding effectively to the nearly overwhelming (and sometimes actually overwhelming) challenges arising from the unstable lives of thousands of children in the city. Making school culture and environments in schools more conducive to learning, including reducing violence and lesser, but widespread, forms of misbehavior. Dealing with still-challenging funding issues, even after two referendums in the last four years increased tax support. Navigating the polarized politics of state government in Madison. Navigating relations with the teachers union, which has much influence with the school board. And now more than ever, winning the trust of the community of parents, of political leaders, of community and civic and business leaders. More: MPS recruits consultant Todd Gray to fix serious financial problems that jeopardize state aid Putting all of this together leaves two related challenges standing above the rest: Bringing in a lot more competent people. And just getting the entire MPS act together. One of the least addressed and most important needs of MPS (and many other school districts) is the limited ability of so many of those involved. There were frequent references at the public hearing Monday night to getting rid of incompetent people in MPS. These were mostly focused on Posley and board members, but there is a broader need for more competent and talented people, especially leaders who could set good goals with practical plans to pursue them. In short, if MPS were run better, it seems fair to bet that that would begin to show positive impact. Can any of this be done? How? In particular, can it be done within the existing structures of MPS? Ideas such as breaking up MPS into smaller districts or overhauling the governance system, perhaps with mayoral or state control, have been off the table since a proposal for a form of mayoral control laid a political bomb 15 years ago. Such talk appears to be gaining new life, but the chances of changes of these kinds still seem small. A political adage often attributed to Winston Churchill says you should never let a crisis go to waste. MPS is in an advanced state of crisis. Milwaukee is in a state of educational crisis. That means Wisconsin, as a whole, is going to feel the effects of an educational crisis. Will this be a time when people, especially leaders, come together to make things better? Put it this way: Could there be light at the end of what has been a dark tunnel for MPS? Alan J. Borsuk is senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette Law School. Reach him at alan.borsuk@marquette.edu. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Challenges remain for Milwaukee Public Schools after Posley departure The eye in the sky angle is a beautiful way to capture surfing. Before the advent of the drone, filmmakers went to great lengths to make it happen. Remember "Sipping Jetstreams?" How about "Fair Bits?" Both films were released in the early 2000s, and each featured a marquee section filmed via helicopter that required tons of planning and money to make happen. These days, filming that same section is as simple as launching a $1,000 DJI drone. Which is why everyone from surf YouTubers to the WSL owns one. In fact, the WSL uses their drone as one of their main broadcast angles At least, for now. If the US Government gets their way, House Bill HR 2864 (Countering CCP Drones Act) looks to ban all new DJI drones and possibly retroactively ground all currently owned DJI drones regardless of whether theyre for personal and professional use. A bird's-eye view of Waikiki Matteo Colombo/Getty Why? The issue is that DJI drones use and transmit location data, and the Government is concerned China is using that data to spy on the US. According to this article, "Congress is saying that DJI captures user data, and that that data is available to the Chinese government, essentially allowing them to surveil US territory and our behaviors. "Proponents (i.e. Internet commenters) argue that the drones LIDAR (used for obstacle avoidance) is essentially mapping our terrain for China, and that flight logs add more data to the mix. DJI maintains this isnt the case, and that users can opt out of data collection entirely and restrict all data to the local device." So, what would a DJI drone ban actually look like? Well, the Drone Advocacy Alliance (yes, that's a real thing) says that "according to a 2023 economic impact analysis by John Dunham & Associates, removing DJI and its products from the market would result in the closure of 67% of American small drone businesses and the loss of more than 450,000 U.S. jobs." Related: Gallery: A Birds-Eye View of Pipeline and Beyond Whether or not that analysis took the WSL and independent surf filmmakers into consideration is unknown, but either way, if the government gets their way, one of surfing's most beautiful angles will be in jeopardy in the United States. A surf filmmaker we spoke with said that if this bill passes, while there will likely be jailbreaks and workarounds for the average drone user, a government ban would almost certainly affect the WSL. Which means the WSL's broadcasts at waves like Pipeline, Sunset, Huntington Beach and the WSL Finals at Lowers would look a lot different, and for the worse. So, whether you're a drone owner or simply a fan of the angle, to oppose HR 2864, fill out this form. A man casts his vote at a polling station in Prague, the Czech Republic, on June 7, 2024. (Photo by Dana Kesnerova/Xinhua) PRAGUE, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Elections to elect representatives to the European Parliament (EP) started in the Czech Republic on Friday afternoon. Over two days, Czechs will decide who represents them in the EP where they have 21 seats, choosing from among over 670 candidates from 30 political parties, movements and coalitions. Polling stations opened from 2:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Friday and will reopen the following day when the elections continue from 08:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. The Czech Republic joined the European Union (EU) in 2004. Together with Italy, where voting will take place over the weekend, the country is one of just two EU countries where the election take place over two days. More than eight million are eligible to vote in the country of 10.5 million people this year. However, voter turnout is usually low, with only about 29 percent of Czechs voting in the last EP elections in 2019 and about 18 percent a decade ago. Speaking after voting in a polling station in the municipality of Cernoucek, in northern Czech Republic, Czech President Petr Pavel told journalists that he hopes this year's turnout for the EP elections will be higher than five years ago. He said he would consider it a success if more than 30 percent of voters went to the polls. The EP elections, scheduled for June 6-9, kicked off on Thursday with the opening of polling stations in the Netherlands, the first of the EU's 27 member states to vote. Friday was the bloc's second day of elections, with the Czech Republic and Ireland casting their ballots. The final election results in the Czech Republic will be released on Sunday night only after the voting ends in all EU member states. Voters register at a polling station in Prague, the Czech Republic, on June 7, 2024. (Photo by Dana Kesnerova/Xinhua) A man casts his vote at a polling station in Prague, the Czech Republic, on June 7, 2024. (Photo by Dana Kesnerova/Xinhua) Voters register at a polling station in Prague, the Czech Republic, on June 7, 2024. (Photo by Dana Kesnerova/Xinhua) Two professors at the University of Texas at Austin are suing for the right to penalize students who miss class to obtain an abortion out of state. The professors, John Hatfield and Daniel Bonevac, are contesting the Biden administrations efforts to shield students from retaliation when they obtain reproductive health care, a long-standing guarantee under Title IX. They also demand the freedom to discriminate against students and teaching assistants who identify as LGBTQ. On Saturdays bonus Slate Plus episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss the lawsuit, which is part of a broader, coordinated attack on both Title IX and reproductive health care. A preview of their conversation, below, has been edited for length and clarity. To listen to the full episode of Amicus, join Slate Plus. Dahlia Lithwick: This is an incredible story that didnt get enough national exposure. Mark, can you tell us whats happening here? Mark Joseph Stern: These professors have joined a broader lawsuit thats attacking the Biden administrations new regulation clarifying the scope of Title IX, which bars sex discrimination in federally funded education. The Education Department has clarified that Title IX covers LGBTQ students, which follows from the Supreme Courts decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. It tightened protections for student survivors of sexual assault. And alsothis is the sticking point for Hatfield and Bonevacit reiterates guarantees against discrimination for pregnancy-related conditions, as well as the termination of a pregnancy. To be clear, these are not new additions: The Education Department has interpreted Title IX to protect students who terminate their pregnancies since 1975. This principle is deeply rooted in the statute and federal regulations enforcing it. And yet red states, Republicans, and anti-abortion advocates claim that Bidens Education Department is unlawfully expanding Title IX, and theyve filed this lawsuit seeking to block it nationwide. Dahlia, would you like guess which judge these plaintiffs shopped their case to? I know this oneMatty K! Thats right! They found their way to Amarillo, Texas, where they were guaranteed to draw our friend Matthew Kacsmaryk, a far-right Trump appointee and anti-abortion zealot. And Kacsmaryk is, in turn, basically guaranteed to issue a nationwide bar on everything the Biden administration is trying to do here. Can you explain how these professors became part of this, um, creative lawsuit? These two guys are clients of Jonathan Mitchell, who is the architect of Texas vigilante abortion ban, S.B. 8. Mitchell is working on this case with Stephen Miller, former Trump adviser and head of the America First Legal Foundation. Theyre teaming up with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whos spending Texans tax dollars on this fight. Im a little mystified about what specific relief these professors seek. Do they want to be able to look at a woman in class and say, You look like you left town for an abortion this week! Like, what do they want to happen here? I think its very much of a piece with Mitchells S.B. 8, which relied on random strangers to uncover abortions and sue anyone who aided or abetted them. That law encouraged people to surveil and turn in their own neighbors, friends, and families for facilitating reproductive health care. This lawsuit is a miniature version of that for the classroom. These professors seem to intend to rely on tips from other students; perhaps they can even open up a tip line to discover why a particular student missed class. Theyre turning the classroom into a surveillance state. And it leads to all kinds of perverse classroom dynamics; students might try to curry favor with the professor by passing along information that somebody got an abortion. The professor can then presumably launch his own investigation to uncover the truth, which could include demanding answers from the student who has been targeted. The UTAustin system does not clearly allow students to travel for abortions without punishment. The accommodations policies are extremely vague on this point. So these professors are exploiting that gap in the policy. At a minimum, they want to lower the grade of any student who misses class for an abortion, even a perfectly legal one obtained out of state. I sent them questions asking for details about their intent here, but they declined to respond. I would love for you to talk about the invocation of Comstock here, the zombie law thats suddenly everywhere. This is yet another experiment by Jonathan Mitchell to revive the zombie law and wield it in a maximally harmful, misogynistic, controlling way. Comstock is a statute from 1873 that was designed to censor the mail, and primarily targeted birth control and feminist literature. But it also includes hazy language about abortion. Mitchell, whos one of Trumps top lawyers, argues that Comstock imposes a nationwide ban, because it talks about both drugs that induce miscarriage, like mifepristone, and things that can cause abortion, including medical equipment. He claims that the transportation of any medication or equipment meant to terminate a pregnancy is a felony offense. And he wants Donald Trump to implement this theory as policy if he wins a second term. That argument is really front and center not just in this lawsuit, but in the professors own declarations. Right. Hatfield and Bonevac say they wont even hire a teaching assistant who might obtain abortion pills because doing so is a felony and they refuse to harbor criminals. And its no coincidence that this case has been shopped to Matthew Kacsmaryk, who attempted to ban mifepristone nationwide last yearciting, among other things, the Comstock Act for support. The Supreme Court will probably reverse Kacsmaryk soon, but this Title IX case gives him another opportunity to talk Comstock. He can remind everyone that, in his view, this nationwide ban on both medical and procedural abortions already exists. In some ways, this is a Comstock lawsuit smuggled into an attack on Title IX. And its trying to put the Comstock argument on the wall, right? All of Mitchells Comstock lawsuits are trying to breathe new life into the zombie law, making it look live and urgent. Of course, this is the same lawyer who is representing men who want to wield the legal system against estranged partners who terminate their pregnancies. It sure seems like he hates pregnant people. Mitchell is committed to setting up an all-encompassing, almost totalitarian surveillance state where every single pregnant person is under constant watch, as are their friends and family. And any pregnancy loss subjects them and their loved ones to potential criminal penalties. The sum effect is to silence and terrify and isolate people who need to be able to ask for help in the midst of a crisis. This entire regime of laws is designed to chill them from seeking help. Its so unbelievably cruel, and I guess thats the point. Theres more, too: These professors are also seeking the right to discriminate against LGBTQ students. So this does not stop at the termination of pregnancies at all. They are demanding a right to openly discriminate, particularly against transgender students, whom they deride as having delusional beliefs. Of course, the Supreme Court settled this issue in Bostock v. Clayton County, when it held that sex discrimination encompasses anti-LGBTQ discrimination. But Matthew Kacsmaryk is in open rebellion against Bostockhe refuses to recognize it as a legitimate decision, and instead cites Justice Samuel Alitos dissent as though its binding law. So this will be a winning argument in his court. I think its worth pausing and asking: Is this how educators are supposed to act? Are professors supposed to surveil their students, punish them for getting health care, and accuse them of having delusional beliefs on the basis of their identity? And then insist on your right to punish them for having the wrong beliefs or getting the wrong health care? I dont understand why these guys want to be professors at all. Why would they want to engage in debate and discussion with students whom they evidently despise? And seek to weaponize the power of the state against them? I find it both baffling and disgusting. Suspect charged after Cass County chase ends in Kansas City KANSAS CITY, Mo. A 38-year-old Kansas City, Missouri man is facing charges following a police chase overnight in Cass County. Cass County prosecutors charged Antonio Whitley on Friday with resisting arrest by fleeing, creating a substantial risk. Antonio Whitley mugshot According to the Cass County Sheriffs Office, just after midnight, a deputy witnessed a driver committing a traffic violation. When the deputy activated his emergency lights near the intersection of 58 Highway and S. Mullen Road in Belton, the suspect driver began speeding away. The sheriffs office reports the chase ended near E. 107th Street and Blue Ridge Boulevard in Kansas City. Whitley is currently being held in the Cass County jail on a $15,000 bond. No court date has been scheduled at this time. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. OLEAN, N.Y. (WIVB) The suspect in a string of Southern Tier bank robberies was arrested Thursday morning after his alleged crime spree ended with a high-speed chase in Pennsylvania. 39-year-old Edwin McPeak Jr. of Olean is facing numerous felony charges in Pennsylvania, and more charges are pending in New York. Bail was set at $1 million. Authorities said McPeak first robbed a bank in Olean around 9 a.m. Thursday, shortly after stealing a vehicle by gunpoint, before proceeding to rob another bank in Portville around 9:30. Six ghost guns found during Town of Niagara search, police say McPeak then allegedly made the short drive over the state line and robbed another bank in Eldred. Police in Pennsylvania reported that witnesses told them a man wearing a mask and holding a gun entered the bank and said, No ones going to get hurt. Give me all of your money. The McKean County District Attorneys Office said police located McPeaks vehicle traveling south on State Route 446 and onto State Route 46, but he fled at a high rate of speed once they attempted to pull him over. McPeak was apprehended after allegedly crashing his stolen vehicle near Rew Hill, approximately 6 miles from where police first saw him. He sustained minor injuries. McPeak is being held in McKean County Jail in Smethport. He was charged in Pennsylvania with: Two counts of robbery, with a deadly weapon enhancement (one of a financial institution; and one for placing a person in fear of imminent serious bodily injury) Fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer Theft by unlawful taking (cash) Two counts terroristic threats Receiving stolen property (vehicle) Firearms not to be carried without a license Summary traffic violations Anyone with more information is asked to contact the Cattaraugus County Sheriffs office at (716) 938-2273 or (716) 938-2239. Latest Local News * * * Nick Veronica is a Buffalo native who joined the News 4 team as the Digital Executive Producer in 2021. He previously worked at NBC Sports and The Buffalo News. You can follow Nick on Facebook, Twitter and Threads. See more of his work here. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to News 4 Buffalo. Swiss President Viola Amherd says the Ukraine peace conference that her country is organizing for later this month is just the beginning of negotiations and would likely be followed by talks with Russia. "It is clear to us that we will not sign a peace agreement at the end of the conference," Amherd said in comments published by Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper on Friday. Both parties need to be at the table for peace, she said, referring to the fact that Russia has not been invited to attend the Swiss summit. "Russia could then be present at a possible follow-up conference," she said. Switzerland invited around 160 countries to discuss possible ways to achieve lasting peace in Ukraine. Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago, has not received an invitation. Ukraine is taking part. So far, more than 80 countries have confirmed they will join the meeting in Switzerland taking place on June 15 and 16. Moscow said Russia would not have attended even if it had been invited. Amherd went on to say that the conference was intended to create a platform for dialogue at which the first step would be to discuss how peace could be achieved in Ukraine. It would not be about peace in Ukraine in the narrow sense, but "only" about humanitarian issues, nuclear safety, freedom of navigation and food security, she said. "We want to build trust and seek solutions to these issues, which are important for the civilian population and then also for peace later on," she said. It is seen as crucial for the success of the conference that not only Ukraine's Western allies are present, but also influential countries that are friends of Russia - above all China, Moscow's most important ally. China has said publicly it will not attend, but that it attaches great importance to the peace conference. And while India has said it will send representatives, it is unclear whether that is the case for South Africa. "It was important for us that not only Western European countries and the US are taking part," Amherd said. "Around half of the more than 80 participants who have already confirmed their attendance come from Western Europe, the other half from Africa, South America and Asia. So the Global South is represented," she added. Swiss leader: Ukraine meet likely to be followed by Russia conference Swiss President Viola Amherd says the Ukraine peace conference that her country is organizing for later this month is just the beginning of negotiations and would likely be followed by talks with Russia. "It is clear to us that we will not sign a peace agreement at the end of the conference," Amherd said in comments published by Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper on Friday. Both parties need to be at the table for peace, she said, referring to the fact that Russia has not been invited to attend the Swiss summit. "Russia could then be present at a possible follow-up conference," she said. Switzerland invited around 160 countries to discuss possible ways to achieve lasting peace in Ukraine. Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago, has not received an invitation. Ukraine is taking part. So far, more than 80 countries have confirmed they will join the meeting in Switzerland taking place on June 15 and 16. Moscow said Russia would not have attended even if it had been invited. Amherd went on to say that the conference was intended to create a platform for dialogue at which the first step would be to discuss how peace could be achieved in Ukraine. It would not be about peace in Ukraine in the narrow sense, but "only" about humanitarian issues, nuclear safety, freedom of navigation and food security, she said. "We want to build trust and seek solutions to these issues, which are important for the civilian population and then also for peace later on," she said. Switzerland to allocate 60.5 million for digitalisation of public services in Ukraine The Swiss Federal Council decided on 7 June to allocate CHF 58.7 million (60.52 million) over four years to support Ukraine's digitalisation and e-governance efforts. Source: European Pravda, citing a statement by the Swiss government Details: Ukraine will receive funds under the E-Governance for Accountability and Participation (EGAP) project, which promotes the digital transformation of the Ukrainian government and has been supported by Switzerland since 2015. "The SDC [Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation] will provide a total of CHF 58.7 million over the 202428 period," the statement said. The funding will be directed, in particular, to projects that are essential for the country's future recovery in regions of Ukraine that have been directly affected by the war. The key areas include healthcare, education and humanitarian mine clearance. Switzerland plans to officially announce its assistance at the next Ukraine Recovery Conference, which will be held in Berlin on 11-12 June. Background: In April, Switzerland announced that it plans to strengthen Ukraine's economic development and long-term recovery over the next twelve years and will allocate 5 billion for this purpose. At the same time, the Swiss parliament expectedly rejected a proposal that would have provided Ukraine with US$5.5 billion in aid. Support UP or become our patron! Switzerland to provide over US$11 million for needs of Ukrainian Railways Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways) will receive rail fasteners worth 10 million Swiss francs (about $11.1 million) under the grant agreement between Ukraine and Switzerland. Source: Taras Melnychuk, Representative of the Cabinet of Ministers at the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament), on Telegram Details: According to Melnychuk, the Cabinet accepted the draft supplementary agreement No 1 to the Grant Agreement between Ukraine and Switzerland about an emergency support initiative to rebuild and restore Ukraine's railway infrastructure. "The supplementary agreement provides grant assistance to the Swiss government to continue the implementation of the emergency support project to improve and restore the railway infrastructure of Ukraine, and outlines the conditions for attracting grant assistance," said Melnychuk. The grant funding of 10 million Swiss francs will be utilised to acquire rail fasteners from a Swiss supplier for usage by Ukrzaliznytsia. Support UP or become our patron! Ulviyya Shahin A cooperation document was signed between the State Social Protection Fund (SSPF) and the Social Services Agency of Georgia, Azernews reports citing SSPF. The delegation led by the Chairman of the SSPF under the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population, Himalaya Mamishov, visited Georgia. In a meeting with Irene Tsagadze, the Deputy Minister of Work, Labor, Health and Social Protection, people who were forcibly displaced from the occupied territories of Georgia were informed about the social reforms carried out in our country. Opinions were exchanged on the current situation and priority issues in the direction of social security of the population. Issues of expansion of bilateral relations and prospective cooperation were discussed. Within the framework of the visit, Himalaya Mamishov and Giorgi Chanturia, the head of the Social Services Agency of the Ministry of Labor, Labor, Health and Social Protection of Georgia with IDPs from the Occupied Territories, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between the two institutions. The document includes changes in the legislation on pension provision, mechanisms for strengthening the social protection of persons with disabilities, etc. implementation of information exchanges in the fields was reflected. At the event, H.Mamishov informed about the reforms and achievements in the pension-insurance system of Azerbaijan. G. Chanturia said that they are interested in applying the advanced experience of Azerbaijan in the field of social insurance and social security in Georgia. Liverpools Potential Signing: Lutsharel Geertruida Liverpool fans are eagerly anticipating the summer transfer window, and one name that has surfaced with considerable intrigue is Lutsharel Geertruida. The Feyenoord star, known for his versatility and defensive prowess, is heavily linked again with a move to Anfield. This blog delves into the speculations, key statistics, comparisons, and the likelihood of this transfer. Whats been said According to a recent report by Teamtalk, Liverpool are leading the race to sign Lutsharel Geertruida, with strong competition from Premier League rivals like Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United, and West Ham United. The article highlights: Liverpool are the best-placed club to sign Lutsharel Geertruida, with Arne Slot vital to the prospective transfer, while a second move is postponing a Tottenham Hotspur bid for the Netherlands star, as per reports. This statement underscores the influence of Arne Slot, Geertruidas current manager at Feyenoord, who might play a pivotal role in swaying the players decision. Geertruidas presence at a West Ham United match also fuels speculation about his potential move to the Premier League, suggesting he is weighing his options seriously. Looking at the Key Stats Lutsharel Geertruida, at 23 years of age, has shown remarkable growth and consistency in his career. Here are some vital statistics: Age: 23 Position: Primarily a right-back but can also play as a centre-back and defensive midfielder Club: Feyenoord Appearances (2023-24): 34 matches, with 9 goals and 5 assists International Caps: Netherlands National Team debut in 2023 with 8 caps to date Geertruidas versatility is one of his standout attributes, making him a valuable asset for any top-tier club looking to bolster their defensive options. Drawing Comparisons When comparing Lutsharel Geertruida to Liverpools Joe Gomez, the similarities in their roles and versatility are apparent. Both players have shown they can adapt across the backline and even in defensive midfield roles. Challenge Success: Geertruidas challenge success rate stands at 67.6%, slightly higher than Gomezs 47.6%. Aerial Duels: Geertruida has an aerial duel success rate of 63.6%, well below that of Gomez at 75.6% These statistics indicate that Geertruida not only matches but in some cases surpasses Gomez in key defensive metrics. His higher success rates in challenges maybe a reason teams are considering him. Likelihood and fee According to transfermarkt.co.uk, Geertruida is currently valued at 32 million (27.5 million). With his contract at Feyenoord expiring in June 2025, the Dutch club might be open to negotiations, especially considering the players market value and the interest from Premier League clubs. Teamtalk article mentions a potential fee range of 17-25 million, noting: Feyenoord are willing to accept a bid worth between 20m-25m (17-21m), a price tag which will certainly entice Liverpool chiefs. Given the financial landscape and the competitive nature of the Premier League, Liverpool and others would find this valuation appealing. The Eredivisies level of competition, while respectable, doesnt match the intensity of the Premier League. Therefore, Geertruidas attacking stats may not translate directly, but his defensive capabilities and potential for growth may make him a worthy investment. Taiwan prohibits export of essential component for shells to Russia and Belarus Taiwan's Ministry of Economy has decided to expand sanctions against Russia and Belarus by prohibiting the export of nitrocellulose, a crucial component used in projectile production. Nitrocellulose, essential for smokeless gunpowder and rocket fuel, is already subject to export bans in the U.S. and the EU. To enforce this measure, the ministry emphasizes the necessity of closing regulatory loopholes and imposes a fine of 1 million Taiwan Dollars (almost $31,000) for violations. These sanctions are part of Taiwan's condemnation of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and its solidarity with Western measures against it, despite minimal direct trade between Taiwan and Russia. Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu believes that the islands future is dependent on the war in Ukraine. Our lesson is that if Russia can do that to Ukraine, China might do the same to Taiwan, Wu said. Read also: US imposes first tranche of sanctions against Georgian officials Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz makes a government statement on the "current security situation" in a plenary session of the German Bundestag. Sabina Crisan/dpa Afghanistan's Taliban rulers said on Friday they are open to cooperating with the German government on the deportation of Afghan criminals back to their home country. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Thursday that he wanted to see the swift deportation of criminals back to countries deemed unsafe by the government in Berlin, including Afghanistan and Syria. The initiative comes after outrage was triggered by the recent killing of a police officer by an Afghan national. The attack took place at a rally held by an anti-Islam group in the western city of Mannheim. "Such criminals should be deported - even if they come from Syria and Afghanistan," Scholz told the Bundestag or lower house of parliament. Kabul responded on Friday to the German leader's remarks. "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan calls upon the German authorities to address through normal consular engagement and an appropriate mechanism based on bilateral agreement," Taliban foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Kahar Balchi posted on X. Germany has not sent anyone back to Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in August 2021. Even before that, the agreement was that only men - especially criminals and those deemed terrorist threats - would be forcibly returned, due to the difficult security situation. Critics warn against talks with the Taliban, who are currently internationally isolated. According to Afghanistan expert Thomas Ruttig, the co-founder of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, the Taliban could benefit from deportations by using them as an opportunity to cooperate with a Western state, which could be seen as a boost to their reputation. The German refugee advocacy group Pro Asyl has condemned Scholz's initiative. "International law clearly prohibits any deportations to Afghanistan and Syria," Pro Asyl's managing director Karl Kopp told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper in remarks published on Friday. Kopp described Scholz's proposed plans as unlawful, because "both countries are known for their use of torture and inhuman punishments." A diversion via Afghanistan's neighbouring countries such as Pakistan is also currently being considered by the German government. However, the Taliban reject this possibility. Extraditions to third countries would be a violation of current conventions, the Foreign Ministry spokesman emphasised in his statement. So far, no country has officially recognized the Taliban government. Western states demand that human rights and especially women's rights are respected in the country before recognition is granted. North Korean Tech School business students eating in the cafeteria. Photo provided by Jukka-Pekka Heikkila It was a week that had many of the elements youd expect at a business school startup week: pitch sessions, students presenting their business models through slick PowerPoints, a venture capitalist on hand to give his two cents. But that week in 2016 was very different for one reason: It was in Pyongyang, North Korea, and the students were pitching ideas they likely will never get to pursue, at least not for the foreseeable future. I still use my experience in North Korea to show some examples of teaching in extreme settings, says Ewald Kibler, associate professor of entrepreneurship at Aalto University School of Business in Finland. STUDYING DIGITAL BUSINESS EDUCATION IN NORTH KOREA Ewald Kibler of Aalto University School of Business: In all places, there is this kind of universal language. When you laugh together, when you bring in humor and some fun into the classroom, it is a way of breaking the ice, wherever you are In 2016, Kibler was one of six professors allowed to teach entrepreneurship during what was hailed as the first Startup Week in North Korea. I try to reflect on what I learned from it, he says. One of the things was that, in all places, there is this kind of universal language. When you laugh together, when you bring in humor and some fun into the classroom, it is a way of breaking the ice, wherever you are. Kibler is part of a research team that has published three papers about dynamics in the North Korean school they dubbed Tech School. The third, Unfolding Dispositifs: Attempts at Digital Business Education in North Korea was published this spring in the journal Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space. It examines in context how the school uses digital technology, how it controls it and how students find ways to get around the rules. One of Kiblers Aalto colleagues and co-authors, Jukka-Pekka Heikkila, taught entrepreneurship at the Tech School periodically between 2013 and 2017. Kibler, a trained sociologist, helped teach that startup week in 2016. Their research, Kibler says, is based on first-hand observations, student essays, and diaries, and is likely the first such research conducted through primary data. Since Heikkilas last visit to North Korea, the country has significantly closed itself off further, making similar research based on first-hand data unlikely for years to come. All three papers offer a rare but fascinating glimpse into the life of North Korean students and the tensions between a paternalistic state and the economic, even entrepreneurial, activities that inevitably pop up. Poets&Quants recently talked with Kibler about his latest research paper inside North Koreas Tech School, his research team, and teaching entrepreneurship inside a dictatorship. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Lets start with a little bit about your background. I did my bachelors and masters In sociology. I did my PhD in economic geography in Finland at the Turun School of Economics and soon after started as Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurship at the Aalto University. My research always focused on entrepreneurship in particular, but always always more from a geography, sociology, even policy lens. Now Im a tenured professor at Aalto. How were you connected with this North Korean school? It all started with one of our postdoctoral researchers, Jukka-Pekka Heikkila. Hes a bit of an adventurer, and he sent an email to the North Korean business school basically asking if he could teach information systems at the school. Half a year later, he got a response that he could come. So, he went to North Korea for the first time in 2013 as a teacher. Until 2017, he went there on a regular basis. I was working with him on ways to collect data in such an extreme setting. We started to have a few ideas on whats possible and also what would be approved by the school. At some point, we were able to do, at least, observations and a little more ethnographic work which was the most logical way to pursue it. We were also able to collect essays and diaries from the students. Essays, texts, narratives, and observations became the only way to go about the research in that school in such an extreme setting. I only went to North Korea once in 2016. I also helped as a teacher for one week; We called it the first Startup Week in North Korea. There were a bunch of professors and other colleagues, and we were teaching entrepreneurship. Tell me a bit about the research team. In our most recent paper, the main ethnographers are Jukka-Pekka Heikkila and Will Scott. Will Scott is not a researcher or a scientist, he was a teacher. He helped them basically enrich the observations and the data collection. Heikkila is still in academia, about half and half. Thomas Wainwright and myself, we represented more the serious scientific researcher side. In that sense, we made a great team. Without Heikkila and Scott, this paper would have not been possible, obviously. Why were you interested in this project? A North Korean business school seems a bit contradictory. Im always always interested in geography and place research and different, extreme settings. For example, I did a study in Haiti after the earthquake on how communities recover from major disruptions. Ive looked into outbreaks in Chile, but also regions that are more suppressed and communities where lots of inequalities are at play. I was always interested in extreme settings through the institutional lens trying to understand how institutions are really shaping everyday life. When I heard Heikkila was going to North Korea, I was deeply into institutional research, also political research and geography. Because entrepreneurship is also about potential change, I thought it was a very intriguing setting. I approached it very neutral as any other setting that I find interesting, but obviously with North Korea, it was particularly unique or extreme. In this case, it was all about doing research within the setting of the school. We did nothing outside of the school campus. Obviously it was a bit of an adventure. Many of my friends and colleagues asked me why I was interested in this. I was trained as a sociologist, so I was interested in the research side but also in developing a better understanding of people in North Korea. I think maybe our papers, at some point, will also make a contribution and shed some new light in a context where we usually dont know much. Going back to Startup Week in North Korea. I find that pretty interesting. Are people there even able to launch their own ventures? What kinds of things did you teach during that week? Yes, in general, entrepreneurship or starting up a business is illegal for sure. It is not something North Koreans can do. But obviously, especially between maybe 2010-11 until 2016 -17, there was some slight opening in certain areas. There were some economic developments, and so called state owned enterprises, as well as some importing and exporting. There have been research papers on these things, even though I think our research is probably one of the first really based on primary data and not only based on refugees insights. Clearly that mostly stopped after 2018-19. It is a completely new era, you could say, and it would be impossible for my colleague to go there again. But there was this window of opportunity to see a slight openness during that time. It was the first time ever that entrepreneurship became part of a curriculum in a school in North Korea. Its not there anymore, but it was there for a couple of years. So there was a bit of something flourishing. Business activities are common in North Korea. There are markets and hidden markets that shouldnt exist but are fairly accepted. Our Startup Week was a five-day course in entrepreneurship that we taught together as a group. We had different professors jumping in with different topics. What were the student reactions to the course? They were very engaged. Teaching in North Korea, youre looking for the sad and depressed conditions. But we were surprised almost every day because you couldnt see that so much. Things were pretty normal. We talked in English, and they spoke English fairly well. We wrote a special paper on how to teach in North Korea and really unpacked the different tensions that exist and how to navigate those. In the Startup Week, students were pitching their business ideas, they developed business models, and we actually also had a venture capitalist with us helping as a teacher. It was a very special, very interesting week. Inside the North Korean business school where Kibler and his colleagues held Startup Week and collected data for their three research papers. Photo provided by Will Scott What kind of technology and digital tools were the North Korean students allowed to use? I think its always important to remember when we did that study, things might have slightly changed. Maybe one could say that it hasnt developed much further. We know that the surveillance has increased again, substantially, after 2019, with the use of biometric data, facial imaging and whatnot. But back then, the school had a local intranet that students were allowed to use, but only also in context with coursework. They also have their own phones, and they were allowed to have certain apps that were regulated. In some courses, especially those taught by Will Scott, there are some really rich vignettes that we have in the paper where students worked on their own apps to develop. There was an idea around creating an online dating app. Of course, there are limits on what teachers are allowed to help with, but some students tried to push teachers sometimes to give them more information even if it wasnt allowed. So there was a bit of tension all the time. Students were really interested in software piracy and piracy in general. The local internet and the schools intranet, students were allowed to use for specific labs. I think the KCC, the government computer lab, was linked to school labs so they could control and constrain what could be done. I think coding was among the easiest to teach, within the boundaries. Scott mentioned there was quite a high level of coding already that was going on, so one can only assume that there are also spaces where maybe they can create their own codes and share codes. You also wrote about the students keeping USB sticks to hold their data. Was that to get around some of the surveillance? Exactly. I think we described it as working around the constraints. I think it was where the experimentation really came in a little bit more. As with the piracy example, I think thats what students want to do everywhere. The more you learn and discover, you want to move on, experiment, and discover more. But at the same time, knowing those limits. There is surveillance going on. You need to find some ways around it, like sharing with or storing stuff on a USB stick and sharing data. One of the examples in the paper is that theyd ask the teacher to share more via a USB stick because it is a fairly safe way to use your own data that is stored there. What do you think is the most valuable aspect of your research and most recent paper? We do use some complex but very important concepts, like Foucaults concept of the dispositif and the concept of paternalist care and discipline. We used them as a kind of institutional logic of how things are done at the macro level, but also micro level. I think this paper really stands out for showing how logics are in contrast, but also showing how they work together. This also creates a setting of stability where actual development can happen, even under very extreme constraints. I think thats where we also need more research, in any setting. I do lots of research on how you run social enterprises, for instance. Its always about combining things. With different logics, there are always tensions and paradoxes at play. And I think, here, we also have a bit of this processional perspective. We see how tensions unfold in situations, in actual spaces, in a lab, but at the same time how this reflects macro issues. So I think this duality of care and discipline we could vividly observe in the classroom, but at the same level, it reflects back to the state. I think this paper at least shows that there is potential for development. Maybe smaller changes are possible without only a negative or very disruptive idea. It is a very realistic picture of how development and change can unfold, that is almost in line with what the state is trying to achieve. The state also tries to do good for their citizens in the one-to-one, but obviously, the dominant logic is to achieve this through control, power, and creating this tension. I think that makes this paper very, very special to unpack this tension. Care is also alive, its not only about surveillance and only about suppression. You said your colleagues would likely not be able to go to North Korea today. Do you think the window has closed for further research like this in North Korean schools? I assume that what we were able to do, together with my colleagues, and especially Jukka-Pekka Heikkila, will be fairly unique for a long time. The funny thing is, we still sometimes get emails from the school, but the school could also be closed at any time. As I said, this is primary data. There is really not much research out there, but even in the best research, we literally couldnt find a single study that really builds on primary data. That was surprising to me. I invested many, many years to guide the research with my colleagues in the field, and I think were a good team. The research itself, I dont think we will see similar studies for some time. All three papers might be unique for several decades. But, that said, hopefully not. Im trained in sociology which hopes to create immediate social impact and to change things. In business school, we also train more and more to do impact oriented research. One would hope that some of the insights may also trigger development and improvements, but also a better understanding. Anything else youd like to add? From the education side, we, as professors, continuously try to improve our teaching and education. I still use my experience in North Korea to show some examples of teaching in extreme settings. I also try to reflect on what I learned from it. One of the things was that, in all places, there is this kind of universal language. When you laugh together, when you bring in humor and some fun, this is one way of experimenting in the classroom and of breaking the ice, wherever you are. Obviously, maybe one could say this was happening in a bubble, but the classroom experience was quite fascinating to see as well as the level that the students achieved during the entrepreneurship courses. When I think back, I just appreciate that I at least had the chance to go there once and see how its done. DONT MISS: REGRETS? TOO FEW TO MENTION FOR DEPARTING GIES DEAN JEFF BROWN and TUCKS VIJAY GOVINDARAJAN ON HOW DATA & AI WILL TRANSFORM PRODUCTS, COMPANIES & BUSINESS SCHOOL CLASSROOMS The post What Its Like To Teach In A North Korean Business School appeared first on Poets&Quants. The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) may have had its biggest win yet, formally affiliating with the Teamsters in what could be a needle-mover in getting a new union contract. The Teamsters board unanimously approved the affiliation agreement. Rank-and-file ALU members will vote to ratify the affiliation in the coming weeks. More from Sourcing Journal Today is an historic day for labor in America as we now combine forces with one of the most powerful unions in the country to take on Amazon together, said ALU president Chris Smalls, in a statement. Our message is clear. We want a contract and we want it now. We are putting Amazon on notice that we are coming. It is time to bargain. Sourcing Journal reached out to Amazon. Whether the deal gets ratified is still up in the air, with ALU members voting in March to hold an election for new union officers. Smalls has said he doesnt plan to run for reelection as ALU president. That election is expected to be held in July. If this [ratification] does go through, itll be a major change, said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research and senior lecturer, Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations. ALU was very focused on a one shop at a time model. They have very little resources or experience. They have good organizing instincts and are very passionate, but there was the lack of experience or understanding that its much easier to win the election than it is to get a contract. Despite voting to unionize more than two years ago, marking the first successful organization of the companys employees in the U.S., Amazon has never recognized the victory and has continued to appeal the election results. Without recognition, the union has not been able to negotiate a new deal for its members. The NLRB has previously said it found merit to the charges that Amazon violated labor laws by refusing to bargain with the ALU. Amazon is not even recognizing the legitimacy of the NLRB, Bronfenbrenner told Sourcing Journal, noting that even a nationally backed unionization drive will have to clear plenty of hurdles. Other unions have tried to organize Amazon before, its really tough. In order to win, itll take making sure the rank-and-file on board that they have community allies, and that they are broad community allies from political allies to religious allies to other unions, Bronfenbrenner said. They have to be able to mount an escalating campaign so much that Amazon says, Okay, enough, were going to settle with you, its better to settle than to not. Bronfenbrenner said that the Amazon workers are unlikely to get a contract until they start organizing more sites, like the Staten Island JFK8 facility. Thus far, unionization efforts at other sites, like Bessemer, Ala., have failed to push through. Its not going to happen soon. But its more likely to happen with the involvement of a national union than when it was just ALU doing it, Bronfenbrenner said. Amazon argued in a legal filing in February that the NLRB itself is unconstitutional, and a month later, the labor board fired back in a ruling that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy broke federal laws by saying that unions would make employees less empowered. Amazon disagreed with those charges, and Jassy cannot be penalized for the comments. The newly chartered ALU-International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Local 1 will represent the roughly 8,000 Amazon warehouse workers at JFK8, and have jurisdiction across New Yorks five boroughs. This will be the first ALU-IBT local union fully established under the Teamsters constitution, if ratified. Members of ALU-IBT Local 1 will have access to the financial and organizational resources of the Teamsters International Union, the Teamsters Amazon Division, and Teamsters Joint Council 16 in New York. Teamsters general president Sean OBrien unveiled the affiliation Tuesday during the unions general executive board meeting in Washington, D.C. The 1.3-million-member union had a banner 2023, winning a major score for 340,000 UPS employees last year upon negotiating a new five-year contract. Together we are creating an unstoppable movement to take on Amazon. Building relationships with workers, communities nationwide, and rank-and-file Teamsters has been essential to creating the capacity to stand up to Amazonand this affiliation demonstrates it, OBrien said. It will require unprecedented unity and long-term investment to finally force this company to respect working people and fairly negotiate. Amazon is far and away the greediest of American corporations. OBrien also said that the e-commerce giant does the most harm to American workers in delivery and logistics, claiming that the union aims to dismantle Amazons corrupt delivery service partner program. The Teamsters have been critical of the delivery service partner program in the past, saying that Amazon subjects contracted delivery drivers to extreme heat and lengthy hours without breaks. On top of that, the union argues that although Amazon contracts third-party delivery companies who employ the drivers, these partners have little discretion over aspects of their business, including routes driven or vehicles used. A teenager accused of shooting Sammy Sasso during an August 2023 attempted carjacking is now facing charges as an adult. Sasso, a Ohio State University wrestler, continues to recover from his injuries. A teenager who is accused of shooting and seriously injuring Ohio State University wrestler Sammy Sasso is now charged as an adult. A Franklin County grand jury handed up an indictment against Elijah Lee, now 17, on Thursday. Lee had initially been charged in Franklin County Juvenile Court, and the case was transferred to Common Pleas Court with the indictment. The Dispatch had not previously named Lee because he was charged as a juvenile. Lee is accused of shooting Sasso, a four-time All-American wrestler at Ohio State, during an Aug. 18, 2023, attempted carjacking. More on Ohio State wrestler Sammy Sasso: Ohio State wrestler Sammy Sasso feels 'lucky' as he recovers from August shooting According to police and court records, Lee and a then-15-year-old girl approached Sasso's car on the 1300 block of North High Street. Shots were fired, and a bullet lodged near Sasso's spine, resulting in emergency surgery and nearly six weeks of hospitalization. The Dispatch reported earlier this week that Sasso is continuing to recover but doesn't know if he will ever be able to return to wrestling at the level he was at before the shooting. Lee is now charged as an adult with two counts of aggravated robbery and one count each of theft and felonious assault. He remains in the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Facility in lieu of a $500,000 bond. To be tried as an adult, Lee had several hearings in Juvenile Court where a judge determined there was probable cause that Lee committed the crimes at the heart of his arrest and that any potential court-issued punishmentsshould he be found guiltywere not adequate at the Juvenile Court level. Lee's first court date in Franklin County Common Pleas Court has not yet been set. bbruner@gannett.com This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Teen in Ohio State wrestler Sammy Sasso shooting case charged as adult A young woman who was attacked by a shark off the coast of Texas lived to describe her horrifying ordeal, telling Fox 26 how she fought off the great beast. The terrifying incident occurred while Oklahoma resident Damiana Humphrey was vacationing on the Galveston coast with her family. She was swimming in waist-deep water when her sister-in-law spotted something tan out of the corner of her eye. It turned out to be a shark about four to five feet in length. I looked down and there was a shark attached to my hand, so I guess I started punching it," Humphrey told the outlet. "That part is kind of blurry to me." Were not surprised, Humphreys family member said of the teen's reaction. Shes one of the toughest girls we know. As I was running, I thought I lost my hand," Humphrey continued. "I thought I was gonna be the next Soul Surfer, she laughed, referring to the autobiography of surfer Bethany Hamilton, who infamously lost her arm in a shark attack. Her family quickly pulled her from the water and summoned an ambulance, which took her to a local hospital. It was determined that the shark had severed four tendons in Humphreys hand, and she underwent emergency surgery to remedy the damage. "They said I should make a full recovery with my physical therapy," she explained. "Honestly, I'm just glad it wasn't as bad as it could have been." However, Humphrey wont be able to use her hand for a number of weeks and as a result had to relinquish her care technician job for the summer. But it will undoubtedly make for a great story when she returns. Galvestons Beach Patrol Chief, Peter Davis, noted that attacks such as the one Humphrey suffered are particularly rare on the Texas coast. Despite seeing roughly eight million beach tourists yearly, the town only sees one shark attack reported every few years. It's really rare for us to have shark bites here in Galveston. I've worked a few of them in my career and the ones I've seen were shark bites, not attacks. Meaning it was a case of mistaken identity where they latched onto a human and swam away, Davis explained. It sounds like this may have been similar to that. Officials warn that you can ward off sharks by shuffling your feet across the ocean floor as you swim; and avoiding areas where other water sources, such as rivers, open up into the ocean. Should a shark attach itself to you, fight the shark off by punching it, or pushing up on its nose or sideways on its gills. Teen to be tried as adult for 2023 Ferguson killing CLAYTON, Mo. A juvenile will stand trial as an adult for a 2023 homicide in Ferguson, the St. Louis County Family Court ruled on Thursday. According to the St. Louis County Police Departments probable cause statement, the shooting happened just after 8:40 p.m. on Aug. 28, 2023, near the intersection of Glen Owen and Bahama drives. Officers responded to a ShotSpotter notification in the area and found the victim, Frederick Gett, suffering from a gunshot wound. Gett was rushed to the hospital, but he succumbed to injuries and died. He was 45. Just over two weeks later, investigators arrested Jerry Watkins and a 17-year-old in connection with the shooting. Family pleads for help to find missing De Soto mom Emily Strite The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorneys Office charged Watkins with first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree robbery, attempted first-degree robbery, and armed criminal action. Watkins was initially held on a $1 million cash-only bond. However, that cash-only bond was reduced in January 2024 to $500,000. Watkins remains jailed. The 17-year-old, identified as Kamrin Starks, was charged in Family Court and kept in custody. Police and prosecutors claim Starks and Watkins committed an armed robbery on August 27, stealing cash from a victim as he was leaving his home. The next day, Watkins and Starks held up Jett and another victim. During that robbery, Watkins allegedly shot and killed Jett. On June 6, 2024, after the Family Court determined Starks could be tried as an adult, county prosecutors charged the teen with first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree robbery, attempted first-degree robbery, and armed criminal action. Starks is being held on a $1 million cash-only bond. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2. Teeth of the storm: World War II veterans recall service in ceremony at Eisenhower museum World War II veteran Carl Otto speaks about his experience in the war during a panel discussion June 6, 2024, at the Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home in Abilene. The panel was part of a series of events commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of France. (Grace Hills/Kansas Reflector) ABILENE Three World War II veterans helped commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday by taking part in a panel discussion at the Dwight D. Eisenhower library and museum in Abilene. The discussion among veterans Paul Ybarra, Carl Otto and George Norton capped a week of events at the library and boyhood home of Eisenhower, the supreme Allied commander who planned the June 6, 1944, invasion of France. All three men, who are all 98 years old, were asked the same question at the end: What do you want the people to remember about the war? All three said something similar. The things I remember about the war, you dont want to talk about, Otto said. I learned about blood on the snow, about dead bodies. Believe me, that left an impression. Otto joined the war at age 18. He said he was eager and joined the infantry in the army as soon as he could. I went right into the teeth of the storm, Otto said. Shortly after he joined the infantry, he said, a general pulled him and the other young soldiers aside. (The general) said: You glory-hungry little bastards war is hell, Otto said. Norton said he learned we shouldnt be in wars. We learned we should be talking, Norton said. Stay out of war as long as you can. World War II reenactors on June 6, 2024, on the lawn of the Eisenhower library. (Grace Hills/Kansas Reflector) They came to the panel, in part, because of their admiration for Eisenhower, who would go on to serve two terms as president in the 1950s. We have a program called Ikes Soldiers, said Lisa Kijowski, Eisenhower Foundation events planner. Its an online honor roll for any World War II veteran. And thats how we met or knew about them. June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, was the start of Operation Overlord the largest amphibious military invasion. More than 150,000 American, British and Canadian troops invaded Normandy, France, to liberate the country from German occupation and eventually force the surrender of Nazi Germany. In addition to the panel discussion, the Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home on Thursday also hosted a remembrance ceremony where Gov. Laura Kelly spoke. General Eisenhowers leadership and expertise were invaluable in carrying out this successful operation, which laid the foundation for the peace he championed throughout his lifetime, Kelly said. May we never forget the sacrifices and stories of those who served. Other events at the library this week included a symphony at sunset concert on June 1, and participation in the World War II Emerging Scholarships Symposium June 4 and 5 a virtual event exploring global and domestic peace-seeking efforts during the war. The post Teeth of the storm: World War II veterans recall service in ceremony at Eisenhower museum appeared first on Kansas Reflector. Ohios first state park dedicated to telling the story of Native Americans celebrated its grand opening this morning. As reported on News Center 7 at 5:30 p.m., News Center 7s Taylor Robertson talked to a present-day Shawnee Tribal member who traveled all the way to Ohio from Oklahoma to make sure their history is remembered correctly. Glenna Wallace is the Chief of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, who came to honor the three federally recognized Shawnee Tribes. This is an example of what is just spreading across all of Ohio is recognition that Native Americans were here, Wallace said. >> RELATED COVERAGE: New state park opens today honoring one of largest-known Shawnee settlements in Ohio Wallace said 60 people traveled to Ohio from Oklahoma for the grand opening. We have brought about 60 people here today from Oklahoma. We left at 430 yesterday morning, Wallace said. They made the around 12-hour drive to celebrate and honor the mark they made here in Ohio. There were 40-45 tribes here at one time, all been removed. Oftentimes, incorrect information is given about us. Many people think were dead, that there arent Indians anymore, and all of that is false, Wallace said. >> RELATED COVERAGE: New state park aims to honor one of largest-known Shawnee settlements in Ohio That was just one of the reasons why Ohio Governor Mike DeWine made sure the present-day Shawnee Tribes played a role in how the history was told at the park. We tell a story of the Shawnees. And through them, we tell the story of all native Americans who were here in Ohio, DeWine said. Wallace said that once they are done at the park, they will be staying for three more days to check out other historical places important to their tribe. Were so proud to be back in Ohio, Wallace said. The S&P 500 gained 24% in 2023, and is up more than 12% so far this year. Those are substantial numbers, and its tempting to think that these good times will just keep rolling along. Ed Yardeni, the market expert behind Yardeni Research, is bullish but hes also both cautious and realistic. He believes that the markets will continue to post gains this year, albeit at a slower pace than weve seen recently. He puts a 5,400 target on the S&P 500 index, suggesting just a 1% gain from current levels. We are still in a bull market, but it will be slowing down from here. A few days ago people were asking me why I wasnt raising my numbers. Now I feel comfortable that I didnt, Yardeni said. He notes that bond yields are high, always a sign that stocks will turn low, and that interest rates are dealing a bigger hit than had been previously expected. In this environment, investors will turn toward defensive shares and that frequently means dividend stocks. These stocks, especially the high-yield payers, ensure a reliable, inflation-beating income stream. And when the div payers have also outperformed the broader markets, the potential returns are sure to spark investor interest. Weve used the TipRanks platform to look up the Street-level view of two such stocks, high-yielding dividend payers up to 11%, in one case that also boast recent outperformance and Strong Buy consensus ratings. Here are the details. Star Bulk Carriers (SBLK) Well start in the world of cargo haulage, specifically, oceangoing bulk freight, with Star Bulk Carriers. This company, based in Greece, is the owner-operator of a fleet of dry bulk carriers. These vessels, spanning from modest 500 DWT (Dead Weight Tonnage) crafts to colossal oceangoing behemoths surpassing 200,000 tons, serve as the backbone of global maritime trade, transporting an array of unpackaged bulk goods like iron ore, coal, grains, and steel products, alongside materials such as phosphates and bauxite. With a robust on the water fleet consisting of 163 carriers, Star Bulks lineup includes a variety of sizes, from the approximately 50,000 DWT Supramax vessels to the towering ~210,000 DWT Newcastlemax giants. Among its fleet, the companys most prevalent ships include 49 Ultramax vessels, ranging from 60,000 to 66,000 DWT, and 41 Kamsarmax ships, boasting capacities of 80,000 to 83,000 DWT. Oceangoing travel takes a toll on ships, and the worlds bulk carriers work hard to maintain modern fleets. Star Bulk, in addition to the ships it has in operation, has 8 more under construction at shipyards in Japan, the Philippines, and China. Three of these ships will be delivered during 2H24, two in 2025, and the remainder in 2026. Story continues Star Bulks current fleet includes ships brought in through its acquisition of Eagle Bulk Shipping. The acquisition, through an all-stock transaction, was completed this past April. The large size of this companys active fleet makes Star Bulk the largest dry bulk carrier to be traded on the NASDAQ. Not only is Star Bulk a leader in its niche, its stock has also strongly outperformed the larger NASDAQ index this year. For the year-to-date, SBLK shares are up approximately 22%; in that same time, the NASDAQ has posted a gain of 14%. In late May, Star Bulk reported its 1Q24 financial results. The company showed a top line of $259.39 million in voyage revenues, up more than 15% year-over-year and beating the forecast by over $53 million. At the bottom line, the companys non-GAAP earnings per share was reported as 87 cents per share; while this missed expectations by 3 cents, it was up considerably from the 36-cent non-GAAP EPS reported in the prior-year quarter. Star Bulk maintains a regular dividend policy, with payments based on the companys total cash balance, minimum cash balance per vessel, and total number of vessels. Based on these factors, the company on May 22 declared a dividend of 75 cents per common share, up significantly from the previous quarter. Based on the current payment, the companys dividend gives a forward yield of 11%. This high-yield dividend stock has caught the attention of Stifel analyst Benjamin Nolan, who is rated among the top 1% of the Wall Street stock analysts by TipRanks. Nolan is impressed by Star Bulks ability to expand its fleet and believes that the company presents a solid opportunity for investors. The company has begun integrating the Eagle Bulk merger and is beginning to realize cost synergy benefits. At the same time, the dry bulk market remains healthy supporting continued deleveraging and capital returns. We expect Star Bulk to continue to monetize older assets at elevated prices while opportunistically utilizing their shares as equity currency in dry bulk M&A opportunities similar to the Eagle deal. Ultimately, we expect market fundamentals to remain healthy and SBLK shares to be the most investable of the dry bulk names, Nolan opined. Nolan puts a Buy rating on SBLK shares, and quantifies that with a $30 target price, suggesting a one-year upside potential of 17.5%. With the dividend yield added in, the potential return here approaches 28.5%. (To watch Nolans track record, click here) Overall, there are 4 recent analyst reviews of this stock, and the 3 to 1 breakdown in favor of Buy over Hold gives the shares a Strong Buy consensus rating. The stock is selling for $25.52 and the average target price of $29.75 implies a one-year gain of nearly 17%. (See SBLK stock forecast) Frontline, Ltd. (FRO) The next stock well look at, Cyprus-based Frontline, is another shipping company but of a very different breed than Star Bulk above. Frontline concentrates on the tanker segment and operates one of the industrys largest fleets of ocean-going tankers for crude oil and other hydrocarbon fuel products. Frontlines fleet is currently made up of 82 vessels in operation, including 110,000 DWT Aframax vessels, Suezmax vessels of 157,000 to 158,000 DWT, and, making up the largest part of the fleet with 41 ships, VLCCs of 300,000 DWT. VLCCs, or Very Large Crude Carriers, are dedicated to transporting crude oil exclusively. Suezmax vessels, the largest capable of navigating the Suez Canal, and Aframax tankers, renowned for shuttling crude oil efficiently across the globe and accessing most port facilities, complete Frontlines diverse fleet. Last year, in October-November, Frontline made a merger offer for Euronav, a Belgian tanker company, but ended up withdrawing the offer. Frontline sold off its stake in Euronav, receiving $252.5 million in gross proceeds from the sale of its 13.7 million shares. However, Frontline also acquired 24 of Euronavs 41 VLCCs, a move that was completed in the first quarter of this year. Measured by DWT, Frontline is now the largest pure-play tanker company on the public trading markets. Turning to the financial side, we find that Frontline reported a 16% year-over-year increase in revenue, to $578.4 million. The revenue total supported an adjusted profit of $137.9 million, or 62 cents per share. While the revenue beat the forecast by almost $195 million, the non-GAAP EPS was 12 cents lower than had been expected. Nevertheless, despite the earnings miss, stock in FRO has gained over 41% so far this year. The companys earnings fully supported the common share dividend payment. This was declared on May 29 for 62 cents per share, and the forward yield, based on the annualized payment of $2.48, comes to 8.9%. Frontlines stock, much like Star Bulks, has seen a notable rise this year, boasting a gain of about 36%. The attention of investors has been captured, alongside one of the markets leading analysts, Omar Nokta from Jefferies, who is ranked in the top 2% of Wall Street analysts by TipRanks. In explaining his Buy rating on FRO, Nokta asserts, We remain positive on Frontlines prospects and for the tanker market in the coming years. While 1Q results were impacted by repositioning, we expect 2Q results to improve and for the full effect of the Euronav fleet to be realized beginning in 3Q. Tanker rates remain elevated and Frontline continues to generate sizable free cash flow with dividends as a key priority. Along with the Buy on the stock, Nokta sets a $30 price target, indicating potential for a gain of nearly 12% on the one-year horizon. With the dividend yield, the total return here approaches 21%. (To watch Noktas track record, click here) Overall, all three of the recent analyst reviews here are positive, making the stocks Strong Buy consensus rating unanimous. The shares are priced at $26.83 and have an average target price of $34.69, suggesting a 29% share appreciation in the year ahead. (See FRO stock forecast) To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment. The newly-seated Tennessee State University board will halt the school's current search for a new president and start over. The move passed in a unanimous vote, with no discussion, during a full board meeting on Friday. The move to scrap the current search and start over came at the recommendation of a three-member ad hoc committee of trustees. The decision comes less than three months after the ouster of the previous TSU board of trustees by the state legislature. All new members, appointed by Gov. Bill Lee, met for the first time on April 26. Each appointee is a graduate of TSU, a historically Black university. Here are the next steps for the search process: Name an interim president by July 1. Continue its contract with Academic Search, a national search firm hired for a previous presidential search. Establish a new presidential search committee, which will encompass a variety of voices, including faculty. Appoint a new president by July 1, 2025. The newly-seated Tennessee State University Board of Trustees met for its first meeting on April 26, 2024. Trustee Marquita Qualls led the ad hoc committee that laid out the next steps Thursday for the search for a new president. Board Chair Dakasha Winton and trustee Terica Smith were also on the committee. "This is an historic moment in the life of TSU," Qualls said Thursday. "For the first time in our institution's history, our independent governing body will solely select the ninth president of Tennessee State University. This is a responsibility that we as a board of trustees do not lightly." It's not clear who the new interim president will be or if that person will be named ahead of the July 1 appointment date. It's also not clear what the new search means for the three finalists named by the previous board in March after its months-long search. The previous presidential search was abruptly paused as state Republican lawmakers passed the measure that dissolved the previous board shortly after the finalists were named. Students walk out of the student center on the Tennessee State University campus in Nashville, Tenn., on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024. Those finalists were Charles Gibbs, the now-former CEO of the national 100 Black Men of America, William E. Hudson, the vice president of student affairs at Florida A&M University, and Michael Torrence, the president of Motlow State Community College in Tennessee. "This option is not a reflection of the capability of the current finalists, but more rather a step to ensure that we, as a new board, are exploring all potential candidates comprehensively," Qualls said Thursday. TSU President Glenda Glover is set to retire at the end of the current academic year, which wraps up June 30. On Thursday, Qualls praised Glover for her service and leadership. "President Glover's tenure and her legacy are forever solidified by her being a vocal champion for students to have access to a college education and a steadfast advocate for (historically Black colleges and universities)," Qualls said. TSU president Dr. Glenda Baskin Glover waves to spectators during the Tennessee State University homecoming parade Saturday, October 14, 2023. Glover, a 1974 TSU graduate herself, took office in 2013. She called her decades-long history with the university a "50-year blessing" as she spoke before the board on Friday. "It has been the privilege and honor of a lifetime to serve as president as Tennessee State University, my alma mater," she said. "This is indeed more than a full circle moment for me. This is where I got my start as a young teenager from South Memphis who aspired to change the world when I came to Tennessee State University." TSU board names new student trustee Tennessee State University student Tyler Vazquez speaks to the TSU board after he was appointed as its new student trustee on June 7, 2024, at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tenn. During its Friday meeting, the board also unanimously approved rising senior Tyler Vazquez as its new student trustee. Vazquez is majoring in molecular biology and premedical studies at the Dr. Levin Watkins, Jr. Institute at TSU. He plans to graduate next May. Vazquez was selected after the board received input from the TSU Student Government Association, Glover and other leaders. "It's really great to have this opportunity," he said, as he delivered brief remarks to the board and thanked those who have supported him during his time at TSU so far. Reach reporter Rachel Wegner at RAwegner@tennessean.com or follow her on Twitter, Bluesky and Threads @RachelAnnWegner. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee State University board starts over on presidential search EL PASO (Nexstar) Thousands of Texas Democrats are expected to convene at the state partys convention in El Paso for a weekend of organizing ahead of a contentious election season. The conventions program reveals the messages the party intends to impress upon voters as they ramp up to challenge U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. Conventions are like just old-fashioned Thanksgiving dinners at the house. I mean, everybodys looking forward to get together. At some point, you have disagreements, but you can disagree without being disagreeable, San Antonio Democrat and House Democratic Caucus Chair Trey Martinez-Fischer said. In the end, we come together as a family. We know what the real fight is. Among the planned speakers and panelists are elected representatives at the state and federal level, as well as advocates across a variety of issues on which Democrats plan to campaign: Amanda Zurawski, the woman who led the lawsuit against the states abortion ban David Hogg, a survivor of the Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting and anti-gun violence advocate Brigitte Bandit, a drag queen and advocate against the legislatures limitations on drag. Sheriff Javier Salazar, Bexar Countys law enforcement chief and frequent voice on border security/immigration issues. The choice of location just a short walk from the border nearly 600 miles away from Austin, is notable as Democrats grapple with President Bidens low approval on border and immigration issues. Some see it as a chance to address the issue head-on. I think its telling that were not going to shy away from the issue. Were going to take matters into our own hands, said Michelle Vallejo, a candidate for Congress running against Republican Monica de la Cruz in South Texas District 15. As far as the people who are living on the border and on the frontera, we are here to fight for ourselves. We dont expect anyone to save the day for us. But we need to get the message out that we need to get politics out of this issue and actually be adults and reasonable and responsible to get things done. Support for President Biden was clear in the many shirts, hats, and cardboard cutouts strewn throughout the exhibit hall. There were, however, some notable detractors protesting Bidens nomination. Hes a war criminal, said Rita Rahman, a lifelong Democrat married to a Palestinian man. I dont want my money killing innocent civilians in another country I would not ever vote for Trump, but Im not ever voting for Biden if hes still supporting this war. On Friday night, Colin Allred a Dallas congressman and nominee to run against Cruz for U.S. Senate is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at 8:15 Mountain Time. Ryan Chandler and Monica Madden will be in El Paso to cover the days events. Follow along on social media: @RyanChandlerTV. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin. Texas man accused of traveling to Oregon with intent to sexually abuse Portland teen PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) A 60-year-old man from Texas was arrested in Oregon Thursday on suspicion of intent to sexually abuse a child, local and federal authorities announced. Steven Worth Ellis, of Presidio, Texas, had traveled from his residence to Oregon in order to allegedly meet with a 15-year-old child he met online, the Department of Justice said. Ellis faces federal charges that include traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, attempting to sexually exploit a child and coercing and enticing a minor. Rideshare driver killed in fatal shooting identified by Portland police The investigation began in late May and involved multiple law enforcement organizations, including federal agents and the Portland Police Bureaus Child Abuse Team. PPB said their Internet Crimes Against Children Unit received a tip that a Portland girl was in contact with the man, with their communications including explicit images. On Thursday, Ellis was intercepted by Oregon State Police Troopers and arrested in The Dalles. Collaborating law enforcement agencies also included the Department of Homeland Security, The Dalles Police Department and U.S. Marshals. Portland Streetcar service halts due to sinkhole The DOJ said the investigation originally began thanks to a tip from the Oregon Department of Human Services, alleging Ellis had been engaged with the child in sexual online conversations after meeting on Reddit. Ellis allegedly told the child he wanted to marry her and was coming to Oregon to come get her. Ellis appeared before a federal court in Portland and will remain detained pending further court proceedings, officials said. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com. Lori Rice-Spearman, president of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, will serve on a new state board aimed at bolstering the healthcare workforce. Lori Rice-Spearman In April, Texas Governor Greg Abbott directed the state's Higher Education Coordinating Board to create the Healthcare Workforce Task Force, which his office says "will address healthcare workforce shortages in Texas to meet the demands of our growing state and provide students with the skills they need to succeed." The task force should "provide opportunities and remove barriers that exist to expand healthcare programs at institutions and provide students with the tools necessary to succeed in this field in Texas," Abbott wrote in his April letter to the THECB. "Further, the task force should investigate challenges to establishing and maintaining sufficient clinical rotation sites and clinical placements and identify best practices to attract and retain qualified clinical instructors." Rice-Spearman was one of 12 inaugural members of the board announced Friday. Victoria Ford, president and CEO of Texas Healthcare and Bioscience Institute, was named chair of the board last month. Abbott described the appointees as subject-matter experts representative of a wide variety of healthcare needs across Texas. "This highly qualified group of experts, industry leaders, and individuals from Texas top-tier higher education institutions will ensure Texas can expand our healthcare workforce to meet the needs of all Texans for generations to come," a statement reads. Lori Rice-Spearman, Ph.D., joined TTUHSC in 1987 and has served as its ninth president since 2019. She was the first woman president in the Texas Tech University System recognized nationally as an innovator in health professions education, according to her provided biography. She'll be joined on the task force by Avik Roy, president of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity; Cheryl Petersen, chief nursing officer and vice president for patient services at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth; Fred Cerise, Ph.D., president and CEO of Parkland Health; Jack Dwyer, founder of Dwyer Workforce Development; Jackie Ward, DNP, system chief nurse executive and senior vice president for Texas Children's Hospital; Jamie Dudensing, CEO of the Texas Association of Health Plans; Jayson Valerio, DNP, dean of the School of Nursing and Allied Health for South Texas College; Jennifer Deegan, vice president of health policy and systems strategy at UTHealth Houston; Dr. John Zerwas, executive vice chancellor for health affairs at the UT System; Kathy Thomas, former executive director for the Texas Board of Nursing; and Olga Rodriguez, chief of staff and associate vice president of the Texas A&M Health Science Center. The task force is directed to issue a report by Oct. 1 this year. This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech HSC's Rice-Spearman appointed to Healthcare Workforce Task Force Thousands of boxes of Lego toys recovered in bust of theft ring, police say Boxes of Lego bricks and toys were stockpiled in a Long Beach home, authorities say. (Los Angeles Police Department) Los Angeles police say they have busted a Lego theft ring, arresting two people and seizing more than 2,800 boxes of Lego toys that were stockpiled in a Long Beach home. Police announced the arrests Thursday, a day after they said detectives searched the home of Richard Siegel, 71, and seized the toys. Siegel was charged with organized retail theft. The second suspect, Blanca Gudino, 39, was arrested on charges of grand theft. Gudino, of Lawndale, had previously been identified as a suspect in a series of thefts from a retail store in San Pedro in December, police said. On Tuesday, police said, officers saw Gudino steal items from the same retailer in Lakewood and Torrance. She then took the toys to Siegels home, police said. When police searched Siegels home, they said, they found the stacked boxes of Lego toys, with individual boxes varying in value from $20 to more than $1,000. Read more: Lego thefts across Southern California leave police trying to piece together clues The Los Angeles Police Department said that while the officers were working at the home, potential buyers of the toys arrived, lured by advertisements placed by Siegel on internet sales sites. Police also have recently been searching for suspects who have stolen more than $100,000 worth of Lego merchandise from several Bricks & Minifigs stores across Southern California. Police did not say if any links are suspected between those thefts and the latest arrests. 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. EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) Thousands of delegates will be in El Paso from Thursday, June 6, to Saturday, June 8 for the Texas Democratic Convention. During this time, several high-profile state and national political leaders will be speaking with party members during training sessions and interest caucuses. The first night consisted of a kick-off reception where former congressman and presidential candidate Beto ORourke, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, Rep. Veronica Escobar, Sen. Cesar Blanco, Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa and others, all spoke to launch the event. We know that we have a huge task in November. And thats to elect Democrats up and down the ballot, to reelect Joe Biden, to elect Paul and already to the United States Senate, pick up enough seats to ultimately flip the Texas House and elect Democrats here in El Paso County, said Hinojosa when asked about his main goal for the convention. Hinojosa said their party was going to focus on voter engagement and empowerment. It is incredibly exciting to have Democrats from all across the state, from rural communities, urban communities, every pocket of the great state of Texas come to our community and El Paso to convene to debate about our priorities, said Rep. Escobar. Escobar said she hoped the convention will include productive dialogue around bodily autonomy, immigration reform, housing and fully funding education. Its been more than 20 years since the Texas Democratic Convention was held in El Paso. Hinojosa said given the citys leadership, it made sense for the Sun City to host this years rally. Its a great Democratic city. [The] leadership here did an outstanding job in promoting and marketing El Paso as a great city to having a convention. And if we had not been here in 22 years. So, it was time, said Hinojosa. For more details on the agenda and official schedule, you can visit the conventions website. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News. Thousands of jobs to come with new NYC building NEW YORK (PIX11) New York City is selecting a construction management firm to handle a contract exceeding a value of a billion dollars with the potential to create thousands of jobs, the citys economic development team announced Wednesday. New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Houcul unveiled the plan in November. More Local News The construction of a Science Park and Research Campus in Kips Bay promises to transform the City University of New York and New York City Public Schools. This project will create 15,000 jobs, generating $42 billion in economic impact, said Adams. Were continuing to move the ball forward on transformative projects like SPARC Kips Bay in all five boroughs as we build our Harbor of the Future and reimagine our waterfront to create 21st-century growth and innovation. The SPARC construction manager will oversee: Deconstruction of the existing buildings on the current Hunter Brookdale School of Nursing Construction of the first phase of the SPARCs development, which includes 600,000 square feet of educational facilities for CUNY and NCPS Reconstruction of the existing 25th Street pedestrian bridge over FDR Drive with new ADA access and universal design. The development of this new facility promises to transform Hunter Colleges Brookdale School of Nursing Campus. The project is expected to be completed in two phases. Phase one is constructing the nursing school, a CUNY Graduate School of Health and Policy, and a health-and-science public high school. Phase two is building one million square feet of life sciences real estate, a Bellevue Hospital center dedicated to continuing education, and a pathology center and forensic toxicology laboratory for the medical examiners office. The construction of this new building in the Manhattan borough is expected to create 12,000 construction jobs and 3,100 permanent jobs in the life sciences sector, city officials said. Matthew Euzarraga is a multimedia journalist from El Paso, Texas. He has covered local news and LGBTQIA topics in the New York City Metro area since 2021. He joined the PIX11 Digital team in 2023. You can see more of his work here. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. Three Doral council candidates are promising to end the polarization. Who are they? Doral is currently engulfed in polarization and conflict, with political forces influencing decision-making in a way that residents say is hindering the citys development. The upcoming general election presents an opportunity for change. Three positions are at stake: the mayoral seat, Councilman Rafael Pineyros seat and Vice Mayor Oscar Puig-Corves seat. Puig-Corve is not seeking reelection. Mayor Christi Fraga and Pineyro are currently unopposed, while three candidates are vying for Puig-Corves seat, each promising to be the voice of the residents. They present themselves as alternatives to ease confrontation on the council, with proposals that prioritize Dorals progress. The candidates, all of Hispanic origin, reflect Dorals demographics, where 82% of the population is from Latin America. Two of them have previously run for office unsuccessfully, while one has already been involved in the municipalitys political structure, but all assure residents that their vote will be independent. Despite the nonpartisan position, all have aligned with the Republican Party. Irina Vilarino: Ending injustices Irina Vilarino, 48, is a businesswoman and single mother. She was part of the Mariel exodus, leaving Cuba with her parents and four sisters at the age of 4. She holds a degree in business administration and co-owns Las Vegas Cuban Cuisine, a restaurant chain in South Florida built with her family. Irina Vilarino, co-owner of Las Vegas Cuban Cuisine Restaurants in Doral, is a candidate for Doral City Council Seat 3. While Vilarino has not held public office, she ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in Floridas 26th District in 2019 but withdrew after then-President Donald J. Trump endorsed then-Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who is now a congressman. Now, she sees an opportunity at the local level, where she believes her political involvement will have a greater impact. Vilarino promises to end injustices in Doral and offer her experience as a businesswoman and political activist. I am a product of injustice. While I appreciate the values and concepts of this great nation, I would have liked to have grown up in my own country, Vilarino said. I dislike people who claim to work for the common good but then profit from those positions. She advocates for law and order in Doral, proposing to increase police salaries to attract more personnel. She also wants to create alternatives to the affordable housing crisis in a city where the average rent exceeds $2,500. Though she has lived in Doral for only two years, she believes her 15-year business relationship with the city qualifies her for the council. Two of her restaurants are located in Doral. Vilarino does not view her opponents as enemies. I am not running against anyone, she said. I am running to contribute, to build bridges of understanding, to work together for the benefit of the people we represent. Juan Carlos Esquivel: Negotiating with legislators Juan Carlos Esquivel, 58, was born in Venezuela to a Cuban father and a Venezuelan mother. He is married, with four children and three grandchildren, and holds a masters degree in business administration. Since 1991, he has run companies in the transportation and logistics industry in Doral. Juan Carlos Esquivel, who is running for Doral City Council Seat 3, poses in the studio of the Doral Voice Radio Station, a nonprofit digital radio station promoting social activism in the city, on Friday, May 31, 2024. He is chairman and director of Doral Voice, a nonprofit digital radio station promoting social activism in the city. His political platform is based on a vision of zero tolerance for bullying, which he says is a severe problem in the city, and zero tolerance for infractions. He emphasizes security as the cornerstone of his campaign, starting with strengthening school safety and creating neighborhood watch programs. We need more police on the streets, more police vehicles, he said. To address traffic issues, Esquivel proposes designing interconnected trolley routes to encourage residents to leave their cars behind while working or enjoying the city. Understanding that Doral is a city of immigrants, Esquivel wants to promote a support program for the new community, serving as a desk within City Hall to help new residents avoid scams, get their licenses and find schools for their children. Esquivel advocates for a strategic shift within the council, emphasizing the importance of establishing state and federal connections to bolster the citys financial resources. We are busy locally, but we should actively pursue additional funding opportunities to better serve our community, he said. He criticizes the prevailing atmosphere within the city council, pointing out that instead of being mired in polarization, the focus should be on fostering consensus and agreements that tangibly improve residents lives. This marks Esquivels third bid for a seat on the Doral council. His initial campaign in 2020 pitted him against Puig-Corve for the very seat he now vies for, followed by a subsequent attempt in 2022 challenging Councilwoman Digna Cabral. Nicole Reinoso: From public servant to political office Nicole Reinoso, 38, was born in Puerto Rico to a Puerto Rican father and a Cuban mother. She is married and has three children. She holds a degree in health services administration and an MBA and recently passed the Florida Bar exam to practice law. Nicole Reinoso, who is running for Doral City Council Seat 3, worked for Mayor Christi Fraga in 2019, when Fraga was a councilwoman. Reinoso poses in front of City of Doral Government Center in downtown Doral on Monday, June 3, 2024. Five years ago, she moved with her family to Doral, where she served as a legislative analyst for Fraga when Fraga was a councilwoman in 2019. During her tenure, Reinoso was involved in a controversy over enrolling her children in the Downtown Doral Charter School. Then-City Attorney Luis Figueredo accused her of illegally using the city seal to secure her childrens spots. However, the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust concluded that Reinoso had not violated the ethical code or engaged in a conflict of interest. It is really sad that some people at that time, to win, attacked for political reasons, not me, but the person I worked for at the time, Reinoso said. Currently, Reinoso is an executive director with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, a position she intends to keep if elected, ensuring there is no conflict of interest between the two roles. Despite Reinosos close relationship with Fraga, she emphasizes that, if elected, her vote will be independent. Im going to look at things that come up to council. One by one. Whats going to benefit our residents, she said. And my goal is really to work with everybody (on the council). For her, community safety will be a priority. She believes that eliminating pensions has freed up the budget, allowing the city to hire more police officers. Leonardo Munoz/VIEWpress/Corbis via Getty Images The S&P 500 could drop 10% over the summer months to 4,800, according to JPMorgan. The bank highlighted three catalysts that could drive a decline. The May jobs report could spark a bearish narrative change in the stock market. A 10% sell-off in the stock market is possible this summer after a massive year-to-date rally, according to JPMorgan. The bank's trading desk said in a recent note that the S&P 500 could test the 5,000 level as support and potentially fall below with a decline of as much as 10%. That would put the index at about 4,800. According to the trading desk, there are three big catalysts that could drive such a sell-off. "Buyer's exhaustion" The recent performance of stocks during earnings season suggests potential equity buyers are getting exhausted. The bank highlighted that companies that beat first quarter earnings expectations underperformed the S&P 500 while companies that missed expectations were punished. "The combination of earnings season stock performance and narrowing market breadth points to a market that needs a new set of catalysts and/or reassurance about the prevailing market narrative," JPMorgan said. That means merely in-line macro data and a cautious Fed could drive investors to the sidelines during second-quarter earnings, which begin in mid-July. "Momentum unwind" The bulk of the stock market's recent gains have been driven by momentum, with tech stocks leading the advance. However, if momentum falters, there could be a larger unwind that drives stock prices lower. "The key to watch is the short leg of momentum. If that falters, it would trigger a larger degrossing as part of that momentum unwind. That chain reaction is what could lead to a 5% - 10% pullback," JPMorgan said. "Macro data disappointment" The re-emergence of a stagflation or recessionary narrative would kill hopes of a soft landing in the economy and likely drive stock prices lower. That narrative change could happen on Friday with the May jobs report. JPMorgan said a jobs report below 50,000 to 75,000 range or above the 250,000 to 300,000 range could spark a narrative change and hurt stock prices. Current economist estimates suggest about 190,000 jobs were added to the economy in May. Read the original article on Business Insider Three hurt in shooting during argument in Whitehaven: MPD MEMPHIS, Tenn. Three people were hurt in a shooting Friday on Millbranch Road in Whitehaven, police say. Two victims were found with gunshot wounds after officers responded to a shooting call at 11:41 in the 3600 block of Millbranch Road near I-55. Man shot at East Memphis gym, drives to gas station Those two were taken to Regional One in critical condition. A third male victim arrived by private vehicle at Methodist South. He was listed non-critical. Preliminary information suggests the shooting stemmed from an argument, police said. The victim and suspect know each other. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com. Three more children brought back to Ukraine from occupied territory Stock photo. The childrens return was challenging due to constant thorough checks by the Russians at checkpoints. Photo: Catherine Delahaye/Getty Images Three more children, including an 8-year-old boy, have been brought back from temporarily occupied Kherson Oblast to Ukrainian-controlled territory. Source: Oleksandr Prokudin, Head of Kherson Oblast State Administration; Save Ukraine Quote from Prokudin: "The boy and his parents are now safe. Doctors and psychologists are working with the family." Prokudin said the charity Save Ukraine had helped to bring the children back. The charity said its team had brought three children back from the occupied territories, one of whom is deprived of parental care. This latest operation to rescue Ukrainian children was particularly difficult due to the thorough document checks that the Russians conducted at each checkpoint. Quote from Save Ukraine: "Even moments like these are not obstacles. All these difficulties are definitely worth going through for the smiles that appear every time rescued children see our blue and yellow flag." Save Ukraine says that since its launch, the team has brought 359 Ukrainian children back home. Background: On 2 June, five children from the Novopetriv orphanage were brought back to Mykolaiv. They had been forcibly deported to Krasnodar Krai, Russia, by the Russian military in 2022. Support UP or become our patron! OHIO (WJW) Wildlife experts this past spring confirmed that a rarely-seen venomous snake was spotted in Ohio. In honor of World Snake Day on Tuesday, heres a closer look at other venomous species native to the Buckeye State. According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, there are three venomous snakes found in Ohio: the eastern copperhead, the Massasauga rattlesnake and the timber rattlesnake. On the plus side for those who may not be fans of bumping into the slithering species, the three types of snakes are pretty uncommon and virtually non-existent in Northeast Ohio. If you do bump into them, experts say to remember theyre valuable to the ecosystem, as they hunt rodents and insects. Red Lobster could close these 8 Ohio locations amid bankruptcy If you find a snake, its present because its simply trying to locate food, water or shelter. If you can leave it alone, please do. If not, contact wildlife professionals for assistance, Jamey Emmert with the Ohio Division of Wildlife said. Wild snakes are protected under Ohio law. You cannot harm or collect them without special permits. Eastern Copperhead The eastern copperhead, ranging from 24 inches to 36 inches long, is predominately found in southeastern Ohio. Wildlife experts say they typically stay away from well-settled areas. Copperheads are known to have bitten more people in the U.S. than any other venomous snake, experts say. However, the amount of venom copperheads inject isnt normally enough to seriously hurt a healthy adult, making bites rarely fatal. Wildlife experts say bites are very painful, comparable to a bee sting, and can cause a serious or life-threatening allergic reaction. When encountered, copperheads are usually content to lie motionless or retreat if given the chance. But if aroused, they will vibrate their tail rapidly and strike wildly, according to the Ohio Division of Wildlifes Reptiles of Ohio field guide. The eastern copperhead is considered uncommon in Ohio. Massasauga Rattlesnake Massasauga Rattlesnake The Massasauga rattlesnake, ranging from 18 inches to 24 inches long, is scattered across the state and has been historically reported in 30 counties, including some in Northeast Ohio, but wildlife experts say they are rarely ever seen. ODNR officials confirmed that one was spotted in Ohio in May as researchers and volunteers were taking part in an annual snake survey. In order to protect it from poachers, experts did not say where in Ohio it was found. First sexually transmitted ringworm reported in US Also known as the swamp rattler or the black snapper, the Massasauga rattlesnake tends to reside in bogs, swamps and wet prairies, according to experts. They are normally gray or brownish-gray, but some can be completely black. Wildlife experts say the snakes are sluggish and only try to bite if provoked. Their venom is highly toxic, but Massasauga rattlesnakes rarely inject large enough doses of it to kill a healthy adult. The Massasauga rattlesnake is considered endangered. Timber Rattlesnake Timber rattlesnake The timber rattlesnake, ranging between 36 inches and 60 inches, is considered the most dangerous snake in the northeastern U.S., the Division of Wildlife says. They typically reside in dry, wooded and hilly areas of southern Ohio. Experts say timber rattlesnakes, which average about 40 inches in length, have two color phases. The yellow phase has a series of dark brown or black chevron-shaped crossbands on a ground color of brownish yellow and a yellow or brown head. The black phase has the crossbands on a ground color of blackish brown and a black head, according to the Reptiles of Ohio field guide. The Division of Wildlife says these venomous snakes have a mild disposition and rarely try to attack unless threatened. They will normally try to stay coiled up or slither away if possible. Timber rattlesnakes are considered endangered. Learn more about snake species in the state at ODNRs website. Having issues with a nuisance snake in your home or property? ODNR breaks down some helpful tips here. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg (C) raises her fist while wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh during a rally on the subject of "Kick Big Polluters Out". Benjamin Westhoff/dpa The Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg took part in a protest in Bonn in which participants demanded action against climate change and denounced Israel's military campaign in the Gaza Strip. The Kick Big Polluters Out demonstration was organized by a collective of climate justice and human rights groups. In addition to climate demands, pro-Palestinian chants and posters were a major feature of the demonstration. Some held placards saying "Free Palestine." Thunberg raised her fist and joined the protest chants of around 70 participants. Police said there were numerous demonstrations in Bonn on the fringes of UN climate meetings under way in the city. These talks pave the way to the major COP29 meeting in Baku in November. Thunberg has expressed solidarity with the Palestinians on several occasions. Her comments have led to criticism by those who feel she has minimized the massacres committed by the Palestinian militant Hamas movement on October 7. The German chapter of Thunberg's Fridays for Future movement has distanced itself from her statements. In May, she was taken away by police during a protest against Israel's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo. Tiger shark vomits entire spikey land creature in rare sighting: 'All its spine and legs' It appears the shark liked neither its prey's texture nor taste. A team of scientists reported getting a surprise after they witnessed a tiger shark regurgitate a spikey land mammal from down under that resembles a hedgehog. In what may be a first-ever world-sighting, James Cook University (JC) announced Thursday, the team spotted the big fish vomit an echidnas, a dome-shaped mammal covered in quills, usually found in Australia and New Guinea. Researchers from JCU tagging marine life off the coast of Orpheus Island in north Queensland in May 2022 "got the shock of their lives" according to a university press release, when they watched the shark regurgitate "the iconic" Australian animal. Former James Cook University student Dr. Nicolas Lubitz and his team of students reported they "got the shock of their lives" after witnessing a Tiger Shark throw up an echidnas, a dome-shaped mammal covered in quills, found in Australia and New Guinea California shark attack: Man hospitalized after shark attack off Southern California coast 'What the hell is that?' Former JCU PhD student Dr. Nicolas Lubitz and his team reported after they caught the shark, it threw the dead animal up - all in one piece. We were quite shocked at what we saw. We really didnt know what was going on, according to Lubitz, who said in the release he could only assume the shark had snatched the echidna as it swam in the shallow waters off the island. A tiger shark cruises near the ocean floor in this image provided by the International Fund for Animal Welfare. When it spat it out, I looked at it and remarked 'What the hell is that?' Someone said to take a picture, so I scrambled to get my phone." The echidna was fully intact Lubitz said the dead echidna was whole in its entirety when it was regurgitated, suggesting a recent kill by the 10-foot long shark. It was a fully intact echidna with all its spines and its legs, the scientist said. "Its very rare that they throw up their food but sometimes when they get stressed they can, Lubitz said. In this case, I think the echidna must have just felt a bit funny in its throat. What do tiger sharks eat? Tiger sharks are one of the most fierce species in its genus, measure about 15 feet long and often prey on turtles. The apex predators are known for their dark, vertical stripes, considered dangerous to people and have been implicated in attacks on humans over the years. 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: Tiger shark regurgitates echidna, leaving scientists shocked Tim Scott: Vote for Trump Because Hes Willing to Lay Down for You Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who is no stranger to sucking up to former President Donald Trump, made an interesting appeal to Americans in the defense of the convicted felon on Friday. We need a president who is willing to lay down on behalf of the American people, the South Carolina senator told Fox News. And Donald Trump is that person. Scott prefaced his remarks by attacking the validity of Trumps conviction in New York, claiming that President Joe Bidenwho has no jurisdiction over state courtstargeted Trump by weaponizing the justice system. Scott: We need a president who is willing to lay down on behalf of the American people and Donald Trump is that person. pic.twitter.com/aiWMf6mJur Acyn (@Acyn) June 7, 2024 In an awkward selfie-video recorded by Scott following Trumps conviction on May 30, Scott called it a hoax and a sham before reiterating his claim that the justice system was weaponized against Trump. Scott, who a vice presidential contender, was mentioned alongside eight other high-profile Republicans who received VP vetting paperwork from Trumps campaign earlier this week. Scott was among Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND), Dr. Ben Carson, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY). Read more at The Daily Beast. Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan praised the President's efforts to bring more investments and jobs to New Mexico, but also urged the President to sign legislation to help secure funds for the Trinity downwinders in August of 2023. The Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act it set to sunset this weekend. (Photo by Gino Gutierrez for Source New Mexico) A federal program to apologize and acknowledge the harms of radiation exposure is out of time, and for those looking for justice from the federal government, the window for inclusion is getting smaller. The Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act begins to expire today, with the U.S. Department of Justice accepting applications postmarked June 10. The fund was created in 1990 in response to growing lawsuits from communities around nuclear test sites, as well as from uranium miners and their families about the cancers, diseases, and other harms. RECA pays lump sum compensations for people who lived and worked in the nuclear program and developed cancers or diseases linked to radiation exposure. It is only limited to civilians living in specific counties in Arizona, Utah and Nevada, uranium miners, millers and transporters before 1971 and federal workers on above ground nuclear test sites. The Senate passed a bill 69-30 in March, which would broaden the program for downwinders across states and territories, increase protection for uranium workers through 1990 and increase the amount of money paid to families. That proposal would keep the program alive for another six years. For the people and families left out of RECA, they say Congressional inaction on RECA is further injustice. Its been a lot of stress, and just such an enormous disappointment, said Tina Cordova, a founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. The group has long fought for inclusion of people and families who lived around the Trinity Test Site in the Jornada Del Muerto, who have never been compensated. Last week, Republican House leadership had a reversal on their recent RECA position, first saying they would only bring a vote to extend the current program, and then walking the vote back later in the day. Objections from GOP leadership start and end with concerns about the costs of expanding the program. Since the move last week, there has been no support for RECA mentioned by House leaders, despite calls from their Missouri Republican colleagues asking for a standalone vote to keep the program. Source NM sat down with Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D- N.M.) who co-sponsored the RECA expansion in an interview for NM in Focus. Lujan gave an update to RECAs status, and also said why this fight was so personal to him. RECA Q&A This has been lightly edited for grammar and clarity. Danielle Prokop: Thank you so much for joining me today, Senator Lujan. Lujan: Its good to be with you as well. Danielle, thanks for having me. Prokop: I want to bring us right into today. Things are clearly fluid on RECA on Capitol Hill, but the fund is set to expire this week. Can you tell me whats happening? Lujan: Well, right now, Im very proud that the United States Senate has passed the amendments to expand RECA, not once but twice. With a historic 61 vote, only to be followed with 69 members, Democratic and Republican members voting to expand RECA. Both those initiatives passed the Senate, while one of those was a standalone bill and it currently sits in the U.S. House of Representatives. The program is scheduled to expire June 7, so sometime between June 7, and Monday, June 10, is when the date sunsets on this particular program. There have been several of us that have been advocating for the use of tools to one, expand the program by passing the standalone legislation, which would also extend the date. And number two, if the legislation to expand RECA is not brought to the floor before its sunsets, then pass legislation that would expand the program as well. And Im engaging in more and more conversations, Senator Hawley is engaging in conversations. Ive been proud to be working with leaders like Senator Crapo of Idaho, as well as Senator Heinrich of New Mexico as well. And one way or another, we will fight to expand this program or fight to expand it. And if we do this correctly, well be able to yield both. Prokop: Wonderful, thank you. This brings us right into last week, House Republican leadership flip-flopped on RECA for saying they would not support yours and Senator Hawleys bill but then later walked back that vote to extend the current program for two years. Can you explain for people who arent watching this closely why advocates are calling that a victory? Lujan: Well, number one, Im concerned of the fact that the House of Representatives has yet to hold a standalone vote on expanding RECA, especially when it received 69 votes in the U.S. Senate, with a strong bipartisan vote the strongest its ever had. Number two, were seeing momentum every day. And I believe that we would see that same momentum repeated on the House floor if only it was given an opportunity to be voted on. The other concern that many of us had is when the senator from Utah worked to offer some amendments. His amendments would have number one left out an expansion with uranium mine workers, which would not have been included and would have left out most of the country that the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act includes, which is all of New Mexico including Missouri, and other states as well, expanding this for an additional two years the way that it was being promoted by the senator from Utah raised concerns. Therefore, the senator from Missouri objected to that as well. But nonetheless, we are all working on my office included, working with advocates to see what must be done, so that we can all work together and work together to be able to protect and expand RECA. Prokop: In the leaving behind of the standalone vote, has there been any guarantees from Republican leadership that they will bring your bill and Senator Hawleys bill to the floor in the House? Lujan: I very much appreciate that. Well, the senator from Kentucky, the Republican leader, Mr. McConnell voted against the provision when we were fighting to include it in the National Defense Authorization Act. I did see the support from Leader McConnell when this was a standalone bill in the Senate, and we earned his vote as well. That shows Republican leadership support in the Senate. Im very concerned still about where things stand in the US House of Representatives. Namely, because the National Defense Authorization Act was kept out of a negotiated National Defense Authorization Act, the RECA was when it should have been included there and should have gone to the President. At that point. Most observers, including myself will point to Republican leadership that were responsible for the removal of that package. Well, now Im very proud that we not only have the support of Chuck Schumer, the Majority Leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, the Minority Leader in the Senate, as well as support for the President of the United States Joe Biden. Prokop: But not in the House? Lujan: I have not seen the support of Speaker Johnson yet. Im very proud that we do have the support of Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. Im confident that if this bill was brought to the floor, that we would be able to earn every Democratic vote, therefore only needing a handful of Republican colleagues, and many of them are already voicing and showing support for this package. Prokop: So Im going to move into the story of Downwinders. Here, people across the country are encountering downwinders in this legacy of nuclear contamination for the first time, its really come to the fore in the public consciousness. For many New Mexicans, this story spans generations. I want to bring it a little bit back to your story. You fought for RECA for a long time, what is your personal connection to this issue? Lujan: Well, Ive had the honor of learning about the injustices and challenges that families have been faced with, from families in New Mexico. Leaders like Tina Cordova, or Phil Harrison, and so many others, whose families have been fighting this for decades. They continue themselves to fight the harms that were created from being exposed. In the case of Tularosa, New Mexico, families like Tina Cordovas, those families were never warned about the first atmospheric test in the country. And it was in a little bitty community in New Mexico, the Trinity test site, where the U.S. government as a matter of fact lied to these families, years later and said that it was simply a munition drop. Not that it was a nuclear atmospheric test. Kids thought that it was snowing, they were playing in the ash. Families started to get cancer and chronic ailments at record paces. And weve continued to see that for decades. I learned from them why it was important to fight for all of these initiatives. At the same time, my father, who would not benefit from the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, passed away 12 years ago, he had his own cancer fight. My dad was not a smoker. But my dad, sadly, was exposed to bad things that caused that cancer while he was at the national labs as an ironworker as a welder. And I saw the fight that my mom and he faced every day. And I saw firsthand what families go through. That experience with mom and dad, and my dads fight as well, whose life was taken sooner than it ever should have, coupled with what I learned from people and leaders like Phil, and Tina taught me the importance of fighting for this. Ive made this commitment that as long as I have the honor of serving in the House and in the Senate, or in whatever form or fashion, that I would fight to correct this wrong. And this is an injustice that was created by the United States of America, and the United States needs to settle up and help these families to the maximum extent that they will be able to. Because while no one will be made whole, Danielle, I believe the federal government should be helping make these families as whole as possible. Prokop: I want to thank you for sharing that. You have been a long and steady advocate for expanding RECA since your time in the House and again in the Senate. You also support the work of the National Laboratories, including plutonium pit production at Los Alamos. How do you square these things? Lujan: Well, one when there was a responsibility that United States have for national security purposes, or early on, there was a lack of protection for families. Whether it was uranium mine workers, who sometimes were working and in corridors, where they would flood them out, to try to keep the particulate of the uranium ore down, which would only make people more sick. There was no protection, protective gear and things of that nature. There was no warning to families downwind of nuclear testing as well. That was a liability created by the federal government. And I believe that those families need to be made whole, just as some families receive benefits. When the legislation was originally created in 1990 and amended in 2000. I work every day around Los Alamos National Laboratory to ensure that we have more protections for workers and for families. I fight every day for the protection of a program that the Department of Labor administers to help families theyre get health care and benefits, if they get sick as well. And I raise this every time I get a chance. So the more that we can do to expand the mission at Los Alamos National Laboratory with supercomputing with working spaces like climate awareness, biosciences and things of that nature is something that I advocate for. While we also have to fight to expand these protections for RECA, I would also remind everyone that a big part of the work that has been done at Los Alamos National Laboratory as well as Sandia and Lawrence Livermore is in the area to be able to advocate for more efforts across the world to be able to help deter, as opposed to just see what could happen, if someone like Russia or someone else would make a horrible, horrible decision. And so I very much appreciate the training that comes out of Los Alamos and the expertise that is shared around the world, and providing protection to those employees and those workers and those families in the same way that we need to bring justice to these families that were exposed to nuclear fallout and downwind of testing. Prokop: Im gonna bring us back here while we just have a few minutes left, Senator, what can New Mexicans expect if Congress kills RECA? Lujan: One, I will fight with everything that I have to ensure that RECA does not expire. While the date sunsets this weekend, I have been assured that theres still a little bit of time for us to continue to work to get the program extended, while I and others are working to get the program expanded. If this program sunsets and does not return, families will not be able to apply for new programs that currently qualify. But well be able to have a program that still provide support to those that have, thats not good enough for me. So I, and others, are committed to do everything that we can to ensure that this program is going to be in place for the families that need it most. Prokop: Thank you for joining us today. Lujan: Thank you for having me. The post Times run out for the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act appeared first on Source New Mexico. A sign warns of radioactive material at the West Lake Landfill. Thousands of tons of nuclear waste from the Manhattan Project were dumped there in the 1970s (Theo Welling/Riverfront Times). A federal program to apologize and acknowledge the harms of radiation exposure is out of time, and for those looking for justice from the federal government, the window for inclusion is getting smaller. The Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act begins to expire Friday, with the U.S. Department of Justice accepting applications postmarked June 10. The fund was created in 1990 in response to growing lawsuits from communities around nuclear test sites, as well as from uranium miners and their families about the cancers, diseases, and other harms. RECA pays lump sum compensations for people who lived and worked in the nuclear program and developed cancers or diseases linked to radiation exposure. It is only limited to civilians living in specific counties in Arizona, Utah and Nevada, uranium miners, millers and transporters before 1971 and federal workers on above ground nuclear test sites. The Senate passed a bill 69-30 in March, which would broaden the program for downwinders across states and territories, increase protection for uranium workers through 1990 and increase the amount of money paid to families. That proposal would keep the program alive for another six years. For the people and families left out of RECA, they say Congressional inaction on RECA is further injustice. Its been a lot of stress, and just such an enormous disappointment, said Tina Cordova, a founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. The group has long fought for inclusion of people and families who lived around the Trinity Test Site in the Jornada Del Muerto, who have never been compensated. Last week, Republican House leadership had a reversal on their recent RECA position, first saying they would only bring a vote to extend the current program, and then walking the vote back later in the day. Objections from GOP leadership start and end with concerns about the costs of expanding the program. Since the move last week, there has been no support for RECA mentioned by House leaders, despite calls from their Missouri Republican colleagues asking for a standalone vote to keep the program. U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, decried House Speaker Mike Johnsons decision not to extend RECA before the deadline. RECA expires today because the House has done nothing, Hawley posted on social media. I hope when Speaker Johnson gets back from Europe he will get focused on America and make time to meet with radiation survivors, like he promised. Parts of the St. Louis area have been contaminated for 75 years with radioactive waste left over from the effort to build the worlds first atomic bomb during World War II. Uranium refined in downtown St. Louis was used in the first sustained nuclear chain reaction in Chicago, a breakthrough in the Manhattan Project, the name given to the effort to develop the bomb. After the war, waste from uranium refining efforts was trucked from St. Louis to surrounding counties and dumped near Coldwater Creek and in a quarry in Weldon Spring, polluting surface and groundwater. Remaining waste was dumped at the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton, where it remains today. Generations of St. Louis-area families lived in homes near contaminated sites without warning from the federal government. A study by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry found exposure to the creek elevated residents risk of cancer. Residents of nearby communities suffer higher-than-normal rates of breast, colon, prostate, kidney and bladder cancers and leukemia. Childhood brain and nervous system cancers are also higher. This story was originally published by Source New Mexico, a States Newsroom affiliate. The Independents Jason Hancock contributed to this story. The post Times run out for the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act appeared first on Missouri Independent. Retailers and police organizations have turned to atypical measures for fighting crime in retail stores. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department arrested two suspects for alleged conspiracy to commit commercial burglary on Monday after multiple incidents in TJX stores, starting in September 2023. More from Sourcing Journal Police said they found $2,000 of stolen merchandise in the possession of Miguel Rosales, 40, of Azusa, Calif., and Iveth Carrion, 39, of Whittier, Calif., on the day of their arrest. However, the department alleged, the total amount of stolen goods the two are responsible comes in above $5,300. The San Bernardino Sheriffs Department said in a statement that it had worked with TJX retail crime investigators to catch the suspects. The county joins a number of other regions nationwide that have brought about task forces and law enforcement initiatives for retail crime. In November 2023, the department said it became particularly concerned with the way retail crimes altered residents quality of life, noting in a release that, These violent criminals terrorize the citizens of San Bernardino County by utilizing intimidation tactics and a mob mentality that creates an unsafe and uncomfortable shopping environment for our residents. Since then, it has facilitated Operation Smash & Grab, which works to disrupt and dismantleretail store theft crews using conventional and non-conventional investigative methods. TJX has also resorted to non-conventional methods in its stores, where some employees have begun wearing body cameras in what John Klinger, the companys chief financial officer, has declared an effort to decrease shoplifting and retail crime. Its almost like a de-escalation where people are less likely to do something when theyre being videotaped, he said, referring to the body camera play on the companys earnings call last month. A TJX spokesperson told said the company has, over the past year, started using body cameras in certain stores across the U.S., but did not specify which regions it has targeted or which of its brands has the highest usage rate. That person also noted that employees who are expected to wear body cameras receive training from the company in order to use the cameras effectively in their roles. The spokesperson said TJX only divulges the footage recorded on the body cameras to law enforcement when requested or if the company receives a subpoena for the footage. The company hopes that the addition of body cameras to its arsenal of safety tools will help re-assure its employees and consumers. Body cameras are just one of the many ways that we work to support a safe store environment, the spokesperson said. We hope that these body cameras will help us de-escalate incidents, deter crime and demonstrate to our associates and customers that we take safety in our stores seriously. That kind of commitment could be boon for retention in TJX stores, if employees believe it to be true. Data from Lotis Blue Consulting showed that, in 2023, frontline retail employees were 68 percent more likely to stay in their current role if they felt their employer had strong health and safety considerations in place. That figure increased by 10 percentage points between 2022 and 2023. In the apparel and luxury sectors, health and safety has an even stronger impact on employee retention. In 2023, employees were 76 percent more likely to stay with an employer if they thought the company valued their health and safety, up from 58 percent in 2022. TJX, which owns Marshalls, TJ Maxx and HomeGoods, is not alone in its video-centric fight against retail crimestersand the battleground has become international. Sourcing Journal reported earlier this year that British chains Tesco and Woolworths have both rolled out associate-worn body cameras in stores; Tesco did so last fall, and Woolworths did so in April. And the National Retail Federations 2023 Retail Security Survey showed that 35 percent of organizations have started researching body cameras for their store employees or loss prevention teams. However, just one in ten retail organizations reported that they had started testing in-store body cameras. U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) and Alternatives for Girls CEO Amy Good | Ken Coleman U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) on Thursday toasted the $1.1 million in federal funding for Alternatives for Girls (AFG) to construct Dr. Maya Angelou Village, where 45 units of affordable, integrated, permanent supportive housing for at-risk families are being developed in the Motor City. The development is named after the late African-American poet. There is a great unmet need for affordable housing in Detroit and beyond and a great unmet need for those with families, Amy Good, Alternatives for Girls CEO said. AFG provides services for Detroit-area girls and young women facing conditions that put them at risk of homelessness, teen pregnancy, and exploitation. It offers a live-in shelter, after-school programs, college prep, summer camp, and outreach on the street, with the goal of keeping participants safe as they grow up. One of the biggest issues that I hear through every corner of my district is housing, access to housing that is accessible and affordable, so Im incredibly proud of supporting the Dr. Maya Angelou Village, Tlaib said. Occupants are slated to be placed in the development by years end. The post Tlaib celebrates federal housing funds for at-risk Detroit families appeared first on Michigan Advance. In recent developments, the Singapore market has shown resilience, adapting swiftly to technological advancements and changing consumer preferences. This dynamic environment underscores the importance of selecting stocks that not only offer high yields but also demonstrate stability and growth potential in current market conditions. Top 10 Dividend Stocks In Singapore Name Dividend Yield Dividend Rating Civmec (SGX:P9D) 6.01% Singapore Exchange (SGX:S68) 3.49% Multi-Chem (SGX:AWZ) 9.80% UOB-Kay Hian Holdings (SGX:U10) 6.97% UOL Group (SGX:U14) 3.70% BRC Asia (SGX:BEC) 7.48% Bumitama Agri (SGX:P8Z) 6.91% Singapore Airlines (SGX:C6L) 7.05% YHI International (SGX:BPF) 6.49% Sing Investments & Finance (SGX:S35) 6.03% Click here to see the full list of 21 stocks from our Top SGX Dividend Stocks screener. Below we spotlight a couple of our favorites from our exclusive screener. Simply Wall St Dividend Rating: Overview: BRC Asia Limited operates in the prefabrication of steel reinforcement for concrete, serving markets in Singapore, Australia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India and internationally with a market capitalization of SGD 587.11 million. Operations: BRC Asia Limited generates revenue primarily through two segments: Trading, which brought in SGD 413.27 million, and Fabrication and Manufacturing, which accounted for SGD 1.21 billion. Dividend Yield: 7.5% BRC Asia's dividend yield stands at S$7.48%, ranking in the top 25% in the Singapore market. Despite trading at 54.7% below its estimated fair value, BRC Asia has demonstrated a volatile dividend history over the past decade, with payments not consistently growing and experiencing significant fluctuations. However, dividends are well-supported financially, evidenced by a low payout ratio of 38% and a cash payout ratio of 28.1%, indicating that earnings and cash flows adequately cover distributions. SGX:BEC Dividend History as at Jun 2024 Simply Wall St Dividend Rating: Overview: DBS Group Holdings Ltd operates as a commercial bank offering financial services across Singapore, Hong Kong, Greater China, South and Southeast Asia, and globally, with a market capitalization of approximately SGD 100.97 billion. Operations: DBS Group Holdings Ltd generates its revenue primarily through commercial banking and financial services across various regions including Singapore, Hong Kong, Greater China, South and Southeast Asia, and other international markets. Story continues Dividend Yield: 5.5% DBS Group Holdings recently declared a quarterly dividend of S$0.54, maintaining its practice of regular payouts despite a history of volatile dividends over the past decade. The bank's net income rose to S$2.96 billion in Q1 2024, up from S$2.57 billion the previous year, supporting these distributions with a reasonable payout ratio of 50.8%. However, with significant insider selling and an unstable dividend track record, the reliability of future dividends could be concerning for investors seeking consistent income streams from their investments in Singapore's dividend stocks landscape. SGX:D05 Dividend History as at Jun 2024 Simply Wall St Dividend Rating: Overview: China Sunsine Chemical Holdings Ltd. is an investment holding company that manufactures and sells specialty chemicals across the Peoples Republic of China, other parts of Asia, the United States, and Europe, with a market capitalization of SGD 382.62 million. Operations: China Sunsine Chemical Holdings Ltd. generates CN4376.14 million from Rubber Chemicals, CN221.29 million from Heating Power, and CN29.76 million from Waste Treatment in revenue segments. Dividend Yield: 6.2% China Sunsine Chemical Holdings recently announced a share buyback and declared dividends, including a special dividend, reflecting its commitment to returning value to shareholders. Despite these positive moves, the company's dividend yield of 6.16% is slightly below the top tier in Singapore's market. Its dividends have shown volatility over the past decade but are supported by low payout ratios from earnings (20.8%) and cash flow (30.2%), suggesting sustainability despite past irregularities and a challenging profit margin environment compared to the previous year. SGX:QES Dividend History as at Jun 2024 Make It Happen Delve into our full catalog of 21 Top SGX Dividend Stocks here. Are these companies part of your investment strategy? Use Simply Wall St to consolidate your holdings into a portfolio and gain insights with our comprehensive analysis tools. Unlock the power of informed investing with Simply Wall St, your free guide to navigating stock markets worldwide. Seeking Other Investments? 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. Companies discussed in this article include SGX:BEC SGX:D05 and SGX:QES. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com (Bloomberg) -- South Africas African National Congress said itll seek to form a government of national unity that includes several rivals, a system last instituted when the party first took power under Nelson Mandela three decades ago. Most Read from Bloomberg The ANC, which has ruled since taking power in the nations first multiracial election three decades ago, is being forced to seek coalition partners after last weeks election failed to produce an outright winner. This moment calls for the broadest unity of the people of South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa said after a meeting of the ANCs decision-making National Executive Committee east of Johannesburg on Thursday. They expect us to find common ground, to overcome our differences and to act together for the good of everyone. The ANC won 40.2% support in the May 29 vote, ceding its parliamentary majority for the first time since apartheid ended. That means it will have to secure the support of at least one of its three main rivals to retain power: the business-friendly Democratic Alliance, the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters or former President Jacob Zumas uMkhonto weSizwe Party. Its unclear whether those parties will buy in to the ANCs proposal for a broad governing coalition, details and modalities of which still have to be negotiated. The DA will await further comment by the EFF on Ramaphosas proposals before deciding on its own response, party officials said, asking not to be identified because theyre not authorized to speak to the media. Its leadership is due to meet on Saturday, while the EFFs leader Julius Malema will address the media later on Friday. The Inkatha Freedom Party, which secured the fifth-highest number of votes in the election, said an inclusive government was its preferred option and that it would engage with other parties on how it could work. The MKP said it would wait for a formal approach from the ANC and then respond. Sign up here for the twice-weekly Next Africa newsletter One possible scenario would be for the Ramaphosa to retain the presidency and allocate seats in his cabinet to parties in proportion to their share of the vote. Deals could also be struck to share out executive positions in those provinces where no party won an outright majority. A GNU agreement would not be without uncertainty or immune to fractious in-fighting, said Casey Sprake, an investment analyst at Anchor Capital Ltd. At this point, no one is sure what the outcome will be not even the ANC. The prospect of leftist parties like the EFF being included in the government has unnerved investors, with the rand weakening immediately after Ramaphosas speech late Thursday. It traded 0.7% stronger at 18.8404 per dollar at 10:45 a.m. on Friday. Markets may be concerned about the inclusion of the EFF, but the ANC and DA have the numerical strength to vote against potentially unproductive left-leaning policy proposals, Barclays Plc Economist Michael Kafe said in a research note on Friday. Ramaphosa said constructive talks have already been held with parties including the EFF, DA, IFP, the National Freedom Party and Patriotic Alliance. He called for a national dialog to unite the nation around common goals, while warning that the ANC would isolate those who sought to cause chaos and instability and division a thinly veiled warning to Zuma and the MKP, who have rejected the elections results. The principles we will collaborate with parties on are based on advancing the building of a united nation, the president said. All parties must commit to shared values, nation-building and social cohesion. These values include upholding the constitution of South Africa and the rule of law. DA leader John Steenhuisen has previously ruled out working with either the EFF or MKP, which both favor nationalizing mines and banks, while Zumas party has said it will only work with the ANC if Ramaphosa is replaced a condition thats been rejected outright. Malema has said the EFF would prefer to enter a coalition. We are not Mandela, he said in response to a question from Bloomberg on June 1. We want coalition. We dont want a government of national unity. We will end up with wrong people. The unity government headed by Mandela included the National Party, which ruled the country during apartheid, and the IFP. It lasted from 1994 until 1997, when the NP pulled out. The difference between then and now is that the ANC won an outright majority and could form a government without the opposition, whereas now a walk out by a larger party would collapse the government. You can follow Bloombergs reporting on Africa on WhatsApp. Sign up here. --With assistance from Monique Vanek. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2024 Bloomberg L.P. Two rumored hopefuls for California governor continued to punt Thursday on whether they would run for higher office in 2026, when Gov. Gavin Newsom terms out. Meanwhile, Republicans are drafting an up-and-coming sheriff to run under their party ticket in an already crowded race for the states highest office. Californias next elections for statewide offices are not for more than two years, but a handful of high-profile Democrats including Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former State Senate leader Toni Atkins and State Superintendent of Public instruction Tony Thurmond have all announced formal campaigns for governor as they try to get an early jump on raising money and name ID. The early start to the campaign cycle is putting pressure on other potential candidates to make a decision, but not everyone is in a hurry. Speaking at CalMatters Ideas Festival in Sacramento on Thursday, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and California Attorney General Rob Bonta, both Democrats, said they are considering gubernatorial bids but were not ready to commit. It is a wonderful question to get to contemplate, Becerra mused when pressed by KQED politics editor Scott Shafer about his plans. As the son of immigrants and blue-collar workers, Becerra said, he never thought he would hold such titles as secretary of Health and Human Services, California attorney general and congressman. Becerra, a Sacramento native, said he labored briefly in construction and was tempted to stay. Instead, he became the first in his family to graduate from college and went on to work as a lawyer and deputy attorney general before entering politics in 1990. After his appearance, Becerra said his next career move depends in some part on the 2024 presidential election. If the president is given a chance to serve a second time, I certainly hope I have conversations with him about whether to remain in Bidens Cabinet, he said. He told The Sacramento Bee that when considering his next move, he thinks about where he can have the biggest impact. I want to have an opportunity to do something big, he said. I always say, I dont care what position you put me in, just put me on the field. Ill throw, Ill catch, Ill block. And if I can make a bigger difference in a different place, Ill consider it. Attorney General Rob Bonta has also said he is seriously considering a bid for the states highest office and also declined to make an official announcement Thursday. Its something I will make a decision on at some point. That time is not now, Bonta said during an on-stage interview with CalMatters reporter Nigel Duara. Now is to be the best attorney general I can be. Its a consequential job. Bonta previously told The Bee that he would not make an announcement until after the November election. Former State Controller Betty Yee announced her candidacy for the states highest office in March. In a Thursday morning appearance at the conference, Yee said the states affordability crisis would be a top priority. She also emphasized the need for a reset for more accountability over state spending. I hope we can get into a framework where were not afraid of inviting strict accountability, she said. We are working in an era of finite resources, so we have to be smarter about the resources we have. Also Thursday, allies launched an effort to draft Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco as a Republican candidate for governor in 2026. The coalition includes law enforcement leaders, legislators, local elected officials, and community leaders from across California, according to a news release. We need a strong, capable candidate to run for governor in 2026 and present a real alternative for California voters, Dennis Hollingsworth, a former state senator from the area, said in a prepared statement. In the face of Sacramentos failures on issues like crime and homelessness, Sheriff Biancos leadership has been an example for other communities to follow across the state. Bianco this week came under fire after posting a video of himself saying its time we put a felon in the White House, referring to former President Donald Trump, who was convicted May 30 by a New York jury on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The two-term sheriff has also criticized Newsom and the Legislatures handling of criminal justice issues. He is supporting a ballot measure to roll back portions of Prop. 47, a 2014 initiative that lowered criminal penalties for low-level drug and property crimes. LAWRENCE (KSNT) A 34-year-old man from Topeka was suspected of having serious injuries after a crash in Lawrence on Thursday. At 8:03 p.m., the 34-year-old was driving a 2011 Toyota Camry east on I-70. The driver left the road for an unknown reason and rolled the vehicle into an embankment, according to a Kansas Highway Patrol (KHP) crash log. This embedded content is not available in your region. The driver was taken to an area hospital for treatment of serious injuries. The driver was wearing his seatbelt at the time of the crash, according to the KHP. Topeka officer earning $228/day after DUI arrest 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. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News. In the week Britain remembered the sacrifices of those who fought for freedom on D-Day, Lord Frost had some suitably martial advice for the Conservatives. Writing in this newspaper, he quoted the great French general, Ferdinand Foch: My centre is giving way, my right is retreating; situation excellent; I shall attack. Under fire from Labour on the Left and Reform on the Right, Lord Frost said, the Tories best hope was to focus voters minds on the real agenda of the man who seeks to be our next prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer. It was regrettable that, for much of Friday, Rishi Sunak was the one in retreat. During a bad-tempered seven-way televised debate, a question on defence presented an obvious opportunity for the other parties to lambast the Prime Minister for returning early from the D-Day commemorations. Penny Mordaunt, representing the Tories and with military connections of her own, reiterated that this decision was wrong. But to her credit, she also followed Lord Frosts advice. She repeatedly highlighted the dangerous views held on nuclear weapons by many of the Labour frontbench, including Angela Rayner. Ms Rayners response to such criticism last night was not reassuring. Ms Mordaunt also returned to the argument Mr Sunak made at the debate on Tuesday: that Labour would raise taxes on every household by 2,000 to fill a black hole in the nations finances. This unsettled Sir Keir. He had no real answer to the charge. While Ms Rayner resorted to Labours new line calling the figure a lie her party cannot deny that it plans to increase taxation, because it has admitted that it will do so on private schools, energy companies, and non-doms. Voters might well suspect that 2,000 would prove to be a significant underestimate. Ms Mordaunt also made some compelling arguments against Labours energy policies. The problem the Conservatives face is that they are attempting to argue simultaneously that Sir Keir has both a bad plan for Britain and no plan at all. It is true that many of Labours commitments are vacuous. Its so-called pledge card certainly invites more questions than answers. How does Sir Keir intend to achieve economic stability? Does it not imply less economic dynamism rather than more? By what means would Labour cut NHS waiting times? By conceding to the unions unaffordable pay demands? But we still know enough about Labours instincts, its previous promises, and what it clearly considers to be its electoral vulnerabilities to understand that Sir Keirs agenda for Britain will be very bad indeed particularly if it feels pressure from the Left, as Ms Rayner did from the Greens and nationalist parties in the debate. Friday brought other evidence of that. It is disgraceful that the Labour manifesto looks set to include a pledge to recognise a Palestinian state, apparently so that it can avoid a backlash among some of its voters. In effect, it hopes to buy votes by rewarding Hamas terrorists for the atrocities of October 7. The return of Nigel Farage at the helm of Reform UK has complicated matters for the Conservatives. His presence at the debate was an all too obvious reminder of the threat posed to the Tories from the Right, particularly on issues like immigration, where Ms Mordaunt was perhaps weakest in an otherwise strong performance. But it only re-emphasises the need for the Tories to keep highlighting what a Labour victory would mean for the UK. If the Right-wing vote is split, it could deliver not just a huge majority for Sir Keir, but possibly even Sir Ed Davey as leader of the Opposition, with the Lib Dems in second place for seats despite the party having nothing useful to say. The Tories should be arguing that there is no way for conservative voters to register disappointment with their party without wrecking the country, handing untrammelled power to a Labour Party that, just a few years ago, believed Jeremy Corbyn was the best man to be prime minister. Voters should be sceptical about commentary insisting that this election is already over. Nobody could doubt now the scale of the electoral challenge facing the Conservatives. But the stakes could hardly be higher, either, and this is a period of heightened political volatility. The best way for the Tories to recover from the unforced error in Normandy is to redouble their efforts to expose Labours real plan for Britain. Voters should be left under no illusion about the gamble they would be taking. 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 stolen toy dog was returned to the grave of a 21-year-old defender of the Azovstal plant after his moms plea. Photo: ANNATOLLILVNA_1984 A toy dog, which is a family heirloom, has been returned to the grave of Nazarii Hryntsevych, alias Hrinka ("Toast"), a fallen Ukrainian soldier from the Azov regiment. Mariana, Nazariis mom, bought this toy dog with her first paycheck when the boy was a year and a half old. When the 21-year-old defender of the Azovstal plant in the city of Mariupol died in combat, she placed the toy on his grave. On 6 June Mariana noticed that the burial place of her son in the city of Vinnytsia was desecrated: the toy valued by the family most was gone. "When Nazar was little, I had to start working. I earned a salary of 700 hryvnias [about US$17] and bought a [toy] dog which cost 500 hryvnias for him. Everyone was shocked that I worked day and night to feed my child. And now some bastards stole it from the grave! Take the food, drink, do whatever you want, but why steal the dog? Bring it back or Ill curse you!" Mariana wrote on social media. Nazariis mom bought him this toy when he was a year and a half old. He loved dogs. Mariana also turned to local authorities of Vinnytsia, demanding to put the Alley of Glory in order. The next day, right after the theft was made public, Mariana noticed that the toy was returned. "Im happy! I cried and pleaded for it! The dog is here. You can eat and drink [everything left on the grave] but do not touch what is sacred!" Mariana said. Background: Nazarii Hryntsevych, alias Hrinka, was one of the youngest defenders of the Azovstal plant during the battle of Mariupol. He went through captivity and returned to the combat zone. After the liberation from captivity, soldiers who went through the defence of Mariupol and the Azovstal plant formed a new unit called Contact 12, in which Hryntsevych was the commander of the platoon of optical observers. The 21-year-old soldier was killed in combat on 6 May 2024 on the Luhansk front in the Serebrianka Forest. The farewell ceremony was held in the city of Vinnytsia on 10 May. Support UP or become our patron! WEBER COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) The Weber County Sheriffs Office said to expect delays around Pineview, Eden, and Liberty Friday, May 7 as Ragnar events begin. The race is scheduled to enter Weber County at approximately 10 a.m. and should be into Morgan County around midnight. https://www.runragnar.com/ These will not be the only expected delays across the state, however, as the race covers much of the Wasatch Back. Youll make your way through wildflowers in Avon Pass and into a postcard-worthy countryside dotted with horses and quintessential barns. Well run through some beautiful small towns like Kamas, Oakley and Francis. And if that doesnt charm you enough, get ready for the photo ops at Snowbasin and Guardsman Pass, the race website states. Ragnar aims to make running a team sport with relay-style races spanning two days and one night. Youll take turns, relay style, covering 200-ish miles of beautiful country roads, passing city scapes and over rolling hills, the website states. When youre not running, youll be cheering on runners and taking in all the sights and sounds road has to offer. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah. Lucy Morgan, 6, was enjoying time spent at her family's lakeside cottage in Maine earlier this month, collecting tadpoles in buckets with her sister, taking rides on the family's kayak and when the sun caused weariness, a rest on the hammock with dad was in order. But it all came to a crashing halt on the Sussex County family's last full day vacationing in Limerick, Maine, when a freak accident involving a badminton racket led to the girl's death and a family reeling from their loss. Limerick Fire and EMS responders arrived at the family's home around noon on June 1 on a report Lucy had been injured, according to Shannon Moss, the public information officer for the Maine Department of Public Safety. Lucy Morgan, 6, died on June 5, 2024, several days after a freak accident involving a badminton racquet at her family's lake cottage in Maine. After finishing their lunch, the family's four children went to the front yard to play a game of badminton while their parents, Jesse and Bethany Morgan, relaxed in the backyard. It was then that the parents heard screaming, said Jesse Morgan, who lives in the Stockholm section of Hardyston with his family. Investigators say the aluminum shaft of a racket had become dislodged from the wooden handle, causing the shaft to strike Lucy, who was sitting on the sidelines, in the head, piercing her skull. The incident occurred when a family member had used the racket on a downward swing, Morgan said. Lucy was taken via medical helicopter to a nearby pediatric hospital and later transferred to a hospital in Portland, Maine. Four days later, Lucy died due to her injuries, authorities and the family said. "The Maine State Police would like to extend their deepest condolences to the Morgan family," Moss said. Lucy Morgan, 6, plays in the lake near her family's cottage in Maine. Lucy died on June 5, 2024, several days after a freak accident involving a badminton racquet. Sharing thoughts in writing Jesse Morgan shared updates on Lucy's fight while she was hospitalized on his blog, New Creation Living, where he also shared the emotions he was feeling, as well as Bible verses that has brought comfort to the family. Morgan is the worship and discipleship pastor at the Green Pond Bible Chapel in Rockaway Township. Morgan said he held Lucy close as she lay unresponsive but breathing following the freak accident before she was taken to a small hospital that later transferred her to Maine Medical Center in Portland. Once there, a portion of Lucy's skull was removed to relieve pressure on her brain, but as the procedure took place, she coded on the table before she was revived. Morgan, in his blog, recalled the moment he was told his daughter had no brain activity and had to be intubated. "We are praying for a miracle, but our hearts hurt with incomprehensible pain. I have so many scattered thoughts and memories," he wrote. He recalled moments prior to her death where Lucy sang her favorite hymn, "He Will Hold Me Fast," and shared how his family was processing their own grief, from the children using their creativity to color pictures for their youngest sister to his wife, who clutched her daughter's hand while endlessly laying beside her. Morgan said Lucy suffered an immediate arterial bleed from the injury, and after significant testing and medical advice from several doctors over the course of her time in the hospital, Lucy was declared brain dead. The family sang all three verses of "He Will Hold Me Fast" in the hospital room in a moment Morgan said was the "most beautiful, sacred things I've ever been part of." Lucy was a lover, enjoyed to cuddle and was an amazing big sister to her youngest brother, AJ, Morgan told the New Jersey Herald. She was a "miniature" version of her mother, who Morgan said instilled and nurtured all of Lucy's beautiful characteristics. The ride home back to New Jersey was tough, Morgan said, as the family ordered for just five of them at the drive-thru. He'd often take a peek in his rearview mirror in hopes he'd see his youngest daughter munching on chicken nuggets in the backseat. When they returned home, flowers lining the steps and a refrigerator stocked, the family went inside the home and collapsed on the kitchen floor, crying the hardest they ever have as a family. Lucy Morgan, 6, drew this image in her prayer journal shortly before her death due to a tragic badminton accident on June 1, 2024 at her family's Maine vacation home. But it was later on when Jesse and Bethany Morgan opened Lucy's backpack and flipped through her prayer journal that they were in awe. Lucy, who scribbled words of love for God and Jesus, had drawn a photo that they say showed Lucy understood and felt the presence of God: Morgan said while there is more to say and more tears to shed, he finds comfort from the love his family has received from those closest to them and even dozens of other strangers who have reached out. Lucy's funeral will be held at 11 a.m. on June 15 at the Green Pond Bible Chapel, located on Green Pond Road in Rockaway Township. The service will also be livestreamed. A GoFundMe, which Morgan confirmed was a legitimate fundraiser, had garnered over $90,000 as of Friday afternoon to help offset the family's medical and funeral expenses, lodging, and meals. Email: lcomstock@njherald.com; Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH or on Facebook. This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: Sussex County NJ girl, 6, dies in freak accident on family trip This article was originally published in Stateline. 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. Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter 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. 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. Key Insights Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad's significant insider ownership suggests inherent interests in company's expansion A total of 7 investors have a majority stake in the company with 53% ownership 12% of Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad is held by Institutions A look at the shareholders of Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad (KLSE:KENANGA) can tell us which group is most powerful. With 36% stake, individual insiders possess the maximum shares in the company. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company. So it follows, every decision made by insiders of Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad regarding the company's future would be crucial to them. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad. View our latest analysis for Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad? 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. Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too. Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is Cahya Mata Sarawak Berhad, with ownership of 19%. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 14% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 4.8% by the third-largest shareholder. Noor Binti Ismail, who is the second-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Top Key Executive. In addition, we found that Chay Leong, the CEO has 0.9% of the shares allocated to their name. We also observed that the top 7 shareholders account for more than half of the share register, with a few smaller shareholders to balance the interests of the larger ones to a certain extent. Story continues Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. We're not picking up on any analyst coverage of the stock at the moment, so the company is unlikely to be widely held. Insider Ownership Of Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad 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. I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions. Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad. Insiders own RM301m worth of shares in the RM843m company. We would say this shows alignment with shareholders, but it is worth noting that the company is still quite small; some insiders may have founded the business. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling. General Public Ownership The general public-- including retail investors -- own 30% 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. Private Company Ownership It seems that Private Companies own 4.2%, of the Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad stock. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company. Public Company Ownership We can see that public companies hold 19% of the Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad shares on issue. This may be a strategic interest and the two companies may have related business interests. It could be that they have de-merged. This holding is probably worth investigating further. Next Steps: I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad that you should be aware of. Of course this may not be the best stock to buy. Therefore, you may wish to see our free collection of interesting prospects boasting favorable financials. 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. A transgender student is speaking out along with their family after allegedly being assaulted while using the bathroom in their Minnetonka, Minnesota, high school. The May 30 incident is being investigated as a possible hate crime, according to local police. Cobalt Sovereign, 17, told ABC News they were using the men's bathroom around 2:30 p.m. local time when a male student started peering over the stall while they were using the facility. Sovereign said the student directed an anti-LGBTQ slur at them, and they said they decided to leave the restroom without finishing because of the other student's alleged hostility. PHOTO: Cobalt Sovereign, left, a nonbinary and transgender 17-year-old, was the victim of an assault in a Minnesota high school. The incident is under investigation by local police as a potential hate crime. (Courtesy of Ashley Sovereign) "I asked him what his problem was -- I had never seen him. I didn't do anything to bother him in any way whatsoever. And so I had no idea why he was being not kind to me," said Sovereign. Sovereign uses both they/them and she/her pronouns, identifying as both nonbinary or transgender. In the hallway, Sovereign said they were followed by the student and two others. Out of the blue, they said, one of the students punched Sovereign. MORE: Nex Benedict's school district under investigation by Department of Education "The moment after I was hit, there were pieces of tooth in my mouth. Sovereign went to their school's wellness center to speak to a counselor, who noticed that "there was blood dripping down my teeth," Sovereign said. Sovereign said the school's nurses and counselors called their parents, recommending they seek medical attention for their child and file a police report. Sovereign was transported to the local hospital's trauma center and had to have jaw surgery the next day, the family told ABC News. Ashley Sovereign, Cobalt's mother, also noted that Cobalt said they used the bathroom that aligns with their sex assigned at birth because the gender neutral bathrooms were too far away. "She was trying to do the thing that people say she should do in order to decrease violence ... 'Well, if you're going to use the bathroom, use the one you were assigned, your gender at birth,' and she was trying that, and that's not protecting trans people at all," said Ashley Sovereign. "That's just a setup for more violence." According to the Minnetonka Police Department, it was Ashley Sovereign who called and filed a report with the police. Police then reached out to the school, and the principal confirmed the incident, officials say. PHOTO: Cobalt Sovereign, left, a nonbinary and transgender 17-year-old, was the victim of an assault in a Minnesota high school. The incident is under investigation by local police as a potential hate crime. (Courtesy of Ashley Sovereign) The Hopkins Public Schools district confirmed the investigation, adding that Hopkins Public Schools is an inclusive community that values diversity and inclusion. We will address any issues that compromise the safety and inclusivity of our school environment. We support and stand by any group that is marginalized, including our LGBTQ+ scholars and staff. The school declined to comment on the case further amid an ongoing investigation. A search warrant for school footage and the names of the students involved has been granted and the details have been obtained but not released, according to police. Sovereign said that though the school appears very accepting -- and they say they do have a lot of emotional support from staff -- they say the student body has grown increasingly vocal in its transphobia, with slurs or objects being thrown at them in the hallway. PHOTO: Cobalt Sovereign, right, a nonbinary and transgender 17-year-old, was the victim of an assault in a Minnesota high school. The incident is under investigation by local police as a potential hate crime. (Courtesy of Ashley Sovereign) For Sovereign, feeling comfortable in school depends on what class they're in, and which teachers and students are with them. "As much as support is increasing, hate and the cruelty toward transgender people and even just gay people, is increasing in just an astonishing way that I didn't expect to see," said Sovereign. For Ashley Sovereign, it's hard to hear Cobalt speak about what they've been experiencing. "One of the things we want to come out of it is just an awareness of how difficult it is for trans kids to just exist in school," said Ashley Sovereign. "She's just trying to go to the bathroom. Getting through the day is hard. It doesn't need to be any harder." MORE: Nex Benedict's death sparks calls against anti-LGBTQ bullying nationwide At least 12 states have restrictions on what bathrooms transgender people can use; Minnesota is not one of those states. Sovereign believes that calls for transgender people to use the bathroom of their sex assigned at birth is "entirely just the way to isolate us." "It's terrible that something that's seen as a solution by so many people is actively harming the people who are trying to use it as a solution," said Sovereign. The family is calling for charges to be filed against the student they say attacked Sovereign. PHOTO: Cobalt Sovereign, a nonbinary and transgender 17-year-old, was the victim of an assault in a Minnesota high school. The incident is under investigation by local police as a potential hate crime. (Courtesy of Ashley Sovereign) Across the country, the U.S. has seen a rise in anti-LGBTQ bills and hate, according to the ACLU and Department of Homeland Security, respectively. Minnesota, however, has recently passed a spate of LGBTQ protections. Ashley and Cobalt Sovereign say they are thankful to live in a community that has been very supportive in the aftermath of the alleged incident. "It's astonishing just how much support we've received," Cobalt Sovereign said. "It's not only made this so much easier, it's made me feel a lot more secure about the community. I love them." Ashley Sovereign added: "We were already really enjoying living in a place where you can walk around and see Pride flags ... It was pretty strong, I think even before this, but it really has brought out the love from people who don't know her, but want to protect her. Transgender student alleges assault after using bathroom, family calls for charges originally appeared on abcnews.go.com A dissatisfied faction of the Benton County Republican Party tried to force a discussion into an alleged conflict of interest involving its chair, gubernatorial candidate Semi Bird, on Thursday night. But those precinct committee officers were ultimately outvoted 24 to 45, killing an amendment to the evenings agenda that would have allowed them to hold a closed-door executive session to talk about complaints against Bird. The motion to amend was brought forth by John Trumbo, a Republican committee officer who also is an elected Kennewick city councilman. He has been one of the most vocal conservative critics in Tri-Cities of Birds leadership. Trumbo believes Bird has created a conflict of interest by serving as county chairman and running for statewide office at the same time. He says no person running for the endorsement of their own county should be allowed to also serve on that partys executive committee. Semi Bird Bird earned the sole endorsement for governor by the Benton Republicans earlier this year and says he did not influence the partys vote. Reminds me of the three monkeys: They dont want to hear it, they dont want to see it and they dont want to talk about it, Trumbo later told the Tri-City Herald. Its very disappointing and reflective of what our country is like today in its discourse. WA governor race The attempt to oust Bird from party leadership underscores the fragile and fractured nature Washington Republicans have found themselves in during a consequential election year where the governors mansion, Congress and the White House are competitive. Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, is stepping down after more than a decade in that office and Republicans feel hopeful they can flip that executive seat red. The problem is conservatives are split over two candidates for that seat: Bird, the candidate endorsed by the Washington State Republican Party, and David Reichert, the former congressman and King County sheriff with strong Westside support. The top two vote recipients in the Aug. 6 primary will move on to Novembers general election. Democrats already have rallied behind Bob Ferguson, the state attorney general who is expected by most to effortlessly advance to the general election. Whether I agree with the voice or I dont agree with the voice, I value the voice, Bird said of Thursday nights vote. Weve got to come together. John Trumbo Bird said he thought Trumbo brought forward the agenda change in a very respectable way. You couldnt do any better than John did. I couldnt have asked for a more kinder, professional way of bringing a motion forward and he did it kindly and professionally. It went the way people chose it to go, and you have to respect that and value that, he continued. While Bird handily earned the endorsement of Washington Republicans earlier this year, his candidacy hasnt struck the same chord of excitement with engaged voters across the state. The most recent governors poll, a statewide Cascade PBS-Elway poll published two weeks ago, has Bird at 7% among 400 likely primary election voters. Thats far behind Ferguson and Reichert, who have 42% and 29%, respectively, of likely voters in that same poll. Bombshell reports Birds background also has become a problem for a substantial share of moderates and mainstream Republicans around the state. Most recently, conservative commentator Jason Rantz, of 770 KTTH in Seattle, published a bombshell report on May 28 detailing allegations that Bird was reprimanded by the Department of Defense for fraud to advance his career and that he engaged in stolen valor by misrepresenting his actions while serving as a U.S. Army Special Forces Green Beret in Iraq. Bird has denied the allegations, saying it was a slanderous and libelous story based on hearsay, half-truths, and illegally obtained and restricted personnel records. He said he plans to release exculpatory documents on Friday that will clarify the KTTH report. Trumbo says he was asked to bring forward the amendment to talk about Birds alleged conflict by Natalie Whitten, the wife of another Republican precinct committee officer. In a letter sent to the Benton County Republican Party on May 22, and distributed within Republican circles, Whitten detailed a list of reasons she believed Bird should step down as party chair. She cites his controversial image following the Richland School Board recall, his split time serving as chair and running for office, turnover on the executive committee, his alleged hostility toward party moderates and his misdemeanor financial crime conviction and previous gun charge, among others, as reasons to turnover leadership. He has called out other Republicans who do not support him as The Establishment and claimed persecution. His tactics and messaging have been divisive precisely when we need to be most united, she writes. She also wrote that she found it wildly inappropriate when Bird praised Arthur A. Fletcher, the father of Affirmative Action, during a party strategy session. Bird said Whitten has since met with the partys executive committee in private to discuss and acknowledge her thoughts, although no formal action has since been taken. He also pushed back on criticisms that he talks too much about diversity. Im going to continue with that because I dont walk away from that, Bird said. This is the party of Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglas and the party of abolition. This is the party of civil rights, the party of womens rights, and I have brought that up consistently throughout my service to our central committee and these folks support it. And, I dare say, a lot of the folks in Washington state support it. Whitten could not be reached by the Herald about her letter and concerns. Dozens of Congolese and foreign nationals -- including 3 Americans -- were brought to trial on Friday in the Democratic Republic of Congo over a failed attempted "coup" against the government of President Felix Tshisekedi last month. Fifty-three people are accused of participating in the uprising, which occurred in the early hours of May 19; dozens of armed men in military fatigues attacked the home of economy minister and the presidency -- also known as the Palais the Nation -- with gunfire ringing out across the capital, Kinshasa. DRC Army spokesperson Brigadier General Sylvain Ekenge said the attempt had been "nipped in the bud" by defense and security forces. As he spoke on State-TV a day after the attempt, he added that the situation was "under control." PHOTO: Marcel Malanga (C) sits among other accused of a failed coup attempt at the Ndolo Prison in Kinshasa, Congo, on June 7, 2024. (Arsene Mpiana/AFP via Getty Images) The Congolese army said six people were killed, including alleged coup leader and exiled politician, Christian Malanga. A former military officer, Malanga formerly lived in the U.S., where he established the New Zaire Government in Exile. He was 41 when he was killed in May. Among the accused in court Friday were three U.S. citizens: Taylor Thompson, Benjamin Zalman Polun and Marcel Malanga, the 21-year-old son of alleged coup leader Christian Malanga. Each is charged with terrorism, illegal possession of firearms, assassination and murder attempt, terrorist financing and criminal activity. The mother of Marcel Malanga said that her son had nothing to do with any political activities. "I am shocked by the events of this morning and very concerned by reports of American citizens allegedly involved," U.S. Ambassador to the DRC Lucy Tamlyn said, writing on X. "Please be assured that we will cooperate with the DRC authorities to the fullest extent as they investigate these criminal acts and hold accountable any U.S. citizen involved in criminal acts." The accused appeared on Friday morning before a military court in Kinshasa in a public hearing. A presidential source told ABC News that the accused if convicted would face sentences up to and including the death penalty. PHOTO: A Congolese army officer arranges confiscated weapons during the first hearing of the trial for those accused of a failed coup attempt at the Ndolo Prison in Kinshasa on June 7, 2024. (Arsene Mpiana/AFP via Getty Images) Speaking to ABC News in May, the family of Tyler Thompson of Utah described the "terror" of seeing him detained and beaten by Congolese soldiers, saying they were left in "complete and utter shock." Thompson -- who grew up in West Jordan, Utah -- had travelled to South Africa last month with close friend, Marcel Malanga. Another U.S. national says he was mistakenly accused of being involved in the attempted coup. Cole Patrick Ducey, an engineer living in Eswatini, told ABC News that he was not involved, despite reports online and in the media. PHOTO: An officer gestures as counsellors and accused of a failed coup attempt sit at the first hearing of the trial at the Ndolo Prison in Kinshasa on June 7, 2024. (Arsene Mpiana/AFP via Getty Images) DRC government officials also confirmed to ABC News that Ducey was not involved in the coup attempt over the weekend. The U.S. Embassy in Congo said on Monday Congolese authorities are yet to provide access to Americans arrested. "We have requested DRC authorities grant consular access to any U.S. citizens who may have been detained and have not received it to date," U.S. embassy spokesperson Greg Porter said in an email reported by The Associated Press. ABC News has reached out to the embassy for comment. Trial begins for dozens accused of attempted 'coup' in Congo originally appeared on abcnews.go.com The accused Holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck sits in the district court at the start of her appeal proceedings. The 95-year-old, who is popular in right-wing extremist circles, was sentenced to ten months in prison without probation by the district court in 2015. The senior citizen appealed against this. In the trial before the district court, the public prosecutor's office is accusing the woman from North Rhine-Westphalia of two counts of incitement of the people. Markus Scholz/dpa Pool/dpa The trial of German Holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck for inciting hatred began on Friday at the Hamburg District Court. The 95-year-old, who is a prominent figure in right-wing extremist circles, was sentenced to 10 months in prison by the Hamburg District Court on November 12, 2015. She appealed, and almost nine years later the case is once again before the courts. The public prosecutor's office in Hamburg has charged Haverbeck with two counts of incitement of the people. On April 21, 2015, on the fringes of the trial of former SS member Oskar Groning, Haverbeck is said to have told journalists that Auschwitz was not an extermination camp but a labour camp. In a television interview with the broadcaster NDR she also denied that there had been a mass extermination of people there. These contributions were shown in the courtroom on the first day of the trial. Historians estimate the Nazis murdered at least 1.1 million people in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp alone. "I have never denied the Holocaust," Haverbeck said, claiming that she had merely asked questions. However the judge found that the comments in the TV reports were not questions, but statements. She wanted to know if the accused still stood by her remarks. Haverbeck then repeated one of them. Haverbeck has previously served more than two years in jail for Holocaust denial. In 2022, she was again sentenced to one year in prison without probation by a Berlin court for incitement of the people. The judgment is final, but that sentence has not yet been served. A doctor accompanied Haverbeck, who was in a wheelchair and repeatedly complained about the "infirmities of old age." "I think you're really fit," the judge told her. The trial is due to continue on Wednesday. The accused Holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck sits in the district court at the start of her appeal proceedings. The 95-year-old, who is popular in right-wing extremist circles, was sentenced to ten months in prison without probation by the district court in 2015. The senior citizen appealed against this. In the trial before the district court, the public prosecutor's office is accusing the woman from North Rhine-Westphalia of two counts of incitement of the people. Markus Scholz/dpa Pool/dpa The accused Holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck stands in the district court at the start of her appeal proceedings. The 95-year-old, who is popular in right-wing extremist circles, was sentenced to ten months in prison without probation by the district court in 2015. The senior citizen appealed against this. In the trial before the district court, the public prosecutor's office is accusing the woman from North Rhine-Westphalia of two counts of incitement of the people. Markus Scholz/dpa Pool/dpa The lay vaccinator program, a collaboration between the IHS and the Humane Society of Western Montana, trains and certifies community members to administer vaccines to dogs on the reservation. (photo/Humane Society of Western Montana) On the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation in northern Montana, the Indian Health Service is trying to improve health outcomes by targeting a specific population in the community: rez dogs. The initiativea collaboration between the IHS and the Humane Society of Western Montanatrains and certifies community members to administer vaccines to dogs in the community. The aim of the program is multifold: curb disease transmission and treatment costs, promote responsible pet ownership, and decrease the risk of dog attacks. Providing veterinary care to rez dogs is not only a matter of animal welfare its one of public health, according to Bobbi J. Favel, an enrolled member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe and the tribe's director of natural resources. We are seeing such an increase in population [of dogs]. It's a health issue, Favel told Native News Online. Making sure we don't have an outbreak of rabies or any other type of disease that could carry over to our youth. Also, we want to avoid having the kind of traumatic event that may harm a child. We have had incidents with some animals; luckily, none of them ended badly. We don't want something like that to happen. It's a sight familiar on many reservations across Indian Country: dogs of all shapes and sizes lazing in parking lots or outside of stores, darting across the road into the brush, or trotting through a housing development. Often referred to as rez dogs, not all of the canines that appear to be strays actually are. While some are feral, many do have homes or are cared for by the community. The rez dogs might wander during the day, but sleep at a residence at night. Oftentimes, a community member, or several, will feed them. Even in the professional areas, where offices are, you will see four or five dogs just hanging out, Favel said. The Rock Boy's Indian Reservation has a population of 3,640 and is home to the Chippewa Cree Tribe. While dogs abound on the reservation, veterinary care is nearly inaccessible. The nearest vet is located 25 miles north in Havre, Mont., beyond the reach of tribal citizens without transportation. For those that do have vehicles, the northern Montana weather can make the roads impassable. If transportation isn't a barrier, the price tag of veterinary care usually is, Favel said. The annual cost of preventative care for a dog can run $700-$1,500, a prohibitive cost for someone living on the reservation where the average income is $42,000. On the reservation, taking your dog to get vet care is not something a lot of people think about, Favel said. The Humane Society of Western Montana (HSWM) has partnered with the Rocky Boy Reservation for four years, bringing in pet food and holding free clinics a couple of times a year when the team can travel from over Roger's Pass, where conditions can render the road impassable. A lot of people really appreciate having access to the free clinics," Favel said. "The dogs are curious, and some of them wander over on their own. Marta Pierpoint, executive director of the HSWM, said the program is a means of maintaining access to care in the interim and supporting pet ownership on the reservation in a way that fits with the community. We're not just trying to do one clinic and leave, Pierpoint said. It's our objective to support pet ownership, whatever that may look like, in a way that is rewarding for the people and the pet. The so-called lay vaccinator programs are active in several states with remote tribal populations, like New Mexico and Alaska. IHS initially developed its program to curb the incidents of post-exposure rabies treatments, which can run upward of thousands of dollars. There is just not access to care for people to get rabies vaccines, Pierpoint said. It becomes a very expensive problem and a challenging one. The Humane Society of Western Montana holds free veterinary clinics on the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation a two to three times per year. (photo/Humane Society of Western Montana) The Humane Society of Western Montana holds free veterinary clinics on the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation a two to three times per year. (photo/Humane Society of Western Montana) A 2021 study of lay vaccinator programs around the globe showed that most programs reported high vaccine coverage and reduced disease transmission and outbreaks. Chippewa Cree Tribe is the first tribal nation in the state to participate in the program, which is available to all federally recognized tribes in the state. Along with core vaccines, or those that are recommended for all dogs, the program, launching in mid-June, will offer microchipping a process in which a grain-of-rice-sized electronic chip containing information about the animal and its owner is placed under an animals skin with chips donated by pet microchipping company 24-Pet Watch. As well, cloud-based clinic management company Clinic HQ is donating record keeping software, allowing the tribe to keep track of which animals have been vaccinated or received treatment. IHS provides online training, with the required in-person training conducted by HSWM. The first in-person training will be held on June 13 to certify 10 community members in vaccine administration. In the future, Favel said she hopes to supplement the lay vaccinator program with a spaying and neutering initiative, which has long been shown to be a crucial tool in reducing the overpopulation of dogs and cats. Favel said she hopes the lay vaccinator initiative, along with the tribe's newly launched animal control department, will improve the quality of life for everyone both humans and dogs on the reservation. I think it's going to become invaluable if we keep at it and keep educating the public, Favel said. Pet owner responsibility, hopefully that will increase. We want people to understand that there are options to take care of their pets, and so we get away from the stigma of just allowing them to run free. About the Author: "Elyse Wild is senior editor for Native News Online and Tribal Business News. " Contact: ewild@indiancountrymedia.com From a truck to a trash can to a strangers closet: The odd saga of Hunter Bidens gun WILMINGTON, Delaware Hunter Bidens high-stakes gun trial began on Thursday with raw, gut-wrenching testimony about his history of addiction to crack cocaine. It ended with a grumpy octogenarian talking about socks. The dramatic tonal shift in the criminal trial of the presidents son was the result of prosecutors trying to complete their narrative of what happened over a fateful two-week period in October 2018. Biden is accused of lying about his drug use when he purchased a pistol on Oct. 12, 2018. Eleven days later, Hallie Biden who is the widow of Beau Biden and was dating Hunter at the time found the gun in his truck and tried to get rid of it. Prosecutors have spent most of the four-day trial trying to prove the depths of Bidens drug abuse, including around the time he bought the gun. Hallie provided critical testimony on that point Thursday morning. But later in the day, prosecutors turned to a different part of the story: what happened to the gun after Hallie Biden threw it in a trash can outside a high-end grocery store two minutes from her Wilmington home. She soon regretted the decision and returned to the store but it was gone. So she spoke to a store manager, and they called the police. As prosecutors tried to show what happened next, the trial departed from its otherwise grave subject matter and took on the air of a slapstick caper about a quest for a missing gun. The primary narrators were a pair of locals who were called to the stand to testify. Jurors grinned at each other and shared Tic Tacs as they listened. First up was Millard Greer, a police officer who was tasked with finding the weapon. There was a promising lead: Security camera footage showed an old man near the trash can where Hallie Biden had left the gun. Greer told jurors how he questioned people at the shopping center about the man. Many had seen him, as he was in the habit of scavenging through garbage cans for recyclables. After several days of surveilling the area, Greer laid eyes on him, poking around the numerous trash cans on the perimeter of the tidy strip mall. The officer confronted him and commented that someone had put something into a trash can that they shouldnt have. Yes they did! replied the man, named Edward Banner. What was it? Greer asked. A thirty-eight special, he said. Banner then took Greer to his modest split-level home. But there was a problem: He had forgotten his keys, and hed locked himself out. Banner started panicking, and pounded on the door. His wife was inside napping. He finally banged long enough to wake her up. Things got a little weird at that moment, Greer said. As soon as she opened the door, Banner rushed up the stairs. Woah, woah, woah, Greer recalled saying. Therere guns here! Banner soon presented Greer with a box containing rolled-up socks. I think this is what youre looking for, Banner said, in Greers recollection. And he pulls out a sock that has a gun in it. Then he pulled out another sock, with another gun. The Colt pistol that Biden had bought was in one of the socks, Greer testified. The other held a semi-automatic handgun that a coworker had given to Greer for safekeeping more than a decade earlier. At one point, Greer launched into an elaborate explanation complete with technical terms and broad hand gestures about the difference between a semi-automatic weapon and a pistol like the one Biden bought. It was more than anyone had asked for, and the lawyer questioning him quickly moved on. Then it was time to hear from Banner, a diminutive 80-year-old with a shuffling gait, a blue blazer, and a very pink face. Judge Maryellen Noreika helped him carefully lower himself into the witness seat. Prosecutor Derek Hines, a tall man with a booming voice, then greeted him. But Banner showed no sign he heard it. A courtroom staffer hurried over and offered him a headset. He slid it about on his head a bit, but it didnt seem to help. So Hines walked across the courtroom, stood right next to Banner, stooped, and spoke to him more loudly and more slowly. Banner told the jury about his unusual hobby: searching through Wilmingtons trash cans for recyclables and then driving them to New York to sell them at 25 to 75 cents per pound. He earns about $120 per trip, he said. Youre both saving the environment and making a little money on the side, Hines said slowly and loudly. Especially now, with gas prices! Banner retorted. He then showed Banner the security footage depicting him near the shopping center trash can. What was in there? Hines asked. A Colt thirty-eight, Banner replied, as well as a black cylinder-like thing you could load the gun with or whatever, he said. What did he do with the gun? I put it on the top shelf in the closet, he said. Hines asked him about the polices involvement. Did an officer approach him in the parking lot? Possibly! Banner replied. I dont remember exactly how that all came about. Abbe Lowell, Bidens lead defense lawyer, cross-examined Banner about the episode. He asked if there were bullets in the gun when Banner found it. I certainly didnt take any out and I didnt put any in! he replied, a bit crossly. And did Banner put the gun in a sock? Lowell asked loudly. I dont remember no sock! Banner retorted. Did Banner put a different gun in a sock? Lowell queried. I know nothing about no sock! I didnt need either gun! he added. The questioning quickly ended. Steve Bannon was convicted of two counts of contempt of Congress in 2022 but has been fighting moves to incarcerate him. Steve Bannon was convicted of two counts of contempt of Congress in 2022 but has been fighting moves to incarcerate him. Photograph: Curtis Means/AP Steve Bannon, the rightwing podcaster and vociferous Donald Trump cheerleader, has been ordered to surrender to authorities by 1 July to begin a four-month prison sentence for contempt of Congress. The order was issued by US district judge Carl Nichols who was appointed to the bench by Trump after he accepted prosecutors argument that Bannon should serve his sentence following the rejection of his appeal last month by a three-judge panel. Bannon had fought the move to incarcerate him, contending that he was ready to go to the full US court of appeals and even to the supreme court to contest his conviction. Related: He believes in power and chaos: alarm as Steve Bannon plots to propel Trump He was convicted in 2022 of two counts of contempt of Congress one for failing to appear for a deposition of the House of Representatives select committee investigating the 6 January 2021 insurrection; and the other for refusing to turn over documents related to his role in Trumps attempt to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Joe Biden. Another close Trump ally, the former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, is already serving a four-month term in a minimum-security facility in Florida after being convicted of a similar contempt offence relating to the January 6 inquiry. He has reportedly spent the time inside putting the finishing touches to a book on a future Trump administrations agenda. The confinement of Bannon who served as White House chief strategist for the first seven months of Trumps presidency is likely to further fuel the rightwing Republican narrative of a justice department weaponised by Biden for the purposes of pursuing his predecessor and his allies. There is no evidence of Bidens involvement in the legal cases against Trump who faces a further 54 criminal charges after being convicted of 34 felony counts by a New York court last week or his supporters. Bannon, in an interview this week, called for the prosecution and jailing in a future Trump presidency of figures such as Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who led the prosecution of the former president that produced his conviction for falsifying documents in an effort to hide the payment of hush money to an adult film actor. Being imprisoned from next month would mean Bannon missing the Republican national convention, which starts on 15 July and at which Trump is due to be officially nominated as the GOP presidential candidate. It may also result in the suspension of his War Room podcast, which regularly features interviews with figures on the right of the political spectrum. Bannon, 70, has previously described himself as a Leninist, in reference to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, leader of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, whose career in revolutionary politics included serving a year in prison after being arrested for sedition against the countrys Tsarist regime before being exiled for three years in Siberia. Donald Trump railed at President Joe Bidens recent executive action on immigration on Thursday in Arizona, a key battleground state where border issues play a big role in electoral politics. Speaking at a town hall organized by the conservative youth organization Turning Point, the former president pledged to scrap Bidens executive action that aims to clamp down on migrants seeking asylum. Biden's order is not a border security plan, Trump said. It's a concession to the fact that he has lost control over a border. And it's a really dangerous place. On day one of my administration, I will be rescinding crooked Joe's outrageous executive order. Trump has made hard-line immigration policies the center of his political identity since he entered politics in 2016 and is frequently critical of Democrats on the issue. He dialed up the rhetoric Thursday in the border state, blaming the president for deliberate demolition of our sovereignty and of our borders. The action Biden announced on Tuesday allows the president to suspend asylum claims between ports of entry when there is an average of 2,500 crossings a day over a seven-day period. I want to send Joe Biden's illegal aliens back home where they belong, Trump said. They have to go back home because quite simply, Joe Biden wants an invasion. I want a deportation. I want a deportation. On day one, I will seal the border. I will stop the invasion and we will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in the history. Biden hit back at Trump on Thursday in an interview with ABCs David Muir, asking Biden to respond to Trump calling his executive action weak and pathetic. Is he describing himself, Biden said. Come on, look, everybody knows whats happened. We had a deal, it was much broader than this, much better, much more accepted across the board, and he got on the phone and told the Republicans, dont support it. It will hurt me, it will help Biden. After Trumps rally, Bidens campaign released a statement accusing Trump of undermining attempts to pass legislation aimed at increasing border security, saying that hes in it for himself, not you. Earlier this year, Trump tanked a bipartisan border deal, stating in a Truth Social post, A bad border deal is far worse than no border deal. Trumps town hall on Thursday was his first appearance in a battleground state since he was convicted of felony crimes last month, and he spent the majority of his speech focused on the border. Immigration remains a big issue in Arizona and last month, a poll found that a majority of survey respondents said the state needs immigration reform and solutions to issues at the U.S.-Mexico border. In November, Arizona voters will decide the fate of whether local police officers could have the power to arrest and jail undocumented immigrants. The ballot measure was first passed as a bill in Arizonas Republican-controlled state legislature but Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed the bill in March. By leaving the decision up to voters, Republicans in the state hope it will increase conservative voter turnout in a swing state that is seen as crucial in the presidential race. On Thursday, Trump vowed to rescue the state of Arizona by winning the election in November. We're going to win the great state of Arizona, Trump said. Arizona, it's so sad to see what's happened here right? We will rescue the state of Arizona. We will make America great again. Trump Claims He Has Every Right To Prosecute His Enemies A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPMs Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version. I Would Have Every Right To Go After Them Surveying the news of the past 24 hours, were presented with a particularly sobering reflection of our current state of affairs. I will lay it out brick by brick in the items below, but first I want to circle back to Donald Trumps appearance two nights ago on Sean Hannitys Fox News program. Hannity asked a leading question, clearly trying to throw Trump a softball that will let him deny his intention to use the office of the presidency to exact retribution against his political foes even though Trump has spent many months now promising to do precisely that. At first, Trump took the easy swing and suggested that he wont perpetuate what he implies is a cycle of retribution hes already been victimized by. But then he launched into an extended justification of doing exactly what he had just disclaimed and asserting that he has every right to go after them: Hannity: "Focus on those that want people to believe that you want retribution. That you would use the system of justice to go after your political enemies." Trump: "When this election is over, based on what they've done, I would have every right to go after them." pic.twitter.com/fodThq5VJh Republican Voters Against Trump (@AccountableGOP) June 6, 2024 Dont be confused by the two-step shuffle Trump just did there. Disclaiming his intent to commit a bad act that he says he has the right to commit is not reassuring in the slightest. Committing or threatening to commit bad acts is the classic strongman move, but so is promising to forbear from committing a bad act. Reserving to himself the power to decide whether to transgress is no less a strongman flex than actual transgression. Its all part of the same dance of threat, intimidation, bullying, and aggression. To draw from the domestic abuse context: Dont make me hurt you. David Corn efficiently runs through the history of Trumps promises of revenge, their inextricable connection to his obsession with violence, and how easily they flow from his preferred posture of victim. The bully as victim, the oppressor as oppressed, the abuser as abused. Former U.S. Attorney Barb McQuade has a new essay on Trumps threats of revenage and their consequences. After running through all the checks and balances that would limit the presidents ability to use the justice system as a tool of political reprisal, McQuade then asks what the point of it all really is. This part of her answer is spot on: Even if politically motivated prosecutions ultimately fail, just bringing charges would be enough to tilt the playing field. If the public can be convinced that all prosecutors are corrupt partisan actors, then their work may be disregarded as mere political gamesmanship, and Trumps convictions and impeachments will no longer matter. The result is to give Trump and other political actors license to commit all manner of crimes in the future. It goes back to the classic strongman targets: judges, legislators, the press, the education system, even artists. Any power centers that are beyond the strongmans control are a threat to him. Delegitimizing them serves the same purpose as more direct attacks. It undermines their power over him. With that in mind, lets survey the days news. A GOP Election Clerk v. MAGA In A World Of Lies An exceptional NYT piece on the plight of Cindy Elgan, the Republican election official in Esmeralda County, Nevada, who faced a recall attempt in a county that went 82% for Trump in 2020 because some conspiracy-minded residents thought he should have won by a larger margin. The Grim New Reality TPMs Khaya Himmelman: Add Fentanyl-Laced Mail-In Ballots To The List Of Threats Election Officials Must Guard Against In The Fall Capitol Police Jeered By GOP Legislators Some Republicans in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives jeered, booed, and walked out when two former Capitol Police officers who defended against the Jan. 6 attack were introduced on the floor chamber Wednesday. Trump II Will Assert Sweeping Powers Over Federal Spending WaPo: Donald Trump is vowing to wrest key spending powers from Congress if elected this November, promising to assert more control over the federal budget than any president in U.S. history. Does Trump Have A Deal With Putin? Chris Hayes places Trumps outrageous cooptation of the case of WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich for his political ends into some dreary historical context: In a move that is truly appalling, even by his degraded standards, Donald Trump appears to be openly colluding with Vladimir Putin in the hostage-taking of Evan Gershkovich. And the price of his release is electing Donald Trump, says @chrislhayes. pic.twitter.com/6R4SCJ20Pm All In with Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) June 6, 2024 Bannon Ordered To Report To Prison Absent intervention by a federal appeals court, MAGA world figure Steve Bannon must report to prison by July 1 to begin serving his four-month sentence for contempt of Congress for rebuffing the House Jan. 6 committee. Isolated and Inexperienced Former TPMer and Ft. Pierce, Florida native Tierney Sneed co-authors an in-depth profile of Ft. Pierces only federal judge: Aileen Cannon. What To Make Of The Hunter Biden Case With President Biden promising not to pardon his son Hunter, Ankush Khardori has a thoughtful look at the Delaware gun case brought by Special Counsel David Weiss and what makes it so unusual. Stolen Valor NOTUS: House Republicans are accusing fellow Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) of stolen valor for continuing to wear a Combat Infantryman Badge pin from Afghanistan that he was awarded by mistake. Im Not Crying. Nope. Not Me. Youre the savior of the people, you bring tears to my eyes. No no, you saved Europe. My hero. No, you are our hero. I pray for you. Heartbreaking between @ZelenskyyUa & a #DDay veteran, who knows the cost. He kisses his hand & wont let go. pic.twitter.com/qQoI2SekeR Jessica Berlin (@berlin_bridge) June 6, 2024 I dont think I was a hero. I was just like everybody else. We were all in this together. D-Day veteran Jake Larson is adamant that his bravery 80 years ago was not exceptional: The heroes are up there. They gave their life, so that I could make it. pic.twitter.com/gID1vnCgX4 Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) June 6, 2024 Have A Splendid Weekend! Do you like Morning Memo? Let us know! In Reality Check stories, Star-Telegram journalists dig deeper into questions over facts, consequences and accountability. Read more. Story idea? RealityCheck@star-telegram.com. Tarrant County commissioners took some heat this week from hawkish residents who questioned why Republic Services Inc. a multi-billion-dollar waste disposal company wanted tax-free funding for a project at its Arlington landfill. Isnt that corporate welfare for the company that owns and operates the landfill, they asked during a commissioners meeting. The residents also brought up concerns about the environmental impact of the project and the public notice for the funding. The decision before the commissioners Tuesday was to approve a $13 million tax-exempt revenue bond for Republic Services. The $13 million bond is part of a larger, $133 million bond package for the company issued by the Mission Economic Development Corp. in the Rio Grande Valley city of Mission. Republic Services, a Phoenix-based solid waste management company, has a market capitalization of just over $59 billion. A revenue bond is a form of municipal debt that is repaid by revenue from a project. For this particular bond, Republic Services will be required to repay the Mission Economic Development Corp. using revenue from its waste removal services, but it will not have to pay any taxes on the debt. Tarrant County would not provide any funds to the company, nor would it be liable for the bond in any way. However, commissioners had to sign off on the portion of the bond that will be used at Republic Services Arlington Landfill in order for the full package to be approved, per documentation provided by the commissioners court. That, however, did not stop residents from accusing the county of helping give a highly profitable corporation government handouts. Republic Services reported a net income of more than $453 million in the first quarter of this year. It seems to me like a $13 million donation of revenue bonds from the county is the kind of corporate welfare, which might have been spent on something like child care or education or health care or filling the potholes on Granbury Road, said Fort Worth resident Jeralynn Jackee Cox, who said the bond goes against the political ideology of the Republicans on the court. I keep waiting for the day when this will be a body who seem to be the fiscal conservatives that you claim to be, she said. What is corporate welfare, and does the revenue bond fit the description? The Texas Public Policy Foundation, an Austin-based non-partisan think tank, defines corporate welfare as government favor of a business in the form of direct subsidies, tax credits, or favorable regulatory schemes, and adds that the term is sometimes referred to as economic development. Story continues The revenue bond for Republic Services fits the description of a soft form of corporate welfare, according to James Quintero, policy director for the foundations Taxpayer Protection Project. The public is right to be concerned about a system that allows governmental entities to issue tax-exempt bonds for the benefit of a particular private sector enterprise, Quintero said in an email exchange. Here's what else we've Reality Checked: Migrant crime in Tarrant? We got the numbers. Did American Airlines really blame child for a flight attendant trying to film her in toilet? What Texas law says about people selling puppies in parking lots Such arrangements between the public and private sectors often lead to political favoritism, unequal taxation and the misallocation of capital, he said. This instance raises a broader question about the appropriateness of government-directed economic development programs, Quintero said. That is, whose interests are well-served when public authorities, like [the Mission Economic Development Corporation], facilitate special tax treatment for select companies? Is it the general public who wins, or a favored few? Corporate welfare policies have a wide range of harmful economic effects, according to a 2019 report published by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a Michigan-based think tank dedicated to advancing principles of free markets and limited government. There is broad consensus among academic economists that these programs are wasteful at best and actively damaging to a states economy at worst, the report states. In addition, they encourage cronyism and corruption by creating high stakes for the winners and losers of such policies. Other issues residents had with the revenue bond Residents who spoke at Tuesdays commissioners court session not only had problems with the substance of the bond, but also with the procedures that led to its approval and the possible effects to the area where the landfill is located. While Im sure it was just a bureaucratic mistake, this item was not properly posted for the public hearing, said Lon Burnam, a former Democratic state representative from Fort Worth. This mistake led to no one calling in to a telephonic public hearing that was held on April 12, he said. Documentation provided by the county shows that a representative for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram attested to the fact that a notice of the public hearing placed by Mission Economic Development Corp. ran in the April 5 edition of the newspaper. But a review of the April 5 print edition this week found that the notice never actually ran. This was due to a technical error, according to Tony Berg, chief revenue officer for McClatchy, the Star-Telegrams parent company. We regret the error and are taking steps to ensure this does not happen again, Berg said. Because of the error, county officials notified the commissioners Thursday that they will need to consider rescinding their 4-0 vote to approve the revenue bond for Republic Services because of the lack of public notice. Concerns over what the project entails The environmental impact of Republics project was also brought up as an area of concern by some residents on Tuesday. It is my understanding that this area was an early African American settlement and has meaning for this community, said Fort Worth resident Linda Hanratty. The landfill is near the first African American community in Tarrant County, according to Tarrant Community College. Mosier Valley was founded in the 1870s by former slaves. She recognized the importance of solid waste disposal and the countys need for more space for it, but urged county commissioners to provide more specifics on what the project would entail. This consent agenda item does not elaborate, as weve been told before, about how the $13 million allocated to Tarrant County will be used, nor does it discuss any potential adverse impacts on the surrounding population, she said. I think that we owe it to the residents of that area, and people concerned about that area, which holds meaning for them, to know exactly what Republic plans to do. As an ex-president now with a felony on his record, Donald Trump would lose his Secret Service protection or the usual perks, like an office, of post-White House life under bills sponsored by two House Democrats. But the idea Trump could forfeit his protective detail because of his conviction on 34 state counts of falsifying business records in New York led one Republican to say Democrats are rooting for Trumps assassination, even though the bills are unlikely to advance soon. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) introduced one of the bills and said he did so after heading up the House committee that looked at the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol. I was disappointed in how the president conducted himself as president. He put a lot of peoples lives in danger. So I saw that, Thompson told HuffPost. But more importantly, why would you want to protect a felon? Under the law, Trump as a former president gets a raft of post-presidency perks, including a pension equivalent to the pay of a White House cabinet official (currently $246,400 a year), a travel budget, office space and staff, and, most visibly, Secret Service protection for himself and his wife. Thompsons bill, introduced in April, would stop Secret Service protection for a protectee when they are sentenced for a state or federal crime that carries a penalty of at least one year in prison. It would not affect any of the other post-presidency perks Trump enjoys. Rep. Laura Sanchez (D-Calif.) took a different approach with her bill, the No Glory for Hate Act first introduced in 2021 and then reintroduced in September. Under the bill, a president who had been impeached twice or been convicted of a state or federal crime relating to actions taken in an official capacity as president would be barred from getting any of the usual post-presidency perks except Secret Service protection. It also would bar using federal funds to create a memorial for or name any federal building or property after a former president who had been impeached twice or was a felon. They would also be prohibited from being buried in Arlington National Cemetery. President Trump is now a convicted felon, further emphasizing why taxpayers shouldnt have to foot the bill to honor him, Sanchez said in a statement to HuffPost. I first introduced this bill after the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Since then, Trump continues to be a threat to our democracy. His behavior and the hatred he spews has become increasingly hostile. This is not someone who belongs back in the White House and certainly not someone who deserves monuments built in his honor, she said. While neither bill is expected to go anywhere as long as Republicans control a chamber of Congress, just the idea of having Trump forfeit his post-presidency Secret Service was enough to cause one House GOP member to accuse Democrats of trying to get Trump assassinated. You have a member of Congress that actually introduced legislation to take away his Secret Service and his personal security, basically saying that they would like to expose him to physical harm, danger, maybe even assassination, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) told rightwing news outlet Newsmax on Monday. Its an outrageous thing that were actually talking about this, Biggs said. Asked if he will reintroduce his bill next year if Democrats win the House in November, Thompson hedged. Well see how it goes this time. Who knows? Stranger things have happened, he said. Its something that I think bears consideration. Those people that Ive talked to say its a wonderful idea. Why would you want to protect a felon? As Trump narrows VP search, his short list is nearly all men U.S. Senator Vance boards an elevator at the U.S. Capitol in Washington U.S. Senator Vance boards an elevator at the U.S. Capitol in Washington By Gram Slattery, Alexandra Ulmer and Nathan Layne WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When the topic of Donald Trump's potential running mate arose at a Manhattan fundraiser last week, the Republican presidential candidate gave high marks to contenders including North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and U.S. Senator Tim Scott. Some of the wealthy donors said Trump should select former primary rival Nikki Haley as his No. 2. Ties between the two had soured over her having challenged him, but she had served as his loyal U.N. ambassador for two years while he was president. Trump, 77, largely dismissed the idea and suggested the group move on, said two donors familiar with the interaction. Trump had previously expressed an interest in choosing a woman as his running mate for the Nov. 5 election, and some allies urged him to do so with an eye toward boosting his standing among female voters. Trump's standing with that important voting bloc was further muddled by his conviction last week in a New York trial where he was accused of covering up a payment meant to influence the 2016 election by silencing a porn star who alleged they had sex while he was married - a liaison he denies. His current VP short list, however, is nearly all men, according to nine people who have talked with Trump or his team in recent weeks, including donors, lobbyists and campaign operatives. Ohio U.S. Senator J.D. Vance and Florida U.S. Senator Marco Rubio have emerged as leading contenders for the vice presidential nod, said the nine people, who requested anonymity to recount private conversations. Several of those people said Burgum and South Carolina's Scott remain in contention, while U.S. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas and U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik of New York are dark horse contenders, two people said. Trump's team has sent vetting materials to top contenders, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, a step first reported by NBC News. Rubio, Burgum and Stefanik are among those who received the materials, sources told Reuters. Several sources emphasized the fluid nature of vice presidential deliberations, saying new names can quickly enter and exit the conversation. Trump has said there is a "good chance" he will announce a running mate at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in mid-July. His campaign declined to share specifics on the search. "Anyone claiming to know who or when President Trump will choose his VP is lying, unless the person is named Donald J. Trump," Trump senior adviser Brian Hughes said. All of the potential vice presidential contenders declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment. ALL-MALE TICKET? Throughout his term in office and during his 2024 campaign, Trump has proven significantly more popular among men than women, a gender gap many in his orbit are eager to close. In a comment to NBC last September, Trump said he liked the "concept" of a woman running mate. "Women will determine the outcome of this election. The only real solution for Trump is a woman," said a source briefed on the deliberations, who lamented how few women were being seriously considered. Two people who recently spoke to Trump said he wants to have personal chemistry and the ability to get along with his possible VP. They said the former president believes a No. 2 pick is more likely to hurt a candidacy than substantially help it. As a result, they said, he is looking for a steady operator rather than a potentially risky choice that could end up hurting his chances of taking back the White House from President Joe Biden. Biden, a Democrat, is running again with Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman to serve in that role. Trump's former vice president, Mike Pence, publicly broke with Trump over the then-president's role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and has said he will not endorse his former boss in the upcoming election. Some of the women Trump had considered for the Republican ticket this time have made missteps that took them largely out of contention, according to the conversations with the nine people in contact with Trump or his advisers. Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, was widely criticized after she disclosed in an autobiography that she had killed a dog over obedience issues. Critics of Alabama U.S. Senator Katie Britt said her televised response to Biden's State of the Union address appeared over-rehearsed and tonally uneven. Neither Noem nor Britt responded to requests for a comment. While many campaign financiers have pushed Trump to select Haley, a more traditional conservative who has longstanding ties with the donor community, other advisers have pushed back publicly, including the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who one source said was partial to Vance. Haley is one of the few high-profile Republicans to remain silent after Trump was found guilty last week. She was Trump's last rival in a contentious Republican primary but in May said she would vote for him in November. (Reporting by Gram Slattery in Washington, Alexandra Ulmer in San Francisco and Nathan Layne in Wilton, Conn.; Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Tim Reid in Washington; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Howard Goller) FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. President Donald Trump attends a Turning Point USA event at the Dream City Church in Phoenix By Alexandra Ulmer SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump presented himself as a champion for cryptocurrency and slammed Democrats' attempts to regulate the sector during a San Francisco fundraiser on Thursday, three sources present told Reuters. Trump raised $12 million from the fundraiser hosted by tech venture capitalists David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya at Sacks' home in the swanky Pacific Heights neighborhood. "He said he would be the crypto president," Trevor Traina, a San Francisco-based tech executive and former Trump ambassador to Austria, told Reuters. The crypto industry is increasingly trying to influence U.S. politicians as it faces heightened scrutiny from regulators, especially since bankruptcies at major crypto firms in 2022 spooked investors, exposed fraud and misconduct, and left millions of investors out of pocket. Trump touted crypto as important and stressed that he was very supportive of the sector, said Republican National Committeewoman Harmeet Dhillon. Dhillon said Trump, who is running to unseat Democratic incumbent Joe Biden in a Nov. 5 election, did not offer specifics on his proposed crypto policy. Biden signed an executive order in 2022 aimed at ensuring the responsible development of digital assets, which led to reports urging regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to issue guidance and rules to address risks in the crypto ecosystem. The White House under Biden has also said that it is eager to work with Congress to develop a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies. In a statement to Reuters, White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson said the Biden administration had supported innovation in digital assets while seeking to protect consumers from "risks associated with new technologies." While San Francisco is heavily liberal, a growing number of high-profile local venture capitalists and crypto investors have thrown their support behind Trump, with several citing what they deemed excessive regulation among their reasons. "President Trump made clear that the Biden-Gensler crusade against crypto will grind to a halt within one hour of a second Trump administration," said Jacob Helberg, an adviser to data analytics provider Palantir, referring to SEC Chair Gary Gensler. Executives from crypto exchange Coinbase , crypto investor twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss and other crypto leaders attended on Thursday, Dhillon added. A spokesperson for Gemini, the company founded by the Winklevoss twins, did not immediately comment. Sacks and Palihapitiya have talked publicly about their investments in crypto, especially in bitcoin. The founder of the now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried, was found guilty last year of stealing from customers. Prosecutors allege he used those funds to donate more than $100 million to U.S. political campaigns. (Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer; Additional reporting by Hannah Lang; Editing by Rod Nickel and Deepa Babington) Former President Trump said Thursday revenge can be justified, the latest instance of the presumptive GOP nominee leaving the door open to going after his opponents, even as he argued the country is worse off after his criminal trial in New York. Trump sat for an interview with Phil McGraw, host of the TV show Dr. Phil, who suggested to the former president he didnt have time to get even with his critics. Well, revenge does take time, I will say that. And sometimes revenge can be justified, Phil, I have to be honest. Sometimes it can, Trump responded. I think the country is really worse for what theyve done, and I think you see that when you look at the poll numbers, Trump continued. When you see that almost $400 million has poured in since this horrible decision was made. That was a few days ago. Numbers that nobodys ever heard of in politics before. Its a great honor. The people of our country get it. CNN host, Dr. Phil disagree over Trump trial: I dont understand how you can say that Trump was found guilty last week by a jury on all 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal alleged affairs during his 2016 campaign. It makes him the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a felony. The former president has railed against his legal woes, calling it election interference and claiming it is being orchestrated by the Biden White House. There is no evidence President Biden or his aides have had any involvement in Trumps legal cases. In the days since the verdict, Trump has repeatedly suggested it would be fair game and he would be justified in targeting his opponents if he is reelected in November. Trump told Fox Newss Sean Hannity on Wednesday he would have every right to go after them after his own prosecution. The former president told Newsmax on Tuesday it was very possible Democrats could face prosecution down the road. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. The fallout from Donald Trumps conviction on 34 charges turned out to be manifold, but one of the main takeaways was it allowed for Republicans to play out their revenge fantasies. On Thursday, Trump told television psychologist Dr Phil in an interview that sometimes revenge can be justified. During the same show, the former president and the television host both pleaded for the investigations into Trump to stop. In fairness, most Republican actions particularly in the House of Representatives and on the state level could be interpreted as an act of revenge these days. Thats because most of them feel Trump was wronged by the Deep State and Democrats, and that the multiple investigations and two impeachments are somehow proof of that. But Trump has not been shy about his very personal desire for revenge. Indeed, hes said that: I am your justice, and for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution. Republicans failed impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden can best be understood through the lens of retribution since the GOP has mostly failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing. Now that the de facto head of the Republican Party has notched a criminal conviction, Republicans have removed even the pretense that they will focus on doing anything except exacting vengeance. Trump largely lost the 2020 election on the back of his poor handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. In turn, Republicans have sought to find another culprit for the virus raging across the country in 2020. That would explain why Republicans hearing on Monday, where they brought Anthony Fauci to testify after he had already testified behind closed doors after accusing him of funding research that led to the Covid outbreak. They also claimed that he tried to suppress information about the virus. It also would explain Marjorie Taylor Greenes refusal to acknowledge Fauci as a doctor while she held up pictures of beagles who were experimented on by the National Institutes of Health and said, We should be writing a criminal referral because you should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. Of course, Greenes influence has significantly diminished ever since she failed to eject House Speaker Mike Johnson. But she still speaks for a large swath of Republican voters and, should Trump win, will likely be one of the main people holding the House GOP conferences feet to the fire to make sure they do what the president wants. The same could be said with the House Judiciary Committees hearing with Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday. Jim Jordan, who played a key role in trying to help Trumps scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, leads that committee. The hearing was ostensibly meant to examine how the [Department of Justice] has become politicized and weaponized. Of course, the Justice Department had nothing to do with the case as Alvin Bragg, a district attorney elected in New York City, was the one who brought it. Nonetheless, during that hearing, Representative Matt Gaetz Trumps loudest apologist in the House engaged in a heated back-and-forth with Garland. He mainly asked questions about Judge Juan Merchans daughter, who works for a digital firm aligned with Democrats a common attack Trump made on the judge presiding over his case throughout his trial. While Merchans daughter did work for the firm, the idea there was a mass conspiracy against the former president orchestrated by various branches is not substantiated by any evidence. But that doesnt matter. What matters more is that House Republicans are seen as acting in total fealty to Trump and that Trump sees Congress and all other branches of government, for that matter as in total service to him. Even the speakers decision to nominate both Representatives Ronny Jackson of Texas and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania to be on the House Intelligence Committee comes back to this. Both men are seen as having been slighted in service of Trump: Trump was forced to rescind nomination for Jackson, the former White House physician, to be secretary of Veterans Affairs after reports that Jackson was repeatedly drunk on the job. Similarly, Perrys phone was seized by the FBI, and the January 6 Committee alleged that he was involved in the scheme to overturn the election. Now Perry will be on the committee that has jurisdiction over the FBI. That move can only be interpreted as Johnson needling the agency that executed a search warrant on Trump and led to one of his two federal indictments. All of this serves a preview of what Trump will value above all else, should he reassume the White House. While he will certainly attempt to enact conservative policies that Mike Johnsons Republican conference would enact, vengeance will be the main driver of this second term. Not only that, but he will have the full support of Republicans in Washington and elsewhere as he does it. During an appearance Thursday on a web show hosted by Phil McGraw, also known as Dr. Phil, Donald Trump spoke of his recent conviction on 34 felony counts in his hush-money trialand his appetite for revenge against his political rivals. Dr. Phil McGrawonce an acclaimed talk show staplenow hosts a web show sympathetically interviewing far-right trolls and peddling extremist conspiracies, going the way of innumerable has-beens. McGraw griped that the country is in such shambles that Trump regaining office would be too busy to have time to get even. Well, revenge does take time, Trump replied. And sometimes revenge can be justified, Phil. I have to be honest. Sometimes it can. Trump has repeatedly spoken about his revenge fantasies after being convicted, at least three times alone this week. On Newsmax Tuesday, he suggested he may pursue charges against Biden in retaliation for his hush-money trialan investigation that he blames on Biden but which began in 2018more than a year before Biden announced his 2020 run for president. Its a terrible, terrible path that theyre leading us to, Trump said on Newsmax, framing his felony conviction by a New York jury as a dangerous precedent instead of a rare instance of the criminal justice system asserting that no one is above the law. And its very possible that its going to have to happen to them, Trump added. Does that mean the next president does it to them? Thats really the question, Trump continued. On Wednesday, he repeated his promise for retribution, telling Foxs Sean Hannity that he has the right to send the Department of Justice against his political enemies. Aspiring to imprison political enemies is nothing new for Trump. He infamously led calls to lock her up while running against Hillary Clintona phrase Trump now claims he never said. Exploring the Dividend Performance and Sustainability of Aeroports de Paris SA Aeroports de Paris SA (ARRPY) recently announced a dividend of $0.41 per share, payable on June 27, 2024, with the ex-dividend date set for June 7, 2024. As investors look forward to this upcoming payment, the spotlight also shines on the company's dividend history, yield, and growth rates. Using the data from GuruFocus, let's delve into Aeroports de Paris SA's dividend performance and assess its sustainability. What Does Aeroports de Paris SA Do? Warning! GuruFocus has detected 3 Warning Sign with ARRPY. High Yield Dividend Stocks in Gurus' Portfolio This Powerful Chart Made Peter Lynch 29% A Year For 13 Years How to calculate the intrinsic value of a stock? Aeroports de Paris SA is a prominent French airport operator, owning major commercial airports in Paris including Charles de Gaulle, Orly, and Paris-Le Bourget. The company also holds stakes in several international airports, such as a collection of Turkish Airports through TAV Airports, and a 31% indirect stake in Indian airports in New Delhi and Hyderabad via its recent acquisition of GMR Airports. The group's revenue streams are categorized into regulated, including fees from takeoff, landing, passenger services, and security, and non-regulated, deriving from commercial activities like retail, food and beverage, and advertising. In 2019, the group serviced 108 million passengers through its Parisian airport network. Aeroports de Paris SA's Dividend Analysis A Glimpse at Aeroports de Paris SA's Dividend History Aeroports de Paris SA has maintained a consistent dividend payment record since 2023, with dividends currently distributed on a yearly basis. Below is a chart showing annual Dividends Per Share for tracking historical trends. Aeroports de Paris SA's Dividend Analysis Breaking Down Aeroports de Paris SA's Dividend Yield and Growth Aeroports de Paris SA currently boasts a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 2.27% and a forward dividend yield of 2.80%, indicating an expected increase in dividend payments over the next 12 months. The 5-year yield on cost of Aeroports de Paris SA stock as of today is approximately 2.27%. Aeroports de Paris SA's Dividend Analysis The Sustainability Question: Payout Ratio and Profitability To evaluate the sustainability of the dividend, one must examine the company's payout ratio. The dividend payout ratio of Aeroports de Paris SA, which is 0.52 as of December 31, 2023, suggests that the company retains a significant part of its earnings for future growth and unforeseen downturns. Additionally, Aeroports de Paris SA's profitability rank is 7 out of 10, indicating good profitability prospects, highlighted by its consistent net profit in 8 out of the past 10 years. Story continues Growth Metrics: The Future Outlook The sustainability of dividends is closely tied to robust growth metrics. Aeroports de Paris SA's growth rank of 7 out of 10 suggests a favorable growth trajectory compared to its competitors. The company's revenue per share and the 3-year revenue growth rate of approximately 37.10% per year, outperforming about 88.7% of global competitors, further bolsters this outlook. Conclusion Considering Aeroports de Paris SA's consistent dividend payments, promising growth rate, stable payout ratio, and robust profitability, the company presents an appealing prospect for dividend investors. As the company continues to expand and strengthen its financial health, it remains a noteworthy candidate for those seeking stable dividend income. For further exploration of high-dividend yield stocks, GuruFocus Premium users can utilize the High Dividend Yield Screener. This article, generated by GuruFocus, is designed to provide general insights and is not tailored financial advice. Our commentary is rooted in historical data and analyst projections, utilizing an impartial methodology, and is not intended to serve as specific investment guidance. It does not formulate a recommendation to purchase or divest any stock and does not consider individual investment objectives or financial circumstances. Our objective is to deliver long-term, fundamental data-driven analysis. Be aware that our analysis might not incorporate the most recent, price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative information. GuruFocus holds no position in the stocks mentioned herein. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Former President Donald Trump continues to center his third presidential campaign on retribution against his political allies, saying in a recent interview that at times revenge is "justified" -- comments that President Joe Biden's campaign seized on Friday to point to Trump's focus on personal and political retribution. "Donald Trump is back on [the] trail -- now a convicted felon but still unhinged and consumed by his obsession with revenge," the Biden campaign's Ammar Moussa said in a statement to ABC News. Trump is a "diminished, small man who only cares about himself, his billionaire donors, and his own revenge," Moussa said in the statement. MORE: Trump's dark 'retribution' pledge at center of 2024 bid, but can he make it reality? In an interview with television host Dr. Phil McGraw -- best known as "Dr. Phil," Trump was asked about his calls for retribution, and his claims of taking action against some political opponents. Though Trump originally said he would work on forgiving and forgetting, he quickly changed his tune after McGraw, referencing the pope, said forgiveness was necessary in order to avoid revenge. "Well revenge does take time. I will say that, and sometimes revenge can be justified," Trump said in the interview that aired Thursday night. "You know the word 'revenge' is a very strong word, but maybe we have revenge for success. But that's what I'd like to see. I want to see the country survive, because this country is not going to survive like this." PHOTO: Former President Donald Trump speaks during a Turning Point PAC town hall at Dream City Church, June 06, 2024, in Phoenix, Az. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Trump's calls for retribution started the month he was indicted -- first mentioned while he was rallying his most fervent supporters at CPAC in March. "In 2016, I declared 'I am your voice.' Today I add: 'I am your warrior. I am your justice, and for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution,'" Trump said at the political conference. MORE: Trump's 'retribution' campaign theme has apparent roots in old Confederate code, new book says Now, Trump's calls for retribution have intensified on the campaign trail after his 34-count conviction in his Manhattan hush-money trial. "We're going to show them that we're going to fight," Trump said in a speech at Trump Tower the day after his guilty verdict. Since then, Trump has floated the idea of the potential that Democrats could be subject to investigations and possible imprisonment because they have gone after him. "It's a very terrible thing, it's a terrible precedent for our country," said Trump in an interview with Newsmax earlier this week. "Does that mean the next president does it to them? That's really the question, you know." "So you know, it's a terrible, terrible path that they're leading us to, and it's very possible that it's going to have to happen to them." Then, on Thursday, during an interview with KNXV, a Phoenix ABC station, Trump repeatedly declined to rule out prosecuting Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the hush-money payment case to court. It's not known how Trump would order that prosecution. "Alvin Bragg did some very bad things," Trump said when asked if he'd prosecute Bragg, repeating his claims that the district attorney is backed by Democrats and that the judge in the case was "highly conflicted." Again pressed if he would prosecute Bragg, Trump said "I'm not going to say anything one way or the other," adding "we're going to see what happens." When the interviewer noted he didn't jail his political opponents during his first term and asked if that approach has changed now that he's convicted, Trump responded that he thought it would be a "horrible thing" to arrest and jail the wife of a former president of the United States -- referring to Hillary Clinton who was his rival in the 2016 general election. He went on to say, "The world is different now. They're doing things that were never done." PHOTO: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks to the media after a jury found former President Donald Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, May 30, 2024, in New York City. (Seth Wenig/AP) After receiving backlash, Trump has modified his language, pivoting his sentiments to argue that he was claiming he was talking about retribution as a form of "success," not revenge -- saying "my revenge will be success." However, his conviction has only motivated him and his base to more frequently use rhetoric that leaves the door open to violence. In an interview with Fox News last weekend, his first sit-down interview since his conviction, Trump struggled to say whether he'd pursue revenge in his possible second administration, saying he wants to bring the country together, but also repeatedly saying his political opponents are "bad" and "evil" people. "It's a really tough question, in one way, because these are bad people -- these people are sick and things that are so destructive," Trump said when asked about his previous comments about revenge. "My revenge will be success," he added, saying he would bring the country together, but again railed against "evil people" that are going after him. PHOTO: Former President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom during his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court, May 30, 2024, in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Pool via Reuters) Trump's retribution comments haven't just involved his own legal battles. He has also attacked entities that have gone after his political allies, most recently the House committee that investigated the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. This week, a judge ruled former Trump adviser Steve Bannon must report to prison by next month, which led the former president to defended Bannon by calling for the Jan. 6 committee to be indicted, pushing unfounded claims that they deleted and destroyed evidence. MORE: Trump claims Liz Cheney and Jan. 6 committee should be jailed "The unAmerican Weaponization of our Law Enforcement has reached levels of Illegality never thought possible before," Trump wrote in a post on his social media network. "INDICT THE UNSELECT J6 COMMITTEE FOR ILLEGALLY DELETING AND DESTROYING ALL OF THEIR 'FINDINGS!'" At times, some have attempted to steer Trump away from his violent rhetoric, as Democrats have used his words against him. Still, Trump has doubled down. McGraw argued that Trump wouldn't "have time to get even" if he were elected for a second term. He also presented to Trump a "what if" scenario in an attempt to allow the former president to potentially shift the conversation in a more positive direction. "What if when you win this election, you said, 'Enough is enough. Too much is too much. This is a race to the bottom, and it stops here. It stops now,'" McGraw asked. Trump said he was "OK with that," but then made claims about those who "spied" on his campaign -- referencing that the FBI intercepted communications of someone associated with his campaign who communicated with Russian agents during 2016 election. "What they've done is bad," Trump said. Trump's conviction intensifies his calls for retribution in a second term originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Former House Democrat Tulsi Gabbard appears to have thrown herself into consideration for secretary of state or defense secretary in a potential Donald Trump administration. Gabbard, who has reportedly met with the Trump campaign in recent months, was asked on the Wisconsin-based radio show The Regular Joe Show on Thursday whether there was one thing she could do that would be serving the country in the best way possible if Trump is elected president. I think there are a few different ways I could serve, as secretary of state, secretary of defense. There are a few different ways I believe I could best serve our country, she said. Ultimately, weve got to save our country and win this election. I look forward to finding the best way that I can do that, she added. Gabbard endorsed Joe Biden after she dropped out of the Democratic primary race in 2020, and then left the Democratic Party in 2022. Within eight years, Gabbard has moved from being an ally for Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign to a Democratic presidential candidate to a right-wing influencer who has filled in as a host on Tucker Carlsons former Fox News show, making appearances at Trumps Mar-a-Lago compound. Tulsi Gabbard speaks at CPAC in March 2023. (Getty Images) After leaving Congress and the Democratic Party, Gabbard has been a frequent guest on right-wing media platforms and at the Conservative Political Action Conference, sandwiched between speeches from far-right personalities and elected officials. She has repeatedly expressed her interest in serving as Trumps vice president in several interviews, including on Donald Trump Jr.s podcast. Last week, while promoting her book For Love of Country: Leave the Democrat Party Behind, Gabbard told supporters in California that she would be honored to be named Trumps running mate. Gabbard, an independent, hasnt ruled out formally joining the Republican Party. I never say never, she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week while traveling across Wisconsin to promote her book. We need leaders, whether youre a Democrat or Republican or independent, whatever the label, political label that is attached to you, to put the interests of our country and the American people first and foremost, she said. An alleged Lego thiefs master plan has fallen to pieces after Los Angeles police confiscated more than 2,800 stolen sets of the popular building bricks and figures from his home. Richard Siegel, 71, and his alleged partner in crime, Blanca Gudino, 39, were paid a visit by the Los Angeles police departments (LAPD) harbor division at Siegels home in Long Beach. The home was raided and thousands of boxes of Lego merchandise were discovered, the police said on Wednesday. Police said each individual Lego set ranges in value from $20 to well over $1,000. Related: Lego tells California police: stop putting our heads on your mugshots In a press release, the LAPD said they became aware of a series of Lego burglaries from a store in San Pedro in December last year, and since then have witnessed Gudino steal from retailers in Torrance and Lakewood and drop the merchandise off at Siegels home. Detectives from LAPDs commercial crimes division, organized retail theft unit, as well as members of the retailers loss prevention personnel, assisted with the recovery of the Lego toys, the release said. During the officers investigation at Siegels residence, potential buyers of the toys arrived, lured by advertisements placed by Siegel on internet sale sites. Lego sets are in high demand, not just among parents, but adult collectors, too. There has even been a growing black market for the bricks in recent years for those who know the resale value of these toys, some of which become collectibles after being discontinued. California highway police arrested three men and a woman in April in connection to the theft of Lego sets worth a combined $300,000. Some stolen sets included the 921-piece Millennium Falcon worth $85 each, the 6,167-piece Lord of the Rings Rivendell set worth $500 each, and the 1,458-piece Porsche 911 set worth $170 each. French police announced in 2021 that they began building a case against an international gang of toy thieves specializing in Legos. Lego did not respond to a request for comment. Two brothers died in Playa Del Rey car crash, days before one was to cross a graduation stage Morningside High teacher Eddie Conner holds a picture of David Ceja while walking down an aisle at Morningstar Hgh School's commencement on Thursday in Los Angeles. David Ceja and his brother Hector were killed in a two-car collision in Playa del Rey on Tuesday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) Two teen brothers died in a car accident this week, just days before one was set to graduate at Morningside High School. David and Hector Ceja, 17 and 15, died after the car they were in collided with another vehicle Tuesday night in Playa Del Rey, authorities said. The Inglewood Unified School District identified the two teens this week. We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of two Inglewood Unified School District students as a result of a fatal car accident," the district said in a statement. "The district is providing counseling support to our school communities during this difficult time. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the families impacted by this profound loss." On Thursday, the school honored David Ceja during its graduation ceremony, where he would have crossed the stage and received his diploma. A framed photo of a smiling David, dressed in his red graduation cap and gown, was placed among the rows of seated graduates at the ceremony. The mood at the graduation was somber as his family received his diploma on his behalf. The school held a moment of silence for the fallen monarchs, the schools mascot. Three doves were released during the ceremony in honor of the brothers. Read more: Siblings killed, several injured when car crashes into kids' birthday party in Michigan This is devastating, Morningside High School Principal Kiwiana Cain said during the commencement ceremony. Were awarding him with his diploma today because he earned it. He earned it. He was supposed to be here with us today. According to authorities, the car the teens were in was traveling north on Vista Del Mar near Dockweiler Beach when it crossed over into the southbound lane and collided with another vehicle. David died at the scene; his brother died on the way to the hospital, Los Angeles police officials said. Three other people were also injured and taken to a hospital, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. The cause of the crash is under investigation. 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. Two drivers, dog killed in head-on crash on Route 369 in the Town of Fenton Two people were killed Friday in a head-on crash in the Town of Fenton. The Broome County Sheriffs Office said the crash occurred at about 9 a.m. on state Route 369 when a southbound 2015 BMW veered into the northbound lane at a high speed and collided head-on with a 2023 Honda Civic. Both drivers were pronounced dead at the scene. The Sheriff's Office identified the operator of the BMW sedan as Alexander Erceg, 17, of Port Crane. The driver of the Honda was identified as Mary Burkhalter, 75, of Conklin. A dog riding in the Honda Civic was also killed in the crash, the Sheriffs Office said. The Broome County Sheriffs Office responded to the scene of a head-on collision Friday that claimed the lives of two people and a dog on state Route 369 in the Town of Fenton. The investigation is ongoing. Sheriffs Office investigators asked anyone who has information or may have witnessed the crash to contact the department's Tip Line at 607-778-1196. More: En-Joie Golf Club repairs spark debate over course future: What we know More details will be released as the investigation concludes, the Sheriffs office said. The Broome County Sheriffs Office was assisted by the Port Crane Fire Company, the Chenango Fire Company, the Chenango Bridge Fire Company, the Broome Volunteer Emergency Squad, Broome County Office of Emergency Services, New York State Police and the New York State Department of Transportation. Follow Neal Simon on Twitter @HornellTribNeal. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today. This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Two-vehicle, head-on crash in Fenton kills drivers, dog Two Fort Smith men get combined 60 years for fentanyl-related crimes FORT SMITH, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) Two Fort Smith men were recently sentenced to a combined 60 years in prison for fentanyl-related crimes, according to a news release from the Fort Smith Police Department. Orlando Salas, 20, was arrested on February 14 on one count of possession of drug paraphernalia and two counts of trafficking fentanyl. In a separate case, Devonta Hoes, 27, was arrested on February 6 on delivery of fentanyl, simultaneous possession of firearms and drugs and tampering with evidence charges. Fort Smith stabbing leaves one hospitalized Orlando Salas, 20 (Courtesy: Sebastian County Detention Center) Devonta Hoes, 27 (Courtesy: Sebastian County Detention Center) Salas was sentenced to 32 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections with an additional 18 years suspended. Hoes pled guilty and was sentenced to 28 years for the fentanyl delivery and possession charges with 12 years suspended on each count. He received six additional years for the tampering charge. FSPD says to report any suspected fentanyl selling or distributing, call 479-709-5000. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KNWA FOX24. Two seriously injured following Friday morning crash in Kansas City KANSAS CITY, Mo. The Kansas City, Missouri Police Department investigating a two-vehicle crash that left two people seriously injured Friday morning. The crash was reported just before 7:50 a.m. in the area of E. 83rd Terrace and Troost Avenue. Southwest Airlines adds flights out of KCI for Chiefs away games KCPD reports the driver of a dark blue Chevy Silverado was speeding north on Troost from 89th Street when the driver of a white Honda pulled out from 85th Street. The driver of the Silverado swerved around the Honda, into oncoming lanes of southbound Troost and locked up his brakes. At 83rd Terrace, the driver of a light blue GMC Terrain was pulling out onto Troost when the Silverado struck it on the left, driver side and forced the GMC Terrain into a large metal utility pole. The Silverado then flipped on its right side. Police say the driver of the GMC was taken to an area hospital with life-threatening injuries. She was wearing a seatbelt. Download the FOX4 News app on iPhone and Android The driver of the Silverado was taken to an area hospital with serious injuries. Police did not say if he was wearing a seatbelt. The incident remains under investigation. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. Hutchinson Democratic Rep, Jason Probst's two Republican challengers for the 102nd District seat in the Kansas House appear to have engaged in "district shopping" to find a race they might be able to win in 2024. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector) Hutchinson Democratic Rep, Jason Probst's two Republican challengers for the 102nd District seat in the Kansas House appear to have engaged in "district shopping" to find a race they might be able to win in 2024. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA Republicans Kyler Sweely and Tyson Thrall took circuitous routes to becoming candidates for the Kansas House district centered on Hutchinson. The two candidates will go head-to-head in the Aug. 6 primary for the GOP nomination in the 102nd District, which is held by Democratic state Rep. Jason Probst. He is seeking reelection in the district he has represented for seven years. Sweely, a 26-year-old veteran of the U.S. Army who deployed twice overseas, transferred his official voting address May 30 from Harvey County to Reno County. He submitted paperwork the next day to file as a GOP candidate in the 102nd District. Election records indicated he voted in Harvey County elections during 2020 and 2022. During the 2024 legislative session, Sweely resided in Topeka while working as administrative assistant to the House Transportation and Public Safety Budget Committee chaired by Rep. Avery Anderson, R-Newton. Sweely said in an interview that he had been offered employment in Reno County, but hadnt accepted a position so he could focus on his primary campaign. I always had a drive to serve, said Sweely, who was intrigued by the possibility of defeating Probst in the November general election. It felt there was a good chance we could flip that seat. Probst said in an interview at the Capitol that House Republicans engaged in district shopping to import Sweely, who had no connection to our community. District flip-flop Tyson Thrall, the second Republican candidate in the 102nd District primary, has ties to Reno County. Thrall voted in Reno County in 2020 and ran unsuccessfully for Hutchinson school board in 2021. Candidate records indicate, however, Thrall asserted his home address was in Nickerson when he filed May 10 to be a candidate for the Kansas House in the 114th District. That seat is up for grabs because the districts current representative, Republican Mike Murphy of Sylvia, chose to run for the Kansas Senate. Less than one week after filing in the 114th District, Thrall withdrew from that House contest. On May 24, he declared his address for voting purposes was in Hutchinson not Nickerson and filed as a candidate for the 102nd District seat held by Probst. Its not clear Thrall has taken up residence at the 21st Avenue address in Hutchinson listed on documents filed with the Kansas secretary of state. He didnt respond to a request for comment about his decision to terminate his campaign for Murphys seat and enter the race for Probsts spot in the House. Probst said Thrall also appeared to have engaged in district shopping at the behest of supporters of outgoing Rep. Murphy and retiring Hutchinson Sen. Mark Steffen, both Republicans. Murphy is seeking Steffens seat in the Senate and has a primary battle of his own against GOP candidate Bob Fee of Hutchinson. The supermajority Probst, who has lived in Hutchinson for more than 20 years, was appointed in June 2017 to fill the unexpired term of the late Rep. Patsy Terrell. He faced no opposition in 2018 when he won election to a full term in the House. Probst survived close general election races against Republican nominee John Whitesel in 2020 and 2022. Probst has no Democratic primary rival in August, but would have to contend in November with winner of the Sweely-Thrall showdown. I know very little about these candidates their experience, ideas or how they plan to help Hutchinson, Probst said. This interest in the 102nd District seems to have very little to do with Hutchinson or me as a candidate and legislator. It appears to be rooted in a broader political game where every seat is a piece on a political board game. Thats what bothers me the most. Kansas Democrats have made no secret of their intention to trim the GOPs 85-40 numerical advantage in the House. If Democrats captured two more seats in the House, the shift would end the two-thirds supermajority controlled by Republicans that made it easier to override vetoes by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. Likewise, GOP House leaders have placed emphasis on expanding the Republican roster in the House. The Republicans desperately want to hold onto their supermajority, Probst said. If they lose it, things like Medicaid expansion and marijuana legalization might actually happen. The post Two well-traveled Republicans file to challenge Hutchinson Democrat in Kansas House race appeared first on Kansas Reflector. In the heart of Europe, nestled between Belgium, France, and Germany, lies the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, a new wealth hub. This tiny nation, smaller than some major cities, has made a name for itself as one of the wealthiest countries in the world. But what is it about Luxembourg that makes wealth so popular? According to ABBL, Luxembourgs largest and oldest professional association in the financial sector, its strategic location at the heart of Europe is crucial. Its proximity to major financial centres like Frankfurt, Paris, London, and Zurich make it an attractive location for international banks. Over 100 financial firms have expanded operations in Luxembourg since the Brexit vote, underscoring its role as a gateway to the EU market. ABBLs mission is to foster the sustainable development of regulated, innovative, and responsible banking services. It represents a wide array of financial institutions, including banks, law firms, consultancies, auditors, and e-money and payment institutions. The countrys extensive connectivity with global financial centres through networks of correspondent banks, clearing systems, and financial intermediaries facilitates cross-border transactions and investment flows. As shown in GlobalData's Mass Affluent Banking in Western Europe 2024 report, it has had the world's highest GDP per capita for nearly three decades, with the financial industry accounting for 25% and serving as an operating hub for international financial institutions. Banks who already have such clients in a formal mass affluent programme are more likely to be able to convert these high value customers into private banking clients. Comprehensive wealth management solution Guillaume Brateau, CEO of BNP Paribas Wealth Management Luxembourg, believes unique offerings and strategic advantages make BGL BNP Paribas a preferred choice for high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) and ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs). BGL BNP Paribas, a significant player in Luxembourg's financial sector, integrates wealth management as a core business line. Catering specifically to an international clientele of HNWIs and UHNWIs, particularly entrepreneurs and families, BGL BNP Paribas provides tailored wealth management and financial solutions. The bank offers a spectrum of high-end services, including investment advice, discretionary management, wealth planning, and asset diversification expertise. Speaking to PBI (Private Banker International), Brateau emphasises the strength of their team: "With 250 dedicated employees in Luxembourg, we address the cross-border needs of strategic and key clients, as well as large entrepreneurial families. Supported by our local footprint in 17 countries, we ensure our clients receive personalised and comprehensive services." Story continues Specialised services BNP Paribas Wealth Management Luxembourg stands out with its specialised services designed to meet the sophisticated demands of their clients. "Since 2014, we have focused on understanding the specific needs of entrepreneurs and families through extensive international studies," Brateau notes. One of the unique services includes offering Fixed Income solutions and protected notes, allowing clients to benefit from market momentum. He says: Thanks to our One Bank approach and diversified model (CIB, Insurance, Securities Services, Asset Management) we are able to put the client in touch with the experts whatever the project is. For instance, our clients are very interested in our expertise in Fixed Income solutions and equity such as protected notes to benefit from the market momentum. Additionally, their expertise in real estate was demonstrated through a recent major deal in the UK, securing an off-market real estate asset in a prime London location, leveraging their UK Real Estate team. Advantages of Luxembourg for wealth preservation and growth Luxembourg's position as an international banking centre and a hub for the global fund industry provides significant advantages for wealth preservation and growth. Brateau highlights how Luxembourg "offers a framework fostering innovation, especially due to its cross-border expertise and international & multilingual talents. For example, the country was a pacesetter in green bonds and remains particularly active in the field of sustainable finance. Moreover, Luxembourgs stable political environment and AAA financial rating further enhance its appeal as a safe and reliable place for wealth storage. The countrys pioneering efforts in green bonds and sustainable finance also contribute to its favourable position in the financial world. Similarly, the benefits and services that Luxembourg provides as a top global banking hub were also addressed in an interview with the ABBL. In the opinion of ABBL, Luxembourg's long-standing political stability, democratic system, and history of peaceful transitions of power create a secure environment for banking operations. The governments policies consistently promote economic growth and support the financial services industry. Luxembourgs AAA credit rating, one of the few in the world, underscores its strong economic fundamentals and low risk of default, further boosting investor confidence. This broad representation also enables ABBL to provide its members with vital information, resources, and services essential for navigating the dynamic financial markets and complex regulatory environments. Commitment to sustainable investing and philanthropy BNP Paribas Wealth Management Luxembourg is deeply committed to sustainable investing and philanthropy. The bank has been recognised for its responsible investment approach, having been awarded the Luxflag ESG label for its discretionary management under the Crystal mandate. "Our adherence to ESG criteria in investment selection reflects our dedication to responsible finance," Brateau states. In 2020, BNP Paribas launched the 1MillionHours2Help programme, which enables employees to engage in solidarity missions during working hours. "In 2023, thanks to the collective commitment of our staff in Luxembourg, we reached a total of 1277 solidarity hours. In 2024, BGL BNP Paribas targets a total of 2500 solidarity hours," Brateau proudly shares. He adds: The employees of BNP Paribas want to carry out a mission that is meaningful to its customers and the world around them. They do this primarily through their work, but also through their voluntary actions. We communicate with our stakeholders and have social and environmental objectives in line with widely accepted benchmarks in the world around us, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, or by our professional community, such as the Principles for Responsible Banking or the Principles for Responsible Investment. We ensure that our ethics and commitments to economic, social, civic, and environmental responsibility are embedded in our business processes. This commitment is reflected in our organisation and in the texts governing the company's activities. Aligned with this, ABBL also shares that Luxembourg is a pioneer in sustainable finance, offering green and socially responsible investment products. The launch of the first ESG Discretionary Mandate by LuxFlag in 2022 highlights Luxembourgs commitment to sustainable investing. Luxembourg's stability The economic and political stability of Luxembourg makes it a magnet for wealth management. The GlobalData Country Risk Index (GCRI) Q4 2022 shows that Luxembourg is one of the very low risk nations. Luxembourg ranked 15th out of 153 nations in GCRI Q4 2022, with a very low risk score below 30. Its overall risk score is 23.9 out of 100, higher than West Europe's average. However, it has lower risk scores in political environment, environmental, macroeconomic, and demographic structure. "Given the stability and resilience of Luxembourgs banking sector, many clients decide to book their assets here. We observed the same phenomenon during Brexit where focus on Luxembourg has been reinforced by some banks that decided to switch their booking hubs to Luxembourg," explains Brateau. This stability, coupled with Luxembourg's strategic advantages, solidifies its reputation as a primary destination for wealth management. Brateaus insights underscore BGL BNP Paribass commitment to delivering tailored services to its elite clientele, leveraging Luxembourgs strategic advantages to offer unparalleled wealth management solutions. Nonetheless, when looking at Luxembourgs global outlook, it caters to the needs of clients with international interests, particularly a Pan-European clientele corresponding to ABBL. The private banking sector is seeing a shift towards ultra-high-net-worth clients, and there is a growing appetite for alternative products like private equity. The new governments commitment to the financial centre and the implementation of the Capital Markets Union (CMU) present opportunities for Luxembourgs banks to channel clients' assets into sustainable investments. Favourable environment ABBL reveals Luxembourgs tax environment which is fully compliant with international standards for automatic exchange of information on tax matters, continues to attract private banking clients. Despite increased transparency, Luxembourg has seen uninterrupted growth in assets under management, nearly tripling from 225bn ($244bn) in 2008 to 585bn ($636bn) in 2022. Luxembourg popularity of wealth is a complex interplay of historical legacy, economic prosperity, cultural influences, and social dynamics. Understanding this fascination sheds light on the essence of Luxembourg's identity as a wealthy and prosperous nation. The Mass Affluent Banking in Western Europe 2024 report further indicates that despite certain economic consequences, Britain's exit from the EU had a positive impact on Western European economies, with the financial services industry benefiting most. Nearly half of FS companies in London have operations and/or plan to relocate to the EU, with Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, and Luxembourg being prominent targets. In the meantime, following Brexit, many Eastern Europeans have returned to countries such as Germany and the Netherlands to continue working and contributing to economic growth. "The allure of wealth in Luxembourg" was originally created and published by Private Banker International, 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. Tyler Perry Says Racial Profiling of Black Airport Travelers Must Stop: An Affront to Our Dignity In a new op-ed, the filmmaker wrote that "Black people must have the freedom to travel without being stopped because of the color of our skin" Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic Tyler Perry, October 2022 Tyler Perry is taking a stand against racial profiling. In an op-ed published by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday, June 6, the filmmaker and actor, 54, weighed in after two of his peers filed a lawsuit earlier this year for allegedly being unlawfully stopped by authorities at Atlantas Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. Perry identified the individuals who experienced the alleged unfair treatment as comedians Eric Andre and Clayton English. AP Photo/Kate Brumback Clayton English, center, and Eric Andre, right, speak with their attorney, Allegra Lawrence-Hardy Andre and English were targeted and stopped by Clayton County Police Department (CCPD) officers, several months apart, on jet bridges in Atlantas airport while they were steps from boarding their flights, Perry wrote. The Mea Culpa filmmaker added that Andre and English, both Black men, had already gone through TSA and been cleared, and therefore had no reason to be stopped by authorities prior to boarding. Related: 3 Black Passengers Sue Airline for Discrimination After They Were Removed from Flight Over Alleged Body Odor Still, Perry alleged that the comedians were approached by plain-clothed Clayton County police officers because of the color of their skin. The Madea talent expressed his support and shared statistics provided by Andre and Englishs attorneys, claiming that of the hundreds of passengers stopped by CCPDs special airport drug unit in the months between when Andre and English were stopped, a majority (56%) were Black, while only 8% of that airports domestic air travelers are Black. Perry believes the results are not a coincidence. Cindy Ord/Getty Tyler Perry, February 2024 He shared additional disturbing findings, alleging that when authorities stop travelers, officers are allowed to seize any property they claim is involved in a crime, including cash, a process known as civil asset forfeiture. The New Orleans native wrote that retrieving such funds is notoriously difficult and expensive for victims even if they are never charged for committing said crime. In other words, police can take money straight from the pockets of innocent people and put it into their departments coffers, Perry wrote. In the months between when Andre and English were stopped, CCPD raked in close to $1 million from travelers who never were charged with any crime. The filmmaker, who owns a 330-acre studio space in Atlanta with 12 soundstages, expressed concern for the citys economy if a possibly corrupt police department is targeting travelers. When racial discrimination occurs unchecked, it threatens that growth, Perry wrote after mentioning how his studio welcomes thousands of industry professionals every year to work in Atlanta. 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. He added, More than that, its simply wrong." Every act of racial discrimination is a broken promise, an affront to our dignity, an insult to Atlantas history and a vestige of a history that America must leave behind. PEOPLE reached out to Atlantas Hartsfield-Jackson Airport and the Clayton County Police Department for comment, but did not immediately hear back. For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on People. Palestinians are gathering in the hope of obtaining aid delivered into Gaza through a U.S.-built pier on May 19, 2024. Credit - Majdi FathiNurPhoto/Getty Images Amid intense criticism for his Israel-Gaza approach, President Joe Biden announced earlier this year the construction of a pier to deliver desperately-needed aid to the Strip amid Israels ongoing bombardment. But the $230 million pier, which should be re-anchored this week after it broke apart on May 28, has proven to be a hapless operation. It could soon turn disastrous. The pier has been plagued by issues from the start. Three U.S. ships were grounded on a beach in Gaza following a storm the day it broke apart. Several U.S. military personnel were injured at sea days before that. And the landing area near the pier has been attacked on at least two occasions by Hamas. Aid from the pier has also been looted, with only limited amounts of assistance reaching Gazans from it. These same problemsand potentially many morewill likely emerge once its operational again. The loss of U.S. lives or, even worse, some kind of deeper involvement in the Israel-Hamas war could follow. So if Biden really wants to help end the suffering and best serve U.S. interests, he needs to give up on the pier, move U.S. military personnel and ships away from Gaza, and push Israel to adopt a ceasefire. Aid delivery via the pier has a lot of moving parts. Aid arrives in Cyprus, is then sent by large commercial ships to a floating platform near Gaza where it is transferred to smaller vessels that transport the aid to the pier. U.S. naval ships offer protection, often very close to Gaza. Israel provides naval and land-based security around the pier, while the U.N. handles aid delivery once on-shore. Officially, no U.S. boots are on the ground in Gaza, but a U.S. counter rocket system is on the pier (likely manned by U.S. personnel). U.S. sailors on the beached vessels last month also spent time onshore in Gaza before being rescued. The presence of U.S. forces so close to the fighting in Gaza makes them easy targets for Hamas or other militant groups angered by American support for Israel. This danger is compounded by the fact that in protecting the floating platform and pierwhich is located in a high risk area on the Gaza coastU.S. personnel are relatively fixed in place. Like the recent Tower 22 attack in Jordan, that makes them attractive targets, according to former U.S. national security officials. Mission creep is a danger, too. For reasons of domestic politics or hubris, history shows that U.S. presidents have a tendency to double down on humanitarian operations to get them right. The outcomes usually arent good. In Somalia, President Bill Clinton expanded a humanitarian mission from food-delivery to regime change in 1993, despite signs of growing danger. The result: Black Hawk Down, which killed 18 U.S. troops. In Lebanon, Ronald Reagan similarly expanded operations in a 1983 peacekeeping mission during that countrys civil war. That ended in the deaths of 241 U.S. military personnel in a bombing at a Marine Corps barracks. Like Somalia or Lebanon, the Gaza pier could draw the U.S. into a bigger role. As a retired U.S. general recently warned, If a bomb went off, the American public will ask, What the hell were they doing there in the first place? In short, the costs and risks of the pier outweigh its benefits. The U.S. gains nothing strategically from the pier, and at full operation, it only provides a fraction of the aid Gaza both needs daily and receives from land routes, which are themselves grossly insufficient. So, what should Biden do now? As a first step, he should give the pier to Israel and get U.S. forces and warships away from Gaza. Israel caused the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, and they should assume the risk. U.S. naval ships could perhaps help secure aid routes to the platform (located two miles offshore). Leave the rest to Israel. But Washington must also wield its considerable leverage, including weapons sales and diplomatic cover, to apply pressure on Israel to agree to a ceasefire. This is by far the best way to both serve U.S. interests and end the humanitarian crisis. Such pressure will likely require cutting off arms to Israel given its intransigence, as seen by the official Israeli reaction to a new peace proposal last week. Ultimately, only the wars end will reduce regional tension that has caused American casualties, endangered U.S. forces, and risks dragging Washington into conflicts of no strategic value. The pier is simply a distraction from that. Contact us at letters@time.com. Germany played a critical role in developing the propulsion modules for the Orion spacecraft, which will carry the first crewed mission in NASA's Artemis Program in late 2024. File Photo by Joe Marino/UPI June 7 (UPI) -- U.S. and German officials this week met in Berlin to discuss ongoing and future collaborations in space exploration and Earth science. Leaders at the inaugural U.S.-Germany Space Dialogue highlighted a shared commitment to continue ongoing cooperation in space exploration and research, including through NASA's Artemis campaign. The Artemis campaign is a series of missions with the robust goal of returning to and establishing a long-term presence on the moon with the help of international partners. Germany has played a critical role in developing the propulsion modules for Artemis' Orion crew spacecraft, which will be used to carry astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface of the moon, according to a memo from the State Department. The White House last December said the United States plans to land an international astronaut on the moon by 2030. Earth-gravity study The United States and Germany also highlighted an agreement between NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to continue gravity field measurements through the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment-Continuity, or GRACE-C mission. The GRACE-C, which is projected to launch no earlier than 2028, involves a pair of satellites flying one behind the other in polar orbit to measure how Earth's gravity changes from place to place due to shifting ice, water and land masses. According to NASA, different mass distribution on the Earth's surface -- such as mass loss from melting ice sheets -- leads to slight variations in gravitational pull, which researchers can track by measuring the change in travel distance between the two GRACE-C satellites. Researchers hope the data from this mission will yield new insights into how climate change affects the water cycle. The United States and Germany have been partnering on climate research since the launch of the first GRACE mission in 2002, and the GRACE-C mission is a continuation of that effort. Representatives for both countries this week also shared information on respective national space policies, such as Germany's Space Strategy and upcoming Space Security Strategy and the United States' Space Priorities Framework. Both sides expressed a desire to continue cooperation in areas such as addressing climate change, national security as it pertains to space, information sharing and commercial space cooperation. Nuclear weapons, satellites in space The United States and Germany shared their commitment to promote compliance with the Outer Space Treaty, which includes a prohibition on the placing of objects carrying nuclear weapons or any weapons of mass destruction in Earth's orbit. President Joe Biden has emphasized increased cooperation with allied countries, including Germany, on space activities and information sharing "for mutual benefit in response to growing space and counterspace threats and to protect U.S. forces from hostile uses of space." Both countries also discussed a range of programs that use satellites to help monitor weather patterns, support agriculture and infrastructure planning, respond to disasters and provide telecommunications services. Sharing Landsat Next info The two countries also expressed an intent to partner on NASA's Landsat Next Mission, which will provide the most up-to-date observational data of changes to the Earth's surface. Landsat Next will be able to capture fast-changing processes such as crop growth, floods and algae blooms. The United States and Germany hope to share this data to support economic development, environmental management and to combat climate change on a global scale. More than two-dozen private American and German space companies also were part of a discussion to highlight existing public-private partnerships in their respective countries and explore more opportunities for cooperation in the commercial space sector. The next U.S.-Germany Space Dialogue will be held in the United States at a yet-to-be-determined date, according to the State Department. OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) The United States Marshals Service arrested a man on Thursday on a First Degree Rape charge. Gavino Lopez. On June 3, an elderly victim was attacked. According to the Oklahoma City Police Department, the investigation pointed to 28-year-old Gavino Lopez as the suspect. LOCAL NEWS: Police investigating SW Oklahoma City shooting He was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals on June 6 near NW 28th St. and I-44 on a warrant for First Degree Rape. The Oklahoma Dept. of Corrections says Lopez was serving time under the supervision of a community sentencing program at the time of his arrest. He also has previous convictions. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City. Razor wire along the Rio Grande on the Texas side of the U.S.-Mexico border. (Ariana Figueroa | States Newsroom) EL PASO, Texas Seventeen-year-old Karina Parababire gently rocked her 3-month-old daughter as they waited in a migrant shelter before a Friday night bus ride to Chicago. I want my daughter to have everything that I didnt have, Parababire, who traveled up the extremely dangerous route of the Darien Gap while pregnant, said in Spanish. The Venezuelan, who is traveling with her family, had to stop in Honduras to give birth to her daughter, Avis, before continuing to the United States. Once in Mexico, she and her family were granted an appointment through the CBP One app a tool the Biden administration uses to grant migrants a meeting with an asylum officer. She had been at the Sacred Heart Church shelter with her family for four days. They planned to continue on to Chicago, where theyll be met by her cousin. Parababire hopes that after she gets to the Windy City, she can go back to high school and possibly enter college. Parababire and her relatives arrived in the U.S. just before President Joe Biden issued an executive order that partly bans asylum claims when unauthorized crossings exceed a daily threshold. Because the family was admitted using the CBP One app, they were allowed to continue their journey. As for other migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, local leaders said this week they are anticipating the effects of the order to be somewhat beneficial in limiting unauthorized crossings, though there was also plenty of skepticism. Immigration advocates expressed deep concern the order issued after Congress failed to take action on sweeping immigration legislation would lead to more harm to already vulnerable people. Ive come here today to do what Republicans in Congress refuse to do, take the necessary steps to secure our border, Biden said in announcing the order, referring to a bipartisan border security deal Republicans walked away from earlier this year. This action will help us gain control of our border. Uncertainty about a new policy The shelter at Sacred Heart Church that housed Parababire currently has a relatively low number of migrants about 70 compared to a capacity of 120. The director, Michael DeBruhl, said its unclear how the order will affect the number of migrants who arrive not only at the shelter, but at the many ports of entry along the southern border. The thing is that the Border Patrol is going to take the brunt of this executive order and that they will have to process everybody, he said. The difference is going to be that there are nuances regarding how everything can apply to asylum, so theyre going to make it more difficult for you to apply to asylum. The big question, DeBruhl said, is how exactly they are doing that. Youre gonna have all these Border Patrol agents making these decisions, all these nuances, of a policy thats just been implemented, he said. A Customs and Border Protection official declined to comment on the effects of the new executive order, but noted it would change the processing of noncitizens at the southern border. Local officials saw some positives. This is a start, but its just the beginning, the mayor of El Paso, Oscar Leeser, said during a Wednesday presentation to journalists with local border officials. Leeser was one of the several Texas mayors who attended the White Houses announcement of this weeks executive order. Leeser said he believes the order will stop unauthorized border crossings because the consequences are greater now and thats the difference. Presidential campaign The order, which is Bidens most drastic crackdown on immigration during his administration, comes five months before a presidential election in which its a top issue for voters and for his GOP rival, former President Donald Trump. The order is currently in effect because daily unauthorized crossings have reached a threshold of more than 2,500 encounters with migrants each day for a week at the southern border. Simply put, the Departments do not have adequate resources and tools to deliver timely decisions and consequences to individuals who cross unlawfully and cannot establish a legal basis to remain in the United States, or to provide timely protection to those ultimately found eligible for protection when individuals are arriving at such elevated, historic volumes, according to the text of the interim final rule from the executive order. The order goes away once government officials determine that fewer than 1,500 people a day have crossed the border in a weeks time span. Unaccompanied children are exempt, along with victims of human trafficking, people with visas, people with medical emergencies, or those who report serious threats to their lives. Those migrants who arrive at ports of entry to claim asylum once the cap is reached and do not establish a reasonable probability of persecution or torture in the country of removal, will be removed and subjected to a five-year ban from applying for asylum in the U.S., according to the Department of Homeland Security. Returning to Mexico or home countries Leeser said the order will help manage high numbers of arrivals of migrants at ports of entry because it will allow the Biden administration to return those migrants either to their home countries or elsewhere in Mexico if their home country is deemed too dangerous. Leeser said because of this, he expects migrants to use more legal pathways, such as the CBP One app, through which appointments can be made with an immigration official to claim asylum. Through the CPB One app, more than 1,400 migrants are processed for appointments each day with an immigration official. The wait time for an appointment can take about five to eight months, according to a May report by the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas at Austin, which documents asylum claims at ports of entry. But Juan Acereto Cervera, the adviser to the mayor of Juarez, Mexico, which borders El Paso, expressed skepticism that the new White House policy will stop people from trying to cross the border to claim asylum. Nothings going to stop this migration, he said. Its because something is happening in their other countries that make these people to try to find the best country in the world, that is the United States. Thats the truth. Jorge Rodriguez, the coordinator for the El Paso City & County Office of Emergency Management, said that its common for the number of migrants that arrive in El Paso to fluctuate, based on immigration policy changes from the White House. With time what well see is how this one will ultimately play out, he said. Legal action looms Under U.S. immigration law, for a noncitizen to claim asylum, they have to reach U.S. soil and then make that claim. They can stay in the U.S. and receive due process if they have a fear of persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion. The American Civil Liberties Union, which was at the forefront of many legal cases against the Trump administrations immigration policies including ones that restricted asylum has already stated it plans to sue the Biden administration over its executive order. Democratic U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, whose district includes El Paso, said in a statement that she was disappointed that the Biden administration focused its executive order only on enforcement. It is my sincere hope that administrative actions on immigration relief, like parole in place for the spouses of U.S. citizens and designations of Temporary Protected Status for vulnerable populations, will also happen, she said. A very dangerous place Immigration advocates and attorneys in El Paso said during a separate Wednesday panel with journalists they fear for the impact the executive order could have on migrants. I think we do kind of know whats going to happen it creates a backlog, said Imelda Maynard, an attorney at Estrella Del Paso Legal Aid. Maynard said she can easily see how the executive order will be misinterpreted by migrants who will think the 2,500 threshold is a quota to allow people into the U.S. What the government is trying to do, right, lessen the amount of irregular entries, I think thats going to increase, she said. Father Rafael Garcia, a priest who serves Sacred Heart Church, said he expects the executive order will cause more migrants to wait in Mexico, which could burden Mexico and leave those migrants in dangerous situations. Its hard to know how this is gonna play out, but it doesnt look too good, Garcia said. The director of Sacred Heart Church, DeBruhl, said that he thinks it will take a few weeks to see the full impact of the executive order. The conservatives are saying that its not going to make any difference the (Biden) administration is saying this is going to have a specific (effect), and be quite impactful, he said. I dont think anybody really knows how this is going to play out. Aimee Santillan, a policy analyst at the Hope Border Institute, which advocates for solidarity and justice across the borderlands, said that the order will require many migrants to wait in Mexico, and right now, Mexico is a very dangerous place for migrants to be in. We think that this might exacerbate the situation, or push people to find other routes of entering the country that are less controlled, have less services, have less people receiving them and giving them assistance, she said. This story was reported through an El Paso-based fellowship on U.S. immigration policy organized by Poynter, an institute for the professional development of journalists, with funding from the Catena Foundation. The post On the U.S.-Mexico border, hopes and fears after Bidens order limiting asylum appeared first on New Hampshire Bulletin. (Reuters) - The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) voted on Friday to proceed with an investigation into whether solar panels from Southeast Asia are stifling domestic manufacturing, a step that could result in tariffs on the majority of panel imports. The four-member panel voted unanimously to pursue the probe into imports from Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The brief meeting was broadcast online. The vote was the latest step in a trade petition brought by a group of U.S. solar panel manufacturers in April. Hanwha Qcells, First Solar and others accuse Chinese companies with factories in the four nations of flooding the U.S. market with panels priced below their cost of production. If the case is successful, companies that import panels to install on rooftops or build large-scale solar power plants could face higher prices within months. The ITC's role in the case is to determine if the domestic industry is being harmed by imports. The U.S. Commerce Department would decide the level of duties that could be imposed. (Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Bill Berkrot) SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) The recent pro-Palestinian protests at the University of California, San Diego have resulted in dozens of arrests and significant repercussions for students. Seven UCSD students are now facing transcript freezes, threatening their graduation status. No student should be punished, again, for exercising their First Amendment right, and them coming down with these kinds of policies out of nowhere with no due process, a masked female protester told FOX 5/KUSI. RELATED: City attorney to determine consequences for protesters arrested at UC San Diego Students, covering their faces and refusing to identify themselves, demanded amnesty Thursday for those arrested during the protests. One student, a graduating senior, expressed uncertainty about his diploma due to the freeze on his account. Chancellor Kosla claims to uphold restorative justice and anti-racism, yet he cant hold himself accountable for actions on May 6th, said another masked male student. University officials stated that the UC Regents have directed all UC schools to place holds on the records of students arrested in recent protests. Each student must undergo a code of conduct process. UCSD Professor BT Werner also advocated for amnesty for the protesting students, while making calls for a change in university leadership. For inciting racist violence against you we will demand the firing of Chancellor Kosla and any other administrators involved, said Professor BT Werner. Graduation for UCSD is scheduled for June 15 and 16. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. ANEXT Bank has reported a notable increase in regional and global presence among its micro, small and medium enterprises customers. This is on the back of more than doubling in its total customer base over the past 12 months. Facilitating MSMEs business expansion regionally and beyond The bank notes a 6-fold year-on-year increase in the total amount of cross-border transactions facilitated for its increasing customer base. The highest growth in the banks cross-border transactions was seen among MSMEs in the wholesale and retail trade, professional services, and information, communication, and technology sectors. This aligns with Singapore's status as a global trade and financial hub. Furthermore, ANEXT Bank customers exhibited an expanding regional and global presence. Operations extend into key markets such as the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong SAR, the US and other Southeast Asian countries. In addition, ANEXT Bank saw a notable increase in the number of foreign business owners with businesses incorporated in Singapore. As of 31 May 2024, nearly 31% of the banks customers are FBO from 78 nationalities. Through its embedded finance partners, ANEXT Bank is also serving an increasing number of foreign-incorporated businesses. It is heartening to witness how MSMEs are growing beyond their markets, especially micro and small businesses. Internationalisation is no longer a growth strategy limited to large corporations. Through technology and innovation, MSMEs can now easily access global markets. As a digital bank headquartered in Singapore, we are well positioned to support when they are open to doing business with the world. said Toh Su Mei, CEO of ANEXT Bank. Serving underserved MSMEs As of 31 May 2024, 69% of ANEXT Banks customers are micro businesses. Breaking down by product categories, 56% of loan customers and 80% of deposit customers are micro businesses. Over the past two years, 31% of ANEXT Banks customers started banking with the bank during their start-up stage. In the financial year ending 31 December 2023, ANEXT Bank loans to customers surged by 434%, reaching S$222m. Deposits increased by approximately 368% to S$295m. "ANEXT Bank reports surge in regional and global presence among Its MSME customers" was originally created and published by Retail Banker International, 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. By William James and Andrew MacAskill LONDON (Reuters) -British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in a new setback to his election campaign, apologised on Friday for leaving D-Day commemorations early to give an interview in which he attacked the main opposition party. Sunak's decision not to stay at the event in northern France alongside other world leaders on Thursday was met with dismay in his Conservative Party, which opinion polls suggest faces the prospect of a heavy defeat in the national election on July 4. The leader of the opposition Labour Party, Keir Starmer, remained in Normandy for the duration of events marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings and was seen talking to leaders including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. "On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay longer, and I've apologised for that, but I also don't think it's right to be political in the midst of D-Day commemorations," Sunak told reporters. "The focus should rightly be on the veterans." Sunak said his plans had been set long before the start of the election campaign. U.S. President Joe Biden, Britain's King Charles and other leaders gathered at the events in Normandy. Sunak spoke at a British-led event but delegated other duties to ministers including Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who was pictured with Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. "What happened was completely wrong and the prime minister has rightly apologised," senior Conservative politician Penny Mordaunt said during a television debate on Friday. One usually loyal Conservative politician, who asked not to be identified, said: "I can't explain it and I won't." The lawmaker said it could become the "Gillian Duffy moment" - a reference to 2010 when Gordon Brown, who was then prime minister, apologised for being caught on tape calling a voter "a bigoted woman", a moment seen as a turning point in a campaign he lost. Sunak's Conservatives are lagging about 20 points behind Labour in opinion polls. His campaign had an inauspicious start last month when he announced the election date under a downpour of rain, competing to be heard against Labour supporters blaring a pop song associated with their party's crushing 1997 election victory. In another blow, Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage took over leadership of the right-wing Reform UK party and said this week he would stand in the election. "A SHABBY MOVE" Sunak has said he is the person best placed to look after Britain's security and that he will introduce mandatory national service if he stays in power. But the wealthy former hedge fund executive has often been portrayed as out of touch with ordinary people during a campaign in which a cost-of-living crisis is a big issue, and he was asked repeatedly about the decision while campaigning on Friday. Chris Hopkins, political research director at the polling company Savanta, said Sunak's "political misjudgement seems almost laser-guided in causing Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party as much political pain as humanly possible." A Savanta poll of more than 1,000 British adults showed that 68% viewed Sunak's behaviour as "unacceptable", including 61% of people who said they had voted Conservative in 2019. "It's a shabby move to be honest," British pensioner Mark Bartlett, 73, told Reuters. Senior Labour spokesman Jonathan Ashworth accused Sunak of "choosing to prioritise his own vanity TV appearances over our veterans," and "it is yet more desperation, yet more chaos." Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey accused Sunak of a "total dereliction of duty". Farage said Sunak's decision "was a complete and utter disgrace" and showed he was "a very unpatriotic prime minister". In the interview with ITV on Thursday, Sunak doubled down on assertions that Labour would raise taxes by 2,000 pounds ($2,500) per household if it took power. Labour denies having such a plan and accused Sunak of lying for saying the estimate came from the civil service, which has said it did not endorse it. ($1 = 0.7817 pounds) (Additional reporting by Muvija M, David Milliken, Will Russell and Lucy Marks; Editing by William Schomberg, Timothy Heritage and Deepa Babington) Ukraine and Moldova have met requirements to start talks to join EU The European Commission said Friday that Ukraine and Moldova have met the requirements to start talks on joining the European Union. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi (C), European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (R) and President of the European Council Charles Michel shown at the 24th EU-Ukraine summit, on Feb. 3, 2023 in Kyiv, Ukraine. File Photo by Ukrainian President Press Office / UPI. June 7 (UPI) -- The European Commission said Friday Ukraine and Moldova have met conditions to start talks about joining the European Union. Commission spokesperson Ana Pisonero said during a press briefing that the two nations have met "all the steps" necessary to undergo the formal proceedings. "Now the decision is in the hands of the member states," she said. "It is for them to adopt the negotiating framework. And as always, it is the prerogative of the president of the council, once this step is done, to convene an intergovernmental conference to formally mark the start of the negotiations." A lengthy process awaits the two nations as all 27 EU member states must unanimously agree on the negotiating frameworks. The government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is expected to emerge as a roadblock for the two nations to join the block, They are blocking Ukraine's membership claiming it is unprepared to join the EU, Euronews reported citing diplomatic sources. Orban had opposed previous advances citing levels of corruption in Ukraine. Orban's government in July will take the presidency of the Council of the EU, sparking fears that Hungary will continue to block Ukraine's membership unless agreement can be reached by the end of June. A Hungarian government spokesman told Euronews that Hungary's focus is on finalizing the negotiating frameworks. Hungary was also the final holdout in the process to allow Sweden into NATO, before finally relenting in February. Talks about potentially joining the EU were opened with Ukraine and Moldova in December. The decision to start talks was welcomed by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky . "I thank everyone who worked for this to happen and everyone who helped," Zelensky said. "I congratulate every Ukrainian on this day ... History is made by those who don't get tired of fighting for freedom." Ukraine wants to join the EU when the war caused by the Russian invasion is over. Constitutional Court contest not ideal but praised as fair and transparent Ukraine faces yet another test in its efforts to meet conditions for joining the European Union the creation of a credible and trustworthy Constitutional Court. The ongoing selection of new Constitutional Court judges under new rules is in its final stages the judges have already been chosen and need to be formally appointed. The process has been praised by anti-corruption activists and judicial experts as a more transparent and fair one compared to those held prior. "Compared with previous contests, it's a big step forward," Mykhailo Zhernakov, head of judicial watchdog Dejure, told the Kyiv Independent. Yet flaws remain. Some controversies arose around some of the five nominees chosen by the Advisory Group of Experts, although they were not as serious as in previous contests. It has yet to be seen whether they will act in an independent, honest and professional way. Read also: Ukraines judicial reform relaunch shows mixed results so far A discredited court Ukraine's Constitutional Court has been among the most tainted institutions in the country, with a long history of corruption and controversial rulings. Its judges have been investigated in criminal cases and have regularly issued rulings that undermined anti-corruption reforms. Former judges of the court have been under criminal investigation over several decisions that enabled Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Kremlin former president, to usurp political power in 2010. Oleksandr Tupytsky, a Yanukovych appointee who chaired the Constitutional Court in 2019-2022, has been involved in several corruption scandals and has been charged in several criminal cases. Oleksandr Tupytsky, chaired the Constitutional Court from 2019 until 2022 and has been involved in several corruption scandals and charged in several criminal cases. (Constitutional Court of Ukraine) In 2019 the Constitutional Court also helped corrupt officials by canceling the law criminalizing illicit enrichment. Under pressure from civic activists and foreign institutions, the Ukrainian authorities finally adopted a law on Constitutional Court reform in August 2023. According to the law, international experts took part in the selection of new Constitutional Court judges to make sure that they are independent and comply with integrity standards. According to the legislation, the Advisory Group of Experts comprises three representatives of the Ukrainian government and three experts nominated by international organizations. Each of the experts also has a deputy. The law envisages a casting vote for international experts. If the votes are split evenly (three to three), a second vote must take place, and the votes of the international experts prevail. The Ukrainian members of the advisory group and their deputies were seen as controversial. One of them, Yaroslav Romanyuk, was the head of the Supreme Court under Yanukovych and supported Yanukovychs crackdown on EuroMaidan protesters in 2014. Romaniuk has also issued an arbitrary ruling that constitutes denial of justice, according to a 2015 decision by the European Court of Human Rights. Read also: Ukraines anti-corruption bureau makes progress yet doesnt take on top presidential allies Another judge delegated to the advisory group is Volodymyr Kuzmenko, who is implicated in the high-profile corruption case against judge Pavlo Vovk. In tapes published by investigators, Vovk called him our guy. Two other Ukrainian experts, Natalia Kuznetsova and Vasyl Shakun, are members of an NGO created by controversial allies of Yanukovych Serhiy Kivalov and Andriy Portnov. The members of the advisory group did not respond to requests for comment. In May, the Advisory Group of Experts selected five candidates who they think meet integrity and ethics standards. One of them, Serhiy Riznik, has already been appointed by the Ukrainian parliament as a Constitutional Court judge. The remaining four candidates have yet to be appointed by parliament and the Council of Judges. Under Ukrainian law, there must be 18 Constitutional Court judges but currently there are only 13. Better than other contests Despite that, judicial experts say that the contest for Constitutional Court jobs was more fair and transparent than previous attempts. Kateryna Butko, head of anti-corruption watchdog AutoMaidan, said that the contest was transparent, and there are no serious issues with the ethics and integrity standards of the nominees chosen by the advisory group. Previous contests for Constitutional Court jobs did not involve international experts and sparked controversies. One of the most controversial contests led to the appointment of Olha Sovhyria, a lawmaker from President Volodymyr Zelensky's Servant of the People party, in 2022. The appointment was lambasted by civil society because it violated the political neutrality clause, while the selection process wasnt transparent. Constitutional Court judge Olha Sovhyria attends a plenary session on Sept. 21, 2022. (Kaniuka Ruslan / Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images) In contrast, during the ongoing contest representatives of the ruling party were unsuccessful. The advisory group rejected the candidacy of Pavlo Pavlish, a Servant of the People lawmaker, while another pro-government MP, Oleksandr Kopylenko, withdrew his candidacy himself. Two members of the Central Election Commission representing the ruling party Oleksandr Karmaza and Pavlo Lyubchenko also failed to secure nomination. Zhernakov said that the ongoing Constitutional Court selection process is also better than the 2022 contest for the High Council of Justice, the judiciary's main governing body. During that contest, a selection panel including foreign experts was lambasted for vetoing whistleblower judge Larysa Golnyk and approving several controversial and tainted candidates for council jobs. The panel also banned broadcasts of its interviews with candidates, citing alleged security risks due to the ongoing Russian invasion. Although the ongoing contest for the Constitutional Court is seen as more transparent, some of the nominees may still turn out to be "dark horses" and politically dependent candidates, Zhernakov and Butko said. "Nobody can guarantee that they will be perfect," Zhernakov said. "It will be clearer when we see these people's decisions (as members of the Constitutional Court)." Meanwhile, Vitaly Tytych, ex-head of the Public Integrity Council, believes that the best, most professional and independent candidates were not selected in this contest. He believes that this selection process, like in most other contests for government jobs, was aimed at randomly choosing people not involved in major controversies, rather than selecting the best candidates possible. One of the reasons is that the best candidates did not apply for Constitutional Court jobs because trust in the selection process had been undermined by previous failed attempts, Tytych said. Constitutional Court of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 28 May 2024. (Constitutional Court of Ukraine) Zhernakov and Butko also admitted that there were few candidates of high quality to choose from. Zhernakov said that the advisory group "took into account the disastrous situation with human resources." "There is no trust in selection processes (for state jobs)," Butko said. "It's a big problem that (a number of) people with integrity don't apply." Judges integrity One of the candidates chosen by the advisory group is Alla Oliynyk, a judge at the Supreme Court. "Out of all candidates, there are the most questions about Oliynyk's (integrity)," Butko said. Specifically, Oliynyk worked simultaneously with her nephew at one university and two courts, triggering accusations of nepotism. She denied the accusations of wrongdoing. Hanna Suchocka, a foreign member of the advisory group, said at a meeting of the group that Oliynyk had failed to convince her that this was just a coincidence. The European Court of Human Rights has also ruled that Oliynyk violated international legal standards in three cases. Oliynyk was also a member of the High Council of Justice from 2014 until 2017. Screengrab from Alla Oliynyk's interview for the position of a Constitutional Court judge on March 4, 2024. (YouTube) She was not involved in any major controversies, according to Roman Maselko, a member of the High Council of Justice, who represented the civil society, whistleblower judge Larysa Golnyk, and judicial expert Halia Chyzhyk. However, Oliynyk did not act as an independent reformer either, Golnyk said. "She was a typical member of the High Council of Justice, Golnyk added. The advisory group said in a response to the Kyiv Independent that "reasonable doubts" about Oliynyk had not been confirmed. However, the group did not provide any details. Other candidates The advisory panel also approved the candidacy of Oleksandr Vodyannikov, a coordinator of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europes projects in Ukraine. During the selection of a new Supreme Court in 2017 and 2018, Vodyannikov sided with the High Qualification Commission, a judicial governing body, and lashed out at the Public Integrity Council, the judiciarys civil society watchdog. He denied the accusations of wrongdoing. The Public Integrity Council vetoed many candidates for Supreme Court jobs who did not comply with ethics and integrity standards, according to the council. However, the High Qualification Commission overruled the vetoes, and many tainted judges got into the Supreme Court. Vodyannikov said in an article that a lot of candidates did not deserve (the Public Integrity Councils) conclusions. He also claimed that such candidates would be the most honest judges. He also said the Public Integrity Council had no right to assess candidates specific court rulings but only a candidates judicial work as a whole. He added that the council has conflicts of interest and must consider making its ranks more ethical. Eventually the judicial reform carried out by the High Qualification Commission was recognized by civil society, Western partners and the Ukrainian authorities as a failure. Zelensky had to re-launch the reform in 2019 and dissolved the High Qualification Commission due to its failure to carry out the reform. Another nominee approved by the advisory group, Oleksandra Yanovska, is a judge at the Supreme Court, as well as a law professor at Kyiv National University. In 2015, she was also an ad hoc judge of the European Court of Human Rights. Screengrab from Oleksandra Yanovska's interview for the position of a Constitutional Court judge on March 4, 2024. (YouTube) During her interview at the advisory panel, some controversies arose. She denied the accusations of wrongdoing. Specifically, she claimed she did not remember whether she declared her cooperation with USAID in the early 2000s and whether she received income for it. Yanovska also failed to give some information on her taxes and the value of her car and to include some of her traffic and parking violations in her integrity declaration. She denied wrongdoing. Two other candidates approved by the advisory group have a good reputation as legal scholars. These are Yury Barabash, a legal scholar at the National Academy of Legal Sciences, and Serhiy Riznyk, vice president of the Lviv National University and a constitutional law professor. Zhernakov and Yulia Kyrychenko, a constitutional law expert at the Center of Policy and Legal Reform, praised them, saying that they are well-known professionals. Kyrychenko herself was the only prominent candidate representing civil society during the Constitutional Court contest. The advisory group's decision to veto her candidacy sparked a controversy. In previous contests for top judicial jobs, selection panels were often accused of bias against civic and anti-corruption activists and often vetoed them. Kyrychenko was vetoed because she used to be simultaneously an aide to the head of the Supreme Court and an expert at the Center of Policy and Legal Reform. The advisory group claimed that combining such jobs violated anti-corruption law. Screengrab from Yulia Kyrychenko's interview for the position of a Constitutional Court judge on March 5, 2024. (YouTube) Kyrychenko told the Kyiv Independent that her work as an expert at the Center of Policy and Legal Reform was scientific research, which can be combined with a state job under Ukrainian law. The advisory group also argued that the income of Kyrychenko's husband, a private lawyer, did not match his expenses, according to data from the tax authorities. She denied the claim, saying that she had provided information on her husband's income and that it had been sufficient to cover the expenses. The advisory group incorrectly interpreted the tax data because of a change in tax law in 2012 and the figure for her husband's income was much higher, according to Kyrychenko. The advisory group told the Kyiv Independent that it would not provide any reasons for its decision on Kyrychenko because Ukrainian law does not require publishing such data. There was nothing substantial (in the issues raised by the advisory group for Kyrychenko), Butko said. Most of the issues could be explained. Read also: Who is Viktor Pavlushchyk, newly-elected head of key Ukrainian anti-corruption agency? Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Ukraine has right to strike targets in Russia, NATO's Stoltenberg says BERGA, Sweden (Reuters) - Ukraine has the right according to international law to attack legitimate military targets in Russia to defend itself, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said during a visit to new alliance member Sweden on Friday. "Ukraine has the right to self defence," Stoltenberg told a news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson at a military base near Stockholm. "The right to self defence also includes the right to hit legitimate, military targets on the territory of the attacking party, the aggressor, in this case Russia." The Kremlin said this week that Western nations supplying Ukraine with weapons to strike Russian territory will have to reckon with Russia, after President Vladimir Putin said he was considering arming the West's enemies in retaliation. "This is a war of attack that Russia has begun against a peaceful, democratic neighbouring country, Ukraine, that at no point has been a threat to Russia," Stoltenberg said. "There is no question that Ukraine has the right to hit targets on Russian territory." (Reporting by Simon Johnson and Anna Ringstrom; writing by Niklas Pollard; editing by Terje Solsvik) Ukraine war latest: US announces $225 million aid package; France looks for partners to send military instructors Key developments on June 7: Biden announces $225 million aid package for Ukraine Macron: France to finalize coalition to send military instructors to Ukraine Producer of Caesar howitzers to set up branch in Ukraine Netherlands to invest $436 million to make armored vehicles for Ukraine Russia hit 2 oil depots overnight, Ukraine's company says U.S. President Joe Biden announced an aid package for Ukraine worth $225 million during a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, in Paris on June 7. Zelensky thanked Biden for the newly pledged assistance during the talks, which were also attended by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. "Since (April), including today, I've announced six packages of significant funding. Today I'm also signing an additional package for $225 million to help you reconstruct the electric grid," Biden said. Biden did not specify how much of the package would be allocated to non-military needs, as the U.S. Defense Department also unveiled a military aid package, including HAWK medium-range air defense systems, 155 mm howitzers, 81 mm mortars, artillery shells, HIMARS ammunition, Stinger missiles, Javelin and AT-4 anti-tank launchers, armored vehicles, patrol boats, and other aid as part of the $225 million package. The U.S. president apologized to Zelensky for the delays in the $61 billion U.S. foreign aid package, which was stalled in Congress for six months due to opposition from a fraction of the Republican Party. "You know, you haven't bowed down, you haven't yielded at all, you continue to fight in a way that is just remarkable, is just remarkableand were not going to walk away from you," Biden told Zelensky. The two presidents met while visiting France for the 80th D-Day anniversary commemorations. Read also: Politico: Biden against Macrons proposal to send military trainers to Ukraine Macron: France to finalize coalition to send military instructors to Ukraine France wants to finalize a coalition of countries to send military instructors to Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron said on June 7 during a joint press conference with Zelensky. Ukraine is ramping up mobilization, and it would be "more effective and practical" to train "thousands of new soldiers" on Ukrainian soil, Macron said. "We are not at war with Russia, we do not want an escalation, but we want to do everything we can to help Ukraine resist. Is it an escalation when Ukraine asks us to train mobilized soldiers on its sovereign soil? No, Macron said. A number of allies have already agreed to join the Paris-led coalition, he said. "We already know that we will not be alone, and we will use the next few days to organize a broader coalition to respond to Ukraine's request," he added. France is reportedly planning to initially send a limited number of personnel to assess the modalities of a mission before involving several hundred trainers, Reuters reported on May 30, citing two unnamed diplomats. Zelensky said that Kyiv supports Macron's initiative to send instructors to Ukraine. "This (move) simply shortens the path for training," the president added. Paris will allocate 200 million euros ($216 million) to companies that will invest in the restoration of Ukraine's critical infrastructure, with 60 million euros ($64 million) of these funds to be devoted to the country's energy sector, according to Macron. The French president did not specify the number of Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets that Paris will transfer to Ukraine, but announced a training program for Ukrainian pilots. "Now the priority is to start forming (groups) of pilots and mechanics (for training). This is something that will be launched in just a few days. We are talking about technical training, Macron said. Ukraine's president arrived in France on June 6 for the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, together with U.S. President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. In late February, Macron announced a coalition to send long-range missiles to Kyiv. He is one of the leaders who recently supported Ukraine's right to strike on military bases inside Russia with Western weapons. Read also: What are Frances Mirage 2000-5 jets, and how can Ukraine use them? Producer of Caesar howitzers to set up branch in Ukraine European arms company KNDS announced on June 7 the establishment of a branch in Ukraine, the French TV channel BFM reported. KNDS produces Leopard tanks and Caesar self-propelled howitzers, both of which Kyiv has in service, and other military vehicles. It is headquartered in Amsterdam and owned by German and French arms producers. Representatives of Ukrainian and French companies signed an agreement to set up an ammunition production facility under a KNDS license during President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Paris on June 6-7. He visited France's Defense Ministry and discussed Ukraine's defense needs, according to the President's Office. It is important to expand joint arms production in our country, the president said. Kyiv and Paris signed documents to establish a service and repair center for KNDS equipment in Ukraine and to use 3D printing technology to manufacture spare parts for equipment, Zelensky said. Read also: Russia returning Europe to time of Nazism, Zelensky tells French parliament Netherlands to invest $436 million to make armored vehicles for Ukraine The Netherlands will invest 400 million euros ($436 million) into a Swedish fund to produce infantry fighting vehicles for Ukraine, Dutch media reported on June 7. According to De Telegraaf, the announcement is part of a wider action plan aimed at scaling up the country's defense industry. The report did not specify the type of infantry fighting vehicle, but Ukraine and Sweden last year signed an agreement to start jointly producing the CV90, considered one of the best of its type in the world. Sweden has previously given Ukraine a variety of advanced military equipment, including the CV90 and the Archer self-propelled howitzer. Its latest package for Ukraine the country's largest tranche of military assistance since the beginning of the full-scale invasion also contained the "entire Swedish stock" of Pansarbandvagn 302 infantry fighting vehicles. Elsewhere, the Netherlands plans to start delivering its F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine this autumn after Denmark begins transferring its aircraft already in the summer, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said in May. Later that month, Dutch Foreign Minister Hanke Bruins Slot said the country would not object to Ukraine using Dutch-supplied F-16 fighter jets to strike targets inside Russia as a means of self-defense. "If you have the right to self-defense, there are no borders for the use of weapons. This is a general principle," she said at an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Prague. Read also: Why did US hesitate to allow Ukraine to hit Russia with American weapons? Russia reportedly hit 2 Ukraine's oil depots overnight Russian troops hit two oil depots during a large-scale drone and missile attack on Ukraine overnight on June 7, said Serhii Kuyun, head of a Kyiv-based A95 consulting group. Ukrainian forces reportedly downed 48 of the 53 Shahed-type drones and all five Kh-101 cruise missiles at night, causing a fire at one of the industrial facilities in Kyiv Oblast. No casualties were reported. "Minus two oil depots. Millions of dollars in the air," Kuyun wrote on Facebook, without disclosing where the impacted facilities were located. Ukrainian officials did not comment on this statement. Russia has already attacked 10 oil storage in 2024, according to Kuyun. He said that such attacks would not affect the availability of fuel in Ukraine. Russia intensified its attacks against Ukraine's critical infrastructure in the spring as part of a renewed assault against the country's energy grid, with several power plants being destroyed or disabled. Ukraine began implementing rolling shutdowns in mid-May, but they have dramatically increased in recent days, and one of the latest Russian mass-missile attack on May 31 caused further damage across the country. Read also: Energy situation to temporarily improve once nuclear power unit ready, Ukrenergo says Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Ukraine's Defence Intelligence on Putin's threats to attack other countries: they've done it before Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) believes that Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin's sincere confessions about his intentions to commit terrorist acts in the world will be additional evidence in the trial of his war crimes. Source: DIU spokesperson Captain Andrii Yusov during the national joint 24/7 newscast Details: A journalist asked the DIU official to comment on Putin's threats to attack countries that supply Ukraine with weapons. Quote from Yusov: "Finally, the terrorist state and Putin's regime are starting to say in a fit of hysteria things that have been said in the Kremlin's offices for a long time. In fact, they have already done so because many strikes and terrorist acts in different parts of the world have already been carried out using Russian weapons. Therefore, we can only be talking about legalising this practice. After all, when Putin says that he will send Russian weapons to someone else, the question is: to whom? Which regimes and groups in the world does the Kremlin cooperate with? In fact, in most cases, we are talking about unrecognised entities, terrorist organisations or some regimes that have come to power as a result of undemocratic military processes... Therefore, these are, in fact, sincere confessions that will be additional arguments during the international tribunal." Background: Russias ruler Vladimir Putin has declared that Russia may deploy long-range weapons to various parts of the world in order to launch attacks on "sensitive" facilities in countries that supply Ukraine with weapons. Support UP or become our patron! Australia has a strong robotics industry that focuses on automation in both the manufacturing and agricultural sectors, which sets it apart from other robotics markets. GlobalData research indicates that 29% of robotics companies in Australia cater to the mining sector. Besides the robotics industry itself, the main industries served by robotics suppliers are metal and machinery, with 47% of suppliers serving these industries. GlobalDatas recent report on robotics in mining reveals that the robotics industry was worth $63bn in 2022. By 2030, it will have grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17% to $218bn. Sales of industrial robots amounted to $20.7bn in 2022, accounting for 33% of the total robotics market. By 2030, this segment is expected to be worth $45.1bn, representing a CAGR of 10% between 2022 and 2030, according to the report. Mining companies deploy robotics across various parts of their operations, from surface mining to underground excavation and mineral processing. How robotics can help to solve mining challenges The mining industry is under pressure to reduce costs and improve efficiency and safety, and automation could provide one solution. Automating repetitive tasks reduces the risk of human error, and robots are accurate and dependable, ultimately increasing operational efficiency. Robots can address many of the main challenges faced by the mining sector, says Martina Raveni, a thematic analyst at GlobalData. Robotics and automation are improving safety in mines, and mine productivity, one of the main concerns within the industry, is significantly improved by robotics. Robotics plays a crucial role in various operations such as hauling, drilling, blasting and exploration. The mining sector has been transformed by the integration of robots such as drones, autonomous haulage systems and remote-controlled equipment. Drones are used to survey mining locations and acquire data on aspects like topography and the distribution of mineral layers, while remote-controlled machines are increasingly being used for tasks such as drilling and blasting. Rio Tinto and BHP lead the way Transportation is another area that can see significant benefits from the adoption of robotics. Driver shift changes and product loading and unloading result in downtime for mining companies. In June 2019, Rio Tinto launched AutoHaul, a fully automated train system operating in the Pilbara region of Western Australia (WA), to address this issue. The system consists of 50 crewless trains covering a 1,500km network, making it the world's largest robot. Each autonomous train comprises three locomotives and can transport around 28,000 tonnes of iron ore. The trains are monitored remotely from Perth. Story continues According to GlobalData, Rio Tinto reported several operational benefits including increasing average speeds by 56% and removing two to three driver shift changes, cutting an hour from the average journey time. However, the integration of robotic technology into mining operations also has its challenges. In February 2024, a self-driving iron ore train derailed 120km from Dampier Port in WA. The accident involved 38 wagons, but fortunately, no one was injured. In June 2023, a similar incident occurred, with 30 wagons derailing 20km from Dampier. The company managed to maintain shipments from port stockpiles until the situation was resolved, and operations resumed a week later. Robotic and autonomous technology has also seen significant uptake in drilling and blasting. Australia is a leading country in the mining sector, and Australian companies deploy cutting-edge technologies in their operations, says Raveni. For example, BHP inaugurated its first autonomous drill at the Chilean Spence mine in 2022. The company has also rolled out autonomous drills across its WA iron ore operations. In June 2022, it reached the autonomous drilling milestone of more than 479,607 hours in operation, drilling more than 25 million metres. Meanwhile, the most notable progress has been made in robotic and driverless mining vehicles. A GlobalData report on the development of autonomous trucks in the global mining sector found that BHP currently has the largest number of autonomous trucks, totalling 367 as of July 2023. This number includes both autonomous-ready trucks and those already operating autonomously. BHP, Caterpillar and Finning are working on a ten-year project to replace BHPs fleet of more than 160 haul trucks at the Escondido mine. The introduction of 798AC trucks equipped with autonomous operation technology began in 2023. Additionally, BHPs Spence mine in Chile is implementing an autonomous trucks project in collaboration with Komatsu. The mine has started converting and replacing 33 trucks in its fleet, with the first trucks operating autonomously by mid-2023. The company reported several benefits from the adoption of autonomous trucks, including a 20% increase in productivity, a 20% reduction in operating costs and a 90% reduction in haul truck accidents. The mining sector in Australia has seen a substantial increase in investments aimed at digitalising and automating operations, Raveni says. GlobalDatas latest mine-site technology adoption survey highlighted that robotics is one of the investment areas the industry is prioritising. Indeed, 48% of mines surveyed have invested considerably in or fully implemented drones. Surveying, mapping, monitoring and inspection were the most common uses for drones at the operating mines surveyed. The road ahead for robotics in mining Miners operating in remote and harsh environments grapple with many challenges. Limited connectivity can make effective data analysis and location monitoring difficult, which can pose risks to worker and equipment safety. Mining companies also need to evaluate their impact on the environment and their compliance with regulations while striving to maintain high efficiency. Then, there are the challenges posed by declining reserves, supply chain disruption and pressure to improve productivity while keeping down costs. New mineral deposit discoveries are declining, as is the ore grade. Therefore, identifying viable new mines and determining the economic feasibility of extracting a known resource is becoming increasingly difficult, Raveni says. This has led to a shift to more underground mining and remote deposits, implying longer haul distances and labour costs and, therefore, an increased need for digitalisation. As resource depletion necessitates the extraction of lower-grade deposits, more advanced and expensive exploration and extraction techniques will be required. The industry has also become more globalised and more susceptible to market fluctuations. Most recently, the mining sector has felt the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has worsened supply chain disruptions and labour shortages. As the demand for many minerals increases, mining companies must manage operational safety, productivity, cost savings and ESG performance. Robotic technologies can help address some of these, particularly in the areas of safety and efficiency. The robotics industry is witnessing significant growth and diversification. With a strong focus on automation in mining, energy, construction and other non-manufacturing applications, the adoption of robotic and autonomous systems is reshaping operations across many sectors. Companies like Rio Tinto and BHP are leading the way in Australia in deploying autonomous technologies in their mining operations. As these solutions become more widely adopted, equipment manufacturers and end users must continue to work together to ensure their safe and effective implementation. "Australian miners at the forefront of the robotics revolution" was originally created and published by Mining Technology, 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. Ukraines expectations of the upcoming NATO summit in Washington include decisions on its membership of the Alliance, strengthening its ability to defend itself against Russia, and Patriot systems. Source: Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, in an interview with Politico, as reported by European Pravda Details: On 9-11 July, 32 NATO member states will gather in Washington to mark the 75th anniversary of the Alliance. The summit will focus mainly on building up defence production and achieving defence budget targets in the face of threats from Russia. Aid to Ukraine will also be a priority, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy plans to join the meeting. Quote from Stefanishyna: "Ukraine awaits decisions that will help significantly strengthen the country's defence and the ability to repel Russian aggression, as well as become a safeguard against repeated attacks in the future." In addition, she said, Kyiv expects "specific decisions regarding Ukraine's membership in NATO, in a package with other guarantees of continuity of military aid and increased interoperability". The Deputy Prime Minister said Ukraine wants to take the opportunity to promote specific practical initiatives that would ensure reliable air and missile defence systems throughout its territory. "A sufficient number of Patriot systems will help ensure the security of peaceful cities and critical infrastructure, which is a key element of our survival in the coming winter," she said. Background: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the July summit in Washington should provide a "bridge" to Ukraine's NATO membership. Earlier, US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith said the meeting of the North Atlantic Alliance leaders in Washington would be important in terms of changing the wording regarding Ukraine's membership prospects. She said NATO has agreed on the need to send a political message about Ukraine's pathway to NATO membership. Support UP or become our patron! The Israeli attack on a school in the Gaza Strip to eliminate Hamas fighters has sparked fierce criticism and heated international debate. A spokesman for the UN Human Rights Office told dpa in Geneva on Friday that international humanitarian law "prohibits launching attacks where the anticipated incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage expected to be obtained from this specific attack." Parties to the conflict must take all precautions to avoid or minimise the loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects, the UN spokesman said. This includes "issuing advance warnings when feasible; and suspending an attack if it becomes apparent that it does not any longer respect the principles of necessity, distinction and proportionality," he said. Dozens of civilians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in central Gaza, Palestinian medics and the Hamas militant group said on Thursday, a claim Israel denied. The Hamas-controlled health authority in Gaza said that at least 30 people were killed in the attack on Wednesday night and that most of the victims were women and children. Hamas said 40 people died. What exactly is proportionate is not defined in the provisions of international law, and what would no longer be proportionate can only be determined by courts that take all aspects into account. The same applies to war crimes or crimes against humanity, where only courts can make definitive statements. Palestinians inspect damages after an Israeli airstrike on a school for displaced people run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Nuseirat refugee camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip. Omar Naaman/dpa UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will not attend the global summit on Ukraine's peace formula in Switzerland next week, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said during a press briefing on June 7. The peace summit will be held in Burgenstock on June 15-16. Ukraine hopes the event will address several key areas, such as energy security, the exchange of captives, the return of kidnapped children, and global food security. When asked about a list of Guterres's trips scheduled for the next week, Dujarric said that the UN Secretary General will not go to the summit. "I think we have said that the UN will be represented at the appropriate level and all the parties organizing the summit have been informed," the UN spokesperson said. While some 107 states and international organizations have confirmed their participation in Ukraine's global peace summit, there have been some notable snubs. Saudi Arabia does not plan to be present due to the fact that Russia has not been invited, German news agency DPA reported on June 2. On June 3, the White House said U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will attend, confirming that President Joe Biden would miss the event as it clashes with a campaign fundraiser he is set to attend. Russia was not invited to the talks, but the Swiss hosts have said that Moscow's representatives will have to take part in the process "sooner or later." China will not attend Ukraine's summit in June as the terms it required to attend were not met. In the wake of the news of China's absence, President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Beijing of "working hard" to prevent countries from attending Ukraine's global peace summit. Read also: Explainer: What is the global peace summit in Switzerland, and what does Ukraine hope to achieve? Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. A family gets out of a Customs and Border Protection van at the Casa Alitas shelter in Tucson, where they will wait to travel ot other parts of the country. (Photo by Lillie Boudreaux?Cronkite News) Ill never forget the images of children packed into cages with only a foil emergency blanket for comfort, or the fallout from the near impossibility of reuniting children with their parents due to the governments poor record-keeping. A horrific immigration policy initiated under the Trump administration ordered immigration officials to separate thousands of children from their parents and send them to detention centers grossly inadequate for their needs, without telling parents if or when they would see their children again. Politicians in Arizona have opened the door on these and other unconstitutional and immoral policies by passing House Concurrent Resolution 2060. They are now asking voters to approve the ballot referral without addressing an exhaustive list of unanswered questions from law enforcement, faith leaders, business leaders, and educators to name a few regarding the referrals budget, legal merit, and impact on communities. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX HCR2060 would allow state law enforcement officials to arrest, detain, search, incarcerate, and deport people suspected of entering Arizona outside of a port of entry. The law upends decades of U.S. immigration and asylum law, and is an invitation for racial profiling. It would affect citizens, immigrants with lawful status, Dreamers, and mixed-status families, along with suspected undocumented immigrants, and subject them to detention and potentially deportation without the due process required under federal law. Worse, the law would designate Arizona state prisons and county jails as immigrant detention centers. Arizonas prison system has routinely failed to provide adequate medical and mental health care, putting incarcerated people in devastating conditions. Even after a decade-long court battle to remedy this issue, Arizonas prison system was recently found to be noncompliant with court orders in prison condition class action. These facilities are ill-equipped to care for adults, much less children, asylum-seekers fleeing violence, or immigrants with medical needs. Even the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry admits that it is not operationally or fiscally equipped to do what HCR 2060 would require. The proposal is alarmingly silent on the matter of immigrant children who may be traveling with a parent or adult caregiver. By law, children cannot be detained in state prisons or county jails in Arizona, which means that in cases where families with minor children are arrested, the state would have to separate children from their parents or caregivers for detention or deportation. Will Arizona violate its own law and put children in adult facilities that have long standing issues including poor staffing, underfunding, and a history of abuse and medical neglect? Or will Arizona rip those children from their loved ones and inflict that trauma upon them instead? Both scenarios are intolerable. HCR 2060 comes at a high moral and financial cost to Arizonans. Federal immigration systems wield enormous power, resources, and infrastructure. They are also deeply flawed, and often violate the civil and human rights of migrants. Under HCR 2060, Arizona would take on this burden directly, placing huge pressure on taxpayers, law enforcement, and the carceral system. A similar law in Texas has cost the states taxpayers some $10 billion in its first two years. The Joint Legislative Budget Committee issued a report on the fiscal cost only weeks ago, with legislative analysts estimating HCR 2060 could cost Arizona taxpayers up to $41 million annually. Which state priorities would fall by the wayside to cover these costs? Do we lose funding for our already hamstrung schools? There is already so little left to trim, but HCR 2060 would force further cuts. HCR 2060 would split up families and put children in dangerous situations while making the state and taxpayers financially, legally, and morally liable. The ballot referral is a dangerous catch-all that would force Arizona to grapple with enormous unknowns some of which could look very much like our state and countrys darkest days, from SB1070 and racial profiling under former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, to the Trump-era family separation crisis. Arizona still hasnt recovered its reputation from the notorious show me your papers law, and some legislators have not learned their lesson. Arizona communities deserve better than what politicians have put on the table. We need humane, balanced, and thoughtful solutions that respect the rights of migrants and communities of color alike, not the cruel and reckless proposal that was forced onto the ballot to embolden an anti-immigrant agenda. DONATE: SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST Under the Dome: GOP reaches deal on mask billl and throws in new rules for campaign money Good morning! Heres what you need to know about North Carolina politics today from our team and correspondent Stephanie Loder. NEW BILL ALLOWS MEDICAL MASK WEARING, CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAW CHANGE A compromise on House Bill 237 between state House and Senate Republicans was introduced Thursday morning in the House. Democrats, concerned about the bill also changing campaign finance law to allow more dark money donations, walked out in protest ahead of the vote later Thursday. Sen. Mary Wills Bode told The News & Observer later Thursday that she and other Democrats were concerned about out-of-state billionaires flooding money into our state, without any accountability. The version of the bill negotiated by Republicans in both chambers reverses the bills original effect of banning the wearing of masks in public for health and safety reasons. Instead, the new bill would allow only the wearing of a medical or surgical grade mask for preventing the spread of contagious disease. Heres what else is provided by the bill: Enhanced sentence if the defendant is convicted of a misdemeanor or felony and the defendant was wearing a mask to conceal or attempt to conceal his or her identity. A person wearing a mask should remove the mask upon request by a law enforcement officer or temporarily remove the mask upon request by the owner or occupant of public or private property where the wearer is present to allow for identification of the wearer. No religious institution is subject to an executive order, secretarial declaration or municipal or local government prohibition or restriction. Get the full story from Avi Bajpai and Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan here and here. JUDGE BLOCKS NC COUNTY FROM DEFYING STATE SCHOOL CALENDAR Superior Court Judge William D. Wolfe issued an order Wednesday declaring the 2024-25 Carteret County school board calendar void. In December, the school board unanimously approved a calendar that would run from Aug. 13 to May 22. The board said the new schedule would improve academic achievement because high school students could take fall semester exams before winter break. Three business owners filed a lawsuit in April accusing the Carteret County school system of violating North Carolinas school calendar law by starting classes Aug. 13. They said their businesses rely on the law to plan, staff and run their businesses and that the new calendar would result in a loss of revenue by shortening the summer season. Get the full story from T. Keung Hui here. NC LAWMAKERS SEEK SHOT CLOCK FOR POWER PLANT PERMITTING A proposal advanced Wednesday in the state legislature would put environmental regulators under a shot clock that would set time limits when considering water quality impacts from new power plants. Duke Energy has two ongoing proposals on sites where water quality would be subject to the new time limits. They include: The Marshall Plant in Catawba County, where Duke wants to replace two coal-fired units with a pair of natural gas turbines. The Roxboro plant in Person County, where Duke proposes replacing a coal plant with a pair of natural gas plants. The time limits would likely apply to each of the six North Carolina sites where Duke wants to retire coal-fired power plants. Get the full story from Adam Wagner here. SENATORS WANT FINAL WORD ON DMV Some North Carolina lawmakers, frustrated over the way the Division of Motor Vehicles is managed, want more say over who takes charge of the agency. A bill introduced on Wednesday in the Senate Transportation Committee would change the way North Carolina appoints its DMV commissioner by requiring the governor to appoint the commissioner subject to senatorial advice and consent. Thats how the governors cabinet is appointed. The Senate would have the last word on the person put in charge of a state agency with a more than $200 million budget and 1,550 people on its payroll. Sen. Michael Lazzara, a Republican from Onslow County and a Transportation Committee co-chairman, said lawmakers should have closer oversight due to the DMVs size, mission and poor performance over the years. Get the full story from Richard Stradling here. Thats all for today. Check your inbox tomorrow for more #ncpol news. You can sign up to receive the Under the Dome newsletter at newsobserver.com/newsletters . Want your friends to get our email, too? Forward them this newsletter so they can sign up. We want to know what you would like to see in the Under the Dome newsletter . Do you like highlights from the legislature? Political analysis? Do you have a question youd like The News & Observer team to answer? Tell us here. You can also email us at dome@newsobserver.com Dont forget to follow our tweets and listen to our Under the Dome podcast for more developments. Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a UNRWA school sheltering displaced people, in Nuseirat refugee camp Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a UNRWA school sheltering displaced people, in Nuseirat refugee camp By Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber GENEVA (Reuters) - Unemployment in the Gaza Strip has reached nearly 80% since the war with Israel erupted last October, the United Nations labour agency said on Friday, bringing the average unemployment rate across Palestinian territories to more than 50%. Unemployment in the Gaza Strip has reached 79.1%, while the West Bank has seen joblessness hit nearly 32%, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said in its fourth assessment of the impact of the war on employment. The figures give a combined unemployment rate of 50.8%. "This excludes Palestinians who have given up on finding a job," said Ruba Jaradat, ILO Regional Director for Arab States. "The situation is much worse." Israel's ground and air campaign in Gaza came in response to Hamas' storming of southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing 253 more as hostages, according to Israeli tallies. The Israeli offensive has killed more than 36,500 people, according to health authorities in the Gaza Strip, where around half of its 2.3 million people lived below the poverty line even before the war. "Imagine with this very high level of unemployment, people will not be able to secure food for themselves and for their families," Jaradat said. "This is also impacting their health.... Even if they have money, there are no hospitals that can accommodate the catastrophic situation there." In terms of the economy, the real gross domestic product (GDP) has contracted by nearly 33% in the Palestinian territories since the start of the war, with an estimated contraction of 83.5% in the Gaza Strip and by 22.7% in the West Bank, according to data published by ILO. "In the occupied Palestinian territory and particularly in the West Bank, the reduction in incomes has pushed many families into severe poverty," Jaradat said. (Reporting by Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber; Editing by Alexandra Hudson) A man wrongly accused by prosecutors of assaulting a queer Arizona State University professor is threatening to sue the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, saying their error deeply damaged his reputation. Braden Robert Ellis, 23, was charged last year with misdemeanor harassment a crime he did not commit. The case was related to an incident on ASU's Tempe campus in which two men affiliated with Turning Point USA, a conservative organization, followed, filmed and injured university instructor David Boyles. Ellis's notice of claim, a precursor to a lawsuit against a county, alleges police reports and documents identified a different man as a perpetrator in the incident. That man has since pleaded guilty. He has the same first and last names as Ellis, but a different middle name, birth date and social security number. Interview of Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell in Phoenix on March 7, 2024. County prosecutors charged Ellis instead, an error only discovered when The Arizona Republic contacted Ellis for comment on the allegations against him. The Republic then contacted MCAO for clarity on whether prosecutors had charged the correct person, prompting the office to begin investigating the matter. Prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss the charges in the University Lakes Justice Court as soon as courts opened at the start of the following week. They said the issue stemmed from a "clerical error," per court documents. In the days it took the office to correct the record, Ellis alleges news of the charges "spread through the media and the public like wildfire." His claim notes he was in the middle of medical school applications and was "extremely concerned" about the impact the error could have on his reputation and educational opportunities. He said he spent "countless hours" working to correct news reports that named him in the case. "MCAO's conduct has caused Mr. Ellis unimaginable stress, anxiety and embarrassment which is ongoing to this day," the claim reads. He is now requesting a $150,000 settlement. MCAO spokesperson Jeanine L'Ecuyer said her office is aware of Ellis's claim and that it is "under review." She declined to comment on the allegations contained in the document. Ellis says error impacted his educational prospects Ellis alleges the erroneous charges impacted his ability to gain admission to medical school. Prior to the incident, his claim says he was accepted to Tulane University's School of Medicine. After he discovered the erroneous charges against him, his claim states MCAO officials offered to provide a letter explaining the issue and clarifying that he was incorrectly implicated in the case. Ellis intended to use the letter in potential medical school interviews and as needed in the future to answer any questions from potential employers. But that letter wasn't provided in the timeframe originally promised, according to his claim. Weeks later, his claim states he and his family followed up with prosecutors and ultimately received the letter. Still, he did not receive further requests for interviews or acceptances from schools where he had applied for admission. That includes the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix, which his claim says has a "much higher acceptance percentage rate" than Tulane University. "Mr. Ellis is now forced to attend a private medical school which costs approximately 95% more than the local and public school and was robbed from the ability to weigh medical school options which may have been available to him, but for the false appearance he had been charged with these crimes during the period his applications were being reviewed," his claim reads. Sasha Hupka covers county government and regional issues for The Arizona Republic. Do you have a tip? Reach her at sasha.hupka@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @SashaHupka. Follow her on Instagram or Threads: @sashahupkasnaps. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Man wrongly charged with harassing ASU professor threatens to sue Nazrin Abdul The 13th Meeting of the Council of the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic States (TURKPA) was held in Baku, Azernews reports. In his opening remarks, the acting chairman of TURKPA and Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkiye, Numan Kurtulmus, emphasized the importance of TURKPA as a key institution for Turkic cooperation. Numan Kurtulmus handed over the chairmanship of TURKPA to the Speaker of Azerbaijans Milli Majlis, Sahiba Gafarova, and wished her success in leading the organization. Speaker Sahiba Gafarova assured that Azerbaijans Milli Majlis will diligently work towards achieving the organization's goals and enhancing cooperation. She noted that Baku has hosted major TURKPA events four times during its 15 years of activity and expressed Azerbaijans high regard for TURKPA's role in fostering friendly and cooperative relations among member countries. Quoting President Ilham Aliyev, who said, "Our family is the Turkic world," Speaker Gafarova highlighted that strengthening Turkic unity is a priority in Azerbaijan's foreign policy. During her address, she also mentioned the significance of the 44-day Patriotic War and Azerbaijans upcoming presidency of COP29 in November. Gafarova stated that the discussions and decisions on "Green horizons for the Turkic world: the role of parliaments in the implementation of the green agenda" at the TURKPA plenary meeting will demonstrate parliamentary support for combating climate change and promoting green energy cooperation among the countries. Numan Kurtulmus, along with Nurlanbek Shakiev, Chairman of the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic, and Yerlan Koshanov, Chairman of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of Kazakhstan, expressed their gratitude for the organization and hospitality of the event. They extended their best wishes to Azerbaijan during its presidency. The speakers expressed hope that the exchange of views and decisions made at the 13th Council and plenary sessions of TURKPA would significantly contribute to strengthening the organization's future activities. Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are in discussions to increase the transit of Kazakh oil through Azerbaijan, potentially raising the volume to between five and seven million tonnes per annum (mtpa), reported Reuters. Zaur Gakhramanov, an adviser to the president of SOCAR, Azerbaijan's state-owned oil business, confirmed the development to the news agency. Kazakhstan is actively seeking to diversify its energy export routes to lessen its dependence on Russian pipelines. Currently, the majority of Kazakhstan's oil, amounting to 1.5 million barrels per day or 1.5% of the global supply, is transported via Russian infrastructure. Gakhramanov revealed: "We are currently conducting negotiations with the Kazakh side about increasing oil transit from this country to 57 million tonnes." The anticipated increase in transit capacity follows plans to inaugurate a new oil terminal near Baku this summer. The reconstructed terminal in Dubendi is expected to handle up to 10mpta of oil annually, potentially doubling Azerbaijan's transit capacity to 2025mtpa. In the previous year, the transit of Kazakh oil through Azerbaijan totalled 1.4mtpa. SOCAR projects an increase to 1.71.8mtpa in the current year and further to 2.2mtpa by 2025. In March this year, an agreement between SOCAR and KazMunayGas was signed to gradually augment the volume of Kazakh oil transported through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline system to 2.2mtpa. Additionally, there are discussions to route 5mtpa of Kazakh oil via the Baku-Supsa pipeline in 2023. Earlier this week, Hungary's MVM agreed to acquire a 5% interest in the Shah Deniz gas field from Azerbaijan's Southern Gas Corridor. This transaction is in line with the EU's strategy to diversify energy sources and Hungary's national energy objectives. Operated by bp, the Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea is among the largest natural gas-condensate fields globally. With the capacity to produce up to 29 billion cubic metres of natural gas and around 60 million barrels of condensate annually, the field has been a key energy source since its discovery in 1999. "Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan in talks to boost Kazakh oil transit " was originally created and published by Offshore Technology, 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. BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) A tentative agreement has been reached between Tops Market and Teamsters Local Union #264. About 550 unionized Tops workers began striking just after midnight Friday after they voted down the companys latest offer. Tops had said in a statement Thursday night, We value our partnership with local labor, and we are optimistic that we will soon reach a long-term agreement that meets our responsibility to our entire organization and allows us to fulfill our commitment to serving the grocery needs of our community. Tops released a new statement Friday evening saying that a tentative four-year agreement has been reached. It will go to a vote Saturday. All of their stores will remain open during that time. Latest Local News Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to News 4 Buffalo. The University of North Texas Board of Regents has named Harrison Keller, Texas higher education commissioner, the next president. Keller will succeed Neal Smatresk, who announced in February that he would step down after 10 years at the helm of the systems flagship university, which has 47,000 students. A vote in June from the Board of Regents kicked off a 21-day mandatory waiting period before the formal action on Monday that appointed Keller as president. He takes office Aug. 1. "Harrison Keller has spent his career committed to improving Texas higher education," Chancellor Michael R. Williams said in a news release. "His ability to lead, innovate, and partner both statewide and nationally has helped transform Texas higher education and will have an invaluable impact on UNT. In Kellers five-year tenure as the commissioner of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Texas was one of the first states to set goals to get students to complete degrees in high-demand fields. Keller also led the state to increase support for community college students that intend to transfer to a four year university through a program called Texas Direct. Keller has dedicated his professional work to boosting the success of students from low-income backgrounds and of students who are the first in their family to go to college. He previously was a high-level administrator at the University of Texas at Austin, where he created a program to provide college-level courses for high school students, called OnRamps. Keller said in a statement that he looks forward to working with the UNT community. I am honored by the opportunity to lead the states third-largest and fastest-growing university and am inspired by the openness to innovation and commitment to students among UNT System leadership, faculty and staff, Keller said. The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Disclosure: The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the University of Texas at Austin and University of North Texas 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 added new speakers to the stellar lineup of leaders, lawmakers and newsmakers hitting the stage at The Texas Tribune Festival, happening Sept. 57 in downtown Austin. Get an up-close look at todays biggest issues at Texas breakout politics and policy event! Health officials in Milwaukee and Dane counties are raising alarms that a powerful chemical sedative could complicate and worsen the opioid crisis. Health officials say medetomidine, an animal tranquilizer, is being mixed with fentanyl and other street drugs in cities around the country. Medetomidines presence in the illicit drug supply is an emerging public health issue across the nation, said Michelle Haese, state Department of Health Services director of substance use initiatives, in an email to the Journal Sentinel. Wisconsin remains committed to monitoring this trend closely. Public Health Madison & Dane County issued an overdose spike alert Thursday noting unusual symptoms after drug use over a 48-hour period across Dane County. At least 10 residents received treatment from local hospitals for suspected opioid overdoses, which is more than public health officials typically see in the community in such a short time frame. It comes on the heels of another spate of unusual overdoses. Last week, seven other residents whod taken crack cocaine reported symptoms of drowsiness, nausea, sedation and weakness, which is especially noteworthy because crack cocaine typically elicits the opposite effects, said Jake Niesen, a public health program coordinator for Public Health Madison & Dane County. That response has raised the specter that the crack was mixed with something, although Niesen said it's not clear from the emergency medical service report what exactly it was mixed with. Dr. Ben Weston, Milwaukee County chief health policy adviser, says the county has seen a concerningly high level of overdoses recently. New drug makes opioid overdoses more likely Medetomidines entry in the state further challenges what health officials term "harm reduction" efforts, Niesen said, or how to engage people who use drugs with better safety measures. It demonstrates the swiftness with which the illicit drug market can change. The fast-changing drug scene makes opioid-naive people more vulnerable, Niesen said. Before we had oxycontin, we had heroin, and then we had fentanyl. Now we have Nitazene, we have xylazine, medetomidine, we have ketamine in the supply, we have seroquel in the supply, we have quetiapine in the supply, Niesen said. Theres just an abundance of things in drugs. That definitely is very challenging to navigate. More: Drug overdose deaths in Milwaukee have doubled in the past decade. Here's how you can respond. Medetomidine shares similar traits with xylazine, also known as tranq, another powerful animal tranquilizer that recently made its way into Wisconsins illicit drug market. Similar to xylazine, medetomidine causes negative health outcomes like sedation, slowed heart rate and difficulty breathing, symptoms that are further exacerbated when taken with opioid and non-opioid sedatives, Haese said. One key distinction for Niesen is medetomidines higher sedative potency than xylazine. And, like xylazine, medetomidine is not affected by opioid-reversing drugs like Narcan, making it especially dangerous in overdose cases. It makes opioids even more dangerous and harder to reverse, said Dr. Ben Weston, an emergency physician and the director of medical services for the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management. Still, health care officials emphasized that Narcan or naloxone nasal spray should always be administered in suspected overdoses. The tranquilizer is often found in opioid cocktails, and Narcan would have an effect on the opioid component. If you have naloxone nasal spray available, you want to certainly administer it. Because opioids are almost always a component of whats going on, Weston said. More: Evers administration urges lawmakers to devote opioid dollars to addiction prevention efforts A "Harm reduction" vending machine pictured at the Marcia P. Coggs Human Services Building in Milwaukee in 2023. The machines include fentanyl test strips, Narcan nasal spray, gun locks and more. Already, mass overdose outbreaks linked to medetomidine have cropped up in Philadelphia and Chicago. The Philadelphia Department of Public Health issued a public health advisory May 13 after 160 residents were hospitalized over a three- to four-day period. Seven days later, Chicago Public Health issued its own high-level public health advisory on the effects of medetomidine. Its the first time the drug had entered the recreational drug supply in either city. Wisconsin officials have not identified medetomidine in any overdose deaths yet. But the Milwaukee County medical examiner has begun testing for the drug. Unfortunately I wouldn't be surprised if it is circulating in Milwaukee, Weston said. The county has seen a concerningly high level of overdoses recently, Weston said including 18 emergency calls for overdoses in 24 hours on Monday but it was not possible to link those calls to medetomidine. Considering it is already present in Chicago, Weston expects medetomidine to mirror xylazines rapid spread across the country. In just two years, xylazine went from not being on the radar to being responsible for 5% of all overdose deaths in Wisconsin. The trends that we are seeing nationally probably mean that its only a matter of time until we see medetomidine here in Milwaukee County and in Wisconsin, Weston said. More: Slate of suspected overdose deaths prompts officials to warn of possible 'bad batch' of street drugs Fentanyl remains the main concern Still, public health officials remain focused on the broader opioid crisis. Fentanyl, Haese said, continues to command our attention, as this powerful drug continues to poison our communities causing tragic overdose fatalities. Fentanyl has dominated the drug scene to such an extent that its become the main attraction of drug users, Niesen emphasized. The society model of fentanyl being cut, thats long gone. Heroin is cut into fentanyl, its not the other way around, Niesen said. Fentanyl is the drug. Thats it. Niesen wants to see the state commit to comprehensive drug checking services, which go far beyond drug test strips. Wisconsin currently does not have comprehensive drug checking services, which would allow for people to have their drugs tested for potency levels and analyzed to detect every ingredient from sugar to fentanyl. Its important for users to understand their drugs could be laced with unknown substances, said Capt. Gregory Miller of the Milwaukee Fire Department. He is the director of the Milwaukee Overdose Response Initiative. You have to question everything, Miller said. Be very skeptical of whatever youre using. There have been 166 confirmed drug deaths in Milwaukee County this year, according to data from the medical examiner. There are 66 additional deaths that are still pending a final cause, but the medical examiner considers them probable overdoses. How to find help A list of fire station locations to receive a free Narcan Hope Kit is available at https://tinyurl.com/98b636jh. The kits include xylazine test strips. The Milwaukee Health Department has Narcan and fentanyl test strips available at Keenan Health Center, the Northwest Health Center, and Zeidler Municipal Building. Anyone searching for these items can also contact the health department anonymously by emailing HarmReduction@milwaukee.gov or calling (414) 286-3521. If you need help with mental health and substance abuse issues, the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division has a crisis line: 414-257-7222. Public Health Madison & Dane County distributes harm reduction supplies such as fentanyl test strips and Narcan from its Syringe Services Program at 2705 E. Washington Ave. or 2300 S. Park St. in Madison. You can also contact the Behavioral Health Resource Center of Dane County for treatment and recovery services: 608-267-2244. The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has a free, confidential, 24/7, 365-day-a-year treatment referral and information service in English and Spanish for individuals and families facing mental and/or substance use disorders: 800-662-HELP (4357). Natalie Eilbert covers mental health issues for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She welcomes story tips and feedback. You can reach her at neilbert@gannett.com or view her Twitter profile at @natalie_eilbert. Sophie Carson is a general assignment reporter who reports on religion and faith, immigrants and refugees and more. Contact her at scarson@gannett.com or 920-323-5758. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Overdose spike suggests drug in other areas has reached Wisconsin Editor's note: This is a developing story and is being updated. U.S. President Joe Biden announced an aid package for Ukraine worth $225 million during a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, in Paris on June 7, CNN's correspondent Natasha Bertrand reported. Zelensky thanked Biden for the newly pledged assistance during the talks, which were also attended by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. "Since (April), including today, I've announced six packages of significant funding. Today I'm also signing an additional package for $225 million to help you reconstruct the electric grid," Biden said. Biden did not specify how much of the package would be allocated to non-military needs, as the U.S. Defense Department also unveiled a list of military support, including HAWK air defenses, 155 mm howitzers, 81 mm mortars, artillery shells, HIMARS ammunition, Stinger missiles, Javelin and AT-4 anti-tank launchers, armored vehicles, patrol boats, and other aid as part of the $225 million package. The U.S. president apologized to Zelensky for the delays in the $61 billion U.S. foreign aid package, which was stalled in Congress for six months due to opposition from parts of the Republican Party. "You know, you haven't bowed down, you haven't yielded at all, you continue to fight in a way that is just remarkable, is just remarkableand were not going to walk away from you," Biden told Zelensky. The two presidents met while visiting France for the 80th D-Day commemorations. Read also: France to transfer Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine, Macron announces Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. U.S. and allied intelligence agencies are warning troops of the Chinese militarys continued efforts to hire former fighter pilots to glean more information on allied tactics and techniques in combat. A joint threat bulletin issued Wednesday by Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States the group of English-speaking countries who comprise the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing coalition said companies with ties to the Chinese military will try to lure recruits with large salaries and promises to fly exotic aircraft without details about their clientele. Potential recruits are often approached by personal acquaintances from their days in the military, the bulletin warned. Military pilots, flight engineers and air operations center personnel are the most highly sought-after targets. To overcome their shortcomings, Chinas Peoples Liberation Army has been aggressively recruiting Western military talent to train their aviators, using private firms around the globe that conceal their PLA ties and offer recruits exorbitant salaries, U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director Michael Casey said in the bulletin. Recent actions by Western governments have impacted these operations, but PLA recruitment efforts continue to evolve in response, he added. The United States and NATO allies have also implemented commercial restrictions on a number of companies with ties to the Chinese military, including the Test Flying Academy of South Africa, Beijing China Aviation Technology, Stratos and others. Chinas efforts to learn more about American military tactics and strategy come amid Beijings growing aggression toward Taiwan, the democratically self-governed island that maintains military and trade ties with the United States but is claimed by China, and escalating tensions over Chinas claim to large swaths of the South China Sea. This is not the first time the United States has warned service members about the prospect of becoming foreign recruiting targets. In a Sept. 8 memo, then-Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown warned airmen of the legal and national security consequences of accepting a contract with a foreign company. By essentially training the trainer, many of those who accept contracts with these foreign companies are eroding our national security, putting the very safety of their fellow service members and the country at risk, and may be violating the law, Brown wrote. In October 2022, former Marine Corps pilot Daniel Duggan was arrested in Australia on charges of allegedly training Chinese military pilots, which would violate U.S. arms-control laws. PARIS The U.S. announced another package of security aid to Ukraine, including munitions that can now be fired across the border into Russia to help stabilize a section of the front line. The batch is worth an estimated $225 million and is made up of artillery rounds, armored vehicles, patrol boats, anti-tank and anti-aircraft systems and munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS. This last system is key for Ukraine, defending against a new offensive on Kharkiv, the countrys second-largest city and less than two dozen miles from the border with Russia. In a major policy shift, the U.S. decided late in May to allow Ukraines armed forces to hit forces inside Russia that were preparing to attack. They can use HIMARS to do so. But that permission is limited to these defensive strikes around Kharkiv restrictions Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy said last week that he would like to see lifted. Is that sufficient? No, Zelenskyy said of the policy change. On Friday Zelenskyy met with U.S. President Joe Biden in Paris, a day after both visited Normandy to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day. In a speech at the Thursday event, Biden affirmed the U.S. commitment to Ukraines defense as its forces continue to struggle against Russian attacks in the east. We will not walk away, Biden said, because if we do, Ukraine will be subjugated. This is the latest round of aid sent to Ukraine since the U.S. passed a further $60 billion in economic and security aid for Kyiv. The largest of those recent packages, though, is $6 billion in long-term assistance through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. Much of the equipment ordered through that package wont arrive for years. Its so necessary for the feeling of our people that we are not alone, Zelenskyy said while meeting with Biden Friday. We are with you, our strategic partner. The U.S. Army has spent roughly five years assessing what a helicopter-fired, long-range precision munition would look like. But during that time other options have emerged that could achieve greater commonality with weapons that can be launched from a greater number of platforms, according to the services lead for force development. Frankly, I have a lot of questions in this space, as the G-8, that Ive asked for, Lt. Gen. Karl Gingrich told Defense News in a recent interview. The Army has procured an interim system for its Long-Range Precision Munition program, or LRPM Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Spike non-line-of-site missile. The service is fielding it on a portion of its AH-64 Apache attack helicopters. The service was expected to choose an industry team to provide a new LRPM in fiscal 2023 following a shoot-off that included the Spike weapon in the fall of 2022, but that decision was delayed. The Spike has inherent qualities to it: range, great; sensor, maybe not what we need in the long term, Gingrich said. Is that the solution to proliferate across all Apaches? Im not sold yet. I need to do some more work, he added. LRPM actually is looking an awful lot like a Launched Effects-Medium Range. Launched effects are expected to deliver capabilities such as targeting, reconnaissance, surveillance, network extension and lethality in a complex environment. Gingrich said he is considering commonality as a factor. There is a possibility, he noted, that LPRM just gets pushed into Launched Effects-Medium Range and then now, potentially, we could have a common capability at that range in that form factor that could be air-delivered or ground-delivered from a platform. One attribute under consideration, according to Gingrich, is the missiles speed. A loitering munition is slower. Do you still need that direct attack that comes in at a higher rate of speed? he asked. I dont know. Indeed, the Army still needs something that can achieve extended ranges when considering current battlefields, Gingrich said. We still have Hellfire [missiles]. We still have [the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile] JAGM, but weve never been able to really get the range that we need out of JAGM, which is a great system, he noted. The Army is prioritizing the development and acquisition of launched effects that are capable of flying at different ranges and deploying from a variety of air and ground vehicles, particularly with the cancellation of the service crewed Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft, which made available funding to pursue those programs. Gingrich is preparing for a session with the Army Requirements Oversight Council to solidify requirements for launched effects. That meeting is scheduled for June 28. A year ago, the strategy for launched effects was murky. The Army was considering several size classes for launched effects and was prototyping the first version of a small capability. This version was meant to help the service decide how to procure and employ these systems on the battlefield. There is a great deal of interest from industry. The service held an event in February for launched effects with a large turnout from businesses. The service also plans to experiment with a heavy focus on launched effects at its aviation experimentation event, known as Edge, this fall. The medium-range launched effects prototype is the result of contributions from five companies that teamed up. The Army plans to wrap up evaluation of the prototypes in September and will then weigh a number of options, from rapid fielding to low-rate initial production to more prototyping. The service also released a request for proposals in March for a short-range launched effect. A prototyping process for that effort will begin in early FY25. A long-range version is considered more of a corps-level asset, and prototyping will begin to develop the capability at the tail end of FY25. US-built pier in Gaza is reconnected after repairs, and aid will flow soon, US Central Command says FILE - The image provided by U.S, Central Command, shows U.S. Army soldiers assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary), U.S. Navy sailors assigned to Amphibious Construction Battalion 1, and Israel Defense Forces placing the Trident Pier on the coast of Gaza Strip on May 16, 2024. A key section of the U.S. military-built pier designed to carry badly needed aid into Gaza by boat has been reconnected to the Gaza beach following storm damage repairs and aid will begin to flow soon, the U.S. Central Command announced Friday. (U.S. Central Command via AP) WASHINGTON (AP) The U.S. military-built pier designed to carry badly needed aid into Gaza by boat has been reconnected to the beach in the besieged territory after a section broke apart in storms and rough seas, and food and other supplies will begin to flow soon, U.S. Central Command announced Friday. The section that connects to the beach in Gaza, the causeway, was rebuilt nearly two weeks after heavy storms damaged it and abruptly halted what had already been a troubled delivery route. Earlier this morning in Gaza, U.S. forces successfully attached the temporary pier to the Gaza beach, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters by phone Friday. We expect to resume delivery of humanitarian assistance from the sea in the coming days. Cooper said operations at the reconnected pier will be ramped up soon with a goal to get 1 million pounds (500 tons or 450 metric tons) of food and other supplies moving through the pier into Gaza every two days. The pier was only operational for a week before a storm broke it apart, and had initially struggled to reach delivery goals. Weather was a factor, and early efforts to get aid from the pier into Gaza were disrupted as civilians desperate for food stormed the trucks that aid agencies were using to transport the food to the warehouses for distribution. However, before it broke apart the pier had been gradually increasing aid movement each day. Cooper said Friday that the lessons learned from that initial week of operations made him confident higher levels of aid throughout could be attained now. The U.S. Agency for International Development said in a statement it was working with other U.S. government colleagues and humanitarian partners on the ground in Gaza to ensure that aid from the pier can safely and effectively resume movement, which we expect in the coming days. A large section of the causeway broke apart May 25 as heavy winds and high seas hit the area, and four Army vessels operating there went aground, injuring three service members, including one who remains in critical condition. The damage was the latest stumbling block in what has been a persistent struggle to get food to starving Palestinians during the 8-month-old Israel-Hamas war. The maritime route for a limited time had been an additional way to help get more aid into Gaza because the Israeli offensive in the southern city of Rafah has made it difficult, if not impossible at times, to get anything through land routes, which are far more productive. Israel's Rafah military operations and military strikes in northern Gaza had also temporarily halted U.S. airdrops of food. Cooper said Friday the U.S. also expects to resume those airdrops in the coming days. President Joe Biden's administration has said from the start that the pier wasnt meant to be a total solution and that any amount of aid helps. After the May 25 storm damage to the causeway, large sections were disconnected and moved to an Israeli port for repairs. In addition, two of the U.S. Army boats that went aground during the same bad weather near Ashkelon in Israel have been freed. Two other Army boats two beached onto the Gaza shoreline took on a lot of water and sand and the Israeli Navy has been helping with the repairs, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said. Biden, a Democrat, announced his plan for the U.S. military to build a pier during his State of the Union address in early March, and the military said it would take about 60 days to get it installed and operational. The initial cost was estimated at $320 million, but Singh said earlier this week that the price had dropped to $230 million, due to contributions from Britain and because the cost of contracting trucks and other equipment was less than expected. It took a bit longer than the planned two months for installation, with the first trucks carrying aid for the Gaza Strip rolling down the pier on May 17. Just a day later, crowds overran a convoy of trucks as they headed into Gaza, stripping the cargo from 11 of the 16 vehicles before they reached a U.N. warehouse. The next day, as officials altered the travel routes of the convoys, aid finally began reaching people in need. More than 1,100 tons (1,000 metric tons) of aid were delivered before the causeway broke apart in the storm, Pentagon officials said. ___ Follow the AP's coverage of the Israel-Hamas war at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war. The Scoop A giant wind farm set to be built in Egypt is showcasing how the future of climate tech is increasingly controlled by China. Infinity Power by some definitions Africas biggest renewables company has an ambitious target of growing its clean-power portfolio nearly tenfold to 10 gigawatts by 2030. Key to its plan will be the country supplying the turbines to generate that electricity: China. For our 2030 goal, basically, we will, to be honest with you, rely on Chinese products, Mohamed Mansour, Infinitys chair said in an interview. What happened in the solar industry China versus the West is happening today in a big way in the wind industry. In a big way. Turbines from Chinese companies such as Goldwind and Envision arent just vastly cheaper than their European rivals, he says; theyre better products, and their manufacturers offer better after-sales service, and are more attentive to African customers. Developing in Africa, were lucky that we can look at anybody we basically want to look at; were not restricted by European laws or US laws, he said. From that exercise over the years, the best value has been always in China. Chinas success in the wind industry offers a lesson for Western manufacturers seeking to compete: You can try to patch [shortcomings] up with import tariffs, but, he said, long term, if you dont fix your product, youre going to lose out on market share. Tims view Infinitys experience in the renewable energy sector holds a lesson for Western manufacturers of all stripes but US automakers in particular: The biggest threat they face from Chinese companies isnt just that their products are cheaper, but that theyre better. And the more they protect themselves from competition in the US, the greater the risk that they never sufficiently improve their own products to compete with Chinas on the global stage. Trade barriers like the 100% tariff on Chinese EVs the Biden administration adopted last month are ostensibly meant to give Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis time to catch up. The risk of that strategy is that the opposite happens instead. Intense domestic competitive pressure more than 100 Chinese companies make EVs have pushed Chinas EV industry toward lower costs and higher quality; even BYDs bargain-basement models are well-reviewed. Insulated from that competition, US automakers may choose to essentially cede international markets to Chinese competitors. In effect, by protecting its domestic car makers at home, the Biden administration may kill those same carmakers abroad. That outcome would be bad for the climate, since it would slow the electrification of the US car fleet. It could also prove to be bad for taxpayers, said Ilaria Mazzocco, a senior fellow for Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies: Because Washington will always bail out Detroit, the longer US automakers take to be competitive in the global EV market, the greater the risk that they will need saving later, once the world has shifted more definitively to EVs. Washingtons current hawkishness toward China marks a departure from the last time US automakers faced a major threat from abroad. In the 1970s, when low-cost Japanese exports started to flood the US, the solution wasnt tariffs, but an invitation to Japanese companies to open manufacturing shops in the US. American automakers havent been much interested in making low-cost cars since. In other words, rather than compete with Japan on its terms, Detroit pivoted to a new niche a division of labor that still served US buyers. But that pathway is not open to Chinese automakers, Mazzocco said. Many are hypothetically open to investing in the US, she said, but even if they didnt face political opposition, the turbulent nature of US climate policy makes it an unattractive prospect. As it is, even collaboration or licensing agreements with Chinese companies which, until the US battery industry becomes more mature, are the only possible path forward for lower-cost domestic EV manufacturing are deeply frowned upon; this week a group of Republican lawmakers called for a total ban on imports by CATL and Gotion High-Tech, leading Chinese battery makers that have deals in place with Ford and Volkswagen. The upshot is an operating environment that may prevent US automakers from being undercut now, but that may kneecap their ability to thrive in the auto market of the future and leave US drivers with fewer, more expensive, lower-quality electric options. The upcoming presidential election could change that dynamic. Donald Trump, no fan of EV tax breaks, suggested last month that he would be open to letting Chinese EV companies build factories in the US. The fate of competition or collaboration between US and Chinese automakers isnt written in stone yet, Mazzocco said. I think there are those in Washington who view this more positively, but its very difficult in an election year to come out publicly on that. Know More Mansours company which is backed by the Emirati clean-power giant Masdar, as well as the Africa Finance Corporation and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development currently has about 1.3 gigawatts of solar and onshore wind projects operating in Egypt, South Africa, and Senegal, but by far its biggest bet is on a wind farm in western Egypt that aims to ultimately generate 10GW of clean power. For that project and others it is considering, Mansour said the price differential between Chinese and European manufacturers was vast Vestas and Siemens quoted around $1.2 million per megawatt of power generated by a turbine, against about $650,000 to $700,000 from Goldwind and Envision. And the kicker is that youre not buying an inferior product, youre buying a superior product at a lower price. His experience is a testament to the remarkable, growth of Chinas wind sector. Though northern Europe is perhaps the region best known for its use of offshore wind to generate clean power, China has been rapidly ramping up its share, overtaking the UK in 2021 as the worlds largest offshore wind market, and accounting for nearly half of all offshore wind installations in 2022. Thus far, the vast majority of Chinas turbine production has been for domestic use 88% of turbine capacity produced in China last year was for use in the country, according to the Global Wind Energy Council, against just 3% by Chinese producers headed overseas. Yet there are clear signals that China intends to further expand its market share in providing finished wind turbines to global markets, GWEC noted. Room for Disagreement All of this may in fact be moot: Fewer than half of Americans polled in a recent survey said they would even consider buying an EV, citing concerns such as range anxiety, the perceived lack of available charging infrastructure, and high prices. Most did not support EV purchase incentives, and the majority were not interested in buying Chinese-made EVs, even if the cars are as much as $5,000 cheaper than domestic models, researchers from the University of Chicagos Energy Policy Institute said. You could envision a situation where the US market is kind of weird and insulated, but where [domestic automakers] could actually succeed by just focusing on the US, Mazzocco said. The View From Europe At least when it comes to EVs, Chinese manufacturers are training their sights on European buyers: The continent imposes a 10% tariff on vehicles imported from China, a pittance compared to the US rates. That has helped drive a surge in registrations of Chinese-made EVs on the continent as EU officials finalize an investigation into allegations Beijing illegally subsidizes its EV makers, potentially resulting in higher tariffs. Notable Ethiopias big push toward domestic EV manufacturing is the right idea perhaps being implemented at the wrong time, Samuel Getachew writes in Semafor Africa this week. US could deploy more nuclear weapons in response to the growing threat from Russia and China The US could deploy more strategic nuclear weapons in response to the growing threat from Russia and China, a senior White House aide has suggested. Pranay Vaddi, a top National Security Council official, said on Friday that the Biden administration was taking a more competitive approach to arms control, and believes the deployment of more weapons is a possibility in the coming years. American officials are concerned that Russia has refused to discuss a successor to the 2010 New START treaty, which limits countries deployment of strategic nuclear weapons but expires in 2026. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has made a series of statements since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 that are designed to alarm the West about the possibility of him using long-range missiles against the US and its allies. On Friday, he noted that while Russia and the US have advanced early warning missile systems, much of Europe does not, according to a Reuters report. He added: The use is possible in an exceptional case in the event of a threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. I dont think that such a case has come. There is no such need. However, two days ago, he said Moscow could deploy conventional missiles within striking distance of the US if the White House allows Ukraine to launch long-range American-made weapons into Russia. All countries with nuclear weapons choose to allocate some as deployed strategic warheads by loading them on to intercontinental ballistic missiles or stationing them at long-range bomber bases. Earlier this year, The Telegraph revealed the White House intended to resurrect a Cold War era nuclear base in Suffolk by sending nuclear bombs there for the first time since the last warheads were removed in 2008. Mr Vaddi said that the US could deploy more weapons if the White House feels its attempts to limit international nuclear proliferation are not matched by commitments from potential adversaries. Senior National Security Council director Pranay Viddi He also cited the refusal of China to enter into talks about its expanding nuclear arsenal. We may reach a point in the coming years where an increase from current deployed numbers is required, he said. We need to be fully prepared to execute if the president makes that decision. If that day comes, it will result in a determination that more nuclear weapons are required to deter our adversaries and protect the American people and our allies and partners. Mr Putins protest over the use of long-range American weapons in Ukraine came as presidents Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelensky met in Paris where Mrw Biden apologised for the congressional logjam that delayed military support to Kyiv for six months. Announcing a new $225 million (177 million) package of support, including air defence missiles and protection for the Ukrainian electric grid, the US president said: I apologise for the weeks of not knowing whats going to pass in terms of funding because we had trouble getting the Bill that we had to pass that had the money in it. Some of our very conservative members were holding it up. But we got it done finally. Were still in completely, thoroughly. The six-month blockade was resolved in April with a new funding package designed to see Ukraines defences through to the presidential election in November. Speaking later from Pointe du Hoc, a former German fortification above Omaha beach, Mr Biden channelled the spirit of D-Day troops and warned about present dangers to democracy and freedom. As we gather here today, its not just to honour those who showed such remarkable bravery that day, June 6, 1944, he said. Its to listen to the echo of their voices. Theyre not asking us to scale these cliffs. Theyre asking us to stay true to what America stands for. He made coded reference to Donald Trump, his election rival, but focused his attention on Russias war in Ukraine. The most natural instinct is to walk away, to be selfish, to force our will upon others, he said. Jake Sullivan, Mr Bidens national security adviser, told reporters the president intended to draw a through line between the Second World War, the Cold War, and the present conflict in Europe. US President Joe Biden The event, held metres from the clifftop, was attended by 150 guests including a US Army ranger veteran who was deployed to Normandy shortly after D-Day to relieve troops who had stormed the beaches. The rare foreign trip in an election year will see Mr Biden meet Emmanuel Macron, the French president, for a state dinner on Saturday, before travelling to Italy for next weeks G7 summit. Mr Biden also used his speech at the American D-Day commemoration ceremony on Thursday to hint at Trump, arguing against isolationism in American foreign policy. Steven Spielberg, the American film director who created Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, was spotted helping the US president prepare for the speech. Hillary Clinton, who unsuccessfully contested the 2016 election against Trump, was criticised for a ham-fisted attempt to link D-Day and this years vote. Eighty years ago today, thousands of brave Americans fought to protect democracy on the shores of Normandy, she wrote. This November, all we have to do is vote. Republicans called her deranged for an apparent attempt to directly compare Trump to Hitler. Tommy Tuberville, the Republican senator for Alabama, said: These Dems couldnt be more dramatic and deranged. Theyre comparing storming the beaches of Normandy on D-Day to voting against Trump. Meanwhile, Marsha Blackburn, another Republican senator, said: How disrespectful to our Second World War heroes who faced unimaginable fear with immense courage 80 years ago today. 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. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Bayer has collaborated with packaging provider PAPACKS on fibre-based consumer health packaging. The German companies are targeting an alternative to using traditional plastic packaging for Bayer brands including Aspirin, Bepanthen and Claritin. The biodegradable packaging will be made from responsible virgin fibres, featuring PAPACKs moulded pulp technology that uses materials derived from renewable sources and a plant-based coating. Bayer director of global packaging innovation Jesse DelGigante commented: Reducing plastic utilisation is one of the greatest challenges of our industry, so were proud to accelerate progress towards using eco-friendly, renewable sources for our packaging. PAPACKS founder and CEO Tahsin Dag added: Were looking forward to the challenge of combining our pulp technology with plant-based coating with the rigorous standards mandated by regulatory agencies for over-the-counter medicines. We expect this collaboration to help redefine packaging standards for the industry. In late May 2024, PAPACKS signed a memorandum of understanding with industrial hemp company element6 Dynamics to expand its moulded and thermal-formed packaging in the US. Bayers collaboration with PAPACKS follows the companys recent announcement that it has joined the Blister Pack Collective to reduce single-use plastics in healthcare packaging. Bayer has also previously launched an accessible QR code on its packaging for visually impaired consumers. The pharmaceutical packaging market was valued at $127.0bn in 2023 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of more than 6% by 2030. "Bayer and PAPACKS to redefine consumer health packaging" was originally created and published by Packaging Gateway, 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. Kenya and the U.S. are teaming up to turn the African nation into a green manufacturing powerhouse. It could be a game-changer for the planet and our wallets. Starting in May, the two countries are working together to build up Kenya's production of clean energy, create supply chains for electric car batteries, and attract U.S. companies looking to set up shop in factories powered by renewable energy. It's all part of Kenya President William Ruto's plan to make his country a hub for green industry, according to the Washington Post. What makes this collaboration so exciting? Over 90% of Kenya's power comes from clean sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, and hydro. That means U.S. businesses that move production there can shrink their carbon footprint significantly. It's not just about the environment. Shifting more economic activity to Kenya could create new jobs and lower energy costs for millions of people. The production of everything from clothing to metals to green hydrogen gas could get a boost. Kenya is also becoming a hotspot for an up-and-coming climate technology called carbon removal, which sucks planet-warming gas out of the air. The country's renewable energy and unique geology make it an ideal place to permanently store captured carbon deep underground. Several carbon removal startups, including some from the U.S., Israel, Belgium, and Germany, are already eyeing Kenya as the perfect place to set up shop. As this technology takes off, it could mean more opportunities and investment flowing into the country. There are still challenges to overcome, such as cutting red tape and making it easier for renewable power producers to sell energy to the grid. But President Ruto says he's "focused on fixing" those obstacles. His climate envoy, Ali Mohamed, summarizes the opportunity nicely. "President Biden and President Ruto are agreed on one thing: Climate change is an existential threat, but it's also an economic opportunity." With the U.S. and Kenya joining forces to seize that opportunity, a cleaner, more prosperous future could be on the horizon not just for Kenyans, but for all of us. Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the coolest innovations improving our lives and saving our planet. US expected to soon resume delivery of aid through Gaza pier The U.S. will resume the delivery of humanitarian aid through the Gaza pier in the coming days after bad weather damaged the causeway and halted operations. Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, said the causeway, the section that connects to the beach in Gaza, has been rebuilt and reconnected, allowing aid deliveries to resume. Cooper told reporters they were moving with a sense of urgency to reopen the port. In the last week, there generally have only been two crossings that are opening, so now we are enabling a third crossing, or a third entry point into Gaza, he said. So we want to seize this opportunity and get the aid to the people as quickly as possible. The causeway broke apart late last month as a result of high winds and heavy seas. Four Army vessels were run aground, injuring three service members, including one still in critical condition. The damaged section of the pier was repaired in the Israeli city of Ashdod by American service members and with the help of a private company. The ships that ran aground are also being repaired. The pier is just one corridor to get humanitarian aid into Gaza, where Palestinians are struggling to access necessities like food and water as Israel carries out a major war against militant group Hamas. But Israel controls all major land crossings into Gaza after taking control of the southern part of the territory last month. In the first week of operations in May, the pier delivered more than 2 million pounds of aid into Gaza, according to Cooper, who added he expects an increase in the amount of aid when operations resume, with 1 million pounds to be delivered over every two-day period. The pier works with aid coming from the island nation of Cyprus and flowing to a floating dock miles off the shores of Gaza. Smaller ships then ferry the aid to the pier connected to the beach, where its driven to distribution centers in Gaza. No U.S. boots are on the ground in Gaza; rather, they are working with Israeli troops and humanitarian aid groups, along with the United Nations, to distribute the aid. The damage to the pier was a major setback for the U.S. military and President Biden, who first announced the maritime route in March, and it calls into question how effective it will be going forward. Cooper said the U.S. military has a series of plans to implement in case of another emergency. We do have a series of contingency plans to adjust and adapt to the weather, he said. Until then, our goal is to keep the main thing the main thing, which is to maximize the amount of humanitarian assistance. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. US FDA expands GSK's RSV vaccine approval to adults aged 50 to 59 By Sriparna Roy and Christy Santhosh (Reuters) -The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the expanded use of GSK's respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine on Friday in adults aged between 50 and 59, making it the first shot endorsed for that age group. The shot, branded Arexvy, and vaccines from rivals Pfizer and Moderna are already approved for people aged 60 and older for the virus. RSV, which typically causes cold-like symptoms, is a leading cause of pneumonia in toddlers and older adults, causing 177,000 hospitalizations and 14,000 deaths in the United States annually. Arexvy has dominated the U.S. RSV vaccine market since its launch last year, outperforming sales of rival Pfizer's Abrysvo to wrest a two-thirds market share in the first quarter. Moderna's vaccine was approved last month. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is yet to sign off on the use of GSK's vaccine in the expanded patient population. CDC's panel of independent experts will convene between June 26 to 28. The drugmaker expects to add 13 million individuals to the shot's eligible pool with the approval. GSK sees 3 billion pounds ($3.82 billion) in peak annual sales from Arexvy over time. The company doesn't expect any particular insurance barriers for people 50-59, as under the Affordable Care Act, people will be reimbursed for the shot, Leonard Friedland, director, scientific affairs and public health, vaccines at GSK said. Arexvy contributed 1.2 billion pounds in sales in 2023, while Pfizer's Abrysvo garnered $890 million. Morningstar analyst Damien Conover said GSK's vaccine will retain the lion's share of the over $5-billion-a-year market versus Pfizer. In April, Pfizer said its vaccine succeeded in a trial evaluating it in adults under age 60, adding that it plans to submit for expanded approval of the vaccine in adults aged 18 to 59. GSK also plans to release data from a trial in adults aged 18 to 49 in the second half of 2024. ($1 = 0.7861 pounds) (Reporting by Sriparna Roy, Christy Santhosh and Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Vijay Kishore) US-Mexico border crossings are down, as Joe Biden says, but cause is hard to pinpoint President Joe Biden announces an executive order June 4 to limit the number of migrants seeking asylum at the southern U.S. border. Joe Biden Statement: Due to the arrangements that I've reached with (Mexico's) President Obrador, the number of migrants coming to our shared border unlawfully in recent months has dropped dramatically. President Joe Biden issued a new directive June 4 to limit the number of migrants seeking asylum at the southern U.S. border. Bidens proclamation comes weeks before he and former President Donald Trump face off in their first 2024 presidential debate and as they battle over their records on immigration policies. The Biden administrations directive suspends and limits the entry of certain noncitizens into the U.S. across the southern border when the homeland security secretary determines there has been an average of 2,500 encounters or more at the border over seven consecutive days. To halt the suspension, the numbers would have to drop to fewer than 1,500 encounters on average seven days in a row. Encounters data represent events, not people. For example, if one person tries to cross the border three times and is stopped each time, that would be counted as three encounters. This data also dont reveal how many people stayed in the U.S. The order takes effect immediately because current daily encounters exceed 2,500, according to the administration. In a speech June 4, Biden said the numbers of encounters are dropping already. "The facts are clear, due to the arrangements that I've reached with (Mexican) President (Andres Manuel Lopez) Obrador, the number of migrants coming to our shared border unlawfully in recent months has dropped dramatically," Biden said. "While these steps are important, they're not enough to truly secure the border." We found that the encounter numbers have dropped in recent months amid increased interceptions by Mexico. But immigration experts told PolitiFact it's difficult to pinpoint one reason for any change in migration numbers. The White House pointed to the latest publicly available U.S. Border Patrol data showing immigration officials encountered people illegally crossing the border about 128,900 times in April compared with about 250,000 in December. Thats a 48.4% decrease. The numbers of encounters at ports of entry have also dropped. In a May 13 news conference, Lopez Obrador said the number of migrants reaching the southern U.S. border had dropped by about 50%. Mexico's crackdown on migrant crossings David Bier, immigration studies director at the libertarian Cato institute, said Biden is correct to attribute border encounter declines to actions by Mexico, but offered a caveat. "Mexico is making unprecedented arrests," Bier said. "I believe that it is unsustainable because, although Mexico is arresting them and sending them to southern Mexico; they are not deporting them to their home countries. This means that it is very likely they will ultimately find their way to the United States because they are still in Mexico, and there's not much for them to do there except keep trying to get to the U.S." U.S. officials said Mexicos willingness to stop migrants from entering the U.S. is largely because of increased dialogue between the two countries. Biden and Lopez Obrador have spoken multiple times since late 2023 and have released joint statements over the last several months about joint efforts to curb immigration, fentanyl and firearms trafficking. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken also went to Mexico in December to meet with their Mexican counterparts. "As we made clear in Mexico City today, we are committed to partnering with Mexico to address our shared challenges, including managing unprecedented irregular migration in the region, reopening key ports of entry, and combating illicit fentanyl and other synthetic drugs," Blinken wrote Dec. 27 on X. President Joe Biden speaks with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers during a visit last year to El Paso. A White House summary of a conversation in April between Biden and Lopez Obrador said the two politicians ordered their national security teams to apply measures that would "significantly reduce irregular border crossings" and to address the root causes of the migration. U.S. immigration experts said its difficult to isolate single causes for any change in the number of arrivals at the border, but they agreed that Mexico vastly increased its enforcement efforts after discussions between the two nations. However, "there is no reason to think that this drop will be long-lasting, especially considering the number of migrants who are likely stranded in Mexico right now," said Adam Isacson, defense oversight director at Washington Office on Latin America, a group advocating for human rights in the Americas. "No crackdown in the last 10 years has had a lasting impact, not even Title 42," he said. Title 42 is a public health policy invoked during the COVID-19 pandemic to decrease the number of migrants entering the U.S. Whether the declines continue is uncertain, because migrants and migrant smugglers "have proven highly adaptable to changes in policy, process, operations and even infrastructure," said Theresa Cardinal Brown, senior adviser for immigration and border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank. "We have not seen sustained decreases in arrivals after policy changes in the past." The data also dont reflect the changing demographics and nationalities of people arriving, nor the factors sending them to the border. Continued fluctuation in numbers of arrivals is expected if there is no consistent immigration policy to address the ongoing migration crisis, Brown said. Steven Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that supports low levels of immigration, said its hard to say how much Mexicos actions have contributed to the decline, but that the numbers are still high: "It is possible their actions matter, but even if they do, we have no idea if Mexico will continue to take action nor do we know if the smugglers and migrants will simply adapt and the modest decline will disappear." PolitiFact's ruling Biden said, "Due to the arrangements that I've reached with President Obrador, the number of migrants coming to our shared border unlawfully in recent months has dropped dramatically." U.S. Border Patrol data show immigrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border have dropped in recent months. Immigration experts said its difficult to pinpoint a single reason for any change in border crossings, but they acknowledged that the decrease comes amid more cooperation between the two countries.Bidens statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information. We rate it Mostly True. PolitiFact Staff Writers Maria Ramirez Uribe and Maria Briceno contributed to this report. Our sources This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: PolitiFact: US-Mexico border crossings are down, as Joe Biden says A US pilot school has banned solo flights for trainees at one of the world's top airlines after a spate of incidents A US pilot school has banned solo flights for trainees at one of the world's top airlines after a spate of incidents A pilot school in Phoenix has stopped Cathay Pacific cadets from flying solo. It said planes were damaged in incidents that weren't properly reported. Cathay, one of the world's top airlines, is trying to increase its number of pilots. An Arizona pilot school has stopped Cathay Pacific trainees from flying solo after several incidents that went unreported, Bloomberg first reported. Cathay Pacific, the Hong Kong flag carrier, is considered one of the world's best airlines one of just 10 globally to be ranked five stars by Skytrax. In an internal memo, the AeroGuard Flight Training Center in Phoenix said it saw "an alarming increase in solo incidents during cadet training," according to Bloomberg. It added that the incidents involved a wingtip colliding with a fixed object, a "bounced landing" leading to a "substantial" propellor strike, and a "complete runway excursion." "While each situation was unique, in each case the concern was the same required consultation did not occur," the memo said, adding that the students didn't properly report the damage in two of the three incidents. In a statement shared with Business Insider, Cathay Pacific acknowledged the events and added, "We are taking them seriously." "These incidents involve our sponsored students, who will become our employees upon successful graduation from the training course," it said. "They will then need to undergo additional structured training before being assigned any flying duty." A source familiar with the situation told Bloomberg the decision would affect about 150 of the 250 to 300 Cathay cadets training at the school. The decision hinders Cathay's ongoing plans to increase its number of pilots after the height of the pandemic, when the airline instituted steep pay cuts. Several pilots quit during that time, with some telling Reuters that strict COVID measures in Hong Kong were affecting their mental health. In the statement, Cathay Pacific said, "Safety guides every decision we make, and we fully support the decision of the training school." "We will continue to prioritize the safety and well-being of our cadet pilots and crew members, and we remain dedicated to upholding the highest standards in our training programs," it added. Read the original article on Business Insider US to research possible respiratory spread of bird flu in cows By Leah Douglas, P.J. Huffstutter and Julie Steenhuysen (Reuters) -U.S. federal and state agencies are planning research into potential respiratory spread of bird flu among dairy cattle, according to a Reuters interview with Michigan state agriculture and public health officials. Scientists and government officials hope the research will guide efforts to contain the virus and reduce exposure to humans. Respiratory spread could give the virus more opportunity to evolve, they said. Scientists have so far suspected the virus spreads among animals and humans through contact with infected milk or aerosolized milk droplets, or from exposure to infected birds or poultry. The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is working with Michigan State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to plan research on farms to evaluate respiratory spread, Tim Boring, the department's director, said in an interview. "This is an area of concern that we're building out and looking more into," Boring said. The research is a high priority and will be important to guiding the state's public policy, he said. A spokesperson for the USDA said the agency is researching respiratory infection in dairy cows with partners including universities across the country to better understand the virus and control its spread. Bird flu has been reported in more than 80 dairy herds across 11 states since late March. The exact mechanics of the spread of the virus are still unclear, though there is evidence of spread to cows from wild birds and other cows. The virus has been identified mainly in milk, but also in nasal swabs at lesser levels, said Zelmar Rodriguez, a dairy veterinarian and assistant professor in Michigan State University's College of Veterinary Medicine who has researched affected farms. "If it's present in the nose when the cow is shedding (virus), it's potentially transmitted through air," he said. Any change in how the virus is transmitting gives it the opportunity to evolve, said Richard Webby, a St. Jude Children's Research Hospital virologist who studies flu in animals and birds for the World Health Organization. "We certainly don't want that," Webby said. But for the virus to be a more significant threat to human health, it would need to undergo further genetic mutations, Webby said. The third dairy worker to contract avian flu, who lives in Michigan, reported respiratory symptoms, including coughing. Flu experts said the worker was most likely infected through close contact with milk through splashes or aerosolized droplets. Respiratory symptoms have often been seen in prior human bird flu infections. The first two U.S. workers known to be infected during this outbreak only reported symptoms of conjunctivitis, or pink eye. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the latest case does not change its assessment that bird flu is a low risk to the general public, and that it has not seen evidence of human-to-human transmission. The worker with respiratory symptoms was still recovering as of a few days ago, said Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan's chief medical executive, in an interview. Michigan aims to begin its study of blood samples looking for evidence of prior bird flu infection among farm workers this month, Bagdasarian said. Reuters reported on May 30 that the state and CDC would be conducting the study to understand the prevalence of human illness and whether any dairy workers had previously contracted the virus. "We have folks from the CDC who are in the state right now," Bagdasarian said. "We've been working really closely and collaboratively with them, our protocols are in place (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington, P.J. Huffstutter and Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; additional reporting by Tom Polansek in East Lansing, Michigan; Editing by Bill Berkrot) US says it is encouraging China to join Peace Summit The US State Department says that the US is encouraging China to take part in the Peace Summit on Ukraine, which will be held in Switzerland on 15-16 June. Source: European Pravda with reference to a briefing by Matthew Miller, US State Department spokesperson Quote from Miller: "So we certainly would encourage China to participate in that summit. They have attended previous versions of the summit. We thought that their presence was helpful. We think their presence would be helpful here." Details: He added that China should increase pressure on companies that, according to Washington, help the Russian defence industrial complex. Miller is convinced that this would be "even more helpful." Background: Commenting on China's refusal to participate in the summit, the US State Department said earlier that China could play a valuable diplomatic role in resolving this conflict if it wanted to. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that the Global Peace Summit in Switzerland does not meet all the criteria Beijing sets for such platforms, which is why it is "unlikely" to be presented. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Beijing of collaborating with Moscow to disrupt the Peace Summit after China's official signal of non-participation in the meeting in Switzerland. At the same time, the Foreign Ministry denied that Ukraine's interests were compromised in the draft decision of the Peace Summit to be held next week in Switzerland. Read more in the article Swiss Peace Summit may only harm Ukraine as everything going differently than planned Support UP or become our patron! Insights from Axios, Haaretz, and The Wall Street Journal The News The Biden administration is reportedly pushing allies in the Middle East, including Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, to press Hamas into accepting a ceasefire deal with Israel, CNN reported. The US has urged several countries to freeze Hamas bank accounts or limit its members ability to travel freely. US officials have also called on Qatar to issue an ultimatum saying that if Hamas does not agree to a deal, the group will be forced to leave the Gulf state. After several earlier warnings, Qatar has issued the ultimatum, an official told CNN. SIGNALS Semafor Signals: Global insights on today's biggest stories. Ceasefire talks continue with no sign of a breakthrough Sources: Axios, The New York Times, Ian Bremmer While Hamas has not offered a final response to the proposal discussed with top Qatari and Egyptian mediators Wednesday, officials told Axios that the militant groups response has been positive. The three-phase deal that includes a temporary ceasefire and hostage releases, could see Israel eventually pulling its troops out of Gaza, but experts told The New York Times that even if the initial deal is agreed upon, a full Israeli withdrawal remains unlikely. The overlap between the interests of the combatants is not yet at a place where we can see a deal, the Eurasia Groups Ian Bremmer said. Israel divided on ceasefire deal Sources: The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Sky News Although the US has pitched the deal as an Israeli proposal, there is no solid consensus within Israel about establishing a ceasefire without first having destroyed Hamas. We dont want the soldiers who fought in Gaza to have died in vain, an Israeli reservist told The Wall Street Journal. Two far-right Israeli ministers have threatened to quit and dissolve Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus coalition if he agrees to a ceasefire, although an Israeli opposition party has promised to back the government if Netanyahu supports the deal. Huge protests broke out last Sunday in Israel, where more than 100,000 people demanded Netanyahu to accept the deal and get the Israeli hostages back from Gaza. Tensions rise on Israel-Lebanon border Sources: CNN, Hezobollah expert Amal Saad, Haaretz On Israels northern border, tensions are escalating with the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah. This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is ready for very intense action in the north, while a senior army official said that we are approaching a decision point. Hezbollah attacks have increased recently, a marked departure from prior flare-ups that have occurred since October 8, Amal Saad, an expert on the group, wrote on X. The tit-for-tat threats and attacks could very well push both parties into the abyss, a Haaretz columnist wrote, arguing that a war with Hezbollah could be far more damaging for Israel than the war against Hamas. We recently compiled a report on the 20 Best Colleges That Are Easy to Get Into and in this article, we will look at the best college that is easy to get into. Global Education Statistics at a Glance As reported by the OECD, 20% of all 25-to-64-year-olds had not undertaken upper secondary education, the minimum requirement for labor force participation, in 2022. 40% had an upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary qualification as their highest level of education. 77% of those who engage in general upper secondary education tend to complete it on time while a further 10% complete it within the following two years. In this regard, a direct relationship between educational attainment and the employment rate has also been discovered by the OECD. This is evident from the fact that the employment rate among 25-to-64 year-olds is 59% for those with below upper secondary attainment while it is 77% for those with upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary attainment and 86% for those with tertiary attainment. Edtech Market All Set to Grow The World Economic Forum reveals that education across the globe will see an expenditure of $10 trillion by 2030 amidst which technology will largely shape the overall sector. The global edtech and smart classroom market size was estimated at $115.80 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow from $133.55 billion in 2023 to $433.17 billion by 2030, at a compound annual growth rate of 18.3% over the forecast period, according to estimates by Fortune Business Insights. In such an extensive edtech landscape, academic learning is just a few clicks away through online edtech platforms offered by 2U, Inc. (NASDAQ:TWOU) and Udemy, Inc. (NASDAQ:UDMY). Lets take a look at what these firms have been up to in the education domain. Simultaneously, you can take a look at some of the biggest edtech companies in the world. 2U, Inc. (NASDAQ:TWOU) is an American educational technology company that powers the global online learning platform, edX. The platform connects more than 86 million people worldwide with online learning. On May 16, 2U, Inc. (NASDAQ:TWOU) reported the expansion of its partnership with Pepperdine University which began in 2017. Under this initiative, six online degree programs in education and healthcare disciplines will be launched. These include a Master of Science in Education, a Master of Arts in Teaching, a Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology, and three doctoral programs in education. The new courses aim to prepare students for roles in high-demand fields of healthcare and education. Furthermore, the development will cater to the issue of a shortage of qualified educators in the United States while fulfilling the rising demand for speech-language pathologists. Story continues Udemy, Inc. (NASDAQ:UDMY) is another edtech company where students can avail some of the most in-demand online courses. The topics to learn are diverse ranging from programming and data science to leadership and team building. Udemy Business allows access to over 26,000 courses and top certifications in tech and business. As of March 31, the company claims to have 220,000 courses, 75,000 instructors, and 71 million learners. On April 23, Udemy, Inc. (NASDAQ:UDMY) reported its new multi-year partnership with the San Jose Earthquakes as an Official Learning and Skills Partner. The partnering firms will offer subsidized access to more than 220,000 courses available on the Udemy platform for underserved communities. This collaboration will foster learning and skills development opportunities in the Bay Area. Now that we have analyzed the global education scenario and the learning opportunities available through edtech, we can rank the best college that is easy to get into. The Best College That Is Easy to Get Into The Best College That Is Easy to Get Into Our Methodology: In order to compile a list of the 20 best colleges that are easy to get into, we resorted to The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024 which covers 1,906 universities across 108 countries and regions. Firstly, we screened all the colleges with the highest overall ranks globally. For this purpose, we shortlisted all colleges with a rank of up to 500 among all universities around the world. Moving on, we sourced acceptance rates for the shortlisted top colleges. These rates were available on EduRank as of February 29. Finally, we ranked all the top colleges in ascending order of their acceptance rates. At Insider Monkey we are obsessed with the stocks that hedge funds pile into. The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletters strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points. (see more details here). The Best College That Is Easy to Get Into 1. University of Kentucky International Rank: 401-500 Acceptance Rate: 95% The University of Kentucky ranks at the top of the 20 best colleges that are easy to get into since it has a high acceptance rate of 95%. It is a public university situated in the city of Lexington, United States. The University of Kentucky also serves as one of the largest universities in the state of Kentucky. It holds the prestige of being one of the eight institutions in the United States with a range of colleges and disciplines on one campus. For fall 2023-2024, the university had a total enrollment of 33,885 which increased from 32,710 during the prior academic year. Furthermore, the university offers more than 200 academic programs spread across 16 degree-granting colleges, the Lewis Honors College, Graduate School, and the UK Library system. To learn about other best colleges that are easy to get into, you can check out our detailed report on the 20 Best Colleges That Are Easy to Get Into. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Micron but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: Michael Burry Is Selling These Stocks and 15 Fastest Declining Economies in the World in 2024. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published on Insider Monkey. US veteran in Ukraine said that he'd pile Russian bodies up like sandbags after taking trenches in scenes that reminded him of World War I A US veteran who fought in Ukraine described the intense, close-quarters trench warfare there. He said that sometimes when they took a trench they would pile Russian bodies outside like sandbags. Other soldiers said they slept on top of Russian bodies as it was too dangerous to remove them. A US veteran who fought in Ukraine said that after taking trenches from the Russians, he and his comrades would pile up the bodies of the dead troops outside like sandbags for added defense and to keep the rats out. The former soldier, who spoke to Business Insider on the condition of anonymity about his experiences fighting against Russia's invasion, said that after capturing a trench from Russian soldiers, "we would take the Russian bodies that were inside the trenches with us and then we put them on the opposite side of the trench that's facing the new Russian positions. " "Like fucking sandbags basically is what we'd use them for." The veteran began fighting in Ukraine after Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, and he left the country last December after engaging in combat in some of the war's most intense areas, like Kharkiv and Bakhmut. He said they would always remove Russian bodies from the trenches because "we wouldn't want them in the trench just because that allows more rats and decay." "We'd kind of just nudge them out a little as far as we can while staying inside the trenches." A Ukrainian soldier digs a trench near Bakhmut, Ukraine, in October 2023. Kostya Liberov/Libkos via Getty Images That hasn't necessarily been the case across the front, though. He pointed to reports that Ukrainian soldiers who took Russian trenches had to sit and sleep on body bags with dead Russian soldiers inside of them because the situation made it too dangerous to remove them. He said that "luckily" that didn't happen to him. Some soldiers have said that the concentration of weaponry and intensity of the fight around them did, at times, make it too difficult to remove Russian bodies, as coming out of the trench would be a risky move that could leave a soldier among the fallen. A Ukrainian soldier, Oleksandr Yabchanka, previously described to BI his experiences holed up in a dugout that had dead Russian soldiers inside it. The Ukrainians were unable to lift the corpses out because of the constant artillery fire and could only push the bodies to the dugout's edge and bury them under some dirt, he said. Trenches like World War I Trench warfare has become a defining feature of the war between Russia and Ukraine, with both sides building vast networks of trenches to hide in and launch attacks from. The veteran BI spoke with said that he found fighting in them "weird as shit, man, because I never thought that we would go back to trench warfare. And, the next thing I know, I feel like I'm fighting in World War I." In that war, trenches ran across Europe. Troops inside battled rats, injuries, diseases, and relentless artillery fire. And outside, they faced unforgiving machine-gun fire in assaults across the space in between trenches called "No Man's Land." In WWI, battles sometimes left hundreds of thousands of soldiers dead. Other soldiers and foreign veterans in Ukraine, as well as warfare experts, have also compared elements of this conflict to World War I, due to the slow, grinding nature of the conflict, the proliferation of trenches, the high death toll, and the heavy use of artillery. Another American veteran, with the call sign Jackie, previously told BI that fighting in the eastern city of Bakhmut looked "like World War I." The devastation and death in that broken city led soldiers on both sides to refer to the fighting there as the "meat grinder." Tens of thousands of troops are believed to have been killed in Bakhmut. British soldiers in a trench near Verdun, France, during World War I Reuters An ambulance driver in Ukraine compared that fight to the 1916 Battle of Verdun, the longest battle of WWI, in an interview with France24. The veteran who shared his experiences with BI said that most of his fighting took place outside of trenches, compared to other units, which were much more trench-based. But he's had brutal experiences in them. "There's been a few times where we're sitting in a trench," and there's "artillery shells just dropping around you for hours on end." Then, at some point, you look up, and the enemy's on you. "You see fucking a dozen or more Russians bum-rushing your trench, and then you got to go to work," he said. In the trenches, fighting was extremely close quarters. He said he fought in Iraq as a contractor before experiencing Ukraine's trench warfare. "It's very real," he said. "And it's very close, and honestly, it's more intense than fucking anything else I've ever been through." As he was carrying out assault operations, the veteran said that he never had to sit in trenches for days on end as many others fighting for Ukraine have had to. "Thank God for that," he said. He described assaulting trenches as extremely dangerous, saying that there wasn't a "single trench raiding mission where we didn't take multiple casualties." He said that when Ukraine is assaulting, Russia has a defensive, home-field advantage. "You're trying to work your way through a trench that you've never been in before," the veteran said, explaining that "you're basically trying to take the home of another individual who's lived there for days, weeks, months at this point." "They know every nook and cranny. They know every turn," he said. A Ukrainian soldier fires an AK-4 from a trench during a training as the Russia-Ukraine war continues in Donetsk oblast, Ukraine, in February 2024. Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu via Getty Images He said the experience could vary wildly depending on what training and enthusiasm the Russian soldiers he encountered had. "I've jumped in the trenches where the Russians give up immediately, like, 'Oh, fuck this shit.' Or they try running away immediately," he said. "Other times, you're literally fighting for every square inch that you go through. They do not want to give it up." Read the original article on Business Insider NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) Throughout the year, no matter the weather, the U.S. Coast Guard stands ready to protect and serve our maritime community on the water and in the air. This weekend at Harborfest, an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from nearby Air Station Elizabeth City will be conducting a search and rescue demonstration at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. Chopper 10 was above the Elizabeth River Friday as the USCG did their demonstration to show you what you can see this weekend. During the demonstration, the crew will showcase how they would rescue someone in distress in the water using their aircraft, basket, swimmers and hoist. With a top speed of around 180 knots and a range of around 600 nautical miles, the Coast Guard can deploy the Jayhawk in any type of weather condition. In our region, the Coast Guard uses this helicopter for searches when a boater goes missing, and for rescue operations. Over the years, the crews have rescued numerous boaters in distress across the Chesapeake Bay and off the Atlantic Coast of Virginia and North Carolina. There are 42 MH-60 Jayhawks in the Coast Guard fleet. Much of the maintenance work on them is done at the Aviation Logistics Center, right here in our region, in Elizabeth City, N.C. As you attend Harborfest this weekend, keep an eye out for more local Coast Guard crews. Crews from Coast Guard Stations Portsmouth and Milford Haven will be conducting safety patrols and enforcing a safety zone during the event for the fireworks. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WAVY.com. A person experiencing homelessness sits on the side of a street in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 25, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch) Utah Gov. Spencer Cox did not pull punches on Thursday when he gave a keynote speech to a room full of homelessness advocates, providers and policymakers. His message: Utahs homeless system is in for some changes changes to make sure homeless service providers are producing results toward the states goal of reducing homelessness. And if they dont? They could lose public funding. We need accountability, the governor said. Not just for those that were providing services, but for those of us that are providing the services. After negotiations between the governors administration and lawmakers stretched into the final days of the 2024 session, the Utah Legislature ultimately funded more than $50 million in new money to help boost the number of emergency shelter beds. As part of that effort, lawmakers also passed a sweeping bill, HB298, to restructure the states homeless systems governing body, and tasked that body to create a statewide plan to reduce homelessness and establish new accountability measures for homeless providers. Those measures are not yet set, but is something the newly revamped Utah Homeless Services Board (which met for the first time last month) will be working on in coming months. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox delivers a keynote speech at a conference hosted by the advocacy group Solutions Utah (formerly known as Pioneer Park Coalition) at The Other Side Academy in Salt Lake City on June 6, 2024. (Katie McKellar / Utah News Dispatch) During their first and at times tense meeting, when the body approved nearly $31 million in grants to homeless providers, the boards new members signaled they would be focused on increasing oversight to ensure safety and root out drug use in shelters. Cox said the 2024 Utah Legislatures more than $50 million in funding came with a commitment. My commitment to the Legislature is you get to hold me accountable, and in turn Im going to hold all of you accountable. Everyone in this space, he said. If its not working, then were going to stop doing it. And were going to do something that does work, because we know that there are things that work. Just like how elected officials need to be held accountable, Cox said, our service providers need to be held accountable. We need to be able to answer the taxpayers of the state of Utah and let them know if what were doing is actually working, he said. Because if its not actually working, then we should stop doing it. Some really great people are going to lose their funding. OK? You have to know that this is going to happen. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox The governor acknowledged that will likely mean some really hard decisions. Because some really great people are going to lose their funding. OK? he said. You have to know that this is going to happen. Cox then issued a warning to homelessness providers. Either make sure what youre doing is working, or figure out something else to do really quickly, and then well support you, he said. Were going to have to hold each other accountable, because we cant keep throwing money at something and not be able to deliver any results. Conference hosted by Solutions Utah, rebranded from the Pioneer Park Coalition Cox was the keynote speaker at a conference hosted by the homelessness advocacy group Solutions Utah. The group was formerly known as the Pioneer Park Coalition (originally founded as a coalition of business owners to advocate for revitalization around the downtown area that has a long history of grappling with homelessness issues) before it was rebranded in March to align with a mission of improving Utahs statewide homeless system. Solutions Utahs priority goals for 2024, its website states, include legislation to enhance accountability and oversight to the homeless industry something HB298 seeks to accomplish universal enforcement of no-camping and illegal drug use, rewarding homeless treatment models that work, and mitigation of homeless-related crime to benefit businesses and nearby homeowners, among others. The crowd at times fell into a tense silence while listening to Coxs speech, but he was warmly received when he acknowledged the tension. I know thats heavy. I know I came in a little hot, and I apologize for that, Cox said with a smile, prompting some laughs. But we cant just talk about the nice things anymore. We have to talk about the hard things. While highlighting an ongoing coordinated effort with the Utah Highway Patrol and Salt Lake City Police Department to clean up homeless encampments and drug use along the Jordan River, Cox committed state leaders are all in on this. Im not going anywhere. I was told by many on my team that this was a huge mistake, that I shouldnt take this on, because a lot of it is outside my control and its a problem thats growing everywhere, he said, adding he was told, Its traditionally been, let the city and county deal with it, just put the pressure on them. Dont get involved, it wont end well for you. And theyre probably right, said Cox, who is running for reelection this year. And I dont care. Because its too important. Coxs remarks prompted applause. These are our people, OK? he said. These are our friends. These are our neighbors. These are our kids. Theyre our parents. Now, sadly, more of them are our grandparents. These are real people with real stories, and they deserve our help, and they also deserve our respect. By holding them accountable, Cox continued, it shows that we do believe in them, that we do care about them, that there is something better for them. They dont get to just camp wherever they want. They dont get to make our streets and our parks miserable for the rest of us. Thats not what a society that loves each other does. We dont let them do that, because its not good for them, and its not good for us, he said. We the people are going to love and care for we the people, and we the people are going to hold each other accountable. Coxs speech got a standing round of applause. The conference took place at Salt Lake City-based The Other Side Academy, a nonprofit that has a two-year residential program where criminals, homeless and substance abusers can change their lives, its website states. The Other Side focuses on teaching its residents self-reliance and accountability. Its website says the academy is not funded with government money, but uses revenues from its training schools to support its residential program. During Thursdays conference, Solutions Utah awarded the sponsor of HB298, Rep. Tyler Clancy, R-Provo, with a community leadership award, applauding his work to pass legislation to improve accountability in Utahs homeless system. The conference also included two panel discussions moderated by former House Speaker Greg Hughes, who in 2017 helped spearhead Operation Rio Grande, an over $67 million, multi-agency effort to root out crime and drug use in the Salt Lake City neighborhood while helping connect people experiencing homelessness to services. While moderating, Hughes repeatedly harkened back to themes from Operation Rio Grande including focusing on rooting out wolves, or criminals that can use mass encampments to prey on vulnerable people experiencing homelessness and peddle illegal drugs. Operation Rio Grande drew praise from its supporters for swiftly tamping down on lawlessness in the area, but criticism from groups including the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah for a law enforcement-first approach that can bring negative consequences for unsheltered people. People experiencing homelessness hang out in the median on 400 West in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 25, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch) In his speech, Cox pointed to a book titled The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, by Sam Quinones, who argues the U.S. made a huge mistake, Cox said, when it swung the pendulum too far on the compassion side when it comes to dealing with drug use and its impact on homelessness. I want to be very clear, compassion is a good thing and absolutely necessary in this work. You cannot do this work without compassion, Cox said, but he said the U.S. has swung too far in not doing enough to discourage and prevent drug overdoses and addiction. Cox said policymakers need to focus more on accountability while also not forgetting compassion. He said Quinones uses the saying, you can lead a horse to water, but you cant make them drink, but you can make that horse very thirsty. Its not a false choice, he said. We can do both of those things. We can have compassion, and we should. We can do more to provide space, provide lodging and to provide help, recovery services, to provide everything that person needs. But if they choose not to do those things, then we have to hold them accountable and make them thirsty. A warning against jumping to defund During one of the panel discussions, which was focused on data supported solutions to homelessness, Eva Witesman, director of the Ballard Center for Social Impact at Brigham Young University, said she had some concerns or fears when it comes to dangling dollars over the heads of homeless service providers and asking them to use data to justify their eligibility for funding. Data is a powerful way to learn and to manage, and we also sometimes use it to make funding determinations and policy determinations, she said. One of my concerns and warnings is on behalf of providers. Data should be used to help providers learn and not to punish them. Witesman urged policymakers to be thoughtful before defunding a program. Even if we discover that some program that has been running is not effective, there should be space for those organizations to learn, change, grow and improve their metrics rather than simply defund, she said. By jumping to defund, Witesman said that can lead to a drain of institutional knowledge. When we defund people, we lose the experts who have actually been working in this space, she said. Failure is a part of learning and a part of the work that were doing here. The post Utah Gov. Cox to homeless providers: Produce results, or you could lose funding appeared first on Utah News Dispatch. Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes is pictured on the first day of the legislative session at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes is pictured on the first day of the legislative session at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch) Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes and Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador signed a letter with 19 Republican counterparts asking the American Bar Association to drop its diversity and inclusion standards for law schools. DEI efforts implemented in the schools directs their administrators to violate both the Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin, the states argued. The letter comes a year after the U.S. Supreme Courts decision in a lawsuit against Harvard College that dictated students must be considered based on their experiences as an individual and not on their race. The decision led higher institutions to stop affirmative action policies, and many states since then have passed laws restricting DEI programs. In Utah, a bill restricting DEI programs in public institutions is scheduled to become effective on July 1. Under that law, all public Utah schools are required to make all programs and resources available to everyone regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, among other identity traits. The diversity and inclusion standard of the American Bar Association, which is currently under revision, seemingly asks law schools to defy the Courts clear directive. In its current form, the Standard all but compels law schools to consider race in both the admissions and employment contexts, according to the letter led by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. The standard establishes that law schools should demonstrate by concrete action a commitment to diversity and inclusion by providing full opportunities for the study of law and entry into the profession by members of underrepresented groups, particularly racial and ethnic minorities, and a commitment to having a student body that is diverse with respect to gender, race, and ethnicity. The same diversity and inclusion commitment should also be extended to faculty and staff. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The issue with this guidance, the attorneys wrote, is that it suggests schools undertake concrete actions such as special recruitment efforts and considerations, in addition to special financial assistance programs. But, the standard and its accompanying recommendations dont mention how to take those suggested actions without unlawfully using race-based means. If race-based admissions cannot satisfy strict scrutiny (), then neither can racially motivated recruitment or financial aid, according to the letter. A demand to show a commitment to have a body of faculty and staff thats diverse with respect to race and ethnicity, is also an explicit demand to make hiring decisions based on race, the attorneys argued. By maintaining the standard, the attorneys continued, the American Bar Association would burden every law school in the country with litigation. Further, if American legal culture internalizes the ABAs determination to ignore unwanted legal obligations, our profession, and our country, may never recover, the letter reads. The proposed revisions for the American Bar Association include that the access commitment must be extended to all persons, including those who have faced disadvantages or exclusion because of their identity traits. Faculty and staff should also be diverse with respect to different characteristics, such as race, religion, gender and socioeconomic background, among others. But, those changes do little to solve these problems, according to the letter, as bundling race with other permissibly considered characteristics does not somehow make (the standard) requirements any more constitutionally sound. The issue is concerning, the attorneys said, because accreditation rests on a tightrope walk between federal law, on one hand, and (the standard) contrary demands on the other. Utah News Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Utah News Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor McKenzie Romero for questions: info@utahnewsdispatch.com. Follow Utah News Dispatch on Facebook and Twitter. DONATE: SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST The post Utah, Idaho joins request to American Bar Association to drop its DEI standards appeared first on Idaho Capital Sun. Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes is pictured on the first day of the legislative session at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch) Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes signed a letter with 20 of his Republican counterparts asking the American Bar Association to drop its diversity and inclusion standards for law schools. DEI efforts implemented in the schools directs their administrators to violate both the Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin, the states argued. The letter comes a year after the U.S. Supreme Courts decision in a lawsuit against Harvard College that dictated students must be considered based on their experiences as an individual and not on their race. The decision led higher institutions to stop affirmative action policies, and many states since then have passed laws restricting DEI programs. In Utah, a bill restricting DEI programs in public institutions is scheduled to become effective on July 1. Under that law, all public Utah schools are required to make all programs and resources available to everyone regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, among other identity traits. The diversity and inclusion standard of the American Bar Association, which is currently under revision, seemingly asks law schools to defy the Courts clear directive. In its current form, the Standard all but compels law schools to consider race in both the admissions and employment contexts, according to the letter led by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. The standard establishes that law schools should demonstrate by concrete action a commitment to diversity and inclusion by providing full opportunities for the study of law and entry into the profession by members of underrepresented groups, particularly racial and ethnic minorities, and a commitment to having a student body that is diverse with respect to gender, race, and ethnicity. The same diversity and inclusion commitment should also be extended to faculty and staff. Let us know what you think... The issue with this guidance, the attorneys wrote, is that it suggests schools undertake concrete actions such as special recruitment efforts and considerations, in addition to special financial assistance programs. But, the standard and its accompanying recommendations dont mention how to take those suggested actions without unlawfully using race-based means. If race-based admissions cannot satisfy strict scrutiny (), then neither can racially motivated recruitment or financial aid, according to the letter. A demand to show a commitment to have a body of faculty and staff thats diverse with respect to race and ethnicity, is also an explicit demand to make hiring decisions based on race, the attorneys argued. By maintaining the standard, the attorneys continued, the American Bar Association would burden every law school in the country with litigation. Further, if American legal culture internalizes the ABAs determination to ignore unwanted legal obligations, our profession, and our country, may never recover, the letter reads. The proposed revisions for the American Bar Association include that the access commitment must be extended to all persons, including those who have faced disadvantages or exclusion because of their identity traits. Faculty and staff should also be diverse with respect to different characteristics, such as race, religion, gender and socioeconomic background, among others. But, those changes do little to solve these problems, according to the letter, as bundling race with other permissibly considered characteristics does not somehow make (the standard) requirements any more constitutionally sound. The issue is concerning, the attorneys said, because accreditation rests on a tightrope walk between federal law, on one hand, and (the standard) contrary demands on the other. American Bar Association letter SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE The post Utah joins request to American Bar Association to drop its DEI standards appeared first on Utah News Dispatch. HERRIMAN, Utah (ABC4) More charges have been filed against Keith Tyree McClendon the teen police say is connected to the fatal stabbing of a 16-year-old Valley High School student. McClendon, 19, was charged Thursday with one count of first-degree felony aggravated assault resulting in serious bodily injury with a gang enhancement and one count of third-degree felony aggravated assault, the District Attorneys Office said. READ NEXT: Additional teen identified in connection to fatal stabbing of 16-year-old On May 29, two high school aged boys, along with one of the boys moms, attended a high school graduation ceremony. Before the ceremony began, the DAs office said one of the boys received phone calls and threatening text messages from unknown numbers. When the three left the ceremony, they asked a South Jordan Police Department school resource officer to escort them to the moms car, the DAs office said. The mom then drove the boys to one of the boys cars that was parked nearby, but as they arrived, one of the boys said he noticed a car drive past and look at them in a weird way. The boys tried to hurry into the car, but McClendon had already come around the corner, the DAs office said. McClendon reportedly approached them and started pounding on the window. There were three other boys with McClendon, one of which has been identified as Hunter John Armstrong and the now-deceased 16-year-old. According to the DAs office, this group started banging on the moms car as well. The DAs office said the two boys tried to get out of their car but slipped, and McClendon allegedly started beating one up with brass knuckles. It was in the middle of the fight that the 16-year-old was stabbed. Another went to the hospital to be treated for laceration and contusions to his face, but the DAs office said the 16-year-old died at the scene. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah. PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) Portland police are on the search for who they describe as a man who allegedly shot at city equipment, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage in a series of incidents. According to the Portland Police Bureau, the individual used a handgun to damage the equipment on seven occasions since May 27. Police said theyre not revealing to the public what type of equipment it was for investigative reasons. However, police did release photos and video of the suspect during a shooting that occurred in Southeast Portland on May 27 at 5:10 a.m. A man has been shooting and damaging city property, according to Portland police. June 6, 2024 (courtesy Portland Police Bureau). A man has been shooting and damaging city property, according to Portland police. June 6, 2024 (courtesy Portland Police Bureau). Authorities released the following description of the individual, his car and the handgun used: The suspect was driving a black or charcoal colored 2008-2014 Subaru WRX sedan with no license plates. It has a hood scoop, low profile spoiler with red LED brake light strip, black wheels, and rain deflectors on the doors. He appears to be wearing a blue coat with hood, black pants, eyeglasses, and fires a handgun with tactical light. No injuries have been reported from these shootings. However, police said they are concerned for the safety of people residing in the neighborhoods where they have happened. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Portland police. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com. While many high school students will spend their summer break working odd jobs or relaxing with friends, Joseph Lavdas, a dedicated student at Vanguard High School, will embark on an extraordinary journey. Lavdas has been selected to participate in the intensive U.S. Navy Summer Flight Academy aviation program at Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina. This elite eight-week program, running June 1 to July 31, will culminate in Lavdas earning his FAA private pilots license. Lavdas is one of only 28 high-performing 11th and 12th graders across the United States chosen for this prestigious program. Established in 2021 by the Commander Naval Air Forces (CNAF), the Summer Flight Academy aims to increase exposure to Naval aviation among young students. Joseph Lavdas The Navy collaborates with select universities nationwide to provide flight training to these exceptional students. The program's approximate cost of $28,000 per student is fully covered, offering this invaluable opportunity at no expense and with no obligations to the students. In addition to their pilot certification, participants earn five college credits upon completing the program. The Department of the Navy sponsors the Summer Flight Academy for students involved in the Navy and Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. This initiative, part of a broader STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) program, was selected for funding by the Naval STEM Coordination Office within the Office of Naval Research. The office manages investments in STEM education, outreach and workforce initiatives to nurture the next generation of innovators and leaders. The goal of the scholarship program is to inspire and expose exceptional young talent from communities across the nation to a career path in Naval aviation, said Tamara Graham, deputy director and CNAF Flight Academy program manager. Joseph Lavdas has demonstrated incredible potential, and the Navy is honored to play a part in his personal and professional journey. During the Summer Flight Academy, Lavdas will undergo a rigorous training regimen, including a minimum of 32 hours of classroom aviation academics and over 40 hours of flight training. He will gain hands-on experience flying a Vulcanair V.10 single-engine aircraft or a Piper Warrior (PA-28.) As part of the certification process, Lavdas must complete 17 hours of solo flights, a critical component of pilot training. Lavdas selection for this program is a testament to his hard work, dedication and exceptional abilities. As he prepares to take to the skies this summer, he represents not only his school and community but also the bright future of Naval aviation. His journey will undoubtedly inspire other young students to pursue their dreams and explore the exciting possibilities within STEM fields. This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Ocala Florida's Joseph Lavdas attends elite Navy Summer Flight Academy SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Nora Vargas rescinded approval for a plan to build new sleeping cabins for homeless people outside Spring Valley two weeks after it was indefinitely paused citing community concern. In a Friday release on the move, Vargas said that the project, which would have placed about 150 tiny cabins along Jamacha Road to expand emergency housing options for unhoused people in the county, failed to meet communities standards for health and safety. Her office added that the county will work to find other solutions to improve the living conditions for homeless and unsheltered populations in San Diego. Heres the climate report card for San Diego County To my community and the residents of Spring Valley, I want you to know I see you and I hear you, Vargas said in a statement. The fact is, the only way that we are going to find real solutions to addressing our homelessness and housing crisis is to hear community concerns and find workable solutions that prioritize the health and safety of everyone who lives here. I understand concerns expressed by residents about putting these cabins near schools and parks where children play, and believe that we can find better, more thoughtful solutions by working with affected communities, she continued. The Board of Supervisors approved the sleeping cabins project back in March, accepting $10 million in state funding to go towards the $18.5 million designing and construction costs for the site. The annual operating cost was estimated to be about $6 million. It is unclear whether the move to scrap the Jamacha sleeping cabins will impact the state funding it received for the project. According to Vargas, however, the county already has $8.5 million in federal funding to assess alternative sites for homelessness solutions in Spring Valley. The backtracking on the sleeping cabins comes as other regional leaders have struggled to get projects to expand shelter options for unhoused residents off the ground. Part of this difficulty has come out of pushback from some community members, who have voiced concern about safety in the area surrounding a proposed shelter site. Below: A June 7 report from Juliette Vara for FOX 5 on the proposed Middletown mega-shelter. This includes contentious plans by city of San Diego officials to add a safe parking site at H Barracks near Point Loma and a 1,000-bed mega-shelter in Middletown to its portfolio of existing facilities the vast majority of which only have a handful of beds each night that are available to take in unsheltered people referred to emergency housing, advocates say. Shelter isnt the absolute solution, but its a critical piece to really helping people who are on the street, Josh Bohannan, chief strategy officer at Father Joes Villages, said during a Friday meeting of the San Diego City Council where the Middletown shelter was discussed. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. FILE PHOTO: Canopy over St. Peter's Basilica high altar is covered during restoration, at the Vatican FILE PHOTO: Canopy over St. Peter's Basilica high altar is covered during restoration, at the Vatican VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Vatican police arrested a former employee for allegedly trying to sell to the city-state a 17th-century manuscript by Italian Baroque master Gian Lorenzo Bernini that had previously disappeared from archives, a Vatican spokesman said. Experts said the 18-page document, with gilded miniatures, contains the first details of the decorative features in the canopy of St. Peter's Basilica designed by sculptor and architect Bernini. Bernini is considered the leading master of Italian Baroque architecture in the 17th century and among his masterpieces is the colonnade that surrounds St. Peter's Square. The suspect, who was arrested on May 27 on charges of attempted extortion, had worked for the Fabric of St. Peter, the institution responsible for the conservation and maintenance of St Peter's Basilica. He remains in custody at the Vatican and has been questioned twice in recent days, the spokesman added. Vatican prosecutors will decide next week on whether he will be formally indicted. Prosecutors launched the investigation after a complaint from the Fabric and arrested the man when he brought the manuscript back to the Vatican offering it for 120,000 euros ($130,716). The news was first reported by Italian daily Domani, which identified the suspect as a former Fabric head of communications and said he allegedly tried to sell the manuscript to Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica. Domani said the missing manuscript was back in the Vatican's possession. ($1 = 0.9180 euros) (Reporting by Alvise Armellini; writing by Angelo Amante; editing by Giulia Segreti and Mark Heinrich) London law firm Fox Williams has filed a lawsuit against Boohoo on behalf of a group of investors who suffered losses as a result of allegations about labour rights violations in Boohoos supply chain. The firm called the action a landmark case which it claimed could test the role of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in company governance and disclosure in the UK. Boohoo has been the subject of allegations about its supply chain on a number of occasions. The claim cites allegations published in the Sunday Times in 2020 and 2022, and by BBC Panorama in 2022 and 2023. The investors say Boohoos share price plummeted in 2020 and 2022 following the Sunday Times accusations and again in 2022 and 2023 following the BBC Panorama programmes. The claimants allege that Boohoo made untrue or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose or delayed the disclosure of material information to the market, in breach of its obligations under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000." A spokesperson for boohoo group told Just Style: We have been made aware of a claim that is being brought by certain shareholders. The company strongly contests the allegations and will vigorously defend any claim. The claimants are hoping to recover damages for their losses, as well as interest and costs related to the fall in Boohoos share price as a result of the accusations. Fox Williams added that the claim also offers Boohoo a chance to discharge their stewardship obligations to support rigorous standard across supply chains in the fast fashion sector. In a statement, the law firm said: Fox Williams hopes that, by launching claims such as these, investors are able to incentivise UK public companies to improve the governance of working conditions and to reduce blue-washing in the fashion industry. Andrew Hill, partner at Fox Williams, added: This is a landmark case that will test the legal framework for securities litigation in the UK and the role of ESG factors in corporate governance and disclosure. "Boohoo is a prominent example of a company that failed to live up to its ESG responsibilities and caused significant harm to investors. We believe that our clients have a strong case for compensation. In February 2024, Boohoo was accused of making surface deep changes in response a BBC Panorama documentary alleging poor purchasing practices and concern over worker conditions in its supply chain. The news came shortly after Boohoo was accused of labelling goods produced overseas as 'Made in the UK' in January 2024, although a spokesperson told Just Style at the time that this was an "isolated incident". Story continues "Boohoo lawsuit could test the role of ESG in company disclosures" was originally created and published by Just Style, 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. Vehicle collision near Boise leaves teenage driver dead. Crash is being investigated A teenage driver was killed in a single-vehicle crash north of Boise early Friday, the Ada County Sheriffs Office said. Deputies from the Sheriffs Office responded to the crash on Cartwright Road just after midnight Friday, Lauren Montague, a spokesperson for the Sheriffs Office, told the Idaho Statesman by email. The driver and a passenger were taken to a hospital, where the 17-year-old driver died from their injuries, the Sheriffs Office said. Information about the drivers identity hasnt been released. The Sheriffs Office said the crash is under investigation by its crash reconstruction unit. All About the Venomous Flying Spiders Invading This Summer and When They're Coming to Your Area Here's what to know about the Joro spiders arriving this summer, including the states they're expected to invade Getty Joro spider It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's a parachuting venomous flying spider! Called Joro spiders, these enormous arachnids have been spreading across North America since the 2010s and are expected to continue making their way up the East Coast this summer. Georgia was the first state to experience the invasion of the Joro spiders, believed to have made their way from East Asia via shipping trucks or containers around 2013. They are native to China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Whether you have arachnophobia or not, many East Coasters are bracing themselves for the Joro spiders' arrival due to their size and poisonous nature (oh, and their ability to "fly"). The invasive species can have up to a 4-inch leg span and possess venom in their fangs. But before your spider senses start tingling, these arachnids scientifically titled, Trichonephila clavata (T. clavata) are completely harmless despite their jarring characteristics. According to EarthSky, Joro spiders do not pose a threat to humans or pets and "may even be beneficial." Plus, they don't technically "fly" in the avian sense. "Joro spiders utilize a technique known as ballooning, where they release silk threads into the air, allowing them to be carried by the wind," the New Jersey Pest Control shared. National Geographic editor Christine DellAmore, who's led recent reporting on the Joro spider topic, tells PEOPLE exclusively that we "don't have to worry about them." She assures, "They're not going to sting you. They're not going to bite you." Read on for what to know about the Joro spider's arrival, including when and where they're expected to invade the United States. Related: Venomous Flying Spiders May Soon Invade the East Coast, Experts Say What do Joro spiders look like? getty A large, female Joro spider on her web. Joro spiders, scientifically called Trichonephila clavata, are described as invasive arachnids native to East Asia. Depending on the spider's gender, their characteristics differ. In contrast to male spiders' smaller size, adult females can grow to the size of one's hand. Mature females are also vibrant in color in comparison to the males' relatively colorless brown, according to National Geographic. The females have striped legs and abdomens that look like "they've been dipped in a pool of swirling yellow, red, and black paint." Joro spiders themselves are an exotic sight to see, but their three-dimensional webs are even more spectacular. Adult female spiders can spin strong webs that are yellow-gold in appearance and can span up to 10 feet, according to a study by University of Georgia's Department of Entomology. When are the Joro spiders expected to arrive in the United States? Joro spiders spend winter in their egg sacs, emerge in the warmer weather and grow in the months that follow making them easy to spot due to their striking size. Therefore, spotting them depends on where you reside because they haven't yet made their way up the entire East Coast. In fact, most of the Joro spiders have already "arrived" but due to their small size when they hatch from their eggs, they aren't as easy to spot compared to their matured appearance. Related: Get Ready for Sharkfest 2024! The Summer TV Event Promises a Month of Shark Excitement Which states will be affected by the Joro spiders? Getty A joro spider waits in its web for prey In addition to Georgia, which was the first state graced by their presence around 2014, Joro spiders are expected to work their way up the East Coast with the use of their ballooning technique. "Spiderlings of this particular group are really good dispersers because of the way they're able to spin a piece of silk. It kind of acts like a parachute, if you will, and gets dragged by the prevailing wind currents," study leader E. Richard Hoebeke, curator of arthropods at the Georgia Museum of Natural History, told National Geographic. Data from a peer-reviewed study published in November 2023 showed that "there is an abundance of suitable habitat for T. clavata throughout eastern North America and in some areas in the western part of the continent." "Those data show that this spider is going to be able to inhabit most of the eastern U.S. It shows that their comfort area in their native range matches up very well with much of North America," David Coyle, one of its authors, shared in a press release. As of October 2022, the Joro spider's range spanned across Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee. There were also reports of the species in Alabama, Maryland, Oklahoma and West Virginia. Related: Invasive Fish Species with Snake Head Found Once Again in Missouri Jose R. Ramirez-Garofalo, an ecologist at Rutgers University's Lockwood Lab, told the Staten Island Advance in April 2024 that "it is a matter of when, not if," the spiders make their way to New York and New Jersey. However, National Geographic's DellAmore tells PEOPLE that it's unlikely Joro spiders would make it up to New Jersey and New York from those states by this summer "that quickly." She explains it can take "several generations for a spider to spread" despite the ballooning behavior the young spiderlings use to travel to different places. "It would take multiple years for them to reach the US Northeast." The Royal Entomological Society's February 2022 study proved via lab experiment that Joro spiders "can exist in a colder climatic region," but DellAmore points out that "there isn't proof in real life yet that they can survive New England winters." She adds, "There's no evidence that they have made it to these states and established populations yet." Are the Joro spiders dangerous to humans or pets? Since Joro spiders are capable of living in "human-dominated landscapes," per a study published by the University of Georgia in February 2024, it makes sense why fear and anxiety are prevalent among many ahead of their arrival. However, Joro spiders pose zero threat to humans or pets. Yes, they have venom in their fangs... like all spiders do! David Nelson, a professor of biology at Southern Adventist University who has studied the growing range of Joro spiders, told NPR that a bite from one of these creatures might itch at worst or perhaps cause an allergic reaction. According to a February 2023 University of Georgia study, Joro spiders have an "extremely shy and non-aggressive personality" as a result of an air puff test that caused them to remain "in a frozen state" for over an hour! EarthSky notes that Joro spiders "may even be beneficial" to us. The site explains, "The spiders eat insects such as stink bugs, which cause crop damage and swarm in homes. They can help control insects without the use of pesticides." Related: Tussock Moth Caterpillars Make 'Abundant' Return to Florida as Experts Remind Locals Not to Touch Them Should Joro spiders be killed? Getty A Joro spider is seen making her web nests. Whether you're arachnophobic or not, DellAmore tells PEOPLE "there's no need to kill spiders when you see them." That goes for Joro spiders, too. "There are only very few spiders that are actually harmful to people and those are black widows and brown break loose spiders," she points out. "The vast majority of spiders are eating pests and playing important roles in the ecosystem." In fact, DellAmore says spiders "don't want to interact with us." Therefore, she stresses "we should be good neighbors to them, let them do their thing and we do our own thing." She adds, "We can coexist peacefully." For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on People. Jury finds five of seven defendants guilty in Feeding Our Future trial A federal jury in Minneapolis found five of seven defendants guilty Friday for their roles in a scheme to defraud the government of money intended to feed hungry children part of what prosecutors are calling one of the largest pandemic-era fraud cases in the country. The five were convicted of the majority of the felony charges they faced, including wire fraud conspiracy. Two defendants were acquitted. The seven-week trial was the first in a broader FBI-led case that charged 70 people with stealing $250 million. "The verdict confirms what we've known all along, which is that defendants falsified documents, they lied and they fraudulently claimed to be feeding millions of meals to children in Minnesota during COVID," Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said in a news conference after the verdicts were read. The seven defendants had ties to a Shakopee restaurant and received about $40 million. Prosecutors presented 1,300 exhibits to the jury to make their case that they submitted phony invoices to the government, along with rosters of made-up children's names and improbably high meal count forms. It was a "depraved" and "brazen" scheme that has outraged Minnesotans across the state, Thompson said. He said prosecutors were pleased with the verdicts and proud of the trial. Prosecutors didn't take questions from reporters, citing pending trials for more than three dozen other defendants tied to St. Anthony nonprofit Feeding Our Future. Those trials could take place this year. The mixed verdicts meant the jury carefully considered each of the defendants' charges over four days of deliberations, said Joseph Daly, emeritus professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law. "I don't think you could look at this as a defeat for the prosecution or a victory for the prosecution," Daly said. The defendants six men and a woman claimed federal reimbursements for serving 18 million meals at 50 food sites across Minnesota from Rochester and Owatonna to St. Cloud. Feeding Our Future and the St. Paul nonprofit Partners in Nutrition oversaw the sites. Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, 35, was convicted of 23 crimes; Mohamed Jama Ismail, 51, was convicted of three counts; Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, 23, was convicted on 10 counts; Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff, 33, was convicted of four crimes; and Hayat Mohamed Nur, 27, was found guilty on three counts. The most serious charges carry a possible penalty of 20 years in prison. Farah's brother, Said Shafii Farah, 41, and Abdiwahab Maalim Aftin, 33, who started a Minneapolis wholesaler, were found not guilty. "The jury listened to the evidence and did their jobs," Aftin's attorney Andrew Garvis said. Said Farah's attorney, Steve Schleicher, said his client was grateful to be exonerated and eager to move on. He said his client had supplied groceries to other defendants and there was no evidence of a conspiracy. Said Farah and Aftin were ordered to be released from custody; the other five defendants remain in jail. The five were suddenly arrested Monday after the attempted bribery of a juror. Just before final closing arguments, a woman left a bag with about $120,000 in cash at the home of a 23-year-old juror, telling a relative that she would receive more money if she voted to acquit. The woman used the juror's first name even though the jury's names were not made public. The juror reported the attempt to Spring Lake Park police and was excused from the jury. The FBI is investigating how the name was leaked and who was behind the bribery attempt; a conviction could carry a 10-year federal sentence. A second juror was excused Tuesday after hearing about the incident from a family member. "We will investigate and prosecute that attack on our criminal justice system with all of our resources," Thompson said Friday. In a rare move, U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel sequestered the jurors for four nights until they reached a verdict. She also added security to the courtroom and confiscated defendants' phones to investigate the leak of juror names. Six men and six women sat on the jury; most were from the Twin Cities area and ranged in age from 27 to 69. The panel received the case Monday night and started deliberating Tuesday on 41 counts. The jurors sat through a complicated trial that included about 135 hours of testimony and arguments over 24 days. Sitting in for Brasel on Friday, U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz thanked jurors and acknowledged that they participated in an unusually long and difficult case. Prosecutors said Abdiaziz Farah was the scheme's ringleader. . The Savage resident ran Empire Cuisine & Market, which enrolled in U.S. Department of Agriculture programs that reimburse schools, nonprofits and day-care centers for feeding low-income children after school or during the summer. His attorneys, Ian and Andrew Birrell, didn't return messages for comment. During the trial, they argued that Farah spent millions of dollars on food and could make money as a for-profit business. Ismail, also of Savage, ran the business with him. His attorney, Patrick Cotter, argued in the trial that prosecutors painted the defendants with a broad brush inaccurate allegations. He said his client was more focused on running the restaurant than the meal programs. Cotter said in a statement Friday that he will appeal the conviction. "Our democracy depends on the promise of due process and vigorous vetting of the facts applied to the law by a citizen jury," he said. Shariff, who led a Bloomington cultural center that worked with defendants' other entities to distribute meals, was the only defendant to testify and call witnesses. His attorney, Frederick Goetz, argued during trial that the Burnsville resident only oversaw food logistics, not any financial paperwork. Goetz said Friday that he will also appeal. "[Shariff] believes strongly what he did wasn't a crime and will continue to seek vindication," he said. Abdimajid Nur of Shakopee was accused of creating and submitting fake invoices. His attorney, Edward Sapone, didn't return messages for comment but had argued in the trial that Nur, a Minnesota track star who is enlisted in the U.S. Army, had a minor role in meal programs. Nur's sister, Hayat Nur of Eden Prairie, was also accused of creating and submitting fake invoices. Her attorneys, Michael Brandt and Nicole Kettwick, declined to comment. During the trial, they argued that she played a small clerical role, did what her bosses asked and was swept up in allegations simply by association. Prosecutors called witnesses from across the state who saw no or few meals served at the food sites, FBI agents and accountants who traced money to personal expenses including lakefront property on Prior Lake and gold jewelry and a former Feeding Our Future employee who testified about a "booming" fraud scheme of rampant kickbacks and bribes. Defense attorneys said their clients served real food to real kids, but they said FBI investigators never searched some food sites. They argued that prosecutors assumed criminal intent of Somali immigrants, not understanding their culture of informal transactions based on trust and verbal agreements. Inside the courtroom Inside the 13th floor courtroom overlooking downtown, the jury sat through usually long six-hour days filled with presentations of flowcharts, spreadsheets and reams of financial records. Besides a dizzying amount of data, the case also involved a complicated web of companies, nonprofits and individuals. A date hasn't yet been set for sentencing. None of the 18 people who have previously pleaded guilty in the broader case have been sentenced, but possible sentences range from about two years to nearly five years in prison. The biggest indictment in the case involves Feeding Our Future executive director Aimee Bock and 13 other defendants tied to Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis, the largest participant in the meal programs in the investigation. In that case, one man pleaded guilty last year; another, Abdikerm Abdelahi Eidleh, a former Feeding Our Future employee who is accused of taking kickbacks and creating fake meal sites with a man who pleaded guilty, fled the country. Daly said Friday's verdicts could prompt other defendants to take their case to trial, knowing there's a chance of acquittal. But, he said, it's going to be more difficult to find jurors who are impartial if they heard about the attempted bribery and could be worried about their safety. This case took an unusually long four days to find jurors who weren't connected with or had strong opinions about a scandal that's made headlines for more than two years. Brasel repeatedly reminded the 12 jurors and six alternates to avoid media coverage. Prosecutors, who have said more charges will be filed, have seized more than $66 million in the case. The verdicts delivered for each defendant were: Abdiaziz Shafii Farah - Guilty on all counts but one Wire Fraud Wire Fraud Conspiracy in Count 1Wire Fraud in Counts 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, and 11Conspiracy to Commit Federal Programs Bribery Count 13Federal Programs Bribery in Counts 14 and 17Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering in Count 20Money Laundering in Counts 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 32, 33, 37, 39, and 42False Statement in a Passport Application in Count 43 Mohamed Jama Ismail - Guilty on all counts but Wire Fraud Wire Fraud Conspiracy in Count 1- GuiltyWire Fraud in Count 2 -Not guiltyConspiracy to Commit Money Laundering in Count 20 - GuiltyMoney laundering- Guilty Abdimajid Mohamed Nur - Guilty on all counts but three counts of money laundering Wire Fraud Conspiracy in Count 1Wire Fraud in Counts 3, 4, 6, and 12Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering in Count 20Money Laundering in Counts 24, 25, 29, 34, 35, 38, 41 Said Shafii Farah - Not guilty on all counts Wire Fraud Conspiracy in Count 1Wire Fraud in Count 12Conspiracy to Commit Federal Programs Bribery in Count 13Federal Programs Bribery in Counts 16, 18, and 19Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering in Count 20Money Laundering in Counts 21 and 40 Abdiwahab Maalim Aftin - Not guilty on all counts Wire Fraud Conspiracy in Count 1Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering in Count 20Money Laundering in Count 27 Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff - Guilty on four counts, not guilty on two counts. Wire Fraud Conspiracy in Count 1 - GuiltyWire Fraud in Count 8 - GuiltyConspiracy to Commit Federal Programs Bribery in Count 13 -Not guiltyFederal Programs Bribery in Count 15 - Not guiltyConspiracy to Commit Money Laundering in Count 20 - GuiltyMoney Laundering in Count 31 -Guilty Hayat Mohamed Nur - Guilty on three counts, not guilty on two counts Wire Fraud Conspiracy in Count 1 - GuiltyWire Fraud in Counts 4 - Not guiltyWire Fraud in Counts 10 and 11 - GuiltyMoney Laundering in Count 34 - Not guilty Staff writer Erin Adler contributed to this story. A group of Burlington, Vermont, high school students were touring a local police department as part of a forensics class this week. In the middle of a presentation from a detective, the unthinkable happened: a masked gunman burst into the room and seemed to open fire. The students were terrified. One says she dove on the ground, hurting her knee. Another says she reached for her phone to text her mother. But soon, the students realized that they weren't actually being shot at. Instead, they were the victims of a bizarre "demonstration" from the local police. According to Seven Days, a Vermont independent newspaper, the students had no idea that the presentation would involve a mock shooting. Students were watching a detective speak at the front of a room when they heard screams. Two women ran in, followed by a man wearing a ski mask, whoit seemedbegan firing. "I'm shaking and crying because I'm like, 'Oh my god, I'm gonna get shot,'" one student told Seven Days. "It felt so real." The students eventually realized that the shooting was fake after police officers in the room failed to do anything to stop the apparent gunman. While performing a fake mass shooting with high schoolers was obviously a terrible idea, it's unclear whether high school staff also share some blame for needlessly terrifying the students. The teachers told Seven Days that, while they knew officers would possibly demonstrate a "gunshot-related crime," they had no idea they wouldn't be warned first. However, in an email obtained by Seven Days, "teachers said officers told them that they'd previously used the lesson with college students and adults, and that they wanted the event to be 'as realistic as possible.'" In a statement, police claimed that school staff had agreed to the content of the demonstration and that it would include "fake firearms in a mock shooting." "Do you think that sort of incident would be ok for your group of students?" police asked school employees on May 23. "It is about as real life as you can get, and is certainly exactly the sort of thing we deal with most frequently." "I think these students will be fine with this simulation," school employees replied, according to a statement from police. "We will give a heads up to parents and students." No matter how you slice it, there's not much educational utility to having a fake gunman commit a "mock shooting" in a room full of unaware high school students. However, it's far from the first time that police have gone overboard with educational demonstrations like this. In 2019, police in Indiana shot elementary school teachers with airsoft guns during an active shooter training drill. Those teachers filed a lawsuit. The post Vermont Cops Terrorize High School Students With 'Mock Shooting' appeared first on Reason.com. A Vermont police department has apologized for a mock shooting that took place at the station while students were there as part of a school program. The Burlington High School students were visiting the Burlington Police Department through a school Year End Studies, or YES, forensics program. The mock shooting was a "roll-playing (sic) scenario" where three members of the Burlington Police Department simulated "a robbery scenario," according to a news release from the department. The simulation was "not directed at any students or faculty," the department said, but was witnessed by the visiting students. One student told local outlet the Vermont Public she did not know about the planned scenario. She said that during the simulation, two screaming women burst into the room, followed by a man in a ski mask. The simulation was accompanied by gunshot sounds, the student said. Burlington, Vermont police logo. / Credit: Burlington Police "It was laughed about afterwards," she told the Vermont Public. "(It) just made it feel like a prank, basically not much of a demonstration." The department said that it had communicated the plans for the simulation with school officials. "On 23 May 2024, police department staff and YES program staff communicated about the details of the scenarios, including saying that the training incident would involve 'using fake firearms in a mock shooting. Do you think that sort of incident would be ok for your group of students? It is about as real life as you can get, and is certainly exactly the sort of thing we deal with most frequently,'" the department said in the news release. "YES Program staff responded, 'I think these students will be fine with this simulation. We will give a heads up to parents and students,'" the department continued. The Burlington School District did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CBS News. The police department said it would meet with students Friday to talk about the presentation and its impact. The mother of a student told local outlet Seven Days that she feared the incident could exacerbate children's fears around gun violence. "I'm baffled," she told the publication. "It is a very real threat to kids these days to have a school shooting. It's something they worry about." Pat Sajak takes final spin on "Wheel of Fortune" Polish general examines Putin threat to arm West's enemies Who will be Trump's 2024 VP pick? These are the contenders The Burlington, Vermont, Police Department issued an apology on Thursday after staging a mock mass shooting during a high school field trip. The ordeal terrorized the students and even left some injured, according to local outlet Seven Days. The incident took place Wednesday at the Burlington police station as roughly 20 students were watching a presentation on how detectives solve crimes, when suddenly they heard screams from behind them. A masked gunman then burst into the room and started firing fake rounds, leading the teens to duck for cover as loud gunshot noises filled the room. The students said they were not told about drill beforehand. Im shaking and crying because Im like, Oh my god, Im gonna get shot. It felt so real, one Burlington High School student told Seven Days, adding that she texted her mother, believing she was on the verge of being killed. Another student scraped her knee while diving for cover. The students said they eventually realized the incident was fake when they noticed the cops in the room werent trying to stop the shooter. In an email sent to parents, teachers said they didnt know the drill would happen abruptly without warning. They added the officers had assured them theyd performed the drill which they wanted to be as realistic as possible before with college students and adults. The detectives did apologize after they realized that the reenactment did not translate well to high school students, the teachers wrote. On Thursday, the police department told Seven Days the realistic demonstration was meant to depict a robbery scenario and be part of a lesson on witness fallibility. They added the school district had approved the drill ahead of time. However, the department apologized to any students who were upset by the specific scenario and crime scene portion of the presentation. Im baffled, one outraged mother told the outlet. It is a very real threat to kids these days to have a school shooting. UPPER ARLINGTON, Ohio (WCMH) Veterans from all walks of life came together Thursday at a bakery in Upper Arlington. The family who owns La Chatelaine has hosted a D-Day celebration for the last 33 years to honor veterans who have served our country. Columbus playground mistakenly torn down, contractor agrees to pay for replacement Three World War II Veterans were able to attend the celebration and one shared with NBC4 his favorite part of the gathering: To be with all the great men who served their country, World War II Veteran Carl Strout said. Strout is turning 99 next month. There were veterans from all over, and some came to remember those who have passed away. We have another friend here were saluting today, and its Albert Williamson and Albert is 100 years old, and he flew two missions on D-Day, Vietnam veteran Don Bradley said. The reality of it is theres a lot of people here that have paid the ultimate price. The family behind the bakery had grandparents who fought in World War II. This is one of the ways they honor their sacrifice as well as many others. It is a pleasure of our family to give thanks to all American vets who have done so much for this country and for us, La Chatelaine CEO Marie-Charlotte Harden said. The Americans when they invaded, which was the beginning of the end of World War II, helped with the resistance and helped with winning the war and without them, we wouldnt be here without the American vets of World War II. La Chatelaine is a little bit of France in Ohio and the family wants to thank every American veteran. NBC4 at 75: Why we call him the mighty Ben Gelber Its important to teach the younger generation what they did, how they fought for the country. And so its like a memory to continue the memory and honor the ones that are still alive, Harden said. The celebration started with both the American and French national anthem. Then people sat down to eat and share stories. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV. Sixty years ago in May, President Lyndon Johnson stood before a crowd of graduates and parents at the University of Michigans commencement and outlined a vision for a Great Society. He mentioned many policies that would later become part of LBJs War on Poverty, but most importantly, he stressed that our society will not be great until every young mind is set free to scan the farthest reaches of thought and imagination. Universal preschool teacher Zondra Sickles Blake, left, and student August Williams look at a live worm during class at Cumberland Elementary School on Thursday, April 18, 2024, in Lansing. Today, LBJs vision for a Great Society, built on the cornerstone of education, is realized through Head Start, one of this countrys most effective anti-poverty programs. Providing Pre-K to young children and whole family support services to those families at or below the Federal Poverty Line, Head Start attacks poverty at the roots ensuring that young students and their families are equipped to enter kindergarten ready to learn. Head Start provides health screenings, nutrition services and parental support, removing barriers to learning that often stifle young minds. But Head Start is more than just an anti-poverty program in Michigan. It also serves as a backbone for Michigans growing early childhood education system. Pre-K for All is the latest initiative joining the stellar line up of options that Michigan currently offers young children. It aims to build upon what already exists and works well in our state. In Michigan, 8% of all 4 year olds are educated in Head Start classrooms. Most of these classrooms are operated by nonprofit, community-based organizations (CBOs), such as Community Action Agencies. These CBOs work in tandem with the traditional school system to offer parents flexibility and choice between different types of Pre-K providers. The Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP) is Michigans existing Pre-K program, educating tens of thousands of young children across the state. Governor Whitmer is seeking to aggressively expand GSRP to all of Michigans four-year-olds through her Pre-K for All initiative. Thats a good thing because, as we know in the early childhood education space, all children can benefit from Pre-K. For years, Head Start programs have offered blended classrooms, where funding from Head Start and GSRP works together to improve the quality of service for children enrolled in the program. This blend is essential and benefits children and families. It also allows Head Start and GSRP to be mutually supportive, letting Michigan leverage the federal governments investment into Head Start to serve more children across the state. However, new proposals from the Michigan legislature threaten this partnership. The recently released Michigan House of Representatives School Aid Fund proposal calls for limiting Michigans ability to tap into CBOs, like Head Start programs, to expand GSRP. These changes call for drastically altering a Pre-K system in Michigan that is working for providers, parents and children. By limiting community-based nonprofits from expanding their Pre-K programs, these legislative proposals would limit parent options to choose a program that best fits their needs and is flexible around their schedule. LBJ started the push for more and better Pre-K 60 years ago in Michigan. Today, Governor Whitmer and the Michigan legislature lead the nation in their vision for a diverse and well-funded Pre-K system for all children in Michigan, one that leverages the strengths of schools, nonprofits and Head Start programs to build a successful Pre-K for All program statewide. We should realize this vision and keep Michigan on course to realize a nationally leading Pre-K system. Susan Harding is chief executive officer for the Oakland Livingston Human Service Agency and has 25 years of experience working in community action and nonprofit agencies, including directing Head Start and foster care. The Biden-Harris Administration recently released a letter encouraging states pursuing Pre-K for All to implement a mixed delivery system that meets the needs of all students and parents. Michigan is building such a system, but these new legislative proposals would detour us off this path. If passed, these proposals would strike a blow to the foundation of Michigan's existing and future Pre-K (for All) system. Susan Harding, PhD, CCAP, NCRT, is OLHSA Chief Executive Officer and has 25 years of experience working in community action and nonprofit agencies, including directing Head Start and foster care. This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Viewpoint: Universal Pre-K in Michigan works; proposals could upend that Spanish chemicals company Briolf has announced that it is to establish its first manufacturing plant in the US. Briolf USA, the company's regional subsidiary, will invest $30.5m into a facility in Monroe, North Carolina, with an accompanying 100 jobs to be created. Among the new positions will be engineers, managers and operations and support staff. They are expected to generated more than $5m a year in wages for the local area. The site will be home to operations for coatings manufacturer Roberlo, Briolfs main subsidiary. Among other things, Roberlo's product portfolio includes solutions for industrial coatings and automobile restoration. The facility will also offer customer services for all Briolf businesses operating in the US. The Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (EDPNC) worked with Catalonia Trade and Investment on the initial stages of the project. A $150,000 performance-based award from the One North Carolina Fund will also assist in Briolf's growth. Jaume Juher, president of Briolf Group, said: We are really excited for this significant milestone in our history. The US has become a crucial market for us. Having this first production plant in North Carolina reinforces our strategy and maximises our presence in the entire region. We want to thank all representatives of the state as well as the Monroe Union County Economic Development Commission. Their advice and continuous support during the project was an essential part of our decision. As a family run company, our vision takes a long-term perspective. We believe this partnership will be very positive for both our company and the entire community in the coming decades. North Carolina Commerce Secretary Machelle Baker Sanders added: Im pleased to see such an innovative, family-owned company like Briolf choose North Carolina for its first manufacturing plant in the US. To keep our winning edge in the global economic development marketplace, I will continue to focus on building and training our workforce, so great opportunities like these jobs will keep coming to North Carolina. "Briolf to establish first manufacturing operation in the US" was originally created and published by Investment Monitor, 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. Virginia Woman Accused of Killing Her 3 Roommates Before Going on the Run: 'Heinous' Alyssa Jane Venable, 23, was arrested in connection with the murders of Robert John McGuire, 77, Carol Anne Reese, 65, and Gregory Scott Powell, 60, per police Spotsylvania Sheriff's Office Alyssa Jane Venable A Virginia woman has been arrested on murder charges in connection with what authorities described as the "heinous" killings of her three roommates. Alyssa Jane Venable, 23, was arrested on Thursday in New York State, a day after her roommates were found slain in their Fredericksburg, Va., home, the Spotsylvania Sheriff's Office said in a statement later that day. The victims have been identified as Robert John McGuire, 77, Carol Anne Reese, 65, and Gregory Scott Powell, 60, who were found with upper body trauma," the sheriff's office said in its initial statement. On Tuesday, June 4, authorities responded to their residence after receiving a request for a welfare check, per police. The request was made by a friend of Venables who was concerned after, he claimed, she had made disconcerting statements, WUSA 9 reported, citing authorities. Prior to her arrest, Venable's grandmother expressed concerns about the suspect's well-being, claiming she was a danger to herself and "in desperate need for help." "I pray that the authorities are looking for her as a person who is in harm's way as well, because we think she's in harm's way, if not from someone else but from her own self," Venable grandmother, Jane Venable, told WUSA9. 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 suspect, of Spotsylvania, Va., was apprehended two days following a chase by New York State troopers, the sheriff's office said in its follow-up statement. The pursuit ensued after troopers recognized her vehicle from the description given by Virginia authorities, per the statement, and Venable allegedly refused to stop at a traffic stop initiated by law enforcement. She was eventually captured after her vehicle crashed when police used a tire deflation device. Police did not list a cause of death for the deceased and did not release a possible motive. The sheriff's office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment. It wasn't immediately clear if Venable has entered a plea or retained an attorney to speak on her behalf. For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on People. Vitalant, El Paso first responders to host blood drive at Cielo Vista Mall EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) Vitalant and El Paso area first responders will host the Respond to the Call Blood Drive event from Friday, June 7 to Sunday, June 9 at Cielo Vista Mall, the mall announced in a press release. Las Cruces Police, partners to hold blood drive this weekend Formerly known as the Battle of the Badges, this annual outstanding event has resulted in donations that have transformed the lives of patients in our community, read the press release. Every two seconds, someone needs a blood transfusion. The mall says regular blood donations are needed to ensure a safe and ready supply is available for patients every day. A blood donation can be used for multiple purposes such as trauma patients or those with massive blood loss, patients undergoing cancer treatments and more. The mall says blood drive donors will receive a free drive-branded t-shirt, a $10 gift card and a chance to win one of five $5,000 gift cards. The schedule is as follows: Friday, June 7 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, June 8 from noon to 7 p.m. Sunday, June 9 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. For more information about Cielo Vista Mall, visit their website or their Instagram and Facebook. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News. Von der Leyen: Will never allow Europe to be weakened Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission and EU and EPP lead candidate, takes part in the final rally of the CDU and CSU for the European elections in the Loewenbraeukeller. Sven Hoppe/dpa In the face of major crises as well as threats from Russia and extremists, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has made an urgent plea for a strong and united Europe. "The European Union cannot be taken for granted," she said on Friday evening at the closing rally for the German conservative CDU/CSU bloc in Munich. A peaceful Europe is being challenged by populists, extremists and demagogues, such as the right-wing nationalist Marine Le Pen in France and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Germany. "These extremists have one thing in common: they want to weaken, destroy and ruin our Europe," she said, adding that will never be allowed to happen. She therefore wants a broad alliance: in favour of the rule of law, in favour of Ukraine and in favour of a strong Europe. The top candidate for Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU), Manfred Weber, said with regard to the AfD and especially the camp led by Bjorn Hocke: "We will not allow these neo-Nazis to destroy our Europe." In view of the Russian threat, von der Leyen once again urgently called for a stronger common defence policy. "If we want to preserve peace on our continent, we must not hesitate," she said. Europe must once again invest more money in its defence and its defence industry. "We want a Europe that can defend itself," she said. Von der Leyen also campaigned for a consistent European migration policy and more climate protection: "We owe our children and grandchildren an intact natural environment," she said. According to opinion polls, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the CSU together can expect to win the European elections in Germany on Sunday by a large margin. Von der Leyen is aiming for a second term at the head of the European Commission, while CSU deputy Weber wants to remain European People's Party (EPP) chairman and leader of the parliamentary group in the European Parliament. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission and EU and EPP lead candidate, takes part in the final rally of the CDU and CSU for the European elections in the Loewenbraeukeller. Sven Hoppe/dpa (L-R) Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission and EU and EPP lead candidate; Manfred Weber, lead candidate for the European elections from the Christian Social Union (CSU); Friedrich Merz, Federal Chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU); and Markus Soeder, Chairman of the CSU and Minister President of Bavaria, participate in the closing rally of the CDU and CSU for the European elections at the Loewenbrawukeller. Sven Hoppe/dpa The Wichita Falls City Council on Friday came up short on a vote to lift restrictions on water usage. Although three council members voted in favor of lifting the restrictions and two voted against it, the measure failed because councilors Mike Battaglino and Bobby Whiteley were absent, leaving the panel short of the four votes needed to pass the measure. "Water is such critical issue. When you look at all things, like La Nina making it drier and hotter, I'm apprehensive about rolling the dice," City Council member Tom Taylor said during the specially called meeting Tuesday. Wichita Falls city councilors on Friday voted to lift water use restrictions that had been in place since drought struck the region 18 months ago. Water customers have been under Stage 1 Drought Watch restrictions for the past 18 months as the region was gripped in a lingering drought. Plentiful rain in 2024 has replenished the city's lakes with the primary reservoirs, lakes Arrowhead and Kickapoo, recovering to a combined capacity of 79.4 percent. Lake Kemp, which contributes to the supply, was 100 percent full on Friday. By Friday, Wichita Falls was nearly 10 inches ahead of normal precipitation for this time of year. Stage 1 has the lowest restrictions of any of the city's five drought categories and applies mainly to outdoor watering. At a council meeting on Tuesday, Public Works Director Russell Schreiber said it's possible global weather conditions could tilt to the La Nina category this summer, which could mean hotter and drier than normal conditions. He predicted, though, that area lakes would remain in good shape through November. Lakes were almost depleted during a historic five-year drought that began in 2011. When lakes dipped below 20 percent of capacity, the city rushed to build a potable reuse system that recycles effluent water into Lake Arrowhead. The city is also pursuing construction of Lake Ringgold in Clay County and won approval from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in May. More: Dallas company says $1 billion facility coming to Wichita Falls More: JCPenney signs at Sikes Senter announce closing of store This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Vote to lift Wichita Falls water restrictions fails The referendum was for one school. Earlier this spring, Smyrna School District turned to voters for additional funding needed on several capital projects approved back in 2021 as market pressure had inflated costs previously outlined as well as to keep up with new operating costs throughout the system. They were rejected in March. Come this week, a revised referendum hit the polls. That adjusted request made no mention of previous supports, like expanding and converting Clayton Intermediate School to Clayton Middle School and expanding North Elementary, nor operating expenses like constables, mental health supports, salaries and tech enhancements. It was one ask: Securing the local share, or just over $4.1 million , in funding needed to build a new intermediate school. That 600-student school would look to answer classroom-capacity needs. Without that boosted funding, ensuring the state's 77% contribution, the district would fail to move forward. Voters said yes. The site of the planned school for fourth and fifth graders in Smyrna is on the west side of Rabbit Chase Lane, across from Sunnyside Elementary, south of Sunnyside Road. With just 22 votes making the difference, Smyrna voters approved the boost, according to unofficial results. Debt-service payments will be spread over a 20-year cycle, the amount per average property owner hovering around $17 a year, for the first five years. Then the amount will gradually decrease, until reaching about $9.99 in 2044. If reassessments are on the mind: Most districts also say they will remain "revenue neutral" after reassessments and following adjustments. Per state law, districts are capped at a 10% provision for additional revenue. The district said the two other construction projects North Elementary renovation and Clayton Intermediate addition actually went out to bid with "favorable results," meaning the projects will fall within amounts previously approved. Summer is here: When is the last day of school in Delaware? The answer varies across public schools Delaware referendum elections in 2024 People enter the polling site at Smyrna Middle School to vote in the Smyrna School District referendum June 6, 2024. This year has already seen eight elections on boosting public school funding. Flashback for Delaware: Why do attempts to raise school funds keep failing? February saw nearly 4 out of every 5 Brandywine voters approve an operational ask. Next, Red Clay voters loudly approved operation and capital-project requests at about 71% each, just one day before Colonial's would do the same. Then, come March, Smyrna and Cape Henlopen schools saw requests rejected. Next, Appoquinimink got voters to reconsider a second-chance referendum in April. Cape's next attempt failed yet again, while Smyrna saw a different result this week. Contact Kelly Powers at kepowers@gannett.com or (231) 622-2191, and follow her on X @kpowers01. This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Voters approve funding boost for Smyrna School District, by 22 votes The owner of a Whatcom County funeral home thats providing space for the countys temporary morgue and is being investigated by the state and the county for claims that bodies of the deceased were stored without refrigeration in one of its facilities in May is pushing back on the notion that they are at fault. In a statement sent Thursday evening, June 6, John Moles, fourth-generation owner and funeral director for Moles Farewell Tributes & Crematory Center, said the Whatcom County Medical Examiners Office is to blame for the improperly stored human remains. Reports about the mishandling of decedents under the care of the Whatcom County Medical Examiners Office are grossly incomplete and unfairly tarnish the reputation of our funeral home, Moles said in the release. When Whatcom County was in a difficult situation seeking a temporary Medical Examiners Office facility last year, we provided the county use of our preparation room for autopsies, plus office space and space to place a storage cooler for decedents. We were acting as a landlord and couldnt move decedents without a request from the Medical Examiners Office, which has a legal responsibility for the decedents. We offered to transport their decedents to our refrigerated space at Greenacres Memorial Park near Ferndale only upon the request of the Medical Examiners Office and when we had staff available or were already heading there. We didnt receive a request on Friday, May 10. On May 10, we told the Medical Examiners Office that it needed to make arrangements for the decedents under its care. They told us that funeral homes were coming to pick up the decedents later that day. When we returned to work Monday, May 13, we discovered that no one had picked up the decedents. It was the sole responsibility of the Medical Examiners Office to make arrangements for the proper handling of those decedents. Its understandable why families are distraught over this situation, and we are heartbroken over this mismanagement and negligence by the Medical Examiners Office, the statement said. Moles Farewell Tributes & Crematory Center has been owned by the Moles family for four generations and has provided funeral care in Whatcom County for more than 100 years, according to its website. The Herald has reached out to the Whatcom County Executives Office, which is handling media inquiries on behalf of the Whatcom County Medical Examiners Office. Temporary lease Whatcom County entered into a lease agreement with Lengesot LLC also known as Moles on Aug. 1, 2023 to provide temporary space at its Bayview Chapel location in Bellingham for the Whatcom County Medical Examiners Office to conduct autopsies, store bodies and perform other duties required by the examiners office while the countys morgue and medical examiners offices on State Street in downtown Bellingham are being renovated. The lease was originally slated to end in March but was extended by the Whatcom County Council at its May 21 evening meeting due to construction delays with the State Street project. The lease will now last through the end of the year, according to county documents. As part of the lease agreement, Moles is expected to provide space in its garage at its Bayview Chapel location for a cooler that could store up to three bodies. If additional storage space is needed, Moles is expected to transport the bodies to its Greenacres Memorial location east of Ferndale. The lease agreement states that Whatcom County will pay Moles $250 per autopsy performed by the county medical examiners office at Moles Bayview Chapel location. The county will also pay $50 for Moles to transport bodies to its Greenacres location for purposes of overflow cases, according to the lease agreement. To accommodate overflow, transportation will be provided by the Landlord when mutually determined necessary through coordination with the Medical Examiners Operations Manager. Transportation to the Green Acres facility will occur when capacity at the leased facility is limited, the lease agreement states. The county has paid Moles $36,803 for autopsies and transports from Aug. 1, 2023 through February 2024, according to Jed Holmes, a spokesperson for the Whatcom County Executives Office. Holmes said the step-by-step procedure in place for how a body is handled from the time the medical examiners office takes custody of it until the time it is then released to the family and/or funeral home for burial or cremation purposes is as follows: Once the medical examiner has taken custody of a body, itis transferred to Moles Bayview Chapel location on Lakeway Drive. The body is then placed in a three-person cooler, which is owned by the county, while an autopsy is scheduled. The autopsy is then performed by county medical examiner staff at Moles Lakeway facility, the site of the temporary morgue. Following completion of the autopsy, the body is then transferred to Moles Greenacres location where it is placed in cold storage until it is retrieved by the selected funeral home, crematory, etc;, Holmes said. The county purchased the three-person cooler in late 2022 for approximately $7,500. It was delivered in March 2023 and was put into use at the State Street morgue immediately after delivery, according to Holmes. The three-person cooler is now currently located at Moles Bayview Chapel location and is being used to store bodies prior to autopsy, Holmes said. Operating costs for coolers are not significant, except for electrical costs, which are similar to a typical commercial-sized cooler, Holmes said. The Herald has asked the county multiple questions related to its lease with Moles; whether the protocols outlined in the lease have been followed; the number of autopsies and transports that have taken place; who had jurisdiction over the bodies that are alleged to have been unrefrigerated in May; whether discussions regarding the county terminating its lease with Moles have occurred and more. John Moles declined to comment at this time when asked Thursday evening whether he was considering terminating the lease with Whatcom County. State investigation The Washington State Department of Licensing and Whatcom County started inquiries into Moles and the Whatcom County Medical Examiners Office after becoming aware of allegations that multiple bodies under the care of the medical examiners office went unrefrigerated in mid-May while at the countys temporary morgue, resulting in severe decomposition, The Bellingham Herald previously reported. The state licensing department received a phone call from a local funeral director on May 16 alleging that a dead body they picked up from the temporary county morgue had not been refrigerated while in the care of the county medical examiners office. The funeral director alleged that when they received the body on May 16, roughly six days after the person died, they found the decedent severely decomposed and covered in flies, according to Christine Anthony, a funeral and cemetery inspector, investigator and trust examiner with the state licensing department. When the state licensing department became aware of the temporary lease agreement between the county, medical examiners office and Moles, and that a funeral home was involved, it launched an investigation May 17, The Herald previously reported. The state licensing departments Funeral and Cemetery Board licenses funeral directors, embalmers and cemetery operators within the state. It also investigates violations of state regulations related to the funeral and cemetery industries, according to the Washington State Governors website. The state licensing departments Funeral and Cemetery Boards investigation is looking into possible violations by Moles of state regulations that govern the refrigeration or embalming of human remains. The licensing department does not have regulatory authority over the medical examiners office, but does over Moles, Anthony said. Theres no expected timeline for when the state licensing departments investigation will be completed, but it could take several months, Anthony told The Herald. The state administrative codes governing the refrigeration or embalming of human remains state that Funeral directors, embalmers, and others assisting in the preparation of human remains for final disposition shall refrigerate or embalm the remains upon receipt. Officials can delay the refrigeration of human remains or remove the remains from refrigeration for purposes of embalming; transporting; cremating, reducing by alkaline hydrolysis or burying or reducing by natural organic reduction. Refrigeration can also be delayed for washing, anointing, clothing, praying over, reading to, singing to, sitting with, guarding, viewing, or otherwise accompanying the deceased for not more than 24 hours according to the deceaseds directions or at the request of the person who has a right to control the disposition of the remains, according to the state administrative codes. Two funeral homes have complained to the state licensing agency about the situation, and at least one Whatcom County Council member has as well. Anthony said she has spoken with at least two local funeral homes, the Whatcom County Health and Human Services Department, and Moles as part of the investigation. As of Thursday afternoon, she said she had not yet heard from the countys medical examiners office. I have been assured during each conversation with the respondent funeral home and staff that all human remains are in refrigeration since the May 17th conversation with the business owner, Anthony said in a previous statement to The Herald. I have not yet determined responsibility for this situation. The Herald has reached out to the county health department for more information. We Walk For Her march continues to call out citys inaction over missing Black girls and women: No one would help me We Walk For Her march continues to call out citys inaction over missing Black girls and women: No one would help me Daisy Hayes daughter Teresa Smith held up a colorful image of her late mother at the annual We Walk For Her march Thursday evening, calling out elected officials and the Chicago Police Department for not helping when her mom disappeared in 2018. Hayes, 65, went missing in May 2018 from a Chicago Housing Authority senior citizen apartment where she lived. Hayes former boyfriend, Jimmy Jackson, then 72, was captured on surveillance video leaving the building with a suitcase and dragging it through the lobby to a dumpster outside. The next day, a garbage truck emptied the dumpster and transported the contents to a landfill in Indiana. Yet a body was never recovered because officials told Hayes family that it would be too costly to retrieve and that a body wasnt needed for prosecutors to pursue charges. Then in 2022, Jackson was acquitted in the death of Hayes after Cook County Judge Diana Kenwothy noted a lack of evidence. I had nowhere to go, no one to run to, Smith said to the crowd gathered at 35th Street and Martin Luther King Drive. I went to police stations, churches, everywhere. No one would help me. I went to the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization when I was on fumes and they helped me when they started We Walk For Her. Smith said her community has a voice. You have people willing to stand up with you, she said. This really needs to stop. Just because we live in a certain area code, ZIP code, it shouldnt matter. We all are human. This hurts beyond anything I ever dealt with in my life. Youths and adults in lavender T-shirts with the words We Walk For Her took to the southbound lanes of King Drive to protest the continuing lack of action when it comes to missing Black and brown girls and women. A young woman with the organization Mothers Opposed to Violence Everywhere said police need to look at Black females the way they look at white females and must put as many resources into searches for Black victims as they do when a case involves a white victim, citing the example of the death of YouTube blogger Gabby Petito, which garnered nationwide attention. Tanisha Williams of Kenwood Oakland Community Organization told reporters and onlookers that communities of color are outraged and heartbroken over the disregard for their trauma, and demanded more accountability from police and elected officials. She said Illinois needs to pass an Ebony Alert law like the one in California. Williams said she would like civilian liaisons in each police district. Too many times families are pushed off or shoved around to different detectives or not getting any answers or feedback for their loved ones, Williams said. Too many times officers are controlling that narrative, and today that stops. Today, we are saying we want community liaisons in every police district to be able to interact with victims in the community in terms of real-time community alerts and reports on whats happening. We want someone there to be genuine and empathize with families who are being impacted. Jitu Brown, national director for Journey for Justice Alliance, said he believes Mayor Brandon Johnsons administration can accomplish some concrete things. Ald. Jeanette Taylor, 20th, said that for seven consecutive years, this march and the young girls who lead it, have been asking for a task force for missing women, like one in Minnesota. As Taylor remembered some of the missing Chicagoans, such as the Bradley sisters and Kierra Coles, she said its past time for such as task force. We pay taxes as well; we get the right to say how were protected, Taylor said. At the end of the day, the young ladies missing in my community are just as important as the young lady missing in their community. Journalist Trina Reynolds-Tyler of the Invisible Institute was talking to participants and handing out literature about her Pulitzer Prize winning series Missing in Chicago. She spoke to Edwina Davis, chairperson of the local school council of John Drake Elementary School, who was participating in the march for the fourth time. A lot of people want to tell us dont make it about race, but its absolutely about race because we can match how many Caucasian or girls of other nationalities have been found, Davis said. Our girls tend to disappear a bit more without being found, whether dead or alive. I want to see some consistency, some investigation. Show us that youre trying. Out of all the years of doing these walks, I learned you cant tell us to wait 24 hours. If my daughter is missing for five minutes, Im coming to the police station. We need to be trained, learn our rights when were reporting missing people. If we found Amber with the alerts, lets find Ebony. I want my daughter home: Woman who killed alleged abuser granted new sentencing hearing in wake of legislation A judge has granted a new sentencing hearing to a woman arguing for relief from her 28-year prison sentence because she said she shot and killed her abuser out of fear and panic. Marseilles Redmond is pursuing early release in a case that her attorney and domestic violence advocates say is emblematic of a criminal justice system that has historically not taken the complexities of abuse into account when ordering harsh sentences. Redmond, 44, for years has sought sentencing relief under an Illinois law that allows domestic violence survivors to make a case to a judge for a reduced sentence. But her quest for release from prison was thrown a new obstacle by the Illinois Supreme Court in November when it ruled in another case that the law doesnt apply to defendants like Redmond who entered a guilty plea instead of having been convicted by a judge or jury. Now, the door has cracked open again for Redmond. In May, the Illinois legislature amended the law to clarify that domestic violence survivors who pled guilty can seek resentencing. And though the change doesnt take effect until next year, Cook County prosecutors withdrew their objection to a new sentencing hearing for Redmond. Alexis Mansfield, a senior adviser with the Womens Justice Institute who fought for the amendment in the wake of the court decision, said the legislation paves the way for more survivors to seek relief under the law. Its time that their voices are heard, she said. During a Friday morning court call at the branch court in Skokie, Judge Paul Pavlus ordered a new sentencing hearing as family members teared up, later hugging outside the courtroom. I will grant the petition at this time, he told the court. For Redmonds family, who have long fought to bring her home, the decision offers a glimmer of hope, but underscores that there is still work ahead. They expect prosecutors to contest an early release, with both sides putting on witnesses during the sentencing hearing. Im still positive, said Marseilles mother Vadal Redmond, emotional after the hearing. Its looking better. Marseilles Redmonds case goes back to July 2001 when she shot and killed the father of her infant at an Evanston gas station. Redmond has argued that she killed Narsell Love in in fearful moment after suffering abuse, culminating in him bumping his car over and over into the back of her bumper while her 1-year-old was strapped in the back. Cook County prosecutors, though, have presented a different story. Assistant States Attorney Paul Hooper has argued Redmond saw Love with a new flame and shot him multiple times, alleging that she approached him, pointed the gun at his head and executed him. The dueling interpretations of the fatal shooting will likely be aired during the sentencing hearing, which does not yet have a date. The parties will convene again in July for a status hearing. The tragedy at the heart of the case is one that Vadal Redmond and her daughter feel deeply, she said. I couldnt imagine losing a child, especially losing a child to violence, Vadal Redmond said. Im trying to understand both sides. Ultimately, though, she noted that even if her daughter is denied early release, she will be released eventually. I want my daughter home, she said. I miss her. After Love was killed and Redmond went to prison, their young child went to live with Vadal Redmond. Now grown, Shea Redmond, 23, has attended court hearings with his grandmother. The tragic case has been particularly emotionally complicated for him, he has said, losing his father at the hands of his mother and later learning about the allegations of abuse. Hes said hes been able to build a relationship with his mother while in prison, and has kept every letter shes written to him. She started writing to him before he could even read, the early letters written with large, block letters more comprehensible to a child. As he grew older, the letters that arrived were longer and more intimate, he said. Shea Redmond collected them for his mothers attorney to use at her sentencing hearing in the hopes that they offer a window into his mother as a person. I do cherish them, he said. Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) hasn't gotten as much attention as some other artificial intelligence (AI) stocks, but the company expects to see demand for chips ramp up due to the increase in generative AI-driven infrastructure. Broadcom does a lot of things and it has been a prolific acquirer over its history, recently taking over VMware. Among its specialties are custom chips and networking chips. Both categories are likely to see a spike in demand from artificial intelligence, and at least one analyst seems to be taking notice. Image source: Getty Images. Melius initiates Broadcom with a buy rating Melius Research just kicked off coverage on Broadcom with a buy rating and a price target of $1,850, representing upside of 31% from its closing price on Wednesday. The research company called Broadcom a "must-own AI stock," noting its leadership in several chip categories, which account for 30% of revenue, and it was also bullish on the impact of VMware as it gains more subscriptions. The company has a history of cutting costs after acquisitions and looks set to run that playbook on VMware. Can Broadcom keep climbing? Broadcom has already been a winner in the AI boom with the stock up more than 150% since the start of 2023. However, the business has yet to reflect that. In its fiscal first quarter, which ended in February, the company reported organic revenue growth of 11% as it experienced some tailwinds from AI as well as headwinds from the earlier slowdown in the semiconductor sector. However, the company is expecting a significant jump in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) this year to $30 billion due in part to the impact from acquiring VMware. Broadcom now trades at just over 30 times earnings. If the company can capitalize on the AI boom and show accelerating revenue growth, the stock should continue moving higher. Should you invest $1,000 in Broadcom right now? Before you buy stock in Broadcom, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now and Broadcom wasnt one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, youd have $750,197!* Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*. Story continues See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of June 3, 2024 Jeremy Bowman has positions in Broadcom. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Is Broadcom Stock Going to $1,850? 1 Wall Street Analyst Firm Thinks So. was originally published by The Motley Fool WaPo CEO Will Lewis: Ask Me Anything Except About That Phone Hack Cover-Up An email landed in Washington Post staffers inboxes on Thursday from CEO Will Lewis, encouraging them to sign up for a chance to grill himnot on allegations he tried to block coverage of his foreign cover-up scandal, but on his new plans for a divvied-up newsroom. Next week, I will be holding Say It sessions regarding the Build It phase of our plan, the email read. But six current and former Post staffers fumed to The Daily Beast that Lewis monthslong refusal to say anything on his alleged involvement in covering up a U.K. phone-hacking scandalstarted by Rupert Murdoch journalists hacking Prince Harrys cellcouldnt last much longer in a newsroom that touts how democracy dies in darkness. The newsroom is reeling after back-to-back stories outlining Lewis attempts to kill negative stories related to Prince Harrys lawsuit in the U.K., which alleged Lewis helped cover up News U.K.s phone-hacking into celebrities including Harry and actor Hugh Grant. The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Lewis criticized then-executive editor Sally Buzbees plan to publish a story on the lawsuit involving Lewis, while NPR revealed on Thursday that Lewis promised the outlet an exclusive interview unveiling his business plans if it didnt move forward with a December story outlining the U.K. case. WaPo Boss Was at Center of Murdoch Cover-Up, New Docs Claim Both stories ran in their respective publications, and Lewis showed Buzbee the door last weekend after three years atop the papers masthead. He placed an eventual fluffy interview discussing those business plans with Puck blogger Dylan Byers, who appeared enamored by an executive he described as effervescent despite Harrys claims that Lewis helped organize the deletion of millions of emails and lied to British police about it. (Questions about those claims never appeared in Byers article, though he did misidentify Lewis accent as Etonian, suggesting he had attended Englands most elite school. In fact, Lewis went to a public school in Londons outer suburbs.) One Post staffer described the newsroom as pretty shocked and outraged and in disbelief over Lewis reported attempts at editorial meddling. I think a lot of us would like to know more about the case, and now, we have some questions about his role in overseeing our coverage of his case, a second Post staffer told The Daily Beast. Its shocking and definitely a violation of the standards we hold ourselves to if true. The Post did not respond to requests for comment. The Post Guild has repeatedly refused to comment on Lewis legal issues abroad, including after a request by The Daily Beast on Thursday, though it plans to hold listening sessions with members in the next few weeks. It has been a contentious week for the British publishing maven, whose initial attempts to charm the Pulitzer Prize-winning newsroom have seemingly backfired. His staff-wide town hall introducing temporary executive editor Matt Murray and future executive editor Robert Winnett landed like a thud at the D.C. papers office. Lewis reportedly chastised staffers for the papers $77 million in losses over the past year, saying he needed to take decisive, urgent action to reverse course. His solution, as this week revealed: bringing aboard people he knows. (Murray did not respond to repeated requests for comment.) But his reported obstruction in editorial matters flies in the face of the role of a publisher, whose job is traditionally to oversee the companys business dealings while the executive editor handles the actual journalism. How Much Will It Cost to Keep Rupert Murdoch Off the Stand? Thats basic Journalism 101 that the publisher stays out of editorial decision-making that can lead to situations like this, a third Post staffer said. Its important for news organizations to be able to report fairly on themselves, and that includes their own executives, their own staff, their own editors, and as it comes, their own reporters, Guardian columnist Margaret Sullivan, who previously served as the Posts media columnist, told The Daily Beast. Sullivan, who also served as the Times in-house watchdog, said the Gray Lady was usually respectful of her role as internal ombudsman, a firewall that was important for a news organization dedicated to truth and accountability. Its also important for top editors to have autonomy and for there to be some sort of boundary between the business side and the newsroom, Sullivan said. To earn back the newsrooms trust, Sullivan said, Lewis needs to talk with the staff, take questions, [and] be transparent. Sullivan and the third Post staffer pointed to how the Post has repeatedly covered its billionaire owner Jeff Bezos and his various companies without any apparent attempts at tampering, a fact ex-editor Marty Baron praised the billionaire mogul for last year. New Washington Post Publisher Infuriated His Old News Corp Staff During Phone Hacking Crisis Attempts by [Bezos] to do so would probably trigger mass resignations, the second Post staffer said. But coming from the publisher? Thats really worrisome. Lewis alleged meddling seems to run counter to his initial town hall with WaPo staffers last November, during which he repeatedly touted the merits of independent journalism. I will never buckle, Lewis said at the time. I will never yield when it comes to defending you. We will always get the story done. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. War over Taiwan would change world, says Australia ambassador to US Kevin Rudd By Kirsty Needham (Reuters) - Australia's ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, cautioned in a speech that the global consequences of a war over Taiwan would be as great as the impact of the Second World War, making the world "a radically different place". If Chinese President Xi Jinping, who turns 71 this month, wanted to achieve "final national unification" with Taiwan he would likely act in the next decade before he reaches his 80s, Rudd said in a speech in Honolulu on Thursday. "We would be foolish to ignore the increasing clarity of China's military signalling, including the pattern of its most recent military exercises," said Rudd, who was twice Australia's prime minister in the previous decade. Whether China acts will depend on its perception of the strength of U.S. deterrence, he said. China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan strongly objects to China's sovereignty claims and says only the island's people can decide their future. The United States has expressed concern about Chinese military activity near Taiwan, including after the island's presidential election and the inauguration of President Lai Ching-te last month. China has warned the U.S. should not interfere in China's affairs with Taiwan. Taiwan and the United States have no official diplomatic relationship, as Washington formally recognises Beijing but is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself and is the island's most important international backer. The United States recognized that if China was successful in annexing Taiwan it would impact U.S. credibility and have "profound, and potentially irreversible effect on the perceived reliability of U.S. alliances worldwide", Rudd said. The United States, China and Taiwan have a common interest in avoiding open military confrontation on the future of Taiwan, said Rudd, a China scholar who was president of the Asia Society in New York until last year. "The economic costs, domestic political impacts, and unknowable geo-strategic consequences that such a war would generate would likely be of an order of magnitude that we have not seen since the Second World War," he said. "Whatever the outcome (an American victory, a Chinese victory, or a bloody stalemate), the world is likely to become a radically different place after such a war than it was before." (Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Christopher Cushing) Warren Buffett's private jet firm NetJets is suing its pilots' union over claims of defamation Warren Buffett's private jet firm NetJets is suing its pilots' union over claims of defamation NetJets has sued its pilots' union, accusing it of defamation over safety claims. The union took out an ad referencing the Boeing blowout, but NetJets doesn't operate any Boeing planes. "We view the lawsuit as an attempt to silence us," the union's president said this week. NetJets, the private jet firm owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, is suing its pilots' union. Filed Monday in an Ohio state court, the lawsuit accuses the union of defaming NetJets. The company sells ownership shares in private aircraft, giving customers the right to fly for a certain number of hours with short notice. The lawsuit claims the 3,400-member NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP) made false statements about the safety of the company's operations. In 2023, NJASAP said that training is being conducted by people "who have little to no knowledge of NetJets' standard operating procedures and aircraft," per the suit. It adds that this year, the union published an article saying NetJets "persists in its effort to draw down a once vibrant safety culture." The suit also said that in late January, the NJASAP took out an ad in The Wall Street Journal referencing the door plug blowout on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max, reading: "NetJets Owners: What if you looked out your window and saw a panel of the plane?" That blowout sparked a crisis at Boeing as the planemaker works to improve its safety culture amid increased scrutiny from regulators. However, NetJets doesn't operate any Boeing planes. Its lawyers said the ad was false and "clearly intended to alarm" customers. NetJets is asking the court for unspecified damages and to prohibit the union from making more statements. In a Wednesday press release, the NJASAP president, Pedor Leroux, said: "We view the lawsuit as an attempt to silence us." "However, NJASAP has a federally protected right and an organizational and moral responsibility to our members the NetJets pilots and to our customers to raise safety issues, and we will continue to do just that," he added. NetJets, in a statement shared with Business Insider, said it wouldn't comment on legal matters as its "focus is on providing the exceptional safety and service our owners expect and deserve." Read the original article on Business Insider Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has endorsed Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) amid a contentious primary he faces to keep his seat, Bowmans campaign announced in a press release. Corporate interests are spending millions against Congressman Jamaal Bowman because hes fighting hard to deliver good jobs, quality education, Medicare for All, and a Green New Deal, Warren said in the release. The race between Bowman and Westchester County Executive George Latimer for the Democratic nomination for New Yorks 16th Congressional District has created a divide among progressive New York Democrats after former Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) endorsed Bowmans opponent. Together, weve worked with President Biden to protect renters and have plans to lower housing costs, and I look forward to continued partnership, shoulder-shoulder, to stand up to MAGA extremists and deliver for working families, Warren continued in the release. Bowman said he is proud to call Senator Warren a partner in our progressive vision, per the release. She knows firsthand how to fight back against the billionaire class, and Im proud to have Senator Warren in our corner, Bowman continued. Together, were united in our mission to build a brighter, more equitable future for all, where the needs of working people are uplifted and corporations are held to account. Bowman also got a boost from United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain Wednesday. The @UAW fights for economic justice from the bargaining table to the ballot box, Fain said in a post on the social platform X. We need leaders like @JamaalBowmanNY who will fight for the wealthy to pay their fair share! We cant keep electing people who are too scared to stand up to the billionaires. The Hill has reached out to Latimers campaign. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) The Washington County Water Authority admits on June 6 as part of a lawsuit that it violated Freedom of Information Act laws by not recording its meetings between 2023-24. According to court documents, the WWA agrees to record all special and called open public meetings that it holds and retain them for a minimum of one year from the date of the meeting. The water authority also agreed to hold a training session on its obligations under FOIA presented by its attorneys within the next month. Fort Smith attorneys file FOIA lawsuit against Washington County The water authority also agreed to pay the plaintiff, Mickey Wayne Wagner $1,000 in attorneys fees. The case against the Washington County Water Authority was not a case where there was a simple malfunctioning of recording equipment during a meeting, said Wagners attorney Joey McCutchen. This was a case wherein a conscious decision was made to move the meeting from its normal location to a different location where there was no recording equipment available, and the meeting could not be recorded. This was a direct violation of Arkansas FOIA law and a classic example of why Arkansas needs stronger FOIA laws. On March 26, two Fort Smith attorneys, McCutchen and Stephen Napurano, along with their client, Wagner, originally filed a lawsuit against Washington County for the same FOIA violations. Washington County argues for dismissal of Freedom of Information Act lawsuit The lawsuit said Wagner found that the YouTube channel only had recordings from the January 26, 2023, March 16, 2023, and September 12, 2023 board meetings. The water authority was added to the lawsuit as a defendant on April 19. Ten days later, Washington County was dismissed from the lawsuit, leaving the water authority as the sole defendant. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KNWA FOX24. PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) A 57-year-old Washington man was arrested Wednesday for allegedly trying to lure a child into his vehicle. According to the Cowlitz County Sheriffs Office, Woodland resident James Lee Porter was identified as the vehicle owner of a white Toyota pickup truck with a cargo rack that had allegedly approached a 12-year-old girl at her school bus stop. Officials place Oregon State Hospital in immediate jeopardy status On May 31, Law enforcement said the girl told deputies a man had repeatedly tried to talk her into getting into the truck near South Cloverdale Road, telling her two scary men nearby were approaching her. However, the student saw no one else around, nor did she know the man, and her parents never gave permission to get into someone elses vehicle. The truck had reportedly driven past the school bus and the student told the bus driver this on Tuesday. After that, authorities were able to attain surveillance video from the school bus, identifying the car, which matched a vehicle owned by Porter and located in the 2200 block of South Cloverdale Road. Porter was subsequently arrested, booked into the Cowlitz County Jail, and faces the charge of luring. The sheriffs office shared a picture of the truck, asking the public to come forward if they have any information about other incidents involving it. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com. Washington Post Publisher and CEO Will Lewis isnt denying that he offered NPRs David Folkenflik a quid-pro-quo arrangement to kill a story on his connection to the UK phone hacking scandal. Instead, he has claimed their conversation was off the record and insulted Folkenflik as an activist, not a journalist. I had an off-the-record conversation with him before I joined you at The Post and some six months later he has dusted it down, and made up some excuse to make a story of a non-story, Lewis said in a statement given to the the Washington Post that also included his pejorative description of Folkenflik. Its the latest development in a growing scandal over the executives alleged efforts to interfere with news reporting that paints him in a bad light, which began after the sudden departure of Washington Post executive editor Sally Buzbee. Lewis announced Buzbees resignation on Sunday but offered no explanation for it. Lewis announced at the same time that his former Wall Street Journal colleague Matt Murry would replace her. But on Wednesday, the New York Times reported that less than a month before her exit, Lewis pressured Buzbee to quash a story the paper was working on that would have noted Lewis was likely to be named as a likely participant in the efforts at Rupert Murdoch-owned media outlets to cover up illegal phone hacking of celebrities in the 2000s. According to that report, Lewis made statements similar to his dismissal of NPRs reporting, telling Buzbee the story did not merit coverage and angrily accusing her of a lapse in judgment after she refused to budge. He has denied the NY Times reporting, but the Washington Post has separately confirmed it. Lewis is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, but he worked for multiple Murdoch-owned publications from 2010 to 2020, most recently the Wall Street Journal. He has since been named in the lawsuit Then on Thursday Folkenflik wrote that in December, shortly after Lewis was announced as the Posts new CEO and publisher, he repeatedly attempted to convince Folkenflik to drop a story about the phone hacking scandal and Lewis connection to it. In several conversations, Lewis repeatedly and heatedly offered to give me an exclusive interview about the Posts future, as long as I dropped the story about the allegations, Folkenflik said. A spokesperson who works directly for Lewis from the U.K. and has advised him since his days at the Wall Street Journal, confirmed to me that an explicit offer was on the table: drop the story, get the interview, Folkenflik added. The post Washington Post CEO Calls Reporter Who Exposed Quid Pro Quo Offer an Activist, Not a Journalist appeared first on TheWrap. (Photo by Aristide Economopoulos for States Newsroom) The Washington State Supreme Court has agreed to directly review a lower court ruling that invalidated the states ban on the sale of ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge Gary Bashor ruled April 8 that the ban violated the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and part of the Washington Constitution granting individuals a right to bear arms for self-defense. Bashors ruling blocked state authorities from enforcing the law, clearing the way for sales of high-capacity ammunition magazines to restart. Roughly 90 minutes after his decision came down, Supreme Court Commissioner Michael Johnston granted the request of state attorneys for a temporary stay to restore the prohibition. On April 25, Johnston extended the stay through the resolution of the case. This case stems from a dispute between the state and a firearms retailer Gators Custom Guns in Kelso, along with the business owner Walter Wentz. The state Supreme Court, in a separate action this week, agreed to also consider the request of Gators Custom Guns to modify Johnstons ruling and lift the stay. Legal briefs are due from each side this month. Justices will take up that matter in a July 10 conference. Gators filed a legal challenge against the ban on high-capacity magazines months after it went into effect in July 2022. State Attorney General Bob Ferguson followed up with an enforcement action, alleging the shop had violated state law by continuing to sell the prohibited magazines. The attorney generals office and lawyers for Gators asked the Supreme Court to take up the case, rather than having it go to a state appeals court. The court decided to take the case during a conference on Wednesday and issued an order to that effect on Thursday. Both parties agreed that this would end up in front of the Supreme Court eventually. Were happy to see the court take it up, said Pete Serrano, founder of the Silent Majority Foundation and a Republican candidate for state attorney general. The post Washington Supreme Court will hear case on high-capacity ammo magazine ban appeared first on Washington State Standard. An In-depth Look at the Upcoming Dividend and Historical Performance Brown-Forman Corp (NYSE:BF.B) recently announced a dividend of $0.22 per share, payable on 2024-07-01, with the ex-dividend date set for 2024-06-07. As investors look forward to this upcoming payment, the spotlight also shines on the company's dividend history, yield, and growth rates. Using the data from GuruFocus, let's look into Brown-Forman Corp's dividend performance and assess its sustainability. What Does Brown-Forman Corp Do? Warning! GuruFocus has detected 5 Warning Signs with BF.B. High Yield Dividend Stocks in Gurus' Portfolio This Powerful Chart Made Peter Lynch 29% A Year For 13 Years How to calculate the intrinsic value of a stock? Brown-Forman is a US-based manufacturer of premium distilled spirits that generates close to 70% of revenues in the whiskey category, under well-known Tennessee whiskey brand Jack Daniel's and bourbon brands Woodford Reserve and Old Forester. It also manufactures and distributes tequila, vodka, rum, gin, and premium wines. The company generates 47% of sales from its home market, while the bulk of international revenues come from Europe, Australia, and Latin America. The Brown family controls over 50% of the economic interests and a 67% voting power of the company. Brown-Forman Corp's Dividend Analysis A Glimpse at Brown-Forman Corp's Dividend History Brown-Forman Corp has maintained a consistent dividend payment record since 1985. Dividends are currently distributed on a quarterly basis. Brown-Forman Corp has increased its dividend each year since 1985. The stock is thus listed as a dividend aristocrat, an honor that is given to companies that have increased their dividend each year for at least the past 39 years. Below is a chart showing annual Dividends Per Share for tracking historical trends. Brown-Forman Corp's Dividend Analysis Breaking Down Brown-Forman Corp's Dividend Yield and Growth As of today, Brown-Forman Corp currently has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.94% and a 12-month forward dividend yield of 1.99%. This suggests an expectation of increased dividend payments over the next 12 months. Brown-Forman Corp's dividend yield of 1.94% is near a 10-year high and outperforms 36.24% of global competitors in the Beverages - Alcoholic industry, suggesting that the company's dividend yield stands out as an attractive proposition for income investors. Over the past three years, Brown-Forman Corp's annual dividend growth rate was 6.20%. Extended to a five-year horizon, this rate decreased to 5.30% per year. And over the past decade, Brown-Forman Corp's annual dividends per share growth rate stands at 6.40%. Story continues Based on Brown-Forman Corp's dividend yield and five-year growth rate, the 5-year yield on cost of Brown-Forman Corp stock as of today is approximately 2.51%. Brown-Forman Corp's Dividend Analysis The Sustainability Question: Payout Ratio and Profitability To assess the sustainability of the dividend, one needs to evaluate the company's payout ratio. The dividend payout ratio provides insights into the portion of earnings the company distributes as dividends. A lower ratio suggests that the company retains a significant part of its earnings, thereby ensuring the availability of funds for future growth and unexpected downturns. As of 2024-04-30, Brown-Forman Corp's dividend payout ratio is 0.46. Brown-Forman Corp's profitability rank, offers an understanding of the company's earnings prowess relative to its peers. GuruFocus ranks Brown-Forman Corp's profitability 9 out of 10 as of 2024-04-30, suggesting good profitability prospects. The company has reported positive net income for each of year over the past decade, further solidifying its high profitability. Growth Metrics: The Future Outlook To ensure the sustainability of dividends, a company must have robust growth metrics. Brown-Forman Corp's growth rank of 9 out of 10 suggests that the company's growth trajectory is good relative to its competitors. Revenue is the lifeblood of any company, and Brown-Forman Corp's revenue per share, combined with the 3-year revenue growth rate, indicates a strong revenue model. Brown-Forman Corp's revenue has increased by approximately 6.70% per year on average, a rate that underperforms approximately 62.56% of global competitors. The company's 3-year EPS growth rate showcases its capability to grow its earnings, a critical component for sustaining dividends in the long run. During the past three years, Brown-Forman Corp's earnings increased by approximately 0.80% per year on average, a rate that underperforms approximately 67.84% of global competitors. Lastly, the company's 5-year EBITDA growth rate of -0.60%, which underperforms approximately 77.78% of global competitors. Conclusion Given Brown-Forman Corp's consistent dividend growth, strong profitability, and strategic management of earnings, the company presents a compelling case for dividend investors. However, investors should also consider the relatively slower growth rates in revenue and earnings as they plan their investment strategies. For those interested in exploring further, GuruFocus Premium users can screen for high-dividend yield stocks using the High Dividend Yield Screener. This article, generated by GuruFocus, is designed to provide general insights and is not tailored financial advice. Our commentary is rooted in historical data and analyst projections, utilizing an impartial methodology, and is not intended to serve as specific investment guidance. It does not formulate a recommendation to purchase or divest any stock and does not consider individual investment objectives or financial circumstances. Our objective is to deliver long-term, fundamental data-driven analysis. Be aware that our analysis might not incorporate the most recent, price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative information. GuruFocus holds no position in the stocks mentioned herein. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Ms Reeves says she recognises Waspi women's injustice but that she has 'not set out any money' for compensation Women who were not told about increases to their state pension age say they feel appalled, shocked and betrayed after Rachel Reeves admitted nothing has been set aside to compensate them. Some of the affected women, known as the Waspis, also said that the shadow chancellors words would directly affect who they vote for in the upcoming general election. Speaking to journalists in Edinburgh earlier this week, Ms Reeves said she recognised their injustice, but added I have not set out any money for this. Her comments came despite Labour promising to right a historical wrong with compensation of up to 31,300 for Waspis in its 2019 manifesto. The Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign group accused Labour of turning its back on women at the 11th hour. Another retiree described the situation as diabolical. Waspi women, born between 1950 and 1960, claim they were forced to work six extra years after the government changed the state pension age to 66 without informing them. In March, a report published by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) ruled the DWP had failed to adequately communicate the changes and recommended a payout of between 1,000 and 2,950 for some of the three million women affected. The PHSO asked Parliament to intervene swiftly, but no action has yet been taken. Ms Reeves has now cast doubt on whether any compensation would be paid under a Labour government. She said: Our manifesto will be published shortly, but Ive said we wont put forward anything that is not fully costed and fully-funded and I have not set out any money for this. One of the women affected, Shirley Kearney, 66, only found out 18 months before her 60th birthday that shed have to work longer before getting her state pension. In response to Ms Reeves, she said: [Im] shocked and betrayed really. Theyre not actually giving us anything, but they took the money off us, and youre saying youre not going to pay them. Its diabolical. How can they say theyve not set any money aside? People like myself, older and younger, have lost a lot of money and theyre all struggling now because of it. Ive been a lone parent for most of my years and its been hard. I worked, worked, worked, until I couldnt work any more. My body just gave in. I still want to continue to give my children and grandchildren money for Christmas and birthdays. When I retired, I didnt expect to be struggling like this. Another Waspi woman, Carole Vanter, 66, said: I was just appalled. She [Rachel Reeves] doesnt realise how much money we put in, how much anger weve got. Weve worked in this country since we were 14, 15, we should be listened to. I feel weve been robbed of this money. We wont go down without a fight. After what she said, theres no way shes going to get my vote. The Waspi campaign group is also demanding answers. In a letter sent to Ms Reeves after her comments, it said: The PHSO investigation lasted six long years, with Conservative ministers hiding behind its glacial pace as an excuse for making no progress on a remedy for the women affected. During that time, countless Labour MPs have stood in pictures smiling with us and demanding the Conservatives take action. Now, with Labour a stones throw from power, that commitment seems to be vanishing. Hundreds of thousands of Waspi women already feel badly let down, as it appears Labour is preparing to turn its backs on us at the eleventh hour. The letter asks Ms Reeves to clarify her position and commit to a compensation scheme in the first 100 days of the next Parliament.The group also says more than 280,000 women have already died without compensation. Angela Madden, Chair of Waspi, added: This has gone on long enough. While politicians dither and delay, the women affected are dying at a rate of one every thirteen minutes. The Labour party did not respond to a request 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. A meteor clocking in at 100,000 mph blazed across Spain and Portugal over the weekend, creating a fiery green, blue, and white light show in the process. Multiple videos posted across social media and news outlets show the objectlater assessed by the European Space Agency to be a chunk of cometentering the Earths atmosphere around 22:46 UTC (6:46 PM EST) on May 18 before breaking up approximately 37 miles above the Atlantic Ocean. According to Nova Portugal, the moment was witnessed by thousands of people, who shared their experiences online. Further video analysis of the meteors colors indicated the presence of magnesium, which points to it potentially having been whats known as a pallasite. These space objects feature dark green crystals made of a magnesium-iron silicate known as olivine. Some astronomers theorize pallasites may originate within an asteroid, between its core and mantle. If so, fragments could help researchers learn more about how planets like Earth first formed in the solar system. JUST IN: Meteor spotted in the skies over Spain and Portugal.This is insane.Early reports claim that the blue flash could be seen darting through the night sky for hundreds of kilometers.At the moment, it has not been confirmed if it hit the Earths surface however some pic.twitter.com/PNMs2CDkW9 Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 19, 2024 Unfortunately, its somewhat likely much (if any) of Saturdays sky show survived the descent. Astronomers estimate about 48.5 tons of space debris pummels Earth daily, 90-95 percent of which burns up entirely during atmospheric entry. While perhaps disappointing to scientists and meteorite hunters, its likely for the best. In 2013, a 55-foot-long meteor exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk with a force equivalent to 440,000 tons of TNT. The resulting shockwave 14 miles above the ground damaged buildings within 200 square-miles of the blast and reportedly injured over 1,600 people. Luckily, such dramatic finales are extremely rare. Most meteor material that manages to survive the intense, friction-generated heat arrives on Earth as dust or extremely small meteorites. [Related: Mars might have an asteroid problem.] Even so, numerous organizations around the world are working to keep an eye on any potential problem asteroids and comets. NASAs Center for Near Earth Object Studies at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory, for example, is tasked with identifying and tracking all such cosmic bodies, as well as providing comprehensive impact hazard assessments in support of the agencys Planetary Defense Coordination Office at NASA Headquarters in Washington. But near-Earth is somewhat relative, given the vast distances of spaceNASA defines the term as asteroids and comets with orbits that bring them within 120 million miles of the sun. Instead of the potential problems millions of miles away, however, its statistically more important to make sure all that human-made space debris orbiting Earth remains in check. The fewer bits of SpaceX and satellite junk that inadvertently fall through the atmosphere and land in farmers fields, the better. View comments Miami Beach officials have long been searching for aquatic solutions to transport people across Biscayne Bay to downtown Miami while avoiding traffic gridlock. Multiple efforts have failed. But the city is still trying to make a water taxi work this time, through a no-bid deal that will award $50,000 per month to Poseidon Ferry, a company that was previously forced to suspend service twice in recent years due to low ridership and financial struggles. The publicly funded pilot program, which will cost $600,000 and run for one year, is expected to start this summer. That amount of money will subsidize about half of the companys annual operating costs, city officials say. But riders will still have to pay to take the ferry. One-way fares will be $12 for adults, although tickets for Miami Beach residents will be discounted to $5, according to a concession agreement between the city and the company. Trips between Maurice Gibb Memorial Park in South Beach and Sea Isle Marina in mainland Miami will depart once an hour from each location, as they did before, despite city officials opining that departures every 30 minutes would ultimately be necessary for the ferry to gain traction. Nonetheless, Miami Beach officials say theyre bullish on the pilot program, which was approved after the City Commission waived competitive bidding requirements last June. The goal, transportation director Jose Gonzalez said in a statement, is to provide commuters with a public transportation option to help de-congest our roadways and help the city meet its long-term strategic goal of becoming less car-centric. Most water transportation systems in the United States operate with some financial assistance from the federal, state or local government by way of subsidies, Gonzalez added. Matthew Gultanoff, the director of transit advocacy group Better Streets Miami Beach, said he generally supports efforts to provide alternatives to driving and is hopeful the 149-person ferry will move the needle this time around. But he said hes skeptical the program will make a substantial impact. While the ferry will let passengers off near the Adrienne Arsht Center Metromover station in mainland Miami, Gultanoff said limited public transit options on the Miami Beach side could make it impractical for those residents to utilize the ferry compared to the effort it takes to drive or ride a bicycle across the Venetian Causeway. This isnt what residents are asking for, Gultanoff said. We want a quick, reliable, inexpensive way to get to and from the mainland. The water is probably the least effective way to do any of those. Poseidon CEO Johnathan Silvia, who declined an interview request for this story, has told city officials that financial support will help make his business model feasible. We look forward to providing an eco-friendly waterborne transportation alternative to the residents of Miami Beach, Silvia told the Miami Herald in a statement. The Poseidon Ferry sails along Biscayne Bay. Looking for solutions Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner has championed ferry service as one way to address the citys traffic nightmare, calling not only for a water taxi across Biscayne Bay but also for north-south water transportation within Miami Beach. Yet Meiner has also advocated for the city to explore grant funding options to subsidize a free water taxi service for residents, saying the Poseidon fares were too high. Meiner cast the lone vote against the bid waiver for Poseidon last June, saying he would have preferred a competitive process. City officials said in October that they were hoping to launch the pilot in time for Art Week last December. Poseidon has since touted various launch dates for the new pilot program on its website: April 15, June 1 and, most recently, June 17. Gonzalez said theres no official start date as of yet but that the program will begin sometime this summer, after the city has installed an ADA-compliant ramp at Maurice Gibb Memorial Park. According to the concession agreement the city inked with Poseidon in March, seniors, people with disabilities and military personnel will pay a discounted $6 fare for a one-way ride, and children under 12 will ride for free. The company will also offer a weekly pack of 10 one-way trips for $30 and a monthly pack of 40 trips for $120, according to the agreement. Riders can bring bicycles and scooters on board for free. (Previously there was a $2 fee.) Ferry trips will be about 18 minutes each way, city officials said. Service will run daily from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., with the boat departing from Miami Beach every hour on the half-hour and from Miami every hour on the hour, except between 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. That schedule will be followed regardless of whether or not there is demand for water taxi services, according to the concession agreement. READ MORE: Want to get from Miami Beach to Miami without a car? A ferry has started service again Despite lamenting the citys traffic woes, the Miami Beach City Commission voted earlier this year to oppose a Miami-Dade County plan to extend the Metromover to South Beach, which would create the first mass transit option connecting Miami Beach to the mainland. Homeowners in the South of Fifth and West Avenue neighborhoods near the proposed project have vehemently opposed it. There is a lot of opportunity to improve the mobility of residents, employees and visitors to Miami Beach, Gultanoff said. Unfortunately, it seems that the policy-setters have always been tackling it around the edges. Financial struggles Six weeks after the Poseidon Ferry first set sail without public funding in November 2020, the service was suspended due to low ridership of about 70 people per day during the COVID-19 pandemic. The boat relaunched service in August 2021, but low ridership again forced it to dock at the end of 2022. At a public meeting last May, a representative for Poseidon Ferry LLC said the company had lost about $500,000 during its final year of operation in 2022. Previously, the ferry departed from Bentley Bay Marina, a private dock at which the company was paying about $25,000 per month, contributing to its financial challenges. The City Commission agreed to help, approving the $600,000 subsidy in September. Under the new deal, the ferry will not be charged docking fees on the Miami Beach side at the public dock in Sunset Harbour. Then-Commissioner David Richardson, who proposed the relaunch, said last year that city support would be crucial to the success of any water transit system. I believe these public transportation infrastructure [projects] can only operate with some sort of subsidy, Richardson said at the May 2023 meeting, pointing to publicly funded ferry systems in other waterfront cities such as Sydney, Australia. Poseidon has highlighted its financial hardships as a privately funded venture as evidence of the need for public support. In November, the IRS filed a lien notice that said the company owed almost $114,000 in federal taxes. And in January, the company was sued in Miami-Dade County Court by the Community Fund of North Miami Dade, which claimed Poseidon owed more than $21,000 after failing to repay a loan. The case is pending. Regarding the loan, it is our intention to fulfill all of our financial obligations, said Silvia, Poseidons CEO. The company also faced a November 2022 federal lawsuit in which a yacht owner claimed a Poseidon Ferry captain lost control of the boat while traveling along the Miami River that July, hitting the docked yacht and causing over $44,000 in damage. The case was settled last November for an undisclosed amount. Gultanoff, the local transit advocate, said he rode the Poseidon Ferry to downtown Miami multiple times when it launched in 2020. While it was a fun experience and a relatively cheap way to get on a boat, he said, the steep prices compared to other transit options make it hard to justify more than an occasional trip. People are price conscious, he said. One way to look at it is, its an inexpensive way to enjoy the water. Miami Beach officials will hold a virtual community meeting about the water taxi program on Tuesday, June 11, at 5:30 p.m. Members of the public can join via Zoom at https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88410098941. Well, Well, Well: Clarence Thomas Finally Admits To His Trangressions In news that shocks absolutely no one, Clarence Thomas has finally disclosed that he enjoyed luxury vacations funded by conservative billionaire Harlan Crow. Thomas officially updated a financial disclosure to the court that reveals trips to Indonesia and a California mens club paid for by Crow. This information contradicts the previous version of the submitted disclosure. The trips occurred in 2019. In April 2023, ProPublica released a damning investigation that showed Crow paid for Thomas trips. Thomas stated that he enjoyed this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends publicly, but they were not included in court financial records. The new filing briefly describes why Thomas is fessing up to this information now. During the preparation and filing of this report, filer sought and received guidance from his accountant and ethics counsel, the report states. According to watchdog group Fix the Court, Thomas received 103 gifts worth $2.4m. For comparison, that total is 10 times what his fellow justices received combined over the same period of time. Thomas has numerous calls to recuse himself on cases involving the January 6 attack on the Capitol as a violent attempt to alter the 2020 election result over his wife Ginnis connections, but he has refused. In 2020, Ginni did her best to sway then White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to support Donald Trumps false claims of election fraud. She later told the House Jan. 6 committee she regrets sending those messages. You know, it was an emotional time, Thomas explained to the committee back in 2022. Im sorry these texts exist. Last year, all nine supreme court justices agreed to a code of conduct. However, critics maintain that there hasnt been an adequate way to enforce it. Thomas is no stranger to controversy, and this is only his latest transgression. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The News The US and its European allies are nearing an agreement on using profits from frozen Russian assets to secure billions for Ukraines war effort, with officials hoping to have a deal by the Group of Seven summit later this month. Were waist deep in the sausage making of trying to strike a deal, Daleep Singh, the White House deputy national security adviser for international economics, told a gathering at the Center for a New American Security on Thursday. What I can say at this moment is theres a shared understanding of how dire the situation is on the ground. A Treasury official separately told Semafor that its fair to say that theres a lot of forward progress and movement right now towards an agreement. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan also indicated during a meeting with Baltic officials earlier this week that a deal was close, according to a European official briefed on the discussion. The idea pushed by the US would involve using the interest from the frozen Russian assets to jointly secure a $50 billion loan to help Ukraine as it beats back the Russian invasion. Everyone in the G7 is on the same page about two things: one, we have to do more and two, we have a relatively narrow window to act because Ukraine has a critical funding gap, the Treasury official said. The official noted that while the US and EU approved packages to assist Ukraine earlier this year, those packages dont address Ukraines funding gap in 2025 and beyond. Part of the appeal of this plan is that you could get this money online and to Ukraine relatively quickly, the official said, noting that while there is not a specific timeline it could be done this year. The loan would guarantee more support for Ukraine amid a fractured political environment and doubts about the ability to pass future funding, particularly following Washingtons prolonged fight over $60 billion in aid that finally passed in April. Singh said the G7 leaders have the chance to send an unmistakable signal that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin cannot outlast us, that were not going to fatigue no matter what happens in the elections here or anywhere else. Know More The issue is expected to come up during President Joe Bidens state visit over the weekend with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. Biden separately is scheduled to meet in Normandy on Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has been urging Western countries to do more to support Ukraine and provide the weapons it needs to fight the Russians. The G7, taking place in Apulia, Italy, in mid-June, will gather the leaders of the US, France, the UK, Germany, Canada, Italy, and Japan. The idea of commandeering Russian assets to assist Ukraine has been popular in the US, where Congress passed legislation earlier this year allowing the Biden administration to seize some $6 billion for Ukraine for reconstruction. But most of the $280 billion in assets frozen by G7 countries are held in Europe specifically by Belgium-based Euroclear where the idea of seizing them has raised complicated legal questions and concerns. The EU earlier this year moved to seize the windfall profits of the Russian assets to arm Ukraine. Using them to secure a loan would be the next step, though Singh said Thursday the US would reserve the right to seize the assets themselves down the line. That option will not be foreclosed. So think of this as a down payment, he said. While an agreement looks likely, it isnt guaranteed. I wish I could say the deal is done, but we dont yet have full consensus, Singh said. Notable The European Commission has also floated using its own budget as collateral for securing the loan with the profits from Russian assets, meaning the EU would be acting independently of the US, Politico reported earlier this week. The prosecution of Hunter Biden on federal firearms charges stems from a 7-page form that would-be gun buyers must fill out when purchasing a weapon from a licensed gun business. The form includes standard questions about things that would disqualify someone from legal gun ownership, like previous felony convictions, mental health problems or illegal drug use. The drug question has landed Biden in court prosecutors say he lied on the paperwork for a gun purchase in 2018 when he said he wasn't using drugs. Biden's attorneys say he didn't consider himself a drug addict when he purchased the weapon. While people are sometimes prosecuted for allegedly lying on the form, experts say it usually happens as part of a larger case involving more serious conduct, and cases like the one brought against Biden are rare. Here, some things to know about the form and related weapons charges: THE PAPERWORK The Firearms Transaction Record, also known as ATF Form 4473, is essentially an application to buy a gun from a licensed dealer. Its used for a quick background check to make sure the buyer isnt legally prohibited from owning a weapon. There are nine items on the form that can disqualify a buyer, and most of them are easy to check, said Jacob Charles, an associate professor at Pepperdine University's Caruso School of Law. If a person has been convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year of imprisonment, or has been involuntarily committed to a mental institution, those records will show up in the background check. But one of the big difficulties with the unlawful drug user portion of the form is that its difficult to verify, Charles said. Its fairly rare for this line on the background check form to be prosecuted alone, Charles said. It can be difficult to prove these kinds of cases, because unless someone confesses or is under the influence at the time, theres not always a lot of evidence. Thats especially true in states like Oregon or Washington, where some drugs like marijuana have been locally legalized though they remain illegal under federal law. In every state that has legal marijuana, there are hundreds of thousands of people who possess firearms, Charles said. If they also use marijuana even with a medical marijuana card they are illegal gun owners under the federal law, he said. THE PROSECUTIONS Andrew Willinger, the executive director of the Duke Center for Firearms Law, said illegal gun ownership charges typically show up in court as part of larger criminal cases. Prosecutions like the one against Biden where the charges aren't tied to another crime like drug possession, robbery or assault are unusual, Willinger said. Its very rare for this to be sort of the lead charge in a case. These are usually brought as additional counts when there is more serious conduct at issue against someone who has a lengthy criminal history, someone who is engaged in some violent conduct with a firearm, Willinger said. Possessing a gun as a felon is the most frequent charge, and that's just sort of the easiest one to prosecute because all you need to provide is that the individual was involved in a felony and that they have a gun. Prosecuting someone for possessing a gun while using drugs requires a fact-intensive investigation, said Willinger, and that usually hinges on having evidence of multiple occurrences of drug use in the weeks or days leading up to the gun purchase. THE NUMBERS It's difficult to determine how often people are actually prosecuted for illegal gun ownership under each of the nine disqualifying categories listed on Form 4473. But Willinger says the numbers are minuscule compared to the millions of gun purchase applications filed each year. It's easier to track how many people are denied purchases. According to the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, about 25 million applications for gun transfers or permits were filed in 2020. Only about 1.6% of them roughly 398,000 were denied, and about half of those denials were because the applicant had a felony conviction, indictment or arrest. Drug use or addiction accounted for about 8.6% of the denials, according to the bureau. In other words, only about 0.13% of the total applications made for gun transfers or permits in 2020 were turned down because of drug use or possession. More recent statistics are sparse, but a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that during fiscal year 2017, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives referred about 12,700 denied firearm purchases to its field divisions for further investigation. By June 2018, just 12 of those cases had been federally prosecuted. Hunter Biden is accused of buying and illegally owning a gun during an 11-day span in October of 2018. A video released by the Lebanese Hezbollah group shows what at first glance appeared to be a launcher for Israels vaunted Iron Dome air defense system apparently being struck for the first time. The attack was on an Israeli outpost in Ramot Naftali near the Lebanese border. While the incident underlines the issues with force protection of advanced air defense sites against low-end near-threat weapons, like drones and short-range loitering munitions, there may be a catch. Screen captures from the video and subsequent release of images from the aftermath seem to indicate the launcher may have been a decoy or unused at the time of the strike. Several components of an active Iron Dome launcher appear to be missing. While it was struck, there was no indication of secondary explosions from the Tamir interceptors that fill the canisters in an active Iron Dome launcher. The video, taken Wednesday, shows a feed from what is very likely an Iranian-made Almas missile , a knock-off of Israels SPIKE anti-tank loitering weapon. It is understood to have been developed by reverse engineering SPIKE missiles that fell into Hezbollah's hands during its war with Israel in 2006 and were subsequently funneled back to Iran for exploitation. Almas ATGM launcher assembly. (Uncredited) Almas flies out at high speed towards its target and its man-in-the-loop control allows it to make indirect attacks with extreme precision over a handful of miles. This constitutes a major threat for Israeli forces and infrastructure near the border. The first video of an Almas use by Hezbollah appeared in January , in an attack on a cliffside Israeli intelligence outpost. You can see that attack below. You can also read all about the Almas and its arrival along the Lebanese-Israeli border in this past TWZ report. During the attack in question, as the launcher comes into view by the approaching Almas, it is seen parked behind beside blast walls. There are no other defenses seen nearby. The video then shows the munition diving undeterred toward the launcher, cutting off just prior to impact. The normal heavy wires and nearby components associated with Iron Dome batteries are not readily seen attached to the launcher. X Screencap It appears Hezbollah did hit the Iron Dome launcher with a guided missile, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies senior researcher Joe Truzman said on Twitter. This is the first time I've observed an Iron Dome launcher being hit. Separately, Palestinian terrorist groups have been trying to do this for years, but I've never seen evidence they were successful. An image emerged Thursday on social media showing the damaged launcher, confirming it was struck. However, it seems to have offered further proof that this was a decoy or disused at the time of the strike, again showing missing components and no evidence of secondary blasts. On Wednesday, The IDF said it was unaware of any damage to an Iron Dome launcher, the Times of Israel reported . Military decoys are back in vogue with all types being widely used in Ukraine by both sides. As we previously reported , Ukraine has developed, in particular, a number of very life-like copies of air defense systems like the German-supplied IRIS-T SLM surface-to-air missile system and the U.S.-made AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar system. You can see an example of this in the video below. Ukraines decoys are designed to help ensure the survivability of its real ground-based air defense systems, reflecting the high priority that these assets have. Decoys consume valuable Russian precision munitions and confuse opposing forces. They can also give away methods of detection and engagement, resulting in rapid counterattacks. The U.S. military sees similar tactics as essential to surviving, let alone winning, a major fight in the Pacific and is now investing in them heavily. Perhaps Israel set up an Iron Dome decoy so close to the Lebanese border to attract weapons like the Almas and get a better sense of how Hezbollah is employing them and from where. Still, this would have been a risky move if the compound is in use as it appears to be, even with the nearby blast walls. Its also very possible the launcher was indeed real, but it was being stored at the location and not active at the time of the attack or that is was used as a remote launcher for an Iron Dome system nearby. We just dont know at this time. Regardless, the missile still struck an outpost roughly two and a half miles from the border. This underscores how man-in-the-loop guided weapons, like loitering anti-tank missiles and FPV drones , pose a major threat to forces that simply didnt exist a short time ago. The democratization of precision-guided weaponry via the proliferation of these technologies mean that even high-end air defense sites need another short-range air defense (SHORAD) overlay in order to protect them from very low-end attacks launched nearby. This problem is only set to explode in magnitude, frequency, and complexity as autonomy is infused in these systems. This is a major issue TWZ has been raising the alarm on for many years , especially after repeated alarming cases where security was clearly lacking in this regard. Whether this target area necessitated a high level of defense remains unclear, but certainly Iron Dome batteries would, considering they are top targets of Israels local enemies as they have neutered so much of their standoff capability. Real Iron Dome batteries, built by a consortium of Rafael, IAI and Raytheon (now RTX), have proven incredibly effective at swatting down thousands of rockets and other projectiles . The latest configuration of the Iron Dome system also have a demonstrated ability to shoot down drones and low-flying cruise missiles . The IDF first declared Iron Dome, which it had developed with significant assistance from the United States, operational in March 2011. In the ensuing years, the system has become a critical component of its integrated air defense system, which you can read more about here . 06 August 2022, Israel, Sderot: The Iron Dome anti-missile system fires an interceptor missile as rockets are launched from Gaza towards Israel. Photo: Ilia Yefimovich/dpa (Photo by Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images) While the U.S. Army has two Iron Dome batteries and sent one temporarily to Guam three years ago, it is unclear what role they will ultimately play given concerns about integration with U.S. Army's air defense architecture. As we noted last year, the Marine Corps laid out plans to acquire three batteries worth of Iron Dome systems , including 44 launchers and 1,840 Tamir interceptors . Starting just next year , as the Marine Corps looks to drastically increase its air defense forces, units will be equipped with a mixture of new medium and short-range capabilities, including Israel's Iron Dome units that will have a particular focus on added defenses against long-range attack drones and cruise missiles. This latest use of Almas comes as things are heating up in the north , with speculation rampant that Israel might launch a ground offensive in the coming weeks as Hezbollah has stepped up its rocket and drone attacks. You can get a sense of the massive arsenal of weapons the Lebanese jihadi group has to rain down on Israel in our deep dive here . While Hezbollah say sit has achieved its first victory over the vaunted Iron Dome system, it remains unclear if they struck the real thing or not, but the implications of this type of attack are clear Hezbollah can reach miles across the border to execute extremely precise and dynamic attacks and thats a big problem. Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com The White House is putting up fencing around its complex in preparation for protests this weekend over President Bidens handling of Israels war in Gaza. A Secret Service spokesperson told The Hill that in preparation for the events this weekend in Washington D.C. that have the potential for large crowds to gather, additional public safety measures including anti-scale fencing have been put in place near the White House complex. A protest is planned for Saturday, which marks eight months since the war began. According to organizers, the group will surround the White House and wear red to signify a red line after Biden has been accused of caving on his red line warning with Israel in its Rafah invasion. The president will not be at the White House for the protest. He is in France until Sunday, marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy and meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. The activist group CodePink is also organizing protesters for what it calls the red line protest. George Washington University sent out a notice about the expected activity around the area Saturday with safety tips, adding that the school does not have information to suggest a threat to campus. Biden has faced protests across the country over his handling of the war in Gaza, some interrupting him during various events. The president also lost more than half a million voters to the uncommitted movement in this years Democratic primaries, underscoring the frustration in his own party about the war. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. US restrictions on advanced technology exports to China are driven by greater evidence of Beijing's increasingly "aggressive" stance and an analysis of how it would likely use these tools as it "bullies" some neighbours, a senior US diplomat said on Thursday. "We have to expect those technologies will be militarised, and we do not intend to be number two," said Nicholas Burns, the US ambassador to China, in remarks delivered at the Asia Society in New York. Washington's response to Beijing has included limits on advanced semiconductors, artificial-intelligence processors, semiconductor-making equipment and even some laptops. Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. After vowing to review steep import tariffs and export restrictions introduced by former US president Donald Trump and precipitating a bilateral trade war, the Joe Biden administration has doubled down on such measures. As justification for Washington's analysis, Burns cited Beijing's island-building in the South China Sea as well as its territorial squabbles with Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, India, Malaysia and Brunei. 'We're concerned about the bullying of China's neighbours in the South China Sea and the East China Sea," said Burns, adding that it was not always easy to read the impetus behind Beijing's muscular policies and what lies ahead. "I don't have a crystal ball, but we've seen consistent aggression." The career diplomat, who has held assignments at the National Security Council and Nato, said a growing number of Chinese foreign policies simultaneously angered the United States, European Union, Japan, South Korea, India and Southeast Asian nations. That pattern raised questions about Beijing's willingness to upset so many foreign countries, seemingly against its own national interest, Burns added. "I can't speak for the government of China," he said. "You see a China that seems very confident, at least it did, about its power." Burns believed the days when Washington and other capitals were able to influence Chinese decision-making, encouraging Beijing to join the World Trade Organization and otherwise become a "responsible stakeholder", were a distant memory. Burns (left), at the Asia Society in New York on Thursday, says the US now holds little sway over China's decision-making. Photo: SCMP alt=Burns (left), at the Asia Society in New York on Thursday, says the US now holds little sway over China's decision-making. Photo: SCMP> Story continues As recently as the early 2000s, Beijing was willing to work cooperatively with Washington on sanctioning Iran, opposing North Korea's testing of nuclear weapons and trying to help stabilise conditions in Afghanistan, he added. "We're way past that," Burns said. "We didn't change ... It's that China has." Among the Chinese policies the envoy found "pernicious" were exports by Chinese companies to support Russia's industrial base in its war with Ukraine. The armed conflict, now in its third year, has brought the US and Europe closer together and led Washington last month to sanction nearly two dozen Chinese companies. The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. "China is increasingly the factory of the Russian war machine," said Daleep Singh of the National Security Council, speaking separately on Thursday at the Washington-based Centre for a New American Security. "We've got to think about the entire Russian economy as being off-limits in terms of facilitating the flow of goods that are showing up on the battlefield and giving Russia advantage," Singh added. A firefighter works at the site of a shopping centre hit by a Russian military strike in Kherson, Ukraine, on Thursday. Photo: Handout via Reuters alt=A firefighter works at the site of a shopping centre hit by a Russian military strike in Kherson, Ukraine, on Thursday. Photo: Handout via Reuters> Additional concern has centred on what Burns called China's wholesale "dumping" of solar panels, lithium batteries, cars and other products on foreign markets. Critics have argued the practice of selling goods at below-market prices is meant to wipe out overseas competitors. Beijing's increasingly hardline policies are convincing more countries to establish or strengthen strategic relations with the US, Burns said. He noted Japan's decision to double its defence budget as well as the willingness of Britain and some European countries to adopt a more active role in the Indo-Pacific region. While Beijing often speaks of its "core interests", the US has its own that it is unwilling to budge on, he said, including its support for Europe, treaty obligations with such allies as Japan and the Philippines and support for human rights and free speech. But Burns also underscored the importance of diplomacy and communication as bilateral tensions mount. "It's important as we look to the future that we do everything we can to drive down the possibility or probability of conflict," he said. "Conflict would be catastrophic for the whole world. That's why the militaries have to talk to each other. "Despite our differences, we have to talk to each other," he added, citing some positive developments arising from Sino-American competition likely to last well into the next decade. "That's what diplomacy is all about." As an outgrowth of last November's summit in California between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart, Dong Jun, met last week in Singapore. It marked the first in-person meeting between the two countries' defence chiefs in two years. The two sides have also started discussing AI and Chinese-made chemical precursors used in making fentanyl, a leading cause of death among young Americans. In addition, people-to-people relations are slowing rebounding, although the number of Americans studying in China is still low, at 850, compared with nearly 300,000 Chinese studying in the US. "We put the relationship on a much more stable footing at that summit," said Jon Finer, a US deputy national security adviser, speaking separately at the CNAS event. "But during the course of the last 12-to-18 months, we also did not in any way take our foot off the gas in terms of competitive actions vis-a-vis the Chinese," Finer added. During Burns' appearance at the Asia Society, two protesters stood up in quick succession, criticising the Biden administration for policies that they decried as amounting to a "two-front war" against Russia and China. The two were escorted out. Burns, addressing their comments, said the US makes mistakes and, unlike some other countries, allows its citizens to speak out and question its leaders. Additional reporting by Bochen Han in Washington This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2024. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. A white farmer from northern Minnesota is claiming victory after the dismissal of his federal discrimination lawsuit that spurred the legislature to change the eligibility language for a state grant program meant for diverse farmers. Lance Nistler, a farmer from Beltrami County, sued Gov. Tim Walz and state ag commissioner Thom Petersen earlier this year over eligibility criteria for the Down Payment Assistance Grant. That state fund offers money to farmers via a lottery to purchase farmland and other property. Nistler, who Pacific Legal Foundation represented, argued in his complaint the law's eligibility prioritizing funding for applicants who were young, people of color, urban or identified as LGBTQ discriminated against him as a white man. Before the case could reach trial, however, the state law changed. At the end of May, Walz signed the agriculture omnibus spending bill that, among other changes, removed reference to "emerging farmers" in the grant program. Going forward, the program will target farmers who earn under $100,000 in gross income as well as growers of hemp, cannabis and other specialty crops, such as fruits and vegetables. In a statement, Nistler's attorney, Andrew Quinio, said the changes amounted to a victory for his client. "Thanks to the courage of a small farmer, equality before the law has been restored in Minnesota," Quinio said. The federal judge overseeing the case, Judge Eric C. Tostrud, dismissed the case on Thursday, citing the change in the grant program. On Friday, Sen. Aric Putnam, DFL-St. Cloud, who chairs the agriculture committee, noted the lawsuit certainly constituted one of the reasons for the tweak in language to the eligibility. But, he added, the new language including dropping the income threshold from $250,000 in gross income revealed the legislature's intent to further refine the program toward helping usher in a new generation of farmers. "[The new language is] much more focused on material conditions. It's more focused on market access," Putnam said, "which will still, by and large, reach the same population we were trying to reach before." State lawmakers had set up the down payment assistance grant program to give diverse farmers a leg up in an expensive industry, where buying land and equipment can be incredibly challenging for smaller growers. According to the latest USDA Census of Agriculture, more than 63% of Minnesota farms reported making less than $100,000 between sales and government payments in 2022. The same survey reported that of the 114,000 farmers in Minnesota, fewer than 1,000 are people of color. Funwi Tita, president of the Minnesota African Immigrant Farmers Association, said he was gob-smacked to read a white farmer had sued the state about the grant's eligibility. He likened the state's program to providing water to someone who was thirsty. "We are fighting over resources here," Tita said. "We are mitigating a problem that is so obvious. Ninety-nine percent of land is owned by a specific demographic, and they're the same ones who are suing?" In a statement, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture the agency overseeing the program funded for $1 million annually in 2024 and 2025 noted down payment assistance grants have helped "dozens" of Minnesota farmers, and the department will continue to award grants to "make farmers' dreams of owning their own land a reality." According to court records, Nistler had initially won the ninth grant lottery spot in the summer of 2023. But his application fell from consideration after it failed to meet the previous eligibility criteria. One of the hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the alt-right who marched during the Unite the Right rally Aug. 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported Tuesday that the number of white nationalist groups in the U.S. rose to a record high in 2023. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) WASHINGTON Emboldened by the mainstreaming of hard-right politics ahead of a presidential election cycle, white nationalist and anti-LGBTQ+ groups increased to record levels in the United States last year, according to the Southern Poverty Law Centers latest annual report on hate and extremism released Tuesday. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which has published the annual report since 1990, documented 835 active anti-government groups, up 133 from 2022s count, and 595 hate groups, an increase of 72 over the previous years figure. Accounting for a large portion of the increase was a 50% surge in white supremacy hate groups in 2023, the highest jump ever recorded by the SPLC, growing to 165 over 109 in 2022. White power and neo-Nazi rallies across the U.S. totaled 143 in 2023, down from 191 in 2022. SPLC saw a 33% rise in anti-LGBTQ+ organizations over last year, bringing the total to 86. The group said the growth was largely attributable to the anti-trans movement on the far-right. What were seeing now should be a wake-up call for all of us, Margaret Huang, SPLCs president and CEO, said on a call with reporters. Our 2023 report documented more hate and anti-government extremist groups than ever before. With a historic election just months away, these groups are multiplying, mobilizing and making, and in some cases already implementing, plans to undo democracy. Hate groups have increased in-person events and leafleting, according to the report. The SPLC tracked nearly 7,000 flyering incidents last year, many including language derived from racist and antisemitic conspiracies. The groups also launched campaigns to gain influence in mainstream politics, according to the report, namely through the conservative Heritage Foundations Project 2025 manifesto that outlines aspirations for anti-abortion, anti-free press and anti-LGBTQ+ priorities should presumed GOP presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump win in November. Nine of the anti-government and hate groups tracked by the SPLC are part of the coalition that supports Project 2025, the organization reports. Florida a leader in anti-government, hate groups Among the states leading in numbers of anti-government and hate groups are California, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, Washington and Ohio. California topped the list with 51 hate and 66 anti-government groups. The SPLC recorded the second-most groups in Florida, which has become a leader in book-banning incidents and restrictive policies on teachers. The Sunshine State is home to 43 hate and 71 anti-government organizations, according to the report, and is the birthplace of recently influential parental rights group Moms for Liberty. Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice was invited in March 2023 to testify before a U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary subcommittee then chaired by Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, who is now House speaker. The annual survey of hate groups tracked 116 hate-leafleting incidents in Florida, where the antisemitic groups rallied and flyered on multiple occasions, including over Labor Day when groups named the Goyim Defense League, The Order of the Black Sun and the Maine-based Blood Tribe marched in Orlando wielding flags with swastikas and making Nazi salutes. Antisemitism, already on the rise, became more pronounced following Israels continuing offensive on the Gaza Strip following the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Antisemitic conspiracies seeped into mainstream narratives at an alarming pace and 2023. Specifically after Hamass October 7 terrorist attack, the far right blurred the lines between legitimate criticism of the Israeli governments actions and outright antisemitism, R.G. Cravens, SPLCs senior research analyst for its Intelligence Project, said during Tuesdays call with reporters. Following the Hamas attack, the so-called Goyim Defense League distributed a flyer online and in person that read FREE PALESTINE, as a not-so-thinly-veiled attempt at stoking more antisemitism and using Palestinian people to further their own aims, according to the report. Christian dominionism The SPLC report also cited the expanding influence of extreme Christian nationalism as a driver for the growing number of anti-government organizations. The report expresses concern over the rise in the Republican ranks of Johnson, a former senior lawyer for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal advocacy group behind the U.S. Supreme Court case that precipitated the overturning of the federal right to abortion. Johnsons far-right politics, including his anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ positions and his advocacy to blur Christianity and the state, are well documented. Spokespeople for Johnson did not immediately return an email seeking comment. The Alliance for Defending Freedom describes SPLC as a discredited and scandal-ridden group, and denounces the organizations hate map. The SPLC currently has an interactive U.S. map pinpointing locations of anti-government and hate groups. Eventually, their definition of hate included huge swaths of well-respected, mainstream, conservative America, according to a post on the Alliance for Defending Freedom website. The SPLC report specifically warns about the rise of the National Apostolic Reformation, a Christian movement made up of dominionist leaders that aim to seize control of seven areas of society, including government, education and business. Decline in militias One area in which the report documented a decline is in the militia movement, which suffered after the hundreds of Department of Justice prosecutions following the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The numbers of militias dropped to 52 in 2023, from 61 in 2022. One of the most prominent militias, the Oath Keepers, significantly diminished its presence following the 2023 conviction and sentencing of its leader Stewart Rhodes for seditious conspiracy leading up to and during the Jan. 6 attack. The Oath Keepers active militia chapters dropped to 10 in 2023 from 79 in 2022. The post White nationalist, anti-LGBTQ activity on the rise, annual hate report shows appeared first on Michigan Advance. One of the hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the alt-right who marched during the Unite the Right rally Aug. 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported Tuesday that the number of white nationalist groups in the U.S. rose to a record high in 2023. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) One of the hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the alt-right who marched during the Unite the Right rally Aug. 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported Tuesday that the number of white nationalist groups in the U.S. rose to a record high in 2023. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) WASHINGTON Emboldened by the mainstreaming of hard-right politics ahead of a presidential election cycle, white nationalist and anti-LGBTQ+ groups increased to record levels in the United States last year, according to the Southern Poverty Law Centers latest annual report on hate and extremism released Tuesday. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which has published the annual report since 1990, documented 835 active anti-government groups, up 133 from 2022s count, and 595 hate groups, an increase of 72 over the previous years figure. Accounting for a large portion of the increase was a 50% surge in white supremacy hate groups in 2023, the highest jump ever recorded by the SPLC, growing to 165 over 109 in 2022. White power and neo-Nazi rallies across the U.S. totaled 143 in 2023, down from 191 in 2022. SPLC saw a 33% rise in anti-LGBTQ+ organizations over last year, bringing the total to 86. The group said the growth was largely attributable to the anti-trans movement on the far-right. White nationalist groups have worked to gain mainstream influence through the conservative Heritage Foundations Project 2025 manifesto, that outlines an anti-free press, anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion agenda should Donald Trump be elected in November. What were seeing now should be a wake-up call for all of us, Margaret Huang, SPLCs president and CEO, said on a call with reporters. Our 2023 report documented more hate and anti-government extremist groups than ever before. With a historic election just months away, these groups are multiplying, mobilizing and making, and in some cases already implementing, plans to undo democracy. Hate groups have increased in-person events and leafleting, according to the report. The SPLC tracked nearly 7,000 flyering incidents last year, many including language derived from racist and antisemitic conspiracies. The groups also launched campaigns to gain influence in mainstream politics, according to the report, namely through the conservative Heritage Foundations Project 2025 manifesto that outlines aspirations for anti-abortion, anti-free press and anti-LGBTQ+ priorities should presumed GOP presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump win in November. Nine of the anti-government and hate groups tracked by the SPLC are part of the coalition that supports Project 2025, the organization reports. Florida a leader in anti-government, hate groups Among the states leading in numbers of anti-government and hate groups are California, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, Washington and Ohio. California topped the list with 51 hate and 66 anti-government groups. The SPLC recorded the second-most groups in Florida, which has become a leader in book-banning incidents and restrictive policies on teachers. The Sunshine State is home to 43 hate and 71 anti-government organizations, according to the report, and is the birthplace of recently influential parental rights group Moms for Liberty. Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice was invited in March 2023 to testify before a U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary subcommittee then chaired by Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, who is now House speaker. The annual survey of hate groups tracked 116 hate-leafleting incidents in Florida, where the antisemitic groups rallied and flyered on multiple occasions, including over Labor Day when groups named the Goyim Defense League, The Order of the Black Sun and the Maine-based Blood Tribe marched in Orlando wielding flags with swastikas and making Nazi salutes. Members of the Proud Boys, a white nationalist hate group, at an anti-transgender rally in Nashville in Sept. 2022. (Photo: John Partipilo) Antisemitism, already on the rise, became more pronounced following Israels continuing offensive on the Gaza Strip following the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Antisemitic conspiracies seeped into mainstream narratives at an alarming pace and 2023. Specifically after Hamass October 7 terrorist attack, the far right blurred the lines between legitimate criticism of the Israeli governments actions and outright antisemitism, R.G. Cravens, SPLCs senior research analyst for its Intelligence Project, said during Tuesdays call with reporters. Following the Hamas attack, the so-called Goyim Defense League distributed a flyer online and in person that read FREE PALESTINE, as a not-so-thinly-veiled attempt at stoking more antisemitism and using Palestinian people to further their own aims, according to the report. Christian dominionism The SPLC report also cited the expanding influence of extreme Christian nationalism as a driver for the growing number of anti-government organizations. The report expresses concern over the rise in the Republican ranks of Johnson, a former senior lawyer for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal advocacy group behind the U.S. Supreme Court case that precipitated the overturning of the federal right to abortion. Johnsons far-right politics, including his anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ positions and his advocacy to blur Christianity and the state, are well documented. Spokespeople for Johnson did not immediately return an email seeking comment. The Alliance for Defending Freedom describes SPLC as a discredited and scandal-ridden group, and denounces the organizations hate map. The SPLC currently has an interactive U.S. map pinpointing locations of anti-government and hate groups. Eventually, their definition of hate included huge swaths of well-respected, mainstream, conservative America, according to a post on the Alliance for Defending Freedom website. The SPLC report specifically warns about the rise of the National Apostolic Reformation, a Christian movement made up of dominionist leaders that aim to seize control of seven areas of society, including government, education and business. Decline in militias One area in which the report documented a decline is in the militia movement, which suffered after the hundreds of Department of Justice prosecutions following the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The numbers of militias dropped to 52 in 2023, from 61 in 2022. One of the most prominent militias, the Oath Keepers, significantly diminished its presence following the 2023 conviction and sentencing of its leader Stewart Rhodes for seditious conspiracy leading up to and during the Jan. 6 attack. The Oath Keepers active militia chapters dropped to 10 in 2023 from 79 in 2022. The post White nationalist, anti-LGBTQ activity on the rise, annual hate report shows appeared first on Tennessee Lookout. Why the Tories claim that Labour will raise taxes by 2,000 adds up The Prime Minister used the figure in his first election debate The Tories claim that Labour will launch a 2,000 tax raid is backed up by Labours own figures and Treasury costings, analysis shows. Rishi Sunak has denied he misled the public over the warning. Meanwhile, Britains statistics watchdog said the public had no way of knowing the truth about the prime ministers claim and how it was produced. However, the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) also said the Tories decision to involve Treasury civil servants in the calculation was a long-standing practice and a deep dive into the numbers suggests the methodology behind them is sound. The OSR also did not comment on the accuracy of the 2,000 figure which was partly calculated by Treasury officials, who were guided by Tory special advisers setting the assumptions. But close examination shows that most of the maths underpinning this claim does indeed come from Treasury number crunching. Much of the rest comes from Labours own internal workings on what it expects its policies to cost. In fact, Tory sources stress, only one policy was costed by the private sector and that was in a note from an independent investment bank. The regulators main criticism centered around the Tories decision to account for tax rise over several years, instead of the usual single year convention. A more accurate figure would be a 500 a year increase in taxes, the OSR suggested. However, it did not criticise the Tories workings. In a statement on Thursday, the OSR said: Without reading the full Conservative Party costing document, someone hearing the claim would have no way of knowing that this is an estimate summed together over four years. We [have previously] warned against this practice. It also highlighted a letter sent to Labour by James Bowler, Treasury permanent secretary, who said Tory claims about the oppositions tax and spending plans should not be presented as having been produced by the civil service. Labour maintains that the claims are misleading. Sir Keir Starmer accused Mr Sunak of lying and breaking the ministerial code. But the Tories have insisted that their costings are fair, adding that working households could in fact face an even higher tax rise if Labour follows through with aspirations such as increasing defence spending. Mr Sunak told ITV that Labour were rattled that weve exposed their plans to raise tax as he denied he was willing to lie in order to stay in power. Both Labour and the Tories have used civil servants to cost opposition policies since the 1950s. Analysis by the Institute for Government found that between January 2008 and January 2010, the Labour government asked the Treasury to undertake 38 costings of Conservative policies. Sir Robert Chote, the head of the body that oversees UK statistics, said he would ban the practice altogether. He said: This was a bad precedent when it started and wed be much better off without it because it confuses the picture. It puts the Treasury in a very difficult position because their officials are held responsible for numbers that are partly shaped by political advisers. Here is the working behind the sums: Spending The document in which the 2,000 tax raid claim was made was originally unveiled by Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, last month. It adds up the theoretical cost of previously announced Labour policies and subtracts the amount of revenue expected to be raised by other measures from Sir Keir, to get to a figure for additional tax rises needed to deliver on his partys ambitions. Mr Hunts document examines 19 Labour spending commitments, ranging from creating two million more GP appointments to the partys net zero plan. The Treasury costed all but three of them, although its analysis was based on assumptions provided by Tory special advisers, who do not abide by the same impartiality rules as civil servants. For example, Labours plans to bring the delivery of some public services in-house is underpinned by a claim that outsourced services are 7.5pc more efficient than insourced ones. This is taken from a report published by the Institute for Government, an independent think-tank, and this number specifically relates to cleaning services. The Treasury itself said last month it had low confidence in this because the difference between the cost of outsourcing and in-house delivery is highly circumstance specific. The three policies that were not costed by the Treasury are big commitments. The first is Labours Green Prosperity Plan, which will help drive Britain towards net zero. These numbers are taken from Labours plans to spend 4.7bn per year on going green after it was forced to row back on a 28bn-a-year pledge. The second is linked to Labours pledge to offer a fair pay agreement to people working in adult social care, many of whom are paid the minimum wage of 11.44 an hour. Labour has not set out what it believes is a fair wage, simply stating it will consult widely to empower workers with a new deal. The Tories based their assumption that the policy will cost 2bn over the next four years or around 110 per working household on a written question submitted by Matt Warman, the Conservative MP for Boston and Skegness, who asked how much it will cost to increase pay for staff in the social care sector by 65p per hour to more than 12. Helen Whatley, the social care minister, said her assumption of 600m per year only included direct care staff and also left out additional costs borne by more than 200,000 people who pay for their own care costs. The Tories Ukraine funding estimate is based on Labour matching Mr Sunaks pledge to pump 500m of new military aid into Ukraine and claiming it will do so every year until the end of the decade. This was after David Lammy and John Healey, the respective shadow foreign and defence secretaries, vowed there would be no change in our military, diplomatic, financial and political support to Ukraine. Revenue Hunt presented eight Labour tax rises in his dossier, of which five were costed by the Treasury, including VAT on private schools. Adding VAT at 20pc to school fees raises an estimated 1bn per year, with business rates adding another 120m. However, there is significant uncertainty around these numbers. Depending on how many pupils join the state school system, the VAT raid may raise 700 million and not 1 billion, for instance. Labour and the Tories also differ on the amount of extra money a windfall tax on energy companies will bring into the Treasury. Labour claims the amount could be as high as 10.8bn over five years. The Tory analysis is based on a note by investment bank Stifel, which suggests the number will be closer to 6.5bn, and does not include job losses. The windfall tax on oil and gas firms has already been extended by 12 months by Mr Hunt, with a 35pc surcharge on profits now ending in 2029. A crackdown on a tax break enjoyed by private equity firms is also estimated by the Treasury to cost the exchequer money instead of raising anything, because of an assumption that wealthy people will move out of the country as a result. Labour itself appears to recognise this, with some Labour politicians putting pressure on Ms Reeves to bring its raid closer to the levies imposed in similar European countries to prevent an exodus. The Tories also took Labours claim that it would raise more than 10bn over five years from crackdown on tax dodging and non-compliance at face value. In practice, squeezing extra tax from avoidance and evasion has been difficult in the past, though some tax experts said making tax digital will ensure higher revenues from the self-employed. The 2,000 figure Taken together, these assumptions mean the Tories estimate that Labour expects to spend 3,380 per working household on new measures. A total of 2,111 of this is based on Treasury estimates and the remaining 1,269 is from Labour or costings by other government departments. Labour is expected to raise 1,286 from its revenue plans. Of this, 368 is based on Treasury costings and the rest are from Labour, other departments and Stifel. The difference between the revenue-raising and spending measures is 2,094. This amount of money is what the Tories say must be raised by additional tax raids. Of this number, 1,742 comes from Treasury analysis and only 351 from other sources. Although the split suggests that the Conservatives are largely relying on Treasury numbers for their workings, economists still criticised the way the numbers were presented. The standard practice is generally to cost policies on an annual basis rather than over a period of several years. Ed Balls, the former shadow chancellor, admitted that Gordon Brown, the former chancellor, regularly deployed this roll-up tactic. He told the Political Currency podcast: Actually its 500 [per year] and theyve then added it up over four years. So its 500 a year for four years, which is the kind of roll-up that you [George Osborne] liked to criticise Gordon Brown for in 1998. Stuart Adam, a senior economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said: People hearing the 2,000 number without being told what period it referred to could be forgiven for assuming its annual. That is the most common period such things are measured over employees dont normally think of their salary over a four-year period, for example. And there are reasons for sticking to annual figures. If you start adding them up over several years, the number of years you pick is arbitrary and the more years you include, the bigger the number sounds. Using annual figures consistently has the crucial advantage that theyre comparable. 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 message from Taiwans president congratulating Narendra Modi for winning a third term as Indias prime minister has sparked a diplomatic row between New Delhi and Beijing. Lai Ching-te joined a slew of world leaders, including Rishi Sunak of the UK and Joe Biden of the US, in wishing Mr Modi after an alliance led by his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party secured a narrow victory in Indias latest national election. My sincere congratulations to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his election victory," Mr Lai said on X. "We look forward to enhancing the fast-growing Taiwan-India partnership, expanding our collaboration on trade, technology & other sectors to contribute to peace & prosperity in the IndoPacific. Thank you @ChingteLai for your warm message. I look forward to closer ties as we work towards mutually beneficial economic and technological partnership. https://t.co/VGw2bsmwfM Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 5, 2024 Mr Modi responded by thanking the Taiwanese leader for his wishes. "I look forward to closer ties as we work towards mutually beneficial economic and technological partnership," he said. India and Taiwan do not have a formal diplomatic relationship but they have made several trade and labour deals over the years. China considers Taiwan a part of its territory and its position, called One China policy, is recognised or acknowledged by most countries, including India, meaning they dont consider Taipei a sovereign entity. Beijing therefore did not take kindly to Mr Modi's interaction with the Taiwanese leader. It "opposes all forms of official interactions between the Taiwan authorities and countries having diplomatic relations with China, foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said. Ms Mao added that there was no such thing as president of the Taiwan region. Activists of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party spray black paint on a poster depicting Chinese President Xi Jinping during a protest against China (AFP via Getty) Indias relations with China collapsed during Mr Modi's second term when soldiers of the rival Asian powers clashed in Galwan Valley in the disputed northern border region of Ladakh, leading to the death of 20 Indian soldiers, in 2020. Mr Modi's acknowledgment of the Taiwanese leaders message only aggravated the frosty relations. "India has diplomatic relations with China and knows China's position well. On the One China principle, India has made serious political commitments and is supposed to recognise, be alarmed about and resist the Taiwan authorities' political calculations," a Chinese embassy spokesperson in India said on Friday. Congratulating Mr Modi on his election victory, Ms Mao said a sound and stable relationship between India and China was in the interest of both countries and conducive to the peace and development of the region". In the 10 years of Mr Modis rule, India has sought closer relations with the US, which in turn has seen it as a counterweight to a rising China. China really is India's long-term strategic challenge, both on the border and in the Indian Ocean, Viraj Solanki from the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London told Associated Press. This has resulted in a number of defence partnerships by India shifting, or just focusing on countering China's growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region. The US, Taiwan's primary ally despite acknowledging the One China policy, dismissed Beijings criticism on Thursday. "I would say such congratulatory messages are the normal course of diplomatic business," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. Taiwan lambasted Beijing for using "political coercion and spreading fallacies" to influence global powers. It is not only an international practice for Taiwan and India to pay tribute to each other on the results of democratic elections, it also fully demonstrates the friendship between the two sides", the island's foreign ministry said. Other countries have no right to comment. TOPEKA (KSNT) You might see Topeka police cruisers with orange ribbons today. But why? Today the Topeka Police Department (TPD) will be showing its support to ending gun violence for National Gun Violence Awareness Day. The Wear Orange campaign follows National Gun Violence Awareness Day. Both highlight the importance of gun safety around the country. Wear Orange began in 2013 following the death of a 15-year-old girl in Chicago. Orange was chosen because it is a bright color, and is also the color hunters wear when out in the woods to protect themselves and others. To show their support for the cause, the TPD will be putting orange ribbons on their cruisers today. Topeka man seriously injured in Lawrence crash By wearing orange, we honor the lives lost and the survivors affected by gun violence every day, the TPD wrote on Facebook. Join us in raising awareness and standing together for a safer community. 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. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News. A half-dozen men convicted in the plot to kill Haitian President Jovenel Moise must pay his widow and elder son $6.2 million in compensation for their loss, according to a federal judges restitution order in a Miami criminal case. While the president was shot a dozen times during the brazen middle-of-the-night attack at his home in the hills above Haitis capital on July 7, 2021, his widow survived and was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital to be treated for her wounds. Martine Moise, 50, was awarded $5,305,387 by U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez for her hospital bills, travel and security that she hired when she returned to Haiti 10 days later. Her restitution was jointly recommended by federal prosecutors and defense attorneys following lengthy negotiations. Although Martine Moise and her representatives have asserted she was shot in the arm, her injuries have long been a source of debate in Haiti, where earlier this year she was indicted in her husbands death along with 50 other people, some of them once close to the slain president. The late presidents elder son, Joverlein Moise, who is living in Quebec, Canada, was awarded $865,396. It is not clear from the judges order why the six convicted defendants have been ordered to compensate the son, who was not in the home at the time of the assassination. The son filed a motion in a Port-au-Prince court to join the investigation, which under Haitis French-style law allows an individual hurt by a crime to seek damages from the perpetrators. READ MORE: Haitis top diplomat in the U.S. is fired after a passport scandal in the Washington embassy It remains to be seen how much the presidents widow and elder son will receive from the six ordered to pay restitution for the 53-year-old Haitian leaders death, because only one of men is known to have any assets. Theres also a tinge of irony in the federal judges order to compensate the widow: Although U.S. authorities view Martine Moise as a victim in her husbands fatal shooting, in Haiti shes accused of playing a role in the assassination plot. Martine Moises South Florida attorney, Paul Turner, called the allegations by a Haitian investigative judge nonsense and politically motivated, saying she had no advanced knowledge of the assassination. In the restitution agreement filed last week in Miami federal court, Martinez did not identify the widow and elder son in his final decision. They are listed as Victim 1 and Victim 2. But the Miami Herald has learned from the widows lawyer that Martine Moise is the first victim; others familiar with the case say Moises elder son, Joverlein, is the second. Turner said that he provided the team of federal prosecutors with receipts for the widows medical treatment at Jackson Memorial Hospital along with other expenses for her travel and security, calling the restitution amount a compromise. Turner said he and Martine Moise, who is currently living in South Florida, were grateful that a settlement was reached between the prosecutors and defense lawyers rather than her being forced to testify about the hospital bills and other expenses in a court hearing before the federal judge in Miami. We are happy that we didnt have to do that, Turner told the Herald. We didnt want to fight over it, and she didnt want to go to court. It remains unclear, what outstanding hospital payments Martine Moise incurred. Documents obtained by the Miami Herald show that the Haitian government in the days after the killing spent more than $330,000 toward her medical care and private air transport for the family. On July 7, the Haitian embassy of Haiti in Washington wired $100,000 to a Citibank account for the Haitian consulate in Miami for the first ladys medical expenses. A separate letter from Haitis Ministry of Foreign Affairs written to the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince confirmed the fund transfer and said it was to support the air transport of the First Lady. The Haitian embassy in Washington, which has been plagued by a financial corruption scandal, also issued a series of three checks, for $22,000, $22,875 and $27,940, between July 7 and July 9 for the presidential family to take a charter flight from Port-au-Prince to Miami. On July 26 the Haitian embassy transferred another $105,950 to the Haitian consulate in Miamis Citibank account. Again, the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince was notified about the bank transfer. This time, Haitis foreign ministry said the funds will be used to cover related medical expenses at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Attached was a letter from Jackson, stating that the deposit will be collected to cover medical cost for $105,950 from the Miami Consulate of Haiti. Two days after Jackson Memorial received that money, the Haitian embassy wrote a check for $59,100 for another charter flight for the presidential family. Again, the U.S. Embassy was notified in separate correspondence about the transaction. When Martine Moise returned to Haiti for her hsubands burial service on July 23, she disembarked the flight at the Port-au-Prince airport wearing a black dress, a black bulletproof jacket, a black face mask, and her right arm in a black sling. Miam-Dade lawsuit The widow and her late husband had two other children who were in their home during the assault nearly three years ago but were not injured. They are represented by their mother in a separate lawsuit that brought last year against all 11 defendants named in the criminal indictment filed in Miami federal court. Turner said the civil case, which seeks separate damages for her late husbands lost wages, emotional distress and other claims, is on hold pending the outcome of the criminal case. The remaining five criminal defendants face trial next January. Asked about the challenge of collecting damages from as many as 11 defendants, Turner acknowledged the difficulty and said it is his hope to add possibly other defendants with deeper pockets to the lawsuit. READ MORE: Plots, subplots and betrayal engulfed Haitis president before his assassination Over the past two years, a half-dozen men have pleaded guilty in the Miami case, which is built upon a violation of the U.S. Neutrality Act and a conspiracy to kill a foreign leader. Prosecutors say the plot pivoted on planning in South Florida and Haiti, with the initial goal of replacing Moise with a Haitian physician and pastor, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, and deploying former Colombian soldiers to carry out the presidents assassination. The six defendants convicted so far are: Rodolphe Jaar, a Haitian-Chilean businessman previously convicted of drug-trafficking in Miami federal court; Joseph Joel John, a former Haitian senator; Joseph Vincent, a Haitian American who worked as an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration; German Alejandro Rivera Garcia, aka Colonel Mike, a former Colombian military officer who ran the commando squad; and Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios, a former Colombian soldier recruited by Rivera. Those five were sentenced to life in prison, but they are cooperating with federal prosecutors and the FBI in the hope of receiving lesser time. READ MORE: Who was involved in killing of Haiti president Jovenel Moise? Last month a sixth defendant, Frederick Bergmann, was sentenced to nine years in prison for breaking federal laws meant to keep the U.S. out of overseas conflicts. A resident of Tampa, he was sentenced to a year less than the maximum for shipping ballistic vests to Haiti that were used by the Colombian commandos who carried out the deadly attack on the president. Bergmann had no idea the vests were going to be used in the conspiracy to kill Haitis president, according to federal prosecutors and his defense attorney. Thats why he wasnt charged with the conspiracy targeting Moise. The remaining five defendants, including Sanon, are charged with conspiring in South Florida to kill Haitis leader. The conspiracy charge carries up to life in prison. The defendants facing trial are: Antonio Tony Intriago, the head of a Miami-area security firm, Counter Terrorist Unit Security or CTU; Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, who was a former FBI informant when he joined Intriago at CTU; Walter Veintemilla, a Broward County financier; James Solages, a Haitian American; and Sanon, who was initially seen by the group as a successor to Moise as Haitis president. In February, after Haitian authorities named him as an intellectual author of the plot in their case, Sanon was charged in Miami with the others with conspiring to kill Haitis leader, after first being accused of trying to carry out a military expedition against a foreign country. It was the fifth superseding indictment filed by prosecutors Andrea Goldbarg, Monica Castro and Frank Russo. Martine Moise, is expected to be a key witness for the federal government at the upcoming trial, according to her lawyer. William G. and Marie Selby Foundation awards $938,246 in grants to local nonprofits The Sarasota Ballet is receiving a $20,000 grant from the Selby Foundation toward a vehicle to transport equipment, costumes and other items needed for education and performances. The William G. and Marie Selby Foundation has approved $938,246 in grants to 16 charitable organizations in Sarasota, Manatee, Charlotte and DeSoto counties. From early learning to senior services, artistic expression to conservation, essential missions in our region will be enriched by these capital investments, said Susie Bowie, president and CEO of the Selby Foundation. The YMCA of Southwest Florida and Safe Children Coalition will receive the two largest grants. A $200,000 investment in the YMCA of Southwest Florida will fund appliances, play equipment, and furnishings for the Speer Center in DeSoto County, a new center and partnership between the nonprofit and the city of Arcadia. The historic building will be revived to bring childcare, food programs, and wellness services together. The Safe Children Coalition will also receive $200,000 for its new emergency youth shelter in Sarasota, an essential safe place for children in care. Other grants will fund technology, equipment, building renovations, and vehicles: Academy at Glengary $40,000 to purchase job training technology for those pursuing mental health recovery in Bradenton. Girls Inc. of Sarasota County $75,000 toward renovations to the pool serving girls and students from public schools learning to swim. Legal Aid of Manasota $20,700 for a new website and case management system. Lutheran Services of Florida $50,000 for a van to transport children in foster care. Pines of Sarasota Foundation $100,000 toward a new roof. The Pines of Sarasota Foundation is receiving a $100,000 gift from the Selby Foundation toward a new roof for the nonprofits skilled nursing facility. Resilient Retreat $50,000 for property maintenance equipment. Citizen Scientists League $20,000 for STEM equipment to support students in hands-on learning experiences. Hershorin Schiff Day Schools of Tomorrow $20,000 toward a sensory playground for children in early learning programs. Redlands Christian Migrant Association $36,221 for shade structures at an early learning center in Arcadia. Take Stock in Children Manatee $20,000 for laptops to help TSIC graduates enrolled in post-secondary education and continuing mentoring relationships. Asolo Repertory Theatre $25,000 to support construction of the new costume shop at the Koski Center. Sarasota Ballet of Florida $20,000 toward a box truck to transport equipment, costumes and other items. Florida State Parks Foundation $21,325 for a utility terrain vehicle at Don Pedro Island State Park for land and species management. Suncoast Blood Centers $40,000 to convert a blood mobile to solar/battery power to reduce energy, operating costs, and environmental impact. Incorporated in 1955, the William G. and Marie Selby Foundation invests in community success through the charitable legacy of Bill and Marie Selby. For more information visit SelbyFdn.org. Submitted by Susie Bowie This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: YMCA of SW Florida, Safe Children Coalition receive major Selby grants The first call came in about a drowning. The phone rang a second time 45 minutes later about a different death. Later that afternoon, a third call came in about someone killed in a traffic wreck. Williamson County Justice of the Peace for Precinct 1 KT Musselman said he answered all three calls while presiding over eviction, towing and truancy cases in his court. As one of the county's four justices of the peace, he not only hears civil court cases but also must determine the cause and manner of death and order autopsies in homicides, suicides, accidents, drug overdoses or deaths with undetermined causes because the county doesn't have a medical examiner. That needs to change, said Musselman. More: Travis County has the highest rate of fentanyl deaths in Texas. Why is Austin a hot spot? Justice of the Peace KT Musselman speaks from the bench with Misty Lamb, the chief court administrator, on hand on Tuesday. Musselman says the county needs a medical examiner because the time he and the other JPs spend on investigating deaths has risen. The number of deaths that the four Williamson County justices of the peace responded to grew from 461 in 2014 to 1,023 last year, or 122%, Musselman said. Because of COVID-19 and having to respond to death investigations, he said he has 25 jury trials on backlog. "In our society, we are taught not to talk about death out of respect, and I don't have an issue or cause with that," he said. "But I am required as an elected official to speak up on behalf of the people I represent who deserve more than what the four of us can give." More: It's time we asked why Williamson County doesn't have a medical examiner | Opinion County Commissioner Valerie Covey said she is working with the JPs on an interim solution that involves contracting with people who would only investigate deaths for each justice of the peace office. The Williamson County Commissioners Court hasn't discussed it yet, she said, but the issue will be addressed during the county's budgeting process this summer. The cost to hire death investigators has not yet been estimated. Commissioner Terry Cook said she knows the justices of the peace need help with their jobs. "In a county like ours, it doesnt make sense anymore to do business as it has been done in the past," she said. "We have to really study and come up with a solution now." County Judge Bill Gravell, a former justice of the peace, said officials are studying short-term and long-term options. "We have a strategic plan that addresses long-term goals, which can include things like the addition of a medical examiners office," Gravell said. "We have a group actively working on gathering information for this. We also have groups looking at short-term options for the next fiscal year budget." Williamson County, with an estimated population of 772,000, is not required by state law to have a medical examiner. Only counties with populations of 2.5 million or greater must have them. But commissioners courts can establish a medical examiner's office at any time. Musselman says JPs often get called to death scenes late in the evening or early in the morning, leaving them exhausted for court the next day. Eighteen counties in Texas have medical examiners, including seven Nueces, Cameron, Galveston, Montgomery, Webb, Johnson and Ector with lower populations than Williamson County, according to figures from Williamson County Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace Rhonda Redden. Williamson County spokesperson Connie Odom said officials are looking at the cost of offices for medical examiners under construction, including one in Lubbock. The office there is being built for an estimated $45 million that comes from voter-approved bonds and American Rescue Act Funds, according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. "It's a very expensive operation to have an ME's office," said Covey. "We are putting it in our strategic plan and looking at where it might be located." Covey said the county already has reliable agencies and private forensic businesses that provide autopsies, including the Travis County medical examiner's office and Hill Country Forensics. "It's so many that you literally lose track," Precinct 1 Justice of the Peace KT Musselman said of having to respond to death investigations in Williamson County. He and the county's three other justices are required to be on call for one week every month to visit death scenes throughout the county and discuss the manner of death with police and doctors. Williamson County spent $1.56 million for autopsies during 2023, according to county figures. Other Central Texas counties with smaller populations and fewer death investigations spent less. Hays County spent $736,571 on autopsies in 2023, officials there said. Its six justices conducted 389 death investigations that year. In 2023, Bastrop County spent $283,725 on autopsies, and its four justices did an estimated 211 death investigations, according to county officials. In Williamson County, the justices of the peace take turns serving one week per month investigating deaths all over the county, as well as conducting their court duties. Justices of the peace are not required to go to all death scenes and can conduct some investigations by phone. They do not determine if someone is dead but talk to law enforcement, relatives and doctors after a person has died to figure out the manner and cause of death. Justice of the Peace KT Musselman speaks with the court clerk, Janie Mendora. More than 1,000 death inquests were conducted by the four Williamson County JPs peace last year. The JP's can order autopsies if needed and require doctors to take a sample of body fluids or tissue. They are required to sign death certificates if a doctor cannot or refuses to do it. No medical or law enforcement experience is required to be a justice of the peace. Redden said she has ended up working on death investigations much more than her assigned one week per month. "I work a lot of hours," she said. "I put in 3,100 hours in 2023 and about 2,500 to 2,600 of them were dedicated to death investigations. It means I go into work early and work through lunches and stay late and work on weekends. ... For me, my family has been my sacrifice." Redden said she spends a lot of time talking to families that have lost loved ones, even if it means she has to delay court for 20 minutes. "They are going through such a hard time that they forget to eat and drink," she said. "I have to remind people to drink some water every hour. I take my time with families because they need it." Musselman said the justices often get called to death scenes in the late night or early morning hours, leaving them exhausted for court the next day. "If a call comes in from Taylor, it takes you 30 minutes to get there, and if you get called for another death in Liberty Hill, it takes you 45 minutes to get there, often on back roads," he said. One of the last times he was on call he was notified about seven deaths in one day, he said. Four of the calls were less than two hours apart, Musselman said. "It's so many that you literally lose track," he said. "I've had to call back police officers and say, 'Can you tell me that the name of the deceased again?'" This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Williamson County justices of the peace seek help with death inquests Editors Note: Sign up for CNNs Meanwhile in China newsletter which explores what you need to know about the countrys rise and how it impacts the world. As profit margins get squeezed, temperatures are rising in the worlds biggest car market. A tense exchange between two major Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers in recent days highlights the pressures they face as a price war in the industry intensifies. It all started on Saturday, when Yu Chengdong, the chairman of Huaweis smart car unit, implied that rival EV maker BYD is racing ahead because of low prices rather than the quality of its cars. Currently, BYD is number one in the rat race, because it has extremely low costs, he said at a public forum in Shenzhen. BYD, a carmaker Elon Musk once laughed at, overtook his Tesla (TSLA) at the end of last year as the biggest seller of electric vehicles on the planet. (Tesla regained its position in the first quarter of this year, but theyre neck and neck.) We are not good at competing with ultra-low prices. Rather, we are good at competing with value, intelligence, luxury, comfort, safety, high quality, excellent and comfortable user experience, Yu added. While top executives from the EV industry often post on social media about a range of topics, including technology and advertising, they rarely name rival companies, especially when criticizing them. In recent months, a price war has escalated in Chinas hyper-competitive EV industry, with manufacturers battling for consumer attention with deep discounts or newer, cheaper models. The industry suffered a blow in May when US President Joe Biden quadrupled tariffs on electric vehicles from China to 100%, effectively sealing off one of the worlds biggest passenger car markets. It also faces potential extra import duties from the European Union as soon as next week. Yus comments about BYD have gone viral on Chinese social media and provoked a sharp retort from the EV giant. Personally I have great respect for Huawei. But I feel that if Mr Yu can make fewer comparisons, either at press conferences or public forums, more people will like him, and Huaweis brand would also gain points, Li Yunfei, general manager of branding and public relations at BYD, said in a video post on Weibo on Thursday. Huawei's AITO M9 electric vehicle was on display in Shanghai on May 19, 2024. - Costfoto/NurPhoto/Getty Images Li pointed out that Huawei is also trying to compete with low prices, as the company has made significant price cuts in the past year. We welcome other brands to show their cars at our booth and compete with ours on the same stage, he added. On the same day, Wang Chuanfu, founder and chairman of BYD, said at the companys annual shareholder meeting that its core strength lies in technology and innovation. Story continues BYD will invest 100 billion yuan ($13.8 billion) in developing smart EVs in the future, focusing on generative artificial intelligence and large model technologies, Wang added. Earlier this week, BYD was among a group of nine automakers to receive a green light from the Chinese government for public trials of advanced auto driving. Competition in the worlds largest EV market has become cutthroat. The country has more than 200 EV manufacturers who are grappling with huge oversupply and slowing consumer demand. A brutal price war kicked in last year, with even market leaders like BYD and Tesla rushing to cut prices to retain or expand their market positions. While deep price cuts by manufacturers and government subsidies for car buyers have boosted the volume of sales, overall profitability has fallen. Wang said earlier this year that a brutal elimination round is coming for the industry, urging companies to form economies of scale and brand advantages as soon as possible. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com KANSAS (KSNT) Senators Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran announced Kansans will pay less for electricity after an appeal to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Marshall and Moran contacted the Commission last September to reinstate a tariff filing by the Southwest Power Pool to cut excessive transmission costs that Kansans had to bear, according to a letter to the FERC. When the letter went unanswered, Senators Moran and Marshall wrote demanding answers in April 2024. The excessive costs come from the SPPs Highway/Byway method. The method requires the cost of Byway facilities to be 67% in the zone where the transmission facility is located. The remaining 33% is allocated to the SPP region. The Byway facilities are primarily used to export wind energy to other zones instead of supporting the load in the Sunflower Zone, according to the letter. Why is TPD putting orange ribbons on patrol vehicles? In recent years, Kansas has been in the top five states in the country in terms of both the level of wind energy supplying electricity generation in Kansas and the annual growth of wind capacity in Kansas, the letter to the FERC said. However, the overwhelming majority of the wind generation in the Sunflower Zone is not affiliated with any customer in the Zone and is instead exported to the SPP region. On Wednesday, June 5 Senator Marshall issued a press release announcing that the FERC is adjusting the transmission costs for Kansans. FERCs ruling is a major win for Kansan consumers, Senator Marshall said. Our state is proud to be a leader in energy production, but that doesnt mean Kansas consumers should be forced to foot most of the bill so consumers in other states can enjoy our services at a discount. Not only was this an unnecessary financial burden for Kansans, but FERC was also acting in violation of its own requirement that transmission costs must be based in relation to the benefits received by consumers. The corrected FERC policy is expected to save Kansans $9.9 million per year, according to Marshall. Moran mirrored his sentiment saying, This new adjustment removes unnecessary burdens from Kansans to make life more affordable. Report: Topeka offers best relocation incentives in the nation 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. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News. A new police report details a white fathers explanation to cops for why he shoved a Black school superintendent off a Wisconsin graduation stage to stop him from shaking his graduating daughters hand. The scandal began on May 31, when Matthew Eddy walked onto the stage at Baraboo High Schools graduation as his daughter was shaking hands with school officials. As she approached Superintendent Rainey Briggs, who is Black, the father jumped on stage, grabbed the superintendent by his arm, and dragged him away from his daughter, viral video of the incident shows. He put both of his hands on me to push me out of the way stating, You are not going to touch my (expletive) daughter, Briggs told police . At that time I created space and stated get your hands off me. Now, Eddy has been charged with disorderly conduct and Briggs has filed a restraining order against the man. The police report, obtained by local outlet WMTV 5 News, says Eddy told officers he had past issues with Rainey and dislikes him. Eddy told police he wanted to prevent Rainey from having the satisfaction of shaking his daughters hand, so he went onto the stage to prevent that from happening. An unnamed father of a graduate pictured shoving Superintendent Rainey Briggs (far left) off the stage. In 2018, the same high school made national news after a photo emerged of several students performing the Nazi salute (TV43 Baraboo) Officers said the push was pre-planned and that the father was sorry for the incident but only because of the impact it had on his graduating daughter. We would like to emphasize that the safety and well-being of our students, staff, and community members is a top priority, Baraboo School District spokesperson Hailey Wagner said in a statement regarding the incident. Meanwhile, the Baraboo School Board condemned it. No employee of the School District of Baraboo should fear for their physical safety when fulfilling their job duties or at any other time, the school board stated. That this adult felt emboldened to behave in this way in front of hundreds of students and other adults should deeply trouble us all; this type of behavior will not be tolerated. The police report does not include evidence the incident was racially motivated. But David Hart, president of Blacks for Political and Social Action of Dane County, told WMTV 5 he is concerned about how Briggs was treated. After Dr. Briggs was pushed out of the way and prevented from doing his job, it does not appear that anyone checked on Dr. Briggs welfare, and he was forced to continue on amid this trauma, Hart told the outlet. While this incident could certainly have race neutral explanations, the treatment of Dr. Briggs looks all too familiar to us. Community members shared similar concerns. This is absolutely wild that this isnt already being called out for the outright racism that it is, one user commented on Facebook earlier this week. I know there are criticisms Dr. Briggs, some of which may be valid, but nothing that would remotely justify anything like this. Its a handshake. What century are we in? Baraboo High School made national news in 2018 when a photo emerged depicting several current and former students doing the Nazi salute. A group of current and former Baraboo High School students pictured performing the Nazi salute (Twitter) One boy in the front row can also be seen forming his index finger and thumb into an OK sign, a symbol co-opted by followers of far-right and white supremacist movements. The image was taken ahead of their junior prom and was not affiliated with the school or school district. However, the school district ultimately refused to take disciplinary action against the students, citing their first amendment rights. Wisconsin man found with 6,500 grams of marijuana during search warrant sentenced to federal prison Wisconsin man found with 6,500 grams of marijuana during search warrant sentenced to federal prison BELOIT, Wis. (WFRV) A southern Wisconsin man who was found to be in possession of over 6,500 grams of marijuana during a search warrant in March 2023 was sentenced to federal prison on Tuesday. A release provided by the United States Attorneys Office for the Western District of Wisconsin stated that 37-year-old Byron D. Broomfield was sentenced to six and a half years in federal prison for Possessing Firearms after a Felony Conviction and Maintaining a Drug-Involved Premises. Broomfields Beloit residence was searched in March 2023 after officers initially launched an investigation into Broomfield for drug trafficking in January 2023. During the investigation, officers say they found evidence of substantial marijuana dealing in Broomfields trash. Twins arrested after Wisconsin authorities seize $200K worth of fentanyl, cocaine in multiple search warrants On March 6, 2023, officers reportedly saw Broomfield and another man enter Broomfields residence with an empty bag. Shortly after, the other man left the residence with the same bag, but this time, it was full. A few hours later, another two people arrived at the residence with an empty backpack, leaving shortly after with a full backpack. The two people were then stopped by officers, where they reportedly found two pounds of marijuana in the same backpack. Officers say that those people told the officers that they bought the weed from Broomfield. A search warrant was then obtained and conducted at Broomfields residence. During the search, officers found 6,599 grams of marijuana commercially packaged for distribution and a loaded Taurus G3C 9mm handgun that reportedly had Broomfields DNA on it. Officers also found a Glock Model 19 handgun with a Glock switch attached, and a Masterpiece Arms Defender 9mm handgun with an obliterated serial number in Broomfields car. Altercation at a Wisconsin bar turns into deadly shooting, dozens of shell casings found Authorities say a Glock switch is a common name for an illegal after-market device that converts a semi-automatic handgun into a fully functioning machine gun. Broomfield pleaded guilty on February 14, 2024, and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley. At sentencing, Judge Conley emphasized that gun violence plagues the nation and added that the Beloit community was no exception. Judge Conley additionally considered the incredible danger Broomfield posed to the public by possessing a handgun with a Glock switch. The release noted that this is Broomfields second federal felony conviction. In 2010, Broomfield was convicted of distributing cocaine in the Western District of Wisconsin. No additional information was provided. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFRV Local 5 - Green Bay, Appleton. DENVER (KDVR) Witnesses described seeing a plane weaving back and forth before crashing in front of an Arvada home Friday. Plane crashes in front yard of Arvada home, neighbors pull victims out of wreckage The plane crashed near Oberon Road and Carr Street around 9:30 a.m. Evan Sherlock said he was about to run an errand when he noticed the plane really low in the sky, and said it appeared to be weaving back and forth and dipping its wings. Being super concerned that it was so low, I kept driving but I looked in the rearview mirror, and next thing I knew it was gone, he said. He turned around and saw that the plane had crashed. It ended up in someones front yard, which is particularly scary, he said. Neighbors began coming outside and Sherlock said first responders arrived very quickly. He said there were construction crews nearby that also came to help. Some bystanders were sitting on curbs watching and some were running to get water and attend to the needs of people who Sherlock said he believes got out of the plane, but he was not sure. Sherlock snapped a photo of the plane engulfed in flames after the crash. One bystander appeared to be using a yard hose to put water on the flames. I couldnt believe thats what I just saw. I was hoping that it was doing something else, said Sherlock. I could see smoke coming out of it, and at first it looked like a crop duster to me. and then I was like, theres no way why would you be crop dusting in Arvada? But obviously, something was mechanically wrong with the airplane, and it was just entirely too low for it to be doing anything safe. Arvada first responders at the scene of a plane crash on June 7, 2024. (Credit: Evan Sherlock) One neighbor told FOX31 that they saw the smoke come up and they ran to the house and helped pull people out of the wreckage. Sherlock said there was debris in the road and front yard. He also said it appeared that part of the plane hit a nearby pickup truck. Sherlock added that first responders were on the scene very quickly and said they appeared to have the situation under control. An aerial view of a plane crash in Arvada on June 7, 2024. First responders said everyone on was taken to the hospital. Arvada first responders at the scene of a plane crash on June 7, 2024. (KDVR) Arvada first responders at the scene of a plane crash on June 7, 2024. FOX31s Samantha Spitz described the scene and said police had roads blocked off and many first responders were on the scene. The Arvada Police Department confirmed that there were four people taken to a hospital, two adults and two juveniles. The extent of their injuries was unknown. The National Transportation Safety Board said the four people hurt were passengers. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. Woman arrested, charged with murder in connection to fatal shooting on Newtown Pike A woman was arrested in Ohio Friday and charged in the fatal shooting of a man who was found with gunshot wounds on Newtown Pike Tuesday afternoon. Shawnika Gill, 48, is charged with murder in the death of Antonio Taylor, 48, who died after being shot on the 500 block of Newtown Pike. The Lexington Police Department announced the arrest Friday evening. Gill was arrested in Hamilton County by the U.S. Marshals Service Central Kentucky Fugitive Task Force, the Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team and the Hamilton County Sheriffs Office, police said in a news release. She was being held in the Hamilton County Jail and will be extradited to Fayette County, police said. Police said detectives used the Real-Time Intelligence Center, Flock license plate readers and traffic cameras to identify Gill as the suspect. Police were called to the scene of the shooting, which is across from Bluegrass Community and Technical College, at about 4:35 p.m. Tuesday. Taylors death was the sixth homicide in Lexington this year. Man arrested in New York faces murder charge for shooting in Lexington Woman found alive after missing, endangered for 12+ days, Franklin County deputies say ZEBULON, N.C. (WNCN) A woman who was labeled as missing and endangered was found alive Thursday after almost two weeks of searching, the Franklin County Sheriffs Office told CBS 17. The North Carolina Center for Missing Persons had previously issued a Missing Endangered Alert for 75-year-old Gwen Ray Bunn after she was last seen May 24. It said she was believed to be suffering from a cognitive impairment. According to deputies, a farmer called the Franklin County Sheriffs Office Thursday after finding Bunns car in his field near the intersection of Brantlytown Road and Pearces Road. Deputies said they sent out K-9s in the area and found Bunn in a wooded area, still alive. Bunn was taken to a hospital and her current condition is unknown, according to the sheriffs office. CBS 17 is working to get more information. Check back for updates. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. It was initially assumed that the bear entered Patrice Miller's home after she died Getty Stock image of an American black bear The death of a California woman, whose body was found in her home last November and was subsequently attributed to a mauling by a black bear, has been deemed as the first such fatality in the state's history. In a statement obtained by PEOPLE on Friday, June 2, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) confirmed that it received an autopsy report from the Sierra County Sheriffs Office about a 71-year-old woman in Downieville who was found dead in her house after a black bear attacked her in November. Authorities initially believed the bear had entered the womans house after she had died, read the CDFW statement, but the coroners report confirmed that, ultimately, the bear caused the womans death. Related: 35-Year-Old Man Seriously Injured After Surprise Grizzly Bear Attack in Grand Teton National Park This incident is the first known, documented fatal attack by a black bear in California history, the statement continued. The CDFW added that a black bear was caught and euthanized. A DNA analysis confirmed it was the same animal that had been in the womans home and mauled her. PEOPLE reached out to the Sierra County Sheriffs Office for additional information, but they did not immediately respond. 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. In an interview with NBC affiliate KCRA, Sierra County Sheriff Mike Fisher said that in November, his office received a call for a welfare check on a 71-year-old woman, later identified as Patrice Miller. At the time, she reportedly had not been seen in a couple of days. When authorities arrived at Millers residence, per Fisher, they saw that the door was broken and bear scat on the porch. They then found Millers body inside. It appeared that the bear had probably been there several days and had been feeding on the remains, Fisher told KCRA. Related: How to Prevent Bear Attacks and What to Do If a Bear Approaches You, According to Experts In a statement shared on Facebook in November 2023, the Sierra County Sheriffs Office had initially suggested that the bear may have entered Miller's home after she died, perhaps drawn to a scent. The Sierra County Sheriffs Office extends its deepest condolences to the family and friends of Patrice Miller during this difficult time, the sheriffs office said in its statement, The loss of a community member is always a tragedy, and our thoughts are with those affected by this unfortunate event. Related: Veteran Was Attacked by Protective Grizzly Bear Defending Her Cub Heres What He Did to Survive According to The Los Angeles Times, black bear attacks on humans are rare in California, especially one that leads to death before this case adding that the state is home to about 25,000-35,000 black bears. The U.S. Census reported that Downieville has a population of 290, per its most recent data. For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on People. FILE - Palestinians search for bodies and survivors in the rubble of a residential building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike, in Rafah southern Gaza Strip, on Dec. 20, 2023. An AP analysis of Gaza Health Ministry data finds the proportion of Palestinian women and children being killed in the Israel-Hamas war appears to have declined sharply. Israel faces heavy international criticism over unprecedented levels of civilian casualties in Gaza. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair) JERUSALEM (AP) The proportion of Palestinian women and children being killed in the Israel-Hamas war appears to have declined sharply, an Associated Press analysis of Gaza Health Ministry data has found, a trend that both coincides with Israels changing battlefield tactics and contradicts the ministrys own public statements. The trend is significant because the death rate for women and children is the best available proxy for civilian casualties in one of the 21st centurys most destructive conflicts. In October, when the war began, it was above 60%. For the month of April, it was below 40%. Yet the shift went unnoticed for months by the U.N. and much of the media, and the Hamas-linked Health Ministry has made no effort to set the record straight. Israel faces heavy international criticism over unprecedented levels of civilian casualties in Gaza and questions about whether it has done enough to prevent them in an 8-month-old war that shows no sign of ending. Two recent airstrikes in Gaza killed dozens of civilians. The AP analysis highlights facts that have been overlooked and could help inform the public debate, said Gabriel Epstein, a research assistant at the Washington Institute for Near East policy who has also studied the Health Ministry data. The declining impact on women and children -- as well as a drop in the overall death rate -- are definitely due to a change in the way the IDF is acting right now, Epstein said, using an acronym for the Israeli army. Thats an easy conclusion, but I dont think its been made enough. Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director for Human Rights Watch, said his group has always found the Health Ministrys numbers to be generally reliable because it has direct access to hospitals and morgues. Whatever the reason for fewer women and child being killed, Shakir said, in the grand scheme, the trend pales when compared with the wars overall devastation. The death toll may be an undercount, he added, because many bodies are still under rubble and the war has made it difficult for the Health Ministry to comprehensively gather data. AS THE WAR EVOLVES, A SHIFT OCCURS When Israel first responded to Hamas Oct. 7 attack, which killed some 1,200 people, it launched an intense aerial bombardment on the densely populated Gaza Strip. Israel said its goal was to destroy Hamas positions, and the barrage cleared the way for tens of thousands of ground troops, backed by tanks and artillery. The Gaza death toll rose quickly and by the end of October women and people 17 and younger accounted for 64% of the 6,745 killed who were fully identified by the Health Ministry. After marching across most of Gaza and saying it had achieved many key objectives, Israel then began withdrawing most of its ground forces. It reduced the frequency of aerial bombings and has focused in recent months on smaller drone strikes and limited ground operations. As the intensity of fighting has scaled back, the death toll has continued to rise, but at a slower rate and with seemingly fewer civilians caught in the crossfire. In April, women and children made up 38% of the newly and fully identified deaths, the Health Ministrys most recent data shows. Historically, airstrikes (kill) a higher ratio of women and children compared to ground operations, said Larry Lewis, an expert on the civilian impacts of war at CNA, a nonprofit research group in Washington. The findings of the AP analysis make sense, he said. Another sign that Israel softened its bombing campaign: Beginning in January, there was a sharp slowdown in new damage to buildings in Gaza, according to Corey Scher, a satellite mapping expert at City University of New York who has monitored buildings damaged or destroyed since the war began. DAILY DEATH TOLLS AT ODDS WITH UNDERLYING DATA The Health Ministry announces a new death toll for the war nearly every day. It also has periodically released the underlying data behind this figure, including detailed lists of the dead. The APs analysis looked at these lists, which were shared on social media in late October, early January, late March, and the end of April. Each list includes the names of people whose deaths were attributable to the war, along with other identifying details. The daily death tolls, however, are provided without supporting data. In February, ministry officials said 75% of the dead were women and children a level that was never confirmed in the detailed reports. And as recently as March, the ministrys daily reports claimed that 72% of the dead were women and children, even as underlying data clearly showed the percentage was well below that. Israeli leaders have pointed to such inconsistencies as evidence that the ministry, which is led by medical professionals but reports to Gazas Hamas government, is inflating the figures for political gain. Experts say the reality is more complicated, given the scale of devastation that has overwhelmed and badly damaged Gazas hospital system. Lewis said while the beleaguered Health Ministry has come under heavy scrutiny, Israel has yet to provide credible alternative data. He called on Israel to put out your numbers. HIGH CIVILIAN DEATH TOLL IS A LIABILITY FOR ISRAEL The true toll in Gaza could have serious repercussions. Two international courts in the Hague are examining accusations that Israel has committed war crimes and genocide against Palestinians allegations it adamantly denies. Israel has opened a potentially devastating new phase of the war in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where an estimated 100,000 civilians remain even after mass evacuations. How Israel mitigates civilian deaths there will be closely watched. Israeli airstrikes in Rafah last month set off a fire that killed dozens of people, and on Thursday an airstrike on a school-turned-shelter in central Gaza killed at least 33 people, including 12 women and children, local health officials said. Israel says it has tried to avoid civilian casualties throughout the war, including by issuing mass evacuation orders ahead of intense military operations that have displaced some 80% of Gazas population. It also accuses Hamas of intentionally putting civilians in harms way as human shields. The U.N. secretary-general plans to list Israel and Hamas as violating the rights and protection of children in armed conflict in an upcoming annual report to the Security Council. The fate of women and children is an important indicator of civilian casualties because the Health Ministry does not break out combatant deaths. But its not a perfect indicator: Many civilian men have died, and some older teenagers may be involved in the fighting. PARSING GAZA HEALTH MINISTRY DATA The ministry said publicly on April 30 that 34,622 had died in the war. The AP analysis was based on the 22,961 individuals fully identified at the time by the Health Ministry with names, genders, ages, and Israeli-issued identification numbers. The ministry says 9,940 of the dead 29% of its April 30 total were not listed in the data because they remain unidentified. These include bodies not claimed by families, decomposed beyond recognition or whose records were lost in Israeli raids on hospitals. An additional 1,699 records in the ministrys April data were incomplete and 22 were duplicates; they were excluded from APs analysis. Among those fully identified, the records show a steady decline in the overall proportion of women and children who have been killed: from 64% in late October, to 62% as of early January, to 57% by the end of March, to 54% by the end of April. Yet throughout the war, the ministry has claimed that roughly two-thirds of the dead were women and children. This figure has been repeated by international organizations and many in the foreign media, including the AP. The Health Ministry says it has gone to great lengths to accurately compile information but that its ability to count and identify the dead has been greatly hampered by the war. The fighting has crippled the Gaza health system, knocking out two-thirds of the territorys 36 hospitals, closing morgues and hampering the work of facilities still functioning. Dr. Moatasem Salah, director of the ministrys emergency center, rejected Israeli assertions that his ministry has intentionally inflated or manipulated the death toll. This shows disrespect to the humanity for any person who exists here, he said. We are not numbers These are all human souls. He insisted that 70% of those killed have been women and children and said the overall death toll is much higher than what has been reported because thousands of people remain missing, are believed to be buried in rubble, or their deaths were not reported by their families. AS DEATH TOLL RISES, THE DETAILS ARE DEBATED To be sure, this wars death toll is the highest of any previous Israel-Palestinian conflict. But Israeli leaders say the international media and United Nations have cited Palestinian figures without a critical eye. Israel last month angrily criticized the U.N.s use of data from Hamas media office a propaganda arm of the militant group that reported a larger number of women and children killed. The U.N. later lowered its number in line with Health Ministry figures. Israels foreign minister, Israel Katz, lashed out on the social platform X: Anyone who relies on fake data from a terrorist organization in order to promote blood libels against Israel is antisemitic and supports terrorism. APs examination of the reports found flaws in the Palestinian record keeping. As Gazas hospital system collapsed in December and January, the ministry began relying on hard-to-verify media reports to register new deaths. Its March report included 531 individuals who were counted twice, and many deaths were self-reported by families, instead of health officials. Epstein, the Washington Institute researcher, said using different data-collection methodologies and then combining all the numbers gives an inaccurate picture. Thats probably the biggest problem, he said, adding that he was surprised there hadnt been more scrutiny. The number of Hamas militants killed in the fighting is also unclear. Hamas has closely guarded this information, though Khalil al-Hayya, a top Hamas official, told the AP in late April that the group had lost no more than 20% of its fighters. That would amount to roughly 6,000 fighters based on Israeli pre-war estimates. The Israeli military has not challenged the overall death toll released by the Palestinian ministry. But it says the number of dead militants is much higher at roughly 15,000 or over 40% of all the dead. It has provided no evidence to support the claim, and declined to comment for this story. Shlomo Mofaz, director of Israels Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, said such estimates are typically based on body counts, battlefield intelligence and the interrogations of captured Hamas commanders. Mofaz, a former Israeli intelligence officer, said his researchers are skeptical of the Palestinian data. In previous conflicts, he said his researchers found numerous inconsistencies, such as including natural deaths from disease or car accidents among the war casualties. He expects that to be the case this time as well. The large number of unidentified dead raises further questions, he said. Michael Spagat, a London-based economics professor who chairs the board of Every Casualty Counts, a nonprofit that tracks armed conflicts, said he continues to trust the Health Ministry and believes it is doing its best in difficult circumstances. I think (the data) becomes increasingly flawed, he said. But, he added, the flaws dont necessarily change the overall picture. ___ Fenn contributed from New York. AP correspondents Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Najib Jobain in Cairo also contributed to this report. WEST BOYLSTON Worcester County Sheriff Lewis G. Evangelidis Jr. is speaking out about what he perceives as a well-intentioned but ill-conceived policy requiring free phone calls for inmates. Worcester County Sheriff Lew Evangelidis Jr. with an inmate tablet used for phone calls. And Evangelidis, a Republican and a former member of the Massachusetts House of Representaties, is hoping the Legislature revisits and remedies the situation. On Dec. 1, the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction at 5 Paul X. Tivnan Drive implemented no-cost phone calls for inmates, resulting from legislation signed by Gov. Maura Healey requiring that free calls be made available for individuals in state and county prisons. There is no cap on the number of calls. This legislation made Massachusetts the fifth state in the nation to provide free calls for inmates. Maintaining and fostering connections between incarcerated individuals and their loved ones advances rehabilitation by supporting successful reentry and reducing recidivism, said a DOC spokesperson. The Massachusetts Department of Corrections implementation of the no-cost calls initiative has removed barriers for incarcerated individuals to stay connected to their outside support network and will promote community safety by improving outcomes for incarcerated individuals upon release. But Evangelidis says prisoners are spending a large amount of time on the phone and incessantly calling families to the point of harassment. He said the new program is costing the taxpayers a lot of money and it needs to be revisited. Securus inmate phone in the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction annex. We all believe people have to stay in touch with the outside world when theyre incarcerated because you want to make sure they have a smooth reentry. We 100% support that, he said. We have direct contact visits authorized for certain programs. We have a parenting class that we allow children to visit with their parents, almost direct contact. We do the same thing with the music program graduation and the culinary program. However, the no-cost phone calls program is something totally different, Evangelidis said, because the taxpayers are paying a hefty sum for free phone calls for inmates who are abusing the program. You dont get free phone calls in the real world, Evangelidis said. It just seems like this has gone too far. Before the new legislation went into effect, the Worcester County Jail would collect $240,000 annually from the inmates calls. That money would be used to pay for the jails culinary program, music program, recreational programs and religious services, as well as sporting goods, furniture and microwaves for inmates, Evangelidis said. Previously, inmates would get an estimated 10 minutes a week of free calls and then have to pay 14 cents a minute after that. Now, officials expect the jail will pay $1.5 million this year for free phone calls, Evangelidis said. He said the 14 sheriff's offices that make up the Massachusetts Sheriffs Association could pay up to $15 million annually. Youre seeing a major reversal and the amount of minutes the inmates are using right now is about a million minutes a month," he said. The House budget for next fiscal year includes $35 million to fund free phone calls across the sheriff's offices and the DOC. The Senate budget, however, does not fund free calls. Theyre not reimbursing us right now, he said. So were running a huge deficit to do this. Besides the added costs, Evangelidis said there are other "unintended consequences with the new program. He said the access to unlimited calls has meant that some inmates are less involved with therapeutic, substance abuse, vocational skills, recreational and educational programs offered by the jail, he said. In addition, the added amount of calls that have to be monitored for public safety purposes is taking away staff hours that could be better used, he said. And finally, Evangelidis said, the sheriff's office is repeatedly hearing from inmates families who say they are being harassed by incessant calls. We hear from the families (of inmates) who say, We cant tolerate this many calls. Its becoming a nuisance. Its impeding their abilities to live their lives, Evangelidis said. They (inmates) have substance use issues, mental health issues, and the families sometimes get a break from dealing with all that, every day, all day. But now, theyre getting inundated with phone calls all day. And theyre the ones telling us, Can you stop this? Can you make it so they have less availability to phones? The state DOC, however, said it has not received any formal complaints from families about the frequency or timing of calls from incarcerated individuals. A person may request removal from an incarcerated individuals approved call list, and all calls made by incarcerated individuals require acceptance by the person answering before the call is connected. According to data provided by the DOC, in November, the last month before the implementation of free phone calls, Securus phone revenue was $474,394.29, with Massachusetts inmates using 3,898,397 minutes in phone calls. With an average population count of 6,029, the average call minutes per incarcerated individual was 647. In April, the fifth month into implementation of free phone calls, the cost including fees was $769,716.96, with Massachusetts inmates using 9,230,351 minutes in phone calls, with an average population count of 6,064, and average minutes per incarcerated individual of 1,522. This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester County sheriff urges stop to inmates' free phone calls An In-depth Look at the Upcoming Dividend and Historical Performance Canadian National Railway Co (NYSE:CNI) recently announced a dividend of $0.85 per share, payable on 2024-06-28, with the ex-dividend date set for 2024-06-07. As investors look forward to this upcoming payment, the spotlight also shines on the company's dividend history, yield, and growth rates. Using the data from GuruFocus, let's look into Canadian National Railway Co's dividend performance and assess its sustainability. What Does Canadian National Railway Co Do? Warning! GuruFocus has detected 8 Warning Signs with BLK. High Yield Dividend Stocks in Gurus' Portfolio This Powerful Chart Made Peter Lynch 29% A Year For 13 Years How to calculate the intrinsic value of a stock? Canadian National Railway Co spans Canada from coast to coast and extends through Chicago to the Gulf of Mexico. In 2023, CN generated CAD 16.8 billion in revenue by hauling intermodal containers (23% of consolidated revenue), petroleum and chemicals (19%), grain and fertilizers (19%), forest products (12%), metals and minerals (12%), automotive shipments (6%), and coal (6%). Other items constitute the remaining revenue. Canadian National Railway Co's Dividend Analysis A Glimpse at Canadian National Railway Co's Dividend History Canadian National Railway Co has maintained a consistent dividend payment record since 1996, distributing dividends on a quarterly basis. The company has increased its dividend each year since 1996, earning it the status of a dividend aristocrat. Below is a chart showing annual Dividends Per Share for tracking historical trends. Canadian National Railway Co's Dividend Analysis Breaking Down Canadian National Railway Co's Dividend Yield and Growth As of today, Canadian National Railway Co currently has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.92% and a 12-month forward dividend yield of 1.97%, indicating an expected increase in dividend payments over the next 12 months. Over the past three years, the company's annual dividend growth rate was 11.20%, extending to 11.30% per year over five years, and an impressive 13.50% over the past decade. Based on Canadian National Railway Co's dividend yield and five-year growth rate, the 5-year yield on cost of Canadian National Railway Co stock as of today is approximately 3.28%. Canadian National Railway Co's Dividend Analysis The Sustainability Question: Payout Ratio and Profitability To assess the sustainability of the dividend, one needs to evaluate the company's payout ratio. The dividend payout ratio provides insights into the portion of earnings the company distributes as dividends. As of 2024-03-31, Canadian National Railway Co's dividend payout ratio is 0.45. The company's profitability rank, offers an understanding of the company's earnings prowess relative to its peers. GuruFocus ranks Canadian National Railway Co's profitability 9 out of 10 as of 2024-03-31, suggesting good profitability prospects. The company has reported positive net income for each year over the past decade, further solidifying its high profitability. Story continues Growth Metrics: The Future Outlook Ensuring the sustainability of dividends requires robust growth metrics. Canadian National Railway Co's growth rank of 9 out of 10 suggests a good growth trajectory relative to its competitors. The company's revenue per share and 3-year revenue growth rate of approximately 9.60% per year outperforms about 51.09% of global competitors. Additionally, the company's 3-year EPS growth rate of approximately 11.30% per year and 5-year EBITDA growth rate of 6.70% further demonstrate its capability to sustain dividends. Conclusion: A Promising Outlook for Dividend Investors Canadian National Railway Co's consistent dividend payments, robust dividend growth rate, manageable payout ratio, strong profitability, and solid growth metrics paint a promising picture for current and potential investors. These factors not only support the sustainability of dividends but also suggest a healthy financial trajectory for the company. Investors seeking to diversify their portfolio with a reliable dividend-paying stock may find Canadian National Railway Co an attractive option. GuruFocus Premium users can explore further by using the High Dividend Yield Screener. This article, generated by GuruFocus, is designed to provide general insights and is not tailored financial advice. Our commentary is rooted in historical data and analyst projections, utilizing an impartial methodology, and is not intended to serve as specific investment guidance. It does not formulate a recommendation to purchase or divest any stock and does not consider individual investment objectives or financial circumstances. Our objective is to deliver long-term, fundamental data-driven analysis. Be aware that our analysis might not incorporate the most recent, price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative information. GuruFocus holds no position in the stocks mentioned herein. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. ABC4s Brien McElhatten will be reporting live during our 10 p.m. newscast from Normandy, France, every night this week as part of D-Day: The Jump coverage. OMAHA BEACH, France (ABC4) On June 6, 1944, they were the youngest men to land on the beaches of Normandy. Today, they were the oldest men in attendance as French and American dignitaries, among other world leaders, showered them all with praise for their role in the D-Day landing. It is the highest honor to be able to salute you here in Normandy, said U.S. President Joe Biden during the 80th anniversary memorial service held this morning on Omaha Beach in Normandy. A face and a personal story: American cemetery in France honors sacrifice of D-Day soldiers You came here because the free world needed each and every one of you, and you answered the call, French President Emmanuel Macron said. You came here to make France a free nation. Youre back here today at home, if I may say. Eleven men were pinned with Frances highest honor, the Legion of Honor. One of them was Harold Terens, 100, in France with his daughter. I feel very honored and flattered and lucky, said Terens. Conscious of the inevitability of age and time for World War II veterans, throngs of aficionados in period uniforms and vehicles, along with tourists soaking up the spectacle, flooded Normandy for the 80th anniversary. At the international ceremony later, the veterans received a standing ovation as they were paraded before the stands in a stately line of wheelchairs to avoid the long walk across the beachfront promenade. The commemorations for the more than 4,400 Allied dead on D-Day and many tens of thousands more, including French civilians, killed in the ensuing Battle of Normandy were tinged with fear that World War II lessons are fading. Biden directly linked Ukraines fight for its young democracy to the battle to defeat Nazi Germany. To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators is simply unthinkable, Biden said. If we were to do that, it means wed be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches. There are things worth fighting for, said Walter Stitt, who fought in tanks and turns 100 in July, as he visited Omaha Beach this week. Although I wish there was another way to do it than to try to kill each other. For Warren Goss, a 99-year-old American veteran of D-Day who landed in the first waves on Utah Beach, the sacrifice was affirmed by a visit years later to the same place where his comrades fell. With Utah-made fireproof flags, parachutists honor WWII soldiers with D-Day anniversary jump I looked at the beach and it was beautiful, all the people, the kids were playing and I see the boys and girls were walking, holding hands, with their life back, he told the Danish king and prime minister, who hung on his words. The United Kingdoms King Charles III and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak were among those at a ceremony to honor the troops who landed there and on Sword Beach, while Prince William and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined others at ceremony for the Canadian troops at Juno Beach. In his address, the king told the crowd that the world was fortunate that a generation did not flinch when they were called upon. Our obligation to remember what they stood for and what they achieved for us all can never diminish, he said. Speaking in French, Charles also paid tribute to the unimaginable number of French civilians killed in the battle for Normandy, and the bravery and sacrifice of the French Resistance. We werent doing it for honors and awards. We were doing it to save our country, said 98-year-old Anna Mae Krier, who worked as a riveter building B-17 and B-29 bombers. We ended up helping save the world. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah. Police officers walk along the closed A5. Due to a bomb disposal operation, air traffic at Frankfurt Airport is restricted on Friday evening and a highway is closed. Andreas Arnold/dpa A phosphorus bomb from World War II that was discovered on a construction site at Frankfurt Airport was successfully defused, a police spokesman said on Friday. The decades-old bomb was discovered during construction work around the new Terminal 3. Incendiary bombs containing white phosphorus were used on a large scale against Germany during World War II. An exclusion zone was set up in a radius of around 1,000 metres around the site of the discovery. The A5 motorway that runs near the airport was temporarily closed due to the bomb disposal operation. The airport advised passengers to leave enough time to reach the airport and to get to the check-in counter as early as possible. It said travellers should check their airline's website for any changes. The police close off access to the airport/Cargo City South via the L3262 due to the discovery of a World War II bomb. A phosphorus bomb has been found on the construction site for Terminal 3 at Frankfurt Airport. Andreas Arnold/dpa ABILENE (KSNT) Today is the 80th anniversary of D-Day. The mastermind behind the attack from right here in Kansas. A total of 21 World War II veterans were in Abilene to commemorate the anniversary of D-Day, also known as Operation Overlord. On June 6, 1944, the Allied Forces stormed the beaches of Normandy in France, led by Eisenhower. Kansas Governor Laura Kelly was glad people could come together to recognize the event. New foundation aims to help working parents It is a celebration, Kelly said. Of our country, and what we stood for. And, our people and what they did to preserve our freedom, so Im delighted that there were some that could be with us today. Stephanie Lindey drove from Junction City to celebrate the veterans. We love coming down to Abilene and wanted to honor the men and women in World War II who fought and kept us free, Lindey said. 50 people apply for open city manager position in Manhattan Harry Roban Lettiger was one of the World War II veterans that was recognized. These people have treated me really nice, and I just like to come up and help them out if I can. Im not much help anymore. Ninety-nine but, Im still kicking, Lettiger said. Eisenhowers achievements are recognized in his presidential library which is set for a $17.5 million renovation. 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. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News. Were writing about the mental health of KY college students. Please tell us your story Across the country, concerns about the mental health and emotional wellness of college students are rising, as more students are seeking support, counseling and other resources. College students in Kentucky are no different. Multiple national studies show the number of students reporting concerns about their emotional health and tapping into mental health services has been on the rise. The Healthy Minds Study an annual national survey on student mental health has shown steady increases in the number of students reporting these concerns, particularly depression and anxiety. Herald-Leader summer interns are undertaking an in-depth project looking at the reasons behind these increases among college students in the state, and how universities, big and small, are approaching the mental health needs of their students. The Herald-Leader wants to hear from current or former students who attended a Kentucky college or university about their experience with mental health supports on campus. Did you seek out mental health services? Was the help you needed readily available? What worked? What did not? We hope youll considering sharing your story with us. If so, please complete the survey below. After filling out this form, you may be contacted by a Herald-Leader reporter about your experience. If you have questions about this story, or would like to share more of your thoughts or experiences, you can contact Higher Education Reporter Monica Kast at mkast@herald-leader.com or University of Kentucky Healthcare Reporter Kendall Staton at kstaton@herald-leader.com. If you are having difficulty accessing the survey, it can also be completed by clicking here. Reporters Alexis Baker, Ali Costellow, Daniel Kehn, Maggie Phelps and Kendall Staton are contributing to this project and contributed to this survey. "These are some of our Marines buried here," said U.S. Marine Sergeant Major Darrell Carver of the 6th Marine Regiment as he walks among the graves of U.S. soldiers, most of them killed in the World War I Battle of Belleau Wood, during a ceremony to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the battle on Memorial Day at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery on May 27, 2018 near Chateau-Thierry, France. Nearly 100 years before U.S. soldiers, including Marines from the 6th Regiment, repelled repeated assaults from a German advance at Belleau Wood only 60 miles from Paris. The U.S. suffered approximately 10,000 casualties in the month-long battle, including nearly 2,000 dead. Today the Battle of Belleau Wood is central to the lore of U.S. Marines. Photo by Sean Gallup | Getty Images Machine gun fire, sharpshooters, barbed wire, bayonets, bombs of every kind and finally, fist-to-fist fighting. That was the Battle of Belleau Wood where the German infantry and U.S. Marines clashed outside Paris a little more than a century ago. It was a turning point in World War I, a key component of Marine Corps lore, and the final resting place of 2,289 Americans, now buried in the nearby Aisne-Marne Cemetery. Three Arizonans are there beneath peaceful, well-kept graves. On June 9, as part of a commemorative D-Day trip to Europe, Americas current president will visit. The president before him skipped a trip to Aisne-Marne, choosing instead to slander the heroes. More than 100,000 courageous Marines, soldiers, sailors, nurses, and other military personnel who sacrificed their lives for freedom during World War I and World War II lay to rest in sacred sites like Aisne-Marne. Overall, there are 25 overseas American military cemeteries, with 863 Arizonans commemorated. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX As veterans of the 9/11 wars, we reflect on these distant deaths from the comforts of our homes in America. How do we honor those who fell in a French forest, a Pacific Island or an Iraqi alleyway? Often those who go to war say with their actions what they do not say with their words. Throughout our nations history, American brothers and sisters have spoken by fighting battles abroad so we could live in a country free of such threats. We try and honor them, first by recognizing that their sacrifice can never be repaid. Then we try to accept the Sisyphean task of living a good life and accepting the challenge of being citizens who, honor the fallen by at least trying to live with moral courage. This means speaking truth not only when it feels difficult but especially when it is hard, when it is not in our interest, and when it makes us reevaluate prior loyalties. For these reasons we have forged a coalition of veterans from different political parties and diverse backgrounds to ask Democrats, Republicans and Independents for a simple pledge: Honor the 2024 election results and renounce violence in what is shaping up to be the most consequential campaign season in our lifetime. In Arizona, where our organizations have almost 1,500 members combined, we veterans are a force at the polls and comprise about 10 percent of the state overall. We and our military families seek a commander in chief who will have a steady hand at the helm, and who is guided by humanitarian values. Late last month in North Carolina, home of Americas largest military base, we attended the Republican state convention and requested their pledge. The GOPs presumed presidential candidate, Donald Trump, is actively condoning and promoting violence on the campaign trail. They did not pledge and threw us out of their gathering. Which circles us back to the sacred resting place of Aisne-Marne Cemetery. In 2018, bad weather stopped Trumps helicopter trip there. The Secret Service, according to accounts of those in attendance, told him they could drive instead. Trump is alleged to have said he didnt want to visit the cemetery because it was filled with losers. The more than 1,800 Marines who died at Belleau Wood, he added, were suckers for getting killed. That Trump has repeatedly disregarded the rule of law and disparaged veterans and the concept of service is well known. What is unknown is what might the fallen heroes at Belleau Wood have said about a man like Trump? DONATE: SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Eleven Yemeni employees of United Nations agencies have been detained by Yemen's Houthi rebels under unclear circumstances, authorities said Friday, as the rebels face increasing financial pressure and airstrikes from a U.S.-led coalition. Others working for aid groups also have been taken. The detentions come as the Houthis, who seized Yemen's capital nearly a decade ago and have been fighting a Saudi-led coalition since shortly after, have been targeting shipping throughout the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. But while gaining more attention internationally, the secretive group has cracked down at dissent at home, including recently sentencing 44 people to death. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric in New York acknowledged 11 U.N. staffers had been taken. We are very concerned about these developments, and were actively seeking clarification from the Houthi de facto authorities regarding the circumstances of these detentions and most importantly, to ensure the immediate access to those U.N. personnel," he told journalists. "So I can further tell you that were pursuing all available channels to secure the safe and unconditional release of all of them as rapidly as possible. Of the 11, the U.N. said nine are men and two are women. Six worked for the U.N.'s human rights agency, while one apiece worked for its special envoy's office, its development arm, UNICEF, the World Food Program and UNESCO. The Mayyun Organization for Human Rights, which also reported U.N. staffers were held, named other aid groups whose employees were detained by the Houthis across four provinces that the Houthis hold Amran, Hodeida, Saada and Saana. We condemn in the strongest terms this dangerous escalation, which constitutes a violation of the privileges and immunities of United Nations employees granted to them under international law, and we consider it to be oppressive, totalitarian, blackmailing practices to obtain political and economic gains, the organization said in a statement. Save the Children, told the AP that it was concerned of the whereabouts of one of our staff members in Yemen and doing everything we can to ensure his safety and well-being. The group declined to elaborate. CARE International also said one of its staffers had been detained without being given a reason. We are concerned about our colleagues safety and are working to get more information in the coming hours and days, said Sulafah al-Shami, a CARE spokeswoman. Until then, we have extended our support to the family and share their hope for his speedy release. Other groups also are believed to have staff who were taken as well, though they did not acknowledge it publicly. Activists, lawyers and others also began an open online letter, calling on the Houthis to immediately release those detained, because if they don't, it helps isolate the country from the world. Human Rights Watch, quoting family members of those detained, said that Houthi authorities have not revealed the locations of the people they detained or allowed them to communicate with their employers or families. The Houthis should immediately release any U.N. employees and workers for other independent groups they have detained because of their human rights and humanitarian work and stop arbitrarily detaining and forcibly disappearing people," Human Rights Watch researcher Niku Jafarnia said. Yemen's Houthi rebels and their affiliated media organizations didn't discuss the detentions, though military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed attacks Friday night on ships that hadn't been reported damage or been acknowledged by international authorities. The U.S. military's Central Command said the Houthis launched four anti-ship ballistic missiles over the last day that caused no damage. Separately, U.S. forces destroyed two missiles, five drones and one patrol boat, it said, something not acknowledged by the rebels. The Iranian-backed rebels also reported new U.S.-led airstrikes Friday hitting around the Red Sea port city of Hodeida and later in the capital, Sanaa. Several hit Hodeida's airport, the Houthi-controlled SABA news agency said, where the rebels are believed to have launched attacks previously targeting shipping in the region. It's unclear what exactly sparked the detentions. Former employees of the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, which shuttered in 2015, also have been detained and held by the Houthis. However, it comes as the Houthis have faced issues with having enough currency to support the economy in areas they hold something signaled by their move to introduce a new coin into the Yemeni currency, the riyal. Yemens exiled government in Aden and other nations criticized the move, saying the Houthis are turning to counterfeiting. Aden authorities also have demanded all banks move their headquarters there as a means to stop the worst slide ever in the riyal's value and re-exert their control over the economy. Internal tensions and conflicts could spiral out of control and lead Yemen into complete economic collapse, warned Yemeni journalist Mohammed Ali Thamer in an analysis published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Bloomberg separately reported Thursday that the U.S. planned to further increase economic pressure on the Houthis by blocking their revenue sources, including a planned $1.5 billion Saudi payment to cover salaries for government employees in rebel-held territory. The war in Yemen has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the worlds worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of thousands more. The Houthis' attacks on shipping have helped deflect attention from their problems at home and the stalemated war. But they've faced increasing casualties and damage from U.S.-led airstrikes targeting the group for months now. Thousands have been imprisoned by the Houthis during the war. An AP investigation found some detainees were scorched with acid, forced to hang from their wrists for weeks at a time or were beaten with batons. Meanwhile, the Houthis have employed child soldiers and indiscriminately laid mines in the conflict. The Houthis previously have detained four other U.N. staffers two in 2021 and another two in 2023. The U.N.s human rights agency in 2023 called those detentions a profoundly alarming situation as it reveals a complete disregard for the rule of law. ___ Baraa Anwer reported from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Samy Magdy in Cairo and Michael Weissenstein at the United Nations contributed to this report. You'll Never Guess What This Teen Did to Escape a Shark Attack in Texas A teenager is thankfully recovering from a shark attack she suffered while on vacation with her family in Galveston, Texas, in May. And, according to reports,it was her fighting spirit that likely saved her life. Damiana Humphrey said a shark, she described as being around four feet long, grabbed onto her hand while she was in waist-deep water with her siblings. And though she was fuzzy on the details of what exactly happened next, the 19-year-old says her first instinct was to give the shark a beat down. I looked down, and there was a shark attached to my hand, so I guess I started punching it. That part is kind of blurry to me, she said. Medical personnel took the teen to the hospital where they operated on her hand. Humphrey had four severed tendons and will need to undergo physical therapy, but doctors expect her to make a full recovery. According to Beach Patrol chief Peter Davis, sharks dont usually go around biting people in the Jamaica Beach area where Humphreys family was swimming. Its really rare for us to have shark bites here in Galveston, he told Houstons FOX 26. And when it is, its typically a case of mistaken identity where they meant to eat something, and then they realized that it was a person and let go and swam away. But shark expert Dr. Kesley Banks of Texas A&M University told The Daily Mail that there is an increase in reported shark incidents in the summer when more people are in the water. He adds that Humphreys instinct to punch the shark was correct because landing a fist on its nose or gills which are vulnerable points can make them release their grip. Humphreys parents toldlocal FOX 26 theyre not surprised Damiana fought her way out of what could have been a much more dangerous situation. In fact, they would expect nothing less from their gutsy daughter. Were not surprised. Shes one of the toughest girls we know, said her mom. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. By Leila Tariverdieva, Day.az The French newspaper Le Figaro, known for its unhealthy sympathies for Armenian separatism, published an article about the sentiments prevailing in the overseas and other colonized territories of France. It just so happens that this topic for Paris is now inseparable from its relations with Baku. And it is not Azerbaijan that is to blame for this, but the excessive self-confidence and arrogance of the French side, which considers itself the center of the universe. In the way the author approached the topic, there are noticeable notes of panic and recognition of the undoubted success of the steps taken by Azerbaijan. The author seems to be trying to understand the causes and consequences, but it is clear that he is not succeeding. Not because it is impossible, but because the French publication should have approached the issue, although not de jure, but de facto, of the colonies of France objectively. From no other angle can the processes that swirled around the Fifth Republic be assessed correctly. They will still seem to the French to be a conspiracy and interference in internal affairs. The question is that the territories that are today rebelling against colonial dependence on France should have been decolonized long ago by UN decisions. And Baku does not violate any international norms when defending the rights of New Caledonia. It was Paris that broke them. Apparently, Le Figaro has also begun to guess about something like this. The publication is reluctant to admit that Baku is acting in such a way that its actions cannot be qualified as interference. This is not stated openly in the article, but is read between the lines. The following motives are clearly audible. Azerbaijan very skillfully responded to the arrogant attempts of Paris to interfere in its internal affairs and dictate its rules to it. No matter how much French officials waved their arms and eyebrows, Baku did not get scared and did not retreat, but competently conducted diplomacy, and exclusively within the framework of international law. Let us repeat once again: New Caledonia, French Polynesia, and other territories, according to the UN decision, have the right to demand decolonization, and this was not invented by Azerbaijani propaganda. Therefore, there can be no complaints against the Baku Initiative Group. And this, which is very noticeable, greatly saddens the author of the article in Le Figaro. "A direct reference to the Non-Aligned Movement. A structure chaired by Azerbaijan from 2019 to 2024, whose Secretary General is Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. This organization includes 120 members who consider themselves neither supporting nor opposing any major world power. Baku The initiative group is an emanation of this and is therefore of great importance for representatives of independence movements from the overseas territories of France, the newspaper writes. Le Figaro states that several conferences on the topic of neocolonialism have already been held in international institutions, including at the Geneva office of UNESCO. And there is something to be upset about. Holding such events at the international level is, of course, bad news for the French side. The fact that the events are being held under the auspices of the Non-Aligned Movement ties Paris's hands. This is not some kind of dinner meeting with the Armenian diaspora, not some behind-the-scenes and behind-the-scenes embrace between France and Armenia, this is open and bold diplomacy based on the principles of international law. No one can oppose the call to fight neo-colonialism. This is a sacred thing. And accusing Baku of manipulation is completely inappropriate here. France itself caused the problems of its colonial dependent territories. Azerbaijan simply pushed the process a little, making it clear to the oppressed peoples that the Non-Aligned Movement is not a meaningless office. NAM can become a real force if its participants begin to realize their interests and stop being afraid to raise their problems with their suzerains. By the way, Le Figaro, perhaps unknowingly, refuted claims that Bakus actions are retaliation for Frances support for Armenia in its territorial claims to Azerbaijan. To the great surprise of the French publication, the Baku Initiative Group against Neocolonialism even includes members of the Nazione movement for the independence of Corsica. As you know, Corsica has always supported Armenian separatism. We remember what statements were made there during and after the 44-day war. The mayor of the Corsican city of Poggio di Venaco, a member of the Nazione movement and the Baku Initiative Group, Jean-Marc Rodriguez, told the publication: The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, presented Azerbaijan as a very reliable partner. France bought their gas when it was convenient for them. We take We have been given the opportunity to express ourselves through this group, which helps the non-self-governing territories to follow the process aimed at their decolonization. We are not going to get involved in the conflict between Azerbaijan and France... We do not have bilateral negotiations with Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijanis play the role of a mediator at the UN level, and this is where their mission ends. They know our position on Armenia very well, and there is no ambiguity here. That is, members of the Baku Initiative Group are not required to share the position of Azerbaijan and change their principles. Baku simply showed the right road. And those who were smart enough took advantage of the advice. The following conclusions can be drawn from the publication in Le Figaro. In France they realized that you cannot take Baku with your bare hands. With the rise of our country's status to a state of medium power, its positioning in the international arena has changed. Azerbaijan today is ready to enter global games, and it has to be taken into account. And finally, the second conclusion: the Fifth Republic has big problems. If France were a person, we would advise her to see a psychologist. It is clear that Paris wants everything to be as before; it wants to feel like it is the master of the situation. But the world is changing, and the French side will have to come to terms with this, then the process will be painless. A man arrested in the shooting death of a grandfather in Little Havana Thursday morning, was also charged with molesting a child who was able to identify him after he was captured later in the day, police said. It never would have come out if this didnt happen, said Miami Police spokesman Michael Vega. Its a crazy twist. The arrest and identity of Carlos Manuel Rosales, 38, was the shocking conclusion of a daylong cat-and-mouse game between the suspect and police, that began with a shooting witnessed by Rosales step-niece in what everyone at first believed was just a home robbery gone wrong. In the end, with the help of surveillance video, Rosales was taken into custody and charged with second-degree murder with a weapon and single counts of molesting a child and lewd and lascivious exhibitionism. He was transported to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. His bond has not yet been set. She didnt know who the offender was until after we started questioning her at the police station, after he [Rosales] was taken into custody, Vega said. Girl finds masked intruder in her home According to witnesses and police, it was just after 8 a.m. Thursday when Rosales 11-year-old niece saw someone wearing long sleeves, with a hoodie obscuring his face, enter the apartment she shares with her mother on Southwest Fifth Street. Vega said the girl, who was home alone, ran into her mothers bedroom and called her mom, who called her grandfather, who was at a nearby laundromat. Luciano Matute, 62, raced over to the second-floor apartment and confronted the masked man, before being shot several times in the chest. His granddaughter witnessed the shooting, which drew several neighbors out of their apartments, many of whom called police. Matute was found unresponsive at the base of the stairs and later pronounced dead. Police dont believe Matute recognized Rosales before the shooting. Witnesses told police the man got into a white Toyota Tundra with black rims. Police confirmed that with video from a closed-circuit camera, which also helped them get the license plate number. Just before 4 p.m. that afternoon, police found the Tundra at a Little Havana home and Rosales was taken into custody in the vehicle a short while later at a nearby intersection. Police said he confessed to the murder, but not the sexual assault of the child. The victim identified the man after police showed her a picture of him at the station. She told police that Rosales had been fondling her since she was 8 years old and that he would often expose himself to her. She said he usually did it in his apartment when they were alone or when other adults were occupied. The young girl also told police that Rosales last assaulted her two days before the murder of Matute. She said she began to scream when Rosales began fondling her and he ran off. Vega said as of now police believe Rosales with his face covered was just trying to steal some items from his sister-in-laws home and was surprised to find his niece there when he arrived. By Ingrid Melander and John Irish PARIS (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy said on Friday he hoped to see French-supplied warplanes in Ukrainian skies soon after President Emmanuel Macron said France planned to provide it Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets. Zelenskiy has long expressed his frustration at how long Western allies are taking to make key decisions on military support for Ukraine in its war against Russian invasion forces. "I'm sure that a day will come when Ukraine will see the same jets in our skies that we saw in Normandy skies yesterday," Zelenskiy told French lawmakers, referring to Thursday's commemorations for the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy. "Your combat aviation, brilliant fighter jets under Ukrainian pilots' command will prove that Europe is stronger, stronger than evil which dared to threaten it," Zelenskiy said. Macron also made a link with D-Day, promising Europe would not weaken in its support for Ukraine. He did not specify how many Dassault-made Mirages France would provide but said Paris would send the planes and train pilots by the end of the year. U.S. President Joe Biden said after meeting Zelenskiy in Paris on Friday that Washington would not walk away and has offered a new $225 million in weapons. FRENCH WARPLANES AND TRAINING The Mirage 2000-5 is a multi-role, single-engine jet fighter. France aims to replace its existing Mirage fleet by 2030 with Rafale warplanes, but it hopes also to convince other countries that have Mirages to supply them to Ukraine. Zelenskiy addressed France's National Assembly on Friday, earning several standing ovations. "Can Putin win the war? No, because we have no right to lose," Zelenskiy told the lawmakers. "Can this war end on the lines that exist now? No, because there are no lines for evil, not 80 years ago, not now." In the run-up to Zelenskiy's visit, diplomats had said Paris could agree to send military trainers to Ukraine given Kyiv's urgent needs to quickly mobilise more men. Macron said that in the immediate term, France would train, equip and finance an entire brigade of 4,500 Ukrainians, but he stopped short of making any announcement on sending advisers for now. Such a decision would be done on the basis of a collective decision, he said. "There should not be a taboo on this subject. At a moment when Ukraine has a challenge, we need give an answer," he said. He said Ukraine's defence minister had through an official letter 48 hours ago told its allies it needed more help in training quickly and on its soil. "There is a request," Macron said. Ukraine's military leaders admit that the battlefield situation on the eastern front has deteriorated. Two years of war have sapped Ukraine's ammunition and manpower and a failed counter-offensive last year sank morale. Though the U.S. Congress finally greenlit a long-delayed $60 billion U.S. military package in April, analysts say that a severe worldwide shortage of artillery shells means Ukraine is likely to be outgunned by Russia for the remainder of the year as Kyivs allies ramp up production. (Reporting by Anastasiia Malenko in Kyiv and Ingrid Melander and John Irish in France; Editing by Angus MacSwan) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks on video screens in the Bundestag and receives applause from the government. Zelensky will give a speech in the German Bundestag on Tuesday. Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will give a speech in the German parliament next Tuesday, during his visit to Berlin. Parliamentary sources told dpa on Friday that Zelensky will address the Bundestag while attending the two-day Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin on Tuesday and Wednesday. The German government had previously confirmed that Zelensky would open the conference on Tuesday together with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Zelensky addressed German lawmakers by video link on March 17, 2022, three weeks after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. At the time, the president made a passionate appeal to Germany's politicians to help his invaded country. His speech ended with a plea: "Support us. Support peace. Support every Ukrainian. Stop the war. Help us to stop it!" Zelensky has addressed a host of legislatures of other nations over the past two years to appeal for military, financial, diplomatic and humanitarian help. The Bundestag will convene for a regular session next week. However, it will have to change its usual schedule to accommodate the speech, as normally only the parliamentary groups meet on Tuesday afternoon, and not the parliament as a whole. During a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Russian President Vladimir Putin's claims about Ukraine's leader's legitimacy. His response comes days after Putin falsely claimed that presidential power should be shifted to the speaker of Ukraine's parliament because Zelensky's term has allegedly ended. "The legitimacy of President Zelensky is recognized only by the people of Ukraine," Zelensky said. "It is the people of Ukraine who elect him, and I am very grateful for their support. Our people are free. This is what we are fighting for." If martial law had not been imposed, the next presidential election would have been held on March 31, 2024, and Zelenskys term would have ended on May 20. But Ukraine introduced martial law after Russia launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. The Martial Law Act explicitly bans presidential, parliamentary, and local elections. Zelensky said that Putin is recognized only by Putin himself. The Russian leader recently won another six-year term in an election that was widely considered to be rigged. "Putin is elected by Putin. The Russian people are the scenery, and they have only one actor," Ukraine's president added. Ruslan Stefanchuk, speaker of Ukraine's parliament, also dismissed Putin's claims about the Zelensky's legitimacy in late May, saying that, according to Ukraine's Constitution, the president fulfills his powers until a newly elected president takes office. Therefore, Volodymyr Zelensky remains and will remain Ukraine's president until the end of martial law. All this is in accordance with Ukraine's Constitution and laws, he said. Some of Zelensky's critics, including Russian propagandists, claim that the Constitution does not authorize extending his presidential term under martial law. They argue that he ceased to be a legitimate president on May 20. However, leading constitutional lawyers dispute this claim, arguing that the Constitution allows such an extension. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and European Commission spokesperson Peter Stano voiced their support for Zelensky's legitimacy on May 21. Read also: Zelenskys term would have expired this month, but hes staying. Russia wants to use it Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Zelensky in Paris: 'Europe is no longer a continent of peace' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) is applauded by France's Prime Minister Gabriel Attal (2nd L), France's Minister for Foreign and European Affairs Stephane Sejourne (3rd L) and former Prime Ministers Alain Juppe (4th L) and Manuel Valls (5th L) after a speech in the National Assembly. Julien De Rosa/AFP/dpa Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the French parliament that Europe was a continent at war and that Russia would not stop its aggression at the borders of his country. "We live in a time when Europe is no longer a continent of peace, unfortunately," Zelensky said in an address to French lawmakers on Friday morning. "Again, Europe's cities are being destroyed and villages are burned," he said of Russia's bombing of Ukraine. He also decried the abduction of Ukrainian children in occupied territories. "This is against Ukraine now. But this can be aimed at other countries tomorrow, and we already see clearly the direction of the aggression - the Baltic countries, Poland, the Balkans," he said. "The Russian regime does not see any limits and even Europe is no longer enough," Zelensky said, pointing to Russian military actions in Syria and Moscow's growing footprint in the Sahel region of Africa. Zelensky said Russian President Vladimir Putin was also trying to "weaken" countries through food and energy insecurity. He said the world has been too "afraid" to forcefully respond to Putin. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) is applauded by France's Prime Minister Gabriel Attal (2nd L), France's Minister for Foreign and European Affairs Stephane Sejourne (3rd L) and former Prime Ministers Alain Juppe (4th L) and Manuel Valls (5th L) after a speech in the National Assembly. Julien De Rosa/AFP/dpa Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked France for promising to send Mirage fighter jets to his country, in a boost to Kiev's efforts to protect its skies from Russia's daily aerial assault. "Your fighter planes, your excellent fighter planes, piloted by Ukrainian pilots, prove that Europe is stronger, that Europe is stronger than the evil that dared to threaten it," said Zelensky on Friday in an address to the French parliament in Paris. The previous evening, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the transfer of Mirage 2000 fighter jets to Ukraine. The jets can be used for the deployment of air-launched cruise missiles. Macron did not say how many of the jets would be provided. Macron also announced plans for Ukrainian pilots to be trained by France from the summer. Zelensky told French lawmakers that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "anti-Europe" and would not stop his territorial conquest with Ukraine, comparing Moscow's campaign to Hitler's in World War II. "The situation is the same today as in the 1930s, when Hitler was doing the same against his neighbours," Zelensky said. He rejected the idea of freezing the war along current front line and urged members of parliament not to slacken their support for Ukraine. "We live in a time when Europe is no longer a continent of peace, unfortunately," Zelensky said at the beginning of his address. "Again, Europe's cities are being destroyed and villages are burned," he said of Russia's bombing of Ukraine. He also decried the abduction of Ukrainian children in occupied territories. "This is against Ukraine now. But this can be aimed at other countries tomorrow, and we already see clearly the direction of the aggression - the Baltic countries, Poland, the Balkans," he said. "The Russian regime does not see any limits and even Europe is no longer enough," Zelensky said, pointing to Russian military actions in Syria and Moscow's growing footprint in the Sahel region of Africa. The speech was interrupted several times by applause. Zelensky will be received by President Macron at the Elysee Palace on Friday evening. A visit to the defence company KNDS in Versailles was also planned, which according to the French government intends to manufacture weapons in Ukraine. Zelensky arrived in France on Thursday and took part in the commemoration of D-Day, the Allied landings in Normandy 80 years ago during World War II. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked France for promising to send Mirage fighter jets to his country, in a boost to Kiev's efforts to protect its skies from Russia's daily aerial assault. "Your fighter planes, your excellent fighter planes, piloted by Ukrainian pilots, prove that Europe is stronger, that Europe is stronger than the evil that dared to threaten it," said Zelensky on Friday in an address to the French parliament in Paris. The previous evening, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the transfer of Mirage 2000 fighter jets to Ukraine. The jets can be used for the deployment of air-launched cruise missiles. Macron did not say how many of the jets would be provided. France plans to start training Ukrainian pilots and mechanics for the promised Mirage fighter jets immediately, Macron said on Friday evening after talks with Zelensky. "The priority is to start training pilots and mechanics immediately. This will begin in France in the next few days," Macron said at the Elysee Palace in Paris. During Zelensky's visit, it was also decided that the Franco-German defence company KNDS would produce grenades and spare parts for Caesar guns in Ukraine in future. Macron also announced further deliveries of Scalp cruise missiles and a fund totalling 200 million ($216 million) to support the Ukrainian economy. Specifically, companies that want to invest in the country's critical infrastructure are to benefit from this. Zelensky told French lawmakers earlier Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "anti-Europe" and would not stop his territorial conquest with Ukraine, comparing Moscow's campaign to Hitler's in World War II. "The situation is the same today as in the 1930s, when Hitler was doing the same against his neighbours," Zelensky said. He rejected the idea of freezing the war along the current front line and urged members of parliament not to slacken their support for Ukraine. "We live in a time when Europe is no longer a continent of peace, unfortunately," Zelensky said at the beginning of his address. "Again, Europe's cities are being destroyed and villages are burned," he said of Russia's bombing of Ukraine. He also decried the abduction of Ukrainian children in occupied territories. "This is against Ukraine now. But this can be aimed at other countries tomorrow, and we already see clearly the direction of the aggression - the Baltic countries, Poland, the Balkans," he said. "The Russian regime does not see any limits and even Europe is no longer enough," Zelensky said, pointing to Russian military actions in Syria and Moscow's growing footprint in the Sahel region of Africa. The speech was interrupted several times by applause. France is discussing the deployment of military trainers to Ukraine with partners, Macron said after talks with Zelensky. "We want to have a coalition for reasons of efficiency and several of our partners have already given their agreement," Macron said on Friday evening. "We will use the coming days to finalize the largest possible coalition capable of responding to Ukraine's request." Macron emphasized that this request was legitimate. Under certain circumstances, it would be much more efficient and practical to train on Ukrainian soil. "We are not at war with Russia, we do not want escalation, but we want to do everything in our power to help Ukraine resist," Macron said. "Is it an escalation if Ukraine asks us to train mobilized soldiers on its soil? No, that does not mean deploying people, European or allied soldiers on the front line," said Macron. There has been speculation for days as to whether France would send personnel to Ukraine to train soldiers on the ground. But the United States is not planning to take part in such an initiative, the communications director of the US National Security Council, John Kirby, said on Friday evening on the fringes of US President Joe Biden's visit to France. Biden respects Macron's stance, but "at the same time, as president of the United States and commander-in-chief, he's made his own view, well known that there's not going to be US boots on the ground in combat in Ukraine." Ukraine has been defending itself against a full-scale Russian invasion for more than two years. Recently, there have been repeated discussions about the possibility of sending Western military trainers to the war zone to provide more effective support to the Ukrainian army, which has come under increasing pressure. Zelensky arrived in France on Thursday and took part in the commemoration of D-Day, the Allied landings in Normandy 80 years ago during World War II. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) is applauded by France's Prime Minister Gabriel Attal (2nd L), France's Minister for Foreign and European Affairs Stephane Sejourne (3rd L) and former Prime Ministers Alain Juppe (4th L) and Manuel Valls (5th L) after a speech in the National Assembly. Julien De Rosa/AFP/dpa An In-depth Look at CME Group Inc's Dividend Sustainability and Growth Prospects CME Group Inc (NASDAQ:CME) recently announced a dividend of $1.15 per share, payable on 2024-06-25, with the ex-dividend date set for 2024-06-07. As investors look forward to this upcoming payment, the spotlight also shines on the company's dividend history, yield, and growth rates. Using the data from GuruFocus, let's look into CME Group Inc's dividend performance and assess its sustainability. What Does CME Group Inc Do? Warning! GuruFocus has detected 5 Warning Signs with CME. High Yield Dividend Stocks in Gurus' Portfolio This Powerful Chart Made Peter Lynch 29% A Year For 13 Years How to calculate the intrinsic value of a stock? Based in Chicago, CME Group operates exchanges giving investors, suppliers, and businesses the ability to trade futures and derivatives based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign currencies, energy, metals, and commodities. The CME was founded in 1898 and in 2002 completed its initial public offering. Since then, CME Group has consolidated parts of the industry by merging with crosstown rival, CBOT Holdings in 2007 before acquiring Nymex Holdings in 2008 and NEX in 2018. In addition, the company has a 27% stake in S&P Dow Jones Indices, making the Chicago Mercantile Exchange the exclusive venue to trade and clear S&P futures contracts. Through CME's acquisition of NEX in 2018, it has also expanded into cash foreign exchange, fixed income trading, and collateral optimization. CME Group Inc's Dividend Analysis A Glimpse at CME Group Inc's Dividend History CME Group Inc has maintained a consistent dividend payment record since 2003. Dividends are currently distributed on a quarterly basis. Below is a chart showing annual Dividends Per Share for tracking historical trends. CME Group Inc's Dividend Analysis Breaking Down CME Group Inc's Dividend Yield and Growth As of today, CME Group Inc currently has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 4.25% and a 12-month forward dividend yield of 4.27%. This suggests an expectation of increased dividend payments over the next 12 months. Over the past three years, CME Group Inc's annual dividend growth rate was 17.80%. Extended to a five-year horizon, this rate decreased to 16.10% per year. And over the past decade, CME Group Inc's annual dividends per share growth rate stands at 7.60%. Based on CME Group Inc's dividend yield and five-year growth rate, the 5-year yield on cost of CME Group Inc stock as of today is approximately 8.96%. CME Group Inc's Dividend Analysis The Sustainability Question: Payout Ratio and Profitability To assess the sustainability of the dividend, one needs to evaluate the company's payout ratio. The dividend payout ratio provides insights into the portion of earnings the company distributes as dividends. A lower ratio suggests that the company retains a significant part of its earnings, thereby ensuring the availability of funds for future growth and unexpected downturns. As of 2024-03-31, CME Group Inc's dividend payout ratio is 1.03, suggesting that the company's dividend may not be sustainable. Story continues CME Group Inc's profitability rank, offers an understanding of the company's earnings prowess relative to its peers. GuruFocus ranks CME Group Inc's profitability 8 out of 10 as of 2024-03-31, suggesting good profitability prospects. The company has reported positive net income for each year over the past decade, further solidifying its high profitability. Growth Metrics: The Future Outlook To ensure the sustainability of dividends, a company must have robust growth metrics. CME Group Inc's growth rank of 8 out of 10 suggests that the company's growth trajectory is good relative to its competitors. Revenue is the lifeblood of any company, and CME Group Inc's revenue per share, combined with the 3-year revenue growth rate, indicates a strong revenue model. CME Group Inc's revenue has increased by approximately 4.40% per year on average, a rate that underperforms than approximately 50.94% of global competitors. The company's 3-year EPS growth rate showcases its capability to grow its earnings, a critical component for sustaining dividends in the long run. During the past three years, CME Group Inc's earnings increased by approximately 19.50% per year on average, a rate that underperforms than approximately 35.87% of global competitors. Lastly, the company's 5-year EBITDA growth rate of 7.90%, which underperforms than approximately 58.27% of global competitors. Conclusion While CME Group Inc demonstrates a strong dividend history and a robust yield, the sustainability of its dividends is contingent upon maintaining profitability and managing its payout ratio effectively. With a solid profitability rank and a commitment to growth, CME Group Inc appears poised to continue its dividend payments, although investors should keep an eye on growth metrics and payout ratios. For those interested in further exploring high-dividend yield opportunities, GuruFocus Premium users can screen for high-dividend yield stocks using the High Dividend Yield Screener. This article, generated by GuruFocus, is designed to provide general insights and is not tailored financial advice. Our commentary is rooted in historical data and analyst projections, utilizing an impartial methodology, and is not intended to serve as specific investment guidance. It does not formulate a recommendation to purchase or divest any stock and does not consider individual investment objectives or financial circumstances. Our objective is to deliver long-term, fundamental data-driven analysis. Be aware that our analysis might not incorporate the most recent, price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative information. GuruFocus holds no position in the stocks mentioned herein. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives at the Elysee Palace to meet with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron. Source: Le Figaro, as reported by European Pravda Details: During the meeting, two agreements are likely to be signed that will allocate 650 million to Ukraine in loans and contributions. Quote: "The President of Ukraine has arrived at the Elysee Palace to meet with Emmanuel Macron. The French and Ukrainian presidents will attend the signing ceremony of two agreements, which provide for the distribution of 650 million to Ukraine in the form of loans and donations to support, in particular, important energy infrastructure assets that are the target of Russia's attacks," the message states. On 6 June, Zelenskyy and his wife Olena arrived at Omaha Beach, where a ceremony to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Allied landing in Normandy was held. On the same day, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the transfer of several French Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine and the training of additional Ukrainian military personnel as part of a new cooperation with Kyiv. Zelenskyy, during his speech at the French National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, thanked foreign partners for their support and urged them to ensure that the ongoing struggle in Ukraine is spoken of in the future in the same way as the victorious Allied landings in Normandy. Support UP or become our patron! Zelenskyy in France: It's important that our battle is remembered as victorious 80 years from now Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during his speech at the French National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, has thanked foreign partners for their support and urged them to ensure that the ongoing struggle in Ukraine is spoken of in the future in the same way as the victorious Allied landings in Normandy. Source: European Pravda Details: In his speech, Zelenskyy drew parallels between World War II, specifically the Allied landing in Normandy as its turning point, and Russia's war against Ukraine, the outcome of which will determine Europe's future, as he put it. Zelenskyy emphasised that today's free Europe is the result of bravery of those who chose to fight during World War II and did not let Nazi Germany prevail. Quote from the president: "Victories in those battles brought Europe back to humanity. Without those battles won, there would be nothing; there would be no Ukraine, no France, none of the free nations... (But) the Europe everyone knows in the period after World War II is not something that will last forever by itself." Details: Zelenskyy drew parallels with the ongoing war of Russia against Ukraine. Zelenskyy reiterated that, in fact, Russia is trying to exert influence all over the world "wherever it can reach and where it does not encounter resistance," such as in Syria and the Sahel region of Africa. He also noted that Russia resorts to blackmail to ensure that it is feared and not duly opposed. Zelenskyy emphasised that the battle for Ukraine now holds the same existential significance for Europe as the battles won by previous generations of Europeans. "This battle is a crossroads... Can Putin win this battle? No. Because we do not have the right to lose. Does this war have the right to fade away at the current lines? No, because there are no lines for evil whether it's 80 years ago or now. If someone tries to draw temporary lines, it will only give a pause before a new war. Just like when evil unfolded aggression against its neighbours in the 1930s." "Can we win this battle? Absolutely, yes. We can. Ukraine, and therefore Europe. Europe, and therefore France. I am as sure of this as France, which believed in freedom even when D-Day had not yet happened," emphasised the President of Ukraine. He reiterated that Ukrainians believed they could withstand the pressure even in the most difficult early days of the war as long as they were not left alone and received sufficient help. "And this will be proof that Europe will not revert to times when, without the Allied landings on the continent involving almost the entire world, it was impossible to end the war in Europe in a way that met Europe's interests... It is important that our cooperation is remembered 80 years from now as a battle won," noted Zelenskyy. He also expressed confidence that one day Ukraine "will see in its skies the same planes as we saw yesterday in the sky over Normandy." He separately thanked the French MPs for supporting the bilateral security agreement between Ukraine and France. Background: On 6 June, Zelenskyy and his wife Olena arrived at Omaha Beach, where a ceremony to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Allied landing in Normandy was held. French President Emmanuel Macron announced the delivery of several French Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine and the training of additional Ukrainian military personnel as part of a new stage of cooperation with Kyiv. Zelenskyys visit to Paris is scheduled for 7 June, during which a meeting between the Ukrainian President and US President Joe Biden is also set to take place. Media reports say that during this meeting, Biden will announce a new aid package for Ukraine. Support UP or become our patron! PARIS President Joe Biden's grand promises to stick with Ukraine to the end during his trip to France arent enough for Kyiv, which will keep pushing the U.S. and its other allies to do more to help turn the war in Ukraines favor. Following a ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday, Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Friday at a Paris hotel. And Biden assured Zelenskyy that the U.S. is in the fight with Ukraine to the end. "I will assure you, the United States is going to stand with you," Biden said in a brief appearance before reporters at the outset of their meeting. "You are the bulwark against the aggression that is taking place. We have an obligation to be there. ... We're still in, completely, thoroughly." Zelenskyy thanked the U.S. for its support, but he also noted that there was more to discuss. He said he didn't want to share certain updates about the war while members of the press were in the room but that he planned to bring them up with Biden. "There are some details on the battlefield you need to hear from us," he said. Their private meeting lasted 30 minutes. Zelenskyy is already scoring some wins on his trip. Biden announced that hes signing a new $225 million Ukraine package Friday, some of which will go to fixing Ukraines electric grid. The package also includes artillery ammunition, air defense missiles and anti-tank weapons, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Friday. French President Emmanuel Macron also announced Thursday that Paris will help train 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers and pilots, and give a number of Mirage 2000 fighter jets to the country, Zelenskyy is also meeting with Macron during his visit. Still, some Ukrainian lawmakers and people close to Zelenskyys office arent confident their allies are ready to provide assistance quickly enough to win the war. Thats even after rallying cries like a speech Biden gave Thursday at the D-Day commemoration, stressing that if Russia prevails, all of Europe will be threatened. Some officials in Kyiv arent buying the rhetoric: His D-Day speech doesnt matter, said a person who has spoken with officials in Zelenskyy's office, granted anonymity to speak candidly. Among top Ukrainian officials its seen as empty rhetoric, the person explained. There are a few recent moves by Biden that have led to this sense of skepticism in Kyiv. This week, Biden both reasserted his opposition to allowing Ukraine to join NATO and opted not to attend an upcoming peace summit in Switzerland, sending Vice President Kamala Harris in his stead. And while Biden gave Kyiv permission last week to strike inside Russia with U.S. weapons, many in Zelenskyys government say the authorization is too limited, confined to the area around one city. This solution remains half-hearted. Limiting the range of strikes against Russia is not capable of ensuring our victory, said Yehor Cherniev, deputy chair of the Ukrainian parliament's Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence. Four key items were on the Ukrainian leaders wish list for his meetings Friday, two senior Ukrainian government officials said ahead of the discussions, granted anonymity to speak freely. Zelenskyy planned to press both Biden and Macron to seize $300 billion in Russian financial assets held in their countries and for the money to be used to fund Ukraines war effort. With Biden, he planned to focus on securing more long-range missiles and for the U.S. president to lift the prohibition on using them deeper in Russia than just the border areas adjacent to Kharkiv. As ever he will plead for more air defense systems not only to protect our cities but our frontlines too, one of the officials said. Kyiv plans to use the upcoming NATO summit, held in Washington next month, to push for more Patriot air defense systems in particular, Olga Stefanishyna, Ukrainian deputy prime minister on EU and Euro-Atlantic integration, told POLITICO. She also expects specific decisions regarding Ukraine's membership in NATO. The White House didnt respond to a request for comment about Ukraines complaints. However, a senior administration official, granted anonymity to speak candidly, called criticism of Bidens remarks nonsense, saying that the president has created the massive coalition of countries now backing the country in its war with Russia. In his appearance alongside Zelenskyy, Biden told the Ukrainian president: "You haven't bowed down at all. You continue to fight in a way that's just remarkable. And I'm not going to walk away from you." Biden also apologized to the Ukrainian president for the delay on the last supplemental aid package because, he said, "some of our very conservative members who were holding it up. Washington has rallied dozens of countries behind Ukraines cause, providing the country with tens of billions of economic and military assistance. The White House has also gradually granted Ukraine's wishes over the course of the war, most recently by partially lifting the missile restrictions. That was a welcome change for Ukraine, but its unlikely to lead to a major shift in the war soon. Russian forces have advanced into the northeastern Kharkiv region in recent weeks and clashed with Ukrainian forces, who havent yet been able to retake territory. In order to see real results on the battlefield, said Cherniev, the Ukrainian lawmaker, Ukraine must be allowed to use Army Tactical Missile Systems, which have a range of nearly 200 miles, and other long-range weapons to strike deep into Russia. The current restriction will only slightly help Ukraines defensive capabilities, he argued. Despite criticism from Kyiv and Ukraine backers in Congress, the Biden administration says it sees a clear path to Ukrainian victory as the war enters its third summer but it will take time. The U.S. has to dig Kyiv out of the massive hole left by Congress not passing funding for Ukraine for six months and solidify its defensive lines, said the senior administration official when asked about the path to victory. Then, Ukraine will then regain territory lost while the supplemental that provided that funding was held up. Simply allowing Ukraine to strike deeper isnt the magic bullet, the official said: Ukraine needs a combination of a lot of different capabilities and is receiving those from the West. Ukraine is starting to receive the combination of capabilities it needs to potentially turn the tide, said George Barros, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War. But Washington further loosening restrictions on how U.S. weapons can be used would allow Kyiv to make gains in the near term, he argued. The White House needs to make a couple more changes. This could be a game changer if it's implemented correctly and on the timeline, Barros said. The Biden administration believes that allowing Kyiv such capabilities would provoke Russia into widening the war, and Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that his missiles could strike the U.S. or Europe. He also threatened to supply the Wests adversaries with weapons in retaliation for the U.S. and Britain sending long-range missiles to Ukraine. The effort to unlock seized Russian assets has more backing from the Biden administration. Biden's short-term focus is on leveraging the $300 billion in seized Russian assets to generate more aid to sustain Zelenskyy's military. The U.S. has been pushing G7 allies to coalesce around a plan by next week's summit in Italy that would issue a loan of around $50 billion to Ukraine that would be repaid over time with interest on the seized assets, most of which are held in Europe. But Macron has concerns about the plan and is considered to be the lone remaining holdout who might prevent the G7 from approving it at next week's meetings, according to two senior U.S. administration officials granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the plan to utilize the seized Russian assets will be a substantial agenda item when Biden and Macron meet in Paris on Saturday as part of the president's official state visit to France. "We're going to make a big push to see if we can get clarity on a path forward over the course of the next several days, Sullivan said aboard Air Force One on Tuesday night. He added: "This is a priority for the United States. We believe it's a priority for the entire G7. We want to see every country come on board with a method by which we can mobilize resources for Ukraine at scale so that they are able to have what they need to be able to succeed in this war." Jamie Dettmer, Paul McLeary and Nahal Toosi contributed to this report. Matt Berg reported from Washington. Eli Stokols reported from Paris. In reaction to Russian leader Vladimir Putin's remarks concerning the purported "illegitimacy" of Zelenskyys presidency, he stated that Putin is the only person who recognises the current Russian "president" as legitimate, whereas in Ukraine, the president is elected by the people themselves. Source: Zelenskyy in a comment to press during his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron Quote: "The Ukrainian people are the only ones who can recognise President Zelenskyy's legitimacy. The Ukrainian people have made their choice, and I am thankful for their support. Our people are free. To be honest, we're fighting precisely for this. The legitimacy of comrade Putin is recognised only by comrade Putin himself. Only Putin elects Putin. Russians are the scenery, with only one performer on stage." Previously: Russian leader Vladimir Putin said he believes that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's legitimacy has "come to an end". Subsequently, Putin said that "according to preliminary estimates, the only legitimate power of Ukraine remains the parliament and the speaker of the Rada [Ukraines parliament]". Background: Ukraines Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that it sees no reason to recognise Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin as the democratically elected and legitimate president of Russia. Zelenskyy stated that dialogue with Vladimir Putin is impossible at the moment since Putin is not an independent figure, and he lives in a vacuum of hate towards Ukraine supported by his inner circle. The European Commission responded to a Russian propaganda claim that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not the legitimate president of Ukraine because his five-year presidential term ended on 21 May 2024. The European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning the manner in which Vladimir Putin's sham re-election was conducted and calling for those elections not to be declared legitimate. Support UP or become our patron! Ukrainian President Zelenskyy will visit Germany next week. A conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine will be held in Berlin on Tuesday and Wednesday. Source: German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Details: On Tuesday, Zelenskyy will travel to Berlin, where he is expected to deliver a speech in the Bundestag. The conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine, organised by the German Federal Foreign Office, will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday next week. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung emphasised that while this is not Zelenskyy's first visit to Berlin since the war began, it will be the first time he personally addresses the Bundestag. The German MPs will have to convene for a special session for this. Background: On 6 June, President Zelenskyy and his wife Olena arrived at Omaha Beach for the ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day in Normandy. On 7 June, Zelenskyy is expected to visit Paris. Zelenskyy will also meet with Sebastien Lecornu, French Minister of the Armed Forces, and they will visit the facilities of the KNDS defence group near Paris, where artillery ammunition is manufactured. The visit programme also includes an address by Zelenskyy to the National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament, and talks with its president, Yael Braun-Pivet, who visited Ukraine in March. Zelenskyy will attend the G7 conference in Italy from 13 to 15 June. Support UP or become our patron! Today's technology companies are increasingly sandwiched between the regulatory requirements of the European Union (E.U.) and those of California. While the U.S. federal government may adopt a light touch, pro-innovation approach, California's state legislation can undermine this with a regulatory approach with impacts far beyond its borders. A new California bill imposes a rigorous regulatory regime on Artificial Intelligence (AI), making it the latest technology caught in this potentially innovation-stifling squeeze between Brussels and Sacramento. The term "Brussels Effect" often refers to the outsize influence of E.U. policyparticularly in technologyas a de facto global standard. But now, companies are also experiencing the "Sacramento Effect," where California's stringent regulations effectively set de facto federal policy for the rest of the country. California is not the only state diving into significant tech policy legislation. Colorado recently enacted notable AI regulations, Montana attempted to ban TikTok, and many states are pursuing data privacy or youth online safety regulations. For better or worse, states can move faster than Congress, acting as laboratories of democracy. However, this agility also risks creating a fragmented tech policy landscape, with one state's regulations imposing heavy burdens on the entire nation. This is particularly pronounced with California. The impact is profound not just because many leading tech companies are based in California but rather because of the nature of the technologies California seeks to regulate. For example, in some cases, the only feasible way to implement regulations is at a national level. In data privacy, the laws apply to California residents even when their actions are not occurring within the state's borders, pushing companies toward broader compliance to avoid legal pitfalls. While some of these laws could be challenged under the dormant commerce clause, without judicial intervention, they become de facto federal policy. Many companies find it easier to comply with California's stringent regulations rather than juggling different standards across states and risking non-compliance. This dynamic was evident in 2018 when California enacted its regulatory approach to data privacy. Now, we could soon see Californiaeither by regulation or legislationdisrupting the crucial AI innovations currently taking place. Unlike some technologies, such as autonomous vehicles, the development of large language models and other foundational AI models cannot, in most cases, simply be removed from a state due to regulations. Perhaps the "best-case scenario" from the actions of states like California and Colorado might be a problematic patchwork of AI regulations, but more realistically, California's proposal (if it becomes law) would deter innovation by creating a costly compliance regime. This would limit AI development to only the largest companies capable of bearing these costs and would come at the expense of investments in product improvements. Moreover, beneficial AI applications could be thwarted by other proposals California's legislature is currently considering. As R Street's Adam Thierer notes in an analysis of state laws surrounding the AI revolution, the California legislature has considered a variety of anti-AI bills that could "ban self-checkout at grocery and retail stores and ban the use of AI in call centers that provide government services, making things even less efficient." It is not only legislation that could result in California derailing a pro-innovation approach to AI. The California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA), established under California's data privacy laws, has proposed a regulatory framework for "automated decision-making." The E.U.'s General Data Protection Regulation shows how data privacy regulation can inadvertently stifle AI development by imposing compliance requirements designed for older technologies. Regulating "automated decision-making" could give the CPPA an unintended yet significant role in obstructing AI and other beneficial algorithmic uses. America's tech innovators and entrepreneurs are already facing challenges from the E.U.'s heavy-handed AI regulations. In the absence of federal preemption or an alternative framework, they may also be hindered by the heavy hand of Sacramento. Such a sandwiching of significant regulation could harm not only the tech sector's economy but also all Americans who stand to benefit from AI advancements, as a single state or region's policy preferences dictate the national landscape. The post AI Could Become the Next Victim of the 'Sacramento Effect' appeared first on Reason.com. AMD and Intel are missing the Copilot+ boat. Despite AMD launching its Ryzen AI 300 CPUs and Intel previewing its Lunar Lake chips at Computex 2024, it seems like these components wont support the AI features available to Copilot+ PCs at launch. Instead, theyll get support in the future through a software update. Ryzen AI 300 and Lunar Lake both come with a neural processing unit (NPU) that meets Microsofts requirements for a Copilot+ PC, but Microsoft is initially restricting access to features like Recall and Auto Super Resolution to laptops with Snapdragon X Elite and Plus chips, reports The Verge. James Howell, a marketing manager from Microsoft, told the outlet that free updates will provide AMD and Intel PCs that meet the requirements with the AI features when available. AMDs Matthew Hurwitz weighed in and told the outlet that it expects Copilot+ before the end of 2024, but Microsoft and Intel wouldnt confirm any timeline. It doesnt seem like anyone is clear on when these features are arriving, in fact. During a Q&A session following Intels Lunar Lake reveal, Michelle Holthaus, executive vice president of client computing for Intel, said that the company is waiting for Microsoft to tell us when devices will have a day-one update. On June 14, AMD chief marketing officer John Taylor said that the company is targeting Copilot+ availability for later this year on LinkedIn. During the same Q&A session, Holthaus said that the rollout for Lunar Lake will happen from the end of the year through February of next year. Although well get the first laptops packing these chips sooner, theres a good chance Microsoft will hold out on a software update for AMD and Intel until theres broader availability. There very well could be some exclusivity deal that Microsoft has inked with Qualcomm as well. Qualcomm has referred to itself as the exclusive platform for Copilot+ PCs, and Microsoft has signed deals with Qualcomm in the past. One ended in 2021 and another at the beginning of 2024. We dont have any reporting on an exclusivity deal for Qualcomm and Microsoft for Copilot+, so treat this as speculation. Still, theres clearly some reason that Microsoft is holding back Copilot+ updates for AMD and Intel. As weve written about previously, Microsofts push for Copilot+ has just as much to do with AI as it does with enabling Windows on Arm. Qualcomm certainly sees a bright future on Windows, too. The companys CEO has said previously that its not going anywhere in PCs, suggesting that we could see desktops and other form factors packing Snapdragon chips in the future. AMD and Intel will eventually receive Copilot+ features, but you shouldnt expect them at launch. Although AMDs new chips are arriving in July and Intel will follow suit shortly after, it could be several months before Microsoft enables the software for Copilot+ on these devices. A Dallas-based company has announced plans to build a $1 billion data center in a facility called Pioneer Park in north Wichita Falls. In a news release on the company's website, Ahmed Abdelghani, the CEO of DataNovaX, said the facility would be an excellent alternative to the saturated Dallas Fort Worth market. While the Dallas Fort Worth areas fiber connectivity is at or near capacity, North Texas Wichita Falls offers a world-class data availability zone with multiple metro and long haul fiber pathways and network providers within a 1-mile radius, Abdelghani said. Artist's rendering of proposed DataNovaX facility in Wichita Falls Abdelghani said Wichita Falls has ample sustainable power, plentiful dark fiber for connectivity as well as a talented workforce and pro-business tax climate. Because the company is soliciting tenants, no number is available on potential employees. The release said the parks first phase would have 6 megawatts of power in a 37,000- square-foot facility on Airport Drive. The building was originally a Food Lion grocery store and most recently had been a call center with a tax appraisal value of $3.219 million. The companys release said Phase II will include a 550,000-square-feet facility with 150 MW of power. Ron Kitchens, president of the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber has been meeting with the company. "We want to support them as they look for tenants. In the data center world, it's all about the tenants," Kitchens said. "As he finds those, we want to be good partners, and we're excited about the opportunities for the community." This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Dallas company says $1 billion facility coming to Wichita Falls There's good news and bad news for fans of Rivian Automotive electric trucks: The company has revealed its reengineered, second-generation flagship pickup and SUV and they are loaded with lots of extras. But while the starting price for the pickup stays the same, the starting price for the SUV is going up. On Thursday, Rivian introduced the next-generation R1S SUV and R1T pickup. The automaker said the 2025 model R1 pickup and SUV have improved range, performance and technology. The vehicles also offer new motor configurations, design elements, and trim and tire choices, Rivian said in a release. "We continue to evolve our flagship R1 vehicles, offering quality and performance without compromise. Our revamped R1S and R1T push the technical boundaries further, creating our most capable products to date, RJ Scaringe, Rivian CEO and founder, said in a statement. Rivian introduced the next generation R1S SUV and R1T pickup on June 6, 2024. The automaker said the 2025 model R1 pickup and SUV have improved range, performance and computing power. The company said pricing for the second-generation R1S SUV will increase $1,000 from current models to start at $75,900, with top-end tri-motor models starting around $106,000. The R1T will continue to start at $69,900 with the top-end tri-motor starting at $100,000. Rivian, which is based in California and has a facility in Plymouth, will continue to offer dual, tri and quad motor configurations on the vehicles, it said. It will also offer several battery packs. A standard battery pack has a 270-mile range on a single charge. New large and max battery packs have been redesigned to deliver up to an estimated 420 miles of range. The second-generation R1S SUV will start at $75,900, an increase of $1,000 from current models. The top-end tri-motor model will start at $106,000. The R1T pickup's starting price will remain the same as current models, at $69,900. The top tri-motor models starts at $100,000. Rivian did not give pricing for the top-end quad-motor models. While the outside design remains largely the same, the tri-motor and quad-motor vehicles have new Rivian-made drive units, which means the top-end quad motor will now deliver up to 1,025 horsepower and 1,198 pound-feet of torque when using Launch Mode. It can travel 0 mph to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds, the company said. That compares with 835 horsepower and 908 pound-feet of torque in the current vehicle. A 2022 Rivian R1T and a GMC Hummer EV wait for participants to take them out during the ride and drive event at the DTE headquarters in Detroit on June 25, 2022. Rivian said the vehicles have updated with more luxurious interiors and added technology and software interface. Also, while the peak available charge rate remains the same 220 kilowatts in the 2025 vehicles with large and max battery packs, overall charging is slightly improved across the range, adding an average of 140 miles of range in 20 minutes using a fast charger, Rivian spokesman Mikhael Farah said. Rivian, which builds the vehicles in Normal, Illinois, will start deliveries for the 2025 R1S and R1T immediately, it said. More: Only one of the Detroit automakers won safety awards for its full-size SUV More: GM's Barra touts gas-powered lineup, says customers will determine timing of EV transition Contact Jamie L. LaReau: jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Rivian reveals next gen R1 pickup and higher-priced SUV A former law office on Magnolia Street has been transformed into an on-trend flexible working environment. WorkLounge, a coworking space with private offices for lease, held its grand opening June 5. It is located in the former Turnipseed Law Firm, next door to The Childrens Museum of the Upstate - Spartanburg. Owners Leah Kent and Michael Fluegge offer coworking memberships for $99 a month and executive office 12-month leases ranging from $735-1050 a month. WorkLounge has six offices, two pre-furnished with ergonomic desks and chairs for up to three workers. That includes all utilities. There is no additional CAM (common area maintenance) cost, Fluegge said. WorkLounge is a new option for workers in downtown Spartanburg needing office space. Leah Kent and Michael Fluegge are the owners of the business. Here, Michael Fluegge talks about how workers can use offices and spaces to fit their needs. Coworking members and office lessees have access to WiFi and a shared break room with a kitchenette and full bathroom with a shower. Four hours of monthly access to a conference room with seating for 10 people and a smart TV is a perk for those leasing offices. The coworking space, located in the buildings lobby, features communal tables and two whiteboards for brainstorming sessions. (Coworking) could be for students it could also be for individual professionals who want to minimize overhead, Fluegge said of potential clientele. But if somebody want to have some kind of client traffic I think the executive offices would be more conducive to that. More: It's getting hot out: Here are the best settings for your air conditioner in South Carolina Chamber sees increasing demand for downtown office space While coworking is still relatively new in the Upstate, it has been a growing global trend for the last decade. According to Statista, a German data-gathering company, there were 16,599 coworking spaces worldwide in 2018 and 19,345 spaces by 2021. The company estimated in April 2023 that there would be more than 41,000 coworking spaces by the end of this year. The largest flexible office space company Regus has locations in every state, including 17 coworking spaces in South Carolina. They have locations in Greenvilles NOMA Tower and Falls Tower and on Millport Circle and have another center planned for Fairview Pointe Drive in Simpsonville. Hub City Underground is a coworking space in the Montgomery Building. WorkLounge is the second coworking space to open in downtown Spartanburg since last spring. Hub City Underground in the Montgomery Building opened in May 2023. In Greenville, there are more than a dozen coworking spaces in and around its downtown, including Atlas Local, Social House, SynergyMill, and the soon-to-open Flywheel Coworking. Kent thinks the local rise in coworking and flex office space interest is a reaction to the remote working environments that became commonplace during the pandemic. Story continues WorkLounge is a new option for workers in downtown Spartanburg needing office space. I think people are looking to get out of their house, Kent said. I think they're looking for an escape even if it's only for a couple of days a week. Another reason for this increased interest is downtown Spartanburgs growth, according to chamber officials. WorkLounge is a new option for workers in downtown Spartanburg needing office space. The business held a ribbon cutting ceremony on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. The business owners are Leah Kent and Michael Fluegge. OneSpartanburg, Inc.s Chief Economic Development Officer Katherine ONeill noted that downtown office space has become increasingly desirable to companies who want to place their leadership and professional staff in the citys center. Agape Care Group, MP Cloud Technologies, Gibbs International, Taylor Enterprises and Beck & Pollitzer have all moved into downtown offices in recent years, ONeill said, and more companies are looking to do so. Over the last several years, we have seen a steady stream of interest in co-working and executive office shared services space. This appears to be largely attributed to the uptick in small businesses choosing Spartanburg for their operations, as well as an overall need for shared services space for remote workers, ONeill said. In light of this demand, I am anticipating that WorkLounge will be very successful. Samantha Swann covers city news, development and culture in Spartanburg. She is a University of South Carolina Upstate and Greenville Technical College alumna. Contact her at sswann@shj.com or on Instagram at @sam_on_spartanburg. This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: New coworking space WorkLounge opens in downtown Spartanburg SpaceX launched its massive Starship vehicle on a fourth flight test today (June 6), once again leading to some breathtaking photography. Starship consists of a first-stage booster rocket known as Super Heavy and the upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship (sometimes referred to as "Ship"). Together, the pair makes up the largest and most powerful rocket ever built by humans. On this fourth flight test, Starship took off once more from SpaceX's Starbase facility along the shores of south Texas at at 8:50 a.m. EDT (1250 GMT) on Thursday (June 6). The vehicle made it through booster separation before Super Heavy made a successful soft "landing," splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico. After a fiery reentry, Starship made a successful landing burn before making its own splashdown in the Indian Ocean. As with previous Starship flight tests, scores of cameras were pointed at SpaceX's megarocket to capture the spectacle. SpaceX posted a picture of Starship just before liftoff, with the early morning sun rising above the massive rocket. a rocket stands upright on a launch pad with the sun poking through clouds above it The sheer power of Super Heavy's 33 Raptor engines can be seen in SpaceX's drone shot below. a massive silver rocket lifts off above a plume of fire While clouds and haze blocked many cameras, SpaceX was able to capture the following shot of Starship rocketing past the early morning sun. a massive silver rocket lifts off above a plume of fire The scale of the 400-foot-tall (122-meter-tall) Starship vehicle can be seen in this photo from SpaceX. a massive silver rocket lifts off above a plume of fire Photographer Chandan Khanna caught this fiery image of Super Heavy's Raptor engines igniting at liftoff. a large white and black rocket lifts off Despite the haze, Starship made for an impressive sight when it cleared the launch pad. a large white and black rocket lifts off Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy caught a breathtaking shot of Starship as it made its way toward space, capturing 32 of the vehicle's 33 Raptor engines firing during liftoff. "A glorious ascent. Starship doesnt disappoint," McCarthy posted on X alongside the photo. One of the milestones SpaceX achieved on this fourth flight test was a successful splashdown of Starship's Super Heavy booster. In the future, the company plans to catch the rocket using massive "chopstick" arms on the vehicle's launch tower. a large silver-and-black rocket launches above a plume of fire SpaceX provided live views of Starship's reentry through Earth's atmosphere during the flight test as the vehicle was sheathed in plasma. a fin on a rocket is illuminated in a purple glow Starship's reentry was a nail-biter, as pieces of the vehicle could be seen burning away as the spacecraft made its way through Earth's atmosphere. Despite the visible damage Starship suffered, it was able to perform a landing burn above the Indian Ocean northwest of Australia. a large metal fin is sheathed in blue and yellow flames as large pieces of debris fly off of it RELATED STORIES: SpaceX Starship launches nail-biting Flight 4 test of the world's most powerful rocket (video, photos) How SpaceX's private Polaris Dawn astronauts will attempt the 1st-ever 'all-civilian' spacewalk SpaceX fires up Starship rocket for upcoming 5th test flight (photos, video) While neither Super Heavy nor Starship were recovered during this test flight, SpaceX commentators during the launch coverage stressed that the "data was the payload" for this mission, meaning the data the company receives from the flight will help in the further development of the Starship vehicle as the company aims further test flights this year. Now that Starship has (mostly) survived reentry, SpaceX will work towards catching the Super Heavy booster with the massive chopstick arms on its launch tower following reentry on the next test launch. "I think we should try to catch the booster with the mechazilla arms next flight!, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted on X following the test flight. Startups taking on Nvidia face an uphill battle, but the dominant AI chipmaker faces another real threat This post originally appeared in the Insider Today newsletter. You can sign up for Business Insider's daily newsletter here. Happy Friday! Yes, there are awards for funny photos of people's pets. And yes, they are hilarious . In today's big story, we're looking at the startups attempting to do the impossible: take on Nvidia . What's on deck: But first, you come at the king, you best not miss. If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. The big story The impossible fight HWA CHENG/AFP via Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng/BI The house always wins in Las Vegas. But in Silicon Valley, it's Nvidia holding all the chips. Literally. Nvidia's dominant position as the AI chipmaker is undeniable , but that hasn't stopped some optimistic entrepreneurs from taking a shot at the crown. Business Insider's Alistair Barr has a rundown of the AI chip startups looking to challenge Nvidia . For many experts in the space, it's a fool's errand. Put more bluntly, a VC told Alistair that betting against Nvidia is "a very stupid investment." OK, but tell me how you really feel. The pessimism for newcomers in the space isn't unwarranted, as they face plenty of headwinds. The AI chipmaking process requires lots of money some startups have raised well north of $100 million and time. That's a tough equation when the competition you're chasing is growing market share and making money hand-over-fist while its CEO is treated like a rock star . So why even bother? A tiny fraction of a $3 trillion business roughly Nvidia's market cap is still a lot of money. So even if a startup can't go head-to-head with Nvidia, carving out a small portion of its market share isn't too shabby. Jessica Persson/AFP via Getty Images The biggest threat to Nvidia isn't startups, though. When your stock looks like a vertical line, it gets people's attention. For Nvidia, that reportedly means regulators are taking a closer look. The Justice Department is preparing to investigate Nvidia's dominance and whether it violates antitrust laws, according to a recent report from The New York Times . That could enable upstarts to gain some ground. As much as Silicon Valley loves to denounce regulation, it has, in a roundabout way, led to some innovation. Take the DOJ's antitrust case against Microsoft in the late '90s , a turning point for tech companies like Google and Apple. You'll be hard-pressed to find tech companies cheering on regulators, but they probably wouldn't mind Nvidia facing some competition. Some have already teamed up to break Nvidia's stranglehold on the market . Even if these AI chip startups eventually fail, they could still do the industry good. A little competition can keep those in front from getting too stagnantor greedy. 3 things in markets Goldman/Leerink/Jefferies; Chelsea Jia Feng/BI They've got the research to back it up. BI identified 16 analysts ages 35 and under as part of its annual rising stars of equity research list . The group is known for providing reliable info and context to investors looking to suss out winners and losers in the market. Roaring Kitty is coming to you live. The king of meme stocks is scheduled to livestream on his YouTube channel at noon ET today . The announcement sent GameStop's stock soaring more than 40%. The real reason for copper's sky-high rally. It's not just supply and demand the metal's massive bull run is likely due to expectations of interest-rate cuts , according to trading firm Trafigura. Prices swung to an all-time high last month, but the firm says copper's low inventory isn't new. 3 things in tech Adobe Stock; iStock; Rebecca Zisser/BI A new "dark age" could be on the horizon. One legal expert told BI artificial intelligence could usher in a period of societal decline if the industry isn't regulated. Don't believe them? Look how the largely unregulated social media turned out. Leaked org chart shows who's running Microsoft's new AI organization. We got a look at who's behind Mustafa Suleyman's new AI group . One interesting hire: Suleyman's ghostwriter . Tesla shareholders criticize Musk's latest move. Musk recently admitted that he delayed a shipment of Nvidia chips for Tesla. Now, shareholders are telling BI that decision is further proof he doesn't deserve his roughly $46 billion pay package, up for a vote on June 13. 3 things in business Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Drew Angerer/Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng;BI Six of Satya Nadella's best tips for running a company. This year marks a decade with Nadella at Microsoft's helm. He has said listening in meetings, being decisive, and having empathy can help build a successful company . Lifestyle creep can cause HIFIs to spend "every cent they make." HIFIs high-income, financially insecure people tend to spend more than they earn, a financial planner says. She shared small spending changes that can boost HIFIs' future wealth . Why teachers are excited about AI. Big Tech is looking to get into education, and while some are worried, many educators are actually optimistic . One major reason: it can help them maximize their time. In other news What's happening today The monthly employment report comes out today. Nvidia distribution date for its 10-for-1 stock split. Saudi Aramco is expected to announce the final pricing of its secondary public offering. The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Jack Sommers, deputy editor, in London. George Glover, reporter, in London. Annie Smith, associate producer, in London. Read the original article on Business Insider HTC isnt a name thats been relevant in the U.S. and global smartphone market since 2019. After a peak of 10.7% of the market in 2011, the company suffered a massive decline to 0.05% in 2019 and largely discontinued phone sales in the U.S., China, the U.K., and elsewhere. HTC even pulled its devices off e-commerce platforms like Alibaba and JD.com. But now, in 2024, we may be set to get a new HTC phone, at least in certain markets. HTC Taiwan just posted a teaser on Facebook featuring a promo image clearly showing a side profile of a phone with a June 12, 2024, date. The translated text reveals that the event or launch will take place at 8 a.m. and that readers should check HTCs website when the time comes, presumably for preorders. We already have a sense of what device may be in the pipeline since the HTC U24 Pro was spotted on the Google Play Console in April. Its likely to be the same device thats coming next week. The phone is a successor to the HTC U23 Pro, which launched in May of last year in Europe and Taiwan, so the timeline for a new generation lines up. HTC Taiwan teaser for a new HTC phone HTC Taiwan Weve also gotten a look at the specs from the Console leak. Were expecting a 2436 x 1080 screen with a Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chip paired with 12GB of RAM. The phone is expected to run Android 14 when it launches, and its likely to support Bluetooth 5.3. For its design, the phone is expected to have a curved display and a centered punch-hole notch for the selfie camera. The power and volume buttons look to be on the right, though MySmartPrice cautions that sometimes the listings on Google Play Console are simply placeholder images. For context, the last HTC phone Digital Trends reviewed was the HTC U12 Plus in 2018. It received a middling three-star rating, and we disliked the dull, bloated AI, the finicky digital buttons, and the poor viewing angles of the display. On the flip side, the phone offered excellent overall performance, a daylong battery life, solid camera capabilities for the time, and great audio. Google Play Console leak for the HTC U24 Pro MySmartPrice It remains to be seen if the HTC U24 Pro can help revive HTCs fortunes in the mobile market. The U23 Pro got a limited global release in just Taiwan and Europe and the U24 Pro is likely to get the same. Its hard to see how HTC can rebuild its market without competing in China or the U.S. Its also not a phone thats on par with flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra or the OnePlus 12, which makes it hard to see where HTC fits in even in the markets it still sells in. Expect to learn more about the HTC U24 Pro and its availability next week. Starship's Flight Was Going Great. Then Pieces Started Falling Off on Livestream Street Shred SpaceX's fourth and latest Starship launch started like a dream. The mammoth spacecraft took off from the company's test facilities in Texas, putting on a spectacular show on the launch pad. Even stage separation of the spacecraft's Super Heavy booster went by without a hitch, with the largest rocket booster ever built softly splashing down in the ocean below, hinting at what a future landing at sea could look like. The company's Starship, however, had a far more arduous trip ahead of it, soaring to an altitude of well over 120 miles as it serenely circled the Earth. But then, all hell started breaking loose as it careened through the Earth's atmosphere during its hellish descent. High-definition Starlink footage from the ship's exterior cameras showed the two spacecraft's aerodynamic fins being shredded to pieces as the plasma started heating up, leading to a fervid reaction from the crowd at mission control. "Safe to say the ship is getting a little beat up," one of the commentators can be heard saying during the company's livestream. "The question is, how much of the ship is left?" https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1798713903394050250 Through Hell Another dramatic moment came when the camera became obscured, then cracked and went dark. Then, moments before touching down, the feeds sprang back to life, showing the shredded zombie flaps articulating as designed, starting to right the plummeting spacecraft. Given the telemetry, however, the flaps couldn't stop Starship from belly-flopping in the ocean, ending a highly dramatic launch and landing attempt. "It was a little bit 'use your imagination,' but we did hear it do its landing burn," ground control announced. "Starship somehow completed a landing burn and splashed down into the Indian Ocean," Ars Technica's Eric Berger tweeted. "Amazing." While it certainly didn't stick the landing, SpaceX is likely walking away with some useful telemetry for its upcoming test launches. "With both the Super Heavy booster and Starship both making it all the way back to Earth as planned, the fourth test flight appears to have achieved its major objectives in a major step forward for SpaceX," CBS space reporter William Harwood wrote. More on Starship: Billionaire Cancels Moon Tourism Trip After SpaceX Misses Deadline Ivy Malone poses for a portrait with their dad, Michael, at Charlies Queer Books on Friday, May 31, 2024, in Seattle. (Nick Wagner / The Seattle Times) If you are sending a Letter To the Editor, please be sure to follow these rules: Letters have a firm 200-word limit and will be edited for grammar, clarity and accuracy. The person who signs the letter must be the author. Anonymous letters will not be considered. Letters must address the editor, not a third party. We will not print form letters, libelous letters, business promotions or personal disputes, poetry, open letters, letters espousing religious views without reference to a current issue, or letters considered in poor taste. Letters reflect the opinion of the writer. The Yakima Herald-Republic cannot verify the accuracy of all statements made in letters. Writers are limited to one published letter per calendar month. Iam_Anupong / Shutterstock.com People tend to book cruises for their summer vacation plans, which means cruise lines often see a bump in business and revenue. Expert investors have been bullish on cruise stocks since mid-spring, and that sentiment seems to continue. Check Out: In 5 Years, These 2 Stocks Will Be More Valuable Than Apple Read Next: How To Get $340 Per Year in Cash Back on Gas and Other Things You Already Buy Reports from CNN showed the trend of summer travel spending will continue in 2024, with Memorial Day travel numbers solid, and 72% of Americans saying they plan to travel this summer, according to data from the Bank of America Institute. The strength of the data already speaks to it being a solid summer, David Tinsley, senior economist at the Bank of America Institute, said in a presentation reported by CNN. Likewise, Paula Twidale, senior vice president at AAA Travel, said in a press release, We havent seen Memorial Day weekend travel numbers like these in almost 20 years. Wealthy people know the best money secrets. Learn how to copy them. Should you buy cruise stocks right now, and, if so, which ones? Investors are bullish on most travel stocks, including those for the major cruise lines. Royal Caribbean showed strong first-quarter earnings with strong bookings and robust onboard spending, according to CNN. In April, Reuters reported that Americans have been booking cruises at greater volumes than they were pre-pandemic, with 35.7 million people expecting to set sail this year, a 4.2 million increase from last year. Goldman Sachs issued buy ratings for Royal Caribbean, Carnival Corporation, and Norwegian Cruise Lines Holdings in March, but its not too late to get in on these investments. As recently as this week, wealth management and investment banking firm Stifel reiterated its buy rating for Carnival, citing a potential upside of $20, according to InvestorPlace.com. Carnival stock is currently trading at just over $16. Norwegian Cruise Lines is growing rapidly, announcing the addition of eight new ships over the next 10 years and the construction of a multi-ship pier at the cruise lines private Bahamas island, Great Stirrup Cay. TipRanks gives Norwegian a hold rating right now, with four analysts calling the stock a buy and nine saying hold. Only one analyst says to sell. Right now, the stock is trading for just over $20, with a 14% upside. Learn More: 10 Things You Should Do When Your Childs 529 Account Reaches $20,000 Investors at TipRanks give Royal Caribbean stock a strong buy rating, with 13 analysts saying its a buy and two saying to hold. Analysts give the stock a high price target of $184, and its currently trading at $166.29, according to TipRanks data. Story continues More From GOBankingRates This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Are Cruise Stocks a Good Investment Heading Into the Summer? A court in Gyula, in south-east Hungary, has handed down prison sentences to 16 people for trafficking women to Germany, whom they then forced to work as prostitutes, the court said in a statement. In a non-binding ruling, the court sentenced the first and second degree defendant to 15 years in a high-security prison, and handed down prison sentences ranging from 3 years to 14.5 years to the others. One defendant was sentenced to 5 years in a juvenile correctional facility. Several of the defendants set up the crime ring in 2013, when they started forcing vulnerable women to work as street prostitutes in Germany. Some of the women had to pay a daily sum to them, others were stripped of all their income, the court said. The group operated as a criminal organisation since at least 2018, the statement said. Meanwhile, Other Members Of Crime Ring Sentenced For Trafficking Women to Germany - Whom They Then Forced to Work As Prostitutes People smuggling charges have been brought against 13 Hungarian and Romanian nationals who as members of an international organised ring were allegedly involved in arranging for the illegal transport of more than 350 foreign nationals to western Europe, the chief public prosecutors office said. One instance claimed the life of an Indian national, it added. According to the indictment, the ring led by a Romanian man arranged for the transport of foreigners first by plane to Serbia and smuggled them later on in vans through Hungary and Austria to final destinations in western Europe, the office said in a statement. The fatality occurred in Aug 2022 in Budapests 9th district when the Indian man was one of the 20 illegal migrants jammed in a van that had no ventilation. Most of the suspects are in custody over charges of people smuggling and torturing humans and face prison terms or a fine and expulsion from Hungary. The Romanian ring leader is facing a legal procedure by the Romanian authorities, according to the statement. ********************************* You're very welcome to comment, discuss and enjoy more stories via our Facebook page: Facebook.com/XpatLoopNews + via XpatLoops groups: Budapest Expats / Expats Hungary You can subscribe to our newsletter here: XpatLoop.com/Newsletters Do you want your business to reach tens of thousands of potential high-value expat customers? Then just contact us here! 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. New Delhi: Sanjay Jaju, Secretary Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Friday announced the dates of the 18th edition of the Mumbai International Film Festival and what the film and filmmaking enthusiasts can expect from this edition. At the curtain raiser press conference, Sanjay Jaju shared the details about the MIFF. He said MIFF will be held from June 15 to 21 at the FD-NFDC Complex, Mumbai. MIFF screenings will also be held at Delhi (Sirifort Auditorium), Chennai (Tagore Film Centre), Pune (NFAI Auditorium) and Kolkata (SRFTI Auditorium). It is being organized through the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC). Take A Look At The Post: Also present on the occasion were Additional Secretary, Neerja Sekhar, PDG, PIB Sheyphali B Sharan and MD, NFDC, Prithul Kumar. Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short Fiction, and Animation, popularly known as MIFF, began in 1990 as BIFF and later re-christened as MIFF. It is organised by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India. The Organizing Committee of MIFF is headed by the Secretary, I&B and consists of eminent film personalities, documentary makers and senior media officials. The Opening Film of the 18th MIFF will be "Billy & Molly, an Otter Love Story", which will initiate the festival with screenings in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, and Chennai on June 15, stated in a press release by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. The theme of the 18th MIFF is 'India in Amrit Kaal'. The closing film of the festival is the film that wins the Golden Conch and will be showcased on June 21. Record film submission of 1018 films this year for the competition sections from 38 Countries across 65 Languages 118 films selected by the 3 Selection Committees of eminent film experts for the International (25) and National (77) competition sections. Total 314 films in the MIFF Programming this year. The festival will have international juries that include eminent film personalities from across the world - Keiko Bang, Barthelemy Fougea, Audrius Stonys, Bharat Bala, and Manas Choudhary, who will award the Golden Conch for the best documentary film, the Silver Conch for the best international short fiction film and best animation film, and the Pramod Pati Award for the most innovative/experimental film. The national jury for the 18th MIFF comprises notable names such as Adele Seelmann-Eggebert, Dr Bobby Sarma Baruah, Apoorva Bakshi, Munjal Shroff and Anna Henckel-Don nersmarck who will confer the Best Indian Documentary, Short Film, Animation, Best Debut Film Award and Best Student Film Award. The events will see an artistic melange of cultural acts which will include an act depicting the journey of Indian animation, a cultural performance from Sri Lanka in the opening and from Argentina in the closing ceremony and showcasing the FTII student short Film "Sunflowers were the first ones to know", which won the La Cinef Award at the 77th Cannes Film Festival this year, as per I&B ministry release. The Gala Red carpet screening will be held in the NFDC-FD complex in Mumbai every day starting from the opening film on June 15. Not only in Mumbai but red carpets will be held in Delhi on June 17, Chennai on 18 June, Kolkata on June 19, and Pune on June 20 with participation from eminent personalities from the film industry. This edition of MIFF will have the first-ever Documentary Film Bazaar. DOC Film Bazaar is being organized to help boost film production by providing a platform for filmmakers to find buyers, sponsors, and collaborators for their projects. A dedicated session to explore the symbiotic relationship between documentary filmmaking and corporate branding. Industry leaders from various industry verticals, like FICCI, will explore the CSR funding of documentaries as powerful tools for brand enhancement and as a catalyst for positive societal impact, as per a press release by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. The 18th MIFF will host engaging 20 masterclasses, in-conversations, and panel discussions with industry luminaries such as filmmakers Santosh Sivan, Audrius Stonys, Ketan Mehta, Richie Mehta, TS Nagabharana, Georges Schwizgebel, and many more. In the West Bengal Lok Sabha election, despite putting up a strong fight, the BJP fell short of its previous performance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself expressed confidence in an interview that the party would achieve a stellar performance in Bengal. Despite this confidence, the BJP secured fewer seats than in the last election, with TMC winning 29 seats, BJP 12, and Congress 1 in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. According to Prateek Jain, co-founder and director of I-PAC, the cash assistance scheme for women, Lakshmi Bhandar, played a crucial role in Mamata Banerjee's success. I-PAC, a consulting agency that assists the Trinamool Congress in election strategies, believes this scheme turned the tide in Banerjee's favor. Jain pointed out that incorrect candidate selection might have also contributed to the BJP's poor performance, resulting in the party winning only 12 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state. I-PACs Role and Analysis Prateek Jain, known as PJ among his associates, took over I-PACs services for TMC after Prashant Kishor left the party post the 2021 Assembly elections. Responding to a query about Kishor's prediction before the counting, Jain humorously remarked that his assessment for Bengal was different from Kishor's. Kishor had predicted that BJP would improve on its previous tally of 18 seats, possibly reaching 30 seats. However, Jain remained silent at the time to avoid conflicting with his former boss. Benefiting 50 Percent of Voters Jain highlighted that Mamata Banerjee's women-centric beneficiary schemes such as Lakshmi Bhandar, Kanyashree, and Sabuj Sathi significantly swayed voter sentiment towards TMC, especially in rural Bengal. He noted that nearly 50 percent of voters in the state are women, with around 2.3 crore economically weaker women receiving Rs. 1000 monthly assistance from Lakshmi Bhandar. This financial aid not only alleviated their economic troubles but also empowered rural women. Why BJP Failed Despite BJP's campaign focusing on women, it failed to attract voters. Jain attributed this to the BJPs predominantly negative campaign and its focus on hollow promises. The release of a sting operation video exposed BJP's claims, dealing a severe blow to their credibility. Jain also remarked that despite Prime Minister Modi's claims about the 'Lakshmi Bhandar' scheme, no beneficiary could be found in Bengal. Candidate Selection Errors Jain pointed out that the BJP made errors in candidate selection. For instance, shifting Dilip Ghosh to Bardhaman-Durgapur led to the loss of not just that seat but also two additional seats: Medinipur, where Ghosh was originally an MP, and Asansol, where Agnimitra Paul was placed. These strategic missteps cost the BJP dearly. Overcoming Exit Poll Fears Jain admitted feeling anxious due to exit polls predicting a significant BJP victory in the state. This led I-PAC to question their strategies and consider potential errors. However, their internal assessments predicted at least 23 seats for TMC. Jain shared that after the Ram Temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya in January, the party re-evaluated its strategy, as internal surveys indicated this event could sway an additional five percent of votes towards the BJP in Bengal. Narendra Modi on Saturday was elected as the party's leader in parliament. He will serve as Prime Minister for the third time. But everyone is curious about the Modi government's 3.0 cabinet. Because things are different this time. The BJP does not have a clear majority. The number of NDA ministers will undoubtedly rise. Because the government cannot operate without their support. According to reports, the NDA's allies have also considered a formula for distributing the ministry within the government. Each party will receive one ministerial post for every four MPs. In today's DNA, Zee News' analysed how the Modi-led NDA cabinet will look like and the issues that the BJP will have to put in the cold storage. As per this formula, TDP will get four ministerial positions, the JD (U) three, and Shiv Sena Shinde and Chirag Paswan two each. The JD (U) is negotiating a special package for Bihar with the railway and agriculture ministries. The TDP wants five ministries and the position of Lok Sabha Speaker. What Issues Will Be Put In Cold Storage? Based on our discussions with political experts and BJP sources, we have compiled a list of issues in the BJP's 100-day action plan that will be opposed by both the JD(U) and the TDP. Here is a list of issues: First issues is One Nation, One Election. The second issue is the Uniform Civil Code. The third issue is the Agniveer scheme. The fourth issue is the abolishment of Muslim reservations. Changes to the Places of Worship Act. Full implementation of the CAA. These are issues that the BJP cares deeply about. Many of these issues have been addressed in the BJP manifesto. However, these are the issues that have plagued the JDU and TDP, which are members of the NDA. However, both parties have stated that all of these issues will be discussed. The JD (U) has previously questioned Agniveer and the Uniform Civil Code. And now the TDP has also said that Muslim reservation will not end in Andhra Pradesh. Watch tonight's DNA show for a complete analysis: On Thursday evening, Saudi Arabia confirmed that the annual Hajj pilgrimage will begin on June 14 with Eid Al Adha falling two days later. The crescent moon, which heralds the start of Dhu Al Hijjah - the 12th and final month in the Islamic calendar - was sighted on Thursday evening, following which the Supreme Court of Saudi Arabia made the announcement. The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and must be undertaken at least once by all Muslims with the means. Every year, millions of Muslims around the world embark on a sacred pilgrimage known as Hajj/Haj. This spiritual journey holds immense significance in the lives of believers, offering an opportunity to connect with Allah, seek forgiveness, and strengthen their faith. The Hajj involves a series of rituals completed over at least four days in Mecca and its surroundings in the west of Saudi Arabia. The high point comes on the second day, when pilgrims gather for prayers on Mount Arafat, where the Prophet Mohammed delivered his final sermon. That will occur on June 15 this year, and the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha will fall on June 16, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said. According to an AFP report, at a press conference on Thursday, the Saudi hajj and umrah minister Tawfiq al-Rabiah said "approximately 1.2 million pilgrims from various countries of the world" had already arrived in Saudi Arabia for this year's hajj. Last year more than 1.8 million Muslims took part in the hajj, according to official figures. Earlier, it was mentioned that in a historical moment, Indian Hajis are set to use a high-speed train directly from the Jeddah Airport to Makkah for the very first time, the Indian Embassy in Riyadh said. The Embassy noted that the train would not only shorten the journey time but, about 32000 Indian Hajis will also use this exclusive service this year. Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra might fight elections from Wayanad, as per the sources. Rahul Gandhi, who contested from two seats -- Rae Bareli and Wayanad, won both constituencies by huge margins. Rahul Gandhi won the seat of Rae Bareli by defeating BJP's Dinesh Pratap Singh by a margin of 3,90,030 votes. Gandhi had contested this seat aiming to save the lone bastion of the party in the state after he lost Amethi in 2019. Priyanka Gandhi in large part was at the centre of the Congress' action, giving a number of enduring images from this election campaign. Who can forget her emotional outburst in Bengaluru when she lashed out at Prime Minister Modi over his "gold and mangalsutra" remarks, saying her mother Sonia Gandhi sacrificed her mangalsutra for the country. The speculation was intense as was the spotlight on everything she said. But the Congress general secretary did not take the electoral plunge this time, opting instead to be the party's go-to star campaigner and anchor for the elections in Rae Bareli, from where her brother contested, and Amethi, where the familys aide Kishori Lal Sharma took on Union minister Smriti Irani. The Congress leader also won the seat of Wayanad, which paved his entry to the Lok Sabha in 2019. He defeated Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate Annie Raja by 3,64,422 votes. According to the Election Commission of India, BJP won 240 seats, much lower than its 2019 tally of 303. The Congress, on the other hand, registered a strong improvement winning 99 seats. The INDIA bloc crossed the 230 mark, posing stiff competition, and defying all predictions. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has secured a third term, but the BJP will need the support of other parties in coalition primarily -- JD (U) chief Nitish Kumar and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu. As of June 2024, the Netherlands market is reflecting broader European trends with heightened investor caution due to rising inflation and interest rate uncertainties. In such a climate, growth companies with high insider ownership in Euronext Amsterdam can offer a compelling narrative of commitment and confidence by those most familiar with the companies' potential and challenges. Top 5 Growth Companies With High Insider Ownership In The Netherlands Name Insider Ownership Earnings Growth BenevolentAI (ENXTAM:BAI) 27.8% 62.8% Envipco Holding (ENXTAM:ENVI) 15.1% 67.8% Ebusco Holding (ENXTAM:EBUS) 31.4% 115.2% MotorK (ENXTAM:MTRK) 35.9% 105.8% Basic-Fit (ENXTAM:BFIT) 12% 66.1% PostNL (ENXTAM:PNL) 30.8% 24.7% Click here to see the full list of 6 stocks from our Fast Growing Euronext Amsterdam Companies With High Insider Ownership screener. We're going to check out a few of the best picks from our screener tool. Simply Wall St Growth Rating: Overview: Envipco Holding N.V. specializes in designing, developing, manufacturing, and selling or leasing reverse vending machines for recycling used beverage containers, primarily operating in the Netherlands, North America, and Europe with a market capitalization of approximately 346.14 million. Operations: The company generates revenue through the design, development, manufacture, and sale or lease of reverse vending machines in the Netherlands, North America, and Europe. Insider Ownership: 15.1% Envipco Holding N.V. has shown significant turnaround, reporting a substantial increase in quarterly sales from 10.41 million to 27.44 million and transforming a net loss into a profit of 0.147 million. The company's revenue growth rate, at 33.4% annually, surpasses the Dutch market average significantly, with earnings expected to rise by 67.8% per year over the next three years despite recent shareholder dilution and high share price volatility over the last quarter. ENXTAM:ENVI Ownership Breakdown as at Jun 2024 Simply Wall St Growth Rating: Overview: MotorK plc operates as a software-as-a-service provider for the automotive retail industry across Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and the Benelux Union, with a market capitalization of approximately 277.49 million. Operations: The company generates its revenue primarily from its software and programming segment, which amounted to 42.94 million. Insider Ownership: 35.9% Story continues MotorK plc, despite recent leadership changes with Helen Protopapas's board appointment and Mauro Pretolani's departure, continues to demonstrate robust growth prospects. The company reported a slight decrease in quarterly revenue to 11.25 million but maintains an impressive forecasted annual revenue growth rate of 24%, significantly outpacing the Dutch market average of 9.4%. Although currently unprofitable, MotorK is expected to achieve profitability within three years, with earnings potentially increasing by 105.85% annually. ENXTAM:MTRK Ownership Breakdown as at Jun 2024 Simply Wall St Growth Rating: Overview: PostNL N.V. offers postal and logistics services across the Netherlands, Europe, and globally, with a market capitalization of approximately 0.65 billion. Operations: The company generates revenue primarily from two segments: Packages (2.25 billion) and Mail in The Netherlands (1.35 billion). Insider Ownership: 30.8% PostNL, while trading at 48.1% below its estimated fair value, faces challenges with a recent shift to profitability and a high level of debt. Its revenue growth forecast at 3.4% per year lags behind the Dutch market's 9.4%. However, PostNL's earnings are expected to significantly increase by 24.7% annually over the next three years, outpacing the market's forecast of 16.3%. The company recently guided full-year normalized EBIT between 80 million and 110 million despite a net loss in Q1 2024. ENXTAM:PNL Earnings and Revenue Growth as at Jun 2024 Next Steps Gain an insight into the universe of 6 Fast Growing Euronext Amsterdam Companies With High Insider Ownership by clicking here. Have a stake in these businesses? Integrate your holdings into Simply Wall St's portfolio for notifications and detailed stock reports. Maximize your investment potential with Simply Wall St, the comprehensive app that offers global market insights for free. Want To Explore Some Alternatives? 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 analysis only considers stock directly held by insiders. It does not include indirectly owned stock through other vehicles such as corporate and/or trust entities. All forecast revenue and earnings growth rates quoted are in terms of annualised (per annum) growth rates over 1-3 years. Companies discussed in this article include ENXTAM:ENVI ENXTAM:MTRK and ENXTAM:PNL. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com Delhi Polices Special Cell on Friday filed its first chargesheet before a court here in its probe into the December 13, 2023 Parliament security breach case. On May 24, the court granted the police 13 days more to complete the investigation. Over 900-page charge sheet has been filed in the Patiala House Court, and the matter will be next taken up to decide whether to take its cognisance. Additional Sessions Judge Hardeep Kaur has been overseeing the case and had granted the extension last time after police claimed that certain reports were awaited and digital data was voluminous. The charge sheet has been filed against all six accused -- Neelam Azad, Manoranjan D., Sagar Sharma, Lalit Jha, Amol Shinde, and Mahesh Kumawat. They are currently in judicial custody. Manoranjan D. and Sharma had burst yellow smoke canisters inside the Lok Sabha chamber on December 13, the 22nd anniversary of the 2001 Parliament attack, after jumping down from the visitors gallery before they were overpowered by the MPs present in the House. Azad and Shinde also burst smoke canisters and raised slogans outside Parliament. Jha is believed to be the mastermind of the entire plan and had reportedly fled with the mobile phones of the four other accused persons. Kumawat was also linked to the accused. Recently, Delhi Lt. Governor V.K. Saxena accorded prosecution sanction against the six accused under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). According to Raj Niwas officials, Delhi Police had requested their prosecution under sections 16 and 18 of UAPA from the competent authority, i.e. the L-G, who, having found sufficient material on record, granted prosecution sanction. On December 14, 2023, the Delhi Police registered a case under sections 186, 353, 452, 153, 34, and 120B of the IPC and 13, 16, 18 UA (P) Act, at the Parliament Street Police Station on a complaint made by the security officer in the Lok Sabha. The investigation of the case was later transferred from the Parliament Street Police Station to the Counter Intelligence Unit of the Special Cell. Lieutenant Inayat Vats: It is often said that with determination, no goal is unattainable. This is the story of Lieutenant Inayat Vats, who has honoured her father and family, bringing pride to the nation. Having lost her father, Major Navneet Vats, in an anti-insurgency operation, Inayat has now joined the Indian Army, donning the same uniform her heroic father once wore. Journey of Perseverance Inayat Vats' path to success was not easy. She was barely three years old when she lost her father. However, the 23-year-old from Haryana dreamed of continuing her father's legacy by securing one of the toughest jobs in the Indian Army, a dream she has now realized. Father Martyred in Anti-Terror Operation Major Navneet Vats was martyred in 2003 during an anti-terror operation in Kashmir. Inspired by his bravery, Inayat decided to join the army, following in the footsteps of her father and grandfather, who was also an Indian Army colonel. Loss at a Young Age Inayat, an only child from Panchkula, Haryana, lost her father at the age of three. Major Navneet Vats sacrificed his life during an anti-terror operation in Srinagar and was posthumously awarded the Sena Medal. Joining Officers Training Academy In April, Inayat will join the Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Chennai. A graduate of Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi, she is currently pursuing her post-graduation in political science from Hindu College, Delhi University. The Haryana government had offered her a gazetted position under the state policy for martyrs' families, but Inayat chose the army as her goal. Mother's Support Despite her concerns, Inayat's mother, Shivani, supported her daughter's decision to join the army, saying, "She is the daughter of a brave man. When she completed her graduation, everyone thought she would take the state government job and stay close to me. But she is a martyr's daughter, and joining the army was natural for her." Armed Forces as Support System Shivani, who was 27 when she lost her husband and had been married for just four years, now teaches at Army Public School in Chandimandir. She credits the armed forces for being her support system during difficult times. Pursuing Her Father's Legacy Inayat once asked her mother what she would have done if Inayat were a boy. Shivani replied that she would have encouraged her to join NDA or IMA. She is proud that despite having options for a comfortable life, Inayat chose to follow her father's path. NEW DELHI: Telugu Desam Party Leader K Raghu Rama Krishna Raju informed that TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu will take oath as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister on June 12 at 4.55 pm. "Nara Chandrababu Naidu will take oath as Andhra Pradesh CM on 12th June at 4.55 pm... It's a very pleasant moment for the people of Tamil Nadu, the way Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appreciated our leaders Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan. Both our state leaders have shown a lot of respect towards Modi Ji. Of course, we need a lot of support from the Centre considering the destruction caused by former CM Jagan Mohan Reddy," said TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu. When asked did TDP has placed any specific demands of ministries in PM Modi's cabinet, TDP leader Raghu Rama Krishna Raju said, "I don't think so because that is not my subject to comment. But our party leader is not the kind of person who demands. I think by virtue of his good relations he can extract as much as he can but he never demands." Meanwhile, TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu said that Narendra Modi is the "right leader at the right time" for India as he affirmed TDP's support to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Friday. Naidu also proposed the name of Narendra Modi for the post of Prime Minister highlighting his vision of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, and Viksit Bharat and urged to never miss the 'good opportunity for India.' "NDA govt under the leadership of PM Modi has taken initiatives in the last 10 years. Narendra Modi has a vision and a zeal, his execution is very perfect. He is executing all his policies with a true spirit. Today, India is having the right leader at the right time, and that is Narendra Modi. This is a very good opportunity for India, if you miss it now, we will miss forever. That is where we are having a wonderful opportunity," Naidu said while addressing the NDA MPs meeting at the Samvidhan Sadan of the Parliament building on Friday. "Now I proudly propose the name of Narendra Modi ji on behalf of Telugu Desam Party for the post of Prime Minister of this great nation. Through his vision of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, and Viksit Bharat and through the collective efforts of NDA we can become a zero poverty nation that is possible only through Narendra Modi," he added. He also invoked former Andhra Chief Minister late NT Rama Rao's vision of humanism comparing it with Narendra Modi's vision. "TDP is having relations with NDA, my leader and party founder, NT Rama Garu, always he has worked hard for the people and also he told clearly that I don't know isms I know one, humanism that vision Narendra Modi ji is making a reality for India," Naidu said. "This is the proudest moment in my life," he added. Earlier this week, leaders of parties in the NDA held a meeting and passed a resolution to elect Prime Minister Narendra Modi as their leader. According to sources, Narendra Modi is likely to take oath as the Prime Minister for the third consecutive time on June 9. The Lok Sabha election results 2024 have not been as per the expectations of the BJP and Narendra Modi due to the party's loss in states like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Maharashtra. However, what kept the BJP-led NDA ahead was the party and its ally's victory in Southern states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Telangana. While the BJP failed to open its account in Tamil Nadu, it opened its account in Kerala, thus burying the ghost of the South-North divide and the perception that the BJP is an outsider in the South. During the NDA meeting today where Narendra Modi was elected as the leader of the Lok Sabha, BJP and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the PM-elect reflected on the poll outcome. Addressing the NDA MPs and Chief Minister of the NDA-ruled states, Modi said that the NDA has strengthened the foundation for new politics in South India. "Look at Karnataka and Telangana, state governments were recently formed there. But people's trust broke within moments and they came out of an illusion. They accepted NDA in Karnataka and Telangana. I would like to congratulate the team of Tamil Nadu. Several people knew that perhaps we wouldn't be able to win any seats there but we would be united in this fight....We might not have been able to win a seat in Tamil Nadu but the swiftness with which NDA's vote share has increased there, it is giving a clear message that what future holds for us in Tamil Nadu....In Kerala, hundreds of our workers made sacrifices...For the first time, we have a representative from Kerala," said Modi. #WATCH | At the NDA Parliamentary Party meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi says, "...In South India, NDA has strengthened the foundation for new politics. Look at Karnataka and Telangana, state governments were recently formed there. But people's trust broke within moments pic.twitter.com/Jkcf6euxvP ANI (@ANI) June 7, 2024 The BJP's fight in Tamil Nadu was led by former IPS and state-party chief K Annamalai. Under his fierce leadership, the BJP has increased its vote share to 11% from 3.58% in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. In Kerala, the BJP got its first MP as actor-turned-politician Sures Gopi bagged the Thrissur seat by a margin of over 74,000 votes. This is the first time that the BJP bagged any seat in the Left and Congress dominated state. In Andhra Pradesh, the BJP fought the polls in alliance with the Chandrababu Naidu's TDP and Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena. The NDA won 21 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats. In Karnataka, the BJP contested the Lok Sabha polls in alliance with the JDS and bagged 19 out of the 28 Lok Sabha seats. In Telangana, the BJP bagged 8 of the 17 Lok Sabha seats. Amid speculations over Janta Dal United's possible demands in the Narendra Modi led NDA government, JDU MP-elect Lovely Anand and her gansgter-turned politician husband Anand Mohan confirmed party's demand of Railway Ministry. Lovely Anand, while speaking to the reporters said, "Railway Ministry certainly should be given, it has always happened. Bihar should also get special status." #WATCH | Delhi | On being asked if the Railway ministry portfolio should be given to JD(U) in the new Cabinet, JD(U) MP-elect from Bihar's Sheohar, Lovely Anand says, "Yes, it certainly should be given, it has always happened. Bihar should also get special status." pic.twitter.com/iKeYJ2Zzu6 June 7, 2024 Lovely's husband, Anand Mohan, while speaking to the press said, "The demand for the railway ministry is confirmed. It has been in Bihar's share... The Backward Bihar needs the railway ministry... The CM took Bihar out of 'jungle-raj' and made a developing Bihar in the last 16 years. If we want to give it wings, then the 'special' state demanded must be fulfilled." Mohan clarified that he was not part of the meeting and he had come to pay a unofficial courtesy visit to CM Nitish at his residence. #WATCH | Delhi: On JDU parliamentary meeting at Bihar CM Nitish Kumar's residence, gangster-turned-politician Anand Mohan says, "The demand for the railway ministry is confirmed. It has been in Bihar's share... The Backward Bihar needs the railway ministry... The CM took Bihar pic.twitter.com/XThO9b0WFV June 7, 2024 NDA Ally Nitish Kumar Slams INDIA Opposition Alliance Days after the results of the Lok Sabha election, JDU chief Nitish Kumar attacked the INDIA opposition alliance on Friday, saying that it had never served the nation's interests. Under Prime Minister Modi's leadership, the nation will advance, Kumar said while addressing the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parliamentary meeting in Delhi. "Agli baar jab aap aaiye toh kuch log jo idhar udhar jeet gaya hai, agli baar sab haarega. Humko poora bharosa hai (Those who have won this time will lose the next elections. I'm confident about it). They never worked for the nation. They never served the country. The country will progress under your (PM Modi) leadership" said Kumar. During his address at the NDA meeting, the JDU chief also affirmed his support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying, "All pending Bihar projects will be completed. It's great that we've all come together, and we'll all work with you (PM Modi). You will be sworn in as Prime Minister on Sunday, but I wanted you to do so today. We will be there for you whenever you take the oath...We will all work together under your leadership." The newly elected MPs of the NDA attended the meeting of the alliance, which was held days after the Lok Sabha results. New Delhi: Fans have finally been treated to a brief glimpse of Varun Dhawan's newborn daughter. On Friday afternoon, the actor was accompanied by his wife Natasha Dalal, and their newborn baby girl as they headed home from Mumbai's Hinduja Hospital. The couple was seen in public for the first time with their baby girl as they left from the hospital to head home. A video capturing the moment has since gone viral. Watch The Video Here: In the video, Varun led the way, cradling the baby, while Natasha followed closely behind him. Baby Dhawan was wrapped in a cute pink sheet. The couple ditched paparazzi as they were heading home with their newborn. Viral Bhayani shared the video and wrote, New parents in town, Dhawan parivar ki Lakshmi. With the arrival of their baby girl, Varun has been filled with joy. Amidst an outpouring of heartfelt wishes, the actor embraced his daughter on social media with a heartfelt post, expressing gratitude. In the heartfelt video featured an illustration of Varun's pet dog Joey holding a placard that read 'Welcome Lil sis'. The post, captioned "Baby Dhawan, Proud parents Natasha and Varun, Proud Family Dalals and Dhawans', expressed their joy. Varun wrote, 'Our Baby Girl Is Here,' and extended gratitude, saying, 'Thank u for all the good wishes for the mama and the baby.' Further in the post, they shared, 'We are overjoyed with this new blessing in our lives. During this special time, we kindly request the media to respect our privacy. Thank you for your support and understanding.' "We're expecting! Needing all your blessings and love #myfamilymystrength," the actor penned on Instagram. Varun - Natasha Varun Dhawan and Natasha Dalal are childhood sweethearts with a long history of dating, Natasha Dalal is a Fashion Designer who also runs a label 'Natasha Dalal Label', she also designed her wedding lehnga as they exchanged vows on January 24, 2021, surrounded by their families and closest friends. Varun Dhawan On Work Front Dhawan is set to star in Karan Johar's directional 'Sunny Sanskari ki Tulsi Kumari', the actor will be seen in the upcoming action thriller film Baby John which also stars Samantha Ruth Prabhu. The film is presented by Atlee in collaboration with Jio Studios and Cine1 Studios. Additionally, he will feature in the Indian adaptation of the Hollywood series "Citadel," Jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan has invoked the case of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal getting bail to campaign ahead of India's general elections, as he complained before the Supreme Court about the mistreatment meted to him in jail. During his appearance on Thursday before a five-member Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa in a case related to amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman complained of the victimisation that he faced since his ouster from power in April 2022. Justices Aminuddin Khan, Jamal Khan Mandokhel, Athar Minallah, and Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi also sat on the bench. Justice Minallah remarked that it was unfortunate that Khan was in jail as he was the head of a large party with millions of followers. Khan, complaining of oppression against him, pointed out that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was released on bail by the apex court ahead of the Indian general elections for campaigning for his party but he was facing oppression in Pakistan which was under undeclared "martial law". Khan,71, complained that he was convicted within five days to keep him away from the general elections which were held on February 8. Khan also expressed dismay over the Supreme Courts judgment rejecting Khyber Pakhtunkhwas government plea requesting the live streaming of the case. You wrote [in the judgment] that I did political point scoring during the last hearing. I did not get it, what political scoring did I resort to, the PTI founder asked the CJP Isa. At this, Chief Justice Isa said a judge does not owe an explanation to anyone over the verdict. You can file a review petition, the top judge said. He also asked the former premier to speak only about the pending matter before the court. Lamenting political victimisation, the PTI founder said the Supreme Court should appoint a chairman for the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the anti-corruption watchdog. When the Opposition and government fail to evolve consensus on the name of NAB chairman appointment then a third umpire makes the decision, he said, adding that the anti-graft body is working under the third umpire. Addressing the PTI founder, Justice Minallah said: "Khan sahib, there was no reason to declare the NAB amendments invalid. Khan said he was currently facing NAB inquiries and called for improvement in the anti-corruption body. After Justice Minallah reminded Khan about the issue of the appointment of Chief Election Commissioner, he said restoring the amendment would help him in the NAB cases, however, the country will become bankrupt. CJP Isa also barred the PTI founder from citing Islamabad High Court (IHC) verdict in the cipher cases and said the appeal in the case might be filed in the apex court. Why did not you oppose the NAB amendments in Parliament, asked Justice Rizvi. Khan cited the circumstances and said his government was toppled via conspiracy and that he did not want to respond to the conspiratorial government in Parliament. Khan also asked the court to compare the facilities given to him in jail with the facilities given to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. However, in a lighter vein, Justice Mandokhel said the elder Sharif was not in jail at the moment, Do you want us to send him to jail? The chief justice remarked the court would arrange a surprise visit by the judicial officer. By Jody Godoy NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. antitrust enforcers are digging into Big Tech's role in the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, exploring whether business practices by entrenched players stifle competition in the burgeoning space. The U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have moved to divvy up the biggest players in the industry, a step that puts Nvidia, OpenAI and Microsoft closer to potential investigations. Here are some of the AI issues regulators are concerned about: DATA Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter expressed a "sense of urgency" to address the advantages big companies have in their access to data used to train AI models, speaking at a University of Chicago event in April. "To the extent data has been aggregated or resides in the hands of a small few, that may become the high water mark for competition because the barriers to entry in scale and access to these key ingredients is limited to a small number of players," he said. WORKERS Another area of concern is the effect that generative AI could have on creative people whose work it could replicate, as well as the engineers who build the technology. "Absent competition to compensate creators for their works, AI companies could exploit monopsony power on levels we have never seen before," Kanter said at a Stanford University AI conference co-hosted by the Justice Department in late May, using a term that often refers to domination of labor markets by one or a few employers. The FTC, which recently moved to ban noncompete agreements, last year flagged potential concerns with AI employers stifling competition by blocking skilled workers from heading to rival companies. PARTNERSHIPS In January, the FTC opened a wide-ranging inquiry into AI companies and cloud service providers, ordering OpenAI, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Anthropic to provide information on recent investments and partnerships. "We are scrutinizing whether these ties enable dominant firms to exert undue influence or gain privileged access in ways that could undermine fair competition across layers of the AI stack," FTC Chair Lina Khan said at the time. The regulator also seeks to understand how the partnerships with Big Tech influence strategy and "decisions around the pricing of products and services; decisions around the granting of access to products and services; and decisions around personnel." Khan said at the University of Chicago conference that part of the aim in scrutinizing partnerships is to "ensure that they are not a way to sidestep merger review." (Reporting by Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Rod Nickel) As global markets navigate through fluctuating inflation rates and policy adjustments, the Hong Kong market has also experienced its share of volatility, with the Hang Seng Index recently showing a notable decline. In such an environment, growth companies with high insider ownership in Hong Kong can offer investors potential resilience and alignment of interests between shareholders and management. Top 10 Growth Companies With High Insider Ownership In Hong Kong Name Insider Ownership Earnings Growth iDreamSky Technology Holdings (SEHK:1119) 20.1% 104.1% New Horizon Health (SEHK:6606) 16.6% 62.3% Fenbi (SEHK:2469) 32.1% 43% Meitu (SEHK:1357) 38% 33.7% DPC Dash (SEHK:1405) 38.2% 89.7% Adicon Holdings (SEHK:9860) 22.3% 29.6% Zylox-Tonbridge Medical Technology (SEHK:2190) 18.5% 79.3% Biocytogen Pharmaceuticals (Beijing) (SEHK:2315) 13.9% 100.1% Beijing Airdoc Technology (SEHK:2251) 27.9% 83.9% Ocumension Therapeutics (SEHK:1477) 17.7% 93.7% Click here to see the full list of 53 stocks from our Fast Growing SEHK Companies With High Insider Ownership screener. Let's uncover some gems from our specialized screener. Simply Wall St Growth Rating: Overview: BYD Company Limited operates in the automobile and battery sectors across China, including Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and internationally, with a market capitalization of approximately HK$715.83 billion. Operations: The company's revenue is generated from its automobile and battery sectors across various regions including China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and internationally. Insider Ownership: 30.1% BYD, a Hong Kong-listed growth company with high insider ownership, is trading at 30.8% below its estimated fair value, signaling potential undervaluation. While its revenue and earnings growth forecasts of 14.5% and 14.67% respectively are robust, they do not exceed the significant growth threshold of 20%. However, BYD's earnings are expected to outpace the broader Hong Kong market's average. Recent expansions into new markets with products like the BYD SHARK pickup highlight strategic diversification efforts despite a backdrop of moderate insider trading activity in recent months. SEHK:1211 Earnings and Revenue Growth as at Jun 2024 Simply Wall St Growth Rating: Overview: Meituan is a technology retail company based in the People's Republic of China, with a market capitalization of approximately HK$698.33 billion. Operations: The company's revenue is primarily derived from Core Local Commerce and New Initiatives, generating CN206.91 billion and CN69.84 billion respectively. Story continues Insider Ownership: 12.2% Meituan, a Hong Kong growth company with significant insider transactions, is currently trading at 64.9% below its estimated fair value. Despite no substantial insider purchases recently, the firm's financial results show strong performance with a recent report of sales reaching CNY 73.28 billion and net income of CNY 5.37 billion for Q1 2024. Meituan's earnings are expected to grow by 33.2% annually over the next three years, outpacing the Hong Kong market average significantly. SEHK:3690 Earnings and Revenue Growth as at Jun 2024 Simply Wall St Growth Rating: Overview: Techtronic Industries Company Limited, with a market capitalization of HK$183 billion, operates globally in designing, manufacturing, and marketing power tools, outdoor power equipment, and floorcare and cleaning products primarily in North America and Europe. Operations: The company's revenue is primarily derived from its power equipment segment, which generated $12.79 billion, and its floorcare and cleaning products segment, which contributed $0.97 billion. Insider Ownership: 25.3% Techtronic Industries, a Hong Kong-based company, is experiencing robust growth with earnings forecasted to increase by 15.9% annually, surpassing the local market's average. Despite this positive outlook and a recent share buyback initiative aimed at boosting shareholder value, there has been significant insider selling over the past three months with no substantial purchases reported by insiders during the same period. This pattern of insider activity could raise concerns about long-term confidence among those closest to the company. SEHK:669 Earnings and Revenue Growth as at Jun 2024 Make It Happen Discover the full array of 53 Fast Growing SEHK Companies With High Insider Ownership right here. Already own these companies? Bring clarity to your investment decisions by linking up your portfolio with Simply Wall St, where you can monitor all the vital signs of your stocks effortlessly. Simply Wall St is a revolutionary app designed for long-term stock investors, it's free and covers every market in the world. Ready For A Different Approach? 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 analysis only considers stock directly held by insiders. It does not include indirectly owned stock through other vehicles such as corporate and/or trust entities. All forecast revenue and earnings growth rates quoted are in terms of annualised (per annum) growth rates over 1-3 years. Companies discussed in this article include SEHK:1211 SEHK:3690 and SEHK:669. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, which calls itself the nations largest extreme value retailer, has signed a lease to open a store in Jay Scutti Plaza North, 300 Hylan Drive, Henrietta. Gregory Kimber, chief financial officer of plaza owner Scutti Enterprises, confirmed the news Thursday. Founded in 1946 and based in Emeryville, California, the chain sells fresh and frozen foods and name-brand products purchased from suppliers with excess inventory sometimes resulting from manufacturing overruns. Such opportunistic sourcing allows it to sell items at prices generally 40% to 70% below conventional grocers. The Henrietta store, not only the first in the Rochester area but in New York state, will occupy a 23,149-square-foot space that in the past was home to Michaels and A.C. Moore Arts and Crafts. They always want to come to Henrietta first, Kimber said of national chains looking to enter the western New York market. Later this year, California-based Grocery Outlet Bargain Market will open its first store in New York state in Henrietta's Jay Scutti Plaza North. The space it's moving into formerly was home to Michaels and A.C. Moore Arts and Crafts. He said a buildout of the space probably will take four to five months and that he expects the business will open sometime this fall. Most Grocery Outlet Bargain Market stores are open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week and offer delivery through DoorDash, Instacart and Uber Eats. The majority of the companys more than 470 locations are in California, Washington and Oregon, but an expansion has added stores in the eastern United States. The typical customer probably also shops at dollar stores and may be living paycheck to paycheck, said Burt Flickinger, a grocery industry expert and managing director of New York City-based retail consulting firm Strategic Resource Group. But he said that in an era in which the cost of branded cereals is more than some cuts of steak, the chain likely draws a cross-section of people simply looking for bargains not unlike Walmart, which recently reported its popularity has spiked among households with annual incomes of $100,000 or more. However, Grocery Outlet stores are only a fraction of the size of a Walmart or a Wegmans for that matter, a plus for people short on time or energy. Its great for the community because they focus on brand-name groceries at a great price, Kimber said. Something to note: Because Grocery Outlets discounted items continually rotate, They might have Libbys one week and have Dole or Del Monte the following week, Flickinger said. They might have Heinz ketchup one week and Hunts another week. Last year, Grocery Outlet did $4 billion in sales, up 10.9% from the previous year, according to its annual report. Having studied the companys growth model, Flickinger predicts the Henrietta store will be the first of many in western New York. Story continues Monroe County, Erie County and Niagara County should wind up with approximately three Grocery Outlets each by the end of 2029, he said. Includes reporting by Alexander Coolidge of The Cincinnati Enquirer. Reporter Marcia Greenwood covers general assignments. Send story tips to mgreenwo@rocheste.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @MarciaGreenwood. This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market opening in Henrietta NY Key Insights Significant control over Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions The top 14 shareholders own 51% of the company Insider ownership in Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad is 20% A look at the shareholders of Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad (KLSE:FPI) can tell us which group is most powerful. With 41% stake, retail investors possess the maximum shares in the company. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn). Public companies, on the other hand, account for 29% of the company's stockholders. In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad. Check out our latest analysis for Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad? Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing. We can see that Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad. Wistron Corporation is currently the largest shareholder, with 27% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 3.9% and 3.2% of the stock. Chao Yuan Shih, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Member of the Board of Directors. After doing some more digging, we found that the top 14 have the combined ownership of 51% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company. Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. As far as we can tell there isn't analyst coverage of the company, so it is probably flying under the radar. Story continues Insider Ownership Of Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves. Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group. Our information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad. Insiders own RM157m worth of shares in the RM776m 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 41% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run. Public Company Ownership We can see that public companies hold 29% of the Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad shares on issue. It's hard to say for sure but this suggests they have entwined business interests. This might be a strategic stake, so it's worth watching this space for changes in ownership. Next Steps: I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. For example, we've discovered 1 warning sign for Formosa Prosonic Industries Berhad that you should be aware of before investing here. Of course this may not be the best stock to buy. Therefore, you may wish to see our free collection of interesting prospects boasting favorable financials. 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. By Zulfugar Ibrahimov, Day.az A large anti-Azerbaijani gathering will take place in Paris at the end of June. It will be organized at the National Institute of Oriental Languages ??and Cultures (Institut national des langues et civilizations orientales, INALCO). The organizers are employees of this institution with Armenian surnames and Armenian organizations in France. Last November, a pseudoscientific event on the topic Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, past-present was held at the INALCO Research House, which so inspired the relevant circles that it was decided to gather the pro-Armenian crowd again this June. While peace talks are ongoing, INALCO will host "international learning days" where participants will "reflect on the political, economic, sociological, cultural and geopolitical issues and consequences of the last war," the release states. This refers to the period from the war of 2020 to the anti-terrorist operation of September 2023, that is, until Azerbaijan completely restores its territories. In principle, it is during the period of peace negotiations that third parties should not try to add their two cents to the process, even by organizing seemingly innocuous scientific discussions. Although the international training days planned at INALCO cannot even be called harmless. The Armenian element occupies a significant place in this institution. In previous years, the Azerbaijani language was also studied here with financial support from Baku. The study of this language, which was once spoken throughout the Caucasus, began in 1999, was carried out for several years at the expense of the French state, and then funding was transferred to the Azerbaijani side. Yes, once upon a time, before Emmanuel Macron and before the 44-day war, relations between Baku and Paris were very good. I can't even believe that this happened... The current National Institute of Oriental Languages ??and Cultures was created in the 17th century to train translators capable of working in the fields of diplomacy and trade. Initially, the Armenian language was not studied there, since they did not have a state, were not of interest, and also did not play any role in world trade. Their potential was noticed and appreciated only when the powers moved into the Caucasus. And today the Armenians consider France their headquarters, including in terms of promoting their enlightenment narratives. It is unlikely that INALCO would have been able to hold an event that would be contrary to the interests of the Armenians. Especially in Macrons France. Over time, INALCO expanded its functions and today, according to some information, is training specialists, lets say, of a broader profile. This is a government agency closely linked to the French Foreign Ministry and intelligence. Here, roughly speaking, spies are trained. This is where intelligence officers study languages ??or improve their knowledge before being sent out to work. INALCO, It sounds like the script for another episode of Fantomas, but this is reality. And the dominance of the harmful Armenian element in the establishment poses a certain threat to the South Caucasus. Pseudo-scientific discussions later this month will show just how bad things are. In principle, this can be judged by the event program already distributed on the Internet. The list of participants with surnames ending in Yan is also diluted with other persons who, in principle, could safely add Armenian endings to their surnames. After watching the program, more than once I want to exclaim: wow, all the faces are familiar! For example, Jean-Christov Buisson, deputy director of the newspaper Le Figaro, is an ardent Azerbaijanophobe. What would it be like without him? This journalist has been working for the Armenians for a long time and fruitfully. Fruitful, including for yourself. His latest masterpiece is an interview with separatist Shahramanyan, introduced to readers as the president of Artsakh. And here is another familiar name - Altay Goyushov. This so-called historian, representing a certain Baku Research Institute (has anyone heard of such an institution?) will speak at a pro-Armenian event about the impact of the war in Garabagh on the transformation of the Azerbaijani internal political landscape. Western pro-Armenian propaganda greatly values ??this historian and always invites only him to discussions. Still would. And here is Jacques Faure, the former French co-chair of the late OSCE Minsk Group. This subject is particularly interesting. His co-chairmanship was unsuccessful. After his resignation, he continued to set France up. In 2015, at a NATO event in Yerevan, he said so much that the French Foreign Ministry had to make excuses for him and assure Baku that Jacques Faure was nothing, an ordinary pensioner, and Paris recognized the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. In Yerevan, Faure said that military pressure on Armenia would not yield anything, that the return of Karabakh to Azerbaijan was from now on impossible, and that the result must be expressed through free expression of will. At the same event, he spoke about Bakus pressure on the OSCE and the threat of closing the organizations office in Azerbaijan. I wonder what he would say today, hearing statements that official Baku will not allow the Minsk Group to work under any circumstances and it is better for it to cease to exist. None of Faure's "expert forecasts" came true. And today all he can do is appear at pro-Armenian gatherings and read reports on the failures of the Minsk Group from the looking back series. In short, there is no need to talk about the scientific nature and scientific value of the event planned at INALCO. A scientific approach to the Karabakh conflict will be possible only decades later, when passions subside and the provocative activities of the pro-Armenian camp cease to be in full swing. At present, attempts to give such an event a certain scientific flair look frivolous. Pseudo-scientific fuss covers up completely different goals and intentions. It is clear from everything that another anti-Azerbaijani network is being formed under INALCO. For beginners, it can seem like a good idea (and an exciting prospect) to buy a company that tells a good story to investors, even if it currently lacks a track record of revenue and profit. But as Peter Lynch said in One Up On Wall Street, 'Long shots almost never pay off.' While a well funded company may sustain losses for years, it will need to generate a profit eventually, or else investors will move on and the company will wither away. So if this idea of high risk and high reward doesn't suit, you might be more interested in profitable, growing companies, like Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (AMS:CCEP). While profit isn't the sole metric that should be considered when investing, it's worth recognising businesses that can consistently produce it. Check out our latest analysis for Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Coca-Cola Europacific Partners' Earnings Per Share Are Growing If a company can keep growing earnings per share (EPS) long enough, its share price should eventually follow. That means EPS growth is considered a real positive by most successful long-term investors. Recognition must be given to the that Coca-Cola Europacific Partners has grown EPS by 49% per year, over the last three years. That sort of growth rarely ever lasts long, but it is well worth paying attention to when it happens. Top-line growth is a great indicator that growth is sustainable, and combined with a high earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) margin, it's a great way for a company to maintain a competitive advantage in the market. EBIT margins for Coca-Cola Europacific Partners remained fairly unchanged over the last year, however the company should be pleased to report its revenue growth for the period of 5.7% to 18b. That's a real positive. The chart below shows how the company's bottom and top lines have progressed over time. To see the actual numbers, click on the chart. The trick, as an investor, is to find companies that are going to perform well in the future, not just in the past. While crystal balls don't exist, you can check our visualization of consensus analyst forecasts for Coca-Cola Europacific Partners' future EPS 100% free. Are Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders? Owing to the size of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, we wouldn't expect insiders to hold a significant proportion of the company. But we do take comfort from the fact that they are investors in the company. With a whopping 61m worth of shares as a group, insiders have plenty riding on the company's success. That's certainly enough to let shareholders know that management will be very focussed on long term growth. Story continues Should You Add Coca-Cola Europacific Partners To Your Watchlist? Coca-Cola Europacific Partners' earnings per share growth have been climbing higher at an appreciable rate. That sort of growth is nothing short of eye-catching, and the large investment held by insiders should certainly brighten the view of the company. At times fast EPS growth is a sign the business has reached an inflection point, so there's a potential opportunity to be had here. Based on the sum of its parts, we definitely think its worth watching Coca-Cola Europacific Partners very closely. We should say that we've discovered 2 warning signs for Coca-Cola Europacific Partners that you should be aware of before investing here. There's always the possibility of doing well buying stocks that are not growing earnings and do not have insiders buying shares. But for those who consider these important metrics, we encourage you to check out companies that do have those features. You can access a tailored list of Dutch companies which have demonstrated growth backed by significant insider holdings. Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Home insurers are canceling policies based on aerial images, advocacy group says how to protect yourself John DEntremont has owned his home in Malden, Massachusetts, for more than 40 years, but last year, his insurer unexpectedly asked him to make some major repairs. I felt like I was blindsided, he told Boston 25 News. If you look at the things they asked me to do, it was a significant amount of money. Don't miss Cost-of-living in America is still out of control use these 3 'real assets' to protect your wealth today, no matter what the US Fed does or says Car insurance rates have spiked in the US to a stunning $2,150/year but you can be smarter than that. Here's how you can save yourself as much as $820 annually in minutes (it's 100% free) These 5 magic money moves will boost you up America's net worth ladder in 2024 and you can complete each step within minutes. Here's how DEntremont says he received a letter in August from his insurer requesting he remove the moss from his roof, trim some tree branches that were hanging over his house and get some shingles. The homeowner claims he started gathering estimates, completed the tree work and even reached out to the insurance company to keep them updated on his progress. But in November, he received a notification that his policy was being canceled. In Massachusetts, insurers can cancel a policy as long as they provide a 45-day written notice and qualified reason for doing so. DEntremont says he never filed any claims or had been notified of any issues with his home. He doesnt know what prompted the sudden notices, but his daughter suspects the insurer might have used aerial images to scan the house for defects a growing trend among insurance companies. Some insurers are leaning more into technology Experts say more companies nationwide are using drone images and satellite photos to perform inspections in place of visiting homes. These photos can be used to flag issues such as damaged roof shingles, yard debris, overhanging tree branches and undeclared swimming pools or trampolines. All of these can potentially be used as reasons for insurers to send out non-renewal notices to policyholders. Massachusetts, for example, permits the use of aerial images in policy renewal decisions. Weve seen a dramatic increase across the country in reports from consumers whove been dropped by their insurers on the basis of an aerial image, Amy Bach, executive director of consumer group United Policyholders told The Wall Street Journal. Insurers say customers agree to home inspections when they purchase a policy and that gathering aerial images is less intrusive than performing home visits. But consumer advocates have concerns that these companies could be using outdated or inaccurate images when making their decisions. Story continues Read more: Thanks to Jeff Bezos, you can now use $100 to cash in on prime real estate without the headache of being a landlord. Here's how Nichole Brink, who says she quit her job as an agent for Farmers Insurance last year, claimed to the Journal some customers were dropped based on aerial images that were two or three years old, while in another case, a part of the image that Farmers said showed tree limbs were actually just shadows. Its like theyre using anything as an excuse to get people off their books, she said. Brink says she switched insurers and jobs after discovering her own home had been flagged by Farmers because of a tree branch hanging over her barn. She cited concerns the company was indiscriminately clearing out unwanted customers. A spokesperson for Farmers told the Journal it regularly reviews the properties it insures, and homeowners have at least 60 days to correct any inaccuracies or show the problem has been addressed if any problems are flagged. What should you do if you receive a non-renewal notice? If you receive an unexpected non-renewal notice from your home insurance company for any particular reason, Emily Rogan, a senior program officer at United Policyholders, recommends asking for evidence. The insurer might not be required to provide images upon your request, but it doesnt hurt to ask in case, for example, the wrong home was identified. She also advises getting on top of your repairs immediately and asking your insurer if theyll change their decision if you can provide a contract for pending repairs. Its more important than ever for homeowners to stay on top of home maintenance because you never know when that insurance company is going to take that photo, Rogan told Boston 25 News. In case the insurance company doesnt rule in your favor, it may be a good idea to start shopping for new insurance once you receive a notice. This will minimize the risk of having a gap in your coverage. What to read next This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind. The Indian stock market has experienced a slight decline of 1.7% over the last week, yet it boasts an impressive annual growth of 38%, with earnings projected to increase by 16% per annum. In such a robust market, companies with high insider ownership can be particularly appealing, as this often reflects confidence from those who know the business best. Top 10 Growth Companies With High Insider Ownership In India Name Insider Ownership Earnings Growth Archean Chemical Industries (NSEI:ACI) 22.9% 28.1% Pitti Engineering (BSE:513519) 33.6% 28.0% Rajratan Global Wire (BSE:517522) 19.8% 33.5% Dixon Technologies (India) (NSEI:DIXON) 24.9% 28.6% Happiest Minds Technologies (NSEI:HAPPSTMNDS) 38% 22.9% Jupiter Wagons (NSEI:JWL) 11.1% 27.2% Paisalo Digital (BSE:532900) 16.3% 23.8% Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (NSEI:APOLLOHOSP) 10.4% 33.1% Pricol (NSEI:PRICOLLTD) 25.5% 26.9% Aether Industries (NSEI:AETHER) 31.1% 39.8% Click here to see the full list of 81 stocks from our Fast Growing Indian Companies With High Insider Ownership screener. Let's explore several standout options from the results in the screener. Simply Wall St Growth Rating: Overview: Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited operates a network of hospitals, diagnostic clinics, and pharmacies primarily in India, offering a range of healthcare services with a market capitalization of approximately 857.24 billion. Operations: The company generates 99.39 billion from healthcare services, 13.64 billion from retail health and diagnostics, and 78.27 billion from digital health and pharmacy distribution. Insider Ownership: 10.4% Apollo Hospitals Enterprise has demonstrated robust growth with earnings increasing by 25% annually over the past five years. Looking ahead, significant growth is anticipated, with earnings expected to rise by 33.07% annually and revenue forecasted to grow at 15.9% per year, outpacing the Indian market's average of 9.5%. Although insider buying data is not available for the last three months, the companys high Return on Equity (23.6%) indicates efficient management of shareholders' equity. Recent leadership changes align with strategic shifts towards expanding its digital health and omni-channel pharmacy sectors, potentially enhancing long-term value creation for stakeholders. Story continues NSEI:APOLLOHOSP Ownership Breakdown as at Jun 2024 Simply Wall St Growth Rating: Overview: Info Edge (India) Limited, with a market cap of approximately 790.23 billion, operates as an online classifieds company focusing on recruitment, matrimony, real estate, and education sectors both domestically and internationally. Operations: The company generates revenue primarily through recruitment solutions amounting to 18.80 billion, followed by real estate services under the brand 99acres, which contribute 3.51 billion. Insider Ownership: 37.9% Info Edge (India) has shown a significant turnaround this fiscal year, transitioning from a net loss to reporting substantial net income and revenue growth. Despite high insider ownership, recent months have seen more insider selling than buying. The company's earnings are expected to grow significantly over the next three years, outpacing the Indian market's average. However, its dividend track record remains unstable and Return on Equity is projected to be low in three years' time. NSEI:NAUKRI Earnings and Revenue Growth as at Jun 2024 Simply Wall St Growth Rating: Overview: Varun Beverages Limited operates as a franchisee of PepsiCo, producing and distributing carbonated soft drinks and non-carbonated beverages, with a market capitalization of approximately 1.95 trillion. Operations: The company generates revenue primarily through the manufacturing and sale of beverages, amounting to 164.67 billion. Insider Ownership: 36.4% Varun Beverages demonstrates robust growth prospects with its earnings expected to outpace the broader Indian market. Recent expansions into Zimbabwe and product launches in Uttar Pradesh underline its strategic initiatives to boost market presence. However, it operates with a high level of debt, which could be a concern. The appointment of a new CFO with extensive experience might steer financial strategies effectively amidst these expansions. Insider ownership remains substantial, aligning managements interests with shareholder value. NSEI:VBL Ownership Breakdown as at Jun 2024 Turning Ideas Into Actions Get an in-depth perspective on all 81 Fast Growing Indian Companies With High Insider Ownership by using our screener here. Have you diversified into these companies? Leverage the power of Simply Wall St's portfolio to keep a close eye on market movements affecting your investments. Join a community of smart investors by using Simply Wall St. It's free and delivers expert-level analysis on worldwide markets. Seeking Other Investments? 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 analysis only considers stock directly held by insiders. It does not include indirectly owned stock through other vehicles such as corporate and/or trust entities. All forecast revenue and earnings growth rates quoted are in terms of annualised (per annum) growth rates over 1-3 years. Companies discussed in this article include NSEI:APOLLOHOSP NSEI:NAUKRI and NSEI:VBL. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com On June 6, 2024, Kimberly Chainey, the Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of AptarGroup Inc (NYSE:ATR), sold 825 shares of the company. The transaction was documented in a recent SEC Filing. Following this sale, the insider now owns 8,812 shares of AptarGroup Inc. AptarGroup Inc specializes in the design and manufacturing of a broad range of drug delivery, consumer product dispensing, and active material science solutions. The company's innovative services and products serve a variety of end markets including pharmaceutical, beauty, personal care, home, food, and beverage. Over the past year, Kimberly Chainey has sold a total of 2,245 shares and has not purchased any shares. The recent transaction reflects a continuing trend of insider sales at AptarGroup Inc, with a total of 15 insider sales and no insider buys over the past year. Insider Sale at AptarGroup Inc: EVP and Chief Legal Officer Kimberly Chainey Sells Shares On the date of the sale, shares of AptarGroup Inc were priced at $146.77. The company's market cap stood at approximately $9.67 billion. The price-earnings ratio was recorded at 31.32, which is above both the industry median of 28.33 and the company's historical median. The GF Value of AptarGroup Inc is estimated at $130.58, suggesting that the stock is Modestly Overvalued with a price-to-GF-Value ratio of 1.12. Insider Sale at AptarGroup Inc: EVP and Chief Legal Officer Kimberly Chainey Sells Shares The GF Value is calculated considering historical trading multiples such as the price-earnings ratio, price-sales ratio, price-book ratio, and price-to-free cash flow, along with a GuruFocus adjustment factor based on past returns and growth, and future business performance estimates from Morningstar analysts. This insider sale might interest investors tracking insider behaviors as an indicator of confidence levels in the company's current valuation and future prospects. This article, generated by GuruFocus, is designed to provide general insights and is not tailored financial advice. Our commentary is rooted in historical data and analyst projections, utilizing an impartial methodology, and is not intended to serve as specific investment guidance. It does not formulate a recommendation to purchase or divest any stock and does not consider individual investment objectives or financial circumstances. Our objective is to deliver long-term, fundamental data-driven analysis. Be aware that our analysis might not incorporate the most recent, price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative information. GuruFocus holds no position in the stocks mentioned herein. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. When you buy a stock there is always a possibility that it could drop 100%. But when you pick a company that is really flourishing, you can make more than 100%. One great example is DKSH Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad (KLSE:DKSH) which saw its share price drive 104% higher over five years. On top of that, the share price is up 17% in about a quarter. But this could be related to the strong market, which is up 7.8% in the last three months. Now it's worth having a look at the company's fundamentals too, because that will help us determine if the long term shareholder return has matched the performance of the underlying business. View our latest analysis for DKSH Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad While markets are a powerful pricing mechanism, share prices reflect investor sentiment, not just underlying business performance. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price. Over half a decade, DKSH Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad managed to grow its earnings per share at 28% a year. This EPS growth is higher than the 15% average annual increase in the share price. So it seems the market isn't so enthusiastic about the stock these days. The reasonably low P/E ratio of 7.29 also suggests market apprehension. The company's earnings per share (over time) is depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers). Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here. What About Dividends? It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. We note that for DKSH Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad the TSR over the last 5 years was 140%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return. A Different Perspective DKSH Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad provided a TSR of 4.5% over the last twelve months. Unfortunately this falls short of the market return. It's probably a good sign that the company has an even better long term track record, having provided shareholders with an annual TSR of 19% over five years. It may well be that this is a business worth popping on the watching, given the continuing positive reception, over time, from the market. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand DKSH Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad better, we need to consider many other factors. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for DKSH Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad (of which 1 is significant!) you should know about. Story continues If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: many of them are unnoticed AND have attractive valuation). Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on Malaysian exchanges. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. ITM Isotope Technologies Munich (ITM) has secured an investment of 188m ($204.6m) aimed at bolstering its radiopharmaceutical pipeline. Global investment company Temasek spearheaded the funding round with contributions from entities managed by BlackRock, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), ATHOS and Carbyne. The funding will be channelled towards advancing and broadening ITM's radiopharmaceutical pipeline, supporting the development platform and commercially launching its Phase III lead candidate, ITM-11 (n.c.a.177Lu-edotreotide). The asset is currently under evaluation in two Phase III trials, COMPETE and COMPOSE, for the treatment of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours. The investment will enable ITM to bolster its manufacturing capabilities for Lutetium-177 (177Lu) and expand its production to include other high-value medical radioisotopes such as Actinium-225 (225Ac). As part of the expansion, the company will also supply the in-demand medical radioisotopes to its extensive global network and utilise them to diversify its radiopharmaceutical therapy pipeline. This strategy is designed to address a variety of challenging cancer indications. ITM CEO Steffen Schuster stated: The additional equity and continued collaboration with our existing, industry-specialised investors emphasises their confidence in our ability to drive value for the radiopharmaceutical field through our unmatched manufacturing capabilities and innovative precision oncology pipeline. We have reached key milestones since our last financing round including advancing our pipeline with novel targets in multiple oncology indications, opening our NOVA facility, launching Actineer with CNL for the joint production of Actinium-225 and entering several high-value supply agreements for Lutetium-177. As we continue growing as an organisation, our focus remains on bringing the significant therapeutic benefits of radiopharmaceutical therapy to as many patients worldwide as possible and we are thankful for the additional financing which will support us on this path. "ITM gains $204.6m investment for radiopharmaceutical pipeline" was originally created and published by Pharmaceutical Technology, 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. We recently compiled the list of 25 Best Dividend Aristocrats Stocks According to Analysts. Since Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) ranks higher on our list, we have analyzed the stock in detail. The age-old debate of investing in dividend growth or high-yield stocks continues to reappear within the dividend investing realm. Between these two, dividend growth is currently the favored option in the market as investors seek out strategies to grow their income over time. In this regard, investors turn to dividend aristocrats, which are the companies that have raised their payouts for 25 consecutive years or more. These stocks have delivered strong returns over the years regardless of market conditions. Between February 2005 and December 2023, dividend aristocrats delivered a 12.50% return in falling interest rate periods and an 11.5% return in rising interest rate periods, according to data by Bloomberg. Numerous analysts have pointed out the long-term potential of dividend growth stocks, a sentiment echoed by Warren Buffetts investment in Coca-Cola. Back in August 1994, Berkshire Hathaway completed its acquisition of 400 million shares in the company, worth $1.3 billion. Berkshire initially received a cash dividend of $75 million from Coca-Cola in 1994, the amount which surged to $704 million in 2022. This shows a remarkable growth potential of dividend-paying investments over the long term. With investors showing a growing preference for dividend-paying stocks, major tech companies started initiating their dividend policies this year. Mark Iong, an equity fund manager at Homestead Advisers, expressed his approval of this move by tech companies in one of his recent interviews with Bloomberg. Here are some comments from the analyst: Dividends will be table-stakes for big tech going forward. I think if you dont pay one, it will now be taken as a sign your business is more volatile. Whats exciting is they are doing dividends and buybacks simultaneously, while also cutting costs and growing, which is them stepping on the pedal for profits across the board. Not limited to the tech sector alone, companies across the broader market are showing a strong commitment to dividends this year. Though these equities lagged behind the market last year, their outlook remains strong this year. According to a recent report by S&P Dow Jones Indices, in the first quarter of 2024, companies in the index paid $151.6 billion in dividends, up from $146.8 billion paid during the same period last year. In addition, 796 companies reported dividend hikes during the quarter, amounting collectively to $22.7 billion. Howard Silverblatt, Senior Index Analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices, expects that the index will report a 6% year-over-year increase in dividend payments in 2024. Now, lets take a look at some of the best dividend aristocrat stocks to buy according to analysts. Is Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) the Best Mega-Cap Dividend Aristocrat Stock? Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay Our Methodology: For our list, we first scanned a list of the best dividend aristocrat stocks, which are the companies that have raised their dividends for 25 consecutive years or more. From this group, we picked stocks with a projected upside potential of over 10% based on analyst price targets. The stocks are ranked according to their upside potential, as of May 26. We also measured hedge fund sentiment around each stock according to Insider Monkeys database of 920 funds as of Q1 2024. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletters strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points. (see more details here). Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) Upside Potential as of May 26: 19.2% Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) has been facing a lot of downward pressure lately, mainly due to the talc lawsuits that involve tens of thousands of people who alleged that the company's talc products, including baby powder, contain asbestos and can cause ovarian cancer. At the beginning of May, the pharmaceutical giant said that it had launched a $6.5 billion settlement proposal. The company hopes to reach a consensus through a three-month voting period. Nevertheless, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) remains one of the best dividend stocks to hold, sporting a yield of 3.37% based on the quarterly dividend of $1.24 per share. The company is also considered a dividend king, having raised its dividend for the past 62 years. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) has also been steadily delivering results above the consensus estimates and in the latest earnings call it has slightly increased its revenue and EPS guidance for the full fiscal 2024. We should also mention that the stock is currently trading at a trailing twelve-month P/E ratio of 21.8, which appears relatively undervalued, compared to its peers. At the end of the first quarter, 80 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held stakes in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) with a total value of $4.2 billion, down from 81 in the previous quarter. Overall JNJ ranks 8th among the best dividend aristocrat stocks according to analysts. It also ranks behind Exxon. You can visit 25 Best Dividend Aristocrats Stocks According to Analysts to see other dividend aristocrats that are on analysts radar. While we acknowledge the potential of dividend growth stocks, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as Microsoft but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock. Read Next: Michael Burry Is Selling These Stocks and Jim Cramer is Recommending These Stocks. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. The Zurich-based wealth management software Avaloq and the Swiss fintech Kaspar& have formed a strategic alliance following the completion of its CHF2.5m ($2.8m) seed funding round. Avaloq has taken a minority investment in the company as part of the new agreement, and Avaloq will link the advanced Kaspar& investing app with the Avaloq Core Platform. This will make it possible for Swiss banks using the Avaloq platform to provide their customers easier access to investing options. In 2020, Kaspar& was established as a subsidiary from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) and the University of St. Gallen (HSG). Moreover, the company provides low-cost investing app, payment services, and bank account access. Among the creative investment solutions provided by Kaspar& is a save-as-you-spend option that rounds up credit card purchases and allocates the difference to exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and index funds. It offers Swiss consumers a straightforward starting point to venture into the world of investing and begin gradually increasing their money. The agreement demonstrates Avaloq's drive to innovation and democratising access to asset management. Avaloq's easy interface with its core banking system will allow financial institutions across Switzerland to quickly roll out the Kaspar& investing app to their retail and mass-affluent clients. For Kaspar&, the cooperation and the completion of the seed financing round represent crucial milestones for the company's future development. Avaloq led the financing round, which is supported by additional minority investors such as Basellandschaftliche Kantonalbank (BLKB), institutional investors, and business angels. Martin Greweldinger, chief executive officer at Avaloq, said: We are proud of our track record in innovation and our strong ecosystem of fintech partners. With our investment in Kaspar&, we recognise the companys potential to revolutionise investment in the Swiss retail sector. Not only does Kaspar& provide consumers with automated, low-cost investment solutions, the apps intuitive interface makes it easy for anyone to start investing. By fully integrating the app with our core banking system, we will support the growth journey of Kaspar& and enable financial institutions running on the Avaloq platform in Switzerland to offer their clients access to this innovative investment platform. Jan-Philip Schade, co-founder and chief executive officer of Kaspar&, said: Our strategic partnership with Avaloq opens a new chapter in our companys history. This latest investment by a key player in the Swiss financial ecosystem confirms the potential of our platform while enabling us to continue the growth trajectory of Kaspar&. I believe that the integration of the Kaspar& app with Switzerlands leading core banking system will play a major role in enhancing collaboration between banks and fintech partners. We look forward to growing our partnership with Avaloq over the long term and to helping financial institutions in Switzerland to expand their range of investment options for retail and mass-affluent clients. Story continues "Kaspar& establishes strategic cooperation with Avaloq" was originally created and published by Private Banker International, 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. A major redevelopment of the Three Rivers Convention center could begin as early as this fall after the Kennewick City Council agreed to front money for design and other costs. If all goes according to plan, the convention center would nearly double its meeting area while a private partner will build a Marriott-flagged hotel with a high-end steak house on its sixth floor. The city council helped the project move to the starting gate this week when it voted unanimously on June 4 to loan about $8 million to the Kennewick Public Facilities District. The money will design and furnish a 60,000-square-foot addition to the 81,000-square-foot center. Its private partner, A1 Hospitality Group, is designing its hotel and related projects, It aims to break ground at the same time the expansion begins, Taran Patel, A1s managing partner, told the Tri-City Herald. A1, a Tri-Cities hotel developer and operator, and the city agreed in 2019 to work together to transform the 2004-built convention center into an urban village catering to residents and tourists alike. Under its terms, the city would expand the convention center and A1 would purchase several sites on the property and build a skyline-changing neighborhood. its vision includes a high-rise hotel, apartment towers, restaurants, retail and other amenities.. Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick will nearly double in size after the Kennewick City Council agreed to front about $8 million to design and equip a new addition. Patel said the COVID-19 pandemic slowed its progress and ended its hope of funding its share of the work through the federal Employment Benefit 5 or EB 5 program. EB 5 rewards immigrants who invest in job-creating projects with green cards. Patel said A1 turned to traditional bank loans, and is working on designs. The design teams are working to ensure a clean, consistent project with physical links between the convention center and the hotel. As it shared with the city last fall, A1s vision includes an Aloft-style hotel with a Walla Walla Steak Co. restaurant and bar on the sixth floor. F A1s share of the redevelopment always hinged on expanding the convention center. Tourism officials have long claimed the 2004-built convention facility needs to expand to compete with other cities for the lucrative meeting, convention and sports gatherings that fill hotels and spark visitor spending. Officially, Three Rivers is operated by the citys Public Facilities District. The citys $8 million contribution is effectively a loan to the facilities district from its own Capital Improvement Fund. The full project cost isnt yet clear but some form of bond will cover much of the cost. In a second proposed phase, A-1 Pearl would develop 800 condominiums in three towers along with restaurants, offices and other space off West Grandridge Boulevard near the Toyota Center and Three Rivers Convention Center. The city signaled that it expects to be repaid, possibly through a bond it authorizes. Neither the city nor the facilities district board have made any decisions. The PFD does not intend to ask Kennewick voters to raise local sales taxes to support the project. Story continues Kennewick voters previously rejected three sales tax proposals that would have supported bonds to pay to build public facilities, once for a Pasco aquatics center and twice for previous versions of the Three Rivers conversion. Game changer Corey Pearson, executive director, said he was satisfied with the current plans, saying the new space will be a game changer that will attract visitors who will spend money at local hotels, restaurants and stores. The city embraced the public-private partnership after its voters unambiguously said no to paying more at the cash register to support the project. The Three Rivers Convention Center campus could see a major overhaul, including a 60,000-square-foot expansion of its meeting facilities, after the Kennewick City Council agreed to provide $8 million for preliminary design work and equipoment purchases on June 4. Washington law allows public facilities districts to ask voters to increases sales taxes by up to 2 cents on a $10 purchase. PFD requests have gone before Kennewick voters three times. They rejected regional request to build an aquatics center in Pasco in 2006. Pasco proceeded on its own and is preparing to develop the aquatics facility. Later, they twice rejected a more ambitious overhaul of the convention center called The Link, by about 5% in 2016 and by 10% in 2017. The Link would have added 50,000 square feet to the convention center and 30,000 square feet to the neighboring Toyota Center. A 2,300 seat Broadway-style theater that would link the two buildings gave the proposal its name. The Link would have cost about $35 million in 2016, or about $46 million today. No permits have been issued, but Kennewick city officials met with the project engineer, Paul Knutzen of Knutzen Engineering, and Spokane architect Rustin Hall of ALSC Architects on June 5 for a pre-application conference. ALSC was responsible for the convention centers original design. The 81,000-square-foot project opened in 2004. The agenda included fire protection systems and traffic impacts. The project description included a description of the convention centers future connection to a Marriott-branded hotel and retail buildings. Patel confirmed that his team held a similar meeting a day later. Sign Up: Boom Town Tri-Cities Stay up to date on Tri-Cities growth and development with our weekly business newsletter. Get the latest on restaurant and business openings and closings, plus the regions top housing and employment news. Click here to sign up. In your inbox every Wednesday. Exploring the Sustainability and Growth of Dividends Kimberly-Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB) recently announced a dividend of $1.22 per share, payable on 2024-07-02, with the ex-dividend date set for 2024-06-07. As investors look forward to this upcoming payment, the spotlight also shines on the company's dividend history, yield, and growth rates. Using the data from GuruFocus, let's look into Kimberly-Clark Corp's dividend performance and assess its sustainability. What Does Kimberly-Clark Corp Do? Warning! GuruFocus has detected 6 Warning Sign with KMB. High Yield Dividend Stocks in Gurus' Portfolio This Powerful Chart Made Peter Lynch 29% A Year For 13 Years How to calculate the intrinsic value of a stock? With more than half of sales from personal care and another third from consumer tissue products, Kimberly-Clark sits as a leading manufacturer in the tissue and hygiene realm. Its brand mix includes Huggies, Scott, Kotex, Depend, Kleenex, and Cottonelle. The firm also operates K-C Professional, which partners with businesses to provide safety and sanitary offerings for the workplace. Kimberly-Clark generates just over of half its sales in North America and more than 10% in Europe, with the rest predominantly concentrated in Asia and Latin America. Kimberly-Clark Corp's Dividend Analysis A Glimpse at Kimberly-Clark Corp's Dividend History Kimberly-Clark Corp has maintained a consistent dividend payment record since 1973. Dividends are currently distributed on a quarterly basis. Kimberly-Clark Corp has increased its dividend each year since 1973. The stock is thus listed as a dividend king, an honor that is given to companies that have increased their dividend each year for at least the past 51 years. Below is a chart showing annual Dividends Per Share for tracking historical trends. Kimberly-Clark Corp's Dividend Analysis Breaking Down Kimberly-Clark Corp's Dividend Yield and Growth As of today, Kimberly-Clark Corp currently has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 3.45% and a 12-month forward dividend yield of 3.54%. This suggests an expectation of increased dividend payments over the next 12 months. Over the past three years, Kimberly-Clark Corp's annual dividend growth rate was 3.30%. Extended to a five-year horizon, this rate increased to 3.60% per year. And over the past decade, Kimberly-Clark Corp's annual dividends per share growth rate stands at 4.00%. Based on Kimberly-Clark Corp's dividend yield and five-year growth rate, the 5-year yield on cost of Kimberly-Clark Corp stock as of today is approximately 4.12%. Kimberly-Clark Corp's Dividend Analysis The Sustainability Question: Payout Ratio and Profitability To assess the sustainability of the dividend, one needs to evaluate the company's payout ratio. The dividend payout ratio provides insights into the portion of earnings the company distributes as dividends. A lower ratio suggests that the company retains a significant part of its earnings, thereby ensuring the availability of funds for future growth and unexpected downturns. As of 2024-03-31, Kimberly-Clark Corp's dividend payout ratio is 0.69. Story continues Kimberly-Clark Corp's profitability rank, offers an understanding of the company's earnings prowess relative to its peers. GuruFocus ranks Kimberly-Clark Corp's profitability 8 out of 10 as of 2024-03-31, suggesting good profitability prospects. The company has reported positive net income for each of year over the past decade, further solidifying its high profitability. Growth Metrics: The Future Outlook To ensure the sustainability of dividends, a company must have robust growth metrics. Kimberly-Clark Corp's growth rank of 8 out of 10 suggests that the company's growth trajectory is good relative to its competitors. Revenue is the lifeblood of any company, and Kimberly-Clark Corp's revenue per share, combined with the 3-year revenue growth rate, indicates a strong revenue model. Kimberly-Clark Corp's revenue has increased by approximately 2.60% per year on average, a rate that underperforms approximately 65.64% of global competitors. The company's 3-year EPS growth rate showcases its capability to grow its earnings, a critical component for sustaining dividends in the long run. During the past three years, Kimberly-Clark Corp's earnings increased by approximately -5.30% per year on average, a rate that underperforms approximately 66.71% of global competitors. Lastly, the company's 5-year EBITDA growth rate of -2.40%, which underperforms approximately 68.74% of global competitors. Next Steps Considering Kimberly-Clark Corp's consistent dividend payments, growth in dividend rates, and strong payout ratio, the company presents a compelling case for dividend investors. However, the mixed performance in growth metrics suggests a need for cautious optimism. Investors should monitor these trends closely to ensure that future dividend sustainability is not compromised. GuruFocus Premium users can screen for high-dividend yield stocks using the High Dividend Yield Screener. This article, generated by GuruFocus, is designed to provide general insights and is not tailored financial advice. Our commentary is rooted in historical data and analyst projections, utilizing an impartial methodology, and is not intended to serve as specific investment guidance. It does not formulate a recommendation to purchase or divest any stock and does not consider individual investment objectives or financial circumstances. Our objective is to deliver long-term, fundamental data-driven analysis. Be aware that our analysis might not incorporate the most recent, price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative information. GuruFocus holds no position in the stocks mentioned herein. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. By Alimat Aliyeva Japanese, American and South Korean Coast Guard ships conducted the first joint exercises in the Sea of Japan near Kyoto Prefecture, Azernews reports. According to the scenario of the exercises, two ships collided in the Sea of Japan, after which the coast guard ships of the three countries began to develop and conduct a search and rescue operation. Japan, the United States and South Korea also conducted training on extinguishing a fire on the ship, exchanging information and rescuing the crew. Three Coast Guard ships took part in the exercise - one from each country - and two helicopters from the United States and Japan. If you've ever struggled to get the last bit of ketchup out of a Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ: KHC) glass bottle, you might begin to understand the headache investors holding the company's stock faced over the last few years. Shares have been stuck in a tight range since 2021 and are currently down about 4% in 2024, underperforming the broader market. The impact of shifting post-pandemic consumer spending trends while dealing with inflationary cost pressures has limited growth and earnings. Still, there are some reasons to believe that the Kraft Heinz glass bottle is now half-full. The company's latest quarterly earnings showed signs of a budding operational and financial turnaround, supporting a positive long-term outlook. So is Kraft Heinz a buy now? Here's what you need to know. On a path back toward profitable growth First-quarter results from Kraft Heinz were by no means exceptional, but there were enough strong points that deserve a closer look. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.69 climbed by 1.5% year over year, benefiting from a solid expansion in the adjusted gross margin, which reached 34.5% from 32.8% in the prior-year quarter. Efforts to raise pricing helped balance lower volumes while supporting profitability. Even as total revenue declined by 1.2% from Q1 2023, organic net sales fared a bit better, down by just 0.5%. The company is focusing on an ongoing sequential improvement in volumes compared to weaker trends in 2023. Management believes the global operation is approaching a "volume inflection," with positive growth expected into the second half of this year. That theme plays into the 2024 outlook that has been reaffirmed. Kraft Heinz is guiding for full-year positive organic net sales growth between 0% to 2%, with pricing initiatives contributing to the upside throughout the year. Similarly, adjusted EPS is forecast to increase in a range of 1% to 3%, capturing the expanding margins and steps toward financial efficiencies. Image source: Getty Images. Kraft Heinz has good value and a compelling dividend yield The potential that Kraft Heinz is returning to a path of profitable growth could be a big catalyst for the stock to rally higher. Ultimately, the attraction of the company as an investment starts with its diversified global footprint and an extensive product portfolio that includes iconic brands like Kraft, Heinz, Philadelphia, Ore-Ida, Cool Whip, and Jell-O, among many others. Those are likely just some of the reasons legendary investor Warren Buffett, through Berkshire Hathaway, remains the largest investor in Kraft Heinz, holding 326 million shares, or nearly 27% of the entire company. Story continues For me, the stock appears to offer good value with its 4.6% dividend yield. That level is well above its industry group average, closer to 3.7%, from packaged foods peers like General Mills, Hormel Foods, and Campbell Soup. Kraft Heinz has successfully managed to reduce debt in recent years, and consistent free cash flow, including in this last quarter, suggests the dividend payout is sustainable for the foreseeable future. Whether or not the stock breaks out higher right away, shareholders are getting paid to wait, and that's always a good thing. KHC Dividend Yield Chart The other metric that stands out is the company's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, trading at approximately 11.5 times the 2024 consensus EPS of $3.03. This earnings multiple is at a discount compared to packaged food peers like General Mills and Campbell Soup, which trade at a ratio around 14.6 times forward earnings. For investors confident in a turnaround from Kraft Heinz, there's a case to be made that shares are undervalued and deserve a larger premium as it gets back on track. KHC PE Ratio (Forward) Chart So is Kraft Heinz a buy? I believe shares of Kraft Heinz could be a good addition to most investors' portfolios. The company went through some difficulties in recent years, but is well positioned to emerge stronger, with a more streamlined and efficient growth profile. It likely won't be a straight line higher for the stock, but I expect Kraft Heinz to deliver positive returns over the long run. Should you invest $1,000 in Kraft Heinz right now? Before you buy stock in Kraft Heinz, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now and Kraft Heinz wasnt one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, youd have $750,197!* Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of June 3, 2024 Dan Victor has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Berkshire Hathaway and J.M. Smucker. The Motley Fool recommends Kellanova and Kraft Heinz. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Is Kraft Heinz Stock a Buy? was originally published by The Motley Fool Tom Merton / Getty Images According to a recent report by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, most baby boomers found good jobs by their mid-20s, while millennials often had to wait until their early 30s to secure quality employment. Thats why its always interesting to take deep dives into the finances of boomers they can provide illuminating looks at paths that couldve been if younger generations had inherited a more robust economy. Check Out: Im a Baby Boomer Who Had To Un-Retire: 3 Money Lessons I Wish Id Known Learn More: 7 Common Debt Scenarios That Could Impact Your Retirement and How To Handle Them GOBankingRates spoke to Jon C., a retired resident of Kansas City, Missouri, who shared with us the ups and downs of his career from its inception as a busboy in 1968 to his retirement as a high-level sales manager. Wealthy people know the best money secrets. Learn how to copy them. Humble Beginnings Jons money journey began in 1968 when he took his first job at 16 years old. Minimum wage was peanuts in those days I think it was about $1.60 an hour, he shared. I was a busboy at a restaurant down the street so I could walk to work. Still, seeing that first paycheck gave me such a sense of pride and accomplishment. I was hooked. The Determination To Grow While those early earnings werent exactly lucrative although $1.60 in 1968 is equivalent to $14.71 today, which is double the federal minimum wage Jon credits that first job with instilling the value of determination. Even scraping together just a few dollars felt like such a major achievement at that age, he said. It really lit a fire under me to work hard. Maybe boomers invented hustle culture after all! That drive continued into Jons college years at the University of Missouri. To help pay his way, he took on the role of valet while pursuing his business degree. Making just $2.50 an hour before tips, it was tough balancing those late-night work hours with all my studying, he shared. But I knew the sacrifices would be worth it to set myself up for future success. Plus, anything seems doable when youre young! Discover More: 5 Signs Boomers Have Enough Savings To Last in Retirement The First Real Paycheck Jon graduated in 1976 and quickly landed an entry-level sales position at a local retailer. His starting salary was $18,000 a year, which is actually equivalent to $101,508 in todays money a pretty nice starting salary. Getting my first salaried position felt big at the time! he said. Earning a real paycheck, man. I felt like such an adult. Story continues The Big Bucks Years Fortunately for Jon, his career would continue ascending over the following decades. By the mid-90s, I was bringing in over $120,000 annually as a regional sales manager, he said. After years of thinking like a broke college kid, suddenly having a six-figure income was just mindblowing. It was also during this period when Jon got ultra-serious about saving and investing for retirement on the horizon. Maximizing contributions to his employer 401(k) and IRA accounts, his growing nest egg was bolstered by the historic bull market of the 90s. A Comfortable Retirement Awaits Thanks to decades of disciplined saving and investing, Jon was able to retire comfortably at age 62 with a decent annual income stream. Between my Social Security benefits, former company pension, and withdrawals from my retirement accounts, Im bringing in around $75,000 per year these days, he shared. While not nearly as much as I was making at my peak, its plenty enough to sustain the modest lifestyle I want in retirement. For Jon and many fellow baby boomers, retiring with complete financial freedom wasnt necessarily a smooth or straightforward path. But the path felt possible in a way that feels increasingly more difficult these days. More From GOBankingRates This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Im a Retired Baby Boomer: Heres How Much I Made in My First Job and What I Make Now (Bloomberg) -- Meituan is preparing for a potential entry into the Middle East in its first expansion beyond the China region, even as it begins to consider the feasibility of other markets from Europe to Southeast Asia. Most Read from Bloomberg Founder Wang Xing said Meituan was actively exploring new arenas after its success in Hong Kong, but he stressed the company will be cautious and disciplined in venturing abroad. The company was now in the early stages of preparing a launch for the Middle East, he said. The billionaire outlined his thinking to analysts Thursday after Meituan reported quarterly sales rose a better-than-expected 25%, a sign its fending off new rivals in an uncertain Chinese consumer spending environment. Meituan, for years the dominant player in a mammoth Chinese food delivery market, has spent months preparing to debut its KeeTa app in Riyadh, Bloomberg News reported earlier. The global expansion is emblematic of a push by Chinese companies to seek growth abroad as competition at home intensifies. We are actually evaluating many different markets. And the Middle East or the Gulf countries is one of them, Wang said. But to be honest, its kind of a surprise to me that we received media coverage of Middle East operations so early. So we havent really launched anything there. We are just doing some preparation. What Bloomberg Intelligence Says Meituan may have averted a drop in 1Q core local commerce revenue, which rose 3% from the prior year after a 27% surge, but the units persistent margin decline amid competition continues to threaten expectations for higher year-on-year profitability in 2H. Increased spending to expand in the Middle East could also limit the units 2H margin gains from a year earlier. - Catherine Lim and Trini Tan, analysts Click here for the research. The Beijing-based company reported revenue of 73.3 billion yuan ($10.1 billion) in the March quarter, compared with the average estimate of 69 billion yuan. Net income in the period rose 60% to 5.4 billion yuan. Food order volume growth however will slow this quarter, in part because of a higher comparison from 2023 when Chinese consumption picked up from Covid-era troughs. Meituans outperformance suggests the company is coping with new rivals like Kuaishou Technology and ByteDance Ltd., which have joined Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in contesting the Chinese meal-delivery arena. The company has carried out a sweeping overhaul of business lines in recent months to counter that intensifying competition, as it moves to streamline operations and shave costs, including in its grocery business. At the same time, its expanding into areas like live-streaming and new markets including the Middle East. Story continues KeeTa a nod to the fast-moving cheetah has vaulted to the No. 2 spot in Hong Kong since its launch last May, according to independent research. That foray outside the mainland Chinese market that Meituan already dominates was seen as a trial run for a broader global expansion. Chief Executive Officer Wang took direct control of the overseas businesses in February, elevating the importance of its international ambitions. Like many of its peers, Meituan has been stepping up share buybacks, launching a $1 billion program in November. Analysts say it could also follow tech companies like Alibaba and JD.com Inc. in issuing convertible bonds, after the two raised a combined $6.5 billion through such notes to tap cheaper funding. Chinese online travel agency Trip.com announced Tuesday an offering of $1.3 billion convertible senior notes due 2029. For now, China remains Meituan biggest market, one where consumer spending remains shaky. As we enter Q2, we no longer benefit from a low order base of last year, Chief Financial Officer Chen Shaohui told analysts. So, the year-over-year order volume growth rate in Q2 is expected to trend down to a normal level which reflects the current consumption environment. --With assistance from Sarah Zheng. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2024 Bloomberg L.P. sara_winter / Getty Images/iStockphoto As one approaches retirement or has already entered this milestone, one wonders how their savings stacks up against other parts of the world. With a Forbes survey reporting that over half of Americans being dissatisfied with the amount of money in their savings during retirement, one becomes curious if the U.S. is the only country feeling down about their golden year fund, and how retirement benefits and programs differ for average retirees in different parts of the world. Did Americans get the bad end of the stick or do other countries such as Canada feel the same struggles? Check Out: 16 Best Places To Retire in the US That Feel Like Europe Try This: 7 Common Debt Scenarios That Could Impact Your Retirement and How To Handle Them A good comparison to choose from is The Great White North, bordering the U.S. and arguably being one of the most similar countries to Uncle Sam due to relatively similar economies and cost of living compared to the rest of the world, along with similar benefits to their citizens. But its still a different country, and that means different retirement savings, and slight differences in social security. According to Investopedia, The Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and the U.S. Social Security system are publicly provided pension systems. They both provide retirement, disability, and survivor benefits. However, the amount individuals pay and the benefits they receive differ. The key differences between U.S. and Canada is the U.S. pays a higher maximum for individuals on social security, and more on average, but the catch is Canada has not only less taxed on social security for individuals on it but also offers more benefits as well. For one example, Canada also has a much smaller population than the United States, and like the Netherlands (known as the best country to be on social security during retirement), it benefits from pension plans offered by individual businesses, something that has become a rarity in the United States. Also, like the United States, Canada pays out a below-average amount, though still reaching around 50%, taxes are lower, running at just 4.95% in Canada, lower than the 6.2% in the United States. With all this in mind, to find out how many average Canadians are comfortable and satisfied with their savings in retirement GOBankingRates used sources from Federal Reserves Survey of Consumer Finances, Spring Financial, The Motley Fool Canada, Investopedia, Social Security Administration, and ChatGPT to find what the average retiree has in their savings. Whether you live in Canada or just looking to compare, heres some recent statistics and surveys on how ready Canadians are to kick their feet up and enjoy their golden years worry free. Story continues Expert Advice: Im an Economist: Heres My Prediction for Social Security If Biden Wins the 2024 Election Wealthy people know the best money secrets. Learn how to copy them. The Average Retirement Savings in Canada According to Ratehub, the average Canadian over the age of 65 has around $129,000 saved in their Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP). When including Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs), this figure rises to about $160,000. On average, a Canadian retiree has $319,000 in total retirement savings. However, this amount can vary widely depending on individual circumstances and financial planning. Average and Median Retirement Savings by Age Heres a breakdown of the average and median retirement savings by age in Canada, based on data from the Federal Reserves Survey of Consumer Finances, and other sources including ChatGPT: Under 35 Average Savings: $49,130 Median Savings: $18,880 Ages 35-44 Average Savings : $141,520 Median Savings: $45,000 Ages 45-54 Average Savings : $313,220 Median Savings: $115,000 Ages 55-64 Average Savings : $537,560 Median Savings: $185,000 Ages 65-74 Average Savings : $609,230 Median Savings: $200,000 Ages 75 and Older Average Savings : $462,410 Median Savings: $130,000 The Importance of Saving for Retirement Retirement savings are crucial for ensuring financial security in your later years. While government benefits like the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS) provide some income, they are often not enough to support a comfortable lifestyle. For example, in 2022, the average CPP monthly amount was $702.77, with the maximum set at $1,253.59. The maximum OAS monthly amount was $642.25. Combined, these benefits provide an annual income of around $22,750, which is typically insufficient for most retirees. Strategies to Boost Retirement Savings To build a robust retirement fund, consider the following strategies: Start Early: The earlier you begin saving, the more time your money has to grow through compound interest. Maximize Contributions: Take full advantage of RRSP and TFSA contribution limits to reduce taxable income and grow your savings tax-free. Employer Contributions: If your employer offers a pension plan or matching contributions, ensure you contribute enough to maximize these benefits. Diversify Investments: Spread your investments across various asset classes to manage risk and improve potential returns. Automate Savings: Set up automatic transfers to your retirement accounts to ensure consistent contributions. Seek Professional Advice: Consult with a financial advisor to develop a personalized retirement plan and stay on track to meet your goals. The Reality for Many Canadian Retirees Despite best efforts, many Canadians find themselves with less savings than needed. According to an April 2024 AARP survey, 31% of adults saving for retirement are unsure if they will have enough saved, and 33% believe they will not have enough. More From GOBankingRates This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Heres How Much the Average Retiree in Canada Has in Savings Musk Says That People Who Get Their News From This Source 'Live In A Fake Alternate Reality' Elon Musk has once again stirred controversy with his outspoken views on the media, saying, "People who get their news from legacy TV live in a fake alternate reality." This bold statement has sparked a heated debate on his social media platform X, about the role of mainstream media in shaping public perception and the accuracy of the information they disseminate. This response was prompted by a news clip in which an ABC White House correspondent reported that "The president is expected to meet with Border Patrol and local law enforcement and to, once again, blame Donald Trump for tanking that bipartisan border deal that would have included some of the toughest reforms in decades." Don't Miss: The reporter continued, "That legislation would have imposed stricter asylum restrictions, included daily limits on border crossings, and billions of dollars in new funding for security, but Donald Trump pressured Republicans to kill that bill to deny President Biden a political win." People who get their news from legacy TV live in a fake alternate reality. Those so-called "toughest reforms" would have made invasion-level migration permanent. That diabolical "Border Bill" deserved to die and shame on those who supported it. https://t.co/Ow2kCeAJJF Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 1, 2024 Musk also responded, "Those so-called "toughest reforms" would have made invasion-level migration permanent. That diabolical Border Bill' deserved to die and shame on those who supported it." Musks Past Tweets About The Legacy Media Of course, this isnt the only time Musk has talked about legacy media. A few months ago, he tweeted, "Please forward links to posts to your friends so they know whats happening. Some people still believe the legacy media!" Trending: A groundbreaking energy company plugs into the $400 billion EV industry and is seeking investors. He also responded to a graph of a supposed downward trend of Bloomberg website traffic: "The legacy media is dying." In another instance, he tweeted, "With rare exception, almost the entire legacy media industry is a politically far left cheering squad." Story continues Musk frequently accuses legacy media of bias and misinformation, arguing that traditional news outlets push narratives that serve their agendas instead of objectively presenting the facts. He believes these media outlets often manipulate public perception by selectively reporting on events or framing them in a way that aligns with their ideological leanings. Musks criticisms suggest that he views legacy media as untrustworthy and outdated, leading him to advocate for alternative sources of information, primarily his own social media platform X. Undeniably, Musks vocal stance against legacy media has influenced how some people consume news. Many of his followers have turned to alternative platforms and independent journalists to stay informed, reflecting a growing trend toward media fragmentation. Keep Reading: The average American couple has saved this much money for retirement How do you compare ? If there was a new fund backed by Jeff Bezos offering a 7-9% target yield with monthly dividends would you invest in it? "ACTIVE INVESTORS' SECRET WEAPON" Supercharge Your Stock Market Game with the #1 "news & everything else" trading tool: Benzinga Pro - Click here to start Your 14-Day Trial Now! Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? This article Musk Says That People Who Get Their News From This Source 'Live In A Fake Alternate Reality' originally appeared on Benzinga.com 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. (Bloomberg) -- NATO is planning to expand cooperation with Ukraine on defense technology and share more intelligence about Russias electronic warfare capabilities, as some of its members lift constraints on Kyivs ability to wage war. Most Read from Bloomberg The conflict has pushed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to devote more resources to cybersecurity deterrence and tracking Russias military tech, Assistant Secretary General David van Weel told journalists this week. Ukrainians are innovating at a very high speed, he said Tuesday in Krakow, Poland. But of course, the Russians are not stupid. That means innovation in the battlefield is not a static thing. Its more like chess. Recent Russian advances have led Ukraines allies to loosen restrictions on weapons they provide, with the US and Germany authorizing attacks on Russian territory for the first time. Such strikes had previously been forbidden for fear of antagonizing the country with the biggest nuclear arsenal. An agreement that introduces new frameworks for sharing information, including on supply chains for drones, will be finalized in time for the alliances July summit in Washington, according to van Weel. One goal of the program is to help make Ukraine a large-scale tech provider once the war ends. NATO also wants to replicate some of the rapid tech adoption and deployment seen in Ukraine since the war started, van Weel said. Van Weel spoke at the inaugural Defense Innovators Forum, a conference that featured representatives from 17 countries including Ukraine, Belgium and the US, as well as dozens of startups building battlefield equipment. Military Supply At the conference, NATO and US officials frequently pointed to the rapid tech development in Ukraine since the start of the war with envy. Alex Bornyakov, Ukraines deputy tech minister, gave reporters in Krakow a blunt assessment of his countrys approach to purchases. Its very simple, he said. If it kills Russians, we buy it. Last month, Ukraine tightened its military procurement rules after corruption allegations led to a shakeup in its leadership ranks. According to NATO and Ukrainian officials, Russias tech strategy relies heavily on buying drones from Iran and components from China. Russias military has circumvented sanctions to buy Western tech through third-party vendors. Its also developed new technologies, including ones that can evade acoustic sensors set up to locate drones. Story continues GPS Jamming A major theme of the event was how to counter Russias persistent jamming of the Global Positioning System, which has rendered some Ukrainian drones and foreign precision weaponry ineffective. GPS interference attributed to Russia has increasingly affected NATO member states in northern Europe, disrupting flights and maritime traffic in the Baltics and Finland. To respond to Russian jamming, Ukrainian startups are developing drones that can map terrain without GPS, navigating with on-board cameras or sensors. The Krakow event included a speed-dating session between startups and investors, including the NATO Innovation Fund, a 1 billion ($1.1 billion) investment vehicle launched last year thats starting to make deals. Patrick Schneider-Sikorsky, a NIF partner, said many drone developers he meets promise their next generation devices will not rely on GPS. Arms Race Some are chasing other tech advances in the war. Both Russia and Ukraine are working to locate drones based on sound. Schneider-Sikorsky said he recently met a company developing drone motors that are entirely silent. Its quite literally an arms race, he said. For Ukrainian startups at the Krakow event, funding is needed just as much as technical progress. Yaroslav Filimonov, chief executive of electronic warfare startup Kvertus, said Russias battlefield advances dont prove they have better quality tech. They are winning with quantity, he said. And with budgets. (Updates with additional details on attendees in the seventh paragraph) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2024 Bloomberg L.P. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will deliver second quarter earnings on Wednesday as demand for processors driving the generative AI era booms. Kim Kulish/Corbis/Getty Images Nvidia's stellar stock rally isn't close to over, according to Bank of America. The bank reiterated its $1,500 price target this week, implying another 24% upside for the stock. Nvidia will continue to dominate the computing market in the next upgrade cycle, the bank said. Nvidia shares have more room to climb even after its latest rally to record highs, as the chipmaker appears to be on track to dominate the computing market for years to come, according to Bank of America. The bank reiterated its "buy" rating on the stock in a note on Wednesday, adding that the firm led by Jensen Huang remains a top pick in the IT sector. BofA strategists have a 12-month price target of $1,500 a share, implying another 24% upside from where the stock was trading late Thursday morning. "NVDA best positioned to enable the $3 Trillion IT industry toward delivering AI services. Despite claims by rivals (AMD, Intel, custom chips, or ASICs) we see NVDA with a multi-year lead in performance, pipeline, incumbency, scale and developer support," strategists said in the note. Vivek Arya, a senior semiconductor analyst for the bank, added that he believed the stock would dominate the computer market for the next decade. That's because the IT sector undergoes "multi-decade infrastructure upgrade cycles," and markets are witnessing the start of the next decadelong cycle, Ayra said. "We think that the spending could be anywhere between $250-$500 billion a year, and Nvidia is leading the charge," he told Yahoo Finance this week. Nvidia's stock has been unstoppable in the last 18 months, ever since OpenAI released ChatGPT and set off an artificial intellilgence arms race. Nvidia chips have been effectively the only game in town when it comes to powering the AI models that have captured the attention of consumers and Wall Street investors. On Wednesday, the stock hit fresh records, with the company's total market cap vaulting past that of Apple to become the world's second most valuable company. Nvidia stock undergo a 10-for-1 split on Friday, a move that could be a catalyst for further gains as a lower share price helps draw more attention from retail investors. Bearish Nvidia calls are rare, though some forecasters doubt whether the company can keep up its wild growth. The stock could eventually see a steep decline as it faces waning demand and increasing competition in the GPU market, analysts have warned. Read the original article on Business Insider What does the hottest stock in the S&P 500 do after skyrocketing more than any other large-cap stock on the market? Announcing a major stock split could be a good follow-up. That's exactly what Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is doing. Shares of the graphics processing unit (GPU) maker have nearly tripled over the last 12 months. Nvidia will conduct a 10-for-1 stock split after the market closes today. The stock will begin trading at a much lower share price on Monday, June 10. But will Nvidia stock soar after its stock split? Here's what history shows. Good times ahead? Stock splits change absolutely nothing about a company's business or its growth prospects. All they're guaranteed to do is increase the number of outstanding shares and lower the share price. However, one reason why companies conduct stock splits is that the move can provide a nice catalyst. The idea is that some investors sit on the sidelines with a given stock when it's too expensive for them to buy. But when the share price is lower, they're more willing to purchase shares. This could especially apply to a highly followed stock such as Nvidia. Is this what history shows? Yes, according to Bank of America's Research Investment Committee. It found that stocks have achieved total returns of 25% in the 12 months after announcing a stock split. By comparison, the S&P 500 rose around 12%, on average, during the same period. But the story isn't quite as good in recent years. Since 2010, stocks with splits have delivered a total return of around 18% during the 12 months following the announcement of a stock split, versus 13% for the S&P 500, according to a report by Statista based on data from Bank of America, Bloomberg, and Global Financial Data. What Nvidia's stock-split history reveals Has Nvidia delivered outstanding gains after its previous stock splits? The company has split its stock five times in the past. Let's look at what happened before and afterward in each case. On June 27, 2000, Nvidia conducted a 2-for-1 stock split. In the weeks leading up to the split, the stock steadily vaulted higher. However, Nvidia's shares fell immediately after the stock split and were down significantly by year-end. One year after the split, the stock was up quite a bit. There's no way to know for sure if this gain was directly attributable to the stock split, though. NVDA Chart Nvidia conducted another 2-for-1 stock split on Sept. 12, 2001. This time, the company's shares fell both ahead of and immediately after the split. The stock rebounded during the rest of the year. However, it then began a steep decline (as did the broader market). Story continues NVDA Chart Several years passed before Nvidia's next 2-for-1 stock split on April 7, 2006. In this case, the stock rose before the split and then fell shortly afterward. Following a sharp sell-off, Nvidia's shares bounced back. Still, a year later, it was up barely over 1%, while the S&P 500 was up more than 13%. NVDA Chart The next year, Nvidia conducted its first 3-for-2 stock split. The stock again climbed ahead of the stock split. The good times didn't last for long, though. Nvidia soon plunged with a much worse decline than the S&P 500. NVDA Chart Nvidia conducted a 4-for-1 stock split on July 20, 2021. This was another good news/bad news scenario. The chipmaker's shares jumped both before and immediately after the stock split. A year later, though, Nvidia's share price was lower than when the split occurred. However, Nvidia still managed to outperform the S&P 500 during this period. NVDA Chart A better reason to buy Nvidia stock Can we draw any solid conclusions from Nvidia's stock-split history? Unfortunately, no. I wouldn't put too much faith in the Bank of America findings about the long-term outperformance of stocks after announcing splits, either. It's possible that the individual stocks that beat the S&P 500 after announcing stock splits would have done so, even without splitting their shares. There's a much better reason to buy Nvidia stock than its stock split, anyway. The demand for high-powered chips to train and run artificial intelligence (AI) models continues to soar. Nvidia is the undisputed leader in the AI chip market, and its rapid speed of innovation seems likely to keep the company at the top for the next few years. This should translate to strong earnings growth. When earnings grow, share prices typically follow -- stock split or no stock split. Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now? Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now and Nvidia wasnt one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, youd have $750,197!* Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of June 3, 2024 Bank of America is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. Keith Speights has positions in Bank of America. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bank of America and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Will Nvidia Stock Soar After Its Stock Split? Here's What History Shows. was originally published by The Motley Fool After shutting down two Kansas City area locations, Red Lobster says it wants to close two more. The company filed for bankruptcy in May and shuttered dozens of stores across the country, including ones in Olathe at 14904 W. 119th St. and Kansas City, Kansas, at 10700 Parallel Parkway. Now, Red Lobster intends to close several more, if the court approves its bankruptcy plan, according to reporting from CNN. Locations in Overland Park at 9475 Metcalf Ave. and Independence at 4328 S. Noland Road were among dozens the company says it wants to close. That would leave only two in the Kansas City area: 450 N.W. Barry Road and 670 N.W. Blue Parkway in Lees Summit. The chain said it had more than $1 billion in debt and less than $30 million on hand, CNN reported. Red Lobster did not respond to The Stars request for comment Friday. Founded in 1968, the seafood chain is known for its cheddar biscuits, coconut shrimp and lobster. The companys decision last year to offer more all-you-can-eat shrimp promotions helped lead to a quarterly operating loss of $11 million, according to the New York Times. The seafood restaurant chain Red Lobster could be closing two locations in Austin. Restaurant chain Red Lobster has filed for bankruptcy, and its last two Austin sites might close as a result. According to CNN, the company is looking to close the locations on 3815 S. Lamar Blvd. and 109 W. Anderson Lane. The Austin sites are part of a list of dozens of restaurants that might be closed as part of the company's bankruptcy plan. Other potential closures in Texas include three in San Antonio and locations in San Marcos, Houston, Frisco, Corpus Christi and more. If the two Austin restaurants close, the last remaining Austin-area Red Lobster would be the one in Round Rock at 2702 Parker Drive. More: Two more Texas Red Lobster locations close amid bankruptcy: See updated list The bankruptcy filing came in May after the Red Lobster announced it has "more than $1 billion in debt and less than $30 million in cash on hand," according to CNN. To stay afloat, the chain plans to sell to its lenders. Red Lobster had almost 600 total restaurants and closed roughly 50 shortly before filing bankruptcy. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Red Lobster bankruptcy plan includes closures of sites in Austin Fatime Letifova Along with reforms in the field of education in Azerbaijan, the development of teacher-pedagogical staff is constantly kept in mind for the purpose of improving the quality of education. Teacher certification steps are among the methods that serve this purpose. There is an opportunity for updating the knowledge of teachers and developing it according to modern requirements. As the level of professionalism of educators is assessed, their needs are also determined. Certification creates a serious incentive for the teacher to continuously work on himself and improve his results. They adopt new positive practices available in the field of education. It builds a culture of lifelong learning. In a comment for Azernews on this issue, education expert Elvin Badirov said that it is necessary to increase the professionalism of teachers for the development of education. "Increasing the level of professionalism of educators is the most important factor for developing education and achieving productive results. It is hard for students to learn the requirements of the subject in classrooms without having serious knowledge of the subject they are teaching," he said. The expert recalled the results of the teachers' diagnostic exams in the past years. He said that schools in Azerbaijan need certification of exams. "Diagnostic evaluation exams held since 2014 showed that there is a serious need for an attestation process in our schools," Badirov said. Moreover, the expert mentioned the start of certification processes in the country and explained the importance of it for a better education system. "As a logical continuation of the diagnostic evaluation exams, the certification process has been started since 2022. This, in turn, is a model designed to raise the level of professionalism of educators, maintain quality standards of education, increase trust in the education system, and increase competitiveness in the field of education," the expert said. Elvin Badirov spoke about the impact of the certification process on teachers' salaries and duties. He said that a teacher who does not get an acceptable result during the certification is given a second chance. "According to the certification rules, every teacher who shows acceptable results is distinguished for his work. A teacher recruited through the teachers' recruitment exam can join the certification after 3 years of work. A teacher who does not get an acceptable result is given another chance to participate in the competition next time and improve his result. Involvement of teachers in certification every five years encourages continuous self-development of teachers under educational standards," the expert said. Note that in 2022, overall 78 percent of the secondary school teachers have successfully passed the certification exam. A total of 1,530 teachers scored 21-29 points. They supported and took advanced training courses within a year. Recall that the goal of the certification is to assess teachers knowledge and skills. Those who scored above 50 points have their salaries increased by 35 percent, while those who scored a passing score will receive a 10 percent salary supplement. The teachers' certification now covers the whole country. This year, in Nakhchivan, a centralized assessment process will be organized and people who will participate in certification for the first time will be involved in the process. One of the strategic goals of Azerbaijan's 2022-2026 Social and Economic Development Strategy is the continuity of certification. This plays an important role in the development of teacher training and increasing their competence. In education policy, it is planned to expand the scope of certification and apply it to other levels of education as well. SC Net Zero Ventures, a venture capital investment fund managed by Suma Capital and backed by Repsol, has raised 125m ($136m) in its first closing, targeting a final goal of 150m to support the energy transition. SC Net Zero Ventures, in strategic alliance with Repsol, has achieved a significant milestone in this mission. As anchor investor, Repsol contributed 50m to the fund. It has also garnered support from a diverse group of investors, including the Spanish sovereign wealth fund Fondo ICO Next Tech, the Institut Catala de Finances, institutional investors and family offices. SC Net Zero Ventures managing partner Natalia Ruiz stated: We are grateful for the strong support we have received during this first closing. The commitment of our investors not only strengthens the significant momentum we are experiencing in innovation; it also highlights the importance of sustainable initiatives to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Through the fund, we are very well positioned to channel capital into the ClimateTech sector, with a double focus: to boost technological solutions that contribute to decarbonisation and, at the same time, create attractive financial returns. The fund's objectives are to identify and scale technologies that can significantly impact the industry's transformation towards sustainability. By focusing on decarbonisation and the circular economy, SC Net Zero Ventures aims to promote the growth and international expansion of companies. SC Net Zero Ventures's investment strategy is to concentrate on technologies that facilitate low-carbon mobility, industrial decarbonisation and the development of renewable energy sources. The fund is dedicated to supporting startups that are at a more mature stage and possess innovative technologies that contribute to a sustainable future. With a geographical focus on Europe and North America, SC Net Zero Ventures is poised to invest in disruptive technologies that have the potential to expedite energy transition. Repsol corporate venturing director Gema Garcia stated: New technologies will play a key role in the fight against climate change. Therefore, it is essential to detect and scale them as quickly as possible. We are convinced that our commitment to SC Net Zero Ventures, together with the work we are doing from the company's own investment fund, Repsol Deep Tech, represents an important boost for the entrepreneurial ecosystem, which will contribute to accelerating the decarbonisation of industry and mobility. In July 2023, the European Investment Bank provided a 575m loan to Repsol to enable the development of 1.1GW of wind and solar projects in Spain. Story continues "Repsol-backed SC Net Zero Ventures raises 125m for energy transition" was originally created and published by Power Technology, 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. (Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump raised millions of dollars from technology industry leaders at a campaign event in San Francisco hosted by investor David Sacks that signaled growing interest from Silicon Valley in the former president's comeback bid. Most Read from Bloomberg Wealthy donors converged Thursday at Sackss home in San Francisco, where the presumptive Republican nominee addressed attendees for roughly an hour on topics ranging from cryptocurrency to artificial intelligence to preventing deep fakes. The sold-out dinner brought in $12 million for Trumps reelection effort, Harmeet Dhillon, a member of the Republican National Committee who attended the fundraiser, posted on social media site X. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request to comment about the money raised. It was a crowd who writes big checks, said Dhillon, a lawyer who counts Trump as a client. Many crypto founders were in the room, she said, along with donors who had previously supported other Republican candidates or Democrats in the past. It was very encouraging. Sacks co-hosted the event at Broadcliff, his house in the Pacific Heights neighborhood, along with investor Chamath Palihapitiya. With tickets that started at $50,000 for a reception and photo and $300,000 for the dinner, the event generated intense interest in Silicon Valley, particularly because it came on the heels of Trumps conviction in New York on 34 counts of falsifying records. On Thursday night, several blocks of the tony Pacific Heights neighborhood were blocked off with barricades for the event. Puzzled passersby paused to watch crowds of flag-waving pro-Trump demonstrators. That verdict has been followed by a swell of support for Trump in some corners of the tech world, including from Doug Leone, a former leader at the prestigious venture firm Sequoia Capital, and Shaun Maguire, a Sequoia partner who said last week he was giving $300,000 to Trumps reelection. Other donors include Jacob Helberg, a senior adviser to the chief executive officer of Palantir Technologies Inc., who also planned to attend the fundraiser, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The crowd included tech industry figures like crypto entrepreneurs and investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Dhillon said, the twins most famous for their claim that they had the original idea for Facebook. Trump implied they'd been cheated out of fair returns. Story continues Trump has enjoyed unusually vocal support from the tech industry this election cycle a contrast to 2016, when billionaire Peter Thiel was one of his only visible supporters. (Thiel has said he plans to sit out this cycle.) In addition to dining with Sacks and Palihapitiya this week, Trump will travel to Southern California, where hes slated to attend another fundraiser on Saturday hosted by Palmer Luckey, the co-founder of Anduril Industries Inc., a tech company that makes defense and weapons technology and is doing business with the US government. David Friedberg, an investor who co-hosts the popular All-In podcast with Sacks and Palihapitiya, said in an email that techs interest in politics isnt new. Silicon Valley has always had political engagement, as far back as 20+ years ago many of the senior leaders and investors I knew in Silicon Valley were active one way or another politically, he wrote. Maybe political activism gets more attention nowadays given the increasing influence Silicon Valley has over the world and a reshaping media landscape. While the industry tends to lean Democratic and San Francisco is a heavily Blue city, tech leaders political preferences are often diffuse. Top issues include taxes, tech antitrust and crypto regulation as well as foreign policy and immigration rules. Many tech players have donated to both parties. For example, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz of the prominent firm Andreessen Horowitz have given to a range of causes, and have disavowed political affiliations. Instead they have taken an anti-regulation stance. The firm has said it will support candidates who are pro-tech, regardless of other issues espousing a techno-optimist philosophy laid out by Andreessen in a manifesto last year. More: Crypto Titans Threaten to Unleash War Chest on Hostile Lawmakers Sacks, an investor and friend of Elon Musk, previously backed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis before throwing his support to Trump. He says he wants to put an end to Biden administration policies such as supporting the war in Ukraine. The worlds on fire, he said in a recent interview, adding that when Trump was in power previously, they had four years of relative peace in the world. Palihapitiya previously supported Democratic candidates in earlier races. Trump is widely expected to appear alongside them on the All-In podcast, though an exact date for the taping has not been set. The voters have experienced four years of President Trump and four years of President Biden. In tech, we call this an A/B test, Sacks posted on social media. With respect to economic policy, foreign policy, border policy, and legal fairness, Trump performed better. He is the President who deserves a second term. For much of this cycle, President Joe Biden has been ahead in fundraising, including among donors from technology-related industries. The president and allied political action committees raised $18.1 million from donors with ties to the electronics and communications industries through May 21, according to campaign finance data compiled by OpenSecrets. Trump and his allies have received just $1.4 million from that sector during that timeframe. While Trumps event this week has attracted more attention, Biden has also been to Silicon Valley for fundraisers, including ones hosted by venture capitalist Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures and former Yahoo executive Marissa Mayer. This week, Vice President Kamala Harris is also in the Bay Area, and is attending fundraising events. --With assistance from Lizette Chapman and Laura Davison. (Updates with fundraising total, event details and Sacks comment.) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2024 Bloomberg L.P. (Bloomberg) -- Meta Platforms Inc. and other social media companies won the dismissal of novel claims in hundreds of lawsuits brought by school districts seeking to recover costs for addressing the negative impacts of students social media use. Most Read from Bloomberg A California state judge sided Friday with Meta, Snap Inc., TikTok Inc. and Google LLC in throwing out the districts allegations that social media has increased the cost of education because it makes students more distracted and disruptive, driving up the need for classroom discipline, employee training and communication with parents. The cases are among hundreds in state and federal court alleging that social media platforms are designed to be addictive and are dangerous for youths. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl wrote that there must be limits on liability otherwise any company could be held responsible when emotional harm it inflicts on individuals then causes those individuals to act out. A restaurateur who negligently sold a diner spoiled food would be liable to the person who was later struck by the diners car, given that the diners poor driving may have resulted from suffering under the effects of food poisoning, Kuhl said in her ruling. Schools Crack Down on Big Tech: Public Nuisance Theory Explained The school districts alleged that the companies engineered their platforms to hook young users using algorithms and features such as the like button, in ways that hurt society akin to cigarette manufacturers that designed their products to be addictive. They also alleged that they spent significant resources dealing with the fallout from social media, including from challenges circulated on the platforms that allegedly encouraged students to damage school property. The social media companies countered that they couldnt be held responsible for content posted by third parties. We believe the court made the right decision in this ruling, Meta said in a statement. Meta is committed to supporting young people and their families, and we will continue to defend against all cases claiming otherwise. Representatives of Google, TikTok, and Snap didnt immediately respond to requests for comment. As of May 9 the cases pending before Kuhl in a so-called Judicial Council Coordinated Proceeding included 617 school district plaintiffs from 34 states, according to a court filing. Kuhl heard arguments last month from four school districts acting as test plaintiffs to present the claims common to the broader litigation. Story continues The school district plaintiffs are disappointed with the courts decision and are evaluating all appellate options, according to a statement issued by lead lawyers for the districts. Nevertheless, this decision impacts a limited number of school plaintiffs in the JCCP, and counsel will continue to vigorously litigate claims on behalf of school districts with active cases in the JCCP. The school districts already faced steep odds using the public nuisance legal theory that they successfully employed against vape pen sellers because the districts dont themselves experience social media addiction, nor does the addiction physically injure them, Kuhl wrote. Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, the federal liability shield protecting online publishers from content-based lawsuits, is too powerful to allow the novel twist on common law to proceed, she reasoned. Expanding the public nuisance theory to let school districts sue despite being indirectly affected by the negative consequences of social media for youth would create a broad web of indeterminate liability that the common law has heretofore refused to impose, Kuhl wrote. A federal judge in Oakland overseeing hundreds of other cases recently held a hearing on the same issues and is expected to rule soon. How Lawsuits Seek to Make Social Media Safer for Kids: QuickTake The Los Angeles and Oakland judges are also overseeing personal injury suits by youths and families alleging that the social media companies are responsible for causing widespread psychological distress and even suicides. The judges have allowed some claims to proceed against the companies while dismissing others. The companies have denied wrongdoing, saying theyve taken steps to keep young users safe on the platforms. The state case is Social Media Cases JCCP 22STCV21355, California Superior Court, County of Los Angeles. (Updates with judges reasoning) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2024 Bloomberg L.P. (Bloomberg) -- SoftBank Group Corp.-backed South Korean travel app Yanolja Co. is aiming for $400 million in a US initial public offering, people familiar with the situation said. Most Read from Bloomberg The Seoul-based startups offering, which may launch as soon as July, could value the company at $7 billion to $9 billion, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley are set to lead the IPO, the people said. The company hasnt made a final decision and details of the offering could still change, the people said. Some features of Yanoljas listing plans were reported earlier by the Korea Times and Invest Chosun. Representatives for SoftBank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Yanolja declined to comment. Yanolja is the latest portfolio company that SoftBank is seeking to list in the public market, as founder Masayoshi Son pivots to artificial intelligence and related hardware. It took Arm Holdings Plc public in the US in a roughly $5 billion listing in September, but still controls the majority of the chip designer. SoftBanks Vision Fund II invested about $1.7 billion in Yanolja in 2021. Founded in 2005, Yanolja bought Israeli technology provider Go Global Travel Ltd. last year to become one of the worlds largest travel platforms. Yanolja has been expanding its cloud arm serving the hospitality and leisure industries to grow beyond consumer trip bookings, competing against rivals such as Airbnb Inc. and Expedia Group Inc. Last year, Yanolja hired former New York Stock Exchange executive Alexandre Ibrahim as its corporate chief financial officer. It also set up its US office in Manhattan in March as a strategic hub for expanding in North America. The New York office is its 50th overseas. --With assistance from Yoolim Lee. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2024 Bloomberg L.P. The Sri Lankan parliament has passed legislation to revamp the country's power sector and attract investment in renewable energy, Reuters has reported. The move is in line with the commitments made under a $2.9bn programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The new law seeks to reduce losses in the state-run power company the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and make the sector more appealing to investors. The legislation was passed with a majority of 44 votes, as confirmed by Speaker Mahinda Abeywardena. Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera emphasised that the Electricity Bill would increase the profitability of CEB and boost the renewable energy sector's investment appeal. Reuters quoted Kanchana Wijesekera: Sri Lanka has set a target of generating 70% of its power via renewables by 2030. It is estimated that in the next six years, Sri Lanka will need $12bn to meet this goal. So we need to open the sector to attract this investment. Sri Lanka is currently recovering from a severe financial crisis, which saw its dollar reserves hit record lows and its economy shrink by 2.3% in 2023. The IMF programme includes reforms to state-owned enterprises to make them profitable. This includes restructuring the CEB to operate its transmission, generation and other services as separate entities. Opposition parties and trade unions have criticised the new legislation. They argue that it could lead to privatisation and that it gives excessive power to government ministers. The law also sets out a three-year reform timeline for the country to establish wholesale power markets, facilitate open access and participate in power trading within South Asia, as Wijesekera noted. In May 2024 the Sri Lankan government signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with India's Adani Green Energy for the construction of two wind power stations costing $442m. The country is also exploring grid connectivity and seeking investment from India for its renewable sector, with the long-term goal of exporting power. "Sri Lanka to overhaul power sector and boost renewable investments" was originally created and published by Power Technology, 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. Elon Musk may be mounting his last stand as CEO of Tesla when the company convenes its annual shareholder meeting on Thursday, with his Texas headquarters becoming his very own personal Alamo. The entrepreneur has staked his credibility and that of the entire board on the ratification of his record $56 billion 2018 pay package deemed invalid in January by a Delaware state judge over governance failings. The gamble doesnt end there, however, as Musk is also pushing for a change of legal domicile to Texas as a result of the courts ruling. Although the totemic CEO has stated his intention to remain at the company as long as he proves useful, a repudiation by even a large minority of shareholders could easily be interpreted as a vote of no confidence, undermining his authority and potentially marking the beginning of the end of his more than 15-year reign at the top of Tesla. That would be such a rebuke that you have to leave, because if you dont, then everybody called your bluff, says governance expert Jason Schloetzer, an associate professor at Georgetown Universitys McDonough School of Business. It could be his last stand. With the high stakes, his backers are pulling out the stops to mobilize every last vote. Whether its his media-shy board chair, Robyn Denholm, emerging from the background to mount a goodwill tour, or longtime Musk investor Ron Baron of Baron Capital taking to the airwaves to voice his support, loyalists argue a ratification is in everyones collective interest. If Tesla is to retain Elons attention and motivate him to continue to devote his time, energy, ambition, and vision to deliver comparable results in the future, we must stand by our deal, Denholm said this week, calling Thursdays crunch proceedings one of the most important votes in the history of our extraordinary company. Tesla claims some 6,000 small stockholders owning over 23 million sharesenough to make them collectively the 11th largest owner of the companyflooded the board with unsolicited letters of support. Many fear the stock price, which has already been down nearly 30% since January, will tumble further if speculation that he might resign from Tesla isnt swiftly put to bed. Given this, were not sure why shareholders would vote against the board, warned sell-side analyst Alex Potter from Piper Sandler. Like Potter, money manager Gary Black of The Future Fund, a longtime bull, summed it up much more simply: The alternative is just too hard to fathom. Thats partly because there does not seem to be anyone else the company can turn to. Story continues All talk of grooming a successor, first confirmed back in November 2022, has ceased entirely over the past 12 months after Musk removed former finance chief Zach Kirkhorn and powertrain boss Drew Baglinotwo top lieutenants best placed to run Tesla in his absence. With these moves, Musk has ensured that no one of his stature can fill his giant shoes. Fierce headwinds for Tesla Thats tough luck for Musks detractors, such as early Tesla investor and onetime board director Steve Westly, who otherwise would have the perfect opportunity to topple the CEO from his perch. Financially, the company has hit a brick wall. The 50% annual growth rate in vehicle sales has been completely wiped out; Teslas operating margin crashed to 5.5% in the first quarter versus a peak of 19% two years prior; and it suffered its first cash drain since the pandemic. Musk has laid off over a tenth of his 140,000-strong workforce to salvage these cratering metrics. He also suddenly sacked its entire Supercharger teamwhich is responsible for one of the companys greatest assetswhile diverting AI training chips to his other privately owned companies in a potential conflict of interest, claiming they would have otherwise collected dust in a Tesla warehouse. His single biggest sin, however, is simply failing to deliver for shareholders. Ever since he launched his bid for Twitter in April 2022, the stock has nearly halved in value as both its megacap peers and the equity market more broadly have risen to hit record highs. While Musk repeatedly talked about Tesla eclipsing the market cap of Apple, Nvidias Jensen Huang did it. Taken together, these issues mean the vote comes at a difficult moment to demand stock worth more than Teslas cumulative profits. Proxy advisors like Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services, which Musk earlier this year mocked as ISIS, already felt the compensationat current stock prices worth $54 billionwas excessive. The two recommend that asset managers and index funds vote against approving his pay. One high-profile investor that has already signaled it would not support Musk is California asset manager CalPERS, the largest U.S. pension fund for state employees. Others include Europes Nordea Asset Management and the City of New York, which has been particularly critical of the CEO stuffing the board with friends and family. Vanguard, the largest shareholder after Musk with 230 million shares, or 7.2%, hasnt indicated what it would do, but since it voted against the package in 2018, its reasonable to expect the bar to reverse that is high. By comparison, T. Rowe Price, one of Teslas 10 largest investors, has written to Denholm assuring the board of its support. With >40% retail ownershipand with a few institutions in both the yea and the nay campswere not sure what will happen, Potter of Piper Sandler concluded. Appeal to fairness Tesla is not leaving the vote to chance. Despite being notorious for not advertising, the EV maker has bought spots to promote Musks pay package. These often redirect visitors to a landing page with explicit instructions on voting. Denholm, meanwhile, is arguing the restoration of Musks deep-in-the-money call options on 304 million shares is only fair. After all, he achieved every single one of the 16 milestone targets laid out in his contract, no matter how challenging. The problem with the package for investors is that rewarding past performance with that amount of stock priced at an 87% discount could be litigated as a case of corporate waste. Moreover, fairness itself isnt exactly a concept that has much weight in corporate boardroomsand its one that Musk himself readily ignores. The tycoon did everything he could to withdraw from a $44 billion contract he signed to buy Twitter. When he finally bought the company after the justice system made clear he would be forced to follow through with his offer, Musk went out of his way to deprive CEO Parag Agrawal of his severance, devising a meticulously timed plan the entrepreneurs own official biographer described as ruthless. Musk now seems so eager for support that hes been personally thanking major supporters. Last week, he expressed his appreciation to venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya after the latter endorsed Musks performance live on CNBC, apparently not realizing that the comments shared on social media were from April 2019. He also appears to be back to making big promises, proclaiming this week he was on the cusp of reaching his number one goalsolving full autonomy. He promised that once bugs were ironed out, it would be more than a year between driver interventions. His track record on this front gives reason to doubt this will happen, at least in the near future. When confronted two years ago with the question why all his predictions to this end have proven wrong, he shrugged and remarked: I dont want to blow your mind, but Im not always right. Without skipping a beat, he then went on to incorrectly predict Tesla would solve self-driving in 2022. Renegotiation poses risks There is one strong argument why Musks detractors could hold their nose and vote in favor of the deal, beyond simply the fear of a further drop in the stock. If the vote fails and the board is forced to negotiate fresh terms, a new pay deal could prove prohibitively expensive. Tesla accountants estimate the same package valued at todays price rather than that of 2018 would cost investors more than $25 billion. This would be on top of the original $2.3 billion of stock-based compensation already expensed. While Musk would almost certainly have to dial down his expectations in such a scenario, according to the company, a new deal would only be earnings neutral if he agreed to a package less than a tenth of the size currently up for a vote. Moreover, the shares are subject to a five-year lockup period starting with the date he exercises his options. This means he retains a strong incentive to ensure the company outperforms market expectations over the longer term. Just as a sizable vote against would undermine Musk and Denholmwhose authority as chair would also be diminishedanything remotely approaching the 73% of disinterested shareholders (i.e., excluding the CEO and his brother, Kimbal) that approved it six years ago would be a resounding triumph for the duo. Nevertheless, this too holds potential for controversy, according to Schloetzer. Massive support could further embolden Musks worst tendencies, and the broader business community would also view it as rewarding his brand of poor corporate governance and lax board oversight. I would be concerned about the precedent it sets, warns the Georgetown professor. If I as a CEO see that large institutional investors are fine with Musk running the board the way he has, that SEC rules dont seem to matter and recommendations from the likes of Glass Lewis and ISS are irrelevant, why wouldnt I want to emulate that? In other words, theres little reason to believe the outcome of the vote on Thursday marks the end of this story. Like the famous siege of the Alamo that became a rallying cry for Texan independence, June 13 may likely serve as merely the opening prologue, setting the stage for more drama to come. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com Thinking Of Buying Pfizer For Its 5.8% Dividend Yield? Consider This Alternative Option Instead Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) has long been a favorite among income investors, thanks to its generous dividend yield and history of consistent payouts. With a forward dividend yield of 5.83% and a 13-year streak of annual dividend increases, the pharmaceutical giant seems to check all the boxes for dividend seekers. However, before adding Pfizer to your income portfolio, its worth exploring an alternative that could potentially offer a more compelling short-term income opportunity. Theres no denying Pfizers dividend track record is impressive. The company has raised its quarterly payout for over a decade, and even during the challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pfizer managed to maintain its dividend growth trajectory. The current annual payout of $1.68 per share translates to a healthy 5.83% yield, which is well above the S&P 500s average yield of around 1.6%. Moreover, Pfizers payout ratio of 116.20% might raise some eyebrows, but its important to note that this elevated figure is largely due to non-cash charges and short-term headwinds. As the company continues to generate strong cash flows from its core business and COVID-19 products, the payout ratio is expected to normalize over time. Pfizers recently reported Q1 2024 results highlight the companys resilient performance and positive outlook. The company delivered revenues of $14.9 billion, driven by continued growth in key products like Eliquis, Vyndaqel, and oncology drugs Ibrance, Xtandi, Padcev, and Adcetris. Pfizer also reaffirmed its full-year 2024 revenue guidance of $58.5 to $61.5 billion and raised its adjusted diluted EPS guidance to $2.15-$2.35. Analysts also remain bullish on Pfizers prospects. The three most recent analyst ratings from Morgan Stanley, BMO Capital and Cantor Fitzgerald have an average price target of $36.67, implying a potential upside of 27.41% from current levels. However, despite Pfizers attractive yield and solid fundamentals, there is one key factor income investors should consider: the potential for a U.S. recession. Many economists believe that the U.S. economy is nearing a downturn, which could put pressure on stock prices, even for defensive names like Pfizer. In the event of a recession, there might be an opportunity to scoop up Pfizer shares at an even more appealing valuation and lock in an even higher yield. An Alternative High-Yield Opportunity For investors seeking high short-term income while waiting for a potential recession-driven dip in Pfizers stock price, Basecamp Alpine Notes from EquityMultiple could be an intriguing alternative. This cash management tool offers a target yield of 9% over a brief 3-month term, with a low minimum investment of just $1,000. Story continues The beauty of Basecamp Alpine Notes is that they allow investors to earn an attractive yield on their cash while retaining the flexibility to redeploy that capital when better opportunities arise. Rather than tying up funds in Pfizer shares today, investors could park their cash in Basecamp Alpine Notes, earn a 9% annualized return, and then have dry powder ready to deploy if Pfizers stock price becomes even more attractive. Basecamp Alpine Notes also provide a level of simplicity and predictability that can be appealing in uncertain economic times. With zero fees and monthly compounding, investors know exactly what return they can expect over the 3-month term. And with EquityMultiples strong track record of meeting all payment obligations, investors can have confidence in the platforms reliability. Visit EquityMultiples website to learn more about Basecamp Alpine Notes. Of course, no investment is risk-free, and Basecamp Alpine Notes are no exception. As with any investment, its crucial to conduct thorough due diligence and carefully consider how the notes fit into your overall financial plan. But for income investors who are considering buying Pfizer for its 5.8% dividend yield, Basecamp Alpine Notes offer an attractive alternative a way to generate high short-term income while keeping your options open for future opportunities. In a market full of uncertainty, that kind of flexibility can be invaluable. This article Thinking Of Buying Pfizer For Its 5.8% Dividend Yield? Consider This Alternative Option Instead originally appeared on Benzinga.com 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? Typically, we'll want to notice a trend of growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and alongside that, an expanding base of capital employed. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. So on that note, Victoria Gold (TSE:VGCX) looks quite promising in regards to its trends of return on capital. Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE) For those that aren't sure what ROCE is, it measures the amount of pre-tax profits a company can generate from the capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on Victoria Gold is: Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) (Total Assets - Current Liabilities) 0.059 = CA$53m (CA$1.0b - CA$129m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2024). Therefore, Victoria Gold has an ROCE of 5.9%. On its own that's a low return, but compared to the average of 1.6% generated by the Metals and Mining industry, it's much better. Check out our latest analysis for Victoria Gold roce Above you can see how the current ROCE for Victoria Gold compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free analyst report for Victoria Gold . So How Is Victoria Gold's ROCE Trending? Victoria Gold has recently broken into profitability so their prior investments seem to be paying off. The company was generating losses five years ago, but now it's earning 5.9% which is a sight for sore eyes. In addition to that, Victoria Gold is employing 88% more capital than previously which is expected of a company that's trying to break into profitability. We like this trend, because it tells us the company has profitable reinvestment opportunities available to it, and if it continues going forward that can lead to a multi-bagger performance. The Bottom Line In summary, it's great to see that Victoria Gold has managed to break into profitability and is continuing to reinvest in its business. Considering the stock has delivered 37% to its stockholders over the last five years, it may be fair to think that investors aren't fully aware of the promising trends yet. So exploring more about this stock could uncover a good opportunity, if the valuation and other metrics stack up. One more thing, we've spotted 1 warning sign facing Victoria Gold that you might find interesting. Story continues While Victoria Gold isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Even when a business is losing money, it's possible for shareholders to make money if they buy a good business at the right price. For example, although Amazon.com made losses for many years after listing, if you had bought and held the shares since 1999, you would have made a fortune. Nonetheless, only a fool would ignore the risk that a loss making company burns through its cash too quickly. So, the natural question for Bever Holding (AMS:BEVER) shareholders is whether they should be concerned by its rate of cash burn. For the purpose of this article, we'll define cash burn as the amount of cash the company is spending each year to fund its growth (also called its negative free cash flow). The first step is to compare its cash burn with its cash reserves, to give us its 'cash runway'. Check out our latest analysis for Bever Holding How Long Is Bever Holding's Cash Runway? You can calculate a company's cash runway by dividing the amount of cash it has by the rate at which it is spending that cash. In December 2023, Bever Holding had 29m in cash, and was debt-free. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through 2.0m. So it had a very long cash runway of many years from December 2023. While this is only one measure of its cash burn situation, it certainly gives us the impression that holders have nothing to worry about. Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time. Can Bever Holding Raise More Cash Easily? Issuing new shares, or taking on debt, are the most common ways for a listed company to raise more money for its business. One of the main advantages held by publicly listed companies is that they can sell shares to investors to raise cash and fund growth. We can compare a company's cash burn to its market capitalisation to get a sense for how many new shares a company would have to issue to fund one year's operations. Bever Holding's cash burn of 2.0m is about 4.8% of its 41m market capitalisation. Given that is a rather small percentage, it would probably be really easy for the company to fund another year's growth by issuing some new shares to investors, or even by taking out a loan. So, Should We Worry About Bever Holding's Cash Burn? Given it's an early stage company, we don't have a lot of data with which to judge Bever Holding's cash burn. We would undoubtedly be more comfortable if it had reported some operating revenue. However, it is fair to say that its cash runway gave us comfort. Summing up, its cash burn doesn't bother us and we're excited to see what kind of growth it can achieve with its current cash hoard. Separately, we looked at different risks affecting the company and spotted 3 warning signs for Bever Holding (of which 2 shouldn't be ignored!) you should know about. Story continues Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies with significant insider holdings, and this list of stocks growth stocks (according to analyst forecasts) 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. 'What's Exit Strategy?' Roaring Kitty's Long Forgotten Reddit Comment Signaled What's Happening Today Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty, aka DeepF***ingValue, is again making headlines. But a passing comment he made years ago seems to have signaled todays developments. On Dec. 20, 2020, under a post where Gill revealed his $3.4 million position in GameStop (GME), a Reddit user asked him, "Seriously what is your exit strategy here" Gills response was a simple yet cryptic, "Whats an exit strategy?" Don't Miss: A startup that turns videos into games gets backing from Mark Cuban and opens a round for regular investors at $250. If there was a new fund backed by Jeff Bezos offering a 7-9% target yield with monthly dividends would you invest in it? This comment seemed like a witty or dismissive reply back then, but looking back, it definitely took on a new meaning. Gills lack of worry about an exit strategy showed his strong belief in GameStops potential and his commitment to holding onto his shares for the long term, no matter how the market changed. If the last week has taught us anything, its that he has stuck to this mindset. After a long time out of the spotlight, he reappeared and revealed significant holdings in GameStop. On June 2, 2024, Gill posted a snapshot of his portfolio on Reddits r/superstonk message board. The snapshot showed: 5 million GameStop shares 120,000 GameStop $20 call options (expiring June 21) $29.2 million in cash $210 million in total Trending: Executives and founders of Uber, Facebook and Apple are bullish on this wellness app that you can coinvest in at $1.15 per share. To no ones surprise, this huge revelation sparked renewed interest and speculation about Gills investment strategies from amateur traders to financial analysts. His portfolio clearly shows that hes more invested in GameStop than ever, which fits his earlier exit strategy comment. The following day, he posted another screenshot of his GME positions on the r/Superstonk subreddit, revealing his net worth of $289 million. However, the most interesting part about all of this is that if Gill exercises his 120,000 call options, he will acquire an additional 12 million shares, resulting in a total of 17 million shares. Per CNBC, depending on the stock price, this stake could be worth between $476 million (at $28 per share) and $1.1 billion (at $64.83 per share). Troubles Ahead? However, its not all smooth sailing for Gill. The Massachusetts Secretary of States Office is currently investigating his trading practices. Short-seller Andrew Left also raised doubts about Roaring Kitty's' actions, suggesting that someone else might be operating behind the scenes. Additionally, Left recently returned to shorting GME, three years after he famously lost big while shorting the stock. Story continues Adding to Gills worries, Morgan Stanley is reportedly considering banning him from the E*Trade platform over alleged stock manipulation. In response, prominent investor Ross Gerber cautioned Gill about his short-term position in GameStop Corp. "Kitty better be careful exposing such a short-term position with so many enemies. Where would he get all the money ... hes got to sell the options soon. $gme," Gerber tweeted. Gills actions suggest that his strategy has always been to hold onto his shares and possibly buy more instead of planning an exit. His 2020 comment, "Whats an exit strategy?" now seems prophetic, highlighting his long-term approach to investing in GameStop. Keep Reading: The average American couple has saved this much money for retirement How do you compare ? Invest like a millionaire with an exclusive opportunity to invest in Epic Games $17 billion gaming empire. "ACTIVE INVESTORS' SECRET WEAPON" Supercharge Your Stock Market Game with the #1 "news & everything else" trading tool: Benzinga Pro - Click here to start Your 14-Day Trial Now! Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? This article 'What's Exit Strategy?' Roaring Kitty's Long Forgotten Reddit Comment Signaled What's Happening Today originally appeared on Benzinga.com 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. If you bought $1,000 of Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) stock 10 years ago, you would have roughly $2.3 million today, a potentially life-changing return of 23,000%. While the company has probably become too large to deliver such rapid gains in the future, the next decade could bring many exciting opportunities as artificial intelligence (AI) technology develops. Let's discuss what this could mean for Nvidia and long-term investors. Will artificial intelligence live up to its expectations? Nvidia has been so successful because it sells the graphics processing units (GPUs) other tech companies need to build and train generative AI algorithms or make their data centers capable of handling these new workloads. This position means Nvidia benefits from the expansion of the industry as a whole, and the future looks bright. Generative AI is a subset of machine learning designed to create new content based on user inputs and training data. Consulting group McKinsey & Company believes the technology will improve enough to perform at a level comparable to the median human by decade-end. If true, Nvidia could enjoy a virtually limitless addressable market as AI technology expands into new use cases by replacing skilled labor. Investors should also remember that generative AI is one of several AI niches. Others include robotics and neural networks, which can be used for applications like self-driving cars. Over the next 10 years, these other markets could help Nvidia diversify its hardware business outside of just data center GPUs. In the first quarter, automotive and robotics represented just $329 million of Nvidia's $26 billion in sales. Some potential near-term risks The rise of generative AI has striking similarities with the internet in the 1990s and 2000s. While internet technology eventually transformed the global economy, the trajectory wasn't as smooth as some investors expected. During the dot-com bubble, Cisco Systems benefited from demand for networking hardware like routers and switches. And its market cap soared to over half a trillion dollars in March 2000. Image source: Getty Images. Eventually, the bubble burst, and Cisco lost 88% of its value by 2002. Now, over two decades later, Cisco's market cap is just $187 billion, which means it has never recovered to its bubble-era price tag, even though the internet, as a whole, is clearly a financial success. Nvidia faces some of the same potential challenges Cisco faced two decades ago. And even if generative AI reaches analysts' lofty projections, that will be no guarantee that Nvidia's equity will hold on to its $2.7 trillion market capitalization. Story continues That being said, with a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 64 and a forward P/E of just 42, Nvidia is relatively affordable compared to its bottom-line growth rate (first-quarter profits surged 628% year over year to $14.88 billion). The market seems to already be pricing in some of the near-term risks, which could limit Nvidia's potential downside. Buying at the top of a mountain? From a fundamental perspective, Nvidia stock is still a great deal. Revenue and earnings are skyrocketing with a reasonable valuation. And over the next 10 years, the company's GPUs could find more use cases in automotive automation and robotics, unlocking additional growth and much-needed diversification to its revenue streams. That being said, there is a negative gut feeling that comes from buying a stock that has already risen so far so fast, especially when you remember the lessons of other tech giants like Cisco Systems. While Nvidia clearly has spectacular long-term potential, investors should tread with caution and make sure to diversify their portfolios. Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now? Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now and Nvidia wasnt one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, youd have $741,362!* Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of June 3, 2024 Will Ebiefung has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Cisco Systems and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Where Will Nvidia Stock Be in 10 Years? was originally published by The Motley Fool The Red Lobster restaurant in Wichita Falls is on the hit list for possible closing. The Orlando-based company, formed in 1968, has said it may close additional restaurants if it is unable to renegotiate their leases, according to bankruptcy documents filed last week. Red Lobster listed 228 rejected leases it says will keep losing money if they continue operating as they are. The Red Lobster restaurant on Kemp Boulevard in Wichita Falls is among those the company may close in the wake of a bankruptcy filing. The restaurant at 4401 Kemp Blvd. is among those with precarious futures. According to USA Today, the company's bankruptcy filing indicates Red Lobster has struggled in various ways, including a 30 percent drop in customers since 2019. CEO Jonathan Tibus blamed the troubles on a difficult macroeconomic environment, a bloated and underperforming restaurant footprint, failed or ill-advised strategic initiatives, and increased competition within the restaurant industry." The Wichita Falls restaurant opened in 1980. In Texas, 15 restaurants are on the list for possible closings. More: JCPenney signs at Sikes Senter announce closing of store More: A cuppa and a flip: One chain opens another outlet in Wichita Falls, another closes one This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Wichita Falls Red Lobster on hit list of possible closings A labor union at Samsung Electronics in South Korea said many workers went on strike Friday, marking the first such walkout in the smartphone and chipmaking giants 55-year history. The Nationwide Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) said last week that its 28,000 members just under a quarter of the companys total workforce in the country would stage a one-day strike on June 7, following failed negotiations over pay and bonus arrangements. The union asked its members to take a day off on Friday, which falls between a public holiday on Thursday and the weekend. Son Woomok, a union leader, told CNN that many employees used their annual leave today, and at one site all workers had taken leave so replacement personnel were deployed. He did not provide other details. He had previously said many NSEU members work for Samsungs flagship semiconductor unit. That division is trying to regain its former status as a top semiconductor company, according to Reuters, which says Samsung has fallen behind its competitors SK Hynix and Micron Technology in delivering chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) processors. A Samsung spokesperson told CNN that, there is no impact on production and management activities as a result of the one-day walkout. Todays annual leave use rate is lower than last years Memorial Day holidays annual leave use rate, the spokesperson added. The Samsung flag flutters in the wind outside the company building in Seoul on June 7, 2024. - Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images The worlds biggest memory chipmaker has had a rough few years. A historic shortage of computer chips during the Covid pandemic was followed by falling demand last year as consumer appetite for electronics remained weak because of global economic uncertainty. But things are looking up for the company because of the AI boom. It is optimistic about a resurgence in demand for mobile devices this year, particularly with the rollout of new products, such as AI-powered smartphones. Last month, Samsung reported a more than tenfold rise in first-quarter operating profit amid forecasts of high demand for AI and high-end chips, an area in which it competes with Intel (INTC) and Taiwans TSMC. The vast majority of the worlds advanced microchips are made in just two places: Taiwan and South Korea. Taiwans industry is larger and more dominant, something South Korea is keen to challenge. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Like law enforcement agencies across the United States, the Dodge County Sheriffs Office has faced challenges with staffing levels and hiring of new deputies. However, Dodge County Sheriff Dustin Weitzel said in an interview with the Tribune on June 3 that he believes the hiring situation has dramatically improved. Weitzel also said one new deputy is on the job in field training status and two more deputy candidates are currently enrolled in the state law enforcement academy in Grand Island. The newest addition to the county sheriffs roster is Deputy Zach Windeshausen, who graduated from the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center academy on April 12. (Windeshausen) hes in (field) training right now. That is the 12 weeks after the (academy) and when they have a field training officer theyre assigned to, Weitzel said. Like at the Fremont Police Department, sheriffs deputies new to the agency are paired with a veteran law enforcement officer for 12 weeks, during which crucial lessons on many fronts are taught to them as sort of a supplemental training period, Weitzel said. They go through that 12 weeks, which is broken up into three phases. Each phase has about four weeks there. Were just starting them at the ground level. Theyve learned all the basics at the academy, obviously, but (in field training), were kind of teaching them the ways how the department is going to be, you know, Weitzel said. How theyre going to work here at the department and building confidence up with them and starting at ground level, teaching them step by step what is expected of them. When fully staffed, the county sheriffs office has 26 sworn law enforcement officers. With the May 24 retirement of longtime chief deputy Bob Reynolds and the addition of Windeshausen in April, the sheriffs office roster totals 22 sworn law enforcement officers as of June 3, Weitzel said. We are still down, but we have (Windeshausen) in training right now and then we currently have two out of the academy. So were doing, were doing well, actually, Weitzel said. During the field training period, Weitzel said new deputies will learn a lot of the technology that we have, which is said is often new to people who join their first law enforcement agency. Phase one is just learning how to do all the reports and the computer system and just getting them started, he said. As far as the three new deputies, those obviously are the in the entry level phase, theyre starting out at the bottom. The retirement of Reynolds, who worked at the Dodge County Sheriffs Office for 37 years and was second in command to Weitzel, has left a void that is being filled by a combination of other deputies and higher ranking officers in the department, Weitzel said. There are no plans as of June 3 to immediately name a new chief deputy, a position that is appointed by the sheriff. I do not have a timeline, Weitzel said of when he may make an appointment to fill the chief deputy job. Im just kind of waiting until July 1 gets here just and, and seeing what happens, you know, moving forward, theres going to be kind of some restructuring here, I think, before we do that, Weitzel said, declining to detail those possibilities for now. I think (other deputies) know I want to add some positions. Weitzel said the chief deputy role is a crucial one in the sheriffs office, and the person acts as a direct assistant to him as sheriff. All the behind the scenes stuff is what the chief deputy does. One of those things is getting these (candidates) into the academy, you know, Chief Reynolds did all of that paperwork to get, those guys in there, Weitzel said. (Chief deputy) does a lot of grant stuff for us, all the administrative work, the hiring, does all the paperwork for that stuff. Just a lot of behind the scenes paperwork and administrative duties. After years of recruiting and staffing challenges in the post-COVID-19 pandemic years, Weitzel said new candidates for police and law enforcement jobs are reappearing in the application process. I just think weve seen ... weve turned the corner, I think, on those issues. Weve seen a lot more candidates, Weitzel said. The last couple of testing cycles here, weve gotten more applicants and better quality applicants. Actually, you know, we had a year and a half, two years there that obviously the numbers were down, but the last couple of processes weve had, I feel that those numbers have increased and that those, theyve been, better quality candidates, he said. Cynthia Hayek said she initially was relieved when the judge presiding over her divorce decided on her own to appoint a lawyer to represent the interests of her three children and help guide custody decisions. Im like, OK, great. Maybe we can get other people looking at this case more carefully, she recalled. In the end, Justin Bawden, the appointed child legal representative, became a major barrier to Hayeks efforts to reunify with her children. Along the way, he ended up charging the divorcing parties $271,142.70, which included billing about $2,000 for an all-expense-paid trip to Hawaii that included his wife, Kiyomi. The Gazette previously reported on Hayeks divorce, one of an ongoing series of investigative articles by the newspaper on Colorados troubled child custody and family court system. That initial report focused on how Hayek and her fiance last November won a $21.3 million Routt County jury award in a successful defamation lawsuit. The jury awarded the damages after finding Hayeks ex-husband, fracking tycoon Steven Herron, had corruptly manipulated their divorce proceedings through false and defamatory child sex abuse allegations against Hayeks new fiance to gain full custody of the children. Now, The Gazette is reviewing other aspects of the ongoing custody fight, focusing on Bawdens influence on the eventual custody ruling, which the jury that decided the defamation lawsuit later found to be a gross miscarriage of justice and that Hayek now is making renewed efforts to overturn. I began representing children in best-interest cases in 2018, Bawden said in a prepared statement to The Gazette. The duties of that position require me to perform thorough interviews and investigation in order to represent a childs best interests in various types of court cases. I have always strived to carry out these duties to the absolute best of my abilities. Given the emotionally charged nature of court cases involving the custody of children, one party or the other is often dissatisfied with the advocacy of a child legal representative, no matter how thorough their work. Bawden played a major role in the custody fight after Routt County District Court Judge Mary Hoak, the judge overseeing the divorce, decided on her own the children twin sons, then age 8, and a daughter, then age 14 needed to have their own legal interests represented. The judge, without any request from the divorcing parents, appointed Bawden as a child legal representative to help guide her in making custody rulings in what had become a contentious case riven by allegations of child sexual abuse and counterclaims of defamation and manipulation. Bawden had only been working as a child legal representative for about two years when the judge appointed him to the divisive case. Previously he had worked in Arapahoe County as a public defender for criminal juvenile defendants. The Hayek custody battle was a case that became lucrative for him. He doubled the hourly rate he charged the parents up to $300, citing the complexity of the case. His work on the case would end up spanning more than three years, prompting complaints and legal filings from Hayek claiming Bawden was biased against her and had become a parrot of her exs positions and opinions. Bawden ended up siding with Hayeks ex, Herron, after he alleged Hayeks new fiance had sexually abused the children by shoving items up the anus of one of the boys and by supplying all the children pornography. Hayek in court filings said the accusations were false and a devious tactic from her ex in keeping with what she claimed was deceitful and manipulative behavior she said she endured from him during their 19 years together. She said she left him after he propositioned their nanny. Hayek and Herron divorced in 2016 and initially shared equal parenting time. Their custody arrangement would change dramatically after her ex raised the child sex abuse allegations. He began alleging the child sexual abuse in September 2019, the same month Hayek secured a $10.5 million settlement in litigation she filed against him that claimed she had been misled about the lucrative aspects of an investment their company made. Her fiance, Kenneth Hamp, was arrested and charged with felony child abuse in 2019 just a day after he and Hayek announced their engagement. Hayek, 54, an oil and gas geologist who also owns a clothing store, said she knew the sex abuse allegations were false. Her ex-husband, according to her account, corruptly concocted a fantastic tale as he sought a custody ruling that would cut her out of the lives of their children. She said he had blown way out of proportion an innocent rash one of her sons had gotten while riding a bike in a wet bathing suit. Still, after the allegations were lodged with police and child-protection workers, Hayek moved her fiance out of her Steamboat Springs penthouse residence. He moved into their Airstream for 10 months so he would have no contact with the children while she set about disproving the allegations. Her efforts at overturning the arrest and findings from child-protection workers in Routt County that Hamp had sexually abused the children and that she had emotionally abused the children ended up becoming an impediment in the custody fight, though. In one court filing, Bawden, as the childs legal representative, told the judge that Hayek was emotionally harming the children by refusing to set aside her strongly held narrative that no child sex abuse occurred. The judge had sharply curtailed Hayeks parenting time, limiting it to four hours of supervised visits. When the parenting supervisor told Bawden she did not believe the children had been sexually abused and thought their father had falsified the allegations, Bawden successfully pushed to replace that supervisor with another parenting supervisor critical of Hayek. I told Justin, pretty much from the very beginning of when he came on the case, that I wasnt seeing it, said Terry Duffin, the former parenting supervisor. These kids were not showing any anxiety at all. No hesitation. I told him the only place I was seeing it was when we tried to talk about their dad. She recalled that Bawden didnt want to listen to me, and the more I told him that I wasnt believing the allegations, the more he didnt like me, and he eventually tossed me off the case. He got somebody else who apparently told him what he wanted to hear. Bawden told the divorce judge that additional parenting time for Hayek should be restored only if Hayek would continue to engage in therapy and take parenting classes and learn to place the needs of the children over continued focus on litigation and being right or vindicated. Heres the irony, Hayek said. When Im in court, I have to swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. I had to put my right hand up. But they ask you to lie. They flat-out ask you to lie. They say, Just say Kenny did this. You get your kids back. Its that simple. And because I wouldnt, I didnt get my kids back. They are so myopic. In the end, the judge in January 2021 barred the mother from having any contact with her children, banning her from even sending them so much as a single text, let alone getting a chance to see them supervised or unsupervised. Based in part on Bawdens recommendations, Hoak barred all contact between Hayek and the children, despite another judge dismissing a felony criminal charge of child abuse prosecutors had filed against Hamp, Hayeks fiance, due to a lack of probable cause. And Hoak continued to stick to the no-contact ruling even though prosecutors dismissed in June 2020 a criminal misdemeanor charge of child abuse that remained pending against Hamp. Hayek continued her efforts to overturn November 2019 findings from Routt Countys child-protection staffer Camilla Haight, who found the mother had emotionally abused one of the children and her fiance had sexually abused one of the twin boys. Sign up for free: Weekly 7 Catch up with a rundown of the 7 most important and interesting stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday. Sign Up View all of our newsletters. Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. View all of our newsletters. Haights findings never made any sense, Hayek said, noting that interviews with the children were rife with inconsistencies. Haight found that one of the boys obviously was confused when he told her he believed his mother also may have sexually abused him, yet she still relied on his statements to sustain a finding of sexual abuse against the fiance, Hayek pointed out. She added that Haight did not properly consider the boys statement that he knew hed been sexually abused because that was what his father told him. Herron initially took the boy to a doctor, claiming his son was complaining of a wedgie. The boy later told investigators that his father was the one who told him Hamp sexually abused him. He said, You have been sexually assaulted. And then he took me into my room, the boy told detectives about his father, Herron. In August 2021, Hayek reached a settlement with the Colorado Department of Human Services that reversed and overturned all of Haights initial findings of any abuse involving Hayek or Hamp. Instead of vindication in her custody fight, Hayek continued to meet resistance from Bawden, the court-appointed child legal representative. He continued to argue in a court filing that Hayek is not able to make the necessary changes in order to have healthy contact with her children an opinion the judge overseeing the custody battle continued to sanction. At one critical juncture in May 2022, Bawden, unknown to Hayek, flew to Hawaii, bringing his wife along with him and billing the parents of the children for his travel. Hayek later found out about the trip during a deposition of her ex. Emails her lawyers later obtained through a subpoena showed Herron telling Bawden where he could find the snorkeling gear at the family residence during the visit. When confronted, Bawden said the travel was justified because he needed to see the children in person to see how they were faring. Hes getting chummy with Steve about going snorkeling, Hayek said. And he never tells me hes going to go see the kids. Never informed me later that he did or reported to me that he did. I found out later in a deposition, as it was blurted out accidentally. She and her fiance sued Steven Herron in Routt County District Court, alleging multiple claims of defamation, conspiracy, outrageous conduct, abuse of process and malicious prosecution. During discovery for that litigation, they discovered her ex-husband had continued to unsuccessfully push Routt County District Attorney Matt Karzen to prosecute Hamp, promising a campaign contribution if Karzen secured a felony conviction, according to an email from Karzen submitted as evidence during the defamation trial. Karzen had declined to prosecute and continued to take that stance after meeting with Herron and his new wife. Hayek and Hamp also discovered that Herron, her ex, had engaged in extensive doctor shopping as he pushed his allegations that Hamp had committed sexual abuse, according to their court filings. The lawsuit claimed Herron provided false information to law enforcement officers, child-protection staffers and medical professionals. After a five-week trial, the jury in November awarded Hamp and Hayek $21.3 million in damages, finding Herron liable for $20.3 million of the damage award and his new wife, Christine, liable for $1 million in damages for a conspiracy claim. In a twist, Christine Herron and Steven Herron are now divorcing. She has filed documents in their divorce case in Hawaii alleging Herron himself is a sex addict, and that he sought to cover up his addiction during the defamation litigation by funneling $150,000 to her to surreptitiously pay for his sex addiction counseling and marriage therapy. Christine Herrons divorce lawyer has filed as an exhibit, attached to one motion, a purported 11-page, single-spaced letter she claims to have received from Herron in which he said he would prefer to stay married. In the purported letter, he states that if she still wants to leave, he will immediately give her $2 million and a 10% profit interest in his company in exchange for her cooperation in the defamation lawsuit and not telling people about my addiction. I am also requesting that you delete your evidence as I now have a serious discovery issue, that letter purportedly sent from Steven Herron to Christine Herron further states. In one motion filed on Christine Herrons behalf in the Hawaii divorce case, she pleads: Without help from this court, wife will likely continually live to suffer the results of husbands fraud, both on herself and on his ex-wife. Steven Herron, in response, has filed court documents in Routt County alleging that Christine Herron is trying to escape from a prenuptial she signed that restricted her to only receiving a few hundred thousand dollars in the event of a divorce. He said in that filing that the purported 11-page apology letter from him to Christine is fraudulent. He claimed the letter was concocted as part of what he claims are Christines continuing efforts to try to extort $7 million from him for what he calls baseless accusations. Steven Herron did not respond to a request for comment. Hayek has had no contact with her children for over three years. The twin boys are now 13, and the daughter is 17. Hayek has filed a court motion claiming the children are in imminent danger in her exs care. She is seeking to restore her parenting time, pointing to her successful defamation lawsuit and the divorce her ex is now undergoing as evidence she was wronged when her parenting time was completely suspended. On Saturday, Hoak, the Routt County judge who has presided over this case, ruled that the verdict in the defamation lawsuit was significant evidence that Hayeks fiance did not sexually abuse the children. This court restricted the mothers parenting time primarily on the mothers belief that Mr. Hamp did not sexually abuse any children in this matter and issues that stemmed from that belief, basically, mothers refusal to accept the allegations of abuse against Mr. Hamp, Hoak further wrote in her ruling. If the sexual abuse of one or more of the children did not happen, that finding removes the primary basis for the courts restriction on mothers parenting time. The judge made still another appointment, Stephanie Norris, a Commerce City psychologist, as a reintegration therapist to help repair the relationship between the mother and her children. She did not reappoint a child legal representative. Though the judge ordered reunification therapy to begin, the judge still has not restored Hayeks parenting time, and Hayek still is barred from contacting her children. Hayek received the ruling from her lawyer over the weekend. She quoted Winston Churchill when asked her response: If youre going through hell, keep going. Family Court tries to wear you down, both mentally and psychologically, emotionally and financially, Hayek added. That institution is there for attrition. Everyone is trying to wear you down. I couldnt allow that to happen because if youre doing it to me, youre doing it to everybody. A federal judge agreed last month that a jury will decide whether two Denver officers and the city itself should be liable for excessive force, First Amendment violations and other infringements on a man's constitutional rights during the 2020 protests. A federal judge on Thursday heard arguments in the City and County of Denver's attempt to end a set of legal claims against it stemming from the police response to 2020 demonstrations, which injured eight participants and allegedly violated their constitutional rights. How did right and wrong get so lost in our practice of politics? Its almost as if morality is irrelevant now the battle between parties is so pitched neither side believes it can afford the luxury of morality, writes Vince Bzdek. Ready to vote in the primary? Read our voter guide; check out the latest in Colorado River discussions; Jared Polis signs bill delaying statewide ranked choice voting | WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Two-and-a-half weeks before the June 25 primary election, campaign finance records show likely front-runners in the races for three open seats on the Board of El Paso County Commissioners. Some candidates have pulled in thousands of dollars more than their opponents, the latest campaign finance reports from the secretary of state show. The largest campaign donations came from a local political-action committee and individual developers from some of the community's biggest companies Classic Homes, Vantage Homes, La Plata Communities and others. All made donations to candidates who currently hold public office in Colorado Springs, El Paso County and the state. Three seats on the Board of County Commissioners are up for grabs this November, in Districts 2, 3 and 4. The races have drawn 13 candidates, including one Democrat each in all three districts. In the upcoming primary election, Republican voters will select a candidate from their district on the ballot. The victor of each Republican race will face their respective unopposed Democratic opponents, and one unaffiliated candidate in District 4, in the general election on Nov. 5. The commissioner seats in Districts 1 and 5 are not up for election this year. Campaign finance records for the period of Oct. 28 through May 30 show across the districts, incumbent Commissioner Carrie Geitner in District 2, Colorado Springs Councilman David Leinweber in District 3 and Fountain Councilwoman Detra Duncan in District 4 led with the most cash available May 30. Individual donors linked to major developers across town and the Colorado Springs Housing & Building Association's political funding committee are among the most generous donors this period. People with ties to Vantage Homes contributed a total of $17,100 to two candidates in two of the three races. Donors with ties to Classic Homes gave a total of $22,450 to three candidates in two races, and individual developers with La Plata Communities donated $6,200 in total to one candidate in District 3. The Housing & Building Association committee donated $5,700 in $2,850 sums to two candidates in two of the races. The committee supports "Republican and Democrat candidates for state office who support the Housing & Building issues," a description about the organization reads on the Secretary of State's Office campaign finance website. "Each election including municipal, school district and county races the CSHBAs political-action committee diligently researches candidates to make endorsements and recommendations to the associations members to support candidates who reflect the values and principles of the HBA," Marla Novak, vice president of government affairs for the Housing & Building Association, said in a written statement. District 2 Extends from the east side of Colorado Springs through Cimarron Hills, Falcon, Peyton, Calhan and Ramah: Geitner, who is running for election to a second term in District 2, had the most cash on hand with nearly $18,000. Her largest donation, $3,000, came from the Thornton-based Blue Line Advocates nonprofit. She received several contributions from individual developers: $8,550 made in three $2,850 donations from Vantage Homes' Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing Mike Hess, President Chad Thurber and real estate professional April Hess; and $8,700 total in donations from Classic Companies associates including $2,850 from owner Jeff Smith, $2,500 from CEO Doug Stimple, $1,850 from Partner Executive Vice President George Lenz, and $500 each from President Joe Loidolt, Vice President Loren Moreland and Vice President/Project Manager Steve Schlosser. Geitner also received $19,950 in seven donation amounts of $2,850 each from the Housing & Building committee, Proterra Properties Chief Operating Officer Andrew Biggs, Nor'wood Development Group CEO Chris Jenkins, O'Neil Group President and CEO Kevin O'Neil, and individuals JaJean Lenz, Cindy Smith and Crystal Thurber. Her Republican challenger and political newcomer Kris Guido had about $4,600 on hand and so far has largely self-funded, to the tune of about $14,300. David Willson, an attorney challenging 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen in the Republican primary for the District Attorney's Office, was among Guido's biggest donors, giving $327.72 to the campaign. Featured Local Savings Campaign finance records filed by Bernard Byers, a nonprofit advocate and the Democrat in the District 2 race, showed he reported no expenses or contributions during the period from Oct. 28 through May 30. District 3 Encompasses central and west El Paso County, including Colorado Springs' downtown and Westside, Manitou Springs, Green Mountain Falls, Palmer Lake, Monument and unincorporated western areas of the county, including Ute Pass and areas south of Cheyenne Mountain Park: In the race for District 3, Leinweber led the competition with about $15,600 on hand. Classic Homes executives gave $9,000 in total to Leinweber's campaign this reporting period, including three donations of $2,850 each from George Lenz, Smith and Stimple, $250 from Moreland and $200 from Loidolt. He received another $6,200 from individual developers with La Plata Communities $2,850 each from President and CEO Doug Quimby and Chief Operating Officer Michael Ruebenson, and $500 from Chief Financial Officer Guy Childs. Leinweber and his wife, Rebecca Leinweber, gave about $7,560 total to his own campaign. Bobby Norris, son of Colorado Springs rancher and businessman Bob "Marlboro Man" Norris, gave $2,500 to Leinweber's campaign, and Barbara Kohen donated $2,850. State Rep. Don Wilson had just under $6,000 cash on hand. He received $8,550 from Vantage Homes associates $2,850 each from April Hess, Michael Hess and Chad Thurber. Classic Homes executives gave him $4,750 $1,500 each from Smith, George Lenz and Stimple, and $250 from Moreland. Northgate developer Gary Erickson and real estate professional Donna Erickson each donated $2,850; Crystal Thurber gave $2,850; Colorado family charter school leader Mike Hyatt and Debbie Hyatt each donated $1,250; and Melissa Lenz, Cindy Smith and Gwen Stimple each contributed $1,500. Wilson received $8,112.43 from the Colorado Republican Committee, which campaign finance reports note are rollover funds from Wilson's campaign for House District 20. Republicans Brandy Williams, a former Colorado Springs councilwoman, had about $9,700 cash on hand and Bill Wysong, a neighborhood organizer and advocate, had just over $1,500. Democrat and speech pathologist Naomi Lopez had about $9,500 cash on hand. Williams' most generous contributions included $1,000 each from G Light Equity real estate company founder Gavin Light, Walker Schooler District Managers President Kevin Walker, William Barreire and Victoria Chavez. Wysong received $2,850 from former Gazette owner and Maverick Observer founder Timothy Hoiles. Lopez received $2,850 from Kevan Worley, CEO of consulting firm Worley Enterprises; and $1,300 total from Centro de la Familia CEO Jacqueline Jaramillo. District 4 Encompasses south and east El Paso County, including the south-southeast areas of Colorado Springs, Fountain, Security-Widefield, Hanover, Ellicott, Rush, Yoder and the unincorporated area of Stratmoor Hills. In the race for District 4, Duncan, a Democrat, outraised her Republican and unaffiliated opponents by thousands of dollars, ending the reporting period with about $11,800 on hand. Her largest donation was $1,250 from Charles Murphy. Republicans Cory Applegate, a Fountain councilman, and Army veteran Brenda Delgado Miller had about $6,100 and $3,970 on hand, respectively. Colorado Hispanic Republicans Chairman Raymond Garcia spent more than he raised this period, ending with about $7,600 in the red. Luis Ybarra Jr., a former Golden Gloves boxer and the only unaffiliated candidate running in District 4, had just under $365 on hand. Applegate received donations of $1,425 from chaplain and former state Rep. Gordon Klingenschmitt and $1,400 from contractor Vince Colarelli. Delgado Miller received $2,850 from the Housing & Building Association committee. Garcia received $300 total in donations and Ybarra's only campaign contribution was $1,000 he self-funded. As world leaders converged on Normandy to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday, the 4th Infantry Division commemorated the sacrifices of its members in World War II. Division officials marked D-Day in France, New Orleans and for the first time at Fort Carson. At the local ceremony at Fort Carson, Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters roared over the crowd at mid-day before soldiers dashed out from behind trees throwing smoke bombs to the sounds of simulated gun fire. Col. Michael Wagner, chief of staff for the division, called on the crowd to envision the small demonstration magnified 100,000 times 80 years ago. As they crossed the stormy channel, the 130,000 American and allied troops would have been "checking gear one more time ... gripping their rifles tightly, as they shivered in the cold ocean spray, saying final prayers and attempting to swallow that uneasy feeling in their gut as they waited for the ramps to drop so they could slog ashore through the surf under a hail of enemy fire," he said The 4th Infantry Division lost 197 soldiers as they fought their way up Utah Beach at the beginning of what turned into a long bloody journey to free Western Europe, he said. Through the course of the war 4,853 division soldiers were killed and another 17,317 were wounded, he said. The division honors their sacrifice by being willing to defend the nation today. Sign Up for free: Military Brief Your weekly local update on local military news and events, sent straight to your inbox. Sign Up View all of our newsletters. Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. View all of our newsletters. Among the soldiers re-enlisting Thursday was Sgt. Celina Carter, the granddaughter of Tuskegee Airman Tech Sgt. James Bernard Carter. While she never met her grandfather, who died in 1994, her father Tyron Carter said he had no doubt the former airman was smiling down on the 22-year-old's re-enlistment. "He is proud, as are we," he said. The airman was drafted in 1943 and left the family farm in Howard County, Maryland, to become a mechanic who worked on P-51 fighter planes. He later drew on his military experience to start a successful construction business in Baltimore where Tyron worked for 15 years. "Back in the '40s that was a pretty tough era to navigate. He was able to find his way," Tyron said. Celina Carter said she was inspired by her grandfather and understands his service better through her experience. "I think the most meaningful thing about serving, especially in the Army, is proving to kids, teenagers, you can continue on, get somewhere and provide a much better life for yourself, wherever you come from," she said. Editor's note: this story has been updated to correct and clarify facts and figures detailing the potential bond vote. Academy District 20's board of education voted to move forward with a possible bond vote Thursday evening. Specifically, the board unanimously approved to authorize a Notice of Intent form to be submitted to El Paso County for possibly submitting a bond question for the November ballot. Though its language has yet to be decided, should it be submitted, the bond question would ask voters to approve funding to rebuild Douglass Valley Elementary School and Air Academy High School, upgrade non-charter schools to comply with mandatory LED lighting requirements under Colorado HB23-1161 and fund facility expansions for The Classical Academy and New Summit Charter Academy Middle School. The total projected bond is estimated at $69.14 million. What would make this bond different is that it would not impose any new tax and would only partially cover the costs of the rebuilds. The majority of costs would be paid by the federal Funding for Public Schools on Military Installations (PSMI) program. Through the U.S. Department of Defense, the PSMI program provides funding to districts to rebuild or renovate public schools located on military installations to address current deficiencies like capacity needs or facility conditions. In these cases, the department pays for 80% of the total costs while the district pays 20%. In 2018, the department completed an assessment of the 161 schools located on military installations across the country and ranked their levels of deficiency. D-20 schools Douglass Valley Elementary and Air Academy High School are currently located on the U.S. Air Force Academy grounds with Air Academy ranking at 61 and Douglass Valley at 71 out of 161 in the assessment. Based off these rankings, the department encouraged D-20 in 2023 to consider the PSMI Program as a strategy to fund construction, renovation, repair, and/or expansion improvements for both of these schools. Featured Local Savings Last March, a federal evaluation team toured the schools and followed up with design proposals submitted to the departments Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation. The design for Douglass Valley detailed a rebuild from a K-5 to a PK-8 school with a preliminary cost set at approximately $61.2 million. In this scenario, D-20 would be on the hook for $12.2 million of these costs which they are currently able to fund. As for Air Academy High, the preliminary cost was estimated at $238.4 million with D-20 covering $47.7 million. D-20 deputy superintendent and chief financial officer Becky Allan told board members during a study session ahead of the meeting that the department approached the district stating they weren't interested in renovating the high school. They will only entertain a rebuild because they want to guarantee a 30-year lifespan (for the building), she said. The board approved the form to be submitted to the county clerk, but the ballot measure itself is far from a done deal. Should they decide to proceed with the ballot initiative, a resolution for the intergovernmental agreement with the county clerk's office would need approval no later than Aug. 27 or 70 days before the election. The specific ballot language would then need to be presented to and passed by the board no later than Sept. 6, which is 60 days before the election. Its important to know that this is not binding, Allan said of the Thursday night vote. Right before the vote, board treasurer Lauren Yanez said the study session, which was not recorded nor heavily attended by the public, provided much clarity to the process of the bond going forward that she believes will help to inform the public on the bond going forward. I look forward to opportunities in the future to explain these talking points and really go through the way we did this afternoon with our community, she said. The upcoming primary election will see incumbent 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen, who seeks a second term, face off against Republican challenger and attorney David Willson for the seat. Whichever candidate earns the most votes in the June 25 primary election will face Jeremy Dowell, an attorney who represents Colorado Springs-area children in the juvenile justice system and the only Democrat in the race, in the Nov. 5 general election. The 4th Judicial District encompasses El Paso and Teller counties. The Republican candidates answered questions for The Gazette's primary election voter guide about safety, prosecuting crime and what sets them apart from their fellow opponents: Michael Allen Incumbent, Republican, michaelallen4da.com How do you plan to improve safety in the community? As district attorney, I have made it clear if you commit a crime in El Paso or Teller counties, you will be held accountable. In 2021, I launched our data unit that allows us to respond quickly to changing crime trends. While Denver has struggled to respond to crime, my office has led the state in jury trials, restitution secured for victims of crime, and in our approach to violent and career criminals. As fentanyl deaths exploded, I worked with community leaders to fight back. I formed an Organized Crime Unit that has led the state in prosecuting fentanyl death dealers by sending them to prison where they belong. The approach is recognized as leading the fight against cartels bringing fentanyl into our community. I refuse to compromise on public safety and will continue to look for common-sense solutions to the changing dynamics of crime in our community. How have bills passed in the legislature over the past four years affected crime or the ability to prosecute crime in El Paso and Teller counties? Colorado has experienced a surge in crime, thanks to "criminal justice reform" efforts from the legislature and governor's office. In recent years, that "reform" has resulted in decriminalization efforts that have left Coloradans increasingly vulnerable to crime. Punitive legislation attacked law enforcement and has made it harder for law enforcement agencies to retain and recruit good police officers. The death penalty was eliminated as an option for evildoers who commit mass murder, and elimination of the death penalty also means people who commit murder are eligible for bond while waiting for trial. Prison sentences have been reduced to as low as 16 years for offenders who kill someone while in the process of committing a violent felony offense (felony murder). There are many more examples, but the bottom line is we need to restore balance in state government to reverse the negative impacts of "criminal justice reform." What can the District Attorney's Office do to achieve sustainable change around community safety? As district attorney, I refuse to compromise on our core mission in law enforcement of protecting public safety. We routinely lead the state in prosecution of violent and career criminals, while also giving second chances to those who deserve the opportunity. The DA's Office will continue to lead the state in the number of cases taken to trial. As an example, in 2023 we set a record by going to trial on 475 cases, shattering the previous high of 399. We will also continue to be proactive in our community outreach efforts. That includes launching a first-of-its-kind transparency effort through our data dashboards, by holding fentanyl town halls throughout El Paso and Teller counties and working closely with our 22 area law enforcement agencies to combat crime. Finally, as district attorney, I will continue to be proactive by engaging on legislation that affects public safety. What sets you apart from opponents in the race? Evil never rests, and the best defense against those who choose to do evil in our community is a committed, professional prosecutor. I know how to achieve justice for victims having served as a prosecutor for 20 consecutive years and have worked tirelessly to hold evildoers accountable for the crimes they commit. As an example, I have a 100% conviction rate on homicide cases and have twice been named Homicide Prosecutor of the Year. I am the only candidate in the race with actual experience as a prosecutor and as an elected district attorney, and the only candidate that has prosecuted a murder case. Experience matters I have it and my opponents don't. That's why I have been endorsed by Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell, El Paso County Sheriff Joe Roybal, former District Attorney Dan May, current 18th Judicial District Attorney John Kellner, and former Mayor/DA/Attorney General/U.S. Attorney John Suthers. Featured Local Savings David Willson Republican, davidforda.org How do you plan to improve safety in the community? First, if elected district attorney, the buck stops with me. I am responsible and will hold myself accountable to the people, and expect the people to hold me accountable. This is not a political office for me. I am not a politician and am not looking for the next election or position. I am looking to identify problems and solve them. I will ensure the Office of the District Attorney is run properly, absent politics and self-serving agendas. As a retired Army JAG (Judge Advocate General's Corps member) and having been an attorney for 34 years, my role has been problem solving, leading those working for me, and making sensitive and critical decisions. To succeed and support this community, I need to know the issues and concerns of the community. I will hold frequent town hall meetings to hear what the people have to say and their concerns. How have bills passed in the legislature over the past four years affected crime or the ability to prosecute crime in El Paso and Teller counties? Recent legislative efforts in Denver have made it more difficult to protect hard-working, law-abiding members of our communities from harm. The downgrading of felonies to misdemeanors, reducing penalties for many crimes, and soft bond/bail have made crime more attractive. We have become one of the leading communities for motor vehicle theft, and violent crime is on the rise. I will ensure the voice of the people of El Paso and Teller counties is heard loud and clear at legislative sessions. We need to get back to protecting the rights of all citizens and ensure the safety of people and property. As the district attorney, it will be incumbent upon me to ensure justice and ensure it is fair and impartial. I will review and research the constitutionality of all legislation coming out of Denver, like Second Amendment rights. What can the District Attorney's Office do to achieve sustainable change around community safety? The current district attorney has had almost four years to lower crime; instead, he has admitted fentanyl deaths are up, and crime rates also are up. I will end self-serving political and other agendas and cronyism that appear to be used in determining which crimes and people to prosecute. High-profile crime must be prosecuted, but some of these prosecutions are too little, too late. Some might have been prevented by holding criminals accountable. Lowered bail or not objecting to lowered bail is causing violent repeat offenders to be released on the street. Election fraud, porn/filth in the schools, child trafficking, illegal immigration and more must not be ignored and swept under the rug. The District Attorney's Office must not ignore some crimes to pursue headlines. Perjury should not be ignored. What sets you apart from opponents in the race? I was asked to run for district attorney. I went through (county) assembly because people are unhappy with the status quo. I am not a politician. I am a retired Army JAG. I prosecuted and defended soldiers, worked as special assistant United States attorney, and as legal adviser at the (National Security Agency) to (U.S. Cyber Command) and Army Cyber. Since retiring, I practiced as a cybersecurity attorney/consultant, and now as a court-appointed attorney in dependency and neglect. I have seen the impact of the justice system from many angles. This experience has equipped me to make fair and reasoned decisions, in the ultimate pursuit of justice for all. The current district attorney avoided assembly and the vote. I will ensure no self-serving political agendas. Back to the basics: investigating and prosecuting crime, supporting victims. The judicial system will not be weaponized as seen against President (Donald) Trump. Our liberties and the constitution will be protected. Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify that 20% of Colorado Springs Utilities' electric generation is made up of hydroelectric, wind and solar power. Changing state and federal utilities regulations, evolving technology and limited resources are impacting how water and energy services are delivered in Colorado Springs with a hefty price tag. But the city-owned utility will continue delivering reliable services while managing rates, its chief executive officer said Thursday. Over the next five years, Colorado Springs Utilities must double or triple its capital investment, up to between $450 million and $800 million a year, to maintain much of its current infrastructure and meet new state and federal regulations for clean energy, among others, the agency's CEO Travas Deal told a crowd of more than 100 people at the inaugural State of the Utility event. At the same time, Utilities has planned and begun new projects to help electrify the Colorado Springs grid, diversify its energy portfolio, and secure more water as the community continues growing, he said. "All of those folks that are living in Colorado Springs ... we have an obligation to serve them. So we want to make sure that we have the utilities, the water, the infrastructure, and then we need to make sure we meet those (needs)," Deal said. Held at the COS City Hub, Thursday's first-time event served as a report card for the 100-year-old agency that highlighted its history and outlined its future. Dozens of residents and several state, El Paso County and Colorado Springs elected officials attended. The utility must meet ambitious new state requirements, such as reducing carbon emissions 80% by 2030, Deal said. The city has already made strides to meet new utilities regulations, ensure it is keeping up with fast-paced growth and maintain service quality and reliability, but the massive cost of upgrading current infrastructure means ratepayers can expect higher rates over the next five years, he said. Colorado Springs Utilities is committed to keeping rates competitive, however. Utilities customers already pay 15% less for electricity, 36% less for natural gas and 15% less for wastewater than other ratepayers across the Front Range, Deal said. Colorado Springs Utilities customers pay about 15% more for water than other utilities users because Colorado Springs is not near a natural water source and delivers most of its water from the Colorado River on the Western Slope. "We are going to continue to stay competitive, but there is no way to do what we're talking about doing today and looking at the longevity of our community without making sure we have rate (adjustments). So we're always going to be thoughtful in the process ... but we do have to invest," Deal said. Colorado Springs Utilities has transformed its electric service in general by beginning to demolish and decommission the nearly 100-year-old Martin Drake Power Plant downtown, a year-plus process that began last summer. The plant's demolition came as a response to utilities regulations as well as customer wants and needs, Deal said. Sign up for free: Springs AM Update Your morning rundown of the latest news from Colorado Springs and around the country overnight and the stories to follow throughout the day delivered to your inbox each evening. Sign Up View all of our newsletters. Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. View all of our newsletters. After it is completely torn down, the City Council and Utilities will work with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and go through a public process to determine next steps for the site. Six natural gas generating units are now on the site, helping fill peak demand on the community's hottest and coldest days. The modular units help Colorado Springs Utilities manage its electric grid and diversify energy resources, Deal said. The city is looking into purchasing additional units as well, he said. Twenty percent of Colorado Springs Utilities' electric generation is made up of hydroelectric, wind and solar power. That percentage will grow over time as new regulations go into effect and customers continue looking for cleaner energy sources. Utilities will also ensure it has a reserve of fossil fuels to keep electricity reliable, Deal said. At the end of December, Utilities announced Pike Solar, the Pikes Peak region's largest solar facility, is now online. The 175-megawatt solar array located on 1,310 acres in El Paso County just south of Colorado Springs generates and delivers electricity to more than 46,000 homes and allows the city to continue meeting greenhouse gas reduction targets, Deal said. Colorado Springs Utilities wants to nearly triple its electric generation and add up to 1,700 megawatts of new electric generation to keep up with rapid growth and regulatory requirements, Deal said. "That is a huge transformation of the electric system," he said. The city will also join the Southwest Power Pool's expanded resource provider network by April 2026. The network will provide Colorado Springs Utilities more access to buy and sell renewable energy from a larger market and continue saving customers potentially millions of dollars over time, Deal said. Utilities plans to purchase additional water rights for its current and future customers. It is rehabilitating some critical reservoirs, like the Montgomery Reservoir in Park County, to increase water storage and continue ensuring service reliability, he said. Educational efforts and new city requirements implemented over the last several years have also saved water. Since the 1980s, Colorado Springs' population has doubled in size but the amount of water the community uses has remained the same thanks to "water wise" rules that limit when residents can water their lawns, for example, Deal said. "That's phenomenal. Every bit of that actually helps us maintain our current growth and hopefully future growth," he said. Among other efforts to increase efficiency, Colorado Springs Utilities too is upgrading its Phillip H. Tollefson Water Treatment Plant on Mesa Road that produces about 20% to 25% of Colorado Springs' drinking water, blending water from Pikes Peak with supplies transported from the Continental Divide. The upgrades improve the plant's performance so Colorado Springs Utilities can use more local water supply, which provides flexibility and manages risks to water supply in the Colorado River, officials said in a news release this week. In the first case to be directly impacted by the recent DNA scandal at a government lab, a man accused of first degree triple murder pleaded down to second-degree murder in Boulder to the disappointment of the victims' family. Garrett Coughlin, 30, was sentenced on Thursday to 42 years in prison for the 2017 murders of Wallace Lance White, his wife, Kelly Sloat-White, and his brother Emory Fraker. Coughlin will get seven years credit for time served, which would make him eligible for parole after 24 years. It was Coughlins second trial. In 2019, he received the state's most stringent possible sentence of life in prison with no possibility for parole, but that verdict was overturned when it was discovered that at least one juror during that trial lied during voire dire. The 20th Judicial District went for a second trial, which was to begin this summer. But that trial imploded when the new developments regarding Yvonne Missy Woods alleged anomalies came to light. Her credibility is in serious question. Thats an understatement, said 20th Judicial District Attorney Michael Dougherty. Prosecutors said they made a deal with Coughlin because, with no eyewitnesses, no confession, and now without the boost from Woods testimony, chasing the higher charges was a roll of the dice. The actions by Ms. Woods will have long term damaging impact on criminal cases that weve prosecuted over the past few years," Dougherty said. "There will be more to come." Woods, a veteran forensic scientist at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, resigned last fall amid controversy over omitting facts and tampering with DNA evidence. She was the subject of a scathing 94-page Internal Affairs report released by the CBI on Wednesday. State crime lab employees for years repeatedly tried to warn their superiors at CBI that Woods had become a rogue employee who was cutting corners. But officials failed to respond forcefully until last year, when an intern at the lab found new anomalies, an internal affairs investigation found. It was Woods who performed all of the underlying DNA testing on evidence in the triple shooting in Coal Creek Canyon, which horrified Boulder County seven years ago. Chief Trial Deputy Catrina Weigel was frustrated that CBI knew of Woods anomalies in 2018 but didnt warn the prosecution team about them before the 2019 trial. There are concerns about failure of CBI to act when they learned what was happening with her years and years ago, she said. White, his wife Sloat-White and brother were shot to death on April 13, 2017, at the Whites home. Their bodies were found in various rooms of the house, two of them face down, and money and packaged marijuana from their grow operation was missing. Woods' testimony in the 2019 trial was crucial in that she developed a DNA profile belonging to Coughlin and three other people on a chair leg and Coughlins DNA on the holster of the murder weapon. Those findings were not in question. What was in question was Woods decision not to record male DNA, which turned up during Sloat-Whites autopsy and that was mixed with her blood. Featured Local Savings Instead of noting the extra male DNA on a forensic work chart, Woods removed the reference to it, according to a motion to dismiss the case filed by defense attorney Mary Claire Mulligan. Based on the faulty forensic work, Mulligan filed the motion to dismiss Coughlins case May 6. Ms. Woods removed the DNA reference to avoid doing the troubleshooting protocols she would have had to have done otherwise, said Mulligan, who blamed the organization for letting Woods continue to work even after it found problems with her work as early as 2014 and 2018. CBI needs to lose their accreditation, in my opinion. In addition to Woods inadequate work, the CBI ballistics expert dodged efforts to get him to testify. Even the judge weighed in with the families on the seven years they have spent riding with the twists and turns of the case. What you have gotten today must feel like closure without any justice, said Judge Nancy Salomone. The system and its processes doesnt feel remotely like justice. Dozens of relatives attended the plea either in person or virtually on WebEx. The victims family has been caught up in a seven-year case, which rarely seemed on track. This latest CBI debacle hit the family hard. This is just the tip of the iceberg, and my heart goes out to the other families and victims that are going to come after us with this CBI mess. Murderers. Rapists. Its devastating, said Sloat-Whites sister, Kathy Eppler. Because of the incompetence of the CBI, (Coughlin) has been offered lesser charges, said White's niece Jasmine Eppler during victim impact statements. Coughlin, who shrugged and said, I guess, when the judge asked him if he had been forced to plead guilty to second-degree murder, apologized to the relatives of his three victims. Were here today to take account for my guilt and I do have much guilt. Im sorry for everything that happened, he said. He nodded to his dad and stepmom. "Thanks for coming," he mouthed to them. The families used to be close. He was Sloat-White's godson. "I'm heartbroken for both sides. We'll never see our son again," said Tamara Coughlin. For Michael Dougherty, Coughlins trial was star-crossed for two reasons. Ive never seen jurors lying under oath. Ive never seen CBI analysts altering data and tampering with evidence. We have both things happening in this one case, Dougherty said. So, at a time when these families needed the justice the most the justice system really was at its worst. A small airplane crashed on an Arvada street Friday morning, injuring four people inside the aircraft. Police responded to the scene at Carr Street and Oberon Road near the Scenic Heights neighborhood around 9:30 a.m., according to a social media post by the Arvada Police Department. Arvada Fire received a report that a small, fix-winged aircraft had crashed near a residence, Matt Osier, the operations chief for Arvada Fire, said during a press conference. The fire was extinguished and hazmat teams began working on any fuel leaks in the area. Once the fire department arrived, four people in the plane two adults and two juveniles had already been sent to nearby hospitals. Osier was unsure if they had been pulled from the wreckage or exited on their own accord. The four people have "various levels of injuries," Osier said. Both the Arvada Police Department and Arvada Fire were unsure as to what caused the plane crash or whether it was supposed to be flying over the area. Featured Local Savings The aircraft is a 1969 Beechcraft V35A Bonanza, which is a fixed-wing, single-engine craft with six seats. Its owner is based in Larimer County. A neighbor told The Denver Gazette that the plane seemingly hit a tree and cartwheeled down the street before landing in front of the residence. FlightAware showed the plane took off from Centennial Airport at 9:16 a.m. A spokesperson for Centennial Airport confirmed the aircraft took off from there. The four people were taken to the hospital in either serious or critical condition. Authorities were trying to determine whether the other two are adults or juveniles, Alex Lemishko, a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) inspector, said at a press conference Friday afternoon. Lemishko said the aircraft took off from Centennial Airport, experienced an engine problem en route to Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Broomfield, and attempted to land on a roadway. The plane's left wing hit a tree before the plane crashed on the roadway and skidded to a stop in a front yard. The fire started after the crash, Lemishko said. Then at 4 p.m., the airplane caught fire, again. Arvada Fire crews worked to extinguish the crashed plane. The Denver Gazette's news partner, 9News, contributed to this report. 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. It can be a crime to burn a Pride flag, depending on the circumstances, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said on Wednesday after the state Republican Party issued a call to do just that in a series of anti-LGBTQ messages. On June 3, the historic First United Methodist Church next to Quik Star in Osage was razed. The building was 154 years old. Last year, the congregation moved from its home on Main Street to the former Masonic Lodge. The congregation held a decommissioning service for the building. The size of the congregation and the cost of maintenance were given as reasons for the move. We are trying to keep as many of the church artifacts as we can, including the stained glass windows, Administrative Council Chair Cal Nicklay said last year. Church members struggled over the decision, knowing the church building the oldest in Osage was not only a beloved site for the church, but for the community as well, said longtime member Penney Morse. We realized we could better serve our mission in a smaller space. The first Methodist class was held in Osage in 1856, organized by the Rev. W. P. Holbrook. During the early years, members met in homes or schoolhouses and services were led by circuit riders traveling pastors who traveled, often on horseback, to several churches within a district on a rotating basis. A portion of the First Methodist Episcopal Church called then the church lecture room in the basement of the church -- was built in 1870. The entire church was completed and its dedication was held on Sunday, March 29, 1874. Built at a cost of $13,500, it was announced on the day of its dedication that the church still owed $2,500 on its debt. The hat was passed and the entire sum was secured by the end of the day. The original church looked much different than the one familiar to us today. The church was smaller and had a narrow spire. In the late 1890s, under the direction of the Rev. Bourland Smith, the church was enlarged, with the spire being replaced by the bell tower we know today. A parsonage was built in 1875, and a new one was constructed on the same site east of the church in 1912. The church was later remodeled about the same time, giving it much of the look it has today. Later, an education and office wing was added to the north end of the building. Thomas Atherton, in the Mitchell County Press, wrote that the new church is one of the best and most commodious in Northern Iowa, and stands as a befitting monument to the liberality, Christian spirit and enterprise of our citizens. The Bureau of Land Management has issued its final environmental review for the proposed Lava Ridge large scale wind turbine project, with its preferred alternative reducing the scale of the project by almost half, a move that the agency said will significantly lessen its impacts to south-central Idaho. The BLM release of the Final Environmental Impact Statement does not equate to final approval of the project, said Heather Tiel-Nelson of the BLM Twin Falls District Officer, but a record of decision will come in 30 days. The compromise planned by the BLM isnt enough to satisfy Jerome County Commissioner Charles Howell, who said county commissioners from affected counties are planning to meet soon with attorneys to discuss the issue, and possibly appeal. Howell said he understands BLM is trying to compromise on public land that is designated for multiple uses, but there are too many issues with (Lava Ridge). The project, proposed by Magic Valley Energy LLC, would put wind turbines on public land in Jerome, Lincoln and Minidoka counties. An official from Magic Valley Energy said the BLM review shows the preferred alternative "appears to strike an appropriate balance between the protection of environmental resources and the need for additional domestic energy production." The BLMs preferred alternative is to allow 241 wind turbines from the 400 originally proposed, pushing them further from the most sensitive locations including directly next to the Minidoka National Historic Site, an internment camp where 13,000 Japanese Americans were once incarcerated in the Idaho desert. Turbines, however, would still be allowed as close to nine miles from the site. The BLM also reduced maximum wind turbine height limits to 660 feet from the proposed maximum height of 740 feet. The preferred alternative adjusts the corridor configuration such that the closest turbine to the Minidoka National Historic Site would be nine miles away, helping to preserve the visitor experience of the remote nature of the former incarceration site for Japanese Americans during WWII, a news release from the BLM Twin Falls District Office said. The preferred alternative also reduces potential impacts to sage grouse, large wildlife migration routes and winter concentration areas, cultural resources, Jerome County Airport and agricultural aviation uses, public land ranchers, and adjacent private landowners. Previous to issuing the final environmental review, the BLM held a 90-day comment period which ended in April 2023, and BLMs proposal was shaped by input gathered at meetings, listening sessions, talking to local landowners and ranchers, Tribal Nations, federal, state and county elected leaders, interested organizations, the BLMs Resource Advisory Council for the area and the National Park Service, the release said. Opinions voiced about the project in southern Idaho appeared to be overwhelmingly against the project, as Magic Valley commissioners objected to it, along with numerous state legislators and federal lawmakers. Howell estimated 98% of all comments he has heard from citizens about the project have been against Lava Ridge. In a letter to the Times-News submitted during the comment period, resident Brian Olmstead wrote the following: The people of the Magic Valley say no to your project! The ranchers of Magic Valley say no to your project! The farmers of Magic Valley say no to your project! The hunters, sportsmen and outdoor recreationists of Magic Valley say no to your project! The cultural and historical groups of Magic Valley say no to your project! The water users of Magic Valley say no to your project! The canal companies of Magic Valley say no to your project! The highway districts of Magic Valley say no to your project! The county commissioners of Magic Valley say no to your project! All of the state legislators of Magic Valley and from all over Idaho say no to your project! The governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general of Idaho say no to your project! Idahos national senators and representatives say no to your project! Howell said he had heard numerous objections, including concerns that the wind turbine construction could damage the aquifer. Dean Dimond, the president of local grassroots group "Stop Lava Ridge," shared his thoughts about the proposal with the Times-News. Dimond and his colleagues knew this was coming, but still they will look at the FEIS and suggest comments, hoping to come to the alternative action to completely stop the project, he said. Were disappointed in BLMs discretion, Dimond said. The people of Idaho made it pretty damn clear that no was the solution, not to make things smaller. He said that BLM didnt consider the publics opinion, considering that the agency chose to continue with the project. Dimond argues that the project will harm the ecosystem and leave costly impacts. These projects are going to be ugly and have a negative effect on our economy. It will bring in workers that we dont have housing for and interfere with our wildlife, he said. Idahos just not a good place for a project like this. The public ground is for public use. The BLM promised to be attentive to environmental concerns. The BLM will continue to work closely with the company, stakeholders and the community to ensure a final decision minimizes impacts and protects sensitive resources, including through consideration of additional, broader compensatory mitigation measures. Government-to-Government consultation with Tribes is also ongoing, The FEIS will be published in the Federal Register on Friday and will be followed by a Record of Decision, the BLM release said. Magic Valley Energy called the decision a "major development milestone." While we are continuing our review of the document, Magic Valley Energy is pleased to see that the Final EIS includes a new agency-preferred alternative that appears to strike an appropriate balance between the protection of environmental resources and the need for additional domestic energy production, said Luke Papez, senior director of project development for LS Power. The new preferred alternative points to the benefits of a collaborative process. Input from stakeholders has deeply shaped the new alternative that benefits Idahos future while keeping Lava Ridge viable. Papez said Magic Valley Energy has made significant changes in response to input solicited from Idaho residents, including a commitment to set aside a power purchase option for Idaho customers. Television commercials aired by Magic Valley Energy LLC, an affiliate of LS Power, touted economic benefits of the project. The project would create up to 700 jobs during its three-year construction and 20 permanent jobs once it becomes operational, the BLM said. Under the preferred alternative if selected, the projects construction is estimated to generate $21.9 million in annual tax revenue and contribute $138.9 million in total economic output to local and regional economies. Once in operation, the labor, materials, and taxes are estimated to have a minimum economic output of $7.5 million annually. Our goal is to meet rising energy demand while forging strong relationships and partnerships within the local community, said Papez. This goal is crucial to ensure sustainable and beneficial development for the Magic Valley region of Idaho. DECATUR A judge told a suspect whose arrest cracked open a 13-year-old Decatur murder case that he was too much of a danger to the public to be granted pretrial release. Michael I. Wallace, 34, appeared in Macon County Circuit Court Thursday, one of two suspects arrested Wednesday in the August 4, 2011 robbery and shooting death of 17-year-old Caleb Witty. The second suspect is Bobby L. Gipson, 34, formerly of Decatur and now living in Tennessee. He was arrested there by the U.S. Marshals, and extradition proceedings are underway to bring him back to Decatur to face his charges. Both defendants had been indicted on four alternate counts of first degree murder after Decatur Police Department detectives got a break in the case that gave them sufficient evidence prosecutors could lay before a grand jury, which returned the indictments. Assistant Macon County States Attorney Brian Shaw mentioned sealed evidence while arguing against Wallaces pretrial release before Judge Jeffrey Geisler. He referred to clear and convincing proof that shows Wallace committed the murder. Shaw also said Wallace was facing charges of methamphetamine possession, obstructing justice and destroying evidence in an unrelated case from December 2022. That case dates to the days of cash bail, and Wallace had been free on bond when he had skipped a court hearing June 26, 2023, and disappeared until his arrest on the murder charge. Defense attorney Fallon Conner argued Wallace had a full-time job, had lived in Decatur all his life and was not a flight risk. In regards to the defendant being dangerous, she said: ... Considering this alleged incident (the murder) is to have occurred 13 years ago, I would argue to the court that there are conditions that he could be placed on, such as home detention or electronic monitoring, to prevent the real and present threat to any potential victims in this case. Making his decision to deny pretrial release, the judge told Wallace he could see no conditions the court could impose other than locking him up that will ensure public safety and keep him around for future court appearances. Wallace asked for time to hire his own defense attorney, and the judge gave him 30 days to find one. Wittys death, which occurred while he was on the way home from the former Decatur Celebration, has remained a high priority cold case for the police. He had been walking with his then 14-year-old sister and was killed trying to protect her when they were accosted in the 2200 block of East Johns Avenue, authorities have said. Many prospectors did well at first. There was a lot of gold to be found. There are estimates that over the course of the gold rush 1,750 pounds (793.7 kilograms) of the buttery metal were unearthed. But few people were able to hold on to their newfound wealth. Life in a boomtown was notoriously expensive and there were so many ways to lose what you'd found alcohol, brothels and gambling being the chief enticements. Still, there were a few characters who got rich and stayed that way. One of them was George Hearst, the father of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. By the time he died, George Hearst was worth $19 million, but interestingly he didn't prospect for gold when he arrived in California. Instead, he mined quartz. Building on his earnings, he went on to invest in silver mines across the country, amassing a vast fortune and ending up a U.S. Senator. Advertisement Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau probably didn't strike it rich, but he must have made enough to afford the exorbitant cost of living in gold-crazed California because he stuck it out there for years and ended up running a hotel. Charbonneau was an intriguing figure, in part because he was the son of the famous Sacagawea and a Frenchman named Toussaint Charbonneau. As a child, he accompanied his parents on the Lewis and Clark expedition, and after his mother's death he was adopted by Clark. One of Charbonneau's fellow prospectors ended up running the hotel with him. The man's name was Jim Beckwourth, and his story is at least as colorful. Born a slave, Beckwourth was freed by his master, who was also his father, and headed west where he became a successful fur trapper. Living with the Crow Nation for years, he married several Crow women and was anointed a war chief. He was also credited with discovering the Beckwourth Pass through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and for helping to establish the Beckwourth Trail, which thousands followed on their way to California. " " Quartz mining was also lucrative in California. This bird's-eye view shows mining facilities including Empire and Imperial at Gold Hill, Nevada. Library of Congress " " Here's another interesting fact about Missouri: It falls in the New Madrid Seismic Zone. Earthquakes occurring there have been regarded as some of the most catastrophic that the U.S. has ever seen. 2019 HowStuffWorks.com Key Takeaways Missouri is called the Show-me State due to a statement made by U.S. Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver in 1899, emphasizing the need for proof or evidence. Another theory suggests the nickname originated from Missouri miners in Leadville, Colorado, who required a lot of instruction due to their unfamiliarity with mining practices. The "show-me" title may also have stemmed from the practice of verifying free train passes given to Missouri legislators in the late 1800s by conductors saying, "You've got to show me." Some state nicknames make perfect sense: The Aloha State (Hawaii), the Empire State (New York), even the Beaver State (Oregon). But some labels are a little less intuitive and require a little more digging to figure out. The Show-me State for example? What exactly does Missouri want to be shown and why? Like all great legends, this one doesn't have a single origin story, but there's one theory that's considered more credible than others. Many believe that Missouri's U.S. Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver, who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1897 to 1903, is the one responsible for bestowing the nickname. During his time as a member of the U.S. House Committee on Naval Affairs, Vandiver traveled to Philadelphia in 1899 to attend a naval banquet. Advertisement During his speech at the naval event, Vandiver said, "I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me." It's not totally clear whether Vandiver originated the "show-me" sentiment or if he was just the one who popularized it, but the moniker continues to be tied to him. There are other possible explanations behind the nickname, too. Some believe the "show-me" title actually originates from a derogatory reference to Missouri miners who worked in Leadville, Colorado. Men from Joplin, Missouri, went to work in Colorado during that state's miner strike in the early 1900s. Rumor has it that these out-of-towners were so unfamiliar with Colorado mining practices that they needed a lot of instruction. The result was conversations that started with statements like, "That man is from Missouri you'll have to show him." Another "show-me" origin story insinuates that the name refers to passenger trains since hundreds of free train passes were given to Missouri legislators in the late 1800s. Apparently, to verify their complementary fare, the conductors would say, "You've got to show me." And just in case you needed one last possible source to satisfy your curiosity, there's the theory that during the Spanish-American War, gate guards from St. Louis, Missouri, told any soldier who wanted to leave the encampment to go to town to "show" his pass. Now That's Interesting The actual name of the state "Missouri" pays homage to a tribe of Sioux Indians called the Missouris. Many often incorrectly translate the word to mean "muddy water," but it actually means "town of the large canoes." After solidifying his grasp on power, and winning over the people by taking land from the wealthy and giving it to workers, Mao aimed to pull China forward into the 20th century with two notable plans. Both were disasters. The Great Leap Forward aimed to use peasants in rural areas to jump-start an economic revolution through increased grain production. At the same time, the CPC urged peasants in newly formed communes and in city neighborhoods to take the first steps toward industrialization, forging steel through the building and use of backyard blast furnaces. Advertisement Many farmers moved into steel production, which didn't prove economically sound. And due to several other factors, grain production fell and was not nearly enough for a growing population. The result was a famine of unconscionable severity; the Great Leap Forward was responsible for tens of millions of Chinese deaths maybe as many as 45 million from the time it started in 1958 through the early 1960s. Several million of those numbers were executed for various crimes against the party. "It is better to let half of the people die," Mao said during a secret meeting in Shanghai in March 1959, "so that the other half can eat their fill." The failure of the Great Leap Forward enabled some other powerful people in the CPC to wrest control of some aspects of the government from Mao, at least for a short time. But in 1966, Mao launched another deadly program destined for failure. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, or simply the Cultural Revolution, was designed to shrug off the effects of the Great Leap Forward, rid the CPC and the country of those people who didn't agree with his vision, and move forward toward a stronger China. Mao had a simple plan: He called for rebellion against the party as a way of purging the elements that bucked his way of thinking. Millions were driven from their homes, beaten, tortured or thrown into prison. Many millions were massacred across the country. Many thousands more committed suicide. Armed students the Red Guard fought each other and killed others they deemed to be enemies of Mao and communism. They destroyed historic artifacts that symbolized the "old" China. Libraries were closed. Books were burned. "Mao was above the law. In that sense, he was like a dictator," Lu says. "He was also seeking control of methods of controlling people's minds, brainwashing them through fear, through intimidation, through force. He [saw] himself as a savior of the nation and its people." The Cultural Revolution threw the entire country into economic and social chaos. By its end, in 1969, at least 500,000 Chinese, maybe as many as 8 million, died in the uprising. The Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward, remain inerasable stains on Mao's rule. Tens of millions were murdered and starved to death in the name of communism. " " Chinese paramilitary police officers salute each other as they stand guard below a massive portrait of Chairman Mao that still hangs in Tiananmen Square. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images It didn't take long for Napoleon to begin seeing himself as the French incarnation of Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great. He could have made a play for emperor in 1797, but felt the moment wasn't quite right in Paris. So he rallied his armies and set off for Egypt, where he hoped to cut off British trade with India. Napoleon scholar Jean Tulard called the Egyptian campaign, "probably the craziest expedition in the history of France." Napoleon marched 35,000 troops across the desert from the port city of Alexandria toward Cairo. At the Battle of the Pyramids, he faced a wall of 10,000 fearless Mameluke fighters on horseback. Advertisement "Soldiers," Napoleon shouted to his troops, "from the height of these pyramids, 40 centuries look down upon you." The French, following Napoleon's ingenious battlefield strategies, crushed the saber-wielding Mamelukes and took Cairo. But while Napoleon was daydreaming of conquest "I saw myself founding a new religion," he later wrote, "marching into Asia riding an elephant, a turban on my head, and in my hand the new Koran" the British struck back, destroying the French fleet docked in the Mediterranean. Stranded in Egypt, Napoleon decided to pick more fights with the locals. He took on the Turks in Syria and bombarded the centuries-old walls at the ancient city of Acre. But by 1798, morale was low and a civil war was raging back home. Napoleon saw an opening for his triumphant return, so he abandoned his troops in Egypt and secretly made for France. The Egyptian campaign wasn't a total wash, though. Napoleon's soldiers, while digging to reinforce a fortress wall in 1799, made an accidental discovery in the Nile Delta the Rosetta Stone. CONCORD BASF, a leading global chemical company, and Charlotte Motor Speedways STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) program, the only year-round STEAM program within motorsports in the country, have announced a partnership to enhance and educate K-12 children about STEAM initiatives. Since our STEAM programs inception in 2011, we have seen the power and the desire for this style of learning, growing from only 579 children in our first year to over 24,000 students in 2023, said Babette Huitt, STEAM manager for Charlotte Motor Speedway. Our program has not only educated our local children about what they can do within the themes of STEAM, we have hosted schools from Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia as well as a group of students from China. Through its newly established partnership with BASF Corporation, Charlotte Motor Speedways STEAM program will include BASF Kids Lab, offering hands-on science experiments and support from BASF volunteers to help connect the experiments to real-world applications during its year-round programming. In addition to STEAMs daily programs at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which focus on unique hands-on education experiences, students are able to engage through mobile visits to schools, and other special events, including the STEAM Expos. Held during both the spring and fall NASCAR weekends at Americas Home for Racing, STEAM Expos welcome nearly 4,000 children annually with a variety of educational booths highlighting a range of speedway partners such as the local colleges and branches of the United States Armed Forces. BASF established Kids Lab globally in 1997 with the belief that todays students have the potential to become tomorrows innovators and leaders. The program aims to foster childrens interest in chemistry and help them understand how chemistry can be used to protect the environment and create a sustainable future. BASF is dedicated to enhancing the pathway to STEAM careers by emphasizing science education from an early age, said Denise Hartmann, BASF senior vice president dispersions & resins division, Americas. We are excited to deepen our engagement with the Charlotte community by introducing young minds to the world of chemistry through our new partnership with the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Our interactive Kids Lab experiments and educational programs this collaboration provides aim to ignite a passion for scientific exploration and highlight the vast opportunities in STEAM-related fields. Another day, another major company breached. The ransomware group Akira alleges to have stolen projects, contracts, and other confidential information from Panasonic. The electronics giant confirms a cybersecurity event has taken place, but denies any data has been taken. The dark web announcement was picked up immediately by eagle-eyed Sustainibil.IT founder and CEO Caity Randall who noted that Australia "seems to be quite the target of late." Randall is also an ANZ Senior Fellow for the Cyber Security Forum Initiative. "This incident highlights the critical importance of investing in advanced threat intelligence and detection technologies Australia is quickly becoming a considerable target for malicious actors. At Sustainabil.IT, we advocate for proactive cyber security strategies that not only mitigate risks but also deliver measurable ROI," Randall said. "For instance, technologies like SentinelOne XDR can effectively detect and respond to threats such as Akira ransomware. Additionally, using threat intelligence platforms like Flashpoint can significantly reduce risk and enhance protection." "Instead of succumbing to fear, businesses should leverage these advanced tools and conduct regular security reviews. With proper planning and proactive approaches, we can turn this evolving threat landscape challenge into an opportunity to strengthen our defences and ensure a safer digital future." In their dark web post, Akira claims to have breached Panasonic's cybersecurity and says the group will share the files they have stolen. They assert the files contain information about projects and confidential agreements, among other data. The group indicated it will come up with a catchy name for the dump and then make it available for downloading. Panasonic Australia informed iTWire that a security incident has occurred, but the company states there is no evidence that any data has, in fact, been taken. "Panasonic Australia recently experienced a security incident on our network and we took immediate action to secure our systems and initiate a thorough investigation by forensic IT specialists. We are satisfied that the Panasonic network is secure and our day-to-day operations are continuing as per normal," said a Panasonic Australia spokesperson. "We are aware of an unauthorised third party who has claimed to have accessed our network. We are promptly investigating this claim but at this stage of our investigation, there is no evidence to suggest that any business or personal information has been accessed by the unauthorised third party. We have also been conducting continuous 24-hour monitoring on our network and can confirm that no further threats have been detected." "Panasonic Australia apologises for any concern caused and will continue to keep our staff and partners updated in a timely and transparent manner." According to cybersecurity company Sentinel One's writeup on Akira, "actors behind Akira practice multi-extortion tactics and host a TOR-based (.onion) website where victims are listed along with any stolen data should a victim fail to comply with the ransom demands. Victims are instructed to contact the attacker via their TOR-based portal (.onion) where they enter a unique identifier provided in the ransom note they receive to begin the negotiation process. The group is known to require outrageous ransom payments, reaching hundreds of millions of dollars." COMPANY NEWS Sphere PR, a leading Sydney-based technology public relations agency, is marking its 18th year working with global brands in the tech security space. In celebration of this milestone, Sphere PR is excited to announce the launch of a new tailored cyber-crisis communications offering specifically designed for cybersecurity incidents and other technology outages. For the past 18 years, Sphere PR has been a leader in the tech security PR field in Australia and New Zealand, providing innovative communications solutions to diverse clients within the security sector. Its extensive industry experience and deep understanding of the security market have established the specialist IT PR agency as a trusted partner that has worked with brands including Yubico, Secureworks, NetScout, Arbor Networks, and Security Scorecard to help them navigate the complex communications challenges in the tech security world. "As we celebrate our 18th year in the dynamic cybersecurity industry, we are thrilled to introduce a specialised service that caters exclusively to organisations in all sectors that suffer major cybersecurity incidents," said Sphere PR managing director Louise Roberts. "This new offering is designed to address the unique crisis communications challenges todays organisations face in an environment of heightened cyber threats. It will enable them to respond in a timely manner and communicate the key facts effectively to their customers via the media," said Roberts. Sphere PR's cyber-crisis communications service is not just about managing an organisations reputation during and after a cyber attack. The first part guides organisations in implementing their tailored cyber-crisis communications strategy involving all the necessary stakeholders, including the CEO, CISO and CMO, in being fully prepared. The second element of Sphere PRs cyber-crisis communications service involves developing a communications response plan for various cybersecurity incidents and other IT outages. This involves all the necessary stakeholders to ensure all parties are prepared to respond when they fall victim to a cyber attack. It's about leveraging our expertise to ensure organisations practise cyber-attack scenarios and everyone knows their responsibility when a data breach or an outage does occur. Being open and honest when communicating with customers is critical in the early stages of an incident to explain the implications for customers and how they will mitigate these risks in future, concluded Louise Roberts. About Sphere PR Sphere PR is a Sydney-based tech public relations firm that provides innovative communication strategies and media solutions for technology and cybersecurity brands. With 19 years of industry expertise, Sphere PR is committed to delivering exceptional results and helping clients succeed in the ever-evolving tech landscape. See the website for more information: www.SpherePR.com.au GUEST OPINION by Patrick Tiquet, VP of Security and Compliance, Keeper Security: The recent malware attacks leveraging direct messages on TikTok can have potentially severe consequences. Social media giant TikTok had reported a security breach this week, compromising multiple high-profile accounts, including Paris Hilton, CNN, and Sony. The malware was transmitted via direct messages, and have the ability to remove access from the original owners. At the moment, the nature of attack and mitigation measures by TikTok remains unclear. "Users personal and financial information are at risk, accounts may be compromised and malware can continue to spread, leading to identity theft and significant reputational damage for celebrities, brands and even everyday users of the platform. If the malware gains control of users' devices, the potential for cyber crimes escalates dramatically. "Anyone can be a victim of a hack. While celebrities and other high-profile individuals are targeted for their status, cybercriminals often target low-hanging fruit en masse. The path of least resistance consists of easily guessed passwords, weak or non-existent Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and social engineering schemes that use phishing and malicious links. "Phishing can be launched through any medium, using urgency and fear to prompt immediate action. Ensuring that URLs match the authentic website is key. A password manager can automatically identify when a sites URL doesn't match whats in the password vault, providing critical protection against phishing scams. "These high-profile breaches highlight the critical need for enhanced security by both the platform and its users. Users should avoid clicking unknown links and ensure they are using strong, unique passwords on every online account. We recommend passwords of at least 16 characters, using a random combination of numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters and symbols. "Besides using strong passwords, MFA provides an additional layer of security that can help prevent most breaches. If a cybercriminal successfully guesses your username and password, MFA requires a second form of authentication to log in. If you receive an MFA notification without attempting to log in, decline access and promptly update your credentials. A secure password manager can help create, store, fill and manage your passwords and MFA options." A monitoring service such as BreachWatch is also critical: "It can alert you in real-time if your credentials or private information appear on the dark web. The dark web contains over 20 billion stolen usernames and passwords from public data breaches, which cybercriminals buy and sell to execute attacks. "Being able to take swift action to protect your identity and online accounts is crucial, and dark web monitoring allows users to change their credentials immediately, preventing potential breaches." GUEST CASE STUDY: Wholly owned by the University of Auckland, UniServices is a not-for-profit, stand-alone company that provides support to researchers by helping them secure funding and connections that can amplify and grow their endeavours. Seeking out and bringing together partners in academic institutions, industry and government to build new knowledge and solutions through research, UniServices champions research and ideas from the University of Aucklands great minds, which have the power to change the world. The Immunisation Advisory Centre (IMAC) is a New Zealand-wide organisation that provides information and training about immunisation and vaccine-preventable diseases to healthcare professionals, government bodies and individuals. It coordinates the nations immunisation programmes, policy advice and research and is part of the UniServices network. Wharaurau delivers workforce development initiatives for the infant, child & adolescent mental health and/or alcohol and other drugs sector. It is also part of UniServices. The challenge The recent pandemic highlighted the importance of widespread vaccination in controlling the spread of disease. However, many migrants and refugees in ANZ are likely to be under-immunised, according to the Australian and New Zealand National Immunisation Program schedules. Migrants and refugees often face a number of barriers to accessing health care, including catch-up immunisations, such as language difficulties, direct/indirect costs, cultural differences, legal barriers and a health workforce with generally low awareness of issues specific to migrants and refugees. In ANZ, primary health care professionals, including general practitioners and nurses, provide many routine and catch-up immunisations for migrants and refugees. However, immunisation service delivery for this population is complex, and research shows that there is a gap between the kinds of services provided to this group in the countries to which they migrate and the cultural context of the healthcare systems, practitioners, and health behaviours in their respective countries of origin. Unmet training needs for immunisation providers can be another obstacle that hampers immunisation service delivery for migrants and refugees. Added to this, doctors and nurses are generally time-poor and cannot easily commit to undertaking additional learning. Hence, the team of researchers explored a different way to try and reach as many health care professionals as possible so that they can learn in a time and manner that works for them. The research project looks to provide e-learning opportunities for doctors and nurses, and the online learning element is provided because doctors are time-poor. Its also a different way to try and get them to learn in a time and manner that works for them, said Wharaurau e-learning designer and Uniservices researcher Dr Preeti Tiwari. The solution Targeted professional development opportunities for immunisation providers are essential to help enhance their awareness, confidence, and capabilities and to improve immunisation service delivery for migrants and refugees. Wharaurau staff were part of the ANZ team that developed the educational program to support learning for immunisation providers and equip them with the requisite knowledge and confidence to improve immunisation service delivery for refugees and migrants. The multi-module online educational program drew on evidence-based web design principles and adult learning theories. Its content aimed to complement general immunisation training and align with the continuing professional development standards of ANZ general practice and nursing colleges. Input from experts and feedback from selected providers in ANZ added to the robustness of the programme. According to Tiwari, The research project looks to provide e-learning opportunities for doctors and nurses, and the online learning element is provided because doctors are time-poor. She adds, Its also a different way to try and get them to learn in a time and manner that works for them. The ability for doctors and nurses to access online learning is much higher than face-to-face, so we are approaching this whole learning cycle through online learning to help them improve their capacity and their ability to provide culturally appropriate immunisation services to populations, says Tiwari. In New Zealand, the course will be hosted through IMAC, which uses D2L Brightspace. Tiwari says there are a number of advantages to using Brightspace. As an e-learning designer, she was able to structure content in a way that is easy to understand and provides flexibility. This is achieved through having asynchronous learning opportunities where learners can start anywhere in the course based on their learning journey or current knowledge. As researchers on the project, Tiwari and her team will be able to track the progress of learners in the course and capture data more succinctly through the Brightspace LMS. The results Attracting new learners The course aims to fill a known gap in immunisation services in ANZ and complement general immunisation training. It aligns with the continuing professional development requirements of ANZ general practice and nursing colleges. This programme has the potential to improve the understanding and capacity of immunisation providers, better address immunisation needs, improve vaccination experiences and increase the overall vaccine uptake amongst migrants and refugees. The research team will pilot the online research project across Australia and New Zealand in the first quarter of 2024, with the intention of going live in the second quarter. Following its implementation, future research will examine its impact on improving immunisation practices for migrants and refugees. Local church members have been raising money following a fire that destroyed their fellowship hall. A fire broke out at New Bethel Baptist Church of Tobaccoville in the early morning of May 30. The fellowship hall of the church was heavily damaged, and the church has no insurance to cover the cost of reconstruction. Pastor Elisha Robertson says the building has been a staple in the community for many years, providing a space for community members to come together. For 14 years that I have pastored here, its just been such a part of our ministry. Its not only a church fellowship hall, its kind of a community center, too, Robertson said. The building is used so much that its just kind of devastating to see it all gone. The Old Richmond Volunteer Fire Department arrived on the scene at 4:50 a.m. on May 30. About 30 firefighters from multiple stations responded to the call and were able to get the fire under control by 5:15 a.m., according to Forsyth County Emergency Services. The Journal left a message with the Old Richmond Volunteer Fire Department inquiring about the cause of the fire and, at the time of publication, had received no response. Robertson says that a potential cause may be an electrical issue with an outdoor flood light located on the corner of the building. The fellowship hall of the church was the only building damaged in the fire, with the church sanctuary being spared. Robertson, who was also a volunteer firefighter for 20 years, praised the firefighters for their quick response. The church held a meeting on Saturday morning to talk about the fire and how to move forward. It was kind of bittersweet I guess, Robertson said. ... because they were sad, but yet as we broke up from the meeting, everybody seemed to be upbeat knowing that the Lord was with us, and we were just so glad that nobody got hurt. Donna Gray, who has been attending New Bethel for the past six years and assists with the Sunday school program, said that the news hit the congregation hard. Hearing it was kind of unbelievable, but seeing it made your stomach just drop, Gray said. You see things happen every day, but when its right in front of you and happening to your place, it definitely hits you differently. The church is currently working with a construction team to determine how much of the building can be salvaged. New Bethel was established in 1885 and has since remained in the community. Currently, the congregation is made up of about 20 people. Robertson and Gray both say that members view each other as an extended family. The Bible says, the world will know you for the love you have for one another, and theres just a genuine love among our people, Robertson said. The local church is established; since 1885, its just been there. And along the way its got into whats really what Christ wants us to be as a church. Its been the most wonderful congregation Ive had. Despite the considerable damage caused by the fire, Gray says that spirits remain high. Bad things happen, and God sometimes makes good things come of it, so Im hoping that the community will rally around us and help us on this journey, Gray said. OPENING Bad Boys: Ride or Die. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence return in the fourth installment of the buddy-cop action comedy franchise; this time the duo is on the run. It was not screened in time for Ground Zero deadlines. R. (Grand, East Park, Edgewood, SouthPointe). I Saw the TV Glow. David Lynch meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the weirdly nightmarish I Saw the TV Glow, a twisted, surreal, at times baffling horror picture that unearths the darkness confronting 90s suburban pop culture-saturated teens. PG-13. (Ross). Grade: A. The People's Joker. Subversive and weirdly entertaining, The Peoples Joker is the best superhero movie in years, a highly original parody that reworks the story of Batmans favorite villain into a trans coming-of-age story. Unrated. (Ross) Grade: A. Run Lola Run. The 1999 classic high-speed German thriller starring Franka Potente that's a showcase for bravura, still-innovative filmmaking returns to theaters. R. (Ross). Grade: A. The Watchers. Dakota Fanning is an artist stranded in an Irish forest with three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures in this horror movie that was not screened in advance for critics. PG-13. (Grand, East Park Edgewood, SouthPointe). ONGOING Ezra. Strong performances by Bobby Cannavale, Rose Byrne and Robert DeNiro propel this road-trip dramedy about a family with an autistic boy on a road trip. R. (Grand, Edgewood). Grade: B. The Fall Guy. Ryan Gosling stars in this funny, sexy action film about a Hollywood stuntman and his girlfriend/director, played by Emily Blunt. PG-13. (Grand). Grade: B. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. This latest movie in the "Mad Max" saga still delivers the clean, electrifying, inches-above-asphalt camera shots, even if the story is a bit of a trudge. R. (Grand, SouthPointe). Grade: B. The Garfield Movie. Lasagna-loving cat Garfield and his canine pal Odie team up with a street cat and Garfield's long-lost father for a high-stakes heist in this animated picture. PG. (Grand, East Park, Edgewood, SouthPointe). Grade: B-. Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle. Underdog high school volleyball teams clash in this Japanese anime that was not screened in advance for critics. PG-13. (Grand). IF. A girl who can see everyone's imaginary friends goes on a magical adventure to reconnect forgotten IFs with their kids in this family comedy from writer/director John Krasinski. PG. (Grand, East Park, Edgewood, SouthPointe). Grade: B. In a Violent Nature. This gorefest turns slasher-movie convention on its head, viewing the killings of kids in a cabin from the undead killer's point of view. R. (Grand). Grade: B. Kingdom of The Planet of the Apes. Director Wes Ball injects new life into the long-running franchise with this politically tinged take on the apes dominating the Earth as humans struggle to survive. (Grand, East Park). PG-13. Grade: B. Sight. Greg Kinnear and Terry Chen star in this faith-based film that tells the story of Ming Wang, an impoverished Chinese prodigy who flees Communist China to become a pioneering eye surgeon in America. PG-13. (Edgewood). Grade: B. The Strangers: Chapter 1. A couple is forced to spend the night in a remote cabin where they are terrorized by three masked strangers in the first installment of a new horror series. R. (Grand). Grade: C+. Summer Camp. Diane Keaton, Kathy Bates and Alfre Woodard, best friends since being inseparable at summer camp, come back together in a reunion in this comedy. PG-13. (Grand). Grade: C+. Oksana Kachmina and Stanislav Kachmin watched Russian tanks roll into their southern Ukraine town just hours after the invasion began as they fled with their three young children including a baby just 25 days old and whatever belongings they could grab. That was in February 2022, around the same time Pavlo and Sniazhana Kysorets and their children made a harrowing 900-mile journey from their home near the Russian border to safety. Both families eventually landed in Lincoln, joining family or friends already settled in the Capital City, finding jobs, places to live, making a home here. On Thursday, both couples sat in a quiet conference room in a city office in Lincoln across the table from U.S. Under Secretary of State John Bass, telling their stories, explaining the biggest challenges they faced once they arrived on American soil, describing what helped the most. Bass, who was in Lincoln and Omaha on the 80th anniversary of D-Day, was in the conference room mostly to listen, he said, to help him understand how policies at the federal level impact local resettlement efforts. Its been very painful ... to see what you and your country had to endure the last two and a half years the last 10 years, in fact, and so Im glad you are finding a home here for however long that is, he said. Id be interested to hear about your experience and adjusting to life in the United States. The biggest help, said the Kysorets, was from local agencies that helped coordinate medical care with German doctors for their young son. The doctors in Germany, where they'd been staying, told them arranging that care was critical, and the only way it would be safe for their son who has a bone inflammation disease was to travel here. Both couples said financial help with housing was also very helpful, as was help getting government assistance for food and medical care because they had to flee so quickly with no time to plan or save. That helped a lot because we couldnt survive without that, said Oksana Kachmina. Bass meeting with local health department officials, the Ukrainian couples and representatives of various resettlement agencies Thursday was among several stops. He also attended a breakfast at Creighton University, the opening of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Papillion, met with Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird, participated in a business roundtable with the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce and a D-Day commemoration at the Nebraska National Guard Museum in Seward and was scheduled to meet with University of Nebraska and Nebraska Farm Bureau representatives at UNL on Friday. Sergii Chekuskin, a church administrator at the House of Prayer in Lincoln, which has helped many of the Ukrainian refugees, said he remembers the day the mayor came to them and said her team would do whatever they could to help. They did, he said, as did resettlement agencies and organizations like Lincoln Literacy. We felt so much support, he said. We couldnt believe it. One of the biggest barriers he said, has been transportation, especially getting drivers licenses because of government regulations that prevented it. Legislation introduced by state Sen. Tom Brewer that allowed the state to issue specially marked drivers licenses to people granted immigration parole status made a huge difference, he said. For Ukrainian refugees who speak little English, getting a job can be difficult, he said, though companies like Kawasaki, which offers English classes, have been very helpful. Matt Martin, assistant vice president of refugee and immigrant programs for Lutheran Family Services, said standardizing the many different immigration statuses would help refugee resettlement agencies. The number of different statuses and benefits and legal rights that every different category of refugee comes under makes it very challenging for us to provide services not only in a good way but in a comprehensive and equitable way, he said. The other challenge, he said, is funding, which doesnt cover increasing costs, especially for housing, Martin said. Another challenge, said Katie Patrick, executive director of Catholic Social Services of Southern Nebraska, is the deadlines set by federal officials for delivering resettlement services. All the information refugees receive when they first arrive is like water from a fire hose and its hard for them to really articulate or know what they need, said Kerry Kernen, assistant director of the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department. Refugees want to find jobs quickly, Patrick said, but taking English classes and learning how to drive are also important, and the deadlines dont always allow for that. I think that there just needs to be more understanding within the policy about how integration takes time, she said. The Ukrainian couples and Chekuskin told Bass continued support of Ukrainians in the war is vital. Bass said the state department has been frustrated by the delays in funding, but the administration is committed to sustaining that support. Biden is meeting with European leaders in part to discuss how to ensure Russia ultimately pays a price for its aggression, he said. How were able to do that is complicated and its going to take longer than anyone would like, he said. In January, Oksana Kachmina said their parents were finally able to join them in Lincoln, and it feels like home here now. Still, they would like to return one day, they said, but the bombings have devastated much of their city. Russian security forces are now living in Oksana and Stanislavs home. Do we want to go back to Ukraine? Of course we want to said Chekuskin, interpreting for Stanislav. We dont know whats left. Two years into war, thousands of Ukrainians search for missing loved ones A losing candidate for a Douglas County Board seat wants a vote recount as part of his broader effort to raise questions about local vote-counting machines. In an email to the Douglas County Election Commission, Kenneth Anderson said he would pay for the recount of his primary race against Sean Kelly, who won the Republican nomination for the District 5 County Board seat by a landslide. Kelly garnered 2,668 votes to Andersons 1,459 votes, with 24 write-ins. The actual vote count matters to the last vote, not merely to the race winner, so Ill pay you to count to the last vote rather than merely to the race winner, Anderson said in the email. Douglas County Election Commissioner Brian Kruse said Wednesday that recounting the County Board district is estimated to cost $2,200. He said Anderson has until 5 p.m. Monday to pay that amount for the recount to proceed on June 12, as required by state law. Kruse said not even the longest-serving employee in the Douglas County office could remember a previous request by a losing candidate to pay for a recount, although there have been some recounts mandated by state law. Mandatory recounts occur when the vote gap between two candidates is 1% or less of the winning candidates vote total. Those have rarely altered the final vote count of recounted races, let alone the winning candidate. A recount in 2020 confirmed that Mike Boyle had defeated Roger Garcia by three votes to win the Democratic primary for Douglas County Board. In 2013, a recount ended up with the same one-vote difference between the second- and third-place candidates for an Omaha Public School board seat as in the previous tally. Kruse said he believes the recount Anderson is seeking would be another tool in the toolbox to show that elections are fair and free and accurate. Anderson, who signed himself watchful citizen, initially asked for a hand-to-eye recount of the race, if allowed. Kruse denied the request, citing a state law that requires the procedures for the recounting of ballots shall be the same as those used for the counting of ballots on election day. Machines are used to count ballots in Nebraska, as they are virtually across the country. But some people have grown leery of the machines, alleging that they are being used to perpetrate various election irregularities, fraud and tampering. Anderson said Wednesday he intends that I and the entire county and, in fact, maybe an even wider audience, learn from this recount. The lesson has to do with his concerns about ES&S and its role in electing public officials. ES&S is an Omaha-based company whose vote-counting equipment handles about half the nations ballot-counting. Earlier, Anderson described himself as a single issue candidate focused on protecting the power of every legitimate voters vote by having elections by paper ballots and results counted by hand. He claims that, under the current system, our republic is being stolen! My top priority is to continue my efforts to keep the votes of county voters secret from ES&S and their dark software as the states Constitution guarantees, he said. I believe this to be a beginning step of this earth transitioning into an amazing fantastic future. ES&S officials have defended the security of their machines and software, as has Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen and local election officials. On Wednesday, Kruse said Douglas County uses ES&S equipment to count votes, but the company has no role in conducting elections. We believe in them. We trust them. Weve been a partner with them since their inception, Kruse said of ES&S. Theyre a good and honorable company. Kelly will face Democrat Brian Fahey in November for the seat currently held by Democrat Maureen Boyle, who is not running for reelection. Fahey had no opposition in the Democratic Party primary. Top Journal Star photos for May 2024 RACINE The Racine Common Council approved the appointment of Jim Sullivan as City Administrator on Tuesday. Council members voted 6-6 to approve Sullivans appointment, with Mayor Cory Masons affirming vote passing the motion. Alders Mollie Jones, Maurice Horton, Marcus West, Terry McCarthy, Sam Peete and Alicia Jarrett voted yes to the appointment; alders Jeff Coe, David Maack, Melissa Kaprelian, Sandy Weidner, Henry Perez and Renee Kelly voted no. Alders Olivia Turquoise-Davis, Mary Land and Cory Sebastian were not present at the meeting. The city announced Sullivans appointment to the position, pending council approval, on May 31. Sullivan will begin his position as city administrator June 10. He will fill the vacancy left by current City Administrator Paul Vornholts upcoming retirement. Most recently, Sullivan served as director of Milwaukee County Child Support Services. He has also served as a Wisconsin state senator and as an alder in Wauwatosa, according to the city. As city administrator, Sullivan will coordinate and supervise daily operations of the city. He will be involved in preparing annual budgets and implementing city policies, according to the city. At Tuesdays meeting, prior to the vote, several council members expressed reservations about approving Sullivans appointment, saying they hadnt gotten the chance to review candidates for the position and did not know enough about Sullivans experience. Alders McCarthy and Jones interviewed the final two candidates for the position at their request, McCarthy said Tuesday. All council members received a copy of McCarthy and Jones reviews earlier on Tuesday, at the request of Weidner. Prior to the vote, Maack said city administrator is a valuable position and that its hiring process should have gone differently. The first I heard that we had hired someone was when I got a call from HR telling me thered be an item on the agenda, that the gentlemans name was Jim Sullivan, Maack said. What did I do? I started Googling who Jim Sullivan was. Maack said that in the past, hed been involved in the hiring process of most other city administrators in Racine. He said while he did not think the entire council needed to be on the interview panel, he would have been more comfortable with the vote if the council had gotten a chance to meet with Sullivan before the meeting. My first thought was, Why are we hearing about this four days before the council meeting? Maack said. Im a strong advocate of us doing our homework before a council meeting, not having to ask questions during the council meeting because we feel we dont have the answers. Maack said he did not know whether he would vote to approve Sullivans appointment. It has nothing to do with Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Sullivans background. It has more to do with the comfort level and wanting to know that we have the absolute best candidate before us, and so I have reservations today, he said. Weidner said all council members should have received the opportunity to meet with the city administrator before the vote. Only a select few aldermen were given an opportunity when ... we are all equals on this council, she said. Perez asked Sullivan, who attended the meeting, why he believed the city administrator position was important and how Sullivan best fit the bill. Sullivan said that in the past, he served on two different committees responsible for hiring city administrators and that he came to value the support, guidance and information function the position brings. Im pleased that City Administrator Vornholt has been willing to overlap with me for a period of time so that I can learn a little bit more about the position, Sullivan said. I very much look forward to getting to know all of you in the City of Racine and would very much welcome the opportunity to serve Racine and this council in that capacity. In the citys announcement May 31, Mason thanked Vornholt for his service and said the city is excited to welcome Sullivan as the new city administrator. He brings extensive experience both as an elected official and government administrator, Mason said. His skills will help all city departments continue to improve services that make Racine a great place for people to live, businesses to grow, and visitors to experience. 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 A newborn child died in a house fire on Thursday, according to the York Police Department. Rescue crews responded to the fire around 4:09 p.m., police said. The York Fire Department put out the fire. Police said a newborn child suffered fatal injuries in the fire. The police department thanked the community for its support and asked that the family's privacy be respected. In addition to the fire department, the State Fire Marshal's Office, Black Hills Energy, Nebraska Public Power District and Nebraska State Patrol is assisting. An investigation into the fire continues. La Crosse city officials heard from residents, property managers and housing advocates in a public hearing Thursday and recommended approval of a lease extension for six Rivercrest Village homes. Families at Rivercrest Village face possible eviction if the city and Rivercrest property managers cannot strike a deal over use of the city-owned land. The Finance & Administration committee discussed extending leases with six families at Rivercrest Village that would expire June 30 if a deal is not met. The committee unanimously recommended the full city council approve the extension, after grilling property managers about their use of the property. Property managers overseeing the trailer park properties allowed several homes to encroach beyond parcel boundaries and neglected to inform residents that the lease on the property with the city was nearing its end. Residents of the threatened homes in Rivercrest Village spoke in a public hearing Thursday to voice approval for the proposed lease extension. If passed, the extension would allow city officials to negotiate with the property owners to find a long-term solution for residents. La Crosse leased the parcel containing six homes to property manager Jay Hoeschler and others at Rivercrest Partners LLC from 1997 to 2021. The two parties agreed upon two year-long lease extensions that gave a cut from the market rate to the managers. In October, Hoeschler attempted to negotiate a land purchase for the city-owned parcel. City engineer Matt Gallager said when the city assessed the parcel, they found several properties fell outside of the boundaries, violating the current lease. Gallager also argued the priorities of the negotiations had been warped and debates over assessments of the canal took away from the larger issue of leasing agreements. He said property setbacks from the canal and maintenance access were not the primary issue related to the lease, and only came up as part of a proposed sale. The three primary issues weve been dealing with for almost two years now are first of all a lease, second of all encroaching buildings and thirdly the future of the ability to reconstruct the creek, Gallager said. The 100-foot deal was not the primary issue. Gallager laid out a timeline of events that led to the 100-foot buffer zone becoming the contentious issue property managers made it out to be. When Hoeschler stated his interest in buying the land, Gallager had to gauge the citys future use of the land. In his report, Gallager recommended the city keep the land so it can access the adjacent Pammel Creek Canal for inevitable maintenance. To access the creek, the city would need a large area left open for vehicle access. This is where the 100-foot buffer zone came into play. In the event the city sells the land to Hoeschler, Gallager advised the city retain a 100-foot area extending from the canal to make way for canal maintenance. Hoeschler brought up a report from Jewell Associates Engineers that stated any repairs to Pammel Canal would only be for cosmetic purposes. City planner Andrea Trane clarified that the city is not seeking evictions for the sole purpose of evicting residents. Trane said the city would like to reach a deal that follows Gallagers directions on encroachments and land responsibilities. Thats not my direction and thats not my intention whatsoever. I think the plan would be that we would come to some sort of compromise whatever that would be, Trane said. There are some real options that we have. I think the determination of what Matts talking about, Matt is the city engineer. Matt has the expertise for what is needed to provide the safety for our infrastructure. The proposed lease extension agreement includes a condition that the city and property managers enter negotiations for a long-term plan with the parcel. Gallager and Trane both said the property would need to be sold for a fair market rate for city staff to properly negotiate use of the land. Rivercrest Partners LLC currently leases the land for $5,350 annually. This is far below the city Planning Departments 2022 assessment that the land should be leased at $9,600 a year. City officials piled the blame on the Rivercrest property managers for misusing the land and using residents as pawns to strike a better deal. It appears to me that my six constituent families have been put up as props and hostages. This is entirely unfair and completely unjust, said council member Mark Nuemann. If I had my home in their park and I learned that my home would have to be moved because of mistakes made by them my park landlords so that they had lost control of the land where they have placed my home within their park, I would expect the park operators to repair my loss. Several city officials suggested Rivercrest residents seek legal representation to address their situation. The Finance & Personnel committee recommended the lease agreement for approval unanimously, with council member Barb Janssen abstaining so the item would not move to the full councils consent agenda June 13. I feel like the committee really heard us tonight and see what is going on for what it is, said Rivercrest Village resident Marlene Dewald. It seems they know this isnt right. As part of the hiring process, La Crosses city council will consider Jeffrey Tripps confirmation as La Crosse Regional Airport director June 13. The Aviation Board named Tripp as its final candidate in late May and needs the councils approval before solidifying him as the new director. The Finance & Personnel city committee voted to recommend Tripps appointment Thursday evening. Tripp hails from Cottonwood Municipal Airport in Arizona. That airport is a nontowered airbase for general aviation and no major airlines operate out of the airport. It is a hub for flight schools, tourism and recreational pilots, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation. Tripps first airport manager position was at Arizonas Prescott Municipal Airport in 2012. From there, Tripp took his first director position in Redmond, Oregon, for just over a year. He then served as airport manager for Muskegon County Airport, a nonprimary commercial service airport in Michigan from 2016 to 2019. Muskegon County Airport is served by United Airlines with daily service to OHare International Airport and charter flights to three other East Coast cities. Previous airport director Ian Turner left the position in January for another director spot at Idaho Falls Regional Airport. Turner served as La Crosses airport director for 4 years. Since Turners departure, the La Crosse airport added a new daily American Airlines flight in February and expanded passenger capacity on most flights in March. The airport director position is budgeted for a $121,555 annual salary. Editor's note: Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional Chinese festival with a history of over 2,000 years. In 2009, UNESCO included it on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In the Legend of the White Snake, a classic Chinese folktale, a beautiful and kind-hearted immortal white snake frightened her beloved human husband to death after she accidentally transformed from a human into a giant reptile. The accident occurred during Dragon Boat Festival, after the snake lady was urged to drink the realgar wine which dispelled her supernatural power and resulted in her transformation. Her husband was revived later with an imaginary elixir. The magic of the realgar wine described in the tale is based on real healthcare practices of the ancient Chinese. They observed that people were more likely to fall ill during the days around the Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, usually in late May or early June, also lending it the names Double Fifth Festival and Duanwu Festival. Ancient Chinese also noticed that when June ushers in summer, venomous creatures, such as snakes, centipedes, scorpions, toads, and wall geckoes, became more active, posing threats to people's health and even their lives. Therefore, they drank the realgar wine as a means to avoid danger and prevent diseases during this time. Chinese people also adopted other protective measures, such as hanging mugwort or calamus at the door of their homes as a repellant against mosquitoes, as well as carrying perfumed medicine pouches as an antidote against potential animal bites. They also engaged in long walks, kite flying, or dragon boat race as a form of exercise to maintain good health, all activities that continue to this day. In modern China, one popular story holds that the festival was established to commemorate the death of poet Qu Yuan, who was a hero of his nation, the Chu Kingdom of the Warring States period (475-221 BC). In his hometown of Zigui county, in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in central China's Hubei province, the festival is often celebrated with a grand ceremony. Local residents usually congregate to worship deities and ancestors, hold cultural activities, wrap and eat sticky rice dumplings called zongzi, wear five-colored silk garments, and host dragon boat races to celebrate the festival. Today, these traditions are widely accepted across China and by overseas Chinese. People pray for good health, good luck, and also prosperity. They also take time to enjoy respite from the summer heat as Dragon Boat Festival is close to the Summer Solstice, the day with the longest period of daylight and shortest night of the year. Dragon Boat Festival was included in the first group of national intangible cultural heritages of China in 2006, and became a public holiday in 2008. In 2009, it was added on the UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. "Dragon Boat Festival strengthens bonds within families and establishes a harmonious relationship between humanity and nature. It also encourages the expression of imagination and creativity, contributing to a vivid sense of cultural identity," UNECSO states. Dragon boat races have become very popular in recent years, attracting a growing number of amateur and professional individuals and teams both from home and abroad. This year, 66 teams and 1,418 participants will compete in the 2024 Suzhou Jinji Lake International Dragon Boat Race, which will kick off on June 10 in Suzhou city, east China's Jiangsu province. The race will include seven international teams from Austria, Germany, Russia, Singapore, and Switzerland. Earlier in May, the first Frankfurt Dragon Boat Festival and the Prague Dragon Boat Festival kicked off in Germany and Czechia, respectively. Discover more treasures from China on UNESCO's ICH list: 2022: Traditional tea processing 2020: Wangchuan ceremony, taijiquan 2018: Lum medicinal bathing of Sowa Rigpa 2016: Twenty-four solar terms 2013: Abacus-based Zhusuan 2012: Training plan for Fujian puppetry performers 2011: Shadow puppetry, Yimakan storytelling 2010: Peking opera, acupuncture and moxibustion, wooden movable-type printing, watertight-bulkhead technology of Chinese junks, Meshrep 2009: Yueju opera, Xi'an wind and percussion ensemble, traditional handicrafts of making Xuan paper, traditional firing techniques of Longquan celadon, Tibetan opera, sericulture and silk craftsmanship, Regong arts, Nanyin, Khoomei, Mazu belief and customs, Dragon Boat Festival Describing his last decade's work at the Palace Museum in Beijing, Wu Wei says it was often like "archaeology on the roof". The researcher, who has worked in the archaeology department of the museum, also known as the Forbidden City, cherishes his time walking along the eaves of the former royal structure. The Forbidden City functioned as China's imperial palace from 1420 to 1911, during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, marking the apex of ancient Chinese palatial constructions. This UNESCO World Heritage Site in the heart of Beijing is also the world's largest surviving architectural complex with wooden structures. From the perspective of archaeology, Wu also has "regrets". Due to limited excavations within the compound of the Palace Museum, it seemed that an imperial city from even earlier than the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) was probably buried beneath. "But the Forbidden City is too perfect," he says, adding that it would be too difficult and damaging to the existing structure to dig. Sometimes, however, the picture can seem clearer when viewed from afar. Prototypes of the Forbidden City in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, and Fengyang county in Anhui province were constructed in the early Ming Dynasty before Beijing finally became its national capital, the focus of his studies. Wu is concentrating on a new turf to get more inspiration. Another "Forbidden City", about 2,400 kilometers to the south of Beijing and beyond the national border, offers an intriguing horizon for his journey exploring the evolution of imperial palaces. By invitation of the Imperial Citadel Studies of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, Wu has conducted comparative studies since 2023 on the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long in Hanoi. This provided him with a rare chance to join Vietnamese colleagues and have a panoramic view of archaeological materials stretching back almost one millennium. The citadel was the central seat of Vietnamese imperial power from the 11th century to the 18th century. It was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010 on the 1,000th anniversary of its construction. Time as well as the dynastic rise and fall over history has greatly changed the appearance of this complex, especially after the 19th century when the capital was moved southward to Hue during the Nguyen Dynasty. Many royal constructions above the ground were gradually replaced by Western-style office buildings during the rule of the French. Standing on the site, Wu still says he feels "familiar yet fresh", imagining the grandeur of that former Vietnamese royal palace. In his eyes, a system of architectural remains, foundations of palaces, and rich archaeological findings have told a lot about its past, including frequent communications with China. Surely, even for a common visitor, it is difficult to stand in front of Doan Mon, the southern gate of the imperial citadel, without noticing the two Chinese characters revealing its name above its central doorway. The gate also has five doorways, just like the Forbidden City in Beijing. This existing gate, one of the few intact structures within the citadel that is from the imperial period, dates back to the early Le So Dynasty (1428-1527), roughly around the same time when Beijing's Forbidden City arose. "There are close links between the unearthed relics of the Thang Long ruins and those from three early Ming Chinese palatial cities," Wu says. "We sometimes need a new perspective and a global context to better understand the lineage and characteristics of Chinese palatial constructions. "For example, as we see the exquisite constructional components of the Forbidden City in Beijing, we often wonder how they evolved into the current peak of techniques," he adds. "Thanks to the earlier relics spanning a much larger time spectrum, we may have crucial references on prototypes of the craftsmanship." Comparable elements Wu is the first Chinese archaeologist to have been stationed for a long-term study of unearthed materials from the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long. Though he came to Hanoi relatively late, he arrived just in time. The past 20-some years witnessed a boom period of archaeological findings on the site. The archaeological site at 18 Hoang Dieu Street in the west of the imperial citadel yielded rich findings of constructional components throughout the history of Thang Long. From 2011 to 2023, continuous excavations on the central sector of Thang Long further provided key clues to identify the layout of palaces and other spaces around Kinh Thien Palace, the highest-level building within the royal compound. "Due to a lack of firsthand materials, there was a gap in our knowledge of the early-stage Vietnamese wooden structure," he says. "But many of the ancient architecture in Vietnam use craftsmanship and decorative patterns of Chinese traditions. Thanks to this precious chance to approach the newest findings, I can draft a general picture of how these elements developed." The dragon, the most recognizable royal totem in traditional Chinese culture, for example, also represents sacredness, power, and supreme authority in Vietnam. Thang Long means "a soaring dragon". Many motifs of the phoenix also appeared on the site to represent nobility. "You will notice the difference between Chinese and Vietnamese dragon motifs," Wu explains. "Other cultural elements, like Champa (in present-day central Vietnam that was largely influenced by Hinduism), can also be seen to influence these Vietnamese patterns. That's the meaning of cultural exchange and mutual learning." Influenced by Buddhist legend, the Bodhi tree leaf becomes a symbol of enlightenment, and it is often decorated with a dragon and phoenix in a harmonious and aesthetic combination in Thang Long. "This motif also reminds us of the widely seen Buddhist totem of flames in China, which bears a similar shape," Wu says. "We may have different explanations for the same theme, but it at least demonstrates a close cultural link." Mandarin duck-shaped roof decorations, made of pottery, also frequently appear in Thang Long. For example, in present-day Guangzhou, Guangdong province, the earliest Chinese architectural relics of such patterns also appeared in some architectural ruins of the 10th century, shortly before these bird patterns began to adorn the Thang Long palaces. Speaking of construction methods, the dougong, the Chinese interlocking wooden brackets, also has a similar counterpart, dau cung in ancient Vietnam. Glazed tiles, decorations such as clouds, and many other similarities existed in the ancient architecture of the two countries. "It stunned me that white porcelain was used as tiles in Thang Long as early as the 11th century," Wu says. In contemporaneous China, only Xixia, a regional power ruled by the Tangut people across the northwest of the country, was known to adopt similar techniques, according to findings in their rulers' mausoleums. "Where did such techniques originate? More clues await to unveil their possible connection," Wu adds. Wu and his Vietnamese colleagues often brainstorm in their workshop. With the three-dimensional modeling technology, which Wu often uses back in Beijing, bringing higher accuracy to his colleagues, he also learns the scrupulous attitudes in categorizing materials by his Vietnamese colleagues. " (Wu) Wei gave us a lot of ideas on the world's architecture," Lam Anh, an archaeologist who has worked with Wu for eight months, says. "Then, when I dealt with the excavated materials, he inspired me to think more. "You see a piece, you have to see more than a single relic, but a bigger picture in comparative studies," Anh adds. "My imagination thus becomes broader." Echoing humanities In 2022, the Palace Museum announced the launch of a long-term academic exchange project, known as the Taihe Visiting Scholar Fellowship Program, which is named after Taihe Dian (the Hall of Supreme Harmony), the highest-level architecture in the Forbidden City. The program sponsors researchers of the museum to conduct their comparative studies abroad and overseas scholars to have their related projects in the Forbidden City. Wu is among the first scholars benefiting from the program and thus beginning his groundbreaking research in Hanoi. According to Wang Xudong, director of the Palace Museum, the project aims to enhance cross-border cultural dialogue and mutual understanding by breeding talent with a global vision. He then said: "Openness is a must in this fast-changing world, and the spread of culture cannot be unidirectional. It has to be reciprocal." The Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, where contacts between the two neighboring countries stretched across a millennium, looks like an ideal place to review the meaning of reciprocal communications. "Like the Forbidden City in Beijing, it demonstrates shared traditional ethics and values of China and Vietnam through its architecture highlighting the importance of rituals," Peng Shituan, cultural counselor of the Chinese embassy in Vietnam, tells China Daily. "It further represents a shared ideal to pursue benevolence in governance, a core value in Confucianism, which upholds people-oriented ideology," Peng, also a poet and expert on cultural history, adds. "Once sitting on the throne, the ruler in ancient times took responsibility for the nation, ancestors, and people. That is the bond connecting the cultures of the two countries." Due to history and different geographic conditions, variations of decorative patterns exist between the architecture of the former imperial cities of Beijing and Hanoi, but many basic elements are similar, he adds. For example, other than dragons and phoenixes, qilin (ky lan in Vietnamese), representing benevolence and auspiciousness, and the tortoise, representing longevity, also influence people's lives in both countries. "Mutual learning among different cultures is like looking in a mirror, and we can thus better see our own," Peng says. "Joint archaeological research at Imperial Citadel of Thang Long will help us more vividly understand the history, and lay a foundation for the friendship of the two countries in the future." Near the imperial citadel, Van Mieu, or the Temple of Literature, is where people worship Confucius. After work, Wu often wanders among such temples and many other key historical monuments that resonate with his familiar places back in China. Later this year, an exhibition on the influence of Confucianism across the world is to be staged in the Palace Museum. Also as an exhibition curator, Wu thus plans to loan some Confucian relics from Thang Long to better explain their spiritual legacies. He stayed in Hanoi for Spring Festival in February. In his spare time, he also attends classes to learn Vietnamese. "Nowhere else gives me such strong feelings of emotional attachment," says Wu, who had worked for joint research in several other countries. "The traditional festive celebrations remind me of my hometown when I was a kid. When protecting historical sites, such intangible heritages also need to be cherished amid fast urbanization." More to expect There have been many seeking closer ties between Thang Long and its counterparts in China. Last September, the Thang Long Heritage Conservation Center reached an agreement of cooperation with the Beijing Municipal Administration Center of Parks, which oversees World Heritage Sites like the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven. A monthlong photo exhibition on the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, Van Mieu and other key heritage sites across the Vietnamese capital kicked off in May at the Summer Palace. Another photo exhibition on Beijing sites will be staged in Thang Long later this year. According to Nguyen Hong Chi, deputy director of the Thang Long Heritage Conservation Center, a key project is to restore the historical appearance of the central sector of the imperial citadel, including Kinh Thien Palace. "Archaeology will strengthen people's understanding of the historical, cultural and scientific values of this heritage site," she said at a forum in Beijing, following the opening of the photo exhibition. "That will also give people a more complete visiting experience." Chinese archaeologists like Wu thus expect to contribute their ideas and references to this historic program. "We'd like to gain more experiences from Beijing to improve related infrastructure protecting those heritage sites," says Nguyen Quang Ngoc, vice-chairman of the Vietnam Association of Historical Sciences. "Thang Long is more than those architectural foundations," he adds. "Scholars from the Palace Museum, the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven may provide us support to resume the historical landscape and thus revitalize the grandeur of the imperial citadel and better tell its stories to the world." On 6 June Brazils Presidenttravelled to the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul and announced more financial support for victims affected by the severe floods which have been devastating the state since late April. End of preview - This article contains approximately 390 words. Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article Not a Subscriber? Choose from one of the following options From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report. The hardest part of Culix Wiboneles first job in long-term care was not getting hurt. Wibonele is from Kenya. In 2014, she worked as a certified nursing assistant (or, CNA) in Atlanta, Georgia. She went to the homes of mostly older clients and helped them with everything from bathing to cooking. Wibonele worked alone. Sometimes she had to lift clients who were much bigger than she was. It was hard work. She earned only $9 an hour and received no benefits. If not for her second job as a babysitter and her husbands wages, her family would not have made enough money to support their four children. My paycheck was almost nothing. I was shocked by the amount of work we did and the pay we got, Wibonele said. Wiboneles experience shows a bigger problem in the long-term care workforce. Those who care for older adults in private homes and assisted living places face low wages and the risk of injury. The industry also has trouble finding enough staff. Those findings are part of an investigative report by The Associated Press and CNHI News. The need for these workers is rising as more people get older. By 2030, about 20 percent of the U.S. population will be 65 or older, the U.S. Census Bureau says. Its a national problem, and its everywhere, said Dr. Stephen Crystal. He is director of the Rutgers Center for Health Services Research. Shortages and turnovers The industry has dealt with worker shortages and high turnover for years. These problems got worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nursing care places lost many workers during the pandemic. The workforce has still not fully recovered. in March A study of nursing home providers by the American Health Care Association found almost all have open jobs and difficulty recruiting. Turnover is so bad at nursing homes that some lose all their employees within a year, said Alice Bonner. She is director at the Center for Innovative Care in Aging at Brown University in Rhode Island. The people who are left are working much harder, double shifts, overtime and with temporary workers, Bonner said. Noelle Kovaleski is an administrator of the Carbondale Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Pennsylvania. She said the biggest difficulty is the lack of candidates. One nurse supervisor job at her place went unfilled for two years. There is no workforce coming in, Kovaleski said. Theyre just not out there. Workers pass on these jobs for many reasons, including low pay and a competitive labor market. Nurses, for example, can earn more money working at hospitals than nursing homes, Bonner noted. Experts expect more worker shortages as the industry grows. The need for full-time workers in long-term care is expected to increase by 42 percent between 2021 and 2036, says the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. The need for direct care workers, who make up most of the workforce, is expected to grow 41 percent. Direct care workers are important in the lives of their patients. They help with bathing, medication and meals. These workers are mostly women and people of color. Many are immigrants. Victoria Gardner is unable to use her arms and legs. She considers her at-home caregiver to be a lifeline. Her caregiver helps her 16 hours each day. Without this care, Gardner could not bathe, prepare meals, do laundry or clean her home. My situation is fragile because I have one caregiver, Gardner said. Im not alone in that. The industry added about 1.5 million new direct care workers between 2012 and 2022. It is expected to add close to 800,000 new direct care jobs through 2032, which experts say will be hard to fill. Low pay is a big reason for the worker shortages. The average yearly wage for home health and personal care aides was $33,380 in May 2023. These earnings were similar to cafeteria attendants and retail sales workers. Experts say funding is a reason wages are low. Medicaid is the main payer of long-term care services. But many experts say Medicaid reimbursement rates are too low to properly pay workers. Some states have tried to improve the workforce by requiring a percentage of providers Medicaid reimbursements to go to direct care worker wages. Others have used money from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act to increase wages and recruiting efforts. Meanwhile, the Biden administration made a rule in April requiring 80 percent of Medicaid payments for homecare services go to pay workers. Another reason long-term care workers are leaving the field, researchers say, is a lack of respect inside and outside the industry. Barbara Bowers is founding director of the Center for Aging Research and Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She said of long-term care workers, I dont think they get anywhere near the respect they deserve for the very hard work they do. Zulma Torres is a long-time home health aide in New York City. She said she used to cry after work because of how people treated her. For years, she earned $6.25 an hour. Sometimes, clients treated her like a maid, expecting her to cook for the entire family. In some cases, when she took her client to the hospital, she felt judged by the nurses and doctors. Many times, Torres said, you feel like just walking out. Culix Wibonele, the certified nursing assistant in Atlanta, now earns $18 per hour at an assisted living facility. But she has had to put up with years of low wages, layoffs, and severe headaches from being injured by a client. She still feels she is not paid enough. I can go to Walmart and make more money than being a CNA, Wibonele said. Still, even with the low pay, she plans to stay in the industry. In addition to working as a CNA, Wibonele is studying at Georgia State University to become a registered nurse in long-term care. She said, I love the older generation, their wisdom, their stories. I love knowing that I am doing something while they are still here on the earth. And thats the Health & Lifestyle report. Im Anna Matteo. And Im Dan Friedell. Josh Kelety reported this story for the Associated Press and Eric Scicchitano reported it for CNHI News. Anna Matteo adapted it for VOA Learning English. ______________________________________________ Words in This Story certified adj. having met special qualifications within a field nursing n. the profession of caring for the sick or infirm client n. a person who engages the professional advice or services of another benefit n. something that produces good or helpful results or effects or that promotes well-being turnover n. the number of persons hired to replace those leaving recruit v. to fill up the number of with new members shift n. a scheduled period of work or duty fragile adj. easily broken or destroyed deserve v. to be worthy, fit, or suitable for some reward layoff n. losing employment often temporarily Since April, Nigerias government has been arresting illegal miners for reportedly stealing lithium. Lithium is a metal that is used to make batteries for electric vehicles and many electronic devices. Nigeria is making an effort to regulate its mining operations. The country also aims to deal with illegal activity and to profit from its mineral resources. Demand for lithium, tin, and other minerals has increased. Illegal mines are common in the West African countrys growing mining industry. Corruption among government officials is common. And the mineral deposits are found in areas with little government presence. Officials say profits from illegal mining have helped armed militia groups in the northern part of the country. The most recent arrests took place in mid-May. A joint team of soldiers and police officers carried out a raid on a market in Kishi, in southwestern Oyo State. Local people said the market had become a center for illegal trade in lithium mined in remote areas. The three-day operation resulted in the arrest of 32 individuals. The state government said they included two Chinese nationals, local workers, and mineral traders. Lithium was also seized. Jimoh Bioku is from Kishi. He said there had been secretive searches for the mineral in remote places in the past year by Chinese nationals. He said the Chinese paid people to dig for the mineral and turned the market into a mid-way point. He added, the community was worried about the insecurity that usually follows illegal mining. He said that is why they reported it to the state government. China and mining in Nigeria China is the major producer of electric vehicles, or EVs, and supplies parts to other countries. China-owned companies employ mostly people leaving conflict and poor conditions in Nigerias far north. They work in mining operations throughout the country. Chinas nationals and companies are often criticized for damaging the environment, exploitative labor conditions and questionable or illegal mining. There have been at least three cases of illegal mining arrests involving Chinese nationals in recent months. President Bola Tinubu has repeatedly blamed illegal mining for the worsening conflict in the countrys north. He has asked the international community for help. The Chinese embassy in Nigerias capital, Abuja, did not answer a request for comment from The Associated Press on the arrests and claims of illegal operations. However, the embassy released a statement last year following a report by The Times of London. The report said Chinese miners were reportedly paying militants to let their operations continue. The embassy said it has always urged the Chinese companies and nationals in Nigeria to follow Nigerian laws and rules. Nigeria is becoming a new source of lithium in Africa. The worlds largest producers, like Australia and Chile, are unable to meet the growing demand. Emeka Okoro is with SBM Intelligence, a company based in the city of Lagos. Okoro said illegal activities are denying the government income. The company has researched illegal mining and terrorism financing in northern Nigeria. A Nigerian industry group says the government loses $9 billion from the stealing of the resource each year. The government set up a group of 2,200 law enforcement officials earlier this year to fight the losses. Before the raid in Kishi, the law enforcement group seized two trucks filled with lithium outside of Abuja in April. Later that month, the group raided an area in Karu, in Nasarawa State, near Abuja. That led to the arrest of four Chinese nationals and the seizure of tons of lithium. Segun Tomori is a spokesperson for the solid minerals ministry. He said those cases are now in court. On April 22, a federal court in the north-central area of Ilorin found two Chinese nationals guilty for illegal mining. The court sentenced them to a one-year jail term or a fine. Im Gregory Stachel. Taiwo Adebayo reported this story for The Associated Press. Gregory Stachel adapted it for VOA Learning English. ____________________________________________ Words in This Story battery n. a device that stores electricity providing direct current regulate v. to make rules or laws to control an industry of field of activity deposit n. a supply of a mineral in the ground remote adj. far away from other people, houses or cities vulnerable adj. easily hurt or harmed physically, mentally, or emotionally exploitative v. to have the food or liquid that is in your stomach come out through your mouth because you are sick The wife of the President of Ukraine Olena Zelenska chose a stylish and symbolic look for her visit to France, where key political figures from around the world gathered. The First Lady of Ukraine wore a restrained and sophisticated suit, an olive-colored blouse, and her favorite brooch. ADVERTISIMENT Olena Zelenska was accompanied by her husband, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to the commemoration of fallen soldiers on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of D-Day. OBOZ.UA will show you what they looked like. The leader of Ukraine traditionally refused to wear a suit in favor of military gear: he chose boots, tactical pants, and a black sweater with Ukrainian symbols. The Zelenskyy couple's looks can be called paired as they were in perfect harmony with each other. The First Lady of Ukraine wore a classic black suit with wide pants, which she almost always chooses for official events. ADVERTISIMENT She was also wearing a loose jacket with a symbolic decoration on the lapel: a rooster brooch from the famous Ukrainian brand GUNIA Project. The jewelry is made in the shape of a rooster for a reason. In April 2022, a photo of a high-rise building destroyed by the Russians in Borodianka (Kyiv region) went viral. All that remained of it was a wall and a kitchen shelf, on which a rooster-shaped jug continued to stand unmoved. This made it a symbol of the indomitable nature of the Ukrainian people. Now the First Lady's jewelry also conveys a powerful message. Under her jacket, the Ukrainian woman wore a dark green blouse that matched Volodymyr Zelenskyy's military style. ADVERTISIMENT Olena Zelenska wore her hair in a stylish bun with strands pulled back near her face. With this hairstyle, she looked casual but sophisticated. Only verified information is available on OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! Heads of state of China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan congratulate signing of intergovernmental agreement on railway project Xinhua) 08:02, June 07, 2024 Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulates via video link the signing of an intergovernmental agreement in Beijing, capital of China on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project, June 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Li Xueren) BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on Thursday congratulated via video link the signing of an intergovernmental agreement in Beijing on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project. Xi pointed out that the railway is a strategic project of connectivity between China and the Central Asia and a landmark project of the three countries' cooperation efforts under the Belt and Road Initiative. He said the signing of the intergovernmental agreement will provide a solid legal basis for the construction of the project, marking the transition of the railway from a vision into a reality, and demonstrating to the world the firm determination of the three countries to promote cooperation and seek development together. China is ready to work with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to prepare for the launch of the project and build this strategic corridor at an early date to benefit the three countries and their peoples and boost the economic and social development of the region, Xi said. Japarov said the railway is a flagship project of the three countries in jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative. Once completed, it will become a new transport route linking Asia to Europe and the Persian Gulf countries, which is of great significance to promoting connectivity and strengthening economic and trade exchanges among the countries along the route and in the region as a whole, he said. It is hoped that the railway will be completed and put into operation at an early date to provide new impetus for the common development of the region and the well-being of people in all countries, Japarov added. Mirziyoyev said the signing ceremony is of historic significance and a substantial step forward in building regional connectivity. He said the railway will become the shortest land channel between China and the Central Asian countries, and open up the big markets of the South Asian and Middle East countries. This will help further expand cooperation with China and deepen friendly relations between countries in the region, and serve the long-term interests of all countries, Mirziyoyev added. Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov congratulates via video link the signing of an intergovernmental agreement in Beijing, capital of China on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project, June 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Xing Guangli) Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev congratulates via video link the signing of an intergovernmental agreement in Beijing, capital of China on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project, June 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Xing Guangli) A signing ceremony of an intergovernmental agreement on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project is held in Beijing, capital of China, June 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Xing Guangli) (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Vendors transport packaged durians at Haijixing Market, a large wholesale fruit market, in Nanning, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, April 25, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua] From durian to cherry, kiwi to avocado, China, one of the world's largest fruit markets, has been importing more fresh and high-quality fruits to meet growing domestic demand, bringing sweet opportunities to fruit farmers and traders around the world. In 2023, China's fruit imports amounted to 16.85 billion U.S. dollars, up 15 percent year-on-year, with a total import volume of 7.524 million tons, up 3 percent. Among them, fresh durian imports reached 6.72 billion dollars, a substantial increase of 66 percent, making durian the country's leading imported fruit item. Thanks to the relaxation of market entry conditions, enhanced efficiency in customs clearance and the development of cross-border cold chain logistics systems, an increasing number of Chinese consumers are now able to enjoy the creamy taste and high nutritional value of the "king of fruits" at more affordable prices. For years, Thailand dominated durian exports to China until Vietnam entered the market in 2022. Official data showed that in 2023, China imported 1.426 million tons of fresh durians, with 929,000 tons from Thailand and 493,000 tons from Vietnam. In the face of growing pressure, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin vowed to foster competition by developing varieties, maintaining durian conditions and quality, and ensuring efficient transportation for quick delivery. Healthy competition has resulted in a win-win situation for all parties involved. Chinese consumers have enjoyed more affordable durians, Vietnamese durians have gained access to the Chinese market, and Thailand has achieved record-high durian exports to China thanks to the growing market. Statistics show that in the first four months of 2024, Thailand exported over 225,000 tons of fresh durian to China, and the momentum remained strong in May. China has granted market access to and reduced tariffs on an increasing number of imported fruits. Meanwhile, major projects such as the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and the China-Laos Railway have greatly facilitated fruit imports. The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, jointly built by provincial-level regions in western China and ASEAN members, expanded its reach to 490 ports across 120 countries and regions, according to data released in January by southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, the corridor's operational hub. The China-Laos Railway, connecting Kunming, the capital of southwestern China's Yunnan Province, with the Laotian capital of Vientiane, had handled over 8 million tons of import and export goods as of mid-April, with durian imports via the railway surged by more than seven times, said Kunming Customs in April. In January, a container vessel loaded with over 2,000 tons of Chilean cherries arrived at Tianjin, marking the first direct shipping service for Latin American cherries, from nearly 20,000 kms away, to reach the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in northern China. Over the past seven years, Chilean cherry exports to China have grown at an estimated annual average growth rate of around 29 percent. The Chilean Fruit Exporters Association estimated earlier that more than 85 percent of Chilean cherries would be exported to China in the first season of 2024. The growing demand of the Chinese market has spurred the expansion of Chile's cherry planting area and benefited local farmers. From 2000 to 2022, the total cherry planting area in Chile grew from 3,241 hectares to 61,559 hectares, according to data from Chile's Office of Agricultural Studies and Policies. Apart from ASEAN and Latin America, Africa has also benefited from Chinese customers' growing appetite for fruits. So far, China has approved "green channel" access for an increasing variety of African fruits such as oranges, avocados, and horned melons. In August 2022, the first batch of fresh avocados grown in Kenya arrived in China, making Kenya the first African country to export fresh avocados to China. "The export of fresh avocados to China is a monumental feat that will boost our economy and benefit key players across the avocado value chain including farmers," said David Osiany, then chief administrative secretary for Kenya's Ministry of Industrialization, Trade and Enterprise Development. "The entry of fruit into China is another signal of China's determination to ... diversify its sources of agricultural goods," Lauren Johnston, a China-Africa researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg, told South China Morning Post. It also signals that China is determined to cultivate new export markets linking China and Africa, especially in agriculture, because "this may not only enhance agricultural productivity to meet the demands of a growing population in Africa but also boost rural incomes and promote the alleviation of poverty," said Johnston. A mainland resident man had recently won a significant sum of money totaling HKD500,000 while gambling in Macau. To transfer those winnings to the mainland, the man connected with a stranger through an online chat group in Wechat who claimed they could facilitate the currency exchange. Last Saturday, June 1, the victim met with a woman who completed the exchange. The man handed over HKD500,000 in return for RMB470,000. However, shortly after the transaction, the victim found his mainland bank account had been frozen. Believing he had been the victim of a scam, he notified the police. He then contacted the individual he exchanged money with and falsely claimed he had an additional HKD300,000 to exchange. This led police to arresting a 23-year-old unemployed mainland Chinese man at a Cotai hotel in the early hours of June 4 while his accomplices are still on the run. The police also discovered that the suspects mobile phone had multiple fake pictures of mainland ID cards. This was sufficient evidence of large-scale fraud, money laundering, and electronic forgery, which led to his arrest by PJ. HT To promote higher education in Macau and attract more outstanding international academics and students to study and facilitate scientific research in the city, the local government and institutions visited the US to meet with local universities. During this journey, the delegation, led by Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Ao Ieong U, participated in the U.S.-China Bay to Bay Dialogue, visited the Consulate General of the Peoples Republic of China in San Francisco, and held a two-session event titled Development Opportunities for Talents in Macao, China. Related SJM Resorts kicked off its 15th anniversary ceremony for promoting responsible gambling on 3 June at the Grand Lisboa Palace Resort Macau in collaboration with various Macau organizations dedicated to the cause. Attendees included Daisy Ho, managing director of SJM Resorts, and officials from bodies like the Social Welfare Bureau. From June 3 to 5, an exhibition was held to highlight Macaus gaming industry efforts to promote responsible behavior over the years. The launch included interactive games and workshops organized by problem gambling support centers. SJM is delighted to host the inaugural event and will sustain support through education and outreach, said Ho. SJM has worked for many years with the Yat On Responsible Gambling Counselling Centre, organizing campaigns for employees and community groups. It also partners with social services, universities and agencies using expertise to impart practices and assist those in need, complementing the Macau governments efforts. Madison police recovered more than 40 shell casings from the Williamson Street crime scene where a 27-year-old man was fatally shot early Friday morning. Police believe the shooting, which took place around 1:30 a.m., stemmed from an argument in the Crystal Corner bar in the 1300 block of Williamson Street. The shooting itself happened farther down the block, according to police spokesperson Stephanie Fryer. As of Friday afternoon, nobody had been arrested. Multiple buildings were damaged, perhaps most obviously the Madison Greenhouse Lab, where workers swept up the remains of their shattered glass door from the sidewalk. Bullet holes marked the steps just inside the shops door. The Williamson Street St. Vinnys delayed its opening until noon, expressing condolences for the victims family in a post on Instagram. Police shut down Williamson Street in the aftermath of the shooting, but by 10:30 a.m. it was reopened. Police on the scene canvassed nearby business owners and residents for information that could lead to an arrest, including camera footage or other recordings. Officers searched a van parked along the road for potential evidence. Investigators have yet to determine how many people may have fired guns or what kind of guns were fired, Fryer said. Madison police have denied the Wisconsin State Journals requests for the 911 call audio and police reports on the case, citing the ongoing investigation. Bullet hole A bullet hole in a window at Madison Greenhouse Labs on Williamson Street. Multiple businesses were damaged in the shooting, police said. Broken glass A bullet hole is visible beyond the doorway of Madison Greenhouse Labs, which was struck by multiple bullets in a shooting early Friday morning. The chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer of the Universities of Wisconsin has left the job after less than a year, most of which has been fraught with political fights over DEI between the UW system and Republican legislators. Monica Smith, who started with the UW system in June 2023, submitted her resignation May 20 to take a job at private liberal arts college University of Richmond in Virginia, UW system President Jay Rothman announced to the UW Board of Regents at its meeting Thursday. During her time with the University of Wisconsin, Monica initiated work to develop and share best practices to advance our strategic plan and support students success, Rothman said. We thank her for her service and we certainly wish her well. UW system spokesperson Ethan Schuh did not confirm whether Smiths position would be filled. Smith, the second person to hold the role at the system level, was tasked with supporting university-level DEI staff and increasing graduation rates for underrepresented minorities. The job was previously held by Warren Anderson, who had led DEI efforts at UW-Eau Claire and also left within a year, for Bradley University, a private school in Illinois. For the majority of 2023, the UW system was embroiled in a standoff with Assembly Speaker Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, over the UW systems DEI programming. Vos first made comments about wanting to eliminate DEI from the UW system in May and then made good on a promise to withhold $32 million about what the UW system spends on DEI staff and programming every two years from the UW systems budget in the next cycle. Rothman announced the UW system would eliminate diversity questions from hiring applications last summer, but when the system didnt buckle further, Republicans withheld approved pay raises for about 35,000 employees and approval of UW-Madisons highly coveted engineering building. The standoff came to an end after Rothman, along with UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, brokered a controversial deal with Vos that would reclassify a third of the UW systems DEI employees as student success employees and freeze new hiring of DEI employees and administrators for three years. In return, legislators approved $740 million in new building projects and released both the withheld $32 million and pay raises for employees. After the deal, UW system leaders and DEI chiefs reaffirmed their commitment to DEI, stating it is necessary to supporting students from multiple backgrounds on campuses. New board leaders On Friday, the UW Board of Regents also selected its new leadership. Amy Blumenfeld Bogost, who previously served as the boards vice president, will take over as president from Karen Walsh. Kyle Weatherly will step in as the boards vice president. Each will serve a one-year term in the roles. Both have been on the board since May 2020. I look forward to partnering with President Rothman and my board colleagues to pursue the goals of our strategic plan and expand opportunities for every person in this state to achieve a degree from one of our great universities, Blumenfeld Bogost said. Education is truly the great equalizer as well as the primary pathway to economic mobility. Photo taken on June 29, 2020 shows the logo of Toyota Motor Corp. in Tokyo, Japan. [Photo/Xinhua] Japan's transport ministry has uncovered that the country's five major automakers -- Toyota, Honda Motor, Mazda, Yamaha Motor and Suzuki Motor -- have been implicated in illegal fraudulent practices during their mass production certification applications. Amid the brewing scandal, top executives of these companies made public apologies with follow-up measures, but the revelation, shocking both domestic and international communities, has raised concerns about its potential impact on Japan's automotive industry and the broader economy. Frequent counterfeiting In recent years, Japanese automakers have repeatedly been embroiled in certification cheating scandals. Late last year, Toyota group's wholly owned subsidiary Daihatsu Motor Co. was found to have committed 174 violations, leading to a suspension of all its ongoing domestic and international vehicle shipments. Following the Daihatsu scandal, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism ordered 85 certified vehicle and motorcycle manufacturers to conduct internal investigations. As of May, Toyota and four other companies were found to have violated regulations in their applications for mass production certification. At a press conference in Tokyo on Monday, Toyota Motor Corporation Chairman Akio Toyoda apologized and acknowledged that tight delivery schedules and repeated rework demands had placed excessive stress on employees during the final certification testing stages. Toyoda also cited the lengthy and complex production processes, which no single person could fully oversee, as a contributing factor to the fraudulent behavior, after the company admitted to cheating on certification and safety tests for seven models of cars sold in the country. The rise of electric and smart vehicle technologies has diminished the advantages that Japanese automakers once held in the fuel-efficient and durable vehicle segment, said Tang Jin, a senior researcher at Japan's Mizuho Bank, who noted that the anxiety over losing their competitive edge in the face of emerging technologies may have driven these companies to commit the fraud. Expressing deep regret over the new revelations, Japan's transport ministry emphasized that certification fraud undermines consumer trust and will destabilize the vehicle certification system. The ministry has decided to conduct on-site inspections at all five implicated companies. Inspectors will question quality control officers and analyze documents to uncover the full extent of the malpractice, said the ministry, adding that severe penalties may be imposed depending on the findings. Multiple models involved So far, certification violations have been identified in 38 models across the five scandal-hit companies, 32 of which are no longer in production. Honda has the highest number of affected models, with 22, all of which are out of production. Three of Toyota's seven affected models are still in production: Corolla Fielder, Corolla Axio, and Yaris Cross. The transport ministry unveiled that Toyota submitted falsified data for pedestrian protection tests for its three in-production models and illegally modified test vehicles for crash tests on four discontinued models. As a result, shipments of six in-production models from Toyota, Mazda, and Yamaha have been halted until their compliance with safety standards is verified. As the internal investigations are not yet complete, and the transport ministry's on-site inspections have only just begun, the possibility of further expansion of the falsifying issue still exists, according to industry insiders. Local experts suggest that the recurring certification issues in Japan's automotive industry indicate systemic problems within the certification process itself, urging the transport ministry to proactively engage with companies to update outdated regulations and improve the system. Uncertain impact Local media reported that the transport ministry's inspections could last up to two months. Automotive industry analyst Takaki Nakanishi estimated that if Toyota and Mazda's affected models remain halted for two months, production could drop by 20,000 to 30,000 units. Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki recently noted that the shipment suspensions would inevitably lead to reduced production, significantly impacting Japan's economy. He emphasized the need to monitor the situation closely to assess the extent of the damage and the potential for further spread. As of May, Japan's eight major automakers had supply chains involving 59,000 companies with total transactions amounting to 41.9 trillion yen (about 268 billion U.S. dollars), data from credit research company Teikoku Databank showed. Yoshiki Shinke, economist at Dai-Ichi Life Research, cautioned that given the uncertainty about the extent of the production suspensions and their duration, it is rather difficult to predict the exact economic impact. Earlier exposure of irregularities led to a decline in the shipments of the Japanese auto industry in the first quarter, further dragging down industrial and mining production during the period. Preliminary data released by the Cabinet Office showed that Japan's real gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by an annualized 2 percent in the January-March period from the previous quarter. The widespread suspension of various models would affect the entire supply chain, according to Tang, also a renowned expert in the automobile sector. If Japan's manufacturing industry fails to make significant improvements, the nation's "craftsmanship spirit" may lose its luster, he said. After Japanese companies in the home appliance, semiconductor and electronics sectors have been overtaken, a decline in the automotive industry could erode confidence in Japan's manufacturing sector as a whole, he added. DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip An Israeli strike early Thursday on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza killed at least 33 people, including 12 women and children, according to local health officials. The Israeli military claimed Hamas militants operated from within the school. Meanwhile, Spain became the first European country to ask a U.N. court for permission to join South Africas case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. South Africa filed its case with the International Court of Justice late last year. It alleged that Israel was breaching the genocide convention in its military assault that has laid waste to large swaths of Gaza. The court has ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah but stopped short of ordering a cease-fire for the enclave. Israel has not complied and shows no sign of doing so. Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua, Libya and the Palestinians are waiting for the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, to grant approval to their requests to join the case. Thursday's attack was the latest instance of mass casualties among Palestinians trying to find refuge as Israel expands its offensive. A day earlier, the military announced a new ground and air assault in central Gaza, pursuing Hamas militants it says regrouped there. Troops repeatedly swept back into parts of the Gaza Strip they previously invaded, underscoring the resilience of the militant group despite Israel's nearly eight-month onslaught. Witnesses and hospital officials said the predawn strike hit the al-Sardi School, run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees known by the acronym UNRWA. The school was filled with Palestinians who fled Israeli operations and bombardment in northern Gaza, they said. The hospital initially reported that nine women and 14 children were among those killed in the strike on the school. The hospital morgue later amended those records to show that the dead included three women, nine children and 21 men. It was not immediately clear what caused the discrepancy. An Associated Press reporter had counted the bodies but was unable to look beneath the shrouds. Separate strikes in central Gaza killed another 15 people, nearly all men. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the spokesman for the Israeli military, said it carried out a "precise strike" based on intelligence that militants were planning and conducting attacks from inside three classrooms. He said only those rooms were attacked. "We conducted the strike once our intelligence and surveillance indicated that there were no women or children inside the Hamas compound, inside those classrooms," he said. Hagari said there were about 30 suspected militants in the three rooms. He said the military confirmed killing nine of them, and displayed a slide showing their names and photos. He provided no evidence to substantiate the military's claims. Casualties from the strike arrived at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, which already was overwhelmed by a stream of constant ambulances since the central Gaza incursion began 24 hours earlier, said Omar al-Derawi, a photographer working for the hospital. Videos circulating online appeared to show several wounded people being treated on the floor of the hospital, a common scene in Gaza's overwhelmed medical wards. Electricity in much of the hospital is out because staff are rationing fuel supplies for the generator. "You can't walk in the hospital there's so many people. Women from the victims' families are massed in the hallways, crying," he said. The school was in Nuseirat, one of several built-up refugee camps in Gaza dating to the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes in what became the new state. UNRWA schools across Gaza have functioned as shelters since the start of the war, which has driven most of the territory's population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes. Last week, Israeli strikes hit near an UNRWA facility in the southern city of Rafah, claiming they were targeting Hamas militants. An inferno ripped through tents nearby housing displaced families, killing at least 45 people. The deaths triggered international outrage, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the fire was the result of a "tragic mishap." Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack into Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage. Israel's offensive has killed at least 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its figures. The U.S. threw its weight behind a phased cease-fire and hostage release outlined by President Joe Biden last week. However, Israel says it won't end the war without destroying Hamas, while the militant group demands a lasting cease-fire and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces. Far-right members of Netanyahu's government threatened to bring down the coalition if he signs on to a cease-fire deal. Netanyahu is set to address a joint meeting of Congress on July 24, congressional leaders confirmed late Thursday after formally inviting him. It is expected to be a contentious speech at a crucial moment for the war. Extreme heat drives up food prices. Just how bad will it get? Extreme heat drives up food prices. Just how bad will it get? Extreme heat drives up food prices. Just how bad will it get? Thai officials have given Jurassic World producers a stern warning not to damage beaches and national parks when they film the next installment of the blockbuster franchise in the country. Hollywood superstar Scarlett Johansson has reportedly been lined up to star in the seventh movie in the long-running dinosaur series. - Advertisement - Shooting for parts of the movie as yet untitled but slated for release next year will take place in Bangkok and at national parks in Krabi, Phuket, Phang-nga, and Trang, starting next week and running into July. Locations include the lush island of Ko Kradan off the kingdoms west coast and Huay To waterfall in Khao Phanom Bencha National Park. Natural Resources and Environment Minister Phatcharavat Wongsuwan said Thailand was honored to host the filming. However, it is strictly required that they comply with relevant laws and regulations, and must not affect and damage natural resources and the environment, Phatcharavat said in a statement posted Wednesday on the Department of National Parks Facebook page. The warning comes more than two decades after Leonardo DiCaprios backpacker thriller The Beach drew widespread criticism for its impact on the pristine sands of Maya Bay, on the island of Ko Phi Phi Leh in southern Thailand. Producers planted dozens of coconut trees to give a more tropical feel to the bay and were accused of ripping up vegetation growing on sand dunes. Athapol Charoenshunsa, head of the Department of National Parks, said they had learned from past experience and officials will keep a close eye on filming. The original 1993 Jurassic Park movie, based on a Michael Crichton novel and directed by Steven Spielberg, was a colossal hit, as was the 2015 reboot Jurassic World. AFP Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch hosted, Thursday in Rabat, the signing ceremony of a strategic investment agreement between the Moroccan government and the Chinese-European group Gotion High tech Co, a leader in the field of electric vehicles. This agreement will establish a Gigafactory with an integrated system to produce batteries for electric vehicles in the city of Kenitra. The plant will be the first of its kind in East and North Africa and will strengthen Moroccos leadership in the automotive industry and energy transition, says the department of the Head of Government in a press release. To create this large-scale industrial unit, the Kingdom put its trust in Gotion High Tech, a leader in the electric battery sector, in which the German Volkswagen Group is a major shareholder. Gotion High Tech will develop an integrated project to produce batteries for electric vehicles with a capacity of up to 20 GWh at an investment cost of 12.8 billion dirhams. The project is expected to create 17,000 direct and indirect jobs, including 2,300 high-skilled jobs. After the first phase of this investment, the group plans to eventually develop a capacity of 100 GWh for a total investment of 65 billion dirhams. The electric batteries Gigafactory, to start operations in June 2026, will consolidate Moroccos position as a future hub for electric mobility. The first Korea-Africa summit, which was held in Seoul June 4 to 5 and which focused discussions on critical minerals, highlighted by the signing of 50 agreements between the summit host country and 48 African countries. Several of these agreements were related to the mining sector. In this context, agreements were signed with Madagascar and Tanzania to secure supplies of critical minerals for the Korean battery industry. According to Ecofin agency, Africas third-largest graphite producer, Tanzania, plans to borrow $2.5 billion from Korea over the next five years through concessional loans, and has also signed agreements for Korea to exploit its minerals used in clean energy technologies, including nickel, lithium, and graphite. Koreas interest in graphite is not surprising, given the ambition of Korean giant POSCO to quadruple its battery anode production, bringing it to 320,000 tons by 2030. The ambition puts Tanzania and other countries like Uganda, Mozambique, and Madagascar under Koreas radar. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol expressed hope that the summit would lead to expanded resource cooperation between his country and the African continent. Despite its enormous potential, Africa still accounts for only 1% to 2% of South Koreas trade and investment. I hope that mutually beneficial resource cooperation will be expanded, the leader said. As a reminder, South Korea has committed to providing $24 billion in aid and investment support to Africa by 2030. Russias top diplomat continued with his anti-Western rhetoric slamming the West for being still infected by colonialism during his visit to Chad where he wrapped up his Africa tour which included stops to Guinea, the Republic of Congo, and Burkina Faso. Russias Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived late Wednesday in Chads capital NDjamena where he met with his counterpart Abderaman Koulamallah. Long considered as Frances sphere of influence, Central and Western Africa have recently seen a growing Russian footprint. But I can guarantee you that our friendship with Chad will not affect our relations with France in any way, Lavrov stressed. The veteran Russian Foreign Minister had arrived in Burkina Faso late on Tuesday (4 June), his first visit to this junta-ruled West African nation, where a Russian embassy reopened last December. According to a report by the Moscow Times, during Lavrovs talks with Burkinabe military leaders, a decision was reached to increase the number of its military instructors in the country. Russian instructors work here and their number will increase, he said at a press conference in Ouagadougou on Wednesday (5 June). At the same time, we are training representatives of the armed forces and security forces of Burkina Faso in Russia. When asked whether Russia intends to oust the United States from Africa, Lavrov said that the US and its allies continue to take a colonial view of international relations. Americans cant seem to get rid of this syndrome of omnipotence and permissiveness. They consider themselves entitled to present their claims throughout the world, Lavrov noted. But this does not concern Moscow that is building relations with friends in Africa based entirely on mutual interests, benefits, and complete equality, the Russian diplomat added. You are here: Business An aerial drone photo taken on Feb. 2, 2024 shows an international container terminal of Tianjin Port in north China's Tianjin. [Photo/Xinhua] China's total goods imports and exports expanded 6.3 percent year on year in yuan terms in the first five months of this year, official data showed Friday. The country's exports rose 6.1 percent year on year in the January-May period, while imports climbed 6.4 percent, according to the General Administration of Customs. From January to May, the country's foreign trade in goods stood at 17.5 trillion yuan (about 2.46 trillion U.S. dollars). Exports reached 9.95 trillion yuan, while imports hit 7.55 trillion yuan. In May alone, the foreign trade grew 8.6 percent to 3.71 trillion yuan. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain James Cook University researchers investigating men's empathy towards animals have found higher levels in men who own pets versus farmers and non-pet owners. The study is published in Animal Welfare. Dr. Jessica Oliva is a senior lecturer in psychology at JCU. She said it was well established that women felt more animal empathy (AE) than men. "Compromised abilities to feel empathy in men can have devastating effects on both animals and humans alike. Animal abuse was committed by almost half of all male perpetrators of intimate partner violence, according to studies of a US population. "So increasing our understanding of the role human-animal interactions play in the development of AE has far-reaching implications, particularly in males," said Dr. Oliva. The team analyzed 91 responses from three groups of adult menfarmers, pet owners and non-pet owners. Dr. Oliva said animal empathy levels differed significantly between groups, with those in the pet ownership experience group demonstrating higher AE levels than the other two groups. She said the men were asked what they think has influenced their beliefs about how animals think and feel. "Even though the majority of the farmers were university educated, textbook knowledge of animal biology, sentience, and/or cognition was endorsed least by this group, suggesting that they rely more upon their own personal experiences," said Dr. Oliva. She said all three groups displayed evidence that interactions with animals in adulthood were most influential in shaping their beliefs about how animals think and feel. "However, our results support the idea that not all experiences are worth the same, with the adult responsibility and sacrifice involved in caring for animals, without the expectation of financial gain, appearing to be most influential to the development of animal empathy," said Dr. Oliva. More information: Georgia Anne Frampton et al, Support for the 'Pets as Ambassadors' hypothesis in men: Higher animal empathy in Australian pet-owners vs non-owners and farmers, Animal Welfare (2024). DOI: 10.1017/awf.2024.25 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: Summary of the Bartonella serological and molecular testing approaches used in this study. IFA, indirect fluorescent antibody; Bh, Bartonella henselae; Bvb I, Bartonella vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii genotype I; Bvb II, Bartonella vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii genotype II; Bk, Bartonella koehlerae; Bq, Bartonella quintana; qPCR, quantitative polymerase chain reaction; dPCR, digital PCR; ddPCR, droplet digital PCR. Credit: Frontiers in Psychiatry (2024). DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1388442 A new study has found that patients diagnosed with schizophrenia or another psychotic disorder are three times more likely to have Bartonella DNA in their blood than adults without these disorders. The work further supports the idea that pathogensparticularly vector-borne pathogenscould play a role in mental illness. Bartonella are a group of vector-borne bacteria transmitted primarily via arthropods like fleas, lice and potentially ticks, but also by the animals that harbor them. For example, the species Bartonella henselae is associated with cat scratch disease, which until recently was thought to be a short-lived (or self-limiting) infection. There are at least 45 different known Bartonella species, of which 18 have been found to infect humans. Improved methods for detecting Bartonella infection in animals and humans have led to the diagnosis of bartonelloses in patients with a host of chronic illnesses, as well as in some patients with psychiatric symptoms. In this latest study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry, researchers at North Carolina State University analyzed the blood of 116 people for evidence of Bartonella DNA and Bartonella specific antibodies. The samples were collected during a biomarker research study conducted by Dr. Shannon Delaney and colleagues at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC). Of the 116 people, 29 were in the control group; 16 were prodromal, meaning they had symptoms but no formal diagnosis; 51 were children, adolescents or adults with psychosis; and 20 were close relatives of those diagnosed with psychosis. In a previous study conducted at Columbia, these same patients had been tested for increased inflammatory mediatorsin other words, evidence of inflammation. That study found that patients with psychosis were more likely to have increased inflammatory markers in the blood. "As an infectious disease researcher, I believe that infection should be critically examined as a potential cause of diseases for which the cause is unclear or unknown," says Dr. Edward Breitschwerdt, Melanie S. Steele Distinguished Professor of Internal Medicine at NC State. "We wanted to explore potential drivers of inflammation in patients with neuropsychiatric illnesses. Based on the associations I've seen between Bartonella and symptoms of mental illness in my prior work, Bartonella infection could be one possible candidate." In a blinded study, the NC State team used immunofluorescence assays and digital droplet PCR testing to detect and amplify DNA in the blood samples. As the blood samples had been frozen and stored, the researchers did not attempt to culture bacteria from them. Culturing the bacteria can further enhance DNA detection. Forty-three percent of participants diagnosed with psychosis had Bartonella DNA in their blood compared to 14% in the control population. Additionally, using DNA sequencing, the team was able to identify the Bartonella species for 18 of the 31 participants with Bartonella in their blood, including infection or co-infection with Bartonella henselae (11/18), Bartonella vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii (6/18), Bartonella quintana (2/18), Bartonella alsatica (1/18), and Bartonella rochalimae (1/18) This is the second study to identify Bartonella in the blood of psychiatric patients. A 2020 study, interrupted by the COVID pandemic, found Bartonella species DNA in 11 of 17 (65%) University of North Carolina School of Medicine patients with schizophrenia versus one of 13 (8%) in healthy volunteer controls. "We've now demonstrated the presence of Bartonella species in the blood of two separate cohorts of patients with neuropsychiatric symptoms, which indicates that these bacteria are worth studying further as a potential driver of these symptoms," Breitschwerdt says. "At the very least, we need to continue to see if these findings are replicated in other patient populations." "This study provides further support for an association between Bartonella species infection and psychosis and may have important clinical implications," notes Dr. Brian Fallon of CUIMC. "However, it is worth emphasizing that association does not prove causality; other factors may account for the association. "The other significant finding was that the frequency of positive antibody tests for Bartonella infection was not significantly different for the controls versus the individuals with psychosis; this suggests that exposure to Bartonella is common in the general population and that reliance on serologic test results alone can be misleading." Dr. Delaney is first author. Cynthia Robveille, assistant research professor at NC State, is co-first author. Drs. Breitschwerdt and Fallon are co-corresponding authors. Other NC State co-authors include Research Professor Ricardo Maggi, former Ph. D. student Dr. Erin Lashnits, junior research scientist Emily Kingston, and graduate research assistant Chance Liedig. Research RN Lilly Murray from Columbia University also contributed to the work. 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: Participants from the Bionic Eye trial. Credit: Anna Carlile, Centre for Eye Research Australia Results of the first clinical trial of Australia's second-generation bionic eye have demonstrated 'substantial improvement' in four participants' functional vision, daily activities and quality of life over a period of more than two and a half years. Detailed outcomes from the trial , led by the Center for Eye Research Australia, Bionics Institute, University of Melbourne and Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, are published in Ophthalmology Science. The findings add to interim results which showed that the second-generation bionic eye developed by Australian company Bionic Vision Technologies provided rapid improvements for four patients with blindness caused the genetic eye condition retinitis pigmentosa. Retinitis pigmentosa is an inherited retinal disease which affects about two million people worldwide and is one of the leading causes of vision loss in working-age people. The bionic eye comprises an electrode array, designed by the Bionics Institute and the Center for Eye Research Australia, that is surgically implanted behind the eye. The electrode receives signals from a video camera mounted on glasses, which stimulate the patient's retina. Professor James Fallon, Head of Research at the Bionics Institute said, "The camera converts images into electrical pulses delivered by the electrode array that activate retinal cells and create flashes of light called phosphenes to help patients detect edges, shapes and movement."' The new study tracked the patients from the time they received the implant surgery in 2018 to 2021. Its findings demonstrate the device is stable and durable over the longer termstaying in place behind the retina without complication and still having 97 percent of electrodes functioning 2.7 years after first implant. Credit: Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA) Principal Investigator and vitreo-retinal surgeon Associate Professor Penny Allen said patients showed significant improvement in their navigation, mobility and ability to detect objectsin clinical tests, at home and in the community. "The bionic eye enabled blind patients to locate doorways, avoid obstacles and find items on table-tops," she said. "They reported greater confidence in navigation, were more likely to explore new environments and had reduced need for assistance when traveling to the local shops."' Associate Professor Allen said participants reported that the bionic eye supplemented long cane and guide dog use, provided safe navigation around people and obstacles, and allowed them to detect waypoints such as trees and lamp posts along navigational routes. "Patients were also able to locate their spouse in a cafe and detect people moving at a train stationthings they could not do without using their bionic eye."' Bionic Vision Technologies' team is continuing to refine the vision processing capabilities, usability, as well as the wearables of the bionic eye system. Dr. Ash Attia, CEO of Bionic Vision Technologies said, " We are encouraged by the excellent results of the Generation 2 Bionic eye trial. We are looking forward to finalize the development of the Generation 3 bionic eye and enter the worldwide pivotal trial and ultimately gain regulatory approval. Regulatory approval will allow us to make this important technology available to RP patients which will positively impact their lives." More information: Matthew A. Petoe et al, A Second-Generation (44-Channel) Suprachoroidal Retinal Prosthesis: A Single-Arm Clinical Trial of Feasibility, Ophthalmology Science (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.xops.2024.100525 Provided by Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA) 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 wide range of measures, including anonymous and targeted counseling, are needed to reduce the use of illegal opioids and benzodiazepines among young people. This is the conclusion of the Criminological Observatory at the University of Copenhagen in a new report with seven specific recommendations. In Denmark, pain-relieving opioids and anti-anxiety benzodiazepines can be bought relatively easily and cheaply through social media, kiosks or friends and acquaintances. At the same time, there are signs that the use of these highly addictive substances is spreading in some youth environments. This development has led the Danish Health Authority to emphasize the importance of municipalities focusing on local prevention efforts. In a new report, the Criminological Observatory at the University of Copenhagen makes seven recommendations on what the City of Copenhagenand other stakeholdersshould focus on in their efforts to combat the use of opioids and benzodiazepines among young people. The report points to seven needs/recommendations: Increasing knowledge in youth education programs about different municipal services Mandatory and proactive drug counselors in secondary schools Greater recognition and support for caregivers Non-reportable counseling services for young people with substance misuse problems National knowledge bank with local knowledge exchange Eye-level awareness campaign through the "right" communication channels Mapping of medication practices related to opioids and benzodiazepines The report is based on a major survey of young people in the capital, commissioned by the City of Copenhagen's Health and Care Administration. It describes how illicit opioids and benzodiazepines or prescription drugs such as Oxycontin, Dolol and Xanax are used by young people to combat social anxiety, restlessness and agitation. "The use of drugs can be invisible because they are used in the bedroom at home and do not smell or cause noisy behavior. This is one of the reasons why there is probably a large number of unreported cases. We therefore lack knowledge about the contexts in which young people use drugs, why they do so and how they themselves view their use," says Henrik Vigh, professor and head of the Criminological Observatory at the Department of Anthropology. "This study sheds light on the actual behavior of young people and the environments in which drugs are used. This is a prerequisite for more effective prevention." The study includes several hundred interviews with young people conducted on the streets, in cafes, bars, venues, etc. According to project lead Jacob Fischer Mller, this has provided new insights into young people's views on drugs. "For example, we can see that some young people don't perceive opioids and benzodiazepines as hard drugs because they are prescription drugs in pill form and are therefore perceived as 'safe.' Young people talk about opioids and benzodiazepines and know what they are, but many get their knowledge from rappers who romanticize the drugs rather than from the authorities. The question is: who do we prefer to inform young people?" he says. Targeted and anonymous counseling The report recommends more targeted information and counseling for young people. At the same time, it rejects the fear that more information and counseling, for example in secondary schools, will automatically lead to increased drug use. "Young people are already familiar with drugs. A much bigger challenge is that powerful addictive drugs are widely available and so cheap that pills are often sold in sheets. This makes the path to addiction much shorter. That's why we recommend that youth education programs and authorities provide better information on the subject. In particular, to avoid dangerous mixing with alcohol, for example, and to counteract misconceptions about the drugs," says Mller. The report also points to the current reporting requirement as a concrete barrier. Today, drug abuse by minors has to be reported to the authorities, and their parents are then involved. For some young people, not least some Danes from ethnic minorities, this is so shameful that it can deter them from seeking help. "It is therefore also a question of creating counseling services for young people, for example in their education programs, where it is possible to be anonymous," says Mller. Dissatisfaction leads to abuse The report emphasizes that opioid and benzodiazepine use takes place in communities that feel exclusive and inclusive, thus attracting and retaining the young person as a drug user. Drug communities can therefore be a major barrier to recovery from addiction. At the same time, the report highlights discontent as the main reason why young people turn to drugs in the first place. Typically, young people use opioids and benzodiazepines as a form of self-medication to cope with stress and anxiety about performance or fitting in with their own and others' expectations. As one of the counselors puts it in the report: "Discontent comes before 'addiction.'" According to Vigh, this means that young people's drug use should not be seen as an isolated problem. It is a societal challenge. He says, "Fortunately, Denmark and Europe do not have the same opioid crisis as the US, where the spread of fentanyl in particular has led to many thousands of deaths. Here at the Criminological Observatory, we are very concerned about early warning signs, and there is a lack of well-being among some young people that needs to be considered in prevention work. As the report recommends, we need to work in several directions at the same time." This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain A man infected with H5N2 bird flu, the first confirmed human infection with the strain, died from multiple factors, the WHO said on Friday, adding that investigations were ongoing. The World Health Organization on Wednesday announced that the first laboratory-confirmed human case of infection with H5N2 avian influenza virus had been reported from Mexico. Mexico's health ministry said the 59-year-old man had "a history of chronic kidney disease, type 2 diabetes (and) long-standing systemic arterial hypertension". He had been bedridden for three weeks before the onset of acute symptoms, developing fever, shortness of breath, diarrhea, nausea and general malaise on April 17. The man was taken to hospital in Mexico City a week later and died that day. "The death is a multi-factorial death, not a death attributable to H5N2," WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told journalists in Geneva on Friday. His body was tested for flu and other viruses, and H5N2 was detected, Lindmeier said. Seventeen hospital contacts were identified but all tested negative for influenza. In the man's place of residence, 12 contacts in the weeks beforehand were identified. All likewise tested negative. "The infection of H5N2 is being investigated to see whether he was infected by somebody visiting or by any contact with any animals before," Lindmeier said. The WHO on Wednesday said that the source of exposure to the virus was unknown, though H5N2 viruses have been reported in poultry in Mexico. The United Nations' health agency assesses the current risk to the general population posed by the virus as low. Two-year-old catches H5N1 Later on Friday, the WHO said a two-and-a-half-year-old girl tested positive for H5N1, a different strain of bird flu, and needed hospital intensive care treatment in Australia after returning from India. "This is the first confirmed human infection caused by avian influenza A(H5N1) virus detected and reported by Australia," a statement said. "The exposure likely occurred in India" where the girl had traveled, and where this group of "viruses has been detected in birds in the past," the WHO added. The girl had traveled to Kolkata from February 12 to 29, returned to Australia on March 1 and was admitted to a hospital in the southeastern Victoria state the following day. The girl is reported to be well, the WHO said, while no relatives in either Australia or India have developed symptoms. H5N1 spread H5N1 first emerged in 1996 but since 2020, the number of outbreaks in birds has surged exponentially, alongside an increase in the number of infected mammals. The strain has led to the deaths of tens of millions of poultry, with wild birds and land and marine mammals also infected. The WHO said that from 2003 to May 22 this year, 891 cases of human H5N1 infections, including 463 deaths, were reported from 24 countries. The human cases recorded in Europe and the United States since the virus surged have largely been mild. H5N1 has been spreading for weeks among dairy cow herds in the United States, with a small number of cases reported among humans. But none of them are human-to-human infections, with the disease jumping instead from cattle to people, authorities have said. Low food risk Markus Lipp, senior food safety officer at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, said the risk of contracting avian influenza though eating poultry was "negligibly low". "In all the hundred years of avian influenza... there has not been any demonstrated food-borne transmission," he told the media briefing via video-link from the FAO's headquarters in Rome. "Humans do not have avian influenza receptors in their gastro-intestinal tract, contrary to certain animal species, as far as we know. So there is a very slim likelihood, just from that perspective." 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: Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A research team led by Dr. Albert Sin Chun-fung from the Department of Pathology, School of Clinical Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed) has achieved a significant breakthrough in characterizing territory-wide cohorts of acquired hemophilia A (AHA) patients in Hong Kong and identifying their prognostic factors. This discovery provides valuable insights for improving survival rates among patients with this rare but fatal blood disorder. The analysis revealed that the annual incidence of AHA cases in Hong Kong is twice as high as that observed in Caucasian populations. There is a higher mortality rate in the older demographic in local AHA patients, mainly because of severe infections resulting from immunosuppressive therapy. The study was published in Thrombosis Research. Acquired hemophilia A (AHA) is a rare bleeding disorder caused by the production of autoantibodies that destroy factor VIII, an important coagulation factor for blood clotting. Patients with AHA experience severe bleeding and organ damage. The incidence of AHA in Caucasian cohorts is about one per million per year. Its rarity and rapid onset of catastrophic bleeding make diagnosis particularly difficult. While most studies have been conducted on Western populations, there is a lack of research on East Asian patients. Given the inherent differences in the hemostatic systems between Caucasians and East Asian patients, the clinical characteristics of AHA in East Asian patients are different from those in Caucasians. Therefore, there is an urgent need to conduct a comprehensive study on this disorder in the East Asian patient population. The research team analyzed data from the medical records of 165 AHA patients diagnosed between 2012 and 2021 in local public hospitals. This comprehensive analysis encompassed demographic information, medical history, drug records and outcomes. Researchers estimated that the incidence of AHA among the local population is 2.4 cases per million per year, more than double the rate reported for Caucasian populations. The analysis revealed that Hong Kong AHA patients are predominantly elderly with multiple medical comorbidities. The median age of diagnosis is 80, which is older than the patient populations reported in previous studies. The mortality rate is 55.2% compared to 25% in Caucasian cohorts. About half (49.5%) of these deaths were caused by severe infections due to immunosuppressive therapy required to manage the condition. The team found that diagnosis is often delayed, with a median of seven days taken to establish the condition. They found that age is the key determining factor in mortality. Advanced age at diagnosis is associated with a higher mortality rate, as well as a lower chance and longer time to achieve remission. Understanding of AHA in East Asian patient populations is limited, as comprehensive studies involving cohorts of AHA for East Asian patients are lacking. AHA remains an under-recognized condition both among the general public and general medical practitioners. This study revealed a higher incidence of AHA compared with Western regions and discovered unique characteristics of Chinese AHA patients. The patient group comprised mainly elderly patients with multiple medical comorbidities, presenting difficulties in managing the condition by immunosuppression, a crucial therapeutic strategy to treat AHA. "This study highlights the unique epidemiological and clinical features of AHA in the local Chinese population. These are clearly vulnerable patients who require specialized, age-appropriate care," said Dr. Albert Sin Chun-fung, Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology, School of Clinical Medicine, HKUMed, who led the research. "But the reality is that diagnosis is often delayed, and hospital stays are excessively long with a median length of 25 days, placing a heavy burden on our public health care system." These findings highlight the urgency of raising awareness and providing education about AHA among the general public and general medical practitioners to ensure timely recognition and appropriate treatment of this condition in these patient groups. Dr. Sin emphasized that the lack of awareness can lead to delayed diagnosis and suboptimal management of this potentially serious autoimmune disorder. Additional studies are also necessary to develop better treatment strategies that minimize the risk of immunosuppression and shorten hospital stays. More information: Chun-fung Sin et al, Characteristics and outcome of a territory-wide cohort study of patients with acquired hemophilia A in Hong Kong, Thrombosis Research (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.thromres.2023.11.025 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Research has shown that, when nurses feel they are being prevented from taking a morally justifiable action or achieving an ethical outcome, it contributes to poor mental health, burnout, and intent to leave one's job. Surveys from the COVID-19 pandemic found that a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) and lack of perceived support from hospital administrators were associated with higher levels of this moral distress. University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing researchers and their collaborators hypothesized that nurses working in hospitals where Black patients predominantly access carewhich they call Black-serving hospitals, or BSHswould suffer greater moral distress, since these hospitals were disproportionately affected by the pandemic and generally have fewer resources. In a study published in the journal Nursing Outlook, they found that the percentage of nurses experiencing moral distress was twice as high in hospitals with the highest share of Black patients, and that poor leadership communication contributed to the greater moral distress. "The nurses had poorer support from their leaders and poorer access to personal protective equipment, they're caring more frequently for COVID patients, and they're reporting greater moral distress, all of which is an inequitable burden for the nurses in those hospitals," says lead author Eileen T. Lake, professor of nursing at Penn and associate director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR). She says this is a social justice issue for the nurses. While the survey data were collected from 3,675 nurses at 90 hospitals in March and April 2021, the paper notes that Black-serving hospitals are also likely to be disproportionately impacted in the post-pandemic nurse staffing crisis. Lake says that, since burnout is largely driven by workload and work environment, she expected that post-pandemic burnout would be worse in hospitals serving a higher share of Black patients. To survey acute care nurses, the researchers recruited hospitals through the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators, and they used data from the 2019 Medicare Provider Analysis and Review to classify hospitals by the percentage of Black patients from low-BSH to high-BSH. The nurses were presented with nine moral distress situations and asked to rate the frequency and extent of distress. Two conditions they were surveyed on, for example, were "caring for patients who die during a hospitalization without family and/or clergy present" and "witnessing a lack of respect among health care team for patients from vulnerable populations or minority groups." The researchers found that 4% of nurses in the high-BSH category of hospitals experienced high moral distress compared to 2% in the low-BSH category, nurses showed less moral distress in hospitals with better leadership communication, and nurses working in high-BSH hospitals were more likely to disagree that leadership communication was transparent, effective, or timely. Nurses in high-BSH hospitals also reported caring for patients with COVID-19 more frequently and experiencing worse access to PPE. "Moral distress remains an ongoing bioethical issue, and we are losing qualified nurses because of it," says co-author Connie M. Ulrich, the Lillian S. Brunner Chair in Medical and Surgical Nursing at Penn Nursing. "This study highlights the need to close the inequity gaps in BSHs and find innovative ways to support nurses in the day-to-day care of patients and families and lessen the physical and emotional burdens they carry." The authors acknowledge there was much uncertainty during the acute phase of the pandemic and information changed daily, but they write that disseminating email newsletters and organizing staff huddles could strengthen leadership communication. They also put forth the idea of a BSH designation through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services so that hospitals exceeding a certain percentage of Black patients could acquire greater resources. "One of the interesting aspects of this paper is that it points to managerial factors as an important part of the solution to the problem of moral distress among nurses," says co-author Jeannette A. Rogowski, an economist at Penn State University. "For hospitals that are resource constrained, such as many BSH hospitals, increasing nursing staff may be difficult. However, fewer resources are likely needed to enact managerial interventions such as increasing leadership communication." Lake explains that she and Rogowski began working together two decades ago to research why low-birth-weight Black infants had worse outcomes than their white counterparts. They found these outcomes were associated with lower nurse staffing levels and poorer work environments in neonatal intensive care units. Over the years, Lake says, they decided to broaden their focus to ask about outcomes in high-BSH hospitals more broadly. About eight years ago, they started working with Jessica G. Smith, a former postdoctoral research fellow at CHOPR who is now an assistant professor of nursing at the University of Texas at Arlington. Smith is a co-author on the new paper along with Ulrich, a bioethicist with experience studying moral distress. Another co-author, Nehemiah Weldeab of the Department of Behavioral Health Sciences in Penn Nursing, is a data analyst. "The multidisciplinary nature of this team was essential to producing the paper and the insights that it brought regarding the role of management in reducing moral distress among nurses in BSH hospitals," Rogowski says. More information: Eileen T. Lake et al, Nurses' moral distress and leadership communication in hospitals serving Black patients during COVID-19, Nursing Outlook (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.outlook.2024.102189 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A special issue of the Journal of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine on cerebral palsy explores issues of aging with cerebral palsy and reports on often overlooked topics. Credit: Journal of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine Because the majority of people living with cerebral palsy (CP) are adults, a focus on adult care in addition to pediatric and adolescent care is increasingly important to address their needs. A special issue of the Journal of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine, highlights topics associated with CP across the spectrum of life, including issues surrounding mental health, sexuality, and independence. Guest Editor Rachel Byrne, PT, Cerebral Palsy Foundation, New York, NY, says, "Emerging evidence highlights the critical significance of mental health and combating social isolation in the care of individuals with CP and similar physical disabilities. However, these crucial aspects have historically been underfunded and therefore sidelined in clinical programs. "Enhanced training at specialty and primary care levels is urgently needed to address these gaps. The absence of informed adult care stands out as one of the foremost challenges patients encounter and needs immediate attention." "One of the most significant challenges is treating CP across the spectrum of life. This includes issues such as independence, adult complications, and secondary prevention. Perhaps one of the biggest barriers is that CP is defined as a pediatric condition in many individuals' minds. Approximately 60% of individuals with CP are adults," adds co-Guest Editor Justin W. Ramsey, MD, Bethany Children's Health Center, Bethany, OK. The article "Exploring the sexual experiences and challenges of individuals with cerebral palsy" investigates experiences, challenges, and related factors surrounding sexuality and intimacy that people with CP are facing. Lead investigator and co-Guest Editor Heakyung Kim, MD, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, notes, "CP is a prevalent motor disorder affecting children, with evolving demographics indicating an increasing survival into adulthood. This shift necessitates a broader perspective on CP care, particularly in addressing the often-overlooked aspect of sexuality." "We wanted to shift the lens of this year's CP special issue to topics that are often underrepresented in CP research, but matter to individuals with CP a great deal, often more so than the classic hypertonia and gait topics," comments co-Guest Editor Sruthi Pandipati Thomas, MD, Ph.D., Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX. "Individuals with disabilities comprise approximately 13% of the overall population. Our editorial 'Medical delivery without representation?: Examining disability representation within the health care community' focuses on recent events that may involve ableism." "We highlight the deficits and biases inherent within the health care field and explore ways to correct the problem. In a time of medical scarcity, it is so important to make sure that individuals with physical and intellectual impairments have a voice," says co-Guest Editor Christopher Raffi Najarian, MD, MPH, Akron Children's Hospital, Akron, OH. The article "Management and treatment of musculoskeletal problems in adults with cerebral palsy: Experience gained from two lifespan clinics" looks at orthopedic experiences in care for adult patients with CP. CP's musculoskeletal manifestations are progressive due to the long-term effects of spasticity, dystonia, and asymmetric biomechanical forces on the musculoskeletal system. The authors highlight the need for future research to focus on the long-term outcomes of orthopedic surgeries and advocate for a more systematic approach to the assessment and treatment of musculoskeletal issues in adults with CP. Other articles in this special issue cover the following topics: Adaptive designs Global research networks Opioids Pain management Botulinum toxin injections Kinesthesia Teletherapy Gross motor function Virtual reality-based treatment Apnea Muscle spasticity Lived experience JPRM Editor-in-Chief Elaine Pico, MD, UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland, comments, "This is an exceptionally interesting issue because we have explored issues of aging with CP and perhaps touched on aspects that had not been reported on before in this way. It has been gratifying to work with new special Guest Editors and to have Heakyung Kim sharing her expertise from previous issues with a new editorial team. "We are extremely proud of what this robust issue brings to the CP community, providing educational and thought-provoking information." More information: Justin Ramsey et al, Medical delivery without representation?: Examining disability representation within the healthcare community, Journal of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine (2024). DOI: 10.3233/PRM-240013 Amber Newell et al, Exploring the sexual experiences and challenges of individuals with cerebral palsy, Journal of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine (2024). DOI: 10.3233/PRM-240006 Mark Katsma et al, Management and treatment of musculoskeletal problems in adults with cerebral palsy: Experience gained from two lifespan clinics, Journal of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine (2024). DOI: 10.3233/PRM-240018 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Graphical abstract. Credit: Science of The Total Environment (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173522 A team of public health researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in China has found microplastics in the semen of every sample they tested. In their study, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, the group looked for microplastics in semen samples obtained from 36 healthy adult men. Prior research has shown that microplastics are nearly everywhere, found on mountaintops, remote islands, in the upper atmosphere and the depths of the world's oceans. They have also been found in every organ in the human body. In a recent discovery, scientists found that the average person consumes plastic in amounts equal to about one credit card every week. The researchers note that plastics can enter the body in multiple ways, such as through drinking from water bottles, breathing air particulates, or eating food heated in plastic containers. They further note that it is now practically impossible for people to avoid ingesting microplastics. The health impacts remain unknown, but many scientists around the world are looking into it, suspecting microplastic ingestion may be behind many inflammatory diseases. In this new effort, the research team wondered if ingested microplastics might be behind the global drop in fertility rates. To find out, they recruited 36 healthy adult males living in the city of Jinan, in the eastern part of China, who did not work in the plastics industryeach donated a sample of semen for testing. Each of the samples was prepared by mixing it with a chemical solution then filtered for analysis by a team member using a microscope. The researchers found microplastics in every sample. They also found eight types of plastics, the most common of which was polystyrene, which is commonly used in packaging foam. The team also found lower sperm motility in the semen samples containing polyvinyl chloride plastic bits, a finding that may help explain the decline in fertility rates. More information: Ning Li et al, Prevalence and implications of microplastic contaminants in general human seminal fluid: A Raman spectroscopic study, Science of The Total Environment (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173522 Journal information: Science of the Total Environment 2024 Science X Network 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: Study overview and sample differentiation by plasma proteome. Credit: Science Translational Medicine (2024). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.adh0185 A large, international team of medical researchers has found patterns developing with certain blood plasma protein levels that can lead to the development of sepsis in patients. In their study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the group analyzed the plasma profiles of hundreds of ICU patients who had developed sepsis. Sepsis is a condition that arises when the body responds in an extreme way to an infection. It is almost always considered to be life threatening because it can quickly lead to multiple organ failure. It is responsible for approximately 50,000 deaths in the U.K. every year. Sepsis often comes on suddenly, leading to a medical emergency. If it is not reversed quickly, the patient can suffer permanent harm or death. In most cases, sepsis arises due to a bloodstream infection, often after a patient has been hospitalized for another reason. In this new effort, the research team wanted to know if there might be any markers associated with the condition that could help doctors diagnose an infection before it develops to such dangerous levels. To that end, they obtained plasma samples from 16,000 patients, some of whom had experienced sepsis while being treated in an ICU and others who had not for comparison. The researchers measured protein levels for the plasma proteomeall the proteins found in a given plasma sampleusing tandem mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography on 2,600 samples. They created a map of the proteome showing how it changed in the time leading up to the onset of sepsis, while it was occurring, and after it had passed, which allowed them to generate general profiles that could be used to identify patients at risk. They then compared these results with data from another 649 patients. The team discovered that there were three unique subgroups of sepsis patients that had differing plasma proteome profiles, one of which included a group that developed the most severe symptoms. They conclude that some markers may be used to determine if a patient is likely to develop sepsis before it becomes an emergency. More information: Yuxin Mi et al, High-throughput mass spectrometry maps the sepsis plasma proteome and differences in patient response, Science Translational Medicine (2024). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.adh0185 Journal information: Science Translational Medicine 2024 Science X Network You are here: China China has released a three-year action plan to further raise health literacy for all citizens from 2024 to 2027, the National Health Commission (NHC) said on Thursday. Health literacy levels among Chinese citizens should be raised by an average of around 2 percentage points each year during this period, according to the plan jointly issued by the NHC, the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration. Major measures to achieve this goal include better promotion of the subject, regulating the release and dissemination of health information, building talent forces, and stepping up social advocacy and mobilization in this regard, the plan noted. Health literacy is an important indicator of economic and social development and people's health level. The plan highlighted the importance of the participation of non-health departments and communities in health literacy efforts and the need to shift the focus from disease treatment to prevention. It also designated June as China's annual health literacy education month. In recent years, China's health literacy level has steadily risen and it reached 29.7 percent in 2023, the NHC said in April. According to Li Changning, director of the Chinese Health Education Center, 12 rounds of monitoring of national health literacy have been carried out since 2012. The health literacy ratio monitored in 2023 was approaching the target set in the Outline of Healthy China 2030, which stipulates that this ratio must reach 30 percent by 2030. Over the years, professional health education institutions have also played vital roles in the progress achieved in China's national health literacy, said Li. Their efforts include formulating the main content of the health literacy index, publicizing health education information and materials, and launching events aimed at raising health awareness, among others, Li added. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Distribution of hospitalized pertussis cases aged 024 months at 11 participating centers, Italy, 1 January10 May 2024 (n = 108). The shading of the left bar indicates an increasing gradient of hospitalized cases from the north to the south of Italy. Credit: Eurosurveillance (2024). DOI: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2024.29.23.2400301 Data for this analysis was collected through an EU-funded National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) project. Clinicians from seven Italian reference centers, along with four additional pediatric and neonatal wards across Italy, provided information on pertussis cases, including vaccination status, treatment, and outcomes. The research is published in the journal Eurosurveillance. Key findings highlighted that the majority of the affected were unvaccinated, with most cases occurring in the southern cities of Naples and Palermo. Among the 75 hospitalized children, 68.5% were under four months old, and 11.1% required intensive care. The outbreak led to a stark increase in hospitalizations compared to previous years, with an 800% rise within the first 4 months of 2024 compared to 2022 and 2023. A detailed analysis from centers in Naples, Rome, and Palermo indicated that 47 of the cases had viral coinfections, which often exacerbated the disease severity. The study also revealed critical gaps in maternal vaccination, with only 3 of 53 of mothers vaccinated during pregnancy and only 10 of 48 informed about the option. The ongoing outbreak underscores the critical need for public health interventions such as maternal immunization and early vaccination of infants. The findings indicate that prenatal vaccination could significantly mitigate disease severity and reduce hospitalization duration. The resurgence of pertussis in Italy aligns with similar trends observed in Europe after the COVID-19 pandemic, during which COVID-19-related disruptions to regular vaccination schedules and public health measures may have compromised population immunity. Authors propose several strategies to effectively counteract the resurgence of pertussis. These include implementing maternal vaccination during pregnancy, vaccinating infants as early as possible, providing antibiotic post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for contacts and starting vaccination campaigns targeting people who have missed booster doses. Additionally, active screening for individuals with respiratory symptoms should be promoted, thus minimizing exposure and containing the spread of the infection. The high number of hospitalized infants and reported mortality underscore the urgent need to address this public health concern. More information: Marco Poeta et al, Pertussis outbreak in neonates and young infants across Italy, January to May 2024: implications for vaccination strategies, Eurosurveillance (2024). DOI: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2024.29.23.2400301 Provided by European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Knowing whether or not a treatment is working just by wearing your watch? Data scientist Ahnjili ZhuParris has identified a lot of opportunities for the use of machine learning in clinical research to monitor test subjects at home. "It is low-threshold and accurate." It was more or less by chance that she came to Leiden. Ahnjili ZhuParris was born in New York, grew up in Hong Kong and studied Biomedical Sciences in Edinburgh. She then took a master's in Cognitive Neuroscience in Nijmegen. "A friend of mine worked at the CHDR, the Center for Human Drug Research, in Leiden, and that appealed to me too. I was taken on and did research on data collection in test subjects via mobiles and what are known wearables, such as smart watches. My supervisor pointed out to me that this could be a good area for Ph.D. research." Monitoring patients at home No sooner said than done. On 13 June, ZhuParris will defend her dissertation Development of Machine Learning-Derived Digital Biomarkers for Trial@Home Clinical Trials. "I looked for smart ways of monitoring test subjects in clinical studies at home without putting any extra burden on the individuals involved. Using their own smart phone and an app, or a smart phone or smart watch provided by CHDR, we can obtain a lot of information without the test person having to make any effort." This way, we can track the number of steps, how many hours of sleep and the number of phone calls and messages sent and received. All this data is analyzed by machine learning, a collection of self-learning algorithms. "The advantage of machine learning is that it can discover subtle patterns in the data that can point to changes in the health of the patients." In the studies that ZhuParris conducted, she succeeded in using machine learning to understand how subjects fared at home and whether treatments for depression, Parkinson's and other conditions were effective. "In the case of Parkinson's, with a simple 'finger test' that the patient does at home, we can see whether and when their medication starts to work. That saves a lot of time and effort because the patient doesn't have to pay a separate visit to the doctor to undergo an exhaustive physical examination." Her conclusion is clear. "This is the future of long-term clinical research, where test candidates can go home between visits. It is low-threshold, accurate and costs little effort." There are some challenges, ZhuParris says. "For people suffering from depression, we know that, to monitor their recovery, it is important to ask them every day how they are feeling." Another challenge is that there is so far no uniform app or wearable suitable for standard use in these studies. New challenge ZhuParris herself is currently facing other challenges. She has left CHDR and is working for a start-up developing an app that will predict what a person's face will look like after cosmetic surgery. "It's completely different, but really good to work on. And I'm still making a contribution to optimizing the consultation process between doctor and patient." In addition to this, ZhuParris is also spending time on artistic projects. She already has several exhibitions to her credit as an AI artist. Her work will shortly be shown in an exhibition in South Korea. In the exhibition area, smart fashion-police drones will identify members of the public who are committing a fashion crime. "I enjoy taking existing AI applications and using them in very different scenarios. It's great that I have more time for this now that I've finished my Ph.D." 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: Designing combination therapies based on the different factors involved in the control of glucose synthesis by the liver could be a more effective strategy to address the treatment of the disease. Credit: University of Barcelona One of the most confusing aspects for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus is that they have high fasting glucose levels. This is because in these insulin-resistant patients, glucose production by the liver is triggered, a process that is still full of questions for the scientific community. Now, a review article published in the journal Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism presents a comprehensive overview of the most important advances in understanding this mechanism. It also helps to identify new drug targets in the fight against type 2 diabetes mellitus, which the World Health Organization (WHO) considers one of the pandemics of the 21st century. The study is led by Professor Manuel Vazquez-Carrera, from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences of the University of Barcelona, the UB Institute of Biomedicine (IBUB), the Sant Joan de Deu Research Institute (IRSJD) and the Center for Biomedical Research Network on Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Diseases (CIBERDEM). Among the participants in the study are the experts Emma Barroso, Javier Jurado-Aguilar and Xavier Palomer (UB-IBUB-IRJSJD-CIBERDEM) and Professor Walter Wahli, from the University of Lausanne (Switzerland). Therapeutic targets to fight the disease Type 2 diabetes mellitus is an increasingly common chronic disease that results in high levels of circulating glucosethe cellular energy fueldue to a deficient insulin response in the body. It can cause severe organ damage and is estimated to be under-diagnosed in a high percentage of the affected population worldwide. In patients, the glucose synthesis pathway in the liver (gluconeogenesis) is hyperactivated, a process that can be controlled by drugs such as metformin. "Recently, new factors involved in the control of hepatic gluconeogenesis have been identified. For example, a study by our group revealed that growth differentiation factor (GDF15) reduces the levels of proteins involved in hepatic gluconeogenesis," says Professor Manuel Vazquez-Carrera, from the UB's Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutic Chemistry. To make progress in the fight against this pathology, it will also be necessary to further study pathways such as TGF-, which is involved in the progression of metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MASLD), a very prevalent pathology that often coexists with type 2 diabetes mellitus. "TGF- plays a very relevant role in the progression of liver fibrosis and has become one of the most important factors that may contribute to increased hepatic gluconeogenesis and, therefore, to type 2 diabetes mellitus. Therefore, studying the involvement of the TGF- pathway in the regulation of hepatic gluconeogenesis could help to achieve better glycemic control," says Vazquez-Carrera. However, acting on a single factor to improve the regulation of gluconeogenesis does not seem to be a sufficient therapeutic strategy to adequately control the disease. "It would be important to be able to design combination therapies that could consider the different factors involved to improve the approach to type 2 diabetes mellitus," Vazquez-Carrera says. "Today there are several moleculesTGF-, TOX3, TOX4, etc.that could be considered therapeutic targets for designing future strategies to improve patients' well-being. Their efficacy and safety will determine their therapeutic success. We cannot lose sight of the fact that controlling the overactivation of hepatic gluconeogenesis in type 2 diabetes mellitus has an additional difficulty: it is a key pathway for making glucose available in fasting situations, it is finely modulated by numerous factors and this makes regulation difficult." Interestingly, other factors involved in the control of gluconeogenesis have also been identified in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 who showed high glucose levels. "Hyperglycemia was very prevalent in patients hospitalized with COVID-19, which seems to be related to the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to induce the activity of proteins involved in hepatic gluconeogenesis," the expert notes. Metformin: The unknowns of the most prescribed drug The mechanisms of action of metformin, the most commonly prescribed drug for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, which reduces hepatic gluconeogenesis, are still not fully understood. It has now been discovered that the drug decreases gluconeogenesis via inhibition of complex IV of the mitochondrial electron transport chain. This is a mechanism independent of the classical effects known until now through activation of the AMPK protein, a sensor of the cell's energy metabolism. "Inhibition of mitochondrial complex IV activity by metforminnot complex I as previously thoughtreduces the availability of substrates required for hepatic glucose synthesis," says Vazquez-Carrera. In addition, metformin can also reduce gluconeogenesis through its effects on the gut, leading to changes that ultimately attenuate hepatic glucose production in the liver. "Thus, metformin increases glucose uptake and utilization in the gut, and generates metabolites capable of inhibiting gluconeogenesis when they reach the liver via the portal vein. Finally, metformin also stimulates the secretion of GLP-1 in the intestine, a hepatic gluconeogenesis inhibitory peptide that contributes to its anti-diabetic effect," he explains. For now, the team led by Vazquez-Carrera continues its research work to decipher the mechanisms by which GDF15 could regulate hepatic gluconeogenesis. "In parallel, we want to design new molecules that increase circulating GDF15 levels. If we have potent inducers of GDF15, we could improve glycaemia in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus by reducing hepatic gluconeogenesis, but also by other actions of this cytokine," concludes the researcher. More information: Emma Barroso et al, Increased hepatic gluconeogenesis and type 2 diabetes mellitus, Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.tem.2024.05.006 Journal information: Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain The University of South Florida will be the new headquarters of the Global Virus Network, a coalition of more than 80 virology research centers in 40 countries, as well as home to its co-founder: Robert Gallo, who is credited as one of the co-discoverers of HIV. At an event announcing the partnership Wednesday, Charles Lockwood, vice president for USF Health, said he saw the partnership as a way to "expand the role of the university in solving some of society's most pressing health issues." Lockwood said the partnership would "dramatically increase our ability to collaborate with experts" as well as host seminars, conferences and translate research to practical applications. The Global Virus Network also focuses on public health education and solutions. Joining Gallowho is among the most cited scientists in the world with more than 1,300 publicationswill be three research development companies and more virologists. Lockwood saw it as an opportunity to build out a medical district in Channelsidewhich already includes USF's Heart Institute, College of Medicine, College of Pharmacy and a Tampa General Hospital clinicand create a "research triangle" of sorts between Moffitt, the main USF campus and the medical campus downtown. "We think it will become a really dominant force in the world to combat pandemics to foreign disease," he said. Brett Giroir, executive chair of the network's board, said he volunteered to serve on the board after his time as assistant secretary of health and acting Food and Drug Administration commissioner under former President Donald Trump. "I understand the critically important role that the GVN can play in national policy in global science and keeping the world bio-safe," he said. "We are interested in health care and public health innovations and practical implementations that help people today, tomorrow, our children and of course those in the future." Giroir said he worked with Florida officials on a daily basis during his time with the Trump administration, and said it was a collaborative partnership. Though Lockwood and USF's health team were involved in the governor's response, with the governor appearing near Lockwood to roll out vaccines, Florida's surgeon general Joseph Ladapo has since called for an end to mRNA-vaccines, and Gov. Ron DeSantis has banned vaccine or mask mandates in schools. The network's president, Yale-based pediatrician Stan Vermund, said they were aware USF is a state-funded school in Florida, but that the network, registered in Delaware, was independent. "We will be independent voices for science," he said. That said, Vermund said, it's important to acknowledge not everything about virology and vaccinology is known. "We will welcome debate and discussion, other points of view being expressed," he said. "We will take those into account, and we will give our point of view, but we are not afraid of open debate and discussion." He added that vaccines have been "a great gift" as a pediatrician. "We've been able to knock down disease incidence and mortality for many vaccine-preventable diseases by 99.99% in our country, but one has to acknowledge that vaccines have side effects," Vermund said. "One needs a thoughtful cost benefit analysis and needs to work with the FDA and vaccine manufacturers to make vaccines as safe and effective as they could possibly be." Gallo is expected to start in July. He will develop and lead a center for virology at USF and serve as program leader for Infectious Agents and Oncogenesis at the Tampa General Hospital Cancer Institute, senior scientific advisor to the USF Microbiomes Institute and senior scientific advisor to the Office of the Director of the TGH Cancer Institute. Gallo is celebrated for his early-'80s work that established HIV as a cause for AIDS, and in the decades since has since helped develop new HIV testing and treatment procedures. He is also credited with the discovery of retroviruses and their association with cancer. 2024 Tampa Bay Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Sixty years ago, a wall of water 30 feet high surged toward Highway 89 at 22 mph after Swift Dam burst. KSEN Radio announcer Bob Norris recalled how the 157-foot-high dam on Birch Creek disintegrated with a great cracking sound like a giant thunder and lightning bolt, and thousands of tons of cascading water roared down into the valley, snuffing out homes and lives in a matter of seconds. Ten miles below the dam, Ramona Tatsey was gathering her family to leave for safety in Browning when she saw mature trees along the creek start to topple: They were falling like they were being chopped down, she recalled. The family barely managed to scramble up a hillside before their home was obliterated in the flood. Whats widely considered the greatest natural disaster in Montana history killed at least 30 people on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation that June 8, 1964. The Two Medicine Dam also collapsed that day, contributing to several of the deaths. Farther east, floodwaters deluged Great Falls. On the west side of the Continental Divide, the Flathead River watershed inundated Columbia Falls and Kalispell. Hungry Horse News publisher Mel Ruder earned a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the catastrophe. All told, the flood of 1964 touched almost 30,000 square miles, or 20% of Montana. A 2020 dam safety analysis estimated the damage at $500 million. The 60th annual Blackfeet Flood Memorial takes place Saturday at Brownings Museum of the Plains Indian, with honor songs, re-telling of the events of the disaster, and a community meal. But 177 miles south in Helena, officials contemplate an opposite problem: Montana cant find enough water to fill its reservoirs. Persistent drought, changing snow patterns and population growth have left water storage facilities underfilled. And while many need extensive maintenance, an effort is underway to help them hold more water than they used to. Supply and demand have switched Montana has 3,007 dams. At least 200 of them have high hazard potential, according to the National Inventory of Dams. Their average age is 72 years. About 300 are federally managed. The state of Montana owns 22. The remainder belong to private or independent water use groups such as irrigation districts or farming cooperatives. Were trying to put our finger in cracks of a lot of dams, said Clayton Elliot, Montana Trout Unlimited's government affairs director and member of the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservations Comprehensive Water Review stakeholder working group. Were doing a good job keeping safety and integrity of the dams we have. But were way behind other states in investing large sums to maximize existing infrastructure and think about new infrastructure. An economist by background, Elliot said both the supply and demand curves of Montanas water supply have not kept pace with the times. Its not like the old days, when mining and cities and agriculture had the priority, Elliot said. Now there are new demands from fisheries and recreation and increasing populations all making demands, and trying to make the water supply go further. At the same time, the market value of water has risen like steam. Most of Montanas fastest-growing regions are water-constrained, meaning all the available water has already been legally appropriated to existing users. Thats resulted in serious discussions about, for example, piping water from Canyon Ferry 64 miles to the fast-growing suburbs of Bozeman. Meanwhile, the Big Hole Valley doesnt have enough water for all the property owners who possess water rights which has threatened the blue-ribbon fishing quality of the Big Hole River. Thats spurred conversations about how to enhance local reservoirs to capture more rainfall, essentially creating new unappropriated water. It would copy what Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks did in funding improvements to Painted Rocks Reservoir, which now keeps the Bitterroot River (and its trout fishing fans) from running dry. But both the amount and timing of western precipitation has changed too. A recent analysis by the Montana Climate Office found that western Montana snowpack levels have shrunk between 20% and 80% since 1950. But the total moisture hasnt changed much its just falling as rain instead of snow. That can have a huge effect on facilities like Swift Dam, which was rebuilt in 1967, or on Hungry Horse Dam and Selis Ksanka Qlispe Dam on the Flathead side. Those reservoirs were engineered to catch and hold snowmelt that would slowly release through spring and summer. New climate models forecast that snow levels which used to extend down to 5,000 feet elevation will retreat to 10,000 feet. That means peaks as high as the Mission Mountains or Rocky Mountain Front could go snow-free most of the winter. The annual precipitation would instead fall as rain. It was a rain-on-snow event that unleashed the 1964 flood. Unlike the recent atmospheric rivers shuttling moisture from the Pacific Ocean, the 1964 storm that reached Montana on June 7 had originated in the Gulf of Mexico. It hit a Rocky Mountain Range that had an average snowpack for most of the winter followed by a freak snow dump in April and May. Below-normal temperatures delayed the spring runoff, leaving the high country bulging with snow. The 36-hour storm poured between 12 and 16 inches of rain into the basins above Swift and Two Medicine dams. Lake McDonald on the west side of Glacier National Park got 10 inches. Weather analysts calculated it was a 1:5,000-, maybe 1:10,000-year event. By comparison, the 2022 storm that destroyed homes and tore out roads from Gardiner to Red Lodge was considered a 1:500-year event. But the bigger issue for dam managers and disaster planners is what scientists call the breakdown of stationarity. In other words, past weather patterns no longer reliably predict future conditions. Were seeing earlier runoffs and these flashy precip events, Elliot said. Well go months or weeks without precip and all of a sudden you get an inch or two inches. Stakeholders seek investment Water storage could mitigate a lot of that, if the dams and reservoirs were enhanced to take advantage of the different tempo. But that takes lots of money, and the water users who built the old dams no longer have the economic clout to replace them. They can only sell so many bales of hay, Elliot said of the farmers and ranchers who benefit from the dam-supplied irrigation, but lack the cash for upgrades. Most are only able to contribute between 10% and 15% of ongoing maintenance needs, according to state records. The Legislature has also been reluctant to wade in, given the estimated $50 million backlog in maintenance needs. On Thursday, the federal Bureau of Reclamation announced plans to replace the St. Mary River diversion dam. That specific irrigation and drinking water project is budgeted at $88.2 million. DNRC maintains its 22 dams with revenue from the sale of hydropower at Tosten Dam, between Townsend and Three Forks. But that dams power contract expires this summer, and state officials expect a new one will pay 50% less due to changes in the price of electricity. Were trying to figure out how do we meet growing water needs while protecting existing water users and water right holders, said Anna Pakenham Stevenson, the water resources administrator for DNRC. Were looking for holistic solutions. The water stakeholder group that Elliot serves on and Pakenham Stevenson guides has four focus areas. One is mitigation: finding market tools to allocate water supplies between water rights holders and new water customers. The second is improving access to public water and sewer services, which is more cost-effective and environmentally beneficial than independent water developments. The remaining two are more challenging. Exempt wells allow one property owner to provide water to multiple subdivisions, even though the owners initial water right might not be big enough to supply all those additional users. That can reduce the supply of all the other users in a water basin. Its like if a table of diners share a milk shake, but one person sucks from five straws instead of just one. Then theres water storage. This July, the DNRC Comprehensive Water Review stakeholders hope to frame some proposals for the Legislature and governors office to consider. In addition to raising dams so the reservoirs behind them can hold more water, lots of other methods can capture rain and snow for growing needs. For example, improving wetlands and floodplains can allow underground aquifers to recharge more effectively, which can increase the flows coming out of area wells. More storage means more than just more hay crops. Having reserve water in Painted Rocks Reservoir not only keeps the Bitterroot River high enough to float boats, it keeps temperatures low enough for cold-water trout species to stay healthy. Other states like Wyoming and Oregon are spending big dollars on storage, Elliot said. Were way behind our neighbors in investing in storage. And the real barrier to water storage is funding. Its not $50,000, but $50 million. The unveiling ceremony for a cooperative research center and autism research center jointly built by Rehabilitation International (RI) and the University of Rehabilitation Science in Qingdao, east China's Shandong province, May 28, 2024. [Photo/RI] The executive committee of Rehabilitation International (RI) held its 2024 spring conference in Qingdao, east China's Shandong province, on May 28. Zhang Haidi, president of the organization, presided over the meeting and delivered a speech. Members of the executive committee from Asia-Pacific, African, European, American and Arab regions gathered at the University of Rehabilitation Science and attended the conference. Zhang noted the significance of the newly established university hosting the event. For a decade, executive committee members have witnessed the entire construction process, from conceptual design and planning to laying the foundation and completion. RI signed an agreement with the university to build a cooperative research center and autism research center, signifying their joint efforts to nurture more rehabilitation professionals worldwide. She expressed hope that RI continues to play an active role in inclusive development for people with disabilities, bringing more benefits. Zhang reviewed progress made by RI since its autumn meetings in December 2023 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital, and outlined schedules for the next phase. The renovation of the Alpha School for the Deaf in Addis Ababa, supported by the organization, is progressing well. Meanwhile, preparatory work for RI's 2024 World Congress in Abu Dhabi is being carried out systematically. RI adopted a resolution to cooperate with the U.N. library in Geneva, supporting facility upgrades for accessibility and providing Braille books and reading materials for people with blindness or low vision. RI is also making efforts to facilitate the implementation of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled. Executive committee members visited the Jimo Xiangtai integrated service center for people with disabilities and Haier Group during their Qingdao tour, gaining insights into China's disability initiatives and modernization. Representatives from U.N. agencies in China, the China Disabled Persons' Federation's international department, its Shandong branch, the University of Rehabilitation Science, and other experts and scholars in rehabilitation also attended the event. N2S: Mosaic picks for Asbury Parks The North To Shore festival includes more than 200 events at more than 100 venues. So how does one pick what to attend? We'll feature stories about several events but we'll also provide this list weekly of mostly free events and others that may get overlooked. (Photos courtesy North to Shore Festival/Photos courtesy North to Shore Festival) New Jerseys second annual North to Shore Festival kicks off in Asbury Park on Monday. This year, the three-week, three-city festival will feature more than 200 events at more than 100 venues for an over-the-top showcase of Jerseys talent and brilliance. The festival includes big-name performers like Kevin Hart, Matchbox Twenty, Frankie Valli, Jhene Aiko and comedian Gabriel Iglesias. [ North 2 Shore: Full coverageOpens in new window ] But the festival goes beyond music and comedy. Art, health, movies, theater, the communitys economic well-being, technology and so much more will all be a part of the festival, as will hundreds of local people from throughout the state. With so many ways to have fun, picking one or two events might be difficult, so were highlighting a few events you might not have considered, especially those that are just a few bucks, or free. Yes, FREE. Well do this list during each leg of the festival; the first week is in Asbury Park. 1. Asbury Park Showcase Stage Curious about the local music talents in New Jersey? Asbury Park Festival Showcase can provide some answers. The event will feature 11 local artists delivering musical performances on Friday, June 14, at the Grand Arcade, located at the Asbury Park boardwalk. It starts at 3 p.m., which is way before dinner, but there are plenty of shops, bars, and restaurants inside the Grand Arcade where attendees can grab a bit to eat or drink. Hosted by Chris Rockwell, a local spoken word poet and hip-hop artist, the event will feature music from Des and the Swagmatics, Joe Miller, Mike Montrey, Dave Vargo, Johnny Nameless, Myster-E Edutainment, Space and the Goodstock Jamband, The Mercury Brothers, and Jake Thistle. DJ Adam Jay will perform music sets between each musical act. Heres the showcases schedule: 3:30 p.m. Johnny Nameless; 4:30 p.m. Myster-E Edutainment; 5:30 p.m. Joe Miller, Mike Montrey Band, Dave Vargo; 7 p.m. Jake Thistle; 8 p.mm Space and the Goodstock Jamband; 9:15 p.m. The Mercury Brothers; 10:30 p.m. Des and the Swagmatics. 2. Leveraging the Arts for Food Justice On June 12, the public is invited to sit in on a virtual panel composed of artists, activists and experts who will discuss creative ways to eradicate food insecurity and inequality. Moderated by Triada Stampas, the CEO and president of Fulfil, which is formerly known as the FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, the events panelists include: Lindsay Erben, director of Arts Institute of Middlesex County and Share Your Foodways program; Hiram Larew, founder of Poetry X Hunger; and Carolina Moratti, host of the Cooking Outside the Box. The conversation will also feature a spoken word performance by panelist Elisabet Velazquez, a poet and author of When We Make It: A Nuyorican Novel. To reserve a spot at this free virtual panel, visit the North To Shores website. 3. Blue Dot Inclusive Dance Party The Blue Dot Social and Community Wellness event on June 13 will host a free Socially Inclusive Dance Party to celebrate and promote community connection for adults with disabilities at the Asbury Park boardwalk Green Space, located at 1150 Ocean Ave. The party starts at 5 p.m. and features tunes by Jay Dance Man, a local dancer and DJ who provides social opportunities to the disabled community. The Blue Dot Community is made up of individuals with and without neurological and developmental disabilities. 4. Konscious Community SOULcase The Konscious Community SOULcase on June 15 will include free music, art, drumming and dance performances. While enjoying the performances, guests can explore the marketplace, where local vendors will promote healthy and holistic living. The event starts at 5 p.m. and will be held at 631 Lake Ave. Konscious Youth Development & Services (KYDS), a non-profit youth development organization that works to foster holistic well-being within local communities. Founded in 2014, by Mychal Mills and Rodney Salomon, KYDS is a non-profit organization that hold programs that help young people self-regulate and adults manage stress. The event is free but there are charges for Chakra sessions. For tickets, visit KYDS Eventbrite page. 5. Dance Is Life: A Hustle Dance Party On June 15, the festivals free and inclusive Dance is Life: A Hustle Dance Party is open to attendees of all dance experience levels. The event at the Asbury Park Carousel Building, located at 104-108 Asbury Ave., begins at 6 p.m. Guests will also have an opportunity to learn how to do The Hustle, a really flashy dance from the 70s. The party will be led by Abdiel Jacobsen, a former principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company and Hustle evangelist, and Natasha Digges, a world-renowned DJ and co-founder of Soul in the Horn. 6. Sistah Sistah Oh My Sistah play Sistah Sistah Oh My Sistah!, a show that depicts the resilience of Black women as they navigate life, will be performed June 16, at the Good Hope BC Annex, 1306 Washington Ave. It begins at 5 p.m. The show was written and directed by Asbury Parks own Carmen Davis Hall, a Christian playwright who is also a hair stylist, interior decorator and motivational speaker. Admission is $20. To get tickets for the show, visit North To Shores website. Learn more about the North 2 Shore Festival on Mosaic: North2Shore: This transgender woman takes us on an odyssey to self discovery North2Shore: On Fathers Day, The Big Man, Clarence Clemons, is celebrated by his son With focus on diversity, Mosaic and N2S festival is a perfect fit Mosaic staff writer Vashti Harris can be reached at vharris@njadvancemedia.com. Welcome to Mosaic. Follow us on Instagram at @MosaicNJcom and on Facebook at MosaicNJcom. The Mai Wah Societys Museum and Gift Shop, located at 17 W. Mercury St., will open for the summer season on Tuesday. The museums regular schedule is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. The museum sits in the heart of Buttes old Chinatown and features exhibits with artifacts and information about the important contributions made by the Chinese to local history and culture. A non-profit organization, the Mai Wah exists for educational, charitable, and scientific purposes, including research and public education about the history, culture, and conditions of Asian people in the Rocky Mountain West. In addition to operating the museum, the Mai Wah Society also hosts the annual Chinese New Year Parade in Butte, along with other Chinese cultural celebrations and informational presentations. Admission is $8 for adults and $5 for children, students, and seniors. Kids under five years old get in for free. The Mai Wah also offers free admission to the nations active-duty military personnel, including the National Guard and Reserves, and their families. Visitors meeting the criteria will just need to show their work badges or identification cards. To learn more about the Mai Wah Society, go online to www.maiwah.org. For more details about the museums schedule, call 406-723-3231. Studio.G photography // Shutterstock Kindergarten math is often too basic and that can be a problem In Jodie Murphy's kindergarten class in Aston, Pennsylvania, math lessons go beyond the basics of counting and recognizing numbers. On a recent morning, the children used plastic red and yellow dots for a counting exercise: One student tossed the coin-sized dots onto a cookie sheet while another hid her eyes. The second student then opened her eyes, counted up the dots and picked the corresponding number from a stack of cards. The dots showed up again a few minutes later in a more complex task. Murphy set a two-minute timer, and students counted as many dot arrays as they could, adding or taking away dots to match a corresponding written number. Four dots next to a printed number 6, for example, meant that students had to draw in two extra dots an important precursor to learning addition. Kindergarten may be math's most important year it lays the groundwork for understanding the relationship between number and quantity and helps develop "number sense," or how numbers relate to each other, experts and researchers say. But, as detailed in The Hechinger Report, too often teachers spend that crucial year reinforcing basic information students may already know. Research shows that many kindergarteners learn early on how to count and recognize basic shapes two areas that make up the majority of kindergarten math content. Though basic math content is crucial for students who begin school with little math knowledge, a growing body of research argues more comprehensive kindergarten math instruction that moves beyond counting could help more students become successful in math later on. Because so many students nationally are struggling in math a longstanding challenge made worse by remote schooling during the pandemic experts and educators say more emphasis needs to be put on foundational, early childhood math. But for a variety of reasons, kindergarten often misses the mark: Math takes a backseat to literacy, teachers are often unprepared to teach it, and appropriate curriculum, if it exists at all, can be scattershot, overly repetitive or both. Manipulating numbers in different ways, part of a supplemental math curriculum for Murphy's whole class at Hilltop Elementary in this suburb of Philadelphia, is an attempt to address those problems. In an effort to improve math achievement district-wide, all elementary students in the Chichester School District get an extra 30-minute daily dose of math. In kindergarten, the extra time is spent on foundational skills like understanding numbers and quantity, but also the basics of addition and subtraction, said Diana Hanobeck, the district's director of curriculum and instruction. Chichester district leaders say implementing the intervention, called SpringMath, along with other steps that include hiring a math specialist for each school, has brought urgent attention to students' math achievement by bringing more students to mastery and a lot of that has to do with how much students are learning in kindergarten. Student math achievement, which dropped to a low of 13.5 percent of students proficient or advanced during the pandemic, has more than doubled across grades since the intervention began, although still below the state average. Last spring, 47 percent of the district's fourth graders were proficient or advanced in math on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment test. "The intervention is very targeted by skill and gives teachers data for each student," said Hanobeck. "We are seeing it close gaps for students, and they are more able to access elementary school math." Murphy, the kindergarten teacher, said that while some students arrive at school able to do "rote counting," others arrive with no prior knowledge or a very limited understanding of numbers and counting. The interventions have improved all students' accuracy and fluency in more complex tasks, such as being able to count up or down from a number like 16 or 20, and adding and subtracting numbers up to 5. "It used to take all year for some students to count on from different starting points, that's actually really hard for kids to do," Murphy said. "Students are meeting their goals far faster now. We are moving on, but also moving deeper." That deep thought is important, even in the earliest grades. Kindergarten math proficiency is especially predictive of future academic success in all subjects including reading, research has shown. In one study, students' number competence in kindergarten which includes the ability to understand number quantities, their relationships to each other, and the ability to join and separate sets of numbers, like 4 and 2 making 6 presaged mathematical achievement in third grade, with greater number competence leading to higher math achievement. It's also the time when learning gaps between students are at their smallest, and it's easier to put all students on equal footing. "Kindergarten is crucial," said University of Oregon math education researcher Ben Clarke. "It's well-documented in the research literature that gaps start early, grow over time and essentially become codified and very hard to remediate." But the math content commonly found in kindergarten such as counting the days on a calendar is often embedded within a curriculum "in which the teaching of mathematics is secondary to other learning goals," according to a report from the National Academies of Science. "Learning experiences in which mathematics is a supplementary activity rather than the primary focus are less effective" in building student math skills than if math is the main goal, researchers wrote. The math students are taught in kindergarten often progresses no further than basic counting and shapes. In a 2013 study, researcher and University of Colorado Boulder associate professor Mimi Engel found that students who spent more time on the advanced concepts in kindergarten learned more math. Engel hypothesizes that exposure to more advanced content in kindergarten may help students in later grades when content grows more complex. "We want some amount of repetition across grades in content," Engel said. "There's variation in kids' skill sets when they start kindergarten, and, as a teacher, there are a number of reasons why you want to start with the basics, and scaffold instruction. But what I'm interested in is: when does repetition become redundancy?" According to researcher Amanda VanDerHeyden, founder of SpringMath, breaking numbers apart and putting them back together and understanding how numbers relate to each other does more to help develop kindergarteners' mathematical thinking than counting alone. Students should move from using concrete objects to model problems, to using representations of those objects and then to numbers in the abstract like understanding that the number 3 is a symbol for three objects. To improve students' math skills, some schools and districts have recently upgraded the math curriculum and materials teachers use, so they are able to build increasingly complex skills in an organized, orderly way. Kindergarteners in Hailey Lang's classroom at Dr. William Burrus Elementary School in Hendersonville, Tennessee, were recently counting penguins a digital whiteboard showed a photo of a mother penguin with seven fuzzy babies in tow. "Can we make a math drawing about this picture? No details, you can just use little circles," Lang said. Students drew one big circle and seven smaller circles on their papers to represent the penguins. Then they translated the circles into a number sentence: 1 (big circle) + 7 (small circles) = 8. The lesson is new to students this year since they adopted the Eureka Math curriculum. It's what Sumner County Superintendent Scott Langford calls "high-quality" instructional material, with lessons that move students beyond simply counting objects like penguins. Students look at penguins in a picture, translate them into representational circle drawings, then finally move on to their abstract number quantities. Sumner County elementary coordinator Karen Medana said she appreciates the fact that the curriculum offers explicit guidance for teachers and builds on a sequence of skills. One reason for redundancy in kindergarten math may be that classrooms lack cohesive materials that progress students through skills in an orderly way. A 2023 report from the Center for Education Market Dynamics showed that only 36 percent of elementary schools use high-quality instructional materials, as defined by EdReports, a nonprofit organization that evaluates curricula for rigor, coherence and usability. Eureka Math is one of several math programs that meet EdReports' standards. Often teachers are left to gather their own math materials outside the school's curriculum. The Brookings Institution reports that large numbers of teachers use a district-approved curriculum as "one resource among many." Nearly all teachers say they gather resources from the internet and sites like Teachers Pay Teachers meaning what students learn varies widely, not only from district to district, but from classroom to classroom. What students learn might not even be aligned from one grade to another. In a new, unpublished paper still in revision, researcher Engel found "notable inconsistencies" between pre-K and kindergarten classroom math content and how it is taught in New York City schools. Engel said results suggest that in many classrooms, kindergarten math might be poorly aligned with both pre-K and elementary school. When teachers have access to well-aligned materials, students may learn more. At Marcus Hook Elementary, a Title I elementary school in the Chichester District, kindergarten teacher Danielle Adler's students were deep into first grade addition, using numbers up to 12. They had already completed all the SpringMath kindergarten math skills in March, so she let them keep going. "In the past we did focus more on counting, recognizing numbers and counting numbers," Adler said, "But over the last three years I've seen the kids' skills grow tremendously. Not only what they're expected to do, but what they're capable of doing has grown." What kindergarteners are expected to do at school has changed dramatically over the last 30 years, including more time spent on academic content. Adler and other kindergarten teachers agree that they hold higher expectations for today's students, spend more time on teacher-directed instruction and substantially less time on "art, music, science and child-selected activities." Some worry that increasing time spent on academic subjects like math, and pushing kindergarten students beyond the basics of numbers and counting, will be viewed as unpleasant "work" that takes away from play-based learning and is just not appropriate for 5- and 6-year-olds, some of whom are still learning how to hold a pencil. Engel said kindergarteners can be taught more advanced content and are ready to learn it. But it should be taught using practices shown to work for young children, including small group work, hands-on work with objects such as blocks that illustrate math concepts, and learning through play. Mathematician John Mighton, the founder of the curriculum JUMP Math, said it's a mistake to believe that evidence-based instructional practices must be laborious and dull to be effective. He has called on adults to think more like children to make more engaging math lessons. "Children love repetition, exploring small variations on a theme and incrementally harder challenges much more than adults do," he wrote all practices supported by evidence to increase learning. Simple lessons, when done well, can teach complex ideas and get children excited. "People say kids don't have the attention," to learn more advanced concepts, he said, but he strongly believes that children have more math ability than adults give them credit for. Getting students working together, successfully tackling a series of challenges that build on each other, can create a kind of collective effervescence a feeling of mutual energy and harmony that occurs when people work toward a common goal. That energy overflowed in Adler's classroom, for example, as students excitedly colored in graphs showing how many addition problems they got correct, and proudly showed off how the number correct had grown over time. VanDerHeyden pointed out that, for young kids, much of a math intervention should look and feel like a game. It's often harder than it looks to advance kindergarten skills while keeping the fun elementary teachers often say they have low confidence in their own abilities to do math or to teach it. Research suggests that teachers who are less confident in math might not pay enough attention to how students are learning, or even spend less time on math in class. Teachers like Murphy have made some tweaks geared to engaging students. In class she calls SpringMath "math games," and refers to timed fluency tests as "math races." She even turned choosing a partner into a game, by spinning a wheel to see who students will get. "We can do all these little things so they're having fun while they're learning," Murphy said. This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education, and reviewed and distributed by Stacker Media. WILMINGTON, Del. The widow of Hunter Biden's brother told jurors in his federal gun trial Thursday about the moment she found the revolver in his truck, describing how she put it into a leather pouch, stuffed it into a shopping bag and tossed it in a trash can outside a market near her home. "I panicked, and I wanted to get rid of them," she testified about finding the gun and ammunition in the vehicle's console in October 2018. "I didn't want him to hurt himself, and I didn't want my kids to find it and hurt themselves." Hunter Bidens purchase of the Colt revolver and Hallie Bidens frenzied disposal of it are the fulcrum of the case against him. Federal prosecutors say the president's son was in the throes of a heavy crack addiction when he bought the gun. He's charged with three felonies: lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the application by saying he was not a drug user and illegally having the gun for 11 days. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden said in an interview with ABC he would accept the jury's verdict and ruled out a pardon for his son. The first lady left France, where she attended D-Day anniversary events with the president, to head back to Wilmington. She was expected to attend the trial again Friday before returning to France for a state dinner. Hallie Biden, who had a brief romantic relationship with Hunter after Beau Biden died in 2015, testified that from the time Hunter returned to Delaware from a 2018 trip to California until she threw his gun away, she did not see him use drugs. That time period included the day he bought the weapon. Much of her testimony focused on Oct. 23, 2018 11 days after he bought the gun and when she tossed it. Hunter was staying with her and seemed exhausted. Asked by the prosecutor if it appeared that Hunter was using drugs around then, she said, "He could have been." As Hunter slept in her home, Hallie Biden went to check his car. She said she hoped to help him get or stay sober, free of both alcohol and cocaine. She said she found the remnants of crack cocaine and drug paraphernalia. She also found the gun Hunter purchased in a box with a broken lock that kept it from fully closing. There was ammunition too. Hallie said she considered hiding the gun but thought her kids might find it, so she decided to throw it away. "I realize it was a stupid idea now, but I was panicking," she said. She told jurors that she found crack at her home and saw him using it. She was with him occasionally when he saw dealers. Prosecutor Leo Wise asked Hallie about her own 2018 trip to California, where she visited Hunter at the Roosevelt Hotel, and asked her whether she was also using drugs. "Yes, I was," she said. "And who introduced you to it?'" "Hunter did," Hallie said as Hunter rested his face on his hand and looked down. "It was a terrible experience that I went through, and I'm embarrassed and ashamed, and I regret that period of my life," she added. Hallie testified she stopped using drugs in August 2018, but that Hunter continued smoking crack. Hunter Biden, who pleaded not guilty, has said the Justice Department is bending to political pressure from Republicans and that hes being unfairly targeted. Much of the prosecution's case has been dedicated to highlighting the seriousness of his crack addiction and showcasing to jurors bare-chested moments with ex-girlfriends, infidelity and crack pipes judgment lapses they believe prove he was actively using when he checked "no" on the form. Prosecutors argue that the evidence is necessary to show his state of mind when he bought the gun. After Hallie Biden threw the unloaded gun in the trash can at Janssen's Market, he noticed it missing and asked her whether she had taken it. "Are you insane?" he texted. He told her to go back to the market to look for it. Surveillance footage played for jurors showed her digging around in the trash can for the gun, but it wasn't there. She asked store officials if someone took out the trash. Hallie said Hunter told her to file a police report because the gun was registered in his name. She called the police while she was still at the store. Officers located the man who inadvertently took the gun along with other recyclables from the trash and retrieved it. The case was eventually closed because of lack of cooperation from Hunter Biden, who would have been considered the victim. Jurors also heard from the officers who handled the case and from the man who found the gun. The Democratic president's son arrived at court Thursday with a copy of his memoir, "Beautiful Things," tucked under his arm. The book, written after he got sober in 2021, figures heavily into prosecutors' case: They've played audio excerpts for jurors in which he details his descent into drugs and alcohol following the death of his brother in 2015 from cancer. Defense attorney Abbe Lowell says Hunter Biden's state of mind was different when he wrote the book than when he purchased the gun, when he didn't believe he had an addiction. He's suggested Hunter Biden might have felt he had a drinking problem at the time, but not a drug problem. Alcohol abuse doesn't preclude a gun purchase. If convicted, Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison, though first-time offenders do not get anywhere near the maximum, and it's unclear whether the judge would give him time behind bars. He also faces a separate trial in September on charges of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes. How access to affordable housing impacts public health How access to affordable housing impacts public health Health issues are harder to manage without stable housing A whole-person health approach How access to affordable housing impacts public health You are here: China The University of Rehabilitation Science [Photo/uor.edu.cn] After almost a decade of effort, the University of Rehabilitation Science, proposed by Zhang Haidi, president of Rehabilitation International (RI), has officially opened. In 2015, Zhang proposed the project to China's cabinet, the State Council, with support from various ministries. The university aims to ensure all people with disabilities can enjoy rehabilitation services. Zhang has expressed gratitude to the RI executive committee on multiple occasions for supporting the university's establishment. The committee held its 2024 spring conference in the newly established university on May 28. Moreover, RI works with the university to build a cooperative research center and autism research center. The university's 530,000-square-meter modern campus is located in the Qingdao National High-tech Industrial Development Zone in east China's Shandong province. Jointly established by the China Disabled Persons' Federation, the National Health Commission of China, and Shandong province, it is the first university named after "rehabilitation" in China and the world. The high-standard university will establish a comprehensive professional system centered on rehabilitation disciplines, with a foundation in medicine, science and engineering. It will also incorporate interdisciplinary development in management, pedagogy and sociology. The university primarily offers undergraduate programs while also providing graduate studies. Additionally, the institution provides educational opportunities for international students and offers continuing education programs. The university plans to admit 10,000 students, including 5,000 undergraduates and 5,000 graduate students. Jointly trained Ph.D. students have already begun graduating from the institution. A new report by Infotrak released on Thursday reveals that 46 percent of Kenyans are unaware of the Finance Bill 2024. According to the report, 54 percent of Kenyans are conversant with the Finance Bill 2024. The report further states that 62 percent of respondents in the Central region are aware of the bill, unlike the Eastern region, where only 41 percent are aware. 62 percent of Kenyans in the Central region are aware of the finance Bill 2024 unlike other regions in terms of awareness .This is a clear indication of the rate of sensitization and education that goes on in the regions in regard to the Bill, said Infotrak research manager Johvine Wanyingo. The male gender is more aware of the Finance Bill than the female gender, with 59 percent of males being aware compared to 41 percent of females, Wanyingo added. The report notes that adults between 46 and 55 years, who are more engaged in financial matters, are more aware of the Finance Bill. Meanwhile, 81 percent of Kenyans rejected the proposed motor vehicle tax of 2.5 percent of the vehicles value, to be collected by the insurer under the new tax measures in the bill. Additionally, 87 percent opposed the 16 percent VAT proposal on bread. According to the survey, 86 percent of Kenyans also opposed the 16 percent VAT on financial and insurance services and transactions, including M-Pesa, as outlined in the proposed law. The survey, conducted between May 23 and 29, included 1,700 respondents aged over 18 years. The poll, conducted through Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews, covered all 47 counties and eight regions of Kenya. The margin of error was +/-2.53 percent at a 95 percent confidence level. President William Ruto has raised concerns over the underfunding of Africas renewable energy development. He noted that while 2023 saw the largest increase in renewable energy capacity globally, with about 500 gigawatts added and $600 billion in new investments, Africa lagged behind. The President highlighted that Africa has the highest untapped potential for renewable energy reserves in the world but managed to add only 3 gigawatts of the global increase. Africa, with the greatest potential and highest demand, currently accounts for a mere 1.6% of the worlds total renewable energy capacity, he stated. He emphasized that Africa presents significant opportunities for wealthy investors from the Global North in clean energy, offering a mutually beneficial outcome. African leaders endorsed the Nairobi Declaration, setting the continents green power generation target at a five-fold increase from 56GW in 2022 to at least 300GW by 2030, he said. President Ruto made these remarks on Wednesday while addressing the High-Level Business Segment on Climate Change Response and Transition to Carbon-Free Energy in Seoul, South Korea. He cited recent floods in Kenya and other parts of the world as evidence of climate change and called for collaborative efforts to mitigate its effects. Ruto also highlighted Kenyas significant progress in renewable and clean energy, noting that the countrys power grid is 93% green. The President urged Korea and Korean investors to continue supporting Kenya in clean energy adoption, as the country aims to expand its current grid from 3GW to 100GW by 2040. The ambition is realistic because Kenya is endowed with abundant potential in every type of renewable energy, he said. The President mentioned that Africa launched the Africa Green Industrialisation Initiative at COP28 to promote the growth of clean energy manufacturing. He asserted that this potential positions the continent to seize economic opportunities within the global energy transition. This can be achieved by mobilizing $1 trillion from public and private finance by 2030, he concluded. In May, four scholars of writer Flannery OConnor gathered on Level 3 of the Robert W. Woodruff Library to walk through the exhibit At the Crossroads with Benny Andrews, Flannery OConnor and Alice Walker. Two of those experts happened to be Hollywood royalty. Director and actor Ethan Hawke and his daughter, actress Maya Hawke, recently released the film Wildcat, which Ethan directed and co-wrote and in which Maya stars as OConnor. Ethan has been nominated for four Academy Awards, twice as a writer and twice as Best Supporting Actor. Maya made her acting debut in the BBC miniseries adaptation of Little Women and currently stars in Netflixs Stranger Things. They were there to rub elbows with, and learn from, royalty of Emorys own Crossroads co-curators Gabrielle Dudley, Rosemary Magee and Amy Alznauer. Coming to the Crossroads The exhibit chronicles the overlap that these three Georgia artists Andrews, OConnor and Walker experienced geographically, chronologically and creatively. The Emory Libraries is, in fact, the physical crossroads to explore the lives and careers of the artists beyond the exhibition: the papers of Benny Andrews, Flannery OConnor and Alice Walker all reside in the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library. The Hawkes proved attentive listeners, keyed to all that Magee and Alznauer, co-curators for the OConnor section of Crossroads, imparted. Under glass, and commanding admiration from the Hawkes, was the large-format book Benny Andrews illustrated of OConnors Everything That Rises Must Converge a story central to the exhibition and the film. Magee, an expert on Southern women writers, is editor of the book Conversations with Flannery OConnor and director emerita of the Rose Library. Alznauer is the author of The Strange Birds of Flannery OConnor: A Life, which was named a New York Times Best Childrens Book of 2020 and a 2022 Book All Young Georgians Should Read. Just prior to their arrival at the exhibit, Ethan had been city-hopping to promote the film, while Maya worked on set in Georgia filming Stranger Things. The pair were welcomed by Dudley (who is serving as co-interim director of the Rose Library), Magee, Alznauer and a small group of library staff. Ethan confessed that he had just awakened from 12 hours of sleep following what he termed one of the busiest weeks of my life, which involved dodging tornadoes in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Q&As on both coasts; an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert; and time with his children in New York. The Hawkes spent the better part of an hour asking questions and absorbing, with obvious delight, the exhibits rare archival photos, journals, letters, original manuscripts and artwork, as well as personal artifacts. They then participated in a Creativity Conversation, led by Magee and Alznauer, that followed a showing of the film at the Tara Theater that afternoon. The roads leading to OConnor As the Creativity Conversation got underway, Ethan noted to the standing-room-only crowd, Maya and I have talked about this movie, and about OConnor, a lot. It is a real honor to be with two people who know more about this subject than we do. I find it both exciting and nerve-wracking. To laughter, he then added, Am I being set up? The Hawke familys admiration of OConnor runs deep, beginning with Ethans mother, who moved her son to Atlanta in 1980 and fell in love with Flannery OConnor while we were living here. I thought OConnor was the foremost author in America because that was what my mother thought. She used OConnor, in part, to conjure the inner feminist in me, he recalled. Maya became riveted by OConnor in high school, eventually convincing her father to pursue a film about the Southern Gothic author whom writer Richard Gilman, a friend of OConnor, pronounced tough-minded, laconic, with a marvelous wit and an absolute absence of self-pity. Asked by Alznauer what had drawn her to OConnors story, Maya commented, OConnor lived through her art. You can travel so far and see such incredible things by viewing the world through your imagination. As a young person, I was always writing stories, poems and making paintings. Art connects you to something greater than yourself even when your freedom is stunted in Flannerys case, by lupus. The first emergence of the artist Alznauer and Magee noted that age 15 had been formative for the three Crossroads artists. In the case of OConnor, 1941 was consequential for Pearl Harbor being bombed and, more personally, for its being the year that OConnors father lost his own fight against lupus. Magee noted that in order to cope, to carve out her identity, OConnor at that time, as she phrased it, was focused on bringing literature into being. Maya indicated that she was indeed 15 when she first encountered OConnors work and, in that same year, won her first role in a school play. Ethan cheerfully accepted late-bloomer status, having produced his first published work, The Hottest State: A Novel, in 1996 when he was 25. That was extremely scary for me. I couldnt imagine living beyond it, living through the criticism, he said. It might surprise readers more familiar with Ethans Hollywood oeuvre that he has published four other works three novels and a history in the succeeding years, the most recent being the semiautobiographical A Bright Ray of Darkness: A Novel in 2021. Imagination = reality Wildcat is titled after an early short story by OConnor that was included in her 1947 masters thesis pursued in creative writing at what is now the University of Iowa The Geranium: A Collection of Short Stories, which was not published until after her death. For OConnor, diagnosed with lupus as a young woman, writing became redemption, evidenced in a line from the author used in the film: I never completely lose myself unless I am writing, and I am never more myself than when I am writing. The films challenge became how to visualize a life uneventful on the outside and richly creative on the inside. As Maya reflected, Flannery didnt lead a cinematic existence have a grand love affair or climb a mountain. Figuring how to insert plot in a life that didnt have any was a difficulty until my dad had the idea to tell her story through her own investigation of her inner life. He wanted to weave in the fiction of her life with its reality. Her writing was as real as life got to her. The structure of the film alternates between scenes from OConnors life and dramatizations of several of her most well-known stories, with the principal actors having roles in both worlds. As Maya noted, Familiar characters start to pop up in the stories, even if they have different names. The most common characters were those who resembled Flannery and her mother, Regina. Imagination equals reality is the equation the film is based on, Ethan said. The way we shot the real world and that of her imagination was similar, with slight variations. I wanted this film to feel like a fever dream. OConnor had a famous take on these two realms of existence, saying: I am always irritated by people who imply that writing fiction is an escape from reality. It is a plunge into reality, and it is very shocking to the system. A signal moment in the film comes when OConnors mother visits her in the bedroom where she would type out her fiction in front of a window overlooking their farm. When her mother comments that she is lucky to have such a nice view, OConnor revolts the moment she is alone again. She painstakingly, especially given the extent of her physical deficits by then, stacks all the heavy furniture in front of her desk so that she now will write before a wall, her back to the window. Her faith is made manifest in the way that she turned her life into little parables. Twenty-four years old, diagnosed with lupus, stuck in Milledgeville. How do you get not only to acceptance but to I dont even have to look out the window? That struck me, Ethan said. The question of race OConnors racism is something that both the film and the Crossroads exhibit confront. Alznauer noted that some of OConnors early stories, White Girl and Frizzly Chicken, explored how children learn to be racist. She continued, I hear her talked about as a product of her time, but I think that both gives her too much credit and too little credit. She was incredibly self-aware of her own deficits. Ethan acknowledged coming to see her racism more gradually as he absorbed her fiction, but stressed, That is not a reason to stop talking about her. He then turned the conversation back to Crossroads, saying, That is why your exhibit is so moving, to see OConnors picture up alongside Alice Walkers. It is astonishing that Alice Walker, who has taught us so much about racism, lived down the road from Flannery OConnor and they never met. But thats our country. For my part, I thought it was important to hold Flannery accountable yet forgive and love her. Everything That Rises Must Converge, the collection of stories OConnor penned during the final decade of her life, was set amid the high-water mark of the civil rights movement and reflects, according to Magee, OConnor coming to terms with her own life, her own prejudices and her own death. Maya rejected the idea that making a movie about OConnor is inherently a celebration of all she represented. Instead, she sees Wildcat as an exploration that has enabled me to have more conversations about race, with people of all skin colors, than I ever have had in my life. I have learned things and found common ground." The composers assuredly scored A potentially overlooked gem of the film is the unconventional music. Alznauer asked about it, saying: One of the most seductive and haunting aspects of this film is this strange music that allows us to go from fiction to reality and confers a spiritual, ethereal quality. Ethan entrusted that aspect of the film to his co-writer Shelby Gaines and Gaines brother, Latham. Ironically, OConnor had no use for music, despite its use in the Catholic faith with which she identified so strongly. Counting on the music to link the scenes of reality and imagination, Ethan had the audience laughing when he revealed that I wanted the music to approximate prayer, so I presented the composers with this challenge: What does the Holy Spirit sound like? Noted for creating sound sculpture from found materials, the Gainses had first worked with Ethan on a revival of the Sam Shepard play A Lie of the Mind. For Wildcat, the brothers built their own instruments, using farm utensils in some cases. What might sound like a blues guitar is the radiator of a 52 Ford played with a violin bow, Ethan contended. In some sense, what you hear is not music; it is the sounds of her inner life. The last word goes to? OConnor had a special love for birds, having achieved some measure of fame by, at the age of five, having Pathe News come film a segment on the chicken she had taught to walk both forward and backward. As she drolly noted later, My chickens fame had spread through the press and by the time that she reached the attention of Pathe News, I suppose there was nowhere left for her to go forward or backward. Shortly after that she died, as now seems fitting. And while OConnor playfully suggested of the peacocks wandering her farm that, in the end, the last word will be theirs, it is instead her words that reverberate. Ethan suggested that her last six or seven stories are on another level. Each one of her characters is an aspect of the self. To steal a phrase from Walt Whitman, I contain multitudes, which is how the peacock fan became a metaphor for me in the film. Maya spoke about what it was like to embody those multitudes, noting that Flannery was the harshest critic of Flannery, and, as a result, Flannerys loneliness took over my body even though I was surrounded by people I love. I was changed by pretending to be this person. As the Creativity Conversation concluded, the two sets of scholars thanked one another, with Magee noting, This exchange of information is meaningful to us; we feel part of the work of art you have created. Note: Wildcat continues its run at the Tara, while the Crossroads exhibit is on display at the Woodruff Library through July 12. A video conversation with the curators is available online. Photos by Andrew Carlin/Oscilloscope. Muthoot Microfin has entered into a Co-lending agreement with the State Bank of India (SBI) to empower women entrepreneurs, the company informed the exchange in a filing on Thursday. After the partnership, Muthoot Microfin aims to extend its financial services to women entrepreneurs in rural and semi-urban regions across India. The agreement says that both the entities (Muthoot Microfin and SBI) will co-lend to members of Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) who are engaged in agricultural and allied activities as well as other income-generating enterprises. "Our collaboration with SBI will enable us to deepen our reach by addressing the diverse financial needs of rural women. Providing these women entrepreneurs with access to credit and supporting them in their entrepreneurial journey is our aspiration with this partnership" said Thomas Muthoot, Managing Director, Muthoot Microfin Ltd. The loan amounts in this agreement will range from a minimum of Rs 10,000 to a maximum of Rs 3,00,000, providing a substantial boost to women entrepreneurs from rural regions. This range of financial assistance is designed to offer a substantial boost to women entrepreneurs, enabling them to expand their businesses and improve their livelihoods. The co-lending model aims to make credit more accessible and affordable for rural women, thereby supporting their entrepreneurial endeavors. "I am convinced that, with this partnership we will be able to offer wide range of products and services to our clients, most importantly it will help us in meeting the growing demand of our women entrepreneur clients in a cost-effective manner. Together with SBI, we are committed to fostering economic growth and self-sufficiency among women entrepreneurs in rural India" said Sadaf Sayeed, CEO, Muthoot Microfin. By focusing on the financial needs of women entrepreneurs, the collaboration aims to create a positive socio-economic impact, promoting inclusive growth and development in rural India. (ANI) The Ayodhya Development Authority and Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT) have jointly secured the top spot in the Smart Infrastructure category at FICCI's 5th Smart Urban Innovation Awards. These awards were held in conjunction with the FICCI Conference on Business-Friendly Cities. The Ayodhya Development Authority was recognised for its city beautification and tourist facility project in Ayodhya City, while SBUT was honoured for its redevelopment project in Bhendi Bazaar, Mumbai. The award focuses on the contributions made by industry players in collaboration with cities to improve liveability, business friendliness, economic sustainability, safety, and disaster resilience, a release added. The evaluation process for the awards involved both quantifiable and qualitative parameters, with the jury focusing on each project's progressiveness and potential for scalability and applicability. Speaking on occasion, Jagan Shah, CEO of Infravision Foundation and former Director of the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), highlighted the success of the Smart Cities Mission in shifting the focus from urban problems to urban solutions over the past decade. "The Smart Cities Mission has contributed significantly to promoting local sustainability and self-sufficiency," Shah noted. JVS Ramakrishna, Co-Chairman, FICCI Committee on Urban Development and Real Estate and Global BU Head - Sustainable Smart World, L&T Technology Services, also emphasised the importance of a holistic approach and collaboration in creating sustainable urban spaces. "Building business-friendly cities requires a holistic approach, not just in terms of infrastructure, but also technology, policies, sustainability, inclusivity, and innovation," Ramakrishna stated. "It demands collaboration between the public and private sectors, especially in long-term planning and investments."In addition, SK Pathak, Secretary General, of FICCI, underlined that business-friendly cities should be a top priority for the new government in the next five years. He cited the example of business-friendly cities like Ahmedabad and Surat, which offer a more conducive business environment. He stressed the importance of efficient urban governance and innovation in attracting investment and talent. "FICCI member businesses look forward to more business-friendly cities in India. A business-friendly city enables competitiveness and talent retention. This should be one of the top priorities of our country. The future of our youth depends on how well we run our business-friendly cities and how well we innovate," he said. (ANI) Kiwa PVEL is an independent laboratory serving the downstream solar industry. Their annual Scorecard highlights manufacturers that have produced PV modules demonstrating noteworthy results in independent testing. Kiwa PVEL's Product Qualification Program (PQP) is the most comprehensive testing scheme to evaluate PV module reliability and quality through rigorous testing procedures. Adani Solar's PV modules successfully completed the PQP testing, demonstrating industry-leading reliability and performance metrics. With this recognition, Adani Solar is the only Indian manufacturer to have maintained Top Performer status for seven consecutive years. "We are honoured to win the Top Performer position again, This consistent recognition reinforces our commitment to excellence. Our Indian-made solar PV modules embody advanced technology, premium components, and superior design for unmatched reliability and performance. We thank our stakeholders for their continued support as we uphold the industry's highest standards and strongest quality controls to foster continual advancement and distinguish Adani Solar in the sector" said Anil Gupta, CEO of Adani Solar. Adani Solar is the 1st Indian solar manufacturing company to vertically integrate businesses that offer services across the spectrum of photovoltaics manufacturing. It is the first and only vertically integrated solar PV manufacturer with existing 4 GW cell and module, and 2 GW ingot and wafer manufacturing units in India. "Congratulations to the Adani Solar team for achieving the Top Performer recognition in the PV Module Reliability Scorecard for the seventh year," said Tristan Erion-Lorico, VP of Sales and Marketing at Kiwa PVEL. He further added "We are pleased to see Adani Solar appear in our report once again, and we hope to see the company's continued growth in the near future" The company is also building the nation's first fully integrated and comprehensive solar ecosystem manufacturing facility of 10 GW capacity in Mundra, Gujarat. (ANI) Flash Delegates attend a ceremony for Finland's accession to NATO at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, April 4, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua] The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in Helsinki on Thursday that NATO has no plans to deploy forces to Ukraine. At a joint press conference with Finnish President Alexander Stubb on the second day of his two-day visit to Finland, Stoltenberg said that "we are focusing on how we can establish a stronger framework for our support" to Ukraine. Echoing Stoltenberg's position, Stubb also said that Finland has no plans to send troops to Ukraine, adding that Finland is in discussions with allies about options for supporting Ukraine. At the press conference, Stoltenberg also noted that he saw no imminent military threat against any NATO ally from Russia, and not even after the end of the conflict. "This idea that there is a kind of a countdown to the next war is wrong," he said. Stubb also believes the idea of a Russian attack is implausible. The trailer of Anurag Kashyap and Gulshan Devaiah's 'Bad Cop' has been unveiled. Harleen Sethi, Saurabh Sachdeva and Aishwarya Sushmita are also a part of the series. https://www.instagram.com/p/C75yCmQoJc2/?hl=en Official synopsis of the series read, "Gulshan Devaiah swiftly steps into the double role of twins Karan & Arjun, who are polar opposites and choose a path of their own. Karan, a power-packed cop and Arjun, a witty thief find their fates intertwined in the most unexpected way, altering the course of their lives forever. Anurag Kashyap effortlessly essays the role of the deadly, manipulative and lethal, Kazbe Mama, leaving us wanting for more. A righteous cop, Harleen Sethi takes on the role of Devika. Saurabh Sachdeva and Aishwarya Sushmita star in significant roles in this thriller." Talking about the series, Director Aditya Datt said, "Bad Cop is like your original cult masala stories with a captivating storyline, a deadly villain and your hero in a double role. I have always been an avid watcher of twin dramas, so when I was working on Bad Cop with Rensil, Aradhana and the team at Fremantle India, we knew this element would be our hook. We have designed the action and chase sequences from scratch and have hoped to provide the audiences a larger than life viewing experience. With actors like Anurag, Gulshan, Harleen and Saurabh, we wanted to bring a sense of realism to the story. They are all actors who come from a very different school of cinema and what they bring to the table, no one else can. Audiences are in for a treat and I hope they enjoy this one." On what fans can expect from his character, Anurag Kashyap said, "Kazbe mama is a one of a kind villain. His aura is charismatic and lethal at the same time. I was scared and skeptical when shooting for gore scenes; as opposed to my films. Kazbe is powerful, hard-hitting and I drew traits from many of the negative characters that I had created, to prepare for this role. Fremantle India and Aditya are great collaborators and this show has brought to light a very different side of me." He added, " I had no process for Kazbe, infact I was inspired by Nana Patekar from Parinda and Irrfan Khan from Haasil. I take the script only before I shoot it and the dialogue writer would help me how to approach it. It's cathartic for me to play a negative character and I take it all out of my system.I hope audiences enjoy me in this avatar." Bad Cop will begin streaming from June 21 on Disney+ Hotstar. (ANI) The 'Barfi' actress took to her Instagram Stories on Friday to drop a picture from the set of her upcoming film 'The Bluff.' In the picture, Priyanka gave a sneak peek of the clapboard, which displayed the movie's title, the director Frank E. Flowers, and the Director of Photography, Greg Baldi. The picture also showed white sand scattered with dry leaves, coconuts, and other items. Alongside the picture, she wrote, "Let's gooooo! AUM Day 1," tagging the Russo Brothers and Amazon MGM Studios. Just a couple of days back, Priyanka Chopra gave fans another peek into her life on the set of her new project with a series of pictures featuring her daughter, Malti Marie. In the photos that she dropped on her Instagram Stories, Priyanka flaunted her daughter's budding HMU (Hair and Make-Up) skills. The first photo showed Malti sketching on a mannequin placed on the dressing table, with a notebook beside her. The next image captures the little one holding a hairbrush, examining it with curiosity. Meanwhile talking about the film, 'The Bluff' is being directed by Frank E Flowers. Set in the 19th-century Caribbean, The Bluff follows a former female pirate (Priyanka) who must protect her family when the mysterious sins of her past catch up to her, as per Deadline. The movie is produced by Russo Brothers' banner AGBO Studios and Amazon MGM Studios. (ANI) The students of the second batch from the Capt (Late) N Kenguruse, MVC Centre of Excellence and Wellness, Chieswema, Nagaland have made everyone proud with their outstanding success in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2024. All 31 students (7 boys and 24 girls) from the centre who took the prestigious NEET-2024, following in the footsteps of the first batch, have passed the exam. The Centre has proudly maintained its 100 per cent success rate in both NEET and the Joint Entrance Examination, just as it did last year. This remarkable achievement highlights the hard work and dedication of the students and their faculty, adding another feather to the cap of Assam Rifles, true to its motto of 'Friends of the North East.' This accomplishment is significant and will greatly enhance civil-military relations in the state, inspiring the youth to excel in today's competitive world. The efforts of Assam Rifles in promoting education and learning for the youth of Nagaland have been highly praised by both the student's parents and the local community. The NEET UG 2024 result was declared by the National Testing Agency (NTA). The NEET (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate) is an examination for students who want to seek admission to undergraduate courses in medical and dental colleges across India. The test was conducted on May 5, and the provisional answer key was released on May 29. The final answer key was released on June 4. A total of 23,33,297 students appeared for the exam out of 24,06,079 registered candidates. 13,16,268 qualified the examination. The candidates included 1,029,154 males and 1,376,831 females. The cutoff has increased marginally in view of increased competition. For the Unreserved and Economically Weaker Section (EWS), the cutoff has risen to 720 to 164 compared to 720 to 137 in 2023. The 67 Rank 1 holders, comprising 14 female and 53 male candidates, include Prachita and Isha Kothari from Rajasthan, Shailaja S and Syed Aarifin Yusuf from Tamil Nadu, Kahkasha Parween from Jharkhand, Umayma Malbari and Ved Sunilkumar Shende from Maharashtra, Mridul Manya Anand from Delhi, Ayush Naugraiya from Uttar Pradesh, and Mazin Mansoor from Bihar, among others. (ANI) Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister of Himachal Pradesh government, Anirudh Singh hit out at the leader of opposition Jai Ram Thakur and alleged that he is filled with ego and is daydreaming about toppling the government. Speaking to ANI the Minister said that despite all efforts of horse trading and other means the BJP failed to topple the government in Himachal Pradesh. He said that the people of the state have defeated four out of the former legislators who joined the BJP. Anirudh Singh said, "Jai Ram Thakur is still filled with ego, it was there when he was in power but it still exists. His mathematics is very poor, there are 65 Assembly members left now out of a 68-member assembly as three are disqualified and the Congress party has 38 members, so there is no question of destabilising the government. They can't topple the government. He said in the Assembly earlier even God can't save the Congress government." He also alleged Jai Ram Thakur enforced by-elections on the state and said that instead of blaming Congress for the financial burden of elections on the state Jai Ram Thakur should own responsibility as it was because of him the by-elections had to be conducted. "I heard him at a press conference today, he says the by-elections have put an additional burden on the state, I want to ask him where was he at the time he was doing horse trading and has snatched 6 Congress legislators on the basis of money power and tried to topple the elected government. They tried to topple the elected government and people had not given your mandate, you are trying to topple elected governments in the country," he said. Singh said that the BJP will be ended once the leaders of the Congress party come back who have joined BJP in all parts of the country. He said the poll results in Himachal Pradesh will be assessed and will find out the shortcomings of the party. "I believe that once those leaders come back those who have left Congress and joined BJP in the entire country, I believe after their comeback they will not have even four seats in the parliament. We shall assess the poll results, it is a public mandate, we have lacked 61 Assembly segments which will be improved after assessing the poll results. In Kangra, they have a figure of over 2 lakh and even in Hamirpur they have gone down to 1.5 lakhs from 4 lakh, we have shortcomings that will be accessed where we lacked and why we could not get lead in the Lok Sabha polls," Anirudh Singh added further. Earlier Jai Ram Thakur said that the crisis of government in Himachal Pradesh is averted but not over yet. Addressing the media men in Shimla Jai Ram Thakur said that there are chances of change of government in the state. He said the case of the appointment of Six Chief Parliamentary Secretaries is still pending in the High Court and after the court's order the government would once again in threat. The BJP had claimed to form the government in Himachal which will take some time but the fall of the government is certain. "This government has to go, The High Court has also reserved the decision of the CPS, so as soon as the decision comes, the government will be in trouble. The crisis of government is averted but not over yet," said Jai Ram Thakur. (ANI) Chhattisgarh Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan expressed confidence in Narendra Modi securing a third term as Prime Minister ahead of the scheduled meeting of NDA partners on Friday. NDA meeting will take place at the central hall of the Parliament today. "In the entire world, the people knew that PM Modi would come as the Prime Minister for the third time. The country expected and the people expected that Narendra Modi will become the PM," Harichandan said. As per the sources, discussions will be held on government formation by the grand alliance. This comes after the NDA crossed the majority mark bagging 293 seats in the Lok Sabha polls. However, the BJP managed to secure only 240 seats, much lower than its 2019 tally. Deputy Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, Arun Sao, confirmed the party's plans and said that several meetings will be held today. "On the instructions given by the party, we are going to Delhi. Tomorrow several meetings of the party will be held. PM Modi will very soon be sworn in as the Prime Minister. It will be a historic moment," Sao said on Thursday. Chhattisgarh's Deputy CM, Vijay Sharma, also highlighted the significance of the upcoming meetings. "Tomorrow, important meetings will be held. All the MPs and BJP-governed state CMs and Deputy CMs will be attending the meetings. We will be part of the swearing-in ceremony of PM Modi," Sharma said on June 6. In Delhi, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha underscored the public's support for Modi ahead of the meeting and said, "The people have once again given the mandate for making PM Modi the Prime Minister again. This mandate was despite the lies spread by the Opposition. It is a big blessing by the public." "Don't worry about the JD(U). They have been with the NDA for long. There would not be any problem," he added. Both Naidu and Janata Dal (U) chief Nitish Kumar will have a greater say in the NDA as the BJP falls 32 seats short of a full majority on its own, unlike in the last two NDA governments at the Centre. Though the JD (U) and the TDP stated that they would stay in the NDA, the INDIA bloc did not stop wooing them. At the INDIA bloc meeting, the leaders said that doors should be kept open for the TDP and the JD (U). Additionally, the Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas) will hold a parliamentary party meeting today at 9:30 am under the leadership of Party president Chirag Paswan in Delhi. In a show of unity and support, 21 NDA leaders signed a resolution at a meeting held at the Prime Minister's official residence on Wednesday, unanimously electing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as their leader. The resolution praised PM Modi's efforts in nation-building, the welfare of the poor, and development, reaffirming their commitment to these objectives. According to the Election Commission of India, the BJP won 240 seats, much lower than its 2019 tally of 303. The Congress, on the other hand, registered a strong improvement, winning 99 seats. While the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance won 292 seats, the INDIA bloc crossed the 230 mark, posing stiff competition, and defying all predictions. (ANI) Speaking about the meeting Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had sent her delegation here today. Sanjay Raut said, "Today, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and party leader Derek O'Brien met with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. There was a long talk. Many leaders talked to Uddhav Thackeray on the phone today. Narendra Modi and the BJP are not having the majority. They are still trying to make the government. We believe that it will not be a good government." While the Trinamool Congress has won 29 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackrey) has won 9 seats in Maharashtra. Maharashtra battle saw a tight contest in many seats with BJP facing unexpected losses in Maharashtra, winning only 17 seats despite expecting over 45, and Congress having a remarkable renaissance to emerge as the single-largest party in the State by leading on 13 constituencies. Both Shiv Sena (UBT) and TMC are part of the INDIA bloc. According to the Election Commission of India, the BJP won 240 seats, much lower than its 2019 tally of 303. The Congress, on the other hand, registered a strong improvement, winning 99 seats. While the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance won 292 seats, the INDIA bloc crossed the 230 mark, posing stiff competition, and defying all predictions. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has secured a third term, but the BJP needed the support of other parties in his coalition, primarily JD (U) chief Nitish Kumar and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu. On the other hand, NDA leaders unanimously passed a resolution in the meeting, electing Narendra Modi as their leader. (ANI) Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma ordered a comprehensive investigation into the recruitment processes of state employees in the past five years, amidst allegations of fraudulent activities in obtaining government jobs. In an official statement, the government disclosed that some individuals have reportedly secured positions by submitting fake educational documents and using proxy candidates to take exams on their behalf. This prompted the state to initiate a thorough review of all recruitments made during this period. "The state government has been informed that in the recruitments made in various departments over the past five years, some candidates have obtained government jobs by presenting fake educational qualification documents and using dummy candidates to sit for the exams," the order reads. It also said, "Considering the seriousness of the matter, each department should form an internal committee to investigate whether the person who took the exam and the person employed as a public servant are the same individuals for employees recruited in the past five years," Additionally, a thorough examination of the recruited employees' educational qualification documents, application forms submitted at the time of application, photos, and signatures will also be done. "After the investigation, information about employees whose recruitments appear suspicious should be provided to the SOG," the order reads. (ANI) After the Lok Sabha poll outcomes, the Congress on Thursday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi whether he would fulfil his promise of giving special category status to the states of Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. In the same breath, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh took a swipe at Modi 3.0 government, saying it is "Modi 1/3 government". In a video shared on X, Congress' general secretary posed four questions to the Prime Minister, saying he has four questions for the prime minister -- two for Andhra Pradesh and two for Bihar. "Our four questions to the one-third Prime Minister who is going to be elected. 1. On 30 April 2014, in the holy city of Tirupati, you promised to give special status to Andhra Pradesh. Will that promise be fulfilled now? 2. Will you stop the privatization of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant now? 3. Will you fulfil your 2014 election promise and the ten-year-old demand of your ally Nitish Kumar by giving special state status to Bihar? 4. Do you promise to conduct a caste census in the entire country like Bihar?" senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh posted on 'X'. His comment follows the recent developments where the BJP fell short of the 272-seat majority mark in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and with support from Naidu's TDP and Nitish Kumar's JD(U), which won 16 and 12 seats in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, respectively, and other alliance partners, the NDA has crossed the halfway mark. The Congress has bagged 99 seats in the Lok Sabha polls, indicating a massive improvement from its 2019 tally when it secured merely 52 seats. The total tally of the INDIA bloc stands at 234. Meanwhile, Narendra Modi is likely to take oath as Prime Minister for the third consecutive term on June 9, sources said. Earlier there was speculation that the swearing-in ceremony of the new NDA government led by PM Modi would take place on Saturday. On Wednesday the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) unanimously passed a resolution to elect Narendra Modi as their leader for the third time. This decision was taken during a crucial meeting held at the Prime Minister's official residence in Delhi on Wednesday. The NDA leaders expressed their admiration for Prime Minister Modi's leadership and the progress made by the nation under his guidance over the past decade. In the meantime, President Droupadi Murmu dissolved the 17th Lok Sabha on Wednesday, following the recommendation of the Union Cabinet. As per the results announced by the Election Commission of India on Tuesday, the BJP won 240 seats and along with its allies, it stands at 293 seats. Chandrababu Naidu's TDP and Nitish Kumar's JDU, having won 16 and 12 seats respectively in their respective states, have extended support to the NDA. (ANI) TDP Chief N Chandrababu Naidu chaired a meeting with his party MPs at his residence in Vijayawada. After the meeting on Thursday, the newly elected TDP MP from Bapatla, Krishna Prasad Tenneti, expressed his excitement and gratitude for the opportunity to serve. Talking about the meeting Tenneti said, "He did a coordination meeting with all the MPs and also traced out the history of how TDP has been committed to the welfare and development of the people and what kind of role we had been playing in national politics, particularly he played a very important role in the national politics with NDA." "Many of us got elected for the first time. Like me, I got elected for the first time," Tenneti added. Chandrababu Naidu reached Delhi on Thursday to meet with top BJP leaders. He will be in the national capital to attend a meeting of NDA partners, scheduled to take place at the central hall of the Parliament on Friday. All TDP MPs arrived in Delhi on Thursday night to participate in this meeting. As per the sources, discussions will be held on government formation by the grand alliance. This comes after the NDA crossed the majority mark bagging 293 seats in the Lok Sabha polls. However, the BJP managed to secure only 240 seats, much lower than its 2019 tally. As per the Election Commission data, NDA registered a massive victory winning 164 out of the 175 seats in the Andhra Pradesh assembly with TDP winning 135 seats, Pawan Kalyan-led Jana Sena Party (JSP) 21, and the BJP winning 8 seats. Both Naidu and Janata Dal (U) chief Nitish Kumar will have a greater say in the NDA as the BJP falls 32 seats short of a full majority on its own, unlike in the last two NDA governments at the Centre. Though the JD (U) and the TDP stated that they would stay in the NDA, the INDIA bloc did not stop wooing them. At the INDIA bloc meeting, the leaders said that doors should be kept open for the TDP and the JD (U). In a show of unity and support, 21 NDA leaders signed a resolution at a meeting held at the Prime Minister's official residence on Wednesday, unanimously electing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as their leader. The resolution praised PM Modi's efforts in nation-building, the welfare of the poor, and development, reaffirming their commitment to these objectives. Meanwhile, Chandrababu Naidu is scheduled to be sworn in as the Chief Minister on June 12th, with a state cabinet-sharing meeting likely to take place on June 10th. (ANI) Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma addressed a meeting on the upcoming revised budget for the financial year 2024-25 with the representatives of the employee union on Thursday. CM Bhajan Lal Sharma said that state employees have an important role in the implementation of public welfare schemes of the state government. He said that due to their activeness, the benefits of schemes in important areas like health, education, social security, and infrastructure are reaching the ground and the concept of Antyodaya (welfare of the people in the bottom of the pyramid) is becoming a reality. He said that the state government is sensitive towards the interests of employees and that every possible effort will be made to solve their problems. Chief Minister Sharma said that employees are the main medium of progress in Rajasthan. "Be it village or city or secretariat, small and big works are done at every level due to their activeness. The goal of 'Our leading Rajasthan' will be achieved only by their role in the development of the state, welfare of the people and upliftment of the society," CM Sharma said. He said that it is the duty of the state government to solve the real problems of the workers. Also, the state government is committed to honouring those employees who are working with a commitment to good governance. The role of employees in conducting the recently held grand festival of democracy, Lok Sabha general elections, has been commendable. CM Sharma said that the employees working across the state know the pulse of the problems and important issues of all sectors. "Therefore, the employees' association should give suggestions on all other subjects in addition to their own subjects." He said that the upcoming budget will be prepared keeping in mind the expectations of all sections and stakeholders. With a pro-people approach, the state government will prepare a roadmap for a developed Rajasthan in this budget. The Chief Minister said that the important suggestions of the employee unions will prove effective in making the upcoming budget inclusive. The state government will examine the positive suggestions sensitively and make every possible effort to include them in the budget. Along with this, he also instructed the ministers of all departments to communicate with the employees and officers and listen to their needs and resolve them. Representatives of various employee associations thanked the Chief Minister for inviting them to the pre-budget dialogue. They said that this is the first time that the state government has taken cognizance of the problems of employees within just 6 months. Chief Secretary Sudhansh Pant, Additional Chief Secretary Finance Akhil Arora, Additional Chief Secretary to Chief Minister Shikhar Aggarwal and Principal Secretary Alok Gupta, Principal Secretary Personnel Hemant Gera along with representatives of employee organizations associated with various departments were present in the meeting. (ANI) Flash A Greek pilot is pictured next to a Mirage 2000-5 fighter jet at the Tanagra air base in northern Athens, Greece, Feb. 4, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua] France will supply Mirage warplanes to Ukraine and train their soldiers, said French President Emmanuel Macron in an interview with French media on Thursday evening. "We will launch a new cooperation and transfer Mirage 2000-5s," said Macron. The French leader also promised to train a whole Ukrainian battalion of 4,500 troops, to be deployed on the battlefield. He said the delivery of French fighter jets "is not a factor of escalation" and promised "these weapons will not be used to bomb civilians." Additionally, Macron didn't exclude the possibility of sending military instructors to Ukraine. "There should be no taboo on this subject," he said in the interview. Mirage 2000 is a French multi-role, single-engine, fourth-generation jet fighter, manufactured by Dassault Aviation. At the end of February, Macron suggested European nations should send troops to Ukraine during a meeting in Paris but many other European countries, including Germany, Britain, Spain, and Italy, voiced their disagreement. Following Macron's remarks in February, Russia warned a direct conflict between NATO and Russia would be inevitable if the alliance sends troops to Ukraine. Earlier on Thursday, Marcon led a ceremony held at Omaha Beach in Normandy, northern France, to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. According to a live broadcast by French media BFMTV, some 20 heads of state and government, including U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, participated in the event. En route to France for the ceremony, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday that the United States will maintain its policy of not sending military advisors to Ukraine. The Normandy landings along the French coast on June 6, 1944, marked an important turning point in World War II, paving the way to the Allied's victory against Nazi Germany. According to the police, the incident took place in the Kovilpatti area of Thoothukudi. The police said that a case has been registered at the Kovilpatti West Police station in connection with the incident. An investigation is underway, they added. More details into the incident are awaited. (ANI) According to officials, the incident took place near Brahmbad village under the Mehandipur Balaji police station on National Highway-21. The pilgrims were returning from a journey to Kedarnath and Badrinath as part of their Char Dham pilgrimage when the accident occurred. The bus, which was en route to Bhilwara's Kotdi village, overturned suddenly when the driver allegedly dozed off at the wheel, causing the vehicle to lose control and flip over. The injured passengers, including a 14-year-old boy, were initially admitted to Sikrai Hospital. Due to severe injuries they were later transferred to Dausa District Hospital with help of four ambulances. Among the injured, three individuals in critical condition were later referred to Jaipur for advanced medical treatment. The rest continue to receive care at Dausa District Hospital. "20 people were there and the bus overturned near Mehandipur Balaji. Three serious injured were referred to Jaipur. All of them belonged to one village," informed Dinesh Meena, doctor at district hospital Dausa. Authorities are investigating the exact cause of the driver's lapse that led to the accident. (ANI) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dinesh Sharma on Friday said that the entire opposition could not manage to win as many seats as the BJP did in the recent Lok Sabha polls and added that it is laughable that Congress which could not cross the 100 mark is celebrating. "BJP is a cadre-based party, we will review and make sure that we work on our weaknesses. It is laughable that those (Congress) who could not even get 100 seats are celebrating and the entire opposition could not get as many seats as BJP alone. They are comparing their performance with us while we are forming our government for the third time in a row," former UP Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma told reporters. He further said that the BJP has put up a good performance in the southern states in the Lok Sabha polls. "This is a historic event that under the leadership of PM Modi, NDA is going to form its govt for the third time. Earlier people used to call BJP a party of the North but now BJP has a mandate in the South as well," he said. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is holding a meeting of its newly elected MPs at the central hall of the Parliament, sources said. As per the sources, discussions will be held on government formation by the grand alliance. This comes after the NDA crossed the majority mark bagging 293 seats in the Lok Sabha polls. However, the BJP managed to secure only 240 seats, much lower than its 2019 tally. Earlier on Wednesday, leaders of parties in the NDA held a meeting and elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi as their leader. As per the results announced by the Election Commission of India on Tuesday, the BJP won 240 seats and along with its allies, it stands at 293 seats. Chandrababu Naidu's TDP and Nitish Kumar's JDU, having won 16 and 12 seats respectively in their respective states, have extended support to the NDA. The INDIA bloc has 234 MPs in the new parliament with the Congress having won 99 seats. (ANI) As the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is set to hold a meeting today, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday said that the NDA coalition will comfortably complete its five-year term at the Centre. "The government (NDA) will complete its 5-year term. We have around 300 seats so 100 per cent we will complete our term of 5 years. Everything is going to be fine," Ajit Pawar told ANI. Ajit Pawar arrived in the national capital to attend the meeting of NDA scheduled for today. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is scheduled to hold a meeting of its newly elected MPs at the central hall of the Parliament, sources said. The newly-elected MPs will also choose Narendra Modi as their leader ahead of oath taking likely on Sunday. As per the sources, discussions will be held on government formation by the grand alliance. This comes after the NDA crossed the majority mark bagging 293 seats in the Lok Sabha polls. However, the BJP managed to secure only 240 seats, much lower than its 2019 tally. Earlier on Wednesday, leaders of parties in the NDA held a meeting and elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi as their leader. PM Modi later said that NDA will work towards building a developed India. "Met our valued NDA partners. Ours is an alliance that will further national progress and fulfil regional aspirations. We will serve the 140 crore people of India and work towards building a Viksit Bharat," PM Modi said in a post on 'X'. Meanwhile, Narendra Modi is likely to take oath as the Prime Minister for the third consecutive time on June 9, according to sources. Earlier there was speculation that the swearing-in ceremony of the new NDA government led by PM Modi would take place on Saturday. However, there is no official confirmation yet of the date of the oath-taking ceremony. As per the results announced by the Election Commission of India on Tuesday, the BJP won 240 seats and along with its allies, it stands at 293 seats. Chandrababu Naidu's TDP and Nitish Kumar's JDU, having won 16 and 12 seats respectively in their respective states, have extended support to the NDA. The INDIA bloc has 234 MPs in the new parliament with the Congress having won 99 seats. (ANI) Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday expressed strong support for the proposal to name Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the Leader of Lok Sabha, Leader of the BJP, and NDA Parliamentary Party days after BJP led NDA won the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Gadkari on Tuesday won the Nagpur Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra defeating his nearest Congress rival by a margin of 1,37, 603 votes. "I welcome all the newly elected Members of Parliament. I accept the proposal of naming Narendra Modi as the Leader of Lok Sabha, Leader of the BJP, and NDA Parliamentary Party," Gadkari stated while addressing the NDA gathering. Reflecting on the past decade, he added, "In the last ten years, we got an opportunity to work under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Prime Minister has made stern efforts so that our nation becomes a world leader and reaches new heights. He has been an inspiration all over the world. The work done in the last ten years was just a start, but after this, in the coming five years, we will become a leading power of the world. I extend my wishes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi". Addressing the gathering, LJP President Chirag Paswan congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi, attributing the NDA's massive victory to his leadership and willpower. "I congratulate my Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is because of you that NDA has achieved this massive victory. The credit for this goes to you. It was that willpower which helped in recording such a massive victory in history. It was not a normal thing that NDA kept getting such a big victory under the leadership of the Prime Minister for the third time in a row...Because of you, today in front of the world we can proudly say that India has become the fifth-largest economy of the country. The people of India have full faith in you," he said. Paswan also shared a warm moment with Prime Minister Modi, hugging him after his speech. Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar also addressed the gathering, expressing optimism about the completion of pending projects in Bihar. Addressing the gathering, Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar said "All the pending works of Bihar will be done. It is a very good thing that all of us have come together and we will all work together with you (PM Modi). You will be swearing in as the Prime Minister on Sunday, but I wanted you to do it today itself. Whenever you take the oath, we will be with you...We will all work together under your leadership." TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu said, "We are congratulating all of us as we have won a wonderful majority. I have seen during the election campaign, for three months PM Modi never took any rest. Day and night he has campaigned. He stated and ended with the same spirit. In Andhra Pradesh, we had three public meetings and one big rally and it has made a huge difference in winning the election in Andhra Pradesh..." A meeting of the newly elected MPs was held on Friday at Parliament, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present. Earlier, on Wednesday, leaders of parties in the NDA held a meeting and elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi as their leader. PM Modi later said that NDA will work towards building a developed India. (ANI) As the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and its allies the BJP and the Jana Sena are gearing up to form the government in Andhra Pradesh after registering a landslide victory in the state assembly elections, party leader K Ravindra Kumar said on Friday that the reservation provided to the Muslims will continue in the state. "We will continue that. There is no problem at all," Kumar told ANI on Friday. Earlier, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu also asserted to preserve the Muslim quota reservation in the state contrasting the BJP's assertion to not provide reservation based on religion. A meeting of the TDP MPs was held in former TDP MP Jayadev Galla's residence in Delhi earlier in the day. Meanwhile, a key meeting of the newly elected MPs of the NDA was held on Friday at the central hall of the Parliament. When asked if the party will put forth its demands at the meeting, TDP leader Kumar said, "Today is not the stage to discuss the demands but we are a part of the NDA. The question of demand doesn't arise. It is a pre-poll alliance. We used to take the assistance of the Centre whenever required. We used to take the schemes of the Centre and also Centre-State sharing seats and also AP Reorganisation Act." "So many things are there, it is an ongoing process. First priority is that Andhra Pradesh has to be reconstructed since it has gone back by 25 years," he added. Earlier this week, leaders of parties in the NDA elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi as their leader during a meeting of the alliance in Delhi. According to sources, Narendra Modi is likely to take oath as the Prime Minister for the third consecutive time on June 9. (ANI) The Special Cell of Delhi police on Friday filed its chargesheet in the Parliament security breach case in Delhi's Patiala House Court. Approximately a chargesheet of 1000 pages has been filed against all six arrested accused namely Manoranjan D, Lalit Jha, Amol Shinde, Mahesh Kumawat, Sagar Sharma, and Neelam Azad. Special public prosecutor (SPP) Akhand Pratap Singh appeared for Delhi Police and submitted before the court sanctions for prosecution under Section 186 IPC and under Section 13 of UAPA are awaited for which a supplementary chargesheet will be filed within a period of two weeks The Additional Sessions Judge Dr Hardeep Kaur taking note of the submissions listed the matter for filing of the supplementary chargesheet on July 15. All the arrested accused have also been produced before the court as their Judicial Custody was ended. The court also extended the judicial custody of all the six accused till July 15. Delhi LG VK Saxena on Thursday accorded prosecution sanction under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, against six persons accused in the Parliament attack on December 13, 2023. Delhi LG, accorded prosecution sanction against six persons under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), for allegedly attacking the Parliament, on December 13, 2023 while the House proceedings were on. Six persons namely Manoranjan D, Sagar Sharma, Amol Dhanraj Shinde, Neelam Ranolia, Lalit Jha and Mahesh Kumawat are accused of illegally entering into the Parliament and throwing smoke canisters into the Lok Sabha during the live session. Delhi Police had requested their prosecution under sections 16 and 18 of UAPA from the competent authority, i.e. the Lt. Governor, who, having found sufficient material on record, granted prosecution sanction. While the Delhi Police had requested necessary prosecution sanction under UAPA, the Review Committee (DoP, Tis Hazari, Delhi), on May 30 had also gone through the entire evidence collected by the Investigating Agency and found the involvement of the accused in Parliament attack case. Accordingly, the Review Committee noted that prima facie a case was made out against the accused under UAPA. The Delhi Police had registered a case vide FIR No. 142/23 dated 14.12.2023, under sections - 186/353/452/153/34/120B of IPC and 13/16/18 UA (P) Act, at the Parliament Street Police Station on the complaint made by the Security officer in the Lok Sabha. The investigation of the case was later transferred from the Parliament Street Police Station to the Counter Intelligence Unit of the PS Special Cell, New Delhi. During the investigation, the above 06 accused persons were arrested and at present all of them are in judicial custody. This case pertains to a security breach at parliament on the anniversary of the Parliament attack case on December 13, 2023. All six persons are presently in judicial custody. (ANI) Delhi's Rouse Avenue court on Friday directed the Joint Director (ED) to appear with relevant case records and to apprise the status of the investigation on July 6 in the Land for Job money laundering case surrounding former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi. The court also pulled up the ED for seeking more time to file the supplementary charge sheet. Special CBI Judge Vishal Gogne directed the Joint Director (ED) to appear with case record and apprise the status of investigation in Land for job money laundering case. On Friday Enforcement Directorate (ED)'s Special public prosecutor (SPP) Sought more time to file supplementary charge sheet. Earlier, ED was directed to file a supplementary charge sheet, if any, by today. Counsel for ED said that the investigation is ongoing. In April, the court had directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to finalise the conclusion of pending investigation in Land for Job money laundering case within two weeks. In this case Bihar's former CM Rabri Devi, her daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav have been charge sheeted along with Amit Katyal and Hridyanand Chaudhary. All accused except Amit Katyal appeared through video conferencing. Katyal was exempted from appearance for today. "It is directed that the ED shall make efforts to finalize the conclusions of any remaining investigation within two weeks," Special Judge Gogne said in the orders of April 12. The court noted that the principal complaint (Charge sheet) is already before the court. Upon query by the Court the ED's SPP Manish Jain counsel had submitted that further investigation is being conducted on a priority and expeditious basis. This matter is at the stage of scrutiny of documents after filing of the charge sheet. On February 28, court had granted regular bail to Rabri Devi, Misa Bharti, Hema Yadav and Hridyanand Chaudhary. These accused were summoned by the court after taking Cognizance of charge sheet filed by Enforcement Directorate. On January 27, the court had issued summons to former Bihar CM Rabri Devi, Misa Bharti, Hema Yadav, Hridyanand Chaudhary and other accused in Land for Job money laundering case. Amit Katyal was arrested by the ED during investigation. Two firms namely A K Infosystem and A B Export have also been made accused in this case. ED had submitted that in 2006-07 A K infosystem was formed by Amit Katyal and its business was IT data analysis. No real business was done. Instead, several land parcels were bought by the company. One land parcel pertains to the main predicate offence that is land for job. This company was transferred in the name of Rabri Devi and Tejaswi Yadav in 2014 for the consideration of one lakh Rupees, ED submitted. The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on January 9, 2024, filed a Prosecution Complaint (Charge sheet) in Land for job scam money laundering case. ED submitted that A B Export was supposed to be in the business of export. It was incorporated in 1996. In 2007, Rs 5 crore came through five companies and a property in New Friends colony was purchased. In this case seven land parcels are involved. Out of these Rabri, Hema Yadav, Misa Bharti got land parcels. Later on, they sold out their land parcels. ED's Special Public Prosecutor had apprised the court that the Yadav Family members are beneficiaries of proceeds of crime. Katyal is said to be a close aide of former railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. The Delhi High Court had refused to quash Enforcement Directorate (ED) proceedings against Amit Katyal, who is accused of engaging in transactions with the family members of former railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. According to the ED in March, based on the specific intelligence inputs, searches were conducted at 24 locations at various places in Delhi NCR, Patna, Mumbai and Ranchi in the Railways Land for Job Scam, which resulted in recovery of unaccounted cash of Rs 1 Crore, foreign currency including USD 1900, 540 gms gold bullion and more than 1.5 kg of gold jewellery (worth Rs 1.25 Crores approximately), several other incriminating documents including various property documents, sale deeds etc held in the names of family members and benamidaars indicating illegal accretion of huge land bank and electronic devices. Searches resulted in detection of Proceeds of Crime amounting to Rs 600 Crore approximately at this point of time which is in the form of immovable properties of Rs 350 Crore and transactions of Rs 250 Crore routed through various benamidaars, ED stated. According to the ED PMLA investigation conducted so far has revealed that several pieces of land at prominent locations in Patna and other areas were illegally acquired by the family of the then Rail Mantri, Lalu Prasad Yadav in lieu of jobs provided in Railways. The current market value of these land parcels is more than Rs 200 Crore. In this regard, several benamidars, shell entities and beneficial owners for these lands have been identified. Further, investigation under PMLA revealed that the property situated at New Friends Colony, Delhi (independent 4 storied bungalow, registered in the name of M/s A B Exports Private Limited, a company owned and controlled by Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and family) was shown to have been acquired at a value of mere Rs 4 Lakhs, the present market value of which is approximately Rs 150 Crore. It is suspected that huge amount of cash/Proceeds of Crime has been infused in purchasing this property and few Mumbai based entities, dealing in the gems and jewellery sector were used to channel ill-gotten proceeds of crime in this regard. The property has been though, on paper declared as office of M/s A B Exports Private Limited and M/s AK Infosystems Pvt ltd, it is being exclusively used as residential premises by Tejasvi Prasad Yadav, son of Lalu Prasad Yadav. During the searches, Tejasvi Prasad Yadav was found to be staying at this house and was found to be using this house as his residential property. ED investigation has found that 4 parcels of lands acquired by the family of Lalu Yadav in just Rs 7.5 lakhs from poor Group-D applicants were sold to Syed Abu Dojana, Ex-RJD MLA by Mrs. Rabri Devi with huge gains at Rs 3.5 vrore in a collusive deal. ED investigation further revealed that a major portion of the amount thus received, was transferred to the account of Sh. Tejashwi Prasad Yadav. Investigations revealed that in the similar fashion, lands were taken from several poor parents and candidates in lieu of Group D jobs in the Railways. "It has been revealed during the investigation that in many Railways Zones, more than 50 per cent of recruited candidates were from Lalu Yadav families' constituencies," stated ED. (ANI) Newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Members of Parliament (MPs) from Madhya Pradesh attended the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)'s meeting at the central hall of Parliament on Friday. The NDA, led by the BJP, held a meeting of its newly elected MPs at the central hall of Parliament on Friday to choose Narendra Modi as their leader ahead of the oath-taking likely on Sunday. He has been elected as Leader of the BJP, Leader of the NDA Parliamentary Party, and Leader of the BJP. Ahead of the meeting, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav told reporters, "Our government is going to be formed under the leadership of Narendra Modi. Everything will be fine in the meeting today." BJP MP in the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh, Balyogi Umesh Nath, told ANI, "All 29 (Lok Sabha) seats in Madhya Pradesh went to the BJP. Top leaders and workers in Madhya Pradesh had taken the pledge to give all 29 'Lotus' to Prime Minister Narendra Modi...This time we won the Chhindwara seat too. Our resolve is now complete. The BJP workers are also happy that the resolution has been completed after a long time." On BJP falling short of the majority mark and its dependence on NDA allies, he said that such things happen in politics and there is no issue with it. "All of these go on in politics. There is no issue in it. It is a regular process. It has happened earlier too," Umesh Nath said. On the party's performance in Ayodhya, he further added, "Our candidate could not win there. It is a matter of pain. Not only the party but the entire country is in pain. But this is politics. Things keep happening. But we will form the government once again and work in the country." The BJP-led NDA crossed the majority mark bagging 293 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. Nonetheless, the BJP managed to secure only 240 seats, much lower than its 2019 tally. Earlier on Wednesday, leaders of parties in the NDA held a meeting and elected Narendra Modi as their leader. Modi is likely to take oath as the Prime Minister for the third consecutive time on June 9, according to sources. According to the results announced by the Election Commission of India on Tuesday, the BJP won 240 seats and along with its allies, it stands at 293 seats. Chandrababu Naidu's TDP and Nitish Kumar's JDU, having won 16 and 12 seats respectively in their respective states, have extended support to the NDA. The INDIA bloc has 234 MPs in the new parliament with the Congress having won 99 seats. (ANI) Urging the Parliament to intervene in the process of jailed candidates becoming Members of Parliament, Senior advocate Vikas Singh said that the number of legislators with criminal charges is on the rise adding that it is an irony that "people in jails cannot vote, but can contest and win elections". "The makers of the Constitution would have never thought that such people would be elected to the Parliament. A constitutional amendment is needed to specify the charges, holding which, the candidates will be disqualified from contesting elections. The irony is, that people in jails cannot vote, but can contest and win elections. A Parliamentary seat cannot lie vacant for more than 60 days, irrespective of whether they have taken an oath. The Parliament should step in and not let such people get elected," Senior advocate Vikas Singh told ANI. He further said that such candidates should not be allowed to recontest as their constituency remains unrepresented till the time they remain in custody. "And in cases where they have to vacate their seats, they should not be allowed to recontest till the time they are out of custody because of the number of days they spend in jail, the constituency will remain unrepresented. It is the need of the hour to bring a law addressing this issue. There is a provision somewhere which allows them to file their nominations by authorising someone, this is how they have contested elections," Singh said. Quoting Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Supreme Court Advocate Prashant Padmanabhan said, "The beauty of the Constitution is that it protects those who don't even believe in it." Padmanabhan said that the remedy to avoid such cases in Parliament is an expeditious trial which can result in either acquittal or conviction of those candidates who are jailed. As per Section 8 (3) of RP Act, 1951, if a person is convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment of 2 years or more, this will be disqualification to contest elections. According to the Election Commission's announcement on Tuesday, Amritpal Singh, a Sikh preacher, has secured victory in the Khadoor Sahib constituency, while Sheikh Abdul Rashid, also known as "Engineer Rashid," has won the Baramulla seat. Amritpal Singh was arrested by Punjab police in April last year, weeks after he evaded police and the stringent National Security Act was invoked against him. He won the Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha seat with a massive margin of 1,97,120 votes, defeating his nearest rival, Kulbir Singh Zira of Congress. Engineer Rashid ran as an independent candidate from the Baramulla seat and defeated Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) vice-president Omar Abdullah. He secured victory with a margin of 2,04,142 votes and received 4,72,481 votes. Rashid has been lodged in the Tihar jail since August 9, 2019, on charges of alleged terror financing, while Singh has been booked under the National Security Act and sent to the Dibrugarh jail in Assam. Jailed Khalistani separatist and Waris Punjab De Chief Amritpal Singh and Engineer Abdul Rashid, who have won the Lok Sabha elections, can come to Parliament to participate in the oath-taking ceremony and take part in important votes with the court's permission, a Constitution expert PDT Achary said. "They (jailed MPs) can come to Parliament. The first thing is that they will now have to come and take the oath. With the permission of the court and concerned authorities, they can come out and take the oath. The police will bring them to Parliament, after which they will be handed over to the Parliament security. After they take the oath, they will be sent back to jail with the police," he said. (ANI) Commentary: Chang'e-6 mission demonstrates China's persistence in int'l space cooperation Xinhua) 08:05, June 07, 2024 This video animation image displayed at Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) on June 6, 2024 shows the ascender of China's Chang'e-6 probe rendezvousing and docking with the probe's orbiter-returner combination in lunar orbit. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang) BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) -- China's Chang'e-6 probe, carrying expectations from scientists worldwide, is currently in orbit around the moon, awaiting the optimal moment for its return journey. If everything goes well, Chang'e-6 will enable China to retrieve the first-ever samples from the far side of the moon in human history. Prior to its return, China has pledged to make the samples available to international researchers, a commitment underscored by its consistent actions and promises. With the precious samples, Chang'e-6 will offer scientists a unique window into the moon's evolutionary history and potentially even the origins of our solar system. Given the rarity of the opportunity, China feels an even greater obligation to share it, as Chinese people believe that if we present roses to others' hands, the fragrance will also linger on ours. Chang'e-6 stands as evidence of the country's consistent promotion of international cooperation in the field of space exploration. The spacecraft carried four international payloads, and foreign scientists invited to witness the launch and lunar landing of their instruments aboard Chang'e-6 expressed profound gratitude to China. Josef Aschbacher, Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), also tweeted his thanks, noting that the ESA is proud to have a part in the mission. China has been a steadfast supporter of space cooperation with Europe, encompassing projects from lunar missions to the joint development of scientific satellites and astronaut training. However, European officials and scientists are increasingly concerned that such cooperation will be dampened by escalating geopolitical tensions. According to Karl Bergquist, the administrator of European and external relations of ESA, the ESA is facing more and more restrictions in its space cooperation with China, as it uses a lot of U.S. components but cannot export them due to the U.S. ban. It's clearly impossible for European countries to entirely avoid using U.S. components. Actually, the essence of cooperation lies in pooling the wisdom of diverse countries to jointly explore space. Regrettably, the United States, once embroiled in a fierce space race with the Soviet Union, continues to regard outer space as a stage for flexing its muscles. It has imposed restrictions on cooperation with China in space technologies and exploration, extending the prohibitions to its allies as well. As a result, China pursues a self-reliant and self-developed approach in its space endeavors, and has achieved tremendous progress on this front. Yet, even under the toughest challenges, China always believes that space exploration is not a zero-sum competition and needs collective wisdom and efforts that transcend boundaries on Earth. Now deemed one of the most reliable partners by European scientists participating in the Chang'e-6 mission, China will continue to forge bridges for cooperation and enable more nations to embrace the new frontier of the moon and space. China has repeatedly stated that it remains open to space cooperation with the United States. The question remains whether U.S. authorities will heed the calls from their own scientists and the global scientific community to stop hindering the noble pursuit of collective advancement in science and knowledge. As Neil Melville-Kenney, the technical officer of the ESA instrument on Chang'e-6, has said, space exploration encourages us to consider our planet as one and our people as one. The closer we work together, the greater things we can achieve. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Flash Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, holds talks with Special Envoy of Cuban President and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, in Beijing, capital of China, June 6, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua] Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Special Envoy of Cuban President and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, on Thursday in Beijing. Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that China and Cuba are good friends who trust each other, good comrades who share the same vision, and good brothers who share weal and woe, adding that the two sides reached an important consensus on jointly building a China-Cuba community with a shared future. China speaks highly of Cuba's adherence to truth and defiance of power, and appreciates that Cuba always stands up for China's legitimate stance on international multilateral occasions. China firmly supports Cuba in defending its national sovereignty and opposing foreign interference, and will continue to resolutely oppose the U.S.'s unreasonable blockade against Cuba, Wang noted. Wang said that China is willing to work with Cuba to implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state, develop the special friendly relations between the two parties and two countries, and contribute to promoting the cause of world socialism and safeguarding world peace. Rodriguez said that the special friendly relations between Cuba and China enjoy a profound public support for good friendship between the two peoples. Cuba sincerely thanks China for its strong support in resisting the unreasonable blockade and interference of the United States and overcoming temporary difficulties in economic operation, and will continue to firmly abide by the one-China principle. Cuba is willing to work with China to build a Cuba-China community with a shared future, give top priority to the joint construction of the Belt and Road, and safeguard the sovereignty and independence of developing countries as well as the cause of socialism, he said. The two sides also exchanged views on strengthening China-Latin America cooperation and other issues of common concern. Nagaland governor La Ganesan has appealed to the Eastern Nagaland People's Organization (ENPO) and its residents to actively participate in the upcoming Urban Local Body (ULB) polls, slated to be held on June 26. In his letter addressed to the ENPO, Governor Ganesan said, "I earnestly appeal to the ENPO and the citizens of Eastern Nagaland to actively participate in the upcoming Urban Local Body (ULB) elections scheduled for the 26th of June, 2024. While the concerns raised by the ENPO are acknowledged with utmost respect, it is imperative to address the essence of democratic participation." "Voting in any election is not merely a right but a significant opportunity that ensures the representation of the people's voice in governance and the sustenance of democratic principles", he added. Governor Ganesan reassured the ENPO and the people of Eastern Nagaland that the concerns related to the creation of the Frontier Nagaland Territory are being addressed by the Central Government. "I also reassure the ENPO and the people of Eastern Nagaland that the concerns related to the creation of the Frontier Nagaland Territory are being diligently addressed by the Central Government. Constructive dialogue and continued participation in the democratic process should be encouraged by all the concerned stakeholders", he added. The Nagaland governor urged the ENPO and its residents to exercise their constitutional rights and take part in the upcoming ULB polls. "It is with this optimistic background that I humbly request the ENPO and the people of Eastern Nagaland to exercise their constitutional rights and participate in the forthcoming ULB election, thereby strengthening the democratic fabric of our state. Let us come together to uphold the democratic values that we cherish and work relentlessly towards a united and prosperous Nagaland", he said. The ULB polls of Nagaland, which is to be held on June 26, will see the participation of three Municipal Councils and 36 Town Councils along with 33% reservation for women. (ANI) US President Joe Biden has said that he would not pardon his son, Hunter Biden, if he is found guilty of criminal federal gun charges, reported CNN. Responding to a question in an interview with David Muir of ABC on whether the US President would rule out pardoning Hunter Biden, the president said, "Yes." He also affirmed he would accept the outcome of the trial, which is currently underway in Delaware, CNN reported. Meanwhile, the courtroom proceedings have been investigated into a painful moment for the Biden family, as Hunter was struggling with drug addiction after his brother Beau's death. First Lady Jill Biden attended the trial before travelling to France to join her husband for D-Day commemoration activities. Earlier, the White House said that Biden would not pardon his son, as reported by CNN. "I've been very clear; the president is not going to pardon his son," press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in December. Notably, the president's son is accused of illegally purchasing and possessing a gun while abusing or being addicted to drugs, a violation of federal law. However, he pleaded not guilty to the three charges, though he's been open about his struggles with alcohol and crack cocaine addiction. Special counsel David Weiss brought these charges, CNN reported. First time in US history, the child of a sitting president has been on trial. Biden has previously voiced support for his son and said he was proud of his recovery from addiction. "I am the President, but I am also a Dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today," the president said in a statement as the trial was getting underway. "Hunter's resilience in the face of adversity and the strength he has brought to his recovery are inspiring to us. A lot of families have loved ones who have overcome addiction and know what we mean," he went on. "As the President, I don't and won't comment on pending federal cases, but as a Dad, I have boundless love for my son, confidence in him, and respect for his strength. Our family has been through a lot together, and Jill and I are going to continue to be there for Hunter and our family with our love and support," US President Biden added. (ANI) The FIA team reached the Adiala Jail, where Imran Khan is currently incarcerated, to interrogate him as it is probing into the alleged controversial post from his X account. However, the PTI founder refused to answer any question from the FIA team in the absence of his legal team. The FIA sought Imran Khan's 'refusal in writing' before leaving the prison, as reported by ARY News. Earlier on May 31 in a similar happening, Imran Khan refused to answer any query from the FIA. The FIA Cybercrime Cell wrote a letter to the authorities seeking access to the incarcerated PTI founder to inquire about a 'controversial' post from his social media X handle. The letter read that anti-state propaganda was disseminated through the official social media account of the PTI founder, targeting institutions, particularly the Pakistan Army, ARY News reported. The video posted on May 26 from the account of the PTI founder aimed to distort facts, prompt rebellion among officers and soldiers, and create unrest within various state institutions. The FIA notice had said that the post was "likely to cause fear or alarm in the public and may induce/provoke anyone to commit an offence against the state, state institution or public tranquillity," Dawn reported. The FIA Cybercrime Cell further noted that this video is a clear violation of the PICA Act 2016. They sought access to the PTI founder in jail for further investigation. Earlier on Wednesday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf challenged notices sent by the Federal Investigative Agency over a controversial post on the official account of former prime minister Imran Khan, Dawn News. The notices issued to PTI leaders Barrister Gohar, Secretary General Omar Ayub, and spokesperson Raoof Hasan stated that an inquiry had been initiated regarding the "misuse" of Khan's verified X account. (ANI) Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan, who has been incarcerated in Adiala jail held 105 meetings with at least 403 people in 246 days -- from September 28 to May 30, in Rawalpindi's Adiala jail, reported Geo News. The former premier was shifted from Attock jail to Adiala jail a day after the Islamabad High Court's (IHC) order in September last year. He has been imprisoned since August 2023. According to the data submitted by the government in the Supreme Court on September 28, Imran Khan was allowed to meet with six people while in October, the former premier saw 43 people in 12 separate meetings, as reported by Geo News. The data also revealed that the 71-year-old, in November, held 13 meetings with 52 people. In December 2023, the 22nd premier of Pakistan held 12 meetings with 48 people, and in the first month of the current year, the former athlete saw 17 people in eight meetings. According to the latest reported data, Imran Khan's meetings in February increased to 74 people and 19 meetings and in the following month, he met with 53 people in 11 meetings, Geo News reported. In April, the PTI founder, who was ousted in 2022 by a no-confidence vote, met 54 people and held 15 meetings. In May, he was allowed to meet 56 people and hold 13 meetings. Meanwhile, the federal government submitted documentary evidence of people who met Imran Khan and the facilities being provided to him to rebut the former prime minister's claims that he was being kept in solitary confinement, Geo News reported. "...if this Court may deem appropriate and necessary, it may appoint a judicial officer in the form of a commission to verify the facts as submitted before this Court," it said. (ANI) Indian-origin Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore on Friday morning entered the International Space Station, the US space agency said on Friday. NASA's Boeing Starliner carrying the two astronauts had docked with the ISS at 1:34 pm (EDT) after lifting off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Wednesday. Footage from NASA showed the two NASA astronauts entering through the hatch door of the USS at 3:46 pm ET on Thursday (which translates to IST on Friday morning). The seven astronauts of the Expedition 71 crew on the ISS greeted Sunita and Butch, the first astronauts to fly on Boeing's new capsule. The 59-year-old Indian origin astronaut broke into a gig after entering through the hatch into the ISS and hugged the astronoauts onboard the space station. The spacecraft launched on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 10:52 am June 5 (local time) from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in The journey wasn't without challenges, as new issues arose en route, but NASA astronauts Wilmore and Williams safely arrived aboard the station after overcoming obstacles. The docking occurred with additional steps taken to secure the connection between Starliner and the station's port. Wilmore expressed his delight, stating, "Nice to be attached to the big city in the sky." Pressure was equalized between Starliner and the ISS, and the hatch between the two opened at about 3:46 pm ET, with the crew warmly welcomed by their ISS counterparts. "We had music. Matt was dancing. It was great. What a wonderful place to be back," Willmore remarked, expressing gratitude to those involved in the mission. Williams echoed his sentiments, expressing thanks to family and friends and delight at being part of the ISS family. "We have another family up here, which is just awesome," Williams said. "And we're just happy as can be to be up in space, one in Starliner on an Atlas V, and then here at the International Space Station. It just doesn't get much better." The Expedition 71 crew of NASA astronauts on board the ISS include Michael Barratt, Matt Dominick, Tracy C. Dyson, and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin, and Oleg Kononenko. Jim Free, NASA Associate Administrator, hailed the mission's significance during a news conference, emphasising its role in advancing human spaceflight. "The launch yesterday and docking today puts the Starliner on a path to certification to enabling continued exploration and science that benefits humanity," Free said during a news conference Thursday. "For Butch and Suni, I want to thank them for the years they have spent to getting us to this point, the expertise they bring to their roles and their dedication to the task of advancing human spaceflight," he added. The duo will spend the next eight days on the orbiting laboratory, as reported by CNN. Despite challenges during the journey, including helium leaks and thruster issues, the mission proceeded, with the crew successfully troubleshooting and rectifying problems as they arose. Boeing aerospace engineer Jim May confirmed the stability of Starliner despite helium leaks, stating it wasn't a safety concern. Mission control closely monitored the situation while the crew proceeded with docking. Steve Stich, NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager, likened the challenges faced by Starliner to those encountered by previous spacecraft programs, stressing their manageable nature. According to the space agency two additional helium leaks were detected on the vehicle. One helium leak had been discovered prior to launch and deemed acceptable. "Helium is used in spacecraft thruster systems to allow the thrusters to fire and is not combustible or toxic," Boeing said in a post on X. As of Thursday morning, two of the three leaks have been corrected, according to a live NASA broadcast. A fourth minor leak was discovered later as well, Stich said. Mission managers polled "go" for rendezvous and docking with the space station, and the leaks were not expected to impact docking, according to the broadcast. "During all of Starliner's rendezvous and proximity operations, we'll keep those propellant manifolds open, but they'll stay open until docking. Starliner's currently maintaining plenty of helium reserves," Boeing aerospace engineer Jim May confirmed Thursday morning in a social media post on X shared by Boeing. "Currently the helium leak is not a safety issue for the crew, the vehicle or the mission." "What we need to do over the next few days is take a look at the leak rate there and figure out what we go do relative to the rest of the mission," he said. "I think we have some tools in our toolkit to manage this. We'll take a little time to go, assess it and we'll undock and land when we're ready." "Now that we're in flight and we've seen a couple more leaks, if it is a common cause across those flanges, then there might be something more to the flange itself, maybe a bad lot of seals or some other variable," he said. Stich said the problems Starliner is facing is not unlike the first crewed flight of NASA's Space Shuttle Program, or other test flights of spacecraft rated to take humans to space. Just as Wilmore and Williams were about to go to sleep Wednesday night, mission control informed them that they needed to shut down two valves due to the new helium leaks, CNN reported. "Teams have identified three helium leaks on the spacecraft. One of these was previously discussed before flight along with a management plan," NASA shared in the post. "The other two are new since the spacecraft arrived on orbit. Two of the affected helium valves have been closed and the spacecraft remains stable." Starliner's highly anticipated journey, a culmination of Boeing's efforts under NASA's Commercial Crew Program, represents a significant milestone in US spaceflight history. The mission's success heralds a new era in space exploration and collaboration between NASA and private industry partners, with Williams making history as the first woman aboard such a mission. Despite delays and setbacks in previous launch attempts, the successful arrival of Starliner at the ISS underscores the resilience and perseverance of the teams involved, CNN reported. (ANI) The sharp remarks from the minister came after the federal government Thursday submitted a detail of facilities given to him at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. The government presented documents, including images of Khan's prison conditions, rejecting the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader's accusations that he was kept in "solitary confinement" and denied access to his lawyer. According to a Punjab government spokesperson, members of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) are only allowed to visit with their leaders in jail once a week. Bukhari, on the other hand, said that the PTI founder held frequent meetings in jail where he was "hatching conspiracies" and "writing [news] articles against the country." Demanding a judicial committee to investigate Khan's claim about jail circumstances, the provincial spokesperson stated that at least 40 to 50 visitors met the PTI founder in jail. "In view of some judges, his [prison cell] should be turned into a five-star hotel," Bukhari said, according to Geo News. Imran Khan is equipped with an exercise bike and stretching belt for physical fitness, books, a separate kitchen, a customised menu, an exclusive gallery for a walk, an LED, a room cooler, and a study table. In the extensive record filed to the court, the government gave not only photographic documentation of all facilities, but also the identities of all people who have visited him in the detention facility so far. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan, who has been incarcerated in Adiala jail held 105 meetings with at least 403 people in 246 days -- from September 28 to May 30, in Rawalpindi's Adiala jail, according to Geo News. The former premier was shifted from Attock jail to Adiala jail a day after the Islamabad High Court's (IHC) order in September last year. He has been imprisoned since August 2023. (ANI) Renowned French artist Ben has died at the age of 88, taking his own life shortly after the tragic loss of his beloved wife, CNN reported, citing his family's statement. The Vautier family confirmed the devastating news on Wednesday, revealing that Annie Vautier, Ben's wife, had succumbed to a stroke at 3 am that morning. Stricken with grief and unable to fathom life without her, Ben made the heart-wrenching decision to take his own life mere hours later at their residence in southern France. In a statement shared on the family gallery's Facebook page, the Vautier family expressed the profound bond between Ben and Annie, noting, "Geniuses never stay alone." Ben, born Benjamin Vautier in 1935, was celebrated for his whimsical yet thought-provoking contributions to modern art. His distinctive style often featured playful black-on-white slogans, penned in a childlike manner, which captivated audiences worldwide. Beyond his renowned artistic endeavours, Ben was recognised for his performative art, which included the audacious act of signing everyday objects and the works of fellow artists, according to CNN. Having spent his formative years traversing Italy, Switzerland, Turkey, and Egypt, Ben eventually settled in Nice in 1949, where he would leave an indelible mark on the art world. A self-taught artist, he embarked on his creative journey in the late 1950s, establishing a store in Nice that served not only as an exhibition space but also as a hub for artistic collaboration and discourse. A luminary of the Fluxus movement during the 1960s, Ben embraced a playful and experimental approach to art, seeking to blur the lines between artistic expression and everyday life. The news of Ben's passing prompted tributes from far and wide, including a poignant homage from the Elysee Palace, which hailed him as "one of France's most popular artists." The Palace reflected on Ben's enduring legacy, highlighting his ability to infuse everyday objects with "freedom and poetry." Ben's artistic legacy transcends borders, with his works gracing esteemed institutions from the Museum of Modern Art in New York to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. A poignant recreation of his original shop, adorned with his iconic handwriting, stands as a testament to his creative spirit at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, CNN reported. (ANI) A French national has been detained in Moscow, confirmed French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, although he refuted any association between the individual and the French government, CNN reported. "In no way was he working for France. Now we are very vigilant, he will receive all the consular protections that apply in such a case. I want to say the truth in the face of the brainwashing that we hear," Macron stated. According to Russian Investigative Committee, a French citizen, purportedly employed by the non-profit Swiss Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, was apprehended on suspicion of "collecting information in the field of military activities of the Russian Federation." Video footage released by the Investigative Committee depicted the man being apprehended by security personnel at a cafe in Moscow before being escorted into a military van. The Investigative Committee alleges that the French national had been collecting intelligence on Russia's "military and military-technical activities" for several years without registering as a foreign agent, according to CNN. "For these purposes, he repeatedly visited the territory of Russia, including the city of Moscow, where he held meetings with citizens of the Russian Federation," the Investigative Committee asserted. An official from the Investigative Committee informed Russian state news agency TASS that the individual worked as a consultant at the non-profit organisation handling Eurasian issues following the events in Ukraine in February 2014, including the mass pro-democracy protests in Kyiv and the ousting of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich. Tensions between Russia and Western nations escalated when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine over two years ago. Amid the escalating tensions, several Westerners have found themselves detained in Russia. US-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva was detained last year in the Russian city of Kazan while awaiting a return flight to the Czech Republic, where she was based. Accused of refusing to register as a foreign agent, Kurmasheva arrived in Russia in May due to an urgent family matter, according to her employer, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Russia broadened its law on "foreign agents" in 2022, signaling a heightened crackdown on free speech and opposition under Putin. Individuals or organizations receiving funding from abroad are now classified as foreign agents, as are those who have "received support and (or) is under foreign influence." In 2023, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested during a work trip and charged with espionage, allegations he and his employer vehemently refute. He remains in pre-trial detention, with his detention extended until June 30. If convicted, Gershkovich could face up to 20 years in prison, CNN reported. (ANI) This gesture of goodwill signifies the strong diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and India and highlights the mutual respect and cooperation shared between the two nations. "HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman congratulates the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his political party's victory in the general elections," said Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia on Friday. PM Modi is set for a third consecutive term as Prime Minister of India with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) emerging victorious in the parliamentary elections. The counting of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections was held on Tuesday. According to the Election Commission of India, the BJP won 240 seats, much lower than its 2019 tally of 303. The Congress, on the other hand, registered strong growth, winning 99 seats against 52 in 2019. With PM Modi registering his win for the third consecutive term, wishes from global leaders also came pouring in at the speed of light. Earlier today, in a call with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Australia, Senator Penny Wong, wished Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his third term. Jaishankar expressed gratitude for a fruitful conversation with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Australia, Senator Penny Wong. In their exchange, Jaishankar emphasised his confidence in the enduring strength of the India-Australia friendship, affirming his commitment to its continued prosperity. "Good to talk to Penny Wong today. Appreciate her good wishes for the third tenure of the Modi Government. Confident that India-Australia Dosti will continue to prosper," said Jaishankar in a post X. The counting of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections was held on Tuesday. According to the Election Commission of India, the BJP won 240 seats, and with its allies has 292 seats in the Parliament. The Congress, on the other hand, registered a strong growth winning 99 seats. Other leaders also congratulated PM Modi and the BJP-led NDA government on their third consecutive victory in the Lok Sabha polls. (ANI) In a sharp response to China's protest over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's reply to Taiwan President Lai Ching Te's congratulatory message, Taipei said on Friday that Beijing's actions are "utterly unjustified." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan in its statement also said that the island remains dedicated to "building partnerships" with India. "China's outrage at a cordial exchange between the leaders of 2 democracies is utterly unjustified. Threats & intimidation never foster friendships," Taiwan MOFA said in a post on X. "Taiwan remains dedicated to building partnerships with #India underpinned by mutual benefit & shared values," it said. https://x.com/MOFA_Taiwan/status/1798962114716958855 The Chinese Embassy in India on Thursday reiterated that Taiwan is an "inalienable part" of the territory of China. The embassy's spokesperson further emphasised that the one-China is a universally recognised norm in international relations and a prevailing consensus in the international community. "There is but one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of the territory of the People's Republic of China. The one-China principle is a universally recognized norm in international relations and a prevailing consensus in the international community," the spokesperson added. Moreover, it also stressed that India is supposed to recognise and resist the Taiwan authorities's political calculations on the one-China policy. "India has diplomatic relations with China and knows China's position well. On the one-China principle, India has made serious political commitments and is supposed to recognize, be alarmed about and resist the Taiwan authorities' political calculations," the spokesperson added. After results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were announced, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te congratulated him on his third consecutive victory in the general elections and said he looks forward to expanding the "fast-growing" ties between the two nations. He further stressed expanding India-Taiwan collaboration on trade, technology and other sectors to contribute to peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. "My sincere congratulations to Prime Minister @narendramodi on his election victory. We look forward to enhancing the fast-growing Taiwan-India partnership, expanding our collaboration on trade, technology & other sectors to contribute to peace & prosperity in the IndoPacific," President Lai posted on X. The India-Taiwan economic partnership has grown significantly in recent years. Taiwan has considered India as a critical partner under its 'New Southbound Policy', and both countries have also signed a migration agreement to allow Indian workers to be employed in Taiwanese industries. Lai Ching-te, in a stern warning to China, called on Beijing to stop intimidating the island nation, over which China continues to make its claim. China has also intensified military drills after Lai was sworn in as the president of the island nation, raising tensions in the region. The counting of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections was held on Tuesday. According to the Election Commission of India, the BJP won 240 seats, much lower than its 2019 tally of 303. The Congress, on the other hand, registered a strong growth, winning 99 seats. The INDIA bloc crossed the 230 mark, posing stiff competition, and defying all predictions. (ANI) Flash Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Brazilian Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, who is on an official visit to China, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua] Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Brazilian Vice President Geraldo Alckmin in Beijing on Friday. Xi said China and Brazil are like-minded good friends, and good partners walking hand in hand. "In April last year, President Lula and I reached an important consensus on leading and opening up the new future of China-Brazil relations in the new era." With joint efforts in the past year, the two countries have continuously deepened strategic mutual trust, steadily advanced pragmatic cooperation, and closely coordinated on the international stage. This has not only promoted their respective development, but effectively safeguarded the common interests of all developing countries, Xi said. Both as major developing countries and key emerging market economies, China and Brazil share broad and common strategic interests, and their relationship goes far beyond the bilateral scope to have exemplary significance for promoting solidarity and cooperation among developing countries as well as world peace and stability, Xi said. By grasping the strategic nature of their ties, the two countries should make the ties more mutually beneficial and comprehensive, continue to enhance strategic coordination, and add new dimensions to the China-Brazil friendship, Xi said. He said that China is willing to work with Brazil to continue to make strategic plans for bilateral relations with more forward-looking vision, give full play to the role of the China-Brazil High-level Coordination and Cooperation Committee, consolidate cooperation in traditional areas, expand cooperation in emerging fields such as green economy, digital economy and innovation, and explore greater synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative and Brazil's reindustrialization strategy and the "Routes for South American Integration" initiative. As the two countries celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations this year, they should strengthen exchanges and cooperation in various fields, including legislative bodies, political parties, local governments, culture, education, tourism and youth, Xi said. China backs Brazil's greater role on the international stage and its hosting of the G20 Leaders' Summit this year. China is also ready to enhance communication with Brazil and other members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States for further development of China-Latin America relations in the new era, Xi added. Alckmin conveyed President Lula's cordial greetings to President Xi. He said that in recent years, hundreds of millions of Chinese people have been lifted out of poverty, which is a miracle in the world, and the relevant experience is of great significance for Brazil. Alckmin said the Brazilian government is committed to inclusive and sustainable growth and is willing to enhance the synergy of development strategies with China. Brazil welcomes more Chinese companies to invest in Brazil and enhance cooperation in infrastructural construction, agriculture, mining, new energy vehicles and climate change response, he said. Both Brazil and China are committed to upholding multilateralism and free trade, share the same views on many major issues, and enjoy huge potential and broad prospects for cooperation, Alckmin noted. He added that Brazil is willing to work with China to enhance bilateral and multilateral strategic coordination, upgrade bilateral relations to a new level, and make contributions to building a more peaceful, just and sustainable world. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday thanked the leaders of Indonesia and Switzerland for congratulating him on his election win. Congratulating PM Modi, the Swiss President Viola Amherd expressed her delight in welcoming India to the Burgenstock Summit. In a post on X, Amherd wrote, "Congratulations to PM @narendramodi on an exceptional democratic exercise showing the strength of Indian democracy. Switzerland and India will continue to deepen their friendship. I am delighted to welcome India to the Burgenstock Summit, thus giving the Global South a voice." Responding to her, PM Modi said, "President @Violapamherd, we appreciate your kind words." "The 'Festival of Democracy' in India has indeed drawn the global attention. We will work together to enhance India- Switzerland partnership," he said, thanking Amherd. Meanwhile, he also thanked Indonesia's President-elect Prabowo Subianto. "Thank you President-elect @prabowo for your good wishes. I look forward to working closely with you on strengthening our comprehensive strategic partnership and build on our age-old ties," PM Modi said on social media platform X. https://x.com/narendramodi/status/1798902015172735268 The Prime Minister's post on X came in response to a congratulatory message from Subianto earlier. "Congratulations to Prime Minister H.E. Narendra Modi, @narendramodi, on the result in India's General Election 2024. As we look ahead to the future and its challenges, we are committed to enhancing our strategic partnership in many sectors for the greater benefit of our two countries," he had said in a post on X. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has secured a third term, along with the support of other parties in the coalition, primarily -- the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) and the Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP. The counting of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections was held on Tuesday. According to the Election Commission of India, the BJP won 240 seats, much lower than its 2019 tally of 303. The main opposition Congress, on the other hand, registered a strong growth, winning 99 seats against 52 in 2019. (ANI) This meeting took place on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit (EAS) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum (ARF) Senior Officials' Meetings in Vientiane. Both leaders discuss matters of cooperation between the two nations. https://x.com/MEAIndia/status/1798984508383146420 In a post on X, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, "Secy (East) @JaideepMazumder met Amb Hayashi Makoto, Japan's SOM leader and Ambassador in charge of Cooperation with ASEAN, on the sidelines of the EAS/ARF SOM meetings in Vientiane." "They discussed matters of cooperation between India and Japan under bilateral and regional framework," he added. Earlier, in the day Jaideep Mazumder also met with Ambassador Kung Phoak, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and SOM leader of Cambodia. https://x.com/MEAIndia/status/1798984678567026838 In a post on X, an MEA spokesperson shared a picture of the meeting and stated, Secy (East) @JaideepMazumder met Amb Kung Phoak, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and SOM leader of Cambodia." Further, the leaders discuss ways to improve relations between the two countries and to work together more effectively within the ASEAN framework. "They explored avenues for strengthening bilateral relations and enhancing cooperation under the ASEAN framework." MEA spokesperson on X. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, commonly abbreviated as ASEAN, is a political and economic union of 10 states in Southeast Asia. India and Japan share 'Special Strategic and Global Partnership'. Friendship between the two countries has a long history rooted in spiritual affinity and strong cultural and civilizational ties. Last year, in March 2023 Japanese PM Fumio Kishida visited India and held a bilateral meeting with PM Modi. PM Kishida also delivered a policy speech titled "The Future of the Indo-Pacific--Japan's New Plan for a 'Free and Open Indo-Pacific' -- 'Together with India, as an Indispensable Partner' - at the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA). (ANI) Back from the dead? Human composting bill moves forward. What to know. PROVIDENCE In 2026, will you be able to choose organic natural reduction in Rhode Island, also known as human composting, for what happens to your body after you die? After a first hearing on Feb. 14, a bill to allow the practice, which died last year, was passed out of the House Committee on Corporations with a single tweak: an extension of its start date to 2026. "Green" burials, where un-embalmed bodies are buried by themselves, are already allowed in Rhode Island, as well as burials in caskets (with and without embalming) and cremation. Is the bill back from the dead? During a seven-minute hearing on Thursday night, the House Committee on Corporations moved the bill forward on a vote of 9 to 2. Three other bills passed through the committee during that hearing. Representatives William O'Brien, D-North Providence, and Robert Phillips, D-Woonsocket, Cumberland, voted against the bill. Recompose, a Seattle-based company, demonstrates the human composting process. Over 30 days, the body and plant material together form nutrient-dense soil. The bill still needs to move to the full House, and the Senate companion bill, introduced by Sen. Tiara Mack, D-Providence, was held for further study by the Senate Health and Human Services Committee in May. Where else is organic natural reduction allowed? Last year, Rep. Michelle McGaw, D-Little Compton, Portsmouth, Tiverton, said she introduced the bill to start a conversation and this year reintroduced it with a few tweaks requested by the state Department of Health. During the Feburary hearing in front of the House Committee on Corporations, McGaw said the positive response to her bill was "overwhelming" when she introduced it last year. "I heard so much from people across the state," she said. "What I did was, I reworked the bill from last year." Seven states have legalized the practice: Washington, Colorado, Oregon, New York, Vermont and Nevada. California has legalized it as well, but it will not be allowed to begin until 2027. What is natural organic reduction? Natural organic reduction is a nice way of saying a body is quickly decomposed, a process usually aided by high temperatures. One of the handful of businesses to offer the process, Earth Funeral in Auburn, Washington, started a year ago. Its process takes about 30 days, leaving behind a cubic yard of rich soil and some bones that are ground into powder, just like with cremation, spokeswoman Haley Morris said in 2023. A whole new industry? One funeral director in Las Vegas, where it became legal this year, estimated a price tag of $8,000 to $10,000, compared to the average national cost of a viewing and burial, $7,848 and cremation, $6,970, according to an article in the Las Vegas Sun. How do religions view natural organic reduction? The Catholic Church relaxed its prohibition against cremation in 1963 but also maintained it has an "adverse attitude" toward the practice, favoring burial, while Judaism also requires burial, as does Islam. "Sky burials," where a body is left in an elevated location exposed to the elements and scavengers is a Buddhist practice and a Zoroastrian practice, while cremation is generally a Hindu practice. Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Providence Journal subscription. Here's our latest offer. Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal.com or follow him on Twitter @WheelerReporter This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Human composting in RI gains traction. Will is be legal? SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) The Utah Department of Corrections has made arrangements to secure the three-drug combination needed to carry out the possible execution of death row inmate Taberon Dave Honie. In a court filing, the UDC revealed the names of the three specific drugs it would use should Honie be executed by lethal injection: Ketamine, fentanyl and potassium chloride. The ketamine would serve as an anesthetic, the fentanyl would relieve the pain and the potassium chloride would stop the heart. The drug choices come at the recommendation of medical professionals to meet the Utah State statute that requires that a lethal quantity of sodium thiopental or a drug equivalent or more potent is used. Utah files warrant to move forward with execution of death row convict Taberon Honie A hearing was set for June 10, 2024, where a judge will consider the Utah Attorney Generals execution warrant application. Honie was convicted on May 18, 1999, for the aggravated murder of Claudia Benn. According to court documents, Honie committed the murder while also attempting to commit object rape, forcible sodomy, aggravated sexual assault, burglary, aggravated burglary and aggravated child sex abuse. The jury in the case found Honie guilty of the first five of those additional charges but could not reach unanimity on the aggravated child sexual abuse. Honie used a rock to smash through a glass patio door before he cut Benns throat four times and slashed her with a kitchen knife. He was also found guilty of biting and sexually assaulting her. Three children were in the home at the time of the killing. Fifth District Judge Rober Braithwaite said at the time, It was not a sentence I gave to the defendant; he earned it. If this isnt a death penalty case, I dont know what is. Honie officially exhausted all available appeals earlier this year. State prosecutors said in its application for a death warrant that with no further challenges available, there was no reason for the state to continue to stay his execution. Honie may also face execution by firing squad, as Utah is one of only four U.S. states that still allow executions by firing squad. As of 2015, Utah made lethal injection the states primary method of execution but kept the firing squad as a backup method if the drugs needed for lethal injection were unavailable. Honie, along with four other death row inmates, had attempted to overturn the states death penalty last year, arguing the firing squad was cruel and unusual punishment. Utahs 3rd District Court dismissed the lawsuit in December 2023. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah. The Navy on Thursday confirmed to The War Zone that one of its EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft used an AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) to destroy a Mi-24/35 Hind attack helicopter . This confirms a possible explanation we suggested when a mysterious kill mark of a Hind appeared on a Growler deployed aboard the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower (Ike) in a photo that was released on May 15. The engagement also likely highlights the AARGM's unique precision strike capabilities against non-radiating targets. "The first instance of AARGM use in combat was from an E/A-18G deployed on Ike, during this current deployment to the U.S. 5th Fleet region," a Navy official told us. The official could not say if that engagement was the same as the one that earned a Growler its Hind kill mark. We initially posited that the kill likely involved an AARGM. The Hind was reportedly struck on the ground, which is strange for a Growler, The War Zone's Tyler Rogoway tweeted on May 16. Best guess: they fired AARGM to hit coordinates, not home in on emissions, which it's capable of. It is a good time-sensitive target effector in this way. We'll find out more. That's pretty much what happened on Feb. 24, the Navy official told The War Zone. The Dwight D. Eisenhower (Ike) Carrier Strike Group led pre-planned self-defense strikes into Houthi-controlled territories in Yemen, the official told us. This was a joint and coalition effort that struck 60 Houthi targets across 16 sites in Yemen, including anti-ship missile sites, storage facilities and command and control centers. Also destroyed was a rotary-wing aircraft; the aircraft was unmanned and not airborne at the time. A privately owned Mi-24 used for as an opposition force (OPFOR) asset during training, in this case at the Marine Weapons Tactics Instructor (WTI) course. (U.S. Marine Corps photograph by SSgt. Artur Shvartsberg, MAWTS-1 COMCAM/ Released) The Growler, from VAQ-130 Zappers, conducted "an air-to-surface engagement with an AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) on a ground target that destroyed a rotary-wing aircraft, the official added. It is suspected that the helicopter belonged to Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen, who have menaced civilian merchant shipping , taken innocent lives, and put feeedom of navigation at risk. CENTCOM posted a launch video from that operation, which you can see below. The AARGM, which is a direct evolution of the AGM-88 High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM), is designed primarily to suppress and destroy enemy air defenses . It can reach targets more than 80 miles away and reach speeds of well over twice the speed of sound. The AGM-88E was first test-fired from Growlers in 2011, according to the Navy, and has been in service for a number of years. AARGM has demonstrated a much greater accuracy than our existing HARM inventory in striking hostile emitters, Cmdr. Chad Reed, then-deputy program manager for Anti-Radiation Missiles within the Direct and Time Sensitive Strike program office (PMA-242), said at the time . The weapon is specifically designed to increase our warfighting capabilities in neutralizing enemy air defenses and will provide aircrews with an additional tool for the electronic attack mission. The basic configuration of the AGM-88E AARGM. Orbital ATK The AARGM is different from its progenitor, the HARM, in a number of ways . Chief among them is that it can hit a threat radar with high-precision even if it stops emitting radiation. This means that if a radar shuts off mid-attack, the AARGM will still strike it and do so with extreme accuracy. The addition of an active millimeter-wave radar seeker even allows the AARGM to hit its target if it is fleeing from its original position. This standoff precision strike capability also allows the AARGM to be used in a secondary capacity as a rapid response strike weapon against non-air defense-related targets. In other words, it can be used to quickly strike a non-radiation emitting target on the ground over long distances. In this case, something in the Navy's 'kill chain' or pre-mission intelligence spotted the Mi-24 and the AARGM was used to destroy it as it sat on the ground, using GPS/INS to make its way to the target, then homing in on it using its millimeter-wave radar seeker. Otherwise, it was destroyed via collateral damage caused by another target that was hit nearby, although that seems less likely of an explanation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCBs1IEk9Fc\u0026t=1s The Growler kill mark was the latest in a long tradition of such art being stenciled onto aircraft, vessels and other military equipment indicating the destruction of enemy equipment. In March, for instance, we wrote about the U.S. Navy's F/A-18E/F Super Hornets deployed aboard the Ike were adorned to commemorate the downing of Houthi drones. They have also appeared on allied aircraft involved in these missions. That followed kill marks seen on warships that swatted down similar threats in the region. This kill, as we previously noted, also comes as the Growlers are getting expanded air-to-air missile capabilities via additional AIM-120 AMRAAM carriage options, with the AIM-9X being added soon, as well. Considering the activity of Houthi drones over and around the Red Sea, it's possible that a Growler could score its first air-to-air kill at any time, if one hasn't already. The Yemeni Air Force had a number of Mi-24/35 Hind derivatives before the war with the Saudi-led Arab coalition broke out against Houthi rebels in the western part of the country. It was originally thought that any in their possession were destroyed or left totally unserviceable during the conflict, while other reports suggested a small number of them saw action in recent years. Regardless of the disposition of the fleet, there is now one less Hind in Houthi hands. Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com Fact Check: Rumor Says Ukraine's President Zelenskyy Bought a Casino in Cyprus. Here Are the Facts Claim: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy purchased a casino resort in Cyprus in May 2024. Rating: Rating: False In early June 2024, accounts on X began sharing the claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the height of his country's fight against Russian military occupation purchased a resort in Cyprus named the Vuni Palace Casino Resort and Hotel the previous month. The claim was first made in a since-deleted June 1, 2024, story by the Turkish news outlet OdaTV. It was then amplified, in part, by an account on X, Aussie Cossack, that describes itself as a "registered foreign agent for Sputnik News" a Russian state-controlled media agency. This claim was not true. OdaTV based its assertion on a fake website for the Vuni Palace Casino Resort and Hotel. Here's how we know the claim has no merit. The Short Life Cycle of Lazy Propaganda In the June 1 story, OdaTV reported on the purported sale of the Vuni Palace to a Zelenskyy-linked offshore company named Film Heritage Inc. Based on a video accompanying the report, this assertion stemmed from the copyright field of a website casinohotelvunipalace.com that appeared to belong to the Vuni Palace Casino Resort and Hotel: Film Heritage Inc. is a Belize-based company identified in a 2021 investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project as owned by Zelenskyy and his wife. OdaTV's report used a website for the Vuni Palace with that company in its footer as evidence that Zelenskyy was using the war against Russia to profit personally a narrative increasingly pushed by Russian propagandists (translated via Google): Volodymyr Zelensky is collecting aid by preaching to the whole world that Ukraine needs help against the 'Russian occupation'. While Western countries were sending money, weapons and ammunition to Ukraine as a body, Zelensky entered the casino business instead of managing the war. It was learned that a company owned by Zelensky bought a casino in Cyprus. "Film Heritage Inc." He now appears to be the official owner of the "Vuni Palace Casino Hotel" located in Kyrenia in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, or Northern Cyprus, is a de facto state within Cyprus recognized by only Turkey. The primary language in the region is Turkish. The purported website for the Vuni Palace Casino Hotel, however, has no Turkish content or content in any language besides English. This alleged Vuni Palace website also was dubious because, as the Cyprus Investigative Reporting Network noted on X, it was registered on May 29, 2024, just days before OdaTV made the claim for which the website served as the sole evidence. The Vuni Palace Casino Resort's actual website is vunipalacehotel.com. In addition to having Turkish content, this site makes no mention of Film Heritage Inc. The actual owners of Vuni Palace have denied that their casino was sold. The Ukrainian Embassy in Cyprus rebuffed the accusation on Zelenskyy's part in a statement, describing the assertion as Russian propaganda: Russian propaganda spreads a fake story that the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has allegedly become the owner of one of the largest casinos in Europe, which is located in Cyprus. However, the publication provides no evidence to support its claim. The information itself is false. The president of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, responded to the report as well, saying there was no evidence to support the claims, as reported by In-Cyprus: When asked about the allegations, Christodoulides said: "The authorities of the Republic of Cyprus have investigated the matter. I repeat, so far, nothing of the sort has emerged. OdaTV appears to have deleted the original story making the claim that Zelenksyy purchased the casino. The Bottom Line In sum, the claim that Zelenskyy purchased a casino in Cyprus is belied by the fact that the owners of that casino say they have not sold it, by the fact that the original reporting on the claim was based on a fake website, and by the fact that this original reporting was deleted. Because no real evidence supports the claim, Snopes rates it "False." Sources: elton, Catherine, and Joseph Menn. "Russian Trolls Target U.S. Support for Ukraine, Kremlin Documents Show." Washington Post, 8 Apr. 2024. www.washingtonpost.com, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/08/russia-propaganda-us-ukraine/. Hotel Casino Vuni Palace. https://casinohotelvunipalace.com/. Accessed 4 June 2024. "Hotel In North Denies Being Owned By Zelenskiy." Cyprus Mail, https://cyprus-mail.com/2024/06/04/hotel-in-north-denies-being-owned-by-zelenskiy/. Loginova, Elena. "Pandora Papers Reveal Offshore Holdings of Ukrainian President and His Inner Circle." OCCRP, https://www.occrp.org/en/the-pandora-papers/pandora-papers-reveal-offshore-holdings-of-ukrainian-president-and-his-inner-circle. Accessed 4 June 2024. Ukrainian Embassy Denounces "Russian Propaganda" over Zelenskyy Casino Story. 4 June 2024, https://in-cyprus.philenews.com/local/ukrainian-embassy-denounces-russian-propaganda-over-zelenskyy-casino-story/. Vuni Palace Hotel Spa & Convention. https://www.vunipalacehotel.com/. Accessed 4 June 2024. Jeff Gill In Ohio, about 16,500 people are in jail on any given night, and 300,000 are booked into jails each year. Jails hold people immediately after arrest who are awaiting trial and are serving less than 12 months. That passage was recently in the pages of the Newark Advocate, and also in a number of our partners in the USA TODAY Network Ohio. I invite you to pause, whether you can read the whole piece (or series) or not kudos to USA TODAY Network Ohio bureau reporters Laura Bischoff and Erin Glynn, who anchored the reporting and writing of it, and you really should subscribe to consider what that data point alone tells you: 2.5% of ALL Ohioans will be booked this year. Over any 10 year period, that ends up somewhere between 7% to as much as 10% of the population, allowing for repeat visitors. Faith Works: Granville preacher's Wyandot mission work continues to inspire centuries later Thats one thing you learn in pastoral ministry over time: I had to get out into parish work to learn the difference between jails (see definition above) and prisons (mostly felony charges with a year or more), but it was also a slowly dawning realization friends, when a preacher gets up into the pulpit on Sunday, you are talking to a group of people of whom 10% to 20% (remember, we're talking lifetime now) have spent at least one night in jail. It does change how you talk about certain things, but it's not something you often refer to directly. Maybe we should. Think about it, though: This year, almost three of every 100 adults you meet will have been through intake at the county justice center. And that's just THIS year. Or to be more direct: The people in jail are not THEM. They are most emphatically US. I came to Licking County in 1989, a couple years before a group of clergy had launched Licking County Jail Ministries, a collaboration between many local churches and clergy to serve the newly opened Licking County Justice Center, our county jail. Then-Sheriff Gerry Billy was supportive and a real blessing to the work we did, allowing us to enter the facility with appropriate training and for us to help his staff serve those incarcerated at the jail and ultimately for us to employ a chaplain, Mark Shoemaker. He and his successor, Scott Hayes, are the only two jail chaplains weve had in some 35 years, a testimony to the stability and quality of the ministry they both have provided: all at the expense of the jail ministry board and supporting churches, not the taxpayers, I should note. Faith Works: On being faithfully an American Christian Sheriff Randy Thorp has continued to value the ministries' work, and Chaplain Hayes is deeply respected across our community. But I have to admit as a former board member and president and volunteer inside the jail, we may not pause to remind people often enough of the facts that USA TODAY Network Ohio has put before us. Again, the people in jail are not THEM. They are most emphatically US. And for Christians, we are called very directly in scripture to minister to those who are locked up; I would read those passages as enjoining us to reach out to the guilty and innocent alike. To give them hope and a plan for their future. Some of the most powerful Bible study experiences Ive had in my life were inside the jail. They were holy moments, and those classrooms and modules can be holy ground. If you dont believe me, you may need to go in there sometime yourself. Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; hes not spent any nights in jail (yet), but plenty of time there. Tell him about your experiences seeking justice at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack77 on Threads. This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Faith Works: Ohio jail deaths project provides a reality check Flash Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who is on an official visit to China, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua] Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Beijing on Friday. Pointing out that China and Pakistan are good neighbors linked by mountains and rivers, good friends who share faith and righteousness, good partners who help each other, and good brothers who share weal and woe, Xi said the China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership had continuously deepened and enjoyed solid public support with a strong internal driving force and broad prospects for development. China stands ready to work with Pakistan to firmly support each other, strengthen cooperation, deepen strategic coordination, accelerate the building of an even closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era, and make greater contributions to regional peace, stability, development, and prosperity, Xi noted. Xi stressed that the key to the ever-strengthening ironclad friendship between China and Pakistan lies in mutual understanding, high trust, and firm support between the two sides. He thanked Pakistan for its long-term and firm support for China on issues related to China's core interests and major concerns. China will, as always, firmly support Pakistan in safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity, in pursuing a development path suited to its national conditions, and in resolutely combating terrorism, he noted. Xi said that China is ready to promote the alignment of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation with Pakistan's development plans, carry out cooperation in agriculture, mining, and social livelihood in light of local conditions, make the high-quality development of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) go deeper and be more concrete, and help boost Pakistan's economic and social development. It is hoped that Pakistan will continue to create a safe, stable, and predictable business environment and earnestly guarantee the safety of Chinese personnel, projects, and institutions in Pakistan, Xi said. China is willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with Pakistan in the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and other multilateral mechanisms, jointly promote an equal and orderly world multipolarization and an economic globalization that is inclusive and benefits all, focus on the development agenda, address security challenges, improve global governance, and safeguard the common interests of developing countries and international fairness and justice, he said. Shehbaz said that under the leadership of President Xi, China has made great achievements in poverty alleviation, anti-corruption and development, which have attracted worldwide attention. Pakistan highly appreciates and fully supports the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative proposed by President Xi, which have provided strategic guidance for solving the problems facing the world today and promoting the building of a more peaceful and better world, he said. He said the CPEC has strongly promoted Pakistan's national development and brought tangible benefits to the Pakistani people. He noted that Pakistan will learn from China's experience in governance, continue to work with China on high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and deepen practical cooperation in various fields. Shehbaz reiterated that no force can stop China's development and growth or shake the iron-clad friendship between Pakistan and China. He noted that Pakistan will continue to firmly support China's position on all issues concerning its core interests without hesitation. Manure. Cigarette butts. Scraps of cloth. Waste batteries. Even, reportedly, diapers. This week, North Korea floated hundreds of large balloons to dump all of that trash across rival South Korea an old-fashioned, Cold War-style provocation of a sort the isolated dictatorship has rarely used in recent years. The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un confirmed Wednesday that North Korea sent the balloons and attached trash sacks, saying they were deployed to make good on her country's recent threat to "scatter mounds of wastepaper and filth" in South Korea in response to aerial leafleting campaigns launched by South Korean activists. Experts say the trash balloon campaign is meant to stoke division in South Korea over the conservative Seoul government's hardline policy toward the North. They also say new types of provocations should be expected in the coming months as the North seeks to meddle in the US presidential election. Here's a look at what North Korea's balloon launches are all about. What happened? Since Tuesday night, about 260 balloons flown from North Korea have been discovered across South Korea. There's no apparent danger, though: The military said an initial investigation showed that the trash tied to the balloons doesn't contain any dangerous substances like chemical, biological or radioactive materials. There have been no reports of damage on the ground. In 2016, North Korean balloons carrying trash, compact discs, and propaganda leaflets damaged cars and other property in South Korea. In 2017, South Korea found a suspected North Korean balloon again with leaflets. This week, no leaflets were found from the North Korean balloons. Balloons carrying propaganda leaflets and other items were among the most common tools of psychological warfare the two Koreas launched at each other during the Cold War. Others have included blaring loudspeakers, giant electronic billboards and signboards set up on the countries' fortified border, and propaganda radio broadcasts. In recent years, the two Koreas have agreed to halt such activities, but they sometimes resume them when tensions spike. What does the North want? The North's balloon launches are part of a recent series of provocative steps, among them a failed spy satellite launch and test-firings of about 10 suspected short-range missiles this week. Experts say the North's leader, Kim Jong Un, will seek to dial up tensions ahead of the US election to try to help former President Donald Trump return to the White House and revive the high-stakes diplomacy they briefly enjoyed during the latter's term in office. "The balloon launches aren't weak action at all," said Kim Taewoo, a former president of South Korea's government-funded Institute for National Unification. "It's like North Korea sending a message that next time, it can send balloons carrying powder forms of biological and chemical weapons." Koh Yu-hwan, an emeritus professor at Seoul's Dongguk University, said North Korea likely determined that the balloon campaign is a more effective way to force South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's government to clamp down on the South's civilian leafleting. Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, delivers a speech in Pyongyang. - /KCNA via KNS "The point is to make the South Korean people uncomfortable, and build a public voice that the government's policy toward North Korea is wrong," Koh said. North Korea is extremely sensitive to leaflets that South Korean activists occasionally float across the border via their own balloons, because they carry information about the outside world and criticism of the Kim dynasty's authoritarian rule. Most of the North's 26 million people have little access to foreign news. In 2020, North Korea's patience with the civilian leafleting campaigns ran so low that it blew up an empty South Korean-built liaison office on its territory. Reading the rubbish North Korea is one of the world's most secretive countries, and foreign experts are keen on collecting any fragmentary information coming from the country. But Koh said that there won't be much meaningful information in the trash dumps because North Korea would not have sent any important items away tied to balloons. If the manure is indeed made of animal dung, its examination may show what fodder is given to livestock in North Korea, while general household refuse can provide a glimpse into the circulation of consumer products in North Korea. But observers say outside experts can get such information more easily from North Korean defectors, their contacts in North Korea and Chinese border towns, and North Korean state publications. North Korean defectors prepare to release balloons carrying leaflets and a banner denouncing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. - Ahn Young-joon/Copyright 2017 The AP. All rights reserved. What are the implications? While the North's balloon activities may deepen public calls in South Korea to stop anti-North Korean leafleting to avoid unnecessary tension, it's unclear whether and how aggressively the South Korean government can urge civil groups to refrain from sending balloons toward North Korea. In 2023, South Korea's Constitutional Court struck down a contentious law that criminalised the sending of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets, calling it an excessive restriction on free speech. "From Pyongyang's perspective, this is a tit-for-tat and even restrained action to get Seoul to stop anti-Kim regime leaflets from being sent North." However, it will be difficult for democratic South Korea to comply, given ongoing legal disputes over the freedom of citizens and NGOs to send information into North Korea," said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. "The immediate danger of military escalation is not high," he said, "but recent developments show how sensitive and potentially vulnerable the Kim regime is to information operations." Senate Judiciary Chairwoman Dawn Euer, a Newport Democrat, speaks on the Senate Floor on June 6, 2024. (Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current) The Rhode Island General Assembly took historic steps Thursday to pass contested reforms on disciplining police officers accused of misconduct and safe storage of firearms. The updates to the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights (LEOBOR) and safe gun storage now head to Gov. Dan McKees desk. McKee has already signaled his support on social media for the safe storage bill and spokesperson Olivia DaRocha said Friday afternoon the governor does intend to sign LEOBOR reform into law. We will update you when we finalize a date with the sponsors, DaRocha said. Ruggerios return The long-awaited updates to the LEOBOR bill came the same day that Senate President and bill sponsor Dominick Ruggerio returned to Smith Hill, making his first appearance in the chamber in roughly six weeks due to illness. Ruggerio did not preside over the chamber. The Senates 33-4 vote to pass his bill, along with identical legislation by Deputy House Speaker Raymond Hull, came after roughly 45 minutes of debate, including a last-minute update intended to assuage concerns about whether police body camera footage could be made public. I am grateful to the many stakeholders from all sides of this issue who have worked over the past several years to develop and refine this legislation, Ruggerio, a North Providence Democrat, said in a statement. While there will be some who say this bill goes too far and others who say it doesnt go far enough, I think the bill strikes a responsible balance that brings necessary and appropriate reforms to LEOBOR. Adopted in 1976, LEOBOR protects police officers from being fired immediately or put on leave without pay when misconduct charges against them arise. The law has been criticized by social justice advocates who say its unfair for police to review internal misconduct. Under the existing law, accused officers appear before a panel of three active or retired police officers with one picked by the chief, one by the officer under investigation, and a third chosen by both or a presiding Superior Court judge. The approved legislation calls for the three hearing officers to be randomly chosen by the Police Officers Commission on Standards and Training. The panel would also include a retired judge and an attorney selected in consultation with the Rhode Island Supreme Courts committee on racial and ethnic fairness. The legislation also removes the prohibition preventing police chiefs from making public statements about cases that have not yet had a LEOBOR hearing or releasing video evidence. Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, left, shares a laugh with Sen. David Tikoian during his return to the Senate floor June 6, 2024. (Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current) Amending the amended bills Ruggerios bill previously cleared the Senate 35-0 in January before it was changed to match Hulls in the House. The bills were again amended Thursday to address concerns brought by a coalition of open government groups in a May 10 memo that warned the bill could potentially decrease the transparency lawmakers intended. The group pointed to a provision that would prohibit police chiefs from releasing video evidence for minor violations. The legislation, advocates wrote, does not point out what constitutes as minor, which, they argued, could open the door for departments to hide any video recordings. It is deeply troubling and sadly ironic that, as a result of this provision, a bill designed to promote greater police transparency does the opposite, the memo read. Sen. Dawn Euer, a Newport Democrat, introduced a floor amendment to ensure LEOBOR bill does not limit release of police body-worn camera video under the states Access to Public Records Act (APRA) a move the chamber unanimously approved. This basically makes it clear that no matter the tier of offense, the rules around APRA would still apply, Euer said. The Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and Common Cause Rhode Island appeared not totally satisfied with the update. We appreciate the Senates action in amending the bill to eliminate the House versions ban on public access to body camera footage involving so-called minor incidents of police misconduct, the groups said in a joint statement Thursday. At the same time, by also tying public access to Attorney General regulations, we believe this amendment could allow future restrictions on access to body camera footage. Sen. Jonathan Acosta, a Central Falls Democrat, unsuccessfully proposed another floor amendment giving police chiefs power to immediately fire an officer found to have used deadly force in violation of departmental rules a move that was also attempted by House progressives last month, only to get tabled by members of that chamber. Acostas amendment failed by a vote of 12-25. Following the vote, Black Lives Matter Rhode Island PAC Director Harrison Tuttle issued a statement expressing disappointment. The Rhode Island General Assembly must confront the challenge of overcoming the overwhelming influence of police unions so that Black and Brown people can be protected from police violence and communities are safer for everyone, Tuttle said. It is only then that we commit to centering police accountability to make that positive vision a reality. The amended bills were subsequently approved by House 57-10 without discussion. Gun safety advocates fill the Senate gallery on June 6, 2024. (Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current) Safe storage likely on the way In a landmark victory for gun safety advocates, the Senate voted 30-6 to approve bills mandating that all firearms not in use be stored in a locked container or equipped with a tamper-resistant lock. The companion bills by Rep. Justine Caldwell, an East Greenwich Democrat, and Sen. Pamela Lauria, a Barrington Democrat, make unsafe storage of firearms a civil offense punishable by a fine of up to $250 for the first offense and $1,000 for the second. A subsequent violation would be a criminal charge punishable by up to six months in prison and a fine of up to $500. We have insurance mandates for the coverage of pediatric cancer because its unacceptable not to do all we can to prevent children from dying of cancer. We require appropriate restraints in vehicles because its unacceptable not to protect children from dying in car crashes, Lauria said in a statement. But gun violence, not cancer or car collisions, is the leading cause of death for children, and thats unacceptable when we have the tools to decrease its occurrence. Under an existing state law passed in 1995, gun owners convicted of criminal storage of a firearm can be fined up to $1,000 if a loaded firearm left within reach of a child 16 or younger causes an injury. The pair of bills would also revise the existing law to increase the severity of the criminal charge to a first-degree charge, punishable by up to five years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines in cases where an injury results. Before they were approved on the House floor May 28, House Judiciary Chairman Robert Craven declared that the bill would make Rhode Islands gun storage legislation the most comprehensive in the nation. That sounds to me like hyperbole, Gregg Lee Carter, a professor emeritus of sociology at Bryant University who researches gun control, said in an interview Tuesday. Still, he said it is a lot stronger than the existing law on Rhode Islands books. Carter said 26 states have safe firearms storage and child access protection laws. The strongest of the laws hold a gun owner accountable for storing a gun unsafely such that an unauthorized person, child or adult, can gain access to it. The weakest laws only make the gun owner liable if the unauthorized user actually uses the gun to harm themselves or others. Of the 26 states having a safe storage law, only five are at the strongest level: Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and Oregon. Rhode Island now joins the list. This story was updated to include that Gov. Dan McKee does intend to sign LEOBOR reform into law. The post LEOBOR reform, safe firearms storage clear legislative hurdles, heading to McKee appeared first on Rhode Island Current. Millions of cicadas are blanketing Lake Geneva. Here's what they look and sound like The moment you exit your car in front of the Lake Geneva Public Library, the sound is overwhelming. Millions of Brood XIII 17-year cicadas have swarmed the southeastern Wisconsin city, and their chirping chorus now provides a constant buzz throughout the community. Piles of living and dead cicadas, as well as crunchy cicada carcasses, litter the ground. The sour stench of rotting insects fills the neighborhood air. Virtually every tree in town is crawling with the bugs. The cicadas first emerged in Lake Geneva about three weeks ago, and their population is currently at its peak, said PJ Liesch, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Insect Diagnostics Lab. The insects spend the vast majority of their 17-year lives underground as juveniles, feeding on tree sap and hiding from predators. Every 17 years, they emerge as adults to mate and lay eggs before dying after four to six weeks. This is the first time Brood XIII has emerged in Wisconsin since 2007, and they'll be gone by the beginning of July. Close-up of a Brood XIII 17-year cicada in Lake Geneva, Wis., on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. The cicadas don't emerge uniformly throughout the state. They require sufficient trees and can't live in overly developed areas. Some places, like Milwaukee County, are free of the bugs, while others have hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of them. Lake Geneva, Liesch said, is Wisconsin's number-one "cicada hotspot" and the best place to see them in the state, especially along the north side of Geneva Lake. Like April's solar eclipse, many people are excited to witness this rare natural phenomenon. Living and dead cicadas, as well as cicada carcasses, litter the ground in Lake Geneva on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. While walking in a line behind their teacher in the schoolyard Wednesday afternoon, young students at Lake Geneva's Central-Denison Elementary discussed the cicadas covering the grass. "One landed on my head," an enthusiastic little girl exclaimed. "Are there any on me?," a boy nervously asked his classmate. The cicada hype is so great that, on Saturday, Visit Lake Geneva and the Lake Geneva Public Library are hosting "Cicadapalooza," a free, educational celebration of the insects. Members of the UW-Madison Entomology Department, including Liesch, will give educational tours and talks, and adventurous eaters can even try cicada ice cream, tostadas or cicada-infused beer. Brood XIII 17-year cicadas on a tree outside the Lake Geneva Public Library on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. Cicadas can be heard throughout Lake Geneva The cicadas are at their loudest between 10 a.m. and dusk, Liesch said. Still, you can hear them outdoors (and sometimes even through the windows and walls indoors) in some parts of Lake Geneva all day and night. "You get used to it," said Stephanie Klett, president and CEO of Visit Lake Geneva. "It really grows on you because, when they first get out of the ground, it's just a really quiet buzz. ... It's interesting because, when I have my morning coffee, instead of television or radio, I just listen to the buzz of cicadas." Others describe the cicadas' sound as "eerie" or "annoying." Klett also said parents have told her that some children with autism or other sensory issues are struggling with the constant noise. Young Brood XIII 17-year cicadas are white when they first emerge. This one is pictured in Lake Geneva, Wis., on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. The earliest reports of 17-year cicadas came from the 17th century While the cicadas may be a nuisance to some nowadays, for people a few hundred years ago, the bugs were truly terrifying. The earliest European reports of 17-year cicadas came from the Plymouth colony in New England in the 1630s. While species that emerge in shorter intervals exist in other parts of the world, 17-year cicadas are only known to live in the eastern half of North America, Liesch said. So, early settlers were unfamiliar with the insects, and some assumed the worst. "There were biblical connotations, plagues of Egypt and that sort of thing," Liesch said. Additionally, the W-shaped markings on some cicadas' wings were viewed by some settlers as an omen of a coming war. Brood XIII 17-year cicadas crowd a net-covered bush in Lake Geneva, Wis., on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. As early scientists tried to identify the insects, some mistook them for flies or locusts, leading farmers to blame them for destroying crops. We now know that 17-year cicadas do not bite or sting, and they do not eat crops. Juvenile cicadas eat tree sap underground, and adult cicadas' time above ground is so brief that they barely eat at all, Liesch said. Cicadas pose little threat to most plants, though females can damage young trees by slitting them open with their sharp backsides to lay eggs. Experts recommend covering young trees and other vulnerable plants with netting to prevent insect damage. More: You can try beer, and a dessert, made with cicadas at Lake Geneva's 'Cicadapalooza' More: Tons of cicadas will emerge in Wisconsin soon. Here's how to protect your plants and gardens This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Millions of 17-year cicadas swarm, chirp throughout Lake Geneva CONCORD In a last-minute deal Thursday, New Hampshire House and Senate negotiators reached a compromise on a bill that would legalize cannabis in the state, an effort that has failed multiple times before. But while the deal keeps House Bill 1633 alive, its future remains uncertain. Lawmakers in both chambers must still agree to several newly proposed changes when they meet a final time next Thursday. New Hampshire House and Senate negotiators reached a compromise on a bill that would legalize cannabis in the state. Rep. Anita Burroughs, a Glen Democrat and co-sponsor of the House bill, agreed to the deal with what sounded like reluctance. Im signing this with a lot of angst and a lot of deliberations on my part, said Burroughs, one of the three House negotiators. However, I think its time we legalize cannabis, and I think this is the right move. Senate President Jeb Bradley, a Wolfeboro Republican who opposes legalization and helped negotiate the compromise, said hed agree to the deal to give the House and Senate a chance to vote a final time but would vote against it. The compromise includes measures Gov. Chris Sununu said he would support. His spokesperson said he could not say whether Sununu will sign it because he had not read the compromise bill. The new version would keep the state-run franchise model the Senate wanted and House members strongly opposed, arguing it would create a near monopoly on the market and squelch competition. The state could grant licenses for up to 15 franchises. The state Liquor Commission would control the layout, signage, and advertising at each franchise. It would keep the Senates 15 percent tax, an amount that chambers negotiators said was nonnegotiable. The House had passed a 10 percent tax, and negotiators initially said this week theyd go no higher than 12.5 percent. Sen. Tim Lang, a Sanbornton Republican, argued that a 15 percent tax would keep New Hampshire competitive with neighboring states, which set their rates at or above 15 percent. I have no real interest in making New Hampshire the mecca of New England by lowering the price so low that everybody decides theyre going to come here, he said. Senate negotiators compromised on a decriminalization measure, agreeing to allow individuals to legally possess up to 1 ounce of cannabis as soon as the bill is signed. The Houses bill put that at 2 ounces. Currently, individuals can possess up to three-quarters of an ounce without facing criminal charges. Senate negotiators also agreed to a House demand to increase the representation from the industry on what would be a new cannabis control commission. House negotiators had requested two additional industry representatives. Their Senate counterparts agreed to one additional representative. The new bill would also give those currently holding licenses to dispense therapeutic cannabis an advantage if they sought one of the 15 recreational licenses. If the bill passes both chambers and is signed by the governor, all but the decriminalization measure would take effect in 2026. This story was originally published by New Hampshire Bulletin. This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: NH negotiators reach deal on legal cannabis. Will lawmakers agree? In the days and weeks leading up Hunter Bidens trial on felony gun charges, President Joe Biden made little attempt to distance himself from his son. Instead, Hunter Biden was seen at the White House and in Delaware at his fathers side amid what the presidents allies acknowledge is a difficult moment for both men. They attended a White House state dinner for Kenya last month; marked the ninth anniversary of the death of Beau Biden, the presidents eldest son, at church last week; and cycled together along a trail in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Saturday. The president also planned to spend most of Monday in Wilmington, where jury selection for the trial the first of a sitting US presidents child is underway. He traveled there Sunday evening, arriving earlier than originally planned. As proceedings were getting underway, first lady Jill Biden who, like her husband, has remained supportive and protective of Hunter amid his addiction and legal problems was seen arriving at the courthouse. I am the President, but I am also a Dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today, the president said in a statement Monday. Hunters resilience in the face of adversity and the strength he has brought to his recovery are inspiring to us. A lot of families have loved ones who have overcome addiction and know what we mean, he went on. As the President, I dont and wont comment on pending federal cases, but as a Dad, I have boundless love for my son, confidence in him, and respect for his strength. Our family has been through a lot together, and Jill and I are going to continue to be there for Hunter and our family with our love and support. Hunter Biden, 54, is accused of illegally purchasing and possessing a gun while abusing or being addicted to drugs, a violation of federal law. He pleaded not guilty to the three charges, though he has been open about his struggles with alcohol and crack cocaine addiction. For the president, the legal problems facing his son have been reason to pull him close, rather than push him away. Joe Biden has paid little mind to some of his allies who question the approach. Instead, his concern for his sons well-being surpasses any potential political fallout, advisers have said. That concern has appeared at moments to be all-consuming, including in the darkest moments of Hunter Bidens addiction, when the president and his family desperately sought to head off a self-destructive cycle. Joe Biden still speaks with or texts with his son almost daily, particularly as his legal issues mounted. The president told an interviewer last year his son had done nothing wrong, and that the only way Hunter Bidens legal issues were affecting his presidency was in creating a surge of fatherly pride. It impacts my presidency by making me feel proud of him, he said on MSNBC. As the gun trial gets underway, Biden will be heading overseas to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day. There is little question he will remain in regular touch with his son while abroad and will keep abreast of the trial amid a heavy schedule of commemorations, speeches and a state visit in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron. But neither he nor the White House is expected to speak proactively about the trial. Hunter Bidens legal team generally operates separately from the president and his campaign, and there are few who believe there would be much benefit in the president weighing in publicly. Prosecutors have said they plan to call about a dozen witnesses for their case. Most notably, theyve lined up testimony from three of Hunter Bidens former romantic partners to testify about his drug use around the time he bought the gun. This includes his ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, and his late brothers widow, Hallie Biden, whom Hunter Biden later dated. Their testimony could bring to life a period that Hunter Biden has described as his rock bottom, during which he was almost always on drugs or trying to get drugs. At his attempted plea hearing last year, Hunter Biden testified that he has been sober since May 2019. There was a time last summer when the president and his orbit believed Hunter Bidens legal ordeal would end with a plea deal and that the family would be able to close a dark chapter. Those hopes were dashed when the agreement fell apart and, weeks later, a special counsel was appointed to oversee the investigation into the presidents son, opening the prospect of prolonged legal battles overlapping with Joe Bidens run for reelection. But many in Bidens orbit suggest his sons legal issues will not be a driving concern for voters heading into Novembers election. Still, few issues are more sensitive inside the Biden White House than the presidents son, from his addiction battles to his legal woes. That has largely left Hunter Biden and his team to go on their own offense, accusing Republicans and others of trying to use his addiction issues for political profit. They are trying to, in their most illegitimate way, but rational way, theyre trying to destroy a presidency, Hunter Biden said in a podcast released late last year. And so, its not about me, and what theyre trying to do is theyre trying to kill me, knowing that it will be a pain greater than my father could be able to handle and so therefore destroying a presidency in that way. CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misidentified a potential prosecution witness. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com String of mysterious attacks across Europe opens new front in Russias war on the West Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, said Russia may have been behind a fire at the Marywilska 44 shopping centre in Warsaw - Dariusz Borowicz/Agencja Wyborcza.pl via REUTERS First, a warehouse in east London being used to supply aid to Ukraine burned down. Weeks later, an Ikea in Vilnius, Lithuania, mysteriously caught fire. Swedish investigators were already looking into the possibility that several railway derailments could have been caused by a state-backed saboteur. Then an inferno engulfed the largest shopping centre in Warsaw, Polands capital. It was Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, who began joining the dots to suggest the West was under attack by Russian espionage. We are examining the threads they are quite likely that the Russian services had something to do with the Marywilska fire, he said last month. His claims were further bolstered when a former Russian soldier was arrested north of Paris this week after explosives detonated in his hotel room. Warnings from European intelligence agencies that Russia is plotting acts of sabotage on the Continent in its escalation of the stand-off with the Nato military alliance have been thrust into the limelight. An intelligence assessment shared with Western governments claims that Russias notorious GRU military intelligence agency, known for its attacks on foreign soil using highly-trained agents, is now turning to criminal gangs to carry out attacks in Europe. The Kremlins spy network was dealt a blow in the weeks after Russias invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24 2022, when more than 600 of its intelligence officers in Europe with diplomatic cover were expelled. Britain resorted to a similar tactic when James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, expelled Col Maxim Elovik, Moscows defence attache, after the allegedly Russia-linked arson attack on the east London warehouse that was being used by a business providing aid to Ukraine. Four men will go on trial next year accused of setting fire to the commercial property, a court heard last month. Lack of sophistication Alexander Lord, lead Europe-Eurasia analyst at Sibylline, a geopolitical risk firm, said: The capabilities these gangs can provide are pretty low-level, but they can still achieve Russian foreign policy objectives, namely, destabilising the West, deterring European decision-makers against supporting Ukraine and exacerbating polarisation and societal tensions across not only Nato but the European Union. The lack of sophistication is a particular worry for Western intelligence services, with the proxies now relied on by the Kremlin more likely to cause collateral damage because of their lack of skills with explosives. A Western counter-intelligence officer told the Financial Times: There is a greater chance of collateral damage and casualties as the proxies are not skilled in tradecraft, such as explosives. Their theory was displayed earlier this week when the former Russian soldier, from Ukraines eastern Donbas region, was badly burned in an explosion on Tuesday in a hotel room in Roissy-en-France, near Pariss Charles de Gaulle airport. Investigators confirmed they had discovered bomb-making materials, as Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, arrived in France to join commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day. It is a trend tracked from the beginning of the year, with intelligence officers going tick, tick, tick down a list of all of the things that have been identified as stuff that Russia would do in advance of a conflict to immobilise, said Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at the Chatham House think tank. And since then, that pattern has just got stronger, he added. Unexplained explosions Despite the lack of sophistication in some of the alleged acts of sabotage, military facilities have also been targeted. In Germany, two men were arrested for allegedly plotting to blow up a Nato site in the south of the country that is used by the West to support Ukraine. The Russian-German dual citizens were arrested after they were caught carrying out what the interior ministry said was surveillance of the US military facility. Poland arrested a man it said was suspected of helping Russian intelligence prepare an attack on Mr Zelensky. The countrys railways, which carry military aid east to Ukraine, have also been targeted. A Western official said: We are seeing sabotage continue as another ascent of Russias behaviour. These more advanced incidents will further raise questions over the unexplained explosions at a BAE Systems munitions factory in Wales, which supplies shells used in Ukraine, and at a similar facility owned by German arms firm Diehl. Russian agents were blamed for a similar attack on a Czech arms depot in October 2014, where weapons destined for Kyiv were also being stored. Mr Lord said: If we start to ask ourselves why this is happening now, the discussions in Western capitals around ever-growing Western involvement in Ukraine, I think what the Russians are seeing is a potential mission creep threat for them. Over the last two-and-a-half years, weve seen previous red lines being crossed, and the Russians havent done anything to respond to that. Intimidation attempts Nato, which is vying for a greater role in the supply of weapons and munitions to Ukraine, has taken a greater interest in the alleged malign acts by Russian-backed agents. Jens Stoltenberg, the alliances secretary-general, recently said: I can say that we have seen increased Russian intelligence activity across the alliance. Therefore we have increased our vigilance. Top Nato officials have warned the alliance could be at war with Russia in the next two decades, with those timescales drastically shrinking, to as little as two years, in similar warnings from national governments. The Dutch government has warned of Russian attempts to intimidate both Nato and EU countries. Kajsa Ollongren, the Dutch defence minister, recently told EU counterparts that electricity and water supplies, as well as undersea infrastructure, were particular weak spots. Mr Giles said: Its something that everybody should be aware of because it is another example of Russian hostile activity that seeks to disrupt our countries and could be preparation for something more severe. It has also raised the question of whether the West is capable of handling malign threats from a hostile state, after so long focusing on counter-insurgency work in the Middle East. Mr Lord said: There are capability gaps in this regard. The focus on counter-terrorism post-9/11 was incredibly important, but the relatively benign international situation, aside from the terror threats, after the fall of the Soviet Union has led to an element of complacency that great power, competition and confrontation was a thing of the past. The invasion of Ukraine has radically upended that notion and Western intelligence agencies, police forces and militaries are now scrambling [to] plug capability gaps considering the severity of the state actor threat. 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. The News US lawmakers have accused Nigeria of wrongfully detaining an American staff member of cryptocurrency exchange Binance in an attempt to extort money. They urged President Joe Biden and the State Department to quickly intervene in the case. Tigran Gambaryan, 40, and a company colleague were arrested by Nigerian security authorities in February while on an official visit to the country. Gambaryan is facing charges of tax evasion, money laundering and engaging in unlicensed financial activities, in a trial that began in May. Mr. Gambaryans health and well-being are in danger, and we fear for his life, read a letter dated June 4 and signed by 16 members of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee. It is crucial to emphasize that the charges against Mr. Gambaryan are baseless and constitute a coercion tactic by the Nigerian government to extort his employer, Binance, stated the letter, which also said he had been subjected to harsh treatment and called for swift action to save his life. Nigerias government, responding to the accusations, said it is following due process. Prosecutors are confident of their case, based on the facts and evidence gathered. Binance will have every opportunity to defend itself in court against these severe charges of financial crimes, Information Minister Mohammed Idris said on Wednesday. Know More Gambaryans representatives and Binance have demanded his release, stating that he has no decision-making power in the company. They say he should not be held to answer to any alleged company offenses. Nigerian authorities this year renewed their crackdown on crypto, arguing that trades on platforms like Binance helped weaken the local naira currency even as it evades paying taxes on earnings from its activities. Idris, the information minister, claimed Binance had a turnover in Nigeria of over $20 billion in 2023. The central bank lifted a ban on banks enabling crypto transactions last December but restrictions remain in effect as no institutions have been licensed to carry out crypto transactions in the country. Internet service providers have maintained restrictions imposed in February on user access to the apps and websites of crypto companies, including that of Binance. The US lawmakers claim of extortion mirrors those Binance made in May. Richard Teng, the companys CEO, said executives were asked by an agent of a Nigerian legislative committee to make a significant payment in cryptocurrency to settle allegations of tax violations after a meeting in January this year. Binance declined to make the payment, Teng said. Gambaryans trial will continue in a court in Nigerias capital Abuja this month. He has been remanded in the citys Kuje prison, a maximum security facility that has previously been used to detain alleged extremists affiliated with the militant Islamist group Boko Haram. The View From Washington Changpeng CZ Zhao, Binances billionaire founder and former chief executive, began serving a four-month sentence in a prison in California this month and will be due for release in September, according to the US Bureau of Prisons website. The 47-year-old Canadian pleaded guilty to violating US money laundering laws and was sentenced in April. The company also pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and agreed to pay a $4 billion fine by the Justice Department. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen denounced Binance for willful failures [that] allowed money to flow to terrorists, cybercriminals, and child abusers through its platform. Notable A group of former prosecutors and federal agents in the US also wrote to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, urging him to step up efforts to secure Gambaryans release, Axios reports. NIKKO, Jun 07 (News On Japan) - A capybara escaped from a theme park in Nikko City, Tochigi Prefecture, on Thursday was found dead on a local road the following morning. The capybara, a three-year-old male named Iroha, escaped when a keeper opened its cage at the 'Osaru Land & Ani Town' theme park. The animal measured about one meter in length and weighed approximately 30 kilograms. Police and park staff were actively searching for it. At around 5:30 AM on June 7, a passerby discovered the capybara's body on a road in Karakura, about 250 meters from the theme park. The animal had a mark on its right hindquarters, suggesting it had collided with something. The theme park confirmed that the dead capybara was indeed Iroha, and the park has since retrieved the body. Source: ANN Local families will participate Saturday morning in Arrowhead Parks annual free Kids Fishing Derby. This event is held in coordination with Iowas free fishing weekend where Iowa residents are not required to purchase a fishing license, according to a news release from Pottawattamie County Conservation. All other Iowa Department of Natural Resources fishing regulations apply. Children ages 15 and younger must bring their own fishing pole and bait to participate. Some bait will be provided. Every child entered will receive a snack and prizes will be awarded in several categories. A $3 per vehicle entry fee or park membership is required to enter the park. The derby runs 10 a.m. to noon. Northeast Community Colleges Student Agronomy Field Day has earned the support of the Dan Gillespie Soil Health Fund (DGSHF) in the form of a grant that will further DGSHFs mission to support the agricultural leaders of the future and provide enhancements to the hands-on agriculture learning experience scheduled for late September 2024. Morocco and the Chinese-European Gotion High-Tech Group, a leader in the field of electric vehicles, signed, on Thursday in Rabat, a strategic investment agreement worth 12.8 billion dirhams on the setting up of a comprehensive industrial ecosystem for the manufacturing of electric batteries in Kenitra. The investment agreement, signed at a ceremony chaired by Head of Government, Aziz Akhannouch, will create 17,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs, including 2,300 highly skilled jobs, according to a statement by the Head of Governments Department. This major strategic investment involves not only the first Gigafactory to be built in Morocco, but also the first of its kind in the entire Middle East & Africa region, consolidating the Kingdoms position as regional leader in the automotive industry and energy transition, the statement said. For this first Gigafactory, the Moroccan government has decided to place its trust in the Sino-European player Gotion High-Tech, a world leader in the electric battery sector, with the German Volkswagen Group as one of its reference shareholders, to develop an integrated project for the production of batteries for electric vehicles with a capacity of 20 GWh. This investment corresponds to the first phase in the development of the Groups industrial activities in Morocco, with plans to eventually develop a capacity of 100 GWh for a total investment of 65 billion dirhams. The electric batteries Gigafactory will start operations in June 2026, announced Minister in charge of Investment, Mohcine Jazouli, one of the co-signers of the agreement. The Gigafactory will consolidate Moroccos position as a future hub for electric mobility, emphasized Jazouli during a round-table discussion with media following the signing of the agreement. The first phase of this ambitious project is expected to produce 20 GWh and have an export capacity of 20 billion dirhams. This capacity will eventually reach 100 GWh for a global investment of 65 billion dirhams, he said. As for the choice of Morocco by the Gotion High tech group, Jazouli emphasized the Kingdoms stability, the youth of its population, the quality of its infrastructure, and the free-trade agreements signed with several countries, all of which favor access to a major market and provide a base for exports. Today, we are reaping the rewards of HM King Mohammed VIs Vision for renewable energies, he underlined, noting that thanks to this Vision, green energy is available in Morocco at an ultra-competitive price. In this vein, he recalled that the Investment Charter provides a clear framework for investors and for the ever-improving business climate. Referring to the projects economic benefits, particularly in terms of employment, value creation and foreign currency earnings, Jazouli noted that the future Gigafactory would help to safeguard jobs in the automotive sector, especially in view of the European Unions new regulations on electric mobility, which are due to come into force in 2035. Tunisias president seems to be courting Iran, in a shift that risks further isolating the cash-strapped country. Once an advocate of the two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Tunisia under president Kais Saeid has made a U-turn surfing on the anti-Jewish rhetoric of its mentor Algeria and following a foreign policy current that threw it in the arms of Iran. Saied was the first Tunisian president to visit Iran last week, as part of a regional tour that also led him to China, while shunning gulf states. While the Arab Summit in Tunisia reiterated support for the two-state solution in 2019, Kais Saied vowed in his presidential election to oppose normalization with Israel, an act he described as high treason. After becoming kingmaker in the country by suspending parliament and destroying checks and balances, Saied said that Palestinians should rule over all Palestine and described Hamas October 7 attacks as legitimate resistance. On October 11, Tunisia put its reservations to a joint statement urging a halt of all attacks on civilians by Israel and Hamas and calling for a two-state solution. In the OIC summit in Banjul, Tunisia objected to back the two-state solution putting a reservation that advocates: an independent state on the entire territory of Palestine with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital. This position which runs against international efforts by Arab and Muslim states as well as the West to end bloodshed in the Middle East has earned Saieds Tunisia further isolation. Sharan Grewal, a Brookings research fellow cites unnamed U.S. State Department officials saying they were highly concerned that Saied had become an outlier in the region, no longer supportive of a two-state solution. Against this backdrop, Saieds quest for closer ties with Tehran could be understood as an attempt to join like-minded authoritarian leaders with a theological worldview. Irans supreme leader praised Saieds anti-zionist position, with Saied adding that the Muslim world needed to breakaway with its passive position. The newfound Tunisian-Iranian ties offer a boon for Iran which looks for a foothold in north Africa and seeks cracks in the Arab edifice. As Tunisia heads to insolvency, the president took solace in populism taking aim at Israel to win support at home at the expense of alienating the west. Tunisia, due to its internal multi-pronged crises, needs allies who can help it redress and improve its social and economic outlook. Yet, Isolated Saied prefers rhetoric and sides with Iran, which has promised but radicalism and mayhem in the Middle East seeking to export its religious revolution. Scrapping the two-state solution, means war! More carnage and suffering by innocent children, women and the elderly. Two years after the signing of the founding protocol, the African Energy Bank officially opened its doors on June 4 and slated the operational launch for July. This supranational bank will focus on financing oil and gas projects in Africa, with a view to bridging the financing gap in these sectors and the continents energy deficit. The African Energy Bank (AEB) was created on Tuesday June 4, 2024, Ecofin Agency reported. The founding documents and charter were signed by Afreximbank and the African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO), its two founding institutions. Structured as a pan-African energy development bank, AEB has an initial capital of $5 billion. It will focus on financing African oil and gas projects, without excluding renewable energy projects. The operational launch is slated for July, pending the signatures and ratifications from two member countries besides the founding institutions. The bank aims to welcome investors who align with its mission and vision. The AEB emerged to tackle the financing crisis in Africas oil and gas industry, triggered by the withdrawal of foreign financiers and international investors citing global energy transition. It aims to harness all available energy forms on the continent to bridge the energy gap. This moment marks a significant milestone in our continents journey towards energy independence and sustainable development. By harnessing our collective resources and expertise, we are paving the way for a brighter, more prosperous future for all Africans, said Tarek El Molla, a member of APPOs ministerial council and Egypts Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources. Africa, hosting the largest proportion of the global population without access to energy, could potentially bridge this gap with its vast reserves of crude oil and natural gas. The Spanish National Police announced, on Thursday, the arrest in Teulada (Alicante), of an individual for his alleged membership of the terrorist ISIS group, during an operation carried out jointly with Moroccos Directorate General of Territorial Surveillance (DGST). The individual is accused of alleged participation in the crimes of integration of a terrorist organization, recruitment, indoctrination and apology of terrorism, said the Spanish Police in a statement. The investigation showed that this individual produced and distributed numerous pro-ISIS publications, and has intensified the number and radicality of these publications in recent weeks, the statement added. It noted that the suspect had even produced his own pro-jihadist material in order to broadcast it openly on his social networks. According to the Spanish police, he was in regular contact with people already arrested for jihadist terrorism in Spain and Morocco, as well as with foreign terrorist fighters in the Syrian-Iraqi zone. The $1.3 billion gigafactory to be built by EV battery maker Gotion High Tech will start production in 2026 and will export 85% of its output, Moroccan minister in charge of investment Mohcine Jazouli said. The Moroccan government and Sino-European Gotion High Tech signed an investment deal for the plant which will be located in Kenitra, starting with a capacity of 20 gigawatts per hour and eventual capacity of 120 gwh, said Jazouli. The investment is the first of its kind in Africa and the Middle East and is conducive to Moroccos push to be a leader in EV battery manufacturing. The plant is also part of Moroccos plan to attract 50 billion dollars in high added value investments between 2022 and 2026 with a potential to create 500,000 jobs. Despite fierce competition, Morocco attracted this major investment thanks to its assets, including political stability, geographic location, investment-friendly climate, and skilled labor force. Moroccos free trade agreements also offer access to major markets further encouraging EV battery makers to set up plants in the country. Gotions investment is the largest in the EV battery field in Morocco, where other Chinese manufacturers have already announced big plans. In May, Chinese auto battery manufacturers Hailiang and Shinzoom announced two separate plans to produce copper and anodes respectively for a combined total nearing 1 billion dollars in Tanger Tech. In April, BTR New Material Group signed a deal with the Moroccan government to set up a cathodes plant, critical to EV battery manufacturing. In September last year, CNGR Advanced Materials partnered with Moroccan private investment fund Al Mada to build an electric vehicle battery plant in Jorf Lasfar worth 2 billion dollars. Besides phosphates, Morocco is rich with cobalt, a critical requirement in EV battery manufacturing. Moroccos flag carrier RAM is considering reopening direct flights between Casablanca and Beijing, after a four-year pause that started with the outbreak of Covid 19, a RAM source said. With the expected increase in its fleet, RAM would relaunch direct Morocco-China flights in early 2025, a RAM source told Hespress. RAM used to operate three weekly flights to Beijing in 2020, before marking a halt due to the outbreak of Covid 19. Direct flights would encourage Chinese tourists to visit the Kingdom. The number of Chinese tourists increased from about 15,000 annually to 132,000 in 2018, after Morocco canceled visa requirements for Chinese nationals in 2015. Last year, the Chinese arrivals began gradually recovering from the Covid-19 impact to stand at 59,000. China is the worlds largest tourism emitting market with over 130 million tourists traveling abroad for holidays annually. At least 100 people were killed, and dozens were injured in a village in Sudans Gezira province after an attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Wednesday (5 June), which comes only days after a senior UN official warned that the situation in the conflict-torn country bore all the marks of risk of genocide. Women, children, and elderly were among those killed in the attacks by the paramilitary force, according to Mini Arko Minawi, the governor of Darfur province. The Madani Resistance Committee, a grassroots group set up to protect residents in the capital city of Gezira, said that the RSF, which has been fighting the Sudanese army for over a year, used heavy artillery to besiege and attack the village, displacing residents, including women and children, to other parts of the district of al-Manaqil. The Sudanese transitional government in a statement condemned the RSFs attacks and called for the international community to hold the paramilitary group accountable. With the violence in Sudan escalating, calls are mounting on both the RSF and the Sudanese army to allow access by air workers to the people in need. Time is running out for millions of people in Sudan who are at imminent risk of famine, the United Nations and humanitarian organizations warned this week in a joint statement. Despite the tremendous needs, aid workers continue to face systematic obstructions and deliberate denials of access by parties to the conflict. UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Nderitu, joined the chorus of outrage over the situation, saying civilians are being attacked and killed because of the color of their skin, because of their ethnicity, because of who they are, whereby this situation bore all the marks of risk of genocide. Kenyas president has reaffirmed his countrys commitment to a balanced foreign policy as the global power rivalry between the United States and China heats up and African nations are bullied into taking sides. Were neither facing East nor facing West; were facing forward, Kenyas President William Ruto said during an interview with Al Jazeera, to emphasize Kenyas strategic approach of maintaining a balanced foreign policy amid escalating geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing. With China trying to gain a foothold in Africa, and with the US looking to reassert itself as a partner of choice, observers say that African countries will have to pick the right partners that will benefit them not only in the short term, but also in the long run. President Rutos recent historic state visit to the US was a testament to this approach. While Kenyas relationship with the US is crucial to its national interests, particularly in trade and investment, it also continues to engage actively with China, recognizing its role as a critical economic partner. Ruto has echoed the sentiments recently expressed by a senior Rwandan diplomat saying that his country will not be bullied into taking sides in the superpower rivalry between the US and China. James Kimonyo, Rwandas ambassador to China, said in an interview with South China Morning Post that both Washington and Beijing were important partners for the East African country. We cant be bullied, we cant be forced. We think China is a very good friend of ours and nobody can tell us otherwise, the diplomat said. According to Charles A. Ray, a former US ambassador to Zimbabwe, the US has not offered a sufficiently concrete alternative to Chinese investment in African infrastructure development. In his recent analysis at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), he argues that Chinas domestic economic problems have opened the door for the United States to change the influence dynamics in Africa if the government is willing to step up to the plate. Morocco vigorously condemns the Israeli incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita, said on Friday in Rabat, stressing that these provocations exacerbate tensions and undermine the appeasement efforts in Gaza and all the efforts deployed for a ceasefire, the protection of civilians, and the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. To a question about the situation in Al-Aqsa Mosque during a press briefing held at the end of his talks with his Brazilian counterpart, Mauro Vieira, the Foreign Minister stressed that the Kingdom of Morocco firmly condemns the authorization by the Israeli authorities of the Flag march in occupied Al-Quds, and the resulting restrictions on access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque imposed on worshippers. Morocco categorically rejects the incursion of Israeli government officials and members of the Knesset onto the Mosques esplanade, he insisted. King Mohammed VI, Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, has repeatedly and vigorously denounced such provocations, which come at a time when the Israeli aggression in Gaza is continuing, causing numerous victims among civilians, the Minister recalled. Morocco strongly rejects the Israeli incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque, urges the Israeli authorities to take the necessary measures to ensure that such acts do not recur, and calls on the international community, including the UN Security Council and the acting powers, to protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Muslim places of worship in the city of Al-Quds. President Biden commemorated the 80th anniversary of D-Day with a traditional American speech about the civic values this country has taken from that event: Democracy is good, fascism is bad, allies are necessary, etc. Conservatives had two plausible options in response. The highbrow rejoinder would be to praise the speech and note that of course they, too, were rooting for Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan. The lowbrow response would be to circulate misleading clips of Biden to make him look older than he actually is. (Many of them did this.) But some elite conservatives chose a third option: Angrily denounce the platitudes about democracy as an attack on their own values. Breitbarts Joel Pollak complains that Bidens speech was a veiled attack on his domestic political opposition in the upcoming election. Erick Erickson moans, I dont think it was appropriate for Biden to turn the remembrance of D-Day into a political attack on his opponent. It is true that some media outlets interpreted Bidens remarks as an attack on Trump. But the speech didnt mention Trump. Nor did it refer to him obliquely. What it did was denounce a series of ideas that Trump does not claim to believe. Biden noted, Ukraine has been invaded by a tyrant bent on domination. He warned, To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators is simply unthinkable. He denounced isolationism. He praised democracy and warned about authoritarianism: Now, we have to ask ourselves: Will we stand against tyranny, against evil, against crushing brutality of the iron fist? Will we stand for freedom? Will we defend democracy? What part of that do conservatives object to? Trump doesnt claim to be an isolationist, a lover of dictators, or an opponent of democracy. They insist he doesnt want to break up NATO and only wants to toughen up the allies. His supporters only take attacks on these things as an attack on Trump because they understand he actually loves dictators, believes in isolationism, and hates democracy. Pollak, hilariously, uses as evidence of Bidens scrupulous criticism the following line: [The D-Day heroes] fought to vanquish a hateful ideology in the 30s and 40s. Does anyone doubt they wouldnt move heaven and Earth to vanquish [the] hateful ideologies of today? Hearing the reference to hateful ideologies, Pollaks response is Hey, thats us! All Bidens rhetoric is totally standard fare from postwar American presidents. This is a bit like how every gauzy Super Bowl commercial in the Trump era about how people should be nice to each other came across as a subtle attack on Trump. When the leader of your party opposes your countrys basic values and human decency, giving a speech touting those values without sounding partisan becomes impossible. Trump fans apparently think the solution is to stop presidents from giving overseas speeches touting American values. Maybe the solution is to nominate a Republican presidential candidate whos not an authoritarian criminal? Mike Lee, MAGA warrior. Photo: Samuel Corum/Getty Images Messaging bills are the meat and potatoes of a divided and polarized Congress. With Republicans controlling the House and Democrats controlling the Senate and White House, each party is in a position to veto the others legislative priorities, and in all but a few cases, thats what happens. So to dramatize the stakes of the next election and provide campaign fodder, House Republicans and Senate Democrats predictably offer bills to put the opposition on record concerning popular initiatives, knowing full well that they arent going to be enacted. House Republicans have been champions of messaging bills on a wide variety of topics in this particular Congress, most recently in pushing a bill outlawing already outlawed voting by noncitizens, which was backed by Donald Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson. So the howls of protest by Senate Republicans over Chuck Schumers decision to move a messaging bill that would establish a federal right to contraception services are a bit ridiculous. Republicans are increasingly echoing Trumps new position that all reproductive-rights issues should be a matter of state law (a stance the GOP would undoubtedly abandon the minute it had the power to ban abortion at the federal level). So its entirely appropriate for Democrats to make it clear they favor setting such policies nationally via preemptive federal legislation. In other words, its a message that needs to be sent and received by voters, particularly since it exposes some questionable grounds for GOP opposition (e.g., that contraceptive rights threaten religious liberty and that some popular forms of contraception, like Plan B and IUDs, are supposedly abortifacients; that is clearly erroneous in terms of how Plan B contraception works). Its also worth noting that while Senate Democrats voted in a solid bloc for the Right to Contraception Act, two Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska also voted for it. The vote provided additional evidence that any progress on federal reproductive-rights legislation will require either a Democratic supermajority in the Senate or a modification of the filibuster rules that Republicans utilize so liberally to block legislation they dont like. But the most laughable aspect of the GOP complaints about messaging bills is that 11 Senate Republicans, led by Mike Lee of Utah, have just declared that they will obstruct any Democrat legislation or Biden-administration nominations for the foreseeable future in order to protest the guilty verdict a Manhattan jury imposed on Donald Trump last week: Strongly worded statements are not enough. Those who turned our judicial system into a political cudgel must be held accountable. We are no longer cooperating with any Democrat legislative priorities or nominations, and we invite all concerned Senators to join our stand. pic.twitter.com/H0CzIjXgwC Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) May 31, 2024 So legislation confirming the federal right to contraception that was called into question by the U.S. Supreme Court is outrageous, but bringing congressional activity to a grinding halt in reaction to a state jury deciding a state court case under state law is just fine. This step is even more obviously a messaging effort since its sole purpose is to reinforce Trumps claim that he is the victim of a vast conspiracy of prosecutors and judges at every level of government being orchestrated by Joe Biden. Anyone who legitimately objects to the bipartisan ritual of messaging bills should hope for an end to divided government in November. But anyone whos against to the denial of reproductive rights by the U.S. Supreme Court and a host of red states should hope a trifecta is not held by a Republican Party that is still in thrall to the anti-abortion movement. Steve Bannon, former adviser to President Donald Trump, arrives at the federal courthouse on June 6, 2024, in Washington, D.C. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images Its been a long road, but Steve Bannon might finally be behind bars soon. On Thursday, a federal judge ordered that the longtime Trump adviser and conservative provocateur report to prison by July 1, after an appeals panel rejected his attempt to overturn his pending sentence. If Bannon reports as scheduled, he would be released just days before the 2024 general election. In July 2022, Bannon was found guilty of contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. He was sentenced to four months in prison along with a $6,500 fine, a ruling he immediately appealed. In his attempt to overturn the sentence, Bannon had argued that his legal counsel had advised him to ignore the subpoena, using a tactic known as advice-of-counsel defense. But a three-panel judge of the U.S. D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals did not buy Bannons argument. This exact advice of counsel defense is no defense at all, the judges wrote in May, per CNN. The panels ruling left room for Bannon to appeal to the full court, but prosecutors soon filed a motion requesting that U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols lift the pause on Bannons sentence. Nichols, a Trump appointee, agreed. Outside the courthouse, Bannon vowed to continue fighting his sentence. Were gonna go all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to, he said. That would hardly be unprecedented for ex-Trump advisers: Peter Navarro, a former trade adviser, appealed to the Supreme Court to get him out of serving his own four-month sentence for contempt of Congress. The Court declined, and Navarro reported to a Miami prison in March. Still, Bannon remained defiant. Theres nothing that can shut me up and nothing that will shut me up. Theres not a prison built or a jail built that will ever shut me up, he said. In a Truth Social post, Trump called Bannons pending prison sentence a Total and Complete American Tragedy and suggested that members of the January 6 committee, such as former representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, needed to face consequences of their own. INDICT THE UNSELECT J6 COMMITTEE FOR ILLEGALLY DELETING AND DESTROYING ALL OF THEIR FINDINGS! MAGA2024, he wrote. Even after this sentence is over, Bannon will not be out of the legal woods. In 2022, Bannon was indicted by New York authorities for allegedly bilking donors in a fraudulent scheme to build a wall on the southern border. Bannon was under federal indictment for that same scheme in 2020 but was pardoned by Trump, who will likely mull using that power again if he wins reelection. The trial was slated to begin last month under Judge Juan Merchan, who recently presided over the Trump hush-money trial. But proceedings have since been postponed. Not as different as you might think. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images On the 80th anniversary of D-Day, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell took to the op-ed pages of the New York Times to offer some very traditional arguments on the enduring lessons of the fight against totalitarianism in World War II. Heres a sample: American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines joined allies and took the fight to the Axis powers not as a first instinct, but as a last resort. They ended a war that the free worlds inaction had left them no choice but to fight. Generations have taken pride in the triumph of the Wests wartime bravery and ingenuity, from the assembly lines to the front lines. We reflect less often on the fact that the world was plunged into war, and millions of innocents died, because European powers and the United States met the rise of a militant authoritarian with appeasement or naive neglect in the first place. As you might expect, like most Republicans who came of age during the Cold War, McConnell thinks we are in danger of the same pattern of dangerous indifference to totalitarian threats today. Indeed, though he does not mention the name of the 45th president (probably wise of him since he recently endorsed Trumps return to the White House), the op-ed can be read as an extended criticism of the America First mentality that is ascendant in his party. He is pretty clearly warning that the isolationists who so often defended Hitler and Mussolini and fought U.S. entry into the war against them are experiencing a comeback in the face of new threats today. And while McConnell makes a pro forma reference to the American lefts longstanding allergy to military spending, his real target is MAGA-land: Some vocal corners of the American right are trying to resurrect the discredited brand of prewar isolationism and deny the basic value of the alliance system that has kept the postwar peace. Unfortunately for those who would like to resurrect the post-D-Day FDR-Truman strategy of keeping the peace through a combination of U.S. preparedness, democratic alliances, soft power (economic and ideological), and skillful diplomacy, McConnell has his own set of blinders. All he can see is deterrence based on military power. And so even as he bashes Republican isolationists, he carps at Democrats for inadequately arming America to the teeth: President Biden or congressional Democrats require another major conflict to start investing seriously in American hard power. The president began this years State of the Union with a reference to President Franklin Roosevelts 1941 effort to prepare the nation to meet the Axis threat. But until the commander in chief is willing to meaningfully invest in Americas deterrent power, this talk carries little weight. Lets see: As of 2023, the U.S. was spending $916 billion per year on national defense, more than twice the amount being spent by China ($296 billion), Russia ($109 billion), Iran ($10 billion), and North Korea ($4 billion) combined. As a percentage of GDP, the United States is spending more today (3.4 percent) than it did in 1999 (2.7 percent), even though we are not at war with anyone. Perhaps the United States is not spending as wisely as it might on national defense, and it certainly could spend more. But the idea that we have failed to meaningfully invest in Americas deterrent power is only tenable if you believe conflict around the world is solely determined by the American hard power McConnell craves. Would there ever be enough bristling U.S. military strength to stop all war? Its doubtful. If you think about it, McConnells view of peacekeeping differs from Trump only by degree. The 45th president manifestly believes someone exactly like him or better yet, him exactly can prevent wars from breaking out via a combination of the strength he projects and the military force he could theoretically deploy if he wanted. It reflects Trumps Jacksonian conviction that potential adversaries must be persuaded that they risk catastrophic violence if they so much as think about threatening America and its interests. Its the so-called madman theory of national defense in the hands of someone who is credibly a madman. Theres no room for or need of diplomacy in a world made safer by an America liberated from any principle other than massive retaliation. For all their differences, McConnell and Trump are devoted to a common vision of peace through strength. The Kentuckian thinks its mostly about spending adversaries into oblivion by creating a military machine no one can match. The former president likes aggressive defense spending, too how else can you pay for those military parades he loves? but believes his own strength is all that matters. Either way, genuine peace achieved by peaceful means is off the table. The chief executives of Canadian oil sands producers have spoken against plans by the federal government to impose a cap on carbon dioxide emissions from oil and gas production. Speaking at a House of Commons committee hearing, the CEOs of Suncor, Imperial Oil, Cenovus Energy, Shell, and Enbridge, said the cap was unnecessary legislation, according to a Reuters report. I do support a price on carbon across the economy because I believe that will drive the innovation, the economic incentives on all of our part to continue to improve our business, said Suncor chief executive Rich Kruger. I fundamentally worry that a cap on emissions, the way it's constructed, will be a cap on production, he also said. The oil and gas sector is the source of the biggest chunk of Canadas emissions, accounting for 28% of the total based on 2021 numbers. The federal governments plan, first released at the end of last year, calls for a reduction in emissions from 171 million tons in 2019 to between 106 and 112 million tons by 2030. The world will not consume one less barrel of oil simply because Canada chooses not to provide it. That barrel will come from somewhere else, Suncors Kruger also said at the hearing, echoing remarks by Shells former CEO Ben van Beurden in response to a court ruling that ordered the company to cut its production in order to cut emissions. Canadian companies are among the world's most committed and proactive in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Kruger also said, as quoted by CBC. Meanwhile, the CEO of Imperial Oil also expressed the view that a cap law would be essentially redundant. There's plenty of other vehicles and requirements in place, Brad Corson said. I've worked all over the world and Canada has one of the most stringent regulations of the places that I worked in. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The selloff triggered by te OPEC+ announcement it may roll back some production cuts was unjustified and the outlook for prices is more bullish than many believe. This is according to Eric Nuttall, portfolio manager at Ninepoint Partners, who told Bloomberg that there appeared to be a misunderstanding about the actual plan of OPEC+, which did not state there will be rollbacks of the cuts come what may. I think its [the selloff] rooted in a strong misunderstanding of what came out and what OPEC+ is trying to achieve, Nuttall told Bloomberg. The concern seems to be that the eight members who are voluntarily curtailing volumes came out with a roadmap outlining that they would extend the cuts through the next quarter and then beginning in October slowly and gradually bring those back on, the financier said. The misinterpretation is (that) theres this rigid plan to bring on volumes, theres concerns about a weakening economy in the United States, China, etc, Nuttall explained, noting that the OPEC+ plan was not etched in stone. In that, the Ninepoint portfolio manager echoed remarks made this week by the Saudi Energy Minister and the Russian Deputy Prime Minister who both said essentially the same thing. There was no immutable plan to bring supply back during the second half of the year. The plan was to see if market conditions would be right to do thatexactly as OPEC+ had said in its official statement following the June 2 meeting. The cornerstone of OPEC policy has been to be proactive, pre-emptive and precautionary, Nuttall told Bloomberg. Anyone who follows OPEC should have known that this is not a rigid plan; its subject to market conditions. He also forecast that trader sentiment is about to change soon, predicting substantial acceleration in drawdowns from global oil inventories beginning next week. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: - Forecasts for the US West Coast indicate California will be struggling with a scorching heat dome over the coming days, prompting a revival in the states natural gas consumption on the back of peak air conditioning - OPEC+ extended their 2.2 million b/d voluntary crude production through Q3 2024, however the group has also charted a path to bring back those volumes back to the market from October 2024 onwards. - The United Arab Emirates was the big winner of the June 2 meeting, taking place in Riyadh for the Great Eight of OPEC+ countries that took on voluntary production cuts, securing a quota increase of 300,000 b/d in 2025. - Immediately after the meeting, Brent futures have shed some $3 per barrel and dipped below $80 per barrel for the first time since February, however theyve recovered some lost territory over the past week. - The next OPEC+ joint ministerial committee meeting is scheduled for August 1, discussing quota compliance and the outlook for demand, with the next ministerial meeting slated for December 1. In the latest edition of the Numbers Report, we will take a look at some of the most interesting figures put out this week in the energy and metals sectors. Each week well dig into some data and provide a bit of explanation on what drives the numbers. Lets take a look. In the latest edition of the Numbers Report, we will take a look at some of the most interesting figures put out this week in the energy and metals sectors. Each week well dig into some data and provide a bit of explanation on what drives the numbers. Lets take a look. 1. OPEC+ Rolls Over Voluntary Cuts, Paves the Way for 2025 Return of Crude - OPEC+ extended their 2.2 million b/d voluntary crude production through Q3 2024, however the group has also charted a path to bring back those volumes back to the market from October 2024 onwards. - The United Arab Emirates was the big winner of the June 2 meeting, taking place in Riyadh for the Great Eight of OPEC+ countries that took on voluntary production cuts, securing a quota increase of 300,000 b/d in 2025. - Immediately after the meeting, Brent futures have shed some $3 per barrel and dipped below $80 per barrel for the first time since February, however theyve recovered some lost territory over the past week. - The next OPEC+ joint ministerial committee meeting is scheduled for August 1, discussing quota compliance and the outlook for demand, with the next ministerial meeting slated for December 1. 2. California Needs More Gas to Meet Surging Power Demand - Forecasts for the US West Coast indicate California will be struggling with a scorching heat dome over the coming days, prompting a revival in the states natural gas consumption on the back of peak air conditioning demand. - Gas fired generation has been notably below last-year readings in California as solar plants were rising to prominence, however an early start to summer heat will send gas usage soaring across the CAISO. - Solar energy has overtaken natural gas as the primary source of CAISO electricity generation since March, having risen 27% year-on-year to 771,000 MWh, however that is set to change in June-August. - Natural gas will be key in meeting incremental power demand as solar usage tends to fall to zero at night and wind farms tend to decrease output in July-August due to low wind speeds. 3. Russias Oil Revenues Soar as Kremlin Eyes $120 Billion of Oil Money in 2024 - Russias oil revenues to the state budget soared 50% year-over-year as crude prices rose and the country adapted to international sanctions, coming in at 632 billion rubles last month ($7.1 billion). - Moreover, Russias government income could have been higher if the Kremlin werent paying enormous subsidies to the nations fuel producers, paying out more than $2 billion in May alone for domestic supplies of gasoline and diesel. - As Ukraines drone strikes have restricted Russias refining capacity throughout this year, Russian oil exports have surged, especially to India which imported 2 million b/d of Russian oil in May alone. - The Kremlin has agreed to extend Russias participation in OPEC+ voluntary cuts in Q3, suggesting that oil revenues could decline as output is expected to decline by 471,000 b/d. 4. Mexicos New President To Focus on Renewables as Oil Falters - Claudia Sheinbaum, the protege of outgoing president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and a climate scientist by training, has become the first female president of Mexico, taking almost 60% of votes. - Facing the biggest budget deficit in decades, Sheinbaum would need to balance a delicate line between her renewables ambition and Mexicos rapidly falling oil production, at 1.474 million b/d the lowest in 40 years. - President-elect Sheinbaum has campaigned on the premise to lift the share of renewable energy in Mexico to 50% by the end of her term in 2030, currently relying predominantly on natural gas (55%). - Smaller-scale rooftop solar projects and decentralized wind farms could be the most feasible way of ramping up renewables capacity as Pemexs $108 billion in debts and $28 billion in 2024 maturities alone make it an unlikely investor. 5. Could China Become the Worlds Top Hydrogen Producer? - Dominating the wind turbine, solar cell and perhaps soon even the EV markets, China could also become the world leader in hydrogen technology, as Beijing sees it as a key element in its transition strategy. - China has installed 1 GW of electrolyzer capacity last year, however most of its new capacity is still linked to fossil-fuel-based grey hydrogen, mostly coming from coal gasification or steam methane reforming. - Rystad Energy projects that a further 2.5 GW of electrolyzer capacity will be built this year, equivalent to 220,000 tonnes of green hydrogen produced, most probably surpassing Beijings 2025 production target already this year. - Infrastructure might be lagging behind the ambition of green hydrogen electrolyzers, with Chinas oil and gas companies increasingly investing into long-distance hydrogen pipelines, most notably one connecting Inner Mongolia to Beijing. 6. Chinas Copper Stock Build Contradicts Market Optimism - Chinese copper inventories have been building at a time when seasonally they should be edging lower, underscoring concerns about global copper demand only a few weeks after the metal hit a record $11,104/mt on the LME. - Stockpiles of copper in Shanghai Futures Exchange warehouses ended May well above 300,000 metric tonnes, which is not the highest volume ever but by far the most for any end-of-May reading on record. - Historically, Chinese copper processors have been ramping up activity into the summer after the spring stockpiling spree, and as domestic surcharge on copper (Yangshan premium) turned negative last month, demand seems to be really weak. - The worlds largest copper trader Trafigura said the recent surge in copper prices was not justified by real-world supply and demand, attributing the spike to record investment flows from market participants. 7. Renewables Have a New Enemy, Negative Power Prices - European developers of renewable projects have started to face a new challenge, not from the fossil lobby or limited sunshine and wind, rather from generation exceeding the needs of Europes consumers. - Across Europes four main economies, there have been already 529 hours of negative energy prices in January-May, a sixfold increase year-over-year as the initially Nordic phenomenon moved into continental Europe. - Negative power prices will trigger power price cannibalization when investors will be reluctant to make new investments as they would not see adequate returns, with battery storage options still very limited in scope. - Renewable energy sources currently account for 47% of Europes power generation and are expected to rise to 66% by the end of this decade. Thats it for this weeks Numbers Report. Thanks for reading, and well see you next week. OPEC's decision on Sunday to leave the door open for rolling back some of the production cuts, while not an unprecedented move, has led to a bearish reaction in the oil markets, with prices plummeting in the days following the announcement. Analysts have expressed concern over this ambiguity, despite OPEC's historical approach of adapting its policies based on market conditions. The group's commitment to maintaining flexibility ensures they can respond dynamically to shifts in global oil demand and supply. The immediate market reaction appears overblown given that the supply and demand fundamentals remain unchanged. OPEC's assurance that any adjustments will be market-driven underscores their ongoing strategy to balance oil supply with demand, mitigating potential volatility. This stance, consistent with their long-standing policies, aims to stabilize the oil market rather than disrupt it. Despite the market's negative sentiment, OPEC's approach is pragmatic. The caveat "subject to market conditions" has always provided OPEC the necessary leeway to amend its decisions. This flexibility is crucial for managing the complex and often unpredictable global oil market, allowing for timely interventions to address unexpected economic or geopolitical developments. Analysts from S&P Global Commodity Insights have noted that despite recent price fluctuations, global oil demand remains robust, with growth projections continuing into 2024 and 2025. OPEC itself is optimistic Investment in renewable energy projects in Australia rebounded in the first quarter of 2024 from the 2023 lows, but the country needs to further boost its annual investments to meet the governments 2030 clean energy target, industry body Clean Energy Council said in a report on Friday. The associations Renewable Projects Quarterly Report for Q1 2024 found that large-scale renewable generation projects saw five projects totaling 895 megawatts (MW) of capacity reaching financial commitment during the first quarter of the year. In addition, Q1 2024 marked the fourth consecutive quarter in which energy storage projects secured financial investment commitments over US$667 million (AUS$1 billion). Moreover, the first quarter was the best quarter for electricity generation projects reaching financial commitment since the end of 2022, with the five projects of a total of 895 MW. However, investment levels in generation projects will need to increase further with financial commitments of at least 6 - 7 gigawatts (GW) of new large-scale generation projects needed this year and in each successive year, to meet the Federal Governments target of 82% renewable power generation by 2030, the Clean Energy Council said. The sluggish investment activity in new electricity generation projects highlights the challenging project development conditions including higher financing and supply chain costs, drawn-out planning and environmental assessment processes in some jurisdictions and the legacies of a decade of underinvestment in our transmission network, the industry body said. In addition, many investors are now also awaiting the final scheme design details, and ultimately the outcomes, of Capacity Investment Scheme competitive tender rounds. Australia plans to invest as much as US$15 billion (AUS$22.7 billion) over the next decade to become a renewable energy superpower and boost its domestic critical minerals economy, the Labor Government said last month. Also last month, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) warned that Australia faces electricity reliability gaps over the next decade if urgent investments in transmission infrastructure are not made on time. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The United States and the European Union fear the Chinese electric vehicle competition, the founder and CEO of Chinas EV manufacturing giant BYD said on Friday. There are many examples of politicians in other countries who are worried about EVs in China, BYD founder, CEO, and chairman Wang Chuanfu said at an industry event in China, as carried by Bloomberg. The Chinese billionaire said that the idea to slap tariffs on Chinese EVs shows that Chinas electric vehicle industry is strong. If you are not strong enough, they will not be afraid of you, Wang said in a speech at the event. While U.S. and European automakers struggle with weaker demand for electric vehicles, China is churning out a growing number of small and cheap EVs that are taking over the domestic car market and other markets in Asia. The EU launched in October 2023 anti-subsidy investigations into EU imports of EVs from China to determine whether the value chains in China benefit from illegal subsidies. The findings of the investigation will establish whether it is in the EU's interest to impose anti-subsidy duties on EV imports from China, the European Commission said at the time. The EU probe into the Chinese subsidies is set to conclude by November, but the bloc could impose tariffs as early as July. Rumors are circulating that the EU could impose a 20% tariff. China, for its part, has threatened a 25% car tariff on EU and U.S. vehicles with big engines, which will hit higher-end European brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW the most. Sales of China-made electric cars in Europe went up by 23% over the first four months of the year despite efforts by EU authorities to set up barriers for these imports in a bid to protect local manufacturers. Some 119,300 electric cars manufactured in China were registered in Western Europe, including the UK, between January and April this year, the Financial Times reported earlier this week, citing data compiled by Schmidt Automotive Research. Over half of these, or 54%, were vehicles of Western European brands as well as Teslas and Japanese-brand EVs. The rest were Chinese EV brands. By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: EU competition regulators have given an informal approval to a German plan to offer state support to new natural gas-fired power capacity of 10 gigawatts (GW) that would help stabilize the grid as Europes biggest economy is boosting renewables, government and industry sources with knowledge of the talks told Reuters on Friday. Earlier this year, the German government said that it would tender 10 GW of new natural gas-fired capacity from power plants that could be converted to hydrogen in the 2030s, as part of plans to ensure stable electricity supply as wind and solar power generation and installations grow. The Economy Ministry said in February that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Economy Minister Robert Habeck, and Finance Minister Christian Lindner had agreed on a program with which the federal government would fund the new gas plants with money from the Climate and Transition Fund. The German plan has now won informal approval from the EUs competition authorities, with an official approval from the EU under the state aid rules expected to be finalized in the coming weeks, according to Reuters sources. Germany, which last year closed all its remaining nuclear power plants, is now seeking to balance the generation and transmission systems with new gas power plants, which, however, need to be ready to be converted to hydrogen at some point between 2035 and 2040, the economy ministry has said. Germanys energy policy of the past two years has deviated from that of many developed economies. Europes top economy has a goal to be carbon neutral by 2045 and boost the share of renewable energy in its power generation to 80% by 2030, up from around 50% now. While other developed economies even Japan are betting big on nuclear power again to boost zero-emission electricity and reduce reliance on fossil fuel imports, Germany last year closed all its remaining nuclear power plants. By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Natural gas from Norway resumed flowing to Britains Easington terminal early on Friday, following several days of repairs on a pipeline link that had halted supply to the UK terminal and sent European gas prices to a six-month high. Gas flows at the Easington terminal from the Langeled link from Norway were at about 50 million cubic meters (mcm) per day at 10:22 a.m. UK time on Friday, compared to zero on Thursday, data from UKs National Gas transmission network showed. An outage on Sunday halted gas supply from Langeled to the UK, after the Sleipner hub offshore Norway was shut down, which also stopped operation at the Nyhamna onshore processing plant. The Sleipner Riser offshore hub is a connection point for the Langeled pipelines connecting the Nyhamna plant on the west coast of Norway with the Easington terminal in the UK. After news of the outage broke, European natural gas prices surged on Monday to the highest level in six months as supply from Norway crumbled with the unplanned outage. Norway became Europes top gas supplier after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the slump in Russian gas exports to the EU. These unplanned outages highlighted, again, the vulnerability of Europe relying on natural gas imports. The Dutch TTF Natural Gas Futures, the benchmark for Europes gas trading, surged by 13% on Monday, to the highest level since December. The UK benchmark gas prices also soared by 15% early this week as supply from Norway to Britain was crippled. After flows were restored early on Friday, the TTF front-month futures dropped by 1.2% in Amsterdam at 9:25 a.m. local time, to $36.26 (33.285 euros) per megawatt-hour (MWh). In April, portfolio managers boosted their bullish bets on Europes gas prices to the highest level in six months. Money managers have been concerned that unplanned outages in Norway during the summer, higher natural gas demand in Asia, and the end of the current gas transit deal for Russian pipeline gas to flow via Ukraine at the end of 2024 could sap gas supply for Europe and boost prices. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The oil and gas exploration prospects offshore South Korea have great potential and a future discovery is highly prospective, according to the founder of a petroleum exploration firm that advises the Asian countrys government on the drilling potential off its east coast. South Koreas President Yoon Suk Yeol endorsed earlier this week a plan for drilling off the east coast of one of the worlds largest oil and gas importers, to explore what studies say are potentially vast resources of crude oil and natural gas. The area could contain 14 billion barrels of oil and gas, the president told a press conference on Monday. Yoon was citing a study about the resource potential off South Koreas east coast. The study has been reviewed by industry groups and experts, the president said. The prospects identified show great potential ... for hydrocarbon, Vitor Abreu, co-founder and adviser of petroleum exploration firm ACT GEO said at a news conference on Friday, as carried by Reuters. So to summarize ... the basin is highly prospective, said Abreu, whose company has been hired by Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) to review the geo and seismic data of the prospects. The initial survey results have already attracted the attention of important international companies, South Koreas Yonhap agency quoted the executive as saying. South Korea hopes to begin drilling at some point at the end of this year and to find resources by the middle of next year. Commercial production is targeted for 2035 for the exploratory prospects, the larger part of which are estimated to contain natural gas. South Korea imports nearly all the fossil fuels it consumes, so domestic production of oil and gas could go a long way to meet some of the demand. The country is the fourth-largest importer of crude oil and natural gas in the world, KNOC says. South Korea is also the worlds ninth-biggest energy consumer. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Authorities at Europes second largest port, Antwerp, said on Friday they closed a dock for traffic after detecting late on Thursday afternoon an oil spill that had occurred during a bunkering operation. The authorities are using drones to determine the extent of the oil leak and have already begun clean-up operations. A total of 20 ships have been found to have oil on them and they cannot leave the Deurganck Dock until they are cleaned from the oil, the port authorities said. Oil was also detected in the shipping channel of the Deurganck Dock. The authorities have placed a selective ban on shipping to the Deurganck Dock, and vessel traffic is being diverted away from the Kieldrecht Lock and on through the Kallo lock as much as possible. The situation is causing shipping delays, but the terminals remain operational, the authorities said in a statement today. The port of Antwerp authority has deployed several ships for clean-up operations and is monitoring the situation closely, including via drones. We are doing everything we can to make sure the oil stays locally, a spokesperson for the Antwerp port authority told Reuters. The spokesperson could not say how much oil had spilt into the water and could not specify the type of ship from where the oil leaked during the bunkering operation. The Port of Antwerp is Europes second-largest port after Rotterdam and handles a lot of petroleum and petroleum products as it has huge storage facilities and is part of the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) hub. ARA is one of the worlds top oil hubs, due to its physical infrastructure, pricing benchmarks, and massive oil consumption. Antwerp also has a large number of connections via shortsea, inland navigation, road, and rail between the port and the major chemical and petrochemical sites in Europe. In addition, the chemical cluster at Port of Antwerp-Bruges is the largest in Europe and the most versatile in the world. By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is poised to raise at least $11.2 billion from the ongoing secondary offering of shares in Saudi oil giant Aramco, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter. The Saudi government is expected to sell the 1.545 billion shares of Aramco on offer, or about 0.64% of the companys issued shares, at $7.27 (27.25 Saudi riyals) per share, according to Bloombergs sources. Aramco has set a price range of between 26.70 and 29 riyals apiece in the offering. Thursday was the deadline for potential investors to submit bids in the secondary offering. Aramcos stock offering, the biggest such deal globally for three years, is set to generate more than $11 billion in proceeds for the Kingdom, whose Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman looks to transform Saudi Arabia into a modern digital and tourism economy diversified from oil. Currently, the Saudi government owns about 82% of Aramco, while the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has around 16% of the oil giant. Saudi Aramco made its debut on the Saudi Stock Exchange in December 2019 and raised around $30 billion in a share listing which became the worlds largest ever. Since the IPO, the Saudi rulers, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, have said on several occasions there would be more Aramco shale sales in the future. The secondary offering was launched on June 2 and sold out in hours, according to sources who spoke to Bloomberg last weekend. The share sale has drawn strong demand from foreign investors, sources with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg on Thursday. Demand from foreign investors will be carefully gauged by market analysts to see if the Saudi oil giant has managed to draw interest from abroad this time, after the little enthusiastic foreign investors during the IPO in 2019. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: A loss for words. Thats how Douglas County District Court Judge Marlon Polk described what he felt before he sentenced 33-year-old Lorenzo Washington to serve 90 to 95 years in prison. Washingtons second-degree murder sentence stems from his guilty plea in April for the killing and sexual assault of 58-year-old Rita Hash in June 2022. Hashs body was found in her apartment near Maple Street and Maplewood Boulevard on July 3, 2022. Court documents indicated Hash was killed three days before her body was found. Before sentencing, Douglas County Deputy Attorney Dara Delehant said Hashs injuries were consistent with a brutal sexual assault and death by strangulation. DNA evidence from the scene linked Washington to the crime. Prosecutors said that Hashs body was found in her apartment and that her body and neck had bruises on them. The facts of the case are nothing short of horrific, Delehant said. Polk agreed, saying the case facts are as bad as anything he has seen in his 19 years on the bench. That is so far above and beyond the pale that Im at a loss for words, the judge said. Douglas County Assistant Public Defender Leslie Cavanaugh said Washingtons criminal behavior was because of his battle with schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder. Court documents show Washington was previously deemed incompetent to stand trial and was committed to the Lincoln Regional Center in 2023. Cavanaugh said Washingtons mental health played a role in his desire to not go to trial. As more than a half-dozen friends and family members sat in the rows of the courtroom gallery wearing T-shirts honoring Hashs memory, they listened as Hashs sister, Renee Adams, spoke about her world being turned upside down. Adams told the court she has been living in a constant state of fear and has had a heightened sense of PTSD ever since her sisters death. I suffer every day, Adams said. What happened to my sister could happen to anyone, including me. Fourteen kidnap victims at Ajeokun Junction between Otan Ile and Imesi Ile in Obokun Local Government Area of Osun State have been rescued by the police and local vigilante. The Commissioner of Police, Mrs. Abiodun Ige, said all the victims abducted on Sunday evening by gunmen were rescued unhurt. The victims were passengers of a commercial bus travelling from Osogbo to Abuja via Imesi/Otan-Ile road. The victims were allegedly ambushed at Ajeokun Junction between Otan Ile and Imesi Ile before 14 of 18 passengers were whisked into the bush. Poor condition of the road made it difficult for the driver of the bus to escape from the bandits, according to an eye witness account. Osun State Coordinator of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Chief Aladesawe Adedeji, confirmed that the 14 victims had been rescued. He disclosed that the joint team of OPC, vigilante group, the police, the Department of State Security made frantic efforts to rescue the victims unhurt after gun duel with the bandits. However, the police spokesperson in the state, Folasade Odoro, disclosed that some of bandits escaped into the bush with bullet wounds. She said one vigilante sustained a minor injury from the gun battle between the security men and the bandits. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibadan Zonal Office, has arrested three persons for allegedly and serially duping the Ibadan top chief, Oba Lekan Balogun of about N300million. Baloguns younger brother, Kola Balogun, a serving PDP senator representing Oyo South senatorial district exposed the scam in an emotional petition to the EFCC and suggested that his brother may have been hypnotised and charmed by the scammers. This request became necessary because we believe strongly that the victim has been hypnotised. He is not in a position to admit it and his health condition is deteriorating, Kola Balogun said in the petition. The commissions acting Spokesperson, Mr Tony Orilade confirmed the receipt of the petition in a statement on Thursday. The senior Balogun represented Oyo South Senatorial District in the senate between 1999 and 2003 as a member of the Alliance for Democracy (AD). He is the next chief to the Olubadan of Ibadanland in hierarchy as a member of the Aliwo family. Orilade said that the suspects and others now at large, conspired to fleece the revered Ibadan high chief. Orilade said that preliminary investigations into the allegations revealed that the suspects had, for the past four years, consistently collected various sums of money from the victim. The EFCC spokesperson said that findings revealed that the sums were not attached to any particular project and that no receipt was issued to indicate the existence of any genuine transaction between the parties. As at the time of their arrest, the syndicate had received about N300 million through bank transfers from the Ibadan high chief, Orilade said. He said that the commission had designated for possible forfeiture four vehicles and six landed properties traced to their alleged fraudulent activities. According to him, the commission is still on the trail of other suspects, as further investigations are underway. NORMAL After two years in development, an alumnus of Illinois State University is seeking to launch a social networking and dating app for queer women, nonbinary and transgender people. Normals Boyan Golden, founder and CEO of Purr Dating, said hes excited to be closing in on a launch date, which was originally set during Pride Month in June and has since been adjusted to July or August for quality assurance. But the anticipation to launching the app is also nerve-wracking to Golden, who compared the launch to revealing a piece of artwork. Will they like it? Will they hate it? he wondered in a late May interview with The Pantagraph. Golden said the current landscape of dating apps are worth billions of dollars, but they fall short of serving their users. As a consumer of those apps, he asked, Is this the best that we have for a billion-dollar market? I know theres a great need for communicating from A to B, but in a different interface a different way, Golden said. A lot of these apps adopt a swipe-to-match feature, and you close yourself off from communicative opportunities. He described dating apps with swiping, like Tinder, as a very narrow world where you judge someone at face value in milliseconds. Golden said not many people tap into peoples profiles to learn about them beyond their photos. Golden said hes always thought that was very cheap, and so for Purr, he decided to adopt a grid displaying nearest users through geolocation. He said that allows people to see the landscape of their community, where they are in that place, and decide to take the initiative to communicate with, message or approve of someone they choose. Redbird rugby roost Golden said he was born in Bulgaria and moved to West Joliet when he was 5 years old. Before he arrived at ISU in 2019, he was enlisted in the Army and pursed a path in ROTC, then switched lanes to a civilian career path. During his time at ISU, Golden said he was majoring in organizational communication, which was good exposure to being an effective leader and communicator. He said he never imagined creating an app like Purr, until he was introduced to a wonderful group of queer women who played for ISUs womens rugby team. Thats where the learning began, he said. Golden said he was taught about cultures, subcultures and terminology used for and by queer women. I never knew that side of the aisle, he said, adding he was indoctrinated into his own culture as a queer man. While rooming with those rugby players, Golden said he watched a documentary about lesbian bars closing across the United States. He said queer bars have provided a safe space for many generations, and queer mens bars are not seeing that same issue. He said his journey on making Purr started by asking his rugby friends, Why dont you have something inherently your own? Community Pride Golden said its ironic how the failure of current apps and their app markets are the best resources for how to make his app better. The App Store is one of the best ways you can find market research, he said. In the comments sections, Golden said people are calling out glitches, excessive advertisements and soliciting. And as a one of the COVID babies who studied and graduated during the pandemic, Golden said learning how to work remotely and be individually accountable prepared him to work on Purr. His company has six employees right now, and Golden said they wear many hats, but theyre a dedicated team. Hes also working with influencers to make profiles for early versions of the app, and has partnered with The Lesbian Bar Project, a series of films documenting lesbian bars struggling to stay open in the United States and Europe. Golden said theyll promote events and visuals from those bars for free on the app. I knew that I could not do this alone, without the support of queer women and queer women groups, Golden said. He said the app will include a free version and an ad-free premium option, termed Purr Plus, which will include a travel mode in future versions of the app, post launch. Golden said his research has found his apps market could reach 11 million people. He added there are slightly more queer women than queer men in the United States, but theres also a dip in the dating app market for the former group. He said June means the height of excitement and circulation for anything Pride. Golden said he sought a June launch date for his app not necessarily for marketing benefits, but also because of the realities of our community. Our community holds Pride Month the resemblance of Pride, the history of Pride, the activism of Pride that coincides with it, the Pride parades, the fests very dearly, he said. Golden said that also plays into the establishment of safe spaces, and he wants Purr to transcend that idea. He said Purr should be a safe space where you can identify what you want to identify as. He also clarified the app is not meant for queer men. As a queer man who owns an app for queer women, Golden said he put aside his own biases in creating Purr. Even in the queer space, women in general have not had the same voice as queer men, Golden said. He said drag queens are incredibly prominent, but you rarely see drag kings. While queer men are not specifically at fault for the unbalance, Golden said, its a larger, longer issue of just women not given the same opportunity, the same kind of inertia that queer men are given." He added, "Purr was also supposed to be some sort of pendulum coming back, or at least giving the equilibrium, the same platform for both groups. AT A GLANCE WHAT: Purr Dating WHO CAN SIGN UP: Queer women, and non-binary and transgender people ages 18 and above. APP LAUNCH: Expected around July or August 2024 STAY UPDATED: For more information, go to purrdating.com. You can also follow Purr on TikTok and Instagram. Photos: Brunch drag show lifts spirits Sunday in Bloomington A STYLISH SHOW Ms Penny Cost Ms Penny Cost Kaelin Kaelin Kaelin Kaelin Kaelin Vivian Vivian Misty FN EZ FN EZ Sharon ShareALike Sharon ShareALike The Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA) Airways has successfully launched commercial flight operations to Kotoka International Airport (KIA). The maiden flight touched down at approximately 19:39 hours to a water cannon salute by the Rescue and firefighting team of the Ghana Airports Company Limited. In her welcome address, the Managing Director of Ghana Airports Company Limited, Mrs Yvonne Nana Afriyie Opare, congratulated the ITA team on the launch. The start of flight operations on the Rome/Accra/Rome route, according to her, is a strong expression of confidence in Ghana's aviation sector and greatly strengthens efforts to establish Ghana as a preferred aviation centre and a pioneer in airport operations in West Africa. The GACL Managing Director also noted that the introduction of the direct flight route signified a new era of convenience and efficiency for travellers, both for business and leisure purposes, offering passengers more options and seamless connectivity between these two vibrant cities. Mrs Opare spoke about the recent commissioning of Tamale International Airport and Prempeh I International Airport in Kumasi and encouraged interested airlines to explore the opportunities in those markets and tap into all their possibilities. She gave assurance that as the Operator and Manager of all airports in Ghana, Ghana Airports Company Limited is committed to providing unwavering support to ensure ITA Airways consistently achieves high on-time departure and arrival performance. Our expectation is that ITA Airways will go the extra mile to deliver exceptional customer service, ensuring a seamless travel experience for passengers, she said. Mrs Yvonne Opare urged stakeholders to continue to support the GACL as it makes giant strides towards achieving its vision, which aligns with the broader government vision for the aviation industry. Other speakers at the event included the Vice President of Sales, Pierfrancesco Carino, Ghanas Ambassador to Italy, H.E. Merena Botsio Benyah, Ambassador of Italy to Ghana and Togo, H.E. Daniela dOrlandi, and Reverend Stephen Wilfred Arthur, Director of Economic Regulations and Business Development at the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority. ITA Airways will operate four weekly flights on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from Italy to Accra, making it the 24th international airline to operate at Kotoka International Airport. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A Ghanaian businessman was found dead in his hotel room in Seoul on Tuesday while attending an event related to the Korea-Africa Summit, according to South Korean police. The man, identified as a company official in his 50s, was discovered at a hotel in Seoul's Gangnam district on Tuesday morning. According to Korea's Yonhap News Agency, Police officials reported no signs of foul play and suspect that the cause of death could be illness. The deceased had traveled to Seoul for a business counseling event held on the sidelines of the Korea-Africa Summit, which began on Tuesday and includes delegations from 48 African nations, including 25 heads of state. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center (KAIPTC), in collaboration with the German Foreign Ministry, has organized a pivotal one-week course on Electoral Violence and Security (EVS) for 84 personnel from various security services. This initiative aims to tackle electoral violence in West Africa head-on by arming law enforcement agencies with robust prevention, management, and response strategies. During a media interview, Air Commodore David Akrong commended all participants for their dedication to the course and underscored its significance. He highlighted how the EVS curriculum provided a comprehensive understanding of recent instances of electoral violence, the dynamics of election cycles, election security protocols, gender and human rights considerations, clerk assignments, and the principles of community policing. Akrong urged participants to leverage the knowledge gained during this intensive week-long training to ensure peaceful elections. He extended his gratitude to the Inspector General of Police, the Police Service, and the lead facilitator for their instrumental roles in making the course a success. The presence of Deputy German Ambassador Madam Sivine Jasen added further weight to the occasion. Madam Jasen emphasized the critical role of free and fair democratic elections in sustaining democracy. She revealed that the German government not only funded the entire course held at Kofi Annan but also pledged support for subsequent sessions scheduled in Kumasi and Tamale. Madam Jasen underscored the German government's commitment to ensuring unbiased media coverage during elections. Beyond financial support, they organize training programs for journalists to uphold journalistic integrity and impartiality, thereby preventing biased reporting from influencing public discourse. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh has reiterated the need for enhanced cordial relations among Ghanaian ethnic groups. According to Dr. Prempeh, this forms the foundation for progress and development in the country. Dr. Prempeh made these assertions when he called on Ga Mantse, His Royal Majesty King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II at his residence in Accra. He made allusions to the rich tapestry of cultures, traditions and histories that makes up the nation, Ghana. Our strength lies in our unity and our progress is rooted in the cordiality and peaceful coexistence among our diverse ethnic groups, he said. The Minister reminded His Royal Majesty, the extremely affectionate relations that have existed between Asantes and Gas for instance by the archival document of the programme line-up on 25th July, 1946 of a durbar in honour of the then Asantehene, my grandfather, Otumfuo Sir Agyeman Prempeh II at the Old Polo Ground, Accra. Incidentally, the current Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II is also scheduled to visit the Ga Mantse on Sunday, 9th June, 2024 in reciprocation of a similar gesture by the Ga Mantse, he stated. The Manhyia South lawmaker continued; The UP tradition, front runner for the present day New Patriotic Party was not the endeavor of a single ethnic group but a collective effort of Ghanaians from various backgrounds and so we are always reminded of the foundational principles of inclusivity and unity. On his part, Ga Mantse expressed satisfaction seeing the Energy Minister and also recounted the cordial relations that have existed between himself and the Asantehene which pre-dates the two of them to the time of their forebears. I believe that we must guard the peace we have in our country jealously because it is that co-existence that we can have development. I am always inclined to people who are not divisive and so I am happy to see you. He added; On Sunday, I look forward to receiving my brother, Otumfuo and I believe it will be in furtherance of the close bond of affection and the great historical ties. It will be recalled that the Energy Minister had earlier called on the Awoamefia of Anlo land, Togbui Siri and the Omanhene of Sefwi Wiawso, all at ensuring the consolidation of the ties between the political class and traditional authority. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Professor Smart Sarpong, as Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Research at the Kumasi Technical University (KsTU) has stated that the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, when choosing a running mate must choose someone who is charismatic enough to maximize his votes. According to the academician, the flagbearer must consider choosing a running mate from the partys World Bank. There has been a clarion call for the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party to choose his running mate from the Ashanti region, which is the stronghold of the NPP. Professor Sarpong explained that, party members calling on the Vice President to choose a running mate from the Ashanti region are looking at a running mate who has the capacity to mobilise votes for the party come December 7, 2024, when the general election will be held. He said, for the purposes of maximizing votes, among the factors that he has to consider will include the partner that will help him maximize his votes. I am sure for those who call for a running mate from Ashanti are mindful of the fact that it has for a long time been a stronghold of the NPP and perhaps nominating a vice from that region can contribute to whipping up the interest of the voters to come out and vote for the NPP. That will be the main reason. Apart from that anybody who can play that complementary role very well irrespective of which region he comes from provided he can complement the flagbearer and qualifies by age and by other standard definitions can be nominated. The people who are calling for a running mate from Ashanti region are looking at the numbers and who can whip up the voters to come out and vote from the Ashanti. Speaking on TV3s Ghana Tonight, Prof. Smart Sarpong, urged the vice president to consider a running mate who can appeal to the youth, who happen to be the majority of voters, adding that, such a running mate will add complementary votes to the NPPs ticket. If the running mate is an inspirational person, if the running mate has charisma, if he is able to go down there and mobile votes and he appeals to the people most especially the youth, the person can add some good amount of complementary votes to the ticket of the flagbearer." He further added, Apart from him being an Ashanti, he has to pick somebody who is very charismatic, somebody who can appeal to the youth population, somebody who is down to earth. Source: Kobina Darlington/peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video 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: Weights assigned by treated participants to their initial and final gift card choices. Credit: Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07404-1 Companies and digital platforms contribute to financially sustaining misinformation outlets via advertising. Despite attempts to reduce misinformation, ads from well-known firms and organizations continue to appear on misinformation websites, thereby financing such outlets. The supply of falsehoods is expected to rise with artificial intelligence making it easier to create large volumes of misinformation to earn ad revenue. In a new study, researchers examined the reasons behind the spread of online falsehoods. Based on their findings, they suggest interventions to reduce the financing of misinformation. Conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Stanford University, the study is published in Nature. "Online misinformation can have significant consequences, including sowing political discord and exacerbating the climate crisis," notes Ananya Sen, assistant professor of information systems and economics at Carnegie Mellon's Heinz College, who coauthored the study. "Our work is a first step toward understanding how to limit the financing of online misinformation via advertising." In the study, researchers addressed three issues. First, to evaluate the roles of advertising companies and digital ad platforms in monetizing misinformation, they constructed large-scale data sets, combining data on websites that publish misinformation with ad activity per website from 2019 to 2021. Their data set included nearly 5,000 websites (approximately 1,250 of which were misinformation websites) and more than 42,000 unique advertisers, with more than nine million instances of advertising companies appearing on news websites in the three-year period. The study found that advertising on misinformation websites is pervasive for companies across several industries and amplified by digital ad platforms that use algorithms to distribute ads across the web. Misinformation websites are primarily monetized vis advertising revenue, with a substantial proportion of companies across several industries appearing on such websites, and the use of digital ad platforms amplifies the financing of misinformation. Second, to measure consumers' preferences, researchers conducted an experiment with a sample of the U.S. population by randomly varying the pieces of factual information provided to participants, then measured their reactions. The study found that companies advertising on misinformation websites can face substantial backlash from consumers. Consumers switched away from companies whose ads appeared on misinformation outlets, reducing the demand for those firms' products. The switching effect persisted even when consumers were informed about the role played by digital ad platforms in placing companies' ads on misinformation websites and the role played by other advertising companies in financing misinformation. Consumers also voiced concerns about the practice, signing petitions advocating for firms to stop placing ads on misinformation websites. Finally, to examine why misinformation continues to be monetized despite the potential for consumer backlash, researchers surveyed corporate decision makers to gauge what they know about misinformation online. While firm leaders said they believed most companies advertised on misinformation websites, they significantly underestimated their own company's likelihood of doing so, the study found. This suggests that many corporate leaders are ill informed about this possibility, and that firms may therefore be financing misinformation inadvertently, the authors say. Upon learning that their ads appeared on misinformation outlets, corporate leaders wanted to learn more and expressed interest in identifying platform-based solutions to reduce monetizing information. Based on these findings, the authors propose two low-cost, scalable interventions to decrease the financing of misinformation: Improving transparency for advertisers about where their ads appear could reduce advertising on misinformation websites, especially among companies that were unaware of their ads appearing on such outlets. Information-based interventions could also be incorporated into existing legislation to improve transparency. While consumers can currently find out about ad companies financing misinformation through news and social media, platforms could make it easier for consumers to identify which companies advertise on misinformation outlets, for example, through simple information disclosures and comparative company rankings. "Our findings have clear, practical implications," suggests Wajeeha Ahmad, a Ph.D. student in management science and engineering at Stanford University, who led the study. "Given the potential for a substantial decline in consumer demand, ad companies may want to account for consumer preferences in placing their ads across various online outlets and exercise caution when incorporating automation in their business processes via digital ad platforms." Since consumer backlash was particularly strong for women and consumers who leaned left politically, companies targeting these audience may want to exercise greater caution. More information: Wajeeha Ahmad et al, Companies inadvertently fund online misinformation despite consumer backlash, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07404-1 Journal information: Nature This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A schematic cross section of the Cascadia Subduction Zone shows the ocean floor plate (light gray) moving under the North American continental plate, along with other features. Credit: U.S. Geological Survey Off the coasts of southern British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and northern California lies a 600 mile-long strip where the Pacific Ocean floor is slowly diving eastward under North America. This area, called the Cascadia Subduction Zone, hosts a megathrust fault, a place where tectonic plates move against each other in a highly dangerous way. The plates can periodically lock up and build stress over wide areaseventually to be released when they finally lurch against each other. The result: the world's greatest earthquakes, shaking both seabed and land, and generating tsunamis 100 feet high or more. Such a fault off Japan caused the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Similar zones exist off Alaska, Chile and New Zealand, among other places. At Cascadia, big quakes are believed to come roughly every 500 years, give or take a couple hundred. The last occurred in 1700. Scientists have long been working to understand the Cascadia Subduction Zone's subterranean structures and mechanics, in order to delineate places most susceptible to quakes, how big they might be and what warning signs they might produce. There is no such thing as predicting an earthquake; rather, scientists try to forecast probabilities of multiple scenarios, hoping to help authorities design building codes and warning systems to minimize the damage when something happens. A new study promises to greatly advance this effort. A research vessel towing an array of the latest geophysical instruments along almost the entire zone has produced the first comprehensive survey of the many complex structures beneath the seafloor. These include the geometry of the down-going ocean plate and overlying sediments, and the makeup of the overriding North American plate. The study was published in the journal Science Advances. "The models currently in use by public agencies were based on a limited set of old, low-quality 1980s-era data," said Suzanne Carbotte, a marine geophysicist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, who led the research. "The megathrust has a much more complex geometry than previously assumed. The study provides a new framework for earthquake and tsunami hazard assessment." Sub-seafloor map of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, showing depth of the fault between the eastward-moving Juan de Fuca place and the North American plate. Yellow/orange indicates shallow depths; green, deeper; blues/purples deepest. Diagonal black lines approximate divisions between different segments of the zone. Wavy red line to right indicates the seaward edge of rigid continental rocks that apparently cause the zone to break into these segments. Credit: Modified from Carbotte et al., Science Advances, 2024 The data was gathered during a 41-day cruise in 2021 by Lamont's research vessel, the Marcus G. Langseth. Researchers aboard the ship penetrated the seafloor with powerful sound pulses and read the echoes, which were then converted into images, somewhat similar to how physicians create interior scans of the human body. One key finding: the megathrust fault zone is not just one continuous structure, but is divided into at least four segments, each potentially somewhat insulated against movements of the others. Scientists have long debated whether past events, including the 1700 quake, ruptured the entire zone or just part of ita key question, because the longer the rupture, the bigger the quake. The data show that the segments are divided by buried features including big faults, where opposing sides slide against each other perpendicular to the shore. This might help buffer against movement on one segment translating to the next. "We can't say that this definitely means only single segments will rupture, or that definitely the whole thing will go at once," said Harold Tobin, a geophysicist at the University of Washington and co-author of the study. "But this does upgrade evidence that there are segmented ruptures." The imagery also suggests the causes of the segmentation: the rigid edge of the overriding North American continental plate is composed of many different kinds of rocks, formed at different times over many tens of millions of years, with some being denser than others. This variety in the continental rocks causes the incoming, more pliable oceanic plate to bend and twist to accommodate differences in overlying pressure. In some places, segments go down at relatively steep angles, in others at shallow ones. The researchers zeroed in on one segment in particular, which runs from southern Vancouver Island alongside Washington state, more or less ending at the Oregon border. The subterranean topography of other segments is relatively rough, with oceanic features like faults and subducted seamounts rubbing up against the upper platefeatures that might erode the upper plate and limit how far any quake may propagate within the segment, thus limiting the quake's size. In contrast, the Vancouver-Washington segment is quite smooth. This means that it may be more likely to rupture along its entire length at once, making it potentially the most dangerous section. Also in this segment, the seafloor is subducting under the continental crust at a shallow angle relative to the other segments. In the other segments, most of the earthquake-prone interface between the plates lies offshore, but here the study found the shallow subduction angle means it probably extends directly under Washington's Olympic Peninsula. This might magnify any shaking on land. "It requires a lot more study, but for places like Tacoma and Seattle, it could mean the difference between alarming and catastrophic," said Tobin. A consortium of state and federal agencies and academic institutions has already been poring over the data since it became available to sort through the implications. As for tsunami hazard, that is "still a work in progress," said Kelin Wang, a research scientist at the Geological Survey of Canada who was not involved in the study. Wang's group is using the data to model features of the seafloor off Vancouver Island that might generate tsunamis. (In general, a tsunami occurs when the deep seafloor moves up or down during a quake, sending a wave to the surface that concentrates its energy and gathers height as it reaches shallower coastal waters.) Wang said his results will go to another group that models tsunamis themselves, and after that to another group that analyzes the hazards on land. Practical assessments that could affect building codes or other aspects of preparedness may be published as early as next year, say the researchers. "There's a whole lot more complexity here than was previously inferred," said Carbotte. More information: Suzanne Carbotte, Subducting plate structure and megathrust morphology from deep seismic imaging linked to earthquake rupture segmentation at Cascadia, Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adl3198. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adl3198 Journal information: Science Advances This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Bird flu has infected a Benton County dairy herd, marking the first confirmed detection of the virus in cows in Minnesota. But per State Veterinarian Dr. Brian Hoefs, "it was only a matter of time." "It's important for dairy farmers to follow the example of this herd and test sick cows," Hoefs said in a statement on June 6. "The more the animal health community can learn about this virus today through testing and research, the better we can equip ourselves to prevent infections tomorrow." Several dozen cows are sick. Farmers will destroy milk from the animals, and the cows will quarantine for 30 days, according to the Minnesota Board of Animal Health. The board said public risk from avian influenza is currently low, though "people who work with or have direct contact with infected animals could be at risk of getting sick." A dairy worker in Texas contracted bird flu this past March and recovered. Only one other person in the U.S., a poultry worker in Colorado, is known to have caught the virus during the current outbreak that began two years ago. "Symptoms of avian influenza in people may include cough, sore throat, fever, red/watery eyes or discharge from the eyes," according to the board. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said this spring it found inactive traces of the virus in the milk supply, but health officials said pasteurized dairy remains safe. "There continues to be no concern that this circumstance poses a risk to consumer health, or that it affects the safety of the interstate commercial milk supply because products are pasteurized before entering the market," the FDA said. The cow cases come amid a resurgence in bird flu infections at Minnesota poultry operations, including the euthanizing of tens of thousands of turkeys and more than 1.3 million egg-laying hens last month. That pushed the state's virus-related poultry losses to nearly 8 million since 2022. The virus' movement to cattle and other mammals has occurred in several states. Cows are able to survive the infection, unlike chickens and turkeys. State officials are urging dairy farmers to contact their veterinarian if cows appear sick. Symptoms include fever, lower milk production, loss of appetite and changes in manure consistency, the board said. 2024 StarTribune. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. 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: Binding of SmMYBs to MeJA biosynthesis-related genes. Credit: Horticulture Research (2024). DOI: 10.1093/hr/uhae047 A study, published in Horticulture Research explores the role of the Smi-miR858a-SmMYB module in regulating the biosynthesis of tanshinones and phenolic acids. Researchers from the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development and Chengdu Medical College contributed to the research. The researchers discovered that overexpression of Smi-miR858a in Salvia miltiorrhiza leads to significant reductions in tanshinone and phenolic acid levels. This miRNA targets and cleaves the transcripts of multiple MYB transcription factors, including SmMYB6, SmMYB97, SmMYB111, and SmMYB112. These MYBs are known to activate genes involved in the biosynthesis pathways of these bioactive compounds. Additionally, Smi-miR858a affects the biosynthesis of methyl jasmonate, an important elicitor of secondary metabolism in plants. The study used computational predictions, degradome analysis, RNA-seq, yeast one-hybrid assays, and transient transcriptional activity assays to validate these findings. The dual regulatory pathways revealed by this research offer promising strategies for enhancing the production of medicinal compounds in Danshen through genetic manipulation. Dr. Shanfa Lu, the corresponding author of the study, commented, "Our findings elucidate a novel function of miR858 in regulating the biosynthesis of crucial bioactive compounds in Salvia miltiorrhiza. Understanding these regulatory mechanisms opens up new possibilities for improving the quality of Danshen through targeted genetic interventions, which could significantly benefit traditional medicine and modern pharmaceuticals." The study's findings could transform medicinal plant breeding, enabling targeted enhancement of bioactive compounds in Salvia miltiorrhiza. This advancement may not only augment the plant's therapeutic potency but also inform strategies for improving other medicinal crops. The potential for optimizing plant-based treatments is a significant step forward in the quest for more effective and sustainable pharmaceuticals. More information: Butuo Zhu et al, The Smi-miR858a-SmMYB module regulates tanshinone and phenolic acid biosynthesis in Salvia miltiorrhiza, Horticulture Research (2024). DOI: 10.1093/hr/uhae047 Journal information: Horticulture Research 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: Matt Twombly The largest river restoration project in U.S. history is underway along the Klamath River. One aging hydroelectric dam along the river's Lower Basin was decommissioned last fall, and three more are being removed this year. The $500 million Klamath Project marks a significant reversal in U.S. water management history, restoring the river to its natural flow and unlocking over 400 miles of essential spawning habitats for local wildlife and fish, including several species of endangered salmon. The river's renaissance follows decades of litigation involving an array of stakeholders: local tribes, communities, farmers, government agencies and energy companiesall of whom depend on the river and its resources. Experts say that years of climate-induced drought have magnified tensions over water scarcity in the Klamath Basin. That means less water available for everyoneincluding fish and wildlife. "In dry years, there hasn't been enough water for everything: the salmon, the tribes, the ranchers and the farmers," says water law expert Robin Craig, Robert C. Packard Trustee Chair in Law at the USC Gould School of Law. Craig researched climate resilience in the Klamath River as part of a National Science Foundation funded group studying adaptive governance of U.S. water systems. "You can't have agriculture and ranching without a reliable water supply because it's too dry," she adds. "But you also can't have the fish with the dams that help make the water supply reliable. There's tension there that is hard to escape." A double threat The Klamath spans 263 miles and ranks among the largest watersheds in the American West. Nicknamed the "upside-down river" for its unusual origin in arid lands, the Klamath begins in Eastern Oregon, where it pools into large lakes, then flows slowly over flat terrain, winding into Northern California. From there, the river grows wilder, traversing through rugged mountains and dense temperate forests before spilling into the Pacific Ocean. This peculiar geography has rendered this region particularly vulnerable to a multitude of challenges now amplified by climate change. "For a long time, we've tried to control rivers to alleviate flooding, ensure access to water supply, and in the case of the Klamath dams, to provide electricity," says Mitul Luhar, the Henry Salvatori Early Career Chair and associate professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering and civil and environmental engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. "When we dam up rivers, we substantially alter natural processes, both in terms of the flow of water and the flow of sediment which help maintain the landscape and have significant impacts on water quality." A battle over water rights For more than 100 years, competing interests have been as sharply divided as the canyon walls split by the wild Klamath. Conservationists and tribes, businesses and farmers were often at odds amid a convoluted patchwork of water rights, court decisions and federal wildlife protection. In 1905, with the enthusiastic support of then-President Theodore Roosevelt, the U.S. government authorized construction of the Klamath Project to bring irrigation water, hydroelectric dams and storage reservoirs to the Upper Basin to support white settlers. Wetlands that had been home to millions of fish and migratory waterbirds over the centuries were drained and disrupted as the government launched into nearly 50 years of construction. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation continues to manage the Klamath Project and its extensive canals that service approximately 240,000 acres of land for crops such as potatoes, primarily in south-central Oregon. Since the early 1990s, federal mandates to revive fish populations protected by the Endangered Species Act have forced water allocation cuts, sparking major legal battles over water rights. Extreme drought in 2001 prompted the Bureau of Reclamation to cut water allocations for Klamath Project irrigators and conserve Upper Klamath Lake to protect habitats of endangered suckerfish. Farmers and ranchers united in protest. The next year, they were granted greater water allotments. The consequences were astounding. The water reallocation to farms and ranches in 2002 coincided with a toxic combination of warm temperatures, low flows and fish bottlenecking that gave rise to a bacterial outbreak. More than 34,000 salmon died, according to the California State Water Resources Control Board, though by some counts the toll may have exceeded 70,000. The massive die-offamong the worst recorded in the American Westspurred local tribes to advocate for the removal of the dams. Who owns the Klamath? The tribes' lives have been intertwined with the river for generations dating back at least 7,000 years by some estimates. Once the third-largest salmon run on the West Coast before it was dammed, the Klamath River, its fish and wildlife have long been integral to the cultural and spiritual identity of Native American tribes in the region. Tribes such as the Yurok, Karuk, Hoopa, Shasta and Klamath nurtured the surrounding land and river, relying on it for sustenance. The river is so sacred to the Yurok that it is like kin. Under their tribal laws, it has the same legal rights as humans, Craig says. Senior water rights should have been assured for the tribes, due to their long-standing presence in the Klamath River Basin and the Winters Doctrine, a legal principle established by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1908 case of Winters v. United States. For years though, U.S. courts awarded seniority to white farmers and ranchers, Craig says. Seventy-five years later, in 1983, the courts finally ruled in the tribes' favor, granting them authority over the waterway "at least in Oregon," Craig says. "Their water rights were determined to be extensive, dating back to time immemorial." Senior water rights were among the factors that led to the 2016 agreement to remove four of the damsJ.C. Boyle, Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2 and Iron Gatefrom the Lower Klamath River. Another factor was timing. The company that owned and operated them, PacifiCorp, was facing the expiration of a 50-year Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license and the prospect of a rigorous environmental review. So, PacifiCorp made a cost-effective decision to surrender the license and decommission the aging dams, which experts said had always been marginally profitable and generated minimal hydroelectric power. Conservationists hope the dams' removal will rebirth the river, restoring its health and abundance. Experts note, though, that the effects of climate change, such as persistent drought, raise new challenges for the river's management and the lives it supports. Even so, Craig says the removal of the dams is a major victory for the tribes and conservationists who fought for the river's release. "If you think about it," Craig says, "this will be the first time in over a century that salmon will be able to make it up to the Upper Klamath River. And that will be a wonderful sight to see." This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Federal environmental regulators said they expect to decide this year on a controversial proposal that would allow Tampa-based Fortune 500 mining company Mosaic to test its phosphate waste as an ingredient in road construction. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency informed Mosaic in a May 20 letter that the agency is reviewing the company's proposal to blend 1,200 tons of its mildly radioactive waste byproduct, called phosphogypsum, into a test roadway at the company's New Wales plant in Mulberry. An agency spokesperson told the Tampa Bay Times they expect a decision by the end of the year. Phosphogypsum is the material left behind when Mosaic mines phosphate ore across Central Florida's Bone Valley and turns it into an ingredient for fertilizer. The byproduct contains radium-226, which emits radiation during its decay to form radon, a potentially cancer-causing, radioactive gas, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Right now, Mosaic stores its phosphogypsum in several "gypstacks" across Florida. Mosaic in 2022 asked the feds for the test road on the company's property to be 1,200 feet long with up to 500 tons of phosphogypsum, but last year expanded its proposal to make it 3,200 feet with up to 1,200 tons under the advice of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' state transportation agency. DeSantis last year signed a controversial bill that allowed the Florida Department of Transportation to study using phosphogypsum in roadways and release a report by April. The measure, dubbed the "radioactive roads" bill by critics, was lobbied by Mosaic. The company also hosted and paid nearly $25,000 for a fundraising event for the state lawmaker who sponsored the bill, Rep. Lawrence McClure, R-Plant City. This April, the transportation department released its long-anticipated review of the existing science on whether it's possible to use phosphogypsum in Florida roads. The report, obtained by the Tampa Bay Times through a public records request, said past studies showed the waste product could "meet FDOT standards," but using it does face challenges. The report also concludes not much test data exists for phosphogypsum compared to other materials used in construction. "Further study through laboratory tests and full-scale field tests should address the gaps," the department wrote in its 178-page report. A spokesperson for the department on Wednesday reiterated to the Tampa Bay Times that more research is needed. Xianming Shi, a professor and chairperson of Washington State University's civil and environmental engineering department, said there are both benefits and risks when companies like Mosaic attempt to reuse their byproducts. Shi reviewed a copy of the state's report, which the Times provided. In this case, benefits of using phosphogypsum include reducing the environmental impacts of traditional road ingredients, like lime and cement, and it could cut back on the amount of material ending up in a landfill, Shi said. As for the risks? "There are quite a few," Shi said. For one: If it isn't treated, gypsum is sensitive to moisture. "When you have a road base in Florida with heavy rain, there may be some significant risk if this moisture sensitivity is not mitigated," Shi said in an interview. The phosphogypsum could leach heavy metals out of roads over time, which could seep into soil and groundwater. The studies reviewed by the Florida Department of Transportation had little mention of the long-term ecological consequences or how to manage leaching risks, Shi noted. If the feds approved a pilot project, there would need to be protocols in place to ensure the quality of phosphogypsum and protect environmental and human health, Shi said. "Just because they're reusing waste doesn't make that project all of a sudden a 'green' project," Shi said. "You have to look at the life cycle and whether this project is truly 'green.'" While the waste may be a "misplaced resource," the benefits of using it, if not properly managed, could have unintended consequences, Shi said. Once the Environmental Protection Agency's review is done, the agency will either approve or deny the proposal and open a public comment period about the decision, officials noted in their recent letter to Mosaic. Critics of the proposal, including the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, worry about the radiological risks to road construction workers and potential environmental harm. In September, at least 30 lawmakers urged federal environmental regulators to deny Mosaic's request because of the potential human and environmental health issues. "Alternative uses of phosphogypsum must be at least as protective of public health as placement in gypstack systems, and to date, no applications have met this standard," Ragan Whitlock, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, wrote in a statement to the Times. "The phosphate industry's desire to make money off its toxic, radioactive waste changes nothing," he said. In a statement, Mosaic spokesperson Jackie Barron reiterated that reusing phosphogypsum is not a money-making endeavor for the company. "For those who claim otherwise, it's just low-hanging fruit as they try to stir fear and raise funds for themselves in the process," Barron wrote in an email. The focus of the project is to catch up with other countries around the world that are reusing the phosphate byproduct, Barron said. Whitlock and his nonprofit claim that it's misleading when the phosphate industry points to other countries reusing phosphogypsum. "Another nation's willingness to expose its citizens to corporate pollution is not a justification for the United States to disregard the well-known health and environmental consequences," Whitlock said. 2024 Tampa Bay Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. 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: Analysis of the potential biological role of LaMYC7 for P. syringae. A, P. syringae infection of WT, 2300, and LaMYC7-overexpressing transgenic lines for 5 d for phenotype analysis. B, C, Bacterial population at 5 d in WT, 2300 and LaMYC7-overexpressing transgenic lines (#2, #9). D, E, Antibacterial activity of linalool and caryophyllene against Pst DC3000. LB, Empty lysogeny broth; Pst DC3000, 150 l Pst DC3000 were dissolved in lysogeny broth medium; Lin + Pst DC3000, 150 l Pst DC3000 were dissolved in lysogeny broth medium containing 18 lml1 linalool. Car + Pst DC3000, 150 l Pst DC3000 were dissolved in lysogeny broth medium containing 18 lml1 caryophyllene. The numbers displayed are the average of at least three replicates (mean SD). Following an ANOVA, Fishers LSD test revealed that bars labeled with various letters were substantially different (P < 0.05), as seen by the vertical lines at the top of each bar indicating standard errors. Credit: Horticulture Research (2024). DOI: 10.1093/hr/uhae044 Plants face various environmental pressures, including biotic stressors like pathogens and abiotic stressors such as extreme temperatures. Among biotic stressors, Pseudomonas syringae significantly threatens plant health worldwide. Terpenoids, including linalool and caryophyllene, play crucial roles in plant defense mechanisms against such stressors. However, the transcriptional regulation of these compounds remains less understood. Due to these challenges, there is a need to conduct in-depth research on the regulatory mechanisms underlying terpenoid biosynthesis. Researchers from the State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have published a study in Horticulture Research. The study reveals that the LaMYC7 transcription factor in lavender significantly enhances the biosynthesis of linalool and caryophyllene, which boosts the plant's resistance to Pseudomonas syringae. This discovery not only sheds light on the transcriptional regulation of terpenoid biosynthesis but also suggests potential applications in developing disease-resistant lavender varieties. The study used RNA-sequencing, transgenic technology, and enzyme assays to investigate LaMYC7's role in lavender. They found that LaMYC7 is highly expressed in glandular trichomes and responds to stresses like UV light, low temperatures, salt, drought, methyl jasmonate, and Pseudomonas syringae infection. Overexpressing LaMYC7 in Nicotiana increased linalool and caryophyllene content, enhancing terpenoid biosynthesis. LaMYC7 directly binds to the LaTPS76 promoter, boosting caryophyllene production. Additionally, linalool showed strong antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas syringae. These findings suggest that LaMYC7 is crucial for plant defense, regulating terpenoid biosynthesis and enhancing pathogen resistance. Dr. Lei Shi, the corresponding author of the study, stated, "Our findings provide valuable insights into the transcriptional regulation of terpenoid biosynthesis in lavender. "The identification of LaMYC7 as a key regulator opens new possibilities for breeding lavender varieties with enhanced disease resistance and higher essential oil yields. This research underscores the importance of understanding plant defense mechanisms at the molecular level to develop sustainable agricultural practices." The implications of this research are vast, offering potential applications in agriculture and the fragrance industry. By manipulating the LaMYC7 gene, breeders can develop lavender varieties with increased yields of valuable essential oils and improved resistance to diseases, contributing to sustainable crop production and opening new avenues for the utilization of lavender in various commercial products. More information: Yanmei Dong et al, LaMYC7, a positive regulator of linalool and caryophyllene biosynthesis, confers plant resistance to Pseudomonas syringae, Horticulture Research (2024). DOI: 10.1093/hr/uhae044 Journal information: Horticulture Research Provided by TranSpread 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: Proposed Uranus orbiter mission. Credit: NASA Decadal Survey Despite being extraordinarily difficult to detect for the first time, gravitational waves can be found using plenty of different techniques. The now-famous first detection at LIGO in 2015 was just one of the various ways scientists had been looking. A new paper , appearing on the preprint server arXiv, from researchers from Europe and the US proposes how scientists might be able to detect some more by tracking the exact position of the upcoming Uranus Orbiter and Probe (UOP). Initially suggested by NASA's Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey, UOP will be the first mission to Uranus since Voyager visited the system in 1986. When it finally arrives in 2044, after a 2031 launch date, it will be almost 60 years since humanity last had an up-close look at the Uranian system. But 13 years in transit sure is a long time. Part of that time will be spent getting a gravitational boost from Jupiter, but most will be spent coasting between planetary bodies. And that much time spent in between planets is what the paper's authors want to utilize to do non-Uranian science. Gravitational waves can disrupt the fabric of space-time, causing discernible distortions, especially over long distances. If the instruments in question are sensitive enough, the massive distance between UOP and the Earth would be a viable way to detect them. This isn't the first time using the distance between a spacecraft and Earth has been considered for detecting gravitational waves. Pioneer 11, Cassini, and a triangulation of Galileo, Ulysses, and Mars Orbiter all had entertained suggestions of being utilized for gravitational wave detection while on their journey to their final destinations. However, the equipment they were designed with was not sensitive enough to pick up the minute fluctuations required for an actual detection. UOP will have the added advantages of decades of improved equipment, especially communications and timing electronics, which are critical to any gravitational wave detection. It also benefits that we've already officially detected a gravitational wave, so we know at least what to look for. The underlying mechanism is simple enoughconsistently track the exact established position of UOP during its 13-year cruise to Uranus and cross-reference any anomalies in its position against what could be expected from known causes. These include the gravitational pull of some of the planets, or even asteroids, and solar radiation pressure on the spacecraft itself. As the authors note, some or even all of these could impact the spacecraft's exact position; for the calculations to work effectively to find gravitational waves, better accounting for what, if any, impact they have must be completed. But there is another potentially scientifically interesting cause of slight positional drift for the UOP: ultra-light dark matter. In theory, UOP could be used to test or even directly detect a form of dark matter known as ultra-light dark matter if it happens to exist in the solar system. Theorists have numerous models showing how it would work if it did exist. UOP could also use the same sort of exact positional calculation to contribute to that scientific research. Best of all, UOP can do all this with literally no change to its primary functional missionexploring the Uranian system. All that would have to be changed about the mission would be to update Earth with consistent positional data about once every 10 seconds for the duration of the 13-year trip to UOP's final destination. Suppose there's a chance that those more frequent check-ins with home could help detect gravitational waves or potentially dark matter. In that case, it seems well worth the consideration of the UOP mission plannersbut it remains to be seen whether it will be included or not. The paper's authors have made a persuasive argument about why it should be. More information: Lorenz Zwick et al, Bridging the micro-Hz gravitational wave gap via Doppler tracking with the Uranus Orbiter and Probe Mission: Massive black hole binaries, early universe signals and ultra-light dark matter, arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2406.02306 Journal information: arXiv This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: The phage Ilzat is a siphovirus that infects Microbacterium foliorum. The phage was named after the scientist who isolated it, University of Maryland, Baltimore County undergraduate researcher Ilzat Ali. Credit: Tagide deCarvalho / University of Maryland, Baltimore County HHMI's Science Education Alliance is transforming the undergraduate introductory science experience at more than 150 two- and four-year institutions across the US. These same students are making discoveries that could change how scientists tackle bacterial infections and antibiotic resistance. First impressions are difficult to shake. That's why the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science Education Alliance (SEA) is changing the introductory science experience for thousands of undergraduate students and their faculty while transforming students into researchers early in their academic journey. In the Annual Review of Virology HHMI shared a summary of findings about the SEA Program and the impact of course-based research experiences on student persistence in science. Established in 2008, HHMI's SEA supports a community of faculty from more than 150 two- and four-year undergraduate institutions, including community colleges, tribal colleges, liberal arts colleges, and research universities. The SEA provides faculty at participating institutions with a uniquely designed research curriculum, training, and year-round scientific support, enabling SEA faculty to mentor their students to work on high-impact research projects early in their academic tenure. SEA students and their faculty pivot away from the typical 100-level science course structure, which all too often centers on lectures and planned lab exercises. Instead, SEA studentstypically, first- or second-year undergraduatesventure beyond the classroom to, quite literally, dig into discovery science. At the heart of the SEA Program is Phage Hunters Advancing Genomic and Evolutionary Science (SEA-PHAGES). SEA-PHAGES is a two-semester, course-based research project aimed at undergraduate students who are new to college-level science and who have little to no research experience. During their first SEA-PHAGES term, students collect local soil samples to isolate bacteriophagesviruses that infect and kill bacteria. The students then apply a variety of microbiology techniques to purify and characterize their bacteriophages, or "phages" as they are commonly called. In their second SEA-PHAGES term, students interpret the arrangement and function of the phage's genes through a process known as genome annotation using bioinformatics software. Because phages are remarkably diverse and abundantthere are roughly 1031 phages on Earthstudents are all but guaranteed to find a virus or annotate a gene that has never been seen before. Many SEA students celebrate their first scientific discovery, naming their newly discovered phage before they even choose their undergraduate major. Just like other HHMI scientists, SEA students and instructors meet to present and discuss their research findings at local science meetings. Several thousand researchers attend the annual SEA Symposium each year, making it HHMI's largest science meeting. To take their findings a step further, students submit their annotated phage genomes to GenBank, the National Institutes of Health genetic sequence database for all publicly available DNA sequences. Many SEA students also work with their faculty and peers to publish their findings as co-authors of scientific papers. "One of the biggest successes of our SEA-PHAGES Program is the fact that our students are in a much stronger position to compete for opportunities," said Marie Fogarty, a biology faculty member who oversees the SEA-PHAGES Program at Durham Technical Community College in North Carolina. Fogarty noted that Durham Tech SEA-PHAGES students have secured coveted spots in National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates summer programs and other programs or paid internship opportunities at Duke University, North Carolina State University, and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC), as well as at institutions as far as Montana State University. Many students have graduated from Durham Tech and continued in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, or medicine (STEMM) at NC State or UNC. One of Fogarty's recent graduates turned down a full ride at a nearby institution to continue her studies at Duke University. "All of a sudden, the community college is not a 'less than,' it is an 'equal to' experience," added Catherine Ward, Durham Tech's chair of biological sciences. What is a phage? A bacteriophage, commonly referred to as a "phage," is a virus that infects and kills bacteria. There are roughly 1031 phages on Earth, accounting for about 1023 infections of bacteria per second. Virologists have found a tremendous diversity of phages in every ecosystem, from the bottom of the ocean floor to the human gut. SEA-PHAGES was first established as an expansion of HHMI Professor Graham Hatfull's Phage Hunters Integrating Research and Education (PHIRE) program at the University of Pittsburgh. Working with the Pittsburgh team, Tuajuanda Jordan, now president of St. Mary's College of Maryland, helped to launch SEA-PHAGES with an initial cohort of just a dozen schools. To date, more than 50,000 students have participated in the program, which supports more than 5,500 undergraduates annually. Each year, the SEA welcomes about a dozen new institutions to the program. Faculty who are interested in launching a SEA program at their institution the following academic year must apply by October 31. SEA Program Officer Pushpa Ramakrishna and Senior Program Assistant Billy Biederman, who lead the SEA's recruitment efforts, emphasize that this is not a typical competitive application process. "Since the SEA has the potential to revolutionize undergraduate science education, all institutions of higher education are encouraged to apply," Ramakrishna said. "Although certain elements need to be in place at an institution to enable students to successfully engage in SEA research, we collaborate closely with all interested faculty to make it feasible for them to implement SEA research successfully at their institutions." Biederman added, "We encourage any faculty that want to do course-based research with their students, even if you've never worked with viruses before, to reach out to us and have a conversation." Of the SEA-PHAGES institutions, 35 have also established a SEA-GENES program since its launch in 2019. Short for "Gene-function Exploration by a Network of Emerging Scientists," SEA-GENES extends the SEA-PHAGES Program with an additional year of course-based research for mid-level undergraduates, through which students work on building phage gene libraries and screening phages for gene functions. As with SEA-PHAGES, SEA-GENES allows student scientists to contribute useful resources and experimental observations to the broader scientific community. Most recently, in May 2024, Richard Pollenz, director of the SEA-PHAGES and SEA-GENES Programs at the University of South Florida (USF), teamed up with 27 USF SEA-GENES students to publish their findings on a bacteriophage named Girr that infects the bacterium Mycobacterium smegmatis, a close relative of human pathogens such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The group's paper represented two years of work spanning two SEA-GENES cohorts. "I am incredibly proud of our recent SEA-GENES publication," Pollenz said, noting that the group's earlier preprint led to queries from eight different scientific journals. "This speaks to the quality and impact of the research. It was amazing how excited the students were to see the final product and appreciate what they had contributed." Central to the SEA's overall success is a mission to dismantle barriers to scientific research and discovery. The SEA is designed as an inclusive Research-Education Community (iREC), where centralized research support enables faculty from a diversity of colleges and universities to provide their undergraduates with research experience regardless of their institutional research capacities. While some students who enroll in SEA-PHAGES have an interest in science, others find that the experience opens their eyes to a world they had never considered. "There's data that show that students' introductory science experiences, whether they are in biology or chemistry, can serve as gatekeepers or weed-out spaces," said Danielle Heller, HHMI's SEA Program Officer and SEA-GENES lead scientist. "Typically, the way that science is taught in most places is not the way that science is actually done. And so, by incorporating real, authentic research into courses, you're not only giving students a better experience that's more aligned with the reality of doing science and being a scientist, but you're also immediately integrating them into the ecosystem in a way that has important scientific impacts." For more than 15 years, the SEA Program has shown that engaging undergraduates in discovery science can keep more students in STEMM. According to a 2017 report from the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, students who participate in undergraduate research experiences are more likely to earn a STEMM degree than their peers. Even more, graduates of SEA programs often share how their experiences influenced their decision to stay in the field. Heller fondly recalls how, a few years ago, she and SEA Senior Program Lead Vic Sivanathan gave a presentation at a large Massachusetts-based biotech company. During the talk, a woman in the audience stood up and declared, "I was a SEA-PHAGES student and that is the reason I'm in this room today." Across the US, countless students attend institutionssuch as community collegesthat may lack the resources needed to support hands-on research experiences. According to the Community College Research Center housed at Columbia University, community colleges enroll approximately 40% of all undergraduate students in the US and serve disproportionately high numbers of women, Black, Indigenous, and Latine students, as well as low-income students, first-generation college students, and students with disabilities. "It's pretty amazing that our [SEA] students have the opportunity to do the kind of research we're doing at our tiny rural community college," said Matthew Fisher, a biology professor and head of the SEA program at Oregon Coast Community College. In a typical introductory biology course, students learn some of the fundamentals mostly by reading from a textbook and completing basic lab assignments, but Fisher said he wanted more for his students. "The reason why I applied to the SEA-PHAGES Program is because I wanted students to immerse themselves in the scientific process. I didn't want to just perpetuate this notion that when you take a science class it's just about memorizing facts." Since 2008, SEA undergraduate researchers have isolated more than 23,000 phages, of which more than 4,500 are fully sequenced and annotated. Further, SEA students have functionally characterized hundreds of genes, thereby shedding new light on how phages could be used as therapeutics to treat bacterial infections, including those resistant to antibiotics. Why phages? All told, phages carry out roughly 1023 infections of bacteria per second. Virologists have found phages in every ecosystem ranging from the ocean floor to the human gut, and the morphologies and genomic content of phages can vary wildly. "Part of the outcome of the SEA-PHAGES Program has been large numbers of completely sequenced phage genomes spanning this great diversity," Hatfull said. "Each of those phages has an average of 100 genes or so, and we don't know what most of them do. The question of 'What do these genes do?' is relevant to virtually everything. It's a fundamental, compelling mystery in science, and it represents a critically important question for understanding how phages could be used therapeutically." Although countless phage genes remain a mystery, advances in protein structure prediction programslike AI-powered AlphaFoldenable SEA faculty and students to "make sense" of phage genome data, Hatfull said. "Advances in computational programs enable scientists to make predictions of how proteins may interact, and that will lead to hypotheses that can be tested experimentally to allow us to see what various phage genes are doing. I see it as a game-changer." On the education front, phages offer a beautiful entry point for discovery science. Students and faculty collaborate to identify new phages, and at times they may need to work together to overcome roadblocks. Many SEA faculty enter the program having no prior experience with phages or even virology. The SEA provides hands-on training, course materials, bioinformatics software, and a support community to help faculty excel. Hatfull points out that the wider scientific community has a lot to learn about phages, and student-driven discoveries are making an impact. In 2019, a team of scientists showed that an experimental, personalized treatment using genetically engineering bacteriophages combatted a Mycobacterium infection in a 15-year-old girl with cystic fibrosis. To do it, they called Hatfull for help. Because of the SEA Program, Hatfull oversees the world's largest collection of phages. He and his team combed through any that might fight the bacteria wreaking havoc on the patient's immune system. They zeroed in on three phagesnamed Muddy, ZoeJ, and BPswhich offered promising characteristics. Hatfull and his colleagues modified the genomes of two and combined them with the third to create a "phage cocktail." After doctors gave the patient an IV of the cocktail twice each day for six weeks, the patient's infection had almost completely disappeared. More broadly, phage-based therapies could provide a new weapon against an increasingly dire public health challenge: drug-resistant bacteria. According to the UN Environment Program, in 2019, nearly 1.3 million deaths worldwide were directly attributed to drug-resistant infections. "The major goals of the SEA-PHAGES and SEA-GENES Programs are to understand viral diversity, evolution, and origins," Hatfull said. "The discovery of so many phages and their genomic characterizations are an incredibly important part of being able to respond to the call for phages to be used therapeutically. Through the SEA Program, students and faculty provide many of the insights that make it possible to explore phage-based therapies." "So many students enter college wanting to make a difference for humanity," Heller said. "I think the way we teach science can connector disconnectthem from that motivation. Through the SEA Program, students are doing science, and they can see how it connects to the clinic, making a difference for humanity. That's really powerful and motivating." More information: Danielle M. Heller et al, SEA-PHAGES and SEA-GENES: Advancing Virology and Science Education, Annual Review of Virology (2024). DOI: 10.1146/annurev-virology-113023-110757 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain A new study by an international team of researchers has revealed the significant environmental impact of the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict. Co-authored by Dr. Benjamin Neimark, Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, the study provides a comprehensive estimate of the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the conflict and calls for mandatory military emissions reporting. The study, titled "A Multitemporal Snapshot of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Israel-Gaza Conflict," estimates that the emissions from the first 120 days of the conflict alone were greater than the annual emissions of 26 individual countries and territories. When factoring in war infrastructure built by both Israel and Hamas, the total emissions increase to more than those of 36 countries and territories. Key findings Immediate emissions: The emissions from the first 120 days of the Israel-Gaza conflict exceeded the annual emissions of 26 individual countries. This period saw intense military activity, including bombing raids, reconnaissance flights, and rocket attacks. Infrastructure impact: When factoring in the emissions from the construction and fortification of war infrastructure by both Israel and Hamas, such as the Hamas tunnel network and Israel's protective "Iron Wall," the total emissions surpass those of over 36 individual countries. Reconstruction emissions: The emissions associated with rebuilding Gaza are projected to be higher than the annual emissions of over 135 countries, equating them to those of Sweden and Portugal. Coal comparison: The upper estimate of emissions from pre-war, wartime, and post-war activities is comparable to the burning of 31,000 kilotonnes of coal, enough to power about 15.8 coal-fired power plants for a year. Call for reporting: The study underscores the urgent need for mandatory military emissions reporting through the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to better understand and mitigate the climate impact of conflicts. Study overview The research estimates the carbon emissions of the Israel-Gaza conflict across three distinct periods: the preparatory construction activities before the conflict, the emissions from the first 120 days of active warfare (October 2023February 2024), and the projected emissions from future reconstruction efforts in Gaza. The total emissions from direct war activities in the first 120 days are estimated to be between 420,265 and 652,552 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO 2 e). This figure rises dramatically when considering pre-war and post-war construction activities, reaching between 47,669,097 and 61,443,739 tCO 2 e. Human and financial costs The study comes in the wake of devastating human and financial losses. Since the onset of the conflict on October 7, 2023, over 35,000 Palestinians and 1,139 Israelis have died, and more than 100 Israelis and foreign nationals are still held hostage by Hamas. Approximately 5466% of Gaza's buildings, including homes, schools, mosques, and hospitals, have been destroyed or damaged. The financial cost to Israel is estimated to reach up to $50 billion, including the reconstruction of Gaza, with the World Bank estimating $18.5 billion in damages to physical structures alone. Climate and conflict While the humanitarian crises dominate global attention, the environmental impact of the conflict is significant and warrants attention. Military operations, according to a previous study, are responsible for about 5.5% of global carbon emissions, yet these emissions are often underreported and understudied. The research team advocates for better methodologies to track and report these emissions, emphasizing the importance of including wartime emissions in climate calculations. Co-author, Dr. Benjamin Neimark, Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, emphasized the importance of this research in drawing attention to the environmental consequences of war, "The study highlights the need for comprehensive reporting of military emissions to the UNFCCC and an increased awareness of the climate impact of conflicts. As the world grapples with the dual crises of climate change and military conflicts, understanding and mitigating the environmental impact of warfare is crucial." Co-author, Dr. Patrick Bigger, research director of the Climate and Community Project, a climate justice think tank based in the United States, says, "The carbon emissions associated with Israel's invasion of Gaza are not the most important reason that the global community should be pushing for a ceasefire- every single life still at risk is important. But this research demonstrates some of the long run social and environmental impacts of war, serving as a reminder that armed conflict brings us closer to the precipice of catastrophic warming." The researchers hope their work will prompt further studies and policy changes to address the significant, yet often overlooked, climate costs of war. More information: A Multitemporal Snapshot of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Israel-Gaza Conflict. www.qmul.ac.uk/busman/media/sb Carbon_Emissions.pdf This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Over half a million people are estimated to be homeless in the United States on any given night, and a case before the nation's high court could grant states the authority to criminalize sleeping outdoors by individuals with no other place to go. The case, "City of Grants Pass v. Johnson", has far-reaching implications, particularly for California, where major cities like Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco have garnered national attention due to their increasing homeless populations. USC experts warn that regardless of the verdict, the case won't solve the real problem fueling rising rates of homelessness in California and beyond: a lack of affordable housing and support services. "Policing might help you clear a street corner or an alleyway, but it inevitably leads to people obtaining arrest records and facing additional barriers to securing housing, a reality the system is well aware of. It isn't a long-term solution," said Benjamin Henwood, the Frances L. and Albert G. Feldman Professor of Social Policy and Health and director of the Center for Homelessness, Housing and Health Equity Research (H3E) at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. City of Grants Pass v. Johnson won't address realities, root causes of homelessness City of Grants Pass v. Johnson originated in a small Oregon city with a single homeless shelter. The city began enforcing a local anti-camping law against individuals sleeping outside and on public property, even when no indoor shelter was available. The case raises important questions about the constitutional ban on "cruel and unusual punishment" and the limits of a city's power to penalize people for circumstances that they cannot avoid. A decision is expected later this month. "Unfortunately, with this court case, it just feels like it's kicking the can down the road. Even if the justices decide in favor of the plaintiffs and permit cities to criminalize homelessness, it doesn't give people a place to go," Henwood said. "They'll get arrested and cited, maybe jailed and released, but then where do they go?" Earlier this year, Henwood co-signed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court. The brief cited research conducted at the H3E Research Center, showing that street sweeps are common and disruptive to the stability of unhoused individuals. The study found that these sweeps have limited to no impact on resolving homelessness, with most people ending up back where they started after being swept. "Several decades of research show that if you actually provide people with easy, immediate access to housing, they will take that option. It's just that we don't facilitate that," said Henwood, who has collaborated with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) on the annual Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count since 2017. "We know Housing First works. We know that most people don't want to be out on the streets, that they'd prefer a different arrangement, and they simply don't have access to anything that seems like a better situation than they're in," he said. He explained that people often refuse alternative shelter options for valid reasons. Shelters are typically communal, have strict curfews and don't allow individuals to stay with their families or pets. In some instances, shelters are places where people have been victimized and had their possessions stolen. "Ironically, in the Grants Pass case, the only shelter offered comes with work requirements and religious affiliation that you have to sign on to," Henwood said. "The case itself is an unusual one because even if you believe people shouldn't sleep on the streets and need to access shelter, the options available in Grants Pass come with additional requirements that most people wouldn't think you have to sign on to in order to get basic shelter." Criminalizing homelessness could deepen disparities Experts warn that a decision allowing cities to criminalize sleeping outdoors could deepen existing racial and economic divides, hitting communities of color and low-income families especially hard. "Homelessness in the U.S. is a function of poverty, not criminality, and is strongly correlated with racial inequality," wrote Clare Pastore, professor of the practice of law at the USC Gould School of Law, in a recent analysis of City of Grants Pass v. Johnson published in The Conversation. In her analysis, Pastore cites the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's 2023 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report, which found that Black individuals represent 13% of the total U.S. population and 21% of those living in poverty, but make up 37% of the homeless population and 50% of homeless families with children. People who identify as Asian or Asian American experienced the greatest percentage increase in homelessness among all racial groups. Between 2022 and 2023, the number of homeless individuals in this group increased by 40%. "In my view, if cities get a green light to continue criminalizing inevitable behaviors, these disparities can only increase," she said. Other experts agree. "Housing systems reflect preexisting economic, gender and racial inequalities in terms of who struggles to afford shelter, can access shelter, who is seen as deserving of shelter, who is holding or protecting assets and wealth," said Ann Owens, professor of sociology, public policy and spatial sciences at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the USC Price School of Public Policy. "We need to massively increase housing production, we need to increase eviction protection, we need to expand our subsidized housing programs. We need to prioritize housing because in the long run, this will benefit society as a whole and reduce persistent inequalities," she said. 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: Savanna gliders were one of the most frequent users of the nestboxes monitored during the study. Credit: Leigh-Ann Woolley A decline of natural tree hollows is forcing arboreal mammal numbers to fall, according to a new study exploring why these species are disappearing in Northern Australia. The study led by Charles Darwin University's (CDU) Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods (RIEL) investigated whether the number of tree hollows in Northern Australian tropical savanna are contributing to the decline of arboreal mammals, or animals that live in trees. The study, "Nestbox use indicates declining arboreal mammals in an Australian savanna may be limited by tree hollow availability" was published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management. Researchers surveyed 187 nestboxes placed across the Cobourg Peninsula within Garig Gunak Barlu National Park during the three-year study period. They found that in total 67% of nestboxes were used by mammals at least once. Of the 119 nestboxes monitored by camera, 82% were used by mammals: 56% by the brush-tailed rabbit-rat, 44% by the savanna glider, 41% by the black-footed tree-rat, 15% by the fawn antechinus, and 4% by the northern brushtail possum. Lead author and RIEL Adjunct Research Associate Dr. Leigh-Ann Woolley, who is also the Northern Australia Biocultural Conservation Manager for WWF-Australia, said the high number of mammals using the nestboxes was unexpected. "We were skeptical that mammals would use the nestboxes we deployed at all, never mind that their nestbox use would be strongly associated with tree hollow density at a site," Dr. Woolley said. "This showed that these declining arboreal mammals were searching for and using new dens where natural hollows were reduced at a local site. "Among the multitude of threats interacting to cause the decline of these species, such as inappropriate fire, introduced ungulates, and feral predators, habitat quality should not be disregarded when managing threats to improve outcomes for these mammals." Arboreal mammals play a crucial role in savanna ecosystems by dispersing seeds, pollinating plants, and have adapted to take advantage of unique seasonal savanna features such as frequent fires, flowering and fruiting plants, grass seeds, insects, eucalyptus sap, among many others. Dr. Woolley said to slow declines and stop extinctions of hollow-using animals in northern Australia, protecting large savanna eucalypts as ecosystem assets would be critical. "Good quality habitat with ample tree hollows for denning and nesting, as well as high quality and abundant food sources, will buffer against other serious threats to these animals," she said. "For example, arboreal mammals don't need to spend as much time on the ground traveling between trees if tree density is higher. Less time on the ground means they are less vulnerable to predation by feral cats. "Short-term strategies to support arboreal mammals include halting land clearing and protecting large, hollow-bearing savanna eucalypts. Longer-term strategies to optimize habitat include fire regimes dominated by cooler, less frequent fires to ensure large trees are retained, tree hollow densities are increased, and food resources such as fruiting shrubs are enhanced." The study was conducted alongside the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions in Western Australia, the Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security in the Northern Territory, and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. More information: Leigh-Ann Woolley et al, Nestbox use indicates declining arboreal mammals in an Australian savanna may be limited by tree hollow availability, Forest Ecology and Management (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2024.121915 Journal information: Forest Ecology and Management From a press release: The Northeastern New York Chapter of the American Red Cross and its Service to the Armed Forces division is hosting the semi-annual Veterans Food Drive, June 8 and 9, 2024, at Red Cross offices in Albany and Glens Falls. The drive benefits the Veterans Food Pantry at the Albany Stratton VA Center, a resource available to all area Veterans. Food items needed for the Pantry include non-perishable items such as canned meat and tuna, canned beans and vegetables, packaged or canned fruit, pasta of all varieties including mac and cheese, pasta sauce, rice, ramen, cereals and oatmeal, and peanut butter and jelly. Also needed are snack items such as cookies, chips, and pretzels in single serve packages. Plastic jars are preferred rather than glass, and please, no expired items. MOREAU When the Moreau Town Board adopted a moratorium on any new development in the towns industrial zones it was for the expressed purpose of reevaluating the land use codes in those areas. On Wednesday, a nine-member team of business and property owners, concerned citizens, and members of the board gathered to begin the process. Our role here is were going to try and address that and make sure that the moratorium can expire, explained Joshua Westfall, building planning and development coordinator for the town. And with that expiration, come up with some new regulations that fit what the town board is looking for and that are in line with the comprehensive plan. The meetings will be facilitated by Westfall and Katrina Flexon, Moreau Building Department secretary. Westfall explained that the group would be working to align the towns zoning codes as outlined in Chapter 149, which had not been significantly updated since 1989, with its most recent comprehensive plan established in 2019. Part of the groups task will be to identify other chapters of the towns code that should be combined into its zoning code. Anything thats land use should go under the umbrella of zoning, Westfall said. That would include the much debated Chapter 92 of the code, which deals with the disposal or processing of prohibited waste within the town, and has been a linchpin in the ongoing debate surrounding the Saratoga Biochar Solutions project, which relies at least partly on dried biosolids from waste water treatment plants located outside of Moreau. In addition to folding other chapters into the zoning code, the group will consider rezoning industrial areas in town completely. Thats totally possible, and as we go through the process that might come up, Westfall told the group. These zones arent set; they can change and thats going to depend on our findings and what we recommend to the board. The task force plans to meet monthly but a formalized schedule has not been set. The meetings are open to the public, with at least two public input sessions planned as they work from now through November. The moratorium is scheduled to expire at the end of December but may be extended by the town board. The nine-member task force consists of Gerhard Endal, Zoning Board of Appeals chair; Loren Sully Sullivan, business owner; Lisa Ostrander, BAR member and realtor; Bradley Toohill, Planning Board member; and property owners, Maureen Jackson-Jones, Sandy Mahoney, Darren Tracy, and Ed Smith. One seat at the table will be filled by Alan Oppenheim and Dan Galusha who represent the property owners within the Moreau Industrial Park. Ex Officio members from the Town Board are Supervisor Jesse Fish and council member John Donohue. DES MOINES After voting to block a bill to codify the right to contraception, several U.S. Senate Republicans are backing a more limited proposal from Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa to expand access to over-the-counter oral contraception. Senate Republicans rejected the Democratic-led "Right to Contraception Act" on Wednesday, which would have ensured nationwide protections for birth control access. Republicans called the bill a political show vote, saying contraception access is not at risk and arguing its provisions were too broad. A procedural vote on the bill failed to get the necessary 60 votes to move forward Wednesday, with a 51-39 vote. Ernst and fellow Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley voted against the bill. Democrats, who hold a majority in the Senate, said the opposition from all but two Senate Republicans gives credence to their warnings that the party poses a risk to contraception access. During debate on Wednesday, Ernst called for a vote on her own alternative legislation that would allow the Food and Drug Administration to more quickly approve applications for oral contraceptive drugs that can be purchased without a prescription. The bill would limit over-the-counter purchase of contraception to people 18 and over, and would not grant the speedy approval process to emergency contraception like Plan B. Ernst argued the Democrats bill would infringe on the liberties of medical workers who have a religious objection to providing birth control, and that it creates a precedent to mandate action to abortion drugs. Echoing many other Republicans, Ernst said there is no risk to contraception, and Democrats were trying to politicize the issue by taking the vote. From the Senate to the White House, Democrats do not have anything to run on no agenda that resonates with the American people. So instead they are fear mongering in the name of politics, she said. Fortunately, Republicans have a solution. There is one daily oral contraceptive that has gained FDA approval for purchase without a prescription Opill received the approval in 2023 and became available this year. Ernst said the approval is a good start, but there should be more options for women seeking birth control. The bill would also call on the Government Accountability Office to conduct a review of federal spending on contraception, provider training and patient education. Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota said during debate that Ernsts bill would do nothing to improve the accessibility of over-the-counter birth control. She noted the bill does not address insurance coverage and said an over-the-counter birth control pill already exists. If Republicans truly support increased access and fewer barriers to contraception, then they should vote for the Right to Contraception Act, Smith said. Our bill would actually guarantee the right for people to obtain and use contraceptives. Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa spokesperson Mazie Stilwell criticized Ernst's and Grassleys votes, saying it was "beyond disappointing" to see them oppose the legislation. Protecting access to birth control is important now more than ever given state politicians are hellbent on banning all abortions and forcing Iowans into pregnancy, she said in a statement Thursday. Iowans need the tools to control their bodies and futures and deserve the right to birth control, not further attacks and manufactured chaos around reproductive health care. Ernst bill gains support Ernsts bill was introduced Tuesday, but it is similar to a bill she and Republican Iowa Rep. Ashley Hinson introduced in 2022. It has gained 12 GOP cosponsors, including Grassley. Women, including those in rural areas, should have ready access to safe, effective and affordable contraception, Grassley said in a statement provided by Ernsts office. Im glad to join Senator Ernst on this important, commonsense measure. Ernsts office said in a news release this week that Hinson would introduce a companion bill in the House. A spokesperson for Hinson said she would introduce an identical House companion to Ernst's bill in the coming days. Millions of American women safely use oral contraceptives, and allowing women to access birth control pills at their local pharmacy just makes sense," Hinson said in a statement. "I am proud to team up with Senator Ernst on this bill, which is particularly important for women in rural areas who may have to drive over an hour to see their doctor. Senate Democrats are once again gaslighting the American people there isnt a single Republican proposal that will ban access to contraception. While Democrats just play political games, I will continue working on commonsense policy solutions and advocating for Iowa women." In addition to Ernst and Grassley, the Senate bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., Steve Daines, R-Mont., Todd Young, R-Ind., Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., James Risch, R-Idaho, John Cornyn, R-Texas, Rand Paul, R-Ky., John Thune, R-S.D., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan. Ernst's 2022 bill was only co-sponsored by Grassley. Democrats have leaned on contraception access as an issue since the fall of Roe vs. Wade and the end of the federal right to an abortion. They have argued the Supreme Courts Dobbs decision opened the door for restrictions on contraception and accused Republicans of threatening access. Iowa Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird recently lifted a 17-month pause on reimbursements for emergency contraceptives for victims of sexual assault after conducting a review of the offices victim services program. The office will resume covering those expenses for victims, but the state will not pay for abortions. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed a bill to protect contraception access last month, saying, in part, it undermined the right of parents to make decisions for their children. Rebuffing Republican critiques, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday that the bill does not threaten religious liberty and it makes no changes to abortion laws. He also pointed to actions in other states and argued there is a real threat to birth control availability. PHOTOS: Roast and Ride: Sen. Joni Ernst takes fundraiser on the road Election 2022 Iowa Election 2022 Iowa Election 2022 Iowa Election 2022 Iowa Election 2022 Iowa Election 2022 Iowa Election 2022 Iowa Election 2022 Iowa Election 2022 Iowa Election 2022 Iowa Election 2022 Iowa Election 2022 Iowa Election 2022 Iowa Election 2022 Iowa Election 2022 Iowa Election 2022 Iowa Election 2022 Iowa Shane Brown Follow Shane Brown Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today I promise you it isn't my goal to turn this column into your new home for all things small and icky, but the hits keep coming. A couple weeks ago, I told the tale of my backyard being invaded by a swarm of honeybees, which was pretty much my worst nightmare come to life. Last week, I mentioned how an aimless country drive took us straight into the heart of the great cicada uprising of 2024. For someone who hates bugs and insects and all manner of creepy-crawlies, I've certainly been devoting a lot of column inches to them. I had plans to take things in a different direction this week, I swear. This one wasn't my fault. I blame TMZ. People give TMZ a lot of grief. They are, after all, the "news" outlet that hangs outside of airports and restaurants in hopes of ambushing whatever celebrity might attempt to exist within their proximity. There's nothing quite as cringy as watching paparazzi painfully trying to get sound bites from famous people by hurling inane questions at them. "J-Lo!" they'll scream in desperation. "Where's your wedding ring? Why did you cancel your tour? What do you think about the Trump verdict? How should we solve the crisis in Gaza?" Paparazzi are the scum that live between the toes of other pond scum. I feel terrible for celebrities when they're hounded by paparazzi everywhere they go. People give Taylor Swift occasional grief for being so omnipresent, but can you imagine, even for a split second, living her life? She's literally a prisoner of her own fame. Taylor Swift can't step one foot outside her house (whichever of her many houses she happens to be in) without an onslaught of flashbulbs and idiots yelling inane stuff. It's truly a miracle she hasn't built an amusement park in her backyard, and tried to buy the elephant man's bones at this point. TMZ are terrible - but so, apparently, am I. As much as I despise the culture they perpetuate, I'm JUST shallow and vapid enough to obsess over the culture they cover. The TMZ app sits on my phone right next to CNN's like it's a major news source. I hate TMZ, yet there's a part of me that will always root for them. Whenever they get the jump on "real" news networks and scoop some breaking news, I can't help but cheer for the underdog, even if this particular underdog is covered in slime. But most of the time, TMZ's breaking news bulletins are nothing but sensationalistic twaddle - which brings me to their alert I just got on my phone: "GIANT VENOMOUS FLYING SPIDERS INVADING ANY DAY NOW." Welp, there's one I didn't have on my bingo card. Honestly, though, given the decade we're living in, it kinda tracks, right? We've survived a global pandemic, an insurrection, Korean boybands, and whatever Jojo Siwa's turned into. I suppose it's simply high time we added giant venomous flying spiders to the list. It's actually kind of horrifying. A few years, some Asian Joro spiders must've hitched a ride on some shipping containers, landed on our shores, and set up shop down in Georgia back in 2010. Since then, the invasive arachnids have begun spreading across the United States. If you haven't seen a Joro spider, they can grow to the size of a human hand and have leg spans of four inches. Their webs are massive and sticky. And if that's not gross enough, when Joro spiders feel like relocating, they weave their webs into the shape of balloons and just go paragliding in the summer breeze until they presumably fly directly into my face and test the efficacy of my heart medicine. Fun times. The GOOD news is that TMZ is over-hyping and click baiting the headline somewhat. While Joro spiders are indeed starting to colonize our continent, they're still a ways away from the Midwest. They're currently making their way up the east coast and even into Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. They're likely coming our way, but not for a bit. And while these spiders ARE venomous, they usually prefer sinking their tiny teeth into other insects and NOT people. I just read an article that said their teeth are so small, they might not even be able to puncture human skin - and if they DID, it would be no worse than a bee sting. (Note to the general press and mainstream media: When you're trying to minimize the danger of something, don't compare it to a bee sting. Some of us are deathly allergic to bee stings. Just sayin'.) When it comes to spiders, I generally have a "live and let live" philosophy, unless they're the scary and/or deadly type. If you're a spider and you want to set up shop in a distant corner of my property where you will never bother me and I will never walk into your web, have at it. Enjoy feasting on all the other bugs I hate. But if you decide to move that party INDOORS and encroach on MY turf, I am not responsible for whatever actions myself or a rolled-up newspaper may do. Last week, a spider decided the best place to build a new home would be my bathtub. I may have displaced him to a new home - in Davy Jones' locker. The other night, my home security alarm started blaring in the middle of the night to let me know there was an intruder on my front porch. That intruder turned out to be a tiny spider trying to build a web directly ON my doorbell camera. When I pulled up the surveillance video, it looked like there was an eight-foot multi-legged monster waiting patiently on the porch to sell me life insurance or something. If you were driving around at 2 a.m. and saw a guy flicking a broom around desperately, it was just me doing some spontaneous 2 a.m. arachnid gentrification. None of this bodes well for the future, but it's OK, because neither does anything else in the news. Last week, it was cicadas. This week it's flying spiders. Next week, we'll probably have man-eating millipedes free roaming our neighborhoods. But don't worry, when the great millipede invasion takes hold, I'm sure our leaders will come together and figure out a way to blame each other for everything. As for me, I'm putting a moratorium on bug columns for the foreseeable future. If you need me, I'll be out buying cases of Raid. Food Networks series Guys All-American Road Trip starts its third season in western South Dakota, showcasing some of the regions cuisine, attractions and outdoor adventures. The episode, Kickin Off the Food and Fun, airs on the Food Network on Friday, with a repeat airing Saturday. Check local television listings for air times. Guys All-American Road Trip follows Food Network host Guy Fieri, Chef Antonia Lofaso and a caravan of Fieris family and friends on a culinary journey. They travel across the country and youve got a bunch of people who like to eat, so fun naturally abounds, said Justin Warner, chef and co-owner of Bokujo Ramen and BBs Natural in Rapid City. Warner is a Food Network personality and longtime friend of Guy Fieri. Warner is featured Kickin Off the Food and Fun, and the episode is the Food Network debut for Chef Brave Heart Kimberly Tilsen-Brave Heart of Rapid City and her distinctive modern Indigenous cuisine. Guy can highlight the excitement and enthusiasm a community has, and bring attention to people like Chef Brave Heart that are doing incredible things, Warner said. In addition to seeing the sights, Guy has the unique ability to find the adventure in food. I think thats what the show is about. Anytime youre traveling and you eat, theres an opportunity for an adventure, Warner said. The first adventure was a massive appreciation barbecue at Ellsworth Air Force Base for members of the 28th Bomb Wing. Fieri, Lofaso, chef Bobby Marcotte from Food Networks Guys Grocery Games, Warner, Brave Heart and her daughter, Paloma, and a crew brought cooked and served pulled pork, beef brisket and side dishes for more than 500 airmen. It was delicious. People were happy about it, Warner said. I think Guy got to meet a lot of his fans. We had a ton of fun. It felt good to give back to the guys who work tirelessly to serve our country. That was pretty impactful. Brave Heart, who is one of the top Indigenous entrepreneurial experts in North America, welcomed the opportunity to showcase Indigenous food and culture for Fieri and his entourage. Brave Heart is a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation. Part of the Kickin Off the Food and Fun episode was filmed at Elkhorn Ridge in Spearfish, where Brave Heart and her family provided cultural Lakota education and traditional foods, along with a drum group and dance group. Fieri and his team loved the unique menu Brave Heart prepared, which included fiddlehead acorn pesto-crusted wild-caught walleye poached in a corn husk over a bed of wild rice cranberry salad; maple blackberry-crusted turkey with sweet potato puree and dandelion greens with roasted pumpkin seeds; homemade corn tortillas with slow-roasted elk and fire-roasted tomatillo, jalapeno, cucumber, cilantro glaze with a cedar-smoked tepary beans and corn salad; cedar-smoked tepary beans and corn cake with wojapi; and wild rice cranberry bison meatballs. Guys wife (Lori Bisson) said, Ive never had food like this before, Brave Heart said. She said it was the most delicious and unique culinary experience she had ever had, which I thought was pretty cool. Brave Heart said Fieri and his team were some of the most incredibly kind, loving and supportive people she has met outside the Native community. They were very open to hearing my story, and stories of food and reclaiming cultural foods, Brave Heart said. Its incredibly important to give space for Native culinary artists and chefs to be able to represent ourselves and our stories and our recipes on a national level. I wish there was more of it, she said. I hope theres going to be more Indigenous cooking shows in the future. Its a way for people to learn about Indigenous people in a way that is loving and supporting. Food builds bridges and a real deep understanding of someones cultural identity. Fieri and his entourage also made time for fly fishing for trout at Rapid Creek with Hans Stephenson, owner of Dakota Angler and Outfitter in Rapid City, and a team from Dakota Angler. Fieri and his team got a lesson in tenkara, which is Japanese-style fly fishing. Guy had never done it. Theres no reel to bring the fish in. Its a just a long stick and a string, so its a lot of fun and its pretty effective, said Warner, whos an avid tenkara angler. Its this minimal approach to a pretty universal pastime. The episode also includes a trip to Mount Rushmore, a dude ranch hoedown, grass-fed buffalo from Wild Idea Buffalo Co., and Warners first opportunity to cook ramen in the wild. Warner was featured in an episode of Fieris Food Network series Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, that aired last fall and focused the Bokujo Ramen restaurant in downtown Rapid City owned by Warner and his wife, Brooke. For Guys All-American Road Trip, Warner said he catered a meal for Guy and his caravan of about 60 people while they were camped in the Black Hills. It was the first time Warner said he had prepared ramen outside a restaurant. The meal was accompanied by beer from Lost Cabin Beer Co. in Rapid City. It was a good old time, Warner said. Guys incredible with his ability to spotlight with such positivity the things that make our community great. Its a gift to our community. (The episode) is show to show off so much about this community. The Pennington County Auditor's Office shed some light on the late reporting of Tuesday's primary election results, but a look into Minnehaha County's process could provide a contrast for what happened. Although more people voted in Pennington County than Minnehaha County, the West River county had fewer election workers, three tabulation machines compared to four in Minnehaha County, and officials started late on opening and tabulating absentee ballots. All of which contributed to an unusually late reporting time for Pennington County's results. Pennington County auditor Cindy Mohler told the Journal, "a few things that were going on throughout the day" put the office behind. Mohler declined to elaborate on what happened. "Election day is always chaotic, and you never know what's going to fall out of the sky," she said. "I'm not gonna go into the details of our day. There's so many things that go on throughout the day. You just power through it, you get it done and you move on." After 10 p.m. Tuesday night, Pennington County had not reported any votes from its 46 precincts. The majority of precincts across the state 582 out of 690 were done. It would be after 1 a.m. on Wednesday before any results populated on the Secretary of State's website and after 2 a.m. before the county had completed reporting. Pennington County had the highest number of ballots counted in the state 14,642. The second-highest number came into Minnehaha County with 13,058 ballots. Minnehaha County appeared to have completed reporting their results to the South Dakota Secretary of State before 10 p.m. Mountain Time. Mohler said Thursday the absentee board began to open ballots around 7:45 p.m. or 8 p.m. on election night. Minnehaha County Auditor Leah Anderson said the East River county organized absentee ballots as they came in ahead of the election. Workers opened and then tabulated them on election day starting around 3 p.m. Aside from last-minute ballots, most of the absentee counting was done within a few hours, Anderson said. She explained ballots can be counted early in the day if both political party chairs are notified 10 days ahead of the election. Mohler declined to say why absentee counting started after 7 p.m. in Pennington County, and she did not return a follow-up voicemail from the Journal asking if Pennington County notified party officials ahead of the election to conduct an early absentee count. "Normally, we do try and start our absentees before 7, but we just didn't get it done this time, so we started when we did," Mohler said. Incorrectly marked ballots slowed the process, she said, because the tabulation machines cannot read ballots not marked with a solid oval. Minnehaha County started to tabulate in-person votes around 7:30 p.m., Anderson said. Mohler said she does not know when her office started on the in-person ballots. A difference in the number of election workers may have contributed to the disparity in timing, Anderson said. Minnehaha County had about 75 people working, while Mohler estimated about 15 or 20 people worked in Pennington County.